Center for Constitutional Rights Senior Staff Attorney Katherine Gallagher will join a virtual webinar organized by the Middle East Institute and the Foundation for Middle East Peace.

Featuring:

Jamil Dakwar (Human Rights Lawyer and Adjunct Professor, New York University and Hunter College)

Katherine Gallagher (Senior Staff Attorney, Center for Constitutional rights)

Dr. Raz Segal (Associate Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies and Endowed Professor in the Study of Modern Genocide, Stockton University)

In conversation with Khaled Elgindy (MEI) and Lara Friedman (FMEP)

Affiliations for identification purposes only

RSVP on the event page

In the wake of the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks by Hamas that killed some 1,400 Israelis and in which more than 200 Israeli civilians were taken as hostages to Gaza, the Biden administration has offered unqualified, full-throated support for Israel’s “right to self-defense” in its more than three-week-long military assault on the Gaza Strip, aimed ostensibly at “eradicating” Hamas and freeing Israeli hostages.

So far, Israel’s actions have killed more than 8,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, most of whom are civilians and more than 3,200 of whom are children; damaged or destroyed an estimated 45 percent of homes and civilian infrastructure throughout the Gaza Strip; and forced the internal displacement of more than 1.4 million people. Since the start of this war Israel has completely cut off food, water, fuel, and medical supplies to Gaza and, of late, has blacked out communications to and from the Gaza Strip. Taken together, Israel’s actions have produced what UN officials describe as a “humanitarian catastrophe” and have raised fears about ethnic cleansing and genocide.

The Biden administration has largely avoided laying down any clear markers or “red lines” that would limit Israel’s military conduct. This absence of “red lines” and apparent acquiescence to an Israeli military doctrine that absolves Israel of agency and responsibility for harming civilians raises profound questions regarding the human, moral, political, and diplomatic costs of the current war, and of the legal and moral obligations of the U.S. and international community.