The Long Roots of Israel's Democracy Crisis: A Conversation with Michael Sfard

09/13/23 • 51 min

As we transition to our fourth season of "Then & Now", this episode features renowned Israeli human rights lawyer, Michael Sfard. He offers an analysis of Israel's current crisis of democracy, including the attacks on the judicial system and Supreme Court, and a wide contextual frame that extends back to 1948 and to the founding document of the state of Israel, its Declaration of Independence. The conversation then moves to Sfard's detailed argument that Israel's control of the West Bank amounts to a legal regime of apartheid. We also discuss how Sfard understands and contends with criticism of the project of human rights as an instrument of Western colonialism. Finally, the episode concludes with a discussion of Sfard's grandfather, the Polish-born sociologist Zygumt Bauman, and the ways in which he left an imprint on his grandson.

MIchael Sfard is one of Israel's leading human rights lawyers who has frequently represented Palestinian clients at the Israeli Supreme Court. He is the author of the 2018 book The Wall and the Gate: Israel, Palestine, and the Legal Battle for Human Rights. He also wrote a legal opinion addressing Israel's control of the West Bank for the NGO Yesh Din, "The Occupation of the West Bank and the Crime of Apartheid."

Previous Episode

Fighting Crimes against the Environment: A Conversation about “Ecocide” with Kate Mackintosh

Following the recent destruction of the Kakhovka dam in the south of the country, the government of Ukraine accused Russia of the crime of “ecocide.” This term first surfaced in the 1970s in the context of the U.S. military’s use of Agent Orange in Vietnam. Since that time, the term has gained currency in international legal circles as a tool to fight against large-scale violations of the environment. A number of states have already incorporated the concept into their legal codes, and efforts are ongoing to enshrine “ecocide” in international law.

This episode of then & now features Kate Mackintosh, veteran human rights activist, international lawyer, and front-line participant in the efforts to define and promote “ecocide.” She discusses the historical roots of the concept, its place within the international legal order, and current efforts to advance this legal tool to forestall further damage to the global environment. The conversation also turns to the question of how effective such a tool of punishment can be in the world today.
Kate Mackintosh served as the inaugural executive director of the Promise Institute for Human Rights at the UCLA School of Law. She now serves as executive director of the Promise Institute for Human Rights in Europe.

Next Episode

What is Going on in Nagorno-Karabakh? A Conversation with Historian Sebouh Aslanian

Reports have emerged in recent weeks that a grave humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Nagorno-Karabakh, a contested region in present-day Azerbaijan that contains a large majority of Armenian residents. A prominent international lawyer, Luis Moreno Ocampo, in fact, maintains that “a Genocide is being committed” by Azerbaijani forces against Armenian residents. This episode of “Then & Now” features UCLA historian Sebouh Aslanian, who offers a rich account of the history of the region and the century-long conflict between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. He situates the tension against the backdrop of the rise and fall of empire—and analyzes the two wars that have engulfed the contested region since 1988 and that have led to the current dire crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Sebouh Aslanian is professor of history and holds the Richard Hovannisian Endowed Chair of Modern Armenian History at the UCLA History Department, and is the inaugural director of the Armenian Studies Center at the Promise Armenian Institute. He is an acknowledged expert in world history, Armenian history, Indian Ocean history, and early modern social and economic history. He is the author of the award-winning From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean: The Global Trade Networks of Armenian Merchants from New Julfa, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011), and has published widely on early modern world and Armenian history, including his most recent book, Early Modernity and Mobility Port Cities and Printers across the Armenian Diaspora, 1512-1800 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2023).