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Noura Erakat
Israel versus Universal Jurisdiction: A Battle for International Human Rights Law
![[Image from Haaretz.com and ynetnews.com]](/content_images/3/sm_un+.jpg "[Image from Haaretz.com and ynetnews.com]")
On October 31, 2010, Spanish Judge Ferdinand Andreu refused to grant former Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter immunity from prosecution during his trip to Spain where he planned to participate in an international peace summit. Dichter faces charges for war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the 2002 targeted assassination of Salah Shehade, former senior Hamas member. Under Dichter’s supervision, the Israeli Air Force dropped a one-ton bomb on ...
Keep Reading »Register: Exile + 1
![[Image from guardian.co.uk]](/content_images/3/sm_images-13.jpeg.jpg "[Image from guardian.co.uk]")
The hallway felt increasingly smaller, tighter. Every minute drew in the baby blue trimmed walls closer to one another compressing me and my breath in between their administration. I tried to distract myself in David Harvey’s analysis of neoliberalism—yes uneven geographical development in China, Deng like Reagan like Thatcher...accumulation of wealth or was it capital accumulation or does he mean all out theft? The theories couldn’t embrace my imagination which fought ...
Keep Reading »Collective Punishment or Not, Gaza Blockade Illegal (Part I)
Israel’s blockade of Gaza is illegal irrespective of the manner in which it is imposed because a blockade is an act of war and an occupying power cannot declare war upon the territory it occupies. To do so would conflate the right to initiate war (jus ad bellum) with the laws of occupation (jus in bello) and render useless the distinction of the permissible use of force in each case. This analysis is different in kind from the one that characterizes the blockade as illegal ...
Keep Reading »Committee of Independent Experts: Israel Investigation Bad, But Not Bad Enough
![[Richard Goldstone, image from buzzaboutpolitics.com]](/content_images/3/sm_goldstone-091709.jpg "[Richard Goldstone, image from buzzaboutpolitics.com]")
On Tuesday September 21st, the Human Rights Council released an advance version of its report on the Independent Expert Commission created to assess the adequacy of Israeli and Palestinian domestic investigations of alleged war crimes committed during Operation Cast Lead pursuant to the UN Fact-Finding Mission recommendations, also known as the Goldstone Report. Oddly, while the 28-paged report finds that the domestic investigations fail to meet international standards ...
Keep Reading »New Methods of Warfare Target Civilians--And it's Legal
![[image from empirestrikesblack.com]](/content_images/3/sm_iraqchild1.jpg "[image from empirestrikesblack.com]")
The laws of war, or humanitarian law, are dynamic and read like a rich treatise on lessons learned-always commentary on the regulations of war that should have existed in order to avoid grotesque brutality. Consider that the International Committee of the Red Cross is the progeny of Henri Dunant's reflections on the lack of care for combatants in the Battle of Solferino, which he captured in his Souvenir de Solferino. The Hague Conventions of 1906 and 1907 came on the ...
Keep Reading »Neoliberalism's Populist Engine and Race in America
![[Image from Manishtama.blogspot.com]](/content_images/3/sm_ob.jpg "[Image from Manishtama.blogspot.com]")
What began as an entertaining spectacle of Americans reenacting the Boston tea party across the country in early 2009 has congealed into a viable and tangible political force. In the recent primaries leading up to the November mid-term elections, Tea Party candidates both challenged long-time Republican incumbents, and dominated the terms of reference thereby forcing Republican nominees to shift to the right. Senator John McCain’s bid for the Republican Senatorial ...
Keep Reading »Endless Negotiations: Palestinian Quicksand
![[Image from MSNBC.COM]](/content_images/3/sm_g-cvr-090922-obama-netanyahu-abbas-10a.grid-6x2.jpg "[Image from MSNBC.COM]")
News of resumed peace talks have hit the headlines--on September 1st, international leaders will break bread and on September 2nd, ostensibly well-rested and full-bellied, they will resume direct peace negotiations. Sadly, the photo opportunity will provide little more than the occasion for spectators to juxtapose this photo alongside similar ones over a span of nearly two decades. While this may make for a lovely Sunday afternoon activity with our children as we instill in ...
Keep Reading »An Incredible Finding in Israel's Investigation of Itself
Israel has just released an update in its ongoing investigation of itself during Operation Cast Lead. This Report Update is the third of its kind, the first two released in July 2009 and January 2010. While one cannot expect much from an investigation that lacks independence, some of the Report's findings are especially alarming.
Keep Reading »Another Credible Israeli Investigation
A state's investigation of its own armed forces and their conduct is not absurd--or at least it shouldn't be. In fact, the practice is encouraged in international law, which seeks to balance a state's sovereignty with universally applicable laws so to speak. However, in the case of Israel, which has empowered its military to investigate itself on the one hand and whose recent investigations have done more to justify its foreign policy than it has to uphold principles ...
Keep Reading »My 2MAS [Two-Minute Audio Sense] on Eltahawy's "Why Do They Hate Us?"
![[Image from foreignpolicy.com]](/content_images/3/sm_Foreign-Policy-magazine--001.jpg "[Image from foreignpolicy.com]")
Foreign Policy Magazine's latest edition is a special issue on Sex. Unfortunately, the Magazine considers sex in the Middle East mostly with a single article on China and a mention of it every where else across the Globe. Jadaliyya co-editors Sherene Seikaly and Maya Mikdashi wrote a stellar piece evaluating the issue and Mona Eltahawy's controversial piece, "Why Do They Hate Us?" Below, I respond to Eltahawy's piece in a two-minute audio ...
Keep Reading »Bio
Noura Erakat is a human rights attorney and writer. She is currently a Freedman Teaching Fellow at Temple University, Beasley School of Law and is a member of the Legal Support Network for the Badil Center for Palestinian Refugee and Residency Rights. She has taught International Human Rights Law and the Middle East at Georgetown University since Spring 2009. Most recently she served as Legal Counsel for a Congressional Subcommittee in the House of Representatives, chaired by Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich. She has helped to initiate and organize several national formations including Arab Women Arising for Justice (AMWAJ) and the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN). She is a board member of the Trans-Arab Research Institute (TARI); a Policy Advisor of Al-Shabaka; a founding member of the DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival; the development consultant for Legal Agenda; and a contributor to IntLawGrrls. Noura has appeared on MSNBC's "Up With Chris Hayes," Fox’s “The O’ Reilly Factor,” NBC’s “Politically Incorrect,” Democracy Now, and Al-Jazeera Arabic and English. Her scholarly publications include: "Litigating the Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Politicization of U.S. Federal Courts" in the Berkeley Law Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Law, "BDS in the USA: 2001-2010," in the Middle East Report, and "U.S. vs. ICRC-Customary International Humanitarian Law and Universal Jurisdiction" forthcoming in the Denver Journal of International Law & Policy. She is a Co-Editor of Jadaliyya.com. You can follow her on Twitter at @4noura.
(Noura's personal Jadaliyya page can be accessed here, and her website here)
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