Summary
Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Law, 5776-2016, in the unofficial English translation in full (PDF p.1-79): a single statute whose object is “to establish criminal and administrative legal provisions, including special enforcement powers, for the purpose of combatting terrorism”, defining terrorist organization, terrorist act, membership and terrorist property, and providing executive designation, offenses and aggravated penalties, special detention rules for grave security offense detainees, administrative seizure and forfeiture, and place-restriction orders, while repealing the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance, 5708-1948, the Prohibition on Terrorism Financing Law, 5765-2005 and the Criminal Procedure (Detainee Suspected of a Security Offense) (Temporary Provisions) Law, 5766-2006 (The Counter-Terrorism Law, 5776-2016, PDF p.1, p.63-64). It entered into force on 30 Tishrei 5777 (1 November 2016), the revocation of Defense Regulations 84, 85 and 120 being deferred to 1 March 2017 (The Counter-Terrorism Law, 5776-2016, PDF p.77).
Details
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Definitions (section 2, PDF p.1-10): a terrorist organization includes an undesignated body that commits or intends terrorist acts; membership includes self-presentation and consent to join, with presumptions stated on the source page; a terrorist act requires a listed motive, a fear-or-compulsion intention and a listed serious harm, with deeming rules for weapon, knife and mass-harm acts and a presumption of motive and intention for an organization’s or member’s act.
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Designation (sections 3-19, PDF p.10-26): the Minister of Defense designates on a Defense Authority’s reasoned request submitted through the Head of the Israel Security Agency, temporarily then permanently, the Advisory Committee (Counter-Terrorism Law) advising on written claims it may decide on confidential information the applicant cannot view; foreign and UN Security Council designations are followed or temporarily adopted under section 11; review is four-yearly, revocation is provided for, and section 19 bars a court in any legal proceeding from considering that a designated body or person is not a terrorist organization or operative, or that a designation is invalid, the High Court of Justice authority excepted.
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Offenses and penalties (sections 20-44, PDF p.26-40): heading a terrorist organization 25 years, or life alone where its activity includes murder; membership five years; identification with a terrorist organization three years and incitement publications five years (section 24); property-transaction and reporting regimes (sections 31-36); double penalties for a terrorist act up to 25 years, life for a mass act of terrorism (sections 37-39); a life sentence for a terrorist offense may only be recommended for commutation after 15 years, to not less than 40 years (section 40).
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Detention (sections 45-52, PDF p.40-46): for a grave security offense detainee, first appearance before a judge may be delayed to 48, 72 and at most 96 hours, pre-indictment detention runs to 20 days in his presence with extensions in his absence of up to 144 hours in total, and one attorney may be barred from meeting more than one detainee in the same investigation.
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Property and places (sections 53-72, PDF p.46-63): judicial forfeiture on conviction and administrative seizure and forfeiture by the Minister of Defense, the latter available where a prosecutor certifies criminal forfeiture impossible for inadmissible or confidential evidence, with confidential-evidence procedure in court (section 65); police Prevention of Activity Orders and Restriction of Use of a Place Orders of up to three months, extendable, breach punishable by two years.
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Amendments (sections 73-93, PDF p.63-72): the three repeals named in the Summary, repeal of a long list of Defense (State of Emergency) Regulations, 1945 provisions, and conforming amendments to the Citizenship, Knesset Building and Precincts, Benefits for Victims of Hostilities, Prisons, Penal, Criminal Registry, Courts, National Insurance, Public Defender, Arrests, monuments, International Legal Assistance, Freedom of Information, Prohibition on Money Laundering, Courts of Administrative Affairs, Combatting Criminal Organizations and Regulation of Research on Biological Generators of Diseases laws.
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Miscellaneous (sections 94-101 and Schedule, PDF p.72-79): Minister of Defense and Defense Authority head powers are non-delegable except as the Law prescribes; the money-laundering order, database, supervision and financial-sanctions regime applies to Sections 31-36 (section 95); the Minister of Justice reports annually on June 1st to the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee on Section 24 indictments and Chapter Four detention (section 99); commencement is 1 November 2016 with Regulations 84, 85 and 120 revocations deferred to 1 March 2017 and interim use requiring Attorney General or State Attorney approval (section 100); pre-commencement designations under the repealed Ordinance, Regulation 84(1)(b) and the terrorism-financing law carry over, prior law governs prior seizures, and specified prior offenses are deemed grave terrorist offenses (section 101); the Schedule for Section 42 lists Afghanistan, Libya, Sudan and Pakistan (PDF p.79).
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The Bill for the Cessation of UNRWA Activities, 5784–2024, section 3, preserves criminal proceedings against UNRWA employees under the provisions of this Law, citing it at footnote 2 as Book of Laws 5776, p. 898, and preserves the exercise of powers against them within such proceedings; the bill is not presented in its file as enacted (Bill for the Cessation of UNRWA Activities, 5784–2024 (and Bill for the Cessation of UNRWA Activities in the Territory of the State of Israel, 5784–2024), PDF p.1; see Bill for the Cessation of UNRWA Activities, 5784–2024).
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In Discriminatory Laws Database, Adalah’s entry on the Law itself quotes the Article 2A “terrorist act” conditions and the two-limb “terrorist organization” definition, lists the same §24 penalties for identification (three years) and incitement (five years), and presents the Law as overly broad, enforced discriminatorily, and used for the October 2021 designation of six Palestinian human rights and civil society organizations, quoting the UN Human Rights Committee’s 2022 concern at “vague and overbroad definitions” (lines 856-980). A separate entry covers Amendment No. 3 (2018), new ss.70A-70B, authorising police to withhold the bodies of deceased Palestinians killed by Israeli forces and impose funeral conditions for up to 10 days, with the UN Human Rights Committee’s 2022 concluding observations paras. 32-33 quoted in full (lines 491-621); the ruling that preceded the amendment is Jabareen Case (HCJ 5887/17).
Related pages
The Counter-Terrorism Law, 5776-2016, Advisory Committee (Counter-Terrorism Law), Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law, 5762-2002, Administrative Detention, Shin Bet, Discriminatory Laws Database