#to justify their colonization

[giritina]

What's with tumblr commies and seeming to have no consistent world view on how colonized countries should act and just base it off of their attachment to the colonizing state. Like they just flatly justify the Hamas terror attack as freedom fighting without nuance or research but oppose Ukraine fighting against Russian invasion. They also justify the invasion via saying they have right wingers in their military while trying to ignore or attribute the right wing politics of hamas to the populace of palestine. Russia and Israel are both right-wing, nationalist, and imperialistic states, but they have this dream of Russia as a leftist state that they cling to?? They're happy to dehumanize Israelis bc honestly they don't care about jews and what has led to the state of Israel (which should be dismantled but these ppl genuinely are just happy to imagine the citizens of the state being mass murdered) but then cry about the Ukrainian war causing unnecessary bloodshed and how there should be peace. And again the Russian state is not fucking left wing at all but they are infatuated with an imaginary version of the USSR that did not commit any crimes against humanity and did not have hundreds and hundreds of years of imperialism under its belt . Idk just shows to me they don't really give a fuck about human life or the oppressed beyond using them as game pieces to play out the theory they read in books

[astraystayyh]

I've been debating how to breach this topic for the past days, but there is no easy or practical way to bring it up. There is an ongoing genocide in Gaza- the world's largest open air prison, as described by U.N. officials and activists. Nearly 2500 Palestinians have been killed in the course of past few days, including women and nearly 700 children. 700. Israel urged Palestinians to leave the Gaza stripe (even though they have nowhere to go to) only to bomb their "safe" exit routes. Entire civilian neighborhoods and hospitals are being targeted by Israel, and they are threatening to cut off the water and electricity in Gaza as well, turning the few running hospitals left to cemeteries.

Palestinians children are writing their names on their palms so people would recognize them, in case they end up being killed by Israel forces. Palestinians are writing their goodbye messages on social media because they aren't sure they'd still be alive tomorrow. There is so much atrocity going on, so many war crimes that the west have deemed reasonable because those are Palestinian lives that are taken, because Palestinians lives aren't as important as western ones, because international law doesn't apply when it comes to Palestinians.

it is unsettling and uncomfortable to watch these images of war, of beheaded children being carried by fellow civilians, of ambulance drivers falling to the ground from the horror of that they've witnessed, of cries of babies who are suddenly orphans, who have never known anything but violence and murder. But this is the reality of Palestinians, as it has been for the past decades. Please, I urge you, educate yourself on the ongoing conflict. There is no hard choice, there are no nuances that you need to take into consideration, there are no 'buts'. There is a colonization, an ethnical cleansing, a genocide, and Palestinians aren't the instigators of it. They are the ones paying the price.

Standing up for Palestine doesn't mean you are anti-jew, the proof is there are a lot of Jewish people standing with the Palestine cause, because they recognize the atrocities committed by the Israeli government. There were no "40 beheaded babies" by Hamas, this was a false information, consciously perpetuated by Israel then the USA so they'd be able to attack Palestine with a "reasonable" motive, only backtracking on it when the damage was already done. There aren't two sides. There is only one true side and it's Palestine.

+ u just have to click this link and the revenue generated by traction in this website will be donated to Palestine! it's only one click per day please do it

[neechees]

anytime you see someone talking about "empty land" and oh, I don't know, also mentioning "early immigrants" or whoever making it allegedly "not empty" or beautiful", especially if it's about a desert or some plains, take it as a red flag.

[cthulhubert]

Man... maybe I do understand a little of what draws people to horror.

A couple of times stories about mind control and alteration pass by on my dash, and this sick fascination seizes me. I want to look into it, I want to read it a little, but that urge feels almost like self-harm because I know it will only distress and anger me.

On the other hand, there's a little piece of myself that's like, "No, you must test yourself against the potential trauma, you must see what remains of you on the other side of agony."

I'd also like to apologize for the times I've yucked peoples' yums barging into reblog chains and talking about how much your fun fetish romp horrifies and pains me.

The funny thing about lacking thoughtfulness is that it feels like having the right amount, because if I could tell I was lacking I'd, well, be thinking about it.

[blackknight-100]

I'm just upset right now so this is not very articulate, but some people in the Tolkien are so obsessed with defending the Feanorians and minimizing their mass murders it's actually absurd. Also it's really, really irritating when you can't go two days without running across a post desperate to turn them into soft people by explaining why "it's not that bad" and "guys actually I think only a few people died".

Or alternately not understand their oath or their grievance at all and try to explain why Luthien/the Valar own the Silmarils. And I'm not talking about headcanons (you are free to make yours), these are actual parts of the text someone picks up and extrapolates to the nth degree to suit what they say.

Like look, I get it. The Feanorians lost the sacred, almost divine items that their father made, and now those are in the hands of an actual evil god who will not give them up, and whom they cannot fight, and they are oath bound to recover it. I get that. But you know what? 'The other elves were inconsiderate of the importance of the Silmarils as heirlooms to the Feanorians', and 'the kinslaying is a massacre that can in no way be defended by the oath and the need to recover jewels' are two statements that can and should coexist. And one of those deeds is worse than the other.

There are several people and cultures across the world (including mine) that has had their cultural property stolen and looted by colonizers, and the idea that something is 'yours' if you won it from a thief, instead of belonging to the person who made or previously owned it is distinctly colonial in nature, but you know what these people in the real world didn't do?

They didn't commit mass murder. They didn't turn into thieves themselves.

And if these very real people with very real grievances could deal with that (and continue to deal with it), I don't see why anyone should try to justify the kinslayings, or make posts explaining why the Silmaril actually belonged to Luthien and her descendants/the Valar.

Should Luthien have considered returning the Silmaril to the Feanorians? As a woman, no; not after what Celegorm did. As a princess and heir to her father? Yes. Thingol, despite his grievances about the kinslaying at Alqualonde, should have acted as a king and considered the diplomatic way out of this. Except the Feanorians didn't try to take it from Luthien, and Thingol was behind Melian's girdle so it didn't work out. Should Dior have tried to act as king and not antagonise the Feanorians after the girdle was lost and his people decimated by dwarves? Absolutely. All of this is true.*

What is also true is this: the Feanorians should not have fallen upon unsuspecting elves at Alqualonde and taken their ships from them. They should not have attacked Doriath, which had barely recovered from a dwarven attack, and killed people. And they absolutely, never should have gone after Sirion. SIRION WAS A REFUGEE CAMP! AND THEN THEY KIDNAPPED THE TWINS.

THEY KIDNAPPED!!! THE TWINS!!! WHO HAVE NO MATERNAL FAMILY!!! BECAUSE THE FEANORIANS KILLED THEM!!!

No amount of found family fics will stop this from sounding like the political removal of princes/lordlings from their culture and background and their artificial integration into people who have killed their whole family.

And literally all those people the Feanorians were fighting after leaving Valinor could have been their allies against Morgoth. You know, the evil god-creature that has two of their Silmarils? The one that killed their grandfather and drove their father to madness?

Also the Valar. Oh gods, the Valar. They suck. The sheer irresponsibility and condescendence they display throughout this whole fiasco, starting from the destruction of the trees till the very end is astounding. I'm glad most of the fandom seems to ignore them because if I saw a post defending Manwe I would actually throw hands.

*Should Elwing have returned it? Well, here it gets murky: as the leader of a refugee camp in Earendil's absence, she should have probably opted for the path of least violence (which is surrendering the Silmarils), except the Feanorians had already killed her whole family and this was past the point of return. It also would have a very unsound decision to give back a jewel so contested when it meant so much to her people to the elves that ruined their lives and killed their kin, and then sent letters so stern it might as well have been demands disguised as friendship.

[lord-squiggletits]

Part of why I hate this fandom's take on Autobots vs Decepticons is ppl (mainly 'con fans honestly) who can't have any nuance of the situation whatsoever and love to write plots like "oh the humans are racist and abusive towards Cybertronians so this is how Megatron is right" no actually I don't think colonialism/imperialism and racism are justified so long as you can point the finger and say "they were the aggressors first" or "their hands are no cleaner than ours bc their society sucks too" sorry. Please come up with better sociopolitical narratives in your war story.

[puppyeared]

they could make a new we didnt start a fire song with the amount of dystopian fuckery going on

[glitchingstitches]

the tiktok kids are so terrified of being problematic that theyre doing mental gymnastics to justify why lindy's behaviour wasnt actually racism and so they dont need to feel bad for not recognizing it.

[mrthology]

you know what i've been so obsessed with lately is like, gods being gods in ancient greece, right? and it's these same gods, in their roman forms, that were in the roman empire then too. so imagine some colonizers coming along and killing people to convert and talking about this One True God and calling them fakes and ???? i feel like in the ancient times that's a great way to bring the wrath of the gods upon you, they would not have stood for that.

idk i just keep thinking of a world where the gods showed up and rained destruction on the colonizers trying to enforce their religion and thus the monotheistic religion never becoming as dominant and "default" as it is now. what do you think that world would be like?

My wife told me I couldn't post the massive rant regarding syncretism, faith, and historical accuracy I went on in response to this for my own sanity and mental health

I DO appreciate what you’re (I think) trying to say, and very much parts could be interesting to explore. I just have studied and obsessed over this period too often :/

[ruthlesslistener]

[Through gritted teeth] I still hold firm to the belief that civilians should never be the targets in a war, however. The people of Israel are making it extremely fucking difficult to remember that belief. Doubly so when they're very willingly placing themselves into the war effort to make the life of innocents living hell

[gh0st1nth3wa11s]

Posting the fic seperate as well!

Heavily inspired by @/feathered-moths-ablaze 's post about Spooker and his feelings about P.I.E. :3

Cw!!/ Alcohol / Suicide mention / Implications of a fight.

Toast groaned, rubbing at his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. The past 3 months had been rough, Ghost had left for 'retirement' as he had called it and soon ran off, not willing to deal with the screaming match he started that night. Toast pulled his hand away, blinking his eyes open to the seemingly blinding light of the sun, eyes trailing around to find Spooker peering over him with that same, damn near, terrified look in his eyes. Toast reached up with a hand and rubbed it across Spookers face to get him back up. "Bloody hell, Spooks, I'm fine." He muttered, british accent much thicker at the rate of his exhaustion, probably still a bit drunk from the night before. Spooker scrunched up his face, taking a step back. "Okay, okay! I just... wanted to make sure you're breathing." Spooker looked over at his boss worriedly, watching him sit up at an attempt to comb his hair back into place. "I wanted to make sure you didn't do anything stupid.. or vomit in your sleep.." Toast rolled his eyes, red, and his eyebags were puffed from what Spooker assumed was crying. "With all of my greatest respect, plonker, I'm not going to kill myself just because Johnny is gone for a while." Toasts voice came out with a hiss, shoving the blankets off of himself. Spooker nodded, cringing at the words that Toast said. He didn't think Toast would do such a thing... but it never truly hurt to be too careful. "Besides you calling me an idiot, I know enough of your past from Ghost and your 'I'm a wonderful British guy with two sets of parents and rich and powerful-'" As Spooker spoke he mimicked Toasts voice, it dropping some and a bad British accent accompanying it. "'I'm British. I drink tea and smoke cigarettes like it's breakfast lunch and dinner-" Spooker stopped the accent but kept his voice low and serious. "But god damn it, Johnny, I know signs when I see them." Spooker stepped back, as if he was bracing for something, for Toast to come at him for speaking back to him. "Fred." Toast started, gently turning around and scanned him up and down. "I.. I apologize." He took a gentle step back, showing Spooker that he wasn't going to yell. He wasn't going to respond the same way Ghost did with Spooker. He turned again, letting Spooker watch him put his robe on over his tank top and over pj pants that were grey, patchwork sewn half hazardly onto them. Ghosts pajamas. He tied it closed, soon glancing at himself in the mirror, eyes flicking to Spooker. "My insomnia is coming back.." Toast commented, pushing his hair out of his face with both hands.

Spooker nodded, busying himself with grabbing the bottles of alcohol that sat around the bed and the beside table, sighing as they clinked together. "Smoke a blunt, have some melatonin." Toast raised his eyebrows. "Did. Did you just tell me to smoke a blunt?" "Yes. yes I did." Toast scoffed, rolling his eyes.

It was a long hours later, Toast had forced himself to sober up to do paperwork, sipping off his flask occasionally. It was nighttime now. He was sitting at the dinner table in HQ, whiskey bottle in hand. Spooker inched his way in, moving around Toast to make dinner. "Where's Chris?" He asked, sitting back down in the kitchen chair, creaking as his weight shifted as he crossed his leg. Toasts left hand found its place on the chairs armrest, tracing the indented wood - Ghost would scratch at the armrest with his fingernail, Ghost had scratched at it so much he needed to sand it down, making the perfect spot for his own thumb to rest. Toast scooted down, pressing his back into the chair as he stretched his legs out, soon crossing them loosely. He held the bottle by the neck, blinking as he forced himself to come back from his own thoughts. "Spooks -" He was cut off as Spooker shushed him harshly, listening to the faint voice-mail from Chris. 'HE'S IN FUCKING SWEDEN! HE'S IN FUCKING SWEDEN! JOHNNY IS- Y'know- for being supposedly 'never off the grid' or whatever he fucking said. He's really good at just FUCKING DISSAPPEARING! I've had my suspicions about that son of-' Spooker hung up, huffing and setting the phone on the counter. "Col' found him, Sweden apparently. He's been at the police station for almost a day now. Surprised they let him use their EQ even after he quit and joined us." Toast nodded, setting the whiskey bottle down on the table and his hand soon found his pocket, pulling out his case of cigarettes. It was a metallic blue with his initials engraved on the front of it. Toast flicked it open, pulling one from its spot and snapped it closed again. "Damn, I didn't know he pocketed that much money on the way out." He hummed, tapping the cigarette filter against the table, packing the tobacco tighter in it. "Yeah. That's like. at least a thousand.. for a ticket there, and then the money change.. and .. yeah.." Toast looked over at Spooker, watching him trail off. Spooker was biting at his left dimple piercing. Toast watched the star spin against Spookers cheek. "Whats eating you?" He mumbled, lighting the cigarette.

Spooker shifted, crossing his arms. He closed himself off. "Ah nothin'..." He muttered, Turing to the stove to put the food on low heat. "Ginger.." Toast started, soon causing Spooker to turn around and lesn against the warm stove. "Talk to me. after all this I can't keep constantly speaking like a rubbish man and let you sit here and not speak at all-" Toast rambled slightly, "You let me faff off half the bloody time-"

Spooker sighed loudly, causing Toast to cut himself off. He cleared his throat and turned his attention back to Spooker.

"I don't.. think you guys like me, " Spooker moved his head down, avoiding eye contact now. "Just, I know that you've told me it's just how Ghost is. But I can't help but think you feel the exact same way about me. I have been thinking a lot about what Ghost has said in the past.. what he said to me during him leaving. That.. I think is what hit me the most. the whole "Get your hands off me it's not like you contributed anything like I have to this company!' " Spooker waved his hands, mimicking Ghosts body movement from the moment, micking the venom too. Toast nearly choked on his whiskey at the last bit. "When the bloody hell did he say that-?" Spooker looked up at him for a moment. "You didn't hear that?" "I guess not- I must have been half sloshed by then." The ginger nodded looking away. "Yeah, and just... that hasn't sat with me right.. and I've kinda let it take over my head- I.. uh." He paused, "I'm going to turn in my letter of resignation after things calm down."

Toast put his hand on his chest. "The Fuck?-" He snapped for a moment, shrinking in his chair as he saw Spooker flinch. "Fuck, 'M sorry Fred." He started, taking a moment to collect his thoughts. "I'm not going to tell you no about turing in your letter of resignation." Toasts voice shifted, seemingly more sober - a voice he would use on phone calls and in pre-mission prep talks. "But I will advise against it fully. I apologize for not making it seem like you are fully initiated in the team." Spooker squinted at him. "How did you know about tha-" He stopped talking as Toast held up a finger. "I apologize for Johnny's behavior as well, that isn't polite of him, and im sorry that I didn't step in to catch this behavior prior to these events." Toast knew he couldn't comment much on Ghosts behavior, he could barely get a wrangle on the smaller man when he was upset. "I do like you." He said simply, finally drawing from the smoke that had been burning away in his hand. Speaking again quietly. "I don't know why he speaks like that.. he likes you too, it's just how he is. he's scared of letting people in and doesn't know how to do it in a safe manner." He said, letting his hand with the cigarette rest against the table. "You've been a great contribution to this team, even if no one has told you that enough. Your great at fixing technology and taking over stressful situations. You quickly became the token mom friend of the group and stop us dead in our tracks to help clean a wound. You do wonders at picklocking, hell. surprisingly your good with hand to hand combat. I also... gave you I think, a 2 dollar raise for these past few months. For an extra thank you for dealing with me and staying by my side. You're a wonderful person Fred. I understand if you would like to leave, I just hope your next job will be as much fun and chaos like this one." Toast stood up, switching his cigarette to his non-dominate hand, holding his right one out to shake Fred's hand. "I want to apologize for my own behavior as well, you shouldn't need to babysit me like you have. But i appreciate it greatly nonetheless. You are a wonderful, wonderful ginger bloke. I am absolutely chuffed to bits to have had you as a member of P.I.E. I am sorry that this job here wasn't as good as we had planned it to be." Toast smiled warmly, hoping there wasn't too much pain showing in his eyes. Spooker just stood there, looking at Toast flabbergasted. "Fre-" Toasts words were cut off as Spooker had jumped up to hug him, his grip tight. Toast wrapped his arms around Spooker tightly, feeling him heave slightly from a soft sob. "Oh spooks.." He said gently. His hand reaching off from Spookers back to the knob on the stove to turn the burner off - soon returning to Spookers back. Spooker rested his head on Toasts shoulder, sniffing softly. "Fuck... sorry sorry.." He muttered, going to pull away but Toast hugged him tighter. "You're fine, just stay a moment.." He said, resting his head on top of Spookers.

Spooker took a moment, Toast reeked of tobacco and whiskey. Spooker knew damn well he still reeked of that paprika he had spilled all over himself earlier. He pulled back finally, sniffling as he wiped his nose with his sweater. "Ugh.." He muttered. "Thank you... I'll reconsider my resignation letter, boss.." "Johnathan." Toast corrected gently. "Or John, Johnny, I don't mind what you call me, but boss is work only." He joked. Spooker smiled, nodding. "Okay John.-" He shook out his hands, bracelets making a small noise. "Euugh! that's so weird to call you by your name now! that'll take forever for me to get used too." He said playfully.

Spooker turned back to the spaghetti, plucking the lid off of it. He grabbed the spoon, stirring it slowly. It was wonderful to have that weight off his shoulders, it had stressed him out so so much for the past few months. Maybe once this all calms down with P.I.E. maybe he won't quit, he'll stay. He couldn't think of another job that would be even a slim close to how cool this one was. They catch ghosts for christ's sake. Spooker was grinning at this point, aware that Toast was watching over his shoulder that whole time.

The harsh knock on the door made both of their heads shoot up. Toast made the move to the door and Spooker moved to begin to make plates for the three of them.

Toast whipped open the door, grunting softly as Chris shoved his way past Toast and set his bags on the kitchen table. He reached into one of them, pulling out a bag of Evidenve from the police station he was just at. "Johnathan." Toast peered over at Chris with the bloody hunting knife in the evidence bag. His eyes widened, taking a small step back into the living room. "Oh fuck me!" He exclaimed. "You have so much explaining to do John." Chris hissed. Spookee stood there, two plates in hand and listened to the other people bicker. "Hey guys.. guys-" He rolled his eyes, raising his voice. "HEY! Shut up, sit down and eat dinner." He barked, the two men obliged, arms crossed as they sat across from one another. Spooker gave them their plates, and a can of soda to thr both of them "Its spaghetti, but I used leftover bacon grease to cook the sausage and the scraps of bacon are in it too." He walked back over and grabbed his own, standing between them, by the side of the table. "There are orange and red peppers in it as well as mozzarella cheese, and some Colby jack as well. Be civil until the both of you are done, yes that also counts if the other wants seconds.." He glanced between the two of them, smiling softly. "Mom energy." Chris mumbled, Toast nodding in agreement.

[rotzaprachim]

aaaand the unfolllowing spree continues

[neechees]

Settler colonialism is legit one of the most evil things to exist and I think it's the root of many of the world's problems today.

[smonk-wonk]

how are you a holocaust survivor if you're POC?

I'm not a Holocaust survivor I'm 25?

I'm gonna guess you mean descended from Holocaust survivors & victims. In which case it's really sad that you think this way firstly? POC and non Jewish people did in fact die during the holocaust and many were targeted for not fitting the Nazis' idea of the "superior Aryan race".

From The Holocaust Encyclopedia: "When Adolf Hitler and the Nazis came to power in 1933, there were several thousand Black people living in Germany. The Nazi regime discriminated against them because the Nazis viewed Black people as racially inferior. During the Nazi era (1933–1945), the Nazis used racial laws and policies to restrict the economic and social opportunities of Black people in Germany. They also harassed, imprisoned, sterilized, and murdered an unknown number of Black people."

Also contrary to what some believe, and this may sound farfetched and I hope you're sitting down but bear with me- some people are actually more than one race. Some people are POC and white. We call this being biracial. Or in grade school, being an "Oreo". A mutt if they really want to dehumanize you

But while my relatives weren't targeted for their skin color as they were white, many people were. Black Germans and other POC did exist, were murdered and traumatized, and have passed down that generational trauma. Just as other persecuted populations even if it was much less it was no less a part of the genocide and ethnic cleansing.

[deathbirby]

Is it bad that I find the "invasive species" to be some blood and soil shit? Like for all the claims that they're not n*zis it's not doing them any favors when they start parroting n*zi talking points like that or say that one race cannot be a political leader (or any leader for that matter) or guide the people solely because of their race.

Oh yeah it has been pointed out to them, they just get mad when you say that because the Nabateans are fictional beings. And they're not REALLY from Fodlan so it's technically true!

[martyrbat]

Reisner {former chief international lawyer for the Israeli military} is proud to have been the first international lawyer to have defended, at a specific request of then–prime minister Ehud Barak, the policy of ‘targeted assassinations’ towards the end of 2000, when most governments and international bodies considered the practice illegal. ‘We invented the targeted assassination thesis and we had to push it. At first there were protrusions that made it hard to insert easily into the legal moulds. Eight years [and, as he said subsequently in this interview, referring to 9/11, “four planes”] later it is in the centre of the bounds of legitimacy.’ [46]

Asa Kasher, a professor of ethics at Tel Aviv University, has worked with Reisner to provide an ethical and legal defence for targeted assassination. He talks in similar terms about the nature of law and the ways in which it might be transformed: ‘We in Israel have a crucial part to play in the developing of this area of the law [international humanitarian law] because we are at the forefront of the war against terror, and [the tactics we use] are gradually becoming acceptable in Israeli and in international courts of law . . . The more often Western states apply principles that originated in Israel to their own non-traditional conflicts in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, then the greater the chance these principles have of becoming a valuable part of international law. What we do becomes the law.’ [47]

After the Goldstone fact-finding mission on Gaza, Israel’s prime minister emphatically called for a radical rewriting of international humanitarian law. ‘Paradoxically,’ Benjamin Netanyahu said, ‘it is possible that the firm response of important international leaders and jurists to [the Goldstone report] will accelerate the re-examination of the laws of war in an age of terror.’ His Minister of Defence, Ehud Barak, added: ‘We cannot change the law but we can help develop it.’

The actions of the Israeli state against Gaza may become acceptable in law. The siege, ongoing since 2007, the 2008–9 invasion, and the 2009 attack on an international flotilla carrying supplies into the enclave, have all been carried out with relative impunity, and do not appear to have significantly affected Israel’s international standing. Each of these forms of aggression contains within it a multiplicity of small-scale practices and incidents: restricting the supply of food to the threshold of starvation; targeted assassinations; sending advance warnings that then allow the military to kill those civilians who choose not to evacuate; [48] attacks on activists in international waters; the use of white phosphorus in inhabited areas – the list goes on. In these acts – if Israeli lawyers have their way and continue to play with the law as if it was a toy – lie the seeds of new legislation.

Working on the margins of the law is one way to expand them. For violence to have the power to legislate it needs to be applied in the grey, indeterminate zone between obvious violation and possible legality, and then to be defended diplomatically and by legal opinion. Indeed, the legal tactics sanctioned by military lawyers in Israel’s invasion of Gaza in 2008–9 were framed in precisely this way. ‘When something’s in the white zone, I��ll let it be done, if it’s in the black I’ll forbid it, but if it’s in the grey zone then I’ll take part in the dilemma, I don’t stop at grey,’ said Reisner. Proportionality might indeed be thought of as one of the mechanisms for the reshaping of juridical space in a way that increases the extent of and makes use of the grey zone.

The invasion therefore did two simultaneous and seemingly paradoxical things: it both violated the law and aimed to shift its thresholds. This kind of violence not only transgresses but also attacks the very idea of rigid limits. In this circular logic, the illegal turns legal through continuous violation. There is indeed a ‘law making character’ inherent in military violence. This is law in action, legislative violence as seen from the perspective of those who write it in practice.

This use of the law has much in common with that of the George W. Bush administration’s misappropriation of the Office of Special Counsel in the Justice Department, in order to figure out a way to legalize the use of torture. Inherent in this was the clear intention to stretch the law as far as possible without actually breaking it. [49] In this example, US Department of Justice Attorney John Yoo used balancing of interests to authorize certain forms of torture. His famous torture memos were grounded in an Israeli precedent: relying on what is essentially a proportionality analysis, the 1987 Israeli commission of inquiry into the methods of investigation in the General Security Service (the Landau Commission) arrived at the conclusion that the prohibition on torture is not absolute, but is rather based, using the commission’s words, ‘upon the logic of the lesser evil’. Thus, ‘the harm done by violating a provision of the law during an interrogation must be weighed against the harm to the life or person of others which could occur sooner or later’. [50] Some legal scholars have suggested that such legal advice in itself might be considered a crime.

[...]

Gaza is a laboratory in more than one sense. It is a hermetically sealed zone, with all access controlled by Israel (except the Egypt border, now controlled by a still yet-to-be-defined post-Mubarak regime). Within this enclosed space, all sorts of new control technologies, munitions, legal and humanitarian tools, and warfare techniques are tried out on its million and a half inhabitants. The ability to remotely control large populations is also tested, before these technologies are marketed internationally. Most significantly of all, it is the thresholds that are tested and pushed: the limits of the law, and the limits of violence that can be inflicted by a state and be internationally tolerated. This limit, newly defined with every attack, will become the new threshold of what can be done to people in the name of ‘war on terror’. When the legislative violence directed at Gaza unlocks the chaotic powers of destruction that lie dormant within the law, the consequence will be felt by oppressed people everywhere.

the least of all possible evils – eyal weizman

(Bold text was my emphasis. Provided footnotes below cut)

45: See Yotam Feldman and Uri Blau, ‘Consent and Advise’, Ha’aretz, 5 February 2009. [Internet Archive]

46: Ibid.

47: Asa Kasher, ‘Operation Cast Lead and the Ethics of Just War’, Azure, no. 37, summer, 2009: 43–75. [Internet Archive]

48: The military’s ‘international law division’ and its operational branch have devised tactics that would allow soldiers to apply what might be called ‘technologies of warning.’ Delivered to homesteads by telephone or sometimes by warning shots, they aim to shift people between legal designations – as soon as a civilian picks up the phone in his home, his legal designation changes from an ‘uninvolved civilian’, protected by IHL, to a voluntary ‘human shield’ – from a subject to an object, a simple part of the architecture. Technologies of warning intervene in the legal categories of both ‘distinction’ and ‘proportionality’: with regard to the former, they transfer people from illegitimate to legitimate targets by forcing them into a legal category that is not protected; and with regard to the latter, they imply a different calculation of proportionality. Human shields are not designated as combatants but are not counted as uninvolved civilians in the calculations of proportionality which must assess damage against the life lost.

49: John Yoo, The Powers of War and Peace, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.

50: Itamar Mann and Omer Shatz, ‘The Necessity Procedure: Laws of Torture in Israel and Beyond, 1987–2009’, Legalleft, 2011 [Openyls]