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Yachad Legal Trip DRAFT Itinerary 9Th-12Th November

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Yachad Legal Trip DRAFT Itinerary 9Th-12Th November Yachad legal trip DRAFT itinerary 9th-12th November Background The purpose of the Yachad legal trip is bring together Jewish legal practitioners on a three day programme to Israel and the West Bank to spend time looking in depth at the legal debate surrounding the conflict. A key focus of the trip will be a trip to the military courts administered by the IDF in the West Bank. Yachad conducted its first legal trip in January 2014. If you would like to read the press coverage of the trip you can do so here: http://www.thejc.com/comment-and-debate/comment/114819/take-a-lawyers-advice-visit- occupied-territories http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.568790 http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/rabbis-round-table/.premium-1.568906 Dates The trip will take place between Sunday 9th-Wednesday 12th November 2014 inclusive, starting in the evening of Sunday 9th November. If there are participants who would like leave on Wednesday 12th November on the last flight out of Tel Aviv (Easy Jet: 7.25pm) we can arrange for the schedule to finish in time for people to reach the airport. Accommodation We will be staying at The Bat Moshava Hotel in West Jerusalem, the details of which are here: http://bit.ly/1hxdRVa Costs The cost of the trip is £700 per person or £535 if you would like to share a room. These costs exclude flights which you are responsible for booking. The costs do not include transfer to and from the airport but all other ground costs are included. Flights It is your responsibility to book your own flights to ensure you arrive in time for the start of the trip. If enough of the participants are on the same flights we can look into arranging transport. Insurance It is your responsibility to ensure you have travel insurance that covers you for Israel and the West Bank. Yachad's Public Liability Insurance will cover us for the trip and we will ask you to sign an document that makes it clear we are not responsible for your travel insurance. 1 Day 1 – Sunday 9th November 8.30pm Introductory Dinner Day 2 Monday 10th November 8.30am Leave hotel in Jerusalem to travel to Tel Aviv 9.30am-11.15am Meeting with Michael Sfard, at his law offices in Tel Aviv. Michael Sfard Biography Michael Sfard is the Israeli human rights and peace movement’s leading lawyer. As Legal Advisor for Israeli Human Rights group Yesh Din, and for Peace Now's Settlement Watch project, Sfard has brought scores of human rights and land-use cases challenging Israel’s occupation policies in the Palestinian territories, and has handled numerous petitions concerning the Separation Barrier. He has also represented hundreds of soldiers refusing to serve in the occupied territories. As the Christian Science Monitor and Jewish Forward put it: “Young lawyer Michael Sfard has achieved something that the White House and left-leaning Israeli political leaders could not: His legal work on behalf of Palestinian clients is compelling Israel in at least two instances to roll back Jewish settlements.” His legal success has made him an enemy of the right: last year, an Israeli settler was indicted in connection with an Internet posting that called for his assassination. But Sfard is widely respected by judges and adversaries. Born in Jerusalem, Sfard completed his legal studies at the Hebrew University, and holds an LLM in International Human Rights Law from University College London (UCL). Sfard served in the Israeli Defense Forces as a military paramedic Link to New York Times Profile: “A Champion for the Displaced in Israel” Jewish Daily Forward piece: “Lone lawyer battles illegal settlements” 11.15-12pm Travel into the central West Bank 12-3pm Visiting Yesh Din projects and clients (packed lunch provided to eat en-route) Background to Yesh Din Yesh Din's activities focus on the extent of Israel's implementation of its duty to protect the Palestinian civilians under its armed forces' occupation. These include: criminal accountability of Israeli civilians and members of the Israeli security forces in the West Bank; human rights violations related to use of Palestinian lands; and respect for human rights within the Israeli Military Courts in the West Bank. 3.30-4.30pm Travel to Gush Etsion settlement bloc 4.30pm-6pm Meeting with Settler leaders from the Yesha Council Background to the Yesha Council 2 The Yesha Council (Mo'etzet Yesha) which is the Hebrew acronym for Yehuda Shomron, Aza (Judea, Samaria and Gaza Council) is an umbrella organization of municipal councils of Jewish settlements in the West Bank (and formerly in the Gaza Strip), known by the Hebrew acronym Yesha. The Council was founded in the 1970s as the successor to Gush Emunim ("Block of the Faithful"), an organization formed to promote Jewish settlement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which they regarded as the return of Jews to their Biblical homeland. The Council consists of 25 democratically elected mayors and ten community leaders. The Council works to improve security by (for instance) by arranging the acquisition of bullet-proof ambulances and buses. The Council works with the Israeli government to provide roads, electricity, and water to the settlements. In addition to municipal and security issues, the Council serves as the political arm of the Jewish residents of Yesha. The Council lobbies for their interests with the Knesset and the government. The Council carries on public relations campaigns for the settlements and has organized several large public protests. 6-6.30pm Travel back to Jerusalem 6.30pm Rest in Hotel 7.30pm Dinner at restaurant in West Jerusalem, location TBC Guests include: Tomer Braude, Talia Sasson, David Benjamin Professor Tomer Braude Biography Associate Professor, Sylvan M. Cohen Chair in Law, Hebrew University of Jerusalem S.J.D., University of Toronto Faculty of Law, 2004 B.A., LL.B, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1996 Tomer Broude joined the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2004 as a full-time faculty member of law and international relations after five years of commercial legal practice and receiving a doctoral degree from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. He is currently a senior lecturer with tenure and the Sylvan M. Cohen Chair in Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. From 2009-2012 he was the academic director of the Minerva Center for Human Rights. In 2012-2013 he is a Visiting Professor at the University of Virginia School of Law. Broude's research is in international public law and economic law, particularly the World Trade Organization and regional trade law, dispute settlement, investment and development, and incorporating economic and human rights perspectives. He has taught international law at Tel Aviv University, the University of Toronto, the University of British Columbia, Georgetown University Law Center, Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, Bocconi University, Gujarat National Law University, the Duke-Hong Kong University Asia-America Institute in Transnational Law and McGill University. 3 David Benjamin Biography Lieutenant-Colonel (Reserve) David Benjamin is an Israel-based attorney specialising in International Law, the Law of Armed Conflict and Counter-Terrorism. As a career officer in the Israel Defence Forces, Lt. Col. Benjamin served, inter alia, as the Chief Legal Advisor for the Gaza Strip (2001 - 2005) as well as Director of the International and Strategic Branch in the IDF's International Law Department (2006 – 2009). In these positions, he played a key role in providing operational legal advice to military commanders and developing legal responses to situations arising in asymmetric conflicts. He was involved in drafting the State's arguments in response to numerous petitions submitted to the Israel Supreme Court. Now in private practice, Lt. Col. Benjamin provides consulting services to government and international organisations. He also lectures to audiences, both in Israel and abroad and is a frequent commentator in the local and international media. Lt. Col. Benjamin holds an LLM from Tel Aviv University as well as Bachelor's degrees in Law and Political Science from the University of Cape Town. Talia Sasson Biography Talia is an Attorney who now heads her own law firm, representing organisations in administrative and civil cases in court. She is a board member of the New Israel Fund (N.I.F.) and has been a co- chair of the International Council of the New Israel Fund since 2011. She is a board member in the Council for Peace and Security, a member of the Geneva Initiative's steering committee and Yesh Din's Public Council. In 2009, she ran for the Knesset as representative of The New Movement- Meretz. From 2004 to 2010, Talia taught a class on 'Legal Defences on the Democratic Regime in Israel' in the faculty of law at Tel-Aviv University as adjunct professor. She worked in the State Attorney's office from 1979 to February 2004. From August 2004 to March 2005, at the request of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Talia served as a special legal advisor to the prime minister on the issue of illegal outposts and in the West Bank and law enforcement on Israelis in the Palestinian territories. In that capacity, she prepared a report (known as "The Sasson Report") that was presented to the prime minister and the Israeli government in March 2005. From then until July 2005, she was a special legal advisor to the ministerial committee assigned with implementing the report's recommendations on illegal outposts. This is the link to the Sasson report: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Law/Legal+Issues+and+Rulings/Summary+of+Opinion+Concernin g+Unauthorized+Outposts+-+Talya+Sason+Adv.htm 4 Day 3 Tuesday 11th November 8.30am Meeting with Gerard Horton from Military Court Watch at hotel for background briefing Background to Military Court Watch (MCW) MCW’s work is guided by a basic principle that children detained by the Israeli military authorities are entitled to all the rights and protections guaranteed under international law.
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