Noura Erakat's "Justice for Some" In Conversation with Yousef Munayyer in Partnership with USCPR
Category: Event Calendar
Date and Time for this Past Event
- Monday, Oct 28, 2019 6:30pm
Location
All Day by Kramers
1517 Connecticut Avenue NW
Details
Justice in the Question of Palestine is often framed as a question of law. Yet none of the Israel-Palestinian conflict's most vexing challenges have been resolved by judicial intervention. Occupation law has failed to stem Israel's settlement enterprise. Laws of war have permitted killing and destruction during Israel's military offensives in the Gaza Strip. The Oslo Accord's two-state solution is now dead letter.
Justice for Some offers a new approach to understanding the Palestinian struggle for freedom, told through the power and control of international law. Focusing on key juncturesfrom the Balfour Declaration in 1917 to present-day wars in Gaza. Noura Erakat shows how the strategic deployment of law has shaped current conditions. Over the past century, the law has done more to advance Israel's interests than the Palestinians'. But, Erakat argues, this outcome was never inevitable.
Law is politics, and its meaning and application depend on the political intervention of states and people alike. Within the law, change is possible. International law can serve the cause of freedom when it is mobilized in support of a political movement. Presenting the promise and risk of international law, Justice for Some calls for renewed action and attention to the Question of Palestine.
About the author:
Noura Erakat is a human rights attorney and assistant professor at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. She has served as legal counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives and as a legal advocate for Palestinian refugee rights at the United Nations. Noura's research interests include human rights and humanitarian, refugee, and national security law. She is a frequent commentator, with recent appearances on CBS News, CNN, Fox News, and NPR, among others, and her writings have been widely published in the national media and academic journals.
About the moderator:
Yousef Munayyer, a political analyst and writer, is Executive Director of USCPR. Prior to joining USCPR, he was the executive director of the Jerusalem Fund and Palestine Center and had also served as a Policy Analyst for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC).
His doctoral research focused on the intersection between foreign policy and domestic policy and its impact on terrorism and civil liberties. He received his BA in Political Science and History from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and MA and PhD in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland.
He frequently writes on matters of foreign policy in the Arab and Muslim world, and civil rights and civil liberties in the United States. His writings have appeared in every major metropolitan newspaper in the United States and many others internationally, as well as online. He is a frequent commentator on national and international media outlets including CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, NBC, CBS, Al Jazeera English, C-SPAN, and others.
About our partner:
The US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) is a national coalition of hundreds of groups advocating for Palestinian rights and a shift in US policy, bound by commonly shared principles on Palestine solidarity as well as anti-racism principles. As part of a global movement in solidarity with the Palestinian people, USCPR works to stop US support for Israel until it ends its denial of Palestinian rights.
