The project sets to develop a nuanced understanding of processes of formal and informal criminalisation in Israel, here regarded as a ‘liberal settler state’, and their operation on the state’s most privileged groups. In so doing, it investigates key aspects of political activism and notions of legality and criminality and unravels the logic behind the increasing repression of Jewish-Israeli dissidents in recent years, as indicated by recent legislation; the growing incitement against them by politicians and right-wing organisations; and the growing number of prosecutions of political activists. By tracing the shifting threshold of criminalisation, we gain a window into the precarity of such systems of power and how they can be challenged and transformed. Through this case study, a wider contribution to the study of resistance, criminalisation and settler colonial studies will be made, pointing to the links between the efficacy of resistance and growing state repression.