Alwaght- The question of right or wrong when it comes to attacks in occupied Palestine do not belong to universal codes of morality. Generally speaking, carrying out stabbing and ramming attacks are considered to be not only immoral but also inhumane.
However, in occupied Palestine, there is an undeclared state of war, with the occupying Israeli regime being the primary attacker. Therefore, any act of retaliation by Palestinians is a de facto act of self-defence, wherever and whenever it may take place. This logic derives from the resistance doctrine that Palestinians have adopted throughout years of illegal occupation.
The recent stabbing and ramming attacks in al-Quds (Jerusalem) are not a product of hatred or “anti-Semitism” which is so frequently propagated in Western and Israeli media. They are in fact the making of the Israeli occupation on various levels.
Fadi Qanbar, the Palestinian who rammed a truck into a group of Israeli soldiers on the streets of al-Quds, had not woken up that day on a whim and decided to kill for no palpable reason. Neither did other Palestinians who have previously carried out ramming or stabbing attacks against Israelis. Instead, their stories are those of Palestinians who decided to avenge their nation’s suffering by resisting the occupation. If anything, this is the epitome of selfless morality.
Stolen Land
In 1948, against the backdrop of the expiry of the British mandate and increasing Jewish immigration into Palestine, Zionists declared the so-called “State of Israel.” Zionists massacred Palestinians and drove them from their lands by force, leading them into mass exodus. These series of events became known as the “Nakba”, which marks the catastrophe that imposed an occupying regime on the Palestinian people.
In 1967, Israeli occupation forces invaded yet unappropriated Palestinian territories, occupying the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. This was the “Naksa”. While the West Bank remains largely occupied, Gaza has been under a nine-year blockade and was destroyed multiple times in recent years.
It is important to distinguish between the two because it establishes the fact that even land that is recognized as legally Israeli (the result of the Nakba) by the international community is the primary issue at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It signifies that the Israeli regime should not have been founded on Palestinian land from the start.
Furthermore, the continuation of illegal annexation and appropriation of land, particularly in the form of illegal settlement construction in the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem), demonstrates the extent to which Palestinians’ rights have and continue to be violated.
So, not only have the Israelis occupied Palestine one time, but they also continue and plan to continue doing so until they have occupied the last remaining inch of this holy land.
Bloodshed and Subjugation
However, it is not only a matter of stopping the Israelis from taking their land. It is also a matter of survival.
Many observers speculate that one of the aspirations of Tel Aviv is to annihilate the Palestinian people. These observations are based on Israeli policies.
It is enough to look at the casualties of Israeli aggressions against Gaza. The high number of victims, particularly civilians, shows that the Israeli regime is not concerned with international laws and human rights in its confrontations with Palestinians.
For example, more than 2000 people were killed during the 2014 war on Gaza, including women and children. The lives of these victims could have been spared if the Israeli Occupation Force had not targeted residential areas, hospitals, and schools.
Furthermore, life for Palestinians under the occupation is unbearable even on an everyday basis.
The Zionist regime’s no-mercy policy forces Palestinians to live under suppression. For instance, checkpoints and humiliating body searches impinge upon Palestinians’ freedom as do restrictions on freedom of movement.
The constant violation of sanctities such as the storming of the holy al-Aqsa mosque, the bill to mute the Adhan, and the desecration of mosques by settlers add to the Palestinians’ suffering.
The demolition of homes is another way by which the Israelis violate Palestinians’ rights. A 2016 report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, listed the casualties and injuries among Palestinians as well as a 25% increase in building demolitions compared to the previous year. In August the number of destroyed buildings belonging to Palestinians had reached 684. The reasons behind these demolitions are largely political and sometimes pertain to the settlement expansion policy.
International Inaction
The plight of Palestinians has been largely neglected. Palestinians have taken their case to international platforms but in the shadow of biased Zionist-lobbied media they have not been heeded.
International inaction toward the Palestinian cause has failed the Palestinians’ hopes for liberation.
Although world leaders are aware of the Zionist regime’s persecution of Palestinians, they have failed them again and again, favouring their own interests and agendas over the rights of an entire nation.
Mainstream media, for its part, has had an overwhelming effect on mass conceptions of the Palestinian struggle through its biased approaches.
The latest incident in al-Quds is one such an example where a Palestinian rammed a truck into a group of Israeli military-- who are responsible for the wounds of his people and the continuing killings and theft against them-- has been portrayed as a murderer. Meanwhile, the media was quick to present the casualties as innocent pedestrians who were unjustly killed. Ignoring the larger picture, which is the ongoing occupation of Palestine and its people by the Israeli regime, is a means by which mainstream media outlets suppress the Palestinian voice.
For this reason and many more, Palestinians, mostly youths vibrant with audacity and ideologies of resistance, find themselves obliged to carry out high-risk operations. Neither homicidal nor suicidal, these operations are acts of resistance carried out by Palestinians who are willing to sacrifice their own existences so that an entire people would not give up on its cause. This proves one thing: that there is no small act of resistance because each one counts.
