Contents

• Acknowledgements
•  Forward
•  Introduction
•  Israeli Military Orders
•  Appendices
• Amended Jordanian Laws: Military Order 378 and Military Order 947
• Selected Index
• Subject Index

The collection of military orders and regulations are the foundation, the cornerstone, of Israel's 26-year occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It is an occupation preoccupied with `legality', and in this sense it is arguably unique. These military orders and regulations sanction, or make 'legal', virtually every illegal act that occurs in the occupied Palestinian territories: The occupation itself, civil and human rights violations, and violations against Palestinians' political, economic, social and cultural rights.

More than 1,300 military orders have been issued in the West Bank and over 1,000 similar orders in the Gaza Strip. Their primary aim has been to force out, through various means, the majority of Palestinians and subjugate the remainder of the population. Acquisition and confiscation of the land and debilitating economic restrictions have all been made possible through these orders and regulations. They have given a 'legal' facade to the manipulation of natural resources for the interest and benefit of the belligerent occupier rather than for the indigenous population and have imposed obstacles intended to stifle any attempt at economic, social, or cultural development in the occupied Palestinian territories. They are geared towards promoting and strengthening Israel's own interests.

A striking example of this is in the economic sphere where Israel has manipulated and restricted the Palestinian economy to its own advantage. Equally important is the method by which Israel has used the military orders to acquire land, under the pretext that such land is needed for `security purposes'. Appropriated land has been turned over for settlement building to accommodate the influx of Jewish settlers into the occupied Palestinian territories.

 International law enables the belligerent occupying power to issue certain regulations but only under two conditions: If the security of the occupying forces necessitates new legislation or if new regulations are required in the interests of the civilian population. The majority of military orders and regulations do not comply with these conditions. Israel's occupation has continued in contravention of United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 (1967), which recognized that the West Bank and Gaza Strip were indeed `occupied' and demanded, among other things, that Israel withdraw its forces. In line with this resolution, Israel was called on to adhere to international law concerning the protection of civilians in times of war and belligerent occupation, including the Fourth Geneva Convention. Instead, Israel has used the military orders and regulations to change facts on the ground; to de facto annex the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The current and increasing discussion about Israel's occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip was primarily the reason that this collection of military orders is being published in English. We hope that this summary translation will enable those concerned to have access to this complex collection which governs every aspects of Palestinian life in the occupied Palestinian territories. It is also our belief that for the current peace efforts to be successful, the negotiations must focus on revoking the Israeli military orders and enable Palestinians to legislate their own laws and regulations.

On 7 June 1967 Israeli forces announced, in Military Proclamation 1, that they had occupied and taken control over the West Bank and the Gaza Strip "in the interests of security and public order". In the 25 years of occupation which have followed every change of policy or priority on the part of the Israeli authorities has been accompanied by a military order. It has been a legalistic occupation.

Therefore, the study of military orders provides an excellent way of monitoring the developing nature of the occupation and its effects on the occupied Palestinian population.

 This directory is intended to fill a long-standing need for a comprehensive survey of military orders in English. It documents only those military orders which have been issued in the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem which was annexed to Israel in 1967 and is now subject to Israeli law). However, military orders issued in Gaza are generally identical to their West Bank counterparts in everything except numbering. It is not within the scope of this directory to assess either the legality of these orders, or their wider legal implications; this is a task for qualified lawyers. Nor does the directory provide verbatim translations of the Hebrew and Arabic texts of the orders. Instead, it supplies a short summary of each order, taken from the Arabic text, which is intended to simplify the task of the researcher or lawyer in identifying those military orders which are relevant to his/her particular area of study.

 Prior to 1980 all the military orders and regulations which had been passed since 1967 were not available in a systematic and comprehensive form to the occupied population whose lives they ruled, or to lawyers and researchers trying to operate within the complex, and often impenetrable, system. Since 1980 official volumes containing the Hebrew and Arabic text of orders have been retroactively issued. However, these volumes do not constitute an Official Gazette, they are simply termed as a "Collection of Orders, Pamphlets, and Appointments". This directory has been compiled from this collection.

 There are five categories of legislation documented within this directory:

 1.Military Proclamations. Only three military proclamations have been issued, all of them within the first two days of the occupation. Signed by the Israeli Chief of Staff, they granted the Area Military Commander sweeping powers of control over the occupied Palestinian territories and their inhabitants. Military Proclamation 3 is undated and very detailed indeed; it seems probable that it was written in anticipation of the occupation as part of an Israeli contingency plan.

 2.Numbered Military Orders. Signed by the Area Military Commander, these orders make-up the vast majority of the legislation issued during the course of the occupation. 1,377 military orders regulating life in the West Bank have been published by the Israeli authorities since 1967. However, an unquantifiable number of military orders, dating from July 1992 to the end of the year, have yet to be issued by the Israeli authorities, with the exception of Military Order 1369, dated 16 December 1992, which covers the mass expulsion of Palestinians to Southern Lebanon and was issued individually.

 3.Unnumbered Military Orders. Signed by a commander of the Israeli army or, since its inception in 1981 (Military Order 947), by the head of the Civil Administration, these orders amend Jordanian and British Mandate Law, as well as existing military orders, in precisely the same way as numbered orders do.

 4.Regulations. These regulations are issued by the various heads of departments in the Civil Administration to whom power has been delegated first by the Area Military Commander, and then by the head of the Civil Administration.

 5.Notifications and Instructions. These may be issued by lower ranking officers in the various departments of the Civil Administration. They amend minor points of detail in existing military orders and regulations.

The reader will rapidly discover on using this directory that, while the numbered military orders are generally issued and published chronologically in the official Israeli volumes, the unnumbered ones are far from chronological, and are often published long after they have been issued. There are nonetheless many cases of numbering inconsistencies among the numbered orders, such as when two separate orders are given the same number (eg. Military Orders 161), or when sequential numbers are simply passed ov(eg. Military Order 349), or when orders are canceled before they are published (eg. Military Order 10). Military Orders 1157 to 1229 are particularly confusing since the same order is given a different number depending on the whether it was issued individually or in a bound volume by the Israeli authorities. In these cases we have alerted the reader to both numbers. The numbering becomes even more erratic with respects to the amendments to existing military orders. Often amendment numbers are not in sequence, or the same number is repeatedly issued, or numbers are simply skipped over (a particularly extreme example of this phenomenon is presented by Military Order 263). In other cases, military orders are amended after they have already been canceled (eg. Military Order 783), or amendment numbers are given to orders which are in themselves amendments to the root military order (eg. Military Order 56); in these instances we have added the tertiary amendment number to both the original order and its secondary amendment.

Unless otherwise specified in the text (see Military Order 823) the military orders are dated in accordance with the date of issuance rather than the date of enforcement, although these generally coincide. Some orders have no date at all (eg. Military Order 1191). Among the orders issued in the official Israeli volumes there are several sections which comprise appointment notices, which appoint various individuals to organizational or bureaucratic jobs within the administration. We have not listed these appointments, since they have been superseded and are of little general interest.

However, a box alerts the reader to their position within the official Israeli volumes so that they can be examined if required.

 While we have in general avoided passing editorial comment on the orders contained within this directory, there are some instances where the title or text of an order obscures its meaning from the reader and in these cases we have amended the text in the interests of clarity. For example, Military Order 432, and its amendments, concerns guard duty in settlements in the occupied territories , but refers simply to "guard duty in villages." It is only in the appendix to the order that it becomes apparent that these villages are all settlements, and since we have not listed the settlements individually, we have modified the title of the order instead.

A verbatim translation of two essential military orders - Military Order 378 Concerning Security Provisions (20 April 1970), and Military Order 947 Concerning the Establishment of a Civil Administration (8 November 1981) - has been included in the appendices; along with a list of Jordanian laws which the large majority of military orders amend. A comprehensive index is supplied at the back of the volume, along with a more detailed subject index which covers several key areas of legislation such as taxation and land transactions.