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Illustration: A warm and fuzzy guy (unrelated to the rest here) Why is it Classified? By Honest Charlie I probably shouldn't post this so soon after the last one, but this has been festering for a long time now. A foreign government has been killing our citizens who are journalists and we have done nothing about it. We get all bothered about the Baltic, but there is a Mideast, you know. Well, I know it's classified, but couldn't somebody just think about it being de-classified and all would be well? And why the hell is it "classified"? What would we find out? What is this foreign government up to? What are they hiding? Why can they kill our journalists without any repercussions? Why do we give them trillions? It sounds a bit fishy to me. Here is a very pertinent interview on that subject: We speak with Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland about his call for the U.S. State Department to declassify a report on the killing of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank last year. The Al Jazeera reporter was covering an Israeli military raid just outside the Jenin refugee camp and was clearly marked as press. "It's my belief that the United States has an absolute obligation to get to the bottom of what happened, to hold the individuals accountable, or, in this case, potentially the IDF unit accountable," says Van Hollen. The report is by the U.S. security coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority. TranscriptThis 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. The Biden administration is continuing to face criticism for its response to the killing last year of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier as she was reporting on an Israeli military raid just outside the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. The Al Jazeera reporter was shot while wearing a blue helmet and blue flak jacket clearly emblazoned with the word "press." Shireen Abu Akleh was one of the most prominent TV journalists in the Arab world. She was also a U.S. citizen. NBC News recently reported the FBI has not yet spoken to any key witnesses in the case. Israel has refused to cooperate with the probe, and Palestinian journalists who were with Shireen at the time of her death say the FBI has never contacted them. Many of the journalists who witnessed her death spoke to Al Jazeera correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous for the documentary The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, which just won a George Polk Award. This is Shireen's producer, Ali al-Samoudi, who was also shot that day.
AMY GOODMAN: An excerpt from The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh from Al Jazeera English's current affairs program Fault Lines. The documentary recently won a George Polk Award for Foreign Television Reporting, one of the highest awards in journalism. Investigations by Al Jazeera, The New York Times, CNN and other news outlets have challenged the official Israeli version of Shireen's killing. We're joined now by Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who has called on the U.S. State Department to declassify a report on Shireen Abu Akleh's death on May 11th, 2022, conducted by the U.S. security coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Senator Chris Van Hollen joins us now from Kensington, Maryland. Thanks so much for being with us, Senator. Can you start off by explaining what this report is and what you're calling for? SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Well, Amy, it's good to be with you. This was a report conducted by General Fenzel and his team. He's the U.S. security coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authorities. And he conducted an extensive review of what happened in the killing of Shireen. I should emphasize that his report is not an independent investigation. And he was not able to conduct an independent investigation because, as you indicated, Israeli authorities have not cooperated with the government. That's information I've received from the State Department. In other words, requests to deny [sic] the soldier in question or other members of the IDF unit have been denied. So, it's not an independent investigation. But it does shed very important light on the conduct of the IDF unit in question on the day of the shooting of Shireen, and also, more broadly, reaches conclusions about the conduct of other IDF units in the West Bank. And it's my view that the report should be declassified, because it is important to getting to accountability in the shooting death of Shireen Abu Akleh, and I believe its release will help save lives, going forward. AMY GOODMAN: So, what has the Biden administration said about releasing this document? And what process does it have to go through? SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Well, they have not yet responded to the request to release the document. I should say that in this particular case, the final classification process has not yet been completed. The overall report that I reviewed, after much insistence, has — is classified "top secret," but it has actually not gone through its final classification process. So, we are very focused right now on making the case that it's important to release the findings of this document to ensure greater accountability in the shooting death of this American citizen and journalist — it includes important information on the killing of Shireen — and because I believe that it will reveal additional information that will — would, hopefully, result in more accountability for IDF units on the West Bank, something that President Biden has called for and something that Secretary Blinken has called for. AMY GOODMAN: Senator Van Hollen, how does this report differ from the U.S. security coordinator's report from last year, which you were very critical of? SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Well, as it turns out, last year's report was not really a report. It was just a very cursory finding, a conclusion based on a very preliminary review, not of independent information, but information that had been provided by the Israeli government, by the Palestinian Authority. So, it turned out that there was no real report there when we asked for it. So, now the USSC has conducted an extensive review of all the analyses that have been done, and reached certain judgments about what happened that day, and certain judgments, again, about the conduct of other IDF units. And I just think it's really important that this report, which is not a paragraph like the original, you know, findings, but an eight-page report — I believe it should be released. AMY GOODMAN: And why is this report classified as "top secret" in the first place? SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Well, that's a good question. And, you know, I think that the findings are clearly critical of the conduct of the IDF unit in question. And again, this is why Secretary Blinken has also called upon the government of Israel to review its rules of engagement on the West Bank. And he's been rebuffed. In other words, the government of Israel told him to go take a hike. And that's another reason it's really important that this report be released. AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to play for you Shireen Abu Akleh's niece. I interviewed her in December. This is Lina Abu Akleh.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that's Lina Abu Akleh, the niece of Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed on May 11, 2022, as she covered an Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp in occupied West Bank. Shireen is a U.S. citizen. Shireen is a Palestinian American journalist. Senator Chris Van Hollen, what obligation does the United States have when it believes another state — in this case, an ally, Israel — has killed a U.S. citizen? SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Well, it's my belief that the United States has an absolute obligation to get to the bottom of what happened, to hold the individuals accountable, or, in this case, potentially, the IDF unit accountable. And that is something that we should do when you have the wrongful killing of a U.S. citizen. Look, you know, President Biden has been eloquent about calling for the release of U.S. journalists who are currently detained around the world. He has been eloquent about trying to get to the bottom of what happened to Austin Tice, as have I in both those other cases, determined to try to make sure that American citizens and journalists are protected. That same protection needs to extend to American citizen and journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. And that is the obligation of the U.S. government, and it is a still-unfulfilled obligation. AMY GOODMAN: The FBI has also opened an investigation into the case. Do you know anything about this investigation, Senator? SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Well, my understanding is the FBI investigation is ongoing, although the FBI will not publicly confirm whether or not the investigation is ongoing. But my understanding is the FBI investigators have talked to some people. But you raised a very important point, which is that the FBI will also, ultimately, require the cooperation of the government of Israel to be able to make any final conclusions with respect to an independent investigation, right? The investigation done by the U.S. security coordinator was not an independent investigation because he was not allowed to interview witnesses, including members of the IDF unit in question. And the FBI, in my view, is going to have a very difficult time making independent judgments as to exactly what happened that day, without the cooperation of the government of Israel. And that is another reason it's important that the Biden administration press harder. AMY GOODMAN: Are you going to demand that at least the FBI, even if they don't have access on Israel's side, to the Palestinian journalists who were there that day, one of whom was shot, who were not contacted for this report? SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Well, the FBI certainly should be interviewing all the witnesses, including the witnesses that you just mentioned, the Al Jazeera journalists that were on the ground, and others. Yes, the FBI should be doing all of that. AMY GOODMAN: And did the U.S. security coordinator's report shed any light on Israeli claims of crossfire, since video footage and eyewitnesses dispute this? And also, since you read it, did the report confirm whether or not there is more body-camera footage from the IDF unit from the moments around the shooting? SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Well, I can't get into the details of the report, because it is still classified. But let me just say the conclusions of the report, I believe, if made public, would result in saving lives and, I do believe, would bring more accountability to this case, because that does shed very important light on the conduct and misconduct of the IDF unit in question. So, this is exactly why I think it's important that the report be declassified. AMY GOODMAN: Let me ask a final question. The first USSC report found no reason to believe the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh was intentional. Does this new report come to a different conclusion? SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Well, this new report cannot shed any new light on the question of intentionality, because the USSC was denied access to the witnesses. You know, it's my view that you can only get to the state of mind of individuals by interviewing the individual who pulled the trigger, as well as those that were immediately around that soldier. And so long as that access is denied, you can't shed any more new light on that question. AMY GOODMAN: Senator Chris Van Hollen, I want to thank you for being with us, Democratic senator from Maryland, calling for the release of the U.S. government report on the shooting death of the Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.
© 2023 Honest Charlie
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Friday, June 16, 2023
Fwd: Murdering Journalists
Monday, April 18, 2022
Power of Faith
THE ABSURD TIMES
EASTER, RAMADAHAN, AND PASSOVER SEE HOW FAITH AND PEACE WORK TOGETHER?
Does anybody believe this crap? These assaults on the Mosque in Jerusalem was not covered in our outlets here, and yet we very righteous about Putin (The real Fascist) doing the same thing there. Well, here is the rest of the story:
At least 19 were injured around occupied Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque on Sunday after a violent crackdown by Israeli police cleared out worshipers from the compound. It was the second raid since Friday, when Israeli police used rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas on unarmed Palestinians, resulting in the arrest of more than 300 and at least 158 injuries. This latest violence in Jerusalem comes as the holy days of Ramadan and Passover overlap. Meanwhile, Western media has been describing the attacks as "clashes" and using other obfuscatory language "as if there is no imbalance of power here, as if there is no nuclear state using its rubber-coated bullets and tear gas against worshipers at a mosque," says Palestinian writer Mohammed El-Kurd.
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 begin today's show in occupied East Jerusalem, where Israeli forces raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque for the second time in three days, clearing worshipers from the third-holiest site in Islam. Nineteen Palestinians were injured. Some were hit by rubber-coated steel bullets. Over 150 Palestinians were injured in another raid at the mosque Friday. On Sunday, Palestinians described how Israeli police blocked their access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
PALESTINIAN MAN: [translated] We were forced out of the Al-Aqsa Mosque after the dawn prayer. Then Jewish settlers started to enter. After we saw two groups of them, we started to chant, and the Israeli forces tried to detain me. They are invading in big numbers. During this holiday, it is known every year that they, the Jewish visitors, invade the Al-Aqsa Mosque. I am calling on everyone who can reach Al-Aqsa gates to come and support us.
AMY GOODMAN: To protest Israel's violent crackdown, the United Arab List political party has suspended its participation in Israel's coalition government led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who lost his majority last week.
For more, we're joined by Mohammed El-Kurd. He's the Palestinian writer and poet, the Palestine correspondent for The Nation magazine.
Mohammed, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you describe the series of events this weekend that have led to, what, almost 170, if not more, Palestinians being injured at Al-Aqsa?
MOHAMMED EL-KURD: Absolutely. Thank you for having me.
You know, over the weekend, starting on Friday, almost 500 Palestinians were arrested by the Israeli occupation authorities from Al-Aqsa Mosque, and, as you said, 170 were injured, several of whom were in critical condition and several of whom were journalists, that we saw on video were targeted by design by the Israeli soldiers. And some had their cameras broken. Some had rubber-coated steel bullets hit their heads.
This is not particularly a unique incident. You know, violence, colonial violence, is the norm in occupied Jerusalem. And we see this kind of escalation and violations happen in Al-Aqsa Mosque constantly. What is particularly alarming here is the Israeli occupation authorities' attempt to install a new status quo, similar to the one in the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, where Palestinian Muslims are forced to share their holy site, their mosque, their 980-year-old mosque, with Jewish settlers. And it should raise eyebrows, because the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Damascus Gate are maybe the only remaining public spaces for Palestinians in the entirety of Jerusalem, where Palestinian existence is criminalized, where a Palestinian taking up space is criminalized.
Al-Aqsa Mosque is, yes, the third-holiest site in Islam, but it's not only that. It is a social site. It's a political site. It's a site where I, as a teenager, used to go and study for my tests. And if we are robbed from that, then in our native city we do have any public spaces left.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what led up to what took place this weekend?
MOHAMMED EL-KURD: Well, you know, there is a bunch of Jewish groups, some of whom have fantasies of demolishing Al-Aqsa and installing a temple on top of it, were calling for invasions of Al-Aqsa, some of which were saying that if you sacrifice a goat on the Temple Mount, you'll get this sum of money as a reward. And, you know, we understand that the Israeli authorities are in partnership, are in collusion with the Israeli settlers, and so they have made the situation easy for them.
But in no way is this a new thing or — this is, in fact, a routine, and this is something we see all the time. And I believe that since it's becoming a lot more visible, it is an opportunity for journalists, particularly Western media, to be able to describe this objectively, because we have been seeing — for the past weekend, we have been seeing a lot of describing this as "clashes," as if there is no imbalance of power here, as if there is no nuclear state using its rubber-coated bullets and tear gas against worshipers at a mosque.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the far-right Jewish group Return to Temple Mount that offered a reward to anyone who sacrificed a goat inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque?
MOHAMMED EL-KURD: Yeah, I mean, I think the adjective here, the proper adjective here, is "fanatic," right? This is a group with some kind of religious fantasy that they are trying really hard to fulfill. And, to them, it's an awakening of a ritual. If they are sacrificing this animal on Al-Aqsa compound, or what they call the Temple Mount, then they are resurrecting that temple, or they are starting the resurrection of that temple. But I don't know much about that group, particularly, but I know that it's not — I wouldn't call it far-right. It's not a fringe group. This is an idea that is shared widely by settlers in Jerusalem, in which they want to dismantle Al-Aqsa, and they want to install a new status quo in which either there's no more Al-Aqsa or that Muslim Palestinians can only attend it and be in it during certain times of the day.
AMY GOODMAN: And can you talk about the media describing what's taking place as "clashes," Mohammed?
MOHAMMED EL-KURD: Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's as though we are not seeing dozens and dozens of videos of Israeli occupation forces breaking windows of the mosque, as if we're not seeing videos of them targeting children and beating them with batons or targeting journalists and beating them with batons. To put this — to set up a false equivalence in which we are referring to these raids, these violations, these clear violations as "clashes," we are not being objective journalists here. We are simply being mouthpieces for the Israeli government. We are parroting the official Israeli narrative. And this has happened also last year. This happens all the time. And I always try to invite journalists to take the opportunity to actually be objective and refer to an internationally recognized occupation as such, to refer to soldiers, dozens of soldiers, using batons and rubber bullets and tear gas against unarmed civilians as such. There are no clashes, in which the powers are not equal.
AMY GOODMAN: And can you talk about the numbers of Israelis and Palestinians who have died in the last few weeks?
MOHAMMED EL-KURD: I'm not aware of the numbers, but I know that in the past three days alone, over a dozen Palestinians were killed. A mother of six, who was partially blind, was shot down in the street for no reason other than, quote, "looking suspicious." I know that young Palestinians in Jenin refugee camp have been shot and killed in the past few days. I know that a Palestinian lawyer and a member of the Public Committee Against the Wall in Nablus, in Beita, has died, has been killed by the Israeli occupation forces as he took his nephews and nieces to school.
I understand that Palestinian death is a common occurrence that does not raise anybody's eyebrows in Western media. And that disparity is what needs to be addressed. The statistics show the disparity in the deaths, and the statistics show who is the true victim of systemic material violence, institutional violence, violence backed by legality, by the judicial system. It is the Palestinians, because we continue living under 70 years of Zionist colonization, that murders us in the street, that robs us of our homes, that exiles us, that keeps us in an open-air prison.
AMY GOODMAN: I was wondering if you can talk more about the Israeli raids throughout the West Bank. I'm looking at a New York Times piece that says, "For the past week, Israeli forces have carried out a widespread campaign of raids into towns and cities across the West Bank, in a response to a wave of recent Palestinian attacks inside Israel that have killed 14 people. … At least 14 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of Ramadan on April 2, including 16-year-old Mohammad Zakarneh, who was shot and killed on Sunday during one of the Israeli raids in Jenin, his mother said." Mohammed El-Kurd?
MOHAMMED EL-KURD: You know, the positioning of these raids as some kind of response or some kind of retaliation is dishonest, because these raids happen whether or not Palestinians commit any acts. These raids are, by design, part of Israel's colonial violence against Palestinians. I know this because we see every single — every single day. If you look at Palestinian media, if you follow Palestinians on social media, you see every single day the raids, that have never abated for the past 70 years. But it is only when Israelis are affected, it is only when Israelis, the settlers' sense of peace is disturbed, that we have international eyes looking at the situation.
AMY GOODMAN: I also wanted to ask you about Sheikh Jarrah, your community, where you've been detained as you fight to prevent homes from being demolished there, including fighting against being forced out of your own. You and your twin sister Muna were arrested and detained last year in the campaign to prevent the forced expulsion of Palestinians there. In February, you wrote about the Israeli Israeli member of parliament Itamar Ben-Gvir, who decided to move his office from the Knesset, from the Israeli parliament, to a yard in Sheikh Jarrah?
MOHAMMED EL-KURD: Yes, absolutely. And this is — you know, it sounds like a bizarre circus act almost. Why would an Israeli politician decide to move his office into somebody's backyard? But this actually has happened way more many — way so many times, more than I can count, in fact, with many other politicians who have set up office, makeshift offices, on our streets for purely political gain, right? It's a performance. It's a spectacle in which they are hoping to attain some kind of political popularity. And this is happening. Itamar Ben-Gvir, the same politician, has now decided to move his, quote-unquote, "office" from our neighbor's backyard in Sheikh Jarrah to Damascus Gate, where Palestinians are being brutalized and assaulted by the occupation forces for simply taking up a space that has historically been a public space for Palestinians.
I also want to just note that all of this is also happening in response to community organizing, be it in Sheikh Jarrah or in Silwan or in Damascus Gate or in Al-Aqsa Mosque. In fact, over — on Saturday and Friday, we have seen Israeli forces attack and assault Palestinians with batons and tear gas. We have seen people with bruised eyes because of the rubber bullets. We have seen all of that. But what we didn't see much of is, in fact, you know, the 500 Palestinians that were arrested — Palestinian drivers of Israeli public transportation were summoned to transfer them to detention centers, and many of these Palestinian drivers actually walked away from their buses, declined to do so, fearing not any consequences. We did not see also that there were hundreds of Palestinians waiting outside of the jail cells — waiting outside of the jailhouses and bailing out random Palestinian strangers and taking them back home, sometimes hours away from Jerusalem. This kind of community organizing, this kind of mutual aid is also empowering, and we haven't been seeing much of it in American media.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, I wanted to ask about the journalists that have been attacked covering Al-Aqsa. In Ukraine, we're hearing about one journalist after another being injured, being killed, and the whole discussion by the Ukrainian president, Zelensky, deeply concerned by what he talks about, the occupied territories. And I was wondering if you could make some comparisons. I'm using the journalists as an example, but the Journalist Support Committee documented Israeli attacks on photojournalist Rami al-Khatib, the journalist Nasreen Salem and a third unnamed female photojournalist by Jewish soldiers at Al-Aqsa. Can you describe what happened and talk about the comparison, as we wrap up, Mohammed?
MOHAMMED EL-KURD: The attacks on journalists are as routine as it gets. This is a part of the Israeli colonial establishment, to attack journalists, to let people know that "if you attempt to not only resist, but if you merely attempt to document our violations, our crimes, then you are going to be punished." This is also echoed outside of the physical realm, outside of just physical attacks on journalists. But we are sitting sanctions on Palestinian journalists in many Western countries and baseless accusations of bigotry. This is the same kind of attacks we are seeing with censoring Palestinian voices on social media and elsewhere.
I'm not particularly interested in making comparisons. I think everybody — you know, anybody with any critical thinking skills is able to look at the bitter contrast in which how Ukrainian resistance has been met, whereas how Palestinian resistance has been vilified. I think anybody is able to look at how rapidly the world responded to the Russian occupation versus the 70 years of ongoing Zionist colonization that no one has batted an eye to almost.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Mohammed El-Kurd, I want to thank you for being with us, Palestinian writer and poet, Palestine correspondent for The Nation magazine. He is the author of a volume of poetry titled Rifqa.
Next up, Republican-led states are enacting a wave of new abortion bans, with four more states doing this just last week. Stay with us.
The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.
