Israel’s highest court ruled on Sunday that the state is failing to provide Palestinian security prisoners with enough food to survive in Israeli jails.
In a 2-1 decision, the High Court of Justice ordered the government to ensure meals sufficient for a “basic existence,” concluding that current conditions fall short of legal obligations.
The case was brought last year by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and Gisha, who accused National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and the Israel Prison Service (IPS) of intentionally cutting rations to dangerously low levels. The petitioners argued that the policy amounted to deliberate starvation.
Judges Daphne Barak-Erez, Ofer Grosskopf, and David Mintz agreed that prisoners are legally entitled to adequate nutrition. Barak-Erez and Grosskopf, writing for the majority, found the state had not met this standard. Barak-Erez noted, “It must be remembered that the painful testimonies of freed [Israeli] hostages show that a stricter food regime [for Palestinian prisoners] does not improve the suffering of our kidnapped brothers who are still in trouble and captivity, and even the opposite.” Grosskopf added that Israel had not convincingly shown it was meeting its nutritional obligations.
