Israeli occupation itself act of violence: Palestinian pundit

Press TV has interviewed Saeed Nimer, a professor of political science at Birzeit University in the occupied Ramallah, to discuss Israeli crimes against Palestinians.

A rough transcription of the interview follows.

Press TV: The situation there as far as the Palestinians are concerned is escalating, mass demolitions of homes, mass arrests, settlement building and of course 192 Palestinians killed since October. What direction is this headed then?

Nimer: As a matter of fact it is quite obvious that these are the policies of the Israeli … [regime] and this … [regime] particularly is a very right-wing … [regime], it is a … [regime] of settlements and they are unleashing the Israeli army to do whatever in the West Bank and in Gaza, and also in Jerusalem by attacking the Palestinians and escalating all kinds of atrocities against the Palestinians.

As a matter of fact the Palestinians are trying to defend themselves and especially the whole thing started after the incursions on the al-Aqsa Mosque in October last year, and from there everything was escalating. The Palestinians are trying to defend themselves, they are trying to live as normal but apparently the Israeli occupation won’t let them do so, and they are already and always attacking the Palestinians and doing things which [are] violating the international law and the international human law and all kinds of laws around.

The problem is that even yesterday in the Israeli … [regime] there were lots of voices saying that Netanyahu is so soft with the Palestinians and he is not tough enough. I do not know what kind of tough enough they mean by that with all these atrocities against the Palestinians.

Press TV: But there are those, specifically the Israelis, who argue that what Israel is doing is a reaction to these attacks that Palestinians are carrying out. What would you say to that? 

Nimer: There is nothing called reaction. Always Israel is talking about its security and about the reaction to the Palestinian actions, which is absolutely not true. The fact [is] that we are people under occupation. So whatever is being done or not being done, occupation itself is an act of violence against the Palestinians.

So Palestinians always are defending themselves. Whatever the Palestinians are doing, they are the people under the occupation, and definitely they have not only the right to resist this occupation but also they have to resist this occupation. And as a matter of fact the Israelis are trying to say that they are defending themselves and the Palestinians attacking them is absolutely not true and a silly argument since you are acting of aggression in the first place and occupation.

Take your settlers out, remove the settlements, and then I do not think that the Palestinians would need to do anything with you but as far as you are in our land and the settlements are continuing and the occupation measures are continuing, demolishing the houses, arresting the Palestinian people, killing and deportation, areas confiscated, all that is absolutely a huge aggression and at least the least the Palestinians can do is to resist this kind of aggression by the occupation.

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