 | |
| Author | Norman Finkelstein |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Gaza Strip |
| Publisher | University of California Press |
Publication date | January 2018 |
| Pages | 440 |
| ISBN | 978-0-520-29571-1 |
Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom is a book about the Gaza Strip by the American political scientist and activist Norman Finkelstein. It was published in 2018 by the University of California Press. [1]
The preface of the book begins with:
This book is not about Gaza. It is about what has been done to Gaza. It is fashionable nowadays to speak of a victim’s agency. But one must be realistic about the constraints imposed on such agency by objective circumstance.
The book briefly covers basic historical background leading to the political and economic situation in Gaza today. Finkelstein describes Israeli policies towards the occupied territories and the role those policies played in the peace process. The title of the second chapter is "Deterring Arabs, Deterring Peace", alluding to the Israeli policies of establishing a large military deterrence capacity and fending off so-called Palestinian "peace offensives" [lower-alpha 1] .
The book then gives individual attention to Israel's military operations in Gaza since 2008, most notably Operation Cast Lead of 2008–2009, Operation Pillar of Defense of 2012 and Operation Protective Edge of 2014. The Goldstone Report is also discussed in detail along with its impact and Judge Goldstone's followup statement. In addition, the book also describes the raid of the Mavi Marmara, in detail along with the Israeli Turkel report and the UN Panel of Inquiry report, both which he describes as a white-wash.
Finkelstein argues that Israel's actions are in clear violation of international law. He argues that the promises of international law and the concept of human rights, represented by organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations Human Rights Council, have failed in the case of Gaza. [2] [1]
The book is divided into 4 parts.
The appendix of the book contains an analysis of the legality of the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank.
Nubar Hovsepian wrote in the Journal of Palestine Studies that the book is "overwhelming, but a must-read nevertheless". [2] Publishers Weekly highlighted the amount of documentation the book uses to support its content and wrote that "readers with fixed positions, either in agreement or disagreement with Finkelstein, will find much to engage with here". [1]
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Ian Martin is an English human rights activist/advisor and sometime United Nations official. His most recent UN assignment was as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya. From 2015 to 2018 he was Executive Director of Security Council Report.
Israel's policies and actions in its ongoing occupation and administration of the Palestinian territories have drawn accusations that it is committing the crime of apartheid. Leading Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights groups have said that the totality and severity of the human rights violations against the Palestinian population in the occupied territories, and by some in Israel proper, amount to the crime against humanity of apartheid. Israel and some of its Western allies have rejected the accusation, with Israel often labeling the charge antisemitic.
Issues relating to the State of Palestine and aspects of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict occupy continuous debates, resolutions, and resources at the United Nations. Since its founding in 1948, the United Nations Security Council, as of January 2010, has adopted 79 resolutions directly related to the Arab–Israeli conflict.
Norman Gary Finkelstein is an American political scientist and activist. His primary fields of research are the politics of the Holocaust and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
The Gaza War, also known as Operation Cast Lead, also known as the Gaza Massacre, and referred to as the Battle of al-Furqan by Hamas, was a three-week armed conflict between Gaza Strip Palestinian paramilitary groups and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that began on 27 December 2008 and ended on 18 January 2009 with a unilateral ceasefire. The conflict resulted in 1,166–1,417 Palestinian and 13 Israeli deaths. Over 46,000 homes were destroyed in Gaza, making more than 100,000 people homeless.
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The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, also known as the Goldstone Report, was a United Nations fact-finding mission established in April 2009 pursuant to Resolution A/HRC/RES/S-9/1 of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) of 12 January 2009, following the Gaza War as an independent international fact-finding mission "to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law by the occupying Power, Israel, against the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly in the occupied Gaza Strip, due to the current aggression". South African jurist Richard Goldstone was appointed to head the mission. The other co-authors of the Report were Hina Jilani, Christine Chinkin and Desmond Travers.
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MV Mavi Marmara is a Comoros-flagged passenger ship, which was formerly owned and operated by İDO Istanbul Fast Ferries Co. Inc. on the line Sarayburnu, Istanbul-Marmara Island-Avşa Island in the Sea of Marmara. Built at the Golden Gate Shipyard by Turkish Shipbuilding Co. in 1994, the ship has a capacity of 1,080 passengers. It is best known for its participation in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and the deadly confrontation that took place on it during the Gaza flotilla raid.
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The Gaza Freedom Flotilla was a small fleet of ships organized in 2010 by the Free Gaza Movement and the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (İHH) carrying humanitarian aid and construction materials with the intention of breaking the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. In typical circumstances, aid is first brought to Israel to be inspected and then transferred to Gaza.
The Turkel Commission was an inquiry set up by Israeli Government to investigate the Gaza flotilla raid, and the Blockade of Gaza. It was led by Israeli retired Supreme Court Judge Jacob Turkel. The other initial members of the commission were former President of the Technion and military expert, Amos Horev, and professor of international law, Shabtai Rosenne, who died in September 2010. The probe was overseen by two International observers: William David Trimble, former Leader of the Northern Irish Ulster Unionist Party and Northern Irish First Minister, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and Canadian former military judge Ken Watkin.
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The 2014 Gaza War, also known as Operation Protective Edge, and Battle of the Withered Grain, was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory that has been governed by Hamas since 2007. Following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank by Hamas-affiliated Palestinian militants, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) initiated Operation Brother's Keeper, in which some 350 Palestinians, including nearly all of the active Hamas militants in the West Bank, were arrested. Hamas subsequently fired a greater number of rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip, triggering a seven-week-long conflict between the two sides. It was one of the deadliest outbreaks of open conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in decades. The combination of Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli airstrikes resulted in over two thousand deaths, the vast majority of which were Gazan Palestinians. This includes a total of six Israeli civilians who were killed as a result of the conflict.
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