A constitutional framework for political parties in Israel and in general the conflict-prone areas is the need of the hour, say the authors.
Authors
Abhinav Mehrotra, Assistant Professor, Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India.
Biswanath Gupta, Associate Professor, Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India.
Summary
As the Israeli coalition government collapses due to its failure to pass legislation to extend Israeli criminal and some civil law to the Israeli settlers in the occupied territory of the West Bank, the provisions that were first introduced through “emergency” legislation in the aftermath of the 1967 war — also called the Judea and Samaria law — and have been renewed every five years since.
Though Israel has not annexed the West Bank, this emergency measure ensures that settlers living there are treated as though they live in Israel in most matters without extending those same legal arrangements to Palestinians.
The current collapsed government was a coalition of two blocs: Three rightist parties, managed by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, the leader of the Yamina party, representing the land of Israel hard-liners; and four centre and left parties, managed by the now caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid, the founder of the Yesh Atid party, with the support of a moderate conservative Islamist party called the United Arab List (also called Ra’am in Hebrew) led by Mansour Abbas.
In this light, the questions that arise are: What exactly is this Judea and Samaria law that has toppled the Israeli coalition government in power for the last year? And what lies ahead for coalition parties in Israel and in general the conflict-prone areas?
The Judea and Samaria law that is the root cause of the collapse is a domestic law of Israel. Israel applies its domestic laws to the Israelis in the settlements on the West Bank. These laws apply only to Israeli civilians in Area C of the West Bank which is often referred to by the United Nations as the disputed occupied land of Palestine. Israel applies military laws to the rest of the people living in these disputed lands. Such Israeli laws don’t apply to the territory of the West Bank, but rather only to Israeli civilians inhabiting the region. These laws create enclaves in Israel-occupied Palestine. They are known as ‘enclave laws’ and ‘enclave-based justice’.
Published in: CNN-News18
To read the full article, please click here.
