Yonah Jeremy Bob

In "Justice in the West Bank?", Yonah Jeremy Bob examines the question of whether the Israeli military courts in the occupied West Bank are capable of rendering justice to Palestinian defendants on trial in those courts, and if they (the courts) have a record of doing so. The book was published in 2019, and since then the Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu has taken a hard turn to the right, throwing the country into turmoil. The reactionary Likudniks of the Netanyahu regime want to strip the Israeli Supreme Court of its independence. If they succeed in this scheme, the question of "justice" for the people of the occupied West Bank will be moot.

The author Bob is fairly evenhanded in his examination of the IDF West Bank courts. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) is in charge of judicial affairs and law enforcement concerning the Palestinian residents of the occupied West Bank. The IDF generally operates on the basis of the Israeli legal system as it applies inside "Green Line Israel"- Israel within the 1967 borders. There are notable exceptions, as in the use of "administrative detention"- holding suspects or "persons of interest" in custody for an indefinite period without charging them with a crime. The IDF prosecutors often do this, claiming national security reasons, and thus get to keep secret evidence that they don't have to disclose to the defense.

Author Bob takes note of lawyers on both sides of the conflict in the IDF court system. On the side of the prosecution are such attorneys as Maurice Hirsch. Hirsch grew up in Britain during the Thatcher years and was a staunch Tory before he came to Israel in 1996. He rose in the ranks of the IDF officer corps and became a premier prosecutor in the IDF West Bank courts. He is dedicated to the security of Israel, including Israeli settlers in "Judea and Samaria" and his definition of "justice" is the prevention and/or punishment of Palestinian terrorism against Israel. As he sees it, rock throwing by teenagers is terrorism, as is any activity associated with Hamas or another terrorist organization.

On the other side, Bob interviews defense attorneys who try to make a case for the legal and human rights of accused Palestinians. Some of them, such as Merav Khoury, are Palestinian lawyers. Others, like the legendary Avigdor Feldman, and Gaby Lasky, are Israeli Jews. Feldman is the Clarence Darrow of the IDF West Bank courts, famous for winning the acquital of his clients by tearing apart the flimsy or illegal evidence of Israeli military prosecutors. Gaby Lasky is a younger follower of Feldman. She says she loves Israel- but she is fighting to make it a better country, a nation that lives up to its ideals of humanity and justice.

Ever since the Naqba of 1948, in which a quarter of a million Palestinians were driven from their homes in the first Arab-Israeli War, there has been a tragic paradox in which Israel, a nation created to give refuge to a people fleeing genocide, has become an occupying power, ruling millions of its Arab neighbors by military force. Can the IDF courts provide justice? The question should be; can the courts mitigate the harm of the occupation?… (meer)