U.S. Backing Has Given Israel License to Kill & Maim

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“People Could Have Died”: Police Raid UCLA Gaza Protest, Waited as Pro-Israel Mob Attacked Encampment
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
MAY 02, 2024

Transcript

We get an update from the University of California, Los Angeles, where police in riot gear began dismantling a pro-Palestinian encampment early Thursday, using flashbang grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas, and arresting dozens of students. The raid came just over a day after pro-Israel counterprotesters armed with sticks, metal rods and fireworks attacked students at the encampment. The Real News Network reporter Mel Buer was on the scene during the attack. She describes seeing counterprotesters provoke students, yelling slurs and bludgeoning them with parts of the encampment’s barricade, and says the attack lasted several hours without police or security intervention. ”UCLA is complicit in violence inflicted upon protesters,” wrote the editorial board of UCLA’s campus newspaper, the Daily Bruin, the next day. Four of the paper’s student journalists were targeted and assaulted by counterprotesters while covering the protests. We speak with Shaanth Kodialam Nanguneri, one of the student journalists, who says one of their colleagues was hospitalized over the assault, while campus security officers “were nowhere to be found.” Meanwhile, UCLA’s chapter of Faculty for Justice in Palestine has called on faculty to refuse university labor Thursday in protest of the administration’s failure to protect students from what it termed “Zionist mobs.” Professor Gaye Theresa Johnson, a member of UCLA Faculty for Justice in Palestine, denounces the administration’s response to nonviolent protest and says she sees the events as part of a major sea change in the politicization of American youth. “This is a movement. It cannot be unseen. It cannot be put back in the box.”

NERMEEN SHAIKH: As we broadcast this morning, Los Angeles police in riot gear are dismantling a pro-Palestinian encampment on UCLA’s campus, after hundreds of police used flashbang grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas in a faceoff with protesters who chanted, “We are not leaving. You don’t scare us.”

PROTESTERS: You don’t scare us! We’re not leaving!

NERMEEN SHAIKH: The police raid at UCLA came a day after pro-Israel counterprotesters attacked the encampment with fireworks, metal rods and tear gas for hours late Tuesday night and into early Wednesday morning. At least 15 people were injured.

This is how UCLA’s student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, described the violence instigated by counterprotesters in an editorial: quote, “It began with ear-piercing screams of wailing babies loudly emitting from speakers. Counter-protesters tearing down the barricades. Laser pointers flashing into the encampment. People in masks waving strobe lights. Tear gas. Pepper spray. Violent beatings. Fireworks sparked at the border of the encampment, raining down on tents and the individuals inside,” the Daily Bruin wrote.

The editorial noted Los Angeles police did not arrive until slightly after 1 a.m. Meanwhile, around 3:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, four UCLA student journalists were attacked by the pro-Israel counterprotesters on campus. One of the journalists was treated for injuries at the hospital and has since been released. There were no arrests after Tuesday night’s attack. Wednesday’s classes were canceled.

The Daily Bruin’s editorial ended with a question: quote, “Will someone have to die on our campus tonight for you to intervene, Gene Block? The blood would be on your hands.”

AMY GOODMAN: University of California President Michael Drake and the UCLA Chancellor Gene Block have launched an investigation into what California Governor Gavin Newsom condemned as the, quote, “limited and delayed campus law enforcement response,” unquote. Meanwhile, the campus police union issued a statement that, quote, “the decisions regarding the response of the UC Police rest firmly in the hands of campus leadership.”

For more, we’re joined by three guests. Shaanth Kodialam Nanguneri is a senior staff writer for the Daily Bruin, UCLA’s student newspaper. They are one of the four reporters who were attacked. Mel Buer is a staff reporter for The Real News Network. She was at the Gaza solidarity encampment Tuesday night when counterprotesters violently attacked it for several hours. And Gaye Theresa Johnson is an associate professor of African American studies and Chicana/Chicano studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA. She writes and teaches on race and racism, cultural history, spatial politics and political economy, a member of UCLA’s chapter of Faculty for Justice in Palestine, which has called on UCLA faculty to refuse university labor today, the day after May Day, quote, “in protest of the university administration’s egregious failure to protect the student protest encampment from attacks by self-professed and proudly Zionist mobs coming to campus every night to enact violence,” unquote.

Welcome to all of you. We want to begin with Dr. Gaye Theresa Johnson. Before we get into the horrifying details of the attack on the Gaza encampment, if you can explain why you are withholding work today and the overall context of how UCLA is dealing with this protest encampment, and why the issue, so often not talked about in the corporate media, of why the Gaza encampment exists?

GAYE THERESA JOHNSON: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me on.

We are so inspired by our students today. We are refusing our labor to the University of California, Los Angeles because we know that the conditions under which they were arrested, the conditions upon — the conditions that they were subjected to night before last with the counterprotesters, the violence that they have endured night after night after night, the complaints that they have lodged and that have been ignored by the university administration, all of the ways in which they were failed by the university administration, those are also our work conditions. And until our students are supported, we will also be stopping work.

The necessity for the camp was, I mean, what is going on in Gaza, what is happening here in the United States is linked. And these students, who have done so much study and who have done so much organizing, are clear about the connections between U.S. racism and international imperialism, and they are so clear about their role and purpose in this movement. So many of them have now been politicized, and this will not stop just because of tonight.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Shaanth, if you could explain? You were one of four journalists who was attacked. Tell us what happened.

SHAANTH KODIALAM NANGUNERI: Walking back from that protest where a group of pro-Israel counterprotesters had stormed and seized upon the encampment on campus at Dickson Plaza and near Powell Library, and me and three other journalists —

AMY GOODMAN: Shaanth, if you could speak as loud as you possibly can? We’re hearing — and come closer, yes, to your computer. And also, you’re describing what happened. Tell us what night, about what time it was, you with your four Daily Bruin — the three other Daily Bruin reporters.

SHAANTH KODIALAM NANGUNERI: Yeah, it was about, I want to say, 2 or 3 a.m. It was really late. We had all spent hours being out there on the field reporting, sending messages to our editors, really scared about the scenes that we were seeing on campus towards the protesters in the encampment, the level of violence and vitriol that was in the air. We had documented reporters hearing things like racial epithets. I personally witnessed a counterprotester slam a wooden slab onto an individual who had her hands on the barricade of the encampment and smashing her fingers, and listening to her scream and watching how that changed the environment. And many more harrowing scenes have been discussed by students on this campus, but —

AMY GOODMAN: And who were these people?

SHAANTH KODIALAM NANGUNERI: Yeah, we have been trying our best to be accurate about that. And I think in a Los Angeles Times article, my colleague talks about being attacked by one of these pro-Israel counterprotesters and how they have known who we are on campus. And they know that we report on these issues, and sometimes they know our faces.

And when we were leaving and were vulnerable and were in a small group, we were encircled and attacked. And they started shining lights in our face, spraying us with very strong irritants, circling in particular one of my colleagues and physically harassing and assaulting her. And by the time I had finally managed to help get three of us out of there, we found one of us had turned back. And by the time we had looked back around, they were on the ground being violently assaulted. And we were trying our best, as we ran back screaming their name, to pull them out of that fight, pull them out of the ground, pull people off of them. And we were begging while they were flashing [inaudible] —

AMY GOODMAN: And this was Catherine Hamilton, who was hospitalized?

SHAANTH KODIALAM NANGUNERI: Yes, she was. And —

AMY GOODMAN: How were they beating her?

SHAANTH KODIALAM NANGUNERI: You know, it was a very, very quick scene. I know she got hurt in the stomach. And I know that initially we had been — we had had so much tear gas in our eyes already from the protest that by the end of it, it was just hard to walk back. It was hard to make it back.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Shaanth, could you explain? I know that you said people are being careful about trying to talk about who the counterprotesters are, but could you tell us what you know? Were most of them not students? Were they students? If you could explain what you know?

SHAANTH KODIALAM NANGUNERI: Yeah, I mean, we do see students on, you know, rallies supporting pro-Israel groups. We have a pro-Israel group for Jewish faculty. And they themselves have actually distanced themselves from this behavior. But we do see a lot of non-UCLA students coming onto campus and sparking a lot of these controversies that end up going viral online and on social media and that do require deep, thorough reporting that goes beyond the kind of outrage bait that unfortunately fuels a lot of the conversations.

AMY GOODMAN: Where were the police? Where was security as this attack went on?

SHAANTH KODIALAM NANGUNERI: They were nowhere to be found. We actually walked up to a few campus security afterwards asking for help, as one of my peers was crying and having a breakdown, and I was trying help the other two, as well. And they were not able to help us with anything. They didn’t know what to do. And, in fact, we had documented that campus security, when faced with threats — these are private security guards handled by the campus, before the actual police had even come on campus — they would run away when they — or hide in buildings, and deny reporters access to those buildings, when they were afraid of what they saw on the scene and on the site when they got too violent.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Mel, you were there reporting on what happened. Could you describe where you were and what you witnessed?

MEL BUER: Yeah. So, myself and another reporter showed up around 10 p.m. We found ourselves on a side barricade next to Royce Hall. And we had a pretty good vantage point of the two sets of barricades that were separated by a sidewalk, prior to the confrontation happening.

Around 10:30 or 10:45, there was some sort of altercation, some sort of argument between the private security and the pro-Israel counterprotesters. And they very quickly dismantled the barricades and began ripping flags down from the Gaza encampment, pulling barricades apart, trying to rip apart the wooden barricades behind the metal ones that were installed there. And that continued for about three, four hours. It was a chaos, very scary, very quickly.

AMY GOODMAN: I mean, it’s fascinating that the corporate media is describing this as just clashes between two different groups, the pro-Palestine groups and the pro-Israel groups. Mel, from your perspective — you’re a reporter with The Real News Network — what we’re hearing here is an assault by one group on the encampment.

MEL BUER: Right. You know, I’ve been to the UCLA encampment on the first day, when they were setting up. And from the jump, there have been individuals who have tried to agitate these demonstrators, these students. They’ve tried to get a rise out of them. They’ve tried to provoke some sort of violent reaction. And, you know, to their serious credit, these disciplined students have spent a lot of time and energy and effort not responding to that, or trying to deescalate situations, trying to keep each other safe, trying to keep the integrity of the encampment safe, because the point is not to get into an argument with counterprotesters, right? The point is to continue to pressure UCLA to divest from the various relationships that they have with Israel and to boycott these programs that are funding an occupation and a genocide.

So, to see what happened the other night was, essentially, these counterprotesters, many of them riled up and angry and throwing slurs over the fences, getting a chance to try and rip their way into the encampment. And this had been — tensions had been growing for multiple days, right? This was not the first instance of violence where pro-Israel counterprotesters were knocking over students, were trying to provoke fights. Some fights broke out even two nights before. So, from my assessment, as I was there, these groups, this giant group, probably 150, 200 or so counterprotesters — some of the were university age, some of them were much older and did not appear to be UCLA students — launching assaults on this barricade. And, you know, this was consistent for many hours. The bear mace was in the air. I mean, you know, I witnessed a lot of folks getting bludgeoned by parts of the barricades, by wooden sticks, batons, whatever they could bring. And that was a constant for the four-and-a-half, five hours that I was there.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Professor Gaye Theresa Johnson, if you could describe what you know is happening right now on campus at UCLA, and what the response of the administration has been to the encampment since it went up?

GAYE THERESA JOHNSON: This is something that so many of us feel disgusted by. We are — many of the faculty who I spoke to, as late as just about 45 minutes ago, were feeling shocked. They were feeling so disillusioned by the response of the university. This is a university administration that has for weeks, for months equivocated the experience of people who are proclaimed Zionists to those Muslim students who have been doxxed and harassed every day, and faculty, as well.

And so, this is a situation in which students have been subjected by the university to a complete negation of their experience, not only here at UCLA, but across the world, the idea that there are, as Amy said earlier, clashes between protesters or that there are fights that are breaking out between these two people. We’re talking about a nonviolent protest. We’re talking about students who have been organizing for months, who are trained, have taken it upon themselves to educate themselves on tactics of nonviolence, and the incredible and brave way in which they defended themselves all of these nights. But, of course, in the culminating violence of night before last, and then, of course, of the violence of this night, as well, as they’ve been gassed, flashbangs that have been set off by the LAPD, and it’s just been incredible, the way that they have responded in the face of the gaslighting that the university has done against them. They are just — they have just done such an incredible and brave job.

And many of us, while we are shocked, we are also understanding, as faculty, that thousands and thousands of students across the nation, across the world have been politicized today, and there is no way, just because the LAPD and UCLA have mandated the dispersal of these students, that this is the end. It is only the beginning, because there are so many people now who understand that this is a movement. And it cannot be unseen. It cannot be put back in the box.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And finally, if you could explain: Where do negotiations stand? Has the administration been speaking with students about their demands that UCLA divest from Israel?

GAYE THERESA JOHNSON: The other day, the university offered the students three options. One was negotiations, which we saw yesterday there was no negotiation. There was an offer of absolutely nothing. Students had demands that were completely ignored, that wasn’t even in the discussion once administrators came to the camp. They were offered absolutely nothing.

The second option was to continue in a sort of long-term action with encampment. But it wasn’t a real, legitimate choice that the university was giving these students, because they were going to make them adhere to policies that they call time, place and manner that would have evicted them from the encampment and forced them into other places that would have been completely ineffective as far as protest and visibility.

And the third action that administrators — third choice that they gave students was police action. And they said, you know, “If you don’t take the first two,” — which were, in effect, completely false — “then we will assume that you want the police action.”

And in the end, they didn’t care. They didn’t ask what students wanted yesterday. They just simply went into what was already scheduled, what was already planned, which, one, I will say, many of us think that it’s almost as if, like, we’ve seen this many times over history — in Katrina, for example, in New Orleans, where politicians said, “Let the hurricane do for New Orleans what we couldn’t do.” This was the same thing that was echoing for us as we watched these counterprotesters so violently attack our students, is the “We’ll just sit back and let that happen instead.”

And the irony of these counterprotesters attacking these vulnerable students, who are also incredibly strong and brave and organized, in an enclosed space, the analogy that we can make to what’s happening in Gaza is obviously lost on all of these counterprotesters. They have no regard for the lives, just as the UCLA administration. People could have died the night before last and this night, as well. And these are the conditions under which students are trying to enact free speech.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Gaye Theresa Johnson, I want to thank you for being with us, UCLA professor of African American studies and Chicana/Chicano studies. We also want to thank Mel Buer of The Real News Network and Shaanth Kodialam Nanguneri. Shaanth is one of four reporters, a senior reporter, with the Daily Bruin, the UCLA paper, who was attacked by the counterprotesters.

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Former Brandeis President on Gaza Protests: Schools Must Protect Free Expression on Campus
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
MAY 02, 2024

Transcript

We look at how university administrators have responded to Palestine solidarity protests by students with Frederick Lawrence, former president of Brandeis University and now the CEO of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and a lecturer at Georgetown Law School. Brandeis was founded in 1948 by the American Jewish community in the wake of the Holocaust and named after the first Jewish Supreme Court justice, the celebrated free speech advocate Louis Brandeis. Lawrence says the nationwide university crackdown on student protesters is a worrying violation of the principles of academic freedom. “Provoking people, challenging people, asking difficult questions, making people uncomfortable, that’s part of the price of living in a democracy,” he says. He also notes that what constitutes a threat to campus safety should be narrowly defined. “You are not entitled to be intellectually safe. You are entitled to be physically safe.”

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: As we continue to look at the widening police crackdown on pro-Palestinian student protests, we’re joined now in Washington, D.C., by Frederick Lawrence, the former president of Brandeis University, which was founded in 1948 by the American Jewish community in the wake of the Holocaust. Frederick Lawrence is also the former dean of the George Washington University Law School and a former visiting professor and senior research scholar at Yale Law School.

AMY GOODMAN: Frederick Lawrence, welcome to Democracy Now! It’s great to have you with us. You just heard our first segment, what’s happening right now, police raiding UCLA campus, dismantling the Gaza encampment and arresting students. You heard about the counterprotesters attacking the journalists and those in the encampment. And then, of course, we just came out of the police doing the very same thing at Columbia University, dismantling the encampment and going into Hamilton Hall, that the students had occupied. Can you respond to what’s happening right now, and what you think should be the path and the response of universities around this country as students rise up in horror about what’s happening in Gaza?

FREDERICK LAWRENCE: I think when students rise up on any issues around the world or on their local communities, as well, universities have to begin with first principles. We exist for the purposes of creating and discovering knowledge. That requires free expression and protection for free expression. We talk about balancing free expression on the one hand, safety on the other. And although I understand that, it somewhat misses the point, which is to say safety is essential for campuses, but safety is instrumental to protect the fundamental goal, and that’s free expression.

So, in a case like what happened at UCLA, there’s an interesting example there of sometimes universities can do too much, but sometimes they can do too little. And clearly, one of the things that came across was the need for intervention sooner to protect the violence that was going on at UCLA. But I think I would even take the camera back a long way further and say that the real answer here is work that takes place a long time before these events happen. You have to build relationships on campus. You have to know who these student leaders and student groups are, so that the kinds of conflicts that we’re seeing now don’t happen the way that they’re being presented, but happen in a much more productive way for all concerned.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And could you explain whether protocols — what are the ordinary, conventional protocols in place at universities dealing with protest, and whether those have changed in the last months since we’ve seen the Gaza protests begin?

FREDERICK LAWRENCE: I think different universities obviously approach this in different ways. But if you look at the ones that are the most productive, the most functional right now, they really cover a range of outcomes and a range of approaches.

Look at University of Chicago, where the president just put out a statement that said, “Here are the rules of engagement,” and that “You can stay out on the quad and encamp for certain lengths of time, but here are the guard rules. Anti-harassment rules still apply. You can’t threaten people. You can’t interrupt the functioning of the university. But you can have an encampment.” President of Williams College put out a statement roughly along the same lines. The president of Brown was involved in negotiations with students where I think they reached what appears to be a pretty good result. Did the students get everything they wanted? Of course not. And did the university get everything they wanted? Of course not.

You know, one of the biggest mistakes here is when you start to think about the students as “they” as opposed to “we.” There’s only one constituency here, and that’s the university. The faculty, the students, the staff, the administration, the trustees all have to think of themselves as “we” working together. As soon as it splinters into “they,” that’s when you start getting problems, and sometimes tragedies.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And what about your response, Professor Lawrence, to what the university professors say, namely — sorry, the university administrations say, across the board, which is that they’re acting in the interest of students, Jewish students on campus, who feel they’re being threatened on campus? And as the crackdown on the student uprising has intensified, the House now has passed a bill to widen the federal definition of antisemitism. Critics of the bill included Jerry Nadler, the most senior Jewish member of Congress and a strong supporter of Israel. Nadler said, quote, “This bill threatens to chill constitutionally protected speech. Speech that is critical of Israel alone does not constitute discrimination. The bill sweeps too broadly,” Nadler said. Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers are vowing to launch new investigations into elite universities. Earlier this week, House Republican Whip Tom Emmer claimed, quote, “pro-terrorist antisemites taking over our college campuses.” So, if you could respond to that, what you think is actually going on, and how the Biden administration is responding, what’s happened in the House?

FREDERICK LAWRENCE: The most important thing is to focus on the limits on expression, which are pretty far out on the horizon. Free expression, free inquiry, academic freedom all have to be given broad range for protection. Where there’s actual threatening behavior, that can be restricted. That can be precluded. So, when you hear about talk of actual threatening behavior, I think there is a reason for the university to clamp down. But provoking people, challenging people, asking difficult questions, making people uncomfortable, that’s part of the price of living in a democracy, if you will. That’s what it means to live in a self-governing society.

Interrupting the actual functioning of the university, that can be precluded. You can’t block off buildings. You can’t keep students from getting into a library or into a classroom. But you can certainly create an encampment that might make it less comfortable for some students to get to class. Again, discomfort is not something that you should avoid in all cases in a university. Safety certainly should be provided. So I think that’s the balance that universities have to strike. And on some campuses, they have to do a better job of striking that balance.

AMY GOODMAN: And this is particularly interesting coming from you, Frederick Lawrence. If you can talk about the history of the founding of Brandeis University, and also your concern? I mean, it’s the issue you’re talking about right now, when Jewish students say they’re made to feel uncomfortable, and so you have the House acting and calling just — you’ll even have of the networks, when they say they feel threatened, just showing a Palestinian flag or a person wearing a keffiyeh. What that means?

FREDERICK LAWRENCE: We have been far too loose with what we mean by threatened, and not just in the past few months, but in the past few years. Many people feel that when they hear views that they deeply disagree with, that’s threatening to them. That’s not how universities operate. You are not entitled to be intellectually safe. You are entitled to be physically safe. So, where there are actual threats, certainly people are entitled to be protected, hopefully by university procedures, and by university security only as a last resort, with public officials and with police in riot gear. Hopefully, that’s always a last resort. But anything short of that, which is to say that which challenges one’s ideas, on any of the sides of these issues, that has to be part of an open conversation. Of course these are difficult conversations. Of course these issues are fraught.

Look, let me give you an example of one that worked recently that I was involved in. I was what was called a free expression resident at Skidmore College, upstate New York, for several days, met with a number of groups, but in particular had about an hour with a group of Jewish students and a group of Muslim students talking about Israel-Palestine, talking about what’s going on in Gaza. It was not an easy conversation. It was a hard conversation. But at the same time, we made some progress. I heard from the president of the college last night that he has continued to meet with these students, and he feels as if, in his words, it’s an air of cooperation, not antagonism. That’s the model that we’re looking for, that I think we should see on more campuses.

AMY GOODMAN: And the point of the founding of Brandeis University, why your voice is particularly important right now?

FREDERICK LAWRENCE: It’s Brandeis University, named for Justice Louis Brandeis, Justice Louis Brandeis who famously said, “In the absence of incitement of lawless activity, of imminent lawless activity, the answer to speech you disagree with is more speech, not enforced silence.” And Brandeis would have said that on any side of any issue. You cannot permit incitement of imminent lawless activity, but you have to protect the ability to express a wide range of views. Brandeis University has always been dedicated to that. That’s one of the reasons that, as its president, I was proud to advocate for free expression on a wide level. At the same time, the limits come, as I say, where safety is involved or where the orderly operation of the university is involved. Those things have to be protected.

AMY GOODMAN: Frederick Lawrence, we want to thank you for being with us, former president of Brandeis University, also the former dean of the George Washington University Law School and former visiting professor and senior research scholar at Yale Law School. He’s currently the CEO of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and distinguished lecturer at Georgetown Law School.

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Amnesty Int’l: Biden Must Halt Weapon Sales to Israel After U.S. Arms Used to Kill Civilians in Gaza
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
MAY 02, 2024

A new report from Amnesty International finds the sale of U.S.weapons to Israel for use in its indiscriminate assault in Gaza is in violation of U.S. and international law. We speak to Budour Hassan, a Palestinian writer and contributing researcher to the report, who says the U.S. is “complicit in the commission of war crimes” and must “halt all arms transfer to Israel as long as Israel continues to fail to comply with international humanitarian law and international human rights law.” We also discuss Israel’s detention of thousands of Palestinians without charge, the inadequacy of U.S. human rights investigations into the Israeli military, and Israel’s threatened ground invasion of Rafah.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: A coalition of international NGOs are holding a global day of action today calling on all states to halt the transfer of weapons, parts and ammunitions to Israel as the death toll in Gaza tops 34,500.

AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Jerusalem, where we’re joined by Budour Hassan, a Palestinian writer and Amnesty International researcher on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, contributing researcher to a new Amnesty report titled “U.S.-Made Weapons Used by Government of Israel in Violation of International Law and U.S. Law.”

Budour, thank you so much for being with us. Why don’t you tell us the conclusions of the Amnesty International report?

BUDOUR HASSAN: [inaudible] U.S.A. and response to the National Security Memorandum on Accountability and Safeguards on the Transfer of Defense Items and Other Services to Israel is based on firsthand documentation by Amnesty International of how U.S.-made weapons and U.S.-supplied weapons have been used by Israel in unlawful attacks, not just during the current war, but also in an earlier military campaign in May, where they were used in disproportionate attacks, killing civilians and injuring civilians, and where they were used — where small-diameter bombs were also used in the wanton destruction of property in cases amounting to collective punishment.

Also we cite in our research two cases where U.S.-made JDAMs have been used to decimate entire families, two entire families — the Abu Mu’eileq family in the middle area in Deir al-Balah and the Najjar family in Deir al-Balah also, back in October. A total of 43 civilians were killed in just two attacks. Amnesty International’s research did not find any evidence that there were any military targets in the area, raising doubt that the attacks were direct attacks on civilians and, as such, should be investigated as war crimes. And as such, also there is a high risk that by continuing to supply arms to Israel, the United States was fully aware that it is also supporting the commission of war crimes and it’s complicit in the commission of war crimes.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And so, Budour, has the U.S. responded in any way to your report, which came out earlier this week?

BUDOUR HASSAN: We are still waiting for a response by the U.S. The call is clear. The call is on the U.S. to halt all arms transfer to Israel as long as Israel continues to fail to comply with international humanitarian law and international human rights law. And it’s not just about the weapons that Israel is using, U.S.-made weapons. Also, Israel continues to use torture and other ill-treatment and also arbitrary detention against Palestinians, which also violates international law.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And if you could talk, Budour, about this global day of action, May 2nd, today? What prompted this call? Who all is involved?

BUDOUR HASSAN: The collective includes a variety of humanitarian organizations and human rights organizations that call for an immediate ceasefire, recognizing a ceasefire is the only way to end the man-made humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, but also calling for an arms embargo on Israel and all parties to the conflict, including freezing all arms transfer and ammunitions to Israel. And this group came together because it recognizes that it’s not just, of course, the United States. Of course, the United States is the biggest supplier of arms to Israel, but there are other countries supplying arms. There are strategic cases, litigation before numerous national courts, demanding that the courts demand that governments stop fueling this war and fueling human rights violations.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about the number of Palestinians right now who are detained under what’s called the Unlawful Combatants Law. What cases have you been working on? What are the profile of those detained, the number of those detained, if there are charges against them?

BUDOUR HASSAN: Officially, Israel acknowledges that it’s currently holding 865 Palestinians from Gaza as unlawful combatants. Under Unlawful Combatants Law, Palestinians — and they are mainly from Gaza — do not know the evidence used against them, cannot challenge the legal grounds for their arrest, and they are not charged, and they cannot face a fair trial, of course. Under the amendment to the Unlawful Combatants Law, a person from Gaza can be detained for up to 45 days without even being issued an arrest order. They can spend for up to 75 days without seeing a judge.

In many of the cases — in most of the cases we have documented, we interviewed doctors, we interviewed human rights defenders and also interviewed journalists, who said that they were told that they have a lawyer to represent them, but they never saw that lawyer. They said that they could not even ask why they are being held in jail. They did not know. Two of the doctors we interviewed spent 140 days in prison without ever knowing the charges against them, without being able to challenge the grounds based on which they are being detained. Israel never substantiated the very fact that they were taken, snatched, while treating wounded in hospital, only to spend 140 days in prison and later be released without ever knowing why they were detained in the first place.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, earlier this week — and this is, of course, something that happened before October 7th — but just earlier this week, the U.S. has found five units of Israel’s security forces responsible for human rights violations, most of them committed against Palestinians in the West Bank. The State Department said this is the first time the U.S. has come to such a conclusion about Israeli forces. And again, the violations occurred before October 7th and will not impact U.S. military aid to any of the units. If you could talk about the significance of this and whether you think this may lead to similar findings following October 7th for a far larger number of Israeli security forces units?

BUDOUR HASSAN: Of course, we think that these findings came a little bit too late in the first place. And in a sense, just implicating five military units serves to exceptionalize these five units and kind of absolves the Israeli army as a whole, the Israeli military as a whole, of its collective responsibility, because we cannot speak about individual units in the army and not recognize that the Israeli military as a whole has been committing grave human rights violations against Palestinians. And these human rights violations for decades have been fueled by impunity, not just from the military advocate general and from the investigative systems of the Israeli army, but also by Israel’s judiciary, judicial system, that has been incapable and unwilling to investigate these violations. So, it’s not just a few units here and there, exactly and precisely how it’s not just about one extremist or violent settler. It’s not the problem of one violent settler, but rather the whole settlement process.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you, Budour Hassan, about Gaza. You have the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that the invasion of Rafah is going to take place. Can you talk about the significance of this? And also talk about the famine that people in Gaza face, the opening of the Erez border. We just interviewed two people, a rabbi, American Rabbi Alissa Wise, and the Israeli-born writer Ayelet Waldman, who were arrested there as they tried to get in aid. But now Israel is saying it’s open. What level of aid is getting in?

BUDOUR HASSAN: To open, first of all, as Amnesty International, we have been calling for opening all land crossings and allowing the unfettered access of aid into Gaza, as per, of course, the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice. And it’s good that they are finally beginning to enter, although it’s not — nowhere near the quantity that should be entering.

But to allow meager amount of aid to enter while at the same time threatening to invade Rafah, which we know that Rafah is the main place where most humanitarian organizations are working at the moment, where more than 1.3 million Palestinians from Gaza, mostly displaced people, are staying — so, invading Rafah and threatening a ground invasion in Rafah would lead to the decimation of the whole aid system in Rafah itself. So, allowing humanitarian some or improving entry of humanitarian aid, on the one hand, but launching a ground attack on Rafah, which would increase and complicate the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, is absolutely not going to help the humanitarian situation there, of course.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And the number of prisoners who are being held, finally, Budour? I mean, on the West Bank, since October 7th, 8,000 Palestinians have been arrested?

BUDOUR HASSAN: Yeah, more than that. At the moment, there are 9,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails, including 3,424 administrative detainees, people held without charges or trial, which is nearly 40% of all Palestinian detainees held in Israeli jails are held without charges or trial. In addition to those detained, many of them, of course, are being detained for organizing in support of Gaza, for trying and calling for an end to the war on Gaza.

But among those who were detained, and he’s now just under house arrest, is Palestinian human rights lawyer Ahmad Khalefa. And he was — ridiculously, he was arrested and indicted on inciting to terror because he chanted in support of Gaza and for an end to occupation. He chanted that Gaza will not surrender to the tank or to the gun. And based on that, he was indicted on charges of incitement to terrorism. He faces for up to two years in jail based on that law. And he is now under house arrest. He cannot work as a human rights lawyer. He faces the threat of being disbarred from Israel Lawyers’ Bar Association. He cannot work at the Umm al-Fahm municipality, where he has been elected as a member of municipality. And if Ahmad Khalefa ends up being convicted of incitement to terrorism for chanting, this will have a chilling effect on freedom of expression.

But it also kind of gives us echoes for what’s going in the U.S.A. You know, we see these attacks by and crackdown by Israeli authorities on anyone who dares to raise their voice against the war. And similarly, we’re seeing similar crackdowns in the United States against students organizing to put an end to the atrocity crimes happening in Gaza.

AMY GOODMAN: Budour Hassan, we want to thank you so much for being with us, Palestinian writer, Amnesty International researcher on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We’ll link to the Amnesty report titled “U.S.-Made Weapons Used by Government of Israel in Violation of International Law and U.S. Law.”

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“Workers Have Power”: Thousands Rally in NYC for May Day, Call for Solidarity with Palestine
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
MAY 02, 2024

Transcript

Workers around the world rallied Wednesday to mark May Day, with many calling on the labor movement to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian cause. In New York, Democracy Now! spoke to demonstrators who demanded that U.S. unions apply political pressure for a ceasefire in Gaza and to stop their government’s arms trade with Israel. “Workers do have the power to shape the world,” said Palestinian researcher Riya Al’sanah, who was among thousands gathered at a May Day rally in Manhattan.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org.

We end today’s show on yesterday’s May Day activities in New York. Thousands of students, workers and others rallied in Foley Square in Lower Manhattan to mark May Day.

JAMIL MADBAK: Jamil Madbak. In this current moment, after seven months of Zionist aggression against Gaza, is to underscore that there is a popular movement in support of Palestine, not just the students that are mobilizing, but also organized labor across the United States. That’s really important. After the mass arrests yesterday, we saw faculty at CUNY announce a sickout for today. We saw NYU faculty announce a grade strike. And we’ve seen other actions being taken in support of the students.

We know the United States manufactures bombs that are being dropped on the people in Gaza, the Palestinians, and the Arab population, more broadly. And in that sense, having an organized labor movement that is willing to advocate for the Palestinian struggle, to chip away at the strength of Western imperialism, more broadly, is essential. And for the Palestinians, the inverse is true. Like, it is our mandate to be part of a broader left in this country to help to struggle for worker rights here, understanding that a stronger labor movement means less of an ability to enact this destructive foreign policy.

PROTESTERS: Occupation no more! Occupation no more! Free, free, free Palestine! Free, free, free Palestine!

RIYA AL’SANAH: My name is Riya Al’sanah. I’m a Palestinian researcher, an organizer with the Workers in Palestine initiative. We at Palestinian unions have been organizing and calling for the colleagues in the labor movement and unions internationally to stop arming Israel.

So, since the call in October, on the 16th of October, workers internationally have galvanized and organized in solidarity with the call. We have seen workers in Barcelona port declare that they will not be — they will be stopping arms shipments destined to Israel. Workers in Belgium and transport workers have blocked the supply of weapons to Israel. At the Port of Oakland, we also saw workers here in the U.S. take concrete solidarity and action. Internationally, workers have been organizing in their workplaces and in their unions in solidarity and to heed the call. We see this also with the UAW here in the U.S. and other unions who have been calling for ceasefire and picking up the call from Palestinian workers and Palestinian unions.

This year, May Day comes at a moment where we Palestinians are subjected to a kind of undescribable onslaught, an undescribable violence. And it’s an important moment in our history to remember that workers do have the power to shape the world. Workers do have the power to influence kind of what happens not only locally, but to influence processes of colonial violence and dispossession on a bigger scale.

The very brave students and faculty on campuses in the U.S. advocating for divestment of Israeli — of military industries is a prime example of the entrenchment of militarism and military industries to all aspects of our lives, including our educational institutions. These campaigns at the moment amplify how the campaign, the call from Palestinian workers to stop arming Israel is a transformative demand for all of us to be involved in on campuses, in our various workplaces, as well.

JULIA THERESE BANNON: As a UAW member and as the president of my local, UAW must use its political power to put teeth into their call for a ceasefire. I am done with the narrative that this is a right-wing attack on free speech. This is the Democratic Party attacking free speech. This is Joe Biden attacking free speech. This is Chuck Schumer attacking a local. These so-called Democrats are the ones threatening our democracy by silencing anyone who speaks against their genocide. UAW must revoke endorsements of these politicians, if they want to make good on their call for a ceasefire.

BHAIRAVI DESAI: I bring you message of solidarity from the 28,000 members of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. We are here to say to Genocide Joe that as long as your bombs are there, we will remain here. How today, on International Workers’ Day, a day that is normally full of pride and celebration, but since October, we cannot have a day that feels like joy or celebration, because the level of death and destruction, it is crushing to our sense of being a human being.

HEALTHCARE WORKER: I stand here before you today as a member of Healthcare Workers for Palestine, New York City. This is a lot closer to them. So, I’m just going to forewarn that I’ll be speaking about the mass graves, that our media has so intentionally neglected. Last weekend —

PROTESTERS: Shame! Shame!

HEALTHCARE WORKER: Last weekend, at least 283 bodies were found in a mass grave in Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis in Gaza. These bodies, our families’ bodies, were found three meters into the ground, covered in waste, headless, skinless, organless, some of them zip-tied, and some of our healthcare workers still in their scrubs.

PROTESTERS: Shame!

HEALTHCARE WORKER: Three days later on Democracy Now!, we find out it wasn’t 283 bodies. It was at least 300. Three days after that, we find out it’s at least 400. And, y’all, we’re tired of playing this game of numbers.

NYU STUDENT: I am speaking to you as a student from the NYU encampment in solidarity with encampments and workers across the globe. To our administrations, we’re not going away. We hold our ground. We say to our administrations, to be suspended for Gaza is the highest honor.

PROTESTERS: Free, free, free Palestine! Free, free, free Palestine!

AMY GOODMAN: Special thanks to Hana Elias, Charina Nadura and Messiah Rhodes. Those voices from the Foley Square rally on May Day.

And that does it for our show. Democracy Now! is produced with Renée Feltz, Mike Burke, Deena Guzder, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Messiah Rhodes, Nermeen Shaikh, María Taracena, Tami Woronoff, Charina Nadura, Sam Alcoff, Tey-Marie Astudillo, Robby Karran, Hany Massoud and Hana Elias. Our executive director is Julie Crosby. Special thanks to Becca Staley, Jon Randolph, Paul Powell, Mike Di Filippo, Miguel Nogueira. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh, for another edition of Democracy Now!

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“This Militaristic Approach Has Been a Failure”: Meet Hala Rharrit, First U.S. Diplomat to Quit over Gaza
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
MAY 03, 2024

Democracy Now! speaks with Hala Rharrit, the first State Department diplomat to publicly resign over the Biden administration’s policies backing Israel’s assault and siege of the Gaza Strip. Rharrit is an 18-year career diplomat who served as the Arabic-language spokesperson for the State Department in the region. “I could no longer be a part of the State Department and promote this policy. It’s an inhumane policy. It’s a failed policy that is helping neither Palestinians, neither Israelis,” Rharrit says. “We are not authorized to send military equipment, weapons to countries that commit human rights abuses. ICJ has determined plausible genocide, yet we are still sending billions upon billions of not just defensive weaponry, but offensive weaponry. It is tantamount to a violation of domestic law. Many diplomats know it. Many diplomats are scared to say it.” She adds, “I read the talking points that we were supposed to promote on Arab media. A lot of them were dehumanizing to Palestinians.” Rharrit also discusses how “corruption” in government allows for arms sales to continue. “I could not help but be concerned about the influence of special interest groups, of lobbying groups on our foreign policy and, as well, on Congress — on the people that decide whether or not some of those shipments of arms get sent. The bottom line is that our politicians should not be profiting from war. And unfortunately, we have some institutionalized corruption that enables that,” she says.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: Israel has killed at least 26 Palestinians in Gaza over the past day, including at least seven people, four of them children, in an airstrike on Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, where over 1.4 million Palestinians have sought refuge. Nearly 35,000 Palestinians have been killed over the past nearly seven months, with 7,000 others missing and believed to be buried under the rubble. Nearly 78,000 have been wounded.

A new United Nations report called the level of casualties in Gaza “unprecedented” in such a short period of time. The report also said the world has not seen the level of destruction of housing in Gaza since World War II.

Here in the United States, a massive student protest movement with Gaza solidarity encampments in university campuses across the country has been met with public raids, mass arrests and violence. Nearly 2,200 people have been arrested at 43 colleges and universities in recent weeks. President Joe Biden addressed the protests Thursday for the first time in weeks in unscheduled remarks from the White House.

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Dissent is essential to democracy, but dissent must never lead to disorder or to denying the rights of others so students can finish the semester and their college education. Look, it’s basically a matter of fairness. It’s a matter of what’s right. There’s the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos.

AMY GOODMAN: As President Biden concluded his remarks, he was asked whether the student protests would prompt him to reconsider his foreign policy.

REPORTER: Mr. President, have the protests forced you to reconsider any of the policies with regard to the region?

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: No.

AMY GOODMAN: The Biden administration’s financial, military and diplomatic backing of Israel’s assault on Gaza has sparked dissent within the U.S. government, with resignations and walkouts by government employees.

Today we’re joined by the first State Department diplomat to publicly resign over the war on Gaza. Hala Rharrit is an 18-year career diplomat who recently resigned from the State Department. She’s the third State Department employee, but the first Foreign Service officer, to do so. Hala Rharrit served as the Arabic-language spokesperson for the State Department in the region. She joins us now in her first TV interview since her resignation.

Hala Rharrit, welcome to Democracy Now!

HALA RHARRIT: Thank you so much, Amy. It’s an honor to be with you.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you start off by talking about why you have publicly resigned?

HALA RHARRIT: Absolutely. Honestly, I wasn’t intending to publicly resign. I was intending to resign. My profile at the Dubai Media Hub, my last assignment, was quite high-profile. My role was to speak to Arab media about American policy, so it inevitably made the news when I did resign. It first made the news, I believe, here in the region and in the United States.

But the reason why I resigned is really because I could no longer be a part of the State Department and promote this policy. It’s an inhumane policy. It’s a failed policy that is helping neither Palestinians, neither Israelis. And I want to stress that point, that it’s not strictly the horrific mass killings that we have all been watching over the course of over 200 days, the targeting of journalists, of healthcare workers, over 14,000 children massacred, but it’s also not keeping Israelis any safer. The hostages are still in Gaza. Israelis know that there is going to be a vicious cycle of violence after so many have been killed in Gaza. This does not help anyone.

And the militaristic policy is not the solution. As a diplomat, as someone that believes in diplomacy, in the power of diplomacy, I did everything I could from within to try to explain this on a daily basis, through reports, through cables. Nothing was working, until finally I made the decision that I could no longer be part of the system.

AMY GOODMAN: What do you feel President Biden and your boss at the State Department, Secretary of State Tony Blinken, could do right now that would be most effective?

HALA RHARRIT: They need to abide by national domestic law and international law. We have systems in place within the State Department to ensure situations like this don’t happen. We are not authorized to send military equipment, weapons to countries that commit human rights abuses. ICJ has determined plausible genocide, yet we are still sending billions upon billions of not just defensive weaponry, but offensive weaponry. It is tantamount to a violation of domestic law. Many diplomats know it. Many diplomats are scared to say it. It’s a violation of international law, what we’ve been seeing happening in Gaza.

And we cannot make exceptions for our allies. It does not help our allies to make exceptions, because, again, all that this is doing is creating a vicious cycle of violence. And it has clearly failed its objectives. It has failed. The hostages are still not back with their families where they belong. The situation in Gaza remains intensely unstable. People continue to suffer on a daily basis.

It’s time for President Biden and Secretary Blinken to realize that this militaristic approach has been a failure and they need to stop. They need to abide by U.S. law, and doing so will create a lot of leverage. If we are able to condition military aid, we will be able to pressure Israel. We will also be able to work with our Arab allies to pressure Hamas, to have real, substantive change on the ground. That’s what’s necessary at this time, not more arms.

AMY GOODMAN: Why do you think President Biden does not do that? As he says he’s heartbroken by the number of casualties and he says he admonishes the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, clearly the arms flow continues, Washington Post, New York Times reporting on, you know, the well over 100 arms transfers that are made, or arms sales, just under the threshold that would require Congress to approve it.

HALA RHARRIT: Absolutely. You make a very good point, Amy. Right under the threshold, willfully enabling the crimes that are happening in Gaza. And that’s why I could no longer be part of the State Department, because it’s willful.

It’s a very difficult answer to give you, and it’s one question that I ask myself every single day: Why doesn’t President Biden act? Why doesn’t Secretary Blinken act? If I had the answer to that, perhaps I — you know, I’d be somewhere else right now. I’d be within the system still trying to effect change.

But the bottom line to me and what it appeared like to me from within the system, and also as a spokesperson who was reading the talking points, is that, fundamentally, an Israeli life was not worth — or, a Palestinian life was not worth the same as an Israeli life. And it’s heartbreaking for me to say that as someone that has proudly served my country for 18 years. But I read the talking points that we were supposed to promote on Arab media. A lot of them were dehumanizing to Palestinians. Thirty-four thousand people killed in Gaza right now, and we’re still insisting that this is the only option, when it’s not.

Also, as a diplomat, I could not help but be concerned about the influence of special interests, of the arms lobby, of other special interests that serve foreign governments. It is very, very frustrating when you’re working on a daily basis on American foreign policy, but you know that no matter what you do and no matter what very senior officials in the department are doing, and despite all of the recommendations going up to Washington from the field, the policy is not changing. I could not help but be concerned about the influence of special interest groups, of lobbying groups on our foreign policy and, as well, on Congress — on the people that decide whether or not some of those shipments of arms get sent. The bottom line is that our politicians should not be profiting from war. And unfortunately, we have some institutionalized corruption that enables that. And as an American diplomat, my concern was U.S. national security interest. And I protested against this, but unfortunately could not effect enough change, that I had to submit my resignation.

AMY GOODMAN: You mentioned institutionalized corruption. Can you explain that further, Hala?

HALA RHARRIT: It is public knowledge that our politicians are able to profit significantly from the arms industry, from campaign contributions. That is something that is never allowed for a diplomat. We have no ability to gain any financial gain from anything, really. Everything has to be very transparent for us. We obviously have secret — top-secret security clearances. Our lives are really open book when we’re a diplomat. And that’s how it should be, because we’re serving our country. We’re not serving ourselves. We’re serving the people of the United States. We’re implementing the laws of the land. And it should be for the sake of U.S. national security, not for personal gain, not for campaign contributions. And as a diplomat, it was very concerning to me knowing that our domestic system clearly has an influence on our foreign policy, because we were not being heard.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about how the administration, to the highest levels, Blinken and, of course, ultimately, Biden, respond to criticism and how much they hear. The latest news, among a lot of other reports, more than 250 former staffers in the Obama administration and campaign workers for the Obama-Biden ticket sent a letter to their former bosses demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and calling for the U.S. to end its staunch support for Israel. You then have the number of people who have resigned publicly and more privately. I’m wondering their response to you? But have you spoken directly with President Biden, with Tony Blinken, the secretary of State, your, well, previous boss?

HALA RHARRIT: Did you ask, Amy, if I’ve spoken to them directly?

AMY GOODMAN: Yes.

HALA RHARRIT: I have not spoken to them directly, I mean, not in this particular occasion. I have in the past for Secretary Blinken, but not for this particular occasion. But what we do as diplomats is we send reporting. We send information back. That’s why we are overseas in our embassies and our consulates. And our job is to try to help Washington in making informed decisions. We do that. And we do hear from Secretary Blinken. We do hear about a culture of “We want to hear about dissent. We want to hear critical feedback.”

I can tell you that, for me, it was a mixed bag. I provided that critical feedback. I provided daily reports, for example, showing what pan-Arab media was covering in terms of the Gaza crisis, showing how American — there was growing anti-Americanism. Every single day, I could see growing anti-Americanism, which was extremely concerning. And I was trying to raise this on a daily basis to Washington, explaining we need to change course, this is hurting our own national security interests if we maintain this policy. And I was met with silencing. I was met with being sidelined. I was also met with “Thank you for your critical feedback. This is going to the highest levels of our government. We need more of this.” I was met with more silencing, more sidelining. So, for me, it was really a mixed bag.

And I have to be honest that there were people that were trying to ensure that those messages were heard, but at the end of the day and what was the most frustrating is that, in particular, with my particular role as Arabic spokesperson, I explained that our messaging posture was hurting more so than helping us, yet our messaging posture never changed. We’re still using the talking points directed to the Arab world even if it’s inflaming the tensions, even if it’s instigating people across the region, even if it’s making people across the region hate us more and be more frustrated with us, because they hear the double standard. They hear the double standard when we condemn an attack on Israeli interests, but we don’t condemn the death of Palestinians, only show concern. They are very, very in tune with these double standards. And it hurt us to continue to amplify these talking points. And it was very frustrating for me that there was the continued expectation that we would do that despite all of the data, despite the clear proof that it’s not helping America, it’s hurting America.

AMY GOODMAN: You refused to comment — you were the Arabic-language spokesperson to the Arab world. You refused to comment on U.S. policy in Gaza. Can you explain why you made that decision?

HALA RHARRIT: Absolutely. Just as I mentioned right now, I made it abundantly clear, through daily reports, of the ramifications of our messaging. Abundantly clear. I showed every day what was happening, what the reaction was. And I also was monitoring Arab social media and sharing with Washington the images that were going viral across Arab social media. And these — thank you, as well, Amy, for amplifying the voices of the Palestinian families at the top of the hour. Those are things that sometimes Washington does not hear. But it is what the Arab public is consuming on a daily basis. And these pictures of dead children, of maimed toddlers, they’re traumatizing. And my point back was, “Look at these images that people in this part of the world are consuming on a daily basis.”

There is an absolute disconnect with what people in the Arab world are seeing happening in Gaza and our talking points. There’s an utter disconnect. And it does not serve our interest to continue pretending like what’s happening in Gaza is not happening, and we keep promoting things that are just instigating. So, my role was to be a spokesperson, but I also believe my role to be to serve the United States, to advance American interests, to have effective messaging, not just messaging. And I could not in good conscience do something and go out on Arab TV knowing that it was hurting my country doing that, not helping it.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain more specifically, because this is a serious, important critique and charge, that the president, that the secretary of state are actually endangering U.S. national security with the position and the support of Israel that they are taking right now.

HALA RHARRIT: Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, we had three of our troops killed in Jordan. That was in direct reaction to our Israel policy. And when that happened, I said, again, “I will not be part of this.” And then, if an attack happens on American interests in the region, I would not be able to sleep at night, because my face on that screen, on that Arab news channel, may have been the thing that prompted the person to go and retaliate or commit an act of terror.

The anger in the region is palpable, and it is traumatic. When people are consuming daily images of massacres, of people suffering, and yet they hear that the United States is willfully enabling it by continuing to send bombs, it makes people lose complete faith in the United States. And this is what was so painful to me as an American diplomat. I’ve worked for the last 18 years to strengthen ties between the United States and other countries, to advance U.S. interests, to promote America’s image. But this policy made it impossible. How can we talk about press freedom when we remain willfully silent about the killings of so many journalists? I mean, I personally worked to try to get a statement out on the killing of journalists in Gaza, and I was met with so much pushback. And I was so shocked at my own colleagues that would push back on that. It is a fundamental American value to be promoting freedom of press. We cannot have exceptions. We cannot have double standards.

As American diplomats, we need to apply our values, our standards on the situation. That is what we are supposed to be about. And until we do that, we are hurting — I keep on repeating this word, but I fundamentally believe it, and it’s a concern of mine that I expressed over the course of months. We are hurting ourselves, not just the Palestinians and not just the Israelis, but we’re hurting the United States of America.

AMY GOODMAN: You are publicly resigning, but there are others who have simply resigned, saying they don’t think they’re important enough to announce that they are resigning. Can you talk about the number of people who have left and also who have expressed, like you have, through the official channels, going all the way up, your concern?

HALA RHARRIT: I actually don’t know of any others that have resigned within the Foreign Service. There may be, and I may not know about them, but I do not know of any others, other than Josh and Annelle, who are not Foreign Service officers but were Washington-based, that have resigned. But I know for sure that a lot of people expressed frustrations of wanting to resign.

And I know this mostly from after my own resignation was announced internally. It was quite a surprise to me. I did not know how people would react to me, honestly, when I was still on the inside, because my resignation was announced internally before it became public externally. And at that point, so many people approached me and talked about how they’ve been so frustrated with the policy. They felt like they couldn’t say anything. They felt like they couldn’t do anything. They were worried about their careers. They were worried about if they spoke up internally, what would that do to them? And it was very disheartening to hear. It’s not what the State Department is supposed to be about. Many told me that they wished they could resign, because they really could not keep maintaining every single day under this policy, but that they couldn’t for financial reasons, for other considerations related to their families.

And so, it is a sad time within the department, as far as I’m concerned, and I can only share of my experience, of course. The State Department is a very large institution, but I can tell you, after 18 years of service, you get to know a lot of members of the diplomatic corps. And it’s an unprecedented time. It’s very uneasy. And I think everyone wakes up hoping that the next day will be better. But we really do need some fundamental changes to this policy, because it is such a failed policy that is just hurting all parties involved.

AMY GOODMAN: And your response to President Biden speaking out yesterday for the first time on the college campus unrest, the thousands of students who have been arrested — also professors have been arrested — saying that that protest across the country has no effect on his foreign policy?

HALA RHARRIT: Honestly, I was intensely disappointed that he would speak about constituents in that way, that he would speak about voters in that way, that he would speak about Americans in that way. He is supposed to be a representative of the people.

And the fact that these students have been dismissed, these students have been labeled — the bottom line is, I think there is a fundamental generational shift in not just the United States, but globally, because these students, much like people across this region, have been consuming on a daily basis the images coming straight out of Gaza. They’ve been seeing on their social media feeds the children that have been dying of starvation. They are seeing on their social media feeds the bloody toddlers that are being carried with an arm blown off. They’re seeing this on a daily basis. And it took them seven months to rise. If President Biden, if Secretary Blinken had solved this crisis, there would have been no student protests.

The buck stops with the president. Again, I’m going to say it: It is a failed policy. It has not succeeded in bringing home the hostages. It has not succeeded in making Israelis safer. And when students are seeing a potential, plausible, ongoing genocide, they are reacting to it. They are reacting to the fact that their academic institutions may be financially invested in the killings of innocent people in Gaza. They’re reacting to the fact that their governments — that their government is continuing to enable the killing of innocent civilians. And it is a fundamental democratic right in the First Amendment. And it was very, very disheartening to hear the president just dismissing them that way without even addressing the source of their concerns.

Of course, I am absolutely against any type of violence on campus or anywhere else. It should be inclusive. No students, regardless of their religion, of their race, of ethnicity, need to be targeted whatsoever, and that is clear, and that should go without saying. But it is also clear that there was so much community in these protests. There were Jewish students with Muslim students, with Christian students, with atheists, with agnostics — it doesn’t really matter. People were unified in calling for an end to the carnage and an end to the violence. And suppressing them in such a violent manner is horrific. And it’s also not necessary. Again, as a diplomat, I fundamentally don’t believe in solving conflicts through arms or through violence. I believe in sitting down and talking with individuals, sitting down and negotiating, not in suppression.

AMY GOODMAN: Hala Rharrit, I thank you so much for being with us. Hala Rharrit is the first State Department diplomat to resign over the Biden administration’s Gaza policy. She is an 18-year career diplomat. This is her first television interview since resigning.

Coming up, we speak with two doctors just back from volunteering at the largest functioning hospital in Gaza. Stay with us.

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AMY GOODMAN: “A Place to Stay” by Sam Burton, Palestinian American singer-songwriter form Salt Lake City, dedicated this song to his Palestinian father.

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“Dead on Arrival”: Doctors Back from Gaza Describe Horrific Hospital Scenes, Decimated Health System
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
MAY 03, 2024

Transcript

Nearly seven months of constant bombardment, siege and obstruction of aid deliveries have annihilated the healthcare system in Gaza. Last week, the Palestinian Health Ministry said that around 600,000 Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip no longer have access to any kind of healthcare. The World Health Organization has said that Israel is “systematically dismantling” the health system in Gaza. Only 11 hospitals out of 36 hospitals in Gaza are partially functioning. At both of Gaza’s largest hospitals, Al-Shifa and Nasser, Palestinians found hundreds of bodies buried in mass graves after Israel raided and destroyed the facilities. Democracy Now! speaks with Dr. Ismail Mehr and Dr. Azeem Elahi just after they volunteered at the largest hospital still operating in Gaza, the European Hospital in Khan Younis. “The healthcare system has been always in a noose, and that noose tightens at times when there’s conflict,” says Mehr. “Right now that noose has completely just hung the healthcare system.”

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

Nearly seven months of constant bombardment, siege and obstruction of aid deliveries have annihilated the healthcare system in Gaza. Last week, the Palestinian Health Ministry said around 600,000 Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip no longer have access to any kind of healthcare. The World Health Organization has said that Israel is, quote, “systematically dismantling” the health system in Gaza. Save the Children has reported Israel’s attacks on the healthcare sector in Gaza, at the rate of 73 attacks per month, are higher than in any other recent conflict in the world.

Only 11 hospitals out of 36 hospitals in Gaza are partially functioning. In April, Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa in Gaza City in the north, was completely destroyed following a two-week siege by Israeli forces. Then, Gaza’s second-largest hospital, Nasser Hospital, was also destroyed following another brutal siege by Israeli forces in Khan Younis. After their withdrawals, Palestinians found hundreds of bodies buried in mass graves at both hospitals.

Now the largest hospital remaining partially operating in Gaza is the European Hospital in Khan Younis. Like so many other hospitals, it’s also sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians.

We’re joined now by two doctors just back from Gaza who volunteered at the European Hospital. Dr. Ismail Mehr is an anesthesiologist and chair of the nonprofit IMANA Medical Relief, which focuses on disaster relief. Dr. Mehr has participated in over 35 medical missions globally, has been to Gaza five times dating back to the 2008-2009 war. He’s joining us from Hornell, New York. And joining us from Charlotte, North Carolina, is Dr. Azeem Elahi, a pulmonary and critical care physician who was part of the team of doctors volunteering at European Hospital with Medical Relief. Dr. Elahi has participated in several humanitarian medical mission trips to various parts of the world, was previously in Gaza in 2019.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Dr. Mehr, let’s begin with you. Describe what you saw.

DR. ISMAIL MEHR: First of all, thank you, Amy, for having both of us.

And describe what I saw, a very common question. Immediately when we entered and in the mornings went to go to work, the first sight was all the amputees, the children, from children through the adults. Seeing the number of amputees, double amputees, with 30,000 people living outside or inside that hospital, was our first sights, the first thing that we saw. And, you know, my experience in Gaza — this was my fifth time there — I had never seen something like this, including my visits to Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen in the past, you know, conflict zones, areas under tense circumstances. I have never seen this number of amputees, destruction, and people just seeking refuge. It was an experience like no other.

AMY GOODMAN: If you can tell us about a few cases and also talk about patients coming from other hospitals and what you heard about Nasser and Shifa, this horrifying report we got in the last week of mass graves discovered at both major hospitals?

DR. ISMAIL MEHR: Yeah, you know, you make a lot of friends as you travel back and forth to Gaza, I mean, people that I was deathly sick and worried about if they were still alive. And when I was at European Gaza Hospital, I ran into some of my friends. I saw them there. They had shifted down from the north. And they shared some of the horrors of Shifa Hospital. They shared that they were there when forces came in, and some of the stories and what took place. And they shared with me the, you know, people that were friends of ours that had passed away, like Dr. Mehdat, the plastic surgeon who was killed. And Dr. Ahmed, a young plastic surgeon, and his mother were killed at Shifa, and their bodies were found there. They shared those stories with us. And we paused, and we grieved, and then we got back to work.

Patients, you know, Yassin, 11-year-old boy, was a double amputee. He’s 11 years old. You know, I have children. Those watching have children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Imagine your 11-year-old family member losing both his legs. And now in Gaza there were only two prosthetic centers that would help these amputees throughout the Gaza Strip, and those no longer exist.

And as you mentioned earlier a systematic dismantling of healthcare, you know, we saw it. We incurred it. Every night we would hear the bombings, the strikes, the drones, the artillery. And like clockwork, myself and Dr. Azeem and my other two colleagues, Dr. Shazia and Dr. Shariq, would know it’s time for us to get to the emergency department. And we would work long hours, into the early-morning hours, helping the local doctors at European Gaza Hospital try to save lives as mass casualties would come in. Some would be dead on arrival, and then some would die while we were working on them, and then others we’d be able to save. And, you know, as we started the show earlier about the recent bombing strike in Rafah, it brought back vivid memories, like, and I could recall myself and Azeem in that emergency department going through what takes place.

And to follow up, yes, European Gaza Hospital is the only tertiary, only high-level hospital remaining. It is not a massively huge hospital like Shifa was or Nasser was. And now when strikes take place in other places, there is no place that can stabilize or take care of such mass casualties besides European Gaza Hospital. So, from Rafah, they’re brought to European Gaza Hospital, which is probably about five to eight kilometers probably, and then receive care. So, you know, this is life in Gaza as a healthcare worker right now trying to deal with all this.

AMY GOODMAN: This is a short video your team filmed of some of the children and people taking shelter inside European Hospital. Many of them have set up makeshift tents in the hallways.

DOCTOR: Another day in EGH, Islamic — how are you?

PALESTINIAN CHILD 1: How are you?

PALESTINIAN CHILD 2: How are you?

DOCTOR: Hey!

PALESTINIAN CHILD 3: How are you?

PALESTINIAN CHILD 4: How are you?

DOCTOR: These are people, they’re living in the hospitals.

PALESTINIAN CHILD 5: How are you?

DOCTOR: Probably another 20,000 at least outside. Hey. How are you? So, they’ve lost everything.

PALESTINIAN CHILD 6: How are you?

DOCTOR: They live in the hospitals. They’re not patients. They make makeshifts on the side. There’s people up on the stairs like this. This is life in Gaza.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s inside European Hospital. Dr. Azeem Elahi, if you can describe the atmosphere, not only the patients, but the people taking refuge, and then what people are dying of? You’ve got the airstrikes directly, but then you also have disease, and you have this imminent famine. Talk about that, Dr. Elahi.

DR. AZEEM ELAHI: Amy, thank you for inviting us to share our experience.

I was listening to that clip in my ears, and immediately a smile came on my face, just because it took me back to those moments when we’d walk through the hallways. It’s as equally happy as it is sad, because these are displaced people who have arrived to the hospital for shelter, for electricity, for food, with broken families. When you sit down and actually interact with the people that you encounter in these corridors, you realize very quickly that the families are extended families, and they’ve been brought together because of injured family members or family members who have passed away as a result of the war.

The corridors are lined, just like you see in that video. In every nook and cranny, every staircase, every space in the hospital where you’re taking care of patients, where the radiologist is reviewing scans, is occupied by displaced persons. The situation there is dire, because it does, in fact, interrupt medical care when you have this cohabitation of sterility and medical treatment with just life. And it’s a truly amazing parity to see in real life, because you can hear in the video the amazement and the joy and the laughter that you can hear from the children’s voices, but when they are tucked in behind those curtains, I can assure you that their life is very different than what their faces show.

AMY GOODMAN: And the issue of disease and people weakened by hunger, in addition to the direct — the morbidity from direct strikes?

DR. AZEEM ELAHI: The type of patients we would admit to the intensive care unit were oftentimes blast injury patients. I’m an adult critical care physician. And when I joined the European Gaza Hospital ICU, I realized the majority of our patients were actually pediatric patients. More than 50% of the patients in that ICU were under the age of 16, mainly because they were involved — when these bombings and the bombardment occurs, they’re typically in the evening, when the family units are sleeping together, and the patients that would make it to the hospital are the lucky ones. And just as Dr. Mehr pointed out, many of them would arrive dead, and the few that were able to survive would end up in the ICU.

The injuries we would see were trauma-related. So they had brain injuries, subarachnoid hemorrhages, subdural hemorrhages, traumatic brain injuries. They required mechanical ventilation because they weren’t able to breathe on their own. A lot of infections, especially in the postoperative setting, when your nutrition is affected — and this is true in the U.S., in the U.K., as it is anywhere else in the world. Every surgeon wants their patient to be as nourished as possible. We know, with clear-cut data, that patients who are malnourished are at higher risk of developing postoperative infections, postoperative morbidity.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to put the same question to Dr. Ismail Mehr, the question of the injuries people are suffering either from direct airstrike or from disease.

DR. ISMAIL MEHR: Yeah, I mean, Azeem was just a remarkable member of our team as was, like he shared, in the ICU. My role was, you know, I was in the operating room as an anesthesiologist. But with our experience and our team’s experience, we manned the ER quite often.

And what I want to really share with the viewers and the world, and my message is, is it’s very sexy to look at the bombings, the strikes, you know, and I share that — I’m being sarcastic, but, you know, that’s — the world focuses on traumatic stuff. What we forget is a grandmother who died from urinary tract infection. I had to do CPR on her and code her in the emergency department and then look at her son and say she died. He was like, “She just had an infection.” Because, as you shared earlier — excuse me — there is no healthcare system intact any longer. EGH is bursting at the seams — it’s not bursting, it has bursted.

And as you and I, when we get sick, or your child or grandchild or niece or nephew or aunt or uncle, you take them to the doctor. Gaza had a healthcare system in place, not always the most robust due to the embargo, but you could still go and see your doctor, get your glucose medicine. There was a gentleman, a mid-aged gentleman, that we had to do an amputation on because he had been barefoot for months, got an infection, learned that he never — he did not take his Glucophage or metformin. Those of you who are diabetics know those medicines. They’re for managing sugar. He got gas gangrene of his foot, came in so late that we thought he was going to die that night, operated on him early in the morning. He died six hours later.

What about the 20-year-old patient — I believe her name was Amna — who had fulminant liver failure from hepatitis A, not even — you know, hepatitis B and C are very severe forms of hepatitis. Hepatitis A is from unhygienic water and food. And she was dying in front of us in that emergency room. The mother who developed a blood clot in her leg because she’s been immobile living in a tent, and then she had a pulmonary embolism or a clot to her lung.

Every day there were people we were declaring dead in that emergency room who were dying of simple, basic things that in Gaza could be treated. I have seen them treated in Gaza before in my experience. And there’s no voice for those people. Yes, people are dying from the strikes every day, but the world is failing to see the implications of those who are the unaccounted for.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask you both to stay with us, because we have other questions about how this compares to other medical trips you have made as you volunteer in conflict zones around the world. And on Monday, we will discuss the Abu Ghraib decision. So, we have to break one more time. Dr. Ismail Mehr and Dr. Azeem Elahi, stay with us. They’re just back from volunteering at Gaza’s European Hospital with the IMANA Medical Relief team. Back in 20 seconds.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: “Mum Sing to the Wind” by Nai Barghouti. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, as we continue with the two doctors just back from Gaza volunteering at European Hospital: Dr. Ismail Mehr, anesthesiologist, chair of the nonprofit IMANA Medical Relief, which focuses on disaster relief — Dr. Mehr has participated in over 35 medical missions globally, has been to Gaza five times dating back to 2008 and '09 — and Dr. Azeem Elahi is with us from Charlotte, North Carolina, pulmonary critical care physician who is just back also from European Hospital. Dr. Mehr, you've been in dozens of conflict zones around the world. How does Gaza compare?

DR. ISMAIL MEHR: There is no comparison. You know, you say you’ve seen — you know, in a long career, that when you’ve seen everything, you know your career is complete. And I thought at one point that I’ve seen everything, and when I walked into Gaza, I’m not even close. I can compare it to Gaza 2008, 2009, to 2022, 2023. You know, I had the opportunity to go Deir al-Balah. It’s a little bit north of Khan Younis, and I had to drive through Khan Younis to deliver supplies and medications that we had for different hospitals. And as far as I could see, it looked like Armageddon. There was not a single building, single structure, single gas station, single hospital, single school, single university that remained standing. And then, the despair that you see around you at European Gaza Hospital, I can’t do justice to describe it. I just — maybe Azeem can or someone else can. I just — it’s — you can’t describe it.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to go to one of the people you met at European Hospital, as you were just describing, Rafat Badwan, describing what he and his relatives were sleeping, targeted by an Israeli strike. His son survived, but severely injured.

RAFAT BADWAN: My brother and his wife and his all children, two daughters and one son, are killed. Es Tesh’hedu, Inshallah. Also, my sister’s son are killed by them. We don’t do anything. Hasbunallahu wa ni’mal wakeel. Our Gaza and all the health sector need your support. There’s many injured and a shortage in medical supplies. We all need your help.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s Rafat Badwan, Dr. Mehr. If you can also talk about how Gaza has changed in the many times that you have been there back to 2008, ’09?

DR. ISMAIL MEHR: Yeah, I think people fail to — forget — everyone thinks everything started October 7th. This has gone back to — you know, 78, 75, 76 years ago, since 1948, and then, Gaza specifically, down back to the early 2000s with the embargo.

The healthcare system has been always in a noose, and that noose tightens at times when there’s conflict, or it loosens up, but it remains around the neck of the healthcare system. And right now that noose has completely just — you know, has hung the healthcare system.

I mean, people say “partially.” People use words as it’s “semi-functional” or “remaining hospitals.” Yes, there’s structures, and there’s amazing colleagues and brothers and sisters from healthcare that are doing amazing job, but a functional healthcare system to save lives has been extinguished. You know, I can’t describe what the situation is there.

And that gentleman, Mr. Badwan, he’s a pharmacist. And I remember that night vividly, and I’m sure Azeem does, as well. It was multiple casualties came in — children with depressed skull fractures, mothers. You know, some of them were his family members. Others were just others and his neighbors. And luckily, our team was there from IMANA and HEAL Palestine. You know, we partnered with HEAL Palestine in this mission. And we were able to work along and help save some lives that night. But what hurts me is, is that every day this is happening, and every day there are innocent people losing their lives.

AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Elahi, I wanted to get your final comment and your message as you come back to your practice in Charlotte, North Carolina, how this has changed you and what you’ll be telling the medical community here.

DR. AZEEM ELAHI: I would say, from 2019’s experience and our current experience just now, what you’ll realize from the people in Gaza is they just want the world to know and understand what they’re going through. You heard it in this gentleman’s voice, that he’s just expressing a plea to the world to provide help to the people of Gaza, see what’s happening there. And when I come back to the comfort of my home and the comfort of my family and the comfort of a modern healthcare system, it is —

AMY GOODMAN: Ten seconds.

DR. AZEEM ELAHI: — really difficult to understand what’s happening. I think we just have to open our eyes, share with the world what’s happening there, and open our hearts for them.

AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Azeem Elahi and Dr. Ismail Mehr, back from volunteering at Gaza’s European Hospital with the IMANA Medical Relief team.

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“Criminal Act”: Israel Bans Al Jazeera, Largest Int’l News Org. in Gaza, Ahead of Rafah Invasion
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
MAY 06, 2024

Transcript

As the death toll in Gaza soars to more than 34,700, Israeli authorities have taken Al Jazeera off the air in Israel and ordered Palestinians in eastern Rafah to evacuate ahead of an Israeli offensive. “The Israeli government is trying to conceal what’s happening in Gaza and trying to intimidate Al Jazeera … and delegitimize the whole coverage,” says Al Jazeera’s managing editor Mohamed Moawad, explaining this is “a strategy” to “try to make sure that the story doesn’t reach the world.” Over the past eight months, Al Jazeera has been one of the only international outlets with reporters on the ground inside Gaza, where at least three of its employees have been killed by Israel’s monthslong assault. Israel has been threatening to ban Al Jazeera for “incitement” via “a series of intimidations” for months, culminating in “a criminal act,” says Moawad. He calls on the international community, including the U.S. government, to condemn Israel’s suppression of a free press.

AMY GOODMAN: Israel has ordered 100,000 Palestinians living in eastern Rafah to evacuate ahead of an Israeli offensive on the southern Gaza city, where more than 1.4 million displaced Palestinians have sought refuge. This comes as Israeli authorities have taken Al Jazeera off the air inside Israel. On Sunday, police officers raided the network’s Jerusalem bureau, seizing broadcasting equipment. Israel’s Foreign Press Association called it a, quote, “dark day for democracy.” The move came just two days after World Press Freedom Day. Over the past eight months Al Jazeera has been one of the only international outlets with reporters on the ground inside Gaza.

This is a prerecorded video message by Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan from East Jerusalem.

IMRAN KHAN: If you’re watching this prerecorded report, then Al Jazeera has been banned in the territory of Israel. On April the 1st, the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, passed a law that allowed the prime minister to ban Al Jazeera. He’s now enacted that law.

Let me just take you through some of the definitions within the law. They’ve banned our website, including anything that has the option of entering or accessing the website, even passwords that are needed, whether they’re paid or not, and whether it’s stored on Israeli servers or outside of Israel. The website is now inaccessible. They’re also banning any device used for providing content. That includes my mobile phone. If I use that to do any kind of news gathering, then the Israelis can simply confiscate it. Our internet access provider, the guy that simply hosts AlJazeera.net, is also in danger of being fined if they host the website. The Al Jazeera TV channel, completely banned. Transmission by any kind of content provider is also banned, and holding offices or operating them in the territory of Israel by the channel. Also, once again, any devices used to provide content for the channel can be taken away by the Israelis.

It’s a wide-ranging ban. We don’t know how long it will be in place for, but it does cover this territory of the state of Israel.

Imran Khan, Al Jazeera, occupied East Jerusalem.

AMY GOODMAN: Again, that’s a prerecorded video message by Al Jazeera correspondent Imran Khan from East Jerusalem.

As the death toll in Gaza approaches 35,000, with more than 78,000 people wounded in Israeli attacks since October 7th, we’re joined in Doha, Qatar, by Mohamed Moawad, managing editor of Al Jazeera, joining us from the studios of Al Jazeera.

Welcome to Democracy Now! Can you start off by responding to Israel’s move and what this means for Al Jazeera?

MOHAMED MOAWAD: Thanks, Amy, for having me, and thanks for following this story.

It’s a series of intimidations that the Israeli government are placing on us. And this move is within the same loop of failure that the Israeli government have entered since the beginning of this war. First, they have intimidated us to try and stop the message, the coverage of Al Jazeera from inside Gaza. Then they have — after they have failed, they shot the messenger, actually three messengers of Al Jazeera, three correspondents, and that did not stop our coverage.

So, now they are back again and trying to stop our coverage or try to delegitimize the coverage by saying that we don’t operate in Israel. And we consider this an attack on the journalistic community in all. And we consider it a criminal act, because this against and a violation, a clear violation, to the international human rights laws.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain what happened this weekend, how you found out that Al Jazeera was banned, the raiding of your offices in Jerusalem? Describe the whole sequence.

MOHAMED MOAWAD: If you go back like three months back, the Israeli government have been threatening Al Jazeera, intimidating Al Jazeera by saying that they are going to vote for a law to block Al Jazeera for 45 days under the umbrella of the emergency actions that they are taking because of the war, the ongoing war. So, we’ve been hearing that, like our colleagues at Haaretz who were threatened to be defunded because they are against the national security of Israel, as the Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government stated. We’ve been hearing that they are going to put the vote for the cabinet to pass. And it took them three months. Up until yesterday, they have listed it on the top of the agenda of the government. They voted in favor, anonymously.

And the minister of communications took actions on the ground to block our coverage by seizing our signal with the cable companies in Israel and raiding our locations. They have raided a remote location, live position, where our colleagues at Al Jazeera English were broadcasting. And they have placed a blockage on our office in Jerusalem.

And, of course, this law is ambiguous. I mean, they can take actions as much as the Prime Minister Netanyahu is concerned. They can do the same with our office in Ramallah in the West Bank, because they can say that this is under the umbrella of the emergency law.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you think that the banning starting this weekend — and can you explain: Does this go for 45 days, or is it indefinite? Do you think that there is a direct relationship between the banning of Al Jazeera, which is one of the few international news organizations that have journalists on the ground in Gaza, and Israel announcing and dropping flyers in southern Rafah telling people to leave because of an imminent invasion?

MOHAMED MOAWAD: Of course, Amy, this move is politicized. I mean, anything taken against Al Jazeera is a politicization by the Israeli government and Prime Minister Netanyahu against a journalism organization, Al Jazeera. But, for us, we consider it, you know, part of a sequence of intimidations. We have three colleagues killed on the frontlines, families targeted of our colleagues. And, for us, we don’t want to be dragged in the political realm. We prefer to be in the journalistic realm. But, apparently, the Israeli government, for a country that’s called itself a democracy, is taking the same actions that were taken against us back in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, when a bunch of authoritarian regimes banned Al Jazeera and closed our offices under the umbrella of violating or threatening their national security, which is a very ambiguous and baseless and unfounded claims.

And by the way, Amy, it is very important to mention that our coverage includes, does include, the Israeli side. We have, from the beginning, aired all the press conferences for the Israeli officials, while this might anger our audience because they feel like this is uncomfortable for them to be watching the statements of the Israeli government. And at the same time, we air all the atrocities happening in Gaza. But we are committed to the impartial coverage, and we continued that. So, we consider all the events on the ground as events that we continue to cover from inside Gaza, but, of course, we cannot disconnect it from the fact that the Israeli government is trying to conceal what’s happening in Gaza and try to intimidate Al Jazeera and block Al Jazeera’s coverage and delegitimize the whole coverage by saying, “They don’t operate in Israel. They are a one-sided kind of coverage.” But we are committed to staying objective. And that’s our goal and our ethics from — code of ethics from the beginning of the launch of this organization in the Middle East 25 years back.

AMY GOODMAN: Today Israel marked Holocaust Remembrance Day, the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. At a wreath-laying event at Israel’s national Holocaust museum and memorial in Jerusalem, video shows Prime Minister Netanyahu being heckled with calls to resign. This is what happened.

PROTESTER: [speaking in Hebrew]

AMY GOODMAN: Apparently, the protester said in Hebrew, quote, “We must not descend into the abyss again. What else is necessary for you to go home?” he said to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Your response, Mohamed Moawad?

MOHAMED MOAWAD: Well, this is one of the events that Al Jazeera could have covered yesterday, but our correspondent wasn’t able to reach the area, because we abide by the laws. We don’t want to violate it, because our colleagues are operating under the Israeli law in Israel and Jerusalem. Our colleague today appeared live from Ramallah, from the West Bank, where we moved all our colleagues there. And we covered these events remotely. Of course, we will keep the space for this kind of coverage, and we’ll make sure that what’s happening inside Israel is on our screen. But still, the one who is not benefiting from that is the Israeli side. We want to stay impartial, but these kind of important events, the turmoil that Israel is going through, isn’t — we are not able to cover like before, after this decision.

AMY GOODMAN: The Israeli communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, said, “We finally are able to stop Al Jazeera’s well-oiled incitement machine that harms the security of the country.” Your response?

MOHAMED MOAWAD: Of course. This is the same thing that we have heard before in the Middle East, as well, when we get both sides to speak. I mean, the fact that they call the other party of the conflict bad people doesn’t mean that a news organization, you know, won’t deal with it. I mean, we report both sides. We have the Palestinian side and the Israeli side. We report both sides. And what the Israeli government is bragging about is trying to censor our coverage or try to intimidate us to have us not cover the other side of the story. We are committed to that. We’re covering from Gaza with six correspondents on the ground. We are the only news organization on Earth covering from north of Gaza.

And we call all the international community to act, the journalistic community specifically, because up until now, we are seven months in this war and the atrocities happening in Gaza, and you don’t have an international journalist entered Gaza, because the Israeli government is preventing this from happening.

So, it’s a strategy that the Israeli government is working upon from the beginning of the conflict, is try to make sure that the story doesn’t reach the world. But guess what: Any reporting of Al Jazeera is corroborated by other news organizations. We get called up by ABC, CNN, NBC, all the news organizations around the globe, to ask us to get the rights of the footage that we get from inside Gaza. And our reporting is the base for so many investigation reports that happened and that was broadcasted on so many channels around the globe.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to Mohamed Moawad, Al Jazeera’s managing editor, speaking from the studios of Al Jazeera in Doha. I wanted to ask you about the killings and woundings of journalists. This Saturday, May 11th, will mark two years since the Palestinian American Al Jazeera Arabic reporter Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli gunfire while on assignment in the West Bank for Al Jazeera outside the Jenin refugee camp. Since October 7th, there have been reportedly over 50 attacks against Al Jazeera journalists. In December, Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa was killed by an Israeli drone attack as he reported in Khan Younis. Longtime Gaza correspondent Wael al-Dahdouh was also injured in the attack. Then, in January, his son Hamza, also a journalist, along with videographer Mustafa Thuraya, were killed in an Israeli drone strike. I remember watching Al Jazeera that day, when reporters at Al Jazeera in your studios in Doha held up signs of the killed and the injured. Mohamed Moawad, can you respond to what the kind of toll that this attack on Gaza, and, of course, in the case of Shireen Abu Akleh, that was two years ago, in the West Bank, has taken on your staff, on your reporters, and beyond Al Jazeera — according to CPJ, Committee to Protect Journalists, over a hundred media workers?

MOHAMED MOAWAD: We remember Shireen Abu Akleh every day now with what’s happening in Gaza and, you know, the devastating loss of our colleagues on the frontline. We remember Shireen Abu Akleh because now we understand that when the whole journalistic community and the international community let this go without holding the Israeli government accountable for the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, who was covering not, you know, a war like what’s happening in Gaza right now, but was covering an incident, an Israeli operation in Jenin — when the international community was silent with this crime, then came other crimes, and other crimes followed.

So, what we want right now is from the international community, the journalistic community, is to show strong actions against the Israeli government, place pressure for the United States. We are still waiting for a statement from the White House, from the State Department, to comment on what’s happened with our offices in Jerusalem and Israel. This is very important. Right now we haven’t seen a statement yet. And this is very important for the United States, who, you know, is talking about preventing the harming of journalists around the globe and defending democracy. So, we’re still waiting for a statement from the United States. We call upon the international community to intervene, because this is a kind of an intimidation to the whole journalistic community to try to make sure that Gaza’s story isn’t out there in the world and try to make sure that we don’t give voice to the voiceless, we report one side only of the story, from the Israeli side, and we don’t talk about what’s happening in Gaza.

AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you so much for being with us, and condolences on the death of so many journalists at Al Jazeera. Mohamed Moawad, we thank you so much for being with us, managing editor of Al Jazeera, speaking to us from Al Jazeera headquarters in Doha, Qatar.

Coming up, as the World Food Programme warns northern Gaza is experiencing a “full-blown famine,” we’ll get a report from a doctor just out. Stay with us.


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“They Are Starving,” Says Doctor Back from Gaza; World Food Programme Warns North in “Full-Blown Famine”
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
MAY 06, 2024

Transcript

The World Food Programme is warning northern Gaza has reached a “full-blown” famine that is spreading south. This comes after the Israeli military has spent months blocking the entry of vital aid into Gaza, attacking humanitarian aid convoys and opening fire on Palestinian civilians waiting to receive lifesaving aid. We get an update on conditions among the besieged and starving population of Gaza — including of children now suffering from the psychological effects of intense and prolonged trauma — from Dr. Walid Masoud, a vascular surgeon and a board member of the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund who is just back from heading a medical mission to Gaza.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

We continue to look at the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza as the head of the World Food Programme warns northern Gaza is experiencing a “full-blown famine,” with severe starvation quickly spreading to the south, due to Israel’s war and total blockade of Gaza. World Food Programme Executive Director Cindy McCain, the widow of the late Senator John McCain, spoke Sunday on NBC News’ Meet the Press.

CINDY McCAIN: There is famine, full-blown famine, in the north, and it’s moving its way south. And so, with — what we’re asking for and what we’ve continually asked for is a ceasefire and the ability to have unfettered access to get in — safe and unfettered access to get into the — into Gaza.

AMY GOODMAN: Human rights groups accuse Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war, a war crime. The Israeli military has repeatedly blocked the entry of vital aid into Gaza, attacked humanitarian aid convoys and killed Palestinian civilians waiting to receive food and other aid. A Palestinian mother in Gaza City described the dire situation.

ASMAA AL-BELBASI: [translated] We need food to survive. We need to feed our children. We want to get to this area but can’t get there with cars, because the roads are blocked by rubble from the strikes. The sun hits us as we walk. And you find a long queue there from the morning. And you’re exhausted by the time you return, all for some bread.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we go to Amman, Jordan, where we’re joined by Dr. Walid Masoud, a vascular surgeon, board member of Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. He headed PCRF’s medical mission to Gaza earlier this month.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, Doctor. If you can start off by describing what we’re seeing, I mean, to have Cindy McCain, the head of the World Food Programme, saying the north is in “full-blown famine”? Describe the effects and what this means for the people who are surviving in Palestine, Gaza.

DR. WALID MASOUD: Good morning, first of all. Good morning, America.

First of all, let me say about PCRF that our mission is to provide medical and humanitarian relief for the children throughout the Levant, regardless their nationalities or religion. We headed to Gaza under the umbrella of PCRF and the umbrella of WHO. OK? We had one lecture in the WHO in Cairo telling us about the safety measures, what we are going to meet in Rafah.

Once we entered there, the moment we entered there, we could see the children around us begging for food, begging for money, begging for anything. OK? The starvation, you could see it in everywhere in the hospital. We were based in the European Hospital. And in the buildings of the hospitals, it was full of refugees. More than 50,000 refugees came from the north to this hospital, because they feel it is safe. It’s not only in the territory around the hospital, but inside the hospital, inside the corridors, in the stairs, every room, they had refugees.

While we were walking in the corridors, you could see the children around, and you could see by their eyes how they underfed and they have malnutrition and they are starving. You could see how they lost the muscle mass. You could see the skin. You could see how they fatigue. You could see how they are depressed, actually. When you talk to them, they are slow, slow motion in talking. OK? You can see the loss of the weight on these children. In the theaters, when we operate upon children, we could see how their body mass index is low, and we could see they are not oriented, actually, most of the patients upon which we operated. This reflects this decreased immunity of the children and increased rate of the infection, because there is not enough proteins in their body to initiate or to make the immunity system in the right way.

We had to operate immediately as emergency on many injured patients, not only children but also adults. Starvation does not only with the children. It was everyone in the population. Imagine you have 1.8 million in Rafah, and there is not enough food for these. If there is food, you cannot even reach it, because transportations is dangerous. You could see how is the World Kitchen being bombed and killed there. What about the locals? If the foreigners died from bombarding their cars, what about the locals?

You can imagine how 1.8 million, they don’t have enough hospitals. Only three proper hospitals is working in Rafah. We operated in Rafah only, but some of our surgeons went to Al-Kuwaiti Hospital, because they could not transfer the kids to the European Hospital. One of our surgeons, pediatric surgeons, went to the Al-Kuwaiti Hospital and performed 16 surgeries. Totally, we operated around 250 or 275 and more. The situation was very bad in the theater.

The staff, if we talk about the staff, the staff are exhausted, the staff depressed, the staff disoriented. All the staff in the theaters and in the wards in the hospital, they are volunteers, actually. They don’t receive salaries. Do you know what they receive? They are volunteers working, no money, but they receive only the lunch. And this lunch, they eat a little bit. Maybe they eat 10% of their lunch, in order to take the lunch to the tents to their families, because they don’t have money to buy anything. And if they have money, there is not enough food in the market.

We operated upon children who’ve been injured around five, six months ago. We had a patient, 13-years-old patient. I sent you his video. He had shrapnels behind the knee, and he developed a fistula between the artery and the vein. So, because of that, his foot and leg became ischemic, not enough blood, and it began a gangrene in his toes. So, we did such an operation. This patient had a referral letter to go to Egypt for treatment, but he could not, because there is a queue. Maybe it will take him 10 months just to his chance to go to Egypt. We did the operation. We disconnected the fistula. And he is OK. But you could tell how his muscles are weak and there is a loss of muscle bulk with him. His wounds — we followed him a few days after that. His wounds is not healing well because of the lack of proteins in his body, lack of minerals, lack of vitamins in his body. There is not enough food even in the hospital to give them IV fluids or IV nutrients.

Many patients died from infection because they don’t have enough immunity. They don’t have enough antibiotics or proper antibiotics, because sometimes they have the basics of the antibiotics. We managed to bring many medications, many antibiotics, other things, but it’s not that enough. When a mission comes, they bring some, but it’s not enough for 1.8 million people there. And there is, as you said earlier, above 78,000 injured patients.

Our mission was depressing to us from inside, but we were happy to give what we can do to them. There were many things which disturbed us. We could work in an environment which is unsuitable. OK? Example, these drones all the time have noisy, noise, voices, like zzzzz. They called it zanana. First three days, in our team, they could not sleep because of these drones and zanana and these noises. And it is 24 hours there. The staff is exhausted and depressed. When we came, we were seven surgeons from Jordan and one nurse also from Jordan. We had two from Ireland. We have one from Germany and one from United States. All of them, we gathered them. We could not eat full food, because we feel we are guilty once we are eating. And outside, there is a lot of children begging for food, and families, maybe they don’t eat at all or they eat one time a day.

Many surgeries were done, major surgeries, which means that this patient should have well feeding, IV or something, in order his wounds to heal. We managed to help patients, but in some situations it is out of our hands to continue. OK, I managed, for example, to reoperate the lab cath — the cath lab, so we can do some surgeries with intervention, interventional radiology. This cath lab was out of work for more than seven months. We managed to start working on this. We did many surgeries and, the patients, discharged them home.

This is another point. When we did surgery, patient went to discharge. The patient said, “Where I am going? I don’t have any home. I don’t have even tent to go.” So, many patients stay in the hospital so they can have a home, shelter. They can have food also.

We managed — also they have dialysis machines, which is out of work for the last seven, eight months in the European Hospital. We managed, with the help of one of the biomedical engineers who came from Jordan, Dr. Samadi, we managed to fix up these two machines, and we reopened the dialysis unit there. We tried to bring some medicine, some instruments, some tools, equipment to be used for the patients there, but that was not enough.

AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Masoud, I’m going to interrupt here —

DR. WALID MASOUD: Not enough for this.

AMY GOODMAN: — because we have to break.

DR. WALID MASOUD: Our mission not only was medical.

AMY GOODMAN: But I know that there is a delay.

DR. WALID MASOUD: We tried to support with —

AMY GOODMAN: Doctor — Dr. Masoud, there’s a delay, but I just wanted to end by saying that we are seeing nonstop breaking news on Twitter now. For example, The New Yorker contributor Mosab Abu Toha says the Israeli army is starting to blow up complete neighborhoods in East Rafah, just four hours after ordering families to evacuate the area. And I wanted to end — we just have 30 seconds — because you work with Palestine Children’s Relief, with your observation that increasingly children are expressing suicidal thoughts. We have 30 seconds.

DR. WALID MASOUD: Unfortunately, I had two patients — one patient and his sister — they were around 8 and 7 years. They were questioning me when I was in the round, “Why I am still alive while my wife — my mother and father and brothers died?” The children there, they started to think about suicidal attempts. And we have another patient who lost their legs and lost all the family, and she’s bedridden. And she tried to attempt suicide.

Children, I cannot imagine how they will grow, these children, in the future, while they were thinking about suicidal attempt because their family has died. Unfortunately, many children thinking about this. I cannot imagine in the future how they will act and how they will look to the world and to the peace. Imagine what’s happening. Each family has lost many of their main supporter as father or mother. This creates a psychiatric situation with these children.

I think as they need surgeons to be there, they need psychiatrists in order to treat these patients. There’s a need, definitely a need, because the increase of the, let us say, not suicide, because I did not see any suicidal attempts, but I heard from many children they are thinking about suicide. Unfortunately, the help now is going through vascular surgeon, orthopedic surgeon, etc. I think we need to send more doctors there. Unfortunately, the borders now is closed.

AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Walid Masoud, we’re going to have to leave it there as we go to the students who are protesting across the United States. I want to thank you so much for joining us from Amman, Jordan, just back from Gaza, vascular surgeon and board member of the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.

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Revolt on Campus: Protests over Gaza Disrupt Graduation Ceremonies as Police Crack Down on Encampments
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
MAY 06, 2024

Police have now arrested more than 2,500 students at pro-Palestine protests across the U.S., yet students continue to call for an end to the war on Gaza and universities’ investment in companies that support Israel’s occupation of Palestine. We speak to three student organizers from around the country: Salma Hamamy of the University of Michigan, president of the school’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, about the commencement ceremony protest she helped organize, and Cady de la Cruz of the University of Virginia and Rae Ferrara of the State University of New York at New Paltz about police crackdowns on their schools’ encampments. De la Cruz was arrested in the UVA raid and banned from campus without an opportunity to collect any of her belongings. She says repression has strengthened the resolve of many protesters, who are willing to risk their academic futures to push for divestment. “All of us there felt like we have more time on our hands … than the people of Gaza,” she explains, “We would hold it down for anything.”

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.

Graduation ceremonies have begun on college campuses across the United States as students continue their protests in solidarity with Palestine and calling on their schools to divest from Israel. On Friday, the student speaker at the University of Toledo’s graduate school commencement ceremony wore a keffiyeh hijab and a Palestinian flag over her graduation robe. This is part of the address by Maha Zeidan, a Palestinian American graduating law student, president of the Graduate Student Association.

MAHA ZEIDAN: I apologize that this is not a typical graduation speech, but there is nothing typical about the times that we are living in. There is nothing typical about 15,000 children live-streamed deaths being watched. And there is nothing acceptable about our institutional complicity, silence or the gross misuse of police force nationwide.

AMY GOODMAN: Maha Zeidan. Meanwhile, at the University of Michigan, students holding Palestinian flags briefly disrupted graduation ceremonies Saturday as a plane flew overhead holding a banner that read “Divest from Israel now! Free Palestine!” Also on Saturday, at University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where in 2017 neo-Nazis chanted “Jews will not replace us,” police in riot gear stormed a Gaza solidarity encampment and arrested at least 25 student protesters.

PROTESTER 1: Do not touch her!

POLICE OFFICER: Turn around and walk that way.

PROTESTER 2: Do not touch her Hey!

PROTESTER 1: Do not touch her!

AMY GOODMAN: The raid came after The Intercept’s Prem Thakker reported UVA, quote, “appears to have unilaterally changed policy on tents to help justify calling upon the police to arrest protesters.”

Police have now arrested more than 2,500 students at pro-Palestine protests across the U.S. in the past three weeks, which includes 133 arrests on Thursday at SUNY New Paltz alone, where police violently raided a student encampment with batons and dogs.

Well, we’re joined by three guests from these schools. We’re beginning in Southfield, Michigan, with Salma Hamamy, a student at the University of Michigan who just graduated this past weekend. Salma is president of the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at the University of Michigan.

Salma, can you describe the graduation ceremony on Saturday?

SALMA HAMAMY: Hi. Yes. Thank you for having me.

So, the graduation ceremony on Saturday took place in the early morning with nearly hundreds and hundreds of students prepared to enjoy a celebratory moment. However, likewise, there are hundreds of students who are in the process of immense grief, given the ongoing genocide in Gaza and given the fact that the University of Michigan is funding a genocide. So, students took it upon themselves to engage in protest at the ceremony, with nearly a hundred students walking up and down the aisle trying to rally for the university to heed our demands, considering that they have entirely ignored us for the last seven months. As soon as the plane flew over with the banner, “Divest from Israel now! Free Palestine!” students jumped out of their seats carrying the Palestinian flag, walked throughout the aisles. And eventually, the police pushed us towards the back and prevented further protesters from being able to join us in the graduation.

AMY GOODMAN: And the response of the overall crowd? I mean, there were tens of thousands of people there at University of Michigan graduation, Salma.

SALMA HAMAMY: Yeah, there were certainly tens of thousands of people there. The stadium is one of the largest in the world. And as soon the plane flew by with the banner calling for the university to divest, cheers erupted through the crowd. As students stood up and held their Palestinian flags, you could likewise hear a mix of cheers and some fellow students nearby calling for the police to immediately arrest us, cursing us out, throwing racial slurs. However, students continued on and held the Palestinian flag very high up and joined very quickly with one another and only got louder as both the cheers and boos continued.

AMY GOODMAN: Very quickly, Salma, I’m curious. At the same time, you have a Gaza solidarity encampment on campus. Police have not been called in to raid that?

SALMA HAMAMY: Yes. Surprisingly, police officers have not been called in to raid our encampment yet. We have faced quite a bit in regards to police brutality throughout the last seven months. And as of right now, our best guess is due to the fact that every single time police suppression continues on the rise, students’ power only grows in response. And so, considering that the university would probably be very fearful of what would happen on campus if they were to engage in police violence again, witnessing what has happened in the past, students would only exemplify and amplify their solidarity. So, it’s more so a preventative cause. They’re saying that they’re trying to allow students to peacefully protest; however, every single time we have tried peacefully protesting in the past demanding a meeting, they’ve arrested us several times, brutally beaten us to the floor, even ripping off students’ hijabs in the process. So, as of right now, the university, I think, is trying to wait it out and to wait for the students’ energy to die down. However, it’s only going to continue to grow.

AMY GOODMAN: Salma is joining us from Michigan. We’re going now to Cady de la Cruz, an undergraduate student at University of Virginia in Charlottesville, arrested Saturday for participating in the pro-Palestine encampment, a senior scheduled to graduate in two weeks. Now, let’s place this again. This is Charlottesville, where in 2017 scores of white men, mainly men, marched, saying, “Jews will not replace us.” This is during the Trump administration. If you can describe the arrests that took place, Cady, police arresting 25 protesters? What happened?

CADY DE LA CRUZ: Hi. Good morning.

Yeah. So, as you noted, the tent policy changed without notice at 11 a.m. on Saturday. And at noon, they deployed state troopers in riot gear. We immediately linked arms. We knew why we were there. We knew we weren’t going to leave until they met our demands, and we felt strong. They stalled for two hours. The state police, the city police, the county police, the university police were all there, at least a hundred cops. And we danced. And a huge crowd gathered around the encampment, supporting us, as police tried to keep them from getting in, but people kept running actually past the cops to join us. There was so much solidarity. The crowd outside was almost louder than us.

Eventually, the state troopers in riot gear did close in on us, a line of at least 40 of them, just a little bit longer than us, with shields. We were able to hold our ground until they started to spray huge clouds of chemicals at close range. When we ran back into the encampment to flush out our eyes and our throats, it was when we were separated and on the ground that they started to beat me down with their shields, drag my body by my clothes, and they sprayed us at close range with the chemicals. I saw the can close to my face. I had a friend who they ripped her goggles off and sprayed her. They took us somewhere where they had no medics and no water, while we screamed in pain. They detained 26 of us for almost nine hours with the chemicals still burning on our skins.

I’m now banned from campus. They’ve given us no chance to get our belongings. I have no phone, no laptop, no wallet. I’m purely getting by on the generosity of my friends. And like you said, this is the same campus that knew that men with rifles, Nazis, white supremacists were coming, and did not stop them. And none of those white supremacists are banned from campus.

AMY GOODMAN: Cady, you’re supposed to graduate in two weeks?

CADY DE LA CRUZ: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: You’re risking so much to have protested right before, spending years getting your degree. Why did you do it?

CADY DE LA CRUZ: We had spent so many months pushing for divestment. We had had walkouts, like Salma was saying. Like, we had had walkouts. We had done so, so much. We had passed a referendum that got more votes in favor than even our entire student council election. And our administration refused to even comment on divestment.

And even though I only have two weeks before I’m supposed to graduate, I actually started the encampment on my last day of classes, and I ended up missing my classes. But even with two weeks left, I still — all of us there felt like we have more time on our hands left on our timeline than the people in Gaza, as we’re watching them bomb Rafah. We had a vigil the night before they raided our encampment. And again, we felt so much strength —

AMY GOODMAN: We have five seconds.

CADY DE LA CRUZ: — in our escalation. We knew why we were there. We linked arms. We felt strong. We danced in front of that riot gear. We would hold it down for anything.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you so much for joining us, Cady. And I want to now go to New York to Rae Ferrara, who is with SUNY New Paltz — that’s State University of New York at New Paltz — at the Gaza solidarity encampment. Rae Ferrara, can you describe — I mean, you had a large number of students arrested. Over 130?

RAE FERRARA: The closest thing to an accurate number we have is 133, but it is most definitely more than that. That’s the number that the DA is giving. But just our jail support resources have made it even more than that. We had about that many people at the encampment.

AMY GOODMAN: And very quickly, since we only have about 40 seconds, can you describe what happened? You had just put the encampment up, when police moved in?

RAE FERRARA: No, we set up our encampment at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, and it wasn’t until about 10:40 p.m. on Thursday that the police raided us. This was after several failed attempts to negotiate with the university. Police raided us for over three hours. They knocked my friend unconscious. He had a concussion. They knocked an 82-year-old woman unconscious. All of my friends have bruises. They have red marks on their hands from the zip ties. And then, afterwards, they bulldozed all of our things.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you so much for being with us, Rae Ferrara, SUNY New Paltz Gaza solidarity camp participant and student at SUNY New Paltz; Cady de la Cruz, speaking to us from the University of Virginia; and Salma Hamamy at the University of Michigan, graduate, just graduated, president of SJP. That does it for our show. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks so much for joining us.

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Fmr. Israeli Peace Negotiator Daniel Levy: U.S. Pressure on Israel Is Key to Lasting Gaza Ceasefire
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
MAY 07, 2024

Even after Hamas accepted a Gaza ceasefire proposal Monday, Israeli forces moved in with tanks to seize the Rafah crossing with Egypt. Israel says the ceasefire deal falls short of its demands, and Hamas has called for “international intervention.” Former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy says the limited information and political maneuvering of all parties raises more questions than answers right now, but the core issue is whether all parties can maintain a sustained end to hostilities. “In addition to testing each other, the Hamas and Israeli parties are testing the United States of America and the Biden administration in an unprecedented way,” says Levy. “Hamas detects that the U.S. may finally be serious about offering a sustained calm.” While Levy says growing external pressure from global protests are “having an impact,” he doubts U.S. and Israeli leaders feel they must change course yet. “The pressure does not feel sufficient that Netanuahu’s politics needs him to accept a ceasefire. He still thinks he can wiggle out of this,” says Levy. “If this deal doesn’t go through, I fear we’re in for the much longer haul.”

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: Palestinians say nowhere is safe in Rafah, as Israeli forces carried out heavy aerial bombardment again overnight and moved in with tanks, seizing the Rafah crossing on Gaza’s border with Egypt. The Israeli military released video showing soldiers raising an Israeli flag near the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing and a tank running over an “I love Gaza” sign. Over a million Palestinians have fled to Rafah since October 7th.

Israel’s war cabinet voted to move forward with its Rafah military operation Monday even after Hamas said it had accepted a ceasefire proposal. Israel says the proposal, which was developed with mediators from Qatar and Egypt, falls short of its demands. At one point, Al Jazeera reported people in Rafah started celebrating upon hearing the announcement that Hamas had accepted the Gaza ceasefire proposal. This is a displaced child in Gaza, Malak, responding to the news Monday.

MALAK: [translated] We were optimistic when Hamas agreed to the ceasefire proposal. We were very optimistic. But Israel procrastinated, and it is going too far. They don’t want to agree for a ceasefire, and they want to raid Rafah. They dropped leaflets, and we don’t know what to do or where to go.

AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, thousands of people rallied across Israel Monday night calling for an immediate deal to release the hostages still held in the Gaza Strip, criticizing the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On Monday, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller responded to questions about Hamas accepting the Gaza ceasefire proposal from Egypt and Qatar.

JOHN KIRBY: The last thing I would ever want to do from this podium is say something that could put this very sensitive process at greater risk. We are at a critical stage right now. We got a response from Hamas. Now Director Burns is working through that, trying to assess it, working with the Israelis. I mean, my goodness, folks, I don’t know that it gets any more sensitive than right now. And the worst thing that we can do is start speculating about what’s in it.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s White House spokesperson John Kirby. In a statement today, Hamas called for international intervention to push Israel towards a ceasefire.

For more, we go to London, where we’re joined by former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy. He’s president of the U.S./Middle East Project, was an Israeli peace negotiator under Israeli Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Yitzhak Rabin.

Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Daniel Levy. If you can talk about the latest that is understood about the ceasefire proposal, what Hamas has accepted, what Israel has refused to accept at this point, though they have sent a mid-level delegation to continue the negotiations?

DANIEL LEVY: With pleasure, Amy, as long as you let me just very quickly acknowledge that John Kirby and the White House have done very little from their podium except undermine the prospects of ending this war for the last months. So I think it’s little bit rich for the spokesperson, Mr. Kirby, to stand there and say, “The last thing I’d want to do is undermine it.” You’ve done very little else for many, many months. If we are getting close, then why did you wait this long? Why have so many thousands of children died and suffered appallingly, along with all of the Palestinian civilian population? And why have those hostage families had to wait so long?

Now, what’s going on? What has been proposed? What has been agreed? There is a document that has been leaked. I cannot speak to its veracity, but I understand that it is certainly close to what we understand to be discussed. And there are two key components to this, Amy. One is this thing that we have been circling around for months now, which is: Does a pause, a hostage release, a release of Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails — does this represent the beginning of a sustained calm, a sustained ceasefire, an on-ramp to that permanent ceasefire? Or is this limited in time, duration, and then Israel continues to enter Rafah, carry out its assault on Gaza? If Hamas turned around and said, “At the end of 40 days, we’re going to launch rockets on northern — on southern Israel,” I think people would say, “Well, that’s a bit of a strange deal.” But if Israel says, “At the end of 40 days, we’re going to launch an assault on Rafah,” then this is apparently a reasonable response. And that’s the key thing.

And I think what has happened this time around is that in addition to testing each other, the Hamas and Israeli parties are testing the United States of America and the Biden administration in an unprecedented way. What do I mean by that? I think we’ve come this far because Hamas detects that the U.S. may finally be serious about offering a sustained calm, about guaranteeing — and this can’t be ironclad, but at least credibly guaranteeing — that they do not see a continuation of the war after two weeks or four weeks or six weeks. On the flipside, Prime Minister Netanyahu is testing: “Are the U.S. serious? Are they really going to hold off my weapons supplies? Are they really going to lay the blame at my door if I’m the recalcitrant party? Because that will be difficult for me to sustain domestically.” We don’t yet have the answer from the Biden administration in unequivocal terms. I think that will be crucial. That’s the key question.

Then, Amy, there are the details of the agreement, which will be hard to iron out. But if you’ve got this core question addressed of “Are we really going to a ceasefire, or we going to a temporary pause?” — and unless it’s the former, this can’t be done — if we’ve got that ironed out, then one hopes that the questions around Palestinian movement inside Gaza, the questions around where the Israeli forces will be deployed, the questions around the entrance of humanitarian desperately needed assistance, one hopes that all those can be thrashed out. If we got there, then there’s implementation. Implementation will be difficult, especially if Netanyahu feels he can get away with slipping out of this and going back to what he clearly prefers, which is an even longer war, because that’s how his politics stacks up.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Daniel Levy, the BBC is reporting that a senior Palestinian official familiar with the ceasefire is claiming that Hamas has agreed to, quote, “end hostile activity forever” if the conditions of the truce are met. Do you place any stock in that report, from what you’re hearing?

DANIEL LEVY: I do not. Hamas is a political movement. It’s an armed resistance movement. It has committed, I would argue, violations of international law. Israel was doing that before October 7. So was Hamas. That has continued throughout this war. Hamas is also an idea, in terms of resistance to permanent, hostile, belligerent occupation. I would take with extreme caution anything we are being told by a Palestinian Authority source. They are simply not part of this, because they have marginalized themselves by becoming part of the furniture of the Israeli occupation. Unfortunately, today, it’s hard not to see them as a coopted authority.

I think it’s important to acknowledge that alongside condemning what Hamas did on October 7th, one has to acknowledge that the Palestinians have the right, under international law, to resist an illegal occupation. They must simply do so within the parameters defined by international law, just as Israel has a right to defend its citizens. That’s its responsibility. But again, it must do so within the parameters of international law, rather than violating, very plausibly, the Genocide Convention, as set out by the International Court of Justice in its provisional ruling. So, I would suggest that that kind of rumor mill is unhelpful.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And I wanted to ask you also about the protests, the continuing massive protests within Israel, even while the war continues. Your sense of the impact of these protests on the Israeli government?

DANIEL LEVY: It’s a very important point, Juan. What I think we have seen is the intensity of those protests — and those protests tend to center around the prioritizing of getting the hostages out, saying, “Do the deal. Get the hostages out.” The intensity, especially those led by members of family of those being held, by family, friends, those have increased. The volume, the extent to which this is disruptive and is impossible for Netanyahu to stare down, I do not think we are anywhere near that moment.

And so, you have to put these protests in the context of what is the internal dynamic in Israel. Is it a dynamic where Netanyahu feels he’s run out of options? So, there’s a way of interpreting what’s happening at the moment, is that Israel has started, especially at the border crossing with Egypt, seizing a part of Rafah, a part of this area called the Philadelphi Corridor, as well, as a last-gasp thing so that the Israeli government, which feels it will have to agree to a deal, will be able to say, “You see, it was this action which got them to accept slightly better terms. We did what we needed to do.” That is the optimistic interpretation, that the pressure, internally and externally, is such that Netanyahu feels it’s closing in on him. I do not think we’re there yet. I’m not with that interpretation. I would like us to be there.

The internal pressure is such that the soft opposition, who will run against Netanyahu in the next election, led by this guy Gantz, former chief of staff, former defense minister, and Eisenkot, they are still in the government. They have still not unequivocally said that if Netanyahu turns down the deal, they will quit. Even if they quit, Netanyahu has a majority. The street protests — courage to them — they’re important. You even had — it was Holocaust Remembrance Day yesterday. You even had Holocaust survivors coming out and saying, “Not in our name. This isn’t how one goes about remembering the Holocaust.” And Netanyahu used this, as he has done throughout, in very scurrilous terms.

But the pressure does not feel sufficient that Netanyahu’s politics needs him to accept a ceasefire. He still thinks he can wiggle out of this, which is where the question of the external pressure becomes a key factor, because it’s going to be that combination of internal and external. So I think the next question one would have to address is: Where does the external pressure stand?

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go to another clip, this of U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.

MATTHEW MILLER: So, I can confirm that Hamas has issued a response. We are reviewing that response now and discussing it with our partners in the region. As you know, Director Burns is in the region working on this in real time. We will be discussing this response with our partners over the coming hours. We continue to believe that a hostage deal is in the best interests of the Israeli people, it’s in the best interests of the Palestinian people. It would bring an immediate ceasefire. It would allow increased movement of humanitarian assistance. And so, we are going to continue to work to try to reach one.

AMY GOODMAN: And so, if you can talk — he’s referring to the CIA Director Burns, who is intimately involved with these negotiations. He’s going back and forth. If you can talk about his significance? And when you talked about the role of the United States, how exactly has it stopped this from happening to this point, Daniel Levy?

DANIEL LEVY: Yes, I wish I could confirm that the U.S. has stopped this from happening. I mean, firstly, Amy, let’s just go back to those scenes you showed earlier on, Palestinians in Gaza celebrating when the news came through of the Hamas acceptance of the terms of a deal. I think one can understand their celebrations, not only, of course, because of what they’ve been going through, but also they have been told — if anyone takes the United States government seriously, they have been telling us — Blinken said this in his last visit — they have been telling us that all it takes is a Hamas “yes.” So I think many of us would have been reasonable in responding, “Well, we got a Hamas 'yes.' It’s all done and dusted, isn’t it?” The reason that’s not quite true is this was, I think one has to acknowledge, misinformation on the part of the U.S. government, that this doesn’t just depend on Hamas. It very clearly depends on the Israeli side, which most of the Israeli commentators at this stage are acknowledging that Prime Minister Netanyahu has constantly undermined these talks. And rather than being pulled up on this, being held with his feet to the fire by the U.S. administration, they have failed to do that.

Now, I think it matters that CIA Director Burns is still in the region, we understand, is directly engaged. Blinken has really not done a good job of this. I understand they play different roles. But one has to really ask this question, because that’s the outside pressure: Will the U.S. make it as near as impossible for Netanyahu to say “no”? If they fail that test, then Rafah will happen.

By the way, it will almost certainly still be going on when Democrats convene for their convention in Chicago. I am not suggesting — and I think this is an important distinction to draw, Amy — I am not suggesting that the administration can click their finger and stop this. What I am saying is that a U.S. administration that is willing to sustain a standoff with the Israeli leadership will place Netanyahu in a position where his military are saying, “We just can’t keep going with this.” You already have burnout. Rafah will not be easy. The military side of this has not gone well. You will have a population increasingly saying, “This is too much to put at risk this relationship.” And Netanyahu will have the hardest choice to make. And I think, over time, he will have to succumb to this.

There have been reports that some of the weapons transfers have been held up from the U.S. to Israel by the administration. Those have neither been confirmed nor denied. If you want to get a ceasefire, they’re going to have to be confirmed. That is actually going to have to happen.

I imagine that some of this move towards a possible deal, move towards possible U.S. seriousness in challenging Netanyahu, that we are not at the point of success yet. But some of the move towards that is a consequence of what you’ve shown us, what’s going on inside the U.S., the pressure, the campuses. People should not feel disheartened. What they are doing is having an impact: the fear of how this could play out politically. And so, I would say, in these crucial moments, those efforts should be redoubled, because they are meaningful.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Daniel Levy, I’m wondering: The decision of the Israeli Cabinet to urge Palestinians, 100,000 Palestinians, to leave eastern Rafah, do you sense that this is also an attempt by Netanyahu to short-circuit a potential deal?

DANIEL LEVY: I would interpret it that way, yes, Juan. There are two ways people are looking at this. Is this a smart negotiating tactic to gain more leverage? I don’t think that’s worked with Hamas thus far. I see no reason to think that was the case. Hamas had already submitted its responses. The other way of looking at this is that it’s a way of testing, prodding: Can Israel get away with this? Can this prove to Hamas that we can do it, we are going to do it, there is no deal, and therefore Hamas will retreat from its position? I think that is a more reasonable reading, given everything we know about Netanyahu, everything he and his coalition have said. I’d love to think that this is a last gasp, and I hope that’s how it plays out, but it doesn’t look that way.

There are three ways this can go, Juan. Number one, this is something that Netanyahu cannot pull off. He feels cornered. He does the deal, and it holds. That would be a precious thing. I don’t think we’re near that yet. The second is that Netanyahu says “no,” proves that he means “no.” This effort unravels. And then the question is: Do the Americans, as they have done throughout, say, “Well, of course we have to blame Hamas.” And I understand that for people to think that a Hamas negotiating position is more reasonable than an Israeli negotiating position, for those who follow mainstream American media, yeah, that’s a hard disk to switch in your head. But that’s the second option. The third option is the deal begins, but it unravels while it’s being implemented.

And if I could just zoom out for a moment, all of this is going on — we’re talking about Gaza — while the provocations in the West Bank continue to intensify. Every day there are disturbances there. It’s not just settlers, it’s the Israeli military. There are no settlers without the backing of the Israeli military, without the backing of the Israeli state. And we’re still in an extremely uncertain time in the Israel-Hezbollah, Israel-Lebanon front. So, all of this feeds into each other. And if this deal doesn’t go through, I fear we’re in for the much longer haul, and everything that you’ve reported on, with such tenacity — and I give you credit for that — that has happened over the last months, I’m afraid, will remain with us perhaps for an awfully long time.

AMY GOODMAN: And finally, we have 15 seconds. President Biden is giving what some are billing as one of the most important speeches of his administration, a speech on antisemitism. Daniel Levy, you’re an Israeli Jewish former peace negotiator for Israeli prime ministers. Do you consider anti-Zionism antisemitism?

DANIEL LEVY: This is one of the most dangerous conflations imaginable. Desist from this now. We will fail in the struggle against antisemitism. We will fail to allow Jewish heterogeneity, which has been part of being Jewish throughout. The idea that one creed can be hegemonic, and anything else is antisemitic, is an affront to Jewish history. Desist from this now, Mr. President.

AMY GOODMAN: Daniel Levy, president of the U.S./Middle East Project, former Israeli peace negotiator under Israeli Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Yitzhak Rabin.

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Report from Rafah: Israel Seizes Border Crossing, Blocking Humanitarian Aid, as Ceasefire Talks Continue
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
MAY 07, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/5/7/r ... al_satarri

In Rafah, we speak with Gaza-based journalist Akram al-Satarri about Israel tightening restrictions on humanitarian aid, refusing a ceasefire deal and planning to invade the city where over a million Palestinians are sheltering. Israel’s military seized control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt, blocking humanitarian aid from entering the besieged territory, and trapping Palestinians under heavy Israeli bombardment. This comes after Israel also closed the Karem Abu Salem crossing in southern Gaza this weekend after a Hamas attack killed four Israeli soldiers. “Israel is not allowing the entry of the humanitarian aid to Gaza, which is perceived as a lifeline,” says al-Satarri, who reports Palestinians are “in despair” as Israel orders a third of Rafah’s population to move ahead of their invasion. “They understand that more destruction, more devastation, more death and deprivation is coming for them.” Al-Satarri also speaks about Israel banning Al Jazeera, one of the only international outlets with reporters in Gaza. “I think they want to silence Al Jazeera and they want to silence all the free media for the sake of preventing any further exposure of the things that are happening on the ground.”

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

As the Israeli military strikes Rafah in southern Gaza after Hamas agreed Monday to a ceasefire proposal, we go now to Rafah for an update on the situation there, including access to humanitarian aid. The White House said Monday a ceasefire does not have to be in place for a pier off of Gaza to be operational to bring in aid, but the pier’s construction was temporarily paused last week due to bad weather. Israel seized the Rafah crossing on Gaza’s border with Egypt overnight. This comes after Israel also closed the Karem Abu Salem crossing in southern Gaza this weekend after a Hamas attack killed four Israeli soldiers.

For more, we’re joined by Akram al-Satarri, the Gaza-based journalist, joining from Rafah in southern Gaza near the Kuwaiti Hospital.

Akram, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you talk about what’s happening on the ground right now? What does it mean that Israeli tanks have moved in, that they’ve seized the crossing with Egypt? And how are people responding?

AKRAM AL-SATARRI: Well, as a matter fact, to start with, that means a lifeline has just been blocked. That means the movement of people who are traveling out of Gaza and people who are returning to Gaza has already been blocked. That means the patients who are in need to medical care and are transferred somewhere outside of Gaza are denied that access. That means the general population in southern Gaza and northern Gaza alike are deprived from the food supplies that were delivered — and were even slow before this last development took place — and that people are talking, and irately they have been saying that Israel has been successful in two major military fronts yesterday. The major front, number one, is that they control the Rafah border, which is a civilian facility that is in charge of facilitating the entry and departure of people into and outside of Gaza. And number one, that the Israeli army succeeded in destroying the “I love you, Gaza” banner, which means they have been out and about to destroy anything that has to do with life or love in the Gaza Strip.

People are extremely worried. They understand that they will be greatly affected by that operation. And they understand, as well, that Israel has been playing that card for the sake of consolidating its position when it comes to the negotiations that are still underway between Hamas and between Israel, which is propelled indirectly by Egypt and Qatar and with the supervision and support also of the American administration. The people in Gaza are afraid of the collective punishment that has been going on in Gaza north, and they see this move as a replication of the very same collective punishment techniques followed by the Israeli occupation forces, as they describe them, for the sake of just negotiating over the fate of people, weaponizing the food that people are entitled to as a human, weaponizing the healthcare and health supplies that are entitled to people as humans, and also weaponizing the shelter that has been destroyed.

Yesterday, one-third of Rafah population was asked to leave their homes and head either to the very west of Rafah or to Khan Younis and the Gaza central area. Tens of thousands of people are moving. Tens of thousands of people are still moving. And they are in despair, and they understand that more destruction, more devastation, more death and deprivation is coming for them. So, this is the overall atmosphere in Gaza. People are afraid. People are skeptical about the real intention of the Israeli army or for the Israeli political level to engage in negotiation. And they understand that they have been doing all they have been doing for the sake of undermining the possibility of living a decent life in Gaza and for the sake of just pushing towards an ultimate objective and goal of the transfer of people of Gaza after rendering Gaza uninhabitable.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Akram, I wanted to ask you — all of this comes as Israel banned over the weekend Al Jazeera from reporting in the country and raided Al Jazeera’s Jerusalem bureau. So many reporters, and Al Jazeera reporters, have been killed since this war started. Do you fear that this is an attempt to stamp out any reporting from Gaza just before this new potential invasion of Rafah?

AKRAM AL-SATARRI: In general, the Israeli army and the Israeli political level are so fed up with the performance of all different media outlets. But the irony when it comes to Al Jazeera is that they have been talking about the freedom of expression, and now they are just banning Al Jazeera from transmitting the news bulletins from their — what they call their soil.

They have killed so far 149 journalists. And they have been chasing different news outlets, including some of the review of the materials and of the news bulletins that are provided by reporters on the ground, and then going after those reporters that might be providing some different narrative than the narrative that they want to see on the ground, that they want to see reported to the people and to the public. So, the situation is extremely catastrophic.

And I think they want to silence Al Jazeera, and they want to silence all the free media for the sake of preventing any further exposure of the things that are happening on the ground, those things that include wiping out of whole families, destruction of very critical plants and facilities that are intended to purify the water, that is going for the people who need them, and that’s why people are suffering from severe health symptoms and problems, including upper respiratory systems, digestive systems and all different type of health issues. Israeli government proved by its performance that they have been after the freedom of expression and that they’re willing to take an extra mile when it comes to banning that voice from going out for people. And by banning Al Jazeera, they are supporting the analysis that they have been fighting against freedom of expression at all different fronts and levels.

AMY GOODMAN: Akram al-Satarri, the issue of aid coming through? You have the World Food Programme saying — that’s Cindy McCain saying that the north is in “full-blown famine.” Then you have the U.N. saying Israel is denying access to the southern Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing as aid groups warn of impending catastrophe amidst chaotic scenes of families fleeing with no safe option for shelter. Can you talk about the aid situation right now as the closing of another border, and how people are getting aid at this point?

AKRAM AL-SATARRI: Well, the aid has been extremely slow for the last few weeks or so. People are affected, and people are struggling for the sake of stockpiling, if that is the right expression. The right expression is to get any kind of food that they can serve their families on a daily basis. And the ones who were seeing that ground operation coming, who were hopeful that they would stockpile some of the food for the sake of just using it when they move from Rafah, because they were foreseeing a scenario within which the very same almost famine in the Gaza north would be replicated in the Gaza south, now with the very slow entry of the food, they could not store anything, and the blockade now that has been imposed on the Gaza south, which is a blockade by the literal meaning of the word. Now Israel is controlling the Rafah border. Israel is controlling the area of Kerem Shalom. Israel is not allowing the entry of the humanitarian aid to Gaza, which is perceived as a lifeline for the people of Gaza, who lost their livelihoods, who lost their shelters, who lost their dears, who lost almost everything. But they are still willing to live, and they need that food to live. Now this food is going to be denied. They are going to be denied access to that food. And that is likely to aggravate the humanitarian crisis that is unfolding in the Gaza Strip.

They fear, that has been voiced by the UNRWA, by the World Food Programme, by the United Nations Development Programme, by the Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, which is a U.N. organization that is in charge of observing the situation and supervising and reporting about the situation — technically, all the international organizations have been working about such a move that is likely to have a catastrophic impact on the life of Gazans.

This catastrophic impact has already started last night. When the Rafah crossing was stormed, Kerem Shalom was stormed, people entered the area, were trying to get anything that they can get, anything they can put their hands on. Now no food supplies whatsoever that are coming from the Rafah crossing or from the Kerem Shalom. That is likely to affect people. Today it is affecting people. And it will affect them in a much worse manner as time elapses, because Israel would stay in that area, and then they would resort to some nominal measures to show the world that they have been allowing food aid into Gaza. Gaza needs 1,000 trucks of food aid, of food supplies every day. Gaza has been receiving, in the very first days of the crisis, five trucks, six trucks, 10 trucks, 30 trucks. And Gaza, in the recent days, before the Passover, was receiving around 230 trucks, still below the minimum. But now there’s nothing, not even the minimum or nothing else. And Gaza is likely to continue suffering. And I think that is going to bring about more hunger, more starvation and more death and suffering.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Akram, I wanted to ask you — you’re aware of these massive protests of students across the United States and Europe and other parts of the Western world in support of the Palestinians. Has news and information about these protests reached the people in Gaza? And are they heartened, by some degree, by the support of the young people in these countries?

AKRAM AL-SATARRI: Palestinians have been extremely grateful following the news about those major protests in all different, like, American universities in support of people of Palestine. Palestinians have been very grateful for the Jewish voices for justice and peace, who have been galvanizing people into action. They have been following the news about the people who have been the culprit of that ongoing — they see it as an uprising, and they call it “intifada,” after the name of the intifada, the uprising, that started in 1987, and they are grateful. They are hopeful. And they are extremely positive about that.

And they hope that this kind of activism is going to lead the American — to prompt the American government to reconsider its positions from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and from the Gaza crisis. They are hopeful that this dynamic movement all over the United States is going to also line up more people in support of the Palestinian cause and in support of the right of the people of Palestine to live a dignified life. They want a ceasefire. And they think that this kind of action is leading and is paving the way to a ceasefire by pushing the American administration and by opening the eyes of the public.

So, it has the component of educating. It has the importance of advocating. It has also the operating level, where they have been talking the talk, walking the walk, extending the helping hand, changing the dynamics in the hope something positive would happen.

And personally, I see many positive things happening in the United States, thanks to the efforts of the university students, thanks to the efforts of the humanitarian community, and thanks to the efforts of the Jewish voices who have been there in support of Palestine and in support of humanity and justice.

That is the perception of the Gazans of the things that are happening. Gazans are amazed. Gazans are grateful. Gazans are hopeful that this kind of action would continue and would lead to something bigger and more positive and sustainable, including the sustainable ceasefire.

AMY GOODMAN: Akram al-Satarri, we thank you so much for being with us, Gaza-based journalist, joining from Rafah in southern Gaza.

Next up, Gaza solidarity encampments continue. We speak with a Dartmouth professor who was body-slammed to the ground, former chair of Jewish studies at Dartmouth. Stay with us.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: “Hind’s Hall” by Macklemore. The song just came out, announced that all proceeds from the song go to UNRWA.

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“Stop Weaponizing Antisemitism”: Police “Body-Slam” Jewish Dartmouth Prof. at Campus Gaza Protest
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
MAY 07, 2024

Transcript

Gaza solidarity protests continue at college campuses across the nation — as does the police crackdown. This comes as more than 50 chapters of the American Association of University Professors have issued a statement condemning the violent arrests by police at campus protests. At Dartmouth College last week, police body-slammed professor and former chair of Jewish studies Annelise Orleck to the ground as she tried to protect her students. She was charged with criminal trespass and temporarily banned from portions of Dartmouth’s campus. She joins us to describe her ordeal and respond to claims conflating the protests’ anti-Zionist message with antisemitism. “People have to be able to talk about Palestine without being attacked by police,” says Orleck, who commends the students leading protests around the country. “Their bravery is tremendous and is inspiring. And they really feel like this is the moral issue of their time, that there’s a genocide going on and that they can’t ignore it.”

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

We look now at how Gaza solidarity encampments are continuing on college campuses across the U.S. despite brutal police crackdowns. In the latest roundup, at least 43 students were arrested Monday at UCLA. The Intercept reports after New York police raided Columbia University encampment last week, some of the arrested students were denied water and food for about 16 hours. Two protesters were held in solitary confinement. On Monday, Columbia canceled its main university-wide graduation ceremony May 15th amidst mounting fallout from its mishandling of the peaceful protests.

Meanwhile, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner visited the University of Pennsylvania Gaza solidarity encampment last week to speak with organizers and legal observers.

LARRY KRASNER: The First Amendment comes from here. This is Philadelphia. We don’t have to do stupid, like they did at Columbia. We don’t have to do stupid. What we should be doing here is upholding our tradition of being a welcoming, inviting city where people say things, even if other people don’t like them, because they have a right to say it in the United States, and where protesters also have an obligation to remain nonviolent and to engage in speech activity and in activity that does not become illegal.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner at the encampment at UPenn.

This comes as more than 50 chapters of the American Association of University Professors, the AAUP, have issued a statement condemning the violent arrests by police at campus protests. This includes our next guest, Dartmouth professor, from former chair of Jewish studies, Annelise Orleck, who says police body-slammed her to the ground as she tried to protect her students when officers in riot gear cleared the peaceful encampment on Dartmouth’s campus. Annelise Orleck is a professor of history, women’s, gender and sexuality studies, former chair of Jewish studies at Dartmouth College, where she’s taught for more than 30 years. Professor Orleck was among dozens of students, faculty and community members arrested at the Dartmouth encampment last week. She’s been charged with criminal trespass and temporarily banned from portions of Dartmouth’s campus. She’s joining us now from Thetford, Vermont.

Professor Orleck, thanks so much for being with us. Can you take us through what happened that day? Where were you? Why did you decide to go to this encampment? And then what happened?

ANNELISE ORLECK: We were concerned that the students might be subject to some kind of violence, to — I didn’t really think there was going to be arrests, but I didn’t know for sure. The institution had sent out a very strict list of dos and don’ts earlier in the day, and it was clear that they were going to try to break up the encampment as quickly as possible. So, there were a whole bunch of us. There were dozens of faculty out there to try to support them.

And I was in a line of mostly older women, most of us Jewish, and the riot police came at us and started trying to literally physically push people off the Green. We were standing in front of our students, between the students and the riot police, in the hope of preventing violence. That didn’t happen. My students and I were subject to really violent handling in the course of our arrests. And it’s possible that I was subject to the most violent handling.

AMY GOODMAN: What happened to you?

ANNELISE ORLECK: I was videoing my students’ arrests. I was telling the police, “They’re just students. They’re not criminals. Leave them alone.” And suddenly, I was body-slammed from behind by these very large men in body armor, and hard enough that my feet left the ground for a few seconds. I landed on the ground in front of the protesters. They had taken my phone. And so I got up to try to demand my phone, and then they grabbed me under the arms, slammed me to the ground, dragged me facedown on the grass. You know, one guy had his knee on me. And honestly, Amy, I heard myself saying what I’d seen in videos so many times: “You’re hurting me. I can’t breathe. Stop.” And they said to me what they’ve said to so many victims of police brutality: “You’re talking. You can breathe.” They then put on the zip-tie cuffs on me, on a colleague, my colleague Christopher MacEvitt, and on many of our students so tightly that people have nerve damage, compressed nerves, severe pain. So, that’s what happened to us that night.

And the university has not dropped charges for criminal trespass or even asked the DA to drop the charges. So, we are all banned from the Green, which is the center of campus, from the administration building, where we would go to protest, and from the street on which the president’s house stands.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Professor Orleck, the faculty met with the Dartmouth president yesterday, Monday. Could you talk about what was discussed and what was the message of the faculty to the administration?

ANNELISE ORLECK: The message of the faculty was: Drop all the charges now, apologize for the harm and trauma you’ve inflicted on the campus, promise that there will be no riot police called to campus again, change your policies on protest to be less restrictive, and, you know, to acknowledge constitutional protections on free speech, and get rid of the Palestine exception to free speech. People have to be able to talk about Palestine without being attacked by police with clubs, gas and God knows what else.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask you, Professor Orleck — you’re professor of history, of women’s, gender and sexuality studies, former chair of Jewish studies. President Biden is going to be giving an address on antisemitism today, issuing what they say is a clarion call to fight a swiftly rising tide of antisemitism across the United States and especially on college campuses. I put this question to the Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy, as well, but if you can talk about whether you see this rise, and also the equating of anti-Zionism with antisemitism, and the number of Jewish professors and students who are part of these protests?

ANNELISE ORLECK: Yes. I think this protest movement has a large and disproportionate percentage of Jewish students and faculty involved, because we all feel very strongly that we don’t want — we don’t want this genocide in Gaza in our name. And I was really struck by the fact that there was some reporting, I think, by The Guardian and BBC that I heard today that the people stirring up a lot of trouble and saying things outside the gates at Columbia were tied to the Proud Boys, that there were people who attacked the protesters at UCLA so violently and who had ties to Trump rallies. And I think it’s deeply ironic — deeply, deeply ironic — that the House Republicans who supported the January 6th assault on the Capitol, in which people were wearing Camp Auschwitz shirts and shirts with a logo that says “6MWE” — “6 million wasn’t enough” — and that they have become the defenders against antisemitism.

I heard nothing. There were Buddhist, Christian, Muslim and Jewish chaplains at our protest. The students were singing. They were chanting. Yes, there was some of the “river to the sea” chant that many Jews find so offensive and believe is a call to genocide. I accept the interpretation made by my Palestinian colleagues and students that this chant is about equality from the river to the sea and freedom. So, I don’t see any antisemitism. And you should know that the Jewish — many Jewish faculty at Dartmouth signed a letter insisting that the president not speak in our name and not use antisemitism to rationalize bringing these violent forces onto our campus.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Professor, your message to the students who’ve led and organized these peaceful protests for months despite all of this repression?

ANNELISE ORLECK: Well, my students are — our students are holding another rally today on one of the parts of the campus we’re not banned from, which is the grass in front of the library. And I think their bravery is tremendous and is inspiring. And they really feel like this is the moral issue of their time, that there’s a genocide going on and that they can’t ignore it.

And again, I have colleagues at Columbia, colleagues at UCLA and in many parts of the country who have been part of the — not part of the encampments, but have visited the encampments, have spoken to the students there, have not felt threatened, have not felt antisemitism. Certainly at Dartmouth, we didn’t. And there’s a very powerful open letter from a Christian pastor who was there who’s saying the same thing. So, stop weaponizing antisemitism. It’s offensive, and it’s wrong.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Professor Orleck, how are you right now, having been beaten to the ground? And also, you’re banned from your campus, where you’ve taught for over 30 years, parts of it?

ANNELISE ORLECK: Yes, I was initially, as a condition of my bail, banned from the entire campus, but the college insisted that was a clerical error and, you know, gave lie to their argument that they can’t get charges changed or dropped by calling the local police department and getting them to change my bail so that I can teach. So I can now teach, but my building is one of the — on one of the streets that I’m banned from. So, I was having to run up the street yesterday in sunglasses really quickly trying to get to my class, you know, and not get arrested. It’s ridiculous.

And the Green is the very center of our campus. We all cross it many times a day. My kids grew up playing on the Green. The idea that we can’t have access to the beating heart of our campus is offensive again and, you know, just gives a sense — the president makes this argument that she’s trying to ensure that the Green is open to people with all views and that, you know, the five tents and 10 students who were camped out there would make the Green a place that only people of one view could be. Honestly, I think that’s what they did by making us frightened.

I’m still hurting. I have nerve damage in my wrist. I have an injured shoulder. I have bruising and swelling. And it’s very scary. And I’m getting better, but it’s crazy that I should be in this position for trying to protect my students. And I say the same for other faculty who were out there, including Chris MacEvitt, my colleague on the faculty, who was also arrested and also harmed.

AMY GOODMAN: Annelise Orleck, we want to thank you for being with us, professor of history, women’s gender and sexuality studies, former chair of Jewish studies at Dartmouth College, where she’s taught for more than 30 years, Professor Orleck among dozens of students, faculty, community members arrested at a Dartmouth encampment. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González, for another edition of Democracy Now!

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Meet Students at 4 Colleges Where Gaza Protests Win Concessions, Incl. Considering Israel Divestment
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
MAY 08, 2024

As students around the country set up Gaza solidarity encampments on their campuses, many universities have called in police who have arrested students and dismantled the sites. But students at a number of colleges have managed to negotiate agreements where administrators have acceded to some of their demands, including considering divestment from Israel. We speak with four students who have been involved in pro-Palestine protests on campuses at Middlebury College in Vermont, Evergreen College in Washington state, Brown University in Rhode Island and Rutgers in New Jersey.

“Being an American complicit in this and being a student at an institution complicit in this genocide directly, I couldn’t imagine standing by and not acting,” says Duncan Kreps, who is graduating from Middlebury.

Aseel, a Palestinian student at Rutgers who is only using her first name out of safety concerns, tells Democracy Now! that nearly 100 of her relatives have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza. “The Gaza that I once knew is essentially gone, but I am more than confident, along with my family, that we will return and that we will rebuild it,” she says.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: College campuses around the world have ignited in a global uprising of students protesting Israel’s assault on Gaza. From New York to Berlin, San Francisco to Sydney, students have set up Gaza solidarity encampments to call for a ceasefire and to demand that their schools disclose and divest from companies with ties to Israel.

Many universities have responded by calling the police onto their campuses to violently break up the encampments. In the U.S. alone, over 2,000 students, faculty and supporters have been arrested at dozens of universities over the past three weeks.

But as the campus crackdowns continue, students at a number of universities have managed to negotiate agreements where administrators have acceded to some of the protesters’ demands. One of the first was Pitzer College in California on April 1st.

Today we’re joined by students from four universities where school administrations have agreed to a number of key demands, such as publicly calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and exploring divestment from Israel.

At Brown University, which came to an agreement last week, we’re joined by Rafi Ash, a sophomore majoring in urban studies, part of Brown Jews for a Ceasefire Now and Brown Divest Coalition. He’s joining us from Providence, Rhode Island.

At Middlebury College, which struck a deal on Sunday, we’re joined by Duncan Kreps, a graduating senior at Middlebury, where he’s majoring in mathematics. He was part of the pro-Palestinian Middlebury solidarity encampment, and he joins us from Middlebury, Vermont.

At Evergreen State College in Washington, which came to an agreement last week, we’re joined by Alex Marshall, a third-year student, joining us from Olympia. Evergreen is the alma mater of Rachel Corrie, the American peace activist killed by an Israeli military bulldozer in Gaza March 16th, 2003.

And at Rutgers University in New Jersey, we’re joined by Aseel, a Palestinian student at Rutgers who has family in Gaza. She’s part of Students for Justice in Palestine.

We welcome you all to Democracy Now! Let’s begin at Brown. Rafi Ash, you are a sophomore in urban studies at Brown. Can you talk about the encampment that was set up and then what ensued?

RAFI ASH: Yeah. So, we set up an encampment last — two weeks ago at this point, and our encampment was on the Main Green, our central quad on campus. And we set up for seven days. And while the administration raised its disciplinary threats over the course of those days, that really did not, you know, sway students. And as the administration was trying to start setup for commencement, the pressure grew on them to actually begin to, you know, either force us out or come to the table. And we were able to force them to the table on Monday of last week, and that led to a multiday negotiations process.

And, you know, I think these negotiations didn’t really seem like a possibility before these encampments began, but through them, we were able to actually push to force a vote on divestment, and that’s a vote that’s never happened before at Brown, and that’s something that we’ve been pushing for for a long time, that our Board of Corporation will first have a more informational session on divestment without a vote, but then followed by, at the meeting after, a guaranteed vote. And, you know, that’s not the end of the story. We still have so much more work to do, and we need to make sure that that vote is a yes for divestment. But that was a huge step that came out of an escalatory encampment.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, a while ago, there were a number of arrests on campus. There were protests after Hisham Awartani, who is the Brown student who was shot in Burlington, Vermont, when he and two of his best friends from the Friends Academy in Ramallah, who had come to the United States to go to college, where their families thought it was safer, was shot by a white man off his porch when they were taking a walk on the way to his grandmother’s house. Hisham is now paralyzed. Can you talk about what happened after that and the number of arrests that took place and the administration’s response to that? And are there — the quashing of those charges also a part of this discussion with the administration?

RAFI ASH: Yeah. So, we had, last semester, 61 arrests on campus, 20 of them in early November, before the shooting, and then another 41 in the weeks after Hisham’s shooting. And I think there’s a — it brings it very personal and directly to home that the violence against Palestinians is — that our university is currently complicit in through its endowment. Yes, that affects — that is not only affecting Palestinians in Palestine, but it also incites violence against Palestinians here and against Brown’s own Palestinian students.

AMY GOODMAN: So, at this —

RAFI ASH: And —

AMY GOODMAN: Go ahead.

RAFI ASH: Well, that this makes it very, very personal and very essential to so many Brown students to stand up against the administration’s violence.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to bring Duncan Kreps into the conversation, a senior at Middlebury College at Middlebury, Vermont. Duncan, talk about setting up the encampment and what happened next.

DUNCAN KREPS: Yeah. We set up our encampment, I guess, early morning two Sundays ago and then started engaging with the administration on Tuesday of that following week and had negotiations from there. I think a notable part of our experience is the atmosphere of relative calm that we existed in. We didn’t experience the counterprotests of many other college campuses, and also our administration decided to not send the police in on students, which we want to clarify we believe is the bare minimum for any administrative response to student activism and free speech.

AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about the demands in the negotiations and who is on the team, on both sides, administration and students.

DUNCAN KREPS: Yeah. We met with the four administrators, consistently, representing kind of different aspects of the institution, and then we sent a rotating team of students to kind of spread the burden of those negotiations and also to ensure that various voices are being heard in that room. But all decisions were brought back to the camp and made as a collective.

AMY GOODMAN: And the students took down the encampment?

DUNCAN KREPS: I’m sorry?

AMY GOODMAN: The students took down the encampment?

DUNCAN KREPS: Yes. So, we voted to accept an agreement, after six rounds of negotiations, that came down on Monday, in exchange for significant progress on all five demands. Our administration agreed to call for a ceasefire. And we also made progress on divestment.

The decision to bring down the encampment was a strategic one. We believed that we could assign resources in other ways to continue to put pressure, especially on divestment, and hold the administration accountable to their comments. And we now look towards an upcoming Board of Trustees meeting where divestment will be discussed.

AMY GOODMAN: Why do you care about this issue, Duncan? You’re a graduating math senior at Middlebury College in Vermont.

DUNCAN KREPS: Yeah, I don’t know how I couldn’t. I mean, we see what’s happening. We see the invasion of Rafah happening before our eyes. This feels like the — in many ways, the most horrific thing I’ve seen happen in my lifetime. And being an American complicit in this and being a student at an institution complicit in this genocide directly, I couldn’t imagine standing by and not acting.

AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go to Alex Marshall, who’s across the country, a third-year student at Evergreen State College. Now, Evergreen State College is in Olympia, Washington. It’s the home city of the parents of Rachel Corrie. In fact, it’s the alma mater of Rachel Corrie. She was set to graduate from Evergreen in 2003 and went to Gaza and stood in front of a pharmacist’s home as an Israeli bulldozer was moving in to demolish it, and she was crushed to death by that bulldozer. Alex, can you talk about the protest encampment, when it was set up, and then what you negotiated with Evergreen authorities, the administration?

ALEX MARSHALL: Yeah. Thank you for having me.

So, our encampment was established on Tuesday the 23rd. And negotiations began with administration on the following day, Wednesday the 24th. There was initially a rotating team of negotiators, but then a second team was established to step in on Sunday the 28th. And I was a part of that new team.

Our demands were formulated through a process of consensus within the encampment. And we focused on divesting from companies that are profiting off of the Israel — off of Israel’s occupation of Palestine, changing Evergreen’s grant acceptance policy to no longer accept funding from Zionist organizations that support stifling students’ free speech, as well as a Police Services Community Review Board structure to be created and the creation of an alternative model of crisis response. Evergreen also agreed to prohibit study abroad programs to Israel, Gaza or the West Bank, until the day comes when Palestinian students would be allowed entry. And they also agreed to release a statement calling for a ceasefire and acknowledging the International Court of Justice’s genocide investigation.

AMY GOODMAN: And who were the people who negotiated on both sides, Alex?

ALEX MARSHALL: Well, I was on a team of four. And on the administrative side, it was the vice president of the college and the dean of students.

AMY GOODMAN: And what do you think was different about your school than places like Columbia, where they called in the police twice?

ALEX MARSHALL: Well, it being Rachel Corrie’s alma mater, I think, is significant. She’s been gone for 20 years, but her memory lives on amongst the student body and the Olympia community at large. Craig and Cindy Corrie came to one of our rallies to speak. And I think her memory — you know, I have learned about her. I’ve read her emails to her parents in multiple classes that I’ve taken at Evergreen, and her memory being so inspiring in that way.

I believe also that Evergreen has an interest in maintaining its image as a college that highly values diversity and equity, working across significant differences and advocating for students’ voices and students’ abilities to exercise their rights to freedom of speech, freedom of protest. And Evergreen is a small college. We’ve had — the college has had a rough few years after the media storm that occurred in 2017. And administration knew that there would be serious repercussions to Evergreen’s image if police were called in.

We are extremely grateful that all of our students were safe and we had no arrests and no students have been written up for policy violations. And I think that that really speaks to Evergreen’s — the culture of Evergreen’s student body as one that really emphasizes taking care of each other and fighting for the struggle for justice.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to end with Aseel, who is a Palestinian student at Rutgers University in New Jersey who has family in Gaza. We’re only using Aseel’s first name because she is concerned about doxxing. Aseel, can you talk about what happened at Rutgers after students set up the Rutgers encampment?

ASEEL: Yeah. Hi. So, last Thursday, we ended our encampment. It was a four-day encampment. And as a result of our collective efforts, we were able to have Rutgers, the Rutgers administration, agree to commit to eight out of 10 demands, which we are like really, really happy about. And I just also want to note that this encampment came in like the span of three weeks, where we did a — like, it was our second encampment, because we revived Tent State University. That’s one.

And another thing, as well, is we are very excited that part of our demands is, number one, that we are going to welcome 10 Gazan students, some of whom we anticipate to be our family members. Another thing is that we are going to finally have Palestinian flags hung, and Holloway is finally going to acknowledge his Palestinian students, finally, and name Palestine and Palestinians in his statements, instead of like the “Middle East region” and “the Gaza region.” And then, not only that, but we are also going to hire additional professors of Palestinian studies, because apparently everyone thinks that this started on October 7th. So, I think that’s pretty important. Another thing is that we are finally going to have an Arab cultural center. “Why didn’t we have one before?” is the real question. We are also going to finally get a Middle Eastern Studies Department. Again, why did we not have one before? Another thing is that we are going to be granted, hopefully — hopefully Rutgers commits to this — amnesty and no suspensions for our encampment. And yeah, I hope I’m not missing anything, but it’s eight demands.

AMY GOODMAN: One of the standard calls for — at these campus encampments has been to disclose and divest. Was that an issue for Rutgers students?

ASEEL: Yes, that was our main reason why we came. We demanded to divest from Israel, from Israeli apartheid and settler colonialism. And also, our second most important demand was to end our relationship with Tel Aviv University and close down the construction of the HELIX Hub, which is right next to the New Brunswick train station. It should also be noted that Tel Aviv University is not just any university. It is a like very prime component of Israeli apartheid and settler colonialism. They manufacture weapons that basically kill my family in Gaza. Not only that, but they also hold the corpses of like 60 to 70 corpses of Palestinians. Just to like also illustrate how close this hits to home is that one of these corpses is the cousin of our beloved professor Noura Erakat. And they basically refuse to give back these corpses, these bodies, to Palestinian families.

We, unfortunately, were not able to get these agreements. However, we did get an agreement to have a meeting with the Joint Committee on Investments, with the Board of Governors, with President Holloway, for divestment, which is a process to divestment. So, this is incredible progress, in our eyes, and to everyone’s eyes, I think, because we had been asking for a meeting for five years, and we finally got one. And that’s why we decided to not get arrested, to not — to leave, basically, the encampment and shut it down, because we got the meeting, we got the eight demands, and we believe that these are just like increment steps towards divestment. But it should be noted that we were more than willing to get arrested. We were actually prepared for it. But we decided not to. And —

AMY GOODMAN: Aseel —

ASEEL: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: — you mentioned your family. I wanted to end by asking about your family in Gaza. How are they?

ASEEL: Yeah. So, they are not OK. A hundred members of my — nearly like a hundred members, I think — we don’t know exactly, because of Netanyahu’s psychological warfare of cutting down the electricity and cellular devices to be able to, honestly, reach them. But nearly a hundred of my members were martyred.

And obviously, I still have family left. I am still in contact with them. But they are all displaced. Our family home’s basically destroyed. Even photos, like, just show that, like, on the walls say “Blame Hamas.” And it should be noted that none of my family members are in Hamas, have nothing to do with them. And yeah, like, even the photos of Gaza are just unrecognizable. I can’t even tell, like, where anything is anymore. Photos on my phone of, like, so many memories I had don’t even exist anymore. The Gaza that I once knew is essentially gone. But I am more than confident, along with my family, that we will return and that we will rebuild it.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Aseel, deepest condolences on the death of so many family members in Gaza. Aseel is a Palestinian student at Rutgers University in New Jersey. I want to thank you for being with us; Rafi Ash, a sophomore in urban studies at Brown University; Duncan Kreps, a graduating senior at Middlebury College; and Alex Marshall, a junior at Evergreen State College in Washington.

Coming up, we’ll stay with Rutgers and speak to a professor there, one of 60 journalism professors around the country who have signed a letter to The New York Times calling for it to commission an independent review of a controversial December article alleging Hamas systematically weaponized sexual violence on October 7th. Back in 20 seconds.

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AMY GOODMAN: RISD, Rhode Island School of Design, students singing at a vigil last night while they barricaded themselves inside a campus building which they renamed Fathi Ghaben Hall after the acclaimed Palestinian artist who died after being unable to get care in Gaza. Special thanks to Democracy Now! fellow Eric Halvarson.

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60+ Journalism Profs Demand Investigation into Controversial NYT Article Alleging Mass Rape on Oct. 7
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
MAY 08, 2024

Transcript

A group of more than 60 journalism professors has written to The New York Times calling on the paper to commission an independent review of its report that members of Hamas committed widespread sexual violence on October 7. Numerous media outlets, as well as some of the paper’s own staff, have raised questions about the December 28 article headlined “Screams Without Words,” reported in part by a freelance Israeli journalist who had liked multiple posts on social media advocating for violence against Palestinians. The Times has even published subsequent reporting undercutting some of the key elements of the article, which was used by Israeli leaders and Western allies as justification for the brutal military campaign in Gaza that had already killed tens of thousands of Palestinians up to that point. “It was very troubling to professors of journalism to see such a shoddy article be published without a retraction or an investigation,” says Rutgers media studies professor Deepa Kumar, one of the signatories, author of Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire. She also says that as an academic, she is troubled by the mainstream media’s depiction of student encampments as places of hate and violence. “For those of us who have been to these encampments, we know that the atmosphere there is peaceful until the police show up and start to create chaos. … These are fantastic spaces of learning.”

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

More than 60 journalism professors around the United States have written to The New York Times calling on the paper to commission an independent review of its report that members of Hamas committed widespread sexual violence on October 7th. Numerous media outlets have raised questions about the paper’s reporting, which was written in part by a freelance Israeli journalist, or reported by her, who had liked multiple posts on social media advocating for violence against Palestinians.

Last week, Democracy Now!'s Juan González and I spoke to one of the letter's signatories, Rutgers University journalism and media studies professor Deepa Kumar, author of Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire: 20 Years after 9/11. I began by asking her what prompted the letter.

DEEPA KUMAR: Basically, after this particular article, “Screams Without Words: How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7,” came out, there have been numerous reports that have debunked its primary claims. And several journalism professors started to talk about what it means for The New York Times to run a piece like this even though its key claims have been debunked. And so, a group of journalism professors got together and crafted this letter to The New York Times to, as you say, set up an investigative — an independent investigation of how the story was reported, written and published.

And at the center of the controversy, really, is how the two freelancers who were recruited, particularly Anat Schwartz, who’s not a journalist at all — she’s an Israeli filmmaker and an intelligence officer for the — former Israeli officer for the Air Force, and she has no experience doing journalism. She’s recruited to do this story. And what The Intercept, for instance, and Jeremy Scahill — you’ve had him on the show to talk about this story — what they have shown is how she went around trying to find evidence for the claim that there was systematic violence against women on October 7th and couldn’t find any. She phones Israeli hospitals, rape crisis centers, rape crisis hotlines, and she couldn’t find any evidence, and so she turns to more dubious sources in order to actually create this story. And this is in her own words, right? They are quoting Anat Schwartz in her own words. And I encourage viewers to go check out that story.

And so, it was very troubling to professors of journalism to see such a shoddy article be published without a retraction or an investigation. And so it became important for us to write this letter and to send it to The New York Times.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Deepa, The Intercept had a recent story about how journalists at The New York Times were encouraged to, quote, “restrict the use of the terms 'genocide' and 'ethnic cleansing' and to 'avoid' using the phrase 'occupied territory'” when describing Palestinians. Your response to these kinds of guidelines?

DEEPA KUMAR: Absolutely. I mean, I actually wrote an open letter back in November to The New York Times really criticizing the very skewed way in which this genocide, this war on Gaza, was being represented. And I had a problem with the way in which the key tag is the “Israel-Hamas war.” That’s deeply problematic for a number of reasons, not least that Hamas is not a country. Gaza is not a country. Gazans do not have an army, a navy, an air force or nuclear weapons in the way that Israel does. This is a wholesale slaughter of Palestinian people, a genocide in the works. And unfortunately, that has really — that right from the get-go, right? And I’m so glad that these memos are showing that this was intentional, right? This was not an accident, that, in fact, it’s been very skewed in its coverage of what is going on. So, what’s wrong with that phrase is also that by focusing on Hamas and repeatedly putting a spotlight on the tragedy of October 7th, what happens is it suggests that there was no history before October 7th. And the paper is actually justifying the actions of Israel in Gaza from then on. And that’s just, you know, completely one-sided, and it’s not what journalism is supposed to be.

I’ll just say one more thing about the “Screams Without Words” article. And that is that I don’t want to come off saying that there was no sexual violence on October 7th. I think that would be a problem. And in fact, The Intercept story does not say that. What it says is that there wasn’t systematic — there wasn’t a campaign of systematic sexual violence. And that is important, because, in fact, if there was one, that is horrific, isn’t it? And in the climate that we’re in today, where the gains of the #MeToo movement are being rolled back, most recently with the sentence being overturned for Harvey Weinstein, it’s very important to take women seriously.

But I will say this, that this is also a piece of propaganda, right? Because it draws from a narrative that has a much longer history in settler-colonial societies, where sexual violence, alleged sexual violence, against particularly white women becomes the basis for genocide. This is true in the United States. Scholars have documented this and researched this quite well, how the alleged rape of white women became the basis from which to slaughter Indigenous people, to slaughter Native Americans. This was used also against African Americans. Frederick Douglass talks about the myth of the Black rapist, where, you know, alleged sexual violence by Black men was used to justify mass lynchings. And, unfortunately, this piece in The New York Times is really the latest iteration of this longer narrative that then serves to justify violence.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go to a piece in The New York Times. They retracted a part of their December story on March 25th, though, to be clear, they didn’t issue a correction. But this is what they wrote: “New video has surfaced that undercuts the account of an Israeli military paramedic who said two teenagers killed in the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Oct. 7 were sexually assaulted. The unnamed paramedic, from an Israeli commando unit, was among dozens of people interviewed for a Dec. 28 article by The New York Times that examined sexual violence on Oct. 7. He said he discovered the bodies of two partially clothed teenage girls in a home in Kibbutz Be’eri that bore signs of sexual violence. … But footage taken by an Israeli soldier who was in Be’eri on Oct. 7, which was viewed by leading community members in February and by The Times this month, shows the bodies of three female victims, fully clothed and with no apparent signs of sexual violence, at a home where many residents had believed the assaults occurred. Though it is unclear if the medic was referring to the same scene, residents said that in no other home in Be’eri were two teenage girls killed, and they concluded from the video that the girls had not been sexually assaulted.” Again, I was reading an article from The New York Times on March 25th. Professor Deepa Kumar, if you can respond?

DEEPA KUMAR: Yes. Thank you for mentioning that article, Amy. And I also want to reference that the podcast of The New York Times, The Daily, was actually going to do a full episode on the “Screams Without Words” article, but when they put it through their standard fact-check, it didn’t pass. So, within The New York Times itself, this story did not pass the basic fact-check. And then, since then, there have been articles, like the one you just mentioned, as well as some corrections, if you will, that have taken place.

But in response to our letter, we have heard nothing from the editorial board of The New York Times. And I understand that a New York Times spokesperson told The Washington Post that they stand by the story. So, it’s pretty clear that they are not interested in actually holding an independent investigation and moving away from this really shoddy piece of journalism.

AMY GOODMAN: I also wanted to read from Ynet, the news source in Israel, with a headline, “New York Times cuts ties with Israeli reporter over alleged policy violation: American newspaper ends Anat Schwartz’s employment after liking pro-Israel posts on social media, including one that called to turn Gaza 'into a slaughterhouse,' sparking calls from pro-Palestinian groups to review her employment.” Again, she was one of the authors of this December 28th New York Times piece, Deepa Kumar.

DEEPA KUMAR: Yes, she was in fact the key person gathering the information, along with her partner’s nephew, on the ground, and Jeffrey Gettleman is the one who actually — he’s a New York Times journalist, award-winning, I might add — who actually wrote the story. And I’ll just say very quickly something about Gettleman, which is that at one interview with Sheryl Sandberg, he actually questioned what evidence was, saying that evidence is a legal term, and it’s not something that journalists apparently look for, which is just bizarre. These are the basics of any — you go to a J school, and this is what they teach you. You have to have evidence. You have to fact-check. And so, you know, it’s just shocking.

We’ve also heard from journalists inside The New York Times saying how happy they are that this letter was sent, because they describe the climate inside The New York Times as a very stifling environment, one which is very tightly controlled. You know, so much for free speech. So much for the newspaper of record.

And I just want to say that the reason that many of us argue and criticize The New York Times is not because we think that The New York Times is worse than the New York Post or, you know, Fox News or whatever. You know, those news media outlets don’t even pretend to be neutral, to be objective and so on, whereas The New York Times does. The New York Times says it adheres to the standards of professional journalism. And here we have such an out-and-out propaganda story that, you know, they have just dug their heels in around in terms of allowing for an investigation, much less retracting the story.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Deepa, what about the current student protests and the push at all these campuses for divestment from Israel of the university endowments, how the Times has been covering these student movements, from your perspective?

DEEPA KUMAR: Yeah. I mean, I’ll first say that these movements are incredible. This is the largest protest movement, solidarity movement with Palestine that I have seen in my lifetime, in over 30 years of being an activist. And this is probably the biggest movement in support of Palestinians in the history of the United States. And for those of us who have been to these encampments, we know that the atmosphere there is peaceful until the police show up and start to create chaos.

So, for instance, I was at the University of Pennsylvania encampment last Friday, where two Israeli-born scholars, Omer Bartov and Raz Segal, were speaking about what is antisemitism. And there was a fantastic discussion going on. The people at the encampment were so diverse — Black, Brown, white, Muslim, Jewish and so on. The only disruptor that I saw was a person identified as a rabbi, who came with a sign saying “Mein Camp,” right? This is a play on Hitler’s famous book, calling those at the encampment, you know, Nazis by extension. And he tried to shut it down, and he was gently told to leave. I mean, Raz Segal actually asked him to come and speak, but he preferred to actually, you know, scream at the protesters. So, that’s our experience of going to encampments. These are fantastic spaces of learning, and not just, you know, talking about the history of the region and talking about antisemitism, but as growing as human beings, of being decent human beings with empathy and solidarity with the oppressed. I mean, that’s what a university is for, right? There’s been music. There’s been dancing. There’s been poetry reading. And none of that spirit is captured either in The New York Times or in other newspapers, who, you know, “if it bleeds, it leads.” That’s what we’re seeing.

And I want to say, though, also, that what is particularly troubling is that the Times, as well as other newspapers, are going with the charges coming from politicians, from congressional figures, that these encampments are antisemitic. That could not be further from the truth. There is so little evidence presented to actually validate this point. Instead, what they turn to is that the protesters have slogans which say, “From the river to the sea, Palestinians will be free.” Now, some have chosen to interpret this as a call for genocide against Jewish Israelis. The only way you could actually reach that conclusion is if you actually have a settler-colonial mentality. Remember, of course, that in 1977, in their election platform, the Likud party had exactly such a slogan. They want an Israeli state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. And for them, that means genocide. It means displacement. It means ethnic cleansing. That’s not what the protesters are saying. What the protesters are saying is that we want freedom for Palestinians, we want human rights and democracy, from the river to the sea. Because what occurs to me when people oppose the slogan is: Where exactly do you want Palestinians to be unfree, from the river to the sea? So, central to this slogan, which is not at all antisemitic, is really the charge to end apartheid. It is to create a free, democratic, whatever you want to call it, Israel-Palestine in this region, where Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side. And this is possible.

AMY GOODMAN: Rutgers University journalism and media studies professor Deepa Kumar, speaking to us from Philadelphia.

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"Something came from the outside": An Eyewitness Account of the Aftermath of Ismail Haniyeh’s Assassination. Iran and Hamas are challenging the story put forth by the New York Times of a planted bomb.
by Jeremy Scahill
Drop Site
Aug 03, 2024

Iranian Leader Ali Khamenei attends the funeral prayer of the Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh. Photo: Handout from Iranian Leader Press Office
“The only thing that came into my mind is that Israel has killed our leader,” said Khaled Qaddoumi, Hamas’s representative in Iran, who was sleeping in an apartment two floors below the group’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh when an explosion rocked the building. “Whether it was with the American tools, whether it was through the Americans, what came into my mind directly is that the Israeli enemy has killed our leader.”

Today, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps directly accused Israel of assassinating Haniyeh in Tehran early Wednesday morning by firing a “short-range projectile with a warhead weighing about 7 kilograms” from outside the apartment complex. While Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) did not offer any forensic evidence to back its allegations, the statement served as a direct challenge to an article published in the New York Times Thursday asserting that Haniyeh was killed by a bomb covertly planted in the residence months ago.

From what Qaddoumi saw, it appeared a projectile had blown a hole in the side of the building directly on the apartment where Haniyeh was staying. In an interview with Drop Site News, Qaddoumi, who is also a member of Hamas’s Office of Political Relations in the Arab and Islamic World, said he met with Haniyeh in the residence in northern Tehran following a state dinner for the newly inaugurated Iranian president. Qaddoumi did not attend the dinner, but was waiting at the apartment complex, situated in a compound operated and guarded by the IRGC, for him to return. Haniyeh, he said, arrived at the building at around 11:30 p.m., at which point Qaddoumi and others gathered with the Hamas leader to discuss the recent Israeli attack in a southern district of Beirut that killed senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr.

After an hour or so, “he left to his bedroom on the fourth floor of the building. And I went to my place, which was on the second floor,” Qaddoumi recalled.

He went to sleep and was awoken by the building shaking around him. “At around 1:37 a.m., I felt a shock to the building. And that gave me a very strange feeling.” He thought it was, “maybe an earthquake,” but “with more scale.”

“I went out to check. I found smoke coming towards me everywhere. The washroom of my suite was destroyed, the ceiling was destroyed. And then I went out. My friends, they told me what has happened. Then I rushed towards the room of Ismail,” he said. “I entered into the [suite] and I found a room where the two walls at the outer side of the building had been destroyed. And the ceiling of that room was also destroyed. So it gave me a [sense] that something came from outside, [fired] into the room.”

Qaddoumi said he saw Haniyeh’s body and, in an adjacent room, his bodyguard, who was also killed. After that, he and other Palestinian officials in Tehran were briefed by Iranian counterparts. “Initially, everybody, according to the evaluation from the field, they were agreeing that something has attacked the building from outside. And then with the passage of time and checking the technical processes, [the IRGC] have released this statement.”

A planted bomb would indicate deep infiltration of Israeli spies. A projectile fired from outside the military compound also indicates a major security failure.

How Haniyeh was killed—whether it was with a short-range projectile or a planted bomb—could have significant implications, particularly for Iran’s internal response. Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, was reportedly woken up in the middle of the night of the attack to be briefed. He has vowed Iran will retaliate against Israel. A planted bomb would indicate deep infiltration of Israeli spies, with the ability to operate within a housing complex controlled and guarded by the most elite military and intelligence force in Iran. A projectile fired from outside the military compound also indicates a major security failure. The planners of this operation clearly wanted to send a message that Iran is no longer safe for enemies of Israel.

The New York Times said the bomb was smuggled into the guest residence where Haniyeh has stayed on previous visits to the Iranian capital and remotely detonated shortly after 1:30 a.m. local time. Qaddoumi told me that while Haniyeh has stayed in the complex on previous visits to Tehran, the Hamas leader did not always stay in that specific suite. “It depends on the guest list,” he said.

The Times story was sourced to “seven Middle Eastern officials, including two Iranians, and an American official.” The report did not indicate how many of the “Middle Eastern” officials were Israelis. The lead byline on the story was Ronen Bergman, an Israeli journalist with close ties to Israeli intelligence who wrote a book, Rise and Kill First, about the history of Israeli assassination operations. The Times report, citing three anonymous “Iranian officials,” said the attack represented “a catastrophic failure of intelligence and security for Iran and a tremendous embarrassment for the Guards, which uses the compound for retreats, secret meetings and housing prominent guests like Mr. Haniyeh.”

This version of events reads like a tale lifted from the popular Israeli espionage drama, “Tehran,” about a covert Israeli agent operating in the Iranian capital on a mission to destroy a nuclear reactor—and that framing may be intentional, according to Qaddoumi.

“Israel wants to create, through the propaganda, [the impression] that there was some security [breakdown] to create chaos within the Iranians themselves,” he said. “This is the habit of the Israelis and the American agencies. They are very good in scenario building and they are very good in making stories and good scenarios for a cheap, maybe Bollywood movie.”

It is true that Israel has been engaged in a longtime propaganda effort aimed at sowing paranoia within the Iranian government that Mossad and other Israeli intelligence agencies can covertly and lethally operate at will within Iran. Israel is widely believed to be behind the assassinations of several nuclear scientists in Iran, five of whom were killed between 2010 and 2020.

Whether the IRGC’s conclusions or those published in the New York Times about how Haniyeh was killed are accurate, the killing of Hamas’s top political official and its lead negotiator for a Gaza ceasefire on Iranian soil sent shockwaves throughout the chambers of power in Tehran.

In the aftermath of Haniyeh’s killing, Iran reportedly carried out a series of arrests and interrogations of senior intelligence and military officials. The investigation is being led by IRGC’s special unit on counterintelligence and espionage. Iran has vowed to respond to the killing of Haniyeh in an apartment housed within a complex controlled by the IRGC that was reportedly equipped with radar equipment, air defense systems and surveillance cameras.

On Friday, President Joe Biden spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “reaffirmed his commitment to Israel’s security against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis,” according to a White House readout of the call. “The President discussed efforts to support Israel’s defense against threats, including against ballistic missiles and drones, to include new defensive U.S. military deployments.”

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln, destroyer vessels, and an additional squadron of combat aircraft to the region to support Israel in the event of an Iranian military response. These deployments join an array of sea, land, and air assets the U.S. has positioned in the region over the past several months in the name of confronting Iran, Iraq, Yemen, and other forces from the Axis of Resistance.

Qaddoumi added that he does not believe Israel acted unilaterally and, as Hamas’s official representative in Iran, he joined Tehran in accusing the U.S. of involvement. “Israel could not do such adventures without the blessing and the green light from America,” he charged. “America is absolutely backing and facilitating the Israeli genocide in Gaza. And that is what's happening in the assassination operations.”

The IRGC also said the Israelis killed Haniyeh, who was in Iran to attend the inauguration of the country’s new president, with the support of the U.S. government. Senior Biden administration officials have said the U.S. had no advanced knowledge of the hit on Haniyeh and have stated the U.S. was not involved in the operation.

The U.S. maintains that it does not want a wider war in the region and insists it is working tirelessly to achieve a Gaza ceasefire. An Israeli official claimed Biden told Netanyahu on their most recent call that he wants a ceasefire “within a week to two weeks.” Biden told reporters that Haniyeh’s assassination “doesn’t help” the situation. Yet for all of its claims, the Biden administration has focused its public pressure firmly on Iran, the Palestinian factions fighting the Israeli genocide in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon while offering “ironclad” support for Israel.

“40,000 Palestinians have been killed. One of them is Ismail Haniyeh.”

“The so-called retaliation process from the American side is actually an act of war. They are starting the war,” said Qaddoumi. “Unfortunately, we are not facing a country or facing a state. We are facing gangsters, who are having the cartel mentality, to kill and to win always. That is not negotiation.”

Qaddoumi said that Haniyeh’s assassination will not push Hamas to surrender. “If you continue using the gun, if you continue using the blood shedding language, you will never get a flower for an answer. You will receive an answer of a blood, because the blood will drag another blood shedding,” he said. “It's not because Ismail Haniyeh was killed. It's that 40,000 Palestinians have been killed. One of them is Ismail Haniyeh. Among them, 70% are children and women. So you cannot expect that we will surrender with these things.”

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The Undoing of Israel: The Dark Futures That Await After the War in Gaza
by Ilan Z. Baron and Ilai Z. Saltzman
Foreign Affairs
August 12, 2024
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/undoing-israel

-- Zionism in the Age of the Dictators: A Reappraisal, by Lenni Brenner

-- The Transfer Agreement: The Dramatic Story of the Pact Between the Third Reich and Jewish Palestine, by Edwin Black

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At the site of an explosion in Tel Aviv, Israel, July 2024. Ricardo Moraes / Reuters

At Israel’s creation, in May 1948, its founders envisioned a country defined by humanist values and one that upheld international law. The Declaration of Independence, Israel’s founding document, insisted that the state “will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race, or sex” and that it would “be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.” But from the very beginning, this vision was never fulfilled—after all, for nearly two decades after the signing of the declaration, Palestinians in Israel lived under martial law. Israeli society has never been able to resolve the contradiction between the universalist appeal of the declaration’s ideals and the narrower urgency of the founding of Israel as a Jewish state to protect the Jewish people.

Over the decades, this intrinsic contradiction has surfaced again and again, creating political upheavals that have shaped and reshaped Israeli society and politics—without ever resolving the contradiction. But now the war in Gaza and the judicial crisis that preceded it have made it harder than ever to go on this way, pushing Israel to a breaking point.

The country is on an increasingly illiberal, violent, and destructive path. Unless it changes course, the humanist ideals of its founding will disappear altogether as Israel careens into a darker future, one in which illiberal values define both state and society. Israel is on track to become increasingly authoritarian in its treatment not just of Palestinians but of its own citizens. It could fast lose many of the friends it still has and become a pariah. And isolated from the world, it could be consumed by turmoil at home as widening fissures threaten to break up the country itself. Such is the perilous state of affairs in Israel that these futures are not at all outlandish—but neither are they inevitable. Israel still has the capacity to pull itself back from the brink. The cost of not doing so may be too great to bear.

THE END OF ZIONISM

Hamas’s bloody October 7 attack hit Israel at a time when it was already facing tremendous domestic instability. The country’s electoral system, which relies on proportional representation, had in recent decades allowed the entry of ever more fringe and extreme political parties into the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. Since 1996, there have been 11 different governments, an average of a new government every two and a half years—six of them led by the current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. And between 2019 and 2022, Israel had to hold five general elections. Small political parties have played key roles in forming—and toppling—governments, wielding disproportionate influence. After the last election, in November 2022, Netanyahu formed a government with the backing of political parties and leaders from the far right, bringing to power forces in Israeli politics that had long lurked on the margins.

In 2023, Netanyahu and his far-right allies then pushed for a judicial reform bill that sought to substantially reduce the Supreme Court’s oversight of the government. Netanyahu hoped that the proposed reform would protect him from an ongoing criminal case against him. His ultra-Orthodox allies wanted the reform to prevent the drafting of thousands of yeshiva students, who have long been exempt from military service. And the religious Zionists designed the reform to block the Supreme Court’s ability to limit the construction of settlements.

Israel is on an increasingly illiberal, violent, and destructive path.

The proposed judicial reform sparked massive protests across the country, revealing a society deeply fractured between those who wanted Israel to remain a democracy with an independent judiciary and those who wanted a government that could do more or less whatever it pleased. Demonstrators brought cities to a standstill, military reservists threatened not to serve if the bill passed, and investors hinted that they would take their money out of the country. A version of the bill still passed the Knesset in July 2023 but was struck down by the Supreme Court at the beginning of this year. At present, the governing coalition is attempting to revive some elements of the judicial reform even as the war in Gaza rages.

The judicial reform protest certainly revealed concerns within Israel about the character of the country’s democracy, but it did not raise questions about Israel’s responsibility toward Palestinians living under occupation. Indeed, many Israelis see their country’s treatment of Palestinians as separate from its functioning as a democracy. Israelis have long tolerated, if not sanctioned, violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians. In a contravention of international law, Israel subjects Palestinians living under its rule in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to what is in effect martial law. Successive Israeli governments have overseen the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, imperiling the future creation of a sovereign Palestinian state. The war in Gaza, where Israeli forces have killed around 40,000 people, according to conservative estimates, has revealed a country that appears unable or unwilling to uphold the aspirational vision in its independence declaration.

As many progressives within Israel have long acknowledged, the brutality of the military occupation and the imperatives of being an occupying military power have a corrupting effect on all of Israeli society. Yeshayahu Leibowitz, an Israeli scientist and philosopher, observed “the national pride and euphoria” that followed the Six-Day War, in 1967, and saw a darker turn ahead. That celebration of country, he warned in 1968, would only “bring us from proud, rising nationalism to extreme, messianic ultranationalism.” And such extreme passions, Leibowitz claimed, would be the undoing of the Israeli project, leading to “brutality” and ultimately “the end of Zionism.” That end is now closer than many Israelis care to admit.

SPARTA WITH A YARMULKE

On its current path, Israel is veering in a deeply illiberal direction. Its current hard-right turn, pushed by politicians as well as by many of their constituents, could see Israel become a kind of ethnonationalist theocracy, run by a Jewish judicial and legislative council and right-wing religious extremists, nothing less than a Jewish version of Iran’s theocratic state. Israel’s demographic and sociopolitical changes, including a rapid increase of the ultra-Orthodox population, the rightward tilt of young Israeli Jews, and a decline in the number of Israeli Jews who identify as secular, have produced a more devout body politic that perceives the continued existence of Israel as part of an irreconcilable struggle between Judaism and Islam.

Ultra-Orthodox nationalist politicians who overtly call for a state in which religion plays a more definitive role include Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben Gvir, and Avi Maoz—all key players in Netanyahu’s coalition government. They represent a relatively new but increasingly influential segment of the religious Zionist movement known as the Hardal, which believes that God promised the entire biblical land of Israel to the Jews, rejects Western culture and values, and fundamentally opposes the accepted norms of Israeli liberalism, such as LGBTQ rights, some separation between synagogue and state, and gender equality. Figures associated with the Hardal currently serve as ministers in the Israeli government, occupy powerful positions in the Knesset, and are prominent leaders of yeshivas and pre-military preparatory academies known as mechinot. Political and demographic trends suggest that the far right in Israel will remain electorally influential, even dominant, for the foreseeable future.

But many Israelis who are not especially religious are also beginning to subscribe to this increasingly extreme ethnonationalist ideology. Since the October 7 attacks, the Israeli right wing has grown even more radical. For them, and many others in Israel, Hamas’s massacre proved that there can be no compromise with the Palestinians or their supporters. These conservatives see Israel as existing in an eternal state of war, with peace unthinkable—a state, to borrow the phrase of Israeli historian David Ochana, akin to “Sparta with a yarmulke.”

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Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men protesting in Jerusalem, June 2024
Ronen Zvulun / Reuters

That stance could harden into a broad consensus among Israeli Jews and produce a fully illiberal Israel, in which the war in Gaza leads to the complete erosion of democratic norms and institutions that were weakened by Netanyahu and his allies. The war has already provided the government with an excuse to restrict civil liberties; the Knesset’s National Security Committee, for instance, recently promoted legislation that authorized the police to conduct searches without warrants. There has also been an increase in state-sanctioned violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, and Israeli peace activists are increasingly viewed as traitors. An Israel dominated by the far right would become more authoritarian, with civil liberties curtailed, particularly gender rights. The state would wield a deleterious influence on public education, with a rounded civic understanding of Israeli democracy replaced by a more baldly nationalist and illiberal one.

An illiberal Israel would also become a pariah state. Israel is already becoming increasingly isolated internationally, and multiple international organizations are seeking punitive legal and diplomatic measures against it. The genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and its recent opinion about the illegality of the occupation, the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, and numerous credible allegations of war crimes and human rights violations have dealt a blow to Israel’s global standing. Even with the support of key allies, the cumulative impact of negative public opinion, legal challenges, and diplomatic rebukes will increasingly marginalize Israel on the global stage.

An illiberal Israel would still receive economic support from a few countries, including the United States, but it would be politically and diplomatically isolated from much of the rest of the global community, including most G-7 countries. These countries would cease to coordinate with Israel on security matters, maintain trade agreements with Israel, and buy Israeli-made weapons. Israel would likely end up relying entirely on the United States and become vulnerable to shifts in the U.S. political landscape at a time when more and more Americans are questioning their country’s unconditional support for the Jewish state.

The social contract between state and society in Israel currently hangs in the balance. Should Netanyahu and his allies have their way, Israeli democracy will become hollow and procedural, with traditional liberal checks and balances fast eroding. That would place the country on an unsustainable path that would likely lead to capital flight and brain drain—and deepening internal strains.

A FRACTURED ISRAEL

As Israel becomes more authoritarian, that illiberal turn would not mask the growing fissures within Israeli society. The state would increasingly lose its monopoly over the legitimate use of force, and divisions could inflame to the point of civil war. The recent violent confrontation at the Sde Teiman detention facility, where soldiers suspected of abusing a Hamas terrorist were taken for questioning, could augur what lies ahead. Reserve soldiers, civilians, and even a far-right parliamentarian attacked the military police inside the base, incensed that military personnel were detained for their maltreatment of a Palestinian prisoner. In the future, such episodes may become more common. Other signs of the fragmentation already underway within Israel’s security apparatus include the growth of settler militias—groups that the state has been unwilling to suppress despite their violent attacks on Palestinians—and the fact that soldiers have tipped off vigilantes to illegally stop the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

The rule of law in Israel could break down. Israel would remain a more or less functional economic state. It would protect private property. There would still be universities, hospitals, and some kind of public education system. The high-tech economy—the heart of Israel’s claim to be a “startup nation”—could still function for a time. But the state would operate without the rule of law, in keeping with the hollow democracy favored by the extreme right. Security would devolve into a fragmented system with no oversight and no unified command, with the monopoly over the legitimate use of force eroding. Different groups would claim the right to violence, including armed settler militias, civilians who align with the far right, and the existing security forces.

This future is not the province of dystopian science fiction. The conflict in Gaza has intensified political divisions within the country, particularly between right-wing groups advocating for extreme military and security measures that utterly disregard international humanitarian law and others calling for a more conciliatory approach toward the Palestinians. The war has also deepened divisions between secular and religious Jews. A major debate within Israel regarding whether ultra-Orthodox Jews should be obliged to serve in the military—as all other Israelis are—has stoked these tensions. The Israeli Supreme Court recently ruled that the government cannot avoid drafting ultra-Orthodox Jews and must refrain from funding yeshivas whose students are not enlisting as mandated by existing laws—a decision that has galvanized attempts to revive the judicial reform legislation.

This weakening of the central authority of the state could presage a more shocking unraveling. Beyond administering the economy, the government would be unable (and even unwilling) to fulfill any of its other traditional political responsibilities, including the provision of security and a stable legislative system of governance that guarantees accountability. The presence of competing security groups and lax parliamentary supervision would weaken Israel’s overall security deterrent and undermine any coherent system of governance in Israel’s security establishment. An Israel in this condition could well be at odds with itself. It could become a kind of balkanized entity with the religious and nationalist right-wing elements building up their own de facto state, most likely in the settlements of the West Bank. Or it could witness a rebellion of religious extremists and ultranationalists that would divide Israel in a violent civil war between an armed religious right wing and the existing state apparatus. Short of civil war, this situation would still prove unstable, and the economy would collapse, leaving Israel a failed state.

A PATH AWAY FROM CHAOS

The weight of events and the prevailing political forces are pushing Israel in these dangerous directions. It is becoming a country that its founders would not recognize. But it does not need to go this way. To avoid these outcomes, Israel needs to restore political stability in the country by shoring up its constitutional foundations, strengthening the rule of law, reaching more productively for a lasting settlement to the conflict with Palestinians, and better ensconcing itself within the region.

Israel should set up an independent constitutional commission to address the country’s political instability and provide a firm foundation for the future of Israeli democracy. The commission would need to draft a constitution that would not be as easy to change as the Basic Laws—the 14 laws that together compose the closest thing Israel has to a constitution—and would have to adhere to the original humanist values of the state’s founding. Such a commission has been held in the past, and its revival would require significant cooperation among what remains of the political center, the political left, and Israeli Arab political parties. Interestingly, Yoav Gallant, the current Israeli defense minister, has called for Israel’s Declaration of Independence to be the first text in such a constitutional document.

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Protesters gathering outside Sde Teiman detention facility, near Beersheba, Israel, July 2024. Amir Cohen / Reuters

Israel also needs to better enforce the rule of law both inside Israel and in the West Bank, which means that the state can no longer tolerate violence by settlers toward Palestinians. Moreover, the military occupation over the Palestinians needs to end, and a binding peace process needs to be initiated involving neutral third-party negotiators. At a minimum, Israel should commit to addressing the ICJ’s recent opinion regarding Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

To better guarantee domestic stability, Israel needs to legitimize its place in the Middle East, building on the gains made in the Abraham Accords and strengthening ties with Saudi Arabia and other regimes in the region. To safeguard its relations with G-7 countries and the broader international community, Israel should reiterate its commitment to international law, including by making military operations more transparent, ensuring accountability for any violations of international law, and ratifying the Rome Statute, which established the ICC in 2002.

The steps described above would face potentially insurmountable opposition in Israel, but such opposition would only reaffirm our fears for Israel’s future. To be sure, Israel does face real and dangerous enemies, which, like Hamas, are guilty of human rights abuses. But the trajectory Israel is on is not a winning one. On its current course, the state may morph into something that would destroy the humanist Jewish vision that inspired many of its founders and supporters around the world. It is not too late for Israel to save itself from its own demise and find another way forward.

ILAN Z. BARON is Professor of International Politics and Political Theory and Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Jewish Culture, Society, and Politics at Durham University.

ILAI Z. SALTZMAN is Associate Research Professor of Israel Studies and Director of the Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies at the University of Maryland.

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DNC Kicks Off as Progressives and Uncommitted Delegates Demand Harris Take Action on Gaza Genocide
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
Aug 19, 2024

Thousands of delegates and elected officials have descended on Chicago as the Democratic National Convention kicks off today. The four-day convention comes one month after President Biden ended his bid for reelection. Vice President Kamala Harris secured the Democratic presidential nomination in a virtual roll call earlier this month and is expected to again formally accept the party’s nomination when she addresses the convention on Thursday.

Dozens of delegates with the “uncommitted” movement are also in Chicago as they continue to pressure Harris to halt U.S. military support for Israel’s war on Gaza. The delegates represent states where some 700,000 people cast uncommitted votes during primaries to protest Democrats’ pro-Israel policies. For the first time ever, the DNC is hosting a panel on Palestinian human rights. The uncommitted delegation welcomed the move and is continuing to request that Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, who has volunteered in Gaza, be permitted to address the convention from the stage.

On Sunday, hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Chicago saying they will disrupt the DNC until Democrats listen to their demands. This is Kshama Sawant, co-founder of Workers Strike Back and former socialist Seattle city councilmember.

Kshama Sawant: “The possibility of Trump 2.0 is only a reality because of the many betrayals by the Biden-Harris administration. Biden and Harris, both as president and as vice president, and the Democratic Party as a whole, they broke their promise for a $15-an-hour minimum wage. They blocked the railroad workers’ strike, which is possibly one of the most anti-worker, anti-union actions that can be taken by politicians. And so, in other words, both the Democratic and Republican parties are anti-worker, and they are both pro-war.”

Meanwhile, Chicago’s Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson in a recent interview called Israel’s war a genocide, saying, “What’s happening right now is not only egregious, it is genocidal. We have to acknowledge and name it for what it is and have the moral courage to exercise our authority.” We’ll have more from the DNC after headlines.

Gazans Hold Out Little Hope as Blinken Pushes for Ceasefire in Tel Aviv
Aug 19, 2024

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Israel, where he warned ongoing ceasefire talks may be the “last chance” to free Hamas hostages as he spoke from Tel Aviv earlier today. Blinken added, “It’s also time to make sure that no one takes any steps that could derail this process.” Inside Gaza, displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis responded to Blinken’s latest visit.

Mahmoud Abu Daoud: “Today in the Gaza Strip, we are suffering from the Americans and international community ganging up on us, without mercy on us. As I said, this visit is, as usual, to check on Israel and provide it with arms and logistic matters, to continue the war of extermination on the Gaza Strip. There will be no changes. We are very pessimistic about this visit.”

Israeli Soldiers Attack Deir al-Balah, Wiping Out Families, Children, Another U.N. Worker
Aug 19, 2024

Israel’s slaughter continues throughout the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military is pushing further into central Deir al-Balah, as Gazans are now being crowded into just 10% of the besieged territory. On Saturday, an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah killed at least 18 members of the same family, including 11 siblings aged between 2 and 22. On Sunday, another attack in the same region killed more Palestinian children. Mohammed Awad Khattab said six of his grandchildren were killed as they slept, along with their mother — his daughter — who worked for the United Nations.

Mohammed Awad Khattab: “My daughter had been struggling to have children for years. She had them through IVF. Four of the children were quadruplets. The eldest son and the youngest daughter, who was only a year-and-a-half old, were also killed. What wrong did these innocent children do? Were they posing any danger to Israel? Were they carrying arms?”

UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, is marking World Humanitarian Day today by honoring its 207 staff members who have been killed by Israel since October 7.

First Case of Polio Identified in Gaza in 10-Month-Old Baby
Aug 19, 2024

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres is calling for a “polio pause” to conduct an urgent vaccination campaign inside Gaza after health authorities confirmed a 10-month-old infant had contracted the highly contagious disease.

Secretary-General António Guterres: “Let’s be clear: The ultimate vaccine for polio is peace and an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. But in any case, a polio pause is a must. It is impossible to conduct a polio vaccination campaign with war raging all over.”

The 10-month-old baby is Gaza’s first known case of polio in a quarter of a century. Overwhelmed parents expressed fear over yet another threat to their families’ lives.

Elham Nassar: “We’re tired of this life we are living — no food, no drink, no medicines. What are we supposed to do in this life? At the least, we need medicines for our children, to protect them from being infected with the polio virus that’s now spreading across Gaza. You must find a solution to our situation. We need vaccines. We need medicine. We need proper sanitation. We want you to save us before it’s too late. Or how long are we supposed to wait? Should we wait until we watch our children die and become paralyzed, and then become helpless to do anything for them?”

Israeli Relatives of Hamas Hostages Rally in Tel Aviv Ahead of Blinken Visit
Aug 19, 2024

In Israel, relatives of hostages held in Gaza rallied in Tel Aviv this weekend ahead of Blinken’s visit. This is Lee Siegel, whose brother is one of the remaining hostages.

Lee Siegel: “We are broken. We are sad. We are tired. We wake up in the morning thinking about the hostages. Maybe this will be the day when they come home. We go to sleep every night thinking tomorrow morning we will wake up to a better day. This morning was not a better day. True, negotiations are ongoing. Until the hostages are home, negotiations mean nothing.”

Meanwhile, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad say they are responsible for an explosion on a truck in Tel Aviv Sunday evening. The blast killed one person, believed to be the detonator of the explosive.

Israel Attacks Southern Lebanon, Killing 10 Civilians from Syria
Aug 19, 2024

Regional tensions remain high amid ongoing attacks around the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese state media reported an Israeli strike in the south of the country killed at least 10 Syrian nationals Saturday, including two children. This is a witness of that attack.

Yaser Jaber: “Honestly, a number of workers were martyred on the site, including the janitor, along with his wife and two children. With them were a number of workers who also lived in the same building. They are all Syrians. This is a civil establishment that works in metal trades for hangars, false ceilings and homes, and has nothing to do with military things at all.”

Meanwhile, Israeli forces earlier today raided the town of Houla in southern Lebanon, according to local reports.

Protesters Demand “Not Another Bomb” on Gaza in Marches Across the Globe
Aug 19, 2024

On Sunday, protesters took to the streets in dozens of cities across the United States on the eve of the DNC to demand “Not Another Bomb” on Gaza. Demonstrations also took place in cities across the globe, including in Amsterdam, where massive crowds rallied to condemn the Dutch government over its failure to hold Israel accountable.

Marleen: “Since October, I’ve been going to all the demonstrations with my kids, because that’s all we can do. I can’t believe what I’m seeing with my eyes. And I hope this, inshallah, will end soon, because this is not normal. Almost a year, we’ve been watching blown-up children, blown-up mothers, fathers. I don’t have words. It breaks me. It breaks us all. This just has to stop now.”

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Voices from the Streets of Chicago: DNC Protesters Call for Gaza Ceasefire & Economic Justice
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
Aug 19, 2024

Democracy Now! is in Chicago for the 2024 Democratic National Convention, where protesters have actions planned throughout the week. The demonstrations kicked off on Sunday, on the eve of the convention, with the March for Bodies Outside Unjust Laws, which was organized by a coalition of several different activist groups to demand action on reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights and an end to the war on Gaza. We hear from protesters on the ground who say they will withhold their votes in the presidential election until the Democratic Party commits to reversing the Biden administration’s policy of “warmongering.”

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: The Democratic National Convention opens today here in Chicago, where Vice President Kamala Harris will be accepting the Democratic nomination on Thursday. While the delegates gather in the United Center for the convention, thousands of protesters are converging on Chicago to make their voices heard. Over the course of the week, there are at least six major protests planned.

The demonstrations kicked off on Sunday, on the people of the convention, with the March for Bodies Outside Unjust Laws, which was organized by a coalition of several different activist groups to demand action on reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights and on an end to the war on Gaza.

AMY GOODMAN: Democracy Now! was on the streets to cover the demonstration. These are some of the voices of the protesters.

PROTESTERS: Free, free Palestine! Free, free Palestine! Free, free, free Palestine! Free, free, free Palestine!

JEX BLACKMORE: My name is Jex Blackmore, and I am the organizing director of Shout Your Abortion. You cannot talk about reproductive justice without talking about Palestinian liberation. We are talking about body autonomy. We are talking about the freedom to control what happens to our bodies, our families, our futures, our ability to move between places. This is not something that’s exclusively granted just to the American voter. This is something that we protect and stand in solidarity with people around the world and around the globe. And so, we stand just as much about bodily autonomy and reproductive justice as we do for people here as we do in Palestine.

EMAN ABDELHADI: My name is Eman Abdelhadi. I’m an organizer here in Chicago. I’m also a professor at the University of Chicago.

MARÍA TARACENA: What specifically about queer and trans movements and reproductive rights connects to Israel’s war on Gaza and the horrors that people are experiencing in Gaza today?

EMAN ABDELHADI: The genocide has had massive amounts of sexual violence and has had a disproportionate impact on women and their access to healthcare. But more broadly, genocide always starts with the decision that some bodies need to be controlled, contained or exterminated. And that’s exactly what reproductive justice is about, and that’s exactly what freeing Palestine is about, is about ending the state’s right to do that to any population.

KSHAMA SAWANT: I’m Kshama Sawant. I was a socialist on the Seattle City Council for a decade. We can see that we have two parties for the warmongering billionaire class. Harris and Trump are both warmongering candidates. And despite some of the differences between them, at the end of the day, it is the Biden-Harris administration that has presided over the support for this war. After Harris became the anointed, you know, crowned candidate for the Democratic Party, after that happened, you saw the Biden-Harris administration approving more than $20 billion more for military aid to Israel.

JANE STEINFELS HUSSAIN: I’m Jane Steinfels Hussain. I’m here with CodePink, and I’m here from the Nashville Peace and Justice Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

MARÍA TARACENA: And you were here in Chicago in 1968 for the DNC that took place that year.

JANE STEINFELS HUSSAIN: It was accurately described as a police riot, and I was a witness to it. I was a street medic. I was newly graduated from the University of Chicago and hugely pregnant. And I was stuck at one point right out in front of the Hilton Hotel, where the police were beating people and dragging them and putting them in paddy wagons. And the young man who was staying with us, I spent several days afterwards looking for him at hospitals and police stations. And he was left in an alley behind the Hilton by the police after both of his legs were broken. So, it was really, really violent.

And I think it is a pivotal moment, but there have been so many pivotal moments for the Democratic Party to take the right action, and so I don’t have an awful lot of hope for the Democratic Party. But I do have a hope for the people of America, because I think young people, in much greater numbers, are really clued into American imperialism and the whole war economy.

RABBI BRANT ROSEN: Brant Rosen. I’m the rabbi of the congregation Tzedek Chicago.

MESSIAH RHODES: And what do you say to people who are calling for, you know, arms embargo, calling for these simple demands, a ceasefire, who are pro-Palestinian, as being antisemitic?

RABBI BRANT ROSEN: It’s just astonishing to hear people say stop war is somehow antisemitic. I mean, on a very basic level, as a rabbi, my spiritual tradition is — demands that we pursue peace and we pursue justice. You know, the claim that it’s somehow antisemitic is just — it’s absurd on its face, and it shows the desperation of those who stand with Israel unconditionally. It shows the patent immorality of that position.

JUSTINE MEDINA: Justine Medina. I’m on the organizing committee at JFK8 with ALU-IBT.

MESSIAH RHODES: What brings you here today at the DNC?

JUSTINE MEDINA: The Palestinian trade unions, since this genocidal war started, have been asking for support from their labor and brother sisters around the world. So, as internationalists, as fighters for labor power, we cannot, you know, ignore that call. And we are going to come here, and we’re going to tell everyone — Republican, Democrat, independent, it doesn’t matter — we need a ceasefire now. We need an arms embargo now. We need a liberated Palestine, you know? We need to end the occupation, because the working class is global.

KSHAMA SAWANT: The possibility of Trump 2.0 is only a reality because of the many betrayals by the Biden-Harris administration. Biden and Harris, both as president and as vice president, and the Democratic Party as a whole, they broke their promise for a $15-an-hour minimum wage. They blocked the railroad workers’ strike, which is possibly one of the most anti-worker, anti-union actions that can be taken by politicians. And so, in other words, both the Democratic and Republican parties are anti-worker, and they are both pro-war.

RABBI BRANT ROSEN: I want people to know that there is a strong movement within the Democratic Party, certainly with the “uncommitted” movement but not only, inside the halls of the convention and out here in the streets, that there is a strong, strong constituency that is demanding a fair and humane and a just foreign policy, and, in particular, an end to this genocide. And, you know, people often say that, “Well, this is just focusing on one issue.” In a time of genocide, genocide is the only issue.

JUSTINE MEDINA: If the Democrats want us to get out the vote for them, they need to actually earn our votes by giving us a meaningful change on Gaza. They have not done that. We are not going to do the work for them of getting Kamala Harris elected if they cannot stop the most basic thing, which is the slaughter of our people abroad with our money. So, for Palestinian Americans, this is a fundamental issue. And we have spent 10 months watching our people die every day. To ask us to simply come out and just wait and hope that some change will happen before the election, it’s just offensive, and it’s completely insensitive to where we are as a community.

AMY GOODMAN: Some of the voices from the first protest leading up to the Democratic National Convention here in Chicago, beginning today, that protest yesterday. Special thanks to Democracy Now! producers Sam Alcoff, Messiah Rhodes and María Taracena.

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Kamala Harris Is Reaching Out to Arab American Leaders, But Will There Be Any Change in Gaza Policy?
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
Aug 19, 2024

Arab American voters could significantly impact the 2024 presidential election, particularly in Michigan, home to the largest Arab community in the United States. Many of these voters, incensed at U.S. support for the Israeli war on Gaza, have mobilized over the past year to pressure the Biden administration to change policy, including by casting hundreds of thousands of ballots for “uncommitted” in Democratic primary elections to signal their demand for policy changes. We speak with Osama Siblani, founder and publisher of The Arab American News, who has had several meetings with senior figures from the White House and the Democratic presidential campaign. Despite all those meetings, “nothing has happened” except “more killing,” Siblani says. “Something has to be done to stop Benjamin Netanyahu’s appetite for killing.”

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, “War, Peace and the Presidency: Breaking with Convention.” I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, in addition to the protests on the streets, dozens of delegates with the “uncommitted” movement are also in Chicago as they continue to pressure Kamala Harris to halt U.S. military support for Israel’s war on Gaza. The delegates represent states where some 700,000 people cast uncommitted votes during primary elections to protest the Democrats’ pro-Israel policies.

For the first time ever, the DNC is hosting a panel on Palestinian human rights. The uncommitted delegates welcomed the move and are continuing to request that Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, who has volunteered in Gaza, be permitted to address the convention from the stage.

AMY GOODMAN: Top Democrats have spent weeks meeting with uncommitted voters and their allies, including a sit-down between Harris and the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, Abdullah Hammoud, in an effort to respond to criticism in key swing states like Michigan, which has a significant Arab American population. Harris’s campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez Thursday held several one-on-one meetings with leaders of the Arab American community, uncommitted movement in metro Detroit, among them, Osama Siblani, founder and publisher of The Arab American News, the largest and most widely circulated Arab American publication in the United States. He’s based in Dearborn, Michigan, where he joins us from today.

Osama Siblani, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you talk about that meeting you had with Julie Chávez Rodríguez, one of the campaign managers for Harris, had been for Biden, the granddaughter of Cesar Chavez, what you had to say to her and how you feel the Harris-Walz campaign is responding to your concerns?

OSAMA SIBLANI: Well, first of all, good morning, Amy, and thank you for having me on your program again.

Yeah, this is not the first time I met with Julie. Actually, I did meet with her in January of this year when she was managing the campaign of President Biden. And we met in my office for two-and-a-half hours. And we’ve had a good discussion, and it was frank. And I met her again Thursday, last Thursday, and now she’s managing the Harris campaign. And we met, and we talked for about an hour, and it was a frank and straightforward discussion. It was the same discussion. And I told her that it’s true that the Democratic Party changed horses, but we’re still seeing the same jockey — that is, Benjamin Netanyahu riding these horses all the way, you know, in the same direction, doing the same thing.

You know, I’ve been listening to the program, and I’ve listened to the demonstrators. And all of them, they are right on the point. They have made a very good case. I would say that they have represented everything that we believe in, everything that we have said.

Between January and between Thursday, we have met several times senior leaders from the White House, emissaries from the president’s office, from the White House and from the secretary of state, and nothing has happened. Nothing. Nothing. More killing. Actually, when I met with Julie in January, it was like, the killing today, three times as much. So, nothing has happened. There’s more killing, more destruction, and the genocide is going on without any — without any reprisal, without any kind of steps to take care from here, from the United States, the most powerful country on the face of this Earth, the one that can really stop the killing, not doing anything.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Osama Siblani, what are the, first, Biden and, now, Harris people telling you behind closed doors versus what they’re saying to the public?

OSAMA SIBLANI: They are not really saying any much. I mean, they listen to us, they shake their head, and we think that something can happen. And the times go, you know, time passes, and all what we see is more killing. There are no promises.

They say that Harris is different, they’re from different generations. But we have not seen anything from her. We’ve been listening. We are good listeners. But so far, we have not listened to anything that changes policy. She said that she is not going to consider an arms embargo. What if they kill more people? What are you going to do? You’re going to continue to give them more bombs to kill more people?

There are no leadership in this country. I am sorry. If they think that they can give us lip service, and then, on November 5, go and vote for them because the choices are very bad, the other choice, they are wrong, because there is another choice: that we can sit home. And this is what most of the people are going to be doing, sitting home and not going out to vote. Is that the right thing to do? Of course not. But what choices do we have? You tell me.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Osama Siblani, I wanted to ask you about this unprecedented moment where for the first time the Democratic National Convention, today, before the actual convention opens, in one of the side meetings, will be hosting a discussion that includes Layla Elabed, who is one of the founders of the uncommitted movement, the sister of the only Palestinian American congresswoman, Rashida Tlaib, and others at the McCormick Center around the issue of Palestinian human rights. Do you think that this is an accomplishment?

OSAMA SIBLANI: Well, every time that we stand and speak about the Palestinian issue and the massacre that’s happening in Gaza, it is important. And I think that this is an important step. However, what changes this is going to make? We have been talking to this administration since October, right after October. And we have been meeting. And every meeting, we listen, they listen, we talk, they listen, they talk, we listen, they leave. Nothing happens. More killing is happening. That is what is happening. Now, we have to stop talk. We have to stop the talk and do something to stop the killing, because this is what’s happening right now, you know, like you see these people are suffering every day more and more, and we keep talking, and nothing is happening. And I don’t understand why we are not able to stop it. This country is able to stop the killing tomorrow. If there is a will, there is a way. But the will is not there anymore.

So, I welcome the discussion, but those discussions are leading us nowhere, Amy. Nowhere. Nowhere. Our people are dying every day, in a way that is unprecedented. We see them on television with body parts, their children, carrying children dead, 16, 17 years old, carrying those babies dripping with blood. That is not a very good scene. That is not how peace is going to be generated in the Middle East. That’s more war and more hate, not peace, not harmony anymore. So, something has to be done to stop Benjamin Netanyahu’s appetite for killing.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I’m wondering if you’re heartened at least in terms of the change in attitude among many Americans. We’ve seen the votes, the uncommitted votes, in the primary. And even here in Illinois, by my calculations, 50,000 people voted in the presidential primary just in Chicago but did not vote for president, because they didn’t have an alternative or uncommitted slate here, but their votes were not counted. So, there’s at least 50,000 people right here in Chicago who opposed President Biden, and about 100,000 in Illinois. I’m wondering your sense of the change in public opinion in the United States in terms of Israel’s continued occupation of Palestinian land.

OSAMA SIBLANI: I’m very appreciative, in fact, to the change in opinion, especially among the young people. And that is due to, you know, being informed — through social media, unfortunately, not mainstream media — of what has been happening in Gaza and around the world. And I believe that the change is coming in America. I really do. I mean, I look at the demonstrations and the encampments in the universities, all the universities, especially the Ivy League, and we see those are the potential leaders in America. And I believe that in the next maybe decade or two decades, things will change in America. But we have to be patient. We have to be persistent. We have to continue to tell the truth. Once the American people know what is happening, they will make the right decision. That’s what happened in 1968, actually — you know, the history repeats itself — when they were demonstrating against the Vietnam War, and people prevailed, and they changed, you know, policy.

And today, the same thing is happening. America is waking up. The American people are waking up to the fact that there is a crime being committed against civilians in Palestine, and there is a situation there that has been brewing for 76 years, and it is time to end. And therefore, they are going to be aware of it, and they will change it. It’s going to take time. Change in America is coming. I believe in the new generation. I believe in what you guys are doing at Democracy Now! and others. And I think that this is changing opinion. And in fact, I see the change coming, maybe in the next decade or two decades at most.

AMY GOODMAN: Osama Siblani, we want to thank you for being with us, founder and publisher of The Arab American News, the largest, most widely circulated Arab American publication in the United States, speaking to us from Dearborn, Michigan. Harris’s campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez met with him for the second time last week.

Coming up, we’ll speak with two Chicago men who spent decades in prison before being exonerated. Stay with us.

[admin]

Headlines:

Biden, AOC Address Night 1 of DNC as Palestinian Rights Activists Shine Light on Gaza Genocide
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
Aug 20, 2024

President Biden took to the stage on the first night of the Democratic National Convention Monday, where he “passed the torch” to Vice President Kamala Harris.

President Joe Biden: “Selecting Kamala was the very first decision I made before I became — when I became our nominee. And it was the best decision I made my whole career.”

A few minutes into Biden’s remarks, protesters dropped a sign that read “Stop Arming Israel.” The sign was quickly wrestled away from the protesters. We’ll speak to three activists involved in last night’s actions in hour two of our live DNC broadcast. The DNC on Monday evening voted to adopt the party’s official platform, which does not call for an arms embargo on Israel and reasserts unwavering U.S. support for Israel.

Among other high-profile speakers Monday night was New York Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “We have a chance to elect a president who is for the middle class because she is from the middle class. She understands the urgency of rent checks and groceries and prescriptions. She is as committed to our reproductive and civil rights as she is to taking on corporate greed. And she is working tirelessly to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and bringing hostages home.”

AOC’s speech came after her fellow Squad members, Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman, recently lost their House seats after AIPAC poured tens of millions of dollars into their primary challengers’ campaigns.

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Protesters “March on the DNC” Amid Heavy Police Presence, Arrests
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
Aug 20, 2024

Thousands of protesters took to the streets Monday as part of the “March on the DNC.” Nick Tilsen is an Oglala Lakota leader and president of the NDN Collective.

Nick Tilsen: “I’m here to remind America that this election is happening on the stolen lands of Indigenous people. And the Land Back movement stands in solidarity with a free Palestine and to end all military aid to the state of Israel and to stop the genocide.”

Amid heavy police presence, a group of protesters broke off from the main march and headed to the United Center, where they breached a security fence as they chanted “Whose streets? Our streets!” before police began to make arrests. We’ll hear more voices from the March on the DNC later in the broadcast.

During a separate action Monday, Cheri Honkala with the Poor People’s Army was also arrested near the United Center after she crossed a police line as she attempted to walk into the DNC to deliver a citizen’s arrest warrant for Democratic leaders the Poor People’s Army has accused of crimes against humanity. This is Honkala speaking before her arrest.

Cheri Honkala: “Either arrest me or let me continue to walk.

Police officer 1: “OK. OK. Continue push against us, and you will.”

Cheri Honkala: “Am I under arrest? If I’m not, I will continue to walk.”

Police officer 2: “Make sure you get that on camera, too.”

Police officer 3: “You’re not going that way.”

Cheri Honkala: “You do not have a right to beat or hurt me. I’m asking you.”

Honkala led a similar action in Milwaukee last month, the site of the Republican National Convention, where she was also arrested. Several members of the Poor People’s Army walked from Milwaukee to Chicago ahead of the DNC.

Blinken Says Netanyahu Agreed to Ceasefire Proposal, But Israel Continues Its Genocidal War in Gaza
Aug 20, 2024

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted a U.S. proposal that would bridge remaining differences in achieving a Gaza ceasefire, and urged Hamas to do the same. Hamas called out the hypocrisy of Blinken’s announcement and repeated its demand that any deal must result in a permanent end to Israel’s war on Gaza, and accused the U.S. of “merely buying time for Israel to continue its genocide” by watering down a previous agreement. Despite the news from Blinken, who is now in Egypt to garner support for the deal, Israel’s carnage in Gaza continues unabated. The U.N. warned Monday Israel is now “relentlessly” striking the besieged territory, with almost all Gazans displaced and some resorting to living among the rubble amid Israel’s barrage of evacuation orders.

In Khan Younis, distraught family members gathered at the Nasser Hospital morgue after Israeli strikes earlier today killed at least 11 people, including children. This is researcher and professor Iyad Abu Mustafa, speaking outside the hospital.

Iyad Abu Mustafa: “The occupying state continues to carry out brutal operations day after day. Yesterday, 18 martyrs were killed, and this morning, more than 10 martyrs. The number of martyrs has reached more than 44,000 martyrs. This escalation indicates a crime of genocide, a well-organized crime. Every bloodbath is a crime in itself. There is no country in the world that is able to stop these serious violations against the Palestinian people. The United States is still taking the neutral stance and is blindly biased toward the occupying Israeli state.”

Meanwhile, Israel says it retrieved the bodies of six hostages from Khan Younis overnight. The families of hostages have been calling on Netanyahu to work toward a ceasefire in Gaza for months.

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Thousands March on DNC in Chicago to Demand End to War on Gaza
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
Aug 20, 2024

On the opening day of the Democratic National Convention, Democracy Now! was on the streets of Chicago during the March on the DNC as thousands of protesters held a rally and march to call on Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party to end U.S. support for Israel amid its ongoing assault on Gaza. We bring you the voices of some of the protesters.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: The Democratic National Convention opened on Monday with speeches by top officials of the Democratic Party, including an unscheduled appearance on stage by Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden wrapping up the night with a 50-minute address.

Earlier in the day, thousands of protesters took to the streets to voice their opposition to Israel’s war on Gaza and to call on Biden, Harris and the Democratic Party to end U.S. support for the war. Demonstrators gathered in Union Park for a rally before setting off on a march through the streets amidst a heavy police presence. A few dozen protesters broke away from the larger group and marched toward the United Center, the site of the DNC, and tore down parts of the security fence. Several protesters who managed to get through the fence were detained and handcuffed by police. Protests are scheduled in Chicago every day this week for the DNC.

AMY GOODMAN: Democracy Now! was on the streets yesterday covering the March on the DNC. These are some of the voices of those protesters.

ABLA ABDELKADER: We all come together to say one thing: We want humanity to take priority over profit. We want people to come together. Our front is united. It’s stronger than it’s ever been. I don’t think I’ve ever seen as diverse a protest in my life, and I’ve been to — I’ve been going since I was little. And seeing all these different flags, all these different faces, all these different flyers, holding up signs for queer liberation, for Black liberation, for workers’ rights, for disabled people rights, it’s extremely empowering.

And I think that frightens the white supremacy cushion that our elected officials have been sitting on. They’re losing their power, and they realize that with our tie to solidarity and our united front continuing to build and become more unwavering, it’s only a matter of time until their time is up and we begin to speak. As Kamala Harris said she’s speaking, well, we’re speaking now, and we’re making sure you hear us that you’re not going to get away with killing, the killing of hundreds of thousands of people, not just in Palestine, but just wreaking havoc all over the Global South and on all minority communities.

PROTESTERS: Occupation no more! Five, six, seven, eight!

NICK TILSEN: My name is Nick Tilsen. I’m Oglala Lakota. I’m the president and CEO of NDN Collective. We’re an international Indigenous rights organization dedicated to building Indigenous power. And I’m from Pine Ridge, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. And I’m here. I’m here to remind America that this election is happening on the stolen lands of Indigenous people. And the Land Back movement stands in solidarity with a free Palestine and to end all military aid to the state of Israel and to stop the genocide.

GILLIAN RATH: We’re here today. We, as SDS, have been launching a long campaign for divestments on our campus, so demanding that our administration divests from countries complicit in war crimes, and that includes Israel, and weapons manufacturing companies. But we’re also here as Minnesota residents saying that we want to hold our Democratic politicians accountable, and that now includes Tim Walz. And we’ve actually been protesting Walz for years and years. He’s the chair of the State Board of Investments in Minnesota, so he’s responsible for investing Minnesota tax dollars. And they — him personally, with the SBI, invests currently $3.2 billion into Israeli companies that are complicit in genocide. And I was actually arrested on Walz’s front lawn for protesting this exact thing before he was even announced that he was the VP nominee.

JASPER NORDIN: My name is Jasper Nordin. I’m a UPS Teamster Local 638 Minneapolis. I’m also with Minnesota Workers United. I get really annoyed when Republicans are like, “Tim Walz is a super far-left radical.” Like, I assure you he’s not. He sent out the National Guard to beat up protesters after the George Floyd riots in 2020. He has continually ignored people calling for Minnesota to divest its investments in Israel, in its genocide.

PROTESTERS: ¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!

MARI MANSFIELD: Mari with MIRAC, the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee. The same company, Elbit Systems, that created the wall in Gaza, created and has funded and designed the wall at our southern border in Mexico, that uses both wall and then — and what they’re calling smart wall technology, surveillance towers, drone systems. And so, there is a pretty direct link between Palestine and Gaza, because the same business of oppression is being used in both places.

MARÍA TARACENA: And what is your response? It seems like Kamala Harris is trying to prove that she’s tougher on border security than Trump in order to garner more support. What are your thoughts on that strategy?

MARI MANSFIELD: Border security is a lost cause. Border security is an illusion. There is no such thing as a safe border. This wall is impossible. We are spending millions and millions of dollars at something that will never be completed and will never make us safe. Most crime, most drugs coming through the border come through legal ports of entry, and they are aided by Custom and Border Patrol agents. So, Kamala, her position is just to continue the same, which is pushing our money, our tax dollars, into a system that will never work for any of us.

CLAUDIA DE LA CRUZ: My name is Claudia De la Cruz, and I’m the presidential candidate for the Party for Socialism and Liberation. We are here to make it clear that the people of the United States are not represented in that DNC. That DNC convention is a coronation of war criminals. And we are here to say that it is not with our consent that they are continuing to fund and provide weapons to the war criminals of the state, colonial state, of Israel. We’re here to say that they have enough business in the United States to take care of, that does not — does not require for them to go across the globe waging war. We are here to say that we need a price freeze on essential goods. We are here to say that the urgency our communities need to be covered with housing, with healthcare, but instead they’re spending trillions of dollars on bombing babies, and it is not with our consent. And we demand not only to be heard, but to have political and economic decision-making power in this so-called democracy.

PROTESTERS: Palestine will live forever! Palestine will live forever!

AMY GOODMAN: Some of the voices from the thousands in the streets of Chicago at the March on the DNC protest. Special thanks to Messiah Rhodes, María Taracena, Sam Alcoff and Hana Elias.

When we come back, we go inside the convention for the first-ever panel on Palestinian human rights at the DNC. Stay with us.

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First-Ever DNC Panel on Palestinian Rights: We Need to “Restore the Soul of the Democratic Party”
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
Aug 20, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/8/20/ ... transcript

This year, the Democratic National Convention held its first-ever panel on Palestinian human rights. The panel came after persistent grassroots organizing against U.S. support for Israel’s assault on Gaza. We play excerpts, including from the Arab American Institute’s James Zogby, a former executive member of the Democratic National Committee; Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care surgeon who recently worked in Gaza; and Layla Elabed, co-chair of the Uncommitted National Movement.

Later that day, during President Biden’s convention speech, protesters standing near the Florida delegation unfolded a banner proclaiming “Stop Arming Israel.” Democracy Now was at the scene. We speak with one of the protesting delegates, Liano Sharon, an elected DNC delegate from Michigan, as he was escorted off the convention floor. Sharon, who is Jewish, told Democracy Now! that he participated in the action because “'never again' means never again for anyone, anywhere, ever, period.”

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, “War, Peace and the Presidency: Breaking with Convention.” I’m Amy Goodman, here in Chicago with Juan González.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, the opening day of the Democratic convention on Monday featured the first-ever panel on Palestinian human rights at the DNC. The panel was announced just a day earlier and came after persistent grassroots organizing against U.S. support for Israel’s assault on Gaza.

AMY GOODMAN: The panel was moderated by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and featured former Michigan Congressmember Andy Levin; Hala Hijazi, a Democratic organizer and fundraiser who’s had over 100 family members killed in Gaza; Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care surgeon who served in Gaza many times; Layla Elabed, the co-chair of the “uncommitted” movement; and James Zogby, a former longtime executive member of the Democratic National Committee and the founder of the Arab American Institute. Zogby began by speaking about the significance of the first-ever panel on Palestinian rights being held at the DNC.

JAMES ZOGBY: I have been doing this for most of my life, like 50 years. And I remember when we couldn’t get the issue of Palestine discussed at the Coalition for a New Foreign and Military Policy, that was all the left groups, because they said, “If you let the Arabs in, we’ll lose our credibility.” And when the anniversary of Dr. King’s march happened, again, we were invited to be on the steering committee, and they said, “Eh, if you let the Arabs in, it’ll hurt our credibility.” And so we were asked to leave.

Jesse Jackson made all the difference in the world, because he elevated the issue, and he elevated those of us who raised the issue. And the last two times — the only two times — that the word “Palestine” was mentioned at a Democratic convention was 1984 and 1988 with Jesse Jackson, when — when he spoke in his speech about it, and he invited me first to give him a nominating speech, where I talked about justice for Palestinians. And then, in ’88, we had a platform fight, an actual platform debate from the podium of the convention, on justice for Palestinians.

So, we’ve come a long way. People say to me, “Well, you’re just being optimistic. You’re just saying, you know, 'Cup is half full.'” I say, “No, I remember when we didn’t have a cup.” And we are now with a cup and filling it up. So, when I look at this panel today, it is not the prize. The prize is a change in policy. That’s the prize. …

But what’s historic here is that we are having an officially sanctioned panel to talk about it. Like I said, it’s not the main prize. It’s not the big prize. But it is something I do not want to dismiss for a minute as to how significant this is, about what message the Harris campaign is sending by saying, “We want to talk about this and hear you talk about it.”

And so, I’ve heard some grumbling, you know? I quote Willie Barrow, a friend of mine from the Jackson campaign in the '80s, who said, “We ain't never been here before.” She’d say, “We ain’t never been here.” We’ve never had this forum before. And it is not, like I said, the end. It’s the beginning of a process.

And the difference is — and I told this to Layla and Abbas last night — that when we raised it in '84 and ’88, we did so because Jesse Jackson enabled us. It was a top down. There were people in our Jackson coalition who were, “Reverend, you sure you want to do this? Are you sure you want to talk about this?” He said, “Damn it, I'm doing it. I’ve been doing it from the beginning. We’re not backing away.” This is different. No candidate elevated this movement. This was a bottom up. This was Abbas. This was Layla. This was Waleed. This was activists across the country who said, “We’re not taking it.”

And part of recognition of that is that we’re having a forum, a recognized one. I’ve been to a lot of the forums since this day has begun. You know, I’ve been to a number of these sessions. This is the largest audience I’ve seen for any one of them. Right?

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: That was James Zogby, the former longtime executive member of the Democratic National Committee and the founder of the Arab American Institute. One of the most emotional parts of the panel came during comments by Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care surgeon who has been to Gaza several times over the past 10 months with the aid group Doctors Without Borders and other groups. She spoke about some of what she witnessed in Gaza.

DR. TANYA HAJ-HASSAN: For the past 10 months, we have witnessed civilian massacre after civilian massacre — school massacres where internally displaced people were sheltering, the flour massacre, massacres of people trying to collect water, massacres of people collecting aid at aid sites — massacre after civilian massacre, entire families exterminated in one single bomb; humanitarians, healthcare workers killed and journalists killed at record — in record numbers; pediatric amputations, amputations in children that are breaking records; over 17,000 children who have lost one or both parents since October in Gaza.

We have treated so many children who have lost their entire family that it has — a term has been coined to describe these children — you’ve probably heard it — “wounded child, no surviving family,” WCNSF. This is a term that has been coined since October to describe this very frequent phenomenon that I personally witnessed more times than I can count while I was there. For children — I have held the hand of children who are taking their last gasps, because their entire family was killed in the same attack and couldn’t be there holding their hand and comforting them, and could not bury them thereafter.

For the children who I treated who were discharged, they were — and survived, they face a Russian roulette of a hundred ways that they will likely and potentially die when they leave the hospital due to the circumstances incompatible with life that have been architectured by this military assault: direct bombing, starvation, dehydration, disease, alarming reports of the first cases of polio in Gaza right now. Polio is a potentially deadly disease that causes paralysis, including paralysis of the muscles needed to breathe. That has been eradicated for decades in that region. There has been a polio vaccination campaign that essentially has eradicated the disease from the majority of the world. And now we’re seeing cases emerging in a area of the world that cannot — that has a healthcare system that has been completely and entirely annihilated.

I mentioned these wounded children with no surviving family. I’m going to give you two quick stories, just so that you can humanize what I mean when I say this, because I know it’s really hard to hear these numbers and think about individuals and what this means to them.

I received a young boy into the emergency department during one of the mass casualties who had half of his face and neck blown off. Luckily, the organs that are vital for breathing and blood supply to the brain were preserved. They were visible, but preserved. And he was talking to us. He couldn’t see himself, so he didn’t know what he looked like at that point in time, and he kept asking for his sister. His sister was in the bed next to him. The majority of her body was burned beyond recognition. He didn’t recognize that the girl in the bed next to him was his sister. His entire family, parents and the rest of his siblings, were killed in the same attack.

That boy survived. And the next day, I went to see him. A very young plastic surgeon, one of the few remaining plastic surgeons in Gaza, because the others have either been killed or have fled, understandably, had removed part of his chest and created a graft to cover those vital organs of the neck. He was lying in his bed and mumbling, because it was so difficult to talk. And he kept saying — I got really close to him, and he said, “I wish I had died, too.” And I said, “What?” And he said, “I think my entire family has gone to heaven” — or, it’s not “my entire family.” His exact words were something to the effect of, “Everybody I love is now in heaven. I don’t want to be here anymore.” That is one of so many stories. I’m giving you — I’m so sorry, Layla, but I think people need to hear this. I’m giving you the story of one child.

One of my healthcare worker colleagues, a young nurse, one of the most dedicated nurses I’ve ever met, was trying to evacuate a patient when Al-Shifa Hospital was bombed, from north to south. He carried that patient, was eventually called by Israeli forces, not by name, but by uniform: “You, the person in scrubs, come here.” He was subsequently detained for 53 days. He reported physical, sexual and psychological torture while in detention, and ultimately released because he had no crime.

After he was released, he worked constantly, because, one, he was so dedicated, and, two, he suffered from severe insomnia from the trauma of his detention. He was always in the resuscitation room of the emergency department, cleaning out sand from the eyes of people pulled from under the rubble, trying to comfort them. One day, overnight, he fell asleep holding the body of a dead child still with a breathing tube in after they had failed to resuscitate the infant.

Another day, I asked him to go home, because he hadn’t slept in so many hours. So he left the hospital. Couple hours later, I see him in the emergency department trying to resuscitate a man whose arms and leg — sorry, whose both legs and one arm had been blown off. I asked him what he was doing in the hospital. “I thought you went home to rest.” And he said, “This is my sister’s husband. They woke me up to tell me that the aid distribution site had been bombed, and my sister’s husband had gone there. So I went to find him, and found him severely injured.” So I helped him resuscitate this patient. His home has been destroyed. He’s a young man. He’s engaged. He’s trying to get married. He had a whole life ahead of him, and he was a very dedicated healthcare worker.

I’m giving you two stories, a child and a healthcare worker, but these are representative of literally almost everybody I know in Gaza. I don’t know a single healthcare worker who has not lost multiple members of their family.

So, as the U.S. continues to fund this military campaign unconditionally, and somewhat blindly, in stark contrast to documented realities on the ground, in stark contrast to the findings of the International Court of Justice of plausible genocide, and in stark contrast to the universal, global condemnation of humanitarian and human rights organizations, we have no choice but to exert as much pressure as possible and use all the leverage we can to change direction, the direction that this country is taking.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care surgeon who’s volunteered in Gaza hospitals a number of times. Layla Elabed, the co-chair of the Uncommitted National Movement, who was seated right next to her, was overcome with emotion and briefly walked out during Haj-Hassan’s comments. Layla Elabed later responded to a question about the plans for the uncommitted movement between now and November.

LAYLA ELABED: We stand at a very crucial moment for our party. The Democratic Party, the party of my father, the party that has stood up for justice, is being tested. Will it rise for the occasion and stand for the values that it was built on — freedom, equality, justice — or will it remain silent in the face of unimaginable suffering? If we remain silent, and we become complicit. But if we stand up and demand action, an arms embargo, a ceasefire, an end to war, we may have an opportunity to restore the soul of the Democratic Party and unite us under a big tent.

The Listen to Michigan and the Uncommitted National Movement is in the fight for the soul of the Democratic Party. I want to quote Fannie Lou Hamer, who wasn’t allowed to speak from the stage at the 1964 Democratic National Convention because of her identity: “I question America. Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave?” All we are doing right now is in the tradition of Fannie Lou Hamer and the Mississippi Freedom Party and the civil rights movement of the 1964 Democratic Party convention: bringing moral witness to the most powerful political party in the world to listen to voices deeply impacted by our U.S. policy decisions.

We aren’t that different from any other movement, from unions, civil rights, gay marriage, reproductive rights or climate justice. We are fighting to be recognized, to be part of this party. And we are fighting for this party to believe in our equal rights. Hala and I shouldn’t have to stand up here and tell you the suffering of our family members for Democrats and for this administration and for Vice President Harris to want to do the moral and right thing to do.

AMY GOODMAN: Layla Elabed is co-chair of the uncommitted movement, speaking at the first-ever panel on Palestinian human rights here at the DNC. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, “War, Peace and the Presidency: Breaking with Convention.” I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: On Monday night, President Biden headlined the opening night of the Democratic National Convention. Biden’s speech came less than a month after he announced he ended his reelection campaign, paving the way for Vice President Kamala Harris’s nomination. On Monday night, Biden briefly spoke about Israel’s war on Gaza.

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: We’re working around the clock, my secretary of state, to prevent a wider war and reunite hostages with their families and surge humanitarian health and food assistance into Gaza now, to end the civilian suffering of the Palestinian people and finally, finally, finally deliver a ceasefire and end this war. … Those protesters out in the street, they have a point. A lot of innocent people are being killed, on both sides.

AMY GOODMAN: A few minutes into President Biden’s remarks, three delegates, part of Delegates Against Genocide, dropped a banner that read “Stop Arming Israel.” We were inside the convention floor right next to the Florida delegation, where it happened. While some delegates snatched the banner away, many others of the Florida delegation quickly raised Joe Biden placards that said “Thank you, Joe” and “We love Joe” to block any view of the banner. The protesting delegates who dropped the banner were quickly escorted from the convention floor by security. We’re going to go to that moment inside the convention on opening night.

BIDEN SUPPORTERS: Thank you, Joe! Thank you, Joe! Thank you, Joe!

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I wasn’t looking in the past. I was looking in the future.

DELEGATE: We have a right. We have a right. We have a right.

BIDEN SUPPORTERS: We love Joe! We love Joe! We love Joe!

BIDEN SUPPORTER 1: Get him out. He’s threatening her. He’s threatening her. Get him out.

AMY GOODMAN: Sir? Sir? Sir?

BIDEN SUPPORTER 2: Ma’am, we’re trying to listen to the president.

AMY GOODMAN: What are you doing?

BIDEN SUPPORTER 2: We’re trying to listen to the president. Sir, you are committing assault.

LIANO SHARON: I’m trying to protest.

BIDEN SUPPORTER 3: We’re trying to listen to the president.

LIANO SHARON: I’m trying to protest the murder of children in Gaza. I’m trying to protest. [inaudible] This is the only way [inaudible] America is through protest.

AMY GOODMAN: What’s your name, sir? Sir, what’s your name?

LIANO SHARON: My name’s Liano Sharon. I’m a DNC delegate from Michigan.

SECURITY GUARD: Can we wait 'til you're downstairs?

AMY GOODMAN: And what did you do today?

LIANO SHARON: Today, we held up a sign protesting the murder of children in Gaza and the continuing genocide.

SECURITY GUARD: Watch your step. Watch your step.

REPORTER: What did the sign say?

LIANO SHARON: It said “Stop Arming Israel.”

SECURITY GUARD: All right, thank you. Let’s keep it going. [inaudible]

REPORTER: What was your name, sir?

LIANO SHARON: Liano Sharon.

AMY GOODMAN: And what happened then?

SECURITY GUARD: Let’s get into the tunnel. You can interview him in the tunnel. OK?

AMY GOODMAN: And what happened next?

SECURITY GUARD: I just don’t want you to break your ankles.

LIANO SHARON: Then the people behind us grabbed a hold of the sign and tried to rip it out of our hands several times. Eventually, they succeeded.

SECURITY GUARD: Interview in the hall, OK? Let’s get him down. All right, thanks for being cooperative, sir.

LIANO SHARON: Yeah, no problem.

SECURITY GUARD: OK. Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: And why did — and why did you do it?

LIANO SHARON: I did that because we are currently funding a genocide.

BIDEN SUPPORTER 4: Thank you, Joe! Thank you, Joe! Thank you, Joe!

LIANO SHARON: And we need to — and it needs to stop. And also, I want to — I want to make it clear to the Harris campaign that this is actually in their interest. Netanyahu is trying to instigate a larger war so he can remain in power and avoid going to prison. In order to move Netanyahu off of his current position of trying to expand the war in order to stay in power and remain out of jail, we believe that the U.S. needs to stop arming Israel, needs to have an embargo against their — against their genocide. Otherwise, Netanyahu doesn’t have the incentive to stop the genocide, to stop the mass murder.

AMY GOODMAN: Why does this matter to you so much?

LIANO SHARON: It matters to me so much because I’m a Jew and I was always brought up to believe that “never again” means never again for anyone, anywhere, ever, period. And that’s not what’s happening right now. What’s happening right now is that we are continuing to fund and support an ongoing genocide, the mass murder of children. And it needs to stop.

AMY GOODMAN: Voices from inside the Democratic National Convention Monday night during President Biden’s remarks. Special thanks to Sam Alcoff, Hany Massoud and Nermeen Shaikh. It was when three of the delegates, part of a group called Delegates Against Genocide, dropped a banner that read “Stop Arming Israel.” We’ll speak with all three delegates in our other hour of “War, Peace and the Presidency: Breaking with Convention.” Stay tuned.

When we come back, we look at the life and legacy of pioneering TV host Phil Donahue. Stay with us.

*****************

Muslim, Immigrant & Jewish Delegates Unfurl “Stop Arming Israel” Banner During Biden DNC Speech
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
Aug 20, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/8/20/ ... transcript

During President Biden’s speech on the first night of the DNC, protesters briefly unfurled a banner that read “Stop Arming Israel,” before it was wrested away by convention staff. We speak to three members of the group Delegates Against Genocide who organized and carried out the action: Esam Boraey, a human rights activist and delegate from Connecticut; Florida DNC member Nadia Ahmad; and progressive Jewish activist Liano Sharon, an elected delegate from Michigan. “We were there specifically to confront President Joe Biden,” says Ahmad, explaining why the protesters chose to disrupt Biden’s speech. “He’s the one who can stop this genocide by picking up the phone and making a phone call, and he has chosen not to do that.”

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, “War, Peace and the Presidency: Breaking with Convention.” I’m Amy Goodman, here with Juan González in Chicago.

On Monday night, President Biden headlined the opening night of the Democratic National Convention. A few minutes into his remarks, three delegates unfurled a banner that read “Stop Arming Israel.” The action took place where the Florida delegation was sitting. While some other delegates snatched the banner away, many delegates quickly raised Joe Biden placards that read “Thank you, Joe” and “I love Joe” to block any view of the banner. More and more of those placards were brought out to cover the banner as much as possible. The protesting delegates who unfurled that banner were quickly escorted from the convention floor by security. Democracy Now! was nearby when it happened.

BIDEN SUPPORTERS: Thank you, Joe! Thank you, Joe! Thank you, Joe!

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I wasn’t looking in the past. I was looking in the future.

DELEGATE: We have a right. We have a right. We have a right.

BIDEN SUPPORTERS: We love Joe! We love Joe! We love Joe!

BIDEN SUPPORTER 1: Get him out. He’s threatening her. He’s threatening her. Get him out.

AMY GOODMAN: Sir? Sir? Sir?

BIDEN SUPPORTER 2: Ma’am, we’re trying to listen to the president.

AMY GOODMAN: What are you doing?

BIDEN SUPPORTER 2: We’re trying to listen to the president. Sir, you are committing assault.

LIANO SHARON: I’m trying to protest.

BIDEN SUPPORTER 3: We’re trying to listen to the president.

LIANO SHARON: I’m trying to protest the murder of children in Gaza. I’m trying to protest. [inaudible] This is the only way [inaudible] America is through protest.

AMY GOODMAN: What’s your name, sir? Sir, what’s your name?

LIANO SHARON: My name’s Liano Sharon. I’m a DNC delegate from Michigan.

SECURITY GUARD: Can we wait 'til you're downstairs?

AMY GOODMAN: And what did you do today?

LIANO SHARON: Today, we held up a sign protesting the murder of children in Gaza and the continuing genocide.

SECURITY GUARD: Watch your step. Watch your step.

REPORTER: What did the sign say?

LIANO SHARON: It said “Stop Arming Israel.”

SECURITY GUARD: All right, thank you. Let’s keep it going. [inaudible]

REPORTER: What was your name, sir?

LIANO SHARON: Liano Sharon.

AMY GOODMAN: And what happened then?

SECURITY GUARD: Let’s get into the tunnel. You can interview him in the tunnel. OK?

AMY GOODMAN: And what happened next?

SECURITY GUARD: I just don’t want you to break your ankles.

LIANO SHARON: Then the people behind us grabbed a hold of the sign and tried to rip it out of our hands several times. Eventually, they succeeded.

SECURITY GUARD: Interview in the hall, OK? Let’s get him down. All right, thanks for being cooperative, sir.

LIANO SHARON: Yeah, no problem.

SECURITY GUARD: OK. Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: And why did — and why did you do it?

LIANO SHARON: I did that because we are currently funding a genocide.

BIDEN SUPPORTER 4: Thank you, Joe! Thank you, Joe! Thank you, Joe!

LIANO SHARON: And we need to — and it needs to stop. And also, I want to — I want to make it clear to the Harris campaign that this is actually in their interest. Netanyahu is trying to instigate a larger war so he can remain in power and avoid going to prison.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined now by the three DNC delegates who unfurled the “Stop Arming Israel” banner. They’re all members of Delegates Against Genocide. Nadia Ahmad is a Florida Democratic National Committee delegate and member. Liano Sharon is a longtime Jewish progressive activist, an elected DNC delegate from Michigan. And Esam Boraey is a delegate from Connecticut.

We welcome you all to Democracy Now! here in Chicago. Liano, I want to start with you, because you were the one escorted out by security. If you can explain further why you did what you did? As we heard in that clip as you were talking as you were taken out, you’re a Jewish Michigan delegate, a Democratic National Committee member.

LIANO SHARON: Mm-hmm. Well, I mean, as I said when I was escorted out, you know, I was always raised as a Jew that “never again” means never again for anyone, anywhere, ever, period. And that’s not what we’re doing. We are currently continuing to arm a Zionist regime that is set on genocide and mass murder of children, and we need to stop that. And there isn’t anything else that is as important as that in this moment. So, that’s why I did it.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Esam, I’d like to ask how you managed to organize it. You’re from different states. And the motivation for you to get involved in this kind of protest right on the floor of the convention?

ESAM BORAEY: Well, thanks to Nadia, since we learned that we would be part of the DNC delegation to Chicago, we quickly came together with our history together on organizing and activism in the community since the war on Gaza started, and we decided to do something, and we wanted to make sure that our voices are heard. We tried multiple ways and many ways of doing these things, and that was our last resort last night.

It means a lot because, you know, as an immigrant myself, I was once political activist back in my home country of Egypt, and I was kicked out of the country because I was pushing for justice and equality for everybody. And I believe, and I still do, that within the convention, that will be the best platform that our voices will be heard. And this is why, following Nadia’s lead on that, we decided to do something yesterday.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Nadia, this was your delegation. This was the Florida delegation where you unfurled this banner. It was almost as if they knew. I mean, I was amazed at the alacrity with which, first, they immediately put up these banners that said “We love Joe,” “Thank you, Joe,” but they didn’t have enough to cover the banner, and so someone had a large stash of them, and they were bringing more and more, and they were handing them out so people were holding two and three to cover up this banner. Did other delegates know or in any way support what you did? And talk about your work in Florida. You’re a professor. You’re also getting a Ph.D.

NADIA AHMAD: So, for me, this was really a matter of being able to speak up for the community. And this was a moment where we have a massive audience, and we were there specifically to confront President Joe Biden. We could have confronted at any time at that convention, but we chose specifically during President Joe Biden’s address, because he’s the one who can stop this genocide by picking up the phone and making a phone call, and he has chosen not to do that.

And for the organizing that we have done, it’s really something that has happened on its own, whether you saw with the student encampments that have happened since April, and also with the protests that’s been just endless and ceaseless. And we felt that we could make a change within the party, and that’s why we took the actions that we did. And I specifically decided to do it in Florida, and that was just a strategic location, because we felt that it would be harder for them to take down the banner right away. But I don’t think they knew about it. But what they did — because throughout the time that we were there, they kept giving banners and posters. So, they just started to just give a lot more in that particular area.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And I’m wondering, just tactically, how you managed to get the banner in, because I’m sure that they’re on the lookout for any kind of protest signs that are not part of the official placards that are distributed at the convention.

NADIA AHMAD: So, I was a reporter for six years. I’m an attorney and a law professor. I’ve been to the White House a number of times. I’ve been to DNC events. So I know like the level of security that they will go through. And I also felt that if I didn’t wear anything — like, I wore hijab — I tried to wear something that wouldn’t attract attention, so I wore a large dress to kind of — just wrapped around myself.

AMY GOODMAN: You’re wearing a Yale University T-shirt right now.

NADIA AHMAD: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: What’s your connection?

NADIA AHMAD: So, I’m a Ph.D. student there. I was also the first visible Muslim woman, or a hijabi, to be somebody who taught there with the rank of professor.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And I’m wondering, for any of you, the conversations you’ve been having with fellow delegates, what your sense is of the unspoken support that exists for Gaza among the delegates who don’t dare say anything?

LIANO SHARON: There’s a great deal of it. We spoke to a large number of delegates, and the vast majority of the people that we spoke to, certainly the people that I spoke to, were supportive of the idea, but were intimidated by the party. In fact, we know of people who were told explicitly that, “If you participate in this, you will never have a position in the party again.” And that’s the kind of intimidation that we really have to expunge from the Democratic Party, because we have a right to protest and to have our voices heard and to have our opinions known.

AMY GOODMAN: Describe the sash that you’re wearing.

LIANO SHARON: This is a Palestinian symbol, a keffiyeh. This is a — these lines symbolize the Mediterranean Sea, and the dots symbolize the olives, which are, you know, important symbols of Palestine. And it says “Democrats for Palestinian Rights,” which I don’t know why anybody in the Democratic Party could possibly object to Palestinian rights or human rights anywhere.

AMY GOODMAN: Esam, can you describe what happened to you on Sunday around a Palestinian flag?

ESAM BORAEY: Oh, yeah. So, we arrived — I arrived in Chicago on Sunday afternoon. And as part of our efforts to raise the Palestinian issue within the party, we were invited to an event by the American Palestinian Community Association. And there, they shared, gave us flags, Palestinian flags, and pens. So, I didn’t have time to go — after that event, to go back to my hotel room and drop my stuff, so I decided to go, to carry my bag to the reception party. And at the gates, they asked me to open my bag, which I did. And then they started digging into my bag.

And immediately the security guard held my bag from me and said, “You need to wait for a minute,” and then called his supervisor, who came along and looked at the bag and said, “OK, we need to call someone.” So he called the DNC people, who showed up. And I kept begging for any explanation, so the supervisor told me, like, “I’m not going to give you an explanation. The DNC will do. But we’re not going to let you in.” And then the DNC employees showed up, and they asked me to leave or leave the bag behind. I was not allowed to get in with the flag inside. I told them that I’m not planning on anything. I’m just — just a flag in my bag, there is no harm found in that whatsoever. But they forced me to go back and leave my bag outside and come in without the bag, which was very concerning.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And I’m wondering, after this convention is over, the debate that will continue among those who believe that the Biden administration, whether it’s President Biden or Kamala Harris, are not really moving in the way they should to end this war, what your sense is of what’s going to happen in the future in terms of the Gaza support movement. And also, I’m getting the feeling that the Biden administration is really trying to rush to announce a ceasefire before this convention is over, as a means of building greater unity within the Democratic Party. Your thoughts on that?

ESAM BORAEY: We’ve seen a lot of change in the rhetoric of the party, which is something we really appreciate and support. But that rhetoric is not going to cause any real change on the ground. So, we are — I believe our efforts to push forward will continue.

However, we have a biggest concern. Like, let’s be honest here for a second. So, we’ve been, for the last — all last night, we’ve been hearing about “We are stopping the fascism from coming to the American politics, and Trump will come back and bring all of the fascism to the American politics again.” And here we are, a hijabi woman, a Jew and an immigrant, who just raised a banner. And the immediate reaction was someone from the Democratic Party who started beating a hijabi woman with a sign on her head, and three others pulled down just the banner, while the staff of the DNC encouraged everybody to raise their signs as high as possible to block just the simple banner. So, if we are fighting fascism, what are we doing in the convention center?

AMY GOODMAN: Nadia, we’re going to give you the last word, and, actually, I’d like to know if any of you want to share, with whether you are going to support Kamala Harris in November, what your thoughts are, what your bar is.

NADIA AHMAD: So, Kamala Harris has to decide if she wants me to support her, because every vote has to be earned. That’s been the position of the Democratic Party. And the Democratic Party has taken the Muslim vote, even the African American vote, for granted for a number of years, because what are we going to support? A Muslim ban?

But we have to decide as a community how we’re going to decide. And so, 80% of the Muslim community, even higher number, depending on which state you live in, are against the Biden administration and are very much against supporting the Democratic Party. And so, if we look at that, I mean, I live in a red state, so it’s hard for my vote to have that much of an impact, but it’s going to really have an impact.

AMY GOODMAN: Liano? We have 10 seconds.

LIANO SHARON: So, I plan to vote for Harris, OK? Because I don’t want Trump. That’s the only reason. I’m not really voting for Harris; I’m voting against Trump.

AMY GOODMAN: And Esam?

ESAM BORAEY: I’m a proud Democratic Party member, but vice president needs to earn my vote.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to leave it there. I want to thank you all for being with us, Esam Boraey, a Connecticut delegate; Liano Sharon, a Michigan delegate; and Nadia Ahmad, a Florida delegate. All three, with Delegates Against Genocide, unfurled a banner that read “Stop Arming Israel.”

That does it for our broadcast. It’s now an expanded two-hour broadcast during the DNC. Check it all out at democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González, from CAN TV in Chicago.

[admin]

Headlines:

Chicago PD Arrests Protesters at Israeli Consulate; 16 Activists from U.K.’s Palestine Action in Prison
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
Aug 21, 2024

In more news from Chicago, protests continued for a third day inside and outside the DNC. On Tuesday, CodePink and other pro-Palestine groups disrupted Minnesota governor and Democratic VP nominee Tim Walz during a Women’s Caucus meeting.

Medea Benjamin: “We need an arms embargo now! We need to stop killing women and children every day with our weapons. It’s not right! It’s not right!”

Meanwhile, dozens of people were arrested Tuesday night outside the Israeli Consulate in Chicago as police clashed with protesters demanding an end to Israel’s war on Gaza. The Chicago Tribune reported at least two independent journalists were among the arrests. This is Chicago resident Jonathan Bell.

Jonathan Bell: “They are starving the people. They are bombing schools and hospitals. And the people here are protesting to say that that’s not right and the United States should not be aiding and abetting a terrorist like Netanyahu. He is a terrorist. And his Cabinet, who are calling for the starvation and the annihilation of the Palestinian people, it is a terrorist act on the part of Israel.”

Elsewhere, in the U.K., five activists were handed prison sentences of between 12 and 16 months Tuesday after occupying the Thales weapons factory in Glasgow, Scotland. The group Palestine Action says 16 of their activists are in prison as a result of their actions to stop the genocide in Gaza.

U.S. Doctors Share Horrors They Witnessed in Gaza at DNC Press Conference
Aug 21, 2024

In other news from the DNC, American doctors who treated patients in Gaza held a press conference Tuesday to shine a light on the ongoing atrocities inflicted by Israel’s U.S.-backed war. This is pediatrician Dr. Ahmad Yousaf.

Dr. Ahmad Yousaf: “She had burns that covered over 70% of her surface area, which is a death sentence in an environment where you can’t find gauze and there isn’t clean water and there aren’t antibiotics. We all knew what this meant on the ground in the trauma bay the first minutes we met her: She was going to die there, and her baby would die there. And there was nothing we were going to be able to do about it, because the Israeli government, the IDF, had made it impossible to care for people to the extent which they deserve. Every human being deserves the right to medical aid in that situation. She was no fighter. She was a pregnant woman who was sitting in her home when a bomb dropped on her head.”

Israel Continues Its Genocidal War, Attacking Another Gaza School and Pushing Gazans Out of Deir al-Balah
Aug 21, 2024

Scores of Palestinians have been killed over the past day as Israel continues its unrelenting attacks on Gaza. An Israeli strike on another school, this time the Mustafa Hafez School in Gaza City, killed at least 12 people Tuesday.

Umm Mohammed: “We were sitting peacefully, and we did not see the explosion. The people are gone. They’re dead! They are under the rubble, our people! … Our children! We don’t know where our young girls are, my dears! Where are they?”

Hundreds of people had taken shelter at the school. Displaced Palestinians are yet again on the move after Israel issued fresh evacuation orders for the densely packed Deir al-Balah. It’s not clear where they can take refuge since there is no safe place in Gaza.

Released Palestinian Describes Detention at Ofer Prison, Site of “Systematic Torture and Humiliation”
Aug 21, 2024

In the southern city of Khan Younis, a Palestinian man who spent over two months in Israel’s Ofer Prison, was released and reunited with his family. Hubb Al-Deen Maqat recounted the horrors he and other Palestinian prisoners were subjected to.

Hubb Al-Deen Maqat: “We stayed for about 40 to 50 days blindfolded with this cloth. This way for 50 days! We were sitting down with our hands and feet bound. What’s happening in the prison, there is no living person of conscience who can bear it.”

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society says detainees at Ofer Prison suffer “systematic torture and humiliation.”

This all comes as another ceasefire deal appears to have stalled.

Meanwhile, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Tuesday it’s still waiting to receive polio vaccines amid a growing risk of a major outbreak across the besieged territory.

Israeli Strikes in Lebanon Kill at Least 6 as Cross-Border Fighting Adds to Growing Tensions
Aug 21, 2024

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said at least five people were killed Tuesday in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon. At least one other death was reported today. Hezbollah said it launched a barrage of rockets and drones at Israeli troops in response.

Report Says Countries and Oil Co’s Supplying Israel May Be Complicit in Genocide Under Int’l Law
Aug 21, 2024

A new report by Oil Change International lays out the countries and companies that have transferred the most fossil fuels to Israel since it launched its war on Gaza, and says they could be liable for complicity in war crimes and genocide under international law. Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Gabon are the top three countries supplying crude oil to Israel. Brazil ranks in fourth place, supplying nearly 10% of Israel’s crude, despite President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva speaking out against the war. The U.S. supplies JP-8 jet fuel for Israel’s warplanes, sourced from a Valero refinery in Texas. Corporations including BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies and Shell are also named as main culprits. The report holds up Colombia as an example for other nations after it halted coal exports to Israel over the war.

In related news, the Scottish government announced it will stop holding meetings with Israeli ambassadors until “real progress” is made toward a Gaza ceasefire.

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As Gaza War Is Largely Ignored on DNC Stage, Doubts Grow over Blinken’s Claims on Ceasefire Talks
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
Aug 21, 2024

The Israeli military has ordered new forced evacuations in parts of central Gaza, signaling the expansion of ground operations and the latest displacement of Palestinians, many of whom have already been displaced multiple times over the course of Israel’s war on the territory. At least 50 Palestinians have been killed in the last 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, pushing the official death toll past 40,200. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken ended his ninth visit to the Middle East since October without securing any breakthrough for a ceasefire deal. In Chicago, where Democrats are gathered for the DNC, Gaza has been mentioned only in passing from the main stage of the convention. The party’s official platform adopted this week does not call for an arms embargo on Israel and reasserts unwavering U.S. support for Israel. “There’s been an almost competition between Democrats and Republicans on 'how much can we show Israel that we support them and that we have their back?'” says human rights lawyer Zaha Hassan, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and previously the senior legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team during Palestine’s bid for U.N. membership. “Why should Israel ever compromise its positions if they know that by holding out, they’ll get more goodies from the U.S.?”

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: The Israeli military has ordered new evacuations from areas in Deir al-Balah, signaling an expansion of Israel’s ground operations in central Gaza. Deir al-Balah is the only remaining standing city in the entire Gaza Strip and is currently home to more than a million displaced Palestinians. An Israeli airstrike on a market in the city on Tuesday killed at least seven people and wounded dozens more. At least 50 Palestinians have been killed in the last 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken ended his ninth visit to the Middle East since October without securing any breakthrough for a ceasefire deal. Blinken has said that Israel has accepted a so-called bridging proposal put forward by the U.S. and now the focus should be on Hamas to, quote, “get on board” as soon as possible. But few details have been released about what is in the bridging proposal, and Hamas has called it a reversal of what it had previously agreed to, accusing the U.S. of acquiescing to new conditions from Israel.

Over 40,200 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza and nearly 93,000 wounded since October.

AMY GOODMAN: Here in Chicago, Gaza has hardly been mentioned by top Democrats speaking on the main stage at the DNC this week. On Monday, the Democratic National Convention voted to adopt the party’s official platform — that’s the Democratic National Committee — which does not call for an arms embargo on Israel and reasserts unwavering U.S. support for Israel. President Biden gave a 50-minute address on the opening night of the convention. This is all he had to say about the war on Gaza.

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: We’re working around the clock, my secretary of state, to prevent a wider war and reunite hostages with their families and surge humanitarian health and food assistance into Gaza now, to end the civilian suffering of the Palestinian people and finally, finally, finally deliver a ceasefire and end this war. … Those protesters out in the street, they have a point. A lot of innocent people are being killed, on both sides.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined by Zaha Hassan, a human rights lawyer, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She was previously the senior legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team during Palestine’s bid for U.N. membership.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, Zaha. We want to talk about what the Democrats are saying about Gaza now, and, you know, back to Obama, Clinton. But let’s start with the latest news. Antony Blinken has just finished his trip, did not secure a ceasefire. Explain what’s taken place.

ZAHA HASSAN: Well, you said in your opening remarks that Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, said he had a bridging proposal — right? — that this was supposed to get us to a ceasefire and that all we needed was Hamas to agree. The bridge apparently is a bridge to nowhere, because a deal was struck on May 31st, and that was supposed to be a deal that Israel wanted and that the U.S. supported. Hamas agreed to it. And what we have now is a new agreement that’s being called an implementing agreement, but we don’t have the details. But what we do know is that Israel has said it’s not after a permanent ceasefire, and it’s not intending to leave the Philadelphi Corridor, which is along the border between Egypt and Gaza. These are nonstarters for Hamas, and the Israeli security officials that are involved in the negotiations know that. And they’re baffled by this notion that, you know, according to the U.S. position, that we’re closer than we ever were, because they know that these aren’t positions that Hamas is going to agree to.

Hamas has their concerns. They want to be able to stay in Gaza. They want to make sure that they have achieved something, after all the destruction and all of the death. And for them, the achievement would be being able to pick the hostages or the prisoners that they want released. And it would be being able to stay in Gaza and being able to rebuild and to show Palestinians that they’ve achieved something and they’ve made Israel concede something. And that’s not what’s happening in this latest rendition of an agreement.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, even The New York Times today is reporting that, according to some people close to the negotiations, that the U.S. has changed the original proposal that Biden said had been agreed to, to please some of the concerns of Israel. I’m wondering, this whole thing of constantly saying, “We’re almost there. We’re almost there,” while more and more people are being killed every day, what that does to the — again, to the credibility of the United States before the world community.

ZAHA HASSAN: No, it’s completely shattered at this point, because we all know what it’s going to take to get across the finish line in terms of an agreement. We have Qatar and Egypt putting all pressure on Hamas. Hamas is reliant on Egypt for that border, that it needs to have some kind of, you know, movement and access. And Qatar has Hamas officials, and it can force them out of its country. So there’s a lot of pressure on Hamas’s side. On the Israeli side, you have zero pressure from the U.S. There is no willingness to use any pressure on Israel to get to an agreement. We know that the families of the hostages, the Israeli hostages, they’ve beseeched the U.S. to, “Please, use your leverage on Israel,” because they know that their prime minister has no incentive to conclude a deal.

AMY GOODMAN: So, instead, it was announced last week that the Biden administration and Congress have approved $20 billion more in military sales, before this final negotiation, as opposed to holding out as a carrot to Netanyahu after.

ZAHA HASSAN: So, yes, exactly. What’s the message, then, to Netanyahu? That he can continue to hold out, hold his position, avoid accountability for his failure of leadership for October 7th, avoid corruption charges that are awaiting him, and stay in office and maintain his coalition, and he’ll still get benefits from the U.S.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I’m wondering — at last night’s convention, even Bernie Sanders, who has spoken out in the past, he did mention that we must have an immediate ceasefire, but even he didn’t mention all that is needed for a ceasefire is for the U.S. to cut off arms supplies to Israel. That would be the real leverage that the United States has.

ZAHA HASSAN: You’re right. I mean, there could have been a lot more said by a lot of different people that took to the main stage last night and the night before. You know, saying that we’re working for a ceasefire or that we’re calling for a ceasefire is not what’s needed. But, you know, these conventions are heavily managed stagecraft, and everyone wants to have, you know, sort of a uniting voice and a uniting spirit in this convention setting, given how much is riding on this next election, given what might happen in November with a Republican return with Donald Trump at the helm. So, there is this idea that, you know, we don’t want to show too much disunity.

So I think that there has been much more muted references to Gaza in this convention, which is unfortunate, because if you go to the streets and you see the thousands that have shown up here in Chicago to demand — people from all walks of life, diverse backgrounds, coming to say, “No, this is an important issue to us,” and it should matter to the Democrats, given the battleground states and how close things are going to be.

AMY GOODMAN: You know, it’s interesting. Every time there’s even a passing reference to Gaza or to Israel-Palestine from the main stage, there is deafening applause. When Raphael Warnock, the senator from Georgia, the reverend, mentioned at the end, you know, that Palestinians, Israelis, Ukrainians are all children of God, I mean, deafening applause, right through to last night. And these are passing references. Zaha Hassan, you have written in +972 Magazine about U.S. policy, and particularly Democratic policy, over the years, from Clinton to Obama to what we’re seeing now. And last night was the big night of the Obamas on the stage. Both Michelle Obama spoke and President Obama. Can you talk about the trajectory and whether it is significantly or meaningfully different from Republican policy on Gaza, Israel, Palestine?

ZAHA HASSAN: No. In fact, I think there’s been an almost competition between Democrats and Republicans on “how much can we show Israel that we support them and that we have their back?” And so, what we’ve had in terms of the U.S. position on negotiations is that each administration has tried to, you know, diminish the Palestinian negotiating position in order to gain support from Israel for, you know, domestically in the U.S., to show that this administration, whether Republican or Democrat, is the true friend of Israel. And in the process, it’s prevented really a resolution between Palestinians and Israelis. Why should Israel ever compromise its positions if they know that by holding out, they’ll get more goodies from the U.S. in terms of changing the parameters for a peace agreement?

And so, this sort of dynamic, we’re also seeing it play out in terms of the ceasefire negotiations. The U.S. is unwilling to offer any leverage to press Israel and, in fact, is offering it goodies in terms of more weapon supplies and more diplomatic cover at the U.N. and other fora. And this just prevents getting to an agreement.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I wanted to ask you about something related. You posted on social media recently about Israel’s targeting of a Palestinian journalist in Gaza who was working on a short documentary for Carnegie, where you are a fellow. What happened there?

ZAHA HASSAN: So, you know, we had this short documentary. We wanted to shed light on sort of how dangerous it has been for Palestinian journalists to cover the situation in Gaza. You know, foreign journalists are not allowed in. So, while these Palestinian journalists are covering, they’re also trying to stay alive. They’re trying to take care of their families. They’re facing evacuation orders. They’re being targeted. And so we wanted to just, in a very brief way, show what life is like every day for the journalists trying to cover. And during the course of this short documentary, the journalist that we were — that was offering a narration got targeted, and he lost his leg.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to play two clips for you. At the DNC last night, Democracy Now!’s Renée Feltz briefly spoke to Maryland Congressmember Jamie Raskin, who has supported a Gaza ceasefire.

RENÉE FELTZ: Representative Raskin, what did you think of the protest last night?

REP. JAMIE RASKIN: I was up there, so I didn’t see the protest.

RENÉE FELTZ: And they unfurled a banner. You know, they’re asking for a ceasefire.

REP. JAMIE RASKIN: Well, I thought that President Biden made a very powerful statement in his speech. … But right now I think the vast majority of the people in this room want to see the hostages come home, a ceasefire, and a comprehensive agreement that will break the cycle of terrorism, war and occupation. And I think everybody wants to get out of it as quickly as possible.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Democratic Congressmember Jamie Raskin of Maryland. Democracy Now! also spoke to Rima Mohammad, an “uncommitted” delegate from Michigan.

RIMA MOHAMMAD: I’m Palestinian. Both my grandparents were Nakba survivors of 1948. I have family still in Israel. So, they’re in Akka. They’re feeling traumatized as this goes on. I also have close family friends that have lost hundreds of their family members. So, this is very personal to me. But also, as this keeps going on, it is impacting my life and a lot of other Muslim and Palestinians here in the U.S., with an increase in anti-Palestinian racism, Islamophobia and so much hate, for something that we’re asking for humanity. We’re not asking for anything more, but just to respect. So, that’s why — this is how this is impacting me personally. …

Regardless of who the Democratic nominee is, you know, or who even the president is, been living that throughout my life, but it has increased since Gaza, since the genocide that’s happening in Gaza is going on. So, it’s a little bit dehumanizing, to be honest, for me to have to be — all that weight to be on my shoulder as a Palestinian that is facing racism, facing hate, to then say, “Well, wait, why — who are you going to choose between Trump and Biden?” I want to choose true democracy. I’m a true Democrat, but I also don’t believe what we’re doing in Gaza is democratic.

AMY GOODMAN: Again, that was Rima Mohammad, an uncommitted delegate from Michigan who is Palestinian American. Your thoughts, Zaha Hassan? As, you know, we hear, last night was the virtual roll call vote. They had already taken it virtually, but actually it was the ceremonial one on the floor. And you would hear in certain states those that had not committed to Harris-Walz. Although it wasn’t talked about in that way, I assume that the vast majority of them had to do with being uncommitted, like Rima.

ZAHA HASSAN: Yeah. I mean, you know, I was on the floor yesterday and the day before, and I’m coming across the uncommitted voters. I’m coming across just plain old Democrats that are really hungry to hear some kind of policy difference between Biden’s approach and what a prospective President Harris’s approach would be, and they’re not hearing it.

We know from a YouGov poll that was recently done by the Institute for Middle East Understanding that between like 34% and over 40% of the independent and Democrats that were polled say that if the Democratic nominee would say that they would have an arms embargo on Israel or if they would be able to deliver a ceasefire, that if Biden was able to deliver a ceasefire, that they would be more likely to support the Democratic nominee.

I mean, this should be, you know, a clarion call for the Harris campaign. They should be willing to come out and offer a vision of what a Harris presidency would look like. They should be putting pressure on the president himself to do something before November 4th. But you don’t see this urgency. What you’re seeing in this heavily managed convention is an effort to avoid talking about Gaza at all. And this is problematic if you want to win in November.

AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you for being with us, Zaha Hassan, human rights lawyer, fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, previously the senior legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team during Palestine’s bid for U.N. membership.

Democracy Now! is expanded to two hours during this week, broadcasting from Chicago from the Democratic National Convention. In our other hour, we will speak with a congressmember who was targeted by AIPAC and ultimately lost his seat. He is Andy Levin of Michigan. He was a synagogue president. We’ll also be hearing from doctors who have just returned from Gaza, American doctors who came to the DNC to speak about their experiences.

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What I Saw Was “Unfathomable”: Doctor Who Worked in Gaza Speaks Out Against U.S. Arming of Israel
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
Aug 21, 2024

A group of American doctors who treated patients in Gaza held a press conference in Chicago on Tuesday to describe the suffering they saw among Palestinians injured and killed in Israel’s war on the territory. The press conference, taking place during the Democratic National Convention, was organized by the Uncommitted National Movement, which is pressuring Democrats for an end to blanket U.S. support for Israel. Among those who spoke was Dr. Ahmed Yousaf, who returned from Gaza just weeks earlier. “When we got to the hospital, everything I saw on TikTok and Instagram and all the television, all the stuff that we had in alternative media … it was 100 times worse than I could have ever imagined,” he said.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, “War, Peace and the Presidency: Breaking with Convention.” I’m Amy Goodman, here in Chicago with Juan González.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: In Gaza, at least 50 Palestinians have been killed in the last 24 hours as the Israeli military continues its assault on the territory and expands its ground operation in Deir al-Balah. Over 40,200 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 93,000 wounded over the past 10 months.

AMY GOODMAN: Here in Chicago, a group of American doctors who treated patients in Gaza gathered on Tuesday for a press conference here at the DNC inside the McCormick Place Convention Center. The press conference was organized by the Uncommitted National Movement. Among those who spoke was Dr. Ahmed Yousaf, who just returned from Gaza three weeks ago. This is some of what he had to say.

DR. AHMED YOUSAF: My name is Ahmed Yousaf. I’m a board — double board-certified internal medicine, pediatrics doctor focused primarily in the ICU. I come from Arkansas. I may have a hard time doing this. I went to Gaza, about three weeks ago came back, after being there for about three weeks. I primarily worked in the ICU and in the emergency room in Al-Aqsa Hospital.

I thought — I’m not a politician, and I’m not a military strategist, but the moment we drove through Rafah with a U.N. convoy towards the middle area where we were going to be stationed, it became clear to me that what I was seeing was unfathomable. And at the same time, I had a small hope that when the doors are opened and the ceasefire is had, that when you all are allowed back in there, that it doesn’t require a military strategist to realize what they’re doing.

They are making Gaza unlivable. They’ve destroyed the water infrastructure, and so we were seeing kids die of diarrheal illness. They prevented all medical supplies in. And I can tell that by firsthand witness, not by hearsay. They refused me the medical supplies that I was able to gather over months from wonderful people in Arkansas, things like endotracheal tubes and Foley catheters, things like antibiotics and sedative medications, that were denied at the border. Firsthand experience. They do not allow medical supplies in to treat children that are dying.

And when we got to the hospital, everything I saw on TikTok and Instagram and all the television, all the stuff that we had in alternative media, because you can’t be there, it was a hundred times worse than I could have ever imagined. …

I have no ties to Gaza. I’m not from there. I have no blood there. But those people treated me better than I deserved as a member of the international community. With no food, they tried to feed me. And they’ll tell you the same. With no food, they tried to feed me. And when I asked them what we could do, because there was so little we could do as doctors, they said, “Just make sure people know we’re here.”

I’m going to mention the names of some of the girls that were in medical school that were with me. There was Lena. She was a fifth year medical student. There was Rahaf and Rahab. They were sixth year medical students. There was Fadah, who just graduated from medical school. These young women were displaced four or five times before I met them. They lived in tents, sometimes areas in the red zone, which mean they were free target practice if they crossed the roads. And they came every day to the hospital to learn, because their schools had been completely stopped. And they would take that trek every day knowing they could lose their lives, knowing that the value they present to their families as medical people could be lost, because they wanted to come and help in whatever way they could. …

On the first day I was there in Al-Aqsa Hospital, we were in a small trauma bay in the ER. And when the first mass casualty, which was one of almost one every day I was there, occurred, and we could hear the bombs in the distance, and we knew that about 45 minutes later people would come in pieces, that children would be carried in pieces by their loved ones, on donkey carts and in ambulances, four or five in one ambulance.

There was a young woman who got laid up right next to the young boy I was treating. She was 22 or 23 years old, full body surface area burns, and she was unable to speak, because she likely had inhalational injury, because the same burns that burned her skin likely burned her airway. And a woman screamed from outside the door, ”Hamil!” “She’s pregnant!” And so we turned her over quickly, because she had come and laid down on her belly. And somebody put an ultrasound probe on her belly, and she had a viable 18- to 20-week pregnancy. But when we did our secondary survey and tried to understand what other injuries she had, she had a shattered tib-fib from an explosive injury. She had burns that covered over 70% of her surface area, which is a death sentence in an environment where you can’t find gauze and there isn’t clean water and there aren’t antibiotics. We all knew what this meant on the ground in the trauma bay the first minutes we met her: She was going to die there, and her baby would die there.

And there was nothing we were going to be able to do about it, because the Israeli government, the IDF, had made it impossible to care for people to the extent which they deserve. Every human being deserves the right to medical aid in that situation. She was no fighter. She was a pregnant woman who was sitting in her home when a bomb dropped on her head.

And she eventually moved to the ICU. And every day she lived until she died, she was in pain, because we didn’t have the kind of medicine we needed to care for her pain. And when wound care came — in America, I’d give her two Dilaudid before changing her wound dressings. And there, I could give her nothing. And every morning, when we’d round, we’d stop by her bed first. And every one of us and the Gazan medical professionals, who are heroes — that one day will get to be here and tell you their stories themselves, so I don’t have to tell it for them — we’d all keep our mouth shut and keep the tears held back, because we knew we couldn’t do anything, and we knew the inevitable was coming, until one day I walked in, and the bed was empty.

And her story is just one of tens of thousands. And her family mourned for her just like we would mourn for our own family members. And she and every single person in Gaza deserves the dignity and support that humanity as a whole is burdened and has an obligation to provide.

I stand here, and I’ll conclude with this last thought, which is, the reason I lose sleep and the reason we cry tears isn’t sadness anymore. It’s a feeling that we have no ability, despite being from the most powerful country in the world, providing the bombs that drop on these innocent people, that we have no power to stop the bleeding. And so, we call for a ceasefire and a stopping of the bleeding by stopping the sales of bombs. There’s no reason that the bomb that dropped on that young woman’s head had to be made in America.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Dr. Ahmed Yousaf, who just returned from Gaza three weeks ago. The news conference he was a part of was organized by the Uncommitted National Movement.

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Andy Levin, Pushed Out of Congress by AIPAC, Calls for Change in U.S.-Israel Policy
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
Aug 21, 2024

We speak with former Michigan Congressmember Andy Levin, a former synagogue president, who lost his 2022 Democratic primary in a race that saw millions spent by pro-Israel groups to unseat the progressive Jewish lawmaker. AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and other lobby groups have used the same playbook over the years to defeat members of Congress who do not toe the line, and Levin says the Democratic Party has to act to stop such “dark money” from deciding elections and push for a new policy on Israel-Palestine that brings peace. “We need to all get along there, and we need to work together here to make that happen,” he says.

Transcript

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AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, “War, Peace and the Presidency: Breaking with Convention.” I’m Amy Goodman, here in Chicago with Juan González.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We turn now to look at how AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has spent millions targeting Democrats who have criticized U.S. support of Israel. In June, AIPAC and the affiliated super PAC spent almost $15 million to defeat New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman. And then, two weeks ago, Missouri Congressmember Cori Bush lost her seat after AIPAC spent $8 million to defeat her.

We’re joined now in Chicago by former Democratic Congressmember Andy Levin of Michigan. In 2022, he lost his House seat after AIPAC spent millions in dark money to defeat him. Levin is a former synagogue president and self-described Zionist. Despite this, AIPAC labeled him as, quote, “arguably the most corrosive member of Congress to the U.S.-Israel relationship.”

AMY GOODMAN: Andy Levin is a former Democratic congressmember from Michigan. He’s part of a political dynasty.

We thank you so much for being with us. If you could start off by talking about — you know, when we hear about Bowman, we hear about Bush, you came before them. And talk about the race that unseated you — might surprise many that you were a synagogue president and a congressmember — and how you were driven out.

ANDY LEVIN: Right. Well, you know, I was a former — I had been a synagogue president until I went to Congress, and I felt I should stop doing that, because, you know, you have to devote all your time to Congress. And I had, you know, mezuzahs, the little things that Jewish people hang on their doors, on all my doors in Congress. I’m a really, like, joyous Jewish person.

And, you know, I think they felt particularly threatened by that, Amy and Juan. The idea — and plus, my dad and my uncle had served in Congress before me — my dad in the House, my uncle in the Senate. My dad was the president of the high school class of 1949 at Central High School in Detroit, right? They were from the bosom of the Jewish community there. And I think that these right-wing-on-Israel people can’t stand the idea that a Jewish person like me, who is fully for self-determination for my people in the Holy Land, was the loudest voice in Congress saying, “Well, that’s not going to be sustainable, and we’re not going to have peace there, until and unless we fully realize the human rights and the political rights of the Palestinian people, too.”

AMY GOODMAN: I just want to talk about your family dynasty, the political dynasty.

ANDY LEVIN: We don’t talk about it like that. Yes, yes.

AMY GOODMAN: Your father, Sander Levin, the congressmember; your uncle, Carl Levin, head of Armed Services in the Senate —

ANDY LEVIN: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: — at the same time your father was head of Ways and Means Committee?

ANDY LEVIN: Yeah, my — these two Jewish boys from Detroit. And my uncle, who passed away, never left the city of Detroit. They each served 36 years in Congress. They served 32 years together. In the 235-year history of our elected democracy in the United States, they are by far the longest-serving siblings, and even more than three Kennedy brothers, more than anybody. And I’m so proud of them and, you know, their contributions to our democracy.

But, you know, Uncle Carl got crosswise with AIPAC in the '90s, when Yitzhak Shamir was, I think, the secondly couped prime minister of Israel, and he said, “Land for peace? We're not doing land for peace.” And Carl, it may feel naive today, but he was like, “Oh my gosh! That’s the basis for any hope of peace.” And he wrote a letter to Secretary of State George Shultz, I think it was at the time. And he got 30 — on a Friday afternoon, he got, I think, 30 senators to sign this letter. It was supposed to be private. And they sent it to him, saying, “We have to have land for peace. Do something about this,” something like that. And one of the other senators or their staff made it public. Carl had shown the text to AIPAC beforehand. But when it went public, AIPAC went crazy, said, “This can’t be Carl Levin’s letter.” They demanded he retract it. They said, “It must have been the work of some staffer.” Uncle Carl totally stood by his staffer, who helped him write the letter. He said, “No, that’s my letter.” And anybody who knew Uncle Carl knew he went over every line, you know, himself before they sent the letter.

And so, you know, this is — look, if you are a Jewish person and you really want to be true to your faith, you have to treat the other as yourself. You have to love your — you know, the stranger, the neighbor. The most oft-repeated mitzvah, or requirement, in the Torah, I think 36 times, which is a very significant number for Jews, is some version of that. Who is the most important other for us, honestly, if not — OK, a homeless person, someone who looks different than you, you know, yes, treat them well. But, really, I think the acid test for Jewish people is how do we treat our Palestinian cousins. And so, we have to treat them as we would want to be treated. They are from the land. They’re there on the land. And if you come from Michigan, you know so many amazing Palestinian Americans who are your neighbors, your colleagues, your doctor, your friend, you know? And so, we need to all get along there, and we need to work together here to make that happen.

And I don’t care what AIPAC does. You know, the fact — it’s outrageous that they’re using money from Republican billionaires to decide who wins Democratic primaries. That’s a problem for democracy, and it’s a threat to the soul of the Democratic Party, even from a kind of a dry political science point of view, right? If you are in a political science class and your professor says, “Well, there’s multiple parties, right? And they each have to choose their candidate that represents that party’s values or beliefs, to go up against some other party, right?” — if any party lets a different party, interest groups from a different party, billionaires from a different party, come and choose its candidates, it’s kind of finished.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, I wanted to ask you — you mentioned, obviously, Michigan, where you’re from. Talk about the rise of the “uncommitted” movement and what kind of impact it’s had on the Democratic Party and on the process of choosing a president.

ANDY LEVIN: Juan, I am so proud of this movement. These are young people. This is a true grassroots movement. I remember when I went to a phone bank that they had during the Michigan primary, which our primary for president was way back on February 27th. The energy in that room, the beautiful rainbow of people in that room, the food that someone had cooked, you know, you know — if you’re an organizer in the social movements of this country, when you walk into a situation like that, you know if something has life, is authentic, has power. And not only did they get over 100,000 people to vote uncommitted in just a few weeks in Michigan to say to President Biden, “We want to vote for you in November, but you’ve got to change course on Gaza to help us do that,” it obviously went national, too.

And I’m so proud of these young people, because I don’t want Donald Trump to get anywhere near the White House ever again, but even now, in late August, I feel like Vice President Harris — I hope that she can sort of reach out more. And it’s difficult as a vice president, right? But I think she has plenty of space to say, “Look, under a Harris administration, we’re going to follow U.S. and international law on military aid to Israel and all of any other military aid,” right? And she could say — she has a lot of room to say different things that would win the support of the uncommitted movement, which I think it would be very helpful to win Michigan, which is necessary.

AMY GOODMAN: Very quickly, you were on this panel, Palestinians and Jews, elected officials, that was the first DNC — first-ever panel on Palestinian human rights, held on Monday.

ANDY LEVIN: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: And we played a part of that on Democracy Now! The demand of many in the uncommitted movement has been to have a Palestinian speaker on the stage of the Democratic National Convention.

ANDY LEVIN: Right, during primetime. Yeah, during primetime.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you expect that to happen?

ANDY LEVIN: We’re still holding out hope. I’m actually grateful. I understand that hostages’ families will be on the stage tonight, I think. I’m grateful for that. You know, it’s horrifying that Hamas took hostages. It’s totally a war crime, right? That should be exposed. But, my goodness, you know, with 40,000 people dead, 15,000 children dead, 19,000 children orphaned, a million children displaced, for our party to have a Palestinian American speaker to talk about this, I think, would be a really positive thing and indicate growth for our party.

And, you know, I think, look, Kamala Harris is going to be our next president. She needs to be. There’s no president in this century, two Republicans and two Democrats, who’s actually moved the ball forward for peace in the Middle East in a significant way. I need Kamala Harris to be that president who changes that dynamic. I think she can be. We’re hoping that she really finds a way to express that, in this convention and afterwards. Having a Palestinian speaker in primetime would certainly be a positive thing, and we’re still hoping for that.

AMY GOODMAN: And finally, you mentioned billionaires of the other party. We just have 20 seconds. Explain what you mean, deciding Democratic primary candidates.

ANDY LEVIN: Right. Well, so, you know, there’s a lot we have to do to get dark money out of politics, right? Citizens United. But it’s up to the political parties to set their own rules. So, within Democratic primaries, our party, our leaders in the House and Senate, could set rules to say, “No, if you’re running for the U.S. House or U.S. Senate as a Democrat in a Democratic primary, we don’t want and we’re not going to let Republican billionaire dollars in here.” And that would be better for our party.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to have to leave it there. Andy Levin is former Democratic congressmember from Michigan.

And that does it for our show. We’ve expanded to two hours every day from the Democratic National Convention. To hear or watch our other hour, go to democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González, from Chicago.