On Feb. 25, a government panel approved proposed legislation that would transfer jurisdiction over certain petitions filed by West Bank Palestinians from the Israeli Supreme Court to the Jerusalem District Court. The bill, sponsored by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, is a precedent-setting move that would de facto impose Israeli law on the West Bank. It would validate the “creeping imposition” of Israeli law for the benefit of the hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers living among the Palestinians. The settlers are currently governed largely by military law, which applies in the West Bank since it is legally considered occupied territory.
“One Rule, Two Legal Systems,” a 2014 report compiled by the Association of Civil Rights in Israel, provides an overview of the institutionalized judicial discrimination at play in the West Bank, where two different population groups live side-by-side but under unequal legal systems. “Those who belong to one population enjoy human rights and civil liberties, while those who belong to the other population are not entitled to them, or entitled to them to a much lesser extent,” the report states.
If the Knesset approves the law Shaked has been vigorously pushing since she took office in 2015, the lives of West Bank Palestinians will become even more complex. They will still be subject to Israeli military law, but only the Jerusalem District Court, rather than the Supreme Court, will be authorized to hear initial petitions against Israeli authorities on such issues as entry and exit from the West Bank and building and planning permits. Furthermore, Shaked is pushing for personnel changes in the district court.
Shaked brought the full power of her office to bear to appoint Haya Zandberg, her confidant and an attorney, as a Jerusalem District Court judge. Zandberg served in the State Prosecutor’s office as head of a panel tasked with legalizing wildcat settlement outposts in the West Bank. Zandberg’s Feb. 22 appointment was part of Shaked’s declared plan for sweeping reform of Israel’s legal and court system.
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