On this International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Adalah highlights the immense hardships Palestinians are enduring during one of the most catastrophic periods in their history. Since the outbreak of the war of annihilation in Gaza, Israel has escalated its violations of fundamental human rights principles, targeting Palestinian refugees, residents of the occupied territories, and citizens of the country. Yet, in the face of these appalling injustices, global solidarity with the Palestinian people has grown dramatically. This solidarity embodies a collective call for justice and accountability in the face of Israel’s ongoing human rights violations, which undermine the principles upon which the international legal order and the UN Charter are based.

This growing global support is evident in the widespread protests and high-profile actions taken by activists, international organizations, and states, including the South African case against Israel at the International Court of Justice regarding the genocide committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip. The arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against Netanyahu and Galant for crimes against humanity and war crimes may represent a new chapter in international law regarding the Israeli occupation and the protection of civilian victims. Adalah contributes to addressing Israel’s systematic violations by taking legal action to enforce international law. Adalah’s work is fundamentally based on the principles of justice and accountability, whether in confronting Israeli crimes in Gaza and the West Bank or in confronting discriminatory legislation and policies targeting Palestinian refugees and citizens inside Israel.

Racist laws and policies targeting citizens of the Palestinian interior and residents of occupied Jerusalem

Israel continues to enact racist laws targeting Palestinian citizens and residents of occupied Jerusalem. The government coalition is exploiting the atmosphere of war to advance numerous bills and policies aimed at entrenching racial discrimination and strengthening Jewish supremacy. On November 22, 2024, Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz announced his decision to stop the use of administrative detention orders against Israeli settlers in the West Bank. He justified this decision, among other things, by saying that administrative detentions are considered arbitrary detentions, as they are not based on indictments or fair judicial procedures, and therefore cannot be applied to civilians. This decision clearly demonstrates the policy of racial separation between Jews and Palestinians. Shortly after this announcement, the minister issued administrative detention orders against at least three citizens of Palestine, and there are hundreds of such orders against Palestinians from the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

In response, Adalah and Al Mezan Center in Nazareth are preparing to file an appeal with the Supreme Court next week on behalf of a Palestinian resident of the Nazareth district, demanding that the administrative detention order issued against him be annulled. The appeal is based on the fact that the order discriminates against the appellant, as the minister’s decision regarding Jewish citizens should apply equally to him and to all Palestinians, and therefore the issuance of the order constitutes an unconstitutional apartheid policy that must be annulled. On November 25, 2024, Adalah demanded that the Knesset and the Attorney General withdraw the bill amending Section 7(a) of Basic Law: The Knesset.

This amendment targets Arab and Joint List candidates and candidates, and aims to make it easier to disqualify them and prevent them from running in the Knesset elections. The bill allows for the disqualification of any candidate or list on the grounds of supporting a “lone terrorist act,” and significantly lowers the level of evidence required to disqualify a candidate or list, from numerous and conclusive evidence to a minimum (sufficing with a few incidents). These amendments target exclusively the reason for disqualification related to support for the armed struggle by a “terrorist organization,” a pretext that the Central Elections Committee has used exclusively against Arabs and their lists since its enactment in 2002. In contrast, the amendments did not include any changes to the other reason for disqualification, incitement to racism, which has been applied to Jewish candidates and lists in practice since its enactment, reflecting clear discrimination in the application of the law.

The proposal also adds the possibility of disqualifying a list within a new coalition without any connection to the coalition’s political platform, targeting Arab lists that were forced to form coalitions after raising the electoral threshold that directly targeted them. Accordingly, the proposal allows for the dismantling of the coalition, which could result in all Arab lists not passing the electoral threshold. Thus, the proposal creates two separate tracks for exercising the right to participate in the elections: one for Arabs and the other for Jews. On November 25, 2024, Adalah and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel demanded the cancellation of an amendment to the “Prison Order” law that exempts prisoners convicted of security crimes, including freedom of expression crimes, from administrative release. The original purpose of the law was to address prison overcrowding, which is why prisoners were released under it. Although the purpose of the law is universal, meaning that it applies to everyone, the bill seeks to establish two separate tracks in the law for prisoners: one for security prisoners and one for criminal prisoners.

Thus, this discrimination is applied regardless of the purpose of the law or the severity of the punishment related to the crimes. As a result, according to the proposed law, a prisoner convicted of rape or murder on a criminal basis could receive administrative release, while the law would not apply to a Palestinian convicted of a crime related to freedom of expression, for example, due to a post on social media. In this way, the law creates two separate tracks, one intended only for Palestinians and the other shared. The Knesset recently passed four racist laws that mark a serious escalation in Israel’s legislative campaign against Palestinian rights, which is framed under the guise of combating terrorism. The first gives the interior minister broad powers to deport family members of Palestinians accused of terrorism outside of Israel or Jerusalem.

The law allows for the deportation of relatives of Palestinians accused of terrorism if they knew in advance of their son’s planned actions, “should have known” about them, or “supported” their son later, all without a fair process to clarify the facts. This law does not apply to Jewish terrorists, as the law would include, among other things, deportation to Gaza. The second law strips Palestinian children who are citizens of Israel or residents of Jerusalem who are arrested by the Israeli authorities of their protection, and allows for the imposition of prison sentences on minors from the age of 12, including life imprisonment, if they are convicted of murder or attempted murder that is classified as a “terrorist act” or is connected to a “terrorist organization.”

The third law cancels social welfare benefits for mothers and fathers of Palestinian children who are citizens of Israel or residents of Jerusalem and are convicted of security offenses. The definition of security offenses is so broad that it even includes offenses related to freedom of expression. This law attempts to circumvent a Supreme Court ruling that struck down a similar law in 2021 following a petition filed by Adalah. In its 2024 concluding observations, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child urged Israel to repeal this legislation and ensure “children’s access to food, social security, housing, family benefits and child allowances.”

The fourth law gives the director general of the Ministry of Education broad powers to withdraw funding from Palestinian schools inside Israel and in Jerusalem, dismiss teachers accused of “supporting terrorism,” and close schools that “allow” or “facilitate” incitement to terrorism. This law primarily targets schools in occupied Jerusalem, jeopardizing the right to education for thousands of Palestinian children. As part of its racist policy in the Negev, the Israeli government, led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, has recently intensified its efforts to forcibly displace Bedouin citizens en masse by evacuating and demolishing Bedouin villages such as Wadi al-Khalil and Umm al-Hiran.

This apartheid policy aims to systematically displace the Bedouin population from their lands and concentrate them in overcrowded towns that do not meet their cultural, social and economic needs. Thirteen unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev currently face the imminent threat of forced eviction and displacement of their families. Adalah represents the residents of three of these villages, Ras Jaraba, Al-Baqia and Umm Bidoun, against eviction orders and displacement lawsuits issued by the state.

Gross human rights violations in Gaza and the West Bank

Since early October 2024, Israel has been engaged in a large-scale, devastating military operation in the northern Gaza Strip, characterized by heavy and continuous bombardment, mass forced displacement, and the denial of vital assistance to the trapped civilians. On November 28, 2024, Adalah, in cooperation with other human rights organizations, called on the Israeli authorities to immediately cease issuing eviction orders in the northern Gaza Strip, allow the displaced to return to their areas of residence, and stop the systematic destruction of the homes of the displaced and civilian infrastructure in the area.

In addition, Adalah has sent several letters to the Israeli authorities over the past year, demanding an end to the systematic use of Palestinians as human shields by Israeli soldiers during military operations in Gaza and the West Bank. This practice is a serious violation that puts civilians’ lives at grave risk.

Since taking power, the Israeli government has accelerated the process of annexing the occupied West Bank through expanding settlements, confiscating land, and reinforcing apartheid, all accompanied by a sharp escalation in violence against Palestinians by settlers and the Israeli occupation army.

On October 27, 2024, Adalah demanded the cancellation of a bill that would expand the scope of the “Negev Development Authority” law to include parts of the West Bank, which, if approved, would constitute an illegal annexation of occupied territory. The bill seeks to expand the definition of the Negev to include areas of the West Bank to serve the settlements there.

Cutting off a vital lifeline for Palestinian refugees

On November 28, 2024, Adalah sent a letter to the Attorney General demanding that the implementation of two laws aimed at halting the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) be frozen. The Knesset had approved the two laws on October 28, 2024 against UNRWA, which is a vital lifeline for millions of displaced Palestinians.

Adalah, which also opposed the laws before they were passed, warned that the implementation of the laws, which will come into effect at the end of January 2025, will severely restrict the provision of basic services to two and a half million Palestinians.

UNRWA provides humanitarian assistance, shelter, food, health services and education to Palestine refugees, including in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. These laws aim to deprive refugees of basic protection, making them even more vulnerable, especially in the Gaza Strip, where UNRWA’s role is particularly vital as some 1.9 million Palestinians have been displaced in dire conditions since the start of the Israeli war of annihilation.

The targeting of UNRWA reflects Israel’s broad disregard for international legal obligations. These laws are inconsistent with international humanitarian law, which obligates the State of Israel to act to protect the civilian population under its control, and violate Israel’s obligations under the UN Charter, which obligates member states to support UN bodies in carrying out their mandates. They also contravene the International Court of Justice’s provisional measures in the ongoing genocide case against Israel.

As Israel continues to disregard its international legal obligations, endangering Palestinian lives and threatening the rules-based international order, the growing global solidarity movement with the Palestinian people is a source of hope.

This movement amplifies Palestinian voices and emphasizes the urgent need for international intervention to stop Israel’s ongoing crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people and to protect the international legal framework that protects human rights. Through legal action, Adalah defends the rights of Palestinians and demands that Israel comply with its international legal obligations. Your support is essential to enable us to continue this vital work and uphold the principles of human rights and international justice.