The Gaza Catastrophe, Part 3: International Law & Humanitarian Crisis

Resource

MEI/FMEP 2024 Congressional Briefing Series: The Gaza Catastrophe

Part 3 — International Law & Humanitarian Crisis

Panelists: Raz Segal (Stockton University), Sherine Tadrous (Amnesty International),  Chris Gunness (Former UNRWA spokesperson)

Listen to this webinar as a podcast

Recorded on May 3, 2024

This session examined humanitarian conditions and issues of  international law and accountability, including the ongoing genocide case before the International Court of Justice. 

Resources

  • From/by Chris Gunnes
    • Interview with Democracy Now!, “Ex-UNRWA Official: Funding Cuts Make Donor Countries Complicit in Starvation of Gaza,” February 8, 2024. [LINK]
    • Interview with the New Humanitarian, “Rethinking Humanitarianism | Is aid sustaining Palestine’s occupation?” November 16, 2023. [LINK]
    • Interview with 4News, “UK halting aid to UNRWA is ‘wholly disproportionate and punitive’, former UN agency spokesman says,” January 27, 2024. [LINK]
    • Interview with Jadaliyya (Mouin Rabbani), “Connections Podcast Episode 92 The Campaign Against UNRWA,” March 14, 2024. [LINK]
  • From/by Dr. Raz Segal
    • Op-Ed in Jewish Currents, “A Textbook Case of Genocide,” October 13, 2023. [LINK]
    • Op-Ed in the Guardian, “Israel must stop weaponizing the Holocaust,” October 24, 2023. [LINK]
    • Op-Ed in Al-Jazeera, “Intent in the genocide case against Israel is not hard to prove,” January 14, 2023. [LINK]
    • Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Times, “Why International Court of Justice ruling against Israel’s war in Gaza is a game-changer,” January 27, 2024. [LINK]
  • From/by Sherine Tadrous and Amnesty International
    • Interview with TRT World, “Sherine Tadros: The Gaza War, human rights and leaving journalism | The InnerView,” October 30, 2023. [LINK]
    • Article in the New Arab, “We should all be taking action to ensure civilians in Gaza aren’t dying in the darkness,” November 12, 2023. [LINK]
    • Amnesty International Report: Damning evidence of war crimes as Israeli attacks wipe out entire families in Gaza (October 20, 2023) [LINK] 
    • Amnesty International: Demand a ceasefire by all parties to end civilian suffering (February 20, 2024) [LINK]
    • New Amnesty International Press Release: “USA: Israel has used US-made arms in Gaza in violation of international law – new report” (April 30, 2024) [LINK]
    • Amnesty International Report: “Israel/OPT: New evidence of unlawful Israeli attacks in Gaza causing mass civilian casualties amid real risk of genocide” (February 12, 2024) [LINK]
  • B’tselem Report: “Manufacturing Famine: Israel is Committing the War Crime of Starvation in the Gaza Strip” (April 2024) [LINK] 
  • Human Rights Watch Report: “Israel: Starvation Used as a Weapon of War in Gaza” (December 18, 2023) 
  • +927 Magazine: Government releases ‘Red Lines’ document detailing Gaza food restrictions (October 2012) 
  • Forensic Architecture Report: Humanitarian Violence in Gaza (March 14, 2024) 

Panelist Biographies

Chris Gunness is the former spokesperson for UNRWA. He is the Founder and current Director of the Myanmar Accountability Project.

Dr. Raz Segal is Associate Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies and Endowed Professor in the Study of Modern Genocide at Stockton University, where he also serves as director of the Master of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies (MAHG). He is also founder and co-coordinator of the Refugee Studies Initiative at Stockton. Focusing on central and southeast Europe, Dr. Segal is engaged in his work with the challenges of exploring the Holocaust as an integral part of late modern processes of imperial collapse, the formation and occasional de-formation of nation-states, and their devastating impact on the societies they sought — and still seek — to break and remake. Dr. Segal has held a Harry Frank Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, and a Lady Davis Fellowship at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His publications include Genocide in the Carpathians: War, Social Breakdown, and Mass Violence, 1914-1945 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2016; paperback 2020), and he was guest editor of the special issue on Genocide: Mass Violence and Cultural Erasure of Zmanim: A Historical Quarterly, vol. 138 (June 2018) (Hebrew). Dr. Segal has also published book reviews, op-eds, and larger articles on genocide, state violence, and memory politics in Hebrew and English in Haaretz and +972 Magazine.

Sherine Tadrous is the deputy director of advocacy and representative to the United Nations for Amnesty International. She leads a team of senior advocates to lobby for the protection and promotion of human rights around the world. Prior to that, Tadros was a Middle East correspondent and news anchor for Al Jazeera English and Sky News, where among other events she reported on the 2008 and 2014 Gaza Wars, the Arab Uprisings, and the rise of the Islamic State group in Iraq. The accolades for her work in human rights and journalism include a Peabody Award, an Emmy nomination, and several Royal Television Society Awards.