The United Nations and the Question of Palestine Rule by Law and the Structure of International Legal Subalternity

Contrary to conventional wisdom, there has been a continuing though vacillating gulf between the requirements of international law and the UN on the question of Palestine. This book explores the UN's management of the longest-running problem on its agenda, critically assessing tensions between the organization's position and international law. What forms has the UN's failure to respect international law taken, and with what implications? The author critically interrogates the received wisdom regarding the UN's fealty to the international rule of law, in favour of what is described as an international rule by law. This book demonstrates that through the actions of the UN, Palestine and its people have been committed to a state of what the author calls 'international legal subalternity', according to which the promise of justice through international law is repeatedly proffered under a cloak of political legitimacy furnished by the international community, but its realization is interminably withheld.

List of maps; Foreword; Preface; Acknowledgements; Table of Cases; Table of Treaties and International Instruments; List of Abbreviations; 1. Introduction; 2. The Interwar Period; 3. 1947: The UN Plan of Partition for Palestine; 4. 1948 and After: The UN and the Palestinian Refugees; 5. 1967 and After: The UN and the Occupied Palestinian Territory; 6. 2011 and After: Membership of Palestine in the UN; 7. Conclusion; Postscript.

Ardi Imseis is Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Queen's University. Previously, he was Legal Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (2002–2014), Editor-in-Chief of the Palestine Yearbook of International Law (2008–2019), and Human Rights Fellow, Columbia Law School (2001–2002). Imseis has provided testimony before the UN Security Council, Human Rights Council, and Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, among other international fora. His scholarship has appeared widely, including in the AJIL, EJIL, Harvard ILJ, and Oxford JLS.