In a move that has stirred deep controversy both within and beyond Israel, the Knesset has approved in its preliminary reading what it calls the “Elite Forces Law,” paving the way for a special court to prosecute Palestinians accused of involvement in the October 7, 2023 attacks.
Observers describe this as one of the most dangerous judicial shifts since the founding of the occupation state, creating an exceptional legal system that merges security logic with political ideology, transforming Israel’s judiciary into an arm of psychological warfare and vengeful retribution against Palestinians.
A Law of Revenge
The draft law was introduced on November 11, 2024 by Simcha Rothman, head of the Constitution Committee and a leading figure in the Religious Zionism Party, together with Yulia Malinovsky of Yisrael Beiteinu.
It was later discussed in the Knesset’s general session on May 28, 2025, and referred to the Constitution Committee, which resubmitted it for preliminary reading on September 17—where it was approved just days ago.
Malinovsky admitted the difficulty of obtaining evidence and the inadequacy of Israel’s police procedures, saying:
“The legal system does not respond to the magnitude of October 7, so we drafted a joint proposal to regulate the imprisonment and prosecution of those involved.”
She justified the creation of a special court as a way to “ease the burden on the judicial system,” while suggesting that a military court could also be opened to try those she labelled as terrorists—particularly “those who cannot be tried for genocide.”
Malinovsky also revealed that in many cases, the authorities are “unable to identify who killed our citizens on October 7”, and therefore proposed collective charges and group trials as alternatives—essentially abandoning any pretence of individual justice.
Core Provisions of the Law
Simcha Rothman, one of the bill’s authors, outlined its key principles:
- Explicitly define the October 7 events as an act of “genocide against the Jewish people.”
- Embed this narrative into Israel’s legal framework.
- Ensure that all state institutions deal with this issue through that lens.
- Establish a special court to handle these cases outside the normal judiciary.
- Staff the court with newly appointed judges, not existing ones.
- Determine prosecution priorities based on political and security calculations.
Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin stated that the law would allow prosecutions even for crimes punishable by death, though the final decision on executions would lie with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
This aligns with a separate bill pushed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has demanded that his “death penalty for Palestinian prisoners” proposal be put to a vote within weeks—making it a condition for his continued participation in the government.
Recasting the Palestinian as the “New Nazi”
The new law stems from an ideological assumption that October 7 was a “genocide against the Jewish people.”
This framing enables Israel to invoke the 1950 “Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” law, originally meant to pursue Nazi war criminals.
Clauses 8 and 9 of the bill reveal its political nature, mandating the formation of a joint team of the Ministers of Justice, Defense, and Foreign Affairs to determine the policy of prosecution.
This team will decide who gets tried based on security, diplomatic, and “humanitarian” considerations—effectively merging legal, political, and military decision-making.
In doing so, Israel seeks to invert reality: turning its own genocidal war on Gaza—which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians—into a narrative of Jewish victimhood, recasting Palestinians as “the new Nazis.”
Such manipulation grants Israel a symbolic moral shield to justify the harshest punishments, including execution.
The bill also builds on the 2002 “Unlawful Combatants Law”, which authorises indefinite detention without charge for anyone suspected of participating in “hostile acts” against Israel—effectively legalising detention without evidence or trial.
A Violation of International Law
According to Jamil Sa‘adeh, legal director at the Palestinian Commission for Prisoners and Ex-Detainees Affairs, these special courts—exempt from judicial oversight—amount to political tribunals.
He warns that their danger is compounded by Israel’s push to legalise the death penalty, a flagrant violation of international law, the Geneva Conventions, and the Rome Statute.
Sa‘adeh did not rule out the possibility that Israel could later extend these courts to cover prisoners from the West Bank and Jerusalem, using the same pretexts.
He warned that Palestinian prisoners’ lives are at real risk, whether arrested before or after the law’s enactment.
International law expert Dr Mohammed Mahran, a member of both the American and European Societies of International Law, explained that this bill is a cunning attempt to strip Palestinian detainees of their lawful status as combatants in an armed conflict, recasting them instead as perpetrators of genocide.
He added that this deliberate distortion of legal concepts aims to deny prisoners the protections guaranteed under the Third Geneva Convention regarding the treatment of prisoners of war.
According to Mahran, the court is designed to legitimise political revenge through media-oriented show trials that cement Israel’s narrative, turning justice into a stage play serving propaganda, not truth.
Palestinian lawyer Khalid Mahajneh called the bill an unprecedented legal deviation, as it seeks to establish an extraordinary tribunal that contradicts Israel’s own constitutional norms and violates its international legal commitments regarding the humane treatment of detainees.
Legalised Revenge
The proposed law would create a special court exempt from procedural safeguards, empowered to override evidence rules “for the sake of justice, victims, or efficiency.”
Its sessions would be publicly broadcast, effectively turning the trials into propaganda theatre designed to reinforce Israel’s “genocide against the Jews” narrative.
According to the draft:
- The court will consist of 15 appointed judges.
- It will operate as a permanent tribunal under the 1950 Genocide Law.
- The Justice Minister will be empowered to set rules bypassing evidentiary standards.
- The Israeli army chief may order the detention of anyone he “reasonably believes” participated in October 7.
The primary targets are the Palestinian prisoners from Gaza, thousands of whom were arrested after October 7—many forcibly disappeared, others detained without charge or judicial review.
The law allows indefinite detention and grants prosecutors broad powers to issue “genocide” indictments without clear legal criteria—an alarming expansion of criminal law beyond any recognised boundaries.
The intent is clear: to circumvent established legal norms, permitting trials without solid evidence, in open violation of the basic principles of criminal justice.
A Dangerous Legal Precedent
Attorney Mahajneh warned that the bill represents not only a serious legal aberration, but also a dangerous step toward institutionalising exceptionalism in Israel’s treatment of Palestinians—emptying justice of its human content and replacing accountability with vengeance.
He described the proposed trials as fast-tracked, media-driven, and selectively targeted, forming a “special court” model used to legitimise political retaliation under the guise of law.
Dr Mahran cautioned that this legislation will open the door to a massive wave of reprisals against thousands of detainees held without charge since October 7—most of them civilians detained arbitrarily and without evidence.
A Legal Front Against Israel
The draft law directly contradicts international humanitarian law and human-rights conventions.
The Third Geneva Convention explicitly guarantees prisoners of war the right to humane treatment and fair trial before regular courts, not exceptional ones.
Article 84 clearly states that prisoners must be tried “before the same courts and according to the same procedures as members of the detaining power’s armed forces.”
Creating special courts for Palestinians only is therefore a blatant breach of that article.
Legal experts warn that final adoption of this law would make Israel’s judiciary itself a defendant before international justice.
Dr Mahran affirmed that this bill will open a new legal front against Israel, with the International Criminal Court (ICC)—already investigating Israeli war crimes—expected to treat this law and its applications as further evidence of systematic violations.
Under Article 8 of the Rome Statute, staging show trials and denying fair judicial guarantees to prisoners of war constitute war crimes.
This leaves Palestinian legal teams facing a difficult choice:
Should they boycott these courts—thereby denying them legitimacy—or participate to defend detainees, inadvertently validating them?
Israel, as before, may pressure Palestinian citizens of 1948 to represent prisoners, or assign Israeli lawyers for appearances—both scenarios undermining the integrity of defence and the fairness of proceedings.
Conclusion
The so-called Elite Forces Law represents a new phase in Israel’s ongoing legal warfare against the Palestinian people—a deliberate effort to weaponise the judiciary in service of occupation, revenge, and propaganda.
By disguising vengeance as justice, the occupation seeks to erase the line between law and tyranny, while the world watches a system of apartheid further unmask itself.
