Penal Law, 5737-1977

[Amendment: 1986, 1998-2]

In this Division –

"racism" – persecution, humiliation, degradation, display of enmity, hostility or violence, or causing strife against a public or segments of the population, all on account of color or membership in a race or national-ethnic origin;

"published" – [(deleted).]

[Amendment: 1986]

[Amendment: 1986]

[Amendment: 1986]

One who possesses, for the purpose of distribution, a publication prohibited under Section 144b in order to bring about racism, is liable – to one year's imprisonment, and the publication shall be forfeited.

[Amendment: 1994-2, 2005]

[(Repealed).]

[Amendment: 2002-5, 2016-4]

[Amendment: 2002-5, 2016-4]

One who possesses, for the purpose of distribution, a publication prohibited under Section 144d2, is liable – to one year's imprisonment, and the publication shall be forfeited.

[Amendment: 1986, 1994-2]

No indictment shall be filed under this Division except with the written consent of the Attorney General.

[Amendment: 2005, 2023-5]

[Amendment: 2008-2|other=[a/69]]

An "unlawful association", for the purposes of this Division, means –

Any person who advocates or encourages, whether by speech, writing or any other means, the doing of any of the acts prohibited under Section 145, is liable – to imprisonment of three years.

Any person who has attained the age of sixteen years and is a member of an unlawful association, and any person who holds or acts in any office or position therein, or acts as a representative thereof, or serves as a teacher in an institution or school managed or purporting to be managed under the direction or supervision of an unlawful association, is liable – to imprisonment of one year.

Any person who pays membership fees or contributes to an unlawful association, or to its account, and any person who solicits either of the foregoing, are liable – to imprisonment of six months.

[Amendment: 1988-3|other=[a/73]]

Any person who makes, prints, publishes or transmits by post any publication of an unlawful association, or on its behalf or for its benefit, is liable – to imprisonment of six months.

An indictment for offences under Sections 145 to 149 shall not be filed except by the Attorney General or with his consent.

Three or more persons who assemble for the purpose of committing an offence, or who assemble for a common purpose, even a lawful one, and conduct themselves in a manner that gives persons in the vicinity reasonable grounds to apprehend that those assembled will commit an act that would breach the peace, or that by their very assembly they will provoke other persons, without necessity and without sufficient cause, to breach the peace — this constitutes an unlawful assembly, and any person who participates in an unlawful assembly is liable – to imprisonment of one year.

An unlawful assembly in which the participants have begun to execute their common purpose by a breach of the peace of a nature calculated to inspire terror in the public constitutes a riot, and any person who participates in a riot is liable – to imprisonment of two years.

A District Commissioner, a district officer, or a Magistrate's Court judge, and in their absence — a police officer of the rank of Deputy Inspector or above, who sees three or more persons rioting, or apprehends that they are about to riot, may, after announcing his presence by sounding a trumpet, blowing a whistle or by any similar means, or by firing a flare and discharging a firearm — order them to disperse quietly.

If, after a reasonable time following the announcement and order given pursuant to Section 153, or after the giving of the announcement or order has been forcibly prevented, persons in such number as aforesaid continue to riot, any person empowered to give such announcement and order, or any police officer, or any person assisting them, may do whatever is necessary to disperse those continuing to riot or to arrest them, and if any person resists arrest, the empowered person may use such force as is reasonably necessary to overcome the resistance, and shall not, in any criminal or civil proceedings, be liable if he causes injury or death to any person or damage to property.

[Amendment: [1966]|other=[a/84]]

Where an announcement and an order to disperse have been given to rioters or to persons assembled for the purpose of rioting, and a reasonable time has elapsed since the giving of the announcement and order — any person who participates or continues to participate in such assembly or riot is liable – to imprisonment of five years.

[Amendment: [1966]|other=[a/85]]

Any person who forcibly prevents or obstructs the giving of the announcement or the order to disperse is liable – to imprisonment of five years; and any person who knows that the giving of the announcement or order has been forcibly prevented and who participates in the assembly or riot is liable – to imprisonment of three years.

Rioters who unlawfully cause damage to a building, a ship, a railway, machinery, a structure, a telegraph line, an electrical line, a pipeline or a water supply pipe — each of them is liable – to imprisonment of seven years; and if they demolish or destroy, or begin to demolish or destroy, any of the said things, each of them is liable – to imprisonment of ten years.

Rioters who unlawfully and by force prevent or obstruct the loading, unloading, departure or navigation of a vessel, or who unlawfully and by force board a vessel with intent to do any of the aforesaid acts, are liable – to imprisonment of three years.

[Amendment: 2002-6]

One who sends, places, or delivers to another a substance or object that purports to endanger a person's life or body, under circumstances capable of causing panic in the public or of disturbing public order, is liable to Imprisonment of six months or the Fine referred to in Section 61(a)(4).

Where the Government has determined that serious disturbances exist in labor relations that endanger or harm the economy of the country or trade with foreign states, it may declare a state of emergency for the purposes of this Section, and so long as such declaration has not been revoked, any person who participates in a lockout or strike in work relating to the carriage of freight or the transport of passengers through business or commerce in Israel or between Israel and foreign states, or to the provision of a public service in Israel, and any person who incites, assists, or encourages such a lockout or strike or the continuation thereof, shall be liable to Imprisonment of one year.

[Amendment: [1966] | other=[a/75]]

One who commits any of the following acts by harming the person or property of another, or by threat or intimidation, or by means of a boycott or threat of a boycott against that person or his property, and without any reasonable cause or justification for the boycott, is liable to Imprisonment of three years; and these are the acts:

An indictment for offenses under Sections 160 or 161 shall not be filed except by the Attorney General or with his consent.

One who unlawfully does any of the acts enumerated below in order to compel another person to do what that person is not legally obliged to do, or to refrain from doing what that person is lawfully entitled to do, is liable to imprisonment of one year:

"labour dispute" – a dispute between employers and workers or between workers and workers, in connection with the employment or non-employment of any person, or a contract of employment, or the terms of employment of any worker, excluding a dispute one of the causes of which is the objection of workers to the employment of other workers on grounds of race, religion, or language;

"worker" – any person working in a trade or industry with the employer who is party to the labour dispute or with any other employer;

"corporation" – any association registered under the Ottoman Associations Law or under the Co-operative Societies Ordinance or under the Companies Ordinance, one of whose objects is the regulation of relations between workers and employers, between workers and workers, or between employers and employers.

A person who, within the territory of the State, attempts to organise, prepare, assist or facilitate any attempt made in a foreign state to overthrow by acts of violence the governmental order of that state, is liable to imprisonment for ten years.

[Amendment: 5748-3|after=[a/67(2)]]

A person who seeks to incite acts of hostility against the government of a friendly state, whether by a speech in a public place or at a public gathering, or by means of publication, is liable to imprisonment for three years.

A person who publicly lowers or destroys a flag or emblem of a friendly state, or commits any other act causing damage thereto, all with intent to express hostility or contempt toward that state, is liable to imprisonment for three years.

[Amendment: 5748-3|after=[a/77]]

A person who publishes, without justification or excuse that would have been accepted in proceedings for defamation of a private individual, a publication likely to humiliate, insult, or expose to hatred or contempt a king, president, ruler, ambassador, or any other senior dignitary of a foreign state, is liable to a fine; and if the publication is likely or intended to disturb the peace and friendship between Israel and another state — is liable to imprisonment for three years.