Palestinians legally entitled to engage in armed resistance/Pro-Palestine protests force governments to stop aiding Israel

Tehran, Qodsna - David Yaghoubian, a Professor of History at California State University, said in an exclusive interview with the Qods News Agency that the widespread pro-Palestine protests will put pressure on governments to halt the supply of weaponries to the Zionist regime, which are used to massacre the oppressed Palestinian people in Gaza.

Qodsna: Given the fact that the Zionist regime killed thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, and prevented the entry of international humanitarian aid into the besieged strip, what is your opinion on onslaught in Gaza and its aftermath on Palestinians’ lives? How do you describe the genocidal onslaught and war crimes in Gaza?

Yaghoubian: The Zionist project was already facing its rapid demise before the initiation of al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, 2023. Israeli stalwarts themselves demonstrated awareness of this reality, such as former Prime Minister and military general Ehud Barak, who just one year prior had warned that in light of the fragmented domestic social and political landscape, and the prospects for maintaining “security” while persisting in its illegal occupation of Palestine, the apartheid state of Israel could cease to exist before its 80th anniversary. The success of Hamas in severely routing and humiliating the occupation forces and further exposing their weakness via the al-Aqsa Flood operation dramatically accelerated the process that observers such as Barak had earlier identified.  I therefore have viewed the genocidal onslaught and war crimes in Gaza perpetrated by the Zionist regime since October 2023 as a knowingly self-defeating supreme and final demonstration of hatred and violence for humanity to witness before the colonialists pack their bags and return to Europe or the United States. In short, it is a genocidal Zionist temper tantrum. They know that they have lost.

Qodsna: How can the world public put pressure on governments to force Israel to stop atrocities in Gaza?

Yaghoubian: Protest activities such as those we have witnessed globally in major cities over the past six months, and most recently including the pro-Palestine student movement that has emerged in the United States, are good examples of effective action to put public pressure on governments to stop supporting Israeli atrocities. The activist approach taken in the Red Sea by Ansarallah as part of Yemen’s “Responsibility to Protect” fellow human beings from genocide is another example of a viable strategy—in this case largely economic—to pressure enablers of Zionist war crimes such as the United States, the U.K., Germany, and France to reconsider their policies. In conjunction with regional resistance, through combined efforts of activists, students, and brave citizens of the global community, the resistance will prevail and Palestine will be free.

Qodsna: What do you think about Palestinian resistance fighters’ right to initiate the October 7 operation against the Zionist regime?

Yaghoubian: Al-Aqsa Flood was the product of over 75 years of ethnic cleansing and illegal occupation in Palestine. International law clearly gives Palestinians living under the occupation the right to engage in armed resistance. Especially in the wake of the Zionist massacres perpetrated with perverted glee against unarmed civilians participating in the 2018 Great March of Return rallies, as well as the so-called normalization efforts subsequently advanced by spineless [Persian] Gulf despots, such a response from Palestinian resistance was guaranteed. Contrary to the purposefully ahistorical framing that is obligatory in mainstream western narratives to obfuscate reality, history did not begin on October 7, 2023, it culminated.

Qodsna: How can the Palestinian people achieve their rights and overcome the ongoing occupation?

Yaghoubian: Zionism is clearly on its last legs, and Palestine will be free. With that said, the question is how to expedite this process. One thing the Palestinian resistance lacks, in large part due to the constant meddling of the Zionists and their imperialist U.S. puppet masters, is cohesive political organization. The Palestinian Authority (PA) now serves essentially as an illegitimate Zionist proxy in the West Bank and is corrupt to the core. As soon as it would be feasible, decrepit PA elites such as Mahmud Abbas must finally agree to hold new elections so the will of the Palestinian people can be represented by a unified elected government. On the information war front, the resistance should continue to emphasize that a free Palestine “one-state solution” would, in established Islamic tradition, guarantee the equal treatment and religious rights of all citizens, in stark contrast to the openly racist and supremacist apartheid state of Israel.