Israel's Post-Zionst Academia

Last week, I attended a discussion sponsored by the Federman School for Management of the Hebrew University. It was devoted to Gadi Taub's new book, "The Settlers". Who participated? Gadi Taub, of course, Prof. Moshe Halberthal, Prof. Emmanuel Sivan - all anti-settler and Rabbi Yoel Bin-Nun, resident of Alon Shvut but as parveh as you can get while still being a religious redemptionist.

That's academic fairness and balance.

Here's another.

A Call for Papers for an international students' competition has gone out. The International Law Division at the Law School of the College of Management Academic Studies in Israel, in cooperation with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and The International Review of the Red Cross, have all announced the launching of an international competition for the "best international law paper" and invite the submission of papers focusing on legal aspects of the 40 year old Israeli occupation of Hebron.

The competition is open to all law students world-wide. One paper, selected by the competition steering committee as the winning paper, will award its author a $500 prize (sponsored by the Law School, the College of Management Academic Studies). Up to three papers, selected by the competition committee, will be published in The International Review of the Red Cross, subject to the journal’s review procedures.
The winning papers will be announced by October 1 2007.

Why is this profound academic activity being launched?

The competition is launched as part of a series of events surrounding the 40th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories. Hebron well epitomizes the nature of this occupation: Hebron is home to around 150,000 Palestinians, of whom approximately 35,000 reside in Area H-2, an area under full Israeli control and home to some 500 settlers. The latter are located in settlements in the old city. Israeli policies associated with these settlements have arguably been designed to generate the "de-Palestinization" of the area, and have actually achieved this result. The (il)legality of theses policies is the broad subject of the competition.

Subjects may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The Hebron cases: the jurisprudence of the Israeli High Court of Justice
• Law enforcement in Hebron
• Israeli policy and actions in Hebron: Apartheid or Security?
• International Criminal Law aspects of the occupation of Hebron
• A legal analysis of specific events in Hebron

Papers (not exceeding 10,000 words) should be submitted no later than July 12 2007 to hebronc@actcom.net.il

The Steering Committee is made up of Dr. Orna Ben-Naftali, Head of the International Law Division, the Law School, the College of Management Academic Studies; Toni Pfanner, Editor in chief, The International Review of the Red Cross; Adv. Limor Yehuda, The Association for Civil Rights in Israel; Dr. Barak Medinah, Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Senior Lectureship in Law; Competition Coordinator: Mr. Avi Berg.

This was distributed by, among others, this address:

owner-law-g@mscc.huji.ac.il - On Behalf Of Irit Magora Levi