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Legal Work

ACRI’s Legal Department takes on cases that raise issues of principle and effect broad-based policy change. Every year, ACRI argues dozens of precedent-setting cases before the Supreme Court and seeks redress before district and labor courts, government ministries, and Knesset committees.

ACRI is highly regarded in the Israeli legal community for its professionalism and commitment to bringing landmark cases to the Supreme Court. Since its establishment, ACRI has achieved major advancements in a wide range of areas such as: freedom of expression; the right to privacy; freedom of and from religion; women’s rights; criminal justice; equality for Arab citizens; the LGBTQI community’s human rights in the Occupied Territories; and on behalf of minority populations such as migrant workers.

A Historic Ruling: Police Cannot Use Racial Profiling to Ask for ID

© Ben Gingell | Dreamstime.com First Petition On August 18, 2019, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the Association of Ethiopian Jews in Israel, and the Public Committee Against Torture petitioned the Supreme Court with the demand that the court prohibit police from detaining people on the street and asking them to present identification when there is no suspicion that they have committed a crime. As part of the petition, we also called for the revocation of the

4 days ago5 min read

No More "Warning Conversations" from Police to Discourage Participation in Protests

Demonstration by the Ethiopian community against police violence, 2022. Photo: Tali Meyer, Shatil-stock On December 10, 2025, ACRI appealed to the Police Commissioner and the Legal Advisor to the Police following testimonies we received and reports in the media about attempts by the Lachish Police to deter members of the Ethiopian-Israeli community from holding or participating in a lawful demonstration. According to the statements ACRI and the media received, the community

7 days ago2 min read

Soccer Fans Can Attend Games, Even if Police Don't Like What They're Wearing

Illustrative. Photo: Sebastian27 via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) On December 8, 2025, ACRI sent an appeal to the police after fans of the soccer team Hapoel Tel Aviv were prevented from entering a stadium because of their clothing, which included an anti-police illustration and text . In the appeal, Attorney Nitsan Ilani and legal intern Yotam Rotfeld argue that the police do not have the authority to infringe fans’ freedom of expression and protest, even when fans express opini

Dec 71 min read

No More Hiding Behind Planters

Photo: © Tero Vesalainen | Dreamstime.com At the end of a major hearing at the Supreme Court this past July, the court's security guards feared violence from right-wing activists who had come to court. To avoid this, they helped representatives from ACRI quickly escape from the courtroom the moment the proceedings ended and tried to hide us in one of the corners of the building. And so there we found ourselves, after a principled and important legal hearing about the starva

Dec 73 min read

Providing Status to Female Palestinian Victims of Domestic Violence

© Emanuilov Shabtay | Dreamstime.com On May 6, 2024, we filed a legal petition (Hebrew) regarding the format of processing applications for providing legal status, on humanitarian grounds, submitted by Palestinian women who married an Israeli spouse and suffer from domestic violence. The petition was joined by Physicians for Human Rights, Woman to Woman, Women Against Violence, Women's Spirit, Itach-Ma'aki and HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual. Palestinian

Dec 33 min read

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

Nov 243 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

Nov 203 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

Nov 192 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

Nov 191 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

Nov 191 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

Nov 182 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