Israelis consider Palestinians sub-human: Activist

Press TV has conducted an interview with Eric Draitser, the founder of stopimperialism.com, about the recent cold-blooded execution by an Israeli soldier of an injured Palestinian in al-Khalil (Hebron).

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: How did you react to that video firstly and how the reactions have come in, because there are many on the Israeli right wing, especially the likes of Avigdor Lieberman for example, who have come out in defense of the soldier?

Draitser: Well, my reaction is obviously horror and shock and dismay; but to be quite honest with you unfortunately this is not something that’s terribly surprising. And it’s difficult to really separate this video from the countless other videos we’ve seen of summary executions by Israeli defense forces, by Israeli law enforcement, oftentimes even by Israeli settlers, who run over children, who commit just some of the most despicable atrocities that we would attribute to Nazis and during the Holocaust or to warlords in Africa or something like this. I mean the most inhumane barbarous sort of treatment, that is what we see oftentimes and unfortunately it’s become commonplace.

Now, the larger question here though and I think that this is really something that needs to be touched on by everyone who gives an opinion on this subject is the fact that the reason why people like Avigdor Lieberman or the Kahanist, the ultra-right-wing fascists all throughout the Israeli government, all throughout the Israeli society, the reason why they can defend this sort of action has nothing to do with politics and has everything to do with psychology. They have for a generation or two or even three dehumanized Palestinians such that they are lower than animals, they are non-human entities to the Israeli mindset particularly those on the right and the far-right.

And so, when they see this sort of video, they don’t see one human callously murdering another human. They see one human shooting a sub-human. That is the reality. That is the reality of Jewish supremacy, which is the fundamental aspect of the political reality of Zionism. Unfortunately, that is the reality, and I know many people are afraid to say that. They don’t want to say that publicly, but that is the sad and scary truth of all of this.

Press TV: Indeed and Eric, I’m wondering and you’re sitting in the US, do you think that enough people there know about these sorts of things that happen, because this video I believe may have made it to the Western media? But certainly there a lot more such incidents which happen pretty much on a daily basis throughout the occupied territories. Why isn’t there more even uproar?

Draitser: Well, it depends on who you are talking about. If you mean on social media, if you are in activist circles, you see these videos all the time. That’s part of the problem… is that… you become somewhat inure to this sort of thing. But from the mainstream perspective, the corporate media doesn’t show this for a number of reasons, including the fact obviously that Israel is a direct ally of the United States. The corporate media is controlled by essentially six corporations, all of which are tied to finance capital, which is deeply embedded in the very nature of the imperial system, of which Israel is a fundamental part.

Israel and a pro-Israel bias is deeply rooted in all corporate media and so this sort of a video is not going to make it to air, but I think that we should be very clear that there is an increasing awareness of at least some level of the crimes that are taking place. And younger people and particularly younger Jews in the United States are increasingly conscious of this. And I think that this is a positive development.

As we see things like the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement becoming increasingly popularized as we see more and more pushback from the Zionist and the Israeli lobby against BDS, against free speech, against all of these things because they know that these voices are being increasingly vocal, increasingly in the public eye. And of course, that is part and parcel of the kind of activism that is necessary in order to defend Palestinians and to defend against the imperial system.

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