IsraCampus.Org.il

Israel has a long track record of law school academics ganging up to demonize and discredit the country. Among these are leftist attorneys who have played the game of citing “international law” and “social justice” in defending the indefensible, the quest to destroy Israel by any means necessary. … Israeli law lecturer Amir Paz-Fuchs is an example of someone who uses the courts in a similar manner. He also uses his Kiryat Ono classroom as an arena to smear and demonize Israel and Zionism. … Paz-Fuchs and his colleague argue that refusing to serve in the military for political reasons in a democratic country should be regarded as completely legal and valid, and mutineers even be paid veterans’ benefits. The authors regard such people as the bravest Israelis.

Kiryat Ono College of Law - Amir Paz-Fuchs uses "law" to bludgeon Israel

By Lee Kaplan, www.IsraCampus.org.il
16/10/2009

"The only proper purpose of a government is to protect man's rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence... The only proper functions of a government are: the police, to protect you from criminals; the army, to protect you from foreign invaders; and the courts, to protect your property and contracts from breach or fraud by others, and to settle disputes by rational rules, according to objective law." - Ayn Rand

Israel has a long track record of law school academics ganging up to demonize and discredit the country. Among these are leftist attorneys who have played the game of citing “international law” and “social justice” in defending the indefensible, the quest to destroy Israel by any means necessary. Israel’s neighbors and the Palestinian Authority are all totalitarian regimes. Yet leftist lawyers and legal academics in Israel would have us believe democratic Israel can defend itself on a level playing field in the world’s courtrooms, such as in the Hague, which are all too often kangaroo courts. Israeli law lecturer Amir Paz-Fuchs is an example of someone who uses the courts in a similar manner. He also uses his Kiryat Ono classroom as an arena to smear and demonize Israel and Zionism.

Amir Paz-Fuchs headed a program called the Social Contract Revisited, part of a larger program called the Foundation for Law, Justice and Society at the University of Oxford in the UK. He is today a law school faculty member teaching labor law and jurisprudence at Kiryat Ono College of Law, one of Israel’s large law schools. He earned his first law degree at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. His first major stint as an attorney in Israel was as head of the Center For the Rights of the Unemployed in Israel, where he did pro-bono work for unemployed Israelis and Palestinian Arabs in “matters of social security and labor rights.” He then earned a D. Phil at Oxford in :right-to-work laws” as applied in the United States and the UK.

But Paz-Fuchs also devotes much of his time to denouncing and demonizing Israel. Paz-Fuchs, along with far-leftist anti-Israel radical attorney Michael Sfard (from the radical Association for Civil Rights in Israel), co-wrote an article on “The Fallacies of Objections to Selective Conscientious Objection.”

The gist of the article was to promote the concept that those refusing to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces when drafted should be considered to have law on their side. In their view, breaking the law out of anti-Israel political sentiment is the highest form of honoring and preserving law and order. The Israeli judiciary sometimes recognizes the concept of pacifism as a legitimate reason for objecting to serving in the military. Paz-Fuchs and his colleague argue that refusing to serve in the military for political reasons in a democratic country should be regarded as completely legal and valid, and mutineers even be paid veterans’ benefits. The authors regard such people as the bravest Israelis.

Paz-Fuchs extends this idea to a justification for those who refuse completely to serve in the West Bank and Gaza and who claim such service is itself an abuse of the Palestinian Arab civilian population. He contributes and aids various anti-military groups, such as “Courage to Refuse Movement” (or the “Zonshein Affair”), “Breaking the Silence” and “Combatants for Peace.” Such groups constitute what former chief of the IDF Shaul Mofaz has described as “not only refusal but grave sedition.”

During and since Operation Cast Lead, such fringe groups have sought support for Israelis refusing to serve in the military worldwide. They are politically motivated, not real pacifists. Recently these groups cited imaginary atrocities by the IDF to large fanfare and produced fabrications about hallucinatory Israeli war crimes in Gaza. They are funded by the European Union and paid salaries to be professional draft or army service resisters.

According to Paz-Fuchs in an article in Haaretz, “Recent research by the Israeli human-rights organization Bimkom (one of his NGOs) shows that Israel continues to designate significant land and planning resources for settlement development, far exceeding any "natural growth" projections. To date, dozens of detailed plans have been submitted to planning authorities, which, if approved, would allow for the building of 40,000 additional units, sufficient to house some 240,000 new settlers.”

Horror of horrors! Jews settling in the Holy Land!

Paz-Fuchs continues in the Haaretz article, “in its current approach, Israel is not only violating international law and shirking its obligations to the U.S. administration under the road map. One cannot fully understand the "natural growth" of settlements without realizing the impact it has on the Palestinian villages that are its victims. To allow for such expansion, Israel forcefully and effectively limits Palestinian development in the West Bank. This is achieved by treating the whole of Area C - the 60 percent of the West Bank defined by the Oslo Accords as coming under full Israeli jurisdiction - as reserved for Israeli purposes exclusively. In particular, Israel employs several complementary policies in Area C.”

The agenda of Amir Paz-Fuchs can be seen by examining those who he associates with abroad. He is a member and activist with Jews for Justice for Palestinians in the UK, a radical anti-Israel group. On its web site we find links to organizations like the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (founded and led by the International Solidarity Movement’s co-founder Huwaida Arraf who admits to working with and supporting Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the PFLP). We also find the misnamed Jewish Voice for Peace listed, a front group financed largely by the Saudis and George Soros. These groups promote boycotts and divestment from Israel.

Paz-Fuchs later in his Haaretz article next descends into the classic canards of the likes of the International Solidarity Movement pro-terror activists. He continues, “Israel continues to build roads that allow limited or no Palestinian use. The separation barrier and other security measures implemented at the behest of the settler population have the additional effect of severely restricting Palestinians' access to their lands.” No mention is made that Arabs use these roads after a security check, nor that they became necessary due to use by Arab terrorists, including Arab sniping and rock throwing at Israeli drivers.

Paz-Fuchs even finds an excuse for Arabs who violate zoning laws or build on land that does not belong to them (as in East Jerusalem). Arabs need not obey the law because they are so oppressed. He even goes so far as to condemn the demolition of homes as punishment for suicide bombings and terrorism, a proven effective means of deterring such behavior.

Quoting Amir Paz-Fuchs:

“Over the past few years, the Civil Administration has, on a monthly average, issued 60 demolition orders, demolished 20 structures, and has granted one permit for construction. And because the Civil Administration refuses to prepare master plans that meet the needs of the population, Palestinians have no choice but to meet their "natural growth" by engaging in illegal construction.”

Like we said, Arabs are exempt from obeying the law. A trip through East Jerusalem shows massive building of “Arab” structures without permits to force the issue of that part of the city becoming a capital of “Palestine.”

According to Paz-Fuchs, “Israel would be wise not to continue to obfuscate the reality that is becoming increasingly clear with every passing day. If it continues its current practices and rhetoric, it will suffer the fate of double punishment familiar to quite a few politicians: first for its acts, and then again for deceit.”

Deceit? And what about the fact that not a single prominent Palestinian recognizes Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state? What about the constant incitement by Palestinian “leaders” to kill Jews and other Israelis?

========================================

Op-Ed articles appearing on IsraCampus.Org.il are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the opinion of IsraCampus.Org.il