Australian Prof. Likens Israeli Regime to Nazi Germany

“They (the Israelis) do not see Palestinian people as human beings, portraying them as some sort of monsters which must be exterminated; even children and unborn children,” Professor Tim Anderson, a lecturer at the University of Sydney, said in an interview with the Tasnim News Agency.

“This mirrors very closely Nazi Germany’s genocidal treatment of the European Jews. Indeed the close parallels are striking,” he added.

Professor Tim Anderson is a distinguished author and senior lecturer of political economy at the University of Sydney, Australia. Author of the 'The Dirty War on Syria', he has been largely published on various issues particularly the Syrian crisis.

The following is the full text of the interview:

Tasnim: On Friday, Israeli forces shot dead four other Palestinians, including a 15-year-old boy, as tens of thousands gathered in a mass demonstration in the besieged Gaza Strip demanding the right of return for Palestinian refugees. The latest deaths bring the number of Palestinians killed by Israel since the protests began in late March to 45. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, more than 6,000 have been wounded. For the past five Fridays, tens of thousands of Palestinians have gathered near the borders in the Gaza Strip for what has been dubbed the “Great March of Return”. Israel has responded with snipers firing live ammunition, as well as tank shelling and airstrikes. What do you think about the developments and the Israeli regime’s crimes?

Anderson: Any decent human being has to denounce these appalling and deliberate atrocities. They reflect on the moral bankruptcy of the apartheid regime, which is determined to continue with its ethnic cleansing, for as long as possible. They do not see Palestinian people as human beings, portraying them as some sort of monsters which must be exterminated; even children and unborn children. This mirrors very closely Nazi Germany’s genocidal treatment of the European Jews. Indeed the close parallels are striking.

Let’s remember the toxic racism of Benzion Netanyahu, a Zionist historian, and father of the current Zionist Prime Minister. He said just before he died a few years back, that “the essence of the Arab” is that “he has no respect for any law … in the desert, he can do as he pleases. The tendency towards conflict is in the essence of the Arab … (he) is an enemy by essence … It doesn't matter what kind of resistance … what price he will pay. His existence is one of perpetual war.” This sort of racist mentality is a precondition for racist criminal aggression.

Notice the parallels with the words of the German Nazi propagandist Julius Streicher, who was hanged at Nuremberg for his virulent racist propaganda against the European Jews. He wrote: “the essence of the Jew was a peculiar one … Who were the money-lenders? They were those who were driven out of the temple by Christ himself … (they) never work but live on fraud … The God of the Jews is … the God of hatred.” Zionists are shocked to be reminded of these parallels, but it is important to recognize that mindset that is required for the practice of ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Tasnim: Israel has rejected international calls for probes into recent deaths and insisted that its open-fire rules for Gaza will not change. Some Western states, particularly the US and Britain, who call themselves champions of human rights, have supported the Tel Aviv regime’s crimes against Palestinians. The UN has also failed to restore the rights of the people. What is your assessment? What role can Muslim countries play in protecting the rights of the oppressed people of Palestine?

Anderson: The crimes of the Israeli regime are mounting and its international illegitimacy is increasing. While the Zionist leaders always look for distractions, this slaughter of civilian protestors in Gaza cannot be hidden and is being denounced by a very wide range of media and international forces, including quite a number of Zionist Jews, including the American-Israeli Hollywood actress Natalie Portman. It offends the self-image of many liberal Jews (Zionist or not), to be associated with these barbaric and deliberate atrocities.

So I would say, yes, it is true that the Muslim and Arab countries have always taken the lead in opposing Israeli colonization, ethnic cleansing, the racism and the atrocities. However, it is important that all countries denounce apartheid Israel. No-one is privileged in this regard. It is a human duty to defend the Palestinian people and to demand an end to the racist regime. With regard to the Arab and Muslim countries, their best contribution might be to re-create stronger regional organizations, to present a unified front and block aggression from the Zionists and outside powers. Fragmentation only helps the region’s enemies.

The cold-blooded and uncritical support for Israel from the US and Britain is a particular disgrace in the current circumstances. While they conduct war against Syria and threaten Iran, on various invented and false pretexts, they openly back their sectarian client state. This should add to a further fall in their influence and prestige in the world. We cannot take these imperial powers seriously in international moral debates. They pretend to be moral arbiters, imposing self-styled ‘red lines’ on other countries, as they fabricate the next pretext for aggression and war. Look at the most recent fabricated chemical weapons stunt in Douma, near Damascus. It was a transparent false pretext for the missile attack by the USA-UK-France. That attack, in turn, was a naked aggression. The governments of the USA and Britain, in particular, are disqualifying themselves as legitimate agents every day that they persist in the war against independent nations, and in their constant backing for the apartheid regime in Palestine.

Tasnim: Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman, has recently said that Israelis “have the right to have their own land” and that formal relations between Tel Aviv and Riyadh could be mutually beneficial. Given the fact that the Saudi regime once opposed Israel’s right to exist, what do the comments signal to the world’s public opinion? Do the remarks have an impact on the oppression against Palestinians?

Anderson: The Saudi crown prince, in his arrogance and recklessness, is destroying the basis for his own monarchy’s influence, by rejecting the Palestinian struggle. Riyadh has already effectively killed the Arab League, by its key role in the destruction of Libya and the attempts to do the same to Syria. Bin Salman’s words may provide some comfort to the Israeli regime but will have little impact on the Palestinian resistance. Perhaps it is better this way, that the enemies of Arab and Muslim peoples are seen more clearly. With the Arab League reduced to a rump of mostly the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, and those squabbling amongst themselves, there must be real questions over even the GCC’s future. Similarly, mass repression at home and the betrayal of Arab and Muslim peoples abroad is not a good recipe for the survival of the Saudi dynasty.