Son of Israeli general calls Israel a terrorist, apartheid state
Miko Peled, grandson of signatory to 1948 Declaration of Independence and son of Israeli general Mattityahu Peled, accuses Israel of terrorism and speaks out against its apartheid policies. Read a transcript excerpt along with the below clip from his debate with Ivan Lewis, hosted by Eli Hassell for AE Plus. Below clip should begin automatically at around 12:50.
Note that some trivial cleanup was made to the below transcription, largely to several attempted interruptions of Peled’s answer.
Host: “Wait a second, Ivan, you mentioned before that you said that you believe Hamas is a terrorist organization like the UK says. Do you believe that Hamas is a terrorist organization?”
Peled: “You know, you describe a fascinating version of history except the problem is none of it is true. Let me tell you a story — Hold on. I heard your question, let me put this incontext.
On the fifth day of the 1967 war, my father, who was in uniform at the time, he was one of the generals of the IDF, one of the planners and the executors of the 1967 war. He stood up and he offered, in the very first meeting of the Israeli High Command, he stood up and he talked about the possibility of what we know today as a two-state solution. He said, “Now we are strong, we are mighty, we are here to stay, we have a state on the vast majority of the land. But we do need to compromise, and we do need to take into account the fact that there’s another nation living here.”
And so he proposed what we know today as the two-state solution, and that was really the beginning of this movement of Zionist Israelis, many of whom used to hold important positions like my father and others, to promote this idea of a two-state solution where the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem would become a Palestinian state, and the Palestinian citizens of Israel would receive their fair equal rights.
As he was saying these words, as he was already saying these words, Israeli bulldozers were destroying Palestinian towns, destroying Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, and Israel was building massive settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. As he was saying these words. Now, he retired — You know, his other general friends, Izhak Rabin and others who were his comrades in arms, took him aside and said, “What are you talking about? Why would we even think of allowing the Arabs — they didn’t say Palestinians then — the Arabs to establish some kind of an entity in those lands that are ours, historically? These are ours. I mean Zionists believe that all of Palestine is theirs. Why in the world would we do anything to give them any kind of rights or give it back, as the saying goes?
And from that moment on until today there has been a very clear declared policy by the State of Israel, by consecutive governments/parties to make sure that a Palestinian state, that a two-state solution would be an impossibility, and they succeeded. So — ”
Host: “What about Oslo?”
Peled: “Let me finish. And so, from that moment on, because the 1967 war was not a separate occasion, it was another step, it was another chapter in the Zionist taking of Palestine. And so they finished the job as they themselves said, “We finished the job of 1948, we took all of Palestine, now it’s ours.” And they built, and continue to build, and they haven’t stopped building for a second, for a moment since 1967, since they took those territories, built massively for Jews only, for Jews only in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
So, the claim that somehow Israel was ever interested in a two-state solution is absurd. But my father and a small group of others continued to pursue this and became pariahs because of that. Now, to somehow blame the Palestinians… Now, so Israel de facto created a single state, albeit an apartheid state. The State of Israel is now — the State of Israel nowI will get to your question about Hamas. I didn’t forget. I will get to your question about Hamas. The State of Israel created a single state which they call Israel, which is, we know because Amnesty International told us in a report, is an apartheid state, but it is a state that includes all of historic Palestine from the river to the sea.
When Palestinians talk about a single state from the river to the sea, Zionists like yourself, who had never for one second supported the idea of a two state solution when you could have, are up in arms. How dare they want a single state when Israel has been actually creating a single state. When the Zionist movement created a single state with rights only for Jewish people at the expense of Palestinians, with millions of Palestinians living in — you know, languishing in refugee camps, with people in the Gaza Strip being bombed on a regular basis for decades. This is not new, this savage, genocidal attack that we’re seeing right now in the Gaza Strip with thousands of civilians being killed is nothing new.
You’re talking about “babies being burned and beheaded.” What do you think happens to babies who are in buildings when these massive bombs fall on them? Do you not think their bodies disintegrate? Do you not think their heads are beheaded? And there are thousands of babies that have not yet been found, because they’re in the rubble suffocating to death because of policies that you support. So you have no right to talk about terrorism, because you are a supporter of terrorism. Israel is the perpetrator of terrorism. Hamas is a legitimate resistance organization. Israel, Zionism and people like yourself, people like yourself who support this terrorism, you are the supporter of terrorism. You are funders of terrorism, which is even worse. You provide material support to the genocide, the ethnic cleansing, and an apartheid state. You are no worse than those who supported apartheid in South Africa and other even worse regimes who committed genocide against other people.
So for you to sit there and question me and question Palestinians and blame the terrorists is the worst type of racist hypocrisy, which is typical, by the way, of Brits like yourself. That is the truth. You have no right to question me. You have no right to doubt the rights of Palestinians. You have no right to call Hamas or any other Palestinian a terrorist, because you are a supporter of terrorism. You are a supporter of racism and genocide. That is the truth. That is the truth.
You could have had a two state solution, but you refused it. You made everything possible to create a single state, but when Palestinians talk about a single state with equal rights, you are up in arms. Israel has created a single state, which is an apartheid state with no rights for Palestinians, and you’re okay with that. And you are okay with that. You’re okay with an apartheid state, you’re not okay with a state with equal rights.”
Israeli activist Miko Peled is the author of The General’s Son, which discusses his experience as the son of an Israeli general who took part in the Nakba. He tells of his journey growing up in a staunchly pro-Zionist community toward becoming a vehement advocate for peace and Palestine today.
