An open access edited collection, Ending Impunity for International Law Violations Palestinian Bedouins and the Risk of Forced Displacement (Hart, 2025), is the first book-length academic publication on the Palestinian Bedouins at risk of forced displacement in the Central West Bank and Greater Jerusalem area.  The book, edited by Mitchell Institute Fellow: Rights and Social Justice Dr Alice Panepinto, Bana Abu Zuluf (Maynooth University), Dr Brendan Ciaran Browne (Trinity College Dublin), Dr Ahmad Amara, Dr Munir Nueibeh (Al Quds University) and Professor Triestino Mariniello (Liverpool John Moores University), shines a light on a lesser known, but by no means less important, aspect of the situation in Palestine. 

At its core are two questions:

• What are the humanitarian vulnerabilities Palestinian Bedouins in the OPT face and how are they produced/constructed? And secondly,
• How does protracted impunity for international law violations drive humanitarian protection risks for them?

It interweaves international law, community-based empirical research and interdisciplinary perspectives, to offer the broadest possible framework for understanding these complex and complicated questions.  

For this work, the collaboration between interdisciplinary scholars at Al Quds University (Jerusalem), Queen’s University Belfast, Trinity College Dublin and Liverpool John Moores University, and a core project team of desk-based and field researchers in Palestine, is complemented by contributions by an eclectic mix of Palestinian and non-Palestinian authors drawing on various aspects of law, urban planning, humanitarian and development practice, politics, international affairs, and more.  The work is grounded in law-in-context approaches to understanding injustice in Palestine, borrowing theories and methods from a wide range of social sciences.

Taken individually, the eight chapters shine a light on different aspects of the humanitarian vulnerabilities (and their context) in Bedouin communities, through a range of thematic, geographic and disciplinary angles and dimensions.

Taken together, the suite of chapters offers the first comprehensive multidisciplinary analysis of the humanitarian vulnerabilities of Palestinian Bedouins at risk of forced displacement.

Download the book in open access form here. 

The book launch took place at Queen’s University Belfast on 12 May 2025.  Read more here.

This book is one of the core outputs of the AHRC-funded project Palestinian Bedouin at risk of forced displacement: IHL vulnerabilities, ICC possibilities (Ref: AH/T007540/1).  The project seeks to better understand the humanitarian impact of continued forcible transfer of Palestinian Bedouin communities living in E1, Jerusalem, and how impunity for violations of international law contributes to the deterioration of humanitarian vulnerabilities.

The initial project was enhanced by a follow-on project also funded by the AHRC-FoF (reference: AH/W006782/1) in 2021-2024, which delivered a range of digital outputs produced in collaboration with a Palestinian media company.  The leading output was a documentary film We Will Remain, which has been included in the official selection of numerous film festivals across the globe.

The trailer for the documentary film We Will Remain, which accompanies the book, can be viewed here.

 

Dr Alice Panepinto

A Reader at the School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast, Dr Alice Panepinto is an international and comparative lawyer focusing on human rights and humanitarian law, and has a regional specialism in the Middle East and particularly Palestine.  Her work also explores land and property law issues linked to her core research themes.  Her teaching reflects both her research interests and applied work outside academia.

 

Book Launch