Police to Pay NIS 624,000 in Settlement Over Humiliating Strip Searches of Protesters

Israel Police will pay NIS 624,000 to protesters who said they were subjected to humiliating naked searches after being arrested, under a settlement resolving 13 separate lawsuits. The court did not rule that police acted unlawfully, and the agreement was approved as a judgment by Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court Judge Miriam Kelsi.

The cases involved demonstrators who took part in protests in Jerusalem against the judicial overhaul or in support of hostage release. They said officers used degrading and violent treatment, including stripping them and searching their bodies naked after arrest. The lawsuits, filed between 2023 and 2025, were brought against the Moriah Station in the Jerusalem District and against individual officers.

According to the joint filing, the sides reached the settlement after negotiations and agreed to merge the 13 cases into one for purposes of a single judgment. The police will pay the full amount, including attorney’s fees, court costs, and filing fees, “without admitting the plaintiffs’ claims,” to achieve a final closure of all claims in the cases.

The money must be paid within 30 days after the judgment is delivered to the Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office, Civil Division, which represented the police in the proceedings. The agreement also says that once payment is made, the protesters will have no further claims or demands against the state or the public employees named in the suits, meaning the officers involved.

The detainees’ advocacy group said the ruling ends a practice that continued despite repeated warnings that naked searches are illegal, and accused National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s directives of encouraging abuse. Attorney Oren Goldberg said the settlement is not just a one-off case but evidence of a wider and dangerous pattern of using criminal powers to shrink the space for protest, adding, “The phenomenon stops now.”