Ramallah – (A.M. Qattan Foundation):
“This is the first time I have lectured in Palestine; and this book was my return to Palestine because I am part of the Palestinian diaspora.” commented Palestinian human rights attorney Noura Erakat.
On Monday 5 August 2019, Erakat launched her book “Justice for Some” at the A.M. Qattan Foundation in al-Tira Neighbourhood in Ramallah.
Erakat, who launched her book for the first time in Palestine, mentioned that she thought that using law intelligently will enable Palestinians to liberate Palestine. She thought that no one has used this strategy before, therefore she studied law, but soon discovered that studying law was a way to make money.
In her book, Erekat raises the question of the relationship between international law and politics, and how this relationship affects the understanding of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This question pushed Erekat to work in the United States Congress to understand the relationship from within through political work.
Erekat concludes that the law is insufficient to deliver justice because, like everything else, it functions within a political world that values power -Israel- and justifies illegal developments, evolving facts and unwanted and unjustified power.
In her book, Erekat argues that “law is politics: its meaning and application are contingent on the strategy that legal actors deploy, as well as on the historical context in which that strategy is deployed.” (p.4)
After engaging in political work, Erekat found that Palestinian legal efforts were inseparable from abstracts political concepts, formed but the authority and power possessed by one party and needed by the other, to reinterpret international law and justify previously unjustified circumstances in Palestine. As a result, Erekat turned to academia in order to find a solution to this dilemma.
Erekat explained that her book “Justice for Some” represents a challenge and a remarkable opportunity to understand the Palestinian-Israeli conflict from a Palestinian point of view. Most of the references to understand the conflict were written by “Israelis”; the challenge was to create an archive to support the Palestinian narrative of the conflict and reshape it to be in favor of the Palestinians.
“Justice for Some” presents a new approach to understanding the Palestinian struggle for liberation, narrated through the authority and dominance of international law.
Erekat illustrates how the strategic mainstreaming of law created current circumstances by focusing on key turning points in the Palestinian cause, from the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the current wars against the Gaza Strip.