An Occupying Power Has No Right to Defend Itself

Many on the left and the right would not dare say it out loud when they hear the mantra that “Israel has the right to defend itself”. But, in reality, an occupying power has no right to defend itself from the actions of those they occupied and oppressed. Did Nazi Germany have the right to defend itself from the French resistance? Of course not. As an occupier, your rights are limited, and so are Israel’s rights, which delegitimize its occupation of lands it is seizing daily from the Palestinians, and which are against international law.

On that score, we totally agree with what Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, said in April 2023. Long before the October 7 Hamas attack.

In the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem, the Palestinians have every right to free themselves from their occupiers by any means possible. Furthermore, unless both parties strike a peace treaty, the Palestinians also have every right to consider every inch of Israel as occupied lands, which makes Israel itself a legitimate target.

Let us not forget that Israel is a European settler colony, and its people are not as indigenous as their mantra wants us to believe they are.

Israel exists because it violates the human rights of the Palestinians.

A GOOD QUESTION TO ASK

Harretz, an Israel left-center online news site, asks differently. “What do you call people who fight on their own lands against foreign soldiers?”

While Haaretz intended that question to cover Gaza only, it is really a universal one. It applies whenever a colonizer steals the lands of any indigenous people and places its population under an illegal system of slavery whose real purpose is to break their will to fight back.

This is exactly the definition of Israel. Israel exists because it violates the human rights of the Palestinians. All Netanyahu did was to expose that truth to the rest of the world. If it was not for him and his thugs running the Israeli government murdering the innocent civilians en masse, Israel would not find itself today hated by the world. A hatred that is slowly translating into a worldwide economic boycott of Israel.

So, no, an occupying power has no right to defend itself. No matter how hard it tries to convey that message of innocence and victimhood.

If Israel is unwilling to strike peace with the Palestinians to relieve them from all the pain their occupation exacts on their population, resistance will contuse unabated. 75 years since the Nakba has proven this statement to be authentically true.

The only way forward is for Israel to forget about its Zionist expansionist project of occupying all the lands from the Euphrates (Iraq) to the Nile (Egypt).

ETHNICALLY CLEANSING GOES BOTH WAYS

Further, if Israel’s only intentions are to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians, the Palestinians have every right to ethnically cleanse Israel of all the Jews. It’s a human right absolute that does not split any hairs.

The only way forward is for Israel to forget about its Zionist expansionist project of occupying all the lands from the Euphrates (Iraq) to the Nile (Egypt). Israel needs to return to its 1967 borders while giving the Palestinians their total freedom to form their own state and their own government. No soldiers on their lands, no laws to govern them, and no racist-based rules to terrorize their daily lives and routines.

If Israel embraces such plans, all the Arabs and the Muslims would step up to defend it if the Palestinians attack Israel after a peace treaty.

Or, the Israelis could just expect the ICC to come after their political choices every two years or so. Just to remind them how human beings must behave if they want to be part of the human race.

We guarantee you that Israel’s genocide against Gaza has expanded the footprint of Hamas. The more Israel kills their fighters, the more Palestinians join.

To the delight of the U.S. military industrial complex, we might add.

An Occupying Power Has No Right to Defend Itself