Unintended securitization: Military, medical, and political-security discourses in the humanitarian treatment of syrian casualties in Israel

In this article, we examine statements by state offi cials and individuals from the military and the medical establishment regarding the provision of medical aid by Israel to casualties from the Syrian Civil War. We argue discussions of this project have been characterized by three diff erent discourses, each dominant at diff erent times, which we classify as military, medical, and political-security. We propose "unintended securitization" to describe how the project moved from the military into the medicalcivilian and then into the political sphere, and came to be seen as advancing the security interests of the Israeli state. We argue the relationship between humanitarianism and securitization seen here challenges the view that humanitarian apparatuses are oft en subordinated to military rationales by showing how securitization here emerged from the demilitarization of what was initially a military project.