Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 10:48:10 +0100
Subject: Re: HAB: Petition for International Investigation Committee on



Dear list members!

I find the call for an investigation of Ariel Sharons participation in the 1982
massacres in Lebanon quite in its place. It woulkd of course be even more
important to adress the possible war criminals of really powerful nations such
as the US officials involved in the Vietnam, Kuwaiti and Kosovan wars; the USSR
officials responsibile for the atrocities in Afghanistan and Tchechnya; the
French responsible for the terror in Algeria; the Chinese responsible for
similar actions in Tibet and so on and so forth. But we have to start
somewhere.

I was nevertheless quite discouraged when it turned out that the signatures of
the petition could not be read. A comment explaining that e-mail adresses would
not be displayed because of the fear of abuse by a current virus did not
satisfy me. In my opinion at least the names must be there to secure the
legitimacy of the petition. I therefore mailed the ediotrs of the site the
following comment:
THE FOLLOWING COMMENT PRESUMES THAT THE RELEVANCE OF MY COMPLAINT DOES NOT REST
ON SOME TECHNICAL PROBLEM RELATING TO YOUR SITE OR MY BROWSER:

Petition signatures must be publicized!

I seriously considered signing the petition calling for an investigation of the
role of former Israeli defence minister Ariel Sharon in the 1982 massacre of
refugees at the Shabra and Shatila Camps in Lebanon. The format of the petition
convinced me that providing such a signature would not be right, however. Let
me explain why:

The public display of signatures is not merely a normal design of petitions, it
provides the only force it carries. As opposed to an anonymous poll, which
indicates the extention of a certain sentiment or opinion, a petition expresses
a demand which the particular signers declare themselves responsible for
holding and willing to account for. The moral force of a petition as opposed to
a poll rests solely on the fact that indivdual signatures can be identified.

To distribute a petition where individual signatures are absent or hidden is to
blur this distinction and dilute the moral force of the petition. Without
individual signatures pointing to moral persons that can be adressed and
critizied for their actions, the accountability for adding to the force of the
petition is lost. In fact, when the signers cannot be addressed individually,
the heading "petition" has become a gross misnomer. The demand expressed then
carries the same force as a masked mob in the street. I will not join such a
masked mob, regardless of the merits of the demands they make. 

Therefore I urge you to make all signatures for your petitions visible, and
preferably on a list that does not require the reader to click on each singel
signature to see it. The display of e-mail adresses should not be necessary, as
this could encourage spamming or other forms of abuse. But an indication of the
place of residence, or some other information making it possible to adress the
individual signer through public media, is absolutely necessary.

Sincerely yours,

Iver =D8rstavik

University lecturer in moral and political philosophy,
University of Bergen,
Norway

If you agree with me on this point, why not endorse my comments? After all,
such petitions are an interesting and possibly powerful political use of the
internet. It allows a many-to-many relation to supplement the one-to-many
format of traditional media, and may therefore contribute to bring the mass
media in close proximity with public discourse. If misused, however, it will
contribute to undermine public discourse even more. 

Greetings from

Iver

At 22:12 14.03.02 -0300, you wrote:
>
> 
>
> Dear Friends,
>
> I have just read and signed the online petition:
>
>    "A Petition for International Investigation Committee on Ariel Sharon=92s
> crimes against humanity"
>
> hosted on the web by PetitionOnline.com, the free online petition
> service, at:
>
>  
> <http://www.petitiononline.com/warcrime/>http://www.PetitionOnline.com/war
> crime/
>
> I personally agree with what this petition says, and I think you might
> agree, too.  If you can spare a moment, please take a look, and consider
> signing yourself.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Raul A Rodriguez
>
>



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E-mail: iver.orstavik-AT-svt.uib.no
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