GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Considered as a pillar of social stability, tribal and customary courts hold an important position among Palestinian families when it comes to settling conflicts and ending long-standing disputes between them. Plaintiffs and right holders prefer to bring their cases before tribal councils because of their speed, issuing their rulings within a few days or weeks. Official courts usually take longer, sometimes years, to decide on a case.

Tribal courts normally consist of several parties, none of whom holds an official status. Arbitrators (muhakkim) are one such party who, because of their extensive knowledge in tribal laws, play the role of a judge. An elder (mukhtar) is the person who represents a family that is party to the conflict at the tribal council, and conciliators (rajul islah) are a group of people who attempt to resolve the dispute peacefully to prevent litigant families from pursuing a vendetta. Each family holds elections on a regular basis to choose an elder from among the family members.

Ahmad Zaareb, the elder of the Zaareb family in the Gaza Strip, told Al-Monitor, “Tribal courts [use] a set of rules and customs established by ancestors when their tribes were governed by tribal customs. This set of rules aimed to resolve disputes peacefully in order to avoid bloodshed that in turn would entail a vendetta. These rules and customs were transmitted by one generation to another, forming a way of life for families in the past.”

Describing how tribal courts work, Zaareb said, “When a problem involving two families arises, conciliators are immediately brought in to meet with the two families’ elders, in the house of one of the family elders brokering the reconciliation, to prevent any violent reaction by other family members. Conciliators then demand a three-day truce [hudna] so they can call upon arbitrators to hold a tribal court with the aim of resolving the dispute peacefully.”