UN should move beyond mere condemnation of Israel crimes: Activist

Press TV has interviewed Jamal Juma, head of the Stop the Wall campaign from Ramallah, to discuss the deaths of Palestinians at the hands of Israeli forces in the occupied territories.

What follows is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: The number of Palestinians that have been killed in the occupied territories is increasing by the day; it is almost becoming unacceptable. Why is it that the world is silent? Right now we are standing at a number of 208 Palestinians since October.

Juma: As you said this is a crime against humanity that is happening in the West Bank. You know the people have been assassinated in the streets by military, by soldiers, by decision from the Israeli government itself. It is a criminal state. Why the world is not reacting? Simply because we do not do any enough pressure on the world; we do not use our like tangible in our hands, cards, to pressure the international community. I am talking here about the Arab world, the Islamic world, the Palestinians themselves. We are not doing enough to pressure the world. The world is not able to do that because Israel is influential and the Palestinians and the Arab world are not able to use their cards to pressure the international community or their power.

Press TV: Also the killings by Israeli soldiers are warning to Palestinians to not rise up against the occupation. Is this message being heard by the Palestinians?

Juma: It is clear that this is a message. They want the Palestinians to surrender; they want the Palestinians to accept the apartheid system and the Israeli colonization of our land. They want us to accept the ethnic cleansing that they are doing in our areas. This is just going to bring much more anger to the Palestinian people and this is just going to feed a bigger explosion. The third Intifada did not finish and still I think if the situation continues like this, it will be quickly become exploded again and again.

And here I would say that the problem is that the Palestinian political side or like the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian political party, are the ones who did not treat the message from the people, from the streets. They cannot continue acting like this while these crimes are happening daily against the Palestinians from killing, from destroying the houses, the entire community in fact not just houses, from all that is happening in Jerusalem, from Judaization, from ethnic cleansing… .

If the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian political body did not move and did not take a major step on this, I think the people will get angry against their authority, their leaders. And you do not know how this going to lead to. They cannot leave the people alone in this battle. They cannot leave the people exposed to the Israeli military and to the Israeli government crimes and everybody is watching. The Palestinian Authority has to move the Arab world and the Arab world has to move the international community in general; [it] has to do pressure on the Americans, the Europeans and the United Nations. The Islamic world has responsibility; this is the third holiest place for the Muslims. Al-Aqsa is in danger; al-Jerusalem is in a serious danger. That is going on now. 36 percent of the Palestinian shops in the Old City are almost closed now. It is like a ghost town. The situation is terrible inside the city; the people are in panic. Not just the Israeli soldiers but also the people who have left for facing these crimes and this aggression and this aggressiveness from the Israeli military. It is just like that is not bearable and cannot continue like this and the people will not keep [silent] and just stand watching.

Press TV: Later the UN Human Rights Council will be voting on passing a resolution that condemns Israel for its settlement construction which is illegal under international law. Now we do know that Israel is lobbying hard to make sure that resolution does not get passed. However, we have seen Israel be in violation of numerous UN resolutions in the past. Condemnation simply bounce off Israel. Is it time that we move just beyond resolutions and symbolic just moves?

Juma: I think, as you said, we are fed up with just condemnations. Thanks for the United Nations, thanks for the Human Rights Council, but what is the procedure after that? How can this be translated into practical steps, into stopping these crimes that they are condemning? This is the question. We did not see any moves towards this; it has become just like condemnation and the resolution that will be hanged on the shelves of the United Nations and this international organization. And again in order to make these resolutions implemented it has to have a power behind it. The power should come from us, from the Palestinians, from the Arabs, from the Muslim world that they should put all their efforts in order to pressure the world to put this into implementation. Otherwise, Israel will continue what they were doing, giving a back to all the international community, all the back to the resolutions from the Human Rights Council or from the United Nations. 

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