ALMA Newsletter- January 2015

Hebrew

Dear friends,

2015 just began, however it has already seen many interesting developments in the international law sphere for Israel. The decision of the Palestinian Authority to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) has increased the amount of international law discussions, and particularly with regard to international humanitarian law and international criminal law. At ALMA, we aim to promote the knowledge and understanding of these issues in order to ensure such discussions are fruitful and productive.

This issue of ALMA Newsletter is dedicated to the Palestinian accession to the ICC, providing links to interesting and diverse articles and discussions on this topic from various sources.

As always, you are welcome to keep in touch via our facebook page and twitter. In order to join our mailing list please send your name and email address to info@alma-ihl.org. If you wish to support ALMA please visit our donations page.

Sincerely,

Ido Rosenzweig

ALMA Chairman.

New on ALMA Website

IHL Links page - ALMA's new IHL Links page provides information about different relevant sources for IHL enthusiasts. The links page includes information about treaties and sources of law; research centers and NGOs; international criminal law; international human rights law; terrorism; and blogs.

Please visit our page and help us update our list by sugessting additional sources.

Upcoming Local IHL Events

1) The next session of the Joint International Humanitarian Law Forum will be held on Wednesday, ,January 28, 2015, 18:30 in room C110 (Arazi-Ofer Building, 2nd floor) in the IDC.

In this session Adv. Efrat Bergman-Sapir, the Director of the Legal Department of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel will discuss: Torture under the Protection of the Law? From HCJ to CIA (following the release of the U.S. Senate Torture Report)

2) The International Law Forum of the Hebrew University will be held on Tuesday January 27, 2015, 14:30 in room 119, the Faculty of Law in Jerusalem.

The Forum will discuss the recent developments relating to Cyber Warfare (Adv. Deborah Housen-Couriel); the recent dismissal of a principal appeal against the house demolitions policy before the HCJ (Prof. Guy Harpaz); and the Palestinian Authority and the ICC (Adv. Nir Keidar).

ALMA Members in the Media

1) Yael Vias Gvirsman, Ways Israel can cope with the ICC prosecution. (From Min 20:58)

(Hebrew)

2) Yael Vias Gvirsman, The procedure awaiting Israel in the ICC. (From Min 6:42) (Hebrew)

3) Ido Rosenzweig, The Palestinian Accession to the Rome Statute and the Question of the Settlements (Opinio Juris)

4) Ido Rosenzweig, The risk for the Palestinians when turning to the ICC (Hebrew)

5) Roi Simyoni addressing Dr. Sigall Horovitz's opinion regarding the chances of the ICC investigating Israel.

New IHL Articles & Media

1) Tal Mimran and Amichai Cohen, The Palestinian Authority and the International Criminal Court. (The Israel Democracy Institute) (Hebrew)

2) Pnina Sharvit Baruch, The ICC Decision to Open a Preliminary Examination: Cause for Concern, not for Panic. (INSS)

3) Thomas Escritt and Dan Williams, Israel lobbies foreign powers to cut ICC funding. (Reuters)

4) Eugene Kontorovich, ICC undermines its own independence with Palestine inquiry. (The Washington Post)

5) Daphné Richemond-Barak, Double Duty at the ICC. (EJIL: Talk!)

6) Robert Howse, Palestine and the ICC: Law and Rhetoric. (Just Security)

7) Nimrod Karin, The Establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for Palestine Part I &Part 2. (Just Security)

Upcoming IHL Worldwide Events

1) January 30, 2015, Building on a new paradigm of International Criminal Law: Lessons from the 1943 - 1948 UN War Crimes Commission, Hague, Netherlands.

2) January 31- February 1, 2015, American Red Cross IHL Workshop, Seattle, USA.

3) February 15-17, 2015, Special Course on Humanitarian Law and Engaging Armed Groups in the Protection of Civilians, Amman, Jordan.

4) February 20, 2015, NIRMA National Conference on International Humanitarian Law, Ahmedabad, India.

5) 25 February, 2015, Refuge from Inhumanity? War Refugees at the Intersection of IHL and Refugee Law, London, England.

For many more events from all over the world, please visit our upcoming IHL event - worldwide page on our website. To add you event to our database please send an email to events@alma-ihl.org