Israel advances bill on the ‘consumption of terrorist materials’ with plan to jail people for their thoughts

The Israeli parliament today passed a preliminary motion to approve a temporary order modifying the 2016 Counter-Terrorism Law to introduce a new criminal violation called “consumption of terrorist materials,” carrying a one-year prison sentence.

The bill modifies Article 24 of Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Law by introducing a new offence defined as the “systematic and continuous consumption of specific publications of a terrorist organisation.”

The term “specific publications” in the bill refers to expressions of approval, endorsement, or encouragement of terrorist activities, as well as direct calls to commit terrorist acts. Moreover, the bill identifies Hamas and Daesh as the designated terrorist organisations to which this offence applies.

It also enables the Israeli minister of justice, with the agreement of the minister of defence and the approval of the Knesset’s Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee, to include additional terrorist organisations for the purposes of this offence.

The bill is currently in the process of being read for a second and third (final) time by the Knesset’s Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee.

In response, the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (Adalah), issued an urgent letter to Knesset committees, the legal advisors for these committees and the Attorney General, calling for a halt to the advancement of the bill.

The letter condemns the new order as an excessively broad and arbitrary criminal offence that violates fundamental principles of criminal law.

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In the letter, Adalah Attorney Myssana Morany argued that the bill violates the fundamental principle of criminal law, which stipulates that thoughts alone cannot be classified as a criminal offence, and that there should be no criminal liability without a minimal act. Therefore, no one should suffer penalties for matters that remain exclusively within their thoughts and lack any observable, external, or behavioural actions.

Adalah further stated that the law is unclear as it neglects to sufficiently define the term “consumption” and the specific content that becomes subject to criminalisation when consumed. It compared it to the 2016 Counter-Terrorism Law, which similarly incorporates a broad and ambiguous definition of an “act of terror.”

The rights group also emphasised that the fact that the bill is being introduced as a temporary order with a two-year expiration does not justify the violations it introduces as the Knesset has a pattern of enacting “temporary orders” that specifically target Palestinians and regularly renewing them on an annual basis.

It concluded: “Since its enactment in 2016, the Counter-Terrorism Law has been used to persecute and oppress Palestinian citizens of Israel. With every new amendment of this law, the Knesset introduces yet more oppressive policies that indicate a clear intention to target Palestinian citizens in particular.”

Critics fear the law is being used to stem support for popular uprisings against the occupation, with Israel able to link any attempts to stand up to occupation forces to groups it deems ‘terror organisations’.

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