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‘Netanyahu destroyed hope’ — Erekat

BBC’s Stephen Sackur, host of HardTalk, interviewed Saeb Erekat, PLO Secretary General and veteran chief negotiator on November 4. The 24 minute-long interview gives a rare glimpse into the gravity of the situation in Israel and Palestine.

Erekat begins with noting the role of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in fueling Palestinian desperation and violence:
Once you take the hope outside the mind of people, what do you expect?
Erekat’s emphasis on hope reveals not only an already known public sentiment in Palestine, but it also gauges what the Palestinian leadership is thinking, and how it is likely to act. When Sackur asked Erekat about how Palestinians call those who allegedly committed crimes against Israelis his frank answer captures an alarming sense of failure:
I really could care less about what you want to call them or not call them, Stephen…The question is why such people do such things? Who took the hope from their minds? Who’s telling them in Israel that you have no hope and no future whatsoever?…We have tried for 20 years to achieve peace, and restore hope in the minds of Palestinians and Israelis, and then came this Israeli government, Stephen, and destroyed the possibility of the two-state solution, destroyed hope in the minds of Palestinians…What if your sons were under Israeli occupation, what if they were deprived of their right to live, to have jobs, to have dignity, to have a future like you and your sons. What would you do, what would they do? This is the question is that this occupation is the source of evil, the source of desperation.

The interview, which continues with impassioned pleas by Erekat, reaches a peak when Sackur asks whether Hamas is moving the current clashes and benefiting from them:
I challenge any Palestinian, any political party, to say that we’re organizing what’s happening outside…I’ve never seen such developments before. All I’m telling you that Palestinians are giving up on me, on people like me, on people who promised them 20 years ago, who told them we stop violence, we don’t use any act of violence, we recognize the State of Israel, we gonna get independence through negotiations, and they believed us, they gave us all the time in the world, for 23 years. What they’re telling me now, ‘we had 200,000 settlers in the year 1993, today Dr. Erekat, we have 600,000 settlers, that’s the result of your peace process, that’s the result of your negotiations.’ The only way to begin a deescalation and deconfliction program is by restoring hope in the minds of the Palestinians.
Sackur then asks whether Oslo is dead:
It aches my heart to say yes…What have I delivered 22 years later? Yes, [Netanyahu] won over us, he defeated us.
Erekat then pointedly looks at the camera:
Mr. Netanyahu, I hope that you are listening to me. Look in my eyes, walk me through the day after. You managed to destroy the two-state solution, you managed to destroy hope. Does this bring you security or peace? What have you done? Where have you taken us? And to those in Europe and the United States, stop treating Netanyahu as a Prime Minister above the laws of man.
These remarks point at one possible scenario ahead, absent a serious global effort to ensure the rights of Palestine, as Erekat notes:
I think we have a new leadership called the Israeli occupation. Mr. Netanyahu restarted, and reestablished his occupying forces…It’s time to invite Mr. Netanyahu to take over, because he’s destroying the Palestinian Authority…He destroyed everything.
Reinforcing the bleak reality ahead, the interview moves to deal a serious blow to the widely covered Palestinian efforts to internationalize the conflict as Erekat admits:
I cannot get a Security Council resolution reiterating your right to statehood or to freedom, I cannot get you an investigation committee from the international Human Right Council to investigate what takes place on the ground. I cannot get you any hope whatsoever.
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Palestine is not Israel’s only open-air prison.

Every American airport should be the site of protests against Israel. The huge hassle of security checks for EVERY passenger is ALL to protect Israel’s right to slaughter and rob masses of innocent people. It is also protecting Israel’s control of America’s media and politicians, enabling Israel to drag America into its cruel wars for profit.

re “I cannot get a Security Council resolution reiterating your right to statehood or to freedom, I cannot get you an investigation committee from the international Human Right Council to investigate what takes place on the ground. I cannot get you any hope whatsoever.”

He cannot, because the United States of America has blocked him.

He can’t because he and Abbas and their cronies are corrupted by the occupation and the millions they make selling out their people. How does Abbas son get tens of millions for his projects? How are all these guys do rich when they are surrounded by poverty and despair? If you can’t be successful then resign

No matter who you are, it has become abundantly clear that when it comes to Israel and Palestine you cannot be too honest or truthful or regardless of who you are…..Obama,Erekat,Abbas or the lowly poster on the internet…..you will be silenced. :)

Erekat: “What they’re telling me now, ‘we had 200,000 settlers in the year 1993, today Dr. Erekat, we have 600,000 settlers, that’s the result of your peace process, that’s the result of your negotiations.’”

The interviewer should have asked Erekat why it took him so long to figure this out. Everyone else in the world knew the “peace process” was a sham, designed to give Israel cover as it stole more and more from the Palestinians.

Erekat did get one thing right: “I think we have a new leadership called the Israeli occupation. Mr. Netanyahu restarted, and reestablished his occupying forces…It’s time to invite Mr. Netanyahu to take over…”

The P.A. is just Israel’s enforcer. It is way past time to dump it. It’s Israel’s occupation; Israel should be responsible for it.