Palestinian Basic Law (Amended 2003), Privacy and Remedy Provisions

Palestinian Basic Law (Amended) 2003, Arts. 17 and 32

A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.

What follows is LexLint's own research summary of this law, not legal advice.

In force since 18 March 2003.

An enforcement supervision rule binding public and private bodies.

As of 2 September 2026.

What it requires

Palestine has no comprehensive personal-data-protection statute; these articles do not themselves create data-processing duties like lawful basis, consent, or breach notification. An app operating in Palestinian territory whose activity, including collecting or using a person's voiceprint, faceprint, or other private information, violates a person's personal freedom or the sanctity of their private life may face both criminal prosecution and a civil damages claim under Article 32 of the Basic Law, with no statute of limitations; no court decision or implementing statute defining how this general remedy applies to routine data processing was found. Entering or searching a home to obtain data without a valid judicial order is separately barred by Article 17.

If you get it wrong

Criminal exposureYes

Private right of actionYes

Criminal exposure note

Article 32 declares any violation of personal freedom or the sanctity of private life a crime, but Article 15 provides that 'crime and punishment shall only be determined by the law', so the Basic Law itself states no specific offense classification, sentence, or fine amount; an implementing criminal statute would have to define the actual punishment, and no statute specific to personal-data or privacy violations was found (the Cybercrime Law was searched in full elsewhere in this jurisdiction's research and returned no processing-regime hit).

Who enforces it

Enforcement body

No dedicated data-protection or privacy regulator exists; enforcement runs through the ordinary Palestinian court system when an implementing statute defines an offense and a criminal or civil case is brought under Article 32's general guarantee.

What it reaches

Obligation class

Access restriction, Prohibition

What this law does

Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.

Article 17 makes homes inviolable, barring surveillance, entry, or search absent a valid judicial order, and voids any resulting consequences while entitling a person harmed by a violation to a remedy guaranteed by the National Authority.

Article 32 goes further: it declares any violation of a personal freedom or of "the sanctity of the private life of human beings" a crime, guarantees both criminal and civil cases with no statute of limitations, and obliges the National Authority to guarantee a fair remedy. Neither article establishes a lawful-basis regime, data-subject rights, a supervisory authority, or a breach-notification duty; Palestine has no comprehensive personal-data statute for these general remedies to sit within. Article 27, sometimes cited for Palestinian privacy rights, is a press and media freedom provision.

When LexLint raises it

crawls_web
trains_models
generates_content
deploys_chatbot
automated_outreach
high_risk_decisions
processes_voice
processes_biometrics

Read the law

Palestinian Basic Law reference text hosted at palestinianbasiclaw.org, the maintained reference site for the Basic Law

Every line above is drawn from the primary source linked here, read on the date shown. This is a research summary, not legal advice.

Back to the example · Lint your app