Our Wednesday News Analysis | Condemn if you wish, but Palestinians will pay a heavy price

However counter-intuitive it may sound, there are three reasonable grounds – ethical ones, at that –
for refusing to join in the chorus of condemnation of Hamas’ actions on October 7.

That isn’t the same as condoning what Hamas did.
It is clear the group carried out war crimes that day – not least by attacking civilians and taking them as hostages.

But there is an important distinction to be made between recognizing
that crimes were committed and colluding in the act of condemnation
that has been openly politicized and continues to be politicized
to justify harming Palestinian civilians.

How so?

1. Those demanding condemnation are chiefly interested in imposing a consensus, and a dangerous one, that insists the atrocity clock started on Oct 7.

Such people want to wipe from the score card decades of atrocities by Israel towards Palestinians: ethnic cleansing, massacres, colonisation, siege, violent dispossession.

And they can achieve their goal because of a stark narrative power imbalance on Israel-Palestine. In western societies, pro-Israel sentiment is baked in, articulated constantly by our politicians and media. Anyone who condemns Hamas has no control whatsoever over the ends to which their condemnation will be put.

In short, condemnation of the kind demanded of everyone about Oct 7 is not cost-free. It has been weaponised to drive out context, to erase Palestinian suffering and Israeli oppression, and to simplify and distort history...

Read more: Condemn if you wish, but Palestinians will pay a heavy price

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ARE ISRAELIS JEWS? RETURNING TO JEWISH MINORITY LIFE

Source: Jews for Justice for Palestinians
https://jfjfp.com/are-israelis-jews-returning-to-jewish-minority-life/

Yarden Katz writes in Mondoweiss November 9, 2023

Neturei Karta members hold placards during an annual demonstration in memory of the 1994 Ibrahimi Mosque massacre, near a gate leading to Hebron’s main al-Shuhada street, Feb. 25, 2022

"None of this is new.
Israel’s existence has been premised on genocidal violence against Palestinians, which Israelis are programmed to support from a young age.

But in seeing the latest catastrophe created by Israel,
I’ve been wondering again: ARE ISRAELIS JEWS?"

It is hard to find words for the horrors in Palestine now. I am haunted by images of rubble and crowded hospitals filled with the wounded and maimed, and by all the stories brought to us by heroic journalists in Gaza. I am haunted by videos of parents in Gaza holding their children, refusing to believe that they are dead. A friend said that even watching this from afar feels like your bloodstream is swimming with ashes. That’s how I feel, too.

Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, assaulting Palestinians in the West Bank, intensifying its torture of Palestinian prisoners, and increasing its harassment and policing of Palestinians inside 1948 Palestine. Over 10,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by relentless Israeli bombardment since October 7, 2023. Entire families have been exterminated; whole neighborhoods obliterated; hospitals, water infrastructure, mosques, and universities damaged or destroyed; and about 1.5 million Gazans displaced from their homes, made into refugees once again. Meanwhile, leaders of the “West” back Israel. The U.S. sent more weapons. President Joe Biden declared himself “a Zionist,” saying there will be “no red lines” for Israel. He is only now hinting that maybe Israel should consider holding back...

Read more: Are Israelis Jews? Returning to Jewish minority life

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PALESTINIANS HAVE A RIGHT TO RESIST ISRAELI OCCUPATION BY ALL MEANS

Source: The Standard
https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/opinion/article/2001485291/palestinians-have-a-right-to-resist-israeli-occupation-by-all-means

By Billow Kerrow
Published November 14, 2023

A man transfers an injured child after Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, Oct. 19, 2023. [Xinhua]

"Most military occupations encounter resistance of various types, and such resistance cannot be termed a violation of the laws of war.
Israel and Palestinians are not at war; rather,
it is the oppressed and colonized people of Palestine that are exercising their rights under international law
to resist the illegal occupation by whatever means possible.

Israel forcefully occupied 78 percent of Palestine in 1948 and displaced millions of Palestinians."

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Editor’s Note | But what do you do when the countries of the Western Alliance — those that worship and impose the Rule of Law — adhere to some of the UN Resolution, sometimes and only when convenient?

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Does Israel have the right to self-defence in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as asserted by the US and its Western alliance? Do Palestinians have the same right to self-defence which the US and its allies never utter? Does the October 7 attack by Palestinians on Israel constitute a ‘terrorist’ action? And what is the position of United Nations and international law on the matter?

United Nations General Assembly Resolution 37/43 of December 3, 1982, reaffirmed “the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle”. It legalised entitlement of occupied people to resist occupying forces "by any and all means". The resolution makes specific references to South Africa, Namibia, Palestine and other territories under occupation at the time.

The resolution “urged all States, competent organisations of the United Nations system, specialised agencies and other international organisations to extend their support to the Palestinian people in its struggle to regain its right to self-determination and independence in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations”...

Read more: Palestinians have a right to resist Israeli occupation by all means