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| Middle East |
| World Court Refuses to Disqualify Judge |
| 2004-02-04 |
| The World Court rejected an Israeli request to disqualify an Egyptian judge from the tribunal, which will rule on the legality of the security barrier Israel is building in Palestinian territories, the court said Tuesday. Well, at least it canât get any less fair. Israel wanted Judge Nabil Elaraby to step down, citing his earlier job as legal adviser to the Egyptian government and what it described as a prejudicial newspaper interview in 2001. "Other than the âKill the Jooos!!! Kill the Jooos!!! KILL THE JOOOS!!!â part of the interview, whatâs yer problem?" By a vote of 13-1, the court ruled on Friday that Elaraby would remain on the bench. Only the court is empowered to excuse one of its judges. The Hague-based panel has 15 judges; Elaraby didnât vote. And didnât need to. As a government legal adviser, Elaraby sat across from the Israelis at the negotiating table on several occasions, dating back to the successful Camp David agreements in 1978 that led to the Egypt-Israel peace treaty. He was elected to the court in October 2001 for a nine-year term. The court ruled Elarabyâs previous activities "were performed in his capacity of a diplomatic representative of his country, most of them many years before" the current case arose. Old memories die It said Elaraby had said nothing about the barrier in the newspaper interview, and "could not be regarded as having previously taken part in the case in any capacity." No details about the interview were immediately available. No, no! Certainly not! Israel raised no objection to the Jordanian judge on the panel, Awn Shawkat al-Khasawneh, even though Jordan was expected to take the lead in arguing against the security barrier. U.S. judge Thomas Buergenthal dissented, arguing that the opinions Elaraby expressed in the interview create "the appearance of bias incompatible with the fair administration of justice" in the barrier case. Elaraby gave the interview three months before joining the world court. "He had three whole months tâ fergit what he said, yer honor! More than enough time. Izznât that so, Elaraby?" "Um, um, yep, thatâs so." "See, no problemo!" The ruling cited a 1971 precedent when South Africa objected to three judges sitting in a case concerning South Africaâs presence in Namibia. They also were allowed to remain. The precedent seems to be that if youâre perceived as an international pariah, youâll get screwed. In a separate statement, the court said 44 countries have submitted depositions in the case, from Japan to Brazil and the tiny Pacific island of Palau, which has only 20,000 people. European countries outnumbered Arab states, with the United States and Cuba also weighing in. Palestine was allowed to submit an argument even though it is not a recognized state. The court also accepted submissions from the 22-member Arab League and the 57-member Organization of Islamic Conference before Fridayâs deadline. Handle them like I used to grade papers as a teaching assistant: toss âem down the stairs, heaviest one gets an âAâ. At the United Nations, Nasser Al-Kidwa, the Palestinian U.N. observer, accused Israel of violating the rules of the court by commenting on submissions before the court makes them public. The Palestinian envoy also accused Isreal of "straightforward lies" and "spinning the facts." Specifically, he accused Israel of releasing the names and number of countries supporting their position and characterizing the position of groups of countries like the European Union. "All of this is illegal because it violates the rules of the court that prohibit talking about the content of the statements before they are made public by the court, and they also are not true," Al-Kidwa said. Not that any of this matters since the fix is in. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #16 Faisal an Arab? No, he just like Arabs... specialy Toole O'Tool the white man's arab. Soon has he gets sprung he gonna try to pass the foreign service exam.... course he don't know it's multiple choice and the answer key overlay is always in the form of a Mogen David. (Let's keep that our little secret). |
| Posted by: Nuss Ratchett 2004-2-4 6:12:39 PM |
| #15 Faisal You are incredible (and BTW if you are a real Arab I still challenge you to tell "Can I have two coffees, please?" in Arabic). Israelis don't go into murder and rape parties like the Jihadis do. Since Saudis go to rape in Soudan I think it would be fair to allow Soudanese women to turn Saudi Arabia into Eunuchistan. |
| Posted by: JFM 2004-2-4 5:39:25 PM |
| #14 PlanetDan, The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act 1, Scene 3. Perhaps not the best epigraph for a discussion on anti-Semitism, but it will have to do. Anyhow, Faisal did have a grain of truth in his rant, which saddens me. I wish he hadn't. |
| Posted by: Eric Jablow 2004-2-4 4:55:26 PM |
| #13 Faisal knows all about pedophilia, being a bedwetting closet case himself. Israel's a failed experiment? Wait until every nation in the Islamic world is destroyed. Then we'll see who's a failure. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2004-2-4 4:46:20 PM |
| #12 Eric: a fine and noble effort, but faisal does not want to discuss, he wants to find fault. Mainly with Jews. and I must disagree on one point: When the Arab nations have problems, they just state that it's Allah's will, and do nothing this is not true. when arabs have problems they blame Jews. Faisal is simply following in that tradition. |
| Posted by: PlanetDan 2004-2-4 4:42:43 PM |
| #11 Ruprecht, Sadly, there have been problems in Israel with the treatment of the Ethopean Jews. It's a fact. I haven't heard of any problems in the last few years, so perhaps conditions have improved. But soon after they came to Israel, the Rabbinate were suggesting that they needed to âconvertâ since they had fallen away from traditional Jewish practice. And, when Ethopean Jews had discovered that their blood donations had been discarded untouchedâ fear of AIDSâthey did protest and riot. Now, there have been some cults in the US that have called themselves âBlack Jews,â but those smack of insanity and criminality. There's a man in Federal prison right now serving sentences for murder, robbery, and drug trafficing, who uses the alias of Yahweh ben Yahweh. The State of Israel does not let them in; that's a perfectly reasonable attitude. But, Faisal, idol worship? The Israeli god has a son? I think you're mixing up your religions here. I am a Jew, not a Christian. I do not worship idols. As the most famous prayer in Judaism states, Shma Yisrael, Adonai ELohaynu, Adonai Echad. Hear, O Israel, The Lord Our God, The Lord Is One. And, the pedophile manual called Talmud? Who exactly marries 9-year-olds? Not us! I think this is called projection. Have you ever looked at the Talmud? The Torah? Or, are you just reciting the sick fictions of your mullahs, without thought? I would wager that you take the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, that sick forgery by the Czar's secret police, as gospel. In short, Faisal, when Israel and Jews have problems, they deal with them. They try to improve. When they have problems, they fix them. When the Arab nations have problems, they just state that it's Allah's will, and do nothing. Are you planning to throw stones? |
| Posted by: Eric Jablow 2004-2-4 3:47:37 PM |
| #10 Don't go luring Faisal off the grounds white folks! He frighten easily. Tell him come back to the grounds we're having his favorite jello and then we're gonna watch Toole O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia (I always gotta wash a weeks supply of Faisals socks after that one). |
| Posted by: Nuss Ratchet 2004-2-4 3:47:31 PM |
| #9 Faisal, you do see the difference between mistreatement and turning blacks into slaves don't you? Israel doesn't make Blacks into slaves the way they do in the Sudan. Please provide a link so we can all be informed how poorly the BLACK jews from Ethiopia are treated. I haven't heard anything about it. |
| Posted by: ruprecht 2004-2-4 3:14:25 PM |
| #8 Anti-semitism Anti-semitism Anti-semitism lol. #6 JFM Open your eyes and see how the BLACK jews from Ethiopia and elsewhere are treated in Israel. The Zion will prove to be a historically failed experiment built by people practising idol worship (Israeli god has a son?!) and following the pedophile manual called talmud. |
| Posted by: Faisal 2004-2-4 3:06:12 PM |
| #7 note - world court and ICC are not the same thing. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2004-2-4 3:02:04 PM |
| #6 Why is that the ICC and left don't peep about Sudan? Becaus victims are black? Racist bastards. |
| Posted by: JFM 2004-2-4 2:47:57 PM |
| #5 why palau? IIUC the initial Israeli response is to deny the authority of the court on a matter like this. Presumably all UN members have a right to and interest in commenting on the issue of the authority of the court. I assume Palau, like other Pacific island states, will be close to the US view on this. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2004-2-4 2:34:44 PM |
| #4 44 countries have submitted depositions in the case, from Japan to Brazil and the tiny Pacific island of Palau, which has only 20,000 people. WTF does Palau have to do with anything? Why are they being deposed? Did the court request statements from the Ancient Maya as well? they're about as involved... |
| Posted by: mojo 2004-2-4 11:03:28 AM |
| #3 Does anyone believe the Egyptian judge could vote in Israel's favor and survive the mob upon his return to Egypt? |
| Posted by: ruprecht 2004-2-4 10:03:03 AM |
| #2 Kirk - i'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is that rulings are advisory, i.e. not binding and the issue goes back to to the UN - specifically the security council where there will never be a binding resolution on Israel. Certainly not while GWB is in white house. So there is no real down side for the Israelis and it will be another lesson in irrelevance and impotence of the tranzi 'vision'. Like others I assume they will find against Israel. Although I would like to hear a lawyers opinion seeing the teritorities are not a state and they should only be concerned with state to state issues. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2004-2-4 8:27:15 AM |
| #1 Why does the U.S. legitimize this ridiculous "court" by our presence? Why is Israel participating in this sham? Israel certainly won't change the wall after the inevitable decree that it is "illegal". Someone help me understand this lunacy. |
| Posted by: Kirk 2004-2-4 3:18:50 AM |