Congressman Jamie Raskin’s Controversial Statements: Firm Support for Israel’s Actions but Opposition to Hamas
Written by Neysa Vania, Defira Nurafiyanni, & Luh Felicia Sawetri
Recently, the Palestinian military group known as Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israeli territory on October 7, 2023, by deploying hundreds of armed troops who infiltrated Israeli civilian neighborhoods near the Gaza Strip. The attack is known to have killed 1,400 Israelis and taken 240 Israelis hostage. Spokesman for Hamas Military Commander Mohammad Deif revealed that the reason Hamas attacked Israel was in retaliation for the ruthless blockade felt by the Palestinian people in recent years. In response to the Hamas attack, Israel did not remain silent and declared war on Hamas by launching several counter attacks against Hamas in the Gaza Strip by assigning the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). So, on October 17, the IDF began launching aircraft bombing attacks on the Gaza Strip and stationing IDF troops near the Gaza Strip. Through these attacks until now Israel has caused approximately 15,000 Gazan civilians to be killed and 3,000 Gazans to be taken hostage. According to Congressman Jamie Raskin, Israel has an indisputable right under international law to militarily defend itself against Hamas terrorist violence.
A Congressman Jamie Raskin’s statement is highly controversial because he refers to Hamas’s actions as acts of terrorism but on the other hand supports similar or even worse actions by Israel as a form of self-defense. What reasonable actions that Israel has taken can be categorized as self-defense? In fact, the attack carried out by Hamas on October 7 based on a statement from Hamas Military Commander Mohammad Deif was a form of self-defense and retaliation for all previous acts of violence from Israel against civilians in the Gaza Strip. When viewed from various existing records, Israel first carried out a blockade and violence against citizens in the Gaza Strip, Israel’s actions triggered the anger of a group of people in Gaza who did not accept the actions of Israel, so there was an impromptu attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7 as a form of self-defense and fight for Gaza’s liberation. Hamas should have been entitled to support and undisputed rights under international law that its actions were a form of self-defense for Israel’s previous atrocious acts against the people of Gaza.
However, Congressman Jamie Raskin only underestimated and justified Israel’s actions to the point of siding with the Israeli camp on the basis of information received on October 7. Thus, Jamie Raskin’s controversial statement emerged, which called Hamas terrorism and supported Israel’s actions as the right to self-defense, on the basis of what happened on October 7 only. If we take a step back and look at the conditions more than 50 days after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, Israel is the one who deserves the terrorism label for its acts of violence and cruelty against the people of Gaza as well as the inconsistency of the statement of their prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who revealed that Israel declared war on Hamas. However, reality reveals that Israel carried out massive attacks by damaging public facilities or infrastructure that were not related to Hamas, resulting in the casualties of mostly Gazan civilians. In fact, the attacks launched by Israel were so unstructured and not organized well that resulted in a major blunder by killing several Israeli civilians who happened in the Gaza border area.
So, how can A Congressman Jamie Raskin give his statement that Hamas’ actions are terrorist and justify Israel for these actions as their right to self-defense. What does Israel want to defend when the incident on October 7 was a consequence of Israel’s violent actions against Gazan civilians for a long time and does killing most Gazan civilians can be justified as an act of Israel’s self-defense?
Meanwhile, we can all continue to look for answers to questions such as whether the consequences of Israel’s acts of violence can be applied and enforced. The starting point for this search must be a regional security strategy that is receptive to international law and basic humanitarian principles, so that acts of violence against Gaza civilians as a form of self-defense carried out by Israel in the midst of the armed conflict with Hamas cannot be justified by all parties.
REFERENCE
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BBC News Indonesia. (2023). Sejarah konflik Palestina-Israel, pertikaian berkepanjangan yang berlangsung puluhan tahun. URL:https://www.bbc.com/indonesia/articles/cjr0pz20z7po. Diakses pada 4 November 2023.
Adryamarthanino, V. & Indriawati, T. (2023). Kronologi Serangan Hamas ke Israel. URL:https://www.kompas.com/stori/read/2023/10/13/140000879/kronologi-serangan-hamas-ke-israel-pada-oktober-2023?page=all. Diakses pada 4 Desember 2023.
Washington, D. (2023, October 14). STATEMENT BY CONGRESSMAN JAMIE RASKIN: “THE TERRORIST ATTACKS ON ISRAEL, ISRAEL’S RIGHT OF SELF-DEFENSE, THE LAWS OF WAR, HOSTAGE-TAKING, AND THE PROTECTION OF TWO MILLION PALESTINIAN CIVILIANS IN GAZA”. Retrieved from raskien.house.gov: https://raskin.house.gov/2023/10/statement-by-congressman-jamie-raskin-the-terrorist-attacks-on-israel-israel-s-right-of-self-defense-the-laws-of-war-hostage-taking-and-the-protection-of-two-million-palestinian-civilians-in-gaza
About us :
Neysa Vania, Defira Nurafiyanni, and Luh Felicia Sawetri, are 3rd Semester International Relations Students at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, National Development University ‘Veteran’ Jakarta, currently we are completing the final assignment for the Terrorism and transnational crime course supervised by the Lecturer. Our Honorable One
Dr. Mansur, M.Sc. and Muhammad Kamil Ghiffary A, M.Si., as a lecturer on the teaching team at the National Development University ‘Veteran’ Jakarta, Indonesia.