Speaker: Dr Tamar Hostovsky Brandes, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Ono Academic College

Chair: Dr Maria Varaki, Lecturer in International Law, King's College London

On September 10, 2019, a week before elections, Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced that he intends to annexto Israel large parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OTPs). Netanyahu’s statements echoed similar statement she made in April, a few days prior to the previous elections in Israel. While dismissed by his opponents as an election stunt, Netanyahu’s comments received considerable international attention and condemnation.

However, a slow, incremental process of annexation, sometimes referred to as a “creeping annexation”, has been taking place in Israel in the past decade, much under the radar of the international community. While Israel formally applies to the OPTs the international law of occupation, this legal framework has been slowly eroded, in three main ways: through military orders applying Israeli law, through Knesset legislation that applies directly in the OPTs, and through court ruling that apply various Israeli laws in the OPTs. Combined together, these changes create a legal reality that is, in some respects, similar to formal annexation.

This talk is presented by the War Crimes Research Group in the Department of War Studies. 

The War Crimes Research Group (WCRG) conducts research and teaching on war crimes – understood in the broadest sense – and war. The Group is based in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London and led by Professor James Gow and Dr Rachel Kerr.