Sunday 4 April 2010

Clark to Al-Manar: US Wars on “Terrorism” were the Essence of “Violence”



Batoul Wehbe

02/04/2010 Former United States Attorney General William Ramsey Clark said Friday that the US policy has led to many tragedies including the Palestinian cause. “This tragedy is represented by the unjustified and wrong detention of the Palestinian people by Israel. This issue should be addressed and the prisoners shall be set free. Human Rights should be considered.”

During an exclusive interview with Al-Manar TV, Clark said “I went through this deliberate policy of persecution of the Palestinian people and Arab people during my time in power,” indicating that today the Palestinian people should be compensated. “We want to live in peace in the region, it’s the right of peoples.”

Responding to a question about the distinction between terrorism and the right of resistance, the former Attorney General considered that “there are many points we focus on, one of these points is that there are people fighting for freedom and others who are terrorists. “Wars waged by George Bush against what he called “terrorism”, was the essence of terrorism itself, and violence was used against people and many politicians in the US use the word "terrorism," but these terms are wrong and should be changed,” Clark said.

Concerning the support for the Palestinian cause, Clark noted that “we have achieved success in U.S. courts many times on the Arab and Palestinian issues, we have also witnessed a law approved by Congress for the Palestine Liberation Organization in the United States, it was demanded that the organization’s office be annulled but we opposed it and we managed for this office’s survival.”

“The US shift in policy gives us a new opportunity to bring justice for the Palestinian people, ease their suffering and establish a Palestinian state,” Clark told Al-Manar adding that “there are a lot of factors which caused this change, and that this opportunity came after what we have seen as growing violence and heinous practices by the Israelis, including insults directed against the United States which may cause US insistence on establishing a Palestinian state.” He stressed on the importance of backing the Palestinian people’s rights hailing the UN General Assembly condemnation against the Israeli actions.

Clark went on to criticize the US administration policy towards Israel including the economic, military and logistic support to the occupation, asking: “Why we give this kind of support while we witness the sufferings around the world? This support should be stopped. The Palestinian people are suffering. Not only Israel bear this responsibility, but also the US.”

On the US President Barak Obama, Clark said: “The president is not the sole nor the most powerful authority in the US. He suffered a lot to get the health care bill which is important to US people but finally he triumphed in the face of those who surround the president and they should now that the coming humanitarian issue will be the policy toward Palestine in general and towards the Arab people, we should tell them that we love them and we ought to help them, too.”

River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian

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