PALESTINIAN SOCIETY - Fafo

in the hands of the J ordanian District Commissioner (before 1967) and
the Egyptian military governor of the Gaza Distriet, in fact there was
a qualitative differenee in the manner in which the Israelis exercised
these powers. The shift lies in the conscious and systematie method
the Israelis undertook to subordinate the economy of the two regions
to the needs of the Israeli state, and - more significantly - in the
appropriation of public land (and substantial private praperties) to
serve the needs of the Jewish Settlement Councils in the occupied
territories.
Raja Shehadeh in his Occupier ' s Law (2nd ed. 1988) outlines four
legislative stages in the consolidation ofIsrael' s juridical contral over
the West Bank and Gaza. These were based on a succession of over
1,200 military orders regulating all aspects of daily life in the
territories. In the first stage (1967-1971) the military government
established its contral over transactions of immovable praperty, the
use of water and othernatural resources, the power to expropriate land,
and the authority to operate banks and over the regulation of municipal
and village councils. In this period, also, the system of contral over the
movement of individuals was established (identity cards, travel
permits, driving licenses, and licenses for professional practices).15
The second phase (1971-1979), was primarily aimed atthe transfer
of Arab lands to the contral of Jewish settlement councils. This
involved amending Jordanian land laws to facilitate zoning 'public'
lands to the benefit of Israeli bodies, and for acquisition of local land
by 'foreign' (i.e. Israeli) companies.16
The third phase of Israeli legislation (1979-1981), involved the
transfer of authority and power fram the Military Government to the
newly established Civil Administration, and the extension of Israeli
law to apply to Jewish settlers so that they will not be subject to the
jurisdietion of West Bank (and Gaza) courtS.17
The fourth ph ase of legislation (1981 to the present), marked the
consolidation ofIsraeli-Jewish contra l overexprapriatedareas. Those,
by 1991, constituted more than 60% of the total land area of the
occupied territories. In this period, furthermore, Military Orders
concentrated on the regulation of the fiscal policies governing the
West Bank and Gaza, particularly those pertaining to the collection of
taxes and revenue, and of the flow of funds to the territories.18
The net effect ofthese military laws has been to create two systems
of legal bodies (one applying to Israeli Jews, and the other to native
Palestinians), with a gradual transformation of zoning Iaws, regional
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