Shields and the Genocide in Gaza
Year: 2026
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: Both the actual use of civilians as human shields and Israel&s;s efforts to frame civilians and civilian structures as shields have played a central role in the application and justification of violence in Gaza at least since the 2008–2009 war. Yet, following October 7, 2023, Israel has introduced three novel processes related to human shielding: the first involves forcing Palestinian civilians to dress in military uniforms and sending them into underground tunnels as human shields; the second is the casting of practically all civilian structures as ‘shielding’ structures, and the third includes the invocation of the shielding provisions laid out in international humanitarian law to indict everyone and everything above ground in Gaza as legitimate military targets. Ultimately, all of these different forms of shielding and, more importantly, the accusations of shielding have become tools for perpetuating genocide and for framing the genocide as legitimate.
Source: Routledge eBooks
Author: Neve Gordon
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6987228972