accountability

Israeli soldiers accused of abusing a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman detention center and their attorneys speak to the press following the resignation of Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, after video footage from the incident was leaked to the press, outside the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, November 2, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

From Sde Teiman, the truth about Israel’s military justice system has been set free

By dropping all charges against the soldiers filmed abusing a Palestinian detainee, Israel has abandoned the whole masquerade of accountability.

By Michael Sfard March 21, 2026

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Galant hold a joint press conference at the Ministry of Defense, in Tel Aviv. October 28, 2023. (Dana Kopel/Pool)

‘The ICC’s findings so far have only scratched the surface’

Netanyahu and Gallant's arrest warrants are a victory for international justice even if enforcement remains a challenge, says Palestinian lawyer Raji Sourani.

By Mohammed R. Mhawish November 26, 2024

Palestinians search for martyrs and wounded in the rubble of a destroyed building after an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, November 6, 2023. (Atia Mohammed/Flash90)

How Israel plans to whitewash its war crimes in Gaza

The Israeli army uses the veneer of internal accountability to fend off external criticism. But its record reveals how few perpetrators are punished.

By Dan Owen July 24, 2024

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ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan sworn in at the seat of the International Criminal Court, 16 June 2021. (ICC-CPI)

Surveillance and interference: Israel’s covert war on the ICC exposed

Top Israeli government and security officials have overseen a nine-year surveillance operation targeting the ICC and Palestinian rights groups to try to thwart a war crimes probe, a joint investigation reveals.

By Yuval Abraham and Meron Rapoport May 28, 2024

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 71st UN General Assembly debate at the UN headquarters in New York City, September 22, 2016. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)

Israel shirked accountability for decades. Is the ICJ breaking its armor?

From Ben Gurion to Ben Gvir, Israel's dismissiveness of international sanctions has held strong. But the ruling at The Hague may be cracking that impunity.

By Meron Rapoport February 5, 2024

Israeli authorities installing a new section of the wall around Qalqilya, occupied West Bank, replacing the existing fence which has several holes created by Palestinians for crossing into Israel for work, January 10, 2021. In 2004, the International Court of Justice stated that the West Bank wall is "illegal and must be dismantled." (Keren Manor/Activestills)

After years of diplomatic inertia, what can the ICJ offer Palestinians?

The UN’s vote to request a ruling on the occupation is an indictment of the failure to hold Israel accountable — and carries risks and opportunities alike.

By Hugh Lovatt January 1, 2023

Palestinians and left-wing activists protest during the Friday weekly demonstration in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, Jerusalem, February 18, 2022. (Oren Ziv/Activestills

Meta’s clampdown on Palestine speech is far from ‘unintentional’

A report on the social media giant validated Palestinian experiences of censorship in May 2021, but missed how those policies are biased by design.

By Marwa Fatafta October 9, 2022

Palestinians clash with Israeli police during a protest at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem Old City, June 17, 2021. (Jamal Awad/Flash90)

‘The system is defending police shooters instead of putting them on trial’

Israeli authorities are systematically dismissing probes into police officers who 'shoot to kill' Palestinian assailants as a first resort, says rights group.

By Oren Ziv December 22, 2021

Nachshon Battalion soldiers watch over a Palestinian detainee during an operation of arresting suspects in the Dheisheh Refugee Camp, near the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Dec. 8, 2015. (Nati Shohat/Flash90. )

Why Shin Bet torturers don’t have to worry about punishment

By clearing the Shin Bet for the brutal interrogation of a Palestinian detainee, the attorney general played his part in masking Israel's approval of torture.

By Yael Stein February 2, 2021

A Palestinian boy walks near Israeli soldiers in the Old City of Hebron, occupied West Bank, July 4, 2014. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

US guns are being aimed at Palestinian kids. Washington can take them away

The impunity enjoyed by Israeli soldiers has fostered an increasingly trigger-prone policy against Palestinian children. Americans have ways to prevent it.

By Brad Parker December 28, 2020

Podium at the 2020 Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (DNC Official Photo)

Annexation shouldn’t be the threshold for conditioning aid to Israel

By hinging U.S. leverage on de jure annexation, Democrats are giving Israel the green light to proceed with other crimes against Palestinians.

By Yousef Munayyer August 18, 2020

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the King David hotel in Jerusalem on February 25, 2014. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Israel doesn’t need ‘advice’ against annexation — it needs consequences

Half a century of occupation is ample time for powerful states like Germany to learn that rhetoric without action simply reinforces Israeli impunity.

By Hagai El-Ad April 30, 2020

Israeli policemen stand guard as bulldozers demolish houses in the unrecognized Bedouin village of Umm el-Hiran, in the Negev desert, January 18, 2017. (Faiz Abu Rmeleh/Activestills.org)

Assault on Palestinian man shows violent effects of police impunity

Even when brutality is documented, Palestinians must live with the knowledge that they are unlikely to receive truth, justice, or respect from the authorities that claim to serve them. In the wake of a video released last Thursday showing an Israeli police officer assaulting a Palestinian truck driver in East Jerusalem, Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh…

By Amjad Iraqi March 25, 2017