1/8 The social contract is a fundamental concept in Western political theory. Law students learn about it in various versions during their first year. Like many philosophical ideas, its relevance today can be hard to explain to students. 2/8 With the abandonment of the hostages and the Israeli government's direct responsibility for their deaths, many Israelis now feel that the Israeli social contract has been violated or is disintegrating.

1. As an elementary school kid, I grew up on a few myths, e.g. the story of Masada. Small Jewish army standing against Roman siege. I remember coming home with a Panda color drawing of a clenched fist, and the inscription "Masada Shall Not Fall Again". 2. When they finally understood they cannot stand against the siege, the ppl of Masda collectively comitted suicide. They "preferred liberty over life itself".
I thought the clenched fist was my own idea. Looking back, i can see that it was also a symbol of the Jewish far right.

“Mr. Zelensky told reporters on Saturday that Jerusalem could be a site for peace talks between the leaders of Ukraine and Russia.”

Half of Jerusalem is occupied and unilaterally annexed. This would obviously be an unfortunate choice if part of what Zelensky would be after is stressing the illegality of the acquisition of territory by force.

Just like most embassies, it would be wiser to stay away from Jerusalem ->

June 17, 2020: Notis Mitarachi, Greek Minister of Immigration and Asylum, boasts learning from the Australian government. The latter has one of the cruelest asylum systems worldwide. /1

https://twitter.com/nmitarakis/status/1273178015242092546

Back in 2015, @YannisKalpouzos and I argued that Greek and EU abuses against migrants in detention may have amounted to crimes against humanity: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

But for an application of the underlying interpretation of international criminal law to migrant rights... /2

1. In late March, such strange images started to circulate. During the last six weeks, @NiamhKTabbal and I have been investigating the story behind them. Today @just_security publishes our work.

justsecurity.org/70309/tents-at… 2. According to reports, these were Greek border enforcement agents, deporting asylum seekers by sending them adrift. But were these reports real?

The image reminded us of a deportation vessel, Australia used several years earlier to launch migrants back to Indonesia:

1. For some years, we @GLAN_LAW have been chasing the tail of a beast called European border externalization: a violent creature from Brussels, often discussed but seldom seen (apart from its incarnation in the bodies of Italian/ Greek/ Spanish/ non-European border guards). 2. It's spirit hovers over the way Italy has transformed the Libyan Coast Guard into its own tool for migrant interception. This is what we focused on in SS v Italy glanlaw.org/single-post/20… Admittedly, however, the creature we looked for remained outside our frame.

1/14 A few quick observations after visiting the "Salame" Military Court with colleagues and students today. The facility is located in the Northern West Bank region of Jenin. 2/14 The court, such that it is, has jurisdiction over crimes directed against Israeli forces, citizens and interests in the West Bank, as well as any criminal activity, including traffic offenses in area C, which under the Oslo accords remained under Israeli civilian control.

Justice David Mintz of the Israeli High Court of Justice, in a decision from today: "torture is prohibited, apart from in very exceptional cases..." The decision, HCJ 9018/17 Tbeish v Attorney General, is probably the most permissive as of yet in terms of accepting physical abuse as a legitimate method of interrogation in national security cases.

1. Really happy that our recent @GLAN_LAW lawsuit against Italy gained so much media attention. This suggests that it will clearly generate discussion on border "externalization" practices -- in the central med, and more broadly. 2. However, it is also clear that political challenges abound. To name just one example from the coverage, note the title of the @washingtonpost piece: "Migrants Accuse Italy of Responsibility for Libyan Abuses"

https://twitter.com/GLAN_LAW/status/993857693529133057