IT is considered a legitimate right of any nation/country to wage a liberation struggle against the occupation forces. World history is replete with liberation wars fought heroically by individuals and masses.

From French resistance forces during World War II to the bloody struggle of the Vietnamese, and from the Afghan gallantry against the invading Russians to the freedom movement in India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir valley, the world has been a witness to the tendency among human beings to fight the best fight when the odds are heavily negative.

It is in the same category that one has to see the struggle of the Palestinian people who are fighting courageously against the occupyation Israeli forces that have been there since 1948. And, the courage is not merely physical; it has emotional, psychological and mental connotations as well.

Since it is an internationally recognised and legitimate right of any and all subjugated people to make efforts to liberate their land, Hamas deserves to be given that status and seen in that light . All that Hamas has ever done is to fight against an occupa-tion force. Can anybody anywhere deny this simple piece of fact?

The recent flare-up in the region is due to the passive silence of the powers that be, who were so satisfied with the status quo in terms of occupied territories that they were shaking hands with the occupier.

It is disappointing, though not at all surprising, that the West is calling recent hamas activity a ‘terrorist act’, which is not true. If the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation is an act of terrorism, what does the West think about French resistance against Hitler’s army that had occupied almost the whole of France during World War II?

If the West, led by the United States, insists on calling the Palestinian struggle an ‘act of terrorism’, it should first rewrite the history of resistance against Nazi Germany’s occupation of France and Europe at large. Shifting the goalpost does not work in history. The West may win this battle of minds in the short term, but history will make sure that the West will lose this war in the long run.

Abid Mahmud Ansari
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2023