52 No. 76 JUSTICE The June 2007 Hamas Coup d’Etat and Gaza’s Subsequent Legal Status Following the June 2007 coup d’etat, Hamas moved quickly to establish full control of Gaza, setting up a governance infrastructure with “political, military, and legal institutions entirely separate from those in the West Bank.”1 One commentator has described the significance of the June 2007 Hamas coup as “profound,” noting Hamas “spent the first year following the takeover focusing on assuming control of all institutional aspects of life in Gaza and on gaining a monopoly on the use of force while keeping potential internal challengers at bay.”2 Hamas also actively pursued its own foreign policy, emphasizing repeated military confrontations with Israel. Hamas fired thousands of rockets into Israel and initiated three armed conflicts with Israel between 2008-2014, which the PA did not join and was powerless to stop. The Hamas coup of June 2007 recreated the split of “Palestine” into two separate political entities: “West Bank Palestine,” under the Palestinian Authority government; and “Gazan Palestine,” under Hamas rule. The June 2007 split mirrored the period between 19481967 when Jordan ruled the West Bank and Egypt ruled Gaza. As a result, the PA simply had no control or authority over the Gaza Strip after June 2007. Despite Gaza’s renewed separation from the West Bank in June 2007, most observers have continued treating the separate territories as part of the overall “State of Palestine.” However, closer analysis of the legal significance of the June 2007 Hamas coup is necessary to determine the subsequent legal status of the Gaza Strip. From June 2007 until October 2023, Hamas met the minimal Montevideo criteria for recognition as a separate political entity.3 Hamas controlled a defined territory with a permanent population. Moreover, Hamas exercised effective governmental control, completely separate from and not answerable to the West Bank PA government in Ramallah. Hamas established its own ministries, its own parliament, its own courts, its own terrorist army, its own economy, and its own foreign policy. We are not arguing that Gaza became a separate “state” following the June 2007 coup. What we are arguing is that after June 2007 the PA had no lawful authority to speak for and bind Hamas to the PA’s accession to the Rome Statute. Therefore, the fact that no countries have officially recognized the Gaza Strip as a stand-alone “state” is less relevant to our analysis, even though countries such as Qatar, Turkey and Iran treated Gaza as a separate entity from the PA. Qatar in particular has harbored Hamas leaders in Doha 1. K. Robinson, “Who Governs the Palestinians?” Council on Foreign Relations (May 28, 2024) (emphasis added), available at https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/whogoverns-palestinians 2. B. Bertie, “Non-State Actors as Providers of Governance: The Hamas Government in Gaza between Effective Sovereignty, Centralized Authority, and Resistance,” 69 MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL 9, 15 (2015). 3. Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States (Dec. 26, 1933), available at https://www.oas. org/juridico/english/sigs/a-40.html 4. B. Mendelsohn, “Understanding Qatar’s Relationship with Hamas: A Critical Exploration of State Sponsored Terrorism,” 7 STUDIES IN CONFLICT AND TERRORISM 1, 11 (2025). 5. Situation in Georgia, No. ICC 01/15-4, Request, ¶ 54 (Oct. 13, 2015), available at https://www.icc-cpi.int/ sites/default/files/CourtRecords/CR2015_19375.PDF (“Despite the South Ossetian declaration of independence of 29 May 1992 and its subsequent recognition by four UN Member States in 2008 onwards, South Ossetia is generally not considered an independent State and is not a Member State of the United Nations. A number of resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) since 2009 refer to South Ossetia as a part of Georgia. For the purposes of this Application, the and provided billions of dollars of aid directly to the Hamas government, completely bypassing the PA. In 2012, the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa AlThani, made an official state visit to Gaza. He did not bother to stop in Ramallah.4 Therefore, Gazan Palestine became a separate entity and a partial subject of international law following the June 2007 Hamas coup. The cases of Abkhazia and South Ossetia are instructive in assessing Gazan Palestine’s legal status. Formerly part of the Soviet Republic of Georgia, both Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away in 1990 and declared their independence in 1992. Both entities have defined territories with permanent populations, but Abkhazia exercises more effective control over its territory than South Ossetia. Only five countries recognize South Ossetia as an independent state. No countries recognize Abkhazia. Most UN member states regard Abkhazia and South Ossetia as part of the post-Soviet Republic of Georgia. In October 2015, the ICC Pre-Trial chamber ruled that South Ossetia was part of Georgia as of 2010 for purposes of determining the ICC’s territorial jurisdiction.5 But
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