The real apartheid in the middle-east is the rejection of the legitimacy of a Jewish State, according to Irwin Cotler, the featured speaker at Hadar’s second public forum February 24 on Lawfare: Fighting False Legal Actions and Boycotts that Demonize Israel. Cotler, former Justice Minister of Canada, a Canadian MP and a renowned international human rights lawyer also told the packed hall at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center that groups like Hadar that mobilize citizen engagement are of vital importance in “delegitimizing the delegitimizers.”  

The delegitimization of Israel – while not a new phenomenon - has been “laundered” under the banners of human rights, the UN, and the fight against racism, Cotler explained. The Palestinian narrative with its many falsifications has been adopted as the human rights narrative and Israel is portrayed as an international outlaw. In addition, the recent Goldstone commission was corrupt from its creation by the fundamentally biased UN Human Rights Council, Cotler said.

IDF Lieutenant Colonel (res.) David Benjamin, said that Israel exceeds international legal and moral standards in fighting terrorism, and minimizes civilian casualties. D.J Schneeweiss, Israel’s coordinator of anti-boycott strategy in Europe, said that Israel needs to change the rules of the game and apply a “full court press” in challenging delegitimization.

The forum’s moderator was David Horovitz, Editor in Chief of the Jerusalem Post.

The main problem Israel faces in its battle for legitimacy, according to Cotler, is the laundering of delegitimization through internationally respected agencies such as the UN and its various arms, international legal conventions and NGOs. Cotler cited the UN General Assembly’s Zionism is Racism Resolution in the 1970s, the abuse of universal jurisdiction to arrest Israeli officials, civil suits against Israeli companies, and the recent Goldstone Report all of which frame Israel as an international outlaw, misleadingly using legal language such as “war crimes” and “disproportionality” under the guise of human rights. In other words, Israel’s opponents are waging Lawfare!

The UN Human Rights Council distorts the international human rights agenda by attacking Israel while it immunizes serious human rights violators: 26 of HRCs first 32 resolutions were against Israel while not one decision was rendered against real human rights violators such as Iran, Sudan, Syria or China, Cotler said. Cotler noted the HRC’s discriminatory permanent agenda item 7 which places alleged Israeli human rights violations ahead of agenda item 8: human rights violations in the rest of the world.

Speaking about the infamous Goldstone Report, Cotler described the commission’s process of inquiry and findings as “Alice in Wonderland-like” where the judgment was made a priori and the only thing left was to wait for the sentencing. Cotler was supportive of an independent Israeli inquiry commission, not as a response to Goldstone, but as a way to constructively engage with the international community.

The independent investigation, Coter posited, should center around four main principles: (1) share with the world what really happened in Operation Cast Lead and the measures Israel took to safeguard human rights; (2) expose the bias and falsehoods in the Goldstone Report which baselessly claims that killing Palestinian civilians was Israel’s official policy, but ignores Hamas rocket attacks that targeted innocent Israeli civilians; (3) critique the structure and proceedings of UN Human Rights Commission whose membership comprises some of the worst human rights violators; (4) reveal the dilemmas posed by terrorist organizations to the democratic nation state in fighting asymmetric warfare.

During the Jewish state’s first two decades of existence, Cotler said, it was seen in the West as the victim of Arab belligerence, but its victory in the Six Day War betrayed this perception of Israel as the victim and began to change public opinion. The success of Israel’s opposition in conceptually reconfiguring the conflict from Arab-Israeli to Palestinian-Israeli while at the same time harnessing the power of globalization to delegitimize Israel through the international media and NGOs has also weakened Israel’s position.

IDF Lieutenant Colonel (res.) David Benjamin gave his inside perspective on how the Israel Defense Forces’ defends Israel while staying well within the confines of international law, exceeding international legal and moral standards, going out of its way to minimize civilian casualties and holding itself accountable to judicial review. Israel’s enemies, on the other hand, deliberately target innocent Israeli civilians and use their own civilians as human shields. Benjamin was the legal advisor for the IDF Southern Command in Gaza for years and also served as Director of Strategic Affairs for the International Law Division of the IDF.

D.J. Schneeweiss, coordinator of anti-boycott strategy in Europe for the Israel Foreign Ministry, argued that Israel had been slow in recognizing and adapting to the new challenges of delegitimization. He suggested that ordinary people including Hadar and its supporters could play an important role by reaching out to friends and professional colleagues throughout the world. He said that Israel needs to change the rules of the game and apply a “full court press.”  

Although the panelists are starkly realistic in their assessments, they are also hopeful for the future and believe in the resilience of Israel and the Jewish people. They all agreed that civil action organizations like Hadar which give a platform for concerned citizens to engage in the debate, be heard and influence policy are crucial in the fight for Israel’s legitimacy and very existence.

Some photos from the event...