UK sends in advisers and arms

The appointment of Sir Daniel Bethlehem – one of two British lawyers (with Sir Jeffrey Jowell) brought in to help push through the human rights recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) report – was perhaps not the most sensitive choice by a government seeking to regain public support. Lurking on Bethlehem’s undeniably impressive CV is the fact that, in 2004, he defended (unsuccessfully) Israel’s separation wall at the International Court of Justice in The Hague; he was also counsel to Israel in its submissions to the Mitchell Committee in 2000-01, following the failure of the Camp David summit in 2000.