Manolo de Los Santos: this is a conflict that have been decades making
On the recent conflict in Israel, teleSUR interviewed exclusively Manolo de Los Santos Co-Executive Director of the People's Forum. teleSUR
Transcript
00:00 We now go deeper in the analysis of the situation experienced in Palestine.
00:03 We welcome Manolo de los Santos, Co-Executive Director of the People's Forum and researcher
00:08 at Tri-Continental Institute for Social Research.
00:11 Welcome, Manolo.
00:12 Thank you for having me.
00:13 It's a pleasure to join Telesur.
00:16 It's our pleasure to have you here on our From the South.
00:20 Manolo, we have been receiving the reports, hundreds have died on both sides in this latest
00:24 escalation of violence.
00:26 What has prompted this, what has led Palestinians to this moment?
00:30 Well, I think it's a common media lie that has been spread across the global north and
00:38 particularly in the United States and Europe, that this is a conflict that started 48 hours
00:44 ago or 72 hours ago on Saturday.
00:48 But this is a conflict that has been decades in the making and that truly has its origins
00:53 in the imposed creation of the State of Israel 75 years ago.
01:00 This conflict has true responsibility in the fact that Britain, the US and their allies
01:09 essentially artificially impose the State of Israel on the Palestinian people and have
01:15 since been using everything at their disposal, military aid, financial aid, legal, political
01:24 and diplomatic support to justify by all means, extreme forms of violence against the Palestinian
01:32 people and the removal of the Palestinians from their homeland.
01:36 That is the source of this conflict.
01:38 To talk only about hundreds of victims in the last three days is not just incorrect,
01:44 but is unfair with the historical facts.
01:48 That dates back decades and for years the so-called international community has been
01:54 silent on the Palestinian issue.
01:57 Israel's main ally is the US.
01:59 How can we explain the US position and the Western world in general when they were so
02:03 quick in imposing the largest number of sanctions against Russia, for example, and Ukraine,
02:07 yet they stand eye to eye when for decades Israel has continued its oppression of the
02:12 Palestinian people?
02:16 Well for the United States government, as always, it doesn't care about top teams like
02:22 democracy.
02:23 It doesn't care about sovereignty.
02:25 It doesn't care about independence.
02:27 What it does care about is essentially maintaining at all costs, well at the cost of 3.8 billion
02:35 US dollars a year of taxpayer money, maintaining a regime in Israel whose sole role is essentially
02:44 to be the guard dog, the watchdog for US imperialism in West Asia and in the Middle East.
02:52 This is the role that Israel has been assigned and for which it keeps getting funded fundamentally.
03:00 And I think that it's worrisome that at this time of continued and extreme cruel violence
03:07 against the Palestinian people, the headlines continue to be that the terrorists invaded
03:13 Israel when the headlines should really be saying Israelis have invaded the Palestinian
03:20 homeland for 75 years and are now finally being resisted.
03:25 I think it's important to note that what happened on Saturday, what has been happening for the
03:30 last few days, is the act of 2.3 million people imprisoned in Gaza under a blockade who are
03:38 finally fighting and pushing for their freedom.
03:42 We must respect that and we should defend their right to resist in these circumstances.
03:48 In the last couple of days, we have seen citizens in different parts of the world take to the
03:53 streets by the thousands to support the Palestinian cause.
03:56 How important is this international support from people to people?
04:02 Well I think it's extremely important because again, when we look at media in the US and
04:10 in Europe, it would make you think that the whole world sides with Israel, that the whole
04:17 world is accepting the occupation, is accepting the system of apartheid, is accepting the
04:24 violent oppression of the Palestinian people.
04:27 But by going out into the streets, thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of people
04:33 across the world in cities ranging from New York all the way to Sydney in Australia are
04:40 demonstrating that in fact, the peoples of the world, even in these countries that are
04:46 so aligned with the Israeli regime, are in fact in support of the Palestinian people.
04:52 And that supporting the Palestinian people right now means not just a mere act of solidarity,
04:59 but to be hand in hand with them as they struggle for their national liberation.
05:05 By the fact that we are saying that there can be no peace in the conflict that takes
05:10 place in the region if the Palestinian people are not allowed finally to return home by
05:17 the millions, if they're not allowed to fully build a national state, a homeland for
05:23 their people.
05:24 Manolo, in your view, what role can alternative blocs in the international arena play or are
05:30 currently playing to find a true solution to this situation?
05:34 Just yesterday Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro pledged humanitarian aid for Palestine.
05:39 Can we expect other nations also to join in?
05:42 Well, I think it's been quite important to see that again, countries like Cuba, countries
05:50 like Venezuela, countries like Bolivia, and many other leaders across the world have actually
05:57 stood up and said the truth about this conflict.
06:01 Again, that is the weight is on the leadership of the world.
06:06 The weight is on the United Nations.
06:08 The weight is on those who have ignored the plight of the Palestinian people for the last
06:13 75 years.
06:14 And I think that their statements calling for both the access to humanitarian aid, their
06:19 calls denouncing the total blockade announced by Israel against the people of Gaza are important,
06:27 but they should be continued.
06:29 And we continue to have the need for more and more voices across the planet in government
06:35 that are willing to take this stand.
06:37 The courageous stand that countries like Cuba and Venezuela take shouldn't be the exception.
06:43 They should be the majority of leaders around the world finally taking the side of justice.
06:51 Thank you, Manolo, for your statements and time here from the South.
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