The National Lawyers Guild emphasizes the legitimacy of the right of the Palestinian people to resist illegal military occupation, apartheid and ethnic cleansing, and urges the United States to stop enabling and arming Israel’s perpetration of its atrocities. The NLG stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine in their struggle against the settler colonial state of Israel and calls on our members and allies throughout the United States and around the globe to stand and act in support of that struggle.
The United States government not only immediately condemned the recent military actions carried out by Palestinian resistance after it has spent decades supporting and enabling Israeli atrocities against the Palestinian people that are the direct cause of the current actions; in fact, U.S. President Joe Biden announced a commitment to “emergency aid” in the form of additional weaponry to be sent to the Israeli occupation regime. This comes atop the existing nearly $4 billion in U.S. military aid to Israel every year. These condemnations have been echoed by politicians across the U.S. political spectrum, including those who campaign as progressives and anti-racists.
The National Lawyers Guild urges public recognition of the right to resist unlawful occupation “by all available means, including armed struggle,” as noted in United Nations General Assembly Res. 37/43. Armed struggle “against colonial domination and alien occupation and against racist regimes in the exercise of their right of self-determination” is explicitly contemplated under the Geneva Conventions. Major human rights organizations have recognized through detailed investigation and findings that Israel is perpetrating apartheid, a crime against humanity, against the Palestinian people. [1]
Instead of condemning Palestinian resistance, the U.S. is obliged under international law to cut off all military, financial and political support that enables Israel’s brutal occupation. The U.S. ruling elite has shown its blatant hypocrisy and morally unfathomable racist and imperialist agenda by unconditionally and continuously supporting Israeli violence and oppression against Palestinians on a permanent basis, and then expressing outrage at any Palestinian resistance.
By continuing the flow of weapons and aid to Israel, the United States is participating as an aider and abetter of apartheid and attempted genocide in Palestine, for which U.S. officials can and must be held accountable. The United States continues to designate Palestinian resistance organizations as “Foreign Terrorist Organizations,” despite the fact that they are engaged in exercising their fundamental and protected right to self-defense and to liberate their land and people from occupation and colonialism. These lists allow for the persecution, criminalization and economic coercion of people resisting apartheid, genocide and colonialism, which is itself a crime. We call for all Palestinian and Lebanese resistance organizations to be removed from the U.S. list of “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” and “Specially Designated Global Terrorists.”
Palestinians have repeatedly called for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, a call adopted 16 years ago by the NLG. We reiterate our statement of May 2021, “Statement in Solidarity with the People of Palestine in their Struggle Against the Settler Colonial State of Israel,” in which we noted: “Arab states have imposed a boycott of Israel for decades for its ongoing occupation of Arab land, including Palestinian and Syrian land. The United States has expended a tremendous amount of military and financial pressure to undermine and break the Arab boycott of Israel, from the Camp David accords with Egypt in 1978 to the more recent attempts at a “deal of the century” and the “Abraham Accords.” These normalization campaigns, sponsored and funded by the United States, aim to expand the complicity of Arab states with Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity while denying the Palestinian people international support. Normalization with Israel is a U.S. project designed to advance Israeli impunity.”
More on the NLG web site.
Beautifully and clearly expressed. It is good to know there are those in this country who support the severely downtrodden people of Palestine. I look forward to bringing the cry for justice to the San Jose Streets.