2020-05-14

West Bank and Gaza Strip

West Bank / Gaza / Announcement / position paper

Stop Underestimating The Intelligence of the People and Threatening the National Security

Upon review of the decree-law No. 14 of 2020, passed on 29/4/2020, to amend the decree-law No. 4 of 2020, which was passed to amend the Law on the Remuneration and Salaries of Legislative Council Members, members of the Government and Governors No. 11 of 2004 and its amendments, and the decree-law No.15 of 2020, passed on 29/4/2020, to amend the decree-law No. 12 of 2020, which was passed to amend the General Retirement Law No. 7 of 2005 and its amendments, noting that both decree-laws entered into force from their date of issuance and that they were published in issue 167 of the Palestinian Official Gazette on 13/5/2020. 

Upon review of the two annulled decree-laws, No.4 and 12 of 2020, which entered into force since their date of issuance in the last third of April 2020, we find that the decree-law No.4 of 2020 has the most significant impact on the Public Treasury, as it granted officials with ministerial-rank an illegal privilege to receive pensions without a minimum contribution to the Pension Fund and the right to recover the contributions they made to the Pension Fund since assuming their public office, like the privileges granted to the members of the Legislative Council, the members of the Government, and the governors by the notorious law No.11 of 2004, conceding that the decree-law No.12 confined to raising their retirement age from 60 to 65.

Based on the foregoing, the time lag between the issuance of the decree-law No.4 of 2020 and the decree-law No.14 of 2020 is 63 days, during which the ministerial-ranked officials were legally authorized to recover the contributions they made to the retirement fund, with a legal cover to evade the obligation to return the funds they recovered during that period, since the decree-law No.14 of 2020, amending the decree-law No.4 of 2020, has no impact, result, value, or sense from a legal point of view, as it did not include any provisions repealing the decree-law No.4 of 2020 retroactively from its date of issuance. The same situation pertains to the decree-law No.15 of 2020, as there was a time lag of 9 days between its issuance and the issuance of the decree-law No.12 of 2020. 

The deliberate drafting of the new decree-laws reflects its authors’ adoption of policies that protect their interests, while presenting them to the public as overt lies that fool them by justifying those interests and plundering public funds using groundless claims contrary to the constitutional values and principles and the legislative principles, assuming that decree-laws are permissible legislation.

Moreover, the drafting of the new decree-laws have no legal impact on the applicability of the two decree-laws they amend, which contradicts the legal and moral values, the constitutional principles, and the rules of good governance, turns public money into open money, exposes the Public Treasury and the General Retirement Fund to bankruptcy, enables a group of beneficiaries to enjoy huge public funds with a legal cover and present them as committed officials enjoying their gifts, and legitimizes the unjustified squandering of public money.

Indeed, legislation is not an administrative decision, which makes it impossible to withdraw it, as in the case of an administrative decision. It is also true that to achieve its purpose, the decree-law must have included a clear provision for the elimination of the earlier decree-law, and the assignment of the competent official authorities to take the needed measures to recover the funds that may have been disbursed under the previous decision. The authors of the two new decree-laws should have considered these two points, but deliberately, they neglected them in the protection of their interests, and to strike and in violation of the public interest.

We believe that this form of manipulation is incompatible with the legislative policy and is inconsistent with the requirements of the law and the features of the legislative process – if we put aside the unconstitutionality of issuing decree-laws in the first place-.

Surprisingly, the new two decree-laws, which represent an additional reward for ministerial-ranked officials and brought them financial benefits at the expense of the deficit, hunger, and poverty suffered by the majority of citizens, were issued in parallel with the prime minister’s unconstitutional decision to deduct the wages of two working days from the salaries of public employees, the majority of whom are low-income, including doctors and nurses, who were supposed to be rewarded. This constitutes an attempt by the Prime Minister to oblige employees, including ministers and their officials of a similar status, to donate the wages of two working days to support the governmental efforts in the pandemic, forgetting that the total amount donated by the public employees is small compared to the millions of Shekels recovered by the ministers and the ministerial-ranked official over the past 63 days.

MUSAWA- The Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession asks the citizens to join its call for the following: 

1. Calls upon the Minister of Finance, the Chairman of the General Retirement Authority, the Prime Minister, and those involved in the management of the retirement funds and public funds, to clarify whether any funds were recovered by the beneficiaries of the two decree-laws canceled over the past 63 days, and to declare this to the citizens.
2. To take the appropriate legal requirement to cancel the four decree-laws by issuing two new decree-laws that clearly and explicitly contain the repeal of decree-Law No. 4 of 2020 and decree-Law No. 12 of 2020, to address all the consequences thereof, and to assign the competent official authorities to reclaim all the money recovered by any public official with a ministerial rank and to oblige them to pay the collaborations due to the pension fund.
3. To recover the funds disbursed during the past 63 days to public officials with ministerial rank or similar status.
4. To subject all those who contributed to the preparation and enforcement of the four decree-laws to an administrative and penal investigation, ensuring their accountability and dismissal from their positions.
5. To abolish the decree-law No.5 of 2020 that turns the presidential office into a prevailing government, and grants its president a pension without being obliged to pay any contribution to the fund, which we consider the most serious decree-law.
6. To abolish the decree-law No.11 of 2004 and its amendments, as it supports the phenomenon of functional discrimination by granting unlawful privileges to a specific category of public officials and exempting them from paying their contributions to the pension fund, like other public officials, taking into account that this abolition revocation shall not be used as a justification for the promulgation of new decree-laws that amend the or repeal the existing laws. 
7. To terminate the issuance of subjective decree-laws, which represent a tool for tampering with the national economy, security, and stability of the society.

Enough exploiting citizens, enough undermining their minds, enough violating their rights and dignity, enough wasting the public money, and enough threatening the national security.

Issued on 14/5/2020

MUSAWA