Yonah Jeremy BobBesprekingen

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?

I was astonished that this book keep my interest. A non-fiction about law in a country that is so far from my own, it did. I enjoyed reading about a justice system I knew nothing about and the people that work in that system. I have to say I didn't understand some of it but that just made me want to read more and understand.½

This book touches on a very complex and nuanced legal and sociopolitical issue, and attempts to present it in the form of varied personal narratives. Unfortunately, I was put off by the poor editing overall — I felt the book could have used better transitions and more of an eagle’s eye view on the context and scale of the issues at hand rather than a verbatim report of every conversation and trial.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict that will just not go away, and trying to make sense of the long-running conflict is difficult and complex; there are no simple answers.

In this book the author looks at how the legal system operates, especially among Palestinians, Israelis, and the IDF; how it is often working at odds with each other and that the quest for justice and the truth is often lost in the fog of war.½

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Justice in the West Bank?: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Goes to Court by Yonah Jeremy Bob is a non-fiction book following legal personalities of the West Bank courts through interactions and high profile cases. Mr. Bob is the Jerusalem Post’s Intelligence, Terrorism & Legal Analyst as well as its Literary Editor and has written much about the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) West Bank Courts.

At first I did not know what to make of Justice in the West Bank?: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Goes to Court by Yonah Jeremy Bob, but it immediately struck me as a fair balanced, insightful book and not a “hit piece”, which I refuse to read no matter which side puts it out. The book gives a great insight into the West Bank’s justice system and those who work within it.

I really enjoyed that the author concentrated on several personalities in the system, and their interaction on high-profile cases, some which changed the way the courts worked. It is an eye opening, balanced account in which Israeli and Palestinian lawyers, as well as IDF judges sometime find themselves at odds with the security apparatus. This issue, of withholding classified information from defense lawyers, not being able to verify evidence against the accused and other such frustrating acts (to both sides, and to the judges) gets a balanced look as well.

The author vividly shows the dilemmas in which the books protagonists face, and there are many of them. Defense lawyers have difficult decisions to make, such as representing a 16 year old man accused of murdering 5 Jewish family members and dilemmas in treating children who commit atrocities. In fact, the issue of juvenile military court garners much attention from the author, and rightly so.

Mr. Bob calls the courts a “gray zone”, where people with very different beliefs work with each other and usually clash. If you are interested in the conflict, and want to understand it from the legal side, this book is a gem and an important story to tell.

Oftentimes, a book that is very informative turns out to not hold reader interest. This is not the case with this endeavor by Yonah Jeremy Bob. The reader will be fascinated by the depiction of Israeli justice in the area of the West Bank. It is a complicated scene where judges are challenged to make key decisions that affect political behavior as well as ethical issues.

The attorneys for both Israeli citizens and Palestinian people are sharp, dedicated to protecting their clients and skilled in courtroom proceedings. I encourage anyone who is interested in Middle Eastern affairs to read this book by a man who knows about the law but also understands cyber crimes and terrorism! I thoroughly enjoyed this book and learned a great deal.½