The National Lawyers Guild sent the following letter to Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson, in support of a lawsuit filed by the Minnesota Break the Bonds Campaign to compel the state to divest from Israel Bonds: 

December 13, 2011 

To: Attorney General Lori Swanson
cc: Governor Mark Dayton, State Auditor Rebecca Otto, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie

On behalf of the National Lawyers Guild, we write in support of the lawsuit filed on November 29, 2011, against the Minnesota State Board of Investment (SBI) which seeks a judgment directing the SBI to divest from Israel Bonds. 
The complaint against the SBI makes pointed reference to Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which both the United States and Israel are parties. Article 49 specifically prohibits an occupying power from transferring (settling) parts of its own civilian population into territory it occupies. Article 49's anti-colonization provisions are jus cogens, which means that they are mandatory norms of international law. Jus cogens violations are not political questions. 

As the complaint abundantly shows, there is no credible dispute that Israel has been in continuous violation of Article 49 since shortly after the 1967 war by engaging in ever-accelerating settlement building activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem. In the last ten years, the United States has reduced its loan guarantees to Israel by nearly one billion dollars in response to Israel's illegal settlement activities. The International Court of Justice has issued an advisory opinion confirming the illegality of Israel's settlement activities and the UN Security Council has issued a number of resolutions condemning Israel for these activities. 

It is well known that money obtained from the sale of sovereign Israel Bonds is used by Israel to fund its continued violations of Article 49 in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. On its Israel Bond website, the Government of Israel goes so far as to even promote its settlement infrastructure projects along with its official slogan that Israel Bonds are a "Bond with Israel". 

Despite having been repeatedly informed that money generated from the sale of Israel Bonds is used by Israel to violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, the stridency by which the SBI clings to its Israel Bond investments demonstrates that they are at least "purposive". This means that the Board is aiding and abetting Israel's violations of international law. Such aiding and abetting is itself a violation of international law.

The SBI's violation of international law also violates Minnesota law. The Fourth Geneva Convention is part of the supreme law of the land and must be regarded as part of the law of each individual state to the same degree as the state's own statutes. Additionally, the Minnesota statutes impose an express fiduciary duty on each Board member to invest "in a manner consistent with law." By aiding and abetting Israel's violations, the Board members are investing state pension funds in a manner not consistent with law and violating their fiduciary obligations to the citizens of Minnesota.

By investing in Israel Bonds to "Bond with Israel", the SBI has made an international law issue a Minnesota law issue. Under Minnesota law, the SBI's investments in Israel Bonds are illegal and Minnesota should immediately divest.

National Lawyers Guild International Committee

For more information and the text of the complaint, please see the Minnesota Break the Bonds website. 

This meeting will follow-up on our high-energy Annual Meeting in November. We will collaborate on a work plan for 2012. Proposed projects include:

• Ongoing movement support
• Technology projects like the website, e-mail lists & Facebook page
• Legal observation/support trip to Chicago, May 15-21, for the NATO Summit & G-20 National Special Security Event (aka roving police state)
• Events bringing students, lawyers, legal workers & the broader community together
• Attorney referral list

AND MORE!

We will also vote on proposed Chapter Bylaw Amendments. Please submit your proposed amendments to: querida42Luna@hotmail.com by DECEMBER 20.  

Paul Rusesabagina, the real life hero of the acclaimed film Hotel Rwanda will speak at William Mitchell College of Law 

The annual membership meeting of the Minnesota Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild will be held on Saturday, November 5, 2011, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in Room 230 of the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, MN.

All current members, potential members, and friends of the Guild are welcome to attend. Law students interested in establishing active chapters are their law schools are particularly welcome. Further information and an agenda will follow.

Join progressive and radical law students, attorneys, and legal workers for the 2011 Fall Social hosted by the Minnesota Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild and the National Immigration Project.

Since 1937, the National Lawyers Guild has sought to unite the lawyers, law students, legal workers, and jailhouse lawyers of America in an organization to function as an effective political and social force in the service of the people, to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests. This year, the National Immigration Project of the NLG is celebrating its 40th Anniversary of serving as a progressive source of advocacy-oriented legal support on issues critical to immigrant rights. 

This event is an opportunity meet and network with lawyers, legal workers, law students and activists who work in many areas, including immigration law, criminal defense, civil rights, and labor and employment law.

Refreshments and food will be available. An informal program will consist of short presentations about the work of the Minnesota Chapter of the NLG and how to get involved.

Wednesday—September 7, 2011

5:30—7:30 p.m. 

Law Offices of De Leon & Nestor, LLC

3547 Cedar Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN  55407

(612) 659-9019—nestor@denestlaw.com 

The Never Again for Anyone Speaking Tour
An Evening with Hajo Meyer
Tuesday, February 8th, 7PM
John B. Davis Lecture Hall Ruth Stricker Dayton Campus Center
Macalaster College 1600 Grand Ave, St. Paul, MN 55105

For more information about the tour and the speakers, go to www.neveragainforanyone.com or call 888.404.4267

National Lawyers Guild International Committee Webinar:
International Solidarity Activism in the Era of HLP v. Holder
featuring Shayana Kadidal, Senior Managing Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights

Wednesday, November 17, 2010
2:00 PM EST/11:00 AM PST - 3:30 PM EST/12:30 PM PST

Register online: http://nlginternational.org/webinarpage.html
or email charlotte.kates@gmail.com to participate
Activists and attorneys are invited to attend.

Recent events have raised many questions for international solidarity activists whose work challenges U.S. foreign policy. On June 21, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, upholding the applicability of the criminal “material support” statute to a group which sought to train members of a State Department designated "terrorist organization" to use nonviolent dispute resolution techniques and engage in coordinated political advocacy with them. As noted by David Cole, for the first time in its history, the Supreme Court ruled “that speech advocating only lawful, nonviolent activity can be subject to criminal penalty, even where the speakers’ intent is to discourage resort to violence.”

On September 24, FBI raids in Chicago and Minneapolis targeted international solidarity and anti-war activists as part of an investigation of alleged "material support" relating to delegations to Colombia and Palestine. The subpoenaed activists have refused to testify before a grand jury relating to the investigation, and are organizing against the raids.

The implications of the Holder decision and the FBI raids threaten a chilling impact on international solidarity activists, particularly in countries where political and social movements have been labeled with the "terrorist" tag, such as Palestine, Colombia and the Philippines. Join the National Lawyers Guild International Committee and Shayana Kadidal, Senior Managing Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, for an informative session about the issues raised by the Holder decision and its implications for international solidarity activists, as well as the work to challenge repression.

Register online: http://nlginternational.org/webinarpage.html

or email charlotte.kates@gmail.com to participate

Although being prosecuted in Rwanda as a "Genocide Denier," Peter Erlinder is a defender of human rights who has explicitly recognized the horrible massacres and widespread killing in Rwanda. The article below explains how the use of the law in Rwanda against Erlinder fits with a pattern of suppression of debate and political opposition by the Kagame government: 

Yet to properly understand the context of the Genocide Ideology Law, it is also important to understand the significance of the so-called "campaign against genocide ideology" that has recently been launched in Rwanda. Reports of authoritative media and human rights non-governmental organisations indicate that the legacy of genocide is being manipulated by the Rwandan government to suppress political dissent and opposition in a range of ways. Most significantly, this has been done through cases involving the crime of genocide ideology. According to available information, about 1,300 such cases were initiated in the Rwandan courts in the 2007-2008 judicial year, even before it was defined by the Genocide Ideology Law itself.11 Rwandan authorities have used prosecution, or the threat of prosecution under the law to trample opposition, including calls for justice for war crimes committed by the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). A range of Rwandan and foreign individuals and media organisations have been denounced as actual or potential violators of the Genocide Ideology Law.12 Most notoriously the BBC's local language radio service was suspended in the country following the station's feature of its weekly of a programme that was to include a debate on forgiveness among Rwandans after the genocide.13 Moreover, teachers and pupils at schools have been directly warned by prominent political figures that children "found guilty of harbouring the genocide ideology [can] be denied admission in any school in the country . [and] also be prosecuted in the courts of law when he or she turns the prescribed age".14 Such reliance on the Genocide Ideology Law in itself has had a chilling effect on freedom of expression, from political to juvenile speech. Furthermore, this Law comes in the context of a broader crackdown on the media organizations. Individual journalists are being imprisoned without any legitimate cause15 and media organisations have been targeted with suspension for activities such as comparing the current government to that which was in power in the run-up to the genocide in 1994.Full text at: http://www.article19.org/pdfs/analysis/rwanda-comment-on-the-law-relatin...By Article IXX, Global Campaign for Free Expression