Foreign complicity in Israel’s crimes must end: Activist

Press TV has interviewed Joe Catron, a member of the International Solidarity Movement in New York, about over two dozen Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails going on hunger strike in the occupied Palestinian territories in protest against inhumane treatment by Israeli forces.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: We are seeing more rallies being held in the occupied territories against Israel’s violations, now we are seeing Palestinian inmates held in Israeli jails trying to take things in their own hands and go on hunger strikes. What reaction is there going to be from the international community to these acts of desperation by Palestinian prisoners?

Catron: Well I think this new hunger strike should be seen in the context of Israel’s overall wave of repression, of Palestinian resistance. In recent months since the beginning of October, it has imprisoned well over a thousand new Palestinian political prisoners and its mistreatment of these prisoners is systematic, consisting not only of torture specially during the initial interrogation period but also denial of health treatment, legal and family visits and any number of problems with living conditions ranging from inadequate insulation to inedible food.

So these are people who have a great deal to fight for not only and ultimately winning their freedom but simply securing the basic dignity of their day-to- day lives. In terms of international reactions, I think it will depend on what the grassroots supporters of these prisoners among popular movements are able to force foreign governments and other overseas institutions to do.

Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinian political prisoners like its occupation of Palestine as a whole is able to continue only with the support of what is called the international community, whether actively like as in the case of the United States by providing arms and weapons or in the best case by any number of other states that simply look the other way and perhaps issue ineffectual statements from time to time.

So I would not expect that much from governments of their own accord. It will depend entirely on people and what they are prepared to force governments to do.

Press TV: When we are talking about Palestine we are talking about decades and decades of repression. We just had news that the UN brokered a deal between the Syrian army and ISIL (Daesh) terrorists. Why do you think the UN is not stepping up to do something when it comes to the plight of Palestinians?

Catron: Well I think international institutions like the UN as well as foreign states have faced no cost or very little cost for their complicity in Israel’s crimes. It carries out these atrocities ranging from its mistreatment of political prisoners to its ongoing wave of settlement construction in the occupied West Bank to periodic massacres of Palestinians in Gaza. Institutions like the UN support in some cases these crimes. The UN has over 22 million dollars in contracts with G4S, a notorious Israeli prison contractor that equips the prisons and detention centers where the torture of Palestinian political prisoners takes place.

There are growing global efforts to force the UN as well as foreign governments to end their complicity in Israel’s ongoing crimes against the Palestinians but up until now they have not faced as much of a cost as will be necessary I think to force them to do so.

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