Here’s the most popular and frequently used Israeli War Crimes Propaganda and Talking Points
1.) Israel has a right to defend itself against Hamas terrorist attacks.
If Italy or Spain attacked Israel, then Israel could exercise its right to defend itself from state attack.
But when a civilian population is under illegal occupation by a state actor such as Israel, that civilian population and its armed resistance groups enjoy a legal right to use ANY MEANS NECESSARY to evict the ILLEGAL OCCUPYING POWER ISRAEL.
The sweaty Bannon-like podcaster kept pounding his victim with one question: “Do you stand with Israel or do you stand with Hamas?”
His victim was at a loss for words, but he shouldn’t have been.
He should have told the Oddcaster, “You stand with your favorite war criminals while I stand with the law and justice. The only justice a perpetrator is entitled to is swift retributional force from his victim. Israel has been the perpetrator since Israel began illegally occupying Palestinian territories decades ago.
Palestinians have always been the victims of Israel’s occupation and war crimes and as such, Palestinians enjoy a legal right to use what the Geneva Conventions terms as, “…ANY MEANS NECESSARY” to defend Palestinians from Israeli occupation and war crimes. In fact it is a war crime for Israel to deny Palestinians access to military equipment and weaponry. It is a war crime for Israel to militarily blockade 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza and deny those imprisoned Palestinians free trade and military equipment. Israel has no right to operate an open air concentration camp for the past 56 years, much less another 56 minutes.”
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.
In accordance with international humanitarian law, wars of national liberation have been expressly embraced, through the adoption of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 (pdf), as a protected and essential right of occupied people everywhere.
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.
Indeed, as early as 1974, resolution 3314 of the UNGA prohibited states from “any military occupation, however temporary”.
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.
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.
This imprecision was to change on December 3, 1982. At that time UNGA resolution 37/43 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.”
Israel became a perpetrator of war crimes on June 5, 1967 when Israel invaded Gaza and the West Bank and began Israel’s 56 year long, ongoing illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories.
On June 8, 1967 Israeli forces captured and took prisoner approximately 1,000 Egyptian soldiers in the desert and mass murdered them all and buried them in the sand.
Ras Sedr massacre (in Hebrew: טבח ראס סודר) was an Israeli mass murder of dozens of Egyptian prisoners of war that took place immediately after a paratrooper unit of the Israel Defense Forces conquered Ras Sedr (also known as Ras Sudr) on 8 June 1967 during the Six-Day War.
Israeli commanders were worried the world would find out about their war crimes via American sailors onboard the USS LIBERTY, the most advanced spy ship in the world in 1967. The USS LIBERTY had been assigned to international waters off the coast of Egypt to eavesdrop on local military communications in the Six Day War.
Israeli commanders dispatched Israeli fighter jets and Israeli torpedo boats to sink the USS LIBERTY and sink any chance of the world finding out about Israel’s mass murders and mass graves of Egyptian soldiers.
Israel killed 34 U.S. NAVY sailors and wounded another 174 U.S. sailors.
Israeli fighter jets and torpedo boats attacked the USS LIBERTY for over three hours in the bright sun, USA flag waving in the gunfire. Israel blew a giant hole in the USS LIBERTY, nearly sinking the ship.
Israel is like every other state – a state that has a conditional legal right to defend itself from offensive attack. However, when a state actor invades and occupies a civilian population and their land, the invader is obligated to withdraw from the OCCUPIED and cannot use state military force against the civilian population and any of their armed resistance groups.
What about a civilian population under illegal occupation by a state actor?
A civilian population under illegal occupation by a state actor enjoys a legal right under the Geneva Conventions to use, “….ANY MEANS NECESSARY” to evict the ILLEGAL OCCUPYING POWER.
In other words, the Palestinians and their armed resistance groups have a legal right to use what the Geneva Conventions terms as, “….ANY MEANS NECESSARY” to force the ILLEGAL OCCUPYING POWER from Palestinian land.
Israel cannot lawfully and simultaneously occupy their victim’s land AND use military force against their victims. There’s not a “right way” for Israel to use military force against Israel’s victims under illegal Israeli occupation and blockades.
2.) Israel will be done after Netanyahu finishes “rooting out Hamas.”
Because Israel is illegally occupying the Palestinian territories, Israel has no legal authority to target and kill members of any Palestinian armed resistance group.
This is really important because Zionists love to characterize Hamas as terrorists, especially since the U.S. designated Hamas a “terrorist organization.”
The reason the NEW YORK TIMES and others have referred to Netanyahu’s claim of “rooting out Hamas” as a fallacy, an unattainable goal, is precisely due to the fact Hamas is reconstituted and rebuilt with the surviving family members whose mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and babies were killed by US-backed Israeli airstrikes a.k.a., “MOWING THE GRASS” every few years.
The more Palestinians Israel kills, the more Palestinians join Palestinian armed resistance groups, which is perfectly legal by the way. It’s Netanyahu’s SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY.
You know what’s not legal? An OCCUPYING POWER targeting and murdering members of an occupied civilian population and their armed resistance groups.
In other words, Netanyahu has no legal right to “root out hamburgers or french fries.”
Virtually the only lawful action an OCCUPYING POWER can take against THE OCCUPIED is to fully and completely withdraw from THE OCCUPIED.
Apparently CNN, MSNBC and FOXNEWS are incapable of explaining these pivotal facts to their audiences.
CNN/MSNBC/FOXNEWS quite intentionally casts Israel as the victim and any Palestinian armed resistance group as THE PERPETRATOR, which is 100% contrary to law and reality.
CNN/MSNBC/FOXNEWS doesn’t bother to inform their audiences that Israel’s illegal occupation is a war crime unto itself and does not authorize Israeli war criminals to execute additional war crimes against their victims, THE OCCUPIED.
3.) “FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA” IS A HAMAS CALL TO DRIVE ALL JEWS INTO THE SEA
This Likud Party slogan is one of the most misunderstood phrases ever. Israel’s rightwingnut Likud Party conjured up and used their slogan, “From the River to the Sea” to refer to Zionists’ burning desire to steal every bit of Palestinian land “From the River to the Sea.”
Palestinians grew weary of hearing Israelis chant “From the River to the Sea” and recast and redefined the phrase to mean ONE STATE FOR ALL, FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA. In other words, Palestinians want to live in peace and harmony with Jews IN ONE STATE under Palestinian control instead of Israeli control – the very same way Palestinians and Jews lived together for centuries on Palestinian land, under Palestinian rule.
4.) President Biden: “Hamas wants to dismantle Israel and drive all Jews into the sea.”
For years a Hamas charter included the phrase “drive Jews into the sea,” but in 2017 Hamas changed their policy seeking Palestinian statehood in Gaza and the West Bank. Then very recently THE GUARDIAN published a video of a Hamas press conference when they announced their call and support for a two-state solution by Israel complying with U.N. Resolution 242, withdrawing to Israel’s pre-1967 borders so Palestinians could form a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank.
In their own words:
The entire world, including the U.S. maintain the position that Israel must comply with U.N. Res. 242 or there never will be peace. Even Joe Biden supports a two-state solution, which would require Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territories.
In 2017 Hamas changed their old policy of “…driving Jews into the sea” to a policy seeking statehood for the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank only.
Hamas presents new charter accepting a Palestine based on 1967 borders
Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor – 01 May 2017
Hamas has unveiled a new political programme softening its stance on Israel by accepting the idea of a Palestinian state in territories occupied by Israel in the six-day war of 1967.
The new document states the Islamist movement it is not seeking war with the Jewish people – only with Zionism that drives the occupation of Palestine.
The new document also insists that Hamas is a not a revolutionary force that seeks to intervene in other countries, a commitment that is likely to be welcomed by other states such as Egypt.
The policy platform was announced by the head of the movement’s political bureau, Khaled Meshal, at a press conference in Doha. “Hamas advocates the liberation of all of Palestine but is ready to support the state on 1967 borders without recognising Israel or ceding any rights,” he said.
