tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/hostages-12675/articleshostages – The Conversation2024-03-05T20:11:23Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2210882024-03-05T20:11:23Z2024-03-05T20:11:23ZPlight of migrant laborers killed, held hostage in Middle East exposes Israel’s reliance on overseas workforce<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579960/original/file-20240305-21577-9fmlrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C143%2C7961%2C4984&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Thai foreign worker tends to an agriculture field in Beersheba, Israel.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.de/detail/nachrichtenfoto/thai-foreign-worker-tends-to-an-agriculture-field-near-nachrichtenfoto/1231752520?adppopup=true">Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>An Indian laborer in Israel was killed and several other migrant workers injured on March 4, 2024, in <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/india/indian-killed-injured-anti-tank-missile-attack-israel-north-9195933/">a missile attack launched from Lebanon</a> by Hamas-aligned Hezbollah.</p>
<p>They are not the first migrant workers in Israel to get caught up in the monthslong fighting. Dozens of other farmworkers, agricultural apprentices and caregivers from countries including Thailand, Nepal, Tanzania, Cambodia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Moldova were <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jpeua8qUHmY&ab_channel=DWNews">murdered or taken hostage</a> during the Hamas attack of Oct. 7.</p>
<p>The sizable number of non-Israeli workers affected by the current war has <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/why-so-many-thai-workers-became-hamas-victims/a-67266701">surprised some onlookers</a> while shining a light on Israel’s reliance on temporary migrant workers.</p>
<p>But as researchers who study the <a href="https://cas.uoregon.edu/directory/global/all/jweise">proliferation of migrant workers</a> around the world, we know how labor migration programs have transformed nearly all societies, including <a href="https://hu-berlin.academia.edu/SShoham">Israel’s</a>. The long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict has shaped Israel’s migrant worker history – and has contributed to the globalization of the workforce in the Middle East.</p>
<h2>A global story</h2>
<p>The initial recruitment of overseas workers to Israel, which began as early as the 1970s, followed a <a href="https://www.law.uchicago.edu/bilateral-labor-agreements-dataset">post-World War II trend</a> that saw higher-income countries – such as the U.S., France and West Germany – sign labor migration recruitment agreements with poorer nations. These poorer countries, which at the time included Mexico, Spain and Turkey, among others, overcame an initial reluctance to lose part of their populace and began to see emigration as a strategy for modernization. The idea was that emigrants could learn modern farming or industrial skills overseas, while sending money back to boost development in their home communities.</p>
<p>In the 1970s and 1980s, <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/migrants-for-export">many South and Southeast Asian countries</a> began to promote the export of migrant workers as a key piece of their economic development strategies. At the same time, receiving countries <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1080/0023656032000057010">became hooked</a> on the idea of a flexible, temporary labor force that would not inflame anti-immigrant sentiment as much as more settled migrants seemingly did.</p>
<p>Israel’s relationship with Thai workers came initially by way of the United States’ support for the 1979 peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. The U.S. government <a href="https://usace.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16021coll4/id/353">recruited Thai workers</a> who had once worked on Vietnam War-era U.S. military bases in northeastern Thailand to help build a new air force base in Israel.</p>
<p>The arrival of the Thai migrant workers, along with Portuguese workers, prompted public controversy among Israeli lawmakers, trade unionists and the media about the creation of a split labor market, as research done by <a href="https://hu-berlin.academia.edu/SShoham">one of us</a> has shown. Meanwhile, others worried that the workers’ presence cut against Zionist imperatives to guarantee a Jewish majority.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in a hat handles crates being loaded onto the back of a tractor." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579954/original/file-20240305-22-j0m1i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C391%2C7241%2C4436&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579954/original/file-20240305-22-j0m1i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579954/original/file-20240305-22-j0m1i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579954/original/file-20240305-22-j0m1i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579954/original/file-20240305-22-j0m1i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579954/original/file-20240305-22-j0m1i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579954/original/file-20240305-22-j0m1i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Thai worker labors in the field adjacent to the Gaza Strip.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/october-2023-israel-sde-nitzan-a-thai-worker-continues-to-news-photo/1719823925?adppopup=true">Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Attempting to resolve these contradictions, the Israeli government <a href="https://www.trafflab.org/shahar-shoham">started to experiment</a> with migration policies designed for a new category of workers – neither Jewish nor Palestinian – who were intended to remain separate from Israeli society.</p>
<p>A decade later, in a different political moment, these policy ideas would become concrete in a new category of person in Israel: the “<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/imre.12109">foreign worker</a>.”</p>
<h2>Growing recruitment</h2>
<p>The Israeli-Palestinian conflict drove the “foreign worker” policy forward. Though Israel was founded on the ideology of “avoda ivrit,” or Hebrew labor, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza since 1967 has led to the recruitment of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian workers, who became an attractive <a href="https://cris.tau.ac.il/en/publications/power-breaking-or-power-entrenching-law-the-regulation-of-palesti">low-wage labor force</a>.</p>
<p>They soon came to <a href="https://cris.tau.ac.il/en/publications/power-breaking-or-power-entrenching-law-the-regulation-of-palesti">compose 7% of the workers</a> in the Israeli labor market as a whole, 24% of workers in the agricultural sector and 60% in the construction sector.</p>
<p>The non-citizen Palestinian workers commuted daily from the West Bank and Gaza, controlled by a <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=25698">regime of permits</a> and regulations.</p>
<p>When the first Palestinian uprising, or intifada, began in 1987, some members of the Israeli public came to see such workers as a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2547185">security risk</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/oslo-accords-30-years-on-the-dream-of-a-two-state-solution-seems-further-away-than-ever-213003">1993 Oslo Accords</a>, which sought to foment “separation” between Israelis and Palestinians, further pushed Israel to minimize the dependency on non-citizen Palestinian workers.</p>
<p>To make up for the shortfall, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/362022418_On_the_Establishment_of_Agricultural_Migration_Industry_in_Israel%27s_Countryside">Israeli employers</a> convinced the government to vastly expand the recruitment of temporary workers to take their place. In addition to Thailand, countries including China, India, Nepal, the Philippines, Romania and Turkey spotted an opportunity and allowed Israeli employers to recruit within their borders. By 2003, migrant workers <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/remi/2691">made up 10% of the labor force</a> in Israel.</p>
<h2>Creating marginal workers</h2>
<p>Migrant workers in Israel, like their counterparts the world over, have long since been <a href="https://www.trafflab.org/_files/ugd/11e1f0_861945c9ea904d57a359c89d44424869.pdf">vulnerable to exploitation</a>.</p>
<p>Many of their origin countries did not demand a commitment to secure their citizens’ rights in the form of a <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4168983">bilateral labor recruitment agreement</a>. And workers migrating via <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1350463042000227380">private recruitment</a> channels had to pay thousands of dollars in illegal “sign-up” fees, causing them to begin their journeys deep in debt. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Israeli government policies have attempted to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jols.12366">keep migrants outside of society by confining</a> them to specific industries, obligating them to leave the country upon completion of their labor contract, excluding them from the <a href="https://www.kavlaoved.org.il/en/a-land-devouring-its-workers-neglect-and-violations-of-migrant-agricultural-workers-right-to-health-in-israel/">public health system</a> and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/socpro/article-abstract/63/3/373/2468875?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false">prohibiting</a> them from marrying or engaging in romantic relations while in Israel.</p>
<p>And authorities have paid little attention to labor standards, leaving farmworkers, for example, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/01/21/raw-deal/abuse-thai-workers-israels-agricultural-sector">vulnerable</a> to <a href="https://www.academia.edu/42386415/Giving_them_the_slip_Israeli_employers_strategic_falsification_of_pay_slips_to_disguise_the_violation_of_Thai_farmworkers_right_to_the_minimum_wage">wage theft</a>, terrible housing and exposure to pesticides without proper protection. </p>
<p>Under pressure from the U.S. government and Israeli civil society, over the past decade Israel began to sign <a href="https://www.cimi-eng.org/_files/ugd/5d35de_16d441738d06413184ba6dfa94cb0135.pdf">bilateral agreements</a> with countries sending migrants. These eliminated exorbitant recruitment fees, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4167016">even if they failed</a> to meaningfully improve labor conditions. </p>
<p>Even so, the number of migrant workers has <a href="https://www.gov.il/BlobFolder/generalpage/foreign_workers_stats/he/zarim2022.pdf">grown slowly</a> but steadily. In 2022, a total of 73,000 migrants in Israel worked as caregivers, in addition to nearly 50,000 in the construction and agriculture sectors combined. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man stands in a bombs shelter." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579974/original/file-20240305-26-efvsos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579974/original/file-20240305-26-efvsos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579974/original/file-20240305-26-efvsos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579974/original/file-20240305-26-efvsos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579974/original/file-20240305-26-efvsos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579974/original/file-20240305-26-efvsos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579974/original/file-20240305-26-efvsos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Thai worker takes shelter in an underground bunker in Metula, Israel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/thai-workers-take-shelter-in-an-underground-bunker-after-news-photo/1720607203?adppopup=true">Marcus Yam/ LA Times via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet these migrants did not obviate the need to also have <a href="https://kavlaoved.org.il/en/areasofactivity/palestinian-workers/">Palestinian labor</a> in the mix. By Oct. 7, 2023, about 100,000 Palestinian workers crossed the border daily from Gaza and the West Bank.</p>
<h2>In harm’s way</h2>
<p>Since Oct. 7, Israeli authorities have ended those Palestinians’ work permits and tried to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-plans-bring-more-foreign-workers-construction-sector-report-2024-01-01/">recruit thousands of new workers</a> to the fields and construction sites to make up for the shortfall. </p>
<p>Malawi, a country that <a href="https://www.academia.edu/8987110/Independent_Africans_Migration_from_Colonial_Malawi_to_South_Africa_c_1935_1961">came to depend</a> on migrants’ economic remittances decades before Thailand did, has sent 700 farmworkers and <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/malawi-parliament-allows-labor-export-to-israel-/7490863.html">promises</a> another 9,000 on the way – notwithstanding <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLjNqFY4_Dk">criticism</a> from voices within the African nation itself. </p>
<p>In India, which had long sent caregivers to Israel, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi <a href="https://www.bwint.org/cms/india-unions-denounce-govt-plan-to-send-migrant-construction-workers-to-israel-3017">ignored internal criticism</a> and sent Israel more workers in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack, including <a href="https://www.livemint.com/news/india/who-was-pat-nibin-maxwell-indian-from-kerala-killed-as-hezbollah-launches-airstrikes-in-israel-11709631189269.html">Pat Nibin Maxwell</a>, the man killed in the March 4 Hezbollah attack.</p>
<p>Workers like Maxwell are now being sent to work near the borders of Lebanon and Gaza, laboring in agricultural communities vulnerable to Hamas and Hezbollah attacks that have been <a href="https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politics/2024-03-04/ty-article/0000018e-09d0-d6be-afff-4dd174310000">depleted by the evacuation</a> of Israeli residents.</p>
<p>Though foreign governments are able to guarantee their citizens few protections in Israel, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/17/1229525320/india-israel-hamas-war-jobs-migrant-workers">thousands have queued up</a> in their home countries in search of a contract. </p>
<p>Once in Israel, they join the vast majority of migrant workers who have elected to remain in the country despite the Oct. 7 attack and its aftermath.</p>
<p>Like millions of migrant workers the world over in search of economic progress or survival, they have calculated, for now, that earning higher wages abroad is worth taking significant personal risks. </p>
<p>While helping keep the Israeli economy running during wartime, these migrant workers remain in the path of rockets – as the death of Pat Nibin Maxwell has illustrated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221088/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shahar Shoham previously worked at Physicians for Human Rights-Israel </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Weise does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The contours of the Middle East conflict have long influenced Israel’s migrant worker policy.Julie Weise, Associate Professor of History, University of OregonShahar Shoham, Doctoral Candidate in Global and Area Studies at the Institute for Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University of BerlinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2193012023-12-11T13:15:27Z2023-12-11T13:15:27ZHamas’ use of sexual violence is an all-too-common part of modern war − but not in all conflicts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564356/original/file-20231207-21-k8uhp6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A memorial is left inside a bomb shelter near the Supernova music festival, where eyewitnesses reported Hamas members gang-raping and killing women.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/makeshift-memorial-is-left-inside-a-bomb-shelter-near-where-news-photo/1791613498?adppopup=true">Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Two United Nations human rights experts said on Jan. 8, 2024, that there was growing evidence of Hamas’ use of sexual violence against people on Oct. 7, 2023 – and that the attacks on civilians likely amount to <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/crimes-against-humanity.shtml">crimes against humanity</a>. </p>
<p>“As armed Palestinian groups rampaged through communities in Israel bordering the Gaza strip, thousands of people were subjected to targeted and brutal attacks, the vast majority of whom were civilians,” Alice Jill Edwards, an independent expert on torture, and Morris Tidball-Binz, an expert on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/01/un-experts-demand-accountability-victims-sexual-torture-and-unlawful">said in a statement</a>. “The growing body of evidence about reported sexual violence is particularly harrowing.”</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/11/28/exp-un-women-israel-hamas-sexual-violence-sarah-hendriks-112801p-cnni-world.cnn">United Nations</a>, women’s groups and human rights groups previously faced criticism for not quickly condemning Hamas fighters for raping and sexually violating Israelis <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-biden-slam-global-silence-on-hamas-sexual-violence-against-israeli-women/">during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/04/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-sexual-violence-un.html">Most critics cite rising antisemitism</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/15/technology/hate-speech-israel-gaza-internet.html">as the reason</a> some experts and advocates did not quickly rally behind Israel’s <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/12/06/1217668564/israel-hamas-rape-sexual-violence-oct-7#:%7E:text=For%20two%20months%2C%20Israeli%20officials,including%20more%20than%20300%20women.">repeated claims</a> that Hamas fighters committed sexual violence. </p>
<p>There is strong evidence that <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/hamas-rape-israeli-women-oct-7-rcna128221">Hamas committed sexual violence</a>, including <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67629181">eyewitnesses’</a> and first responders’ testimony, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sexual-assault-hamas-oct-7-attack-rape-bb06b950bb6794affb8d468cd283bc51">medical assessments</a> of released hostages and <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/widespread-sexual-gender-based-crimes-committed-hamas-attack-105406464">independent investigations</a> from media outlets such as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/28/world/middleeast/oct-7-attacks-hamas-israel-sexual-violence.html">The New York Times</a>. This includes rape, gang rape, sexual torture and sexual mutilation of Israelis of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sexual-assault-hamas-oct-7-attack-rape-bb06b950bb6794affb8d468cd283bc51">diverse genders and ages</a>. </p>
<p>Beyond antisemitism, were there other reasons for the initial hesitation to identify sexual violence as part of Hamas’ attack? </p>
<p><a href="https://fletcher.tufts.edu/people/faculty/dyan-mazurana">We are scholars</a> <a href="https://nutrition.tufts.edu/profile/faculty/anastasia-marshak">who work directly</a> with victims of war-related sexual violence and other serious crimes. </p>
<p>We believe that some experts may have hesitated because <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0032329208329755">Hamas hasn’t been known in the past to use sexual violence</a> in its attacks against Israeli civilians. We take this factor into consideration as we suggest why Hamas may have made a decision to use sexual violence during the Oct. 7 attack.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564355/original/file-20231207-27-w01m0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man wearing a dark jacket with Hebrew words on it and a kippah stands at a wooden podium and speaks to people seated. He stands in between two Israel flags." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564355/original/file-20231207-27-w01m0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564355/original/file-20231207-27-w01m0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564355/original/file-20231207-27-w01m0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564355/original/file-20231207-27-w01m0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564355/original/file-20231207-27-w01m0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564355/original/file-20231207-27-w01m0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564355/original/file-20231207-27-w01m0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Simcha Greinman, an Israeli volunteer who helped collect victims’ remains on Oct. 7, speaks at a United Nations event in New York on Dec. 4, 2023, about Hamas’ use of sexual violence in its attack.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/simcha-greinman-speaks-during-special-event-to-address-news-photo/1827102296?adppopup=true">Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Sexual violence in war</h2>
<p>Research on sexual violence in armed conflicts has grown rapidly over the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-041719-102620">past 15 years</a>, as feminist scholars increasingly took women’s and girls’ <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203100943">experiences of war seriously</a>. </p>
<p>This research helps explain what motivates people, governments and armed groups to <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/sex-and-world-peace/9780231131827">fight wars</a>. It also helps illuminate, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=692503">among other</a> <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=692503">things</a>, why some armed forces and groups commit sexual violence during wars and how to prevent and <a href="https://international-review.icrc.org/sites/default/files/irrc-894-wood.pdf">address such violence</a>. </p>
<p>Armed forces and armed groups sometimes intentionally use sexual violence to carry out attacks and achieve military goals, leading to the term “<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4078677.stm">rape as a weapon of war</a>.” </p>
<p>Rape <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/08/17/darfur-rapid-support-forces-allied-militias-rape-dozens">can be used to terrorize and brutalize civilians of the opposing side</a> and to destroy the morale and fighting spirit of enemy forces. In a number of recent conflicts, rape has been a potent weapon to <a href="https://www.rescue.org/node/7116">motivate populations to flee</a> instead of fighting back. </p>
<p>Sexual violence has been most recently used against civilians in wars in <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ethiopia-tigray-war-crimes-sexual-violence-c2f47284aa80f164cb822f716cc2a0f6">Ethiopia</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/04/30/1093339262/ukraine-russia-rape-war-crimes">Ukraine</a> <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/08/un-experts-alarmed-reported-widespread-use-rape-and-sexual-violence-against">and Darfur</a>. </p>
<p>Sexual violence’s effects on victims, their families and their communities include serious short- and long-term, <a href="https://international-review.icrc.org/articles/they-came-two-guns-consequences-sexual-violence-mental-health-women-armed-conflicts">physical, psychological, social</a> and economic harm.</p>
<h2>When and where it tends to happen</h2>
<p>One of the best publicly available datasets on sexual violence in war is the <a href="http://www.sexualviolencedata.org/dataset/">Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict data project</a>.</p>
<p>Created by professor <a href="https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/dara-kay-cohen">Dara Kay Cohen and housed at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government</a>, this <a href="http://www.sexualviolencedata.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/SVAC-3.0-Coding-Manual_020121.pdf">public data project</a> analyzes rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, sexual torture and other sexual crimes in 189 armed conflicts in 86 countries, from 1989 through 2021. </p>
<p>Our analysis of this data shows that, first, sexual violence does not occur in all conflicts. Sexual violence was reported in approximately half of the 189 armed conflicts.</p>
<p>Second, sexual violence may be <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0032329206290426?casa_token=GnhDC5GoGOYAAAAA:rLUFDBBBDtQ830b7vkOFsTIl95yrZ0dvRzCsTsRzlJ9gVns-1ndlURHM0uBKTUWVrMg2%20**DOI**zEsBQkdK">used by some,</a> but not all, groups fighting in a conflict. It also does not happen consistently throughout a conflict.</p>
<p>Third, government forces are twice as likely as rebel and insurgent groups to use sexual violence, with government forces committing sexual violence in 28% of the years of conflict versus rebel groups doing so in 14% of years of conflict. </p>
<p>For example, the <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/women-seen-targeted-by-myanmar-forces-with-rape-other-violence/7033057.html">armies of Myanmar</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/04/30/1093339262/ukraine-russia-rape-war-crimes">Russia</a> and <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2020/07/29/they-treated-us-monstrous-ways/sexual-violence-against-men-boys-and-transgender">Syria</a> are notorious for their use of sexual violence against civilians. </p>
<p>Finally, although rebel groups are less likely to use sexual violence, when they do they are significantly more likely to use systematic and <a href="http://www.sexualviolencedata.org/dataset/">widespread sexual violence</a>, as opposed to isolated occurrences. </p>
<h2>The case of Israel and Palestinian territories</h2>
<p>Previous research overwhelmingly finds that after 1948, the conflict between Israel and Palestinian groups has very low levels of reported sexual violence committed by either the <a href="https://www.almendron.com/tribuna/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/003232920832,9755.pdf">Israeli military or Hamas</a>, which formed in 1987. <a href="https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/conflict-and-society/9/1/arcs090105.xml">Some scholars</a> question these findings. </p>
<p>There are credible reports of Israeli security forces sexually torturing Palestinians in eight of the 31 years between 1989 to 2021 and also <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/ending-censorship-idf-admits-officer-jailed-in-2017-raped-a-palestinian-woman/">raping Palestinians</a> during this time frame. These acts of sexual torture and rape are found in infrequent <a href="http://www.sexualviolencedata.org/dataset/">and isolated reports</a>, and most occurred when Palestinians were detained.</p>
<p>Hamas’ <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2023/country-chapters/israel-and-palestine">international law violations</a>, including using human shields, taking hostages and killing civilians, are well documented.</p>
<p>Our analysis shows that Hamas does not have a history of using sexual violence <a href="http://www.sexualviolencedata.org/dataset/">against Israelis</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564357/original/file-20231207-25-24ut6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three young women stand with red tape covering their mouths. Two wear white clothing that appears stained with red coloring and one has the words 'me too.. unless you're a Jew.' They stand across the street from the UN in New York City." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564357/original/file-20231207-25-24ut6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564357/original/file-20231207-25-24ut6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564357/original/file-20231207-25-24ut6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564357/original/file-20231207-25-24ut6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564357/original/file-20231207-25-24ut6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564357/original/file-20231207-25-24ut6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564357/original/file-20231207-25-24ut6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Activists supporting women who were sexually assaulted during the Hamas terrorist attack stand outside the United Nations headquarters in New York on Dec. 4, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/more-than-hundreds-activists-mostly-women-rally-at-dag-news-photo/1831794485?adppopup=true">Lev Radin/VIEWpress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The intent of Hamas’ attack</h2>
<p>Given this history, how do we make sense of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/06/middleeast/rape-sexual-violence-hamas-israel-what-we-know-intl/index.html">the many reports now emerging of</a><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/hamas-rape-israeli-women-oct-7-rcna128221">Hamas’ use of sexual violence</a> in the Oct. 7 attack? </p>
<p>Researchers have determined that much of the sexual violence during armed conflict is men communicating their own masculinity to others, while demonstrating other males’ inability to protect women and girls <a href="https://sites.tufts.edu/reinventingpeace/2021/08/10/what-rape-as-a-weapon-of-war-in-tigray-really-means/">or defend themselves</a>. </p>
<p>Male perpetrators also use sexual violence to demonstrate their power over women, girls, men and boys, as well as over their victims’ families and, symbolically, over the larger community or country <a href="https://sites.tufts.edu/reinventingpeace/2021/08/10/what-rape-as-a-weapon-of-war-in-tigray-really-means/">they are fighting against</a>.</p>
<p>Female and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ejil/article/18/2/253/361968">male victims of sexual violence</a> can experience a range of physical and psychological harms, some of which can last a lifetime. They may experience <a href="https://international-review.icrc.org/articles/they-came-two-guns-consequences-sexual-violence-mental-health-women-armed-conflicts">stigmatization, discrimination and rejection by their families and communities</a>, which can cause long-lasting social and economic harm. Female victims can become pregnant. Some in such cases will terminate their pregnancies, while others <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/challenging-conceptions-9780197648315?cc=us&lang=en&">give birth to children</a> as a result of their rape. </p>
<p>Hamas sexually brutalized the women and men they raped, with reports that <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-12-05/ty-article/.premium/israeli-and-jewish-women-implore-a-reticent-un-to-confront-hamas-sexual-violence/0000018c-369b-dc03-a9ec-3efbfcb90000">murdered women’s genitalia and breasts</a> were severely mutilated. Hamas also reportedly <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67629181">shot and killed women </a> either while or after they raped them on Oct. 7. </p>
<p>These violent acts suggest an intent to utterly destroy their victims, while also terrorizing the Israeli public and humiliating Israeli men, Israel’s military and the state of Israel. </p>
<p>We also think that Hamas’ use of sexual violence was intended to outrage and provoke Israel <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/08/world/middleeast/hamas-israel-gaza-war.html">to engage in a permanent state of war with Hamas</a> and attack civilian spaces in Gaza. Hamas hopes in doing so to consolidate power and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/08/world/middleeast/hamas-israel-gaza-war.html">keep the Palestinian crisis alive</a>.</p>
<p>Was Hamas’ use of sexual violence part of a predetermined strategy or fighters acting opportunistically without orders? At least a year in advance, Hamas mapped and planned the attack with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-attack-intelligence.html">painstaking detail</a>. </p>
<p>They also carried out an intense daylong exercise that mimicked <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-attack-intelligence.html">the actual Oct. 7 attack</a>. Given this level of planning and Hamas’ previous lack of using sexual violence, it is highly unlikely that Hamas’ sexual violence committed against Israelis was the result of some men who went rogue. More likely, sexual violence was part of Hamas’ war tactics and strategy. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/un-commission-investigate-hamas-sexual-violence-appeal-evidence-2023-11-29/">United Nations</a> and the <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20231203-icc-prosecutor-vows-to-further-intensify-gaza-probe">International Criminal Court</a> are now, rightly, investigating Hamas’ use of sexual violence as possible war crimes and crimes against humanity. </p>
<p>Under international law, surviving victims have <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/basic-principles-and-guidelines-right-remedy-and-reparation">a right to justice and a range of assistance to aid in their recovery</a>. Families of the victims who were killed have a right to information about what happened to their loved ones. Throughout it all, everyone directly affected by sexual violence has a right to be treated with care and dignity. </p>
<p><em>This article, originally published on Dec. 11, 2023, was updated on Jan. 11, 2024, to reflect news about the United Nations’ statement.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219301/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dyan Mazurana receives funding from several governments, foundations, United Nations agencies and international humanitarian organizations to support her research with populations affected by armed conflict. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anastasia Marshak receives funding from USAID and Action Contra Famine.</span></em></p>Sexual violence can be used as a weapon of war. Hamas’ use of sexual violence was likely meant to show its power over Israeli women and girls and to humiliate Israeli men and Israel’s military.Dyan Mazurana, Research Professor of Global Affairs, Tufts UniversityAnastasia Marshak, Assistant Research Professor of Nutrition, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2183242023-11-22T20:16:11Z2023-11-22T20:16:11ZA ceasefire is far from lasting peace – a national security expert on the Israel-Hamas deal<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561052/original/file-20231122-29-noahwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1007%2C138%2C4412%2C3469&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People search for survivors in the Gaza Strip on Nov. 22, 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/graphic-content-topshot-people-search-for-survivors-news-photo/1796651356?adppopup=true">Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>For the first time since the <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/timeline-surprise-rocket-attack-hamas-israel/story?id=103816006">deadly attacks by Hamas</a> on Israeli border towns on Oct. 7, 2023, that left at least 1,200 people dead, the Israeli government agreed on Nov. 22 to suspend its air and ground campaign in Gaza for four days in exchange for the release of at least 50 hostages held by Hamas. That suspension has held.</em> </p>
<p><em>Nearly six weeks in the making, the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-ceasefire-what-to-know-af1cfbc9dcaa1485ed7a9efaca7ec2b7">cease-fire deal</a> also calls for the release of 150 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. As of the morning of Nov. 27, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67477240">58 hostages</a> held in Gaza have been released by Hamas, as well as 111 Palestinian prisoners released by Israel. Of the hostages, 40 were women and children. In a separate deal between Hamas and Egypt, 17 Thai hostages and one Filipino were also released.</em></p>
<p><em>The fate of the remaining hostages is still unclear.</em> </p>
<p><em>To make sense of the deal, The Conversation asked <a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/profile/gregory-treverton/">Gregory F. Treverton of USC Dornsife</a>, a former chairman of the National Intelligence Council in the Obama administration, to share his thoughts on what it means for the ongoing war in Gaza.</em></p>
<h2>Military goals unchanged</h2>
<p>The agreement between Israel and Hamas – <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-11-1-2023-blinken-netanyahu-d57766fd8e55500ff6f16b78b3560d51">driven by U.S. pressure on Israel</a> – to exchange 50 hostages for 150 Palestinian prisoners and to pause fighting for four days is surely a welcome break in a horrific war. </p>
<p>Not least, it will permit <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/22/gaza-ceasefire-deal-brings-relief-but-little-hope-of-durable-peace">food and fuel</a> to enter a devastated Gaza. </p>
<p>It does not, however, fundamentally change the awful geometry of the war: Netanyahu has pledged that Israel will <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/4321886-netanyahu-israel-war-hostages-hamas/">continue the fight</a>, and there seems little sign that Israel is any closer to a plan for what to do about Gaza or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/01/world/middleeast/israel-palestine-two-state-solution.html">the Palestinians</a> than when the war began.</p>
<p>For its part, events have played out much as Hamas might have planned.</p>
<p>They knew their barbarism on Oct. 7 would call forth a brutal Israeli response. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556196/original/file-20231026-19-m6sz0p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C16%2C5472%2C3620&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A worried and teary-eyed woman holds a photo of her daughter." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556196/original/file-20231026-19-m6sz0p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C16%2C5472%2C3620&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556196/original/file-20231026-19-m6sz0p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556196/original/file-20231026-19-m6sz0p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556196/original/file-20231026-19-m6sz0p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556196/original/file-20231026-19-m6sz0p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556196/original/file-20231026-19-m6sz0p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556196/original/file-20231026-19-m6sz0p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Keren Shem, the mother of hostage Mia Shem, holds a photograph of her daughter as she speaks to the press in Tel Aviv on Oct. 17, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-attend-a-demonstration-calling-for-the-release-of-news-photo/1742516390?adppopup=true">Gil Cohen-MAGEN/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hamas knew, cynically, that the more Palestinians who were killed, the better for its cause. <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/6bf4f6ed-b705-4e66-ac6f-59b5ef6c0c77">Global opinion</a> would shift against Israel, and its American patron, and it has. And Hamas likely expected the <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/history/">Palestinian statehood issue</a>, all but forgotten by the world, including the <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/have-the-arab-nations-forgotten-about-palestine-in-their-acceptance-of-israel/">Arab world</a>, would return to international prominence.</p>
<p>In the process, Hamas probably anticipated it would, paradoxically, become more popular in Gaza, not less.</p>
<h2>A distant hope for lasting peace</h2>
<p>In the short run, the best that can be hoped is that this exchange and pause will be extended or be the first of more to come. </p>
<p>Certainly, Israel has been under global – and <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/israels-encirclement-gaza-city-tightens-top-us-diplomat-104597626">especially American</a> – pressure to agree to some pause, and the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israels-parliament-approves-national-unity-government-2023-10-12/">Netanyahu “unity” government</a> has felt the heat, domestically, for seeming to disregard the hostages. </p>
<p>In the longer run, after much more killing and suffering, the alternatives still remain dreary. Israel has <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/gaza-israel-occupied-international-law/">no stomach for occupying Gaza</a> and surely <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/24/world/europe/israel-hamas-gaza-war.html">none for letting Hamas</a> again pretend to govern. The <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/11/what-is-the-palestinian-authority-and-how-is-it-viewed-by-palestinians">Palestinian Authority</a> remains corrupt, weak and inept in the eyes of those it governs, and as a result is a poor candidate to take on Gaza.</p>
<p>The best hope is a distant one – that some coalition of mostly Arab states but also perhaps including the U.S. could govern Gaza, perhaps exercising some tutelage over a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/biden-says-palestinian-authority-should-ultimately-govern-gaza-west-bank-2023-11-18/">reformed Palestinian Authority</a>. </p>
<p>But that is a long way off, and the hostage exchange and pause does not take the region or the world much closer to a lasting peace.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218324/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregory F. Treverton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas has seen the release of 58 hostages held in Gaza and 111 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.Gregory F. Treverton, Professor of Practice in International Relations, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2171502023-11-07T13:37:21Z2023-11-07T13:37:21ZBoth Israel and Palestinian supporters accuse the other side of genocide – here’s what the term actually means<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557879/original/file-20231106-23-fblj8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People holding signs calling for an end to genocide in the Gaza Strip have been a common occurrence at pro-Palestinian protests. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/november-2023-north-rhine-westphalia-duesseldorf-a-woman-news-photo/1763959058?adppopup=true">Christoph Reichwein/picture alliance via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Is genocide taking place in the Middle East? </p>
<p>On both sides of the conflict in Israel and the Gaza Strip, many answer with an unequivocal “yes.” </p>
<p>Some <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/israeli-families-bring-war-crime-132027670.html">Israelis and other Israel supporters</a> are pointing a finger at Hamas, which killed 1,400 people, most of them civilians – while wounding many more – in Israel and took over 240 hostages in its surprise attack on Oct. 7, 2023. </p>
<p>The attack, some Israel supporters and political observers note, must be seen in the light of Hamas leaders repeatedly <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/10/hamas-covenant-israel-attack-war-genocide/675602/">stated goal of destroying Israel</a> and their recent <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/hamas-official-vows-to-repeat-attacks-on-israel-again-and-again-until-it-s-destroyed-196930629782">promise to attack Israel</a> “again and again” until it is gone.</p>
<p>But some Palestinian supporters also say that Israel’s mass displacement of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/israel-gaza-hamas-what-we-know.html">civilians and its bombing campaign in Gaza</a> – which has included the targeting of hospitals, refugee camps and ambulances, where Israel <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-military-says-hit-an-ambulance-being-used-by-hamas-2023-11-03/">says Hamas personnel are hiding</a> – is clear evidence of genocide.</p>
<p>As of Nov. 6, Israel’s attacks have <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/11/06/1210831466/death-toll-gaza-israel-hamas-conflict">resulted in more than 10,000 deaths,</a> including thousands of children, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health. Pro-Palestinian supporters see this as part of a longer history of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Hashtags like <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StopTheGenocide?src=hashtag_click">#StopTheGenocide</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23GenocideinGaza&src=typed_query">#GenocideinGaza</a> are circulating widely on social media. </p>
<p>U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/04/tlaib-biden-palestinian-genocide-israel-00125392">amplified these allegations</a> when she said on Nov. 4 that President Joe Biden is guilty of supporting genocide in Gaza.</p>
<p>Regardless of people’s position, almost everyone would agree that the crisis is dire, war crimes have likely taken place, far too many civilians have suffered greatly or lost their lives – and the situation has arrived at, or is on the cusp of, genocide. </p>
<p>I am a <a href="https://sasn.rutgers.edu/alex-hinton">scholar of genocide studies</a>. As the Israel-Hamas conflict grinds on amid continuing genocide allegations, it’s crucial to understand what genocide actually is and how this term has been used for political purposes in the past. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557880/original/file-20231106-270180-wx6ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large group of people walk in the street together, holding Israeli and American flags and a sign that says, 'Rather than a ceasefire, call for Hamas to cease holding hostages, cease terrorism, cease hiding behind civilians.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557880/original/file-20231106-270180-wx6ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557880/original/file-20231106-270180-wx6ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557880/original/file-20231106-270180-wx6ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557880/original/file-20231106-270180-wx6ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557880/original/file-20231106-270180-wx6ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557880/original/file-20231106-270180-wx6ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557880/original/file-20231106-270180-wx6ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People march in Brookline, Mass., on Nov. 5, 2023, in support of Israel’s right to defend itself from Hamas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-march-during-a-rally-to-show-local-support-for-news-photo/1765100173?adppopup=true">Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What is genocide?</h2>
<p>Raphael Lemkin, a lawyer who was Polish and Jewish, first devised the term “genocide” in his 1944 book, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/51.1.117">Axis Rule in Occupied Europe</a>.” </p>
<p>Lemkin defined genocide as “the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group.” Such destruction, he wrote, involves a “coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups.”</p>
<p>For Lemkin, committing genocide involves not just physical killings, but an assault on the spirit of a group of people – including their social, economic and political ways of life. His definition also encompasses cultural genocide. </p>
<p>In 1948, following the Nazis’ atrocities during the Holocaust, Lemkin lobbied the newly established United Nations to pass a legal agreement, known as a convention, on preventing and punishing genocide.</p>
<p>The 1948 <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention%20on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Genocide.pdf">U.N. Genocide Convention</a> specifies that genocide can happen by killing and destroying a group, preventing births and transferring children to another group, among other means.</p>
<p>At the time, some countries used the convention as a political tool to obscure their own histories of genocide. One example: The Soviet Union and others <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhz092">insisted that the definition exclude</a> political groups. The USSR feared it could otherwise be charged for killing political enemies. </p>
<p>The U.S. also had concerns about being accused of committing genocide against Black people, a point I detail in <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/book/98883">my 2021 book</a>, “It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the US.” </p>
<p>The U.S. successfully lobbied for the U.N. definition to emphasize intent and physical killing. This made it less likely the U.S. would be charged with genocide for <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws">Jim Crow policies</a> that enforced segregation of Black Americans.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557881/original/file-20231106-19-c1ldon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photo shows a middle aged man wearing a dark suit writing on a piece of paper." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557881/original/file-20231106-19-c1ldon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557881/original/file-20231106-19-c1ldon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=746&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557881/original/file-20231106-19-c1ldon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=746&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557881/original/file-20231106-19-c1ldon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=746&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557881/original/file-20231106-19-c1ldon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=937&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557881/original/file-20231106-19-c1ldon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=937&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557881/original/file-20231106-19-c1ldon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=937&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The lawyer Raphael Lemkin helped draft the U.N.’s Genocide Convention, which countries approved in 1948.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/international-lawyer-raphael-lemkin-helped-draft-the-news-photo/514965060?adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Using genocide for political reasons</h2>
<p>Governments and political leaders have long used genocide claims to make threats against other countries or to provide a rationale for foreign intervention, ostensibly to ward off a genocide. </p>
<p>There is also a long history of government officials arguing about the definition of genocide to deny that it was actually happening. </p>
<p>One of the most notorious examples was the U.S. denial that the mass violence in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/mar/31/usa.rwanda">Rwanda in 1994 was genocide</a>, because it did not match the “precise legal meaning” of the term. </p>
<p>The U.S. feared that if it called the violence “genocide,” then it would be compelled to intervene in Rwanda. Armed militias representing an ethnic group of people called Hutus, who were in control of the government, <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/africa/rwandan-genocide">killed an estimated 800,000 Tutsi people</a> – an ethnic minority – during this genocide. </p>
<p>Today, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-human-rights-663b3a4ba24499d93f3f889e98f8b652">countries like Russia</a> and <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/china-xinjiang-uyghurs-muslims-repression-genocide-human-rights">China continue</a> to deny that they are committing what many experts consider genocide. </p>
<h2>Three ways genocide is discussed</h2>
<p>In my research, I have found that people often approach genocide in <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/international/3859439-a-year-on-we-have-clear-evidence-of-genocide-in-ukraine/">three ways</a>. </p>
<p>First, legal scholars contend that before violence is considered genocide, it is necessary to demonstrate that what occurred neatly matches what the Genocide Convention spells out. </p>
<p>Others, including many scholars in the social sciences and humanities, have a broader view of what genocide means and maintain it could apply to a range of cases and dynamics, including settler colonialism and enslavement. </p>
<p>Many follow Lemkin in emphasizing that genocide can be carried out not just by killing, but through a multi-pronged attack on a group’s political, social, cultural, economic, religious, moral and economic way of life. </p>
<p>Finally, and most frequently, some people have a more conventional view that lacks a clear definition, but which generally associates genocide with any attempt to destroy a group of people. </p>
<p>This could mean not just mass death and destruction, but also things like abortion. </p>
<h2>Genocide and the Israel-Hamas war</h2>
<p>People are using these three different interpretations of genocide to characterize the Israel-Hamas war. </p>
<p>Many appear to want a way to understand and label the images of horrific violence that fill their screens. </p>
<p>Genocide, for all its <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/problems-of-genocide/1C48C9BAE4A2CA4EA6727F19771651A6">conceptual limitations,</a> provides a way of understanding the violence in Israel and Gaza. And so, people invoke the word genocide in its conventional sense, sometimes through genocide-related hashtags and slogans. </p>
<p>But long before the current crisis, scholars were debating whether Israel had committed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2010.529698">genocide in Palestinian territories</a>. </p>
<p>Along these lines, a high-ranking U.N. human rights official and lawyer named <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/1/craig_mokhiber_un_resignation_israel_gaza">Craig Mokhiber</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/31/un-official-resigns-israel-hamas-war-palestine-new-york">resigned from his post</a> on Oct. 28, 2023, because he said that, as in the past, the U.N. and Western countries were not preventing Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. </p>
<p>In response, Anne Bayefsky, the head of a New York-based human rights center, accused Mokhiber of “UN antisemitism” and wanting to wipe <a href="https://twitter.com/AnneBayefsky/status/1719382991414112626">“ISRAEL OFF THE MAP!”</a> Her remarks echo those of others who say that it is <a href="https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/press-release/mccaul-declares-hamas-committed-acts-of-genocide-crimes-against-humanity-war-crimes-calls-upon-state-department-to-determine-same/">Israelis who are at risk of genocide</a>.</p>
<p>This genocide debate is not going away. Amid mass death and suffering and <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/press-release/adl-records-dramatic-increase-us-antisemitic-incidents-following-oct-7">skyrocketing rates of antisemitism</a> and <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/11/un-human-rights-chief-condemns-rise-hatred">Islamophobia</a>, however, I think it is critical not to get lost in a war of words and neglect the desperate need to find a path to short- and long-term peace. </p>
<p><em>Part of this article is adapted from <a href="https://theconversation.com/putins-claims-that-ukraine-is-committing-genocide-are-baseless-but-not-unprecedented-177511">The Conversation’s Feb. 25, 2022, story</a> “Putin’s claims that Ukraine is committing genocide are baseless but not unprecedented.”</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217150/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexander Hinton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>People talk about genocide in a few different ways, ranging from technical to colloquial – but a war of words does not replace a path to peace, a genocide scholar writes.Alexander Hinton, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology; Director, Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, Rutgers University - NewarkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2164142023-10-26T19:42:09Z2023-10-26T19:42:09Z‘I see no happy ending’ − a former national security leader on the Gaza hostage situation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556216/original/file-20231026-29-9ca2g9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C6%2C4454%2C2980&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Israelis whose relatives are being held hostage demonstrate on October 26, 2023 in front of the Defense Ministry building in Tel Aviv, demanding the government to bring back their loved ones. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/israelis-whose-relatives-are-being-held-hostage-by-news-photo/1745465265?adppopup=true">Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/israel-hostages-hamas-explained.html">Hamas took more than 200 people hostage</a> during its deadly rampage in Israeli border towns on Oct. 7, 2023. Among the hostages are children and the elderly. While <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/hamas-gaza-releases-hostages-israel-nurit-yitzhak-yocheved-lifshitz-rcna121680">four of them have been released</a>, the fate of the rest is unknown, as <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-qatar-negotiations-hostages-8b7690d7585671d2d11f31f922e8f8f6">Qatar serves as an intermediary</a> in working to free the hostages. In this interview with Naomi Schalit, The Conversation U.S. senior politics and democracy editor, <a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/profile/gregory-treverton/">Gregory F. Treverton of USC Dornsife</a>, a former chairman of the National Intelligence Council in the Obama administration, says most hostage-taking has specific goals. This one, says Treverton, “is basically an adjunct of warfare, and that makes it very different” – and very hard to solve.</em> </p>
<p><strong>How do people in your field think about hostage-taking? I would imagine that the feeling is, “Oh, my god, please let nothing like that happen.”</strong> </p>
<p>It’s an utter dilemma, because on the one hand you feel for the hostages. And as we’ve seen in the past, the Israelis have been prepared to – and did – <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/gilad-shalit">release a thousand hostages to get one Israeli back</a>. </p>
<p>On the other hand, when you do a deal to get hostages released, you’re only encouraging more hostage-taking. So you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. As a result, every government, including the United States, says, “We never deal with hostage-takers.” But of course, they all do – and they have to.</p>
<p>I think it’s one of the hardest parts of being in the national security business. You want to free the people – but you’re also going to get criticized. Every time President Biden has gotten somebody out of Russia, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tim-scott-6-billion-iran-prisoner-swap-created-market-for-hostages/">people have said</a>, “Oh, he’s paid too high a price” or “He’s rewarded hostage-taking,” and to some extent, that’s true. You are basically rewarding the hostage-takers. But we still have to deal with them. We want to get our people out. And at some some point – as the Israelis have shown – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/21/opinion/israel-hamas-hostage.html">they’re prepared to pay almost any price</a> to get them back. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556196/original/file-20231026-19-m6sz0p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C16%2C5472%2C3620&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A worried and teary-eyed woman holds a photo of her daughter." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556196/original/file-20231026-19-m6sz0p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C16%2C5472%2C3620&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556196/original/file-20231026-19-m6sz0p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556196/original/file-20231026-19-m6sz0p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556196/original/file-20231026-19-m6sz0p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556196/original/file-20231026-19-m6sz0p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556196/original/file-20231026-19-m6sz0p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556196/original/file-20231026-19-m6sz0p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Keren Shem, the mother of hostage Mia Shem, holds a photograph of her daughter as she speaks to the press in Tel Aviv on Oct. 17, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-attend-a-demonstration-calling-for-the-release-of-news-photo/1742516390?adppopup=true">Gil Cohen-MAGEN/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p><strong>Israel released more than 1,000 prisoners in 2011 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/21/opinion/israel-hamas-hostage.html">in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit</a>, whom Hamas captured and held for five years. This is more than 200 times the number of hostages, so how do you even think about that?</strong></p>
<p>At least in my professional experience, this is without precedent. The closest parallel would be the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1976/07/04/archives/hostages-freed-as-israelis-raid-uganda-airport-commandos-in-3.html">1976 Entebbe hijacking and hostage-taking</a> by two Germans and two Palestinians on a flight from Tel Aviv to Paris. Hijackers held 103 Israeli hostages, once they released the 148 non-Israeli hostages. Hamas holds twice the number of hostages, and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/25/hamas-gaza-tunnels/">in very, very different circumstances</a>. In Entebbe, the Israeli government knew where they were, they were in a single place – the airplane – which had been forced to land in Entebbe, Uganda, after taking off from Tel Aviv. And that’s where Israeli commandos were <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/4/newsid_2786000/2786967.stm">able to rescue the hostages</a>.</p>
<p>In Gaza, we don’t know where they are. We know for sure they’re <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/25/hamas-gaza-tunnels/">scattered throughout the tunnels</a>, likely in lots of different small groups. Hamas will presumably then use them as shields if fighting begins on the ground. They might think that that would encourage the Israelis not to make a major attack – to keep Hamas from killing all the hostages. We know that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/is-this-the-end-of-the-netanyahu-era">Netanyahu isn’t keen on a major ground assault</a>, and this really puts the onus on the Israelis for how the hostage situation ends. </p>
<p><strong>When you think about the history of hostage negotiations, do you see something that has any relevance to what’s going on now?</strong> </p>
<p>It seems to me it’s a really different category. Even Entebbe was hostage-taking for some political aim – the hijackers wanted Israel to <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2016-06-04/ty-article-magazine/40-years-after-entebbe-israeli-hostages-reflect-back/0000017f-e3a2-d7b2-a77f-e3a7785f0000">release a large number of prisoners who were Palestinian</a>. A colleague of mine used to say that the point of terrorism was to do the least amount of violence with the most people watching it. But Entebbe was political theater, basically, and this is not political theater. This is basically an adjunct of warfare, and that makes it very different. It’s not the usual kind of tit for tat, with “How much am I willing to pay?” or “Can I take a hostage to get somebody else out?” </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556201/original/file-20231026-15-o63jn8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two buses driving through an arid landscape." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556201/original/file-20231026-15-o63jn8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556201/original/file-20231026-15-o63jn8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556201/original/file-20231026-15-o63jn8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556201/original/file-20231026-15-o63jn8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556201/original/file-20231026-15-o63jn8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556201/original/file-20231026-15-o63jn8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556201/original/file-20231026-15-o63jn8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Buses carrying Palestinian prisoners on Oct. 16, 2011, who were being exchanged for Israeli hostage Gilad Shalit, held by Hamas for five years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/palestinian-prisoners-set-to-be-released-as-part-of-the-news-photo/129342398?adppopup=true">Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p><strong>What does Israel’s heavy bombing of Gaza and the beginning of a ground invasion tell you about the government’s approach to the hostage situation?</strong></p>
<p>It suggests either that they have a pretty good fix on where the hostages are located, which seems unlikely given the network of Hamas tunnels, or that they have decided they must proceed in any case and will try their best to safeguard and free hostages as they go. Given the <a href="https://stratcomcoe.org/cuploads/pfiles/hamas_human_shields.pdf">Hamas practice of using civilians as human shields</a>, the outcome is likely to be very ugly.</p>
<p><strong>Where do you see this going?</strong></p>
<p>I see no happy ending. I don’t think there’s a deal that Israel could conceivably make, given its own politics. Or that Hamas would accept. So it does seem to me that at some point there is going to be that ground attack and the hostages are going to be caught in the middle of it. I see almost no alternative, given what Israel has pledged – <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/15/israel-gaza-war-end/">to destroy Hamas</a>. The Biden administration maintains that <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-13/israel-hamas-war-after-gaza-strip-invasion-us-fears-lack-of-strategy">Israel doesn’t really have a strategy</a>. They have a desire, which is to destroy Hamas. But that’s not a strategy for dealing with the hostages or for Gaza after the attack.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216414/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregory F. Treverton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>No government wants to have to deal with a hostage crisis. A former US national security official explains that there is no winning without losing in such situations.Gregory F. Treverton, Professor of Practice in International Relations, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2154932023-10-15T14:19:03Z2023-10-15T14:19:03ZHow the ‘laws of war’ apply to the conflict between Israel and Hamas<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553788/original/file-20231014-23-50yq19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C106%2C5439%2C3530&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Warring parties are duty-bound to minimize civilian casualties.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/palestinian-citizens-inspect-damage-to-their-homes-caused-news-photo/1735465776?adppopup=true">Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The killing of Israeli civilians by Hamas and retaliatory airstrikes on the densely populated Gaza Strip by Israel raises <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/law/2023/oct/12/what-are-the-rules-of-war-and-how-do-they-apply-to-the-israel-gaza-conflict">numerous issues under international law</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Indeed, President Joe Biden <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/10/10/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-terrorist-attacks-in-israel-2/">made express reference to the “laws of war</a>” in comments he made at the White house on Oct. 10, 2023, noting that while democracies like the U.S. and Israel uphold such standards, “terrorists” such as Hamas “purposefully target civilians.” Speaking the same day, the European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell condemned Hamas’ attack but also suggested that Israel was <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/eus-borrell-israel-has-right-to-self-defence-but-some-actions-counter-international-law/">not acting in accordance with international law</a> by cutting water, electricity and food to civilians in Gaza.</em></p>
<p><em>But international law and the very nature of the conflict itself – along with the status of the two sides involved – is a complex area. The Conversation turned to <a href="https://www.wcl.american.edu/community/faculty/profile/goldman/bio">Robert Goldman</a>, an expert on the laws of war at American University Washington College of Law, for guidance on some of the issues.</em></p>
<h2>What are the ‘laws of war’?</h2>
<p>The laws of war, also known as International Humanitarian Law (IHL), consist of the <a href="https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/war-and-law/treaties-customary-law/geneva-conventions/overview-geneva-conventions.htm">four 1949 Geneva Conventions</a>, their two Additional Protocols of 1977, the <a href="https://casebook.icrc.org/a_to_z/glossary/hague-conventions">Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907</a>, as well as certain weapons conventions.</p>
<p>Simply put, these instruments seek to spare civilians and others who are no longer active combatants from the effects of hostilities by placing restrictions and prohibitions on the conduct of warfare.</p>
<p>It is important to understand that modern IHL is not concerned with the reasons for, or the legality of, going to war. Rather, that is governed by the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charter/full-text">United Nations Charter</a> and a member state’s own practice.</p>
<p>It is also important to note that violations of the laws of war are <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/03/22/russia-putin-war-crimes-icc-ukraine">notoriously hard to prosecute</a> and can be frustrated by lack of cooperation by the parties involved. </p>
<h2>What is the nature of the conflict between Israel and Hamas?</h2>
<p>The answer to this question is by no means clear.</p>
<p>Many humanitarian law experts would argue that Hamas and Israel are engaged in what is known as a “<a href="https://www.undrr.org/understanding-disaster-risk/terminology/hips/so0002">non-international armed conflict</a>.” In other words, it would be classified the same way as a civil war that pits the armed forces of a state against an armed non-state actor, rather than an international conflict between two or more sovereign states.</p>
<p>If that were the case, the conflict would not be governed by the entirety of the laws of war, but instead by the more limited <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/ref/us/AP-Guantanamo-Geneva-Conventions.html?scp=5&sq=torture&st=cse">Common Article 3</a> of the Geneva Conventions along with numerous <a href="https://www.icrc.org/en/war-and-law/treaties-customary-law/customary-law">customary law rules</a>, which derive from general practices accepted as law. Common Article 3, which applies to civilians and those no longer fighting, prohibits practices such as torture, summary execution and denial of a fair trial. But Prisoner of War status only applies to conflicts between states so would not apply.</p>
<p>But some international observers, including the United Nations, view Israel as, <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/">in effect, occupying Gaza</a> – a view predicated on the fact that Israel <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/gaza-strip-controls-s-know-rcna119405">controls Gaza’s borders</a> and airspace and it <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/11/why-is-gaza-out-of-fuel-and-what">supplies most of its electricity</a>.</p>
<p>If that is the case, then the recent outbreak of hostilities between Hamas and Israel would trigger the entirety of laws of war.</p>
<p>That said, I do not believe that Israel is an occupying power
in Gaza under a strict reading of the law. This is because Israel ceased governing and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-gaza-disengagement-insight/shadow-of-israels-pullout-from-gaza-hangs-heavy-10-years-on-idUSKCN0QF1QQ20150810">pulled its forces out of Gaza in 2005</a>. Since 2007, Hamas, after <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jun/15/israel4">expelling the Palestinian Authority</a>, has in effect governed Gaza.</p>
<h2>Is the bombing of Gaza illegal under international law?</h2>
<p>Today the rules governing the conduct of hostilities in both international and non-international armed conflicts are essentially the same.</p>
<p>The foremost requirement in all conflicts is that combatants must always distinguish between civilians and combatants, and that attacks can only be directed at combatants and other military targets.</p>
<p>Protecting civilian populations caught in warfare essentially depends upon three factors: </p>
<ol>
<li>Civilians must abstain from fighting;</li>
<li>The party in control of the civilian population must not place them at heightened risk of harm by using them as human shields; and</li>
<li>The attacking force must take precautions to avoid or minimize excessive civilian casualties when attacking lawful targets.</li>
</ol>
<p>Not only are civilians in Gaza not lawful targets, they are also protected under IHL by the <a href="https://lieber.westpoint.edu/proportionality-international-humanitarian-law-principle-rule/">rule of proportionality</a>. This rule prohibits an attack against a military target which foreseeably could cause civilian casualties that are excessive, or disproportionate in relation to the advantage anticipated from the target’s destruction.</p>
<p>In the case of Gaza, this rule requires that before launching an attack, the Israeli military analyze and determine the likely effect on civilians. If it appears that such an attack will cause disproportionate civilian casualties, then it must be suspended or canceled.</p>
<p>Given Gaza’s urban density, it will be extremely difficult for the Israelis to avoid substantial civilian casualties even when using precision weapons. </p>
<p>And this task will be nearly impossible if Hamas, as it has <a href="https://stratcomcoe.org/cuploads/pfiles/hamas_human_shields.pdf">consistently done in the past</a>, uses civilians and now hostages to shield military targets.</p>
<p>While Israel bears primary responsibility to avoid excessive civilian deaths in its bombardment of Gaza, Hamas’ ability to claim the bombardment constitutes a war crime would be weakened if it deliberately places its own people in harm’s way. </p>
<p>And while Israel is <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-hamas-war-c8b4fc20e4fd2ef381d5edb7e9e8308c">complying with its duty to give an advanced warning</a> of an attack in north Gaza, the problem remains: Where do 1 million people go to seek safety when borders are closed and military targets are being hit throughout Gaza?</p>
<h2>Is Israel’s siege of Gaza illegal?</h2>
<p>Unlike <a href="https://www.chathamhouse.org/2019/06/sieges-law-and-protecting-civilians-0/i-introduction">in the past</a>, total siege warfare now is unlawful regardless of whether the warring parties are involved in international or non-international hostilities.</p>
<p>Blocking the entry of all food, water, medicines and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/12/no-power-water-or-fuel-to-gaza-until-hostages-freed-says-israeli-minister">cutting off electricity</a> – as appears to be happening in Gaza – will disproportionately affect civilians, foreseeably leading to their starvation. This is a banned method of warfare under customary and conventional IHL.</p>
<p>No matter how horrific the actions of Hamas, IHL does not permit an aggrieved party to respond in kind. Violation of the law by one party cannot, in principle, justify or sanction actions by the other that violate established prohibitions in international humanitarian law.</p>
<h2>What are the status and obligations of Hamas under IHL?</h2>
<p>IHL rules apply equally to all the warring parties irrespective of the nature of the conflict. This means that Israeli and Hamas combatants have the same rights and duties.</p>
<p>If, however, the conflict is non-international, then Hamas will be regarded as an armed non-state actor and its combatants ineligible for Prisoner of War status upon capture. Accordingly, Israel can try them for all their hostile acts whether or not Hamas complies with the laws of war.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Masked men in black hold aloft rifles." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553789/original/file-20231014-29-84rl03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553789/original/file-20231014-29-84rl03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553789/original/file-20231014-29-84rl03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553789/original/file-20231014-29-84rl03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553789/original/file-20231014-29-84rl03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553789/original/file-20231014-29-84rl03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553789/original/file-20231014-29-84rl03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Masked militants from the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, a military wing of Hamas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PalestiniansHamasanniversary/919f51e5b9314839a8fbe54bc4e75fcd/photo?Query=hamas%20fighters&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=4&currentItemNo=3&vs=true">AP Photo/Adel Hana</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But even if the conflict is an international one, then Hamas’s fighters would still be debarred from Prisoner of War status. They are not the armed forces of Palestine – which is <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-that-recognize-palestine">recognized as a state by 138 nations</a> and has the Palestine Authority as its government.</p>
<p>Rather, Hamas combatants are an irregular armed group. To be eligible for Prisoner of War status under <a href="https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/gciii-1949/article-4">Article 4A(2) of the Third Geneva Convention</a>, members of an irregular armed group must adhere to very strict standards, both collectively and individually. These includes distinguishing themselves from civilians and complying with the laws of war. Manifestly Hamas has not and does not meet these standards. As such, Israel could lawfully deny them Prisoner of War status upon capture.</p>
<p>Israel, the U.S. and others label <a href="https://www.dni.gov/nctc/groups/hamas.html">Hamas fighters as terrorists</a>. Hamas’ recent acts – indiscriminately firing thousands of rockets into Israel, targeting, killing and taking civilians as hostages – are acts of terrorism in warfare and qualify as war crimes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215493/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Goldman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar of the laws of war explores the complex issues raised by Israeli bombing of Gaza in retaliation for the slaughter of its citizens.Robert Goldman, Professor of Law, American UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2153932023-10-13T20:37:42Z2023-10-13T20:37:42ZReflections on hope during unprecedented violence in the Israel-Hamas war<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553731/original/file-20231013-23-tqinee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People in Tel Aviv on Oct. 12, 2023, light candles in memory of civilians and soldiers killed, as well as hostages taken, by Hamas.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-light-candles-in-memory-of-the-civilians-and-news-photo/1720743594?adppopup=true">Amir Levy/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Yom Kippur in 1973, I was 6 years old and living in Petah Tikvah, a city in central Israel. Playing a nail-biting game of marbles, I initially ignored my mom calling me from our front porch. But sensing something was wrong, I gave up my potential winnings and ran home. </p>
<p>I arrived to see my dad emerge from our front door wearing an Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, olive-green uniform. He hugged and kissed me goodbye. He then disappeared for nearly two weeks. </p>
<p>Every night, as instructed by the IDF, I switched off my bedroom lights to avoid enemy aircraft detection. Every day, I heard adults discuss the government and military’s failure to anticipate and intercept the <a href="https://time.com/6322802/yom-kippur-war-israel-history/">surprise Egyptian-Syrian attack</a> that <a href="https://www.economist.com/briefing/2023/10/12/hamass-attack-was-the-bloodiest-in-israels-history#:%7E:text=The%202%2C656%20Israelis%20who%20died,week%20were%20active%20military%20personnel.&text=Most%20of%20the%20victims%20were,(15%20miles)%20inside%20Israel">killed 2,656 Israeli </a>soldiers. </p>
<p>Fifty years later, on another Jewish holy day, <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/shemini-atzeretsimchat-torah-101/">Simchat Torah</a>, I hopped out of bed in my home in central Pennsylvania at 6 a.m. – an hour before my twin 6-year-olds usually awaken on Saturdays. I’m a documentary filmmaker, and I had planned to use the uninterrupted time to start scoring my post-Holocaust documentary, “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/10/hero-of-entebbe-deserves-own-film">Cojot</a>.” </p>
<p>A barrage of messages from family and friends stopped me in my tracks. <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/timeline-surprise-rocket-attack-hamas-israel/story?id=103816006">Hamas had launched a surprise attack on Israel</a>. Before my brain could process the news, my stomach told me that this was unprecedented.</p>
<p>Around-the-clock calls, texts and media reports from Israel have reinforced my feeling that <a href="https://apnews.com/article/hamas-iran-israel-war-b18d649d426390b6ab618b33ef2f051a">we’ve never seen anything like this before</a>. At the same time, certain aspects of the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-news-hamas-war-10-13-23/index.html">Israel-Hamas war</a> are familiar. They remind me of previous conflicts, acts of terrorism and retribution in Israel and the surrounding region. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553728/original/file-20231013-21-yb68ov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People are seen walking around small gravestones in a row, in front of fresh, long plots of dirt in a black and white photo." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553728/original/file-20231013-21-yb68ov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553728/original/file-20231013-21-yb68ov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553728/original/file-20231013-21-yb68ov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553728/original/file-20231013-21-yb68ov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553728/original/file-20231013-21-yb68ov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553728/original/file-20231013-21-yb68ov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553728/original/file-20231013-21-yb68ov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mourners gather at the fresh graves of Israeli soldiers killed during the Yom Kippur War in Israel in 1973.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/mourners-gather-at-the-fresh-graves-of-israeli-soldiers-news-photo/3241021?adppopup=true">Hulton Archive/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Plenty of similarities</h2>
<p>Palestinians and Jews have been maligning, menacing and murdering each other since the 19th century. </p>
<p>The era of extreme violence began in the 1920s, when clashes between Palestinians and Jews <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/timeline-long-history-israeli-palestinian-conflict/story?id=103875134">slayed hundreds of people in each group</a>.</p>
<p>Since then, Palestinian terrorism has claimed the lives of <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/total-casualties-arab-israeli-conflict">more than 10,000 Jews</a>, mostly civilians. From 2008 through 2022, IDF attacks have killed <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/data/casualties">more than 6,100 Palestinian civilians</a>.</p>
<p>On Oct. 7, 2023, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hostages-gaza-war-822b214252a77f3c3556bb71d9ce7c89#">Hamas murdered an estimted 1,300 Israelis and abducted about 150 people</a>, including civilians ranging in age from infants to the elderly, as well as Israeli soldiers and Americans.</p>
<p>Terrorists have taken hostages on Israeli soil before.</p>
<p>In 1974, a <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/democratic-front-for-the-liberation-of-palestine-dflp">terrorist group</a> called the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or DFLP, entered <a href="https://www-jstor-org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/stable/3011682#">Israel through Lebanon</a> and took 105 Israeli children and 10 adults hostage in the northern Israeli town of Ma'alot. </p>
<p>The IDF <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/10/how-israel-adapts-after-failure/675588/">botched its attempt to rescue the Ma’alot hostages</a>. Its rushed operation spurred the terrorists to kill 22 children and three adults, as well as injure 68 other hostages. </p>
<p>For many Israelis, Saturday’s attack was also reminiscent of 2006, when Hamas kidnapped a 19-year-old Israeli soldier named <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/10/11/hamas-terrorists-israel-hostages-gilad-shalit-key-words/">Gilad Shalit</a>. </p>
<p>Hamas <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/opinion/gilad-shalits-release.html?searchResultPosition=8">exchanged Shalit five years later for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners</a> held in Israel. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553730/original/file-20231013-24-ool99b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Gilad Shalit and Benjamin Netanyahu walk with two other men in suits on an airplane tarmac." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553730/original/file-20231013-24-ool99b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553730/original/file-20231013-24-ool99b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553730/original/file-20231013-24-ool99b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553730/original/file-20231013-24-ool99b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553730/original/file-20231013-24-ool99b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553730/original/file-20231013-24-ool99b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553730/original/file-20231013-24-ool99b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, second from right, walks with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials in 2011 after being held captive by Hamas for five years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-this-handout-photo-provided-by-the-israeli-defence-force-news-photo/129572162?adppopup=true">IDF via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Not the first military misstep</h2>
<p>Hamas’ surprise attack in October was not the only disaster the IDF did not foresee. The Israeli military also failed to foil <a href="https://www.american.edu/sis/news/20231006-50-years-on-explaining-the-yom-kippur-war.cfm">Egypt and Syria’s Oct. 6, 1973, attack</a> on Israel.</p>
<p>Another similarity between then and now involves Israeli and Palestinian civilians being fired on from outside either Israel or Gaza.</p>
<p>Thirty years ago, <a href="https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/327554/what-my-personal-story-from-the-1991-iraqi-scud-assault-teaches-about-covid-19/">Iraqi President Saddam Hussein shot 38 Scud missiles at Israel in the 1991 Gulf War</a>, during which a U.S.-led coalition pushed Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. </p>
<p>Although many of the Iraqi missiles splashed into the Mediterranean Sea, grazed open fields or caused little damage, <a href="https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/327554/what-my-personal-story-from-the-1991-iraqi-scud-assault-teaches-about-covid-19/">they generated panic throughout the country</a>. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242876402_Why_were_Scud_casualties_so_low">The missiles directly killed two Israelis</a>. But the missiles also resulted in <a href="https://www.hrw.org/reports/1991/gulfwar/CHAP8.htm">the deaths of 12 other people</a>, some of whom succumbed to heart attacks. </p>
<p>Residing in a nation surrounded by enemies means living in fear.</p>
<h2>Just as many differences</h2>
<p>For Israelis, the most striking differences between now and then are the Oct. 7 terrorist attack’s unimaginable <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/israels-ground-zero-beeri-kibbutz-bloodiest-scenes-hamas/story?id=103936668">brutality and destruction</a>. Few pictured Hamas wreaking ISIS-style havoc on 20 towns, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/israels-netanyahu-says-hamas-militants-beheaded-soldiers-raped-women-in-their-attack-on-israel">raping women</a> and <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahus-office-releases-horrifying-images-of-infants-murdered-by-hamas/">murdering children</a>. </p>
<p>Hamas murdered many more Israelis in one day than Palestinians killed during the entirety of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080066/israel-palestine-intifadas-first-second">Second Intifada,</a> a major West Bank and Gaza uprising that lasted from 2000 through 2005. </p>
<p>Another difference is the unconditional, full-fledged U.S. government support for Israel during this current conflict. </p>
<p>Since the 1980s, the U.S. has maintained a <a href="https://www.retroreport.org/video/israel-survived-an-early-challenge-with-war-planes-smuggled-by-u-s-vets">strategic alliance</a> with Israel. But the U.S. has tended to offer support with certain conditions attached. For instance, Israel must spend at least 75% of the nearly $4 billion the U.S. gives it each year on <a href="https://www.commentary.org/articles/elliott-abrams/do-not-cut-off-aid-to-israel/">American weapons and products</a>. </p>
<p>Some observers say President Joe Biden has swiftly shown Israel the kind of unconditional love that Israelis want. </p>
<p>“The loss of innocent life is heartbreaking,” <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/10/10/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-terrorist-attacks-in-israel-2/#:%7E:text=They%20use%20Palestinian%20civilians%20as,respond%20%E2%80%94%20to%20these%20vicious%20attacks.">Biden said Oct. 10</a>. “Like every nation in the world, Israel has the right to respond – indeed has a duty to respond – to these vicious attacks.”</p>
<p>Israelis are so moved that they’ve put up <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/JoeBiden/comments/175lq0x/a_new_billboard_has_been_erected_in_israel_by/">billboards to thank Biden</a>.</p>
<p>America’s unconditional love may crack as Israel pursues an unprecedented goal: to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/netanyahu-gantz-agree-form-emergency-israel-government-statement-2023-10-11/">rid the world of Hamas</a>. </p>
<p>No Israeli prime minister has ever set such a goal, much less officially led such an effort. During the <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-06-02/ty-article/.premium/lebanon-war-40-years-on-the-conflict-that-changed-israel/00000181-256c-dba3-ab87-adfd5f5e0000">1982 Lebanon War</a>, Israel’s then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin sought to keep the northern border free of Palestinian terrorists. But he never aimed to eradicate the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Palestine-Liberation-Organization/Intifada-and-Oslo-peace-process">Palestinian Liberation Organization</a> from the face of the earth. </p>
<p>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwny3vOQShI">2023 kill-them-all objective</a> when it comes to Hamas has become the war’s flashpoint. <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-10-13/ty-article-opinion/.premium/no-to-collective-punishment-against-gaza/0000018b-254d-dd34-afdf-f5cfb9f00000">Many people in Israel worry about this mission claiming the lives of countless civilian Gazans</a>. This has already begun, with Israeli airstrikes killing <a href="https://apnews.com/article/gaza-israel-palestinians-war-hamas-militants-civilians-casualites-8469bbcb566446d78f368bf2a1b49d88">more than 1,400 Gaza civilians. </a></p>
<p>These many Palestinian civilian deaths, too, may be unprecedented.</p>
<h2>There’s hope</h2>
<p>What do these differences and similarities point to? A new day, I hope. This horrendous war offers a tremendous opportunity to finally resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. </p>
<p>I spoke recently with a relative in Israel who’s been adamantly opposed to the creation of a Palestinian country. Despite his anger over the Hamas attack, he said that if the IDF can remove this “ISIS-like organization” from the equation, he will favor the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/11/arab-ministers-urge-israel-to-resume-talks-on-two-state-solution">two-state solution</a>. </p>
<p>Several other right-wing Israelis and Americans I know have also hinted at such a resolution. </p>
<p>To me, this feels like a turning point.</p>
<p>While Hamas has long prepared for war, it’s possible the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/11/israel-gaza-war-abbas-pa/">Palestinian Authority</a>, which governs the West Bank and has been working with Israel for years, could prepare to eventually oversee Gaza. </p>
<p><em>This article was updated on Oct. 16, 2023, to clarify the number of Palestinian civilian deaths because of the IDF from 2008 through 2022.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215393/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Boaz Dvir does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Israel’s war with Hamas is unlike anything Israelis have seen before in some important ways, writes an Israeli filmmaker. But in other ways, it is reminiscent of the distant and not so long ago past.Boaz Dvir, Associate Professor of Journalism, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2153642023-10-11T12:31:14Z2023-10-11T12:31:14ZIsrael has no good options for dealing with Hamas’ hostage-taking in Gaza<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553080/original/file-20231010-22-bbax90.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=68%2C11%2C7513%2C5035&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pictures are put together on a pavement beside candles during the 'Jewish Community Vigil' for Israel in London on Oct. 9, 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BritainIsraelPalestinians/5855232f4bce4b269a890599ba97f33c/photo?Query=hamas%20gaza&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=10745&currentItemNo=81">AP Photo/Kin Cheung</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Hamas, the Gaza-based Palestinian militant group that mounted a deadly surprise attack on Israel that has killed – at last count – <a href="https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/israel-hamas-war-gaza/card/israeli-death-toll-rises-to-1-200-rxnP5pV3GiISzb9bkWrn">at least 1,200 Israelis</a>, has captured what are estimated to be 150 hostages. Brought back to Gaza, those hostages include children, members of the military and the elderly. Most are civilians captured from the towns bordering Gaza. President Joe Biden revealed on Oct. 10, 2023, that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/10/10/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza/here-is-the-latest-on-the-fighting?smid=url-share">some are Americans</a>. Hamas has said that every time Israel strikes a Gaza home “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/10/09/1204639253/israel-gaza-hamas-us-citizens-killed">without warning</a>,” a hostage will be killed, and that execution would be recorded and the recording played for the public.</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation asked <a href="https://www.uml.edu/FAHSS/Criminal-Justice/faculty/Forest-James.aspx">James Forest, a University of Massachusetts Lowell expert on international security</a>, to help readers understand the dynamics of this hostage crisis.</em></p>
<h2>The taking of hostages looks like a planned part of this Hamas operation – why would Hamas do this?</h2>
<p>Terrorist groups have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14781158.2012.714766">historically taken hostages to gain leverage</a> in negotiating for policy concessions, financial ransoms or the release of imprisoned comrades, and generally to influence the decisions and behavior of the targeted government. </p>
<p>In this instance, Hamas has stated that its goal is about forcing Israel to release <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/8/why-are-so-many-palestinian-prisoners-in-israeli-jails">imprisoned Palestinians</a>. Its <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2023/1009/Israel-imposes-complete-siege-of-Gaza-Hamas-threatens-executions">threat to kill hostages in retaliation for unannounced attacks against Gaza</a> is another example of attempted coercion of Israeli leaders. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A motorcycle moves along, carrying two men with a young woman sandwiched between them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553083/original/file-20231010-29-zz071x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553083/original/file-20231010-29-zz071x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553083/original/file-20231010-29-zz071x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553083/original/file-20231010-29-zz071x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553083/original/file-20231010-29-zz071x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553083/original/file-20231010-29-zz071x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553083/original/file-20231010-29-zz071x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Palestinians transport a captured Israeli civilian, center, from Kfar Azza kibbutz into the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IsraelPalestiniansPhotoGallery/d9745863333340219c1ce0f22cbfd05e/photo?Query=hamas%20gaza&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=10750&currentItemNo=206">AP Photo/Hatem Ali, File</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hamas also has a vulnerability that many other terrorist groups have not had – namely, a physical territory of its own that can be targeted.</p>
<p>Holding hostages in unknown locations throughout this territory is an attempt to prevent Israel from launching military strikes that could inadvertently kill Israeli citizens. And taking hostages could also be intended to generate morale among Hamas supporters domestically and internationally by showcasing the group’s abilities to frighten and harm a more powerful adversary.</p>
<p>Similar to the hostage-taking at the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Munich-Massacre">1972 Munich Olympics</a> by the Palestinian group Black September, another likely objective here is to draw international attention to the desperation of people living in blockaded, impoverished Gaza. </p>
<p>However, attention doesn’t necessarily lead to sympathy. Taking innocents hostage, especially children and the elderly, is condemned worldwide, and it will be hard to find sympathy for the perpetrators of such crimes even when they’re claiming to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/hamas-know-group-deadliest-attack-israel-decades-rcna119628">free their land from occupation</a>. Further, when citizens of other countries – <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/10/politics/joe-biden-benjamin-netanyahu/index.html">such as the U.S.</a> – are among the hostages, Hamas will likely find this to have been a counterproductive decision because it could invite retaliation from multiple countries.</p>
<p>Two other strategic considerations behind this act would be <a href="https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/strategies-terrorism">provocation and spoiling</a>. Hamas is likely drawing on classic strategy in which the terrorists try to provoke the targeted government into an overly heavy-handed response. Hamas likely wants to enrage Israel to the point that Israel begins lashing out against Palestinians with escalating brutality. This, in turn, would support the so-called spoiler strategy, by disrupting current <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-israel-hamas-war-no-matter-who-loses-iran-wins-215225">efforts to normalize relations between Israel and Arab nations</a>. </p>
<h2>What choices do the Israelis have for responding?</h2>
<p>Democratic governments face many challenges in responding to terrorist groups taking their citizens hostage. Israel <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09546550701424059">cannot be seen to underreact, yet neither should it overreact</a>. </p>
<p>Among the different counterterrorism strategies they could pursue, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2014.994061">repression</a> – including collective punishment, an approach frequently used by Israel in the past – would seek to deter Hamas from conducting further terrorist attacks, and also to raise the level of hardship among Palestinians in Gaza to a point that they rise up against Hamas. Examples of repression in response to terrorism include prohibiting free speech or public gatherings, arresting political activists without probable cause, arbitrary searches and destruction of homes, and deportations. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2020/07/israels-collective-punishment-palestinians-illegal-and-affront-justice-un">July 2020 United Nations report</a> noted: “While Israel’s justification for imposing the closure on Gaza was to contain Hamas and ensure Israel’s security, the actual impact of the closure has been the destruction of Gaza’s economy, causing immeasurable suffering to its two million inhabitants.” To date, repression has not produced the results sought by Israel.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A middle aged man dressed in a business suit stands near a white flag with a blue star." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553068/original/file-20231010-19-mdi9am.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553068/original/file-20231010-19-mdi9am.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553068/original/file-20231010-19-mdi9am.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553068/original/file-20231010-19-mdi9am.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553068/original/file-20231010-19-mdi9am.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553068/original/file-20231010-19-mdi9am.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553068/original/file-20231010-19-mdi9am.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces grave decisions on hostages taken during the surprise Hamas attack.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/israeli-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu-attends-a-cabinet-news-photo/1252010589?adppopup=true">Kahana/Pool/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another strategy, referred to by scholars as “<a href="https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/targeting-top-terrorists-how-leadership-decapitation-contributes-counterterrorism">decapitation</a>,” involves the capturing or killing of a terrorist group’s leaders. </p>
<p>Three important challenges come with this approach, the most important of which is locating the group’s leaders when they are being sheltered within a territory with so many tunnels – as Gaza has – and among Hamas supporters. </p>
<p>Second, if Israel is able to capture Hamas’ leaders, there may not be much political will on either side of this conflict to negotiate a prisoner-hostage swap, at least not while the daily carnage fuels their desire for vengeance. Third, if top commanders of Hamas are killed, there is always a chance they could be replaced with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2015.1069671">new leaders who are more brutal than the previous ones</a>. </p>
<p>Finally, another option available to Israel is negotiation. In years past, government leaders have <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/2011-10-12/ty-article/israel-and-hamas-are-both-winners-and-losers-in-shalit-swap-deal/0000017f-e0d2-d568-ad7f-f3fb43900000">arranged for the release of Israeli hostages</a>, including soldiers, in return for the release of imprisoned Palestinians. </p>
<p>However, negotiation almost never takes place in the midst of an active military confrontation. Instead, the historical pattern suggests any potential negotiations would wait until some time after the guns and rockets have gone quiet. </p>
<p>Hamas leaders believe a fundamental source of their <a href="https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/hamas-35">perceived legitimacy</a> is based on their ability and willingness to violently confront Israel. So the underlying challenge is that there is no hope of negotiating a lasting peace with a group that does not see peaceful coexistence as being in its best interest. </p>
<h2>How would a hostage in this situation be treated? Do we know based on previous hostage-taking?</h2>
<p>It’s hard to say for sure. I think it will vary according to a mix of contextual factors, like who the hostage is and who is holding them hostage. </p>
<p>It is likely that Hamas leaders have given orders to their units that hostages are not to be harmed, and they are to be moved around and held in various locations in hopes of deterring Israeli military strikes. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0043887111000293">disciplined adherence to such commands</a> is not always the case among terrorist groups – especially in the midst of an active military confrontation. That said, most violent groups recognize that if their hostages are killed, they will lose whatever bargaining chips they had hoped to gain.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553084/original/file-20231010-29-qo8s89.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man is being pushed along by several other men, one of whom has grabbed his shirt." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553084/original/file-20231010-29-qo8s89.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553084/original/file-20231010-29-qo8s89.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553084/original/file-20231010-29-qo8s89.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553084/original/file-20231010-29-qo8s89.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553084/original/file-20231010-29-qo8s89.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553084/original/file-20231010-29-qo8s89.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553084/original/file-20231010-29-qo8s89.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A captured Israeli civilian, center, is moved by Palestinians from Kfar Azza kibbutz into the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IsraelPalestiniansPhotoGallery/8554ea55e3bc407280975c082dfde6f4/photo?Query=hamas%20gaza&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=10750&currentItemNo=207">AP Photo/Hatem Ali, File</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Is there a role for intermediaries? If so, who might they be?</h2>
<p>Finding an intermediary who is trusted by all parties will be exceedingly difficult, as trust is hard to come by in this region. And whether it’s a country with influence – like the U.S. – or an international organization, it’s likely that an opportunity for intermediaries to help arrange the return of hostages will only emerge after the active shooting, rocket attacks and air strikes have subsided.</p>
<h2>How might the taking of these hostages affect the conduct of the war, on both sides?</h2>
<p>Israeli forces are surely being told to try to avoid actions that could harm the hostages. Throughout this conflict, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-gaza-attack-10-09-23">assistance from U.S.</a> and other intelligence agencies will likely help Israel locate targets to attack and hostages to rescue. Some hostages could be found and reunited with their families. </p>
<p>Hamas will likely use the hostage drama to generate lasting media attention. The group’s leaders may feel that a building destroyed by a bomb will generate some photos and headlines for perhaps a few days, but posting online photos and videos each week of Israelis being held captive would garner the spotlight for Hamas much longer. In the end, both sides must tread carefully.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215364/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Forest does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An estimated 150 hostages were taken by Hamas in Israel and brought back to Gaza. The government of Israel faces tough choices in dealing with the crisis.James Forest, Professor and Director of Security Studies, School of Criminology and Justice Studies, UMass LowellLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2153692023-10-10T20:32:51Z2023-10-10T20:32:51ZIsraeli hostages will undoubtedly be used as human shields in brutal Hamas-Israel war<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/israeli-hostages-will-undoubtedly-be-used-as-human-shields-in-brutal-hamas-israel-war" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>It is usually quite difficult to get people and things in and out of Gaza. Until this weekend. </p>
<p>Thousands of rockets poured out of Gaza, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/09/world/middleeast/israel-hostages-hamas-explained.html">more than 100 Israelis were taken hostage by Hamas</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-10-10-23/h_7d25b4891a870b238af20d13f169d50f">Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, has said the total number of hostages seized was between 100 and 150</a>. <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/">The <em>Times of Israel</em> has reported that most of the hostages have been identified</a> and that families were being notified.</p>
<p>Videos of Israelis being abducted were filmed by Hamas and shared on social media and through WhatsApp groups.</p>
<p>But where these hostages are being held is anyone’s guess. </p>
<p>Qatari officials have been attempting <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/qatar-leading-talks-swap-hamas-held-hostages-palestinians-israeli-jails-2023-10-09/">to broker a prisoner exchange of 36 Palestinian women and children held by Israel in exchange for the hostages taken by Hamas</a>.
Hamas, meantime, has announced that <a href="https://www.firstpost.com/world/hamas-chief-says-no-prisoner-exchange-before-the-end-of-war-13229982.html">it’s not prepared to discuss a “prisoner exchange” until the end of the conflict</a>. </p>
<p>A couple of different messages can be taken from this. </p>
<h2>Deterring retaliation?</h2>
<p>First, it could mean that Israeli hostages are being held across Gaza in order to deter any major bombardment from Israel or to deter Israeli defence forces from a ground invasion. </p>
<p>Or it could mean that Hamas itself is unclear as to how many hostages it has, and who they are. </p>
<p>Already <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/10/09/israel-hamas-hostage-death/">video footage has surfaced of Israeli hostages executed in Gaza by Hamas militants</a> carrying assault rifles. Another video showed a German woman dragged through the streets in Gaza.</p>
<p>Israelis have been taken as hostages before. In 1985, a Trans World Airlines jet <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/hijacking-of-twa-flight-847">with 139 passengers and a crew of eight was hijacked by two Lebanese terrorists</a> who demanded the release of 700 Shi’ite Muslims from Israeli custody. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2011/10/17/world/meast/israel-prisoner-swap-explainer/index.html">In 2011, 1,027 Palestinians were exchanged for one Israeli soldier</a>, Gilad Shalit, captured by Hamas in 2006.</p>
<p>In 2014, Hamas kidnapped and executed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/05/world/middleeast/killing-of-3-israeli-teenagers-loosely-tied-to-hamas-court-documents-show.html#:%7E:text=The%20precise%20nature%20of%20the,in%20the%20Israeli%2DPalestinian%20conflict.">three Israeli teenagers</a>. </p>
<p>But this time it is different. </p>
<h2>Highly orchestrated</h2>
<p>This is no ordinary prisoner diplomacy. This is not a desperate attempt to free prisoners on the other side or to broker a deal. Nor is it using civilian prisoners in a diplomatic proxy war, like the exchange between Canada and China for <a href="https://theconversation.com/meng-for-the-two-michaels-lessons-for-the-world-from-the-china-canada-prisoner-swap-168737">Chinese telecommunications executive Meng Wanzhou for the “Two Michaels</a>.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/meng-for-the-two-michaels-lessons-for-the-world-from-the-china-canada-prisoner-swap-168737">Meng for the two Michaels: Lessons for the world from the China-Canada prisoner swap</a>
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<p>It’s a highly orchestrated act by Hamas meant to achieve three political goals. </p>
<p>The first is to disrupt the emerging diplomacy between Israel and Saudi Arabia. The second is to mock Benjamin Netanyahu’s <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/benjamin-netanyahu-hawk-eye-storm-2023-07-24/">war hawk platform</a>. And finally, it could be aimed at undermining <a href="https://carnegie-mec.org/diwan/90575">Fatah’s stated role as representing the Palestinian people</a>. </p>
<p>While Hamas advocates using armed resistance and <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-hamas">has called for the destruction of Israel</a>, Fatah believes in negotiating with Israel for a <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/israel-and-palestinians-two-state-solution-five-failed-states">two-state solution</a> and has ruled out using force.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-palestine-conflict-the-role-of-hamas-and-fatah-rivalry-in-latest-violence-160814">Israel-Palestine conflict: the role of Hamas and Fatah rivalry in latest violence</a>
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<h2>A living nightmare</h2>
<p>The Israeli hostages in Gaza are living a nightmare. They’re likely to remain displaced, under duress and will be the human shields of this war. </p>
<p>The confidence of Hamas to carry out this attack is also cause for concern. Who is providing resources and arms to Hamas needs to be made clear. Already <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-foils-attempt-to-smuggle-into-gaza-16-tons-of-chemicals-used-in-rocket-fuel/">Israel has intercepted chemicals destined to be rocket fuel</a>, and has gathered intelligence revealing that <a href="https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2021/04/report-outlines-how-iran-smuggles-arms-hamas">Hamas acquires weapons</a> through complex smuggling networks involving sea-to-sea transfers. </p>
<p>After the initial bombardment, it appears Hamas is preparing for an Israeli ground invasion, counting on Israel’s internal political chaos and assuming the Israeli target list for aerial assault is now outdated.</p>
<p>If ground fighting breaks out between Hamas and Israeli forces, the hostages will likely be squarely in the middle of it. </p>
<p>For this war, these hostages are not meant to be used to solve diplomatic spats. They are intended to be put in the deadly cross-hairs of what is certainly going to continue to be a brutal and bloody conflict.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215369/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Huish received funding from The Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>The Israeli hostages in Gaza are living a nightmare. They’re likely to remain displaced, under duress and will be the human shields of this war.Robert Huish, Associate Professor in International Development Studies, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1793742022-03-18T06:44:07Z2022-03-18T06:44:07ZAttacks on Ukraine’s hospitals are deliberate and brutal. The world must respond to these acts of terror<p>Reports earlier this week of Russian attacks and siege of a major hospital in the Ukraine city of Mariupol indicate a particularly bleak and dark phase of the war.</p>
<p>Sergei Orlov, the city’s deputy mayor, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60757133">told the BBC</a> how Russian forces had entered the building, preventing doctors and nurses from leaving. About 400 people had been effectively taken as “hostages”.</p>
<p>Health workers, operating from the basement of the hospital, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-16/ukraine-says-russia-holds-400-hospital-patients-staff-hostage/100912918">were apparently</a> trying to provide health services despite the dire situation.</p>
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<p>This comes after attacks on a <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2022/03/europe/mariupol-maternity-hospital-attack/index.html">maternity hospital</a> in the same city the previous week.</p>
<p>While these examples made headlines around the world, there have been many more attacks on health facilities and health workers since the start of the war. </p>
<p>The World Health Organization <a href="https://extranet.who.int/ssa/LeftMenu/Index.aspx?utm_source=Stopping%20attacks%20on%20health%20care%20QandA&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=Link_who">records 44 attacks</a> on health facilities, health supplies, health workers or patients in Ukraine. Of those, 34 attacks have impacted health facilities. Violence with heavy weapons as well as abduction, arrest or detention of health staff are recorded. The list updates as more reports come in.</p>
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<p>The effects of such attacks go far beyond the tragic loss of life. Destroyed infrastructure, inability to refer to other health facilities, diminished access to technology, equipment and drugs, and lack of power or fuel for generators affect how hospitals function under such circumstances.</p>
<p>Such attacks also undermine the morale of health professionals and community members. They deter people who need health care from accessing remaining services. People may feel unsafe leaving bomb shelters to seek care if hospitals become targets or are insecure.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/putin-puts-international-justice-on-trial-betting-that-the-age-of-impunity-will-continue-178836">Putin puts international justice on trial – betting that the age of impunity will continue</a>
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<h2>These attacks are deliberate</h2>
<p>Despite the legal protections afforded to health facilities in wartime under <a href="https://international-review.icrc.org/articles/breaking-the-silence-advocacy-and-accountability-for-attacks-on-hospitals-in-armed-conflict-915">international law</a>, we continue to see such attacks in many conflicts including Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Myanmar.</p>
<p>Given the sophistication of modern weaponry and laser-guided munitions, there are few who believe attacks on such facilities are “accidental”. Rather, history shows us they are part of a strategy of war and aim to achieve certain objectives.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1501776164611833857"}"></div></p>
<p>In his book <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/killing-civilians/">Killing Civilians: Method, Madness and Morality in War</a>, UK academic and policy advisor Hugo Slim explores why parties to conflict might resort to such tactics.</p>
<p>He says this includes attempts to annihilate certain groups, efforts to demonstrate extreme power and to dominate and subjugate others, and/or to inflict revenge and collective punishment. </p>
<p>In some cases, he says such ruthlessness is strategic or tactical. Terror and atrocity magnify a party’s power and control. It also undermines the public’s morale, and trust in the reliability and safety of health services.</p>
<p>Australian academic Michael Humphrey, in his book <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Politics-of-Atrocity-and-Reconciliation-From-Terror-to-Trauma/Humphrey/p/book/9780415868280">The Politics of Atrocity and Reconciliation: From Terror to Trauma</a>, says those who seek to terrify are willing to go to extremes to achieve their objectives, even if they may be committing war crimes.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-what-the-rules-of-war-tell-us-about-the-deliberate-targeting-of-civilians-178691">Ukraine: what the rules of war tell us about the deliberate targeting of civilians</a>
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<h2>This is what health workers face</h2>
<p>Health workers in Ukraine are members of families and communities; they experience what the community experiences, but have additional stressors.</p>
<p>They are <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-challenges-faced-by-doctors-and-nurses-in-conflict-zones-179016">under pressure</a> to serve their communities under physically and psychologically challenging circumstances. They are driven to provide care to those who need it; this may even include wounded enemy personnel.</p>
<p>This pressure mounts over extended periods of conflict, sieges and deteriorating conditions, exerting a <a href="https://conflictandhealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13031-021-00372-7">heavy toll</a>.</p>
<p>In situations of ongoing brutality and violence, morale will be undermined given the inability to deliver the quality of care they know is required and in normal circumstances they could deliver. </p>
<p>Exhaustion, lack of materials and back-up support, distress among colleagues and overwhelming needs will take a toll on even the strongest and most positive professionals. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-challenges-faced-by-doctors-and-nurses-in-conflict-zones-179016">The challenges faced by doctors and nurses in conflict zones</a>
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<h2>How do we help?</h2>
<p>First, these attacks must stop.</p>
<p>We also need to provide health workers with <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.679397/full">psychological and moral support</a>. Where available, communication technologies from Zoom to WhatsApp would enable health workers access to skilled advisors and health consultants to help manage difficult conditions or resolve dilemmas. </p>
<p>Appreciating the importance of mental health care and self-care ought to be reinforced and supported. Strategies to reduce stress, get rest and debrief with colleagues will play a part. COVID has shown the importance of supporting health care workers this way. These challenges are intensified in periods of conflict.</p>
<p>Health workers need extra supplies of medicines and medical equipment, personal protective equipment, power generators and sterilisation equipment. Countries of the European Union, and other supportive authorities operating through the United Nations and non-government organisations, can help provide these when there are lulls in the conflict.</p>
<p>Unequivocal demands to <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/13-03-2022-stop-attacks-on-health-care-in-ukraine">end attacks on health-care facilities</a> are crucial. These play some part in deterring perpetrators, educating community members, health professionals and armed forces.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-international-court-of-justice-has-ordered-russia-to-stop-the-war-what-does-this-ruling-mean-179466">The International Court of Justice has ordered Russia to stop the war. What does this ruling mean?</a>
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<p>We must document health workers’ stories and challenges. Efforts by the <a href="https://extranet.who.int/ssa/LeftMenu/Index.aspx?utm_source=Stopping%20attacks%20on%20health%20care%20QandA&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=Link_who">World Health Organization</a>, International Committee of the Red Cross, a range of human rights organisations (such as <a href="https://phr.org">Physicians for Human Rights</a> and <a href="https://www.hrw.org">Human Rights Watch</a>), researchers and academics can play a valuable role in documenting in real time the impact of conflict and violence on health, health personnel and health care.</p>
<p>Key will be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/17/kyiv-ukraine-says-moscow-russia-must-accept-ceasefire-as-west-doubts-putin-sincerity">prosecuting war crimes</a> and crimes against humanity – for which detailed evidence and documentation will be required.</p>
<p>We <a href="https://international-review.icrc.org/articles/breaking-the-silence-advocacy-and-accountability-for-attacks-on-hospitals-in-armed-conflict-915">also need</a> independent, robust and transparent investigations into attacks on hospitals to facilitate such prosecutions. Trusted health agencies, human rights organisations, and health researchers in and outside Ukraine should assist.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179374/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Zwi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We need to document and investigate these attacks, including testimonies from health workers, if we are ever to see these war crimes prosecuted.Anthony Zwi, Professor of Global Health and Development, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1270322019-11-18T14:28:00Z2019-11-18T14:28:00ZFighting piracy in the Gulf of Guinea needs a radical rethink<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301921/original/file-20191115-66945-1tojfeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ivorian sailors participate in an anti-piracy hostage rescue scenario with the Ghanaian Navy during Exercise Obangame Express. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Bonita had been anchored off Benin for several days, waiting for a berth in the port of Cotonou. On November 2, 2019 the crew had a traumatic awakening. Armed men boarded the vessel and <a href="https://beninwebtv.com/en/2019/11/benin-09-persons-kidnapped-in-a-ship-attack-at-cotonou-port/">kidnapped nine crew members</a>. Only two days later, <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/pirates-attack-greek-oil-tanker-off-togo/a-51108398">four seafarers were kidnapped</a> from the Elka Aristotle, which was anchored off Lomé in neighbouring Togo.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, these were not the only attacks off the coast of West Africa in which seafarers were kidnapped. Nevertheless, the patterns are changing, with <a href="https://riskintelligence.eu/articles/long-term-perspective-west-africa-and-gulf-guinea-piracy">gradual signs of improvement</a>. In addition, attacker success rates in the region have declined from <a href="https://riskintelligence.eu/articles/long-term-perspective-west-africa-and-gulf-guinea-piracy">80% over ten years ago to just under 50% in 2018</a>.</p>
<p>Another change has been the fact that attacks have become more visible. This is at least partly due to increased cooperation among countries in West and Central Africa. They adopted the <a href="http://www.imo.org/en/OurWork/Security/WestAfrica/Documents/code_of_conduct%20signed%20from%20ECOWAS%20site.pdf">Yaoundé Code of Conduct</a> in 2013, aimed at fighting illicit activities at sea. Implementation has been slow, yet navies and maritime agencies in the region have become much more active in collecting relevant information.</p>
<p>Based on my research into maritime security in the region, I have become increasingly convinced that sustainable improvements are impossible when the focus is solely on piracy. In many cases, kidnappings of seafarers are an extension of land-based problems – such as fuel smuggling and illegal migration – and have to be tackled as such.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/african-states-dont-prioritise-maritime-security-heres-why-they-should-77685">African states don't prioritise maritime security – here's why they should</a>
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<p>In my view, <a href="https://www.bimco.org/news/priority-news/20190108-call-for-gog-counter-piracy">demands by the shipping industry</a> for international navies to become more involved in counter-piracy operations won’t lead to lasting solutions. These can only be successful if they are designed based on regional requirements and take on board regional initiatives aimed at tackling a multiplicity of social problems, rather than just one.</p>
<h2>Links to crime on land</h2>
<p>High-profile attacks – such as the recent kidnappings – are generally carried out by criminal groups based in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-nigeria-must-do-to-deal-with-its-ransom-driven-kidnapping-crisis-116547">Kidnappings on land have been a long-standing problem</a> for security forces there. Collecting ransoms has become a lucrative business model which requires foot soldiers, access to camps for holding hostages, and negotiators with the necessary skills. All these things can be found in the Niger Delta, where the lines between armed insurgents and organised criminals are often fluid. </p>
<p>For countries like Benin, Togo and Cameroon where Nigeria-based criminals have taken hostages from merchant ships this year, the situation is a concern. Ports in these countries are crucial for economic growth and development in terms of customs revenues. For example, <a href="https://www.mcc.gov/resources/story/story-story-kin-apr-2015-unlocking-a-regional-trade-bottleneck-in-benin">more than 40%</a> of Benin’s government revenues are collected in Cotonou’s port. Ensuring adequate security for maritime trade is therefore a strategic concern in Benin. Hence the government’s <a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-11/07/c_138536961.htm">quick announcement</a> of improved security measures for ships anchoring off Cotonou.</p>
<p>Most kidnappings still take place off the Nigerian coastline. The established pattern is one of hostages being taken and then released several weeks later for a ransom payment. This is according <a href="https://riskintelligence.eu/articles/long-term-perspective-west-africa-and-gulf-guinea-piracy">to analysis done</a> by the Danish security intelligence company Risk Intelligence.</p>
<p>The fact that there are more cases off the Nigerian coastline points to my contention that this criminal behaviour is closely linked to land-based criminal activities – such as fuel smuggling – which is <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/tracing-the-flow-of-nigerias-stolen-oil-to-cameroon/a-45918707">widespread in the area</a>.</p>
<p>When such incidents are analysed through a narrow piracy lens, efforts of navies and law enforcement agencies -– which are already suffering from a lack of resources –- are likely to be misguided. The narrow view might mistakenly focus, for example, on the capacity to respond at sea.</p>
<p>The problem of wrong analyses is made worse by international actors, for example the US and European governments, the European Union or international organisations. They often put a strong emphasis on combating piracy and provide financial or technical assistance to partners in West and Central Africa. But they rarely focus on illegal fishing, fuel smuggling or illegal migration. All these activities have been linked to attacks against merchant ships or fishing vessels. </p>
<h2>Broader understanding needed</h2>
<p>Fighting piracy in the Gulf of Guinea requires a broad understanding of maritime security. Acknowledging links between, for example, piracy and illegal fishing is vital for regional governments and external partners. On the most basic level, illegal fishing destroys fishers’ livelihoods, forcing some into piracy simply to earn an income. </p>
<p>A good example is the EU’s contradictory stance. On the one hand, it provides <a href="https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/52490/eu-maritime-security-factsheet-gulf-guinea_en">€29 million</a> to support West Africa’s Integrated Maritime Security project. On the other hand, EU countries <a href="https://theconversation.com/eu-targets-fragile-west-african-fish-stocks-despite-protection-laws-125679">contribute to the depletion of fish stocks across West Africa</a>. </p>
<p>Countries around the Gulf of Guinea also have to <a href="https://theconversation.com/african-states-dont-prioritise-maritime-security-heres-why-they-should-77685">increase their efforts</a>. Laws regulating maritime operations are often deliberately opaque, disguising a lack of enforcement capacity and enabling corruption. Increasing transparency would highlight shortcomings and problems caused by insecurity at sea –- somewhat embarrassing for any government, but necessary to address these issues.</p>
<p>Recent efforts in Nigeria, including a large conference in October that led <a href="https://globalmaritimesecurityconf.com/2019/10/11/communique-for-the-global-maritime-security-conference-2019/">to the Abuja Declaration</a>, are a step in the right direction. The declaration highlighted shortcomings of countries around the Gulf of Guinea related to ocean governance and law enforcement at sea. Concrete actions have to follow.</p>
<p>More transparency could also help to improve relationships between the maritime industry and security agencies in the region. Lack of trust and limited cooperation have often hindered thorough investigations, feeding a simple narrative of piracy without a broader look at other maritime security challenges.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127032/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dirk Siebels works as a Senior Analyst for Risk Intelligence, specialising in maritime security issues in sub-Saharan Africa, primarily in West and Central Africa.</span></em></p>Feeding a simple narrative of piracy without a broader look at other maritime security challenges hinders progress in dealing with it.Dirk Siebels, PhD (Maritime Security), University of GreenwichLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/804872017-07-12T14:18:13Z2017-07-12T14:18:13ZNigeria won’t end kidnapping without making risks outweigh rewards<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176924/original/file-20170705-5202-1aw1yny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nigerian militants patrol the oil rich Niger delta region, the birth place of commercial kidnapping in the country.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Stringer</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Kidnapping is an ancient crime dating back to 17th century Britain when infant children of rich families would be <a href="http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Kidnapping">“napped” (caught in their sleep)</a> and taken away for ransom. The first major case of kidnapping reported in the US was that of four-year old <a href="http://origins.osu.edu/article/child-kidnapping-america">Charley Brewster</a> who was lured away in Pennsylvania in 1874 by two strange men with the promise of candy and fireworks. The men later sent ransom notes to the boy’s father through the post office. His father didn’t pay, the boy was never found.</p>
<p>Kidnapping has since evolved. Today it’s a well organised and highly sophisticated crime which occurs in many parts of the world. </p>
<p>In Nigeria it has <a href="http://iiste.org/Journals/index.php/RHSS/article/viewFile/11987/12311">become quite common</a>, competing with crimes such as armed robbery, piracy and cattle rustling in frequency and in violence. It has <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/for-nigeria-criminals-kidnapping-remains-lucrative-trade/2846383.html">grown rapidly</a> over the years and is now entrenched as a dominant form of organised crime in the country. </p>
<p>The benefits of kidnapping far outweigh its costs in the country. The legal frameworks of criminal justice aren’t efficient enough to sanction crime and ensure proper deterrence. Opportunistic Nigerians rationalise that the benefits outweigh the risks. This probably explains the high incidence and apparent intractability of kidnapping in the country. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/06/arrested-kidnapper-evans-buys-170k-wristwatch/">recent arrest</a> of Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike (a.k.a Evans), who has become the poster boy for kidnapping in Nigeria, has once again raised questions about what lies behind the rise in cases in the country. And what can be done about it.</p>
<h2>History of kidnapping</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.academia.edu/32278765/AN_ANALYSIS_OF_THE_CAUSES_AND_CONSEQUENCES_OF_KIDNAPPING_IN_NIGERI">Early cases of kidnappings</a> in Nigeria were abductions mainly for ritual killing, slavery and forced marriage. There were also cases where individuals were abducted during communal wars and held as bait for strategic trade-offs. These types of kidnapping have been ongoing in various places in the country for years. </p>
<p>The rise of mercantilist kidnapping – or kidnap for ransom in Nigeria – is a recent development. It began in the 1990s with the activities of Niger Delta militants who engaged in hostage taking to press their demands for fiscal federalism, resource control and environmental rights for their communities polluted by decades of oil exploration. </p>
<p>The militants, who assumed the status of activists and agitators for their region, wanted to attract attention to the plight of the region and to compel the government and oil multinationals to clean up their environment, pay compensation for years of exploitation and bring investment and development. They targeted expatriate workers of the oil firms as well as principal government functionaries for hostage taking.</p>
<p>There was a significant drop in the incidence of kidnapping in the region following the deescalation of the Niger Delta crisis at the turn of the century. By this time though, the crime was already becoming a booming franchise in nearby South-eastern Nigeria, with Abia and Anambra States as critical flash points. These states, and others in the region, became hotbeds for kidnappers who often targeted the rich and the influential for criminal economic benefit. </p>
<p>In the years that followed, kidnapping for ransom quickly spread to different parts of the country, including states like Edo, Lagos, Ogun, and some northern states of Nigeria.</p>
<p>So why is kidnapping thriving in Nigeria? There seem to be three factors driving the crime today. </p>
<p>The first is the quest for material accumulation. The <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0038038506067516">second is tough socio-economic conditions</a>. And the third is a sense of fearlessness and impunity on the part of perpetrators who feel that they will get away with the crime. </p>
<p>Kidnapping typifies a tendency towards criminal economic accumulation and social advancement which thrives in societies that have the following characteristics:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>People struggle to survive because of high levels of poverty, </p></li>
<li><p>Growing social inequality and deprivation</p></li>
<li><p>The prevalence of impunity</p></li>
<li><p>A lax and inefficient criminal code</p></li>
<li><p>Weak law enforcement procedures and capabilities, and </p></li>
<li><p>An ineffective criminal justice system. </p></li>
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<h2>The fall of a kidnap kingpin</h2>
<p>The media and law enforcement agencies in Nigeria refer to Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike (a.k.a Evans) as the <a href="http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/233708-how-arrested-kidnap-kingpin-evans-made-millions-of-dollars-from-ransom-police.html">kidnap kingpin</a>. </p>
<p>His capture has some critical implications. First, it has exposed the level of sophistication that kidnapping has reached in the country. Second, it has revealed that kidnapping syndicates, no matter how sophisticated, are not invincible. Third, it has buttressed the argument that, armed with an effective strategy, the police can control the incidence of kidnapping in the country. </p>
<p>And lastly, it’s shown that a lot needs to be done to control crime in Nigeria. </p>
<p>The arrest of Evans doesn’t signify the end of the crime. Far from it. Rather it marks the dawn of a new era in Nigeria’s anti-kidnapping crusade. This is an opportunity – which if properly exploited – can reduce the attraction of kidnapping, and help the country move towards making the crime history. </p>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>Nigeria must strengthen its laws for combating crime if it truly wants to fight and reduce kidnapping. Efforts must be made to ensure greater efficiency in the operations of the law to achieve greater impact. </p>
<p>I believe, like the American Economist Bryan Douglas Caplan <a href="http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2010/06/the_strange_pol.html">that</a> “the kidnapping problem is not hard to solve” and that </p>
<blockquote>
<p>kidnappers kidnap because the benefits exceed costs. The obvious solution is to raise the costs by imposing harsher, surer punishments. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>To arrest the rising spate of kidnapping, Nigeria must entrench stiffer penalties. Some states have instituted the <a href="http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/06/evans-may-get-death-penalty-life-imprisonment-ambode-signs-bill-law/">death penalty</a> as a punishment for the crime. I believe that the death penalty can serve as a great deterrence. </p>
<p>But first efforts must be made to tackle socio-economic conditions that make kidnapping attractive such as poverty, unemployment, deprivation, inequality. After all, sustainable criminal deterrence is scarcely possible under the atmosphere of material insecurity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80487/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chukwuma Al Okoli receives funding from Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund) in Nigeria.</span></em></p>Tough socio-economic conditions, among others, make kidnapping a thriving business in Nigeria. A strong justice system along with stiff punishment for the crime are needed.Al Chukwuma Okoli, Lecturer/Resident Researcher Department of Political Science, Federal University LafiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/409762015-04-30T10:29:33Z2015-04-30T10:29:33ZPrivatising ransom payments will reduce returns to terrorism<p>The US government is <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/26/us-end-ban-families-paying-ransom-overseas-hostages">currently reviewing</a> its policy on allowing families to pay ransoms to terrorists. This comes in the aftermath of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/terrorism-craves-an-audience-and-we-are-playing-into-islamic-states-hands-by-watching-31701">Islamic State executions</a> of US, Japanese and UK hostages while <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/war/150121/these-are-the-countries-have-probably-paid-ransom-the-islamic-state">other nations’ citizens walked free</a> – albeit for multi-million dollar ransoms. Did the US deny its citizens the basic human right to life?</p>
<p>It is a fundamental role of governments to protect their citizens. The question is how best to do this in the case of citizens kidnapped abroad for ransom. Fundamentally, paying ransoms perpetuates the kidnap-for-ransom business model. And the proceeds from the crime may be invested in further criminal activity – or into insurgency and terrorism. For this reason, most official stance of most governments is to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/207542/Kidnapping-for-ransom.pdf">not negotiate with terrorists</a>. The deterrent effect of such a “no negotiation” stance should not be overestimated, however: employers have a duty of care to their employees and families do not abandon their loved ones. This quickly translates into media pressure for governments to intervene.</p>
<p>It is an open secret that some governments pay ransoms to free their nationals. An article in the New York Times in July 2014, titled “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/30/world/africa/ransoming-citizens-europe-becomes-al-qaedas-patron.html">Paying Ransoms, Europe Bankrolls Qaeda Terror</a>”, provides details of how al-Qaeda obtained at least US$125m in ransoms from countries such as France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Switzerland and Austria from 2008-2013. </p>
<p>High ransoms are also reported to have been paid for Italian and French IS hostages. Where governments get involved, it’s not just about money: prisoner releases and limited charges or lenient sentences for captured accomplices are frequently reported in the context of government-negotiated ransoms – and some kidnappers actively seek publicity. Ransom inflation in either or all of these dimensions encourages further market entry. A policy of governments paying ransoms is therefore problematic.</p>
<p>Why are governments so bad at negotiating ransoms? Firstly, it is difficult for them to argue that they cannot afford a multi-million dollar ransom and that other concessions, for example prisoner releases, are categorically off the table. Secondly, they are often under pressure by the media to resolve a situation quickly. Thirdly, many <a href="http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2006463,00.html">rescue actions result in the death of hostages</a> (and occasionally the security forces sent to liberate them) and are therefore rarely an attractive outside option. This decidedly shifts bargaining power towards the hostage takers.</p>
<h2>Walking ATMs</h2>
<p>Might the government be able to achieve better outcomes by delegating the negotiation to the private sector? There is already a private-sector mechanism for resolving criminal kidnap for ransom (KfR) cases. People who live, travel and work in complex and hostile territories have the option of buying <a href="http://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/files/chathamhouse/public/Meetings/Meeting%20Transcripts/051012CohenQA.pdf">KfR insurance</a> or have it bought on their behalf. However, KfR insurance is very discreet: employers are not allowed to discuss KfR insurance with their employees and ransom cover is limited. This avoids turning staff into “walking ATMs” and, in the case of a kidnap, there is a convenient degree of ambiguity about who is negotiating and what resources are available for ransoming.</p>
<p>KfR insurance provides parties interested in freeing victims with immediate access to highly experienced hostage negotiators, who are experts at exploiting this ambiguity. Professional crisis response consultants advise on the negotiation and manage family expectations. Because a ransom is offered, hostage takers treat their victims as assets and the <a href="http://www.eglobalhealth.com/kidnap-ransom-extortion-insurance.html">vast majority of KfR victims are released unharmed</a>. Victim stakeholders are reassured by this and take more time to barter down the hostage-takers. Kidnappers are often under pressure to conclude: few criminal organisations can hold hostages indefinitely – either local security forces or rival gangs are bound to come knocking on doors eventually.</p>
<p>The commercial resolution process, if played by the book (consultants can only advise), means ransoms usually settle at a small fraction of the cost of government ransoms. Few families can raise hundreds of thousands of dollars, never mind millions. Disruptive bargaining strategies are a clear signal that opportunistic criminals will not do well in this market: high ransoms require long detention periods. This discourages market entry.</p>
<h2>Families may ransom</h2>
<p>It can therefore be argued that leaving hostage negotiations to the private sector serves the public interest better than a “hands-on” approach by governments. The deliberations of the US government should be seen in this context. Allowing families to bargain with terrorists gets the government out of the media spotlight and devolves bargaining to a stakeholder with demonstrably limited resources. A “families may ransom” policy stance would probably not be entirely new: US kidnap victims have returned from captivity in the past and nobody has been prosecuted. It is simply a matter of clarifying current practice – and removing (well-resourced) employers as well as the government explicitly from the ransom negotiations.</p>
<p>Although in principle we all agree that not paying ransoms and ending the KfR business would be the first best solution, in practice everyone will want to ransom a kidnapped loved one. One could therefore summarise the public interest as “paying as little as possible for the safe return of hostages”. If this is the goal of government policy, officially delegating ransoming to the private sector may indeed be the best solution.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40976/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anja Shortland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s in the public interest to allow families to pay ransoms for the return of their loved ones.Anja Shortland, Reader in Political Economy, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/369282015-01-30T23:11:32Z2015-01-30T23:11:32ZPrisoners and politics: Islamic State, Jordan and tribal power<p>When a coalition of the willing was formed in September 2014 and bombing began against Daesh in Iraq and Syria, things appeared to be moving in the right direction.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/12/tony-abbott-say-hell-now-use-daesh-instead-of-isil-for-death-cult-but-why">Daesh</a> is more commonly known as Islamic State or ISIS, but I refuse to dignify it with that term and will refer to the group using the Arabic pejorative term in this article.</p>
<p>The fact that the Syrian-focused branch of the coalition formed in 2014, led by the US, was made up of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Jordan was seen as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-arab-partners-will-get-in-return-for-strikes-on-syria-32061">diplomatic coup</a> and certainly something that would not have previously been foreseeable given the legacy of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. </p>
<p>With the carefully chosen strategy of bombing Daesh targets and supporting the training of the moderate Free Syrian Army outside of Syria, the only probable, and even then unlikely, risk was the capture of a pilot from a crashed plane or a member of the special forces teams assisting with target acquisition on the ground. </p>
<p>But in December, the nightmare scenario came to pass when 26-year-old Jordanian air force pilot, Muadh al-Kasasbeh, was captured by Daesh. His plane had crashed near Raqaa in central Syria – the self-declared capital of the Islamic State. This was plainly an opportunity for the militants, who immediately paraded their captive for maximum propaganda effect. </p>
<p>Daesh demanded a prisoner swap with Jordan in January. In return for al-Kasasbeh, the group called for the release of Sajida Al-Rishawi, a suicide bomber whose vest failed to detonate as part of a series of co-ordinated attacks on luxury hotels in Amman in December 2005.</p>
<p>It initially appeared rather unlikely that she would be released. Visiting Amman in the months after the suicide attack, Jordanian anger was palpable. The country had been targeted by al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, one of its own nationals. Such was the loss of life and the number of casualties that many Jordanians referred to the incident as their 9/11.</p>
<p>The fact that the Jordanian government has now agreed to release Sajida Al-Rishawi shows how quickly memories fade. Many in Jordan now appear to value al-Kasasbeh’s life more than they wish to see al-Rishawi remain in prison. Her value is little more than symbolic these days anyway, given that Daesh emerged as the successor to al-Qaeda in Iraq.</p>
<p>Clearly Daesh has realised that there would be no chance of Jordan paying the kind of ransom demanded for the Japanese hostages it held at the time, one of whom appears to have since been killed. That’s why it put a prisoner exchange on the table instead. This scenario also gave Daesh a chance to play politics inside Jordan and do damage to the Syria-focused element of the coalition should Jordan be forced to withdraw.</p>
<p>But the proposed prisoner exchange failed to take place on January 29 as planned. This appears to be because Daesh <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-31041152">did not provide proof</a> that al-Kasasbeh is still alive.</p>
<h2>High-stakes game</h2>
<p>Coalition airstrikes have had a significant effect on Daesh. Its momentum has largely been stunted and it has been forced to change tactics. The recent retaking of the city of <a href="https://theconversation.com/kurds-turn-the-tide-against-islamic-state-in-kobane-36744">Kobane</a> by Kurdish and FSA fighters with significant aerial support from the coalition was clearly a real propaganda loss for Daesh leader Abu Bakar al-Baghdadi’s so-called caliphate.</p>
<p>The upsurge in pressure applied by Daesh as it paraded its <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/26/asia/isis-japan-hostages-up-to-speed/">Japanese hostages</a> looks like a classic effort to take hold of the news agenda, while the attempt to use the Jordanian pilot is clearly designed to endanger the unity of the coalition and humiliate the Jordanian government. If successful, this would strike a symbolic blow in the fight against the aerial campaign against which Daesh is otherwise powerless.</p>
<p>But that’s only if it is successful. As much as it reveals about Daesh tactics, this situation also gives us a glimpse into the high-wire act which is always being performed by the Hashemite dynasty in Jordan.</p>
<p>The decision by King Abdullah II to join in the coalition airstrikes was not especially popular in Jordan but makes sense strategically for the Hashemite Kingdom. Joining with the Gulf States and the US, who are Jordan’s main financial supporters, is entirely logical. Any argument that Daesh does not pose a threat to Jordan is also clearly false. The group has tried to cross the border into the country several times but has so far been successfully repelled. </p>
<p>The family and wider tribe of al-Kasasbeh have called for the government to go ahead with the prisoner exchange. The pilot’s father, an important tribal elder, was <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-31006588">even quoted</a> as saying that: “the safety of Moaz [al-Kasasbeh] means the stability of Jordan and the death of Moaz means chaos in Jordan”. His worrying, but rather over-exaggerated, suggestion appears to have stirred the Jordanian government to agree to the potential exchange. </p>
<p>The tribes, which are regularly seen as being the backbone of Hashemite support, have also at times in the past represented the greatest threat. That said though, it would be naive to think that Daesh would be able to manipulate Jordanian tribal politics quite so easily. The tribes may be feisty at times but they understand how the game of internal power in Jordan functions.</p>
<p>These recent events serve to remind us both of the continuing volatility of politics in Jordan and the political and propaganda acumen that Daesh has developed. Despite this though, they also remind us of the group’s ultimate Achilles’ heel. Its reliance on the use of extreme violence is a visible sign of its inability to garner any kind of widespread <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2015/01/mosul-mood-turning-isil-150130091853585.html">legitimacy</a>, especially in the face of the continuing power of tribal politics in parts of the Middle East. One must of course remember that Daesh’s <a href="http://www.meforum.org/2788/sons-of-iraq">predecessor movement came unstuck by misreading Iraqi tribal dyanmics</a>.</p>
<p>Clearly, the Hashemites are far more accustomed to the high-wire act than Daesh. Now that the prisoner exchange has failed, Jordan has reportedly threatened to <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/jordan-could-fasttrack-execution-of-isis-prisoners-if-hostage-fighter-pilot-muath-alkasaesbeh-is-killed-10013262.html">fast-track the execution of Daesh prisoners</a> held in its own jails if al-Kasasbeh is harmed. This has the appearance of the Hashemites taking the upper hand, it seems their hard-earned experience of the game of Middle Eastern politics has come to the fore once more, leaving Daesh to puzzle over its next move.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36928/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Worrall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When a coalition of the willing was formed in September 2014 and bombing began against Daesh in Iraq and Syria, things appeared to be moving in the right direction. Daesh is more commonly known as Islamic…James Worrall, Lecturer in International Relations and Middle East Studies, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/360842015-01-09T20:57:42Z2015-01-09T20:57:42ZCharlie Hebdo attackers killed, now France seeks answers<p>The hunt for the two killers who attacked the offices of Charlie Hebdo <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30752239">is over</a>, after a three-day chase and a standoff at a warehouse outside Paris. The two suspects were killed, and the hostage they took was freed.</p>
<p>At the same time as the warehouse was stormed, the police also moved to end a hostage situation at a Kosher supermarket at Porte de Vincennes in Paris. That operation ended with conflicting reports of casualties, but the hostage-taker was killed.</p>
<p>French security services and political leaders have been keen to stress the country remains in a state of high alert and the hunt for other potential accomplices goes on. However, it does appear a phase in this extraordinary and deadly terror attack is over. Now, anti-terror experts and police will begin to pore over images and video of the events and try to figure out exactly what happened.</p>
<p>The images captured from the attack at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris, of two masked gunmen on the attack gave the impression of disciplined killers, clad in black and showing no mercy.</p>
<p>In reality, the attackers first went to the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30708237">wrong building</a> and, when they found right one, had to force someone to let them in with an entry code. They escaped, but with no safe house established, and they appeared to be without a plan as to what to do next. They were identified at a service station the following day, still driving the same car they stole in the immediate wake of the Paris attack.</p>
<p>Despite these amateurish slip-ups, it is still not clear if the events in Paris this week were entirely homegrown attacks or if these attackers were trained abroad. US and French intelligence services <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-french-believe-one-gunman-received-training-in-yemen-1420759112">suspect one of the brothers</a> of having trained with al-Qaeda in Yemen, though their proximity to the organisation is not yet known. Al-Qaeda has, from there, made threats against Europe.</p>
<p>Al-Qaeda was established to provide support to a network of more than 20 organisations operating in the Islamic world. These were united by common experience in the war against the USSR in Afghanistan and by a desire to return to a more fundamental version of Islam. At present it consists of a number of affiliated regional groups and indirectly affiliated organisations.</p>
<p>One of the key components is <a href="http://www.cfr.org/terrorist-organizations-and-networks/al-qaeda-islamic-maghreb-aqim/p12717">al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb</a>, which attacked in Mali and against which French troops were deployed. Others include al-Qaeda in Somalia, al-Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula, which the Paris attackers claimed to be representing; al-Qaeda in Syria – which is a different organisation to Islamic state – and al-Qaeda in the Indian sub-continent.</p>
<h2>Past precedent</h2>
<p>This downward spiral into ultra-violence has been seen before. It is not confined to Islamic extremism. During the 1970s, anarchists, Maoists and Trotskyists committed acts of terror in Europe.</p>
<p>There was a generational change in what began as an urban guerrilla movement and turned into full-blown terrorism. And that change can teach us about our very modern problem.</p>
<p>The first generation was led by relatively experienced individuals, with a long background in political activity. They began by using violence against symbolic targets and differentiated between the “enemy” and the public as a whole. Symbolic buildings were their main targets.</p>
<p>The second generation saw violence against politicians, policemen and soldiers as acceptable. The third hoisted high the banner of “if you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem”, a slogan which justified civilian casualties. Finally a fourth generation emerged which concentrated on attacking “soft” civilian targets.</p>
<p>At the time this was considered a logical progression. As the older leadership was arrested or killed, leadership passed to individuals with fewer scruples and no real interest in building up public support.</p>
<p>Provoking the authorities into overreaction became a strategy. As potential targets were hardened and made more risky to attack, militants turned to softer targets. There were even training programmes in Palestine and other post-colonial countries.</p>
<p>We may be able to learn more from a re-examination of what happened to revolutionary groups in the late 1960s and early 1970s as we try to understand and stop the generation of extremists that appear to be responsible for the shocking events in France.</p>
<p>Back then, there was a bewildering array of ideologies and groups. Anarchism, Maoism, several kinds of Trotskyism and orthodox communism existed on the revolutionary Left. We had different strategies and tactics and organisational splits because of them. We had broader campaigns within which all of these groups operated in different ways.</p>
<p>Now, below the leadership of al-Qaeda and Islamic State is a much looser set of associations, following individual local charismatic leaders, who will go their own way when it suits them. History tells us that extremist groups can and do splinter.</p>
<p>The whole network is more fragile than it looks, particularly in these dark times. Unforeseen events could rapidly produce internal conflicts over personalities, the tactic of indiscriminate violence, or even the teachings of Islam, leading to disillusionment on the part of existing and potential recruits from Europe. Investigators in France will now call upon intelligence regarding the details of and differences between such groups as they seek to understand what has taken place in France – and to stop it happening again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36084/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill Tupman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The hunt for the two killers who attacked the offices of Charlie Hebdo is over, after a three-day chase and a standoff at a warehouse outside Paris. The two suspects were killed, and the hostage they took…Bill Tupman, Honorary Research Fellow, University of ExeterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/355412014-12-16T19:48:31Z2014-12-16T19:48:31ZWhy not all Sydney siege hostages will need mental health help<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67728/original/image-20141218-31046-18q9iac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We need to temper the desire to offer well-intentioned care to Sydney siege hostages by abiding to the guiding principle of not causing harm.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Joel Carrett</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the country reels from the Sydney siege and its unhappy end, many will be wondering what can be done for the hostages stuck for hours with the gunman in the Lindt café. The answer may be surprisingly little – especially if we want people to recover to a healthy psychological state.</p>
<p>Growing social awareness of psychological trauma’s impact may lead people to conclude that providing psychological support and counselling to those exposed to life-threatening events is an essential first-line response. But we need to temper the desire to offer well-intentioned care by abiding to the guiding principle of not causing harm. </p>
<p>To understand why psychological aid is not a suitable first response for all people, we have to go back to the fundamentals of human health.</p>
<h2>Body and mind</h2>
<p>In life-threatening situations, the human body enters into a state of <a href="http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ben/cpsr/2007/00000003/00000003/art00005">extreme hyper-alertness and threat reaction</a> referred to as the freeze, fight, flight response. This reaction is designed to promote survival by orientating the person to sources of threat (freeze), and then preparing the body for immediate escape from danger (flight) or for taking whatever direct action is necessary to remove the threat (fight). Everyone has this reaction when faced with danger that threatens their physical or mental well being. </p>
<p>People being held hostage face the extraordinarily difficult challenge of having to contain this survival response and wait for rescue, a chance for escape, or the threat to be over in some other way. And their survival response doesn’t necessarily shut down once the siege is over. </p>
<p>Many survivors experience ongoing hyper-arousal and extreme alertness after exposure to a life threat, and this warrants treatment when it continues to a degree or for a length of time that interferes with their day-to-day functioning. </p>
<p>Along with survivors, family members and friends, who faced the possible loss of their loved ones, may also experience intrusive memories, nightmares, and flashbacks following incidents such as the one that occurred in Sydney’s Martin Place. They may feel a strong desire to avoid places associated with the trauma and other reminders. </p>
<p>In extreme situations where every decision may mean the difference between life and death, it’s also not uncommon for people to second guess themselves after the fact, and wonder if they could have behaved differently. There’s no easy answer to knowing how to behave in such situations – and indeed their aftermath – but questioning your reaction under duress can be a source of great distress. That some people go on to develop longer-term psychological problems is no more surprising than the fact that most people will resolve their response, particularly with the support of friends and family.</p>
<h2>Dangerous good intentions</h2>
<p>In the past, mental health professionals <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10258348">were of the view</a> that early intervention was critical for helping prevent early symptoms progressing into debilitating conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder. But three decades of <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19588408">research has demonstrated</a> that indiscriminant psychological intervention carried out in the immediate aftermath of a critical incident may well do harm. </p>
<p>Until the mid-1990s, the most common response to traumatic events was the provision of a one-session “debriefing” intervention – the most common brand of which was called Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD). Growing concern about its outcome led to multiple <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9328501">studies evaluating the efficacy</a> of such an intervention. </p>
<p>Every randomised controlled trial showed only one of two results: either CISD had no effect, or led <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12241834">to worsening symptoms</a>. Our guiding principle of <em>primum non nocere</em> (first do no harm) called for mental health professionals to stop this practice.</p>
<p>One possible explanation for this counter-intuitive finding is that the symptoms of hyper-arousal and hyper-alertness that follow a critical incident tend to naturally fade for many people as time passes. This natural process of recovery and redeveloping a sense of safety may be disrupted by ill-timed psychological interventions. </p>
<p>The critical time for psychological review and support often comes not in the immediate aftermath of trauma but across the medium to long term when distressing symptoms may persist, or when they may emerge for the first time, causing increasing distress and difficulty in daily functioning. </p>
<p>In fact, there’s <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21208593">little evidence</a> to suggest the presence of symptoms in the immediate aftermath of a traumatic event will be enough to identify those who may go on to develop debilitating mental ill health. It’s long been noted that some people may even have a delayed onset to post-traumatic stress disorder with minimal symptoms present soon after the trauma-causing episode.</p>
<h2>The right time</h2>
<p>This is not to suggest that survivors of critical incidents who experience distressing symptoms shouldn’t have access to psychological services during the acute phase, if that’s what they want. What’s critical is that psychological interventions are carefully tailored to the needs of those who seek care, and that they’re not provided with a one-size-fits-all approach. </p>
<p>For some people, the best approach may be to return straight back to the normal routines of their life. For others, it will be to spend time with family and friends until they feel the time is right to return to their roles and responsibilities. Others still may find the acute distress following the events lead them to seek professional support. </p>
<p>But in nearly all cases, the first helping response to trauma is not psychological – it is practical, instrumental assistance. This may include answering questions and providing information about the incident, ensuring safety and addressing the practical difficulties survivors are facing, such as assistance reconnecting with their social supports. Providing specialist psychological intervention may actually be the last rather than first item on the list. </p>
<p>What we know is that in the months, and sometimes years, following a traumatic incident, when the attention of the world has moved on to other issues, some survivors and their family and friends may start to experience difficulties. So what the survivors of the Sydney siege need is mental health support in the longer term, when the media spotlight has moved on.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35541/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zachary Steel receives funding from NHMRC & ARC for research into traumatic stress.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grant Devilly was involved in developing the Australian & New Zealand Guidelines for the Treatment of Acute Stress Disorder and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.</span></em></p>As the country reels from the Sydney siege and its unhappy end, many will be wondering what can be done for the hostages stuck for hours with the gunman in the Lindt café. The answer may be surprisingly…Zachary Steel, St John of God Professorial Chair of Trauma and Mental Health, UNSW SydneyGrant Devilly, Associate Professor of Applied Psychology, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/355172014-12-15T16:01:31Z2014-12-15T16:01:31ZSydney siege shows social media is a risky business<p>As the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2014/dec/15/sydney-siege-reports-of-hostage-situation-inside-martin-place-cafe-live">hostage crisis</a> in Sydney came to a dramatic, deadly end, people were flooded with information.</p>
<p>The siege at the building in the city’s Central Business District is over and the gunman is dead. The apparent storming came after a day of high tension in the city, but details regarding the outcome remain unclear.</p>
<p>While traditional news outlets were briefed about what they should and should not report, it is much harder to keep tabs on social media. Speculation was rife on Twitter, photographs were posted from near the scene and people were sharing videos online of hostages held inside the Lindt cafe.</p>
<p>Police negotiators have the option to use social media to try to engage with both hostage takers and individuals in such crises. They might, for example, try to contact a missing person via their Facebook page. But engaging with hostages in this way could also be a hindrance in highly volatile situations. Social media might enable police to locate a hostage taker, which is useful for tactical teams, but that is done at the risk of putting hostages in danger. There is also the danger that information tweeted by hostages or individuals within the local area could be used to aid a hostage taker’s situation. </p>
<p>Anecdotal evidence suggests that the involvement of the media within hostage-taking situations can at times be detrimental.</p>
<p>During the <a href="http://gelsantosrelos.typepad.com/my-blog/2010/08/manila-hostage-tragedy-major-media-blunder-.html">Manila bus siege in 2010</a>, for example, a media helicopter broadcast images of the police tactical operation being set up around the bus. The broadcast was available inside the bus and the hostage taker was provided with important information about the tactical interventions being organised by the Philippine National Police. The police thus lost an advantage as they no longer had the element of surprise on their side.</p>
<p>Caution about spreading information is absolutely fundamental in cases such as Manila and Sydney, particularly now that hostage takers are more likely to have easy access to that information. Much of the established media is aware of this problem and outlets generally seek guidance from the police in charge of operations before sharing information with the public. But less caution is used online by people who aren’t professionals.</p>
<h2>News from inside</h2>
<p>It is, of course, understandable that hostages may want to reassure loved ones by tweeting about their experience. However, this goes against the concept of maintaining a sterile environment, whereby traditionally, police try to ensure that communication only occurs between the hostage taker and the negotiators. This is a central tenet of hostage and crisis negotiation.</p>
<p>But this type of interaction may also prove beneficial. Intelligence can be gathered on the conditions inside and on the welfare of the hostages.</p>
<p>Indeed, now that the Sydney seige is over, the police may find useful information on the gunman’s social media pages. </p>
<h2>If in doubt, don’t tweet</h2>
<p>Social media is something of a double-edged sword. It can prove beneficial in certain scenarios but could also make a potentially lethal scenario more fraught.</p>
<p>Third party involvement, even by bystanders, brings in an element of communication which is completely out of the control of the police. The police have been trained to deal with such situations but their role can be compromised by an information flow that they are not privy to and may not in fact be accurate.</p>
<p>An innocent or well-intentioned tweet or Facebook comment posted by a bystander could misinform a hostage taker. It might suggest that the incident is being portrayed to the outside world in a particular way or provide information that the hostage taker does not want to release. That could aggravate or escalate a crisis situation.</p>
<p>Social media needs to be used with extreme care in cases such as the one in Sydney. Police negotiators need to be able to perform the role for which they have been stringently trained, without input from amateur onlookers, however well meaning their tweets might be.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35517/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Grubb does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As the hostage crisis in Sydney came to a dramatic, deadly end, people were flooded with information. The siege at the building in the city’s Central Business District is over and the gunman is dead. The…Amy Grubb, Senior Lecturer in Forensic Psychology, Coventry UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/355182014-12-15T15:54:18Z2014-12-15T15:54:18ZQ&A: how the Sydney siege was reported by the public and news professionals<p><em>The dramatic siege in Sydney’s Martin Place played out in front of a global audience through real-time reporting by mainstream news outlets abetted by social media. Australian media academic Julie Posetti watched this story break on Twitter late at night from Paris, where she is on secondment from the University of Wollongong as a <a href="http://www.wan-ifra.org/events/speakers/julie-posetti">Research Fellow</a> with the World Association of News Publishers and the World Editors Forum. Here she discusses the way the events were reported.</em> </p>
<p><strong>1. How did you follow the drama as it developed?</strong></p>
<p>As the situation evolved, I <a href="https://twitter.com/julieposetti/status/544271204451094528">engaged in discussion on Twitter</a> with journalists reporting the hostage crisis. I also discussed events with other observers. Of course, these events no longer unfold in a local silo and neither does communication of those events rely exclusively on mainstream media reporters bound by traditional publication deadlines.</p>
<p>This means that it’s possible to remotely observe local coverage in real-time. And it’s also possible to curate a rich news feed in the context of a developing crisis - one where media reports from individual journalists and their news brands intermingle with the observations of witnesses and official sources, such as police and emergency services. </p>
<p>This shift also means that local coverage now unfolds instantly in an international context.</p>
<p>This is a complex story – and one full of ethical risks and verification pitfalls. It also has the potential to do significant harm to Muslim Australians if it is mishandled, through the magnification of inaccurate information, prejudicial tropes and myths.</p>
<p>While some journalists wrongly declared on Twitter – and later in print – that the flag being held up to the cafe window by a hostage was an Islamic State flag, others stated that they were holding back from revealing any details about the police operation and the hostage-taker’s demands, to avoid interfering with the police efforts. </p>
<p>Sydney TV station Channel 7 was – with its offices situated opposite the scene and its cameras trained on the drama almost instantly it erupted – in a prime position to report on the siege before staff members were evacuated. And, despite elements of sensationalism and risky initial reportage of police manoeuvres, the comments I heard on an ABC radio stream from one of their reporters demonstrated proper professional caution.</p>
<p>I was broadly impressed by the tone and content of Guardian Australia’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2014/dec/15/sydney-siege-reports-of-hostage-situation-inside-martin-place-cafe-live">live blog</a> and their fact-checking of stories, along with those published by the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/sydney-siege-man-with-gun-and-flag-sparks-a-terrifying-standoff-in-a-martin-place-cafe-20141215-127pvh.html">Sydney Morning Herald</a> and the ABC. </p>
<p>But, Murdoch’s Daily Telegraph, which ran a wraparound prematurely identifying the hostage-taker as “IS” and containing other false information, represented a low point.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"544349417197686784"}"></div></p>
<p>International news organisations reported that the hostage-taker, Man Haron Monis, was known to police. He was said to have been an Iranian cleric on bail for being an accessory to the murder of his former wife and <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/martin-place-siege-man-haron-monis-has-long-history-of-hatred-of-politicians-20141215-127t01.html">facing sexual assault charges</a>. There is still no evidence he was a member of IS, nor that he was part of an organised plot. The fact that he displayed an Islamic flag did not justify the Telegraph’s unverified and highly inflammatory headlines: “IS takes 13 hostages in city cafe siege: DEATH CULT CBD ATTACK”. </p>
<p><strong>2. How important is it to avoid stereotypes in a story like this?</strong></p>
<p>It is vitally important to avoid stereotyping Muslims and focusing blame on diverse Muslim communities. Previous <a href="http://www.canberra.edu.au/researchrepository/items/78699007-0df1-747c-e65f-64629e95053b/1/">research I have undertaken</a> on the impacts of <a href="http://www.reportingdiversity.org.au/cs_one_depictions.html">media stereotyping of Muslim women</a> in post-September 11 Australia, for example, revealed that such coverage increases the fear experienced by Muslim women, especially those who are identifiably Muslim because of their religious dress.</p>
<p>This can cause them to withdraw – both physically and as participants in public debate. There is also evidence that inflammatory media coverage of Muslims gives “licence” to acts of violence and abuse directed at innocent members of the Muslim community, such as the message that circulated on social media from Take Back Australia urging people to head en masse to Lakemba (in Sydney’s south) which has one of Australia’s biggest mosques.</p>
<p><strong>3. How has social media affected coverage of this story?</strong></p>
<p>One positive to emerge from this hostage crisis, and the problematic reporting of it, was the <a href="http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/12/illridewithyou-sydney-stands-up-to-racism-with-one-beautiful-hashtag/">#illridewithyou</a> hashtag. It was the number one global trending topic on Twitter and it began with a user called @sirtessa offering to travel on public transport with identifiable Muslims who were too afraid to head home alone in the context of the siege. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67246/original/image-20141215-5281-uu1oac.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67246/original/image-20141215-5281-uu1oac.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67246/original/image-20141215-5281-uu1oac.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67246/original/image-20141215-5281-uu1oac.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67246/original/image-20141215-5281-uu1oac.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67246/original/image-20141215-5281-uu1oac.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67246/original/image-20141215-5281-uu1oac.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67246/original/image-20141215-5281-uu1oac.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The tweet that started a movement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Twitter</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The initial offer of help was retweeted several hundred times and the hashtag became a forum for those expressing support and empathy for Muslims who were feeling targeted. According to Twitter Australia, 12 hours after the siege began, there were 90,000 tweets (or 260 per minute) referencing #illridewithyou.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"544451561414328320"}"></div></p>
<p>As demonstrated during the 2011 London riots, social media platforms can be conduits for organising positive community responses - as well as having the potential to rapidly spread information and misinformation, and disrupt police actions.</p>
<p>Social media both speeds up the coverage of a story such as this and risks magnifying inaccuracies. It allows journalists to interact directly with witnesses and official sources in real time, but it poses a significant problem for law enforcement as citizen reporters and witnesses gathering near the scene join mainstream media in sharing pictures, video and details of police manoeuvres in the midst of a delicate hostage crisis.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67247/original/image-20141215-5287-3j7p9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67247/original/image-20141215-5287-3j7p9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67247/original/image-20141215-5287-3j7p9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67247/original/image-20141215-5287-3j7p9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67247/original/image-20141215-5287-3j7p9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67247/original/image-20141215-5287-3j7p9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67247/original/image-20141215-5287-3j7p9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Getting on on the action.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Twitter</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>4. What have been the pitfalls as you have seen them?</strong></p>
<p>Professional journalists and news crews may comply with police requests to avoid sharing such images and details, but it’s impossible to harness the crowd. The disruptive effect of social media has an impact on law enforcement – as well as media coverage of crisis situations. This story highlights the critical importance of verification and should also serve as a reminder of the need to pause to carefully consider ethics and social responsibilities even in the midst of a potent breaking story.</p>
<p>Similarly, I would withhold the identities of hostages until police formally release the names. This is a breaking story, but a journalist’s right – and duty – to report it should be a matter of carefully weighed public interest, in which the right to know should be balanced by the need to avoid placing the hostages at increased risk, and causing unnecessary pain and suffering to their families. </p>
<p>But, <a href="https://twitter.com/julieposetti/status/544281236186079232">as I tweeted</a> when the story broke and police began attempting to curtail media coverage, balancing the right to report in a democracy against state requests for co-operation in investigations and hostage rescue efforts is a conundrum for journalists and media organisations. The threat of censorship is real – and so is the need to avoid being a vessel for dangerous propaganda. But the ability to weigh ethical issues is a fundamental requirement for the practice of professional journalism. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>UPDATE: A paragraph in this story has been removed since publication to correct an inaccuracy. The paragraph originally said 2GB presenter Ray Hadley had spoken to the hostage taker. A <a href="https://twitter.com/2GB873/status/544319826584281088">statement from 2GB</a> clarified that Hadley had conducted an off-air interview with a hostage. We have also removed a paragraph which stated that The Guardian appeared to be the only newspaper live blog active as the police ended the siege. This is incorrect.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35518/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Posetti has previously received Federal Government funding to undertake research into journalism and multiculturalism. She is presently on secondment from the University of Wollongong as a Research Fellow with the World Association of News Publishers and the World Editors Forum.</span></em></p>The dramatic siege in Sydney’s Martin Place played out in front of a global audience through real-time reporting by mainstream news outlets abetted by social media. Australian media academic Julie Posetti…Julie Posetti, Journalism lecturer, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/324602014-10-03T05:24:45Z2014-10-03T05:24:45ZPaying ransom for hostages is sometimes the right thing to do – here’s why<p>On Saturday October 4 we woke up to the news that looked depressingly inevitable. Alan Henning, a taxi driver from Salford, who had been captured in Syria last December while delivering aid to refugees, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/04/alan-henning-hostage-killing-harsh-price-isis-syria">appears to have been beheaded</a> by his terrorist captors. He appeared at the end of a video showing the apparent beheading of Scottish aid worker David Haines last month, in an indication that he would soon suffer the same fate. </p>
<p>David Cameron, the prime minister, responded to the news: “It is senseless. It is completely unforgivable… We must take action against it and we must find those responsible.”</p>
<p>At least two more Western hostages are still in captivity. One, Peter Edward Kassig, an American soldier, ominously appeared at the end of this latest video. The other, John Cantlie, a photojournalist from Surrey, was abducted in Syria nearly two years ago along with American journalist James Foley, who was filmed for his own apparent execution in the desert by his captors in August. Cantlie has appeared in three recent videos reading scripted messages, which included a request that the West pay ransom in exchange for the hostages’ release. </p>
<p>David Cameron has made it very clear that this will not happen under any circumstances. At last month’s NATO summit in Newport, Wales, the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29072940">prime minister confirmed</a> the UK’s policy on the matter: “We won’t pay ransoms to terrorists who kidnap our citizens.”</p>
<p>The US government takes exactly the same line. Following the deaths of James Foley and <a href="http://example.com/">Steven Sotloff, another journalist</a>, there were <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/foley-sotloff-family-threatened-prosecution-2014-9">even reports</a> that the US authorities put pressure on the families of the victims not to pay ransom by warning them that doing so would break the law. </p>
<p>Not every country seems to take this position, though. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/30/world/africa/ransoming-citizens-europe-becomes-al-qaedas-patron.html?_r=0">An investigation</a> by the New York Times in July found strong evidence that some European governments do pay ransom to Al-Qaeda and affiliated groups. The report claimed that this had amounted to US$125m since 2008, and US$66m in the last year alone. </p>
<h2>Moral principles</h2>
<p>So who is right and who is wrong? There is some obvious good sense behind the UK government’s stated position. The payment could encourage further hostage taking and the money paid might be used to further terrorism. </p>
<p>Ethically, we must also remember that it matters not merely what is done and what the outcomes of actions are. It often matters how and why it is done and who does it. For instance, members of a jury have a moral duty to disregard the anticipated consequences of their verdict. They ought to declare that an accused rapist is not guilty if they think the case against him leaves a reasonable element of doubt regardless of the possible effects of their verdict on future instances of such crimes. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60674/original/wf8rbxzv-1412263177.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60674/original/wf8rbxzv-1412263177.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60674/original/wf8rbxzv-1412263177.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60674/original/wf8rbxzv-1412263177.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60674/original/wf8rbxzv-1412263177.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60674/original/wf8rbxzv-1412263177.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60674/original/wf8rbxzv-1412263177.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Juries can’t worry about the consequences of their decisions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&searchterm=scales%20of%20justice&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=202034857">Solman Design</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>But having said that, we must now get back to first principles. Suppose that a kidnapper threatened to kill, say, my child if I did not pay a modest ransom for him. If the threat were a realistic one, and there were no other feasible way of securing their safe release, it would surely be morally obligatory for me to pay the money. To let the child die in order that further acts of kidnapping would not be encouraged might be considered by some people to be a breach of the moral duty of care of a parent. </p>
<p>In a similar way, it might seem reasonable that a state has, by virtue of its power and authority, a moral duty of care towards its citizens. For instance, not only should it not kill them, it should not let them die unnecessarily if it can take reasonable steps to prevent their deaths.</p>
<p>As the 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes <a href="http://faculty.history.wisc.edu/sommerville/367/367-092.htm">notably argued</a>, self-preservation is the basic function of and justification of civil society. It seems plausible to say that the state has a duty to try to uphold the human right to life of each of its citizens and to try to protect them from illegal violence wherever it occurs and whatever its source. By extension, I would argue that the state has a prima facie moral duty to rescue its citizens by paying ransom to their captors - a presumption in favour of paying if all other things are equal. </p>
<h2>Presumptions and exceptions</h2>
<p>Having said that, I would not call this an absolute duty. There are various factors that I would suggest as exceptions – and beyond these there may be others. For instance, sometimes, there will be no basis for confidence that the payment of a ransom would actually secure the safe release of a hostage. </p>
<p>Sometimes the price demanded will be too high. A ransom that ran into the tens or even hundreds of millions of pounds would surely be more than what the state can reasonably be expected to pay. This follows from the fact that the state is not morally obliged to always do all that might be required to save the life of one of its citizens. If someone requires extremely expensive medical treatment to maintain their life, the state is surely not morally obliged to pay up.</p>
<p>Equally if someone voluntarily enters a dangerous part of a foreign country contrary to the advice and wishes of their government, they have to an extent forfeited their right to the protection of their state. You could argue that the government has already discharged its duty of care and is not necessarily obliged to do what would be required to rescue them now that they had been taken hostage. </p>
<h2>Exceptions to exceptions</h2>
<p>On the other side of the ledger will be some factors that might counteract these exceptions. One might be that many hostages are in jeopardy. Another might be that the hostage was put in danger at the behest of the state – perhaps because they were a government employee, for example.</p>
<p>Or what if, say, Prince Charles were taken hostage? What if a citizen were snatched at random from a street in, say, Glasgow or London? Would it not be justifiable to pay a modest ransom to save their lives and to avoid the loss of political face that their widely publicised executions might produce? </p>
<p>Where does this leave the UK government in relation to the two current captives? We can’t comment on the size of the ransom or the realistic chances of them being freed, but both men were captured in Syria at a time when it was clearly very dangerous to be there. You might counter that their professions or reasons for going justified their decisions to go there. We need foreign journalists to take risks to tell us what is happening in the world. Aid workers often work in dangerous areas because it is exactly where they are most needed. </p>
<p>Even if these activities didn’t amount to a good enough reason for being in a dangerous place, I would be inclined to pay a reasonable ransom for them on charitable grounds – you wouldn’t admit an exception, but you would say they should be rescued out of human decency. </p>
<p>Either way, my main argument is that there are far too many complexities in this area to be able to rule out paying ransom in all cases. But before we condemn Cameron too strongly, an episode from the past comes to mind. During the years of the troubles in Northern Ireland, the UK government always made clear that it would not negotiate with terrorists. Yet as we now know, in the years leading up to the Good Friday Agreement, it was secretly doing exactly that. It could well be that the UK government sometimes does exactly the same thing with regards to hostages and ransom. And if all that is actually happening, that the UK is taking an uncompromising position in public, this is a different matter entirely.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32460/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hugh McLachlan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>On Saturday October 4 we woke up to the news that looked depressingly inevitable. Alan Henning, a taxi driver from Salford, who had been captured in Syria last December while delivering aid to refugees…Hugh McLachlan, Professor of Applied Philosophy, Glasgow Caledonian UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.