Michael Sfard, Israeli human-rights lawyer, speaks out

JVL Introduction

Michael Sfard is probably Israel’s premier human-rights lawyer, tireless in his support of those challenging the Israeli government’s oppressive regime or falling foul of its arbitrary, oppressive and often illegal interventions.

He set up the Michael Sfard Law Office in 2004 which describes its work as follows:

[We have] represented human rights, peace, protest, environmental and animal rights organizations, Israeli and Palestinian activists, disempowered communities, and many private clients.

We use the law to fight the occupation, racism, apartheid, fascism, misogyny, xenophobia, and anti-LGBTQ hate.

We have served and continue to serve as counsel in hundreds of cases, working to protect Palestinian communities in the OPT, Bedouin communities in the Negev Desert and activists who found themselves under legal attack for their work to advance human rights, democracy and equality.

But now, in recent months in the West Bank, something has changed:

“I stare straight into the eyes of raw, brutal, arbitrary power.”…

“There used to be a phone number, a commander, an officer, a prosecutor, a legal advisor — someone who showed a shred of shame.”

“…now — there is no one to talk to.

“I find comfort only in the knowledge that the day will come when all of you, all who serve this machinery of evil — you will all have to explain to your children, to your grandchildren, and to yourselves how it was — that you failed to be human.”

RK

This article was originally published by Facebook on Wed 30 Jul 2025. Read the original here.