Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: The laws of war – Israelis know them best

http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=172630
The laws of war – Israelis know them best
By DOV PREMINGER
08/04/2010 06:43
IDC legal team beats 44 universities on expertise in international
humanitarian laws dealing with combat rules.
An Israeli team from the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, recently
beat out 44 universities to take first place in the 2010 edition of the
Jean-Pictet Competition on international humanitarian law.
The week-long international competition, held between March 20-27 in
Quebec, Canada, matched up teams from universities around the world to
test their knowledge in the field of international humanitarian law
(IHL) – commonly referred to as the laws of war.
“For an Israeli team to win a competition in the field in which Israel
is so often criticized is significant,” said the team’s academic
supervisor, Daphné Richemond-Barak. “The Jean-Pictet is the most
prestigious competition in the field worldwide.”
In the competition, teams role-played as representatives from foreign
affairs, military advocates or the Red Cross. They were questioned by
judges and judged by jury. Among the “judges” for the event was Philippe
Kirsch, first president of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Rigorously trained and given access to the highest government officials,
the team and its supporters ultimately attributed the victory to
“teamwork, teamwork, teamwork,” according to Jonathan Braverman, a
member of the IDC team along with Danielle Brown and Uri Feldman.
To make it to the competition, the IDC team first had to win the
national competition. The IDC enlisted coach Ido Rosenzweig, who won the
award for best speaker in the national competition two years ago.
“Ido is not 100-percent, but 1,000% responsible for us understanding
teamwork,” said Braverman. “The amount of time he spent drilling us,
[teaching us] how to work as a team, getting into the role-play as a
group rather than a person... that’s what set us apart.”
In a nutshell, said Rosenzweig, IHL might be summarized as, “Do the most
damage to the enemy [while] minimizing harm to civilians.”
He explained the four core principles of IHL as follows: distinction of
soldiers from civilians; military necessity as a rule in evaluating
targets; proportionality; and humanity to the enemy.
Rosenzweig and Richemond-Barak drew up a detailed course for the team.
“Each section was composed of one or more simulations, like in the
competition. You’re going to be the legal adviser of the prime minister,
or a commander in the field, etc. I challenged them to answer them
according to the role,” said Rosenzweig.
Then, toward the end of the course, Rosenzweig
played to Israel’s “home field advantage” – a wealth of practical
experience in the laws of war.
“We gave them what I refer to as a kind of bonus. We set meetings with
the highest practitioners in Israel, from the Foreign Ministry, Military
Advocate-General’s Office, the International Committee for the Red Cross
(ICRC),” he said.
“A week before the competition, we got a four-minute fake radio
broadcast,” recalled Braverman. “We had to figure out who’s going to war
and who’s going to be fighting whom. We didn’t get a map of the area
until the third day. You have partial information that gets built up as
you go through the simulations.”
Nations and continents are fictional in the competition. The nation of
Batogour was the one featured in the final, and a wide range of people
and places were invented, including the commander of the armed forces,
named Col. Yes We Can.
Braverman said the most trying section of the competition was “the long
day,” during which the team acts as a military legal adviser during an
ongoing war from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Quizzing the panel for the final were a mock prime minister, a speaker
of the house, and the chairman of the opposition, played by Kirsch. A
jury of nine heard the competitors’ answers, and gave the win to the IDC.
The final round was held against New York University and the University
of Montreal.
After winning, the IDC team received a five-minute standing ovation from
the other teams, including those from Iran, Lebanon and Jordan.
For the closing ceremony, the IDC team brought out an Israeli flag.
“I don’t think anyone’s done that before,” said Braverman. “There were
cheers from the Americans. It really was the one of the best experiences
one could have, regardless of the victory. Just having been there makes
you a better person.”

 The laws of war – Israelis know them best
che generalizzazione razzista. I vincitori della gara conoscono bene
le leggi di guerra, non gli israeliani. E poi conoscere non vuol dire
rispettare. Come mostrarono i nazi prendendo in giro gli inviati della
CRI a Terezin, anche loro conoscevano alla perfezione le leggi di
guerra.