Within the span of a few hours last Saturday afternoon, Israel sowed death and destruction on Gaza on a scale that the Qassam rockets never approached in all their years. And Operation "Cast Lead" is only in its infancy.
Once again, Israel's violent responses, even if there is justification for them, exceed all "an eye-for-an-eye" proportion and cross every red line of humaneness, morality, international law and wisdom. And most of the world powers remain silent.
Does this scenario of Jewish resistance in WWII sound at all reminscient of Palestinian resistance? After the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, Jewish ghettos were set up in major Polish cities to control the millions of Polish Jews. Inside the ghettos the Jews were forced to live on starvation rations. Despite being trapped in effective death camps, resistance groups managed to operate. In January 1943 German forces tried to level the ghetto, but were beaten off by Jewish resistance fighters supported by another Polish resistance movement. The second attempt to destroy the ghetto led to the uprising of April 1943. For one month the Polish Jews fought off the German army and SS, but their resistance was eventually crushed and the Nazis exacted their final revenge.
For too many years now, the Palestinians have been a people under occupation, with the right to self-determination under the UN Charter. It can be argued that the use of force as part of resisting occupation in the Palestinian case is therefore derived from the international legitimacy to recourse to armed struggle in order to obtain the right to self-determination.
"...It is essential if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression that human rights should be protected by the rule of law." (preamble) - Universal Declaration of Human Rights
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