The report by the Commission of Inquiry appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to examine the events surrounding Operation Protective Edge was published on June 22, 2015. As expected, the report criticizes Israel, concluding that its military operations violated the laws of armed conflict and expressing concern regarding the possible commission of war crimes. In comparison to previous reports (such as the Goldstone report, which examined Operation Cast Lead), the new report is carefully worded. Yet despite the commission’s attempt...
On April 27, 2015, the UN Secretary-General released a summary of the report by the Board of Inquiry appointed to investigate damage to UN facilities during Operation Protective Edge in July-August 2014. While the report states that in seven of ten incidents UN schools were damaged by IDF fire, it refrained from blaming Israel. In addition, for the first time, the report speaks of the illegitimate use of UN facilities by Palestinian militant groups. The balanced and factual nature of the report, particularly as compared with the...
On January 15, 2015, an expanded panel of judges of the Israeli Supreme Court, in a re-hearing (CFH 5698/11), ordered the dismissal of Mustafa Dirani’s petition against the State of Israel for damages regarding his claims of being tortured by his interrogators while in custody in Israel. In this ruling, the Supreme Court expanded the customary common law rule precluding the examination of an enemy’s claim during wartime and applied it to members of terrorist organizations operating out of foreign countries, even if not in a formal...
On January 16, 2015, Fatou Bensouda, prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), announced her decision to open a preliminary examination of the situation in “Palestine.” The significance of this decision should not be underestimated, though at the same time this is not a surprise. Once the position was adopted that “Palestine” is a state that can join the Rome Statute, it was clear that a Palestinian request to carry out an investigation of the events would be met. Israel should respond calmly and determine the correct...
This book addresses some of the major challenges that contemporary conflicts, particularly transnational asymmetric armed conflicts, present in the context of international humanitarian law. Against the growing interface between international humanitarian and human rights law, it discusses the normative framework regulating such conflicts as well as particular issues concerning the law on targeting, such as the application of the principles of distinction and proportionality in scenarios of asymmetric conflict. The book defines the...
As Israel tries to contain the damage resulting from recent measures taken against it in the international legal sphere, the Palestinians and their supporters are pursuing a sophisticated strategy that employs legal and diplomatic tools in almost every legal or political institution in the international arena. Indeed, the past two weeks can be described as a blitz. It appears that the Palestinians are scoring political goals, while in most cases causing severe delegitimization of Israel. The gradual erosion of Israel’s defensive...
Three interesting processes are underway as a direct result of Edward Snowden’s revelations about the extent of the access by US security services to personal information stored and processed in the IT systems of global American companies. One of these processes is essentially technological, the second is legal, and the third is of a business nature. All three processes are designed to constrict access by American government agencies to personal information held by those companies, in their effort to preserve national security and...
The “Norms Law” that was recently approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislative Affairs proposes the direct application of Knesset legislation to Israeli residents of the West Bank. This bill limits the discretion of the military commander of the region, who is the legal and legitimate sovereign under international law, and subordinates it to the will of the Knesset. In practice, this measure will replace the legal sovereign of the West Bank and change the status of the region from territories subject to...
The Mavi Marmara incident, which occurred more than four years ago and involved the deaths of ten people, will not lead to proceedings against IDF soldiers by the International Criminal Court (ICC). In the wake of the complaint submitted to the ICC prosecutor by the Comoros Islands alleging that IDF solders committed war crimes and crimes against humanity and requesting that a criminal investigation be opened, the prosecutor conducted a preliminary examination of the events. In her report, the prosecutor wrote that while there is a...
Like all military missions, Operation Protective Edge raises several legal questions. The legal aspects of the operation are relevant to the deliberations of decision makers at the practical level as well as to the public discourse in Israel and abroad. However, issues touching on the legality of Israel’s actions are not synonymous with issues concerning the legitimacy of these actions in the international arena, and legal actions may still be deemed illegitimate. It is therefore important to distinguish between the two realms and...
Legal aspects play an increasingly important role in the international arena and influence both inter-state relations and the way states act or are expected to behave. A state that regards itself as a member of the international community must therefore address the legal aspects of its national security policies in order to be prepared for the legal discourse that penetrates the international political sphere. Understanding the legal context will also enable the state to exhaust potential legal measures available to it in the defense...
Following the abduction of three teenagers on June 12, 2014, Israel launched a campaign against Hamas in the West Bank that involves intensive activity on the ground, including searches, arrests, interrogations, confiscation of property, and other actions. The campaign is consistent with Israel’s obligations and rights to guarantee its security and the security of its citizens. To the extent that these measures involve arrests, there is a legal framework that regulates their implementation. Legal difficulty, however, arises mainly in...
