During a war, political actors, human rights groups, and the media can use unfamiliar terminology without adequately explaining it — or even using it correctly. That’s especially true of the Israel-Hamas war and the broader historical context behind it.
To that end, Vox is writing a glossary to define and contextualize some of these terms, when possible relying on the accepted laws of conflict and international humanitarian law, or IHL.
We’ll include terms that apply specifically to the history of Israel and Palestine, as well as some that apply to conflict generally.
Broadly speaking, laws around conduct during armed conflict are found in the Geneva Conventions, the post-World War II agreements that form the basis of IHL. Customary IHL — principles either reflected in international manuals on the laws of war or in precedents from previous legal cases — fills in some of the gaps left by the Geneva Conventions or other treaties.
IHL in the context of the Israel-Palestine conflict is often difficult to understand mostly because the situation exceeds the concepts and language set out in the law, Laurel Fletcher, co-director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic at the University of California Berkeley, told Vox. That’s true for many reasons; one of which is that the conflict is between a nation-state (Israel) and Hamas, which is technically a non-state actor though it governs Gaza.
“What’s harder in this conflict is that Hamas does not follow the laws of war,” Fletcher said, reportedly using human shields and concealing their operations in civilian infrastructure in Gaza — blurring the lines between a legitimate military target and areas that must be protected under IHL — as well as deliberately killing and kidnapping Israeli civilians.
Another complicating factor is the status of Gaza itself — whether it’s occupied under the terms of international law or whether that occupation is not official but de facto. That “informs…
Read the full article here
