Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, January/February 1998, Pages 63, 119

In Memoriam

William Thomas Mallison, Jr. (1917-1997)

By Richard H. Curtiss

In addition to his close-knit family and his pleasure in teaching, Prof. William Thomas Mallison, who died of a heart attack Nov. 24 at age 80 at his home in the Leisure World community in Silver Spring, MD, had three other passions. Listed chronologically they were the U.S. Navy, international law, and justice for the Palestinians.

For Tom Mallison, who joined the George Washington University faculty in 1951 and was director of its international and comparative law program when he retired in 1987, the Navy came naturally. He was born in 1917 in Pago Pago, American Samoa, where his father, a 1907 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, was stationed at the time.

Tom Mallison joined the Navy himself in 1942 at the beginning of World War II and served as an officer on the USS Colorado through the Central and Western Pacific campaigns. He was severely wounded at Lingayen Gulf, for which he was awarded a purple heart. He was placed on the Navy Retired List in August 1946.

However, he never severed his connections with the Navy. While on sabbatical leave from his position as George Washington University professor of law he held the Stockton Chair of International Law at the Naval War College in Newport, RI in 1960-61 and again in 1974-75, and he frequently wrote or reviewed articles in Naval legal journals. At the time of his death he was working on a book about Naval operations in the Pacific during World War II.

With a degree from Vanderbilt University Law School and a doctorate in international law from Yale University, it was natural that in the mid-1950s, while on leave from George Washington University and working for the international division of the Atomic Energy Commission, he would become a principal negotiator of treaties with countries in Asia, the Western Pacific and the Middle East, including the United States-Japan Comprehensive Atomic Energy Treaty of 1958.

It was because of his specialty in international law that he was sought out by Rabbi Elmer Berger, then director of the American Council for Judaism. The Council opposed the claim of the newly created State of Israel to speak for "the Jewish People" everywhere. Together Rabbi Berger and Professor Mallison persuaded the Department of State to write a letter stating that it "does not regard the 'Jewish people' concept as a concept of international law."

Later recalling that first of many involvements in Middle Eastern affairs, Professor Mallison and his wife, Sally Vynne Mallison, who was his long-time collaborator both at George Washington University and in dozens of legal assignments on behalf of the Palestinians, said that the government of Israel "was really upset by the letter. It put tremendous pressure on the Department to revoke it," but failed.

Working closely with the late Rabbi Berger, who became their lifelong friend and confidant, the Mallisons subsequently convinced the U.S. Department of Justice that the American Section of the Jewish Agency was in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act because it had not shown information in its registration documents that it was acting as an arm of the Israeli government.

"This was important because it meant that the Jewish Agency's philanthropic entities, such as the United Jewish Appeal, were not bona fide charitable organizations," Professor Mallison told the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs in 1984. The Department of Justice made the Jewish Agency include the information on its registration, but later the Jewish Agency got around the requirement by reorganizing. "I think they're still in violation, and when I get a little time, I'd like to go back and do it again," Tom Mallison said in that same interview.

The problem for the Mallisons was that even after his retirement from George Washington University, there never was enough time. They regularly were called to attend international conferences, either as consultants to the United Nations or, in association with former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, as consultants to Palestinian or other organizations.

One of their favorite subjects was humanitarian law—the protection of civilians in wartime and under occupation—and this became the particular speciality of Sally Mallison. Together the Mallisons conducted a seminar in humanitarian law for the George Washington University comparative law program, in which Mrs. Mallison was a research associate.

The most recent of Professor Mallison's five books, some co-authored with Mrs. Mallison, was The Palestine Problem in International Law and World Order, published in 1986. One chapter of that book incorporated an earlier study, Armed Conflict in Lebanon, 1982: Humanitarian Law in a Real World Setting, published by the American Educational Trust immediately after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

Prof. Mallison's principal publications, most co-authored with his wife, were listed in 1987 in the George Washington Law Review, Volume 55, number 2. Additional publications since that time include "Naval Targeting: Lawful Objects of Attack." It includes an analysis of the Reagan administration's claim of Libyan attacks on Americans and the ensuing bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi, which was published by the U.S. Naval War College

Familiar as speakers, panelists or honorees at Middle East-related events before ill health curtailed their activities, the Mallisons also were honored by international law societies. After he attained emeritus status at George Washington University in 1987, Tom Mallison was awarded the "Outstanding Achievement Award" of the Washington Foreign Law Society "in recognition of contributions to the study and practice of foreign law."

In 1988 Tom and Sally In 1988 Tom and Sally Mallison jointly received the Human Rights Award of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and also the Elmer Berger Award for the promotion of human rights and peace in the Middle East.

A tall, friendly and consistently gracious man, Tom Mallison seemed never to lose his temper. He was always patient while explaining the Palestinian problem to often incredulous Americans, and U.S. political realities to often indignant Arab students and dignitaries alike.

Unlike U.S. "Arabists," seized of the problems and familiar with the language and culture of the Middle East from an early age, the Mallisons never had an opportunity to live in the Middle East. Yet, beneath the methodical and professional manner so essential to their credibility as international legal experts, burned an inextinguishable flame of compassion for the victims of a great historical injustice.

It rankled them especially that the Palestinians received little concern and no justice from the United States, which elsewhere strongly supports both the rule of law and international covenants which are broken daily in Israeli-occupied territories. In a personality portrait of this remarkable husband and wife team in this magazine in February 1984, then-editor John Law compared them to "a pair of white knights, tilting their legal lances." He also noted that "if you are on shaky legal ground it might be wise to duck for cover."

It was a time when defending Palestinian rights was a lonely crusade. Now that an informed appreciation of the problem has developed in Europe, and is increasing in the United States, Tom Mallison will be remembered as a skilled and idealistic attorney a full generation ahead of his time. Implacable in following the dictates of his conscience, he ventured where few had gone before him and blazed a trail for many to follow.

In addition to Sally, his wife of 57 years, in Silver Spring, Tom Mallison leaves their four children, daughters Marily M. DeWall of Lorton VA, Linda Mallison of McLean VA, and Sally M. Fitch of Naples, FL; son William Thomas Mallison III of Hendersonville, TN; and six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Donations in his memory may be made to The National Hospice Foundation, 1901 N. Moore St., Suite 901, Arlington, VA 22209 and to ANERA-American Near East Refugee Aid, 1522 K St., NW, No. 202, Washington, DC 20005-1270.