A question of human rights?

Prof. Irwin Cotler (spring 2017)

The case of the BDS shows us that illegitimate criticism of Israel is often concealed under the veil of the struggle for human rights. We’ve seen additional examples of this during the fourth and fifth weeks of the course. Let’s explore this further.

How are antisemitic discourse and actions propagated, whether intentionally or unintentionally, under the banner of liberalism and universalism?

References

• Bayefsky, Anne F., “Israel and the United Nations’ Human Rights Agenda: The Inequality of Nations Large and Small,” Israel Law Review, vol. 29, no. 3 (1995), pp. 424 – 458.

• Cotler, Irwin, “Human Rights and the New Anti-Jewishness: Sounding the Alarm,” The Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, no.1 (2002), pp. 3 – 10.

• Cotler, Irwin, “Global Antisemitism: Assault on Human Rights,” in Charles Asher Small, ed., The Yale Papers: Antisemitism in Comparative Perspective, (New York: ISGAP, 2015), pp. 347 – 362.

• Genser, Jared and Irwin Cotler, The Responsibility to Protect the Promise of Stopping Mass Atrocities in Our Time (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).

• Gliszczynska-Grabias, Aleksandra, “Anti-Israeli Boycotts: European and International Human Rights Law Perspectives,” in Alvin H. Rosenfeld, ed., Deciphering the New Antisemitism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2015), pp. 430 – 453.