Hummus

On 30 March 2011, we had hummus with an expert on the politics and security in the Middle East.

by Filip Wejman

Wojtek sponsored a delicious treat of hummus, tahini and other delicacies at Tel Aviv. Our guest was Mr. Ryszard Uniwersał, a former diplomat (among other positions he served as the deputy Polish Ambassador to Israel).

We discussed how our negotiation scenario fits into the political situation in the Middle East, in particular as regards Israel and Palestine. We were looking for political arguments that might make the parties close the deal on water.

One of the background political topics which came up was the West Bank Barrier. The International Court of Justice said that in its 2004 advisory opinion that the Barrier is illegal. This was the occasion for me to point out to the lecture on the principle of proportionality that Professor Aharon Barak, former President of the Israeli Supreme Court gave in Poland. In 2007, he delivered the Marek Nowicki Pro Memoriam lecture. Here is the stream of the video. I highly recommend to our lawyers that they watch this material (Professor Barak mentions the Barrier for the first time at 38:10 and comes back to it at 1:29:50 in the Q&A part).