Israel
Right To Self Defense: Across Asia, Africa, Europe And
North America
11 June 2010 By Sameh A. Habeeb
Israel has been pursuing its cry-wolf policy
since its inception. Successive Israeli regimes have
followed the same tactic of presenting their own
nation as the victim of aggression. All the major news
firms and corporations have taken the same line.
“Israel as victim’, has filled the headlines. These
days there are more examples than ever.
Israel has been justifying its attacks and deadly wars
against Palestinians and Arabs in terms of their right
to self-defense. Here are some of the messages we hear
from the Israelis over and over again:
“We are encircled by the Arabs.”
“We are encircled by terrorists.”
“We are living in the tough area of the
Middle
East.”
“We are fighting for our existence.”
“Our nukes are for the purpose of protection.”
“The Gaza siege is a legal means to stop rocket
attack.”
“Settlements are a legal means to protect our Jewish
Identity.”
Any audience worldwide hearing only this account might
believe what they hear. It is normal for any body and
everybody to seek safety and security as a basic need.
People worldwide and specifically in America, which is
the foremost supporter of Israel, will be convinced.
For as long as these fictions are promulgated along
media wires and echoed by reputable institutions,
Israel will continue to defy international law and
humanitarian charters. More human rights will be
violated.
In the 1967 war, Israel captured hundreds of Egyptian
soldiers. According to international law, Israel
should have protected them before taking them to court
or banishing them to prison. But Israel massacred them
in the desert. We never heard of any subsequent
investigation by the international community. Whose
rights of self defense were infringed on that
occasion?
Massacres, like Sabra and Shatila, have been
perpetrated in Lebanon. The Israeli version of this
story is that, “we invaded Lebanon to kick out
Palestinian fighters. Or to protect our borders. It’s
all about self defense.” But disproportionate force
was used by Israel: thousands of Palestinians/Lebanese
were killed in such massacres. In 1996 and 2006 in its
wars on
Lebanon, Israel bombarded the UN compounds and
killed hundreds of civilians and UN forces. All this
was on the grounds of self defense.
The siege of
Gaza and the one-sided war was part of Israeli
self
defense strategy. Very limited attacks have
been launched against Israel but the Israeli response
has always been deadly. The useless rockets of Hamas
have been used as a pretext by Israel to launch its
attacks. They are the reason given for imposing the
siege. However, the facts on the ground are different.
Israeli self-defense
The legal dictionary of Gerald N. Hill and Kathleen T.
Hill (1981-2005 by) defines self-defense as,”
self-defense n. the use of reasonable force to protect
oneself or members of the family from bodily harm from
the attack of an aggressor, if the defender has reason
to believe he/she/they is/are in danger. Self-defense
is a common defense by a person accused of assault,
battery, or homicide. The force used in self-defense
may be sufficient for protection from apparent harm
(not just an empty verbal threat) or to halt any
danger from attack, but cannot be an excuse to
continue the attack or use
excessive force.”
You only have to look at the last six decades. Before
its establishment; Israel ethnically cleansed more
than 800,000 Palestinians. More than 530 villages were
viciously destroyed before it even existed. Wars then
were launched against
Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan. Attacks and
military operations of Israel in the name of self
defense reached Tunisia,
Iraq,
Algeria
and Morocco. Add to that, a hundred or more operations
that took place across Asia, Africa, Europe and North
America.
From 1967 to 2008 more than 800.000 Palestinians were
imprisoned by Israel.
From 29/9/200 to 31/12/2008 more than 5901
Palestinians were killed. The same period witnessed
up to 40,000 injured people. On the other
side, around 1000 Israeli were killed. There is a huge
and vast gap between the numbers. Additionally, 1440
Palestinians were killed in Gaza. The ratio is around
8 Palestinians killed for each Israeli.
Rockets Issue and Self-defense
The official website of the Israeli
Foreign
Affairs ministry states that 1,750 rockets and
1,528 mortar bombs fired from the
Gaza Strip struck southern Israel in 2008. This
is understandably shocking for anyone who reads this.
The term rocket or mortar or missile induces fear in
any ordinary onlooker. Israel uses such statistics and
numbers to deflect the attention of the international
mainstream media and those who consume it. If we
suppose Israel is right about this, then why don’t we
see Israel giving more details about these rockets?
Why does Israel not show the pictures of the victims
of these rockets? Why don’t we see the damaged cities,
town, and village?
Clearly these rockets are ineffective and useless.
According to the BBC, since 2001, when the rockets
were first fired, more than 8,600 have hit southern
Israel, nearly 6,000 of them since Israel withdrew
from Gaza in August 2005. The rockets have killed 28
people and injured hundreds more.
This is 28 people killed and hundreds injured too
many. But note that there is a huge gap between the
number of victims and the number of rockets. If this
leads us to any conclusion, it must be that these
rockets are primitive, inexact and ineffective. The
rockets are just another scapegoat that Israel uses to
justify its ongoing attacks against Palestinian
civilians.
Some Palestinian factions have now stopped firing
these rockets as Hamas did, from June to December
2009. What happened? A full- scale war was launched in
late 2009 that took the lives of more than 1440
Palestinians, mostly civilians. The arithmetic is like
this: 28 Israelis killed by rocket attacks in nine
years while 1440 Palestinians were killed in only 3
weeks in the last war on Gaza. There is no way to
compare the two sides. The
self
defense argument deployed by Israel should be
renamed its policy of aggression. Self defense
empowers victims to use sufficient power to defend
themselves.
But from the Israeli government we only see
excessive force used against civilians.
By Sameh A. Habeeb
The Palestine Telegraph Newspaper
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