Reply #9: Dual System of Law in West Bank. No system like it since Apartheid. [View All]

http://www.btselem.org/english/Settler_Violence/Dual_Legal_System.asp
From B'tselem

Although settlers in the Occupied Territories live in an area subject to military rule and the settlements have not been formally annexed, Israel has applied a substantial part of Israeli law to the settlers. As a result, Israeli civilians living in the Occupied Territories are not subject to military or local law, like the Palestinians, but are prosecuted according to the Israeli penal law.

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By being subject to the Israeli judicial system, settlers enjoy liberties and legal guarantees that are denied Palestinian defendants in the Occupied Territories charged with a similar offense. The authority to arrest an individual, the maximum detention before being brought before a judge, the right to meet with an attorney, the protections available to defendants at the trial, the maximum punishment allowed by law, and the release of prisoners before completion of sentence - all of these differ greatly in the two systems of law, with the Israeli system providing the suspect and defendant with more protections.

Thus different legal systems are applied to two populations residing in the same area, and the nationality of the individual determines the applicable system and court. This situation violates the principle of equality before the law. This violation is particularly apparent in the disparity between the two systems. This also violates the principle of territoriality, commonly accepted in modern legal theory, according to which persons living in the same territory must be subject to the same system of laws.

This situation is extremely grave: in a single occupied territory, Israel is operating a system of separation with discrimination by law. It is doubtful that any comparable system has existed since the end of apartheid in South Africa.