LAW AND THE ARABISRAELI CONFLICT
During the British Mandate for Palestine (19221948), Arabs and Jews repeatedly used the law to gain leverage and influence international opinion, especially in three dramatic and largely forgotten trials involving two issues: the interplay between conflicting British promises to the Arabs and Jews during World War I, and the parties rights and claims to the Wailing Wall.
Focusing on how all three parties Arab, Jewish, and British used the law and the legal process to advance their objectives during the Mandate years, this volume reveals how the parties availed themselves with varying degrees of success of the law and the legal process. The book examines various legal arguments they proffered, and how that early tendency to resort to the law as a tool, a resource, and a weapon in the conflict has continued to this day. The research relies almost entirely on primary source documents, including transcripts of the public and secret testimony before the Shaw, Lofgren, and Peel Commissions, diaries, letters, government files, and other original sources.
This study explores the origins of many of the fundamental legal arguments in the ArabIsraeli conflict that prevail to this day. Filling a gap in research, this is a key text for scholars and students interested in the ArabIsraeli conflict, Lawfare, and the Middle East.
Steven E. Zipperstein, a former U.S. federal prosecutor, is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Middle East Development at UCLA. He also teaches in UCLAs Global Studies program and School of Public Affairs, and as a Visiting Professor at Tel Aviv University Law School.
UCLA Center for Middle East Development (CMED) series
Series Editors
Steven Spiegel, UCLA
Elizabeth Matthews, California State University, San Marcos
The UCLA Center for Middle East Development (CMED) series on Middle East security and cooperation is designed to present a variety of perspectives on a specific topic, such as democracy in the Middle East, dynamics of Israeli-Palestinian relations, Gulf security, and the gender factor in the Middle East. The uniqueness of the series is that the authors write from the viewpoint of a variety of countries so that no matter what the issue, articles appear from many different states, both within and beyond the region. No existing series provides a comparable, multinational collection of authors. Thus, the series presents a combination of writers from countries who, for political reasons, do not always publish in the same volume. The series features a number of sub-themes under a single heading, covering security, social, political, and economic factors affecting the Middle East.
1. Track Two Diplomacy and Jerusalem
The Jerusalem Old City Initiative
Edited by Tom Najem, Michael J. Molloy, Michael Bell and John Bell
2. Reconstructing the Middle East
Political and Economic Policy
Edited by Abdulwahab Alkebsi, Nathan Brown and Charlotta Sparre
3. Governance and Security in Jerusalem
The Jerusalem Old City Initiative
Edited by Tom Najem, Michael J. Molloy, Michael Bell and John Bell
4. Contested Sites in Jerusalem
The Jerusalem Old City Initiative
Edited by Tom Najem, Michael J. Molloy, Michael Bell and John Bell
5. The Arab Gulf States and the West
Perceptions and Realities Opportunities and Perils
Edited by Dania Koleilat Khatib and Marwa Maziad
6. Winners and Losers in the Arab Spring
Profiles in Chaos
Yossi Alpher
7. Law and the ArabIsraeli Conflict
The Trials of Palestine
Steven E. Zipperstein
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/middleeaststudies/series/CMED
First published 2020
by Routledge
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2020 Steven E. Zipperstein
The right of Steven E. Zipperstein to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Zipperstein, Steve E., author.
Title: Law and the Arab-Israeli conflict : the trials of Palestine / Steve E. Zipperstein.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2020. | Series: UCLA Center for Middle East development (CMED series ; 17 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019054850 (print) | LCCN 2019054851 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367435073 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367435080 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003003748 (ebook) | ISBN 9781000029031 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781000029079 (epub) | ISBN 9781000029055 (mobi)
Subjects: LCSH: PalestineInternational statusHistory20th century. | PalestinePolitics and government19171948.
Classification: LCC KZ4282 .Z57 2020 (print) | LCC KZ4282 (ebook) | DDC 341.4/209569409041dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019054850
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019054851
ISBN: 978-0-367-43507-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-43508-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-00374-8 (ebk)
For Diane
Cases
The Mavrommatis Palestine Concessions, Permanent International Court of Justice, Series A, No. 2 (30 August 1924)
Lehrer v. Postmaster General, High Court No. 88, Supreme Court of Palestine Sitting as High Court of Justice (1928)
District Governor, Jerusalem-Jaffa District v. Suleiman Murra, 1926 A.C. 321
Attorney General v. Karaewany, Criminal Case No. 192/46, District Court of Jerusalem, Judgment of Acquittal (18 November 1946)
Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Advisory Opinion, I.C.J. Reports 2004, International Court of Justice (2004)
Public Committee Against Torture v. Government of Israel, HCJ 5100/94 (1999)
Statutes
Commissioners Powers (Conferment of) Ordinance, No. 71 (1936)
International Criminal Court (ICC) Statute 17 July 1998, in force 1 July 2002, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 2187, No. 38544, arts. 17(1)d), 53(2)(b)
An often-overlooked aspect of the early years of the ArabJewish experience in Palestine involves the significant role the law played in the conflict. The parties constantly invoked the Petition process, developing a custom and practice of seeking relief from a succession of outside authorities, from the Ottomans to the British to the League of Nations. The British also relied on legal frameworks, treating the
