Analyst calls Israeli regime’s political class racist

Press TV has interviewed Bruce Katz, co-president of the Palestinian and Jewish Unity, in Montreal, to ask for his take about the recent racist remarks by a far-right Israeli lawmaker, saying “he would not want his wife to give birth in a hospital next to Arab mothers.”

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Mr. Katz, how do you react to this?

Katz: Well, I think the comments are far from being an isolated incident. If you look at the ministers and Netanyahu’s coalition government over the past several years, different ministers have made incendiary racist remarks about the Palestinians. A few of them have actually called for genocide against the Palestinians. So this is part of the political culture of Israel at the present moment. Just recently, the chief Sephardic rabbi of Israel stated that “non-Jews should not be allowed to live in Israel”, period!

There are two Israel’s ministers who only just recently have called for the assassination of Palestinian BDS leaders, including Omar Barghouti. To make such an incendiary remark to propose that individuals be assassinated; these are criminal incidents and it is part of a culture of impunity and yet these are the very same people in the Israeli political class because much of the Israeli political class is racist and [they] believe in their system of segregation, which is Israel’s own form of Apartheid. It is clear to me that this Netanyahu coalition has absolutely no legitimacy, what so ever. And for them to rail against the rest of the world then by calling those people who criticize the actions of the state of Israel and who support the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDSM) as anti-Semitic is very ironic indeed because if you want to look at where the real racism lies; it lies within Israel’s political class and that is a very, very clear case. It is clear to the rest of the world.

What I see in Israel’s attempt to block BDS movement is the rearguard action of the inherence of movement that is on the way out.

Press TV: You talked about political class and you know their incendiary comments of the Israeli political class. I am wondering are not we blurring the lines in a bit? Because when we are talking about Israeli hospitals actually segregating Israelis and Palestinians, certainly that then goes into Israeli society and into the medical profession which many people would say is a sacred profession. Why would doctors be racist?

Katz: Well, actually that is part of the Apartheid system of Israel; when we talk about institutionalized system of segregation that is part of it. As a matter of fact there is a report just came out; I believe was in Israel’s newspaper Haaretz about Israeli doctors being part of the system of torture. I mean this is something that is absolutely beyond belief and yet the reports come from within Israel itself, at least from those progressive elements that know what is going on and are not afraid to state what the truth is. And as a matter of fact within Israel itself at the present time, the Netanyahu government is cracking down on Israeli human rights groups and even arresting some of their members; people from Ta'ayush, from B'Tselem, from Yesh Din. They have accused the former IDF soldiers who formed the group “Breaking the Silence” of being traitors because they speak the truth. And that is what Netanyahu and company want the rest of the world to know.

You know right after the last election when Netanyahu was elected by playing a race card; it was either Gideon Levy or Uri Avnery; Israeli journalists, one of the two came out and said, "Netanyahu deserves Israelis and Israelis deserve Netanyahu", but that is the bottom line.

The Israelis are collectively responsible for the fascist government that is now in place and as an Israeli filmmaker whose name escapes me at the present moment; as Israeli filmmaker, who won an international award for a film that he made, stated outright, “Israeli is fascist state.” That is what it is under Netanyahu and company; it is fascist state run by fascists. 

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