In an exclusive interview with Ms Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich, MNA asked questions on the recent Israel atrocities and also recent develpments in the Middle East. The following is the text of the interview.
Gaza has been under siege since 2007 and it is a densely populated strip with 1.8 million people. In rare cases Rafah Crossing Border is open to transfer some vital daily needs including food and medicine to the Gazans.
Israel, for some reasons, has launched air and land strikes upon people in the Gaza Strip with no serious reactions from the human rights activists or international community, western countries and politicians.
What do you think Israel seeks in bombing and shelling Gaza?
The Gazans are being bombed and shelled simply for being Palestinian, for living on their ancestral land. The creation of an Israeli state in Palestinian land was never intended to accommodate Arabs. This thinking became more apparent when in 1967; Moshe Dayan compared and justified the continued expansion into Palestinian Land by saying: "Take the American declaration of Independence. It contains no mention of territorial limits. We are not obliged to fix the limits of the State." (Jerusalem Post, 08/10/1967). In this line of thinking, Yitzhak Rabin said in the 1980s that “Israel will create in the course of the next 10 or 20 years, conditions which would attract natural and voluntary migration of the refugees from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to Jordan.” True to their actions and ideology, in 1997, Yitzak Shamir claimed: ‘The settlement of the Land of Israel is the essence of Zionism. Without settlement, we will not fulfill Zionism. It's that simple.’(Maariv, 02/21/1997.)
The ideology of driving Palestinians from their land and giving it all to Israelis has been passed down throughout the years. As recently as 2006, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that: “I believed, and to this day still believe, in our people’s eternal and historic right to this entire land.” And of course, Netanyahu, like all others, believes in Greater Israel and increasing the number of Jews in occupied territories.
The actions taken to fulfill this ideology have been going on for decades under the watchful and indifferent international community with only a few nations raising their voices. In recent years, greed has added to the impetus for the speedy execution of these plans to the point where we witness blockade, and incremental genocide.
The reason behind the greed is the billions of cubic meters of gas were discovered off the coast of Gaza in 1999. In 2001, Ariel Sharon said “Israel would never buy gas from Palestine”, prohibiting its development by the British. In May, a month prior to the alleged kidnapping of the Israelis, a deal was concluded whereby the gas would be liquefied in Egypt and sent out to the world market – making Egypt a partner in crime as well as complicit in the current genocide.
Why do Israelis usually start wars in Gaza in this time of the year?
It is not restricted to spring and summer. In 2008-2009, the onslaught started in December. But it would be a fair assessment to say that the Israelis act with impunity close to mid-term elections and or around Presidential elections in the United States.
How would you interpret the international human rights institutions silence and why they would not condemn Israel atrocities in Gaza Strip?
International organizations such United Nations Human Rights Council, the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, and all other UN agencies fall under the jurisdiction of the United Nations. The top financier of the United Nations is America with a whopping 22.00% in direct funds (followed by Japan 10.83%, Germany 7.14%, France 5.59%, and GB 5.18%). If any of these UN organizations called out the atrocities in Gaza, the genocide, its top financier would have to be punished for its complicity. So although they condemn Israel, they do little else that would prevent the ongoing atrocities and punish the crimes of genocide.
Recent reports say that US and UK have advocated supplying Israel with ammunition as “a part of a routine foreign military sales delivery,” according to Reuters and the Independent as “two UK companies supplying components for the Hermes drone, described by the Israeli air force as the ‘backbone’ of its targeting and reconnaissance missions.”
On the other hand, the Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei stated on Edi al-Fitr [July 28] that “US president issued an edict to disarm Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in order to prevent the minimum strike by some rockets – possessed by Palestine’s popular resistance – against so many crimes of Israel but entire world especially Muslim world, all are responsible to arm Palestine as much as they can."
What do you think about arming Hamas so that it could resist Israeli offensives, do you think it would bring some balance to the war between the two sides and push the Israelis back for probable future attacks?
I either have to give voice to my core belief of non-violence, or I have to address the realities and practicalities on the ground. As a pacifist, I am not prepared to do either.
On recent developments in the Middle East, do you think there is any link between Takfirists and Zionists’ actions?
Without a doubt. I don’t believe in coincidences in politics. In the same month that Hamas and PLO talked about unity, the vicious, gruesome images of terrorists, specifically ISIL, was introduced to the world via twitter. I firmly believe that these tweets and videos were intended to paint a barbaric and savage picture of Moslems and Arabs and underscore the Israeli propaganda that they are threatened by Arabs/Moslems, and justify (wrongly) their genocide of the Palestinians. Much of the public discourse here in America reflects this mindset.
How would you predict the future of Syria, Iraq and Palestine with actions taken by Takfirists and Zionists?
I believe that justice will prevail. I have no doubt that not only those in the region, but the whole global community will wake up to the plight of the innocent people in the region, and the horrors they face, and there will be far more cooperation coming soon to defeat these enemies of humanity. Unfortunately, a great deal more lives will be lost before this happens.
Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich has a Master's in Public Diplomacy from USC Annenberg for Communication. She is an independent researcher and writer with a focus on U.S. foreign policy and the role of the lobby. Her articles have been published by several online publications and she is a public speaker.
Interview: Zahra Karimy
ZK/SH
MNA
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