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It's Not "Pro-Palestinian" to Justify Killing Israeli Civilians
(Ha'aretz) Eitay Mack - There is an absolute prohibition on targeted killing of civilians, no matter what ethnic, religious, social, sexual and national group they belong to. The right to life is protected in every general human rights treaty and under customary law. Despite this, there are far too many people that are unashamed to support or legitimize a deliberate attack and killing of Israeli Jewish civilians. There are no excuses. Either one is for or against the deliberate killing of civilians. There must be zero legitimacy for adding "but," or "the context of the occupation cannot be ignored," or "the Palestinians have no other option," or "I can't judge how the Palestinians chose to fight for freedom." Unfortunately, there are too many claims that there are no Israeli Jews who are true civilians, they are all settlers and colonialists, or all are former soldiers or potential soldiers or reserve soldiers, and because of that should be a legitimate target. The same people who legitimize the deliberate killing of Israeli Jews do not claim in parallel that it is also tolerable to deliberately kill Russian civilians because of the wars in Ukraine and Syria; kill British civilians because of the conflict in Northern Ireland; or kill American, British, and Australian civilians because of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Most of the people who make Palestinians who hijacked planes with civilians into celebrities would probably refrain from celebrating the hijackers of the 9/11 airplanes, or those who were responsible for the Lockerbie bombing in which a plane with hundreds of passengers exploded in the sky over Scotland. The European political parties, academia, labor unions, human rights organizations and solidarity organizations for the Palestinians must take serious steps regarding those who express support for, or legitimize, the deliberate attack and killing of civilians - Jews, Palestinians, or others. The writer is a human rights lawyer and activist.