Name Leah Tsemel | ||
 | ||
Public Defender No.1 - Israel/Palestine
Leah Tsemel, or Lea Tsemel (Hebrew: לאה צמל), is an Israeli lawyer known for her work in support of Palestinian rights.
Contents
Biography
Tsemel was born in Haifa, Israel in 1945. She studied law at Hebrew University in the late 1960s. She is married to anti-Zionist activist Michel Warschawski, and they have two children.
Legal work
In 1971, Tsemel became an apprentice to human rights lawyer Felicia Langer.
Tsemel represented activist Ezra Nawi. An Israeli settler claimed Nawi hindered the settler from filming Nawi's assistance of Palestinians, and Nawi was convicted and fined. On appeal, Tsemel successfully argued that the area the Palestinians were farming did not belong to the settler. Nawi's conviction was overturned.
Tsemel represented student Salah Hamouri after he was indicted on two counts: for planning to assassinate rabbi Ovadia Yosef and for being a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. She advised Hamouri to plead guilty to the latter in exchange for a lighter sentence.
Tsemel is "nondiscriminating about her clientele...whoever they might be and whatever charges they might face" and is known for defending suicide bombers.
Activism
Tsemel criticized Camp 1391, an Israel Defense Forces prison camp for "high-risk" prisoners in northern Israel, stating, "anyone entering the prison can be made to disappear, potentially forever, it's no different from the jails run by tinpot South American dictators." Tsemel was a participant in the Russell Tribunal on Palestine.
She was a candidate for the Joint List in the 2015 general election.
Awards
Tsemel, together with Palestinian lawyer Raji Sourani, received the 1996 "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" award, the highest human rights award granted by the government of France. Tsemel, together with Palestinian advocate Mohammad Na'amneh, received the 2004 Hans Litten prize from the European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights.