Here’s what I say by way of my answer: I say that I grieve for the dead in Israel as I do the dead in Palestine. But I say, Israel has been illegally occupying Palestine for decades now.
I say that the civilian population of Palestine has been subjected to at least 16 years of the indiscriminate killing of its men, women, and children, at the hands of the Israel Defense Forces.
I say that for at least 16 years Palestinian civilians have been arbitrarily dragged from their homes by the IDF forces, taken away to Israeli prisons, sometimes tortured, provided with no trial, and that young Palestinian protesters have been shot on the spot for simply daring to protest Israel’s occupation of their homeland.
I say that under the international law of occupation, Hamas and the Palestinian people have the right to use all military means at their disposal to throw out their illegal Israeli occupiers.
I say that Israel, while under international law has the right to defend itself, it has absolutely no right to engage in the massive collective punishment that it has and is once again visiting upon the civilian population of Palestine.
I tell them that Netanyahu’s new warning to 1.1 million Palestinians in northern Gaza to move to southern Gaza in 24 hours, is a prescription for a humanitarian crisis of unimaginable proportions.
And I remind them that indiscriminately destroying Gazan hospitals, schools, homes, and cutting off all food, water, electricity, and fuel for Gaza, is a war crime of genocidal proportion. Already, in this latest round of bloodshed, entire neighborhoods in Gaza have been demolished.
I remind them that now that one high Israeli governmental official has openly declared Israel’s policy to be that, and I quote, “All of Gaza’s infrastructures must be destroyed to its foundation,” Israel has now formally admitted it intends to commit genocide on the Palestinian people!
I remind them that, already, over 450,000 more Palestinians in Gaza have been turned into internal refugees, that fifty percent of the 2.3 million people living in the 150+or- acres in Gaza, where the average age is 18, are children.
And finally, I say to them that while, of course, as Hamas exercises its right to use all military options at its disposal to rid Palestine of the Israeli occupation, it nevertheless has no right to engage in war crimes in doing so…and that shooting or holding hostage innocent civilian Israeli men, women, and children, is a war crime.
And I tell them that I am, myself, sorrowful and disgusted over what has been done to those Israeli civilians. It was very wrong.
But I also remind them that a few days ago, Israel’s main human rights organization, B’Tselem, issued a scathing rebuke to Netanyahu, and other officials, for implementing in the wake of Hamas’ deadly attack, what it called, “a criminal policy of revenge that would only make a dire humanitarian situation worse by intensifying the unlawful blockade of Gaza, and by bombing civilian areas of the occupied enclave.”
And then I ask them: “In light of all that Israel has done to the people of Palestine for 75 years now, and in light of what it is now doing, should they not at least have some regards for the concept of “proportionality”, as they get understandably angry over what has wrongfully been done to some Israeli civilians at the hands of Hamas?
Is not an individual Palestinian life worth as much as an individual Israeli life? Where, I ask them, is their proportional anger and disgust over what Israel, for decades now has done to the people of Palestine, whose losses have been incalculably higher when compared to the losses of the people of Israel?
I have taken some solace in discovering that most of those questioning, and objecting to, my strong support for the Palestinian side in this seemingly intractable conflict, acknowledge the merits of my answers to their confrontational question, even if they do not agree with my position.
Of course, that still leaves the far greater, far more difficult question unanswered, the question we should all be asking, “what is to be done”. The question of how I, or they, or anyone, propose to resolve this seemingly unresolvable, nightmarish conflict?
First, of course, to even begin to answer that question, one must have enough hope that the conflict can be resolved. And surely no one today is to be blamed for finding themselves short of such hope. After 75 years, and with the conflict only getting worse, is it even rational to have such hope? I believe it is.
I know that history is replete with proof that things can, and do, change. The fact that the matter may appear hopeless today, does not mean that that will always be the case. In fact, as the history of the conflict in Northern Ireland demonstrates, it is often the case that when the conflict is the most inflamed, when any peaceful resolution seems completely impossible to imagine or achieve, that it is then, faced with the unimaginable price that the continuation of the conflict will extract on all involved, that out of desperation a resolution is, surprisingly found.
For myself, as I continue protesting on behalf of the Palestinian cause, I will not forget the dead on either side. Nor will I forget that there are tens of thousands of good people in Israel, and tens of thousands of good people in Palestine, who do not hate one another, who seek only to find a way to live decent and peaceful lives, and who, like me, have neither given up their hope of doing so, nor their struggle to find a way to make it a reality.
And so, may the names of those who still struggle for peace, as well as those who have died in Israel and in Palestine, be a blessing!
Jim Lafferty is the Executive Director Emeritus of the National Lawyers Guild in Los Angeles; and the host of The Lawyers Guild Show on KPFK.