Independent News
Biden Apologizes for Native American Boarding Schools That Aimed to Exterminate Indigenous Culture
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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.
President Biden has formally apologized for government-run Native American boarding schools, which separated Indigenous families and sought to exterminate Indigenous culture. He’s the first U.S. president to ever do so. Biden issued the apology Friday while visiting the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona, where Democrats are vying for the support of Native communities, a crucial voting bloc that could swing the results of next week’s election. This was Biden’s first diplomatic visit to a tribal nation in his four-year term. He spoke for a few seconds before he was interrupted by an Indigenous protester.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: The federal Indian boarding school policy and the pain it has caused will always be a significant mark of shame, a blot on American history. For too long this all happened, with virtually no public attention, not written about in our history books —
PROTESTER: Yeah, what about the people in Gaza?
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: — not taught in our schools.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hey, get out of here!
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Let her talk. Let her talk.
PROTESTER: [inaudible] every promise for our people. How can you apologize for a genocide while committing a genocide in Palestine? Free Palestine! Free Palestine!
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Get out of here!
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: No, no, let her go. There’s a lot of innocent people being killed. There’s a lot of innocent people being killed, and it has to stop.
AMY GOODMAN: The U.S. government operated hundreds of boarding schools from 1819 to 1969 where children reported horrific physical, sexual and psychological abuse. An Interior Department investigation this year found nearly a thousand Indigenous children died while at these schools. Biden was joined Friday by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first-ever Native American cabinet secretary, member of the Pueblo of Laguna whose grandparents were forced to attend boarding schools.
INTERIOR SECRETARY DEB HAALAND: Tens of thousands of Indigenous children as young as 4 years old were taken from their families and communities and forced into boarding schools run by the U.S. government and religious institutions. These federal Indian boarding schools have impacted every Indigenous person I know. Some are survivors. Some are descendants. But we all carry the trauma that these policies and these places inflicted.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Deb Haaland and President Biden, speaking at the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona.
For more, we go to Raleigh, North Carolina, where we’re joined by Nick Tilsen, founder and CEO of the Indigenous-led NDN Collective.
Nick, thanks so much for joining us again on Democracy Now! Can you talk about the significance of this apology, the first American president to do so, and what you are calling for?
NICK TILSEN: Absolutely. I mean, I think this is one of the most historic moments in the history of this country in its relationship with Indian people. And to be clear, this moment was really created and led by the leadership of Secretary Deb Haaland and her team there at the Department of Interior. And what this has meant and means for Indian Country is that we hope that this is a beginning of an era of repair, a repair between the United States government and the Indigenous people, the First People of this land.
And as monumental as this apology is, we have to embrace the complexity of this moment. We have to embrace the complexity of this moment and lean towards action, too, because it can’t be an apology that’s on empty words. And they’ve been making great strides at the Department of Interior by investing into Indigenous education and by investing into research to further know and understand what has happened, you know, with Indian boarding schools. But we need more of that.
And so, some of the things that we’re calling on is just a few things that President Biden can do before he leaves office to follow up on this. One of those calls to action is rescinding the Medals of Honor that were given to the 7th Cavalry at the Massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890. To rescind those Medals of Honor would be a way to invoke healing.
The other thing that we’re calling upon is, you know, America’s longest-living Indigenous political prisoner in American history is a boarding school survivor, and his name is Leonard Peltier. And so, we’re calling upon President Biden for executive clemency for Leonard Peltier.
We also want to see this administration, and actually future administrations, invest into unprecedented levels of investing into Indigenous language, culture and education, because it was the education that was weaponized and used as a mechanism to assimilate our people. And as a result of that, so many Indigenous languages were lost. And so, now we’re calling upon Biden to invest into unprecedented levels of Indigenous education and languages.
And then, lastly, what we want to see Congress do is we want to see Congress pass the U.S. Truth and Healing Commission bill, because that bill would make sure that the truth and healing work that is currently underway can be supported for the long haul, far into the future, because it’s not one apology that can fix this. This is hopefully the beginning of a new era of repair and healing between Indigenous people and the United States government.
AMY GOODMAN: So, on the issue of Leonard Peltier, there is also another incredible connection, because Leonard Peltier was a survivor of the residential boarding schools, wasn’t he, Nick?
NICK TILSEN: Absolutely. You know, he was in the boarding schools, in — he was in the Sisseton Wahpeton boarding school, and —
AMY GOODMAN: In North Dakota?
NICK TILSEN: South Dakota. And so, he was in that boarding school, taken from his home. And what a lot of people don’t realize is that Leonard Peltier and many people who became leaders in the American Indian Movement were survivors of boarding school. They came out of that era, and then they resisted. And so, Leonard Peltier is part of that resistance. And so, it’s an incredibly reflective thing to think about, that America’s longest-living Indigenous political prisoner, who is incarcerated right now at the age of 80 years old in maximum-security prison, is actually a boarding school survivor. And so, that’s why, you know, if we want —
AMY GOODMAN: Imprisoned in Florida. I remember asking President Clinton on Election Day 2000 if he would consider granting clemency for Leonard Peltier, which he said he was weighing at the time. That was almost a quarter of a century ago.
NICK TILSEN: Yeah, that was almost a — I mean, and here we are now, you know? And so, we are continuing to push. We’d like to see, you know, executive clemency for Leonard Peltier. And I think that one of the ways that this can happen is that Biden can give executive clemency to Leonard Peltier by humanizing him and recognizing Leonard Peltier is a survivor of boarding schools. And he just apologized for the impact of boarding schools. And the freedom that Leonard Peltier was fighting for was to break free of those things that happened by the impact of boarding schools on Native communities and Indigenous communities. And so, this is a profound opportunity. And it’s a way — it’s a way for President Biden to take action, you know, in a huge issue that would impact throughout Indian Country.
AMY GOODMAN: Nick, before we go, I want to ask you about the Native American vote in this country. The apology was made in Arizona. You have a very close race in Montana between Tim Sheehy and Senator Tester. The role of the Native American vote, not only there but in this country?
NICK TILSEN: Well, the Native American vote has the ability to swing this election in key swing states. And so, Native American vote does matter and has the ability to impact this election. What we want to see is we want to see more action. If the Democrats want the vote of Indian people, we want them to stand with us, not only — not only on issues like the apology around boarding schools, but we also want them to stand with us in the solidarity that we have calling for a ceasefire in Palestine. And both of those things are true to us. And they don’t automatically get our vote. The Democrats don’t automatically get the vote of Native people. They must stand with us. And we stand in deep solidarity with the Palestinian people for freedom and for justice and for liberation and for — and we call for a ceasefire. And so, what we want is the progressives to stand with Indian people. And that’s how you earn an Indian vote.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Nick Tilsen, what would you demand of a President Trump, if he is elected president, and a President Harris?
NICK TILSEN: Both of them, one, this apology that was made on behalf — it was made on behalf of the United States government. So, our expectation is that whoever is the president, Harris or Trump, that they have absolutely, unequivocally, they have to follow through on commitments that they’ve made for truth, healing and reconciliation.
Secondly, we want to see a ceasefire now. We want the — as people who have survived the American genocide, we want to stop the genocide of the Palestinian people. We want to work towards a more peaceful movement in the world. And we want to continue to fight for the return of Indigenous lands back into Indigenous hands.
And these are demands to both of these administrations, because this entire democracy is built on the stolen lands of Indigenous people. So, this is what we’re calling for at this time in history: you know, unprecedented levels of investment into Indigenous languages, the return of Indigenous lands back into Indigenous hands, and a ceasefire.
AMY GOODMAN: Nick Tilsen, we want to thank you so much for being with us, founder and CEO of the Indigenous-led NDN Collective, a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation. He’s speaking to us at a conference from Raleigh, North Carolina.
And tune in on election night to Democracy Now!, Tuesday, November 5th, for a four-hour election special, “War, Peace and the Presidency.” Join us from 8 p.m. to midnight Eastern Time. We’ll also be airing an expanded two-hour election show on Wednesday, November 6th, from 8:00 to 10:00 Eastern time in the morning. Any station, radio or television, can take these broadcasts, as well.
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“We Are in an Escalatory Cycle”: Trita Parsi on Latest Israeli Attack on Iran, Risk of Wider War
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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.
When we come back, President Biden apologizes for government-run Native American boarding schools that sought to exterminate Indigenous culture. Back in 20 seconds.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: “Improvisation No. 3 in E for Two Flutes” by R. Carlos Nakai, a Native American flutist of Navajo and Ute heritage.
“Save Us from Ourselves”: 3,000+ Israelis Call for Int’l Help to Pressure Israel to Back Ceasefire
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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.
“This Carnage Needs to Stop”: Israel Bans Aid Groups from Gaza, Kills Over 1,000 in North Gaza Siege
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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.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: “Box of Rain” by the Grateful Dead. The band’s founding bass player Phil Lesh died Friday at the age of 84. In 1965, Lesh was volunteering at Pacifica Radio station KPFA in the Bay Area when he met his future bandmate, Jerry Garcia.
Headlines for October 28, 2024
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Here in New York, Donald Trump headlined a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, holding what The New York Times described as a “closing carnival of grievances, misogyny and racism.” During his speech, Trump described Democrats as the “enemy from within” and repeatedly attacked immigrants, claiming that the United States is now an “occupied country.”
Other speakers included Trump’s running mate JD Vance, Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tucker Carlson, Stephen Miller and Hulk Hogan. The rally began with conservative comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who called Puerto Rico an “island of garbage.”
Tony Hinchcliffe: “There’s a lot going on. Like, I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. Yeah, I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”
Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González-Colón called the remarks “despicable, inappropriate and disgusting.” During his time on stage, Tony Hinchcliffe also mocked a Black man whom he said “carved watermelons” for Halloween. Another speaker called Kamala Harris the Antichrist.
Democratic vice-presidential candidate Governor Tim Walz compared Trump’s rally to the pro-Nazi rally held at Madison Square Garden in 1939.
BRICS Breakthrough? Economists Richard Wolff & Patrick Bond on Growing Alliance, Challenge to U.S.
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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 end today’s show with the summit of BRICS nations that concluded Thursday in the Russian city of Kazan as President Putin made a comeback to the global stage, hosting 36 world leaders and representatives from countries including China, India, South Africa, Iran, even Palestine. Israel’s war on Gaza took center stage, with many heads of states demanding an immediate ceasefire. Putin also faced direct calls at the summit from some of Russia’s most important allies for Moscow to end the war in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the BRICS coalition, which was founded by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, officially added 13 new nations to the alliance as partner countries, including Bolivia, Cuba, Nigeria and Turkey.
For more, we’re joined by two guests. Here in New York, Richard Wolff, professor of economics emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, visiting professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs at The New School, founder of Democracy at Work, author of several books, including, most recently, Understanding Capitalism. And in Johannesburg, South Africa, we’re joined by the political economist Patrick Bond, distinguished professor and director of the Centre for Social Change at the University of Johannesburg, his recent CounterPunch article headlined “Rising Dangers of Imperial and Sub-Imperial Partnering.”
We’re going to begin with you, Patrick. Talk about the significance of this BRICS summit.
PATRICK BOND: I must quickly say thank you for having me. But also, in 10 or 11 days, you may know whether the great teams at Democracy at Work and Democracy Now! need to be in exile because democracy won’t be allowed. And you’ll come to Johannesburg, and we’ll have a very fine site for your production systems. It’s a great address here at the moment.
And I think the fact that we had the BRICS summit just 14 months ago — I was chatting and debating with Vijay Prashad, along with my colleague Trevor Ngwane. And it means that in the current period, where the de-dollarization rhetoric coming up to this BRICS, because Russia hosting it and being shut out of the SWIFT system, having $600-and-some billion seized illegally by the Western banks, and not getting loans, even from the BRICS New Development Bank, suffering sanctions, that meant a lot of attention has been on whether Vladimir Putin and his team can generate a de-dollarization strategy. Unfortunately — and fortunately, that didn’t transpire.
And then, since we’ve just come out of the Israeli genocide story, not using genocide in the Kazan Declaration on Wednesday night, not calling for sanctions, even though the United Nations General Assembly effectively did last month, and not acknowledging that nine out of the 10 BRICS countries have very profitable relationships, like South Africa, number one coal exporter to Israel, and China and India having companies that run the Haifa Port, you could turn those off and really put pressure on Israel if they really had the guts. But we see them talking left, walking right.
AMY GOODMAN: And, Richard Wolff, your takeaway from this BRICS summit? How historic was it?
RICHARD WOLFF: In my judgment, and even though Patrick is right about a number of his criticisms, this is a historic turning point. I cannot overstress it. Here we have, for the first time in a century, a serious economic competitor to the United States and its role in the world. We’ve never seen this before in the lifetimes you, me and the people watching this program and listening to it. Here are a group of countries that together have a larger GDP, a greater production, than the G7, the United States and its allies. We haven’t had that before. And the gap between them is growing. The economic growth of the United States this year, by the IMF, is scheduled to be 2.8%; in China, 4.8%; in India, 7%. So, they are growing faster than we are. They’ve been doing it for decades. It is a new economic world. And as an economist and an American, I am aghast that our presidential election isn’t putting that front and forward.
This is a new world. Everybody else in the world is adjusting to this reality. The American Empire and our system is in a decline relative to what the BRICS are about. Are there problems among them? For sure. Do they have their faults? Absolutely. This is not good and bad, but it is a radical alteration. And if we continue as a nation to pretend it isn’t happening or it isn’t important, we will continue to make big strategic mistakes, not the least of which is to bring us into a war kind of situation that people are already sensing might be in the air.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to go to Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, for his comments at the BRICS summit.
PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN: [translated] We are in touch with the leadership of Iran, in a very close contact. We see our role in creating conditions to settling the situation by finding mutual compromises. I think it is possible.
AMY GOODMAN: Patrick Bond, your response, the Russia-Iranian alliance, and also the latest news that North Korea is sending soldiers to Russia, perhaps to fight in Ukraine?
PATRICK BOND: Well, those conflicts, Russia-Ukraine, are just so tragic, since some several hundred thousand Ukrainian working-class people, and maybe 100,000 Russians, have been killed in what is a power grab, that I think goes outside my line of argument that it’s a subimperial — it’s a rogue subimperial, the way Janet Yellen’s rogue imperial grab of all those assets could be described.
But, you know, if I come back to where Richard was saying that this is an alternative, it’s something new, it’s a real challenge, I must fight you on that, my old friend, because I think there’s not an anti-imperial, but a subimperial, not against, but within. Just think of the global value chain, my phone that has the cobalt from child labor in China, in Chinese mines in the eastern DRC, then coming back into a Western phone. And these are the sorts of relationships we really have to be restructuring, not just a sort of shifting of the deck chairs on a global capitalist Titanic, certainly as the multilateral system expands. Next month, there will be, you know, a G20. Last year in Delhi, the African Union was added. As it expands to have more legitimacy, without changing the IMF and the World Bank and the WTO in any substantive way, the BRICS are playing a greater role, I think, in amplifying the worst aspects.
Just as one final example, 51% of global emissions come from these 10 countries, but they only produce 29% of GDP. What it means is, BRICS next month go to Azerbaijan for COP29. I’m sure Democracy Now!, as usual, will go there and do cutting-edge analysis. You’ll find that the BRICS and the West are tightly allied against the rest of us.
AMY GOODMAN: Last word goes to Richard Wolff.
RICHARD WOLFF: Yeah, history does not happen in a morality play. You’re not going to have the bad disappear and replaced by the good. It’s never worked that way. What you have to have is an analysis of what’s actually going on. And the unanimity, the dominance of the United States is over. And the whole world is trying to figure out, every company in the world, every country: How do you navigate a new international order? The United States is pretending that, as a nation, it doesn’t have to worry about this. And I’m afraid Patrick’s remarks will lead people to think, “Well, there’s problems on their side, too” — which there are, but that misses the larger historical phenomena. This is the first serious economic competition this country has faced, and the consequences of that will be overwhelming to us.
AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you both for being with us, Richard Wolff, economics professor, visiting professor at The New School, and Patrick Bond, professor at the University of Johannesburg.
That does it for our show. Yes, Democracy Now! will be in Baku, Azerbaijan, covering the U.N. climate summit in mid-November. And tune in on election night, Tuesday, November 5th, for a four-hour Democracy Now! election special, “War, Peace and the Presidency.” Join us from 8 p.m. to midnight Eastern, and any television or radio station can take the broadcast, as well. We’ll also be airing an expanded two-hour election show on Wednesday, November 6th. That does it for our show. Check out our job listings at democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks so much for joining us.
Headlines for October 25, 2024
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In campaign news, Donald Trump rallied in Tempe, Arizona, Thursday, where he unleashed another torrent of anti-immigrant hate speech.
Donald Trump: “Kamala’s migrant invasion, given to us through gross incompetence, disqualifies her from even thinking about being president. … And we’re a dumping ground. We’re like a — we’re like a garbage can for the world. That’s what’s happened.”
Trump deployed a similar hate-filled rhetoric at another Thursday rally in Las Vegas, where he also claimed he was “leading by a lot” in swing states, even as most polls put him neck and neck with Kamala Harris.
Meanwhile, in Clarkston, Georgia, Kamala Harris shared the stage with Barack Obama for the first time during her campaign, as she touted her support for abortion rights and her proposals to lift up the middle class. The star-studded rally also featured Spike Lee, Samuel L. Jackson and Tyler Perry, and a performance from Bruce Springsteen. As of Wednesday, nearly 2 million Georgian voters had cast early ballots, a record for the state.
Prominent Muslim Democrat Demands Answers After Being Kicked Out of Harris Rally in Michigan
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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.
That does it for our show. Democracy Now! currently accepting applications for our video news production and digital fellowships. To learn more, go to democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! produced with Mike Burke, Renée Feltz, Deena Guzder, Messiah Rhodes. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh, for another edition of Democracy Now!
CPJ Head Condemns Israel’s Deadly War on Journalists in Gaza as IDF Threatens Al Jazeera Reporters
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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.
“Ethnic Cleansing”: Israeli Group B’Tselem Calls for World to Stop Israel’s Siege of Northern Gaza
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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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AMY GOODMAN: “I Won’t Crumble with You If You Fall,” covered by Bernice Johnson Reagon, produced by Barbara Dane and released on the Paredon Records label she co-founded. Barbara Dane died this week at the age of 97.