There aren’t many populations in the world as helpless as the Palestinians who live in their own country. No one protects their lives and property, let alone their dignity, and no one intends to do so. They are totally abandoned to their fates, as is their property. Their houses and cars can be torched, their fields set on fire. It’s all right to shoot them mercilessly, killing old people and babies, with no defense forces at their side. No police, no military: no one. If some such desperate defense force is organized, it’s immediately criminalized by Israel. Its fighters are labeled “terrorists,” their actions “terror attacks,” and their fates sealed, with death or prison the only options.
Amid the utter chaos created by the occupation, the ban on Palestinians defending themselves is one of the craziest rules; it’s an accepted norm that isn’t even discussed.
Why aren’t the Palestinians allowed to defend themselves? Who exactly is supposed to do it for them? Why, when talking about “security,” it’s only about Israel’s security? Palestinians have more victims of assaults, bloodshed, pogroms, and violence – and no defensive tools at their dispos