“Trying to Repeat the Nakba”: Israel Launches Largest Military Raids in West Bank in Two Decades
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
August 28, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/8/28/ ... transcript
The Israeli military has launched its biggest operation in the occupied West Bank in close to two decades, with hundreds of troops, backed by armored vehicles, bulldozers, fighter jets and drones, conducting simultaneous raids in the northern cities of Jenin and Tulkarm. At least nine Palestinians were killed overnight, with an additional 11 injured. In total, at least 652 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October — nearly 150 of them children — most of them during near-daily raids by the Israeli military. Israeli officials have indicated that the raids are just the first stage of an even larger operation in the West Bank. “They are trying to repeat the Nakba. … They are trying to repeat the same ethnic cleansing, the same genocide that is committed in Gaza,” says Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, who joins us from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. “Their goal is ethnic cleansing. Their goal is annexation of the West Bank.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: At least nine Palestinians have been killed and 11 injured as the Israeli military launches its biggest operation in the occupied West Bank in close to two decades, with hundreds of troops, backed by armored vehicles, bulldozers, fighter jets and drones, launching simultaneous raids on the northern cities of Jenin and Tulkarm.
In Jenin, Israeli forces have surrounded the city, blocking exit and entry points and access to hospitals and ripping up infrastructure in the Jenin refugee camp. Israeli forces have also been closing down the main roads leading to Tulkarm and other cities. An Israeli military spokesman told a news conference the raids were the first stage of an even larger operation in the West Bank.
As the raids got underway, Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz called for the mass displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank. He wrote on social media, quote, “We need to deal with the threat exactly as we deal with terror infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian civilians and any other step needed. This is a war for everything and we must win it,” he said.
Over 650 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October, nearly 150 of them children, most of them during near-daily raids by the Israeli military.
For more, we go to Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, where we’re joined by the Palestinian physician, activist and politician, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti. He serves as general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative.
Dr. Barghouti, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you explain what’s happening in the occupied West Bank?
DR. MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI: Well, Amy, thank you for having me.
But what’s happening is absolutely horrifying, because what we see here is Israel trying to transfer the genocide war that is conducted in Gaza and the war of ethnic cleansing from Gaza to the West Bank. And what we see here is a unilateral war from the side of a huge Israeli army, which has airplanes, which has tanks, which has huge number of soldiers, against a basically civilian Palestinian population.
You have to understand that the West Bank is an area that has been under Israeli military occupation continuously since 1967, so it’s an occupied territory. And now the Israeli army, which is occupying us all this time, is conducting a war on occupied people. It’s the worst and gravest possible violation of international law that governs the behavior of an occupying power.
And their goal is very clear. It’s as the Israeli minister of foreign affairs said. It’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. This is a fascist Israeli government governed by fascists, like Netanyahu, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, whose goal and aim is to annex the West Bank, is to settle Israeli illegal settlers in Palestinian territory and displace the Palestinian population. They are trying to repeat the Nakba. They are trying to repeat the ethnic cleansing that took place in 1948.
And this time, the Israeli army is invading not only Jenin and Tulkarm and Nur Shams camp and Tubas and Faraa camp; they are invading in so many areas in the West Bank. So many villages tonight were attacked and continue to be attacked. Hundreds of people have been arrested in this campaign. And the worst thing is that the Israeli army and bulldozers are destroying the infrastructure in many refugee camps, especially Nur Shams camp and Jenin camp. They are destroying roads. They are destroying power infrastructure. They are destroying water pipelines. They are destroying homes. And there is no limit to what they are doing. And at the same time, the world is watching and doing nothing.
It’s an absolute, absolute, unacceptable, horrible war crime that the Israeli army is conducting once again inside the West Bank. And I repeat: They are trying to repeat the same ethnic cleansing, the same genocide that is committed in Gaza, where, by the way, the war crimes continue. And every day, the Israeli army is killing 40 or 50 Palestinians — most of them, of course, are civilians.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Dr. Barghouti, I’m wondering your sense of whether this extreme right-wing government in Israel is determined to keep the fighting going even in the face of huge international criticism, not only with the assassinations and the attacks in Iran and in Lebanon and in Gaza, but now in the West Bank. Is it your sense that they feel this is their opportunity to finally have a decisive cleansing of the Palestinian people?
DR. MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI: Absolutely. I think that’s what they are trying to do. This is a fascist government run by theofascist people who have no respect of any human right, no respect of any international law. And their goal is ethnic cleansing, yes. Their goal is annexation of the West Bank.
And what’s happening now in the West Bank proves that the Israeli attack on Palestinians is not because of Hamas, because Hamas is not governing in the West Bank. It’s the Palestinian Authority, which was stripped from all its authorities. And it’s not about 7th of October, because these same acts started to happen before the 7th of October. And that shows you that the 7th of October was a result rather than a cause of what’s happening.
And now the Israeli ministers are coming out claiming they are fighting Iran in the West Bank. What kind of lie this is? Where is — I mean, the people who are occupied by Israel since 57 years are Palestinians, not Iranians. The people who were displaced by Israel in 1948, 70% of the Palestinian population, became refugees because Israel displaced them through massacres. They were Palestinians, not Iranians. But as usual, Israel is trying to claim that it is fighting some kind of another country. Before, it was the Soviet Union. Then it was Egypt. Then it was Syria. Then it was Iraq.
Now they’re talking about Iran, because they don’t want to admit that the real struggle here is the struggle of the Palestinian people for freedom, to end the occupation, to end the system of apartheid. They are trying to cover up the reality. And the reality is that there is an occupier, which is Israel, and occupied people, who are Palestinians. There is an oppressor, which is Israel and its parties and its government and its society, actually, and there is an oppressed, which are the Palestinian population. And now not only they are occupying us and practicing apartheid against us and stealing our land and imprisoning our children, more than that, they are conducting war on us and trying to conduct ethnic cleansing one more time against the Palestinian population.
They would not have dared to do all of that if it wasn’t for the United States of America, if it wasn’t for the unlimited military support that the United States is providing to Israel. They would not have dared to do so if it wasn’t for Germany, which is providing them also with military equipment, if it wasn’t for so many European countries — and I don’t want to put everyone in the same basket, but if it wasn’t for all this European support to Israel, while — and if it wasn’t for the double standard that is used internationally against the Palestinian population. I would also add Israel would not have dared to go so far if it wasn’t for the silence and the weak inaction from so many Arab governments and Muslim governments.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yes, I wanted to ask you about that, the Arab and Muslim governments, the role that they are playing right now. And what could they be doing?
DR. MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI: Well, there, it seems they don’t have a free will, most of them. Again, I don’t like to put everybody in the same basket. There are differences here. But the least they can do is boycott Israel, declare sanctions on Israel, cut all the normalization agreements with Israel. That’s the minimal thing they can do. We’re not asking them to send armies to fight Israel, but at least impose sanctions on Israel. And I say that the world community itself is responsible if it does not immediately engage in boycott, divestment, sanctions against this terrible fascist regime in Israel that is driving the whole region into a catastrophe and that continues this terrible crime against the Palestinian people.
How long can we continue to — how long can we continue to tolerate this terrible oppression? We’ve been subjected to ethnic cleansing, to occupation, to apartheid, to oppression, to persecution for 76 years. Why should we tolerate that? And why we don’t have the right to struggle for our freedom and for our independence and for our dignity like everybody else in this world?
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Barghouti, can you talk about the timing of this? You even have the Israeli generals putting pressure on Netanyahu, the prime minister, to sign off on a ceasefire. He hasn’t done that, has added more conditions to it, the whole issue of what’s happening in Gaza right now and then shifting to or adding the West Bank, not that they haven’t been attacking the West Bank before.
DR. MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI: You know, Amy, what is really shocking is that everything that is happening was not a secret. Everything that we see today in the West Bank and what we see in Gaza was declared as a plan by Israeli ministers continuously and repeatedly. They never — they didn’t even try to hide their intentions, and they’re declaring it every day, including the intention of annexing the West Bank, including the intention of ethnically cleansing Palestinians. They’re not hiding that.
And I don’t buy that there are differences really anymore between the security apparatus and the army and Netanyahu. If they really had these differences, they would force him to stop.
But I think what you see here is a very dangerous phenomenon. It’s not just that we just have an Israeli fascist government; we also have a fascist society. I’ve never seen anything like that in previous history, except maybe the rise of Nazis in Germany, where a huge number of the people, out of fear, out of misleading information, out of extreme Zionist ideology, are behaving as fascists. And the reality is that Netanyahu, each time he declares that he’s continuing the war, he’s getting better votes in the polls. And that encourages him to continue. And that’s what pushed him to take this terrible step of moving the war and of continuing the war in Gaza and then moving it to the West Bank.
AMY GOODMAN: And Israel Katz, the foreign minister of Israel, saying this is a war on everything?
DR. MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI: Yeah, he means war on every Palestinian, war on every Palestinian child. Out of the 11 people they’ve just killed in Jenin and Tulkarm, many are children, and two children in the Faraa refugee camp. It’s a war on all Palestinians. It’s a war of a settler-colonial system that wants to erase the Palestinian population, to erase the Palestinian people in the 21st century. That is the meaning of what he says — a war on everything — because they mean that they want to ethnically cleanse the whole of the West Bank, the whole of East Jerusalem, and to annex them to Israel.
And that’s why we are attacked not only by the Israeli army, but also by Israeli illegal settlers, who are behaving like gangs, reminding us of the same gangs, the Zionist gangs of Stern and Haganah, that committed more than 52 massacres in 1948 and that razed to the ground 520 Palestinian communities in what became called Israel later. It’s a continuation of this terrible war of ethnic cleansing. That is the reality.
And this is happening in front of the whole world. It’s happening in front of the American government, which does nothing — nothing — to stop this terrible atrocity and does nothing to stop this terrible ethnic cleansing. On the contrary, they continue to provide Israel with weapons, continue to provide Israel with bombs, and continue to protect Israel in the United Nations Security Council and in every other political venue.
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, we thank you for being with us, Palestinian physician and politician who serves as general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, speaking to us from the occupied West Bank, from Ramallah.
Coming up, Democrats are suing to halt new Trump-backed election rules that could be used to block certification of the November election. We’ll speak with voting rights journalist Ari Berman and with the CEO of LULAC, the oldest Latino civil rights organization in this country, which is asking the Department of Justice to investigate the Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for raiding the homes of LULAC members, accusing them of vote harvesting and more. Stay with us.
U.S. Backing Has Given Israel License to Kill & Maim
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Report from Gaza: Israel Kills Dozens More, Increases Forced Evacuations, Attacks Aid Truck
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
August 29, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/8/29/ ... transcript
We get an update from Gaza, where at least 68 Palestinians have been killed in the last 24 hours as Israel continues its relentless assault on the territory. After nearly 11 months of war, the official Gaza death toll now stands at over 40,600, although the true figure is estimated to be much higher. The World Food Programme announced it is pausing the movement of all staff in Gaza until further notice after Israeli forces shot at one of its clearly marked vehicles despite receiving multiple clearances by Israeli authorities. This comes just two days after U.N. humanitarian efforts in Gaza virtually ground to a halt due to new Israeli evacuation orders that disrupted operations again. Israel has issued several evacuation orders across Gaza over the past week, displacing a quarter of a million people in Deir al-Balah alone, including from the Al-Aqsa Hospital, where tens of thousands of residents and wounded were seeking shelter. Journalist Akram al-Satarri, speaking from just outside the hospital, describes “continuous military operations, continuous devastation, continuous targeting and [an] increased number of Palestinians affected by those ongoing operations either by being killed or being injured or by becoming displaced because of the new evacuation orders.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: In Gaza, at least 68 Palestinians have been killed and 77 wounded in the last 24 hours, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Nearly 11 months into Israel’s war on Gaza, the toll now stands at more than 40,600 Palestinians killed and nearly 94,000 wounded, though the true casualty figures are expected to be much higher with thousands unaccounted for.
As Israel’s daily bombardment continues, the humanitarian crisis is only deepening. The World Food Programme has announced it’s pausing the movement of all staff in Gaza until further notice after Israeli forces shot at one of its clearly marked vehicles as it was moving toward an Israeli military checkpoint. The U.N. food agency said the vehicle was shot despite receiving multiple clearances by Israeli authorities to approach. The U.N. food agency said the incident was a, quote, “stark reminder of the rapidly and ever shrinking humanitarian space in the Gaza Strip.”
This comes just two days after the U.N.'s humanitarian efforts in Gaza virtually ground to a halt due to new Israeli evacuation orders that forced the shutdown of the main U.N. operations center in Deir al-Balah. The U.N.'s main humanitarian aid hub, with warehouses and accommodation for staff, had already been relocated once before in early May following Israel’s ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza. The new hub was set up in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, but an evacuation order by the Israeli military on Sunday also included the new headquarters.
Israel has issued several evacuation orders across Gaza over the past week, displacing a quarter of a million people in Deir al-Balah alone. The new orders also forced many families and patients to leave Al-Aqsa Hospital, the main medical facility in Deir al-Balah, where tens of thousands of residents and wounded were seeking shelter.
AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Gaza to just outside the Al-Aqsa Hospital, where we’re joined by journalist Akram al-Satarri.
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Akram. If you can explain the situation right now? The attention now is on the West Bank, but in the last 24 hours alone, 68 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza alone, with more than that injured.
AKRAM AL-SATARRI: Good morning to you, Amy, and to all viewers.
Indeed, the situation in Gaza is ever escalating. The situation in the West Bank is marking a new beginning, where Israeli occupation forces are using the very same tactics of destruction and devastation and also besieging the hospitals and the other infrastructure for the sake of just — as they said, for the sake of preventing the movement of the armed people, but, indeed, that brings more devastation to the infrastructure and more devastation to the civilian population.
In the Gaza Strip, 68 Palestinians were killed in the last 24 hours. Around 21 Palestinians are killed since the morning as of today. And the number of Palestinians who are injured is also increasing. The number of military operations that have an aim of destroying residential blocks is increasing. The bombardment that is resulting from the ongoing operation destroying residential blocks in Rafah area, in Khan Younis area, in Deir al-Balah in Gaza central area, al-Bureij and also in al-Zeitoun area is also hit from all different parts of the Gaza Strip, continuous military operations, continuous devastation, continuous targeting and increased number of Palestinians affected by those ongoing operations either by being killed or being injured or by becoming displaced because of the new evacuation orders that were given to the Palestinians to move them from the humanitarian zone, to move them to the humanitarian zone that is also ever shrinking.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Akram, if you could describe the scale of these evacuation orders? Over 88.5% of Gaza is under evacuation orders. What’s the impact of these evacuation orders on people who are in Gaza?
AKRAM AL-SATARRI: For you to better understand the situation, people are asked to move to areas that have no infrastructure whatsoever, that have no regular water supplies, that have no regular even garbage collection services, with the municipal services coming to a full halt. So, you would be walking down the streets seeing tents erected on the sides of the road, seeing tents erected on the open areas, no infrastructure, no even sewage, no water supplies, no electricity, no hygiene, and the people are living there.
And all of the sudden, they are asked to move from the very same area, that is very lacking, to another area to start removing the tents and building the tents in some other area. People are asked to move to an area of around 11% of the Gaza Strip, to be more precise. And in those areas, that are called the humanitarian zone, there is nothing that have to do or has to do with the humanitarian need. The humanitarian needs are not met.
And people are exposed and vulnerable to extremely increasing risk of the bombardment. In those areas, people were erecting their tents, and they ended up being targeted and killed in those tents. In al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis, around 100 Palestinians were killed when the Israeli occupation forces targeted the whole area and then claimed to have managed to assassinate Mohammed al-Deif, who is the commander general of Hamas military wing. People are — even when they are moved into a humanitarian zone, they are not receiving humanitarian services.
The U.N. agencies and the other international agencies are also facing increasingly difficult situation because of the movement restrictions that have been taking place, because of the fact that they have always to redefine and replan for the sake of making sure that they can access the people and they can also make sure that their teams are safe. Their teams are not safe. The journalists are not safe. The medical teams are not safe. The international teams are not safe. And about every category, there is a list of incidents and of deaths and of injuries and of the destruction of the properties and the vehicles also when they were targeted by the Israeli occupation forces.
So, the bottom line, that the situation is overall unsafe. And the Israeli ongoing ground operations and aerial operations and the continuous targeting, including quadcopters and artillery fire and the F-16s and all the other kind or other kinds of the weapons in their arsenal is making things more difficult for the Palestinians and making life in Gaza more unlivable.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Akram, under these conditions, if you could talk about the diseases that are so rapidly spreading in Gaza, including, most recently, polio?
AKRAM AL-SATARRI: Yes, some statements were made, and at least one case of poliovirus was already confirmed in Gaza for a child who’s 11 months old, and the risk of the outbreak of that disease, given the very severe limitations on the movement of the international staff and also of the local staff and also the impact of the ongoing operations on the primary healthcare centers, that most of them are not functional anymore because of the bombardment.
There were some also alarming percentages about the hepatitis A, that has been widespread in the Gaza Strip, and around 1 million Gazans have already been infected with this hepatitis A, that is extremely contagious. And that can be transmitted also through touching.
The water is polluted. The food is polluted, no hygienic conditions. And the result of that is very big risks for the public health of the people in Gaza. And the concerns have already voiced by the UNRWA, by other U.N. agencies, such as the UNFPA, the U.N. women program, where women, children and elderly people are bearing the brunt of that very lacking situation and of that ongoing bombardment. So, people at large are affected by that. They’re affected also by some digestive issues because of the quality of the water and the quality of the food and lacking to hygienic situation for also cooking the food.
So, overall, the situation is extremely risky and dangerous for all different categories of the Palestinian population. And if you need a soap in Gaza, if you need washing soap, or if you need even bleach to wash the clothes, you will not find it in Gaza. You will not find it in Gaza central area, in Khan Younis, in Rafah, or even in Gaza City. People are suffering, and people are denied the access to the very, very basic things that have to do with their life. They cannot clean themselves. They cannot clean their clothes. They cannot clean their houses or their tents. And they are left to face the exacerbating humanitarian crisis, and they’re left to face those increasingly acute humanitarian needs without any help extended to them, because, according to some of the international organizations, the Israeli occupation is not allowing the hygienic stuff into the Gaza Strip. and that exacerbates the problem of the Gazans.
AMY GOODMAN: Akram, we only have a minute to go. We do not take for granted that we’re even able to speak to you in Deir al-Balah, in Gaza. Deir al-Balah itself has been under attack. Ninety percent of Palestinians have been displaced at least once. How do you keep yourself and your own family safe?
AKRAM AL-SATARRI: Well, I’m one of the Palestinians who have been displaced. Our family — I’ve been displaced for around 12 times. It is something that makes you feel unsafe. This is something that makes you feel detached from your original habitat. This is something that makes you feel vulnerable. This is something that makes you fear an imminent death that is coming to you, something that I have seen with my eyes. I saw the bombardment. I saw the people getting injured. I saw the destruction of the homes of the people. And I saw people frantically trying to grab anything and run for the sake of just starting a new life anywhere else, where they are in a situation that is extremely lacking. No one is promised tomorrow in Gaza.
And I will conclude by quoting the UNRWA commissioner-general, who said, “No one safe, no place safe.” And that will still continue and remain like that if no solution reached, if no agreement concluded between all the parties. The situation is extremely catastrophic. I think sometimes I had the chance of being in Western countries. I had the chance of being in African countries, in China. I tell you, what we are living is inconceivable in the sense of everything that has to do with a normal life. We are extremely sure that we might not live for the next second, not for the next minute. But we still have to endure that, and we still have to chase life, despite death, uncertainty and destruction.
AMY GOODMAN: Akram al-Satarri, be safe. Thank you so much for being with us, Gaza-based journalist, joining us from outside the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. We usually break at this point, but because we’re going to the occupied West Bank, to Jenin, which is under siege, we don’t want to risk losing our next guest.
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“They Want Palestine Empty”: Artist in Jenin Blasts U.S. Support for Israel Amid West Bank Assault
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
August 29, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/8/29/ ... transcript
At least 18 Palestinians have been killed and 30 more wounded in the occupied West Bank, where Israel has launched its largest military operation in two decades. Israeli forces have simultaneously raided four cities and refugee camps in the north, with hundreds of soldiers backed by armored vehicles, bulldozers, fighter jets and drones. Much of the violence has been centered on Jenin, a frequent target of raids by Israeli forces, but this latest military operation is the largest since the Second Intifada. Ahmed Tobasi, artistic director at the Freedom Theatre in Jenin refugee camp, says Israel’s tactics are about “punishing the people, punishing the civilians,” with an ultimate goal of ethnic cleansing. “They want Palestine empty from Palestinians.” He also calls on the U.S. public to speak out against continued military support for Israel, saying the killings in both Gaza and the West Bank are only possible because Israel has “the green light from the U.S. government.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: We turn now from Gaza to the occupied West Bank, where Israel has launched its largest military operation in over two decades, raiding four cities and refugee camps in the north simultaneously with hundreds of soldiers backed by armored vehicles, bulldozers, fighter jets and drones. At least 18 Palestinians have been killed and 30 wounded.
On Wednesday, the U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called on Israel to immediately end its military operation and strongly condemned the loss of lives, including that of children.
Meanwhile, three leading Palestinian human rights groups issued a joint statement warning, quote, “of even more escalated violence in the West Bank, with the employment of tactics that mirror those used in Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, particularly attacks on hospitals and healthcare facilities, and the use of excessive and indiscriminate force.”
AMY GOODMAN: In Jenin, Israeli forces have surrounded the city, blocking exit and entry points and access to hospitals and ripping up infrastructure in the Jenin refugee camp. Jenin has been the target of frequent raids by Israeli forces, but this latest military operation is the largest since the Second Intifada two decades ago, when Jenin witnessed some of the worst violence of that period after Israeli forces invaded it in 2002, laid siege to the refugee camp, killing dozens of civilians, destroying hundreds of homes, leaving a quarter of the population homeless.
We go now to Jenin, where we’re joined by Ahmed Tobasi, artistic director at the Freedom Theatre in the Jenin refugee camp.
Welcome to Democracy Now! Ahmed, describe the scene in Jenin right now.
AHMED TOBASI: Thank you, Amy, for having me.
I mean, the scene, it’s the same again and again. But as I said before, the Israelis keeping surprising us even the way they do the invasions. To be honest, I am calling my sisters around, some friends, and they are very scared. We, all of us, very scared. We know there is something different in this invasion. The way they start the invasion, the way they’re doing it now, it’s really scary. People don’t know what’s going to happen.
It looked like it’s going to be a bit more longer invasion than others. We are surprised of the number of the soldiers, the vehicles that keep coming to the city. The camp now having sometimes electricity, sometimes not. For sure, the internet is not there. We try to use the 3Gs, and not totally always good. But yeah, it’s a fear atmosphere where everybody is waiting.
And, you know, the scenes from Gaza, what happened to Gaza, the people in the camp are really afraid that’s going to happen to them, because it’s obvious that Israel is punishing the people, punishing the civilians. In the camp, all camp is surrounded with army. All of the entrances are closed. They already bulldozed all the streets, all the alleyways in the camp. And even the bulldozing is really deep. That mean no cars, no ambulances can go inside.
And many people tried to evacuate the camp. But, for sure, it’s very dangerous, because if you are a man above 15 or 14, you could be shot if you are moving or try to sneaking out from the camp. Only maybe kids or some women, if they are courage enough to leave, to know what’s going on outside the house, to leave the camp. But no one allowed to move.
People are afraid of having no food now for one week, because, you know, they didn’t prepare themselves for the invasion. They didn’t know which kind of the invasion is this. And, you know, the Israelis do not announce what they’re going to do exactly. So, many people are really afraid for the kids having no food.
So, yes, you hear the drones very close, the vehicles all around, the bombing by time to time. It’s, again, the scene repeating itself again and again. And we don’t know, like, what is the end, how long, what we should do. And it’s, obviously, the Israelis want to tell the communities, the civilians of these areas, “You have only two choices: You die here, or you leave, are displaced to other country.” And that’s what is — we’re still waiting what’s going to happen in the next days.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Ahmed, if you could put this latest military operation in the context of the ongoing assault on Gaza, on the one hand, and also the situation that’s been developing in the West Bank, both with the increasing violence over the last 10 months since the Israeli assault on Gaza, as well as the exponential increase in the number of Israeli settlements there?
AHMED TOBASI: Yes, I mean, also, at the same time, I hope American language and American, let’s say, journalism starts using the definition in a right way. It is not violence. It’s a genocide from the Israeli army against the Palestinian people. It’s not a conflict. It’s a genocide, a war, ethnic cleansing, from the Israeli military to the Palestinian civilians.
And yes, it’s, to be honest, from 100,000 of settlers to 850,000 in West Bank. West Bank is not anymore West Bank. It’s a little fragment, from Palestinian communities living there and there, and all the connection, all the network, the streets, all controlled by the settlers.
I promise you, I experienced a death threat. One time, I went out trying to go back from Ramallah to Jenin. It’s not even late. It’s the evening. And suddenly we find ourselves surrounded by settlers who really clearly want to kill you. And the last second, we just run with the car. And if we just stopped, they are ready to kill you. They are attacking everywhere. They are putting fire in the houses of the people. They’re shooting. Now they have guns, officially permitted guns from the Israeli government being given to the settlers to shoot Palestinians in very easy cold blood.
So, we’re not facing only army. We’re facing crazy settlers, groups of crazy people who just want to kill more and more. And the idea is clear. They want to empty West Bank from Palestinians. Guys, what is happening in Gaza, what is happening in West Bank, we say it again and again, this was planned from 80 years, and the Israelis have the time to work on it slowly to displace Palestinians in Palestine. They want Palestine empty from Palestinians, and that’s the only plan. And they will not relax. They will not stop until this happens, or, inshallah, it would be a victory for Palestinians, and they will get defeated.
AMY GOODMAN: Ahmed Tobasi, there have been more than 10,000 Palestinians on the West Bank arrested since October 7th. We have brought out reports from CNN to Human Rights Watch to Haaretz to Addameer of prisoners who haven’t been charged being sexually abused, being tortured. I’m wondering if you can talk about the effect of this level of imprisonment. And particularly this past December, the Israeli forces raided the offices of your theater, of the Jenin Freedom Theatre. Producer Mustafa Sheta was detained and sentenced to six months. Have you heard from him? Has he seen a lawyer? Has he been accused?
AHMED TOBASI: Exactly that’s what I’m talking about, Amy. I had an interview with your program in December, last December, and it’s the same and even more crazy, Mustafa still in prison, no information, not allowed even for lawyers to visit or have any information. As we said before, even kids in the Freedom Theatre have been shot where they were playing.
So, for me, it’s like: Is really American people, American government know what is going on? Are they really following? We have been saying this years and years, again and again, tons, tons of reports, United Nations, tons of reports. And what? What is next? We still — I mean, that’s why Israelis going on in there. That’s why they’re getting — and I’m sure the Israelis could not do this if they do not have the green light from the U.S. government.
I am saying, from your window, from your program, I’m calling to the American people, to the American artists, to the American activists, to the American people, please, you are the one who have to move now and stop this craziness. You have to stop supporting sending bombs to Israel. Enough military support. This military support goes for killing artists, children, destroying theaters, killing people, killing women. They do nothing more than this.
And the peace that Israel looking for is not to have a peace in Palestine. It’s to control all the world. It’s to occupy the whole Middle East and use it for the political situation that U.S. should try to fight China and Iran and Russia and Palestine.
I mean, we need to do something. It’s not only Palestinian, left alone, to deal with the Israeli occupation that is defending West and Europe, U.S. It’s really in a very difficult situation. If the U.S. do not follow the time and do something before this will be out of time, I think American people have to explain to the next generation. American people have to explain to the new generation in America what they did to the Palestinians, what they did to save and to finish this genocide and war. Guys, you will have a big responsibility in the future to define what happened to the Palestinians from the American support to the Israeli military terrorism people.
AMY GOODMAN: Ahmed Tobasi, we want to thank you for being with us, artistic director at the Freedom Theatre in Jenin refugee camp, speaking to us from Jenin.
Next up, in Afghanistan, the Taliban approves a law banning women from speaking in public. Stay with us.
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
August 29, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/8/29/ ... transcript
We get an update from Gaza, where at least 68 Palestinians have been killed in the last 24 hours as Israel continues its relentless assault on the territory. After nearly 11 months of war, the official Gaza death toll now stands at over 40,600, although the true figure is estimated to be much higher. The World Food Programme announced it is pausing the movement of all staff in Gaza until further notice after Israeli forces shot at one of its clearly marked vehicles despite receiving multiple clearances by Israeli authorities. This comes just two days after U.N. humanitarian efforts in Gaza virtually ground to a halt due to new Israeli evacuation orders that disrupted operations again. Israel has issued several evacuation orders across Gaza over the past week, displacing a quarter of a million people in Deir al-Balah alone, including from the Al-Aqsa Hospital, where tens of thousands of residents and wounded were seeking shelter. Journalist Akram al-Satarri, speaking from just outside the hospital, describes “continuous military operations, continuous devastation, continuous targeting and [an] increased number of Palestinians affected by those ongoing operations either by being killed or being injured or by becoming displaced because of the new evacuation orders.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: In Gaza, at least 68 Palestinians have been killed and 77 wounded in the last 24 hours, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Nearly 11 months into Israel’s war on Gaza, the toll now stands at more than 40,600 Palestinians killed and nearly 94,000 wounded, though the true casualty figures are expected to be much higher with thousands unaccounted for.
As Israel’s daily bombardment continues, the humanitarian crisis is only deepening. The World Food Programme has announced it’s pausing the movement of all staff in Gaza until further notice after Israeli forces shot at one of its clearly marked vehicles as it was moving toward an Israeli military checkpoint. The U.N. food agency said the vehicle was shot despite receiving multiple clearances by Israeli authorities to approach. The U.N. food agency said the incident was a, quote, “stark reminder of the rapidly and ever shrinking humanitarian space in the Gaza Strip.”
This comes just two days after the U.N.'s humanitarian efforts in Gaza virtually ground to a halt due to new Israeli evacuation orders that forced the shutdown of the main U.N. operations center in Deir al-Balah. The U.N.'s main humanitarian aid hub, with warehouses and accommodation for staff, had already been relocated once before in early May following Israel’s ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza. The new hub was set up in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, but an evacuation order by the Israeli military on Sunday also included the new headquarters.
Israel has issued several evacuation orders across Gaza over the past week, displacing a quarter of a million people in Deir al-Balah alone. The new orders also forced many families and patients to leave Al-Aqsa Hospital, the main medical facility in Deir al-Balah, where tens of thousands of residents and wounded were seeking shelter.
AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Gaza to just outside the Al-Aqsa Hospital, where we’re joined by journalist Akram al-Satarri.
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Akram. If you can explain the situation right now? The attention now is on the West Bank, but in the last 24 hours alone, 68 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza alone, with more than that injured.
AKRAM AL-SATARRI: Good morning to you, Amy, and to all viewers.
Indeed, the situation in Gaza is ever escalating. The situation in the West Bank is marking a new beginning, where Israeli occupation forces are using the very same tactics of destruction and devastation and also besieging the hospitals and the other infrastructure for the sake of just — as they said, for the sake of preventing the movement of the armed people, but, indeed, that brings more devastation to the infrastructure and more devastation to the civilian population.
In the Gaza Strip, 68 Palestinians were killed in the last 24 hours. Around 21 Palestinians are killed since the morning as of today. And the number of Palestinians who are injured is also increasing. The number of military operations that have an aim of destroying residential blocks is increasing. The bombardment that is resulting from the ongoing operation destroying residential blocks in Rafah area, in Khan Younis area, in Deir al-Balah in Gaza central area, al-Bureij and also in al-Zeitoun area is also hit from all different parts of the Gaza Strip, continuous military operations, continuous devastation, continuous targeting and increased number of Palestinians affected by those ongoing operations either by being killed or being injured or by becoming displaced because of the new evacuation orders that were given to the Palestinians to move them from the humanitarian zone, to move them to the humanitarian zone that is also ever shrinking.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Akram, if you could describe the scale of these evacuation orders? Over 88.5% of Gaza is under evacuation orders. What’s the impact of these evacuation orders on people who are in Gaza?
AKRAM AL-SATARRI: For you to better understand the situation, people are asked to move to areas that have no infrastructure whatsoever, that have no regular water supplies, that have no regular even garbage collection services, with the municipal services coming to a full halt. So, you would be walking down the streets seeing tents erected on the sides of the road, seeing tents erected on the open areas, no infrastructure, no even sewage, no water supplies, no electricity, no hygiene, and the people are living there.
And all of the sudden, they are asked to move from the very same area, that is very lacking, to another area to start removing the tents and building the tents in some other area. People are asked to move to an area of around 11% of the Gaza Strip, to be more precise. And in those areas, that are called the humanitarian zone, there is nothing that have to do or has to do with the humanitarian need. The humanitarian needs are not met.
And people are exposed and vulnerable to extremely increasing risk of the bombardment. In those areas, people were erecting their tents, and they ended up being targeted and killed in those tents. In al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis, around 100 Palestinians were killed when the Israeli occupation forces targeted the whole area and then claimed to have managed to assassinate Mohammed al-Deif, who is the commander general of Hamas military wing. People are — even when they are moved into a humanitarian zone, they are not receiving humanitarian services.
The U.N. agencies and the other international agencies are also facing increasingly difficult situation because of the movement restrictions that have been taking place, because of the fact that they have always to redefine and replan for the sake of making sure that they can access the people and they can also make sure that their teams are safe. Their teams are not safe. The journalists are not safe. The medical teams are not safe. The international teams are not safe. And about every category, there is a list of incidents and of deaths and of injuries and of the destruction of the properties and the vehicles also when they were targeted by the Israeli occupation forces.
So, the bottom line, that the situation is overall unsafe. And the Israeli ongoing ground operations and aerial operations and the continuous targeting, including quadcopters and artillery fire and the F-16s and all the other kind or other kinds of the weapons in their arsenal is making things more difficult for the Palestinians and making life in Gaza more unlivable.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Akram, under these conditions, if you could talk about the diseases that are so rapidly spreading in Gaza, including, most recently, polio?
AKRAM AL-SATARRI: Yes, some statements were made, and at least one case of poliovirus was already confirmed in Gaza for a child who’s 11 months old, and the risk of the outbreak of that disease, given the very severe limitations on the movement of the international staff and also of the local staff and also the impact of the ongoing operations on the primary healthcare centers, that most of them are not functional anymore because of the bombardment.
There were some also alarming percentages about the hepatitis A, that has been widespread in the Gaza Strip, and around 1 million Gazans have already been infected with this hepatitis A, that is extremely contagious. And that can be transmitted also through touching.
The water is polluted. The food is polluted, no hygienic conditions. And the result of that is very big risks for the public health of the people in Gaza. And the concerns have already voiced by the UNRWA, by other U.N. agencies, such as the UNFPA, the U.N. women program, where women, children and elderly people are bearing the brunt of that very lacking situation and of that ongoing bombardment. So, people at large are affected by that. They’re affected also by some digestive issues because of the quality of the water and the quality of the food and lacking to hygienic situation for also cooking the food.
So, overall, the situation is extremely risky and dangerous for all different categories of the Palestinian population. And if you need a soap in Gaza, if you need washing soap, or if you need even bleach to wash the clothes, you will not find it in Gaza. You will not find it in Gaza central area, in Khan Younis, in Rafah, or even in Gaza City. People are suffering, and people are denied the access to the very, very basic things that have to do with their life. They cannot clean themselves. They cannot clean their clothes. They cannot clean their houses or their tents. And they are left to face the exacerbating humanitarian crisis, and they’re left to face those increasingly acute humanitarian needs without any help extended to them, because, according to some of the international organizations, the Israeli occupation is not allowing the hygienic stuff into the Gaza Strip. and that exacerbates the problem of the Gazans.
AMY GOODMAN: Akram, we only have a minute to go. We do not take for granted that we’re even able to speak to you in Deir al-Balah, in Gaza. Deir al-Balah itself has been under attack. Ninety percent of Palestinians have been displaced at least once. How do you keep yourself and your own family safe?
AKRAM AL-SATARRI: Well, I’m one of the Palestinians who have been displaced. Our family — I’ve been displaced for around 12 times. It is something that makes you feel unsafe. This is something that makes you feel detached from your original habitat. This is something that makes you feel vulnerable. This is something that makes you fear an imminent death that is coming to you, something that I have seen with my eyes. I saw the bombardment. I saw the people getting injured. I saw the destruction of the homes of the people. And I saw people frantically trying to grab anything and run for the sake of just starting a new life anywhere else, where they are in a situation that is extremely lacking. No one is promised tomorrow in Gaza.
And I will conclude by quoting the UNRWA commissioner-general, who said, “No one safe, no place safe.” And that will still continue and remain like that if no solution reached, if no agreement concluded between all the parties. The situation is extremely catastrophic. I think sometimes I had the chance of being in Western countries. I had the chance of being in African countries, in China. I tell you, what we are living is inconceivable in the sense of everything that has to do with a normal life. We are extremely sure that we might not live for the next second, not for the next minute. But we still have to endure that, and we still have to chase life, despite death, uncertainty and destruction.
AMY GOODMAN: Akram al-Satarri, be safe. Thank you so much for being with us, Gaza-based journalist, joining us from outside the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. We usually break at this point, but because we’re going to the occupied West Bank, to Jenin, which is under siege, we don’t want to risk losing our next guest.
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“They Want Palestine Empty”: Artist in Jenin Blasts U.S. Support for Israel Amid West Bank Assault
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
August 29, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/8/29/ ... transcript
At least 18 Palestinians have been killed and 30 more wounded in the occupied West Bank, where Israel has launched its largest military operation in two decades. Israeli forces have simultaneously raided four cities and refugee camps in the north, with hundreds of soldiers backed by armored vehicles, bulldozers, fighter jets and drones. Much of the violence has been centered on Jenin, a frequent target of raids by Israeli forces, but this latest military operation is the largest since the Second Intifada. Ahmed Tobasi, artistic director at the Freedom Theatre in Jenin refugee camp, says Israel’s tactics are about “punishing the people, punishing the civilians,” with an ultimate goal of ethnic cleansing. “They want Palestine empty from Palestinians.” He also calls on the U.S. public to speak out against continued military support for Israel, saying the killings in both Gaza and the West Bank are only possible because Israel has “the green light from the U.S. government.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: We turn now from Gaza to the occupied West Bank, where Israel has launched its largest military operation in over two decades, raiding four cities and refugee camps in the north simultaneously with hundreds of soldiers backed by armored vehicles, bulldozers, fighter jets and drones. At least 18 Palestinians have been killed and 30 wounded.
On Wednesday, the U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called on Israel to immediately end its military operation and strongly condemned the loss of lives, including that of children.
Meanwhile, three leading Palestinian human rights groups issued a joint statement warning, quote, “of even more escalated violence in the West Bank, with the employment of tactics that mirror those used in Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, particularly attacks on hospitals and healthcare facilities, and the use of excessive and indiscriminate force.”
AMY GOODMAN: In Jenin, Israeli forces have surrounded the city, blocking exit and entry points and access to hospitals and ripping up infrastructure in the Jenin refugee camp. Jenin has been the target of frequent raids by Israeli forces, but this latest military operation is the largest since the Second Intifada two decades ago, when Jenin witnessed some of the worst violence of that period after Israeli forces invaded it in 2002, laid siege to the refugee camp, killing dozens of civilians, destroying hundreds of homes, leaving a quarter of the population homeless.
We go now to Jenin, where we’re joined by Ahmed Tobasi, artistic director at the Freedom Theatre in the Jenin refugee camp.
Welcome to Democracy Now! Ahmed, describe the scene in Jenin right now.
AHMED TOBASI: Thank you, Amy, for having me.
I mean, the scene, it’s the same again and again. But as I said before, the Israelis keeping surprising us even the way they do the invasions. To be honest, I am calling my sisters around, some friends, and they are very scared. We, all of us, very scared. We know there is something different in this invasion. The way they start the invasion, the way they’re doing it now, it’s really scary. People don’t know what’s going to happen.
It looked like it’s going to be a bit more longer invasion than others. We are surprised of the number of the soldiers, the vehicles that keep coming to the city. The camp now having sometimes electricity, sometimes not. For sure, the internet is not there. We try to use the 3Gs, and not totally always good. But yeah, it’s a fear atmosphere where everybody is waiting.
And, you know, the scenes from Gaza, what happened to Gaza, the people in the camp are really afraid that’s going to happen to them, because it’s obvious that Israel is punishing the people, punishing the civilians. In the camp, all camp is surrounded with army. All of the entrances are closed. They already bulldozed all the streets, all the alleyways in the camp. And even the bulldozing is really deep. That mean no cars, no ambulances can go inside.
And many people tried to evacuate the camp. But, for sure, it’s very dangerous, because if you are a man above 15 or 14, you could be shot if you are moving or try to sneaking out from the camp. Only maybe kids or some women, if they are courage enough to leave, to know what’s going on outside the house, to leave the camp. But no one allowed to move.
People are afraid of having no food now for one week, because, you know, they didn’t prepare themselves for the invasion. They didn’t know which kind of the invasion is this. And, you know, the Israelis do not announce what they’re going to do exactly. So, many people are really afraid for the kids having no food.
So, yes, you hear the drones very close, the vehicles all around, the bombing by time to time. It’s, again, the scene repeating itself again and again. And we don’t know, like, what is the end, how long, what we should do. And it’s, obviously, the Israelis want to tell the communities, the civilians of these areas, “You have only two choices: You die here, or you leave, are displaced to other country.” And that’s what is — we’re still waiting what’s going to happen in the next days.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Ahmed, if you could put this latest military operation in the context of the ongoing assault on Gaza, on the one hand, and also the situation that’s been developing in the West Bank, both with the increasing violence over the last 10 months since the Israeli assault on Gaza, as well as the exponential increase in the number of Israeli settlements there?
AHMED TOBASI: Yes, I mean, also, at the same time, I hope American language and American, let’s say, journalism starts using the definition in a right way. It is not violence. It’s a genocide from the Israeli army against the Palestinian people. It’s not a conflict. It’s a genocide, a war, ethnic cleansing, from the Israeli military to the Palestinian civilians.
And yes, it’s, to be honest, from 100,000 of settlers to 850,000 in West Bank. West Bank is not anymore West Bank. It’s a little fragment, from Palestinian communities living there and there, and all the connection, all the network, the streets, all controlled by the settlers.
I promise you, I experienced a death threat. One time, I went out trying to go back from Ramallah to Jenin. It’s not even late. It’s the evening. And suddenly we find ourselves surrounded by settlers who really clearly want to kill you. And the last second, we just run with the car. And if we just stopped, they are ready to kill you. They are attacking everywhere. They are putting fire in the houses of the people. They’re shooting. Now they have guns, officially permitted guns from the Israeli government being given to the settlers to shoot Palestinians in very easy cold blood.
So, we’re not facing only army. We’re facing crazy settlers, groups of crazy people who just want to kill more and more. And the idea is clear. They want to empty West Bank from Palestinians. Guys, what is happening in Gaza, what is happening in West Bank, we say it again and again, this was planned from 80 years, and the Israelis have the time to work on it slowly to displace Palestinians in Palestine. They want Palestine empty from Palestinians, and that’s the only plan. And they will not relax. They will not stop until this happens, or, inshallah, it would be a victory for Palestinians, and they will get defeated.
AMY GOODMAN: Ahmed Tobasi, there have been more than 10,000 Palestinians on the West Bank arrested since October 7th. We have brought out reports from CNN to Human Rights Watch to Haaretz to Addameer of prisoners who haven’t been charged being sexually abused, being tortured. I’m wondering if you can talk about the effect of this level of imprisonment. And particularly this past December, the Israeli forces raided the offices of your theater, of the Jenin Freedom Theatre. Producer Mustafa Sheta was detained and sentenced to six months. Have you heard from him? Has he seen a lawyer? Has he been accused?
AHMED TOBASI: Exactly that’s what I’m talking about, Amy. I had an interview with your program in December, last December, and it’s the same and even more crazy, Mustafa still in prison, no information, not allowed even for lawyers to visit or have any information. As we said before, even kids in the Freedom Theatre have been shot where they were playing.
So, for me, it’s like: Is really American people, American government know what is going on? Are they really following? We have been saying this years and years, again and again, tons, tons of reports, United Nations, tons of reports. And what? What is next? We still — I mean, that’s why Israelis going on in there. That’s why they’re getting — and I’m sure the Israelis could not do this if they do not have the green light from the U.S. government.
I am saying, from your window, from your program, I’m calling to the American people, to the American artists, to the American activists, to the American people, please, you are the one who have to move now and stop this craziness. You have to stop supporting sending bombs to Israel. Enough military support. This military support goes for killing artists, children, destroying theaters, killing people, killing women. They do nothing more than this.
And the peace that Israel looking for is not to have a peace in Palestine. It’s to control all the world. It’s to occupy the whole Middle East and use it for the political situation that U.S. should try to fight China and Iran and Russia and Palestine.
I mean, we need to do something. It’s not only Palestinian, left alone, to deal with the Israeli occupation that is defending West and Europe, U.S. It’s really in a very difficult situation. If the U.S. do not follow the time and do something before this will be out of time, I think American people have to explain to the next generation. American people have to explain to the new generation in America what they did to the Palestinians, what they did to save and to finish this genocide and war. Guys, you will have a big responsibility in the future to define what happened to the Palestinians from the American support to the Israeli military terrorism people.
AMY GOODMAN: Ahmed Tobasi, we want to thank you for being with us, artistic director at the Freedom Theatre in Jenin refugee camp, speaking to us from Jenin.
Next up, in Afghanistan, the Taliban approves a law banning women from speaking in public. Stay with us.
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Re: U.S. Backing Has Given Israel License to Kill & Maim
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Mass Israeli Protests as 6 More Hostages Killed, But Netanyahu Refuses Ceasefire Terms, U.S. Sends Arms
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 3, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/9/3/i ... transcript
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis protested this weekend to demand a ceasefire following the deaths of six more hostages in Gaza, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to reject the terms of a deal that would remove Israeli troops from southern Gaza. This comes after nearly 11 months of Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed over 40,000 Palestinians in the territory, according to local health authorities. “Our politicians won’t listen to anything, because they’re driven out of self-interest,” says Israeli peace activist Yonatan Zeigen, whose mother Vivian Silver was killed in the October 7 Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri. Despite the feeling of solidarity on the streets, Zeigen says there is a sense of “hopelessness” in the mass protests in Israel. We also speak with Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy, who says the outrage in Israel is still mostly confined to critics of Netanyahu and has not yet penetrated his base of support, and that the United States has a major role in the continued violence and Netanyahu’s refusal to agree to a ceasefire. “If President Biden would have really liked to put an end to this war, he could have done it within days by stopping or at least conditioning … the supply of arms and ammunition to Israel. He didn’t do it,” Levy notes.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: The Israeli army’s discovery of six dead Israeli hostages in tunnels in Rafah, in southern Gaza, has spurred some of the largest protests Israel has seen since October 7. Israel says the hostages were killed by Hamas; Hamas says they were killed by Israeli airstrikes, not far from where a seventh hostage was found alive last week.
On Sunday and Monday, grief and anger spilled onto the streets as hundreds of thousands of Israelis in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and other cities, along with hostage families, demanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accept a ceasefire deal with Hamas to secure the release of all remaining hostages. This is demonstrator Michal Caspi, whose nephew Alon Ohel was taken hostage October 7th.
MICHAL CASPI: So many people came. I met people that never came before. They came for the first time. I think after what happened yesterday morning, when we hear about the six bodies that came back, I think everybody feel like they have to do something. And I think it’s one of the reasons that so many people came out from home and came to say their words, that they want all the abducted to come back home.
AMY GOODMAN: A rare general strike was called by Histadrut. It was held across Israel on Monday.
Meanwhile, thousands of mourners gathered at the funeral of the Israeli American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose body was among those retrieved from southern Gaza. Hersh’s father Jon Polin said he hoped his son’s death would not be in vain and instead lead to the release of the remaining 101 hostages still held captive in Gaza.
JON POLIN: Hersh, we failed you. We all failed you. You would not have failed you. You would have pushed harder for justice. You would have worked to understand the other, to bridge differences. You would have challenged more people to challenge their own thinking. And what you would be pushing for now is to ensure that your death, the deaths of all the soldiers and so many innocent civilians are not lashav, not in vain.
AMY GOODMAN: Despite the protests calling for a ceasefire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back Monday, rejecting the terms of a deal that would remove Israeli troops from southern Gaza. Netanyahu begged for forgiveness for not bringing the six hostages home alive.
PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: [translated] I told the families, and I say it again this evening: I ask for your forgiveness for not succeeding in bringing them back alive. We were close, but we didn’t succeed. And I also say this evening, Israel will not accept this massacre. Hamas will pay a very high price for that.
AMY GOODMAN: Even Netanyahu’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is disagreeing with Netanyahu saying he will not agree to a ceasefire unless Israeli soldiers can stay in the Philadelphi Corridor.
For more, we go to Tel Aviv, where we’re joined by two guests. Gideon Levy is an award-winning Israeli author and journalist, columnist for the newspaper Haaretz, member of its editorial board. And Yonatan Zeigen is an Israeli peace activist, trained mediator and social worker, son of the renowned Canadian Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver, who was killed on October 7th during the Hamas attack on her kibbutz, Kibbutz Be’eri, where she lived. He has said his mother had a plan for peace for Israel and the Palestinians before she was killed.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Yonatan, let’s begin with you in Tel Aviv. Can you describe the scene of the hundreds of thousands of Israelis, a number of them family members of hostages still in Gaza, demanding that Netanyahu agree to a ceasefire deal?
YONATAN ZEIGEN: Well, being on the streets with so many people and with that energy is very powerful, on the one hand. On the other, it’s filled with despair, because you know that our politicians won’t listen to anything, because they’re driven out of self-interest. So, in that sense, you feel — you feel the energy, you feel the solidarity, but also the hopelessness.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Yonatan, do you believe these latest deaths of the six hostages were preventable. If so, why? And do you see that the latest protests are some sort of a turning point in Israel?
YONATAN ZEIGEN: All of the deaths were preventable. October 7th was preventable, as well. If we would have pursued peace years ago, if we would seek partners, Palestinian partners, instead of strengthening fundamentalists, if we would have not strengthened our own fundamentalists and put them in government, then October 7th wouldn’t have happened to begin with.
And since then, if we wouldn’t have gone into this atrocious war, and if we would — sought diplomacy and the help of the international community and go to the PA and Saudi Arabia and the United States and asked, this is — “We’re willing to do 1, 2, 3 in order to create a new reality here, and we ask for Hamas to be driven out,” then we would have gotten that. And all of the deaths would have been prevented, and the hostages would have been brought home.
Is it a turning point?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I’d like to bring —
YONATAN ZEIGEN: Yeah?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: No, go ahead. Go ahead.
YONATAN ZEIGEN: I started to say: Is it a turning point? One should hope. But, you know, people relate — you know, they anchor themselves in personal stories. And we woke up on Sunday to a very harsh and heartbreaking story of the six hostages being killed. Will it fuel a relentless protest that will be strong enough to bring a government down or to make it change their policy? I’m not sure.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Gideon Levy, I’d like to pose that question to you. Do you think that these protests are a turning point? They’re certainly the largest since the October 7th attack.
GIDEON LEVY: I can’t agree more with Yonatan. I’ll be just more harsh, as usual. I doubt it very much. It cannot be a turning point as long as it is only this kind of protest. First of all, most of the protest, if not all of it, has nothing to do with the political base of Benjamin Netanyahu. And therefore, he did ignore it until now, and he can continue to ignore it as long as it doesn’t penetrate to his own base. And his own base, I must say, is still very solid, and the protest did not penetrate there.
And secondly, we have to remember that this kind of protest cannot last for long, because it’s a very partial protest. It’s only a protest about the hostages. And the hostages is a huge subject. It’s a huge tragedy. It’s a huge catastrophe. People lost everything. People lost their lives, innocent people, wonderful people, like Vivian and many, many others. But this protest ignores totally the Palestinian victims. And as long as it ignores totally — but really, totally — the 40,000 people, then killing of six gets different proportions and cannot fuel a protest for a long time.
AMY GOODMAN: Gideon Levy, can you explain what the Philadelphi Corridor is? And talk about the fact that Israel didn’t have it before, what Netanyahu is — why he’s resisting removing soldiers from there, even disagreeing — I mean, they’re both being investigated for war crimes, both he and Yoav Gallant, his defense minister — right? — at The Hague. But Gallant is even saying that this is not necessary. And how — is this — the same question that Juan asked Yonatan — a real turning point, this level of mass protest, with the strikes called on top of it?
GIDEON LEVY: So, first, about the Philadelphi Corridor, we will not bother your viewers too much, Amy, because nobody heard about the Philadelphi Corridor as such a huge, painful subject until one, two weeks ago. I’ll tell you more than this. I’m almost convinced that if the issue of the Philadelphi Corridor will be solved, Netanyahu will find a new thing to sabotage any kind of settlement. This man does not believe — and I give him the credit that it is ideological and maybe not only personal, but he doesn’t believe in any diplomacy with the Palestinians. He never did. He never did believe in any kind of settlement with the Palestinians, only living on his sword, only living on our military power. This was his ideology, and it continues now.
He will not end this war now, even if the Philadelphi Corridor — for your viewers, it’s a piece of land which is on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu claims, rightly so, that many arms were smuggled through the tunnels in the Philadelphi Corridor. But I would like to remind the prime minister that the big attack on Israel did not come from the Philadelphi Corridor. It came from the most protected border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, the most invested border, the most sophisticated border. So it’s really ridiculous. It’s looking for excuses why to say no to stop the war.
And as about your question about turning point, it depends on the coming days. I mean, if the coming days will gain momentum, it might become a turning point. But I have my doubts, because, as I said before, the protests in Israel, until now, is limited to a very specific part of the population. It makes a lot of impression from the outside to see those hundreds of thousands of people gathering in Tel Aviv, but they are not the face of Israel, for sure not the majority of Israelis.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to one of the protesters in Tel Aviv this weekend, Itai Sela, a retired Israeli army veteran with two sons in the Israeli army.
ITAI SELA: The government of Israel is a threat to the world peace. It’s a dictatorship, run by one-man show. And Israel has 200 nuclear armaments. And the way Netanyahu is a world chaos agent, like Donald Trump, he’s a threat to the world peace. … He doesn’t care about the hostages.
AMY GOODMAN: So, Yonatan Zeigen, you were in the streets of Tel Aviv, as well. You and your brother have lost your beloved mother, beloved by so many, not only in Israel, but around the world, as a longtime peace activist. Vivian Silver died on October 7th when Hamas raided her kibbutz. You talk about a plan she had before she was killed. Do you agree with Gideon that the hundreds of thousands of Israelis are only focused on the hostages, calling for a ceasefire, or that there is some recognition of the horror that is taking place in Gaza, as well now as the West Bank?
YONATAN ZEIGEN: There is some, but it’s not enough. When I come to the streets, I stand with the bloc against the occupation or the people who want to end the war. But we are very, very few there, because there is no link in Israeli society between what was before October 7th and what — and the war since and what is happening in the West Bank. They don’t make the link between that and between our situation, our dire situation here, with the hostages and in general, the dire straits of our country. And it’s sad, because we have to make that link. It’s a blind spot of ours.
But a root of our problems is the lack of diplomacy for so long, the continuation of the expansion project of the settler movement, the occupation, a ruthless use of force in the siege of Gaza. This is the root of our problem. Our security issues and October 7th were symptoms of that. And as long as we don’t treat that problem together, — you know, we need a signal from the international community, as well, in order for us to understand that this is a problem needs solving. But as long as we don’t do that, then we are doomed.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And I’d like to ask Gideon Levy: Do you think at this point that the only thing that can stop Netanyahu is a decision by the Biden administration to cut off arms to Israel?
GIDEON LEVY: Yes, but I don’t see this decision being made. We are dealing with science fiction, I’m afraid. The Biden administration played a very weird role in this war. On one hand, their heart was in the right place. I’m sure President Biden cared a lot about the suffer of Gaza, about the humanitarian situation. He was shocked, as many others in the world, from what Israel is doing there. But in the same time, he supplied all the weapons and ammunitions to commit all those crimes.
So, I really don’t know. If you want someone to stop a war, do you supply him with more arms and more ammunition? I don’t know this kind of logic. If President Biden would have really liked to put an end to this war, he could have done it within days by stopping or at least conditioning — conditioning — the supply of arms and ammunition to Israel. He didn’t do it. He was far of doing it. And therefore, all the other requests, the condemnations, remarks are totally hollow.
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s put that in our last question to Yonatan Zeigen: The significance of the U.S. in leading to a ceasefire, and what President Biden has done, what he should do at this point?
YONATAN ZEIGEN: I think the United States and the international community, in general, plays a crucial role. They were actively enabling our status quo here before, and they are actively enabling the war now. And it’s rooted in the web of interests that was spun for years. And I think the administration has to create a new web of interests that does not rely on weapons and military, but on economy and tourism and trade routes. And I expected the Biden administration and the international community to establish a new international alliance that has authority to give us incentives, and to inflict sanctions if we continue on the wrong path, and to join hands with players on the ground, civil society in Israel and Palestine, to create a new roadmap and to incentivize political actors on both sides to understand that we need to tell a new story in the Middle East, one of peace and not of war.
AMY GOODMAN: Yonatan Zeigen, Israeli peace activist, a social worker, mediator, son of the renowned Canadian Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver, who was killed on October 7th in the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri, where she lived. And Gideon Levy, Israeli journalist and Haaretz columnist, member of the Haaretz editorial board — both speaking to us from Tel Aviv.
Next up, over 10,000 hotel workers are on strike across the United States to demand raises and fair workloads. We’ll speak with a striking hotel room attendant and the local president of the union UNITE HERE in San Francisco. Back in 30 seconds.
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 3, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/9/3/i ... transcript
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis protested this weekend to demand a ceasefire following the deaths of six more hostages in Gaza, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to reject the terms of a deal that would remove Israeli troops from southern Gaza. This comes after nearly 11 months of Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed over 40,000 Palestinians in the territory, according to local health authorities. “Our politicians won’t listen to anything, because they’re driven out of self-interest,” says Israeli peace activist Yonatan Zeigen, whose mother Vivian Silver was killed in the October 7 Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri. Despite the feeling of solidarity on the streets, Zeigen says there is a sense of “hopelessness” in the mass protests in Israel. We also speak with Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy, who says the outrage in Israel is still mostly confined to critics of Netanyahu and has not yet penetrated his base of support, and that the United States has a major role in the continued violence and Netanyahu’s refusal to agree to a ceasefire. “If President Biden would have really liked to put an end to this war, he could have done it within days by stopping or at least conditioning … the supply of arms and ammunition to Israel. He didn’t do it,” Levy notes.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: The Israeli army’s discovery of six dead Israeli hostages in tunnels in Rafah, in southern Gaza, has spurred some of the largest protests Israel has seen since October 7. Israel says the hostages were killed by Hamas; Hamas says they were killed by Israeli airstrikes, not far from where a seventh hostage was found alive last week.
On Sunday and Monday, grief and anger spilled onto the streets as hundreds of thousands of Israelis in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and other cities, along with hostage families, demanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accept a ceasefire deal with Hamas to secure the release of all remaining hostages. This is demonstrator Michal Caspi, whose nephew Alon Ohel was taken hostage October 7th.
MICHAL CASPI: So many people came. I met people that never came before. They came for the first time. I think after what happened yesterday morning, when we hear about the six bodies that came back, I think everybody feel like they have to do something. And I think it’s one of the reasons that so many people came out from home and came to say their words, that they want all the abducted to come back home.
AMY GOODMAN: A rare general strike was called by Histadrut. It was held across Israel on Monday.
Meanwhile, thousands of mourners gathered at the funeral of the Israeli American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose body was among those retrieved from southern Gaza. Hersh’s father Jon Polin said he hoped his son’s death would not be in vain and instead lead to the release of the remaining 101 hostages still held captive in Gaza.
JON POLIN: Hersh, we failed you. We all failed you. You would not have failed you. You would have pushed harder for justice. You would have worked to understand the other, to bridge differences. You would have challenged more people to challenge their own thinking. And what you would be pushing for now is to ensure that your death, the deaths of all the soldiers and so many innocent civilians are not lashav, not in vain.
AMY GOODMAN: Despite the protests calling for a ceasefire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back Monday, rejecting the terms of a deal that would remove Israeli troops from southern Gaza. Netanyahu begged for forgiveness for not bringing the six hostages home alive.
PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: [translated] I told the families, and I say it again this evening: I ask for your forgiveness for not succeeding in bringing them back alive. We were close, but we didn’t succeed. And I also say this evening, Israel will not accept this massacre. Hamas will pay a very high price for that.
AMY GOODMAN: Even Netanyahu’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is disagreeing with Netanyahu saying he will not agree to a ceasefire unless Israeli soldiers can stay in the Philadelphi Corridor.
For more, we go to Tel Aviv, where we’re joined by two guests. Gideon Levy is an award-winning Israeli author and journalist, columnist for the newspaper Haaretz, member of its editorial board. And Yonatan Zeigen is an Israeli peace activist, trained mediator and social worker, son of the renowned Canadian Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver, who was killed on October 7th during the Hamas attack on her kibbutz, Kibbutz Be’eri, where she lived. He has said his mother had a plan for peace for Israel and the Palestinians before she was killed.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Yonatan, let’s begin with you in Tel Aviv. Can you describe the scene of the hundreds of thousands of Israelis, a number of them family members of hostages still in Gaza, demanding that Netanyahu agree to a ceasefire deal?
YONATAN ZEIGEN: Well, being on the streets with so many people and with that energy is very powerful, on the one hand. On the other, it’s filled with despair, because you know that our politicians won’t listen to anything, because they’re driven out of self-interest. So, in that sense, you feel — you feel the energy, you feel the solidarity, but also the hopelessness.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Yonatan, do you believe these latest deaths of the six hostages were preventable. If so, why? And do you see that the latest protests are some sort of a turning point in Israel?
YONATAN ZEIGEN: All of the deaths were preventable. October 7th was preventable, as well. If we would have pursued peace years ago, if we would seek partners, Palestinian partners, instead of strengthening fundamentalists, if we would have not strengthened our own fundamentalists and put them in government, then October 7th wouldn’t have happened to begin with.
And since then, if we wouldn’t have gone into this atrocious war, and if we would — sought diplomacy and the help of the international community and go to the PA and Saudi Arabia and the United States and asked, this is — “We’re willing to do 1, 2, 3 in order to create a new reality here, and we ask for Hamas to be driven out,” then we would have gotten that. And all of the deaths would have been prevented, and the hostages would have been brought home.
Is it a turning point?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I’d like to bring —
YONATAN ZEIGEN: Yeah?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: No, go ahead. Go ahead.
YONATAN ZEIGEN: I started to say: Is it a turning point? One should hope. But, you know, people relate — you know, they anchor themselves in personal stories. And we woke up on Sunday to a very harsh and heartbreaking story of the six hostages being killed. Will it fuel a relentless protest that will be strong enough to bring a government down or to make it change their policy? I’m not sure.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Gideon Levy, I’d like to pose that question to you. Do you think that these protests are a turning point? They’re certainly the largest since the October 7th attack.
GIDEON LEVY: I can’t agree more with Yonatan. I’ll be just more harsh, as usual. I doubt it very much. It cannot be a turning point as long as it is only this kind of protest. First of all, most of the protest, if not all of it, has nothing to do with the political base of Benjamin Netanyahu. And therefore, he did ignore it until now, and he can continue to ignore it as long as it doesn’t penetrate to his own base. And his own base, I must say, is still very solid, and the protest did not penetrate there.
And secondly, we have to remember that this kind of protest cannot last for long, because it’s a very partial protest. It’s only a protest about the hostages. And the hostages is a huge subject. It’s a huge tragedy. It’s a huge catastrophe. People lost everything. People lost their lives, innocent people, wonderful people, like Vivian and many, many others. But this protest ignores totally the Palestinian victims. And as long as it ignores totally — but really, totally — the 40,000 people, then killing of six gets different proportions and cannot fuel a protest for a long time.
AMY GOODMAN: Gideon Levy, can you explain what the Philadelphi Corridor is? And talk about the fact that Israel didn’t have it before, what Netanyahu is — why he’s resisting removing soldiers from there, even disagreeing — I mean, they’re both being investigated for war crimes, both he and Yoav Gallant, his defense minister — right? — at The Hague. But Gallant is even saying that this is not necessary. And how — is this — the same question that Juan asked Yonatan — a real turning point, this level of mass protest, with the strikes called on top of it?
GIDEON LEVY: So, first, about the Philadelphi Corridor, we will not bother your viewers too much, Amy, because nobody heard about the Philadelphi Corridor as such a huge, painful subject until one, two weeks ago. I’ll tell you more than this. I’m almost convinced that if the issue of the Philadelphi Corridor will be solved, Netanyahu will find a new thing to sabotage any kind of settlement. This man does not believe — and I give him the credit that it is ideological and maybe not only personal, but he doesn’t believe in any diplomacy with the Palestinians. He never did. He never did believe in any kind of settlement with the Palestinians, only living on his sword, only living on our military power. This was his ideology, and it continues now.
He will not end this war now, even if the Philadelphi Corridor — for your viewers, it’s a piece of land which is on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu claims, rightly so, that many arms were smuggled through the tunnels in the Philadelphi Corridor. But I would like to remind the prime minister that the big attack on Israel did not come from the Philadelphi Corridor. It came from the most protected border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, the most invested border, the most sophisticated border. So it’s really ridiculous. It’s looking for excuses why to say no to stop the war.
And as about your question about turning point, it depends on the coming days. I mean, if the coming days will gain momentum, it might become a turning point. But I have my doubts, because, as I said before, the protests in Israel, until now, is limited to a very specific part of the population. It makes a lot of impression from the outside to see those hundreds of thousands of people gathering in Tel Aviv, but they are not the face of Israel, for sure not the majority of Israelis.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to one of the protesters in Tel Aviv this weekend, Itai Sela, a retired Israeli army veteran with two sons in the Israeli army.
ITAI SELA: The government of Israel is a threat to the world peace. It’s a dictatorship, run by one-man show. And Israel has 200 nuclear armaments. And the way Netanyahu is a world chaos agent, like Donald Trump, he’s a threat to the world peace. … He doesn’t care about the hostages.
AMY GOODMAN: So, Yonatan Zeigen, you were in the streets of Tel Aviv, as well. You and your brother have lost your beloved mother, beloved by so many, not only in Israel, but around the world, as a longtime peace activist. Vivian Silver died on October 7th when Hamas raided her kibbutz. You talk about a plan she had before she was killed. Do you agree with Gideon that the hundreds of thousands of Israelis are only focused on the hostages, calling for a ceasefire, or that there is some recognition of the horror that is taking place in Gaza, as well now as the West Bank?
YONATAN ZEIGEN: There is some, but it’s not enough. When I come to the streets, I stand with the bloc against the occupation or the people who want to end the war. But we are very, very few there, because there is no link in Israeli society between what was before October 7th and what — and the war since and what is happening in the West Bank. They don’t make the link between that and between our situation, our dire situation here, with the hostages and in general, the dire straits of our country. And it’s sad, because we have to make that link. It’s a blind spot of ours.
But a root of our problems is the lack of diplomacy for so long, the continuation of the expansion project of the settler movement, the occupation, a ruthless use of force in the siege of Gaza. This is the root of our problem. Our security issues and October 7th were symptoms of that. And as long as we don’t treat that problem together, — you know, we need a signal from the international community, as well, in order for us to understand that this is a problem needs solving. But as long as we don’t do that, then we are doomed.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And I’d like to ask Gideon Levy: Do you think at this point that the only thing that can stop Netanyahu is a decision by the Biden administration to cut off arms to Israel?
GIDEON LEVY: Yes, but I don’t see this decision being made. We are dealing with science fiction, I’m afraid. The Biden administration played a very weird role in this war. On one hand, their heart was in the right place. I’m sure President Biden cared a lot about the suffer of Gaza, about the humanitarian situation. He was shocked, as many others in the world, from what Israel is doing there. But in the same time, he supplied all the weapons and ammunitions to commit all those crimes.
So, I really don’t know. If you want someone to stop a war, do you supply him with more arms and more ammunition? I don’t know this kind of logic. If President Biden would have really liked to put an end to this war, he could have done it within days by stopping or at least conditioning — conditioning — the supply of arms and ammunition to Israel. He didn’t do it. He was far of doing it. And therefore, all the other requests, the condemnations, remarks are totally hollow.
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s put that in our last question to Yonatan Zeigen: The significance of the U.S. in leading to a ceasefire, and what President Biden has done, what he should do at this point?
YONATAN ZEIGEN: I think the United States and the international community, in general, plays a crucial role. They were actively enabling our status quo here before, and they are actively enabling the war now. And it’s rooted in the web of interests that was spun for years. And I think the administration has to create a new web of interests that does not rely on weapons and military, but on economy and tourism and trade routes. And I expected the Biden administration and the international community to establish a new international alliance that has authority to give us incentives, and to inflict sanctions if we continue on the wrong path, and to join hands with players on the ground, civil society in Israel and Palestine, to create a new roadmap and to incentivize political actors on both sides to understand that we need to tell a new story in the Middle East, one of peace and not of war.
AMY GOODMAN: Yonatan Zeigen, Israeli peace activist, a social worker, mediator, son of the renowned Canadian Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver, who was killed on October 7th in the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri, where she lived. And Gideon Levy, Israeli journalist and Haaretz columnist, member of the Haaretz editorial board — both speaking to us from Tel Aviv.
Next up, over 10,000 hotel workers are on strike across the United States to demand raises and fair workloads. We’ll speak with a striking hotel room attendant and the local president of the union UNITE HERE in San Francisco. Back in 30 seconds.
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