Raja Shahadeh

And the same thing happened with South Africa.

Apartheid was condemned by people in the world who worked very hard to change it and to stop it.

The governments refused.

And at a certain point, the United States changed overnight.

And after that change, the apartheid regime fell.

And so I think there is hope for the Palestinians and hope that there is going to be a change in a positive direction.

I think that Edinburgh is a place that gives the chance to people to flourish and to be attentive to arts and beauty and so on.

Whereas in our country now, every time we love a place, love a hill, love a landscape, it gets destroyed.

And we are not given the chance to organize our life in a better way and in a more productive way because we're constantly struggling to survive.

I don't look for Palestinian food when I'm outside.

I've always been hesitant to use strident language and to be extremist in order to win the other side as well.

And that has been my efforts all along, to win the other side, but it has never worked.

You know, I've been following the Israeli development of the apartheid regime in the West Bank since 1979.

and documenting the changes that led to it.

And so I'm very familiar with how it came about.

And I didn't use the term apartheid because I didn't want to alienate the readers and do exactly what you're saying, focus on the term rather than on the facts.

But now that it has become very clear that the situation is one of apartheid, I think it's very important to use the term.

And likewise with genocide.

I didn't use genocide until I became very clear that the definition of genocide exactly fits the case in Gaza.

And then I thought it's important to use the term because it has consequences, legal consequences, which I would like to see take place.