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Jun 14, 2015
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Israeli-Arab Poet Marwan Makhoul: Palestinians Living within Israel "Fight the Enemy from Within"

#4978 | 03:42
Source: Mayadeen TV (Lebanon)

In two recent interviews on Lebanese TV channels, Israeli-Arab poet Marwan Makhoul said the Palestinians living within Israel were in a better position than the Palestinian refugees to bring about change "because they pose a demographic threat to the Jewish identity of that state". Speaking on June 14 on Al-Jadeed TV and on June 23 on Mayadeen TV, Makhoul said: "The solution to the problem of the Arab nation lies in the hands of the two million people living inside [Israel]," who "fight the enemy from within."


Following are excerpts:


Marwan Makhoul: Since the day of its inception, the Zionist movement has been hostile toward the Arabs, and especially toward the Lebanese.

[...]

The plot of the current and previous Netanyahu governments is to exploit what the terrorist groups are doing to minorities in the Arab world, as well as the fear of the minorities in Palestine from the crimes of terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria, for example. They try to use this fear in order to recruit the minorities into the occupation army, in an attempt to transform the conflict within [Israel] from a Palestinian-Israeli conflict into a Jewish-Islamic one, while the Christians and the Druze remain neutral.

[...]

How come the only country that has not had a single bullet shot at it is Israel? Why don't we see these groups seeking to liberate Palestine? If we assume that they are genuinely connected to Islam, why don't they seek to liberate Jerusalem, before seeking to liberate Damascus, Tunisia, Libya, or Iraq? I do not see these groups targeting Israel. This proves to me that everything is planned by America.



[...]



I will be happy if I am arrested. Ever since I was born, I have always wanted my words to be more than just ink on paper. I want to pay the price, so I can feel that I am a Palestinian in the full sense of the word.

Interviewer: So that you become equal with your people?

Marwan Makhoul: Yes. Furthermore, I demand that the Israeli authorities arrest me, because I want to transform my personal case into a public one. The time has come for the borders [between Israel] and the Arab countries to be opened, so that the two million noble and patriotic people who live within [pre-1948] Palestine can get to the nation to which they belong.

[...]

The solution to the problem of the Arab nation lies in the hands of the two million people living inside [Israel], because they pose a demographic threat to the Jewish identity of that state, they can bring about change from within, they are the ones who most adamantly cling to Palestinian identity, and they constitute a deficiency, a post-traumatic complex. After the Nakba, we feel this on our own bodies on a daily basis. The Palestinians in the refugee camps, who live in the worst conditions, talk nostalgically and romantically about the homeland, but we live it from within the daily conflict. The fire consumes us daily. We feel the pain every day. The difference between Palestinians in the refugee camps and the diaspora and between those living within [Israel] is that they fight an external enemy, while we fight the enemy from within.

[...]

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