The Nobel prize for Spanish-Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa Literature has returned to Israel and Palestine to see firsthand the effects of almost 50 years of Israeli occupation, impressions share next year along with other authors in a book commemorating that anniversary.
Before a small group of correspondents, the writer recounted in a Jerusalem hotel sensations experienced six years after his last visit, he made shortly before receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature.
This time the hand of the NGO Breaking the Silence, formed by former soldiers who denounce the violation of human rights in the occupied territories, said paraphrasing the Israeli writer and friend Amos Oz it is a land “where you live more intensely than anywhere else in the world”.
After meeting with activists from both sides, discuss with Palestinian and Israeli various trends and see Jerusalem, Ramallah and the Jordan Valley, the writer said his trip flagship city of Hebron, considered by many as a scale representation of the long-lived conflict.
“The old city remains a ghostly world, no soul, no people, where there are more bans people. It is a very painful spectacle and I think it is a symbol of what it means occupation, all the drama is there, human suffering “, responded to the question of one of the journalists.
The award-winning writer has come as part of an initiative of NGOs and Israeli intellectuals during 2016 will bring a total of 25 writers from around the world to work in a whole book to remember the end of the Six-Day War of 1967 and denouncing the occupation of the Palestinian territories.
he said that one of the most interesting things we found on this trip “was to see how among my Israeli friends there is much debate about whether it is still valid the idea of two states -of partition busy world and Israel into two states soberanos- or if it is no longer possible “and plays” resurrect “the idea of a binational state.
“We lived in a time when we have seen things that seemed improbable (…) is also possible that Israel will solve their problems, change its policies and adopt ones that are more realistic and guarantee better than I think they mean current policies if they persist in future, “he said.
“But right now, what are we going to deceive us, the situation is very difficult and gives the impression that Israel is oriented in a direction which can not be anything good or for him or for the region, “he said of the future of a country with which it maintains a complex relationship.
But added that “things I admired about Israel’s still admire,” including the capacity for economic development and integration.
On that Israeli Left with so much courage he praised in the past for being “more idealistic, more generous than Stalinised left of what was left in my youth” – he stressed that “has diminished significantly”.
“There is much discouragement in their ranks, and the country has become much more conservative, reactionary. I think we should use the word in this case. And I think that change of mentality and opinion is represented in the present government. 30 years ago would have been inconceivable a government of this kind in Israel “, he spoke about the executive Benjamin Netanyahu formed by ultra-Orthodox and nationalist parties.
Vargas Llosa, who already wrote a few years ago a first book on the situation in the area, said in this regard that it has found “a clearly colonialist policy, arrogant, which is caused much suffering and I think it can be dangerous and serious for the future of Israel. ”
But still, rejects initiatives such as intellectual boycott of Israeli universities, which saw a “mistake” because it would constitute “collective penalty”.
“In this case it seems much more serious because penalizing universities or institutions of culture in Israel is to penalize people who are more critical of what is happening,” he assessed .
The Israeli activist Breaking the Silence, Yehuda Shaul, who accompanied Vargas Llosa during his visit, said the presence of intellectuals serves to “open our ears, hearts, eyes and minds Israeli society and the international community about the horrific situation here. ”
“For us, it is a cry to end the occupation, to save Israel, our country, the occupation,” he said.
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