RSS Feed
May 13th, 2021 
Awake Goy 
”Israel has the right to defend itself”, says Joe Biden. This is the worn-out mantra uttered by US Presidents every time Israel pummels Gaza.
Haim Bresheeth poignantly responded to this claim in his recent piece on this site:
Every time Israel forces the situation into an explosive juncture, the US and its allies are insisting on Israel’s ‘right to defend itself’, as if destroying Gaza or Beirut is a form of defense, or as if the denial of rights, and imposing an illegal total blockage is a way of resolving conflict”.
But is it even true? Does Israel have the right to defend itself in this situation?
In 2014, Noura Erakat wrote an excellent piece on this legal issue – and everything there is ever so relevant to what happens today:
“No, Israel Does Not Have the Right to Self-Defense In International Law Against Occupied Palestinian Territory”, is the title.
Erekat explains cogently:
A state cannot simultaneously exercise control over territory it occupies and militarily attack that territory on the claim that it is “foreign” and poses an exogenous national security threat. In doing precisely that, Israel is asserting rights that may be consistent with colonial domination but simply do not exist under international law.
In other words, the adamant insistence on “Israel’s right to defend itself”, is there precisely because that right is not absolute, and depends upon the paradigm in which this supposed “defense” is claimed. Israel, as the occupying power, can alter the situation by relinquishing its occupation. But since it doesn’t do that, it can’t have its cake and eat it: it can’t both occupy and claim victimhood.
This principle has been regarded as a very serious matter, by very serious people, such as Naim Moussa on this site the other day, that Netanyahu, “with his legislative agenda failing to materialize… turned to his oldest trick in the book: incite and provoke the Palestinians.” While I do not reduce Netanyahu’s motivation to only that, Netanyahu is clearly pressed and desperate, not least due to the political nexus between his remaining in power and his ability to escape the consequences of his various corruption cases.
So let’s look at Netanyahu.
He’s a master of political survival, he really is. “The oldest trick in the book” really worked. His former ‘liberal’ rival, Benny Gantz, who came into politics boasting of returning Gaza to the “stone age”, has now sought to euphemize his own words, saying that “for every day of attacks on Israeli citizens, we’ll take the terror organizations back years.” Now, as Defense Minister, Gantz can show he’s the man again, after having been humiliated by Netanyahu last year– tricked into joining a unity government in which his supposed turn to be Premier never came (Israel went to new elections).
Israelis join in times of wars like in no other times. Well, the Jewish Israeli ones mostly join under their Zionism, and Palestinians who protest in solidarity with their Palestinian brethren, are seen as traitors.
So the war situation also creates the necessary societal rift, by which the Zionist vein is strengthened. This is what a right-wing leader needs, and it’s what a Zionist leader in general will often end up doing – inciting Palestinians and playing the hero. Ehud Barak was no exception, but Ariel Sharon was better at it than him, back in 2000, when the 2nd Intifada was provoked.
It’s worth reflecting upon: Netanyahu is doing whatever he can to stay in power. And he is trying to defend himself from the consequences of his court cases. For that, dozens are killed, for that, Joe Biden has to say that “Israel has the right to defend itself”. How cynical is that?
And Netanyahu, does he have the right to defend himself – in court, I mean? Well, yes, of course why not. But anyone claiming righteously that “Netanyahu has the right to defend himself” nowadays will only be scoffed at. I mean, who says that? It’s only the diehard Likudniks. In the overall paradigm of corruption and political control, Netanyahu’s political machinations and manipulations make the claim “Netanyahu has the right to defend himself” rather vacuous, or even morally repugnant. To claim such an obvious thing is beyond pedantic – it is a political statement in the court of public opinion, in defense of a corrupt leader.
Yet the comparison is insufficient, to take it back to the question of Israel’s Gaza onslaught version 2021. Because in Netanyahu’s case, he has the legal right to defend himself. In Israel’s case, it doesn’t even have the legal right. The insistence on this right is political populism, meant to overdub the simple truth, that Israel is in the wrong. If you are an occupier, if you are a single Apartheid state of Jewish supremacy from the river to the sea, then you don’t get to claim victimhood, as much as it hurts.
Palestinians have the right to protect themselves from Israel’s Apartheid and occupation brutality. When Israel stops victimizing Palestinians by Apartheid, we can talk of its right to defend itself. An Apartheid regime should not be protected.
Posted in 
Tags: 
