A panel of legal experts discussed why B’nai B’rith International regards a referral by the U.N. General Assembly to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands, as constituting an “unjustified and deeply unhelpful” step away from potential peace in the Middle East.
B’nai B’rith conducted the webinar on Sept. 7.
Led by B’nai B’rith CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin, it included lawyers who drafted a brief submitted to the ICJ in December, making the case that the court should turn down a request by the United Nations for an advisory opinion on the legality of certain Israel policies.
Avigail Frisch Ben-Avraham, a legal adviser at the Israeli embassy in the Netherlands, said the referral presupposes “Israeli violations of international law.”
Millie Magid, chair of the B’nai B’rith Office of U.N. Affairs, said during the webinar that “if the forces demonizing, delegitimizing and assaulting Jews, including Israeli Jews, are to be stopped, the ICJ must draw a line in the sand and not abet political prosecution of Israel.”
Mariaschin described the U.N. referral as “the latest escalation of international actions singling out Israel for relentless scrutiny and, invariably, condemnation.”
