Frankly Speaking: Will Israel ever end its occupation of Palestine?

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Updated 26 February 2024
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Frankly Speaking: Will Israel ever end its occupation of Palestine?

  • Israeli journalist Gideon Levy accuses Israel of dehumanizing and demonizing Palestinians
  • Believes any Israeli leader would choose occupation over normalization with Saudi Arabia
  • Calls on his country to choose between being a democratic state or an apartheid one

DUBAI: With the war in Gaza heading toward its sixth month, some are wondering if there is any end in sight to the Israeli occupation of Palestine. What is certain, however, is that Israel carries out a policy of dehumanization of Palestinians to justify its occupation, according to one of Israel’s most famous journalists.

“Israel systematically, from its first day, dehumanized and demonized the Palestinians in order to maintain their occupation, to maintain even the creation of the state of Israel,” Gideon Levy said.

He said Israel “is very efficient in manipulating propaganda and brainwashing all over the world,” and is “the only occupier in history which presents itself as a victim.”

Levy, who has spent over four decades as a journalist writing for the Israeli daily Haaretz covering mainly the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, made these remarks on the Arab News current affairs show “Frankly Speaking.”




Gideon Levy has spent over four decades as a journalist and columnist for the Israeli daily Haaretz. He spoke to Katie Jensen, the host of “Frankly Speaking,” the Arab News current affairs show. (AN photo)

Levy has been harshly critical of Israel’s actions, particularly those carried out in the wake of the Hamas attack in southern Israel in October 2023 which resulted in 1,200 deaths and the kidnapping of 240 people. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, nearly 30,000 people, many of which are women and children, have been killed so far in Israel’s retaliatory offensive.

Arab countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, have been putting pressure on Israel to agree to a ceasefire or scale back its offensive. The Kingdom has made the establishment of a Palestinian state a prerequisite for any normalization deals, with Israeli officials keen on the idea of improved relations with Arab states.

Levy, however, doubts that any Israeli prime minister, including current prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, would go that far.

“I don’t see them … putting an end to the occupation,” he told Katie Jensen, host of “Frankly Speaking.”

Israeli politicians might be hoping for a repeat of the 2020-2021 Abraham Accords, which saw Israel normalize relations with the UAE and Bahrain.




Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu (2-R) grins from ear to ear after signing the so-called Abraham Accords with Bahrain Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al-Zayani (L) and UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (R), brokered by the US government under President Donald Trump (2-R), at the White House in Washington, DC, on Sept. 15, 2020. (AFP/File)

Israel quickly also normalized ties with Morocco and Sudan.

“Maybe they also hope that, like in the Abraham Accords, in which they got quite a good deal without changing the policy toward the Palestinians, only by all kind of lip services for this,” he said.

“I think that all the candidates for being prime minister in Israel, not only Netanyahu but also the opposition, would still prefer to maintain an occupation rather than to have normal relations with an important country like Saudi Arabia.”

Even beyond the Arab world, Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza has triggered international backlash, including South Africa’s landmark court case against Israel in the International Court of Justice. However, Levy sees most of this as empty words.




This photo taken on January 26, 2024, shows the International Court of Justice panel assembled in The Hague during the reading of the genocide case filed by South Africa against Israel over its attacks on civilians in the Gaza Strip. (X: @CIJ_ICJ)

“Sympathy toward the Palestinians is very deep rooted among the grass roots, but I don't see many leaders really care about the Palestinians. Unfortunately, they fall between the chairs for many years now, when many statesmen give their lip service about solidarity with them, but finally almost nobody is doing for them anything and they are left quite alone, especially in (the) last years,” Levy said.

“Yes, there is a lot of talking going on; condemnations, resolutions, rulings, rules, hearings, many, many things. There is only one thing lacking, and this is action. That is, taking measures.

“The world never took real measures and the US, in particular, never took any measures to promote its interest, to promote its ideas. The US claims that it wants to see this war ended. And (at the same time) it is supplying Israel with more ammunition and more arms.”

Israel has learned “that you can very easily ignore the talk and stick to its policy, because Israel doesn’t pay any price for its policy,” Levy said.




A shipment of 155mm artillery shells supplied by the US for use by the Israeli army is transported on a truck along a highway between the Jerusalem and Beersheba in southern Israel on October 14, 2023. (AFP)

With Palestinians themselves and leaders across the world calling for peace, Levy is not certain that peace should be the top priority when it comes to talks on Palestine, but rather justice for the Palestinian people.

“I am calling for justice, not for peace … maybe peace will be the bonus that we’ll get out of it. But I am not sure that two people are ready for peace, but there is one people who deserve justice. And this must be pushed by the world.”

From 1978 to 1982, Levy worked as an aide and spokesman for Shimon Peres, the then leader of the Israeli Labor Party. In 1982 he began to write for Haaretz, and later worked there as a deputy editor.

He has long written of his support for a one-state solution in which Jews, Arabs, and all citizens have equal rights — a controversial opinion among both Israelis and Palestinians.

“There are 700,000 Jewish settlers in the occupied territories. Nobody is going to evacuate them. And there is no viable Palestinian state with 700,000 Jewish settlers, part of them very violent, all of them very ideological. I don’t see (a two-state solution) happening.”




Objects are scattered more than a week after Jewish settlers attacked the occupied West Bank village of Wadi al Seeq on October 24, 2023. (AFP/File)

He added: “If not the two-state solution, what is left? Only the one state … the only problem is that it’s not a democracy.

“I have to tell my fellow Israelis, you can’t have it all. If you wanted a Jewish state, you had to pull out from the occupied territories a long time ago.

“If you want a democratic state, you should give up the Jewish state because you cannot have it both, because there are two peoples here. Either you are an apartheid state or you are a democracy.”

As the Israeli bombardment continues across the entirety of Gaza, many Palestinians have begun to lose hope in their own officials. Even one month prior to the start of the most recent Israel-Hamas war, 78 percent of Palestinians wanted the resignation of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, according to a poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.




US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Feb. 7, 2024, during a Middle East tour, his fifth urgent trip to the region since the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza erupted in October. (POOL / AFP)

Observers now speculate whether there could be a replacement for Abbas, one that could carry out reforms and to revitalize the PA.

For Levy, jailed Palestinian dissident Marwan Barghouti could be a contender.

“He was the only one who would really unite the Palestinian people, Hamas and Fatah, together. I believed also that he is a man of peace. And he proved it in many ways,” he said.

Barghouti was arrested by Israel in Ramallah in 2002, and two years later was sentenced to five cumulative life sentences on five counts of murder.

“I hope he’s still capable of leading the Palestinians. I don’t have a better idea. I’m not sure Hamas will accept him today. Twenty years ago, yes, (but) I’m not sure today,” Levy said.

“I’m a great believer of him. And because I believe in him, and because so many people believe in him, Israel will never release him. And that’s so tragic.”




The portrait of jailed Palestinian dissident Marwan Barghouti (R) is seen along with that of the  late South African president Nelson Mandela at an office in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Barghouti, in Israeli custody for nearly two decades after being convicted over multiple killings during the second intifada, is being compared to Mandela, who successfully led the resistance to apartheid in South Africa. (AFP/File)

Particularly since October, the popular rhetoric in Israel has increasingly turned against Palestinians, something that Levy blames on a combination of racism and dehumanization.

“If you conduct such a brutal occupation over so many years, if you teach your soldiers and your young people, generation after generation, that there is nothing cheaper, and there is nothing cheaper than the life of a Palestinian, I can tell you, if the Israeli army would have killed so many dogs as it did (people) in Gaza, it would be a huge, huge scandal in Israel.”

In addition to this, Israeli news media, which Levy explains “doesn’t cover the suffering of Gaza,” has played a role in inflaming racist attitudes in the country.

“They know Israelis don’t want to see it, don’t want to hear about it. It’s an outcome of decades of brainwashing, decades of humanization; as I said before, decades of demonization of the Palestinians.

“Israelis don’t meet Palestinians anymore at all, because of the barrier of the (West Bank) separation wall. There’s almost no contact anymore between the two peoples,” Levy said, explaining that the Oct. 7 attack has led Israelis to lump all Palestinians in the same category as Hamas and the perpetrators of the attack.




Participants run past a section of Israel's controversial separation barrier during the "Freedom of Movement Palestine Marathon" in Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on March 10, 2023. (AFP/File)

“We are in a very, very low moment in history. And obviously the racism is now politically correct in Israel. It's enough to have one attack, like this terrible attack on the 7th of October, to make all the incorrect political ideas as politically correct.

“Because after what they have done to us, most of Israelis think, we have now the right to do and say whatever we want, because of those horrible things they did.

In the minds of Israelis now, Levy said, “all Palestinians must take responsibility for the October 7 crimes, all of them took part in it.”

 


Israeli politician slammed for saying country should not ‘kill babies for a hobby’

Updated 3 sec ago
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Israeli politician slammed for saying country should not ‘kill babies for a hobby’

JERUSALEM: Israeli government and opposition leaders condemned on Tuesday a left-wing politician, Yair Golan, after he said in a radio interview that “a sane country... does not kill babies for a hobby.”
“Israel is on the path to becoming a pariah state among the nations — like the South Africa of old — if it does not return to behaving like a sane country,” said Golan, chairman of Israel’s Democrats party.
“A sane country does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies for a hobby, and does not set goals involving the expulsion of populations,” he told Israel’s Kan public radio.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Golan, a former major general in the military, of “wild incitement” against Israeli troops and of “echoing the most despicable anti-Semitic blood libels against the (Israeli army) and the State of Israel.”
Golan also drew condemnation from government critics, with opposition leader Yair Lapid saying in a post on X: “Our fighters are heroes and are defending our lives. The statement that they kill children as a hobby is incorrect and is a gift to our enemies.”
Education Minister Yoav Kisch, of Netanyahu’s party, called for an incitement investigation into Golan, whose party is a coalition of several left-wing factions.
“Golan is not a member of Knesset and does not have immunity. I expect the attorney general to immediately open an investigation against him for incitement,” Kisch said on X.
Foreign Minister Gideon Saar also took to X, saying Golan’s comments would “undoubtedly serve as fuel for the fire of global antisemitism — at a time when Israel is fighting for its survival against a coalition determined to destroy it.”
Military chief Eyal Zamir in a statement condemned remarks that cast doubt on the “morality” of the army’s actions and of its troops.
Responding to criticism, Golan said on X that he was trying to sound the alarm on the direction he believed Israel was headed.
The government’s war plans are “the realization of the fantasies of (Itamar) Ben Gvir and (Bezalel) Smotrich,” Golan said, referring to two far-right ministers.
“If we allow them to realize them, we will become a pariah state,” the left-wing politician said.
During a press conference, Golan said his criticism “was in no way directed at the army.”
“My criticism is aimed at the government, not the army, which is my home and in my heart,” he told journalists.
“A government that says we can abandon hostages and starve children is a government that speaks like a spokesperson for Hamas,” he added.
Golan, a vocal opponent of Netanyahu’s government and its policies, has been a controversial figure since a 2016 speech in which he appeared to draw parallels between Israeli society and the rise of fascism in Europe in the 1930s.
In November 2024, he accused Netanyahu of putting his own political interests before the country’s following a decision to dismiss defense minister Yoav Gallant.

Abbas to discuss weapons in Lebanon’s Palestinian camps during Beirut visit: delegation member

Updated 20 May 2025
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Abbas to discuss weapons in Lebanon’s Palestinian camps during Beirut visit: delegation member

  • Mahmoud Abbas will meet with the Lebanese president during his three-day visit to the country

RAMALLAH: A member of Mahmoud Abbas’ delegation to Beirut told AFP on Tuesday that the Palestinian president will discuss the issue of weapons in Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps during his three-day visit to the country.
“The issue of Palestinian weapons in the camps will be one of the topics on the agenda for discussion between President Abbas, the Lebanese President and the Lebanese government,” said Ahmad Majdalani, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee who is accompanying Abbas on the visit.


UK halts trade talks with Israel, summons envoy over Gaza

Updated 20 May 2025
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UK halts trade talks with Israel, summons envoy over Gaza

  • Foreign Secretary David Lammy accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of 'egregious actions and rhetoric'
  • The moves are the UK's toughest stance yet against Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza

LONDON: Britain suspended free-trade negotiations with Israel on Tuesday and summoned its ambassador to the foreign ministry in its toughest stance yet against Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of “egregious actions and rhetoric” over its expansion of military operations in the Palestinian territory.
During an impassioned speech to Britain’s parliament, Lammy also said the UK government was imposing new sanctions on individuals and organizations involved in settlements in the West Bank.
“The world is judging, history will judge them. Blocking aid, expanding the war, dismissing the concerns of your friends and partners. This is indefensible and it must stop,” he said.
Lammy said Britain “cannot stand by in the face of this new deterioration” in Gaza and was pausing negotiations with Israel on a new free-trade agreement.
He said Britain would be “reviewing cooperation” with Israel under its so-called 2030 roadmap for UK-Israel relations.

The world is judging, history will judge them. Blocking aid, expanding the war, dismissing the concerns of your friends and partners. This is indefensible and it must stop

Foreign Secretary David Lammy

“Netanyahu government’s actions have made this necessary,” Lammy said.
Israel’s government responded by saying “external pressure will not divert Israel from its path in defending its existence and security against enemies who seek its destruction.”
“If, due to anti-Israel obsession and domestic political considerations, the British government is willing to harm the British economy — that is its own prerogative,” Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein said in a statement.
Lammy said the Israeli government’s plan to displace the Gaza population and its limiting of aid to civilians “facing starvation, homelessness and trauma” meant the conflict was “entering a dark new phase.”
Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer said Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely was being summoned to the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office in protest against “the wholly disproportionate escalation of military activity in Gaza.”
He added that Israel’s weeks-long blockade on aid entering the strip, which was marginally lifted on Monday, had been “cruel and indefensible.”
The UK government announced financial restrictions and travel bans, targeting prominent settler leader Daniella Weiss and two other individuals, as well as two illegal outposts and two organizations accused of backing violence against Palestinian communities.
Lammy said Israel suffered a “heinous attack” at the hands of Palestinian Hamas militants on October 7, 2023 and the UK government had backed Israel’s right to defend itself.
He repeated calls that Hamas must release all remaining Israeli hostages seized that day “immediately and unconditionally.” He also reiterated that Hamas “cannot continue to run Gaza.”
Britain and Israel opened negotiations on a free-trade agreement in 2022.
According to the British government, Israel was the country’s 44th-largest trading partner last year, with the two countries exchanging 5.8 billion pounds ($7.8 billion) in goods and services.


US asking countries for ‘voluntary’ Palestinian relocation: Rubio

Updated 20 May 2025
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US asking countries for ‘voluntary’ Palestinian relocation: Rubio

  • Responding to a question in testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio said: “There’s no deportation“
  • “Those will be voluntary decisions by individuals“

WASHINGTON: The United States has reached out to countries about accepting “voluntary” relocations of Palestinians fleeing Israel’s offensive in Gaza, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday.

Israel has again warned the population of Gaza — nearly entirely displaced since the war broke out over the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas — to move ahead of a new offensive, which comes after it has blockaded food and supplies for more than two months.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly mused about displacing Gaza’s two million people to make way for reconstruction.

Responding to a question in testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio said: “There’s no deportation.”

“What we have talked to some nations about is, if someone voluntarily and willingly says, I want to go somewhere else for some period of time because I’m sick, because my children need to go to school, or what have you, are there countries in the region willing to accept them for some period of time?” Rubio said.

“Those will be voluntary decisions by individuals,” he said.

Democratic Senator Jeff Merkely replied, if “there is no clean water, there is no food, and bombing is all around you, is that really a voluntary decision?“

Rubio did not say which countries had been approached but denied that Libya was among them.

NBC News, quoting anonymous sources, recently reported that Trump’s administration is working on a plan to relocate permanently up to one million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya.


Lebanon pushes for local elections despite Israeli attacks

Updated 20 May 2025
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Lebanon pushes for local elections despite Israeli attacks

  • Interior minister underlines commitment to ensure elections are conducted with integrity and safety
  • Elections in the South and Nabatieh governorates, scheduled for their fourth phase this coming Saturday, will be held during ongoing Israeli incursions south and north of the Litani River

BEIRUT: The Lebanese government still faces one final — and perhaps the most security sensitive — electoral challenge: the elections in the South and Nabatieh governorates.

These elections, scheduled for their fourth phase this coming Saturday, will be held during ongoing Israeli incursions south and north of the Litani River.

Interior Minister Ahmad Hajjar, in the southern city of Sidon on Tuesday, affirmed that “the government is mindful of the potential for Israeli violations and assaults during the municipal elections scheduled for Saturday. However, the decision remains clear and resolute regarding the continuation of the electoral process regardless of the circumstances.”

The minister emphasized to Mansour Daou, the governor of South Lebanon, and representatives of the security, military, and judicial agencies in the South, “the state’s commitment to ensuring that the elections are conducted with integrity and safety,” underscoring their significance as part of the reconstruction process for the people of the South.

In the lead-up to the elections, an Israeli military drone targeted a motorcycle on the road between Mansouri and Majdalzoun in the Tyre district, resulting in reports from the Ministry of Health indicating that “nine individuals were injured, including two children, with three of the injured in critical condition.”

Another Israeli drone launched a bomb at fishermen off the coast of Ras Al-Naqoura.

Attention in the south is focused on two issues: observing the extent to which people will participate in the elections, particularly those whose homes were destroyed and displaced to other villages; and monitoring Hezbollah’s ability to maintain its popularity in the south, where the devastation and rubble are still visible to the public. To date, no reconstruction has occurred in any facilities either north or south of the Litani River, because Israel has turned the border area into a devastated and desolate zone, maintaining its occupation of five strategic hills and daily thwarting any attempts to establish readymade rooms for logistical purposes to assist the affected population.

The latest data from the Lebanese Ministry of Health, as of May 12, indicates that since the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect on Nov. 27, “Israel has killed 156 individuals and injured 376 others, with a total of 3,138 air and maritime violations recorded.”

According to the Israeli army, “by the end of April, around 140 Hezbollah members had been eliminated, with the vast majority of assassinations (more than 50 percent) taking place south of the Litani River. Assassinations north of the Litani River and in the Bekaa region accounted for 48 percent of the operations; 33.3 percent north of the Litani River and 14.7 percent in the Bekaa.”

The Israeli army claimed that “the majority of the assassinated members belonged to Hezbollah’s Aziz, Nasr and Badr units.” In a new study, the Israeli Alma Center stated: “Those individuals were involved in the rehabilitation of infrastructure on the ground.”