Introduction
1. Colonial Erasures and the Struggle for Self-Determination
2. Permanent Occupation
3. Pragmatic Revolutionaries
4. The Oslo Peace Process
5. From Occupation to Warfare
6. Conclusion
Noura Erakat is a human rights attorney and assistant professor at George Mason University. She has served as legal counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives and as a legal advocate for Palestinian refugee rights at the United Nations. Noura's research interests include human rights and humanitarian, refugee, and national security law. She is a frequent commentator, with recent appearances on CBS News, CNN, Fox News, and NPR, among others, and her writings have been widely published in the national media and academic journals.
"Noura Erakat's incisive exploration of the role of law in shaping
the development of Israel/Palestine reveals the consistent
genuflection of international legal institutions to Israel's
reliance on well-established colonial practices. She also
forcefully argues that the skillful use of international law as a
tool of struggle can be generative of hope and possibility—for
Palestine and the world. Justice for Some is precisely the book we
need at this time."—Angela Y. Davis, author of Freedom Is a
Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a
Movement
"A radical rethinking of the role of law and legal advocacy in the
struggle for Palestinian rights. Noura Erakat tells how a refugee
problem became a national liberation movement, and the tragic story
of how initiative and momentum were squandered after Oslo.
Brilliant, inspiring, coldly realistic—and hopeful."—Duncan
Kennedy, Carter Professor of General Jurisprudence Emeritus,
Harvard Law School
"Without any doubt, Justice for Some is the best book on the law
and politics of the Palestine/Israel struggle—sophisticated,
learned, humane, and creative. Noura Erakat makes a profound
contribution to our general understanding of the paradoxical role
of law in the contemporary world."—Richard Falk, Former UN Special
Rapporteur for Palestine, author of Palestine's Horizon: Toward a
Just Peace
"Anyone wondering how and why international law has failed so
miserably to curb Israeli violations in Palestine and the
deleterious effect this has had on the law itself should read this
book. Noura Erakat communicates...with the skill of a lawyer and
the passion of an activist. Justice for Some is both enriching and
inspiring."—Raja Shehadeh, founder of Al-Haq, author of Where the
Line Is Drawn: A Tale of Crossings, Friendships, and Fifty Years of
Occupation in Israel-Palestine
"Through a brilliant and bracing analysis of the Palestine question
and settler colonialism, Noura Erakat offers a compelling story of
how the antinomies of structure and indeterminacy shaped
international law and its possibilities. Justice for Some is a
vital lens into movement lawyering on the international plane. At
once tragic and inspiring, this book is a must-read for anyone
interested in decolonization and the politics of international
law."—Vasuki Nesiah, New York University, founding member of Third
World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL)
"Noura Erakat brings a sophisticated understanding of the role of
international law over the last century in the Question of
Palestine. This brilliant book will be of great interest to anyone
seeking to understand why the outcome, thus far, to the disposition
of the Palestine problem has not been a just one."—Rashid Khalidi,
author of The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: Settler-Colonial
Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017
"Erakat's dissection of these legal and political histories is
careful and captivating....This book asks that the Palestinian
liberation struggle and Jewish-Israeli society each reckon with the
impossibility of a two-state future, reimagining what their
interests are—and what they could become. In rejecting the zero-sum
formula's inevitability, Erakat sees, and demands, an
alternative."—Amanda McCaffrey, Jewish Currents
"[A] major scholarly contribution to the critical literature
devoted to resolving the Israel/Palestine struggle in line with the
dictates of justice....[I] urge a careful reading of Justice for
Some by all those interested in the Palestinian struggle as well as
those curious about the way law works for and against human
wellbeing."—Richard Falk, Mondoweiss
"[Erakat] meticulously reveals how Israel ignored international
law, the laws of war, duties of an occupying power, and efforts
brought through the United Nations to censure its actions....The
book will interest those concerned with the law and ethics of war,
international law, terrorism laws, and observers of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its treatment by international
bodies. Highly recommended."—S. Zuhur, Choice
"Erakat's detailed analysis paints a dismal reality, yet it is one
that must be acknowledged and worked from. Her meticulous
discussion on the inherent injustice in international law propels
attention towards what so far remains overlooked and calls the
reader to reflect upon action that veers away from what the
international community keeps demanding of Palestinians."—Ramona
Wadi, Middle East Monitor
"That international law is not an effective starting point for
achieving justice in Palestine is a vital insight for leftists
developing a progressive foreign policy.Justice for Somemakes clear
that winning Palestinian freedom will require confronting the
geopolitical power structure that gives international law its
meaning."—Gunar Olsen, Jacobin
"Noura Erakat eloquently shows that, yes, the Israeli state project
has been consolidated and expanded on a platform of might making
right since 1948—but not only that. Israeli governments have also
actively sought to craft legal justifications for the conquest and
colonisation of territory, and to harness international law in
their favour....[Erakat] has written a book that is a story of
Palestine but is also a story of international law itself. Some of
its most important insights are more universal than specific. They
are major conceptual contributions with value well beyond the
immediate case study."—John Reynolds, Dublin Review of Books
"Erakat's critical perspective on international law and the focus
on how Palestinians have used it to support their cause is a
much-needed addition to the international law literature on the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict....This is a book brimming with acute
insights that deserves the widest possible readership."—Markus
Gunneflo, Journal of Conflict and Security Law
"Justice for Some challenges the not infrequent characterization of
efforts to resolve the struggle over Palestine as a dichotomy
between law/politics, principle/pragmatism or an imposed/negotiated
solution. As [Erakat's] incisive analysis points out, these
binaries, while not completely inaccurate, are incomplete in that
they mask Israel's skilled use of the law to advance its interests
while overlooking the political reasons for shortcomings in the
Palestinian leadership's use of law as a form of resistance."—Terry
Rempel, The Middle East Journal
"In this elegantly written and carefully argued book, Erakat
strikes a delicate balance that makes an important contribution to
the scholarly literature on both Palestine and critical
international law....[Her] clear-eyed analysis is not only an
excellent account of the law and politics of the Palestinian
struggle but also a remarkable and often inspiring assessment of
the relationship between law and liberation."—Asla Bâli, Journal of
Palestine Studies
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