The Right to Self-Defense

Author: Issam Bakr

While large segments of public opinion were preoccupied with the rapid developments in the occupied Palestinian territories, the occupation's media machine worked to portray what happened in a way completely contrary to reality, promoting as always the inversion of truths and showing matters in the opposite of their course. The events that occurred in the Beit Furik plain east of Nablus and what followed in Tal southwest were treated as a qualitative development differing in form and content from other similar incidents that occurred recently in Deir Jarir, Singel, Al-Mughayer, and others over the past weeks. However, the question that no one in the "affected" circles, whose emotions were stirred by the killing of settlers, posed before examining the narrative is: What was the officer in the settlers' army, Captain Benyahu Melit, and his comrade Corporal Yuval Ezra doing in Tal between people's homes and among unarmed civilians?! Dozens of armed settlers, some in the official uniform of the occupation army, were not only close to citizens' homes but were at zero distance from them; they were in truth among the houses and "posed a danger" to the lives of the people who rushed to defend their town.

The world watched circulating clips clearly showing the documented attack, but no one in this world, with very limited exceptions, held the organized settler militias responsible, which are backed by a fully armed, trained, and funded state. The scenes of the occupation army entering the village to provide cover, as usual, for such attacks were clear; not only did it not try to intervene to prevent the massacre, but it was the "army" that began to brutally assault the residents who were terrified for their children, their property, and their land. Moreover, apart from the question of what they were doing in the village on a Friday, a legal official holiday, another important question arises regarding the activation of the principle of the right to self-defense guaranteed by international law when homes, crops, and livestock are under attack! Isn’t it a guaranteed right under international law?

And from here, given the circumstances, why this uproar to depict the settler killer as the victim and the rightful land owner! Why aren’t things called by their names? Did Farouk Ramadan go and assault a settler? Even though the latter is occupying the land and trampling upon all international norms daily, the deceased is well known; he builds outposts, and according to the occupation's acknowledgment, he is one of the security officers of the settlement "outpost" recently established. Just like all settlements, it is illegal and considered a war crime that must be removed by the power of international legitimacy and United Nations resolutions.

So why this screeching and turning towards a natural act of any person subjected to humiliation and assault as a fundamental right to defend himself, his family, and his homeland instead of directing attention to the campaigns launched daily by settler militias in the Palestinian territories as part of a destructive agenda they spread in our land from Jenin in the north to Massafer Yatta in the south? And in the ongoing massacre in the Gaza Strip, why isn't there a question about the number of victims caused by settler assaults, more than 50 martyrs have risen to their bullets since the beginning of the year, while they are supported by all circles, including their "minister" who incites for transfer and ethnic cleansing without being prosecuted.

What happened in the past few days is a small part of a frenzied campaign coinciding with the elections being prepared for at the end of the year. It extends to what is happening in almost daily executions and widespread incursions, protected by the occupation army, into dozens of villages and towns. What happened in Tal and in the Beit Furik plain falls within the realm of the right to self-defense and has no other name. The victim has the right to scream while receiving repeated blows from an unjust executioner without justification, disconnected from humanity. Burning fields and crops, setting fire to farmers' means of livelihood, stealing livestock, and the daily rampage in the heart of villages and towns simultaneously ignites a fire that the Palestinian does not burn alone, "and the circle turns on the oppressor."

There is a vast difference between the landowner and the intruder who steals the land, and what occurred in extensive assaults following the killing of the settler soldiers who raided Tal and Beit Furik is, in fact, a prevention of a bloody massacre that was planned to take place if it weren’t for the "vigil" of the locals and their awakening. These assaults establish another situation where settler terrorism is expected to escalate in the coming weeks under direct incitement from Ben Gvir and Smotrich. The deployment of brigades and companies to the West Bank portends further aggressive acts against the villages and towns under the pretext of security or combating "terrorism." The real terrorism dwells in minds nourished by hatred, and one who lives in a house that does not belong to him, on land that is not his, knows well that it is stolen, appropriated, and his fear will track him at every step within it. The killer always looks behind him and will not live in peace and security no matter how much he tries to kill and destroy - he has no choice but to leave. He understands this truth that his presence is not long; it is temporary and unnatural, his face does not resemble the land, and his language is not the language of the land. The details of his day do not live in association with that land; his heritage, his life, and his traditions, walking in it – he knows he will not remain here for long, unlike the Palestinian who knows its details and its language and heritage. This is the essence of what the occupation does in its attempts to prolong its temporary presence there. With this situation from a Palestinian perspective, concrete steps are required in light of these developments, away from the slogan of supporting steadfastness, leading to effective measures to protect existence. The guard committees and popular protection in villages and towns must be vigilant of sudden attacks and widen the assault process not only in Tal and Beit Furik, Deir Jarir, Al-Mughayer, Abu Flah, and dozens of villages but also extend horizontally on a wide scale to encompass all the Palestinian countryside, which has long experience in resisting the occupation to prove once again to these strangers that the land has only one language, and as long as the Palestinian remains over it, there is no shadow other than him; he is the rightful owner of the house, and he will remain while all else fades away.

Today, there must be a serious international will to curb what the occupation state is planning for the coming period, not least protecting the Palestinian people, and establishing a comprehensive international plan to address what the occupation state is doing in the occupied territories. Saving the villages and towns is an obligation of the United Nations and its institutions. Anyone waiting for the Palestinian to leave must wait long; there will be no departure again – we either live here, or we die here with dignity too.