We're Not in Beersheba Anymore: Discussing Contemporary Challenges in the Law of Armed Conflict with 120 International Lawyers.

• Author: Afek, Sharon
• Position: Special Issue: The Law of Armed Conflict

TABLE OF CONTENTS I. NEW BATTLES, NEW QUESTIONS 691 II. THE 2ND IDF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON 693 LOAC--RECONCILING THEORY AND PRACTICE III. PUBLICATION OF THE CONFERENCE 695 PROCEEDINGS I. NEW BATTLES, NEW QUESTIONS

In 1917, at the height of the Great War, battles were being waged across Europe and the Middle East. In the dry and dusty desert of what is today southern Israel, the Battle of Beersheba pitted light infantry soldiers from the Australian and New Zealand Armed Corps (ANZAC), led by the British General Allenby, against the Ottoman forces manning defensive positions outside the town of Beersheba.

The ANZAC troops were infantry soldiers and were not trained to fight on horseback. Yet, in the Battle of Beersheba, they took their horses that they ordinarily used for transportation and conducted a mounted cavalry charge. Bayonets drawn, they rushed into close-quarters combat. One of the ANZAC troops wrote about that battle:

At a mile distance, their thousand hooves were stuttering thunder, coming at a rate that frightened a man. They were an awe-inspiring sight, galloping through the red haze, knee-to-knee and horse to horse, the dying sun glinting on bayonet points. (1) This first-hand account encapsulates the nature of the Battle of Beersheba. It saw uniformed soldiers fight other uniformed soldiers from an organized and hierarchical military. The battle took place in the open terrain of the desert. There was a clear frontline, entirely separate from the civilian life in the nearby town of Beersheba. The battle, and the wider war of which it was a part, was clearly delineated in its start and end. The Battle of Beersheba enabled the Allied forces to break the Ottoman line and advance northwards, eventually beating out the Ottoman Empire and permanently changing the geopolitical landscape of the region.

Now, just over one hundred years later, warfare is very different. Naturally, technology has changed, but so has so much else. Many conflicts today endure for over a decade, with punctuated bouts of intensive hostilities. They involve all manner of parties: states that are committed to the rule of law, states that are not committed to the rule of law, nonstate armed groups that receive material support from states, nonstate armed groups that have the military capabilities of states, and groups that have constantly shifting allegiances. They take place all over the world--far from home in another continent or spanning multiple regions, as well as closer to home, on a state's own border, directly affecting the homefront. Yet...