Reviews of Decisions of the Israeli Supreme Court concerning cases
of the Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories
Ghiath Nasser, Adv.
At the end of the 1967 War, Israel established a military government designated to control the Palestinian Occupied Territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This government issued the Order concerning local courts (status of the IDF Authorities)(West Bank Region)( No. 164), 1967, that cancelled the jurisdiction of the local courts to review any acts and decisions it and the IDF carried out in the Territories. By issuing this order the military government and the Israeli Army made themselves immune to any legal review or inspection of their orders and actions by the local legal system.
Soon afterward, the Israeli authorities permitted inhabitants from the Occupied Territories to submit petitions to the Israeli Supreme Court, challenging orders or acts of the military government. This policy occurred in spite of many objections on the grounds that the Supreme Court of Israel lacks jurisdiction to handle these cases. This question has not yet been resolved, despite some offered theories by Israeli scholars that the court has authority over such cases, based on personal jurisdiction of the court over Israeli personnel serving on the IDF. Many scholars around the world criticized the decision of canceling the jurisdiction of local courts and transferring this authority to the Israeli Supreme Court, arguing that it would not be impartial when dealing with Palestinian petitions. However, in the absence of a local court with authority to review the actions of the military government, Palestinian residents could only turn to the Israeli Supreme Court- the court of the occupying power, seeking long awaited justice with much suspicion.
Since 1967 thousands of petitions were submitted by Palestinian residents and human rights organizations to the Israeli Supreme Court, challenging orders of the military government, such as land confiscation, settlement construction, and other actions of the Israeli army which violate the Palestinian’s basic human rights, the laws of war, Hague Regulations and the Fourth Geneva Convention. Yet only few of these petitions succeeded, while in most cases the court ruled in favor of the IDF, granting no relief to the Palestinian residents.
In this section of the site, we will try to give our readers a review of cases heard before the Supreme Court of Israel, and we will follow, analyze and critique decisions of the court concerning petitions of the Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories.
