(Prefatory Note: Posted here is a Joint Declaration of international law experts from around the world who are listed below as endorsers. I am among the endorsers, and the text was initially drafted by several international law scholars. We welcome additional signatures that can be sent to me in the comments section, with affiliation noted for identification, and names will be periodically added to the text. I view this as an important expression of professional judgment and individual conscience relating to Israeli behavior in Gaza commencing on 8 July that has already taken so many innocent lives and caused such widespread devastation. Please join us and spread the word!)
The International Community Must End Israel’s Collective Punishment of the Civilian Population in the Gaza Strip
As international and criminal law scholars, human rights defenders, legal experts and individuals who firmly believe in the rule of law and in the necessity for its respect in times of peace and more so in times of war, we feel the intellectual and moral duty to denounce the grave violations, mystification and disrespect of the most basic principles of the laws of armed conflict and of the fundamental human rights of the entire Palestinian population committed during the ongoing Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip. We also condemn the launch of rockets from the Gaza Strip, as every indiscriminate attack against civilians, regardless of the identity of the perpetrators, is not only illegal under international law but also morally intolerable. However, as also implicitly noted by the UN Human Rights Council in its Resolution of the 23th July 2014, the two parties to the conflict cannot be considered equal, and their actions – once again – appear to be of incomparable magnitude.
Once again it is the unarmed civilian population, the ‘protected persons’ under International humanitarian law (IHL), who is in the eye of the storm. Gaza’s civilian population has been victimized in the name of a falsely construed right to self-defence, in the midst of an escalation of violence provoked in the face of the entire international community. The so-called Operation Protective Edge erupted during an ongoing armed conflict, in the context of a prolonged belligerent occupation that commenced in 1967. In the course of this ongoing conflict thousands of Palestinians have been killed and injured in the Gaza Strip during recurrent and ostensible ‘ceasefire’ periods since 2005, after Israel’s unilateral ‘disengagement’ from the Gaza Strip. The deaths caused by Israel’s provocative actions in the Gaza Strip prior to the latest escalation of hostilities must not be ignored as well.
According to UN sources, over the last two weeks, nearly 800 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed and more than 4,000 injured, of whom the vast majority were civilians. Several independent sources indicate that only 15 per cent of the casualties were combatants. Entire families have been murdered. Hospitals, clinics, as well as a rehabilitation centre for disabled persons have been targeted and severely damaged. During one single day, on Sunday 20th July, more than 100 Palestinian civilians were killed in Shuga’iya, a residential neighbourhood of Gaza City. This was one of the bloodiest and most aggressive operations ever conducted by Israel in the Gaza Strip, a form of urban violence constituting a total disrespect of civilian innocence. Sadly, this was followed only a couple of days later by an equally destructive attack on Khuza’a, East of Khan Younis.
Additionally, the offensive has already caused widespread destruction of buildings and infrastructure: according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, over 3,300 houses have been targeted resulting in their destruction or severe damage.
As denounced by the UN Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on the Gaza conflict in the aftermath of Israel’s ‘Operation Cast Lead’ in 2008-2009: “While the Israeli Government has sought to portray its operations as essentially a response to rocket attacks in the exercise of its right to self defence, the Mission considers the plan to have been directed, at least in part, at a different target: The people of Gaza as a whole” (A/HRC/12/48, par. 1680). The same can be said for the current Israeli offensive.
The civilian population in the Gaza Strip is under direct attack and many are forced to leave their homes. What was already a refugee and humanitarian crisis has worsened with a new wave of mass displacement of civilians: the number of IDPs has reached nearly 150,000, many of whom have obtained shelter in overcrowded UNRWA schools, which unfortunately are no safe areas as demonstrated by the repeated attacks on the UNRWA school in Beit Hanoun. Everyone in Gaza is traumatized and living in a state of constant terror. This result is intentional, as Israel is again relying on the ‘Dahiya doctrine’, which deliberately has recourse to disproportionate force to inflict suffering on the civilian population in order to achieve political (to exert pressure on the Hamas Government) rather than military goals.
In so doing, Israel is repeatedly and flagrantly violating the law of armed conflict, which establishes that combatants and military objectives may be targeted, i.e. ‘those objects which by their nature, location, purpose or use make an effective contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction, capture or neutralization, in the circumstances ruling at the time, offers a definite military advantage.’ Most of the recent heavy bombings in Gaza lack an acceptable military justification and, instead, appear to be designed to terrorize the civilian population. As the ICRC clarifies, deliberately causing terror is unequivocally illegal under customary international law.
In its Advisory Opinion in the Nuclear Weapons case, the ICJ stated that the principle of distinction, which requires belligerent States to distinguish between civilian and combatants, is one of the “cardinal principles” of international humanitarian law and one of the “intransgressible principles of international customary law”.
The principle of distinction is codified in Articles 48, 51(2) and 52(2) of the Additional Protocol I of 1977 to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, to which no reservations have been made. According to Additional Protocol I, “attacks” refer to “acts of violence against the adversary, whether in offence or in defence” (Article 49). Under both customary international law and treaty law, the prohibition on directing attacks against the civilian population or civilian objects is absolute. There is no discretion available to invoke military necessity as a justification.
Contrary to Israel’s claims, mistakes resulting in civilian casualties cannot be justified: in case of doubt as to the nature of the target, the law clearly establishes that an object which is normally dedicated to civilian purposes (such as schools, houses, places of worship and medical facilities), are presumed as not being used for military purposes. During these past weeks, UN officials and representatives have repeatedly called on Israel to strictly abide by the principle of precaution in carrying out attacks in the Gaza Strip, where risks are greatly aggravated by the very high population density, and maximum restraint must be exercised to avoid civilian casualties. HRW has noted that these rules exist to minimize mistakes “when such mistakes are repeated, it raises the concern of whether the rules are being disregarded.”
Moreover, even when targeting clear military objectives, Israel consistently violates the principle of proportionality: this is particularly evident with regard to the hundreds of civilian houses destroyed by the Israeli army during the current military operation in Gaza. With the declared intention to target a single member of Hamas, Israeli forces have bombed and destroyed houses although occupied as residencies by dozens of civilians, including women, children, and entire families.
It is inherently illegal under customary international law to intentionally target civilian objects, and the violation of such a fundamental tenet of law can amount to a war crime. Issuing a ‘warning’ – such as Israel’s so-called roof knocking technique, or sending an SMS five minutes before the attack – does not mitigate this: it remains illegal to wilfully attack a civilian home without a demonstration of military necessity as it amounts to a violation of the principle of proportionality. Moreover, not only are these ‘warnings’ generally ineffective, and can even result in further fatalities, they appear to be a pre-fabricated excuse by Israel to portray people who remain in their homes as ‘human shields’.
The indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, the targeting of objectives providing no effective military advantage, and the intentional targeting of civilians and civilian houses have been persistent features of Israel’s long-standing policy of punishing the entire population of the Gaza Strip, which, for over seven years, has been virtually imprisoned by Israeli imposed closure. Such a regime amounts to a form of collective punishment, which violates the unconditional prohibition set forth in Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and has been internationally condemned for its illegality. However, far from being effectively opposed international actors, Israel’s illegal policy of absolute closure imposed on the Gaza Strip has relentlessly continued, under the complicit gaze of the international community of States.
***
As affirmed in 2009 by the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict: “Justice and respect for the rule of law are the indispensable basis for peace. The prolonged situation has created a justice crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territory that warrants action” (A/HRC/12/48, para. 1958) Indeed: “long-standing impunity has been a key factor in the perpetuation of violence in the region and in the reoccurrence of violations, as well as in the erosion of confidence among Palestinians and many Israelis concerning prospects for justice and a peaceful solution to the conflict”. (A/HRC/12/48, para. 1964)
Therefore,
- We welcome the Resolution adopted on 23 July 2014 by the UN Human Rights Council, in which an independent, international commission of inquiry was established to investigate all violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
- We call upon the United Nations, the Arab League, the European Union, individual States, in particular the United States of America, and the international community in its entirety and with its collective power to take action in the spirit of the utmost urgency to put an end to the escalation of violence against the civilian population of the Gaza Strip, and to activate procedures to hold accountable all those responsible for violations of international law, including political leaders and military commanders. In particular:
- All regional and international actors should support the immediate conclusion of a durable, comprehensive, and mutually agreed ceasefire agreement, which must secure the rapid facilitation and access of humanitarian aid and the opening of borders to and from Gaza;
- All High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions must be urgently and unconditionally called upon to comply with their fundamental obligations, binding at all times, and to act under common Article 1, to take all measures necessary for the suppression of grave breaches, as clearly imposed by Article 146 and Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention; these rules are applicable by all interested parties as well;
- Moreover, we denounce the shameful political pressures exerted by several UN Member States and the UN on President Mahmoud Abbas, to discourage recourse to the International Criminal Court (ICC), and we urge the Governmental leaders of Palestine to invoke the jurisdiction of the ICC, by ratifying the ICC treaty and in the interim by resubmitting the declaration under Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute, in order to investigate and prosecute the serious international crimes committed on the Palestinian territory by all parties to the conflict; and
- The UN Security Council must finally exercise its responsibilities in relation to peace and justice by referring the situation in Palestine to the Prosecutor of the ICC.
***
Please note that institutional affiliations are for identification purposes only.
- John Dugard, Former UN Special Rapporteur on human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
- Richard Falk, Former UN Special Rapporteur on human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
- Alain Pellet, Professor of Public International Law, University Paris Ouest, former Member of the United Nations International Law Commission, France
- Georges Abi-Saab, Emeritus Professor of International Law, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Former Judge on the ICTY
- Vera Gowlland-Debbas, Emeritus Professor of International Law, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland
- Chantal Meloni, Adjunct Professor of International Criminal Law, University of Milan, Italy (Rapporteur, Joint Declaration)
- Roy Abbott, Consultant in International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law, Australia
- Lama Abu-Odeh, Law Professor, Georgetown University Law Center, USA
- Susan M. Akram, Clinical Professor and supervising attorney, International Human rights Program, Boston University School of Law, USA
- Taris Ahmad, Solicitor at Jones Day, London, UK
- Maria Anagnostaki, PhD candidate, Law School University of Athens, Greece
- Antony Anghie, Professor of Law, University of Utah, USA
- Nizar Ayoub, Director, Al-Marsad, Arab Human Rights Centre in Golan Heights
- Valentina Azarov, Lecturer in Human Rights and International Law, Al Quds Bard College, Palestine
- Ammar Bajboj, Lecturer in Law, University of Damascus, Syria
- Samia Bano, SOAS School of Law, London, UK
- Asli Ü Bali, Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law, USA
- Jakub Michał Baranowski, Phd Candidate, Universita’ degli Studi Roma Tre, Italy
- Frank Barat, Russell Tribunal on Palestine
- Emma Bell, Coordinator of the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control, Université de Savoie, France
- Barbara Giovanna Bello, Post-doc Fellow, University of Milan, Italy
- Brenna Bhandar, Senior lecturer in Law, SOAS School of Law, London, UK
- George Bisharat, Professor of Law, UC Hastings College of Law, USA
- Barbara Blok, LLM Candidate, University of Essex, UK
- John Braithwaite, Professor of Criminology, Australian National University, Australia
- Michelle Burgis-Kasthala, lecturer in international law, University of Edinburgh, UK
- Eddie Bruce-Jones, Lecturer in Law, University of London, Birkbeck College, UK
- Sandy Camlann, LLM Candidate, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, France
- Grazia Careccia, Human Rights Advocate, London, UK
- Baris Cayli, Impact Fellow, University of Stirling, UK
- Antonio Cavaliere, Professor of Criminal Law, University Federico II, Naples, Italy
- Kathleen Cavanaugh, Senior Lecturer, Irish Center for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
- Elizabeth Chadwick, Reader in International Law, Nottingham, UK
- Donna R. Cline, Attorney at Law, USA
- Karen Corteen, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, University of Chester, UK
- Andrew Dahdal, Lecturer, Faculty of Business and Economics, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
- Teresa Dagenhardt, Reader in Criminology, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland
- Luigi Daniele, PhD candidate in Law, Italy
- Alessandro De Giorgi, Professor of Justice Studies, San Josè State University, USA
- Paul de Waart, Professor Emeritus of International Law, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Gabriele della Morte, Senior Lecturer in International Law, University Cattolica, Milan, Italy
- Max du Plessis, Professor of Law, University of Kwazulu-Natal, and Barrister, South Africa and London, UK
- Noura Erakat, Georgetown University, USA
- Mohammad Fadel, Associate Professor of Law, University of Toronto Faculty of Law, Canada
- Mireille Fanon-Mendés France, Independent Expert UNO, Frantz Fanon Foundation, France
- Michelle Farrell, lecturer in law, School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool, UK
- Daniel Feierstein, Professor and President International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), Argentina
- Eleonor Fernández Muñoz, Costa Rica
- Tenny Fernando, Attorney at Law, Sri Lanka
- Amelia Festa, LLM Candidate, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
- Katherine Franke, Professor of Law, Columbia Law School, USA
- Jacques Gaillot, Bishop in partibus of Patenia
- Katherine Gallagher, Vice President FIDH, senior attorney, Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR), New York, USA
- Avo Sevag Garabet, LLM, University of Groningen, the Netherlands
- Jose Garcia Anon, Professor of Law, Human Rights Institute, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
- Irene Gasparini, PhD candidate, Universitá Cattolica, Milan, Italy
- Stratos Georgoulas, Assistant Professor, University of the Aegean, Greece
- Haluk Gerger, Professor, Turkey
- Hedda Giersten, Professor, Universitet I Oslo, Norway
- Javier Giraldo, Director Banco de Datos CINEP, Colombia
- Carmen G. Gonzales, Professor of Law, Seattle University School of Law, USA
- Penny Green, Professor of Law and Criminology, Director of the State Crime Initiative, King’s College London, UK
- Katy Hayward, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland
- Andrew Henley, PhD candidate, Keele University, UK
- Christiane Hessel, Paris, France
- Paddy Hillyard, Professor Emeritus, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland
- Ata Hindi, Institute of Law, Birzeit University, Palestine
- Francois Houtart, Professor, National Institute of Higher Studies, Quito, Ecuador
- Deena R. Hurwitz, Professor, General Faculty, Director International Human Rights Law Clinic, University of Virginia School of Law, USA
- Perfecto Andrés Ibánes, Magistrado Tribunal Supremo de Espagna, Spain
- Franco Ippolito, President of the Permanent People’s Tribunal, Italy
- Ruth Jamieson, Honorary Lecturer, School of Law, Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland
- Helen Jarvis, former member Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), member of IAGS, Cambodia
- Ioannis Kalpouzos, Lecturer in Law, City Law School, London, UK
- Victor Kattan, post-doctoral fellow, Law Faculty, National University of Singapore
- Michael Kearney, PhD, Lecturer in Law, University of Sussex, UK
- Yousuf Syed Khan, USA
- Tarik Kochi, Senior Lecturer in Law, School of Law, Politics and Sociology, University of Sussex, UK
- Anna Koppel, MSt Candidate in International Human Rights Law, University of Oxford, UK
- Karim Lahidji, President of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and lawyer
- Giulia Lanza, PhD Candidate, Università degli Studi di Verona, Italy
- Daniel Machover, solicitor, Hickman & Rose, London, UK
- Tayyab Mahmud, Professor of Law, Director of the Centre for Global Justice, Seattle University School of Law, USA
- Maria C. LaHood, Senior Staff Attorney, CCR, New York, USA
- Louise Mallinder, Reader in Human Rights and International Law, University of Ulster, UK
- Triestino Mariniello, Lecturer in International Criminal Law, Edge Hill University, UK
- Mazen Masri, Lecturer in Law, The City Law School, City University, London, UK
- Siobhan McAlister, School of Sociology, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland
- Liam McCann, Principal Lecturer in Criminology, University of Lincoln, UK
- Jude McCulloch, Professor of Criminology, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
- Yvonne McDermott Rees, Lecturer in Law, University of Bangor, UK
- Cahal McLaughlin, Professor, School of Creative Arts, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland
- Araks Melkonyan, LLM Candidate, University of Essex, UK
- Antonio Menna, PhD Candidate, Second University of Naples, Caserta, Italy
- Naomi Mezey, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center, USA
- Michele Miravalle, PhD candidate, University of Torino, Italy
- Sergio Moccia, Professor of Criminal Law, University Federico II, Naples, Italy
- Kerry Moore, Lecturer, Cardiff University
- Giuseppe Mosconi, Professor of Sociology, University of Padova, Italy
- Usha Natarajan, Assistant Professor, Department of Law & Centre for Migration and Refugee Studies, The American University in Cairo, Egypt
- Miren Odriozola Gurrutxaga, PhD Candidate, University of the Basque Country, Donostia – San Sebastián, Spain
- Georgios Papanicolaou, Reader in Criminology, Teesside University, UK
- Marco Pertile, Senior Lecturer in International Law,
Faculty of Law, University of Trento, Italy - Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos, Professor of Law and Theory, LLM, The Westminster Law and Theory Centre, UK
- Antoni Pigrau Solé, Universitat Rovira i Virgili de Tarragona, Spain
- Joseph Powderly, Assistant Professor of Public International Law, Leiden University, The Netherlands
- Tony Platt, Visiting Professor of Justice Studies, San Jose State University, USA
- Scott Poynting, Professor in Criminology, University of Auckland, New Zeeland
- Chris Powell, Professor of Criminology, University S.Maine, USA
- Bill Quigley, Professor, Loyola University, New Orleans College of Law, USA
- John Quigley, Professor of Law, Ohio State University
- Zouhair Racheha, PhD Candidate, University Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France
- Laura Raymond, International Human Rights Advocacy Program Manager, CCR, New York, USA
- Véronique Rocheleau-Brosseau, LLM candidate, Laval University, Canada
- David Rodríguez Goyes, Lecturer, Antonio Nariño and Santo Tomás Universities, Colombia
- Alessandro Rosanò, PhD Candidate, Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy
- Jamil Salem, Director Institute of Law, Birzeit University, Palestine
- Mahmood Salimi, LLM Candidate, Moofid University, Iran
- Nahed Samour, doctoral fellow, Humboldt University, Faculty of Law, Berlin, Germany
- Iain GM Scobbie, Professor of Public International Law, University of Manchester, UK
- David Scott, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Liverpool John Moores University, UK
- Phil Scraton, Professor of Criminology, Belfast, Ireland
- Rachel Seoighe, PhD Candidate, Legal Consultant, King’s College London, UK
- Tanya Serisier, School of Sociology, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland
- Mohammad Shahabuddin, PdD, Visiting researcher, Graduate School of International Social Sciences, Yokohama National University, Japan
- Dean Spade, Seattle University School of Law, USA
- Per Stadig, lawyer, Sweden
- Chantal Thomas, Professor of Law, Cornell University, USA
- Kendall Thomas, Nash Professor of Law, Columbia University, USA
- Gianni Tognoni, Lelio Basso Foundation, Rome, Italy
- Steve Tombs, Professor of Criminology, The Open University, UK
- Paul Troop, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers, UK
- Valeria Verdolini, Reader in Sociology, University of Milan, Italy
- Francesca Vianello, University of Padova, Italy
- Aimilia Voulvouli, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Fatih University, Turkey
- Namita Wahi, Fellow, Centre for Policy Research, Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, India
- Sharon Weill, PhD, Science Po, Paris/ CERAH, Geneva, Switzerland
- Peter Weiss, Vice President of Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR), New York, USA
- David Whyte, Reader in Sociology, University of Liverpool, UK
- Jeanne M. Woods, Henry F. Bonura, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law, Loyola University College of Law, New Orleans, USA
- William Thomas Worster, Lecturer, International Law, The Hague University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands
- Maung Zarni, Judge, PPT on Sri Lanka and Visiting Fellow, London School of Economics and Political Science
Global Justice in the 21st Century 
Thank you Richard.
I wish to add my name to the Joint Declaraation on Israel’s Gaza Offensive.
Saïd Zulficar
Network for Colonial Freedom.
Me too
Please add my name Reem Al- Botmeh, institute of Law, Birzeit University.
Great statement. Please add me to the list:
Faisal Bhabha, Assistant Professor
Osgoode Hall Law School of York University
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Please add my name to this joint declaration:
Lloyd K. Marbet
Executive Director
Oregon Conservancy Foundation
19140 SE Bakers Ferry Rd.
Boring, OR 97009
Richard, please add my endorsement: Ajamu Baraka, human rights activist and former director of the U.S. Human Rights Network (USHRN)
Afrim Osmani, PhD, Criminal law, Macedonia, State University of Tetova
Please, add my name to the Joint Declaraation on Israel’s Gaza Offensive.
Cristina Greco, PhD in Semiotics, Department of Communication and Social Research, Rome University Sapienza, Italy.
I wish to add my name
Arzanese luisa
Richard, your academic pedigreed cannot hide your one sided ignorance and deep rooted hatred of Israel.
You should mind your own business — you are lay people. Israel as a “state” is a war-criminal. Condemn these who created it!
Solicito incluir mi nombre entre los firmantes de la Declaración Conjunta sobre la ofensiva israelí en Gaza. Enrique Pochat, profesor de Derechos Humanos en la Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Argentina
You are nothing but a bigot and an anti-Semite. You are so blinded by your self righteous judgements and hate that you actually condone with terrorists activities and who have publicly stated to destroy Israel. YOU WILL NEVER SUCCEED. YOU ARE FIGHTING AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF GOD. GOD BLESS ISRAEL.
MAX WEINBERG:
Fred Skolnik:
– What is your response to the use of palestinian civilians as human shields by israel?
– What is your response to the targeting of civilian infrastructure and targeting of civilians by israel in Gaza and Lebanon?
– What is your response to the blockade of humanitarian aid and support to Gaza?
– What is your response to the fact that Israel is a colonial power engaged in an occupation, to which palestinians have a legal right to resistance expressed through organising in the form of Hamas?
– What is your response to the increasing growth of Israeli settlements in palestinian areas?
– What is your response to the assertion that the Palestinian people have a legal right to resist, with arms the occupation by israel and other western powers by whatever means necessary?
Should Israel appear in the ICC, alongside Hamas if necessary in order to face the well documented and evidenced charges of crimes against humanity?
– Finally, does it make you feel good when israeli missiles blow palestinian children to smithereens?
Traiano: I will respond to you, point by point.
-Your first point is completely illogical. To say Israel is using Palestinian’s as human shields does not make ANY sense. It is Hamas that uses it’s people as human shields.
-Israel does not target civilians or civilian infrastructure. Hamas hides their rockets and entrances to their terror tunnels in civilian homes, schools, hospitals and mosques. They fire their rockets from these locations as well. Israel targets these locations, which Hamas purposefully place in civilian areas. (See recent UNRWA report)
-Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. There was no blockade in place until 2007 when Hamas forcefully took control, massacring members of the Fatah party and any other political dissidents. Hamas was and still is devoted to the destruction of Israel, it is in their charter. The blockade is in place so even more destructive weapons cannot make it into Gaza where they would undoubtedly be used against Israeli civilians. More humanitarian aid could be let through if Israeli security was not at stake.
-Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza, the West Bank, and Golan heights in the 1967 Six-Day War. They captured this land because they were attacked and they won. Israel has since given back the Sinai to Egypt, and ceded control of the West Bank to the PA. As for Gaza, as mentioned prior, Israel gave all control back to the Palestinians in 2005. Since then Hamas has taken over and has done nothing but fire rockets at Israel ever since. Please keep in mind, the blockade was not in place until Hamas violently took control in 2007.
-The settlements are a tricky issue, but I do believe that most of them do need to be abandoned, torn down, or given to the PA, so long as it does not compromise Israel’s safety and security. Frankly however, this is an issue that is besides the point in regards to the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. A ceasefire will need to be enacted and adhered to before negotiations resume.
-The assertion that the Palestinian people have a “legal” right to resist (by firing rockets, nonetheless), seems to me, to be totally fabricated. For starters. Gaza is no longer occupied. And Hamas intended to start firing rockets at Israel before the blockade was in place. Thus, it validates Israel’s decision to do so. To say that Hamas started firing rockets because of the blockade is naive. Can you show me the legal language that entitles them to this?
-Your final point disgusts me. If you believe that Israeli civilians and the IDF enjoy killing Palestinian civilians, especially children, than you are either ignorant, naive, or full of hatred. Turn that question towards Hamas, who deliberately place their civilians in harms way. There are a hundred EMPTY square miles in Gaza where Hamas could house their rockets, fire their rockets and build their terror tunnels, far away from civilians. However, they choose to use densely populated civilian areas instead, so that when their innocent men, women, and children are killed, the world can blame Israel. It’s despicable and cowardly, and needs to be seen for what it is.
you are a complete idiot. More dangerous than Hamas
total grumpy and stupid.
Please add my name to the list. I am Dr. Mirko Colleoni. I currently work at the University of Bergamo, Italy.
I join Declaration too
I wish to add my name to the Joint Declaration on Israel’s Gaza Offensive.
Kamel Ennab
Director of Palestinian Affairs at City College of New York
We too would like to add our names- Adolph Hitler & Adolph Eichman
Adolphs: It always gives we clergy hope when persons with long held repressive and totalitarian ideologies come to a time of enlightened change! It is well noted that it has taken you being 69 years dead to come to the alter of enlightenment that apartheid like systems of governance only keep peoples from forming real cooperative communities. Welcome to the community of hope for a peaceful world.
Please add my name.
Thanks
There are little to few words about Jus ad Bellum in this statement.
Is it because you recognise the legality of Israel’s right to self-defence but not their conduct of war; or because the humanitarian focus is a stronger narrative, more likely to receive support?
While directing such a stark criticism I think it would be suitable to include a few words about whether or not you believe Israel was legally entitled to launching Operation Protective Edge in the first place.
I agree with this suggestion, but I was not the author of the statement, and I believe the
drafter were seeking to frame the issues to attract as broad a group of supporters as possible.
For the record, I believe Israel’s jus ad bellum argument was very weak, especially given the
preceding facts and the kind of massive attack launched.
Dear Richard.
Thank you very much for your reply!
Could you possibly elaborate on the disproportionality of Operation Protective Edge under Jus ad Bellum international law?
Sorry for my persistence, I am a new student of international law. Please feel free not to leave a reply.
This is an important statement–informed and humane. I’m unsure if you want non-law professors to join the effort. If so, I’d be honored if you added my name (affiliation: Professor, School of International Service, American University).
The organization, Humanize Palestine, offers moving tributes to victims of the current rampage. See: http://humanizepalestine.com/
May international law find a foothold in the conflict.
I wish to sign the Joint Declaration Jackie Alsaid LLM International Law
Dear Professor Falk,
Thank you very much for your efforts.
Could you please add my name to this declaration.
Dr Ahmed Amine Khamlichi, Investigator at the CNRS, France.
Best regards,
A.A. Khamlichi
Reblogged this on | truthaholics and commented:
Respect existence or expect resistance.
More power to the mass campaign of non-cooperation with Israeli war crimes.
If useful, please add my name to this distinguished list.
Former senior editor, Overseas American Academy, Geneva, Switzerland
If useful, please add my name to this distinguished list.
Raffaele Porta, full professor at University of Naples “Federico II”
REPLY
This is not ‘Israel defending itself’…it is ongoing low intensity attrition in an ethnic imperial war for full spectrum(totalitarian)fascistic neoliberal capitalist PNAC….Washington, London, Paris and Berlin are up to their oily necks and bloody elbows in it.
This needs amplifying and broadcasting.
Damien, your statement here sure needs amplifying and broadcasting, but mostly amplifying, or should I say explaining in greater detail the exact implications of your words. What is at play in the world of today is very fascistic without a doubt, with totalitarianism as the end goal and neo-liberal capitalism as a means of attaining that ultimate goal, which was set in motion eons ago and is being modified through unforeseeable historic circumstances, but never losing its ultimate aim. What do you think is the umbrella, under which your mentioned multi-polar centers of financial and economic gravity operate? In other words, does ‘big brother’ have a face?
Thank you so much for speaking out. Israel can do everything in its power to control the narrative but they can’t explain away voices of reason and recognised legal standing,
Please add my name: Irene Baghoomians, Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Sydney
Reblogged this on Order Of Truth and commented:
This is an important analysis of international law applied to the atrocities of the Zionist government in Israel.
It also calls for ALL signatories to the Geneva Conventions from the international community to fulfil their OBLIGATIONS under these conventions – something we have yet to see any of them take seriously.
Please add my name to the list. I am Dr. Lena El-Malak. I have a PhD in Public International Law from the School of Oriental and African Studies and my doctoral thesis was about the Right to Reparation of Palestinian Refugees. I am currently working as a legal counsel for a company in the UAE.
This is ethnic cleansing. They want all of Palestine,based on some myth of over 2000 years ago. We must all stand together to stop this madness.
Hi,
Can you please explain this what you wrote: “myth of over 2000 years ago.”
Can you please give us meaning of that — what is the myth?
What are you giving reference to?
I think Wingsprd is referring to Shlomo Sands claim that “Jewish people were invented over a century ago”. That means, the World Zionist Movement’s claim that the G-d of Bible promised Holy Land to Jews, Or he could be referring to Israeli historian, professor Eran Elhaik (Johns Hopkins University), who has claimed that the great majority of Jewish people are not Semite people.
http://rehmat1.com/2013/09/21/israeli-historian-jews-are-not-semitic-people/
Dear rehmat1,
I do not know what to think about what he wrote, and I, too, only can wonder.
2000 years or not, myth or not…Israel today is committing genocide and ethnic cleansing…that’s the issue, the only issue
Mohamed El Sayed: Not the only issue.
This is the ‘issues’: Muslims, Christians and Jews are spiritually excommunicated – but why? The answer to that “way” is the only ‘issues’.
For a condensed version of the myth, try Deuteronomy.
Please add my name to this important declaration:
Mary Nazzal-Batayneh
Barrister, Palestine Legal Aid Fund, Amman, Jordan.
PhD, Attorney at Law, indigenous peoples’ human rights advocate
Please add my name to this list:
Naomi Head, Lecturer in Politics, University of Glasgow, UK
Dear Pr. Falk, please add my name to this distinguished list: Ziyad Clot. French lawyer. University of Paris II Assas and Sciences Po Paris.
Dear Pr. Falk,
Please add my name to this distinguished list: Ziyad Clot. French lawyer. University of Paris II Assas and Sciences Po Paris
Thank you for this initiative.
Very best wishes,
Ziyad.
Dear Prof. Falk,
I endorse the Joint Declaration and would like to add my name to it.
I also remember your pleading before our Tribunal in Case A21 before ISUCT in mid 1980s.
Kind regards,
Koorosh Ameli
Former judge, Iran-United States Claims Tribunal
I fully support the Declaration. Please include me in it. Prof. Gloria M. Moran. Full Professor. Chair: Law, Religion and Public Policy. UDC. Spain/USA
Please add my name to the statement
Charles H. Manekin
Prof of Philosophy
University of Maryland
maurizio cucci e carla biavati members of the IPRI (institute for Peace Research, italiam branch) and civil peace corps network like to joint the declaration. reteccp.org
Richard, please got to your Blog tools to include a direct Facebook share to your articles. I have re-blogged this ito my FB page.
Thank you for this Declaration! I’ve not been a lawyer, however, I’ve spent my career as a clergy person of the United Church of Christ where the law has meet human need. Please add me in as an “endorser” if it is appropriate. Lloyd Schneider, Retired Minister, United Church of Christ, Delegate to General Synod 2015, Tuolumne, California, USA
I do adopte and fully agree with such fair and equitable declaration and I hope concret and rapid fallow up (and here my identification if usuful : Issaaf Ben Khalifa, Lawyer, Tunisien bar association, graduated Faculty of legal,political and social sciences, University of Carthage, Tunisia)
Dear Prof. Falk — Hi. How can I (NOT an “international law expert,” but a peace and human rights activist in the U.S.) sign this wonderful declaration? Is there a separate “declaration supporters” column, where those who are not “legal experts” could sign? How about translation into other languages? I can do Persian. Thanks. Moji Agha–E-mail: moji.agha@gmail.com >>> And in case my signature could be added, here it is, with “institutional affiliation: Moji Agha, Founder, Mossadegh Legacy Institute (U.S.)
Richard,
Please add my name.
Thanks,
Marjorie Cohn
Professor of Law, Thomas Jefferson School of Law and former president, National Lawyers Guild
sottoscrivo con convinzione l’appello per la popolazione della Striscia di Gaza. prego di inserire il mio nome tra i firmatari.
Roberto Lamacchia. Avvocato. Torino.Italia. Presidente Associazione Giuristi Democratici
I would be honored if you add my name at this declaration.
Robert Bourque, Professor of Philosophy and Political Science, College de Thetford and UMCE University, Canada
i would like my name added to the list
Lavinia Monti, PhD in the international law and human rights, University of Rome La Sapienza
Please add my name to the list.
Ibrahim Aydemir, PhD Candidate in IR, Yildirim Beyazit Univ. in Turkey
I endorse this statement.
Dear Prof. Falk,
please add my name to this list.
Thank you.
Muriel Sarrouf, Lecturer in International Law, Saint Joseph University, Beirut, Lebanon.
May i please add my name in support of this declaration.
Professor Urfan Khaliq, Professor of International Law, Cardiff Univeristy, United Kingdom
Please add my signature as well:
Micòl Savia, human rights lawyer, permanent representative of the International Association of Democratid Lawyers (IADL) at the UN in Geneva.
Thank you very much
Please add my name: Mahmood M. Jaludi, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey, U.S.A.
Pity, Barack Obama is not president Eisenhower, who prove in 1956 how to deal with Israel and its powerful lobby groups in United States.
“When US President Eisenhower learned of the UK-French-Israeli plan to grab the Suez Canal and march on Cairo, he was furious. Ike ordered the British and French out of Egypt under threat of collapsing their weak currencies. Eisenhower told Israel to get out of Sinai – or else. Israel got out,” says Eric Margolis, Canada’s renowned war correspondent and author.
“This event is worth recalling as we today watch US President Barack Obama and his hapless Secretary of State John Kerry plead with Israel to stop massacring Palestinians in Gaza,” says Margolis.
http://rehmat1.com/2014/07/28/chutzpah-obama-urges-netanyahu-to-stop-killing-gazans/
You mix apples and oranges. 1956 was a joint operation of aggression with France and England. Israel was wrong. Gaza is a war started by Hamas to exterminate Israel. Israel is right.
This is the place for such defamatory commentary. You may be correct
in these serious allegations, but I resist have this website a venue
for such personal attacks.
I am happy to see that two or three people have gotten to the heart of the matter, which is how Hamas has embedded itself and its military installations among the civilian population of Gaza to an extent that simply boggles the mind. None of the experts and assorted humanists rushing to condemn Israel seems the least bit troubled by this or, needless to say, has any of them seen fit to protest, condemn or even mention in passing the atrocities past and present of the Arab terrorists. Leaving aside Syria, Sudan and Rwanda, where I would have expected such people also to make themselves heard, but they of course have not, this callous indifference to the murder of Israeli civilians is by itself enough to mark them out as the hypocrites that I have called them.
I see that another dozen or so signers have pitched in in the meanwhile. Ironically, the more people add their names to this disgracefully unbalanced Declaration in the face of some very simple facts that have been presented here about what Hamas is doing in Gaza, the more Israel’s defenders are borne out in their contention that Israel hatred has very little to do with what Israel does or does not do, or, in other words, that the haters are interested less in the Palestinians, or anyone else, as victims than in Israel as the culprit, or in still more simple English, that Israel would not be hated if it was not Jewish. I think this is clear. No one has as yet shown us his name on any declaration about Arab suicide bombers, the Syrian atrocities, and the genocides in Sudan and Rwanda.
Two of the accusations that all of you are eagerly buying into without really understanding what they mean are “collective punishment” and “disproportionate force.” They put Israel in a bad light, so why not?
The term “collective punishment” was introduced into international law in a specific context and with a specific meaning. The term is now being arbitrarily broadened by the Israel haters to mean any suffering caused to a civilian population as a result of fighting in a built-up area so that it can be applied to Israel, which is simply a perversion of legal language. But you aren’t lawyers, are you? You’re just humanists.
Likewise the term “disproportionate force” is being used in such a way as to criminalize even the Allies for bringing to bear all of their enormous fire power against the Germans in order to destroy their military capability as the tide turned and the Third Reich collapsed. Proportionate force is the force required to neutralize an enemy, and this Israel has not succeeded in doing, as Hamas is launching its rockets at pretty much the same pace as at the beginning of their attack, so that not only is Israel not using disproportionate force, it is not even using adequate force. And please do not pretend that this force is being directed against anything other than military targets. When civilians are killed it is because they are in a war zone, and it is Hamas who put them there. Israel cannot and will not allow rockets to be fired massively and indiscriminately at its civilian population. If you subscribe to the perverted language of the Declaration and wish to assert that Israel is acting “in the name of a falsely construed right to self-defense” after over 1,000 rockets have been fired at its civilian population (and over 11,000 since the disengagement in 2005), then you are simply placing yourselves beyond the pale of moral and rational discourse and letting your hatred of Israel get the better of you.
Fred: I think that the cause for this ethical obedience (humanism if you will) have its roots in the Law itself. It is written:
http://biblehub.com/text/deuteronomy/19-13.htm
The rational conclusion (Israeli realization) would be: because the civilians are killed in the war-zone / Holy Land – the war has to stop. Their approach to the Holy Land Territory will be a direct: “face to face” negotiations with their neighbors / lands that are occupying Holy Land Territory..
I fully subscribe to the Declaration. Thanks for adding my name to the list of signatories.
When people who should know better put one hundred percent of the blame for the Middle East conflict on Israel, we all know where this is coming from.
Mr. Sknlnik: As long as your head is in the sand, you will have no credibility with those who
are critics of Israel. To dismiss us all as ‘moral hypocrites’ in the face of the daily carnage
in Gaza is to exhibit a refusal to see the situation as it appears to many of us from many different
backgrounds. To allege that this is just an expression of disguised hatred of Israel is avoid the
challenge being posed, including by a growing number of your own citizens. I understand your perceptions
and anger, but to refuse to show respect for the views of others is to confirm the growing impression of Israeli
arrogance. Denunciations are neither persuasive nor conducive to dialogue.
It is very simple, Professor Falk. Someone comes along and calls me a murderer, which I am not. I examine his evidence and find that it does not meet any real legal, historical or moral standard, that it is in fact gratuitous, and conclude that it is pointless to protest my innocence or argue with him, and begin to suspect that he might have something against me personally, some deep-seated animosity or resentment in fact. Now you may think that there is nothing personal in high-toned academic discourse that vilifies entire nations and I imagine that this is because such talk is acceptable in academic and public forums but also because you (and a large part of your audience, judging from their manner of speaking) are completely alienated from your own national identity and don’t really grasp how offensive these attacks are to people who do identify with the countries they are part of, and therefore when I see what is behind the attacks (and they always give themselves away by the language that is used), my instinct is to expose the hater for what he is. You will not tell me that people signing their names to a series of assertions that they have no way of verifying are anything other than people with just such deep-seated animosity and resentment toward Israel.
As for the substantive issues, I think it is you who are burying your head in the stand. I have certainly argued them, as have others. I do remember your including in your June 2013 Report the claim that rockets were neither stored nor fired from residential districts, a claim that has since exploded in your face and could have been refuted by a ten-year-old child who took the trouble to find the incriminating aerial photographs on the Internet. And out of this you built your entire case against Israel for attacking what you liked to call “alleged” military targets precisely where they had been embedded in residential neighborhoods. The present Declaration that you are publishing here is disgraceful in its one-sidedness and will only attract certain types of individuals, whom I have characterized, varied as their backgrounds may be. It is not by chance that you have made yourself a pariah among a great many people who are no less moral than you.
To borrow the words of another writer, from a different context:
“The man sounds as if he gets his talking points straight from the Israeli embassy. If he is not actually on their payroll, then he is a fool; he is that blatant.”
I’m talking about you Fred.
Richard a pariah? Only in the eyes of hasbara trolls like you.
As usual, brilliantly argued, Gene.
So easy when you are my adversary. You just keep repeating yourself.
Gene, you lack the wit to be as devastating as you’d like to be. Go back to referencing. It’s more your speed.
Fault! Ad hominems are no-nos on this site. Fred, when you can come up with a new argument without endlessly repeating slurs at Richard, I might consider responding. Meanwhile, it’s a holiday in Switzerland, and I’m going out to find a pro Palestine manifestation to join.
I’m not looking for your responses, Gene. You’re pretty much an empty shell. But do learn how to read a map before you come back to us.
Fred & Gene: I am starting to feel depressed reading this, and I am thinking about Rabbi.
I am thinking this morning about that Rabbi that lives in Jerusalem and prays at the Temple wall every morning. Johnny Allen talked about him. I wonder if anyone can find him, and find out who he is. Fred, can you find that Rabbi –since you live in Jerusalem (I assume that you do?).
I do not know why, I just want to find out who is that Rabbi that prays at the Temple walls.
Lots of rabbis pray at the Wall. What’s his name? Who is Johnny Allen and what did he say?
Johnny Allen talked about him right here…
I see that there is a lot of talking there. Pick out and quote for me what’s relevant.
Yes: Johnny Starts talking about it @ 6:01 minutes into the lecture, and specifically about Rabbi he starts giving reference @7:58 minutes into the video lecture. It is relative @ the very beginning, and it ends @ 11:00 with some reference to this Rabbi.
No idea who he is. You can write to the Orthodox Union through the contact form on their website and ask them if they know of a rabbi born in – was it Crown Heights? – who has a congregation in the vicinity of the Kotel.
Dear Fred: I do not know who he may be –but those Rabbis in Jerusalem can tell us what are the ancient Landmarks, in exact—and what would acceptable neutral overlaps in territory be, if applicable?
I believe Johnny said that Rabbi was born in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and has moved to Israel in 1967.
I do not know any of Jewish Rabbi’s–but this Rabbi; he may be in your neighborhood?
Why to write to write to the Orthodox Union when you can just find him—if you can?
I wish to endorse this declaration,
Kevin Hearty, PhD Candidate, UU.
No, I can’t find him. There are dozens of congregations in the Old City. The best place for you to start is with the Orthodox Union, which may know who he is.
Amazing how so many people, with so many letters and initials after their names, can be so blind to the truth and so stupid. Seriously?! The Arabs of Gaza have received billions in international aid, all unaccounted for by the way, and instead of building any institutions to better the lot of the people, they build tunnels to further their inhuman indiscriminate attacks upon Israeli citizens. Instead of shielding their children, they send them to stand in front of the mortars.
Yes, you can go on with all of your legalese blah blah, but it’s merely a smokescreen for your perverse sense of “justice”. I always wondered whom God was referring to, when the bible says, “I give you the choice of life or death”, who, in their right mind, would choose death? Now we know.
According to your bio, you had something to do with human rights at the UN. Seriously?! You dare to call yourself a defender of human rights, yet you defend a totalitarian regime who spits upon the very notion of human rights?! Keep it up, but know that you are a joke.
“yet you defend a totalitarian regime who spits upon the very notion of human rights?”
This sounds more like Israel?
By the way, you sound like a Hasbarah troll? Are you being paid to vent insults on public forums ?
Ron Romaner, what is your response to Israel’s use of Palestinian children as human shields ?
When we expose the empire’s lawyers who are silent on Israeli genocide in Gaza, but go after the victims of Zionism and imperialism to serve their masters against victims, Payam Akhavan (Canada), advisor to the Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and a close supporter and collaborator of Irwin Cotler(Canada) a staunch supporter of Israeli crimes against humanity, our comments are being censored, but the comments by Israeli trolls are posted? There are more than 7 billion people taken hostage by less than 15 million Jews in the world where “as the babies blow up and the retirees and Kibitzers and dual citizens sit in lawn chairs, sipping Soda Stream and piling on the Kosher pickles while missiles and drones and Bombs Busting in Air rain down on innocents, on people they see as rats, or lesser than rats.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/20/israelis-cheer-gaza-bombing
The world is under Zionists’ thumb where cannot not tolerate any longer. We are fed up, fed up, fed up with the status que runs by the zionists and their stooges at the western capitals and beyond. Expose them all.
http://halifaxtheforum.org/2011-forum/2011-speakers/
Amen…Not a word from Professor Falk condemning Hamas’ use of civilians as cover, suicide bombings, random firings of rockets to kill and maim as many Israelis as possible regardless of age (they would be thrilled to murder kids at a school), or their use of illegal tunnels to viciously attack as cowards. This means that Professor Falk expresses outrage against the violence on only ONE SIDE of the conflict and seemingly accepts or justifies the violence of the terrorist side.
Who has their head in the sand? I think it’s super clear….
If you’ve signed the list, it’s not too late to get some clarity and have your name removed. That would be the honorable thing to do.
Blessings!
Please look at the pictures in the following links to expose the zionist propaganda all over the globe when they say “Hamas’ use of civilians as cover” and see who is using children and elderly as human shield.
Stop your lies and instead condemn the genocide in Gaza by zionist Jews, Demand the war criminals to be arrested and taken to ICC, a brothel house.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58197
“AMNESTY International said that the [Israel]army used children and elderly as human shields and forced them to inspect and open suspicious objects.”
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/04/28/israeli-use-of-palestinians-as-human-shi
Why are you censoring my comment which is a document shows Israeli Soldiers are using Gazan children as human shield? But you post all the garbage of ‘fred’?
Please look at the pictures in the following links to expose the zionist propaganda all over the globe when they say “Hamas’ use of civilians as cover” and see who is using children and elderly as human shield.
Stop your lies and instead condemn the genocide in Gaza by zionist Jews, Demand the war criminals to be arrested and taken to ICC, a brothel house.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58197
“AMNESTY International said that the [Israel]army used children and elderly as human shields and forced them to inspect and open suspicious objects.”
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/04/28/israeli-use-of-palestinians-as-human-shi
So where is your condemnation of Israeli murders of civilians, bombing of hospitals, refugee camps, electric power plants, sewage plants? It is your view that is one sided, especially since you ignore the evidence of the IDF using civilian shields (children) during previous invasions of Gaza. You have no basis for accusing Mr. Falk of not taking a balanced view, since the situation is clear cut: Israel is an occupying power, Hamas is a legitimate resistance movement and have no recourse but to resist from within an area packed with civilians. Get it?
What’s your response to Israel’s use of Palestinians as human shields?
“AMNESTY International said that the [Israel]army used children and elderly as human shields and forced them to inspect and open suspicious objects.”
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/04/28/israeli-use-of-palestinians-as-human-shi
What is your response to Israel’s use of illegal weapons like phosphorous rounds and cluster bombs?
Would it be too much to ask for you to take a balanced view?
Well said Fred.
Most of the people commenting on this site have such a hatred for our Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel, they are blinded from the real truth.
But Israel is the occupying power, 100% of the blame does indeed fall on it. Moreover, israel is a a coloniser, and it’s intention and stated objective is to colonise the area commonly known as Palestine. How then can Israel not be 100% to blame? Any attempt to fight back by the native population is legitimate. They have the right to resistance under the Geneva conventions.
UN Resolution 3236, passed by the General Assembly in its 29th session in 1974 recognized that the collective rights of the Palestinian people were fully and properly recognized. The resolution recognized the Palestinian people’s right for self-determination in accordance with the United Nations Charter (which, in retrospect gives them the same right of self-defense granted to sovereign states). In addition, it granted them the right of national independence, sovereignty and right of return to their homes.
What is your response to this ?
Right on….thanks for the clarity. It’s absolutely sickening and terribly unacademic to hear only one, misguided side. May some truth about the situation be accepted!
Gone was the time of positional warfare. They will choose open fields where no non-combatants are likely to be hit.
We are in the era of guerrilla warfare. One characteristic of this is that warriors integrate or embed themselves with the population. If they hide their weapons they become invisible.
Anti guerrilla war must be very difficult. It snapped people like Lt. Cally in vietnam.
Silvia De Michelis, PhD candidate, University of Bradford, Department of Peace Studies, Bradford, UK
My signature to be added!!!!
The International Community Must End Hamas’s Efforts To Exterminate The Jewish People. It must stop the random shooting of rockets. It must stop using schools (including international ones) , mosques and other civilian areas as storage and firing locations for those rockets. It must stop using hospitals as command centers. It must stop telling its population not to leave areas targeted by Israel after Israel warns of the impending attacks. It must stop Hamas in its efforts to exterminate Israel. The leader of Hamas just said, again, that Hamas will never agree to a Jewish State.
Israel must defend itself. Israel did not start this war. Israel does not revel in the deaths of Arabs, but Hamas revels in the deaths of Jews.
Hamas used all of that cement and steel the wonderful international community forced Israel to allow be imported into Gaza (for civilian use) in order to build all of those tunnels into Israel in order to kill Jews. Israel must destroy those tunnels and Hamas is forcing Israel to go though the civilian population to get to them. Whose fault is that? What was this wonderful international community willing to do to prevent Hamas from doing what it intended? ZERO. Israeli lives are on the line: Jews, Christians and Muslims. Not yours.
Hamas, and not Israel, is the ultimate driver of the deaths of its own population.
Now read the Quo’ran, which Hamas follows (as do most Muslims) and is enforced by ISIS, and perhaps you will see your future. After all, the Quo’ran speaks internationally.
I believe that this voluntary ethical distinguished professional statement and contribution is an exemplary practice that will not only help people under occupation and their supporters but also will promote the role of independent law experts in world conflicts and peace building anywhere and everywhere.
Let us share this statement and exemplary practice.
Ghassan Shahrour, MD
Dear oldguyincolorado,
Eccalisticaly, the “Jewish State” equals to zero / null and void; meaning: not valid because it equals eccalisticaly, to a false claim, in essence.
However, Jewish Kingdom under Old Testament is not null and void, eccalisticaly.
What exactly is Hamas talking about: a) the Jewish nation as a “state” – “state of Jews as a nation?” Meaning, the “Nation of Jews,” not “the Holy Nation”? b) the Jewish Kingdom itself – where does this fit in, when and if, at all?
One or the other — or both?
Do not confuse the Holy Nation and call it a “state” instead of the Kingdom? Meaning, meaning, meaning/s for each of these terms…
What are they confusing if at all they are confusing? They have all things confused?
Amen and “Right On! ” Kata Fisher.
Dear Rev Lloyd Schneider,
I am in agreement with you that you understand these things (smile).
Again I suggest that you read the Charter of Hamas. With the Muslim attacks on Jews in Paris and the renewal of overt worldwide antisemtisim one need not try to read the tea leaves. They just want to kill Jews anywhere they can be located.
Again I suggest that you read the Quo’ran.
Your “questions” indicate a total lack of understanding of what is really going on. Hamas wants war and now they have it. Otherwise they loose their relevancy . The rest of Gaza pays the price. The face of Hamas is represented by the funerals of their children and the terror tunnels Israel is now destroying. It has to destroy them. Only a blind person fails to see this. Hamas is using its civilian population to try and prevent this. The fault is theirs.
You are being duped.
The best info I’ve seen re:OGinCO is the You Tube Video : Miko Peled: The (Israeli) General’s Son – Geneva
From one old guy (son and grand son of Coloradans) to another….Miko Peled has it correct from inside the turf!!!!
Finally a voice of reason and understanding. Thank You.
At least one person makes sense. All other are cynically using Palestinians for their own purpose for over 50 years.
oldguyincolorado
1) What is your response to the use of palestinian civilians as human shields by israel?
2) What is your response to the targeting of civilian infrastructure and targeting of civilians by israel in Gaza and Lebanon?
What is your response to the blockade of humanitarian aid and support to Gaza?
3) What is your response to the fact that Israel is a colonial power engaged in an occupation, to which palestinians have a legal right to resistance expressed through organising in the form of Hamas?
4) What is your response to the increasing growth of Israeli settlements in palestinian areas?
5) What is your response to the assertion that the Palestinian people have a legal right to resist, with arms the occupation by israel and other western powers by whatever means necessary?
6) Should Israel appear in the ICC, alongside Hamas if necessary in order to face the well documented and evidenced charges of crimes against humanity?
7) Finally, does it make you feel good when israeli missiles blow palestinian children to smithereens?
I fully endorse this statement.
Francesco M. Genovesi
Attorney at Law – Milano (Italy)
Please stop the fighting and the massacre of innocent children. War does not intel killing of children.
I agree – Hamas must stop! And hezbollah and ISIS also.
Reblogged this on A Collective Consciousness and TJP Production and commented:
Please share this request by Professor Richard Faulk
Posted here is a Joint Declaration of international law experts from around the world who are listed below as endorsers. I am among the endorsers, and the text was initially drafted by several international law scholars. We welcome additional signatures that can be sent to me in the comments section, with affiliation noted for identification, and names will be periodically added to the text. I view this as an important expression of professional judgment and individual conscience relating to Israeli behavior in Gaza commencing on 8 July that has already taken so many innocent lives and caused such widespread devastation. Please join us and spread the word!)
Talk about one sided review.
Have you ever pounder upon the fact the the rules have changed? That the current law is not “up to date” with the modern warfare or guerrilla/urban warfare?
Maybe, just maybe, you guys didn’t think about Hamas and other Islamic terror factions tactics who uses civilian just for this purpose? For P.R purposes? To bash Israel in world opinion and in UN councils.
Again, I witness the one sided-superficial-shallow-narrow minded and most importantly the self righteous reviews of people who can’t really grasp this conflict. To understand it’s complexity.
Also, the UNHRC is a joke and quoting their resolutions is to shoot in your own leg. Please, look at the countries who are members. Countries who trample human rights everyday. And they get to judge Israel. Pff fair game. Also, this joke of a council is running on countries interests rather than in human rights soley. Fixed game.
So dear lawyers and experts, the IDF is doing more the most, heck, even more than all armies in the world when dealing with innocents. It warns before, even cancel attacks and the most important treating Palestinians and moving aid and food to gaza by trucks.
The question is, you know that Hamas is using its population as human shield, fire and operate from crowded areas, using civilian structures like schools and hospitals as bases of attack against the IDF and booby traps many houses. Also, it used the money that had been donated to the Gazans for terror.
So the question is, if one side is using those coward tactics above, whose fault is it?
Do you actually think the the IDF would walk into death traps just because the int law says otherwise? Aren’t they human two?
Whose fault is the number of deaths (I oppose innocent death)?
What will happen the day when it’s over when the Gazans will return to their booby trapped house? Who’s fault is that?
I can tire you with many moral and logical questions. The thing is, are you honest enough to answer them in open letter like the one above?
Good night.
You have my support – and I am a retired lawyer, too. They choose to ignore the Charter of Hamas. Prof. Falk refuses to even acknowledge that there are facts which fly into the face of each and every argument he makes.
Please add my name to this, it is the least we can do.
Rana Alkhadra, LLM candidate (International Commercial law), University of Nottingham
UK
Wrath, you are in need in of mental health treatment. The Joint Declaration is doing the Lord’s work. Everybody knows that Israel is a state of tribalists with a tribal religion in the 21st century. Now this may have been acceptable 500 years ago, but not in the 21st century. Israel is an apartheid racist state that is genocidal on third world people. Most of the world understands this. Wrath, you have a lot of hatred. Please seek mental health treatment soon.
What is your response to Israel’s use of the Palestinians as human shields?
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/04/28/israeli-use-of-palestinians-as-human-shi
Why does your one-sided view not include the atrocities committed on the occupier’s side?
Please add my name to this Professor Falk. Thank you!
Ladan Mehranvar, PhD candidate (International Law), Faculty of Law, University of Toronto
Hi! I’m a New York based researcher and an intern at the OIC Mission to the United Nations. I follow the meetings of the UN Committees and Security Council and focus on Terrorism, Peace-Security, Human Rights and State Institutions. Could you please add my name to the list?
Best Regards,
Hi Richard!
Please add my name to this noble initiation as where I am always active against any aggressor or quip bad politicians in the world.
Not flurry and spree motivation, the time has arrived to gather all good people under a common umbrella to assimilate the good only! I exhort your good opinion for mankind.
MinhajQuazi
B.Com(Hons) M.Com, LL.B.
Please find me to:
International criminal law and UN forum to Linkedin.
Any court or ICC has inheritance power to see and judge the inconsistency of human matter, isn’t it?
My question to all philanthropists as well as veteran law experts, what is happening against the mass innocent people to Palestine under the veil of many quip explanations of International laws–are it ethics?
Many mossad benefited agents are now explaining the International law by their own whim! Please see them now at International criminal law forum (above 20 thousands members) and International law(above 5 thousands members) at Linkedin—a dark diplomacy by them to hide the crime now, where they are trying to wipe out few in favor for Palestine from the forum to con quire the writing tables.
Those who have little knowledge in Law they are watching the mass people atrocities to Gaza, those have no knowledge on law are being much exasperated now days to see inequality of law which is most dangerous to maintain law and order for any country, that is law equality has defined by the learned and wise people on earth years after years not by some foul and quarter educated politicians on earth that we have been able to see by modern equipment soon how they treat the innocent people on earth–a quintessence.
Don’t you have any duty to stand beside the innocent guys, what are your ethics says right there?
MinhajQuazi
Li dovete fermare..perchè non si fermeranno.
Thank you
If possible I would like to endorse my name. I am a lecturer for International Humanitarian Law in one of the Degree programs in Maldives.
Ismail Waheed, Lecturer in Institute of Islamic Studies, Maldives.
Please, add my name! I sign!
Wonderful to see the response from all these international lawyers and others from around the world rally to your appeal, Richard. I believe you have struck gold this time.
I would love to see the total list of names.
Yes, he has it is commonly called “Fools Gold” with a lack of reasoning or unbiased understanding. But you or anyone who supports such one sided “opinions” or “views” cannot claim ignorance just simple prejudice and bigotry.
Dear Professor Falk,
I fully endorse the “Joint Declaration by International Law Experts on Israel’s Gaza Offensive” and wish to add my name to the list of signatories. Sarah Pallesen, MA Social Anthropology of Development, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.
Your work is a source of great insight and inspiration!
Best regards,
Sarah Pallesen
Thanks Richard, Chantal Meloni and others responsible for this declaration. Please add me as an endorser: John Burroughs, Executive Director, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, New York City, USA
Please add my name to the signatories of the statement.
Simeon A. Sahaydachny, LL.M (International Law)
New Jersey, USA.
Dear prof. Falk,
I fully approve and endorse the statement. Please add me to the list of signatories.
Best regards.
Pierre-Emmanuel Dupont
Member of the Hague Center for Law and Arbitration
Senior Lecturer at the Free Faculty of Law, Economics and Management of Paris
Dear Prof. Falk,
I endorse the Joint Declaration and would like to add my name to it.
Soumaya Ben Dhaou, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor Nipissing University, ON, Canada
Kind regards,
Richard,
A wise statement. Please add my name
Francis Oeser
(poet, London UK)
Dear Professor Falk, thank you very much for your efforts.
I wish to sign the Joint Declaration. Please add my name.
Antonio Martínez Puñal, Professor of Public International Law, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. España.
I endorse this. Dr. Mahmoud Dodeen, Lawyer & prof. Of Law, Birzeit University
I fully endorse this Declaration.
Philippe Plourde, Lawyer, LLM Candidate, Legal Assistant at UNICTR/UNMICT.
Please add my name: Jinan Bastaki, Law PhD candidate, School of Oriental and African Studies
Please add my name: Ronald C. Kramer, Professor of Sociology and Criminology, Western Michigan University
Dear Richard: You are free to add my name to the Declaration, if it is not too late: Professor Michael Lynk, Faculty of Law, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada
Reblogged this on rigzenchomo and commented:
This is the strongest, clearest statement of what is happening in Gaza and what must be done. It is worth the read.
I would like to add my name to this list. We the ‘human’ beings of this world cannot sit on the sidelines any more and watch the genocide by Israel of the Palestinian people.
Dear Professor Falk: Please add my name: Rouba Al-Salem, PhD candidate, faculty of Law, Montreal University
Hi Richard,
If useful, please add me in support of this crucially important statement.
R.B.J. Walker, Professor, University of Victoria, Canada, and PUC-Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Rob
Dear Prof. Falk,
Thank you for this fantastic initiative. Could you please add my name to the above list?
Siavash Eshghi, PhD candidate, SOAS University of London.
Wishing you all the best,
S. Eshghi
Please add my name: Alba Nogueira López, Associate Professor of Administrative Law, University of Santiago de Compostela
Please add my name
Francisco Bernete
Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain.
I am a human rights lawyer practising atvthe Supreme Court of India. Please add my signature.
Dear Professor Falk, thank you for the much needed initiative. Please add my name to the list:
Andrea Florence, Master in International Law (IHEID), Brazil
Kind regards,
Andrea
Reblogged this on Britain Isn't Eating and commented:
“The International Community Must End Israel’s Collective Punishment of the Civilian Population in the Gaza Strip”
Richard: just now saw and read this. Please be sure to add my name as follows:
Burns H Weston
Bessie Dutton Murray Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Senior Scholar, UI Center for Human Rights, The University of Iowa, USA
Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone
Dear Professor Falk,
Thank you for your outstanding initiative. I would like to join in your declaration.
Mark de Barros, Lecturer in Law – Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas/Attorney at Law – New York Bar
Best Regards,
Mark de Barros
The hypocrisy here is so blatant that I am going to make an exception and respond, though “Oldguyincolorado” and “Wrath” have summed things up very well. What I am willing to bet is that not a single one of the distinguished “experts” who are so eager to condemn Israel, and the rest of the people lining up behind them, had a single word to say when Israeli women and children were being blown up in buses and restaurants and murdered in their homes by Arab terrorists, and that tells me exactly who and what they are. Nor have they had very much to say about the slaughter of 170,000 Syrians. In fact, Prof. Falk even tried to convince us that it would be best to let things run their course there and certainly not think of prosecuting anyone while the killing was going on, and maybe never (June 5th blog). No big rush to publish declarations and petitions, no hysterical talk about genocide there, no one calling anyone Nazis. The only people worthy of respect here are the Arabs and Muslims among you. Their hatred of Israel is understandable. They are on one side and Israel is on the other side in a national conflict, so even their lies are understandable. But the rest of you are frauds.
I wonder why you are so intent on misrepresenting my views. I have written repeatedly on
the criminality of what the Assad regime has been doing in Syria, but also opposed military
intervention on grounds that it was likely to make the situation worse. Same with indictments
for war crimes at a time when the best hope is to negotiate some sort of end to the violence,
although it is a slender hope. To say that I am not attentive to other issues is false, but I
could observe that I don’t recall a single comment of yours either critical of Israel or addressing
a situation of injustice elsewhere except to point to things that should be receiving attention
instead of Israel.
I have already noted the very different terms in which you occasionally refer to Syria (and other issues) and constantly refer to Israel. It is not my intention to repeat myself. I have also made clear my views of where responsibility lies in the current round of fighting. The two comments by others that I noted above are a fairly accurate summary of my views as far as they go and I don’t see anyone challenging them. I am not pointing to things that should receive attention other than Israel but pointing to the double standard and selective morality that is being applied to Israel and labeling it pure and simple hyposcrisy. Certainly I am critical of Israel on many planes but when someone like yourself comes along and makes outrageous and demonstrably false accusations, that is what necessarily becomes the focus of the debate and defenders of Israel find themselves addressing falsehoods rather than discussing a genuine solution to the conflict. I have to say also that anyone who follows the exchanges on your website will be struck by one thing in particular. It is always the defenders of Israel and never the detractors of Israel who show any interest in the practicalities of arriving at a solution to the conflict. You know how to explain why Hamas shouldn’t agree to a cease fire but it doesn’t occur to you to explain how much suffering Hamas has caused to the residents of Gaza by persisting in its attacks on Israel. It doesn’t occur to you to explain to your readers that before there was Hamas with its rockets there was no closed border and no blockade but up to 40,000 Palestinians from Gaza working in Israel every day. It is in fact only the defenders of Israel who see the Palestinians as real human beings and not a faceless mass with which to whip Israel.
Now I know what your views are and I have addressed them more than once. What we now have is an army of “experts” eagerly volunteering to sign their names to a series of assertions that they are unequipped to verify, which I think no one who respects himself or has an ounce of integrity would think of doing, unless he is completely blinded by his biases, and that is what I am addressing, and I would respectfully ask them in this context to show us their names on declarations about Arab suicide bombers, the Syrian atrocities, and the genocides in Sudan and Rwanda.
Dear Fred,
Israel can and should be most Law abiding and humane nation in the region / Middle East, and in the world. Why are they not? I am sure that they are at their best? However, how does that look like?
Israel needs self-realization, and that what Professor Falk is doing along with all other academics may just help Israel achieve that.
The pattern of genocidal massacres has to stop – but it will take stronger one to make some real decisions and forfeit.
Why are you so critical?
I endorse this statement.
Kumaravadivel Guruparan,
Lecturer, Department of Law,
University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka.
Please add my name to the “Declaration..”
While I agree with much of this statement, I cannot join it,
The problem is that it does not also address the apparent systematic use of civilians, their property and institutions as shields by Hamas in placing their military personnel and other assets and their reported orders to civilians not to leave places that Israel has warned will be attacked.
This behavior, which has been credibly reported, appears so much a part of the cause of civilian deaths in Gaza that I don’t think it can be ignored.
I agree with your call for an immediate negotiated ceasefire in Gaza, an end to Israeli killing of civilians in Gaza and an end to the indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israel.
In fact, this statement does address the behaviour of Hamas: Hamas cannot be placed on the same level as the IDF because it is a resistance movement. Hamas fighters cannot be thought of as soldiers in the conventional sense of the word, but civilians taking up arms in order to resist occupation. The *systematic* use of civilian shields by Hamas has never been comprehensively or coherently proven. The fact that Hamas resistance fighters operate from a tiny area with no possibility of shelter means that they are by necessity forced to carry out resistance activities surrounded by civilians, there is no alternative provided to them due to the surrounding occupation. The essence of this is that Hamas, and other legitimate resistance movements in Gaza are civilians, not soldiers in the conventional sense of the word: They do not belong to a state but are normal people who have been forced to take up arms in order to defend themselves under occupation by an entity that has obtained statehood.
Also, I think you should list the evidence that supports each of your suggestions of the following:
1) apparent systematic use of civilians, their property and institutions as shields by Hamas in placing their military personnel and other assets and
2) their reported orders to civilians not to leave places that Israel has warned will be attacked.
What Israel is doing is inhumane and in contradiction of human rights.
Please add my name to this declaration.
Miriam McColgan, Woman, Daughter, Mother, Solicitor (Lawyer), Dublin, Ireland
I wish to add my name to the Joint Declaraation on Israel’s Gaza Offensive.
Itziar Ruiz-gimenez Arrieta
Lecturer of international relations U autónoma of Madrid spain
REPLY
I would like to add my name: Ana Manero Salvador, Associate Professor of Public International Law, University Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
Please add my name as well.
Shari Linger. Retired Network Engineer. Sea Turtle rehabilitation and conservationist.
Tiempo de paz con libertad y dignidad para Palestina.
Dear Prof Falk, Please add my name. Pål Wrange, Professor of International Law, Stockholm University
Dear Richard, et al., This is an excellent statement. It is not clear if you want signatures of people who are not in the field of law. Just in case, here is my signature: Sondra Hale, Research Professor and Professor Emerita, Anthropology and Gender Studies, UCLA; and Coordinator, California Scholars for Academic Freedom. Thanks. Sondra
Thanks, Sondra, we have a second list of non-law supporters of the Declaration, and will
be honored to add your name. And also thanks for that you do to keep us sane during these
dark times.
Please add my signature to the joint declaration.
Dr. Manar Makhoul
Manager of Research and Production Unit
BADIL – Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights
{Also the use of UN facilities to store military equipment and the deliberate placing of non-combatants in harms way are not of a lesser order than the targeting of those..}
Only a Zionist mind believes these lies. Many gullible people in Israel and US believe that Hamas was responsible for kidnapping, where Israeli police made public that charge was a LIE. The gullible people still bring other charges like this forgetting that Gaza is under occupation and Palestinians have every single right to defend themselves.
More than 96% of Israeli Jews are supporting genocide in Gaza. It is shameful.
“You may be correct in these serious allegations,” does not help Palestinians and I am afraid no one is perusing justice for them. Their case may be ended with “goldstone” final justice finding both sides guilty of war crimes to come people down and buying time for Israel, then deceiving people with “if I had the information I have now, then I would have not made such a judgment” meaning to hold Israel responsible for its crimes. He just bought time for Israel so people can forget to help the Zionists like himself. The world is under the Zionist thumb. Shame
When the empire’s lawyer, like Payam Akhavan, CIA asset and a Zionist collaborator, are in the position of judgment for victims of Zionism – Iraq, Libya, Syria, Palestine, Sudan, Lebanon and Iran – then there is NO justice. They have fucked the world. We don’t want this brutal system. These imposters must be exposed and punished.
You Censor as much as you want but we will not allow your Iron cage, “global government’ runs by Rothschild family and its extension take place.
Down with Zionism, imperialism and it’s embedded AGENTS, the ‘liberals’.
Please add my name to this joint declaration:
César Alejandro González Carrillo
Master in law
Universidad de Guadalajara
Guadalajara, Jalisco, México
Sociedad Jalisciense para el estudio de la anatomia. A.C.
Vicepresident
Please add my name to the endorsements to this statement.
Simon Dalby, professor, Wilfrid Laurier University
I don’t agree with everything in the statement. In particular, I do not think there is a meaningful moral distinction to be made just because Hamas is the weaker party; an attack on a non-combatant is an attack on a non-combatant. Also the use of UN facilities to store military equipment and the deliberate placing of non-combatants in harms way are not of a lesser order than the targeting of those installations. But I do agree with the calls for action and for both parties to be judged and held accountable if the actions are proved to be in violation of Int Law. Hence even with some reservations I support the proposals.
Professor Colin Wight, Professor of International Relations, University of Sydney
Please add my name to this declaration: Maria Aristodemou, School of Law, Birkbeck College
Please add my name to this Joint Declaration: Maryam Ansari, LLM Candidate, Leiden University, Netherlands
Please add my name Dr Carl walker, principal lecturer in psychology, university of Brighton
I first of all thank you for this initiative. I endorse this joint declaration and would be happy that you add my name on it. I am Dr. Emilia Richard, researcher from Switzerland and I hold a PhD in international law from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. My research focus on the protection of civilians against the effects of hostilities in the international humanitarian law of non-international armed conflict.
If you have space on your non-law list I’d be honored to add my name to it. It is not only Israel that is the War Criminal it is the USA as well. Without the military, financial, and diplomatic support of the USA there probably would have been a settlement in Palestine by now. Israel could never have become the monstrous bully it has on its own.
Statement from joint Belgian experts on humanitarian international law:
http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/2461/Opinie/article/detail/1976503/2014/07/31/Israel-schendt-in-Gaza-vrijwel-alle-aspecten-van-het-internationaal-recht.dhtml
Please copy paste the url in a new tab, cause clicking on it seems to lead to an ad for this newspaper.
Israeli has been committing war crimes for years and again the UN cries war crimes, we all know this what we want to know is when will something actually be done before there is no Palestine obviously what Israel is aiming to achive…. can you hear the cry “HELP”
Please add my name to the endorsements to this statement
Maria Daniella Marouda, Ass. Professor in International Law, Panteion University of Athens
Please add my name to this Professor Falk. Ramy Abdu, PhD in Law and Finance,
Chair of the Euro-Mid observer for Human Rights
Please add my name – Dr. Peter Johnson, Retired Clinical Psychologist and former resident of Gaza.
Thanks Prof. Falk. I have been waiting for a while for such an initiative to come from the legal community. Please add me to the list of endorsers.
Ahmed Elsisi
Member of the Egyptian Judiciary
LL.M. in International Law – Stanford Law School
I endorse this Declaration. Please add my name to the distinguished List of Signatories. Donald Deya, Chief Executive Officer, Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU).
Dear Prof Falk. Thank you for this text. You can add my name
Please, add my name. MARCO HUACO, Doctoral student in International Human Rights Law of University of Paris 1 (Sorbonne) and University of Sevilla (Spain).
Please add my name to the endorsements to this statement:
Catarina Prata, SJD Candidate 2016, UCLA School of Law, USA
{That’s just it, this Jewish project on NPR and the other stations. Out of ratio Jews-Reformed Jews-Leftist Jews-Orthodox Jews-Closet Jews-Crypto Jews defining the narrative, defining the future, defining what’s in and what’s out, defining futures, defining education, defining science and business and the story of their propaganda around their projects to corner all Coins of the Realm, with or without the assistance of the Susan Rices and John Kerry’s of the world.
As the babies blow up and the retirees and Kibitzers and dual citizens sit in lawn chairs, sipping Soda Stream and piling on the Kosher pickles while missiles and drones and Bombs Busting in Air rain down on innocents, on people they see as rats, or lesser than rats.}
http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/07/free-tuition-for-murdering-palestinian-kids/
Dear Professor Falk: Kindly add my name to the list of legal academics who wish to join in The Joint Declaration by International Law Experts on Israel’s Gaza Offensive. Thank you for your efforts to encourage all parties to this tragic conflict to act consistently with their obligations under applicable principles of International law,
Charles S. Bobis
Professor of Law (ret.)
St. John’s University School of Law
Jamaica, N.Y.
Please add my name to the list of signatories; thank you for this initiative: Judy Walsh, Director Equality Studies Centre, University College Dublin, Ireland
I fully subscribe to this Declaration. Kindly add my name to it.
Best,
Michelle Reyes Milk
Lecturer on International Criminal Law
Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru
Lima, Peru
Very simple – Stop firing rockets on Israel.
Use the monies to build schools instead of building rockets and digging tunnels.
Stop teaching gaza’s kids to kill
Very simple: Stop raining bombs on Gaza, allow concrete and building materials to come in through the blockade, allow ships to come into port , allow aid to come in from the rest of the world, stop declaring to cease fires and finding excuses to break them 1 hour later. Easy. Stop teaching Israeli kids to cheer when bombs drop on Gaza.
Very simple – Stop firing rockets on Israel.
Use the monies to build schools instead of building rockets and digging tunnels.
Stop teaching gaza’s kids to kill
It is nothing less than grotesque to see the Israel haters rushing to sign their names to a statement asserting that Israel is acting “in the name of a falsely construed right to self-defense” when more and more of Hamas’s entrenchments in hospitals, clinics, mosques, schools, playgrounds and private houses are being exposed every minute of the day – an entire network of tunnels leading to Israeli settlements, tunnel entrances in boobytrapped residential buildings, rocket stores under mosques, rocket launchers beside schools and playgrounds, firing positions in hospital windows, a major command post under al-Shifa hospital.
I will ask you again and again, Professor Falk, why this crowd of bogus humanists was not screaming its head off when Israeli women and children were being blown to pieces in busses and restaurants and murdered in their homes by Arab terrorists and when 170,000 Syrians were being slaughtered by Arab butchers and maniacs and when the genocides in Darfur and Rwanda were being carried out right under their noses. No one-sided declarations then, no one proud to volunteer his signature then. When people who should know better put one hundred percent of the blame for the Middle East conflict on Israel, we all know where this is coming from.
Exactly. Thank you for supplying at least one rational voice to this “discussion.”
If this is your standard for a rational voice, then I feel very sorry for you. So, the training, experience and credibility of hundreds of legal minds from around the world, and Mr. Falk’s own fine legal mind and standing counts nothing, but you can accept one poorly structured, evidence-free and completely unbalanced view? Where is your balanced reasoning in all this?
I would like to be added. Mateenah Hunter, LLB (Wits), LLM Public Interest Law and Policy (UCLA), Attorney, South Africa
Thanks for drafting the declaration. please, add my name:
Nidal al-Azza, lecturer in Refugee Law, Al-Quds University, Director of Badil Resource Center for Residency and Refugee Rights, Palestine.
Please add my name too!
STOP killing innocent people!!! STOP!!!!
I fully subscribe to the Declaration. Thanks for adding my name to the list of signatories.
Prof. Falk please submit my signature to your call. Carlo Tagliacozzo, Torino, Italy activist
I would like to sign
Lies michielsen, lawyer Antwerp, Belgium
Please add my name to the list: I already added a comment but it has not been posted:I think I was the first to do so.
Dr. Laura Westra, University of Windsor, Canada – International Law
University of Milano(Bicocca)
I fully subscribe to the Declaration. Thanks for adding my name to the list of signatories
Add my name please. Peace!
I wish to add my name to the Joint Declaration on Israel’s Gaza Offensive. Gianantonio Farinelli
Marco Ramazzotti Stockel, Italian Jews against the Occupation, Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, UK
I totally agree with Mr Falk and the signatories to this declaration
Please add my name, I’m Bossetti Pamela from Sommo (PV) – Italy
Fermiamo il genocidio di palestinesi!!!!
Palestina Libera!!!
Palestina Libera!!!!
Cecile Crochon Roma
Richard Faulk condemns Israel for properly defending itself after showing a great deal of restraint that I believe they should not have shown. If New Jersey shot 1600 missiles into New York sans provocation and in and act of aggression rather than self defense, would any reasonable person expect New York to sit still and allow it’s citizens to be slaughtered? Hamas is a terrorist organization and Israel should properly kill as many of them as humanly possible. If Hamas puts missiles inside a kindergarten, destroy the kindergarten and let Hama s have blood on it’s hands. These people are savages and it’s no more complicated than that.
Israeli Soldiers use Gazan children as human shield:
http://wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/4243
At least have the good sense to use an accurate analogy. What about if New York occupied 90% of New Jersey, by force, herded New Jerseyers into a tiny area of land, and blockaded all sides for decades, then occasionally droped bombs and raided that tiny area without provocation?
Your views are unbalanced, balance them.
vorrei sostenere con la mia firma l’appello
I endorse this declaration: Amal Nassar, Human Rights & International Justice advocate, Jordan.
Wow…this is absolutely incredible. It’s hard to believe how moral clarity has vanished among so many educated people. People…let’s be super clear. Hamas is just a terrorist organization sworn to the destruction of another people–that would be Israel. If this does not repulse you, but Israel defending itself (as ANY NATION should) than you have a moral problem. Hamas uses Palestinian people for ITS OWN PURPOSE. In other words, Hamas does not care about the Palestinian people. It only cares about helping to establish an evil Islamic Caliphate in the region and the only stable and decent country in the area (Israel) is in the way. Jeez…they publish this hatred and they teach Palestinian children to hate from the get-go. How can you possibly ignore that?
The son of a Hamas founder has testified to the way that Hamas only uses people. We already knew all this before he said a word. It’s not hard to distinguish! If suicide bombings don’t make you wanna puke, then you have a moral clarity problem.
Wanna know Truth? You can find Truth and a clear moral perspective in Jesus Christ. The son of Hamas (heir to the ‘throne’) did.
So, this list is a fraud and is stupid and misguided. You wanna do something? Go live among Muslims in Palestine. You will see…you will see especially how Hamas spins (lies) things into their sick favor. I hope every one of you can see that if Hamas HADN’T STARTED THIS, and they were eliminated from the picture, there would be a two-state peaceful solution going on right now. Hamas is against peace….they simply will not agree to the existence of Israel and that makes them not possible to talk with. They did it. They are to blame. It really is (praise God) that simple. Again, if you can’t see this, then go live in Palestine among Hamas for a while. Your eyes will be opened wide to the truth.
Blessings, and may this list go NOWHERE.
Your Christianity sounds like baby playing a violin…just awful sound (I suppose that you are Christian)? I am not sure that you are:”I do not know you.” You are way to bias about the lies.
What’s your truth? A dead-end prayer — one without any substance in any Law–only one of your conscience…
I wish to add my name
Luisa Arzanese
please add my name to this list.
Here is a set of US liberals again trying to cram down the worlds throat their liberal take on issues that don’t fully understand. All they care about is slamming Israel and the any other country who dares stand up to cold blooded killers.
Interesting. How can an educated man be so bigoted and ignorant in todays world is beyond me. As much as I’d love to argue the point I see you as a fanatic and, through experience, I know argument with a fanatic to be a wasted effort. There are points to be made on both sides of this situation, something you missed. But the answer to how to stop the violence is simple. Stop shooting at Israel. Even a child could see that.
I am not joining any argument about what came first the hen or the egg.
I have been a keen observer of wars, This, telling people to please leave their homes because the city block is going to be flattened, is new and simple brutality.
Fact is, innocent people, young and old, are getting killed. This wanton killing of innocent civilians must end.
One thing with feud, there’s no such thing as justice. Because the guy you hanged for abduction and rape was actually a victim of banditry by the woman’s husband. And that is nowhere yet from the beginning of their conflict. In feud, there may only be punishment for whoever got caught with dirty blood in his hands.
Sad to say, history never showed victors hanged for war crimes. We find only kings who fell from grace.
Count me in among voices calling for end to deaths, much more wanton killing, of innocent civilians in war.
I wish to sign the Declaration: Mara Nerbano, PhD University of Bologna, Professor Academy of Fine Arts Carrara, Italy
Please add me to the list:
Salvatore Talia
graduate in law
Università degli Sudi di Milano, Italy
Dear Richard:
Hope you and your family are well. Thank you for your work on this Declaration. Please include me as a signatory.
Francisco Forrest Martin
Former Ariel F. Sallows Professor of Human Rights, University of Saskatchewan College of Law
Hamas is responsible for every death in Gaza. Their indiscriminate use of rockets has put all Palestinians at risk. Israel has shown remarkable restraint as Hamas wants Palestinians to be killed. It is nothing but a sick public relations move by Hamas. There are many videos out there with Hamas leaders encouraging Palestinians to stay in their home to make the ultimate sacrifice. Your manifesto is nothing but a bigoted, racist joke. You should be ashamed of writing this. let alone encouraging all of your academic lemmings to sign it.
The zionists not only kill, but Israeli soldiers hold Gaza children as human shield and then lie about it to the world.
http://wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/4243
As the occupying power, Israel is responsible for every death in Gaza.
Their indiscriminate use of phosphorous rounds, high-explosive missiles with a large balst radius has put all civilians at risk.
Israel has shown zero restraint in the massive bombardment of gaza and it’s poor handling of ceasefires.
There are many videos of Israeli leaders admitting that their objective in Palestine is ethnic cleansing and ultimately full control and ownership of the land Palestinians have lived on for generations.
Your post is nothing but a bigoted, racist joke. You should be ashamed of writing this. let alone encouraging all of your Hasbarah lemmings to pollute Mr. Falk’s comment section.
Basta con il genocidio del popolo palestinese.
Please add me to the petition:
Birju M. Dattani, Barrister and PhD Student in International Law, SOAS University of London
Israel is a sovereign nation which has the right to protect its citizens. Undermining this right is dangerous.
What about the Palestinians? Don’t they have a right to defend themselves? Or is this right reserved for European colonists only ?
Grazie
Richard, please add my endorsement: Judith Cole, Adjunct Professor of International Law, International University in Geneva (IUG), Geneva, Switzerland
Falk makes a strong case for involuntary euthanasia of the elderly.
My last comment was erased, Why I wonder? Perhaps you don’t care about what’s going on in Syria and Iraq. Is it only when the Jewish state is involved that you raise your voice in cries of “Humanity”? Seems to me like you are simply an anti-Semitic like I stated in my last comment and that the killings at the hands of ISIS don’t faze you at all, nor does the mass murdering of Syrians. Only when Israel does something do you raise your voice.
If you would bother to look back at earlier posts on this website you would find several devoted
to the mayhem in Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere. I try to limit myself to what issues I know and care about.
Of course, I find horrifying the ISIS killings, and many other situations that are producing human suffering.
Faulk is a disgrace to the human race, period! Why Santa Barbara would employ this “man” is beyond me. Shame on you Santa Barbara!
Do you have any logic and reasoning to support your statement, or are you just venting ad hominems? I see no logic, no reasoning and no basis for the insults you’re directing toward Mr. Falk.
Where is the basis of your argument? Does it have any logic and evidence to support it? Are you just spewing hatred and insults, or do you have a point at all?
Please add me to the list of people who think you are an anti-semitic asshole of the greatest proportions. May you and your wife be granted by allah a slow and painful death.
Your surname is appropriate.
Please add me as an endorser of the Statement.
Peter Goselin, Labor Attorney, Hartford, Connecticut, USA.
I endorse this statement.
attorney, Elisabetta Serra- Cesena- Italy
It is interesting how you all not concerned about Syria?
Pure antisemitsm. Just come out and say it. Don’t hide it.
This guy got it right.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/hatred-of-jews-is-fuelling-protests-across-the-western-world/story-e6frg6n6-1227007637712?nk=912debe2432d6b13abb487d975140ffe
In fact the Palestinians are a true Semitic people, therefore all the people on this list through their support of the palestinian people, are demonstrating their Pro-Semitic views.
So your accusation of anti-semitism is rubbish.
Dear Prof. Falk,
I would be grateful if you could add my name.
Thank you
Thomas Skouteris
Associate Professor
The American University in Cairo
Please add my name, Sanaa Kadi, LL.D doctoral student in Law, University of Helsinki, Finland
Dear Professor Falk,
Thank you very much for your efforts.
Please add my name to this declaration.
Nicola Romana, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Palermo, Italy.
Best regards,
Nicola Romana
I too wish to add my name to this list. Enough is enough STOP THIS GENOCIDE ONCE AND FOR ALL!!!
Prof. Falk:
I’m temporarily suspending my retirement from your blog to respond personally to your call for mutual respect among people holding differing opinions. I whole heartedly agree and, in this spirit, invite you to consider how well you adhere to your own dictum.
I’ve have followed your blog since its inception four years ago. In that time, you have never—I mean that literally—praised Israel and very rarely criticized Palestinians (more on this later). Yours is an extremist approach that one encounters in polemics. You call it “constructive imbalance”. On several occasions I’ve asked you to define what that means, but you’ve never responded. Whatever it means, it de facto rejects the validity of views other than your own. Indeed, when a reader (not one of the “usual suspects” you characterize as “defamers”) asked how you could serve as Special Rapporteur when UN rules stipulate that SR’s must be unbiased, you responded that the rule doesn’t apply to you because “there’s only one side to this story.” That view invalidates all opinions on the other side.
Your resistance to engaging people unless they substantially accept your views (unambiguously stated in a recent post that drove me off the blog) is personally disappointing to me. Like you, I oppose the Occupation and have written and spoken out against settlement expansion since its inception. Like you, I demand a safe and secure future for the refugees. Like you, I am dissatisfied with the performance of this and previous Israeli governments. We should be able to dialogue. But you several times withdrew from the conversation, claiming that our differences are “unbridgeable”.
I wondered about that before realizing that the core difference between us is that your objective is dismantling Israel as it was created and recognized by the UN in 1947-1948, and recently reaffirmed in the UN’s endorsement of a new state of Palestine outside the 1967 Green Line. You deny this, and have reassured me that you seek only a “slight modification of Zionism’s objectives.” But a “bi-national secular state governed by international law” (your exact words) is a radical departure from what Jews, and the UN, have had in mind for a very long time.
Nevertheless, I’ve sought a better understanding of your views by inviting you to describe how a single state could be achieved, and how it might function. These are reasonable questions. Previous attempts to make a single state from peoples who share nothing but geographical proximity and a long history of mutual hostility yielded catastrophes like Yugoslavia. And the Middle East doesn’t need another Syria. You’ve rejected my request for detail, claiming that it was “hostile.” Btw, your frequently employ this tactic as an excuse for not responding, which hardly encourages a respectful exchange of views.
Your need to lay total blame on Israel often puts you in an indefensible position you are understandably reluctant to defend. For example, several readers have noted that while the layers’ Joint Declaration demands criminal action against Israel for allegedly targeting civilians, it says nothing about Hamas’ embedding rocket launchers and ammunition in civilian areas, including schools, hospitals and UN installations, which is also in violation of international law. If there’s a reasonable explanation for this deliberate and immoral omission, it hasn’t come from you.
You repeatedly state that the “the ultimate goal of the Zionist program” is annexing the entire West Bank and Gaza. I’ve studied Zionism and been a Zionist activist for more than four decades, but this comes as news to me. To be sure, there have been and are individuals and groups that seek this goal, including a few current leaders. Total annexation has never been the official or unofficial policy of Zionism or the State of Israel. But mutual respect requires inquiry. So I’ve asked for evidence to substantiate your views. You cite the writings of a very few Israeli writers who agree with you. Fair enough. But these are secondary sources in a situation where substantiation demands reference to primary sources. My question is asked. And the conversation ends.
Most disturbing of all is your championing Hamas and denouncing Fatah as being “collaborationist” (which is the only thing on the Palestinian side you’ve criticized during four years in the blogosphere.) Why is Fatah collaborationist, a charge analogous to treason? The apparent reason is that it is willing to cooperate with Israel in a successful effort to improve the economy and security of its constituents on the West Bank, and to advocate a two-state solution which affirms Israel’s right to exist. You’ve never provided reasons beyond the allegation, itself.
On the other hand, Hamas is committed to Israel’s destruction. I know you’ve read the Hamas National Charter, but perhaps others reading this have not. So I’ll cite a few relevant portions:
“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” (Preamble)
“The land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [Holy Possession] consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgment Day. No one can renounce it or any part, or abandon it or any part of it.” (Article 11)
“Palestine is an Islamic land… Since this is the case, the Liberation of Palestine is an individual duty for every Moslem wherever he may be.” (Article 13)
“The day the enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In the face of the Jews’ usurpation, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised.” (Article 15)
“Ranks will close, fighters joining other fighters, and masses everywhere in the Islamic world will come forward in response to the call of duty, loudly proclaiming: ‘Hail to Jihad!’. This cry will reach the heavens and will go on being resounded until liberation is achieved, the invaders vanquished and Allah’s victory comes about.” (Article 33)
The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: ‘O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.” (Article 7)
These thoughts aren’t the rantings of a rogue operative. They are expressed in Hamas’ official foundational document which affirms what the organization believes and intends to do. It is a call to genocide and ethnic cleansing. If you found an Israeli document expressing similar thoughts, you would be on the barricades calling for a UN resolution. But you’ve whitewashed these as “vague aspirations,” and proceed to project a dangerously inaccurate view of Hamas as being a brave band of freedom fighters seeking to end the Occupation.
I’d like to discuss this issue with you, but not so much from an Israeli or American Jewish perspective. I worry that Hamas is undermining prospects for the Palestinians’ future. Hamas has achieved something I had thought impossible. It has united most of the neighboring Arab states as Israel’s allies in opposing Hamas which it regards as being more threatening to regional stability and their interests than Netanyahu. Notice of dramatic changes in the political landscape of the Middle East in the aftermath of the failed Arab Spring are absent from your analysis. Your exclusive focus on eliminating Israel makes you view the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as taking place in what the Israeli author David Grossman calls self-contained bubble.
Grossman’s point is that the bubble is an artificial construct. Israel-Palestine is not insulated from the larger currents roiling in the Middle East, primarily Sunni vs. Shiite, with the consequent battle for regional supremacy that pits the Muslim states, led Turkey and Iran (who have their own competition to deal with,) against the Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia and Egypt. By becoming Iran’s client, Hamas puts Palestine in the Shiite camp, with the danger of being perceived as having the potential of becoming Iran’s proxy, together with Hezbollah, in an effort to drive a Shiite wedge in the middle of a Sunni center.
As a result, Palestine has lost the few friends it had and now stands virtually alone in the region. Egypt is Israel’s full partner in keeping the portals to Gaza closed. Saudi Arabia by-passes Hamas in proposing cease-fire agreements (n.b. Hamas rejects the 2002 Arab League Peace Proposal, crafted by Saudi Arabia, because it affirms Israel’s continued existence in the context of a Two State Solution.)
The tragedy in this is that Palestinians want no part of it. And with good reason. Most of them are moderate Sunnis who seek nothing more than peace, sustenance and security. Hamas’ imposition of Muslim Brotherhood-style Islamic Fundamentalism in Gaza has made its regime exceedingly unpopular. Moreover, there appears to be a growing awareness of the reality that Shiite Iran will not long abide a Sunni-dominated state in the center of the Middle East, which augurs for an intra-Muslim civil war in Gaza should the protective security net provided by Israel’s presence disappear. And there are rational concerns about the intervention of ISIS and other terrorist extremists, both Sunni and Shiite. Indeed, the consensus in Jerusalem is that Netanyahu will not seek to topple Hamas for fear of what might replace it. Palestinians should share that fear,
Israel will survive Hamas. I’m not certain that the Palestinians will.
These are my views. I’d welcome an opportunity to discuss them with Prof. Falk and others on this blog.
Rabbi Ira Youdovin
Dear Rabbi Ira Youdovin,
I am so glad that you are here. I will be praying this evening in the chapel for well being of Holy Land.
Thank you, Kata. I’m afraid my return will be very brief unless Prof. Falk is willing to engage in discussing issues I’ve raised. Without significant discussion, it’s just not worth abiding the verbal abuse of Gene Schulmann and the crude anti-Semitism of Rehmati.
May your prayers for peace be answered.
Shalom,
Rabbi
P.S. John Allen (to my knowledge, nobody calls him “Johnny”), is the Vatican correspondent for the Boston Globe and CNN. He has long been lauded as the most informed observer of Roman Catholic affairs. I’ve been on several panels with him. Very sharp and very nice.
Fred is correct in saving that it would be impossible for him to locate the one rabbi you’re seeking. Dozens, maybe hundreds of rabbis pray at the Wall every day. That he was born in Crown Heights, a section of Brooklyn, New York, makes me think that he might be from the Lubavitch Chassidic stream of ultra-Orthodox Judaism, which has its international headquarters there. But others live there, as well.
I surmise that your interest in him is that he prays for peace. This is nothing extraordinary. Prayers for peace are part of the worship service Jews, including Zionists, pray three times daily. I understand your confusion. Prof. Falk portrays Jews, and especially Zionists, as being single-mindedly dedicated to driving Palestinians from the Holy Land by whatever means is available to them. This is a false image fabricated to demonize Jews.
Dear Rabbi, Shalom.
I am very overjoyed that you know John Allen. I call him Johnny because he is adorable, and much anointed.
I believe that our beloved Professor Falk is moving in a purpose, and sometimes it is impossible to tap into that anointed purpose that has been moving him for all these years. He has that essence of doubled edged sword, and you do, too.
Virtual communications can be very difficult, and I believe that both of you would be very delighted in each other’s presence “face to face.”
I believe that in a private setting you could understand each other about things that can’t be explained and understood in a virtual environment.
Thank you for explaining to me that “Prayers for peace are part of the worship service Jews, including Zionists, pray three times daily” because I did not know that.
Dear Rabbi Youdovin
It is good to hear your sane voice again, and also to see others joining in whom we have not seen here before, I imagine they are taking the time to comment because the shamelessness of this Declaration simply turns their stomachs. As for the people volunteering to add their names to this disgraceful statement despite what can only be a very clear (though thoroughly repressed) understanding of what Hamas is doing in Gaza, one can have only contempt for them (with the exception of the Arabs and Muslims among them, whose hatred one can at least understand). These are people, as I have said, who were completely silent when Israeli women and children were being blown to pieces in busses and restaurants by Arab terrorists, just as they have been silent during the entire course of the massacres in Syria. I think we are doing these people a service by reminding them who and what they are.
Col HaKovod rabbi
Hamas differs from all other freedom movements in history in that its aim is the destruction of the “occupying power”. Ghandi in India, Kenyattas Mau Mau in Kenya and the Sinn Fein in Ireland were quite prepared to live in piece with the other side upon realization of their goal. Not so Hamas, whose overriding anti semitism will in the end be their undoing. The western mentality cannot comprehend the mindset of these people to whom any act or lie is justified in order to realize their end. In the meantime the world stands by and turns a blind eye to exactly the same “war crimes” on the part of Hamas while unblinkingly accusing unjustly Israel of the same acts
1) What is your response to the use of palestinian civilians as human shields by israel?
2) What is your response to the targeting of civilian infrastructure and targeting of civilians by israel in Gaza and Lebanon?
What is your response to the blockade of humanitarian aid and support to Gaza?
3) What is your response to the fact that Israel is a colonial power engaged in an occupation, to which palestinians have a legal right to resistance expressed through organising in the form of Hamas?
4) What is your response to the increasing growth of Israeli settlements in palestinian areas?
5) What is your response to the assertion that the Palestinian people have a legal right to resist, with arms the occupation by israel and other western powers by whatever means necessary?
6) Should Israel appear in the ICC, alongside Hamas if necessary in order to face the well documented and evidenced charges of crimes against humanity?
7) Do you acknowledge that Israel is essentially a expression of European colonisation and occupation in the middle east?
8) Finally, what do you feel when israeli missiles blow palestinian children to smithereens?
I would like please to add my name
I wish to be added to this letter.
Kris McDaniel-Miccio
Professor of Law
Strum College of Law
University of Denver, US
Rabbi,
JSLI, N.Y., NY, US
Suscribo la declaración, felicito la iniciativa desde Chile. Héctor Campos Hidalgo, trabajador social.
I wish to add my name to the Joint Declaration on Israel’s Gaza Offensive. Cristina Galletti, engineer, Milano, Italy
Please add my name
Please add my name to this joint declaration:
Valentina Saso, LLM in Public International Law, Utrecht University (The Netherlands)
I wish to endorse this declaration:
Valentina Saso, LLM in Public International Law, Utrecht University (The Netherlands)
I wish to endorse this declaration,
Valentina Saso, LLM in Public International Law, Utrecht University
Please add my name to the list: Elena Maculan, Post-Doc Research Fellow, Instituto Universitario Gutiérrez Mellado (UNED), Madrid (Spain)
Sottoscrivo decisamente la dichiarazione, Valeria Forte, Napoli
I wish subscribe Declaration.
Monica Ronco. Lower. Turin. Italy
Dear Prof. Falk, please add my name to this list: Piergiuseppe Parisi, trainee lawyer, Trieste, Italy
Please add my name: Dr. Stefano Mineo, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Linda Hamid, lawyer and doctoral researcher in public international law, University of Leuven, Belgium
Zionism isThe root cause of all inhumanity world over..
Germany has been occupied by zionists. In the recent history none of the American president has courage enough to Criticize Israel.
America is under Zionist occupation, so is the Europe.
It is said you are controlled by the people whom you cannot critisice.
For decades Germans and Europeans are looking for ways to criticize zionists without being accused of antisemitism and racism.
There is no point in pursuing cases against zionists in ICC it is like taking Ebola virus to court for deseasing it’s host. The only way is to exterminate them once & forever.
Yes for humanity…. No for Zionism
Please Add My Name for a Great Justyce Cause!!
Please add me to the list:
M Habibi Mojandeh, International law professor, Mofid University, IRAN
I wish to add m’y name to the list
I wish to add my name to the joint declaration on Israel’s Gaza offensive
Michele Ravaioli, student, Ravenna Italia
Could you please add my name, I am Mirwais Nasery Master student of International Relations.
Well, no. Get out in the streets of Israel ….see for yourself the Orthodox Jewish men carrying signs: “Anti-Zionism is NOT Anti-Semitic.” Seems you are having trouble viewing the peaceful side of Judaism. The hate you propose could well be a projection on your part.
Please add my name to endorse your statement
Thank you Prof Falk
Please feel free to add my name to this excellent declaration.(Abdulmalik M Altamimi, PhD candidate, School of Law, University of Leeds)
The absurdity of some of the Israeli and American legal scholars who have commented on the ongoing offensive on Gaza -with some of them saying: Israel is not an occupying force! therefore it can cut off water and power to Gaza- is extremely difficult to bear. Well, whether those scholars have spoken or not, Israel continues with impunity its breaches of international law of wars. The main electricity station in Gaza has already been hit by Israel leaving hundreds of civilians living in darkness (in the summer), and as of today (03/08/2014) the third UN-run school was hit by Israel.
So what is left of International Laws for Israel to cite as a defence, or should they have an international law of their own! I think yes! they should have an (Israeli International Law), one that justifies ethnic cleansing! Whether or not we agree with Hamas intentions and actions, by far the Israeli disproportionate attacks are the most criminal of all.
They are indiscriminate attacks that Arab despots with their vast open territories will feel ashamed to cite as a justification to exterminate the rebellions! Strange how the so-called “most viable democracy” or “the only democracy” in the Middle East, is no less different in its criminal intention and action than Qaddafi in Libya or Assad in Syria, killing the people they rule but don’t like, to make room and give unqualified privileges to those god-chosen or friendly people whom they like! Jews all over the world should have known this analogy long time ago and repel again the corrupted government in Tele Aviv!
Democracy is “the rule of the Majority subject to the rights of the minority” really and based on this widely-recognised definition what is left of the democratic principles for Israel to cite as a legitimation for its oppressive rule of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, or should they have a democracy of their own! I think yes! they should have an (Israeli democracy), one that should be rightly called (an Israeli autocracy)
Please, add my name. Francesco Pallante, Public Law, University of Turin, Italy
Sir, if possible, I wish that my signature is added to the list: Vincenzo Randazzo, PhD in International and EU law, University of Siena.
This must be the 500th international declaration that Israeli apartheid/genocide is illegal and immoral … I wonder when the international community will actually do something to stop it.
Dear Prof. Falk, thank you for this important declaration.
Please add my name:
Patrizia Zanelli
Adjuct professor of Arabic Language, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy.
I wish to sign the Declaration. Giaime Ernesto Pupin, Italy
I would like to add my name to the declaration. I suscribe its content and intent. My name is Ignacio López Vergara Newton, I am a professor of International Human Rights Law at ITESO in Guadalajara, México
PLEASE ADD MY NAME: ALIDA M. SANOJA-MANEIRO, LAWYER- MUSICIAN, CARACAS, VENEZUELA
Falk you work according to the law of the world.
G-D has had enough of this.. nonsense, the earthe belongs to Him and is upheld by His.. Laws.
Everybody , including you , live by them and the hour of G-D’S hour of judgement is imminent , including even you.
Those who judge Israel shall be judged by G-D.
This is the Law of G-D…regarding the west bank and gaza…they are part of the Land of Canaan and this is the Land G-D…promised to Israel and told the Israelites to conquer all… who occupy this Land and “know” law of man can supersede this Command and G-D is soon to judge all… who seek to eradicate this law.
Selah
I wish to add my name to the Joint Declaraation on Israel’s Gaza Offensive.
Enrique Santiago Romero, Consultant in International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law. Madrid, Spain
The wisdom of the intellect is foolishness before G-D and the Rule of The Heavenly, which now descends on the law of man, is so simple..
Those who judge Israel judge G-D and who can stand before G-D in this state of absolute arrogance and not see their demise…so shall it be for all listed in their so called justice..come Yeahua for those who You..call Your Righteouness are ready to apply Your Law upon those who call for injustice upon Your Land.
Selah..to the arrogant
Please add my name.
Marco Longobardo, Ph.D candidate in International Law,, University of Rome, Sapienza.
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