The deportation yesterday of two prominent West Bankers, accused by the military with having helped organize the recent riots, threatens to burgeon into a political-judicial “episode” here because of the haste with which the deportation was executed.
Supreme Court Justice Moshe Etzioni has ordered Attorney General Aharon Barak to investigate why the order was executed, and the two men expelled to Lebanon at 3:45 p.m. yesterday, when the judicial authorities knew that an application against the deportation was due to be heard by the High Court Justice at 4 p.m. — 15 minutes later.
Barak was believed to have reported on the affair to the Cabinet Meeting today. The Moked leftist Knesset faction has already presented an urgent motion for the agenda and further Knesset action is requested.
In a radio interview today, a leading constitutional lawyer, Hans Klinghofer, of the Hebrew University, formerly a Likud MK, assailed the haste of the expulsion action and said it contravened the basic practices of the rule of law.
DEPORTEES WERE CANDIDATES
Another element of the affair causing much criticism here is the fact that both deportees were candidates in the April 12th West Bank municipal elections. Dr. Ahmed Hamzi Natshi, a Hebron surgeon, was the leftist candidate who observers felt had a reasonable chance of beating the incumbent Mayor Sheikh Mohammed Ali El-Jabaari. The other deportee. Dr. Abdul-Azziz Haj-Ahmed, a dentist from El-Bireh, also planned to run in the elections. Jabaari immediately protested the expulsion and reiterated his earlier statement that he would not run in the election.
Observers felt the expulsion would severely prejudice Jabaari’s position if he decided to run. Accused by leftists and PLO sympathizers. of collaborating too readily with the Israeli authorities, the mayor would certainly be charged, if he decided to run, with participating in a “rigged” election. Bethlehem Mayor Elias Freij and the west Bank Dental Association have also protested the expulsion as have numerous others on the West Bank.
Natshi was arrested Friday night and his family immediately contacted Felicia Langer. who is a Communist activist and specializes in West Bank cases. She applied to the High Court for an order delaying the expulsion — and was due to be heard by Etzioni at 4 p.m. Both she and lawyers for the military authorities appeared at the appointed time. It was only once the hearing had begun that it became apparent that the expulsion order had in fact already been executed.
Etzioni reacted in anger. “It seems there wan an attempt made here to prevent the Judicial hearing from taking place in time,” he observed acidly, and immediately asked the Attorney General to investigate. Under Israeli law deportation orders can only be carried out three days after they are issued — to enable the affected parties to apply to the courts. But this law does not apply to the occupied areas.
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