Palestine belongs to its indigenous inhabitants, not Zionist occupiers: Rabbi

By Press TV Staff Writer

A New York-based Jewish activist says the peace that existed in Palestine before Zionists occupied it can only be restored if the international community dismantles the regime and hands over the control of the occupied lands to its indigenous inhabitants.

In an interview with the Press TV website, Rabbi Dovid Feldman, a spokesman for Neturei Karta International, an international organization of anti-Zionist Jews, said the Israeli killing machine must be stopped by the international community.

"The international community should work toward a peaceful and total dismantlement of the Zionist state, to return control of the land to its indigenous inhabitants and restore all their rights,” he said.

“Only then can we expect a restoration to the historic peace that existed prior to Zionism.”

The prominent activist hastened to add that it is time for world leaders to stop the Zionist regime’s “genocidal crimes” in the besieged Gaza Strip, which have intensified since October 7.

More than 15,000 Palestinians, most of them children and women, have been killed in the past seven weeks in the coastal territory amid the Israeli regime’s indiscriminate aerial and ground aggression.

The four-day temporary truce, which was extended twice, was again broken by the Israeli regime on Friday, drawing widespread condemnation across the world, including from Jews in the West.

"Knowing that the Zionists do not respect ‎international law, the world needs to take the necessary steps to bring an end to more than 75 years of suffering in Palestine," Rabbi Feldman stressed.  

Israeli attacks in Gaza ‘war crimes tantamount to genocide’: Jewish activist

Israeli regime’s relentless attacks on civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip are “war crimes tantamount to genocide”, a Canadian Jewish activist tells Press TV.

He said the solution for the long-running crisis requires identifying the "root cause of the problem" which is "to recognize that Palestine has been occupied by Zionists through crimes and by lying to the world."

The regime has brought "only pain and suffering" to the Palestinians since occupying their lands, the outspoken activist emphasized, adding that “to end the constant cycle of bloodshed and tragedies, Palestine must be returned to the Palestinians and the Zionist movement must cease."  

He was referring to the controversial 1917 Balfour Declaration, the brainchild of Western regimes, which promised Jews a homeland in Palestine without consulting the indigenous population.

Considered a colonial project, the declaration violated the rights and aspirations of the native Palestinians, who resisted the Zionist invasion and forcible occupation of their land.

In 1948, Zionist paramilitaries carried out a brutal ethnic cleansing that came to be known as Nakba or catastrophe. They destroyed more than 500 Palestinian villages, towns and cities, killed about 15,000 Palestinians, and expelled about 750,000 Palestinians from their homes.

Explainer: Israel’s 2023 Gaza genocide has roots in 1917 Balfour Declaration

In 1917, then-British foreign secretary Arthur Balfour addressed a letter to Lionel Walter Rothschild, a figurehead of the British Zionist community, on the establishment of a “Jewish land” in Palestine.

Zionists captured 78 percent of historic Palestine, leaving the Palestinians with only 22 percent, which is now occupied and besieged by the West-backed regime.

The new wave of attacks on Gaza, where almost 2.3 million Palestinians live, has been designed to force Palestinians out, which many Palestinian activists have described as the precursor to the "second Nakba." 

"The concern is big, comments by Zionist officials indicate so and are suspicious," Feldman said. 

The regime lacks "morals" and will "do anything, including sacrificing the lives of the Palestinian people and Jewish lives for the evil of Zionism to achieve their goal of having their state," he noted.

The New York-based Rabbi did not rule out the possibility of Israeli intention to clear Gaza, stressing, "Everything is possible when you're dealing with evil."

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir