Alternative Jewish Voices (NZ)
Hamas has responded to Israel’s escalating violence with an unprecedented attack. This is not a new tragedy; it is an extension of the same old cycle. We grieve all the losses of this calamity, and we call on our government not to speak the same old words but to finally act.
To call today’s act ‘unprovoked’ is wilful blindness. Choose your timeframe; choose your provocation. Israel is carrying out the longest, now-illegal, now-apartheid occupation in modern history. Gaza has been illegally blockaded for 17 years, confining more than two million mostly civilian human beings in deteriorating conditions, subjecting them to repeated bombardments and ceaseless deprivation. More than 200 Palestinians have been killed in 2023 so far, including four the other day. The latest of Israel’s settler-state pogroms in the West Bank took place in Huwara one day before Hamas’s action.
Hamas’s attack is a response to longterm and escalating, immediate violence.
The blockade wall that was breached is an illegal structure. A million children have been born behind that wall; did you expect them to sit quietly? That wall deserves to fall – but we, here in Aotearoa and throughout the world, should have brought it down with diplomatic and economic and legal sanctions long before it came to this.
Now Hamas’s violent resistance has broken through the wall.
Palestinians have a legal right to armed resistance, but no one has a right to unlimited violence. There is no honour in attacking civilians in their homes or bombing Gazan apartment buildings. It is a core principle of international humanitarian law that the violations of one armed group do not release another armed group from its constant obligation to uphold the rights of civilians. Armed groups are responsible to the law, to the idea of minimising the harm done in this world.
We who demand the protection of Palestinian civilians can best do that by calling for the protection of all civilians: human rights are either everyone’s rights or they are nothing. If we lose sight of that, the world becomes even more dangerous – and Palestinians have always borne the brunt of that danger.
There is no military solution. Solutions call for political will here, outside Israel / Palestine. The rage and despair accumulated through generations and decades of brutality will not reset. Do not call for the return to the status quo ante because it was intolerable, unjust and illegal.
We, here, need to act on the basis of law and the equal rights of human beings to protection, to justice, to self-determination. We call on our government to initiate, to pick up the phone and lead in mustering international action.
For anyone to be safe, Palestinians must be free and civilians must be protected.
Welcome, well considered comment.
Justifying the murder of civilians and children. Disgusting
Well the Israeli’s do it every single day.
I dont blame the Palestinians one bit.
In my opinion it is time the General public in Israel got a taste of Their own medicine.
After all THEY VOTED FOR THE CURRENT FAR RIGHT GOVT that is committing apartheid and Genocide on a daily basis.
Also sniping kids on a daily basis just for kicks.
Where? In calling out Israels’ indiscriminate killings they alluded to Hamas’ “violations”. I see no justifying in that.
All that’s being justified here is armed resistance.
Which ones, the 78 Children Murdered by the IDF in Gaza over the last 24 hours? You mean those ones.
I’ll lock you in the toilet of you’re own home and see how you feel after 50 years of listening to us partying in the lounge.
You could do a lot of humanitarian good by exchanging places with the hostages held by Hamas. In addition to saving their lives you could make these arguments directly to the Hamas folks themselves.
I’m sure they’d listen and if not then you could still join them in their righteous fight against Israel.
Are you so slow that you still don’t understand that it is the illegal occupation of Palestine land by Israel that is the cause of the problem? No amount of negotiation with Hamas will solve the problem of Israel taking their country & subjecting them to slavery. Israel has declared war after this crime by Hamas yet neglects to mention that they have been at war with Palestine for about 75 years. War will only bring more war till one or both sides are destroyed so showing a bit of forgiveness & love is the obvious answer to a permanent solution. Think about it instead of being your enemy they are your friend & instead of division, you have the combined resources of both nations to solve other challenges that will come their way with an unstable world. For this to happen you need to consider other humans as having equal rights as ourselves (as the article says) but as we all know certain people feel that they are better than others. You only need to look at the French Revolution for the inevitable result of that because it is inevitable that the downtrodden will outnumber those who love themself.
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