The whole thing got me to thinking about Sojourner Truth, and I went back and read her “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech where she so elequintly brought together the women’s and movement with the Anti-slavery.

Parks, just by showing that it was a woman who did it, (although in those days it had to be a woman) who started the whole thing, showed that women have the strength of which Truth spoke.

And now the women of Israel are the ones who are standing up for themselves, regardless of how many men participate in this form of discrimination.

It all ties together and thank you for aiding the process.

Margo Arrowsmith

Issues such as the above, point out to the tension between generally accepted human rights standards and the law in local jurisdictions.

Notwithstanding the US recalcitrance in joining the ICC, and even passing that “Hague Invasion Act”, (OK the Serviceman Protection Act of 2002), the tide will surely albeit slowly turn against parochial and insular legal practices that run counter to evolving international standards.

Yes, there will be dangers in forfeiting some modicum of national sovereignty, but safeguards can be built in and the system can be made to work.

As a more local example, remember the recalcitrance the South displayed after Brown and Brown II: the federal courts were compelled to come in to fight against “local standards”. Israel’s women don’t currently enjoy such an intervention.

But it might be a good thing if they did.

In the meantime, Professor Turley’s suggestions about Israeli constitutional reform seem very attractive.