Israel and Palestine- An analysis of the 2014 Israel-Gaza war from a genocidal perspective

Author

Shannon M. Culverwell, James Madison UniversityFollow

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Date of Graduation

Spring 2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Department

Department of Justice Studies

Advisor(s)

Sue E. Spivey

Tara N. Parsons

Terry Beitzel

Abstract

During the 2014 Israel-Gaza War, approximately 2,251 Palestinians and 73 Israelis were killed as a result of the fifty-one day long conflict. As the deadliest and most destructive conflict since 1948, the international community has widely condemned the actions taken by Israeli and Palestinian actors throughout the conflict. Despite international condemnation, currently the International Criminal Court (ICC) is the only institution conducting a criminal investigation into the recent conflict. Upon Palestine accession into the Rome Statute in June of 2015, the ICC opened a preliminary examination regarding alleged crimes committed in the occupied territory of Palestine since June 13, 2014. Currently the ICC’s preliminary examination has identified a variety of ‘alleged’ crimes which may fall within its subject matter jurisdiction. The United Nations and various nongovernmental organizations have exclusively referred to these alleged crimes as feasibly amounting to ‘crimes against humanity’ or ‘war crimes’. Due to the religious-national differences inherent to the overall Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there is reason to believe that the actions taken by Israeli and Palestinian actors were acts of genocide rather than ‘crimes against humanity’ or ‘war crimes.’ This analysis therefore seeks to determine whether the actions taken by Israeli and Palestinian actors during the 2014 Israel-Gaza War legally amount to genocide under international law.

Recommended Citation

Culverwell, Shannon M., "Israel and Palestine- An analysis of the 2014 Israel-Gaza war from a genocidal perspective" (2017). Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019. 367.
https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/honors201019/367