PALESTINE’S LEGAL SCENE – Issue. 310

Your weekly survey of the most important publications and activities related to Palestine and law, from local and international sources

7 – 13 Dec. 2025

Issued every Sunday by Law for Palestine

Prepared by: Nour Kharouf, Murad Abu Murad, and Arwa Abdel Moniam

Translation: Mays Abu Atwan and Maisaa Abdelqader

Editing: Widad Hussein

This weekly report reviews the legal dynamics of the Palestine question, and everything related to international law and Palestine. The report includes an account of the most important publications, activities and conferences related to Palestine at the local, regional, international levels. The report further covers decisions, decrees, and judicial orders affecting the Palestinian cause, whether made at the official, academic or public levels. The report aims to be a reference for monitoring, documenting and archiving the latest human rights developments related to Palestine, and to present them to individuals, researchers, study centers, and official, academic and legal institutions concerned.

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Judicial decrees, decisions, positions, and orders issued by official Palestinian bodies:

• The Ministry of Education and Higher Education condemned the Israeli occupation forces’ storming of Birzeit University and Al-Quds University, including assault on their staff and damage to university property. Separately, the Palestinian Presidency condemned the Israeli occupation authorities’ announcement of the construction of 764 new settlement units in the West Bank. (December 10, 2025)
• On the occasion of International Human Rights Day, the Palestinian National Council stated that the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human rights are facing a difficult test in light of the occupation’s crimes, warning that international silence constitutes not only complicity but also a breach of legal obligations to prevent mass atrocities. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates likewise emphasized the need to implement relevant United Nations resolutions calling for an end of the occupation. (December 10, 2025)
• The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent identical letters to all international institutions and bodies regarding the heinous crime committed by the Israeli occupying forces against detainee Abdul Rahman Sufyan Al‑Sabatin (21 years old), which led to his martyrdom in an Israeli hospital, raising the number of martyrs from the prisoners’ movement since the beginning of the war to more than one hundred.(December 11, 2025)
• The President of the State of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, stated that achieving Palestinian independence is the only path to ensuring security, stressing that the strategic choice of the Palestinian Authority is peace based on the two‑State solution in accordance with international law. (December 12, 2025)
• The President of the Palestinian National Council, Rawhi Fattouh, and the Head of the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, Minister Muayyad Shaaban, stated that the decision of the so‑called Israeli Ministerial Cabinet to approve the establishment of 19 new colonies in the West Bank constitutes a double violation of international law.(December 12, 2025)

Judicial decrees, decisions, positions, and orders issued by official Israeli bodies

• Israeli outlet Walla reported that a “record high” number of 110 Palestinians have died under prison policies implemented by far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir in the past two and a half years, marking the highest number compared to available data from previous decades. Meanwhile, a report issued by the Israeli Public Defender’s Office revealed that the conditions of Palestinian security prisoners have sharply deteriorated since October 7, 2023, citing severe overcrowding, hunger, and near-daily beatings. (December 8, 2025)
• Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich launched a plan with a budget of 2.7 billion shekels over five years aimed at reshaping the reality in the West Bank, including the relocation of Israeli army bases, the construction of infrastructure for dozens of new settlement clusters, and the paving of roads. ( December 8, 2025)
• The Israeli High Court of Justice approved a ninth extension for the government to petitions seeking unfettered press access to Gaza. The extension, granted until December 21, allows the government additional time to submit its official response to the journalists’ requests. The Foreign Press Association (FPA), which filed a petition, described the situation as “beyond absurd,” saying that it has deprived the world of a fuller glimpse of conditions in Gaza. (December 9, 2025)
• The Israeli Ministry of the Interior awarded municipal emblems to eight settlements in the West Bank, completing their final legalization procedures. Some of these settlements had previously been unauthorized outposts, in a move described as part of an ongoing government policy to expand and legalize settlement activity.(December 9, 2025)
• The Israeli government approved granting legal status to 19 settlements in the occupied West Bank, including two settlements that had been vacated nearly 20 years ago under the disengagement plan led by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.(December 12,2025)

Judicial decrees, decisions, positions, and orders issued by Arab, European, and international bodies

• The Arab Parliament condemned the statements by the Israeli occupation regarding the opening of the Rafah crossing in one direction only, warning that such measures would pave the way for the forcible displacement of Gaza Strip residents. It affirmed that these statements constitute a serious violation of international humanitarian law and a blatant breach of the Sharm El-Sheikh Peace Summit commitments. (December 7, 2025)
• UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that Israeli police, accompanied by municipal officials, forcibly entered the UNRWA compound in East Jerusalem and pulled down the UN flag and replaced it with the Israeli flag. He described the act as a blatant disregard of Israel’s obligations as a United Nations Member State to protect the inviolability of UN premises, adding that international law has come under increasing attack for too long, and must be upheld. (December 7–8, 2025)
• The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the statements by the extremist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state, coinciding with the announcement of an Israeli government plan to expand and establish illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. The ministry stressed that Israel has no sovereignty over the occupied West Bank. (December 8, 2025)
• British Minister of State for the Middle East Hamish Falconer said he was shocked by reports that Israeli authorities had entered the UNRWA compound in East Jerusalem, describing the incident as a blatant disregard of Israel’s obligations to protect and respect UN premises, affirming the need to enable UNRWA to continue its work. (December 8, 2025)
• The United Nations Country Team in the occupied Palestinian Territory and the UN Secretary-General condemned the forcible entry by Israeli police and municipal officials into UNRWA headquarters. The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Arab Parliament, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the League of Arab States, and several EU diplomatic missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah also condemned the forcible raid. (December 8-9, 2025)
• The United Kingdom announced it will host a key peacebuilding conference on 12 March next year aimed at helping establish an “International Peace Fund for Israel and Palestine”. The initiative is expected to bring together civil society leaders from across the region, and draw on international peacebuilding expertise that brings Israelis and Palestinians together to reduce violence, build trust, and create the conditions for a lasting and just peace. (December 9, 2025)
• The League of Arab States condemned the medical neglect that led to the death of Abdul Rahman Sufian Muhammad al-Sabateen 21, from the town of Husan west of Bethlehem, who died in an Israeli hospital after his health deteriorated due to poor detention conditions. (December 10, 2025)
• The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) condemned in the strongest terms the Israeli occupation authorities’ approval of plans to construct 764 new settlement units and to establish 17 new settlements in the occupied West Bank over the next five years, describing the moves as part of annexation and expansion policies. (December 10, 2025)
• In a joint statement, the Foreign Ministers of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the State of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, the Republic of Indonesia, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and the Republic of Turkey, affirmed the indispensable role of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in safeguarding the rights of Palestinian refugees. They also condemned the storming of the Agency’s headquarters in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem by the occupying forces, stating that it constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and the inviolability of United Nations premises. (  December 12, 2025)
• On the same day, The United Nations General Assembly adopted a draft resolution calling upon Israel, the occupying Power, to allow full humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip, respect the inviolability of United Nations premises, and comply with its obligations under international law. (December 12, 2025).

Publications of human rights NGOs

• The Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) submitted a legal and political briefing to Members of the UK Parliament and relevant government departments, examining the implications of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2803 on Gaza, which endorses a US-backed comprehensive plan to end the conflict. The briefing warned that the resolution fails to guarantee Palestinian self-determination or accountability and entrenches externally managed governance arrangements that marginalise Palestinian participation in decision-making. (December 7, 2025)

Research and academic studies (in Arabic and English):

• Naif Arab University for Security Sciences published a research paper by researcher Abdulaziz Abdullatif A. Aljohani titled “War Crimes in Palestine: Between International Documentation and Civilian Suffering.” (2025)

Opinion Pieces and features

• Mondoweiss published an opinion piece by Lara Keilani titled “Liberation Is Not Integration: On liberal Zionism, one-state fantasies, and what Palestinians actually want.” (December 8, 2025)
• Jewish Currents published an analysis article by Anne Irfan titled: “How Trump’s Gaza Plan Is Enabling Another Israeli Land Grab”. (December 8, 2025)
• Jordan News published an analysis article by Ahmad M. Awad titled: “UNRWA-A Legal and Political Witness to a Crime That Has Not Ended”. (December 9, 2025)
• Arab News published an op-ed by Chris Doyle titled: “Social media helping to enact out and cover up Gaza genocide ”( December8, 2025)
• Truthout published an op-ed by Kathy Kelly titled: “Israeli leaders and settlers aim to create a fully colonized ‘Greater Israel.’” ( December 8, 2025, )
• Mondoweiss published an op-ed by Lara Kilani titled: “Liberation is not integration: On liberal Zionism, one‑state fantasies, and what Palestinians actually want.”(December 8, 2025)
• Haaretz published an op-ed by Zvi Bar’el titled: “From Gaza to Israel’s streets: Once Annihilation Is Normalized, No One is Safe.”(December 9, 2025)
• Truthout published an article by Sharon Zhang titled: “Genocide Experts Slam Hillary Clinton for “Genocide Denial” in Gaza Remark”. (December 9, 2025)
• AlJazeera published an op-ed by Richard Falk titled: “Gaza and the unravelling of a world order built on power”. (December 10, 2025)
• The Palestine Chronicle published an op-ed by Ramzy Baroud titled: “Ending Resistance: Why Palestinians Face the Same Fate, Weapons or Not”. (December 10, 2025)
• AlJazeera published an op-ed by Tamer Qarmout titled: “Removing Blair from Gaza’s TPC is necessary correction of historic mistake”. (December 10, 2025)
• Arab News published an op-ed by Osama Al‑Sharif titled: “Why is Israel so determined to destroy UNRWA?”( December 11, 2025)
• The New Arab published an op-ed, in Arabic, by Samir Hamdi titled: “Donkeys from Gaza and human rights ideology”. (December 11, 2025)
• CounterPunch published an opinion article by Ramzy Baroud entitled: “If Gaza’s resistance ends: What history tells us about the Palestinians fate.”(December 12, 2025)
• The Palestine Chronicle published an op-ed by Anisha Patel titled: “Undoing Exceptionalism: Leveraging the Law in Service of Palestinian Liberation”. (December 12 ,2025)
• CounterPunch published an op-ed by Imran Khalid titled: “The Transatlantic Rift Over Gaza’s Future”. (December 12, 2025)

Upcoming human rights opportunities and events

• The British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) announced the opening of submissions for its 2026 Annual Conference, to be co-hosted with the SOAS Middle East Institute. The conference will focus on the analysis of mass crimes, including the Israeli occupation and the crimes of cleansing and displacement in Gaza, and their relation to global systems of power, with consideration given to peoples’ rights and international justice. BRISMES set December 14, 2025 as the deadline for abstract submission and announced the operation of a Solidarity Fund to support travel and accommodation costs for accepted researchers. (December 9, 2025)