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As the UN Meets: Interviews Available on International Law · Roberts · Chavez · Sharon

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FRANCIS BOYLE
Professor of international law at the University of Illinois, Boyle said today: “As Roberts made clear in Tuesday’s hearings during his interchange with Senator Leahy, he is a partisan of the Imperial Presidency. For example, Roberts refused to repudiate and condemn the infamous Korematsu decision which authorized the president to intern U.S. citizens of Japanese descent during World War II. In his own recent Hamdan decision, Roberts gave President Bush a blankcheck to wage his ‘war on terrorism’ in violation of the Geneva Conventions….” Boyle is author of the book Destroying World Order: A Guide to Impeaching President George W. Bush. [Boyle can also address the subject of Roberts and membership in the Federalist Society.] More Information

EVA GOLINGER
Currently in New York City, Golinger is a Venezuelan-American attorney and author of the book The Chavez Code: Cracking U.S. Intervention in Venezuela. She said today: “The U.S. government’s blocking of visas for security personnel for Chavez fits into a pattern of hostility toward the Venezuelan leader. This hostility is particularly striking given that Venezuela has just given the U.S. 1 million barrels of oil to help with the situation on the Gulf Coast.”
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MORDECHAI VANUNU
Vanunu revealed Israel’s nuclear weapons arsenal in 1986 at which time he was jailed by Israel. Last year he was released from prison but is under severe travel and other restrictions, which he is litigating. Currently in Jerusalem, he said today: “When he speaks to the UN, Sharon needs to address why Israel refuses to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. All the Arab countries have signed it, Iran has signed it. Why has Israel continued to refuse to sign the NPT?”
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ADRIEN WING
Professor of law at the University of Iowa Law School, Wing has written extensively on the Israel-Palestinian conflict. She said today: “I hope Sharon will say that Israel will continue its withdrawal from the occupied territories including the West Bank.”
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MICHAEL LYNK
SUSAN AKRAM
Lynk is professor of law at the University of Western Ontario. Akram is professor of law at Boston University. They have recently co-authored an article titled “The Wall and the Law: A Tale of Two Judgements,” which analyzes the International Court of Justice’s and the Israeli Supreme Court’s decisions on the Wall that Israel is constructing through the West Bank.

They said today: “Prime Minister Sharon’s record as a military commander and a senior political leader in Israel suggests that he has committed a number of war crimes, according to international law.

“In October 1953, he led a group of Israeli soldiers in a night attack on the Palestinian village of Qibya, then under the rule of Jordan. The raid resulted in the death of 69 unarmed Palestinian civilians. The massacre drew the condemnation of the United Nations Security Council….

“Between Sept. 17 and 19, 1982, Israeli Defense Minister Sharon approved the attack on the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila by armed members of the Lebanese Phalange militia. Estimates of the Palestinian and Lebanese civilians who were killed in the two camps range between 700 and 2,000. An Israeli judicial inquiry found Sharon to be personally responsible for the massacre….

“While Prime Minister Sharon … [has] removed the small settlements from Gaza and the northern West Bank, he has been steadily thickening the large Jewish settlements in the remainder of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The United Nations Security Council and the General Assembly have repeatedly stated that the Israeli settlements violate international law.

“The Israeli separation wall dividing the West Bank and East Jerusalem has been constructed under Sharon’s orders. Large amounts of Palestinian land, housing and agricultural property have been confiscated, causing enormous dislocation and suffering to the Palestinian population. The Wall has been constructed and expanded in violation of the International Court of Justice’s opinion calling for it to be dismantled, because it violates international law.”

“Events of the past week in Britain show the power of effective war crimes legislation. Senior Israeli military officers for whom arrest warrants had been issued by an English judge for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the occupied Palestinian territories decided not to enter Britain for fear of arrest. While the U.S. does not have modern war crimes legislation, a number of other Western European countries and Canada have enacted statutes which are likely hindering Sharon’s travels to particular countries.”
“Amnesty International Deplores Failure to Arrest Israeli War Crimes Suspect”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167