A group of Moroccan lawyers have filed a lawsuit against Israeli Minister of Defense Amir Peretz, who was born on Morocco, accusing him of war crimes and arguing Moroccan courts have jurisdiction over him since one is always considered Moroccan if one was born there. Not that Morocco’s courts should really be taken seriously, but it could potentially prevent him from visiting the country, although one assumes the palace would extend protection in that case. Israelis of Moroccan origin who hold high-level posts in the Israeli army or administration frequently visit Morocco to carry out pilgrimages to Jewish saints’ tombs in places like Ouezzane in the Rif.
While I don’t think Peretz has much to be concerned about, I do wonder about how other efforts to bring Israeli war criminals to justice in other countries (notably Belgium or the United States) now that major human rights organizations have leveled charges of war crimes against Israel.
I, for one, think this is great! It’s interesting for a number of reasons: 1) it is the flip side of places like Spain and Italy suing Argentina for what happened to dual citizens in Argentina during the dirty war. The other is Israel’s practice of dual citizenship. If, as a dual citizen, you commit serious crimes, what happens to you. There is one case of an Israeli/US citizen who committed murder (can’t remember what happened at the moment)- but here’s a thought- if a dual US/Israeli citizen participates in war crimes in Gaza or Lebanon, can a naturalized Lebanese/Palestinian-US citizen bring suit in a US court? I wonder…
interestingly enough, the lawyers are Jews…
The lawyers are not Jews, it’s just that the reporters mangled two news reports into one. What happened was that three Moroccan Muslim lawyers and human rights activists (Abderrahim Jamaï, Khalid Sefiani and Abderrahmane Benameur) sued Amir Peretz in a Rabat court. And then a few days later three Moroccan Jewish intellectuals and human rights activists (Edmond Amran El Maleh, Abraham Serfaty, Sion Asidon) issued a statement denoucing Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. The Israeli media (apparently based on Al-Quds’s reporting) mangled the two news reports into one.
Thanks for that MG. It’s worth noting that Jamai is the lawyer for Le Journal Hebdo and involved in all kinds of human rights movements, while El Maleh is a writer, Serfaty a long-time communist activist who spent many years in Hassan II’s jails and Sion Asidon is a younger generation activist also involved in the Moroccan human rights movement. All of these figures (both the lawyers and “the jews”) are highly respected people in Moroccan political – human rights circles.
It and the idea of Israeli generals in the Hague are mere whanking.
Sad and pitiful whanking.
Really, it’s pretty sad if one actually takes such things seriously.
Ah, thanks for the clarification. Still, I really like the idea and I think it should go equally for Americans who do the same- for example- there is an Iraqi-American translator who was accused of torture along with other Titan employees in Abu Ghraib- it would be interesting to see if the Iraqi justice system (if it ever gets up and running) would be able to try him.
hello!
i am a blogger from morocco.. first, i want to excuse me for my terrible english 😉
well, i think is the less we can do, especially because that amir pertz has been visiting morocco and has been received by moroccan authority… i am sad to say that i was very hopeful when peretz became a minister in israel, but now we are seeing that he is even worse than others…