ultravires.ca
OPINIONS
March 27, 2019 | 21
Don’t Trek to Israel itrek gives an unapologetically pro-Israel version in a deeply nuanced conflict area JEREMY GREENBERG (3L) pears that the 2019 itrek tr ip w ill v isit OcThis spr ing, a group of Universit y of Tocupied Palestine, specif ically, Ramallah in ronto law students w ill embark on a weekthe West Bank. W hile that might be an oplong tr ip to Israel under the auspices of the portunit y for learning and engagement “ itrek” tour company. Since its founding in w ith the v ictims of Israel’s occupation, co2012, New York-based itrek has organized lour me skeptical. According to the draft tours for post-secondar y students in selectitinerar y I’ve seen, after v isiting Ramaled f ields, w ith the stated pur pose of lah, the group w ill immediately depart for “ introduc[ing] tomorrow’s leaders in busione of Israel’s many illegal sett lements in ness, law, and policy to Israel.” itrek’s law the West Bank. At some point on the tr ip, program, which w ill welcome approxiU of T students w ill almost certainly meet mately 30 of our classmates, descr ibes itself w ith soldiers from the as “a chance to see IsraIsrael Defence Forces, el’s democratic legal syshas repeatedly tem in action.” In the choice between which been accused of cr imes In other words, like itrek and no trek at all, against humanit y and Birthr ight, a not-forwar cr imes. prof it organization that no trek is the better In its most recent ansponsors free tr ips to Isoption. nual report, A mnest y rael for Jew ish young International, a Lonadults, itrek is a pro-Isdon-based NGO, rerael propaganda exerported that “Israeli soldiers and police and cise, albeit one that encourages participaIsrael Secur it y Agency of f icers have subtion from non-Jew ish students. That it jected Palestinian detainees, including ex ists is not sur pr ising; that a group of our children, to torture and other ill-treatment fr iends and classmates—tomorrow’s Canaw ith impunit y, particularly dur ing arrest dian leaders—are subjecting themselves to and interrogation. Reported methods insuch propagandizing is disappointing. cluded beatings, slapping, painful shackW hatever version of Israel’s “democratic ling, sleep depr ivation, use of stress posilegal system” they get, it w ill resemble tions, and threats. No cr iminal nothing of what is actually occurr ing in Isinvestigations were opened into more than rael and in Occupied Palestine. 1,0 0 0 complaints f iled since 20 01.” W hile each person’s decision to travel is ultimately their own, my hope is that this What it means to visit Israel in 2019 article w ill encourage prospective itrek A full accounting of Israel’s v iolations of participants to take a more cr itical look at law, justice, and human r ights would reIsrael than the version presented by tour quire more than the few column inches organizers. This comes at a particularly available here. However, it’s important for bad moment in the Israel-Palestine conU V readers—and participants in itrek—to f lict, under the illiberal leadership of understand Israel’s recent and most egrePr ime M inister Benjamin Netanyahu, g ious v iolations of fundamental norms of which further underscores how ill-adv ised international law. These are the themes this tr ip would be. and events, all captured from merely the last twelve months, that should be on the itrek’s problematic itinerary minds of any v isitor to Israel, especially itrek may promise a “non-partisan” and those embarked on such an unabashedly “multicultural” exper ience, but what it depro-Israel tour like this one. livers is an unapologetically pro-Israel version of the reg ion, its histor y, and current March 2018: events. Frank ly, some of the tour choices Short ly before U of T Law’s 2018 itrek tr ip, are mind-boggling. protests erupt in the Gaza str ip, setting of f For example, there’s a planned “Gaza a year of deadly v iolence in which Israeli Border Excursion”, presumably to gawk, soldiers k ill 295 Palestinians, including 57 through Israel’s “secur it y” fence, at the minors, according to the U N Of f ice for the two million Palestinians liv ing in what Coordination of Humanitar ian A f fairs. A mnest y International descr ibes as “a A mnest y International reports that acgrow ing humanitar ian cr isis” caused by Iscording to the A l Mezan Center for Human rael’s “ illegal air, land, and sea blockade”. R ights, a Gaza-based NGO, “at least There are also “AT V r ides on the Syr ian 10,0 0 0 others have been injured, including border”. Law students should f ind this ac1,849 children, 424 women, 115 paramedtiv it y particularly egreg ious g iven that said ics and 115 journalists”. “Syr ian border” is, in fact, the illegally ocB’Tselem, an Israel-based NGO, concupied Golan Heights. No countr y recogcludes that the deaths are “a direct result nises Israel’s annexation of this terr itor y of Israel’s reck less open-f ire policy, autho(as Ultra Vires was going to press, Presir ized by the government and the top milident Donald Trump tweeted that the Unittar y command, and backed by the judicial ed States should acknowledge Israel’s claim system.” of sovereignt y over Golan). According to a In that same per iod, Israeli soldiers recent article in Foreign Policy, the day-toshoot and k ill thirteen Palestinians, inday lives of Syr ians in the Golan are “charcluding f ive minors, in response to inciacter ized by systematic oppression and dents of stone-throw ing. Israeli soldiers rampant discr imination.” U of T’s itrek also falsely allege a separate incident of participants should be aware that in joystone-throw ing in an attempt to justify the r iding across illegally occupied terr itor y, illegal k illing of Muhammad Habali, a they become complicit in Israel’s v iolations 22-year-old w ith mental disabilities, who is of international law. shot in the head, from behind, by an IsraeSpeak ing of illegal occupation, it ap-
li soldier in the West Bank. Video footage later shows that Mr. Habali was not provok ing the soldiers. Dur ing the same year, Palestinians k ill 14 Israelis, according to B'Tselem.
tively excluding Israel’s substantial A rab minor it y population. February 28, 2019: Israel’s Attorney General Av ichai Mandelblit announces indictments against Mr. Netanyahu on charges of fraud, br iber y, and breach of trust. Mr. Mandelblit alleges Mr. Netanyahu received g ifts for tax favours, and colluded w ith major news companies by passing laws harmful to their competitors, in exchange for favourable news coverage. The same day that Mr. Netanyahu’s indictment is announced, a U N Independent Commission of Inquir y issues a scathing report on Israel’s actions dur ing the 2018 Gaza protests. The report concludes that the k illings of 189 Palestinian protesters, including thirt y-f ive children, three “clearly marked paramedics”, and two “clearly marked journalists”, which “may constitute war cr imes or cr imes against humanit y.”
May 14, 2018: A n Israeli sniper shoots Dr. Tarek Loubani, a Canadian, while the doctor is delivering emergency medicine to protesters in Gaza. Dr. Loubani tells CBC News that he was shot dur ing a “ lull” in the protest, and that he was wear ing a high-v isibilit y green medical outf it at the time. His shooting is part of a pattern of allegedly deliberate attacks on medics and doctors prov iding medical assistance to protesters in the Gaza Str ip, culminating in the death of Razan al-Naj jar (see below). Israeli forces shoot nineteen medical staf f that day, including Dr. Loubani, according to the doctor’s account. The Geneva Convention forbids f ir ing on medical personnel; if medics were deliberately targeted, then Israeli soldiers would have And now this: itrek goes to Israel committed a war cr ime. Israel’s cr imes against In total, Israeli forces Palestinians and v iolak ill 59 Palestinians that tions of the rule of law day and injure 2,70 0, acIsrael’s crimes against are real, contemporar y cording to the CBC. concerns. The above acPalestinians and No Israelis are k illed. is taken from just One Israeli soldier is inviolations of the rule of count the last year and Israel’s jured, according to The law are real, long-standing illegal ocGuardian. cupation and mistreatcontemporary ment of the Palestinian May 24, 2018: concerns. Terr itor ies dates back Israel’s Supreme Court much further than that. approves a government Speak ing as a Jew ishplan to demolish a PalesCanadian who has v isited Israel on multitinian v illage, K han al-A hmar, located in ple occasions and has family connections the West Bank. This decision is one in a there, I’m not say ing that students should long line of court-sanctioned expulsions of avoid Israel simply because its militar y legal residents for the sake of Israel’s illegal commits war cr imes, or its current Pr ime sett lement expansion in Occupied PalesM inister is a particularly egreg ious examtine. ple of illiberal ideolog y (such a str ict rule The demolition is placed on hold in Ocon travel would probably exclude a lot of tober 2018 in the face of a major global countr ies!). It is possible to v isit Israel, and outcr y. If Israel proceeds w ith its demoliI encourage my Jew ish and non-Jew ish tion, it would constitute a war cr ime, acfr iends to do so, but only on the r ight cording to Dav id Zonsheine, the chair of terms. B'Tselem. itrek, w ith its one-sided, shallow perspective on Israel, not to mention its faciliMay 24, 2018: tation of activ ities in the occupied terr itoThe President of the International Cr imir ies, is possibly the worst organizer to nal Court ( ICC) assigns the “Situation in entrust w ith that responsibilit y. Palestine” to the ICC’s Pre-Tr ial Chamber There are other options. The “pro for “preliminar y investigation”. peace” Israeli advocacy group, J Street, organizes more balanced Israel/Palestine June 1, 2018: tours, and you can always make your own A n Israeli sniper k ills 20 -year-old Razan way (obtaining a v isa is relatively easy for al-Naj jar, a medic attempting to assist a Canadians). wounded protester in Gaza. Ms. A l-Naj jar, That said, there’s always the option, esa volunteer emergency medical worker, was pecially for this year’s crop of itrek kers, for wear ing a clearly-identif iable white parawhom it’s never too late to back out of a medic’s vest at the time. bad deal, to not go, to not feed the Israeli propaganda machine, and to not pour dolJuly 19, 2018: lars into the tour ism industr y. A s much as Israel passes a highly controversial “naI trust my fellow classmates to think cr itition-state” law g iv ing Jews the “exclusive cally and to be skeptical about what the r ight to national self-determination” w ithpropagandists foist on them, I don’t think in Israel. The law is roundly condemned by itrek w ill of fer them the opportunit y to do world leaders as an attack on Palestinian so. statehood. Mr. Netanyahu recent ly douIn the choice between itrek and no trek bled down on the law, stating that Israel is at all, no trek is the better option. a “nation state only of the Jew ish people” and “not a state of all its citizens”, ef fec-
