Depends who you ask
this Israel - Palestine thing
has it been going
since 1948
has it been going on
for a thousand years
what do Palestinians even want?
It’s very simple what the Palestinians
want and what’s remarkable is they’re
very united around two principles
and those are the same two principles
that we want the British to support us on:
they’re international law
they’re legally based
and it’s return of the refugees
and our right to self-determination
like all peoples have.
This thing about the right of return
of refugees doesn’t that in a two state
model just create two Palestinian
majority states?
Doesn’t it essentially mean
the destruction of Israel?
Well that’s how people look at it
but it’s the opposite of that
because the return of refugees
was the original injustice.
And when you have the return
it’s about the ‘right of return’
we have the right to go back to our homes.
Some will, some won’t.
But once everyone returns there
might be more Arab-Christians
on your street, there might be more
muslims on your street,
but it used to be like that
in the ‘30s in my grandfather’s time
in my dad’s time.
So people can live amongst each other
when the justice, the injustices have been
addressed.
But Israel and Palestine isn’t the only
conflict
going on in the world there’s a lot of strife
in African countries in different Asian countries
and the British left might want to get involved
with all this stuff, might care deeply but
don’t we have to sort out our own issues
at home first? Why are we getting up
in a tussle about East Jerusalem when
we’ve not even got a plan for winning over
say I don’t know, East Hastings?
So even though people
don’t have to be interested in international
or feel like they have to be interested in
the international or in Palestine
Palestine is interested in you and that’s
why
it’s important.
And I think as everyone’s noticed over
these last few months, Palestine is already
in your lives, yeah?
So it’s important to understand it and it’s
important to understand it according to
the principles of justice.
Because that will protect the rights of
people getting into power so they can
change the NHS, it’s all connected.
UNHRA the UN agency is being dismantled
now by Trump and Netanyahu,
and that’s the refugees that are connected
to the displacement that was the origin
of the conflict.
Our displacement as an entire people in 1948.
So people are saying that was a long time
ago
why should we care about it now?
But actually it is involved in what you’re
doing
and how you’re campaigning now
Palestine is alive.
So the average leftist in the UK
what can we do to support the Palestinian
struggle?
So the most important thing is to learn
about the Palestinian cause and to learn
who we are
we are a small people who are struggling
who have been dispersed and we’re trying
to regain our rights - so to learn about us.
And then I would say the second thing is
showing solidarity, that’s those gestures
of support
you know we’re facing a very asymmetrical
power
and sometimes it can feel very tough
and very isolated and alone and so that
great tradition of British solidarity is to
stand alongside to send gestures
you know we have school kids writing letters
writing letters to school kids in
an UNHRA school in Syria or in Gaza.
These matter so much to us
it’s something about
people get very angry about the injustices
but it’s a love for
which is that old traditional solidarity
which is the most important.
