“Israel has a right of self-defense.” This commonsense statement is repeated everywhere — by state officials and media outlets, by commentators and anchors. It seems so basic and self-evident that it is hard to argue with.

But today Israel uses self-defense as its key rhetorical tool for war. By invoking self-defense, Israel changes the conversation from its colonial crimes against the Palestinians to the injuries it has itself incurred as a result. Yet it is precisely because Israel is denying Palestinians their human rights, including the right of self-determination, that it cannot claim self-defense as a legal justification for the use of force. In fact, Israel’s conduct is clearly part of a state-driven occupation project for which it is criminally liable.

There are two main reasons why Israel’s self-defense premise is flawed. First, self-defense does not apply to an occupying state’s wars against those it occupies — it is not relevant for Israel in relation to the Palestinians. Second, what Israel does in Gaza violates all known conditions for self-defense, especially the necessity of war when peace is easily available, discrimination between soldiers and civilians, and the proportionality of harm inflicted in achieving military aims.