In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Search: palestine icc

22 Jul

I opened Facebook just now to find the following post from my brilliant student at SOAS, Tamara Tamimi, whose MA dissertation — written under my supervision — received the law school’s award for the best MA dissertation of the year: I am angry, frustrated and sad. I was denied entry clearance into the UK to attend my graduation from SOAS University of London. I finished my MA in Human Rights Law from SOAS, University of London ten months ago and returned to my homeland, Palestine. I decided to go through...
22.07.17 | |

28 Sep

A federal district court in Washington has ruled that the answer is no. In Biton v. Palestinian Interim Self-Government Authority, the court ruled that it had jurisdiction over the Palestinian Authority, and that recent developments do not confer sovereign immunity on defendant. The defendant argued that: We recognize that the court previously has held that [D]efendants are collaterally estopped from arguing that Palestine is a “foreign state” for purposes of the ATA. New developments, namely an Israeli court’s recognition that the [Palestinian Authority] is entitled to immunity and the Israeli...
28.09.07 | |

26 Jul

...a prior controversy involving HRW and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. HRW criticized Palestinian officials for urging civilians to serve as human shields. Anti-Israel commentators, led by rabidly anti-Israel activist Norman Finkelstein, went ballistic. So how did HRW react? Did Ken Roth say, “We report on Palestine. Its supporters fight back with lies and deception.” Did Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson accuse HRW’s critics of racism? Not exactly. HRW instead issued an abject apology. In fact, if you try to find the original press release on its website, you instead find...
26.07.09 | |

04 Apr

...occurred “in the course of” armed conflict between Israel and the PA. This lawsuit, and six others with identical facts, will most likely go forward. Whether these lawsuits are helpful in ultimately resolving the Israel-PA conflict is less likely, especially when a U.S. court has to rule on questions such as Palestine’s statehood and the legality of its attacks under international law. But the victims have an undoubtedly powerful claim here and it is hard to say no to them, especially when the statutes plainly authorize these kinds of lawsuits....
04.04.06 | |

26 May

...Serbia. Israel could claim Iran has violated Article 3(c)’s prohibition on “direct and public incitement to commit genocide.” Still, even though it seems as if Iran’s president Ahmadinejad probably would like to annihilate Israel, I’m doubtful whether a claim for “inciting” genocide without any actual hostile actions that might constitute genocide will “succeed.” Moreover, Israel is just opening the door to a similar claim brought by Palestine (see here for a detailed roadmap for just such a suit) and can look forward to several years of very slow ICJ litigation....
26.05.06 | |

15 May

...ICC's Rome Statute in order to handle a specific case before them. In the future, if G.W. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, and others were alleged to have authorized or abetted war crimes (e.g., torture and cruel, inhuman treatment of detainees) and crimes against humanity (e.g., secret detention) in Afghanistan, which is a party to the Rome Statute, and another party refers the case to the ICC, I do not believe that the ICC would have to address the entire conflict in Afghanistan and/or elsewhere in order to address the specific...
15.05.13 | |

28 Nov

1988 UN Drug Convention, and that the reporter misunderstood the quotes as relating to future cases as well. In fact, reporters seemed to be getting things wrong right and left yesterday. Reuters headlined its story about the Colombia denunciation "Colombia withdraws from pact required it to abide by ICJ rulings", and, before updates, a Reuters article referred to Palestine's bid for "semi-statehood" today (the current version now refers to an implicit recognition of the "sovereign state of Palestine", so someone must have recognized the error and tacked the other way)!...
28.11.12 | |

10 Jan

...If only some of the time spent on such matters was devoted to learning the history and daily experience of Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza (and elsewhere) up to and during this latest war, as well as coming to an honest assessment of precisely how and why the Israelis have driven themselves into an historical and political dead end. On the former see, for instance, Saree Makdisi's Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation (New York: W. W. Norton, 2008), and for the latter, see Sylvain Cypel's Walled: Israeli Society...
10.01.09 | |

26 Jul

...indiscriminate. Depending on circumstantial evidence of intent, could it also be a criime against humanity of the traditional type (not the ICC definition with its many limitations)-- and attack on civilians? carl meyer Mainen, Kevin's argument has been expressed a number of times and he portrayed a more complex reality. This is an old post that he published: "I am not completely convinced that Gaza is still occupied by Israel. It’s very close, with good arguments on both sides. Two points, though: 1. if it is not, then Israel’s blockade...
26.07.14 | |

27 Jul

...Israel, though, it was admitted right after the armistice agreements were signed and thus the Charter did not apply to the Independence War. Since the Charter is a conventional norm, I think it has full force the moment it goes into effect, and does not need to "gain steam" like a customary norm. Charles Gittings Huh?? Palestine was administered by Britain, a charter memeber of the UN, under a League of Nations mandate. Not only does the UN Charter apply, the original mandate does as well. It's a situation that...
27.07.07 | |

03 Jul

...Goldstone changed his mind about whether Israel intentionally attacked civilians based on evidence that came to light after the report was published. He did not "publicly disassociate himself from the exercise." You can read his op-ed in the Washington Post for yourself here. That said, I encourage you to read NGO Monitor's "analysis" and "refutation" of the new Gaza Report. It's more entertaining, and no less fictional, than the new Stephen King novel "Finders Keepers." shmuel Kevin, this is hardly the case when she writes on Israel/Palestine. The article that...
03.07.15 | |

02 May

..."war"). But, however that may be, no statement to the effect that the US is "engaged in a war" could possibly provide any legal justification, either for any use of force in the sense of Article 2(4) of the Charter, or in any other sense (disregarding for a moment the possibility of a derogation from the ICCPR under its Article 4 - which is not openly dependent on any state of "war", and which in any event has never been declared). For present purposes of the attack in (arguably: on)...
02.05.08 | |