Buttu: Israel wants to paint the picture that everybody is Hamas. If I were to paint the reverse picture and say that every Israeli has blood on their hands, every Israeli is a legitimate target, every single Israeli is voting for the likes of Netanyahu or Lieberman -- I would be ridiculed. But this has become so commonplace when it comes to Palestinians. Even if Palestinians were to demand an investigation, Israel would halt such an investigation. You don't just get a license to shoot people because they are approaching a fence. You are only allowed to protect yourself if you are under threat. Not even a single Israeli has been injured. It is a shoot-to-kill massacre.
Bernstein: From what I understand, many women took on leadership roles. This civil disobedience, this level of commitment, reminds me of when Gandhi went to South Africa.
Buttu: What the Israelis don't seem to understand is that many Palestinians feel they have nothing left to live for. The Palestinians are coming out en masse and saying, "We've lived through 51 years of this. Enough! We want to be able to go home." Others are saying, "We're tired of the blockade. We just want to live a normal life." These protests are sustained by the will of a people who want to see a better life. Nobody in this world is going to stay quiet when their freedom is being denied. To expect that somehow the Palestinians are just going to sit and wait for people like Trump to come up with a deal is simply farcical.
Bernstein: I want to come back to the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem. Can you talk more about the historical significance of that? It seems to make it very clear that this is ethnic cleansing and not a step toward negotiation and peace, as the Trump administration would like the world to believe.
Buttu: There is a reason why up until yesterday not a single country in the world recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Jerusalem was taken by force illegally. One of the basic principles of international law is that you cannot acquire territory by force. Even during the period from 1948 to 1967, before the occupation, the United States refused to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. It is on occupied territory and violates international law.
The problem with the recognition of the embassy is that it is not just a blow to the Palestinians, it is a blow to the international system as we know it. Instead of abiding by international law and agreeing that a state cannot take territory by force, they are actually rewarding a country that steals. The message is that might makes right. This affects not just Palestinians but all countries around the world. If we say that force is okay, if we are going to reward countries for using force, the implications are far-reaching.
Rather than Trump focusing on ending this acquisition of territory by force -- meaning rolling back settlements -- he has instead rewarded the settlers. He has told Israel not to worry, with time you are going to be fully recognized. Yesterday I was at the counter-protest in front of the embassy. The Israeli security establishment was so afraid that they had over 300 guards there. They were pushing people to the ground and kicking them. Many of those brutalized were simply trying to hold up the Palestinian flag. The Trump administration has not only given Israel a green light to commit a massacre in Gaza, but it has also made clear that Israel can do whatever it wants to any dissenters in the country.
Bernstein: I can imagine that the Palestinians who are left in Jerusalem are going to be under even more extreme pressure. There will be more attacks, more demolitions, more accusations. Obviously the Israelis are going to want to clean out the town.
Buttu: This is a process which has been going on for 51 years. They have built and expanded Israeli settlements, they have demolished more than 5,000 homes. Any Jew living anywhere in the world can come to Jerusalem and automatically be granted citizenship. Israel is going to use this opportunity now to make more and more Palestinians stateless, to demolish more Palestinian homes. They are going to make life so difficult for Palestinians that they eventually disappear. That's the plan. This isn't a plan for peace, it is a plan for subjugation.
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