WATCH // Minister Hotovely Asked to 'Walk a Mile in Their Shoes' on 60 Minutes Palestine Segment

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotoveli on 60 Minutes Australia with Liam Bartlett on Sunday, June 25, 2017. Screengrab from 60 Minutes Australia Facebook video

Liam Bartlett of 60 Minutes Australia questioned Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Tzipi Hotovely on Sunday about the 'yawning gulf' between the futures of young Palestinian children versus Israelis. The video has since made the rounds on social media, to predictably polarizing reactions.

“Would you acknowledge that there is a yawning gulf between the future of say a 16 year old Palestinian boy versus the future of say a 16 year old Israeli boy?” Bartlett began.

“That’s really dependent on them,” Hotovely replied. “It’s not because, you know, the Israelis. They have since 1993, they have their own leadership in the Palestinian authority.”

Hotovely said she thinks the lack of opportunity for Palestinian youths has “nothing to do with Israeli leadership,” and that the Palestinian Authority puts “the denial of Israel as the first issue on the agenda,” at their peoples’ expense.

Bartlett didn’t falter, going so far as to ask Hotovely, “as an Israeli mother, would you be happy on the other side of the wall? Trying to bring up your family under those circumstances?”

When Hotovely tried to pivot to a story about her grandparents, Bartlett held firm, “I’m asking you to walk a mile in their shoes, the people who are living there now.”

Hotovely cited Israelis' long struggle for independence and stability, saying Israelis' success is due to “free market, free society values,” and that the Palestinian Authority “doesn’t give them the ability to live under democratic values.” 

“Since the beginning of the Palestinian Authority,” she continued, they “never spoke about democratic values as part of the future Palestinian society.

Bartlett returned the question of motherhood, asking if Hotovely would accept living under the conditions on the other side of the wall.

“No! Not at all. Because if I was there I wouldn’t have let my people be under terrorist regime, or under a regime that doesn’t give me, as a woman, the right to express my abilities in society. I wouldn’t have let that happen.

“Every time in history’s junction when they could choose independent, they said no to independency. So maybe you should have this interview with a Palestinian leader, why did you refuse time after time to have independency, what are you afraid of?” Hotovely concluded.

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