Operation Protective Edge Research Articles

Review of Open Gaza: Architectures of Hope

At a time when Gaza is subjected to an unrelenting Israeli military campaign and forced starvation, and when the International Court of Justice has ruled Israel’s war aims violate Palestinian rights under the Genocide Convention, you would be forgiven for not turning to a book on architecture to learn about Gaza. Still, I recommend Open Gaza to JAE readers as a means of considering the role of architecture and design professionals relative to these events and their aftermaths. Borne out of the editors’ anguish during another major assault—the horrific events of Operation Protective Edge in 2014, itself just one of several such assaults in past decades—this volume offers a powerful and engaging, yet approachable, entry point into the subject, especially for students.

Review of Open Gaza: Architectures of Hope

At a time when Gaza is subjected to an unrelenting Israeli military campaign and forced starvation, and when the International Court of Justice has ruled Israel’s war aims violate Palestinian rights under the Genocide Convention, you would be forgiven for not turning to a book on architecture to learn about Gaza. Still, I recommend Open Gaza to JAE readers as a means of considering the role of architecture and design professionals relative to these events and their aftermaths. Borne out of the editors’ anguish during another major assault—the horrific events of Operation Protective Edge in 2014, itself just one of several such assaults in past decades—this volume offers a powerful and engaging, yet approachable, entry point into the subject, especially for students.

What Does Art History Have to Say About a Lebanese Sasquatch? The Body of Decolonial Struggle in Amanda Boulos's Art

Abstract This paper focuses on several works by the Palestinian-Canadian painter Amanda Boulos that communicate the shared desire of both Palestinians in the diaspora and Indigenous peoples of Canada to move beyond the normative identities of settler colonialism. Through co-ordinated social historical, formalist and iconographical readings of Boulos's work, I propose a shift in the discourse on global contemporary art, from postcolonial figures of the oriental, the subaltern and the hybrid to strategies of representation such as transformation, ambiguity and queering – a shift intended to foster alliances amongst members of BIPOC communities, against the divisive politics of settler colonialism in Palestine, Canada and elsewhere. To this end, the artworks are set in two interrelated contexts: one art historical and one more strictly political. Boulos's work is read in relation to that of contemporary artists dealing with postcolonial conflict zones, and Modern and contemporary Palestinian artists both in Palestine and its diaspora. Relevant political contexts for her work include Palestinian LGBTQ activism after the Second Intifada and the 2014 Israeli War on Gaza called Operation Protective Edge.

WAR CRIMES IN GAZA STRIP FROM YEAR 2008 2021: INDIVIDUAL CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY UNDER THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF ROME STATUTE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

From the end of the year 2008 to 2021, Israel committed four wars in the Gaza Strip. These wars were known as Operation Cast Lead in 2009, Operation Pillar of Cloud in 2012, Operation Protective Edge in 2014, and Operation Guardian of the Walls in 2021. The destructive impacts on vital facilities in Gaza, including schools, universities, mosques, hospitals, and United Nations Relief centers, as well as the killings of thousands of innocent civilians by Israeli forces, are visible evidence of a serious violation of the principle of distinction, a basic principle provided under the international humanitarian law conferring protection upon the civilians during armed conflicts. The accession of Palestine to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court on crimes. This paper aims to analyze the position of individual criminal responsibility committed during the above-mentioned wars, regulated under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and other relevant international conventions. In analyzing the data from primary and secondary sources, this paper applied doctrinal legal research and qualitative approaches. This paper concludes that the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court associated the individual criminal responsibility for war crimes by systematically determining the extent of participation, namely: (1) commission; (2) ordering/instigating; (3) assistance; and (4) contribution to a war crime as a group crime. Thus, Israeli military leaders ought to be held liable for the commission of war crimes in accordance with Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The pretexts of the Israeli occupation to be exempt from criminal responsibility should be rejected according to the state of legitimate defense.

OCCUPATION VS. RESISTANCE

The indiscriminate killing of Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip by the Israeli war machine, during July–August 2014, marked yet another phase in the long-drawn-out Palestinian resistance against Israeli occupation. The large-scale death, destruction, and displacement on the Palestinian side underlined a particular pattern of Israeli State behavior vis-à-vis the Palestinians in Gaza. This article argues that the 2014 operation, code named “Operation Protective Edge,” was but a part of Israel’s long-term, well-thought-out, and consistently pursued policy of crushing Palestinian resistance and eliminating Palestinian identity and nationalism.

Conflict, rockets, and birth outcomes: evidence from Israel's Operation Protective Edge

Abstract In summer 2014, southern Israel experienced rocket attacks from the Hamas-ruled Gaza strip on a nearly daily basis for over 50 consecutive days. We exploit this unexpected escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and variation across localities in Israel in the amount of sirens that warned of rocket attacks to measure the effect of conflict intensity on birth weight and gestation length among pregnant women during this period. In addition to the common notion that conflict intensity induces stress and anxiety, we show changes in prenatal care in response to sirens. This maternal behavioral response varies based on socioeconomic status, which ultimately differentially affected birth outcomes. While mothers ranked high socioeconomically likely had the resources to increase their prenatal care and shield their fetuses from the negative shock of sirens, mothers ranked low socioeconomically did not have these resources and even decreased prenatal care.

Responses of a Pre-hospital Emergency Medical Service During Military Conflict Versus COVID-19: A Retrospective Comparative Cohort Study.

ABSTRACTBackgroundDecreases in routine healthcare practices have been shown to occur during disasters. However, research regarding the impacts of natural disasters, pandemics, or military conflicts on emergency medical services (EMS) is scarce.ObjectivesThis study assessed the impact of a military conflict versus the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on a national EMS organization in terms of responses to overall daily emergencies, medical illnesses, motor vehicle collisions, and other injuries.MethodsThis retrospective comparative cohort study assessed daily routine emergency ambulance calls to Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel’s national EMS organization. This included overall emergency calls as well as those related to medical illnesses, motor vehicle collisions (MVCs), and other injuries. All data were obtained from the MDA command and control database. During the military conflict Operation Protective Edge (2014), the civilian population was subjected to intensive rocket attacks for 24 days, followed by 26 days of a progressive withdrawal of operations and then to a post-conflict period. During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (March-April 2020), the population was subjected to 32 days of total lockdown, followed by 27 days of progressive relief of confinement, and then to a post-lockdown period.ResultsThe total number of emergency calls in this study was 330,430. During the conflict, the mean number of daily calls decreased, followed by an increase during Relief and Post-Conflict with higher values in Post-Conflict than in Pre-Conflict. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a decrease in the mean daily number of calls during Lockdown. It remained low during Relief and increased during Post-Lockdown. However, it remained lower in Post-Lockdown than during Pre-Lockdown. Calls related to medical illnesses decreased during the conflict and during the lockdown. The post-conflict period was characterized by a similar baseline call magnitude but not during the post-lockdown period. Decreases in calls for MVC and other injuries were significant during the lockdown but not during the military conflict. Post-lockdown was accompanied by return to baseline call volumes for MVC, whereas calls for other injuries increased above baseline both after the lockdown and military conflict.ConclusionThis study shows decreasing trends in routine daily calls for EMS during both Operation Protective Edge and COVID-19. However, different patterns of needs for EMS were evidenced for medical illnesses, MVC, or calls concerning other injuries. These results are instrumental for managing the operational demands of EMS during military conflicts and pandemics.

Daily experiences and strategies for psychological survival during the 2014 assaults in Gaza: a retrospective analysis of chronological diaries

BackgroundPublic health research suggests that multiple factors contribute to the mental health sequalae of political violence, but the daily experiences and ongoing strategies of psychological survival during active warfare are not clearly understood. We analysed retrospective chronological diaries from Palestinian women in Gaza, occupied Palestinian territory, to explore their lives during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, when a series of aerial bombardments killed over 2000 Palestinians and left around 500 000 displaced from their homes. Methods20 Palestinian female teachers in Gaza were recruited via an intervention for trauma recovery 1 month after the end of Operation Protective Edge, in September, 2014. Following the experience sampling method, women were asked to chronicle specific memories and affective responses associated with their experiences. Data were imported into qualitative data analysis software, coded line by line, and analysed using content analysis, with special attention to the causes of mental distress associated with political violence. FindingsThe women's narratives included memories of exposure to bombings, injuries, death, and destruction of vital infrastructure and systems. Their experiences of flight were described as exhausting and demoralising. Their temporary shelters lacked their basic needs for sanitation, food, and privacy. These experiences resulted in intense terror, grief, exhaustion, hopelessness, and isolation. Strategies of psychological survival included reframing; trying to appreciate “being able to escape death”, a sense of solidarity within families and neighbourhoods, and pride and satisfaction found in a context of resistance and global attention to the suffering in Gaza. InterpretationOur results reveal the importance of tracing the events of warfare, its psychosocial consequences, and the distinct patterns of emotional and logistical survival in Gaza. This study was limited by the representativeness of our study population and the small sample size. Future studies should explore this topic in larger populations. Limitations notwithstanding, in drawing out the unique contribution of reflective narratives of women survivors of war, our study highlights the need to solicit and analyse reflective and chronologically grounded narratives within global mental health epidemiology. FundingNone.

Israel, Turkey, and the Turkish Jewish community in light of Operation Protective Edge

ABSTRACT This article examines developments within the Jewish community in Turkey during and after the Israeli operation in Gaza in 2014 and describes the political relations between Israel and Turkey and its impact on local Turkish Jews. It depicts Operation Protective Edge as one of the peaks of antisemitism in Turkey and considers the question of whether antisemitism in Turkey is related to Turkish-Israeli relations. This study contributes to the scholarship on the perception of Jews in Turkey in light of Turkish-Israeli relations. The paper begins by introducing minority discourse, and then describes the historical background of Turkish-Israeli relations, the perception of Jews, and the effects of the Protective Edge on the Jewish community in particular and on Israeli-Turkish relations in general during that period. Subsequently, the main findings are presented.

No Longer Turning a Blind Eye to International Atrocities: Reframing Foreign Officials’ Functional Immunity as a Breach of States' International Legal Obligations to Effectively Prohibit Derogations from Peremptory Norms

On January 29, 2020, an Israeli air strike proved fatal, taking the lives of an entire family, a twelve-year-old child the youngest among them. The airstrike was carried out as part of Israel's military operation, Operation Protective Edge, in the Gaza Strip, and despite the deaths of numerous civilians, the State of Israel alleged that the strike was committed in pursuance of official duties. Ismail Zeyada, whose mother, brothers, sister-in-law, and nephew all perished in the airstrike, initiated a civil suit in the Netherlands against the two former Israeli military officials involved. In a devastating blow to the victims and their families, the District Court of the Hague dismissed the civil proceeding brought against the former Israeli officers. The Court cited the doctrine of functional immunity as the basis for this decision. The functional immunity, or immunity ratione materiae, of these officials bars the prosecution of them in any state besides Israel, absent a waiver by the Israeli government. As such, the victims of the airstrike, an act that might amount to a war crime, is not one for which victims are being offered redress. Although domestic prosecution of the case before Israeli courts is theoretically possible and is not precluded by the District Court of the Hague's dismissal, domestic prosecution is neither likely to occur nor likely to result in fair redress for the victims of this atrocity. This is not the justice these victims deserve. And it is not the justice that international law assures them.

Neck injuries – israel defense forces 20 years' experience

BackgroundNeck injuries are an important cause of combat mortality and morbidity. This study's objective was to examine the characteristics and causes of neck injuries among Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and emphasize the best treatment protocols for the advanced life support providers in the prehospital combat environment. MethodsThe IDF Trauma Registry (IDF-TR) includes prehospital data regarding casualties treated by the IDF's medical forces. This study was a retrospective, observational study that included all casualties who were injured between January 2006 and December 2018. ResultsBetween January 2016 and December 2018, 3294 casualties were recorded. During the study period, 1% (41/3,394) of all injury casualties in the registry were isolated neck injuries compared to 94% (3185/3,394) without neck injury. 42% (14/41) percent of the neck casualties were classified as urgent compared to 26% (830/3185, P = 0.09) in the no neck group. The most frequent type of injury mechanism in the neck casualties was penetrating injury (54% 22/41), mostly due to shrapnel (68% 15/22). 60% of neck injured personnel were injured during the 2nd Lebanon War and Operation Protective Edge in high-intensity conflicts. As for life-saving interventions, advanced airway interventions were performed in 12% of neck injured group (5/41) compared to 3% (104/3185, P = 0.02) in the no neck group. We revealed that cricothyroidotomy was performed in almost 10% (4/41) of neck injured casualties compared to only 1% (19/3185, P<0.0001) in no neck casualties. As for damage control resuscitation, neck injury casualties received higher amounts of Fresh Dried Plasma 7% (3/41) Vs. 1% (32/3185, P = 0.02) and Tranexamic acid 15% (6/41) Vs. 4% (124/3185, P = 0.01) compared to non-neck casualties. ConclusionsMilitary neck injuries are a significant cause of substantial disability and result in incompatibility with combat duties in previously healthy soldiers. Prompt medical care, especially urgent hemodynamic and airway management, is paramount in these injuries. Routine use of designated neck protection might lower the number of neck injuries, mitigate their severity, and even decrease mortality. Level of EvidenceLevel III (Retrospective study with up to two negative criteria)

Permission to Narrate a Pandemic in Palestine

Permission to Narrate a Pandemic in Palestine

Protests and political violence among Arab Knesset members

ABSTRACTThis article seeks to understand the extent of Arab MKs’ involvement in protests and political violence over the past decade. By way of doing so, it will examine this phenomenon in four case studies: Mavi Marmara Flotilla (2010), Operation Pillar of cloud (2012), Operation Protective Edge (2014), and the passing of Israel’s Nation-State law in 2018. The findings reveal that, unlike many other protests in the Arab world, Arab Israeli protest in the examined case studies were neither based on economic inequality nor related to civil society issues but were rather a corollary of nationalist radicalisation. A dangerous trend of anti-Semitism was also detected among Israel’s Arab leaders.

The ground operation sent citizens into a frenzy: the rally around the flag effect during operation protective edge

ABSTRACT This study examines the rally round the flag effect during Operation Protective Edge, a war between Israel and Palestinians. Research has demonstrated the mechanisms by which military crises escalate, and the public perceives the threat, which in turn leads to support for government leadership. Forming the basis of this theory is Social Identity Theory; however, in the context of international relations, there seems to be little research that examines the mechanism from which Social Identity Theory causes the rally to affect the minority group. This is probably because, in inter-state and inter-ethnic conflicts, there have been few opportunities to access research information on situations where there is a part of a hostile nation or ethnic group within one state. Public opinion polls were conducted repeatedly during Operation Protective Edge, and Arab Israelis were included in the target population for this poll. Subsequently, the mechanisms that determined the attitudes of Arab Israelis during this Israeli-Palestinian military conflict can be determined. This study adjusted for covariates by using an Interrupted Time-Series analysis to infer causality of the ground war rush on the rally effect.

Conflict, Rockets, and Birth Outcomes: Evidence from Israel's Operation Protective Edge

In summer 2014, southern Israel experienced rocket attacks from the Hamas-ruled Gaza strip on a nearly daily basis for over 50 consecutive days. We exploit this unexpected escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and variation across localities in Israel in the amount of sirens that warned of rocket attacks to measure the effect of conflict intensity on birth weight and gestation length among mothers who were pregnant during this period. In addition to the common notion that conflict intensity induces stress and anxiety, we also show that conflict intensity is correlated with absences from work and lack of prenatal care. Results on changes in birth outcomes are consistent with a detrimental effect of stress and reduced prenatal care and a beneficial effect of reduced work attendance during pregnancy. Our results demonstrate that multiple factors can impact birth outcomes when evaluating the effect of armed conflict and that the effects can also be qualitatively different.

The Intersection of Palestine with Ferguson, Missouri

Is there intersectionality between the batt es waged against state-sponsored violence and oppression on the streets of Gaza and the streets of Ferguson, Missouri? This essay examines and compares events in Gaza called Operation Protective Edge to a police crackdown on protest movements in Ferguson, both occurring in 2014. The military action in Gaza launched by the Israel Defense Forces was a reaction to the murder of three teens in Hebron. In Ferguson 18- year-old Michael Brown was shot by white police officer Darren Wilson. The murder of Michael Brown triggered a national wakefulness to the ways policing affects communities of color. Brown’s death came less than a month after a New York Police Department officer used a chokehold on Eric Garner in New York City. The deaths of these two black men was a breaking point in a summer where telephone video and eyewitness descriptions of police violence drew national attention. In Ferguson, protesters rallied by the Black Lives Matter movement ignited the Ferguson Uprising, a series of protests where residents—the preponderance of them black, many of them working-class or low-income—called attention to questions that had long been present in parts of the St. Louis suburb: poverty, inequality, and police violence. The protests were met with police who were wearing elite killing gear similar to that of the Israel Defense Force. The Ferguson protests both added momentum to the national Black Lives Matter movement and generated offense from people angered by TV coverage of protesters who hurled rocks and insults at police. The end game of policing in Gaza and Ferguson is the same. The objective is to suppress the right to free assembly, expression, and association. The mission is to stop unarmed people from protesting against their oppression.

Gaza 2014 and Mizraḥi Feminism

AbstractWhat is the relationship between Mizraḥi feminism and Israeli ultranationalism? What is the relevance of gender justice activism to Operation Protective Edge (the 2014 Gaza War) and Israel's foreign policy? Mizraḥi protests dissipate and disappear when the Israel‐Palestine conflict dominates the headlines. This essay connects intra‐Jewish racial and gendered dynamics to the 2014 Gaza War. It tracks sequences that began with social protest and ended with elections that bolstered Israel's political right wing. In between came bloodletting between the Israeli Defense Forces, the Palestinian Authority, and Israel's neighboring Arab states. The 2014 Gaza War was a watershed not only for the Israel‐Palestine conflict; under the smokescreen of war, Israel accelerated neoliberal economic reforms. The first victims of this restructuring were Mizraḥi single mothers. Palestinians, however, would pay the highest price for Israel's Mizraḥi‐Ashkenazi rift.

Witnessing the 2014 Gaza War in Tumblr

During the summer of 2014, Israel launched Operation Protective Edge against Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip. The decades old conflict between Israel and Palestine flared up after three teenagers were kidnapped and killed in the West Bank by rogue Hamas members. The 2014 war left more than 2,000 Palestinians dead, with much of the death and suffering in Gaza witnessed in, through, and by media. This research examines the witnessing of this conflict by Muslim bloggers in microblogging platform Tumblr. It considers how bloggers in the space worked to make sense of what they witnessed, how they worked to advocate for Palestinians, and how the space made visible contestations over whose experiences, as victims and as witnesses, were most important for understanding the conflict.

“One Year after Operation Protective Edge,” July 22, 2015

“One Year after Operation Protective Edge,” July 22, 2015

Quality or quantity of coping resources: Why not both? An integration of common stress theories

Threatening situations may cause distress (e.g., armed conflicts, natural disasters, etc.) and provoke Psychological Distress and Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms. National resources may mitigate threats or damage in certain situations. This research suggests that in doing so, such resources deployed in concert with personal resources, may reduce levels of these symptoms. Two major stress theories are integrated in theoretical support of the role of national resources: The Conservation of Resource theory (Hobfoll, 1989) and the Cognitive Appraisal Theory (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). Hobfoll's theory is extended beyond personal resources to encompass national resources. We offer the case of the Iron Dome as an example of a national resource. Iron Dome is an Israeli missile defense system successfully used during Operation Protective Edge in 2014 in response to rocket attacks from Gaza. A cross-sectional study was conducted during the operation in the form of an online survey in which 910 Israeli civilians were assessed using a Psychological Distress and the Impact of Event Scale. They reported on their personal resources and perception of the Iron Dome as a national security resource. Our findings revealed that resource quantity significantly predicted Psychological Distress and Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms. In addition, it was found that the national security resource significantly contributed to decreased Psychological Distress and Post-Traumatic Stress Symptom predictions beyond all personal resources examined. Research contributions and practical implications are discussed.