The Independent Commission for Human Rights political epochs, where the social system was used as a tool of domination and control of Palestinian society. The law is considered to be the expression of the social, political and economic power reflecting the interest of the males who have access to draft and enact legislation. • Incest disturbs the natural role of the family as a unit of support and protection for its individuals. It confuses the foundation of the social system by targeting the less fortunate of its individuals due to age, sex or disability. Furthermore, it makes them lose any feeling of security and support. • The effective penal codes in Palestine have not allocated a special section for family crimes or those that affect any of its individuals as part of a united independent unit. The legal provisions criminalizing the acts that harm women were included in two different chapters: the first chapter addressed family crimes and the second addressed the crimes of misconduct (indecent assault, encouragement of debauchery and disregard of public ethics). • Incest is defined as a full sexual relationship between two persons of blood ties which is prohibited according to cultural and religious standards, resulting in a feeling of indecency depending on the degree and type of blood tie leading to the disturbance the sense of paternity, maternity, parenthood, brotherhood, uncles on the paternal side and uncles on the maternal side. Jurisprudence defines incest as “adultery between women of blood relationship or fornication of women of blood relationship”. All these names or titles refer to one act, which is a full sexual relationship between a man and a woman of blood ties or a legal or actual relationship whereby the woman is in the trust of the man subjecting her to the act of incest. • The definition of the physical element of the act of incest is limited to the consummation of sexual intercourse between a man and a woman of blood ties, and this reflects a legal failure and poor legal reasoning. • Blood relationship is a basic element of the crime of incest. It is impossible for such a crime to happen without this relationship. If the blood relationship does not exist in such cases, the criminal act would be classed as adultery. The law added to the persons of blood relationship the persons who have legal or actual authority over others. • The mental element in the crime of incest means mens rea (having the knowledge and will to commit crime), which is not different from that of adultery. The knowledge and willingness of the man and the woman involved in the crime described in Article (285) implies their equal consent to commit the crime. • Most legislation has criminalized the act of incest, except for French law. The other laws compared in this study (Switzerland, Algeria, Jordan, Syria and the law effected in the West Bank) have criminalized the act of incest and consider the two parties to the crime as accomplices and accused of the act, whereas the Mandate Law effected in the Gaza Strip considered the act of incest as a sexual assault committed by a man against an unmarried girl (16-21) years of age. • The law in effect in the West Bank handles the act of incest differently from that in the Gaza Strip. The latter considers the act of incest as a sexual assault against an 46