In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Middle East

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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24 Jul

“What will Gaza become after genocide?” Nour Jaddah asked this lamentable question, and it is the one I tackle today. I do so for two reasons. First, nearly two years ago, Antonio Guterres bemoaned that Gaza had become a graveyard for children. Little did he know that the graveyard would morph into a killing field, with official death tolls topping...

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24 Jul

[Paola Gaeta is a professor of international law at the Geneva Graduate Institute and director of the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. Dr Etienne Henry is an independent legal consultant and a lecturer in international humanitarian law at the University of Neuchâtel, whose recent work includes contributing to the Geneva Academy’s research project IHL in Focus.] The weaponization...

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24 Jul

[Benazir Jatoi is a human rights lawyer from Pakistan currently living in Bath, UK. She has worked as a consultant with UNFPA and UNWomen, Pakistan.] A buried mobile phone, along with its owner, Refat Radwan, in a shallow sand grave has settled, at least one thing we have been debating for a while. That Israel’s Defence Force operates with immunity until...

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22 Jul

[Jasmin Lilian Diab is an Assistant Professor, and Director at the Institute for Migration Studies, at the Lebanese American University] Introduction The language of war is often wielded as a tool of obfuscation, sanitizing acts of violence and displacement under the guise of protection. Nowhere is this more evident than in the forced displacements in South Lebanon amid the Israel-Hezbollah conflict since...

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11 Jul

[Anna-Christina Schmidl is a legal advisor and Eitan Diamond is a manager and senior legal expert, both in the Israel & Palestine team with the IHL Centre] Introduction The smashed city stretched to the frozen river. International law prohibited the targeting of medical facilities, which explained why, in a city where eighty percent of freestanding structures had been flattened, the hospital still...

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03 Jun

[Melanie O’Brien is Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Western Australia and President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars. Javaid Rehman is Professor of Law at Brunel University of London and former Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran (2018–2024). He is currently Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University Law School...

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