2 No. 77 JUSTICE his issue of JUSTICE is dedicated to the topic of “Law and the Holocaust.” The horrors of the Second World War, and in particular the horrors of the Holocaust, highlighted the deficiencies in international law in dealing with essential issues. Following World War II, International Humanitarian Law developed, the flagbearer being the great Jewish jurist Professor Hersch Lauterpacht. At the same time, the concept of war crimes solidified, especially the prohibition against the destruction of a people — Genocide. The main author of the concept — perhaps even its inventor — was another great Jewish jurist, Dr. Raphael Lemkin. The Laws of War and International Humanitarian Law developed in the decades following World War II and the Holocaust. However, it seems that the focus of these two areas of international law is now directed, to a large extent, against the State of Israel, the State of the Jewish People, which has to fight for its existence against enemy states and terror organizations. Of course, the State of Israel does not have immunity from the application of the Laws of War and International Humanitarian Law. Yet it is impossible to escape the conclusion that the formulation and implementation of some of the more recent rules is intended to undermine the legitimacy of the State of Israel and to limit its ability to defend itself against states and terror organizations that plan to attack it, and do indeed carry out such attacks. The claim of Genocide submitted to the ICJ by South Africa against the State of Israel (which many countries joined) is the ultimate demonstration of cynicism in the misuse of International Humanitarian Law. The aim of the claim is to undermine the legitimacy of the State of the Jewish People — the people many of whom were wiped out in a Genocide in the terrible Holocaust. I am the son of Holocaust survivors. A large part of the families of both my father and my mother were murdered in the Holocaust. I have written about this many times. There was no conflict or dispute between the German people and the Jewish People, yet the extermination of the Jewish People was almost the raison d'être of the Nazi regime. We cannot close our eyes and refuse to see the revival of similar ideology against Israel as the State of the Jewish People by Iran. There is no historical conflict between the Persian People and the Jewish People. There is no dispute over borders or economic issues between Iran and the State of Israel. A central component of the ideology of the Islamic Iranian regime is the destruction of the State of Israel, namely the destruction of the majority of the Jewish People. Since 1979, Iran has invested a significant portion of its resources in inciting, preparing, financing, and waging war, directly or through proxies, with the aim of destroying the State of Israel. No other country in the world has experienced a challenge like this. President’s Message T Meir Linzen Photo: Idan Gross
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