05.18.2021

Palestinian Groups Declare a Strike

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AIDA TOUMA-SULEIMAN, ARAB-ISRAELI LAWMAKER: Well, thank you, Christiane, for having me. And, yes, I have a very — it looks like I’m losing my voice. We had a terrible nine days already. Nine days, we have been watching what is happening, the war on Gaza, and the killing that is going on. But, on the other hand, when we started to protest against that war initiated or military attack, whatever you can call it, we were brutally oppressed by the police, the Israeli police. And, of course, later on, we have been attacked by groups of ultra-right- wing groups organized, including in some organizations like (INAUDIBLE) organization, which was declared by the Supreme Court that it is a terrorist group and a racist group. So, the escalation has been going on. That’s why we initiated the general strike. And our brothers and sisters in the West Bank have joined. And, today, we had a general strike of all the Palestinian citizens of Israel. It was amazing. Our people wanted to deliver a very clear message. We want to stop this war, and we want to have the right to celebrate and to be with our own people, especially after what happened in Jerusalem and Sheikh Jarrah, in Al-Aqsa Mosque and now in Gaza.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: We should note that Palestinian citizens of Israel make up 20 percent of the population there, so quite a significant figure. Can you go into further detail about all of this pent-up tension and the frustration that you have seen among other Palestinians there? Is it something that you say was just exacerbated by the last month, or is this something specific that needed to be dealt with and that was sort of pent up for months and years before that?

TOUMA-SULEIMAN: That’s true. It was built up for months and years. Sometimes, when we speak about the situation, people tend to forget that the Israeli governments are still occupying the Palestinian territories, and that Gaza has been under a siege for more than 14 years. All the world was dealing with the pandemic, COVID-19, while Gaza now is suffering also from the COVID-19, because Israeli government did not allow a different kind of help, medical help to enter Gaza and to help the people. On the other hand, in Jerusalem, there is always an escalation. Jerusalem is — East Jerusalem is an occupied territory.

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