NGO Monitor’s Anne Herzberg to tour Australia

NGO Monitor’s legal advisor Anne Herzberg will speak in Sydney on Tuesday, October 27, and in Melbourne on November 11 about her work challenging Israel’s critics at the United Nations and the International Criminal Court.

The events are being organised by ABC Watch, the Australian Jewish Association and Allies for a Strong Australia, and co-hosted by NGO Monitor. The Sydney talk will be held in the eastern suburbs, with the location sent only to vetted attendees. The Melbourne venue has yet to be announced. Both talks start at 7.30pm.

Herzberg is also the UN representative for NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based research institute that tracks the funding and activities of non-government organisations involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict. A Columbia Law School graduate, she worked as a litigator in New York and did pro bono work for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Her study, NGO Lawfare: Exploitation of Courts in the Arab-Israeli Conflict, examined how advocacy groups used universal jurisdiction to pursue Israeli officials in European courts. She argued the aim was to isolate Israel from its allies rather than to achieve justice.

At the ICC, she has filed amicus briefs contesting the court’s jurisdiction over Israeli nationals. She argues the Oslo Accords bar that jurisdiction, and that the Palestinian Authority never held the criminal jurisdiction it sought to hand to the court.

She has also criticised the court’s case against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, saying it relies on reporting from UN bodies and NGOs with political agendas rather than independent verification.

NGO Monitor, which holds consultative status at the UN, says European governments give more than US$125 million a year to political advocacy NGOs, some of which lobby for sanctions and arms embargoes against Israel. The institute also alleges some of those groups have links to designated terrorist organisations.

The event listings promise “an insider’s view”, along with “some Israeli election talk.”

Tickets are available through Humanitix.