Thesis: Cohen, Israeli Judges in a Jewish State and the Decline of Refugee Protection

Cohen, Iftach. Israeli Judges in a Jewish State and the Decline of Refugee Protection, LL.M. Thesis. Florence: European University Institute, 2015.
 
URL: http://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/39068/2015_Cohen_LLM.pdf (PDF)
 
Abstract

In this L.L.M thesis I am following a number of eminent scholars who have attributed those ideological and political motivations to the mainly Jewish and Israeli actors who devote themselves to the furthering of the uniqueness thesis in their respective fields of knowledge. In my view, from the culmination of those corresponsive activities emerges a pattern that can and should be applied to the Israeli judges in their abnormal reluctance from interfering in administrative decisions by recognizing present day asylum seekers as refugees.

In the larger scope, there is a lot in common between Jewish and Jewish-Israeli historians, diplomats or museum directors, with their persistent effort to reject the calls of other victim-groups for recognition of their own tragedy as a genuine genocide, and the Israeli judges that in the same vain derogate from the constitutive theoretical principles of their field of work when it comes to the dealing with the Holocaust.

As much as the Jewish-Israeli genocide scholar may fear the decline in value, morally and politically, of the Holocaust, as a result of possible recognition of other tragedies as additional valid examples in line with the Holocaust, which all belong to the general category of the definition ‘genocide’, the Israeli judge must also believe that the Holocaust would lose its uniqueness if the legal definition of ‘refugee’ is applied to the situation of contemporary asylum seekers. Conceptually situating them in the same group of the Jewish -refugees who fled from Nazi-Germany, might then dissipate the “Israeli advantage” in “justifiably” keeping the whole moral capital to itself.

In the second chapter I shall present and elaborate about the Holocaust’s uniqueness thesis, and its promotion by its proponents in different fields, and especially within history studies.

What might make the definition ‘refugee’ intimately associated with the Holocaust in the Israeli judges’ mind is the Jewish context of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, and the conventional wisdom about Israel’s historical commitment to the refugee protection regime it has established. For them, the Refugee Convention connotes so strongly to the Holocaust, that when they examine its applicability and implementation in a specific case, the memory of the Jewish-refugee who fled his Nazi perpetrators is being instantly evoked. In other words, the Jewish context of the Convention serves as a nexus between the Holocaust with its Jewish refugees and the contemporary forms of persecution and the refugees resulting from them. Rather than considering the international refugee law as their only valid point of reference, the judges are more attached – consciously or not – to the Holocaust framework and to what lies at its center, the Holocaust’s uniqueness. Compelled by the ideological imperative to distinguish the Holocaust from any other historical atrocity, and so to avoid such possible implication if comparing the legal situation of the Holocaust’s refugees to the contemporary asylum seekers, the judges seem to mistake the unique form of persecution witnessed by the Jewish-refugees for the actual yardstick with which to measure the appellant’s entitlement for the refugee status.

In the third chapter I examine the involvement of Israel and Jewish organizations in the drafting and acceptance of the Refugee Convention, as well as the sources for the conventional wisdom about Israel’s historical commitment to the Convention, and its fallacy.

In the last chapter of this thesis I conduct an analysis of the figurative language used by the judges in trying to establish – through the allusions occasionally made by them to the Holocaust at large and more commonly to the Jewish context of the Refugee Convention – that when thinking about the asylum seeker appellant standing before them, they also bear in mind a phantom of the Jewish refugee, whose suffering’s magnitude overshadows any possible fear of being prosecuted proclaimed by the actual appellant. Since present day asylum seekers do not withstand the unique standards of persecution witnessed by those poor phantoms of Jewish refugees, their asylum claims are inevitably being discarded and consequently they all pass for nothing but mere economical migrants, a fact that is exemplified in the inexistent refugee recognition rate both at first instance and at the Court level.

 

 

 

New Article: Pozzi & Alborali, Animal Welfare Regulations for Swine Keeping in Israel

Pozzi, P.S., and G. L. Alborali. “Animal Welfare Regulations for Swine Keeping in Israel: A Comparison with the EU Directive 120 of 2008 ‘Laying Down Minimum Standards for the Protection of Pigs’.” Israel Journal of Veterinary Medicine 71.1 (2016): 10-14.

 

URL: http://www.ijvm.org.il/sites/default/files/pozzi_0.pdf (PDF)

 

Abstract

In February 2015, Israel approved the new Animal Welfare Law – Animal Protection – “Regulations for Swine Keeping for Agricultural Purposes”, which was implemented since May 2015. In comparison with European Union (EU) Legislation on swine protection (Council Directive 2008/120/EC of 18 December 2008), Israeli Regulations are ameliorative in terms of reduction of days in insemination stalls for gilts and sows; reduction of days in restraint during lactation; available floor area to each animal; pain management and relief in the course of castration, tail docking and corner-teeth clipping.

 

 

 

New Article: Wolfson, Animal Protection under Israeli Law

Wolfson, Yossi. “Animal Protection Under Israeli Law.” In Animal Law and Welfare. International Perspectives (ed. Deborah Cao and Steven White; Cham: Springer, 2016): 157-79.

 

 

URL: dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26818-7_8

 

Abstract

Israeli law, in some aspects, is rather progressive as to the protection of non-human animals. While “animal abuse” is interpreted as causing animals “unnecessary suffering”, the content given to this phrase defeats some characteristics attributed by Gary Francione to “legal welfarism”. In some instances the interests of nonhuman animals override substantive human interests, anchored in institutionalized forms of exploitation. An example is the ban on force-feeding of geese and ducks. Animal protection organizations were granted a broad mandate by the Israeli legislature and courts to represent the interests of animals in civil, administrative and criminal procedures. This solves the problem of standing which undermines animal protection in other jurisdictions. While Israeli law protects the interests of animals for the sake of the animals and gives them some weight, social power relations are still based on the cruel exploitation of nonhumans by humans. This chapter describes the principles of animal protection in Israeli law, discusses aspects that may inspire animal protection in other countries, and goes into some detail regarding the specific provisions of Israeli laws that are difficult to access without the knowledge of Hebrew.

 

 

New Article: Kranz, Access to Israeli Citizenship

Kranz, Dani. “Quasi-Ethnic Capital vs. Quasi-Citizenship Capital: Access to Israeli Citizenship.” Migration Letters 13.1 (2016): 64-83.

 

URL: http://econpapers.repec.org/RePEc:mig:journl:v:13:y:2016:i:1:p:64-83

 

Abstract

Israel defines itself as a Jewish state by way of ideology, policy, and constitutionality. Jewish immigration is encouraged, and rewarded with direct access to Israeli citizenship for olim (Jewish immigrants) and their immediate family. The legal situation for foreign, non-Jewish partners, and spouses of Israeli Jewish citizens is different: these non-Jewish immigrants can potentially access Israeli citizenship through the Nationality Law. These different inroads into Israeli citizenship for both groups must be seen in connection to diasporic Jewish history, Israeli history, the country’s geopolitical situation, as well as attitudes toward intermarriage. In practice this means that the incorporation of non-Jewish spouses of olim is a compromise to bolster Jewish immigration, while the problems of incorporating the partners/spouses of Israeli Jewish citizens stem from (historic and current) negative attitudes toward intermarriage, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and labour migration, all of which ramify into the issue of family reunion for all Israeli citizens.

 

 

 

ToC: Israel Studies 21.2 (2016)

Israel Studies, 21.2 (2016)

Table of Contents

 

 Front Matter (pp. i-v)

Special Section—Dislocations of Immigration

The Politics of Defining Jews from Arab Countries (pp. 1-26)

Shayna Zamkanei 

Challenges and Psychological Adjustment of Religious American Adolescent Immigrants to Israel (pp. 27-49)

Avidan Milevsky

“Marginal Immigrants”: Jewish-Argentine Immigration to the State of Israel, 1948–1967 (pp. 50-76)

Sebastian Klor

Articles

Annexation or Separation? The Municipal Status of the Jewish Neighborhoods of Jaffa 1940–1944 (pp. 77-101)

Tamir Goren

Reasoning from History: Israel’s “Peace Law” and Resettlement of the Tel Malhata Bedouin (pp. 102-132)

Havatzelet Yahel and Ruth Kark

The Israeli Names Law: National Integration and Military Rule (pp. 133-154)

Moshe Naor

 Khilul Hashem: Blasphemy in Past and Present Israel (pp. 155-181)

Gideon Aran

The Construction and De-construction of the Ashkenazi vs. Sephardic/Mizrahi Dichotomy in Israeli Culture: Rabbi Eliyahou Zini vs. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (pp. 182-205)

Joseph Ringel

Back Matter

 

 

New Article: Meydani, Tour Guides Policy: Law or Political Culture?

Meydani, Assaf.”Tour Guides Policy: Law or Political Culture? The Case of Pilgrims in the Holy Land.” International Journal of Public Law and Policy 5.3 (2016).

 
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/IJPLAP.2015.075028

 
Abstract

The role of tour guides has not been widely discussed in the literature, and neither has the policy that governs the place of tour guides in relation to the pilgrimage in the Holy Land. The Israeli Supreme Court (1987) has enabled pilgrims to guide without a licence, in clear opposition to the position of the Israeli Tour Guides’ Association. This led to a public ‘storm’, as a result of the tension between law, tourism, religion and state. It seems that the pilgrims’ debate is not over yet in Israel. This paper will try to analyse the court decision within a neo-institutionalism approach emphasising non-governability and alternative political culture as explanatory variables.

 

 

 

New Book: McKee, Dwelling in Conflict

McKee, Emily Dwelling in Conflict. Negev Landscapes and the Boundaries of Belonging. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2016.

 

Land disputes in Israel are most commonly described as stand-offs between distinct groups of Arabs and Jews. In Israel’s southern region, the Negev, Jewish and Bedouin Arab citizens and governmental bodies contest access to land for farming, homes, and industry and struggle over the status of unrecognized Bedouin villages. “Natural,” immutable divisions, both in space and between people, are too frequently assumed within these struggles.

 

Dwelling in Conflict offers the first study of land conflict and environment based on extensive fieldwork within both Arab and Jewish settings. It explores planned towns for Jews and for Bedouin Arabs, unrecognized villages, and single-family farmsteads, as well as Knesset hearings, media coverage, and activist projects. Emily McKee sensitively portrays the impact that dividing lines—both physical and social—have on residents. She investigates the political charge of people’s everyday interactions with their environments and the ways in which basic understandings of people and “their” landscapes drive political developments. While recognizing deep divisions, McKee also takes seriously the social projects that residents engage in to soften and challenge socio-environmental boundaries. Ultimately, Dwelling in Conflict highlights opportunities for boundary crossings, revealing both contemporary segregation and the possible mutability of these dividing lines in the future.

 

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• 1. Narrating Present Pasts
• 2. Seeking Recognition
• Bridge: Distant Neighbors
• 3. Coping with Lost Land
• 4. Reforming Community
• 5. Challenging Boundaries
• Conclusion

 

EMILY McKEE is Assistant Professor in the Anthropology Department and the Institute for the Study of Environment, Sustainability, and Energy at Northern Illinois University.

 

 

 

New Article: Mundlak, Comparing Trade Union Strategies in Four Countries

Mundlak, Guy. “Organizing Workers in ‘Hybrid Systems’: Comparing Trade Union Strategies in Four Countries — Austria, Germany, Israel and the Netherlands.” Theoretical Inquiries in Law 17 (2016): 163-200.

 

URL: http://www7.tau.ac.il/ojs/index.php/til/article/view/1376

 

Abstract

The freedom and right to associate carries distinct meanings in different systems of industrial relations, giving rise to distinct institutions. Where bargaining is based on grassroots association, rates of membership in trade unions and coverage of collective agreements are low. Where bargaining is actively endorsed by the state, high rates of membership are matched by considerable coverage. Over the last two decades, some countries, four of which are studied here, have gone through a process that I designate as hybridization, in which a gap emerges between a rapidly declining rate of membership and persistent relatively high level of coverage. The article accounts for the growing gap between coverage and membership and its implications. On the basis of extensive interviews with trade union officials, organizers, works councils’ members, Labor Chamber representatives, academics and journalists in the four countries, the article further seeks to document and explain new organizing practices at two levels. First, why do unions seeks to organize, despite persistent power accorded to collective agreements by the state? Second, which strategies are used for current recruitment and organizing practices? The discussion highlights the ongoing tension that is folded in the meeting of institutions that are aimed at sustaining the centralized system of bargaining and social partnership, with the dynamics that are characteristic of raising membership levels. Some best practices that seek to address this tension are identified, but are also characterized as difficult to emulate and extend as a general practice.

 

 

 

New Article: McKee, Coping with Cultural Recognition and Its Denial in Southern Israel

McKee, Emily. “Demolitions and Amendments: Coping with Cultural Recognition and Its Denial in Southern Israel.” Nomadic Peoples 19.1 (2015): 95-119.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3197/np.2015.190107

 

Abstract

This article examines how social preferences, in the form of cultural politics, become concretised in land laws. In Israel, Bedouin Arabs in unrecognised villages and Jewish farmers of individual farmsteads each faced governmental eviction orders and responded by seeking recognition of their land-use practices as legal. However, whereas Jewish farmers successfully mobilised place-based identities to gain legalisation, Bedouin Arabs’ dwelling practices were not recognised as the legitimate basis for land claims, and their attempts to assert place-based identities have been denied. Instead, Bedouin Arabs faced pressures of ‘de-cultural accommodation’ and continued evictions. Ethnographic comparison of these two cases of ‘illegal’ settlement demonstrates how cultural identities – as former nomads or pioneer farmers – matter for land claims.

 
 
 
 

New Book: Sasley and Waller, Politics in Israel: Governing a Complex Society

Sasley, Brent E., and Harold M. Waller. Politics in Israel: Governing a Complex Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

 

 

This is the first textbook on Israel to utilize a historical-sociological approach, telling the story of Israeli politics rather than simply presenting a series of dry facts and figures. The book emphasizes six specific dimensions of the conduct of Israeli politics: the weight of historical processes, the struggle between different groups over how to define the country’s identity, changing understandings of Zionism, a changing political culture, the influence of the external threat environment, and the inclusive nature of the democratic process. These themes offer students a framework to use for understanding contemporary political events within the country. Politics in Israel also includes several chapters on topics not previously addressed in competing texts, including historical conditions that led to the emergence of Zionism in Israel, the politics of the Arab minority, and interest groups and political protest.

 

Table of Contents

Abbreviations
Preface
Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1: Israel in Historical and Comparative Perspective
Studying Israel
Israel in a Comparative Framework
Major Themes of the Book
A Note on Terminology
 
PART I: HISTORICAL PROCESSES
Chronology of Key Events
Chapter 2: Zionism and the Origins of Israel
Jewish History before Zionism
The Jewish Predicament in the 19th Century
The Founding of the Zionist Movement
Implications of Zionism
Herzl’s Path to Zionism
Organizing the Zionist Movement
Zionist Ideologies
The Palestine Mandate
Summary
 
Chapter 3: Yishuv Politics during the Mandate Period
Constructing a Jewish Society
Development of a Party System
Conflict between Arabs and Jews in Mandatory Palestine
Deteriorating Zionist-British Relations
The End of the Mandate
The Mandate Period in Perspective
Summary
 
Chapter 4: State Building After 1948
Mamlachtiut
The Political Arena
Defense
Education
Economy
Personal Status Issues
Other State-Building Efforts
Summary
 
PART II: ISRAELI SOCIETY
Chapter 5: Political Culture and Demography
The Pre-State Period
Foundational Values of the State
Changes since 1967
From Collectivism to Individualism
Political Culture in the Arab Community
Demography
Summary
 
Chapter 6: Religion and Politics
Religion and the Idea of a Jewish State
Setting the Parameters of the Religion-State Relationship
Growing Involvement in Politics
Issues in Religion-State Relations after 2000
Religious Parties and Coalition Politics
Summary
 
Chapter 7: The Politics of the Arab Minority
What’s in a Name?
Changing Politics of the Community
Jewish Attitudes toward the Arab Minority
Arab Leaders and the Arab Public
Voter turnout
Sayed Kashua as Barometer?
Summary
 
PART III: THE POLITICAL PROCESS
Chapter 8: The Electoral System
The Development of an Electoral System
Election Laws
Parties and Lists
Electoral Reforms
Summary
 
Chapter 9: Political Parties and the Party System
Party Clusters
Leftist Parties
Rightist Parties
Religious Parties
Arab Parties
Center or “Third” Parties
Ethnic or Special Issues Parties
Party Organization
Summary
 
Chapter 10: Voting Patterns
Four Main Issues
Demographic Factors
Voter Turnout
Electoral Trends
Summary
 
Chapter 11: Interest Groups and Political Protest
Changing Access in the Israeli Political System
Interest Groups
Political Protest
Summary
 
PART IV: INSTITUTIONS
Chapter 12: The Knesset
Structure of the Knesset
Legal Aspects
Knesset Members
Functions and Powers of the Knesset
Relationship to the Government
Summary
 
Chapter 13: The Government
The Government at the Center of the System
Powers of the Government
Forming a Government
Maintaining and Running a Government
Relations with the Knesset
The President of the State
Summary
 
Chapter 14: The Judiciary and the Development of Constitutional Law
The Judicial System
Structure of the Court System
The Religious Court System
The Attorney General
Basic Laws: A Constitution in the Making?
Interpreting the Constitution
Summary
 

PART V: POLITICS AND POLICYMAKING
Chapter 15: Political Economy
Ideas about Economic Development in the Yishuv
A State(ist) Economy
Likud and the Free Market
Structural Weaknesses
Summary
 
Chapter 16: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Three Levels of Threat Perception
Israel’s Threat Environment
Hawks and Doves in the Political System
The Defense Establishment
Public Opinion
Summary
 
PART VI: THE TRANSFORMATiON OF ISRAELI POLITICS
Chapter 17: The Changing Political Arena
A More Complex Society
An Economic Transformation
Transformation of the Security Situation
The Israeli-Palestinian Relationship
Dampening of Ideology
Political Culture and the Party System
The Passing of a Heroic Generation
A More Consequential Arab Sector
The Transformation of the Judiciary
Change versus Continuity
 
Chapter 18: Confronting the Meaning of a Jewish State
The Political Question: What is Jewish and Democratic?
The Social Question: Who Belongs?
The Academic Question: Whose Historiography?
Conclusion
 
Appendices
Glossary
Bibliography

 

BRENT E. SASLEY is Associate Professor of Political Science at The University of Texas at Arlington.
HAROLD M. WALLER is Professor of Political Science at McGill University.

New Article: Canor et al, Litigating Human Rights Violations Through Tort Law

Canor, Iris, Tamar Gidron, and Haya Zandberg. “Litigating Human Rights Violations Through Tort Law: Israeli Law Perspective.” In Damages for Violations of Human Rights: A Comparative Study of Domestic Legal Systems (ed. Ewa Bagińska; Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2016): 193-215.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18950-5_9

 

Abstract

Israeli law supplies multiple legal sources for protection of human rights: constitutional protection, criminal protection, administrative protection and civil law- mostly tort law- protection. These sources supply protection against both public (state and public authorities, bodies, officers) and private (personal as well as legal entities) violations of human rights. This papers deals with the relevant causes of action by which Israeli courts compensate for the harm caused by human rights violations. We shall mainly deal with tort law, yet since the interplay among the multiple sources of protection is sometime complicated and unclear we shall have to relate to constitutional/penal law as well, but only when directly relevant to the main issue of the paper. Two main consequences follow. First, the current law in Israel portrays a very well equipped toolkit. Second, nevertheless, case law still grapples with the idea of finding a well-balanced avenue to impose absolute liability for violations of human rights regardless of fault, negligence or any other deviation from reasonable conduct on the part of the state and its organs and/or officers in certain limited type of circumstances.

 

 

ToC: Israel Studies Review 30.2 (2015)

Israel Studies Review 30.2 (2015)

Editors’ Note

Editors’ Note
pp. v-vi(2)

 

Articles

Labor Zionism, the State, and Beyond: An Interpretation of Changing Realities and Changing Histories
pp. 1-27(27)
Author: Cohen, Mitchell

Does Israel Have a Navel? Anthony Smith and Zionism
pp. 28-49(22)
Author: Berent, Moshe

The Women of the Wall: A Metaphor for National and Religious Identity
pp. 50-70(21)
Author: Lahav, Pnina

Yiddish, Israel, and the Palestinians: Yosl Birshteyn’s “Between the Olive Trees”
pp. 71-91(21)
Author: Mahalel, Adi

Beyond the Religious-Secular Dichotomy: Looking at Five Israeli Dystopias
pp. 92-112(21)
Author: Katz, Gideon

The Politics of Emotion: A Case Study of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
pp. 113-129(17)
Author: Gold, Dana

 

Book Reviews

Book Reviews
pp. 130-155(26)

Reviews: Kislev, Water Economy of Israel

Kislev, Yoav. The Water Economy of Israel. Saarbrücken, Germany: Lambert Academic Publishing, 2014.

 

 
Reviews

• Becker, Nir.”Review.” Water Economics and Policy 1.3 (2015).

 

 

Event: Three Presidents, discussion with Former Chief Justices Barak, Beinisch, and Grunis (Cardozo Law, Nov 9, 2015)

The Israeli Supreme Court Project at Cardozo Law presents

THREE PRESIDENTS: Former Israeli Chief Justices in Conversation

A discussion with  Aharon Barak, Dorit Beinisch, and Asher Grunis

Monday, November 9 7 p.m. Cardozo School of Law Jacob Burns Moot Court Room  55 Fifth Avenue  |  New York, NY 10003 Please RSVP to saphir@yu.edu (with “RSVP” noted in the subject line) For more information, visit The Israeli Supreme Court’s website, Versa.

New Book: Kotef, Movement and the Ordering of Freedom

Kotef, Hagar. Movement and the Ordering of Freedom: On Liberal Governances of Mobility. Durham: Duke University Press, 2015.

 

We live within political systems that increasingly seek to control movement, organized around both the desire and ability to determine who is permitted to enter what sorts of spaces, from gated communities to nation-states. In Movement and the Ordering of Freedom, Hagar Kotef examines the roles of mobility and immobility in the history of political thought and the structuring of political spaces. Ranging from the writings of Locke, Hobbes, and Mill to the sophisticated technologies of control that circumscribe the lives of Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank, this book shows how concepts of freedom, security, and violence take form and find justification via “regimes of movement.” Kotef traces contemporary structures of global (im)mobility and resistance to the schism in liberal political theory, which embodied the idea of “liberty” in movement while simultaneously regulating mobility according to a racial, classed, and gendered matrix of exclusions.

 

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgements

• Introduction
• 1. Between Imaginary Lines: Violence and Its Justifications at the Military Checkpoints in Occupied Palestine / Hagar Kotef and Merav Amir
• 2. An Interlude: A Tale of Two Roads—On Freedom and Movement
• 3. The Fence That “Ill Deserves the Name of Confinement”: Locomotion and the Liberal Body
• 4. The Problem of “Excessive” Movement
• 5. The “Substance and Meaning of All Things Political”: On Other Bodies
• Conclusion

Notes
Bibliography
Index

 

HAGAR KOTEF is based at the Minerva Humanities Center at Tel Aviv University.

 

 

New Article: Meshel | Bannai v Erez and the Jurisdictional Race of the Israeli and English Courts

Meshel, Tamar. “Bannai v Erez and the Jurisdictional Race of the Israeli and English Courts.” Arbitration International (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/arbint/aiv050

 

Abstract

The ongoing case of Bannai v Erez before the Israeli and English courts provides an unfortunate example of international commercial arbitration gone astray as a result of shortsighted and aggressive decision making by domestic courts.

 

 

 

 

New Article: Elkayam-Levy, Human Rights Challenge of Prisoners’ and Detainees’ Hunger Strikes at the Domestic Level

Elkayam-Levy, Cochav. “Facing the Human Rights Challenge of Prisoners’ and Detainees’ Hunger Strikes at the Domestic Level: Guidance for Policy-Makers, Government Officials, and Legal Advisors in the Management of Hunger Strikes”. Harvard International Law Journal Online 57 (2015): 49pp.

 

URL: http://www.harvardilj.org/wp-content/uploads/Prisoners-Hunger-Strikes_FINAL.pdf/

 
Extract

This Article is written in response to this problem. Undoubtedly, Israel’s challenges in dealing with hunger strikes are not unique; hunger strikes constitute a worldwide phenomenon that has affected many Western countries.10 Prisoners’ hunger strikes have become increasingly common and their attendant ethical, legal and medical issues have been an issue of heated debate.

The phenomenon of hunger strikes has opened the debate on prisoners’ rights and state actions, yielding extensive scholarship and significant response from the international community, namely international human rights institutions and organizations, governments, and courts. However, analysis and advocacy around the rights of prisoners on hunger strikes are found chiefly in the medical literature, and to some extent centered on the unique situation of the detainees held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay. Of the literature published in legal publications,many address the medical aspects or the role of physicians,often focusing on and advocating for a response consistent with the medical and ethical rules provided by the World Medical Association.

 

 

 

New Article: Simmons and Hammer, Privatization of Prisons in Israel and Beyond

Simmons, William Paul, and Leonard Hammer. “Privatization of Prisons in Israel and Beyond: A Per Se Violation of the Human Right to Dignity.” Santa Clara Journal of International Law 13.2 (2015): 487-515.

 

URL: http://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/scujil/vol13/iss2/7

 

Abstract

Making a rather ambitious, broad-form decision, the Israeli Supreme Court (ISC) in 2009 ruled that privatization of prisons is a per se violation of human rights, in particular the rights to liberty and dignity. The Court ruled that it was not the often deleterious consequences of privatization that violated the rights to liberty and dignity, but that privatization of prisons by itself was a violation. This decision has been subject to much negative commentary and criticism with most analyses focusing on the Court’s argument on the right to liberty. Scholars that have dismissed the opinion seemed to have misread it, often grounding their counter-arguments with faulty and wildly abstract premises that misrepresent the human rights issues at stake. This article focuses on the Court’s novel argument on the right to human dignity, and especially how privatization of prisons turns inmates into commodities. While this argument may have been under-developed in the Court’s opinion, teasing out and expanding on the Court’s logic could provide an important new avenue to consider when litigating matters that pertain to the fundamental human right to dignity in other forums, both domestic and international.

The Israeli Court decision briefly mentions that similar decisions have not been made in other forums and cited a brief that suggested that “were arguments of this kind to be raised before those courts, they would not be expected to be successful.” This paper argues instead that the logic of the Israeli decision on the human rights to dignity could be successful in other jurisdictions, especially those that have strong case law on the rights of vulnerable populations and the right to human dignity, such as South Africa, the African Commission of Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the Inter-American Human Rights system. Indeed, the viable contentions based on the human right to dignity that could be raised before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights serve as potential grounds for challenging the widespread privatization of prisons in the United States.

This paper begins with an analysis of the Israeli prison privatization case with a focus on the Court’s finding of a per se violation of the human right to dignity. The second section analyzes two previous commentaries of the Israeli case to show how even those in agreement with the Court’s decision have misread the case. This analysis provides a deeper and more nuanced reading of the Israeli Court’s logic on the human right to dignity, especially how the commodification of inmates in a private prison inherently is a violation of that right at least in the Israeli context. The third section expands upon the Court’s reasoning through a discussion of what has been referred to as “cauterization,” which involves branding a group as inferior, sealing it off from the social and political sphere, and reducing sympathy for its members. Interestingly, the same logic was also used in a recent groundbreaking mental health decision, Purohit and Moore v. Gambia, a case before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The fourth section teases out the key elements of the Israeli decision to show which elements would need to be present to successfully bring such a case in other jurisdictions. These elements are present not only in the Israeli context, but also in the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the South African Constitutional Court, and the Inter-American Human Rights system.

 

 

New Book: Jonathan-Zamir et al, Policing in Israel

Jonathan-Zamir, Tal, David Weisburd, and Badi Hasisi, eds. Policing in Israel: Studying Crime Control, Community, and Counterterrorism. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2016.

 

 

Policing in Israel presents important advances in Israeli police science during the past decade. It demonstrates how empirical research in countries outside the traditional research domains of the United States, Europe, and Australia can provide comparative legitimacy to key concepts and findings in policing. It also addresses innovative questions in the study of police, showing that there is much to learn about the police enterprise by looking to Israel.

The studies included in this book contribute to the policing literature in three significant ways. They replicate findings from English-speaking countries on key issues such as hot-spots policing, thereby supporting the validity of the findings and enabling a wider scope of generalization. Also, they utilize unique Israeli conditions to address questions that are difficult to test in other countries, such as in counterterrorism. Finally, they ask innovative questions in the study of policing that are yet to be addressed elsewhere.

Aside from providing better knowledge about policing in Israel, the broader advances in police science that the book illustrates play an important role. It contributes to major areas of contemporary interest in policing literature, including crime control, police–community relationships, and policing terrorism. Policing in Israel gives you not only a broad picture of Israeli policing and police research in the past decade, but also carries critical implications for policing scholars and practitioners around the world.
.

 

Table of Contents

 
Policing in Israel: Studying Crime Control, Community, and Counterterrorism: Editors’ Introduction
Tal Jonathan-Zamir, David Weisburd, and Badi Hasisi

CRIME CONTROL

Law of Concentrations of Crime at Place: Case of Tel Aviv-Jaffa
David Weisburd and Shai Amram

Vehicle Impoundment Regulations as a Means of Reducing Traffic Violations and Road Accidents in Israel
Tova Rosenbloom and Ehud Eldror

Lean Management for Traffic Police Enforcement Planning
Nicole Adler, Jonathan Kornbluth, Mali Sher, and Shalom Hakkert

Organizational Structure, Police Activity, and Crime
Itai Ater, Yehonatan Givati, and Oren Rigbi

THE POLICE AND THE COMMUNITY

Police, Politics, and Culture in a Deeply Divided Society
Badi Hasisi

Crime Victims and Attitudes toward Police: Israeli Case
Gali Aviv

Procedural Justice, Minorities, and Religiosity
Roni Factor, Juan Castilo, and Arye Rattner

Police Understanding of Foundations of Their Legitimacy in the Eyes of the Public: Case of Commanding Officers in Israel National Police
Tal Jonathan-Zamir and Amikam Harpaz

POLICING TERRORISM

Terrorist Threats and Police Performance: A Study of Israeli Communities
David Weisburd, Badi Hasisi, Tal Jonathan-Zamir, and Gali Aviv

Police Legitimacy under the Spotlight: Media Coverage of Police Performance in the Face of High Terrorism Threat
Revital Sela-Shayovitz

Policing Terrorism and Police–Community Relations: Views of Arab Minority in Israel
Badi Hasisi and David Weisburd

How Has Israel National Police Perceived Its Role in Counterterrorism and Potential Outcomes? A Qualitative Analysis of Annual Police Reports
Tal Jonathan-Zamir and Gali Aviv

Lessons from Empirical Research on Policing in Israel: Policing Terrorism and Police–Community Relationships
Simon Perry and Tal Jonathan-Zamir

 

 

 

New Article: Afori, Site Blocking in Israel

Afori, Tamir. “Site Blocking in Israel: Contradictory Decisions of the District Court.” Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice 10.10 (2015): 735-6.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jiplp/jpv151

 

Abstract

Two contradictory judgments were delivered by the District Court in Tel Aviv regarding the application of ‘site blocking’ procedures. In NMC, the court ordered all Israeli ISPs to block access in Israel to the infringing website UniDown. In ZIRA, the court dismissed a request for a temporary order to block access to websites that distributed the computer software ‘Popcorn Time’.