The Justice of the Palestinian Judiciary

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Professor Abdul-Sattar Kassem

The Palestinian judiciary carried out its judicial task quickly when it came to certain contested polling sites for the local council elections in the Gaza Strip. But enforcement — actually rerunning the elections — is hardly to be expected any time soon. Egypt has mobilized, and the factional meetings continue.

The case of the smuggling of Egyptian cement to Israel is a grave national matter, one that the Legislative Council documented and referred to the Attorney General; a number of citizens who had lost their land also filed a lawsuit against the smugglers. But the Attorney General, Mr. Hussein Abu Assi, rejected both suits and issued an unsubstantiated justification claiming that the cement had never been smuggled to those building the wall.

Citizen Mahmoud Ahmad Abbadi, of al-Fara’a, obtained a judicial ruling dated 7 July 2003 ordering his reinstatement to his job and requiring the Authority (the Ministry of Awqaf) to pay the associated fees and expenses. But the citizen was never reinstated.

…popular pressure led to a decision to secure his release, yet he still remains in prison.

A young man killed another in the Zawiya area, near Salfit, and was released after serving seven months in prison.

The stories are many; but what stands out is that the factions do not care about any of this except when it touches their own interests. The elections case stirred Hamas into action, but the cement case did not.

The more deeply a Palestinian reflects, the more he comes to realize that Israel is not the only one who does not want him in this homeland

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “عدالة القضاء الفلسطيني” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.