EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Ex-detainee Fuad Al-Khuffash has said that he expects the widespread hunger strike which started on 17th April to coincide with Palestinian Detainees' Day to be "the strongest and the most successful in the history of the detainee movement". The expert in detainees' affairs added that the detainees are using the slogan "we will live in dignity" in their demand for an end to Israel's policy of putting political prisoners in solitary confinement. Detainees are also demanding visitation rights to be guaranteed and an end to what they call "provocative inspections" at all times of the day and night.

From the moment that she refused to sign the pro-Israel pledge, claims McKinney, "war was declared on me".

She did not realise the extent to which that was going to resound in her life. "I would get phone calls from people saying they wanted to throw a fundraiser for me and then I'd say fantastic and we'd start planning it and then the question would be asked 'did you sign the pledge?'" She'd say no and then it was, "well then I can't do a fundraiser for you." And that was the way it went. "A lawsuit was filed against the district that elected me. It went all the way up to the Supreme Court." Later she found out that the Anti-Defamation League, a notoriously pro-Israel group, had been involved in filing the brief: "Clearly, the ADL didn't forget that I hadn't signed the pledge." It was a malicious case, she says, but they won and the district she represented was dismantled and she had to find another place to represent. She was targeted from day one and "even after I left I continued to be targeted". She feels that part of the reason for this may be because she started her political career so young and therefore her opponents want to make sure that she does not go back into mainstream politics with her outspoken views. She clearly blames the pro-Israel Lobby for ruining her political career; even Ariel Sharon bragged about her political demise when he visited her home state of Georgia. Her opponent was given $100,000 in a single day and Cynthia "ended up getting kicked out of congress for the second time". The ability of the Lobby to co-opt both Democrat and Republican parties "is significant", she says. 

"Israel started the nuclear arms race in the Middle East, it's the only country that has them, and we all know they have them. Israel has the power to start the whole movement for Middle East nuclear disarmament. The choice is between nuclear disarmament or nuclear proliferation. If we have nuclear proliferation we will never turn the clock back. Every Tom, Dick and Harry and everyone with a back garden will want a nuclear bomb! It's absolutely crazy. So I think that we need to challenge those who are in power, who can make decisions. Peres is a Noble Peace Laureate. He has a responsibility to do something for the world that gives us hope. Nuclear weapons don't give anybody hope, they are a fearfully distrustful weapon that we must abolish."

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

American Pulitzer Prize winning author, Alice Walker, was a juror with the Russell Tribunal on Palestine which took place in South Africa this year. A prolific writer of novels, poetry and short stories her books, fiction and non-fiction, have sold more than 15 million copies worldwide. While she is most well-known for "The Colour Purple" she is also a dedicated political activist and campaigner. MEMO's Dr. Hanan Chehata caught up with Ms Walker in Cape Town to ask her why she has been so drawn to the Palestinian cause. During the course of the interview the similarities between the Palestinian struggle for liberation and the African-American struggle during the Civil Rights era is evident. She expresses her belief that "Americans have a duty to be active in the defence of Palestinian people" and further proposes that the illegal settlements paid for unwittingly by American tax payers should be lived in by the Palestinians to whom the land belongs and who should all "come home".

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

The Reverend Allan Aubrey Boesak is a veteran of the South African anti-apartheid struggle. He is the former president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and is a signatory of the South African Christian response to the Kairos Palestine Document. This year he gave expert testimony at the Russell Tribunal on Palestine session in Cape Town, at which he spoke to MEMO's Hanan Chahata.

Stѐphan Hessel was one of the jurors of this year's Russell Tribunal on Palestine held in Cape Town. Mr Hessel, who is of Jewish origin, is lauded as a hero of the French Resistance who survived torture in Nazi concentration camps following his capture by the Gestapo in World War Two. He went on to be one of those who drafted the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In his long and distinguished career he served as a French Diplomat and a UN Ambassador. Recently, at the age of 94, he became a publishing success when his slim 4,000 word French booklet "Indignez-Vous!" ("Time for Outrage") became an overnight best-seller, selling over a million and a half copies in a matter of months. Perhaps the most controversial aspect of this phenomenon was his harsh criticism of Israel, particularly its 5-year siege and 2008-9 war against the people of the Gaza Strip. MEMO caught up with Mr Hessel one morning over breakfast in Cape Town and asked him to explain a little more about his stance on the Palestine-Israel situation.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

In an exclusive and extensive interview with the Middle East Monitor Prof. Richard Falk, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, talks about the on-going intransigence of Israel and its continued failure to abide by international law. In his frank interview Prof. Falk openly points to the ineffectiveness of the UN in holding Israel to account saying that in the case of Israel "the UN is significant symbolically but paralysed or ineffective behaviourally." He points out that UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon in particular "is giving primary attention to his role in the Quartet and that means deferring to the US considerably in relation to Israel's conflict with the Palestinians. Hence, that part of the UN is very passive with respect to Israeli violations of international law."