Israeli violence overshadowed by Paris attacks: Activist

Press TV has interviewed Pam Bailey, with the Euro-Med Monitor of Human Rights from Washington, to ask for her take on the going Israeli atrocities against Palestinians.

What follows is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Looking at the situation, as we have just said, 90 Palestinians have been killed since October; however, we are not seeing that much of an outrage when it comes to Israeli human rights violations be it through arresting minor Palestinians aged 12 to 14 or be it through the demolition of homes and of course these killings.

Bailey: Well, especially now. You know, now you have got everybody focusing on Paris and bombing Syria and it is sort of working out to Israel staver. So no one is paying attention which gives Israel a blank check to do whatever it wants. So Israel is really exploiting the opportunity at this point.

Press TV: Many have pointed out; you know not to diminish anything from the tragedy that took place in Paris, but the reality is that the Palestinians have to live through that horror day in and day out at the hands of the Israeli settlers and forces.  

Bailey: Yes absolutely, again not to belittle what you said what happened in Paris is terrible, but you have the Palestinians who have been living through daily direct violence or structural violence for nearly decades now, but at least in Gaza 7 or 8 years. So it has become a daily reality for them and yet the world stage, you know the government leaders, the media and the public seem to swing from crisis to crisis as soon as it gets a little bit less urgent or as soon as another emergency happens…and then you have these used-long crises that were allowed just keep festering.

And that is what I think people need to understand. When you see this anger in Palestinian demonstrators that is what the media does not cover that. You know the media covers just what is happening at that time and that is what they report. What they are not reporting is where this [demonstration] come from. It comes from decades of mistreatment and take a look at what happened in Qalandia. If they were after one person; I hear reports as many as thousands soldiers. I do not know if they were hundreds or thousands, but either way, for one person and they come in 2 in the morning. You know, what do you expect? Of course it is going to be extreme anger, anybody would be. And that is the part that seems to be totally lost on the media.

Press TV: It seems to be Ms. Bailey the world has gotten used to Palestinians being treated as thus. It has become the status quo that everybody has come to expect from this region. What needs to change for there to be outrage every time a Palestinian is unlawfully killed or his home is unlawfully razed or his child is detained with that legal representation?

Bailey: That is the thing; we cannot rely on outrage over a particularly bad situation. You know because Israel actually has been pretty good about retooling all the time. So we have a war and then back off and then for a while it is relatively and comparatively quiet. We cannot do that. What we have to so is looking at that underlying problem because until the occupation, which is the underlying problem, and a blockade of Gaza, until they are resolved, this is going to keep happening and instead we seem to only to care about you know when the outrage gets, when the atrocities get bad enough.

No one seems to want to deal with the underlying cause and the underlying cause is the occupation and the blockade and I think the world is sort of throwing up their hands. They say it cannot be solved, they say it is because the two sides cannot come on an agreement, no partners for peace, no strong leaders, but the reality is the international community does not have the backbone. 

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