The Palestinians have the right to resist!

On 21 August 2001, Larry Derfner, a senior Jerusalem Post journalist, wrote this the newspaper’s blog:

“I think a lot of people who realize that THE OCCUPATION IS WRONG also realize that THE PALESTINIANS HAVE THE RIGHT TO RESIST IT, TO USE VIOLENCE AGAINST ISRAELIS, EVEN TO KILL ISRAELIS, ESPECIALLY WHEN ISRAEL IS SHOWING ZERO WILLINGNESS TO END THE OCCUPATION, which has been the case since the Netanyahu government took over.

But people don’t want to say this, especially right after a terror attack like this last one that killed eight Israelis near Eilat… But I think it’s time to overcome this reticence, even at the cost of enflaming the already enflamed sensitivities of the Israeli public, because this unwillingness to say outright that PALESTINIANS HAVE THE RIGHT TO FIGHT THE OCCUPATION, especially now, inadvertently helps keep the occupation going.

When we say that THE OCCUPATION IS A TERRIBLE INJUSTICE TO THE PALESTINIANS, but then say that Palestinian terror/resistance is a terrible injustice to Israel, we’re saying something that’s patently illogical to anyone but a pacifist, and there aren’t many pacifists left, certainly not in Israel. The logical, non-pacifist mind concludes that both of those statements can’t be true – that if A is hurting B and won't stop, then B damn sure has the right to try TO MAKE HIM STOP.

But if everybody, not only the Right but the Left, too, is saying that B, the Palestinians, don’t have the right to hurt A, the Israelis, then the logical mind concludes that Israel must not be hurting the Palestinians after all... So when they shoot at us or fire rockets at us, it’s completely unprovoked, which gives us the right, the duty, to bash them and bash them until they stop and anybody who tries to deny us that right doesn’t have a leg to stand on, so WE’RE JUST GOING TO KEEP RIGHT ON BASHING THEM. And when the Palestinians complain about the occupation, we Israelis can honestly say we don’t know what they’re talking about...

But if, on the other hand, we were to say very forthrightly what many of us believe and the rest of us suspect, that THE PALESTINIANS, LIKE EVERY NATION LIVING UNDER HOSTILE RULE, HAVE THE RIGHT TO FIGHT BACK, THAT THEIR TERRORISM, ESPECIALLY IN THE FACE OF A REJECTIONIST ISRAELI GOVERNMENT, IS JUSTIFIED, what effect would that have?…

If those who oppose the occupation acknowledged publicly that it justifies Palestinian terrorism, then those who support the occupation would have to explain why it doesn’t. And that’s not easy for a nation that sanctifies the right to self-defense; A NATION THAT ELECTED IRGUN LEADER MENACHEM BEGIN AND LEHI LEADER YITZHAK SHAMIR AS PRIME MINISTER.

But WHILE I THINK THE PALESTINIANS HAVE THE RIGHT TO USE TERRORISM AGAINST US, I don’t want them to use it, I don’t want to see Israelis killed, and as an Israeli, I would do whatever was necessary to stop a Palestinian, oppressed or not, from killing one of my countrymen…

What’s needed very badly, however, is for ISRAELIS TO REALIZE THAT THE OCCUPATION IS HURTING THE PALESTINIANS TERRIBLY, THAT IT’S DRIVING THEM TO TRY TO KILL US, THAT WE ARE COMPELLING THEM TO ENGAGE IN TERRORISM, THAT THE BLOOD OF ISRAELI VICTIMS IS ULTIMATELY ON OUR HANDS, AND THAT IT’S UP TO US TO STOP PROVOKING OUR OWN PEOPLE’S MURDER BY ENDING THE OCCUPATION. AND SO LONG AS WE WHO OPPOSE THE OCCUPATION KEEP PRETENDING THAT THE PALESTINIANS DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT TO RESIST IT, WE TACITLY ENCOURAGE ISRAELIS TO GO ON BLINDLY KILLING AND DYING IN DEFENSE OF AN UNHOLY CAUSE.

And by tacitly encouraging Israelis in their blindness, I think we endanger their lives and ours, their country and ours…

The mental and moral paralysis in this country must be broken. Whoever the Palestinians were who killed the eight Israelis near Eilat last week, however vile their ideology was, THEY WERE JUSTIFIED TO ATTACK. THEY HAD THE SAME RIGHT TO FIGHT FOR THEIR FREEDOM AS ANY OTHER UNFREE NATION IN HISTORY EVER HAD. AND JUST LIKE EVERY HARSH, UNJUST GOVERNMENT IN HISTORY BEARS THE BLAME FOR THE DEATHS OF ITS OWN PEOPLE AT THE HANDS OF REBELS, SO ISRAEL, WHICH RULES THE PALESTINIANS HARSHLY AND UNJUSTLY, IS TO BLAME FOR THOSE EIGHT ISRAELI DEATHS – AS WELL AS FOR EVERY OTHER ISRAELI DEATH THAT OCCURRED WHEN THIS COUNTRY WAS OFFERING THE PALESTINIANS NO OTHER WAY TO FREEDOM.”

Powerful stuff, Mr Derfner. And very bravely said. The moral majority congratulate you for daring to tell such off-limits truth.

Subsequent to this article being written, The Jerusalem Post sacked Larry Derfner.