The demographic battle for Palestine in the settler-colonial project and the promise and peril of international law: A Review of The United Nations and the Question of Palestine: Rule by Law and the Structure of International Legal Subalternity by Ardi Imseis
The demographic battle for Palestine in the settler-colonial project and the promise and peril of international law: A Review of The United Nations and the Question of Palestine: Rule by Law and the Structure of International Legal Subalternity by Ardi Imseis
Israel’s atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank represent the peak of long-lasting settler-colonial demographic engineering strategies, which have fragmented Palestine’s social and territorial continuity and systematically undermined the right of the Palestinians to self-determination, with the aim of permanently annexing the occupied territories and subduing them to Israeli sovereignty. In his book ‘The United Nations and the Question of Palestine: Rule by Law and the Structure of International Legal Subalternity’, Ardi Imseis critiques the enduring failure of international law to secure justice for Palestine, which remains a ‘subaltern legal subject’ within the international legal order. He illuminates the origins of the Zionist idea of securing a Jewish demographic majority in historically Palestinian lands, laying the foundations for the latest genocidal campaign. This review contextualizes the book in light of the most recent developments on the ground, as well as the 2024 ICJ Advisory Opinion on Israel’s policies and practices, reflecting on the counter-hegemonic potential of international law.
Palestine, United Nations, demographic engineering, legal subalternity, self-determination, settler-colonialism
249-276
Pelliconi, Andrea Maria
fe1e2c12-1f03-41f1-9c0b-a3b69f330061
Pelliconi, Andrea Maria
fe1e2c12-1f03-41f1-9c0b-a3b69f330061
Pelliconi, Andrea Maria
(2025)
The demographic battle for Palestine in the settler-colonial project and the promise and peril of international law: A Review of The United Nations and the Question of Palestine: Rule by Law and the Structure of International Legal Subalternity by Ardi Imseis.
Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies, 16 (1), .
(doi:10.1163/18781527-20251368).
Abstract
Israel’s atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank represent the peak of long-lasting settler-colonial demographic engineering strategies, which have fragmented Palestine’s social and territorial continuity and systematically undermined the right of the Palestinians to self-determination, with the aim of permanently annexing the occupied territories and subduing them to Israeli sovereignty. In his book ‘The United Nations and the Question of Palestine: Rule by Law and the Structure of International Legal Subalternity’, Ardi Imseis critiques the enduring failure of international law to secure justice for Palestine, which remains a ‘subaltern legal subject’ within the international legal order. He illuminates the origins of the Zionist idea of securing a Jewish demographic majority in historically Palestinian lands, laying the foundations for the latest genocidal campaign. This review contextualizes the book in light of the most recent developments on the ground, as well as the 2024 ICJ Advisory Opinion on Israel’s policies and practices, reflecting on the counter-hegemonic potential of international law.
Text
The Demographic Battle for Palestine
- Accepted Manuscript
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e-pub ahead of print date: 3 March 2025
Keywords:
Palestine, United Nations, demographic engineering, legal subalternity, self-determination, settler-colonialism
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Local EPrints ID: 500109
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/500109
ISSN: 1878-1527
PURE UUID: 343096c8-8a21-41c0-ac2e-dbf8e63cf24a
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Date deposited: 15 Apr 2025 17:00
Last modified: 27 Aug 2025 02:17
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Author:
Andrea Maria Pelliconi
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