Law Commons^™

Yosifof V. Attorney General, Moshe Landau, Moshe Silberg, Moshe Smoira

Translated Opinions

The appellant, an Israel Jew belonging to the Caucasian community, married in the year 1936. He married a second time in the year 1950 while the first marriage still subsisted. He was convicted of bigamy under s. 181 of the Criminal Code Ordinance, 1936 1) and sentenced to imprisonment for one year. On appeal it was argued that s. 181 was ultra vires the powers of the High Commissioner by reason of Article 17(1)(a) 2)2) of the Palestine Order in Council 1922 (as amended) in that the section introduced discrimination between the inhabitants of Palestine, namely, between Moslems and Jews, …

Sheib V. Minister Of Defence, Shneor Zalman Cheshin, Yitzhak Olshan, Alfred Witkon

Translated Opinions

A teacher, Dr. Sheib, applied to the Principal of the Reali Montefiore School, Haifa, for employment as a teacher and was accepted subject to confirmation by the Department of Education in the Ministry of Education and Culture.

Pursuant to a general request contained in a circular sent to the principals of all classes of schools by the Director of the Department of Education, that teachers should not be employed save with the consent of the Inspector of Secondary Schools, the acceptance of Dr. Sheib as a teacher had been made conditional by the Principal upon such consent being obtained. Dr. …

Levitt V. Angel, Yitzhak Olshan, Menachem Dunkelblum, Shneor Zalman Cheshin

Translated Opinions

The appellant, who had allowed third parties to occupy premises in breach of an injunction restraining him from so doing was convicted of contempt of court under the Contempt of Court Ordinance and was sentenced to a fine of I.L. 250 or three months imprisonment. This sentence was imposed on the appellant by the District Court not for the purpose of inducing him to comply with the terms of the injunction, which had become impossible, but as a punishment for its breach.

Held, allowing the appeal, that the purpose of the sanctions in the Contempt of Court Ordinance is to …

Amado V. Director Of The Immigrants' Camp, Pardes Hanna, Moshe Smoira, Menachem Dunkelblum, Shimon Agranat, Shneor Zalman Cheshin, Simha Assaf

Translated Opinions

A Civil Court in Paris granted a decree of divorce to the petitioner and second respondent (being respectively the wife and the husband), who were French nationals domiciled in France, and declared that the petitioner was entitled to the custody of the children, a girl aged seven years and a boy aged four and a half years at the time of the application, but ordered that the second respondent have access to them at stated times. On one of these occasions the second respondent smuggled the children out of France and brought them to Israel, where they were living with …

Shimshon Palestine Portland Cement Factory Ltd. V. Attorney General, Menachem Dunkelblum, Shimon Agranat, Simha Assaf

Translated Opinions

The applicant, a Company registered in Tel Aviv, formerly Palestine, now Israel, brought an action against the Government of Palestine for the return of the sum of 2539 Palestine Pounds customs drawback. On February 17, 1948, the Haifa District Court gave judgment in favour of the applicant. On March 17, 1948, the Attorney-General of the Government of Palestine entered an appeal against that judgment. This appeal was not heard. On May 15, 1948, the Mandate for Palestine terminated and the State of Israel came into existence. The present application, before the Israel Supreme Court, was for an order that the …

Shibli V. Shibli, Shneor Zalman Cheshin, Moshe Smoira, Simha Assaf

Translated Opinions

Under the Palestine Order in Council, 1922, a number of Christian "communities", including the Greek Catholic community but not including the Protestant community, were recognised and given the right to hold courts of their own with jurisdiction (which in some cases required the consent of the parties) in matters of personal status over members of their own community.

The petitioner was a Protestant and had married the first respondent, a member of the recognised Greek Catholic community, in a Greek Catholic church. There was one child of the marriage. The parties quarreled soon after the marriage and their disagreements led …

Bejerano V. Police Minister, Shneor Zalman Cheshin, Simha Assaf, Moshe Silberg

Translated Opinions

A judgment upon the Respondents’ objection to an order nisi requiring that they refrain from forbidding petition writers from appearing and acting as agents of their clients in the offices of the Tel Aviv District Traffic Department. In making the order absolute, Justice S.Z. Cheshin, writing for the Court, held:

The High Court of Justice cannot grant a request unless it is persuaded that a right of the Petitioners themselves has been infringed – In requesting an order mandamus, the Petitioner must show the existence of a law that requires the public official to do that which he is being …

Zeev V. Acting District Commissioner Of The Urban Area Of Tel Aviv, Moshe Smoira, Yitzhak Olshan, Shneor Zalman Cheshin

Translated Opinions

The Acting District Commissioner of Tel Aviv purporting to act as the Competent Authority under Mandatory regulations requisitioned an apartment in Tel Aviv for the use of a government official His action was challenged on the grounds, first, that the Mandatory regulations in question had been impliedly repealed by s. 9 of the Law and Administration Oridnance of 19481) which empowered the Provisional Council to make regulations of the same kind, and secondly, that the appointment of the Acting District Commissioner as Competent Authority, being an act having legislative effect within the meaning of s.20 of the Interpretation Ordinance, 1945, …

Leon V. Acting District Commissioner Of Tel-Aviv (Yehoshua Gobernik), Moshe Smoira, Yitzhak Olshan, Simha Assaf

Translated Opinions

The Law and Administration Ordinance 1948, provides that the law which existed in Palestine on May 14, 1948, "shall remain in force... subject to such modifications as may result from the establishment of the State and its authorities".

The Acting District Commissioner of Tel Aviv, as the competent authority under the Defence Regulations of 1939, made pursuant to the (English) Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939, requisitioned a flat situated at no. 3, Chen Boulevard, Tel Aviv, by order dated 6 September 1948. The requisition was for the benefit of the Attorney-General who, previously to his then recent appointment to that …

Neiman V. Military Governor Of The Occupied Area Of Jerusalem, Moshe Smoira, Shneor Zalman Cheshin, Yitzhak Olshan

Translated Opinions

The Petitioner, while employed by the Army as a civilian employee, assaulted a soldier and committed other acts constituting criminal offences under both military and civil law. After he had ceased to be so employed, the Petitioner was charged before a military court. He sought an order restraining the military court from proceeding with the charges on the grounds that he was not at the relevant time a soldier within the meaning of the Army Code, or alternatively that he had ceased to be a soldier when charged and that a military court therefore had no jurisdiction in the matter. …