Displacement of Gazans 1st step in 'ethnic cleansing': Israeli activist

By Turgut Alp Boyraz

BEIRUT (AA) - Israeli human rights activist Ofer Neiman said the Israeli army's forced displacement of Palestinians from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip is the "first step of ethnic cleansing."

Israeli attacks that have been underway for more than one month aim to push Palestinians in Gaza to the border with Egypt in the southern part of the enclave.

Images of tens of thousands of civilians, women, children, young and old, heading toward the Egyptian border in hopes of escaping the bombardment bring to mind the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who were exiled from their homeland with the establishment of Israel in 1948.

Neiman told Anadolu that the Israeli government is trying to encourage ethnic cleansing and deport Palestinians from Gaza to the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.

"We also see that the south of Gaza is not safe for the Palestinians,” he said. “We witness the attacks and bombings of the Israeli army against the Palestinians there, too.”

"I think we need to understand that the Israeli government does not want to see Palestinians in Gaza," he said.

"I do not think even US President Joe Biden will allow this," the activist said, adding that despite such doubts, the Israeli government has not refrained from trying to carry out ethnic cleansing in Gaza.

-Right to resist

"I think the Palestinians have the right to resist the Israeli army. According to international law, citizens and civilians must be protected from both sides,” he said.

“I think reasonable people who understand international law and the situation here would say that the Palestinians have the right to fight against the Israeli forces that are engaged in occupation and apartheid," he said. "Even some honest Israeli politicians say that Palestinians have some rights to resist and that not every Palestinian attack is terrorism."

Stressing that Israel's official narrative deems every Palestinian act as "terrorism" indiscriminately, Neiman said: "Even when Hamas attacks Israeli soldiers or Palestinians fight against the Israeli army in the West Bank, Israel just calls them terrorists. This is quite a problematic position for the Israeli government.”

-Cease-fire needed

Emphasizing that the Israeli government implements an apartheid occupation system in all historical Palestinian lands extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, the Israeli activist said a lot of international pressure is currently needed to ensure a cease-fire in Gaza.

Neiman said there should be pressure from within Israel to declare a cease-fire, but that the proportion of people like him who advocate that is low, and that most Israelis currently support what Israel's army is doing in Gaza.

-Political pressure

Neiman noted that it was "dangerous" for Israelis who oppose Israel's actions in Gaza to go out and organize protests.

"Some people are afraid. I don't condemn them,” he said.

He noted that an academic at the Hebrew University accused Israel of “committing genocide” before he was forced to resign.

Neiman underlined that expressing views about Israel could even be tantamount to a crime that requires punishment by law.

“If you go out and protest, you will likely be detained by the police; this happened in Jerusalem two weeks ago. You may also be attacked by Israeli citizens, and some people will be criticized for their political views,” he said.

“Therefore, there is a lot of political pressure against those who are against what is happening and those who criticize the crimes Israel is committing in Gaza,” he said, adding that those who oppose Israeli acts in Gaza are “a small minority of Jewish Israeli citizens like me who think that what Israel did was genocide, or at least a crime against humanity."

-Boycott sparks Israeli concern

According to Neiman, the pro-Palestinian campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), of which he is a member, has succeeded in changing the direction of the Israel-Palestine issue, especially in the Western world and the US.

"The Israeli government is afraid of BDS. So BDS is not just about who will not buy which product,” he stressed. “We know that they (the Israeli government) are actively trying to stop BDS behind the scenes.”

Neiman said the debate about Israel-Palestine is changing in favor of the Palestinians in the US compared to how it used to be 10 years ago.

“The younger generation in the US is more in solidarity with the Palestinians, so BDS is a political campaign that brings to the fore the rights of the Palestinians and Israel's apartheid rule,” he said. “The BDS movement is very successful in the US."