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""When the warfare is over, lawfare begins," warns Gerald Steinberg of the Political Studies Department at Bar Ilan University and Executive Director of NGO Monitor, which monitors anti-Israel activities of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). "Lawfare," he explains, "is the strategy of using or misusing the law as a substitute for traditional military and political means. It turns international politics into legal proceedings and brings political struggles into judges’ chambers." Lawfare draws upon the concept of universal jurisdiction, which refers to the powers of a state to try and punish any individual for war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide even if those crimes were not committed against the country or its citizens or its soil. The idea behind this, explains Col. (res.) Daniel Reisner, former head of the International Law Department in the Military Advocate General Corps and now an attorney in private practice, is that some atrocities are so horrendous that their perpetrators should not be allowed to find any safe haven, anywhere in the world. Terms such as "war crimes" refer to crimes defined in international law, such as the Geneva Conventions. The terms are wide and relate to a variety of crimes and offenses, some more serious than others. Yet while lawfare is couched in highly legal terms, signs held at demonstrations reveal that most of the demonstrators don’t really understand the legal intricacies of these terms. Nor do they care." "According to Steinberg, these activities are part of the "Durban strategy," first implemented at the World Conference Against Racism, in Durban, South Africa in September 2001. "The ‘Durban Strategy’ equates Israel with apartheid South Africa, viewing Israel as a pariah state so Israelis, like other ‘war criminals’ and pariahs, will not be able to travel throughout the world or be part of global society,"" "But lawfare, critics claim, isn’t about fairness or equal application. The Spanish system that is being used to judge Israel will probably never be used to investigate the killing of more than 10,000 Spanish citizens during the Franco dictatorship. Nor, Steinberg notes, will those acts by Hamas that are clearly violations of international law, including deliberate targeting of civilians in the Negev and the maltreatment of prisoner of war Gilad Shalit, be investigated by an international or national criminal court." "According to Steinberg and others, large international NGOs, such as Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, have been instrumental in the implementation of universal jurisdiction. But because many NGOs support specific political policies, their activism has contributed to a confounding of politics and justice. "They created the perfect storm," Steinberg says, "made up of pseudo-legal rhetoric hitched to political purposes."" "Steinberg contends that investigating the suspicion that Israelis committed war crimes provides support for anti-Israel activists.
"As an Israeli, I cannot allow myself to ignore the international implications of my own actions. When there is such a flood of complaints against Israel, so that everything Israel does is wrong, then it becomes hard to act. There is a moral choice here: I will not allow criticism of Israel’s actions to be exploited by this movement of delegitimization.
Steinberg says he believes Israel’s behavior in Gaza was in accordance with Israeli and international law. But he does have concerns regarding Israel’s use of cluster bombs in the Second Lebanon War in 2006. Yet he would not call for the establishment of a commission of inquiry. "I have no reason to encourage my own government to do anything, when anything my government does will be used against us in the international arena. There are, of course, valid criticisms of Israel that I, as a citizen, should be voicing. But I will not voice them publicly when I know that this criticism will be used against my country."" "To date, none of the cases based on the doctrine of universal jurisdiction have progressed beyond preliminary stages. "These organizations that bring these cases," accuses Steinberg, "don’t really care if the case is overturned. They use vague legal terms to gain public support and media attention, and no matter what the legal result, they have achieved their goal – delegitimizing Israel.""