toomuchtime_
Gold Member
- Dec 29, 2008
- 20,088
- 4,995
Getting back to your original statement, "Hamas resists Israel's occupation of their land which is something they have the legal right to do," if by "their land" you mean private property rights, then unless you are about to disclose that Hamas is made up of former Najd homeowners, they have no right to "resist" the existence of the city of Sderot, and indeed, firing rockets at the civilian population of Sderot, as paragraph 1950 of the Goldstone Report notes, ' "constitute a deliberate attack against the civilian population," and that "These actions would constitute war crimes and may amount to crimes against humanity." '
Hamas is a nationalist movement. To say they have to personally own land in Najd is like saying if Aztlan was to takeover the South West then people in New York or Florida would have no dog in that fight.
As far as "civilians" are concerned settlers are integral, necessary, and active members of the occupation. There would be no Israel without them.
It is not clear what you mean by Palestine. As the term was used by the League of Nations and by the UN, Palestine referred to a geographical area, not a political entity, in the same way that Central America or Western Europe refer to geographical areas rather than to political entities. After WWI, the political entity that exercised control in Palestine was the League of Nations and later the UN, so unless you can show that the UN passed the right to exercise political control over western Palestine to Hamas, in no sense can Hamas claim it is "their land".
It was the nationalist aspirations of the inhabitants of "Palestine" that scuttled the Palestine Mandate. Whatever name used is irrelevant. The inhabitants of the place, whatever it is called, are the ones who have the right to self determination.
Hamas does claim in their Charter that it is "their land" because Allah gave it to them, so perhaps that's the sense in which you are claiming it is their land and that they have a divine right to "resist" the Jews without regard to whether their actions constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity.
Hamas is not the only resistance organization. There are also groups like the PFLP which is a Christian organization that works closely with Hamas and others. To claim this to be a religious conflict is disingenuous.
Then when you say, "Hamas resists Israel's occupation of their land which is something they have the legal right to do," by "their land," you are not making the claim it is "their land" on the basis of private property rights, as your story about Najd might suggest, but you are simply asserting it is "their land" because Hamas is a "nationalist movement", which aspires to exercise political control over this land, that is to govern the people who live there and control its resources, and that Hamas has a legal right to kill any or all Israeli civilians because if the Israelis presently living in Sderot meet your definition of "settlers" then virtually all Israeli civilians do and "There would be no Israel without them."
To reiterate, when you say "Hamas resists Israel's occupation of their land which is something they have the legal right to do," you are not saying it is "their land" based on private property rights or because they presently exercise political control over the land or that they ever have exercised political control over the land but simply because they want to, and further you are saying they have a legal right to kill anyone who stands in their way.