Part 3 The Post 9/11-Era (2001–), 51 The Israeli Intervention in Lebanon—2006

Subject(s):

Self-defence — Proportionality — International organizations — Armed attack

This contribution discusses the Israeli intervention in Lebanon in July 2006. It offers an overview of the facts and context of the intervention and sets out the legal positions taken by the main protagonists (Israel and Lebanon), by third states and by international organizations. The contribution proceeds to analyse the key legal questions raised by the intervention, viz. whether or not Israel was entitled to rely on self-defence and whether its conduct respected the limits of self-defence, including the requirement of proportionality. It argues that the reaction to Israel’s intervention during 2006 reflected a growing support for an expansive notion of self-defence and confirmed the importance of proportionality as an outer limit to self-defence (which Israel, in the view of most, failed to respect).