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Saturday March 19, 2011 11:16 AM (EST+7)
INTERVIEW: Veteran reporter Helen Thomas 'goes for broke'


Read more: Helen Thomas, Israeli occupation, apartheid, Jewish lobby, journalism, media, press

RAMALLAH, March 19 (JMCC) - In her first in-depth interview after being fired for making comments on Israel, veteran journalist Helen Thomas rails against Palestinian suffering and Israeli policies.

Thomas' interview with Playboy challenges speculation that she had lost her mental faculties: I knew exactly what I was doing - I was going for broke, she says, according to a description by PR Newswire.

On the situation in Palestine: Everybody knows my feelings that the Palestinians have been shortchanged in every way.  Sure, the Israelis have a right to exist – but where they were born, not to come and take someone else's home.  I've had it up to here with the violations against the Palestinians…[The Palestinians] are incarcerated and living in an open prison.  I say to the Israelis, 'Get out of people's homes!'  It's unacceptable to have soldiers knocking on a door at three in the morning and saying, 'This is my home.'  And forcing people out of homes they've lived in for centuries?  What is this?  How can anybody accept it?  I mean, Jewish-only roads?  [She later corrected herself to say Israeli-only roads.]  Would anyone tolerate something like that in America?  White-only roads?

On Palestinian violence against the Israelis: Of course I don't condone any violence against anyone.  But who wouldn't fight for their country?  What would any American do if their land was being taken?  Remember Pearl Harbor.  The Palestinian violence is to protect what little remains of Palestine.  The suicide bombers act out of despair and desperation.  Three generations of Palestinians have been forced out of their homes – by Israelis – and into refugee camps.

Thomas ran afoul of her employer, Hearst Newspapers, last year when she was recorded by a blogger calling for Jews to get the hell out of Palestine.

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