Self-defense by Colonial Powers
Updated 2023-11-06
2021-05-16 The fallacy of the colonial ‘right to self-defense’ Colonial powers have long demanded the ‘right to self-defense’ against the people they have colonized. In response, Western governments, led by US President Joe Biden, have been quick to unequivocally condemn Palestinian groups for the rocket barrages, but have been much more circumspect about condemning Israel’s attack on Palestinian civilians.
Lukewarm expressions of “dismay” and “grave concern” at Palestinian deaths have been interspersed with declarations of “unwavering support for Israel’s security and for Israel’s legitimate right to defend itself”. They have also included appeals for “moral clarity”, implying that the actions of Palestinian groups, though causing a tiny fraction of the death and destruction that Israeli bombardment has wreaked, were nonetheless much more objectionable.
The idea that imperial land grabbers have the right to terrorize, brutalize, torture and murder those whose land they steal under the rubric of “self-defense” flies in the face of UN General Assembly Resolution 37/43 of 1982 which recognized “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”. That resolution specifically reaffirmed this right in the case of the Palestinian struggle. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/5/16/the-fallacy-of-the-colonial-right-to-defence
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