Precision-Guided or Indiscriminate?
06/07/2010
Asher Fredman
|
Proportionality
NGO reporting on compliance with the laws of armed conflict.
http://www.jcpa.org/text/ngo_reporting.pdf
View Article >>
|
Who Will Keep the Peace? The Role of Peacekeeping in a Future Israeli-Palestinian Peace Accord
24/06/2010
Justus Reid Weiner, Avinoam Sharon and Michelle Morrison
|
How Israel Is Guided by International Law
The conventional wisdom is that the success of a future peace agreement
between Israel and an envisaged Palestinian state would require the support of an international peacekeeping mission. Yet bilateral peacekeeping has shown itself to be effective along the Israeli-Jordanian border, and bilateral security cooperation with multinational oversight has succeeded along the Israeli-Egyptian border. It may well be that primarily bilateral security arrangements, rather than an international peacekeeping mission, presents the best course.
http://www.jcpa.org/text/peacekeeping.pdf
View Article >>
|
Are the Settlements Illegal?
17/03/2010
Nicholas Rostow
|
Settlements
Israeli settlements in the territories that came under Israeli control as a result of the June 1967 war have long been a subject of often highly emotional debate within the United States, Israel and the international community. The Obama Administration’s decision to focus on settlements right out of the gate heightened attention on this already salient issue, but it is by no means clear that heightened attention will by itself facilitate resolution of the Palestine/Israel problem. Settlements are handy for obscuring the fundamental issue.
http://the-american-interest.com/article.cfm?piece=782
View Article >>
|
Is Israel a Colonial State?
14/03/2010
Irwin J. Mansdorf
|
Sovereignty
Israel's creation, far from being a foreign colonial transplant, can actually be seen as the vanguard of and impetus for decolonization of the entire Middle East, including a significant part of the Arab world. It is not popularly recognized how the Arab world benefited from the Balfour Declaration, which served to advanced their own independence from the colonial powers of England and France.
http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=2&DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=378&PID=0&IID=3472&TTL=Is_Israel_a_Colonial_State?_The_Political_Psychology_of_Palestinian_Nomenclature
View Article >>
|
Demography, Geopolitics, and the Future of Israel's Capital: Jerusalem's Proposed Master Plan
04/03/2010
Nadav Shragai
|
Jerusalem
The Jewish majority in Jerusalem is declining, meanwhile, according to the proposed plan for the city, there will not be sufficient Jewish housing by 2020 or Arab housing by 2030. The plan also calls for creating urban contiguity between eastern Jerusalem and Palestinian neighborhoods outside the city, reinforcing Palestinian demands to recognize the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem as a single political entity.
http://jcpa.org/text/Jerusalem-Master-Plan.pdf
View Article >>
|
Proportionality in Modern Assymetrical Wars
02/02/2010
Amichai Cohen
|
Proportionality
As the uses of force in Somalia, Kosovo, and Iraq show, Western armies are very concerned about protecting the lives of their soldiers, and to that end are willing to risk many civilian lives. They also find acceptable the notion that civilian lives can be forfeited in order to attain important military goals.
Israel's Gaza operation clearly shows that Israeli commanders successfully followed the requirements of the administrative model of the principle of proportionality. The IDF required commanders to take humanitarian law into account in the planning stages of the operation. Legal advisors were involved in the planning of many operations and provided advice regarding specific targets. The right questions were asked, checks were made, and the incidental damage to civilians was on the whole limited.
http://www.jcpa.org/text/proportionality.pdf
View Article >>
|
Curbing the Manipulation of Universal Jurisdiction
20/01/2010
Diane Morrison and Justus Reid Weiner
|
Universal Jurisdiction
The principle of universal jurisdiction has been, and continues to be, an important tool in the legal practitioner's tool box and an essential means for achieving justice for international crimes. Unfortunately, the principle has also become a political device employed for far more cynical means and far less noble purposes. In the early 1960s, Israel was one of the first states to invoke the principle of universal jurisdiction in its groundbreaking trial against Adolf Eichmann, the "architect of the Holocaust."
http://www.jcpa.org/text/universal-jurisdiction.pdf
View Article >>
|
The Campaign to Delegitimize Israel with the False Charge of Apartheid
11/11/2009
Robbie Sabel
|
Apartheid
Israel is a multi-racial society, and the Arab minority actively participates in the political process. There are Arab parliamentarians, Arab judges including on the Supreme Court, Arab cabinet ministers, Arab heads of hospital departments, Arab university professors, Arab diplomats in the Foreign Service, and very senior Arab police and army officers. Incitement to racism in Israel is a criminal offence, as is discrimination on the basis of race or religion. The comparison of Israel to South Africa under white supremist rule has been utterly rejected by those with intimate understanding of the old Apartheid system.
http://www.jcpa.org/text/apartheid.pdf
View Article >>
|
Why Is Israel’s Presence in the Territories Still Called “Occupation”?
14/07/2009
Avinoam Sharon
|
“Occupation”
The term “occupation” is often employed politically, without regard for its general or legal meaning. Iraq was occupied by the Coalition forces from the spring of 2003 until June 28, 2004, at which time authority was handed over to the Iraqi Interim Government. At that point, Coalition forces remained in Iraq, but Iraq was no longer deemed occupied. If handing over authority to a Coalition-appointed interim government ended the occupation of Iraq, would the same not hold true for the establishment of the Palestinian Authority and Israel?
View Article >>
|
Libel Tourism: International Forum Shopping for Defamation Claims
11/01/2009
Avi Bell
|
Law
This briefing paper examines the promise and peril of libel tourism – the practice of suing in a court outside the claimant’s home country in order to increase the likelihood of winning a libel case. Libel tourism has reached the headlines recently due to an increase in the number of persons who have discovered the advantages of bringing libel actions in England. In the last decade, Roman Polanski (an American living in France) brought a successful libel action against Vanity Fair (an American magazine), Khalid Bin Mahfouz (a Saudi who also holds Irish citizenship) brought numerous libel actions with some success against defendants from around the world, Boris Berezovsky (a Russian) succeeded in persuading the House of Lords of his right to sue Forbes (an American magazine) and Rinat Akhmetov (a Ukrainian) successfully sued Kyiv Post and Obozrevatel (two Ukrainian internet journals). The practical result of the liberal English approach towards foreign libel claims is to chill speech throughout the world. Everyone who publishes a statement that will appear on the internet, or in a book that can be sold in England, must be aware that an English court will be ready to entertain a libel suit against the writer, subjecting him or her to the pro-plaintiff English legal standards.
View Article >>
|
International Law and the Fighting in Gaza
05/01/2009
Justus Reid Weiner and Avi Bell
|
Gaza
Attacks deliberately aimed at civilians are war crimes. The launching of rockets at civilian targets in Israel by Palestinians in Gaza violates international law. Both the terror squads carrying out the attacks, as well as their commanders, bear criminal responsibility. Under the rules of command responsibility, senior Hamas leaders such as Khaled Mashal, who ordered a continuation of the rocket attacks, are among the parties guilty of war crimes.
The holding of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit incommunicado and out of reach of the International Committee of the Red Cross since 2006 is a clear violation of international law concerning prisoners of war.
The International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings makes it a crime to bomb public places with the intent to kill civilians. Under this Convention, the Palestinian attackers are considered international terrorists and Israel is required to assume criminal jurisdiction over them.
In carrying out attacks on Israeli Jews as part of a larger aim to kill Jews, Palestinian terrorists are also violating the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.
Click here to view Powerpoint Presentation on "International Law and the Fighting in Gaza"(15M)
View Article >>
|