During our Halper-on-Halper interview, the non-Zionist explained why he had to move to Israel, how the most hawkish Israeli politicians are the biggest anti-Zionists, and how the recent events in Egypt are fulfilling his prediction that 2011 will be the end of Israel as we know it.
Katie Halper: What does ICAHD do?
Jeff Halper: ...a number of us from different organizations got together to think about how to re-engage resistance to the occupation. And we went and talked to Palestinians and asked them what their priorities were. We asked them what they would like us to work on, what they’d like to work with us on. And the issue of house demolitions always came up.
So we took up that issue. It’s a powerful approach...
But he knows there's a problem in that the reason the houses are being demolished is not becuase Israelis hate Arabs, or what the stones or wihs to make room for Jewish housing.
It's part of a campaign against terror. So what does Halper say?
...It fits into the clash of the civilizations theory, the idea of the us versus them, the good guys against the bad guys, the white people against everyone else. It reduces the entire conflict to terrorism, which itself is such a loaded term. So it effectively cuts off every type of discussion because if we get into a discussion on the basis of Israeli framing, you lose. The minute somebody says, “We're defending ourselves against terrorism,” what are you going to say to that?
And more:
It’s a trap...Israel denies it has an occupation. So you've got to re-frame the conflict. Out of the 25,000 homes that have been demolished, almost none of them have been demolished over security.
But those houses were targeted because a terrorist actually did live in the house. He was protected. He was fed. That's why.
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2 comments:
do any of us deny the "occupation"? i think you should have jumped right on that point. no one (including us) denies that we (and the arabs here, of course) live under occupation. yehuda and the shomron have not (yet) been annexed to israel and we live under military government.
the questions in question :) are, whether our occupation is legitimate, morally, historicaly, or under international law. which i think we both agree is "yes, yes, and yes.) and people are free to question our handling of the occupation.
but does anyone (including us) deny that this is an "occupation"? if so i have been unaware of it.
anyone claiming that any israelis (including us) deny that there is an "occupation" here is lying, and should be drawn and quartered verbally, and you'd be a good man to do so. unless i'm wrong, of course, which has been known to happen. :)
again, there's no question, as far as i know, that this is an occupation. the questions surrounding it always involve it's legitimacy, not it's existence. please correct me if i'm wrong.
while correct, there are those who consider other parts of Eretz-Yisrael to be under Arab occupation, don't forget.
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