Vice News’s former MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Managing Editor endorsed October’s Hamas attacks in an Arabic-language article. Badar Salem claimed the October 7th terror raid against Israel was lawful resistance on Vice’s Arabic website.
“UN General Assembly Resolution 2649, adopted in 1970, recognizes the legitimacy of the struggle against domination and occupation in the context of self-determination,” Salem insisted. “Within this framework, what Hamas and Palestinian resistance movements did/are doing against Israeli targets is within international law, which clearly recognizes the legitimacy of resistance movements defending themselves against the occupation.”
Hamas’s “Israeli targets” included children, women, and the elderly. Some of these were killed while others were dragged back to Gaza as hostages.
Salem argued Israel, not Hamas, was responsible for these killings, however. “When an occupying force faces resistance from the occupied inhabitants, this is not considered the occupied inhabitants’ attack, but a reaction against the occupation itself,” she argued.
