British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume I - Page 112

CHAPTER IV.

jurisdiction is prescribed by legislation. In addition, there are land courts, with jurisdiction laid down in the Land Courts Ordinance 1921 *, the Sharia courts which administer Moslem religious law, the Tribal Courts (Beersheba area), and the Military Courts established under the Defence (Emergency) Regulations, 1945, made under the Palestine (Defence) Orders in Council for the trial of certain offences prescribed under these regulations. The Military Courts, although part of the constitutional court system of Palestine, are not within the Judiciary and are staffed wholly by military personnel.

11. For purposes of general administration, Palestine is divided into six administrative districts, named Jerusalem, Lvdda, (headquarters Jaffa), Haifa, Gaza, Samaria (headquarters Nablus) and Galilee (headquarters Nazareth). Each district is under the control of a District Commissioner, who reports to the Chief Secretary. Each district commissioner is assisted by a deputy district commissioner and one or more assistant district commissioners. These are all British officers who belong to the unified Colonial Administrative Service. The present establishment is 7 district commissioners (including one for service on secondment to Trans-Jordan) and 23 deputy and assistant district commissioners (also including one for Trans-Jordan). Each district is sub-divided into a number of sub-districts, each normally in charge of an assistant district commissioner. Certain of them, as well as administrative subdivisions of district activity, are in charge of Palestine District Officers, either Arab or Jew according to the racial character of the area concerned. The present establishment of district officers is 43. (Of the serving district officers 32 are Arabs and 11 Jews).

12. The District Commissioner is the representative of the Government in his district and he is responsible generally for all that goes on within it. He has no direct specific authority over the local representatives of the professional and technical departments of the Government who report to their respective heads; but be maintains liaison with them, co-ordinates their activities in the interests of his district as a whole, and generally keeps a watchful outlook on everything. Public security is an important preoccupation of the district administration which is called upon to maintain close and harmonious relations with the police and the military authorities in this sphere. The district commissioner is the revenue officer for his area : he and his assistants and the district officers collect and account for many of the taxes upon which the Government's budget depends. The district commissioners have certain statutory functions in relation to the system of local government
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* Drayton, Vol. II, page 828.

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