With the Arab Executive conference deciding on resistance of taxation and continuation of the boycott agitation, a special ordinance for seditious offenses was rushed through to meet the present situation in the country.
A Seditions Offienses Ordinance, based on English common law, was promulgated without the usual month’s notice. The ordinance, which replaces the Ottoman law dealing with sedition, incitement to mutiny and riots, was published in a special issue of the Official Gazette.
Offenses against the authority of the government are punishable by life imprisonment. The same term applies for persons guilty of warlike undertakings against any section, race or body of persons in Palestine.
Persons endeavoring to procure alteration in the government or law by armed force are liable to life imprisonment, while seditious conspiracy and libel or the possession of seditious documents is punishable with three years imprisonment.
Part 3 of the ordinance deals with unlawful assemblies, riots and other offenses against public tranquility. Three or more persons assembled with the intent to cause persons to fear a breach of the peace or to terrorize the public will be considered as consti (Continued on Page 4)
“The provisions of the Ottoman law with regard to seditious offenses, illegal societies and riots are confused and unsatisfactory; the present ordinance represents part of the draft of the new Palestine penal code. putting the law on a clear basis, and follows the principles enforced in other countries under British administration.” the government declares in promulgating the ordinance.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
