Israeli Physicians to be Told They Must Treat HIV Carriers- Haaretz

According to a report by Haaretz, the Israeli Medical Association-(IMA)'s ethics committee has decided that it is unethical for a doctor to refuse to treat a patient with HIV. (For the IMA's statement in Hebrew click here.) I'm not sure why doctors would refuse HIV patients any more than patients with other highly infectious and fatal diseases. The article suggests that it may be due to certain prejudices and a stigma that attaches to HIV patients. Now, this statement by the IMA is not a legal decision so if a doctor would refuse to treat a patient it seems that they would not be violating any law but they might be subject to discipline by the IMA.

This new stance is not so clear to me because the IMA's position, found on its website, is that "A physician must offer medical assistance in urgent cases or in life-saving situations. In any other instance a physician may decide not to provide medical treatment to a patient for personal or professional reasons." So I'm not sure whether this new statement is referring to urgent cases or non-urgent cases. If it is referring to non-urgent cases then it seems to signal a reversal of policy. (In Australia, doctors have a duty to provide care, at least in urgent cases, even where there is no previously existing doctor-patient relationship.)

The Old Paint and Tow Scheme in Tel Aviv

A woman got a parking ticket for parking in a handicapped spot that wasn't marked handicapped until after she had parked. The municipality painted it around and under her car and then towed it for being parked in a handicapped spot. She went to fight her ticket with the embedded video surveillance footage and the city waived the fine and apologized to her. 

Mitigating factors for the city: I did read somewhere that a sign had been put up there even though the street had not been painted yet. It also seems to me that the curb is painted blue, the color for handicapped spots. Also, I think I read that the people who painted the sign and probably the towers are subcontractors for the city.

Pelephone Rules Out Cyberattack- Class Action Filed

In what must be one of the fastest class-action filings ever, on Monday a law firm in Israel filed a NIS 450 million class-action against cellular phone company Pelephone for a four hour service outage that ended at 11 PM Sunday night. The JPost reported that the suit was filed on behalf of one Tom Lifshitz requesting "NIS 100 in damages and NIS 50 in emotional damages, citing the fact that mobile communications are an integral part of daily life and their absence left him unable to make personal or work-related calls, leaving him feeling 'helpless.'"

My wife was trying to call some people who use Pelephone yesterday and noticed that she could not get through. It was frustrating for her and it must have been even more frustrating for Israelis who have Pelephone as a provider, but a class action suit. Really? Emotional distress because your phone didn't work for four hours? Do you think this is the United States? If a car hit a power line and knocked out power to a whole city would that be grounds for a class action? I doubt it. I understand that people rely on their cellphones, sometimes to the exclusion of landlines but it doesn't seem like this is something that you can really sue for. You have to expect that even in our advanced technological age their will be some episodes of downtime every once in a while due to unforeseen circumstances. Besides, Pelephone is offering to compensate people with free minutes or data. That should probably be sufficient, instead of NIS 150 for each affected customer.

Oh, and totally coincidentally, I think we are switching to Pelephone tomorrow because we got a good deal for international calls and an American phone number on our cell phones and home phone. The recent outage gave me some pause, but not enough.

Legal Networking Event in Tel Aviv

One of the organizers asked me to post this information for a networking event geared toward Anglo lawyers in Israel.

Click here to register.

Israel Continues Boycott of UN Human Rights Council

Recently, Israel decided to boycott the UN Human Rights Council's session that was scheduled to examine Israel's record on human rights.  Every four years, each nation is reviewed through this process. Israel's boycott has thrown the forum's leadership into a tizzy- no country has boycotted these proceedings since they began in 2007.

Below is an article from the Gatestone Institute.

Showdown between UN Human Rights Council and Israel?

by Anne Herzberg

January 18, 2013 at 4:30 am

Another major confrontation is brewing between Israel and the United Nations. On January 29, Israel is scheduled for its quadrennial Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the Human Rights Council (HRC). Following the March 2012 Council session, however, Israel's foreign minister ceased all contacts with the HRC due to its obsessive bias and double standards targeting the Jewish State. As a result, Israel will not participate in UPR.

This has UN officials very worried, and for good reason. If Israel fails to show up for UPR, this may force the HRC to end the stranglehold of abusive regimes over the institution, and implement long overdue reforms.

Israeli Settlements' Legal Basis- USA Today

Israeli Settlements' Legal Basis: Opposing View

The oft-used term "occupied Palestinian territories" has no basis whatsoever in law or fact. The territories are neither occupied nor are they Palestinian. No legal determination has ever been made as to their sovereignty, and by agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, they are no more than "disputed" pending a negotiated solution, with both sides claiming rights to the territory.

Israel has solid legal and historic rights to the territory, in light of the undeniable historic fact that the Jewish people are, for more than 3,000 years, the indigenous people in the region, including the source of Christianity there. Add to this the legal rights granted to the Jewish people by the 1917 Balfour Declaration, the 1923 San Remo Declaration, the League of Nations Mandate instrument and the United Nations Charter.

Israel has thus a very well-based claim to sovereignty over the area, more so than any other people, but has nevertheless committed itself to negotiate the fate of the area with the Palestinians.

Further to Israel's solid basis of rights to the territory, the Oslo agreements with the Palestinians contain no prohibition whatsoever on building settlements in those parts of the territory agreed upon as remaining under Israel's control.

Israeli settlements are built on public land that is not owned by Palestinian residents of the area, and their construction is in full accordance with the norms of international law regarding the use of land in disputed situations.

Furthermore, the prohibition of mass transfer of populations to occupied territory as set out in the 1949 Geneva Convention is not applicable, and was never intended to apply to Israel's settlement policy. It was drafted to prevent the mass transfers as carried out by the Nazis in World War II.

Accordingly, as long as settlements do not violate local Palestinian private property rights, and as long as the issue of the fate of the areas remains a negotiating issue, there is no legal basis for preventing continued settlement, pending the outcome of the final status negotiations.

Alan Baker is the director of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He formerly served as a legal adviser to the Israeli Foreign Ministry and as Israel's ambassador to Canada.

Israel Hayom | Election junkies can follow results online in real-time

Die-hard election junkies will be able to follow the incoming results on Jan. 22, the day of Israel's general election, online and in real-time after the polls close.

The Finance Ministry's Computer Service Directorate developed two unprecedented websites that will track ballot tallies on election day.

On the first website, the public will be able to watch in real-time on their mobile phones, as the Central Elections Committee counts votes after the polls close. Viewers will also be able to surf nationwide results and tallies sorted by municipality or party. The website will update results at 10 minute intervals from the moment the polls close until the last vote is counted.

The second website allows enthusiastic elections buff to follow the results from the polling station at which the voter is registered.

Israel Hayom 

Ilan Gategno and Zeev Klein