In The Knesset

Overview of Anti Democratic Legislation (updated October 2018)

ACRI’s policy advocacy department is dedicated to monitoring and advising on proposed bills in the Knesset to ensure the civil and political rights of all individuals are equally considered and protected. ACRI works to reduce infringements of human rights in bills and government policies, while initiating and supporting legislation that protects civil liberties and freedoms. ACRI’s work in the Knesset puts human rights issues on the public agenda and keeps decision makers informed via professional position papers and participation in Knesset committee discussions and related public forums.

The Death Penalty: Cruel, Unjust, and Racist

November 24, 2025 Subscribe to ACRI's newsletter © Ilkin Guliyev | Dreamstime.com Dear friend, Throughout Israel’s history, only one person has been sentenced to death: Adolf Eichmann. Eichmann was a high-ranking Nazi, and one of the major architects and facilitators of the mass deportation of Jews to ghettos, concentration camps, and extermination camps during the Holocaust. In reports to the United Nations and in other publications, Israel has justifiably taken pride in

49 minutes ago3 min read

Establish Family Health Centers in East Jerusalem Neighborhoods Beyond the Separation Barrier

© Narongrit Sritana | Dreamstime.com On November 11, 2021, ACRI petitioned the Supreme Court along with a group of mothers, residents of Jerusalem, demanding that the state establish Tipat Halav family health centers in neighborhoods beyond the separation barrier. Tipat Halav family health centers provide essential health and medical services to infants and babies, as well as to pregnant women from the early stages of pregnancy to new parenthood. These centers are available t

5 days ago3 min read

Theft of Cows Belonging to a Palestinian Farmer by Soldiers

Soldiers leading the cows from the pen owned by the petitioners to the civilian truck About a dozen armed and uniformed soldiers arrived at a barn belonging to a Palestinian family in the West Bank, handcuffed the barn owner and his son, broke through the barn's fences, and loaded the cattle belonging to the family onto a civilian truck that arrived at the scene escorted by military jeeps. Social media posts from a group that aids settlers in pursuing agricultural projects (l

5 days ago2 min read

Police Must Allow the Protest Against the Genocide in Sudan

Photo: Henry Wilkins/VOA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons ACRI petitioned Israel's Supreme Court on November 18, 2025, on behalf of an asylum seeker from Sudan, after the police revoked the permit for a demonstration at the United Arab Emirates embassy in Herzliya against the genocide in Sudan. The police initially approved the demonstration under certain conditions, but later reversed its decision, claiming it had received information that there was a high degree of cer

5 days ago1 min read

Allowing Jordanian Citizens Living in East Jerusalem to Pass Through the Shuafat Checkpoint

Illustrative. Checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Photo: © Rrodrickbeiler | Dreamstime.com On November 19, 2025 ACRI petitioned the Supreme Court to oppose the policy of the police and Border Police to forbid Jordanian citizens who live in Israel legally under the framework of the family unification program from passing through the Shuafat Refugee Camp checkpoint to other parts of Jerusalem. The petition was submitted on behalf of a brother and sister, both Jordanian

6 days ago1 min read

Exploited "Intersection Children" Must Be Protected and Cared For

© Palex66 | Dreamstime.com On November 18, 2025, ACRI reached out to the Police Commissioner, the Directors-General of the Ministry of Welfare and the Ministry of National Security, and the State Attorney, demanding immediate and systematic action to address the ongoing issue of "intersection children." These are Palestinian minors, including children as young as five, who are brought to Israel in order to beg and sell trinkets at major traffic intersections. The children li

7 days ago2 min read

Police Photography of Protesters

Photo: Wix Media In September 2020, the police scrapped the protocol that prohibited photographing protesters other than under exceptional circumstances. The police claimed there would be a new protocol, but despite repeated requests from the Association for Civil Rights, no new protocol has been put into place. Meanwhile, police officers have been photographing protesters whenever they like, without any justification. Officers have used their personal phones to photograph in

Nov 172 min read

Water Access in the Northern Jordan Valley

Water supply in a remote Palestinian community. Photo: Bimkom On March 19, 2025, ACRI, together with Bimkom-Planners for Planning Rights, and Jordan Valley activists, approached the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories and the General of the Central Command demanding that they act immediately to enable access to water for Palestinian agricultural communities in the northern Jordan Valley. The communities of Farsiya, Ein al-Hilwa, Samra, Khalat Makhoul,

Nov 172 min read

Getting Our Hands Dirty

November 13, 2025 Subscribe to ACRI's newsletter Dear friend, There are times when you have to get your hands dirty. ACRI’s work usually takes us to the courtroom and the Knesset, but a week ago a group of us went to the West Bank to accompany and help Palestinian farmers harvest their olives. While much of the focus has been on Gaza, major escalations in violence have taken place in the West Bank since October 2023. Life in the West Bank, which was never particularly easy

Nov 133 min read

Diverting Budgets from Arab Society: A Cynical Move that Perpetuates Inequality

Photo: Danny Shem-Tov, Knesset Communications (CC BY-SA 4 via Wikimedia) On November 11, 2025, ACRI appealed to the Attorney General with a request not to advance a government resolution proposal being promoted by Minister for Social Equality May Golan that seeks to divert close to 3 billion shekels that were allocated for the welfare of Arab society to the Ministry of National Security for the purpose of addressing crime in Arab society. The budgets that are being proposed

Nov 112 min read

The Death Penalty is Immoral

© Edward Lange | Dreamstime.com On November 10, 2025, a bill was brought for its first reading in the Knesset plenum: the Penal Law Amendment Bill (Death Penalty for Terrorists). The bill seeks to impose the death penalty on defendants convicted of murder motivated by nationalism. This punishment would be designated for Palestinians only, and seeks to limit the ability of the court to use its discretion by mandating the death penalty in these cases. The bill also proposes

Nov 103 min read

Court Translation Services: Failures and Proposals for Improvement

Photo: Wix About half of Israel's residents—Arabs, immigrants, etc.—belong to minority groups where Hebrew is not the dominant language. There are also thousands of people who do not speak Hebrew who live in Israel, including Palestinians, migrant workers, tourists, refugees and asylum seekers, etc. When those who do not speak Hebrew fluently, or at all, need to go to court, translation services is necessary in the administration of justice and ensuring their right to access

Nov 43 min read

Meet the 2025 Recipients of the Emil Grunzweig Human Rights Award

Every year, the Association for Civil Rights awards the Emil Grunzweig Human Rights Award to a person or organization that has made a significant contribution to the advancement of human rights in Israel. These are the recipients of the 2025 award: Jack Khoury. Photo: Rami Shllush, Haaretz Jack Khoury , journalist for Haaretz and news director of Radio A-Shams. For two decades, Khoury has consistently and persistently called for human rights and equality, and for mediation

Nov 32 min read

More Supervision Needed for Health Clinics in East Jerusalem

Photo: © Irinayeryomina | Dreamstime.com On July 14, 2025, ACRI submitted an appeal to the Ministry of Health and the Jerusalem Municipality on behalf of the Forum for Health Equality in East Jerusalem with an urgent demand for thorough inspections to be carried out at health fund clinics in East Jerusalem, which are usually run by franchisees. This appeal is in response to data we collected through freedom of information requests and a statistical analysis of the data, which

Oct 282 min read

Time to Get Moving

October 27, 2025 Subscribe to ACRI's newsletter Photo: © Martin Haas | Dreamstime.com Dear friend, We are thrilled to see a halt to the war and the return of the living hostages, and are hopeful that the ceasefire will continue to hold. We know that the process of rebuilding, justice, and accountability will take years. This war has cost so many lives, and ground down so much of the work we had done to preserve human rights. Now the process of rehabilitation for the people,

Oct 283 min read

Illegal Blockage of the Entrance to the Village of Fureidis

Fureidis. © Yoav Sinai | Dreamstime.com On the afternoon of October 24, 2025, the police placed a concrete barrier at the entrance to the village of Fureidis, home to approximately 15,000 people, completely blocking the eastern entrance to the village. According to a news report, the barrier was installed following complaints by the residents of nearby Zikhron Ya’akov to the Minister of National Security regarding gunfire, to which the Minister responded by instructing the P

Oct 272 min read

Stop Settler Violence that Leads to the Expulsion and Displacement of Palestinian Communities

A military vehicle and property damage in a community's residential compound in the Ramallah District. Photo: Muhannad Anati, ACRI Since the outbreak of the war in October 2023, expulsions and displacements of Palestinian communities (especially smaller and more vulnerable communities) in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley have increased. This is the result of harassment and violence by settlers, including: blocking access to grazing lands, harassment, threats, and violence.

Oct 266 min read

Police Violence at the Tel Aviv Derby

Illustrative. © Arhivafoto15 | Dreamstime.com On October 19, 2025, a soccer match was scheduled to take place between Hapoel Tel Aviv and Maccabi Tel Aviv (the Derby). The police decided to cancel the match a few minutes before it was due to start, after pyrotechnics were thrown from the stands of Hapoel Tel Aviv fans, some of which hit police officers and other fans. The fans were asked to disperse, but from the moment they left the stadium, the police acted with arbitrary

Oct 231 min read

The Plan to Reclassify Prisoners as Security Prisoners

© Rafael Ben Ari | Dreamstime.com On October 20, 2025, ACRI contacted the legal advisors to the government, the Israel Prison Service (IPS), and the Ministry of National Security, following media reports about plans to reclassify anyone incarcerated for remaining in the country illegally from criminal prisoners to security prisoners. The appeal warns against the harmful implications of the new policy and requests that this change not move forward. In the appeal, Attorney Ni

Oct 212 min read

Rolling Back Protections for Migrant Workers

Illustrative. Foreign workers in Tel Aviv. Photo: Yossi Zamir, Shatil-stok Since the outbreak of the war, there has been a rollback of protections regarding the recruitment and employment of migrant workers in Israel. Three government decisions concerning the commerce and services sector are one area in which it is apparent that these protections, which were won after decades of intense work, are being removed. The three government decisions defined the "commerce and servi

Oct 193 min read

Let Gaza City's Hospitals Stay Put, Stay Open, and Stay Safe

Illustrative. Destruction in Shejayia, Gaza City. Photo: © Taitharris | Dreamstime.com ACRI, together with Physicians for Human Rights,...

Sep 252 min read

Reopen the Allenby Bridge Border Crossing

Sep 252 min read

Remove Movement Restrictions Imposed on Hebron's Palestinian Residents

Sep 202 min read

Time for Some Good News. Together, We Can Make History

September 18, 2025 Subscribe to ACRI's newsletter Donate to ACRI Dear friend, I am happy and proud to share that today, after a decade...

Sep 182 min read

Shin Bet's Involvement in Criminal Investigations Weakens Democracy

Wix media On September 18, 2025, ACRI sent a petition to the Attorney General following the recent expansion of the involvement of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) in investigating suspected criminal incidents by framing them as terrorist events. For instance, several months ago the Shin Bet was involved in investigating an incident in which marine flares were set off in Caesarea; in recent weeks there have been reports that the Shin Bet is involved in investigating susp

Sep 172 min read

Not Winning Any Popularity Contests

September 17, 2025 Subscribe to ACRI's newsletter Donate to ACRI Dear friend, I would not recommend human rights work to anyone seeking...

Sep 172 min read

We Are a Team. Stand With Us

9/16/2025 Subscribe to ACRI's newsletter Donate to ACRI After a night of explosions in Gaza, we awoke to another horrific morning in the...

Sep 162 min read

The Supreme Court Rules: Prisoners Cannot Be Starved

September 11, 2025 Subscribe to ACRI's newsletter ...to ensure that the minimum standards that the state owes to every person held by it,...

Sep 113 min read

Allow the Displaced to Return to Refugee Camps in the Northern West Bank

Illustrative. Boy in the Jenin refugee camp. Photo: © Richard Juilliart | Dreamstime.com On September 11, 2025, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel filed a petition on behalf of the residents of the Jenin and Nur al-Shams refugee camps in the northern West Bank, who were evacuated from their homes as part of Operation Iron Wall. The petition states that tens of thousands of residents of the refugee camps, including children, women, and the elderly, were suddenly and f

Sep 92 min read

Declaring a Closed Military Zone Near the IDF Chief of Staff's Home

IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir. Photo: Yossi Zamir, Shatil-stok On September 7, 2025, the media reported that following anti-war...

Sep 92 min read

Back to School?

September 9, 2025 Subscribe to ACRI's newsletter Dear friend, September is here, which means it is time for back-to-school. School in...

Sep 83 min read

Discrimination in Urban Planning

Aug 312 min read

Gaza City Residents Have Been Told to Evacuate-But They Have Nowhere to Go

A displaced persons camp in the Al-Muasi area, Khan Yunis. Photo: Doaa Albaz, Activestills After the army announced that those residing...

Aug 282 min read

Hundreds of East Jerusalem Children Have Been Left Without Schools

Illustrative (archive). Children taking the bus to school in Ras Khamis, 2014. Photo: ACRI In April 2025, Israel closed the UNRWA schools...

Aug 272 min read

Anti-War Messages Cannot be Banned from the Haifa Pride Parade

Haifa Pride Parade, 2024. Photo: @Rndmst | Dreamstime.com On August 19, 2025, before the Pride parade was scheduled to take place in...

Aug 242 min read

Open an Investigation Against the Commander of the Central Command for War Crimes

Illustrative (archive): Uprooting trees in the West Bank in preparation for the construction of the separation fence. © Rrodrickbeiler |...

Aug 242 min read

Revoke the New Amendment to the Citizenship Law

Photo: © Georgy Dzyura | Dreamstime.com At the end of the last Knesset session the Knesset quickly passed an amendment to the...

Aug 192 min read

Mounted Police Should Not be Used as Crowd Control for Demonstrations

Photo: Yossi Zamir, Shatil-stok On August 18, 2025 ACRI petitioned the Supreme Court demanding that the police be prohibited from using...

Aug 182 min read

Allow Residents of the Northern West Bank to Return to their Homes

Soldiers in Jenin, January 2025. Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit, (CC BY-SA 3.0), Wikimedia In January 2025, the army launched a military operation in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, an operation that was later expanded to additional refugee camps. The operation resulted in extensive destruction of buildings, roads, and infrastructure; the blocking of access routes; and the closure of businesses, institutions providing essential services, as well as pharmacies and med

Aug 184 min read

The Road of Death

Part of the dangerous road section. Photo: ACRI On August 16, 2025, ACRI approached the Civil Administration demanding that it maintain traffic safety measures and enforcement on the Eastern Ring Road (Road 4370), in the section between the villages of Anata and Az-Za'eem. This section of the road is frequently used by Palestinians traveling between the major cities in the West Bank: Ramallah, Bethlehem, and Hebron. Nonetheless, it lacks basic safety standards: lanes and shou

Aug 162 min read