10.04.1988|Judgment|Judgment / Supreme Court
HCJ 785/87 - 'Afo et al. v. IDF Commander in the West Bank et al. Judgment
The HCJ denied the petitions, which challenged the legality of the deportation orders issued pursuant to Regulation 112 of the Emergency Defense Regulations, holding that the purpose of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention was to prevent the mass deportation of the protected civilian population for extermination or forced labor, or for political or ethnic reasons, which is not the case in this matter. In a minority opinion, Justice Bach held that Article 49 also prohibits the deportation of individual persons, and that the prohibition is sweeping and unrestricted. However, he agreed to deny the petitions, holding that Article 49 is part of international treaty-based, rather than customary, law and is not, therefore, binding. Translation taken from the Supreme Court website.
