In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Middle East

03 Sep

[Mohammad Mishal is a graduate of the Advanced Master in European and international human rights law at Leiden University and has most recently worked as Academic Coordinator of the same programme] Introduction  In a 2021 article, Dapo Akande and Antonios Tazanakopoulos posit that when a state’s territory is occupied by an unlawful armed attack, the occupation continues the attack, allowing the injured state...

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01 Sep

[Christine Evans is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the law faculty of Lund University and a human rights practitioner/investigator who has worked for the UN. Nieves Molina is an international lawyer and former senior UN officer. She is writing in her own capacity.] This post argues that the current political situation requires urgent and critical reconsideration of the role that sanctions can...

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19 Aug

[Jinan Bastaki is an associate professor of legal studies at New York University, Abu Dhabi, and a visiting fellow at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford] On the 19th of July 2025, Keir Starmer, the UK’s Prime Minister, threatened Israel with recognizing a Palestinian state if Israel did not end the ‘appalling situation’ in Gaza. While the UK is effectively...

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15 Aug

[Dr. Mais Qandeel is an Associate Professor of International Law at Örebro University, Sweden. She holds a Ph.D. in international humanitarian law from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.] The Israeli ongoing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is not disconnected from the killings, torture, forcible transfer by Israeli military and settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. It is...

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14 Aug

[Greta Ramelli is a legal officer at the Public International Law and Policy Group and a legal advisor at Hostage Italia Onlus. Dr Mohammed Alkhalid is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Sapienza University of Rome.] Introduction  The capture of Damascus by HTS on December 8, 2024, occurred after a long and devastating civil war that began with protests against the Assad regime in 2011...

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13 Aug

[Isabelle Bienfait is a programme co-ordinator at eyeWitness to Atrocities] Two recent convictions of Syrian nationals for crimes committed during the civil war merit attention. On 16 June 2025, Syrian-born Alaa M. was convicted by a Frankfurt court for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed at several medical and military facilities. A few weeks earlier, on 28 May 2025, a...

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11 Aug

This post is the conclusion of a three-part series: What Will Gaza Become After Genocide? Using the Counterfactual Method to Evaluate Three Post-Genocidal Futures. You may access Part 1 here, where I argued that the genocide Israel is perpetrating against the Palestinians is central to the zionist ethos which, like other settler-colonial movements, seeks to remove the native from coveted...

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04 Aug

[Konstantinos Deligiannis-Virvos is a PhD Research Fellow with the Norwegian Centre for the Law of the Sea (NCLOS) at the Law Faculty of The Arctic University of Norway (UiT)] On 9 June 2025, the UK-flagged ship Madleen (officially the Barcarole), operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, was intercepted by Israeli forces on the high seas, approximately 100nm from Gaza. Twelve activists onboard were arrested,...

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04 Aug

[Melanie O’Brien is Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Western Australia, President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, and Visiting Scholar with the Human Rights Center at the University of Minnesota Law School.] Many people are asking the question, ‘is genocide happening in Gaza?’. The question was explored in the media in the early days after 7 October 2023...

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31 Jul

[Yaser Salarain is a lawyer and international law expert at the School of International Relations, Tehran] The protracted conflict in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) has consistently tested the limits of international humanitarian law (IHL) and, more specifically, the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (GCIV). Despite repeated UNGA resolutions and diplomatic initiatives,...

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28 Jul

This post is a continuation of What Will Gaza Become After Genocide? Using the Counterfactual Method to Evaluate Three Post-Genocidal Futures (24 July 2025). You may access Part 1 here, where I argued that the genocide Israel is perpetrating against the Palestinians is central to the zionist ethos which, like other settler-colonial movements, seeks to remove the native from coveted...

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25 Jul

[Masoud Zamani is a lecturer in International Law and International Relations at the University of British Columbia, Canada.  Amir Abbas Kiani is a collaborating researcher in International Law at Shiraz University, Iran.] The recurring exchange of lethal force and military operations between Iran and Israel gives rise to several urgent and complex legal questions within the framework of jus ad bellum. A particularly intriguing...

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