Proposals to expel Palestinians from the Occupied Territories as catalyst for a civil adjudication campaign

This essay explores the extent to which a civil adjudicatory campaign might help resolve some of the complex issues underlying concerns about Palestinian human rights, much in the way civil litigation campaigns have been brought to bear in other contexts, such rights related to race, gender, and sexual orientation. I begin in Part II with a brief sketch of the history of stated policies to expel Palestinians from what is now Israel and the Occupied Territories, and then examine recent proposals that have been made and actions that have been taken to implement modern re-articulations of those historic policies. In Part III, I then review the grounds on which international law proscribes mass expulsions of indigenous and occupied peoples. While international law governing this issue is clear in its application and has been overwhelmingly endorsed by the larger international community, international law seems to have little influence on Israel's conduct. For this reason, my primary focus in this Essay is not to analyze the international law issues, which have been exhaustively discussed elsewhere. I focus instead, in Part IV, on the enforcement of this well-established international law through private law suits. I review both civil adjudication's promise as an enforcement mechanism and the many obstacles that stand in the way of its success. This Essay cannot analyze or resolve all obstacles to resolving Palestinian human rights concerns, but I outline the various benefits and limitations of adjudication as a response to human rights violations, and to proffer a checklist of some of the important practical considerations entailed in launching an international civil litigation campaign on behalf of Palestinians.