Hey everyone. Happy Hanukkah! Apologies for sending it out late this week. This week wasn’t particularly busy, so it should be a quick read. As always, feel free to send me comments, questions, or concerns at newsofthejews@gmail.com
Israeli election update:
What’s new? At the beginning of every Israeli election cycle, there is a period where the power players often switch parties, join forces to create bigger parties, or form new parties. Since coalition talks broke down last week and Israel will be holding another election on March 2, some of the major politicians are beginning to make decisions about how they or their parties will run. Notably, two far-right parties, Jewish Home and Otzma Yehudit, announced that they would run together on a joint slate. Otzma Yehudit is an extremist and racist party that bases its ideology on the teachings of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, whose party was banned from the Knesset for racism. As you may recall, in Israel, a party has to get enough votes to pass a threshold to gain seats in the Knesset. By combining, the two far-right parties hope to get enough votes to pass the threshold. Otzma Yehudit has not passed the threshold in either of the last two elections.
Anything else? The other big news is that Stav Shaffir, a popular liberal politician who used to be a part of Meretz, is planning on running independently. Her run has the potential to shake up the allocation of seats on the political left. Also, defense minister Naftali Bennet and popular right-wing member of Knesset (MK) Ayelet Shaked announced that they would again head up the New Right party. There were rumors that Shaked would split off and join the Jewish Home party. Alas, they will run together again, despite not crossing the threshold in the first election and barely crossing the threshold when they combined with Jewish Home in the second election.
What to watch for: Keep an eye out for news about Likud’s primaries. We should get a better idea of what the status is this week. As of now, the primary is scheduled for December 26, but it may not happen depending on internal Likud court cases and politics.
Further reading: https://www.jpost.com/Israel-Elections/Shaffir-preparing-to-run-on-her-own-in-Green-Party-611228
International Criminal Court Prosecutor accuses Israel of war crimes in a controversial case:
What happened? On Friday, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, announced that she had found enough evidence to open a formal investigation into Israeli war crimes. Specifically, she is charging Israel with intentionally launching disproportionate attacks, willful killing, and intentionally attacking Red Cross personnel or institutions during the 2014 Operation Protective Edge. Bensouda also says that Israel may have committed war crimes by transferring people (settlers) into the Palestinian territories and using lethal means to defend its border during the 2018 March of the Return protests.
Does the ICC have jurisdiction over Israel? It’s complicated. Israel is not a member of the ICC, so the ICC theoretically does not have jurisdiction over it. However, The Palestinian Administration signed the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding document, which means they are technically a member state. Bensouda recognized the problem and requested that a higher court rule on the precise nature of its jurisdiction in Israel/Palestine. There are a few pieces of this that the court has to consider. For one, they have to decide whether or not Palestine is considered a state and can request the investigation in the first place. Then, the court must consider if the Palestinian state includes Gaza, which the Palestinian Administration does not control. They also have to decide whether the entire West Bank is to be considered Palestine since Israel and the Palestinians divided up administrative control over the West Bank in the Oslo Accords.
What about the Palestinians? Immediately, the reaction in Israeli circles was to question how the Palestinians themselves are not under investigation. In fact, Bensouda accused Hamas and other groups of intentionally attacking Israeli civilians, using Palestinians as human shields, willfully depriving civilians of the rights to a free trial, willful killing, torture or inhumane treatment, and outrages upon personal dignity.
What were the reactions? Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit released a legal opinion which “resolutely rejects” Bensouda’s findings. Netanyahu declared that Bensouda’s announcement amounts to “pure antisemitism.” United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the decision “[targets] Israel unfairly.” Palestinian Administration President Mahmoud Abbas described Friday as a “great” and “historic” day.
What does this mean? The actual impact of Bensouda’s decision is limited. The most significant implication of the announcement is that there could be an actual investigation if the higher court rules that ICC does have jurisdiction in Israel/Palestine. In that case, the ICC could issue an arrest warrant to member states for Israeli officials. Doing so could prevent Israeli leaders from traveling to many countries across the world for fear that they could be arrested.
Israel faces a tough decision. On the one hand, they could denounce the entire process as unfair and refuse to acknowledge any of its findings. However, doing so would prevent it from influencing the process. For example, by turning over court records, Israel could potentially convince the ICC that its judicial processes were adequate in punishing the alleged crimes in Gaza. On the other hand, by participating in the court proceedings, Israel legitimizes what some believe is an inherently unfair process.
Further reading: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-icc-palestinians-israel/netanyahu-accuses-icc-of-anti-semitism-in-pursuit-of-war-crimes-probe-idUSKBN1YQ0KC (Reuters)
Boyz II Menorah:
What is this? James Corden assembled the ultimate Jewish boy band and recorded what may become the heir to Adam Sandler’s Hanukkah Song. Other Jewish celebrities singing with Corden include Zach Braff, Charlie Puth, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Josh Peck. It’s amazing and you should definitely check it out!
Editor’s note: In my recent article in The Jewish Week, I mentioned that we watched more films in my “Middle East Through Film” class about Israel than any other country. It has come to my attention that this may have been a misleading statement. While we did watch many films about Israel or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, no one country dominated the class. I apologize for the confusion, and I highly encourage any Duke student to take the class! It’s a great way to break the stereotypes Americans often hold about the Middle East and learn about the various cultures of the region.
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