Arabic versions of Harry Potter, Pinnochio, banned in Zionistan

This does not really make sense (in various ways):

Israel cracks down on Arabic Harry Potter
1 hour, 51 minutes ago
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Harry Potter and Pinocchio are apparently not welcome in Israel, at least in their Arabic translations imported from Syria and Lebanon.

Arab-Israeli publisher Salah Abassi told Israeli public radio on Monday that authorities ordered him to stop importing Arabic-language children's books from the two longtime foes of Israel.

The ban includes translations of such books as Pinocchio and Harry Potter as well as Arabic classics.

"The trade and industry ministry and treasury warned me that importing those books is illegal," said Abassi, who imported the books through Jordan.

The ban is based on a decree from 1939 -- when the area was under British mandate -- prohibiting the importation of books from countries that are at war with Israel.

Abassi told the Maariv daily most of the books can be found only in Lebanon and Syria.

"If they were printed in Jordan or Egypt, which are friendly to Israel, I would lose no time in buying them there. Now the significance is that the Arabic reading public in Israel will not be able to enjoy the best literature," he said.

Hmmm, if this ban is based on a law dating back from mandate Palestine, how can it have anything to do with Israel? Surely Israel does not recognize the laws in place before its creation? AFP should clarify this point.

Comments

[Legal adviser]

"In 1948, Israel enacted the Law and Administration Ordinance, which adopted laws prevailing in the country at 1948 (including British Mandatory law) as Israeli law, with several amendments and exceptions."

http://www.huka.gov.il/wiki/index.php/The_State_of_Israel_as_a_Jewish_State" rel="nofollow">Here.

[EH]

Israel routinely uses relevant laws dating to the Mandate or the Ottoman Empire when dealing with land use and civil planning, or even to the Jordanian occupation in the West Bank, to create legal precedent for maximizing state control over land (at the expense of the individual Palestinian land owner, always).

[arabist]

Thanks -- has any clever lawyer combed through those laws to find laws that could be used, say, to make claims on behalf on Palestinians?

[user]

what were some of the other book titles I wounder, and was there any diff. in the content?

[EH]

Well, titles and deeds of ownership are frequently Ottoman, so thats the Palestinian defense. Problem is that during the tanzimat reforms in the 19th century when landholding records were "modernized" and "regularized" formal ownership ended up in a lot of land being held by absentee landlords, who then sold it the Jewish Yishuv (although that mainly took place along the coast and in the Galilee, not as much in the areas around the Palestinian cities in what is now the West Bank). B'tselem's reports on the legal frameworks of settlement construction cover a lot of this so I imagine their lawyers and others have looked for anything to be used.

[kjd]

fuck israel. bastards.

[upyernoz]

this isn't just an israeli thing. most countries adopt the laws of their colonial forebearers at independence. (the u.s. adopted british common law in 1776, for example). it's a lot easier to start modifying an existing body of law than to write debate and pass an entire legal system from scratch. (plus then you risk living through a period of time when, for example, murder and theft are legal)

Thanks — has any clever lawyer combed through those laws to find laws that could be used, say, to make claims on behalf on Palestinians?

the laws used against palestinians date to the post independence period. british and ottoman laws are only valid to the extent that they haven't been overruled by subsequent legislation. so if palestinian property can be seized under a post-'48 law, it wouldn't make a difference if you found an ottoman-era law to the contrary