Another interview by Ruthie Blum in today's Jerusalem Post (original link defunct). This one is with Hanan Ashrawi, who manages to squeeze more falsehood and misdirection into this exchange than even I would have thought possible.
On the well-documented persecution of Christians in the territories:
There is a diminishing number of Christians, but this has nothing to do with persecution. This is totally false. There was quite a bit of emigration from Palestine, as a result of conditions. Conditions under occupation aren't easy.Also, many Christians have more family outside Palestine than others. ...
On incitement in palestinian textbooks* :
There are all kinds of ways to attack the Palestinians. At one point it was the textbooks. Now, even if you point to objective studies showing that Palestinian textbooks in many ways are better than Israeli textbooks when it comes to "the other" - and way ahead of Jordanian and Egyptian textbooks - nobody acknowledges that. They'll say that the Palestinians incite and are anti-Israeli, anti-Semitic - which isn't true. There's not a single anti-Semitic word in the textbooks. But anyway, there are fads of accusations. And these take on a life of their own when they keep being repeated.
(*see also the reports here)
On "the neocon agenda:"
Listen, before President Bush decided that he had a mission to transform the Arabs into a democracy and to adopt the neocon agenda, there were movements here to democratize, not just Palestine but the Arab world. Look, the point is that we are not as ignorant as people seem to think. The Palestinians' problem is not absence of democracy - it's absence of freedom.
On the so-called "intifada:"
It is inherently morally reprehensible. I have always opposed the taking of innocent lives. At the same time, I do not deal only with one side. I do not deal only with symptoms, I deal with causes. So, that's why I find it sick when you take something out of context and keep bashing the Palestinians for it.Let's look at the whole situation. When you legitimize violence, when you make innocent lives fair game, when you use collective measures - then you have venerated an object which is lethal for both sides. I don't believe that bombing and shelling is moral or justifiable - particularly when you have a captive population.
Then again, there's this bit of refreshing honesty:
[Q:] If the right of return of Palestinian refugees is recognized and implemented, isn't it true that there can't be a two-state solution? That, due to demography, there will end up being only one state, and that will be Palestinian?[A:] Yes, it would be non-Jewish.
