Abstract
This article scrutinises the Palestinian ‘smart power’ strategy of demonising Israel and diminishing its ability to defend itself against violence. The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) offered the best vehicles to execute this strategy. The article critically examines three Committees of Inquiry (COI) the UNHRC established to investigate alleged Israeli war crimes during confrontations with Hamas in Gaza. It demonstrates that the COIs biased mandates, selection of chairs and members, investigative methods, selection of evidence, and final reports were all deliberately designed to find Israel guilty of war crimes at the UNHRC and the ICC.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 68-88 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| Journal | Israel Affairs |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Funding
Research for this study was supported by the BESA Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University. The author thanks Raphael Harkham for his valuable research assistance.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| BESA Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University |
Keywords
- Hamas
- International Criminal Court
- Israel
- Palestinians
- United Nations Human Rights Council
- international law
- war crimes
