The High Court of Justice will rule Tuesday on petitions to annul the Initifada Law, according to which the state is exempt from compensating Palestinians for damages incurred in Israel Defense Forces operations.

Nine human rights organizations, spearheaded by the Adalah Center, submitted petitions to the court in September 2005. The petition calls the law, which has absolved the state of financial responsibiliy in nearly all "non warlike" instances of personal and property damages since 2000, "racist and immoral."

The court's ruling on the petition will have significant bearing on other human rights laws affecting residents of the Palestinian Authority. The ruling will be made by a panel of nine justices, headed by former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak.

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The Knesset passed the amendment that came to be known as the Intifada Law in July 2005. Like a similar law passed during the first intifada, this amendment enables the state to avoid suits and payment of compensation for damage sustained by Palestinians during the armed conflict.

Under this law, "the state is not liable for damage caused to a subject of an enemy state, an operative or member of a terrorist organization, or anyone who suffered damage while acting on behalf of a subject of an enemy state or a member or operative of a terrorist organization."

The law applies to all areas of the territories declared as "conflict zones" by the defense minister.

Before the amendment was passed, hundreds of damage suits were filed by Palestinian residents who had sustained corporal or property damage from the IDF during the intifada.

Most of these proceedings were suspended pending final approval of the law. As justification for the amendment, the Justice Ministry cited the special difficulties of collecting evidence during active warfare and the difficulty of sending soldiers and officers to testify at hundreds of trials. "Under the [previous] law, the army and state were placed in an impossible situation," said one senior official at the time.