‘Israel synonymous with Judaism?’

PressTV – Tue Jan 11, 2011 7:4PM
Interview with Kenneth O ‘Keefe – former US marine and anti-war activist, Gaza

A file photo shows Ken O’Keefe, beaten by Israeli forces following the attack on the Gaza-bound aid convy.
Kenneth O’Keefe a former US marine turned soldier of peace, witnessed firsthand the Israeli attack, international waters, on the flagship of Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla, the Mavi Marmara.

O’Keefe known about live in the impoverished Gaza Strip, after living there for seven years helping some of the 800,000 innocent children under daily Israeli siege.

But he is not the story, he is a messenger.

PressTV: In regard to the destruction of the Shepherd hotel in Jerusalem al Qods, symbolic for its heritage value of pre-dating the creation of Israel and demolished for the purpose of building Jewish-only apartments, some are saying that this is part of Israel’s ethnic cleansing policy against Palestinians. What are your thoughts about this?

Ken O’Keefe: I think we’ve reached a point long ago where it is impossible to deny the fact that the Israeli government is not only racist, but literally crazy, insane, psychotic and capable of anything.

As I sit here today in Gaza I can tell you a 65-year-old farmer was shot dead tending to his crops on his land next to the wall in which people are shot on a regular basis.

We have very serious rumblings from the Israeli government about continuing operation Cast Lead and actually launching a second attack.

This is very, very serious and I think we’ve reached a point now – How much more attention are we going to pay to what Israel is doing while letting our governments — the governments I feel the most disgust and shame for; the EU governments, the American government, all the western governments…

Let us talk about the 25 billion Euros a year in trade that the EU continues to do with Israel while it spouts pretty words that have no substance at all.

If the EU wanted to stop the settlement building, it could stop its relationship with Israel and it would cripple the Israeli economy; same goes for the American people.

What are we doing? We talk a lot, but what are we doing? Our government continues to ‘give’ over 3 billion dollars worth of aid to the richest country in the Middle East; arming that nation – a racist apartheid vicious nasty psychotic nation with the weapons that it uses to do things that … for instance, the Awajah family that I visited this week — the Awajah family that lost six members of their family all in one day because a white phosphorus bomb blew up in their home. One of their daughters, a four year old, turned into a big piece of charcoal – in an instant!

A father was killed; lives were destroyed; families destroyed – this happens on a regular basis and what does the EU do? It talks and it does nothing. The United States, what does it do? It hardly talks, but it certainly doesn’t do anything but arm Israel.

I’m sick and tired of people accepting this. It’s time for general strikes; it’s time for all unions, everyone, to stand with the Palestinian people.

Your cause is their cause and vice versa. It’s time for us to unite across the spectrum because the governments and the UN do nothing.

PressTV: You talked about how the EU should stop doing business with Israel and the billions of dollars that they do. Have there been any strikes taken in regards to the boycott divestment and sanction movements in terms of not having money going into Israel’s pocket? Have there been any advances here?

Ken O’Keefe: There’s no question that that has had some impact, but when you’ve got the US taxpayers flipping the bill for the Israelis every year to the tune of 3 billion plus dollars; when you’ve got the EU doing what they’re doing, it’s hard to compete with that.

There is also a blood diamond trade that continues in Israel – massive amounts of money being made by the blood of Africans who are continuing to pull diamonds out of the ground so that the Israeli state, the criminal state that it is, can continue to make ungodly amounts of money and all of this is very difficult to compete with in terms of boycott divestment – It’s just not doing enough to stop what’s happening here on a regular basis.

And that leads me to my next issue which is, let us lay blame and responsibility accordingly here, I want to ask all the Jewish people of this world, I want to ask you: Does Israel represent you?

Is Israel synonymous with Judaism? Because if Israel is synonymous with Judaism, then you as a people are a threat to every ounce of decency and humanity that exists…

Just like the so-called decent Germans who did not speak out and do what they needed to do to prevent the rise of Hitler. It is now on you, the Jewish people of the world to speak up now and condemn all of these acts of racism, of mass murder that the Israeli state that purports to represent you to speak out now. You have a special burden.

PressTV: The Russell Tribunal on Palestine had some very good topics that are covered and reference of course to the companies that do business with Israel, which you also talked about under the EU trade dealings. How can that be stopped, since the only negotiating power seems to be that of the bulldozers when that steel comes down and breaks buildings such as it did with the Shepherd hotel?

Ken O’Keefe: I believe that the only way to solve this problem is when the power of people is fully exerted and that those of us with conscious actually act in unison, intelligently, and fearlessly.

We had some example of that back in May of last year on the Mavi Marmara. The people on that ship exhibited the greatest of strength and quality, which I think are the example of what we need to be.

We have every right to defend ourselves on that ship as we would defend our own children. And the children of Gaza, 800,000 plus of them are being violated in the most obscene of ways every single day.

I want every American and every European to think about the bombs dropping here and think your child wetting themselves uncontrollable, screaming in terror and running underneath the bed, crying and absolutely helpless with no thoughts of the future .

I want you to think of your child that way because there are literally hundreds of thousands of children that way here and it’s you who is paying for it so those of us who actually have a conscience and still have a brain that we can use. We need to act in unison.

In parting I’ll say that I think we are our own worst enemies so often in the anti-war movement and what not.

We have so many games, and so much politics and so much stuff that we’re playing, it really is tragic. I hope that we do finally unite. I’m working on a plan with a fantastic group of people and that plan will be announced in the next month. And in life or death I want to see this plan happen because I know that if we carry out this plan we will shatter the blockade of Gaza. It will be over — one way or the other.

And we will liberate Palestine, if we as people exert our power. But that’s the real question: Are we going to do it or not?

SC/ZHD

PressTV – ‘Israel synonymous with Judaism?’.

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