The Supreme Court issued a temporary injunction today barring the government from taking over the Arab-owned East Jerusalem Electric Co. which serves the West Book. The high court began hearings yesterday on appeals against the deportations of two West Bank mayors and a Moslem religious judge.
Both cases have important political ramifications. The injunction, answerable by Energy Minister Yitzhak Modai and the West Bank military commander, gave the government 45 days to show cause why its takeover decision should not be reversed. The government announced late last year that it would terminate the electric company’s concession within a year in order to “eliminate inefficiency.”
But the attorney for the utility, Shlomo Tussia-Cohen, argued that the motives were political. He contended that the takeover bid was part of a plan to control the West Bank’s electric and water supplies after autonomy is implemented in that territory. Otherwise, he said, the government could have waited until the concession expires in eight years rather than pay millions of Pounds for it now.
The deportation appeals hinge on the fact that Mayors Fahed Kawasme of Hebron and Mohammed Milhim of Halhoul and Kadi (religious judge) Rajab A-Tamimi of Hebron were expelled without due process required by law. They were accused of making inflammatory anti-Israel statements which, according to the Military Government, created the atmosphere for the ambush slaying of six yeshiva students in Hebron last May 2 by Palestinian terrorists.
State Attorney Gavriel Bach admitted that the summary deportations “were irregular” but argued that the authorities had “to act promptly” in the immediate aftermath of the Hebron killings. Justice Haim Cohen suggested that the deportation order and the haste with which it was carried out made martyrs of the three men. Kawasme and Milhim subsequently visited Western Europe and the United States to plead the Palestinian cause and denounce Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.
The court adjourned until Friday after a session that lasted nearly six hours. Two small groups of demonstrators gathered outside during the hearing, one supporting the return of the deportees, the other opposed.
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