Summary
The name Falk gives to Israel’s doctrine and practice of violence in the posts of this book: the Dahiya doctrine of disproportionate force against civilian infrastructure, and the occupation itself, maintained by daily violations of international humanitarian law, as state terrorism in essence, design, structure and practice (Palestine: The Legitimacy of Hope, PDF p.141-142).
Details
- Treating the civilian infrastructure of adversaries such as Hamas or Hezbollah as permissible military targets is “an avowal of a doctrine of violence that needs to be called by its proper name: state terrorism”, the Goldstone Report having noted the Dahiya doctrine in the 2008-2009 Gaza attacks (PDF p.141-142).
- “We have reached a stage where the oppressiveness of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, extending now for more than forty-three years and maintained by multiple daily violations of international humanitarian law should be understood and condemned as being, in its essence and by design, state terrorism, as exhibited both in structure and practice.” (PDF p.142)
- Falk applies the term to specific practices as well: the Gaza headnote speaks of Gaza’s “regime of state terror” in the Introduction’s framing (PDF p.19-20), a post on the hunger strikes suggests the detention and prison dimension may be “a hitherto-neglected dimension of state terrorism” (PDF p.127), and the Palmer post, co-authored by Falk and Phyllis Bennis, lists Israel as having “used excessive violence and relied on state terror on numerous occasions in dealing with Palestinian resistance” (PDF p.147).
- Against this, Falk holds a universal rule for the oppressed as well: “Terrorism is terrorism, whether the acts are performed by the oppressor or the oppressed”, and no act of violence against an innocent child or civilian bystander is morally acceptable or legally permissible (PDF p.157).
Related pages
Palestine: The Legitimacy of Hope, Dahiyeh Doctrine, Gaza, Legitimacy struggle, Goldstone report