Jonathan Turner Our friends at UK Lawyers for Israel have just issued another impressive newsletter chock-full of interesting information (UKLFI Bulletin No. 62) under the leadership of Jonathan D. C. Turner. Several highlights from the current Bulletin appear below: UKLFI BULLETIN NO. 62 Hope University Liverpool allows the truth to be told Mike Fryer of Christians for Zion has written to Jonathan Turner: I want to report some good news. Hope University have agreed this morning to our request to display an exhibition in the University which will give the true facts regarding the security fence. I believe this is a unique situation and is a testimony to the many people who wrote in support for our request to have this display exhibited but not least a testimony to the encouragement we received from you and David Lewis which helped us to press in and persist in our desire to see the truth taught in our communities. So a Big Big thank you to you for the time and advice you gave and to David and UKLFI who are such a blessing to all of us who work in the field of advocacy. In congratulating Mike, Jonathan noted: “It is good of you to thank us, but I think this success is essentially down to your efforts.” Which neatly encapsulates our aim of helping our activist supporters to be more effective in their work. Read the original report here. BBC Trust upholds complaint against World Service report on dialysis in Gaza Stephen Franklin, a UKLFI supporter, reports that the BBC Trust have upheld (at page 3) his complaint against a World Service report on “Dialysis in Gaza” in a programme called Health Check that was broadcast on 4 October 2012 and remains on iPlayer. The programme gave the false impression that the Israeli blockade of Gaza covers medical supplies (drugs and disposables). The Editorial Complaints Unit issued a correction to say that this was not the case “in the period under discussion”. The BBC Trust found - - Six months after the ECU finding was too long a delay before the note was added to the site - The correction was on a part of the page that was hidden unless the viewer clicked a “See more” button which might easily be missed and was thus not sufficiently prominent - By including the statement, “Gaza is closed”, without more, the audience was left with the impression that, because of the blockade, Israel is literally closed to anyone requiring medical treatment - Listeners would probably have drawn an inaccurate conclusion about access in general to Israel for medical treatment - The item was not duly accurate in how it reflected the complex issue of access to Israel for medical treatment - The opinion of an interviewee – that Gaza is closed in respect of access to Israel for medical treatment – had been allowed to stand as fact - The item failed to give due weight to a significant perspective in this controversial issue We congratulate Stephen on this important success. Conviction rates: how Israeli courts compare to others The Jewish Chronicle published (with slight cuts) this letter from Jonathan Turner: David Middleburgh (JC, 17 January 2014) expresses concern about the high conviction rates of Israeli military courts in the West Bank, where Palestinians are tried. It is good that these courts are open to the public and that detailed information about their work can be obtained. However, the statistics need to be put into context and can mislead if they are not. It is not unusual for criminal courts to have high conviction rates if guilty pleas are included. Israeli criminal courts within the Green Line have also had a conviction rate of over 99%, as have Japanese courts. Hong Kong courts have had conviction rates of around 95% and its residents wish to retain the legal system put in place by the former colonial occupiers. US courts have had overall conviction rates between 85 and 90%. Even in England, despite the inefficiency of the Crown Prosecution Service, the overall conviction rate was over 87% in the Magistrates Courts and over 80% in the Crown Court in 2008-9. A high conviction rate may be cause for concern or it may indicate a system in which prosecutions are only pressed in clear cases and then conducted efficiently. A full set of UKLFI Bulletins is available on the Members pages of UKLFI’s public website. UKLFI members can register for access to these pages. The organization also promises to consider registration requests from bona fide supporters.