Uri Avnery was a Jewish Israeli member of the Israeli Knesset, 1965-1974 and 1979-1981, and a founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement. He writes extensively about Palestinian human rights and is the author of “1948: A Soldier’s Tale, the Bloody Road to Jerusalem”, “Israel’s Vicious Circle”” and “My Friend, the Enemy” (see: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ).
Uri Avnery on Apartheid Israel’s slow-motion ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians (2003): “It may seem that there are only two possibilities: One state in the whole country, which will necessarily be bi-national, or an Israeli state in a part of the country, inside the green Line, next to a Palestinian state. But there is a third possibility: An Israeli state in all of the country, from which the Palestinian population will be expelled. Few Israelis speak of this openly, but a great many think about it. Good people ignore this alternative because they do not find it thinkable. They imagine Kosovo-style ethnic cleansing: driving millions out in one big dramatic sweep. They console themselves: "The world won't stand for it! Sharon wouldn't dare!" But there are other ways to implement ethnic cleansing: not dramatically, but slowly, daily, even routinely. Like, for example, what's happening now in Bethlehem. It works like this: Pressure is put on property-owners. They are told: It's better for you to sell us your properties now, before the authorities come and expropriate them for security reasons.” [1, 2]
[1]. Uri Avnery, “Slow-motion ethnic cleansing”, Countercurrents, 9 October 2003: http://www.countercurrents.org/pa-avnery091003.htm .
[2]. Uri Avnery, “Slow-motion ethnic cleansing”, republished in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by Willam Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .