[Nettime-nl] Rep. Dick Armey Calls for Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians

[Case Roole <cjr {AT} xs4all.nl>]

Het is zeker niet mijn hoop dat we hier artikeltjes over geo-politiek gaan 
doorsluizen, maar de "war-on-those-who-are-not-with-us" begint inmiddels 
dusdanig vorm te krijgen dat duidelijk begint te worden wat te consequenties 
zijn van het uit naam van de "War on Terrorism" ondergraven van abstracte 
begrippen als consequente toepassing van maatstaven, bewijzen van schuld, 
onderbouwen van kritiek, of domweg "internationaal recht". 

In eerste instantie had ik het artikel "Rep. Dick Armey Calls for Ethnic 
Cleansing of Palestinians" overgeslagen omdat ik meende dat de titel vast 
niet gerechtvaardigd zou zijn door de inhoud. 

Het betreft hier een interview met House Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey 
waarvan verslag is gedaan op Counterpunch:

http://www.counterpunch.org/armey0502.html

TRANSCRIPT Hardball with Chris Matthews
(09 :00 PM ET) - CNBC May 1, 2002 Wednesday

Hieronder een redelijk lang fragment daaruit waarin Armey alle gelegenheid 
krijgt om zich beter uit te drukken wanneer hij dat zou willen, maar hij komt 
altijd weer op hetzelfde uit: Gaza, Oost-Jeruzalem en West-Bank zijn van 
Israel en de Palestijnen die er wonen hebben zich niet koest gehouden en 
moeten daarom de grens over. 

------------------------------------
Rep. ARMEY: No, I'm perfectly content to have a Palestinian state. I am not 
content to give up any part of Israel for that purpose of that Palestinian 
state.

MATTHEWS: Wait a minute. Tom Delay's, whose resolution you're going to put on 
the floor tomorrow and schedule, has said that the entire West Bank, he calls 
it Judean Samaria, belongs to Israel. How can you say that this resolution 
doesn't support the Delay position which is Israel has a right to grab the 
entire West Bank?

Rep. ARMEY: No, I--I'm content to have Israel grab the entire West Bank. I'm 
also content to have the Palestinians have a homeland and even for that to be 
somewhere near Israel, but I'm not content to see Israel give up land for the 
purpose of peace to the Palestinians who will not accept it and would not 
honor it. It is time to...

MATTHEWS: Well, where do you put the Palestinian state, in Norway? Once the 
Israelis take back the West Bank permanently and annex it, there's no place 
else for the Palestinians to have a state.

Rep. ARMEY: No, no, that's not--that's not at all true. There are many Arab 
nations that have many hundreds of thousands of acres of land and--and soil 
and property and opportunity to create a Palestinian state.

MATTHEWS: So you would transport--you would transport the Palestinians from 
Palestine to somewhere else and call it their state?

Rep. ARMEY: I would be perfectly content to have a homeland, just as--most 
of...

MATTHEWS: But not in Palestine?

Rep. ARMEY: Most of the people who now populate Israel were transported from 
all over the world to that land and they made it their home. The Palestinians 
can do the same, and we're per--perfectly content to work with the 
Palestinians in doing that. We are not willing to sacrifice Israel for the 
notion of a Palestinian homeland.

MATTHEWS: Right, no. No, that's not the question and that's not your answer. 
The question here is: What is the future of the Palestinians who are fighting 
Israel right now? You say there future is somewhere besides Palestine. That 
runs in the way of US policy going back to 1948. It runs--it runs completely 
against the president's policy and every policy I've heard a president take, 
which is that Israel has to give up its settlements on the West Bank and give 
it back to the Arabs in exchange for peace. You say the deal should be the 
Palestinians leave?

Rep. ARMEY: That's right. Palestinians say the deal should be the 
Israel--that--that the Israelis leave.

MATTHEWS: Have you talked about this with the president?

Rep. ARMEY: I happened to believe that the Palestinians should leave.

MATTHEWS: Have you ever told George Bush, the president from your home state 
of Texas, that you think the Palestinians should get up and go and leave 
Palestine and that's the solution?

Rep. ARMEY: I'm probably telling him that right now. This is...

MATTHEWS: Have you thought this through?

Rep. ARMEY: I have thought this through. I've thought it through for a lot of 
years. I believe that Israel is the state for the Jewish people. It needs to 
be honored. It needs to be protected.

MATTHEWS: Yeah. That's not what you're saying. You're saying Israel should 
expand its borders to the Jordan River...

Rep. ARMEY: No.

MATTHEWS: ...and kick out all the Palestinians? That's what you just said.

Rep. ARMEY: I am--I am content to have Israel occupy that land that it now 
occupies and to have those people who have been aggressors against Israel 
retired to some other arena, and I would be happy to have them make a home. I 
would be happy to have all of these Arab nations that have been so hell bent 
to drive Israel out of the Middle East to get together, find some land and 
make a home for the Palestinians. I think it can be done.

MATTHEWS: So the president, who has been dutifully, for the last couple of 
weeks, trying to get the Israeli army to withdraw from the West Bank, should 
stop that, let the Israeli defense force take over the West Bank and hold it 
and make it part of Israel? You completely disagree with the president's 
policy then?

Rep. ARMEY: I am--I am perfectly content to have Israel hold and occupy the 
land that it has at this moment.

MATTHEWS: Well, how about though-how about the Jenin in Samaria? Tom Delay, 
whose measure you're putting on the floor tomorrow, says that all the West 
Bank, Jenin, Judea, Masada, everything belongs to Israel. It's not occupied 
territory. It's Israeli. Is that your position?

Rep. ARMEY: Well, first of all, Chris, I think we have to be real careful on 
how you are interpreting jo--Tom's provision. I think Tom's provision is 
principally and primarily that the Jewish people have a right to defend 
themselves.

MATTHEWS: Well, just to repeat, you believe that the Palestinians who are now 
living on the West Bank should get out of there?

Rep. ARMEY: Yes.
---------------------------------------------------

-cjr


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