"The rockets fired by Palestinian factions from Gaza must be construed as acts of resistance of an occupied people and an assertion of its recognized right to self-determination."
(Professor em. John Dugan, University of Leiden)
Putting the Facts straight You need to read this great article by Mehdi Hasan in the Huffington Post “debunking Israel’s 11 main myths about Gaza, Hamas and war crimes”. It is worthy to note that he only uses mainstream media and even Israeli media to refute Israel's official lies. As always, Hasan presents “fact-filled” and “evidence-based” rebuttals to the lies of various Israeli spokespersons. Why the Gaza Strip is occupied by Israel (see also muslim lawyer’s analysis on this issue), why Israel is the sole aggressor and eager not to end hostilities, on the fact that Israel does deliberately target civilians and not Hamas, on who is really guilty of war crimes and using civilians as “human shields” and, most importantly, on the fact that Hamas did not start firing rockets into Israel and that in fact it was Israel who started the current conflict. The only thing missing in Hasan’s latest masterpiece is Israel’s myth about its right to self-defence. But that’s no problem. This propaganda is being exposed by muslim lawyer and various international law scholars. | The fairy tale of Israel's self-defence Another International Law Scholar debunking Israel's self-defence argument While the media and Israel's western allies still manipulate people on the truth about the right to self-defence, more and more international law experts contravene the official line. John Dugan, emeritus professor of international law at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands and former U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory says that the present operation in Gaza "must not be seen as an act of self-defense by a state subjected to acts of aggression by a foreign state or nonstate actor. Instead, it should be seen as the action of an occupying power aimed at maintaining its occupation — the illegal occupation of Gaza. Israel is not the victim. It is the occupying power that is using force to maintain its illegal occupation." The fact that western governments so openly support Israel's flagrant violations of fundamental international law principles in Gaza, makes it plain to the world that they are in fact complicit in war crimes. |