“Do not send the signal that Palestinian lives do not matter” A discourse analysis of United Nations Security Council meeting records surrounding Israel-Palestine
(2026) SOLM02 20261Sociology of Law Department
- Abstract
- This thesis examines how international legal discourse within the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) constructs and distributes legality, legitimacy, and responsibility in debates concerning Israel-Palestine. The study argues that legal exceptionalism does not primarily operate through the formal suspension of international law, but through the discursive pre-structuring of actors as differentially positioned subjects of legality, whereby some are constituted as legitimate bearers of rights and others as inherently suspect or deviant.
The findings show that Hamas is persistently individualized as the primary source of illegitimate violence, while Israeli military actions are more often generalized through humanitarian and... (More) - This thesis examines how international legal discourse within the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) constructs and distributes legality, legitimacy, and responsibility in debates concerning Israel-Palestine. The study argues that legal exceptionalism does not primarily operate through the formal suspension of international law, but through the discursive pre-structuring of actors as differentially positioned subjects of legality, whereby some are constituted as legitimate bearers of rights and others as inherently suspect or deviant.
The findings show that Hamas is persistently individualized as the primary source of illegitimate violence, while Israeli military actions are more often generalized through humanitarian and self-defence discourse. Thereby, narrowing legal scrutiny and reproducing patterns of legal exceptionalism within formally universal international law. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate that self-defence functions as a selectively activated legal category within UNSC discourse. While repeatedly framed as a universal and inherent right, self-defence is discursively structured in ways that stabilize Israeli violence as legitimate defensive action while largely excluding Palestinian actors from the same framework of legal recognition.
These patterns are further reinforced through recurring oppositions between civilization and barbarism, democracy and terrorism, and legitimate and illegitimate victimhood. Israeli violence is more frequently situated within narratives of lawful defence and moral necessity, whereas Palestinian violence and suffering are predominantly mediated through counterterrorism framing and conditional humanitarian recognition, producing differentiated forms of legal and moral intelligibility.
Lastly, the findings reflect a persistent tension between the formal universality of international law and its uneven operationalization. While international law is continuously invoked as authoritative, it is simultaneously represented as selectively enforced, politically constrained, and shaped by double standards. This produces a discourse in which legal accountability is unevenly distributed, generating hierarchical legal subjectivities within an ostensibly universal international order. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9232970
- author
- Khalaf, Katrin LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SOLM02 20261
- year
- 2026
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- language
- English
- id
- 9232970
- date added to LUP
- 2026-06-24 16:22:28
- date last changed
- 2026-06-24 16:22:28
@misc{9232970,
abstract = {{This thesis examines how international legal discourse within the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) constructs and distributes legality, legitimacy, and responsibility in debates concerning Israel-Palestine. The study argues that legal exceptionalism does not primarily operate through the formal suspension of international law, but through the discursive pre-structuring of actors as differentially positioned subjects of legality, whereby some are constituted as legitimate bearers of rights and others as inherently suspect or deviant.
The findings show that Hamas is persistently individualized as the primary source of illegitimate violence, while Israeli military actions are more often generalized through humanitarian and self-defence discourse. Thereby, narrowing legal scrutiny and reproducing patterns of legal exceptionalism within formally universal international law. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate that self-defence functions as a selectively activated legal category within UNSC discourse. While repeatedly framed as a universal and inherent right, self-defence is discursively structured in ways that stabilize Israeli violence as legitimate defensive action while largely excluding Palestinian actors from the same framework of legal recognition.
These patterns are further reinforced through recurring oppositions between civilization and barbarism, democracy and terrorism, and legitimate and illegitimate victimhood. Israeli violence is more frequently situated within narratives of lawful defence and moral necessity, whereas Palestinian violence and suffering are predominantly mediated through counterterrorism framing and conditional humanitarian recognition, producing differentiated forms of legal and moral intelligibility.
Lastly, the findings reflect a persistent tension between the formal universality of international law and its uneven operationalization. While international law is continuously invoked as authoritative, it is simultaneously represented as selectively enforced, politically constrained, and shaped by double standards. This produces a discourse in which legal accountability is unevenly distributed, generating hierarchical legal subjectivities within an ostensibly universal international order.}},
author = {{Khalaf, Katrin}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{“Do not send the signal that Palestinian lives do not matter” A discourse analysis of United Nations Security Council meeting records surrounding Israel-Palestine}},
year = {{2026}},
}