The wrongs of human rights
Using human-rights principles to attempt to ban circumcision in Germany is a grotesque insult to the memory of Holocaust victims. The Jewish jurists who helped inspire the human-rights movement must be...
View ArticleWe should support and not condemn Human Rights Act
It is difficult to open a newspaper these days without reading an attack on the Human Rights Act. Last week, it was about certain prisoners being allowed to vote. You might ask, if human rights law is...
View ArticleParents of murdered man fail in court bid
Next week, Irwin and Corinne Van Colle will mark 12 years since their 25-year-old son, Giles, was murdered, shot by a former employee. The couple had hoped that, by now, the European Court of Human...
View ArticleBad judgment at Strasbourg?
Two months ago, the JC published an exceptionally important article by Jonathan Fisher QC. Drawing attention to wording used in a 2010 European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) judgment, he warned that the...
View ArticleUN expert on Palestinian territories removed from Human Rights Watch committee
The UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories has been removed from a local committee of Human Rights Watch.Richard Falk, who is a professor of law at Princeton University,...
View ArticlePersecute, prosecute, pursue: strategy that became a model
In the late 1990s, Israelis began to hear about the major problem of sex trafficking. The problem continued for years and as recently as 2005 there were an estimated 3,000 women trafficked in to...
View ArticleIsrael leads the way
Israel leads the world in many fields. We often hear about her technology companies and desert reclamation. But there is one far less well known area in which the Jewish state is now a role model for...
View ArticleCensorship? Never, this is Human Rights Watch
There is a respectful hush among the journalists. This is the launch of Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) World Report 2013, and executive director Kenneth Roth is at the podium. “The media is key to what we...
View ArticleVengeful UN report on Israel reveals rot in system
This week’s goings on at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) mark yet another dismal episode in a seemingly endless series. What is, to a significant extent, a rogues’ gallery of murderous...
View ArticleNatan Sharansky and Benjamin Netanyahu to attend Thatcher funeral
Israel will be represented by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a prominent former Soviet dissident at Margaret Thatcher's funeral on Wednesday.The Israeli leader will be joined by former Soviet...
View Article‘All is desolation and destruction’
Last week, the British Friends of Rabbis for Human Rights (BFRHR) sent letters to Prime Minister Netanyahu and Ministers Lapid, Livni and Meir Cohen, protesting against the Knesset’s proposed Bill on...
View ArticleIsrael losing support by ignoring hostile UN human rights body
Israel once again found itself criticised and condemned at the United Nations Human Rights Council this week at that body’s 23rd session in Geneva. And Israel was not there to rebut it, having stuck...
View ArticleIsrael rejects fresh UN ‘child shield’ claims
Palestinian children are tortured and used as human shields by Israeli military and police forces, according to a report released on Thursday by a United Nations human rights watchdog.The report,...
View ArticleSecond ‘Prisoner X’ charged with more severe crime
The attorney of the late ‘Prisoner X’ Ben Zygier has revealed that the anonymous inmate being held under similar conditions to his former client is charged with a more severe crime.Avigdor Feldman said...
View ArticleQatada wins if we drop the Human Rights Act
It is nearly 14 years since I first met Omar Mahmood Abu Omar, the man known to the world as Abu Qatada.He was sitting on the carpeted floor of a book-lined room in north-west London, every bit the...
View ArticleIt’s better for Israel to join UN rights review
Although Israel cut its ties with the Human Rights Council in May 2012, there is one UN human rights mechanism it should make every effort to be part of, even if it means sending a driver to the...
View ArticleNew Israel Fund honours social justice campaigners
Three Israelis who have made a mark in their country campaigning for social justice were honoured with the New Israel Fund’s annual human rights awards in London on Sunday.Amal Elsana Elhjooj, 40, who...
View ArticleIsrael joins human rights group at UN
Israel participated yesterday in a meeting of the United Nations human rights group JUSCANZ – the first time it has taken part since being admitted to the group in 2010. The country’s involvement was...
View ArticleUN hires another Israel-basher to replace hate-blogger Richard Falk
ANALYSISFor over a month, the UN’s top human rights body has been struggling with a major dilemma. How much prior Israel-bashing experience is necessary to be appointed UN “independent expert” on...
View ArticleThis loathsome UN hypocrisy
On April 3, a gay Ugandan teen swallowed rat poison and pills, bringing an end to a life he believed had no value. He was 17 years old.Passage of the country's Anti-Homosexuality Act, signed into law...
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