Countering delegitimization

SYBIL KAPLAN

Lawfare! Fighting False Legal Actions and Boycotts that Demonize Israel was the title of a panel last month at the Menachem Begin Heritage Centre, featuring Prof. Irwin Cotler, Canadian MP, former justice minister and international human rights lawyer; Lt. Col. (res.) David Benjamin, retired from the Israel Defence Forces, international law consultant with an emphasis on the law of armed conflict, and counter-terrorism specialist; and D.J. Schneeweiss, Israel Ministry for Foreign Affairs anti-boycott coordinator for Europe. Moderating the discussion was David Horovitz, editor of the Jerusalem Post.

The 200-plus audience was welcomed by Bobbie Brown, chairman of Hadar, a grassroots action and leadership organization for English-speakers in Israel, who said, “The Zionist dream is not something to leave to elected officials; it belongs to the Jewish people. We create laws, we abide by laws, but the legal system is being used to isolate and create a different Israel and different Jewish people.”

He introduced Horovitz who then introduced Cotler to present the international perspective.

“Delegitimization is a kind of generic buzzword; delegitimization is not a new phenomenon,” he said. “It began with the establishment of the state of Israel and got international traction after the Six Day War, which reversed the notion of the Jewish people as victim. But victory was seen as a betrayal.”

The sophisticated campaign of delegitimization continued in the fall of 1975 with the “Zionism is racism” resolution passed by the United Nations.

“Israel was held out to be the enemy of labor, the enemy of health, the enemy of culture, the enemy of women, the enemy of human rights and the enemy of peace,” said Cotler.

What has changed from the 1970s to today? Cotler said, “The laundering of delegitimization, which is persistent and pernicious.”

He then gave seven examples of laundering delegitimization: 1) globalization of NGOs and international law, 2) reconfiguring the Arab-Israel conflict as the Palestinian-Israel conflict, 3) framing of the narrative of the Palestinian-Israel conflict as a human rights narrative, 4) mainstreaming of delegitimization among political elites, academics, scientists and trade unions, 5) politicization of campus culture, 6) advent of human rights culture and 7) resolutions in international human rights and criminal law.

“Lawfare is the waging of the war of delegitimization under the cover of law and laundering,” explained Cotler. “Israel [becomes] the repository of evil.”

In Canada, he said, “Every day, there is mass exposure to the persistent and pervasive laundering of delegitimization under the protective cover of the UN. Condemnations raise the spectre of Israel being an international outlaw.”

All of these are expressed through: use and misuse of international criminal law; advent of civil suits; contracting parties of the Geneva Convention, where laws are invoked against Israel; and the international court of justice.

“Delegitimization is marching under the banner of human rights,” said Cotler, “with Israel as the mantra of human rights violations.”

Responding for the IDF, Benjamin said they do not fight terrorism with terrorism, and Israel policy is to apply existing law. However, he continued, Israel is dealing with terrorist “armies.”

“Hezbollah and Hamas are much more than terrorists; criminal law does not apply,” he said. “We are in an armed conflict situation. We have the highest level of judicial supervision in the world.”

Benjamin added, “It is a challenge applying the law in armed conflict to Hamas, which deliberately endangers its own population. You have to distinguish between combatants and civilians, and you have to look at potential collateral damage or the law of proportionality.”

In a sense, said Benjamin, “Israel is a democracy fighting terror with one hand tied behind its back.”

Representing another point of view, Schneeweiss said, “We are busy convincing ourselves we’re right, but we have to adapt. This is an inadequate national response. We’re out of sync with the rest of the world. There is a disconnect. We are a democracy at war.”

Schneeweiss explained that Israel is presented with an ongoing strategic and political challenge that is multi-dimensional. He explained that, in general, the public can be slow to appreciate that “this is a battlefield. We need to use full court press – government to government, government to public, public to public. We have to be clever and challenge the opponents. Make them the issue, not us.” However, he said, “the measure of our success isn’t to get rid of delegitimizaion; it will always be with us.”

Cotler believes that the narrative must be reclaimed: “Radical Islam is the source of the Middle East conflict. Iran and its proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, present the danger to international peace and security. The real apartheid is a Middle East without Israel. When one speaks of a Palestinian state, we need to speak about the delegitimization of the Israeli state. When one speaks of settlements, we need to talk about [Arab] state sanctions and incitement. When one speaks of Palestinian refugees, we need to speak of the Jewish refugees from Arab countries. We need to delegitimize the delegitimization.”

Sybil Kaplan is a book reviewer, journalist, lecturer, food columnist, cookbook author and feature writer living in Jerusalem.

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