Human rights and transitional justice scholar and teacher. Professor of Law & International Affairs, Northeastern University
Joined March 2020
- Tweets269
- Following474
- Followers602
- Likes387
Zinaida Miller retweeted
Many people have asked whether these are ceasefires at all. But the question is not whether a ceasefire is real but what it does. At best, ceasefires are interim arrangements that gesture towards peace by temporarily suspending formal hostilities, either with a view to longer-term resolution or other political or humanitarian objectives. They can offer a respite in the fighting to give the parties time to recover and potentially to discuss alternatives to war. Unlike peace agreements – which require negotiation, compromise and (ostensibly) long-term commitment – ceasefires are by definition temporary, partial and immediate.
But they also construe violence narrowly and reinforce imbalances of power. They are as much a way to govern a population as a road to peace. Gaza is a paradigm for the way that ceasefires prioritise kinetic violence, often leaving other forms – blockades, siege, starvation – in place. When the opposing sides in a conflict are unequally matched, the weaker party may use a ceasefire to buy time to rearm, as Hizbullah did after 2006, but the stronger can use it to convert a temporary arrangement into a durable regime. Spectacular violence is largely subsumed into structural deprivation while sporadic attacks become part of the ceasefire. What look like violations are in fact a feature: the ceasefire does not need to be observed to remain in force. It needs only to be proclaimed.
@ZinaidaMiller in @LRB
lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/august/m…
Zinaida Miller retweeted
“What we are witnessing in Gaza is not a series of isolated shortages, it is a policy of attrition by design.”
The Israeli authorities continue to restrict the entry of essential supplies into Gaza, including engine oil and spare parts.
msf.org/israel-puts-thousand…
Zinaida Miller retweeted
Grateful for media coverage of our concerns and hoping it will be of use to anyone in conversation with those who hold the power of the purse: nytimes.com/live/2026/04/02/…
Zinaida Miller retweeted
Ezra Klein's interview with Philippe Sands is very good overall.
But I want to reiterate that the ICJ has never said that the definition of genocide requires a "single intent."
Nor does the ICJ's standard of proof preclude a finding of genocide in cases of plural intent.
1/🧵
Zinaida Miller retweeted
Prof. of Law & International Affairs @ZinaidaMiller discusses the recognition of a Palestinian state from Britain and Canada. Read Prof. Miller’s op-ed in the@nytimes: nytimes.com/2025/08/06/opini…
As Israel plans to complete its conquest of Gaza and continues its annexation of the West Bank, Western leaders fall back on old patterns. In a new piece, I place recent recognition announcements in their broader context. 1/5 nytimes.com/2025/08/06/opini…
This is an old story, barely rewritten for an age of genocide. Today, Western states are making absurd demands of a people whose population and infrastructure are being systematically destroyed while demanding far less of those engineering the destruction. 4/5
Zinaida Miller retweeted
A powerful opinion piece by @ZinaidaMiller on the pitfalls of recognition
The Promise of Palestinian Statehood Is Ringing Hollow nytimes.com/2025/08/06/opini… via @NYTOpinion
Zinaida Miller retweeted
"There is no one to stop it, and we must stop it."
It's not just war. It's genocide – and it's being done in our name haaretz.com/opinion/2025-07-….
Zinaida Miller retweeted
Useful explainer on recognition of Palestinian statehood with good quotes from @ArdiImseis and others. nytimes.com/2025/07/29/world… v
Zinaida Miller retweeted
Israel’s balancing act – maintaining starvation while avoiding famine in Gaza – cannot last indefinitely. crisisgroup.org/middle-east-…
Zinaida Miller retweeted
This week, my Somerville constituent Rümeysa Öztürk was abducted in broad daylight by DHS officials and sent to Louisiana to be locked in a detention center. She has not been charged with any crime.
The video of her kidnapping is harrowing. Plainclothes officers wearing masks surrounded her, grabbed her by the wrists, took her phone away, and handcuffed her before taking her away in a vehicle.
She was on her way to break her Ramadan fast, so I can only imagine how hungry and afraid she was. She also does not have her asthma medications with her—a human rights violation.
This is unacceptable and she must be released immediately and have her visa restored NOW.
Rümeysa is a peaceful protestor, a graduate student at Tufts University passionate about education, and my constituent who has a constitutional right to free speech and due process. She was here legally on a student visa, before it was unjustly revoked, and making numerous positive contributions to the Tufts and #MA7 community.
This administration is terrorizing students to silence dissent because that’s what a dictator does. And the only reason she was kidnapped is because she has a dissenting political view, different from Donald Trump’s. That’s it.
This should be a five-alarm fire for anyone who cares about free speech and our democracy — regardless of your political party, ideology, or opinion on Israel, Palestine, or any other issue.
This is an assault on the core tenets of our democracy. It’s unlawful, unjust, and authoritarian, and every person of conscience should be outraged and alarmed. Because if they can do it to her, they can do it to anyone else.
Please share her story and join us in demanding this Administration respect the Constitution and release Rümeysa NOW. #FreeRümeysaÖztürk
ALT A graphic that reads Free Rümeysa Öztürk with a photo of her.
Zinaida Miller retweeted
I agree with @FranceskAlbs These absurd AI generated fantasies about Gaza serve an important psychological function by normalizing a narrative of genocide and mass expulsion. Social media is that sewer that we cannot escape from easily but must still resist.
🚨 ALERT: What the new US Administration is doing is very clear and strategic: it is called psychological overwhelming. Hitting us every day with XXL doses of baffling rhetoric and erratic policies serves to "control the script", distracting and dishorienting us, normalising the absurd, all while disrupting global stability (and consolidating US control).
Zinaida Miller retweeted
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are meeting on Tuesday.
The US will remain complicit in Israel’s atrocities in Gaza so long as it continues to provide Israel with arms. Read more: bit.ly/3CwoEET