Miko Peled transcript:
"...
I always begin my remarks with a
00:30
disclaimer and that disclaimer is this
00:32
if anybody here came hoping to hear a
00:36
balanced presentation then they're going
00:38
to be sorely disappointed I say this
00:43
because a lot of things that you're
00:45
about to hear tonight are difficult to
00:46
hear and also because I don't believe
00:49
that a balanced presentation on this
00:51
topic is possible anybody that cares
00:57
enough to speak about this probably has
00:59
a very strong opinion one way or the
01:00
other almost everybody has feelings and
01:05
strong emotions on this issue one way or
01:06
the other for me it's deeply personal
01:10
and the issue itself is not a balanced
01:13
issue there is no balance in this issue
01:15
so therefore I say this because there
01:18
cannot be a balanced presentation on
01:20
this and I think if anybody claims that
01:22
their presentation is balanced they're
01:25
either misleading themselves or the
01:26
misleading of their audience this whole
01:30
issue of Israel and Palestine is is
01:32
covered in so much myth and there's so
01:36
much there's so much double standard
01:38
when people talk about this issue and
01:41
I'll give you two examples I don't know
01:43
if you heard Bibi Netanyahu speech at
01:45
the United Nations I heard it not live
01:48
but after he actually delivered it and
01:51
he began and he began it with probably
01:54
the two most striking examples of myth
01:58
and double standard and he began by
02:01
talking about the right of return of the
02:07
Jews to their ancient homeland and of
02:11
course the Jews that returned so-called
02:14
returned to their homeland were not
02:16
exactly the
02:17
the same Jews who were expelled from
02:18
their homeland right because these were
02:20
expelled a couple of thousand years
02:22
before that these were not their
02:24
descendants either because they this is
02:26
business has been a very long time so
02:28
these are people the people that
02:29
actually came back so to speak are
02:31
people that claim some kind of a
02:33
heritage some kind of a connection a
02:35
relationship to the ancient Hebrews and
02:41
they claimed that they had the right to
02:43
return to their homeland and this was
02:45
this is what Zionism was about and this
02:47
is expected this was you know accepted
02:49
by the world as the right they had the
02:52
right to return now if we talk about the
02:56
right of return of one nation you'd
02:59
expect that there would be if we accept
03:02
it as a principle than you'd expect that
03:04
we accept it in general across the board
03:08
yet when people talk about the right of
03:09
return of Palestinians to their homeland
03:12
suddenly a red line comes up and
03:14
everybody says no we can't talk about
03:16
the right of return of the Palestinians
03:18
this has to be taken off the table this
03:20
is not negotiable the right of return of
03:22
the Palestinians is not acceptable
03:24
what's interesting about that is that
03:26
the right of return of the Palestinians
03:28
really talking about quite often we talk
03:29
about the actual people who had to leave
03:31
their homes and if they had already
03:35
passed away then we're talking about
03:36
their direct descendants people who
03:38
still have the keys and the deeds to
03:40
their homes and quite often can go to
03:43
the very spot where a village existed
03:45
where today there might be a highway and
03:48
we'll point out the mosque and we'll
03:51
point out the well and we'll point out
03:53
the door to their home yet they do not
03:58
enjoy the right to return so obviously
04:00
this is a double standard of immense
04:03
proportions
04:04