Ayelet Shaked
Ayelet ShakedYonatan Sindel, Flash 90

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked explained the significance of her new legislation, which passed its final reading yesterday in the Knesset. The new law transfers initial jurisdiction over administrative matters in Judea and Samaria from the Supreme Court to the Jerusalem District Court.

Interviewed today, Wednesday, on 103FM by Anat Davidov and Yinon Magal, Shaked said that the law entailed "a big change, because now, all the petitions against settlement, which always basically start with a petition that seeks to carry out a demolition order that the Civil Administration gives, those petitions will pass, first of all, through the District Court. In the District Court, things work differently: You can verify facts more, and this is part of the normalization of Judea and Samaria, also for the Israeli citizens who live there, to equalize proceedings in Judea and Samaria with those in ‘smaller Israel.’”

Shaked countered the claim that the new law would merely have the effect of drawing out legal proceedings in cases that would ultimately reach the Supreme Court in appeal anyway.

“Cases can certainly reach the Supreme Court in appeal, but from all the experience we have in the legal system, only 10 percent of cases get to the Supreme Court in appeal, and we certainly hope that [the law] won’t create unnecessary burden of double proceedings, but that most cases will be settled in the District Court. The District Court has a different method, and therefore we think that it is more correct and fitting.”

She also objected to the interviewers’ characterization of the law as a “creeping annexation” of Judea and Samaria.

“It’s a type of normalization. In this Knesset term, I am investing a lot in equalizing legislation between Judea and Samaria and smaller Israel, whether in general’s orders or in primary legislation. Every bill that comes to the ministerial committee, we check how it will also apply in Judea and Samaria. We are really trying to equalize the conditions. It’s not annexation, but equalizing of conditions - whatever we deserve, those who live in Judea and Samaria also deserve.”