Investigating Expression Offenses without Legal Approval
- ACRI
- Apr 26
- 2 min read
On April 27, 2025, ACRI submitted a petition to the Supreme Court demanding a ruling stating that the Israel Police is not authorized to use prohibitions against breach of peace and public order to detain, investigate, and arrest individuals based on their speech. ACRI also requested that the Court state that whenever the police investigate speech, they must first obtain approval from the State Attorney's Office before conducting the investigation.
The petition was filed in light of the fact that the policy for investigating and prosecuting alleged expression offenses changed since the outbreak of the war. During the past year and a half, hundreds of people—the vast majority of whom are Arabs and Palestinians—have been investigated, arrested, and charged with speech offenses of incitement to terrorism or identification with a terrorist organization.
According to the State Attorney's directive (Directive 14.12), opening an investigation into speech offenses requires the police to obtain approval from the State Attorney's Office. ACRI's petition argues that the police have been circumventing this directive by arresting and investigating permissible expressions under legal provisions such as prohibitions against breach of peace and public order that do not require the State Attorney’s approval.
The petition contends that this type of police conduct results in major harm to freedom of expression and that this practice is being carried out without authority, illegally, and while disconnecting investigation policy from prosecution policy. The petition also states that given that most cases in which the police used the prohibition against breach of peace and public order to investigate expression offenses were against Arab Israeli citizens and residents. Consequently, this method has been used not only to silence political opposition, but also the country’s religious and ethnic minority.
HCJ 62102-04-25 The Association for Civil Rights in Israel v. The Attorney General Attorney: Hagar Shechter
ACRI's Petition, April 27, 2025 (Heb)
The petition was written with the assistance of Freedom of Protest Director Sivan Tahel and legal intern Yotam Rotfeld
