Israel existence threatened by peace in Palestine: Activist

Press TV has interviewed Ken O’Keefe, a London-based peace activist and former US Marine, in London, to discuss the recent spike in Israeli violence against Palestinians in the occupied territories.

Following is a rough transcription.

Press TV: What do you think about this escalation on the part of Israel, specially the blocking off, once again it has happened in the past of course, of the al-Aqsa mosque?

O’Keefe: Well, I think it is very important to remember what the real purpose of Israel is and if we look back at the historical foundation of Israel, it is in fact based on a pack of lies and the whole point of Israel is to instill and maintain conflict in the region. In fact, it is the only thing that Israel can do. When Israel talks about peace, we have to understand that peace, a just peace, would be the end of Israel because, if all of the people in historic Palestine were to be considered and all of their human rights be able to exercised, then demographically, …. Israel in its current form would no longer exist.

So the only thing that can maintain ….Israel is in fact perpetual conflict. So, as the rest of the world becomes more and more aware of the grave crimes that Israel continuously has committed against Palestinians, it is not as if this is a recent occurrence. This has been going on ever since the foundation of Israel and even before. So as Israel becomes more desperate, the only thing that it can do, the only thing that historically it was even set up to do, is to perpetuate conflict and we see this happening right now.

Press TV: I’m wondering how much longer can all of this continue? That is always what we wonder on this side of the camera, that how much longer can these things go on?

O’Keefe: Well, on the positive side, first off there is nothing that can be taken away from the families that are losing their loved ones. Of course, we know of the hunger strikers, the torture, the administrative detentions that continue to go on; basically, it is as if we are living in medieval times where the king or the queen can simply kidnap whoever they want and hold them incognito with no medical attention, no legal counsel, no access to family members. This has been the reality in Israel. The Palestinians have long been saying it is deep down within their core, it is only the rest of the world that is finally starting to realize it and face it and on the positive side what I would say is although there are differences between the racist apartheid regime of South Africa and Israel, most notably even those who have suffered under the apartheid in South Africa, Bishop Desmond Tutu among them, have said very clearly that the apartheid they experienced in South Africa was actually quite modest in comparison to that version of apartheid in Israel. But the point that I would make here is that if you had predicted in the late 80s that Nelson Mandela would soon be the democratically elected president of South Africa, you would have been considered absolutely crazy.

I would make the argument that what we are seeing in Israel today is the death throws, the final blows to Israel, because there is one thing that threatens Israel more than anything else, and that is the truth… continued to carry out a campaign of genocide against them and I mean genocide by the legal definition of the word. 

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