Hands down the best, most nuanced interview I've watched so far on the Gaza-Israel. Former Greek minister of finance, Yanis Varoufakis talking to Marc Lamont Hill to discuss Europe’s historic responsibility and current role in this “war”.
A must watch.
Yanis Varoufakis:
“I’m European. As a European I’m refusing to play the phony game that other Europeans play especially our governments who are condescending, they’re looking at the people who now are suffering, both Israelis, Palestinians, Bedouins, and Druids in the land of ancient Palestine. Think of what we Europeans do, we look down upon those people and say - you animals, you’re k-illing each other, we’re going to condemn you, whether we condemn the Hamas people or the settlers or Netanyahu or the PLO, in the end, we Europeans look down upon them as if we are superior, we’re not superior.
We’re infinitely inferior.
We, over centuries, have created colonialism, we have created antisemitism, we have created the mentality of imperialism, we are behind the massacres that are being carried out by both sides, so we are the last people on this planet, in this universe, who have the authority, the moral right, and the high ethical standards that would allow us to look down upon these people and condemn them. I'm not going to play this game anymore.
I condemn every war crime but you know what, to those who say to me - why are you not condemning Hamas, said to them, you lost your opportunity to ask me this question the moment you failed to condemn the killing of unarmed journalists, Palestinian journalists non-Palestinian journalists, Israeli journalists, Israeli Jewish peace activists, children, women, old men.
The moment you neglected to condemn that, let’s not play this condemnation game anymore. Let's just ask a very simple question. Do we want to see people live without the fear of being kiilled, with equal civil and political rights? What has happened in the United States in particular, have we forgotten the great civil rights marches in the 1960s? Why can't we have the same mentality about the land of Palestine and start with one assumption that should be common amongst civilized women, men, transgender, whatever we happen to be, and that is - that there should be no discrimination no apartheid in that land.
How we're going to work it out, whether there will be two states, multi-ethnic states, sitting side by side, or one state for everyone that doesn’t discriminate between Jews, bedouins, Druids, Palestinians, Arabs, and so on.
I don’t care.
Let’s begin with this.”