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1) Make a copy of the padlet to your own padlet account.

2) Connect each of the articles we've looked at to one of the questions and explain the connection.

3) For any unanswered questions, find an article - link it, and explain the connection. Make sure your sources are legitimate.

4) Submit a link to your padlet to the assignment folder on Teams

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How has this conflict shown the challenges of power in global politics?

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How has this conflict shown the challenges of power in global politics?

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What are the hard power considerations here? IDF vs. Hamas? 

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What are the hard power considerations here? IDF vs. Hamas? 

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How does the conflict relate to the importance of Hard Power?

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How does the conflict relate to the importance of Hard Power?

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How does the conflict show the importance of soft power? For both Israel and Palestine.

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How does the conflict show the importance of soft power? For both Israel and Palestine.

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Importance of structural/relational power: What role do Israel's alliances play?

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Importance of structural/relational power: What role do Israel's alliances play?

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What role have international organizations played in the conflict?

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What role have international organizations played in the conflict?

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How does it show us the strengths and limitations of the United Nations? The Security Council?

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How does it show us the strengths and limitations of the United Nations? The Security Council?

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How have NGOs been involved? Has their involvement been effective? What have been some limitations?

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How have NGOs been involved? Has their involvement been effective? What have been some limitations?

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What are the arguments for and against the legitimacy of Israel's actions in regards to Palestine. Both for the current invasion of Gaza, but also others, such as settlements, physical borders, restrictions on movement for Palestinians, and others.

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What are the arguments for and against the legitimacy of Israel's actions in regards to Palestine. Both for the current invasion of Gaza, but also others, such as settlements, physical borders, restrictions on movement for Palestinians, and others.

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How is the legitimacy of Hamas as the government in Gaza contested? What are the arguments for/against their legitimacy? By whom?

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How is the legitimacy of Hamas as the government in Gaza contested? What are the arguments for/against their legitimacy? By whom?

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What are the sources of legitimacy for the Palestinian government in the West Bank?

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What are the sources of legitimacy for the Palestinian government in the West Bank?

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To what extent does the international community see the Palestinian right to statehood as legitimate? What are the issues standing in the way for Palestinian statehood?

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To what extent does the international community see the Palestinian right to statehood as legitimate? What are the issues standing in the way for Palestinian statehood?

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What are the claims to sovereignty for both Israel and Palestine based on?

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What are the claims to sovereignty for both Israel and Palestine based on?

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How does sovereignty factor in the relationship between Israel and Palestine? Which groups have sovereignty in which areas?

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How does sovereignty factor in the relationship between Israel and Palestine? Which groups have sovereignty in which areas?

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What role have other countries played in the conflict?

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What role have other countries played in the conflict?

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The US has played a big role in the conflict especially with it being a big aid to Israel in terms of funding and helping Israel remain legitimate in its actions through its veto power in the UNSCR.

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There has also been a lack of countries aid in terms of no Arab countries wanting to involve themselves in the war due to the lack of support from their citizens. This lack of support from Arab countries significantly sets back the possibilities for Gaza citizens achieving peace and safe place to live. (can anyone govern gaza)

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International organizations such as the UNSCR have played a major role in condemning the actions of Israel and trying to stop the conflict. Despite this, none of these attempts have been successful.

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We are shown the limitations of the UNSCR in terms of the power imbalance caused by the veto power granted to the 5 main states which allow them to veto any resolution that has been put up. This significantly hinders any possibility for the Israel-Palestine conflict to be resolved and has made it almost impossible for any decisions against Israel to be made.

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On October 7, 2023, militant members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad attacked military bases and towns in southern Israel from Gaza, during which approximately 1,200 people-at least 845 of whom were civilians -were killed and over 5,000 injured. The militants also took hostage some 240 Israelis and nationals of other countries.

Israel immediately launched a massive attack on Gaza, a small strip of land of 140 square miles that is home to 2.3 million people, the vast majority refugees and their descendants from Israel's expulsions following the 1948 conflict. Israel began its occupation of Gaza in 1967, has maintained an almost complete blockade of Gaza since 2007, and remains an occupying power as defined by international law.

From the time Israel's bombardment began to January 18, 2024, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported at least 24,620 Gazans killed and 61,830 Palestinians injured in Gaza. Some 70 percent of the fatalities have been women and children, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health; the World Health Organization reported that, on average, 160 Gazan children were killed every day for the first month of the conflict. Also as of 18 January, 1.7 million Gazans (85%) are estimated as internally displaced. The UN estimates that over 500,000 people will have no home to return to after the conflict. Gaza remains under full Israeli siege, including electricity blackouts and a blockade of fuel, food, water, and medical necessities. 2.2 million people are at imminent risk of famine.

What the UN secretary-general has called " a crisis of humanity " is also a legal crisis. The current war and its history reflect a failure of the UN system to prevent and punish war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. However, the responsibility for preventing the gravest of crimes falls not only on the UN but the entire international community, from individual states to civil society-and it is the latter that must prosecute and punish such crimes when the UN fails to do so.
Robust rules of warfare, weak enforcement mechanisms
The Geneva Conventions of 1949 on international humanitarian law-the universal rules on warfare-prohibit punitive sieges and collective punishment, hostage-taking, torture, cruel and inhuman treatment, targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, and the forcible displacement of civilian populations. They require all parties to ensure that civilians have food, water, and essentials to survive during a conflict and guarantee that they can safely leave conflict areas and return home. Violations of these prohibitions and obligations are war crimes and can also be crimes against humanity or genocide, depending on their gravity and the perpetrators' intent.

The rules do not distinguish between political categories of the various parties-humanitarian law does not label a particular group "terrorists" and another group "lawful combatants." The same rules apply to all-a country's armed forces or any non-state armed group, including Hamas or Islamic Jihad.

A core international humanitarian law principle is that all parties must distinguish at all times between combatants and civilians and refrain from causing disproportionate harm to the latter. Further, humanitarian law recognizes the right of occupied people to use armed resistance against their occupiers to achieve self-determination and sovereignty in their territory. But the same rules apply to those using armed force to resist occupation as to states' armed forces. Thus, Hamas's October 7 attacks on Israel, which caused far greater harm to civilians than to military and police forces and involved the taking of hostages, constitute war crimes just as they would if those crimes were caused by a state's military forces.

A similar analysis applies to Israel's current bombardment of Gaza and its attacks on healthcare facilities that have caused thousands of casualties, the targeting of UNRWA schools housing civilians, and the massive destruction of homes and housing units. All harms disproportionate to the military objective-killing a relatively small number of Hamas fighters-are war crimes.

The UN and international community appear powerless to limit the methods of warfare, implement a ceasefire, call up UN forces to protect civilians in Gaza, or ensure accountability. Moreover, the current conflict illustrates a structural failure of the UN: the imbalance of power between a small group of states and the majority of states and peoples in the world.
Structural failures of the UN system
The power imbalance in the UN has deadlocked the governing UN bodies: the 15-member Security Council (SC) and the 193-member General Assembly (GA). All member states of the UN have an equal vote in the GA. In contrast, the SC's five permanent members have the power to veto any resolution, while the ten remaining members can vote but have no veto power. Therefore, a single UN member state can defeat the will of the vast majority of states.

The SC and GA have by now voted multiple times on resolutions calling for ceasefires in Gaza. On October 18, the US voted against 12 states to defeat the SC's first resolution for a humanitarian pause. On October 27, 2023, 120 of the 193 member states in the GA voted in favor of a ceasefire. The UN secretary-general invoked the rarely-used Article 99 to call for a ceasefire at the SC, once again defeated by US veto. On December 12, the GA voted again, with 153 states in favor, 10 opposed, and 23 abstaining-the demand for a ceasefire representing the overwhelming majority of the world's population. On December 22, the Security Council approved a resolution for more humanitarian aid to Gaza that fell short of a call for a ceasefire; the US abstained from voting in favor. Efforts to secure a ceasefire in the UN continue.

Because only the SC can authorize intervention to halt a conflict, a single member state can determine when the UN can halt war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide. However, the United States has used its veto over 30 times to protect Israel against past UN action seeking to halt its aggressions, including prior attacks on Gaza.

The same structural problem prevents the SC from referring a case to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Israel is not a party to the ICC, rendering it immune to prosecution absent SC referral or another state referring an Israeli national to the court for committing crimes in that state's territory. In the past, the United States has protected Israel against ICC prosecutions, going so far as to issue sanctions against ICC staff for pending investigations into Israel's settlements in the West Bank and attacks on Gaza.
Incomplete UN reform and individual state responsibility
UN member states have attempted to address these weaknesses through reforms, including the 2006 establishment of the Human Rights Council and the Universal Periodic Review, and the renewed UN-led commitment known as the responsibility to protect ( R2P). Another reform, the 1950 "Uniting for peace" resolution, allowed the GA to call emergency special sessions for the ceasefire votes on October 27 and December 12. Unfortunately, this process grants the GA no power to implement its vote.

These partial reform efforts leave prevention and accountability for the gravest international crimes in the hands of other international mechanisms and civil society. One important mechanism is the 1948 Genocide Convention, which requires all states parties to prevent and punish genocidal acts. Genocidal acts are defined as killing, causing bodily or mental harm, and deliberately inflicting conditions intended to and causing the physical destruction of an entire or part of a group. Any state party to the Genocide Convention can bring a claim to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

In the past, the ICJ has ruled that depriving a people of food, shelter, medical care, and other means of subsistence, systematically expelling them from their homes, and imposing sieges are genocidal acts. Prior to the October 2023 attack, Israel carried out ground, air, and sea attacks on Gaza in 2008, 2012, 2014, 2021, and 2022; its tight and continuous blockade of Gaza began in 2007. This longer-term targeting of the Gazan population-alongside ordering the evacuation of 1.1 million Gazan civilians, bombing those trying to flee, and depriving them of the means to survive-may also be evidence of genocide, according to the Convention's definition of the crime. Statements of genocidal intent are important evidence, such as Israeli government statements that Palestinians are " human animals"; Israel will deprive Palestinians of all electricity and water, and cause "only [] destruction. You wanted hell; you will get hell."

As this article goes to press, South Africa has submitted an application against Israel to the ICJ for genocide, requesting provisional measures, including that Israel "not engage in genocide." The 84-page application exhaustively covers the evidence of genocidal acts and the plethora of statements indicating intent by Israeli principals, including those above. Thus far, more than 50 countries have supported the request for provisional measures, according to South Africa, along with the League of Arab States and the Organization of the Islamic Conference. Hearings were held for this request on January 11 and 12, 2024, at the Peace Palace in the Hague.

The Genocide Convention is ultimately the most relevant treaty for the current moment. If the UN is unable to end the cycle of violence, the international community of states and civil society must use all available tools at their disposal-and the South Africa case indicates that they are willing and prepared to do so.

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The failures of the UN in the Israel-Palestine conflict

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Structural power imbalances in the UN system have prevented it from halting Israel's ongoing war crimes against Gazans. Individual states and civil society must step in to prevent further aggressions and ensure accountability.

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Israel's alliance with the US has allowed for there to be political and material support for the Israeli effort of ending the rule of Hamas over Gaza. (strange resurrection)

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Despite there being negative feedback in terms of the war, no Arab country has suspended peace treaties or severed diplomatic ties to Israel. (can anyone govern gaza)

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The conflict has showed how hard power is important for Israel to try and gain back control of the situation despite this most of its efforts have not gotten anywhere with Hamas refusing to back down. As of today, Israel has tried to cut off electricity to Gaza.

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'Cheap blackmail': Hamas condemns Israel's move to cut Gaza's power supply

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Hamas says Israel is trying to 'impose a new roadmap' and is using cuts to electricity, food, as 'cheap blackmail'.

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Human Rights Watch and Amnesty international have long been involved in the conflict and have tried to aid Palestine to the best of their abilities. Both these NGO's are condemned by Israel because of their work in Palestine. These efforts have not had much effect on the conflict. They have also been criticized heavily by the Israeli government who has stated that the NGO's are working with the sole purpose of receiving funding from international governments (the article I read had a lot of Israel bias).

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Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs

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View all posts by Prof. Gerald M. Steinberg

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The Role of NGOs in the Palestinian Political War Against Israel

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The Role of NGOs in the Palestinian Political War Against Israel

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The Role of NGOs in the Palestinian Political War Against Israel

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NGO's have also worked alongside the UN and Islamic blocs. They speak about the warcrimes and massacres the Israeli government is guilty of, which is again dismissed by Israel.

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Hamas is not considered as a legitimate form of government by many. Most importantly Hamas is condemned by many Palestinians especially due to their actions not representing the will of their citizens. Furthermore, the government is not considered legitimate by Israel. (what palestinians really thing of hamas?)

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Most states see Palestine as a legitimate state. Despite this, Israel along with the US support stand in the way of Palestine to be recognized as an official sovereign state.

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The arguments against the legitimacy of Israel's actions stem from the UN condemning Israel for committing warcrimes and often refer to their actions as genocide. It is also said that most of the settlements created by the Israeli government on Gazan land are illegitimate, since the land does not belong to Israel. (one of the videos we watched in class)

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Both claims of Israeli and Palestinian sovereignty lie with the cultural significance of the land. Due to the deep history of the land, Israel and Palestine are said to have a right to the land.

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There is a lack of sovereignty in the relationship between Israel and Palestine. Israel does not believe Palestine to be a sovereign state, specifically Hamas.

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Palestinians have not lost their sovereignty but at the same time they are deprived of it.

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Hamas has been using hard power against Israel since being elected by consistently attacking Israel while also killing gazan citizens who have aided Israel in anyway.

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It shows the importance of soft power, since there has not been a lack of it throughout the entire conflict. Gazans especially want to use soft power to reach a peace agreement as soon as possible. In terms of Israel, relational power has been key to maintaining their status in the international community with denial of committing any warcrimes.

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The Palestinian government in the west bank has had legitimacy through the support of their own citizens.