Report from Gaza: Israel Kills Dozens More, Increases Forced Evacuations, Attacks Aid Truck
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
August 29, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/8/29/ ... transcript
We get an update from Gaza, where at least 68 Palestinians have been killed in the last 24 hours as Israel continues its relentless assault on the territory. After nearly 11 months of war, the official Gaza death toll now stands at over 40,600, although the true figure is estimated to be much higher. The World Food Programme announced it is pausing the movement of all staff in Gaza until further notice after Israeli forces shot at one of its clearly marked vehicles despite receiving multiple clearances by Israeli authorities. This comes just two days after U.N. humanitarian efforts in Gaza virtually ground to a halt due to new Israeli evacuation orders that disrupted operations again. Israel has issued several evacuation orders across Gaza over the past week, displacing a quarter of a million people in Deir al-Balah alone, including from the Al-Aqsa Hospital, where tens of thousands of residents and wounded were seeking shelter. Journalist Akram al-Satarri, speaking from just outside the hospital, describes “continuous military operations, continuous devastation, continuous targeting and [an] increased number of Palestinians affected by those ongoing operations either by being killed or being injured or by becoming displaced because of the new evacuation orders.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: In Gaza, at least 68 Palestinians have been killed and 77 wounded in the last 24 hours, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Nearly 11 months into Israel’s war on Gaza, the toll now stands at more than 40,600 Palestinians killed and nearly 94,000 wounded, though the true casualty figures are expected to be much higher with thousands unaccounted for.
As Israel’s daily bombardment continues, the humanitarian crisis is only deepening. The World Food Programme has announced it’s pausing the movement of all staff in Gaza until further notice after Israeli forces shot at one of its clearly marked vehicles as it was moving toward an Israeli military checkpoint. The U.N. food agency said the vehicle was shot despite receiving multiple clearances by Israeli authorities to approach. The U.N. food agency said the incident was a, quote, “stark reminder of the rapidly and ever shrinking humanitarian space in the Gaza Strip.”
This comes just two days after the U.N.'s humanitarian efforts in Gaza virtually ground to a halt due to new Israeli evacuation orders that forced the shutdown of the main U.N. operations center in Deir al-Balah. The U.N.'s main humanitarian aid hub, with warehouses and accommodation for staff, had already been relocated once before in early May following Israel’s ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza. The new hub was set up in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, but an evacuation order by the Israeli military on Sunday also included the new headquarters.
Israel has issued several evacuation orders across Gaza over the past week, displacing a quarter of a million people in Deir al-Balah alone. The new orders also forced many families and patients to leave Al-Aqsa Hospital, the main medical facility in Deir al-Balah, where tens of thousands of residents and wounded were seeking shelter.
AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Gaza to just outside the Al-Aqsa Hospital, where we’re joined by journalist Akram al-Satarri.
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Akram. If you can explain the situation right now? The attention now is on the West Bank, but in the last 24 hours alone, 68 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza alone, with more than that injured.
AKRAM AL-SATARRI: Good morning to you, Amy, and to all viewers.
Indeed, the situation in Gaza is ever escalating. The situation in the West Bank is marking a new beginning, where Israeli occupation forces are using the very same tactics of destruction and devastation and also besieging the hospitals and the other infrastructure for the sake of just — as they said, for the sake of preventing the movement of the armed people, but, indeed, that brings more devastation to the infrastructure and more devastation to the civilian population.
In the Gaza Strip, 68 Palestinians were killed in the last 24 hours. Around 21 Palestinians are killed since the morning as of today. And the number of Palestinians who are injured is also increasing. The number of military operations that have an aim of destroying residential blocks is increasing. The bombardment that is resulting from the ongoing operation destroying residential blocks in Rafah area, in Khan Younis area, in Deir al-Balah in Gaza central area, al-Bureij and also in al-Zeitoun area is also hit from all different parts of the Gaza Strip, continuous military operations, continuous devastation, continuous targeting and increased number of Palestinians affected by those ongoing operations either by being killed or being injured or by becoming displaced because of the new evacuation orders that were given to the Palestinians to move them from the humanitarian zone, to move them to the humanitarian zone that is also ever shrinking.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Akram, if you could describe the scale of these evacuation orders? Over 88.5% of Gaza is under evacuation orders. What’s the impact of these evacuation orders on people who are in Gaza?
AKRAM AL-SATARRI: For you to better understand the situation, people are asked to move to areas that have no infrastructure whatsoever, that have no regular water supplies, that have no regular even garbage collection services, with the municipal services coming to a full halt. So, you would be walking down the streets seeing tents erected on the sides of the road, seeing tents erected on the open areas, no infrastructure, no even sewage, no water supplies, no electricity, no hygiene, and the people are living there.
And all of the sudden, they are asked to move from the very same area, that is very lacking, to another area to start removing the tents and building the tents in some other area. People are asked to move to an area of around 11% of the Gaza Strip, to be more precise. And in those areas, that are called the humanitarian zone, there is nothing that have to do or has to do with the humanitarian need. The humanitarian needs are not met.
And people are exposed and vulnerable to extremely increasing risk of the bombardment. In those areas, people were erecting their tents, and they ended up being targeted and killed in those tents. In al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis, around 100 Palestinians were killed when the Israeli occupation forces targeted the whole area and then claimed to have managed to assassinate Mohammed al-Deif, who is the commander general of Hamas military wing. People are — even when they are moved into a humanitarian zone, they are not receiving humanitarian services.
The U.N. agencies and the other international agencies are also facing increasingly difficult situation because of the movement restrictions that have been taking place, because of the fact that they have always to redefine and replan for the sake of making sure that they can access the people and they can also make sure that their teams are safe. Their teams are not safe. The journalists are not safe. The medical teams are not safe. The international teams are not safe. And about every category, there is a list of incidents and of deaths and of injuries and of the destruction of the properties and the vehicles also when they were targeted by the Israeli occupation forces.
So, the bottom line, that the situation is overall unsafe. And the Israeli ongoing ground operations and aerial operations and the continuous targeting, including quadcopters and artillery fire and the F-16s and all the other kind or other kinds of the weapons in their arsenal is making things more difficult for the Palestinians and making life in Gaza more unlivable.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Akram, under these conditions, if you could talk about the diseases that are so rapidly spreading in Gaza, including, most recently, polio?
AKRAM AL-SATARRI: Yes, some statements were made, and at least one case of poliovirus was already confirmed in Gaza for a child who’s 11 months old, and the risk of the outbreak of that disease, given the very severe limitations on the movement of the international staff and also of the local staff and also the impact of the ongoing operations on the primary healthcare centers, that most of them are not functional anymore because of the bombardment.
There were some also alarming percentages about the hepatitis A, that has been widespread in the Gaza Strip, and around 1 million Gazans have already been infected with this hepatitis A, that is extremely contagious. And that can be transmitted also through touching.
The water is polluted. The food is polluted, no hygienic conditions. And the result of that is very big risks for the public health of the people in Gaza. And the concerns have already voiced by the UNRWA, by other U.N. agencies, such as the UNFPA, the U.N. women program, where women, children and elderly people are bearing the brunt of that very lacking situation and of that ongoing bombardment. So, people at large are affected by that. They’re affected also by some digestive issues because of the quality of the water and the quality of the food and lacking to hygienic situation for also cooking the food.
So, overall, the situation is extremely risky and dangerous for all different categories of the Palestinian population. And if you need a soap in Gaza, if you need washing soap, or if you need even bleach to wash the clothes, you will not find it in Gaza. You will not find it in Gaza central area, in Khan Younis, in Rafah, or even in Gaza City. People are suffering, and people are denied the access to the very, very basic things that have to do with their life. They cannot clean themselves. They cannot clean their clothes. They cannot clean their houses or their tents. And they are left to face the exacerbating humanitarian crisis, and they’re left to face those increasingly acute humanitarian needs without any help extended to them, because, according to some of the international organizations, the Israeli occupation is not allowing the hygienic stuff into the Gaza Strip. and that exacerbates the problem of the Gazans.
AMY GOODMAN: Akram, we only have a minute to go. We do not take for granted that we’re even able to speak to you in Deir al-Balah, in Gaza. Deir al-Balah itself has been under attack. Ninety percent of Palestinians have been displaced at least once. How do you keep yourself and your own family safe?
AKRAM AL-SATARRI: Well, I’m one of the Palestinians who have been displaced. Our family — I’ve been displaced for around 12 times. It is something that makes you feel unsafe. This is something that makes you feel detached from your original habitat. This is something that makes you feel vulnerable. This is something that makes you fear an imminent death that is coming to you, something that I have seen with my eyes. I saw the bombardment. I saw the people getting injured. I saw the destruction of the homes of the people. And I saw people frantically trying to grab anything and run for the sake of just starting a new life anywhere else, where they are in a situation that is extremely lacking. No one is promised tomorrow in Gaza.
And I will conclude by quoting the UNRWA commissioner-general, who said, “No one safe, no place safe.” And that will still continue and remain like that if no solution reached, if no agreement concluded between all the parties. The situation is extremely catastrophic. I think sometimes I had the chance of being in Western countries. I had the chance of being in African countries, in China. I tell you, what we are living is inconceivable in the sense of everything that has to do with a normal life. We are extremely sure that we might not live for the next second, not for the next minute. But we still have to endure that, and we still have to chase life, despite death, uncertainty and destruction.
AMY GOODMAN: Akram al-Satarri, be safe. Thank you so much for being with us, Gaza-based journalist, joining us from outside the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. We usually break at this point, but because we’re going to the occupied West Bank, to Jenin, which is under siege, we don’t want to risk losing our next guest.
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“They Want Palestine Empty”: Artist in Jenin Blasts U.S. Support for Israel Amid West Bank Assault
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
August 29, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/8/29/ ... transcript
At least 18 Palestinians have been killed and 30 more wounded in the occupied West Bank, where Israel has launched its largest military operation in two decades. Israeli forces have simultaneously raided four cities and refugee camps in the north, with hundreds of soldiers backed by armored vehicles, bulldozers, fighter jets and drones. Much of the violence has been centered on Jenin, a frequent target of raids by Israeli forces, but this latest military operation is the largest since the Second Intifada. Ahmed Tobasi, artistic director at the Freedom Theatre in Jenin refugee camp, says Israel’s tactics are about “punishing the people, punishing the civilians,” with an ultimate goal of ethnic cleansing. “They want Palestine empty from Palestinians.” He also calls on the U.S. public to speak out against continued military support for Israel, saying the killings in both Gaza and the West Bank are only possible because Israel has “the green light from the U.S. government.”
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: We turn now from Gaza to the occupied West Bank, where Israel has launched its largest military operation in over two decades, raiding four cities and refugee camps in the north simultaneously with hundreds of soldiers backed by armored vehicles, bulldozers, fighter jets and drones. At least 18 Palestinians have been killed and 30 wounded.
On Wednesday, the U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called on Israel to immediately end its military operation and strongly condemned the loss of lives, including that of children.
Meanwhile, three leading Palestinian human rights groups issued a joint statement warning, quote, “of even more escalated violence in the West Bank, with the employment of tactics that mirror those used in Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, particularly attacks on hospitals and healthcare facilities, and the use of excessive and indiscriminate force.”
AMY GOODMAN: In Jenin, Israeli forces have surrounded the city, blocking exit and entry points and access to hospitals and ripping up infrastructure in the Jenin refugee camp. Jenin has been the target of frequent raids by Israeli forces, but this latest military operation is the largest since the Second Intifada two decades ago, when Jenin witnessed some of the worst violence of that period after Israeli forces invaded it in 2002, laid siege to the refugee camp, killing dozens of civilians, destroying hundreds of homes, leaving a quarter of the population homeless.
We go now to Jenin, where we’re joined by Ahmed Tobasi, artistic director at the Freedom Theatre in the Jenin refugee camp.
Welcome to Democracy Now! Ahmed, describe the scene in Jenin right now.
AHMED TOBASI: Thank you, Amy, for having me.
I mean, the scene, it’s the same again and again. But as I said before, the Israelis keeping surprising us even the way they do the invasions. To be honest, I am calling my sisters around, some friends, and they are very scared. We, all of us, very scared. We know there is something different in this invasion. The way they start the invasion, the way they’re doing it now, it’s really scary. People don’t know what’s going to happen.
It looked like it’s going to be a bit more longer invasion than others. We are surprised of the number of the soldiers, the vehicles that keep coming to the city. The camp now having sometimes electricity, sometimes not. For sure, the internet is not there. We try to use the 3Gs, and not totally always good. But yeah, it’s a fear atmosphere where everybody is waiting.
And, you know, the scenes from Gaza, what happened to Gaza, the people in the camp are really afraid that’s going to happen to them, because it’s obvious that Israel is punishing the people, punishing the civilians. In the camp, all camp is surrounded with army. All of the entrances are closed. They already bulldozed all the streets, all the alleyways in the camp. And even the bulldozing is really deep. That mean no cars, no ambulances can go inside.
And many people tried to evacuate the camp. But, for sure, it’s very dangerous, because if you are a man above 15 or 14, you could be shot if you are moving or try to sneaking out from the camp. Only maybe kids or some women, if they are courage enough to leave, to know what’s going on outside the house, to leave the camp. But no one allowed to move.
People are afraid of having no food now for one week, because, you know, they didn’t prepare themselves for the invasion. They didn’t know which kind of the invasion is this. And, you know, the Israelis do not announce what they’re going to do exactly. So, many people are really afraid for the kids having no food.
So, yes, you hear the drones very close, the vehicles all around, the bombing by time to time. It’s, again, the scene repeating itself again and again. And we don’t know, like, what is the end, how long, what we should do. And it’s, obviously, the Israelis want to tell the communities, the civilians of these areas, “You have only two choices: You die here, or you leave, are displaced to other country.” And that’s what is — we’re still waiting what’s going to happen in the next days.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Ahmed, if you could put this latest military operation in the context of the ongoing assault on Gaza, on the one hand, and also the situation that’s been developing in the West Bank, both with the increasing violence over the last 10 months since the Israeli assault on Gaza, as well as the exponential increase in the number of Israeli settlements there?
AHMED TOBASI: Yes, I mean, also, at the same time, I hope American language and American, let’s say, journalism starts using the definition in a right way. It is not violence. It’s a genocide from the Israeli army against the Palestinian people. It’s not a conflict. It’s a genocide, a war, ethnic cleansing, from the Israeli military to the Palestinian civilians.
And yes, it’s, to be honest, from 100,000 of settlers to 850,000 in West Bank. West Bank is not anymore West Bank. It’s a little fragment, from Palestinian communities living there and there, and all the connection, all the network, the streets, all controlled by the settlers.
I promise you, I experienced a death threat. One time, I went out trying to go back from Ramallah to Jenin. It’s not even late. It’s the evening. And suddenly we find ourselves surrounded by settlers who really clearly want to kill you. And the last second, we just run with the car. And if we just stopped, they are ready to kill you. They are attacking everywhere. They are putting fire in the houses of the people. They’re shooting. Now they have guns, officially permitted guns from the Israeli government being given to the settlers to shoot Palestinians in very easy cold blood.
So, we’re not facing only army. We’re facing crazy settlers, groups of crazy people who just want to kill more and more. And the idea is clear. They want to empty West Bank from Palestinians. Guys, what is happening in Gaza, what is happening in West Bank, we say it again and again, this was planned from 80 years, and the Israelis have the time to work on it slowly to displace Palestinians in Palestine. They want Palestine empty from Palestinians, and that’s the only plan. And they will not relax. They will not stop until this happens, or, inshallah, it would be a victory for Palestinians, and they will get defeated.
AMY GOODMAN: Ahmed Tobasi, there have been more than 10,000 Palestinians on the West Bank arrested since October 7th. We have brought out reports from CNN to Human Rights Watch to Haaretz to Addameer of prisoners who haven’t been charged being sexually abused, being tortured. I’m wondering if you can talk about the effect of this level of imprisonment. And particularly this past December, the Israeli forces raided the offices of your theater, of the Jenin Freedom Theatre. Producer Mustafa Sheta was detained and sentenced to six months. Have you heard from him? Has he seen a lawyer? Has he been accused?
AHMED TOBASI: Exactly that’s what I’m talking about, Amy. I had an interview with your program in December, last December, and it’s the same and even more crazy, Mustafa still in prison, no information, not allowed even for lawyers to visit or have any information. As we said before, even kids in the Freedom Theatre have been shot where they were playing.
So, for me, it’s like: Is really American people, American government know what is going on? Are they really following? We have been saying this years and years, again and again, tons, tons of reports, United Nations, tons of reports. And what? What is next? We still — I mean, that’s why Israelis going on in there. That’s why they’re getting — and I’m sure the Israelis could not do this if they do not have the green light from the U.S. government.
I am saying, from your window, from your program, I’m calling to the American people, to the American artists, to the American activists, to the American people, please, you are the one who have to move now and stop this craziness. You have to stop supporting sending bombs to Israel. Enough military support. This military support goes for killing artists, children, destroying theaters, killing people, killing women. They do nothing more than this.
And the peace that Israel looking for is not to have a peace in Palestine. It’s to control all the world. It’s to occupy the whole Middle East and use it for the political situation that U.S. should try to fight China and Iran and Russia and Palestine.
I mean, we need to do something. It’s not only Palestinian, left alone, to deal with the Israeli occupation that is defending West and Europe, U.S. It’s really in a very difficult situation. If the U.S. do not follow the time and do something before this will be out of time, I think American people have to explain to the next generation. American people have to explain to the new generation in America what they did to the Palestinians, what they did to save and to finish this genocide and war. Guys, you will have a big responsibility in the future to define what happened to the Palestinians from the American support to the Israeli military terrorism people.
AMY GOODMAN: Ahmed Tobasi, we want to thank you for being with us, artistic director at the Freedom Theatre in Jenin refugee camp, speaking to us from Jenin.
Next up, in Afghanistan, the Taliban approves a law banning women from speaking in public. Stay with us.
U.S. Backing Has Given Israel License to Kill & Maim
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Mass Israeli Protests as 6 More Hostages Killed, But Netanyahu Refuses Ceasefire Terms, U.S. Sends Arms
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 3, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/9/3/i ... transcript
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis protested this weekend to demand a ceasefire following the deaths of six more hostages in Gaza, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to reject the terms of a deal that would remove Israeli troops from southern Gaza. This comes after nearly 11 months of Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed over 40,000 Palestinians in the territory, according to local health authorities. “Our politicians won’t listen to anything, because they’re driven out of self-interest,” says Israeli peace activist Yonatan Zeigen, whose mother Vivian Silver was killed in the October 7 Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri. Despite the feeling of solidarity on the streets, Zeigen says there is a sense of “hopelessness” in the mass protests in Israel. We also speak with Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy, who says the outrage in Israel is still mostly confined to critics of Netanyahu and has not yet penetrated his base of support, and that the United States has a major role in the continued violence and Netanyahu’s refusal to agree to a ceasefire. “If President Biden would have really liked to put an end to this war, he could have done it within days by stopping or at least conditioning … the supply of arms and ammunition to Israel. He didn’t do it,” Levy notes.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: The Israeli army’s discovery of six dead Israeli hostages in tunnels in Rafah, in southern Gaza, has spurred some of the largest protests Israel has seen since October 7. Israel says the hostages were killed by Hamas; Hamas says they were killed by Israeli airstrikes, not far from where a seventh hostage was found alive last week.
On Sunday and Monday, grief and anger spilled onto the streets as hundreds of thousands of Israelis in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and other cities, along with hostage families, demanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accept a ceasefire deal with Hamas to secure the release of all remaining hostages. This is demonstrator Michal Caspi, whose nephew Alon Ohel was taken hostage October 7th.
MICHAL CASPI: So many people came. I met people that never came before. They came for the first time. I think after what happened yesterday morning, when we hear about the six bodies that came back, I think everybody feel like they have to do something. And I think it’s one of the reasons that so many people came out from home and came to say their words, that they want all the abducted to come back home.
AMY GOODMAN: A rare general strike was called by Histadrut. It was held across Israel on Monday.
Meanwhile, thousands of mourners gathered at the funeral of the Israeli American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose body was among those retrieved from southern Gaza. Hersh’s father Jon Polin said he hoped his son’s death would not be in vain and instead lead to the release of the remaining 101 hostages still held captive in Gaza.
JON POLIN: Hersh, we failed you. We all failed you. You would not have failed you. You would have pushed harder for justice. You would have worked to understand the other, to bridge differences. You would have challenged more people to challenge their own thinking. And what you would be pushing for now is to ensure that your death, the deaths of all the soldiers and so many innocent civilians are not lashav, not in vain.
AMY GOODMAN: Despite the protests calling for a ceasefire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back Monday, rejecting the terms of a deal that would remove Israeli troops from southern Gaza. Netanyahu begged for forgiveness for not bringing the six hostages home alive.
PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: [translated] I told the families, and I say it again this evening: I ask for your forgiveness for not succeeding in bringing them back alive. We were close, but we didn’t succeed. And I also say this evening, Israel will not accept this massacre. Hamas will pay a very high price for that.
AMY GOODMAN: Even Netanyahu’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is disagreeing with Netanyahu saying he will not agree to a ceasefire unless Israeli soldiers can stay in the Philadelphi Corridor.
For more, we go to Tel Aviv, where we’re joined by two guests. Gideon Levy is an award-winning Israeli author and journalist, columnist for the newspaper Haaretz, member of its editorial board. And Yonatan Zeigen is an Israeli peace activist, trained mediator and social worker, son of the renowned Canadian Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver, who was killed on October 7th during the Hamas attack on her kibbutz, Kibbutz Be’eri, where she lived. He has said his mother had a plan for peace for Israel and the Palestinians before she was killed.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Yonatan, let’s begin with you in Tel Aviv. Can you describe the scene of the hundreds of thousands of Israelis, a number of them family members of hostages still in Gaza, demanding that Netanyahu agree to a ceasefire deal?
YONATAN ZEIGEN: Well, being on the streets with so many people and with that energy is very powerful, on the one hand. On the other, it’s filled with despair, because you know that our politicians won’t listen to anything, because they’re driven out of self-interest. So, in that sense, you feel — you feel the energy, you feel the solidarity, but also the hopelessness.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Yonatan, do you believe these latest deaths of the six hostages were preventable. If so, why? And do you see that the latest protests are some sort of a turning point in Israel?
YONATAN ZEIGEN: All of the deaths were preventable. October 7th was preventable, as well. If we would have pursued peace years ago, if we would seek partners, Palestinian partners, instead of strengthening fundamentalists, if we would have not strengthened our own fundamentalists and put them in government, then October 7th wouldn’t have happened to begin with.
And since then, if we wouldn’t have gone into this atrocious war, and if we would — sought diplomacy and the help of the international community and go to the PA and Saudi Arabia and the United States and asked, this is — “We’re willing to do 1, 2, 3 in order to create a new reality here, and we ask for Hamas to be driven out,” then we would have gotten that. And all of the deaths would have been prevented, and the hostages would have been brought home.
Is it a turning point?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I’d like to bring —
YONATAN ZEIGEN: Yeah?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: No, go ahead. Go ahead.
YONATAN ZEIGEN: I started to say: Is it a turning point? One should hope. But, you know, people relate — you know, they anchor themselves in personal stories. And we woke up on Sunday to a very harsh and heartbreaking story of the six hostages being killed. Will it fuel a relentless protest that will be strong enough to bring a government down or to make it change their policy? I’m not sure.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Gideon Levy, I’d like to pose that question to you. Do you think that these protests are a turning point? They’re certainly the largest since the October 7th attack.
GIDEON LEVY: I can’t agree more with Yonatan. I’ll be just more harsh, as usual. I doubt it very much. It cannot be a turning point as long as it is only this kind of protest. First of all, most of the protest, if not all of it, has nothing to do with the political base of Benjamin Netanyahu. And therefore, he did ignore it until now, and he can continue to ignore it as long as it doesn’t penetrate to his own base. And his own base, I must say, is still very solid, and the protest did not penetrate there.
And secondly, we have to remember that this kind of protest cannot last for long, because it’s a very partial protest. It’s only a protest about the hostages. And the hostages is a huge subject. It’s a huge tragedy. It’s a huge catastrophe. People lost everything. People lost their lives, innocent people, wonderful people, like Vivian and many, many others. But this protest ignores totally the Palestinian victims. And as long as it ignores totally — but really, totally — the 40,000 people, then killing of six gets different proportions and cannot fuel a protest for a long time.
AMY GOODMAN: Gideon Levy, can you explain what the Philadelphi Corridor is? And talk about the fact that Israel didn’t have it before, what Netanyahu is — why he’s resisting removing soldiers from there, even disagreeing — I mean, they’re both being investigated for war crimes, both he and Yoav Gallant, his defense minister — right? — at The Hague. But Gallant is even saying that this is not necessary. And how — is this — the same question that Juan asked Yonatan — a real turning point, this level of mass protest, with the strikes called on top of it?
GIDEON LEVY: So, first, about the Philadelphi Corridor, we will not bother your viewers too much, Amy, because nobody heard about the Philadelphi Corridor as such a huge, painful subject until one, two weeks ago. I’ll tell you more than this. I’m almost convinced that if the issue of the Philadelphi Corridor will be solved, Netanyahu will find a new thing to sabotage any kind of settlement. This man does not believe — and I give him the credit that it is ideological and maybe not only personal, but he doesn’t believe in any diplomacy with the Palestinians. He never did. He never did believe in any kind of settlement with the Palestinians, only living on his sword, only living on our military power. This was his ideology, and it continues now.
He will not end this war now, even if the Philadelphi Corridor — for your viewers, it’s a piece of land which is on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu claims, rightly so, that many arms were smuggled through the tunnels in the Philadelphi Corridor. But I would like to remind the prime minister that the big attack on Israel did not come from the Philadelphi Corridor. It came from the most protected border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, the most invested border, the most sophisticated border. So it’s really ridiculous. It’s looking for excuses why to say no to stop the war.
And as about your question about turning point, it depends on the coming days. I mean, if the coming days will gain momentum, it might become a turning point. But I have my doubts, because, as I said before, the protests in Israel, until now, is limited to a very specific part of the population. It makes a lot of impression from the outside to see those hundreds of thousands of people gathering in Tel Aviv, but they are not the face of Israel, for sure not the majority of Israelis.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to one of the protesters in Tel Aviv this weekend, Itai Sela, a retired Israeli army veteran with two sons in the Israeli army.
ITAI SELA: The government of Israel is a threat to the world peace. It’s a dictatorship, run by one-man show. And Israel has 200 nuclear armaments. And the way Netanyahu is a world chaos agent, like Donald Trump, he’s a threat to the world peace. … He doesn’t care about the hostages.
AMY GOODMAN: So, Yonatan Zeigen, you were in the streets of Tel Aviv, as well. You and your brother have lost your beloved mother, beloved by so many, not only in Israel, but around the world, as a longtime peace activist. Vivian Silver died on October 7th when Hamas raided her kibbutz. You talk about a plan she had before she was killed. Do you agree with Gideon that the hundreds of thousands of Israelis are only focused on the hostages, calling for a ceasefire, or that there is some recognition of the horror that is taking place in Gaza, as well now as the West Bank?
YONATAN ZEIGEN: There is some, but it’s not enough. When I come to the streets, I stand with the bloc against the occupation or the people who want to end the war. But we are very, very few there, because there is no link in Israeli society between what was before October 7th and what — and the war since and what is happening in the West Bank. They don’t make the link between that and between our situation, our dire situation here, with the hostages and in general, the dire straits of our country. And it’s sad, because we have to make that link. It’s a blind spot of ours.
But a root of our problems is the lack of diplomacy for so long, the continuation of the expansion project of the settler movement, the occupation, a ruthless use of force in the siege of Gaza. This is the root of our problem. Our security issues and October 7th were symptoms of that. And as long as we don’t treat that problem together, — you know, we need a signal from the international community, as well, in order for us to understand that this is a problem needs solving. But as long as we don’t do that, then we are doomed.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And I’d like to ask Gideon Levy: Do you think at this point that the only thing that can stop Netanyahu is a decision by the Biden administration to cut off arms to Israel?
GIDEON LEVY: Yes, but I don’t see this decision being made. We are dealing with science fiction, I’m afraid. The Biden administration played a very weird role in this war. On one hand, their heart was in the right place. I’m sure President Biden cared a lot about the suffer of Gaza, about the humanitarian situation. He was shocked, as many others in the world, from what Israel is doing there. But in the same time, he supplied all the weapons and ammunitions to commit all those crimes.
So, I really don’t know. If you want someone to stop a war, do you supply him with more arms and more ammunition? I don’t know this kind of logic. If President Biden would have really liked to put an end to this war, he could have done it within days by stopping or at least conditioning — conditioning — the supply of arms and ammunition to Israel. He didn’t do it. He was far of doing it. And therefore, all the other requests, the condemnations, remarks are totally hollow.
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s put that in our last question to Yonatan Zeigen: The significance of the U.S. in leading to a ceasefire, and what President Biden has done, what he should do at this point?
YONATAN ZEIGEN: I think the United States and the international community, in general, plays a crucial role. They were actively enabling our status quo here before, and they are actively enabling the war now. And it’s rooted in the web of interests that was spun for years. And I think the administration has to create a new web of interests that does not rely on weapons and military, but on economy and tourism and trade routes. And I expected the Biden administration and the international community to establish a new international alliance that has authority to give us incentives, and to inflict sanctions if we continue on the wrong path, and to join hands with players on the ground, civil society in Israel and Palestine, to create a new roadmap and to incentivize political actors on both sides to understand that we need to tell a new story in the Middle East, one of peace and not of war.
AMY GOODMAN: Yonatan Zeigen, Israeli peace activist, a social worker, mediator, son of the renowned Canadian Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver, who was killed on October 7th in the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri, where she lived. And Gideon Levy, Israeli journalist and Haaretz columnist, member of the Haaretz editorial board — both speaking to us from Tel Aviv.
Next up, over 10,000 hotel workers are on strike across the United States to demand raises and fair workloads. We’ll speak with a striking hotel room attendant and the local president of the union UNITE HERE in San Francisco. Back in 30 seconds.
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 3, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/9/3/i ... transcript
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis protested this weekend to demand a ceasefire following the deaths of six more hostages in Gaza, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to reject the terms of a deal that would remove Israeli troops from southern Gaza. This comes after nearly 11 months of Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed over 40,000 Palestinians in the territory, according to local health authorities. “Our politicians won’t listen to anything, because they’re driven out of self-interest,” says Israeli peace activist Yonatan Zeigen, whose mother Vivian Silver was killed in the October 7 Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri. Despite the feeling of solidarity on the streets, Zeigen says there is a sense of “hopelessness” in the mass protests in Israel. We also speak with Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy, who says the outrage in Israel is still mostly confined to critics of Netanyahu and has not yet penetrated his base of support, and that the United States has a major role in the continued violence and Netanyahu’s refusal to agree to a ceasefire. “If President Biden would have really liked to put an end to this war, he could have done it within days by stopping or at least conditioning … the supply of arms and ammunition to Israel. He didn’t do it,” Levy notes.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: The Israeli army’s discovery of six dead Israeli hostages in tunnels in Rafah, in southern Gaza, has spurred some of the largest protests Israel has seen since October 7. Israel says the hostages were killed by Hamas; Hamas says they were killed by Israeli airstrikes, not far from where a seventh hostage was found alive last week.
On Sunday and Monday, grief and anger spilled onto the streets as hundreds of thousands of Israelis in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and other cities, along with hostage families, demanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accept a ceasefire deal with Hamas to secure the release of all remaining hostages. This is demonstrator Michal Caspi, whose nephew Alon Ohel was taken hostage October 7th.
MICHAL CASPI: So many people came. I met people that never came before. They came for the first time. I think after what happened yesterday morning, when we hear about the six bodies that came back, I think everybody feel like they have to do something. And I think it’s one of the reasons that so many people came out from home and came to say their words, that they want all the abducted to come back home.
AMY GOODMAN: A rare general strike was called by Histadrut. It was held across Israel on Monday.
Meanwhile, thousands of mourners gathered at the funeral of the Israeli American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose body was among those retrieved from southern Gaza. Hersh’s father Jon Polin said he hoped his son’s death would not be in vain and instead lead to the release of the remaining 101 hostages still held captive in Gaza.
JON POLIN: Hersh, we failed you. We all failed you. You would not have failed you. You would have pushed harder for justice. You would have worked to understand the other, to bridge differences. You would have challenged more people to challenge their own thinking. And what you would be pushing for now is to ensure that your death, the deaths of all the soldiers and so many innocent civilians are not lashav, not in vain.
AMY GOODMAN: Despite the protests calling for a ceasefire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back Monday, rejecting the terms of a deal that would remove Israeli troops from southern Gaza. Netanyahu begged for forgiveness for not bringing the six hostages home alive.
PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: [translated] I told the families, and I say it again this evening: I ask for your forgiveness for not succeeding in bringing them back alive. We were close, but we didn’t succeed. And I also say this evening, Israel will not accept this massacre. Hamas will pay a very high price for that.
AMY GOODMAN: Even Netanyahu’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is disagreeing with Netanyahu saying he will not agree to a ceasefire unless Israeli soldiers can stay in the Philadelphi Corridor.
For more, we go to Tel Aviv, where we’re joined by two guests. Gideon Levy is an award-winning Israeli author and journalist, columnist for the newspaper Haaretz, member of its editorial board. And Yonatan Zeigen is an Israeli peace activist, trained mediator and social worker, son of the renowned Canadian Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver, who was killed on October 7th during the Hamas attack on her kibbutz, Kibbutz Be’eri, where she lived. He has said his mother had a plan for peace for Israel and the Palestinians before she was killed.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Yonatan, let’s begin with you in Tel Aviv. Can you describe the scene of the hundreds of thousands of Israelis, a number of them family members of hostages still in Gaza, demanding that Netanyahu agree to a ceasefire deal?
YONATAN ZEIGEN: Well, being on the streets with so many people and with that energy is very powerful, on the one hand. On the other, it’s filled with despair, because you know that our politicians won’t listen to anything, because they’re driven out of self-interest. So, in that sense, you feel — you feel the energy, you feel the solidarity, but also the hopelessness.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Yonatan, do you believe these latest deaths of the six hostages were preventable. If so, why? And do you see that the latest protests are some sort of a turning point in Israel?
YONATAN ZEIGEN: All of the deaths were preventable. October 7th was preventable, as well. If we would have pursued peace years ago, if we would seek partners, Palestinian partners, instead of strengthening fundamentalists, if we would have not strengthened our own fundamentalists and put them in government, then October 7th wouldn’t have happened to begin with.
And since then, if we wouldn’t have gone into this atrocious war, and if we would — sought diplomacy and the help of the international community and go to the PA and Saudi Arabia and the United States and asked, this is — “We’re willing to do 1, 2, 3 in order to create a new reality here, and we ask for Hamas to be driven out,” then we would have gotten that. And all of the deaths would have been prevented, and the hostages would have been brought home.
Is it a turning point?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I’d like to bring —
YONATAN ZEIGEN: Yeah?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: No, go ahead. Go ahead.
YONATAN ZEIGEN: I started to say: Is it a turning point? One should hope. But, you know, people relate — you know, they anchor themselves in personal stories. And we woke up on Sunday to a very harsh and heartbreaking story of the six hostages being killed. Will it fuel a relentless protest that will be strong enough to bring a government down or to make it change their policy? I’m not sure.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Gideon Levy, I’d like to pose that question to you. Do you think that these protests are a turning point? They’re certainly the largest since the October 7th attack.
GIDEON LEVY: I can’t agree more with Yonatan. I’ll be just more harsh, as usual. I doubt it very much. It cannot be a turning point as long as it is only this kind of protest. First of all, most of the protest, if not all of it, has nothing to do with the political base of Benjamin Netanyahu. And therefore, he did ignore it until now, and he can continue to ignore it as long as it doesn’t penetrate to his own base. And his own base, I must say, is still very solid, and the protest did not penetrate there.
And secondly, we have to remember that this kind of protest cannot last for long, because it’s a very partial protest. It’s only a protest about the hostages. And the hostages is a huge subject. It’s a huge tragedy. It’s a huge catastrophe. People lost everything. People lost their lives, innocent people, wonderful people, like Vivian and many, many others. But this protest ignores totally the Palestinian victims. And as long as it ignores totally — but really, totally — the 40,000 people, then killing of six gets different proportions and cannot fuel a protest for a long time.
AMY GOODMAN: Gideon Levy, can you explain what the Philadelphi Corridor is? And talk about the fact that Israel didn’t have it before, what Netanyahu is — why he’s resisting removing soldiers from there, even disagreeing — I mean, they’re both being investigated for war crimes, both he and Yoav Gallant, his defense minister — right? — at The Hague. But Gallant is even saying that this is not necessary. And how — is this — the same question that Juan asked Yonatan — a real turning point, this level of mass protest, with the strikes called on top of it?
GIDEON LEVY: So, first, about the Philadelphi Corridor, we will not bother your viewers too much, Amy, because nobody heard about the Philadelphi Corridor as such a huge, painful subject until one, two weeks ago. I’ll tell you more than this. I’m almost convinced that if the issue of the Philadelphi Corridor will be solved, Netanyahu will find a new thing to sabotage any kind of settlement. This man does not believe — and I give him the credit that it is ideological and maybe not only personal, but he doesn’t believe in any diplomacy with the Palestinians. He never did. He never did believe in any kind of settlement with the Palestinians, only living on his sword, only living on our military power. This was his ideology, and it continues now.
He will not end this war now, even if the Philadelphi Corridor — for your viewers, it’s a piece of land which is on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu claims, rightly so, that many arms were smuggled through the tunnels in the Philadelphi Corridor. But I would like to remind the prime minister that the big attack on Israel did not come from the Philadelphi Corridor. It came from the most protected border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, the most invested border, the most sophisticated border. So it’s really ridiculous. It’s looking for excuses why to say no to stop the war.
And as about your question about turning point, it depends on the coming days. I mean, if the coming days will gain momentum, it might become a turning point. But I have my doubts, because, as I said before, the protests in Israel, until now, is limited to a very specific part of the population. It makes a lot of impression from the outside to see those hundreds of thousands of people gathering in Tel Aviv, but they are not the face of Israel, for sure not the majority of Israelis.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to one of the protesters in Tel Aviv this weekend, Itai Sela, a retired Israeli army veteran with two sons in the Israeli army.
ITAI SELA: The government of Israel is a threat to the world peace. It’s a dictatorship, run by one-man show. And Israel has 200 nuclear armaments. And the way Netanyahu is a world chaos agent, like Donald Trump, he’s a threat to the world peace. … He doesn’t care about the hostages.
AMY GOODMAN: So, Yonatan Zeigen, you were in the streets of Tel Aviv, as well. You and your brother have lost your beloved mother, beloved by so many, not only in Israel, but around the world, as a longtime peace activist. Vivian Silver died on October 7th when Hamas raided her kibbutz. You talk about a plan she had before she was killed. Do you agree with Gideon that the hundreds of thousands of Israelis are only focused on the hostages, calling for a ceasefire, or that there is some recognition of the horror that is taking place in Gaza, as well now as the West Bank?
YONATAN ZEIGEN: There is some, but it’s not enough. When I come to the streets, I stand with the bloc against the occupation or the people who want to end the war. But we are very, very few there, because there is no link in Israeli society between what was before October 7th and what — and the war since and what is happening in the West Bank. They don’t make the link between that and between our situation, our dire situation here, with the hostages and in general, the dire straits of our country. And it’s sad, because we have to make that link. It’s a blind spot of ours.
But a root of our problems is the lack of diplomacy for so long, the continuation of the expansion project of the settler movement, the occupation, a ruthless use of force in the siege of Gaza. This is the root of our problem. Our security issues and October 7th were symptoms of that. And as long as we don’t treat that problem together, — you know, we need a signal from the international community, as well, in order for us to understand that this is a problem needs solving. But as long as we don’t do that, then we are doomed.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And I’d like to ask Gideon Levy: Do you think at this point that the only thing that can stop Netanyahu is a decision by the Biden administration to cut off arms to Israel?
GIDEON LEVY: Yes, but I don’t see this decision being made. We are dealing with science fiction, I’m afraid. The Biden administration played a very weird role in this war. On one hand, their heart was in the right place. I’m sure President Biden cared a lot about the suffer of Gaza, about the humanitarian situation. He was shocked, as many others in the world, from what Israel is doing there. But in the same time, he supplied all the weapons and ammunitions to commit all those crimes.
So, I really don’t know. If you want someone to stop a war, do you supply him with more arms and more ammunition? I don’t know this kind of logic. If President Biden would have really liked to put an end to this war, he could have done it within days by stopping or at least conditioning — conditioning — the supply of arms and ammunition to Israel. He didn’t do it. He was far of doing it. And therefore, all the other requests, the condemnations, remarks are totally hollow.
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s put that in our last question to Yonatan Zeigen: The significance of the U.S. in leading to a ceasefire, and what President Biden has done, what he should do at this point?
YONATAN ZEIGEN: I think the United States and the international community, in general, plays a crucial role. They were actively enabling our status quo here before, and they are actively enabling the war now. And it’s rooted in the web of interests that was spun for years. And I think the administration has to create a new web of interests that does not rely on weapons and military, but on economy and tourism and trade routes. And I expected the Biden administration and the international community to establish a new international alliance that has authority to give us incentives, and to inflict sanctions if we continue on the wrong path, and to join hands with players on the ground, civil society in Israel and Palestine, to create a new roadmap and to incentivize political actors on both sides to understand that we need to tell a new story in the Middle East, one of peace and not of war.
AMY GOODMAN: Yonatan Zeigen, Israeli peace activist, a social worker, mediator, son of the renowned Canadian Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver, who was killed on October 7th in the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri, where she lived. And Gideon Levy, Israeli journalist and Haaretz columnist, member of the Haaretz editorial board — both speaking to us from Tel Aviv.
Next up, over 10,000 hotel workers are on strike across the United States to demand raises and fair workloads. We’ll speak with a striking hotel room attendant and the local president of the union UNITE HERE in San Francisco. Back in 30 seconds.
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Re: U.S. Backing Has Given Israel License to Kill & Maim
by admin » Thu Sep 19, 2024 12:56 am
Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 4, 2024
Israeli Attacks Kill 42 in Gaza as WHO Cites Progress in Polio Vaccination Efforts
Sep 04, 2024
The Palestinian Ministry of Health says Israel’s latest attacks on Gaza have killed 42 Palestinians while wounding more than 100 others in the past 24 hours. In central Gaza City, nine people were killed as Israel bombed a residential building near a city park. Two children were among the dead. Elsewhere, at least seven Palestinians were killed Tuesday when Israel bombed Namaa College northwest of Gaza City, where hundreds of displaced Palestinians had taken shelter.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization says its mass vaccination campaign against polio has so far reached about a quarter of Gaza’s children, after Israel agreed to eight-hour pauses in its attacks. This is Ghada Judeh, a displaced Gaza resident and volunteer on the vaccination campaign.
Ghada Judeh: “We are displaced from Deir al-Balah. I gave my children the polio vaccine to protect them from disease, but I can’t protect them from strikes and from death, unless you help us, just as you helped us and delivered the medications to us to protect our children. So, please, stand with us to stop the war so that our children can live peacefully and to continue their studies.”
Israeli Raids on West Bank Kill 33 Palestinians in a Week
Sep 04, 2024
Israeli forces have expanded their military offensive in the occupied West Bank, where troops have raided the Jalazone refugee camp, north of Ramallah. Separately, Israeli forces surrounded Hebron for a fourth day, with more raids reported around Qalqilya, Nablus and Bethlehem. The Palestinian Authority reports Israeli assaults on the West Bank over the past week have killed at least 33 Palestinians, including seven children.
Doctors Demand Justice for Palestinian Medical Workers Tortured in Israeli Custody
Sep 04, 2024
Pressure is mounting for Israel to release Dr. Khaled Alser, a highly respected Palestinian surgeon who was abducted by Israeli forces during a raid on Gaza’s Nasser Hospital in March. Colleagues say Dr. Alser has been tortured in Israeli custody at Ofer Prison and at the notorious Sde Teiman prison camp in the Negev Desert, where several Israeli soldiers have been accused of raping Palestinian prisoners. Dr. Alser is the lead author of a journal article just published in the British medical journal The Lancet. Democracy Now! spoke to one of the paper’s co-authors, Dr. Simon Fitzgerald, a Brooklyn trauma surgeon.
Dr. Simon Fitzgerald: “Our lead author, Dr. Khaled Alser, remains forcibly disappeared. And it was only about probably the same week that the piece was published that we got word through Israeli Physicians for Human Rights — we were able to get a lawyer into Ofer Prison, where Dr. Khaled Alser is — at least at the time he was interviewed in July was being held — and were able to get testimony that he indeed was abducted by Israeli forces, abused, maltreated, basically tortured.”
Human Rights Watch reports doctors, nurses and paramedics held by Israel have faced widespread torture, including beatings, rape and sexual abuse, forced stress positions, prolonged cuffing, blindfolding and denial of medical care. Click here to see our segment on that report.
Thousands of Israelis Continue Protests Demanding Gaza Ceasefire and Hostage Deal
Sep 04, 2024
Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of major cities across Israel for the fourth day in a row to demand Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agree to a ceasefire and hostage release deal. This morning, families of hostages held by Hamas protested outside of Likud party headquarters in Tel Aviv, following Tuesday evening protests outside the Israeli army headquarters. We’ll have the latest on Israel and Palestine after headlines.
***
Dire: Aid Workers Vaccinate Gaza Children During Pauses in Israeli Attacks, Urge Permanent Ceasefire
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 4, 2024
Healthcare
The World Health Organization has completed the first phase of a critical polio vaccination campaign in central Gaza. After health officials confirmed Gaza’s first polio case in 25 years, the Israeli military agreed to calls for limited humanitarian pauses on its attacks in order for aid organizations to carry out vaccinations. But “there’s real practical, operational problems with this current pause,” says Yanti Soeripto, president and CEO of Save the Children US, whose staff is part of the vaccine drive. “It is not a ceasefire at all. It is an eight-hour pause every day.” As Israel has repeatedly attacked civilians awaiting the provision of aid over the course of its war, it is “difficult to reach normal coverage numbers” — especially for the two-dose vaccine course necessary to vaccinate against polio. Soeripto also discusses outbreaks in other current war zones, including the recent outbreak of mpox in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and warns that “these diseases often cause even more casualties than bombs and bullets.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Amidst Israel’s continued military attacks on Gaza, the World Health Organization says its mass vaccination campaign against polio has so far reached about a quarter of Gaza’s children to protect them from paralysis, after Israel agreed to eight-hour pauses in its attacks in certain areas of Gaza. This comes after health officials recently confirmed Gaza’s first polio case in a quarter of a century, a 10-month-old child. This is Gaza resident Baha al-Arbid.
BAHA AL-ARBID: [translated] We’ve heard about the truce for polio vaccinations, but I want to stay in this area, because I don’t trust this truce that has just begun. We still fear bombing will happen at any moment, as it happened this morning.
AMY GOODMAN: And this is Ghada Judeh, who recently got her children vaccinated at Yafa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where she’s also volunteering with the polio vaccination campaign.
GHADA JUDEH: [translated] We are displaced from Deir al-Balah. I gave my children the polio vaccine to protect them from disease, but I can’t protect them from strikes and from death, unless you help us, just as you helped us and delivered the medications to us to protect our children. So, please, stand with us to stop the war so that our children can live peacefully and to continue their studies.
AMY GOODMAN: This comes as residents of Gaza are also facing other diseases and chronic lack of food or access to education. This is Karam Yassin, a 10-year-old Palestinian boy in Deir al-Balah, as well.
KARAM YASSIN: [translated] We want to play with our friends, go to school, eat and drink. But this vaccination is of no use. It’s only useful against polio, but the war has destroyed us. It has destroyed our houses. I wish I can play with my friends, go to school. I wish to eat and drink like I used to before.
AMY GOODMAN: Just before we went to air today, Democracy Now! received this update from Tarneem Hammad in central Gaza, who’s part of the polio vaccination campaign with Medical Aid for Palestinians.
TARNEEM HAMMAD: We would need at least 95% vaccination coverage during each round of the campaign to prevent the spread of polio and reduce the risk of its reemergence. However, we’ve been facing many challenges, given the severely disrupted health system, also water system and sanitation systems. Other requirements for a successful campaign delivery include sufficient cash, fuel and functional telecommunication networks to reach communities with information about the campaign, which has been very, very difficult for all of our healthcare workers and social mobilizers who are working on the ground. Gaza has been polio-free for the last 25 years, so the reemergence, which the humanitarian community has warned about for the last 10 months, is another threat to the children in Gaza and also to the neighboring countries. A ceasefire is the only way to ensure public health security in Gaza and also in the region.
AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined in Washington, D.C., by Janti Soeripto, president and CEO of Save the Children US. Its staff is working from Deir al-Balah Primary Health Care Center, a key vaccination site, working there in Gaza.
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Janti. Can you explain what is happening, how many people you understand have gotten this vaccine? It’s children that they’re attempting to do.
JANTI SOERIPTO: Thanks, Amy.
Yes, our site, our Primary Health Care Center in Deir al-Balah, is one of the 51 sites where vaccinations are given to children. I’ve understood that on day one we were able to vaccinate 1,825 children already, which is encouraging, of course. And our staff are working around the clock to make sure that people understand, that parents understand where they can go to get vaccinations, that those vaccinations are safe, to make sure that children are prepped and to make sure that healthcare workers are trained in order to do so safely. But, of course, we need much more than just a couple of days to be able to give these vaccinations. Also, you heard the cover rate there between 90 and 95%. But you have to give two doses of these vaccinations, and they have to be four weeks apart. So one dose is not enough.
AMY GOODMAN: And can you talk about how these vaccines are being administered? Israel has agreed to certain pauses in the bombing. We’re reporting about children being vaccinated in this area, and children being killed in this area by Israeli bombs. Explain how it all happens and how the vaccines are getting into Gaza right now.
JANTI SOERIPTO: So, the procedure, getting in through the WHO over the road. But I think, look, you laid out so clearly. You can, say, have an eight-hour pause in the window in which you can vaccinate these children in these 51 designated sites. But then, I mean, in practice, yeah, children then have to be moved to a particular site. Then sometimes they have to move back to where they were displaced, because most of the people in Gaza are displaced anyway. They’re not in their homes. Homes are destroyed. So it’s very hard to say. I can’t imagine. You heard the previous person in Gaza talking how worried they were to actually even travel across roads that are destroyed to some of these clinics.
So, there’s real practical, operational problems with this current pause. It is not a ceasefire at all. It is an eight-hour pause every day. And then, again, the vaccines are oral drops, two or three drops per dose. You have to give them twice with four weeks in between. That means you have to track and trace these children, as well. They’re all displaced. Whatever happens between the intervening four weeks between those doses then also impacts how effective your campaign can be.
AMY GOODMAN: So, according to the World Health Organization, the Israeli military bombardment of Gaza has damaged or destroyed 31 of 36 hospitals in the area.
JANTI SOERIPTO: That’s right.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the significance of this, and also how polio has reemerged after a quarter of a century in Gaza?
JANTI SOERIPTO: Yeah, it’s just unbelievable. Look, I was there end of March, and I thought it was unbelievably dire then. And clearly, it has gotten much, much worse since, because I was there when people were still congregating in Rafah, and since then, they’ve been displaced from Rafah and the south of Gaza, as well.
So, you know, there is very, very limited access to healthcare. We set up that Primary Health Care Center in Deir Al-Balah. If you look at the people who come there every day, over half of them have to walk more than an hour — walk more than an hour — to get even to that site. So that tells you something about the lack of healthcare, adequate healthcare, in Gaza right now.
And the reemergence of polio doesn’t surprise us. Save the Children and many other organizations and doctors have been warning against this for many, many weeks now. If you look at the sanitation, the sanitary conditions there, solid waste is everywhere in the Gaza Strip. There are not enough toilets. There are no showers. This was a situation just waiting to happen.
AMY GOODMAN: So, you talked about how this is a two-dose regimen, and they’re trying to get, what, just under 700,000 children, to inject them with these vaccines. This never was an issue in the past. But if they are only able to get the first dose, is it ineffective?
JANTI SOERIPTO: That’s not the right level of coverage. I think — and we should also remind ourselves, these are oral drops. Children are already — in Gaza, are already malnourished. They’re weakened. Their immune systems are compromised after almost a year of conflict, displacements, lack of food — you heard it here before — lack of clean water, etc. So, to get adequate protection, they would definitely need those two doses. So we’re concerned that even the current setup, we will do what we can — the WHO is doing what they can — but it’s going to be difficult to reach the coverage numbers in the way that you would normally do it in a campaign.
AMY GOODMAN: So, families have — surviving families in Gaza have to trust that as the polio vaccination campaign makes its way, for example, to Rafah, and then there’s a pause there, that they won’t be bombed if they leave their house or wherever they are currently displaced to, to get this vaccination. That’s in Gaza. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Israelis are continuing their protests calling for a ceasefire and a hostage deal from the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has said no so far. The significance of this? And the position of Save the Children on a ceasefire?
JANTI SOERIPTO: We’ve been calling for a ceasefire since October last year, because we know, as humanitarian operators, that that is the only way to get adequate aid, supplies and services to children and families that need it now. In the current scenario, our amazing staff and volunteers in Gaza are doing what they can at the risk of their own lives. We’ve lost colleagues and partners over these past months. But it’s really difficult to get people to come out, whether to get vaccinated, whether to get food, whether to get some level of mental health support or protection when bombs are falling. And deconfliction, so the safety of your convoys, of sending your own staff on the road with supplies to reach people, is not guaranteed at all.
AMY GOODMAN: In a moment, we’re going to speak with Gershon Baskin, Middle East director of the state International Communities Organization, a back-channel negotiator with Hamas in the past. So I wanted to switch gears just for one minute, Janti, to talk about what’s happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In mid-August, the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency in response to mpox. This is Nzigire Lukangira, whose child has been suffering from mpox for days in an isolation ward in Kavumu in the eastern DRC.
NZIGIRE LUKANGIRA: [translated] Since my child got this disease and I brought him here, he only received one injection and some pills. The conditions here are very poor. We have no food, and people are forbidden to visit us because we have a dangerous disease. We are suffering a lot and feel like we will die of hunger here.
AMY GOODMAN: Before we go, Janti Soeripto, as chair and as president and CEO of Save the Children US, you were just in the DRC. Can you talk about this outbreak of mpox and what people should understand and how difficult it is to get a vaccination right now?
JANTI SOERIPTO: Right. Thanks. Yes, I was there in May. I was actually in South Kivu, which is now the epicenter, I think, of this particular outbreak, with over 50 — with 50% of the cases. It is an incredibly contagious disease. It is very dangerous for children. So, of the cases, I think two-thirds of the cases affect young children.
And again — and we see a pattern here, Amy, whether it’s Gaza or the DRC or Sudan, for that matter. You know, contagious diseases, whether it’s cholera or polio or mpox, you know, wreak havoc on populations that are already vulnerable, that are displaced, and there is no access to proper healthcare, vaccinations, no sanitation. And these diseases often cause even more casualties than bombs and bullets.
So, we’re doing what we can. Again, we’re working with communities to make sure that they understand how to prevent or reduce the risk of spreading — simple hygiene, handwashing. Again, clean water is in short supply. People are weakened because there was already a food insecurity crisis. We’re trying to ascertain where people can have access to healthcare. But as you heard in the previous segment, it is difficult to get access to medicine. And there is currently no — there are vaccines in the DRC, either.
AMY GOODMAN: Janti Soeripto, we want to thank you for being with us, president and CEO of Save the Children US.
Next up, as tens of thousands of Israelis protest for Prime Minister Netanyahu to agree to a Gaza ceasefire, we’ll speak with Gershon Baskin, longtime Israeli back-channel negotiator with Hamas. His new book, In Pursuit of Peace in Israel and Palestine. Stay with us.
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Fmr. Israeli Hostage Negotiator Gershon Baskin Slams Netanyahu for Blocking Ceasefire Deal
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 4, 2024
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects growing domestic and international calls to accept a Gaza ceasefire deal, we go to Jerusalem to speak to Gershon Baskin of the human rights advocacy group International Communities Organization. Baskin has spent years as a back-channel Israeli negotiator with Hamas in ceasefire deals, including throughout Israel’s current war on Gaza. “It’s very clear that Netanyahu doesn’t want to end the war,” says Baskin, who calls for all remaining stakeholders, including Hamas, the United States and Israeli protesters, to increase pressure on the defiant prime minister.
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.
Tens of thousands of Israelis have protested across Israel for the fourth day in a row to demand Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agree to a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal. Today, families of Israeli hostages protested outside the Likud party headquarters in Tel Aviv. This followed a Tuesday evening protest outside the Israeli army headquarters.
Despite the mounting pressure, Netanyahu remains defiant, refusing to accept a ceasefire deal, while putting forward new demands and insisting he would not agree to any deal with Hamas unless Israel maintains control of the Philadelphi Corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt.
President Biden has called on the Israeli leader to do more to secure an agreement with Hamas following the recovery of the bodies of six dead hostages. On Tuesday, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matt Miller addressed the ceasefire negotiations.
MATTHEW MILLER: Over the coming days, the United States will continue to engage with our partners in the region to push for a final agreement. During talks last week, we made progress on dealing with the obstacles that remain, but, ultimately, finalizing an agreement will require both sides to show flexibility. It will require that both sides look for reasons to get to yes, rather than reasons to say no.
AMY GOODMAN: This comes as the Middle East Eye is reporting an anonymous Turkish Foreign Ministry official is accusing the United States of misleading the public by claiming that the Gaza ceasefire negotiations are progressing favorably, and that Washington is not exerting enough pressure on Israel.
We go now to Jerusalem, where we’re joined by Gershon Baskin, Middle East director of International Communities Organization, a human rights advocacy group. For years, he has been a back-channel Israeli negotiator with Hamas in ceasefire deals, including during Israel’s current war on Gaza; in 2011, when he helped negotiate the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit from Hamas captivity in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. On Tuesday, Baskin shared a deal Hamas leaders told him they would accept and that would lead to the release of all remaining Israeli hostages. He recently wrote, quote, “Let it be clear that Netanyahu has sentenced the hostages to death. Netanyahu stated that Israel will not leave the Philadelphia corridor … meaning that Israel will occupy Gaza for many more years. … Netanyahu is sacrificing the hostages on an altar of his own personal political survival.”
Gershon Baskin, welcome back to Democracy Now! Why don’t you lay out the situation as you understand it at this point and talk about the protests in the streets, what they’re demanding of Netanyahu and why he’s refusing?
GERSHON BASKIN: Right. I think it’s important to point out that, Amy, it isn’t tens of thousands of Israelis who have gone out to the street, it’s hundreds of thousands. To make that equivalent in the United States, it would be like 25 million Americans taking to the streets. That’s the dimension of the protests that we’ve seen in the last days since the bodies of those six hostages were recovered.
We could get many more Israelis on the street if they believe that the Hamas was really willing to release all the hostages, which is why I’ve pleaded with the Hamas to say yes not only to me, but to tell the Egyptians and the Qataris that they agree to the deal that I proposed to them, which is a three-week, end-of-war, full-term ceasefire, Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, release of all the Israeli hostages and a release of an agreed number and list of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. This is a deal that can be made. It is a million times better than the deal that the United States, Qatar and Egypt have been trying to negotiate, unsuccessfully, for the last three months, which would just keep the war going and only release 32 hostages in 42 days. That’s a bad deal. We need to have a good deal put on the table. I’ve communicated this to the White House, to the Qataris, to the Egyptians and, of course, to the Israeli government. Now the officials need to push this through.
AMY GOODMAN: Why is Netanyahu refusing?
GERSHON BASKIN: Well, it’s very clear that Netanyahu doesn’t want to end the war, as one of his top negotiators told me on Saturday. The problem with any agreement that we can put forward is that the bottom line is that Hamas won’t make an agreement that doesn’t end the war, and Netanyahu won’t agree to any agreement that ends the war. He wants to keep this going. He certainly won’t consider ending the war until they find and kill Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza. But I think that the message of this past weekend was that there’s no reason to believe that any hostage will survive if Israel in fact does find and kill Yahya Sinwar. There’s no reason to believe that they won’t simply execute all the remaining hostages.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the state of the negotiations since — well, it’s widely believed that it was Israel who assassinated Ismail Haniyeh, the lead negotiator, on Inauguration Day of the new president in Iran. The significance of this?
GERSHON BASKIN: I’m not sure that it had a real impact on the negotiations. Haniyeh was the face of the negotiators from Hamas with the Qatari prime minister, but he wasn’t actually a member of the negotiating team. He wasn’t in the room when negotiations were taking place. Of course, he was the leader of the Hamas politburo and played a significant role there. There are debates of whether or not he was pushing for an agreement or pushing against an agreement. It doesn’t really matter at this time. He’s no longer there, and there are other leaders of Hamas right now. Hamas makes decisions generally in consultation, and they try to reach consensus. When there is consensus or when there is a decision, it’s announced by the Hamas leader in Beirut, Osama Hamdan. And when Osama Hamdan says something in a press conference or on his Telegram page, it’s official, and everyone in Hamas stands behind it.
That’s what we’re waiting for now — that what I’m waiting for now, to Hamas to say that we agree to a three-week deal that will end the war, will release the hostages and release Palestinian prisoners. Of course, increase humanitarian aid into Gaza in a really substantial way, that has to be part of the agreement, as well. But we really need Hamas to signal to the Israeli public that this kind of deal is on the table, so that we can mass the public in the numbers way above a million people on the streets to force Netanyahu to accept it.
AMY GOODMAN: It keeps being said that he wants to keep Israeli soldiers in the Philadelphi Corridor. I spoke to Gideon Levy yesterday, on the editorial board of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, and he said it’s not even worth talking about this. No one even knew what this was months ago. Suddenly, it has become so key. What is your assessment of what Netanyahu wants there and why this has become important?
GERSHON BASKIN: Look, last night on one of the main Israeli television stations, Alon Ben-David, a very significant military correspondent, said that in all the past months that the Israelis are searching for tunnels that lead underneath the Philadelphi Corridor, the borderline, 14-kilometer borderline between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, they haven’t found a single tunnel that penetrates the border. We have to recognize that this is an international border. There is a sovereign Egyptian side of the border. The Egyptians are responsible for sealing that border. And I’m certain that with the request from the United States and Israel, the Egyptians would agree to American finance and technology know-how and American supervision or observers on the ground to ensure that the border is closed.
This is a made-up issue by Netanyahu to create a new — I don’t know what we want to call it — a new excuse for Israel to remain in Gaza. Essentially, at the end of the day, what it means is that Israeli soldiers would be sitting ducks along the line of this border, where insurgents from Hamas would be able to kill them. And that’s what we’re facing today. Hamas has been largely decimated in terms of its military power, but they have the ability to engage in armed insurgency and kill Israeli soldiers every single day, Hamas fighters popping out of a tunnel and shooting an RPG at an Israeli tank or an Israeli vehicle. And we should be reminded of 18 years of Israel sitting in southern Lebanon, when soldiers came home every week dead, as well. That should be a lesson for us.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what happened back when you were involved with the negotiation to release the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit for a thousand Palestinian prisoners? And do you take any lessons from then to what’s happening today?
GERSHON BASKIN: It’s a very different situation when we’re talking about over a hundred hostages and an active war that’s been fought for 11 months with the total destruction of Gaza and 40,000 to 50,000 Palestinians killed and 1,700 Israelis killed, or more than that, so far. So it’s really different.
But there are some lessons. One is that there’s no replacement to a direct, secret back channel with direct communication between the parties. Even if it’s not an official channel, it’s a way to deliver messages and to brainstorm and find new ideas. There is no doubt that negotiating through third-party mediators, like Qatar and the United States and Egypt, convolutes the situation, makes it much more complex, and each side has its own interest here. There’s great reluctance to make compromises.
What I’ve seen, what I’ve observed over the last 18 years that I’ve been doing these negotiations is that sometimes it’s just unbelievable, the kind of behavior of the people in charge of these negotiations, who sometimes seem to be as if they were in a kindergarten classroom, with bringing up issues and ways of talking to each other, or talking at each other, that resemble what young children would do, rather than being responsible and finding direct ways to resolve the problem, which is ending the war and getting the hostages home. They never deal with it directly. And this is the truth today as it was many years ago when Gilad Shalit was in captivity.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you think it would take at this point, in this last minute we have, Gershon?
GERSHON BASKIN: I think it would take an Hamas acknowledgment that they’re ready to release all the hostages, so that we can mobilize the Israeli streets. And it will take extreme American pressure on Netanyahu to make a deal. And the Americans have the pressure, if they were to choose to use it.
AMY GOODMAN: And what would that look like, the U.S. putting pressure on Israel?
GERSHON BASKIN: Well, look, the most obvious are the two things that are the most powerful. One is the shipment of arms to Israel, which is unlikely to happen. The other is the use of the veto in the Security Council and in other international arena. But the American-Israel relationship is so deep and so wide that there are many ways that the United States can use soft power with Israel to get the message across.
And what’s important is that it’s not done just to Prime Minister Netanyahu, but that the Israeli public knows what the United States of America wants and what it’s demanding from Israel. Again, we are still a democracy, or what’s left of a democracy, and the people are the sovereign. And we can mobilize the people if we have the tools to do that.
AMY GOODMAN: Biden, what is the single most important thing he can do as president of the United States?
GERSHON BASKIN: To put a deal on the table which is a good deal, the kind of deal I talked about, and to let the Israeli public know that it’s there. The United States is backing it. Qatar is backing it. Egypt and Hamas will support it. That’s the most important thing that Biden could do right now.
AMY GOODMAN: Gershon Baskin, I want to thank you for being with us, Middle East director of the International Communities Organization, longtime back-channel negotiator with Hamas. His memoir is titled In Pursuit of Peace in Israel and Palestine.
When we come back, Dynamite Nashville. Back in 20 seconds.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: “Hold On, I’m Comin’,” Sam & Dave, written by Isaac Hayes. A Georgia judge has agreed with a lawsuit by the Hayes family that said the legendary singer would disapprove of Donald Trump’s campaign’s use of his song and ordered the campaign to stop playing it at rallies — the Trump campaign, that is.
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 4, 2024
Israeli Attacks Kill 42 in Gaza as WHO Cites Progress in Polio Vaccination Efforts
Sep 04, 2024
The Palestinian Ministry of Health says Israel’s latest attacks on Gaza have killed 42 Palestinians while wounding more than 100 others in the past 24 hours. In central Gaza City, nine people were killed as Israel bombed a residential building near a city park. Two children were among the dead. Elsewhere, at least seven Palestinians were killed Tuesday when Israel bombed Namaa College northwest of Gaza City, where hundreds of displaced Palestinians had taken shelter.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization says its mass vaccination campaign against polio has so far reached about a quarter of Gaza’s children, after Israel agreed to eight-hour pauses in its attacks. This is Ghada Judeh, a displaced Gaza resident and volunteer on the vaccination campaign.
Ghada Judeh: “We are displaced from Deir al-Balah. I gave my children the polio vaccine to protect them from disease, but I can’t protect them from strikes and from death, unless you help us, just as you helped us and delivered the medications to us to protect our children. So, please, stand with us to stop the war so that our children can live peacefully and to continue their studies.”
Israeli Raids on West Bank Kill 33 Palestinians in a Week
Sep 04, 2024
Israeli forces have expanded their military offensive in the occupied West Bank, where troops have raided the Jalazone refugee camp, north of Ramallah. Separately, Israeli forces surrounded Hebron for a fourth day, with more raids reported around Qalqilya, Nablus and Bethlehem. The Palestinian Authority reports Israeli assaults on the West Bank over the past week have killed at least 33 Palestinians, including seven children.
Doctors Demand Justice for Palestinian Medical Workers Tortured in Israeli Custody
Sep 04, 2024
Pressure is mounting for Israel to release Dr. Khaled Alser, a highly respected Palestinian surgeon who was abducted by Israeli forces during a raid on Gaza’s Nasser Hospital in March. Colleagues say Dr. Alser has been tortured in Israeli custody at Ofer Prison and at the notorious Sde Teiman prison camp in the Negev Desert, where several Israeli soldiers have been accused of raping Palestinian prisoners. Dr. Alser is the lead author of a journal article just published in the British medical journal The Lancet. Democracy Now! spoke to one of the paper’s co-authors, Dr. Simon Fitzgerald, a Brooklyn trauma surgeon.
Dr. Simon Fitzgerald: “Our lead author, Dr. Khaled Alser, remains forcibly disappeared. And it was only about probably the same week that the piece was published that we got word through Israeli Physicians for Human Rights — we were able to get a lawyer into Ofer Prison, where Dr. Khaled Alser is — at least at the time he was interviewed in July was being held — and were able to get testimony that he indeed was abducted by Israeli forces, abused, maltreated, basically tortured.”
Human Rights Watch reports doctors, nurses and paramedics held by Israel have faced widespread torture, including beatings, rape and sexual abuse, forced stress positions, prolonged cuffing, blindfolding and denial of medical care. Click here to see our segment on that report.
Thousands of Israelis Continue Protests Demanding Gaza Ceasefire and Hostage Deal
Sep 04, 2024
Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of major cities across Israel for the fourth day in a row to demand Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agree to a ceasefire and hostage release deal. This morning, families of hostages held by Hamas protested outside of Likud party headquarters in Tel Aviv, following Tuesday evening protests outside the Israeli army headquarters. We’ll have the latest on Israel and Palestine after headlines.
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Dire: Aid Workers Vaccinate Gaza Children During Pauses in Israeli Attacks, Urge Permanent Ceasefire
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 4, 2024
Healthcare
The World Health Organization has completed the first phase of a critical polio vaccination campaign in central Gaza. After health officials confirmed Gaza’s first polio case in 25 years, the Israeli military agreed to calls for limited humanitarian pauses on its attacks in order for aid organizations to carry out vaccinations. But “there’s real practical, operational problems with this current pause,” says Yanti Soeripto, president and CEO of Save the Children US, whose staff is part of the vaccine drive. “It is not a ceasefire at all. It is an eight-hour pause every day.” As Israel has repeatedly attacked civilians awaiting the provision of aid over the course of its war, it is “difficult to reach normal coverage numbers” — especially for the two-dose vaccine course necessary to vaccinate against polio. Soeripto also discusses outbreaks in other current war zones, including the recent outbreak of mpox in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and warns that “these diseases often cause even more casualties than bombs and bullets.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Amidst Israel’s continued military attacks on Gaza, the World Health Organization says its mass vaccination campaign against polio has so far reached about a quarter of Gaza’s children to protect them from paralysis, after Israel agreed to eight-hour pauses in its attacks in certain areas of Gaza. This comes after health officials recently confirmed Gaza’s first polio case in a quarter of a century, a 10-month-old child. This is Gaza resident Baha al-Arbid.
BAHA AL-ARBID: [translated] We’ve heard about the truce for polio vaccinations, but I want to stay in this area, because I don’t trust this truce that has just begun. We still fear bombing will happen at any moment, as it happened this morning.
AMY GOODMAN: And this is Ghada Judeh, who recently got her children vaccinated at Yafa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where she’s also volunteering with the polio vaccination campaign.
GHADA JUDEH: [translated] We are displaced from Deir al-Balah. I gave my children the polio vaccine to protect them from disease, but I can’t protect them from strikes and from death, unless you help us, just as you helped us and delivered the medications to us to protect our children. So, please, stand with us to stop the war so that our children can live peacefully and to continue their studies.
AMY GOODMAN: This comes as residents of Gaza are also facing other diseases and chronic lack of food or access to education. This is Karam Yassin, a 10-year-old Palestinian boy in Deir al-Balah, as well.
KARAM YASSIN: [translated] We want to play with our friends, go to school, eat and drink. But this vaccination is of no use. It’s only useful against polio, but the war has destroyed us. It has destroyed our houses. I wish I can play with my friends, go to school. I wish to eat and drink like I used to before.
AMY GOODMAN: Just before we went to air today, Democracy Now! received this update from Tarneem Hammad in central Gaza, who’s part of the polio vaccination campaign with Medical Aid for Palestinians.
TARNEEM HAMMAD: We would need at least 95% vaccination coverage during each round of the campaign to prevent the spread of polio and reduce the risk of its reemergence. However, we’ve been facing many challenges, given the severely disrupted health system, also water system and sanitation systems. Other requirements for a successful campaign delivery include sufficient cash, fuel and functional telecommunication networks to reach communities with information about the campaign, which has been very, very difficult for all of our healthcare workers and social mobilizers who are working on the ground. Gaza has been polio-free for the last 25 years, so the reemergence, which the humanitarian community has warned about for the last 10 months, is another threat to the children in Gaza and also to the neighboring countries. A ceasefire is the only way to ensure public health security in Gaza and also in the region.
AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined in Washington, D.C., by Janti Soeripto, president and CEO of Save the Children US. Its staff is working from Deir al-Balah Primary Health Care Center, a key vaccination site, working there in Gaza.
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Janti. Can you explain what is happening, how many people you understand have gotten this vaccine? It’s children that they’re attempting to do.
JANTI SOERIPTO: Thanks, Amy.
Yes, our site, our Primary Health Care Center in Deir al-Balah, is one of the 51 sites where vaccinations are given to children. I’ve understood that on day one we were able to vaccinate 1,825 children already, which is encouraging, of course. And our staff are working around the clock to make sure that people understand, that parents understand where they can go to get vaccinations, that those vaccinations are safe, to make sure that children are prepped and to make sure that healthcare workers are trained in order to do so safely. But, of course, we need much more than just a couple of days to be able to give these vaccinations. Also, you heard the cover rate there between 90 and 95%. But you have to give two doses of these vaccinations, and they have to be four weeks apart. So one dose is not enough.
AMY GOODMAN: And can you talk about how these vaccines are being administered? Israel has agreed to certain pauses in the bombing. We’re reporting about children being vaccinated in this area, and children being killed in this area by Israeli bombs. Explain how it all happens and how the vaccines are getting into Gaza right now.
JANTI SOERIPTO: So, the procedure, getting in through the WHO over the road. But I think, look, you laid out so clearly. You can, say, have an eight-hour pause in the window in which you can vaccinate these children in these 51 designated sites. But then, I mean, in practice, yeah, children then have to be moved to a particular site. Then sometimes they have to move back to where they were displaced, because most of the people in Gaza are displaced anyway. They’re not in their homes. Homes are destroyed. So it’s very hard to say. I can’t imagine. You heard the previous person in Gaza talking how worried they were to actually even travel across roads that are destroyed to some of these clinics.
So, there’s real practical, operational problems with this current pause. It is not a ceasefire at all. It is an eight-hour pause every day. And then, again, the vaccines are oral drops, two or three drops per dose. You have to give them twice with four weeks in between. That means you have to track and trace these children, as well. They’re all displaced. Whatever happens between the intervening four weeks between those doses then also impacts how effective your campaign can be.
AMY GOODMAN: So, according to the World Health Organization, the Israeli military bombardment of Gaza has damaged or destroyed 31 of 36 hospitals in the area.
JANTI SOERIPTO: That’s right.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the significance of this, and also how polio has reemerged after a quarter of a century in Gaza?
JANTI SOERIPTO: Yeah, it’s just unbelievable. Look, I was there end of March, and I thought it was unbelievably dire then. And clearly, it has gotten much, much worse since, because I was there when people were still congregating in Rafah, and since then, they’ve been displaced from Rafah and the south of Gaza, as well.
So, you know, there is very, very limited access to healthcare. We set up that Primary Health Care Center in Deir Al-Balah. If you look at the people who come there every day, over half of them have to walk more than an hour — walk more than an hour — to get even to that site. So that tells you something about the lack of healthcare, adequate healthcare, in Gaza right now.
And the reemergence of polio doesn’t surprise us. Save the Children and many other organizations and doctors have been warning against this for many, many weeks now. If you look at the sanitation, the sanitary conditions there, solid waste is everywhere in the Gaza Strip. There are not enough toilets. There are no showers. This was a situation just waiting to happen.
AMY GOODMAN: So, you talked about how this is a two-dose regimen, and they’re trying to get, what, just under 700,000 children, to inject them with these vaccines. This never was an issue in the past. But if they are only able to get the first dose, is it ineffective?
JANTI SOERIPTO: That’s not the right level of coverage. I think — and we should also remind ourselves, these are oral drops. Children are already — in Gaza, are already malnourished. They’re weakened. Their immune systems are compromised after almost a year of conflict, displacements, lack of food — you heard it here before — lack of clean water, etc. So, to get adequate protection, they would definitely need those two doses. So we’re concerned that even the current setup, we will do what we can — the WHO is doing what they can — but it’s going to be difficult to reach the coverage numbers in the way that you would normally do it in a campaign.
AMY GOODMAN: So, families have — surviving families in Gaza have to trust that as the polio vaccination campaign makes its way, for example, to Rafah, and then there’s a pause there, that they won’t be bombed if they leave their house or wherever they are currently displaced to, to get this vaccination. That’s in Gaza. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Israelis are continuing their protests calling for a ceasefire and a hostage deal from the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has said no so far. The significance of this? And the position of Save the Children on a ceasefire?
JANTI SOERIPTO: We’ve been calling for a ceasefire since October last year, because we know, as humanitarian operators, that that is the only way to get adequate aid, supplies and services to children and families that need it now. In the current scenario, our amazing staff and volunteers in Gaza are doing what they can at the risk of their own lives. We’ve lost colleagues and partners over these past months. But it’s really difficult to get people to come out, whether to get vaccinated, whether to get food, whether to get some level of mental health support or protection when bombs are falling. And deconfliction, so the safety of your convoys, of sending your own staff on the road with supplies to reach people, is not guaranteed at all.
AMY GOODMAN: In a moment, we’re going to speak with Gershon Baskin, Middle East director of the state International Communities Organization, a back-channel negotiator with Hamas in the past. So I wanted to switch gears just for one minute, Janti, to talk about what’s happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In mid-August, the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency in response to mpox. This is Nzigire Lukangira, whose child has been suffering from mpox for days in an isolation ward in Kavumu in the eastern DRC.
NZIGIRE LUKANGIRA: [translated] Since my child got this disease and I brought him here, he only received one injection and some pills. The conditions here are very poor. We have no food, and people are forbidden to visit us because we have a dangerous disease. We are suffering a lot and feel like we will die of hunger here.
AMY GOODMAN: Before we go, Janti Soeripto, as chair and as president and CEO of Save the Children US, you were just in the DRC. Can you talk about this outbreak of mpox and what people should understand and how difficult it is to get a vaccination right now?
JANTI SOERIPTO: Right. Thanks. Yes, I was there in May. I was actually in South Kivu, which is now the epicenter, I think, of this particular outbreak, with over 50 — with 50% of the cases. It is an incredibly contagious disease. It is very dangerous for children. So, of the cases, I think two-thirds of the cases affect young children.
And again — and we see a pattern here, Amy, whether it’s Gaza or the DRC or Sudan, for that matter. You know, contagious diseases, whether it’s cholera or polio or mpox, you know, wreak havoc on populations that are already vulnerable, that are displaced, and there is no access to proper healthcare, vaccinations, no sanitation. And these diseases often cause even more casualties than bombs and bullets.
So, we’re doing what we can. Again, we’re working with communities to make sure that they understand how to prevent or reduce the risk of spreading — simple hygiene, handwashing. Again, clean water is in short supply. People are weakened because there was already a food insecurity crisis. We’re trying to ascertain where people can have access to healthcare. But as you heard in the previous segment, it is difficult to get access to medicine. And there is currently no — there are vaccines in the DRC, either.
AMY GOODMAN: Janti Soeripto, we want to thank you for being with us, president and CEO of Save the Children US.
Next up, as tens of thousands of Israelis protest for Prime Minister Netanyahu to agree to a Gaza ceasefire, we’ll speak with Gershon Baskin, longtime Israeli back-channel negotiator with Hamas. His new book, In Pursuit of Peace in Israel and Palestine. Stay with us.
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Fmr. Israeli Hostage Negotiator Gershon Baskin Slams Netanyahu for Blocking Ceasefire Deal
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 4, 2024
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects growing domestic and international calls to accept a Gaza ceasefire deal, we go to Jerusalem to speak to Gershon Baskin of the human rights advocacy group International Communities Organization. Baskin has spent years as a back-channel Israeli negotiator with Hamas in ceasefire deals, including throughout Israel’s current war on Gaza. “It’s very clear that Netanyahu doesn’t want to end the war,” says Baskin, who calls for all remaining stakeholders, including Hamas, the United States and Israeli protesters, to increase pressure on the defiant prime minister.
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.
Tens of thousands of Israelis have protested across Israel for the fourth day in a row to demand Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agree to a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal. Today, families of Israeli hostages protested outside the Likud party headquarters in Tel Aviv. This followed a Tuesday evening protest outside the Israeli army headquarters.
Despite the mounting pressure, Netanyahu remains defiant, refusing to accept a ceasefire deal, while putting forward new demands and insisting he would not agree to any deal with Hamas unless Israel maintains control of the Philadelphi Corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt.
President Biden has called on the Israeli leader to do more to secure an agreement with Hamas following the recovery of the bodies of six dead hostages. On Tuesday, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matt Miller addressed the ceasefire negotiations.
MATTHEW MILLER: Over the coming days, the United States will continue to engage with our partners in the region to push for a final agreement. During talks last week, we made progress on dealing with the obstacles that remain, but, ultimately, finalizing an agreement will require both sides to show flexibility. It will require that both sides look for reasons to get to yes, rather than reasons to say no.
AMY GOODMAN: This comes as the Middle East Eye is reporting an anonymous Turkish Foreign Ministry official is accusing the United States of misleading the public by claiming that the Gaza ceasefire negotiations are progressing favorably, and that Washington is not exerting enough pressure on Israel.
We go now to Jerusalem, where we’re joined by Gershon Baskin, Middle East director of International Communities Organization, a human rights advocacy group. For years, he has been a back-channel Israeli negotiator with Hamas in ceasefire deals, including during Israel’s current war on Gaza; in 2011, when he helped negotiate the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit from Hamas captivity in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. On Tuesday, Baskin shared a deal Hamas leaders told him they would accept and that would lead to the release of all remaining Israeli hostages. He recently wrote, quote, “Let it be clear that Netanyahu has sentenced the hostages to death. Netanyahu stated that Israel will not leave the Philadelphia corridor … meaning that Israel will occupy Gaza for many more years. … Netanyahu is sacrificing the hostages on an altar of his own personal political survival.”
Gershon Baskin, welcome back to Democracy Now! Why don’t you lay out the situation as you understand it at this point and talk about the protests in the streets, what they’re demanding of Netanyahu and why he’s refusing?
GERSHON BASKIN: Right. I think it’s important to point out that, Amy, it isn’t tens of thousands of Israelis who have gone out to the street, it’s hundreds of thousands. To make that equivalent in the United States, it would be like 25 million Americans taking to the streets. That’s the dimension of the protests that we’ve seen in the last days since the bodies of those six hostages were recovered.
We could get many more Israelis on the street if they believe that the Hamas was really willing to release all the hostages, which is why I’ve pleaded with the Hamas to say yes not only to me, but to tell the Egyptians and the Qataris that they agree to the deal that I proposed to them, which is a three-week, end-of-war, full-term ceasefire, Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, release of all the Israeli hostages and a release of an agreed number and list of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. This is a deal that can be made. It is a million times better than the deal that the United States, Qatar and Egypt have been trying to negotiate, unsuccessfully, for the last three months, which would just keep the war going and only release 32 hostages in 42 days. That’s a bad deal. We need to have a good deal put on the table. I’ve communicated this to the White House, to the Qataris, to the Egyptians and, of course, to the Israeli government. Now the officials need to push this through.
AMY GOODMAN: Why is Netanyahu refusing?
GERSHON BASKIN: Well, it’s very clear that Netanyahu doesn’t want to end the war, as one of his top negotiators told me on Saturday. The problem with any agreement that we can put forward is that the bottom line is that Hamas won’t make an agreement that doesn’t end the war, and Netanyahu won’t agree to any agreement that ends the war. He wants to keep this going. He certainly won’t consider ending the war until they find and kill Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza. But I think that the message of this past weekend was that there’s no reason to believe that any hostage will survive if Israel in fact does find and kill Yahya Sinwar. There’s no reason to believe that they won’t simply execute all the remaining hostages.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the state of the negotiations since — well, it’s widely believed that it was Israel who assassinated Ismail Haniyeh, the lead negotiator, on Inauguration Day of the new president in Iran. The significance of this?
GERSHON BASKIN: I’m not sure that it had a real impact on the negotiations. Haniyeh was the face of the negotiators from Hamas with the Qatari prime minister, but he wasn’t actually a member of the negotiating team. He wasn’t in the room when negotiations were taking place. Of course, he was the leader of the Hamas politburo and played a significant role there. There are debates of whether or not he was pushing for an agreement or pushing against an agreement. It doesn’t really matter at this time. He’s no longer there, and there are other leaders of Hamas right now. Hamas makes decisions generally in consultation, and they try to reach consensus. When there is consensus or when there is a decision, it’s announced by the Hamas leader in Beirut, Osama Hamdan. And when Osama Hamdan says something in a press conference or on his Telegram page, it’s official, and everyone in Hamas stands behind it.
That’s what we’re waiting for now — that what I’m waiting for now, to Hamas to say that we agree to a three-week deal that will end the war, will release the hostages and release Palestinian prisoners. Of course, increase humanitarian aid into Gaza in a really substantial way, that has to be part of the agreement, as well. But we really need Hamas to signal to the Israeli public that this kind of deal is on the table, so that we can mass the public in the numbers way above a million people on the streets to force Netanyahu to accept it.
AMY GOODMAN: It keeps being said that he wants to keep Israeli soldiers in the Philadelphi Corridor. I spoke to Gideon Levy yesterday, on the editorial board of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, and he said it’s not even worth talking about this. No one even knew what this was months ago. Suddenly, it has become so key. What is your assessment of what Netanyahu wants there and why this has become important?
GERSHON BASKIN: Look, last night on one of the main Israeli television stations, Alon Ben-David, a very significant military correspondent, said that in all the past months that the Israelis are searching for tunnels that lead underneath the Philadelphi Corridor, the borderline, 14-kilometer borderline between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, they haven’t found a single tunnel that penetrates the border. We have to recognize that this is an international border. There is a sovereign Egyptian side of the border. The Egyptians are responsible for sealing that border. And I’m certain that with the request from the United States and Israel, the Egyptians would agree to American finance and technology know-how and American supervision or observers on the ground to ensure that the border is closed.
This is a made-up issue by Netanyahu to create a new — I don’t know what we want to call it — a new excuse for Israel to remain in Gaza. Essentially, at the end of the day, what it means is that Israeli soldiers would be sitting ducks along the line of this border, where insurgents from Hamas would be able to kill them. And that’s what we’re facing today. Hamas has been largely decimated in terms of its military power, but they have the ability to engage in armed insurgency and kill Israeli soldiers every single day, Hamas fighters popping out of a tunnel and shooting an RPG at an Israeli tank or an Israeli vehicle. And we should be reminded of 18 years of Israel sitting in southern Lebanon, when soldiers came home every week dead, as well. That should be a lesson for us.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what happened back when you were involved with the negotiation to release the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit for a thousand Palestinian prisoners? And do you take any lessons from then to what’s happening today?
GERSHON BASKIN: It’s a very different situation when we’re talking about over a hundred hostages and an active war that’s been fought for 11 months with the total destruction of Gaza and 40,000 to 50,000 Palestinians killed and 1,700 Israelis killed, or more than that, so far. So it’s really different.
But there are some lessons. One is that there’s no replacement to a direct, secret back channel with direct communication between the parties. Even if it’s not an official channel, it’s a way to deliver messages and to brainstorm and find new ideas. There is no doubt that negotiating through third-party mediators, like Qatar and the United States and Egypt, convolutes the situation, makes it much more complex, and each side has its own interest here. There’s great reluctance to make compromises.
What I’ve seen, what I’ve observed over the last 18 years that I’ve been doing these negotiations is that sometimes it’s just unbelievable, the kind of behavior of the people in charge of these negotiations, who sometimes seem to be as if they were in a kindergarten classroom, with bringing up issues and ways of talking to each other, or talking at each other, that resemble what young children would do, rather than being responsible and finding direct ways to resolve the problem, which is ending the war and getting the hostages home. They never deal with it directly. And this is the truth today as it was many years ago when Gilad Shalit was in captivity.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you think it would take at this point, in this last minute we have, Gershon?
GERSHON BASKIN: I think it would take an Hamas acknowledgment that they’re ready to release all the hostages, so that we can mobilize the Israeli streets. And it will take extreme American pressure on Netanyahu to make a deal. And the Americans have the pressure, if they were to choose to use it.
AMY GOODMAN: And what would that look like, the U.S. putting pressure on Israel?
GERSHON BASKIN: Well, look, the most obvious are the two things that are the most powerful. One is the shipment of arms to Israel, which is unlikely to happen. The other is the use of the veto in the Security Council and in other international arena. But the American-Israel relationship is so deep and so wide that there are many ways that the United States can use soft power with Israel to get the message across.
And what’s important is that it’s not done just to Prime Minister Netanyahu, but that the Israeli public knows what the United States of America wants and what it’s demanding from Israel. Again, we are still a democracy, or what’s left of a democracy, and the people are the sovereign. And we can mobilize the people if we have the tools to do that.
AMY GOODMAN: Biden, what is the single most important thing he can do as president of the United States?
GERSHON BASKIN: To put a deal on the table which is a good deal, the kind of deal I talked about, and to let the Israeli public know that it’s there. The United States is backing it. Qatar is backing it. Egypt and Hamas will support it. That’s the most important thing that Biden could do right now.
AMY GOODMAN: Gershon Baskin, I want to thank you for being with us, Middle East director of the International Communities Organization, longtime back-channel negotiator with Hamas. His memoir is titled In Pursuit of Peace in Israel and Palestine.
When we come back, Dynamite Nashville. Back in 20 seconds.
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AMY GOODMAN: “Hold On, I’m Comin’,” Sam & Dave, written by Isaac Hayes. A Georgia judge has agreed with a lawsuit by the Hayes family that said the legendary singer would disapprove of Donald Trump’s campaign’s use of his song and ordered the campaign to stop playing it at rallies — the Trump campaign, that is.
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Re: U.S. Backing Has Given Israel License to Kill & Maim
by admin » Thu Sep 19, 2024 1:07 am
Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 05, 2024
Israel Continues Deadly West Bank Incursion, Destroying Streets, Homes, Water & Health Infrastructure
Sep 05, 2024
In the occupied West Bank, at least five Palestinians were killed today in an Israeli airstrike on a car in the city of Tubas. A sixth Palestinian, 16-year-old Majed Fida Abu Zeina, was shot dead by Israeli forces in the Faraa refugee camp near Tubas. The Wafa news agency reports Israeli forces barred ambulances from reaching the boy and dragged his body out of the camp using a military bulldozer.
On Wednesday, mourners held a funeral procession near Jenin for a Palestinian girl killed by an Israeli sniper. This is the girl Lujain’s father, Osama Musleh.
Osama Musleh: “The soldiers are surrounding the town. I tried to save her. I tried to do something, but I couldn’t. The army is surrounding our area. I called for ambulance. They arrived late because a snipper shot toward them. … She is 16 years old. The only thing she did is she looked from the window, and the soldier saw her and shot her, one bullet that targeted her forehead.”
At least 19 people have been killed in Jenin since last week, when Israel launched its largest West Bank offensive in two decades. Jenin’s Governor Kamal Abu al-Rub said Israeli armored bulldozers have razed 70% of Jenin’s streets, destroying more than a dozen miles of water and sewage pipes along with electrical and communication cables. Jenin’s main public hospital has been locked down, and 4,000 residents of Jenin have been forced from their homes at gunpoint.
Gov. Kamal Abu al-Rub: “The situation in the areas which are under siege is bad. The Israeli army is preventing food, water, ambulances and journalists from reaching these besieged areas, so we don’t know what is happening in the areas which they consider to be military closed areas. We are getting lots of calls for help. … This invasion is the worst, largest and most painful to Palestinian people because the Israeli army is destroying the infrastructure, which means a blow to the local economy in Jenin.”
Israel’s Genocide in Gaza Continues as New Leak Details How Netanyahu Torpedoed Ceasefire Deals
Sep 05, 2024
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli attacks have killed at least 18 Palestinians since Wednesday. One assault on a tent encampment for displaced Palestinians killed four people near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza. The strike destroyed dozens of tents and wounded many others, including children. In southern Gaza, medical workers have begun vaccinating tens of thousands of Palestinian children in the city of Khan Younis against polio — the second stage of a U.N.-led polio eradication effort.
Meanwhile, Hamas has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of deliberately undermining efforts to forge a ceasefire and hostage release deal by refusing to withdraw Israeli troops from the Philadelphi Corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt. This comes as newly published documents show how Netanyahu and Israeli negotiators purposefully prolonged Israel’s assault on Gaza by making new demands during ceasefire talks. The documents published by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth also reveal that three of the six hostages found dead in Gaza last weekend were due for release under a ceasefire agreement drafted in May.
U.S. Criticizes Netanyahu’s Failure to Reach Ceasefire But Continues to Arm His War on Gaza
Sep 05, 2024
President Biden said Monday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not doing enough to reach a ceasefire and hostage release deal. On Tuesday, a group of more than two dozen rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Refugees International, sent the Biden-Harris administration a letter highlighting, “International and U.S. law, as well as your administration’s policies … require suspending weapons transfers to the Israeli government.”
Portland, Maine, to Divest from Israeli Companies Tied to Israel’s Assault on Palestinians
Sep 05, 2024
The Portland City Council in Maine unanimously voted to divest all funds from companies complicit in Israeli human rights violations and war crimes against Palestinians. Organizers say Portland is the fourth U.S. city, and the first on the East Coast, to adopt such a divestment resolution, which comes after intense campaigning from rights groups including Maine Coalition for Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace Maine.
“From the River to the Sea”: Meta Says Palestinian Solidarity Slogan Is Not Hate Speech
Sep 05, 2024
Meta has ruled the phrase “from the river to the sea” is not hate speech. Pro-Israel groups have accused people who use the long-standing rallying cry for Palestinian liberation of being antisemitic, and attempted to shut down speech promoting Palestinian rights on social media. But Meta’s Oversight Board ruled “from the river to the sea” is “often used as a political call for solidarity, equal rights and self-determination of the Palestinian people, and to end the war in Gaza.”
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Northwestern Suspends Journalism Professor Steven Thrasher After Gaza Solidarity Protest
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 05, 2024
We speak with journalist, author and academic Steven Thrasher, the chair of social justice reporting at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He was singled out by name during a congressional hearing about pro-Palestine protests on college campuses earlier this year, with one Republican lawmaker calling him a “goon” for protecting students in an encampment from violent arrest. Northwestern filed charges against Thrasher for obstructing police that were later dropped, but students returning to Northwestern for the fall term will not see him in their classrooms because he has been suspended as Northwestern says he is under investigation. In his first interview about the affair, Thrasher tells Democracy Now! that he stands by his actions and that he has “received no due process” from his employer. He says the university has previously celebrated him, including in “glowing” job reviews and by publicizing his work. “What they don’t like is that I am now applying the same social justice journalism principles that I’ve applied to race and that I’ve applied to LGBTQ people, to COVID and HIV, that I was now applying those to Palestine,” says Thrasher.
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 in New York, joined with Juan González in Chicago.
As students return to school for the fall, we spend the rest of the hour looking at how university administrators continue to crack down on Gaza solidarity student protests and professors. An op-ed in The Chronicle of Higher Education called it a, quote, “assault on the truth.”
We begin with a guest who last joined us in May after he was attacked by name during a congressional hearing about pro-Palestine protests on college campuses. As Republican Congressmember Jim Banks grilled Northwestern University President Michael Schill, he singled out Northwestern University journalism professor Steven Thrasher, who had been to the Gaza solidarity encampments at Northwestern in Chicago and other schools as a professor and as a journalist.
REP. JIM BANKS: Steven Thrasher, who’s one of the goons in the photo behind me, he’s a professor of journalism at Northwestern. He and several of your faculty members locked arms. They scuffled with police officers, blocked the police officers on your campus from doing their job. Do they continue to teach students at Northwestern University after this embarrassing incident?
MICHAEL SCHILL: So, I will not comment on individual faculty members, nor on matters —
REP. JIM BANKS: President, is it — is it your decision, your decision alone, to allow those professors to continue to teach students on your campus?
MICHAEL SCHILL: We believe in due process at the — at Northwestern University.
REP. JIM BANKS: You believe in due process except for —
MICHAEL SCHILL: We will follow —
REP. JIM BANKS: — the decision that you made about Coach Fitzgerald.
MICHAEL SCHILL: We followed the contract. That was —
REP. JIM BANKS: Had your cake and eat it, too.
MICHAEL SCHILL: — due process. We had an investigation. But I don’t — I’m not going to go on and on about that.
AMY GOODMAN: After this congressional hearing, Northwestern filed charges against professor Steven Thrasher for allegedly obstructing police at the encampment, which Cook County prosecutors dropped. Since then, Professor Thrasher has continued to speak out. But students at Northwestern will not see him in their classrooms as they return to campus, because he has been suspended with pay as Northwestern says he’s under investigation. He’s joining us today in New York to publicly speak about this for the first time.
Steven Thrasher is an acclaimed journalist and author of The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide. His forthcoming book is called The Overseer Class: Representation as Repression. He is at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, chair of social justice in reporting.
Professor Thrasher, welcome back to Democracy Now! Why don’t you explain in your own words what has happened to you since the Gaza protests?
STEVEN THRASHER: Thanks for having me, Amy.
So, at the Gaza encampment, as you saw in the video, I was one of a number of professors and graduate students who surrounded our students to try to make sure that nobody hurt them. The day before, there had been horrific violence at several other universities where we had seen that students had been brutally hurt by university police.
And I was on Democracy Now! and did some therapy and thought things were kind of going OK by the time that I finished the school year and planned to go offline for the summer to work on my next book. I was out of the country for the whole summer. And actually, the day that I had left the United States and landed in Europe, I found out that the Northwestern police wanted to talk to me, and eventually found out that I was one of four people that they’re pressing charges against. Now, it was really disturbing. This was many months after the fact. Like many other situations on other campuses, most of the four of — all four of us had been very outspoken, who are being charged, and most of us were LGBTQ people. And we found out that they are pressing these charges. And the state of Illinois had thrown out all kinds of other cases. They threw out our case, as well.
But the day that I found out that the state of Illinois was throwing out the charges, I also found out that my fall classes had been canceled and that I was not going to be allowed to teach in the fall pending an investigation. So, this was, of course, very upsetting, particularly — and this is something I’m hoping that Professor Franke might speak about, as well — particularly because my classes were very LGBTQ classes. I’m the Daniel Renberg chair of social justice in reporting with a focus on the LGBTQ community. And I also was teaching a class on LGBTQ recording methods and viruses and viral media. So, my classes were canceled. I’m the only person who teaches LGBTQ classes. I had to let eight different people know, who I had contracted to be a grading assistant, to come in as guest speakers, to do tours, who were all LGBTQ journalists and alum. I had to let them know that they wouldn’t be working, as well. And, of course, it was a huge disappointment to our LGBTQ students.
It was really odd to hear President Schill talk about due process, because I have received no due process in being taken out of the classes. I’m still being paid, but I did not get the fair due process. I was told that I would not be allowed until investigations into complaints against me, to intemperate social media usage, and into my beliefs around objectivity in journalism had been investigated.
And this is all very strange, because I’m going through the tenure process. My mid-tenure review had just been done last year. Like all faculty, it was put off for a year because of COVID, on my timeline. But I got a glowing mid-tenure review. And my endowed chair, the Daniel Renberg chair of social justice in reporting, had just been renewed in October. The university has praised and done a lot of PR about the work that I do around objectivity in journalism and social justice journalism. They put me on the cover of the alumni magazine just the year before.
What they don’t like is that I am now applying the same social justice journalism principles that I’ve applied to race and that I’ve applied to LGBTQ people, to COVID and HIV, that I was now applying those to Palestine. And so, they don’t like that. And that the Congress is putting pressure on them to put pressure on me, they’re aiding that.
So, it’s a really, really dangerous and sad situation. I’ll be fine personally no matter what happens, but the idea that a social justice journalism professorship cannot talk about one of the most important social justice measures — issues of our time, the genocide in Gaza, that a journalism professor can’t talk about a issue and a situation where 171 of our colleagues have been murdered, journalists in Gaza, that we can’t talk about these things, that we can’t take a stand for free expression and the safety of our students on campus as they’re becoming more militarized, all of this is, of course, extremely upsetting.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Steve Thrasher, what are the specific charges against you? And also, what has been the reaction of your fellow faculty members?
STEVEN THRASHER: I really haven’t talked — I mean, this is the first time that I’m really talking about it publicly. I made a commitment to myself that I would finish my next book and not get derailed from that. And I finished it on Tuesday, so now I’m talking to you on Thursday.
I don’t want to get too much into the specifics, but one of them is called “complaints against you.” This is a very vague thing that’s come up all over the country, that they’ll say that there are complaints. And the complaints, which I’ve seen, which there’s no merit to, those complaints are very much at odds with what was written up for me in my mid-tenure review, in which my mid-tenure review, Dean Whitaker wrote that I go above and beyond the call for my students. And my endowed chair, which was also renewed, I got very specific praise about being a leader in the field of journalism education. And I’ve received awards for my mentorship of Northwestern students. So, none of that really bears much on the complaints.
Also, I was told about my use of social media, which is something that I have done, with a lot of passion at times, but with part of my journalism practice, to speak about issues that are important to me. And in the Northwestern University magazine article that was about me when my book came out, they actually highlighted, in a very positive way, the way that I use social media. Again, I don’t think they like me using the tools that I’ve used to talk about HIV, LGBTQ issues and race issues to be applying it towards Gaza, because all of the complaints about my social media are about interactions that I’ve had with people about Palestine.
And the third one is an incredibly ridiculous thing to be complaining about. It’s about my commitment to the idea of objectivity in journalism. And this is something I’ve talked about on Democracy Now! before. It was part of what my application and my job talk when I was hired as the Daniel Renberg chair of social justice in reporting, and it’s been a cornerstone of the books I teach, like Lewis Wallace’s The View from Somewhere, guests I’ve brought onto campus.
Part of my practice is that I don’t believe in the idea of faux objectivity in journalism. I do believe in rigor and putting a lot of effort into your work, and that viewers, listeners and readers have a right to know the positionality of the person reporting the news to them, because that gives them a frame of reference for how they can think about it critically. But this idea that somehow I am not objective enough, when my job is focusing on social justice in journalism and LGBTQ issues, and when I had just been very glowingly reappointed for doing my job and that the university has very much embraced my book and many of the articles I’ve written that come from a position of social justice, is really a ridiculous thing. The field of journalism education, like all academic disciplines, has ways that people argue about the central tenets of that discipline. One of them is objectivity. People have different feelings about it. I’ve made mine clear. But this is not something that should be, you know, any way disqualifying for someone who has a professorship that is focused on social justice issues.
AMY GOODMAN: And before we turn to another professor, this one at Columbia University School of Law in New York, Steven Thrasher, your message to the returning academic community, to professors and students alike?
STEVEN THRASHER: My message is we have nothing to be ashamed of. We have nothing to be afraid of. We are doing something that is very important.
And back in October — I’m not yet tenured. I’m filing for tenure, and I plan to file for tenure on schedule this fall, because I think that my record deserves to let me have that hearing. But back in October, after everything started getting really, really bad in Gaza, I made a video asking, you know, “Should untenured professors like myself talk about this?” And I said, “Absolutely,” because it’s a moral issue. If you become tenured trying to stay silent through this stuff, you’ll become the kind of professor you don’t want to be.
And even though I have been — I have been physically beaten up by the police of my university, I’ve been interrogated in front of Congress, I’ve been threatened with jail, and now I am suspended with pay and not allowed to teach, this is the work that we need to do in these very difficult moments. This is a genocide. This is something that is having an enormous impact not just on many of us in the United States, but on 600,000 students who have lost their ability to get to school in Gaza, on 14,000 children who have been killed in Gaza.
And so, what we have to do as educators is teach. And even if I don’t — I hope I go back into the classroom at Northwestern, but even if I don’t, maybe the teaching that I have to do is what I’m doing right now. Maybe all of us as educators right now, the most important teaching we can do is to teach our students that there are things that are morally important that we have to speak about, and that we have to show our students that they are worth taking the consequences. But, ultimately, we are going to be OK, because what we are doing is something that is righteous.
AMY GOODMAN: Steven Thrasher is chair of social justice in reporting at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Chicago, author of The Viral Underclass.
Next up, we’ll be joined by Columbia University professor Katherine Franke, now under investigation after an interview she did on Democracy Now! Stay with us.
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“Campus Has Become Unrecognizable”: Columbia Prof. Franke Faces Firing After DN Interview on Gaza
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 05, 2024
Columbia University law professor Katherine Franke last appeared on Democracy Now! in January to discuss an attack on Columbia’s campus targeting pro-Palestinian student activists with a foul-smelling liquid that led to multiple hospitalizations. Following her interview, Franke now faces termination after two Columbia professors filed a complaint against her claiming she had created a hostile environment for Israeli students; she also became a target for Republican lawmakers.
Franke joins Democracy Now! to discuss the campaign against her, the ongoing crackdown on pro-Palestine activism at Columbia and more. “There’s an overreaction by the university, a weaponization of the disciplinary system against students and faculty in ways that in my over 40 years at Columbia I have never seen,” she says.
We are also joined by attorney Kathleen Peratis, who is representing Franke along with the Center for Constitutional Rights after she quit her former law firm, Outten & Golden, because it dropped Franke as a client, saying she was too controversial. “What happened at Outten & Golden is the kind of thing that’s happening all over,” says Peratis.
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 Juan Gonzalez.
As we continue our look at the academic war on dissent on college campuses, we’re joined now by another acclaimed professor, who has long been outspoken in her support of Palestinian rights and could lose her job at the Columbia University School of Law after she was denounced in a congressional hearing and more. Columbia University School of Law professor Katherine Franke is a member of the executive committee of the Center for Palestine Studies, on the board of Palestine Legal.
In April, then-president of Columbia University Minouche Shafik was grilled at a congressional hearing on allegations of antisemitism on campus by New York Republican Congressmember Elise Stefanik.
REP. ELISE STEFANIK: Let me ask you about Professor Katherine Franke from the Columbia Law School, who said that all Israeli students who have served in the IDF are dangerous and shouldn’t be on campus. What disciplinary action has been taken against that professor?
MINOUCHE SHAFIK: I agree with you that those comments are completely unacceptable and discriminatory.
REP. ELISE STEFANIK: But I’m asking you: What disciplinary action has been taken?
MINOUCHE SHAFIK: She has been spoken to by a very senior person in the administration, and she has said that that was not what she intended to say.
REP. ELISE STEFANIK: Do you see the concern that speaking to these professors is not enough, and it’s sending a message across the university that this is tolerated, these antisemitic statements from a position of authority in professors in the classroom is tolerated?
AMY GOODMAN: That was in April. Two Columbia University professors then claimed professor Katherine Franke had created a hostile environment for Israeli members of the Columbia community after she appeared on Democracy Now! in January to discuss a chemical attack on pro-Palestinian student activists at Columbia. Let’s go to some of that interview with Professor Franke.
KATHERINE FRANKE: Columbia has a program. It’s a graduate relationship with older students from other countries, including Israel. And it’s something that many of us were concerned about, because so many of those Israeli students, who then come to the Columbia campus, are coming right out of their military service. And they’ve been known to harass Palestinian and other students on our campus. And it’s something the university has not taken seriously in the past. But we’ve never seen anything like this. And the students were able to identify three of these exchange students, basically, from Israel, who had just come out of military service, who were spraying the pro-Palestinian students with this skunk water. And they were disguised in keffiyehs so that they could mix in with the students who were demanding that the university divest from companies that are supporting the occupation and the war, and were protesting and demanding a ceasefire. So we know who they were.
AMY GOODMAN: So, a number of the pro-Palestinian students who were hit with that chemical spray were hospitalized. After this interview, Columbia professor Franke now faces termination after two Columbia professors filed a complaint against her with Columbia’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action. She’s now represented by attorney Kathleen Peratis and the Center for Constitutional Rights. For decades, Kathleen Peratis was a senior partner at Outten & Golden. And she, along with the law firm, represented Professor Franke. But Peratis resigned from the law firm a few weeks ago, following the firm’s sudden decision to terminate Franke as a client, saying she was too controversial. They’re both joining us now.
Welcome to Democracy Now! Professor Franke, let’s begin with you. You’re facing termination at Columbia School of Law?
KATHERINE FRANKE: It’s possible, Amy. That’s on the table and has never been ruled out. And in the climate in which we are now living, particularly at Columbia, things that used to be routine and expected are not happening. There’s an overreaction by the university, a weaponization of the disciplinary system against students and faculty in ways that in my 40 — over 40 years at Columbia I have never seen. So, I — inshallah, that will not happen; I will not be terminated. And I fully expect I’ll be exonerated and found — as your audience just saw, I have not said antisemitic things about Israeli students. But it’s hard to know what’s going to happen. We have a new administration, a new president. I’m hoping for the best with her, but I don’t know.
AMY GOODMAN: So, Kathleen Peratis, if you can explain what happened? You’ve been representing Katherine Franke, your law firm, Outten & Golden, which you’ve been a senior partner at for many years.
KATHLEEN PERATIS: Katherine became a client in February shortly after the charges were filed against her, internal charges, frivolous charges, in my opinion. But in these days, frivolous charges are weaponized. We’ve been processing it, negotiating, engaging with the investigators. And as Katherine became more and more high-profile, more and more controversial, as our institutions have been failing us all over the place, my law firm, I believe, also failed us by deciding that Katherine was too controversial, and suddenly, over my objection, terminated their representation.
AMY GOODMAN: So, you’re still representing her?
KATHLEEN PERATIS: I am, but my firm isn’t.
AMY GOODMAN: And you’re not with your firm anymore?
KATHLEEN PERATIS: I quit.
AMY GOODMAN: You’re a Jewish attorney.
KATHLEEN PERATIS: I’m Jewish.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Professor Franke, I wanted to ask you — you mentioned that you’ve been a part of the Columbia community now for more than 40 years. Could you compare the climate right now at universities like Columbia to past uprisings of students or protests in previous decades?
KATHERINE FRANKE: Well, Juan, you know Columbia and its history and proud history of being a place where students protested around a wide range of current events, whether it was during your era in the '68 protests against Vietnam or racism on campus or domestically, or, more recently, students have protested around divestment, the university's divestment from fossil fuels, creating a Black studies department, the Iraq wars, DACA, you know, the ending of DACA by the Trump administration, South African apartheid. Columbia has always been a platform for students to engage the world, learn about the world, be critical analysts of what’s happening in their world, both in the classroom and outside the classroom.
And what we’re seeing now is that the university will no longer tolerate protests and critical engagement. I think it’s important to recognize the problem here is not just what’s happening in, like, the images you’re seeing here of protests outside the buildings, but they’re also regulating what we can do inside the buildings. They’re monitoring our syllabi. I have a colleague who was fired because he had the nerve to bring a settler-colonial analysis to the Israeli project, the occupation of Palestinians — something that is done routinely in academic settings. He was told, “No, that’s a step too far. We can’t talk that way about Israel or Palestine.” And he was terminated. So, not only is the university allowing itself to be weaponized by the right-wing conservative politicians in — excuse me, in D.C. in ways that are squelching and then punishing student protest, but the faculty are now experiencing it, as well.
And I have to say, this is what I fear for this fall, is a new kind of surveillance, a new kind of chilling of how we teach our classes. And then the students who are in our classes actually go to the university and drop a dime, if you will, but complain about us, because we have the nerve to mention Palestine in our classes. And I know several colleagues who are under investigation right now for the fact that they incorporated into their courses readings that had to do with Israel-Palestine. And the students said, “Oh, that made me feel uncomfortable, and therefore I’m going to file a complaint against you that you are antisemitic.” Almost all of these professors are Jewish professors who actually are experts in things like the Holocaust, in things like collective trauma. So, the readings were relevant.
But, Juan, our campus has become unrecognizable. I want to invite you back to spend some time on campus and for you to see how it has transformed.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, I’d also like to ask Kathleen Peratis if you could share with us some more of what happened within your law firm, the idea that a powerful law firm even is now afraid to tackle issues related to individuals accused of some wrongdoing in terms of Palestine.
KATHLEEN PERATIS: I don’t want this to be about me or my law firm. I want it to be about Katherine. But what happened at Outten & Golden is the kind of thing that’s happening all over. My firm prides itself on representing employees who get in trouble at work, accused of doing things that they didn’t do. That’s exactly what’s happening with Katherine. But because of what’s happening in Israel-Palestine, even my law firm is ditching clients who have a righteous claim. And it’s sad. It’s disappointing. And unfortunately, as I said, our institutions are failing us.
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How U.S. College Administrators Are “Dreaming Up Ways to Squash Gaza Protests”
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 05, 2024
As the fall term gets underway for students across the United States, we speak with journalist and academic Natasha Lennard about how college administrators are attempting to quash Gaza solidarity actions following mass protests at campuses across the country in the spring. One example is New York University, which recently updated its student policy to make criticisms of Zionism potentially punishable under its anti-discrimination rules. “It’s extremely dangerous,” says Lennard, who teaches at The New School. “It performs de facto apologia for Israel, and to have that put into writing by a university so clearly is just open for further abuses.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to bring into this conversation another professor, Natasha Lennard, columnist at The Intercept, associate director of the Creative Publishing and Critical Journalism Program at The New School, not far from Columbia University. Her most recent piece, “College Administrators Spent Summer Break Dreaming Up Ways to Squash Gaza Protests.” Can you put Professor Thrasher and Professor Franke’s experience in a broader context of the universities from here in New York, NYU, to other universities around the country?
NATASHA LENNARD: Absolutely. And thank you. It’s lovely to be back. And I firstly want to say thank you to Professor Franke and Professor Thrasher for being among the professors who refuse to be silenced in this moment of what is widely being called a “new McCarthyism.” And I think that’s an accurate description.
Their cases are not unusual, and it is indeed sad, and it is indeed disappointing, indeed no less than ghoulish. We are having, both de facto and through policy, both in terms of new regulations and student conduct guides coming through for this semester, as well as punitive actions against students and professors, a real reification of the claim that Israel critical speech and pro-Palestinian speech should count under violations of Title VI nondiscrimination law and regulations and policy in universities. What that does is align university policy with the right-wing agenda of Congress and right-wing lawmakers who follow in the footsteps of a right-wing Israeli-U.S. consensus.
And I think if a university is not a place where that can be critically challenged, especially at a time of genocide, when there are no universities left standing in Gaza — which we cannot forget — and the concerns of our academy is the speech of professors speaking out for academic freedom and speaking out for the liberation of an occupied people, we’re in very dark times indeed.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Natasha Lennard, you write in your piece in The Intercept that, quote, “Tucked into a document purportedly offering clarification on school policy, the new NYU” — New York University — “guidelines introduce an unprecedented expansion of protected classes to include 'Zionists' and ’Zionism’”?
NATASHA LENNARD: Yes, this is a very exemplary, in the worst of ways, document that was just released by the administration at NYU. It is a new updated guide of student conduct about nondiscrimination and harassment. It goes further than any document I have seen in asserting that Zionism, when used critically, should or at least readily can be understood as — and I quote the document — a “code word.” It doesn’t say that occasionally by antisemites that Zionism is used as a code word. It takes that as a given.
So, that is — to clarify, that is a student conduct guide, very poorly written, very open to misuse, that is asserting that the political ideology founded in the 19th century of the ethnostate of Israel being a Zionist project, that that should be considered part of the protected class of Jewish identity, religion and ethnic and shared ancestry. That is what we’re seeing in attempts of statehouses nationwide to attach Zionism, the political ideology, to the protected class of Jewish identity. It’s extremely dangerous. It performs de facto apologia for Israel. And to have that put into writing by a university so clearly is just open for further abuses and an escalation of the sort of repression we’ve already seen.
AMY GOODMAN: Professor Franke?
KATHERINE FRANKE: Well, I teach a class on citizenship and nationality in Israel and Palestine. And we begin with a critical look at the concept of Zionism. Of course, it was advanced as a place, as an idea, about the safety of the Jewish people being located in Mandate Palestine, but there were plenty of Jewish people at the time who said, “This is actually a horrible idea from the perspective of the safety of Jewish people, because what it says is the Jews all belong in Israel and nowhere else, not in Europe, not in the United States, nowhere else. And so this will lead to more violence, more expulsions, more antisemitic pogroms, if we lean in too much to the idea that Jews belong primarily and especially in Israel.” And those were critiques coming from Jews, again, themselves.
So, if we are not allowed to talk about that anymore in universities, what we’ve done is surrendered the very idea of the university itself. And that is so much what troubled us about Minouche Shafik, our president — former president of Columbia’s testimony in Congress, and some of those other presidents who came, who were called before Congress, is they not only did not put up a robust defense of the idea of a university where we teach students how to be critical thinkers in such a critical time, but they actually joined in to the criticism of the university. My president did not stand up for any one of us, nor did Professor Thrasher’s at Northwestern.
And this is part of what concerns me, is that our universities are places now where we could not have a protest and say things that are now being said in Tel Aviv by Israelis. The protests that are happening there this week, if they took place on Columbia’s campus, our students would be expelled or charged with very serious disciplinary violations. This is where we’ve come. It’s impossible to talk about the kinds of things that, Amy, in your setup, of the just horrible things that are happening right this week in Jenin, in Gaza — we can’t talk about that at Columbia. That’s part of what concerns me is, is that we don’t know our history, and these new policies are keeping us from learning it.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Natasha Lennard, we just have about 30 seconds, but you’ve noted that universities are not only facing attacks from Congress, they’re also being subjected to lawsuits all around the country. Could you talk about that briefly?
NATASHA LENNARD: Yes, we’ve seen a series of litigation, including at NYU, Columbia, Harvard, UCLA, brought by often unnamed students and faculty, often very frivolous suits that universities are forced to answer to nonetheless, and then, through settlements and often nonpublic agreements, are then forced to change policy, often leading to the conflation of anti-Zionism and antisemitism.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to have to leave it there, but we’re going to continue this discussion over time. We’ll link your piece, Natasha Lennard, “College Administrators Spent Summer Break Dreaming Up Ways to Squash Gaza Protests.” She’s at The New School. Columbia Law professor Katherine Franke, Kathleen Peratis, civil rights lawyer, and Steven Thrasher. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 05, 2024
Israel Continues Deadly West Bank Incursion, Destroying Streets, Homes, Water & Health Infrastructure
Sep 05, 2024
In the occupied West Bank, at least five Palestinians were killed today in an Israeli airstrike on a car in the city of Tubas. A sixth Palestinian, 16-year-old Majed Fida Abu Zeina, was shot dead by Israeli forces in the Faraa refugee camp near Tubas. The Wafa news agency reports Israeli forces barred ambulances from reaching the boy and dragged his body out of the camp using a military bulldozer.
On Wednesday, mourners held a funeral procession near Jenin for a Palestinian girl killed by an Israeli sniper. This is the girl Lujain’s father, Osama Musleh.
Osama Musleh: “The soldiers are surrounding the town. I tried to save her. I tried to do something, but I couldn’t. The army is surrounding our area. I called for ambulance. They arrived late because a snipper shot toward them. … She is 16 years old. The only thing she did is she looked from the window, and the soldier saw her and shot her, one bullet that targeted her forehead.”
At least 19 people have been killed in Jenin since last week, when Israel launched its largest West Bank offensive in two decades. Jenin’s Governor Kamal Abu al-Rub said Israeli armored bulldozers have razed 70% of Jenin’s streets, destroying more than a dozen miles of water and sewage pipes along with electrical and communication cables. Jenin’s main public hospital has been locked down, and 4,000 residents of Jenin have been forced from their homes at gunpoint.
Gov. Kamal Abu al-Rub: “The situation in the areas which are under siege is bad. The Israeli army is preventing food, water, ambulances and journalists from reaching these besieged areas, so we don’t know what is happening in the areas which they consider to be military closed areas. We are getting lots of calls for help. … This invasion is the worst, largest and most painful to Palestinian people because the Israeli army is destroying the infrastructure, which means a blow to the local economy in Jenin.”
Israel’s Genocide in Gaza Continues as New Leak Details How Netanyahu Torpedoed Ceasefire Deals
Sep 05, 2024
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli attacks have killed at least 18 Palestinians since Wednesday. One assault on a tent encampment for displaced Palestinians killed four people near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza. The strike destroyed dozens of tents and wounded many others, including children. In southern Gaza, medical workers have begun vaccinating tens of thousands of Palestinian children in the city of Khan Younis against polio — the second stage of a U.N.-led polio eradication effort.
Meanwhile, Hamas has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of deliberately undermining efforts to forge a ceasefire and hostage release deal by refusing to withdraw Israeli troops from the Philadelphi Corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt. This comes as newly published documents show how Netanyahu and Israeli negotiators purposefully prolonged Israel’s assault on Gaza by making new demands during ceasefire talks. The documents published by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth also reveal that three of the six hostages found dead in Gaza last weekend were due for release under a ceasefire agreement drafted in May.
U.S. Criticizes Netanyahu’s Failure to Reach Ceasefire But Continues to Arm His War on Gaza
Sep 05, 2024
President Biden said Monday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not doing enough to reach a ceasefire and hostage release deal. On Tuesday, a group of more than two dozen rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Refugees International, sent the Biden-Harris administration a letter highlighting, “International and U.S. law, as well as your administration’s policies … require suspending weapons transfers to the Israeli government.”
Portland, Maine, to Divest from Israeli Companies Tied to Israel’s Assault on Palestinians
Sep 05, 2024
The Portland City Council in Maine unanimously voted to divest all funds from companies complicit in Israeli human rights violations and war crimes against Palestinians. Organizers say Portland is the fourth U.S. city, and the first on the East Coast, to adopt such a divestment resolution, which comes after intense campaigning from rights groups including Maine Coalition for Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace Maine.
“From the River to the Sea”: Meta Says Palestinian Solidarity Slogan Is Not Hate Speech
Sep 05, 2024
Meta has ruled the phrase “from the river to the sea” is not hate speech. Pro-Israel groups have accused people who use the long-standing rallying cry for Palestinian liberation of being antisemitic, and attempted to shut down speech promoting Palestinian rights on social media. But Meta’s Oversight Board ruled “from the river to the sea” is “often used as a political call for solidarity, equal rights and self-determination of the Palestinian people, and to end the war in Gaza.”
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Northwestern Suspends Journalism Professor Steven Thrasher After Gaza Solidarity Protest
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 05, 2024
We speak with journalist, author and academic Steven Thrasher, the chair of social justice reporting at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He was singled out by name during a congressional hearing about pro-Palestine protests on college campuses earlier this year, with one Republican lawmaker calling him a “goon” for protecting students in an encampment from violent arrest. Northwestern filed charges against Thrasher for obstructing police that were later dropped, but students returning to Northwestern for the fall term will not see him in their classrooms because he has been suspended as Northwestern says he is under investigation. In his first interview about the affair, Thrasher tells Democracy Now! that he stands by his actions and that he has “received no due process” from his employer. He says the university has previously celebrated him, including in “glowing” job reviews and by publicizing his work. “What they don’t like is that I am now applying the same social justice journalism principles that I’ve applied to race and that I’ve applied to LGBTQ people, to COVID and HIV, that I was now applying those to Palestine,” says Thrasher.
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 in New York, joined with Juan González in Chicago.
As students return to school for the fall, we spend the rest of the hour looking at how university administrators continue to crack down on Gaza solidarity student protests and professors. An op-ed in The Chronicle of Higher Education called it a, quote, “assault on the truth.”
We begin with a guest who last joined us in May after he was attacked by name during a congressional hearing about pro-Palestine protests on college campuses. As Republican Congressmember Jim Banks grilled Northwestern University President Michael Schill, he singled out Northwestern University journalism professor Steven Thrasher, who had been to the Gaza solidarity encampments at Northwestern in Chicago and other schools as a professor and as a journalist.
REP. JIM BANKS: Steven Thrasher, who’s one of the goons in the photo behind me, he’s a professor of journalism at Northwestern. He and several of your faculty members locked arms. They scuffled with police officers, blocked the police officers on your campus from doing their job. Do they continue to teach students at Northwestern University after this embarrassing incident?
MICHAEL SCHILL: So, I will not comment on individual faculty members, nor on matters —
REP. JIM BANKS: President, is it — is it your decision, your decision alone, to allow those professors to continue to teach students on your campus?
MICHAEL SCHILL: We believe in due process at the — at Northwestern University.
REP. JIM BANKS: You believe in due process except for —
MICHAEL SCHILL: We will follow —
REP. JIM BANKS: — the decision that you made about Coach Fitzgerald.
MICHAEL SCHILL: We followed the contract. That was —
REP. JIM BANKS: Had your cake and eat it, too.
MICHAEL SCHILL: — due process. We had an investigation. But I don’t — I’m not going to go on and on about that.
AMY GOODMAN: After this congressional hearing, Northwestern filed charges against professor Steven Thrasher for allegedly obstructing police at the encampment, which Cook County prosecutors dropped. Since then, Professor Thrasher has continued to speak out. But students at Northwestern will not see him in their classrooms as they return to campus, because he has been suspended with pay as Northwestern says he’s under investigation. He’s joining us today in New York to publicly speak about this for the first time.
Steven Thrasher is an acclaimed journalist and author of The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide. His forthcoming book is called The Overseer Class: Representation as Repression. He is at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, chair of social justice in reporting.
Professor Thrasher, welcome back to Democracy Now! Why don’t you explain in your own words what has happened to you since the Gaza protests?
STEVEN THRASHER: Thanks for having me, Amy.
So, at the Gaza encampment, as you saw in the video, I was one of a number of professors and graduate students who surrounded our students to try to make sure that nobody hurt them. The day before, there had been horrific violence at several other universities where we had seen that students had been brutally hurt by university police.
And I was on Democracy Now! and did some therapy and thought things were kind of going OK by the time that I finished the school year and planned to go offline for the summer to work on my next book. I was out of the country for the whole summer. And actually, the day that I had left the United States and landed in Europe, I found out that the Northwestern police wanted to talk to me, and eventually found out that I was one of four people that they’re pressing charges against. Now, it was really disturbing. This was many months after the fact. Like many other situations on other campuses, most of the four of — all four of us had been very outspoken, who are being charged, and most of us were LGBTQ people. And we found out that they are pressing these charges. And the state of Illinois had thrown out all kinds of other cases. They threw out our case, as well.
But the day that I found out that the state of Illinois was throwing out the charges, I also found out that my fall classes had been canceled and that I was not going to be allowed to teach in the fall pending an investigation. So, this was, of course, very upsetting, particularly — and this is something I’m hoping that Professor Franke might speak about, as well — particularly because my classes were very LGBTQ classes. I’m the Daniel Renberg chair of social justice in reporting with a focus on the LGBTQ community. And I also was teaching a class on LGBTQ recording methods and viruses and viral media. So, my classes were canceled. I’m the only person who teaches LGBTQ classes. I had to let eight different people know, who I had contracted to be a grading assistant, to come in as guest speakers, to do tours, who were all LGBTQ journalists and alum. I had to let them know that they wouldn’t be working, as well. And, of course, it was a huge disappointment to our LGBTQ students.
It was really odd to hear President Schill talk about due process, because I have received no due process in being taken out of the classes. I’m still being paid, but I did not get the fair due process. I was told that I would not be allowed until investigations into complaints against me, to intemperate social media usage, and into my beliefs around objectivity in journalism had been investigated.
And this is all very strange, because I’m going through the tenure process. My mid-tenure review had just been done last year. Like all faculty, it was put off for a year because of COVID, on my timeline. But I got a glowing mid-tenure review. And my endowed chair, the Daniel Renberg chair of social justice in reporting, had just been renewed in October. The university has praised and done a lot of PR about the work that I do around objectivity in journalism and social justice journalism. They put me on the cover of the alumni magazine just the year before.
What they don’t like is that I am now applying the same social justice journalism principles that I’ve applied to race and that I’ve applied to LGBTQ people, to COVID and HIV, that I was now applying those to Palestine. And so, they don’t like that. And that the Congress is putting pressure on them to put pressure on me, they’re aiding that.
So, it’s a really, really dangerous and sad situation. I’ll be fine personally no matter what happens, but the idea that a social justice journalism professorship cannot talk about one of the most important social justice measures — issues of our time, the genocide in Gaza, that a journalism professor can’t talk about a issue and a situation where 171 of our colleagues have been murdered, journalists in Gaza, that we can’t talk about these things, that we can’t take a stand for free expression and the safety of our students on campus as they’re becoming more militarized, all of this is, of course, extremely upsetting.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Steve Thrasher, what are the specific charges against you? And also, what has been the reaction of your fellow faculty members?
STEVEN THRASHER: I really haven’t talked — I mean, this is the first time that I’m really talking about it publicly. I made a commitment to myself that I would finish my next book and not get derailed from that. And I finished it on Tuesday, so now I’m talking to you on Thursday.
I don’t want to get too much into the specifics, but one of them is called “complaints against you.” This is a very vague thing that’s come up all over the country, that they’ll say that there are complaints. And the complaints, which I’ve seen, which there’s no merit to, those complaints are very much at odds with what was written up for me in my mid-tenure review, in which my mid-tenure review, Dean Whitaker wrote that I go above and beyond the call for my students. And my endowed chair, which was also renewed, I got very specific praise about being a leader in the field of journalism education. And I’ve received awards for my mentorship of Northwestern students. So, none of that really bears much on the complaints.
Also, I was told about my use of social media, which is something that I have done, with a lot of passion at times, but with part of my journalism practice, to speak about issues that are important to me. And in the Northwestern University magazine article that was about me when my book came out, they actually highlighted, in a very positive way, the way that I use social media. Again, I don’t think they like me using the tools that I’ve used to talk about HIV, LGBTQ issues and race issues to be applying it towards Gaza, because all of the complaints about my social media are about interactions that I’ve had with people about Palestine.
And the third one is an incredibly ridiculous thing to be complaining about. It’s about my commitment to the idea of objectivity in journalism. And this is something I’ve talked about on Democracy Now! before. It was part of what my application and my job talk when I was hired as the Daniel Renberg chair of social justice in reporting, and it’s been a cornerstone of the books I teach, like Lewis Wallace’s The View from Somewhere, guests I’ve brought onto campus.
Part of my practice is that I don’t believe in the idea of faux objectivity in journalism. I do believe in rigor and putting a lot of effort into your work, and that viewers, listeners and readers have a right to know the positionality of the person reporting the news to them, because that gives them a frame of reference for how they can think about it critically. But this idea that somehow I am not objective enough, when my job is focusing on social justice in journalism and LGBTQ issues, and when I had just been very glowingly reappointed for doing my job and that the university has very much embraced my book and many of the articles I’ve written that come from a position of social justice, is really a ridiculous thing. The field of journalism education, like all academic disciplines, has ways that people argue about the central tenets of that discipline. One of them is objectivity. People have different feelings about it. I’ve made mine clear. But this is not something that should be, you know, any way disqualifying for someone who has a professorship that is focused on social justice issues.
AMY GOODMAN: And before we turn to another professor, this one at Columbia University School of Law in New York, Steven Thrasher, your message to the returning academic community, to professors and students alike?
STEVEN THRASHER: My message is we have nothing to be ashamed of. We have nothing to be afraid of. We are doing something that is very important.
And back in October — I’m not yet tenured. I’m filing for tenure, and I plan to file for tenure on schedule this fall, because I think that my record deserves to let me have that hearing. But back in October, after everything started getting really, really bad in Gaza, I made a video asking, you know, “Should untenured professors like myself talk about this?” And I said, “Absolutely,” because it’s a moral issue. If you become tenured trying to stay silent through this stuff, you’ll become the kind of professor you don’t want to be.
And even though I have been — I have been physically beaten up by the police of my university, I’ve been interrogated in front of Congress, I’ve been threatened with jail, and now I am suspended with pay and not allowed to teach, this is the work that we need to do in these very difficult moments. This is a genocide. This is something that is having an enormous impact not just on many of us in the United States, but on 600,000 students who have lost their ability to get to school in Gaza, on 14,000 children who have been killed in Gaza.
And so, what we have to do as educators is teach. And even if I don’t — I hope I go back into the classroom at Northwestern, but even if I don’t, maybe the teaching that I have to do is what I’m doing right now. Maybe all of us as educators right now, the most important teaching we can do is to teach our students that there are things that are morally important that we have to speak about, and that we have to show our students that they are worth taking the consequences. But, ultimately, we are going to be OK, because what we are doing is something that is righteous.
AMY GOODMAN: Steven Thrasher is chair of social justice in reporting at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Chicago, author of The Viral Underclass.
Next up, we’ll be joined by Columbia University professor Katherine Franke, now under investigation after an interview she did on Democracy Now! Stay with us.
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“Campus Has Become Unrecognizable”: Columbia Prof. Franke Faces Firing After DN Interview on Gaza
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 05, 2024
Columbia University law professor Katherine Franke last appeared on Democracy Now! in January to discuss an attack on Columbia’s campus targeting pro-Palestinian student activists with a foul-smelling liquid that led to multiple hospitalizations. Following her interview, Franke now faces termination after two Columbia professors filed a complaint against her claiming she had created a hostile environment for Israeli students; she also became a target for Republican lawmakers.
Franke joins Democracy Now! to discuss the campaign against her, the ongoing crackdown on pro-Palestine activism at Columbia and more. “There’s an overreaction by the university, a weaponization of the disciplinary system against students and faculty in ways that in my over 40 years at Columbia I have never seen,” she says.
We are also joined by attorney Kathleen Peratis, who is representing Franke along with the Center for Constitutional Rights after she quit her former law firm, Outten & Golden, because it dropped Franke as a client, saying she was too controversial. “What happened at Outten & Golden is the kind of thing that’s happening all over,” says Peratis.
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 Juan Gonzalez.
As we continue our look at the academic war on dissent on college campuses, we’re joined now by another acclaimed professor, who has long been outspoken in her support of Palestinian rights and could lose her job at the Columbia University School of Law after she was denounced in a congressional hearing and more. Columbia University School of Law professor Katherine Franke is a member of the executive committee of the Center for Palestine Studies, on the board of Palestine Legal.
In April, then-president of Columbia University Minouche Shafik was grilled at a congressional hearing on allegations of antisemitism on campus by New York Republican Congressmember Elise Stefanik.
REP. ELISE STEFANIK: Let me ask you about Professor Katherine Franke from the Columbia Law School, who said that all Israeli students who have served in the IDF are dangerous and shouldn’t be on campus. What disciplinary action has been taken against that professor?
MINOUCHE SHAFIK: I agree with you that those comments are completely unacceptable and discriminatory.
REP. ELISE STEFANIK: But I’m asking you: What disciplinary action has been taken?
MINOUCHE SHAFIK: She has been spoken to by a very senior person in the administration, and she has said that that was not what she intended to say.
REP. ELISE STEFANIK: Do you see the concern that speaking to these professors is not enough, and it’s sending a message across the university that this is tolerated, these antisemitic statements from a position of authority in professors in the classroom is tolerated?
AMY GOODMAN: That was in April. Two Columbia University professors then claimed professor Katherine Franke had created a hostile environment for Israeli members of the Columbia community after she appeared on Democracy Now! in January to discuss a chemical attack on pro-Palestinian student activists at Columbia. Let’s go to some of that interview with Professor Franke.
KATHERINE FRANKE: Columbia has a program. It’s a graduate relationship with older students from other countries, including Israel. And it’s something that many of us were concerned about, because so many of those Israeli students, who then come to the Columbia campus, are coming right out of their military service. And they’ve been known to harass Palestinian and other students on our campus. And it’s something the university has not taken seriously in the past. But we’ve never seen anything like this. And the students were able to identify three of these exchange students, basically, from Israel, who had just come out of military service, who were spraying the pro-Palestinian students with this skunk water. And they were disguised in keffiyehs so that they could mix in with the students who were demanding that the university divest from companies that are supporting the occupation and the war, and were protesting and demanding a ceasefire. So we know who they were.
AMY GOODMAN: So, a number of the pro-Palestinian students who were hit with that chemical spray were hospitalized. After this interview, Columbia professor Franke now faces termination after two Columbia professors filed a complaint against her with Columbia’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action. She’s now represented by attorney Kathleen Peratis and the Center for Constitutional Rights. For decades, Kathleen Peratis was a senior partner at Outten & Golden. And she, along with the law firm, represented Professor Franke. But Peratis resigned from the law firm a few weeks ago, following the firm’s sudden decision to terminate Franke as a client, saying she was too controversial. They’re both joining us now.
Welcome to Democracy Now! Professor Franke, let’s begin with you. You’re facing termination at Columbia School of Law?
KATHERINE FRANKE: It’s possible, Amy. That’s on the table and has never been ruled out. And in the climate in which we are now living, particularly at Columbia, things that used to be routine and expected are not happening. There’s an overreaction by the university, a weaponization of the disciplinary system against students and faculty in ways that in my 40 — over 40 years at Columbia I have never seen. So, I — inshallah, that will not happen; I will not be terminated. And I fully expect I’ll be exonerated and found — as your audience just saw, I have not said antisemitic things about Israeli students. But it’s hard to know what’s going to happen. We have a new administration, a new president. I’m hoping for the best with her, but I don’t know.
AMY GOODMAN: So, Kathleen Peratis, if you can explain what happened? You’ve been representing Katherine Franke, your law firm, Outten & Golden, which you’ve been a senior partner at for many years.
KATHLEEN PERATIS: Katherine became a client in February shortly after the charges were filed against her, internal charges, frivolous charges, in my opinion. But in these days, frivolous charges are weaponized. We’ve been processing it, negotiating, engaging with the investigators. And as Katherine became more and more high-profile, more and more controversial, as our institutions have been failing us all over the place, my law firm, I believe, also failed us by deciding that Katherine was too controversial, and suddenly, over my objection, terminated their representation.
AMY GOODMAN: So, you’re still representing her?
KATHLEEN PERATIS: I am, but my firm isn’t.
AMY GOODMAN: And you’re not with your firm anymore?
KATHLEEN PERATIS: I quit.
AMY GOODMAN: You’re a Jewish attorney.
KATHLEEN PERATIS: I’m Jewish.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Professor Franke, I wanted to ask you — you mentioned that you’ve been a part of the Columbia community now for more than 40 years. Could you compare the climate right now at universities like Columbia to past uprisings of students or protests in previous decades?
KATHERINE FRANKE: Well, Juan, you know Columbia and its history and proud history of being a place where students protested around a wide range of current events, whether it was during your era in the '68 protests against Vietnam or racism on campus or domestically, or, more recently, students have protested around divestment, the university's divestment from fossil fuels, creating a Black studies department, the Iraq wars, DACA, you know, the ending of DACA by the Trump administration, South African apartheid. Columbia has always been a platform for students to engage the world, learn about the world, be critical analysts of what’s happening in their world, both in the classroom and outside the classroom.
And what we’re seeing now is that the university will no longer tolerate protests and critical engagement. I think it’s important to recognize the problem here is not just what’s happening in, like, the images you’re seeing here of protests outside the buildings, but they’re also regulating what we can do inside the buildings. They’re monitoring our syllabi. I have a colleague who was fired because he had the nerve to bring a settler-colonial analysis to the Israeli project, the occupation of Palestinians — something that is done routinely in academic settings. He was told, “No, that’s a step too far. We can’t talk that way about Israel or Palestine.” And he was terminated. So, not only is the university allowing itself to be weaponized by the right-wing conservative politicians in — excuse me, in D.C. in ways that are squelching and then punishing student protest, but the faculty are now experiencing it, as well.
And I have to say, this is what I fear for this fall, is a new kind of surveillance, a new kind of chilling of how we teach our classes. And then the students who are in our classes actually go to the university and drop a dime, if you will, but complain about us, because we have the nerve to mention Palestine in our classes. And I know several colleagues who are under investigation right now for the fact that they incorporated into their courses readings that had to do with Israel-Palestine. And the students said, “Oh, that made me feel uncomfortable, and therefore I’m going to file a complaint against you that you are antisemitic.” Almost all of these professors are Jewish professors who actually are experts in things like the Holocaust, in things like collective trauma. So, the readings were relevant.
But, Juan, our campus has become unrecognizable. I want to invite you back to spend some time on campus and for you to see how it has transformed.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, I’d also like to ask Kathleen Peratis if you could share with us some more of what happened within your law firm, the idea that a powerful law firm even is now afraid to tackle issues related to individuals accused of some wrongdoing in terms of Palestine.
KATHLEEN PERATIS: I don’t want this to be about me or my law firm. I want it to be about Katherine. But what happened at Outten & Golden is the kind of thing that’s happening all over. My firm prides itself on representing employees who get in trouble at work, accused of doing things that they didn’t do. That’s exactly what’s happening with Katherine. But because of what’s happening in Israel-Palestine, even my law firm is ditching clients who have a righteous claim. And it’s sad. It’s disappointing. And unfortunately, as I said, our institutions are failing us.
***
How U.S. College Administrators Are “Dreaming Up Ways to Squash Gaza Protests”
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 05, 2024
As the fall term gets underway for students across the United States, we speak with journalist and academic Natasha Lennard about how college administrators are attempting to quash Gaza solidarity actions following mass protests at campuses across the country in the spring. One example is New York University, which recently updated its student policy to make criticisms of Zionism potentially punishable under its anti-discrimination rules. “It’s extremely dangerous,” says Lennard, who teaches at The New School. “It performs de facto apologia for Israel, and to have that put into writing by a university so clearly is just open for further abuses.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to bring into this conversation another professor, Natasha Lennard, columnist at The Intercept, associate director of the Creative Publishing and Critical Journalism Program at The New School, not far from Columbia University. Her most recent piece, “College Administrators Spent Summer Break Dreaming Up Ways to Squash Gaza Protests.” Can you put Professor Thrasher and Professor Franke’s experience in a broader context of the universities from here in New York, NYU, to other universities around the country?
NATASHA LENNARD: Absolutely. And thank you. It’s lovely to be back. And I firstly want to say thank you to Professor Franke and Professor Thrasher for being among the professors who refuse to be silenced in this moment of what is widely being called a “new McCarthyism.” And I think that’s an accurate description.
Their cases are not unusual, and it is indeed sad, and it is indeed disappointing, indeed no less than ghoulish. We are having, both de facto and through policy, both in terms of new regulations and student conduct guides coming through for this semester, as well as punitive actions against students and professors, a real reification of the claim that Israel critical speech and pro-Palestinian speech should count under violations of Title VI nondiscrimination law and regulations and policy in universities. What that does is align university policy with the right-wing agenda of Congress and right-wing lawmakers who follow in the footsteps of a right-wing Israeli-U.S. consensus.
And I think if a university is not a place where that can be critically challenged, especially at a time of genocide, when there are no universities left standing in Gaza — which we cannot forget — and the concerns of our academy is the speech of professors speaking out for academic freedom and speaking out for the liberation of an occupied people, we’re in very dark times indeed.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Natasha Lennard, you write in your piece in The Intercept that, quote, “Tucked into a document purportedly offering clarification on school policy, the new NYU” — New York University — “guidelines introduce an unprecedented expansion of protected classes to include 'Zionists' and ’Zionism’”?
NATASHA LENNARD: Yes, this is a very exemplary, in the worst of ways, document that was just released by the administration at NYU. It is a new updated guide of student conduct about nondiscrimination and harassment. It goes further than any document I have seen in asserting that Zionism, when used critically, should or at least readily can be understood as — and I quote the document — a “code word.” It doesn’t say that occasionally by antisemites that Zionism is used as a code word. It takes that as a given.
So, that is — to clarify, that is a student conduct guide, very poorly written, very open to misuse, that is asserting that the political ideology founded in the 19th century of the ethnostate of Israel being a Zionist project, that that should be considered part of the protected class of Jewish identity, religion and ethnic and shared ancestry. That is what we’re seeing in attempts of statehouses nationwide to attach Zionism, the political ideology, to the protected class of Jewish identity. It’s extremely dangerous. It performs de facto apologia for Israel. And to have that put into writing by a university so clearly is just open for further abuses and an escalation of the sort of repression we’ve already seen.
AMY GOODMAN: Professor Franke?
KATHERINE FRANKE: Well, I teach a class on citizenship and nationality in Israel and Palestine. And we begin with a critical look at the concept of Zionism. Of course, it was advanced as a place, as an idea, about the safety of the Jewish people being located in Mandate Palestine, but there were plenty of Jewish people at the time who said, “This is actually a horrible idea from the perspective of the safety of Jewish people, because what it says is the Jews all belong in Israel and nowhere else, not in Europe, not in the United States, nowhere else. And so this will lead to more violence, more expulsions, more antisemitic pogroms, if we lean in too much to the idea that Jews belong primarily and especially in Israel.” And those were critiques coming from Jews, again, themselves.
So, if we are not allowed to talk about that anymore in universities, what we’ve done is surrendered the very idea of the university itself. And that is so much what troubled us about Minouche Shafik, our president — former president of Columbia’s testimony in Congress, and some of those other presidents who came, who were called before Congress, is they not only did not put up a robust defense of the idea of a university where we teach students how to be critical thinkers in such a critical time, but they actually joined in to the criticism of the university. My president did not stand up for any one of us, nor did Professor Thrasher’s at Northwestern.
And this is part of what concerns me, is that our universities are places now where we could not have a protest and say things that are now being said in Tel Aviv by Israelis. The protests that are happening there this week, if they took place on Columbia’s campus, our students would be expelled or charged with very serious disciplinary violations. This is where we’ve come. It’s impossible to talk about the kinds of things that, Amy, in your setup, of the just horrible things that are happening right this week in Jenin, in Gaza — we can’t talk about that at Columbia. That’s part of what concerns me is, is that we don’t know our history, and these new policies are keeping us from learning it.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Natasha Lennard, we just have about 30 seconds, but you’ve noted that universities are not only facing attacks from Congress, they’re also being subjected to lawsuits all around the country. Could you talk about that briefly?
NATASHA LENNARD: Yes, we’ve seen a series of litigation, including at NYU, Columbia, Harvard, UCLA, brought by often unnamed students and faculty, often very frivolous suits that universities are forced to answer to nonetheless, and then, through settlements and often nonpublic agreements, are then forced to change policy, often leading to the conflation of anti-Zionism and antisemitism.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to have to leave it there, but we’re going to continue this discussion over time. We’ll link your piece, Natasha Lennard, “College Administrators Spent Summer Break Dreaming Up Ways to Squash Gaza Protests.” She’s at The New School. Columbia Law professor Katherine Franke, Kathleen Peratis, civil rights lawyer, and Steven Thrasher. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
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Re: U.S. Backing Has Given Israel License to Kill & Maim
by admin » Thu Sep 19, 2024 1:16 am
Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 06, 2024
Israel Hinders Polio Vaccination; U.N. Warns Gazans Getting No Food in “Beyond Catastrophic” Scenario
Sep 06, 2024
The U.N. is warning more than 1 million people in central and southern Gaza received no food rations in August, adding to a “beyond catastrophic” situation in the war-torn Palestinian enclave. Gaza’s Health Ministry, meanwhile, says Israel is hindering the delivery of polio vaccines as its military refuses to coordinate the entry of medical teams in southern Gaza.
This all comes amid ongoing Israeli aerial and ground attacks. Deaths were reported in Gaza City and the Nuseirat refugee camp earlier today. In Khan Younis, mourners grieved their murdered loved ones at Nasser Hospital, including this mother whose son was killed by an Israeli strike.
Palestinian mother: “A cry of pain comes from the depths of my heart. I want the whole world to hear it. The sound of my pain burns like fire from within. My heart is heavy, full of pain.”
As mass protests in Israel continue to demand a ceasefire and hostage release deal, Hamas has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of continuing to block a deal as he refuses to withdraw Israeli forces from Gaza’s border with Egypt.
The U.S. Justice Department earlier this week indicted Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and five others with terrorism and other charges over the October 7 attack in Israel.
Israel Continues Assault on West Bank, Leaves Devastating Scenes After Attacking Jenin and Tulkarm
Sep 06, 2024
Israeli forces are continuing their deadly raids in the occupied West Bank, including in Nablus, Balata, Bethlehem, Hebron and Ramallah. In Jenin and Tulkarm, Israeli troops withdrew after a 10-day raid which killed a reported 36 people and left a trail of destruction. This is Wasfiya Rahaima from the Tulkarm refugee camp.
Wasfiya Rahaima: “This was the worst night. Everyone left their homes, but I did not, because I am disabled. My nephews told me they are going to leave, and I told them I will not go anywhere. Whatever God’s willing will happen. There was sounds of strikes here and behind the house. They razed everything. Look at it, the shooting and sound grenades. I was reading the Qur’an all night so that God will protect us. … Seventy-eight years, I have never witnessed anything like this, from 1948 to ’67 to all the intifadas and all that I have witnessed, but nothing was like this.”
Earlier today, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to include the defeat of Hamas and other groups in the occupied West Bank as part of Israel’s war objectives. Ben-Gvir has repeatedly called for Israel to annex the occupied West Bank.
***
“Beyond Catastrophic”: U.N. Issues Dire Warning on Gaza as Israel Hinders Polio Vaccination Drive
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 06, 2024
The United Nations is warning the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains “beyond catastrophic” as more than 1 million Palestinians in Gaza did not receive any food rations in August amid Israel’s relentless assault. Israel’s 11-month campaign has killed more than 15,000 children and enabled the besieged territory’s first polio outbreak in a quarter-century. INARA founder Arwa Damon just got back from spending two weeks in Gaza, where the nonprofit currently provides medical and mental healthcare to Palestinian children. “Israel has decimated every single aspect of any sort of infrastructure within the Gaza Strip, from sewage to water to electricity to you name it,” says Damon, who reports that humanitarian assistance has diminished significantly while displaced Palestinians play a “macabre, dark, twisted game” of trying to escape constant Israeli bombing.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, let’s talk specifically now about Gaza, where you just were for two weeks. The U.N. is warning the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains, quote, “beyond catastrophic” as more than a million Palestinians in Gaza did not receive any food rations in August amidst Israel’s relentless assault, this coming as Gaza’s Health Ministry says Israel is hindering the delivery of polio vaccines as it refuses to coordinate the entry of medical teams to parts of southern Gaza. This is Karam Yassin, a 10-year-old Palestinian boy in Deir al-Balah, Gaza.
KARAM YASSIN: [translated] We want to play with our friends, go to school, eat and drink. But this vaccination is of no use. It’s only useful against polio, but the war has destroyed us. It has destroyed our houses. I wish I can play with my friends, go to school. I wish to eat and drink like I used to before.
AMY GOODMAN: And this is a Palestinian mother, Ghada Judeh, who recently got her children vaccinated at Yafa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where she’s also volunteering for the polio vaccination campaign.
GHADA JUDEH: [translated] We are displaced from Deir al-Balah. I gave my children the polio vaccine to protect them from disease, but I can’t protect them from strikes and from death, unless you help us, just as you helped us and delivered the medications to us to protect our children. So, please, stand with us to stop the war so that our children can live peacefully and to continue their studies.
AMY GOODMAN: Arwa Damon, can you talk about the crisis in Gaza, where you just spent two weeks?
ARWA DAMON: I mean, let’s start by talking about how it is that polio reemerged in Gaza after 25 years. And it really boils down to the fact that Israel has decimated every single aspect of any sort of infrastructure within the Gaza Strip, from sewage to water to electricity to you name it. And what has happened in Gaza right now is that you have a situation where piles and piles of trash are everywhere. Open sewage is running in the streets. Hygiene is just about impossible, made even more impossible, Amy, because we have not been able to get in to southern or central Gaza hygiene or even just bars of soap in months right now.
And so, polio is seeing right now this vaccination effort, but let’s talk about the other diseases. Let’s talk about the fact that in Nasser Hospital alone, the head of the pediatrics department said that two children per week were dying of hepatitis A, also largely due to the lack of hygiene. Let’s talk about the fact that meningitis, that can potentially be deadly, is spreading, or this horrific skin disease called impetigo, that basically is these blisters that start to form, and then they pus open and ooze and bleed, and then, eventually, as they’re healing, crust up but are horrifically itchy. And the more severe cases, children need to be hospitalized for that. And if they’re not hospitalized, it can lead to, you know, potential kidney failure, which can also lead to death.
Let’s talk about the fact that when you’re driving through Gaza and people recognize that you’re a humanitarian organization, children run up to the car and gesture like this, that they want soap. A bar of soap is something that we are not able to provide to the Gazan population. The lack of hygiene and the fact that if we were able to provide Gazans with a bar of soap, studies show that that would reduce communicable diseases by about 40%, means that Gazans are suffering exponentially more now than they need to be. And very little aid is getting in. If you look at the number of humanitarian trucks that, you know, have gotten in in August and July and June, it’s roughly 60 to 70 total.
AMY GOODMAN: So, if you can talk about, when it comes to this polio vaccine, the kids have to get two doses of it? I mean, how do they come out of places where they are hiding, where they’ve been displaced one, two, three, eight, nine times? How do they feel safe enough to go to places where they get this polio vaccine and then have to go back? And what does it mean that Israel says it’ll bomb this area but not this today, and then tomorrow they will bomb this area, and then you can go over there that they bombed the other day?
ARWA DAMON: I mean, you know, you talk to Gazans, and they really feel as if they’re sort of part of this very macabre, dark, twisted game where they’re just getting shuffled around trying to stay ahead of the bombing, but then, you know, still risking it.
Now, when it comes specifically to the polio vaccine, there are theoretically these pauses that have been set up in specific areas. And then, within those specific areas, where these pauses are meant to be lasting for a day or two or three or however long it is deemed to take, there are numerous points, as well as mobile points, that people are able to go to to actually receive the polio vaccine itself. But it is extraordinarily challenging. It is very, very difficult even under the best of conditions to undertake a vaccination campaign, you know, this wide and this broad.
And frankly, I hope I’m wrong, and I hope the doctor that I was speaking to is wrong, but he was saying that he doesn’t really believe that it is going to be all that successful, and that the fact that Israel is allowing this to proceed is just a smokescreen so that it can sort of continue to push forward this narrative of, “Oh, but we’re allowing humanitarian assistance. Look, we allowed the polio vaccine to happen,” and not really address the sort of bigger picture issues when it comes to the reality that humanitarian assistance is barely trickling in to Gaza, that the levels of aid that were able to provide to the people have diminished significantly, and that the number of people in need has grown drastically, and that people are being crushed into this smaller and smaller space. I mean, the conditions there, Amy, are inhumane. People there aren’t living; they’re barely surviving.
And there are alternative routes that Israel can provide for aid organizations to be able to get assistance to the people. I’ll give you one example. So, we were talking about the lack of hygiene kits and soap in the southern and central part of Gaza. Now, the southern and central part of Gaza is, for example, receiving fresh vegetables on the commercial market. What this means is that most people can’t afford them, but we, as aid organizations, can purchase them — albeit prices are quite astronomical — and deliver fresh food parcels to the people. Now, in the north of Gaza, there is no vegetables on the commercial market, but, ironically, hygiene kits are getting in to the north. What we are not permitted to do is move vegetables from the south to the north, where they’re needed, or hygiene kits from the north to the south. And this is just one sort of example of the various different hurdles and obstacles that are deliberately being placed in our way.
AMY GOODMAN: Before we go, Arwa, I wanted to ask you personally about your own life experience and how it’s informed what you’ve done, from being an international reporter at CNN to founding INARA. Your mother Syrian, your father American, you grew up in places like Morocco and Turkey.
Just two days after October 7th, you wrote a piece for New Lines Magazine titled “As Gaza Braces for a Ground Invasion, the Circle of Violence Continues.” You write in it, “We need to understand the past, the traumas of the past, traumas that have been passed on generation to generation, both on the Israeli and on the Palestinian side. We need to understand those intense emotions that can embed themselves in and change our DNA — paralyzing fear, the desperate need to belong, the longing for home and safety, the desire for a dignified life. We also need to understand how those emotions have been historically manipulated, twisted, and how from the start the failings of the key power brokers — incidentally neither Palestinian nor Israeli — have led to where we are today.” Your final thoughts, Arwa Damon?
ARWA DAMON: You know, I’m a big believer in the need to understand a person or even, you know, a country’s emotional trajectory, because we need to understand how and why it is that people act and think a certain way, if we want to alter the path that we’re on. And I think, obviously, you know, in my journalistic career, I tried to focus on that by storytelling and by sharing the human story that exists beyond the bombs and the bullets. And in the humanitarian space, I mean, look, I still tell a lot of stories, but I also believe that it’s very important for us to do what we can for those in need, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it can also help alter the balance of their own psyche.
When you see a child who has been so deeply traumatized, you look at that little kid, and their eyes are deadened. That spark of life doesn’t exist. But when you begin to provide them with medical and mental assistance, when you begin to support them and their family, you see that spark begin to reemerge. And I think that is something that we should not negate and that we should really be focusing our efforts and our capacities on trying to bring, because the more that we abandon populations, the more violent our world is going to become.
AMY GOODMAN: Arwa Damon, we want to thank you for being with us, award-winning journalist, founder of INARA, a nonprofit currently providing medical and mental healthcare to children in Gaza, previously spent 18 years at CNN. She just returned from a two-week trip to Gaza. She is joining us from the capital of Ukraine, from Kyiv.
Coming up, we speak to Fred Trump, Donald Trump’s nephew. He says President Trump once told him as they sat in the Oval Office that disabled Americans “should just die.” Fred Trump has written his memoir. It’s called All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way. Stay with us.
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 06, 2024
Israel Hinders Polio Vaccination; U.N. Warns Gazans Getting No Food in “Beyond Catastrophic” Scenario
Sep 06, 2024
The U.N. is warning more than 1 million people in central and southern Gaza received no food rations in August, adding to a “beyond catastrophic” situation in the war-torn Palestinian enclave. Gaza’s Health Ministry, meanwhile, says Israel is hindering the delivery of polio vaccines as its military refuses to coordinate the entry of medical teams in southern Gaza.
This all comes amid ongoing Israeli aerial and ground attacks. Deaths were reported in Gaza City and the Nuseirat refugee camp earlier today. In Khan Younis, mourners grieved their murdered loved ones at Nasser Hospital, including this mother whose son was killed by an Israeli strike.
Palestinian mother: “A cry of pain comes from the depths of my heart. I want the whole world to hear it. The sound of my pain burns like fire from within. My heart is heavy, full of pain.”
As mass protests in Israel continue to demand a ceasefire and hostage release deal, Hamas has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of continuing to block a deal as he refuses to withdraw Israeli forces from Gaza’s border with Egypt.
The U.S. Justice Department earlier this week indicted Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and five others with terrorism and other charges over the October 7 attack in Israel.
Israel Continues Assault on West Bank, Leaves Devastating Scenes After Attacking Jenin and Tulkarm
Sep 06, 2024
Israeli forces are continuing their deadly raids in the occupied West Bank, including in Nablus, Balata, Bethlehem, Hebron and Ramallah. In Jenin and Tulkarm, Israeli troops withdrew after a 10-day raid which killed a reported 36 people and left a trail of destruction. This is Wasfiya Rahaima from the Tulkarm refugee camp.
Wasfiya Rahaima: “This was the worst night. Everyone left their homes, but I did not, because I am disabled. My nephews told me they are going to leave, and I told them I will not go anywhere. Whatever God’s willing will happen. There was sounds of strikes here and behind the house. They razed everything. Look at it, the shooting and sound grenades. I was reading the Qur’an all night so that God will protect us. … Seventy-eight years, I have never witnessed anything like this, from 1948 to ’67 to all the intifadas and all that I have witnessed, but nothing was like this.”
Earlier today, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to include the defeat of Hamas and other groups in the occupied West Bank as part of Israel’s war objectives. Ben-Gvir has repeatedly called for Israel to annex the occupied West Bank.
***
“Beyond Catastrophic”: U.N. Issues Dire Warning on Gaza as Israel Hinders Polio Vaccination Drive
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 06, 2024
The United Nations is warning the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains “beyond catastrophic” as more than 1 million Palestinians in Gaza did not receive any food rations in August amid Israel’s relentless assault. Israel’s 11-month campaign has killed more than 15,000 children and enabled the besieged territory’s first polio outbreak in a quarter-century. INARA founder Arwa Damon just got back from spending two weeks in Gaza, where the nonprofit currently provides medical and mental healthcare to Palestinian children. “Israel has decimated every single aspect of any sort of infrastructure within the Gaza Strip, from sewage to water to electricity to you name it,” says Damon, who reports that humanitarian assistance has diminished significantly while displaced Palestinians play a “macabre, dark, twisted game” of trying to escape constant Israeli bombing.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, let’s talk specifically now about Gaza, where you just were for two weeks. The U.N. is warning the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains, quote, “beyond catastrophic” as more than a million Palestinians in Gaza did not receive any food rations in August amidst Israel’s relentless assault, this coming as Gaza’s Health Ministry says Israel is hindering the delivery of polio vaccines as it refuses to coordinate the entry of medical teams to parts of southern Gaza. This is Karam Yassin, a 10-year-old Palestinian boy in Deir al-Balah, Gaza.
KARAM YASSIN: [translated] We want to play with our friends, go to school, eat and drink. But this vaccination is of no use. It’s only useful against polio, but the war has destroyed us. It has destroyed our houses. I wish I can play with my friends, go to school. I wish to eat and drink like I used to before.
AMY GOODMAN: And this is a Palestinian mother, Ghada Judeh, who recently got her children vaccinated at Yafa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where she’s also volunteering for the polio vaccination campaign.
GHADA JUDEH: [translated] We are displaced from Deir al-Balah. I gave my children the polio vaccine to protect them from disease, but I can’t protect them from strikes and from death, unless you help us, just as you helped us and delivered the medications to us to protect our children. So, please, stand with us to stop the war so that our children can live peacefully and to continue their studies.
AMY GOODMAN: Arwa Damon, can you talk about the crisis in Gaza, where you just spent two weeks?
ARWA DAMON: I mean, let’s start by talking about how it is that polio reemerged in Gaza after 25 years. And it really boils down to the fact that Israel has decimated every single aspect of any sort of infrastructure within the Gaza Strip, from sewage to water to electricity to you name it. And what has happened in Gaza right now is that you have a situation where piles and piles of trash are everywhere. Open sewage is running in the streets. Hygiene is just about impossible, made even more impossible, Amy, because we have not been able to get in to southern or central Gaza hygiene or even just bars of soap in months right now.
And so, polio is seeing right now this vaccination effort, but let’s talk about the other diseases. Let’s talk about the fact that in Nasser Hospital alone, the head of the pediatrics department said that two children per week were dying of hepatitis A, also largely due to the lack of hygiene. Let’s talk about the fact that meningitis, that can potentially be deadly, is spreading, or this horrific skin disease called impetigo, that basically is these blisters that start to form, and then they pus open and ooze and bleed, and then, eventually, as they’re healing, crust up but are horrifically itchy. And the more severe cases, children need to be hospitalized for that. And if they’re not hospitalized, it can lead to, you know, potential kidney failure, which can also lead to death.
Let’s talk about the fact that when you’re driving through Gaza and people recognize that you’re a humanitarian organization, children run up to the car and gesture like this, that they want soap. A bar of soap is something that we are not able to provide to the Gazan population. The lack of hygiene and the fact that if we were able to provide Gazans with a bar of soap, studies show that that would reduce communicable diseases by about 40%, means that Gazans are suffering exponentially more now than they need to be. And very little aid is getting in. If you look at the number of humanitarian trucks that, you know, have gotten in in August and July and June, it’s roughly 60 to 70 total.
AMY GOODMAN: So, if you can talk about, when it comes to this polio vaccine, the kids have to get two doses of it? I mean, how do they come out of places where they are hiding, where they’ve been displaced one, two, three, eight, nine times? How do they feel safe enough to go to places where they get this polio vaccine and then have to go back? And what does it mean that Israel says it’ll bomb this area but not this today, and then tomorrow they will bomb this area, and then you can go over there that they bombed the other day?
ARWA DAMON: I mean, you know, you talk to Gazans, and they really feel as if they’re sort of part of this very macabre, dark, twisted game where they’re just getting shuffled around trying to stay ahead of the bombing, but then, you know, still risking it.
Now, when it comes specifically to the polio vaccine, there are theoretically these pauses that have been set up in specific areas. And then, within those specific areas, where these pauses are meant to be lasting for a day or two or three or however long it is deemed to take, there are numerous points, as well as mobile points, that people are able to go to to actually receive the polio vaccine itself. But it is extraordinarily challenging. It is very, very difficult even under the best of conditions to undertake a vaccination campaign, you know, this wide and this broad.
And frankly, I hope I’m wrong, and I hope the doctor that I was speaking to is wrong, but he was saying that he doesn’t really believe that it is going to be all that successful, and that the fact that Israel is allowing this to proceed is just a smokescreen so that it can sort of continue to push forward this narrative of, “Oh, but we’re allowing humanitarian assistance. Look, we allowed the polio vaccine to happen,” and not really address the sort of bigger picture issues when it comes to the reality that humanitarian assistance is barely trickling in to Gaza, that the levels of aid that were able to provide to the people have diminished significantly, and that the number of people in need has grown drastically, and that people are being crushed into this smaller and smaller space. I mean, the conditions there, Amy, are inhumane. People there aren’t living; they’re barely surviving.
And there are alternative routes that Israel can provide for aid organizations to be able to get assistance to the people. I’ll give you one example. So, we were talking about the lack of hygiene kits and soap in the southern and central part of Gaza. Now, the southern and central part of Gaza is, for example, receiving fresh vegetables on the commercial market. What this means is that most people can’t afford them, but we, as aid organizations, can purchase them — albeit prices are quite astronomical — and deliver fresh food parcels to the people. Now, in the north of Gaza, there is no vegetables on the commercial market, but, ironically, hygiene kits are getting in to the north. What we are not permitted to do is move vegetables from the south to the north, where they’re needed, or hygiene kits from the north to the south. And this is just one sort of example of the various different hurdles and obstacles that are deliberately being placed in our way.
AMY GOODMAN: Before we go, Arwa, I wanted to ask you personally about your own life experience and how it’s informed what you’ve done, from being an international reporter at CNN to founding INARA. Your mother Syrian, your father American, you grew up in places like Morocco and Turkey.
Just two days after October 7th, you wrote a piece for New Lines Magazine titled “As Gaza Braces for a Ground Invasion, the Circle of Violence Continues.” You write in it, “We need to understand the past, the traumas of the past, traumas that have been passed on generation to generation, both on the Israeli and on the Palestinian side. We need to understand those intense emotions that can embed themselves in and change our DNA — paralyzing fear, the desperate need to belong, the longing for home and safety, the desire for a dignified life. We also need to understand how those emotions have been historically manipulated, twisted, and how from the start the failings of the key power brokers — incidentally neither Palestinian nor Israeli — have led to where we are today.” Your final thoughts, Arwa Damon?
ARWA DAMON: You know, I’m a big believer in the need to understand a person or even, you know, a country’s emotional trajectory, because we need to understand how and why it is that people act and think a certain way, if we want to alter the path that we’re on. And I think, obviously, you know, in my journalistic career, I tried to focus on that by storytelling and by sharing the human story that exists beyond the bombs and the bullets. And in the humanitarian space, I mean, look, I still tell a lot of stories, but I also believe that it’s very important for us to do what we can for those in need, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it can also help alter the balance of their own psyche.
When you see a child who has been so deeply traumatized, you look at that little kid, and their eyes are deadened. That spark of life doesn’t exist. But when you begin to provide them with medical and mental assistance, when you begin to support them and their family, you see that spark begin to reemerge. And I think that is something that we should not negate and that we should really be focusing our efforts and our capacities on trying to bring, because the more that we abandon populations, the more violent our world is going to become.
AMY GOODMAN: Arwa Damon, we want to thank you for being with us, award-winning journalist, founder of INARA, a nonprofit currently providing medical and mental healthcare to children in Gaza, previously spent 18 years at CNN. She just returned from a two-week trip to Gaza. She is joining us from the capital of Ukraine, from Kyiv.
Coming up, we speak to Fred Trump, Donald Trump’s nephew. He says President Trump once told him as they sat in the Oval Office that disabled Americans “should just die.” Fred Trump has written his memoir. It’s called All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way. Stay with us.
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Re: U.S. Backing Has Given Israel License to Kill & Maim
by admin » Thu Sep 19, 2024 1:22 am
Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 09, 2024
U.N.: Israel Carrying Out “Starvation Campaign” as the Entire Gaza Strip Remains in Urgent Need of Food
Sep 09, 2024
Israel’s war on Gaza has entered its 12th month as the official death toll nears 41,000 — though that is believed to be a vast undercount. Israel killed at least eight Palestinians Saturday in an airstrike on a school housing displaced people in the Jabaliya refugee camp. Meanwhile, the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, has accused Israel of carrying out a “starvation campaign” in Gaza. The World Food Programme warns some 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza remain in urgent need of food and humanitarian aid.
Israeli Forces Kill American Activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi in Occupied West Bank
Sep 09, 2024
In the occupied West Bank, a funeral is being held today for Turkish American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, who was shot dead Friday by Israeli forces. She was a 26-year-old recent graduate of the University of Washington who was volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement. She was shot while taking part in a weekly protest against illegal Israeli settlements in the town of Beita. The Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak witnessed the shooting.
Jonathan Pollak: “By the time this had happened, it was completely quiet here. We were standing for 10, 15 minutes without anything happening. The reason why no one was filming is because it was completely quiet. And then, all of a sudden, two shots. And the sniper or the soldier that was there took a kill shot.”
We will have more on this story after headlines.
Meanwhile, Israeli troops are also accused of fatally shooting a 13-year-old Palestinian girl named Bana Laboum. She was hit by a bullet while inside her own home in the village of Qaryut, which had been attacked by Israeli settlers. Bana’s mom spoke out after her daughter was killed.
Iman Lebwam: “She was in her room along with her sisters. She was afraid, in fear, and suddenly a bullet got in through the window and hit her while she was on her bed. This is what happened. There were scuffles outside with the youth, but we were surprised that a bullet came through the window and onto her.”
Israelis Take to Streets for Mass Protests Calling for Hostage Deal, Removal of Netanyahu
Sep 09, 2024
As many as 750,000 Israelis took to the streets Saturday in Tel Aviv and other cities calling for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal in what’s been described as one of the largest protests in Israeli history. This is Zahiro Shahar Mor, whose uncle Avraham Munder died in captivity in Gaza.
Zahiro Shahar Mor: “As long as Netanyahu remains in power, we will keep getting hostages back in body bags. Netanyahu must be removed from power in order to save the lives of the hostages and the country itself.”
Israel Temporarily Closes Border Crossings with Jordan After Shooting of 3 Israeli Security Guards
Sep 09, 2024
A Jordanian truck driver shot dead three Israeli security guards at a border crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan on Sunday. Israel responded by temporarily closing all border crossings with Jordan. Pedestrian traffic has resumed on the Allenby Bridge, the site of the shooting.
Separate Israeli Attacks Kill 3 Paramedics in Lebanon, 16 People in Syria
Sep 09, 2024
Three Lebanese paramedics were killed and two were injured Saturday in an Israeli attack on southern Lebanon. The Lebanese government said the paramedics were killed as they were responding to fire sparked by recent Israeli airstrikes.
In related news, Israel is accused of attacking Syria overnight, killing at least 16 people in Hama province. Another 36 people were wounded.
***
Justice for Ayşenur Eygi: As Israel Kills Another American in West Bank, Will U.S. Demand Accountability?
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 09, 2024
A funeral is being held today in the occupied West Bank for Turkish American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, who was shot dead Friday by Israeli forces while taking part in a weekly protest against illegal Israeli settlements in the town of Beita. The 26-year-old recent graduate of the University of Washington was a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement. Witnesses say she was fatally shot in the head by an Israeli sniper after the demonstration had already dispersed. The Turkish government has said it holds Israel responsible for Ayşenur’s death, while the U.S. government has offered condolences and called for Israel to investigate the incident. At least 17 Palestinian protesters have been killed in Beita in protests against illegal Israeli settlements since 2020.
Juliette Majid, a friend of Eygi at the University of Washington, remembers the slain activist as being “passionate about justice” and involved in various causes. “She’s no longer with us, but her spirit and her love and who she was and who she impacted in our community are still with us every day,” says Majid. Filipino American activist Amado Sison, who also volunteered in the occupied West Bank and was himself shot in the leg by Israeli forces on August 9 during a weekly protest in Beita, says the U.S. government must demand an independent investigation and end Israeli impunity. “If they took it seriously that a U.S. citizen was shot a month ago, maybe Ayşenur would be here right now,” he says.
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.
In Nablus in the occupied West Bank, a funeral procession is underway at the time of this broadcast for the Turkish American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi. She was killed by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank on Friday. Ayşenur was a 26-year-old recent graduate of UDub, the University of Washington, in Seattle. She was shot dead by Israeli forces during a weekly Friday protest against illegal Israeli settlements in the town of Beita.
According to eyewitnesses, Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and live ammunition, forcing the protesters to disperse down a hill on the edge of the town. Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak, who was on the scene, said the shooting took place about half an hour after the protesters had dispersed and the situation was calm. He said Ayşenur and other foreign volunteers were standing about 200 yards from the Israeli military. He described what happened.
JONATHAN POLLAK: So, after retreating from the hilltop, I was right there where the garbage can is. And that’s — it was completely quiet already back then. The clashes had dissipated. And then, after 10 or 15 minutes it was completely quiet, I heard two distinct shots of live ammunition. One hit a metal object, and then I retreated a little bit backward into the olive grove, and then, a few seconds after, maybe two or three seconds, a second shot. And I heard someone calling my name and saying in English, “Help! Help us! We need help! Come over.” So I chased — I raced through the olive grove down there.
Her head was gushing with blood. She was lying here. I put my hand behind her back to try and stop the bleeding, which didn’t stop. I looked up and saw a direct line of sight from where the soldiers were on that rooftop, some 200 meters away. I quickly took her pulse. It was very, very weak. Her eyes were rolled back. Her skin started becoming yellow. And we panically called for the ambulance to come.
By the time this had happened, it was completely quiet here. We were standing for 10, 15 minutes without anything happening. The reason why no one was filming is because it was completely quiet. And then, all of a sudden, two shots. And the sniper or the soldier that was there took a kill shot. And this happens in context. This isn’t an isolated incident. It happens in the context of the 17 people who were killed in demonstrations in Beita since 2021. We have heard nothing about them because they’re not Americans.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak.
Ayşenur was taken to a hospital in Nablus, where she was pronounced dead on arrival. The governor of Nablus told reporters Saturday an autopsy confirmed that Ayşenur was, quote, “killed by an Israeli occupation sniper’s bullet to the head,” unquote.
The Israeli military said in a statement it was, quote, “looking into reports that a foreign national was killed” and that, quote, “details of the incident and the circumstances in which she was hit are under review,” unquote. The statement added Israeli forces had, quote, “responded with fire toward a main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks at the forces and posed a threat to them,” unquote.
The Turkish government has said it holds Israel responsible for Ayşenur’s death. On Saturday, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan blasted Israel for the killing.
PRESIDENT RECEP TAYYIP ERDOĞAN: [translated] Yesterday, they heinously murdered our young child Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi. To date, they have killed over 40,000 innocent civilians, including 17,000 children. They attack barbarically and shed blood indiscriminately, whether it be children, women, youth or the elderly.
AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, the White House has called on Israel to investigate the attack. This is Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaking on Friday.
SECRETARY OF STATE ANTONY BLINKEN: First, I just want to extend my deepest condolences, the deepest condolences of the United States government to the family of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi. We deplore this tragic loss. Now, the most important thing to do is to gather the facts. And that’s exactly what we’re in the process of doing, and we are intensely focused on getting those facts. And any actions that we take are driven by the facts. So, first things first, let’s find out exactly what happened, and we will draw the necessary conclusions and consequences from that.
AMY GOODMAN: Ayşenur’s family has called for an independent investigation, saying, quote, “We welcome the White House’s statement of condolences, but given the circumstances of Ayşenur’s killing, an Israeli investigation is not adequate. We call on President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Secretary of State Blinken to order an independent investigation into the unlawful killing of a U.S. citizen and to ensure full accountability for the guilty parties,” end-quote.
At least 17 Palestinian protesters have been killed in Beita in protests against illegal Israeli settlements since 2020.
For more, we’re joined by two guests. Amado Sison, which is a pseudonym, is a Filipino American citizen who was shot in the leg by the Israeli forces one month ago today, on August 9th, during the weekly protest in Beita in the occupied West Bank. Sison was volunteering with the international nonviolent protective presence group Faz3a, the same group Ayşenur was with along with being a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement. Amado Sison a high school English teacher from Jersey City in New Jersey. We’re also joined by Juliette Majid. She was friends with Ayşenur at the University of Washington. Juliette Majid is now a Ph.D. student at North Carolina State University. She’s joining us from Raleigh, North Carolina.
Juliette, let’s begin with you. Tell us who Ayşenur is. She, like you, just graduated from UDub, from the University of Washington, in Seattle, where she grew up since, well, her family came there from Turkey, since before she was 1 year old.
JULIETTE MAJID: Yeah. First of all, thank you for saying who she is. She’s no longer with us, but her spirit and her love and her — who she was and who she impacted in our community are still with us every single day. The family, I think, in their statement had beautiful, beautiful words that I want to uplift on who she was. She was amazing, a staunch advocate and organizer. She was passionate about justice. She was compassionate and kind, and she wore her heart on her sleeves. She always made you feel like you were listened to. You never had to think when talking to her; you just had to be. That’s how she was. She just was herself, nobody else. She inspired everybody she ever met. She inspired me. And I know that, going forward, I will keep holding her in my heart, as well.
AMY GOODMAN: Juliette, I know this is incredibly difficult for you. She was killed on Friday. This is just Monday. And our deepest condolences to you and to Ayşenur’s family, which I know extends beyond her own family, but to the whole community at UDub, those who were involved, like you and her, in the encampment there, like there were encampments all over the United States, protesting the Israeli war on Gaza. Can you talk about her activism — you talked about how she inspired you — and also about learning of her death on Friday? She had just gotten to the occupied West Bank — right? — did a training on Wednesday and was killed on Friday. And you’re now a student in North Carolina.
JULIETTE MAJID: Yeah, so I met Ayşenur at the University of Washington. We both graduated in June. More than just the student encampment, she was a community organizer in Seattle. She was always volunteering to help, always volunteering in the community, in the campus, before the encampment and after. So many people met her during the encampment. She was just always around, always willing to help. She moved in a wonderful grassroots way that was just always willing to assist wherever it was needed. She never asked much of herself. She always asked what others wanted from her, what they needed from her, how she could help, what she could do. She was very passionate about the student movement at UDub. She was very involved on campus. And the community is absolutely reeling, heartbroken, trying to come to terms with what happened. It was, as you said, so recent, on Friday. So many, I think, community members learned through the media on Friday morning, an absolutely heartbreaking way to find out for those who loved her. And there are so many. Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: This is the second loss in the UDub community, because on October 7th, Hayim Katsman was killed when Hamas raided, came over from Gaza. We spoke to his sibling Noy, who also immediately called for peace and said that their brother Hayim was a peace activist, as well.
JULIETTE MAJID: I can only speak to who I knew, and that was Ayşenur, who was upholding a long tradition of international observers in the West Bank, who was deliberately killed while she was peacefully observing. I want to uplift what the family has asked for, which is a independent U.S. investigation. We don’t — I don’t want to just rely on the Israeli military to investigate themselves. An American citizen, a member of our community, an American human rights activist who was passionate about the liberation of all peoples, here in the States and abroad, was taken from us. We want an investigation. We want our government to — I want our government to investigate this and to hold the guilty parties accountable. Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: Juliette, we’re joined here in New York by another activist who joined those protests in Beita, just as Ayşenur did last week. Amado Sison, not his real name, a pseudonym, is a Filipino American, a Jersey City teacher, who was shot in the leg by Israeli soldiers a month ago today, August 9th, during that protest in Beita, volunteering with the international nonviolent group Faz3a. If you could explain with that is, Amado?
AMADO SISON: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: And also working with the International Solidarity Movement. In a moment, we’re going to talk with Rachel Corrie’s parents, who was killed 20 years ago, also with the ISM, protesting the Israeli occupation. If you can talk about what happened a month ago, the fact that you, too, were shot, and what the U.S. government has done about this?
AMADO SISON: Yeah. So, to clarify, so, ISM and Faz3a, we both work together in training. We’re two separate organizations. And Ayşenur was part of ISM, and I was part of Faz3a. But we see each other during those protests. So —
AMY GOODMAN: You’re walking with a cane now.
AMADO SISON: Yeah, I’m walking with a cane. They shot me in the leg.
AMY GOODMAN: Why were you protesting in Beita? Explain what it is.
AMADO SISON: Yeah. So, every week, our organizations come to Beita to protest the illegal settlement that was built upon Beita’s land, the Evyatar settlement, I believe. And there’s a Jum’ah prayer that happens. And after the prayer, that’s when the chanting starts. We never got to get to the settlement, for them to return to the land, because tear gas happened. So, they shoot tear gas at us. They shot live rounds at us. We’ve had to hide behind concrete walls. You could see the dust coming off of the concrete wall when the live rounds hit. When they come down, we run.
And then, on that day, we regrouped, and then we were at the foot of the street that goes up to where the watchtower was, where the Israeli army was. We saw them coming down, and we saw Palestinians running from our left, so we ran through the olive groves. So, when I was running, I got shot in the back of my leg. And I thought it was a tear gas canister, because it was a — it felt like a blunt object hit me. But when we got —
AMY GOODMAN: We’re actually showing, for our TV audience —
AMADO SISON: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: — your leg when you were shot.
AMADO SISON: Yeah, yeah. I only saw that twice. So, yeah, so, when I got to the clearing, the Palestinians raised me up, put me in a pickup truck, got me to the clinic, transferred me to an ambulance. And getting to the hospital, we had two trucks blocking us and then two checkpoints where they demanded to see who was inside, so it delayed my care further. But the Palestinians showed me so much care and love, and I am indebted to them for saving me that day.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go to Jonathan Pollak, the Israeli activist who held Ayşenur as she died, has taken part in the weekly protests against the settlement in Beita for months. Jonathan couldn’t join us today because he’s taking part in this funeral procession for Ayşenur in Nablus. We spoke to him yesterday, and this is some of what he had to say.
JONATHAN POLLAK: I would just like to say that her death is not an isolated incident. The bullet that was shot at Ayşenur is the exact same bullet that was shot at Amado Sison a few weeks ago, like, hitting him in the leg, another American citizen hurt in exactly the same place. It is the same bullet used by Israeli forces to kill — to kill the people in Nur Shams and in Jenin. And these are the same bullets that killed a 13-year-old girl on the same day that Ayşenur was killed, just a few kilometers to the south. These are the same bullets that Israel uses to perpetrate the genocide in Gaza with complete impunity. And all these bullets are provided to Israel by the American taxpayers’ money. And the one thing that sets this incident apart is that on Friday, American bullets killed an American citizen. And this is why we hear of it now.
But it is really time for this to stop. It is time that Israel is held accountable and is forced to end its colonial regime over Palestinians and ensure Palestinian liberation. Now, that kill shot — and this soldier took a kill shot — was meant to convey a message. And that message is that any sort of Palestinian resistance to Israeli colonialism will not be tolerated, whether it be Palestinians resisting Israeli occupation or solidarity activists standing with Palestinians as they fight for liberation. And however violent the Israeli message is going to be, our message to the Israelis is that, no matter what, we will continue to stand with Palestinians in the struggle for liberation.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s the Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak, who held Ayşenur as she died. She was there then. He went in the ambulance with her to the hospital in Nablus. He described to us also how this was after the weekly protest that they hold, this weekly protest every Friday. And they were done. It was very calm, when Ayşenur was shot in the head. Amado Sison, just staying with you for a moment, you were shot a month ago. What did the — you’re a U.S. citizen. You’re a teacher in Jersey City. What did the U.S. government do? Did you speak to the U.S. Embassy?
AMADO SISON: Yeah, so, it was just the U.S. Embassy. They reached out when I got shot.
AMY GOODMAN: In Israel?
AMADO SISON: Yeah. And we filed a report, don’t have any updates about what that turned into. I did give them a report, as well, consent. But no State Department, no politicians, nobody has reached out to me. And what I think is, if they took it seriously that a U.S. citizen was shot a month ago, maybe Ayşenur would be here right now.
AMY GOODMAN: So, did the ambassador or staff come to you in the hospital? Did the State Department here speak to you when you returned, shot in the leg?
AMADO SISON: No, nothing. I heard nothing from them.
AMY GOODMAN: You’ve demanded an investigation?
AMADO SISON: I demand an investigation now for when I was shot, for, you know, Ayşenur’s murder, an independent U.S. investigation, because what the Israel report was was it was a mistake shooting me. Mistakes usually come from above and down. They shot me through my right thigh all the way through.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, they said they shot in the air.
AMADO SISON: They said it was a mistake. So, I don’t know what a mistake would be when you’re pointing and shooting straight through someone’s thigh. So, I don’t know what they’re going to conclude about Ayşenur, but I know that if they investigate themselves, they will find a way to cover it up. So, I want to uplift her family’s demands, as well.
***
Rachel Corrie’s Parents Mourn Death of Ayşenur Eygi, Warn of Israeli Military Cover-Up
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 09, 2024
As friends and family mourn the killing of Turkish American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, we speak with the parents of Rachel Corrie, another American killed while volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement to protect Palestinians from attacks and displacement. Corrie was just 23 years old when she was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer in Gaza in 2003 as she attempted to use her body to stop the destruction of Palestinian homes. Cindy and Craig Corrie have since devoted their lives to their daughter’s cause and founded the nonprofit Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice. They say the news of Eygi’s death brought back painful memories. “It thrusts us back to that moment on March 16, 2003, about noon, when we were in Charlotte, North Carolina, and got the word about Rachel,” says Cindy Corrie. “It’s a parent’s nightmare.” Craig Corrie echoes calls by Eygi’s family for an independent probe into her killing. “Israel does not do investigations; they do cover-ups.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn right now to a family that knows the pain of a daughter’s death. Ayşenur Eygi had been volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement, or ISM, to try to protect Palestinians from attacks by the Israeli military and settlers. That’s the same group that Rachel Corrie, also a U.S. citizen — she was a student at Evergreen College in Washington, in Olympia. She was volunteering with ISM in 2003 when she was crushed to death. It was actually three days before the U.S. invaded Iraq. It was March 16, 2003. She was crushed to death in Gaza by an Israeli military bulldozer. She was trying to protect the home of a Palestinian pharmacist’s family in Rafah that was about to be demolished. She was 23.
We’re joined right now by Rachel’s parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie. After Rachel was killed, they devoted their lives to her cause, founded the nonprofit Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice. Cindy is the foundation’s president; Craig, the treasurer. They’ve also gone on interfaith peace missions to Israel, to Gaza and the West Bank.
Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Cindy and Craig. I remember seeing you at Evergreen College. It was the largest graduation Evergreen ever had, in Olympia, that year, 2003, but it was missing one student who was supposed to have graduated, your daughter Cindy, who was killed in Rafah. When you heard this news of Ayşenur on Friday, I was wondering your response. And if you can talk about what you see as the parallels?
CINDY CORRIE: Thank you, Amy. And thank you to all of your guests who have shared this very tragic story.
We learned, we started to get word about what had happened to Ayşenur on Friday morning. And it was, of course, very disturbing and emotional for us. I think, for me, you know, it thrusts us back to that moment of March 16th, 2003, about noon, when we were in Charlotte, North Carolina, and got the word about Rachel. And I remember, you know, just the horror and the pain of that news. And so, for me, on Friday morning — I remember wondering, you know: Would I ever feel whole again? Would I ever be the same person again? Could I ever enjoy life? I mean, it’s a parent’s nightmare. And so, Friday morning, knowing that there was another family so nearby, in Seattle, who was getting that same kind of news was just very, very disturbing. And we continue to just feel deeply about what that family is experiencing right now.
AMY GOODMAN: Craig, if you can tell us — I mean, we actually just recently spoke to the two of you. You also called for an investigation. What ultimately came of the death of Rachel Corrie, killed by an Israeli military bulldozer, which was a Caterpillar bulldozer?
CRAIG CORRIE: Well, of course, we did call for a U.S. investigation into Rachel’s killing. Let me say that what we’re hearing today, it’s upsetting to our family to hear our State Department again, and I would expect them to say, that they are trying to find out the facts and looking to Israel for that. Israel does not do investigations; they do cover-ups. So, let’s face it, nothing’s going to come out of there that’s going to help these citizens or whoever may be killed in the future. That’s what we’re trying to stop. Our family worked for an investigation into Rachel’s killing, and we wanted some consequences out of that. And we hoped — even though we didn’t know the names of the people that would be killed in the future, we hoped that that would stop and it would not happen.
I think, at this point, yes, U.S. has to do an investigation, but there needs to be consequences. As Jonathan pointed out, these are American weapons that are being used. That’s against U.S. law, and it should be stopped. I know from working with members of Congress and their staff, working with the State Department, that under the Leahy Law, usually they’re asking for proof that it was a U.S. weapon. If I write a check, I don’t need proof about what’s going wrong. I need people to cooperate and determine that it’s not our money that’s being used that way. Israel does not do that, to my knowledge. So, we also need to look for international help here. I think that the U.N., the International Criminal Courts, they’re places that need to get involved. But we’re just sick and tired of hearing platitudes from the State Department. And these are people we’ve met. We have met with Antony Blinken before he became secretary of state. He’s a decent person. But there needs to be consequences, and there needs to be consequences that are enforced by the entire U.S. government and the international community.
CINDY CORRIE: We heard those words that we hear so often when something like this happens, that the U.S. had asked for a thorough, credible, transparent investigation. We did pursue help from the State Department, from our government, and we kept pursuing that help for many years. And, you know, we were still getting statements in — I believe it was 2008 from the State Department. Michelle Bernier-Toth wrote to us about how many people in the administration at that time had spoken to their counterparts in Israel about a thorough, credible and transparent investigation for Rachel’s case. And she — these were people like Secretary of State Colin Powell talking to his counterpart, a long list of names that you would recognize. And at the close, she said those requests go unanswered or ignored.
And when you think about what we’re doing, what we’re supplying to the Israeli military, to the Israeli government, the kind of backing that’s being given to them, it’s really — it was just really shocking that there would be this verbal request for accountability, or at least for an investigation, on the part of Israel. But the U.S. acknowledged that that hadn’t happened. And in fact, now-Secretary of State Tony Blinken in 2010 confirmed for us that the position of the U.S. government in Rachel’s case remains that there has not been a thorough, credible and transparent investigation in her case.
Also, the U.S. — we fought for investigation for years, U.S. investigation. There’s a very — we were told there’s very limited statute that allows for that to happen in the U.S. The Justice Department and FBI, apparently, ultimately, looked for that possibility. But we were told that policy impacts whether they take that on, and that even if there were investigation, prosecution of someone would be extremely unlikely through the U.S. So it’s one of the reasons that we are saying there needs to be an international element here, an international commitment to ensuring that an unbiased investigation happens, that an impartial investigation happens.
We ultimately went to the Israeli courts, which we learned are also implicated in furthering Israeli policy and occupation. And we heard the lead investigator, who completed the military investigation — and it’s important for people to understand Israel’s investigations are military investigations. It became clear that that was conducted in order to exonerate the Israeli military, not to find truth and what really happened. And that’s what our family was pursuing. But the lead investigator stated under oath in Haifa court that he believed that they were at war with everyone, including the peace activists from the International Solidarity Movement. I think that’s really important information for people to understand now as we move forward in this tragic case.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to end with the words of Congressmember Pramila Jayapal of Washington, who’s head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the largest caucus in Congress, on the killing of the Turkish American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi. She said, “I am very troubled by the reports that she was killed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers. The Netanyahu government has done nothing to stop settlement expansion and settler violence in the West Bank, often encouraged by right-wing ministers of the Netanyahu government. The killing of an American citizen is a terrible proof point in this senseless war of rising tensions in the region,” she said.
I want to thank you all for being with us, Rachel’s parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, speaking to us more than two decades after Rachel was killed by an Israeli military bulldozer in Gaza near Rafah. I want to thank Amado Sison, Filipino American shot in the leg by Israeli forces a month ago today in Beita, where Ayşenur was also killed. Juliette Majid, Ph.D. student, North Carolina State University, speaking to us from Raleigh, dear friend of Ayşenur Eygi at the University of Washington, where they both graduated.
Coming up, we look at the raids in Jenin. We’ll speak with the Palestinian journalist Mariam Barghouti. Stay with us.
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“The Brutality Is Truly Unprecedented” in West Bank: Mariam Barghouti on Israel’s Deadly Incursions
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 09, 2024
Israel is continuing its military assault across the occupied West Bank, with soldiers storming the Palestinian city of Tulkarm after midnight Monday, just days after Israeli forces withdrew from Tulkarm and Jenin following a brutal incursion that lasted over one week. Israeli troops have also raided other towns and villages across the occupied territory as part of the largest Israeli military operation in the West Bank in about two decades, deploying hundreds of soldiers backed by armored vehicles, bulldozers, fighter jets and drones. Israel has killed dozens of Palestinians since launching the operation on August 28. “The brutality is truly unprecedented,” says Palestinian journalist Mariam Barghouti, who adds that in many of the targeted areas, Israel has “bulldozed the overwhelming majority of the civilian infrastructure.” Her recent piece for +972 Magazine is titled “Inside the brutal siege of Jenin.”
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.
We return now to the occupied West Bank, where Israeli soldiers stormed the city of Tulkarm just after midnight today in new raids that come just days after Israeli forces withdrew from Tulkarm and Jenin. Israeli troops also raided the Balata refugee camp in the northern West Bank earlier today, and in Abu Shukheidim, near Ramallah, Al Jazeera reports Israeli forces were seen raiding homes.
On Friday, Israeli forces temporarily retreated from Jenin, Tulkarm and other areas in the occupied West Bank after laying siege to the cities for 10 days, killing dozens of Palestinians, including children and elders, and leaving a trail of destruction. Simultaneous raids also took place across Nablus, Bethlehem, Hebron and Ramallah in the largest Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank in two decades, with hundreds of troops backed by armored vehicles, bulldozers, fighter jets and drones.
During the raids, Israeli soldiers fired live rounds at Palestinian journalists documenting the attacks, injuring at least four of them in the town of Kafr Dan. Footage also surfaced of Israeli forces in an armored tank rolling over the dead body of an 82-year-old Palestinian man in Jenin who was killed Friday by Israeli soldiers and denied medical attention.
Meanwhile, Israeli settlers have continued their attacks in the West Bank. In Qaryut, near Nablus, a 13-year-old Palestinian girl was killed by Israeli gunfire as settlers attacked the village. Bana Laboum was hit by a bullet Friday while she was in her bedroom. Her mother described the Israeli attack ahead of her daughter’s burial.
IMAN LEBWAM: [translated] She was in her room along with her sisters. She was afraid, in fear, and suddenly a bullet got in through the window and hit her while she was on her bed. This is what happened. There were scuffles outside with the youth, but we were surprised that a bullet came through the window and onto her.
AMY GOODMAN: Over 650 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October, nearly 150 of them children, most of them during near-daily raids by the Israeli military. That’s added on to the more than 40,000 Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza, and that figure is expected to be much higher, 16,000 of them children.
We go now to Ramallah, where we’re joined by Mariam Barghouti, Palestinian writer and journalist. Her recent piece for +972 Magazine is titled “Inside the brutal siege of Jenin.”
Mariam, welcome back to Democracy Now! Explain what has happened there in Jenin.
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Thank you for having me, Amy.
So, what we have seen in Jenin specifically, but generally in the northern areas of the West Bank, is an escalated attack and an offensive under the title of Operation Summer Camps by the Israeli military. And what we have seen is the Israeli military basically greenlighting the use of lethal force excessively and sporadically, which is why we’re hearing news of young children being shot by bullets, as well as journalists being sniped by Israeli snipers.
And what the Israeli military did was essentially bring in D9 Caterpillar bulldozers within the city of Jenin, likewise in Tulkarm within the city, and then moving deeper towards the camp, and where they bulldozed nearly — the overwhelming majority of the civilian infrastructure, that includes water pipe, that includes electric wiring, that includes the sewage system. And the Israeli military basically besieged the entire city.
Entry and exit was dangerous and risky, because you can get shot, even as press. Medical personnel, as well as ambulances, were obstructed from moving patients, not simply banning injured persons from the camp throughout the nine-day siege, but patients from Jenin city were unable to reach the only governmental hospital in Jenin that is adjacent to the camp and was basically placed under siege by the Israeli military.
So, what we saw was an intensification and a brutal offensive. Again, this is an offensive by the Israeli military under the — and I quote — it’s a “preemptive strike against Palestinian terrorists.” But what I have seen on the ground is it was targeting essentially civilians mostly, and there was a very clear attempt to conceal what is happening from media, and that means from global audiences.
AMY GOODMAN: Again, you said they call this Operation Summer Camps?
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Yes. So, the Israeli military has called this Operation Summer Camps. It was officially declared between August 27th or 28th of last month. And the Israeli military claims that they are basically targeting refugee camps. That’s why “summer camps.” But again, what we have seen is they’re targeting civilians. And they said the refugee camps, because that’s primarily where Palestinian combatants are operating from. Again, this is the Israeli military going into these areas and attacking these areas, under the statement of “this is a preemptive strike against terrorism.” But what we have seen is a focus on the civilian infrastructure and near destruction of the refugee camps, which are Area A and, under the Oslo Accords, outside the jurisdiction of the Israeli military or government.
AMY GOODMAN: So, can you describe what Jenin was like and the level of destruction left behind? Palestinians in the camp describe being forced out of their homes by gunpoint.
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Yeah. So, Jenin has been under constant attack by the Israeli military for the past two years specifically, but generally, across time, in Palestine. But we have seen an intensification. So, every other month, the Israeli military would actually invade Jenin refugee camp and carry out lethal attacks against its community.
But this time what we have seen is that the brutality is truly unprecedented. The Israeli military, not just in the camp, but even on the outskirts, went into civilian buildings and, at gunpoint, forced families out of their homes to places unknown, to a fate unknown. They didn’t know where they will sleep, how long they will be away from their houses. And when they returned on Friday to their homes after the Israeli withdrawal, what I saw was complete destruction of their homes and their apartments. The furniture was ruined. Mattresses, they had dung on them. There were attack dogs that were put in these homes. The refrigerators would be destroyed. There would be Hebrew graffiti on the walls.
And inside the camp, it’s truly very difficult to capture it in words. I just saw families cleaning up the rubble, cleaning up the trash left behind by the Israeli military. The walls are full of bullets. It’s just rubble all over the ground. It’s so difficult to walk. Cars can’t move within the camp. And the families, you know, when I would ask them, “Are you going to rebuild? What are you going to do now?” they would respond with, “Why would we rebuild now, if the Israeli army is only going to come for another invasion, as we have seen happen in Tulkarm last night?” Again, after withdrawal from Tulkarm refugee camp, the Israeli military just kept going back.
So, people are frightened. They feel abandoned. They have zero protection. And again, in an impoverished area to rebuild, which is going to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to rebuild the infrastructure, it’s truly a cost and a toll, and clearly, it is put to cripple Palestinian civil society.
AMY GOODMAN: Mariam, can you explain who is the Jenin Brigade? What’s their role in Jenin versus the security forces affiliated with the Palestinian Authority?
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Right. So, in Jenin refugee camp, to what the military, Israeli military, dubs as the “wasps’ nest,” we have seen a rise of Palestinian armed youth groups, starting within 2021 until today. And these are small battalions. These are youth that grew up in the camp. Many of them have been imprisoned by Israel under administrative detention, meaning no trial, no charge, only torture. And they decided to take up arms, essentially, because they found that across the last decade, any efforts of Palestinians, whether it is in negotiations or whether it is in unarmed and nonviolent confrontation, has only allowed Israel to continue its expansion of settlements on Palestinian lands and continue its escalation of violence on Palestinians. So they see themselves as the force that is trying to push back. Even though they’re limited in resources, they are protecting their homes.
And please remember that these are the refugees that, essentially, Israel and its militia, its Zionist militias, had kicked out of their original homes in 1948 that are located within heartland Palestine, or what is now Israel. The difference between them and the Palestinian Authority is that the Palestinian Authority, which has been given the role of an administrative role under the Oslo Accord —
AMY GOODMAN: We just have 15 seconds.
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: — has actually done nothing, has done nothing to protect Palestinians, and actually, during the siege, remained within the headquarters, letting Palestinian families just being bombed constantly throughout the siege.
AMY GOODMAN: Mariam Barghouti, Palestinian writer and journalist, we’ll link to your piece for +972 Magazine, “Inside the brutal siege of Jenin.” Part 2 online at democracynow.org, when we ask her what it’s like to be a journalist reporting on Jenin.
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 09, 2024
U.N.: Israel Carrying Out “Starvation Campaign” as the Entire Gaza Strip Remains in Urgent Need of Food
Sep 09, 2024
Israel’s war on Gaza has entered its 12th month as the official death toll nears 41,000 — though that is believed to be a vast undercount. Israel killed at least eight Palestinians Saturday in an airstrike on a school housing displaced people in the Jabaliya refugee camp. Meanwhile, the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, has accused Israel of carrying out a “starvation campaign” in Gaza. The World Food Programme warns some 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza remain in urgent need of food and humanitarian aid.
Israeli Forces Kill American Activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi in Occupied West Bank
Sep 09, 2024
In the occupied West Bank, a funeral is being held today for Turkish American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, who was shot dead Friday by Israeli forces. She was a 26-year-old recent graduate of the University of Washington who was volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement. She was shot while taking part in a weekly protest against illegal Israeli settlements in the town of Beita. The Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak witnessed the shooting.
Jonathan Pollak: “By the time this had happened, it was completely quiet here. We were standing for 10, 15 minutes without anything happening. The reason why no one was filming is because it was completely quiet. And then, all of a sudden, two shots. And the sniper or the soldier that was there took a kill shot.”
We will have more on this story after headlines.
Meanwhile, Israeli troops are also accused of fatally shooting a 13-year-old Palestinian girl named Bana Laboum. She was hit by a bullet while inside her own home in the village of Qaryut, which had been attacked by Israeli settlers. Bana’s mom spoke out after her daughter was killed.
Iman Lebwam: “She was in her room along with her sisters. She was afraid, in fear, and suddenly a bullet got in through the window and hit her while she was on her bed. This is what happened. There were scuffles outside with the youth, but we were surprised that a bullet came through the window and onto her.”
Israelis Take to Streets for Mass Protests Calling for Hostage Deal, Removal of Netanyahu
Sep 09, 2024
As many as 750,000 Israelis took to the streets Saturday in Tel Aviv and other cities calling for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal in what’s been described as one of the largest protests in Israeli history. This is Zahiro Shahar Mor, whose uncle Avraham Munder died in captivity in Gaza.
Zahiro Shahar Mor: “As long as Netanyahu remains in power, we will keep getting hostages back in body bags. Netanyahu must be removed from power in order to save the lives of the hostages and the country itself.”
Israel Temporarily Closes Border Crossings with Jordan After Shooting of 3 Israeli Security Guards
Sep 09, 2024
A Jordanian truck driver shot dead three Israeli security guards at a border crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan on Sunday. Israel responded by temporarily closing all border crossings with Jordan. Pedestrian traffic has resumed on the Allenby Bridge, the site of the shooting.
Separate Israeli Attacks Kill 3 Paramedics in Lebanon, 16 People in Syria
Sep 09, 2024
Three Lebanese paramedics were killed and two were injured Saturday in an Israeli attack on southern Lebanon. The Lebanese government said the paramedics were killed as they were responding to fire sparked by recent Israeli airstrikes.
In related news, Israel is accused of attacking Syria overnight, killing at least 16 people in Hama province. Another 36 people were wounded.
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Justice for Ayşenur Eygi: As Israel Kills Another American in West Bank, Will U.S. Demand Accountability?
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 09, 2024
A funeral is being held today in the occupied West Bank for Turkish American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, who was shot dead Friday by Israeli forces while taking part in a weekly protest against illegal Israeli settlements in the town of Beita. The 26-year-old recent graduate of the University of Washington was a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement. Witnesses say she was fatally shot in the head by an Israeli sniper after the demonstration had already dispersed. The Turkish government has said it holds Israel responsible for Ayşenur’s death, while the U.S. government has offered condolences and called for Israel to investigate the incident. At least 17 Palestinian protesters have been killed in Beita in protests against illegal Israeli settlements since 2020.
Juliette Majid, a friend of Eygi at the University of Washington, remembers the slain activist as being “passionate about justice” and involved in various causes. “She’s no longer with us, but her spirit and her love and who she was and who she impacted in our community are still with us every day,” says Majid. Filipino American activist Amado Sison, who also volunteered in the occupied West Bank and was himself shot in the leg by Israeli forces on August 9 during a weekly protest in Beita, says the U.S. government must demand an independent investigation and end Israeli impunity. “If they took it seriously that a U.S. citizen was shot a month ago, maybe Ayşenur would be here right now,” he says.
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.
In Nablus in the occupied West Bank, a funeral procession is underway at the time of this broadcast for the Turkish American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi. She was killed by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank on Friday. Ayşenur was a 26-year-old recent graduate of UDub, the University of Washington, in Seattle. She was shot dead by Israeli forces during a weekly Friday protest against illegal Israeli settlements in the town of Beita.
According to eyewitnesses, Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and live ammunition, forcing the protesters to disperse down a hill on the edge of the town. Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak, who was on the scene, said the shooting took place about half an hour after the protesters had dispersed and the situation was calm. He said Ayşenur and other foreign volunteers were standing about 200 yards from the Israeli military. He described what happened.
JONATHAN POLLAK: So, after retreating from the hilltop, I was right there where the garbage can is. And that’s — it was completely quiet already back then. The clashes had dissipated. And then, after 10 or 15 minutes it was completely quiet, I heard two distinct shots of live ammunition. One hit a metal object, and then I retreated a little bit backward into the olive grove, and then, a few seconds after, maybe two or three seconds, a second shot. And I heard someone calling my name and saying in English, “Help! Help us! We need help! Come over.” So I chased — I raced through the olive grove down there.
Her head was gushing with blood. She was lying here. I put my hand behind her back to try and stop the bleeding, which didn’t stop. I looked up and saw a direct line of sight from where the soldiers were on that rooftop, some 200 meters away. I quickly took her pulse. It was very, very weak. Her eyes were rolled back. Her skin started becoming yellow. And we panically called for the ambulance to come.
By the time this had happened, it was completely quiet here. We were standing for 10, 15 minutes without anything happening. The reason why no one was filming is because it was completely quiet. And then, all of a sudden, two shots. And the sniper or the soldier that was there took a kill shot. And this happens in context. This isn’t an isolated incident. It happens in the context of the 17 people who were killed in demonstrations in Beita since 2021. We have heard nothing about them because they’re not Americans.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak.
Ayşenur was taken to a hospital in Nablus, where she was pronounced dead on arrival. The governor of Nablus told reporters Saturday an autopsy confirmed that Ayşenur was, quote, “killed by an Israeli occupation sniper’s bullet to the head,” unquote.
The Israeli military said in a statement it was, quote, “looking into reports that a foreign national was killed” and that, quote, “details of the incident and the circumstances in which she was hit are under review,” unquote. The statement added Israeli forces had, quote, “responded with fire toward a main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks at the forces and posed a threat to them,” unquote.
The Turkish government has said it holds Israel responsible for Ayşenur’s death. On Saturday, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan blasted Israel for the killing.
PRESIDENT RECEP TAYYIP ERDOĞAN: [translated] Yesterday, they heinously murdered our young child Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi. To date, they have killed over 40,000 innocent civilians, including 17,000 children. They attack barbarically and shed blood indiscriminately, whether it be children, women, youth or the elderly.
AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, the White House has called on Israel to investigate the attack. This is Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaking on Friday.
SECRETARY OF STATE ANTONY BLINKEN: First, I just want to extend my deepest condolences, the deepest condolences of the United States government to the family of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi. We deplore this tragic loss. Now, the most important thing to do is to gather the facts. And that’s exactly what we’re in the process of doing, and we are intensely focused on getting those facts. And any actions that we take are driven by the facts. So, first things first, let’s find out exactly what happened, and we will draw the necessary conclusions and consequences from that.
AMY GOODMAN: Ayşenur’s family has called for an independent investigation, saying, quote, “We welcome the White House’s statement of condolences, but given the circumstances of Ayşenur’s killing, an Israeli investigation is not adequate. We call on President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Secretary of State Blinken to order an independent investigation into the unlawful killing of a U.S. citizen and to ensure full accountability for the guilty parties,” end-quote.
At least 17 Palestinian protesters have been killed in Beita in protests against illegal Israeli settlements since 2020.
For more, we’re joined by two guests. Amado Sison, which is a pseudonym, is a Filipino American citizen who was shot in the leg by the Israeli forces one month ago today, on August 9th, during the weekly protest in Beita in the occupied West Bank. Sison was volunteering with the international nonviolent protective presence group Faz3a, the same group Ayşenur was with along with being a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement. Amado Sison a high school English teacher from Jersey City in New Jersey. We’re also joined by Juliette Majid. She was friends with Ayşenur at the University of Washington. Juliette Majid is now a Ph.D. student at North Carolina State University. She’s joining us from Raleigh, North Carolina.
Juliette, let’s begin with you. Tell us who Ayşenur is. She, like you, just graduated from UDub, from the University of Washington, in Seattle, where she grew up since, well, her family came there from Turkey, since before she was 1 year old.
JULIETTE MAJID: Yeah. First of all, thank you for saying who she is. She’s no longer with us, but her spirit and her love and her — who she was and who she impacted in our community are still with us every single day. The family, I think, in their statement had beautiful, beautiful words that I want to uplift on who she was. She was amazing, a staunch advocate and organizer. She was passionate about justice. She was compassionate and kind, and she wore her heart on her sleeves. She always made you feel like you were listened to. You never had to think when talking to her; you just had to be. That’s how she was. She just was herself, nobody else. She inspired everybody she ever met. She inspired me. And I know that, going forward, I will keep holding her in my heart, as well.
AMY GOODMAN: Juliette, I know this is incredibly difficult for you. She was killed on Friday. This is just Monday. And our deepest condolences to you and to Ayşenur’s family, which I know extends beyond her own family, but to the whole community at UDub, those who were involved, like you and her, in the encampment there, like there were encampments all over the United States, protesting the Israeli war on Gaza. Can you talk about her activism — you talked about how she inspired you — and also about learning of her death on Friday? She had just gotten to the occupied West Bank — right? — did a training on Wednesday and was killed on Friday. And you’re now a student in North Carolina.
JULIETTE MAJID: Yeah, so I met Ayşenur at the University of Washington. We both graduated in June. More than just the student encampment, she was a community organizer in Seattle. She was always volunteering to help, always volunteering in the community, in the campus, before the encampment and after. So many people met her during the encampment. She was just always around, always willing to help. She moved in a wonderful grassroots way that was just always willing to assist wherever it was needed. She never asked much of herself. She always asked what others wanted from her, what they needed from her, how she could help, what she could do. She was very passionate about the student movement at UDub. She was very involved on campus. And the community is absolutely reeling, heartbroken, trying to come to terms with what happened. It was, as you said, so recent, on Friday. So many, I think, community members learned through the media on Friday morning, an absolutely heartbreaking way to find out for those who loved her. And there are so many. Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: This is the second loss in the UDub community, because on October 7th, Hayim Katsman was killed when Hamas raided, came over from Gaza. We spoke to his sibling Noy, who also immediately called for peace and said that their brother Hayim was a peace activist, as well.
JULIETTE MAJID: I can only speak to who I knew, and that was Ayşenur, who was upholding a long tradition of international observers in the West Bank, who was deliberately killed while she was peacefully observing. I want to uplift what the family has asked for, which is a independent U.S. investigation. We don’t — I don’t want to just rely on the Israeli military to investigate themselves. An American citizen, a member of our community, an American human rights activist who was passionate about the liberation of all peoples, here in the States and abroad, was taken from us. We want an investigation. We want our government to — I want our government to investigate this and to hold the guilty parties accountable. Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: Juliette, we’re joined here in New York by another activist who joined those protests in Beita, just as Ayşenur did last week. Amado Sison, not his real name, a pseudonym, is a Filipino American, a Jersey City teacher, who was shot in the leg by Israeli soldiers a month ago today, August 9th, during that protest in Beita, volunteering with the international nonviolent group Faz3a. If you could explain with that is, Amado?
AMADO SISON: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: And also working with the International Solidarity Movement. In a moment, we’re going to talk with Rachel Corrie’s parents, who was killed 20 years ago, also with the ISM, protesting the Israeli occupation. If you can talk about what happened a month ago, the fact that you, too, were shot, and what the U.S. government has done about this?
AMADO SISON: Yeah. So, to clarify, so, ISM and Faz3a, we both work together in training. We’re two separate organizations. And Ayşenur was part of ISM, and I was part of Faz3a. But we see each other during those protests. So —
AMY GOODMAN: You’re walking with a cane now.
AMADO SISON: Yeah, I’m walking with a cane. They shot me in the leg.
AMY GOODMAN: Why were you protesting in Beita? Explain what it is.
AMADO SISON: Yeah. So, every week, our organizations come to Beita to protest the illegal settlement that was built upon Beita’s land, the Evyatar settlement, I believe. And there’s a Jum’ah prayer that happens. And after the prayer, that’s when the chanting starts. We never got to get to the settlement, for them to return to the land, because tear gas happened. So, they shoot tear gas at us. They shot live rounds at us. We’ve had to hide behind concrete walls. You could see the dust coming off of the concrete wall when the live rounds hit. When they come down, we run.
And then, on that day, we regrouped, and then we were at the foot of the street that goes up to where the watchtower was, where the Israeli army was. We saw them coming down, and we saw Palestinians running from our left, so we ran through the olive groves. So, when I was running, I got shot in the back of my leg. And I thought it was a tear gas canister, because it was a — it felt like a blunt object hit me. But when we got —
AMY GOODMAN: We’re actually showing, for our TV audience —
AMADO SISON: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: — your leg when you were shot.
AMADO SISON: Yeah, yeah. I only saw that twice. So, yeah, so, when I got to the clearing, the Palestinians raised me up, put me in a pickup truck, got me to the clinic, transferred me to an ambulance. And getting to the hospital, we had two trucks blocking us and then two checkpoints where they demanded to see who was inside, so it delayed my care further. But the Palestinians showed me so much care and love, and I am indebted to them for saving me that day.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go to Jonathan Pollak, the Israeli activist who held Ayşenur as she died, has taken part in the weekly protests against the settlement in Beita for months. Jonathan couldn’t join us today because he’s taking part in this funeral procession for Ayşenur in Nablus. We spoke to him yesterday, and this is some of what he had to say.
JONATHAN POLLAK: I would just like to say that her death is not an isolated incident. The bullet that was shot at Ayşenur is the exact same bullet that was shot at Amado Sison a few weeks ago, like, hitting him in the leg, another American citizen hurt in exactly the same place. It is the same bullet used by Israeli forces to kill — to kill the people in Nur Shams and in Jenin. And these are the same bullets that killed a 13-year-old girl on the same day that Ayşenur was killed, just a few kilometers to the south. These are the same bullets that Israel uses to perpetrate the genocide in Gaza with complete impunity. And all these bullets are provided to Israel by the American taxpayers’ money. And the one thing that sets this incident apart is that on Friday, American bullets killed an American citizen. And this is why we hear of it now.
But it is really time for this to stop. It is time that Israel is held accountable and is forced to end its colonial regime over Palestinians and ensure Palestinian liberation. Now, that kill shot — and this soldier took a kill shot — was meant to convey a message. And that message is that any sort of Palestinian resistance to Israeli colonialism will not be tolerated, whether it be Palestinians resisting Israeli occupation or solidarity activists standing with Palestinians as they fight for liberation. And however violent the Israeli message is going to be, our message to the Israelis is that, no matter what, we will continue to stand with Palestinians in the struggle for liberation.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s the Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak, who held Ayşenur as she died. She was there then. He went in the ambulance with her to the hospital in Nablus. He described to us also how this was after the weekly protest that they hold, this weekly protest every Friday. And they were done. It was very calm, when Ayşenur was shot in the head. Amado Sison, just staying with you for a moment, you were shot a month ago. What did the — you’re a U.S. citizen. You’re a teacher in Jersey City. What did the U.S. government do? Did you speak to the U.S. Embassy?
AMADO SISON: Yeah, so, it was just the U.S. Embassy. They reached out when I got shot.
AMY GOODMAN: In Israel?
AMADO SISON: Yeah. And we filed a report, don’t have any updates about what that turned into. I did give them a report, as well, consent. But no State Department, no politicians, nobody has reached out to me. And what I think is, if they took it seriously that a U.S. citizen was shot a month ago, maybe Ayşenur would be here right now.
AMY GOODMAN: So, did the ambassador or staff come to you in the hospital? Did the State Department here speak to you when you returned, shot in the leg?
AMADO SISON: No, nothing. I heard nothing from them.
AMY GOODMAN: You’ve demanded an investigation?
AMADO SISON: I demand an investigation now for when I was shot, for, you know, Ayşenur’s murder, an independent U.S. investigation, because what the Israel report was was it was a mistake shooting me. Mistakes usually come from above and down. They shot me through my right thigh all the way through.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, they said they shot in the air.
AMADO SISON: They said it was a mistake. So, I don’t know what a mistake would be when you’re pointing and shooting straight through someone’s thigh. So, I don’t know what they’re going to conclude about Ayşenur, but I know that if they investigate themselves, they will find a way to cover it up. So, I want to uplift her family’s demands, as well.
***
Rachel Corrie’s Parents Mourn Death of Ayşenur Eygi, Warn of Israeli Military Cover-Up
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 09, 2024
As friends and family mourn the killing of Turkish American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, we speak with the parents of Rachel Corrie, another American killed while volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement to protect Palestinians from attacks and displacement. Corrie was just 23 years old when she was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer in Gaza in 2003 as she attempted to use her body to stop the destruction of Palestinian homes. Cindy and Craig Corrie have since devoted their lives to their daughter’s cause and founded the nonprofit Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice. They say the news of Eygi’s death brought back painful memories. “It thrusts us back to that moment on March 16, 2003, about noon, when we were in Charlotte, North Carolina, and got the word about Rachel,” says Cindy Corrie. “It’s a parent’s nightmare.” Craig Corrie echoes calls by Eygi’s family for an independent probe into her killing. “Israel does not do investigations; they do cover-ups.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn right now to a family that knows the pain of a daughter’s death. Ayşenur Eygi had been volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement, or ISM, to try to protect Palestinians from attacks by the Israeli military and settlers. That’s the same group that Rachel Corrie, also a U.S. citizen — she was a student at Evergreen College in Washington, in Olympia. She was volunteering with ISM in 2003 when she was crushed to death. It was actually three days before the U.S. invaded Iraq. It was March 16, 2003. She was crushed to death in Gaza by an Israeli military bulldozer. She was trying to protect the home of a Palestinian pharmacist’s family in Rafah that was about to be demolished. She was 23.
We’re joined right now by Rachel’s parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie. After Rachel was killed, they devoted their lives to her cause, founded the nonprofit Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice. Cindy is the foundation’s president; Craig, the treasurer. They’ve also gone on interfaith peace missions to Israel, to Gaza and the West Bank.
Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Cindy and Craig. I remember seeing you at Evergreen College. It was the largest graduation Evergreen ever had, in Olympia, that year, 2003, but it was missing one student who was supposed to have graduated, your daughter Cindy, who was killed in Rafah. When you heard this news of Ayşenur on Friday, I was wondering your response. And if you can talk about what you see as the parallels?
CINDY CORRIE: Thank you, Amy. And thank you to all of your guests who have shared this very tragic story.
We learned, we started to get word about what had happened to Ayşenur on Friday morning. And it was, of course, very disturbing and emotional for us. I think, for me, you know, it thrusts us back to that moment of March 16th, 2003, about noon, when we were in Charlotte, North Carolina, and got the word about Rachel. And I remember, you know, just the horror and the pain of that news. And so, for me, on Friday morning — I remember wondering, you know: Would I ever feel whole again? Would I ever be the same person again? Could I ever enjoy life? I mean, it’s a parent’s nightmare. And so, Friday morning, knowing that there was another family so nearby, in Seattle, who was getting that same kind of news was just very, very disturbing. And we continue to just feel deeply about what that family is experiencing right now.
AMY GOODMAN: Craig, if you can tell us — I mean, we actually just recently spoke to the two of you. You also called for an investigation. What ultimately came of the death of Rachel Corrie, killed by an Israeli military bulldozer, which was a Caterpillar bulldozer?
CRAIG CORRIE: Well, of course, we did call for a U.S. investigation into Rachel’s killing. Let me say that what we’re hearing today, it’s upsetting to our family to hear our State Department again, and I would expect them to say, that they are trying to find out the facts and looking to Israel for that. Israel does not do investigations; they do cover-ups. So, let’s face it, nothing’s going to come out of there that’s going to help these citizens or whoever may be killed in the future. That’s what we’re trying to stop. Our family worked for an investigation into Rachel’s killing, and we wanted some consequences out of that. And we hoped — even though we didn’t know the names of the people that would be killed in the future, we hoped that that would stop and it would not happen.
I think, at this point, yes, U.S. has to do an investigation, but there needs to be consequences. As Jonathan pointed out, these are American weapons that are being used. That’s against U.S. law, and it should be stopped. I know from working with members of Congress and their staff, working with the State Department, that under the Leahy Law, usually they’re asking for proof that it was a U.S. weapon. If I write a check, I don’t need proof about what’s going wrong. I need people to cooperate and determine that it’s not our money that’s being used that way. Israel does not do that, to my knowledge. So, we also need to look for international help here. I think that the U.N., the International Criminal Courts, they’re places that need to get involved. But we’re just sick and tired of hearing platitudes from the State Department. And these are people we’ve met. We have met with Antony Blinken before he became secretary of state. He’s a decent person. But there needs to be consequences, and there needs to be consequences that are enforced by the entire U.S. government and the international community.
CINDY CORRIE: We heard those words that we hear so often when something like this happens, that the U.S. had asked for a thorough, credible, transparent investigation. We did pursue help from the State Department, from our government, and we kept pursuing that help for many years. And, you know, we were still getting statements in — I believe it was 2008 from the State Department. Michelle Bernier-Toth wrote to us about how many people in the administration at that time had spoken to their counterparts in Israel about a thorough, credible and transparent investigation for Rachel’s case. And she — these were people like Secretary of State Colin Powell talking to his counterpart, a long list of names that you would recognize. And at the close, she said those requests go unanswered or ignored.
And when you think about what we’re doing, what we’re supplying to the Israeli military, to the Israeli government, the kind of backing that’s being given to them, it’s really — it was just really shocking that there would be this verbal request for accountability, or at least for an investigation, on the part of Israel. But the U.S. acknowledged that that hadn’t happened. And in fact, now-Secretary of State Tony Blinken in 2010 confirmed for us that the position of the U.S. government in Rachel’s case remains that there has not been a thorough, credible and transparent investigation in her case.
Also, the U.S. — we fought for investigation for years, U.S. investigation. There’s a very — we were told there’s very limited statute that allows for that to happen in the U.S. The Justice Department and FBI, apparently, ultimately, looked for that possibility. But we were told that policy impacts whether they take that on, and that even if there were investigation, prosecution of someone would be extremely unlikely through the U.S. So it’s one of the reasons that we are saying there needs to be an international element here, an international commitment to ensuring that an unbiased investigation happens, that an impartial investigation happens.
We ultimately went to the Israeli courts, which we learned are also implicated in furthering Israeli policy and occupation. And we heard the lead investigator, who completed the military investigation — and it’s important for people to understand Israel’s investigations are military investigations. It became clear that that was conducted in order to exonerate the Israeli military, not to find truth and what really happened. And that’s what our family was pursuing. But the lead investigator stated under oath in Haifa court that he believed that they were at war with everyone, including the peace activists from the International Solidarity Movement. I think that’s really important information for people to understand now as we move forward in this tragic case.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to end with the words of Congressmember Pramila Jayapal of Washington, who’s head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the largest caucus in Congress, on the killing of the Turkish American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi. She said, “I am very troubled by the reports that she was killed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers. The Netanyahu government has done nothing to stop settlement expansion and settler violence in the West Bank, often encouraged by right-wing ministers of the Netanyahu government. The killing of an American citizen is a terrible proof point in this senseless war of rising tensions in the region,” she said.
I want to thank you all for being with us, Rachel’s parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, speaking to us more than two decades after Rachel was killed by an Israeli military bulldozer in Gaza near Rafah. I want to thank Amado Sison, Filipino American shot in the leg by Israeli forces a month ago today in Beita, where Ayşenur was also killed. Juliette Majid, Ph.D. student, North Carolina State University, speaking to us from Raleigh, dear friend of Ayşenur Eygi at the University of Washington, where they both graduated.
Coming up, we look at the raids in Jenin. We’ll speak with the Palestinian journalist Mariam Barghouti. Stay with us.
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“The Brutality Is Truly Unprecedented” in West Bank: Mariam Barghouti on Israel’s Deadly Incursions
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 09, 2024
Israel is continuing its military assault across the occupied West Bank, with soldiers storming the Palestinian city of Tulkarm after midnight Monday, just days after Israeli forces withdrew from Tulkarm and Jenin following a brutal incursion that lasted over one week. Israeli troops have also raided other towns and villages across the occupied territory as part of the largest Israeli military operation in the West Bank in about two decades, deploying hundreds of soldiers backed by armored vehicles, bulldozers, fighter jets and drones. Israel has killed dozens of Palestinians since launching the operation on August 28. “The brutality is truly unprecedented,” says Palestinian journalist Mariam Barghouti, who adds that in many of the targeted areas, Israel has “bulldozed the overwhelming majority of the civilian infrastructure.” Her recent piece for +972 Magazine is titled “Inside the brutal siege of Jenin.”
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.
We return now to the occupied West Bank, where Israeli soldiers stormed the city of Tulkarm just after midnight today in new raids that come just days after Israeli forces withdrew from Tulkarm and Jenin. Israeli troops also raided the Balata refugee camp in the northern West Bank earlier today, and in Abu Shukheidim, near Ramallah, Al Jazeera reports Israeli forces were seen raiding homes.
On Friday, Israeli forces temporarily retreated from Jenin, Tulkarm and other areas in the occupied West Bank after laying siege to the cities for 10 days, killing dozens of Palestinians, including children and elders, and leaving a trail of destruction. Simultaneous raids also took place across Nablus, Bethlehem, Hebron and Ramallah in the largest Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank in two decades, with hundreds of troops backed by armored vehicles, bulldozers, fighter jets and drones.
During the raids, Israeli soldiers fired live rounds at Palestinian journalists documenting the attacks, injuring at least four of them in the town of Kafr Dan. Footage also surfaced of Israeli forces in an armored tank rolling over the dead body of an 82-year-old Palestinian man in Jenin who was killed Friday by Israeli soldiers and denied medical attention.
Meanwhile, Israeli settlers have continued their attacks in the West Bank. In Qaryut, near Nablus, a 13-year-old Palestinian girl was killed by Israeli gunfire as settlers attacked the village. Bana Laboum was hit by a bullet Friday while she was in her bedroom. Her mother described the Israeli attack ahead of her daughter’s burial.
IMAN LEBWAM: [translated] She was in her room along with her sisters. She was afraid, in fear, and suddenly a bullet got in through the window and hit her while she was on her bed. This is what happened. There were scuffles outside with the youth, but we were surprised that a bullet came through the window and onto her.
AMY GOODMAN: Over 650 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October, nearly 150 of them children, most of them during near-daily raids by the Israeli military. That’s added on to the more than 40,000 Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza, and that figure is expected to be much higher, 16,000 of them children.
We go now to Ramallah, where we’re joined by Mariam Barghouti, Palestinian writer and journalist. Her recent piece for +972 Magazine is titled “Inside the brutal siege of Jenin.”
Mariam, welcome back to Democracy Now! Explain what has happened there in Jenin.
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Thank you for having me, Amy.
So, what we have seen in Jenin specifically, but generally in the northern areas of the West Bank, is an escalated attack and an offensive under the title of Operation Summer Camps by the Israeli military. And what we have seen is the Israeli military basically greenlighting the use of lethal force excessively and sporadically, which is why we’re hearing news of young children being shot by bullets, as well as journalists being sniped by Israeli snipers.
And what the Israeli military did was essentially bring in D9 Caterpillar bulldozers within the city of Jenin, likewise in Tulkarm within the city, and then moving deeper towards the camp, and where they bulldozed nearly — the overwhelming majority of the civilian infrastructure, that includes water pipe, that includes electric wiring, that includes the sewage system. And the Israeli military basically besieged the entire city.
Entry and exit was dangerous and risky, because you can get shot, even as press. Medical personnel, as well as ambulances, were obstructed from moving patients, not simply banning injured persons from the camp throughout the nine-day siege, but patients from Jenin city were unable to reach the only governmental hospital in Jenin that is adjacent to the camp and was basically placed under siege by the Israeli military.
So, what we saw was an intensification and a brutal offensive. Again, this is an offensive by the Israeli military under the — and I quote — it’s a “preemptive strike against Palestinian terrorists.” But what I have seen on the ground is it was targeting essentially civilians mostly, and there was a very clear attempt to conceal what is happening from media, and that means from global audiences.
AMY GOODMAN: Again, you said they call this Operation Summer Camps?
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Yes. So, the Israeli military has called this Operation Summer Camps. It was officially declared between August 27th or 28th of last month. And the Israeli military claims that they are basically targeting refugee camps. That’s why “summer camps.” But again, what we have seen is they’re targeting civilians. And they said the refugee camps, because that’s primarily where Palestinian combatants are operating from. Again, this is the Israeli military going into these areas and attacking these areas, under the statement of “this is a preemptive strike against terrorism.” But what we have seen is a focus on the civilian infrastructure and near destruction of the refugee camps, which are Area A and, under the Oslo Accords, outside the jurisdiction of the Israeli military or government.
AMY GOODMAN: So, can you describe what Jenin was like and the level of destruction left behind? Palestinians in the camp describe being forced out of their homes by gunpoint.
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Yeah. So, Jenin has been under constant attack by the Israeli military for the past two years specifically, but generally, across time, in Palestine. But we have seen an intensification. So, every other month, the Israeli military would actually invade Jenin refugee camp and carry out lethal attacks against its community.
But this time what we have seen is that the brutality is truly unprecedented. The Israeli military, not just in the camp, but even on the outskirts, went into civilian buildings and, at gunpoint, forced families out of their homes to places unknown, to a fate unknown. They didn’t know where they will sleep, how long they will be away from their houses. And when they returned on Friday to their homes after the Israeli withdrawal, what I saw was complete destruction of their homes and their apartments. The furniture was ruined. Mattresses, they had dung on them. There were attack dogs that were put in these homes. The refrigerators would be destroyed. There would be Hebrew graffiti on the walls.
And inside the camp, it’s truly very difficult to capture it in words. I just saw families cleaning up the rubble, cleaning up the trash left behind by the Israeli military. The walls are full of bullets. It’s just rubble all over the ground. It’s so difficult to walk. Cars can’t move within the camp. And the families, you know, when I would ask them, “Are you going to rebuild? What are you going to do now?” they would respond with, “Why would we rebuild now, if the Israeli army is only going to come for another invasion, as we have seen happen in Tulkarm last night?” Again, after withdrawal from Tulkarm refugee camp, the Israeli military just kept going back.
So, people are frightened. They feel abandoned. They have zero protection. And again, in an impoverished area to rebuild, which is going to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to rebuild the infrastructure, it’s truly a cost and a toll, and clearly, it is put to cripple Palestinian civil society.
AMY GOODMAN: Mariam, can you explain who is the Jenin Brigade? What’s their role in Jenin versus the security forces affiliated with the Palestinian Authority?
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Right. So, in Jenin refugee camp, to what the military, Israeli military, dubs as the “wasps’ nest,” we have seen a rise of Palestinian armed youth groups, starting within 2021 until today. And these are small battalions. These are youth that grew up in the camp. Many of them have been imprisoned by Israel under administrative detention, meaning no trial, no charge, only torture. And they decided to take up arms, essentially, because they found that across the last decade, any efforts of Palestinians, whether it is in negotiations or whether it is in unarmed and nonviolent confrontation, has only allowed Israel to continue its expansion of settlements on Palestinian lands and continue its escalation of violence on Palestinians. So they see themselves as the force that is trying to push back. Even though they’re limited in resources, they are protecting their homes.
And please remember that these are the refugees that, essentially, Israel and its militia, its Zionist militias, had kicked out of their original homes in 1948 that are located within heartland Palestine, or what is now Israel. The difference between them and the Palestinian Authority is that the Palestinian Authority, which has been given the role of an administrative role under the Oslo Accord —
AMY GOODMAN: We just have 15 seconds.
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: — has actually done nothing, has done nothing to protect Palestinians, and actually, during the siege, remained within the headquarters, letting Palestinian families just being bombed constantly throughout the siege.
AMY GOODMAN: Mariam Barghouti, Palestinian writer and journalist, we’ll link to your piece for +972 Magazine, “Inside the brutal siege of Jenin.” Part 2 online at democracynow.org, when we ask her what it’s like to be a journalist reporting on Jenin.
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Re: U.S. Backing Has Given Israel License to Kill & Maim
by admin » Thu Sep 19, 2024 1:39 am
Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
Sep 10, 2024
Israeli Strike Kills 40 Displaced Palestinians in Gaza “Safe Zone”
Sep 10, 2024
In the Gaza Strip, at least 40 Palestinians were killed and scores more injured this morning as an Israeli strike ripped through a tent encampment housing displaced Palestinians near Khan Younis. Israel had designated the area as a so-called safe zone. Witnesses say at least four missiles fell onto the crowded camp as people slept, engulfing tents in flames and scattering body parts. The United Nations says its efforts to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of children against polio were further delayed after members of a U.N. convoy were detained by Israel’s military at gunpoint for more than eight hours Monday in northern Gaza. This is U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.
Volker Türk: “Ending the war and averting a full-blown regional conflict is an absolute and urgent priority. Equally, the wider situation of illegality across the Occupied Palestinian Territory deriving from Israel’s policies and practices, as so clearly spelled out by the International Court of Justice in its advisory opinion in July, must be comprehensively addressed.”
Monday marked the traditional first day of school in Gaza, but for a second year in a row classes are canceled for all of Gaza’s schoolchildren. ActionAid Palestine said in a statement, “Going to school is not a luxury, it’s a fundamental right, and yet hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza are being denied an education for the second academic year in a row. A whole generation is being denied the opportunity to learn and build a better future for themselves.”
Funeral Held for Turkish American Activist Killed by Israeli Forces in West Bank
Sep 10, 2024
In the occupied West Bank, mourners held a funeral procession Monday for Turkish American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, who was fatally shot in the head by Israeli forces Friday while she joined a protest against illegal Israeli settlements in the town of Beita. Witnesses say she was killed by an Israeli sniper after the demonstration had already dispersed. This is Lulu, another U.S. activist in the West Bank.
Lulu: “We’re all very saddened by this. My heart and my thoughts are with her family. And we, as volunteers here, we feel her loss, but we are not scared off by the Israelis. We are not scared off by this attack. We will continue to stay here in solidarity with the Palestinians for as long as we live, no matter what happens.”
Ayşenur’s family is calling on the Biden administration to order an independent investigation into the unlawful killing of a U.S. citizen and to ensure full accountability. On Monday, the State Department appeared to rule out a U.S.-led probe, saying it would wait for the results of an Israeli investigation.
Vedant Patel: “I think most important is to let this process play out, for the facts to be gathered and for those to come to light. And I will just leave it at that.”
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Tariq Ali on U.S. & U.K. Arming Israel’s War on Gaza, Pakistan Protests & Macron’s Embrace of the Right
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
Sep 10, 2024
We speak to acclaimed historian, activist and filmmaker Tariq Ali about Western governments’ support for Israel’s war on Gaza and popular protest in support of Palestine, which Ali calls the “biggest divide we’ve seen in politics almost since the Vietnam War.” He argues that this division is “challenging the very nature of democracy” and the international rule of law. Ali also shares his analysis of South Asian politics — in Pakistan, where former Prime Minister Imran Khan has accused the United States of engineering his ouster, and in Bangladesh, where a student-led uprising recently toppled the authoritarian regime of its former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Finally, we cover developments in Europe. In France, President Emmanuel Macron has appointed conservative leader Michel Barnier as prime minister, despite the electoral gains of the country’s left-wing coalition. This comes as far-right and anti-migrant sentiment spreads throughout the Global North.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Britain to meet with the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the Foreign Secretary David Lammy. The focus is expected to be on the Middle East, Ukraine and the Asia-Pacific. Blinken’s meeting comes just days after the United Kingdom announced it’s suspending some arms exports to Israel, citing a risk they might be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza. Britain’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer of the Labour Party, defended the decision.
PRIME MINISTER KEIR STARMER: This is a serious issue. We either comply with international law or we don’t. And we only have strength in our arguments because we comply with international law.
AMY GOODMAN: Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy told the British Parliament last week many weapons exports to Israel will continue, including parts for F-35 fighter jets.
DAVID LAMMY: This is not an arms embargo. It targets around 30, approximately of 350 licenses to Israel in total, for items which could be used in the current conflict in Gaza. The rest will continue.
AMY GOODMAN: Oxfam responded to the British government’s move by calling for all arms exports to be suspended to Israel.
To talk about Britain, Israel’s war on Gaza, and much more, we’re joined by Tariq Ali, the acclaimed historian, activist, filmmaker, editor of the New Left Review and the author of over 50 books, including the forthcoming You Can’t Please All: Memoirs 1980-2024. He’s joining us here in our studio in New York.
Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Tariq. It’s great to have you in person.
TARIQ ALI: Very good to be with you and Juan, Amy. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in this studio, about 12 years almost.
AMY GOODMAN: Amazing. Well, today you are here, and Antony Blinken is meeting with Keir Starmer in London and the Foreign Minister David Lammy. There have been massive protests in London around a U.K. policy toward supporting Israel in its war on Gaza, and now you have this stopping of some arms shipments to Israel. Can you talk about the U.K. stance and the U.K.-U.S. relationship, especially when it comes to Gaza right now and Israel?
TARIQ ALI: The U.K., Amy, has been totally complicit in this war. They’ve sent help. They’ve sent fighter jets. Their personnel are involved. So, for them to pretend somehow that they’re an impartial party is utterly ridiculous. This war has been supported by the Conservative government, and it’s now being supported by the Labour government. Keir Starmer, the prime minister you just showed on the screen, as leader of the opposition, supported the genocide in Gaza, supported the cutting off of electricity, supported the cutting off of all water supplies.
I think they have received legal advice that they have to do something or they are liable to international law by the courts — not that that amounts to very much, as we see these days. But I think that’s the reason they made a few cuts to the aid. But as they themselves say, these are meaningless. They’re purely symbolic.
And the bulk of the country now wants aid to Israel, and the military aid particularly, cut off. The antiwar movement in Britain is one of the largest in the world. We’ve had, I think now — it’s almost a year, Amy, since this war began. Almost a year. And we’ve had dozens and dozens of demonstrations, some including a million people. So the country is opposed to this, you know, across the board.
But we have these governments in power — I call them the extreme-center governments, because, right or left, they do the same thing. And why is Blinken visiting Starmer? Normally they send orders online. So, why the need for a personal visit is to boost each other’s morale. I can see no other reason for it.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Tariq, it’s not just the U.K. government, but most of the European Union governments. Could you talk about the wide gap between how these governments are dealing with Israel’s war on Gaza and the rest of the world, especially the Global South?
TARIQ ALI: Well, the Global South is more or less, you know, formally hostile to it. This is the biggest divide we’ve seen in politics almost since the Vietnam War, that the Global South opposed to the war and the West very much in favor of it, Juan. And this comes across very clearly. Now, the other thing is that the demonstrators — you know, Jews, non-Jews, Palestinians, non-Palestinians — who’ve been marching in the streets of Western cities are identifying here very clearly with the Global South, so even in their own homeland, not to mention in the United States, the demonstrations and the campus struggles. So what we are seeing is a big divide on a global level and a divide on an internal level, where large sections, if not majorities, are against what their governments are doing in backing unconditionally what the Israelis have been up to for a year now in Palestine.
And this divide is going to continue, given what is going on with the U.S.-China rivalries. And so, this gulf now which has opened up is going to be difficult to resolve. I mean, whatever else, on foreign policy, I don’t think there will be any big change in the United States regardless of who is elected. So, the demonstrations still go on, a year later, all over Europe, including France. The Germans have banned demonstrations. They don’t allow them because of their special links to the Judeocide and Holocaust of the Second World War, for which the Palestinians are now being punished. That’s what’s going on.
And it’s quite a critical situation, because lots of young people who I come across and speak to are challenging and questioning the very nature of democracy, the nature of the system which exists, where one court, international court, after the other has said this genocide must stop, pressure on the International Criminal Court not to prosecute Netanyahu, which has been demanded. And so, international law itself has now been questioned.
So we are now in a situation where what the United States says goes. The decisions are made in the White House and the Pentagon and the State Department. These are the key institutions which determine what happens in Israel. And why the U.S. is doing this puzzles many people who are sympathetic to them. Why are they doing this, when we’ve had presidents like Truman, like Reagan, like Bush Sr. stopping Israel from doing things like this when it was necessary? Now not a single phone call, both political parties totally complicit in this war. They might have other disagreements, but on the Gaza war, they are completely united, apart from indies, like Jill Stein, who, personally, I would vote for, were I a U.S. citizen, a sort of excellent politician. But apart from her and a few others, there’s no one else in the mainstream who’s come out against this. And this is very disturbing, I think, for democracy itself and for all its legal, political institutions.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Tariq, I wanted to ask you, in terms of — you’re talking about the state of democracy. In your own homeland of Pakistan. Imran Khan has been detained since — for over a year now, accused of inciting violence, a former prime minister. And the U.N. panel recently had findings that Imran Khan’s detention is politically motivated. Do you think there will be any pressure on Pakistan to release him?
TARIQ ALI: So far, there hasn’t been any pressure. And Imran Khan, when he was first dismissed from office, claimed that the United States was behind the dismissal because of the positions he had taken on Ukraine at that particular time. He directly accused the State Department of having engineered his dismissal.
So, the fact that he is still in prison is a sign that the people who control Pakistan are the military. Politicians come and go. Political parties come and go. Politicians change sides in order to gain office. But effectively, Juan, it is the Pakistani Army that has run the show for many, many decades. They make the decisions. They choose the politicians, including Imran. He was a military choice. And his successors are military choices.
And now they are nervous, because normally they can discredit a politician very quickly. They haven’t been able to do it in the case of Imran Khan, and all the opinion polls show that were there to be an election in Pakistan, Imran would win by large majorities throughout the country. The Army have now made him a martyr. They’ve made him a popular hero. And he has been locked up in prison on completely frivolous and bogus charges.
AMY GOODMAN: So, there’s also the discussion of banning the PTI party, the Khan party, talking about it, oh, inciting violence, leaking classified information. What would that mean?
TARIQ ALI: Well, the classified information he revealed, Amy, which should be of interest to viewers here, is that a senior figure from the Pakistan Foreign Office said — wrote a letter back home from the United States saying that in the United States, he had been told in very clear language that Imran had to go. Well, in Pakistan, as in other parts of the world, these letters are not — they don’t remain secret for too long. So, Imran referred to the letter in public, stating something which most people knew. And as a result of that, they’ve charged him with betraying official secrets. I mean, there was no official secret. Everyone knew this in the first place.
And so, I think they’re determined to get rid of him. Banning his party won’t help, because his popularity will increase. And if there’s another uprising, like we’ve seen in Bangladesh recently, that could erupt in Pakistan, then they’ve had it. I mean, they’ll have to shoot people on the streets. And we’ll see a repeat of the uprisings of the ’60s and ’70s.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Tariq, I wanted to ask you about Bangladesh. The supporters of the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have claimed that the United States was behind that, as well, that it wasn’t really a popular uprising as much as a color revolution. I’m wondering your thoughts. Is there any credible evidence that that is so?
TARIQ ALI: I don’t think so, Juan. I mean, you know, because the United States has done these things in the past, it can do them everywhere. And what we saw in Bangladesh was a very authoritarian government, confronted largely by students demanding democratic rights and freedoms and an end to laws which they regard as anti-democratic. And they won. She ran. She was taken by a special plane waiting for her to India and is now blaming the United States for this. In my opinion, there is no evidence to show U.S. involvement so far. Some may come out. We will see.
But I think more disturbing is that the students who replaced her had no real alternative. So quite a few unprincipled parties, political parties, and politicians who were there and are now in power, or close to it, are mistreating Awami League supporters. And that, too, is unacceptable.
But in Bangladesh, as in Pakistan, behind the scenes in Bangladesh, it’s the military who rules. The appointment of a sort of banker who became a celebrity and won the Nobel Prize, Dr. Yunus, very, very aged man, older even than me, and he is not going to be able to deliver anything. Behind him, it’s the Army.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go to what’s happening in France. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets Saturday protesting President Macron’s appointment of the conservative Michel Barnier as the new prime minister even though leftist parties won the most of votes in July’s snap parliamentary elections. This is the leader of the leftist Unbowed party, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, speaking last week.
JEAN-LUC MÉLENCHON: [translated] And so the election has been stolen from the French people. The message has been denied, and now we’re finding out about a prime minister that was named with the permission and maybe on the suggestion of the far-right National Rally, knowing that the second round of the legislative election has been entirely concentrated on making this National Rally fail.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s Jean-Luc Mélenchon, head of Unbowed. You have the leftists winning, and the president, Macron, who called the snap election and yet lost it, giving the prime ministership to the right.
TARIQ ALI: It’s appalling, Amy. I mean, this is the sort of trend we see in most of the Western world, a very authoritarian approach to politics if they lose. And Jean-Luc Mélenchon was determined to fight. He created a new united front with the socialists and all progressive parties to make sure that the extreme right-wing party of Marine Le Pen was defeated. Macron had said before the election, “Let the far right come to power. They’ll discredit themselves.” Well, that didn’t happen because of the campaign waged by La France Insoumise, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon in particular. Effectively, they created a united front which defeated the far right. And this spoiled brat Macron, who belongs — who came up from nowhere, you know, a sort of technocrat politician, now operates as if he’s a statesman. I mean, I think he has discredited himself considerably. And we shall see. He had a meeting with the far right. He has not met Mélenchon once. He’s made it clear that he’s not going to appoint a president from the group or the bloc which got the largest votes.
And this is the trend I was referring to earlier, of they feel they can get away with anything. And there have been demonstrations. There have been a few strikes, as well. But there’s been no big protest from the so-called international community, i.e. the State Department in D.C. You know, no protest from Foggy Bottom at all that this is intolerable behavior, because, you know, they tolerate it when their own allies do it.
How it’s going to turn out for Macron, we shall see. I think there is now 52% voted for his impeachment. I mean, in opinion polls, 52% of French people said that Macron should be prosecuted and impeached. So he’s divided the country quite, quite sharply. So, we’ll see what he does. I mean, Barnier is a joke figure. He got 4% of the vote, and he’s been appointed prime minister.
I mean, what’s needed in France actually, to be serious, is an abolition of this Fifth Republic that was created by de Gaulle after he seized power as a general in 1958. And it was designed to give the president maximum powers. It’s not a democratic state, you know, in any sense of the word. The democracy has tried to push through it. And so, we need a new republic. And, you know, Mélenchon has been arguing, and many of us have been, let’s have elections to a constituent assembly to choose and draft a new constitution. We need a Sixth Republic in France, because the Fifth Republic has failed.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Tariq, I wanted to ask you, though — across Europe, the extreme right wing, especially anti-immigrant parties, have been gaining strength, even though in Britain and France they’ve been beaten back. But even the center has become increasingly more anti-immigrant, anti-African, anti-Arab, anti- — in the United States — Latin American. What’s your sense of the prospects for progressives and radicals to win popular support, given that sectors of the working class and the middle classes are falling prey to this anti-immigrant phobia?
TARIQ ALI: Oh, Juan, this is always the case at times of crisis — social, political, economic — that people from the working class and the middle class, as you call it here, get carried away. It’s a simple propaganda: “We don’t have enough jobs. We don’t have enough money. Look at these people coming from outside.” Well, in Europe, you can say that, but in the United States, as I always point out, everyone has come from the outside, except Native Americans. So, what is the big deal? That, you know, you just want to exclude people of color. In Europe, of course, they went and searched for workers all over the former colonies, because after the Second World War, there was a big shortage of labor. And what they did, effectively, was to go and plead with West Indian Black nurses to come and run the British National Health Service, for workers to come and run the factories. And this is a population which they are now targeting.
But the most reprehensible feature of this, as you point out, is that mainstream politicians have not managed to frontally take on these arguments. In fact, in the new Labour government, you have politicians sort of slyly saying, “Well, yes, there are problems. We have too many immigrants. Labour is working very hard to try and stop the flow.” And the result of this is illegal gangs promising migrants in poverty-stricken countries or countries where you have large numbers of people dislodged by wars, as we see in the Middle East today and as we’ve seen for the last five or six years, who want to come and seek refuge. And they’re being denied entry into the countries which have made these wars. And, in effect, many of them are drowning in boats in the English Channel, just dropping dead, being pushed out by unscrupulous gangsters who promised them that they would get them in illegally. So it’s a really grim situation on that front.
And this is now in Germany, too, that in recent state elections in the former eastern Germany, Thuringia, the far-right party, AfD, won the largest vote. I mean, you know, they can still be outvoted, but they won a large vote. And this is spreading in other parts of Germany, too, which also takes in the fact that some of these far-right groups are saying, “Why are we backing a war with Russia? Why are we supporting Ukraine? It’s not in our national interest. Why are we following the Americans?” So, it’s immigration and a lot of other issues actually being tied together by these parties. And the extreme-center governments, center-left and center-right, do nothing. They’re actually provoking this by doing nothing at all.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Tariq Ali, we want to thank you for being with us and in our studio. We look forward to having you back to talk about your memoirs when they are released. Tariq Ali is a British Pakistani historian, activist, filmmaker, editor of the New Left Review, the author of over 50 books, including the forthcoming You Can’t Please All: Memoirs 1980-2024, in from London, here in New York City.
Coming up, as the official death toll in Gaza tops 41,000, we talk to former U.S. presidential candidate Ralph Nader about how the current death toll that is being repeated around the world may be a vast undercount. We’ll also be speaking with him about the upcoming debate, maybe the only one, between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Stay with us.
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“A Horrifying Undercount”: Ralph Nader Says True Gaza Death Toll Could Be Many Times Higher
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
Sep 10, 2024
Former presidential candidate and celebrated consumer advocate Ralph Nader discusses Israel’s war on Gaza, the U.S. presidential election and more. Nader’s latest article, “Exposing the Gaza Death Undercount,” can be read in the Capitol Hill Citizen, which he also founded. The official death toll in Gaza has been suspended at around 40,000 for months, as Israel’s devastation of the territory makes it increasingly difficult to properly recover and identify the dead. Nader says that the true cost in Palestinian lives could already be “well over 300,000,” and that “if the true count was known, it would devastate the mythology that the Biden administration and Congress are furthering, that the Israeli government does not purposely target civilian populations.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We continue to look at Israel war’s on Gaza, where the official death toll has topped 41,000 Palestinians, though that could be a vast undercount that doesn’t include those who remain trapped in the rubble and the people and children who have died due to chronic illnesses, infectious diseases spreading across Gaza.
Over the past 11 months, Israel has destroyed Gaza’s health system and other crucial infrastructure, placed a blockade on medications and other urgent aid. More than 2 million Palestinians living in Gaza also risk imminent famine, with children starving at a record rate. The U.N. humanitarian aid chief Martin Griffiths has said life is “draining out of Gaza at terrifying speed,” unquote.
Even some Biden administration officials have admitted the Gaza death toll could be significantly higher. This is Barbara Leaf, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, speaking last November.
BARBARA LEAF: In this period of conflict and conditions of war, it is very difficult for any of us to assess what the rate of casualties are. We think they’re very high, frankly. And it could be that they’re even higher than are being cited. We’ll know only after the guns fall silent. So, you know, we take in sourcing from a variety of folks who are on the ground. And so, I can’t stipulate to one figure or another, but I think that it’s very possible that they’re even higher than is being reported.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf.
The prestigious British medical journal Lancet has estimated the actual death toll could be 186,000 or even higher, roughly 8% of Gaza’s population. The report looks at how war leads to indirect deaths due to shortages of medical care, food, shelter and water.
This all comes as protests continue demanding the U.S. government immediately halt its military aid to Israel and calling on Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, who’s debating Donald Trump tonight in Philadelphia, to shift her policies on Gaza.
For more, we go to Washington, D.C., where we’re joined by Ralph Nader, longtime consumer advocate, corporate critic, former presidential candidate four times. He’s the author of many books, including, most recently, Let’s Start the Revolution: Tools for Displacing the Corporate State and Building a Country That Works for the People. Ralph Nader is the founder of the monthly print-only newspaper, Capitol Hill Citizen, where his front-page article in the latest issue is headlined “Exposing the Gaza Death Undercount.”
Let’s start with this undercount, what you are saying is so much higher, the death toll in Gaza, than what we understand.
RALPH NADER: Amy, this is a horrifying undercount, and it has political rationale for it. If the true count was known, it would devastate the mythology that the Biden administration and Congress are furthering, that the Israeli government does not purposely target civilian populations and, therefore, violate all kinds of U.S. laws, conditioning the shipment of weapons to Israel, and international laws.
So, I put together in this article in the Capitol Hill Citizen — people can go to CapitolHillCitizen.com and get it — the various probative evidence that shows that experts, who are blocked from getting additional data that the State Department has and is keeping secret — that the evidence shows that it’s well over 300,000. And it may double by the end of the year. In an article in The Guardian by the distinguished chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh titled “Scientists are closing in on the true, horrifying scale of death and disease in Gaza,” she estimates over 300,000 before the end of the year, pointing out, with The Lancet report that you mentioned, that The Lancet people used a very — quote, “used a very conservative estimate, but allowed that the number could easily be much higher.”
And so, why is this happening? Why are all sides, the anti-genocide side, the Israeli, the Hamas — why are they always using these figures? Because, for different reasons, it serves their political purposes. Hamas doesn’t want the true count to be known, because it will be assailed by its own people and its international allies as unable to protect its own people and provide shelters. Netanyahu, of course, wants it lowballed for obvious reasons, and Biden for the same reason.
So, what do these scientists see? They see a tiny enclave the geographical size of Philadelphia with 2.3 million people, crowded, already sick and destitute from years of Israeli illegal embargoes, high levels of anemia among the children before October 7th, and then, starting October 8th, the Israeli military issued the genocidal orders of no food, no water, no medicine, no electricity, no fuel, and they proceeded accordingly. And so, what these scientists are seeing are what’s called the empirical evidence, that people on social media are seeing and others. With over 130,000 bombs and missiles, plus daily tank shelling, ruthless sniper fire, there’s been massive destruction of apartment buildings, congested marketplaces, refugee camps, hospitals, over 150 health clinics, masses of families huddled in schools being blown up, ambulances being blown up, bakeries destroyed, schools, universities, mosques, churches, roads, electricity networks, critical water mains — just about everyone and everything.
And some people, partisans of Netanyahu, will say, “Oh, the Israeli government never targets civilians.” Historically, they’ve always targeted civilians. Go back to the early '80s, when former Israeli ambassador and foreign minister Abba Eban wrote of Israel under then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin that Israel — and I'm quoting him — quote, “is wantonly inflicting every possible measure of death and anguish on civilian populations in a mood reminiscent of regimes which neither Mr. Begin nor I would dare to mention by name,” end-quote. And just a few years earlier, in the late '70s, Israel's leading military analyst, summing up remarks by the Israeli chief of staff, stated the following, quote, “The Israeli Army has always struck civilian populations, purposefully and consciously. The Army has never distinguished civilian [from military] targets … [but] purposefully attacked civilian targets,” end-quote.
And why is this important? Because to this day, all of the administration spokespeople are denying that Israel has targeted civilians, denying that Israel has violated international genocide laws, denying that they have violated six federal statutes conditioning shipment of weapons to foreign countries on recognizing human rights excessively. To this administration and to the Congress, all deaths of civilians are accidental. Blowing up schools sheltering refugees, well, that was a mistake. So that’s why it’s important, Amy and Juan, to get that estimate as reliably high as possible.
We are seeing possibly a million deaths before the end of the year. We have starvation. We have infectious diseases. All the doctors that you’ve had on Democracy Now! have provided the clinical evidence of what’s going on, 5,000 babies born every month into the rubble, contaminated water, horrific air pollution with heavy metals from the bombing, and no food. We’re led to believe by these 41,000 figures that 98% or more of the Palestinian population is still alive? I mean, what are they made of? Asbestos and steel? And as the doctors have said on your program, when they went back to the rubble and the broken hospitals, they didn’t meet anybody in Gaza who wasn’t sick or injured. There was an interview in February on Al Jazeera by a Gaza undertaker who’s doing this free of charge and crying every day with his assistants on the open graves. He says he’s buried 17,000 bodies, including 800 in one day, and that was back in February.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Ralph, I wanted to ask you — in addition to the bombings and the killings of civilians, Israel has also refused to allow foreign press to come into Gaza and has systematically been killing those journalists, those Palestinians within Gaza who are reporting. Talk about this attack on the press, that really has not gotten much outrage in the West.
RALPH NADER: Yeah, I mean, how weak can you get as a president of the United States or member of Congress when you can’t even demand that Netanyahu let foreign and Israeli journalists, including U.S. journalists, into Gaza to freely report? He’s been blocking this for years. And the Israeli military has targeted, as you indicated, Palestinian journalists. They’ve killed over 165 of them, including, in addition, members of their own family, targeting apartments, for example. They’ve killed over 200 members of UNRWA, the U.N. relief. They’re out to destroy every relief center, every food — feeding center of UNRWA, education center.
I mean, this is — right now let’s put it in comparative terms here. More Palestinians have been killed since October 8th than have been killed by the U.S. in Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Dresden. That total death toll was about 235,000-240,000 people. And those deaths were in countries, Germany and Japan, with 160 million population. Here we only have 2.3 million population. And all you’ve got to do is read the Israeli press, read Haaretz, read the statements by —
AMY GOODMAN: We have five seconds, Ralph.
RALPH NADER: — 17 Israeli human rights groups.
AMY GOODMAN: Ralph Nader, we want to thank you for being with us, longtime consumer advocate, corporate critic, four-time former presidential candidate. We’ll link to your article in the Capitol Hill Citizen, “Exposing the Gaza Death Undercount.”
That does it for our show. Watch tonight’s debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris at democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
Sep 10, 2024
Israeli Strike Kills 40 Displaced Palestinians in Gaza “Safe Zone”
Sep 10, 2024
In the Gaza Strip, at least 40 Palestinians were killed and scores more injured this morning as an Israeli strike ripped through a tent encampment housing displaced Palestinians near Khan Younis. Israel had designated the area as a so-called safe zone. Witnesses say at least four missiles fell onto the crowded camp as people slept, engulfing tents in flames and scattering body parts. The United Nations says its efforts to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of children against polio were further delayed after members of a U.N. convoy were detained by Israel’s military at gunpoint for more than eight hours Monday in northern Gaza. This is U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.
Volker Türk: “Ending the war and averting a full-blown regional conflict is an absolute and urgent priority. Equally, the wider situation of illegality across the Occupied Palestinian Territory deriving from Israel’s policies and practices, as so clearly spelled out by the International Court of Justice in its advisory opinion in July, must be comprehensively addressed.”
Monday marked the traditional first day of school in Gaza, but for a second year in a row classes are canceled for all of Gaza’s schoolchildren. ActionAid Palestine said in a statement, “Going to school is not a luxury, it’s a fundamental right, and yet hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza are being denied an education for the second academic year in a row. A whole generation is being denied the opportunity to learn and build a better future for themselves.”
Funeral Held for Turkish American Activist Killed by Israeli Forces in West Bank
Sep 10, 2024
In the occupied West Bank, mourners held a funeral procession Monday for Turkish American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, who was fatally shot in the head by Israeli forces Friday while she joined a protest against illegal Israeli settlements in the town of Beita. Witnesses say she was killed by an Israeli sniper after the demonstration had already dispersed. This is Lulu, another U.S. activist in the West Bank.
Lulu: “We’re all very saddened by this. My heart and my thoughts are with her family. And we, as volunteers here, we feel her loss, but we are not scared off by the Israelis. We are not scared off by this attack. We will continue to stay here in solidarity with the Palestinians for as long as we live, no matter what happens.”
Ayşenur’s family is calling on the Biden administration to order an independent investigation into the unlawful killing of a U.S. citizen and to ensure full accountability. On Monday, the State Department appeared to rule out a U.S.-led probe, saying it would wait for the results of an Israeli investigation.
Vedant Patel: “I think most important is to let this process play out, for the facts to be gathered and for those to come to light. And I will just leave it at that.”
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Tariq Ali on U.S. & U.K. Arming Israel’s War on Gaza, Pakistan Protests & Macron’s Embrace of the Right
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
Sep 10, 2024
We speak to acclaimed historian, activist and filmmaker Tariq Ali about Western governments’ support for Israel’s war on Gaza and popular protest in support of Palestine, which Ali calls the “biggest divide we’ve seen in politics almost since the Vietnam War.” He argues that this division is “challenging the very nature of democracy” and the international rule of law. Ali also shares his analysis of South Asian politics — in Pakistan, where former Prime Minister Imran Khan has accused the United States of engineering his ouster, and in Bangladesh, where a student-led uprising recently toppled the authoritarian regime of its former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Finally, we cover developments in Europe. In France, President Emmanuel Macron has appointed conservative leader Michel Barnier as prime minister, despite the electoral gains of the country’s left-wing coalition. This comes as far-right and anti-migrant sentiment spreads throughout the Global North.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Britain to meet with the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the Foreign Secretary David Lammy. The focus is expected to be on the Middle East, Ukraine and the Asia-Pacific. Blinken’s meeting comes just days after the United Kingdom announced it’s suspending some arms exports to Israel, citing a risk they might be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza. Britain’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer of the Labour Party, defended the decision.
PRIME MINISTER KEIR STARMER: This is a serious issue. We either comply with international law or we don’t. And we only have strength in our arguments because we comply with international law.
AMY GOODMAN: Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy told the British Parliament last week many weapons exports to Israel will continue, including parts for F-35 fighter jets.
DAVID LAMMY: This is not an arms embargo. It targets around 30, approximately of 350 licenses to Israel in total, for items which could be used in the current conflict in Gaza. The rest will continue.
AMY GOODMAN: Oxfam responded to the British government’s move by calling for all arms exports to be suspended to Israel.
To talk about Britain, Israel’s war on Gaza, and much more, we’re joined by Tariq Ali, the acclaimed historian, activist, filmmaker, editor of the New Left Review and the author of over 50 books, including the forthcoming You Can’t Please All: Memoirs 1980-2024. He’s joining us here in our studio in New York.
Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Tariq. It’s great to have you in person.
TARIQ ALI: Very good to be with you and Juan, Amy. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in this studio, about 12 years almost.
AMY GOODMAN: Amazing. Well, today you are here, and Antony Blinken is meeting with Keir Starmer in London and the Foreign Minister David Lammy. There have been massive protests in London around a U.K. policy toward supporting Israel in its war on Gaza, and now you have this stopping of some arms shipments to Israel. Can you talk about the U.K. stance and the U.K.-U.S. relationship, especially when it comes to Gaza right now and Israel?
TARIQ ALI: The U.K., Amy, has been totally complicit in this war. They’ve sent help. They’ve sent fighter jets. Their personnel are involved. So, for them to pretend somehow that they’re an impartial party is utterly ridiculous. This war has been supported by the Conservative government, and it’s now being supported by the Labour government. Keir Starmer, the prime minister you just showed on the screen, as leader of the opposition, supported the genocide in Gaza, supported the cutting off of electricity, supported the cutting off of all water supplies.
I think they have received legal advice that they have to do something or they are liable to international law by the courts — not that that amounts to very much, as we see these days. But I think that’s the reason they made a few cuts to the aid. But as they themselves say, these are meaningless. They’re purely symbolic.
And the bulk of the country now wants aid to Israel, and the military aid particularly, cut off. The antiwar movement in Britain is one of the largest in the world. We’ve had, I think now — it’s almost a year, Amy, since this war began. Almost a year. And we’ve had dozens and dozens of demonstrations, some including a million people. So the country is opposed to this, you know, across the board.
But we have these governments in power — I call them the extreme-center governments, because, right or left, they do the same thing. And why is Blinken visiting Starmer? Normally they send orders online. So, why the need for a personal visit is to boost each other’s morale. I can see no other reason for it.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Tariq, it’s not just the U.K. government, but most of the European Union governments. Could you talk about the wide gap between how these governments are dealing with Israel’s war on Gaza and the rest of the world, especially the Global South?
TARIQ ALI: Well, the Global South is more or less, you know, formally hostile to it. This is the biggest divide we’ve seen in politics almost since the Vietnam War, that the Global South opposed to the war and the West very much in favor of it, Juan. And this comes across very clearly. Now, the other thing is that the demonstrators — you know, Jews, non-Jews, Palestinians, non-Palestinians — who’ve been marching in the streets of Western cities are identifying here very clearly with the Global South, so even in their own homeland, not to mention in the United States, the demonstrations and the campus struggles. So what we are seeing is a big divide on a global level and a divide on an internal level, where large sections, if not majorities, are against what their governments are doing in backing unconditionally what the Israelis have been up to for a year now in Palestine.
And this divide is going to continue, given what is going on with the U.S.-China rivalries. And so, this gulf now which has opened up is going to be difficult to resolve. I mean, whatever else, on foreign policy, I don’t think there will be any big change in the United States regardless of who is elected. So, the demonstrations still go on, a year later, all over Europe, including France. The Germans have banned demonstrations. They don’t allow them because of their special links to the Judeocide and Holocaust of the Second World War, for which the Palestinians are now being punished. That’s what’s going on.
And it’s quite a critical situation, because lots of young people who I come across and speak to are challenging and questioning the very nature of democracy, the nature of the system which exists, where one court, international court, after the other has said this genocide must stop, pressure on the International Criminal Court not to prosecute Netanyahu, which has been demanded. And so, international law itself has now been questioned.
So we are now in a situation where what the United States says goes. The decisions are made in the White House and the Pentagon and the State Department. These are the key institutions which determine what happens in Israel. And why the U.S. is doing this puzzles many people who are sympathetic to them. Why are they doing this, when we’ve had presidents like Truman, like Reagan, like Bush Sr. stopping Israel from doing things like this when it was necessary? Now not a single phone call, both political parties totally complicit in this war. They might have other disagreements, but on the Gaza war, they are completely united, apart from indies, like Jill Stein, who, personally, I would vote for, were I a U.S. citizen, a sort of excellent politician. But apart from her and a few others, there’s no one else in the mainstream who’s come out against this. And this is very disturbing, I think, for democracy itself and for all its legal, political institutions.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Tariq, I wanted to ask you, in terms of — you’re talking about the state of democracy. In your own homeland of Pakistan. Imran Khan has been detained since — for over a year now, accused of inciting violence, a former prime minister. And the U.N. panel recently had findings that Imran Khan’s detention is politically motivated. Do you think there will be any pressure on Pakistan to release him?
TARIQ ALI: So far, there hasn’t been any pressure. And Imran Khan, when he was first dismissed from office, claimed that the United States was behind the dismissal because of the positions he had taken on Ukraine at that particular time. He directly accused the State Department of having engineered his dismissal.
So, the fact that he is still in prison is a sign that the people who control Pakistan are the military. Politicians come and go. Political parties come and go. Politicians change sides in order to gain office. But effectively, Juan, it is the Pakistani Army that has run the show for many, many decades. They make the decisions. They choose the politicians, including Imran. He was a military choice. And his successors are military choices.
And now they are nervous, because normally they can discredit a politician very quickly. They haven’t been able to do it in the case of Imran Khan, and all the opinion polls show that were there to be an election in Pakistan, Imran would win by large majorities throughout the country. The Army have now made him a martyr. They’ve made him a popular hero. And he has been locked up in prison on completely frivolous and bogus charges.
AMY GOODMAN: So, there’s also the discussion of banning the PTI party, the Khan party, talking about it, oh, inciting violence, leaking classified information. What would that mean?
TARIQ ALI: Well, the classified information he revealed, Amy, which should be of interest to viewers here, is that a senior figure from the Pakistan Foreign Office said — wrote a letter back home from the United States saying that in the United States, he had been told in very clear language that Imran had to go. Well, in Pakistan, as in other parts of the world, these letters are not — they don’t remain secret for too long. So, Imran referred to the letter in public, stating something which most people knew. And as a result of that, they’ve charged him with betraying official secrets. I mean, there was no official secret. Everyone knew this in the first place.
And so, I think they’re determined to get rid of him. Banning his party won’t help, because his popularity will increase. And if there’s another uprising, like we’ve seen in Bangladesh recently, that could erupt in Pakistan, then they’ve had it. I mean, they’ll have to shoot people on the streets. And we’ll see a repeat of the uprisings of the ’60s and ’70s.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Tariq, I wanted to ask you about Bangladesh. The supporters of the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have claimed that the United States was behind that, as well, that it wasn’t really a popular uprising as much as a color revolution. I’m wondering your thoughts. Is there any credible evidence that that is so?
TARIQ ALI: I don’t think so, Juan. I mean, you know, because the United States has done these things in the past, it can do them everywhere. And what we saw in Bangladesh was a very authoritarian government, confronted largely by students demanding democratic rights and freedoms and an end to laws which they regard as anti-democratic. And they won. She ran. She was taken by a special plane waiting for her to India and is now blaming the United States for this. In my opinion, there is no evidence to show U.S. involvement so far. Some may come out. We will see.
But I think more disturbing is that the students who replaced her had no real alternative. So quite a few unprincipled parties, political parties, and politicians who were there and are now in power, or close to it, are mistreating Awami League supporters. And that, too, is unacceptable.
But in Bangladesh, as in Pakistan, behind the scenes in Bangladesh, it’s the military who rules. The appointment of a sort of banker who became a celebrity and won the Nobel Prize, Dr. Yunus, very, very aged man, older even than me, and he is not going to be able to deliver anything. Behind him, it’s the Army.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go to what’s happening in France. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets Saturday protesting President Macron’s appointment of the conservative Michel Barnier as the new prime minister even though leftist parties won the most of votes in July’s snap parliamentary elections. This is the leader of the leftist Unbowed party, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, speaking last week.
JEAN-LUC MÉLENCHON: [translated] And so the election has been stolen from the French people. The message has been denied, and now we’re finding out about a prime minister that was named with the permission and maybe on the suggestion of the far-right National Rally, knowing that the second round of the legislative election has been entirely concentrated on making this National Rally fail.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s Jean-Luc Mélenchon, head of Unbowed. You have the leftists winning, and the president, Macron, who called the snap election and yet lost it, giving the prime ministership to the right.
TARIQ ALI: It’s appalling, Amy. I mean, this is the sort of trend we see in most of the Western world, a very authoritarian approach to politics if they lose. And Jean-Luc Mélenchon was determined to fight. He created a new united front with the socialists and all progressive parties to make sure that the extreme right-wing party of Marine Le Pen was defeated. Macron had said before the election, “Let the far right come to power. They’ll discredit themselves.” Well, that didn’t happen because of the campaign waged by La France Insoumise, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon in particular. Effectively, they created a united front which defeated the far right. And this spoiled brat Macron, who belongs — who came up from nowhere, you know, a sort of technocrat politician, now operates as if he’s a statesman. I mean, I think he has discredited himself considerably. And we shall see. He had a meeting with the far right. He has not met Mélenchon once. He’s made it clear that he’s not going to appoint a president from the group or the bloc which got the largest votes.
And this is the trend I was referring to earlier, of they feel they can get away with anything. And there have been demonstrations. There have been a few strikes, as well. But there’s been no big protest from the so-called international community, i.e. the State Department in D.C. You know, no protest from Foggy Bottom at all that this is intolerable behavior, because, you know, they tolerate it when their own allies do it.
How it’s going to turn out for Macron, we shall see. I think there is now 52% voted for his impeachment. I mean, in opinion polls, 52% of French people said that Macron should be prosecuted and impeached. So he’s divided the country quite, quite sharply. So, we’ll see what he does. I mean, Barnier is a joke figure. He got 4% of the vote, and he’s been appointed prime minister.
I mean, what’s needed in France actually, to be serious, is an abolition of this Fifth Republic that was created by de Gaulle after he seized power as a general in 1958. And it was designed to give the president maximum powers. It’s not a democratic state, you know, in any sense of the word. The democracy has tried to push through it. And so, we need a new republic. And, you know, Mélenchon has been arguing, and many of us have been, let’s have elections to a constituent assembly to choose and draft a new constitution. We need a Sixth Republic in France, because the Fifth Republic has failed.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Tariq, I wanted to ask you, though — across Europe, the extreme right wing, especially anti-immigrant parties, have been gaining strength, even though in Britain and France they’ve been beaten back. But even the center has become increasingly more anti-immigrant, anti-African, anti-Arab, anti- — in the United States — Latin American. What’s your sense of the prospects for progressives and radicals to win popular support, given that sectors of the working class and the middle classes are falling prey to this anti-immigrant phobia?
TARIQ ALI: Oh, Juan, this is always the case at times of crisis — social, political, economic — that people from the working class and the middle class, as you call it here, get carried away. It’s a simple propaganda: “We don’t have enough jobs. We don’t have enough money. Look at these people coming from outside.” Well, in Europe, you can say that, but in the United States, as I always point out, everyone has come from the outside, except Native Americans. So, what is the big deal? That, you know, you just want to exclude people of color. In Europe, of course, they went and searched for workers all over the former colonies, because after the Second World War, there was a big shortage of labor. And what they did, effectively, was to go and plead with West Indian Black nurses to come and run the British National Health Service, for workers to come and run the factories. And this is a population which they are now targeting.
But the most reprehensible feature of this, as you point out, is that mainstream politicians have not managed to frontally take on these arguments. In fact, in the new Labour government, you have politicians sort of slyly saying, “Well, yes, there are problems. We have too many immigrants. Labour is working very hard to try and stop the flow.” And the result of this is illegal gangs promising migrants in poverty-stricken countries or countries where you have large numbers of people dislodged by wars, as we see in the Middle East today and as we’ve seen for the last five or six years, who want to come and seek refuge. And they’re being denied entry into the countries which have made these wars. And, in effect, many of them are drowning in boats in the English Channel, just dropping dead, being pushed out by unscrupulous gangsters who promised them that they would get them in illegally. So it’s a really grim situation on that front.
And this is now in Germany, too, that in recent state elections in the former eastern Germany, Thuringia, the far-right party, AfD, won the largest vote. I mean, you know, they can still be outvoted, but they won a large vote. And this is spreading in other parts of Germany, too, which also takes in the fact that some of these far-right groups are saying, “Why are we backing a war with Russia? Why are we supporting Ukraine? It’s not in our national interest. Why are we following the Americans?” So, it’s immigration and a lot of other issues actually being tied together by these parties. And the extreme-center governments, center-left and center-right, do nothing. They’re actually provoking this by doing nothing at all.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Tariq Ali, we want to thank you for being with us and in our studio. We look forward to having you back to talk about your memoirs when they are released. Tariq Ali is a British Pakistani historian, activist, filmmaker, editor of the New Left Review, the author of over 50 books, including the forthcoming You Can’t Please All: Memoirs 1980-2024, in from London, here in New York City.
Coming up, as the official death toll in Gaza tops 41,000, we talk to former U.S. presidential candidate Ralph Nader about how the current death toll that is being repeated around the world may be a vast undercount. We’ll also be speaking with him about the upcoming debate, maybe the only one, between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Stay with us.
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“A Horrifying Undercount”: Ralph Nader Says True Gaza Death Toll Could Be Many Times Higher
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
Sep 10, 2024
Former presidential candidate and celebrated consumer advocate Ralph Nader discusses Israel’s war on Gaza, the U.S. presidential election and more. Nader’s latest article, “Exposing the Gaza Death Undercount,” can be read in the Capitol Hill Citizen, which he also founded. The official death toll in Gaza has been suspended at around 40,000 for months, as Israel’s devastation of the territory makes it increasingly difficult to properly recover and identify the dead. Nader says that the true cost in Palestinian lives could already be “well over 300,000,” and that “if the true count was known, it would devastate the mythology that the Biden administration and Congress are furthering, that the Israeli government does not purposely target civilian populations.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We continue to look at Israel war’s on Gaza, where the official death toll has topped 41,000 Palestinians, though that could be a vast undercount that doesn’t include those who remain trapped in the rubble and the people and children who have died due to chronic illnesses, infectious diseases spreading across Gaza.
Over the past 11 months, Israel has destroyed Gaza’s health system and other crucial infrastructure, placed a blockade on medications and other urgent aid. More than 2 million Palestinians living in Gaza also risk imminent famine, with children starving at a record rate. The U.N. humanitarian aid chief Martin Griffiths has said life is “draining out of Gaza at terrifying speed,” unquote.
Even some Biden administration officials have admitted the Gaza death toll could be significantly higher. This is Barbara Leaf, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, speaking last November.
BARBARA LEAF: In this period of conflict and conditions of war, it is very difficult for any of us to assess what the rate of casualties are. We think they’re very high, frankly. And it could be that they’re even higher than are being cited. We’ll know only after the guns fall silent. So, you know, we take in sourcing from a variety of folks who are on the ground. And so, I can’t stipulate to one figure or another, but I think that it’s very possible that they’re even higher than is being reported.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf.
The prestigious British medical journal Lancet has estimated the actual death toll could be 186,000 or even higher, roughly 8% of Gaza’s population. The report looks at how war leads to indirect deaths due to shortages of medical care, food, shelter and water.
This all comes as protests continue demanding the U.S. government immediately halt its military aid to Israel and calling on Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, who’s debating Donald Trump tonight in Philadelphia, to shift her policies on Gaza.
For more, we go to Washington, D.C., where we’re joined by Ralph Nader, longtime consumer advocate, corporate critic, former presidential candidate four times. He’s the author of many books, including, most recently, Let’s Start the Revolution: Tools for Displacing the Corporate State and Building a Country That Works for the People. Ralph Nader is the founder of the monthly print-only newspaper, Capitol Hill Citizen, where his front-page article in the latest issue is headlined “Exposing the Gaza Death Undercount.”
Let’s start with this undercount, what you are saying is so much higher, the death toll in Gaza, than what we understand.
RALPH NADER: Amy, this is a horrifying undercount, and it has political rationale for it. If the true count was known, it would devastate the mythology that the Biden administration and Congress are furthering, that the Israeli government does not purposely target civilian populations and, therefore, violate all kinds of U.S. laws, conditioning the shipment of weapons to Israel, and international laws.
So, I put together in this article in the Capitol Hill Citizen — people can go to CapitolHillCitizen.com and get it — the various probative evidence that shows that experts, who are blocked from getting additional data that the State Department has and is keeping secret — that the evidence shows that it’s well over 300,000. And it may double by the end of the year. In an article in The Guardian by the distinguished chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh titled “Scientists are closing in on the true, horrifying scale of death and disease in Gaza,” she estimates over 300,000 before the end of the year, pointing out, with The Lancet report that you mentioned, that The Lancet people used a very — quote, “used a very conservative estimate, but allowed that the number could easily be much higher.”
And so, why is this happening? Why are all sides, the anti-genocide side, the Israeli, the Hamas — why are they always using these figures? Because, for different reasons, it serves their political purposes. Hamas doesn’t want the true count to be known, because it will be assailed by its own people and its international allies as unable to protect its own people and provide shelters. Netanyahu, of course, wants it lowballed for obvious reasons, and Biden for the same reason.
So, what do these scientists see? They see a tiny enclave the geographical size of Philadelphia with 2.3 million people, crowded, already sick and destitute from years of Israeli illegal embargoes, high levels of anemia among the children before October 7th, and then, starting October 8th, the Israeli military issued the genocidal orders of no food, no water, no medicine, no electricity, no fuel, and they proceeded accordingly. And so, what these scientists are seeing are what’s called the empirical evidence, that people on social media are seeing and others. With over 130,000 bombs and missiles, plus daily tank shelling, ruthless sniper fire, there’s been massive destruction of apartment buildings, congested marketplaces, refugee camps, hospitals, over 150 health clinics, masses of families huddled in schools being blown up, ambulances being blown up, bakeries destroyed, schools, universities, mosques, churches, roads, electricity networks, critical water mains — just about everyone and everything.
And some people, partisans of Netanyahu, will say, “Oh, the Israeli government never targets civilians.” Historically, they’ve always targeted civilians. Go back to the early '80s, when former Israeli ambassador and foreign minister Abba Eban wrote of Israel under then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin that Israel — and I'm quoting him — quote, “is wantonly inflicting every possible measure of death and anguish on civilian populations in a mood reminiscent of regimes which neither Mr. Begin nor I would dare to mention by name,” end-quote. And just a few years earlier, in the late '70s, Israel's leading military analyst, summing up remarks by the Israeli chief of staff, stated the following, quote, “The Israeli Army has always struck civilian populations, purposefully and consciously. The Army has never distinguished civilian [from military] targets … [but] purposefully attacked civilian targets,” end-quote.
And why is this important? Because to this day, all of the administration spokespeople are denying that Israel has targeted civilians, denying that Israel has violated international genocide laws, denying that they have violated six federal statutes conditioning shipment of weapons to foreign countries on recognizing human rights excessively. To this administration and to the Congress, all deaths of civilians are accidental. Blowing up schools sheltering refugees, well, that was a mistake. So that’s why it’s important, Amy and Juan, to get that estimate as reliably high as possible.
We are seeing possibly a million deaths before the end of the year. We have starvation. We have infectious diseases. All the doctors that you’ve had on Democracy Now! have provided the clinical evidence of what’s going on, 5,000 babies born every month into the rubble, contaminated water, horrific air pollution with heavy metals from the bombing, and no food. We’re led to believe by these 41,000 figures that 98% or more of the Palestinian population is still alive? I mean, what are they made of? Asbestos and steel? And as the doctors have said on your program, when they went back to the rubble and the broken hospitals, they didn’t meet anybody in Gaza who wasn’t sick or injured. There was an interview in February on Al Jazeera by a Gaza undertaker who’s doing this free of charge and crying every day with his assistants on the open graves. He says he’s buried 17,000 bodies, including 800 in one day, and that was back in February.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Ralph, I wanted to ask you — in addition to the bombings and the killings of civilians, Israel has also refused to allow foreign press to come into Gaza and has systematically been killing those journalists, those Palestinians within Gaza who are reporting. Talk about this attack on the press, that really has not gotten much outrage in the West.
RALPH NADER: Yeah, I mean, how weak can you get as a president of the United States or member of Congress when you can’t even demand that Netanyahu let foreign and Israeli journalists, including U.S. journalists, into Gaza to freely report? He’s been blocking this for years. And the Israeli military has targeted, as you indicated, Palestinian journalists. They’ve killed over 165 of them, including, in addition, members of their own family, targeting apartments, for example. They’ve killed over 200 members of UNRWA, the U.N. relief. They’re out to destroy every relief center, every food — feeding center of UNRWA, education center.
I mean, this is — right now let’s put it in comparative terms here. More Palestinians have been killed since October 8th than have been killed by the U.S. in Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Dresden. That total death toll was about 235,000-240,000 people. And those deaths were in countries, Germany and Japan, with 160 million population. Here we only have 2.3 million population. And all you’ve got to do is read the Israeli press, read Haaretz, read the statements by —
AMY GOODMAN: We have five seconds, Ralph.
RALPH NADER: — 17 Israeli human rights groups.
AMY GOODMAN: Ralph Nader, we want to thank you for being with us, longtime consumer advocate, corporate critic, four-time former presidential candidate. We’ll link to your article in the Capitol Hill Citizen, “Exposing the Gaza Death Undercount.”
That does it for our show. Watch tonight’s debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris at democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
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Re: U.S. Backing Has Given Israel License to Kill & Maim
by admin » Thu Sep 19, 2024 1:43 am
Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 11, 2024
Israel Used U.S.-Made 2,000-Pound Bombs in Assault on Gaza Encampment for Displaced Palestinians
Sep 11, 2024
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli attacks have killed more than two dozen Palestinians over the past 24 hours. Among the dead are 13 members of a single family across three generations who were killed when Israel bombed their home in Khan Younis. On Tuesday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres joined a chorus of international condemnation over Israel’s attack on a tent encampment of displaced Palestinians in al-Mawasi, which Israel had designated as a so-called safe zone. The assault killed at least 40 people and injured more than 60 others. Survivors said the blasts buried entire families under the sand and littered the camp with body parts.
Taghreed Abu Asi: “Children became orphans. We became homeless. Where should we go? They said, 'Go to al-Mawasi.' We went to al-Mawasi. They hit us after we were displaced many times. Where are we supposed to go?”
An Al Jazeera investigation found the massacre was carried out by U.S.-made MK-84 bombs produced by General Dynamics.
Meanwhile, Israel has stepped up its attacks on southern Lebanon, with reports of at least 20 Israeli airstrikes overnight that damaged farms and property and sparked intense wildfires. Israel’s military claims one of the strikes killed a Hezbollah commander in the Beqaa Valley.
Israeli Airstrike on West Bank Kills 5 Palestinians in Tubas
Sep 11, 2024
In the occupied West Bank, Israel’s military put the city of Tubas under siege as it carried out an airstrike that killed five Palestinians. Two of the dead were teenagers. Israeli forces also killed two Palestinians during another raid on the city of Tulkarm. The Palestinian Ministry of Health reports Israeli attacks have killed nearly 700 people across the West Bank over the past year.
Blinken Calls Israel’s Killing of U.S. Activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi “Unprovoked and Unjustified”
Sep 11, 2024
The family of the Turkish American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi says the White House has not called to offer condolences after Eygi was fatally shot in the head by an Israeli sniper at a protest in the West Bank town of Beita last Friday. On Tuesday, President Biden said he believed Eygi was killed by accident and that the bullet that struck her ricocheted off the ground. The Israeli military said in a statement it was “highly likely” Eygi was shot by its forces “indirectly and unintentionally” in fire that was not aimed at Eygi but another protester. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meanwhile, criticized Israel’s military for Eygi’s death.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken: “Her killing was both unprovoked and unjustified. No one — no one should be shot and killed for attending a protest. No one should have to put their life at risk just for freely expressing their views. In our judgment, Israeli security forces need to make some fundamental changes in the way that they operate in the West Bank, including changes to their rules of engagement.”
Despite those remarks, the Biden administration has yet to put any conditions on U.S. arms transfers to Israel, including $20 billion in additional weapons sales approved last month.
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 11, 2024
Israel Used U.S.-Made 2,000-Pound Bombs in Assault on Gaza Encampment for Displaced Palestinians
Sep 11, 2024
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli attacks have killed more than two dozen Palestinians over the past 24 hours. Among the dead are 13 members of a single family across three generations who were killed when Israel bombed their home in Khan Younis. On Tuesday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres joined a chorus of international condemnation over Israel’s attack on a tent encampment of displaced Palestinians in al-Mawasi, which Israel had designated as a so-called safe zone. The assault killed at least 40 people and injured more than 60 others. Survivors said the blasts buried entire families under the sand and littered the camp with body parts.
Taghreed Abu Asi: “Children became orphans. We became homeless. Where should we go? They said, 'Go to al-Mawasi.' We went to al-Mawasi. They hit us after we were displaced many times. Where are we supposed to go?”
An Al Jazeera investigation found the massacre was carried out by U.S.-made MK-84 bombs produced by General Dynamics.
Meanwhile, Israel has stepped up its attacks on southern Lebanon, with reports of at least 20 Israeli airstrikes overnight that damaged farms and property and sparked intense wildfires. Israel’s military claims one of the strikes killed a Hezbollah commander in the Beqaa Valley.
Israeli Airstrike on West Bank Kills 5 Palestinians in Tubas
Sep 11, 2024
In the occupied West Bank, Israel’s military put the city of Tubas under siege as it carried out an airstrike that killed five Palestinians. Two of the dead were teenagers. Israeli forces also killed two Palestinians during another raid on the city of Tulkarm. The Palestinian Ministry of Health reports Israeli attacks have killed nearly 700 people across the West Bank over the past year.
Blinken Calls Israel’s Killing of U.S. Activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi “Unprovoked and Unjustified”
Sep 11, 2024
The family of the Turkish American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi says the White House has not called to offer condolences after Eygi was fatally shot in the head by an Israeli sniper at a protest in the West Bank town of Beita last Friday. On Tuesday, President Biden said he believed Eygi was killed by accident and that the bullet that struck her ricocheted off the ground. The Israeli military said in a statement it was “highly likely” Eygi was shot by its forces “indirectly and unintentionally” in fire that was not aimed at Eygi but another protester. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meanwhile, criticized Israel’s military for Eygi’s death.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken: “Her killing was both unprovoked and unjustified. No one — no one should be shot and killed for attending a protest. No one should have to put their life at risk just for freely expressing their views. In our judgment, Israeli security forces need to make some fundamental changes in the way that they operate in the West Bank, including changes to their rules of engagement.”
Despite those remarks, the Biden administration has yet to put any conditions on U.S. arms transfers to Israel, including $20 billion in additional weapons sales approved last month.
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Re: U.S. Backing Has Given Israel License to Kill & Maim
by admin » Thu Sep 19, 2024 1:46 am
Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 12, 2024
Israel Strikes Gaza’s al-Jaouni School for 5th Time, Kills 18 Palestinians, Incl. 6 UNRWA Staffers
Sep 12, 2024
In Gaza, another Israeli strike on a U.N. school being used to shelter displaced Palestinians has killed at least 18 people, including six UNRWA employees, making it the deadliest single day in UNRWA’s history. Wednesday’s bombing of central Gaza’s al-Jaouni school led to chaotic scenes, with survivors seen gathering scattered body parts. It’s the fifth time the same school has been hit by Israel since October 7. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry is demanding international protection against the “war of extermination and displacement on our people.”
On Wednesday, Hamas reiterated that it is prepared to implement the U.S.-proposed, U.N.-backed ceasefire plan announced by President Biden in June, without any new conditions.
Israel’s Assault on West Bank Continues as Death Toll in Occupied Territory Reaches 50 Over 2 Weeks
Sep 12, 2024
Israel’s military has killed four more Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as its deadly and wide-ranging incursion enters its third week. Since August 28, Israel has killed at least 50 people across the West Bank. In Tulkarm, residents were forced to abandon their homes, taking shelter in a mosque, as Israeli forces destroyed houses and businesses.
Qais Ambar: “They destroyed our houses. They displaced us. All the people in the camp left. My house was exploded. The army put explosives inside my house and exploded it. The bulldozer swept the house, and the rubble covered my neighbor’s house. They forced us to leave the houses.”
Biden Calls Israel’s Killing of Turkish American Activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi “Totally Unacceptable”
Sep 12, 2024
President Biden on Wednesday called Israel’s killing of 26-year-old U.S. activist and University of Washington graduate Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi in the West Bank “totally unacceptable.” This comes after Biden received backlash for his previous lukewarm remarks about her killing, which he dismissed as “apparently an accident.” Biden, however, has not called for an independent probe into the death. Turkey says it has opened its own investigation into the killing of the dual U.S.-Turkish citizen.
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 12, 2024
Israel Strikes Gaza’s al-Jaouni School for 5th Time, Kills 18 Palestinians, Incl. 6 UNRWA Staffers
Sep 12, 2024
In Gaza, another Israeli strike on a U.N. school being used to shelter displaced Palestinians has killed at least 18 people, including six UNRWA employees, making it the deadliest single day in UNRWA’s history. Wednesday’s bombing of central Gaza’s al-Jaouni school led to chaotic scenes, with survivors seen gathering scattered body parts. It’s the fifth time the same school has been hit by Israel since October 7. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry is demanding international protection against the “war of extermination and displacement on our people.”
On Wednesday, Hamas reiterated that it is prepared to implement the U.S.-proposed, U.N.-backed ceasefire plan announced by President Biden in June, without any new conditions.
Israel’s Assault on West Bank Continues as Death Toll in Occupied Territory Reaches 50 Over 2 Weeks
Sep 12, 2024
Israel’s military has killed four more Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as its deadly and wide-ranging incursion enters its third week. Since August 28, Israel has killed at least 50 people across the West Bank. In Tulkarm, residents were forced to abandon their homes, taking shelter in a mosque, as Israeli forces destroyed houses and businesses.
Qais Ambar: “They destroyed our houses. They displaced us. All the people in the camp left. My house was exploded. The army put explosives inside my house and exploded it. The bulldozer swept the house, and the rubble covered my neighbor’s house. They forced us to leave the houses.”
Biden Calls Israel’s Killing of Turkish American Activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi “Totally Unacceptable”
Sep 12, 2024
President Biden on Wednesday called Israel’s killing of 26-year-old U.S. activist and University of Washington graduate Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi in the West Bank “totally unacceptable.” This comes after Biden received backlash for his previous lukewarm remarks about her killing, which he dismissed as “apparently an accident.” Biden, however, has not called for an independent probe into the death. Turkey says it has opened its own investigation into the killing of the dual U.S.-Turkish citizen.
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Re: U.S. Backing Has Given Israel License to Kill & Maim
by admin » Thu Sep 19, 2024 1:51 am
Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 12, 2024
U.N. Evacuates 100 Gaza Patients for Treatment in UAE, Says 25% of War Injuries “Life-Changing”
Sep 13, 2024
Israeli strikes have killed at least 40 people across Gaza today as U.N. chief António Guterres is once again calling for an immediate ceasefire following Israel’s massacre at the U.N.-run al-Jaouni school which killed at least 18 people Wednesday, including six U.N. employees — the deadliest day in UNRWA’s history.
The World Health Organization said Thursday it had evacuated about 100 people in need of medical treatment from Gaza to the United Arab Emirates, and called for regular evacuations to resume after Israel’s assault decimated Gaza’s health system. This is a cancer patient awaiting evacuation.
Bayan Munir Abu Sultan: “I’m suffering from Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and this type of cancer spreads very quickly. In one or two months, it spreads throughout your entire body, unlike other types of cancer. My trip was extremely tiring, and I came here to the south so I can travel and get treated outside the country, by God’s will.”
In related news, the WHO says 25% of Palestinians in Gaza wounded by Israel’s ongoing assault have “life-changing” injuries.
The U.N. is warning the Palestinian economy — which was already devastated before October 7 due to Israel’s occupation and blockade — is “in freefall” and could completely collapse.
Calls Mount for U.S. to Investigate, Hold Israel Accountable for Killing Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi
Sep 13, 2024
The body of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, the 26-year-old Turkish American activist who was killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, has arrived in Turkey ahead of her funeral. On Thursday, Ayşenur’s father, Mehmet Suat Eygi, praised Turkey for investigating the killing and called on the U.S. to do the same.
Mehmet Suat Eygi: “America is a different country. When there is injustice or torment toward its citizens or they are killed in any country in the world, it lands on that country like the eagle on its emblem. But when the subject is Israel, there is more of an effort to dodge it. But I want to believe that people will listen to their conscience.”
Earlier this week, The Washington Post published an investigation corroborating eyewitness accounts that the protests Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi had been taking part in were already over when Israeli soldiers opened fire and killed her.
Meanwhile, three top Democrats from Ayşenur’s home state of Washington — Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray and Congressmember Pramila Jayapal — called on the Biden administration to investigate her killing. On Wednesday, hundreds of people gathered at a Seattle beach for a vigil honoring the recent University of Washington graduate.
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 12, 2024
U.N. Evacuates 100 Gaza Patients for Treatment in UAE, Says 25% of War Injuries “Life-Changing”
Sep 13, 2024
Israeli strikes have killed at least 40 people across Gaza today as U.N. chief António Guterres is once again calling for an immediate ceasefire following Israel’s massacre at the U.N.-run al-Jaouni school which killed at least 18 people Wednesday, including six U.N. employees — the deadliest day in UNRWA’s history.
The World Health Organization said Thursday it had evacuated about 100 people in need of medical treatment from Gaza to the United Arab Emirates, and called for regular evacuations to resume after Israel’s assault decimated Gaza’s health system. This is a cancer patient awaiting evacuation.
Bayan Munir Abu Sultan: “I’m suffering from Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and this type of cancer spreads very quickly. In one or two months, it spreads throughout your entire body, unlike other types of cancer. My trip was extremely tiring, and I came here to the south so I can travel and get treated outside the country, by God’s will.”
In related news, the WHO says 25% of Palestinians in Gaza wounded by Israel’s ongoing assault have “life-changing” injuries.
The U.N. is warning the Palestinian economy — which was already devastated before October 7 due to Israel’s occupation and blockade — is “in freefall” and could completely collapse.
Calls Mount for U.S. to Investigate, Hold Israel Accountable for Killing Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi
Sep 13, 2024
The body of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, the 26-year-old Turkish American activist who was killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, has arrived in Turkey ahead of her funeral. On Thursday, Ayşenur’s father, Mehmet Suat Eygi, praised Turkey for investigating the killing and called on the U.S. to do the same.
Mehmet Suat Eygi: “America is a different country. When there is injustice or torment toward its citizens or they are killed in any country in the world, it lands on that country like the eagle on its emblem. But when the subject is Israel, there is more of an effort to dodge it. But I want to believe that people will listen to their conscience.”
Earlier this week, The Washington Post published an investigation corroborating eyewitness accounts that the protests Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi had been taking part in were already over when Israeli soldiers opened fire and killed her.
Meanwhile, three top Democrats from Ayşenur’s home state of Washington — Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray and Congressmember Pramila Jayapal — called on the Biden administration to investigate her killing. On Wednesday, hundreds of people gathered at a Seattle beach for a vigil honoring the recent University of Washington graduate.
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