The Asymmetry Of Violence (Palestine Vs. The White Empire)

Why Israel has the right to ‘defend’ itself, and Palestine doesn’t

indi.ca
10 min readNov 24, 2023
The orphans Israel made have grown up, and they’re not fucking around

Israel appeals to the made-up atrocities of October 7th to justify the real atrocities of October 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31; November, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24; and the 75 years before that. It’s wildly asymmetrical, like carpet bombing a concentration camp because the inmates dared break out. Which is exactly what happened.

There’s this strange logic that Israel has the right to self-defense (it doesn’t) while Palestine doesn’t (it does). To expand my parentheses, under international law Israel as an occupying power has no right to ‘self-defense’ against the people it is occupying. Meanwhile the Palestinians have every right to self-defense, including taking up arms. Unfortunately, international law itself is just a theoretical construct. We actually live under imperial rule most foul.

International What?

The (entirely theoretical) point of law is that it applies equally to everyone, which is obviously not what’s going on internationally. The International Criminal Court only prosecutes Africans and the US has a law on

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indi.ca

Indrajit (Indi) Samarajiva is a Sri Lankan writer. Follow me at www.indi.ca, or just email me at indi@indi.ca.