Apartheid Wall designed to make Palestinians leave: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Kamel Hawwash, the vice chair of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in Birmingham, the resumption of Israel’s construction activities on a section of its Apartheid Wall in Beit Jala, a Palestinian Christian town.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: How is this wall going to affect Palestinians and their livelihoods?

Hawwash: I know that part of Palestine very well in Beit Jala. Last year, I visited friends who have a part of land on one side of what will be the wall and their houses on the other. And they struggled to get to the land to ensure that it continues to produce grapes and olives and so on. It’s another part if you like of the jigsaw that Israel is dividing Palestine into.

First of all, let’s remember that Benjamin Netanyahu said very clearly a few weeks ago that he wants to fence Israel in all the way around. He was to see a fence to protect it for what he referred to in a racist way ‘wild beasts,’ i.e. Arabs; that’s the first thing to say. Secondly, it’s really ironic that Israel on the one hand complains that it’s being isolated, but then isolates itself by building the wall because the wall yes affects Palestinians tremendously, but of course you wouldn’t want to live with a wall on one side of your land either as an Israeli.

And this absolute lie that the wall protects Israel, improves its security, is clear. So the area they’re building in now, there hasn’t been a wall and there have not been attacks on Israel. And therefore, this whole thing is a land grab and it’s also a case of making the lives of Palestinians so miserable that they will decide to leave.

Press TV: You can correct me if I’m wrong about this. I believe Beit Jala is an area, which is populated largely by Christians. When we talk about the narrative of Palestine, we always in somewhere or the other many of media refer to it as a Muslim versus Jewish issue, but there are Christians in the middle of this as well. How important is it to highlight that?

Hawwash: I think you’re right. I as a Palestinian prefer to talk about land grab from Palestinians, but it is a fact that Beit Jala and the area of Bethlehem have high concentration of Christian Palestinians. And of course as they see the land grab, as they experience the occupation, they live in a disproportionate way to Muslim Palestinians. And we don’t want to see that as Palestinians. We do regard ourselves as one community. And we look after each other. We attend each other’s celebrations. Muslims go and offer their good wishes at Christmas. Christians offer their good wishes at the Eid. We are one community.

And of course, let’s also remember, that both Christians and Muslims are not allowed to freely, for example from Gaza, attend al-Aqsa mosque or the church of Holy Sepulchre or churches in Beit Jala or in Bethlehem. All parts of Israel’s expansionist colonial regime, which as I say ultimately is designed to make the lives of Palestinians really miserable and they would leave, but also to replace them with Jewish settlers in Jewish-only settlements. If that isn’t the racist thing in 2016, I don’t know what is.

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