By Justin Turpan
This research looks at whether the Israeli military and Hamas have been acting ethically in the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip, especially since October 7th. It uses Michael Walzer’s book “Just and Unjust Wars” as a framework for judging the morality of the intentions of war (jus ad bellum) and the behavior in war (jus in bello). This includes factors such as just cause, right intention, proportionality, and discrimination between combatants and civilians, among others. Michael Walzer’s book is a renowned work in the realm of ethical war standards, and is a notable metric used by political scientists to evaluate groups in conflict.
Moral evaluation is important to the ongoing conflict and related foreign interactions on the global scale because it makes a determination that is useful in deciding how nations, corporations, and even individuals consider the involved parties. In a conflict ridden with nuance and disagreement over such a long timeline, unraveling a true understanding behind conflict motivations and strategies is notably difficult. Though this study focuses on the most recent occurrences of military activity, its historical analysis and application to the standard of internationally recognized ethical war standards is useful in making an informed takeaway from a polarized and bias-ridden set of information.
Walzer’s just war theory states that war can be morally justifiable if it meets certain criteria, including just cause, right intention, proper authority, last resort, proportionality, and reasonable chance of success. Walzer argues that adhering to ethical war behavior matters because it maintains moral distinctions between combatants and civilians and helps restore peace after conflict ends. The research goes on to evaluate both the IDF and Hamas’ intentions based on history and firsthand account, as well as behavior based on current events, applying findings to the concept of moral war standards as detailed by Walzer. Assessing the justness of reasons for war (jus ad bellum) is tricky given the asymmetric nature of the conflict – Israel as a state actor vs. Hamas as non-state actors not bound by warfare laws. A power imbalance impacts an entity’s ability to act ethically when the opposition neglects the rules, since the moral standards that exist do not apply legally.
The process of this analysis yields extremely interesting findings in the case of this conflict. Contentious issues such as the hidden ambitions of both Netanyahu and Sinwar, the extent of explanation longstanding occupation provides for violence, and the acceptability of civilian casualty in a fight against terrorism are all critically considered. The end result shows drops of morality from both sides overridden with waves of immorality in both behavior and intention. Driven by emotion, nationalism, and deep-rooted hostility, the leadership of both Israel and Hamas, despite their efforts to conceal such influences, display that their goals and actions lack the necessary factors to be seen as “moral” in the eyes of Walzer.
The IDF and Al-Qassam Brigade’s actions demonstrate a blatant irreverence for international law, showing a complete disregard for the established rules and norms of warfare. The IDF, in recognition of the densely populated civilian neighborhoods that Hamas embeds itself into, continues to bomb targets in a way that lacks significant intentional regard for Palestinian civilian life. The Al-Qassam Brigades’ embedding in these civilian neighborhoods is done in a calculated manner that maximizes Palestinian civilian casualties for political gain and increased audience costs for Israel. Both of these efforts subject civilians to death and horror in a way that demonstrates absolute disregard for international law.
Death and Injured statistics of Israel and Hamas according to Al Jazeera as of August 1st, 2024
The consequences of such actions have killed and displaced thousands of civilians already, with thousands more readily endangered as conflict continues. It is imperative that a conflict that disregards ethical war standards in such a significant way finds peaceful and agreeable terms for a permanent ceasefire promptly, and that steps are taken in the time following this ceasefire to foundationally alter the relationship between these entities to prevent future conflict.
Overall, this study assesses both Israel and Hamas’ compliance with just war ethics that maximizes impartiality, to better understand the moral complexities underlying this drawn-out regional conflict, with the hopes that compromise can eventually be found.
Sources
“Israel-Gaza war in maps and charts: Live tracker.” Al Jazeera, Accessed 1 Aug. 2024, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/10/9/israel-hamas-war-in-maps-and-charts-live-tracker.
Israeli Defense Forces Ground Operation in Gaza on November 12th, 2023. 12 Nov. 2023. Pakistan House, https://pakistanhouse.net/balancing-act-of-the-u-s-foreign-policy-and-human-rights-in-the-israel-palestine-conflict/.
People inspect debris and rubble in a building heavily damaged by Israeli bombardment, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on February 11, 2024. 11 Feb. 2024. Dawn, https://www.dawn.com/news/1814083.
Schalit, Ariel. Israeli soldiers walk past houses destroyed by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Be’eri, October 14, 2023. 14 Oct. 2023. The Times of Israel, https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-coded-doc-hamas-instructed-terrorists-to-kill-civilians-take-captives-report/.
Walzer, Michael. Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations. 4th ed., Basic Books, 2006.