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By Guest Post • Aug 11th, 2009 at 10:22 • Category: Analysis, Culture and Heritage, Education, Ideas and Projects, Israel, Nakba and Right of Return, Newswire, Palestine, Resistance, War, Zionism
Issue no. 41 (Spring 2009 / Summer 2009)
Read the magazine online at: http://www.badil.org/al-majdal/al-majdal.htm
Bethlehem, August 2009: The BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights announces the release of its Spring /
Summer 2009 issue of al-Majdal, Badil's English-language quarterly magazine.
This issue of al-Majdal draws on the research and experience of the participants in the Israel Review Conference
(http://israelreview.bdsmovement.net), and the topics on which they focused to provide an overview of routes, challenges, and recommendations for "Litigating Palestine." They evaluate past attempts at taking Israel and its abettors to court, assess the role of law in attaining justice for victims, and perhaps of particular interest to non-lawyers the role of civil society in supporting legal battles to attain justice for Palestinians.
A recurring theme is the consistent interference of executive and legislative branches of government to shield Israel and its agents from prosecution. Susan Akram and Yasmine Gado's article on civil tort claims in U.S. courts shows how the U.S. government has consistently interfered to ensure that courts dismiss Palestinian cases on procedural and jurisdictional grounds. Bill Bowring looks into the situation in Europe making it clear that Palestinians “do not have the possibility of addressing complaints to the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice.
Contributions in this issue also explore possibilities for legal action that can potentially overcome or at least bypass someome of these limitations, by targeting third parties. John Reynolds describes the case targeting the U.K. government as a third party complicit in Israeli violations. Deborah Guterman examines the case of Quebec courts against Canadian corporations involved in the construction of Israeli colonies in the West Bank. Karen Pennington and Joseph Schechla revisit US courts in an examination of whether recent precedents targeting Islamic charities may reopen the door to challenging the Jewish National Fund and other Zionist para-state organizations as charitable organizations in that country.
As this issue goes to print, news is circulating about the change in Spanish universal jurisdiction laws as a direct attempt to protect Israeli war crime suspects from prosecution. Meanwhile, there is an ongoing legal challenge to Heidelberg Cement for its plunder of quarries in the occupied West Bank, and a German-E.U. challenge to European imports from Ma'ale Adumim's Soda-Club. The U.K. has announced a partial arms embargo on Israel, while U.K. courts have dismissed the case challenging the U.K. government for its failure to fulfill its obligations under international law with respect to Israel's activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. These are some of the many examples of the ways in which the courtroom has developed as a site of
struggle to attain justice for Palestinians. As such, it is important to learn from the experiences of the past and coordinate action for the future in order to increase chances for success.
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Visit the al-Majdal homepage at http://www.badil.org/al-majdal/al-majdal.htm
or download the full PDF version of this issue of al-Majdal at:
http://www.badil.org/al-majdal/2008/autumn-winter/majdal39-40.pdf
Annual subscriptions to the printed version of the magazine are
available for Euro 25 (4 issues).
Subscribe online at
http://www.badil.org/paypal/publications.htm
or through email requests addressed to the editor at info@badil.org
Tagged as: BADIL, International Courts of Justice, International law, Israel, Nakba, Palestine
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