Shaher Alqam v. The Knesset et al. (Challenge to Israel’s anti-UNRWA Laws)

Date Filed: 16 January 2025

Current Status: Pending (the Supreme Court repeatedly declining urgent requests for interim injunctions while state measures and raids targeting UNRWA facilities have intensified). First hearing scheduled for 3 August 2026, after several prior scheduled hearings were cancelled.

Case Description

Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel is representing 10 Palestinian refugee families living in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, alongside the NGO Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, in a petition challenging the constitutionality and legality of three anti-UNRWA laws enacted by the Israeli Knesset. These laws are aimed at dismantling the agency’s operations and have already caused immense harm to millions of Palestinian refugees who rely on UNRWA for essential healthcare, education, and humanitarian aid.

The case challenges three specific laws:

1. The Law to Cease UNRWA Operations (October 2024): Unilaterally terminates the 1967 Cooperation Agreement between Israel and UNRWA and enforces a strict “no-contact clause” prohibiting any communication or coordination between Israeli state entities and UNRWA or its representatives.

2. The Law to Cease UNRWA Operations in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem (October 2024): Bans all UNRWA activities, services, and representation within territory claimed as sovereign Israeli territory, including illegally annexed East Jerusalem.

3. Utility & Immunity Stripping Amendment (December 2025): Mandates the severance of basic utilities (water, electricity, gas, and telecommunications) to UNRWA properties, strips its personnel of diplomatic immunities, and facilitates expropriation of its property.

The legislation breaches fundamental rights under Israel’s basic laws, including the rights to life, dignity, bodily integrity, health, education, and property, by dismantling essential civil and humanitarian infrastructure without providing viable alternatives, inflicting harm on millions of Palestinian refugees.

Violations of International Law 

• The laws violate Israel’s obligations as an occupying power, including its duty to prioritize the welfare of the local population in the occupied territory as a central consideration when exercising its authority. It extends domestic legislation to the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza, in an act of prohibited de facto annexation and unlawful collective punishment.

• They violate the UN Charter and the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations.

• They contravene provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the case South Africa v. Israel, potentially constituting war crimes under the Rome Statute, as well as breaches of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Petitioners

• Shaher Alqam et al. (10 Palestinian refugees residing in East Jerusalem and the West Bank)

• Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel

• Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement

Case Citation 

HCJ 41922-01-25 Shaher Alqam et al. v. The Knesset et al.

Case Files

Unofficial Translation of the October 2024 Laws

Petition to the Supreme Court (Hebrew) – January 2025

English Summary of the Petition Against Israeli Laws Aimed at Shutting Down UNRWA – January 2025

Knesset’s Preliminaty Response (Hebrew) – April 2025

State’s Amended Preliminary Response to the Petition (Hebrew) – March 2026

Amended Petition (Hebrew) - February 2026

Case Timeline

• 19 February 2026

Petitioners Submit an Amended Petition  

The amended petition incorporates a constitutional challenge to the December 2025 law. The revised filing incorporates extensive new factual evidence of the implementation of the law, detailing the forcible seizure and demolition of UNRWA’s Sheikh Jarrah headquarters, the police’s closure of the Al-Zawiya clinic, and municipal cutoffs of utilities of water and electricity to UNRWA facilities. It demonstrates how the actual implementation of the 2025 law created immediate devastation for Palestinian refugees. The submission further relies on the International Court of Justice’s 22 October 2025 Advisory Opinion, including its finding that UNRWA is legally irreplaceable and that Israel remains obligated to facilitate its operations.

Read the amended petition (Hebrew) here

• 29 January 2026

Supreme Court Rejects Injunction and Orders Amended Petition

The Supreme Court denies the request for an interim injunction, ruling it falls outside the scope of the original petition. The court orders the petitioners to submit an amended petition. 

Read decision (Hebrew) here

• 20 January 2026

Urgent Request for Injunction Filed Against New Utility Severance Law
Adalah files an urgent motion requesting the Supreme Court to halt implementation of the December 2025 legislation mandating the severance of water, electricity, gas, and telecommunications to UNRWA installations.
Read Press Release: Adalah Files Urgent Request to Israeli Supreme Court to Halt Implementation of New Anti-UNRWA Law

Read the request here

• 20 January 2026
  Raid on UNRWA East Jerusalem Headquarters
  Israeli security forces storm UNRWA’s Sheikh Jarrah headquarters in East Jerusalem, demolishing structures inside the compound, lowering the UN flag, and raising Israeli flags over the site. See UNRWA’s press release

• December 2025
  Knesset Passes Third Anti-UNRWA Statute

• 23 April 2025
  Supreme Court Rejects Motion to Block School Closures
  The Supreme Court rejects the petitioners’ urgent request for an interim injunction. 

Read Press Release

To read the state’s response to the request (Hebrew) here

To read the decision (Hebrew) here

• 17 April 2025
  Petitioners File Urgent Motion to Halt School Closures

In response to the Ministry's shutdown orders, the petitioners file an urgent motion with the Supreme Court demanding an immediate stay of enforcement to prevent the shutdown of the six schools pending a final ruling on the petition.

To read the request for an interim injunction (Hebrew) here

• 6 April 2025
  Education Ministry Issues Closure Orders for 6 UNRWA Schools

The Israeli Ministry of Education issues formal closure orders for six UNRWA-operated schools in East Jerusalem, setting shutdown dates for 7 and 8 May 2025 and placing the education of nearly 800 Palestinian students at immediate risk. See UNRWA’s press release

• 29 January 2025
  Supreme Court Rejects Urgent Request to Suspend Implementation

The Supreme Court denies the motion for an urgent interim injunction.
Read Press Release: Israel’s Supreme Court Rejects Request to Suspend Implementation

Read the decision [Hebrew]

• 16 January 2025
  Petition Filed in the Supreme Court

The petitioners file a constitutional petition to the Israeli Supreme Court, including a request for an interim injunction to halt the implementation of the law before it comes into force on 30 January 2025.
Read Press Release: Palestinian Refugees Petition Supreme Court Against Israeli Laws Aimed at Shutting Down UNRWA