Israel passed 30 laws 'deepening apartheid’ since 7 October, legal centre says

Israel has passed more than 30 laws since October 2023 that deepen a system of apartheid and repression against Palestinians, legal centre Adalah has said in a new report.

The laws, enacted between 7 October 2023 and 27 July 2025, target a range of political and civil rights, including freedom of expression, protest and thought, citizenship and family life, equality and social rights, and the rights of detainees and prisoners.

“These new laws fundamentally violate the human rights of Palestinians,” Adalah said in the report, published on Monday.

The report identifies several legislative trends in recent years. 

One is the expanded use of counterterrorism laws, applied almost exclusively to Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinian residents of occupied East Jerusalem.

“The vague definitions of ‘terrorist act’ and ‘terror organisation’ in the 2016 Counter-Terrorism Law have become key tools for suppressing Palestinians’ freedom of expression,” the report notes. The trend has intensified since October 2023.

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Another trend channels state resources to Jewish Israeli reservists, providing tax, welfare, higher education, and employment benefits that explicitly exclude Palestinian citizens of Israel. 

The report also highlights the institutionalisation of temporary emergency measures. Repeatedly renewed or made permanent, these measures enable widespread violations of detainees’ rights and punitive conditions for Palestinian prisoners.

Adalah said the laws are rooted in Israel’s constitutional framework, which prioritises “Jewish ethno-national supremacy.” 

Many measures create separate legal systems for Jewish Israelis and Palestinians, reflecting the 2018 “Nation State” Basic Law, which enshrines Jewish supremacy and describes Jewish settlement as a “national value”.

The government’s guiding principles, adopted in December 2022, state that “the Jewish people have an exclusive and inalienable right over all areas of the Land of Israel”, in reference to all territory between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River. 

‘Muting’ Palestinian citizens

The report examined five key themes: denial of freedom of expression, thought, criticism, and protest; denial of citizenship, family life, and community ties; systematic denial of fair trial guarantees and assaults on prisoners’ rights; denial of social rights and deepening inequalities in resource allocation; and the termination of Unrwa operations in occupied Palestine.

On freedom of expression, the laws criminalise consumption of media produced by designated “terrorist organisations”, ban statements deemed to deny the events of 7 October 2023, and allow the education ministry to dismiss teachers and defund schools for alleged support of terrorism. 

Foreign nationals can also be barred from entering Israel for critical speech or appeals to international courts, and broadcasts of critical media channels may be restricted on claims of “harm to state security”.

Amal Orabi, a Palestinian lawyer, writer and activist based in Haifa, said the laws aim to “silence and suppress” Palestinian citizens of Israel.

'Israel is trying to prevent Palestinians from being part of the global Palestinian discourse or from exposing the violations around them'

-  Amal Orabi, Palestinian lawyer

By doing so, Israel can “reduce its losses in public opinion by silencing Palestinians who can convey the picture to the world” about Israeli crimes, he told Middle East Eye. 

The laws, he added, seek to strip Palestinian citizens of legal protections related to freedom of opinion.

“Israel is trying to prevent Palestinians from being part of the global Palestinian discourse or from exposing the violations around them,” Orabi said. 

He noted the legislation targets lawyers, activists, social organisers, social institutions, and journalists, showing an intent “to silence and mute this segment of citizens”.

Orabi also highlighted a double standard: “Israel applies this system of laws specifically against Palestinians, while refraining from applying it against Jews who carry out continuous incitement through social networks and through the media.”

Some laws exclude Jews, encouraging right-wing movements to continue inciting against Palestinians with “no accountability and no oversight”.

“We see this clearly through the rampant settler terrorism in the West Bank, and in the number of racist attacks against Palestinians inside Israel,” Orabi added, citing attacks on Palestinian bus drivers, restrictions on access to public areas, and harassment of hijab-wearing women.

More anti-Palestinian laws 

Adalah said Israel has used the wartime climate to accelerate discriminatory trends. 

Adalah has now documented a total of 100 discriminatory laws.

The laws criminalise political expression, authorise deportations of Palestinian families, block family unification, permit the dismissal of Palestinian teachers, revoke social welfare benefits if children are convicted of so-called “security offences”, expand detention powers, restrict access to legal counsel, and close independent media outlets.

'The ​aggressive legislative campaign against Palestinians continues unabated'

- Miriam Azem, Adalah

Miriam Azem, Adalah’s international advocacy coordinator, said the laws “overwhelmingly and systematically” target Palestinians, using counterterrorism and security frameworks as a proxy.  

She added that the laws were advanced “often with broad support from both coalition and opposition”.

This comes at a time when Palestinian political expression is “already routinely suppressed and criminalised,” she said. 

This anti-Palestinian legislative drive shows no signs of slowing, Azem explained. In the Israeli parliament's current winter session, which opened just over a month ago, multiple bills have already been advanced.

“These include the death penalty bill, which passed its first reading, and the extension of the offence of consuming so-called ‘terrorist publications,’” Azem told MEE. 

The final vote on the latter is scheduled before the plenum on Wednesday, highlighting that the Israeli parliament's “aggressive legislative campaign against Palestinians continues unabated”.