A Century of the Legal Profession in Palestine: Quo Vadis?

Abstract

The main challenge encountered by the law profession in Palestine throughout its hundred-year history is the division over political lines. The split started with the establishment of Palestinian Jewish and Arab Bar Associations under British rule before 1948. The division took another form of separation between Palestinian lawyers in the West Bank, Gaza, and inside Israel between 1948 and 1967. Under Israeli occupation (1967-1994), lawyers were partitioned into three factions: striking lawyers affiliating with the Jordanian Bar Association, practicing lawyers who formed the Arab Lawyers Union, and the Gaza lawyers who founded the Lawyers Society. Together these three bodies formed the transitional council of a Palestinian Bar in 1997. Since 2003 Bar election, lawyers have been unified under the 'Palestinian Bar Association', which has become a well-established body, notwithstanding all challenges facing not only the law profession but also the country as a whole.