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Translating Human Rights of the “Enemy”: The Case of Israeli NGOs Defending Palestinian Rights
Author(s) -
Golan Daphna,
Orr Zvika
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
law and society review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.867
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1540-5893
pISSN - 0023-9216
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-5893.2012.00517.x
Subject(s) - human rights , international human rights law , adversary , political science , law , fundamental rights , sociology , reservation of rights , rights of nature , right to property , state (computer science) , law and economics , statistics , mathematics , algorithm , computer science
This article explores the practices, discourses and dilemmas of the I sraeli human rights NGOs that are working to protect and promote the human rights of P alestinians in the O ccupied T erritories. This case can shed light on the complex process of “triangular translation” of human rights, which is distinct from other forms of human rights localization studied thus far. In this process, human rights NGOs translate international human rights norms on the one hand, and the suffering of the victims on the other, into the conceptions and legal language commonly employed by the state that violates these rights. We analyze the dialectics of change and reproduction embedded in the efforts of I sraeli activists to defend P alestinian human rights while at the same time depoliticizing their work and adopting discriminatory premises and conceptions hegemonic in I sraeli society. The recent and alarming legislative proposals in I srael aimed at curtailing the work of human rights NGOs reinforce the need to reconsider the role of human rights NGOs in society, including their depoliticized strategies, their use of legal language and their relations with the diminishing peace movement.