Russell Tribunal on Palestine to Convene in Cape Town\u2019s Iconic District Six.<\/em><\/p>\n Stephane Hessel and Alice Walker confirmed as members of the jury.<\/p>\n The Russell Tribunal on Palestine will convene in District Six, Cape Town, site of a brutal apartheid-era forced removal. The land has remained undeveloped on the edge of the city since it was declared \u201ca white group area\u201d and the homes of black residents were demolished in the 1970s.<\/p>\n The Cape Town session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine \u2013 to be held on 5-6 November 2011 \u2013 will consider whether Israel\u2019s treatment of the Palestinian people fits the international legal definitions of the crime of apartheid.<\/p>\n In the jury, confirmed by international co-ordinator of the Tribunal, Mr Pierre Galand, at a press conference in Cape Town today, are:<\/p>\n \u00b7 Mr Stephane Hessel, 93, the Nazi concentration camp survivor who helped draft the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. He is an Ambassador of the French Republic, and honorary president of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine; and<\/p>\n \u00b7 Ms Alice Walker, the African American author, poet and human rights activist best known for the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Colour Purple.<\/p>\n The Cape Town session, in November 2011, follows sessions in Barcelona and London last year. The final session will take place in New York in 2012.<\/p>\n The Russell Tribunal on Palestine is an international people\u2019s tribunal created in response to the international community\u2019s inaction with respect to Israel\u2019s recognised violations of international law.<\/p>\n Ms Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, activist, former South African cabinet minister and member of the South African Support Committee organising the Cape Town session, told today\u2019s press conference that the United Nations and International Criminal Court findings that apartheid was unlawful and criminal did not only apply to apartheid South Africa.<\/p>\n Although there were clear differences between the State of Israel today and South Africa under apartheid, the question to be answered was whether the policies and practises of the State of Israel fit the international legal descriptions of the crime of apartheid.<\/p>\n \u201cMay this tribunal that is being held in our country later this year end the crime of silence,\u201d Ms Madlala-Routledge said.<\/p>\n Mr Galand, a retired Senator from Belgium and lifelong human rights campaigner, said the fact that the Tribunal sought to engender human rights for Palestinians did not mean it had an anti-Semitic agenda. Many friends of the Tribunal were Jewish, he said, and many members of the Jewish faith were fierce proponents of human rights for all.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe strongly the Russell Tribunal is an important contribution to the international civil society movement to rehabilitate international law, rehabilitate humanitarian law, and rehabilitate human rights,\u201d Mr Galand said.<\/p>\n The Israel-Palestine conflict was central to global divisions between Europe\/America and the Arab world, and between members of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths.<\/p>\n Because of the calibre of its patrons, members of the international support committee, jurors and witnesses, the findings of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine were used as important tools to lobby governments and international organisations, such as the European Union and United Nations.<\/p>\n Mr Ronnie Kasrils, former South African cabinet minister and juror of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, said that although South Africa had since 1994 taken a strong stance against human rights abuses in Israel, including withdrawing its ambassador for a period, many South Africans felt that the government could do even more.<\/p>\n \u201cThe world expects South Africa to champion the rights of other people. That is the yardstick for South Africans to live up to,\u201d Mr Kasrils said.<\/p>\n Among South Africans who will participate in the Russell Tribunal on Palestine are Mrs Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and Professor John Dugard.<\/p>\n This statement was issued for the Russell Tribunal on Palestine. For more information, please call Roger Friedman 027 (0) 83 272 5036 or email rogerf@oryxmedia.co.za<\/a> mailto:rogerf@oryxmedia.co.za<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Join the BDS-BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS<\/em> <\/strong><\/span>campaign to protest the Israeli barbaric siege of Gaza, illegal occupation of the Palestine nation\u2019s territory, the apartheid wall, its inhuman and degrading treatment of the Palestinian people, and the more than 7,000 Palestinian men, women, elderly and children arbitrarily locked up in Israeli prisons.<\/p>\n DON’T BUY<\/strong> PRODUCTS WHOSE<\/strong> BARCODE<\/strong> STARTS WITH<\/strong> 729<\/strong><\/span>, which indicates that it is produced in Israel.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 DO YOUR PART! MAKE A DIFFERENCE!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 7 2 9: BOYCOTT FOR JUSTICE!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Russell Tribunal on Palestine will convene in District Six, Cape Town, site of a brutal apartheid-era forced removal. The land has remained undeveloped on the edge of the city since it was declared \u201ca white group area\u201d and the homes of black residents were demolished in the 1970s. The Cape Town session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine \u2013 to be held on 5-6 November 2011 \u2013 will consider whether Israel\u2019s treatment of the Palestinian people fits the international legal definitions of the crime of apartheid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13990\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}