By Iqbal Jassat

The extra-judicial assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran literally hours after the bombing in South Lebanon is the most recent demonstration of the impunity of Israeli terrorism.

If terrorism is to be defined as accurately as possible, look no further than the horrific conduct of the rogue settler colonial regime – Israel.

Since its illegal imposition as a state upon the ruins of hundreds of Palestinian towns and villages – following barbaric ethnic cleansing – the Nakba became a symbol of Zionist terrorism.

In contradiction to the theatrics at the US Congress of Polish immigrant Mileikowsky who calls himself Netanyahu to try and bluff his way through his European racist origin as a white settler in Palestine, terrorism is synonymous with Zionism.

Israeli state terrorism has formed part of a long and sustained effort to forcefully displace and exterminate Palestinians on their own land and elsewhere across the region as well as in Europe.

Its cross-border terrorism has caused death and destruction across the Muslim world, particularly Syria, Libya, Egypt and Lebanon.

Neither has the Islamic Republic of Iran been spared. The Zionist regime has struck key figures inside Iran in the past including the assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in November 2020.

Targeted killings, extrajudicial executions, bombings, and missile strikes, form part of Israel’s arsenal of death, courtesy of the funds, arms, and intelligence provided by the United States.

Crucial to note that neither the US nor European and despotic Arab allies of the racist Zionist regime can claim to be absolved of the terrorism practised by it.

Israel killed Hamas’s founder, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, in Gaza in 2004. And it has targeted the most senior figures in Hamas in foreign capitals, with the failed Mossad assassination of Haniyeh’s predecessor Khaled Mashaal in Amman, Jordan in 1997.

The extra-judicial assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran literally hours after the bombing in South Lebanon which resulted in the martyrdom of Hezbollah leader Fuad Shukr, is the most recent demonstration of the impunity of Israeli terrorism.

Was it unprecedented? Not at all.

Seven months ago, Hamas military chief Saleh Al-Arouri was targeted in an extrajudicial assassination in Beirut. Over many decades, Zionism’s pariah regime brutally executed a huge number of persons, including Hezbollah leader Abbas Mousawi in a strike on his convoy in southern Lebanon.

From the merciless assassinations of Sheikh Yassin to Abdul Aziz Rantisi and now Ismail Haniyeh, the pattern is clear: the spree of killings forms part of a long and ongoing effort to displace and exterminate the leadership of Hamas.

And, as in the case of the revered Haniyeh, his assassination was in direct breach of the territorial integrity of another sovereign state – the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The lessons of apartheid South Africa’s failure to subdue the liberation movements have clearly not been heeded by its erstwhile partner in crime.

After every round of murder, Hamas has come out more powerful, more determined, better equipped and more enraged at this structural injustice.

Political pundits and analysts remind us that in the American tradition of assassinating their own leaders – Trump just survived one – the US hand is always somewhere in this history of aiding and abetting a regime now also characterized by the ICJ as an apartheid state.

Also evident is that apartheid Israel is on the path of self-destruction as it blindly pursues the unraveling of the Zionist project in Palestine.

At the core of the implosion is none other than the Polish immigrant heading a coterie of extreme right-wing terrorists.

Though they arrogantly display a sense of pride by using sophisticated satellite tracking, a system that far exceeds the “Stasi” methods of intrusive surveillance, it is truly fascist.

Only totalitarian regimes such as apartheid Israel do this.

Al Jazeera reports that according to an analysis of data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), Israel is responsible for 17,081 incidents of air/drone raids, shelling/missile attacks, remote explosives and property destruction in eight countries since October 7, including the occupied Palestinian territory, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, Iran and Iraq.

“A majority of these attacks were on the Palestinian territory, specifically the Gaza Strip, with 10,389 incidents accounting for more than 60 percent of the total offensives.

“There were at least 6,544 incidents of Israeli attacks on Lebanon (38 percent), followed by Syria with 144 such incidents recorded.”

Despite such overwhelming evidence of Israel’s serial violation of civilized norms, it is shocking though not surprising that at the recent UN Security Council meeting to condemn the assassination of Haniyeh, the US and UK blamed Iran for “destabilizing the region”.

The Council convened an emergency session at the request of Iran, which was supported by Russia, Algeria and China.

Speaking at the session, Chinese Ambassador Fu Cong said China strongly condemns the assassination of Haniyeh.

Calling the incident “a blatant attempt to sabotage peace efforts,” Cong stressed that “China is deeply worried about an exacerbation of the upheaval in the region that this incident may trigger.”

Similarly, Algeria’s envoy to the UN, Amar Bendjama, said: “We are on the precipice of catastrophe,” adding that Israel’s attack was “an act of terror” that violated international law and the sovereignty of Iran.

As most of the world recoils in anger and disgust at Israel’s terrorism, Palestine is reassured that its just cause will not be forsaken.

No matter the pain and suffering, Palestinians will not roll over but remain committed to gaining their freedom, knowing that the Zionist project has entered its decomposition phase like the murderous apartheid regime did before it.