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Former Israeli Chief Justice Meir Shamgar: The Right Man in the Right Place at the Right Time
(Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Alan Baker - Israel's former Chief Justice Meir Shamgar, who died on Oct. 18 at age 94, played a unique role in molding Israel's legal system as well as Israel's status in the administered areas. As the Military Advocate General in the 1960s, he designed and built the legal and the command structure that served as the basis for Israel's administration of the territories following the Six-Day War and up to the present. Following the Six-Day War and Israel's attaining control of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, Shamgar was faced with a melange of unique legal and military realities, as well as an area steeped in historic Jewish heritage. Shamgar was well aware that this was not a simple classic situation of belligerent occupation of the land of a sovereign state. Jordan was not considered as having sovereign rights over Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) following its unrecognized annexation of the area in 1950, and Egypt had never claimed sovereign rights over Gaza. Hence, such a special and irregular legal situation called for creative and original thinking in order to devise the appropriate legal framework and status of the territory. On top of these circumstances lay the unique legal and historic background of the area in which claims of indigenous, historic, and legal rights of the Jewish people - as recognized in the 1917 Balfour Declaration and subsequently incorporated into instruments of international law - were at the foundation of the status of the land. In a 1971 article dealing with the application of international law in the administered areas, Shamgar set out the reasoning for his determination that the territories are not simply "occupied territories" but better and more accurately defined as "administered areas." Based on Shamgar's legal construction, Israel distinguished between the unique status of the territory and Israel's humanitarian obligations vis-a-vis the local population emanating from the applicable international humanitarian norms. At the behest of Shamgar, Israel provided the local population with full and unprecedented access to its Supreme Court, as a means of ensuring that the Israeli military and governmental authorities functioning in the territories duly observe the Fourth Geneva Convention's humanitarian provisions. Amb. Alan Baker, former legal adviser and deputy director-general of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, participated in the negotiation and drafting of the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians, as well as agreements and peace treaties with Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon.