Remote Court Hearings for Palestinian Detainees and Security Prisoners

Illustrative. © Aerogondo | Dreamstime.com 

On July 2, 2026, ACRI filed a petition with the Supreme Court against the law on "Conducting Hearings by Visual Conferencing," which came into effect in February 2026. The law mandates that most hearings concerning prisoners and detainees classified as Security Prisoners or Security Detainees be conducted via video conference, rather than with their physical presence in the courtroom. 

ACRI’s petition argues that this system is discriminatory, and unconstitutional, and that it constitutes a serious infringement on the rights to due process, human dignity, liberty, and equality. It deprives a broad group of prisoners and detainees of the fundamental right to be present at legal proceedings concerning them, thereby substantially impairing their ability to receive a fair hearing. It also hampers communication with legal counsel, limits the judge's ability to form a direct impression of the person, and undermines the perception of fairness of the proceedings. This harm that this will cause will be particularly severe in light of the incarceration conditions for security prisoners and detainees since the outbreak of the war; the absence of direct encounters with a judge deprives them of a vital means of oversight. 

This rule is also blanket discrimination against those classified as security prisoners or security detainees, most of whom are Palestinians, without any individual assessment of the danger posed by a prisoner or detainee. This law is not based on any evidence suggesting a group-based risk that would justify a far-reaching infringement of fundamental rights. In fact, for many months after the original temporary arrangement enacted during the war expired, in-person hearings continued to take place in cases involving security prisoners and detainees, without any incidents that would justify the new legislation. Moreover, unlike previous procedures adopted during emergency period, the new procedure is not contingent on the existence of a war, a state of emergency, or any other external circumstance. Instead, it allows the Minister of Justice and the Minister of National Security to declare, for extended periods that may be repeatedly renewed, that all hearings concerning prisoners and detainees classified as security prisoners or detainees will be conducted exclusively by video conference. This new system is fundamentally different from what is currently established in law, under which hearings by video conference are conducted only at the request of the incarcerated person and through their legal counsel.  

The true purpose of the law is to ease the burden on the Israel Prison Service, to punish suspects and defendants based on their ethnicity and nationality, and to conceal the abuses taking place in prisons. None of these are legitimate, and they do not justify violating the rights of prisoners and detainees.

HCJ 5586/07/26 ACRI v. the Knesset  

Attorneys: Nitsan Ilani, Yael Seidemann 

The petition, July 2, 2026 (Heb) 

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