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Nonie Darwish is an Egyptian-born journalist and writer, who was raised in the Gaza Strip and now lives in the United States.
Photo: Dimitri Dombret
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BRUSSELS (EJP)---Nonie Darwish, an Egyptian-born journalist and writer, who was raised in the Gaza Strip and now lives in the United States, believes that there should be no funding from the European Union to Gaza because "Arab money is not going into infrastructures or to improving the economy and the life of the population of Gaza but for terrorism."
Darwish, who founded a US-based organization called "Arabs for Israel", was at the European Parliament last week to participate in a conference.
In an interview with EJP, she says it would be "useless" for the Europeans to speak to Hamas, the Islamic group which rules the Gaza Strip, because they don’t want to give in to the conditions set by the international community and remove the idea of destroying Israel. "It would rather be seen as a weakness from the EU side."
"I believe Hamas is one of the most extreme radical terror group", Nonie Darwish says. “Do you think that by the time they would become less extreme, that they will change but until today they are openly calling for the elimination of Israel and they want to install an Islamic state to replace Israel.”
"Usually when a group of people become a government they start giving a different tone and leave radicalism and terror to another group, which what happened with Fatah which became more moderate when it came to power."
"This is not the case with Hamas," she adds..
Nonie Darwish deplores that the West is unfortunately trying to appease such radical groups and by sitting on the table with them without any pre-conditions, "it is giving the wrong message to the Arab world that if you become hardliners, if you become a terrorist group, you will bring the West to respect you".
“The lives of the Gaza people has been miserable because of the Arab world, not Israel. This is part of the Arab world problem. This is not a Gaza problem contrary to what people think. Because it is Arab League policy to never absorb them. Arab wealth is not going toward building the region but rather to finance Hamas and all the terrorism that is going on for 60 years.”
"“The welfare of the people living in Gaza and the West Bank is not the responsibility of Israel, of the Europeans. There is plenty money in the Arab world and it’s time to see the Arab countries contribute to the economy and wealth of Gaza and the West Bank."
“It’s time for the Arabs to make a condition when they hand the money: this is not money for terrorism or to buy missiles.”.
“The Arab world has benefited for many years from the Arab-Israel conflict. They say they love the Palestinians. But in reality they want the status-quo, they want them to remain refugees for ever. When I was a child in Gaza there was a refugee camp with tents called Jebaliya. It still exists today. How long does a refugee camp stays in Gaza ? Isn’t it supposed to be a temporary situation and not a lifestyle?”.
"Arab money is financing groups promoting radical Islam, while European and American money is going into infrastructures."
“Europe is wasting its money on infrastructures the terrorists will destroy or provoke Israel into destroying it.”