TEHRAN (FNA)- Max Parry, journalist and political analyst, says Israel hopes to use the Coronavirus pandemic to further expand its illegal occupation of Palestinian lands.
Speaking exclusively with FNA, Max Parry said, “[coronavirus outbreak] is another opportunity to further isolate them and the virus can only add on to what has been a decades long slow motion genocide.”
Max Parry is an independent journalist and geopolitical analyst based in New York. His writing has appeared widely in alternative media.
Below is the full text of the interview:
Q: Israel has been reported to demolish Palestinians field hospitals and emergency clinics amid the coronavirus pandemic, during which international aids are sent to impoverished countries. How do you view this move by Israel?
A: There is no doubt Israel is hoping to use the COVID-19 crisis to further expand its illegal occupation and weaponize the outbreak to inflict greater suffering on Palestinians. At the very least, it is another opportunity to further isolate them and the virus can only add on to what has been a decades long slow motion genocide.
Q: Even the COVID-19 map published by Johns Hopkins University does not cover the pandemic in Palestine. Why is the international community so ignorant of the killer virus outbreak in Palestine?
A: The international community should be putting pressure on Israel to at least lift or ease the blockade during the pandemic. Unfortunately, its erasure of Palestinians is consistent with the decades that it has done nothing to prevent Israel from routinely violating international law long before this outbreak.
Q: The Gaza strip has been isolated with no contact with the world for longer than a decade now. The health sector is already malfunctioning. What will happen if the COVID-19 epidemic picks up pace in there?
A: The situation is very uncertain because on the one hand, Gaza is already under quarantine in a sense so the blockade hopefully might slow down the outbreak in the short term from fully penetrating Gaza and half of its residents are unemployed, so social distancing should be easier than most places to enforce.
Palestinians already live under travel restrictions and without freedom of movement, so being ordered to follow lockdown by the Palestinian Authority is truly ironic. However, if their isolation does not prevent the virus from spreading, vital humanitarian aid would also be at risk of being under siege by the blockade. The rolling blackouts would inhibit treatment to those infected in hospitals which need electricity to operate ventilators. Gaza's health system is already precarious so the prospect of COVID-19 becoming widespread is a horrifying scenario that must be prevented at all costs because the results could be catastrophic. The WHO has already warned the strain would be too great for Gaza's healthcare system. Even if the Palestinian Authority prepares perfectly, it would be little match for an extensive spread of the virus.
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