West must not block BDS to stop Israeli crimes: Pundit

Press TV has interviewed Lawrence Davidson, professor at West Chester University in Pennsylvania, to discuss Israel's recent decision to construct several hundred new illegal settler units in the occupied Palestinian lands.

A rough transcription of the interview appears below.

Press TV: Israel says that it is building these settlements in response to attacks, how do you feel about that?

Davidson: It is a lie. I mean it is a convenient lie. They would go ahead with this sort of thing whether there were attacks or not. It is part of their ideological sense of destiny and the Israelis will do this, they will continue that expansion, they will continue illegal colonization of that territory until someone makes them stop and that is the very large question, how do you do that?

Obviously no one is going to try to stop them militarily at least not in the foreseeable future and so what the West can do if they are serious about the fact that they want the Israelis to stop doing this, is get out of the way of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Presently you have got Western governments particularly in United States trying to create roadblocks for the BDS movement and if they are serious about not wanting the Israelis to do these illegal things, then the very least they can do is get out of the way of the BDS movement.

Press TV: Many people still sign on to the idea of a two-state solution, including I believe the Palestinian Authority, so I am wondering when Netanyahu says that he is open to peace talks but then he is building settlements on the very land which Palestinians want as part of their independent state, what does that say?

Davidson: It says that there is no two-state solution as far as the Israelis are concerned and I think Netanyahu has said this, that there is not going to be an independent Palestinian state.

So I think that is another convenient distraction, if you will, from the illegal activities of the Israelis, but optimally there should be a one state and that state should be a normal democratic state of all the citizens. That is what the norm is.

What we have in Israel is an anomaly, it’s not a normal place, it is not a normal state and it does not act normally which is an embarrassment particularly for World Jury. I cannot think of anything more dangerous to World Jury or more stimulating intent, a Semitism than the behavior of the Israeli government.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk