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PA to freeze decision to increase court fees

June 28, 2022 at 12:57 pm

Israeli shekels. [Christopher Furlong/Getty Images]

The Palestinian Authority yesterday decided to freeze plans to raise transaction fees in the courts.

Prominent Palestinian lawyer, Mohammad Saqfalhait, said on Facebook that the PA’s cabinet had issued a decision to form a committee constituting the “justice minister, the Palestinian Bar Association, and the High Judicial Council,” adding that the committee was commissioned “to re-examine the regular court schedule.”

On 20 June, the PA said it would raise transaction fees in the regular courts and make them “10 times higher.”

“It is possible that, tomorrow, the cabinet decides to implement the 20 June decision,” Saqfalhait pointed out.

Rights advocates recently told Quds Press that the rise in costs would lead to a “civil war”, describing the move as an “explicit call to citizens not to resort to courts to seek legal rights, and fight instead.” They also pointed out that courts would then serve “wealthy people only.”

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