Get right down to it: Israel calls Goldstone report “anti-Semitism”
The UN is waiting for Israel’s official response to the Goldstone report, the UN’s “fact finding commission” on the 22-day Gaza war which charges Israel with deliberately and disproportionately targeting civilians, among other crimes, but is silent about any misdeeds on the part of Hamas. The official response is expected as early as Thursday.
In advance of traveling to New York to present Israel’s response, Israeli Minister Yuli Edelstein told Yediot Aharonot that “The Goldstone Report … and similar reports, are simply a type of anti-Semitism.
AFP interpreted the Yediot report as suggesting that Israel “is planning an all-out attack on the report to coincide with Wednesday’s anniversary of the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz.”
“The connection between the Goldstone Report and the international Holocaust memorial day is not an easy thing. On the other hand, however, we must learn the lessons from what happened,” Edelstein, the Minister of Information and Diaspora Affairs, said.
“Then too, those who yelled out were told that Hitler is a clown and that all the gloomy predictions of the 1930s were nonsense,” he added.
The UN General Assembly endorsed the report’s findings in November. In the same month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution calling on the President and the Secretary of State to reject the report and oppose any further consideration of it in the UN. The measure passed overwhelmingly with only 36 voting against it. To see if your representative was among the few who opposed it, go here.
Comments (6) »Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 7:23 AM | Stand For Israel
France decides to get into “universal” harassment too
Oh, boy: The French government announced this week that it will set up a special judicial unit to investigate and bring charges against people accused of genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity in France or abroad — utilizing the “universal jurisdiction” law that’s been used in other European states to threaten Israelis with arrest.
Fortunately, unlike British law, France requires some connection between France and the alleged crime. We’ll have to see if visiting Paris leads to harassment of Israeli officials.
Comments (0) »Sunday, January 10th, 2010 at 12:28 PM | Stand For Israel
Universal harassment continues…
More stupidity this week thanks to Europe’s universal jurisdiction laws and the willingness of anti-Israel forces to use them dishonorably for political gain: A delegation of senior IDF officers had to cancel a planned visit to the UK to avoid being arrested upon landing.
The delegation included four officers with ranks of major to colonel who had been invited by the British Army. Alas, the Brits shame-facedly told their Israeli counterparts that they couldn’t guarantee that they wouldn’t be arrested.
Israeli officials said that, oddly enough, consistently trying to arrest Israeli officials will ”make it difficult for the two countries to maintain a normal relationship.”
That’s sort of the point, of course. And the Europeans, as of yet, aren’t really standing up to the clowns making a mockery of what actual war crimes are.
Comments (0) »Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 3:09 PM | Stand For Israel
Real “war criminals” use human shields. (Hint: We’re not referring to Israel)
Critics of Israel poo-poo allegations that Israel’s enemies use human shields, and the UN doesn’t condemn it.
There’s a lack of proof, they say. Um, just try watching CNN. (h/t Elder of Ziyon)
Comments (0) »Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 1:30 PM | Stand For Israel
UK promises to change law used to harass Israeli officials, but “universal jurisdiction” isn’t limited to UK
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is promising Israel that a wacky British law that’s been used by pro-Palestinian activists to harass Israeli officials is on its way out the door. Whether or not Britain cancels its law, the issue is one that some say imperils the concept of national sovereignty but, more immediately, has become a cudgel to threaten Israel and its leaders.
This week, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni became the latest in a line of elected officials and IDF officers who had to cancel plans to visit Great Britain when they learned that warrants for their arrest for “war crimes” had been sworn out in British courts. (It’s also happened in Belgium and Spain.) These warrants are based on a strange legal concept called “universal jurisdiction,” which up-ends the traditional concept of “jurisdiction” — meaning that courts in one locality or country have oversight only over that area or country.
This means that courts in Detroit don’t try cases that happened in Miami, nor can a judge in Miami tell the populace of Detroit what their laws ought to be there. Internationally, courts in Singapore rule over cases that happen in Singapore and don’t have the right or power to make rulings about cases or laws in Holland. Each country or locality has sovereignty–control over itself; it’s the responsibility of each area to set laws and try cases for their own jurisdiction. (This is why criminals are extradited — they have to be tried in the areas in which they’re accused of committing crimes.).
Universal jurisdiction, however, allows courts in one locality to extend their jurisdiction into other areas: So that one area’s courts can claim the right to prosecute offenses that happened well outside its area of jurisdiction. Once this crosses international borders, extending jurisdiction can be said to compromise national sovereignty. (Jurist Robert Bork is one of the legal scholars who’ve explored this issue in detail.)
(Ironically, one of the first cases in which a country tried someone for offenses that occurred outside its border was Read More » Comments (2) »
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 at 4:35 PM | Stand For Israel
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