DaysofPal- Since October 7, 2023, Israeli occupation has entered one of its most turbulent political and security phases, marked by a wide-scale war on Gaza and unprecedented internal tensions.
Experts warn that this period has been accompanied by an unprecedented wave of legislative activity in the Knesset, reshaping the legal framework governing relations between the Israeli state and Palestinians in the 1948 territories.
Over the past two years of conflict, legislation has become a central tool in managing the occupation, with dozens of laws passed under the guise of security.
In practice, these laws go far beyond temporary emergency measures, affecting core rights, citizenship, and freedoms. Analysts say this accumulation of laws reflects a structural and permanent system of legal discrimination rather than short-term wartime measures.
Israeli affairs expert Talat Al-Khatib told Palestine that the laws passed since 2023 are not temporary responses to war but an institutionalized legal package that systematically separates rights and governance between Jewish populations and Palestinians under occupation.
“This legislative process is an extension of a long-standing trajectory that began years ago with ethnic and constitutional laws, but it accelerated and consolidated post-2023, creating permanent structural changes that are difficult to reverse,” Al-Khatib said.
He highlighted measures facilitating the revocation or freezing of residency, restrictions on return, and denial of civil rights for Palestinians under administrative or security pretexts. Combined with legislation promoting settlement expansion, land confiscation, and obstruction of Palestinian construction, these measures effectively impose a geographic and legal segregation between communities.
According to Al-Khatib, collective punishment, asset freezes, restrictions on civil work, and the weakening of judicial oversight further transform these laws into permanent institutional discrimination rather than temporary security measures.
A report by the legal center Adalah documents more than 30 discriminatory laws passed between October 7, 2023, and July 2025, bringing the total number of such laws since the Israeli founding to nearly 100.
These laws affect freedom of expression, citizenship, family reunification, social rights, education, and prisoners’ rights, targeting the core of Palestinians’ human rights. While many are framed in ostensibly neutral language, their implementation reveals systematic targeting of Palestinians, creating a dual legal system favoring Jewish citizens.
Orly Noy, executive director of B’Tselem, described the laws as evidence of the Israeli shift from gradual democratic erosion to “open legal fascism,” exploiting the chaos of war and diminished societal oversight. She criticized laws criminalizing dissenting opinions, including denial of the October 7 events and “systematic consumption” of materials labeled as terrorist content, which enable extensive digital surveillance and violate privacy and free expression.
Laws permitting the expulsion of families of alleged terrorists extend the definition of terrorism to include administrative detainees, legalizing collective punishment.
Gandhi Rabai, head of the Palestinian group Right and Law, said the legislation strips Palestinians of legal personality, treating them as transient residents whose existence can be legally restricted and pushed toward forced migration.
He warned that the international community’s silence on these laws constitutes indirect complicity, undermining international law designed to protect occupied populations.
According to Rabai, these policies affect all aspects of daily life, from education and employment to family reunification, turning basic rights into conditional privileges and threatening long-term social stability.
Experts say the legislative surge forms part of a broader constitutional shift, redefining the state’s relationship with Palestinians not only through military occupation but via permanent legal structures.
They concluded that the combination of military campaigns in Gaza and the expanding discriminatory legal framework constitutes a coordinated system of control over both land and population.
This is not a temporary tightening of security measures, but a comprehensive legal project aimed at removing Palestinians from the sphere of rights and entrenching structural racial separation under the law.
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