Incitement: The Low-Hanging Fruit to Achieving a Peace Deal
One of our interns recently sat down for an interview with former Israeli Ambassador to Canada Alan Baker of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. In line with his role as the organization’s international law expert and Director at the Institute for Contemporary Affairs, the Ambassador has amassed a wealth of experience in dealing with the international legal implications of incitement.
The protracted conflict between Israel, the Palestinians and the wider Arab world has endured for over six decades. One reason for this is that many of the issues up for negotiation in a final peace agreement - refugees, borders, demilitarization and settlements - are notoriously complex. However, the issue of incitement is one point of difference between the two parties that could and should be easily resolved.
Within the context of Israeli-Palestinian relations, incitement refers to either:
- The act of encouraging or urging another person to commit violence, or
- Knowingly disseminating false information about a particular group of people with the aim of provoking a violent reaction
When asked about the issue’s centrality in resolving the conflict, Ambassador Baker pointed out that incitement is specifically addressed in the interim agreement of the Oslo Accords. He notes “a committee was set up – the Palestinians, the Israelis, and the Americans, to handle incitement by everyone”. Interestingly, the inclusion within the agreement framework was borrowed from Israel’s peace treaties with Israel and Jordan. Again, the Ambassador points out that “there are specific provisions there calling upon each side to do whatever is necessary – from the point of view of education and one thing or another – to encourage good neighbourliness and prevent incitement”.
The strategic use of incitement has permeated Palestinian leadership since before the inception of the Israeli state. Most infamously, it was employed to horrific effect in the Hebron Massacre of 1929, where between 67-69 Jewish people were killed by Arab mobs who were told of supposed Jewish plans to storm the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. In contemporary times, we have seen a rapid resurgence of these accusations from the upper echelons of the Palestinian Authority. In September 2015, at the height of a wave of car-ramming and stabbing attacks, PA President Mahmoud Abbas alleged Jewish interference at the Muslim holy site. “Al-Aqsa is ours and so is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre”, he proclaimed. “They have no right to desecrate them with their filthy feet. We won’t allow them to do so and we will do whatever we can to defend Jerusalem.” As foreign governments - particularly the Obama administration - were urging parties to calm tensions and combat incitement, Abbas continued “each drop of blood that was spilled in Jerusalem is pure blood as long as it’s for the sake of Allah. Every martyr will be in heaven and every wounded person will be rewarded, by Allah’s will”. As recently as July 2017, PA Parliament Member for Fatah, Hatem Abd Al-Qader, stated “we are moving towards an escalation. The Israelis are moving towards an escalation, and we have no problem on our part that there will also be an escalation from the Palestinian side. Escalation is answered with escalation, and violence is answered with violence”.
As it currently stands, access to the site is governed by an arrangement achieved immediately after Israel’s unification of Jerusalem in the Six Day War of 1967. More commonly known as the ‘status quo’, the site is administered by a Jordanian trust known as the waqf and grants access to Muslims, Christians and Jews but forbids prayer by the latter two groups. Apart from the periodic unsubstantiated allegations from Palestinian leaders, no evidence exists suggesting any current or planned changes to the status quo. Member of Knesset Yehuda Glick, who currently serves in the governing Likud party, can attest to this. Prior to his ascension to the Knesset, Glick was a prominent campaigner for Jewish prayer rights at the Temple Mount and, therefore, alterations to the status quo. During that time, he survived an assassination attempt by a man who believed Glick to be “an enemy of Al-Aqsa”. Ironically, he serves in a governing party that enforces an arrangement to which he is diametrically opposed.
Importantly, the phenomenon of incitement is not limited to perceived incursions on the Temple Mount. Religious clergy play a significant role in shaping their followers’ attitudes to violence. For example, in October 2015, Rafah cleric Sheikh Muhammad Sallah "Abu Rajab" brandished a knife while exclaiming “Form stabbing quads. We don't want just a single stabber. Oh young men of the West Bank: Attack in threes and fours. Some should restrain the victim, while others attack him with axes and butcher knives…Oh men of the West Bank, next time, attack in a group of three, four, or five. Attack them in groups. Cut them into body parts”.
Ambassador Baker became well-known in the international legal community for authoring the Draft International Convention for the Prevention of Incitement to Terror, which borrowed language and preambular paragraphs from other U.N. Conventions addressing terrorism. However, the dissonance between the recognition of the problem and the collective will to act ultimately torpedoed the document’s success. “Everybody admits and accepts the fact that incitement is a central component of terror today but nobody’s prepared to act against it”, argues Baker. “There’s a resolution every year in the General Assembly condemning international terrorism and this includes advocating, inciting… but it’s not a legal document - it’s a political thing accepted by a political majority but it has no teeth.”
Similarly, the Ambassador laments the lack of collective will to combat incitement on the international stage. He was disappointed that his efforts to prosecute former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for inciting genocide against Jews and Israelis - in contravention of Article 3(c) of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide - were unsuccessful. “Not only is Ahmadinejad violating provisions of the ICC Statute, it doesn’t matter because he’s also violating the Convention Against Genocide by advocating genocide and therefore he’s bound, he’s violating international law.” He added that, together with the Canadian B’nei Brith, he even drafted a charge sheet detailing which international crimes he committed.
The elusive peace between Israelis and Palestinians will neither be achieved easily nor overnight. Although we may not know the exact nature of any final agreement, we can say which actions will torpedo any progress. It won’t include conspiracies of Jewish hordes swarming Islamic holy sites, nor calls to arms aimed at instigating a religious war. Palestinian leaders and clerics owe it to their children to spread a message of nonviolence. They must reject – not just publicly – the idea of mukawama (armed resistance) and champion the idea that there is no glory in the afterlife for stabbing innocent people or car ramming children. Words matter – particularly with impressionable youth and the age of technology. As such, incitement in all its forms is a disaster for coexistence.
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
A Case Study in Bigotry
Often referenced by those who are paranoid of a global cabal of Jewish bankers, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion remains the most important text in the arsenal of anti-Semitism. How did such a book emerge? How did its prejudices and conspiracy theories garner traction in societies around the world? And how does it inform opinion today?
Much like the conspiracy itself, the history of the book is based upon plagiarism and a patch-work of anti-revolutionary angst. Its conceptual inspiration can be traced back to the time of the French Revolution at the end of the 18th Century. Seizing upon the paranoia of reactionary elements who were opposed to the revolution, a French Jesuit priest named Abbe Barruel published a dossier in 1797 which attributed the revolution to the actions of the Freemason Order[1]. In 1806, he elaborated on his earlier work by circulating a forged letter by the state police alleging Jewish involvement in the conspiracy of the Masons.
Although making no mention of the Jews, the theme of clandestine meetings reappeared in 1864 with French satirist Maurice Joly. Joly published a pamphlet named Dialogues in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu which jokingly accused the emperor Napoleon III of convening a meeting in Hell[2]. Although made in jest to prove a political point, the theme was recycled by a German author named Hermann Goedsche – a man known both for his strident anti-Semitism and fraudulence. He routinely forged letters and documents that discredited left-wing politicians[3], which eventually cost him his job in the German postal service[4]. Goedsche adapted Joly’s satirical work into a series titled Biarritz, although the theme of this work was Jewish conspiracy rather than allegations against Napoleon.
In the late 19th and early 20th Century, the Russian Empire was gripped by a strong wave of antisemitism. Economic hardships created space for a scapegoat and growing dissatisfaction with the Imperial government created fissures between loyalists and revolutionaries. When Goedsche’s work found its way to Russia, it was not critically examined for its accuracy or objectivity. Rather, it was translated into Russian in 1872, and enabled the Okhrana (Russian secret police) to strengthen the position of the unpopular Czar and discredit the liberals who were more hospitable to the Jews. Events such as the Dreyfus Affair that began in 1894 and the first Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897 exacerbated the anti-Semitic sentiment of the time and fueled the myth of Jewish attempts to subvert the culture and authority of European states. Evidence suggests that the book as we know it today, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, was cobbled together from pre-existing sources by agents of the Okhrana working in Paris during the years of the Dreyfus Affair[5]. Published by the mystic Russian priest Sergei Nilus in 1905, they helped inspire the pogroms of 1905 with the help of the Okhrana. Furthermore, in the midst of an attempted revolution by communist revolutionaries that same year, the Russian ultra-nationalist Black Hundreds organization used the book as a precursor to blame the Jews for the installation of a new constitution and the Duma (parliament)[6].
After its emergence in Imperial times, the document has been used extensively by fascist movements and governments around the world. Most infamously, it was propagated by Adolf Hitler to justify the persecution and genocide of Europe’s Jewish community. In his manifesto Mein Kampf, he wrote:
‘[The Protocols] are based on a forgery, the Frankfurter Zeitung moans [ ] every week . . . [which is] the best proof that they are authentic. ... the important thing is that with positively terrifying certainty they reveal the nature and activity of the Jewish people and expose their inner contexts as well as their ultimate final aims’[7].
In the contemporary world, the document continues to inform opinion among people who do not question its authenticity. It remains available in some book stores in countries such as Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, the Charter of Hamas makes reference to the document in what it says is the embodiment of Jewish and Zionist aspirations:
‘When they [the Zionists] will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying[8]’.
Aside from people’s ignorance to the document’s fraudulence, its success and reach is derived from well-established stereotypes and myths about Jewish people. Historian Daniel Pipes notes that it effectively reinforces the recurring themes of conspiratorial anti-Semitism:
- Jews always scheme
- Jews are everywhere
- Jews are behind every institution
- Jews obey a central authority, the shadowy ‘Elders’
- Jews are close to success
These perceptions of Jews still exist today in some circles. They are understood to be a highly-organized, secretive sect – more reminiscent of a satanic cult than an ethnic or religious group. They resemble people concerned only with control and resource accumulation, rather than engaging in tikun olam (repairing the world) or adhering to a covenant with an omniscient Creator. Thus, the next time one encounters vilification of Jewish people or the Jewish State, it behooves us to analyze the criticism. If it is based upon an assumption of a well-financed effort to exert global influence, the propagators may be – either knowingly or subconsciously – paying homage to the famous fraudulent manifesto.
[1] Jewish Virtual Library, ‘Anti-Semitism: History of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”’, viewed 9 April 2017, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-ldquo-protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion-rdquo
[2] Ibid.
[3] McLeod, K. 2014, Pranksters: Making Mischief in the Modern World’, New York University Press, United States of America, p. 105
[4] Jewish Virtual Library . op. cit.
[5] Webman, E. 2011, The Global Impact of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion: A Century-Old Myth, Routledge, New York, p. 2
[6] Jewish Virtual Library, op. cit.
[7] Hitler, A. 1933, ‘XI: Nation and Race’, in Mein Kampf, Eher Verlag, Germany, pp. 307-308
[8] Yale Law School, ‘Hamas Covenant 1988’, viewed 9 April 2017, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp
[1] Jewish Virtual Library, ‘Anti-Semitism: History of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”’, viewed 9 April 2017, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-ldquo-protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion-rdquo
[1] Ibid.
[1] McLeod, K. 2014, Pranksters: Making Mischief in the Modern World’, New York University Press, United States of America, p. 105
[1] Jewish Virtual Library . op. cit.
[1] Webman, E. 2011, The Global Impact of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion: A Century-Old Myth, Routledge, New York, p. 2
[1] Jewish Virtual Library, op. cit.
[1] Hitler, A. 1933, ‘XI: Nation and Race’, in Mein Kampf, Eher Verlag, Germany, pp. 307-308
[1] Yale Law School, ‘Hamas Covenant 1988’, viewed 9 April 2017, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp
And what about incitment?
If we learned anything from the wave of terror in 2015-2016, it is that words matter. In an environment where Palestinian unemployment remains staggeringly high, disenfranchised youth become more impressionable and susceptible to the pronouncements of charismatic leaders. Hence, when President Abbas decries Jews visiting the Temple Mount as having ‘no right to defile it with their filthy feet’, its legitimacy is only accentuated for young Palestinian men. The recourse to martyrdom then becomes a logical response because, as Abbas describes, ‘we bless every drop of blood that has been spilled for Jerusalem, which is clean and pure blood’.
In cases like these, the line between Zionism and Jews becomes ever more blurred. A disagreement over religious access to a holy site becomes an aspersion on the humanity, or lack thereof, of Jewish people. Coupled with the reverence of Palestinian officials for mukawama (armed resistance), it is a recipe for disaster in coexistence.
Importantly, this incitement does not occur within a vacuum. It also coincides with an extensive period of classroom indoctrination. From a young age, children are not simply taught to resent encroachment on their land or commit themselves to non-violent resistance. Rather, they are taught to detest Jews and to sacrifice themselves in martyrdom to bring about their demise.
As reported by the Times of Israel in March 2016, one particular ninth-grade textbook was none-too subtle in its advocacy for armed resistance and martyrdom. One page began with a Quranic verse which instructs Muslims to kill or imprison non-believers.
If nothing else, the great crime here is the systematic hijacking of children’s minds. Young children are not yet able to discern what is right from wrong, and they are the victims of efforts to train a generation of young people in hate and animosity. This cycle is then repeated for future generations, when the children mature and circulate the material to the next cohort.
In recent years, the Palestinians have pursued efforts to join the community of nations and the system that binds them together. This includes receiving non-member observer status at the UN in 2012, as well as their ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in 2015. However, accessions such as these also carry responsibilities. It is, at best, disingenuous join an international legal system aimed at preventing large-scale violence whilst sowing the seeds for such calamity among one’s own people.
Given the albeit delayed moves toward free and fair elections in the Palestinian territories, the ball is now in the court of Palestinian officials and candidates. They can propagate insidious blood libels (as Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan did on Lebanese TV in 2014) or they can reject the nihilism of centuries-old folklore by countering incitement and championing non-violence.
4 times too much
The U.N. faces the largest refugee crisis in its history. Sixty-eight million people need help. Why, then, does the U.N. give four times as much aid, annually, to each Palestinian refugee as it gives to refugees anywhere else in the world?
Here is another question.
Why does UNRWA, the agency that handles five million Palestinians, employ 30,000 people while the World Refugee Agency (UNHCR), which serves sixty-three million refugees, employs 10,000 people?
The answers: politics. And politics.
To make matters even worse, the two agencies duplicate efforts in the same regions. UNRWA clinics refuse to treat Syrian or Lebanese refugees, but will only treat Palestinians. So, UNHCR must maintain redundant clinics in the same places, while the desperate health needs of refugees in other world regions take the hit.
Ron Prosor, former Israeli ambassador to the U.N. and currently the head of the Abba Eban Institute for Diplomacy, will shortly present the U.N. a plan to consolidate the resources of both agencies. What could possibly prevent the long-overdue adoption of such a common-sense proposal?
Nothing but politics as practiced within the as-if world of UNRWA whose work, unlike UNHCR, expects and requires the number of Palestinian refugees to “expand without limit”.
How can such a political miracle take place?
Conveniently, it turns out that Palestinian refugees aren’t really refugees at all and never have been.
Refugees, by definition, are refugees from somewhere. Palestinians are not, as you may imagine, refugees from Israel because they would then be eligible to apply for asylum in countries like Egypt, Syria and Jordan. But those countries have refused to accept and resettle Palestinians within their own lands for more than seven decades, blaming Israel for their own hostility.
Nor, however, can Palestinians return, legally, to Israel. They are not refugees from that land. Besides, U.N. statutes stipulated Israel’s own sovereignty, which she confirmed by a heroic war of Independence, and completed by generous assimilation of mistreated Jewish refugees.
Until the Orwellian treatment of Palestinians ends, normalization of relations between them, Israel and even other Arab nations is impossible. Not Israel, but rather fellow-Arabs and a complicit UNRWA trap the Palestinian people within impossible legal and political contradictions.
Prosor’s plan will end the UNRWA fantasy. Unfortunately, this makes it all too likely that the consolidation of UNRWA and UNHCR will fail to pass muster at today’s United Fantasyland, a.k.a. the United Nations.
International Borders and Human Trafficking in Israel and Texas
Israel and Texas may not seem to have much in common upon initial thought. After all, the State of Texas is approximately 33 times the size of Israel, yet, both lands face human trafficking concerns due to their international borders. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) defines “severe human trafficking” as:
“sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person ... has not attained 18 years of age; or the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion ... A victim need not be physically transported from one location to another for the crime to fall within this definition.”
In Texas, the border with Mexico spans 1254 miles (2018 km) comprising the longest stretch of border with Mexico when compared to any other state. In comparison, Israel has 664 miles (1068 km) of border with 6 different border countries. Specifically, the Israel-Egypt border has a long history of human trafficking. This article explores both governments’ approaches to human trafficking and border security.
Texas
The State of Texas has battled with human trafficking across the Mexico border for decades. In fact, the U.S. Department of Justice estimates as many as one-quarter of all human trafficking victims pass through Texas. A University of Texas study found that there are 313,000 victims of human trafficking in Texas. Texas also houses the metroplex of Houston, which the Department of Justice has called the “most intense jurisdiction for trafficking in the U.S.”.
There are two primary factors that contribute to the issue of trafficking in Texas. The Mexico border, along with the major thoroughfares in Houston, the 4th largest city in the U.S., creates a prime environment for traffickers to smuggle humans into the United States. However, Texas has proven to be proactive in seeking to prosecute, prevent, and punish the crime of human trafficking. The U.S. Attorney Office for the Southern District of Texas, encompassing 44,000 square miles and 8.3 million people, “prosecutes more cases against defendants than any other United States Attorney Office nationwide.” Additionally, Texas has received a score of 94 and an “A” from Shared Hope International’s Protected Innocence Project report in 2016. Not surprisingly, Texas is not the only land faced with human trafficking concerns due to an international border.
Israel
Israel also experienced a major problem with human trafficking, especially in the 1990s when sex trafficking was rampant. Most victims of the sex trafficking epidemic were women from the Former Soviet Union who were exploited because of their poverty. A wake-up call came when the U.S. State Department placed Israel alongside Pakistan and Bahrain in Tier 3 of the annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report in 2001. Tier 3 is the lowest possible level in the TIP Report and is an indication that a country is doing close to nothing to combat human trafficking within its borders. This spurred the Israeli authorities, along with anti-trafficking NGOs and advocates, to begin addressing the problem of trafficking. Between 2003 and 2005, Israel amended several laws to provide more support for trafficking victims, including legal representation and access to shelters. Israeli authorities also began to crack down on traffickers. As a result of their significant efforts to prevent and prosecute human trafficking, Israel was moved to Tier 2 of the TIP Report in 2002. The Knesset subcommittee on Combatting Human Trafficking and Prostitution chairwoman, Aliza Lavie, celebrated the improvements in the fight against modern-day slavery, however she noted that the progress “does not mean we can stop fighting.” Accordingly, a breakthrough in the fight against trafficking came with the construction of the southern border fence with Egypt.
Border Security by The Numbers
In 2013, Israel completed construction of a 150-mile (245 km) fence along its border with Egypt. The number of illegal crossers on the Israel-Egypt border dropped 99 percent after the construction of the fence, from more than 16,000 in 2011 to less than 20 in 2016. Israel spent $415 million ($2.9 million per mile) to construct the southern border fence and spends approximately $8.3 million annually ($58,000 per mile) to maintain the fence. For every 1.2 miles of fencing, Israel stations one person along its border with Egypt.
Although the United States does not have a complete border fence with Mexico, the U.S. has spent $2.3 billion to construct 654 miles of pedestrian and vehicle barrier fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. Further, it costs the U.S. $50 to $55 million annually ($77,000 per mile) to maintain its 650 miles of fencing along the border with Mexico. This cost of maintenance is 33 percent more than Israel. Manpower is not neglected either, with approximately one person stationed for every 2.2 miles of the Mexico border. With these numbers in mind, a comparison of human trafficking in Texas and Israel is more easily understood.
Human Trafficking Today in Texas and Israel
In 2017, both the United States and Israel received a Tier 1 ranking in the U.S. Department of State’s TIP Report. Although Tier 1 is the highest level on the tier system, it does not mean there is no human trafficking in that country. Unfortunately, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety, the issue of trafficking is not going away any time soon. Notably, in the 2017 Texas Public Safety Threat Overview, trafficking is the fastest growing organized crime in Texas. Although Israel may no longer be a haven for sex traffickers, trafficking still exists. With the closed borders, traffickers now bring victims into Israel through the Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv. According to the Border Control Commissioner, over the past year and a half, 372 women have been stopped from entering through Ben Gurion Airport. Michal Yusupov, head of the Population Control Division, noted that the number of women attempting to enter Israel has increased in the past year. Even though all 372 women were prohibited from entering, it is likely that others have entered under the guise of tourism without being stopped. Even still, the 2017 TIP Report noted Israel’s “serious and sustained” efforts to eliminate trafficking. Some countries are now looking to Israel’s successful fight against trafficking to learn what strategies are most effective.
What Can Texas Learn From Israel
Reports supporting the building of a fence on the United States-Mexico border often use Israel’s success with the Israel-Egypt border fence as an example. Although the U.S., and especially Texas, can learn many important border security lessons from Israel due to the similarities in human trafficking, there are complications that are often forgotten in these reports. Take, for example, the sheer length of the U.S.-Mexico border which is drastic in comparison to the Israel-Egypt border. As previously mentioned, Israel’s border stretches approximately 150 miles, while just the Texas-Mexico border is over 1200 miles. Another complication arises from the fact that the U.S.-Mexico border runs alongside four states, all with varying opinions on border security. The bordering states of New Mexico and California both have laws that limit how local police interact with federal immigration agents—also known as sanctuary cities. The two other border states, Arizona and Texas, do not have such laws. This discrepancy makes a unified plan for border security difficult to draft and implement.
Despite the challenges, much progress can be made in U.S. border security based on Israel’s success when the beforementioned nuances are taken into consideration. For instance, technology has proven to be key in monitoring and capturing traffickers in Israel. Israel uses an array of technology including seismic sensors, radars, and balloons with cameras to reinforce its southern border fence. The Port Authority of Texas has taken note of Israel’s use of technology. In 2014, Texas contracted with an Israeli company, RADWIN, to use advanced cameras to monitor ports-of-entry into the United States. The modern tactic to combat human trafficking is combined governmental efforts and advanced technology. Texas may not be able to copy-cat Israel’s border fence; however, this does not mean the U.S. cannot use Israel as an example to find the most effective border security strategy unique to the Texas-Mexico border.
Petition to the International Association of Prosecutors
Petition to the International Association of Prosecutors
The Hague, September 2017
Dear members of the IAP Executive Committee and the Senate, dear members of the IAP,
In the run-up to the annual conference and general meeting of the International Association of Prosecutors (IAP) in Beijing, China, the undersigned civil society organisations urge the IAP to live up to its vision and bolster its efforts to preserve the integrity of the profession.
Increasingly, in many regions of the world, in clear breach of professional integrity and fair trial standards, public prosecutors use their powers to suppress critical voices.
In China, over the last two years, dozens of prominent lawyers, labour rights advocates and activists have been targeted by the prosecution service[1]. Many remain behind bars, convicted or in prolonged detention for legal and peaceful activities protected by international human rights standards, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Azerbaijan is in the midst of a major crackdown on civil rights defenders, bloggers and journalists, imposing hefty sentences on fabricated charges in trials that make a mockery of justice[2]. In Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkey many prosecutors play an active role in the repression of human rights defenders, and in committing, covering up or condoning other grave human rights abuses[3].
Patterns of abusive practices by prosecutors in these and other countries ought to be of grave concern to the professional associations they belong to, such as the IAP. Upholding the rule of law and human rights is a key aspect of the profession of a prosecutor, as is certified by the IAP’s Standards of Professional Responsibility and Statement of the Essential Duties and Rights of Prosecutors, that explicitly refer to the importance of observing and protecting the right to a fair trial and other human rights at all stages of work[4].
Maintaining the credibility of the profession should be a key concern for the IAP. This requires explicit steps by the IAP to introduce a meaningful human rights policy. Such steps will help to counter devaluation of ethical standards in the profession, revamp public trust in justice professionals and protect the organisation and its members from damaging reputational impact and allegations of whitewashing or complicity in human rights abuses.
For the second year in a row, civil society appeals to the IAP to honour its human rights responsibilities by introducing a tangible human rights policy. In particular:
We urge the IAP Executive Committee and the Senate to:
- introduce human rights due diligence and compliance procedures for new and current members, including scope for complaint mechanisms with respect to institutional and individual members, making information public about its institutional members and creating openings for stakeholder engagement from the side of civil society and victims of human rights abuses[5].
We call on individual members of the IAP to:
- raise the problem of a lack of human rights compliance mechanisms at the IAP and thoroughly discuss the human rights implications before making decisions about hosting IAP meetings;
- identify relevant human rights concerns before travelling to IAP conferences and meetings and raise these issues with their counterparts from countries where politically-motivated prosecution and human rights abuses by prosecution authorities are reported by intergovernmental organisations and internationally renowned human rights groups.
Supporting organisations:
Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, Benin
Anti-Corruption Trust of Southern Africa, Kwekwe
Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
Asia Justice and Rights, Jakarta
Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact, Chiang Mai
Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong SAR
Asia Monitor Resource Centre, Hong Kong SAR
Association for Legal Intervention, Warsaw
Association Humanrights.ch, Bern
Association Malienne des Droits de l'Homme, Bamako
Association of Ukrainian Human Rights Monitors on Law Enforcement, Kyiv
Associazione Antigone, Rome
Barys Zvozskau Belarusian Human Rights House in exile, Vilnius
Belarusian Helsinki Committee, Minsk
Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, Sofia
Canadian Human Rights International Organisation, Toronto
Center for Civil Liberties, Kyiv
Centre for Development and Democratization of Institutions, Tirana
Centre for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights, Moscow
Center for the Judiciary Watch of the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD), Seoul
China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group, Hong Kong SAR
Civil Rights Defenders, Stockholm
Civil Society Institute, Yerevan
Citizen Watch, St. Petersburg
Collective Human Rights Defenders “Laura Acosta” International Organization COHURIDELA, Toronto
Comunidad de Derechos Humanos, La Paz
Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos, Lima
Destination Justice, Phnom Penh
East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project, Kampala
Equality Myanmar, Yangon
Faculty of Law - University of Indonesia, Depok
Fair Trials, London
Federation of Equal Journalists, Almaty
Former Vietnamese Prisoners of Conscience, Hanoi
Free Press Unlimited, Amsterdam
Front Line Defenders, Dublin
Foundation ADRA Poland, Wroclaw
German-Russian Exchange, Berlin
Gram Bharati Samiti, Jaipur
Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Vanadzor, Yerevan
Helsinki Association of Armenia, Yerevan
Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Warsaw
Human Rights Center Azerbaijan, Baku
Human Rights Center Georgia, Tbilisi
Human Rights Embassy, Chisinau
Human Rights House Foundation, Oslo
Human Rights Information Center, Kyiv
Human Rights Matter, Berlin
Human Rights Monitoring Institute, Vilnius
Human Rights Now, Tokyo
Human Rights Without Frontiers International, Brussels
Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, Budapest
IDP Women Association "Consent", Tbilisi
IMPARSIAL, the Indonesian Human Rights Monitor, Jakarta
Index on Censorship, London
Indonesian Legal Roundtable, Jakarta
Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, Jakarta
Institute for Democracy and Mediation, Tirana
Institute for Development of Freedom of Information, Tbilisi
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
International Partnership for Human Rights, Brussels
International Service for Human Rights, Geneva
International Youth Human Rights Movement
Jerusalem Institute of Justice, Jerusalem
Jordan Transparency Center, Amman
Justiça Global, Rio de Janeiro
Justice and Peace Netherlands, The Hague
Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, Almaty
Kharkiv Regional Foundation Public Alternative, Kharkiv
Kosovo Center for Transparency, Accountability and Anti-Corruption - KUND 16, Prishtina
Kosova Rehabilitation Center for Torture Victims, Prishtina
Lawyers for Lawyers, Amsterdam
Lawyers for Liberty, Kuala Lumpur
League of Human Rights, Brno
Macedonian Helsinki Committee, Skopje
Masyarakat Pemantau Peradilan Indonesia (Mappi FH-UI), Depok
National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders, Kampala
Netherlands Helsinki Committee, The Hague
Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM), Utrecht University, Utrecht
NGO "Aru ana", Aktobe
Pakistan Rural Workers Social Welfare Organization (PRWSWO), Bahawalpur
Pen International, London
Philippine Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA), Manila
Promo-LEX Association, Chisinau
Protection International, Brussels
Protection of Rights Without Borders, Yerevan
Public Association Dignity, Astana
Public Association "Our Right", Kokshetau
Public Fund "Ar.Ruh.Hak", Almaty
Public Fund "Ulagatty Zhanaya", Almaty
Public Verdict Foundation, Moscow
Regional Center for Strategic Studies, Baku/ Tbilisi
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), Lagos
Stefan Batory Foundation, Warsaw
Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM), Petaling Jaya
Swiss Helsinki Association, Lenzburg
Transparency International Anti-corruption Center, Yerevan
Transparency International Austrian chapter, Vienna
Transparency International Česká republika, Prague
Transparency International Deutschland, Berlin
Transparency International EU Office, Brussels
Transparency International France, Paris
Transparency International Greece, Athens
Transparency International Greenland, Nuuk
Transparency International Hungary, Budapest
Transparency International Ireland, Dublin
Transparency International Italia, Milan
Transparency International Moldova, Chisinau
Transparency International Nederland, Amsterdam
Transparency International Norway, Oslo
Transparency International Portugal, Lisbon
Transparency International Romania, Bucharest
Transparency International Secretariat, Berlin
Transparency International Slovenia, Ljubljana
Transparency International España, Madrid
Transparency International Sverige, Stockholm
Transparency International Switzerland, Bern
Transparency International UK, London
UNITED for Intercultural Action the European network against nationalism, racism, fascism and in support of migrants, refugees and minorities, Budapest
United Nations Convention against Corruption Civil Society Coalition
Villa Decius Association, Krakow
Vietnam's Defend the Defenders, Hanoi
Vietnamese Women for Human Rights, Saigon
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, Harare
[1] As documented by a number of internationally renowned human rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch and the ICJ. See, for example, the HRW World Report 2017, China and Tibet, available at: https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2017/country-chapters/china-and-tibet; China: call for action at UN on lawyers and other human rights defenders, available at: https://www.icj.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/UN-HRC34-China-JointLetter-Advocacy-2017.pdf
[2] The Functioning of the Judicial System in Azerbaijan and its Impact on the Fair Trial of Human Rights Defenders, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and Netherlands Helsinki Committee 2016, available at: http://www.defendersorviolators.info/judiciary-in-azerbaijan.
[3] See, for example: Human Rights and the Professional Responsibility of Judges and Prosecutors in the Work of CCJE and CCPE. Observations to the CCJE-CCPE Joint Report on “Challenges for Judicial Independence and Impartiality in the Member States of the Council of Europe”, Netherlands Helsinki Committee and Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights 2017, available at: https://www.nhc.nl/assets/uploads/2017/06/20170331-Observations-to-CCJE-CCPE-Report.pdf
[4] Standards of Professional Responsibility and Statement of the Essential Duties and Rights of Prosecutors adopted by the International Association of Prosecutors on 23 April 1999.
[5] See, for example, Options for Promoting Human Rights Compliance by the International Association of Prosecutors, policy brief, October 2016.
Nikki Haley's for Human Rights!
How Nikki Haley’s Background and Beliefs Helped Foster Her Zionist Spirit
In the midst of the continuous storm of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel resolutions that have been produced by the United Nations over the last few decades, there is a light that is shining more brightly now than ever before. Nimrata “Nikki” Haley, the 29th US Ambassador to the UN, is the strong voice advocating for Israel and demanding the bias and hatred towards Israel from other countries must stop immediately. Born to Sikh Indian parents in South Carolina, Haley credits them with first instilling in her a sense of pride and gratitude about living in America. “Well, I am the daughter of Indian parents who reminded my brothers, my sister and me every day how blessed we were to live in this country,” said Haley in an interview at the 2017 AIPAC Convention.
After graduating Clemson University with a BA in Accounting, Haley went to work for her mother’s clothing company, Exotica International. After being involved in numerous executive boards in her community and town, Haley was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in January of 2005. She continued this role until January 2011, where she was elected the first female governor of South Carolina. In November of 2016, she was appointed by president-elect Donald Trump to be the 29th United States Ambassador to the UN; she was confirmed in January 2017.
During her career in politics, Haley’s strong Zionistic and pro-Israel stance have been a major focus of hers. While Haley was governor of South Carolina, she signed into law a bill to stop efforts of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. This legislation was the first of its kind on a statewide level. Haley also stated during the announcement of that bill, that "nowhere has the UN’s failure been more consistent and more outrageous than in its bias against our close ally Israel". As Ambassador, Haley has been extremely outspoken about the UN’s blatant bias against Israel and has been extremely vocal in her personal support and her representing the United States supporting Israel. This is a welcome change for many from the stance of former US Ambassador, Samantha Power, and the US’ decision to abstain from the voting of Resolution 2334.
Samantha Power, who was the 28th US Ambassador under the Obama administration, famously abstained from voting on Resolution 2334 in December 2016, which declared that the Israeli settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem was illegal and violated international law. Power told the 15-member U.N. Security Council, “Israeli settlement activity in territories occupied in 1967 undermines Israel’s security, harms the viability of a negotiated two-state outcome, and erodes prospects for peace and stability in the region." It came as a surprise to many that the US would seemingly go against an ally by refusing to vote against the resolution, especially coming from the woman who said “I will stand up for Israel and work tirelessly to defend it” in her Senate confirmation hearing; the resolution passed with 14 votes for and one abstention, the US. Haley later called the decision to abstain “one of the lowest points in our country….when [Power] abstained, the entire Security Council, and the entire audience, got up and applauded, and Israel was sitting there….watching that. Think about what we just did to a friend. You don’t ever applaud in the Security Council. That never happens. It happened that day.”
Haley has unequivocally and steadfastly supported Israel as the voice of the United States to the UN; she has called the UN out on their bias towards Israel dozens of times, especially when the UN named Israel the country with the most human rights violations in March 2017, beating out Iran, Syria, Libya and North Korea. “You know, basically what it comes down to is I'm not there to play,” said Haley during the 2017 AIPAC Conference. “And what I wanted to make sure of was that the United States started leading again. And leading isn't saying and doing things when it's comfortable. Leading is saying and doing things when it's not comfortable.”
When pressed about how she came to have such a strong stance on Israel and how she became so outspoken about defending Israel, Haley said, “[T]he truth is, I have seen so many similarities between the Israeli culture and the Indian culture. We're very close-knit. We love our families. We have a strong work ethic. We believe in professionalism and philanthropy and giving back. It's very true. So that's all the good things.” India and Israel have shared many similarities in values and members of each country frequently visit the other. Around 40,000 Israelis, many of whom have just finished their required military service visit India annually and around 34,000 Indians visit Israel annually. According to a 2009 international study commissioned by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the greatest level of sympathy towards Israel from a member of the international community can be found in India, with 58% of Indian respondents showing sympathy towards Israel. In 2015, opinion polls showed 70% of Indians had favorable views of Israel.
Others wonder if perhaps Haley’s conversion to Christianity helped further foster her Zionist feelings. When Haley wed her husband, Michael Haley, who was a Christian, they did both a Sikh and Christian ceremony. Haley said about her choice to convert to Christianity, “We chose Christianity because of the way we wanted to live our life and raise our children — it had nothing to do with me thinking there was anything wrong with the way I was raised, and everything to do with the fact that I am moving forward in my life and had to find a path I felt was right for me.” Many Christians do believe in Israel’s right to exist; these Christians are called “Christian Zionists.” Some Christian Zionists believe that the gathering of the Jews in Israel is a prerequisite for the Second Coming of Jesus. Christian Zionists interpret the prophetic texts as describing inevitable future events, and these events primarily involve Israel, meaning the descendants of Jacob, which are the Jewish people. These prophecies are seen as requiring the presence of Jewish people in the Holy Land; this requirement is sometimes interpreted as being fulfilled by the contemporary state of Israel.
Haley has not made a public comment on whether her Christian views have helped cultivate her support for Israel even more, but whatever Haley’s reasoning, there is no doubt Israel and the American Jews are thankful for Haley’s voice and for tossing her hat into the UN’s ring. “For anyone that says you can't get anything done at the U.N.,” Haley says, “they need to know there's a new sheriff in town.”
IDF Lone Soldiers
In Israel, whether you are sitting on a bus, waiting on line to buy a falafel, or simply walking down the street, you will almost always see men or women dressed in an olive green, tan or a blue uniform. These are the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces. With about 177,000 soldiers on active duty, the IDF is comprised of a myriad of young men and women. About 6,300 of those are considered “lone soldiers,” or soldiers serving in the IDF that have no support or family ties in Israel. About 45% of “lone soldiers” come from other countries, and leave family and countless friends behind to serve the Jewish state. The other 50% of those lone soldiers are comprised of orphans, are from low-socioeconomic status, or least common, come from ultra-orthodox and Haredi backgrounds. These religious men and women volunteer to serve in the IDF and are then shunned and disowned by their families and communities.
It is a common belief amongst the ultra-Orthodox and Haredi sects of Judaism, that the state of Israel should not exist until the Messiah comes. Due to this belief, do not support an Israeli army. In their communities, the mentality is that men must rigorously study the Torah and religious texts all day while the women must support the men by working and taking care of the family. The leaders of the communities believe that going to the army stops the men from studying all day, which they believe is their obligation to God. Some Haredi’s go as far to say that joining the army is an “assault” on the Torah by the Israeli government. In addition to this view, some Haredim also claim that being in the army exposes ultra-Orthodox members to the “negative influences” of the secular world. In June of 2017, over 20,000 anti-Zionist Jews, mainly members of the Hasidic sect of Judaism, gathered in Brooklyn to express their outrage of the conscription of Haredi yeshiva students. Protestors spoke out against Israel’s arresting of individuals who resisted the compulsory draft mandate, claiming that their “brethren in Israel” were being persecuted and oppressed.
Those from the ultra-Orthodox community that do end up joining the IDF are often kicked out of their houses and are shunned by their families. One example of this is a young man, who spoke to Al-Monitor and asked not to divulge his name, revealed that six weeks before his draft date, his mother told him that if he did indeed choose to serve, he would have to leave the house. “When she understood that I was determined, he said, ‘Take your things and don’t ever come back.’ That’s what I did. I left with nothing and not knowing where I was going.” The young man tried to contact his mother during basic training, but she refused to answer him. During his basic training in the Givati Brigade, he continued to study Gemara and finished an entire treatise by the time he was inducted into the IDF. The fact he studied Gemara while in the army made his community even angrier.
The Lone Soldier Center in Memory of Michael Levin share more of these kinds of stories and tell the testimonies of the lone soldiers they have helped. Another story is of a young man, A., decided not go to yeshiva anymore when he was 12 years old and was taken in by a grandfather after being kicked out by his family. When his grandfather passed away, the only place for A. was on the street. Since he came from a long line of great rabbis, A. received some interaction while he was living on the streets; however, once he joined the army, the community cut off all communication with him.
About 400-600 Haredi or former Haredi soldiers who have no family ties come to the Lone Soldier Center yearly, needing help in various areas. “Many of these soldiers don’t know how to budget their money in the army, since they weren’t taught math beyond grade level,” says Lizzie Noach, the Project Coordinator for the Lone Soldier Center. “They don’t have a formal education; many come to see Tziki (Aud, the coordinator for at risk soldiers at the Lone Soldier Center) for help pre-army. They don’t really speak English and have poor Hebrew, as they only speak Yiddish at home and in yeshiva.” Additionally, Noach says the Ministry of Defense does not always give Israeli lone soldiers, “lone soldier” status to receive even the general funds and benefits that are given to all lone soldiers. To prove lone soldier status, one must provide paperwork proving that they have either have no family support in Israel, contact with any family members or that they are not receiving money from family members. However, for soldiers who either left home in their teens or were living on the streets before joining the army, this paperwork is non-existent, as there is no record of where they had been living prior.
It is common, coming from a religious background and religious education, that many of these ultra-Orthodox soldiers do not have general knowledge of basics of math, science, and technology among other things. Tens of thousands of men in the Haredi school system are not educated in math or science past a fourth grade level. Moshe Shenfeld, the head of Out for Change, an organization which assists former members of the Haredi community in educational and vocational training, reports that just 3-5% of boys who study in Haredi schools receive a full matriculation degree.
According to Out for Change, the government sets aside NIS 500 million a year to assist students from the ultra-Orthodox yeshivas, who are a part Haredi community, that want to further their education after their formal schooling is completed. These funds are used to set up courses from the Education Ministry to help such students fill the gaps in their education and receive a matriculation certificate, provide vocational training, and job training during their army service. However, this money is only for soldiers and those who are still a part of the Haredi community, who serve in religious units. The Netzah Yehuda Battalion, part of the Kfir Infantry Brigade, is one of the two strictly Haredi units in the IDF. Today, it is the largest battalion in the IDF with over 700 soldiers in four different companies and one elite counterterror squadron. Haredi soldiers typically spend two years serving and then one year completing high school completion exams and acquiring skills for a profession once they reentered civilian life. Netzah Yehuda offers resources to help these soldiers complete matriculation and pre-college studies. For soldiers who do not qualify for government tuition assistance, “Friends of Nahal Haredi” helps to subsidize costs of tuition for schools and programs that help Haredi soldiers complete their core education. However, they only help soldiers within that specific unit who do not qualify for assistance, and not infantry soldiers in general.
Soldiers who come from an ultra-Orthodox background who join other units that are designated to be religious or Haredi units, are also given financial assistance from the Ministry of Defense to complete their matriculation, as many of these soldiers do not have the requisite level of core education necessary to either enter university or become a member of the workforce post army service. Unfortunately, there are many other Haredi and ex-Haredi soldiers who do not get assistance at all, simply because they are not members of religious units.
Yossi Klar from, Out for Change says, “What the army does with Haredi soldiers is it gives them two things depending on age and route they take. If you’re younger than 21 and fit, then you are integrated into a Haredi infantry unit; there, the last eight months of your 2 year and 8 month service, are spent in school, completing your education, while if you are non-Haredi, or you used to be, you won’t get those 8 months for education. You have to serve those 8 months in full army service.”
The second route for Haredi soldiers, if you are over the age of 21, is integration into non-infantry units, where they are given jobs such as electricians and other technical jobs. “The army puts an emphasis on making sure every job they integrate to, they will find a job when they leave the army,” Klar says. “We used to call it ‘creditation.’ This is the credit you get from serving in the army, you come out with a job. To getting into a job in the Intelligence community, you need to have very high ratings in your tests before you go into the army, and ex-Orthodox people usually don’t have those ratings like non-Orthodox people because they did not have basic studies and those tests test basic studies in Israeli curriculum so they usually get very low grades. Haredi people are integrated even though they have low grades into any unit they want, and ex-Haredi people cannot do that, so the discrimination goes both ways.”
Soldiers who come from an ultra-Orthodox background who join other units that are deemed religious or Haredi, are given financial assistance from the Ministry of Defense to complete their matriculation, as many of these soldiers do not have the requisite level of core education necessary to either enter university or become a member of the workforce post army service. Unfortunately, there are many other Haredi and ex-Haredi soldiers who do not get assistance at all, simply because they are not members of religious units. The Ministry of Defense does not give the same financial assistance to religious soldiers in regular units as they would to religious soldiers in Haredi units due to the individual soldiers’ choice to not continue along the learning path, as many religious units set aside time for Torah learning.
It is an absolute travesty that the Ministry of Defense does not allot the same financial aid to the Haredi or former Haredi lone soldiers as they do to the ones serving in the religious units of the IDF, simply because they aren’t following the religious path of learning. They still lack the same core education as their religious unit counterparts and deserve the same kind of financial assistance to help them complete their high school matriculation after their army service is finished. JIJ is lobbying the government to help those who are no longer members of the Haredi community, but still suffer the same educational and vocational detriments as those who are still members. Nob profit organizations such as the Lone Soldier Center and Out for Change can only do so much; it is up to the government and the people to help make a change to help those that give up so much to help.
