Hedi Viterbo’s book reveals how Israel, rather than disregarding international law and child rights, has used them to hone and legitimize its violence against Palestinians. Also exposed in the book is the human rights community's complicity in this situation, due to its problematic assumptions about childhood, its uncritical embrace of international law, and its recurring emulation of Israel's security discourse. Drawing on cross-disciplinary scholarship and hundreds of publicly inaccessible documents, the book examines how, and with what consequences, both the state and its critics manufacture, shape, and weaponize the categories 'child' and 'adult.'

About the speaker

Dr Hedi Viterbo is Associate Professor in Law at Queen Mary University of London. His research examines legal issues concerning childhood, state violence, and sexuality from an interdisciplinary and global perspective. In addition to his latest book, he is also co-author of The ABC of the OPT: A Legal Lexicon of the Israeli Control over the Palestinian Territory (Cambridge University Press, 2018).

Professor Annelies Moors (University of Amsterdam) will act as discussant.

This lecture is organized in collaboration with the Amsterdam School for Regional, Transnational and European Studies and the Amsterdam Centre for Conflict Studies.