Israel must face consequences of its actions: Academic

Press TV has interviewed Seif Da’na, a Chicago-based professor at the University of Wisconsin, to discuss the Tel Aviv regime’s plans to build new settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: How do you feel about, once more, news of new illegal settlements going up?

Da'na: Well, this is interesting because it comes one day after the release of the Amnesty International report, Black Friday, accusing Israel of committing war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity in Gaza on August 1. And one day later we have Israel again stepping on the international law and announcing this 500 more units and interestingly enough, this comes as a reward to the settlers because the supreme court in Israel essentially announced that two of the structures that were built illegally on the Palestinian areas must be dismantled or demolished and in return, Netanyahu rewarded them with 300 units instead of the two.

So we hope that the supreme court won’t take any actions in the future if that is going to be the game. But really the important part here is that we all continue to hear condemnation and demands that Israel halts its settlement activities in the Palestinian areas and reverse its policies by the UN chief Ban Ki-moon, by the EU and by even the US sometimes, but that actually will continue to be ineffective as long as Israel feels protected by the international community, the US and the European Union and not really held accountable for its continuous and daily violations of international law.

So there is a need for a UN Security Council clear under Section 7, that demands Israel stop these activities or face the consequences. But Israel until now not only does not feel accountable for its behavior, it actually feels that these activities are protected and that actually shows that, day in and day out, the international community, the UN and the Security Council are being tested on Israel’s continuous violation of international law, Israel’s continuous commitment of war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity and the international community fails to put an end to this.

So I think Israel at this point constitutes a test, not only for the international community but the whole world. It is a moral dilemma for the whole world that there is only one [regime] in this world that continuously, on a daily basis sometimes, not only commits war crimes but violates the international law and the international community must take a stand on this and a serious stand, not just a condemnation like the ones we hear continuously.

Because, before we go on air, I was just trying to count the numbers of condemnations that the UN chief and others have announced against the Israeli activities and they are countless really, there are many! So it is time for action and enough of condemnation.

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