Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
October 07, 2024
Dozens Killed in Gaza as Israel Bombs Mosque, School and Homes on Anniversary of Oct. 7 Attacks
Oct 07, 2024
Israel’s military has ordered hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to evacuate their homes or face death, as it launches a fresh ground offensive in the northern Gaza Strip. The latest mass evacuation order came on the first anniversary of the start of Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza following Hamas’s surprise attack on October 7. Over the weekend, at least 26 Palestinians were killed after Israeli forces attacked a mosque and a school sheltering displaced people in Deir al-Balah. Elsewhere, at least nine children were among 17 people killed when Israel’s military bombed the Jabaliya refugee camp. Many residents were unable or unwilling to leave their homes.
Um Ahmed Fadous: “I am staying here. Where else would I go? I want to die here. As long as they say that evacuation is forbidden, where will I go? We are staying. If they want us to die, so be it! … And I suffer from osteoarthritis. Where do I go?”
Gaza Journalist Hassan Hamad Killed by Artillery Fire After Threats from Israeli Officer
Oct 07, 2024
On Sunday, an Israeli artillery shell struck the home of 19-year-old journalist Hassan Hamad in Jabaliya, killing him. In recent weeks Hamad had received death threats via WhatsApp from an Israeli number; he also received phone calls and text messages from an Israeli officer ordering him to stop filming. Hassan Hamad is at least the 175th Palestinian journalist killed in Gaza since last October. He’s among at least 41,900 Palestinians killed over the past year in Gaza; another 97,000 have been injured, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry — though those figures are certain to be a vast undercount.
Massive Explosions Rock Beirut and Southern Lebanon as Israel Steps Up Bombing Campaign
Oct 07, 2024
Dozens of massive explosions rocked the Lebanese capital overnight Sunday, marking Israel’s heaviest bombardment on Beirut and the city’s southern suburbs since Israel widened its war on Lebanon two weeks ago. Earlier today, Israeli warplanes bombed a fire station in the town of Baraachit, killing at least eight people. Hezbollah fired rockets at the Israeli port city of Haifa, wounding at least 10 people. Israeli’s assault has now displaced 1.2 million people in Lebanon. After headlines, we’ll go to Beirut for the latest.
“Netanyahu Dragged Israel into Never-ending War”: Hostage Families Protest on Oct. 7 Anniversary
Oct 07, 2024
In Israel, the loved ones of hostages took to the streets over the weekend, blocking traffic in Tel Aviv and holding protests marking the first anniversary of October 7. Over 1,100 people were killed in Israel in the Hamas-led attacks a year ago, while at least 250 were taken hostage. Around 100 of the hostages remain in Gaza, though only 70 of them are still believed to be alive. One hundred five hostages were released by Hamas during a temporary ceasefire in November. This is Yael Or, whose cousin Dror Or was killed one year ago but whose body remains held in Gaza.
Yael Or: “Why are they still in Gaza a full year later? Because of Netanyahu. Netanyahu wants to stay in power forever. And to do that, he has dragged Israel into eternal, never-ending war. This means that our hostages have been abandoned in Hamas death tunnels deep under Gaza. Netanyahu has committed crime against his own people.”
Later in the broadcast, we’ll speak with Israeli peace activist Maoz Inon, who lost both his parents in the October 7 attack.
President Macron Halts French Weapons Exports to Israel
Oct 07, 2024
French President Emmanuel Macron says France is no longer sending arms to Israel and called on other nations to halt deliveries of weapons.
President Emmanuel Macron: “However, we also try to be consistent. And when we call for ceasefires — this is the case for Gaza, this was also the case for Lebanon last week — well, we try not to call for a ceasefire while continuing to deliver weapons of war. And I think it’s just consistency.”
Meanwhile, in an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Vice President Kamala Harris defended U.S. military aid to Israel, which soared to a record $17.9 billion over the past year.
New Reports Reveal U.S. Ignored Warnings of Israeli Plans to Decimate Gaza, Attack Aid Convoys
Oct 07, 2024
A senior Pentagon official warned the White House last October that Israel’s plan to uproot more than a million Palestinians from their homes in Gaza would be a humanitarian disaster and could violate international law, leading to war crime charges against Israel. That’s according to Reuters, which reports the warning came in an October 13 email to the White House from Dana Stroul, then the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East. Stroul wrote that an assessment by the Red Cross predicting a “humanitarian catastrophe” from Israel’s mass expulsion order had left her “chilled to the bone.” Despite those concerns and similar dire warnings from the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, the White House expedited the transfer of weapons to Israel, including thousands of precision-guided missiles and 2,000-pound bombs.
Meanwhile, Drop Site News is reporting Secretary of State Antony Blinken last October signed off on a plan by Israel to bomb trucks bringing humanitarian aid into Gaza. Blinken’s approval came after he joined an emergency meeting of Israel’s war cabinet at the Israeli military’s headquarters in Tel Aviv last October 16 and 17. After the talks, Cabinet member Bezalel Smotrich said, “We in the cabinet were promised at the outset … that aid trucks hijacked by Hamas and its organizations would be bombed from the air, and the aid would be halted.”
Protesters Take to the Streets Across the Globe to Mark One Year of Israel’s Genocidal War on Gaza
Oct 07, 2024
Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched in cities across the world Saturday to demand an end to Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza and its widening war on Lebanon. Huge crowds flooded the streets of London; Berlin; Paris; Istanbul; Melbourne; Cape Town, South Africa; and Karachi, Pakistan, in solidarity with Palestinians. Here in the United States, protesters rallied in downtown Washington, D.C., near the White House. This is Anyssa Dhaouadi of the Palestinian Youth Movement.
Anyssa Dhaouadi: “Our role here in the United States, and specifically here in Washington, D.C., is to uplift the demand for an arms embargo on Israel and is to demand that our politicians, the Biden administration and the next administration, whoever that may be, to end all U.S. aid and end its complicity in this genocide. We know that without the financial backing and the diplomatic cover that the U.S. is providing on Israel, we know that this genocide would not have been possible.”
Photojournalist Sets Self on Fire to Protest Media Complicity in Gaza Genocide
Oct 07, 2024
At Saturday’s Gaza rally near the White House, photojournalist Samuel Mena Jr. of Arizona was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries after he lit his arm on fire in an act of protest. Ahead of his self-immolation, Mena spoke of his guilt over participating in biased media coverage of Gaza, writing, “How many Palestinians were killed that I allowed to be branded as Hamas? How many men, women, and children were struck with a missile cosigned by the American media?”
**********************
Israeli Peace Activist Maoz Inon Lost His Parents on October 7. He’s Calling for an End to War & Occupation.
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
October 07, 2024
Today is the first anniversary of the October 7 attack on Israel, when Hamas’s military wing broke out of Israeli-constructed barrier fencing in the Gaza Strip. In the ensuing firefight, an estimated 1,200 people died. About 250 people were taken hostage and brought back to Gaza in a bid to pressure Israel to release some of the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners it holds in Israeli custody. While more than half of the hostages were exchanged this way through subsequent deals, Israel’s primary response to the incursion was the launch of a full-scale assault on the already-besieged Gaza Strip. Conservative estimates place the number of Palestinians killed at over 41,000. More recent projections suggest that this number may have reached the hundreds of thousands.
Meanwhile, in Israel, many families of remaining hostages continue to deride Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for refusing to accept a ceasefire deal that would return their family members, contending that Netanyahu is exploiting their loved ones and putting them in danger in order to manufacture a regional war. “Those who believe in war, they are naive, because they have been failing again and again and again,” says Israeli peace activist Maoz Inon, who has been advocating for a ceasefire and an end to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories for the past year. His parents, Bilha and Yakovi, were among those killed on October 7.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Israel intensified its attacks on Lebanon and Gaza over the weekend. In Lebanon, Israel launched its heaviest bombardment to date on Beirut and the city’s southern suburbs. In Gaza, Israel ordered more than 300,000 Palestinians in northern Gaza to flee ahead of a new Israeli offensive as the official death toll in Gaza nears 42,000 — the numbers are expected to be actually much higher.
Israel’s latest mass evacuation order came on the one-year anniversary of the start of its brutal war on Gaza following Hamas’s attack on October 7th. Almost 1,200 people died in that October 7th attack, and about 250 people were taken hostage, of which some 100 remain in Gaza, though many of them are believed to have died in captivity. Vigils are being held across Israel today with many calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
On Sunday, I reached the Israeli peace activist Maoz Inon. He lost both of his parents, Bilha and Yakovi Inon, in the October 7th Hamas attack. His parents lived on a kibbutz, a farming collective just north of the Gaza border. They were 78 and 76 years old.
Maoz Inon has spent much of the past year calling for peace. He recently wrote online, quote, “True security will only be achieved when the other side also enjoys security and stability. Morally, we cannot justify the killing of innocent people as part of the fight against terrorism. The harm to hundreds of innocent civilians is neither reasonable nor acceptable. These efforts should bring an end to the war in Gaza, return the hostages, end the occupation, and achieve a political-security agreement alongside reconciliation.”
Maoz has spent the last year working side by side with Palestinian activists. He recently met with the pope. And he also had a side meeting when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress. He and our guest coming up, Aziz Abu Sarah, addressed Democratic congressmembers who refused to attend Netanyahu’s joint congressional address.
We spoke to Maoz Inon just after he addressed one of the largest gatherings yesterday in Tel Avivi.
AMY GOODMAN: Maoz, thank you for joining us. Our condolences on this first anniversary of the death of your parents last October 7th. Can you share your reflections, as you did on the stage in Tel Aviv that you’ve just come off of, on this painful day?
MAOZ INON: We must move from thoughts, from prayers, from crossing our fingers for the Israelis and Palestinians to we must move to action, because everything I’ve seen coming happened, and even worse. And if we won’t start act now, we’re going to miss. We’re going to miss this year, which was the most bloodiest year in hundred years of conflict. But it can go — can be so much worse, and the numbers of casualties, the amount of suffering, of destruction can reach to a place we cannot imagine, like we could not imagine October 7th the day before.
So, we must move to action, and we must do it now. And we must stop debating who’s right and who’s wrong, if I’m pro-Palestinian or pro-Israelis. If you want the conflict to end, you must support the peacemakers. You must force an immediate ceasefire. You must force a dialogue to release the hostages and Palestinian prisoners. And we must — the world must force a dialogue between Israel to Palestine to Lebanon and the region.
AMY GOODMAN: Maoz, can you tell us about your parents, how as a result of their deaths a year ago, you became one of the most prominent Israeli peace activists today?
MAOZ INON: My parents were loving parents. They were just supporting and caring for me and my four siblings and for their 11 grandchildren. And in October — now we are in October, and it’s the season my father would sow wheat in the fields. For 60 years, my father was a farmer. For 60 years, he was sowing wheat in the fields of Israel. And it doesn’t matter how devastating the year before was, if it was through floods or a drought. He would always sow again. And I would keep asking him, “Daddy, what are you doing? Why don’t you give up? How come you don’t do something else?” And he would keep telling me, “[inaudible], Maoz, my son, next year will be better. Next year will be better. And I have the agency to make it better.” So, we all have the agency to make the future better.
And I shared it also, so many places, that I had a dream. And in my dream, I saw the path to peace and reconciliation. I saw it in my dreams. And my mom was a very, very talented mandala painter. She painted thousands of mandalas. And from all the thousand mandalas she ever painted, she gave me only one, eight years ago. And there, she wrote, “We can fulfill all our dreams if we’ll have the courage to chase them.” My mom gave me the ability to dream. What, unfortunately, all the current global politicians lack, the ability to dream of a better future. They are just debating and fighting over the past and the present, but they are not building, shaping, envisioning us a better future. So, my mom gave me the possibility to dream and the courage, the courage to chase my dream. And this is what I’m doing. I’m continuing their legacy. This is how they raised me.
AMY GOODMAN: Maoz, early Sunday, an Israeli strike on a mosque in Gaza killed at least 19 people. Meanwhile, massive explosions have rocked Beirut, marking the most violent night of attacks since Israel started its military offensive against Lebanon late last month. Peace, many fear, is less attainable than ever. What do you think have been the biggest roadblocks to a ceasefire? What is needed now to end the bloodshed?
MAOZ INON: Amy, we are at the footsteps. We are at the footsteps not just of a regional war, of a global war, I’m afraid. But we can choose to hope over beyond this precipice to a better future. And we need to start dialogue, dialogue with our enemies, like the European nations, the founders of the EU, proved, between Italy and France, Germany and Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg, only few years after the Second World War, where they were fighting among each other and killing 10 millions of each other. They realized that the only way to prevent the next war is making the enemies of the past into the partners of the future. This is humanity’s legacy. But I don’t know. Those who believe in war, they are naive, because they have been failing again and again and again. So we now must force our leaders, our politicians to give us concrete answers, what is what they are envisioning for the future and how they’re going to take us there. It’s cannot be by bombs.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re about to show clips of The Path Forward, a film that was made about you and your work with the Palestinian peace activist Aziz Abu Sarah. You lost your parents a year ago. He lost his brother after he was imprisoned by Israel when he was a young man. The activism and work you’ve done together — he reached out to you right after your parents were killed — ultimately meeting with the pope, addressing congressmembers who refused to be there in the joint session of when Netanyahu addressed the U.S. Congress?
MAOZ INON: It means the world to me. It means the world to me, because we are modeling, Aziz and I, but so many other Israelis and Palestinians, so many others — we are modeling a radical reconciliation. We are modeling a radical better future. And we see how it’s being spread.
AMY GOODMAN: What does it mean to you that President Biden continues to send billions of dollars’ worth of weapons to Israel, to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?
MAOZ INON: And he also said that he’s crossing his fingers for us, for the hostages. I’m not an American citizenship, so I cannot criticize your leaders. And it’s not about blue or red, Republican or Democrat. If the American people and Biden administration are such a good friend of Israel, how can they explain that Israel today is as weak as ever. We are as weak as ever. All our borders are breached. The society from the inside is falling apart. And the hostages are left to die in Gaza. So, if your actions are not effective, it’s not a reason to give up, and it’s definitely not a reason to keep doing the same thing. It’s a reason to change your action. And this what you must — President Biden, you must change your action. You must force a ceasefire.
AMY GOODMAN: Where does ending the occupation fit into this?
MAOZ INON: That’s a must. Of course, that’s a must. There are two people between the river to the sea. There will be no security and safety to one without the other. There will be no shared — no recognition and acknowledgment to one if not to the other. If there will be no equality and dignity to both people, there will be to none. So, that’s a must. This is something that, again — so, we are waiting. Maybe at the last three months of his term, he will push for a U.N. council resolution to force the end of the occupation. So, now is the time to do it.
AMY GOODMAN: How many of the hostage families feel the way you do?
MAOZ INON: More and more. And again, I can give you numbers of hostages’ families. I can give you numbers of bereaved families from October 7 that keep approaching us and telling me, “Maoz, we are standing with. Maoz, you are right. You were right from the first time.” And the only way — now the discourse is changing to understand and acknowledge that the only way to bring the hostages back is to stop the war. That’s the only way. And we will stop the war, and then they will be able — Hamas will be able to give them oxygen and water and food, and then to start a negotiation. But military pressure is killing them.
AMY GOODMAN: What gives you the most hope as you stand after addressing this largest venue in Tel Aviv on this first anniversary of the death of your parents?
MAOZ INON: I think that we start shifting the discourse. And this is what’s needed, to shift the discourse from war to peace. And when I was — I was saying the same words, Amy, few days after my parents died, that we must stop the war, we must bring the hostages — that should be the first priority — and we must start a peace process. This is what I was saying from day one. But at the beginning, no one was willing to listen to me, in Israel and overseas. And now I have no time in my day and night to answer, to answer and get all those requests to speak, to be interviewed from Israelis and internationally. So we are shifting the discourse.
And we are working very hard. We are working very hard. But I won so many brothers and sisters in the last year. That started with losing my parents. But I won so many brothers and sisters, Palestinian, Israelis, from the international community. And my brothers and sisters, they are not giving me hope; we are making hope together.
AMY GOODMAN: The Israeli peace activist Maoz Inon. His parents, Bilha and Yakovi Inon, were killed in the October 7th Hamas attack one year ago today.
Coming up, we’ll speak to the man he travels the world with, Palestinian peace activist Aziz Abu Sarah. Maoz and Aziz are featured in the new documentary The Path Forward. The film’s co-director, the Oscar-nominated Julie Cohen, will also join us. Stay with us.
*********************
“The Path Forward”: Palestinian and Israeli Activists Working Toward Peace Featured in New Film
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
October 07, 2024
The Path Forward is a new documentary that weaves together the voices of Palestinians and Israelis in their efforts for peace and reconciliation. The short film features the stories of Israeli and Palestinian peace activists who have worked together before and after October 7 and Israel’s relentless war on Gaza. We play excerpts from The Path Forward and speak to one of the activists featured, Aziz Abu Sarah, as well as to co-director Julie Cohen. “People who believe that war is the only way, what scares them the most is people who are modeling a different future,” says Abu Sarah. “Our route to freedom is a joint route.”
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.
As we continue to mark the one-year anniversary of the Hamas October 7th attack on Israel and the beginning of Israel’s relentless assault on Gaza, we turn now to The Path Forward, a new short film that features the stories of Israeli and Palestinian peace activists who have joined together calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the occupation. This is a trailer for The Path Forward.
YAEL BRAUDO-BAHAT: All of us want to stop the killing of our children, our children and your children.
MAOZ INON: We are crying for the world to act now, before it will be too late.
ON-SCREEN TEXT: From their deepest pain.
MAOZ INON: What happened to my parents on October 7th, some nights I cry throughout the night.
AZIZ ABU SARAH: If somebody kills your brother, you want to hurt whoever hurts your family.
ON-SCREEN TEXT: They found their greatest purpose.
MAOZ INON: Every relationship that I will be able to build with Palestinians, it’s very meaningful.
AZIZ ABU SARAH: It didn’t matter to me that his parents were Jewish. Those who were killed were my people, too.
PROTESTERS: Salaam, peace, shalom!
JOMANA KARADSHEH: At this time of great pain, you choose to be together.
YAEL BRAUDO-BAHAT: If not now, when?
AHMED FOUAD ALKHATIB: I wanted to break the cycle of incitement, hatred, violence, revenge, rinse and repeat.
ALON-LEE GREEN: How can we move further away from this hashtag #StandWithPalestine or I hashtag #StandWithIsrael?
SALLY ABED: If we are not able to grieve the loss of our humanity together, we will never be able to plan a future together.
MAOZ INON: Those who believe that bombs will bring safety, they are naive. They are naive.
RIMAN BARAKAT: We lost our compass of humanity, and we need to bring that back.
AMI DAR: The idea that I should care more about a dead child who happens to be of someone who shares my nationality, as opposed to someone who does not, is insane to me.
PROTESTERS: No more war! No more war! No more war! No more war!
AMY GOODMAN: The Path Forward includes the stories of Palestinian peace activist Aziz Abu Sarah and Israeli peace activist Maoz Inon, who we just interviewed on this show. His parents, Bilha and Yakovi Inon, were killed in the October 7th attack. In this clip, The Path Forward, Aziz begins by talking about reaching out to Maoz after news of Maoz’s parents death a year ago today.
AZIZ ABU SARAH: It didn’t matter to me that Maoz’s parents were Jewish. That’s not part of the calculation. When people talk about October 7th, it’s Israelis versus Palestinians. It didn’t feel to me Israelis versus Palestinians. Those who were hurt, those who were killed were my people, too.
MAOZ INON: I just replied immediately, “Thank you for being there.”
AZIZ ABU SARAH: A few days later, he made a post on Twitter.
MAOZ INON TWEET: “I am not crying for my parents — I am crying for those who will lose their lives in this war.”
AZIZ ABU SARAH: He doesn’t want revenge, and he doesn’t want what’s happened to him to cause more people to suffer. And I said it took me eight years to come to that point. When my brother Tayseer died, he was 19 years old, and I was 10 years old. He was arrested on suspicion of throwing rocks. He was beaten up in prison by an Israeli soldier, which caused internal injuries. He died as a result of those injuries. It’s still painful. A few days after Maoz’s parents were killed, just I can’t imagine stepping out of your pain to think of somebody else’s pain, to think of what other people are going through. It takes so much of a humanity of someone to do that. So I wrote him that, and he sent me a message right away, saying, “Let’s talk.”
MAOZ INON: I knew that my life has changed dramatically. It’s not just what happened to my parents, my childhood friends and Israelis. I knew that a war was just about to happen, and a war that we have never experienced before in our lifetime. So, every contact, every bridge, every relationship that I knew that I will be able to build with Palestinians, it’s very meaningful, just for me, Maoz, as a person, but for the region.
AMY GOODMAN: An excerpt from The Path Forward, featuring Maoz Inon, who lost his parents a year ago today, and Aziz Abu Sarah, Palestinian peace activist, who’s joining us now from Greenville, South Carolina. He’s also author and founder of MEJDI Tours and a resident of East Jerusalem. When Aziz Abu Sarah was 9 years old, as you just heard, his older brother Tayseer died soon after his release from an Israeli prison of internal injuries suffered after he was tortured in prison. And here in New York, Julie Cohen is with us, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker who’s made many films, including RBG, My Name Is Pauli Murray, Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down. Julie is a Jewish American and co-directed The Path Forward with Mo Husseini, a Palestinian American writer.
We thank you both for being with us. Aziz, your thoughts on this October 7th anniversary?
AZIZ ABU SARAH: It’s been a hard morning already just listening to news. And I’ve talked to Maoz already this morning, been in touch with some friends. But it’s been not just the anniversary of October 7th; it’s this whole year has been like a nightmare that I keep wishing I can wake up and just forget all about it and assume that — you know, believe that it was just a dream, just a nightmare. And unfortunately, it hasn’t.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed. So much pain, so much suffering. So many people I know, both Palestinians and Israelis and Lebanese, are suffering. My family are all in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem. Every time I get a phone call, I’m terrified of receiving horrible news. It’s been impossible to have a normal life in this last year. It is impossible to have a normal life. So, it’s just a reminder of how far we’ve gotten in a negative way, in a terrible way.
AMY GOODMAN: And, Julie Cohen, can you talk about focusing on Aziz and Maoz, Palestinian and Israeli peace activists, in this year of so much suffering?
JULIE COHEN: Yeah. I mean, you know, it’s a day of grief today. As Aziz says, there’s this sort of ongoing nightmare to wake up to every day. For me personally and for Mo, my directing partner in this, in a way, finding and sharing the voices of Aziz and Maoz and other pairs like them, because there are many, many more like this, is the greatest comfort to the nightmare and possibly, you know, the only hope, in our minds, of a solution, of a moving forward, of looking at the horrendous situation the world is in, people who have suffered the greatest pain, like Aziz and Maoz, who take that pain and think, “Wait a second. How can we go for,” as Maoz said earlier, “radical reconciliation, radical peace, a radical search for justice?” Like, in some ways, looking for love and compassion and sharing pain and sharing grief is better than the “militaristic solutions,” quote-unquote, which have failed us again and again and again. And so, we just wanted to bring their voices forward, because they seem useful and constructive in a world where there is too little usefulness right now.
AMY GOODMAN: In your film, you have woven throughout this a peace march of Palestinian and Israeli Jewish women that happened on October 4th, three days before last year’s October 7th. One of the people leading this march was Vivian Silver, the well-known Canadian Israeli peace activist, who would die on her kibbutz. We have interviewed her son, demanding a ceasefire from the beginning, as Maoz and Aziz have.
JULIE COHEN: Yes. You know, it’s a sadness almost that more of us weren’t aware of this march when it originally happened on October 4th, how little American news coverage this got, that the fact that a couple thousand women, Palestinian and Israeli Jewish women, together, linking arms, singing, calling, crying out for peace. And I think what’s so beautiful is how many of the activists, including those featured in our film, did not react to everything that was to come just a few days later by pulling apart, but it actually strengthened their resolve, you know, to, like, know this shows that what we need is something new and different, and let’s work together towards building improvement, building a better world.
AMY GOODMAN: Let me ask Aziz if you feel more or less hope. Right now you have Israel in the most massive, deadly bombardment of Lebanon that we have seen in decades. You have the bombing of Iran. You have Iran’s missiles on Israel. You have the bombing of — Israel’s bombing of Syria, Israel’s bombing of Yemen. As we wrap up, what gives you hope?
AZIZ ABU SARAH: Well, I want to just say something before I tell you what gives me hope, is Vivian was a dear friend who I’ve known for many, many years and was a mentor for me. And that image of Israelis and Palestinians marching together has not changed. That’s what gives me hope.
I was in Jerusalem just three weeks ago, and we went marching in Al-Auja, in a Palestinian village in the West Bank that the water was diverted away from the village to a settlement. And Israelis arrived from Tel Aviv, Israelis arrived from Jerusalem, Israelis arrived from all over, joining Palestinians, and we marched together. And I saw something powerful, is even though we were only a few hundred, the fear of those who opposed us — you know, the army and the police — even though we were extremely peaceful, compliant, we didn’t want to confront anyone, we marched with messages that says we refuse to be enemy, water rights for everyone, this kind of very universal language. And they were terrified. And in some ways, that gave me a little hope, because I can see how people who believe that war is the only way, what scares them the most is people like us. What scares them the most is people who are modeling a different future, that we’re able to say, “Look, we don’t hate each other. We can work together.” And so, it was no surprise that the police came and gave traffic tickets to everyone, pretty much, who arrived. It was no surprise that the military was trying to provoke us, because they were terrified that we are showing what the possibility is.
So I do have hope, and my hope is not in leaders or politicians who claim to be leaders. My hope is about the people who are like us, my colleagues, Israelis and Palestinians, who are refusing to fall into “If I’m Palestinian, I must hate all Israelis or Jews,” or “If I’m Israeli, I must hate all Palestinians,” and realizing that we are on the same side, those of us who believe in equality and justice and peace. And those who don’t yet, our mission is to convince those who don’t yet to join us and realize that bombing somebody else, killing a civilian, killing a human being is never going to be the way to bring you safety and security and that our route to freedom is a joint route.
AMY GOODMAN: And finally, we just have 30 seconds. The Path Forward, where can it be seen, Julie?
JULIE COHEN: You should be following myself, @filmmakerjulie, and @mohu on our socials. We’re moving towards more screenings of this film and getting it out where everyone can see it online very soon because of the urgency of Aziz and Maoz’s message and all the others that are involved in this really significant work.
AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Julie Cohen, co-directed The Path Forward with a Palestinian writer, Mo Husseini. And I want to thank Aziz Abu Sarah, Palestinian peace activist, featured in the film.
Coming up, we go to Durban, South Africa, where we’ll be joined by Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha. Then to Beirut. Stay with us.
*********************
Palestinian Poet Mosab Abu Toha: One Year After Oct. 7, U.S. Is Still Arming Israel’s Slaughter in Gaza
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
October 07, 2024
The Palestinian poet and author Mosab Abu Toha, who fled Gaza in December after being detained by the Israeli military, is releasing his second book of poetry, Forest of Noise, next week. We speak to him one year into Israel’s relentless slaughter in his home of the Gaza Strip as he notes, “It is really devastating to think that after a year, the world is still thinking about October 7 only, rather than about the years and decades before October 7 and the many and long, long days and weeks that followed October 7.” Abu Toha also pays tribute to his former student, Hatem al-Zaaneen, who was recently killed while collecting firewood for his family, and shares the status of his own surviving family members in Gaza, who have been displaced once again as they seek safety from unrelenting Israeli bombardment.
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 turn now to look at Gaza as Israel’s military has launched a new offensive on northern Gaza. Over the weekend, Israel ordered more than 300,000 Palestinians to flee. Israel’s latest mass evacuation order came on the one-year anniversary of the start of its brutal war on Gaza following Hamas’s attack on October 7th. Over the weekend, Israeli forces attacked a mosque and a school sheltering displaced people in Deir al-Balah, killing at least 26 Palestinians. The official death count in Gaza is nearing 42,000 but believed to be much higher.
We’re joined now by Mosab Abu Toha, Palestinian poet and author. He left Gaza in December after being detained by the Israeli military. His essay in The New York Times, published Sunday, is headlined “Gaza’s Schools Are for Learning, Not for Dying.” And his latest piece for The New Yorker magazine is “The Pain of Travelling While Palestinian.” He’s a columnist, teacher, founder of the Edward Said Library in Gaza, author of the award-winning book titled Things You Mays Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza. His second book of poetry will be out next week. It’s titled Forest of Noise.
Mosab, welcome back to Democracy Now! We talked to you right after you came out of Gaza. We also spoke to you in Gaza. You had been detained by the Israeli military. Your thoughts on this anniversary of both the Hamas attack and the beginning of the slaughter of Palestinians by the Israeli military in Gaza?
MOSAB ABU TOHA: Thanks so much, Amy, for hosting me and for this platform.
My thoughts is that whereas the Israelis were able to bury their dead after October 7th, there are just thousands of Palestinians who — either whose bodies were not found because of the Israeli airstrikes, the intense Israeli airstrikes, and others whose bodies were left under — still under the rubble of their houses. I lost 30 members of my extended family, three first cousins, two of whom with their husbands and their children, and I haven’t been able to bid them farewell. Some of them, they have nothing in their bodies left for me to locate them. And many of them are still under the rubble, because there is no fuel, there is no equipment to remove the rubble from above the bodies. So, it is really devastating to think that after a year, the world is still thinking about the October 7th only, rather than about the years and decades before October 7 and the many and long, long days and weeks that followed October 7.
AMY GOODMAN: If you can respond to the pope calling for a ceasefire in Lebanon, in Gaza, the French President Macron calling for an end to weapons sales to Israel, the U.S. continuing those weapons sales — though President Biden has said he wants a ceasefire — and these latest attacks in Gaza?
MOSAB ABU TOHA: I mean, it’s really funny when someone says that we need to achieve a ceasefire as soon as possible — this is what President Biden and Kamala Harris are asking for — but at the same time they never stop sending bombs to Israel. And they never even took any measures to stop Israel from invading humanitarian areas and from targeting humanitarian aid trucks when they enter Gaza. So, instead of monitoring whatever bombs and weapons get into Israel — not only sending Israel weapons, but instead of monitoring whatever bombs Israel is using against the civilian population and even the tent areas, where there are only tents there, there is even no house, there are even no houses there — so, instead of monitoring the weapons that are getting into Israel and the kind of weapons that Israel is dropping, they’re keeping very close eyes on the kind of trucks and the kind of foods and biscuits and luncheon canned food into Gaza.
And this is something that I wish I could hear after Palestine was occupied in 1948. Weapons should have stopped being sent to Israel not in 2023 or 2024. It should have been stopped, you know, after 1948. And they should have called for a ceasefire, you know, and the halt of settlement construction in the West Bank and the expansion of settlements. They should have called for all of this, not only for a ceasefire, because a ceasefire does not lead to peace. There should be justice. And all those who care about Palestinian lives, why don’t you recognize them as a people, as people who should have their political rights, not only to look at them as victims of Israeli terrorism?
AMY GOODMAN: You were a teacher in Gaza. So many schools in Gaza have been hit. So many were turned into shelters and then still hit by the Israeli military. You write in your New York Times column, “On Saturday morning, I learned from my school’s WhatsApp group that my most talented student, Hatem al-Zaaneen, had been killed in Beit Hanoun, where Israel that day carried out strikes.” Can you talk, as we wrap up, about your students, about your colleagues, those who are dead and alive, your own family, and how it’s coped with, leaving Gaza today?
MOSAB ABU TOHA: Just honor my student, his name is Hatem al-Zaaneen. I would like to pronounce his name the way he —
AMY GOODMAN: I’m sorry.
MOSAB ABU TOHA: — used to tell me his name when I first met him. Hatem’s hope was to join me in the States when he grows up. I promised him, literally, when he was — he was one of the only students, one of the few students who kept in touch with me when I was in Syracuse doing my M.F.A. two years ago. And he kept in touch. “When are you going to come back? I need you to teach me. I love all teachers, but I want you to teach me. I love your teaching.” And I told him, “You know, when you grow up, you should come to this country. It’s very beautiful. People here are really beautiful, and the universities are really magnificent.” And I told him, “I will help you apply for a scholarship to come to the States.” He was very, very brilliant. And he won a short story competition, and I still have the video on my phone of him reciting the short story that he picked for the contest. I mean, this is Hatem.
And he was not — I mean, first, I thought he was killed in a municipality building where he was sheltering with his family. But later, a teacher corrected this to me, early today, that Hatem was looking for firewood to help his family bake and cook food. And Israel is not only blocking the entrance of food trucks, but they are also killing people who are looking for ways to survive. So, children like Hatem and my siblings and their children, they are not living. They are only spending their time trying to survive.
And there’s no place that’s safe in Gaza. Very important, Amy. You mentioned that Israel ordered people in north Gaza, about — I mean, Gaza used to have about 1 million people, but now with the evacuations, now I think the number is about 400,000 people, including my father, three of my siblings and their children. Today, they ordered — and also my wife’s family, all of them are in north Gaza right now, and they are looking for ways to evacuate, but they don’t know where. So, they ordered Beit Lahia, Jabaliya and Beit Hanoun to evacuate. And an hour after that, they ordered three areas in Khan Younis in south Gaza to evacuate. So, the thing is not about evacuating. So, people are evacuating from north Gaza to south Gaza, and then they find themselves bombed in south Gaza. So they are cramming people there.
And I thought — I was asked a lot of times by friends, dear friends of mine, after October 7th, “Why are you not going south? The Israelis are telling you to go south. Why don’t you go south?” I told them, “Well, do you have any guarantee that I will make it alive south?” And then, the second question, “Do you guarantee that I will be safe in south Gaza? Is there any place that’s called safe?” And safety is not about not being killed by shrapnel or by airstrikes. Safety is about finding food, finding water, finding medicine. There is nothing in south Gaza even. So, wherever you go, there is nothing that’s called a humanitarian area.
AMY GOODMAN: Mosab, we are going to have you back on to talk about your new book of poetry. I want to thank you so much for being with us today. Mosab Abu Toha, Palestinian —
MOSAB ABU TOHA:Appreciate it.
AMY GOODMAN: — poet and author. His new book, out next week, is called Forest of Noise. He’s speaking to us today from Durban, South Africa. South Africa has brought a genocide case against Israel to the International Court of Justice.
MOSAB ABU TOHA: Yeah. Just to — if I have a moment, I am here to participate in a poetry festival that I was invited to. And I’m based right now in upstate New York.
AMY GOODMAN: Thank you, Mosab.
MOSAB ABU TOHA: Appreciate it.
*********************
Report from Beirut: Israel Intensifies Bombardment of Lebanon, Displacing 1.2 Million
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
October 07, 2024
Today marks both the first anniversary of the October 7 attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip and one week since Israel began its ground invasion of the neighboring country of Lebanon. Israel’s brutal military response to the Hamas-led October 7 incursion has shown no sign of slowing down as the United States, its primary supplier of military aid, continues to commit weapons, funding and rhetorical support to its deadly assault on Arab populations in Gaza, the West Bank and now Lebanon. Over 1,000 Lebanese civilians have been killed and over a million displaced as they flee the encroaching violence. From Beirut, we speak to Rima Majed, a professor at the American University of Beirut, who highlights the disruption to daily life that Israeli warfare has created. “This is really a huge catastrophe, and it’s not a humanitarian one. It is a political catastrophe, and it’s a social catastrophe. And this would not have happened … if it wasn’t for the [international] backing and the arming of Israel.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We end today’s show in Lebanon, where Israel has launched its heaviest bombardment to date on Beirut and the city’s southern suburbs. Earlier today, Israeli warplanes bombed a fire station in southern Lebanon, killing at least eight people. Israeli’s assault has now displaced 1.2 million people in Lebanon. Many have fled to Beirut from the south.
DISPLACED BEIRUT RESIDENT: [translated] We have been displaced for 10 days now. We don’t have food with us. We were not able to even go and bring new clothes. We left our homes and came here. Every night, there’s a strike. You cannot sleep. We came here, and we are unable to go back from where we came. Our situation is terrible. If someone is able to find any way to get out of the country, they should. It’s better than living on aid.
AMY GOODMAN: On Sunday, Hezbollah fired rockets at the Israeli port city of Haifa.
In Beirut, we’re joined by Rima Majed. She’s an assistant professor of sociology at the American University of Beirut.
You’re speaking to us from Beirut, where these massive explosions rocked the city over the weekend, marking the most violent night of Israeli attacks in recent weeks. We’re hearing reports of Israeli strikes pounding southern Beirut and a massive airstrike on Sunday near the city’s international airport. Describe what it’s like to be there, Rima.
RIMA MAJED: Thank you so much, Amy.
I mean, it’s, of course, horrible to be here. I mean, our nights are very long. Unfortunately, the heaviest bombing happens at night when people are getting ready to go to bed. But the past weekend and the weeks before have been really horrible. I mean, this week, it’s been mainly Beirut, but the south, the Beqaa and other areas have been very heavily hit in the weeks before. The situation is really very, very, very dire. I mean, I can go on for hours describing how horrible this whole situation is.
I mean, this is also a country where there is already — it’s a country that’s already suffering from multiple crises in the past five years, from one of the worst financial crises in the world, you know, the port explosion in 2020, of course COVID and its aftermath, earthquake last year, and a political deadlock that — where at the moment we have no president, a caretaker government, and a Parliament that has not convened since the beginning of this war. So we are talking about a situation that is very difficult.
And what I want to talk about is the effects of these bombs are massive, not just at — I mean, of course, at the humanitarian scale, but, I mean, I think the humanitarian aspect is something that people have become — I mean, it’s become very, very dehumanizing to just focus on humanitarianism. I mean, we’re talking about bare life here. I mean, all we care about is for people to just have shelter and food and be safe. We’re forgetting about, I mean, lives of millions of people that are put on hold, dreams that are put on hold, you know, social worlds that are disrupted and everyday life that has changed in drastic ways overnight. I mean, I made it to this studio very late because I couldn’t drive from a distance that is very close to here that usually takes three or four minutes. It took me 45 minutes, and I couldn’t continue the road. I had to be picked up on a motorbike to get here because of how crammed the city has become.
So, the effects of this are going to be immense for months, if not years, to come. Israel is using a tactic that we’ve seen in Gaza. It’s razing whole areas. I mean, Dahiyeh, the southern suburb of Beirut, and many areas in the south and the Beqaa are being completely destroyed, which means people will have nowhere to go, to go back to. But also, I mean, these orders of evacuation are also — I mean, it’s the same absurdity that my friends in Gaza are describing. I mean, we tell people to evacuate, but go where? It’s very hard to find shelter in these conditions. People are sleeping in the streets. Winter is coming. It’s starting to rain in Beirut. We’re starting to talk about the possibility of epidemics spreading. So, this is really a huge catastrophe. And it’s not a humanitarian one. It is a political catastrophe, and it’s a social catastrophe.
AMY GOODMAN: And, Professor Majed —
RIMA MAJED: And this would not have happened if it wasn’t for the —
AMY GOODMAN: Go ahead.
RIMA MAJED: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: This wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for?
RIMA MAJED: If it wasn’t for the backing and the arming of Israel.
AMY GOODMAN: And your response — we have just a minute — to Israel saying they’re just destroying, trying to destroy Hezbollah; they’re telling everyone else to leave to protect them?
RIMA MAJED: Yeah, we’ve heard the same thing in Gaza: They’re just trying to destroy Hamas. I mean, two things. First, it’s important to understand who Hezbollah is. Hezbollah, of course, is a political and military organization, but Hezbollah also has a social base, and these are not people that are involved in military action.
AMY GOODMAN: Rima, we have just 15 seconds.
RIMA MAJED: But the other thing that I want to highlight is that the war with — the war with Lebanon — the war of Israel on Lebanon has not started with the creation of Hezbollah in ’82. Israel has invaded Lebanon way before ’82. Hezbollah was created as a result of the Beirut invasion in ’82. So, the aim, I think, is not just Hezbollah, but the aim is to kill any possible resistance to a state that is —
AMY GOODMAN: Rima Majed, we’re going to leave it there —
RIMA MAJED: — that has no borders and that is expansionist.
AMY GOODMAN: — from the American University of Beirut, but we’re going to do Part 2 and post it online at democracynow.org. Stay with us, please. I’m Amy Goodman.