Felicia Langer

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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.

[edit] 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." 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.

In 1990, Langer ended her law practice and left Israel, accepting a teaching position in a German 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.