“UNMISSABLE: Do Palestinians Have the Right to Resist? w/ Richard Falk”, Palestine Chronicle TV, The Floodgate Podcast, 27 maart 2025. Ricard Falk, vermaard rechtsgeleerde internationaal recht en voormalig VN special rapporteur voor Palestina, in gesprek met Ramzy Baroud en Romana Rubeo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWJn6LVNJh8). Fragmentaire transcriptie.

[32:20 ] Rubeo: And connecting to the complicity, you know, and the backing and the support that Israel receives: the Israeli government continues to frame its genocidal actions in Gaza as self-defense. How do you respond even technically to this narrative, especially in light of the overwhelming asymmetry of power between Israel and Palestine?


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[32:42] Well, the rationale of self-defense is one that even Israel and its supporters are not very comfortable with pushing very hard, because as a matter of law occupied Palestine is not a foreign state that one can invoke self-defense against. And you cannot consider the October 7th attack, which was an isolated incident, as justifying self-defense, which is supposed to only come into play in the event of an armed attack, which meant a sustained use of force and a challenge to the overall security of the state. […] Israel […] and its supporters have just used the self-defense rationale opportunistically. And their real rationale is that Hamas and the Palestinians generally are terrorists. And they’re outside any legal protection. As Netanyahu and Galant, the former Minister of Defense, made clear from their immediate reaction, that […] the Palestinian people are what they called «Human Animals» and should be treated as such. In other words they were outside the protective frame of law however interpreted. And the notion, I mean, it’s a ecologically regressive notion to say that animals should be treated…. I mean, if you treated animals this way it would also be a violation of a kind of morality toward living with nature rather than in some kind of aggressive exploitative destructive pattern of cruelty in relation to […] the non-human beings that we share the planet with So it’s multiply a regressive way of talking but it’s a revealing way at the same time.”
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[35:55] Ramzy Baroud: right and, you know, I kind of want to reverse this element of […] the right to self-defense that Israel applies, selectively of course, given the current genocide in Gaza and the failures of international […] or traditional diplomacy rather. Palestinians and their supporters are in a constant conversation about the most realistic and morally just path forward for the Palestinian people and for the Palestinian struggle, whether through armed resistance, alone, global solidarity, a different form of diplomacy or all the above. [36:36] Recently, and surprisingly to be frank, during the testimonies at the International Court of Justice, at The Hague that followed… that preceded a historic resolution by the ICJ regarding the illegality of Israeli occupation and all of that, [36:55] China or the Chinese ambassador to The Hague made an interesting statement in which he defended the right of Palestinians to use arms against their occupiers and says this is consistent with international law. [Zie EINDNOOT 1] What’s your take on the subject?
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[37:16] Richard Falk: Yes, I think that’s a correct understanding of international law, that the West by and large doesn’t want to hear about. But the right of resistance was affirmed in the decolonization process in the 1980s and 90s. [ZIE EINDNOOT 2] And the right of resistance included the right of armed resistance. It did subject that resistance to compliance with […] the international law of war, so to the extent there is real evidence of atrocities accompanying the October 7th attack, those would be violations but not the attack itself, which is something that seems in the context to be entirely justified, justifiable and overdue. And one of the western / Israeli tactics has been to almost succeed with decontextualizing October 7th, so it would be seen as coming out of the blue. And the UN Secretary General for even raising the most obvious point that there had been a long prehistory of abuse of the Palestinian people was defamed as anti-semite and all kinds of things. So […] the weaponization of anti-Semitism as an effort to insulate Israel and its supporters from criticism has had quite an strong intimidating effect on opposing these policies by people who in […] the security of their homes and with their friends will denounce what Israel is doing, but are afraid of taking the personal consequences of manifesting that. And people within University frameworks are similarly under threat to their careers in various ways, particularly if their citizenship status is in any way problematic or their tenure is not fully secured.” [40:16]
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EINDNOOT 1
Zeldzame verwijzingen naar de verklaring van de Chinese vertegenwoordiger Ma Zhaoxu:
“China: Palestijnen hebben recht op gewapend verzet tegen Israël”, Marokko Nieuws, 22 februari 2024 (https://nieuws.marokko.nl/91484/china-palestijnen-hebben-recht-op-gewapend-verzet-tegen-israel/); “China tells ICJ: Palestinians have the right to use ‘armed force’ against Israel”, Middle East Eye, 22 februari 2024 (https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestinians-have-right-use-armed-force-against-israel-says-china-icj); Lidwien Dobber, “China vindt Palestijns geweld tegen de Israëlische bezetter gerechtvaardigd, zegt het tegen VN-rechtbank”, Trouw 23 februari 2024 (https://www.trouw.nl/buitenland/china-vindt-palestijns-geweld-tegen-de-israelische-bezetter-gerechtvaardigd-zegt-het-tegen-vn-rechtbank~b25bb08f/)
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EINDNOOT 2
“The General Assembly [of the United Nations]… Reaffirms the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial domination, apartheid and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle.” (UN GA Resolution 45/130, document A/RES/45/130, d.d. 14-12-1990, Importance of the universal realization of the right of peoples to self-determination and of the speedy granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples for the effective guarantee and observance of human rights)
https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-184801/
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Zie ook mijn eerdere blogstukjes:
““Israel cannot claim the right of self-defence against a threat that emanates from a territory it occupies, from a territory that is under belligerent occupation”” (14 november 2023)
http://www.lirb.nl/historia-the-historyliner/israel-cannot-claim-the-right-of-self-defence-against-a-threat-that-emanates-from-a-territory-it-occupies-from-a-territory-that-is-under-belligerent-occupation/
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““Israel is not defending itself, it is defending its colonial project.”” (2 januari 2024)
http://www.lirb.nl/historia-the-historyliner/7400/
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“Het recht op verzet tegen de bezetter – een quote uit 2001 terzake” (7 augustus 2024)
http://www.lirb.nl/historia-the-historyliner/het-recht-op-verzet-tegen-de-bezetter-een-quote-uit-2001-terzake/
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“Het recht op zelf-verdediging tegen de invaller, geeft het recht op verzet tegen de bezetter en dus ook het recht op bevrijding” (2 october 2024)
http://www.lirb.nl/historia-the-historyliner/het-recht-op-verzet-tegen-de-bezetter/
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“Preventieve Zelfverdediging” (19 februari 2025)
http://www.lirb.nl/historia-the-historyliner/preventieve-zelfverdediging/