Palestine in a Time of Genocide : The Global Responsibility for Gaza (Crimes of the Powerful)

This volume offers examinations that help better understand how Israel’s genocide in Gaza was perpetrated, the role of global and regional orders in enabling the destruction, and ways to challenge erasure. Drawing on a range of perspectives—such as international law, anthropology, politics and international relations, media studies, feminist approaches, Indigenous and settler colonial studies—the chapters reflect a collective affirmation of the continued utility and importance of the concept of genocide for making sense of Israel’s destruction of Gaza. They provide a pedagogical tool for preventing revisionist and denial narratives seeking to justify Israel’s genocide. One chapter examines how a central way in which Israel has justified genocidal attacks has been through the international legal figure of the ‘human shield’. Another chapter draws on ethnographic methods with Palestinian survivors to map some of the direct and indirect mental health implications of the ongoing genocide in Gaza on children. A further chapter elucidates the characteristics of transnational constitution and complicity by examining the ways in which the global arms trade and patterns of military collaboration have enabled the commission of genocide in Gaza. The diversity of perspectives across social science disciplines will serve as a valuable resource for students and scholars of genocide studies, international law, international relations, Middle East studies, conflict studies, as well as for all those seeking to critically engage with the profound, global transformations that the Gaza genocide has precipitated.