If you have been keeping up with my previous articles, a recurring theme is the fictional reality underpinning US support for Israel’s apartheid regime and ongoing genocide in Gaza.
The gist is that every position adopted by the US is not rooted in the reality of life as lived by Palestinians nor the applicable legal framework but a fictional reality constructed through talking points, propaganda, and baseless allegations.
For example, the oft-repeated claim by American politicians and pundits during this moment is that “Israel has a right to defend itself”. This is restated over and over and over without any substantiation or development. For the Biden administration, it has meant, “no red lines”, i.e. financing, arming, and providing diplomatic cover for Israel while Israel commits a genocide as defined under the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention, a genocide for which the Biden administration has been sued for its complicity.
We know however that the concept of “self-defense” under international law, which is enshrined notably in Article 51 of the UN Charter, does not apply to Israel as an occupying power with respect to attacks emanating from the territory it occupies.
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