2023-11-02 11:23:00
Because it is an “occupying state,” Russia denies Israel the right to self-defense
November 2, 2023, 12:23 p.m. Listen to article
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In Russia’s eyes, Israel does not have the right to defend itself against Hamas attacks. This is what the Russian ambassador to the United Nations says. The reason given by Russia, which has occupied territory in Ukraine since 2014, is that Israel is an occupying power.
The Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, has denied Israel the right to self-defense because it is an “occupying state.” “I cannot fail to mention the hypocrisy of the United States and its allies who, in other, completely different situations, demand respect for humanitarian law, establish commissions of inquiry and impose sanctions on those who use violence only as an extreme means to end years of violence “, TASS quoted Nebenzya as saying at a special session of the UN General Assembly on the conflict.
The reason given by Nebenzya was the ruling of the United Nations International Court of Justice in 2004, which described Israel as an occupying power in Palestinian territories. The judges in The Hague ruled that Israel violated international law by building a border wall in the Palestinian territories. However, Israeli forces withdrew from the coastal area in 2014, abandoning the settlements and leaving control to the Palestinian Authority. This means that they are no longer an occupying force in the Gaza Strip.
Russia, which normally does not recognize the United Nations International Court of Justice, occupies large areas of Ukraine. They do not see themselves as an occupying power and have so far ignored the order from The Hague in March 2022 to immediately stop the war in Ukraine. Instead, they are attacking Ukrainian towns and villages across Ukraine daily with missiles and drones, killing thousands of civilians over the past 20 months.
Despite Russian shelling of Ukrainian civilian targets, Nebenzya said of Israeli attacks in Gaza: “Given the horrific destruction in Gaza, which far exceeds anything they (the US and its allies) criticize in other regional contexts – attacks to civilian facilities, deaths of thousands of children and horrific suffering of civilians amid a total blockade – all they can do is keep talking about Israel’s supposed right to self-defense, which it does not have as an occupying state.”
He added that Russia recognizes Israel’s right to ensure its security. But “this can only be fully guaranteed in the event of a fair solution to the Palestinian problem on the basis of recognized UN Security Council resolutions.”
Israel launched the war against Hamas after the terror group’s devastating mass attack on southern Israel, which killed around 1,400 people and took more than 240 hostage. Most of them were civilians. On the Palestinian side, several thousand people died as a result of Israeli air strikes. However, the numbers cannot be independently verified.
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