'No Compensation Law' Revoked

16/05/2012

Adalah successfully challenged an amendment to the Civil Wrongs (Liability of the State) Law – 1952, which attempted to exempt Israel from compensation claims for property damage and injuries caused to Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The Supreme Court cancelled the law in December 2006.

The petition was submitted in September 2005 by Adalah, HaMoked and ACRI on behalf of a wide coalition of NGOs, consisting of the three organizations, Al-Haq, The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights - Gaza. B'Tselem, Physicians for Human Rights, The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and Rabbis for Human Rights. The petitioners demanded that the Supreme Court declare void new amendments to the Civil Wrongs (Liability of the State) Law, which deny residents of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, citizens of "Enemy States," and activists or members of "a Terrorist Organization," the right to seek compensation from the state of Israel for damages caused to them by the Israeli security forces, including those damages caused to them outside of the context of a military operation. On 12 December 2006, the Supreme Court, in a unanimous ruling delivered by nine justices, decided that the State of Israel cannot exempt itself from paying compensation to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza who have been harmed by the Israeli military. As a result of this ruling, Palestinians who have been harmed by the Israeli military since September 2000 can again seek compensation in Israeli courts.

H.C. 8276/05, Adalah, et. al. v. The Minister of Defense, et. al.

Additional Information

12 December 2006

Supreme Court Cancels Racist Law, Ruling that Palestinians Harmed by Israeli Military in the Occupied Palestinian Territory are Eligible for Compensation from Israel

29 August 2006
Israeli High Court of Justice, in an Expanded Panel of Nine Justices, to Hear Petition Filed by Nine Human Rights Organizations: Cancel Law Preventing Palestinians from Filing Claims for Damages against the State

24 July 2006
Israeli High Court of Justice Issues Order Nisi Concerning Racist Amendment of Law Preventing Palestinian Residents of the Occupied Territories from Filing Claims for Damages Inflicted by the Israeli Security Forces

1 September 2005
Nine Human Rights Organizations Petition the High Court of Justice: "Law Preventing Palestinians from Claiming Compensation from the State of Israel is Unconstitutional and Thus Void"

Main Documents

The Petition (English, Hebrew). English translation by HaMoked

The Amended Law (English, Hebrew)

Supplemental Arguments (Hebrew)

Supreme Court Decision (Hebrew)