'We Must Not Make a Scarecrow of the Law': A Legal Analysis of the Israeli Policy of Targeted Killings

Abstract

The article analyses whether the Israeli policy of preemptive is permissible under international law. Law being contextual, the narrative framework that informs the applicable law is discussed first. This discussion of the al Aqsa Intifada, discloses the two competing narratives of the parties to the conflict and gives rise to various questions pertaining to the appropriate normative regimes within which the legality of targeted killings should be analyzed. The article proceeds to identify the international legal texts that may be applicable to this context and offers an integrative approach, suggesting that the issue should be decided in light of the interaction between the laws of war, humanitarian law and human rights law, as they apply concurrently and inform each other. This analysis generates the conclusion that some actions of targeted killings are justified; others are not, entailing state responsibility, and others still amount to a war crime, generating individual accountability.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 84 citations exist upstream.