Interview with Sarah Colborne, Director of Palestinian Solidarity Campaign
The debate over the Israeli occupation of Palestine is growing across Britain and some other Western countries.
Press TV talks with Sarah Colborne, Director of Palestinian Solidarity Campaign in London in a discussion that centers on a book entitled ‘Gaza in Crisis’ written jointly by Professor’s Noam Chomsky and Israeli historian Ilan Pappe. Following is an approximate transcript of the interview.
Press TV: Reviewing the book by Noam Chomsky, ‘Gaza in Crisis’, what did you make of it and did you find it informative?
Sarah Colborne: It was very interesting and for me some of the most interesting material was the historic material around 2006-2007 because we tend to forget – we remember the major issues like Operation Cast Lead, but – we forget the build up to it and because the Israeli media have so much of a free reign you forget about facts.
For example, the same day that Shalit (Gilad Shalit, a French Israeli soldier taken by Hamas) was taken there were two Palestinian civilians kidnapped from Gaza and dragged into Israel, which was a far greater crime under international law and those sorts of detail you forget and so those details were very important for me to get out of this book.
Press TV: The Western news media doesn’t follow much of what happens in Palestine perhaps as so much is happening with other wars in the Middle East. You experienced this with the peace convoy in terms of how the media report things. It is difficult to get a balanced sense of reporting, isn’t it?
Sarah Colborne: Yes it is and there are stories in this book that are not widely known because of this, for example, why the Palestinian fishermen can’t fish further than three miles outside Gaza. And it links very clearly to the decision to reduce the space they have for fishing to the discovery of the oil field and Israel’s need to control those natural resources.
And so there are stories behind the immediate headlines and the problem is that we get immediate headlines like a few rockets coming from Gaza; what we don’t get – and that we get in this book – is that during the months prior to the taking of Gilad Shalit there were 7,700 rockets that had been fired from Israel into Gaza.
We often don’t get the entire story and this is why this book is very useful as we don’t normally get to read between the lines or behind history. Even people who are sympathetic to the Palestinians, you do need to understand what’s going on.
Press TV: The professors authors highlight in the book that it’s not just about the economic pressures, but it’s almost an attitude by Israel as well – that phrase of ‘exterminate the brutes’ which sort of jumps out at you from this book, this attitude that the Arabs in that part of the world are a lesser race, they’re not humans. And you’d think the Israelis of any race on the earth shouldn’t have that attitude; it’s horrifying when you see it expressed by very intelligent people…
Sarah Colborne: Absolutely, and this is becoming increasingly openly said with the drift even further to the right in Israeli society. But it is not something limited to the experience of Israel; this is something that has happened during all previous occupations.
For instance, the way that Britain always occupied countries to do it because they said the population were incapable of governing themselves – that’s always the arguments that’s used… and I think what is important to encourage now is the way that that lie is being completely exposed – with the Arab spring- because the populations of the region are rising up and declaring they want to have their right to determine their own society and their own futures and this is all impacting into the Palestinian struggle as well.
Press TV: There are certain views projected in the many who are pro-Israel and I find it slightly scary that this attitude decries international law completely about the effect on civilians. I mean, if there is somebody holding a gun OK it’s a fair target, but the vast areas of children and women and residential areas that have been attacked by Israeli forces and according to some with entire justification – it’s quite scary…
Sarah Colborne: It is scary, but I think also what is important in the book is the justification by Israeli military generals and politicians of the targeting of civilians and it explicitly says in the book that this is because you terrorize the civilian population into submission – that is the way that Israel believes it should handle the conflict rather than abiding by international law, ending the occupation, giving refugees the right of return and those sort of issues. And so the targeting and killing of civilians is not an accidental issue it’s a deliberate strategy.
But I think the future doesn’t need to be as bleak because although the situation on the ground in Palestine is horrific, there is far more awareness and far more activity to support the Palestinian cause and combined with the steadfastness of the Palestinians themselves, that is what gives me hope for the future.
Press TV: In this book the two professors don’t always agree – what’s your idea about the academic boycott?
Sarah Colborne: We are very clearly in support for the Palestinian boycott and divestment and sanctions and that includes academic boycott. And I think the tide is very clearly turning in favor of boycott. One of the issues that Chomsky raises in his book is he doesn’t believe there is support for it, but I think given what we have seen in support of boycott of Israeli goods and campaigns against complicit firms that are cooperating with Israel’s crimes… we’re seeing mass support for those campaigns now…
It’s a bit like in the situation of apartheid in South Africa, one of the key issues there was they took particular pride in their sporting prowess. With Israel, one of the key issues they take particular pride in is their academic prowess and so for them the academic boycott is a very key issue that they are campaigning against.
And I think it is obviously working when the Knesset are passing laws that ban Israelis from supporting a boycott. That is a bizarre attack on the freedom of speech and that reaction must indicate it is having some effect.
The point that Ilan Pappe makes at the end is that the movement for justice and for freedom for Palestinians is massively increasing worldwide, but the problem is that our governments do not reflect those views reasons and therefore the issue of what civil society can do by methods such as boycotting Israeli goods are very important and that’s the reason why the movement has grown so much because it is something everybody can do and they can act together to make a change.
Press TV: The UN can’t do anything because America will blocking everything so the UN is fairly toothless when it comes to the people in Palestine and Gaza…
Sarah Colborne: Yes it is. But I think there is also a discussion and debate happening not only in the US, but in Britain about whether it is in the US government’s or British government’s strategic interest to tie themselves so closely to Israel.
For example, you’ve had a number of reports from the British governments, from the Foreign Affairs committee and other bodies that really are questioning why Britain is not prepared to act in accordance with international law.
So I do think that the more pressure that we can put in civil society to change government’s policies, the more fertile ground we’ve got. And that’s the reason why by approaching each individual MP we have a great advantage here as we do have constituencies; we can elect or deselect our MP and bringing in the issue of Palestine as a key issue can make the big difference.
SC/JR
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http://www.presstv.ir/detail/194742.html
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