Israel and International Law

Abstract

The Israeli-Palestinian dispute ranks among the most emotionally and widely discussed conflicts in contemporary international law. Besides political debates over who is to blame for what and who ultimately bears the responsibility for this decade-long tragedy as well as historical questions regarding the rightful owner of the “Holy Land”, it poses a variety of difficult and therefore interesting legal questions such as the territorial characterisation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the right of self-defence against irregular combatants operating from these territories to the oftentimes unresolvable issue of proportionality in asymmetric warfare. Aiming at providing a small insight into these topics, this paper is divided into three distinctive chapters; each one of them will start with a short introduction into the state of law in the respective field and then further elaborate on Israel’s position, while contrasting it with the findings of international lawyers, the International Court of Justice, non-governmental groups, and UN reports.

Keywords: International Law, Law of Armed Conflict, Occupation, Use of Force, UN, United Nations, Palestine, Israel, International Humanitarian Law