New Delhi: Israeli Ambassador to India Reuven Azar Wednesday questioned those leaders and political parties, including in India, who only want to bat for Palestinian rights without raising their voices against the brutality of terror outfits like Hamas and the massive sacrifice that is being made by people of Israel to restore peace in the troubled region.
“Those Palestinians that want to live with us in peace and that are ready to recognise our right for self-determination, we will recognise their rights for self-determination. We can negotiate a peace deal. But, those who refuse that and only want to seek Palestinian rights without recognising our rights and using illegitimate means to do so, have to be completely refuted. We expect that any peace-loving leader or party, wherever they are, in India or outside India, will join us with this quest of creating a better world that is free of violence,” Azar told IANS in an exclusive interview.
The seasoned diplomat said that a common goal – of living in peace – has to be realised by everyone.
“We want to live in peace. We believe that people in our region deserve to live in peace and that we can satisfy the aspirations of everybody, as long as they are not trying to destroy or to completely erase the other side,” he said.
The Israeli Ambassador also slammed several media networks in the Middle East and the West for unleashing propaganda on behalf of radical Islamists.
“This is a challenge to us, to the Western world, to the civilised world, because these values that are being promoted by these channels are promoting violence against non-Muslims. That’s problematic. In addition to that, you have many outlets in the West which are completely biased because the reporters that work in these networks, especially those that cover the Middle East and they do the coverage in Arabic, are also part of this network,” Azar stated.
Israel has accused the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) of recently showing a Gaza documentary featuring people who were linked to the Hamas terror outfit.
“It is pretty well known that the BBC in Arabic has many people affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood that are working there. So the materials that you see coming out from the BBC in Arabic are problematic. Another problem that we face is that in many cases, terrorist organisations in the Gaza Strip are portraying themselves as journalists. So, we saw the example with the BBC documentary in which one of the children that was covered, his father, was a Hamas leader, a Hamas operative. People many times do not know how to make a difference, and do not verify the stories. This propaganda coming from terrorist organisations goes without checking. So these are all problems that we have to face,” the Ambassador said.
The Israeli diplomat mentioned that many times you have either a combination of people that are driven ideologically and sympathise with the Muslim Brotherhood or other jihadi organisations that work in these stations.
“Or they don’t fact check or do a background check on the people that give them information. That creates biased coverage and this is concerning. It’s a huge challenge…”
The biggest challenge in front of the Israeli authorities has been to not only wipe out terror from the region but also deradicalize the society.
“We want to live in a prosperous country. We are going to defend our families. We want to defend things that are important to us, and we don’t have anywhere else to go. Therefore, we have a huge advantage towards radicals. We have to engage together to work to work with people, to deradicalize societies. This is one of the challenges we’re facing now in the Gaza Strip. Since Hamas took over 18 years ago, they have been systematically radicalizing the education system, teaching every child in the Gaza Strip that their role is not to live in peace or to build Gaza but to destroy Israel and to kill Jews. This has to change because unless the education system changes, nothing will change in the future, and we will have a very grim future,” he added.
IANS