Menachem Finkelstein was Israel'sMilitary Advocate General from 2000 to 2004, during the height of theSecond Intifada.
Finkelstein was born in 1951 and received anOrthodox Jewish upbringing. He passed the Israeli bar exam in 1976. He served in the Judge Advocate General's office in theIDF from 1973 to 2004, becoming aMajor-General. He presided over the judgment thattargeted killings were a legal part of thewar on terror. In 2004Hamas'sSheikh Yassin was killed under the policy. In July 2003 Finkelstein decided not to open a criminal investigation into the death ofInternational Solidarity Movement activistRachel Corrie, but he did open an investigation into the death ofTom Hurndall in October 2003.[1] In 2004 he testified before theKnesset's Law and Constitution committee and noted that "In all the fatality cases we have investigated, there has never been a single incident of deliberate shooting [of civilians by the IDF]."[2] He retired from the army in 2004 and became a district judge.
English :
His book : Conversion : halakhah and practice / Menachem Finkelstein [translated from the Hebrew by Edward Levin]Ramat-Gan : Bar-Ilan University Press 2006.This book was praised by Aaron Kirschenbaum and byDaniel Sperber
"Legal Perspectives un the Fight Against Terror – The Israeli Experience" 1 IDF Rev. 341 (2003)
"The Dilemma of The Military Judge Advocate – General", DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES and their ARMED FORCES, ed. Stuart A. Cohen, pp.175-183(2000)[3]
"The Israeli Military Legal System - overview of the current situation and a glimpse into the future", 52 Air Force Law Review. pp.137-167 (2002) (With Yifat Tomer)[4]
"War and Morality: Image and Reality", 30 JUSTICE (Winter 2002), pp.11-15."Conversion in the Age of Immigration", 19 JUSTICE (Winter 1998), pp.47-49.
