Minutes before the start of this interview, the expert in military technology and economics of the Israeli occupation Shir Hever received the news that his partner had been arrested at a demonstration against the war in Gaza in Berlin. “In Germany it happens all the time,” he lamented. The Israeli activist spoke to La Vanguardia after visiting Barcelona at the invitation of the IEMed, where he warned in Parliament about the use of Pegasus spy software in the Gaza war.
Josep Borrell has suggested that EU countries and the US should stop sending weapons to Israel. Is it a real possibility?
It’s your obligation. The Government of Wallonia, in Belgium, has canceled its export licenses. Courts in the Netherlands have declared that arms exports to Israel are prohibited. Also the traffic. Spain buys and is a transit country for weapons to Israel despite being a signatory country of the Arms Trade Treaty, which establishes that third states have the obligation not to sell, buy or transport weapons to countries suspected of committing genocide or that they are committing it.
They seem to ignore it.
There are port unions in Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Ireland… that refuse to service ships carrying weapons to Israel because it is their legal obligation and their moral duty. They will not go to prison for Israel.
He claims Netanyahu has political motivations for not wanting a ceasefire.
In Israel there is a lot of distrust, hatred and loss of internal support. Many Israelis think that the state has been destroyed, that it is the end. Netanyahu knows that there will be elections as soon as there is a ceasefire and he wants to avoid them at all costs.
Has the State of Israel been destroyed by war?
Jewish Israelis like me grew up with stories of the Holocaust and know that when a country commits genocide, it also commits suicide. Regimes that have committed genocide in recent history have collapsed. And we know that there is a court case in the International Court of Justice. It is a very dangerous moment in which people can lose control. “What does it matter anymore?” It is a mentality that does not think about the future. And a society that does not think about the future falls apart. The only thing keeping things the way they are is a sense of emergency because of the war. This explains why Netanyahu is pushing to continue.
Is there awareness that a genocide is being committed?
It is an unprecedented situation. The media is spreading lies. Even newspapers like Haaretz, which has a reputation for being relatively liberal and more accurate. But most Israelis speak English and have family in other countries. They know that in the rest of the world things look different. But they choose not to know because the consequences of facing the truth of what is happening are unbearable. They need to convince themselves that this is a justified war of defense.
Many see Israel as the only democracy in the Middle East.
In some countries this myth existed, but Israelis stopped calling Israel a democracy in 2017. The UN published a report that concluded that Israel was an apartheid state. It was not censored by Israel, but by the United States. It was an uncomfortable situation for the Israeli Government, they were worried that the Palestinians would say “if we are in a democracy, then I want my rights.” Then they approved the Nation-State law of 2018, which says that Israel is a state that belongs only to Jewish citizens. The word democracy is not in the law.
He denounces that Israel uses Pegasus spy software in war.
Spyware companies – NSO Group, Candiru, Citrus… – are coordinating their efforts to support the Government. They search for hostages by hacking Palestinians’ phones, promote Israeli propaganda and attack messages of solidarity, Palestinian statements and testimonies from Gaza. But the most important use of spyware is internal, against the Israeli public, to keep it uninformed. For example, Israel claimed it had intercepted conversations between Palestinians that proved they had bombed their own hospital. Many people believed it because they believe that Israel has spyware and can do it. This conversation was later discovered to be fake.
With all that military and espionage technology, how is it possible that everything failed on October 7?
It is a myth. The technology that Israel develops is one of repression. And he hasn’t invented it either. Spyware already existed, but Israel is the only country that allows private companies to sell it. They are willing to cross red lines. But what happened is also part of a very deep colonial arrogance, it is a society that refuses to see Palestinians as human beings. They underestimate them, so it caught them by surprise. They thought that with cameras, drones and artificial intelligence they would be safe. They believed that the Palestinians would be unable to attack their technology.
You are an activist in the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) campaign, considered anti-Semitic by the Israeli Government.
Sooner or later this system of apartheid will end. The question is how. A majority of Palestinians believe that we must follow the path of South Africa. The BDS movement is based on anti-racist ideas. The Israeli Government’s accusation is ridiculous and slanderous. Unfortunately, the Government accuses everyone of anti-Semitism. Moody’s downgraded Israel’s credit rating and now it is too.
