‘It's like talking to a brick wall’

Abstract

For the purpose of this article, humanitarian diplomacy is defined as: the use of International Law and the humanitarian imperative as complimentary levers to facilitate the delivery of assistance or to promote the protection of civilians in a complex political emergency.

Based on field research in the occupied Palestinian territory in 2007, this article demonstrates that the external reality of a US global superpower overly reliant on hard power, combined with its strategic alliance with Israel in the Middle East, creates an operating environment that severely constrains the use of humanitarian diplomacy. Whilst United Nations (UN) agencies implement technically sound interventions, the political realities prevent the effective use of International Law.

The UN field staff are evoking Palestinian's humanitarian needs as a lever to promote protection, but this is fundamentally missing the point. The situation in the West Bank is a human rights issue – borne from a political crisis. The protection of Palestinians is undermined by an aversion to the use of International Law because of the political realities of an unchallenged occupation.