December 2011, Page 59

Education

CSU Middle East Studies Confab at Cal Poly Pomona

An impressive slate of 10 academic panels capped by a keynote address by Hastings School of Law Prof. George Bisharat was the extensive menu for the 4th annual California State University Conference on Middle East Studies Oct. 14 and 15 at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.

Cal Poly history professor Mahmood Ibraham was chair of the conference featuring panel topics ranging from "The Arab Spring and Palestine" and "Shah 'Abas I: Achaemenid or Turkish Despot?" to "Iran: Tensions Within and Without."

A memorable reception and dinner took place Oct. 14 in the historic Kellogg House on campus, where actress-singer-dancer Cynthia Sophiea performed from her "Everyone Has Tears" show. The Turath Ensemble and S.K. Near East Ensemble entertained with "Romancing the Arab Spring: Romantic Songs of Gibran Khalil Gibran and Mahmoud Darwish."

"Violence's Law" was the title of Bisharat's thought-provoking address on Oct. 15. The Harvard University-educated scholar pointed out Israel's distortions of international humanitarian law (IHL) in which it uses violence to enforce new concepts of IHL (which governs behaviors of parties at war).

"There is considerable evidence that Israel is deliberately trying to rewrite international law through violence," stated the former trial lawyer for the San Francisco Office of Public Defender.

Israeli military lawyers are well aware of the limits of IHL, he stressed, but they consciously encourage military commanders to violate these limits. As an example, he said, Gazans barred from fleeing the coastal enclave when Israel announced it would drop bombs on them were interpreted by Israel as "voluntary human shields" and therefore combatants subject to lawful attack.

Israel's interpretation, Bisharat theorized, is designed to put it on the "cutting edge" of new law in the so-called "War on Terror." This turns the purpose of IHL—which is to limit suffering even in war—on its head, thus enacting the theory that "might makes right."

—Pat McDonnell Twair