Was justice served?
Did the bereaved families receive satisfactory justice in this tragedy? The answer is mixed, but their own conclusions are that the processes, particularly the deliberations of the public committee, were unsatisfactory.
The families were clearly motivated by a search for just compensation, rather than material greed, as shown by the fact that relatives agreed to establish a charitable fund in the victims’ names and that in this spirit a mosque has been built in their neighbourhood in Dura. However, the resort to the framework of customary law rather than to the institutional framework of the shari'a courts seems to have worked against these poor families.Did the public perceive that justice was done and public wrongs righted? Customary law processes are processes of community involvement, but limited in participation to the more powerful members of the community and also limited in objectives. The other public measures taken by the Authority were gestures and actions in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, some of them useful, positive legislation, the implementation of which, however, was temporarily stalled, and a report that remains secret. The rule of law as a tool for public good does not seem to have been fully utilized. While customary law processes may for some community members feel more familiar and satisfy certain needs for community expression and involvement, a heterogeneity of legal practices can work for the public good only if legal frameworks of cooperation and implementation are institutionalized and accessible and the public interest is addressed. In this area of law, so tragically illustrated by the case of the victims of the Hebron factory fire, the emerging state authority in Palestine failed to represent this public interest institutionally.
The author wishes to thank Lynn Welchman and PennyJohnson for their contribution to this case history.
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