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TRAVEL
JNF Lawyers Mission Finds Normalcy, Inspiration
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JANUARY 29 ▪ 2016
esilience and humanity are two of the characteristics of Israeli society that I observed in a recent law and justice mission trip to Israel: resilience in the continuation of vibrant life, commerce and tourism as normal, which belies the image that we receive from reports of terror attacks, and humanity in the extreme kindness and caring demonstrated by the Israeli community partners and social service agencies that we visited. Thus, just before Thanksgiving, I was fortunate to be one of 31 lawyers, judges and law enforcement officials who participated in a weeklong study mission sponsored by the Jewish National Fund USA and its Lawyers for Israel Society. Our trip included lectures and meetings with law professors, judges, prosecutors, the deputy national public defender, practicing attorneys, Chief Inspector Micky Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the Israel Police, and officials of the Israel Military Justice System. We saw confirmation that Israel is a democratic nation governed by the rule of law with a well-established civil and criminal justice system available to all Israeli citizens. We also had the opportunity to meet with the Yona Yahav, the longtime mayor of Haifa, a city with a diverse population and history of coexistence among Arab and Jewish residents, and to visit communities and social service agencies supported by JNF in the Galilee and Negev. Before the formal trip, I visited friends representing different sectors of Israeli society. I enjoyed dinner in Jerusalem with a young, American-born social media entrepreneur, Eliyokim Cohen (son of Richard and Sheryl Cohen, whose brother and sister-in-law, Jason and Danielle Cohen, live in Ros well). Cohen founded Jews News, one of the largest Jewish-content Facebook sites, with over 1.2 million followers. I then headed to the Arava in the southern Negev for a weekend with Ezra and Debbie Ravins at their lovely home in Zofar, a moshav farming community on the border with Jordan. Ezra and Debbie are true pioneers. As newlyweds they moved to the Arava over 30 years ago to farm the land and raise five children; one of their daughters, Netta, lives in Zofar with her husband, Dany, and two daughters. Ezra is the former mayor of the Central Arava Council and recently completed a two18 year stay in Atlanta as a JNF emissary.
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In addition to learning about the rigors of desert agriculture (they grow peppers, primarily for export) and touring ancient Nabatean sites, I had the adventure of accompanying Ezra across the border to his farmland inside Jordan. A product of the border adjustments in the 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan, this arrangement to
Guest Column By Alan Lubel Alan Lubel plants a tree in the Halutza community, where JNF honoree Yedidya Harush offered a helping hand.
Alan Lubel visits the Supreme Court, where the JNF lawyers mission heard a presentation on the Israeli legal system.
allow Israelis to continue to farm land in Jordan stands as a little-known example of coexistence and cooperation. Legal System and Terrorism During the JNF trip, we gained an appreciation for the role lawyers and the legal system have in promoting stability, normality and humanity. While Israeli law is an amalgam of Turkish, British Mandate and Israeli statutory law, many concepts and procedures are familiar to U.S. lawyers, such as protection for intellectual property rights. Despite lacking a written constitution, Israel has a well-developed constitutional jurisprudence. The Israeli Supreme Court heard more than 9,000 cases the past year, compared with fewer than 100 by the U.S. Supreme Court. In addition to acting as an appellate court, the Supreme Court sits as the High Court of Justice with original jurisdiction primarily regarding the legality of decisions of state authorities. Exercising a relaxed concept of justiciability, the court rules on petitions when it considers it necessary to grant relief in the interest of justice. Faced with Islamic State and Iranian-backed militants on Israel’s borders, we also learned how Israeli lawyers are on the forefront of dealing with terror-
ism. Israel has pioneered the concept — gaining recognition in the West — that because terrorist acts are equivalent to acts of war, traditional criminal law and procedure may be inadequate. Instead, internationally recognized rules of war, including principles of military necessity, proportionality and humanitarianism, are applicable. Israel assigns an independent legal officer to each military unit. As one officer explained, the importance of law is not just to protect territory, but “to protect the values of Israel,” including individual and human rights. Another highlight was hearing Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the founder of Tel Aviv’s Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center, a civil rights institute providing representation and resources for terror victims. The center is a world leader in combating terrorist organizations and regimes that support terrorism. Following the model of the Southern Poverty Law Center in its landmark legal actions against the Ku Klux Klan, Shurat HaDin has represented victims to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in judgments against terrorist organizations and against countries and entities that aid and abet terrorist activities and to tie up terrorist funding through enforcement actions. The law center has brought an action against Facebook over anti-Israeli hate speech and incitement to violence. Developing Communities No JNF trip to Israel would seem complete without planting trees. While we were no exception, our tree planting took on special significance because we planted fruit trees in the new Halutza region community of Yevul in the northwestern Negev, hard by the borders with Gaza and Egypt. (These communities were settled by Israelis displaced from Gush Katif when Israel
withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005.) Joining us that day was Yedidya Harush, the dynamic Halutza leader honored last spring at JNF’s community breakfast. Besides planting trees, we met young families with newborns and observed a school and housing being built. Our group hoped that the growth of our fruit trees would parallel the development of these young families. We visited several partner programs and social service agencies that are examples of JNF’s vision for improving the lives of all Israelis. We toured the ALEH Negev state-of-theart residential facility, which provides medical and rehabilitative care for people with severe cognitive and developmental disabilities. This facility is the home to over 500 adults and serves more than 12,000 children and young adults each year on an outpatient basis. And no part of our trip was more inspiring than our visit to the Palmachim air force base, where we met young Israelis with special needs who are serving their country and receiving job training through the Special in Uniform program supported by JNF. A central lesson of our trip was summed up by Yohav, the Haifa mayor and a childhood family friend of Atlantan Aviva Gruber Postelnik’s. While this longtime political leader shared a sophisticated depth of knowledge on Middle East and world affairs, as well as a quick wit, he offered a simple explanation for the harmonious relations among the residents of Israel’s thirdlargest city: respect and honor for the traditions and cultures of all groups. For information on future legal missions, contact me or JNF/Atlanta. ■ Alan Lubel (alubel@lubellaw.com) is a lawyer in Buckhead and co-president of JNF’s Southeast Region.