AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Hamas says it's ready to release all the remaining hostages, living and dead. Yesterday, the militant group announced it was ready to accept President Trump's proposal for a Gaza ceasefire but wanted to negotiate some conditions. In the meantime, Israeli bombardment continues in the strip. Sami Abu Shehadeh is a former Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament and activist. He took us back to what it was like to be Palestinian before the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 6, 2023.
SAMI ABU SHEHADEH: Everyone knows that history did not start on the seventh of 2023. Before October 7, there was Israeli occupation for millions of Palestinian lives, and there was crimes against humanity and against the Palestinian people on a daily basis. All the Palestinians under the Israeli control suffer in different ways. You know, there were kind of different political regimes - one for Gaza, where 2.2 million people were put under siege in a very, very small place. It was like a big prison.
Same with the Palestinian lives in West Bank. You cannot move from one place to the other without passing a checkpoint. I can talk about the Palestinians who lives as Israeli citizens. There's a kind of racist political system to serve more the Jewish part of the population in all fields of life.
RASCOE: So that was life before October 7. How would you characterize Palestinians' reactions to October 7 in those first few days after the attacks?
SHEHADEH: First of all, in my point of view, a very big percentage of the Palestinian people were against the attack of civilians. I don't think that any Palestinian leader or activist or politician thought that the Israeli reaction will be so violent and unhuman and might lead to a genocide.
RASCOE: Of course, last month, I will point out, a panel attached to the U.N. declared that Israel is committing a genocide. At this point, how has the war in Gaza changed what it means to be a Palestinian?
SHEHADEH: I think it changed in every mean of life. It brings you to questions about the humanity. It brings you up very serious to question the international system. How could such crimes happen and continue for two years while the world is watching? It's a genocide happening online.
RASCOE: Do you feel like Palestinians have been heartened by those who have protested in support of Palestinians?
SHEHADEH: Well, we highly appreciate all the great people. They are the people who are keeping up some humanity. But in the same time, when you are seeing states sending weapons for Israel in order to kill us, or you see Trump's blind support for Israel and its policies, it takes you to a totally different way of thinking. It's very complicated.
RASCOE: And what is the state of Palestinian leadership today?
SHEHADEH: What happened lately in the last few days with this new deal of Trump and Netanyahu is simply racist, ugly and very humiliating. To go and talk about a solution while the Palestinians do not exist at all - our leadership did not exist in the solution while we are the main victim of what's happening here now. As a Palestinian leader, I must say that we did not do enough to save our people in Gaza or to save our people in the West Bank. If we were organized in a better way, we could have done much better.
RASCOE: I mean, I want to acknowledge - 'cause it's big that you're saying as someone who is a leader and has been a leader, you feel like more could have been done by Palestinian leadership. How so?
SHEHADEH: Well, I think the main issue here is that the Palestinian leadership was not unified against all these war crimes. The fight between Hamas and Fatah has prevented all of the Palestinian different factions to join forces, stop this war and open a new horizon for the new generation.
RASCOE: And of course, Fatah is the main Palestinian political party in the West Bank. Given the deep divide between both sides today, what can actually be accomplished for Palestinians?
SHEHADEH: In this current balance of power, we cannot do much. We should tell our people the truth. And we should tell the people that it's going to be a marathon. It's not going to be a short run. In order to go out from this vicious circles of violence, revenge or blood, we must have a solution for Palestinians and Israelis. The current situation within the Israeli political system - the choices that they are offering us is either a genocide or an apartheid, and we will never accept our inferiority in our homeland. Like the rest of the people, we're not asking for anything strange or anything big. We are just asking to live like all other human being.
RASCOE: I thank you for talking to me. I thank you for your candor. That's former politician and Palestinian activist Sami Abu Shehadeh. Thank you so much.
SHEHADEH: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
