The Mood Changes

Then came the questions. Andrew Tees asked what we in New Zealand could do to help bring about peace in the Middle East and was told, "we are in no need of advice on how to create a democratic, secular Palestinian state." Binational states claimes Atashi, always end in civil war.

Back to the question of Southern Lebanon he said "There is full justification for any sovereign state to invade another if threatened." This was again related to Angola, and this time Atashi defiantly admitted, "I accept the strategy".

If the law treated everyone as equal, someone asked, why was it that any Jew in the world could gain automatic citizenship in Israel but that the Palestinians were not allowed to return to their homeland? This was a law Atashi said he didn't agree with.

The land laws, however, were something he did agree with. Repeated questions were asked about what percentage of the land was owned by the Jewish National Fund, an organisation set up many years before the state of Israel was established with the express aim of buying up Palesinian land and keeping it in Jewish hands. Atashi became very angry but would not answer except to say, "This is my state land." Could Arabs lease the land? he was asked. Again there was no answer except a suggestion that critics should go to Israel and see for themselves how well every-think worked.

This was to be the pattern. Atashi would refuse to answer a question, audience members would demand one and Atashi would shout that Israel had the right to act in its own interests and we should go there ourselves.