argues the government of israel has moved increasingly to the right. this even from the national press club in washington, d.c. is one hour and 20 minutes. [applause] don't know where to put this water, but i will need it. thanks a lot, norman. on i think that we will soon be reporting that you attended the permits the. if thank you for hosting me here and packing this room and opening up what i think is going to be an essentials discussion. this is the largest meeting so

far of what the nation called the hamas book club. so welcome. i think john is now the interior minister triet and thank you to bill and hillary clinton. just kidding. my book is for sale outside. i think we have lots of copies of the book. i hope you all will support what i'm doing here and i will be happy to sign your copies and there's going to be a lively q&a session. i want to warn you that madea benjamin is here and will take care of you. [laughter] it's been an interesting few weeks. in the last few months we have seen them emerge against the will of the american public

first the attack on syria. they would have met a historic defeat. and it failed again to stop this historic deal between the u.s., the administration of barack obama and iran, the administration. it's been exposed for not having a grass-roots base on like the most powerful lobby like the national rifle association. all they seem to have in its fighting retreat is a whole lot of money and i want to see that they have failed to shut me down on the book tour. they have acted and attempted to stop the events that have already been held on the book tour and the have utterly failed

and there's been an attempt to suppress my talks and the discussion that we are having here and it's a discussion on the ground and this has failed so we should welcome this failure as a victory for free speech. [applause] there's an interesting new developments related to the deal in israel and it is where my book takes place i don't get into the geopolitics and i don't deal with washington. my book is an intimate on the ground portrait and a single state under the discriminatory regime. during the culmination of the transition phase that began after the crushing of the second with the rise of what the

planners call hebrew for subornation and bears the residence of the term apartheid which simply means separateness this is manifested in the separation wall that cuts deep into the west bank was in the words of benjamin netanyahu to prevent the demographics spillover in the siege and it's manifested inside israel as i am going to discuss, but it also led to a psychological transition and the society and political transition that has resulted in which is a majority at least permanent right-wing dominance over the key institutions of life. this week the democracy institute took a poll and a majority of jewish israelis declared that the wish to end of the special relationship with of the united states to find new allies. at the same time, 70% of the jewish israelis declared they don't believe that they will

find new allies in other words they should simply go it alone. the working title that i proposed referred to the second century roman era fortress where the band of jewish fanatics hold up and commit mass suicide and by editors proposed this title, but i think that as we look at the developments in the past few weeks the first title might have been more appropriate. so my book begins in the gaza strip or in and around the strip and right now while this every the festival of lights that they are plunged into darkness and it's one powerpoint is unable to function. this has been the case for about a month and it is because israel supported the siege on the gaza

strip. the transitional phase culminated with the attack on the gaza street in 28 and 29 in which 1400 residents mostly civilians according to the human rights group were killed over 300 women and children were killed, most according at home and development were taking place in israel at this time there was a national election under way. tipi livni who was then foreign minister running for prime minister and was trying to capture the mood of the society declared our troops believe like hooligans in maastricht during these operations, which i demanded of them. if they had gathered which the journalists that were barred from entering described as the hill of shame and they gathered to cheer on the attack as the battle. one woman was filmed declaring

to the danish tv crew they should lift the whole thing off the map. i'm a little bit fascist and these kind of proclamations that we are gaining in popularity of 95% of the public in the first week they declared their support in high school during this assault, the elections were held and the party that won by an overwhelming majority was the party of lieberman who wound up gaining the third largest amount of votes and becoming the foreign minister, israel's top diplomat, he was just cleared of the ties and serious charges relating to his mafia ties by the way and some people were not able to testify against him because they mysteriously disappeared and now she has re-emerged as one of the most popular politicians in israel but we are in 2009 and he campaigned on a very simple platform. he ran ads over and over

declaring that no loyalty, no citizenship triet in other words, if you fail to declare loyalty to the jewish state you would be stripped of your citizenship rights and this applied to the 20% of the public who are palestinian citizens of israel to begin and he moved to fulfill his promise as he entered as the third largest party in coalition with younger members that would support from benjamin netanyahu and what support even from eduk barak who supported an initiative that passed to require all new citizens of israel to swear loyalty to the jewish and democratic state. the loyalty of these loyalty oaths were first introduced by the rabbi who was actually banned in 1988 for the racist

incitement who advocated the establishment of a theater -- co craddock forcible transfer of all palestinians and non-jews that refer to swear loyalty to so they had to declare that they had one and the labor party's. all after law was passed like this and like the acceptance to the community which authorized communities of under 500 to discriminate on the basis of race and even sexuality. the banning of the most outspoken palestinian legislator who i interviewed and written extensively in my book and who was currently the most hated woman in israel from running in 2008 and in 2012 by the central election committee both were overturned by the supreme court and there is now an effort not

only to staff the supreme court with right-wing justices including the first religious nationalist settler who is now sitting on the bench but also to allow them to basically veto the supreme court decisions and it all relates to this to allow any citizen seen as hurting their business because they called for the boycott of the settlement could also cast. i interviewed one of the most important members who very few of you have ever heard of that was the author of most of these who have at least co-sponsored them and was the key deputy. he lives in the settlement which is a very large settlement that cuts deep into the west bank like one of the original homes. david was just appointed to the team on the so-called peace process and has issued a map in

which they will be incorporated into the future state of israel. so, she was very welcoming to me and speaks in a very straightforward way. you just tell it straight and i really appreciated this because when i challenged him on these that he was introducing and said what you are doing is consolidating what thomas jefferson would have called the tyranny of the majority, he looked me in the eye and told me the tyranny of the majority is the essence of democracy. and that is the way that many people, many of the key figures understand democracy. he has been the head of the constitution committee which is one of the most important committees because israel has no constitution for a variety of reasons including the that the constitution generally requires you to set national borders and

israel has never had any internationally and recognized borders. it actually has no borders right now. i don't know where it is. so when someone accuses me of wanting to why the israel off the map i had them and that can and asked them to draw it where it is for me and they are rarely able to do that. another reason that israel has no constitution is that it requires you to define your national identity, and israel has no national identity. in fact the supreme court last ruled there was no such thing as an israeli national identity. identity can only be afforded according to the ethnic lines either you are jewish or arab and this is the basis of institutional discrimination or apartheid to be an interesting law was introduced 2011 and its past. they were one of the authors of it and it was actually an

amendment to the pre-existing law that i'm going to talk about and a second. it was an amendment to the antiinfiltration and under this amendment, any of the 60,000 non-jewish african refugees who fled from sudan and from oppression and from extreme poverty seeking the sanctuary in the jewish state which they believe in body the lessons of the holocaust, any of them can be detained and held without charges and without trial as long as three years. currently thanks to this law that passed, there were thousands who was entire families were sleeping in the desert facilities which was built basically beside the prison for the palestinian political prisoners were held during the first, and you can read a fascinating account of that in a book called prisoners by jeffrey goldberg who is a guard. they are sleeping and the

supreme court was issued a challenge by an israeli civil-rights group about this detention facility, which has and he read reminiscence in this country where the japanese citizens of the united states were held basically in an internment center for years because they were deemed to possess any race blood. and according to this, the supreme court ruled that the amendment should be invalidated. already there's any street level campaign to expel the non-jewish africans who lived in south televisa and they've been concentrated in the poorest neighborhood to sleep in parks and denied work permits. they have been attacked in what could only be described as the race riots. may 23rd of 2012 a group of the leading members on the israeli government including the deputy

prime minister chair person spoke before thousands and declared that the cancers in israel's body which according to the times of the jewish israelis agreed with and following this rally, hundreds rioted through african areas of south tel aviv. this led to the fire bombings including an african kindergarten and extremely did defeat could disturbing episode in the back of "the new york times". it got very little attention in this country. so it led to this amendment to the antiinfiltration law and that amendment has been overturned so there's a new information but will provide a

solution by which the non-jewish africans would be held for up to one year in this facility and a bit of to check and three times a day but they are allowed to leave during the day but they have to sleep there at night so they can be sequestered from the public. this reminds me of what the historian calls some downtown and the u.s. during the 1940's and 1950's there were many towns including chevy chase maryland that had ordinances' that forbade them from being there after dark and with this alternative solution that benjamin netanyahu has introduced and support it, israel will become the largest sundown town in the world. the amendment that i mentioned to the antiinfiltration is an amendment to the law passed. these discriminatory laws are

not necessarily a right wing. they are nothing new. simply an extension of those that have already been passed to consolidate the character has jewish state. as an ethnically pure state to consolidate the demographic majority of israel. under the 1954 antiinfiltration act, any palestinian that left their home between the time of the passage of the partition plan and the hostilities of the 1948 war was considered an infiltrator and thousands upon thousands of the 750,000 palestinians who were expelled in 1947 and 48 were uprooted from the communities where they try to reunite with their families and moved back to their homes and attend to their farm land or they were violently uprooted again and thrown out according to the law. so this is nothing new. it is actually a continuous process. the palestinians refer to it as

catastrophe. take a water break here. >> and i consider it to be based on my experience in living in places like the palestinian ghetto of tel aviv where there are 500 standing orders all applying to the palestinian homes coming to places which used to be known as seeing entire palestinian neighborhoods demolish even though they are citizens of israel because they can't get permits, i see this as a continuous process. there is an interesting book out right now by a journalist, an israeli columnist and it has been praised by thomas friedman and host on charlie rose. basically the toast of the town and new york and he wrote an article for the new yorker that prefaced the arguments and his ideas in this book might promised land, in which he describes the ethnic cleansing

of the city where tens of thousands of palestinians were basically they were massacres and they were sent on basically what was a death march to ramallah. he presented this but he went on to justify it. this is someone from the liberal wing of the consensus in israel and he justify it and said it were it not for this campaign of ethnic cleansing which was horrible, i never would have been born. and to grapple with the moral implications is to immense. in other words, she would like to see the refugee status of the palestinians who had been expelled. there are currently 7 million refugees living around the world to be consolidated and this is kind of a consensus view of the zionist left and israel and it's why they have sort of been celebrated in this country and it is helping to fight think the

efforts to promote this book and helping psychologically prepare people here for the coming discussion about 1948 since it no longer focuses on to state your 1967 with a green line. it's going to go back to 1948. then you have the right wing like lieberman, like netanyahu and to his right of the sarah palin who actually speaks better english than sarah palin. she is for 32-years-old and very pretty and well spoken and the deputy transportation minister of israel and she held hearings against a simulation or jewish their relationships and has vowed to expel all legislators from that who fail to take these loyalty oaths and convert.

they are the future of the israeli politics and it's because the of taken a different view on 1948 than the liberals who accepted but don't want to carry it any further. they also acknowledge that this happened. they believe it is an unfinished project that the ethnic purity is not consolidated. and they are a battle cry. the two words that really animate the politics are finished 48. we hear the cry in the tool letters issued by the state-funded rabbis who declare that it was not to rent to the jews inside of the proper and we hear it from the letter issued declaring that it is illegal under the jewish law for the women to date arab men or have relations with them and we see at. we see the finished 48 movement

in the burgeoning and thai massage and asian groups which are rampaging through the cities and gaining power in a the israeli government, which recently set up a hotline where the callers can inform on the jewish arab couples which have issued certificates to businesses that refuse to employ non-issue is which they have received funding from the israeli government through the group and who inspired the youth that built in 19-years-old and to make, in central jerusalem in the square where i lived for several months because a 15-year-old girl had told them that he made a pass at her while they chanted. and an arab is a son of a bitch which is a chance after every goal. dozens of by standards stood by

and did nothing. echoes of the submerged passed in the united states and of the path that we thought we had that was passed, but as william faulkner said, the past isn't even the past. they took over the labor party and declared at the time that israel was becoming like alabama in the 1930's and he urged the president to speak up against the racism. perez said nothing who has been awarded the congressional medal of honor by barack obama. we see finish 48 in the party. it is a pro settler religious party that is the third largest party in israel. they recently endorsed a decision by the national civil service administration banning the jewish, a religious jewish women from volunteering in hospitals after 9 p.m. from the fear that they would date arab

doctors and i find that unusual, this decision unusual because i've been found it's good to date doctors. [laughter] we see the call in finished 48 in the plans just issued by the organization which is an executive arm of the government to plant 100,000 jewish settlers inside the green line in israel proper to quote on quote balance the population. what kind of country balances one ethnic group with another? you can call it perhaps an apartheid state meet you can call it a discriminatory and bigotry, you can call it what you want as the professor did. but one thing you cannot call it is democracy and to call it a

democracy besmirches the very concept of democracy. and we see the call to ten - 48. we have seen it this week in the proffered land which was just authorized and supported by the host of mainstream and right-wing israeli parties. i want to talk about the proverb land because this is one of the most disturbing episodes of human rights violations, and it has finally been reported on for the first time by the times so it's been whitewashed in this country to be i've become aware of the land like this in the desert that is in southern israel. when i was called by -- when i got a call one night in the summer of 2010 to meet a group of jewish israeli activists in a parking lot in jerusalem by the independence park, these activists are some of the bravest people that i met in my life in my journalistic career.

they are also some of the most marginalized castigated people that i've ever met. they are refused years of the army service. many of them. they are teachers and educators and they are literally leveling their bodies against the occupation and human-rights abuses. their number maybe 700 total in the israeli society and operate under the banner of the ad hoc groups like solidarity and the anarchists against the wall. ..

>> 100% of their construction in their homes and anything they build, it's a very good environmental situation. and we arrived around 4:00 a.m. and we took some copy at the local resident and we fall asleep and we are awakened by the sound of bulldozers from the israeli lands administration stickers bearing the logo of the jewish national fund. a fund of the israeli government, which is a five o. one c. three nonprofit that raises tens of millions of dollars in the united states and it was just honored by the prime minister and the bulldozer moved in behind and they toss these

activates the way like empty crate and removed residents from their homes and they were crying as they watched the bulldozers crumble her home and wiped the village off the map. i left as these activists, these israeli activists attempted to help the residents to rebuild their homes and rebuild their structures and since this episode occurred, which i don't and you can watch it online, the village has been demolished 51 times. and if there is a guinness book of world records, record for home demolitions, that he would win. and the israeli government has sent them the bill for the demolition of their home. which is a frequent occurrence for palestinians in east jerusalem whose homes are demolished. that is why we often see the

palestinian heads of household saving themselves the bill. until i started to notice a larger plan as i was leaving and i saw a sign that said soon to be the home of.tv. i walked to jerusalem and visited the offices of it and i was not too slick, staff actually let me in the office and i tried to find them this video shot of the demolition. that the contents have blocked it. i'm not sure that's because they blocked all of of the video because they want to prevent these people from seeing the certain content or what. but this is a christian zionist network based on the united kingdom, which promotes a view in which anyone like myself will have to convert at the dawn of the apocalypse when jesus ascends from his magical throne

above the shell or i will burn in an everlasting lake of fire. if this will probably get used to it. [laughter] >> and so this organization has posted a video declaring that we are partnering with the jewish national fund to plant a forest to beautify the land for the return of the messiah and they are actually providing millions upon millions of dollars the jewish national fund to build a forest on top of the village whose residents will be expelled. and this is only part of a larger plan name for benjamin netanyahu and his policy and planning chief, which will forcibly remove nearly all veteran residents and israeli citizens of unrecognized areas from their homes and placed them in indian reservation style ghettos like this, which are the only arab towns of the state of

israel has ever allowed to be built since 1948. and so we are talking about these people being removed from their homes have endeavored villages demolished and being forced to live in whatever are basically indian reservations that reigned at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale, away from their ancestral lands and agricultural lifestyle. and we have seen the psychological impact that this has had on native americans and this is unfolding before our very eyes in "the new york times" will report on this. i have written a book that will hopefully inform people and galvanize them because this is a crime. according to this crime, 800,000 acres of land will be taken from them. they will be forced to live on 1% of the land and there is no map been provided for where the veterans will be moved to. those who are not forced to live in these concentrated indian

reservation style town spared to have a theory that they will be moved close to the green line so that if there ever is a land swap where israel is able to consolidate the blocks as part of the future state of israel under a two state solution, it will give of that land and free itself of those who have been identified as a demographic threat transferring them through negotiations with something that israel has already proposed to do the palestinian citizens in the air triangle who live by the green line. and there are protests across israel and palestine across the past week. the day of rage. and after these protests the israeli police demanded all footage from all media organizations that film them so they can crack down on the protesters and arrest them one by one and also so that they can suppress the footage as they did after the deadly raid on the

free gaza flotilla on which all footage was in the top end on the deck a activists, including one american citizen were killed and all footage was destroyed and all equipment was destroyed. there is a clear effort to deflect us from the plan and it is emanating at an incredible speed. and so just by talking about jerusalem, and talking about the future of israeli politics. rouson has been occupied since 1967 and since 1967 the state of israel has governed the palestinians of israel according to a policy that is based upon maintaining a demographic threshold of 70% -- 72% jewish majority and all of jerusalem and this has required thousands

upon thousands of home demolitions since 1967 in the state of israel has demolished over 27,000 palestinian armies, and that is along with 800,000 palestinian olive trees which can fill a 33 central parks. so i met someone. a very propelling person in east jerusalem when i was in the west bank visiting child prisoners in the israeli military prison, those who were going on trial and i was witnessing this and they were being put on trial for participating in unarmed demonstrations against the occupation and i was in the waiting room and two women approach lanes between english. i don't know whether intentional is really. but one turned out to be a friend of a friend. don wagner, who is a professor at north park university in chicago and who has been a very outspoken defender of the

palestinian rights and i learned from her about this position and the other woman was a resident of a place where she was there to visit her husband because of her activism in college with him, although he is no longer active and she greeted me with me and tell the story after i had talked about her for some time. she told me that when i met her at her husband as part of the west bank residency would let the palestinian authority and she was a jerusalem resident. and in order to maintain its residency, which kind of gives their freedom of movement and more rights than west bank palestinian, she had to constantly prove that she lived in jerusalem and she had to abide by the light policy, which is aimed at maintaining the 72% jewish demographic majority. and in order to do that, she had

to live in this way and she took off a night to do so. so as part of this in is the palate it is on the other side of the separation law. so the streets were littered with trash swears that she had to sort through potholes that what is absolutely cavernous and worse than anything i have seen growing in washington dc where our infrastructure is first-rate. and she took me to a depressing apartment building that she had to live in, she told me. they used to live there and they love to garden, her and her husband, but they could no longer have their garden. and it was because her husband was unable to live in jerusalem and unable to pass through the wall because he had a west bank id and she was unable to live outside of jerusalem because she would be stripped of her

residency. but she could not prove that she was abiding by the policy and actually living there. so they had been forced to live together only one place in the entire holy land they could live together was this ghetto, which had no fire service and firemen cannot reach this because the palestinian authority couldn't cross through. and so the police cannot enter for the same reason. so the one traffic light was out and they received no services even though they paid thousands in taxes to the jerusalem in this palette each year. and i asked her about it. i asked is everyone in this place like this? and she said everyone in my building has this story. the film was someone from the west bank or from jerusalem. what was most new? not fall in love with people? and i said, well, this is really shocking to me.

and she said this is the refugee camp for lovers. and that is -- those are just the two people that you need meet in my book were facing the consequences of this institution and the constitution of the demographic engineers that are at the base of the jewish state and its essential logic. they are suffering under these systems. honestly they are suffering in the most existential way with their relationship. and the future has been thrown into doubt. meanwhile, there are people like these who have recruited for the last four years strongman and put out ads calling for strongman to help out palestinians from their homes into move jewish settlers in. and who is just elected to the jerusalem municipal council. there are people here who have carried out a war on christmas.

and i know that bill o'reilly will never report on that. he had banned christmas trees from appearing in the nazareth, which is a community like a settlement above the only real impact city inside israel and he vowed that he will prevent display of any non-jewish symbols from ever appearing and he just won in a landslide election and there are people, like this individual who are the deputy foreign ministers, who in praise a full integration of areas and in doing away with the idea of palestinian states forever. there are people like this and those who are the deputy prime minister, like this man who down the line, he's in his 40s and he speaks great english and he was raised in california and he's a millionaire in the

israeli tech industry. the reason reason he wants him any votes was his promise to do away with this whole fantasy of two states. to finish this. and finally, this individual and his position as foreign minister and he is now engaged in negotiations with benjamin netanyahu. a tax that would merge this with the next national election. and the prime minister's office in 2017 is making him the natural successor as prime minister of israel. and they need to be compared to regardless but regardless of the conclusion that i've come to, and i do not pull any punches in my copywriting. conclusions that might be unpopular or what i have talked about which may be unpopular in this. but there are certain facts on the ground cannot be denied. and one fact is that as long as

the status quo continues, it is being encouraged in the heart of washington. and the trends that i described in this talk and then appear in the pages of my book will continue. therefore the effort has to be from here and i have to shift the status quo, undermining it and unraveling at regardless of what you think is the conclusion. thank you. [applause] commack. >> thank you so much, max. we have some questions for you. [inaudible question] >> on when to go ahead and give you the microphone. here you go. >> hello, i am raphael peter

nehr, thank you for inspiring this talk. there is a supreme court case last year where orthodox exemptions for military service was removed and i was going to cause a kerfuffle. can you talk about that? >> the resentment of this in the military inspired this who is one of the most secular individuals. and when i was there covering the election, the party and also other parties, there was a future speaking resentment against the ultra-orthodox, declaring that how little soldiers made and other benefits

that the orthodox jews receive. and there is widespread resentment and i think it is important to talk about how they practice gender segregation in their community and that there have been protests against that from tel aviv from the enlightened class of israel. but it's also important to mention that those who have protested them and support this party report demographic segregation and the separation wall and aggressive and violent measures to separate from palestinians and to engineer a demographic majority of jews. so why else would they be the enemy? why are they considered culturally retrograde upon any passable scenario in which they live under a regime of equality, they are happy to accept that and most of them are non- non-zionists as long as they are left alone to live their

lifestyle in their community. and in my opinion they are not the problem. but it's against them and arabs that is inspiring the israeli national elections. and am i calling people? well, i want to get a word from mark. >> i'm not mark. >> oh, you're not? okay. sorry. as i you are a guy who wears glasses. >> thank you for your presentation. i have to say that i found a less talented than what i did in your book and not being said, i think you are describing this scenario that is the analogy would be to describe this in the early 1960s without acknowledging that there was a movement here.

and in south africa that provided an element of conscience with whatever was going on in the country. i think that includes ignoring the emergence of civil society in this era. which is to do it a great disservice to a number of people whose own initiative would help with that for those who are interested in seeing a more ethical culture and environment take root. it could really do a disservice to that part of israel that recognizes the egregious problems and yet tries to do something about them. and i think that what you have projected this evening is more black and white. heavily on the black. but i think at least you have to acknowledge that there are israelis of all persuasions are making an effort to write some of the wrongs. >> i'm glad for the question

because i have spent hundreds if not scores of pages talking about these israelis who have taken a great israeli individuals on which they were urged to have mass insubordination against this under jewish authority. and some said it was the only totalitarian state that existed and he urged those who refuse military service and refused to participate and i think that he has sort of failed this mass movement. but you will need the minorities in my book of those who have resisted the indoctrination and put themselves on the line. and again, human rights violations. not civil rights violations. we are talking about human rights violations and people that have been denied basic

human rights. and these individuals understand that i have dedicated chapters in my book to him. he's one of the bravest people i have ever met and he has organized this during which major figures refused because of a in bombing raids on palestinian refugee camps and he has turned into one of the most prominent activist of the movement in the world, to boycott sanctions and that is from israeli institutions that are involved in the occupations, like the jewish national fund. and in my book you will read about this in the general security service of israel, which declared that we are going to pass a law that will criminalize what you're doing and it is a law against this and in other words we are the crimean and you should be aware. he was not discouraged and i would like to mention another

individual in my book who is part of the israeli army service and she's part of this in palestine. and she's here in washington dc. and one of the organizations is combating human rights violations and she will be sponsored. so if you really want to meet this rag tag band, you can. and on the other hand, supporting these demographics and if you want to meet them, just open up. [applause] >> thank you. my question is about the liability and the life of the

issue and the expansion settlement that seems to be going nowhere. is there still hope for the solution? and if not, what is the alternative. >> thank you. you know, i could spend another hour talking about why this will never happen. you just listen to this, i described some describe some of the political leading figures were not just against this but against giving any part of jerusalem up. it has to be understood that the public is not really amenable with just rhetoric and argument about it. you have to be part of the massive external pressure. there has to be sanctions placed on israel to make them do something and he said that they

shouldn't just be limited to the settlement. but this is a former spokesman and a major functionary in the labour party. so don't think that this is just some crazy left wing person railing against israel. the dds is moving into the mainstream because the united states government in washington are modified in in the external pressure. and so now it is too late. 200,000 jewish settlers have been moved into the west bank and 80,000 palestinians have been held as prisoners and the separation has made many of them -- they have been deprived of their aquifer and 85% of the water fits underneath this to make a settlement, which would be incorporated into the state of israel under a u.s. plan solution. the palestinians would be deprived of any right to airspace or water or to raise a military or any of the components that you have to have if you want to call yourself a

state under the two state solution plan. so not only is it physically impossible, but it's never been proposed. we have these population centers in a mass of economic pieces were humanitarians will be dumped into these things and i recently got my hands on a report at the urging of tony blair who has urged a 4 billion-dollar east plan to basically pacify the palestinians with foreign aid in donations. and it's basically impossible, and there is a series of recommendations for creating life-changing situations and one of the life-changing opportunities is tourism. and then it has been subpar at

the gaza strip. and the word occupation is never used in this document and it never explains why the tourism doesn't happen. and it just says it doesn't have a good coastline. >> thank you so much for the talk. i have a very small question and i was quite confused about a couple of things. so i apologize in advance and when you are talking about this, he said there was a constitution subcommittee because israel has no constitution but i thought i heard you say -- and i apologize that this may have no constitution because you cannot define the boundaries of good citizenship. and i never heard of those being prerequisites for the constitution. we have a constitution here and

i don't believe that we do those things. and at the same moment you said that you have talked about this and there were definite maps and boundaries and some codified with the resolutions and some even have bounced. so i misunderstood this and i didn't understand the reference to this. there is no constitution because you can't have those things. >> well, there was a writer who wrote a very interesting self published book who talked about this and he asked about why we have a constitution and many said because it will require to set the national borders and also because it may require them to define what a jewish person is and there have been three redefinitions of what it means according to the state of israel.

that being jewish as a state and what does it mean. the constitution generally requires you to elise outlines certain steps that define a national identity and i think our constitution offers and has offered overtime the opportunity for an amendment and the ability for the united states to move beyond the colonial character and become a nation of immigrants. as well as to afford ethnic minorities that are discriminated against in this also leads to the fear of a constitution and the exclusively jewish state of israel and he said that this is part of the partition plan. and all indigenous groups have rejected as to divide their land

and hand over the majority of it. but under this plan the state that was created would have created and made 55% jewish and because of the borders and so that was immediately after it was introduced and passed, the movements set out to carry out this ethnic cleansing and that's the only word for it. and almost 200 palestinians have argued in destroyed in the residence had been expelled and israel never abided by this. and it was understood that by not having any set borders they were given a strong hand with the palestinian authority and authority and netanyahu understand that. and i welcome any attempts by

the government to prevent even a map of where the borders are wanted to be. >> a couple of years ago there was a solution and there was a prominent individual as well. and one of the things he indicated was that by looking at things like kids registering for university overseas, people selling and transient property and their bank accounts, because of this dynamic that you have described. they estimate that 1.5 million have left this in the last five to 10 years or so. did you pick up on any of that kind of undertone of discussion among the decent israelis were outraged at what is going on. >> thank you, that it's a great

question in the last chapter is dedicated to that question and to those who have left. i did a talk at the university of pennsylvania with an individual who is a professor there and he is one of the leading analysts of israeli demographics and i cited a figure of about 1 million israelis were living abroad, which is about 14% of the population and a higher percentage than maybe mexico or sri lanka has and he put the figure closer to 600,000. and it's hard to determine either way and that is a very large percentage of the population that is living abroad. and there were these all the time that showed an american flag fluttering in the background and it talks about getting your visa to get to the u.s. and the good life. and most israelis want to move to the u.s. for economic reasons.

they're kind of lab rats, just as the palestinians are in a neoliberal project is part of the middle class and drives them of any opportunity that i've seen polls showing that many of them, the young ones are open to moving abroad. but anywhere from 15,000 to 30,000 jewish israelis live in berlin. in germany in berlin as the top destination. and the israelis who live there are organized and involved in activism in our publishing papers that slam the israeli government. and i like it there. it also affords the jews a lot

of protections and rights. but in the mind of benjamin netanyahu, it is almost as though this isn't happening in these young israelis were recently attacked in a documentary that aired called a surname which is a very derogatory term to them. and they were attacked by those that go back to the place of the final solution of the plan and you have to understand that when there is something to that, that they have rejected the doom and gloom of benjamin netanyahu who before the entire student body and faculty attempted to blame the palestinian national movement for the final solution in europe and accused the palestinian people and leadership of killing 4000 jewish children and we have only seen that claim before.

and this is the kind of doom and gloom that he is offering. beginning the lessons and these young israelis on life and they want justice and to find out, they have to leave. >> thank you again for the excellent talk. if you could comment on two things. what do you see as the influence of the immigration of russians into israel over the past several decades and i have heard and i don't know if this is true, that the israeli government has been taking indigenous people from the americas, from peru and other countries and has been having them quickly convert to judaism and settle at the west bank as sort of a folklore because they

are not palestinians. and i'm just curious. i'm curious as to whether or not there's any truth to that. so i think you. >> yes, to answer your second part of the question. a tribe of peruvians who live in the jungle were brought to settlements help balance out the demographic threat of the palestinians. and this was the first discriminatory law passed by the state of israel. in 1949 it might've been part of that. so i am eligible while the palestinians have lived in the holy land for hundreds of years and this included legitimate claims on property titles and many have no right to return. my right of return was granted

because i supposedly many years ago, i'm not an archaeologist, i was taking it on the corner and i, you know, i had this tied to the bible. and it was recently attempted to assert this claim and i think that he brought some artifacts onto a tv program in the u.s. proved that the jewish people have had a claim and what is now the west bank for 3000 years and it turned out that he had actually illegally transported this artifact out of the country and that there is a law against doing so and it had probably been stolen while before bennett. and there was benjamin netanyahu who carries around a special ring. this is like straight out of this and it says this in hebrew

and he talked about this ring that shows that he has a link to this and to those who are living here during the roman era, the problem is that he had a great-grandfather who changed his name when he became a zionist and he is a lithuanian jew, which means that he probably has more ties to sarah palin, whose maternal grandmother is said to be a lithuanian jew had been he does to any biblical individual. >> thank you. he painted a very vivid picture of current situations not like you cast your eyes forward and take your opinion and what

happens next. also because we are in washington and so what, if we could ever agree on something, could we do about it? >> these are questions that i get in trouble because a fair have to talk about what to do. and so you don't like what you hear me talking about. it offends you with your libertarian and abilities. and stop funding it. [applause] >> we are the patrons of the united states government and i want him make them understand they made this possible. $30 billion for the next 10 years and more. and lack of political cover at the u.n. i think that we have to acknowledge, especially looking at congress and the behavior, that we have very little

influence on our elected representatives on this issue and we have to start moving our activism into the grassroots effort, which people are arguing and through this. and i think that we have to support them. we have to support this movement and stop complying with the israeli institutions and ambassadors and this includes those those palestinians and those who are corroding the social fabric of the jewish american society. >> hello. i want to thank you for a powerful talk. as well as the bravery of what you have done. and when you use the term zionism, there is also the term of revisionist zionism and you sort of make a religious narrative and i think that important to bring out what it

is and its history in europe and its connections, i think that that would help separate some of the jewish community from an identification with these repressive measures in just the second part, which is what do you think is best. and so what reason do you think that the u.s. has israel pursued this policy? think you've. >> i will try to answer that briefly and it's a great question. i don't think revisionism can be segregated from this in the current context and it is intellectually dishonest to do so. and it is the godfather of

revisionist zionism whose greatest contribution was in 1923 with the iron wall and there can be no negotiating with the indigenous people, the native americans, blacks of south africa, he freely acknowledged that. and that is the only thing we can do, combat them with an iron wall bayonet. in other words, consistently and persistently because there cannot be negotiations and we see the strategy of peace in managing the occupation. and it was also made an important point, which is there is no difference between our current wars and vegetarians in on this issue. in other words, on the issue of how to handle the indigenous populations there are the labor zionists and he was right.

it was him who adopted this is the blueprint and it was the labor zionists that carried it out in 1948 and 1956 against the palestinians and in 1967 and has carried it out until the power in 1967. they have been violated far more than adherents of revisionist zionism. benjamin netanyahu is not actually, to my knowledge, formally accused of any war crimes. but his critics are part of the enlightened liberals and he was the operation individual and i think we just need to look at the iron wall as one of the key documents and not try to look at benjamin netanyahu with some kind of bad apple eye. they are operating at the base

of it and the logic which is demographic engineering. >> hello. i am june. and i guess when i was invited to come to this, and i didn't know anything about the book, i googled it before i came. and i read about so much controversy. and a lot of the critics and some of those who i do respect, i guess i am a little bit disappointed that nobody has challenged a lot of your basic premise is and i didn't come here to do that. but let me just talk about what bothers me. and so first of all, it seems that you took what you found in last few years without placing it in the historical context. and you dismissed a question or

that the israelis accepted it but the palestinians do are not. and there is a history that begins with 1948 and has that has history consequences of until today and i'm certainly no fan of his policies or the occupation as much as the next person. but i found that a lot of your criticisms were personal anecdotes and i'm sitting here thinking. because i do work on this that i could talk about this with those who say the same thing about immigrants and african-americans and latinos and they get elected and some of them hold pretty powerful positions. >> let's go on with the question. >> so i guess i would like to hear what is your solution besides defining it. what is your solution if it's not a two state solution and i would say that the secular altar

orthodox are as anti-democratic as some of the others aren't. and so do you want a jewish state or do you think it shouldn't be a jewish state? on this really confused about where you want to go with it. besides defining the benjamin netanyahu government, which i don't have a problem with. >> the city you work on civil and human rights issues. do you want a white christian state? well, i would you support this anywhere else, the privileges and an ethnic group, one over another. that is the antithesis to the jewish state. [applause] >> this is the progressive mentality that i have been encountering in so so many self-described liberal critics that i don't understand how you can be a liberal and support a state with all your heart that practices demographic engineering and accepts this on the level of -- on the level of

citizens. of certain ethnic groups and you reference this again. i think that maybe there could be a solution if israel would go back to the border. but you have to understand that they rejected it for the same reason that others have challenged this treaty. it is because they put their land over to a colonial group that represents the population and gave them a majority of the land, including throwing them back and that really is the basis of the hostilities. and so i just finally want to say on the criticism that i have been getting. the criticism is much less hysterical and it's because they understand that we are -- that this is the kind of situation that they are living in and of course their solutions might differ from mine. mine -- my solution is equal

rights. the idea that the palestinian state, which is never actually offered, it has to be given up at least in the near-term and it is a struggle to be based on equal rights for all people between the river and the sea, including river and movement. this was accepted with the u.n. general assembly and should be honored. and the only reason why they aren't allowed to return it because they are of the wrong ethnic group and that is 80% of the residents are living under siege and plunged into darkness and i don't understand how that is acceptable. [applause] [applause] >> thank you.

the palestinians, it is what you call part of this. from someone who lived on the inside. and you argue this in your book. and the younger generations have been more and more racist against arabs and others and therefore politicians have been promoting this with the policies that are more racist and pro-sentimental or perhaps it is the other way around. but it is a sign of racism against arabs. and so the situation is -- the situation is just getting worse and worse. so how can we stop that? >> i think that it is part of

the situation that you described in this includes videos that i have shot inside tel aviv. and that the jewish youth are much more aggressively racist than the next generation and the older generation. and this is the founding generation, which is israel. and they were responsible for this campaign and they also had an idea of the national identity of the tribalistic with judaism. but the idea that this has been lost to the kind of military at idea and a majority of israeli individuals, and there are two factors, the israeli education