On Art! Picturing Gaza

(On Art! is an occasional item on artifacts of transnational culture)
On Monday, the Israeli not-for-profit Gisha: Legal Center for Freedom of Movement (about which we've blogged here), along with Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and the Gaza Community Mental Health Program hosted an opening for an exhibit entitled "Childhood Under Fire", presenting drawings created by children in Gaza over the past year. In the words of the conference organizers:

On December 27, 2008, following an escalation of violence from both sides, Israel began a 23-day offensive on the Gaza Strip that incurred massive damage and claimed the lives of many. Four hundred and sixty-eight girls and boys were killed, thousands more were injured or lost their parents, and tens of thousands were made homeless. Childhood is the symbol of dreams, future and hope. This exhibition sends a strong message to all to protect childhood on both sides of the fence: to protect hope.

If the trip to Tel Aviv might be prohibitive but the exhibit is of interest, not to worry; you can view the catalogue of drawings here. (My personal favorite is the enormous flower on page 8, which demonstrates an incredible capacity for hope, but it would be significantly less meaningful without the pictures that come before and after.) Moreover, photos of the opening event are available here, though these just make one more sorry to miss what was surely an excellent program, including theatrical performances and a psychological analysis of the drawings.

'Nuff said

(Taking context-optional note of thought-provoking quotes)

But above all, I accepted because I believe deeply in the rule of law and the laws of war, and the principle that in armed conflict civilians should to the greatest extent possible be protected from harm.

-- Richard Goldstone (right), former Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and former Justice of South Africa's Constitutional Court, in Justice in Gaza, an op-ed discussing his recent service as head of the U.N. Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict. Commissioners -- Goldstone, LSE Professor Christine Chinkin, Pakistan Supreme Court Advocate Hina Jilani, and Irish Colonel Desmond Travers -- issued a report to the Human Rights Council (newest member: USA), finding war crimes on both sides, in mid-September. The report's available in full here.

Who said what on Gaza

Figuring out who said what about Palestine in recent days proved yet another mainstream media scavenger hunt.
► Reuters wrote Friday that "a report by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay lambasted the 'nearly total impunity' for the violations," then proceeded to list "Pillay's recommendations" respecting the issue.
► Christian Science Monitor reporter Ilene R. Prusher led Thursday with a Human Rights Watch report on Gaza, the area depicted in cream coloring at right. She then anticipated that "what are expected to be two critical United Nations reports." (map credit) Prusher continued:

Israel has refused to cooperate in the investigation that is expected to yield the harsher of the two reports. That investigation is headed by Judge Richard Goldstone, a former war-crimes prosecutor from South Africa who was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Israel has criticized the council, which has a rotating membership that currently includes countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kyrgyzstan, and Angola, as biased and thus unfit to accurately assess its actions.
Israel has provided assistance, however, to investigators working on a second report, being conducted by the UN Commission on Human Rights.

Although the 1st paragraph makes sense, the 2d does not: as posted, the "UN Commission on Human Rights" disbanded in 2006 to make way for the "UN Human Rights Council." One guesses the 2d paragraph was intended to refer to the inquiry on which Reuters reported a day later. Yet this too appears a bit askew.
That's because the website of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights attributes the Friday report not directly to Commissioner Pillay, but rather to the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories. The U.N. General Assembly renewed the mandate of this 41-year-old Special Committee just last December, via Resolution A/RES/63/95. Its 3 current members -- representing Malaysia, Senegal, and Sri Lanka -- conducted a 10-day field mission to Egypt, Jordan, and Syria at the beginning of this month, and then concluded:

'Violations of the international humanitarian law during the operation Cast Lead, in particular the targeting of civilian population and wanton destruction of property and religious and cultural objects.'

The Special Committee will present its findings -- based on field mission interviews and expert reports from nongovernmental and governmental organizations -- to the U.N. General Assembly later this year.
Have gone this far in the scavenger hunt, but still not entirely sure who said what.
Reportorial precision would go a long way toward aiding comprehension of the workings of international legal institutions.

'Nuff said

(Taking context-optional note of thought-provoking quotes)

[A]lthough it was based on the provisions of the Palestinian Basic Law of 2003, the Lawyers' Clothing Statute of 1930 and what it calls 'common righteous norms,' as mentioned in its preamble, the decision violates the constitution and the law and undermines women's rights and personal freedoms ensured by the constitution ....

-- Press release entitled "Decision to Impose Traditional Robes and Veils on Female Lawyers in Gaza Is Illegal," issued yesterday by the Gaza-based nonprofit Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (logo below). One of the women affected, attorney Subhiya Juma, told the Associated Press that "the judge's decision would affect only 10 or so lawyers — since the vast majority of the 150 registered female lawyers already cover their hair." Juma is among those who do not.

On July 1

On this day in ...
... 1934 (75 years ago today), the United States' Roman Catholic bishops formed the Legion of Decency a lobbying group that issued ratings on movies. Films were categorized as "Class A: unobjectionable," "Class B: objectionable," or "Class C: condemned." An "objectionable" label would result if the film entailed suggestive dialogue, lack of moral compensation, lustful kissing, or acceptance of divorce. The lobby proved powerful, as film studios either pulled or altered projects in order to win the Legion's approval. For example, the plot of Belle of the Nineties (1934) was changed so that the lead actor, Mae West, was married by the end of the film. (image credit) Hollywood soon adjusted, adopting a more subtle but equally suggestive approach to “indecency.”
... 1994 (15 years ago today), Yasser Arafat (below left), Palestinian Liberation Organization chairman, returned to the Gaza Strip after 27 years in exile. Before boarding a helicopter from Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Arafat said: "Now I am returning to the first free Palestinian lands. You have to imagine how it is moving my heart, my feelings." His return followed the 1994 Israel-PLO pact known as the Cairo Agreement, which created self-rule for Palestinians in Gaza and Jericho in the West Bank. Arafat went on to become the elected president of the Palestinian National Authority in 1996. He would remain a symbolic figurehead for many years even after he lost prominence, and huge crowds would turn out for his funeral in November 2004.

(Prior July 1 posts are here and here. And a hat tip today to Rachel Prandini, 3L at the University of California, Davis, School of Law, for drafting these items!)

Imagining Humanity in Gaza

The beautiful little film below was sent to me by Sari Bashi, the Executive Director of Gisha: Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, an Israeli human rights organization working to defend the right to freedom of movement of Palestinians, especially residents of the Gaza Strip, through legal and public advocacy. Her organization created the film together with Yoni Goodman, director of animation for the Academy Award-nominated film, Waltz with Bashir. In Sari's words,

Closed Zone shows the closure of the Gaza Strip and its effects on the ability of the one and a half million human beings living there to live normal lives. Gisha took the unusual step of commissioning the film out of concern that the discourse on access policies in the Gaza Strip "erases" from consideration the individuals affected by the closure. The film seeks to help viewers see and empathize with the real victims of the closure policy -- 1.5 million human beings, here represented by a single cartoon character and the bird he chases -- who just want to live normal lives. . . [We hope that the movie will] help us protect human rights in Gaza, by reminding people of the humanity of Gaza residents and the rights they have by virtue of their humanity, including the right to freedom of movement.

On February 11

On this day in ...
... 1964 (45 years ago today), reacting to news that France was extending recognition to the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China, which since losing the mainland a decade earlier had been installed on Taiwan, broke diplomatic relations with France. Just this past October, The China Post reported that a French court had "stirred diplomatic tensions by recognizing Taiwan's right to make its case in a legal dispute" -- concerning land in Tahiti -- "despite Paris not having recognized it as independent..." In comments that bring to mind the Gaza situation on which we posted here, the Post elaborated that

in an interim judgement, the court ruled that Taiwan's case could be heard 'independent of the diplomatic situation' even given Taipei's status as 'a Chinese state not recognized by the international community'.

(credit for above French embassy image, circa 1964, of President Charles de Gaulle, far right, and unidentified Chinese official)
... 1964 (45 years ago today), a daughter was born in Sandpoint, Idaho, to Sarah and Charles Heath, a school secretary and a science teacher/track coach, respectively. The family moved to the 49th state in the Union. The girl competed in athletics and beauty pageants, and attended a number of colleges before receiving her bachelor's degree in communications/journalism from the University of Idaho. In 2006 Sarah Palin (left) -- having married and served as mayor of her hometown -- became 1st woman and the youngest person ever elected Governor of Alaska. Since losing her bid to be U.S. Vice President last November, Palin's remained on the media trail, most recently railing against "'anonymous, pathetic bloggers.'' Surely she didn't have IntLawGrrls in mind: We've signed all our posts about her.

ICC to go to Gaza?

The Los Angeles Times' Sebastian Rotella reports, from Madrid, that Luis Moreno Ocampo said yesterday the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court "will examine requests to investigate alleged war crimes during the recent combat in the Gaza Strip," about which we've posted.
Report of such an inquiry -- no official statement yet appears at the ICC website -- provokes immediate questions of international law and practice, among them:

► Last week the Palestinian Authority accepted the ICC's jurisdiction, according to Rotella. Even so, is it, for purposes of the Rome Statute of the ICC, a "state" that may become a "party" and so refer a situation on its territory?

Israel's Foreign Ministry gave the Times this categorical "no" to the question:

'The ICC charter is adhered to by sovereign states, and the Palestinian Authority has not yet been recognized as one, so it cannot be a member. It doesn't mean anything except that it's a good propaganda stunt.'

Palestinian Authority's Justice Minister, Dr. Ali Khashan, begged to differ:

'We have the fundamentals of a state and we have met all conditions required from a state. We have been demanding these rights for a long time, but no one has paid attention to us. Now we have decided to go to the ICC with this matter as a first step toward getting our rights through legal means.'

The debate entails questions of ICC statutory interpretation, and promises much pondering of the declaratory and the constitutive theories of statehood.
► As a practical matter, one has to ask what this announcement will mean for U.S. attitudes about the ICC. Softening of opposition was apparent even in the Bush Administration. As a candidate now-President Barack Obama pledged to call together experts to explore whether the United States might join the court. Just Monday, a high-level Task Force of the American Society of International Law called for a U.S. "policy of positive engagement" with the ICC. Detailed recommendations were set out by the Task Force, chaired by Patricia Wald, former judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and former Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and William Howard Taft IV, former State Department Legal Adviser; other members: former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies Professor Ruth Wedgwood, former U.S. Rep. Mickey Edwards, Vanderbilt Law School Professor Michael A. Newton, former International Court of Justice President Stephen M. Schwebel, and former Deputy Prosecutor of the ICTY David Tolbert. Its report is welcome and timely -- and may prove an essential counterpoint criticism sure to come from some U.S. corners as a result of Moreno Ocampo's reported decision to examine conduct involving Israel.

New Year’s in Tel Aviv

Like many IntLawGrrls and blog readers, I monitor the situation in Gaza with great concern, especially as the humanitarian situation continues to worsen with no easy end to the conflict in sight. (Prior posts here and here.) But this time, I also experience the conflict more personally because I was in Israel just a few days ago.

Through an unexpected confluence of circumstances, I found myself -- along with my spouse and two young children--in Tel Aviv as Israel’s military action in Gaza escalated. Israel’s bombing campaign began as we were in Paris, already en route to Israel for me to present in Tel Aviv University Buchmann Faculty of Law’s environmental workshop. We almost decided to cancel the rest of our trip due to the conflict. Ultimately, though, we chose to proceed, but to be cautious about where we spent our time.

Initially, if we did not read the news reports each night, we would have had no idea that the distance from Tel Aviv to the Hamas rockets and Israeli bombs was barely more than the distance from our home in Lexington, Virginia, to the hospital we recently drove to while I was in labor (or, as my husband has reflected in his posts on the subject, the distance from Tel Aviv to Gaza is the same as from Eugene to Corvallis, Oregon, or from Brentwood to Costa Mesa, California). Life seemed utterly normal in Tel Aviv as restaurants and nightclubs buzzed all around us. It was hard for us to reconcile the reality of armed conflict so nearby with the tranquility we observed.

Our modified itinerary included only Tel Aviv, a limited trip to Jerusalem (one that did not get near any potential flashpoints), and a small village near Haifa. As a result, throughout our trip, we saw no evidence of either heightened security or protests except online. The only checkpoints we encountered, on roads that led into the West Bank, seemed routine, as did airport security.

With the start of the ground campaign in the middle of our trip, our experience of the immediacy of conflict changed only slightly. Jewish people we knew had family members who anticipated serving on the front lines, and an Arab-owned restaurant we dined at in Northern Israel was a little quieter than usual. But life on the street seemed virtually unchanged in Tel Aviv. One would have to know the personal stories and interconnections to have a sense of how people were experiencing the conflict. Its proximity, the heightened tensions, and the human casualties were rarely apparent outside of isolated protests and personal encounters.

Clearly, if we sought out the conflict zones (something we were loathe to do with two small children in our care), the human impacts and military presence would be apparent. And people were likely thinking and feeling a great deal more about this and many other things than one can see in a surface encounter. However, it was hard to reconcile the tranquility we were experiencing with the news reports that caused a bevy of concerned emails from friends and family who knew we were there. Other foreigners we spent time with during our time in Israel reported similar cognitive dissonance as this theme came up in conversation after conversation.

These feelings in turn have brought me back to themes of sameness and otherness that have dominated my civil and human rights work over the years, as well as the geography literature exploring the differences between physical and social space. When working on environmental and social justice issues, I learned the importance of acknowledging my whiteness and what I don’t understand when trying to be an effective ally to communities of color. When monitoring human rights in Hong Kong, I was always aware of the safety that my race and nationality brought me. When interviewing human and civil rights victims, I tried to provide a safe, emphathic space, but knew that I could not fully understand their experience of atrocity. And yet all of this work is foundationally about recognizing the interconnection that all humans share and the rights that they have regardless of their geography.

And so, I found myself in Tel Aviv to talk about climate change when a conflict I cared about was simultaneously proximate and distant physically, emotionally, socially, and legally. I struggled with how I should react, if I could be helpful, and how to be a responsible parent. As I now sit at my desk in Lexington, Virginia, far away physically from this conflict with an ever-growing human toll ,and aware of the many difficulties that humans face around the planet as 2009 begins, I hope that the coming year brings more peace and less suffering and that we each can play a small constructive role in such forward movement.

The Rights of Babes

Noëlle Quénivet's excellent post yesterday on the gaps in international law protecting child soldiers leads me to a related and even more fundamental question, that of the right of children not to be victims of armed conflict. Yesterday, the United Nations reported that 257 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza and 1,080 wounded since December 27, just over 10 days ago. (And see prior post.) I'm no expert on the conflict, nor on international humanitarian law, but the violation of international human rights law seems quite clear. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Israel has signed and ratified, states in Article 6:

1. States Parties recognize that every child has the inherent right to life.
2. States Parties shall ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child.

The indiscriminate bombing of crowded civilian areas -- especially where, as in Gaza, children constitute over half of the population -- seems contrary to these requirements. While one could quibble about whether Palestinian children are "under the jurisdiction" of Israel, Article 2 ensures that the CRC applies without regard to national origin of the child, and that a child should not be punished on the basis of the status, activities, or beliefs of their parents. Moreover, it's tough to find a gap between morality and law in this situation -- killing children, whether intentionally or from failure to take adequate precautions, is simply wrong, no matter their nationality or their parents' actions.

... and counting ...

(Occasional sobering thoughts.) It is hard these days to know where to count:
► Headlines report that the death toll in Gaza has surpassed 350 children, women, and men since Israeli air strikes began on Monday.
► In a state we've discussed as a 3d front in the U.S. campaign against terrorism, a Taliban attack left "[m]ore than 30 people ... killed and more than two dozen wounded" in Pakistan Sunday, as voters waited to cast ballots in a legislative election in Sharibandi, in the northwest of the country. As might be expected from an attack on a school, some of these victims also were children.
► At a Catholic church in eastern Congo near the Sudan border, 189 persons, mostly children and women, were massacred the day after Christmas, in an attack that U.N. officials have blamed on the Lords Resistance Army.
► South of the U.S. border, 6,836 children, women, and men have died since Mexico's declaration in 2007 of a war on drugs in the country. The Los Angeles Times notes,

That's more than the U.S. fatalities in the Iraq war.

Despite this tragic competition, "...and counting..." will keep to its original task: as best as possible, keeping count of the civilian and servicemember casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. These are, of course, the 2 theaters of combat in this U.S. troops are directly engaged. The 1st is 1 from which President-Elect Barack Obama repeatedly has pledged to disengage by means of U.S. troop withdrawal. This may occur, however, as military commitments in the 2d increase, as stories like this one indicate. It's a prospect that this IntLawGrrl hopes is undertaken with the height of caution.
With those thoughts in mind, here is the count in the 6 weeks since our last post:
Iraq Body Count reports that between 90,147 and 98,412 Iraqi women, children, and men have died in the conflict in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, representing an increase of between 1,200 and 1,327 deaths in the last 6 weeks. According to the U.S. Defense Department, 4,219 American servicemembers have been killed in Iraq. Total coalition fatalities: 4,535 persons. That's 26 servicemember deaths in the last 6 weeks, all but 2 of them Americans.
As for the conflict in Afghanistan, military casualties in Afghanistan stand at 630 Americans and 412 other coalition servicemembers. That's an increase of 4 and 31, respectively, in the last 6 weeks, and a total servicemember casualty count 1,042. As for civilians and nonmilitary personnel, numbers are harder to come by. The New York Times reports:

A day after a suicide bomber killed at least 16 people, including 13 schoolchildren, in a region bordering Pakistan, a new rash of bombings shook different areas of Afghanistan on Monday, killing two civilians north of Kabul and two more in Kandahar Province.

That news comes fast upon other headlines that give little comfort:
► Violence against Afghan children rising, U.N. says
► UN chief in Afghanistan: Protect civilians
Now there's a thought.

Undercover cops?

Drug raid, Gaza. 30 policemen rush in, accompanied by 4 figures cloaked in niqabs (full veil with eye slits) and jihabs (long robe). With Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas paying judges, prosecutors and police to stay home since Hamas’s takeover of the Gaza strip, women have been called to do their religious duty and join the police force. Rather a paradox, since working closely with men and working nights can be religious no-nos. Still, 60 women have joined the force, where they assure gender-sensitive tasks in drug and prostitution cases, for example. While, being a policewoman counts as jihad, a holy mission, Rania, the leader of the women’s force, worries that should she leave the force and return to teaching in mosques, her time as a policewoman may be frowned upon by her students. Most of the policewomen wear full veils, but because running in a jihab is diffcult, there is talk of allowing them to wear pants under a jihab with side slits. During a drug raid, these women are essential not house, such as the bedroom, are off limits to male officers. And though they may lack training for such raids, more than 2/3 of them have studied law at Al Azhar University. One wonders where the paradox of female-empowering religious duty will lead. Rania has been working on the case of a young single woman who was photographed while engaged in sex. Prostitution hasn’t been established, but Rania believes that in any case, the woman “put herself in a compromising position that…could harm the Palestinian cause.” She not only reported the incident to the woman’s family, but showed them the pictures, though she knows that such women often wind up dead, killed by their male relatives to protect the family’s honor. Others are forced to marry the men who slept with them or raped them. But this fact has led to another paradox during this time of criminal justice penury: with Gaza’s courts barely functioning, the police are jailing women to protect them from family justice. For example, 15-year-old Yosra was raped and impregnated by her 22-year-old cousin. Her brother tossed the newborn out, no one knows where; Yosra’s father wanted to marry her to the cousin but the cousin’s father objected. End result? Yosra and 4 female relatives accused of not having informed the head of the family promptly were jailed for protection.