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Knesset member Muhammad Barakeh (file)
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| By Ynetnews November 12, 2006 |
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The images he saw in Beit Hanoun last week still trouble Knesset member Muhammad Barakeh. Speaking with Ynet on Sunday the chairman of the Hadash party says that his weekend visit to Gaza completely shocked him: "The fact that we got there and saw the horror with our own eyes? we saw the embodiment of evil there, children's bodies, wounded children, it was shocking."
"It was destruction in the name of destruction," says MK Barakeh, "the goal of the operation was the make the civilian population pressure those launching Qassam rocket to stop but they do not understand that they are only establishing the foundation that justifies the Qassams."
Speaking at a Ramallah memorial service for PA Chairman Yasser Arafat on Saturday Barakeh called Arafat "Our great leader" and warned that "the shoes of the child from Beit Hanoun will stomp on the head of the Israeli empire. Your security will not come at the expense of our children? you will not kill our dream. I call on the leaders of the world and the Arab world to ensure our safety, the safety of the Palestinian people." At a rally in Nazareth on Friday Barakeh called Olmert's government "a government of animals."
The impression from your statements is that you, an Israeli MK, are openly identifying yourself as belonging to the Palestinian side, speaking to Israelis as a leader of Palestinians.
"The 'we' I use is a little more complex than the banal 'we'. I can't talk to my people and use the word 'you'. But more than that, I spoke to both sides. I highlighted the common denominator and said that Palestinians would not enjoy security at the expense of Israeli children and that Israelis will not have security at the expense of the blood of Palestinian children. It's true, my speeches after Beit Hanoun are more pained but they are politically balanced.
"This speech was given under the influence of children's body parts and intubated children. My meeting with Beit Hanoun's residents was heartbreaking. When a woman began listing all her lost family members -- even a stone would have broken. It undoubtedly affects me. That was the situation yesterday when I spoke about Yasser Arafat, I talked about Beit Hanoun most of the time and many people cried because of that speech."
Barakeh called on Palestinians to stop firing Qassam rockets at Israel: "I unequivocally spoke against them, in front of the prime minister's deputy and other Hamas members. I said that if the means of resistance do not bring you closer to freedom and give the occupier excuses to continue his actions, you are giving him an excuse to attack you. I said that even if we believe that the fight is justified, we should not fight with unjustified means. And by that I meant harming civilians and everyone understood my implication. Some Palestinian leaders came up to me afterwards and told me 'we need someone to come and say that'.
What constitutes legitimate resistance?
"Resistance is legitimate, like Baruch Kimmerling says. Legitimate resistance can start with a hunger strike and end in armed resistance over occupied territory. But that doesn't mean that every legitimate means must be used. One of the goals is to create a dialog with the Israeli people that they won't walk captive after their government's insubordination."
And what kind of resistance do you support?
"I'm not a strategist for the Palestinian revolution, but in any case I do not support harming Israeli civilians, whatever the reason. This position is the moral origin which opposes harming Palestinian civilians."
And attacking Israeli soldiers in the territories?
"Attacking soldiers is a legitimate method but if there are other means then - certainly. I've always said that if it's possible to attain the Palestinian state within five years without victims -- I prefer it to attaining it in one year with victims."
You've been criticized during your highly publicized visit to Beit Hanoun and on other occasions for not voicing similar condemnations after terror attacks in Israel or conducting similar visits.
"We say those things and every journalist knows that. But it doesn't fit in with the label designated for us. On the day of the Beit Hanoun incident I was in Sderot for a conference and was asked about the Qassam rockets. I said that they were unjustified and counterproductive to the Palestinian people, but what can I do that it doesn't fit the extremist image created for me?"
"I believe that this is the right thing to do, also for the Israelis, with whom I share my citizenship and for the Palestinian with whom I share my nationality. As for the visits, what do you think? That I can really visit the Dolphinarium after a bombing? And I've been to funerals in Haifa for bombing victims. In the end there needs to be a Palestinian country alongside Israel, otherwise there won't be security for either side."
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