Make Home Front Command Messages Accessible in Arabic, English, Russian, and Amharic

On June 17, 2025, we contacted the Home Front Command commander with an urgent request to make the automatic alerts sent to mobile phones and all Home Front Command media and information channels (Telegram, WhatsApp, YouTube, Instagram, and others) accessible in Arabic, English, Russian, and Amharic.  

The automatic alerts sent to mobile phones (not through the Home Front Command app) are currently sent only in Hebrew, without any translation or referrals to translations in other languages. Similarly, all of the Home Front Command’s official social media channels, other than the Home Front Command portal and Facebook, operate only in Hebrew. As a result, citizens and residents who are not fluent in Hebrew– which includes Arabs, immigrants, migrant workers, and tourists, are left confused about the meaning of the alerts they receive in emergency situations and how to proceed. 

Attorney Abir Joubran, director of the Arab Society Rights Department, emphasized in the petition that not translating emergency alerts is a violation of the right to security and the right to equality. Moreover, the petition points out that providing alerts in a language that is not understood by the people receiving them effectively restricts those segments of the public from the alert, thereby violating their right to protection and safety.  

"In a multilingual state containing different cultures, the national alert system is expected to operate in accordance with the principle of equality and ensure equal rights to security, protection, and information. The Home Front Command must act in such a way that every person in the state receives an emergency alert in a language that they understand, or, at the very least, that the Hebrew alert message contains options to select other languages, thus ensuring that the recipient has the ability to understand and act in accordance with the changing instructions, whose purpose is to save lives [...] Needless to say, these matters gain additional force in the context of making Home Front Command emergency alerts and communication channels accessible in Arabic, which is the mother tongue of nearly 20% of the state's population." 

ACRI's petition, June 17, 2025 (Heb)