Withholding benefits from families of detained minors unconstitutional, Israel judges rule

Judges in the Israeli High Court of Justice are deeply divided over a discriminatory law that holds parents responsible for a child’s crimes. The practice has been labelled a form of collective punishment, a system widely used by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank. But yesterday this issue reached judges in the Israeli High Court for a verdict over a law that allows the withholding of government benefits from the parents of minors imprisoned for security offenses.

Five of nine High Court judges ruled that such a provision violates the right of equality and granted the Israeli Knesset a year to address the problematic clauses in the 2015 National Insurance Law.  The law stipulates that in the event a minor is convicted of a serious security offense, including stone-throwing, any benefits received by the parents on the minor’s behalf are suspended while their child is in prison.

The case reached the High Court following a lawsuit by Adalah. The human rights organisation campaigns on behalf of Palestinian citizens of Israel against Israel’s many discriminatory laws which are cited by critics as evidence of the occupation state’s practice of apartheid. Adalah petitioned the judges in the name of the parents of seven minors who had been denied benefits.

READ: Another Palestinian couple has been separated due to Israeli restrictions 

Lawyers arguing the state’s case said that the law “is designed to incentivize parents to prevent their children from committing such offenses.” Government attorneys defended applying this rule to Palestinian minors throwing stones. “The offense of stone-throwing, in particular, is unique insofar as it does not require any equipment or preparation to be carried out, thus is more ‘accessible’ to young people seeking to do something; and that they do,” argued state lawyers while insisting that this form of punishment is not unique.

After deliberation judges decided to suspend the law for one year to allow the Knesset to revise the amendments, if it so desires. “I believe that the core violation of the constitutional right to equality in this case lies in the fact that the arrangement denies parents of minors who have been convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for security offenses a range of benefits, without examining the parent’s conduct and connection to the offense,” said Justice Esther Hayut.

A second judge tried to argue that the law does not distinguish between Jews and Arabs and therefore there is no violation of the right to equality. Though the law isn’t considered to be targeting non-Jewish citizens of Israel specifically, its application would be highly discriminatory. Palestinian citizens of Israel are often forced to protest against the discrimination they face as a result of Israel’s racist laws.