חוק הנוער (שפיטה, ענישה ודרכי טיפול) (תיקון מס' 25 - הוראות שעה), התשפ"ד–2024Youth Law (Adjudication, Punishment and Treatment Methods) (Amendment No. 25 - Temporary Provisions), 2024 · automatic translation · suggest a correction

Official summary of the law (Knesset)

The amendment to the Law is intended to address cases of minors aged 12 to 14 convicted of the most severe terrorism offenses – murder under aggravating circumstances or attempted murder, constituting an act of terrorism or committed as part of a terrorist organization. In these cases, it was determined that even if the minor has not yet reached the age of 14 at the time of sentencing, a prison sentence may be imposed on the minor to be served once he reaches the age of 14, and that until reaching that age he will be held in a locked facility. The arrangement was established as a temporary provision for five years, with the possibility of extension for additional periods of up to two years each time, by order of the Minister of Justice, with the consent of the Minister of Welfare and the approval of the Constitution Committee. In addition, a temporary provision for three years was established, setting arrangements for minors serving a prison sentence or held in detention in a locked facility until age 14, for the aforementioned offenses. Regarding a minor who was convicted and sentenced to serve a prison term after reaching age 14, the official in charge of the facilities may request to hold him in prison for a period of up to 10 days. This applies if the minor endangers or harms others, or may endanger or harm others in a manner that does not allow the order to be carried out in the locked facility. If, after the minor's return to the locked facility, he continues to endanger or harm others as described, the court may convert the order into imprisonment for a period to be determined, not exceeding the time remaining to complete the original order. Regarding a minor who is indicted and held in detention in a locked facility, it was determined that if the court is convinced, at the request of the official in charge of the facilities, that the minor endangers or harms others, or may endanger or harm others in a manner that does not allow the order to be carried out in the facility, it may order that the minor be detained for a period of up to 10 days. If, after returning to the facility, the aforementioned circumstances recur, the court may determine that the minor be detained for a period to be determined, not exceeding 30 days. If, after the minor's return to the facility, the same circumstances recur again, the court may order the minor's detention for periods not exceeding 45 days each time.

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Sponsors

Yitzhak Kroizer, Ariel Kallner, Dan Illouz, Ofir Katz, Eli Dallal, Moshe Roth, Yonatan Mashriki, Amit Halevi

What was said in the plenum

The law seeks to make permanent (and in part expand) an arrangement that allowed detention and imprisonment to be applied to minors under the age of 14 convicted of murder or attempted murder offenses that constitute acts of terrorism, instead of the regular protections granted to minors of this age under the Youth Law. The debate focused mainly on the question of whether the terrorism motive justifies excluding minors from the rehabilitation and protection principles of the Youth Law, alongside extensive mutual accusations between the sides that did not concern the content of the law itself.

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An automatic summary of the plenum transcripts: the debate on the bill at every reading it was voted on. Arguments are given as the speakers made them; this is not an assessment. The list of speakers comes from the transcript, without a model. Transcripts of the sittings: 1, 2, 3

Reservations to the second reading

18 reservations were filed: proposed changes to the text the committee brought to the second and third reading.

The reservations sought to shorten the possible detention periods for minors in a locked facility, to add humanitarian and social considerations to the court's discretion, to limit and supervise the detention procedures at the facility, to grant standing to international bodies in these proceedings, and to condition the law's applicability on certain political-security conditions.

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By faction

• Hadash–Ta'al opposition · 16 reservations · 5 members
• Yesh Atid opposition · 2 reservations · 24 members

A joint reservation counts for every faction whose members filed it.

Asked to speak: Yitzhak Kroizer (Otzma Yehudit), Gilad Kariv (Labor), Naama Lazimi (Labor), Efrat Rayten Marom (Labor), Merav Michaeli (Labor), Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu), Oded Forer (Yisrael Beytenu), Evgeny Sova (Yisrael Beytenu), Sharon Nir (Yisrael Beytenu), Yulia Malinovsky (Yisrael Beytenu), Hamad Amar (Yisrael Beytenu)

Proposers and reservation numbers are extracted automatically from the committee version, and the count is checked against the numbers printed in it. The descriptions are an automatic summary. Committee version for the second and third reading (PDF)