Badil, the Palestinian “right of return,” devoted its Spring-Summer 2009 journal to “Litigating Palestine” – lawfare against Israel. The articles in the publication – which relate to workshops from the “Israel Review Conference” — a fringe event during the Durban Review Conference in Geneva, April 2009 – discussed cases in the UK, US, and Canada. All of these attempts to exploit universal jurisdiction in national courts have been dismissed in the preliminary stages, but in the process, have fuelled anti-Israel demonization.

John Reynolds, a legal researcher for Al Haq, wrote about the “Al Haq v. UK” case against UK Secretaries of State for “failure to fulfill…obligations under international law with respect to Israel’s activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).” In July 2009, a UK court dismissed the case. Similarly, an article was dedicated to the Bil’in Village case in Canada (also supported by Al Haq); this case, too, was dismissed at an early stage in September 2009 (more information in September 2009 Digest, forthcoming).

While a discussion of “Civil Tort Claims…in US Courts” advised against further “litigation on behalf of Palestinian claimants” due to the futility of all prior attempts, Joseph Schechla of Habitat International advocated for legal action in the US to strip “para-state institutions” [sic] organizations (i.e., JNF and WZO) of their charitable status.