Palestine Resists

Steven Katsineris writes on the legitimacy of the Palestinian Resistance in the face of Israeli terror.  Steven Katsineris is a Melbourne based writer.

  • We must beware of blaming the murders. Who are we to reproach them for hating us? Colonists who transform into a Jewish homeland the territory they have lived in for generations - Moshe Dayan, Israeli military leader and politician, April 1956.  

Since the dispossession of their homeland over 60 years ago it has been an uphill battle for the Palestinians seeking to obtain justice and support against considerable distortions and bias in the Western World. Many people only took serious notice of the plight of the Palestinian people and began to investigate the real facts of the Palestinian problem after the first Intifada (uprising) and wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

This has led to more people changing their ideas and attitudes substantially on this issue over the past decade or so and recognizing the legitimate rights and justness of the Palestinian cause. Many more people who were once confused or knew little about the situation have come to clearly distinguish between who is the oppressed and oppressor in the case of Palestine. This has brought the Palestinians the empathy and solidarity they deserve. 

These days the false and deceptive information promoted by Israel since 1948 is being vigorously challenged and Israel has had to make an effort to defend its past sordid history and actions. This has resulted in a shift of emphasis and a concerted campaign by Israel and its supporter’s abroad to focus on the subject of Palestinian “terrorism”.

While all warfare and its consequences are horrifying, any assessment of the conflict will show that Israel’s record on terror and carnage is more methodical and on a greater scale than anything Palestinians have resorted to. And Palestinians have the same legal and moral right as any other occupied people to use any means at their disposal to resist the invaders of their country. 

Israel and its supporters are now trying desperately to convince people that various tactics used by some Palestinian factions make their struggle illegitimate and beyond backing. This notion that the Palestinian resistance is an exception is ridiculous. The Palestinians are not unique in the methods of armed struggle they use. In fact, the Palestinian forces use exactly the same methods utilised by various indigenous and subjugated peoples for centuries, including the American Indians, Aboriginals, Irish, Algerian, South African, Kurdish, Latin American, the Vietnamese among others that have fought anti-colonial wars and national liberation struggles, as well as the anti-fascist forces in Europe and Asia during the 1940s.

The Palestinians also share the same common aims as other oppressed peoples struggling for independence and freedom around the world today and are worthy of the same solidarity and support. The Palestinian Resistance’s actions against the Israeli occupation are indisputably legitimate.

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