By Ted Belman
On June 5, 2013, The Law Faculty of Bar Ilan U held a conference on International Law and Israel. It was the first conference of a series of annual conferences aimed at exploring the growing gap between international law as it is often applied to Israel vs. how it is understood in the rest of the world.
Prof.Stephen Plaut reported on a paper presented by Eugene Kotorovich which showed that the so called law applied to settlers in Judea and Samaria was not the law applied to other settlers around the world. Kontorovich, I might add is making aliyah this summer with his wife and four childrens.
Eugene Kantorovich is one dang interesting academic! He is professor of constitutional law at Northwestern University. He is a blogger for the “Volokh Conspiracy.” And he often writes about international law and Israel.
He recently lectured in Israel at Bar Ilan University on the subject of “settlers.” The paper he presented documents the many cases of settlers and settlements being erected in “occupied territories” and about which there are no international criticism and no demands for their removal. The only “settlers” over which the world is upset are Jews who are living in their historic homeland, in lands taken by Israel in its defensive wars. He talked about the Russian settlers in Abkhazia in Georgia, and Russians in the Baltic countries. He talked about Indonesian settlers in Timor. He talked about Vietnamese settlers in Cambodia, and Turkish settlers in Cyprus and Syrian settlers in Lebanon. He talked about Moroccan settlers in Western Sahara. And in every case he showed how the world legitimized and recognized the presence of settlers as legitimate. He even described how the world agreed that the Moroccan settlers vote in the referendum in Western Sahara, with the predictable pro-Moroccan result. Jimmy Carter and the US State Department saw nothing amiss with that.In NO other cases of settlers or settlers has the demand been raised that the settlers be removed or evicted. Only when it comes to Jews in their own homeland.
I hope to be able to post more on this worthwhile conference.
Ted’s summary of Kantorovich’s Bar Ilan lecture fails to mention an important underlying point. In all the cases mentioned of settlement around the world, there was, pre-settlement a sovereign in the lands settled upon and no right, but only might that enabled the settlement to occur.
In the case of Israel, not only was there no sovereign in Yesha, but the international community created binding international law (that has not changed to this day)which conferred legal status for Jewish settlement in all of Yesha and obligated the world community to foster and support such settlement.
When these salient points or added, the comparison with other “settlments” world wide with Israels return to its ancient homeland are seen as just that much more egregious and outrageous.
XLucid hit the nail on the head when he explains the disconnect, aside from the obvious and pernicious antisemitism, as caused by the perfidious undermining of the Jewish peoples rights by successive governments and supreme courts of the State of Israel.
Aside from “if I am not for myself” there is also “more Catholic than the pope”
We are our own worst enemies to my everlasting shame and regret.
The most powerful military of the Middle East is still run by the stehel Jew!
Eugene Kantorovich : Here is his lecture on the subject below.
The Legal Case for Israel
Evidence to demonstrate the double standard applied by the international community against on the one hand, the settlements by the Jewish People in the heart of the Jewish Land, and on the other hands, the occupation of territories by other countries, is no longer required.
The question is: why the international community has shown such a voluntary and deliberate misunderstanding with regards to the settlements.
In addition to the usual, historical and basic Jew-hatred, one main reason resides in the lack of conviction shown by the Israeli government about these settlements.
Indeed, how can one expect a fair and equitable approach by the international community towards the settlements if the Israeli government gives a bad example.
How can one expect any form of impartiality on the part of the international community when the Israeli government performs destructions of Jewish homes in various settlements in Judea and Samaria, while Jewish citizens are thrown out of their homes at night and in the cold, their goods scattered and even vandalized in violation of the Human Rights Declaration.
If the inalienable rights granted to the patriots of Yehouda and Shomron are denied by the Israeli government, how the latter could convince the international opinion to demonstrate fairness and impartiality towards the settlements.
As said in the Pirke Avoth: Im Ein ani li mi li.
Ted, I hope so. this is a highly neglected area in mainstream public discussion and needs to find a route to become part of the discussion. There appears to be a “wall” preventing the dissemination of the legal issues surrounding Jewish settlement and Israeli sovereignty in YS. I believe that if the positive facts surrounding these issue enter mainstream discussion it will result in a more positive view of Israel and the settlers both inside and outside of Israel. Right now we are only subject to the name calling of leftists, and I include in this despicable behavior the perspective and attitude of Yair Lapid. fraudulent politicians like Lapid have maintained ad hominem attacks on settlers as a disguise to prevent any reasoned discussion of the issues.
It is time that Jews are educated to understand that this is not by coincidence: that there really is an intentional war against Israel and the jews on a global level. Europe is the hub of this deranged and despicable pathological behavior. Jews must wake up to the danger which is being set up for them. To continually ignore the repeated occurrences of intentional double standards is to be an ostrich and a collaborator in ones own demise.