A Second Nakba? Israel Orders 1.1 Million Palestinians to Evacuate Northern Gaza Amid Bombing & Siege
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
OCTOBER 13, 2023
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/13 ... evacuation
Transcript
Israel’s military on Friday ordered 1.1 million civilians in the northern Gaza Strip to evacuate “southwards” in just 24 hours, a demand that aid groups say will cause untold human suffering. The ultimatum comes ahead of an expected ground invasion of the besieged coastal enclave, where authorities say 1,537 people have been killed since Israel began devastating airstrikes in retaliation for a Hamas attack in which militants killed 1,300 people and took some 150 hostages. Hamas says the intense Israeli bombardment that has pulverized much of Gaza also killed 13 hostages. Meanwhile, Israel continues to maintain a total blockade of the territory, blocking food, water, fuel and medicine from reaching those trapped inside. For more on the crisis and mounting human toll, we speak with Gaza writer Muhammad Shehada, who condemns the international community and mainstream media for its complicity in Israel’s destruction of Gaza. “These things are unimaginable horrors that are inflicted on Gaza right now with no one intervening to stop it,” he says. “This is pure madness.”
AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show in Gaza, where Israel last night ordered the evacuation within 24 hours of all Palestinians living in the northern Gaza Strip — some 1.1 million people within 24 hours. The United Nations has condemned the order, saying it’s, quote, “impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” unquote.
Much of Gaza is already in the dark, as Israel has cut off energy, food and water supplies. The seven-day Israeli bombardment has killed at least 1,500 Palestinians. Israel declared war after Saturday’s surprise brutal attack by Hamas militants on Israel, where the death toll has reached 1,300. Israel is now amassing tanks on the border of Gaza ahead of what appears to be an imminent ground invasion.
Some 400,000 Palestinians had already been displaced prior to Israel’s evacuation order last night. Some groups have announced plans to defy Israel’s order. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said, quote, “Despite the occupation’s threats to shell; the decision has been made. We did and will not leave. Our medics will carry on their humanitarian duties. We won’t leave people face death alone,” unquote.
Many in Gaza fear Israel’s evacuation order is the start of a second Nakba. Seventy-five years ago, in 1948, some 700,000 Palestinians fled from or were violently expelled from their homes upon Israel’s founding in 1948. Much of Gaza’s population are refugees from families displaced 75 year ago.
We begin today’s show with Muhammad Shehada, a writer and analyst from Gaza, chief of communications at Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, columnist at The Forward newspaper, a Jewish weekly in New York. He’s joining us from Copenhagen.
Muhammad, welcome to Democracy Now! Can you describe what’s happening on the ground? And first respond to this order from the Israeli government that half the population of Gaza, 1.1 million people, must leave the north and head south, and they gave them 24 hours last night to do it.
MUHAMMAD SHEHADA: Yes. Thanks, Amy.
I’ve been through at least six Israeli military operations, or even more. This is like nothing I’ve ever seen in my entire life and nothing like Gaza has ever seen, in terms of magnitude, scale, level of destruction and death. Entire neighborhoods are totally unrecognizable.
With the evacuation orders, it’s basically plain and very obvious forcible transfers. And its most important thing about it is that it’s unimplementable. If you know Gaza geographically and physically and the devastation of infrastructure there, you would know that most roads are broken. There is vast electricity, internet outages. People are not getting any news. At the same time, the area that Israel wants people to go out of is the most densely populated part of Gaza and the area with the most safe shelters, these U.N. schools — although not very safe, because Israel bombed a lot of them over the last six days, but it’s the area with the most U.N. schools. It’s the area with the most hospitals. And right now you have over 7,000 Palestinians wounded in al-Shifa Hospital and other hospitals around Gaza, around the area that Israel wants them to evacuate from. So, by the mere act of evacuation, many people are going to lose their lives.
The other issue is that there are not enough houses, not enough spaces or shelter in the south of Gaza that Israel wants to push people towards to be in. The only realistic outcome of this is that we’re going have people just literally baking in the sun in 30 degrees Celsius temperature, about 85 degrees Fahrenheit, daily, in the sun, in the street, without any access to hospitals, any access to food or water, let alone the sheer terror of Palestinians experiencing a second Nakba. Many people there are saying, “We’re not leaving our homes.” The Palestinian Red Crescent said, “We refuse to evacuate, because we’re not going to let our people face death alone.”
At the same time, I’m aware that there is some pressure from European officials on the Israeli government discreetly to sort of backtrack this decision, but they are telling me, quite obviously, that it’s unlikely they would have much influence on Israel without the U.S. coming on board. And until now, the Biden administration hasn’t made its mind up about an event that’s way, way more horrendous than the Palestinian Nakba. We’re talking almost about double the amount of Palestinians that were displaced in 1948 just gone in 24 hours.
AMY GOODMAN: We’ve been trying to reach guests in Gaza and were not able to make any connection at this point. Muhammad Shehada, if you could explain more the conditions on the ground? And the significance, as I listened last night to the general director of the Palestine Red Crescent Society say, “How do we move people out of hospitals with this short amount of time, not to mention more than a million people?”
MUHAMMAD SHEHADA: Yes. So, before the evacuation orders, almost everyone I know in Gaza, they say, “Our knees cannot lift us up.” They haven’t had any sleep for more than two to three hours a night, punctuated by constant military airstrikes, because Israel dropped, up until yesterday, about 6,000 bombs on Gaza in six days. That’s about a bomb every one-and-a-half minutes. Every single neighborhood in Gaza was damaged, every single street, area. All the famous sites are completely gone, pulverized.
At the same time, I talked — the last time I talked to people was this morning. I talked to at least two to three people, and I lost them as I was talking with him on the line, because of airstrikes or running out of electricity and internet. Israel bombed Gaza’s main telecommunication company on the third or fourth day of this escalation, bombed it completely, leading to outages in vast areas of Gaza. And the last time I talked to someone, the last one I spoke to is a Gazan Irish citizen. He holds Irish citizenship, European. And he was telling me basically this: “I only have few liters of water in my home, for a family of six. I don’t know where am I going to go. I have a few batteries, and they’re running out of power.” And he doesn’t know if he’s going to stay alive.
Most people I know in Gaza are uploading — literally, uploading their wills and last words to their social media accounts and begging for forgiveness from anyone that they’ve ever wronged or done anything to, and saying, “Please forgive us, and we forgive you, as well.” This is what it has come down to.
AMY GOODMAN: Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett exploded at a Sky News anchor, Kamali Melbourne, during an interview Thursday, after Melbourne pressed Bennett on Israel’s attacks on Palestinian civilians. Here’s a portion of the exchange.
KAMALI MELBOURNE: What about those Palestinians in hospital who are on life support and babies in incubators, whose life support and incubator will have to be turned off because the Israelis have cut the power to Gaza?
NAFTALI BENNETT: Are you seriously keep on asking me about Palestinian civilians? What’s — what’s wrong with you? Have you not seen what happened? We’re fighting Nazis. We don’t target them. Now, the world can come and bring them anything they want, if you want to bring them electricity. I’m not going to feed electricity or water to my enemies. If anyone else wants, that’s fine. We’re not responsible for them.
KAMALI MELBOURNE: But this is the point —
NAFTALI BENNETT: But you keep on —
KAMALI MELBOURNE: This is the point —
NAFTALI BENNETT: You — I want to tell you —
KAMALI MELBOURNE: No, no, Mr. Bennett, this is the point.
NAFTALI BENNETT: No. No, listen.
KAMALI MELBOURNE: Listen.
NAFTALI BENNETT: You listen to me right now.
KAMALI MELBOURNE: No, you’re raising your voice. And we’re trying —
NAFTALI BENNETT: I’ve heard you enough.
KAMALI MELBOURNE: No, no, I understand. We’re trying to have a conversation here.
NAFTALI BENNETT: I’ve heard a lot of you.
KAMALI MELBOURNE: Listen, this is my program.
NAFTALI BENNETT: No, you’re not having a —
KAMALI MELBOURNE: This is my show.
NAFTALI BENNETT: And that’s exactly —
KAMALI MELBOURNE: And I am asking the questions. You’re raising your voice.
NAFTALI BENNETT: But it’s my country.
KAMALI MELBOURNE: And I’ve asked you. And we’ve already —
NAFTALI BENNETT: And when people — when people —
KAMALI MELBOURNE: We’ve already — stop, please.
NAFTALI BENNETT: When people —
KAMALI MELBOURNE: And let me finish. We’ve already distinguished —
NAFTALI BENNETT: Shame on you, Mister.
KAMALI MELBOURNE: — between Hamas —
NAFTALI BENNETT: I want to tell you, you — shame on you.
KAMALI MELBOURNE: You’re trying to speak over me.
NAFTALI BENNETT: Because we are not —
KAMALI MELBOURNE: No, no.
NAFTALI BENNETT: Shame on you.
KAMALI MELBOURNE: It’s nothing about shame.
NAFTALI BENNETT: I am the — I was the prime minister.
KAMALI MELBOURNE: We’re trying to have a conversation —
NAFTALI BENNETT: There is absolutely shame.
KAMALI MELBOURNE: — about a very serious situation here.
NAFTALI BENNETT: Because when you just jump —
KAMALI MELBOURNE: And you are refusing to address it.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Sky News anchor Melbourne challenging the former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who said to him, “You’re daring to ask me about Palestinian civilians?” Muhammad Shehada, your response?
MUHAMMAD SHEHADA: Well, I’m afraid that this is now becoming a mainstream sentiment in Israel — and not just in Israel, amongst official European and American leaders, and in the media, as well. If you’ve been looking at what Israeli politicians are saying, about two days ago, an Israeli lawmaker, senior one in the ruling coalition, Limor Son Har-Melech, she wrote on Twitter, saying, quote, “There are no innocents in Gaza. Flatten Gaza,” quite literally, very openly. Now we have the architect, the godfather of the Israeli judicial coup, or judicial overhaul, Simcha Rothman, he is now saying that the main goal of this operation is that a Jewish kid can walk freely in Gaza alone, if there would be a Gaza at all. So this sentiment is shared widely.
But what I find most striking are two things. Number one, European diplomats in the Occupied Territories are telling me that their leaders, their bosses, their foreign ministries, for the last at least five to six days, were not bringing Gaza up to their Israeli counterparts at all. That’s the same with the U.S. government. They’re not bringing what’s Israel’s conduct in Gaza at all, aside from the issue of the humanitarian corridor. This might change now with the forcible transfer of 1.1 million people. But at the same time, this level of complicitness, I’ve never seen before.
And it’s the same with mainstream media. I’ve seen circulation of allegations, that were completely debunked, of extreme, horrendous atrocities, like mass rapes and decapitation of babies, being taken at face value by virtually all the mainstream media, circulating immediately and without the slightest work of journalistic integrity or investigation, although it was later debunked. And at the same time, when we have Human Rights Watch coming out yesterday and saying, “We have solid evidence of Israel using phosphorus munition on Gaza’s civilian populations” — that’s a chemical incendiary weapon that burns on immediate and ignites on immediate impact with oxygen, and it burns flesh and bone, and it cannot be turned off, and the toxic fumes of it can be lethal and can cause respiratory — permanent respiratory damage. Human Rights Watch says Israel is using it. This is a war crime. And virtually not a single mainstream media is picking up and reporting on this.
So, it’s unimaginable, the level of complicitness that I see in this round of escalation. Nobody is calling for deescalation or ceasefire, not even a humanitarian ceasefire, although they did that in the last major war on Gaza, 2014. That was the United Nations and the U.S. We had a humanitarian ceasefire for 72 hours. But this time there is not even any talk about it, not even a thought for it. And that, I find most frightening.
I get a lot of questions from my colleagues, family and people I love in Gaza, asking, “Are we going to stay alive?” One of my friends, she says, “I just gave birth about a month ago. My baby is clinging to me. I’m afraid if he’s going to die from a heart attack from the airstrikes and fear and terror,” at the same time that she’s afraid that her husband might get killed or taken away from her if there’s a ground invasion, at the same time that she’s afraid that she’s going to end up permanently a refugee in the Sinai desert. These things are unimaginable horrors that are inflicted on Gaza right now with no one intervening to stop it. This is pure madness.
AMY GOODMAN: On CNN last night, a former military Israeli analyst said, “Our goal isn’t turning Gaza City into a parking lot. Our goal is to turn Gaza into a Hamas-less region.” Muhammad Shehada, if you can respond, in this last answer?
MUHAMMAD SHEHADA: Yeah, exactly. As I said, Israeli leaders, politicians and members of the ruling coalition are openly admitting that the goal is flattening Gaza. Simcha Rothman, as I said, he is the architect, the chief architect, of the Israeli judicial overhaul. He is one of the top lawmakers in the Israeli ruling coalition. And he is saying openly the goal is that a Jewish Israeli kid can walk in and out freely, if there would be a Gaza at all. He is admitting it very openly.
And I’ve seen the sentiment not just from Israeli politicians, but from Israeli media, as well, from Israeli pundits, analysts and commentators. Voices of reason in Israel are now becoming a shunned minority. Many of them are afraid to speak up, because now the atmosphere is so hostile, so polarized and toxic and dehumanizing for people in Gaza that whenever Gaza is brought up, the only thing that’s brought up with it is Nazis. Can you imagine if any person in Gaza would refer to Israel as such, how many condemnations would be poured on their heads immediately?
AMY GOODMAN: Muhammad Shehada, I want to thank you so much for being with us, usually based in Palestine, in Gaza, a writer and analyst, chief of communications at Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, columnist for The Forward newspaper, a Jewish weekly here in New York.
******************
Former EU Envoy: Israel’s Forced Transfer of Palestinians in Gaza Would Be a War Crime
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
OCTOBER 13, 2023
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/13 ... aza_israel
Transcript
Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, recently retired European Union ambassador to Palestine, says Israeli pain and anger cannot justify war crimes in Gaza, where Israeli bombardment has already killed over 1,500 people. Now with Israel demanding the relocation of 1.1 million people ahead of an expected ground invasion, von Burgsdorff says Israel must adhere to international law and protect civilians. “No matter what Hamas did, it does not justify the incredible use of lethal force without distinction and without proportionality as far as the Palestinian population is concerned in Gaza,” he says.
AMY GOODMAN: We turn right now to Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, a former EU, European Union, ambassador to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, served in that post up until July.
Your response to this order by the Israeli military that half the population of Gaza must move within a 24-hour period, starting last night, from the north to the south, Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff?
SVEN KÜHN VON BURGSDORFF: Yeah. Thank you, Ms. Goodman. And, of course, I can fully second what Muhammad Shehada has so well described as the absolute catastrophe which 2 million Gazans are facing.
Let me start by saying I’m fully aware of this deep hate and frustration and despair which befell the Israeli society. And when they speak of their 9/11, of what happened last Saturday, I understand, of course, that view and that emotional tension they are under right now, and that makes it so difficult to have a rational discussion, not only in Israel, but also in Europe and in the U.S.
But we have to be aware that we still are governed by international law. We have left the medieval times. We have rules of conduct for war. We have rules of conduct of how apply humanitarian principles. And no matter what Hamas did, it does not justify the incredible use of lethal force without distinction and without proportionality as far as the Palestinian population is concerned in Gaza. Distinction, proportionality and precaution are sacrosanct principles for the code of conduct of armed hostilities. And Israel, as a democracy, cannot escape that and has to be held accountable. It cannot be that Israel has a carte blanche because terrible acts, brutal, gruesome acts happened to 1,000 or even 1,200 Israelis. That is not the excuse you can use to flatten Gaza.
And let me come back to the point of what you exactly asked. The announcement of the IDF to basically forcibly evict more than 1 million Gazans from their homes in the northern part of the Strip is likely to be criticized by international legal experts as a war crime, if there is no provision made for ensuring humanitarian access and exit and the necessary facilities to accommodate the basic human rights to water, energy, food and physical safety, let alone health. And this is also clearly signed in all international conventions Israel has ratified and is accountable to. So it is unexcusable if the international community does not use its pressure point to hold Israel to account for what they have pledged before the international community to respect.
I understand the emotions, they run very high right now in Israel. I am in retirement right now in France, so I am not now on the post. But I can understand that. But as I said, we all have to uphold international law, international humanitarian law and international human rights law. That is the yardstick. That is the most important measure of conduct for all of us.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, who arrived in Israel today, and play for you a comment she made last year about Russia targeting civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.
URSULA VON DER LEYEN: War crimes. Targeted attacks on civilian infrastructure, with a clear aim to cut off men, women, children of water, electricity and heating, with the winter coming, these are acts of pure terror. And we have to call it as such.
AMY GOODMAN: So, she’s talking about what Russia is doing in Ukraine. Would this also apply to Israel and Palestine?
SVEN KÜHN VON BURGSDORFF: International law applies everywhere. Human rights are universal, indivisible and inalienable. This is the EU position across the world.
AMY GOODMAN: Let me ask you about a statement by Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. He’s got dozens of workers in Palestine. We just spoke to Yousef yesterday from the Jabaliya refugee camp, is where he lives. He came in, talked about the difficulty of even moving to be able to talk to us, to find a space that had electricity. Today we can’t reach people in Gaza. But Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, commented on the Israeli relocation ultimatum of Gaza civilians, saying, “The Israeli military demand that 1.2 million civilians in northern Gaza relocate to its south within 24 hours, absent of any guarantees of safety or return, would amount to the war crime of forcible transfer. It must be reversed,” he said. Your response, Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff?
SVEN KÜHN VON BURGSDORFF: I fully subscribe to the statement of Jan Egeland. As an international legal expert, as a political scientist, as a former diplomat and as a human being, there is no doubt that this has to be respected.
And by the way, let me just underline this: If Israel decides to close its crossings in Kerem Shalom and in Erez, Egypt is bound by international law to open its border crossing in Rafah. And it cannot be that Israel threatens to bomb corridors and transports carrying humanitarian facilities and equipment. It cannot be. This is another war crime if that would take place. Egypt also has to ensure that its obligations towards refugees under international law are fully respected. So, it’s not just ensuring that in the space of the south, if one were actually to displace people, all the facilities are there, fully knowing that this amounts already, this forced eviction, to a war crime, but also the ability for people to be able to exit for humanitarian reasons this highly dense populated strip in Gaza in the south would also need for Egypt to open its borders. And, of course, it has community of providing the necessary provisions to facilitate that people can live there.
Again, this can only be a temporary solution. It cannot be that, as Muhammad Shehada said, we are basically witnessing a second Nakba, whereby the entire Gazan population is forcibly evicted from their homeland, which is Gaza, from their homes. And that is also something I think we have clearly to underline when talking to Israel and when engaging with them on finding a solution.
Let me just say an important thing right now: The key political measure right now is to deescalate and stop any further war crime and try to ensure that the people of Gaza are fully safe and protected. And, of course, I understand that there’s the important issue of freeing the hostages. I don’t know whether it’s 150 or whatever the number is. But it’s very important that this process be done as soon as possible and through negotiations. This is also a very important element which we have to be aware of. So, humanitarian access and exit and freeing the hostages and deescalating are the three key, I think, objectives one has to engage on now.
AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you for being with us, Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, former EU ambassador to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, served in that post up until July, speaking to us from France.
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Noura Erakat: Western Leaders & Media Are Justifying Israel’s “Genocidal Campaign” Against Palestinians
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
OCTOBER 13, 2023
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/13 ... aza_israel
The unfolding crisis in Gaza, where relentless Israeli bombardment has killed more than 1,500 people since Saturday, is “a humanitarian catastrophe,” says Palestinian American human rights attorney Noura Erakat. She says Western leaders and the mainstream media have relied on racist, Islamophobic tropes to build a false consensus “that war is inevitable and that whatever consequences come out is the fault of Hamas, thereby further blaming the victims for their own killing and massacres.” Erakat also decries the Israeli order that 1.1 million residents in Gaza relocate under threat of a ground invasion. “What we are seeing is a genocidal campaign. You cannot forcibly transfer 1.1 million Palestinians in a 225-square-mile enclosed area. There is nowhere for them to go,” says Erakat, an associate professor at Rutgers University and author of Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
Last night, the Israeli army ordered half the population of Gaza, 1.1 million residents, to evacuate their homes within 24 hours from northern Gaza to the south, in what many Palestinians fear is the start of a second Nakba. The U.N. said the mass transfer of half of Gaza’s population would have devastating humanitarian consequences. This comes as Israel has bombed Gaza for seven straight days, killing at least 1,500 people.
Joining us now, Noura Erakat, Palestinian human rights attorney, associate professor at Rutgers University, author of Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine. She’s speaking to us from Philadelphia.
Noura, if you can respond to this order and what’s happening in Gaza?
NOURA ERAKAT: Good morning, Amy, and thank you.
Your reporting has been an oasis in a sea of warmongering across mainstream media, for which I have deep contempt at this moment. They have mobilized almost every racial trope of savagery, barbarian. They have built on Islamophobia and the infrastructure of the “war on terror” to create a commonsense, logical conclusion that war is inevitable, and whatever consequences come out is the fault of Hamas, thereby further blaming the victims for their own killing and massacres.
At this point, we have to understand that there is no military solution. There has never been a military solution to this. Hamas cannot be eradicated. As we’ve seen, right now Palestinians are being killed, pulled from out of the rubble. We have not given them hope. I saw a young girl staring in trauma at the screen, her entire family decimated. What will happen to this young girl in 20 years? What will we tell her? That Israel had no choice? That this was your fault, and now your future is to continue to be stuck in an open-air prison?
There must be hope. And that hope lies in a political solution and in the responsibility of the international community to dismantle an apartheid system, to dismantle prolonged military occupation, the longest in the world, to lift a debilitating siege that has condemned Palestinians to slow death. This is a human-made disaster, a catastrophe, according to the World Health Organization. This is not a crisis; it is a humanitarian catastrophe. If we are to create a future, it has to begin and end with a political and diplomatic solution.
AMY GOODMAN: We have this update: Palestine’s Ministry of Health said seven Palestinians have been shot dead by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank today. Five hundred Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza, and at least Hamas is saying that 13 of the hostages have died in the Israeli airstrikes. These are hostages that Hamas took from the Gaza border. Your response to all?
NOURA ERAKAT: It’s devastating, Amy. All of us are watching this. But one of the things that we’ve been emphasizing is that although what we’re seeing is devastating, we’ve also been laying a pathway out of it. While international human rights organizations and Israeli human rights organizations came to near consensus in 2020 that Israel oversees an apartheid system, a crime against humanity, what is the greatest crime, that is sustaining this ongoing structure of violence, there should have been mobilization to impose weapons sanctions on Israel, to impose a diplomatic solution, to force Israel in order to dismantle this racist, colonial structure that has basically condemned Palestinians to permanent subjugation. It is the failure of the international community to mobilize that has now produced this outcome. It is all of our responsibility. There is blood on all of our hands.
And now the way out is not a military solution. We have to deescalate. There must be a ceasefire. There must be a recognition that Hamas, unlike these awful comparisons to ISIS and al-Qaeda, is actually a nascent sovereign of the Palestinian people, who has only targeted Israel. That gives them the right to use armed force, though that right is not qualified — that right is not — excuse me — unqualified. They cannot use it however which way, based on ongoing trauma and violence. But it must be recognized that as a nascent sovereign, they are representing a Palestinians’ people struggle for freedom.
And as we’ve seen from the broad Palestinian public institutions, civil society organizations, other political parties, they have all insisted that responsibility for this lies at the feet of Israel. The Haaretz editorial team has also said this lies at the responsibility of Israel.
This is not about finger-pointing, nor is it about bean counting the dead. There is tragedy on all sides. But if we are interested, if we are interested in not only ending this particular crisis, but of also achieving a durable, truthful, long-lasting solution, we have to go beyond this moment to dismantle the structures of violence that are sustaining it and creating these tragedies that are hurting everybody and will spill, beyond Israelis and Palestinians, throughout the region and throughout the world.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask you about the White House just saying that Gaza City’s evacuation is a “tall order.” The Israeli army’s call for more than a million people to evacuate North Gaza, a “tall order,” the White House has said, adding the U.S. understands Israel is trying to give civilians “fair warning.” Your response, Noura Erakat?
NOURA ERAKAT: That is so cynical. That is so cynical and can only be corroborated by an irresponsible media that has failed to show decimation of Palestinian communities, the attack on shelters, the attack on refugee camps. What warnings? To what end? Palestinians have been under siege for 16 years. There are no humanitarian corridors. The one corridor with Egypt was bombed by Israel. The minister of Israeli defense literally said that there will be no — there will be no exit, that there will be a siege, that electricity will be cut off, that water will be cut off, that Palestinians are “human animals.”
There has been a priming that all of these mass atrocities will be accepted by a population who will watch it with lament but think to themselves, “But what else was Israel supposed to do?” We are all being primed to accept mass atrocities. This historically is the playbook of how genocides happen. What we are seeing is a genocidal campaign.
You cannot forcibly transfer 1.1 million Palestinians in a 225-square-mile enclosed area. There is nowhere for them to go. The largest hospital, Palestinian hospital, that is literally on life support — no pun intended — to stay functioning, is in the north. Where will these Palestinians be treated?
What we are seeing is an ongoing shrinking of Palestinian land, is an ongoing campaign to take that land without the people. They want to shrink and concentrate the Palestinians now below Wadi Gaza in what is an untenable situation. As much as we think that this is about war and conflict and perpetual animosities, this is about land and water.
And there is only one viable future. We either all live together, or we all die together. And despite all of our appeals for us to survive and live together, the international community, mainly the Western governments, led by the United States — the European capitals, who have already cut off aid to Israel, France, which has banned Palestinian protests, Germany, which has banned Palestinian protests — are intent on a military option where there is no outcome. Military solution will not produce an outcome of a viable future for anybody.
AMY GOODMAN: You know, I already played this, but I’m going to play a much shorter clip of the former Israeli prime minister, because of how significant he is, Naftali Bennett, who’s now serving in the army in Gaza, exploding at the Sky News anchor Kamali Melbourne when asked about what’s happening with Palestinian civilians.
KAMALI MELBOURNE: What about those Palestinians in hospital who are on life support and babies in incubators, whose life support and incubator will have to be turned off because the Israelis have cut the power to Gaza?
NAFTALI BENNETT: Are you seriously keep on asking me about Palestinian civilians? What’s — what’s wrong with you?
AMY GOODMAN: “Are you seriously asking me about what’s happening to Palestinian civilians?” the former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said. You’re a human rights attorney, Noura Erakat. Your response?
NOURA ERAKAT: My response is, doesn’t have to be based on any expertise in human rights. This is about morality. This is about decency. The fact that Naftali Bennett can get upset about Palestinian civilians and the death of babies in incubators should be indicative to us that Palestinians do not have the same right to survive, that we are not exacting an equality and a respect and a decency for all civilian life.
We have set up this situation, Amy. We have set up this situation where Palestinians are expected to die. And what we are seeing in this moment is now an expectation that they can die in mass numbers, that they can die being in hospitals where they are cut off by electricity by the Middle East’s only nuclear power, the 11th most powerful military in the world. It’s the 12th largest military exporter, and the United States and the European community is sending them arms. They do not need arms. This is not a security situation. This is not a failure of security. This is a crisis of political will.
AMY GOODMAN: Noura —
NOURA ERAKAT: This is a — rather than normalize apartheid by inviting Israeli President Isaac Herzog to the Congress, Congress should have mobilized for an immediate imposition of sanctions in order to create a future where all people live, where all of us live, not just some of us.
AMY GOODMAN: Noura Erakat, we want to thank you for being with us, Palestinian human rights attorney, associate professor at Rutgers University. You just talked about hospitals.
*********************
Gaza’s Health System at a “Breaking Point” Amid Israeli Siege & Bombing
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
OCTOBER 13, 2023
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/13 ... cal_system
Transcript
The World Health Organization warns Gaza’s healthcare system is at a “breaking point” under Israel’s unabated bombing of civilians, and its blockade of resources and medical supplies. The WHO also reports dozens of attacks on hospitals and ambulances. We speak with Dr. Zaher Sahloul, a physician specializing in disaster relief with the international medical nonprofit MedGlobal, which is supporting doctors in Gaza. He calls the situation there “beyond catastrophic” as the number of critically injured patients far outstrips available hospital beds. Sahloul says the U.S. must tell Israel to stop the “hell that is raining on Gaza.”
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org.
On Thursday, the World Health Organization warned the health system in Gaza is at a breaking point. The WHO said, quote, “Without the immediate entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza — especially health services, medical supplies, food, clean water, fuel, and non-food items — humanitarian and health partners will be unable to respond to urgent needs of people who desperately need it. Each lost hour puts more lives at risk,” they said.
We’re joined now by Dr. Zaher Sahloul, president and CEO of MedGlobal, an international medical nonprofit that provides healthcare in disaster regions. He’s joining us from Chicago.
Dr. Sahloul, we only have three minutes. Can you talk about the situation on the ground, what’s possible, what is happening right now to the people of Gaza, especially with this demand that half of the population move from north to south? This is including the populations of the hospitals.
DR. ZAHER SAHLOUL: The situation is beyond catastrophic. I mean, I don’t have words to describe what’s happening right now. I’ve been in Ukraine, actually. I just came from Ukraine two weeks ago and visited some of the areas that were hit by the Russians. I’ve been in Syria. I’ve been in Lebanon, other places. I’ve been to Gaza four times. But this is the worst I have seen, in Gaza.
Children are dying unnecessarily because of this bombing. What happened in Israel a week ago should not justify what’s happening to the Palestinian children and the women and the elderly right now, and what will happen, the futures.
Hospitals are overwhelmed. We have only 2,500 beds in Gaza, and right now we have 7,000 critically ill, injured patients in Gaza. I’ve seen videos yesterday that was promoted by Dr. Hassam, who works in one of the hospitals in Gaza, where patients are on the floor of the emergency room because there’s not enough beds. Every exam bed has three children crying, and many of them are not crying because they are in shock. Doctors and nurses are in shock, not because of the overwhelming patients that are coming to the hospital, but because also they are not sure whether their families are safe or not or whether they will live for one more day or not. There is 75 attacks, according to the World Health Organization, in the last six days on hospitals, on ambulances, that led to 15 medics who were killed and 30-plus who were injured.
The situation going to get worse. That means more innocent people will die unnecessarily. Our hearts and prayers are with the people of Gaza, with the Palestinian people of Gaza, who are not responsible for what happened in Israel. Every loss of life should be treated the same way. And I don’t think — as a physician, I’ve been in crisis areas and disasters for the past 12 years. This is the worst I have seen. And I’m really fearful for the Palestinian people and the children, that have no connection to what happened in Israel. They’re not responsible for what happened in Israel.
The situation is beyond catastrophe. And I urge our government, because they are the only party that is able to stop this hell that is raining on Gaza.
AMY GOODMAN: President Zaher Sahloul, I want to thank you for being with us, president and CEO of MedGlobal, speaking to us from Chicago.