"…Today, we see Israeli spectators applauding the snipers along the Gaza fence
as if the Palestinians were less than human. Truly, Zionism is racism!” Ken
Stone, a member of the Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War, said in an interview
with the Tasnim News Agency.
"The fact that Israel continues to get away with barbaric crimes is a function
of its place in the Mideast as a nuclear-armed outpost of the US Empire,” he
noted.
Following is the full text of the interview:
Q: At least one Palestinian was killed and more than 400 wounded from live
Israeli fire and tear gas on Friday, as some 15,000 Palestinians participated in
protests dubbed the "Great March of Return” along the Gaza border for the
seventh consecutive weekend. About 50 people have been killed and more than
7,000 wounded by Israel since the protests began in late March. What do you
think about the developments and the Israeli regime's crimes?
Stone: I salute the courageous people of Gaza who, with bare hands and stones,
have challenged both Israel's occupational forces along the wire fences of the
open-air prison called Gaza and also its illegal and brutal blockade of the
Strip. I offer my deepest condolences to the families of the martyrs who
perished at the hands of the cowardly Israeli snipers and to those who have
suffered grievous injuries. And, as a Jew, I condemn, in the strongest possible
terms, the State of Israel, which calls itself a Jewish state, but which has
nothing whatever to do with Judaism, except to stir up anti-Semitism and to give
the Jews of the whole world a bad name.
I look forward to Palestinian Land Day 2018 on which we hope the vast majority
of the people of the world will demonstrate in various ways their solidarity
with the Palestinian people for an end to the Zionist occupation of their
homeland.
The State of Israel is part and parcel of the colonial project that divided up
the world in previous centuries among various European colonial powers. Previous
to the birth of the Zionist movement, Jews, Muslims, and Christians lived in
peace in Palestine. The Zionist movement introduced racism and discrimination
against Palestinians because it sought to remove them from the land. Thus,
today, we see Israeli spectators applauding the snipers along the Gaza fence as
if the Palestinians were less than human. Truly, Zionism is racism!
Q: Israel has rejected international calls for probes into recent deaths and
insisted that its open-fire rules for Gaza will not change. Some Western states,
particularly the US and Britain, who call themselves champions of human rights,
have supported the Tel Aviv regime’s crimes against Palestinians. The UN has
also failed to restore the rights of the people. What is your assessment? What
role can Muslim countries play in protecting the rights of the oppressed people
of Palestine?
Stone: The fact that Israel continues to get away with barbaric crimes is a
function of its place in the Mideast as a nuclear-armed outpost of the US
Empire. The US, its NATO allies, including unfortunately Canada, as well as the
Arab monarchies give Israel a pass at the United Nations and enable it to
continue its ugly apartheid existence with endless donations of money, arms, and
special trade, security, and other arrangements.
But this special criminal status for Israel can be brought to an end in various
ways. The current UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Canadian Professor Michael
Lynk, has announced that, using the precedent of the former South Africa's
occupation of Namibia in 1966, he will try through the UN General Assembly,
where the US has no veto, to put a legal end to Israel's occupation of the West
Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. This would have the effect of turning Israel if
it doesn't comply, into a pariah nation at the United Nations and other world
bodies, just as was done to apartheid South Africa in the 1980's. Another means
by which ordinary people and countries around the world can help to bring down
the apartheid Zionist regime is to support BDS. Palestinian civil society called
upon the people of the world to support a program of Boycott, Divestment, and
Sanctions against Israel. BDS has been gathering tremendous momentum since 2005,
costing Israel billions of dollars in lost revenues. Ordinary folks in Western
countries can also have a big effect on the policy of their governments
supporting the State of Israel. Ordinary folks should be lobbying their elected
officials to end the special status Israel has in the West. They should be
calling politicians to oppose the continuing illegal occupation and blockade of
Gaza but rather to support the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. Elected officials should
be pressured to end the charitable status of the Jewish National Fund which
funnels hundreds of millions of dollars into Israel to further seize Palestinian
land and distribute it to Jewish settlers. These are just a few things we could
do.
Q: Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman, has recently said that
Israelis "have the right to have their own land” and that formal relations
between Tel Aviv and Riyadh could be mutually beneficial. Given the fact that
the Saudi regime once opposed Israel’s right to exist, what do the comments
signal to the world’s public opinion? Do the remarks have an impact on the
oppression against Palestinians?
Stone: People who support the Palestinian cause need also to recognize that the
US empire has enlisted into its unholy alliance many regional Arab states,
mostly despotic regimes, such as the UAE, Jordan, and most recently, Saudi
Arabia, whose ‘clown prince’ has been making overtures of friendship towards
Israel. These client states have been drafted into not only propping up the
Zionist regime but also attacking (or preparing to attack) other targets of US
imperialism such as Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, and Iran. Palestine solidarity
activists should not be fooled by the phony "humanitarian intervention” disguise
in which these current and projected targets are cloaked, today for example, in
Syria, perhaps tomorrow, in Iran.
The struggle at the Gaza border fence today is part of centuries of a global
movement against colonialism and imperialism. We must support the Palestinians.
And we must also support the people of Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, and Iran, who are
also targeted in the sights of the US empire, its NATO allies, and its Arabic
client states. History is on our side.
"…Today, we see Israeli spectators applauding the snipers along the Gaza fence
as if the Palestinians were less than human. Truly, Zionism is racism!” Ken
Stone, a member of the Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War, said in an interview
with the Tasnim News Agency.
"The fact that Israel continues to get away with barbaric crimes is a function
of its place in the Mideast as a nuclear-armed outpost of the US Empire,” he
noted.
Source:Tasnim News agency