Gaza and the Political and Moral Failure of the Responsibility to Protect

• Published in: Journal of intervention and statebuilding 2024-03, Vol.18 (2), p.211-215
• Main Author: Moses, Jeremy
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Genocide; Neighborhoods; Palestinian people; Refugee camps
• ISSN: 1750-2977; 1750-2985
• DOI: 10.1080/17502977.2024.2304987

The absence of a clear, sustained, and powerful invocation of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in response to Israel’s vicious assault on Gaza reveals the fundamental weaknesses of the doctrine and affirms Hobson’s (Citation2022) arguments about R2P’s insularity and detachment from reality. We are now over three months into a military assault that many experts have labelled as a genocide (Government of South Africa Citation2023) and the R2P has played no significant role in debates over how to respond. It is estimated that over twenty thousand Palestinians, including more than eight thousand children, have been killed since Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israeli communities surrounding Gaza on October 7. Much of Gaza City and many of the refugee camps-turned-neighbourhoods across the Gaza Strip have been reduced to rubble, with the promise that more, and worse, is to come in pursuit of the goal of eliminating Hamas. Israel’s campaign is now recognised as having generated civilian deaths at a rate higher than any other war of the twenty-first century (Leatherby Citation2023).