People under occupation have the right to resist their occupiers by any means necessary

Empowering Weak & Oppressed

Iqbal Jassat

Jumada' al-Ula' 10, 1445 2023-11-24

Daily News Analysis

by Iqbal Jassat

Resistance or armed struggle by guerrilla movements engaged in asymmetrical combat against rogue regimes have historically been known to capture enemy soldiers as bargaining chips to leverage military advantage.

The context of Hamas's daring October 7 operation, which Israel’s ultra-right-wing regime has used as a pretext to launch a relentless bombardment by land, sea and air of Gaza’s besieged civilian population, is crucial to understand.

* Gaza is not an independent state.

* It is an open-air concentration camp for Palestinian refugees under Israeli military occupation.

* It is under a cruel military blockade sealed off from the outside world.

* It does not possess an army, fighter jets or helicopters and tanks.

* It does not even have an airport or a naval sea port.

So, to glibly proclaim Israel’s slaughter of thousands as a war with Hamas or even a “War on Gaza” as some media outlets and commentators do, is complete misrepresentation.

It falsely implies that the war is between two equal states, whereas the reality is that Gaza is a "bantustan" enclave forming part of occupied Palestinian territory.

In addition, an important component of the occupying power’s responsibility under international law towards Gaza’s 2.3 million population is shockingly absent in public discourse.

The occupying power must ensure humane treatment of the population and provide for their basic needs, including food and medical care.

Sadly, as pointed out by Prof Abdelwahab El-Affendi in a recent column in Al Jazeera, yesterday’s proponents of the ‘responsibility to protect’ doctrine are today’s biggest supporters of Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza.

The bottom line is that Israel has been occupying the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, which collectively constitute the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), since 1967.

Contrary to what the zionist regime claims, Israel’s withdrawal of its ground forces did not end its occupation of Gaza.

Yet another element of confusion deliberately generated by Israel is with regard to the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

The impression that Cairo has full sovereignty over it is misplaced.

The reality is that Israel monitors all activities at the crossing from its Kerem Shalom military base.

It decides when Egypt can open it, for how long and who and what is allowed to enter or exit Gaza.

It makes a mockery of Egypt’s ability to exercise its will if the Israeli occupation forces supervise the passenger lists—deciding who can cross—and monitor the operations and can withhold the “consent and cooperation” required to keep the crossing open.

Against this background it makes perfect sense for Hamas, as an indigenous liberation movement to not only undertake creative means to break the crippling siege, but also to resist the occupiers’ incremental genocide.

Palestine’s #Resistance thus is able to ensure that it holds the moral high ground by having offered release of civilians held as “guests”—a few weeks back—but was rejected by an intransigent Israeli war cabinet backed by the US.

Now that a “deal” has been struck, much against Netanyahu’s goals of eliminating Hamas, it is important to note that many in the world especially among media are now compelled to focus on the fact that there are Palestinian prisoners illegally held by Israel.

They are due for release in the prisoner exchange.

They have names and identities worthy of mention—not the anonymous profiles preferred by the jailer branding them as “terrorists”.

Young children and females form part of the 150 Palestinians to be released that have been incarcerated without trial.

This is in total disregard of due process and held in torturous conditions for decades on end.

Thanks to the #Resistance, they will finally be free and indeed many more thousands who are imprisoned in Israel for simply asserting their rights, deserve freedom.

In many ways, the exchange symbolises for Palestinians a breakthrough to finally attain freedom from the clutches of an unyielding oppressive occupation.

The occupiers fail to learn lessons from South Africa: Apartheid, racism, military occupation, denial of human rights are unsustainable and doomed to fail—with or without western backing.

Iqbal Jassat is Executive Member at the Media Review Network in Johannesburg, South Africa