Michael Sfard

Michael Sfard is an attorney who specializes in human rights law and international humanitarian law, and the author of ‘The Wall and The Gate: Israel, Palestine and the Legal Battle for Human Rights.’

Recent Articles
Residents of the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran awaiting the Supreme Court's decision on their village's fate, Jerusalem, November 20, 2013. (Tali Mayer/Activestills.org)
Only Palestinians can decide whether to boycott the occupier’s court
With Israel's Supreme Court greenlighting the forced expulsion of Masafer Yatta, the question of whether to 'legitimize' the courts has arisen again.
By Michael Sfard May 10, 2022
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a press conference about COVID-19, at the Prime Ministers Office, Jerusalem, March 11, 2020. (Flash90)
A coronavirus coup in broad daylight
As democracy goes into quarantine and surveillance of citizens becomes the norm, Israel is heading straight for an autocracy run by Benjamin Netanyahu.
By Michael Sfard March 19, 2020
Former Supreme Court President Meir Shamgar. May 19, 2011. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)
The judge who designed the legal foundations of Israel’s occupation
No one personifies the Zionist dissonance more than Meir Shamgar, the former president of the Supreme Court who died last week. He created the legal provisions for the protection of personal rights, while enshrining Israel's rule over the occupied territories.
By Michael Sfard October 24, 2019
Most Read
  1. ‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza
  2. Six months after October 7, a lament for the paths not chosen
  3. The unexceptional violence of Israel’s ‘Haredi battalion’
  4. ‘A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza
  5. Palestinian artists stifled as Israel ‘weaponizes fear and fame’
  1. ‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza
  2. Six months after October 7, a lament for the paths not chosen
  3. ‘The soldiers opened the way for the settlers’: Pogroms surge across West Bank
  4. The unexceptional violence of Israel’s ‘Haredi battalion’
  5. ‘A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza
  1. ‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza
  2. ‘A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza
  3. Even without a UN veto, Gaza remains hostage to American power
  4. Why do Israelis feel so threatened by a ceasefire?
  5. Six months after October 7, a lament for the paths not chosen