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International laws state otherwise, requiring an occupying power to respect territorial laws in place, any new ones conforming with the provisions of Fourth Geneva's Article 64 and Article 43 of the Hague Regulations.
Geneva stipulates:
"The penal laws of the occupied territory shall remain in force, with the exception that they may be repealed or suspended by the Occupying Power in cases where they constitute a threat to its security or an obstacle to the application of the present Convention....the tribunals of the occupied territory shall continue to function in respect of all offences covered by the said laws."
In defiance, Israel imposed its will, thereafter tightening it ruthlessly. As a result, Sheikh Jarrah residents are governed under Israeli law, affording them no justice or redress.
Combined, Hague (1907) and Geneva (1949 and subsequent additions) international law provisions comprise the core body of occupation law. They regard military occupation as temporary, for the period only between cessation of hostilities and a peace treaty. Occupying powers have no sovereignty over territories they control. They're temporary trustees, responsible under Hague's Article 43:
to "take all measures in (their) power to restore, and ensure, as far as possible, public order and safety, while respecting, unless absolutely prevented, the laws in force in the country."
Even then, Hague and Geneva stipulate that any legislative or other changes must benefit the civilian population, protect their rights, and prescribe no unlawful measures, including collective punishment, forcible transfer, or the confiscation or destruction of their property.
Especially relevant is Israel's 1970 Legal and Administrative Matters of Law. It was enacted to include all properties Jews claimed ownership of pre-1948, empowering an Administrator General to return them to their previous owners. A separate law prohibited Palestinians from reclaiming lost West Jerusalem land - actions Hague and Geneva provisions call discriminatory, illegal, and unjustifiable.
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