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Israel was Not Attacked - Illegal Israeli Forces on Syrian Territory were Targeted

May 10, 2018

Israel was NOT attacked; Israeli Occupation Forces on Syrian Territory were Targeted

The Missile Attack on Israeli Forces in the Golan is Completely Legal

Israeli Attacks on Syria are neither Legal nor Moral
- They are Illegal Aggression against Syria


The United States considers the Golan Heights to be Syrian territory held under Israeli occupation subject to negotiation and Israeli withdrawal. The United States considers the application of Israeli law to the Golan Heights to be a violation of international law, both the Fourth Geneva Convention's prohibition on the acquisition of territory by force and United Nations Security Council Resolution 242. 

With misleading headlines like this: "White House condemns Iran rocket attacks against Israel," some clarification is needed about the missiles that were reportedly fired at Israeli military targets in the Golan Heights on May 10, 2018.   
 
Attacks against Israel?  What are they talking about?  The Golan Heights, with its oil and water resources, is occupied Syrian territory.  It is also a very important reason why Israel wants to overthrow the government of Syria. If the Syrian government were to be overthrown, and the country divided into ethnic enclaves like Yugoslavia, there would be no legal challenge to Israel's occupation and annexation of the Golan Heights. This is the essence of Israel's plan (Yinon Plan of 1982) - to break up Syria and get away with their illegal land-grab.

Israel was certainly NOT attacked last night! The missiles allegedly fired from Syria targeted and/or landed on Israeli military targets in the occupied Golan Heights, where Israel is an illegal occupying power - on Syrian territory. The alleged missiles never even left Syrian territory, except for one that apparently landed in Lebanon. Armed resistance to Israel's occupation of the Golan Heights is both legal and moral.
 
As Dr. Martin Cohen wrote in the Guardian in 2002:  "There is no right of self-defence for an occupying force. Clearly, actions taken by the Palestinian [or Syrian] people, in land internationally recognised as illegally occupied by Israel, are legitimate acts of resistance, subject only to the rules of war."

The White House has condemned Iran's "provocative rocket attacks from Syria against Israeli citizens" and expressed strong support for "Israel's right to act in self-defense."

But Israel has no "right" to be occupying the Golan Heights. The Syrian government, on the other hand, and forces allied with it, have both the legal and moral right to attack Israeli forces on occupied Syrian territory.

Israel took the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and annexed the occupied territory in 1981. The United States and the international community, however, have never recognized Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights. The United States considers the Golan Heights to be Syrian territory held under Israeli occupation subject to negotiation and Israeli withdrawal. The United States considers the application of Israeli law to the Golan Heights to be a violation of international law, both the Fourth Geneva Convention's prohibition on the acquisition of territory by force and United Nations Security Council Resolution 242.


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Sources:  Self-defence and the right to resist occupation, Dr Martin Cohen, Guardian, April 4, 2002

White House Official: U.S. Won't Recognize Israeli Sovereignty in Golan
Barak Ravid, Ha'aretz, Nov. 12, 2015