Since the
commencement of Israel’s military aggression against the Gaza Strip on 7
October 2023, the Israeli Supreme Court has functioned as a central legal
instrument in legitimizing international crimes and providing judicial cover
for grave and systematic violations of international humanitarian law and
international human rights law.
This report,
issued by the Palestinian Association for Human Rights (Witness), examines how
the Israeli Supreme Court, which is mandated to uphold justice and protect
fundamental rights, has instead operated as a judicial body complicit in the
commission of genocide. This has occurred through the systematic rejection of
urgent legal petitions related to humanitarian access, medical evacuation,
enforced disappearance, and prisoners’ rights, as well as through calculated
procedural delays that have allowed such violations to continue and escalate.
The report
details the Court’s failure to comply with binding orders of the International
Court of Justice, its denial of Israel’s status as the occupying power in Gaza,
and its judicial endorsement of starvation as a method of warfare. It further
exposes the Court’s silence in the face of egregious violations occurring in
detention facilities such as Sde Teiman, and its role in providing legal cover
for legislative amendments aimed at institutionalizing arbitrary detention and
enforced disappearance.
The judicial
complicity outlined in this report is not an incidental byproduct of the
current conflict; rather, it constitutes an extension of a longstanding
colonial judicial framework that legitimizes forced displacement, unlawful
settlement expansion, and the structural repression of the Palestinian people
both inside and outside of places of detention.
The Palestinian
Association for Human Rights (Witness) affirms that the Israeli Supreme Court
cannot be considered a neutral or independent institution, but is instead an
integral part of the broader system facilitating genocide. In light of these
findings, we call for:
·The initiation of international criminal investigations into the role of
the Israeli judiciary in facilitating and legitimizing international crimes;
·The rejection of the principle of exhaustion of domestic remedies in
Israel, in view of the judiciary’s structural complicity;
·The suspension of academic, legal, and institutional cooperation with
Israeli judicial bodies;
·The provision of international protection for Palestinian prisoners, and
the reinforcement of the mandate of the International Committee of the Red
Cross;
·The advancement of international legal protection for Palestinians, and
the urgent implementation of practical measures by State Parties to the Geneva
Conventions to halt the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Full Report
Available Here: