Palestine's Lawyers in Hiding

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

A number of Palestinian lawyers contacted me after the publication of my short article titled “Testimony Before the Palestinian Judiciary,” speaking about their bitter experiences with the Palestinian judiciary, and lamenting the fate the Palestinian people have suffered at the hands of a number of judges and public prosecutors. Some of these lawyers expressed a wish that I myself would publish more about the Palestinian judiciary. I would first ask the lawyer why he himself did not publish what happens to him in the courtroom, and he would shower me with a great many arguments that reflected neither manliness nor a safeguarding of the professional trust he had sworn to uphold. He would retreat quickly the moment I told him I would publish his name as the source of the information, and he would also hem and haw whenever I asked him for documents to support what I intended to publish. It is very clear that those who called me want me to do what they themselves ought to do, want me to be the one out on the front line, while they themselves prefer to remain hidden away in their burrows.

…is not fit to be a man — or a woman — of law. Such a legal professional, if the bar associations truly cared about law, order, and justice, would be expelled from the association.

On the whole, I see a weakness in legal performance in Palestine, and upon reading what many lawyers, legal professionals, and judges write, the reader senses a general weakness in ideas, in drafting, in substance, and in legal documentation. This weakness extends as well to a fair number of university instructors in faculties of law and legal institutes. There are lawyers who work within security agencies that monitor citizens, others who have taken part in leaking land or manipulating land cases, and others still who have become entangled in ethical matters, and so on. For this reason, the requirements for teaching and studying law ought to be reconsidered. It is important that the study of law become a six-year program: three years of preparatory study, in which the student studies Arabic, philosophy, logic, and political science, and three years devoted to the core subjects of law — with the move from the preparatory phase to the permanent one not automatic, but conditioned on the student’s scientific and academic performance.

And before a graduating student can become a lawyer, he or she ought to be required to pass several examinations: an examination in the Arabic language, an examination in philosophy and logic, and an examination in law. And since tribal conditions still prevail in Palestine, and mediation and favoritism remain widespread, there is a need to draw on Palestinian legal professionals who work in countries that respect the rule of law and hold values of justice.

Yet the greatest affliction remains factionalism, which blinds people’s hearts, casts a veil over their minds, and turns them into opportunists. A great many appointments are made on factional grounds, bringing to the Palestinian people near-illiterate individuals to dispense justice on their behalf. We need a courageous, bold stand in defense of our internal civil security.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “اختباء محامي فلسطين” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.