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Through violence, coercion and corruption, Israel, the United States, the United States and Saudi Arabia want the Palestinians to surrender their rights under international law and accept limited sovereignty in a divided territory. But the rise of nonviolent resistance in the occupied territories and solidarity efforts around the world – like a new boycott of settlements in Ireland – are making Palestinian surrender a pipe dream, Rami Khouri said.
TRNN video & transcription:
AARON MATE: This is the real news. I am Aaron Mate. It's the second part with Rami Khouri. He is a syndicated columnist, professor of journalism at the American University of Beirut, and a non-resident Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School.
Rami, so in the first part we talk about this growing alliance between Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the Trump administration trying to put pressure on Iran. Now let's talk about how this dynamic fits into the issue of Palestinians, with Israel getting closer to the Gulf monarchies. Today we are talking about the 100th day of the Great March of Return to Gaza, where the Palestinians have been out every week in these non-violent demonstrations, have been slaughtered en masse by Israeli forces. And this coincides with reports that the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Israel have joined forces to pressure Palestinians. There have been reports of proposals, including pressure on Egypt to consider the people of Gaza as citizens; also Gulf monarchies who fund massive humanitarian projects in Gaza as a way to try to convince the Palestinians to abandon Hamas and put pressure on the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Your sense of how all these players now, what are their designs when it comes to Palestine?
RAMI KHOURI: Â From the Israeli point of view the conceptions have not changed since 1947-1948 when Israel was created, and the, the current Arab-Israeli conflict took shape. Israelis do not want to accept the fact that the Palestinian people have the right to end their refugee situation, to find a place or property in what has become Israel and to have a political resolution that gives them a Palestinian state parts of Palestine, mainly the West Bank and Gaza. The Israelis want this resolved outside of Palestine. They want it to be a humanitarian problem. They want other people to pay for it, and they want someone else to welcome Palestinians.
None of this is going to happen. Palestinians in 1947-1948 who were thrown or fled during the war that created Israel were about 750,000 people. They are about 9 million now. It is amazing that any Zionist Israeli or Zionist or Christian, friend of Israel, may think that the Palestinians will simply disappear and go to live in Sinai, or that everyone will pay for it. The second point concerns the Arab Gulf monarchies like the Saudis, the Emiratis and others who are trying to help reach an agreement and get closer to the state of Israel, they should realize that a poll has just been published three days ago in the Arab world, carried out by a very respectable research institute, made every year in the region, showing that an overwhelming majority of citizens Arabs do not want to normalize relations with Israel until there is a reasonable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Thus, the leaders of the Gulf pursue policies that are terribly at odds with the desires of their own people. The Americans, for their part, with Jared Kushner, whom I call the jerk junior, are proposing this really silly idea that you can build a gas plant, a power plant and a water desalination plant in the Sinai. Israeli-Palestinian conflict It's just a fantasy thought. They are illusions, illusions. They try, everybody, the Emiratis, the Saudis, the Israelis, the American government, at least; not the American people. The American people are much more reasonable, as we know from the polls and other evidence. They want an impartial resolution.
But governments are trying to come up with an agreement that would suggest that the Arab-Israeli conflict has been resolved. And there is no agreement that excludes the two key elements: the resolution of the issue of Palestinian refugees and the creation of a Palestinian state and territories that would be negotiated. And in return, the Arabs recognize the state of Israel within its 1967 borders and live peacefully with it. There is no other resolution than this one. If this is not feasible by Jared Kushner and his group of negotiators, all of whom are supporters of Israeli settlements, donors, donors to Israeli settlements; they are pro-Zionist hawks on the far right. And it is the negotiating team that is supposed to do that.
I mean, it's not just inefficient and delusional, but it's an insult. Not only for the Arab people and the Palestinians. It's an insult to the American people that the US government would put this kind of bargaining team to come up with this kind of moronic idea, and then wait for the world to buy really this fantasy. So, it's just beyond comprehension. But that's the world of Donald Trump. And the pro-Zionist zealots right, and the Christian Zionist zealots, and the donors to Las Vegas and other places that support these types of positions, they live in this delusional world where they think because they are powerful, because they have money, because they can kill people, that they can get their way. But that's not how the world works. And the Israelis, the Jewish people and the Israeli government should be the first to understand this, because they gave the world the most spectacular example of how a group of people who believe they have certain rights will continue to work for these rights of years if they need them. And they succeeded, and they got a state of Israel, but they threw the Palestinians to do it.
So, that's really what it's all about. These are delusions on one side. And on the Palestinian side, it is a persistence to continue to explore a political resolution that can be negotiated on the basis of international law and American resolutions. But at the same time, continue to resist peacefully for the most part; and some people like Hamas use military force. The military force will not resolve this conflict one way or the other
AARON MATE: Regarding the global response, do you see any decline on the part of the International community? I think this week we had Monday Israel tightening its already medieval blockade of the Gaza Strip, closing the only commercial crossing; thus prohibiting even more goods, and also exports, in addition to the massive amounts of goods that it already prohibits. The global reaction was very muted. The United States gave a kind of lukewarm response, a lukewarm criticism. Almost no coverage here in the US media reports as the New York Times framed it, as I believe, the title was something like, "Can not stop the flaming kites, Israel chokes the trade from Gaza ", thus, framing this act an answer to those kites that were lit and transported to Israel from Gaza. Do you see a step back? Anything that could stop Israel, the United States and its partners from pursuing this, this collective punishment, this besieging of the Palestinians in an effort to get them to submit?
RAMI KHOURI: Â There is nothing on the horizon except one possible thing, which is a growing movement around the world; a peaceful and non-violent political movement to frame the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the treatment of the occupation of the West Bank Gaza and East Jerusalem in 1967 and to treat all Palestinians, including Palestinians citizens of the West Bank. State of Israel, as well as the refugees on the outside and the people who are busy, treating them in the same way that white South Africa treated the blacks and the colors during l & # 39; apartheid. The growing movement of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel is gaining ground. The Irish Parliament, the Upper House voted last week not to accept products coming out of Israeli settlements.
In other words, there is a differentiation in American churches, Presbyterian and other churches, and unions, and schools, universities. There is a growing, slow, slow movement in the world to tell the Israelis that we support Israel as a state within its 1967 borders. Absolutely, irrevocably, we support and defend Israel. But we reject absolutely and irrevocably the colonial policies of Israel and the occupied territories. It is growing, and it scares the Israelis, which should be the case, because if you become synonymous, if Israel becomes synonymous with apartheid, it is bad news for Israel.
AARON MATE: Rami Khouri, syndicated columnist, professor of journalism at the American University of Beirut and non-resident principal investigator at Harvard Kennedy School. Thank you very much
RAMI KHOURI: Â Thank you for having me.
AARON MATE: Â And thank you for joining us on The Real News
Opinion / Analysis 07/02/18 Trump pursues Israel "peace plan" to break Gaza without Palestinian participation
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