TEHRAN - Greta Berlin, an American anti-Zionist activist, says Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip is primarily intended to drive out Palestinians from the coastal enclave and shove them into Egypt.  

“The Israelis want all of Palestine with no Palestinians in it, and their current leaders are blatantly saying that Palestinians in Gaza should be shoved into Egypt and live in tent cities. That is their intent,” Berlin tells the Tehran Times.

Berlin adds, “If they can’t eliminate them with bombs, they will starve them to death or make life so difficult, Palestinians will begin dying of diseases.”

Berlin, the co-author of Freedom Sailors and spokesperson for the Free Gaza Movement, also says Israel has resorted to the mad war against the residents of Gaza because the regime is “losing the support of the world”.

Following is the text of the interview:

Q: What are the reasons for the West’s blind support for Israel’s indescribable crimes in Gaza while it makes claims about the need to respect international human rights law, the law of war, respect for

international law?

A: The West has three major reasons for supporting Israel’s genocide against the indigenous Christian and Muslim Palestinians;

1. Zionist money, blackmail and bribery that influences much of the West.

2. The belief that Israel is the victim instead of the victimizer and they are, somehow, ‘the chosen’ people. This belief is particularly strong in the West, as there are 30 times more Christian Zionists than Jewish Zionists, especially in the US. When the state of Israel was established in 1948, Christian Zionists saw it as the great historical event fulfilling biblical prophecy that “all Jews should be rounded up and sent back to the Holy Land to be converted or killed, then Jesus returns”.

3. Racism from the West who sees black and brown people as somehow lesser human beings. And that’s been Western beliefs for hundreds of years. In 1937, for example, when talking about the treatment of “the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia”, Winston Churchill denied any injustice had been done, saying “a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly-wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place”.

The Israeli government plays on all three of those reasons, especially now, when you see Netanyahu calling up biblical references to destroy Palestinians. It’s also interesting to note that every Israeli Prime Minister has been white from Europe or America. (Yet, Israel is now filled with millions of Arab and Ethiopian Jews who, ironically, are members of the most racist parties).

“Israel wants to steal Gaza’s gas."

Q: In comparison to Republicans, Democrats have been making more claims of support for human rights, but Joe Biden and his lieutenants have been steadfastly supporting Israel which according to the UN has created a “hell on the earth” in Gaza. What are the reasons for this?

A: There is virtually no difference in support for Israel between Democrats and Republicans. Both parties actively seek Zionist donations, but the Democrats tend to collect from the Jewish Zionists while the Republicans collect from the Christian Zionists. For example, in 2022, much of that money going to the most influential Democrats such as Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries.

President Biden has repeatedly said he is a Christian Zionist, he’s proud of that, and “If there were not an Israel, we’d have to invent one.” Many of us now call him, Genocide Joe for his unwavering support for Israel and its murderous actions against the Palestinians of Gaza. The US was the only country who voted against the Cease Fire in the UN Security Council. So the idea that the Democratic party is in favor of human rights is ridiculous.

“Israel has been committing ‘slow-motion genocide’ on Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank since it stole the land from Palestinians in 1948.”

Q: How do you describe the collective punishment of the Gazans, including displacing about 2 million people, bombarding places where people have taken shelter, and horrifically halting water, food, and medicines to civilians? Do you see Israel’s moves against Gaza as an instance of war or a kind of madness?

A: Israel is committing genocide on the Palestinians of Gaza and has been actively slaughtering them for 2 months as of this writing. But Israel has been committing ‘slow-motion genocide’ on Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank since it stole the land from Palestinians in 1948.

The Israelis want all of Palestine with no Palestinians in it, and their current leaders are blatantly saying that Palestinians in Gaza should be shoved into Egypt and live in tent cities. That is their intent. If they can’t eliminate them with bombs, they will starve them to death or make life so difficult, Palestinians will begin dying of diseases. Israel wants all of Gaza for three reasons: 1. Israelis are slobbering over the idea of 35 miles of pristine beachfront property after all the debris has been swept away. 2. Israel wants to steal Gaza’s gas. The Gaza marine field, discovered by BG in 2000 has 122 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 1.7 billion barrels of oil worth around $524 billion! 3. Israel has been planning the Ben Gurion Canal Project, originally proposed in the 1960s as an alternative to the Suez Canal. And to accomplish that goal, they need northern Gaza as the starting point. This canal would be under the authority of the Western ally, Israel, and would eliminate the Suez Canal as well as stopping the leverage by Egypt/Iran/Yemen against the West.

And it’s not a war. Wars are between states. Gaza is a concentration camp; its people are occupied. Occupied people have the right to resist, according to international law. Israel, on the other hand, is the brutal occupier. Under international law, it has no right to self-defense against people it occupies. It’s why Hamas had every right on October 7, 2023, to bust out of the concentration camp, capture hostages to be used for barter to get Palestinian hostages out of Israeli prisons and kill Israeli soldiers and police.

“Under international law, it has no right to self-defense against people it occupies.”

The madness that is seen now by Israel is because they are losing the support of the world. Demonstrations around the world are in support of Palestinian rights, the Houthis are blocking ships carrying supplies to Israel, the Israeli economy is faltering, there are no farm workers to harvest crops, because the Thai workers have all gone home. So we are watching the final throes of a panicked country that has nuclear weapons, and that’s what makes it so dangerous.

Q: Hasn’t Western coddling of Israel made Israeli rulers spoiled and more repressive, thereby killing any opportunity for healing the Palestinian wound? Is it possible to actually silence Palestinians whose land has been stolen and all their decades-long wishes for a sovereign and independent state have gone with the wind?

A: Those of us who have advocated for justice in Palestine see Hamas’s actions as a watershed, a moment where the world has finally taken notice. Before October 7, the Arab world was busy making deals with Israel, the Abraham accords were by-passing the Palestinians as Israel made deals with countries like Morocco, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, and Sudan. None of those countries shared a border with occupied Palestine and none of them had a thing to lose by making the deal.

All of those deals, all of those plans are now stopped or reversed. No one wants to be friends with a country committing genocide. So, we’re hopeful this is really an opportunity for Palestinians to regain their state. And it’s up to them how that happens. Personally, there was never a possibility of a two-state solution. Israel used that illusion to continue building settlements so that two states are impossible. And the idea of a state for Jews only makes no sense any longer as many settlers have left, and no one is interested in immigrating to Israel. In fact, Israel is the most dangerous country in the world for Jews. More Jews have violently died in Israel than in all other countries combined since WW II.

The world once said Apartheid South Africa would never fall. It did. That the Berlin Wall was permanent. It was not. And the Global South is rising, as the West begins to split apart. BRICS will be the economic power and not the West. When the UN General Assembly voted on December 12, 2023, by a huge majority of 153 nations for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire during an emergency session, that put the West and Israel on notice. Even though that resolution is non-binding, it is a loud and clear message, even from some of the nations of the West such as France, Canada, and Spain that Israeli genocide will not be permitted.

Q: Do you see any discriminatory approaches in the Western behavior toward Russia’s war on Ukraine and Israel’s war on Gaza?

A: Of course. The West is practicing discrimination against Russia over Ukraine (even though the entire disaster was begun by Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland back in 2014) but this topic deserves answers from people better educated in Russian politics than I am.