Israel’s ‘right’ to defend itself — from itself
JVL Introduction
Israel’s right to defend itself is always invoked as though this was the most natural right in the world.
It isn’t, when what is involved is a conflict between an occupier and subjects under occupation as is the case about the occupied Palestinian territory.
Yes, the West Bank including east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights are under occupation.
And yes, the Gaza strip is also under occupation: Israel controls its borders and all movement into and out of the territory; it controls power supplies into Gaza; it controls fishing off Gaza’s coast. it even controls its population registry.
So the idea of two equal states in a war with each other is a catastrophically inaccurate categorisation of what is happening – as it was of all previous Israeli wars on Gaza.
And it is rich to present Israel – a state that is in daily breach of many clauses of the 4th Geneva Convention, many of which may amount to war crimes – as the victim in a conflict it provoked, with its encouragement of right-wing triumphalism in the Old City on Jerusalem Day, its invasion of the al Aqsa Mosque and much else in the days, months and indeed years leading up to this current escalation of the conflict.
This article was originally published by Mondoweiss on Thu 13 May 2021. Read the original here.
Israel’s ‘right’ to defend itself — from itself
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The coloniser demanding the right to defend itself from the colonised. How dare the Palestinians exercise their human right to resist their subjugation by the occupying power. In the case of this “conflict” the rules are upside down. Israel steals Palestinian land and property and commits war crimes against them. When they resist Israel insists on its right to inflict further violence upon them. They want us to believe they are the victim when the truth is the other way round. Israeli propogandists supported by Joe Biden turn reality on its head to justify the blitz on Gaza.
I’m a pragmatist so as well as “rights” I want to know about “power” and “levers”.
The only “levers” I can see that may change the situation within Israel is if those outside Israel (chiefly the USA) become noticeably less willing to back or fund the Israeli government. The more outsiders back off, the greater the impact and voices of extremely brave Israeli protesters against the wrongs being done by their government.
One can see changes coming. The children of the Holocaust generation are themselves getting very old; younger generations of Jews and non-Jews may well be less prepared to excuse today’s bad behaviour by the Israeli government and settlers because of the horrendous suffering from the late 1930s until 1945. The Israeli government’s cosy relationship with monsters like Trump won’t have done them any favours in the long run. It seems likely that Trump will face a series of personally embarrassing court cases over the next few years. Those who were Trump’s close allies may well find any uncovered dirt harms them as much as him.
Why is Margaret Hodge et.al. cannot stand up in Parliament and read this article and finish with the question; Are we in this house on the wrong side of history? Have we duped ourselves in our blind support for Zionism? I can almost see it. And Hamas ? A distraction that Netanyahu knows that he can use anytime to garner US and UK outrage. The unrest within Isreal itself seems like a blossoming of hope to which the whole world can give their hearts.
Well said.
If a state is illegitimate does it have the right to defend itself? There is nothing legitimate about ethnic cleansing or the apartheid system the Israeli state has established to deliver Jewish supremacy over the Palestinians.