Adalah Petitions Israeli Supreme Court Against Law Revoking Social Benefits from Parents of Palestinian Minors Convicted of ‘Security Offenses’

Today, 20 March 2025, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel filed a petition to the Israeli Supreme Court demanding the annulment of Amendment No. 251 to Israel’s National Insurance Law, which strips social benefits from the parents of Palestinian minors who have been convicted of ‘security offenses’.

The petition, submitted by Adalah Attorney Lubna Tuma, argues that the law is blatantly unconstitutional and severely violates the basic rights to equality, dignity, and property, while discriminating against Palestinian families. The petition emphasizes that the law directly attempts to bypass a ruling delivered by the Israeli Supreme Court 2021, in which it struck down a nearly identical provision due to its constitutional flaws following a petition filed by Adalah and others.

CLICK HERE to read the [Hebrew] petition
CLICK HERE to read the [Hebrew] amendment 

Learn more about the 2021 Supreme Court decision

HCJ 51553-03-2025 Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel et. al v. The Knesset

A Law that Targets Palestinian Families and Imposes Collective Punishment

The new law, passed on 19 November 2024, imposes a blanket revocation of essential social benefits – including child allowances, education grants, alimony, supplements to other benefits, and income support payments – from the parents of minors who are serving prison sentences for ‘security offenses’. Such offenses are broadly defined under the Counter-Terrorism Law, and may include actions such as stone-throwing at vehicles and participation in protests labeled as riots. Critically, the law applies retroactively, stripping benefits from parents whose children have already been convicted.

The petitioners argue that the law codifies an unlawful and disproportionate distinction between the parents of minors who have been convicted of security offenses and those convicted of other criminal offenses. Driven by racist motives, the law establishes a mechanism of collective punishment that almost exclusively targets Palestinian families.

According to data published by the Israel Prison Service figures in March 2024, of 194 ‘security prisoners’ in Israeli custody between the ages of 16 and 18, 183 are Palestinians. Thus, the law has a clearly disproportionate effect on Palestinians weaponizing social benefits against them.

Additionally, Adalah highlighted that as the law deprives families of benefits that are intended to guarantee a basic standard of living and prevent poverty, it exacerbates the economic hardships to which Palestinian families are already subjected to as a result of entrenched socio-economic discrimination.

The Knesset Knowingly Enacted this Law, despite its Unconstitutionality

The Knesset advanced this legislation with full awareness that it violates past Supreme Court precedent as set in its 2021 ruling; this was made clear through the legislative process by statements from lawmakers.

The petition stresses that lawmakers made only a narrow procedural correction in the new law compared to the earlier 2015 law, regarding which authority designates an offense as a security offense. Beyond this minor adjustment, the current law maintains – and even aggravates – the invalidated provision, deepening the violation of basic rights and converting the welfare system into a means of punishment.

Adalah Attorney Lubna Tuma added:

“The law is part of a broader effort to entrench Israel’s two-tiered legal system—one set of laws applied to Jewish Israelis under criminal law, and another, with diminished rights, imposed on Palestinians under the guise of counterterrorism. It reflects an ideology that views Palestinian children as security threats and systematically denies them and their families basic rights. Through the revocation of social benefits, the law reintroduces collective punishment as official policy.”