An Israel-Hating Academic’s Obsession

by Hugh Fitzgerald

At the University of Toronto Law School, a faculty committee recommended that Valentina Azarova be hired as the director of the school’s International Human Rights Program. The Dean of the Law School, Edward Iacobucci, disagreed with the committee’s recommendation and did not make the offer. That has led to a great contretemps, with the Dean being wrongly accused of having “rescinded” his offer to Azarova, when he never made any offer in the first place. All of this will be discussed in a piece to be posted tomorrow. But before then, I wanted to place on the record the list of Azarova’s writings and lectures, taken from her posted C.V. here.

They reveal not a disinterested scholar, but someone clinically obsessed with Israeli’s putative crimes – of every conceivable kind– supposedly committed against the inoffensive “Palestinians.”

Here is that list:

ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS

Book

— ‘Illegal Territoriality in International Law: On Regime Interaction and Enforcement of Belligerent Occupation and Other Territorial Regimes’ (pending submission to publisher).

Book Chapters

— ‘The 2014 Gaza War: Reflections on Jus ad Bellum, Jus in Bello and Accountability’, in Annyssa Bellal (ed.), The War Report 2014 (Oxford University Press, 2015) (with Sharon Weill).

— ‘Tell It To the Judge: Palestine’s UN Bid and the International Criminal Court’, in Mutaz Qafisheh (ed.), Membership of Palestine in the UN: Legal and Political Implications (Cambridge Scholars, 2013).

— ‘Article 1D’, in Zimmermann, Andreas (ed.), Commentary on the Refugee Convention 1951 (Oxford University Press, 2010) (with Mutaz Qafisheh).

Journal Articles

— ‘Domestic Regulation of Transnational Corporate Wrongs: The Legal Consequences and Risks of Business Activities in Israeli Settlements’ (forthcoming).

— ‘Towards a Veridical Approach to the Operation of International Law: The Lessons of ‘Internationalisation’ and the Palestinian Rights Struggle’ Journal of Human Rights Practice (pending submission).

— ‘From Discretion to Necessity: Third State Responsibility for Israel’s Control of Stay and Entry into Palestinian Territory’, Journal of Human Rights Practice, Vol 6, No 2 (2014) 327-355.

— ‘An International Legal Demarche for Human Rights? Prospects and Perils of the Palestinian UN Bid’, International Journal of Human Rights, Vol 18, No 4-5, (2014) 527-544.

— ‘UNESCO, Palestine and the Archaeology of Conflict’, Denver Journal of International Law & Policy, Vol 41 (2013) (with David Keane).

— ‘Israel’s Unwillingness: Follow-Up Investigations to the UN Gaza Conflict Fact-Finding Mission Report’, International Criminal Law Review, Vol 12, No 4 (2012) (with Sharon Weill).

— ‘Trickle-Down Legality: The Roles of the International Courts in Achieving Palestine’s Independence’, Palestine Yearbook of International Law (2012).

— ‘Belligerency’ and ‘Suspension of Hostilities’, Max Planck Encyclopaedia of Public International Law, (first published online 2010) forthcoming in MPEPIL (Oxford 2016) (with Ido Blum).

— ‘Introductory note to the UK House of Lords EM (Lebanon) v Secretary of State of the Home Department judgment’, International Legal Materials, Vol 48, No 1 (2009).

— ‘The Kadi-Decision of the ECJ – A Pyrrhic Victory of Human Rights at the Costs of International Law?’, Hanse Law Review, Vol 5, No 1 (2009) (with Franz Ebert).

— ‘Internationalisation and Attribution: The Tadic Analysis in the Genocide in Bosnia Case’, University of Westminster School of Law Research Paper No. 09-11; Westminster Centre of International Law and Theory Working Paper No. 2009/2.

Books Reviews

— ‘Book Review: Andrea Carcano, The Transformation of Occupied Territory in International Law (Brill 2015)’ (forthcoming, Palestine Yearbook of International Law).

— ‘Review Essay: Legitimate Targets? Social Construction, International Law and US Bombing (CUP 2014), in Palestine Yearbook of International Law (2015).

— ‘Book Review: Chantal Meloni & Gianni Tognoni (eds), Is There A Court For Gaza? A Test Bench for International Justice (T.M.C. Asser Press, 2012),’ Journal of International Criminal Justice Vol 11, No 2 (2013) 494-498.

Commentary

— ‘Boycotts, International Law Enforcement and the UK’s ‘Anti-Boycott’ Note’, JURIST – Academic Commentary, 12 April 2016.

— ‘The ICC and the ‘Situation in Palestine’: Political Sensibilities and Procedural Hurdles’, Al-Majdal Quarterly Magazine No 58 (April 2016).

— ‘On business and human rights in illegal territorial regimes’, Opinio Juris, 26 January 2016.

— ‘ICC action and the domestic effects of transnational criminality’, open GlobalRights, 16 June 2015.

— with Chantal Meloni, ‘Disentangling the Knots: A Comment on Ambos’ ‘Palestine, Non-Member State Observer Status and ICC Jurisdiction’’, European Journal of International Law: Talk!, May 2014.

— with Nidal Sliman, ‘Can Palestinians Advance their Rights through UNESCO?’, Foreign Policy, 11 November 2013.

— ‘Making human rights work for the Palestines of the world’, Open Democracy, 3 November 2013.

— ‘Legal House-Keeping in the EU,’ Open Democracy, 31 July 2013.

— ‘Investigative or Political Barriers? Dutch Prosecutor Dismisses Criminal Complicity Case Against Riwal’, Rights as Usual, 29 May 2013.

— ‘Israel’s loopy logic of exoneration’, Open Democracy, 3 May 2013.

— ‘Backtracking on Responsibility: French Court Absolves Veolia for Unlawful Railway Construction in Occupied Territory’, Rights as Usual, 1 May 2013.

— ‘From periphery to centre: Israel’s legitimacy, Palestine’s UN bid, and the ICC’, Open Democracy, 30 November 2012.

— ‘Shifting Paradigms: Israel, Palestinian Territory and International Law’, The JURIST, 25 July 2012.

— ‘ICC Jurisdiction in Palestine: Blurring Law and Politics’, The JURIST, 9 April 2012.

— ‘Exploiting A ‘Dynamic’ Interpretation? The Israeli High Court of Justice Accepts the Legality of Israel’s Quarrying Activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory’, European Journal of International Law: Talk!, 7 February 2012.

— ‘Disingenuous “Disengagement”: Israel’s Occupation of the Gaza Strip and the Protective Function of the Law of Belligerent Occupation’, and ‘Operationalising Functionality: Questioning the Term ‘Functional’’, Opinio Juris, 26-29 April 2012.

— ‘Egypt’s Protests, Human Rights Abuses and the Responsibilities of the International Community’, International Law Observer, 6 February 2011.

— “The Security Paradigm in the Israeli Supreme Court”, International Law Observer, 30 October 2009.

— “Administrative Detention – A Rule, No Longer An Exception”, International Law Observer, 20 October 2009.

— “Israeli Supreme Court decision on the Wall in Jayyus: Another Assault on the ICJ”, International Law Observer, 3 October 2009.

— “Who is a Civilian in Gaza? The Dangers in Adopting a Membership Approach to “Direct Participation in Hostilities””, International Law Observer, 15 March 2009.

— “A line of selective rhetoric: Israeli Supreme Court fails to enforce the evacuation of ‘unauthorised settlements’ in the occupied West Bank”, International Law Observer, 17 June 2009.

CONFERENCE PAPERS, LECTURES

— Co-organiser and presenter, ‘Differentiation in Private Dealings with Israeli Settlements: What Role for Third State Regulation?’, Closed Workshop ECFR –Heartland-GLAN, 19-20 September 2016.

— ‘Structural Illegalities, Legal Pathologies and Israel’s Military Justice System’, in Administrative Detention in Israel/Palestine, Edge Hill University, Liverpool, 16 September 2016.

— ‘Towards Domestic Regulation of Extraterritorial Corporate Wrongdoing: The Legal Consequences and Risks of Business in Israeli Settlements’, in Taming Power in Times of Globalisation: What Role for Human Rights, Conference, NUI Galway, November 2015.

— ‘Between Dynamism and Distinction: Palestinian Engagement with Human Rights Law’, for Law on the Bosphorus III: Dynamism and Distinction in Human Rights Law, International Summer School, Istanbul University Faculty of Law – Leiden University, Leiden Law School, 20-30 July 2015, Istanbul.

— ‘A Paradigmatic Shift in Corporate Accountability? Insights from European ‘Divestment’ from Israeli Settlements’, Diakokia IHL Programme (Briefing to Diplomats sessions), Jerusalem, 5 &18 June 2015.

— ‘Addressing the International Criminal Court: Legal and Political Challenges and Expectations’, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, Ramallah, March 2015 (with Shawan Jabarin).

— ‘Normativity as TWAIL Praxis?: State Complicity, Legal Necessity and International Law Enforcement’, TWAIL: Praxis and the Intellectual, American University Cairo, February 2015.

— ‘Operationalizing Home-State Regulation of Corporate Involvement in International Law Violations: The Case of European Divestment from Israel’s Internationally-Unlawful Activities in Palestinian Territory’, Second Regional Annual Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility in the Middle East, Istanbul, 29-30 May 2014.

— ‘Civil and Political Rights in Time of Emergency’, Lecture, Centre for Education and Research in Humanitarian Action (CERAH), partnership between University of Geneva and Graduate Institute (IHEID), Geneva, 29 April 2014.

— ‘The Palestinian Statehood Bid and Its Discontents: Legal Analysis of General Assembly Resolution 67/19 and the Rights and Obligations of Non-Member State Observers’, UN Roundtable on the Legal Aspects of the ‘Question of Palestine’, Geneva, 24-25 April 2014.

— ‘Operationalising UNESCO International Law Obligations through Third State Responsibility’, Activating Palestine’s UNESCO Membership (with Nidal Sliman), Palestine Center, Washington DC, 4 March 2014.

— “Operationalising Territoriality: Belligerent Occupation, Self-Determination of Peoples and the Duty of Non- Recognition,” New Directions in Global Thought: IGLP at Five, The Institute for Global Law and Policy’s 2013 Conference, Harvard Law School, June 3-4, 2013.

— ‘From Connivance to Rupture: Drones, ‘Targeted Killings’ and Military Doctrines’, Human Rights Project, Bard College, Annandale-on Hudson, New York, 12 March 2013.

— ‘Palestinian Activism Through International Law: Statehood, the ICC, and the Gateways of Procedural Tactics,’ Panel Discussion, American University in Cairo, 17 February 2013

— ‘Re-Formalising the Notion of Statehood in International Law: Palestinian Statehood and the Composites of International Legal Personality’, Seminar, Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUI Galway, 23 April 2012.

— ‘Palestinian Statehood: Recent Developments’, Panel Discussion with Professor John Dugard, Dov Jacobs and Joseph Powderly, Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, Leiden University, The Hague, Netherlands, 29 March 2012.

— ‘Transitioning from Injustice: “Operation Cast Lead” and the Imperative of Accountability for International Crimes in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict’, conference on ‘Transitional Justice and Accountability’, Al-Quds Human Rights Clinic; International Center for Transitional Justice, Al-Quds University, 24 November 2011.

— ‘Putting an End to Impunity: The Establishment of a Palestinian Coalition for the International Criminal Court’, closed workshop on ‘New Approaches to the Israel-Palestine Conflict’, International Development department, London School of Economics, 3-4 November 2011.

— ‘The Role of the International Court of Justice in Achieving Palestine’s Independence’, conference on ‘The Quest for Palestine Statehood: Legal, Political and Economic Implications’, Institute of Law, Birzeit University, 25 October 2011.

— ‘Targeting Doctrines and Rules of Engagement: A Factual Analysis of Israel’s Practices in the OPT’, Center for Applied International Law, Al-Haq, IHL workshop, 17 March 2011.

— ‘Shehadeh’s Palestinian Walks: International Law and its Functions in Palestine’, Al-Quds Bard Honors College, Al- Quds University, Abu Dis, Palestine, 14 March 2011.

— ‘Criminal Venture or ‘Business as Usual’? Corporate Accountability for Violations of International Law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory’, Human Rights Project, Bard College, NY, on 8 February 2011; Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, New York University Law School, 9 February 2011.

— ‘Corporate and Third State Accountability, ICC Jurisdiction and the Goldstone Report: A Perspective from Al-Haq’s Work’, ‘Brown Bag’ Talk, Open Society Foundations, NY Offices, 4 February 2011.

— ‘Politicising Academia and the Politics of Education in the Palestinian Experience’ at the ‘Higher Education and Civil Society: A New Social Mission of the University’, International Conference at the Smolny Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences of the Saint-Petersburg State University, 14-16 October 2010.

— ‘Disjointed Paradigms: The Current Legal Status of the Oslo Accords, IHL and the HCJ’ at the ‘International Humanitarian Law Arguments before the Israeli Supreme Court’, NRC Workshop organised for the Legal Taskforce of UN OCHA, Jerusalem, 27 July 2010.

— ‘Law and Space in the Palestinian Colonial Situation: Historical Narrative in view of Shifting Legal Paradigms’, UNESCO/Bard Al-Quds Summer Program, Battir, 14 July 2010.

— ‘UN Avenues for Recourse and Accountability – An Activist Toolkit for Countering International Inaction’, Conference organized by the Spanish Cooperation Office and ICAHD on ‘Tools of Justice’, Beit Jala, March 2010.

— ‘The Post-Conflict Responsibilities of the Parties to the Conflict: Israel and Palestine after “Operation Cast Lead”,’ Seminar on Accountability for Violations of IHL organized by the Law Faculty, Al-Quds University, 21 December 2009.

— ‘The Significance and Credibility of the Goldstone Report’, UN OCHA Protection Cluster Working Group and UN OHCHR, meeting on Accountability at the UNDP, Jerusalem, 14 December 2009.

— ‘The Gaza Strip under Siege, Conflict and Humanitarian Crisis’, Lecture, SciencesPo University, Paris, France, 18 November 2009.

Reports, expert opinions

— Diakonia IHL Programme, Legal Analysis and Operational Guidance on Inter-State Enforcement and situations of occupation/annexation (tentatively scheduled for Feb/March 2017)

— European Council for Foreign Relations (ECFR) & Human Rights Watch (HRW), Mapping the Legal Framework of Israel’s Occupation: How to Better Secure Rights (Oct-Dec 2016)

— Diakonia IHL Programme, Exeprt opinion for submission to the OHCHR on the establishment of a UN database of business involved in Israeli settlements (July/Aug 2016).

— EuroMed Rights, The International Criminal Court, Israel/Palestine and EU Support, NGO Briefing Paper on Accountability (February 2016).

— EuroMed Rights, Taking Forward the UN Commission of Inquiry Report on Gaza: Paths and Prospects for NGO Advocacy, NGO Briefing Paper on Accountability (February 2016).

— Amnesty International, Israeli Army Violations during the Ground Incursion in Khuza’a,Gaza Strip during Summer 2014 (December 2015).

— Amnesty International, Nothing is Immune: Israeli Military Policy Results in Unlawful Destruction of Civilian Property

— Amnesty International, Families Under the Rubble: Unlawful Israeli Airstrikes Kill Entire Families, Destroy Homes (November 2014).

— Al-Haq, Institutionalised Impunity: Israel’s Failure to Combat Settler Violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (2013).

— Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (Ramallah, oPt), Under Presumption of Guilt: Fair Trial and Due Process in Israel’s Military Courts in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (unpublished 2013).

— Diakonia IHL Programme, Securing Injustice: Legal Analysis of G4S Operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (2013).

— International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), Shielded from accountability: Israel’s unwillingness to investigate and prosecute international crimes (October 2011) (with Sharon Weill).

— ‘Al-Haq’s Questions and Answers on Palestine’s Statehood Initiatives and the Representation of the Palestinian People’, Parts 1 and 2, Legal Brief, July and October 2011.

— Al-Haq, Collective Punishment in Awarta: Israel’s Response to the Killing in Itamar Settlement’ (March 2011) (with Mona Sabella).

— Al-Haq, Unmasking the “Freeze”: Israel’s alleged Moratorium on Settlement Construction Whitewashes Egregious Violations of International Law (September 2010).

Policy Briefs

— ‘Law-Based ‘Internationalisation’ of Palestinian Rights: Towards A Veridical Approach to International Law Enforcement’, MASARAT – The Palestinian Centre for Policy Research and Strategic Studies (October 2015).

— ‘Palestine’s Day in Court? The Unexpected Effects of ICC Action’, Al-Shabaka – Palestinian Policy Network, April 2015.

— with Nidal Sliman, ‘Activating Palestine’s UNESCO Membership’, Al-Shabaka – Palestinian Policy Network, October 2013.

Media, blogs

— ‘One Year After The Gaza Conflict: A Persistent Quest for Justice’, Alternative Information Center (AIC), 1 January 2010.

— with Sharon Weill, ‘Universal Jurisdiction Once Again under Threat’, Electronic Intifada, 10 June 2009.

— “The Israeli Supreme Court’s Judgment on Humanitarian Access to the Gaza Strip Insufficiently Examines Compliance with International Law during the Recent Incursions”, AIC, 18 February 2009.

— “Israeli Supreme Court’s Take on the Obligation to Investigate Military Misconduct”, International Law Observer, 15 May 2009.

— “The Occupation of the Gaza Strip and the Continued Renouncement of Responsibility”, International Law Observer, 24 October 2008.

— “Israel Asserting Jurisdiction Over the Palestinian Authority: Intrusive or Inclusive?” Alternative Information Center, 2 September 2008.

— “Israel Continues to Exploit Gaza Resources”, Alternative Information Center, 4 August 2008.

— “Israeli High Court of Justice’s ‘Unlawful Combatants’ Judgment Allows Harmful Detention Legislation in Through Back Door”, Alternative Information Center, 7 July 2008.

Res ipsa loquitur. The list speaks for itself. It offers conclusive evidence of Ms. Azarova’s obsession — her delirium, rather – about Israeli misdeeds and crimes that her mind has fixated on for more than a decade. Tomorrow I will post a piece about the contretemps involving Ms. Azarova at the University of Toronto law school, and the unfair charges being levelled at Dean Edward Iacobucci.

First published in Jihad Watch.