Purely Commentary
A Judge's Obligation to Plead for Justice
When does the right to plead for justice, or to object to injustice,
cease?
There is an established tradition in free countries that men in public
life have not only the right but the obligation to assert themselves when
people's rights are tampered with.
Does such a principle eliminate jurists? Not by a long shot! As long
as a judge's temper is not affected in cases over which he presides in
his court, he must speak out whenever he can be of help in elevating
the highest principles of social behavior and relationships between men
—and between nations!
One of Detroit's newspapers thinks otherwise. It "slapped on the
wrist" U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Gubow for having joined
the pickets at the French Consulate in Detroit in protest against the de
Gaulle embargo on defensive weapons for Israel — an act by the French
president that was interpreted by that very paper, editorially, as con-
tributing towards escalating conflicts in the Middle East.
The truth is that Judge Gubow serves a valuable purpose in pre-
senting to the French consul a very dignified appeal, in due democratic
fashion. The truth is that Judge Gubow's conduct was on a very high
plane. The truth also is that sensation-seeking television commentators
distorted the affair, gave it an unfair aura, and reporters, in search for
glamour and sensation, were the ones who for the sake of. a pose,
induced the judge to get a picket line. And as picket lines are usually
equated with either rowdyism or labor demands, the same application
was given to a respectable and orderly demonstration by a large Jewish
group.
The criticism of Judge Gubow was not only undeserved: it gave
another indication of a lack of understanding of human values inherent
in certain appeals for justice. If an attitude like that of the "slap" at
Judge Gubow were to prevail, all of the established records of coura-
geous acts by Judges Brandeis, Mack, Frankfurter, Warren, Douglas
and others would have been erased from history. But they are not: they
are on the record, and the judges who spoke out for just causes will be
remembered, the editorial attacks upon them—and the judges who are
silent when they should shout against prejudices—will be forgotten.
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Facts . . . About Israel, the Red Cross,
Israel's Opposition to Apartheid
No More Auschwitz! . . . Iraq's Barbarities
Call for Prompt Action to Help Rescue
Surviving Jews Under Moslem Oppression
By Philip
Slomovitz
An Iraqi Crime: Mankind's Share in Hideous and Inhumane
Acts and UN Secretary General U Thant's Share in Guilt
A temperate statement by a responsible Israeli official places the blame for the
outrage in Iraq upon a government seeking to protect itself against opponents. In mild
form it absolves the mobs, indicating that they were instigated by a tyrannical govern.
ment. But the fact remains that half a million people (if the official Iraqi figure of the
size of the "audience" is correct) gloried in a medieval, inhuman demonstration of in.
decency, applauding the murder of innocent people. We must believe that the people of
Iraq are guilty.
Just as we must concur in the condemnation of the world powers, of Christianity
whose leaders were alerted to what was happening, as accessories to a crime.
And we blame United Nations Secretary General U Thant more than any other
individual: he is the man who had failed to approve of a plan of action that would have
led the UN to investigate the persecution of Jews in Moslem countries; he is the man who
approved of a plan that would investigate Israel's actions but ruled out those of the Arab
states; he is the man who has played a prejudiced role against Israel: WE ACCUSE IJ
THANT OF BIAS IN DEALING WITH THE SITUATION AFFECTING ISRAEL IN MOST
MATTERS INVOLVING THE MIDDLE EAST AND IN FAVORING THE ARABS TO A
DEGREE THAT HAS LED TO THE BAGHDAD CRIME OF JANUARY 27, 1969!
What the Iraqi government and people did on Monday is not new. They did it before
and they'll do it again—unless there is a lesson in decency for the civilized world that it will
not condone such outrages. It happened in 1952. In the Jewish News of Feb. 1, 1952, we
wrote an editorial entitled "OUTRIGHT MURDER" the text of which we reprint here
now as an indication of the horror that stems from Iraq:
Branding the hanging of two Iraqi Jews as "outright murder," the American
Jewish Committee, always conservative in its judgments and moderate in its statements,
points out that Iraqi sources themselves confirmed the following irregularities:
"1. One of the defendants was tortured to extract a confession, the contents of
which were not disclosed at the trial, and which the defendant repudiated in open
court.
"2. The case was illegally assigned to a specially-created court, instead of to the
regular criminal court.
"3. The presiding judge was not a professional jurist, but a government prose-
cutor assigned specially to this trial.
"4. The two men were deprived of their full rights to proper legal counsel.
"5. The inflammatory publicity given the case by Iraqi newspapers intimidated
defense counsel.
"6. Not a single witness testified during the trial that he had actually seen the
defendants throw the bombs or plant the explosives.
"7. Since Iraq law itself requires dual proof in criminal cases, the conviction
of two men based entirely on the repudiated confession of one man extracted by tor-
ture, is clearly in violation of Iraq's own legal system."
The battle for justice for the Jews in Iraq has only begun. With other Jews
already convicted in that backward country, there is danger of wholesale judicial mur-
ders unless world public opinion is expressed against the outrages. While Iraq is
flouting the opinions that have been expressed in this country, and at the United
Nations, by Prof. Rodriguez Fabregat of Uruguay, the Israelis and a few other friends,
it is of the utmost urgency that there should be no letdown in protests. Public opinion
must be aroused so that even barbarians like the Iraqi, who are permitted places in
the UN on a par with the world's most civilized nations, should be made to
listen and to abide by elementary principles of decency and justice.
This was an editorial coment on an occurence 17 years ago. We present it as
Why is the New Left aligned with the anti-Israel forces? Why the
Communist gang-up, together with Arab propagandists, in abusive
tactics against Israel? Among the arguments advanced in these com-
bined anti-Israel ranks, which are developing into rank anti-Semitism,
are charges that Israel is reactionary; that Israelis have failed to
condemn South African apartheid; that Israel has not given the Red
Cross the cooperation needed to aid displaced Arab refugees after
the Six-Day War, and similar accusations.
What are the facts?
Since 1952, when the United Nations General Assembly adopted
its first resolution referring to the "race conflict in South Africa
resulting from the policies of apartheid," Israel's spokesmen continually
referred to the issue as "a policy of 'race segregation' (apartheid)
necessarily based upon doctrines of racial discrimination."
Addressing the UN Special Political Committee, Dec. 1, 1965,
Israel's deputy permanent representative to the UN, Dr. Joel Barromi,
declared:
"The opposition to apartheid and an other forms of racial
discrimination is in Israel not only government policy founded on
clear and inalterable and ideological grounds, but an emotional,
almost an instinctive reaction, of the whole population. The mere
fact that we are citizens of Israel, the homeland of the Jewish a reminder that the world remained silent, that the medieval, uncivilized masses in Mos-
people, commands us to take a position in the struggle against lem countries have not learned humanity's lessons, and that something urgent must be
racial discrimination; this is the injunction and the conscience of done NOW to prevent continuation and repetition of the
crimes by a people undeserving
our history, the legacy of our cultural and moral tradition . . . " of a seat in the parliament of the nations of
the world!
The file of speeches by Israeli representatives at the UN is so
Iraq
is
not
alone.
The
few
Jews
remaining
in
Egypt,
Syria, possibly also Lebanon,
heavy that it is impossible to give due space to many of the declara-
tions against apartheid. The fact is that Israel and the Jewish people are helpless, their position hopeless!
We demand that the Jews in Moslem countries should be taken out of there speed-
were subjects of a serious issue in South Africa where the Jewish
ily, that security should be restored
position in opposition to apartheid was resented.
to them, that there should be an end to the curse
On the question of the Red Cross we have factual data to show that stems from the Arab cabal which has the endorsement of the Kremlin whose leaders
how Israel has cooperated, continues to cooperate with the International operate with greater brutality than did their predecesors, the Czars!
Red Cross and renders service in alleviating want and in relieving
At last the Vatican has spoken, our new Secretary of State had a firm declara-
the plight of Arabs.
against the outrage in Iraq, British leaders affirm their sense of outrage! Where
On official stationery of the Red Cross' Chicago office, dated tion
were
they
all earlier?
Aug. 15, 1967, we have a statement entiled "Review of World Red
Cross Activity in the Middle East" excerpts from which contain the
Some weeks ago, the American Academic Association for Peace in the Middle East,
composed
following data:
of a number of prominent university professors, revealed the state of horror
On June 7, two days after the Arab-Israeli war broke out, five for Jews in Moslem countries and exposed conditions in Iraq as follows:
Even before the Six Day War the situation
delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
of Iraqi Jewry was tenuous and they were subject to
and six tons of relief supplies were en route by air from Geneva
discriminatory laws limiting their freedom and property rights. Since the war, official incitement to
to the Middle East.
hatred has been carried by government radio, press and television. Religious sermons in the mosques
After the men and supplies were unloaded, the aircraft re-
have also provided a platform for anti-Jewish attacks.
turned to Geneva, and left again June 11 for Egypt, Jordan and
Since the Six Day War about 100 men have been imprisoned for varying lengths of time, under
Syria with eight tons of relief supplies.
one pretext or another. Some detainees have been released on the payment of large bribes and the
ICRC delegates in Israel quickly obtained assurance from that
situation provides a perfect opportunity for extortion and blackmail by police and secret service and
country that the provisions of the four Geneva Conventions would
government officials, using threats of imprisonment and murder as pressure. Some 26 still remain in jail
be strictly observed as Israel is a signatory to the conventions.
for allegedly spying for Israel, although no charges have been placed and no trials held.
This made possible the inspection of prisoner of war camps in
On March 3, 1968, the Iraqi Government Gazette No. 1542 published Law No. 10 "for the supervision
Israel by the Red Cross and the subsequent repatriation of seriously
and management of the properties of denationalized Jews." It supplements a similar law (No. 64) of
wounded prisoners.
July, 1967, which, among other provisions, prescrilies that "... authorities shall abstain from carrying
Observance of the Geneva Convention's had been urged by the
out any transaction or sale of immovable properties belonging to a Jew . . ." and that ". .. sums
ICRC from the time of the outbreak of hostilities. The conventions
payable to a Jew shall not exceed 100 Iraqi dinars per month .. ."
call for protection of sick and wounded soldiers, prisoners of war
A house-to-house search of all Jewish homes has been earne d out, the occupants registered and
and civilians.
all telephones disconnected. Jewish businesses have
been closed down and Jewish employees dismissed
Three ICRC delegates moved into the Sinai desert to assist the
from their jobs. Jews are forbidden to travel from their areas of residence and are kept under constant
Israeli government in relieving the plight of Egyptian soldiers
surveillance. Jewish students have been expelled from schools and
universities.
standed there in the aftermath of the war. Beginning June 14,
One Red Cross official who visited Iraq at the beginning of October, 1067, was unable to meet the
ICRC delegates flew repeatedly over the Sinai in helicopters trav-
community leaders, who were afraid of being seen in contact with strangers.
eling at low altitudes and frequently landing in the desert to
No Jew is allowed to emigrate and no permit has been granted for them to travel abroad.
determine the extent of the emergency. The delegation also col-
The time has come for action! If the UN's good name is not to be further be-
lected supplies for the Egyptians. Trucks and other aircraft were
called in for that purpose.
smirched by the cabal that has ganged up on Israel, if the good name of the democratic
In several instances in June and later, ICRC effected the tran- countries is to be preserved, if there is to be a change in attitude, with a confirmation
sfer of prisoners of war and was able to arrange for the return that Israel and Israelis have a right to live and that Jews are not again to be marked for
to Jordan of a number of children separated from their families. death and humiliation because they are Jews, then the international organization and
On June 21, an ICRC aircraft arrived in Cairo with 28 wounded world powers must act!
Egyptians from IsraeL
And the immediate act calls for a safe exit of all Jews from Arab countries—the
On June 30, General Moshe Dayan, Israeli minister of de-
fense, received Pierre Gailliard, delegate general of the ICRC in 2,000 surviving Jews (out of a total of 75,000 in 1947) from Egypt, the 2,000 Jews who
the Middle East, and two other delegates and expressed his satis- dwindled from a population of 180,000 in 1947 out of Iraq and the 3,500 remaining Syrian
faction with the repatriation of prisoners of war. He also assured Jews who numbered close to 20,000 in 1947.
the delegates the Red Cross would be given all it needed to
Let there be an end to the indecencies of the Middle East adversaries of Israeli
Let our people go!
(Continued on Page 3)
2—Friday, January 31, 1969
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS