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THE ABSURD TIMES
Illustration: I found this on a social media site. While several of the quotes reflect what I have seen elsewhere in more esteemed sources, I can not vouch for the wording on any of them and Adams surprises me a bit. I saw a house purported to be his in Cambridge right across from a baseball field and general park – it looked suspiciously small, almost tiny. Oh well, what do I care? It is worthwhile to know that Jefferson corresponded with Ottoman (Moslem) fairly often and put together a revised version of the Bible, one with all the nonsense taken out. The virgin birth, of course, was out, and several other passages. That Bible was reproduced and members of Congress were sworn in on it for decades. Train Wreck Lately, too many things have happened. Palestine, now pronounced Palesteen1, got a nice pile of toxic waste when a train crashed there, in Ohio, perhaps due to a 150-year-old braking system. There was an attempt to force modern systems, but, you know, lobbies. Stuff costs money, you know. And so do workers, so fire 80 percent of them. No paid sick leave. Turn them into zombies. That keeps the profits going even better. Any idea why the people there tend to vote Republican? I don't know. Stupid? Maybe. They are trying to blame Pete B. (I'm not going to try to spell it) who didn't have the authority to take action on it, especially since Biden forced the works to return (although that was to re-establish the supply lines that were destroyed by his "predecessor," and his avoidance of action on Covid. Even worse, many rules that the EPA and the government instituted for railroads were removed. It's like one big chain of cause and effect. Now things are getting done. Now watch, if someone down there decides to drink some tap water to show it's safe, follow him for a while and see what happens. Just in: the predecessor mentioned above says he will come there today and bring some "cleaning supplies and water". Are the rolls of paper towels ready? One point we need to remember: the Obama/Biden administration had added some rules and regulations to railroad trains that would have helped, perhaps would have averted the disaster, but as a last-minute gesture (about the same time as the attempted coup) the predecessor we've been discussing voided all of them. Ukraine We can be comfortable knowing that our local mass media will at least mention Ukraine as Biden made a visit there. The trip itself was rather amazing involving an overseas flight in a smallish plane and a 10-hour train ride. They carried a couple of his speeches live, although Fox may have passed. Earthquake Well, I told you things keep happening, but coverage is fairly scant. However, over 50,000 have died as a result of the earthquake in both Syria and Turkey. Both countries have not served their people well, although Turkey seems more the blame while we can take credit for the suffering and death in Syria. Palestine I think everyone remembers that there is another Palestine. The "Israeli Defense Force," so strangely named has killed an average of more than a Palestinian a day. The Supreme Court there has ruled against the sort of behavior this administration is carrying out, so they will render that court impotent by passing new laws. Here is a discussion of what is really going on there, as it has not been even mentioned in American media: Palestinians held a general strike in the West Bank Thursday after Israeli forces killed 11 Palestinians and injured nearly 500 in a military raid in the city of Nablus. So far this year, Israel has killed at least 65 Palestinians, including 13 children, drawing concern and criticism from supranational actors including the U.N. and Amnesty International. We speak to Amira Hass, a correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and Issa Amro, a prominent Palestinian human rights defender from Hebron in the West Bank. Amro was recently beaten by an Israeli soldier while being interviewed by the American author Lawrence Wright. "There is a huge anger among the Palestinians from what is happening these days from the Israeli racist and fascist government, who are inciting to kill more and more Palestinians," says Amro of the protests. Transcript This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form. AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman, as we go now to the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians held a general strike Thursday after Israeli forces killed 11 Palestinians, injured 500 in a rare daytime military raid in the city of Nablus Wednesday. NAFEZ SIDER: [translated] It is a day of mourning period and a strike. How would we be able to work or eat or drink, and our brothers in Nablus are being killed? We should stand in solidarity with them, with the people of Nablus, and there should be a general strike. And thank God the strike is in all the West Bank and Gaza. AMY GOODMAN: So far this year, Israel has killed at least 65 Palestinians, including 13 children. Early this morning, a 22-year-old Palestinian man named Mohammad Jawabreh died a day after being shot in the head during an Israeli raid on the Arroub refugee camp north of Hebron. On Thursday, Palestinians held funerals for the victims of Israel's raid in Nablus. One victim was a 72-year-old Palestinian man named Adnan Baara. His son Ashraf said that his father was on his way to the market when he was killed. ASHRAF BAARA: [translated] In the morning, my father went out from the shop to buy some stuff. Then the Israeli army raided the neighborhood. He called me and asked me if there are soldiers in the neighborhood, so I told him, "Yes, they are surrounding the neighborhood from all sides." Suddenly, someone called me and said, "Your father is injured." I was at my shop, besieged. I could leave the shop after the army left the city. AMY GOODMAN: We're joined now by the Israeli journalist Amira Hass, the Haaretz correspondent for the Occupied Palestinian Territories. She's based in Ramallah. Her latest piece is headlined "Israel's Raid on Nablus Proves Willingness of More Young Palestinians to Die in an Unwinnable Battle." Amira Hass is the only Israeli Jewish journalist to have spent 30 years living in and reporting from Gaza and the West Bank. We're also joined by the Palestinian activist Issa Amro. He's in Hebron. He's the founder of the Hebron-based direct action group Youth Against Settlements, now leads the American charity Friends of Hebron. Let's begin with you, Issa. You're in Hebron. We just reported on a killing of an Israeli — of a Palestinian man there. Can you talk about what's happening? And what happened in this rare daytime raid in Nablus, where so many Palestinians were killed and hundreds injured? ISSA AMRO: Yes. Two days ago, Israeli military forces raided Nablus during the daytime, and they shot many, many Palestinians. They used live ammunition to kill, to shoot, to confirm the killing of many Palestinians. The Palestinians all over West Bank and Gaza and East Jerusalem were very sad, and they announced a strike yesterday. And yesterday, clashes started in al-Arroub refugee camp in Hebron. The Israeli soldiers shot a Palestinian on the head, and many others were injured. And, unfortunately, he passed away this morning, and today it was his funeral. There is a huge anger among the Palestinians from what is happening these days from the Israeli racist and fascist government, who are inciting to kill more and more Palestinians. We see that the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre, which happened 29 years ago, where — when Baruch Goldstein went into the mosque and killed 29 Palestinians, and supporters of that massacre, the supporters of Baruch Goldstein, they are the ones who are in power. They are in the government. They are the ones who are now leading the Israeli occupation forces all over West Bank and East Jerusalem. AMY GOODMAN: Amira Hass, you wrote in detail about what is happening in Nablus. And, you know, you've taught in New York, for example, at NYU, as well. And if you can explain to an audience outside, around the world, what are the details of this attack, from the drones that opened fire to the unmarked cars? Explain why — just give us the picture of Nablus. AMIRA HASS: Yeah. Hi. Hi, Amy. I haven't been in Nablus after the raid. I was in Nablus after an earlier raid and in Jenin. So, the pattern is — there is one pattern, very clear, that an Israeli undercover unit enters a Palestinian — mostly Jenin and Nablus, in a car disguised as some Palestinian food company or something like that. They enter. They find positions, shooting positions, around a house where they believe that some Palestinian armed activists stayed. And usually this is correct. And then they are supposed to tell — to ask them to, or to demand them leave. And if they refuse, they keep shooting until the people are being killed in their hiding place, or not hiding place. It happened in Jenin. It happened in Jenin in — it has been happening a lot over the years. But there is an intensification of this during the last year. You know, when the Palestinian armed activists decide to give themselves in, it might not end up in so many casualties. But the thing is that you see that these youngsters, these people who are not older than 30, at most, very often younger, they just decided they don't want to go to prison. They want to convey a message in the name of the entire Palestinian people that they've had enough and they are ready to die. And I think this is a very clear message of the last — of those activists, armed activists, over the past years — over the past year. Out of the 11 people killed in Nablus, six were armed people. So, I think we should remember this, that they decide to take arms and to fight the invading army. They decide not to give themselves in. But, of course, when the army decides to enter a city so big as Nablus on daytime, at 9:00, 9:30, and then stay there 'til 12:00, 12:30, when all the kids go back from school, and to be near a marketplace, its clear that the army and the police — because it's mostly the police that does the shooting, I mean, in these cases — it it's clear that they decide to — they don't care about how many people they kill and how many people they injure. AMY GOODMAN: Because the roads are — AMIRA HASS: So, this is — AMY GOODMAN: The roads are packed, because this is the middle of the day, and people are going to market. AMIRA HASS: Sure, it's packed. Then, the drones — I don't know yet. This is something that I still have to check. There were drones, as there were in Jenin and Nablus in former raids, but I'm not sure yet that these drones were shooting. But the fear, even the very knowledge that those drones not only are surveillance drones or drones that launch tear gas canisters, but — or tear gas, but that they can also shoot you. You can imagine how much it adds to the fear. But there is not only fear. If there are enough footage — though they don't allow ambulances and journalists to approach the place, and this has been so for several raids already. But still, from the little footage that I saw — maybe there is more — you see that there are hundreds of young men, or tens of young men, so brave that they go out without arms, only with stones, and throw at the Israeli — at the military vehicles. And I guess that many of them were injured, if not killed. So — AMY GOODMAN: Well, let me go to — AMIRA HASS: This time. AMY GOODMAN: Let me go to Issa Amro for a minute. AMIRA HASS: Well, so what's important to know, though — what's important is to also stress that there is a resistance. So, in every such raid, people resist it. It's not just, you know, a quiet scene where all of a sudden the army comes in. It comes into a quiet scene, but then people resist it. AMY GOODMAN: So, Issa Amro, an Israeli soldier was recently jailed for 10 days after he attacked you as you were being interviewed by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright. I want to play a short clip of what happened. ISSA AMRO: Don't touch me! [inaudible] WITNESS: [inaudible] Hey! Leave him! ISRAELI SOLDIER: [inaudible] Come. ISSA AMRO: I want an ambulance. I don't move. WITNESS: What's the matter with you, guy? Are you so bored? AMY GOODMAN: After video of the attack on you went viral, Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who's been convicted on inciting racism charges, expressed full support for the Israeli soldier who attacked you. Describe the scene and what happened. ISSA AMRO: What happened, that I lead tours in my own city to show Israelis, internationals, Palestinians the reality of the Israeli occupation, the real face of the Israeli occupation in my own city, the closed streets, the closed markets, the checkpoints, the settlers' prisons in the middle of my own city. There are streets where I'm not allowed to walk as a Palestinian, in spite that I was born there and I was raised there and all my childhood was there. So, me and Mr. Wright — he was walking on the main street, and I was walking on the graveyard, because I'm not allowed to walk on the main street. And, you know, a Belgian photographer was with Mr. Wright. I was speaking to Mr. Wright, showing him the reality, closed shops, closed markets, and how few Palestinian families, they use the back door to get into their homes, because the main door is closed. The soldiers didn't like that. Usually they don't want us to show the reality of the Israeli occupation, especially to internationals. So the soldier approached me and asked me to leave and not talk to them. I really told the soldier, "No, I'm allowed. And I don't have time. OK, Lawrence, we will meet where we are allowed to meet." Then I reached the point where I'm allowed to meet Lawrence and the Belgian photographer. I found the soldier forcing the Belgian photographer to delete her video, which she filmed. So I told them, "No, I'm allowed. What are you doing? We are allowed film this." And according to the military law, the tiny rights we have as Palestinians in the military law, we are allowed to do it. So the soldier got very angry. How come I tell him that I'm allowed? He, you know, caught me from my shoulder, you know, violently detained me in the street and, you know, threatened me, intimidated me. Then he came, caught me from my throat, threw me to the ground and kicked me again and hit me again. Other soldiers, you know, took him away from me because of the camera. And it's not a rare incident. It's the case of all the Palestinians who are living under the Israeli occupation and apartheid and face the Israeli soldiers's brutality and the settler violence. Then I asked for an ambulance. I didn't get. The soldiers were rejoicing with the settlers for what happened to me. Settlers were spitting on me when I was on the ground. And I was really ill-treated, traumatized, and I was in pain, asking for help, and nobody helped me from the Israeli side. AMY GOODMAN: Issa, I hate to keep traumatizing you further, but I wanted to ask you about the Israeli authorities arresting you last year, shortly after you posted a video showing an Israeli soldier throwing an Israeli activist to the ground and then punching them in the face in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank. Before you were released, you were beaten at the police station, your home raided. The Israeli activist, Miko Peled, tweeted, "Issa's life is in danger and there must be guarantees to his personal safety." Miko Peled is the son of the legendary Israeli General Matti Peled. Talk about that. ISSA AMRO: Yes. Now Miko Peled is receiving online death threats, too, for doing this kind of things. Yes, last November, the same case as last week what happened with me, Israeli soldier punished an Israeli visitor who tried to apologize for Palestinian families who were attacked by fanatic, extreme Israeli settlers. And I filmed another soldier, Amy, saying that "Itamar Ben-Gvir will make order here, and he will get rid of you." Filming that made me a target. And the Israeli media described me as a provocateur, as last week they didn't blame the soldier for what he did to me. They blamed me for filming. They blamed me from reporting. This is the case of many other human rights defenders. Israel tries to hide the truth. They don't want us to report. They don't want us to document the human rights violations. With my case, the soldier attacked me. The Israeli army spokesperson lied about what happened with me. The Israeli official, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is the national security minister, backed up the soldier and gave a green light to other soldiers to shoot and kill and attack Palestinians and attack me. The Israeli media described me as a provocateur. And the Israeli public, they didn't defend me, and they didn't denounce the Israeli soldiers' behavior in the — one week ago and in last November. So, the soldiers, they have a real environment and atmosphere of incitement and escalation. And, you know, they want to be really following Itamar Ben-Gvir and other populists to show Palestinians more brutality and, you know, to revenge from Palestinian human rights defenders who document the human rights violations. And really, I have fear of my life from what I see from the Israeli soldiers and the backup from the army and the backup from the government and even the backup from the Israeli media, which is giving the soldiers excuses for what they are doing — AMY GOODMAN: Let me — ISSA AMRO: — you know, what happened with me. So, it was so obvious on videos, but the Israeli media lied about it, and the Israeli army lied about it. AMY GOODMAN: Amira Hass, we're going to end with you. You have the attack on Nablus. You hear what Issa is describing. You've got Israel's military bombing parts of the Gaza Strip after Palestinian militants fired rockets at southern Israel this week, with the Nablus raid being a huge provocation. Where is this going? We have 30 seconds. AMIRA HASS: Yeah. Look, I mean, everything that has been described here has happened before, and to Issa, as well, and also under former governments. The problem that now — and Israel has always — was experimenting after the Nakba with all sorts of expulsion. What I'm afraid now is that we have the strongest people in this present Israeli government are politicians of the right wing who have openly advocated for mass expulsion of Palestinians. It's Smotrich and Ben-Gvir. They are the strongest. And if you go to Hebron, where Issa lives, then it is the — AMY GOODMAN: Amira — AMIRA HASS: OK. AMY GOODMAN: We're going to have to leave it there, but I thank you both for being with us, Amira Hass, Haaretz correspondent, and Issa Amro. The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.
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Friday, February 24, 2023
Fwd: PALESTINE AND ELSEWHERE
Thursday, January 05, 2023
nation v. faith
THE ABSURD TIMES
PROTO-FASCISM
BY
HONEST CHARLIE
It has become clear even to the lowest and most vulgar minds in the world, if they bother to observe, which is unlikely as recently the highest level of political observance they practice, or perhaps are capable of of observing, is the role counting in the capital building, free footage for domestic "news" outlets, if they do observe (and this is possible) activity in Israel that this Zionist state is determined to wage a war not only as a step toward apartheid but as a FINAL SOLUTION. Zionists are still aware of the term which they learned from Hitler and Nazi Germany, and which is being preached increasingly by Israelis such as Fogel in the illustration above, slogans preached openly just as white supremacist slogans gained traction and visibility in the U.S. as a result of the recent administration here.
Notions or phrases such as Zionism or Christian Nationalism are not religious terms, nor is anyone who is a member or advocate of such things a believer in some higher power. Furthermore, any individual who claims to believe in such property-oriented and forceful aggression over truth can not possibly be considered a believer in such a "faith" without directly insulting it and contradicting all that it really stands for.
Although a Security Council meeting was mentioned as convening today, no information on the, not surprisngly, has been made public. However, here is an interview, reproduced word for word, with two very knowledgeable professionals on the subject:
"Far-right Israeli politician Itamar Ben-Gvir's Tuesday visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem is being roundly condemned across the Middle East. Ben-Gvir is a key part of Benjamin Netanyahu's new far-right government, which includes ultranationalist and ultraorthodox parties that are calling openly for the annexation of the West Bank. "The international community has to speak with one voice in rejecting this extremism and rejecting those terrorists and those elements of fascists in the Israeli government," Palestine's ambassador to the U.N., Riyad Mansour, urged Wednesday. In 2007, Ben-Gvir was convicted in an Israeli court of incitement to racism and supporting a terrorist organization. In 2021, he relocated his parliamentary office to the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem, where settlers have attempted to violently evict Palestinian residents from their homes. As the newly sworn-in minister of national security, Ben-Gvir will now be responsible for border police in the West Bank. We speak to Gideon Levy, an Israeli journalist and author, and Diana Buttu, a Palestinian lawyer and former adviser to the negotiating team of the Palestine Liberation Organization, about Ben-Gvir's visit, Netanyahu's new government and surging violence against Palestinians.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: The United Nations Security Council is preparing to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the recent visit by Israel's new national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem. His visit was condemned across the Middle East. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry called his visit an "unprecedented provocation." The militant group Hamas warned Ben-Gvir's actions could lead to more conflict. Jordan has summoned Israel's ambassador to protest the visit, with Jordan's Foreign Ministry decrying it as "scandalous and [an] unacceptable violation of international law."
Al-Aqsa Mosque is one of the holiest sites in Islam. It's also one of the holiest sites in Judaism. Temple Mount was the site of a Jewish temple destroyed by the Romans 2,000 years ago. On Wednesday, Palestine's ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, condemned Itamar Ben-Gvir's visit.
RIYAD MANSOUR: The attack is not only against our holy sites in Al-Aqsa Mosque and in the Haram-e-Sharif. There are — because of this environment of extremism that this Israeli extreme government, the extremest in the history of Israel, is providing, is leading to additional aggression against our Christian sites, Christian graveyards. You've seen by now that there are crosses over, you know, graveyards being trampled upon and attacked by extreme settlers. This is a toxic environment. The international community has to speak with one voice in rejecting this extremism and rejecting those terrorists and those elements of fascists in the Israeli government.
AMY GOODMAN: Itamar Ben-Gvir's visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque came just days after he was sworn in as part of Benjamin Netanyahu's new far-right government, which includes ultranationalist and ultraorthodox parties that are calling openly for the annexation of the West Bank.
Netanyahu's selection of Itamar Ben-Gvir as his national security minister has sparked widespread condemnation. In 2007, Ben-Gvir was convicted of incitement to racism and supporting a terrorist organization. Ben-Gvir lives in an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank. In 2021, he relocated his parliamentary office to the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem, where settlers have attempted to violently evict Palestinian residents from their homes. For years, Ben-Gvir hung a picture in his home of Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli American who killed 29 Palestinians at a mosque in Hebron in 1994. The Jerusalem Post's editor-in-chief described Ben-Gvir as, quote, "the modern Israeli version of an American white supremacist and a European fascist," unquote. Ben-Gvir will now be responsible for border police in the occupied West Bank at a time when violence and the killing of Palestinians has been surging.
To talk more about Itamar Ben-Gvir's visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Israel's new far-right government, considered the most far-right government in Israel's history, we're joined by two guests. In Tel Aviv, Gideon Levy is with us, an award-winning Israeli journalist and author, columnist for the newspaper Haaretz, member of its editorial board. He's also the author of the book The Punishment of Gaza. And in Ramallah, we're joined by Diana Buttu. She is a Palestinian lawyer and former adviser to the negotiating team of the Palestine Liberation Organization, also a fellow at Democracy for the Arab World Now, or DAWN. Her latest piece is an op-ed in The New York Times headlined "Israelis Have Put Benjamin Netanyahu Back in Power. Palestinians Will Surely Pay the Price."
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Diana Buttu, let's begin with you. Let's start with this latest action, considered an incitement by so many, both Palestinians and Israelis, not to mention the rest of the Middle East. Talk about who Itamar Ben-Gvir is. I mean, he wasn't just charged with incitement of racism against Arabs; he was convicted of it and supporting a terrorist organization.
DIANA BUTTU: Yes. Itamar Ben-Gvir is — he's a disciple, he's a follower, of Rabbi Meir Kahane, who was a man who believed that Palestinians should be ethnically cleansed from their homeland. And Itamar Ben-Gvir has espoused the exact same views as Meir Kahane and continues to espouse these same views. He's talked very openly about his support for Baruch Goldstein.
And his visit, his latest visit, to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is not just a visit. It's an attempt to show that there will forever be Israeli sovereignty on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and he's trying to incite violence. Not only is he trying to incite violence, he has long believed that the Al-Aqsa Mosque should be — should disappear, and in its place the Temple Mount be recreated. So, his policies have always been that of inciting to violence, inciting to hatred. And although he was only convicted once, he has been indicted more than 50 times.
The fact that he is allowed to be a minister in this government just shows how much it is that the international community is allowing fascism to reign, and that they're effectively doing nothing. All that we have heard since this visit and since he's become minister is that the world supports the status quo. But it is that status quo that has led to people like Itamar Ben-Gvir being able to become minister and their actions being normalized. I fear that what he intends to do is to create more and more and more violence as a pretext to, once and for all, as he put it, showing Palestinians who the masters of the house are. Those are his words, not mine.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Gideon Levy, could you also respond to Ben-Gvir's appointment as national security minister and, in particular, his appointment to this post?
GIDEON LEVY: Benjamin Netanyahu had to create a government. He heads — he is leading the biggest party. And he decided this time to go with the most extreme right-wingers. The problem is not this. The question is why those right-wingers are so popular in Israel. And here we face a reality which is well known for a long time. The Israeli society is a very right-wing, nationalistic and, part of it, racist society. We have to face this. That's the main problem, not if Ben-Gvir is minister or is not. The problem is: Who are we facing when we speak about Israel?
And in many ways, I see also a positive side to the results of the last elections. By tearing all the masks, now we see reality. Now it's not the umbrella of the Zionist left, who speaks so nicely and does almost the same like the right-wingers. Now we face the extreme racism in its most pure expression. Those people don't deny their racism. Those people say very clearly that Jewish supremacy means that only Jews have rights in this land. And I hope that both some parts of Israeli society and, above all, the international community will finally draw the conclusions.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Gideon Levy, that's exactly right that these far-right parties have received this kind of support, almost 11% in this election, but that's much higher than in the past. So, could you explain why you think these far-right, hard-line, extremist parties are more popular now in Israel than they've been in the past?
GIDEON LEVY: It's almost inevitable. If you continue with the occupation, supported by the Zionist left — not only supported but led by the Zionist left — and if this reality of an apartheid state continues, it calls for extremism. It calls for telling the truth. It calls for telling — for tearing the mask and saying, "We aim to be an apartheid state. The occupation is not temporary; the occupation is here to stay. And if it is here to stay, it means we are an apartheid state, and we are even not ashamed of it." After 56 years of occupation, you can't expect anything but this radical movement, while the Zionist left never tried to separate itself from the occupation, never tried seriously to put an end to it. So, if there is no other force in the Israeli power, let's go for the extreme. This makes a lot of sense.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Diana, could you also talk about that, the shift in the Israeli polity further to the right, and the role, indeed, that the left has played? You wrote a recent piece headlined "Israel's So-Called Left Has Aided the Far Right's Rise."
DIANA BUTTU: Yes. Gideon is exactly right. Look, there's been a so-called left inside Israel for quite some time, but this so-called left is — I say "so-called" because that's exactly what it is, so-called — they self-proclaim as left-wing, but this is a left wing that has never stood up against the occupation. It's a left wing that has supported the various attacks on the Gaza Strip. It's a left wing that has supported the siege and blockade on the Gaza Strip. It's a left wing that has supported the enactment of racist legislation, even in the past couple of years. And so, when you're an Israeli voter who sees that the options are between this so-called left wing, which has supported the exact same things as the right wing has, then, of course, it's natural that they're going to vote for this fascist right.
The big problem has been that we've never seen that Israelis have paid a price for their electoral choices. It's always been that Palestinians pay the price. And with this new government, it's going to be Palestinians once again, but even more than in the past. Unlike previous Israeli governments where there were other issues that they may have been focused on, this current government, this new government, is myopically and only focused on making life miserable for Palestinians. They don't have any other political platform, other than to try to ethnically cleanse Palestinians. This is why we've seen, since the beginning of this year, that Israel has killed at least one Palestinian per day. And this is why we're seeing the plans to completely ethnically cleanse the Palestinian town of Masafer Yatta. It's because this government has put in its crosshairs Palestinians. And given that there's nobody in the international community that's stopping them, it's going to continue full steam ahead.
AMY GOODMAN: So, let me ask you about Masafer Yatta, near Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, the southern part. Israel's military has begun demolishing homes, water supplies, olive orchards. This week, Israeli armored vehicles accompanied demolition crews as they razed homes and farms in two villages. Last year, the Israeli High Court of Justice approving the home demolitions, which will uproot more than a thousand people, leading to the U.S. congressmember, who happens to be Palestinian American, Rashida Tlaib, tweeting, "Not even one week into 2023, new far-right apartheid government is moving to ethnically cleanse entire communities — which would displace more than 1,000 Palestinian residents, including 500 children. All with American backing, bulldozers, and bullets."
Talk about the U.S. support at this point for Israel. You have President Biden congratulating Netanyahu on his return to power, saying he looks forward to working with an old friend for decades, adding, "the United States will continue to support the two-state solution and to oppose policies that endanger its viability or contradict our mutual interests and values." Can you talk about what you feel — and I'd also like to get Gideon's response to this — the U.S. should be doing now?
DIANA BUTTU: Look, the U.S. is way behind in the times. And if they still think that there's something left of a two-state solution, then it's only in their dreams that they're seeing it, because we certainly don't see it on the ground. Instead what we have seen is that Israel has been allowed to do whatever it wants when it comes to killing Palestinians, when it comes to stealing Palestinian land, when it comes to ethnic cleansing. When it comes to crossing the red lines that are enshrined in international law, Israel is allowed to get away with it — and not only get away with it, but continues to receive support and financial support from the United States, as well. This isn't just a question of statements, but they're also getting financial support from the United States. And as we look around the world and we ask ourselves, "We're now in the year 2023, and they're still talking about a two-state solution, a two-state solution that died more than two decades ago?" And yet they've done absolutely nothing on the ground to make sure that two-state solution comes to fruition. Instead, all that they have done is to facilitate Israel's process of slowly ethnically cleansing Palestinians.
One of the new members of this new government is a man named Smotrich, who came out just last year, in 2021, and said that the only reason that Palestinians who are citizens of Israel, like me, are still allowed to exist is because the job wasn't finished in 1948, thereby basically telling us that our time here is short.
What the U.S. has instead done is, instead of giving them a red light and scaling back and decolonizing and pushing for Israel to end its occupation, end its apartheid, it's pretty much served as a mask for Israel to continue to do whatever it wants to do. And this is why we're in this situation now. It's we've seen that the world is doing nothing. We see that the Israelis, as a result, don't have to pay a price. And so, once again, it's going to be Palestinians that pay the price for Israel's electoral choices.
AMY GOODMAN: And, Gideon Levy, if you can respond? Also talk about what you're writing in Haaretz, a very well-respected Israeli newspaper, on whose board you serve, and the response of the Israeli population, for example, to these demolitions.
GIDEON LEVY: Let's face reality. The United States is supporting the apartheid system, is very interested in continuing the occupation and has no interest in human rights of the Palestinians. There's no other way to describe the American position throughout decades, because would it be different, would the United States seriously mean to put an end to the occupation, the occupation could have come to its end years ago, if not decades ago. So, it's all about a hollow lip service that the United States is paying from time to time, all kind of hollow condemnations. By the end of the day, Israel, this apartheid state, is this closest ally of the United States. The money of the taxpayers of the United States go to Israel more than to any other country in the world, and this means that the United States is in favor of an apartheid state, nothing else but this.
As about your second question, the question about the Israeli reaction to what's going on in Masafer Yatta can be asked only — and, Amy, I highly appreciate you, but can be asked only in the United States, not in Israel, because in Israel, nobody cares, and nobody heard about Masafer Yatta. Masafer Yatta is well known maybe to the readership of Haaretz, not all of it, maybe to a small devoted left camp which is still active. But most of the Israelis not only couldn't care less, they never heard about it. And if they will hear about it, they will just yawn in your face, because, finally, they all buy the official propaganda — namely, Israel is doing it against terror, or Israel has to protect itself, and all those old slogans of lies and lies and lies.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Gideon, could you outline what you expect the policies that this new government will initiate, from substantive changes to the judiciary, as well as restrictions on civil liberties within Israel itself, and, of course, what we said in our introduction, the steps towards the annexation of the West Bank?
GIDEON LEVY: As we talk now, the Supreme Court of Israel is dealing with some of the first actions. And the Supreme Court will try to stop them, but the Supreme Court by itself will be a subject of attacks by this new government, who is going to limit the legal system very much and very quickly. It's really admirable to see how fast they act. While the Zionist left had one-and-a-half year of being power and did nothing, they are not yet one week in power, and they are already running with their initiatives.
Now, about annexation, I can tell you — that's my, obviously, private view — I really hope they will annexate at least part of the West Bank, if not all of the West Bank. The West Bank was annexated 55 years ago. The West Bank is practically annexated to Israel. Israelis live in the West Bank and behave in the West Bank as if it's part of Israel, and it is part of Israel. Now, once Israel will declare it officially and legally, then it will be really a question, because then the apartheid state is declared, you understand it. If Israel annexate the West Bank without giving full civil rights and national rights to the Palestinians, which nobody in this government or in any other government means to give, once this is happening, Israel declares itself an apartheid state. And then I would like to see how Washington and the EU and some others will react to an official declaration of apartheid. Will they treat it like the first apartheid state, namely, South Africa, or will they continue to hug Israel as a darling of the West, even though it's a declared apartheid state? So, let's challenge the world.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Diana, could respond to the points that Gideon has made? And also, you've written a great deal in your recent articles both about settler violence against Palestinians and Israeli security forces' complicity in that violence. If you could elaborate on that and respond to what Gideon said about apartheid?
DIANA BUTTU: Look, it's already an apartheid state. And I don't need for Israel to declare it to be an apartheid state. They already know it's an apartheid state. My fear is always: What is it that's going to happen to people on the ground? And whether Israel annexes or whether they don't annex, the result for Palestinians is the same, that Israel is continuing this process of land theft, it's kicking people off their land, it's turning Palestinians into people who are homeless, and it's killing them, as well. This has long been its process, long been its system.
Now, it's not just the Israeli state that does this. It's not just the army, but it's also Israeli settlers. We've already seen that in all of these years, with all of these attacks that have been conducted by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, that rarely, if ever, is an Israeli settler ever prosecuted for their crimes, or rarely even charged for their crimes, much less see the full conviction. And this is because Israel has turned a blind eye towards violence that it perpetrates against Palestinians. But again, I don't expect anything differently from the Israeli state, nor do I expect anything differently from Israeli settlers. That is their raison d'être. That is their reason for being.
What I would have expected is that somehow the world community would have stood up and would have done something differently and begin to hold Israel accountable for its actions. It would have held the Israeli state, its soldiers and so on. And instead, we don't see it. For example, just this past year, a Palestinian American journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, who was also a friend, was murdered by Israel, by Israeli forces. Her death was probably the most investigated death that I've ever seen in all of my years of living here in Palestine, from everything from outlets from CNN to AP to The New York Times to NGOs and so on. And yet, to this current day, we still don't see that anybody has been held to account, even though we know that it was an Israeli soldier who shot and killed her.
And so, this is what it means to be living as a Palestinian, is that you're always living in the space where your life mean absolutely nothing and that your life could be extinguished at any moment, whether that happens at the hands of an Israeli soldier, whether it happens at the hands of an Israeli settler, or whether your land and your homes are demolished by the Israeli government. That's what it means to be living as a Palestinian.
AMY GOODMAN: And I want to encourage people to go to our website at democracynow.org, where we interviewed Democracy Now! correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous, who did a documentary for Al Jazeera called The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, and we also interviewed Shireen's niece, Lina. Diana Buttu, we want to thank you so much for being with us, Palestinian lawyer, former adviser to the negotiating team of the Palestine Liberation Organization. We'll link to your piece in The New York Times, "Israelis Have Put Benjamin Netanyahu Back in Power. Palestinians Will Surely Pay the Price." And Gideon Levy, Israeli journalist in Tel Aviv, columnist for the newspaper Haaretz and member of its editorial board."
