AMY GOODMAN: Amira, do you hear reports like this in Israel on Israel television or radio?
AMIRA HASS: This is exactly what I thought when I listened to Mohammed Omer, that this kind of news is completely absent from the news diet, the journalistic diet of Israelis [inaudible] Israeli. I, for personal reasons, am today in Tel Aviv and not in Ramallah, so I have not been listening to Palestinian or Arab radio and did not watch Arab TV, so I’m also—you know, I was stunned by hearing Mohammed Omer, even though I talk all the time with my friends in Gaza. And this is indeed life here—actually, I can report about how life sixty kilometers north to Gaza, how life is normal, how everybody—except for one demonstration yesterday, that the group of leftwing Israelis held in front of the Ministry of Security, Israeli Ministry of Security, there is nothing.
AMY GOODMAN: Yes, we can hear you fine.
AMIRA HASS: Yeah. You hear me, yeah. So there was one demonstration, and that’s it, and people live their life.
AMY GOODMAN: And the perception of what is happening now in Gaza, the comment of the Deputy Defense Minister saying that they will launch a “holocaust,” trying to get to be very careful. He’ll bring—he said, “The more Qassam [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, [the Palestinians] will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah [holocaust] because we will use all our might to defend ourselves.”
AMIRA HASS: OK. I must say that there is some misunderstanding here. Matan Vilnai was very, very insensitive to use the word—a word which can—which is, of course—it is shoah, what we all know is “holocaust.” But in Hebrew, it also means “disaster.” And here, I tend to believe that he didn’t mean to say that there will be a holocaust. He meant that the Palestinians will inflict upon themselves—and that’s what he said—the Palestinians will inflict upon themselves a worse disaster if they continue. This is the correct translation. Unfortunately—of course, he had to think about the words he was using, of course, because you say “shoah,” it’s not a neutral term anymore. But he didn’t mean “holocaust,” that’s for sure. So let’s—I think that here we should be accurate. Then Arab and Palestinian media picked up on it and made all kind of other, you know, media—
AMY GOODMAN: So, Amira Hass, what do you see then happening now? Tomorrow, Condoleezza Rice is expected to arrive, the US Secretary of State.
AMIRA HASS: I couldn’t understand.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you expect to see happening now? Tomorrow, the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, is arriving.
AMIRA HASS: Yeah, I—look, this has been—what is true is that Israel is opting all the time for an escalation. And I agree with Mohammed Omer that it only strengthens Hamas, even though Israelis say, claim that what they want to do is to topple Hamas, actually, by the attacks. And what happens is the opposite. So I tend to believe that maybe they only want to strengthen Hamas, and not only Hamas, but to strengthen those wings of Hamas or those currents in Hamas which oppose any, any sort of—how would I say—ceasefire with Israel and only opt for more struggle against Israel.
Look, as long as—Gaza is not separated from the West Bank. We see, even though the Israelis have succeeded, and unfortunately with the help of Abu Mazen and Hamas, have succeeded to disconnect Gaza from the West Bank. But the people feel it’s the same people. And we see, whenever Gaza is so atrociously attacked, people in the West Bank come out and protest. As long as Israel continues its policies of colonization and [inaudible]—and at the same time negotiations with never come to an end, I think that we can only wait for more escalation, more—maybe some weeks or days of tranquility, and then another outburst, another explosion. It seems like a perpetuum mobile of fightings and escalations.
if we take the nothion that as it was given away with out recourse or intent towards the localised population at the time or since. by thrid parties who had no right or legitmacy to do so in the first place. other than being an invading and occupying force at the time...
