Enforcing Illegality: Israel’s Military Justice in the West Bank

The article presents a critical overview of the main legal questions which arise from the Israeli military justice system in the West Bank. It commences from the inception of the system, focusing on the domestic Israeli approach to its juridical configuration and the manner in which this informed the interpretation of international law and its applicability in the occupied Palestinian territory. The article then proceeds to analyse the sources of the system through the distinctive concentration of powers underlying its structure, in which legislative, executive and judicial prerogatives are entrusted to the Israeli military. The critical overview concludes with an investigation of the substantive law of the military justice system, and its interactions with the wider Israeli institutional apparatus exercising control over the territorial space and the population movement in the West Bank. The analysis of the concrete operation of the system, through comparison with Israeli domestic law and its impact on the human rights of the Palestinian population, reveals a significant degree of incompatibility not only with international law, but – more profoundly – with the fundamental principles determining the parameters of the liberal-democratic model of justice in legal orders governed by the rule of law. The legal landscape resulting from this overview indicates, on the part of Israel, more than merely the unintended consequences of legitimate security concerns and policies; rather, it suggests a precise choice,