State of PalestinePalestinian Basic Law (Amended 2003), Privacy and Remedy Provisions
Palestinian Basic Law (Amended) 2003, Arts. 17 and 32
In force since .
An enforcement supervision rule binding public and private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Access restriction, Prohibition
- Audit expectation
- none
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 criminal prosecution under Article 32 of the Basic Law, which also provides that civil cases arising from such violations are not subject to a statute of limitations and that the National Authority shall guarantee a fair remedy; it states no cause of action of its own for routine data processing. Entering or searching a home to obtain data without a valid judicial order is separately barred by Article 17.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionNo
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.
Settledness
- As of
- Open questions
- Can a violation of 'the sanctity of the private life of human beings' be punished as the crime that Article 32 of the Amended Basic Law declares it to be, when Article 15 provides that 'Crime and punishment shall only be determined by the law' and the Basic Law itself names no offense or penalty?
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Articles 17 and 32 of the Basic Law make homes inviolable absent a judicial order, make any violation of personal freedom or the sanctity of private life a crime with no limitation period, and promise a fair remedy. They are rights and remedy clauses addressed to the State; they ask no person to keep a log or record, name no audit, and give no authority a power to demand one. The Basic Law is read in the English text published on the Palestinian Basic Law site; the Arabic original was not separately read.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
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
When your app profile says your app crawls the web, trains models, generates content with AI, deploys a chatbot, sends automated outreach, makes high-risk automated decisions, processes voice recordings or processes personal data.
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