https://arab.news/gap8e
- Husam Zomlot calls on Palestinians to seize on sliding support for Israel worldwide
- ‘When you involve the entire society, you actually have the moral high ground, and you actually can drain your occupier (of its energy)’
LONDON: Nonviolent protest worldwide by Palestinians and their supporters should serve as the bedrock of a campaign to reignite peace talks with Israel, the Palestinian ambassador to the UK has said.
Husam Zomlot described the protest movement as vital in comments to the “World of Trouble” podcast.
“We must find a way that it becomes mass, because when you involve the entire society, you actually have the moral high ground, and you actually can drain your occupier (of its energy),” he said.
It comes amid a bipartisan collapse of support for Israel in the West, and as the Israeli settler movement ramps up its campaign of violence in the occupied West Bank.
In his interview, Zomlot recalled growing up in a Gaza refugee camp and moving to the UK as an adult.
The Palestinian leadership under the late Yasser Arafat made a series of critical mistakes in the 1990s, he said, highlighting the Palestine Liberation Organization’s decision to officially end violent resistance against Israel in a bid for peace.
“You call it violence. International law has a different (interpretation),” Zomlot told The Independent’s podcast. “They call it resistance, and there was a UN General Assembly resolution in 1973 giving the Palestinian people the right to armed resistance, defined very clearly in international law to be targeting the army of the occupation.”
Arafat’s decision, which came as part of the Oslo peace process, revealed “another Israeli trick,” Zomlot said, adding that the Palestinians did not demand, nor receive, recognition of a state or its borders as a consequence of recognizing Israel.
“The key question is does Israel consider its presence in the Occupied Territories temporary or permanent?”
Amid surging violence in the West Bank and a lack of state control on the part of the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, questions remain over the future of Palestinian politics.
“We need to make sure that we find a way that is not war,” Zomlot said. “But that has to be coupled with an international campaign similar to that of South Africa, to suck oxygen out of the settlements, out of the occupation ... We cannot do it alone.
“Fatah understands that the first thing we need to do is the unity of our people and making sure our people remain on our land.
“Now, the effective mode is nonviolent resistance, but we have to redefine resistance. It’s important; resistance is not just armed resistance.”
Other methods of building international support for Palestinians, and pressure on Israel, are proving fruitful amid sliding support for the latter, he said.
According to a recent Pew poll, 60 percent of Americans hold an “unfavorable” view of Israel — a 7 percent annual rise.
“All of a sudden the world has discovered that Israel is the root of all the issues in the Middle East and worldwide, and that Israel must be brought into compliance,” Zomlot said.
“This conversation did not happen before, and it’s happening here in Britain. It’s happening in Europe, and certainly it’s happening now in the US for the first time.
“We see not only the Democrats, but the Republicans having a serious conversation about the US-Israel relationship.”
Zomlot dismissed Israeli thinking on the right strategy to achieve security: “They can’t punch their way to safety. Respect the people around you, and you will see different and better security.
“Think that your security comes from the insecurity of others? It doesn’t work. Think that your security comes from all failed states around you? It doesn’t work. That will produce for you groups that are way more radical than the current groups.
“Think that by threatening to dismantle entire societies, it brings peace for you? Think again. The only way peace can come is by you thriving and everybody else thriving.”