Palestine’s Legal Scene Report : Research and Discourse: 2025 in Review

2025 has been another year of profound loss and devastation for the Palestinian people. Despite the so-called ceasefire, Israel’s campaign of genocidal violence continues unabated. Rather than complying with the International Court of Justice’s direction to end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Israel has intensified annexation and settlement expansion, further entrenching its apartheid system marked by systematic violations of Palestinian rights.

Yet this past year has also been defined by an unprecedented global response. Millions worldwide have mobilised in solidarity with the Palestinians, demanding an end to genocide, apartheid and unlawful occupation, and to Israel’s impunity. Several states imposed arms embargoes and adopted measures -still wholly inadequate- against so-called “violent settlers”, even as efforts intensified to suppress civil society and silence calls for accountability.

Against this backdrop, Law for Palestine’s commitment to its mission remains steadfast. Our Research and Discourse Unit continues to produce rigorous, accessible legal analysis that is used by activists, campaigners, legal practitioners and policymakers to challenge impunity. This year, our work has supported global advocacy around the ICJ proceedings, informed arms embargo campaigns, and strengthened legal arguments for accountability across multiple forums.

This work is made possible by a dedicated team of volunteers, enabled and strengthened by your support. At a time when funding for Palestinian civil society is increasingly restricted, your contribution helps sustain independent legal analysis and ensures these tools remain available to those working for justice.

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Research and Discourse: 2025 in Review

Highlights from Our Year of Research

1. Legal scene weekly report

In 2025, Law for Palestine issued 50 issues of Palestine’s Legal Scene, its weekly review of legal developments related to Palestine. Subscribe to get the weekly Legal Scene.

2. Reports

L4P released a comprehensive report on Third State Economic Responsibility, prompted by the ICJ’s 2024 Advisory Opinion. The report outlines a legal framework for assessing economic responsibility of Third States in relation to trade, investment as well as corporate relations with Israel and its unlawful occupation.

Operational Guidelines: Maritime Transport of Military Materiel and Dual-Use Components Used for Genocide, Apartheid and Other Atrocity Crimes (November 2025)

Law for Palestine and ASCOMARE released a set of Operational Guidelines to assist States in fulfilling their obligations under the Law of the Sea regime with respect to the maritime transport of military materiel and dual-use items to countries that commit or plausibly commit genocide, apartheid, or other violations of peremptory norms.

This report features interviews with seven UN Special Rapporteurs released as the UN General Assembly’s deadline for Israel to end its unlawful occupation of OPT expired in September 2025.

3. Blog posts and research papers

In this blog post, Pearce Clancy examines three aspects of the ICJ’s 23 July 2025 Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States in Respect of Climate Change which are of direct interest to Palestine.

Maria Alejandra Gomez Duque critiques the failure of the Global North in upholding its international legal obligations towards Palestine and analyses The Hague Group as a paradigm shift toward Global South-led justice.

Grounded in the recent findings of the ICJ, this legal opinion by four international legal experts argues that Luxembourg’s approval of a prospectus for Israel Bonds for trading on the EU market carries a high risk of violating its duty not to aid or assist in maintaining serious breaches of international law.

L4P issued a Policy Brief in response to the so-called Trump Peace Plan, subsequently adopted at the UNSC. The brief highlights the Plan’s inconsistencies with fundamental rules of international law.

4. Summaries of reports and legal proceedings

L4P prepared a summary of the UN Special Rapporteur’s July 2025 Report documenting how corporations across eight sectors—military, surveillance and carcerality, heavy machinery, construction, natural resources, trade, finance, and knowledge production—have been instrumental to the settler-colonial economy and its transformation into an economy of genocide. The summary includes a list of referenced companies.

Summary of the UN Special Rapporteur’s Report on Gaza Genocide: A Collective Crime – Third State Complicity in Enabling and Sustaining the Gaza Genocide
(October 2025)

L4P prepared a summary of the October 25 UN Special Rapporteur’s Report which finds that the ongoing genocide in Gaza constitutes a collective crime, enabled and sustained by the complicity of Third States through their provision of sustained military, economic, and diplomatic assistance to Israel.

Third State Submissions: Summaries of interventions for the ICJ Advisory Opinion on Obligations of Israel in relation to the Presence and Activities of the United Nations, Other International Organizations and Third States in and in relation to the Occupied Palestinian Territory (October 2025)The summaries draw primarily on the written statements complemented by the oral submissions of 45 States, the African Union, the League of Arab States and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Law for Palestine also summarised the main points of the Advisory Opinion, which wasdelivered on 22 October 2025.

A Summary of the UN Commission of Inquiry Report on Israeli Genocide (September 2025)

L4P published a summary of the UN report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel. The report states that Israeli authorities and security forces have committed and continue to commit genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

In addition, the Law for Palestine research team published brief summaries  (click here) of new academic publications engaging with questions concerning international law and Palestine.