Israeli journalist Gideon Levy states that Israel needs true friends, who will save it from destroying itself, and not those who are egging it on or helping it to continue on a path of self-destruction and devastating others.
Levy is an award-winning columnist and the only Israeli journalist who visits the occupied territories. He reports for his paper, Haaretz, on the daily lives of Palestinians living under military control. Because of his honest reports, he has been described as the most hated man in Israel and also the bravest. He has been arrested, shot at by Israeli soldiers and threatened. But he keeps writing and speaking to inform Israelis and others about the horrible situation and a looming catastrophe. He has won numerous prizes and has written two books.
The Israeli journalist is touring Canada under the sponsorship of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, which seeks to keep Canadians, particularly politicians and the media, informed.
There are few people more qualified than Levy to present the honest picture. He was born in Tel Aviv and that is where he lives with his family. No Israeli journalist visits the occupied territories as often. No one writes about the situation as frankly and honestly.
Speaking in Ottawa, Levy stated that Benjamin Netanyahu was the first Israeli prime minister to declare bluntly that he will not permit the creation of a Palestinian state though this has been the policy of all Israeli prime ministers. Levy said that Netanyahu has greatly expanded the number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank but it was the Labor leaders who first built illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and that they never planned to withdraw them or to allow an independent Palestinian state.
If Netanyahu had lost the recent elections, there would have been talk about peace and a Palestinian state, but Israeli leaders have neither the power nor the desire to end Israeli occupation of the territories, Levy declared. He said the Middle East dispute is about Israel grabbing real estate. The only country that can bring about a just settlement in the Middle East is the United States, on which Israel is totally dependent, he said. He declared that he cannot understand how a superpower can be so totally dominated by the Israeli, fundamentalist Christian and arms lobbies that it pursues a policy that is not only disastrous for the Palestinians but also harms the US's own interests.
Levy stated that there will be no change in the Middle East until Israel is punished for its occupation, oppression and illegitimate actions in the occupied territories. He stated that though Israel has withdrawn from Gaza, it is still controlling it through the air, sea and the land border.
Israel claims to be a democracy but its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza represent “one of the cruelest tyrannies in the world,” he asserted.
Levy said that Israelis live close to the Palestinians but there is no contact between them except through the occupation. Israelis live in a world of self-deception and illusions. They believe they are always right and Palestinians always wrong. They feel that they are the chosen people and, after suffering the Holocaust in Europe, they can do anything they want, including flouting international law, seizing Arab land and treating Palestinians savagely.
Israeli society has demonized and dehumanized Palestinians and does not see them as human beings. So it oppresses them brutally without any moral consideration or remorse. Israelis also see themselves as having the world's most moral army and themselves as highly moral. They are blind to their own actions. But some Israelis realize that what they are doing is wrong. Levy said he once asked former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak what he would have done if he had been born a Palestinian. I would have become a terrorist, Barak replied. He stated that he once visited Gaza with Ariel Sharon and asked him about the refugee camps where displaced Palestinians have to live. Sharon replied that the refugee problem would have to be solved, with some refugees being allowed to return to their homes.
The Israelis are so brainwashed that they see themselves as the victims and they blame the victims for their own plight, Levy said. He asserted that Israeli leaders have ruled out a Palestinian state and so a one-state solution has been the reality for decades. Israel is the only state in the world without defined borders and with three regimes, a liberal regime for Jews, severe discrimination but some limited rights for Israeli Arabs and an unending, oppressive occupation for the West Bank and Gaza.
As in South Africa, Levy sees outside action as the only way to create a just peace. He said the boycott, divest and sanctions movement offers the possibility of a change without bloodshed and large-scale violence. He declared that he was not optimistic because the situation in Israel is becoming worse and it is becoming more right-wing and the world generally does not care enough to enforce justice.
— Mohammed Azhar Ali Khan is a retired Canadian journalist, civil servant and refugee judge.
