Israeli Assault Research Articles

Nakba and the US-Israel Imperial Regime

Abstract The US-Israeli genocide is best understood as the end game of empire, the culmination of failed Anglo-American and Zionist policies in the Middle East and, indeed, virtually the entire non-Western world. It is the outcome of a US-sponsored apartheid system in Israel, largely carried out by the IDF and other militarist forces in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza, and Israel itself and funded by American financial assistance and weapons transfers to the Israeli army. The threats of multipolarity to US/NATO hegemony, Britain being the major junior partner, pushed the Trump and Biden administrations, along with the British Tories and post-Corbyn Labour Party, to support de facto the “final solution” in Gaza and the rest of Palestine. This article puts the Israeli assault on the people of Gaza, the Hamas-led attack on October 7 being the main pretext, in historical perspective. It argues that it is a logical sequence of the pre-war Zionist idea of an exclusive Jewish state and US and UK post-war power politics in the Middle East and in two imperial states’ respective domestic electoral politics.

Racism as a Threat to Palestinian Health Equity.

Between October 2023 and April 2024, more than 30,000 Palestinians were killed, and countless others injured, displaced, and traumatized, in the fifth major Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip since 2006. Recent events, along with the trajectory of events over the past 75 years, demonstrate that using a public health framework could help recognize racism as a structural and social determinant of Palestinian health. Using the principles of health equity, we show how Palestinian health inequities are rooted in settler colonialism and racism, amounting to violence and oppression against Palestinian Arabs as a racialized group, regardless of religion or citizenship. Structural racism should be recognized as a driver of Palestinian health inequities.

Mitigating Risks to Journalists in the 2014 Gaza War

ABSTRACT Reporting on the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict poses a significant risk to the physical safety of journalists and other media professionals. At times of heightened conflict between the two sides, the magnitude of the risks journalists face increases exponentially. Journalists reporting from Gaza are particularly at risk from military attacks by the Israeli Defense Forces. In this article, I examine the practices of international news reporters during the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza. The data for the study comprise interviews with journalists and photographers who reported the war from Gaza. Particular attention is paid to the risks journalists faced during the war, as well as the measures employed to mitigate them. Such practices can be conceived as a form of resistance and resilience in an era of asymmetric war, which has seen risks to journalists increasing significantly.

Towards a New Arab Moment

Towards a New Arab Moment

The semiotics of visual and textual legitimacy in the 2014 Gaza war

ABSTRACT In this article I conduct a multimodal critical discourse analysis of news coverage of the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza by select British and South African print news outlets. The representation of the actors’ legitimacy is the theoretical framework used for the study. Interviews were also conducted with journalists who reported on the war for insights into aspects of news production that impacted their reporting. Textually and visually Israeli military personnel were accorded legitimacy. The Palestinian perspective was marginalised in addition to being de-legitimated. A key facet of the war’s coverage is the highly-structured reporting environment in Israel and Gaza. I argue that this continues to exert a significant impact on the work of journalists there. The article enhances current research on the analysis of multimodal texts using qualitative approaches. Important insights are provided about the manner in which textual and visual semiotic resources in news texts function in unison to convey or rescind legitimacy. The second contribution concerns the impact of the news production process in the coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The media’s role in legitimising Israeli violence is particularly pertinent.

Legitimizing military action through statistics and discourse in the 2014 IDF assault on Gaza

This article analyses the way statistics were used by select British and South African news outlets in the coverage of the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza. Taking asymmetrical warfare as their primary theoretical framework, we used a content analysis and interviews with journalists to uncover specific patterns and imbalances in the coverage. Within the text of the articles, we observed the way numbers served to legitimize Israeli attacks and de-legitimize attacks from Gaza. This can partially be explained by aspects of news production. Journalists described Israeli public relations as highly attuned to news production practices on the conflict. Taken as a whole, we argue that the use of numbers in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict can be conceptualized within an asymmetrical information context. In doing so, we emphasize the need to examine text as well as production when researching this war and other conflicts.

Gazze Şeridi ile Dayanışma Konusunda Türk Dış Politikası 2006-2016: Analitik Bir Çalışma

تتناول هذه الدراسة مرحلة حساسة مرت بها العلاقات التركية الإسرائيلية، وذلك على ضوء تأييد الحكومة التركية الجديدة بقيادة رجب طيب أردوغان للشعب الفلسطيني والتنديد المستمر بالسياسات الإسرائيلية التعسفية، الأمر الذي أثار قلق الإسرائيليين من جانب وعزز لديهم الشعور بأن بقاء حزب العدالة والتنمية في الحكم يعني بأن مرحلة "شهر العسل" التي مرت بها العلاقة ما بين البلدين قد انتهت بلا رجعة. هذه العلاقة أخذت منحى جديد بعد عام 2006 نتيجة الحروب التي الإسرائيلية على قطاع غزة، مما أدى الى انزلاق العلاقة ما بين البلدين نحو منحدر عميق، كانت أهم افرازاتها المشادة الكلامية التي جرت في منتدى دافوس الاقتصادي، إضافة الى التصعيد الإعلامي ما بين البلدين، وحادثة إذلال السفير التركي فيما عُرف بحادثة "الكرسي المنخفض"، ومن ثم الاعتداء الإسرائيلي على سفينة "مافي مرمرة" وأسطول الحرية. وفي محاولة لفهم تطور الأحداث وكيفية تعامل صناع القرار في الحكومة التركية ازائها، سيتم اللجوء في هذه الدراسة الى النظرية الواقعية في دراسة العلاقات الدولية، والقائمة على فهم المصلحة القومية التي تسعى الدول للحفاظ عليها، الى جانب فهم توازن القوة.

The Logistics of Occupation: Israel's Colonial Suppression of Palestine's Goods Movement Infrastructure

This article argues that Israel's colonial domination of Palestine's logistics and goods movement infrastructure (ports, roads, and supply chain) remains a central, yet understudied, aspect of both the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine and the broader Zionist settler colonial project. Israel's targeted military destruction of Palestine's key logistical nodes (Gaza's seaport and airport) coupled with Israel's devastating immobilization programs, combine to systematically disrupt and undermine the flow of Palestinian goods through a matrix of closures, security checkpoints, and militarized border crossings. Taken together, the systematic Israeli assault on the Palestinian logistical supply chain amounts to what we describe as the “logistics of occupation,” which not only suppresses the circulation of Palestine's goods but has directly lead to the simultaneous de-development of the Palestinian economy.

Repenting for What Israel Did to Gaza—Without Condoning the Wrongs Committed by Hamas

Repenting for What Israel Did to Gaza—Without Condoning the Wrongs Committed by Hamas

The Implications of Joining the ICC after Operation Protective Edge

Since the summer 2014 Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, the calls have grown louder for Palestine to ratify the Rome Statute and join the International Criminal Court (ICC). Palestinian factions across the political spectrum have indicated that they would support such a move. But in spite of gaining the status of an observer-state at the United Nations, Palestine has yet to join the ICC. While acceding to the Rome Statute and filing the application to the ICC is a relatively straightforward process, there are numerous risk factors involved. This article investigates a variety of possible scenarios and their likely outcomes, including the legal mechanisms necessary for acceding to the Rome Statute, and alternative measures that the Palestinian leadership might envisage.

Emergency preparedness and response of the Palestinian health system to an Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, occupied Palestinian territory, in 2012: a qualitative assessment

Background Although the Gaza Strip, occupied Palestinian territory, has been subjected to repeated Israeli assaults, its health system preparedness and response to emergency situations have rarely been assessed. The response of the health system to the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip during Nov 14–21, 2012, was assessed. Methods Data were gathered through review of documents, participants' observations, in-depth interviews with nine health providers, and a focus group of key informants to discuss the performance of the health system in response to the Israeli military attack during Nov 14–21, 2012. Written transcripts were analysed with an emerging-themes method. A series of discussion meetings were held to triangulate the findings. We obtained verbal informed consent from participants and health providers. Findings The violent events of past decades have affected the capacities and vulnerabilities of the health system in the Gaza Strip for dealing with emergency situations. Different health stakeholders have improved their preparedness because of their experiences. The health facilities—namely, hospitals—are barely adequate for dealing with the regular situations. Although hospitals increased their capacity during emergency situations by discharging patients and suspending regular operations, the burden of casualties was not equitably distributed between them. Not all primary health-care services were operational during the attacks, implying that the delivery of health services, in the event of wider assaults, could be a challenge. The capacity and the performance of human resources in response to most of the emergencies were adequate, making it possible to overcome various logistical deficiencies, inadequate training, and suboptimal organisation of work. Interpretation The latest assault on the Gaza Strip showed that the emergency preparedness of the Palestinian health system had improved compared with that during previous assaults. This improved preparedness, however, still has shortcomings that could be addressed with further interventions. However, the focus on the Palestinian health system increasing its capacity and reducing its vulnerability is of little use and a short-term solution. The best form of preparedness for an avoidable emergency is to stop the Israeli violence and end the isolation of the Gaza Strip through international efforts. Funding None.

“The Ships Must Sail on Time”: Histories of Longshore Workers and Why Their Unions Still Matter

Before dawn on Sunday morning, June 20, 2010, upwards of one thousand people gathered near the Port of Oakland, an industrial, sometimes barren section of west Oakland. They then converged on four gates operated by the Stevedore Services of America, one of the main shipping companies on the US Pacific coast and in the world. The protesters were awaiting the arrival of an Israeli cargo vessel in order to protest Israel's ongoing blockade of the Palestinian residents of Gaza as well as the recent Israeli assault on Turkish vessels in the Mediterranean that had resulted in the deaths of nine civilians, part of an international group sympathetic to the Gaza Palestinians. For hours activists protested, including a chant that referenced both the Wobblies and antiapartheid struggle: “An injury to one is an injury to all, bring down the apartheid wall.” Crucially—and not coincidentally—members of Local 10 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) refused to cross this picket line, citing safety reasons. After several hours of negotiations, an arbitrator agreed with the ILWU members that the situation could cause harm to the workers, who therefore could not be punished for not unloading the vessel. Subsequently, the Zim (Israeli shipping line) vessel departed from San Francisco Bay, looking to be unloaded in nearby Monterey Bay. Simultaneously, dock unions in Norway, South Africa, Sweden, and Turkey—all members of The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF)—also announced that they would join the “Boycott against Israel campaign.” These dramatic, militant, and overtly political actions by longshore workers across the globe are not unprecedented—at least for union dockers—though they are almost unheard of in the twenty-first century for other sorts of workers on any continent.

The scales of occupation: ‘Operation Cast Lead’ and the targeting of the Gaza Strip

This article analyses the role of scalar politics in the 22-day Israeli assault on the occupied Gaza Strip that happened in the winter of 2008–9, and argues that practices of organizing and representing different kinds of scale have helped normalize occupation violence. Israeli regulatory mechanisms and a variety of scalar narratives of the occupied Palestinian territory constructed geographical, material and sensorial aspects of space and scale in a way that allowed the Israeli ‘Operation Cast Lead’ to stand out as anomalous, when it was in fact part of an ongoing, systematic military occupation. The ways that space and scale have been constructed throughout the occupied Palestinian territory in many ways echo modes of fragmentation and social segregation that enable forms of violence seen in enclaved cities around the globe. The Palestinian case calls for additional attention to the imbrication of different kinds of scale – density, distance, time and destruction – as they are shaped militarily and discursively.

Hostis Humani Generis

Previous articleNext article No AccessHostis Humani GenerisJody GreeneJody Greene Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Critical Inquiry Volume 34, Number 4Summer 2008 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/592540 Views: 216Total views on this site Citations: 7Citations are reported from Crossref © 2008 by The University of Chicago. 0093-1896/08/3404-0003$10.00. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Ayodele Akenroye, Kamari Maxine Clarke Deconstructing the Complexities of Violence, (Aug 2022): 78–112.https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009110693.005Laura McHale More on the Neuroscience of Words, (Jan 2022): 85–96.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-7037-4_9Alexandra Ganser Cultural Constructions of Piracy During the Crisis Over Slavery, (Aug 2020): 173–252.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43623-0_4Christian Olsson , Critical Military Studies 5, no.44 ( 2019): 359.https://doi.org/10.1080/23337486.2019.1622261Damien Rogers , ( 2018): 1.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60994-2_1Amedeo Policante The new pirate wars: the world market as imperial formation, Global Discourse 3, no.11 (Mar 2013): 52–71.https://doi.org/10.1080/23269995.2013.804760 백준걸 Piratical Ahab: Moby-Dick, English & American Cultural Studies 11, no.11 (Apr 2011): 129–159.https://doi.org/10.15839/eacs.11.1.201104.129