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Israel seeks to use Palestinians as slave labor: Analyst

Thursday, 08 September 2016 7:34 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 08 September 2016 7:34 AM ]

Workers and bulldozers work at a construction site on April 14, 2016 in the Israeli settlement of Givat Zeev near the West Bank city of Ramallah. (AFP photo)

Press TV has conducted an interview with Jim W. Dean, managing editor of Veterans Today, and Geoffrey Alderman, an author and historian, about the UN saying Palestine’s gross domestic product (GDP) would be twice what it currently is if not for Israel’s occupation.

Dean says the Israelis seek “to suck up every dollar” of commerce that is available and just use the Palestinians as “slave labor” whenever they need them.

He also states that Israel fears the demographics of Palestine so it is oppressing Palestinians to make them leave their country.

“The main goal of the oppressor keeping the boot on the neck of those that they have oppressed, is to encourage them to have no hope in having a future there, to have and get out as much as possible,” he says.

Dean further argues that nothing is going to happen with regard to Palestine unless there is a “radical change” in mobilization of some kind of political power to challenge the Jewish lobby in the United States.

He goes on to say that the Jewish lobbies in various countries have been able to block any “real political blowback” on Israel.

The analyst further notes the Israelis have a long record of getting involved in different agreements but they never abide by them.

“What has happened with Camp David is 20 years has gone by, the steps that were supposed to be taken were not taken and this would be the tactic that when the Israelis get forced to come to some type of agreement again, they will do the same thing,” he says.

“There will be step-by-step procedures that have to be followed and negotiated and they will never happen until a strong power can come in,” the analyst adds.

Dean concludes there needs to be a full boycott of Israel, otherwise the Israelis will “stick to their guns” and there will never be any substantial pressure for them to make concessions in Palestine.

Alderman, for his part, believes there is a “war situation” going on, therefore there is a great deal of suffering of people and of infrastructure.

According to Alderman, the two sides should negotiate a peace settlement “without preconditions” because “at the end of the day there is only going to be peace through negotiation.”

However, he says, at the moment there is no pressure on Israel to come to the negotiating table but he thinks the push will come from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s side to continue the peace talks.

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