Tel Aviv shooting blowback of israel’s oppression against Palestinians

Press TV has interviewed Bruce Katz, the co-president of Palestinian and Jewish Unity from Montreal, to discuss a recent deadly shooting incident in Tel Aviv which led to the death of four Israelis.

A rough transcription of the interview appears below.

Press TV: Do you think such attacks can be stopped as long as Israel continues its provocations and violations of Palestinian rights throughout the occupied territories?

Katz: No, as a matter of fact the escalating violence, in this case the unfortunate shooting death of four Israelis, but again, 216 Palestinians, and now more than 30 Israelis, this is due to the type of absolutely brutal oppressive system of apartheid that is part and parcel of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.

Palestinians now, for years, for decades, but especially over the last nine years, which correspond to Netanyahu’s taking power, have been living in a pressure cooker and you know it happens when the heat rises too much and the lid is blown off it and what we see now is blowback on a rather large scale, which is now also affecting Israeli citizens and in effect if we look at the situation, the first victims of Israeli oppression are obviously the Palestinians but the second victims are Israel’s own citizens although I doubt that they would see it that way.

Netanyahu is a zealot, he resides over a government of zealots who can only bring Israel to a point of no return and they are quickly approaching it. As a matter of fact I would agree wholeheartedly with Israeli journalist Akiva Eldar. To paraphrase what Mr. Eldar has said basically Israel can change the direction in which it is going and find a new path which will result in dialogue and lasting peace with the Palestinians or it would crash and burn.

I think that the writing is on the wall and it is time for Israeli politicians in general outside, and perhaps some inside Likud, to work to push Netanyahu aside because the situation is only going to get worse, it is not going to get better, and it is quite obvious that no change will come from within Israel itself especially not while Netanyahu holds power and that is why the BDS campaign against Israeli apartheid is so important and necessary.

Press TV: Do you think any of Israel’s supporters outside of its area, the likes of the United States and others, also see things the way you have just spoken of them?

Katz: They may very well see it privately they won’t state it publicly. Nonetheless, even among politicians like Hillary Clinton, who is basically in the pocket of a couple of pro-Israel billionaires like Sheldon Adelson and … American billionaires, even in her case, I find it typical to believe that you would be able to continue down the road of stating that it is Israel right or wrong. I can’t see politicians standing behind Netanyahu, Lieberman, Naftali Bennett and the other zealots that make up their coalition at least not in the long term.