State Comptroller retired Justice Yosef Shapira will be assisted by a number of international acclaimed experts in his probe of the IDF counter-terrorism offensive against Hamas in Gaza during the summer of 2014, Operation Protective Edge. The team will probe the process by which the decisions were made by Israel in the operation.

The internal investigation may render an international investigation by outside authorities like The International Court of Justice in The Hague unnecessary.

First is Professor Michael A. Newton, who is an expert on accountability, transnational justice, and conduct of hostilities issues. Over the course of his career, he has published more than 80 books, articles and book chapters and currently serves as senior editor of the Terrorism International Case Law Reporter, an annual series published by Oxford University Press since 2007.

The second is Professor Moshe Halbertal who is the Gruss Professor at NYU Law School and Professor of Jewish Thought and Philosophy at the Hebrew University, and a fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute. Halbertal has been a visiting professor at Yale Law School, Harvard Law School, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and New York University Law School. He received his B.A. in Jewish Thought and Philosophy from Hebrew University, cum laude, in 1984, and his PhD from Hebrew University in 1989. He was involved in formulating the IDF’s Code of Ethics.

The third is Professor Mugel Deutch, who is of counsel to Meitar. Miguel is a Professor at the Tel Aviv University School of Law and has been a member of the academic senior staff of this faculty since 1990. Lecturer at other universities, the Institute for Continuing Legal Studies of Judges, and other continuing legal studies institutions; Principal Researcher and member of the Civil Law Codification Committee, chaired by the Supreme Court Chief Justice Aharon Barak, which has been preparing the new Civil Code for Israel (since 1990); Drafter of the advanced versions of the new proposed Code; Bill drafter of the Computers Law, 1995 and the Commercial Torts Law, 1999, for the Ministry of Justice. He also served on the Turkel Commission that published its report in 2013.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)