In describing President Obama’s itinerary during his trip to Israel and Jordan next week, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes conceded that the Jewish connection to the West Bank is as strong as it is to Israel, and indeed, spoke of the two interchangeably: Thursday, the President will begin by going to the Israel Museum. […]
Archive | Israel
Speaking on Israel in New York in April
In April, I will be speaking at several New York City law schools on “Israel’s Borders in International Law,” courtesy of the Federalist Society. April 23: New York Law School (noon); Hofstra (6pm); April 24th: Touro (noon). Conspiracy readers are encouraged to introduce themselves.
International Criminal Court Jurisdiction Over Israeli Settlements
I have put up a new working paper on SSRN, entitled Jurisdiction Over Israeli Settlement Activity in the International Criminal Court. It is not about the legality of settlements. Rather, it is about whether repeated and growing threats by Palestine and its supporters to make an international case out of it are consistent with the […]
No, Arabs Living Under Israeli Control are Not Going to Outnumber Jews Any Time Soon
I often see lines like this in articles about Israel, this one from the AP: “… with Arabs living under Israeli control expected to outnumber Jews in the coming years.” Let’s do the numbers. There are approximately 6.4 million Jews (including “Jews” who are not recognized by the Israeli Interior ministry as such because they […]
Upcoming Talks in Ohio & Florida
By Eugene Kontorovich on February 17, 2013 10:45 am in Federalist Society, International Law, Israel, Uncategorized
I will be speaking at several law schools and universities in Ohio and Florida the week of March 18th (our spring break). All events are free and open to the public. Always happy to meet readers of the Conspiracy. Additional information at the links. March 18th, Case Western Reserve University Law School (noon), “Piracy and […]
Human Rights Watch Can’t Wait to Accuse Israel
By Eugene Kontorovich on February 14, 2013 3:05 pm in Human Rights Watch, International Law, Israel, Military, National Security, War on Terror
Human Rights Watch has just released a report on Israel’s recent “Pillar of Defense” operation to suppress rocket fire from Gaza. The report concludes that 18 airstrikes violated international law by not being properly targeted. I do not know if 18 is a little or a lot for an operation of this scale, as there […]
Human Rights Watch and “Prisoner X”
Media in Australia and Israel are abuzz with news about a detainee in an Israeli prison, a dual Australian and Israeli citizen named Ben Zygier working for the Mossad who committed suicide in late 2010 after being held in solitary confinement for unknown security offenses. I don’t have anything to add to the basics of […]
Europe OK with Occupation – and With Hezbollah
Despite the recent United Nations Human Rights Council’s report, France and many other European countries are against attempts to revive the peace process, end the occupation and remove settlements. They prefer a “long-term stalemate” (which sounds like Boogie Yaalon’s “long term conflict management plan“). Outside pressure to push peace could backfire and benefit hardliners on […]
Hans Kelsen on Occupation of Non-sovereign territory
By Eugene Kontorovich on January 29, 2013 6:09 pm in International Law, Israel, Treaties, Uncategorized, War and Armed Conflict
The Geneva Convention is generally thought to apply to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank – that portion of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine previously occupied by the Jordan. This is important because the legal argument against settlements is that they violate Art. 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, a provision which did […]
Whose Alleged Settlement is Bigger?
[Cross-posted on OpinioJuris] In response to my post, immediately below, about Turkey’s settlements, at OpinioJuris, Kevin Jon Heller argues that from the perspective of International Criminal Court liability for “indirectly… deporting or transferring” its nationals into occupied territory, Israel would be more vulnerable than Turkey. Although statistics are not easy to come by for Cyprus, […]
Turkey’s Settlements, the ICC, and European Vacation-makers
In a press conference recently, Mahmoud Abbas threatened to use Palestine’s G.A.-recognized “state” status to challenge Israel’s settlements in the International Criminal Court. He picked a most unlikely venue for the presser – Ankara, in a joint conference with the the Turkish president. The absurdity of this is that Turkey continues to occupy northern Cyprus, […]
The ICC and the Territory of Palestine
The General Assembly’s recognition of Palestine as a state (which I’ve discussed previously) is widely regard as having the central upshot of facilitating a case against Israeli officials in the International Criminal Court. Indeed, Prime Minister Abbas has already threatened such action in regard to Israeli settlements – which are said to constitute an unlawful […]
Palestine, Contiguity and the Absolute Truth
I previously wrote of the manifestly false claims made by world leaders, and parroted as fact by the New York Times, that Israel’s permitting Jewish civilians to live in the area of Maaleh Admumim closest to Jerusalem cuts a potential Palestinian state in half. Some commentators went to far as to suggest I apologize to […]
What the UN Palestine Vote Means and What It Doesn’t
By Eugene Kontorovich on November 29, 2012 8:26 pm in International Law, Israel, Treaties, Uncategorized
1) It should be no surprise that 130-odd countries took the rather technical step of of voting recognize Palestine as a “non-member” in the U.N. General Assembly. That is roughly the number of countries that already directly recognize Palestine as a state! If they have already actually recognized the state themselves, voting to extend such […]
Israel’s Borders and International Law
This is a talk I gave this summer to a group of Jewish college students, which in broad strokes outlines the international law reasons the West Bank cannot be considered “Palestinian territory,” independent of the political or equitable merits of creating a Palestinian state there. Please watch the whole thing before commenting. Hopefully I say […]