John Locke on nations’ right to resist occupation

Noam Sheizaf By Noam Sheizaf April 5, 2013 | Edit

The fallout from Amira Hass’ Haaretz article in which she stated that “throwing stones is the birthright and duty of anyone subject to foreign rule” continues. There are many responses in the Hebrew media and blogesphere, and some interesting debates, mostly on Facebook.

As some readers noted in the comments to my previous posts, there were several UN resolutions (not all of them having to do with Israel/Palestine) that affirmed this right, but there wasn’t much legal writing on the issue. However, John Locke, an English philosopher and one of the fathers of Liberal thinking, had very clear words to say (Second Treatise of Civil Government, Locke 1690, emphasis mine):

Over those then that joined with him in the war, and over those of the subdued country that opposed him not, and the posterity even of those that did, the conqueror, even in a just war, hath, by his conquest, no right of dominion: they are free from any subjection to him, and if their former government be dissolved, they are at liberty to begin and erect another to themselves.

(h/t Dotan Leshem)

UPDATE: Check out the quote in the first comment also. 

Related:
Settlers accuse ‘Haaretz’ of calling for violence against them
The undeniable Palestinian right to resist occupation

Noam Sheizaf

Noam Sheizaf is an independent journalist and editor. He was the founding executive director and editor-in-chief of +972 Magazine. Prior to joining +972, he worked for Tel Aviv’s Ha-ir local paper, Ynet, and the Maariv daily, where his last position was deputy editor of the weekend magazine. He is currently working on a number of documentary films.

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