ADL Needs To Drop Thane Rosenbaum Right Now – Forward Thinking – Forward.com

Thane Rosenbaum

Through some good fortune Thane Rosenbaum and his Forum on Law & Culture has moved from Fordham Law School to NYU.  I read and witnessed his anti-Islam rants and shameful treatment of Muslim-American panelist (from NYU's Brennan Center).  I was shocked by his behaviour.  This story demonstrates the depth of his moral decay. - gwc
ADL Needs To Drop Thane Rosenbaum Right Now – Forward Thinking – Forward.com:
by Emily L. Hauser

So. Can we talk about Thane Rosenbaum?

You probably already know that Thane Rosenbaum — who likes to talk about being a human rights professor — wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal arguing that the Gazan noncombatants are fair game in this war, because “they” voted for Hamas and “invite [Hamas members] to dinner with blood on their hands.”

Setting aside the fact that Hamas (being awful) hasn’t held elections since 2006 — and also setting aside the fact that Gaza’s overwhelmingly young population includes hundreds of thousands of people who couldn’t have voted for Hamas had they wanted to — there are of course numerous problems with this analysis, starting with the Geneva Conventions.

To quote Articles 50 and 51:

1. …In case of doubt whether a person is a civilian, that person shall be considered to be a civilian. 2. The civilian population comprises all persons who are civilians. 3. The presence within the civilian population of individuals who do not come within the definition of civilians does not deprive the population of its civilian character.

Art 51. - Protection of the civilian population

1. The civilian population and individual civilians shall enjoy general protection against dangers arising from military operations…. 2. The civilian population as such, as well as individual civilians, shall not be the object of attack.

And so on.

Then there’s the fact that, as Jamelle Bouie wrote in Slate, to willfully ignore such distinctions is to “embrace the logic of terrorists” — and not just any terrorists, but Osama bin Laden himself, so, you know, we might want to avoid that kind of thing.

At the end of his column Bouie notes that, contrary to precedent, none of this is likely to cost Rosenbaum his job as Director of the Forum on Law, Culture & Society at NYU Law — but I, for one, am more curious about a different position to which Rosenbaum can as yet only aspire: Director of the Anti-Defamation League.

Read more: http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/202678/adl-needs-to-drop-thane-rosenbaum-right-now/?#ixzz38M709zVl

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