The other Jewish state

[Classical_Liberal]

The other Jewish state

By Zvi Bar'el



A minor comment, well hidden in the bowels of the State Comptroller's Report issued last week, explains the secret of the success of the settlements' budgetary rampage.



In the chapter in which the comptroller describes at length the illegal building in the territories, he quotes the response of the regional councils of Matte Binyamin and Gush Etzion and of the Beit El local council. They explain that, "according to Jordanian law, a building permit can also be requested at a later stage" - in other words, there is no need to ask for the permit before building, and hence the law has not been breached. The comptroller, of course, rejects this contention, stating, "This is not a fitting reply for a governing authority."

But that's not the main thing; or, not only that. The basic anomaly lies in the very fact of the invoking of a Jordanian law of 1966 as a primary judicial source concerning planning and building in the West Bank.

In fact, we have to think in terms of two Jewish states, one within the Green Line, living according to Israeli law, and the other across that line, relying on Jordanian law. The one is not entitled to depart from the laws of the state, the other can draw on whichever legal system it finds fit: Jordanian, Israeli or military regulations. The one is committed to the banking and mortgage laws that prevail in Israel, the other takes according to Israeli law and gives back according to Jordanian law, or according to no law at all......

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/425093.html