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

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An historical step towards ending Israel's impunity ! FRANCESCA ALBANESE reacts to ICC decision.
by Frank Barat
Nov 22, 2024

In this conversation, Frank Barat and Francesca Albanese discuss the recent arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israeli leaders, including Benjamin Netanyahu. They explore the implications of these warrants for international law, the reactions from various states, and the broader context of accountability for war crimes and genocide in Palestine. Albanese emphasises the historical significance of the ICC's decision and the ongoing challenges faced by Palestinians, while also addressing the responsibilities of member states in enforcing these warrants.

Audio podcast here: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show...

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Context of the ICC Arrest Warrants
02:05 Significance of the ICC's Decision
04:45 Legal Obligations of Member States
06:57 Potential for Broader Accountability
10:59 Implications of Ongoing Violence
17:42 Understanding Genocide as Colonial Erasure



Transcript

Introduction and Context of the ICC Arrest Warrants
0:01
hi Franchesca hi
0:04
Frank um it's it's really great to to
0:06
have you on today I know how busy you
0:08
are so it's much much
0:11
appreciated thank you thank you very
0:13
much it's always a pleasure to be with
0:15
you I I wanted to talk to you obviously
0:18
about the international criminal court
0:21
coming back after months and months with
0:24
ARs warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu
0:29
yav galand
0:30
and Muhammad de um Hamas leader Israel
0:35
said you they killed Muhammad de in
0:38
August so we're not sure if he's alive
0:40
or not but obviously I'm going to focus
0:42
more about what it means in regards to
0:44
Netanyahu and Gallant I'll give a brief
0:47
background so on May 21st Karim K the
0:51
pro prosecutor of the international
0:53
criminal court asked the court to issue
0:56
arrest warrants against Netanyahu Galant
0:58
Han Di and sinir Han was assassinated in
1:02
Iran sinir died in Gaza recently and
1:06
again we're not sure if Dave is is alive
1:09
or not following Karim can um you know
1:14
demand in may we know the court and some
1:18
judges were put under huge pressure by
1:20
various actors actually one of the judge
1:24
the Romanian judge had to leave the
1:25
court this is very unusual then in
1:28
August Kim Khan asked the court for an
1:30
Urgent Response to his request because
1:33
between May and August we didn't hear
1:34
anything from the court and then finally
1:37
yesterday and to be honest I didn't
1:40
expect this anymore I was like this is
1:41
over I'm not sure what's going to happen
1:43
with the IC you know international law
1:45
is dead International Justice is dead
1:47
but yesterday for me out of the blue we
1:50
get the news the IC comes back with the
1:53
RS warrants against Natan gallant and
1:56
Dave how did you react to the news and
2:01
why is it important in your opinion yeah
Significance of the ICC's Decision
2:05
I have to say that I I share your
2:08
feelings I mean like many I've been
2:11
disheartened by the delay uh because
2:16
uh Israel has consistently evaded
2:20
accountability for decades and the
2:23
pressure that has been excerted on the
2:26
international justice system and
2:28
particularly the uh ICC has led many
2:32
including myself to think that this
2:36
yesterday decision would never see the
2:40
uh the light of the day so I reacted
2:43
yeah with a moment of I I felt elated
2:47
there was a moment
2:49
of yeah Joy satisfaction thinking of
2:52
what accountability means although the
2:55
problems on the ground are many and I
2:58
don't think that this step in particular
3:02
in particular although necessary is
3:04
going to make the life of the
3:06
Palestinians in Gaza any better in the
3:08
in the in the immediate short term I
3:11
mean in the last 24 hours the the
3:14
attacks on the population of
3:16
Gaza have intensified but the this
3:20
decision represents an historical and
3:23
overdue step toward dismantling the
3:25
decades long impunity enjoyed by by
3:29
Israel and it's a I mean it's a moment
3:32
that signals a pivotal turning point in
3:35
the global pursuit of Justice holding
3:37
Israel leaders accountable and also the
3:41
state apparatus that has allowed Decades
3:44
of impunity and including what I for me
3:47
it's without the without any doubt a
3:50
genocide so it is the opportunity to H
3:53
to hold that status apparatus
3:55
accountable for orchestrating and perpet
3:58
perpetuating
4:00
the gravest international
4:04
crimes so so what happens what happens
4:07
now you know as you know following a
4:09
year of genocide with very little um you
4:12
know um action you know to con to
4:15
actually condemn Israel uh I mean
4:18
condemning Israel has happened but very
4:19
little concrete action to stop the
4:21
genocide a lot of people including
4:23
myself I've lost trust in international
4:26
Justice and international law
4:28
international Humanity militarian law
4:31
but um it's different with the IC right
4:34
it's it's a binding decision what does
4:36
it mean now for the
4:38
124 states that are signatory to the ICC
4:42
and the Rome statute do they have a
4:44
binding obligation to act yes well let
Legal Obligations of Member States
4:47
me say that when we talk
4:49
about uh the right of self-determination
4:52
of the Palestinians that has been
4:53
crucially reaffirmed by the
4:55
international court of justice this year
4:57
ordering the immediate I mean as rapidly
5:00
as possible uh the dismantlement of the
5:02
occupation the dismantlement of the
5:05
military apparatus in the West Bank the
5:07
Gaza Strip and Jerusalem the
5:09
dismantlement of the settlements the end
5:11
of the uh control of Israel Over
5:14
Palestinian national sorry natural
5:18
resources um this is all binding because
5:20
it's premised upon uh erga omness
5:23
obligations of member states so there is
5:25
a critical element of law of State
5:28
responsibility uh that has been violated
5:30
but also the provisional measures
5:32
ordered by the international court of
5:34
justice this year in the genocide case
5:37
initiated by South Africa they are
5:39
binding so but you're right these adds
5:42
something more because it uh imposes an
5:47
obligation on all member states party to
5:51
the Rome statute to
5:54
arrest uh the the the the IND indicted
5:58
uh the the identified
6:00
um responsible so the two Israeli
6:04
leaders and one Hamas leader this is a
6:07
crucial step toward ending Decades of
6:09
suffering and ensuring the
6:10
accountability particularly this is a
6:13
test for the Western world because I I
6:16
would disagree with you it's not that
6:18
all member states have done very little
6:21
member states in the global South have
6:23
done more than any anyone else including
6:27
incl I mean particularly South Africa
6:29
but this is a test for the Western World
6:32
particularly the the states parties to
6:35
the Rome status state to demonstrate
6:37
their commitment to International
6:40
Justice uh to international law and here
6:43
as I've often said the system is at a
6:46
Breaking Point either it is strengthened
6:49
by accountability and respect for
6:51
fundamental principles of international
6:53
law or it will
Potential for Broader Accountability
6:57
break so in concrete terms let's say um
7:01
if Netanyahu or Galant or Mohammed Dave
7:05
um travels tomorrow to
7:07
Spain what are the Spanish
7:10
authorities obligated to do yes uh to
7:16
arrest to arrest them to arrest them and
7:19
make sure they are transferred to the he
7:22
so for the trial to start so look the
7:26
laws the international laws that have
7:28
been uh uh breached are very clear and
7:32
the evidence of crimes and violations is
7:36
overwhelming beyond what has been used
7:40
relied upon within the realm and the
7:43
confines of the current investigation
7:45
initiated by the the office of the
7:48
prosecutor but we know that the IC has
7:51
no power power to enforce the arrest
7:54
warrants on its own so the power rests
7:57
with the governments of the world so yes
8:00
there is an obligation to arrest and
8:03
it's very interesting the reaction that
8:05
has been registered by member states
8:08
it's a clear black and white there are
8:10
member states who have who have uh said
8:14
that they would they would comply with
8:16
the ICC uh with the ICC arrest warrants
8:21
which is totally obvious to me there are
8:23
member states who have uh who
8:28
have like
8:30
really asserted unable
8:33
unable um that who have made untenable
8:37
arguments um accusing the court of being
8:40
anti-semitic accusing the court of
8:42
having made a comparison between Israeli
8:46
leaders and terrorists so again these
8:48
denotes the immense bias that rests with
8:52
this with this countries but again I
8:54
want to stress that governments are
8:56
morally and legally obliged to to ensure
9:00
that um war criminals do not go
9:02
unpunished and let me say there is
9:04
another there is a flip side of it what
9:07
the international criminal court does is
9:10
operating delivering Justice over
9:12
International crimes on the basis of
9:14
complimentarity this doesn't absolve
9:17
member states from their uh
9:19
responsibility to investigate and
9:22
prosecute International crimes uh
9:25
including the crime of genocide there
9:28
therefore I do expect that member states
9:31
initiate their own investigations over
9:34
war crimes crimes against humanity and
9:36
the crime of including the crime of
9:38
apartheid and the crime of genocide that
9:41
has been committed that have been
9:42
committed in the occupied Palestinian
9:45
territory and there is an even more
9:47
stringent responsibility because a
9:50
number of um people allegedly
9:54
responsible apparently involved in these
9:57
crimes have double nationalities a
9:59
number of them have nationality from the
10:02
UK France Belgium Italy even Arab
10:06
countries I discovered Australia Canada
10:09
the US so it's an even greater
10:12
responsibility that these states have
10:15
toward Justice ensuring that their
10:18
citizens have are are brought to Justice
10:21
if they have committed uh or they are
10:23
suspected of having committed
10:26
crimes I I wanted to ask you about this
10:28
actually um is it the beginning of the
10:31
inway investigation or or the end what I
10:35
mean by that is could the IC now come
10:39
with more arrest warrants for example I
10:41
mean your recent report um genocide as
10:45
Colonial eraser focused a lot as well
10:48
about on what's happening in the West
10:49
Bank so could the IC come back with
10:52
arrest warrants for settlers and for
10:55
others or for other sort of senior
10:58
officials yeah I I think that there is
Implications of Ongoing Violence
11:00
no doubt that this is the beginning of
11:03
uh a potentially much broader uh
11:07
accountability process for a number of
11:09
reasons first of all because this is
11:11
what the office of the prosecutor and
11:13
through the prosecutor himself uh
11:17
declared months ago when the arrest
11:20
warrants were
11:21
demanded um and um and this leaves a
11:25
room to further arrest warrants but also
11:29
further crimes I was um initially not
11:33
disappointed but surprised by the narrow
11:36
scope of the investigation initiated by
11:40
the office of the prosecutor because he
11:43
has only looked at what has happened in
11:46
the occupied Palestinian territory Gaza
11:48
in particular um after October 7 but
11:52
what about what has happened before
11:54
which amounts
11:56
to war crimes and crimes against
11:58
humanity so these for sure it should be
12:01
broaden but also I think there there are
12:03
questions about the the crimes that um
12:07
the current arrest warrants have been
12:10
issued for because there is the uh the
12:13
crime of starvation of civilians as a
12:17
method of warfare um and as a war crime
12:21
the crime of extermination has not been
12:25
uh has not been identified doesn't
12:28
appear in the arrest warrants so does it
12:32
mean that the court is not looking into
12:35
a into extermination as someone has uh
12:38
has claimed I don't think so because my
12:41
understanding is that the office of the
12:44
prosecutor linked extermination
12:46
primarily to starvation and the lack of
12:48
humanitarian aid but in fact in my view
12:51
and there the evidence of the
12:54
extermination is still limited because
12:56
back then within the cutting date of the
12:59
investigation uh which is May this year
13:02
uh only 40 only 46 people had been
13:06
reported uh having died because of
13:08
starvation but there is extermination
13:11
and the numbers are shocking we are
13:14
talking of almost
13:16
45,000 people are certained uh killed
13:20
primarily by bombing a sniper fire
13:23
including 177,000 children so the the
13:26
crime of Investigation is still uh to be
13:29
investigated and prosecuted Again by
13:32
connect connected to another sort of
13:35
evidence not linked to starvation per
13:38
se and I've read the the press release
13:41
that the court issued um yesterday Court
13:44
said that um they have really strong you
13:48
know they strongly believe that these
13:49
crimes are continuing right now and also
13:53
I think they've mentioned something very
13:54
important they've mentioned the
13:56
intentional targeting of the civilian
13:59
population because we've heard over and
14:01
over and over again from the Israeli
14:03
press office from the Israeli Prime
14:05
Minister from the US from the lot of
14:08
people in the mainstream media yes a lot
14:11
of civilians have died but poor them
14:13
it's collateral damage but now the court
14:15
is saying it's
14:17
intentional this is something very
14:19
serious right absolutely there are so
14:22
many elements that I was surprised to
14:25
see in the arrest warrants and I would
14:28
like to return part particularly to uh
14:31
to a couple of them uh but definitely
14:34
the there is a without saying that there
14:38
is a the the the acknowledgment of what
14:44
I have denounced like um as humanitarian
14:47
camouflage the fact that Israel uh has
14:50
used concept of international
14:53
humanitarian law which if observed would
14:57
have prevented the
14:59
these numbers of people killed for
15:02
example Israel has has not denied the
15:06
the the the numbers of people killed
15:08
yeah we might have complained at times
15:11
that they were inflated but because now
15:14
they have beened and verified with
15:17
identity um name family name identity
15:20
numbers associated with them it's it's
15:23
it cannot be denied however Israel has
15:25
Justified this killings as saying
15:28
blaming Hamas saying that Hamas was
15:31
hiding uh and using the
15:34
population of Gaza as human Shields this
15:37
has not been proved I'm not saying that
15:39
this didn't happen but then not only
15:41
there is no evidence that Hamas has not
15:43
used Palestinians as human Shields as a
15:46
method of War there is evidence that
15:48
Israel has used Palestinians as human
15:51
Shields also um we cannot interpret
15:55
international law does not allowed to
15:58
interpret Shield as a blanket argument
16:01
to obscure the fact the fact that Urban
16:04
Gua
16:06
um
16:07
Warfare implies the moving of um
16:11
combatants in uh in a he in a heavily
16:14
populated areas which implies more
16:16
precautions to be taken by the
16:19
belligerant parties another element is
16:21
collateral damage this is a an affront
16:25
to the meaning the pure meaning of
16:27
principles of distinct iction precaution
16:30
proportionality in the military conduct
16:33
and also the way Israel has used the
16:35
concept of evacuation zones sorry
16:38
evacuation orders and safe zones we know
16:41
that evacuation orders are that have
16:43
been issued are not in compliance with
16:46
international law because it they have
16:48
failed the principle of Distinction and
16:50
the principle of military necessity but
16:52
also what were the precautions taken how
16:54
the safety of the forcibly displaced
16:57
Palestinians not evacuated from possibly
16:59
displac Palestinians were met where were
17:01
the the shelters where was the
17:04
humanitarian Aid the food the Medical
17:06
Aid afforded to these people and Al also
17:10
the the safe zones have been bombed
17:13
there are people who have been burned
17:14
alive intense so look it's it's
17:17
untenable and I'm so glad the court
17:19
picked on this the first question is are
17:22
you worried that Israel will actually
17:23
react even more feroc you know
17:26
ferociously in in Gaza and the second
17:29
part is why did you think it was
17:31
important to write this report genocide
17:33
as Colonial eraser so first of all this
17:36
is the second report I write on the
17:38
topic of genocide h a report that I it
Understanding Genocide as Colonial Erasure
17:42
was clearly not in my mind as I started
17:47
and as I travel through the first year
17:49
and a half of my mandate as a special
17:52
report so when I uh wrote anatomy of a
17:57
genocide uh highlighting that there were
18:00
uh reasonable grounds to believe that
18:02
Israel had committed acts of genocide
18:04
and had used international humanitarian
18:06
law in fact as a camouflage uh for its
18:09
crimes and its its conduct um I thought
18:14
that this would contribute on the one
18:16
hand to the work of the of the Court
18:18
which somewhat it did somewhat it did
18:21
because the the South African legal team
18:23
has used some of the argument I made but
18:25
also I would have expected a greater
18:27
response uh uh from member states
18:30
greater pressure particularly because
18:31
there is an obligation that the court
18:33
has mentioned for member states not to
18:37
transfer weapons to a state that might
18:39
be committing atrocities and this was uh
18:42
uh established in the Nicaragua versus
18:46
Germany case

Francesca Albanese: so after the release of my
18:50
report in fact anatomy of genocide I've
18:52
noticed and this is an this links to the
18:55
first question you were asking I've
18:57
noticed that at
18:59
legal development at the international
19:01
Justice level there has been a sort
19:05
of apparent
19:07
Vengeance uh against the Gaza Strip
19:11
certain massacres have occurred in the
19:13
immediate after math of the of the icj
19:18
provisional measures or uh the ICC
19:21
arrest warrants and same yesterday as I
19:24
said I I still need to go through the
19:26
entire evidence that comes out out of
19:29
that but in the past 24 hours I have
19:31
received notice of nine massacres that
19:34
have been carried out so I'm really
19:36
scared of the impact that this important
19:39
development might have on the people of
19:41
Gaza but going to my my report why did I
19:44
write a second report because genocide
19:47
was continuing and genocide was
19:49
continuing as a as as part of a of a
19:53
long trajectory over Erasure of the
19:55
Palestinian people especially in the
19:57
past six months the elements of
20:00
Vengeance and the rasure have
20:02
intensified for example the discourse of
20:05
pal the discourse of Israeli leaders
20:08
wanting to resettle Gaza starting from
20:12
the northern uh Gaza uh which is matched
20:16
by the evidence on the ground and the
20:18
recent statements of the military that
20:20
they will not allow the population uh
20:23
forcibly displaced from northern Gaza to
20:25
return the fact that the settlers have
20:28
visited several times Northern Gaza and
20:30
even made plans to how to rebuild the
20:33
settlements The Continuous call for
20:36
forceable transfer and ethnic cleansing
20:39
of the entire occupied Palestinian
20:41
territory The Continuous land grab in
20:44
the West Bank so I took a step back from
20:47
all these and I said what is the plan
20:50
here because the genocidal intent is
20:53
pretty clear but it needs to be
20:55
understood Beyond any reasonable ground
20:58
and this is why I refer to Greater
21:00
Israel greater Israel has been pursued
21:04
since the very foundation of the state
21:06
of Israel and since the very beginning
21:08
of the occupation of what remained of
21:11
historical Palestine I understand that
21:14
there was opposition to this within
21:15
Israel among many including many in the
21:18
military system nonetheless the facts on
21:21
the ground reveal that this plan has
21:24
continued today 60% of the Gaza Strip is
21:28
completely under Israel's control the
21:30
this Jerusalem is completely annexed
21:33
which is a crime and Gaza is happening
21:36
so I think that in line with what has
21:39
happened in other uh cases um genocide
21:44
is a especially settler Colonial
21:47
genocides this genocide has happened as
21:49
a as a means to an end as a means to
21:53
advance Israel's settler Colonial plan
21:56
and so the intent is clear and shouldn't
21:59
be confused with the motives Frank I
22:01
mean I know that Israeli leaders have
22:03
said we are here to eradicate AAS
22:06
whatever it means we are here to um
22:09
Liberate the hostages and simply defeat
22:11
a mass this is not matched by the
22:13
reality on the ground and this might be
22:15
motives but it it doesn't nothing of
22:17
this um disprove the main intent meaning
22:22
the determination of Erasure and
22:24
Destructor which has been said
22:26
predicated and enacted upon so it's a
22:30
it's a long it's the it's a escalation
22:32
of a steady violence against the
22:35
Palestinians which has been over
22:38
especially 57 years of occupation Fast
22:40
Pace low Pace at different times of
22:43
history but again we cannot miss the
22:46
forest for the
22:50
trees thank you
22:52
Francesca um you know gra for for you
22:56
know it's it's was very important to um
22:59
to highlight you know the you know way
23:02
what's happening at the IC but I think
23:04
it's crucial as You' just said you know
23:07
and did to put it in you know to put it
23:10
Israel's action in the broader context
23:13
um of the anyway of the great Israel
23:15
project so um so again thank you uh
23:19
thank you Franchesca thank you very much
23:21
Frank

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Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 30, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/30/headlines

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Palestinian Political Prisoner Marwan Barghouti Says He Was Assaulted by Israeli Guards

Oct 30, 2024
In the occupied West Bank, lawyers for Marwan Barghouti say the longtime Palestinian political prisoner was assaulted by Israeli guards as he was held in solitary confinement. The beating in early September reportedly left Barghouti with numerous injuries to his upper body and a bloody ear that later became infected due to medical neglect. Barghouthi’s lawyers say he was previously subjected to at least two other attacks by Israeli prison guards. Barghouti is the most high-profile Palestinian in Israeli detention, who many have described as the “Palestinian Nelson Mandela.”

Norway Seeks ICJ Opinion on Whether Israel’s UNRWA Ban Violates International Law
Oct 30, 2024

Diplomats from Norway said Tuesday they’re preparing a U.N. General Assembly resolution asking the International Court of Justice to rule on whether Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip violates international law. On Tuesday, U.S. envoy to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the U.N. Security Council that Israel must allow food, medicine and other supplies into all of Gaza.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield: “The United States has made clear to Prime Minister Netanyahu that one year into this conflict, Israel must address the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza, that the United States rejects any Israeli efforts to starve Palestinians in Jabaliya or anywhere else, and that Israel’s words must be matched by action on the ground.”

Palestinian Ambassador to the U.N. Riyad Mansour called on Security Council members to match their words with action, saying, “Stop this genocide, or forever remain silent.”

Riyad Mansour: “The entire population of north Gaza is at risk of dying. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are at risk of imminent death, faced with the death penalty for refusing to leave their land.”

[admin]

Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 31, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/shows/2024/10/31

Israeli Attacks on Lebanon’s Baalbek Kill 19 as Prime Minister Mikati Hopes for Ceasefire Soon
Oct 31, 2024

Israeli forces killed at least 19 people after launching fresh attacks on Lebanon’s ancient city of Baalbek. The strikes on the UNESCO World Heritage city came just hours after tens of thousands of people fled the area after Israel issued forced evacuation orders.

Despite the mounting death toll, Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati says he hopes a ceasefire deal will be announced in the coming days as U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein arrives in Jerusalem today for more talks.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah’s new chief, Naim Qassem, said the group is prepared to keep fighting Israel but that it was open to a ceasefire deal. Qassem, who replaces assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, also addressed Israel’s war on Gaza.

Naim Qassem: “The people of Gaza have a right over us, and everyone must support them. They have a human right, an Arab right, an Islamic right, a religious right and a national right. We should not be asking why we supported them. Rather, others should be asked, 'Why didn't you support the people of Gaza?’”

Israel Is Committing War Crimes by Targeting Health Infrastructure, U.N. Peacekeepers in Lebanon
Oct 31, 2024

Human Rights Watch is calling on countries to suspend arms sales to Israel, accusing it of committing war crimes by attacking medical workers and healthcare facilities in Lebanon. As of last week, Israel killed over 160 health and rescue workers across Lebanon and damaged over 150 ambulances and 55 hospitals.

Meanwhile, the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, says its forces are continuing to come under attack.

Andrea Tenenti: “Since the 1st of October, UNIFIL has recorded over 30 incidents resulting in damage to U.N. property or premises or injury to peacekeepers. About 20 of those, we could attribute to IDF fire or actions, with seven being clearly deliberate.”

Israel Attacks Kamal Adwan in North Gaza, Continues Deadly Strikes Across the Strip
Oct 31, 2024

Israeli forces in northern Gaza have carried out more attacks on Kamal Adwan Hospital, injuring health workers and destroying already scarce medical supplies, water tanks, as well as a nearby water desalination station. In southern Gaza, loved ones grieved four relatives who were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, including a child. This is a neighbor of the victims.

Ramez al-Qassas: “Exactly three days ago, the Israeli army declared this area a safe zone and classified it as a humanitarian zone. … We don’t know where to go. We stay in the safe area or return to the sea, or where to go? So we found that the safest place to take refuge is the sky.”

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli soldiers have carried out more raids, including on the Nur Shams refugee camp, where at least three Palestinians were killed.

State Dept. Largely Ignoring 500 Reports of U.S. Weapons Used to Kill or Injure Palestinians in Gaza
Oct 31, 2024

The Biden administration has received nearly 500 reports of Israel using U.S.-supplied weapons for attacks that killed and maimed civilians in the Gaza Strip, but it has failed to comply with its own policies requiring swift investigations of such claims. That’s according to The Washington Post, which reports some of the cases presented to the State Department likely amount to violations of U.S. and international law. State Department policy requires officials to complete an investigation and recommend action within two months of launching an inquiry. Despite that requirement, none of the hundreds of reports has generated an active response, and most cases remain open. Many claims are awaiting a response from the Israeli government, which the State Department consults to verify each case’s circumstances.

On Wednesday, State Department spokesperson Matt Miller defended the delays, calling it “incredibly difficult” to determine whether U.S. weapons were being used by Israel to commit war crimes. Miller also criticized Israel for failing to facilitate food and other humanitarian aid delivery to Palestinians in Gaza.

Matthew Miller: “The situation still remains not at a level that we find acceptable. And that’s not just about the level of aid that is making it to Gaza, but also the distribution inside Gaza. And we continue to see breakdowns in communication between Israeli forces and U.N. agencies.”

Despite the admission, the U.S. has not taken any action against Israel for blocking the distribution of aid.

***

“Genocide as Colonial Erasure”: U.N. Expert Francesca Albanese on Israel’s “Intent to Destroy” Gaza
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 31, 2024

We are joined by U.N. special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, who says Israel is committing genocide on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Facing accusations of antisemitism from Israeli and U.S. officials, Albanese is in New York to present her report, titled “Genocide as colonial erasure,” which finds that Israel’s genocide is founded on “ideological hatred” and “dehumanization” and “enabled through the various organs of the state,” and recommends that Israel be unseated from the United Nations over its conduct. She argues that Israel’s attacks on U.N. employees, including the killings of at least 230 U.N. staff in Gaza, its flagrant violations of U.N. resolutions and international law and the unique status of “the first settler-colonial genocide to be ever litigated before [an international] court” justify this unprecedented measure. Israel’s continued impunity, Albanese warns, “is the nail in the coffin of the U.N. Charter.”

Transcript

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

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Israel’s deadly siege on northern Gaza has entered a 26th day. Earlier this week, the World Health Organization managed to deliver some medical supplies to the Kamal Adwan Hospital, but earlier today, Israeli fighter jets bombed the hospital’s third floor, where the supplies were being stored.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera reports Israeli forces are continuing to shell Beit Lahia, the scene of multiple massacres this week. On Wednesday, an Israeli attack on a market in Beit Lahia killed at least 10 Palestinians. Earlier in the week, Israel struck a five-story residential building, killing at least 93 people, including 25 children.

Meanwhile, at the United Nations, the U.N. special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, has released a major report accusing Israel of committing genocide. Albanese concludes that Israel’s war on Gaza is part of a campaign of, quote, “long-term intentional, systematic, State-organized forced displacement and replacement of the Palestinians,” end-quote. The report is titled “Genocide as colonial erasure.”

AMY GOODMAN: Francesca Albanese is now facing intensifying personal attacks from Israeli and U.S. officials. She was set to brief Congress earlier this week, but the briefing was canceled. On Tuesday, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield wrote on social media, quote, “As UN Special Rapporteur Albanese visits New York, I want to reiterate the U.S. belief she is unfit for her role. The United Nations should not tolerate antisemitism from a UN-affiliated official hired to promote human rights,” unquote. On Wednesday, Francesca Albanese spoke at the United Nations and responded to the U.S. attacks.

FRANCESCA ALBANESE: I have the same shock that you have, looking at how the United States is behaving in this context, in the context of the genocide that is unfolding in Gaza. I’m not — I’m not surprised that they attack anyone who speaks to the facts that are, frankly, on our watch in Gaza. And they do that so brutally because they feel called out, because it’s not that it’s that the United States is simply an observer. The United States is being an enabler in what Israel has been doing.

AMY GOODMAN: That was U.N. special rapporteur Francesca Albanese speaking at the United Nations Wednesday. She joins us here in our studio.

Welcome back to Democracy Now! Thanks so much for joining us.

Well, before we get you to further respond to what the U.S. and Israel is saying, can you lay out the findings of your report?

FRANCESCA ALBANESE: Absolutely. First of all, thank you for having me.

I have to say that this report is the second I write on — and I present to the United Nations on the topic of genocide. And it has been very reluctantly that I’ve taken on the responsibility to be the chronicler of — the chronicler of an unfolding genocide in Gaza. In March this year, I concluded that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Israel had committed at least the three acts of genocide in Gaza, like killing members of the protected group, Palestinians, and inflicting severe bodily and mental harm, and creating conditions of life that would lead to the destruction of the group. And the reason why I identified these were not just war crimes and crimes against humanity is because I identified an intent to destroy. And I understand that even in this country, people are quite confused about what is genocidal intent, because it’s not a motive. One can have many motives to commit a crime. And I understand genocide is a very insidious one, and it’s difficult to identify what’s a motive. But this is not about the motives. The intent to commit genocide is the determination to destroy, which is fully evident in — especially in the Gaza Strip, as I identified in — as argued in March already.

The reason why I continue to write about genocide — and, in fact, this report walks on the heels of the previous one — is in order to better explain the intent, especially state intent, because there is another misunderstanding that there should be a trial of the alleged perpetrators in order to have — to attribute responsibility to a state. No, because not only you have had acts committed that should have been prevented by the — in a rule of law, in a proclaimed rule of law system like Israel, where there is the government, the parliament, the judiciary, working as checks and balances, genocide has not only been not prevented, has been enabled through the various organs of the state.

And I explain what has happened as of October 7, which has provided the opportunity to escalate violence, to build on the rage and on the fury of many Israelis, turning the soldiers into willful executioners, is that there was already a plan, hatred. I mean, the Palestinians, like Ilan Pappé says, are victims not of war, but of a political ideology that has been unleashed. Palestinians have always been an unwanted encumbrance in the Israeli mindset, because they are an obstacle both as an identity and as legal status to the realization of Greater Israel as a state for Jewish Israelis only.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, we’ll go back to — because I do want to ask about the Israeli state institutions that you name and the branches of the Israeli state that have been involved in forming this state’s intent. But if you could elaborate on the point that you make, the difference between intent and motive, and in particular what you say in the report about how it’s critical to determine genocidal intent, quote, “by way of inference”? You know, that’s a different phrasing than one has heard in all of this conversation about genocide so far. If you explain what you mean by that and what such a determination makes possible? So, rather than just looking at genocidal intent in other forms, what it means to infer genocidal intent?

FRANCESCA ALBANESE: So, first of all, what constitutes genocide is established by Article II of the Genocide Convention, which creates a twofold obligation for member states, to prevent genocide so genocide doesn’t have to complete itself. When there is a manifestation of intent, even genocidal intent, there is already an obligation to intervene, because a crime is unfolding.

And then there is an obligation to punish. How the jurisprudence, especially after Rwanda and after former Yugoslavia, there have been cases both for criminal proceedings, where individual perpetrators have been investigated and tried, and responsibility of the state, litigated before the International Court of Justice. This is how the jurisprudence on genocide has developed.

And the intent has been further elaborated upon what the Genocide Convention says. And while it might be difficult to have direct intent, meaning to have — it’s difficult but not impossible, in fact, to have a state official say, “Yes, let’s go and destroy everyone” — although I do believe that there is direct intent in this genocide in Gaza. But the court also established that genocide can be inferred from the scale of the attack on the people, the nature of the attack, the general conduct. And what it says is that normally there should be a holistic approach in order to identify intent, which is exactly what I’ve done.

And indeed, this is why I proposed in this report what I called the triple lens approach. We need to look at the conduct, like the totality of the conduct, instead of studying with a microscope each and every crime. We need to look at the whole, against the totality of the people, the Palestinians as such, in the totality of the land, that Israel has slated as its own by divine design.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: No, absolutely. And then, if you could — the other precedent you’ve just spoken about — of course, Rwanda and former Yugoslavia — another case that you cite in the International Court of Justice is The Gambia v. Myanmar. So, how is that comparable to what we see happening in Gaza? Why is that a relevant example and different from both Rwanda and former Yugoslavia?

FRANCESCA ALBANESE: Let me tell you what I see as the major differences in the case of Israel, because it’s a very complex discussion. But in all four cases, there is a toxic combination of hatred, ideological hatred, which has informed political doctrines. And this is true in all the various contexts we are mentioning. The other common element is that there is combination of crimes. Like, forced displacement is not an act of genocide per se, but the jurisprudence says that it can contribute to corroborate the intent. But the, again, mass killing or mass destruction of property, torture and other crimes against a person, which translate into an infliction of physical and mental harm to the group, not individuals as such, but individuals as part of the group, these are common elements to all genocides.

What I find characteristic in this one is, first of all, this is not — I mean, the state of Israel is not Myanmar and is not Rwanda 30 years ago. This is not war-torn former Yugoslavia. This is a state which has a separation of powers, different organs, as I said, checks and balances. And let me give you a specific example, because you asked me to comment on the state functions. In January this year, the International Court of Justice issued a set of preliminary measures in the context of its identification, before even looking at the merits of the case initiated by South Africa for Israel’s breach, alleged breach, of the Genocide Convention, which identified the plausibility of risk for the rights protected — of the rights of the Palestinians protected under the Genocide Convention, which means plausibility — it’s semantics, but it’s plausibility that genocide might be committed against the Palestinians in Gaza. And the provisional measures included an obligation to investigate and prosecute the various cases of incitement, genocidal incitement, that the court had already identified. And it mentions leaders, senior leaders, of the Israeli state. Has there been any investigation? Has there been any prosecution?

But I’m telling you more. The genocidal statements didn’t resonate as shocking in the Israeli public, not only because there was rage, an enormous rage and animosity, of course. I mean, this is understandable, that the facts of October 7 were brutal and traumatized the people. But at the same time, hatred against the Palestinians and hate speech, it’s not something that started on October 7. I do remember, and I do remember the shock I felt because no one was reacting, and years ago, there were Israeli ministers talking of — freely, of killing, justifying the killing of Palestinians’ mothers and children because they would turn into terrorists.

AMY GOODMAN: Francesca Albanese, talk about the title of your report, “Genocide as colonial erasure.”

FRANCESCA ALBANESE: This is another element which I think — and, in fact, it’s the most important, where we see the difference between this genocide and others, because there is a settler-colonial component. And again, if you look at what the International Court of Justice in July this year concluded, when it decided that the — when it found that Israel’s 57 years of occupation in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem is unlawful and needs to be withdrawn totally and unconditionally, as rapidly as possibly, which the General Assembly says before — by September 2025. The court said that it amounts to — that the colonies amount to — have led to a process of annexation and racial segregation and apartheid. And these are the features of settler colonialism, the taking of the land, the taking of the resources, displacing the local population and replacing it. This has been a feature.

Now, it is in this context that we need to analyze what is happening today. And by the way, don’t believe, don’t listen only to Francesca Albanese. Listen to what these Israeli leaders and ministers are saying — reoccupying Gaza, retaking Gaza, recolonizing Gaza, reconquesting Gaza. This is what they are saying. And there are settlers on expeditions, not only to Gaza but also to Lebanon. So, this is why I say that the main difference, the main feature of this genocide, apart all the horrible aspects of it, is that this is the first settler-colonial genocide to be ever litigated before a court, an international court.

And this is why coming to this country, which is a country birthed from a genocide, when I meet the Native Americans, for example, I feel the pain of these people. And I say if we manage to build on the intersectionality of Indigenous struggle, the cry for justice behind this case for Palestine will resonate even louder, because it will somewhat be an act of atonement from the settler-colonial endeavor, which has sprouted out of Europe, toward Indigenous peoples. So there is a lot of symbolism behind it.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, you know, the analogy — first of all, you talked about the case brought by South Africa, so what they share, apart from South Africa and Israel-Palestine, is both the fact that they were colonial-settler states, as well as the fact that apartheid has been established as having occurred in both places. Now, in the case of South Africa, it was a decision that was taken by the United Nations at the time of apartheid, was unseating South Africa from the General Assembly. There have been calls now to do the same with Israel. So, if you could — if you could comment on that? And then, I just want to quote another short sentence from your report, in which you say, “As the world watches the first live-streamed settler-colonial genocide, only justice can heal the wounds that political expedience has allowed to fester.” So, if you could talk about the International Criminal — Court of Justice’s case in that context, what role you think they can play, South Africa’s case, in resolving or addressing — seeing and addressing this wound?

FRANCESCA ALBANESE: First of all, let me unpack the question of the unseating Israel, because this is one of the recommendations I made in my report. Under Article 6 of the U.N. Charter, a member state can be suspended of its credentials or its membership by the General Assembly upon recommendation of the U.N. Security Council. And the first criticism I got is that we cannot do that, because every states commit international law violations. Absolutely. Absolutely.

But there are two striking features here. First, Israel is quite unique in maintaining an unlawful occupation, which has deemed such by — in at least one full occasion, but again, there was already a case brought before the ICJ in 2004, so there have been two ICJ advisory opinion. There is a pending case for genocide. There has been the violations of hundreds of resolutions by the — on Israel, over occupied Palestinian territory, by the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Human Rights Council, and steady violation of international humanitarian law, human rights law, the Apartheid Convention, the Genocide Convention. So this is quite unique.

But all the more, this year alone, Israel has conducted an attack, an unprecedented attack, against the United Nations. It has attacked physically, through artillery, weapons, bombs, U.N. premises. Seventy percent of UNRWA offices and UNRWA buildings, clinics, distribution centers have been hit and shelled by the Israeli army. Two hundred thirty U.N. staff members have been killed by Israel in Gaza alone. U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon have been attacked. And this doesn’t even take into account the smear, the defamation against senior U.N. officials, the declaration of the secretary-general as persona non grata, the referring to the General Assembly as a cloak of antisemites.

Again, this has mounted to a level — the hubris against the United Nations and international law has been unchecked and unbounded forever, but now, especially after the Knesset passed a law outlawing UNRWA, declaring UNRWA a terrorist organization, and therefore disabling it from its capacity to deliver aid and assistance especially in Gaza and the West Bank and East Jerusalem, this is the nail in the coffin of the U.N. Charter. And it can also contribute to that sense of colonial erasure, because here it’s not just at stake the function of a U.N. body — and UNRWA is a subsidiary body of the General Assembly, so it’s even more serious. But there is the capacity of UNRWA to deliver humanitarian aid in a desperate situation, and also the fact that UNRWA is seen by Israel as the symbol of Palestinian identity, especially the Palestinian refugees. So there is an attempt to erase Palestinianness, including by hitting UNRWA.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask you about your trip here, as we begin to wrap up. The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield quoted on — tweeted on Tuesday, “As UN Special Rapporteur Albanese visits New York, I want to reiterate the U.S. belief she is unfit for her role. The United Nations should not tolerate antisemitism from a UN-affiliated official hired to promote human rights.” If you can further address their charge of antisemitism against you?

FRANCESCA ALBANESE: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: And talk about what happened. You were supposed to come to Congress and speak and brief them, but that was canceled this week.

FRANCESCA ALBANESE: Yes, it was canceled. But let me — first of all, I’m very embarrassed to read this, because a senior U.S. official who writes this, I mean, it shows a little bit of desperation. I’m sorry, but, you know, I’m very candid. And let me unpack my antisemitism for the audience. So, what I’ve been accused — the reason why I’ve been accused of antisemitism is because I’ve allegedly compared the Jews to the Nazis. Never done. Never done. What I’ve said, what I’ve done is saying, and I keep on saying, that history is repeating itself. I’ve never done such a comparison where I draw the parallel. It’s on the behavior of member states who have the legal and moral obligation to prevent atrocities, including an unfolding genocide. In the past, they have done nothing — nothing — until the end of the Second World War, to prevent the genocide of the Jews and the Roma and Sinti. And they’ve done nothing to prevent the genocide of the Bosnians. And they’ve done nothing to prevent the genocide of the Rwandans. And they are doing the same today. This is where I insist that now, compared to when there was the Holocaust, now we have a human rights framework that should prevent this. The Genocide Convention to prevent this. So, this is one of the points.

The second point, because — which leads to portray me as an antisemite, which is really offensive, is that I’ve said that the October 7 was not — I’ve contested, I’ve challenged the argument that October 7 was an antisemitic attack. October 7 was a crime, was heinous. And again, I’ve condemned the acts that were directed against the Israeli civilians, and expressed solidarity with the victims, with the families. I’ve been in contact with the families of the hostages. But I’ve also said the hatred that led that attack, that prompted that attack, to the extent it hit civilians, not the military, but it was prompted not by the fact that the Israelis are Jews, but the fact that the Israelis — I mean, the Israelis are part of that endeavor that has kept the Palestinians in a cage for 17 years and, before, under martial law for 37 years. And Palestinians have tried — it’s true they have used violence, but before violence, they have tried dialogue. They have tried collaboration. They have tried a number of means, access to justice, and they have gone nowhere.

I can — I mean, let me relate just this case, because last year I worked with children. And someone who was 17 before — 17 years old before October 7 last year had never set foot out of Gaza. This is the reality. And I spoke with children while I was writing my report on unchilding, the experience of Palestinians under Israeli occupation. And one of them — I mean, there were these two girls fighting, because one of them had been able to go to Israel and the West Bank because she had cancer and could be treated, and the other was jealous, because, she said, “At least she was sick, and she could go, she could travel. I’ve never seen the mountains.”

And again, this doesn’t justify violence, but, please, please, put things in context. And even Israeli scholars have said claiming that October 7 was prompted by antisemitism is a way to decontextualize history and to deresponsibilize Israel. I condemn Israel not because it’s a Jewish state. It’s not about that, but because it’s in breach of international law through and through. And were the majority of Israelis Buddhists, Christians, atheists, it would be the same. I would be as vocal as I am now.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Francesca, just one last question, and we only have a minute. Your recent book, J’Accuse, you take the title, of course, from the letter Émile Zola wrote during the Dreyfus Affair to the French president. You came under severe criticism for the choice of that title. Could you explain why you chose it and what it means in this context?

FRANCESCA ALBANESE: Absolutely. I have the sense that whatever I say comes under scrutiny and criticism. But J’Accuse is — first of all, it’s the title that was proposed by the editor, the publisher. And I was against it until October 7. When I saw the narrative, the dehumanization of the Palestinians after October 7, and what it was legitimized, I said, “This is the title. We need to use it,” because I draw the parallel between what is happening to the Palestinians and what has happened to other groups, particularly the Jewish people in Europe. I say the Holocaust was not just about the concentration camps. The Holocaust was a culmination of centuries of discrimination, and the previous decades had led the Jewish people in Europe to be kicked out of jobs, professions, to be treated like subhumans, as animals. And it’s this dehumanization that we need to look at in the face today, in the eyes today, and recognize as leading to atrocity crimes.

AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you for being with us, Francesca Albanese, U.N. special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory.

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Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
November 1, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/11/1/headlines

At Least 95 Palestinians Are Killed in One Day as Israel Intensifies Attacks on Northern Gaza
Nov 01, 2024

In Gaza, Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 95 Palestinians since Thursday morning as Israel intensifies its attacks on Deir al-Balah and the Nuseirat refugee camp in northern Gaza. The Associated Press has revealed a shocking story about a Palestinian ambulance worker who was transporting a corpse wrapped in a bloody sheet. Once he arrived at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, he learned the body was of his own mother who had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. Meanwhile, Doctors Without Borders has confirmed one of its own orthopedic surgeons, Dr. Mohammed Obeid, has been detained by Israeli forces along with other medical staff at Kamal Adwan Hospital.

Israeli Forces Detain, Beat and Brand Palestinians After Deadly West Bank Raid
Nov 01, 2024

In the occupied West Bank, the death toll from an Israeli raid on the Nur Shams refugee camp has risen to at least five. Israeli troops destroyed roads, water infrastructure and a health clinic run by UNRWA, the U.N. refugee organization. UNRWA said their office was a hub to deliver services to 14,000 Palestinian refugees in the camp. Israeli forces also reportedly detained and beat a number of Palestinians during the deadly raid. One Palestinian named Usama Shaheen said Israeli troops wrote numbers on the forehead of each prisoner.

Usama Shaheen: “At the time of dawn prayers exactly, they raided the house. They broke down the door and damaged everything in the house. Nothing was left in the house. I was beaten from the moment I left the house to when we went to Majnoune. They brought me back here. All sorts of beatings, all sorts of beatings, on my chest, on my head. It was severe. … Each one got a number on his forehead. And in the army jeep, everyone there hits you. Everyone hits you. Most of the beating is to the head, mostly to the head.”

Israel’s Assault on Lebanon Destroys or Damages One-Quarter of All Buildings Near Border
Nov 01, 2024

The Washington Post is reporting Israel’s bombing campaign in southern Lebanon has now damaged or destroyed nearly 5,900 buildings near the Israeli border. That’s about 25% of all buildings in the area. Lebanon’s Ministry of Health reported six medics were killed Thursday in Israel’s ongoing attacks. Israel bombed the southern suburbs of Beirut overnight, destroying dozens more buildings. Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati blasted Israel over the latest attacks, saying it is a sign that Israel is rejecting efforts to secure a ceasefire. Meanwhile, Hezbollah responded with rocket attacks on northern Israel Thursday that killed seven people, including four agricultural workers from Thailand.

Peace Activists Celebrate as Barclays Sells Shares of Israeli Weapons Maker Elbit Systems
Nov 01, 2024

In Britain, pro-Palestinian activists have called off protests targeting Barclays after the banking giant revealed it had sold its shares in Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons company. The British group Palestine Action had organized over 50 direct action protests targeting Barclays over the past year.

Bill Clinton Sparks Outrage After Saying Israel Was “Forced” to Kill Civilians in Gaza
Nov 01, 2024

Donald Trump is heading to Dearborn, Michigan, today, the nation’s largest Arab-majority city, where many former Biden voters have vowed not to back Harris over her support for Israel’s war on Gaza. Harris has not yet campaigned in Dearborn.

Earlier this week, former President Bill Clinton campaigned for Harris in Michigan and sparked outcry after he said Israel was being “forced” to kill civilians in Gaza.

Bill Clinton: “Hamas makes sure that they’re shielded by civilians. They’ll force you to kill civilians if you want to defend yourself.”

[admin]

Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
November 4, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/11/4/headlines

Israel’s Genocidal Assault on Northern Gaza Continues as Israel Severs Ties with UNRWA
Nov 04, 2024

Top United Nations officials are warning again the “entire Palestinian population” in north Gaza is at “imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence.” In a warning issued on Friday, the heads of 15 humanitarian organizations wrote, “The situation unfolding in North Gaza is apocalyptic. The area has been under siege for almost a month, denied basic aid and lifesaving supplies while bombardment and other attacks continue.”

According to UNICEF, Israeli attacks killed more than 50 children over a 48-hour period this weekend in the Jabaliya refugee camp. Earlier today, Israeli forces shelled the Kamal Adwan Hospital. The hospital’s director said multiple children were injured when the Israeli shells struck the pediatric ward and nursery. Israel is also accused of attacking a polio vaccination center in Gaza City, injuring at least four children.

On Friday, an Israeli airstrike killed Palestinian photojournalist Bilal Mohamed Rajab, bringing the death toll of journalists killed in Gaza to as high as 183 over the past 13 months.

Aid groups fear the humanitarian situation will soon worsen in Gaza as Israel has officially notified the U.N. that it has cut off ties to UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestine refugees. The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, condemned Israel’s move.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: “This ban will not make Israel safer. It will only deepen the suffering of the people of Gaza and increase the risk of disease outbreaks.”

Progressive Reps Warn U.S. Involvement in Middle East Unlawful as Pentagon Sends More Arms to Israel
Nov 04, 2024

On Friday, the Pentagon announced new deployments to the Middle East, including B-52 long-range bombers and ballistic missile defense destroyers. In a statement, the Pentagon said the move was done in part for the “defense of Israel.” Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, a group of progressive lawmakers led by Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush have sent President Biden a letter warning that the growing U.S. involvement in regional wars in the Middle East has not been authorized by Congress. The lawmakers wrote, “These destructive wars must end, as must any unauthorized U.S. involvement in them.”

“No Votes for Genocide”: Protesters in NYC Decry U.S. Support for Israel Ahead of Nov. 5
Nov 04, 2024

Here in New York City, protesters took to the streets Saturday to demand “No votes for Genocide.” Protesters decried both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump for supporting Israel’s war on Gaza and refusing to back an arms embargo on Israel. Participants at the protest included Claudia de la Cruz, who is running for president on the Party for Socialism and Liberation ticket.

Claudia de la Cruz: “We are here to remind the capitalist state that there is an entire movement of hundreds of thousands of people all across this country that has been demanding a ceasefire, that has been demanding an arms embargo, that has been demanding an end to the expansion of genocide and war in the Middle East, and that we have not been heard. We have not been considered. And in that same way, we will engage in our political right not to engage with a two-party system that continuously insists on paying for and bombing babies across the Middle East.”

Meanwhile, in London, pro-Palestinian protesters held a symbolic “die-in” in front of the British prime minister’s office on Saturday.

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Save the Children in Gaza: Israel Bombs Polio Vax Site, Bans UNRWA in Attacks on Humanitarian Aid
by Amy Goodman
Democracy Now!
November 04, 2024

As Israel continues to block lifesaving humanitarian aid from entering northern Gaza, humanitarian organizations are describing its siege as “apocalyptic” and warning of mass Palestinian starvation and death. “The situation is absolutely desperate,” says Rachael Cummings of the aid group Save the Children International. Cummings joins us from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, where aid organizations have been halted from entering the north. She responds to news of Israel’s bombing of a polio vaccination center in an area that had been marked for an official humanitarian pause, and the Knesset’s vote to ban the U.N. relief agency UNRWA.

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.

It was another deadly weekend in Gaza, where UNICEF reports more than 50 children were killed in Israeli strikes on the Jabaliya refugee camp in the span of 48 hours. Two residential buildings sheltering hundreds of displaced Palestinians were reportedly leveled in the attack. UNICEF is also demanding Israel launch an immediate investigation after a vehicle driven by one of its staff members came under fire by an Israeli quadcopter flying above Jabaliya this weekend.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said at least four children were injured after Israeli forces dropped a stun grenade on a polio immunization center in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan district. Israel’s attack came despite agreeing to a humanitarian pause in order to carry out the final phase of the polio immunization campaign, after it was postponed in October due to Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment, siege and repeated targeting of humanitarian aid workers.

This is a Palestinian mother of three speaking from Gaza City.

AZHAR AL-NAJJAR: [translated] I stayed here in northern Gaza, along with all my children, and came here to give my children the polio vaccine. They were supposed to get it a month ago, but due to the Israeli offensive and the siege, it was delayed a month. We hope it will protect the children against polio. … I call on the world to stop the genocide of northern Gaza, because we are literally dying. Those who do not die from bombardments are dying from hunger. The situation is catastrophic.

AMY GOODMAN: Some 15,000 children under the age of 10 in towns across northern Gaza, including Jabaliya, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, still remain inaccessible and will likely not receive this dose of the oral polio vaccine due to Israel’s attacks and blockade.

This all comes as 15 humanitarian groups are describing the situation in northern Gaza as “apocalyptic,” with top U.N. officials again warning the entire Palestinian population in north Gaza is, quote, “at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence,” unquote. The region has been under an Israeli siege for nearly a month while Israel continues to block lifesaving humanitarian aid from entering north Gaza. Aid groups fear the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza will soon worsen, as Israel has officially notified the U.N. that it’s cut off ties to UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestine refugees.

We go directly to Deir al-Balah in Gaza, where we’re joined by Rachael Cummings, Save the Children International humanitarian director and team lead there in Gaza.

Rachael, can you describe what’s happening on the ground and what you’re calling for?

RACHAEL CUMMINGS: Hello, and thanks for the opportunity.

I mean, we are calling for a ceasefire, a definitive ceasefire. You know, children in Gaza are facing an extraordinary situation. You’ve described it extremely well in terms of the constant onslaught and bombardment of children in Gaza, in the north, in the middle area and in the south of Gaza, across the whole of the Gaza Strip. You know, we have over 14,000 children who have been killed. You referenced the 50 children who were killed most recently in an attack in a shelter in the north of Gaza. But this is a constant bombardment, and children are dying every single day. There is not enough food in Gaza. There is not enough water and clean water for people in Gaza. The situation is absolutely desperate.

AMY GOODMAN: And so, what exactly has to happen at this moment? Describe the level of aid you can get and the polio immunization programs being stopped because of the bombardment.

RACHAEL CUMMINGS: You know, the fact that the center that was providing the polio vaccines was attacked at this time is unfathomable. It’s extraordinary that that event has happened. And, of course, that will have a knock-on effect and an impact, not only the people that were impacted at that time, but then the faith and the trust for women and parents and family members take their children to health centers. They know it’s very important, obviously, for children to be vaccinated. But with the attacks on healthcare that are persistent, people will have lost faith and trust in the safety or the presumed safety of going to healthcare facilities to receive vaccines. So, the knock-on effects on that will be massive.

Now, what we need is improved access to humanitarian supplies, bring supplies in to Gaza, and then, of course, safe passage of those supplies and of our teams to be able to then reach the populations who are most in need. Every day, humanitarian workers, Save the Children, our staff, our partners and other humanitarian workers across the whole of Gaza are literally risking their lives to deliver lifesaving services to children and their families. This is an extraordinary and a very unique situation that we’re seeing in Gaza.

To be a child in Gaza — and I’m in Deir al-Balah at the moment, in the middle area of the Gaza Strip — it’s a miserable existence for children. They’re living under this constant fear. They’ve had no formal education for over 12 months now. So, that normality of life, that routine and education provides protection to children, not only for their physical health, but also for their mental health. We’re deeply, deeply concerned about the mental health of 1 million children in Gaza. Every single child in Gaza has been affected by this war.

AMY GOODMAN: And if you could comment more on the targeting of humanitarian aid workers and Israel now officially notifying the U.N. it’s cut off ties with UNRWA? How important is UNRWA in getting aid to and being observers on the ground to what’s happening there in Gaza, where you are?

RACHAEL CUMMINGS: It’s hard to quantify or describe how important, how essential UNRWA is for the humanitarian endeavor, the humanitarian response in Gaza. But Gaza is and has been for many decades, of course, wholly reliant and integrated within UNRWA, or, rather, UNRWA is integrated within the whole of Gaza and the Palestinian population. So, as humanitarian agencies, we heavily rely on UNRWA to receive fuel, to support on coordination of access and movement of supplies. So, UNRWA are a huge provider of lifesaving services. Every day, they’re providing over 15,000 consultations in the health facilities. Hundreds of thousands of people are living in the UNRWA-designated shelter system or previous UNRWA schools. Every sort of strand of society is wrapped up with UNRWA. So, the cessation of UNRWA in terms of providing humanitarian lifesaving support for the population here is extraordinary to even consider.

AMY GOODMAN: Rachael Cummings, I want to thank you so much for being with us, Save the Children’s international humanitarian director and team lead in Gaza, speaking to us from Deir al-Balah.

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Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
November 5, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/11/5/headlines

Israel Kills 70+ People in Gaza over Past Day, Launches More Attacks on Kamal Adwan Hospital
Nov 05, 2024

Palestinian medical sources say at least 70 people were killed by Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip over the last 24 hours. At least 20 were killed in the besieged northern town of Beit Lahia when an Israeli airstrike ripped through two homes.

Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers have withdrawn from the Kamal Adwan Hospital after raiding it for a second day in a row. The hospital had already been operating with a skeleton crew after Israeli forces last week detained dozens of medical workers. Israel’s most recent attacks damaged the hospital’s upper floors where the children’s ward was located, seriously wounding a child who was recovering from surgery.

Aid Entering Gaza at Just 6% of Pre-Genocide Deliveries as Israel Severs Ties with UNRWA
Nov 05, 2024

On Monday, the head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said the amount of aid entering Gaza reached a new low in October, with a daily average of just 30 trucks entering into Gaza. That’s just 6% of the cargo allowed to cross before Israel began its assault on Gaza nearly 13 months ago. Palestinians say the situation will be even worse after Israel this week formally ended a decades-old cooperation agreement that allowed UNRWA to operate.

Abu Khalil Salim: “This is considered a death sentence for Palestinians inside the Gaza Strip. … How many thousand students will be deprived of schooling? How many thousand patients will be deprived of treatment? How many thousand employees will lose their jobs? How many thousand people will be deprived of aid? This is a violation of international norms and the laws that exist in the world.”

“Not the End of the Semester”: State Dept. Says Too Early to “Grade” Israel on North Gaza Actions
Nov 05, 2024

The Biden administration continues to provide weapons and ammunition to Israel, ignoring foreign assistance laws that bar such aid to countries that commit gross human rights violations. On Monday, Associated Press reporter Matt Lee asked State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller to grade Israel’s response to a 30-day deadline imposed by the U.S. to end its starvation campaign in northern Gaza.

Matthew Miller: “They certainly do not have a passing grade. They have failed — I said they have failed to implement all the things that we recommended in that letter. Now, that said, we are not at the end of the 30-day period. And we are — we are in” —

Matt Lee: “OK, so it’s a fail, but you’re not ready to give them an F.”

Matthew Miller: “It’s not the end — it’s not the end of the semester. You don’t give out — you don’t hand out grades in the middle — in the middle.”

Matt Lee: “OK. Well, I suspect that the levity is a little bit inappropriate.”

“I expect that the levity is a little bit inappropriate,” said AP reporter Matt Lee as State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller chuckled at his own joke.

At Least 4 West Bank Palestinians Killed as Israeli Soldiers and Settlers Continue Deadly Attacks
Nov 05, 2024

Israeli forces have killed at least four Palestinians during airstrikes on the occupied West Bank. Two Palestinians were killed by an Israeli drone attack near the city of Qabatiya and two others in an aerial attack on Tammun outside the city of Nablus.

The killings come after armed Israeli settlers launched a wave of attacks on West Bank Palestinians, burning their homes and property and destroying olive trees. On Sunday evening, settlers torched more than 20 vehicles in the city of Al-Bireh, while in the town of Deir Dibwan near Ramallah settlers scrawled hateful graffiti on walls and set fire to a parking lot. Elsewhere, settlers burned dozens of trees in an olive grove on Palestinian land in the town of Burqa, northwest of Nablus. When Palestinians tried to put out the flames, they say they were beaten by settlers who also threw rocks at them.

Death Toll from Israeli Assault on Lebanon Tops 3,000 After More Deadly Strikes This Week
Nov 05, 2024

Israeli strikes on Lebanon Monday killed at least 15 people and wounded 90 others. The attacks bring the overall death toll from Israeli attacks on Lebanon to more than 3,000. Hezbollah responded by firing rockets toward Israel in what it said were attacks on soldiers’ barracks and other military targets. Lebanon’s National News Agency reports Israeli attacks have devastated 37 towns across southern Lebanon, destroying more than 40,000 housing units.

Syria Blasts Israeli Airstrikes Near Damascus, Which Killed at Least 2 People
Nov 05, 2024

Syria’s government has condemned Israel for carrying out airstrikes on a civilian area south of the capital Damascus. On Monday, Syrian media reported two people were killed and five others wounded when Israeli warplanes launched an air attack from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel’s Air Force later claimed it had hit Hezbollah “targets” in Syria.

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Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
November 6, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/shows/2024/11/6

Protests Erupt Across Israel After Netanyahu Fires War Chief Yoav Gallant
Nov 06, 2024

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant Tuesday in a surprise move that triggered large-scale protests across Israel. Gallant had publicly disagreed with Netanyahu over a temporary deal to exchange Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners; he also insisted Israel carry out a full investigation into the failures that led to Hamas’s October 7 attack — something Netanyahu rejected. Netanyahu appointed Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz to succeed Gallant. Katz recently led a successful campaign to cancel Israel’s agreements with the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. Earlier this year, he proposed creating an artificial island off Gaza’s coast where Palestinians could be forcibly relocated. In August, Katz called for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, declaring, “This is a war on all fronts, and we must win it.” On Tuesday, protests erupted in Jerusalem near Netanyahu’s official residence calling for the prime minister to resign. Meanwhile, tens of thousands marched in Tel Aviv, where protesters blocked a major highway.

Itamar Berger: “We believe it has never ever been this urgent. We believe the worst threat on the very existence of the state of Israel is not posed by Iran or Hezbollah or Hamas, but by our own government. Our own government is doing whatever is within its power to destroy us from within.”

Palestinians Condemn Biden’s Support for Israeli Military as Assault on Gaza Continues
Nov 06, 2024

In the Gaza Strip, four Palestinians were killed when Israeli troops shelled a home southeast of Khan Younis. Elsewhere, an Israeli airstrike leveled an apartment building in Gaza City, killing five people. On Tuesday, Palestinians in Gaza observed the U.S. election with a mix of dread and resignation. This is Ikram Al Hamm, a Khan Younis resident who spoke to reporters surrounded by the rubble of her home, which was destroyed by Israeli attacks.

Ikram Al Hamm: “Here’s our destruction. The destruction of the Gaza Strip is at the hands of the Americans. All the explosive materials that America sends to Gaza only bring destruction. What can we benefit from America? What will we gain from it, from the U.S. elections? Did the U.S. president encourage us in any way? No, he stood against us, against our kids in the Gaza Strip and against our very lives. He destroyed us and the Gaza Strip.”

Israeli Raids on Occupied West Bank Kill 8, Wound Child and Photojournalist
Nov 06, 2024

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces have killed at least eight Palestinians in a series of raids that began on Monday. Two people were killed in the town of Tamoun, where Israeli troops were seen moving a body with an armored bulldozer. Elsewhere, at least four people were killed in the city of Qabatiya near Jenin. During the raid, photojournalist Rabie Al-Munir was shot in the abdomen and rushed to a hospital where he’s in stable condition. Palestinian medics said a 3-year-old child was also hospitalized after being bitten by an Israeli attack dog.

Israeli Strike on Residential Building Kills 20 in Beirut Suburb
Nov 06, 2024

Israel’s military is continuing its assault on towns and villages in southern Lebanon, where on Tuesday at least 20 people were killed and more than a dozen others wounded when an Israeli airstrike tore through a high-rise apartment building in the coastal town of Barja south of Beirut. The attack came without warning. Resident Moussa Zahran showed reporters the twisted wreckage of his home after he narrowly survived the attack, which left his young son and wife hospitalized when their home collapsed around them.

Moussa Zahran: “We were drinking coffee in the living room. These slabs that you see here weigh 100 kilograms. They fell on a 13-kilogram child. And all of these fell on my wife.”

NGOs Ask U.N. Human Rights Council to Probe Israel’s Assault on Lebanon
Nov 06, 2024

Today, a group of 12 NGOs, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, called on the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate abuses committed during Israel’s war on Lebanon, which has killed over 3,000 people. Jeremie Smith of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies said in a statement, “There’s a huge risk of the same types of atrocities occurring in Lebanon as in Gaza.”

U.K. Authorities Drop Terrorism Charges for Retired Academic Who Advocated for Palestinian Rights
Nov 06, 2024

In the U.K., police arrested Israeli filmmaker, activist and retired academic Haim Bresheeth under the British Terrorism Act after he gave a speech on Friday advocating for Palestinian rights during a protest. Bresheeth is a child of Holocaust survivors and founder of the Jewish Network for Palestine. Police accused him of “making a hate speech” but refused to answer questions from Bresheeth and his supporters when pressed over what specifically triggered the arrest. He was released without charge the next day. It’s the latest in a series of arrests in Britain under the Terrorism Act targeting people who voice criticism of Israel. At least three journalists have been detained and/or raided over their reporting.

***

Linda Sarsour: Harris’s Embrace of Pro-Israel Policies at Odds with Democratic Base
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
November 6, 2024

In the Arab American-majority city of Dearborn, Michigan, Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris by over six percentage points, with third-party candidate Jill Stein capturing nearly one-fifth of the vote. During the primary elections, a majority of Democratic voters in Dearborn selected “uncommitted” over then-presumptive nominee Joe Biden, citing disapproval of the president’s handling of Israel’s aggression in the Middle East. “Uncommitted” voters continued to press the Harris campaign to shift its Israel policy as the election went on, but were routinely ignored. Democrats “made a calculation that they did not need Arab American, Muslim American and Palestinian American voters,” says Palestinian American organizer Linda Sarsour, who was in Dearborn on election night. We speak to Sarsour about the Harris campaign’s failure to secure the support of a previously key part of the Democratic base. “We are going to be in big trouble, and I blame that solely on the Democratic Party and one of the worst campaigns I have seen in my 23 years in organizing.”

Transcript

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

AMY GOODMAN: I also wanted to address the issue of foreign policy. From Dearborn, Michigan, to talk about Donald Trump’s election, we want to go to Michigan, where we’re joined by Linda Sarsour, Palestinian American Muslim organizer, author of We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders, co-founder of MPower Action Fund. Yes, Dearborn, the Arab-majority city, Trump won 42% of the vote over Vice President Kamala Harris, who received 36%. Jill Stein received 18%. Stein campaigned calling for an arms embargo against Israel. And I also want to hear what Ralph Nader has to say about this.

Linda Sarsour, if you can respond? We spoke to you last night. Now a lot of the results are in. If you can comment on what happened and what a Trump presidency will mean for Israel-Palestine?

LINDA SARSOUR: I appreciated hearing Ralph Nader’s analysis, which I share. And this all goes to the feet of the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party literally marginalized Arab American, Palestinian, Muslim American voters. Kamala Harris did not really, in my opinion, make any effort to really win over the votes of these demographics. Kamala Harris continued to parrot the usual talking points about humanitarian aid and about what’s happening, Gaza being devastated, without any action plan. She was asked many times, “Would you break from the policies of Joe Biden or in the ways in which Joe Biden has addressed the genocide in Gaza?” And she has said no multiple times.

Again, Donald Trump engaged in outreach in the Muslim American community. He went and visited mosques. He met with religious leaders. He had billboards all across Dearborn that were multilingual, in the language — in Arabic languages, in Bangla, in Urdu. And whether or not people agree with Donald Trump or whether or not — and you know me, Amy. I’m having déjà vu of 2016. I was a frontline organizer when Donald Trump was president, so I’m not looking forward to the next four years. But the Trump campaign did the outreach. They filled in a gap that was left by the Democratic Party.

And all Kamala Harris had to say in this election was “I will uphold international law. I will actually enforce the laws we already have on the books when it comes to military aid to any country violating human rights.” But the campaign made a calculation. They made a calculation that they did not need Arab American, Muslim American and Palestinian American voters, that they can actually win this election without this important electorate. They were too busy courting Liz Cheney and her friends instead of coming to Michigan and actually having deep, courageous conversations with the critics of the Kamala and Biden administration.

So, this is a devastating moment for our communities. Donald Trump is someone that we know very well. We don’t only know him on domestic policy. We know him also on foreign policy. He gave sovereignty to Israel over the Golan Heights. He declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel. There is an Israeli settlement that is named after Donald Trump. His son-in-law Jared Kushner believes that Gaza is this beautiful waterfront property. We are going to be in big trouble. And I blame that solely on the Democratic Party and one of the worst-run campaigns that I’ve seen in my 23 years in organizing.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Linda, I wanted to ask you something I asked earlier to some of our other guests. There was not a large outpouring of independent votes, but there definitely was a decline in the overall Democratic vote. Kamala Harris has apparently gotten 15 million votes less than sleepy Joe Biden did in 2020. I’m wondering, your sense was that those who stayed home, a reflection of some of the failures of the Democrats this time around?

LINDA SARSOUR: Absolutely. And the thing that people don’t want to talk about — and as you know, the Democratic Party is not a fan of mine, because they don’t like to listen to critics who actually are organizers and know how to mobilize communities. Somebody should ask the Democratic Party: How much money did you invest in Black and Brown-led organizations who do get-out-the-vote efforts, who engage and build power locally in communities? Somebody needs to ask them that question.

They spent a majority of their money on ads, on television ads, and really ignored the grassroots. I was on the ground in Pitt County, North Carolina. I was in Saginaw, Michigan. I was in Dearborn. I went to Georgia. And I did not see the type of field operation that is worthy of our communities. And Joe Biden had the Democratic House, Senate and White House in his first two years, and he couldn’t deliver on things like protecting and expanding voting rights. He blamed Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema for being obstacles to his agenda. He couldn’t even get two Democrats in line to pass legislation.

Lots of women across the country care about things like reproductive rights. Well, why didn’t the Joe Biden administration push Congress to codify Roe? We are in this situation because Democrats want to be in power, but they don’t know how to use their power once they are in office. And that is a failure of the party. And the party has to go back to its roots if it wants to move from here. You are either going to be loyal to your base, which majority supported ceasefire and support arms embargo against Israel, that support progressive issues, or you’re going to continue to try to recruit a constituency that does not exist, that did not turn out for you in this election. And I hope somebody in the campaign right now is sitting and reflecting on this, and hopefully some people are fired and no longer will be working for the party after this election.

AMY GOODMAN: Linda Sarsour is Palestinian American. Ralph Nader, you are Lebanese American. We only have a minute, but your response on the issue of the Democratic position, the Biden-Harris position on Israel, Palestine and Lebanon right now, and what you think has to happen? Because, in fact, the Democrats are in power right now, before Trump takes over.

RALPH NADER: Are you asking me?

AMY GOODMAN: I am.

RALPH NADER: Yeah. Well, Biden is projecting weakness. There are a lot of voters who want strength, and Trump understands that. And on the Middle East, he’s projecting incredible weakness. That’s why we call him Bibi Biden, and his secretary of state, Bibi Blinken. He’s giving Netanyahu whatever he wants — daily shipments of deadly weapons of mass destruction, diplomatic cover, veto in the U.N., pushing allied countries to get in line. He even refuses to demand that Netanyahu let American reporters into Gaza to report what’s going on. He won’t even allow airlifting at the request of American doctors who are over in Gaza, airlifting burned babies and amputee children for treatment in ready and able American hospitals. He is a co-combatant with the Palestinian holocaust and the genocide that’s going on. And Israel’s making no bones of this. Netanyahu wants the whole of Palestine, the West Bank, southern Lebanon to the Litani River. And it’s an all-go signal from Biden. So he’s projecting weakness here. He is weakly representing the mighty United States of America as if he’s an adjunct, a poodle for the Netanyahu regime.

AMY GOODMAN: We have to leave it there. That does it for this hour. I want to thank Ralph Nader, Linda Sarsour and John Nichols of The Nation.

***

Rami Khouri: U.S. Voters Are Sick of Foreign Wars. Can Trump Strike a Grand Bargain in Middle East?
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
November 6, 2024

Palestinian American journalist and a senior public policy fellow at the American University of Beirut, as well as a nonresident senior fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC.
Shortly after Donald Trump was announced as the winner of the U.S. presidential election, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to social media to enthusiastically congratulate him. Meanwhile, the Israeli military continued its violent assault on Gaza, killing multiple Palestinians in strikes on apartment buildings and homes. We speak to Palestinian American journalist Rami Khouri about what we know of Trump’s pro-Israel policies and how Trump beat Kamala Harris for the presidency. “Trump out-dramatized Harris, and that’s how he won,” he says.

Transcript

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

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

One of the first world leaders to congratulate Donald Trump on his presidential victory was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He wrote a message online that read, quote, “Dear Donald and Melania Trump, Congratulations on history’s greatest comeback! Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America. This is a huge victory! In true friendship, yours, Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu.”

We’re joined right now by Rami Khouri, Palestinian American journalist, senior public policy fellow at the American University of Beirut, also a nonresident senior fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC.

Rami Khouri, welcome back to Democracy Now! Your response to the Trump victory and what this means for Israel-Palestine and for Lebanon and beyond?

RAMI KHOURI: I’m not surprised by the victory. We knew it was going to be very close, and we knew that a lot of voters were not precisely telegraphing what they were going to do. The nature of the whole electorate has changed. It keeps changing every four years, due to many reasons. And the main reason I think that Trump won is that he ran a campaign — much as people don’t like him, for valid reasons usually, he did run a campaign that emotionally connected with not only his supporters, but a lot of other Americans. And Kamala Harris was a rank amateur. She had no idea what she was doing at that level of politics, which she showed four years ago when she ran in the primaries for the Democratic presidency candidate and got nowhere. And she just — she didn’t really touch on the issues that matter, other than abortion and maybe immigration a little bit. But even there, she was just following Trump’s lead.

So it’s no surprise. Many people are shocked. The trouble with Trump is that he’s so unpredictable in many areas. But the difference between now and four years ago is that we’ve had four years of his presidency and we’ve had four years of his being outside the presidency talking about issues. So he’s not an unknown quantity like he was eight years ago. And many of the things that he is going to do, internally and internationally, are predictable, I think. So, I would just hold my horses and wait and see what happens.

The last point I’d make is that the role of the Gaza Israeli plausible genocide, as the International Court of Justice calls it, the role of that plausible genocide by Israel, which was heavily, heavily, enthusiastically, consistently and clearly supported by the United States clearly had an impact. American people have shown now, as they did when I was in college in the late '60s, that they don't want their country being involved in a great war overseas that kills thousands and thousands of people that doesn’t really relate to them. And this is a really powerful lesson. We can’t draw the conclusions yet of exactly what the Gaza war did, but it clearly has mobilized a constituency that goes way beyond Arab and Muslim Americans. And I was in Dearborn, Michigan, last weekend for three days at a convention of Arab Americans, and what I saw was really, really, very, very powerful.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: But, Rami, how do you see the Trump administration changing policy in the Middle East versus what Biden has done, once he gets into office?

RAMI KHOURI: You know, one of the fascinating things about watching this stuff go on for half a century now, as I have, is there are little changes here and there. So, last time Trump was in, he recognized Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem, the annexation of the Golan Heights. He closed the PLO offices. He stopped funding UNRWA. He did all kinds of things that Palestinians don’t like and justice supporters don’t like, and that Israelis like and the evangelical right-wing American Christian fanatic supporters of Israel like. He did a lot of these things, and then Biden kept most of them. He didn’t really change really any of them significantly. And then Biden got involved in this incredible plausible genocide, and Harris followed him completely. So, I don’t think there’s really much change. Looking back and empirically speaking, looking back over the last 40, 50 years, there are only minor cosmetic changes between Republican and Democratic administrations. The bottom line that all of them accept, with only the occasional minor adjustment, is that they will do almost anything that Israel wants, for many reasons, which we don’t have time to get into here. But the American political establishment is fully and enthusiastically supporting Israel, even in its plausible genocide.

The American public is not. So, there’s a moral issue that came out of the American people over the last year and a half. And it was not just Arab Americans and Muslim Americans in Dearborn, Michigan. It was people all over the country, progressive Jews, labor unions, students, the student movement. So, this is a movement that is still young. This is like Vietnam antiwar protests in 1965. It took a long time, another seven, eight years, to get the Vietnam War ended. And this is a similar situation.

How it impacts Trump is not clear. And this is where we have to really wait, because it’s very hard to predict what Trump is going to do. He cares about two things. He cares about drama, entertainment, and he cares about making deals. And the deals may be political deals, and they’re also commercial deals, for him and his family and his cronies and his friends and his supporters. And that’s what politicians do all over the world. There’s nothing illegal about that. It’s just how politics works in superficially democratic societies. But they are democratic, and the vote counts, and new people come to power, and they make deals, and they do dramatic things. Trump outdramatized Harris, and that’s why he won. He appealed to people’s emotions, and that’s how people vote. They don’t vote on, you know, is our democracy threatened. That was a very important line from Harris and all her millions of supporters on the American mainstream television, who look like idiots now, because they were — not because the message is bad, because the message doesn’t resonate with ordinary people all over the country, which is what we saw. So, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

I think the greatest arena that we should look at is that combination, which Trump sort of looked at a little bit, you know, when he was president — Iran, Israel, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and the United States — that ring of powers that have — or, they’re not all powers — that ring of actors who all have important interests at play. He pulled out of the Iran agreement, the nuclear and sanctions removal agreement with Iran. And this is one of the triggers that brought this situation of war in the region about. And he also did the Abrahamic Accords with his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who knows about the Middle East as much as I know about underwater fishing in China, which is nothing. But the Abraham Accords are one of the things that set the stage for the continued conflict and the marginalization of Palestine, which set the stage for the October 7 attacks. So, if they don’t understand the connection among all of these issues and the growth of resistance movements in Yemen and Iraq and Lebanon and Palestine, if people don’t understand that, they’ll just come down to perpetual conflict.

I think if somebody can explain to Trump that he can be a great hero by making — a great hero to everybody by making a grand bargain that gives the Iranians, the Israelis, the Palestinians, the Saudis, everybody, what they really want, which is to live in peace and a normal life. And I think it’s attainable. I think it’s possible. But you’ve got to have the level of smart, sensitive and daring statesmanship, which we have not seen from Trump in a significant way. We’ve seen it very superficially, where it helps either his political constituents or helps Jared Kushner’s bank account in terms of deals, which he of course did with the Saudis. So, this is the position we’re in. We have to really wait and see. Is a second Trump presidency going to be more sophisticated and more meaningful than his first one? He is more experienced. And we’ll just have to wait and see.

AMY GOODMAN: On Saturday, Rami Khouri, the Palestinian youth movement organized a No Votes for Genocide protest. This is Sophie, a student here in New York City.

SOPHIE: I’m not voting for the capitalist ruling class, so I’m not voting for either Kamala or Trump. I don’t think they do anything for my people. Half of — I’m half-Bengali. Half of my family are Muslim Bengali immigrants. And they actually experienced their own genocide that was funded by the U.S. And I’ve never seen any of U.S. presidents do anything for the Global South, including Bangladesh, Pakistan or any of the Middle East. The argument that a vote for Jill Stein or Claudia and Karina or third party is a vote for Trump is really frustrating. I think it’s also — it’s not a vote for Trump or Kamala. It’s a vote for neither of them. And if Kamala loses, it’s her own damn fault. You know, like, this is the one thing that’s important to me. If she were to do anything for Palestine, I would consider voting for her.

AMY GOODMAN: So, that was a protest that happened just on Saturday. And I wanted to end, Rami Khouri, by asking you about what happened after President Trump won and he got his congratulations from Benjamin Netanyahu. Just before that, he fired the Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and he installed Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who proposed creating an artificial island off Gaza’s coast where Palestinians could be forcibly relocated. Katz also called for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, saying, “This is a war on all fronts, and we must win it.” Are you concerned, under Trump, that Netanyahu will follow through with annexing, for example, the West Bank?

RAMI KHOURI: Yes. I mean, we have to be concerned about Trump and Netanyahu and others doing really outrageous things. They’ve done them in the past, and they’ll do them again, unless somebody checks them. And this is the missing element in this situation in Palestine and in U.S.-Israel, U.S.-Middle East relations. The Israelis — Netanyahu is quite desperate right now, so he’s doing desperate things like this, only appealing to his right-wing fascist extremists in government and to their supporters overseas, who actually don’t know much about the details of the situation, but emotionally respond to this kind of process, where Israel is strong and protects itself and defends itself. So, yes, we have to be careful about what might happen. The response to the excesses of the Israeli—

AMY GOODMAN: We just have 30 seconds.

RAMI KHOURI: Yeah, the response has to be continued mobilization, protest, solidarity and justice for both Israelis and Palestinians simultaneously. That’s the winning formula. And bring in Iran, and everybody will be on board happily, including the Saudis, too.

AMY GOODMAN: Rami Khouri, Palestinian American journalist, senior public policy fellow at the American University of Beirut.

[admin]

Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
November 7, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/11/7/headlines

Israeli Strikes Kill 27 Palestinians; Military Says It Won’t Let Northern Gaza Residents Return
Nov 07, 2024

The Israeli military says Palestinians from northern Gaza will not be allowed to return to their homes, effectively admitting to ethnically cleansing the region. A military official said any future aid to Gaza would only be allowed to enter through the south, but not the north, where there are “no more civilians left.”

UNRWA spokesperson Louise Wateridge posted a harrowing video from northern Gaza showing its utter decimation. Wateridge wrote, “No matter from what direction you enter, homes, hospitals, schools, health clinics, mosques, apartments, restaurants — all completely flattened. An entire society now a graveyard.”

This comes as the head of UNRWA warned once again the agency will collapse “without intervention by member states.” Reuters reports the U.N. suggested in a letter to Israel that replacing the aid provided by UNRWA would become Israel’s responsibility after it recently cut ties with the U.N. body.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization resumed large-scale medical evacuations Wednesday, moving over 100 critical patients out of Gaza. Fewer than 300 patients had been able to leave Gaza since Israel blocked the Rafah crossing in May. The WHO estimates up to 14,000 Palestinians are in need of urgent medical evacuation from Gaza.

Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed at least 27 Palestinians since the day started, including at least three children in Rafah.

40 Killed as Israel Bombs Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley and City of Baalbek
Nov 07, 2024

In Lebanon, residents of Beirut woke up to smoke-filled skies this morning after a night of Israeli bombardment targeting the capital’s southern neighborhoods. This followed deadly Israeli strikes on the eastern Beqaa Valley and the city of Baalbek which killed at least 40 people and wounded 50 on Wednesday. Hezbollah said it launched a series of attack drones at the Bilu military base south of Tel Aviv in response to the latest attacks. Lebanese residents of Beirut continue to condemn Israel’s escalating assault on their country.

Ali Al-Ali: “This is a savage, predatory enemy that destroys homes, kills people and kills civilization. It cannot defeat the Hezbollah party. It cannot defeat them with destroying civilizations, with destroying homes, with anything. It cannot defeat them. And I say to Hezbollah: Do not stop. Do not stop resisting this enemy. I mean, what was taken away by force must return by force, too.”

Meanwhile, Lebanon has filed a complaint at the U.N.'s International Labour Organization over Israel's September terror attack, in which 4,000 people were killed or wounded when pagers suddenly exploded across Lebanon.

***

Fatima Bhutto: Kamala Harris’s Support for Israel’s Genocide in Gaza Is a Betrayal of True Feminism
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
November 7, 2024

With former U.S. President Donald Trump returning to the White House for a second term, we speak with Pakistani author and columnist Fatima Bhutto. Bhutto is an award-winning author and writes a monthly column for Zeteo on world affairs. She criticizes Kamala Harris’s campaign for relying heavily on celebrity endorsements and vague appeals to “joy” while silencing dissent on Gaza as the Biden administration continues backing Israel. “You don’t need to be a man to practice toxic masculinity, and you don’t need to be white to practice white supremacy,” says Bhutto.

Transcript

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

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

NERMEEN SHAIKH: As we continue to look at Donald Trump’s return to the White House, we turn now to look at what it means for the world, from Israel’s war on Gaza to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. During his victory speech, Trump vowed that he was going to, quote, “stop wars.” But will Trump’s foreign policy actually look like?

AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined now by Fatima Bhutto, award-winning author of several works of fiction and nonfiction, including The Runaways, New Kings of the World. She is co-editing a book along with Sonia Faleiro titled Gaza: The Story of a Genocide, due out next year. She writes a monthly column for Zeteo.

Start off by just responding to Trump’s runaway victory across the United States, Fatima.

FATIMA BHUTTO: Well, Amy, I don’t think it’s an aberration that he won. I think it’s an aberration that he lost in 2020. And I think anyone looking at the American elections for the last year, even longer, could see very clearly that the Democrats were speaking to — I’m not sure who, to a hall of mirrors. They ran an incredibly weak and actually macabre campaign, to see Kamala Harris describe her politics as one of joy as she promised the most lethal military in the world, talking about women’s rights in America, essentially focusing those rights on the right to termination, while the rest of the world has watched women slaughtered in Gaza for 13 months straight. You know, it’s very curious to think that they thought a winning strategy was Beyoncé and that Taylor Swift was somehow a political winning strategy that was going to defeat — who? — Trump, who was speaking to people, who was speaking against wars. You know, whether we believe him or not, it was a marked difference from what Kamala Harris was saying and was not saying.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Fatima, you wrote a piece for Zeteo earlier this year titled “Gaza Has Exposed the Shameful Hypocrisy of Western Feminism.” So, you just mentioned the irony of Kamala Harris as, you know, the second presidential candidate who’s a woman, where so much of the campaign was about women, and the fact that — you know, of what’s been unfolding on women, against women and children in Gaza for the last year. If you could elaborate?

FATIMA BHUTTO: Yeah, we’ve seen, Nermeen, over the last year, you know, 70% of those slaughtered in Gaza by Israel and, let’s also be clear, by America, because it’s American bombs and American diplomatic cover that allows this slaughter to continue unabated — 70% of those victims are women and children. We have watched children with their heads blown off. We have watched children with no surviving family members find themselves in hospital with limbs missing. Gaza has the largest cohort of child amputees in the world. And we have seen newborns left to die as Israel switches off electricity and fuel of hospitals.

So, for Kamala Harris to come out and talk repeatedly about abortion, and I say this as someone who is pro-choice, who has always been pro-choice, was not just macabre, but it’s obscene. It’s an absolute betrayal of feminism, because feminism is about liberation. It’s not about termination. And it’s about protecting women at their most vulnerable and at their most frightened. And there was no sign of that. You know, we also saw Kamala Harris bring out celebrities. I mean, the utter vacuousness of bringing out Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé and others to talk about being a mother, while mothers are being widowed, are being orphaned in Gaza, it was not just tone deaf, it seemed to have a certain hostility, a certain contempt for the suffering that the rest of us have been watching.

I’d also like to add to Robin’s point about toxic masculinity. There was so much toxicity in Kamala Harris’s campaign. You know, I watched her laugh with Oprah as she spoke about shooting someone who might enter her house with a gun, and giggling and saying her PR team may not like that, but she would kill them. You don’t need to be a man to practice toxic masculinity, and you don’t need to be white to practice white supremacy, as we’ve seen very clearly from this election cycle.

AMY GOODMAN: And yet, Fatima Bhutto, if you look at what Trump represented, and certainly the Muslim American community, the Arab American community, Jewish progressives, young people, African Americans certainly understood what Trump’s policy was when he was president. And it’s rare, you know, a president comes back to serve again after a term away. It’s only happened once before in history. But you have, for example, Trump moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. You have an illegal settlement named after Trump in the West Bank. The whole question of Netanyahu and his right-wing allies in Israel pushing for annexation of the West Bank, where Trump would stand on this. And, of course, you have the Abraham Accords, which many Palestinians felt left them out completely. If you can talk about this? These were put forward by Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who, when the massive Gaza destruction was at its height, talked about Gaza as waterfront real estate.

FATIMA BHUTTO: Absolutely. There’s no question that Trump has been a malign force, not just when it concerns Palestinians, but, frankly, out in the world. But I would argue there’s not very much difference between what these two administrations or parties do. The difference is that Trump doesn’t have the gloss and the charisma of an Obama or — I mean, I can’t even say that Biden has charisma, but certainly the gloss. Trump says it. They do it. The difference — I can’t really tell the difference anymore.

We saw the Biden administration send over 500 shipments of arms to Israel, betraying America’s own laws, the fact that they are not allowed to export weapons of war to a country committing gross violations of human rights. We saw Bill Clinton trotted out in Michigan to tell Muslims that, actually, they should stop killing Israelis and that Jews were there before them. I mean, it was an utterly contemptuous speech. So, what is the difference exactly?

We saw Bernie Sanders, who was mentioned earlier, write an op-ed in The Guardian in the days before the election, warning people that if they were not to vote for Kamala Harris, if Donald Trump was to get in, think about the climate crisis. Well, we have watched Israel’s emissions in the first five months of their deadly attack on Gaza release more planet-warming gases into the atmosphere than 20 of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations release in a year.

So, I don’t quite see that there’s a difference between what Democrats allow and what Trump brags about. I think it’s just a question of crudeness and decorum and politeness. One has it, and one doesn’t. In a sense, Trump is much clearer for the rest of the world, because he says what he’s going to do, and, you know, you take him at his word, whereas we have been gaslit and lied to by Antony Blinken on a daily basis now since October 7th. Every time that AOC or Kamala Harris spoke about fighting desperately for a ceasefire, we saw more carnage, more massacres and Israel committing crimes with total impunity. You know, it wasn’t under Trump that Israel has killed more journalists than have ever been killed in any recorded conflict. It’s under Biden that Israel has killed more U.N. workers than have ever been killed in the U.N.'s history. So, I'm not sure there’s a difference.

And, you know, we’ll have to wait to see in the months ahead. But I don’t think anyone is bracing for an upturn. Certainly, people didn’t vote for Kamala Harris. I’m not sure they voted for Trump. We know that she lost 14 million votes from Biden’s win in 2020. And we know that those votes just didn’t come out for the Democrats. Some may have migrated to Trump. Some may have gone to third parties. But 14 million just didn’t go anywhere.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Fatima, if you could, you know, tell us what do you think the reasons are for that? I mean, the kind of — as you said, because it is really horrifying, what has unfolded in Gaza in the last 13 months. You’ve written about this. You now have an edited anthology that you’re editing, co-editing. You know, what do you think accounts for this, the sheer disregard for the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza?

FATIMA BHUTTO: It’s a total racism on the part not just of America, but I’m speaking of the West here. This has been betrayed over the last year, the fact that Ukraine is spoken about with an admiration, you know, Zelensky is spoken about with a sort of hero worship, Ukrainian resisters to Russia’s invasion are valorized. You know, Nancy Pelosi wore a bracelet of bullets used by the Ukrainian resistance against Trump [sic]. But Palestinians are painted as terrorists, are dehumanized to such an extent. You know, we saw that dehumanization from the mouths of Bill Clinton no less, from the mouths of Kamala Harris, who interrupted somebody speaking out against the genocide, and saying, “I am speaking.” What is more toxically masculine than that?

We’ve also seen a concerted crackdown in universities across the United States on college students. I’m speaking also here of my own alma mater of Columbia University, of Barnard College, that called the NYPD, who fired live ammunition at the students. You know, this didn’t happen — this extreme response didn’t happen in protests against apartheid. It didn’t happen in protests against Vietnam in quite the same way. And all I can think is, America and the West, who have been fighting Muslim countries for the last 25, 30 years, see that as acceptable to do so. Our deaths are acceptable to them, and genocide is not a red line.

And, you know, to go back to what Robin mentioned earlier about the working class, that is absolutely ignored in America — and I would make the argument across the West, too — they have watched administration after, you know, president and congressmen give billions and billions of dollars to Ukraine, while they have no relief at home. They have no relief from debt. They have no relief from student debt. They have no medical care, no coverage. They’re struggling to survive. And this is across the board. And after Ukraine, they saw billions go to Israel in the same way, while they get, frankly, nothing.

AMY GOODMAN: Fatima Bhutto, we want to thank you so much for being with us, award-winning author of a number of works of fiction and nonfiction, including The Runaways and New Kings of the World, co-editing a book called Gaza: The Story of a Genocide, due out next year, writes a monthly column for Zeteo.

[admin]

Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
November 8, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/11/8/headlines

Israel Attacks Another School Shelter, Killing 12 Palestinians, as North Gaza Remains on Precipice
Nov 08, 2024

Israel continues to bomb the Gaza Strip, with reports of nearly two dozen Palestinians killed since dawn. This follows an Israeli attack Thursday on a school turned shelter in Gaza City’s Shati refugee camp that killed at least 12 Palestinians and wounded 30 others. Survivors said the bombing came without warning.

Umm Hani: “We were baking bread, and our children were sitting around us. And we were at the bottom, and we saw nobody, and the floor shook. The bomb hit, and all the tents were destroyed. People ran. Some people were martyred on the floor. Rubble fell on us, and people were torn to pieces. Where is the humanity? Where is the rest of the world? Where is the mercy? We have never seen any nation waging war on children. I am 65 years old, and I’ve never seen any nation waging war on children.”

For the last seven weeks, Israel has allowed almost no food or aid into northern Gaza as the U.N. has repeatedly warned the entire northern population is “at imminent risk of dying.”

Meanwhile, the United Nations Human Rights Office reports nearly 70% of the more than 43,000 Palestinians killed by Israel over the last 13 months are women and children.

Israel Acquires 25 Boeing Fighter Jets, Paid For by U.S. as Part of “Aid” Package
Nov 08, 2024

On Thursday, Israel’s military said it had secured 25 next-generation F-15 fighter jets from Boeing. The $5.2 billion deal is part of a larger U.S. funding package to Israel approved by Congress and provided by the Biden-Harris administration. Many Gaza residents fear Donald Trump’s election won’t bring an end to the flow of weapons that have laid waste to much of Gaza.

Walid Abdul Wahab: “Biden sent a lot of weapons, rockets, bombs, you know. Those weapons helped the Israeli occupation do their disgraceful acts to the Palestinian people, and the Gazans especially.”

Spain Rejects Arms Ships Headed for Israel; Canadian Palestinians Sue Trudeau Gov’t over Genocide
Nov 08, 2024

Spain has denied harbor to two ships operated by the Danish company Maersk, which were believed to be carrying weapons to Israel. El País reports the ships set sail from New York.

On Thursday, Turkey’s Ambassador to the U.N. Ahmet Yildiz renewed demands for a global arms embargo on Israel as he addressed U.N. reporters. Turkey and another 50 nations recently sent a joint letter to the U.N. pressing for an end to Israeli arms transfers.

Ahmet Yildiz: “We cannot stress enough that the staggering civilian toll, predominantly affecting women and children, resulting from ongoing breaches of international humanitarian and human rights law, is both unacceptable and intolerable.”

Two Canadian Palestinian citizens are suing the government of Canada for violating its duty to prevent genocide. This is attorney Shane Martínez.

Shane Martínez: “Our claim alleges that Canada, by failing to fulfill its legal duty to take all reasonable measures to prevent the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, did causally contribute to violations of our clients’ rights under the charter.”

The plaintiffs in the case have lost family members to Israel’s assault on Gaza, which they argue Canada has illegally abetted.

New York Activists to Launch Hunger Strike for Gaza Outside U.N., Joining Global Protest Movement
Nov 08, 2024

Activists in New York have joined a global hunger strike movement to end the war on Gaza. They’re holding vigils outside the U.N.'s headquarters today and over the weekend to call attention to Israel's catastrophic, 13-month-long assault. Dozens of activists in Amman, Jordan, launched their hunger strike one week ago. This is Mohammed Al-Tobasy.

Mohammed Al-Tobasy: “We had the idea in response to international calls to pressure through a global hunger strike in order to break the siege on northern Gaza. From there, no one has anything more precious than his health, so we decided to use our health as a form of pressure. Hunger strike, as we all know, is a form of pressure and peaceful resistance to achieve a certain demand.”

Israel Kills More Civilians in Attacks on Lebanon, Levels Historic Structures
Nov 08, 2024

Israel’s military is continuing deadly attacks on southern Lebanon, including an airstrike on Sidon that killed three civilians while wounding five United Nations peacekeepers. A separate strike Thursday in the eastern Beqaa Valley destroyed the historic Al-Manshiya building, an Ottoman-era structure just yards away from the Roman temples of Baalbek, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed over 3,100 people.

***

End the Arms: Humanitarian Chief Jan Egeland Urges U.S. to Stop Arming Israel Before Trump Takes Office
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
November 8, 2024

Top U.N. officials are again warning that the entire Palestinian population in north Gaza is “at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence.” At least 1,800 Palestinians have been killed, many of them children, since October, when Israel imposed a draconian siege and began an intensified campaign of ethnic cleansing on northern Gaza. Jan Egeland of the Norwegian Refugee Council recently spent several days in Gaza. He describes what he saw as “devastation beyond belief,” as Palestinians face “the most intense and most indiscriminate bombardment anywhere in the world in recent memory,” coupled with the utter depletion of aid. Egeland pleads for the United States, the largest supplier of military funding and equipment to Israel, to condition its weapons to Israel, enforce the provision of aid and commit to ending Israel’s assault. “It’s not in Israel’s interest to destroy its neighborhood in Gaza and in Lebanon. It will create new generations of hatred,” Egeland 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.

As northern Gaza remains under a brutal Israeli siege for over a month, Al Jazeera reports at least 17 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes on the north since dawn. This follows Israeli attacks on at least two schools turned shelters for displaced people in Gaza City Thursday. Survivors said the bombing came without warning.

UMM HANI: [translated] We were baking bread, and our children were sitting around us. And we were at the bottom, and we saw nobody, and the floor shook. The bomb hit, and all the tents were destroyed. People ran. Some people were martyred on the floor. Rubble fell on us, and people were torn to pieces. Where is the humanity? Where is the rest of the world? Where is the mercy? We have never seen any nation waging war on children. I am 65 years old, and I’ve never seen any nation waging war on children.

AMY GOODMAN: Over 1,800 Palestinians have have been killed since Israel launched its deadly onslaught on the northern Gaza in October, many of them children, though that figure is likely a vast undercount, saying something like 70% of the population that has died are women and children.

Meanwhile, Israeli attacks have also continued near central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp and in Gaza City, where Israel has issued a new forced displacement order for Palestinians who have nowhere safe left to go.

Top U.N. officials have again warned the entire Palestinian population in north Gaza, quote, “is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence,” unquote, while UNICEF and other groups describe the conditions in northern Gaza as “apocalyptic.” For at least the past seven weeks, Israel has persistently blocked lifesaving humanitarian aid and food convoys from entering north Gaza, leaving families and children to starve. The last few operational hospitals in northern Gaza are on the brink of collapse, lacking critical supplies, while also coming under repeated Israeli attacks and raids, with many doctors and medical workers killed or detained.

We go now to Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. He’s joining us from Amman, Jordan. He just left Gaza.

Can you tell us what you saw with your own eyes, Jan?

JAN EGELAND: Yeah, I spent three days in Gaza, and I’m shattered, really, as a human being, by seeing so much suffering. From Rafah in the south to Gaza City in the north, it’s devastation beyond belief. This is a small territory where there are 2.2 million people crammed together with no escape and under the most intense and most indiscriminate bombardment anywhere in the world in recent memory, and while they’re also starved because very little aid is coming in, and the little aid which is coming in has enormous problems in being distributed. And in northern Gaza, just next door to Gaza City, where I was, there is the besiegemeant, which is a deliberate starvation of the population there, while they’re being bombarded, to depopulate the area. This is unlawful also beyond belief. Every rule in the Geneva Conventions are being trampled on in Gaza.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you comment on what’s called the General’s Plan, drafted by Israeli military officers calling for the systematic denial of humanitarian aid in the north, which has basically been labeled as ethnic cleansing?

JAN EGELAND: Yeah, I mean, this — a lot of people fear this plan, have heard about this plan. And I don’t know whether it is official Israeli policy. But what I know is that the effect of the Israeli military campaign is that people are driven out of northern Gaza systematically. And the settlers — these are the criminal gangs in the West Bank that are colonizing the land of the Palestinians — they are celebrating the Trump victory, because they want to go back also and colonize Gaza, especially the north, where people are driven out. The Israeli Defense Forces have said that it is a deliberate campaign to drive people out with no return. And that is called, under the Geneva Convention forcible transfer of people, and it’s an atrocity crime. And there will be justice for this.

AMY GOODMAN: What about the significance of Israel formally notifying the United Nations it’s canceling the agreement with UNRWA? What does that mean for aid organizations like your own, the Norwegian Refugee Council, the U.N. agency for Palestine refugees?

JAN EGELAND: Yeah, what’s important to convey here is that when Israel, which itself is a product of a General Assembly resolution in 1948 — Israel was created by the United Nations in the General Assembly resolution. Many Palestinians were driven out then of their ancestral land. The U.N. saw that, and therefore, a second resolution came for the Palestinians, and that was UNRWA, 1950. It was created to provide relief and work and opportunities for the Palestinian refugees. So now the product of the first resolution is killing the product of the second resolution, and it would lead to even more suffering for the Palestinian population, both in the West Bank and in Gaza in particular.

And my organization, which has courageous humanitarian work on the ground, we provide water, shelter, education, relief, food for as many as we can. We’re not able to take over what UNRWA is doing. They are the backbone of the relief to the Palestinian people. On the contrary, we would also be set back, because they provide many of the logistic services. It’s their schools, it’s their fuel services, etc., that we, the nongovernmental organizations, rely on.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Jan Egeland, let me ask you. Haaretz recently reported a senior Air Force official told Haaretz that without the American supply of weapons to the Israel Defense forces, especially the Air Force, Israel would have had a hard time sustaining its war for more than a few months. Now a leaked letter to Israel from Blinken, the secretary of State, and Defense Secretary Austin demanding Israel immediately allow U.S. humanitarian aid shipments to Gaza or face an interruption of arms shipments, they gave Israel until November 13th, unclear why they have that grace period, but that’s coming up. What would it mean if the U.S. stopped arming Israel?

JAN EGELAND: I think it would be real leverage on this extreme policy, which is not self-defense. I mean, of course Israel has a right of self-defense. All nations have that. And what they suffered on the 7th of October were terror and massacres beyond belief, and Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the others that were behind that has to be brought to justice.

But what America has given indiscriminate arms to — and 2,000-pound bombs is no precision arm to go after terrorists. It is to level entire civilian neighborhoods. What the U.S. has fueled is an indiscriminate military campaign that is destroying Gaza, which is filled to the brim with women and children that have no escape. So, that the U.S. has not even been able to get Israel to provide the relief that we need to get in is beyond belief. It’s been a diplomatic impotence that is astounding.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you have President Biden, that has given billions of dollars in aid — military weapons to Israel. Then you have incoming President Trump, whose son-in-law Jared Kushner talked about Gaza as valuable waterfront real estate. You are not only the head of a large refugee agency, but you are a seasoned diplomat. You were involved with, one of the initiators of the peace talks that led to Oslo ’93. What needs to happen now? Biden is still in office until January 20th, and then Trump takes over, expected to be even fierce as an even closer ally to Netanyahu.

JAN EGELAND: Yeah, but he also wants to be close to the Gulf countries. And his son-in-law tried to negotiate this Abraham Accord, which was won between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf countries. So —

AMY GOODMAN: Which left out the Palestinians.

JAN EGELAND: Which left out the Palestinians, but now the Gulf countries cannot accept any deal with Israel without some justice for the Palestinians. At that time, they could neglect the Palestinians. Not anymore. The public opinion in the Arab world would not accept it.

So, Trump says “America first.” The present policy is Israel first, America second and humanity third. Perhaps there could be some leverage now on Israel as the strongest party here: a ceasefire, end to this slaughter of civilians, a release for the hostages in exchange for the release of the arbitrarily detained Palestinians, and that that could be the beginning of some peace process that could give justice and security to both sides. We cannot have wars every second year. It’s not in Israel’s interest to destroy its neighborhood in Gaza and in Lebanon. It will create new generations of hatred, and that is bad also for Israel.

AMY GOODMAN: Jan Egeland, your final comment right now, just after the U.S. election has taken place? The role that the U.S. plays when it comes to what Israel is doing? And what at this point, as endless U.N. and humanitarian organizations saying all of northern Gaza is on the verge of death — what Israel is trying to accomplish here?

JAN EGELAND: Well, Israel has a cruel military logic, which is similar to that of President Assad of Syria when he starved out besieged areas that were filled with civilians, but also with extremist militants inside. It’s the same logic now for northern Gaza, where there’s total besiegements of 100,000 people. I met some women who had come out with children, and they said, “We were starving. We were being bombed. We left. And when we left, we were chased by Israeli tanks.” I mean, this is the reality of this area. And the U.S., that has helped us in so many countries, from Sudan to the Sahel to Colombia to Myanmar, has —

AMY GOODMAN: Jan, we have three seconds.

JAN EGELAND: — not been able to help us in Gaza.

AMY GOODMAN: Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, just out of Gaza.

[admin]

Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
November 11, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/11/11/headlines

Israel Kills Dozens of Members of the Same Family in Jabaliya as Genocidal Attacks Continue
Nov 11, 2024

Israel carried out deadly strikes on Gaza, Lebanon and Syria over the weekend, while the United States bombed Yemen over the past two nights. This comes as Saudi Arabia is hosting dozens of world leaders for an Arab-Islamic summit in Riyadh to discuss Israeli aggression in the region.

In Gaza, Israel struck a family home in the Jabaliya refugee camp early Sunday, killing 36 Palestinians, including at least 13 children and nine women. Relatives of the family decried the attack.

Ahmed Al-Alooshe: “The home of Abu Sobeh Al-Alooshe was crowded with residents and not affiliated with any organization. They are simply people trying to make a living, minding their own business, and have no involvement with anyone. This strike targeted civilians who have no ties to any groups or organizations. … More than 50 people were there, as their grandchildren, children and daughters — all displaced — had taken refuge with them, seeking safety. The house was struck while they were all inside.”

Israel Kills at Least 4 More Palestinian Journalists in Gaza
Nov 11, 2024

Israel has killed at least four more Palestinian journalists in Gaza. Mohammed Khreis and his wife died in an airstrike on their tent near the Nuseirat refugee camp. Ahmad and Zahra Abu Sakheil were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a school in al-Tuffah. The radio broadcaster Khaled Abu Zir was killed on Friday.

This comes as the U.N.-backed Famine Review Committee has issued a dire warning saying there is a “strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas” of northern Gaza.

In other news, Qatar has withdrawn from its role as a mediator between Israel and Hamas.

Israeli Strikes Kill Dozens in Lebanon, Including 10 Paramedics
Nov 11, 2024

Israel is also continuing its assault on Lebanon despite Israeli claims that ceasefire talks are progressing. On Saturday, Israeli strikes killed 20 people in and around the ancient city of Baalbek. On Sunday, an Israeli strike on the village of Almat, north of Beirut, killed 23, including at least three children. Israel also targeted numerous villages in the West Beqaa region.

Ahmad Ali Hajj: “This is my house. I worked so hard my whole life to build it. No one helped me. I did it all by myself through hard work, to raise my family composed of seven to eight souls, and I’m still working actively. I found it all destroyed. I don’t have in it any missiles to attack the Israelis. The enemy is a butcher with no pity nor mercy at all, even for children. We’ve been resisting since our childhood until the end of our lives.”

Lebanese state media reports at least 10 paramedics were also killed over the weekend as Israel continues to target Lebanon’s health workers.

Amsterdam Police Crack Down on Pro-Palestinian Protesters After Israeli Hooligans Wreak Havoc in City
Nov 11, 2024

In Amsterdam, police beat and arrested more than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters Sunday after they defied a ban on demonstrations following street clashes between visiting Israeli soccer fans and Dutch youth. Unrest in the city began on Wednesday when fans of the Maccabi Tel Aviv football team were seen chanting pro-genocide, anti-Arab slogans and tearing down Palestinian flags. Street clashes broke out as tensions escalated before and after the soccer match. Amsterdam’s mayor blamed “antisemitic hit-and-run squads,” but observers in Amsterdam said Israeli hooligans instigated the violence. The violence grew into an international story as Israel sent planes to evacuate the Israeli fans.

***

“A Campaign of Genocide”: Noura Erakat Speaks to Ta-Nehisi Coates About Israel’s War on Gaza
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
November 11, 2024

Thousands attended a Palestine Festival of Literature event about “America and the War on Palestine” at the historic Riverside Church in New York Sunday, featuring conversations about U.S. complicity in Israeli human rights abuses. The literary festival, known as PalFest, aims to raise awareness of the Palestinian struggle through arts and letters. The acclaimed author Ta-Nehisi Coates moderated the conversations, including one featuring the Palestinian human rights attorney and scholar Noura Erakat. “This is about all of us,” says Erakat. “The fact that Palestinian children have been evaporated, beheaded, killed in NICU, their NICU system, rotted in NICU beds, right? And their parents have had to collect their flesh to weigh it in rice bags in order to bury them, right? At this point, there should have been mercy.”

Transcript

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

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

On Sunday here in New York City, more than 2,000 people packed the historic Riverside Church for a discussion about America and the war on Palestine. It was hosted by the Palestine Festival of Literature, or PalFest. The church, Riverside, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his speech on April 4th, 1967, a year to the day before he was assassinated.

The event yesterday featured several speakers, including Palestinian human rights attorney Noura Erakat, a professor at Rutgers University, author of Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine. Another of the panelists was Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, professor of African American studies at Princeton University and contributing writer at The New Yorker magazine. You can see our interview with professor Yamahtta Taylor last week at democracynow.org.

In a minute, we’ll hear from human rights attorney Noura Erakat. She was introduced by the moderator and author Ta-Nehisi Coates. His new book, The Message, in part about a visit he took to the occupied West Bank and Israel that was organized by members of PalFest, the sponsors of yesterday’s event. This is what he had to say.

TA-NEHISI COATES: When I think about being here, I think about ancestors. And I think it would be wrong if I didn’t, if we didn’t proceed without acknowledging that. First of all, I was informed when I came here that this is where Edward Said’s funeral was. And so it’s incredibly appropriate to be here in this moment.

The second thing is something that Yasmin and I talked about and have been talking about for a year, even when we did the other event before, was the fact that this was also the place where Martin Luther King stood up against the Vietnam War and was so courageous. And I want to acknowledge that in his time, when he did that, a lot of people did not applaud. I want to acknowledge that there were many people who he thought of as his allies who left him.

NOURA ERAKAT: Sounds familiar.

TA-NEHISI COATES: Yes, yes, yes, yes. That’s why I think it’s very appropriate, right?

KEEANGA-YAMAHTTA TAYLOR: Absolutely.

TA-NEHISI COATES: Who urged him to be silent as bombs were being dropped on helpless people. And he did not do that. And so, I think, in that spirit, that’s the spirit in which we proceed in our conversation.

KEEANGA-YAMAHTTA TAYLOR: Yes.

TA-NEHISI COATES: We’re going to talk a lot about theory today, not that theory is irrelevant, but I do think it is important for us to ground ourselves in the reality of what is going on right now.

And, Noura, if you would just take a moment for us and speak to the ongoing genocide, the pain, the life lost, frankly, the role that we as Americans play in that? If you would just take a moment for us just to ground us so that we are not forgetting, so that we are not, you know, all the way up here?

NOURA ERAKAT: Thank you. Thank you, Ta-Nehisi. Thank you, Keeanga and to this audience again. Thank you for coming to find sanctuary collectively.

I think that this was a concern that after more than a year of watching slaughter of babies — this is essentially and continues to be a war on children in a besieged territory where 50% of the population is children, so even before a bomb is dropped, it is a war on children — that it’s really easy to then pivot to the theoretical piece to make sense of it. We want to make sense of it at this stage. And what gets lost is what’s happening.

And so, I appreciated — full transparency: Ta-Nehisi asked me to do this just, you know, right before this event. So I thought that the proper way to do it was actually to read testimony from the ground from a colleague, from a colleague who — who in Gaza, who is recounting, as of 6 a.m. this morning. One of his colleagues woke up to 32 members of his family who were killed in Jabaliya. And Jabaliya is in the north, which is now under now an even tighter siege and a campaign of extermination and ethnic cleansing. What he writes upon waking up at 6 a.m. and finding his family slaughtered is that, quote, “I live meters away from them. It is a matter of luck. I wish I died with them. Neither my heart or mind can tolerate this, my uncle, his wife and three sons and grandsons and daughters all deleted.” He also lost his brother earlier in the year.

And as we’ve been paying attention in this moment, which is important to ground, we’re on day 400 of genocide, but we’re on day 36 of the siege of the north. And the siege of the north is a tightening of the siege that already existed, right? And it’s a siege that even predates the beginning of this campaign, this genocidal campaign. It’s a siege that’s been in place since 2006 at the earliest, thinking about a land siege and a naval blockade. But 1993, if you go back to when Gaza is first circumscribed by barbed wire as a way to prepare for peace, the irony is that the preparation for peace was a program to isolate and separate the Gaza Strip from the rest of the question of Palestine and to call it the Palestinian statelet and never to leave the West Bank to negotiation, but it was done in the language of peace, that this doublespeak continues.

But now here we are, of this — and 36 days of this particular campaign. And we got the earliest indication of it on day six of this genocide, when there was an order to evacuate the north to below the Wadi Gaza line, right? The line which was the order, if you remember, when 1.1 million Palestinians — that’s more than half the population besieged — was ordered to leave the north to below the Wadi Gaza line. But note that that removal was a death sentence, as the World Health Organization called it a death sentence. How do you remove the immobile? How do you force the sick to travel? And those that did take the risk and travel were targeted on the humanitarian lines that they were given, indicating to us on day six that there would be no safe quarter, that this was a campaign of genocide. And it’s why Holocaust studies scholar Raz Segal, the very next day, published in Jewish Currents, “This is a textbook case of genocide,” right?

And it’s why 800 TWAIL scholars, Third World approaches to international law scholars — when people call me international law, you know, the constant question that I get is: How do you still believe in the law? And I’m like, I’m a TWAIL scholar. We never believed in it. We’ve been telling you it is a source and a site of oppression and colonial domination. My book tries to say that and tries to demonstrate how, despite this colonial structure, we can use it for emancipatory purposes, under which circumstances, right? Use it when it suits us. Abandon it when it doesn’t. Create new law when we can. It is a tool. It is not the word of God. It is not holy. It is subject to change and to change by us. So, those 800 TWAIL scholars who know that said, raising the alarm, this is genocide. This was all within the first week, all within the first week.

And now we’re hearing something known as the General’s Plan. The General’s Plan, which is the formula for exterminating the north, the 400,000 people total Palestinians left in the north, 100,000 particularly in the area now marked for ethnic cleansing. The General’s Plan is the brainchild of General Giora. What is his first name? Giora Eiland. Giora Eiland, who proposes this plan. Giora Eiland was also the architect of the Eiland Plan in the early 2000s, which competed with Ariel Sharon’s plan for unilateral withdrawal and disengagement, which was the withdrawal of Israeli settlers and the withdrawal of military installations, but the maintenance of occupation of Gaza. That Eiland Plan in the early 2000s was to ethnically cleanse all of Gaza into the Sinai, right? So, the idea that he’s now — and by the way, Mada Masr — so, thanks to, you know, our partners at Mada Masr — have written, wrote beautifully and thoroughly about the Eiland Plan.

But you have the 1993 circumscription of Gaza in preparation for peace. You have the Eiland Plan in the year 2000. You have the evacuation order on October 12th, which was called a death sentence. You have the calls that this is genocide since day seven. You have now the General’s Plan.

We have a year, over a year of bearing witness to what — you know, my job and other people’s job has been to illuminate what can’t be seen, what’s been obfuscated. They have illuminated it for us. At this point, it is not about us telling you what you have to read between the lines. It’s literally about what they don’t want to hear, not what is not being revealed, because they are telling us, they have shown us, it is evident, they are defending it. They call it self-defense, and they call the completion of the Nakba as the right to complete. So, it’s less obfuscation, right? And now it becomes more about it’s a battle of narrative: Who do you want to listen to?

AMY GOODMAN: Noura Erakat, professor at Rutgers University, author of Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine, speaking Sunday here in New York at the historic Riverside Church at an event moderated by author Ta-Nehisi Coates. His new book, The Message. The event was hosted by the Palestine Festival of Literature. Also in that discussion, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Princeton University professor. To see our interview with her, go to democracynow.org. The next PalFest event, Palestine Festival of Literature, will be in held London November 20th to mark the republication of Edward Said’s book The Question of Palestine, followed by events in Detroit, Philadelphia and Minneapolis.

***

“Complete Charade”: Qatar Withdraws from Ceasefire Talks, Middle East Prepares for Trump Presidency
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
November 11, 2024

We speak with Dutch Palestinian analyst Mouin Rabbani about the latest developments in the Middle East as Israel continues its deadly assaults on Gaza and Lebanon. Qatar recently announced it will no longer act as mediator for ceasefire talks, saying the two sides were not serious about reaching a deal to stop the fighting. “This entire process from the outset has been a complete charade,” Rabbani says of the U.S.-backed ceasefire negotiations, urging Egypt to follow suit and also stop acting as a mediator. Rabbani also discusses how a second Trump administration could deal with the region, saying Trump’s “erratic” behavior makes predictions difficult, but that signs point to a more aggressive posture toward Iran.

Transcript

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

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

We continue to look at Gaza, where Israeli forces launched a deadly attack early Sunday morning on a residential area in Jabaliya where displaced Palestinians were attempting to shelter, killing at least 36 people, including over a dozen children. Dozens of the victims were reportedly members of the same family, asleep when Israeli forces attacked their home. An eyewitness who lost several relatives described the horrific scene.

HAMZA ALLOUSH: [translated] We were just sitting peacefully. These are innocent citizens who don’t belong to any military organization or faction. The eldest man is 70 years old. The house of Abu Sobeh Al-Alooshe was bombed over the residents’ head without warning, which led to the martyrdom of everyone inside, more than 30 martyrs. Those who were lucky enough to survive were thrown onto the trees, onto the neighbors, and the remains are still scattered under the rubble.

AMY GOODMAN: Palestinian journalist Mohammed Khreis was killed along with his wife after an Israeli airstrike on their tent in the Nuseirat refugee camp. At least three more Gazan journalists were also killed in the Israeli strikes over the weekend.

The attacks happened as the people of Gaza marked over 400 days since Israel launched its latest war and as northern Gaza remains under a brutal siege, with hospitals surrounded by Israeli forces who have issued forced evacuation orders, but doctors and medical staff have refused to leave their patients behind. Amidst Israel’s relentless attacks, the Palestine Red Crescent Society helped evacuate some 20 patients from Al-Awda Hospital in Jabaliya and transferred them to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. PRCS reported at least one of the patients died as the ambulances were held up for hours at an Israeli checkpoint.

Meanwhile, the U.N.-backed Famine Review Committee has joined other humanitarian groups in issuing a dire warning that there is a, quote, “strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas” of northern Gaza.

This all comes as Qatar has suspended its efforts to mediate a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal until, they say, Israel and Hamas show, quote, “willingness and seriousness” to resume negotiations.

Israel also carried out deadly strikes on Lebanon and Syria over the weekend, while the United States bombed Yemen over the past two nights.

For more, we go to The Hague, where we’re joined by Mouin Rabbani, Dutch Palestinian Middle East analyst, host of the Connections podcast. He’s former senior analyst for the International Crisis Group and a contributor to the book Deluge: Gaza and Israel from Crisis to Cataclysm.

Mouin, welcome back to Democracy Now! In a minute we’re going to ask you about the latest in Amsterdam, where police beat and arrested more than a hundred pro-Palestinian protesters Sunday after they defied a ban on demonstrations following street clashes between visiting Israeli soccer fans and Dutch youth. But first, can you talk about the significance of Qatar temporarily withdrawing as a mediator between Israel and Hamas for the Gaza ceasefire talks and about what’s happening currently in Riyadh?

MOUIN RABBANI: Yes. Well, turning to Qatar first, several days ago, there were press reports that Qatar was going to, as you mentioned, suspend its mediation and also show the Hamas exile leadership, that has been based in Qatar, the door and ask them to leave the country in response to U.S. pressure. The expulsion of the Hamas leaders has been denied by Qatar, but it has indeed, as you mentioned, confirmed that it is suspending its — that it is suspending its mediation, saying basically that the parties aren’t serious.

And I think my own view is that this is something that Qatar and the other mediator, Egypt, as well, should have done months ago, when it became entirely apparent that there never were serious ceasefire negotiations and that this process was essentially serving as a fig leaf for Israel and for the United States to continue with their war of annihilation in the Gaza Strip and deflect criticism by claiming that they’re involved in earnest initiatives to try to put an end to this war. As many of your listeners and viewers will know, every time there appears to be progress, the Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu shifts the goalposts, and we’re back to the square one. And then Antony Blinken is trotted out to say that Hamas is the obstacle. So I think it’s a good thing that these — at least that Qatar has suspended its efforts, and hopefully Egypt will do so soon, as well, because this entire process has from the outset been a complete charade.

AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about what’s happening right now in Riyadh. Some, what, 60 world leaders, including the Syrian President Assad, including Erdoğan and others, the Turkish president, are in Saudi Arabia right now. Talk about the significance of this and then what this means after the election of Donald Trump.

MOUIN RABBANI: Well, this is the second such summit. The first was held, if I’m not mistaken, in late November or early December last year. It was supposed to be an emergency Arab League summit, but the Saudi de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman then expanded it to also include the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Many people felt that was an attempt to seek to dilute the decisions that would be reached by this enlarged conference. And indeed, the only relevant resolution that they adopted was that they would immediately begin providing humanitarian supplies to the Gaza Strip, irrespective of any Israeli restrictions. And in fact, they did absolutely nothing and delivered nothing, unless they had Israeli approval to do so.

This is now, if you will, a follow-up summit. It’s possible that this one could be more serious, because there is, as you know, a very significant risk now of an all-out war that would include Israel and Iran trading blows directly at each other. And I think Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council states are very much worried about being in the frontline of any such conflict and being left with the consequences in terms of attacks on their own oil facilities and territory and so on. I mean, these are countries that had formerly looked to Israel as a reliable or potentially reliable security partner, but now see an Israeli government determined to set the entire region aflame. And they want to ensure that they’re not consumed by those flames.

AMY GOODMAN: So, where does Trump fit into this picture, well known to be extremely close, as his son-in-law is also extremely close to the Saudi Arabian Prince Salman?

MOUIN RABBANI: Yes. Well, as you mention, the relationship between the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the American crown prince, Prince Jared of Kushner, is known to be very close.

It’s less clear what a second Trump administration will mean for the region. Will it be a continuation of Biden’s policies towards the region, which were very much a continuation of the first Trump administration’s policies towards the region? Will Trump intensify, hard as that may be to believe, U.S. support for Israel and sign off on open warfare against Iran? Or will he also respond to those isolationist and antiwar elements among his constituency and seek to ensure that the U.S. is not drawn directly into an armed conflict in the Middle East, which would also mean using some leverage on Israel not to escalate matters further?

The problem with Trump is that he is so erratic, and we still don’t know who he’s going to surround himself with, that it’s very difficult to speculate about what the first months of the second Trump administration are going to bring. He’s already, for example, indicated that Mike Pompeo and Nikki Haley, two well-known Middle East hawks, will not be part of his administration. But against that, he’s also been closely working with Brian Hook, a well-known Iran hawk, and has indicated that his new ambassador to the United Nations will be Congresswoman Stefanik, who’s also well known for her very, very radical positions with respect to the region.

***

Mouin Rabbani on What Really Happened in Amsterdam Between Israeli Soccer Fans & Local Residents
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
November 11, 2024

Dutch Palestinian analyst Mouin Rabbani discusses the violence that broke out last week between visiting Israeli soccer fans and pro-Palestinian protesters in Amsterdam. The Dutch authorities made over 60 arrests, and at least five people were hospitalized as a result of the clashes, which local and international leaders were quick to brand as antisemitic, even though observers in Amsterdam have said it was Israeli hooligans who instigated much of the violence. Rabbani says that while it’s common for rival teams’ fans to get into skirmishes, what happened in Amsterdam was different. “What we’re talking about here in Amsterdam is not a clash between the hooligans of two opposing sides, but rather these Israeli thugs attacking people who, in principle, had nothing to do with the game, and then afterwards being confronted by their victims,” Rabbani says.

Transcript

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

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about where you are right now. You’re at The Hague, Mouin Rabbani. But I want to ask you about the latest news nearby, in Amsterdam, where police beat and arrested more than a hundred pro-Palestinian protesters on Sunday after they defied a ban on demonstrations following street clashes between visiting Israeli soccer fans, many of them violent, and Dutch youth.

Unrest in the city began on Wednesday, when fans of the Maccabi Tel Aviv football team were seen chanting such slogans — and I want to get those slogans right, but I’ll be careful in what I say — “Let the IDF win, and F— the Arabs,” but of course they say “F—,” referring to the Israeli army’s offensive in Gaza. Another video captured a fans screaming “F— you, terrorists! Sinwar, die! Everybody, die!” in reference to the Hamas leader who was assassinated last month.

Amsterdam’s mayor blamed, quote, “antisemitic hit-and-run squads,” but many observers in Amsterdam said the Israeli fans were responsible for instigating the violence, the Israeli soccer fans known as hooligans. The violence grew into an international story as Israel sent planes to evacuate the Israeli fans.

On Sunday, the Israeli journalist Gideon Levy wrote a piece for the newspaper Haaretz in Israel headlined “The Amsterdam Attack Shows Israelis’ Denial of the Reality They Created.” In it, Gideon Levy writes, quote, “Why do they hate us so much? No, it’s not because we are Jews. Not that there isn’t antisemitism: Of course there is, and it must be fought, but the attempt to pin everything on it is ridiculous and mendacious. … The North African immigrants, the Arabs and the Dutch people who rioted saw the horrors in Gaza over the past year. They are not willing to remain silent about them. … This is another cost of the war in Gaza that should have been considered: The world will hate us for it. Every Israeli abroad will be a target for hatred and violence from now on. That’s what happens when you kill almost 20,000 children, carry out ethnic cleansing and destroy the Gaza Strip. It’s a little quirk of the world; it doesn’t like those who commit these sorts of crimes.” Again, those are the words of the Israeli journalist Gideon Levy in a piece for Haaretz.

Mouin Rabbani, can you talk about what happened?

MOUIN RABBANI: Yes. Well, just to pick up where you left off, in fact, their favorite slogans were “Death to the Arabs! May your village burn!” and “There is no school in Gaza because all the children are dead.” But it wasn’t just about racist and genocidal slogans. These Israeli soccer hooligans, thugs, if you will, also engaged in property destruction, assaulting people of Arab appearance, assaulting taxis and totaling one of them.

And more importantly, they were allowed to do all this under police protection. If you compare it to British football, for example, when British teams play abroad, the British government sends police details with them, not to protect the hooligans, but to restrain them and ensure that they’re unable to do any damage. And so, what we’re talking about here in Amsterdam is not a clash between the hooligans of two opposing sides, but rather these Israeli thugs attacking people who, in principle, had nothing to do with the game, and then afterwards being confronted by their victims, also with some violence included.

And then you had kind of a power struggle within the Dutch elites. Geert Wilders, the far-right, effectively, the ruler of the Netherlands, seeking to undermine the government and prime minister he appointed in order to increase his power over them, that government seeking to retain its fiefdom, if you will, his coalition partners seeking to maintain their power. So they all began kind of outbidding each other in demonizing their own citizens and calling these clashes an antisemitic Jew hunt, which would only make sense if one could demonstrate that the victims of these clashes were not just supporters of the Israeli team or Israelis more generally, but also Dutch Jews and Dutch Jewish institutions and Dutch Jewish properties. And there’s no evidence that such attacks took place or even that the Dutch Jewish community, which of course would have been understandably fearful, given all these reports they were receiving about Jew hunt and antisemitic pogrom and so on — there’s no evidence that they even asked for police protection on the night in question. And so, you know, the government, Wilders, the mayor of Amsterdam have all been going to increasing extremes of trying to compare what happened to the Nazi occupation, the German occupation of the Netherlands during the 1940s. The result —

AMY GOODMAN: Let me play, Mouin, for you what the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said. He’s spoken with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump three times in the past few days, also commenting on what happened in Amsterdam on Thursday night.

PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: [translated] Yesterday we marked the Kristallnacht that happened 86 years ago on European soil. It was a brutal and violent attack against Jews just because they were Jews. Unfortunately, in the last few days, we saw pictures that recall that night. In the streets of Amsterdam, antisemitic rioters attacked Jews, Israeli citizens, just because they were Jews. But there’s one big difference between that night and our time: Today we have a state.

AMY GOODMAN: Your response to the Israeli prime minister, Mouin Rabbani?

MOUIN RABBANI: Well, the key difference, of course, between Kristallnacht in November 1938 and what we saw in Amsterdam on the 7th of November is that the properties that were marked for assault and attack were targeted because they were, for example, displaying Palestinian flags, not menorahs. So, that’s kind of a key difference.

And, you know, all this talk about that these people were singled out because they were Jews, rather than because they were football supporters or presumed to be supporters of this racist, genocidal gang of soccer hooligans, is really just, you know, trying once again to make the point that the real victims here are not the children who are being slaughtered in the Gaza Strip, the real victims are those who are engaging in the slaughter and those who are perpetrating the genocide.

And what has happened now is that the Dutch government, the municipality of Amsterdam, the Amsterdam police have put in emergency measures banning all demonstrations in opposition to the genocide and, as you mentioned, have now started arresting dozens of people who have violated that ban to assemble peacefully to protest what is happening in Gaza.

There’s a larger background here, of course, which is the failure, the refusal of the international soccer authorities, known as FIFA and UEFA, to take any measures against Israel, the Israeli Football Association, Israeli football clubs, in sharp contrast to their immediate imposition of comprehensive measures against the Russian Federation and Russian teams literally within days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

AMY GOODMAN: We only have 30 seconds, but can you, finally, comment on what’s happening in Lebanon, the thousands of people killed, the attacks continuing particularly in southern Lebanon, despite Israel claiming ceasefire talks are progressing?

MOUIN RABBANI: Yes, well, Israel is failing militarily — it’s still stuck on the border zone — and is therefore taking out its anger, its aggression on the Lebanese civilian population and hoping to use that as a form of pressure on the government and on Hezbollah to achieve something.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you so much, Mouin, for joining us. Mouin Rabbani —

MOUIN RABBANI: Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: — Dutch Palestinian Middle East analyst, host of the Connections podcast, former senior analyst for the International Crisis Group, contributor to the book Deluge: Gaza and Israel from Crisis to Cataclysm.