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href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/07/palestinians-legal-armed-struggle-170719114812058.html">http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/07/palestinians-legal-armed-struggle-170719114812058.html</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Palestinians have a legal right to armed
struggle</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">Stanley L Cohen - July
20, 2017<br>
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<p>Long ago, it was settled that resistance and even armed
struggle against a colonial occupation force is not just
recognised under international law but specifically
endorsed.</p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">In accordance with international
humanitarian law, wars of national liberation have
been expressly embraced, through the adoption of </span>Additional
Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 (<a
href="https://treaties.un.org/doc/publication/unts/volume%201125/volume-1125-i-17512-english.pdf"
target="_blank">pdf</a>)<span lang="EN-US">, as a
protected and essential right of occupied people
everywhere.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Finding evolving vitality in
humanitarian law, for decades the General Assembly of
the United Nations (UNGA) - once described as the
collective conscience of the world - has noted the
right of peoples to self-determination, independence
and human rights. </span> </p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Indeed, as early as 1974, </span><span>resolution
3314 of the UNGA</span><span lang="EN-US"><a
href="http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/instree/GAres3314.html"
target="_blank"> prohibited</a> states from "any
military occupation, however temporary".</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">In relevant part, the resolution not
only went on to affirm the right "to
self-determination, freedom and independence [...] of
peoples forcibly deprived of that right,[...]
particularly peoples under colonial and racist regimes
or other forms of alien domination" but noted the
right of the occupied to "struggle ... and to seek and
receive support" in that effort.</span> </p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">The term "armed struggle" was
implied without precise definition in that resolution
and many other early ones that upheld the right of
indigenous persons to evict an occupier.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">This imprecision was to change on
December 3, 1982. At that time UNGA resolution </span><a
href="http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/37/a37r043.htm" target="_blank"><span>37/43</span></a><span
lang="EN-US"> removed any doubt or debate over the
lawful entitlement of occupied people to resist
occupying forces by any and all lawful means. The
resolution reaffirmed "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".</span></p>
<h2><strong><span lang="EN-US">A palpable illusion</span></strong></h2>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Though Israel has tried, time and
time again, to recast the unambiguous intent of this
precise resolution - and thus place its now
half-century-long occupation in the <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/subjects/occupied-west-bank.html"
target="_self">West Bank</a> and Gaza beyond its
application - it is an effort worn thin to the point
of palpable illusion by the exacting language of the
declaration itself. In relevant part, section 21 of
the resolution strongly condemned "the expansionist
activities of Israel in the Middle East and the
continual bombing of Palestinian civilians, which
constitute a serious obstacle to the realization of
the self-determination and independence of the
Palestinian people".</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Never ones to hesitate in rewriting
history, long before the establishment of the <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/organisations/un.html"
target="_self">United Nations</a>, </span>European
Zionists<span lang="EN-US"> deemed themselves to be an
occupied people as they emigrated to Palestine - a
land to which any historical connection they had had
long since passed through a largely voluntary transit.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Indeed, a full 50 years before the
UN spoke of the right of armed struggle as a vehicle
of indigenous liberation, European Zionists illegally
co-opted the concept as the </span><span>Irgun</span><span
lang="EN-US">, </span><span>Lehi</span><span
lang="EN-US"> and other terrorist groups undertook a
decade's long reign of deadly mayhem. </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">During this time, they slaughtered
not only thousands of indigenous Palestinians but
targeted British police and military personnel that
had long maintained a colonial presence there.</span> </p>
<h2>A history of Zionist attacks</h2>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Perhaps, as Israelis sit down to
mourn the loss of </span><span><a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/07/palestinians-killed-shooting-jerusalem-city-170714045419071.html"
target="_self">two</a> </span><span lang="EN-US"><a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/07/palestinians-killed-shooting-jerusalem-city-170714045419071.html"
target="_self">of their soldiers</a> who were shot
dead this past week in Jerusalem - in what many
consider to be a lawful act of resistance - a visit
down memory lane might just place the events in their
proper historical context.</span></p>
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<p>Self-determination is a difficult, costly
march for the occupied. In Palestine, no
matter what the weapon of choice - whether
voice, pen or gun - there is a steep price to
be paid for its use.</p>
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<p><span lang="EN-US">Long ago, describing the British as
an occupation force in "their homeland", <a
href="http://www.prc.org.uk/portal/index.php/english-media/latest-news/3200-israeli-massacres-against-pales"
target="_blank">Zionists targeted British police and
military units</a> with ruthless abandon throughout
<a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/country/palestine.html"
target="_self">Palestine</a> and elsewhere.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">On </span><span>April 12, 1938</span><span
lang="EN-US">, the Irgun murdered two British police
officers in a train bombing in Haifa. On </span><span>August
26, 1939,</span><span lang="EN-US"> two British
officers were killed by an Irgun landmine in <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/city/jerusalem.html"
target="_self">Jerusalem</a>. On </span><span>February
14, 1944,</span><span lang="EN-US"> two British
constables were shot dead when they attempted to
arrest people for pasting up wall posters in Haifa. On
</span><span>September 27, 1944,</span><span
lang="EN-US"> more than 100 members of the Irgun
attacked four British police stations, injuring
hundreds of officers. </span><span>Two days later</span><span
lang="EN-US"> a senior British police officer of the
Criminal Intelligence Department was assassinated in
Jerusalem.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> On </span><span>November 1, 1945,</span><span
lang="EN-US"> another police officer was killed as
five trains were bombed. On </span><span>December 27,
1945,</span><span lang="EN-US"> seven British officers
lost their lives in a bombing on police headquarters
in Jerusalem. Between </span><span>November 9 and 13,
1946,</span><span lang="EN-US"> Jewish "underground"
members launched a series of landmine and suitcase
bomb attacks in railway stations, trains, and
streetcars, killing 11 British soldiers and policemen
and eight Arab constables.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> Four more officers were murdered in
another attack on a police headquarters on </span><span>January
12, 1947</span><span lang="EN-US">. </span><span>Nine
months later,</span><span lang="EN-US"> four British
police were murdered in an Irgun bank robbery and, but
three days later, on </span><span>September 26, 1947</span><span
lang="EN-US">, an additional 13 officers were killed
in yet another terrorist attack on a British police
station. </span> </p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">These are but a few of many attacks
directed by Zionist terrorists at British police who
were seen, by mostly European Jews, as legitimate
targets of a campaign they described as one of
liberation against an occupation force.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Throughout this period, Jewish
terrorists also undertook countless attacks that
spared no part of the British and Palestinian
infrastructure. T</span><span lang="EN-US">hey
assaulted British military and police installations,
government offices, and ships, often with bombs. They
also sabotaged railways, bridges, and oil
installations. Dozens of economic targets were
attacked, including 20 trains that were damaged or
derailed, and five train stations. Numerous attacks
were carried out against the oil industry including
one, in March 1947, on a Shell oil refinery in Haifa
which destroyed some 16,000 tonnes of petroleum.</span> </p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Zionist terrorists killed British
soldiers throughout Palestine, using booby traps,
ambushes, snipers, and vehicle blasts. </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">One attack, in particular, sums up
the terrorism of those who, without any force of
international law at the time, saw no limitation to
their efforts to "liberate" a land that they had,
largely, only recently emigrated to.</span> </p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">In 1947, the Irgun kidnapped two </span><span>British
Army Intelligence Corps non-commissioned officers</span><span
lang="EN-US"> and threathened to hang them if death
sentences of three of their own members were carried
out. When these three Irgun members were executed by
hanging, the two British sergeants were hanged in
retaliation and their </span><span>booby-trapped </span><span
lang="EN-US">bodies were left in an eucalyptus grove. </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">In announcing their execution, the
Irgun said that the two British soldiers were hanged
following their conviction for "criminal anti-Hebrew
activities" which included: illegal entry into the
Hebrew homeland and membership in a British criminal
terrorist organisation - known as the Army of
Occupation - which was "responsible for the torture,
murder, deportation, and denying the Hebrew people the
right to live". The soldiers were also charged with
illegal possession of arms, anti-Jewish spying in
civilian clothes, and premeditated hostile designs
against the underground (<a
href="http://users.ox.ac.uk/%7Emetheses/Bagon.pdf"
target="_blank">pdf</a>).</span> </p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Well beyond the territorial confines
of Palestine, in late 1946-47 a continuing campaign of
terrorism was directed at the British. Acts of
sabotage were carried out on British military
transportation routes in <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/country/germany.html"
target="_self">Germany</a>. The Lehi also tried,
unsuccessfully, to </span><span>drop a bomb on the
House of Commons</span><span lang="EN-US"> from a
chartered plane flown from <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/country/france.html"
target="_self">France</a> and, in October 1946, </span><span>bombed
the British Embassy in Rome</span><span lang="EN-US">.
A number of other explosive devices were detonated in
and around strategic targets in London.</span><span
lang="EN-US"> Some 21 letter bombs were addressed, at
various times, to senior British political figures.
Many were intercepted, while others reached their
targets but were discovered before they could go off. </span></p>
<h2><strong><span lang="EN-US">The steep price of
self-determination</span></strong></h2>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Self-determination is a difficult,
costly march for the occupied. In Palestine, no matter
what the weapon of choice - whether voice, pen or gun
- there is a steep price to be paid for its use.</span> </p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Today, "speaking truth to power" has
become very much a popular mantra of resistance in </span><span>neoliberal</span><span
lang="EN-US"> circles and societies. In Palestine,
however, for the occupied and oppressed, it is an
all-but-certain path to prison or death. Yet, for
generations of Palestinians stripped of the very
breath that resonates with the feeling of freedom,
history teaches there is simply no other choice.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Silence is surrender. To be silent
is to betray all those who have come before and all
those yet to follow.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">For those who have never felt the
constant yoke of oppression, or seen it up close, it
is a vision beyond comprehension. Occupation sits
heavy on the occupied, every day in every way,
limiting who you are and what you may dare to become.</span> </p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">The constant rub of barricades,
guns, orders, prison and death are fellow travellers
for the occupied, whether infants, teens in the spring
of life, the elderly, or those trapped by the
artificial confines of borders over which they have no
control.</span></p>
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<p><b><i>The three young men, cousins, who
willingly sacrificed their lives in the
attack on the two Israeli officers in
Jerusalem, did so not as an empty gesture
born of desperation, but rather a personal
statement of national pride that follows a
long line of others who well understood
that the price of freedom can, at times,
mean all.</i></b></p>
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<p><span lang="EN-US">To the families of the two </span><span>Israeli
Druze</span><span lang="EN-US"> policemen who lost
their lives while trying to control a place that was
not theirs to command, I extend my condolences. These
young men were, however, not lost to the ring of
resistance, but willingly sacrificed by an evil
occupation that bears no legitimacy whatsoever.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Ultimately, if there is grieving to
be done, it must be for the 11 million occupied,
whether in Palestine or outside, as so much stateless
refugees, stripped of a meaningful voice and
opportunity, as the world makes excuses built largely
of a political and economic gift box that bears the
Star of David. </span></p>
<p>Not a day goes by now without the chilling wail of a
nation watching over a Palestinian infant wrapped in a
burial shroud, stripped of life because electricity or
transit have become a perverse privilege which holds
millions hostage to the political whims of the few. Be
they Israeli, Egyptian or those who claim to carry the
mantle of Palestinian political leadership, the
responsibility of infanticide in Gaza is theirs and
theirs alone.</p>
<h2><span>'If there is no struggle, there is no progress'</span></h2>
<p><span lang="EN-US">The three young men, cousins, who
willingly sacrificed their lives in the attack on the
two Israeli officers in Jerusalem, did so not as an
empty gesture born of desperation, but rather a
personal statement of national pride that follows a
long line of others who well understood that the price
of freedom can, at times, mean all.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">For 70 years, not a day has passed
without the loss of young Palestinian women and men
who, tragically, found greater dignity and freedom in
martyrdom than they did in obedient, passive living
controlled by those who dared to dictate the
parameters of their lives.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Millions of us worldwide dream of a
better time and place for Palestinians ... free to
spread their wings, to soar, to discover who they are
and what they wish to become. Until then, I mourn not
for the loss of those who stop their flight. Instead,
I applaud those who dare to struggle, dare to win - by
any means necessary.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">There is no magic to resistance and
struggle. They transcend time and place and derive
their very meaning and ardour in the natural
inclination, indeed, drive, of us all to be free - to
be free to determine the role of our own lives.</span> </p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">In Palestine, no such freedom
exists. In Palestine, international law recognises the
fundamental rights to self-determination, freedom and
independence for the occupied. In Palestine, that
includes the right to armed struggle, if necessary.</span> </p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Long ago, the famed abolitionist </span><span>Frederick
Douglass</span><span lang="EN-US">, himself a former
slave, wrote of struggle. These words resonate no less
so today, in Palestine, than they did some one 150
years ago in the heart of the </span><span>Antebellum
South</span><span lang="EN-US"> in the </span>United
States:</p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">"If there is no struggle, there is
no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and
yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops
without plowing up the ground. They want rain without
thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the
awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a
moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be
both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle.
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did
and it never will."</span></p>
<p><em><strong>Stanley L Cohen is a lawyer and human
rights activist who has done extensive work in the
Middle East and Africa.</strong></em></p>
<p><span><span><strong><em>The views expressed in this
article are the author's own and do not
necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial
policy.</em></strong></span></span></p>
<span id="article-topics"><a
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