Judicial Reform and the School for Peace

The judicial overhaul that threatens Israeli democracy is the tip of an iceberg that threatens to rip apart human rights at all levels of our society. Human rights lawyers are engaged in a struggle not only for those mistreated in our midst, but to protect the legal system that enables them to work.

The School for Peace is addressing this issue in several ways. It has founded a new alumni forum for Change Agents in Law graduates, comprised of Palestinian and Jewish lawyers. This forum is organized by Nava Sonnenschein and Mohammed Abu Sneineh. One of the first things this forum undertook was action in the recent Israel Bar Association elections, helping to get the anti-judicial overhaul candidate elected.

School for Peace associates were also invited to speak with the German Bar Association about the ramifications of the judicial overhaul laws. Dr. Manal Totry-Jubran, senior lecturer at the Bar-Ilan University Faculty of Law and lecturer in the SFP, presented the case for preserving the autonomy of the Supreme Court, which, though its record is far from perfect, is Israel’s protector of human rights.

Attorney Michael Sfard spoke to them about his experience working to defend Palestinians in the occupied territories. Here, the Supreme Court tries to balance the demands of martial law with human rights, and often falls on the wrong side of the coin. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court is currently the only avenue to redress available Palestinians who, for example, want to prevent home demolitions or child arrests.

Sfard, an SFP alumnus, is one of Israel’s leading human rights lawyers. He chose this path after participating in a facilitators’ course at age 22. Today, he is leading a new course in the SFP, Advanced Issues in Human Rights Law. The participants are lawyers, and are presented, each session, with a real case, and they discuss the various ethical and legal issues involved.