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Middle East Eye
29-01-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
ICJ president's plagiarism in Israel opinion ‘reflects poorly', experts say
Allegations of plagiarism in Julia Sebutinde's dissenting opinion on Israeli occupation reflect poorly on the acting president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and could call into question the competence of the court at a sensitive moment, experts told Middle East Eye. Sebutinde, who currently holds what is arguably the world's most prestigious judicial position, has recently been accused of directly lifting several sentences almost word for word in her dissenting opinion written on 19 July. At the time, a 15-judge panel found that Israel's decades-long occupation of the Palestinian territories was "unlawful" and that its "near-complete separation" of people in the occupied West Bank breached international laws concerning "racial segregation" and "apartheid". While most judges agreed with the advisory opinion, Sebutinde rejected the court's findings. Sebutinde's dissenting opinion contained at least three sentences very closely resembling statements from a December 2021 article by Douglas Feith, a former US official. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters An additional four sentences were taken from the pro-Israeli advocacy website Jewish Virtual Library. The allegations were first uncovered by researcher Zachary Foster. 'In addition to reflecting poorly on the judge and being professionally embarrassing, it has institutional implications because Sebutinde is currently acting president,' Juliette McIntyre, a lecturer in law at the University of South Australia, told MEE. 'In that role, she has the casting vote in case of a tie between the judges.' McIntyre, whose doctoral research focuses on ICJ rules and procedures, added that the incident meant Sebutinde's decisions would be 'considered less trustworthy', which could be 'serious for the court's reputation' if she remains president. Sebutinde, a Ugandan judge and former vice president of the court, assumed the role of acting president earlier this month following the appointment of its former president, Nawaf Salam, as Lebanon's next prime minister. She is currently serving her second nine-year term as an ICJ judge, which runs until 2029. In January last year, the ICJ delivered an interim ruling calling on Israel to take urgent provisional measures in Gaza, including preventing acts of genocide, punishing incitement to genocide and refraining from impeding the delivery of aid. Sebutinde was the only judge on the 17-member panel to vote against all six measures, a position opposed by the government of Uganda. It remains unclear whether the ICJ will take any action against Sebutinde. No judge at the ICJ has previously faced similar allegations. According to the court's rules, members of the court can be dismissed after a "unanimous opinion" by other judges that they are unfit for the role. 'Concerns about judgement and professionalism' Michael Becker, professor of law at Trinity College Dublin, said the allegations should not damage the authority of the July 2024 advisory opinion on Israeli occupation or the broader credibility of the ICJ. 'None of the material that is the subject of these allegations had any bearing on the court's conclusions in the advisory opinion, and Sebutinde's views were mostly not shared by other judges,' he told MEE. 'These plagiarism allegations are likely to raise broader concerns about judgment and professionalism' - Michael Becker, law professor Becker, a former associate legal officer at the ICJ, said the allegations reflect poorly on Sebutinde, who failed to properly credit material that was reproduced verbatim. 'While this episode should not damage the court as an institution, the fact that this revelation coincides with Sebutinde assuming the role of acting president is unfortunate,' he said. Becker added that regardless of whether a person agrees with the judge's positions relating to Israel, 'these plagiarism allegations are likely to raise broader concerns about judgment and professionalism'. 'At a time when the ICJ is more in the public eye than ever before and is dealing with a range of high-profile matters, the court can ill afford to have its competence or evenhandedness called into question.' When approached by MEE for a response, Sebutinde declined to comment. Reliability of sources 'questioned' Mihai Martoiu Ticu, a writer based in the Netherlands, published a blog on Tuesday accusing Sebutinde of further instances of plagiarism in her dissenting opinion on Israeli practices in Palestine. He found several paragraphs of the text that closely resembled content from 'Palestine, Uti Possidetis Juris and the Borders of Israel', a research paper written by Abraham Bell and Eugene Kontorovich in 2016. Bell and Kontorovich were among three legal scholars who wrote to Israel's political leadership in January of last year, asserting that Israel was not legally obligated to allow displaced Palestinians in northern Gaza to return to their homes. Feith, whose column Sebutinde appeared to copy sentences from, served as under secretary of defence for policy in US President George W Bush's administration from July 2001 until August 2005, devising US strategy for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nawaf Salam, the ICJ president who became Lebanon's prime minister Read More » During that time, Feith was in charge of a key Pentagon office that produced "inappropriately written intelligence assessments before the March 2003 invasion alleging connections between al-Qaeda and Iraq that the US intelligence consensus disputed". In 1996, Feith co-wrote a policy paper for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, recommending that Israel consider removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and militarily engaging Syria using proxy forces. The Jewish Virtual Library, from which Sebutinde also lifted content, is part of the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE), which says it "provides facts about the Arab-Israeli conflict" and fights the "delegitimisation of Israel". Becker said that while plagiarism was problematic in itself, in the context of the ICJ, 'the bigger concern may be a judge's reliance on material that is not part of the judicial record'. 'This deprives the participants in the proceedings from having an opportunity to challenge the contents of such materials,' he said. The former ICJ legal officer said that it was not uncommon for parties to include advocacy materials in their submissions to the court, which judges may choose to engage with. 'It is less common to see a separate or dissenting opinion making use of the types of materials that Sebutinde appears to have used. 'This is troubling when the reliability of the contents of these undisclosed materials has been called into question.' 'Normally, the judges leave the facts up to the parties and decide which version of the facts they consider more convincing' - Juliette McIntyre, law lecturer McIntyre said that judges usually base their opinions on the parties - or, in this case, participants, as it was an advisory opinion. Judges can also do additional research, she added. 'There is a principle, 'jura novit curia', which means that the court is expected to know the law, implying that the court will rely on its own knowledge and resources to reach its decisions. 'However, normally, the judges leave the facts up to the parties and decide which version of the facts they consider more convincing.' Given that Sebutinde's opinion was already considered an 'outlier', McIntyre said, the incident would only serve to 'further diminish public opinion regarding the quality of her decision in this case'.
Middle East Eye
27-01-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
ICJ president accused of plagiarism in dissenting opinion on Israeli occupation
Julia Sebutinde, the current president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), has been accused of plaigarising parts of her dissenting views in the court's advisory opinion on the Israeli occupation of Palestine. In July last year, the 15-judge panel found that Israel's decades-long occupation of the Palestinian territories was "unlawful", and that its "near-complete separation" of people in the occupied West Bank breached international laws concerning "racial segregation" and "apartheid". While the opinion was agreed upon by most of the judges, Sebutinde rejected the findings of the court, stating that the case should be settled through negotiations between the parties. Zachary Foster, a researcher on Palestine, pointed out the alleged plaigarism in a thread on X on Sunday. In one section of the dissenting opinion, Sebutinde writes: "Territorially, the name 'Palestine' applied vaguely to a region that for the 400 years before World War I was part of the Ottoman Empire. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters "In 135 CE, after stamping out the second Jewish insurrection of the province of Judea or Judah, the Romans renamed that province 'Syria Palaestina' (or 'Palestinian Syria'). The Romans did this as a punishment, to spite the 'Y'hudim' (Jewish population) and to obliterate the link between them and their province (known in Hebrew as Y'hudah). "The name 'Palaestina' was used in relation to the people known as the Philistines and found along the Mediterranean coast." The three sentences appear to be lifted, almost word for word, from an article published in December 2021 by Douglas J Feith in the Hudson Institute. Feith, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank, was US under secretary of defence for policy in the President George W Bush administration from July 2001 until August 2005, devising American strategy for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. During that time, Feith was in charge of a key Pentagon office that produced "inappropriately written intelligence assessments before the March 2003 invasion alleging connections between al-Qaeda and Iraq that the US intelligence consensus disputed". Missing citations In 1996, Feith co-wrote a policy paper for then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that suggested Israel should consider removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq, and militarily engage Syria using proxy forces. Feith's piece for the Hudson Institute is not cited in the bibliography of Sebutinde's dissenting opinion. Middle East Eye has reached out to the ICJ and Feith for comment. Foster pointed out in his thread that Sebutinde also lifted several sentences from The Jewish Virtual Library, changing a few words. Sebutinde wrote: "When the distinguished Arab American historian, Professor Philip Hitti, testified against the Partition of Mandatory Palestine before the Anglo-American Committee in 1946, he remarked: 'There is no such thing as 'Palestine' in history; absolutely not.'" A very similar line in the Jewish Virtual Library's myths and facts page reads: "When the distinguished Arab-American historian, Princeton University Prof Philip Hitti, testified against partition before the Anglo-American Committee in 1946, he said: "There is no such thing as 'Palestine' in history, absolutely not." Foster highlighted four sentences from the dissenting opinion borrowed from the Jewish Virtual Library. The website is not mentioned in the Ugandan judge's citations. The Jewish Virtual Library is part of the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, which says it "provides facts about the Arab-Israeli conflict" and fights the "delegitimisation of Israel". Dissenting voice Sebutinde became the president of the ICJ earlier this month after former head Nawaf Salam was appointed Lebanon's next prime minister. In January last year, the ICJ delivered an interim ruling calling on Israel to refrain from impeding the delivery of aid into Gaza and improve the humanitarian situation. Nawaf Salam, the ICJ president who became Lebanon's prime minister Read More » It also ordered Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent acts of genocide in the besieged enclave and to punish incitement to genocide, among other orders. Sebutinde, who has been described in the Israeli media as "pro-Israel", was the only judge on the 17-member panel who voted against all six measures adopted by the court. Israeli judge Aharon Barak also voted against several of the measures. The dissenting opinion prompted Uganda to distance itself from Sebutinde. "The position taken by Judge Sebutinde is her own individual and independent opinion, and does not in any way reflect the position of the government of the republic of Uganda," a government spokesperson said in a statement at the time. They added that Kampala supported the position of the Non-Aligned Movement on the war, which was adopted during a summit in the Ugandan capital. The Non-Aligned Movement had condemned Israel's war on Gaza and its killing of civilians.
