Video: Gideon Levy in Dublin (March 2011)
World renowned award-winning dissident Israeli journalist Gideon Levy spoke in Dublin’s Trinity College on Wednesday March 9th as part of Israeli Apartheid Week 2011 in an event organised by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Levy, an acclaimed critic of Israel’s brutal policies towards the Palestinian people via his column in the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz, was launching his book The Punishment of Gaza.
(Recorded by Kevin Squires – CitizenPartridge Blog
Edited by Greg Manahan – iDirect Productions)
Levy – who has written for Haaretz since 1982 – for has been the subject of much criticism in mainstream Israeli society for his views, including having one senior Israeli official call for the secret police to monitor him. Conversely, his writings has been much praised by those who support Palestinian human rights; he has been called “brave”, “heroic”, “passionate”, “eloquent”, a “rare voice of courage” and a “searing critic of Israeli brutality”.
The Punishment of Gaza (Verso 2010), his second book, covers the period from 2005 – the year of the Israeli “withdrawal” – through to 2009 and the aftermath of the attack on Gaza that left over 1,400 people dead. Levy shows how the ground was prepared for this assault and documents its continuing effects. The book tracks the development of Israel policy, which has abandoned the pretence of diplomacy in favour of raw military power, the ultimate aim of which is to deny Palestinians any chance of forming their own independent state.
Punished by Israel and the Quartet of international powers for the democratic election of Hamas, Gaza has been transformed into the world’s largest open-air prison. From Gazan families struggling to cope with the random violence of Israel’s blockade and its “targeted” assassinations, to the machinations of legal experts and the continued connivance of the international community, every aspect of this ongoing tragedy is eloquently recorded and forensically analyzed. Levy’s powerful journalism shows how the brutality at the heart of Israel’s occupation of Palestine has found its most complete expression to date in the collective punishment of Gaza’s residents.
This event was organised by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) in conjunction with the TCD MPhil in Race, Ethnicity & Conflict. It was one of a series of events that took place around Ireland during international Israeli Apartheid Week 2011 (6 – 12 March). For more information on the other events which took place in Ireland please see: http://www.ipsc.ie/archives/iaw2011/