Summary
Amendment No. 3 to the Counter-Terrorism Law, 5776-2016, passed 7 March 2018, authorising police to withhold the bodies of deceased Palestinians and impose conditions on their funerals, which Adalah’s Discriminatory Laws Database presents as a law labelling Palestinians as the enemy and violating dignity, last rites and religious and cultural rights (Discriminatory Laws Database, lines 491-621).
Details
- New s.70A: an “assailant” is someone killed in connection with carrying out or attempting a terrorist act; a district commander may order funeral conditions to maintain public peace and security and prevent disruptions, incitement to terror or expression of identification with a terrorist organization or act — addressing the number and identities of participants, the route, the timing and prohibited items, and in special cases the burial location, taking the family’s position into account — and may order the deposit of a guarantee from the funeral organizer (lines 512-520).
- New s.70B: where the commander has reasonable concern of harm to public security, a terror act, incitement or identification expression, and believes delay is essential and cannot be prevented by other reasonable means, he may delay release of the body and the funeral until the conditions are complied with or until the end of 10 days from the order, whichever comes earlier; the entry’s description adds that the commissioner can extend the period until the conditions are met (lines 504-506, 522-524).
- The practice preceded the amendment: police withheld the body of Ya’akub Abu Al-Qi’an, a 50-year-old teacher from Umm al-Hiran in the Naqab killed during preparations for a home demolition operation, from 18 to 23 January 2017 (HCJ 708/17), and after police killed three Palestinian citizens on 14 July 2017 the Supreme Court ruled in Jabareen that the authorities had no authority to withhold citizens’ bodies; the Knesset then passed Amendment No. 3 on 7 March 2018 (lines 528-532).
- Adalah records a parallel military policy of withholding bodies from East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza indefinitely as bargaining chips, with the estimated number withheld standing at over 370 as of March 2022, and quotes the UN Human Rights Committee’s 2022 concluding observations (paras. 32-33) recommending review of the amendment and that the state “immediately return the bodies of deceased Palestinians to their families” (lines 536, 566-570).
- Examples given of withholding beyond the law include Shadi Bana, whose body the entry says was withheld for investigation, a purpose the amendment does not authorise, and Waseem Abu Al-Heija, killed 29 January 2024 and withheld until 16 April 2024 (lines 546, 580-582).
Related pages
Discriminatory Laws Database, Counter-Terrorism Law, 5776-2016, Jabareen Case (HCJ 5887/17), Adalah, East Jerusalem, Naqab, Israeli Supreme Court