13 August 2025
“Occupation” as Euphemism
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. Continue reading >>
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12 October 2024
The Functional Approach as Lex Lata
The ICJ has de facto adopted the functional approach to occupation with regard to Gaza. The Opinion is thus a critical point in the development of the law of occupation, in that it transcends a binary approach to the question of the existence of occupation, in favour of a more nuanced approach that enables holding that a territory is occupied, but not in an “all or nothing” way. More generally, the Opinion as rejects a more restrictive approach to the question of whether occupation exists in a territory or not in favour of a more flexible approach. Continue reading >>
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03 April 2024
Apartheid in the Occupied Palestinian Territory?
The apartheid claim made against Israel because of its policy in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) – most recently in the ongoing advisory proceedings before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – cannot be settled with the counter-claim of antisemitism, but calls for an objective, thorough and fact-based legal inquiry. Only such an approach with regard to this and other allegations against Israeli policy will strengthen Israel, understood as a liberal and democratic Rechtsstaat, which guarantees, in line with its 1948 Declaration of Independence, “complete equality” to “all its inhabitants”. Continue reading >>21 February 2023
Israel’s New Citizenship Deprivation-Deportation Pipeline
Buried in the news on the Israeli Knesset’s judicial reform plans are two bills that substantially increase the government’s power to deprive citizenship and subsequently deport Palestinian citizens convicted of terrorism offences and their family members. One already passed into law last Wednesday, while the one targeting their family members is still making its way through committees. In this blog post we survey and evaluate the rationales used to justify these newly assumed powers and set out why their current design is so insidious. Continue reading >>
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