israeli supreme court

Former Supreme Court President Meir Shamgar. May 19, 2011. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

The judge who designed the legal foundations of Israel’s occupation

No one personifies the Zionist dissonance more than Meir Shamgar, the former president of the Supreme Court who died last week. He created the legal provisions for the protection of personal rights, while enshrining Israel’s rule over the occupied territories. By Michael Sfard Meir Shamgar, the former president of the Supreme Court of Israel, died on Oct. 18…

By +972 Magazine October 24, 2019

Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour was released from prison on September 20, 2018. She was arrested in October 2015, and later convicted of incitement to terrorism and violence for poems she published on social media. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Top court puts end to Palestinian poet’s four-year legal saga

Dareen Tatour was arrested after the security services decided her poetry constituted ‘incitement.’ After nearly three years under house arrest, a trial, and jail time, she is finally free. Dareen Tatour, the Palestinian poet arrested in 2015 over a poem she published on Facebook, is finally free. After years of house arrest, months in prison, and dogged efforts by the government to secure the maximum…

By Oren Ziv October 3, 2019

Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour was released from prison on September 20, 2018. She was arrested in October 2015, and later convicted of incitement to terrorism and violence for poems she published on social media. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Israel fights to reinstate Palestinian poet’s conviction

Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour sat in prison for a poem she published on Facebook. After an Israeli court ruled that the poem does not constitute incitement to violence, the prosecution is now appealing the partial reversal of her conviction. Israel’s state prosecution is trying to appeal the partial reversal of the conviction of Dareen Tatour, the Palestinian poet found guilty of…

By Oren Ziv July 18, 2019

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Illustrative photo of Israeli soldiers detain a blindfolded Palestinian child. (Wagdi Ashtiyeh/Flash90)

Top court throws out case demanding Palestinian kids be allowed to call parents from prison

The Israeli Supreme Court refuses to hear arguments in a case about whether Palestinian minors imprisoned by Israel should be allowed to speak to their families on the phone. Israel’s High Court of Justice refused to hear a petition by an Israeli human rights organization demanding that Palestinian minors held in Israeli prisons be allowed…

By Edo Konrad July 3, 2019

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a government handout photo, taken near Israel's southern order with Egypt, March 7, 2019. (Amos Ben-Gershom/GPO/Handout)

These elections are a choice between resignation and despair

Four years ago, the prospect of another Netanyahu government meant perpetuating the status quo. This time, the opposition is offering the status quo — and Netanyahu something far worse. The short distance between resignation and despair is the difference between knowing that things aren’t going to get any better and the fear that they could…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man March 19, 2019

Israeli Border Police officers look on during a protest against the eviction of Palestinians from their homes by Israeli settlers in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, December 25, 2009. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

After a decade, evictions set to return in Sheikh Jarrah

Residents of Sheikh Jarrah are bracing for a new wave of evictions, ten years after Israeli settlers attempted to take over Palestinian homes in the embattled East Jerusalem neighborhood. The Sabag and Hamad families are refugees from Jaffa and Haifa, respectively. Expelled from their homes during the 1948 war, they have been living in the occupied…

By Oren Ziv December 3, 2018

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a joint press conference at the King David Hotel, Jerusalem, October 4, 2018. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Despite high hopes, Merkel calls village’s demolition an ‘Israeli decision’

The residents of Khan al-Ahmar had hoped the German chancellor would demand Netanyahu back down from the imminent demolition of their hamlet. Instead, she called the matter an ‘Israeli decision.’ By Oren Ziv Ever since Israel’s High Court of Justice gave its final stamp of approval to the demolition of the village of Khan al-Ahmar last…

By Oren Ziv October 5, 2018

Shaykh Muwaffak Tarif, spiritual leader of the Israeli Druze community, attends a conference of the Zionist Druze Movement in Herzliya, July 16, 2018. (Flash90)

How Israel betrayed its most loyal minority

The Nation-State Law, which enshrines supremacy for Jews in Israel, has made it clear to the country’s Druze population that we are not equals. So why don’t we demand it be abolished completely? By Dalia Halabi The Jewish Nation-State Law has been a watershed moment for Israel’s Druze population and its relationship to the Jewish state and its institutions. The law clearly states that…

By +972 Magazine July 29, 2018

Israeli soldiers detain a Palestinian man following a house raid in the West Bank city of Hebron September 20, 2016. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

Israel’s top court rules human rights aren’t ‘controversial.’ What about the occupation?

As the pro-peace camp has shrunk into oblivion, human rights groups have become the only real anti-occupation force in Israel today. That has made them uncomfortably political. Israel’s High Court of Justice on Wednesday ruled that equality and human rights are not, or should not be, controversial in Israel. “[It is difficult to accept] the…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man September 14, 2017

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara depart Uganda on their way to Kenya, July 4, 2016. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)

Israel’s top court sanctions support for Africa’s dictators

By approving the decision to deport African asylum seekers to Rwanda and Uganda, Israel has granted legitimacy to two of the most brutal dictators on the continent. By Eitay Mack (translated by Ofer Neiman) The Israeli Supreme Court approved the decision to deport African asylum seekers from Israel. These agreements had previously been made between Israel and…

By +972 Magazine September 12, 2017

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with residents of South Tel Aviv, during a tour in the neighborhood, August 31, 2017. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Netanyahu exploiting south Tel Aviv’s hardships to attack asylum seekers

Netanyahu has asylum seekers right where he wants them. He can exploit the hardships of south Tel Aviv residents to continue inciting against the Supreme Court, the media, and human rights organizations. By Yossi Dahan After years in which Netanyahu did not set foot in south Tel Aviv, the prime minister came to the area last week…

By Haokets September 8, 2017

Thousands of young Jewish boys wave Israeli flags as they celebrate Jerusalem Day at the Western Wall, May 17, 2015. (Flash90)

The destructive potential of Israel’s nation-state bill

The newest version of the nation-state bill, which effectively pulls Israel’s apartheid regime out of the closet, could potentially lead to massive violence against its weakest population. By Marzuq Al-Halabi The “nation-state bill,” which was approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday, is no different from the day-to-day political discourse taking place in Israel these…

By +972 Magazine May 9, 2017

Eritrean asylum seekers protest in front of the European Union embassy in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, calling for the EU to try the Eritrean leadership for crimes against humanity, on June 21, 2016. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

WATCH: African refugees rally against Israel’s deportation policy

With Israel’s Supreme Court set to rule on Israel’s policy of deporting African asylum seekers to countries where they face danger and even death, hundreds of refugees gather in Jerusalem to demand their right to protection. Read more: What will happen to Eritrean asylum seekers after Israel deports them? Despite dangers, Israel sending asylum seekers…

By Social TV February 11, 2017