Showing posts with label nakba. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nakba. Show all posts

Monday, May 14, 2018

GAZA -- NAKBA



THE ABSURD TIMES





There is not anything more sickly so far from Israel and the Trumps than what is going on right now on the border with Gaza.  The report covers it pretty well, so there is no need to get into details.  All we can add is a reflection: back during Watergate, Hunter Thompson asked how low must one get to become President in this country.  So far, one wishes that we have the answer now, but an equal fear is that there is a possibility of sinking even lower.  To contemplate it, however, is the path to madness.

More
Israel killing scores of Palestinian protesters in Gaza isn't a "clash", it's a massacre. A US-backed massacre of an occupied people crying out for their human rights. The occupation of Palestine is an atrocity. Stop $10 million/day US support for Israeli military NOW.

Here is the report.  It is accurate in every single detail as of this morning:

We go to Gaza for a live update from Sharif Abdel Kouddous as tens of thousands of Palestinians have gathered near the heavily fortified border with Israel for nonviolent protests against the U.S. Embassy's opening in Jerusalem. At the time of our broadcast, the Israeli military had killed at least 30 Palestinians, and least 1,000 had been injured. "No one is carrying any weapons here. There are no bullets being fired by Palestinians on Israeli soldiers. … And yet these killings continue," Kouddous says. This comes as senior members of the Trump administration have gathered in Jerusalem for the embassy's opening.


Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We begin today's show in Gaza, where the Israeli military has killed at least 30 Palestinians, at this count, today, amidst the massive nonviolent protests against the U.S. Embassy's opening in Jerusalem, later, after this broadcast. At least 1,000 people have been injured. Israeli soldiers are currently firing live ammunition into the crowd of tens of thousands of Palestinian protesters, who have gathered in Gaza near the heavily fortified border with Israel. The Israeli military has also been dropping tear gas from drones over Gaza.
This comes as senior members of the Trump administration have gathered in Jerusalem for the opening of the U.S. Embassy, including President Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump, White House senior adviser; her husband, senior adviser Jared Kushner; and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. Jared Kushner is expected to lay out the Trump administration's plan for Middle East peace in the coming weeks. The Trump administration's decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem has sparked widespread international condemnation, while it's been praised by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who spoke on Sunday.
PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Move your embassies to Jerusalem, because it advances peace. And that is—that's because you can't base peace on a foundation of lies. You base peace on the foundations of truth. And the truth is that not only has Jerusalem been the capital of the Jewish people for millennia, and the capital of our state from its inception; the truth is that, under any peace agreement you could possibly imagine, Jerusalem will remain Israel's capital.
AMY GOODMAN: Two controversial pastors have been chosen by the Trump administration to lead prayers at the U.S. Embassy's opening. The right-wing preacher Robert Jeffress, who has previously said, quote, "Islam is a false religion inspired by Satan," and that, quote, "You can't be saved by being a Jew," he's anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic, anti-Mormon, anti-gay.
For more, we go to Gaza, where we're joined by Sharif Abdel Kouddous, independent journalist, Democracy Now! correspondent.
Sharif, welcome back to Democracy Now! Explain what's happening in Gaza right now, as the U.S. Embassy is about to be opened, symbolically, in Jerusalem.
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, Amy, there's just a simply massive protest all along the eastern border of Gaza, the border with Israel, throughout the entire length of the Strip, from the north in Beit Hanoun, to the south in Rafah. I was at the biggest protest site, which is just east of Gaza City. There are thousands of people converging on the site—men, women and children. And it's a really surreal scene. There are people gathering, mostly young men and boys, up near the border, where there is barbed wire, three sets of barbed wire. And you can see, just a couple of hundred yards away, Israeli soldiers, you know, under these canopies, on mounds of sand, sometimes in jeeps, and they are picking people off with—snipers are literally picking people off. I've seen people who weren't even close to the fence being shot. Most of the people are being shot in the lower extremities, in their legs. I saw one person shot in the throat. The latest numbers—they keep going up—somewhere between 28 and 30 killed, including a paramedic and a disabled person. There's a thousand wounded today, including nine journalists. That brings the total, since this movement began, this kind of somewhat unprecedented movement in Gaza, since March 30th, to 74 people killed and over 9,000 injured.
And, you know, there's—no one is carrying any weapons here. There are no bullets being fired by Palestinians on Israeli soldiers. There's nothing I have seen that poses any threat to the Israeli military. Not a single Israeli soldier has been injured. And yet these killings continue. People insist that this is peaceful. There are no military uniforms allowed. There are no weapons allowed. Despite the fact that there are very heavily armed groups in Gaza, this was a decision that was made by a group of—by the committees that are running this movement. People throw rocks. They burn tires, large tires, which send huge plumes of black smoke into the air, to try and block the view of the snipers. They also send these kites and balloons, which have either a burning rag or an improvised Molotov cocktail dangling off the end, and they try and guide it over, over the border.
And what most people are doing, it's just the very act of walking to the border. Some people go and place the Palestinian flag on the barbed wire. Some people do go and cut the wire and try and cross, saying that they are implementing the right of return themselves. But it's also a way—you know, we have to remember that people are trapped in Gaza. There's really no way out. Many people have never left the Strip, because all border crossings are closed to them, and they're not allowed to leave. And so this is a way of pushing their bodies up against their confinement. And this is also happening, all of this, in a buffer zone. We have to remember that Israel imposed a buffer zone a couple of hundred meters from the border in Gaza. And so, over the years, farmers and people living on that side of the Gaza Strip have been regularly shot at by Israeli troops from the other side. And so, even reclaiming this space in Gaza itself is, in itself, an achievement. But it's a very—it's a very difficult situation.
And as you mentioned, there are—well, and they're using these high-velocity sniper bullets, which cause a lot of damage. Also, a couple of doctors told me that they're using fragmentation bullets, which break apart upon impact. And they have seen injuries with fist-sized holes in the exit wounds. And most of this is being—people are being shot in the legs. They were talking about nearly 10,000 people injured, many of them by live ammunition, many being hit in the legs. You know, it kind of reminds me of the first intifada. Israelis would break the arms of Palestinians who were throwing stones. And now it's Palestinians walking towards the border, and so they're taking out their legs. We were in Shifa Hospital. If you just walk there, I mean, there was a wailing of pain in the orthopedic wards and young men and boys walking around on crutches, many of them lying in beds, their legs bandaged up with rods and pins protruding out. One doctor told me that they're creating a new generation of cripples. There's been almost 30 amputations.
And also there's the fact of the tear gas. Tear gas comes in three different ways. It's fired by jeeps, which fire in multiple rounds, five at a time, at the crowd. They're also fired by the normal kind of rifle, that goes much further. But there's a new method, which I saw twice today, is tear gas being fired from drones. And this is a new method that Israel experimented with just a couple of weeks before these protests started. It was first used in Gaza in March. And military officials were reported as saying that they were experimenting with this, but it looks like it's now operational. And this also fits a trend of Israel kind of experimenting its tools of occupation on the bodies of Palestinians. And those tools are usually exported elsewhere. And I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing tear gas drones in other places, as well. But a really chaotic situation here.
AMY GOODMAN: So, you're talking about what's happening on the Gaza-Israel border. The embassy is opening in Jerusalem, Sharif. Do you know about any protests there? It's opening just after the broadcast, actually, of this show. The protest in Gaza, while today is the most deadly day of the Israeli military gunning down Palestinian protesters—the numbers, we think, around 30, as you said—we're nearing 80 Palestinians killed by Israeli snipers and the Israeli military since the ongoing nonviolent protest of March 30th, that are supposed to be culminating tomorrow, although expected to go on from there.
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, Amy, being here in Gaza, it's hard to know what's happening in Jerusalem, just with everything that's happening on the ground and also a lack of access to the internet. But what I can tell you is that Jerusalem is a main factor in what's driving this. You know, there's a number of reasons that this kind of new movement is happening in Gaza. It's the accumulation of a number of things and the convergence of a number of events.
You know, first of all, there's the siege, of course, where the situation in Gaza—I've been coming here since 2011, and every time I come, the situation is much worse. It's really now intolerable. This has been a siege for 11 years. It has affected everything—the economic situation, humanitarian situation, the right to travel. On top of that, in summer, the Palestinian Authority and President Mahmoud Abbas imposed sanctions on Gaza, worsening the economic situation and things like electricity, in a bid to force Hamas's hand. And, you know, everyone knew that this was unsustainable. People were talking about it. And so, that's one of the reasons this has risen up.
But another one, in a broader context, and from speaking with a lot of people here, there's a sense that the very core of the Palestinian cause is under threat, that the essence of the Palestinian cause is under threat. So you have Jerusalem, which is at the very core of the Palestinian cause, with Trump moving the embassy to Jerusalem, the U.S. Embassy, and recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and that is a huge insult to Palestinians. And there's also the issue of the right of return. Many people here spoke of what's called the deal of the century, that's supposedly being worked on by Trump and other countries. There's been several leaked versions of it. But many of them do away with the right of return, and treat Palestinian refugees as a humanitarian situation. If you take away Jerusalem and the right of return, you know, what's left for the Palestinian cause? So that's really driving this, as well.
And it also comes in a context of a divided leadership, Palestinian leadership, with Fatah and Hamas really nowhere near reconciliation, that was supposed to happen a few months ago. It comes in a context of a region where Arab countries, like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, are aligned with Israel, in many ways. And it's coming on the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, of 70 years of waiting for the right to return not being realized.
And finally, Gaza has seen itself, historically, as responsible for the national cause. Yasser Arafat is from Gaza. Gaza gave birth to the first intifada. It gave birth to Fatah. It gave birth to Hamas. It gave birth to Islamic Jihad. It is—all of this came out of Gaza, and it sees itself as part of—you know, responsible for the Palestinian cause. And so, that's why the demands here are not just lifting the siege. They go to the very essence of it, and they're calling for the right of return, as well.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about the significance of the opening of the embassy in Jerusalem. An anti-gay, pro-Trump pastor from Dallas, Pastor Robert Jeffress, was chosen by the Trump administration to lead the prayer at the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. Pastor Jeffress has a history of making hateful comments against Muslims, Jews, Catholics, Mormons, the LGBTQ community. This is just a few of the statements he's made over the years.
DONALD TRUMP: Where is Pastor Jeffress? He's around here someplace. What a good guy! Where is he? Well, come here. I love this guy!
PASTOR ROBERT JEFFRESS: Here's the deep, dark, dirty secret of Islam. It is a religion that promotes pedophilia, sex with children. … Mormonism is not Christianity. It has always been considered a cult by the mainstream of Christianity.
ANDERSON COOPER: Hindus and Buddhists, Islam—cults?
PASTOR ROBERT JEFFRESS: Yes, absolutely. … Muhammad was nothing but a bloodthirsty warlord who beheaded 600 Jews who would not follow him into battle.
IMAM MOHAMMAD ALI ELAHI: That is not true.
PASTOR ROBERT JEFFRESS: Islam is wrong! It is a heresy from the pit of hell. Mormonism is wrong. It is a heresy from the pit of hell. Judaism, you know, you can't be saved, being a Jew.
JIM ACOSTA: And Mormons do say they are Christians.
PASTOR ROBERT JEFFRESS: Yeah.
JIM ACOSTA: They say that. They believe in Jesus Christ.
PASTOR ROBERT JEFFRESS: Well, a lot of people say they're Christians, and they're not. … Homosexuality is degrading. It's a degenerative practice. .. Homosexuality is a perversion. They are engaged in the most detestable, unclean, abominable acts you can imagine. … Marriage should be between a man and a woman. Whenever you counterfeit something, you cheapen the value of the real thing. … Around the world today, you have Muslim men having sex with 4-year-old girls, taking them as their brides, because they believe the prophet Muhammad did it.
AMY GOODMAN: That's Reverend Jeffress, in that compendium put together by Media Matters. Mother Jones reports Jeffress, who runs the First Baptist Dallas megachurch in Texas, has referred to both Islam and Mormonism as a "heresy from the pit of hell," believes Islam, Mormonism, Hinduism and Buddhism are all cults, that Catholicism represents the genius of Satan. Jews, he believes, are going to hell. "You can't be saved by being a Jew," he said. Islam, he said, "is a religion that promotes pedophilia, sex with children," he said, among other things. This is the man who will be doing the opening prayer today at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, Sharif. Also, President Trump's children, son-in-law and daughter, Ivanka Trump and Jared [Kushner], will be there, along with the treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin. Apparently, Jared Kushner, who's under investigation in the United States, his son-in-law, will be unveiling a Middle East peace plan in the next few weeks, Sharif.
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, what can you say? I mean, you know, Jerusalem, it goes to, like I said, the very core of the Palestinian issue. And this is being done—I mean, speaking with people here in Gaza, you know, and not just—well, I mean, the fact that the decision was made in this way, but also the arrogance in the way that it is being done, will not be, I think—you know, pass easily here. It's not something that Palestinians are just going to let slide.
You know, there's been a slow and very determined movement to displace Palestinians from Jerusalem. Palestinians who live in Jerusalem have a separate kind of identity card. They have to constantly prove what's called a "center of life" there. If they travel abroad for a length of time, they can lose that residency, and then it will go to a Jewish person, a settler. If they marry someone from the West Bank, then they can't live together in Jerusalem. So there's a whole raft of laws and rules and different ways that they've been slowly chipping away to take over Jerusalem.
And then, you know, this, the move of the embassy, is just another kind of slap in the face. And it's one of the main three issues that Palestinians have been calling for. And it's also recognized under international law, you know, that it's not going to go to either state, that it's going to be a shared capital, if we go by what the United Nations resolutions have said. So, you know, what can you say when—and also you get this kind of pastor here?
And I've just been handed, Amy, the death toll number here in Gaza has now just gone up to 37 just today. So this killing continues.
And, you know, I just have to point out also, in a lot of the coverage I've seen, it's always Gaza is equated with Hamas, and it's just that this is a Hamas movement and so forth. And, you know, Gaza is much more than Hamas. And especially what's happening now, this is a mass movement of all sectors of Palestinian society. Hamas is involved, but so is Fatah, so is PFLP, so is Islamic Jihad, you know, all those political parties. But more than that, there are women's committees, youth committees, civil society committees, legal advocates. All of them are taking part and making these decisions of how to move forward and how to run this movement. There are no party flags allowed. I didn't see any Hezbollah flags. They're not allowed. Only the Palestinian flag. And in the back of the protest, further away from the border just a couple of hundred yards, there's a festive atmosphere. There's cultural events. There's art. There's music. There's celebrations of Palestinian heritage. So, this is really more of a broad-based, grassroots movement. I don't think, even if Hamas wanted this to stop, that it could stop it. And—
AMY GOODMAN: Sharif?
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Go ahead.
AMY GOODMAN: We just have this report from AP. You were describing the drones that are releasing tear gas, and you've got the butterfly bullets that explode within a person's body. The latest number of people dead since March 30th is, we believe, around 84. Just today alone, in the deadliest day of the Israeli military's attack on this nonviolent protest in Gaza, 37 people dead. And AP is saying, "Witnesses say Israeli drones have dropped incendiary materials, setting ablaze tires that had been collected for use in a planned Gaza border protest. They say the drones set tires ablaze in two locations early Monday, releasing large clouds of black smoke."
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: I wouldn't be surprised. This morning, drones flew over and set fire to, early in the morning, two encampment sites, trying to set fire to the tents themselves. Some sewage water was sprayed in the tent encampment in Khan Younis. And, you know, when we talk about crossing borders, the military does regular incursions into Gaza all the time and commits these things.
But, yeah, I mean, these—you know, Israel is always coming up with kind of these new weapons. And the drones, I saw one, you know, for the first time today. It flew over, and then, all of a sudden, maybe six canisters, tear gas canisters, dropped out of the drone. They're spinning, because they're spewing out the gas, and so they kind of spread over a large area. And you have people, you know, men, women and children, just kind of fleeing everywhere. It's quite, quite terrifying. And again, you know, this is—the resistance of this movement is really—it's just rocks, it's kites and balloons, it's some Molotov cocktails. But nowhere near can they reach the Israeli soldiers, who are sitting behind these ramparts and picking people off with sniper rifles.
So, you know, and the burning of these tires, there have been kind of changes of tactics. You have what they call the tire brigade, and you'll see all these young men and boys run up with all these tires, and they put them in these holes that they've dug in the ground, so they can hide down and not be hit by the bullets. And then they'll light one on fire, and a young man will drag it, sprinting out to the front and hoping not to get shot, and then run back. And then, once that tire is burned, there's a huge plume of black smoke, and it really does bar the view of the snipers. And so, there's this kind of, you know, resistance that's trying to counter this violence. But again, yeah, today, as I said, the number now is up to 37, so, by far, the bloodiest day. And tomorrow there's also supposed to be a massive mobilization. Tomorrow is the 70th anniversary of the Nakba. And we don't know what will—
AMY GOODMAN: And when you say Nakba, Sharif, just to be clear, the 70th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel, for Palestinians, seeing this as the 70 years starting with the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Explain what Nakba means.
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Yeah, Nakba was what—how Palestinians refer to the founding of Israel and the forced expulsion and mass displacement of something like 750,000 Palestinians from Palestine. And so, you know, this year marks the 70th anniversary of that. You know, in Gaza itself, over 80 percent of the residents of Gaza are refugees or the descendants of refugees who fled from their homes and were forced into Gaza back in 1948.
So, you know, you have these young men who keep trying to cross. They say, "I want to go back home," even though they've obviously never been there. But they say, "This is our land." And I asked one of them, you know, "You're going to cut this wire, and you're going to cross. You don't have anything with you." I said, "You're going to get hurt, or you're going to die." He said, "I knew I was going to get hurt. But I'm not afraid, and I'm going to go." So there's also a sense of despair involved, as well. I mean, there's these young men going, knowing that they're going to be either crippled or be killed, but they kind of keep doing it.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Sharif, we will continue to talk to you tomorrow, as this massive mobilization continues. Today, on this day of the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, opposed by many countries around the world, Palestinians protesting by the thousands. Sharif Abdel Kouddous, independent journalist, Democracy Now! correspondent, reporting to us from Gaza.
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.






Friday, April 20, 2018

NAKBA, KHALADI



THE ABSURD TIMES






Latuff's take on the Nakba.  May his country recover from the fascist coup in motion now.


THE NAKBA
BY
LEITH

The Nakba, or catastrophe, is the Palestinian word given to the invasion of their lands by Zionists and the systematic expulsion of many Palestinians (many of whom still have their original deeds and door keys).  An Israeli sympathizer call this "Independence," but from what is too gloomy to contemplate right now.

We have an interview with Rashid Khaladi, current Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University and who holds the Edward Said chair.  It helps to learn a bit about Edward Said.  He was a nearly concert-level pianist and a close friend of Daniel Barenboim and together they attempted to bring Palestinians and Israelis together through music.  His book, Orientalism,  should be read even today for a great background to western biases against the Arab Culture. 

Kaladi was a good friend of Obama in Chicago until Obama ran for national office at which time they were forced to separate.  One of Obama's failures was in not inviting him to his inauguration. 

Today, there is a great fear that peace might break out at any time.  Arms manufacturers and politicians in Israel dread this idea and the current demonstrations along the Gaza border are seen as a great threat as they are non-violent.  So far, dozens have been killed and thousands wounded by Israelis, snipers especially.  A sniper can kill from isolation several hundreds of meters away without detection so he is nice and safe. 

Still, the non-violence continues remorselessly, despite the efforts to the Trump, Kushner, Netenyahu troika and will continue for another month until the date of the Nakba.  Here is the interview:


Palestinian protests against the Israeli occupation are continuing this week as Israel begins to mark the country's 70th anniversary of its founding in 1948. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, Israeli forces have killed 33 Palestinian protesters over the past three weeks since the "Great March of Return" protests began to commemorate the mass expulsion of Palestinians during Israel's establishment. Palestinian authorities estimate nearly 4,300 Palestinians have been injured in the peaceful protests—many were shot with live ammunition or rubber-coated steel bullets. Gaza authorities have also accused Israel of deliberately targeting journalists and medics. Since the protests began, one journalist—Yaser Murtaja—was killed, and 66 journalists were injured. In addition, 44 medics have been wounded, and 19 ambulances were reportedly targeted. The protest marches are set to last to until May 15, recognized as the official Israeli Independence Day. Palestinians mark the date as Nakba Day, or "Day of the Catastrophe." For more we're joined by Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University. He's the author of several books, his most recent is titled "Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East."


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.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And I'm Nermeen Shaikh. Welcome to our listeners and viewers around the country and around the world. Palestinian protests against the Israeli occupation are continuing this week as Israel begins to mark the country's 70th anniversary of its founding in 1948. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, Israeli forces have killed 33 Palestinian protesters over the past three weeks since the Great March of Return protests began, to commemorate the mass expulsion of Palestinians during Israel's establishment.
Palestinian authorities estimate nearly 4,300 Palestinians have been injured in the peaceful protests. Many were shot with live ammunition or rubber-coated steel bullets. Gaza authorities have also accused Israel of deliberately targeting journalists and medics. Since the protests began, one journalist, Yaser Murtaja, was killed and 66 journalists were injured. In addition, 44 medics have been wounded and 19 ambulances were reportedly targeted.
AMY GOODMAN: The protest marches are set to last until May 15th, recognized as the official Israeli Independence Day. Palestinians mark the date as Nakba Day or "Day of the Catastrophe" when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, their expulsion began. On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began celebrations of Israel's 70th Independence Day at a ceremony in Jerusalem with a nod to U.S. plans to move its embassy there from Tel Aviv.
PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: We all praise the historic decision by President Trump to recognize Jerusalem as our capital and to move the embassy there of the world's biggest power. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, America.
AMY GOODMAN: On Wednesday, Trump tweeted, "Best wishes to Prime Minister @Netanyahu and all of the people of Israel on the 70th Anniversary of your Great Independence. We have no better friends anywhere. Looking forward to moving our Embassy to Jerusalem next month!"
For more, we're joined by Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University. The author of a number of books, his most recent Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East. Talk about what is happening right now in Gaza. It is almost getting no attention in the United States. But this period of time leading up to March 15th.
RASHID KHALIDI: May 15th.
AMY GOODMAN: May 15th.
RASHID KHALIDI: It is remarkable that it has gotten as little attention as it has in this country, because this is a new phase. It is almost entirely nonviolent. The Israelis try and focus on other issues, claiming that it is violent or people are throwing things or whatever, but you have literally tens of thousands of people walking to the fence, camping along the fence, carrying out protest activities, which are then met with a hail of hundreds of thousands of bullets. The numbers speak for themselves—the hundreds of people who have been—the thousands of people who have been wounded, the dozens who have been killed.
What it shows is I think the Israeli security establishment is terrified of Palestinian nonviolence. Any narrative in which the Palestinians use violence is easy for them to master. But a narrative in which the Palestinians walk towards the fence and ask for their rights is one that they are very uncomfortable with.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: This isn't the first protest of its kind in Israel-Palestine, but is it the first one in which the Israelis have responded so disproportionately?
RASHID KHALIDI: It is not the first of its kind. The most underreported story in Palestine is the non-violent nature of an enormous amount of protests. We pay a lot of attention to violent actions. But the first intifada was largely nonviolent. For three or four years, Palestinians were engaged in massive nonviolent protests, which were met with systematic repression. Rabin said "Break their bones." That was his order to his soldiers when he was defense minister. So it's not the first time that the Israelis have used this kind of violence. I don't think that they've ever gotten to the point of shooting down literally thousands of people in this way, so maybe that is unprecedented.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And what do you think accounts for that?
RASHID KHALIDI: They are very, very worried about two things. They're worried about the fact that the Palestinians might actually finally realize that nonviolent action is smarter and might be more effective. And secondly, they don't like one of the demands of this protest movement, which is the issue of return. Because it brings up the issues that the Israelis hoped had been buried from 1948 onwards, which is to say their expulsion of three quarters of a million Palestinians back in April, May and so forth, of 1948, their confiscation of their property and their refusal to allow them to return. And that's what this March of Return is about.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Are there additional demands?
RASHID KHALIDI: That is the main focus of it. That is the main focus of it. Almost the entire population of Gaza, with a very few exceptions, are refugees. And so they are living in this cooped-up enormous prison camp, right across the border from the lands that they once owned and cultivated.
AMY GOODMAN: So explain the organizing that went into this mass nonviolent protest that is happening particularly on Fridays after prayer.
RASHID KHALIDI: Right. This started off as a civil society initiative, which was then of course picked up, cynically, picked up by Hamas, which has realized the bankruptcy of its own approach and its unpopularity with Palestinians. But it started off as a movement by young activists who wanted to do something. They are living in this pressure cooker of Gaza.
AMY GOODMAN: Describe it.
RASHID KHALIDI: They can't get out. They can't go anywhere. It is the highest population concentration on earth. To get a permit to go to get medical care or to study abroad or to visit your family in the West Bank or Jordan is almost impossible for the overwhelming majority of Gazans. So they are in prison in Gaza. They're suffering without enough electricity. There is sewage. I mean, one could go on and on.
AMY GOODMAN: Let me go back to just some of the incidents that have taken place. Earlier this month, a Palestinian stepped forward to say he was the unknown man who was shot by Israeli sniper in a gun sight video recorded last December that went viral. The video captures the sound of a gunshot, the Palestinian man falling to the ground, then a voice celebrating in Hebrew and cursing the sniper's victim. Tamer Abu Daka says he was shot in the leg without warning as he stood about 200 meters from Israel's fortified border. He told Al Jazeera he posed no threat to Israeli troops.
TAMER ABU DAKA: Some young people near the border were lying on the ground. They couldn't get out. So I came to protect them and ask them to go back. Then the Israelis shot me. How am I a danger to the Israelis? We were on our land. We didn't cross. I was in the buffer zone. I had no weapons in my hands. I had nothing.
AMY GOODMAN: Israel's military has criticized the soldiers who shot Abu Daka for cheering, but has defended the shooting itself, with Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman saying the sniper deserves a medal. And he not only said it for the sniper who shot him last December, but he's saying that no Gazan is innocent. Explain the significance of Avigdor Lieberman's statements and who he is.
RASHID KHALIDI: Well, this is part of a systematic defamation of the entire Palestinian people. What Lieberman and the security establishment is essentially saying is the Palestinians are a terrorist people, and whatever they do is beyond the pale. And I think the thing to focus on here is the use of snipers to gun down people at a sufficient distance from this—you can see in the video we just saw—at a sufficient distance from the fence that it is impossible that they could cause any harm to the Israelis themselves.
So heavily armored Israeli soldiers with sniper rifles at hundreds of meters are picking off systematically Palestinian protestors or people who try to approach the fence or whatever. And that this is a policy that the government is proud of, that Lieberman is praising the snipers who have shot down literally thousands of people? I think it tells us a lot about Israel's attitude toward Palestinians, that they are subhuman.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: I think one of the perceptions that is quite common—you said earlier that Palestinians are now increasingly disenchanted with Hamas, and Hamas is not very popular in Palestine and with the residents of Gaza. Can you explain why people still have the sense, in fact, that the majority of Palestinians are sympathetic with or support Hamas, and how that sense kind of emboldens Israel to carry out the kinds of—the disproportionate violence of which we have been speaking?
RASHID KHALIDI: If you go back and look at the way in which Israel has dealt with the whole issue of Palestine and the Palestinian national movement, they always demonize whatever appears to be the leading movement. When it was the PLO or Fatah, whatever, they were terrorists, they were beyond the pale, you couldn't talk to them. And the same is now true of Hamas. I think the interesting thing is not just Hamas—all of the political parties are discredited in the eyes of most Palestinians. They seem to have failed. Hamas with its policy of—so-called policy of—resistance, which in fact is a sham. Hamas prevents people from firing rockets from the Gaza Strip. It is carrying out without a security agreement the same kind of role of protecting Israel that the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah is carrying out with a security agreement. Palestinians see that.
They see the cynicism of that and they see that both sides, that is to say the PA in Ramallah and Hamas in Gaza in fact are bankrupt—
NERMEEN SHAIKH: So why is Hamas doing that? And why are they…?
RASHID KHALIDI: Why are they doing it?
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Yeah, why…?
RASHID KHALIDI: Out of fear of Israeli retaliation.
AMY GOODMAN: Is the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas fracturing?
RASHID KHALIDI: It doesn't seem to be going anywhere, sadly. I mean, this is the overwhelming demand of the Palestinian people, that these useless politicians get together and end this meaningless split, so that the weaker party, the Palestinians, can at least present a unified front.
AMY GOODMAN: Let's talk about the journalists who have been killed. Let's talk about the Palestinian journalist, Yaser Murtaja, who was fatally shot by the Israeli army while covering the protests along the Israel-Gaza border. Photos show the 30-year-old journalist wearing a flak jacket clearly marked "press" at the time of the shooting. This is Murtaja's mother and brother speaking after his killing.
MOTAZEM MURTAJA: I was next to him at the protest. Targeting the journalists was very clear, to the point that they targeted the two of us directly using snipers and gas bombs.
YUSRA MURTAJA: We thought it was just an injury and he will be injured for a while and then God will heal him and he will come out of it like the rest of the injured people. I didn't expect him to die.
AMY GOODMAN: That is what happened in Gaza. And then you have today's headline in the West Bank: press freedom groups are expressing alarm over the arrest of a journalist early Wednesday by Palestinian security forces. Relatives say the officers presented a search warrant, arrested Hazem Naser without mention of what he's being charged with. He works for Najah Broadcasting Channel, which frequently covers Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes, arrest of Palestinians. He's arrested in the middle of the night. Murtaja was killed.
RASHID KHALIDI: I think the thing to say about the murder of this journalist and the murder of many of these people is that there is a policy of targeted assassination. It is not just snipers just randomly shooting people. It is an intelligent system in which collects information on everybody who is in activist, and these people are then being targeted. They are murdering specific people. They're not just shooting at random. They're doing that as well, but some of these, many of these killings—there's a wonderful book by a man named Ronen Bergman on the history of Israel's targeted assassinations. This is a policy of killing Palestinian leadership. They have been doing it for decades and decades.
And now they realize that some of the most dangerous people are not people who are firing rockets, but rather people who are organizing popular demonstrations and nonviolent action.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Do you see any transformation or intensification of that policy on Israel's part as a consequence of Trump's election and his—one of the many steps that he says he going to take is to move the capital from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. So what kind of message is that giving to Netanyahu and those who support him?
RASHID KHALIDI: Frankly, they've always had coverage from Washington for whatever they did. But I agree—I think your question points to a reality, which is they have even greater impunity with a president like Trump who will give them complete carte blanche for whatever they want to do.
AMY GOODMAN: And is moving the U.S. embassy.
RASHID KHALIDI: Precisely.
AMY GOODMAN: The significance of that, now following—the U.S. saying it is doing that right around the 70th anniversary? Guatemala says it will follow suit.
RASHID KHALIDI: This is really very important. Jerusalem is the most important of all of the issues in the Palestine-Israel conflict. The Trump Administration's decision that it recognizes, apparently from what they've said, the entirety of Jerusalem as sovereign Israeli territory, has implications for the entire conflict. It has implications for the rest of the occupied territories. It has implications for Israeli annexations, not just of Jerusalem—of Golan Heights, of other areas that they may choose to annex. So they are giving them a, basically, open season in terms of further annexations, further expansions and so on and so forth, by this Jerusalem thing. It is not just recognizing Israel's capital as Jerusalem or moving the embassy. It has all kinds of other implications.
AMY GOODMAN: What will happen on May 15th?
RASHID KHALIDI: The consulate in West Jerusalem will be turned into an embassy.
AMY GOODMAN: And what will happen at the wall, the Gaza-Israel wall?
RASHID KHALIDI: I have no idea. But at the rate at which things are going, unfortunately, we're probably likely to see even more savage, vicious, brutal murderous repression.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Rashid Khalidi, we want to ask you to stay with us as we move on to Syria. Rashid Khalidi is the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University.
His latest book Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East.
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.