NEW PALESTINIAN CHIEF JUSTICE DISCUSSES

C O N F I D E N T I A L JERUSALEM 002324 SIPDIS NEA FOR FRONT OFFICE AND IPA; NSC FOR SHAPIRO/KUMAR E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/21/2019 TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR KWBG KPAL KJUS SUBJECT: NEW PALESTINIAN CHIEF JUSTICE DISCUSSES CROSS-SECTOR COORDINATION Classified By: Consul General Daniel Rubinstein for reasons 1.4 (b,d). ¶1. (C) Post met with newly-appointed Palestinian Chief Justice and Chair of the High Judicial Council Farid Abdullah Asaed Jallad on December 13. Jallad was selected by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Abbas (Abu Mazen) to replace former Chief Justice Issa Abu Sharar, who had reached retirement age. ¶2. (C) Jallad said it would likely take him "two months or more" to learn "the procedures, the details" of his new posting. He noted that this was the second set of roles and responsibilities he had been asked to learn in 2009, having been appointed Senior Legal Advisor to President Abbas just over a month prior to his appointment to the position of Chief Justice. ¶3. (C) Jallad was clear on the need for reform in the Palestinian justice sector, telling Post, "it's very important that judicial and security reform progress on parallel lines." "When we see progress in the (Palestinian) Civil Police," he said, "it prompts us to respect them, and to enhance our own abilities. It is in the interest of Palestinians and it's in our interest as the justice sector that we restore the trust and confidence of "the man in the street" in justice. This will come about only through concrete work, not with theoretical statements," he said. ¶4. (SBU) Background and biographical note: Post contacts describe Jallad as more flexible and amenable to compromise than his predecessor, Abu Sharar, who was admired by Post contacts for his intellect and the strength of his opinions, but was widely regarded as a prickly character whose long-running feud with Chief Prosecutor Ahmad al-Mughani proved a distraction from donor attempts in rule-of-law reform. Our contacts say that Jallad has good relations with both al-Mughani and the current Minister of Justice. Jallad, who was born in Tulkarem in 1944, was admitted to the Jordanian Bar in the 1980s, after serving as a judicial official for some years in Nablus. In 1994, he was elected Deputy Head of the Palestinian Bar Association; he became Head of the Palestinian Bar in 1989. Jallad was appointed Deputy Minister of Justice in 2003, and was promoted to Minister in 2005. RUBINSTEIN