http://dx.doi.org/10.59704/1cd07c86a1c7eea4 https://verfassungsblog.de/occupation-as-euphemism/ “Occupation” as Euphemism Mann, Itamar ger 2025-08-13 electronic resource text/html ddc:342 Israel-Gaza War Israel-Hamas War occupation Occupied Territory Verfassungsblog Verfassungsblog--2366-7044 CC BY-SA 4.0 On 10 August, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gathered a press conference to explain an earlier cabinet decision “to occupy” Gaza. What he introduced, to the dismay of allied governments in Europe, was a military incursion on Gaza City and “the central camps and Mawasi.” Netanyahu promised a “non-Israeli civilian administration” and, in English, adjusted the earlier framing of the operation, which had by then been embraced and echoed in Israeli media: that plan is “not to occupy Gaza, but to free it.” Such rhetoric invites scrutiny – not only for the legal ramifications of the acts announced, but it also calls into attention the shifting uses of the word occupation in Israeli political discourse.