Supreme Court Rejects Appeal to Rescind Deportation of Three West Bank Officials

The Supreme Court today rejected the appeal by the families of the three West Bank leaders expelled last May that their deportation be rescinded.

However, the court recommended that two of the three, Mayor Fahed Kawasme of Hebron and Mayor Mohammed Milhim of Holhoul, could appeal to the West Bank military government’s advisory board. The court said the two mayors would first have to present affidavits to an Israeli consulate abroad or a representative of the International Red Cross declaring they intend to obey Israeli law if they return and clarifying their view on statements of incitement against Israel which were published in their names.

The court said the third deportee, Sheikh Rajab Tamimi, head of the Moslem religious court in Hebron, should not have the right to appeal to the advisory board because he had called for Israel’s destruction at a demonstration in Hebron last March at which the two mayors were present. The three were expelled shortly after Palestinian terrorists killed six yeshiva students in Hebron.

The court sharply criticized the method by which the three were expelled. Contrary to law, they received no advance notice and were not permitted to appeal to the advisory board before their deportation.

METHOD OF EXPULSION QUESTIONED

However, Chief Justice Moshe Landau said the deportation was still valid since the three had not applied to the advisory board until now. At the same time, Landau questioned the evidence that the two mayors had indeed called for the liquidation of the State of Israel, “even though they have not repudiated press statements in their names made abroad.”

Landau’s view was supported in the three-member court by Justice Yitzhak Kahan who said that some legal procedures could be suspended in a time of danger to the security of the State. But in a minority opinion, Justice Haim Cohen said that the government does not have the right to expel people without first giving them the right to appeal. He said the government had acted illegally and this would be true even if the men involved had incited West Bank Arabs to revolt against Israel. He added that he was not sure there was such danger.

Felicia Langer, attorney for the three deportees, said she was disappointed with the verdict but was pleased that it had not been unanimous. Kawasme’s wife said she was convinced that the government had forced the court’s decision. “It’s a political decision,” she said. “There is no democracy in Israel,”