Official Job Abuse Under the Palestinian Legal System and Its Influence on Political Development

Influence-Peddling is considered an historical behavioral issue and is one of the negative human qualities that is controlled by the public order, the contractual laws and the legislations that are issued by the authorized bodies. The influence-peddling increases when the person is higher in the work hierarchy and the one who uses his / her power remains hidden behind his / her explanation of the laws; the problem also becomes greater if the person has a role in the enactment of law. The study focuses on researching the issue of exploiting legislations and laws by some employees and those who have power in the Palestinian Authority. The researcher also researches in how legislations are used by these people as a cover when committing corruption. The political fluctuations that the Palestinian people have experienced have affected the system of applicable laws in Palestine starting from the Ottoman reign, then the British Mandate, the Jordanian and Egyptian rule in the West bank and Gaza, and then the Israeli military orders and the revolutionary law made by the Palestinian Liberation Organization, in addition to the decisions issued by the President of the Palestinian Authority and those issued by the Palestinian Legislation Council. All these laws and decisions have led to chaos in the legislative process. This made it possible for some people to use it according to their own interest. The political and organizational conflicts in Palestine have made the exploitation of laws and legislations even much worse and led to an increase in the number of laws that are issued to serve the goals of a certain group of people. The researcher has put hypotheses that suggest that the Palestinian employee does not exploit his / her position power or authority; the researcher used the analytical descriptive method and the Content Analysis method to analyze the content of the legislations and laws issued by the authorized and powerful bodies. Based on the researcher’s conviction that change that is placed upon those who are in power is much greater than that which is placed upon the ordinary employee. Therefore, the researcher has explained how laws are enacted by the decision makers and the goals that drove them to enact these laws. He also showed how most of these laws have come to serve a specific stage and certain people; some laws came as a response to other laws so much so that decision makers have fallen into a bid law-enactment that victimized the law itself. The researcher has found that there are no enough studies that are made about the influence-Peddling issue, rather most studies focused on corruption in general. Based on the study, the researcher came out with a number of results: He found that the influential bodies and individuals use their power and influence to explain laws in accordance with their interests; he also concluded that legislations are not clear-cut, and could bear several interpretations. According to this, a number of recommendations have been given which would, if implemented, reduce the impact of influence-peddling.