The courts have disposed 93% of the incoming cases during the current year and the HJC has a plan for reducing the cases which have accumulated during the Intifada years.

On 29-10-2008, some local newspapers informed us through an article and a press release, given by Mr. Kristopher Luktes who says," There are ten of thousands of accumulated cases before the Palestinian courts. If the courts continue reviewing the cases at a slow routine as they are doing now, they will take around 50 years to solve the current accumulated criminal cases without even receiving new cases. Mr. Lukets is the   head of rule of law at the European commission office that coordinates the EU support to the Palestinian police.

   The honorable,  chief justice, Issa Abu Shara ,head of the High Court, expresses his deep disappointment of such statement since it lacks the information and accurate analysis and it carries a stereotypical image that doesn't take into account the recent developments inside the Judiciary Authority. Furthermore, launching such statement as it is does not enhance the Palestinian public's trust in the Palestinian judiciary, but it further hurts the efforts being made by the HJC ,which aim at promoting the efficiency and the independence of judiciary. On the contrary, It comes as a propaganda for the office in which Mr. Kristopher works, knowingly that the work of his office is limited to other sectors other than judiciary, and the judiciary authority hasn't sensed any effect of the role of this office in improving the courts ' efficiency.    

 Since the its inception.     

The available data at the technical office in the HJC indicate that the number of received cases at the Palestinian regular courts, in all different types and levels, starting the beginning of the current New Year until 30-9-2008, reached up to 58566 cases. During this period, the courts disposed 54639 cases; this means that the percentage of disposed cases around is 93% which proves that the courts are operating efficiently and not slowly as it is mentioned in Mr.Kristopher's statement.

The genuine problem that the courts face nowadays is the cases that were accumulated during the years of Intifada’s. Such backlog appeared due to the Israeli incursions to the Palestinian cities, destruction of the Palestinian jails, release of hundreds of criminal prisoners and the policy of closures and blockades, which all weakened the courts and the judges and prevented them from performing their duties efficiently for a number of years. That situation was coupled with the severe shortage in the number of the judges compared to the number of cases, which all created a state of cases' accumulation which is known currently as the " Judicial Backlog “, where the accumulation of cases, until the end of the last year, reached about 56724 cases including 4022 criminal cases and 46830 conciliation cases and the remaining is still pending in the Appeal and First Instance courts.           

  The judicial backlog in the courts has been the major challenge which the HJC and the courts face during this year and the next coming three years, especially the number of those cases isn't increasing in spite of the increase in the number of cases which are received in the courts during the current year compared to the past years, due to the security campaign which is being conducted by the Palestinian government.

    In order to address this phenomenon, and for not keeping the HJC as a captive for external factors that prevent from making any progress in solving this problem, the HJC has taken a group of the following procedures, which all come under the framework of its efforts for solving the judicial backlog:

1- Increase the number of judges working at the regular courts: the number of judges appointed in the regular courts has risen to 183 judges including137 judges who are working currently in the courts of the west bank. In 2006, the number was only 68. There is also another plan for making appointments in Gaza strip whenever the courts, which follow the HJC, convene to work, which are being deactivated due to what's happening now in Gaza.