Advocate: Perceptions of Justice Activities and Extensions
Activities and Extensions
Step One: Perceptions of Justice
Begin the lesson with having pairs spend a few minutes interviewing one another to think about their own perceptions of “justice.”
Explain to students that they will be expanding their understanding of these ideas by watching several segments fromAdvocate, a documentary about Israeli human rights lawyer, Lea Tsemel, who defends Palestinians because, in part, she believes they deserve justice in Israeli courts.
**This interview is meant to get students thinking, it is not meant to generate “correct” answers.
Some questions they might ask one another include:
- What is justice?
- What experiences and beliefs influence your ideas about justice?
- What is the ‘right’ thing to do when you see an injustice?
Step Two: Examining perceptions of justice
Ask students “What influences shape a person’s perception of justice?
Explain to students that they will be learning about the story of Lea Tsemel, an Israeli-Jew, who has been a human rights lawyer since 1972. For the past forty-five years Tsemel has focussed her law practice on defending Palestinians.
Advocate is subtitled in Arabic and Hebrew with some English sprinkled here and there. Some students are comfortable reading subtitles while others may find this challenging. Distribute Handout One-Transcripts Clips 1 -3 so students can choose how they want to watch and understand.
To encourage active listening, after the conclusion of each film clip, tell students that they will be engaging with the film and transcript through several exercises.
After watching Clip 1: Have students underline or highlight different words or concepts that Lea Tsemel and the television host use to represent the same thing.
After watching Clip 2: Have students underline or highlight experiences or moments that you think might explain why Lea chose her work.
After watching Clip 3: Have students underline or highlight Lea’s moral framework.
Large Group Discussion questions:
- How would you describe the different viewpoints of Lea and the television host?
- Does their conversation remind you of any in your own experience?
- What can happen when groups have divergent opinions in a nation, in a family, in a community?
- What are the personal experiences that shape how Lea Tsemel understands justice and applies the law?
- Lea Tsemel believes that in the context of the occupation, she does not have the right to judge how Palestinians resist. Explain her point of view in your own words.
Personal Reflection:
- Think back to your opening interview, and yours and your partners’ ideas about justice. Did you see them reflected in either of the clips? Did anything you see in the clips change your answer?
- What personal beliefs and experiences influence your own ideas about justice?
- How should a society cope with deep divides in the way different parts of the population perceive justice?
Step Three:
What is the relationship between a nation’s law and upholding human rights?
Transition from Lea Tsemal’s legal work to Explain to students that the next films clips (Clips 4 and 5) raise the legal framework of human rights. Have students create a KWL Chart focusing on human rights and brainstorm words and phrases for the Know and Want to know columns.
After completing as much as they can on their KWL chart, transition and explain that there are specific national laws in every country that provide a basis for their court systems, and each country builds a legal code by drawing from many sources. The United Nations established this definition of human rights:
Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible.[1]
*Let students know that after they watch the clip, they will complete the L column after they watch Clips 4 and 5.
Distribute Handout Two: Transcripts for Clips 4 and 5 and again students can choose how they watch the film.
Screen Clip 4: A Big Problem in Human Terms
Introduce Clip 4 with a bit of background context.
Lea Tsemel is representing Ahmad, a 13 year old Palestinian boy who says he brought a knife to a market with the intention of scaring Jewish people. Ahmad ended up in an altercation where he stabbed a Jewish boy, who was seriously injured.
After watching, have students return to the transcript and underline key phrases that stand out, marking words or phrases they don’t understand, noting questions that arise and information they want to learn more about.
Clip 4 Group Discussion Questions:
- Should Ahmad’s age matter? Why or why not?
- Does it matter how Ahmad was interrogated?
- How do you think the trial might be different if the fight happened between two Israeli boys? Two Palestinian boys? If the Jewish boy stabbed a Palestinian? How do you understand these possible differences?
- Does it seem like Ahmad’s human rights are being threatened or upheld by the plea decision he faces? Explain your answer.
Clip 5: She Was Very Human
Introduce the clip by explaining that students with this background:
This clip refers to earlier cases Lea has worked on, and how she sees her role as a lawyer. Her work and commitment is described by her close friend, Palestinian scholar and legislator Hanan Ashrawi, who states that Tsemel is “the only one who recognized us in the Greek sense of anagnorisis:I recognize your humanity and what you’re going through.”
Watch Clip 5. (This film clip is in English.)
After watching, have students return to the transcript and underline key phrases that stand out, marking words or phrases they don’t understand, noting questions that arise and information they want to learn more about.
Clip 5 Group Discussion Questions:
- What does Lea Tsemel understand to be her role as a lawyer?
- Hanan Ashrawi describes Lea as “very human” in her ability to empathize with Palestinians, even those who commit violent acts. What is the relationship between empathy and the law?
- How do you see empathy in relation to human rights?
- Is there a limit to empathy?
Complete the L column. Based on their viewing of the clips, ask students to complete the L column of their KWL chart.
Step Four: How does Lea hope to bring about more justice?
In the final film segment the verdict to Lea’s two cases gets handed down. Distribute Handout Three and Watch Clip 6
Clip 6 Group Discussion Questions:
- What are your reactions to this final clip?
- What do you understand as the basis for Lea’s conviction for justice and belief in the rule of law?
Step Five: My Perception of Justice
Lea’s statement to the press is her way of communicating her vision of justice to other Israelis. Another way to do that is to write a letter to the editor of a newspaper. Students’ final assignment (may be assigned as homework) is to write an opinion piece for a local newspaper that states their reaction to Lea’s work, and their idea of justice.
Letters to the editor are usually 2-3 paragraphs long. The first paragraph should refer readers to the specific incident or article their opinion is about (her press conference).
The next 1-2 paragraphs should make original points about the incident, including evidence and references to back up their points.
Homework. Assign unanswered questions from the “Want to know” column homework, challenging students to find their answer from international law sources such as:
The United Nations and Human Rights Law
Human Rights Watch - Human Rights Education
EXTENSIONS
Learn More about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
“Making a Difference in the Midst of the Israeli Palestinian Conflict,” PBS Learning Media lesson for High School classrooms
Sources
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