Opinion

This is the week to hear Sourani and Jabarin speak on law under occupation

Last night I caught Raji Sourani, the human rights leader in Gaza, speaking at the CUNY Law School in Queens. More of what he said at the end of this post. But this week and next if you’re on the east coast you have a terrific opportunity to see this giant of international law alongside Shawan Jabarin of al-Haq in Ramallah speaking. Here are the dates:

-Tonight, 4/12, 6:30-8:30– Sourani, Jabarin and Amira Hass, NYU Law School

-Wednesday, 4/13 1:00-2:30, UN Church Center, Sourani and Jabarin and Katherine Gallagher of Center for Constitutional Rights

-Wednesday, 4/13 6:30-8:30, NY Society for Ethical Culture, Sourani, Jabarin, Rashid Khalidi and Katherine Franke,

· Thursday, April 14: Harvard, with Sara Roy. 12:30 PM.

· Sunday, April 17, 2016 7:30pm to 9:30pm, Washington DC, Busboys and Poets

· Wednesday April 20, Washington DC. Washington College of Law.

· Wednesday April 20: Washington. New America Foundation, 3-4:30 PM.

Again, tonight’s event is with Amira Hass, you still have time to get there. Tomorrow night with Rashid Khalidi and Katherine Franke. That event will be live-streamed here.

Max Blumenthal reports that the rightwing group NGO Monitor is pressuring Columbia University to shut the event down tomorrow because of the association of Code Pink, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and other groups. Crazy.

Here was some of Sourani’s statement last night, about why he works in military courts.

We used to do active work under occupation. Sometimes you pay and you pay dearly for the legal work you are doing. Including imprisonment. And detention, administrative detention for no legal reason whatsoever….

Why we work under occupation? Why we work in Israel military courts? Do we have any illusion about justice or equality that can be achieved under occupation? Do we think that law practice is productive for those we represent? We never ever were under such  illusion of the Israeli criminal military occupation. But we wanted to be the eyewitness.

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So brave, those three. Such dicks, NGO Monitor. They need monitoring.

I was in Palestine last month, with Christian Peacemaker Teams. (I’m Jewish. You don’t have to be a Christian to serve with CPT. Who knew?) We had a presentation by someone from Military Court Watch (google it). They observe the “trials,” especially of children, in military courts. Usually they plead guilty, even if they are innocent; if they have a lawyer, the lawyer will advise them to do so. The conviction rate is 99+% — ironic when you recall that in ancient Israel, if the court, the Sanhedrin, was unanimous, the judgment was thrown out, because it was almost certainly obtained by bribery
Of course it’s immaterial to the Israelis whether the particular child is innocent or guilty. The purpose is to intimidate the whole community, and it works very well.