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Remembering France’s Minister of Justice Who Was Shaped by Holocaust Past
Robert Badinter was a French lawyer, politician, and author who enacted the abolition of the death penalty in France in 1981, while serving as Minister of Justice under François Mitterrand. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
Until 1981, the guillotine continued to be used as the means of implementing death sentences in France. However, in that year, France abolished the death penalty. The person who played a pivotal role in achieving this outcome was a Jewish lawyer, Robert Badinter, who had just been named Minister of Justice by the newly-elected President François Mitterand.
Badinter, who died at age 95 on February 9, was a renowned lawyer, a politician, and a historian. He was proud of his Jewishness.
Some years ago, I had the honor of meeting Badinter here in Washington at a lunch organized by B’nai B’rith during one of Badinter’s tours of the United States in his unsuccessful effort to persuade Americans to follow France’s example and eliminate the death penalty. Sitting next to Badinter for a couple of hours, speaking in my native French, I discovered a brilliant exponent for liberal causes. Even though we did not agree on much, we got along famously.
Our common interests in the law, about history, and in matters Jewish made conversation easy. The fact that the bushy eyebrowed lawyer, whose family came from Bessarabia in Eastern Europe, looked strikingly like one of my uncles, made me feel a certain closeness to Badinter.
Indeed, his family’s history is a reflection of both the suffering of the Jewish people in the 20th century and the success that Jews have experienced in the Western world. His immigrant parents met in France, married and had two sons, of which Robert was the younger. When Nazis occupied France in 1940, in an effort to evade German persecution, the family left Paris and moved south. Unfortunately, in 1943, Badinter’s father was arrested by Klaus Barbie, the sadistic SS officer in charge of the region, and was sent to Sobibor, where he was murdered.
Following the liberation of France, Badinter went on to study law. As a criminal lawyer, he defended a number of murderers and attended the execution of one of them. That experience turned him into a ferocious opponent of the death penalty. His opposition bore fruit when, having been named Minister of Justice, he was able to persuade the French National Assembly to vote for the abolition of the death penalty in spite of significant public dissent.
He also championed other causes, including, in particular, the decriminalizing of homosexuality. At the end of his term as Minister of Justice, for nine years he served as President of France’s Constitutional Council, effectively its Supreme Court.
While pursuing his legal and political career, he became an author. He most notably wrote an important book regarding the grant of equality to French Jews during the French Revolution. He also wrote a book that was significantly less laudatory of France. That book, entitled An Ordinary Antisemitism, focused on the role of the Paris Bar during the German occupation. In meticulous detail, Badinter described the complicity of the Paris Bar in the implementation of the discriminatory laws which sought to strip the vast majority of Jewish lawyers of their right to practice law.
In an annual lecture that I give to law students at the Holocaust Museum, I cite Badinter’s book as an example of how lawyers can lose their moral compasses when they get too focused on the details of law practice and fail to keep their eyes on the moral components of the law. My reference to Badinter’s research invariably has an impact on my audience.
Most recently, Badinter wrote a moving book about his grandmother, Idriss, who had immigrated to France in response to the pogroms in her native Bessarabia. He wrote with affection and respect of the struggles of the immigrant generation in adapting to life in a new land. Not surprisingly, the book struck a chord with the French public and was widely read.
All of Badinter’s accomplishments have had a profound impact on France. His importance to France is such that he will be given a special public tribute by President Macron. It is possible that he will ultimately be buried in the Pantheon in Paris, the mausoleum in which France’s greatest heroes are interred. Only three other Jews have been similarly honored to date.
While all of Badinter’s accomplishments are an eloquent memorial to a distinguished Frenchman, I will always remember him by reason of an exchange we had at our lunch. When speaking about the Holocaust and his family’s suffering, he noted that, as the son of a martyred father, he had had an uncommon opportunity to rectify a terrible wrong. In 1983, while he was Minister of Justice, Klaus Barbie, the man who had arrested and sent Badinter’s father to his death at Sobibor, was found in Bolivia and extradited to France. Badinter told me that, in memory of his father’s suffering, he decided that it would be appropriate to reopen the abandoned prison in which his father had been incarcerated by Barbie, and that he sent Barbie there to serve out a life sentence.
But I also noted that, even though Barbie had been previously sentenced to death in absentia, long before the abolition of the death penalty (and notwithstanding his personal desire to avenge his father), Badinter stood by his opposition to the death penalty and did not wish nor seek to have his father’s killer executed. He thereby demonstrated a rare willingness to place principle over the powerful personal desire to avenge the brutal death of a beloved parent.
Badinter was an important French political figure, a brilliant lawyer, an erudite historian, and a man of principle. He was, as President Macron stated recently, “a man of great significance.”
Gerard Leval is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of a national law firm. He is the author of Lobbying For Equality, Jacques Godard and the Struggle for Jewish Civil Rights during the French Revolution, published by HUC Press.
The post Remembering France’s Minister of Justice Who Was Shaped by Holocaust Past first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Keith Siegel, Yarden Bibas, Ofer Kalderon set to be released Saturday from Gaza
Philissa Cramer reports for JTA. Look for more updates from The CJN after Shabbat.
An American Israeli and a high-profile young father are among the latest hostages set to be freed from Gaza, in what will be the fourth release during the current Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
Keith Siegel, Yarden Bibas and Ofer Kalderon will be released on Saturday, Hamas told Israel on Friday. The three men are among 33 hostages whose release was required under the current deal, out of 98 held before the deal’s start earlier this month.
Siegel, 65, is the oldest American-Israeli hostage. A North Carolina native who moved to Israel as a young adult, he was abducted in his own car from Kibbutz Kfar Aza with his wife Aviva during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Aviva was released after 51 days in a temporary ceasefire in November 2023 and has advocated for him since, wearing a T-shirt daily with a photo of him on it.
“Dad is coming!” Aviva Siegel shouts in a video the family posted on Friday after hearing the news that her husband was on the list for release. Siegel’s mother died during his captivity.
Bibas, 38, is the father of the only children who remain in Gaza and appeared in a hostage video in November 2023 that showed him responding to being told that his wife, Shiri, and sons Ariel and Kfir had been killed. Israel has never confirmed Hamas’ allegation that the mother and young children were dead, but has said there are “grave concerns” about them and did not insist on their release prior to that of living men.
This week, Israel demanded that Hamas “clarify” the status of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir, who were abducted separately from Yarden and have become global symbols of the crisis; it is not clear whether that has happened or will before his release.
Kalderon, 51, was abducted with his two children from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Sahar, 17, and Erez, 12, were released during the November 2023 ceasefire after 52 days in captivity. Their mother, Hadas, was a prominent voice for mothers of the children abducted on Oct. 7 and has continued to advocate for her ex-husband, a dual French-Israeli citizen.
After the three men are released, there will be 79 hostages remaining in Gaza, of whom at least 44 are confirmed to be dead—36 whose deaths were announced before the current ceasefire, and eight who are among the 33 whose release was negotiated as part of the current deal.
The post Keith Siegel, Yarden Bibas, Ofer Kalderon set to be released Saturday from Gaza appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Hamas Confirms Death of Terror Chief Mohammed Deif Months After Israeli Strike
Picture said to show leader of Hamas’s military wing, known as Al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif in a location given as Gaza Strip in this handout picture released on Jan. 7, 2024. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas officially confirmed on Thursday that its military chief, Mohammed Deif, was killed during the Gaza war, almost six months after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported his death.
Deif, the architect of Hamas’s military capabilities, is believed to have been one of the masterminds behind the terrorist group’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 — which sparked the Gaza war.
Abu Ubaida, a Hamas spokesperson, also reported the deaths of Deif’s deputy, Khan Younis Brigade commander Rafa Salama, as well as senior operatives Marwan Issa, Ghazi Abu Tama’a, Raad Thabet, Ahmed Ghandour, and Ayman Nofal.
According to the IDF, Deif was killed in an airstrike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza on July 13 of last year.
Following weeks of intelligence assessments, Israeli authorities gathered evidence to confirm Deif’s death before publicly announcing it in early August.
“IDF fighter jets struck in the area of Khan Yunis, and … it can be confirmed that Mohammed Deif was eliminated in the strike,” the military said. “His elimination serves the objectives of the war and demonstrates Israel’s ability to carry out targeted strikes with precision.”
At the time, Hamas neither confirmed nor denied Deif’s death, but one official, Ezzat Rashaq, stated that any announcements regarding the deaths of its leaders would be made solely by the organization.
“Unless either of them [the Hamas political and military leadership] announces it, no news published in the media or by any other parties can be confirmed,” Rashaq said.
In November, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Deif, as well as for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.
Deif is believed to have collaborated closely with the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, managing military operations and coordinating with the group’s top commanders throughout the conflict.
After Deif’s assassination, then-defense minister Gallant posted an image on social media praising the Israeli military’s accomplishment.
“The assassination of mass murderer Mohammed Deif — ‘Gaza’s Bin Laden’ — is a major step toward dismantling Hamas as a military and governing entity, and achieving the war’s objectives,” he said.
The post Hamas Confirms Death of Terror Chief Mohammed Deif Months After Israeli Strike first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘A Bad but Necessary Deal’: Five Members of His Family Were Murdered — Today, Their Killer Walks Free
Oran Almog, right, addressing the UN Security Council next to Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon on July 25, 2017. Photo: Screenshot
While the release of three Israeli hostages on Thursday brought relief and elation across Israel, it also triggered a wave of mixed emotions, especially among victims who saw the terrorists responsible for their suffering set free. One of them is Oran Almog, who was just ten years old when a Palestinian terrorist disguised as a pregnant woman blew up the restaurant he was in, killing five members of his family and leaving him blind.
Yet, while Thursday’s release of Sami Jaradat — the mastermind behind the October 2003 massacre of Almog’s family — was a deeply personal blow, the return of hostages remained a necessary step, he said.
“That the terrorist who killed my family will find himself free is deeply painful, heartbreaking even,” he told The Algemeiner. “But at the same time, I know that even today — especially today — I must set aside my personal pain and focus on the significance of this deal. And the significance is clear. We are getting our hostages home, and that is the only thing that matters.”
Almog’s father, Moshe Almog, his younger brother, Tomer, his grandparents Admiral (res.) Ze’ev and Ruth Almog, and his cousin, Asaf, were murdered when the suicide bomber, Hanadi Jaradat, a 29-year-old lawyer from Jenin, managed to get past the security guard of the Maxim restaurant — jointly owned by a Jewish Israeli and an Arab Israeli — and blow herself up. Sixteen other people were also murdered in the attack, among them four children. Almog lost his eyesight, and his mother, sister, and aunt were among the 60 injured Israelis.
“Sami Jaradat’s continued imprisonment will never bring my family back, but his release can bring the hostages back home alive,” Almog explained.
Emotional meeting between Agam Berger and her family at Beilinson Hospital in Israel. Photo: Haim Zach (GPO)
Almog knows firsthand what it means to be on the receiving end of a hostage-prisoner exchange.
Just two weeks after marking the 20th anniversary of the Maxim restaurant attack, another tragedy struck his family. On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists brutally murdered Nadav and Yam and abducted Chen, Agam, Gal, and Tal from the Almog-Goldstein family in Kfar Azza.
Fifty-one days later, in November 2023, they were released from Hamas captivity in a temporary ceasefire deal.
Under the current ceasefire agreement reached earlier this month, Hamas will release a total 33 Israeli hostages, eight of whom are deceased, according to the terrorist group. In exchange, Israel will free over 1,900 Palestinian prisoners, many of whom were serving multiple life sentences on terrorism offenses. Thursday saw the release of three Israelis — including IDF surveillance soldier Agam Berger, 20, and civilians Arbel Yehoud, 29, and Gadi Mozes, 80 — and five Thai nationals, who were working in Israeli kibbutzim when they were abducted.
“This is a bad deal, very bad, but the alternative is that much worse,” Almog said. “We must look ahead, put today aside, and recognize that releasing prisoners serves a greater purpose.”
However, Almog expressed hope that Israel would move toward a more decisive and uncompromising approach in its fight against terrorism.
“I sincerely hope that as a country, we will have the wisdom to decisively thwart terrorism,” he said, emphasizing the need to break free from the ongoing cycle of prisoner exchanges.
“I don’t want us to find ourselves trapped in a cycle of releasing terrorists, only for them to return to terror, and then repeat the process again and again,” he added.
Almog has previously addressed the UN Security Council, urging action against the so-called “pay-for-slay” scheme, in which terrorists and their families receive monthly stipends from the Palestinian Authority. The terrorist behind the murder of Almog’s family received $3,000 a month while behind bars, making him almost a millionaire by the time of his release.
Still, Almog concluded with a deeply uplifting message for the returning hostages, confident that they would have a chance at a good life, drawing from his own experiences since the terror attack.
Oran Almog. Photo: Facebook
After his release from the hospital, he began a long rehabilitation process, culminating in third place at the World Blind Sailing Championship with Etgarim, a nonprofit founded by disabled veterans and rehabilitation experts, and supported by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ). He was chosen to light a torch at Israel’s Independence Day ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the state and, despite his disability, insisted on enlisting in the IDF, serving in an elite unit. Today, he is a managing partner at a financial technology fund, works with Etgarim, and shares his story globally through lectures.
“I know the hostages will be able to return, to live, and to live well. With enough support — and a great deal of willpower — it is truly possible to rebuild life, even after the deepest catastrophes,” he said.
The post ‘A Bad but Necessary Deal’: Five Members of His Family Were Murdered — Today, Their Killer Walks Free first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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