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Supporting Human Rights in a Time of Violence By James Todd Thursday, Feb. 3, 2005 -- An Amnesty International representative told about two dozen people at Duke Law School that respect for international human rights law, especially distinguishing between civilians and combatants in battle, is the key to ending the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. "I’m not saying that a human rights agenda in and of itself is going to stop the conflict," said Marty Rosenbluth, the Amnesty International USA country specialist for Israel, the occupied territories and the Palestinian Authority. "But it is an essential prerequisite." The audience during Rosenbluth’s Jan. 28 talk included a student who served in the Israeli army with assignments in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The talk was sponsored by the JD/LLM Program in International and Comparative Law. (Rosenbluth is applying to Duke Law School.) Rosenbluth, a Jewish American who lived in the West Bank for seven years, offered balanced criticism to Israelis and Palestinians -- Israelis for "excessive use of force" and collateral civilian deaths, and Palestinians for firing on Israeli soldiers from heavily populated areas. "We don’t dispute the right of Palestinians to struggle against the occupation, the same way we don’t dispute the Israelis’ right to defend themselves, but in doing so both still have to follow international law, which places limits on what both armed groups and governments can do," said Rosenbluth, a local documentary filmmaker who made a film about the conflict called "Jerusalem: An Occupation Set in Stone?" "Amnesty is not a pacifist organization," although that position is being considered by the group, he said. "One major thing that would go a very long way towards ensuring respect [of international humanitarian law] is the formation of a human rights monitoring force," he said. "If a human rights monitoring force was properly organized and formulated, it would go a long way to protect civilians on both sides." Rosenbluth spoke at Duke in October during the Palestine Solidarity Movement (PSM) conference. There, he urged the PSM to explicitly condemn suicide bombings that target civilians instead of remaining neutral towards the methods used by Palestinians to oppose Israeli occupation. "Duke really is to be congratulated for its efforts to provide an environment for constructive dialogue," he said about the university’s decision to allow the conference to take place on campus, despite protests. "A lot of other campuses try to bury their heads and pretend [the conflict] is not happening." Afterward the talk, David Breau, a second-year law student who served for two years in the Israeli army, said, "It’s a nice ideal to say that human rights should apply to both sides." But the laws need to be understood in the context of actual situations, such as confronting a sniper firing from an apartment building, he said. "My opinion is that Israel uses more discretion [in violent conflicts] than any other country," said Breau, who also heard Rosenbluth speak at the PSM conference. As an example, he explained the orders he received as a soldier stationed in the occupied territories. "We were not allowed to open fire unless my life or the life of another soldier was immanently threatened," he said. "You had a half a second between when you can shoot and when you could be dead." Even though Breau disagreed with Rosenbluth’s characterization of the Israeli army’s tactics, he said he agrees with the aim of peace and a two-state solution. "That’s the answer to every conflict -- ‘stop shooting.’" |
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