THE MISRULE OF GAZA ISRAELI ASSAULTS IN A LAND UNDER SIEGE by CRAIG A. JONES B.A (Hons.), The University of Manchester, 2007 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Geography) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) October 2010 ©Craig A. Jones, 2010 Abstract This thesis explores the relationship between war, law and visuality. It focuses on Israel‘s 23-day assault on Gaza that began in December 2008. The thesis has three main aims. First, to historicize the assault, and put forward the idea that Israel‘s resort to violence takes not only militaristic but crucially also legalistic forms (chapter 2). Second, to problematize the relationship between war and law through a discussion of the post-assault discourses on the indeterminate legality of the war (chapters 3&5). I suggest that in the age of what commentators are calling lawfare, law has reached its maximal instrumentalization and has become a military tactic. Third, to interrogate the visual archives of the assault in order to explore the ways in which war is being fought through visual fields and visual tactics which I call imagefare (chapter 4). The turn toward the legal and the visual in Israeli military strategy presents political, ethical and pragmatic problems for resisting and opposing war and so in relation to the current situation in Gaza and the ambivalent status of international law I conclude by posing the question: ‗what now?‘ (chapter 5). ii | P a g e Table of contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... ii Table of contents .......................................................................................................................................... iii List of tables .................................................................................................................................................. v List of figures ................................................................................................................................................ vi Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................................... viii Dedication .................................................................................................................................................... ix Forward. Injunction to Destroy ...................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1. Operation Overkill ........................................................................................................................ 6 1.1. Outlines ......................................................................................................................................... 6 Law and war ........................................................................................................................................... 7 War and visuality .................................................................................................................................. 11 1.2. Backgrounds ................................................................................................................................ 12 The assault on Gaza ............................................................................................................................. 13 Why did Israel attack Gaza? ................................................................................................................. 22 A brief geography of Gaza in the lead up to the assault ........................................................................ 33 The isolation of Gaza ....................................................................................................................... 33 ―Disengagement‖ and blockade ........................................................................................................ 41 1.3. Foregrounds ................................................................................................................................. 48 Post-assault conversations .................................................................................................................... 49 Goldstone ........................................................................................................................................ 50 Israel‘s response ............................................................................................................................... 52 Chapter 2. Law in Ruins ............................................................................................................................... 54 2.1. Beneath the ruins ............................................................................................................................... 54 Law and occupation ............................................................................................................................. 58 Birth by law .......................................................................................................................................... 60 Illegal occupation? ................................................................................................................................ 64 iii | P a g e Indeterminate occupation ..................................................................................................................... 66 2.2. Memories of Lebanon .................................................................................................................. 79 Chapter 3. Language of Law ......................................................................................................................... 87 3.1. Goldstone and the humanitarians ................................................................................................. 87 The terms of legal critique .................................................................................................................... 94 3.2. Israel‘s legal assault: defensive and offensive ................................................................................ 98 Delegitimizing the ‗delegitimizers‘ ........................................................................................................ 99 Defensive ........................................................................................................................................... 102 Offensive 2.0 and the production of legalities ..................................................................................... 107 Killing turned humanitarian ................................................................................................................ 117 Chapter 4. Shooting Gaza: Visual War........................................................................................................ 120 Gaza‘s visual fields ............................................................................................................................. 120 Hasbara .............................................................................................................................................. 124 Of victims and perpetrators ................................................................................................................ 130 Visual-legal performances ................................................................................................................... 134 Visual economy .................................................................................................................................. 141 ‗What the Arabs see‘ ........................................................................................................................... 143 What we (cannot) see ......................................................................................................................... 148 Equivocating suffering, eliminating politics ........................................................................................ 151 Exposing frames: violences within ...................................................................................................... 159 Chapter 5. Violence Legislates .................................................................................................................... 165 5.1. Collaborative achievements ........................................................................................................ 165 The other Goldstone .......................................................................................................................... 166 Cordon sanitaire: normalizing war.......................................................................................................... 168 5.2. Violence legislates ...................................................................................................................... 172 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................... 181 iv | P a g e List of tables Table 1. Timeline of the assault on Gaza, June 2008 - January 2009, source: Al