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Palestinians have right to ‘healthy’ resistance against Israel: Activist

Israeli forces scuffle with Palestinians outside Damascus Gate, a main entrance to Jerusalem al-Quds’ Old City, on July 14, 2017, as they attempt to enter the area, following a shooting attack. (Photo by AFP)

A shooting incident near Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount) in Jerusalem al-Quds left at least three Palestinians and two Israeli officers dead. Press TV has asked Mick Napier, an activist of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign from Edinburgh, and Michael Lane, president of the American Institute for Foreign Policy from Washington, to give their thoughts on the escalation of tension in the occupied territories.

Napier said Israeli forces and settlers have a long history of carrying out atrocious acts against Palestinians; so, the oppressed people have the right to use military acts to defend themselves.

If occupation or land grab happens in other countries, that nation would stand against occupiers, said the analyst, adding that “resistance is healthy and not to resist this atrocious situation would be pathological.”

He said “the Israeli project is to remove as many Palestinians as possible” and to replace them with Zionists from around the world, adding that the Tel Aviv regime resorts to violence, demolition of Palestinian homes and terrorism to achieve that goal.

Napier said the Zionists had resorted to terrorism well before Israel’s creation in 1948, stressing that the regime did not stop using such tactics even after coming into existence.

The regime’s creation, he said, “did not change things qualitatively and really gave them fresh machinery to carry out terrorism against the people of Palestine.”

“Any Palestinian who resists with any kind of violence risks having [his] home demolished or sealed and [his] entire extended family expelled onto streets. This is barbarism,” said Napier.

Israeli ministers “use openly genocidal discourse” against Palestinians, while Israeli settlers who burn Palestinian homes and lands are being exempted from punishment, he added.

Israeli policemen check the body of a Palestinian after he was shot dead by Israeli police at the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, in Jerusalem al-Quds’ Old City July 14, 2017. (Photo by Reuters)

Meanwhile, Lane said the shooting incident in the Jerusalem al-Quds is “tragic” and “it is to be condemned.”

He further defended the Israeli decision to close the al-Aqsa Mosque following the Friday incident and said Tel Aviv “has an obligation to make sure that security is maintained.”

“It is not unreasonable for Israel to have thought that the way to maintain peace and to maintain order and to keep passions down would be to have the mosque closed for the day,” he explained.

Lane further cautioned that the tension between Palestinians and Israelis is going on “until we have a comprehensive peace” that is agreed by both sides.

The occupied territories of Palestine have been the scene of tensions since Israeli forces imposed restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem al-Quds in August 2015.

Over 300 people have so far been killed by Israeli forces since October that year, when the clashes witnessed a hike.


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