The Hamas attack on settlers in the West Bank was wrong. The attack was wrong strategically, but more importantly, it was wrong morally.
The so-called peace talks aren’t going anywhere. But even if they were, executing civilians is always morally repugnant.
Colonized people have a moral right to armed resistance. That moral right only extends to legitimate targets. The Israeli army is a legitimate target. Civilians are never legitimate targets. Ahmed Moor
as Ahmed Moor, a Palestinian from Gaza (now living abroad) goes on to explain, that does not mean that an attack against the illegal Occupation forces would have been wise, it's saying that Palestinians, like all people's have the right to resist oppression with armed force. But not by killing civilians. While the settlements are clearly illegal under international law, and the government has the moral and legal responsibility to remove the Israeli settlers, it will not be done by these acts.
43 years ago the US had a problem of violence in northern cities where riots occurred. President Johnson formed the Kerner Commission. The findings were released in 1968, and suggested that the root cause of the violence was not some imagined inherent violence of African Americans, it was the fact that America was still a very racist society, even in the North. That was not to be understood as an excuse for actions that took place (as the Right claimed at the time), but as a way to get to the underlying issues. Addressing the underlying cause and rooting it out is the rational approach. Beginning to address those issues helped both African Americans and White Americans.
I am not claiming that the circumstances are the same, but i do think looking for the root cause of the problem is still the best and most rational approach to stopping the violence here. This is not an isolated incident of violence. Israel continues its systematic and governmental violence against the Palestinian people on a daily basis. This goes on without interruption. There has never been a "freeze" on such violence.
There are streets in Hebron, deep in the West Bank, where Palestinians are not allowed to tread. Yet settlers, who claim the land for Israel are free to travel.
Settlers are also free to do this:
Witnesses: Settlers beat 10-year-old Palestinian girl
and this:
Settlers Assault A Palestinian Woman In Hebron
and this:
Masked settlers attack international peace activists in Hebron
and much, much more. Palestinians do not ever experience "security" in the occupied West Bank.
again, this does not excuse or condone the targeting of civilians in response to the continued violence of a brutal and seemingly endless occupation. It is to point to possible causes and ways to end the violence that must be addressed.
If you want peace, work for justice.
On a personal note, i still believe in the power of nonviolence. I was in Nablus in February of 2003, where i met many dedicated activists from all over the world. One was a British young woman (who happens to be Jewish) who went on to volunteer in Gaza. Alice held Rachel Corrie as she lay mortally wounded after an Israeli bulldozer ran her over. and just a few weeks later, Brian, who we both had met in Nablus, was wounded and permanently disfigured by Israeli sniper fire. Just a few days after that Alice was with Tom Hurndall, who also was mortally wounded by Israeli sniper fire. The continued maiming and killing of unarmed activists continue without end, as we saw on May 31st with the Gaza Flotilla and the day after, when Emily Henochowicz, another american, was also maimed by Israeli military. I still believe in the power of nonviolence.
The question is not who will win, but if the values of justice and universal human rights will be respected.