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

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Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 24, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/24/headlines

Israeli Attack on Nuseirat Kills 17; Israeli Extermination Campaign in Northern Gaza Enters 20th Day
Oct 24, 2024

At least 17 Palestinians, including an 11-month-old baby, were killed today in Gaza’s Nuseirat camp, as Israel once again attacked a school turned shelter in central Deir al-Balah.

In northern Gaza, Al Jazeera reports many Civil Defense rescue workers are refusing Israeli orders to evacuate, facing arrest and attacks as they continue their rescue missions, even as their capacity has been nearly wiped out by Israel’s assault. Israel’s siege on northern Gaza, now in its 20th day, has killed over 770 Palestinians. This is a displaced Palestinian woman who fled Beit Lahia.

Lina Issam Abu Nada: “I fled the intense bombardment in Beit Lahia. Martyrs and remains were all scattered on the ground. We do not know where to go. Truly, we don’t know what state we have reached. … We cannot take it anymore. We are being exterminated in Gaza. We are dying, and no one is standing beside us, nor is anyone able to solve our issue. We are innocent. We have nothing to do with everything that has happened. We are lost between a war and an extermination.”

“A Dangerous Escalation”: Al Jazeera Blasts Israel’s Accusations Against Journalists
Oct 24, 2024

Al Jazeera has blasted Israel’s “dangerous escalation” of its attack against the news network, after the Israeli military claimed six of its journalists are members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Al Jazeera responded, “These fabricated accusations [are] a blatant attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region, thereby obscuring the harsh realities of the war from audiences worldwide.”

Israel Carries Out 17 Overnight Strikes in Lebanon, Destroys Offices of Al Mayadeen News Station
Oct 24, 2024

Israel is continuing its assault on Lebanon, carrying out 17 attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight, leveling at least six buildings. One strike destroyed the offices of the Lebanese news station Al Mayadeen. Israel also killed three Lebanese soldiers in a separate strike.

Meanwhile, health authorities are warning of a possible cholera outbreak among Lebanese children amid mass displacement, attacks on the health system and lack of clean water and food. The 400,000 displaced children in Lebanon are also at risk of other highly transmissible diseases like hepatitis A and measles.

In France, President Emmanuel Macron pledged a 100 million euro aid package for Lebanon as he opened a conference in Paris to rally support for Lebanon and reiterate calls for a ceasefire.

Jewish Students Show Solidarity with Gaza During Sukkot Despite Crackdown from Universities
Oct 24, 2024

Here in the U.S., Jewish students across the country say college administrators have cracked down on their Gaza solidarity sukkahs, which have been set up over the past week to mark the holiday of Sukkot. In some cases, schools have destroyed the sukkah huts. Jewish Voice for Peace said in a statement, “These universities desecrate these students’ Jewish practice because their faith is intertwined with their solidarity with the Palestinian people. A university has no right to dictate what types of Jewish practice are legitimate.”

Faith Leaders Demand NYC Council Take Up Gaza Ceasefire Resolution
Oct 24, 2024

Here in New York City, faith leaders and other activists disrupted a city council meeting Wednesday to demand councilmembers take up a vote on a Gaza ceasefire resolution. Protesters cried out “City Council, you can’t hide! No more bombs for genocide!” as they held up their hands, covered in red paint, while being forcibly removed by security. Over 100 city councils across the country have passed ceasefire resolutions.

Hundreds of Spanish Artists, Academics Call for Total Arms Embargo on Israel
Oct 24, 2024

In Spain, over 300 academics, entertainers and artists, including the directors Pedro Almodóvar and Isabel Coixet, have signed on to a letter calling on Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to enact a full arms embargo on Israel, writing, “As long as Spain maintains military relations with Israel, it will continue to be complicit in this massacre.” Sánchez has said Spain halted its weapons trade with Israel since October of last year, but investigations have revealed some military exports have still gone ahead.

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“This Is Just Terrorism”: Israel Bombs World Heritage Site in Lebanon, Threatens Major Hospital
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 24, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/24 ... transcript

Israel is escalating its bombardment of Lebanon, leveling numerous buildings, including the offices of Lebanese news station Al Mayadeen. The Israeli military has also attacked the ancient city of Tyre, a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site, and killed three Lebanese soldiers in a strike in southern Lebanon, all while continuing to defy international calls for a ceasefire. “What we’re seeing is a complete degeneration into a war that has no rules, that respects no international conventions. There’s one side in this war that has complete impunity,” says Lebanese sociologist Rima Majed in Beirut. “Israel is targeting civilians in most cases. … This is just terrorism.”

Transcript

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

NERMEEN SHAIKH: We begin today’s show in Lebanon, where Israel continues to bombard the southern suburbs of Beirut. Health officials report Israel carried out at least 17 strikes overnight, leveling numerous buildings, including the offices of Al Mayadeen, a Lebanese news station. Lebanon’s National News Agency described last night’s attacks as the “most violent” in the area in recent weeks. Israel also killed three Lebanese soldiers in a strike in the southern part of the country. Israel continues to defy international calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon.

This comes as French President Emmanuel Macron hosted an aid conference for Lebanon in Paris. Macron reiterated his call for a ceasefire and vowed to send over $100 million in humanitarian aid to Lebanon.

AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Beirut, Lebanon, where we’re joined by Rima Majed. She’s an assistant professor of sociology at the American University of Beirut.

Thanks so much for being with us. If you can start off by talking about what’s happening in one of the oldest cities in the world, in Tyre in southern Lebanon?

RIMA MAJED: Yes. Thank you so much, Amy, for having me on the show again.

What was happening yesterday was very, very disheartening, but it’s really a crime of — you know, of a global scale. Tyre is a very central city in terms of archaeology, of history. And, you know, this has been the second city. So, Tyre is a city that is in the south and that is inhabited by a large population. This is the second city in the south, large city in the south, that is being destructed in a systematic way.

Yesterday, what we’ve — reports say that the old ruins of Tyre have been hit by strikes. We have seen similar reports from other archaeological and historical sites, such as Baalbek, before. These are ruins that have survived thousands of years and that are being now destroyed by Israel. Unfortunately, we are not seeing the same alarm that we saw when other ruins, whether in Syria or Iraq, were targeted. And I think this is a very important issue to flag and to talk about.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Rima Majed, can you say why you think these attacks on these ruins have not received the kind of attention they should? Has UNESCO, for example, at least made a comment?

RIMA MAJED: Yeah, I think — I mean, I think the whole war on Lebanon is not receiving the attention that it needs to receive. I mean, there is a full-blown war that is taking very little space in the global media, for several reasons. One of them is, unfortunately, wars in this part of the world have become material for consumption, and there’s maybe media fatigue. But also, there’s an impunity that Israel has been enjoying since a long time, but that has become very flagrant since last year, where at this point what we cover is survival and bare life. I mean, there’s so much to cover in terms of people — you know, forced expulsions, people dying, that talking about ruins and history and archaeology is maybe seen not as a priority. But, I mean, it’s a devastating conflict, or it’s a devastating war, that is destroying all sorts of life on this land, whether social life or even when we think about history.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Rima Majed, if you could respond to what we said earlier, which is that France has pledged over — has pledged 100 million euros in support, humanitarian aid support, to Lebanon, and, in particular, also comment on what the defense minister, the French defense minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said earlier this week, on Monday, that, quote — and this is a quote from him — “Our position” — that is to say, France’s position — “right now is primarily driven by the fear of an imminent civil war in Lebanon”?

RIMA MAJED: Sure. So, on the question of humanitarian aid, I mean, France has just pledged today. In the same conference in Paris, the UAE has also pledged, and I’m sure other countries will pledge money. Unfortunately, I mean, this is the hypocrisy of this global system. What we’re getting — I mean, we’ve gotten to this point where humanitarianism has become really dehumanizing. The same countries that are sending — I mean, many of those countries that are sending us humanitarian aid are at the same time selling arms and sending arms to Israel to kill us. And the profit they make out of the arms industry is way bigger than what we get in terms of humanitarian aid. So, in that sense, it’s become really dehumanizing that we’re turned into objects of humanitarian support that targets, again, just bare life. I mean, the aim now is for people to survive, to have shelter, even if it’s not decent shelter, and, you know, just the basics of survival. We don’t talk about social lives that have been disrupted, about dreams that are gone, about plans that are now up in the air, about families that have been — you know, that have lost loved ones or been displaced. So, I think this is way bigger than anything humanitarian aid can solve. And we saw last week, when President Macron tried to insinuate that France should consider an arms embargo on Israel, I mean, we saw the backlash from Netanyahu and others. So, I think, you know, at this point, to me, this is really hypocritical.

On the second point of the comment on a possible civil war in Lebanon, there’s a lot of talk inside the country and outside, of course, about the possibility of sliding into a war, social tensions that are increasing because of the effects of displacement and tension in different neighborhoods. Lebanon is already a sectarianized country where these boundaries can shift quickly and can become very tense. But the point we don’t talk about is that civil wars are not the result of social tension. I mean, we never slip into a civil war. Wars, whether civil or not, are political decisions. And therefore, the question today is: Who is going to fund — I mean, yes, I’m not saying the war is impossible. Actually, it is very possible, a civil War. But the question is: Who’s going to fund it? Who’s going to back it politically at the regional level and at the international level? Who’s going to send arms? These are the questions that we need to answer, rather than thinking that wars are social explosions. They’re not. Revolutions are social explosions.

AMY GOODMAN: Earlier this week, at least 13 people, including a child, were killed, and about 60 others injured, in an Israeli airstrike near the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, Lebanon’s largest public medical center. At least 32 others were wounded in the attack, which caused major damage to the hospital. Separately, 50 medical workers and 15 patients were forced to evacuate from the Al-Sahel Hospital in southern Beirut Monday, after Israel’s military claimed without evidence it’s home to a secret underground Hezbollah bunker containing hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold. Doctors insisted there’s nothing hidden beneath the hospital and took reporters on a tour of its lower floors to disprove the claims. This is Alex Rossi, international correspondent for Sky News.

ALEX ROSSI: This is the Al-Sahel Hospital on the outskirts of Dahiyeh. Dahiyeh, of course, is a stronghold of Hezbollah. Now, we’re in the basement. This is — it’s alleged by the Israelis that this hospital is being used by Hezbollah as a way of storing gold and cash. And we’ve been invited in here. This tour has been in no way exhaustive. You can see there are lots of other press here, as well. But we haven’t been controlled in terms of what we can film or where we can point our camera. We’ve been allowed to open doors, move around. Now, there may be other areas of the hospital that we’ve not been taken to, but for all, you know, this looks like a hospital.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s Alex Rossi, again, international correspondent for Sky News. If you could respond, Rima Majed, to what happened there and also talk about the U.S. State Department once again shoring up Israel in what it’s doing, the spokesperson Matt Miller saying, “We’ve seen footage that’s emerged over the course of the past two weeks of rockets and other military weapons held in civilian homes, so Israel does have a right to go after those legitimate targets”?

RIMA MAJED: Yes. I mean, the targeting of the Hariri Hospital was also very personal to me, because this is exactly where I grew up, actually. This is the neighborhood where I lived for several years. And it targeted civilians, mainly. All the other attacks are also targeting civilians. And this logic of — I mean, whether the German foreign minister’s logic of Israel having the right to target civilians, and now there’s a new logic of the right to target gold and money as a terrorist threat, is completely absurd. I mean, we’ve never seen — would this apply to Israel? Does Lebanon have the right to defend itself the way — using the same techniques and tactics that Israel uses? Of course not. I mean, this goes against every logic of protection of human rights, but also, I mean, just protection of civilians is basic here.

So, I think, I mean, what we’re seeing is a complete degeneration into a war that has no rules, that respects no international conventions, and that, you know, there’s one side in this war that has complete impunity. We’ve seen this over the past year, and it’s continuing. Israel is targeting civilians in most cases. I mean, what is the logic of targeting gold and money? If — I mean, let’s assume this is really what there is there: Why target it with a bomb? What is the logic of this? This is just terrorism. And this is what it should be called.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Rima Majed, if you could talk about the attacks, in fact, on financial associations Israel — sorry, the branches of a financial association reportedly linked to Hezbollah earlier this week, in fact, on Sunday? What is the Al-Qard al-Hassan Association, and why was it hit?

RIMA MAJED: I mean, it’s one of the financial institutions that are believed to be controlled by Hezbollah. It follows the same logic of, you know, the neoliberal turn of giving microfinance. So, this is not an aid institution. This is a bank that gives microfinance facilities.

What we have been seeing is that Israel is moving from the decapitation, which is continuing, of leaders, but there’s also very clear targeting of Hezbollah’s social institutions, whether hospitals, schools, banks, etc. So, the aim is probably to dismantle, and the target is not just Hezbollah as an organization, but it’s also, you know, its constituency, its people. And when I say its people or its constituencies, it doesn’t mean that these are Hezbollah fighters or members. These are just Lebanese civilians who have a political opinion that happens to be in support of that party. I mean, again, if we apply the logic on any other party, it would sound horrendous.

The fact that we are justifying — and, I mean, hearing the German foreign minister, who then, after saying what she said about justifying the right of Israel to kill civilians, then visiting Beirut, is really — I mean, the world today feels like the turn of the 20th century, I mean, the dark years of fascism. And it’s very alarming that this is how we are dealing with these wars and this is the logic with which we’re justifying the killing of some, but, of course, not others.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Rima Majed, finally, we just have a minute left. If you could talk about Security Council Resolution 1701? Amos Hochstein, who was just in the region, has said its implementation is the only way to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

RIMA MAJED: Yeah, I mean, Hochstein is — it’s interesting that the negotiator, you know, served in the Israeli offense — I mean, the IOF, I would call it — so has a clear side in this war. But, I mean, personally, I think this is a resolution that ended the 2006 war. At this point, I don’t think any of the parties, whether it’s Israel or Hezbollah — I mean, at this point, doesn’t matter what Hezbollah says, I mean, even if Hezbollah today says that they want to stop this war and they agree on everything, including 1701, which they have agreed on several times. I mean, just days before Nasrallah was killed, he had agreed on the implementation of 1701. I think at this point there is a plan that Israel will move on to implement, and that goes beyond what we’re hearing from these diplomats. That is a plan that is in line with the Abraham Accords, with changing the face of the Middle East. And unfortunately, it’s people like us who are paying the price.

AMY GOODMAN: Rima Majed, we want to thank you so much for being with us, assistant professor of sociology at the American University of Beirut, speaking to us from Beirut, Lebanon.

Coming up, Israel’s deadly campaign of starvation and forced expulsion in northern Gaza has entered its 20th day. We’ll go to Tel Aviv to speak with B’Tselem, the prominent Israeli human rights group, which described Israel’s siege as “ethnic cleansing.” Stay with us

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“Ethnic Cleansing”: Israeli Group B’Tselem Calls for World to Stop Israel’s Siege of Northern Gaza
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 24, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/24 ... transcript

The leading Israeli human rights group B’Tselem warned this week the world must stop the “ethnic cleansing” of northern Gaza, where the Israeli military has imposed a brutal siege since October 5, demanding that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flee south or face death. Israel is blocking almost all food, water and medicine from reaching northern Gaza while its forces carry out deadly raids and bombardment of the area, overwhelming the remaining hospitals. B’Tselem spokesperson Sarit Michaeli says it’s impossible to watch events unfold and “not conclude that what is going on there is the deliberate pressuring by the Israeli army of the civilian population of the area to move out of this area in order to empty it of Palestinians.”

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: Health workers in northern Gaza have been forced to postpone the latest phase of the polio vaccination program as Israel continues to carry out a deadly campaign of forced expulsion and starvation in northern Gaza. Earlier today, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres condemned Israel’s actions, saying, quote, “People suffering under the ongoing Israeli siege in North Gaza are rapidly exhausting all available means for their survival.” Doctors in northern Gaza have described horrific conditions as hospitals are overwhelmed and remaining medical staff are unable to treat the injured. Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya is the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital.

DR. HUSSAM ABU SAFIYA: [translated] We are talking on the 18th day of an imposed complete siege on the medical establishment in the north Gaza Strip. We appealed yesterday, the day before yesterday, and today we call on the world. The Kamal Adwan medical supply storage is at zero. We have no blood bags that we can offer to the wounded, no medical supplies or urgently needed medicine. …

Some members of our medical staff are either martyred, killed or injured. A little while ago, we received one of our colleagues who was martyred, Dr. Mohammed Ghanim. He was offering humanitarian services at one of the medical checkpoints in a shelter. The situation is catastrophic. …

We will be facing a humanitarian catastrophe if there’s no solution to this situation in the next few coming hours. The hospital will turn into a mass grave. There is a huge number of wounded people, and approximately every hour we lose one of them as a martyr. The wounded turn into martyrs due to the absence of needed medical supplies, tools and medical staff, who are either detained, wounded or martyred. …

Our medical staff and ambulances cannot get the wounded out of the street of Beit Lahia. We are talking about the wounded who manage to come to the hospital. They arrive, and we give them our services. Those who cannot come to us stay in the streets and are martyred. This is what is happening in the north of Gaza.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza. And this is Lina Issam Abu Nada, a Palestinian who recently fled Beit Lahia.

LINA ISSAM ABU NADA: [translated] I fled the intense bombardment in Beit Lahia. Martyrs and remains were all scattered on the ground. We do not know where to go. Truly, we don’t know what state we have reached. I swear, by God, what we are going through is the hardest situation in days. Even the occupation, Israel, took my brother as they put all the men on one side and let us leave. The tank moved and covered us with dust.

On top of everything, no is standing for us. We ask you, with all the mercy you have, to stand beside us. What’s happening to us is unfair. We cannot take it anymore. We are being exterminated in Gaza. We are dying, and no one is standing beside us, nor is anyone able to solve our issue. We are innocent. We have nothing to do with everything that has happened. We are lost between a war and an extermination. We can’t take it anymore.

AMY GOODMAN: A Palestinian woman who recently fled Beit Lahia.

Earlier this week, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem accused Israel of committing ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza.

We go now to Tel Aviv, Israel, where we’re joined by B’Tselem’s international advocacy lead, Sarit Michaeli.

Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Sarit. Explain what you mean by ethnic cleansing and what exactly you understand is happening in northern Gaza, and how much Israelis understand what is happening right nearby.

SARIT MICHAELI: So, thank you, Amy, very much for the opportunity to be with you today.

I think B’Tselem decided to make this statement as really an act of desperation. It’s impossible for us to continue to watch, to observe the very little information we are getting from northern Gaza, the very fragmented information, and not conclude that what is going on there is the deliberate pressuring by the Israeli army of the civilian population of the area to move out of this area in order to empty it of Palestinians. This is ethnic cleansing. The definition that we would argue is the Israeli current actions on the ground.

And I think it’s important to remember that this is happening within a context. The context is not only increasing and ongoing reports that this is the Israeli policy, that this notion of the so-called island plan or the Generals’ Plan, that called on Israel to essentially starve the population of northern Gaza in order to get it to move out of the way, right? So, that’s one element of the picture. And then, the second element is that there is a growing debate, there is a growing kind of level of activism within the Israeli far right to demand the settling of northern Gaza. Now, this is the context of what we are seeing on the ground at the moment.

I think it’s important also to mention that the Israeli army itself has admitted, in a response to a high court petition submitted by several Israeli human rights organizations, that for the first two weeks of this month, no humanitarian aid was allowed into north Gaza. That was deliberate. That was knowingly. That wasn’t — isn’t something that the Israeli authorities deny. In addition, in the response submitted yesterday to the high court, Israel also states that this is continuing when it comes to Jabaliya. And we know that yesterday the Israeli army issued some drone footage showing throngs of civilians walking out from the Jabaliya refugee camp towards the south, and also saying that Israel managed to break the so-called Hamas siege on Jabaliya, and said that about 20,000 civilians have already left.

From our perspective, all this indicates one clear goal, which is to remove the people from northern Gaza, to empty that area. I also think — and we can maybe discuss it a bit in more length later on — there are also quite open admissions within the Israeli media that some of this is happening, certainly not in the framing of an international crime, but commentators have accepted, on some levels, that this is what Israel is doing now in north Gaza.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, let me just read, Sarit Michaeli, what the media has said. This is on Israel’s Channel 12, the chief political analyst saying, quote, “We can keep denying that what’s happening is an implementation of the Generals’ Plan — emptying of the strip, starving the terrorists, eliminating them, capturing them. That’s in my opinion what’s happening here.” So, you know, in effect, would you say that the Generals’ Plan itself constitutes ethnic cleansing? And then, to what extent do people in Israel believe that that’s what’s occurring? If it’s being said in the media, is there some consensus around it? Although I will note that what he said was “starving the terrorists, eliminating them,” not the general population there.

SARIT MICHAELI: Well, first of all, I want to be clear that Israel, we suspect — and as we also announced, together with colleagues in other human rights organizations last week, we suspect that Israel is implementing the spirit, I would say, maybe not necessarily every single aspect of the so-called Generals’ Plan, but that it is quietly implementing this.

And this is why we also called last week on the international community to really take responsibility for what is going on in Gaza. And we stated openly that it’s not just Israeli policymakers who should be held accountable and face consequences for these crimes, but also that the international community cannot but be considered complicit if Israel goes ahead and empties north Gaza of its inhabitants.

I think that when we look at this plan, this absolutely horrific plan, it includes provisions that are absolutely and clearly war crimes and could probably also be viewed as crimes against humanity. The idea is actually to basically starve the population out in order to leave the area, and then, according to this plan — and certainly, I don’t agree with any aspect of the logic — the only people remaining will be terrorists, and then they can just be killed off. This is the — again, I don’t want to simplify too much, but this is the essential logic of this plan.

But it is absolutely in contradiction with many of the known facts we know about the situation in Gaza and in north Gaza, the fact that many of the civilians there cannot leave or don’t want to leave. Some of them cannot leave because it’s impossible for them to move around, because they just have no other place to go, or they don’t want to leave these areas, because they know that the same sort of fate of being bombarded and exposed to Israeli attacks can, you know, wait for them in the many internally displaced camps throughout Gaza, where people are not safe in any way. So, there are many reasons why Palestinians would not want to leave north Gaza. So, that’s the first issue. The second issue — and certainly, the idea that you can somehow force them out permanently — right? — not for their own security, is absolutely illegal.

The second issue that is very clearly part of the illegality and the shocking lack of morals, I would say also, moral failure of this plan, is that the idea that you can somehow decide that after a certain moment, where you say you told all civilians to leave a certain area, that means that everyone left in there is a combatant, a terrorist, and you can just kill them, that is also not true. That’s simply not the way international humanitarian law goes. Civilians don’t lose their protected status if you gave them an illegal and probably also impossible-to-implement evacuation order. The idea that somehow a person should be considered a legitimate military target, regardless of what they’re actually doing, because they happen to be in a certain place that the Israeli army decided is no longer acceptable, that is not legal. That is clearly a war crime.

And I have to also say that this isn’t just things we are saying here at B’Tselem. In recent days, there have been several much more mainstream Israelis, including the former deputy leader of the Israeli National Security Council, who also said that these kinds of orders would be, you know, orders that are black flags flying over. These would be orders to commit war crimes, and that soldiers have to refuse to obey these kinds of orders. This is — as I said, this is a former Israeli security official.

I think it’s really important to remember also, though, that the current situation on the ground, unfortunately, isn’t — and again, I say it with a great deal of pain — isn’t really influenced by statements by human rights organizations like B’Tselem, by actions by Israeli wonderful and just very courageous Israeli human rights organizations that are now petitioning the high court, because we just simply don’t have the capacity to influence the reality on the ground at the moment.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Sarit, we just —

SARIT MICHAELI: And therefore, that is why that is the essential source of our call —

AMY GOODMAN: So, Sarit Michaeli, we just have a minute.

SARIT MICHAELI: — call to the international community.

AMY GOODMAN: We just have a minute. I want to go to that issue of the call of the international community, and particularly the U.S. Blinken has just left Israel, his 11th trip there, saying he’s pushing for a ceasefire, yet at the same time the Biden administration continuing to arm Netanyahu. In this last 30 seconds, your thoughts on that kind of approach, saying he should push for a ceasefire, but we’ll continue to arm you?

SARIT MICHAELI: It’s absolutely clear that we must have a ceasefire. We need a ceasefire, and we need a hostage deal now. But this isn’t going to happen unless Prime Minister Netanyahu is placed in a situation where he has to accept this. And we do not see this happening at the moment. I think the thought that somehow the U.S. administration can ask Netanyahu, can urge Netanyahu for a ceasefire, and this will actually happen, is simply unrealistic. There needs to be intense pressure to get Israel to currently accept a ceasefire, to stop what it’s doing in northern Gaza. And it has to come from action by the United States and the international community. Otherwise, they will also be complicit in what we’re seeing now.

AMY GOODMAN: Sarit Michaeli, we want to thank you for being with us, international advocacy lead for the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, which has accused the Israeli military of committing ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza.

Next up, we look at Israel’s intensifying war on journalists in Gaza, two critically wounded journalists not able to get out of Gaza, and Israel saying that six journalists are members of Hamas or Palestinian Jihad, what that means. We’ll speak with the head of the Committee to Protect Journalists. Stay with us.

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CPJ Head Condemns Israel’s Deadly War on Journalists in Gaza as IDF Threatens Al Jazeera Reporters
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 24, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/24 ... transcript

Al Jazeera is demanding the safety of its staff in the Gaza Strip after Israel claimed that six of the network’s journalists there have ties to militant groups. Press freedom advocates say the Israeli accusation amounts to a preemptive justification for murder. Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza last October, at least 128 journalists have been killed, including many from Al Jazeera. The Committee to Protect Journalists says Israel has a history of smearing Palestinian journalists with unproven claims, including in July, when Israel killed Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul and later released documents claiming to prove al-Ghoul had received a Hamas military ranking when he was just 10 years old. “There is a pattern of Israel making these kinds of allegations, providing evidence that is, frankly, not credible or, in some cases, no evidence at all,” says Jodie Ginsberg, CPJ’s chief executive officer. “As we have fewer and fewer journalists reporting … we have less and less information coming out of Gaza. And it’s absolutely essential that we have that information, that we have those images, so that the international community can understand the scale of what’s happening.”

Transcript

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

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: We turn now to Israel’s intensifying war on journalists. On Wednesday, the Israeli military publicly accused six Al Jazeera journalists of being members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Press freedom groups blasted the Israeli military for releasing what some have described as a kill list for the journalists.

In a statement, Al Jazeera said, quote, “Al Jazeera categorically rejects the Israeli occupation forces’ portrayal of our journalists as terrorists and denounces their use of fabricated evidence. The Network views these fabricated accusations as a blatant attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region, thereby obscuring the harsh realities of the war from audiences worldwide.”

This comes as Israel continues to block the evacuation of two Al Jazeera camera operators who were severely injured after being shot by Israeli troops. One of the journalists, Fadi al-Wahidi, has been in a coma after being shot in the neck.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined now by Jodie Ginsberg, chief executive officer of the Committee to Protect Journalists here in New York.

Jodie, let’s start with the two journalists who are gravely wounded. One of them is paralyzed and in a coma. Israel is not letting them be evacuated. Can you talk about the significance of this?

JODIE GINSBERG: Well, yes. Fadi has been in a coma for over a week now, and not just in a coma, but with no access to painkillers. We’ve heard, obviously, about the ongoing bombardment in Gaza and what that has meant for hospitals. Al Jazeera has asked repeatedly, used all the formal channels to request their evacuation, and so far has had no reply. And this follows a pattern in which journalists appear to be being punished for doing their work, for exposing what’s happening inside Gaza.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Jodie Ginsberg, if you could — let’s go to these six Al Jazeera journalists who have been accused by Israel of being terrorists. You have pointed to — the CPJ has pointed to contradictory information that’s been released by the IDF in the past, at least one recent instance, Ismail al-Ghoul. Explain who he was and what the IDF said about him.

JODIE GINSBERG: So, Ismail al-Ghoul was an Al Jazeera correspondent. He was killed along with a freelance camera operator, Rami al-Rifi, near Gaza City in July. And the IDF alleged that al-Ghoul was an engineer in a Hamas brigade, and that justified his killing. They published a document which they said was a record of Hamas military activity as proof of these accusations. Some of the information indicated that al-Ghoul, who was born in 1997, had received a Hamas military ranking in 2007, so he would have been 10 years old. So, the document was not, in our view, credible.

And unfortunately, this is not a one-off incident. There is a pattern of Israel making these kinds of allegations, providing evidence that is, frankly, not credible or, in some cases, no evidence at all.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Jodie, especially talk about the significance of Israel doing this now. No one else, no other reporter is in Gaza. It’s only Al Jazeera reporters who are. Over 4,000 journalists have traveled to Israel to cover this war since October last year, but no other journalists have been permitted in.

JODIE GINSBERG: It’s hugely significant. This is the deadliest conflict for journalists that CPJ has ever documented. A hundred and twenty-eight journalists, at least, have been killed, 126 of them by Israel, and most of those are Palestinians. And in many cases, we believe those journalists to have been deliberately targeted for being journalists.

Now, you’re right, the major issue in all of this is that those journalists who remain are the only people who are able to provide us information about what’s happening inside Gaza. No journalist from outside Gaza has been allowed in since the start of that war, and that’s highly unusual. I speak to lots of war correspondents who’s covered many, many wars over decades, and all of them talk about how unprecedented this is to not have any access whatsoever. And that, of course, puts additional pressure on these journalists. And what you have when you have these kinds of accusations from Israel that the journalists are terrorists is a kind of justification for then killing them or attacking them.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you have Democratic Congressmember James McGovern leading 64 other congressmembers in a letter to Biden and Blinken, urging them to push for Israel to allow in international journalists. At the same time, Jodie Ginsberg, if you can talk about the number of journalists who have been killed in Gaza? Isn’t this unprecedented?

JODIE GINSBERG: It’s totally unprecedented. This number is — more journalists were killed in the first 10 weeks of the war, just the first 10 weeks of the war, than have ever been killed in a single country over an entire year. That gives you some sense of the scale of this. Those journalists who remain are trying desperately to cover the impact of the war while suffering the same effects of the war as everyone else, the deprivations of food, the lack of shelter, the continual displacement, the lack of equipment. And as we have fewer and fewer journalists reporting and the challenge becomes greater and greater, of course we have less and less information coming out of Gaza. And it’s absolutely essential that we have that information, that we have those images, so that the international community can understand the scale of what’s happening.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Jodie Ginsberg, finally, if you could put this in a broader context? Is there any other precedent for Europe, the U.S. or any of its allies restricting access to all international journalists to a war zone for over a year, as has happened here?

JODIE GINSBERG: There’s no precedent like this. In wars, inevitably, one side or other will restrict access to journalists. We see that frequently. But it is unheard of that not a single international journalist has been able to get into Gaza for an entire year.

And remember that it’s not just about the access. Of course, that’s a major issue. But we have Gazan journalists doing phenomenal work in Gaza and in the West Bank. It’s not just about the access. It’s also about the attacks that we’ve seen on media facilities, which is civilian infrastructure. We’ve seen repeated communications blackouts. We’ve seen the banning of Al Jazeera and the closure of the Al Jazeera Ramallah bureau. So, it’s not simply — we’ve seen arrests of journalists both in Gaza and the West Bank. So, it’s not simply the dangers, the killing of journalists, egregious as that is. It’s the whole pattern and systematic attempt — and quite successful attempt — to censor what is happening inside Gaza.

AMY GOODMAN: Jodie Ginsberg, we want to thank you for being with us, CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

****

Prominent Muslim Democrat Demands Answers After Being Kicked Out of Harris Rally in Michigan
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 24, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/24 ... transcript

We speak with Dr. Ahmed Ghanim, a prominent Muslim leader and former Democratic candidate for Congress, after the Kamala Harris campaign apologized for kicking him out of a Detroit election event Monday to which he was invited. Harris’s staunch support for Israel as it continues its brutal war on Gaza has infuriated many Muslim and Arab voters in Michigan, and while Ghanim says it’s a very important issue to him, he was not there to protest. He was also not given a reason for his removal, even after the campaign called him to apologize. “Apology without accountability is not an apology,” he says, adding that the incident has left him questioning whether Democrats still believe in diversity and inclusion or if “Muslims and Arabs don’t have room anymore in this party.”

Transcript

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

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: We end today’s show with a Muslim American Democrat who was ejected from a Kamala Harris rally in metro Detroit, where Harris was joined by Republican former Congressmember Liz Cheney. Ahmed Ghanim is a Democratic Party activist and former House candidate for Michigan’s 11th District.

AMY GOODMAN: He joins us now from Oak Park, Michigan, not far from the Harris campaign event which he was ejected from. The Kamala Harris campaign has since said it regrets his removal.

Thank you so much for being with us, Ahmed Ghanim. In this few minutes that we have left, take us to the event that you were invited to and explain what happened.

AHMED GHANIM: Thank you for having me.

So, basically, I went, like anyone else. I was dressed in a suit, going to this event. I stood in line. It was a small event by invite only, 200 people there, less than 200 people. I went through a security like the airport security, where they have to check everything. They take even the signs that you have from the campaign, so nobody had any signs. You’re only allowed to have your wallet, and that’s it.

And I was cleared by security. I was seated like anyone. I was sitting there for like 10 or 15 minutes, just trying to answer some emails. I did not engage with anybody in conversation, because they seat you randomly with people you don’t know around you. And after 10 minutes, a lady came and told me, “Can you follow me?” And I thought probably they are changing my seat. I said, “That’s fine.” I followed her.

And at the door, I found two police officers waiting for me and said, “They don’t want you here at the event. If you either leave now, or I’ll put you in a police car.” And that was shocking to me. So, just I was sitting there, and I did not — I did not do anything. I did nothing. And now I’m threatened to be arrested or have to leave. And I was just asking. I told him, “OK, I’m going to leave. I just want to know: Why are you kicking me out?” And he said, “It is not me. It’s the venue that’s kicking you out.” So I asked him, “Why would the venue kick me out? The venue, they don’t know anything about me. It’s just a venue.” He said, “I don’t know.” And the lady that escorted me out, she ended the conversation and said, “This is not a conversation anymore. You have to be escorted out.” So, I didn’t want to escalate the situation, and I just left.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Ahmed, can you say whether — since you’ve left, have you heard anything further about why you were removed?

AHMED GHANIM: No. The campaign issued a brief statement saying they regret what happened. They gave me a call. I thanked him for the call, but I said, “I want to know why was I removed, because apology without accountability is not an apology.” So, so far, they did not provide any information or any reason why they removed me.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Ahmed Ghanim, you were a congressional candidate. You didn’t win the primary. You got 15,000 votes. After you were kicked out of the Kamala Harris event, the Trump campaign approached you to make an ad?

AHMED GHANIM: That’s correct. They approached me to make an ad against Vice President Harris. And they said, “This ad will be aired everywhere, on CNN, everywhere. But we want you to film it.” And I said, “No, I cannot do that.”

AMY GOODMAN: Why do you feel that? I mean, of course, President Trump, well known, one of his first acts in office as president was the Muslim ban. But if you can explain what you’re demanding now of the Kamala Harris campaign?

AHMED GHANIM: I’m demanding a reason why they ejected me from the campaign without anything. I didn’t have any Palestinian keffiyeh. I didn’t have any pins. I didn’t have any signs. I was not planning to protest. I just was sitting there. This is my city, where I ran. Everyone in this city, they know me, because I ran there. I was canvassing door to door there. My ads were there. My signs were there. I actually spoke at the Democratic Club in Royal Oak, Michigan. So, it’s not like I’m a random person. They know me very well. And there is a reason why they ejected me. So I want to know what is the reason.

And for me, when people talk about just one-issue voter, it’s not about Gaza. Gaza is far away from me. It’s a very important issue for me. But now it’s important — what’s more important: Do I have place in this party or not? Is this the party of diversity, of inclusion, or Muslims and Arabs don’t have room anymore in this party?

AMY GOODMAN: Well, we want to thank you so much for being with us, Ahmed Ghanim, a Muslim community leader, former Democratic congressional candidate, speaking to us from Oak Park, Michigan. On Monday, given no explanation when he was kicked out of an invitation-only Harris campaign event in Royal Oak, Michigan, to which he was invited.

[admin]

Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 25, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/25/headlines

“A Major Massacre” in Jabaliya; Israeli Forces Raid Kamal Adwan Hospital in Northern Gaza, Killing Patients
Oct 25, 2024

In northern Gaza, Israeli soldiers have launched a full-scale attack on Jabaliya. Details are still emerging on what a Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson described as a “major massacre,” with more than 150 people killed or injured as Israeli forces took down a dozen residential buildings.

Late Thursday, Israeli forces stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, expelling patients and staff, after earlier surrounding and shelling what was essentially the last hospital left standing in the area. Soldiers carried out mass arrests. Doctors say babies and children have died after being cut off from their oxygen supplies. Kamal Adwan’s director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, says the situation is catastrophic and there is nowhere patients in northern Gaza can go for treatment. After headlines, we’ll hear from the acting director of Al-Awda Hospital, Mohammed Salha.

Israeli attacks in the southern Gaza Strip continue, as well. In Khan Younis, at least 38 people were killed by Israel, including 14 children from the same family.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he expects Gaza ceasefire talks to resume in the coming days in Doha.

Israeli Airstrike Kills 3 Journalists in Southern Lebanon
Oct 25, 2024

In Lebanon, an Israeli strike killed three journalists as they slept in a guesthouse in the southern town of Hasbaya. Israel did not issue any evacuation orders for the area before the strike. The victims were Al Mayadeen journalists Ghassan Najjar and Mohamed Reda, and Wissam Qassim of Al-Manar TV. Al Mayadeen reporter Abbas Sabbagh addressed his colleagues’ killing earlier today from Lebanon.

Abbas Sabbagh: “Israel targeted journalists in Hasbaya, knowing that the area is known for the gathering of journalists. This enemy that looks for civilian targets after it’s drained its military targets and lost in the field is now targeting journalists.”

Lebanon’s information minister called the attack a war crime. The official death toll from Israel’s assault on Lebanon is nearing 2,600.

***

“Worse and Worse”: Hospital Director in North Gaza Says Israeli Assault on Jabaliya Is Bloodiest Yet
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 25, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/25 ... transcript

Israeli soldiers have just conducted what Gaza’s Civil Defense is calling a “major massacre” in Jabaliya, with more than 150 people killed or injured and dozens of buildings destroyed. It is the latest atrocity amid the military’s weekslong siege of northern Gaza. “It’s getting worse and worse,” says Dr. Mohammed Salha in a call from the Jabaliya refugee camp, where he is acting director of Al-Awda Hospital.

Transcript

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

AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show in northern Gaza, where Israeli soldiers launched a full-scale attack on Jabaliya earlier today, blowing up a dozen residential buildings. Gaza officials described the attack as a “major massacre” and warned of mass casualties, with more than 150 people reportedly killed or injured.

Late Thursday, Israeli forces stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, expelling patients and staff, after earlier surrounding and shelling what was essentially the last hospital left standing in the area. Soldiers carried out mass arrests. Doctors say babies and children have died after being cut off from their oxygen supplies. Kamal Adwan’s director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, says the situation is catastrophic and there’s nowhere patients in northern Gaza can go for treatment.

This comes as displaced mothers in northern Gaza are calling on the world to demand the resumption of the polio vaccination campaign for children there, which the World Health Organization said Wednesday had been postponed due to Israeli attacks and lack of access.

HANAN HEMEDA: [translated] If the polio vaccination is not available in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, the children will be paralyzed. They will collapse in front of our eyes. They won’t move. Is this fair? We demand the world to allow the entry of the polio vaccination into the northern part of the Gaza Strip to protect our children from the polio virus.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, Democracy Now! reached Dr. Mohammed Salha, acting director of Al-Awda Hospital in the Jabaliya refugee camp in north Gaza late Thursday night. He described what’s happening on the ground.

DR. MOHAMMED SALHA: Today is the 20th day of siege in the northern Gaza and the fifth day of siege at Al-Awda Hospital. They totally sieged Al-Awda Hospital with the tanks, so we can’t move outside the hospital. And from the beginning of this siege, they are bombing our two inpatient departments and bombing our water tanks. So now we have more than 70% of the hospital without water, because the tanks are destroyed, totally destroyed, the water tank. And also, this afternoon, they are bombing our central store related to medical supplies.

After today, we will not have the fuel to running the hospital, and we have a lot of patients inside the hospital. We have 43 of patients here. And we can’t deal with this, because every day we are doing to them operations and the treatment in the [inaudible] inside our [inaudible], and we need medication, medical supplies and fuel, and also food. We don’t have food, and we don’t have healthy water and filtered water.

Our message to the freedom people in the world, really, to stop the genocide in Gaza Strip and especially in the northern Gaza. You can’t imagine how the situation here. The people are dying in the streets. They are injured in the street, and nobody can move to bring them.

Now we hear the massacre of more than 150 [inaudible] in Jabaliya camp, but nobody can go there to save these people. Really, we need also, from WHO, U.N. agencies and our partners really to urgent appeal and urgent to come to Al-Awda Hospital to bring our needs, from medication and medical supplies, and especially from fuel, food and healthy water for patients here.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Dr. Mohammed Salha, acting director of Al-Awda Hospital, speaking late Thursday night to Democracy Now! We attempted to reach him live right now, but we could not get any kind of connection.

When we come back, we’ll be joined by Palestinian poet and author Mosab Abu Toha. He’s just published his new book of poetry, Forest of Noise.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: “If I Should Fall” from the 1974 album Palestine Lives! released by Paredon Records. Musician and label co-founder Barbara Dane passed away this week at the age of 97.

***

“Forest of Noise”: Palestinian Poet Mosab Abu Toha on New Book, Relatives Killed in Gaza & More
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 25, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/25 ... transcript

In an extended interview, Palestinian poet and author Mosab Abu Toha discusses the situation in Gaza and his new book of poetry titled Forest of Noise. He fled Gaza in December after being detained by the Israeli military, but many of his extended family members were unable to escape. He reads a selection of poems from Forest of Noise, while sharing the stories of friends and family still struggling to survive in Gaza, as well as those he has lost, including the late poet Refaat Alareer. He also describes his experiences in Gaza in the first months of the war, including being displaced from his home and abducted by the Israeli military, noting that the neighborhood in Jabaliya refugee camp that his family first evacuated to last year was bombed by the Israeli military just days ago. “Sometimes I want to stop writing because I’m repeating the same words, even though the situation is worse. The language is helpless,” Abu Toha says. “Why does the world make us feel helpless?”

Transcript

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

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

As human rights activists plead with global leaders for immediate action, calling for an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Jordan’s foreign minister met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in London today and condemned the humanitarian catastrophe in northern Gaza, telling Blinken, quote, “We do see ethnic cleansing taking place, and that has got to stop,” he said.

For more, we’re joined by Palestinian poet and author from Gaza, who writes in his new book of poems, “If you live in Gaza, you die several times.” Mosab Abu Toha’s second book of poetry is just out. It’s titled Forest of Noise. His previous award-winning book of poetry, Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza. Mosab Abu Toha is a columnist, a teacher, founder of the Edward Said Library in Gaza. His recent essay in The New York Times is headlined “Gaza’s Schools Are for Learning, Not for Dying.” And his latest piece for The New Yorker is headlined “The Gaza We Leave Behind.”

Mosab Abu Toha, it’s wonderful to have you in studio safely here in New York, but I know that your heart and mind are in Gaza right now. Before we talk about your poetry, you have just come with terrible news for you and your family about what is happening there. Can you describe what you’ve heard just today?

MOSAB ABU TOHA: Thank you so much, Amy.

Yeah, I mean, just you mentioned the airstrikes that took down 10 residential buildings. I was staying in that place with my wife and kids just before we had to leave for an UNRWA school to stay in a shelter there and before I was abducted by the Israeli army. And this morning, I looked at the names of some of the people who were killed in that airstrike, and I see the, I mean, 19 names from the same family, including Um Fathi Abu Rashed [phon.], I mean, a temporary neighbor. I mean, we had Um Fathi as a neighbor for a few days before we had to leave the neighborhood. And now I read that this neighborhood, where I was staying with them, was bombed. So, she was killed along with some of her children. And this is the case of so many people. I’m not sure if you can see this. This is the list of the whole family. And, for example —

AMY GOODMAN: You’re holding up a list of what? Some 20 names?

MOSAB ABU TOHA: Yeah, 20 names, including Um Fathi, the grandmother, her children and her grandchildren. And I look at — for example, I read this every day. So, there is Mohammed Salman, his brother Yousef, Islam, Sama, Aya, so five brothers. And then there is Mahmoud Fathi, the son Um Fathi Abu Rashed, and his wife and their children. So, I’ve been seeing this all the time.

And by the way, we are focusing right now on north Gaza. Yesterday, late at night, Israel bombed intensely Khan Younis. And I’m looking at some of the pictures here. These are the photos of the children who were killed yesterday. They just were able to withdraw the bodies of these children after the Israelis retreated from the area. So, and that was today. I learned about this just half an hour ago.

And then I went to the local news channel in my city, Beit Lahia, north Gaza, and I saw a picture of my neighbor, Ayman Abu Laila. This is his photo. He was killed — he was killed this morning while he was trying to get some water from a tap in the street. Ayman, to honor his memory, he was the principal of the only agricultural college in north Gaza. And he was trying — by the way, he lived just a few blocks away. And he wanted to move to stay with his brother, because there are some friends and some neighbors who are staying there, so he wanted to be close to the people who are there. He was killed. And his son — my wife just told me, because she was on the phone with her mother and father, who are trapped right now in Beit Lahia. They were told that the brother of my neighbor has been critically wounded, and he is in the house. There is no way that an ambulance can come. There is no way that anyone can come to their rescue. And the same thing happened yesterday in the Jabaliya refugee camp, the 10 residential buildings that were took down.

AMY GOODMAN: Mosab, yesterday, last night, I saw you at the Brooklyn Public Library, sold out, to hear you speak about your poetry. And you said at the beginning — I saw your wife and your three little children, but that hadn’t been the plan. You’re now in Syracuse, at Syracuse University.

MOSAB ABU TOHA: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about you almost canceling the day before, because your wife was too terrified for you to come to New York.

MOSAB ABU TOHA: Indeed. I mean, taking my wife and three kids with me was a last-minute decision. I mean, the Israeli army has been horribly attacking north Gaza, displacing people and kidnapping, abducting doctors and nurses and journalists. And even the injured people, they had to evacuate. I mean, just imagine, I mean, people who have been injured, and they had some medical care, and they had to be on some medical equipment. They are taken away from the hospital. Some of them would die. And that’s why The Lancet journal said that more than 200,000 people have been — have died or were killed by the Israeli airstrike, the Israeli military campaign since October 7th.

So, my wife’s family, including her father, her mother, her siblings and some of the nephews and nieces, her grandparents, too, aged 75, they are now trapped in the family house, and they are unable to leave. And now Atta Abu Laila, my neighbor, was killed just a few meters away from them by shrapnel, by a piece of shrapnel from a tank shell. So, she worries that if I am away from her and she gets some terrible news, like today’s news, she would die from pain and grief. So she wanted me to be with her. And I told her I couldn’t cancel, you know, the event at the Brooklyn Public Library and also my event today at NYU. So, I said, “OK, you come with me.” And now she came with me, as if this would — I mean, I don’t claim — I don’t say that I would make her feelings better, because I, too, have family in Beit Lahia. I have a young sister with three children. The youngest is 2 years old. And I haven’t talked to her for about 10 days. It’s impossible to get in touch with my sister. I don’t know how she’s surviving or whether she’s alive at this moment.

AMY GOODMAN: You wrote on social media six days ago, “I write with a heavy heart that my cousin Sama, 7 years old, has been killed in the air strike on their house along with 18 members of her family, which is my extended family.”

MOSAB ABU TOHA: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: For our TV audience, we are showing an image of Sama right now.

MOSAB ABU TOHA: Yeah, please, yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: Tell us who she is.

MOSAB ABU TOHA: So, Sama is one of the five children of my aunt Asma, who was also injured, the mother, I mean, in the house. Sama was staying with her parents, with her siblings, with her grandmother, who happens to be my grandmother’s sister. And I used to call her grandmother, because my grandmother passed away when I was very young. So, my grandmother’s sister, with two of her daughters and her grandchildren, and two of her daughter-in-laws and the grandchildren are still buried under the rubble until this moment.

So, Sama was killed in the airstrike. And the only reason why my aunt and her other children, or even though they were wounded — the only reason why they were not killed is that they were staying close to the door, because the bomb, when it falls, it usually hits the middle of the house. So, my aunt Asma survived the airstrike with some injuries, along with her husband and other four children. And they had — by the way, they were — my aunt had to walk to the Israeli soldiers who were standing just a few meters away from the bombed house. So, just imagine a criminal killing you and then waiting for you until you are either dead or come to them limping. And she told me that she kissed their hands, begging them to leave them alone and if she could take with her some wheat flour from the house that she was keeping next to her because there is no food in Gaza.

So, Sama was 7 years old. And I remember something very clearly, which is that every time I visited my aunt’s house, especially during the Eid, you know, after the Ramadan and after the pilgrimage season — so, we have two big Eids, or feasts. So, I used to visit my aunt, and her children are there. And this photo is from — I think you showed it. But this is from the Eid. This is her dress. And my aunt would bring a sheet of paper and ask her daughters, including Sama, ”Yalla” — because I’m an English language teacher, so she said, ”Yalla, show Mosab. Show Mosab the new words that you have learned — the colors, the animals.” But now Sama — I mean, I did not have a chance to bid her farewell. This is my cousin. And I lost 31 members of my extended family, including three first cousins, two of them with their husband and children. I didn’t get the chance even to see them before they were buried. And I don’t know whether some of them had any part of their bodies intact after the airstrikes.

So, just imagine the magnitude of loss that I’m facing as a — I’m just one person. Some other people lost all their families. And we know about the new term “wounded child, no surviving family.” About more than 2,000 children had the same case. They were the only — the sole survivors of their family. I mean, what future is awaiting them? No one is asking this question.

AMY GOODMAN: Mosab Abu Toha is an award-winning poet and author. He has a new book of poetry out. It’s called Forest of Noise. Your descriptions now make me think of your little son. You came with your three children yesterday. Can you read the poem about your son and your daughter?

MOSAB ABU TOHA: Yeah, sure. So, by the way, this poem was written after May 2021 attacks. So, my son Yazzan was about 5 years old. My daughter Yaffa was 4 years old. And this is about them.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, this is very important, because you just said this was written in May 2021.

MOSAB ABU TOHA: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: Half your poems in Forest of Noise are before last October 7th —

MOSAB ABU TOHA: Exactly, yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: — and the other half after.

MOSAB ABU TOHA: Well, I mean, this tells you — this tells you a lot of things. So, this poem could be written today. And if it was written today, there are so many things that would not be present here, because this current genocide is so different from any other wars that Israel launched against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.

“My Son Throws a Blanket Over My Daughter,” Gaza, May 2021.

At night, at home, we sit on the floor,
close to each other
far from the windows and the red
lights of bombs. Our backs bang on the walls
whenever the house shakes.
We stare at each other’s faces,
scared, yet happy,
that so far our lives have been spared.

The walls wake up from their fitful sleep,
no arms to wipe at their blurry eyes.
Flies gather around the only lit ceiling lamp
for warmth in the bitter night,
cold except when missiles hit
and burn up houses and roads and the trees,
the neighborhood next to us,
where Yazzan learned to ride his bike, scorched.

Every time we hear a bomb
falling from an F-16 or an F-35,
our lives panic. Our lives freeze
somewhere in-between, confused
where to head next:
a graveyard, a hospital,
a nightmare.
I keep my shivering hand
on my wristwatch,
ready to remove the battery
if needed.

My four-year-old daughter, Yaffa,
wearing a pink dress given to her by a friend,
hears a bomb
explode. She gasps,
covers her mouth with her dress’s
ruffles.
Yazzan, her five-and-a-half-year old brother,
grabs a blanket warmed by his sleepy body.
He lays the blanket on his sister.
You can hide now, he assures her.

And I have a video of that. It’s on my phone. I took a video of my son throwing a blanket. That’s how I couldn’t forget this moment.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, your kids know the hospitals in Gaza that we were just describing.

MOSAB ABU TOHA: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: Tell us, to humanize Kamal Adwan hospital, Al-Awda Hospital.

MOSAB ABU TOHA: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, by the way, Al-Awda Hospital — so, Kamal Adwan is run by the Gaza Health Ministry. The Al-Awda Hospital is run by the Palestinian Red Crescent, which is an NGO. And the Al-Awda Hospital is dedicated mainly to the people who cannot afford to pay health insurance. And many of the pregnant mothers who go to UNRWA clinics are referred to Al-Awda Hospital to give birth there for free. So it’s a hospital not only for the patients, but also the pregnant women to give birth. My sister Aya, 30 — sorry, 35 years old, is pregnant, and she’s about to give birth. And there is no hospital close to her. So I don’t know what she’s going to do.

Kamal Adwan Hospital is the main hospital in Beit Lahia and also in Beit Lahia project. And in the past few years, it was turned into a children’s hospital. And I used to take Yaffa and Yazzan to that hospital when they feel sick, when they have fever, when they are injured. And I have many friends who used to work as nurses there. And I know Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, who is the head of the Kamal Adwan Hospital right now, who we watched just a few minutes ago. I mean, he is very helpless.

I mean, I use this in my language. I say the situation in north Gaza — in Beit Lahia or north is catastrophic. I mean, how many times did I use the same word? I mean, sometimes I want to stop writing because I’m repeating the same word even though the situation is worse. So, I mean, language is helpless. I mean, I used the same vocabulary after October 7th to describe the situation in north Gaza, in Beit Lahia. I said we had no water, no food. That was October 12th. And now we are October 25th, 2024, so a year. I mean, does really language help us? Why does the world make us feel, I mean, helpless? I think — I mean, I don’t like this, as a human being. We have never stopped shouting and screaming and showing our pictures and videos.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you remind our viewers and listeners, who may not have seen you on Democracy Now!? First, soon after October 7th, we talked to you in Gaza. We then talked to you, or spoke to others about you, when you were taken by the Israeli military. Then, when you were released and made it with your family to Cairo, we spoke to you.

MOSAB ABU TOHA: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: We spoke to you in South Africa, and now you have come to the United States. But take us on that journey, how you got out. And remind us what happened when you were separated from your family and taken by the Israeli military.

MOSAB ABU TOHA: So, Amy, that interview that you did with me, it was October 12th. I can’t forget the date, because that was the last day I was in my house. I just finished my interview with you on October 12th. I think it was 3 p.m., which is eight hour, 8:00 morning here. I even didn’t pay attention to the time.

AMY GOODMAN: Right about now, New York time.

MOSAB ABU TOHA: Yeah. I mean, by the time I finished my interview with you, I went down. My father and mother, my brother Hamza and his children and his pregnant wife, my brother Mohammed and his wife, my sister Aya with her children, who is now pregnant, my sister Saja and my sister Sondos. So, about 25 people were in the house with me. So, I went down, and I found my father and my mother packing their bags. And when I talk about bags, I talk about children’s school bags. We don’t have suitcases, by the way, which is something that many people don’t understand why. Because we don’t have airports, we don’t need suitcases. We travel with our backpacks, my children’s kindergarten backpack. I stuff it with some clothes and some — I put some water bottle there. So, I found my parents packing their bags, and I asked them, “Where are you going?” And they said, “You know the Israelis just dropped some leaflets ordering the residents of Beit Lahia, about 90,000 people, to evacuate.” And that was the first time I found my parents, you know, leaving. And then I went upstairs. I didn’t know what to take with me. I only took with me the copy, one copy, the only copy that I had of my first poetry book. And I took a bottle of water and some clothes for my children.

And then we went to the refugee camp. And do you know where we stayed? We stayed in the same neighborhood that was bombed yesterday, where 150 people were killed. And I just told you about the names of the people who were killed, including Um Fathi, who I now remember that we got one hour of water from the tap when we were in the camp. And Um Fathi would tell the neighbors, “The water is on. The water is on. Fill your buckets.” So, I remember here. And then, when the bombing got intense in the refugee camp, we thought of going to an UNRWA school which is just a few hundred meters away from the neighborhood in the camp. So, we stayed in a school shelter in Jabaliya, which was later raided by the Israeli army. And by the way, a few days ago, the Israelis again visited that school, took the men out. And they have abducted so many, including my wife’s sister’s husband. He’s a brother-in-law to me. So, they took him. And one reason he stayed in the school, he’s a nurse. He couldn’t leave the refugees in the school without any nursing person. So, he was abducted, and he is left with three children. The youngest was born after October 7. So, when the bombing got intense, I had to leave the school with my wife and kids, especially because we had the chance to leave Gaza for Egypt.

And on the Salah al-Din Street, which was described by the Israelis as a safe passage, I was abducted by the Israeli soldiers. I was handcuffed and blindfolded. And before that, I had to remove all my clothes. I was naked for the first time in my life. And under gunpoint, two Israeli soldiers were pointing their guns at me and the person next to me. And then we were taken to a place we didn’t know. I mean, for me, as a Palestinian who was born in Gaza, I had never been to Palestine, which is now Israel. So, that was the first time for me to sleep in my country, as a detainee, as someone who was blindfolded and handcuffed, as someone who didn’t know whether his wife and children, who he left behind, were still breathing.

Just imagine. Not only was I taken, blindfolded and handcuffed and beaten and harassed and insulted — they kept saying bad words in Arabic. These are the only words they know in Arabic, insulting words. But also, I did not know whether my wife and kids, from whom I was separated, were still breathing, whether they went to a place that is safe. Because there is no place that is safe. Why? Because when there is occupation, there is nothing that’s called a safe place. And I had also to worry about my mother and father, who I left behind in the refugee camp, and my siblings and their children. I mean, I was torn. I was torn into a hundred pieces, thinking about myself, why are they taking me, where are they taking me. And I heard some young men screaming, you know. Some of them had to be separated from their pregnant wives. So, after three days, I was released. I was dropped at the same checkpoint.

AMY GOODMAN: There was international outcry —

MOSAB ABU TOHA: Exactly.

AMY GOODMAN: — over you having been taken.

MOSAB ABU TOHA: As Mosab Abu Toha, not as a Palestinian. So, I think many people cared about me because I am a friend and a writer, but they did not maybe consider maybe doing the same thing with other people. It’s easier to get someone out than getting a whole population from under the military fist of the Israeli army. I mean, I just imagine if I was not a writer, if I was not a poet, if I did not have a publisher, if I did not have, you know, some journalism magazine that I wrote for. Just imagine no one knew about me. I would still have been under the Israeli custody. Maybe I could have died, just like Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, who was taken from Al-Awda Hospital, by the way, in November last year. And he was announced dead last October. He was the best surgeon in the Gaza Strip, and he was — he died. He was killed.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about another man, another poet, but he didn’t make it, the Palestinian poet, the Islamic University professor, someone you knew, Refaat Alareer, last on Democracy Now! October 10th, 2023. Refaat was killed by an Israeli strike in December, along with his brother, sister and four of his nieces. This is Scottish actor Brian Cox reciting Refaat Alareer’s poem “If I Must Die.” And then I want you to share your poem, a sort of segue to Refaat’s, “If I Must Die,” a video that went viral.

BRIAN COX: If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze—
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself—
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up
above
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love
If I must die
let it bring hope
let it be a tale.

AMY GOODMAN: Scottish actor Brian Cox, you know, who played in Succession, reciting Refaat Alareer’s poem “If I Must Die” in a video that went viral. And you can go to democracynow.org to see our interview with Refaat just before he was killed. In your book, Mosab Abu Toha, Forest of Noise, talk about Refaat and then your kind of rejoinder to this poem.

MOSAB ABU TOHA: I mean, I knew Refaat as a professor at the Islamic University of Gaza. He did not teach me, but I would say that he taught me a lot, because when I was in my second year, he was in Malaysia doing — completing, finishing his Ph.D. And when he returned, I was already finishing my courses. But he was someone who led me to the We Are Not Numbers project that he co-founded, which is a project that offers some mentorship for young writers. I was in the beginning of my writing career. So, he introduced me to the group. And that is a picture that I took with the strawberries.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re showing an image of Refaat holding strawberries.

MOSAB ABU TOHA: Yeah, yeah. We picked that strawberry, that same strawberry together in Beit Lahia, in my father-in-law’s farm, from my father-in-law’s farm. So, yeah, I knew Refaat as a father. He was a wonderful father for his kids. And he was a lovely son of his parents. His parents still survive, I hope, in Gaza City. And he’s also a professor of English literature. And when we were talking about literature, he would talk about Arabic literature and also English literature. His favorite poet, I think, was John Donne. And in the Arabic language, he loved the classical Arabic poems, like Al-A’sha, like Imru’ al-Qais, like Ibn Hilliza. And he would recite some Arabic poems to me, and I was amazed, you know?

So, before Refaat was killed, he published his poem “If I Must Die,” and he posted it on his Instagram. And I read that poem when I was still in north Gaza. It was before I was abducted. And it was very heartbreaking for me, I mean, someone writing about his death and what he wishes his death to be like. And I couldn’t but try and write my own “If I Must Die,” but I did not call it “If I Must Die.” I wrote “If I Am Going to Die.” But after he was killed, I retitled the poem, which is now called “A Request.” “A Request: After Refaat Alareer.”

If I am going to die,
let it be a clean death,
no rubble over my corpse
no broken dishes or glasses
and not many cuts in my head or chest.
Leave my ironed untouched jackets
and pants in the closet,
so I may wear some of them again
at my funeral.

Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: Mosab Abu Toha, reading from his new second second book of poetry, Forest of Noise. Just months after Refaat was killed, his eldest daughter, Shaima Refaat Alareer, was also killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza, along with her husband and 2-month-old son, Refaat’s grandchild.

MOSAB ABU TOHA: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, just imagine. I mean, Refaat became a grandfather after he was killed. He became a grandfather after he was killed. And, I mean, something that breaks my heart, just as it must break everyone’s heart, is that when someone is killed, they even don’t know who was killed with them. They don’t know — I mean, Refaat did not know that his daughter Shaima and her husband, Abd al-Rahman Siyam, I think his name, and his grandchild were killed after him. I mean, I don’t know whether he knows about this, whether, I mean, he’s now feeling a lot of pain knowing about this.

So, it is a campaign of killing the father, the mother, the sister. I would call this not only a genocide. It is not only a genocide against a people, but it’s also a genocide against families, because when you look at the names of the people who are killed, you see the name of the father, the mother, the children, the grandchildren. It’s not about killing five people from the street or five people in the mosque or the school. It’s killing a whole family. When I tell you that I lost 31 members of my extended family, I talk about two first cousins with their husbands and their children. I’m not talking about my cousin, no. Her husband, their children, the youngest 2 or 4.

AMY GOODMAN: Mosab, can you look into this camera and share your message with the world, what you want the world to take away right now about what’s happening in your home, in Gaza?

MOSAB ABU TOHA: I mean, if the world cannot really help us, I hope that they will not continue to support the oppressor. If you can’t really stop this, why don’t you just go away? I mean, I wish the world was ignoring us. No, they are not ignoring us. No, they are contributing to our suffering and the genocidal campaign that Israel has been launching, not since last year, since 76 years.

I mean, maybe you just mentioned that Blinken says that in a few days, you know, the negotiations would start again. I mean, why don’t you say the same things about sending the weapons to Israel? Why don’t you say, “Oh, in a few days, we will try and send the Israelis some new weapons”? Why don’t you take your time and think about what these weapons are going to do? Why does it take time to resume negotiations and force the Israelis to stop their killing of my people? Why does it take time? Why is it difficult to stop this, but it’s easy to send more and more weapons? Just leave us alone.

AMY GOODMAN: Your choice of the last poem to share with our audience around the world. Would you like to share “The Moon” or “Right or Left” or “Under the Rubble”?

MOSAB ABU TOHA: “Under the Rubble” is long, so I will go with “Right or Left,” which is a poem that I wrote for one of my friend’s sisters. My friend himself was killed with his parents, with four of his sisters, with his two children. So the only survivors were his wife and two other sisters. So, the body of my friend, Ismail Abu Ghabin, the body of his sister, 16 years old, and his father are still under the rubble. So I wrote this poem about the bodies that remain under the rubble, the body of his sister. “Right or Left.”

Under the rubble,
her body has remained
for days
and days.
When the war ends,
we try to remove
the rubble,
stone
after stone.
We only find one small bone
from her body.
It is a bone
from her arm.
Right or left,
it does not matter
as long as we cannot
find the henna
from the neighbors’ wedding
on her skin,
or the ink
from a school pen
on her little index finger.

AMY GOODMAN: Mosab Abu Toha, Palestinian poet and author. His new second book of poetry, Forest of Noise, has just been published. His previous award-winning book is called Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza. Mosab Abu Toha is a columnist, teacher, founder of the Edward Said Library in Gaza, which we’ll talk about in Part 2 of our conversation and post online. And also, I hope Mosab will read “Under the Rubble,” and we’ll post it at democracynow.org. Mosab, thank you for joining us in our New York studio.

MOSAB ABU TOHA: Thank you. I really appreciate it, Amy. Thank you

AMY GOODMAN: Next up, the BRICS summit has just wrapped up. We’ll be joined by two economists. Stay with us.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: “I Hate the Capitalist System” by the late great Barbara Dane. She passed away this week at the age of 97. By the way, Mosab Abu Toha will be speaking and reading his poetry at New York University, NYU, today at 5:00 at the Lillian Vernon House.

[admin]

Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 28, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/28/headlines

U.N. Chief Urges Restraint After Israel Bombs Iranian Targets Saturday
Oct 28, 2024

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has urged for a return to diplomacy and “maximum efforts to prevent an all-out regional war” after Israel bombed Iranian military facilities and air defense systems Saturday. The strikes included a site linked to Iran’s ballistic missile program. Iran said four soldiers were killed. Israel also struck air defense batteries and radars in Syria and Iraq. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran would take “an appropriate response” to the attack, but he reiterated that Iran does not seek a wider war. Israel’s attack came about four weeks after Iran launched a missile attack on Israeli military sites in response to Israel’s mounting assault on Lebanon and Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah and Hamas leaders.

“North Gaza’s Entire Population at Risk of Dying”: Israel Decimates Northern Gaza, Incl. Hospitals
Oct 28, 2024

As the death toll from Israel’s 24-day siege on northern Gaza tops 1,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, the U.N.’s top humanitarian official is warning “the entire population of north Gaza is at risk of dying.”

At Kamal Adwan Hospital, Israeli soldiers arrested and expelled nearly all male doctors and staff following its brutal raid. One of the victims of Israel’s assault on northern Gaza was the hospital director Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya’s young son Ibrahim. On Saturday, Dr. Abu Safiya led prayers for his murdered child as he laid him to rest. A nurse who survived the Israeli attack on Kamal Adwan described the siege.

Mayssoun Alian: “We were all surrounded from all sides. There was shooting from all directions with bombs and mortars, and they evacuated all those who were sheltering here, so that everyone leaves, both men and women. They separated men from women and made two queues. It was very, very humiliating for our men since they took them without clothes and nothing to cover with.”

Elsewhere in Gaza, an employee of Doctors Without Borders was killed in Khan Younis. And at least three more journalists were killed in an Israeli airstrike. They were identified as Saed Radwan of Al-Aqsa TV, Hamza Abu Salmiya from Sanad News and Haneen Mahmoud Baroud from the Al-Quds Foundation.

DOJ Lawyers Call on Merrick Garland to Investigate Israeli Killings of U.S. Citizens
Oct 28, 2024

Lawyers at the U.S. Justice Department called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to launch investigations into crimes against U.S. citizens committed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the occupied West Bank, including the killing of the activist Ayşenur Eygi. The letter to Garland highlighted the hypocrisy in the department’s refusal to acknowledge crimes by Israel while it has been outspoken against Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

Israel Strikes Tyre, Killing at Least 7, as It Continues Its Assault on Lebanon
Oct 28, 2024

Israeli strikes on the southern Lebanese city of Tyre have killed at least seven people today. The Israeli military issued evacuation orders for large areas of Tyre as it continues its deadly attacks. Meanwhile, Lebanon’s health minister says Israeli strikes have targeted 55 hospitals in Lebanon as Israel seeks to impair the country’s health infrastructure.

Microsoft Fires Employees, Harvard Suspends Professors & Students over Gaza Solidarity Protests
Oct 28, 2024

Here in the U.S., Microsoft has fired two employees who organized a vigil for Gaza. The workers, who are both Arab, belonged to the protest group “No Azure for Apartheid,” which opposes Microsoft’s sale of its cloud technology to Israel.

Meanwhile, Harvard University has temporarily suspended dozens of students and professors from its libraries after they staged a series of silent “study-in” protests to bring attention to the genocide in Gaza, as well as the crackdown on free speech at Harvard.

***

“This Carnage Needs to Stop”: Israel Bans Aid Groups from Gaza, Kills Over 1,000 in North Gaza Siege
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 28, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/28 ... transcript

Israel’s three-week siege of northern Gaza has killed at least 1,000 Palestinians. Most of the dead are women and children. On Saturday, Israeli forces withdrew from Kamal Adwan Hospital just one day after storming it, with health officials saying that soldiers detained dozens of male medical staffers and some of the patients. This comes as the Israeli government has banned six medical NGOs from entering Gaza despite the dire humanitarian crisis stemming from repeated displacements of the population, widespread disease, injuries from Israeli attacks, hunger and more. Some 43,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its war on Gaza last October, according to local officials, although the true toll is likely far higher. “The healthcare infrastructure is destroyed. Many of the local doctors have been either killed or kidnapped. The patients are left stranded; no one is providing any help to them,” says Mosab Nasser, CEO of FAJR Scientific, one of the six medical aid groups banned by Israel.

Transcript

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

AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s in northern Gaza, where Israel’s three-week siege has killed over 1,000 Palestinians, most women and children. Gaza health officials say almost 43,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7th, more than 100,000 wounded, though the toll is likely far higher. On Saturday, Israeli forces withdrew from north Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, one day after raiding it. Health officials say soldiers detained dozens of male medical staffers and some of the patients. This is a nurse describing how Israeli forces detained the hospital’s director.

MAYSSOUN ALIAN: [translated] They called Dr. Hussam and asked him to let the male medics out. So he did, and they left. This was also very, very humiliating for them since they were also without clothes. There were around 70 male nurses that left here. They took them to the external clinic. They started to destroy things. And we were the only nurses in the hospital without the rest of the medical team.

AMY GOODMAN: The nurse mentioned Kamal Adwan Hospital’s director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, a pediatrician. After Israeli forces retreated from the hospital Saturday, he buried his young son Ibrahim Hussam Abu Safiya, who was reportedly killed Friday in an Israeli strike on Jabaliya in northern Gaza.

DR. HUSSAM ABU SAFIYA: Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar. As-salamu alaykum. Allahu Akbar. As-salamu alaykum. Allahu Akbar.

AMY GOODMAN: The doctor praying and mourning his son in his white hospital coat.

This comes as the World Health Organization reports the Israeli government has barred six medical NGOs from entering Gaza. One of them, the Palestinian American Medical Association, released a statement, saying, quote, “We urgently demand that the Israeli authorities rescind this decision immediately and urge the U.S. State Department, along with international bodies, to advocate for the immediate reinstatement of these vital medical services, which constitute a fundamental human right protected by international law and the moral fabric of our global community,” unquote.

For more, we go to Houston, Texas, where we’re joined another head of another organization, one of six medical aid groups Israel has banned from entering Gaza. Mosab Nasser is the CEO of FAJR Scientific. He helped lead one of the largest medical missions to Gaza in August of 2023. He was last in Gaza in May during Israel’s invasion of Rafah. Nasser also helped renovate parts of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. He is himself originally from Gaza.

Thank you so much for being with us. As we watch the director of Kamal Adwan, a man you know well, mourn his son, praying at his grave in his white medical coat, can you talk about who he is and the significance of Kamal Adwan Hospital?

MOSAB NASSER: Good morning, Amy. Thank you for having me.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya is a Palestinian hero. He is an amazing, amazing doctor that I have known now maybe for about four years. And I had several meetings with him when I was in Gaza in 2022 and helped, as said, renovate the Kamal Adwan Hospital’s emergency room and the external clinics, as well as the rehabilitation room for children. Dr. Hussam is the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, who, by the way, has a foreign passport. He had the choice, like, you know, many Palestinians, to leave from there at the beginning of the war, but he refused. He stood his ground at the Kamal Adwan Hospital to save lives and save limbs and take care of those children who are left stranded in this carnage.

Kamal Adwan Hospital is the only children’s hospital in north Gaza. It actually serves about 400,000 or 500,000 people in north Gaza, and there is really no other children’s hospital. It has the ICU. It has a large room for premature babies with incubators. And it’s a central hospital. If that hospital is not functional, you’re talking about thousands of children, again, left without any medical support.

AMY GOODMAN: You know, we were just speaking with another Mosab, the poet Mosab Abu Toha, on Friday, who talked about bringing his young children to this hospital and talked about the director being a pediatrician, that it’s basically the children’s hospital there. Mosab Nasser, if you can describe what has happened there in northern Gaza and what happened to this particular hospital, the Israeli forces raiding it, and this description of the doctors and medical aides being stripped naked in front of the others?

MOSAB NASSER: Amy, FAJR Scientific is a humanitarian apolitical organization. We are actually specialized in surgical — in complex surgeries. We’ve been operating in Gaza even before the war. And we have a team in the north, a local team, that actually serves the different hospitals, including the Indonesian Hospital.

And the news that we get from the team on the ground, that Kamal Adwan Hospital was attacked by the Israeli army. I believe more than 30 medical staff members were actually kidnapped by the Israeli army, including Dr. Hussam briefly, and then he was turned back. So, he’s left maybe with a few — a couple of doctors and a few nurses to take care of over 150 patients at the hospital.

The news that we received also that the Israeli army stripped those doctors naked and literally took them into no one knows where, similar to what happened to our colleagues at Nasser Hospital and Shifa Hospital. I still have many Palestinian colleagues. I’d like to name a few: Dr. Ghassan Abu Zuhri from Nasser Hospital, who’s one of the top surgeons in Gaza, orthopedic surgeons, no one knows his whereabout until today; Dr. Hani Abu Taima, the head of the surgical department at Nasser Hospital; and many others, many others across Gaza. So, the disturbing news that also we have received is that the Israeli army destroyed the oxygen concentrators and tanks at Kamal Adwan Hospital, leaving children in the ICU and in the incubators without oxygen. Many of them actually have died.

AMY GOODMAN: Have you been meeting with U.S. government officials? And what have they said? Also, do you know how Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya’s son died? We heard died in an Israeli airstrike on Jabaliya.

MOSAB NASSER: Regarding your first question, yes. In fact, I just came back from D.C. this past Thursday, where I met with — visited the offices of a few congressmen and senators. And before, in fact, I’ve also visited the State Department in this past visit, trying to advocate for lifting the ban or the denial on the humanitarian medical organizations that were actually denied entry by Israel, especially at this time where we are actually needed on the ground the most.

And that decision to ban or deny entry to now six organizations — in fact, initially, the initial number that we’ve heard was eight organizations — it’s mind-boggling. Especially with what’s happening in north Gaza, why would you prevent such organizations from coming to provide their services? Especially the healthcare infrastructure is destroyed. Many of the doctors, the local doctors, have been either killed or kidnapped. The patients are left stranded; no one is providing any help to them. And especially we — in FAJR Scientific, we’re actually specialized in surgical interventions. And many of the injuries that come to the hospitals across Gaza are blast injuries — broken bones, broken skulls, you know, all kinds of multiple degrees of burns. So, those patients require an immediate attention. And if you don’t provide this attention to them, many of them actually will die a slow and painful death because of infections.

Regarding Dr. Hussam’s son, I really don’t know the details surrounding his death, but I was told that he was — you know, he was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Jabaliya, as you mentioned.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, I wanted to ask you about a tweet of yours. You’re talking about a girl. “Mazyona is one of the children FAJR has been trying to evacuate out of #Gaza for months now. She sustained devastating injuries to her face—her face was nearly torn off. #Surgeons have held the remaining structure together, but she urgently requires a medevac for specialized care and bone surgery. [She] also still has shrapnel in her neck. She is of course in immense pain, [and] her condition is worsening. The platinum used surgically to rebuild her face is coming out, [and] doctors have stated [that] she needs surgeries outside [of] Gaza to save her life. Mazyona has been denied medical #evacuation four times. Authorities suggested that the medevac could proceed without Mazyona’s mother accompanying her. However, when her father attempted to take the next steps, Mazyona was again denied.” Explain her fate right now where she is.

MOSAB NASSER: That is another heartbreaking story, Amy, that I have been personally, as the CEO of the organization, following closely and advocating for Mazyona’s evacuation for almost three months now. I can’t tell you how many times I visited the State Department, how many times I talked to congressmen, how many times I’ve tried to reach to the Israeli authorities to try to evacuate her out of Gaza, with no results.

Mazyona was injured in the face — in her face, a serious injury. I mean, she has a viral video on Instagram and YouTube that you see how — when she was brought to the hospital, how she was bleeding. Initially, we submitted her mother as a companion. The mother was rejected by COGAT, the Israeli authority effectively. Then we submitted her father’s name. Then her father was rejected. Then we submitted the father’s aunt; then it was rejected. And then we submitted another aunt of the father; it was rejected. So, we are kind of left without any options. I don’t know — to the point, actually, I proposed my name to be a companion for Mazyona to get her out, and still we have not been able to get her out. In fact, the recent update we got from the local team on the ground, that she has potentially an infection, and if this girl is not evacuated as soon as possible, she could die.

Mazyona is one out of thousands, Amy. In fact, we have 12 children like Mazyona with serious injuries, some of them actually with a bullet settled in the head, that we wanted to take out, and we have not been able to take any of them. So far, since May, since the closure of the Rafah border, we were able — I mean, generally speaking, only 125 children were evacuated out of Gaza out of 2,500, if not more, needed an immediate evacuation. So, this carnage needs to stop.

AMY GOODMAN: Mosab Nasser, I want to thank you for being with us, CEO of FAJR Scientific, one of six medical humanitarian organizations Israel has barred from entering Gaza. He’s based in Houston and originally from Gaza.

Next up, we turn to Israeli political scientist Neve Gordon. He’s in London. He’s one of more than 3,000 signatories to an open letter titled “We Israelis are calling for global pressure on Israel to force an immediate ceasefire.” Back in 20 seconds.

***

“Save Us from Ourselves”: 3,000+ Israelis Call for Int’l Help to Pressure Israel to Back Ceasefire
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 28, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/28 ... transcript

-- Israeli Citizens for International Pressure

-- "Human Shields: A History of People in the Line of Fire"

More than 3,000 Israelis have signed an open letter urging “global pressure on Israel to force an immediate ceasefire.” The signatories say they are motivated by patriotic duty to stop the country’s war crimes in Gaza and beyond, but say the lack of sanctions from other countries has allowed Israel to continue to pursue war, abandon the hostages still held in Gaza, ignore domestic opposition and persecute Palestinian citizens of Israel without real cost. “Unfortunately, the majority of Israelis support the continuation of the war and massacres, and a change from within is not currently feasible. The state of Israel is on a suicidal path and sows destruction and devastation that increase day by day,” reads the letter. For more, we speak with Neve Gordon, professor of international law and human rights at Queen Mary University of London, one of the signatories of the open letter, who says international powers including allies like the United States need to “put their leg down and say enough is enough.” We also speak with him about Israel’s well-documented history of using Palestinians as human shields, including in its current war on Gaza.

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.

“We, Israelis, are calling for global pressure on Israel to force an immediate ceasefire.” That’s the headline of an open letter signed by more than 3,000 Israelis, along with our next guest, the Israeli political scientist Neve Gordon. The letter concludes by noting, “The leaders of many countries make repeated statements about the horror they feel and verbally denounce Israel’s operations, but these condemnations are not backed by practical actions. We are replete with empty words and declarations. Please, for our futures and the futures of all of the residents of Israel and the region, save us from ourselves and use real pressure on Israel for an immediate ceasefire,” the letter says.

For more, we go to London. We’re joined by Neve Gordon, professor of international law and human rights at Queen Mary University of London. His recent Al Jazeera article is headlined “Israel has taken human shields to a whole new criminal level.” He’s author of Human Shields: A History of People in the Line of Fire and co-editor of Torture: Human Rights, Medical Ethics and the Case of Israel.

Neve Gordon, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you start off actually by talking about what this letter says? And the number of people is — the last time we looked, it was 2,000 Israelis who have signed it. Now it’s over 3,000, Professor Gordon.

NEVE GORDON: There’s a feeling among Israelis that the change cannot come from within. We do not have enough power from within to change the course of actions that Netanyahu and his government have put in place. And the only way to stop the violence, to stop the genocidal violence in Gaza, to stop the violence in Lebanon, and to stop future attacks and geopolitical war in the region is that leaders in Europe and leaders in North America, particularly the United States, put their leg down and say enough is enough and threaten Israel that if there is no ceasefire, they will sanction Israel, they will stop arms trade with Israel, they’ll stop sending Israel money, and ultimately stop trading with Israel. So, our belief is, to save the populations that inhabit this region, we need such an action.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk directly about what’s happening in the United States, clearly the major arms supplier to Israel, and what you think of the role of the Biden administration, of President Biden himself?

NEVE GORDON: The United States has a memorandum for arms trade. And in that memorandum for arms trade, it says very clearly that countries or warring parties that violate international humanitarian law and the laws of war, the U.S. will not sell weapons to them, will not give them weapons or sell weapons to them. It is beyond doubt that Israel has been systematically violating the laws of war since October 7th, 8th, and yet the United States continues to send arms. And that has to do with many reasons. One is the power of the military corporations in the United States. The other is the lobbying groups in the United States. And all the United States really has to do — all Kamala Harris has to do today is say that “the minute I’m president, if there is violation of international law, I will stop sending arms.” And yet the United States is breaking its own laws in order to continue giving Israel arms so that it continues its violence in Gaza, Lebanon and elsewhere.

AMY GOODMAN: And your response to the grassroots protests across the country of the Biden administration continuing to support Israel?

NEVE GORDON: There’s a major gap, both in the United States but all across Europe and North America, between civil society and the political and financial elites. Civil society has been saying now for over a year, “Enough. We want to ceasefire. We’re against this human catastrophe. We’re against what Israel is doing to the Palestinian people. We want the Palestinian people to enjoy self-determination, to enjoy statehood like everyone else.” And yet the political and financial elites are continuing as if nothing is happening, supporting Israel. Here and there, there’s a kind of criticism from Biden, and yet Netanyahu is doing exactly as he wants to do, and the Biden administration is not doing anything. And there is fear from donors here during an election campaign. It’s a very complex system. But what we see is this major gap between the two kind of poles, the civil society pole, on the one hand, and the ruling political and financial elites. And I think we just need to continue doing what we do until we get them to follow their own laws, as they appear, for example, in the memorandum of arms trade.

AMY GOODMAN: Professor Gordon, does Netanyahu have a plan for Gaza? And what about these negotiations that are now taking place in Doha, in Qatar? Apparently, Egypt has proposed a two-day ceasefire, release of four hostages. What is happening there? And what do you think needs to happen?

NEVE GORDON: Well, I’d like to say a few words about the bigger picture. I think Netanyahu, pre-October 7, 2023, saw himself as a figure of history, one that has led Israel to economic success, one that will normalize relations with Arab countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia, and one that is slowly managing to erase the Palestinians from history. Come October 7th and the failure of the Israeli intelligence and after 35 weeks of protest against the judicial overhaul and the death of 1,200 Israelis and 250 Israeli hostages, he understood that his position in history has changed. And he’s trying to rebuild that through, I think, three axes.

One is the Gaza Strip. And I don’t — I have very little belief in the current negotiations. I think large parts of his coalition want to resettle the northern Gaza Strip, and that’s why we’re seeing what we’re seeing there and what your previous guest told us about the kind of displacement of the population there, the destruction of the whole infrastructure of existence of the population through the destruction of the hospitals, of the schools, of the mosques, etc. And ultimately, what Netanyahu’s coalition would like is to resettle that part of the Gaza Strip, enclose the rest of the Palestinians in the south, and probably maintain some kind of ethnic policing there for years to come.

In Lebanon, I think Netanyahu would like to cleanse the area that’s south of the Litani River from any presence of Hezbollah. And I think that’s going to last for quite a while now. I hope I’m wrong. But I think that it’s not going to end soon.

But I think that the crown of the jewel for Netanyahu and the only way that he thinks of himself as returning to history as a hero is through the bombing of the nuclear plants in Iran. I think everything is leading in that direction. Again, I hope I’m wrong. But I think now Netanyahu will wait for the elections on November 5th, and then he’ll decide how to continue on that strategy. So, I think the talks now in Doha are more of a cosmetic to a large process that we see unfolding now in Israel and the Middle East.

AMY GOODMAN: Professor Gordon, we just have a minute, but you begin your recent Al Jazeera piece headlined “Israel has taken human shields to a whole new criminal level,” writing, quote, “The use of human shields in war is not a new phenomenon. Militaries have forced civilians to serve as human shields for centuries. Yet, despite this long and dubious history, Israel has managed to introduce a new form of shielding in Gaza, one that appears unprecedented in the history of warfare.” We have one minute. If you could explain?

NEVE GORDON: So, human shielding works through a politics of vulnerability, through the recognition that the civilian that is shielding a military target is not like a robust landmine or anti-missile defense system, but it’s the moral value that is ascribed to the civilian that supposedly deters the enemy from firing. So, if Hamas sees a co-patriarch dressed in civilian clothes, then, hopefully, that will dissuade them from firing and killing the human shield or try to deter it. When you dress the human shield in military garb, you’re not trying to deter Hamas from firing at the civilian, but you’re trying to actually lure Hamas so that they think it’s an Israeli soldier, that they fire at him, and then the Israeli soldiers can see where the fire is coming from and fire back. So it’s changing the whole logic of human shielding and using the vulnerability, instead of as a form of deterrence, in order to lure fire in, and basically relating to the Palestinian civilians not only as not quite human, as any kind of human shielding would relate to him, but actually as fodder, as a thing, as a shield, without the human in it.

AMY GOODMAN: Neve Gordon, we want to thank you being with us, Israeli political scientist, professor of international law and human rights at Queen Mary University of London, is one of the main signatories of the letter that has now more than 3,000 signatories of Israelis calling on international pressure on Israel.

***

“We Are in an Escalatory Cycle”: Trita Parsi on Latest Israeli Attack on Iran, Risk of Wider War
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 28, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/28 ... transcript

-- "Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran, and the Triumph of Diplomacy"

We speak with Iranian American policy analyst Trita Parsi about Israel’s latest attack on Iran on Saturday, when it bombed military facilities and air defense systems in the country. Iran said four soldiers were killed in the attack. Israel also struck air defense batteries and radars in Syria and Iraq. Israel’s assault this weekend came about four weeks after Iran launched a missile attack on Israeli military sites in response to Israel’s war on Lebanon and Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah and Hamas leaders, part of a series of actions between the two countries since the outbreak of the war on Gaza last year. “The Israelis are just continuously escalating the situation,” says Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He warns that Iran’s relatively restrained responses to Israeli actions could encourage decision-makers in both Israel and the United States to “go all the way” and strike Iranian nuclear sites and other major targets. “This, unfortunately, is leading — much thanks to the approach of the Biden administration — towards a much larger escalation.”

Transcript

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

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has urged for a return to diplomacy and, quote, “maximum efforts to prevent an all-out regional war” after Israel bombed Iranian military facilities and air defense systems Saturday. The strikes included a site linked to Iran’s ballistic missile program. Iran said four soldiers were killed. Israel also struck air defense batteries and radars in Syria and Iraq.

The Iranian president said Iran would take an appropriate response to the attack but reiterated that Iran does not seek a wider war. Israel’s attack came about four weeks after Iran launched a missile attack on Israeli military sites in response to Israel’s mounting assault on Lebanon and Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah and Hamas leaders, the Hamas leader in Tehran, Iran, on Inauguration Day, where the Israelis killed him.

For more, we go to Washington, D.C., where we’re joined by Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, author of several books, including Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran, and the Triumph of Diplomacy.

Trita, thanks so much for joining us for just these few minutes. If you can explain what took place this weekend and where you think where Iran and Israel will go next?

TRITA PARSI: Well, what happened over the weekend is the expected Israeli response to the Iranian response to Israel’s initial attack earlier on in April that started this whole exchange of fire between the two countries. What we don’t know, at least with confidence, is exactly how much damage the Israelis managed to cause in Iran. Clearly, there’s been some damage. There’s been at least five deaths. But the extent to which Iran’s air defenses have been taken out, etc., remains unclear. The Iranians initially played down the attack, signaled that they would not respond because it was not a significant attack, but the debate inside Iran seems to be shifting on that issue, precisely because of the deaths that has been caused by the Israelis.

The question the Iranians have is not only what options do they have that would avoid further escalation, but also how would it impact the American elections. Are they better off responding before or after the Iran elections? Is there a way for them to avoid responding at all, or would a lack of a response only further increase Israel’s appetite for striking Iran increasingly with impunity, if the Iranians are not striking back?

AMY GOODMAN: So, I wanted to ask you about Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s response to Israel’s attack on Iran. She said she’d like to see deescalation in the region, but added, quote, “I feel very strongly, we as the United States feel very strongly that Iran must stop what it is doing in terms of the threat that it presents to the region and we will always defend Israel against any attacks by Iran in that way.” Your response?

TRITA PARSI: Well, it is exactly this type of approach that has led us to this level of escalation — on the one hand, saying that we don’t want to see escalation; on the other hand, providing the Israelis with every equipment, every bomb, every piece of intelligence that allows them to escalate, then offering them protection against any Iranian retaliation, which then reduces the cost of escalation for the Israelis. And lo and behold, here we are. The Israelis are just continuously escalating the situation, striking more and more. They are now striking five or six countries in the Middle East. And all the United States says is that we would not like to see escalation, but we are providing every opportunity and every equipment and every logistical piece of material in order for the Israelis to have an easier time escalating the situation.

AMY GOODMAN: And your response to The Washington Post report that the Biden administration won assurances from Israel that Israel will not strike Iranian nuclear or oil sites in any retaliatory act? Do you agree with what our previous guest, the Israeli professor Neve Gordon, said, that he is concerned that that’s just where Israel is headed, perhaps waiting for Election Day next week, and then would do something like that after?

TRITA PARSI: Absolutely. The signals coming out of Israel, the signals coming out of those in Washington who want Israel to go further, is to essentially say, “See, it was relatively easy to strike Iran. What are we waiting for? Let’s go all the way.” And moreover, as I said on this show before, just because the first response at this time now was not going after the nuclear sites, because we are on an escalatory cycle, does not then mean that we will not end up with strike against nuclear sites and a full-scale war that that would prompt. So, the point is, it’s not where the first step is; it’s where this is leading to that is important. And this, unfortunately, is leading, much thanks to the approach of the Biden administration, towards a much larger escalation.

AMY GOODMAN: So, finally, Trita Parsi, you’re the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. What do you feel would be responsible statecraft right now?

TRITA PARSI: Right now the most responsible thing the United States could do, that would also lie in the U.S.’s own interests, is to actually pursue a strategy that truly deescalates the situation. Such a strategy would put pressure on all of the different parties, including of course the Iranians and the Houthis and Hezbollah, but it would also put pressure on Israel. And it would deprive Israel from all of the American bombs and all of the American material that the Biden administration has given them that allows them to just continue this war and to escalate this war. This is not terribly difficult to deescalate, if we actually pursue a strategy that is aimed at deescalation.

AMY GOODMAN: Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, author of several books, including Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran, and the Triumph of Diplomacy.

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Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 29, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/29/headlines

Israeli Attack on Beit Lahia Kills at Least 93 Palestinians as Siege of Northern Gaza Continues
Oct 29, 2024

In northern Gaza, at least 93 Palestinians, including children, were killed today when an Israeli airstrike leveled a five-story apartment building sheltering displaced families in Beit Lahia. Dozens of wounded people were rushed to the Kamal Adwan Hospital only to be denied care. Just one doctor and a few exhausted medical workers remain at the hospital after Israeli forces in recent days raided the facility, separated men and women, and arrested much of the remaining staff and patients. U.N. Human Rights Chief Volker Türk has called Israel’s ongoing siege on northern Gaza the “darkest moment” of the conflict.

Volker Türk: “The Israeli government’s policies and practices risk emptying the area of all Palestinians. We are facing what could amount to atrocity crimes, including potentially extending to crimes against humanity.”

Israeli Lawmakers Ban U.N. Aid Agency for Palestinian Refugees
Oct 29, 2024

Israel’s parliament has approved a law banning the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine from operating inside Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The U.N. agency, known as UNRWA, is tasked with providing food, healthcare and social services to Palestinians and is a critical lifeline to Gaza’s surviving 2.3 million residents who face widespread famine and malnutrition due to Israel’s unrelenting, yearlong assault. The ban on UNRWA was approved in a 92-10 vote with the full support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party. Israeli lawmaker Sharren Haskel co-authored the legislation.

Sharren Haskel: “If the United Nations is not willing to clean this organization from terrorism, from Hamas activists, then we have to take measures to make sure they cannot harm our people ever again.”

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, called the bill’s passage a “dangerous precedent,” “collective punishment” and a violation of the U.N. Charter and international law. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called it “unacceptable” and said the ban would have devastating consequences for Palestinian refugees. Its passage has increased support for a Palestinian Authority initiative to expel Israel from the United Nations General Assembly.

Israeli Attacks on Lebanon Flatten Homes in Tyre and Kill at Least 60 in Beqaa Valley
Oct 29, 2024

Lebanon’s Health Ministry says at least 60 people were killed as Israeli strikes pounded the eastern Beqaa Valley, including the city of Baalbek. At least two of the dead were children. The killings bring the death toll from Israeli attacks on Lebanon to over 2,700. Meanwhile, multiple Israeli airstrikes on Monday collapsed entire residential buildings and sparked fires in the southern port city of Tyre. A survivor said the attacks were aimed at civilians.

Survivor: “What do you expect us to do? They fired at random. They are not hitting military targets; they are only targeting civilians. Can you see people fighting? Why are they targeting us? Are we fighting them?”

Meanwhile, Hezbollah has announced Naim Qassem will succeed Hassan Nasrallah as secretary-general of the group, following Israel’s assassination of Nasrallah in an airstrike last month. Qassem said Hezbollah fighters are continuing to repel Israeli attacks along the border and that the group’s military structure has remained intact.

South Africa Files Documents with ICJ Providing Evidence of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza
Oct 29, 2024

South Africa on Monday filed over 750 pages of evidence in its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. South Africa says the documents lay out how Israel is “promoting the destruction of Palestinians living in Gaza, physically killing them with an assortment of destructive weapons, depriving them access to humanitarian assistance, causing conditions of life which are aimed at their physical destruction, … and using starvation as a weapon of war and to further Israel’s aims to depopulate Gaza through mass death and forced displacement of Palestinians.” Over 30 countries and regional blocs are supporting South Africa’s case at the ICJ.

Israelis Protest Outside Knesset to Call for Hostage Deal
Oct 29, 2024

In Jerusalem, hundreds of protesters rallied outside Israel’s Knesset on Monday to demand a Gaza ceasefire deal and an exchange of hostages. Israeli police arrested nine of the protesters as they nonviolently blocked a road near the residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Shraga Tichover: “It’s solidarity with the hostages. We want our prime minister to make a deal, to cut a deal. We want the war to stop. We want the stop of killing and everything. We want, you know, a sane country. That’s it. We want to live. I’m 55 years old. I have four kids. I’m doing this for my kids.”

1,000+ Writers Sign On to Israeli Boycott Pledge over Gaza Genocide, Occupation of Palestine
Oct 29, 2024

More than a thousand writers and publishing industry figures have signed on to what they’re calling the largest-ever cultural boycott against Israeli institutions. In an open letter, the authors denounce the ongoing genocide in Gaza, writing, “Israeli cultural institutions, often working directly with the state, have been crucial in obfuscating, disguising and artwashing the dispossession and oppression of millions of Palestinians for decades.”

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Israeli politician dragged out of Knesset for defying Netanyahu
by PoliticsJOE
Nov 19, 2024

Left coalition leader Ayman Odeh recounted a harrowing experience of a Palestinian father on the floor of the Knesset on Monday, and was dragged from the podium after levelling criticism against Benjamin Netanyahu's attacks on Gaza.



Transcript [Google translate Hebrew to English]

In Gaza there is
1738 and 5 babies your system killed Benjamin
Netanyahu what is your vision what is your vision
Tell me in 30 years you want a series of
Peace no no no stop by Binyamin Netanyahu I am
I want to tell you the story of Muhammad Abul Kosan
32 years old
From Gaza I got married two months before and after the war
Then Vino the journey
The chalk we moved from place to place starting from the north to
When we arrived at Der Balach on Shabbat Ha'er in August, I was born
Twins son and daughter of R. Yesel and this after surgery
My wife, a postman, was called to Arapi Simcha
Filled our hearts with the arrival of our first child
The excitement was indescribable that morning
Tuesday, August 1, I happily left for the hospital
I took out the birth certificate for my babies from
Glad I sent my wife photos from the birth
on WhatsApp but she didn't answer at the time I received it
A call from one of the neighbors who asked if I was okay, I answered
I'm fine and he told me the apartment you know
I was bombarded, my heart was pounding with fear and worry for fate
My family until I arrived at the reception desk of a house
The patients and some of the neighbors told me with trepidation that they were inside
jelly
The dead have not been 10 minutes since the certificate was set on fire
The birth and suddenly I issue them the death certificates
The
When in Gaza there is
1738 Ha babies your system killed
Babies under one year old in Gaza today
3555 Orphan babies, everyone's blood will be chased
You and you are fiercely frowning when you are away in Beit HaDan
Behg Beniman
Netanyahu, what is your vision, tell me
For 30 years you have been running for the no no no no no
Stop Stop Stop Red Red from the stand immediately red
From the stand immediately get off the stand
[music]
Immediately

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

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

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

Chapters

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



Transcript

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

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

[admin]

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

WFP Calls for Urgent Action to Prevent Famine as Israeli Siege on Gaza Continues
Oct 30, 2024

The World Food Programme is calling for immediate action to prevent famine in the Gaza Strip, warning Palestinians across the besieged territory are losing hope of finding any food for their starving children. The aid agency said Tuesday it has nearly 100,000 tons of food ready for shipment from Egypt and Jordan — enough to feed a million Palestinians for four months — but that Israel has largely denied access to convoys. The situation is most dire in northern Gaza, where the Israeli army has blocked all aid access for a 25th consecutive day. This comes amid dire warnings from aid organizations over Israel’s decision to ban the U.N. relief agency UNRWA. On Tuesday, the U.N. humanitarian office called the policy “collective punishment” — a war crime — while UNICEF spokesperson James Elder warned of a complete collapse of Gaza’s humanitarian system.

James Elder: “You take away the healthcare workers, you take away the nutritional support, you take away the people who will provide the lifesaving supplies for a population that is physically, physically, absolutely on death’s door — and psychologically, of course, in uncharted territory — you take away these healthcare workers, you take away the nutritionists, then we will see many more children die.”

On Tuesday, Israel’s military once again bombed residential buildings in Beit Lahia, killing at least 19 Palestinians just hours after a separate attack killed at least 93 people, including 25 children. Beit Lahia has been declared a “disaster area” amid weeks of relentless Israeli bombings and military siege.

Meanwhile, a new report by the research group Forensic Architecture finds Israel is systematically committing crimes of persecution and destruction in Gaza, amounting to genocide. The group found Israel has destroyed over 83% of all plant life in Gaza, over 70% of agricultural land, nearly half of all groundwater wells and two-thirds of water tanks. Of Gaza’s 36 hospitals, Israel has forced 35 to stop service at least once, targeted 31 in bombings and attacks, and violently invaded 10 hospitals.

Israeli Military Orders Entire Population of Baalbek to Flee or Face Bombs
Oct 30, 2024

In Lebanon, residents of the city of Baalbek in the Beqaa Valley rushed to flee their homes and businesses today after Israel’s military ordered them to leave the city and surrounding villages. The panicked forced displacement came after two days of stepped-up attacks by Israel killed at least 60 people in Baalbek. Lebanon’s Health Ministry reports Israeli strikes on Tuesday killed at least 77 people across Lebanon. Among the dead are 10 people, mostly women and children, killed when Israel bombed a residential block in the town of Sarafand.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[admin]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

***

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

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

Transcript

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FRANCESCA ALBANESE: Yeah.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Transcript

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

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RACHAEL CUMMINGS: Hello, and thanks for the opportunity.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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