Responses to displacement from conflict: comparing/contrasting Ukraine and Gaza

Speaker: Dr Reuven (Ruvi) Ziegler  

Abstract

Displacement from Ukraine following the Russian full-scape invasion in 2022 has been met with a remarkably swift and generous response by European Union countries, activating for the first time the temporary protection directive (whose application was extended several times, currently to March 2026). The EU's unanimous decision to activate the Directive manifested an inclusive and liberal interpretation, both in terms of scope of persons entitled to its protection. In contrast, since 7 October 2023, there has been mass internal displacement of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, following evacuation 'orders' issued by the Israeli military. In contradistinction, nearly all Gaza residents who may have sought to flee elsewhere have hitherto been physically prevented from doing so legally. In canvassing the complex terrain of the protection responses to the humanitarian catastrophe, there is an interplay between four recognised international legal norms: the prohibition on forced displacement, the right to leave (any) territory, non-refoulement, and the right to return to one's country. The future realisation of a right to collective self-determination has been co-opted by external actors as a justification for infringing, in an immediate and tangible sense, the right of individual Gazans to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution and violations of fundamental rights. This manifestation of 'Palestinian exceptionalism' has dire consequences for both individual Palestinians and for those fleeing future conflicts.

Speaker's Profile

Dr Reuven (Ruvi) Ziegler is Associate Professor in International Refugee Law at the University of Reading, School of Law, where he is Co-Chair of the LGBTQIA+ staff network. Ruvi is an Associate Academic Fellow of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple; Research Associate of the Refuge Studies Centre, University of Oxford; Editor of the Reporter, the newsletter of the Society of Legal Scholars; Senior Research Associate of the Refugee Law Initiative (Institute for Advance Legal Study, University of London); Senior Research Associate of the University of Johannesburg Faculty of Law; and Co-convenor of the 'Membership and Exclusion under Constitutions' research group of the International Association of Constitutional Law. Ruvi is Chair of the Board of Trustees of New Europeans UK. Ruvi's areas of research interest include International Refugee Law, Electoral Rights and citizenship, Comparative Constitutional Law, and International Humanitarian Law. Ruvi holds DPhil, MPhil, and BCL degrees from the University of Oxford.

Date: Wednesday, December 10, 2025

Time: 10:10-11:25 (JST)

Venue: TBD

Language: English

Registration: Please use the QR code or Link (except for LAW222 and LAW208 students)