Zionism, anti-Zionism and the state of Israel

Haim Bresheeth is an activist and film-maker of Israeli origin, living in Britain, where he is Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of East London. He is co-author of “The Gulf War and the New Word Order” (with Nira Yuval-Davis) - an edited anthology on the first Gulf War, and “Introduction to the Holocaust” (with Stuart Hood). His documentary films include A State of Danger (BBC2, March 1989) - a film on the early stages of the first Palestinian Intifada. He is currently researching: Palestinian Cinema, Global Media Markets, Cinematic Narrative Structures, Film and memory.



Understanding the Occupation

"Most of my family was destroyed in the holocaust - in different concentration camps and in the Warsaw ghetto and I was born in a refugee camp in Italy immediately after the war... I'm not saying this in order to elicit some sympathy because this is nonsensical on this audience [mostly Jewish] obviously. I'm saying this in order to explain why its so easy for me to understand the Palestinians in Gaza and in the rest of Palestine. It is very easy for me to understand them because they live in a combination of a concentration camp and Warsaw ghetto for so many years that we have stopped counting...

Israeli Governments

"I don't think there is the slightest difference between the different Israeli governments in one important respect - the Zionist project was, is, and will be about the dispossession and expulsion of the Palestinian population of Palestine. It was this, it is this, and it will be this - every Israeli government has done this - it doesn't matter if it was Barak and now Sharon or Netayahu before him - it was no different..."

Water

"Israelis use 41 times more water than Palestinians - well what does it mean? Think about it. Its not just that they have very large swimming pools in the occupied territories - which of course they do, it also means the Palestinians do not have proper water supply for their agriculture which is the only industry such as it is that they are running here and there - there is no other industry that they were allowed to develop all those years. They weren't even allowed to open a bank during the Israeli occupation. Its interesting - most of the water in Israel comes from the West Bank... Palestinians cant even have their tomatoes growing, I'm not even talking about having a wash, cleanliness - I'm talking about very simple things - you cant even grow anything because the water will be cut off for a week at a time. I was in Gaza and my Gazan hosts were apologising to me an Israeli that they cant give me water to drink when we are having lunch with pitta's because the water was turned off..."

Wanting Peace?

"They [Israel] will do everything to make you believe that they want peace - I even believed it once and most of you have believed it - I know that. They will do everything to make sure that people in the West believe that they want peace - they will go to meetings, they will sign documents - they will do all that and then they will make damn sure that there is no chance of any of this happening..."
Boycott Israel

"If you are making sure in every shop you go everyone knows that because they hold Israeli products you don't buy there - if you bring about the destruction of the Israeli economy which Mr. Sharon is doing such a great job of and you help him in that destruction, more Israelis will come to their bloody senses and will realize that justice is not divisible, peace is not divisible, humanity is not divisible - you cannot divide them. We will have peace - they will have peace, we will have water - they will have water, we will have human existence if they will have it..."