“Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it.” — Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift’s observation accurately describes the media and content creator ‘coverage’ of the Israel-Hamas war to date. High emotions make highly inaccurate news seem plausible. Language itself has in some cases been warped by sophisticated propagandists. Media outlet bias, significant dangers, and fast changing conditions in an urban battlefield challenge journalism. Partisans on both sides of the conflict, as well as journalists and politicians, frequently show little understanding of the Law of War. Amid this chaos, technical phrases such as war crimes are casually tossed around. Since few lawyers have studied and even fewer have experience with this difficult area of law, misconceptions proliferate.
With our new Israel-Hamas War Project – read the first article, Research Guide: Law of Armed Conflict, and the second article – Violence Against Women and International Law – we are doing what we can to help Truth catch up with Falsehood. Our goal is to document accurate, timely and actionable resources for researchers. We hope that providing this guide will assist all interested readers – policymakers, diplomats, analysts, journalists, scholars and the public. Improved understanding of the law of war should raise the level of public discussion and facilitate better decision-making at this critical time. We will be adding more articles and guides to this project moving forward.
Interested in contributing or have suggestions on other articles we should reprint? Please contact us.