Assessing the Recent Response of International Law and Institutions in Palestine and Israel

The situation in Israel and Palestine raises some of the most complex and contested issues in international law. In the past few years, the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, and a U.N.-backed Independent Commission of Inquiry have all addressed various legal dimensions of the conflict, including the status of Israel’s long-standing occupation of the Palestinian Territories and its conduct of hostilities in the Gaza Strip. 

Just how have those bodies ruled? What have they chosen to condemn as violations of community norms and what conduct has been silenced or omitted? And what does all of this mean in practice, both as a matter of international law, for third-party States, and for the people on the ground? 

Joining the show to unpack how international courts and institutions have addressed the situation in Palestine are Shahd Hammouri, Ardi Imseis, and Victor Kattan. 

Shahd is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Kent Law School, Ardi is an Associate Professor and the Academic Director of the International Law Programs at Queen’s University Law School, and Victor is an Assistant Professor in Public International Law at the University of Nottingham School of Law.

Co-hosting this episode is Just Security Executive Editor Matiangai Sirleaf. Matiangai is the Nathan Patz Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. 

Show Notes: 

• Shahd Hammouri (@shahdhm)
• Ardi Imseis (@ArdiImseis)
• Victor Kattan (@VictorKattan)
• Matiangai V.S. Sirleaf (@matiangai)
• Paras Shah (@pshah518)
• Discussion timestamps: 
  • 1:49 International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion “Legal Consequences Arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in The Occupied Palestinian Territory”
  • 43:10 International Court of Justice South Africa v. Israel case
  • 1:05 Independent Commission of Inquiry 
  • 1:38 International Criminal Court Prosecutor’s Request for Arrest Warrants
• Matiangai’s Just Security article “We Charge Geocide: Redux” 
• Just Security’s Israel and Palestine coverage
• Just Security’s International Court of Justice coverage
• Just Security’s International Criminal Court coverage  
• Music: “Broken” by David Bullard from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/david-bullard/broken (License code: OSC7K3LCPSGXISVI)