Palestinian have the right to resist and if you disagree, you're a coloniser
SHAH ALAM - Palestinians have a right to resist – in every way possible, they have the right to respond in any way they choose to the violence that the Israel government metes out to them everyday.
In a two-minute reel on Instagram posted by American-Palestinian advocate and influencer Subhi @sbeih.jpg, listed key points on why Palestinians have the right to resist, stating that if anyone disagreed, one is subscribing to the mindset of a coloniser.
"The main point I would like to communicate, and I've said it before and I will say it again, Palestinians have the right to resist, whether today tomorrow or the day after the occupation began decades ago... Palestinians have the right to resist that is a fact, it is a non-negotiable and if you disagree you are a coloniser.
"This not the time for people to sit around and disagree and say that they have the right to resist "but".... Palestinians have been living under Israeli occupation for 75 years now, this year alone more than 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israel, thousands of Palestinians have wrongfully been imprisoned by Israel," he said in the clip.
Subhi went on to say that everyday Israel continues to demolish Palestinian homes, steal Palestinian land, steal Palestinian water, destroy Palestinian agriculture, and restrict the movement of Palestinians through checkpoints and the Palestinian identification system, which prevents millions of Palestinians outside of Palestine to return to their homes.
"This is not even mentioning the amount of Palestinian blood that has been shed since 1948 up until now, and the list goes on.
"The Israeli government has clearly stated time and time again that their objective is to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from that land, so when Palestinians finally have the opportunity to come together and resist, they have the right to do so.You literally cannot look at what is happening right now and exclude context, background and the history
"You cannot look at this and say Palestinians are the ones who started this this, so Israel has the right to defend themselves, that Palestinians should resist but not like this, and if you think that way and I am being dead serious when I am saying this - you are a coloniser or you have a coloniser mindset,' he said
Subhi said Palestinians would not need to resist if they were nobody to resist.
Resisting was a reaction to an initial action and that initial action being the Israeli occupation of Palestine, he said, adding that now Palestinians are resisting the occupation - "take out the occupation, there would be no resistance".
"When where and how they resist is not up to you, its not your place until you live the life of a Palestinian you have no right to speak. Palestine has the right to resist." he said.
Under international law, he said Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories is illegal, and Palestinians have a right to “armed struggle” against their illegal occupier – Israel - thus ipso facto (by the fact itself) Palestinians have a right to defend themselves against Israel, but Israel's right to defend itself against Palestinian resistance is not guaranteed in the same manner.
He added that this reality should be chanted far and loud for it undercuts every Israeli attempt to couch its violence against the Palestinian people in claims of self-defense.
In a report, Lynda Burstein Brayer an Israeli-trained human rights lawyer, affirms the legal and moral right Palestinians have to armed struggle against Israel’s occupation, noting
“This document [UN resolution 37/43] legitimises all national liberation struggles, including, at this time in history, most particularly, the Palestinian people’s struggle for its own freedom. It is this right which legitimises all Palestinian attempts to lift the yoke of Israeli oppression from Palestine, including all the actions taken by the Palestinians during Operation Cast Lead [Israel’s 2008/09 siege of Gaza].” she was reported as saying.
