Israeli Lawyers to Discuss Human Rights at Emory Forum

Print Page
Email to a Friend Share This

By Elaine Justice
11/05/08

Four visiting Israeli attorneys will speak at a public panel discussion titled "Can Democracy Survive Prolonged Occupation and War on Terror?" at 3 p.m. Monday, November 10, at Emory Law School. The event is hosted by Emory's Center for International and Comparative Law. The event at a glance:

WHAT: Public Panel Discussion, "Can Democracy Survive Prolonged Occupation and War on Terror?"

WHO: Israeli attorneys Michael Sfard, legal counsel, Yesh Din: Volunteers for Human Rights; Sari Bashi, director, Gisha: Center for the Legal Protection of Freedom of Movement; Limor Yehuda, director of Occupied Territories Program, Association for Civil Rights in Israel; and Amir Paz-Fuchs, board member, Bimkom: Planners for Planning Rights. Moderator is Abdullahi An-Na'im, Candler Professor of Law at Emory.

WHERE: Tull Auditorium, Emory Law School, 1301 Clifton Rd., Atlanta, GA 30322

WHEN: 3-4:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 10, 2008
    
ADMISSION: Free

PARKING: Lowergate Parking Deck, 1705 Lowergate Rd., Atlanta, GA 30322

INFO: 404-727-6940

Panelists include:

• Michael Sfard, legal counsel, Yesh Din: Volunteers for Human Rights . He will address due process in the military court system, rule of law and multiple legal system conflicts.

• Sari Bashi, director, Gisha: Center for the Legal Protection of Freedom of Movement. She will address freedom of movement and the status of the Gaza Strip.

• Limor Yehuda, director of Occupied Territories Program, Association for Civil Rights in Israel. She will address the rule of law, road segregation, and Hebron and East Jerusalem population transfers.

• Amir Paz-Fuchs, board member, Bimkom: Planners for Planning Rights. He will address housing and development rights in the West Bank.

Israel has conducted a military occupation of the West bank and Gaza for more than 40 years, which has had a profound negative effect on both Palestinian human rights and on Israeli democracy, says Abdullahi An-Na'im, Candler Professor of Law at Emory and an international scholar of law and human rights. "The Israeli participants will present these ramifications, and the lessons they generate, to their U.S. counterparts and discuss if and how these issues are relevant to the conflicts in which the United States is engaged.

"Israeli human rights organizations encounter an unprecedented and unique phenomenon -- prolonged occupation," says An-Na'im. "This reality is largely unaddressed effectively by international law and creates a normative vacuum for human rights defenders.

Related / More