The ‘Right’ Kind of Justice
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on May 15th, 2010 4:49 am by HL
The ‘Right’ Kind of Justice
Baltasar Garzon, the Spanish judge made famous for probing into abuses committed under dictator Gen. Francisco Franco and for going after notorious international figures like Osama bin Laden and Chile’s Augusto Pinochet, has been suspended in preparation for a trial in which he is accused of overstepping his authority. The court case comes after a wave of complaints from far-right groups arguing that crimes committed during the country’s civil war or decades-long dictatorship are covered under Spanish amnesty law. —JCL Al Jazeera English: Baltasar Garzon, one of Spain’s highest ranking judges, has been suspended from his post ahead of his trial for overreaching his authority in a probe linked to Franco-era crimes. The General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), the body that oversees the judiciary, decided unanimously to suspend Garzon on Friday, two days after the country’s supreme court cleared the way for his trial. Garzon is accused of abuse of power for opening an investigation in 2008 into the disappearance of tens of thousands of people during Spain’s 1936 to 1939 civil war and General Francisco Franco’s subsequent dictatorship. The case follows a complaint by far-right groups that the probe ignored an amnesty law passed in 1977, two years after Franco’s death, for crimes committed under the general’s rule. Read more
Baltasar Garzon, the Spanish judge made famous for probing into abuses committed under dictator Gen. Francisco Franco and for going after notorious international figures like Osama bin Laden and Chile’s Augusto Pinochet, has been suspended in preparation for a trial in which he is accused of overstepping his authority.
The court case comes after a wave of complaints from far-right groups arguing that crimes committed during the country’s civil war or decades-long dictatorship are covered under Spanish amnesty law. —JCL
Al Jazeera English:
Baltasar Garzon, one of Spain’s highest ranking judges, has been suspended from his post ahead of his trial for overreaching his authority in a probe linked to Franco-era crimes.
The General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), the body that oversees the judiciary, decided unanimously to suspend Garzon on Friday, two days after the country’s supreme court cleared the way for his trial.
Garzon is accused of abuse of power for opening an investigation in 2008 into the disappearance of tens of thousands of people during Spain’s 1936 to 1939 civil war and General Francisco Franco’s subsequent dictatorship.
The case follows a complaint by far-right groups that the probe ignored an amnesty law passed in 1977, two years after Franco’s death, for crimes committed under the general’s rule.
Related Entries
- May 14, 2010 Blowback: Why They Try to Bomb Us
- May 13, 2010 Team Obama Handles Karzai With Kid Gloves
Said What?
Sound the alarm: The Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition exam taken by high school students across the U.S. uses a quotation from the late Palestinian-American scholar and activist Edward Said. Some Jewish students are complaining that use of the Said material politicizes the test. Never mind the fact that Said has been at the forefront of English literature criticism for decades and the quote makes no mention of Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people. The quote appearing in the test reads: “Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and its native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted.” —JCL Jewish Daily Forward: Nearly 2 million high school students worldwide are taking Advanced Placement tests this May, hoping to impress college admissions counselors with high scores and, perhaps, earn a few college credits. But one test question citing the late Palestinian-American scholar and activist Edward Said on the theme of exile is prompting protests from some Jewish students. The English Literature and Composition test, in which the question occurs, requires students to read excerpts of poetry and prose and compare them to other works they have studied in class. The passage from Said contains no reference to Palestine or Israel. But the test’s description of the late Columbia University humanities professor as a “Palestinian American literary theorist and cultural critic” has led some pro-Israel students to object that the test has been politicized. “I was really startled to see that quote because both of the practice questions didn’t mention the writers’ nationalities,” said Ayelet Pearl, a senior at New York’s Bronx High School of Science. “For me including this one clearly had political implications.” Read more
Sound the alarm: The Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition exam taken by high school students across the U.S. uses a quotation from the late Palestinian-American scholar and activist Edward Said. Some Jewish students are complaining that use of the Said material politicizes the test.
Never mind the fact that Said has been at the forefront of English literature criticism for decades and the quote makes no mention of Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people.
The quote appearing in the test reads: “Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and its native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted.” —JCL
Jewish Daily Forward:
Nearly 2 million high school students worldwide are taking Advanced Placement tests this May, hoping to impress college admissions counselors with high scores and, perhaps, earn a few college credits. But one test question citing the late Palestinian-American scholar and activist Edward Said on the theme of exile is prompting protests from some Jewish students.
The English Literature and Composition test, in which the question occurs, requires students to read excerpts of poetry and prose and compare them to other works they have studied in class. The passage from Said contains no reference to Palestine or Israel. But the test’s description of the late Columbia University humanities professor as a “Palestinian American literary theorist and cultural critic” has led some pro-Israel students to object that the test has been politicized.
“I was really startled to see that quote because both of the practice questions didn’t mention the writers’ nationalities,” said Ayelet Pearl, a senior at New York’s Bronx High School of Science. “For me including this one clearly had political implications.”
Related Entries
- May 14, 2010 Blowback: Why They Try to Bomb Us
- May 13, 2010 Team Obama Handles Karzai With Kid Gloves
