Israeli President Affirms Zionist ‘Right’ to Build in West Bank
A ‘Fresh Start’ for Ferguson’s Court System, But Is It Justice?
A month after Israeli extremists firebombed a Palestinian home in the West Bank village of Duma, killing a father and his 18-month-old son, President Reuven Rivlin yesterday affirmed to leaders of the settler movement that, contrary to international law, Israel had a “right” to build settlements, as “a basic fact of modern Zionism.”
Mark LeVine, professor of Middle Eastern History at the University of California-Irvine and distinguished visiting professor at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University in Sweden, addresses Rivlin’s assertion and related issues.
Five months after the U.S. Department of Justice skewered the police department and criminal-justice system in Ferguson, Missouri, for targeting blacks and treating them largely as source of revenue for the city, newly appointed Municipal Court Judge Donald McCullin yesterday announced a series of changes—chief among them dropping all arrest warrants for minor crimes and infractions issued before December 31, 2014.
It’s a good sign, says Leid Stories in a commentary. But is it justice?