A few minutes before starting 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 on Gaza in Berlin. “It happens constantly in Germany”, he lamented. The Israeli activist spoke to La Vanguardia after visiting Barcelona at the invitation of the IEMed, where he warned the Parliament of Catalonia about the use of spy software in the Gaza war.
Josep Borrell has suggested that EU countries and the US should stop sending weapons to Israel. Is this a real possibility?
It is your obligation. The Government of Wallonia, in Belgium, has canceled its export licences. Courts in the Netherlands have declared that arms exports to Israel are prohibited. Also the traffic. Spain buys and is a country that transits arms to Israel, despite the fact that it is a signatory to the Treaty on the Trade in Arms, which establishes that third countries have the obligation not to sell, buy or transport arms to countries suspected of committing genocide or that are committing it.
They seem to ignore it.
There are port unions in Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Italy and Ireland, among others, 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 that Netanyahu has political motivations for not wanting a ceasefire.
In Israel there is a lot of mistrust, hatred and loss of internal support. Many Israelis think that the State has been destroyed, that it is the end. Netanyahu knows there will be an election as soon as there is a ceasefire and he wants to avoid it at all costs.
Has the State of Israel been destroyed by war?
Jewish Israelis like myself grew up with the 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 there is a court case at the International Court of Justice. It is a very dangerous time when people can lose control. “Is it worth that much?” It’s a mentality that doesn’t think about the future. And a society that doesn’t think about the future collapses. The only thing that keeps things the way they are is a sense of emergency due to the war. This explains why Netanyahu is pushing to continue.
Is there an awareness that a genocide is being committed?
It is an unprecedented situation. The media spreads 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 are seen differently. 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 it 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 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 hated that the Palestinians said “if we are in a democracy, then I want my rights”. Then they passed the Nation-State law of 2018, in which it is said that Israel is a state that belongs only to Jewish citizens. The word democracy does not appear in the law.
You report that Israel uses Pegasus spy software in the war.
Spyware companies – NSO Group, Candiru, Citrus…– coordinate efforts to support the Government. They look for hostages by hacking the phones of Palestinians, 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 proving they had bombed their hospital. Many people believed it because Israel is thought to have spyware and can get it. The conversation was later found to be fake.
With all this military and spy technology, how is it possible that everything went wrong last October 7?
It’s a myth. The technology that Israel develops is repression. And he didn’t invent 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 has happened is also part of a very deep colonial pride, it is a society that refuses to see the Palestinians as human beings. They underestimate them, so it took 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 of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) campaign, considered anti-Semitic by the Israeli Government.
Sooner or later this apartheid system will end. The question is how. A majority of Palestinians believe that it is necessary to follow the path of South Africa. The BDS movement is based on anti-racist ideas. The accusation of the Israeli Government is ridiculous and slanderous. Unfortunately, the Government accuses everyone of anti-Semitism. Moody’s downgraded Israel’s credit rating and now it is.
