In its Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled not only that Israeli policies and practices in the occupied territory systematically violated international law, but also that Israel’s ‘continued presence’ (i.e. occupation) as such had become illegal, so that Israel was required to withdraw from the Occupied Palestinian Territories as rapidly as possible. The ICJ’s finding that Israel engaged in a sustained abuse of its position as an occupying power, through annexation of territory and frustration of Palestinian self-determination, was central to its reasoning, as was its holding that the legality of the occupation was to be judged against the jus ad bellum. This article unpacks the concept of an illegal occupation. It argues that, as matter of the jus ad bellum, it is only the right to self-defence that could, in theory, justify Israel’s continued occupation. Curiously, however, the Opinion does not mention self-defence, although it preoccupied many of the judges writing separately. The article argues that two approaches to the occupation’s ad bellum illegality are most persuasive: first, that the occupation could not meet the necessity and proportionality criteria of lawful self-defence; and, second, that even a valid self-defence claim can be vitiated by a predominant ulterior purpose.

This article considers two arguments raised by the Government of Israel to explain why it does not regard the West Bank as occupied territory and may therefore establish Israeli settlements there. The first is that this territory was not the sovereign territory of another state when occupied by Israel in June 1967; the second is that the trust created by the League of Nations Mandate over Palestine still applies in those parts of Mandatory Palestine that did not become the sovereign territory of another state in 1948. After a short introduction, the article argues that in the modern area, in which peoples have the right to self-determination, the law of belligerent occupation may apply in territory that was not the territory of a state before it was occupied. Relying on a large body of historical research, the article then shows that the mandate system was a compromise between the colonial aspirations of Britain and France and the principle of self-determination propagated by US President Woodrow Wilson. The Mandate did not give rights to Jews or the Jewish people. It merely obligated Britain to facilitate its commitment under the Balfour Declaration to create the conditions that ‘will secure the establishment of the Jewish national home’ in Palestine. This obligation, and its parallel right, ended with the termination of the Mandate and the establishment of the State of Israel, which was the ultimate realisation of a national home for the Jewish people in the land of Israel. Even if one were to accept the argument that the trust established by the Mandate continues to apply in the West Bank, in an era in which colonial ideas have been rejected, the conclusion is not that Jewish citizens of Israel have a right to settle there, but that the right of the Palestinian inhabitants of that area to self-determination should be respected.

Small business owners play a central role in all advanced economies. Nonetheless, they are an understudied occupational group politically, particularly compared to groups that represent smaller portions of the population (e.g., union members, manufacturing workers). We conduct a detailed investigation of the politics of small business owners and offer new insight into the evolving role of education, class, and occupation in electoral politics. Leveraging diverse sources of data – representative surveys from around the world, campaign finance records, voter files, and a first-of-its-kind, bespoke survey of small business owners – we find consistent evidence that small business owners are more likely to identify with and vote for right-wing parties. We find that this tendency cannot be fully explained by factors that cause people to select into being small business owners. Rather, we identify a key operational channel: the experience of being a small business owner leads people to adopt conservative views on government regulation.

‘Living well’ is an important concept across national dementia strategies. Qualitative research has contributed to understanding of living well for people with dementia. Longitudinal qualitative approaches, though fewer, can explore potential changes in accounts of living well, psychological coping and adapting to dementia, and if/how people with dementia maintain continuity in their lives. This longitudinal qualitative study aims to gauge what is important for ‘living well’ with mild-to-moderate dementia and whether this changes over time in a group of older people with mild-to-moderate dementia living at home. Semi-structured, qualitative interviews with 20 people with dementia from the IDEAL cohort study were conducted in 2017 and again one year later then thematically analysed. The overarching narrative was largely that of continuity and adaptation, with incremental not disruptive change. Continuing participation and meaningful occupation were important to maintaining living well over time; individuals pursued new as well as previous interests. As a key psychological coping strategy to support continuity in their lives, individuals emphasised their capabilities to maintain activities in spite of dementia, compartmentalising areas that had become more challenging. Maintaining social networks and accommodating changes in social relationships were also central to living well, including managing the psychological impacts of changes in spousal relationships. People in the earlier stages of dementia emphasise continuity and their capabilities, reporting change over time only in certain aspects of their lives. However, small, incremental changes in their social relationships and opportunities for meaningful occupation may still afford key areas for supporting capability to ‘live well’.

This study reveals the history of little-known film companies founded by Koreans in U.S. Occupied Japan (1945-1952). At a time when a powerful tide of decolonization and “ethnic renaissance” energized the cultural activities of newly liberated Koreans in both Japan and the Korean peninsula, the practical activities of Korean film companies in Occupied Japan were entangled in the economic, ideological, and cultural realities of the era. While these companies produced few original titles, they were nevertheless active in re-screening existing films in new contexts. A cross-media approach is vital for understanding the full scope of Korean engagement with film in postwar Japan. By studying the censorship records left by SCAP (Supreme Commander of Allied Powers), advertisements in Japanese and Korean print media, and documents kept by the Korean organizations, this paper offers insight into the ambitions, methods, and impacts of Korean film companies. It shows how Korean film producers negotiated vis-à-vis SCAP and Japanese film professionals to project their visions of a Korean national cinema in Japan.

This present study investigated the parental characteristics of multiple births using national birth data in Japan. This study included birth data from Vital Statistics: Occupational and Industrial Aspects every five fiscal years from 1995 to 2020. The multiple birth rates were defined as the number of live-birth deliveries with multiple fetuses (e.g., twins, triplets) per total live-birth deliveries. Parental ages, nationalities, occupations and household occupation (occupation of the top earner of the household) were considered as parental characteristics. The multiple birth rates were calculated based on parental characteristics for each year, and a log-binomial regression model was used to assess the association between parental characteristics and multiple births. The multiple birth rate for Japanese mothers consistently exceeded that for non-Japanese mothers over the years, and the rate increased progressively from manual workers to lower non-manual workers and then to upper non-manual workers for both maternal and paternal occupations. The regression results indicated that the risk ratio (RR) for multiple births among non-Japanese mothers was significantly lower than that among Japanese mothers. Moreover, concerning household occupation, the RRs of self-employed individuals, full-time employees at smaller companies, others, and the unemployed were significantly lower than those of full-time employees at larger companies. Furthermore, the RRs of lower non-manual and manual workers were significantly lower than those of upper non-manual workers in maternal and paternal occupations. The results suggested an association between multiple births and parental socioeconomic status in Japan.

From the early years of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, observers predicted that their de facto annexation might occur. Fifty-seven years later, it has happened. Although governed differently than other zones within the Israeli state, neither territory can be separated from Israel. Yet, the territories’ official status is that they are not part of the state. We offer four reinforcing analyses—legal, historical, discursive, and political—of this sustained discrepancy between what is and what is officially said to be. By analyzing Israel’s juridical techniques for regularizing the incorporation of territories occupied beginning in 1948, we show that de facto annexation has been Israel’s predominant form of territorial expansion. This helps account for the failure to implement de jure annexation, the intensity of conflict over attempts to overhaul the Israeli judiciary, and debates over the future of postwar Gaza.

The Allied occupation of İstanbul after World War I had a transformative impact on the city’s musical entertainment sector. The arrival of large numbers of military personnel created additional demand for music halls, cabarets, cafe-chantants, and concert venues. Servicemen’s musical preferences were catered for by resident İstanbulites and others who found refuge in the city, creating opportunities for musicians and entertainment entrepreneurs to benefit from new and existing patrons. This buoyant market was further harnessed for charitable causes directed at new categories of people in need. The distinct political climate introduced with occupation also made its mark on musical performance, with nationalist and socialist groups using concerts to promote messages of salvation. The end of the occupation led to the dispersal of these musicians to new locations, such as the new Republican capital of Ankara, which attracted talents intent on staying in Turkey, and Athens and Thessaloniki, which received Greek Orthodox musicians fleeing the new Turkish nationalist regime, and still further afield. Using British, French, and Ottoman government documents, memoirs, and newspapers, the article investigates this process of musical convergence and divergence and analyses the local and global impact of the aural encounters of this overlooked period in İstanbul’s cultural history.