Dreyfus back in court
Bamahane reveals that four generations on, a descendant of Alfred Dreyfus who immigrated to Israel in 1992 is a judge in an IDF military court, 'safeguarding the rights of the accused.'
Summer 1906: Alfred Dreyfus, the former decorated French army captain, who had been nationally humiliated in a public court martial in 1894 was declared innocent and reinstated in the military at the rank of major. One hundred ten years later, Maj. (res.) Uriel Dreyfus, fifth generation of the dynasty, serves as a judge in an IDF military court, as revealed by Bamahane.
The two Dreyfuses were both born in the city of Mulhouse in France with about a century between them.
The original trial culminated in the captain's public humiliation and his ranks being removed and his being sentenced to hard labor. A long and public campaign in his support, declaring the trial an anti-Semitic sham that led to his eventual acquittal. Theodore Herzl, the father of Zionism, said that the initial trial, which he covered as a journalist, inspired in him the foundation of the Zionist idea and the need for a Jewish state.
Said Uriel, "The fact that Alfred Dreyfus was convicted with false evidence in a military court and now that I sit in another military court and safeguard the rights of the accused—it's come full circle."
He continued, "It's a sort of puzzle that comes together. I studied law in France, and I had it pretty good. I could have continued living there, but I wanted to be in the Land of Israel, in a place that we are the ones who set our own path. When I'm here, accepting a rank and serving as a judge, it seems to me to be a kind of destiny."
Dreyfus, whose grandfather was Alfred's cousin, was the first in his family to immigrate to Israel in 1992. Thirteen years later, in 2005, he decided to enlist for reserve service as a military judge, and he was awarded the rank of captain.
"In a lot of cases, they present Dreyfus as a kind of antihero, somebody who had the affair thrust upon him without fighting," said Uriel. "In my opinion, it's just not right—he fought for his innocence and didn't give up. People have done a lot with the affair, but not with the man himself.
"Most of the books that are written are about the Dreyfus Affair, and there are barely any biographies on him. There aren't a lot of streets in his name, and if they are, they're after the Dreyfus Affair. In my opinion, they're doing him an injustice. You need to remember that Dreyfus was also a person. I think that everybody has his past and his baggage, has his certain mission. Mine is in the legal field. I know from where I come, and the affair is always behind me."
