Remote Court Hearings for Palestinian Detainees and Security Prisoners

Illustrative. © Aerogondo | Dreamstime.com 

On March 23, 2026, ACRI appealed to the Attorney General and the Knesset Legal Adviser regarding the law allowing court hearings involving prisoners, detainees, and incarcerated persons to be conducted by video conference, particularly those classified as security prisoners. Among other things, the law allows ministers to repeatedly declare for three-month periods that hearings concerning these detainees will be held remotely rather than take place with their physical presence in the courtroom. This applies to broad groups of people, without any individualized assessment of the risks.

In the appeal, Attorney Yael Seidemann argued that this procedure established by the law is fundamentally flawed, unconstitutional, overly broad, and disproportionate. It is a violation of the rights to due process, dignity, and liberty, and creates serious inequalities and discriminates between incarcerated people, since the majority of those harmed by this procedure are Palestinians.

There are serious practical implications to holding court hearings without bringing the detainee before the court. Judges will be unable to directly observe detainees and their condition; detainees will struggle to understand the proceedings, participate in them, and communicate effectively with their attorneys; and judicial oversight of detention conditions and law enforcement authorities will be weakened. Administrative detainees, who are sometimes held without an indictment and on the basis of classified material, will be particularly vulnerable.

The workload and logistics on the part of the Prison Service cannot justify violations of fundamental rights. The appeal requests that the Attorney General instruct the Minister of Justice not to exercise their authority under the law until a decision is reached on the petition we intend to file on the matter. If and when a genuine risk exists in a specific case, it should be examined and more proportionate measures, such as reinforced security, should be taken to ensure everyone's safety in the courtroom.

ACRI's appeal, March 23, 2026 (Heb)