Felicia Langer
Felicia Langer (born 1930) is an Israeli human rights attorney known for her defense of Palestinians charged with political violations in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. She has also authored numerous books alleging human rights violations on the part of Israeli occupation authorities. Her books detail widespread torture of detainees, as well as routine violation of international law prohibiting deportation and collective punishment. In 1990 she received the Right Livelihood Award (known as the Alternative Nobel Prize) "...for the exemplary courage of her struggle for the basic rights of the Palestinian people." In 1991 Langer was awarded the Bruno Kreisky Award for Outstanding Achievements in the Area of Human Rights. In 2005 Langer was awarded the "Erich Mühsam Prize" for her continuing struggle for the human rights of Palestinian people. In July 2009 German President Horst Köhler issued the Federal Cross of Merit, first class - the country's most prestigious award. [1]
Life
Felicia Langer was born in Poland of Jewish parents. In 1950 she emigrated to Israel with her husband, Mieciu Langer, a survivor of Nazi concentration camps. In 1965 she obtained a law degree from Hebrew University. She briefly worked for a Tel Aviv law firm, until after the Six-Day War in 1967. She was opposed to the conduct of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and so established a private practice in Jerusalem defending Palestinian political detainees. "I'm part of the other Israel," Langer has said. "I'm for justice and against all those for whom the conclusion of the holocaust is hatred, cruelty and insensitivity." She assisted Palestinians in cases involving land confiscation, house demolition, deportation, and torture.[2]
Although she only infrequently won cases in her 23-year career, she counts her successful defense in 1979 of Nablus mayor Bassam Shaka as the high point. Shaka had been a PLO supporter and outspoken critic of the Camp David accords, and was subsequently accused of inciting terrorism by his public statements and issued an expulsion order. Shortly after this expulsion order was overturned in the Israeli Supreme Court, an Israeli terrorist group planted a bomb in his car, leaving him a double amputee.
For many years Langer was vice president of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights.
In 1990, Langer ended her law practice and left Israel to live in Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, accepting a teaching position at university. In an interview with The Washington Post, Langer said "I decided that I could not be a fig leaf for this system anymore. I want my quitting to be a sort of demonstration and expression of my despair and disgust with the system... because for the Palestinians unfortunately we cannot obtain justice." In Germany she continues to author books and be an outspoken advocate of the Palestinian cause.
Some books by Felicia Langer
- With My Own Eyes (1975)
- These Are My Brothers (1979)
- An Age of Stone (1987)
- Fury and Hope (1993) (autobiographical)
- Appearance and Truth in Palestine (1999)
- Miecius Report. Youth between the Ghetto and Theresienstadt (1999)
- Quo vadis Israel? The new Intifada of the Palestinians (2001)
References
External websites
The Right Livelihood Award to Langer
Report of Langer's testimony before the World Peace Council International Inquiry Commission