‘An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind’

THE EDITOR, Madam:

“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” – Mahatma Gandhi.

This quote, meaning retribution is not a solution but perpetuates a cycle of violence, is relevant to the conflict in Palestine and Israel’s actions of ‘self-defence’.

Over 13,300 Palestinians (mostly women and children) have died, there has been bombing of civilian infrastructure, the cutting off of food, medicines and electricity, and forced massed displacement of civilians – collective punishment practised under the guise of self-defence. The UN Human Rights chief said that Israel is committing war crimes.

Any doubt that Israel’s actions are retribution and collective punishment is erased by Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant stating: “If Hezbollah makes this mistake, the ones who will pay the price will be Lebanese citizens ... What we’re doing in Gaza, we can also do in Beirut.”

Article 51 of the UN Charter recognises the right of a state to self-defence. However, jurisprudence and scholarship both affirm that as an occupying power, Israel has no such right. In 2004, the International Court of Justice in Legal Consequences on the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, ruled that Article 51 is irrelevant in circumstances of an occupation.Government, blind to the fact that Israel has no legal right to self-defence.

Living under a system of settler-colonialism, brutal occupation and apartheid, do Palestinians have rights?

International law grants Palestinians the right to resist the occupation and apartheid system and fight for self-determination, including by armed resistance.

Patrick Gathara, in The New Humanitarian, wrote: The idea that imperial land grabbers have the right to terrorise, brutalise, torture and murder those whose land they steal under the rubric of ‘self-defence’ flies in the face of UNGA Resolution 37/43 …. which recognised ‘the right to resist occupation by all available means, including armed struggle’. This is specifically reaffirmed in the case of the Palestinians.

Armed struggle against a colonial master is a recognised right under the Geneva Convention, which embraces wars of national liberation. UNGA Resolution 3314 grants the right “to self-determination, freedom, independence […] of peoples under colonial, racist regimes ….”, giving the occupied the rights to “struggle and receive support”.

The Israeli policy of an eye for an eye blinds the world to the fact that Palestinians have a legal right to resist the occupation by way of armed struggle. Incorrectly, the narrative is Palestinian ‘terrorism’, not their human rights.

Until the powers that be open their eyes to and apply the legal positions, violence will continue. The recognition of each party’s rights is a necessary precondition to negotiations for final peace. Until then, an eye for an eye will keep the world blind.

JALIL DABDOUB