The representative of Hamas resistance movement in Iran says the ongoing Al-Aqsa Flood operation has raised awareness globally of the plight of Palestinians, and now the Israeli narrative of the conflict in Palestine is losing traction and instead, the Palestinian narrative is getting more popular.
Speaking in an interview with Press TV on Friday, Khaled Qaddoumi pointed to popular protests around the globe in support of Palestinians, saying the world sees first-hand that the “21-century holocaust” is happening in Palestine.
“It’s been twenty seven days of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and the war crimes and crimes against humanity have been continuously perpetrated by the Israeli regime, with the complete support of America, against our children and our people in Gaza.”
He said Israel and its backers had been deceiving the world for decades with stories about the sufferings of Jews in Germany and elsewhere.
People in Germany now ask why their money should be spent on supporting Israel over the so-called holocaust that happened many decades ago and has nothing to do with them, Qaddoumi said.
“The narrative of Israel today is losing and the narrative of the Palestinian and justice is winning today.”
‘Pressure of public opinion growing’
He said there’s a unanimous global stance against the Israeli occupation and this has forced governments to show support for Palestine, pointing to Bahrain recalling its ambassador from Israel, as well as countries in Latin America like Bolivia cutting or downgrading relations with the regime.
The Hamas official said the public opinion pressure is so high that even the US, who has been supporting Israel since the very beginning of the conflict, now talks about the need for a ceasefire.
“There was some incremental pressure over those American criminals, diplomats. So they are talking about the possibility of applying pressure over the Israeli side to have some humanitarian ceasefire, to allow those humanitarian aids and medical support to get into Gaza,” he said, noting that despite these words, Israel keeps relentlessly attacking Palestinians.
‘There’s no freedom of speech in West’
On the Western media’s coverage of the Israeli war on Gaza, Qaddoumi said the Western outlets are the voice of their governments in France and elsewhere.
He said the line of governments in France and other Western countries differs from the view of the public, who largely support the Palestinian cause.
Pointing to police crackdown on pro-Palestine protests in Paris, the US and elsewhere, he said these attacks show there’s no democracy and freedom of speech in the West.
“In France, protesters were caught by the police. They took them to the jail. They prevented them from attending peaceful rallies there. This is the free Western world, which they claim that exists. It was never [free] and this is only their claim,” the Hamas official said.
The Hamas official said the Western governments try to justify their crackdown on pro-Palestine protests citing the need for curbing anti-Semitism, but that’s a very vague accusation that can be broadly interpreted.
He said Israel is trying to frame the situation as a religious crusade, but the fact is Israel has not and is not representing the Jews.
‘Normalization equal to Israeli war crimes’
Qaddoumi touched on the so-called normalization deals between several Arab states and Israel, saying those normalization efforts are criminal acts equal to the war against Palestinians and equal to war crimes being perpetrated by Israel.
He said those who decided to normalize with Israel didn’t even listen to their own people, who are staunch supporters of the Palestinian cause.
The Hamas official said the Al-Aqsa flood operation has marginalized countries supporting normalization, tilting the situation in favor of the Palestinians and foiling all the conspiracies hatched against them.
‘Resistance our only option’
He said Palestinians have found that they’ve no option by to resist the Israeli crimes.
He said the nation has been waiting for 75 years to get its rights restored but to no avail. He said during this period there were dozens of UN resolutions against Israel but the US didn’t allow even a single one of them to be really implemented.
Qaddoumi said the Palestinian Liberation Organization in the 1990s went for the so-called peace process with Israel and offered an olive branch to the regime, but in return, “it got nothing” but empty words.
“The only way we found to be effective, which we have experienced in 2005, was to raise the cost of occupation and to make [Israelis] move using hard power and to make the occupation incur a lot of security and economic losses,” he said, referring to the 2006 Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
“Today the backbone of our resistance is the weapon, the military. Not because it is a choice, but it is a compulsory track which has proved successful, and it will push the Israelis to go outside of our lands,” he said.
‘Palestinians just want to live freely’
He said Operation Al-Aqsa Flood has also many military achievements, and brave Palestinian fighters are inflicting heavy losses on Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip.
“We’re talking here about 10s of Israeli tanks that have been destroyed. 10s of Israeli soldiers have been killed by the state-of-the-art weapons… Our brave soldiers advance towards the Israeli tanks and put on them explosive devices over there and return to their own places.”
Qaddoumi said Palestinians want nothing but to live as a free independent nation.
“The international community must respect its words and rules and regulations and finish their Israeli occupation. Lift the siege on Gaza. Release our prisoners. Stop the incursions by settlers inside and outside of our holy places,” he said.
He said the world no longer tolerates the Israeli occupation and it will soon become history.
“Israel as an occupation is no more tolerated by the world. The people of the globe are no more tolerating this occupation and this has to finish,” he said.
The Israeli regime can do nothing “but to leave,” he said, adding, “It’s time has finished. It is the time for us to win. The good news for us is that Israel is in deep crisis and it will finish very soon.”
However, he said the West is not yet ready to accept this reality. The hypocritical West is not “able to accept the reality that Israel has to go.”
The Hamas official called on the Islamic world to rush to Palestinians’ support and take the chance to help end the only existing occupation after the colonial era.
