Theodor Meron
The Guardian
What holds, and what fails, under pressure, standards and accountability.
Theodor Meron is a distinguished lawyer and international criminal judge with a profound history in addressing war crimes and human rights violations. This interview reveals his deep sense of responsibility to uphold justice, even when it involves complex and sensitive issues related to his own heritage.
“Well, first of all, let me tell you that being at least in part an optimist is part of a job description of international criminal judges. You cannot deal with those things, deal with those horrors that you see before your eyes, and lead and reach judgments which are based not on any prejudice, but on law and evidence without being a litt…”
“The sky says that fiction didn't even survive for a long time. After a few months, the government, and let me make it clear, at that time it was not a liquid government, it was a labor government led by a labor leader, Levy Schol. Decided to ignore it.”
“Let me explain that I joined the International Criminal Court in a way about two years before the Gaza war and the Netanyahu war. I was approached by the chief prosecutor, Karim Khan. And I said to myself, it would be a hypocritical if I, having spent nearly twenty years.”
“It really breaks my heart. I told you in a different context. Recently I started writing poetry and one of the poems which I have recently written which was published, I call it the pogroms, speaking of the memory of terrible pogroms against Jews in Eastern Europe and saying how horrible it is that Jews who for centuries were subjected to…”
Political Thinking with Nick Robinson — 'We need some daydreaming': lawyer Theodor Meron on surviving the Holocaust, and issuing Netanyahu’s arrest warrant
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