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"An Intolerable Situation": Rashid Khalidi & Orly Noy on Israeli Colonialism & Escalating Violence

Mar 22, 2024
this is democracy Now democraticnow.org The War and Peace Report I'm Amy Goodman US Secretary of State Tony Blanken has arrived in Israel as

violence

in the region increases. Bling is expected to meet with both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the then-president of the Palestinian Authority. Mahmoud Abbas and Ramallah Israel kills at least 35 Palestinians since the beginning of the year the dead include eight children the deadliest incident occurred on Thursday when Israeli forces attacked the Janine refugee camp in the West Bank killing 10 people, including two children was the deadliest Israeli incursion into the West Bank two decades later, a day later, a Palestinian gunman shot dead seven people at a synagogue and an Israeli settlement in occupied East Jerusalem.
an intolerable situation rashid khalidi orly noy on israeli colonialism escalating violence
The shooting targeted worshipers watching on Saturday, the New York Times says it was the deadliest attack on civilians in Jerusalem since 2008. Following the attack, Israel's new national security minister, far-right politician Itamar Bengavir, promised to make it easier for Israelis to carry weapons over the weekend. Israelis living in illegal settlements in the West Bank carried out dozens of attacks against Palestinians. The official condemned the settler

violence

, saying it marked an unprecedented increase in the frequency of terrorist attacks against Palestinian citizens and their property. Now two guests join us. Rashid Holiday is the Edward Syed Professor of Modern Arabic Studies at Columbia University.
an intolerable situation rashid khalidi orly noy on israeli colonialism escalating violence

More Interesting Facts About,

an intolerable situation rashid khalidi orly noy on israeli colonialism escalating violence...

He is the author. of several books, including his latest, The Hundred Years War in Palestine, joins us today from Boston and in Jerusalem we are joined by Orly Noy, an Israeli political activist and editor of the Hebrew news site local call. She is also president of the executive board of Betsellum. The Israeli human rights group welcomes them both to democracy. Now, Professor Rasheed Khalidi, why don't we start with you? Can you talk about this escalation of violence? Go back to Thursday, what happened in Janine, of course, I know you can go back further and then. From there, there has been a wave of Israeli military attacks in the West Bank, focused mainly on Janine, but also including Nebdas and other towns throughout the West Bank, last year saw the highest number of deaths in the West Bank, more than in more than 15 years and this year in which that record seems to be broken, we have more than 30 people killed in the West Bank, about half of them women, children and other civilians and some of them, uh, uh, armed militants, uh, so this It is part of an escalation that has been occurring even before this new extremist Israeli government took office and I believe it reflects the intensity of colonization and the more intense Israeli control that is being exercised over the West Bank and occupied Arab East Jerusalem.
an intolerable situation rashid khalidi orly noy on israeli colonialism escalating violence
Um, it's the people's response to an absolutely

intolerable

situation

, the violence that we're seeing and then the Israeli government responds with more home demolitions. The settlers respond with more attacks on Palestinian lives and property, so we are seeing a

situation

that has been growing in intensity and in which the Israeli process of seizing land theft, removing it from the exclusive use of settlers, has pushed the Palestinians very close to the edge where this is going to reach, no one can tell except the pressure that is being exerted and in the absence of any reaction from the international community, the Arab world is terrified because nothing seems to be able to stop this movement towards complete incorporation of the entirety of the occupied territories into Israel and after the Janine attack and Remember that the well-known world-renowned Palestinian-American journalist, Sharina Abuakla, was killed just outside the Janine refugee camp while Israeli forces were conducting raids.
an intolerable situation rashid khalidi orly noy on israeli colonialism escalating violence
Talk about what happened the next day, talk about the Palestinian gunman, the attack on the synagogue. and interestingly the difference between, I mean, all of this is terrorizing communities, but when you use the word terror and foreign terrorist, yeah, I lost my sound there for a minute, I think what you're pointing out is the fact that the A much larger number of Palestinian victims, most of them civilians, are never recognized as a result of Israeli terrorism, whether it is settler terrorist violence or the actions of the Israeli army or police border guards, we are talking about three to one, four to one, civilian death ratio of five to one, many, many more Palestinians murdered, they only tell us that what the Palestinians do is, in quotes, terrorism, what the Israeli government does is in the service of the security, in quotes, and again this term security is one that is used as a cudgel by Israel to justify not only the murder of civilians and not only the attacks on localities such as the refugee camp or the city of Janine or the city of Nevis , but to justify the continued appropriation, expropriation, theft of Palestinian lands, further construction of exclusive housing.
Israel Israel New Israeli settlements All of this is justified in terms of security. What is colonization. Israel is systematically colonizing occupied Arab East Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied West Bank and, in doing so, involves terrorism, terrorism carried out by armed Israeli settlers. Israeli thugs and by the Israeli army that invariably protects the settlers, um, and that's why we're talking about the use of a term as a cudgel against the Palestinians in support of this colonization process, one that the United States constantly repeats, we had the president Biden. talk about the attack on the Senate on the faithful outside the synagogue as an attack on civilization this is the language of the colonizers throughout history in Ireland in Kenya in India in Egypt anything that those occupied by the colonized do to resisting is terrorism what the state does is lead violence and that is the way this is always being framed by Israel and by its supporters in the United States, including the US government under President Biden and Orly Noah.
You are in Jerusalem and not far from where the attack took place. place the Palestinian gunman killed seven Palestinians after the Israeli attack on Janine the day before talk about what happened there and about the mass protests this weekend uh yeah, uh, hi Amy, I just want to point out that the shooting in the settlement Nevada Jew in Jerusalem didn't happen in a synagogue, it happened on a street where there happens to be, like many streets, a synagogue and the Shabbat prayer had already ended a long time ago at the time of the shooting. Also regarding the reference to your question about terrorism, it is important. mention that the shooter's grandfather was murdered by a Jewish settler in 1999 and was never brought to justice and his second cousin, a 17-year-old, was shot dead recently in the Schwafat refugee camp while holding a gun toy. and then it's about bengvir actually awarding the shooter the police officer who shot dead the 17 year old boy with the certification of Excellence the protests are not directly related to this new cycle of violence that we have been witnessing but of course it is very much related with the uprising of the most radical far-right government with clear fascist elements that we now have in Israel.
I think there is a general notion within Israeli Jewish society that something very dramatic happened, but I think we are still not seeing the soul of it. When investigating what this radical change was supposed to bring about, following the general discourse in Israel, one might get the impression that an unidentified object from the sky suddenly hits the so-called Jewish and democratic state and deflects it from its central course, leading us to the current situation, which of course is not the case, I think that what we are seeing now, the rise of fascist rights in government, is a very natural result of the more fundamental nature of Zionism as it has been implemented in the so-called Jewish and democratic state, if we take, for example, the last mass demonstration last Saturday after the shooting, when we have a former general standing on stage admitting that the Supreme Court is the only shield that protects him from bringing him to justice at the ICC, so there is a different understanding of what Israeli Jews mean by protect when they say we are demonstrating now to protect democracy.
Unfortunately, if you can step back for a minute for people who don't follow Israel policy, closely when you talk about these mass protests against Netanyahu's intervention in the Supreme Court, take this into account and explain what you mean. and what they are protesting about. This new government again with clear fascists over democratic elements has a very clear agenda to crush everyone. The obstacles, the remnants of the obstacles that still give Israel some pretense of democracy, include free journalism, freedom of expression and, of course, the judicial system, which they see as a leftist elite, which of course is very far from being true.
All of the Israeli crimes in the West Bank have been approved by the Supreme Court of Israel and very rarely did the appointment interfere with any to stop any of those crimes, but right now the attack is against the democracy that has been the Jewish population. enjoying in Israel and they want to eliminate those expressions of freedom to dictate a very radical far-right agenda. You mentioned it too. My national security minister from Bengafir, who rewarded the soldier who killed the Palestinian, was himself condemned. in Israel of inciting racism and hatred against Palestinians or Israeli Arabs, he was actually accused of being part of a terrorist organization, which is quite ironic because one of the main items on his agenda is to exclude Palestinian members of the Knesset parliament the because they are alleged supporters of terrorism, but in reality the only member of Parliament at this time in the Israeli parliament said to have been accused of supporting a terrorist organization is Itama Benvir himself, Professor Rashid Colony as we speak .
Secretary of State Tony Blinken just left Egypt. where he met with President Cece and arrived in Tel Aviv, he will meet with Benjamin Netanyahu and tomorrow he will meet with Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. Can you talk about the importance of this journey? Well, Lincoln is coming to pump out more formaldehyde. in the decaying corpse of the so-called two-state solution, that is, and also to continue maintaining the status quo, which seems to be the goal of every American administration to allow Israel to continue doing whatever it does. to the Palestinians and occasionally defecate certain excesses. There has been very little change since the time the Biden Administration took office in the core policies of the United States government, whether it had to do with arming Israel to continue its occupation and colonization of Palestinian Land, for a sum of $3.8 billion each year in military sales and military aid to Israel, or support for the Trump administration's move of the US embassy to Jerusalem in recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, or recognition of the annexation by Israel's illegal immunization of the occupied Golan Heights has not changed any of these Trump Office policies and, um, Lincoln's planned long trip is essentially intended to promote US policies that also include normalization between a state that systematically brutalizes Arabs with other Arab governments being largely undemocratic and unrepresentative of popular sentiment in the Arab world, which is intensely pro-Palestinian, so Blinken's stated goals are to maintain the status quo and push this normalization process and can you also talk about what is happening right now in the Palestinian gunman's house?
They are sealing the whole idea of ​​collective punishment. Explain what happens. Well, what Israel does is systematically punish, not only the perpetrators of the attacks, but sometimes the extended families of the perpetrators of the attacks. This type of collective punishment is part of an In the process of trying to crush the spirit of Palestinian society, the perpetrator of an attack is not simply thrown in jail, family members are interrogated, brutalized and tortured, and then their home is sealed and ultimately destroyed; This is part of a policy. demolition of Palestinian homes that is carried out throughout occupied Arab Jerusalem that is carried out throughout the occupied West Bank, in particular in the 60 percent of the West Bank that forms the so-called area C according to the Oslo Accords, there Israel It systematically destroys houses that are built without permits, permits that are absolutely unattainable.
My brother had the foundation of a house destroyed near Jericho in area C simply because they didn't have, you can't get permits, so it's a no-win situation, which is planned to ultimately humiliate and punish society. Palestine and the demolition of the houses of the perpetrators of the attacks is just the top of a process of systematic demolition ofhouses throughout occupied Arab East Jerusalem and in the West Bank. Recently, in the New York Times, Rasheed headlined: Will US Embassy in Jerusalem Be Built on Confiscated Palestinian Land? He explains that the United States has submitted plans to build an embassy on land called Allenby Barracks.
This was land that was originally a British military installation rented to Palestinian landowners and to Palestinian foundations Pius. The owners of this property when this plan was originally proposed in the 1990s conducted research that showed that Palestinian ownership of this land sent it to the United States Administration, which at the time Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and she and her staff recognized that this was the case and the plan was shelvedWell, the Trump administration revived this plan and the Biden administration has moved forward with it today. The district's Planning Commission is investigating objections, including those raised by the families' lawyers, against this on the grounds that property is being transferred.
This is something that Secretary of State Lincoln and the US ambassador to Israel, Thomas Knights, were sent to the State Department. Lawyers for these families sent letters, including my family and many other Jerusalem families, including many people who are American citizens, telling the US government that we are about to build or plan to build on confiscated Palestinian-owned property. illegally by Israel, including property of American citizens, we have yet to have the families and lawyers for these families have yet to receive a response from the State Department. Well, let me play the role. Response from State Department spokesman Ned Price, who was asked if he had read his New York Times op-ed.
I saw it and appreciate the opportunity to comment on it mainly because there has been some misinformation or some misimpressions about our plans. To be very clear, we haven't decided which site to look for. A number of factors, including the history of the various sites that are in dispute, will be part of that site selection process. We are committed, as you know, Syed, to maintaining the US embassy in Jerusalem, the United States recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. We are currently considering two options for our future Embassy facilities in Jerusalem, one is the Allen B site and the second is the Arnona site, but again no decision has been made on site selection in accordance with Israeli law as we begin the process. to amend the urban plan for both potential locations the public comment period for the Allen B site remains open we also hope to advance the plan for the arnona site shortly with a separate comment period opening soon why there is a comment period is so that we can, uh, Garner, get a fuller sense of the public reaction, the public response to the sites that may be in dispute.
State Department Spokesperson Ned Price Professor Halliday your response The State Department received full information about the LB site in 1998, 25 years ago, um and While they may be studying what to do, they know perfectly well that if going forward with the Allenby site they will build on land owned by several Palestinians, including many American citizens, there are two sites, that is correct, but the plan presented by the US government to the district's Planning Commission on comment period ends today actually includes plans for an embassy at the Allen B site includes plans for other buildings at the so-called arnona site um so we'll see the The families' attorneys will hold a panel to discuss this tomorrow and we hope that the people tell their Congress people tell the State Department to tell the US government that it should not build on confiscated Palestinian land, including land. that it belongs to American citizens and, more broadly, that this move of the embassy to Jerusalem and this recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is only in effect another nail in the coffin of the so-called two-state solution, annexation by of Israel from the occupied Arab territories.
East Jerusalem is illegal under international law and, in fact, the United States opposed it at the time. It is one of the main problems between Palestinians and Israelis. Once again, the United States puts its big thumb on the scale in favor of the colonizer against the victim. Palestine moving its embassy to Jerusalem, that is the most important question, as well as the question of why the United States government recognizes illegal Israeli expropriations of private property of American citizens when the private property of American citizens is at stake in other places where the US government is normally alert. protect that this does not seem to be the case when the Palestinian Americans are concerned um obviously the biggest problem is Jerusalem and moving the embassy and the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and finally Orly Noy inflating the level um in the West Bank the Palestinian news agency wafa It was reported that there were 144 settler attacks against Palestinians on Saturday alone and also what Israeli society understands.
Yes, I think, very briefly, we should mention that 2022 has been the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank, 100 out of 150 victims and this is under the so-called change of the Israeli government, not the current far-right government, yes, this It's something that happens. I mean, settler violence is an ongoing daily occurrence in the West Bank, but after events like Friday's shooting. At night they tend to intensify a lot. I will only mention that in the village of Tor Musaya in the West Bank, the settlers, and this is documented on camera, burned down a house that by chance was not inhabited by a family at the time of uprooting. trees attacking Palestinian farmers the general Israeli public has no idea because the mainstream media does not cover it, which creates the reality where Israeli and also largely international public discourse only talks about violence in our area when Israeli Jews are being attacked.
I want to thank you both very much for being with us. Israeli Noy Orly Noy is an Israeli Jewish political activist and editor of the Hebrew-language news site called local. She is the president of the board of directors of Betsalam, the Israeli human rights organization. Rashid Khalidi, Edward Saeed Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, we'll continue to cover this because of course the upcoming protests over police accountability continue in Memphis and across the country after the release of the body camera footage of police showing fatal police. beating Tyree Nichols the unarmed 29 year old black man arrested in a traffic stop beaten right next to his house dying three days later in the hospital stay with us

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