Press TV has conducted an interview with Alan Hart, an author and journalist based in London, to discuss a recent Israel’s court ruling against Mohammed al-Qeeq, a hunger striking Palestinian journalist.
The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: What would happen if an unfortunate situation occurs with this journalist to die behind bars? How would that affect Israel?
Hart: If Hamas were to carry out its threat and resort to some violence, it would give Israel’s leaders the pretext to kill more, more Palestinians.
But let me say something that your listeners might not be aware of. This is not at all surprising when you know, really know, who Israel’s justice minister is; it is a woman called Ayelet Shaked. She is on the most extreme right of Israeli politics and she has actually called for the genocide of the Palestinians. Let me tell you concisely what she said. On the first of July 2010, she had a Facebook entry in which she said: “The entire Palestinian people is our enemy”, and she called for its destruction, including, “its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure”. You know with a justice minister who actually believes all that kind of wicked racist non-sense, is it surprising they do not give a damn if one Palestinian journalist in jail is going to die?
It is just getting worse and worse on an almost daily basis, but this is entirely consistent with Israel’s policy which is not going to change or relax. It is to make life hell for the Palestinians in the hope that they will abandon their struggle and accept crumbs from Zionism’s table or better say pack their bags and leave and make a new life elsewhere. That has been Israel’s policy since 1967.