Statement: Israel Moves to Expand Police Powers in Alarming Crackdown on Palestinian Free Expression

7amleh expresses grave concern over the latest legislative move in the Israeli Knesset to expand police powers to investigate alleged “incitement” without the oversight of the State Attorney’s Office. This bill, advanced under the direction of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, dangerously lowers the threshold for criminal investigations into online expression, allowing the police to open cases and detain individuals based on arbitrary interpretations of speech. It represents a serious escalation in the ongoing campaign to criminalize Palestinian expression both online and offline, under the guise of combating incitement. This expansion of police powers represents only one step among many other pieces of legislation introduced since the beginning of the war, all intended to restrict and eliminate the freedom of expression for Palestinian citizens in Israel.

Official data already reveal the discriminatory nature of such policies: since Ben-Gvir took office, approximately 96% of all incitement-related investigations have targeted Palestinian citizens of Israel and Jerusalemites, while only a fraction have been opened against Jewish Israelis. During the war on Gaza, over 1,400 Palestinians were arrested over social media posts, many of whom were released without charge due to the lack of legal basis for their detention. These arrests and investigations are clear tools of intimidation designed to silence Palestinian voices, restrict dissent, and suppress solidarity with Gaza and the broader Palestinian struggle for freedom and justice.

At the same time, Israel systematically fails to prosecute the enormous volume of anti-Palestinian incitement and online violence perpetrated by Jewish Israelis. 7amleh has documented thousands of such cases across social media platforms, with little to no action taken by Israeli authorities, who routinely turn a blind eye to rhetoric that aligns with state policy. This stark double standard exposes how “incitement” laws are weaponized not to protect public safety, but to repress Palestinians and entrench a system of digital apartheid.

This legislation aims to expand state surveillance, criminalize free expression, and consolidate Ben-Gvir’s political control over law enforcement. If passed, it will mark a new and dangerous phase in the digital repression of Palestinians, giving the police unchecked authority to monitor, interrogate, and arrest individuals for social media activity. 7amleh warns that such measures institutionalize the shrinking of civic space, legitimizing arbitrary persecution and reinforcing apartheid structures in the digital sphere.