PALESTINE’S LEGAL SCENE – Issue. 328 

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

12 – 18 April 2026

Issued every Sunday by Law for Palestine

Prepared by: Razwan Issa, Nour Kharouf, Arwa Abdel Moniam, Murad Abu Murad, and Ahmad Al Rjoub

Translation: Aseel Ghabayen and Mai Shaheen

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.

To view this Issue of Palestine’s Legal Scene, please click here (5 minutes read)

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

• The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the repeated storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque by Itamar Ben-Gvir, accompanied by settlers under heavy protection from Israeli occupation forces, as part of efforts to normalize such incursions and impose a spatial  and temporal division of the mosque. (April 12, 2026)

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

• The Israeli Supreme Court annulled National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s policy restricting visits by Knesset Members to Palestinian prisoners, ruling that the policy prevented MKs from carrying out one of their essential duties: parliamentary oversight, and constituted discrimination, particularly against Arab MKs. The decision followed a petition filed by MK Ahmad Tibi and Adalah after repeated rejections of requests by Arab MKs to visit prisoners. (April 12, 2026)

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

• The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque by extremist Israeli Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir under the protection of the occupation police, in flagrant violation of the historical and legal status quo of the holy site. The Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation also condemned the incursion. (April 12, 2026)
• The Arab Parliament announced that its Speaker is leading international efforts to halt the law on the execution of Palestinian prisoners, stressing that this racist legislation constitutes the most dangerous form of legitimizing systematic political killing against the Palestinian people. (April 12, 2026)
• The United Nations Human Rights Office expressed grave concern by reports that the Israeli cabinet approved 34 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, the highest number ever approved at one time. It stated that this continues the sharp upward trend of unlawful settlement building that extends and consolidates Israel’s annexation of occupied Palestinian territory. (April 13, 2026)
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed his deep concern about developments in the Palestinian territory, stressing during a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the need to prevent the de facto annexation of the West Bank. (April 13, 2026)
• United Nations experts expressed deep concern over Israeli military attacks targeting sites sheltering displaced Palestinians in western Gaza City, alongside escalating patterns of forced displacement in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. They warned that these attacks are aimed at making life unbearable for Palestinians and forcing them to leave their land. (April 13, 2026)
• UN experts warned that the French “Yadan” bill to combat so-called “new forms of antisemitism” could seriously undermine freedom of expression and human rights, and restrict legitimate public debate, especially regarding Palestine and Israel. They noted that the law may conflate criticism of Israel or Zionism with antisemitism, thereby threatening free expression. (April 14, 2026)
• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced her government’s decision to suspend the automatic renewal of the defense cooperation agreement with Israel amid escalating tensions in the Middle East. (April 14, 2026)
• Colombian President Gustavo Petro praised the decision of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to suspend agreements with Israel, calling on countries in Europe and Latin America to take similar steps. (April 14, 2026)
• The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, urged European leaders to take a decisive stance on the EU–Israel Association Agreement, stating that “it is never too late to do the right thing.” Albanese called for halting trade with Israel and stopping arms transfers to it, stressing that this constitutes a duty in light of the unlawful occupation and the crimes associated with it. (April 14, 2026)
• More than 380 former European officials, including ministers, ambassadors, and senior figures, called for the suspension of the EU–Israel Association Agreement, citing systematic violations of Palestinian rights. They also demanded a ban on trade with illegal settlements, a halt to military equipment trade with Israel, the suspension of its participation in EU programs, and the expansion of sanctions and visa bans to include all those involved in the repression of Palestinians and violations of international law. (April 15, 2026)
• Michael O’Flaherty, the Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe, called on the German authorities to protect freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, warning of increasing restrictions on democratic freedoms—especially regarding protests in solidarity with Palestine. O’Flaherty pointed to reports of unjustified limitations and excessive use of force by police as well asstressing that freedom of expression is facing disproportionate restrictions, particularly in discussions related to Palestinian rights and criticism of Israeli policies. (April 15, 2026)
• The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates welcomed the adoption by UNESCO of a resolution concerning the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls under the item “Occupied Palestine”.(April 15, 2026)
• The Government of Japan and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) announced the launch of a new $9.1 million project for 2026–2027 to support emergency debris and solid waste management in the Gaza Strip, aiming to improve humanitarian access and enhance essential services. (April 16, 2026)
• The Dutch Parliament approved a motion calling on the Dutch government to act within the European Union to demand the suspension of the trade component of the EU–Israel Association Agreement, due to Israel’s ongoing violations of international law. (April 16, 2026)
• The League of Arab States condemned the repeated assaults faced by prisoner Marwan Barghouti inside Israeli occupation prisons, including the deliberate denial of medical care, in what is seen as a direct threat to his life. (April 17, 2026)
• The foreign ministers of Ireland, Slovenia, and Spain called, in a letter addressed to Kaja Kallas, Vice-President of the European Commission, for a review of the EU–Israel Association Agreement at the upcoming meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council. This comes in light of what they described as violations of international law by the Israeli government and the approval of the death penalty. They also urged a reassessment of the European Union’s response to Israel’s actions, calling for bold and immediate measures while keeping all options on the table. (April 17, 2026)
• UN Women published a report stating that the war in Gaza has led to the killing of more than 38,000 women and girls since October 2023, including approximately 22,000 women and 16,000 girls, as a result of Israeli airstrikes and ground military operations; an average of around 47 women and girls killed per day. The report noted that these figures may be underestimated due to bodies still trapped under rubble and disruptions to documentation systems. It also documented that around 11,000 women and girls have sustained permanent disabilities. (April 17, 2026)

Publications of human rights NGOs:

• Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said that the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, six months after it was implemented, has failed to end the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and warned that the space where people are living is continuously shrinking due to the “yellow line,” which has become a kill zone, with gunfire, airstrikes, and shelling happening daily. The organization called on world leaders and governments to use all political levers to influence the Israeli authorities to protect civilians and urgently allow unhindered humanitarian aid into Gaza. (April 12, 2026)
• 7amleh – The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media published a report titled “Monetizing the Occupation,” which found that Meta Platforms Inc. enables far-right Israeli pages linked to settlers to generate revenue through its platforms, despite publishing inciting and racist content that promotes settlement expansion and violence against Palestinians. The report explained that the issue goes beyond a failure to remove such content, extending to the provision of financial incentives that sustain it, constituting a violation of the company’s own policies and international law, while Palestinians are systematically excluded from monetization programs. (April 12, 2026)
• The Executive Director of B’Tselem said that close to 10,000 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli detention facilities, where they are being abused. She added that since October 2023, Israel has killed at least 72,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and at least 1,050 in the West Bank, while 80 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli custody in detention facilities that have effectively become a network of torture camps. (April 12, 2026)
• Law for Palestine and the Independent Commission for Human Rights (Ombudsman Office) in Palestine have issued a guide for field researchers in Palestine titled “Field Researcher’s Handbook on Documenting for the International Criminal Court (ICC) and Other Accountability Mechanisms, Using the CCC Methodology – with a Special Focus on the Palestinian Context”. The guide aims to strengthen the documentation of war crimes and crimes against humanity in accordance with international standards and to make them usable before courts, particularly the International Criminal Court. (April 13, 2026)
• The Palestinian Center for Prisoners’ Advocacy stated, coinciding with Palestinian Prisoners’ Day on April 17, that there has been a marked increase in the arrest of Palestinian children amid systematic policies targeting this category, noting that around 350 Palestinian children are held in Israeli prisons. (April 14, 2026)
• The Palestinian Center for Israeli Studies (MADAR), in its 2026 strategic report, stated that the Israeli occupation government led by Benjamin Netanyahu expanded in 2025 and early this year its strategy of transforming war into an opportunity to build the “new” Israel as a superpower, free from constraints and capable of imposing facts, while also closing the path to a two-state solution. (April 14, 2026)
• A spokesperson for Amnesty International in Italy stated that the Italian government’s decision to suspend the memorandum of understanding with Israel on defense cooperation is an important step but requires further measures. He warned that any military cooperation could expose Italy to the risk of complicity in Israeli violations. (April 15, 2026)
• The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights stated that the escalating killings carried out by Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip reflect a systematic pattern of direct and repeated targeting of civilians, considering that these practices represent a shift toward the institutionalization of the crime of genocide. (April 15, 2026)
• Peace Now reported that the Custodian General at the Israeli Ministry of Justice has filed an eviction lawsuit against 12 elderly Palestinians from the Al-Basha family, who have lived since the 1930s in a three-story building in the Old City of Jerusalem. The movement stated that Israel has established a systematic mechanism to dispossess Palestinians of their property and displace them in East Jerusalem. (April 16, 2026)
• More than 60 European organizations and labor unions called on European Union leaders to take immediate action and suspend the EU–Israel Association Agreement, stressing that the agreement includes a binding clause that makes respect for human rights an “essential element,” thereby providing the EU with a legal basis to suspend it in the event of violations of these obligations. (April 16, 2026)
• Jewish Voice for Peace condemned the Israeli Knesset’s approval of a death penalty law designated for Palestinians, stating that it entrenches a discriminatory and unequal application of the punishment, as Israelis do not face this penalty. (April 16, 2026)
• Al-Haq reported that France denied a visa to its Director-General, Shawan Jabarin, preventing him from participating in meetings with the French Parliament, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Council of Europe. The organization considered that the decision obstructed efforts toward accountability and the defense of Palestinian rights. (April 16, 2026)
• The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights warned that thousands of Palestinian prisoners are being subjected to harsh and life-threatening conditions in Israeli detention centers, including acts that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. (April 17, 2026)
• An investigation conducted by Fairlinked e.V.revealed the extent of Israeli influence within the LinkedIn platform. The report accused the company of collecting user data through embedded code that scans thousands of technical extensions and creates a “digital fingerprint” of users’ devices. It also highlighted what it described as the platform’s record of “digital bias” against Palestinians, including removing or restricting content supporting their rights, and classifying Palestinian cities under the label “Judea and Samaria, Israel”. (April 2026)

Research and academic studies (in Arabic and English):

• The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice published a research paper by researcher Muheb Zaidan, titled “The Political Calculus of Capital Punishment in Mandatory Palestine”.(2026)
• Taylor & Francis published a research paper by Alvaro Oleart et al., titled “The Dehumanization of Palestinians by European Commission President von der Leyen: A Decolonial Feminist Analysis“. (2026)
• Communication, Culture and Critique published a research paper by the researcher Omar Al-Ghazzi titled: “Witnessing undone: silence, noise and the enabling of genocide in Gaza”.(2026)
• Dr. Mutaz M. Qafisheh and Dr. Jinan Bastaki published an academic study addressing “Refugees in Protracted Conflicts: The Lasting Legal Status of Multigenerational Palestinian Refugees,” as part of a book released by Oxford University Press. The study argues that the legal status and rights of Palestinian refugees remain intact despite more than a century of displacement and conflict. (April 15, 2026)

Opinion Pieces and features:

• Jan Keulen published an article titled: “War on Journalism in Gaza and Lebanon Part of Cultural Genocide.” (April 15, 2026)

Human rights conferences and events:

• More than 1.1 million European citizens have signed an initiative calling for the full suspension of the EU–Israel Association Agreement, in response to Israeli violations of human rights and international law. (2026)
• Palestinian human rights organizations filed a lawsuit against the Australian Minister of Defence, seeking the release of documents to determine whether the Australian government has permitted the export of weapons to Israel amid ongoing grave violations of international law in the occupied Palestinian territories. (April 12, 2026)
• Hind Rajab Foundation submitted a formal complaint to the Sri Lankan authorities against Israeli–American soldier Jake Burkons, based on evidence documenting his involvement in the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip during his service in the Israeli army’s 603rd Combat Engineering Battalion. The foundation called on the Sri Lankan authorities to take legal action against him. (April 17, 2026)

Upcoming human rights opportunities and events:

• Human Rights Watch – Brussels announced that it will hold a joint online press conference with partner human rights organizations on April 20 at 11:00 AM Palestine time to discuss the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Israel, and Lebanon. The conference will also emphasize the need for Europe to take action and impose sanctions in response to serious violations of international law, including those related to the EU–Israel Association Agreement. (April 17, 2026)