*Repeated United Nations condemnations, reports and resolutions have not stopped Israel from defying the rules and norms that other members of the international community are bound to observe. The United States and its proxies have enabled it to become the rogue state it is today. And in the process, they have made Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza possible.*
by Dr. M. Reza Behnam, Palestine Chronicle, August 20 https://www.palestinechronicle.com/does-any-other-country-besides-israel-have-the-right-to-defend-itself/ . . . Israel is hardly the victim it portrays itself to be. Its colonial expansion through the use of force began when it destroyed over 500 Palestinian towns and violently dispossessed over 750,000 Palestinians to establish an exclusive Jewish state in 1948. It broadened with the 1967 Arab-Israel War, which led to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as control over the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula and Syrian Golan Heights. The historical record reveals that for many years prior to 1967, Israel intended to seize the West Bank and Golan Heights. There was no military threat or safety concerns. The war was fought out of a desire to demonstrate Israel’s power and to achieve territorial gains. Israel continues to seize Palestinian land and escalate expansion. Currently, as many as 700,000 Jewish “settlers” live in 150 illegal “settlements” and 128 outposts across occupied Palestine. . . . To become a regional nuclear Goliath, Israel has violated countless international and humanitarian laws. Tel Aviv has yet to confront a law it has been willing to obey or a country’s sovereignty it felt compelled to respect. The UN Charter of 1945 and the body of international law enshrined in its conventions, treaties and standards were created to govern relations and to usher in comity among nations, and to ensure the horrors of the Second World War were never repeated. The Charter, for example, strictly prohibits the acquisition of territory by force. Israel, however, began violating it soon after it proclaimed statehood and again in its preemptive 1967 War. As a consequence of the Arab-Israel wars of 1948-49 and 1967, Israel permanently occupied the land it captured and has not allowed the Palestinians made refugees by the wars to return to Palestine and to their homes. Occupation is by definition temporary until conditions are such that the territory can be returned to its original sovereign. Flagrantly, Israel has violated one of the most important principles established under modern international law: an occupying power cannot, under any circumstances, acquire the right to annex or gain sovereignty over any territory under its occupation. . . . For Palestinians, international law recognizes that resistance, by all available means, including armed struggle, is a legitimate right for people under illegal occupation (Additional Protocol 1 to the 1977 Geneva Conventions). . . . Essentially, international law leaves little doubt—Israel is an illegal occupant. The International Court of Justice on July 19, 2024, said just that. In its advisory opinion, it ruled that Israel should end its illegal occupation and that “settlers” be removed from all of occupied Palestine. Repeated United Nations condemnations, reports and resolutions have not stopped Israel from defying the rules and norms that other members of the international community are bound to observe. The United States and its proxies have enabled it to become the rogue state it is today. And in the process, they have made Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza possible. . . . -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#31794): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/31794 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/108081947/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
