Justice in the Question of Palestine is often framed as a question of law. Yet none of the Israel-Palestinian conflict's most vexing challenges have been resolved by judicial intervention. Occupation law has failed to stem Israel's settlement enterprise. Laws of war have permitted killing and destruction during Israel's military offensives in the Gaza Strip. The Oslo Accord's two-state solution is now dead letter. Justice for Some offers a new approach to understanding the Palestinian struggle for freedom, told through the power and control of international law. Focusing on key junctures―from the Balfour Declaration in 1917 to present-day wars in Gaza―Noura Erakat shows how the strategic deployment of law has shaped current conditions. Over the past century, the law has done more to advance Israel's interests than the Palestinians'. But, Erakat argues, this outcome was never inevitable. Law is politics, and its meaning and application depend on the political intervention of states and people alike. Within the law, change is possible. International law can serve the cause of freedom when it is mobilized in support of a political movement. Presenting the promise and risk of international law, Justice for Some calls for renewed action and attention to the Question of Palestine.

Recommended on 2 episodes:

Ta-Nehisi Coates on Israel: ‘I Felt Lied To.’

In his new book of essays, “The Message,” Ta-Nehisi Coates writes about a trip he took to Israel and the West Bank in May 2023. “I felt lied to,” he told me. “I felt lied to by my craft. I felt lied to by major media organizations.” Coates’s essay is a searing portrait of Palestinian life under Israeli rule. It has also been criticized for leaving much out: Hamas is never mentioned. Nor is Oct. 7. Nor are any of the peace processes. So I asked him on the show to discuss what he saw when he was there and what he chose to leave outside the frame.

Books recommended:

• 📕  Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine by Noura Erakat
• 📘  Our American Israel: The Story of an Entangled Alliance by Amy Kaplan
• 📗  The Unspoken Alliance: Israel's Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa by Sasha Polakow-Suransky

Ta-Nehisi Coates Oct. 11, 2024 3 books recommended

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The Disastrous Relationship Between Israel, Palestinians and the U.N.

The international legal system was created to prevent the atrocities of World War II from happening again. The United Nations partitioned historic Palestine to create the states of Israel and Palestine, but also left Palestinians with decades of false promises. The war in Gaza — and countless other conflicts, including those in Syria, Yemen and Ethiopia — shows how little power the U.N. and international law have to protect civilians in wartime. So what is international law actually for? Aslı Ü. Bâli is a professor at Yale Law School who specializes in international and comparative law. “The fact that people break the law and sometimes get away with it doesn’t mean the law doesn’t exist and doesn’t have force,” she argues. In this conversation, Bâli traces the gap between how international law is written on paper and the realpolitik of how countries decide to follow it, the U.N.’s unique role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from its very beginning, how the laws of war have failed Gazans but may be starting to change the conflict’s course, and more.

Books recommended:

• 📙  Imperialism, Sovereignty and the Making of International Law (Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law, Series Number 37) by Antony Anghie
• 📕  Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine by Noura Erakat
• 📘  Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination by Adom Getachew
• 📗  The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them by Aziz Rana
• 📙  The United Nations and the Question of Palestine: Rule by Law and the Structure of International Legal Subalternity by Ardi Imseis

Aslı Ü. Bâli May 17, 2024 5 books recommended

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