Recognition as Decolonization: An Intellectual-Cultural History of the Two-State Solution, 1948-1988
Dr. Eli Osheroff
The research project examines the journey of the Palestinian National Movement towards
formal recognition of the partition and the State of Israel between 1948 and 1988. It aims to understand what historical conditions allowed the Palestinian national movement to compromise on its most significant ambitions – an unpartitioned, independent homeland– while still considering this compromise a moment of liberation.
Minorities and the State: Non-Territorial Autonomy in the Baltics, 1914-1940
Dr. Timo Aava
This project studies the intellectual and political history of collective rights in Europe in the first half of the twentieth century based on the case of Estonia. At the heart of this project are the political debates over autonomy in the imperial setting, law-making in the interwar period and practising minority self-government in democratic and authoritarian contexts.
Gabriel Bach and the Prosecution of Nazis in the State of Israel
Dr. Yehudit Dori Deston
The research reviews the main contributions of prosecutor and Justice Gabriel Bach to four legal cases in which the Holocaust and its perpetrators were prosecuted in Israeli courts: the appeals proceeding in the Gruenwald-Kastner trial (1957), the Eichmann trial (1960-1962), the efforts to prosecute and extradite Gustav Franz Wagner (1978-1979), and the Demjanjuk trial (1993). The research proposes a historical and legal explanation for Bach's actions and portrays the evolution of Israel’s legal efforts vis-à-vis Nazi criminals and their collaborators over the years.
The paper was published in Tel-Aviv University Law Review (Iyunei Mishpat) on 31.03.2022.
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A Survivor, Legislator and Jurist: Joseph Lamm’s Legal Legacy in Relation to the Nazis and Nazi Collaborators Law (1950)
Dr. Yehudit Dori Deston & Prof. Dan Porat
The research examines Joseph Lamm's part in the enactment of the Nazis and Nazi Collaborators Law of 1950 and in rulings based on it in the Israeli courts. The research claims that Lamm's experience as a prisoner in the Dachau camp shaped his legal views with respect to Jews accused of collaborating with the Nazis, as reflected in his roles as both legislator and judge.
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A Trial Without a Defendant
Dr. Yehudit Dori Deston
The research reveals the records of a mock trial conducted in 1985 in Jerusalem for SS officer Josef Mengele, in the absence of the accused. At the heart of the proceedings stood the testimonies of 30 Auschwitz survivors, which were intended to serve as proof of Mengele’s crimes when he would be brought to a "real" criminal trial. The research examines the difference between criminal proceedings and other stages, including semi-legal proceedings, for the purposes of documentation, commemoration, and shaping the collective memory of the Holocaust.
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