Wayne Law International Legal Studies Lecture Series Counterpoint: Farer lecture on Israel-Palestine conflict was superficial, biased

By Todd R. Mendel I am an attorney and I attended the Tom Farer lecture conducted Wenesday, Sept. 22, by the Wayne State University Law School Program for International Legal Studies. Unfortunately, there was significant bias by the lecturer. Mr. Farer gave a very superficial overview of the conflict, and was biased against Israel. Among the many biased or simply wrong comments was when he said that, whether the Israel-Palestine situation is analogous to South African apartheid is debatable. This is pure political propoganda that Mr. Farer simply repeated. Israel is not at all comparable to South Africa or Apartheid and there are reams of legal, moral and scholarly authorities establishing exactly that. This is not debatable at all. As just one small example, the Palestinians are able to avail (and do avail) themselves of the Israeli justice system, one of the finest democratic institutions on the planet. The Palestinians in the West Bank are governed almost entirely in their daily lives by the Palestinian Authority, not by Israel. The Palestinians in Gaza are unfortunately governed in their daily lives by Hamas. The notion that Gaza is a prison is more propoganda repeated by Mr. Farer. Mr. Farer gave no legal or any analysis concerning the responsibilities of the Palestinians to govern themselves, and build their institutions and civil society. They get a complete free pass and total absolution from more than 60 years of terrorism as if it never existed, and is to be ignored in the application of international law and the law of armed conflict in particular. Mr. Farer's lecture contained little discussion of specific international law. He had slides but hardly used any of them. He did not at all cover the international law of armed conflict, which is the true law that applies because that is the reality. There is and has been an armed conflict going on since 1948 -- when Israel (agreeing to UN partition) was violently attacked from all sides immediately after it declared independence and was recognized as a State by the United States and many others. Instead, Mr. Farer just spoke about "humanitarian law," as if we should pretend that Hamas has not fired more than 10,000 rockets at Israel in the last ten years, and several 100 in the last couple months, and pretend that the Palestinians have not engaged in decades of kidnappings and suicide bombings specifically targeting innocent Israeli civilians in violation of international law. Israel goes to incredible efforts to follow the law of armed conflict at the risk of its own civilians and soldiers to avoid Palestinian civilian casualties and collateral damage. Numerous independent and honest officials have verified that, but Mr. Farer ignores it. Mr. Farer says that Gaza is like a prison. He ignores that the jailers are Hamas, not Israel. He omits that Hamas is recognized as a terrorist organization, and that it refuses to accept the norms and demands, not just of Israel, but, of the international community. Israel withdrew completely from Gaza five years ago, and left in place a very substantial infrastructure for the Palestinians to build a productive and civil society there. Instead, the Palestinians immediately destroyed the infrastructure and used Gaza as a launching pad for thousands of rockets fired at Israeli civilian communities indiscriminately, with the rockets being fired by Hamas from schools, mosques, hospitals and homes using them as human shields in violation of international law. No mention by Mr. Farer. Where was Mr. Farer's lecture on the international law of armed conflict on these subjects. Mr. Farer said that Palestinians are being arrested and held indefinitely and are being assassinated. But he left out that Hamas is the culprit, not Israel. The human rights violations that are occurring in Gaza are by Hamas. The Christian communities there are being brutalized by Hamas, not Israel. Mr. Farer said that Israel had two options at the end of the 1967 war: (1) absorb the West Bank and Gaza giving the Palestinians equal rights; or (2) wait until a Palestinian governing structure arose with which to negotiate a settlement. Interestingly, as to item one he did not mention that this was an option for Jordan and Egypt who occupied these same areas from 1948-1967, and then festered a refugee problem by setting up camps and not absorbing Palestinians into their own countries giving them equal rights. Those 19 years should be ignored apparently. As to item two, Mr. Farer confuses the mideast with the midwest. The Arab countries rejected in 1948 the notion that there should be a Jewish state in the region at all, and the Palestinians continue that stance even today. While Israel has been waiting, there has been no credible Palestinian negotiating partner ever. The best candidate so far has been Mr. Abbas who has little ability to deliver even if he agrees to something. Mr. Abbas is not even willing to agree that the two state solution involves two states for two peoples -- one Jewish and one Palestinian. Instead, he wants one for the Palestinians and then the other one should be for the Jews and the Palestinians (until the Palestinians can take that one over too). Mr. Abbas' Palestinian Authority cannot even acknowledge Israel's right to exist as this will put Mr. Abbas in jeopardy with his own constituency. If an election were held tomorrow, Hamas would overtake Mr. Abbas in the West Bank. These options that Mr. Farer laid out are just not reality and have never been reality. Is there any doubt that Hamas will not accept any Jewish state, or that the Palestinians teach hate of Israel and Jews in their schools, to their children, on their TV, and in their books. To the extent that Mr. Farer mentioned Israel's positions on the law, it was with dismissal and disdain. The title of the lecture was "In Search of Just Settlement of the Israel-Palestine Conflict: The Relevance of International Law." Unfortunately, none of the subject matter in the title was actually or fairly covered during this lecture. I am disappointed that such a fine university would present this type of lecture and lecturer in such a superficial, biased way. ---------- Todd R. Mendel is an attorney with the Detroit law firm Barris, Sott, Denn & Driker, PLLC. He can be contacted at tmendel@bsdd.com. Published: Tue, Oct 5, 2010

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