Israel's obligation to protect the civilians under its occupation
xymphora ■ Debate (it is hardly a debate, [Noura Erakat] wipes the floor with him, although there is no reason for her to blame Hamas for the tiny rockets) between Noura Erakat and Joshua Hantman (my emphasis in red):
"What’s happening right now amounts to a massacre. It is not a war. And we should all be concerned. Israel claimed that it has the right to self-defense, but an occupying power does not have the right to self-defense; it has an obligation and a duty to protect the civilians under its occupation. Even if it fails to meet that duty, it must abide by humanitarian law, principles of distinction, proportionality, of necessity. It has not abided by any of those. What’s happening in Gaza amounts to war crimes. It’s a repeat of what happened in 2008 and 2009. It’s a repeat of what happened in 2012. Unfortunately, we can see this repeated again, unless Israel is held to account under international humanitarian law mechanisms, under international criminal law, under sanctions by other governments, in order to stop these massacres—not just now, but in the long run—and more importantly than that, to address the root causes of these flareups or symptoms of a much deeper problem, which is the structural violence of occupation, of apartheid and of settler colonialism."
Washington's Blog: Facts All US Citizens Need to Know About Israel and Palestine
Noura Erakat ■ No, Israel Does Not Have the Right to Self-Defense Against Occupied Palestinian Territory