From Gaza—Michael Slate Interview with Dr. Haidar Eid

"...calling a spade a spade... what is happening in Gaza right now is in fact, a genocide"

August 18, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Dr. Haidar Eid is Associate Professor of Postcolonial and Postmodern Literature at Gaza's al-Aqsa University. He is a member of the steering committee of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). He spoke with Michael Slate from Gaza on The Michael Slate Show.

Q: Dr. Haider Eid is an assistant professor at the Al Aqsa University in Gaza. I was really moved to talk to Dr. Eid when I read a piece on Aljazeera and it was something that really, really moved me and had a tremendous impact on me. It was kind of a diary of living under the bombs and the attacks, the savage genocidal attacks by Israel on the Palestinian people in Gaza. And so, we were lucky enough to get ahold of Dr. Eid and he’s joining us now. Dr. Eid, welcome to the show.

A: Thank you so much for having me on your show Michael. Thank you so much.

Q: Sure. I’m honored to have you on. Let’s jump into this. I want to start by you giving people a living sense of what’s happening in Gaza; what are the people facing?

A: Thank you again, for having me on your show and it's an honor for me, and I was so pleased to hear you use the word, “genocide.” It’s very encouraging to hear a conscientious American calling a spade a spade. So what is happening in Gaza right now is in fact, a genocide. If you talked to anybody walking on the streets of Gaza and asked them whether they support the resistance movement on the ground in all of its forms, whether it is armed resistance or in the form of Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions, or civil disobedience, you name it, everybody would tell you that they support resistance because people in Gaza are fed up. We are talking about 1.8 million people, 2/3 of whom are refugees who were ethnically cleansed from their towns and villages in 1948 when Israel was established. And I believe that you did interview Ilan Pappé last week and I’m sure he must have talked about the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, etc. So, what you have here, the Gaza Strip has been transformed since 2006 into the largest concentration camp on earth, literally. Literally, it is larger than Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, etc. And what you have is Israel claiming to have “withdrawn” from the Gaza Strip towards the end of 2005. But Israel had then decided to close the six crossings separating Gaza from Israel. Israel has the key to these crossings and in cahoots with the government of the Egyptian state of Hosni Mubarak who decided to close the only exit Gaza has to the external world, and I'm referring to the Rafah Crossing here, both had decided to besiege the Gaza Strip. Now, that is the context I want you and your listeners to remember, because one of the problems that we have with Western media is that it de-contextualizes what is happening right now in Gaza in particular, and in Palestine, in general. So you have 1.8 million prisoners living in the Gaza Strip in what Amnesty International and B'Tselem, which is a mainstream human rights organization in Israel, call the largest open-air prison on earth. I remember Professor Richard Falk in 2006 writing an article. Professor Richard Falk is the [former] UN (United Nations) Human Rights Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Territories in Palestine. He wrote an article, I remember in 2000, a prophetic article, in which he called the siege then, a prelude to genocide. Now, my friend Ilan Pappé, whom you interviewed, wrote also an article, I think it was in 2008 or 2009, and he called the siege a “slow-motion genocide.” Now, he called it a genocide, and we are talking about people who conscientious, who are at the same time objective. Both are scholars and both, by the way, are Jews. And of course, I’m saying this because I just want to confirm that the problem is not religious. The problem is not religious at all. Actually, the likes of Ilan Pappé, Richard Falk and so many other Jews in the United States of America are our comrades in arms. The real and true solidarity that is being shown to the people of Gaza is coming from leading Jewish figures in the United States of America and the West. So we need to put aside these accusations of anti-semitism, etc.

So, what I wanted to say is since 2006 until today, the people of Gaza have not surrendered. And that is why apartheid Israel decided to launch a massive massacre in late 2008, early 2009. They launched air strikes against the Gaza Strip, and then a ground invasion that lasted 22 days in which it massacred, according to the UN fact-finding mission to Gaza headed by the respected South African judge Richard Goldstone, massacred 1,434 including 434 children. But what was the reaction of the international community? Absolutely nothing. The newly-elected president of the United States of America, then Barack Obama, did not have a single word of sympathy then. And neither did he have in 2012 when Israel decided to carry out another massacre, because the people of Gaza never surrendered. They stayed in Gaza for 8 days, during which it killed 200 people including 64 children. The people of Gaza never surrendered and we went back to the medieval siege under which we have been living since 2006 until today. I'm talking about shortages of essential kinds of medicines; 164 kinds of medicines, Michael. I’m talking about medicines for cancer patients. I’m talking about kidney dialysis. I’m talking about heart diseases, etc. We’re not allowed to have that medicine, Michael. We are not allowed to have milk for our children. We’re not allowed to have clean water. Ninety five percent of Gaza water is polluted, Michael. And that is why people decided to dig tunnels under the border separating Gaza from Egypt.

But, the leader of the Egyptian coup, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, decided to destroy all these tunnels. We dug those tunnels in order to bring milk to our children in Gaza. Most of our children and babies and toddlers in Gaza have malnutrition, Michael. More than 2000 seriously ill people have died as a result of the siege because we do not have medicine for these seriously ill people. So we dug tunnels, but even that was destroyed in addition to the permanent closure of the Rafah crossing. But still the people of Gaza never surrendered, and that’s why this time Israel knows very well that it has a green light from the so-called civilized international community because if you remember, if I take you back to February 2008, Israel wanted to test the waters of the international community and therefore it sent occupation forces go to the town of Beit Hanoun, which is by the way, being obliterated from the face of the earth as I’m speaking to you right now. A massacre is being carried out in the town of Beit Hanoun. We are getting SOS messages from the doctors and the nurses and the medical staff and patients in Beit Hanoun hospital as I’m speaking to you right now, Michael. But when Israel decided to test the waters of the international community, they launched a massive attack against the Beit Hanoun people for one week and we were threatened then if you remember, by Matan Vilnai, the deputy defense minister of the Israel occupation. He threatened us with what he called in Hebrew, a “shoah.” A shoah is the Hebrew word for Holocaust. I mean look, the deputy defense minister using the H-word as they killed 101 people including 34 children and the reaction of the international community was absolutely nothing.

And that is why Israel now has decided—in fact, it has two objectives now by carrying out its genocidal massacre against the Palestinians of Gaza. One:  it wants to get rid of the resistance underground here in the Gaza Strip, and when I say “resistance” I’m referring to all political factions and organizations from right to left, from Hamas to Islamic Jihad, to Fatah, to the popular front Marxists, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Maoist organization, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine who are resisting and who are fighting back.

So Israel has two objectives. One, to keep the Gaza ghetto, the Gaza bantustan. And I really don’t want to call it a bantustan because it is much, much worse than a bantustan. It is literally a concentration camp. But two, Israel is a settler colony, I mean exactly like the United States of America, exactly like Australia. Therefore it has that genocidal tendency in its ideology. The mainstream ideology that is dominant in Israel is Zionism. And for Zionism, the goyim, the other, has to be completely killed and that’s why it has that approach to the other in which it either carries out a process of ethnic cleansing, which it has been carrying out since 1948 until today or genocide, like what happened to Native Americans, for example. And I think this is the second objective of the current Israel massacre against the Palestinians of Gaza. Otherwise, why target Palestinian children in broad daylight? As I’m speaking to you right now Michael, I’m following the news coming from Khan Yunis . The latest massacre is a massacre carried out of the al-Najjar family. Twenty people of this extended family have been killed, including 11 children. The number of those killed since this current massacre has been launched by apartheid Israel has reached 900 people and 6,000 injuries.^* And Michael we are talking about a population of 1.8 million. And therefore literally, the definition of genocide actually applies to what Israel has been doing against us in Gaza, yes, Michael.

Q: One of the things you've done is you've described this as the Holocaust of the 21st Century. You talked about, in reality, no matter what people want to think, that Palestinian lives are different. I wanted you to explain that. You talked about the Palestinians in that part of the world today, the Palestinians who, in my view, have been driven from their homeland, and I think that's just plain truth. But you talk about them now, in that area of the world. You say that, “They are the goyim, the unwanted other, the Native American, the nigger of the American South, the kaffir of South Africa.” Let's talk about that a little.

A: This question, Michael, is in fact a question of ideology. As I said to you, two thirds of the Palestinians of Gaza are refugees who were driven out—ethnically cleansed. I mean, let's use the right term here: Ethnically cleansed in 1948. I don't want to be too theoretical and academic. Because it becomes sort of a cold analysis. Let me personalize the whole thing. I am the son of two refugees. My parents come from the village of Zarnouqa, which was ethnically cleansed in 1948. Both parents, Michael, died in 2005, within a five-month period. My mother couldn't bear it to stay alive after my father had passed away.

Both died dreaming of the day when they would go back to their village, Zarnouqa. But, I don't want to sound also romantic. I'm talking about a right. I'm not talking about, you know, a “demand.” I'm talking about a right, which is a right that is guaranteed by international law: United Nations resolution 194 guarantees the right of Palestinian refugees to return and compensation. But at the same time, to contextualize what I'm talking about, two thirds of the Palestinian people are refugees who are entitled to their right of return, most of whom are living under miserable, miserable conditions, in miserable refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt.

Therefore, for Zionism, for the white Ashkenazi Zionists, in order for Israel as the state of Jews only, because also we need to remember that Israel does not have a constitution and therefore Israel by definition is an apartheid entity, is an apartheid state. Israel has basic laws. And the first basic law that Israel has in its Knesset, which is the Israeli parliament, defines Israel as the state of Jews all over the world. Therefore, if you are born to a Jewish mother in California, as soon as you are born, you are entitled to your right of “return” to the “promised land.” Of course, god, that entity, has promised Jews Palestine as their promised land. And therefore, if you are born to a Jewish mother—if you define who's a Jew according to Israeli basic laws, it is everyone who is born to a Jewish mother—you are entitled to that right. Whereas I am born to Palestinian parents who are born to my Palestinian grandparents, and I can take you in this lineage hundreds or thousands of years back. I am not entitled to that right of return.

Therefore I have ended up representing the “other” of the Ashkenazi Zionist who believes that he has come back to an empty land without a people for a people without a land. But there are people living in this land.

When the Zionist organization in the 19th Century decided to send two rabbis to Palestine in order to find out whether the land was beautiful or not, and whether it was empty or not, the two rabbis sent back a message to the Zionist organization saying, “The bride is beautiful, but she's married to another man.” I.e., this “other man” is the native Palestinian. Therefore Zionism found out that in order to have their Zionist dream of establishing a state for Jews in Palestine, they had to get rid of the “other,” the Palestinians, either by ethnically cleansing Palestine, which happened in 1948, when they managed to force two thirds of the Palestinians out of Palestine—or by genocide. This is what is happening in Gaza right now.

So that is the ideological dimension of what is happening to us here in Gaza, Michael.

Q: I want to move into the role of the U.S., and the other imperialist powers as well, but especially the role of the U.S. and what it's been doing. You've mentioned in a number of places that you've written, you said there's no way in the world, basically, that Israel could get away with this kind of genocidal attack without a green light from the U.S. I wanted you to talk about what you see as the complicity of the U.S. How does that get expressed?

A: Well, Michael, I always love to make that analogy between, that comparison between apartheid South Africa and the anti-apartheid movement as well, with Zionism and the Palestinian anti-Zionist movement. I want to take you back, Michael, to the mid-80s, when America was ruled by an ultra-conservative president, Ronald Reagan, but also the UK under the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. If you remember when the anti-apartheid movement in the late 50s, I think it was 1958, it called on the international community to boycott the apartheid system of South Africa until it complies with international law. That call came out in the late 50s, and it took the international community more than thirty years to heed that call.

Now in the mid-80s, Michael, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, defended what they called “constructive engagement,” with the apartheid system of South Africa, i.e., having ties with the apartheid system of South Africa. They even considered Nelson Mandela—and these are the words of Reagan and Margaret Thatcher—they considered Nelson Mandela a terrorist. Now look at that. That was in the mid-80s. And it was one of the darkest moments of South Africa. And that is by the way, as a note on the side, we are calling the moment we're going through right now in Palestine our “South African Moment,” and I will explain why at a later stage.

But then Nelson Mandela was released in 1990, in spite of what the Americans said about Nelson Mandela. And in 1994, Nelson Mandela became the first black president of multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-religious South Africa, in spite of American support for the apartheid system, in spite of the complicity of the imperialist powers of the West with the apartheid system of South Africa.

So that is my approach to what we have right now, and the role of the United States of America. But I want to add, Michael, because I don't want people even to start pointing fingers and saying, “Well, you know, the apartheid system was different.” Yes! It was different in the sense that the oppression of Palestinians by apartheid Israel is multi-tiered. When we had visitors coming to visit us from the American South, by the way, and from South Africa, the likes of Desmond Tutu, I'm referring to. The likes of Ronnie Kasrils, for example, the anti-apartheid activist, they said to us, “What you are going through in Palestine is far, far worse than what we had in the worst of apartheid in South Africa.”

Israel has been able to carry out its multi-tiered system of oppression against Palestinians in general because of the complicity and the support of the United States of America. Michael, Israel has the fourth-strongest army in the world—that is a fact—equipped with American-made F-16s that are killing Palestinian children, that killed some of my best colleagues and friends, their sons and daughters. I'm talking to you right now, and I have a mental image of my colleague, whose entire family, eight members of his entire family, were wiped out by an American-made F-16. The Israeli occupation forces have Merkava tanks. They have Apache helicopters.

Then you have the Secretary of State, John Kerry, yesterday, talking about the suffering of both sides. You don't have two equal sides here. You didn't have two equal sides in South Africa. You didn't have two equal sides in the American South under the racist laws of Jim Crow. But because the United States of America itself is a racist, imperialist country, it comes from that background of terrible, terrible, one of the worst genocides against an indigenous population. So you have that affinity between the United States of America and Israel. But also, you need to remember that Israel represents and defends the interests of the United States of America in the Middle East, controlling all those natives that might rise up one day against American imperialism, but also controlling American interests in the Gulf. You know, you have Saudi Arabia, you have Iraq, you have the other countries with the largest oil reservoir in the world. And therefore America wants to keep a clear “aircraft carrier” in the Middle East, and who but Israel can do that for the United States of America?

Q: That's an extremely important point, Dr. Eid. One of the things I keep thinking about in relation to this is when you talked about the idea that they say, “Both sides are to blame. They both hold equal responsibility for this suffering. And everybody's suffering. The Israelis are suffering, the Palestinians are suffering.” And that's what gets run out in the press here. And it paints a very different picture than the reality, and I think it's very important for people to understand that. And in particular, look at Obama. Here's Obama, who, every time he's asked, what does he say? He says, well, I first want to start off by saying, Israel, of course, has the right to defend itself from attack. But then we have to figure out how we're going to settle this in a reasonable way. But he constantly makes the point that Israel has right on its side. To me this is something that is very much tied into what you're saying, especially in the world today and the things that are going on—the way the Middle East is no longer a place that the U.S. can look at as even a very stable place for them to pillage and plunder. It's actually a place that's full of upheaval, all kinds of things are happening, and really, some forces that are really ripping apart U.S. interests, and not always in a good sense for the people, but the U.S. is facing a lot of contradictory things there, and the importance of Israel seems to me to stand out even more, which I think has something to do with why they're actually doing what they do, the complicity they have with Israel—well, put it this way, Israel is the gendarme for the U.S. imperialists in the Middle East. That's something that can never be forgotten.

A: I completely agree. That's why we find it extremely hypocritical when people carry out that “two sides” story. Any comparison of the capabilities of the rockets that are exchanged between Israel and the resistance movement would show that there is no comparison to speak of whatsoever. But also more telling, I would say, is the lack of comparison between the casualties caused by either side.

How many Israeli civilians have been killed by Palestinian rockets launched from Gaza? The answer is none. And let's compare that to six hundred Palestinian civilians killed over the last eighteen days only, with 6000 injuries, Michael. I mean look at that! Isn't that enough for anybody with a very low IQ to start thinking about it?

I wouldn't even say “complicit.” They are directly involved, Michael. Israel is the United States of America, and that is our problem. We are talking about children being butchered in broad daylight, Michael. And those children do not deserve a word of sympathy from a father of two beautiful children in the White House? What do you say about that? When you have the fourth-strongest army, Michael, targeting in broad daylight yesterday in Khuza’a, an extremely peaceful rural village on the eastern border of Gaza. You know when you talk about the “salt of the earth?” The people of Khuza’a are the salt of the earth.

I saw that person, and, you know, a physically and mentally disabled person carrying a white flag, and he is targeted in broad daylight by an artillery shell. What do you call that? You know, sometimes I really find myself short of words in both languages, Arabic and English. How do I describe that? How do you describe when in broad daylight you know that two children playing soccer in Deir al-Balah? Two days ago. An Apache helicopter targeted them. Four children playing soccer on the beach of Gaza. And then the president of the United States of America does not have a word of sympathy with these children? Not a single Israeli civilian has been targeted by the Palestinian resistance since the current massacre, Michael. All the 33 Israelis that have been killed since Israel has launched its ground invasion, these 33 Israelis are soldiers. Now, who has the higher moral ground here? Palestinians have the higher moral ground exactly the same way natives of South Africa under the leadership of the ANC [African National Congress] and the SACP [South African Communist Party] and Nelson Mandela had the higher moral ground. Exactly the same way the civil rights movement in the United States of America had the higher moral ground. At the end of the day we will make the United States of America change its relationship vis-à-vis the Palestinians. We know that official America hates Palestinians. We know that official America hates Palestinian children the same way it hated Vietnamese children, the same way it hated Nicaraguan children, the same way it hated South African children, the same way it hated African Americans. But the anti-apartheid movement, with the support of conscientious people such as yourself in the United States of America, managed actually to make America change in its relationship vis-à-vis apartheid in the late 80s, by following a sustained campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions.

Q: Let me read something you wrote.

The Palestinian Resistance demands that Egypt opens the Rafah crossing permanently. There's a story to tell to our children: Why is the Rafah crossing closed today? Why has it been mostly closed since 2006? Isn't Egypt an Arab country? Aren't Palestinians Arabs or is it that Gazans aren't Arabs? How do we explain this to the children of Gaza?

To the five-year old whose legs are being amputated as I write this: Does she know that the Rafah crossing was closed before she was born? Does she know that she had to lose her legs just because she is Palestinian, and lives in Gaza, and Israel is very, very scared of her? So scared that they had to shell her house 10 times in quick succession? So scared that this amount of fire power is the only thing that will stop her from scaring the Israelis?

Let's talk about that, a very moving and I have a sense, a very accurate portrayal of what's going on.

A: Yeah. Well, you know—you know what really breaks my heart, and breaks everybody's heart here? It is children. I really find it extremely difficult to understand this. Yesterday there was a press conference in Cairo, attended by John Kerry, Nabil Elaraby, Secretary-General of the Arab League, by the Egyptian foreign minister, and by Ban Ki-Moon [Secretary-General of the United Nations]. I was asked by a local reporter about my reaction to the so-called ceasefire, a 12-hour lull that just started one hour ago. And my reaction was this, Michael, which sums up everything.

If John Kerry, and the other leaders, manage to persuade Israel just to stop killing and targeting children, then we would consider that a huge achievement. Just children. Kill me. Kill our women. Kill our elderly. Kill our youngsters. And I need to remind you that more than 55% of the Palestinian casualties are students, Michael. Students. University and some high school, prep school, etc. But we want them to stop targeting children. I mean the horror! The horror! The horror you see in the eyes of Palestinian children is inexplicable, is unfathomable, is something that is indescribable. I really can't understand how a father of two beautiful daughters sitting in the White House fails to see that, how he fails to address something like that. We're talking about 200 children that have been killed. I'm talking about children under the age of ten, that have been killed over the last 18 days.

You are not allowed to play soccer on the beaches of Gaza. You're not allowed to walk on the streets of Gaza if you are a child. Now, I am not a father. But I have nephews and nieces. And when I look at them, I know every single child in the world finds protection in the arms of his parents, of her parents. Now our children don't have that.

I don't have the luxury of a father, because I can't protect my child. I can't protect my 10-year-old nephew. When he asks me questions, such difficult questions—the question is “Why?” If Israel is doing that, why are they doing this? How do you explain something like this to a five-year-old child, a seven-year-old child?

Why doesn't the world do something? Don't they see that they are killing us? How do we explain something like this?

And then we are being asked not to be emotional. Now, how can you avoid being emotional?

Q: Let's talk about that a little more, because actually the one thing that does stand out very much to me is absolutely no one is being held accountable for this. All kinds of things have gone on. There've been all kinds of reports issued. There was the Goldstone report, reporting on suspected war crimes in Gaza in 2008-2009, reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch. But nobody has ever been held accountable. Let's talk about that.

A: Absolutely. There is a key word that I have always been saying since I started my activism—accountability. Why does Israel carry out its crimes against the Palestinian people with impunity? Israel is doing that because it knows that it will not be held accountable. I remember writing a piece back in 2008, 2009, when Israel carried out its first massacre against Gaza, and I said that Israel will not stop in 2009. Israel might stop carrying out this current massacre in 2009, but it will come back, and it did come back in 2012. And it is carrying out another massacre now. I don't know how long it will take. Because Israel knows very well that it can carry out its massacre with full impunity because the West is supporting Israel.

Look, this support is not coming from the so-called “Third World,” the developing world. The support is coming from the West because the West has a guilt complex. It was Germany that carried out one of the worst pogroms in the history of humanity, and I'm referring, of course, to the Holocaust and what happened to Jews in the Second World War, when Hitler carried out a pogrom in which he killed more than six million Jews, something that is appalling, that should never, never happen to anybody else.

But it is happening to us. And it is happening to us by the victims of the West. So the West has a guilt complex, and it's trying to compensate for that complex by having us pay for that. We didn't carry out those massacres, the worst pogrom in the history of humanity, of anti-semitism. You have no anti-semitism in the Middle East. In fact, during the Second World War and even in the 19th Century and prior to that the Middle East actually gave a safe haven to the victims of anti-semitism in the West, from Turkey, to Northern Africa, to Palestine, Egypt, etc. And now we are paying the price for the war crimes committed by the West against Jews in the mid-20th Century.

But I also want to say something, Michael. I don't want to give the impression that we are just talking about the world. We have two words. We have “the world,” represented by official bodies: the United States of America, the United Nations, the Security Council, European Union, etc. That's the world that I am criticizing. But we have the other world. And the other world is the world that you, Michael, and your comrades in the United States of America, the anti-apartheid activists, solidarity supporters, this is the world that we are banking on, the world of civil society, solidarity groups, etc. And this is why I would like to seize this opportunity, Michael, and remind your listeners, that actually Palestinian civil society in Gaza issued a statement. We called it an “Urgent call from Gaza civil society” to the international law, and we called on the world to Act Now! [“Urgent call from Gaza civil society: Act now!” can be found at Electronic Intifada]

We issued this statement, Michael, on the 13th of July. We called for three things. We called for arms embargoes on Israel, sanctions that would cut off the supply of weapons and military aid from Europe and the United States, on which Israel depends to commit such war crimes and atrocities. Two, we want a suspension of all free trade and bilateral agreements with Israel. And we have an example. The example was the EU-Israel association agreement. And number three, Palestinian civil society, we did issue a statement, a call in 2005. We called if the Palestinian BDS call. We called for Boycotts Divestment and Sanctions. And this was endorsed by the majority of Palestinian civil society.

Now the question, Michael. How many amputated bodies of Palestinian does the world want to see in order to act? How many more headless bodies of Palestinian women does the international community want to see in order to start acting? Now the figure has risen to 600. Five thousand injuries. Well, doesn't that make a massacre? Doesn't Mr. Barack Obama consider that a massacre? What is the figure that would convince the likes of David Cameron and Barack Obama and Ban Ki-Moon to call it a massacre? 5,000? 10,000?

I was reading an Israeli newspaper last week. I can't remember exactly whether it was Haaretz or not. They were talking about a conversation with one of the aides of Mr. Kerry, and he said the United States of America might seriously start considering intervening and pressuring Israel to have a ceasefire, maybe if the figure rises to 1000. Now, look at that. How many of our lives, really, how many Palestinian lives are dispensable enough until the world decides to take action?

Now, we know very well that Israel will carry out this genocide, and will carry out more and more and more massacres, but we do bank on civil society in the world. Our BDS campaign represents the conscience of the world. And Israel has started feeling the heat of the global BDS campaign. So many actors, so many performers and singers have decided to refrain from singing and performing in the “Sun City” of the Middle East, Tel Aviv. Steven Hawking, the most famous physicist in the world, right now has decided to heed our call for academic boycott of Israel. And I can give you hundreds of achievements the BDS campaign has achieved. But we have not reached the moment where the world will start imposing sanctions against apartheid Israel and say, “Enough is enough!”

Q: You've posed in many of your writings, where is the world? The world needs to stand up to this. I agree with you 100%. I think this is a good message to leave people with. The world needs to step up and speak out against this and act against this.

* The death and injury has increased significantly since this was aired.  Reports from various news sources indicate that as of August 6. 2014—the death toll of Palestinians has reached 1800-1900 and nearly 10,000 wounded. [back]

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