The silence of the jurists
The Silence of the Jurists
Gideon Levy
Published on Sunday, February 1, 2009 by Haaretz (Israel)
One silence, of all the shameful silences, has thus far roared especially loud – the silence of the jurists. The 41,000 attorneys in the State of Israel are entrusted with protecting its image as a lawful state, and this large and grand army has once again strayed from its function. There is a deep suspicion throughout the world that Israel carried out a series of war crimes, and the jurists of our country are holding their peace.
Where, for instance, is Aharon Barak when we really need him? Where are his colleagues, the former justices of the Supreme Court, who knew very well how to raise their voices when Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann threatened to harm the apple of their eye, and who now hide in their cowardly silence?
When did we stop caring about civilian deaths during wartime?
: When did we stop caring about civilian deaths during wartime?
Robert Fisk 31 January 2009
The mere monitoring of bloody conflict assumes precedence over human suffering
I wonder if we are "normalising" war. It’s not just that Israel has yet again got away with the killing of hundreds of children in Gaza.
And after its own foreign minister said that Israel’s army had been allowed to "go wild" there, it seems to bear out my own contention that the Israeli "Defence Force" is as much a rabble as all the other armies in the region. But we seem to have lost the sense of immorality that should accompany conflict and violence. The BBC’s refusal to handle an advertisement for Palestinian aid was highly instructive. It was the BBC’s "impartiality" that might be called into question. In other words, the protection of an institution was more important than the lives of children. War was a spectator sport whose careful monitoring – rather like a football match, even though the Middle East is a bloody tragedy – assumed precedence over human suffering.
Read More »When did we stop caring about civilian deaths during wartime?
The ethnic cleansing of Palestine
"The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine" :: Book Review ::
by Iqbal Jassat
"Pappe’s scholarly treatise is equally compelling on two profoundly significant levels, which he refers to as manifestations of denial. The first, he says, was the denial exercised by peace brokers as they consistently sidelined, if not altogether eliminated, the Palestinian cause and concerns from any future peace arrangement. The second was the categorical refusal of the Israelis to acknowledge the Nakba and their absolute unwillingness to be held accountable, legally and morally, for the ethnic cleansing they committed in 1948."
The International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms [IALANA] describe “whistleblowers” as those who stir up public attention to legally or ethically dubious practices of the powerful, practices that might inflict harm on the community of citizens or the general public.