Stephen Hawking on Palestine
Jimmy Carter called the Hamas elections “the most perfect” the Carter Centre had overseen. Gerry Adams and countless others involved in international peace negotiations have since called for EU and US recognition of Hamas. We can now add to that illustrious list renowned cosmologist and physicist Stephen Hawking.
“A people under occupation will continue to resist in any way it can. If Israel wants peace, it will have to talk to Hamas, like Britain did with the IRA”, Hawking said recently in an interview with Al Jazeera’s Riz Khan (see video clip). “Hamas are the democratically elected leaders of the Palestinian people, and cannot be ignored.”
Speaking just after Israel’s assault on Gaza in late January, here is Hawking’s full statement as can be viewed in the video clip below (2 minute to three minute mark):
The attack on Gaza is similar to that on Lebanon two years ago. That killed over 2000, but did not achieve Israel’s war aims. I think the assault on Gaza will be equally unsuccessful.
A people under occupation will continue to resist in any way it can. If Israel wants peace, it will have to talk to Hamas, like Britain did with the IRA. Hamas are the democratically elected leaders of the Palestinian people, and cannot be ignored.
Israel’s response to the rocket attacks has been quite out of proportion. Almost a hundred Palestinians have been killed for every Israeli. The situation is like that in South Africa before 1990. It cannot continue.
Stephen Hawking visited Palestine and Israel in 2006, including a stop at the joint Arab-Jewish village Neve Shalom-Wahat al-Salam and the town of Ramallah.
Currently ill, we extend to Stephen Hawking best wishes for a full recovery.
Plain and simple: brilliant!
ATW
It’s very similar to what Jurgen Todenhofer said in my interview. The French negotiated with the Algerians. The U.S. negotiated with the Viet Cong to end the Vietnam War. The same should happen with Israel and Hamas. It’s that simple…. in theory but unfortunately not in practice.
Poor Stephen. Why should we listen to an old cripled man who is very angry with God. He should know better that thousands of Arabs arent worth a Jewish fingernail, so the responce was quite proportional. However, if I would be a prime minister, I promise you that not a single Arab would get hurt. How? Well I would transfer ALL Arabs out of Israel and let them live happily in their 22 other Arabs States or anywhere else in the world.
Unfortunately for you, many people do listen to this genius and extraordinary individual, something you evidently know little about. Of course, Hawking is too smart to be taken in by your kind of poisonous zionazi garbage. Poor Gennadiy, what will you do as more people speak up about justice in Palestine? Palestine remains forever, Israelis can go back from whence they came, Russia or the US, or … hell.
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