Global Justice, Internal Investigation: Israeli Military Investigations and the Crisis of Accountability
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Roehampton
Department Name: Social Sciences
Abstract
Armies all over the world carry out investigations into alleged wrongdoing of their forces. The reliability of such investigations is often questioned, evoking questions on law, justice and human rights. These questions are powerfully raised around the world by different social actors, such as in the course of Black Lives Matter movements and in television productions such a Line of Duty and Homeland. Critics of these investigations point to the conditions which make this violence possible; the structural factors which often grant impunity to wrongdoers; and the disputed distinction between those who are seen and treated by official authorities as wrongdoers and those who are not.
There are international guidelines for military internal investigations in times of war or occupation (ICC 2013; ICRC 2019), yet investigations' reliability is often criticised. Such critique has been made, for instance, on investigations by UK and US forces in Iraq (Baldwin 2014; Shackle 2018; Stork & Abrahams 2004). From their own perspective, legal military officials of different countries find commonalities in their understanding of the duty to investigate, and attest to similar challenges (Cole, 2012). Israel's Military Police is a unit charged with investigating unlawful conduct of soldiers, including violence towards Palestinians. Its investigations result in very few indictments, and have been labelled a sham by human rights organisations (Al-Haq et al. 2020; B'Tselem 2016, 2019). The Israeli Military Police has largely evaded academic study thus far, and research on military investigations elsewhere is scarce (Buehler et al, 2019). A key obstacle is the opaque nature of these institutions, which restricts the access of outsiders. Yet, studies into investigations are urgently needed, as they can have a crucial impact on justice for communities as well as on the operation of international justice systems. Considering their crucial functions, military investigations can shed light on accountability and on the mechanisms that produce impunity.
This socio-legal research project, informed by consultations conducted with leading human rights organisations, will interrogate and clarify the processes, structures and mechanisms enabling and reproducing investigations' systemic failings. The proposed study breaks new ground through interviews of invisible actors (e.g. investigators, military and other state legal officials) who are rarely called upon to explain and account for their actions, decision making and understanding of law as well as archival work and critical analysis of materials which have not yet been studied. The study takes the Israeli Military Police both as a unique case study, and as an entry point into the study of current problems of accountability and impunity globally. To achieve this, the research will
a. explore Israeli military investigation processes; institutional and practitioners' truth claims, justifications and practices of sense-making (i.e. narratives, institutional culture).
b. examine the role of investigations in the broader national context, i.e. how they feed into and are impacted by the country's legal and political structures and mechanisms.
c. interrogate the relationship between military investigations, national legal and political bodies, on one hand, and international systems and mechanisms (the ICC, relevant UN bodies, ICRC, etc.) on the other, thereby offering a unique and much-needed perspective on state-provided impunity in an international legal and political context, informing fresh avenues for analysis, policy and practice on an international level.
The project will begin with the Israeli case study and continue to facilitate an international academic comparative exchange on investigation systems and questions of impunity and accountability in a range of national contexts as well as international institutions, and their mutual influence.
There are international guidelines for military internal investigations in times of war or occupation (ICC 2013; ICRC 2019), yet investigations' reliability is often criticised. Such critique has been made, for instance, on investigations by UK and US forces in Iraq (Baldwin 2014; Shackle 2018; Stork & Abrahams 2004). From their own perspective, legal military officials of different countries find commonalities in their understanding of the duty to investigate, and attest to similar challenges (Cole, 2012). Israel's Military Police is a unit charged with investigating unlawful conduct of soldiers, including violence towards Palestinians. Its investigations result in very few indictments, and have been labelled a sham by human rights organisations (Al-Haq et al. 2020; B'Tselem 2016, 2019). The Israeli Military Police has largely evaded academic study thus far, and research on military investigations elsewhere is scarce (Buehler et al, 2019). A key obstacle is the opaque nature of these institutions, which restricts the access of outsiders. Yet, studies into investigations are urgently needed, as they can have a crucial impact on justice for communities as well as on the operation of international justice systems. Considering their crucial functions, military investigations can shed light on accountability and on the mechanisms that produce impunity.
This socio-legal research project, informed by consultations conducted with leading human rights organisations, will interrogate and clarify the processes, structures and mechanisms enabling and reproducing investigations' systemic failings. The proposed study breaks new ground through interviews of invisible actors (e.g. investigators, military and other state legal officials) who are rarely called upon to explain and account for their actions, decision making and understanding of law as well as archival work and critical analysis of materials which have not yet been studied. The study takes the Israeli Military Police both as a unique case study, and as an entry point into the study of current problems of accountability and impunity globally. To achieve this, the research will
a. explore Israeli military investigation processes; institutional and practitioners' truth claims, justifications and practices of sense-making (i.e. narratives, institutional culture).
b. examine the role of investigations in the broader national context, i.e. how they feed into and are impacted by the country's legal and political structures and mechanisms.
c. interrogate the relationship between military investigations, national legal and political bodies, on one hand, and international systems and mechanisms (the ICC, relevant UN bodies, ICRC, etc.) on the other, thereby offering a unique and much-needed perspective on state-provided impunity in an international legal and political context, informing fresh avenues for analysis, policy and practice on an international level.
The project will begin with the Israeli case study and continue to facilitate an international academic comparative exchange on investigation systems and questions of impunity and accountability in a range of national contexts as well as international institutions, and their mutual influence.
