Rights groups petition Israel to stop sonic boom flights over Gaza News
Rights groups petition Israel to stop sonic boom flights over Gaza

[JURIST] Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups Wednesday filed a joint petition demanding that the Israeli Air Force [official website] stop causing sonic booms over Gaza, calling supersonic flights over the area “collective punishment against the civilian population” in a statement [press release]. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel [advocacy website] and the Gaza Community Mental Health Program [GCMHP) [advocacy website] petitioned the Supreme Court of Israel [Wikipedia backgrounder] to stop the sonic booms, which allegedly have long been used by Israel to mimic the sound of missile attacks and to frighten Palestinians in Gaza. The sonic booms have also been said to cause property damage. The Israeli military has made no comment on the suit. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Georgia became first US state to ban lynching

On December 20, 1893, Georgia became the first state in the Union to pass a law against lynching, making the act punishable by four years in prison. The statute was not particularly effective—read the text of the 1899 pamphlet Lynch Law in Georgia by anti-lynching activist Ida Wells-Barnett.