2016-06-16

Ramallah

West Bank

MUSAWA sent a written memo to the esteemed Prime Minister, Dr. Rami Hamdallah, and Legal Advisor to the President, Minister Hasan Al-Ouri, demanding that the necessary political, financial, and administrative actions be taken in order to ensure the delivery of electricity to Tulkarm’s court building and its opening as soon as possible. Also demanding that the necessary legal action be taken to oblige the competent executive bodies to fulfill these obligations and ensure the construction of Hebron’s court building. The memo was as follows:

Esteemed Prime Minister Dr. Rami Hamdallah,

Subject: Hebron’s court building

Within the framework of communication between MUSAWA  and the official Justice System, including the Judicial Authority, MUSAWA learned that the Canadian Representative Office, as the international donor for the project of constructing court buildings, including Tulkarm’s court building and Hebron’s court building, has warned the Judicial Authority that it might obliged to halt the grant to construct Hebron’s court building, estimated 22 million Canadian Dollars, due to the delay in the opening of Tulkarm’s building, which was completely done and handed-over to the Judicial Authority more than eight months ago, as a result of the fact that the competent executive bodies (including Tulkarm’s Municipality and the Palestinian Energy and Natural Resources Authority-PENRA) did not provide the building with electricity, which prevents its opening and operation.

The sources pointed out that the aforementioned donor has linked its commitment to deliver the grant to construct Hebron’s court building to the operation of Tulkarm’s building no later than this year’s official (judicial) vacation, noting that the delay in opening and operating Tulkarm’s court building would negatively affect the achieving of the desired results regarding the project of constructing Palestinian court buildings. The donors will be held accountable for this by the competent official Canadian bodies – the Canadian parliament, government, and tax-payers. Also, this will negatively affect the possibility for the State of Palestine to obtain another Canadian funding, as well as funding from other donors.

We, at MUSAWA, express our concerns regarding missing the chance of constructing decent court buildings that would reflect an appropriate image of the Palestinian Justice System, which in turn is considered as a feature of a State of justice and law and a requirement for accessing justice, achieving equality before the law and the judiciary, strengthening the principle of the rule of law, and fulfilling the Palestinian State’s international obligations according to the relevant international agreements and conventions.

Besides, this would be a waste of public funds and would negatively impact Palestine’s relations with the international society, especially donors. That is in addition to the serious damage that will be caused to litigants, especially since the inadequacy of most court buildings -Hebron’s building in specific- has been, and still is, the subject of wide popular demand. Moreover, this would cause harm to Tulkarm’s court building since the Judicial Authority will no longer have the right to do building maintenance, which is limited to a maximum of one year from the date of delivery.

In order for this chance not to be missed, we ask your esteemed self to take the necessary political, financial, and administrative actions to ensure the delivery of electricity to Tulkarm’s court building, and opening it as soon as possible. We ask your esteemed self to take the necessary legal action to oblige the competent executive bodies, especially PENRA and Tulkarm’s Municipality, to meet this urgent need immediately.

With all due respect,

Chairman of the Board of Directors

Lawyer Yasser Jaber

• Copy to the Legal Advisor to the President, the esteemed Minister Hasan Al-Ouri.