Palestinians reaching boiling point over Israeli occupation: Pundit

Press TV has conducted an interview with Alice Rothschild, author of ‘Broken Promises, Broken Dreams’ from Boston, to ask for her insights into the current exacerbating situation in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Looking at the situation as it stands right now in the occupied West Bank particularly it is getting out of hand, now the Palestinian foreign minister has said this is exactly what [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu wants.

Rothschild: I agree it is what Netanyahu wants. I mean, he now no longer has Iran to rant and rave about and he needs to fire the fuels and so the whole demonizing the Palestinians and their aspirations is going to be his modus operandi. He needs to have an active enemy to keep everybody together in the Israeli state.

Press TV: Right so, we also have the same time Riyad al-Maliki saying that right now Netanyahu is widening the scope of conflict from a political one with the Palestinians to an unlimited war with the Muslims around the world. Do you see that happening?

Rothschild: Well, I think it’s very dangerous what’s happening in al-Aqsa. This is a major holy site for Muslims. And if you actually listen to the Rabies in Israel they say the Jews are not allowed to pray there. So, the Jews that are demanding to pray at the site of the al-Aqsa Mosque and what it said to be a site of the Old Temple are actually not doing this in the name of religion. It’s more of a nationalistic, militaristic, fascistic kind of attempt to really create a big conflict. And there are very crazy right-wing Jews that want to rub the mosque and build a temple and also some sort of things that would just be a complete disaster and would inflame the entire Muslim world. So, this is incredibly dangerous and does bare that risk.

Press TV: And this is though more than just the al-Aqsa Mosque now, isn’t it? it’s the very nature of occupation itself now, isn’t it?

Rothschild: Yes, I mean Palestinians are really at the end of their rope in terms of occupation and even Mahmoud Abbas, who has for long time been somewhat of collaborative with Israel in terms of security has said the Oslo Accords are officially dead. The Palestinian Authority is not going to cooperate, I’m not sure what he exactly means but even he has reached his end point. And I think the occupation continues and it’s a brutal occupation and the settlements are continuing to be built. And life is not getting any better. And the defense minister in Israel has just said that the Palestinians know that they’re going to be occupied for ever and ruled by Israel. And this kind of mentality is not going to get us to a better place. I think Palestinians have reached a boiling point. 

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