Hamas-Fatah divide cripples Palestine’s judiciary
Efforts to reach a reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah have failed, and the dichotomy separating judiciaries in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is growing.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Since Hamas’ takeover in 2007, the Gaza Strip has been governed pursuant to a legal and legislative system completely separate from that of the West Bank. The reconciliation agreement signed between Fatah and Hamas in April 2014 and the subsequent formation of the Rami Hamdallah-led Palestinian unity government formed in June 2014 failed to unify the legal and legislative systems of Gaza and the West Bank, where new laws continue to be separately and independently drafted.
After its takeover of the Gaza Strip — which caused a significant disruption in the work of the Gaza judiciary and courts — Hamas established in 2007 a Supreme Judicial Council and a Public Prosecutor’s Office, and appointed a special prosecutor, Ismail Jaber, who was replaced two years later, completely separating them from their counterparts in the West Bank.
Hamas’ Change and Reform bloc within the Legislative Council holds separate meetings in Gaza and has so far drafted 50 laws that only apply to the Gaza Strip. President Mahmoud Abbas has issued more than 100 decrees that have solely been implemented in the West Bank following the split from Gaza in 2007, when the Legislative Council — in which Hamas won an overwhelming majority during the 2006 general elections — was stripped of its authority.
The reconciliation agreement stipulated, in addition to the formation of a unity government, that the Legislative Council be revived. However, disputes between Hamas and Fatah put on hold the implementation of all agreed-upon issues, and forced Hamas members of the Legislative Council in Gaza to independently resume holding sessions, with the National Solidarity Tax Law being the latest to be adopted.
