The Writing on the Wall Rethinking the International Law of Occupation

As Israel's control of the Occupied Palestinian Territory nears its fiftieth anniversary, The Writing on the Wall offers a critical perspective on the international law of occupation. Advocating a normative and functional approach to occupation and to the question of when it exists, it analyzes the application of humanitarian and human rights law, pointing to the risk of using the law of occupation in its current version to legitimize new variations of conquest and colonialism. The book points to the need for reconsidering the law of occupation in light of changing forms of control, such as those evident in Gaza. Although the Israeli occupation is a main focal point, the book broadens its compass to look at other cases, such as Iraq, Northern Cyprus, and Western Sahara, highlighting the role that international law plays in all of these cases.

Introduction; 1. The ends and fictions of occupation: between fact and norm; 2. The indeterminacy of occupation: from conceptualism to the functional approach; 3. Indeterminacy and control in the Occupied Palestinian Territory; 4. The construction of a wall between The Hague and Jerusalem: humanitarian law or a Fata Morgana of humanitarian law; 5. The securitization of human rights: are human rights the emperor's new clothes of the international law of occupation?

Professor Aeyal Gross teaches at the Faculty of Law, Tel-Aviv University. He also teaches regularly as a guest at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. His research and writing focuses on international human rights law and international humanitarian law. He has previously published a comparative study, co-edited with Colleen Flood, entitled The Right to Health at the Public/Private Divide (Cambridge, 2014).