Also right now it's almost as if Ukraine is in the background, but I wanted to give a little update on that, which is it looks like by the end of the year, the week. Biden, as if he has doesn't have enough to do right now is going to introduce a package of money for weapons for Ukraine is. I'll just start over on that. It looks like Biden is going to introduce by the end of the week, a very huge package for weapons to both Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. We're talking about it being $100 billion with 10 billion of that being for Israel, most of it being for Ukraine, but also money for Taiwan so you know, let's support the genocidal government of Israel let's keep that Ukraine we're going and let's provoke China. This administration and Congress is just crazy. So we will have a lot to do when that when that package is introduced to try to stop it. Also, in Ukraine, there was a lot of discussion about whether Biden was going to allow for these long range missiles called attack arms, and it turns out we found out today that he has already done that quietly, so as to take the Russians as a surprise, but he's also already transferred these in mid September without us knowing about it, and they carry cluster munitions. So that's the horrible update from Ukraine. In terms of Gaza well we're going to have a lot of wonderful speakers speaking tonight. I just wanted to say that our long time wonderful code pinker from California Leslie Angeline I'm not sure if she made it onto the call but she began a hunger strike today, open ended to call for a ceasefire in Gaza for humanitarian aid for Gaza, and, of course, an end to the siege. And we launched it today by going to many many congressional offices and thanks to the others of you who joined us today. And we went to the offices of the 13 Congress people and I think Hassan will talk about this who actually are calling for a ceasefire there's only 13 of them that I know, but we went to every office and they were very glad to have us there. And in some of the offices, they said that they were getting lots of calls thanking them like an Andre Carson they said 80% of the calls were thanking him for signing on to that resolution calling for a peace fire so we have to let the other know other Congress people know that they actually get praise, if they do this. And we participated with the wonderful demonstration that if not now, which is mostly young Jewish people organized in front of the White House today, in which about 50 people got arrested. We're excited about the, the protest tomorrow that Jewish voice for peace is doing and hopefully esti will tell us more about that but being here in DC. It is the center of that protest that will meet tomorrow in at Congress, and we expect that to be a very profound one. And then there's also a call by, if not now to gather in Washington DC on Friday as well so it looks like every day of the week here in Washington and nor will tell us I know about protest that are happening all over the country in the world so thank you. Thank you, my dear for that comprehensive news update and I'll just add that I, I read on anti war.com a few minutes ago the Jim Jordan who's now the lead candidate for the speaker of the house has agreed to link aid packages between Israel and Ukraine I don't know about Taiwan, but I think it behooves us not to just focus on one political party Democrats but Republicans as well in Congress, since the fight to remove speaker McCarthy was largely over this continuous Ukraine aid package, and the idea that you combine different subjects, you know the fight was for single subject legislation. So let's, you know. Sorry, but Jim Jordan at one point said that he was against more aid to Ukraine, and that if he were speaker he would not bring it to the floor so it seems like he's quickly changed his mind on that. All right, with that, it's my great pleasure to introduce nor our Palestine campaigner, who is very involved obviously right now in calling for a ceasefire and you know, helping us educate others about the roots of the violence. So from Chicago, I would be honored to welcome nor the Coting Congress. Thank you Marcy. Hello everyone and welcome. It's really great to see all these people I mean we have 300 people on already, especially with the very dangerous misinformation has been spreading it's kind of like it kind of warms my heart a little bit to see like all these people, so willing to educate themselves and willing to just hear people out and you know not just go and be pawns for our oppressor. But like Marcy said my name is nude, and I've been the Palestine campaigner here at code pink since about the beginning of the year. And since a lot of you may not know me I've been an organizer for Palestine for about five years now. I'm also Palestinian myself. I was born in a small village in the West Bank. So obviously this is something that's very important to me and very close to me. So, yes, thank you again everybody for making it here. Let's talk a little bit about the current moment we're in. We've been under siege for over a week now. And this morning we got the horrific news that Israel bombed a hospital a lot of the hospital today. Obviously, the dozens are not in a very good position right now with water food running out water being cut off electricity being cut off. It's, it's not. Obviously very detrimental for cousins to be losing yet another resource. And from that air strike, at least 1200 cousins were murdered by the Israeli air strike. And what we're witnessing right before our eyes here is a brutal war crime. This is not normal behavior. It's not normal to collectively punish an entire group of people on a very small area of land to be packed and to target, you know, a hospital which we consider like to be one of these like humanitarian buildings where people can go to receive treatment to seek refuge. Yeah, and just among all of this violence and pain and genocide that we're witnessing right before our eyes. People here are from like all parts of the world, but many of us are from the United States. And we got the news that our president Biden left for Israel today. And he's been consistently expressing staunch support for the apartheid state of Israel and kind of egging on this very brutal and violent oppressor to continue to collectively punish this group of people who has have no crime, except the Palestinian and being born in Gaza, being born in an open air prison with with nowhere to go. But I know this has been a very heavy time and it's very disheartening for us to see the powers that be against Palestinians against an oppressed group of people. I think it's important for us to highlight and seek like optimism in the fact that people around the world largely do support Palestine like they see oppression and we we know this because there's been protests across the globe right like it's very, with very high turnout. I'm based here in Chicago and we've had at least three over the past week and a half and it, I think at our last one there was about 15,000 people there so, although those in power, have an, a lot of the control, but although they are against those who are oppressed and although they are so interested and continuing this oppression, we know and we can seek comfort in the fact that this is not the, it's not representative of the world, it's, it's not that we live in an evil world, but yeah. So, I think it's important for us to just remain hopeful we don't want to see the pain of Palestinians and feel so discouraged that there's nothing that we can do because it's not true that this evil is is the norm right it's not true that this is what most people believe. So, although people in power may not support Palestine, it could be optimistic we know people do. And we know that people are powerful this is how people have achieved liberation time and time again in the past, the power of the people right. So I just want to kind of start by like uplifting everybody out a little bit and just show like a video and some photos of protests across the world. Just so, just so we feel like a little bit more optimistic going into this and we don't go into it feeling so hopeless. So if we could play the video now, please. So this is a compilation of protests yeah. Yes. So that was just like a few across the globe and as you can see these aren't just, you know, small protests like this is thousands thousands of people willing to speak out and say, we're witnessing a genocide right in front of us and we're not going to just let that happen we're just going to sit and let this this happen without saying something without showing that the world doesn't stand for this. And then we also just have a few more photos of other protests that we're going on mostly in the US. New York, Chicago, like I said, Tokyo. Geneva, France. South Africa of course, Italy and Canada but there's so many others this isn't this isn't everywhere there's been a protest I saw all one that happened in Seoul Korea yesterday. So it's very clear that the people of the world stand with Palestine and I think that's really important for us to highlight. But that's all I have to share. Great. Thank you it is very uplifting to see the photos of the mass protests all over the world. And in the United States where we've seen thousands of people pour into the street in New York City as you mentioned, Los Angeles demonstration in front of the Israeli consulate Cleveland, Dearborn Michigan Washington DC and on and on. So much nor now we're going to turn to esti Chandler who's going to give a brief update on Jewish voice for peace, and their collaboration with if not now another Jewish oriented organization esti Chandler is the national board chair for Jewish voice for peace action that's the political arm of Jewish voice for peace and she's the organizer in greater Los Angeles for Jewish voice for peace. Welcome esti. Thank you guys for doing this show and inviting such awesome guests I can't wait to hear from them. I can update us on a few things. The reason why I mean one really important reason why we have teamed up with if not now in this moment is that we said in our political director. She on Monday morning, found herself of last week, when she was talking to people on the hill, realizing that there's only one other or Jewish organization that's actually doing the right thing here and calling for de escalation calling for a number of violence and that's if not now. So we quickly got together and realize that our strength, you know we have greater strength together and all over the country, where there are not now chapters people have been coming together here last Friday in Los Angeles, we in a very quick, you know, planning period of time few hours, got about 150 people out in front of Brad Sherman's office who I like to call bad Sherman because it describes his policy. And to show the world that, you know, Jews are not a monolith, and there are definitely many many Jews that are out there, calling for de escalation, calling for ceasefire, and understanding that what we are doing is a genocide on Palestinians and that we have to do everything we can everything in our power, all day every day to stop that. I'll say that another thing that we're seeing in the local talk context so people can look out for it in their communities are a foreign racist letters going out from school boards in different districts. Resolutions that are happening that are completely one sided today in Los Angeles at the supervisors County supervisors meeting. There was a resolution in support of Israel that literally literally did not have the word Palestine or Palestinian in it. In spite of the fact that there was about an hour an hour and a half of public comment and 95% of it was in saying do not pass this I'm opposed to this and saying all the problems with it, they ended up passing it unanimously. So please look out in your communities for resolutions like that where you can go and make public comment and organize and get people there so that they can see that these are their voters in front of them, and they are not representing us and so it's not something that we ever vote for them again. Also look out for these letters that are going out and if you can team up in your community, you know, and get a few organizations together, you know, peace organizations, Jewish Christian Muslim to say why these are so dangerous and harmful to our school children to be putting these out, it would be really really helpful. And then went to my own Facebook page and wrote free Palestine. So, thank you, Estie for informing us about that. Now, we're going to go to our first guest. It's my great honor to introduce Hassan El Tayed. He is the legislative director for Middle East policy at the Friends Committee on National Legislation. Hassan leads FCNL's work, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the bloodshed the genocide in the Middle East. In addition to advocating for Palestinian human rights, Hassan works to end US military complicity in the Saudi led war on Yemen and advanced diplomacy with Iran. Prior to joining FCNL, Hassan served as the co-director of the National Advocacy Group Just Foreign Policy, where he worked to reassert congressional war authority and promote human rights in the Middle East and Latin America. Hassan's passion for foreign affairs is rooted in his desire to make life safer for people in the Middle East, including his extended family in Jordan and Palestine in Yemen. Welcome Hassan to Code Pink Congress. Marcy, thank you so much. Much love to Code Pink. I lobbied Rep Jayapal's office with Medea and friends today. How much time do I have here? About eight minutes. About eight minutes. Okay, I'm going to get through this and we're going to be action focused, action oriented. But I did want to give folks an update about what's happening in North and South Gaza. Hundreds of thousands of people have been heeding the evacuation orders by Israel issued on Friday morning. You know, the order is ineffective because there's nowhere for people to go. Israeli airstrikes are raining down on people trying to even do the evacuation. So a lot of people have chosen to just stay in their homes. And displacement, according to the UN may have reached one million. So this is absolutely horrific situation. Humanitarian crisis is growing more and more desperate. And it's critical that Israel turns the water back on and restores electricity and restores fuel so the water pumps can actually work. And that's something that I want to make sure people understand on October 15. You saw the Israeli minister, you know, post that, you know, the Israel would turn the water back on in the south. This confused a lot of people, you know, and my read is that, you know, they're trying to deflect international pressure. But like I said, you need fuel and electricity to pump water, which through infrastructure that's already badly damaged. And so absolutely critical that we get the water turned back on urgently. So I was also just completely horrified and shocked by the bombing of the hospital that nor mentioned in Gaza, leaving at least 500 dead. Thousands more injured and unaccounted for and that's, you know, as at least 500 I've heard reports that it could be over 1000 people that died in this just horrific bombing, it emphasizes and reinforces the need for an immediate ceasefire, de-escalation restraint, protection of civilians. Human Rights Watch has reported that white phosphorus is being used by the Israeli government, and that's a chemical weapon. This should never be used against civilians. So, okay, I could go on and on and on, but we need to get serious about creating a intersectional movement across the country, across the world. That's already starting to happen. I want to name a couple vehicles. I lobby Capitol Hill, unfortunately, every single day. And I want to give folks an update about where I see our work really making a difference in this important moment. The Tali Bush resolution to call for a ceasefire. It's a very simple document. This is a very powerful vehicle that we should all support and try to get our members of Congress on. It's already got 13 co-sponsors, and that's fantastic. We were able to get a few new ones on board. Rep Velasquez got on there, so that was great to see her. And we are expanding the number of people on the hill calling for a ceasefire, but that is not enough. I'll also flag that there was another vehicle by Reps Pokan, Shikowsky, McGovern, and Jayapal calling for humanitarian aid to Gaza.  We love that letter. We need aid to Gaza. We got to turn the taps back on. We got to get humanitarian aid in, but clearly not enough. We do need de-escalation and a ceasefire, but I would just point to that letter as potential low-hanging fruit for us to get on the Taliib and Bush resolution. So take a look at that list. If one of those folks are your member of Congress, let's get them on that statement. I think folks are very close, especially with this hospital bombing. People are realizing like, whoa, this is way too much. This isn't what we said. I do think that there was this initial burst of outrage against the attacks in southern Israel, but cooler heads are starting to prevail and realizing that, okay, the civilian casualties are bad enough. But this, if there is a ground invasion, this could turn into, I'm not even trying to be alarmist here, World War III. Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Jordan, Iran, I could go on. This is just absolutely a precipice. And that's exactly why the president has gone to Israel. One thing I will say, him being there delays the ground invasion. That gives us time to build our movement, to make our voices heard, to make our calls for ceasefire known. And we have to use every single moment we have. And I've been on a couple of these calls. This is by far the most urgent call I've ever been on with Code Pink. And I am telling you, we have a window of opportunity. And I'll also say is that the mood is shifting on Capitol Hill. I'm talking to these offices. People are realizing like, whoa, you know, Israel, the Israeli security intelligence, they committed, they have blundered. This is the biggest national security blunder in Israel, Israel's history. They basically, you know, are completely, they have an egg on their face, and they feel humiliated and are trying to make up for it and commit revenge and are taking it out on the people of Palestine, the people of Gaza. And the US lawmakers are starting to see, hey, we've been here before with 9-11, we went into Afghanistan, we went into Iraq, complete disaster. And so I do think you're starting to see people trying to rein in the Israelis from going into the full ground invasion. So we have time. Okay, just a couple other things I'll say and I'll pass it back because I know we've got some other great speakers. We have been trying to get people on the record for the ceasefire. Now, yes, get them on the statement, the resolution with Bush and Tlaib. If they don't want to sign that, great, make their own statement, put out their own tweet. You know, there's other ways that they can get on board with this. We just need to keep the momentum going. As far as senators on our side, I just saw that, not many, I'm sorry to break it to you. But we got Senator Bernie Sanders calling for no more bombs, no more missiles. You know what, I'll take it. We've also got Senator Markey saying de-escalation. He got booed at a pro-Israel rally. Let's back him up. Let's say, hey, Senator Markey, we love you. Let's keep going. So I think that's absolutely critical. What I'm doing, so you know, is I'm organizing as much as I can all these groups in Washington, DC. It's not a fun job, but someone's got to do it. We just sent a 70 plus org letter to every office on Capitol Hill. I got to say, I got a couple of colorful responses to that letter. It's all good. We can handle it. But that's what we need. And our asks are very clear, publicly call for a ceasefire. This is a public statement campaign right now to protect all civilian lives. You might want a ceasefire to protect Palestinians in Gaza. That's what I want. You might want a ceasefire to bring the Israeli hostages home. That's fine. You may want a ceasefire to prevent an escalation with Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, et cetera. That's fine too. So it's all good. Let's protect civilians. Last but not least, we need to urge people to respect international humanitarian law. Those were the three asks. I'm going to share a couple of documents here for everyone to have. And one is we are trying to keep track of all the statements. I'm going to put that in the dock here. And there might be some other trackers, but see that there. That could be useful. We're going to also send the org letter that we shared with every office. Feel free to use that if you, if you'd like. And I am so grateful to code pink, to Marcy Medea, nor and an SD Chandler for, for having me on here and solidarity everybody stay healthy and stay well. This is really intense time. But, you know, if we stick together, I think we can get through this. Thank you so much. Hasan, legislative director for Middle East policy for the friends committee on national legislation.  But I have to remind myself that if I want to be effective, I need to get some sleep, you know, it's not going to help the cause. So I'm going to try to focus on that myself. And thank you so much for, for sharing those resources. Hasan and for reminding us all to pressure our Congress members to publicly support a ceasefire and take that letter, take the resolution to our local governmental bodies as well. Okay, we have two more terrific guests coming up. Nora Khoury and who ought to arise. So Nora will be introduced next nor I'm going to hand it over to you to introduce Nora. Yes, it's my honor to be introducing my name. My name is Nora Khoury. She's a Palestinian living in Oakland, a homeland and has worked. Sorry, has worked for the past two decades as a human rights activist, campaign strategist and community organizer. Nura lived and worked in occupied Palestine with the international solidarity movement and other human rights organizations including by the refugee and residency center and Hock and Holy Land Trust. She works as a preschool teacher and serves as an allowed the Palestine community to return coalition national committee member, Green Party, international delegate and part of beloved community circles where she conspires to destroy walls and build bridges of solidarity. So without further ado, welcome Nura to Code Pink Congress. Thank you. Thank you so much Nura and Code Pink for always showing up and standing strong and tall and unapologetically afraid, to speak truth to power and take action. When it feels like nobody else will or is able to. And so it really means a lot to be here with you all and to stand together really this is the only time that I feel lack of despair and overwhelm it's really just been too much like the news is nonstop with what atrocity after another coming in and yeah, sleep as much as we like to does evade us in these times. So I just, you know, have a little bit of a, you know, I just really been struggling as I watched and listened heard from all of the leaders so-called leaders and those that in this 21st century globally, who have been responsible and created all the mechanism designed to prevent us from the worst of humanity, spiraling into savagery against civilians have failed us and they've failed miserably and managed to crumble into pieces before our eyes. So as Palestinians, these are some of the hardest and darkest, most brutal times we've witnessed in almost eight decades of dark, brutal and painful times since 1948. In prior to this onslaught in Gaza, we've been watching and witnessing helplessly in horror as Israel rapidly escalates and implements its final stages of their master plan for Jerusalem, which means consolidating connecting the Jewish only transportation system to the settlements from Jerusalem to the West Bank to effectively take over as they call it Judea and Samaria. Meanwhile, Jewish settlers born in Brooklyn, Poland and Russia and everywhere else in the world are protected by occupation forces and they descend on to Palestinian villages, destroying homes, looting and burning entire villages in mass programs. It's so surreal and feels like a nightmare horror movie taking place in slow motion. In doing so, they further isolate Palestinians from each other and make life so unbearable that those who survive the onslaught will be so miserable, they're forced to leave and not look back, just as my parents did in 1967, following which my mother and her family fled Jerusalem and my father's family from Beir Zitt and that meant they had to give up their citizenship and right to return. So I was born here making it almost impossible for me to go back and return and live with my people. But to return and to stand with my people is the only thing I want to do in these times rather than sitting here scrolling helplessly witnessing as my people are pummeled and genocided and just as in 2003 when these atrocities were taking place, it became abundantly clear that the governments of the world, the EU, the international community have failed the Palestinian people and return is exactly what I did for my first time ever in 2003 to witness, document and do direct action as an international standing with Palestinians and it was one of the most powerful experiences I've ever had and return again is exactly what I was planning to do. I haven't been there in 17 years, but I was planning to be there this Friday. I have a ticket still, but unfortunately obviously not able to at this time, but I was planning to collated all of our delegation with a group of mostly young Palestinians, many Palestinian Americans that have not many of which who had had not ever been back because it is so difficult for us to return. So we are now reassessing the situation and waiting sort of for the smoke to clear, but we are planning to return and we invite and are calling on international to come to Palestine again. So if that is something that you would at all be able or willing to consider, please message me with your e-mail and we can just discuss, you know, as things become clear what is possible and if it makes sense. Because I truly believe the hope does not lie in a political solution provided by the government, although I know this is something that we have to do anyways and we must go through the motions. It is not possible for us to undermine any of the important work of lobbying. It just needs to all be done at the same time. But the conscious of the morality of the people like you all here is truly what gives me hope and it is by standing together and speaking out that we will prevail. And I do know and I understand there is an intense bullying and silencing campaign going on right now. It is so intense that we have to do our jobs and rights for simply posting on social media. And so there is a very real fear. But we can't allow that to determine our actions and our words and allow them to win, literally allowing fascism to rise up. It is what's gotten us to where we have been in the past two decades is the same want to really implore us to not be afraid to stand up for the resistance and to support the brave Palestinians that are fighting back against their own genocide. It needs to be understood that that is the only barrier between the complete extermination of the Palestinians and Gaza and the West Bank at this time. And so if you're in a place where you're able to to understand and explain that, I think it's really, really critical as Palestinians, you know, standing with Palestinians to be able to articulate that. Yeah, we could just definitely take strength also in the inspiration from the young Jews, if not now, that locked down in front of the White House yesterday and in San Francisco, in Fennel Pelosi's office this week to demand an end to the support and arming of the genocide. I think we need absolutely more actions like that. You know, if Israel's allowed to get away with a sheer lack of accountability and naked violence, it is as now in broad daylight with the whole world watching, what does that mean and say for the future of humanity and the hope for oppressed peoples from here on Turtle Island to everywhere with US military bases and allowing the war mongers literally pushing for World War Three, as we heard earlier, as they go on threatening Iran, China, Russia and anyone else that stands in their way. So the time for action is upon us. Let us stand together shoulder to shoulder as we march forward, unwavering in our support, unwavering in our commitment to justice and truth. Together, we can unleash transformation where the Palestinian people rise and become victorious over colonialism, reclaiming their freedom and their right to return, as well as their right to live in dignity and liberated Palestine, free from imperialism, colonialism, racism and Zionism. Let our voices resound with unwavering conviction, shaking the foundations of US government complicity in these war crimes, including the $4 billion in annual military aid to the to the Zionist colonizers. Let us rally the international communities and ourselves, igniting an unquenchable fire of solidarity for it is only through unity that we can find strength and collective action that we shall dismantle these walls of oppression. Thank you. Thank you so much, Nora Khoury, coming to us from the Bay Area in California, national board member of the Al-Adha Right to Return Coalition. Great to have you with us on Codepin Congress and I want to remind everybody to please stay with us throughout this program because after we hear from our next guest and have a Q&A, we're going to start our capital calling party where we will be calling our representatives in the house, in the Senate and saying, where is your call, your public call for a ceasefire for humanitarian corridors to stop this genocide in Gaza? Vote no on more weapons to enforce this genocide, to enforce this horrific occupation of Palestine. So do stay with us until the end and now I will turn this over to Medea to introduce our next guest. Well, yes, thank you so much, Marcy and I'm very excited to introduce our next guest, someone I've known for a long, long time, Hewita Araf. She is a Palestinian American activist and civil rights attorney who co-founded the International Solidarity Movement known by its acronym ISM, a Palestinian-led organization that used, using nonviolent protests and international pressure to support Palestinians. She was formerly a candidate for the U.S. Congress, representing Michigan's 10th congressional district. She specializes in international human rights and humanitarian law, as well as domestic U.S. civil rights. A Hebrew-speaking Palestinian Christian, Hewita spent time living on an Israeli kebutz before rejecting coexistence efforts in favor of advocating for Palestinian resistance. She is the daughter of two Palestinian Christian parents. Her mother came from Beit Zahour in the West Bank and her father was a Palestinian citizen of Israel. She was born in Detroit shortly after her parents immigrated to the United States, where she majored in Arabic studies, Judaic studies, and political science at the University of Michigan. So thank you so much for joining us, Hewita. Thank you so much for that very, very generous introduction, Medea. Thank you, Code Pink, and everyone for being here tonight. I think we are all just horrified at what we're witnessing and the fact that we are witnessing it and that we have to plead with our representatives, with our politicians to stop a genocide, and I don't use that term lightly. Even though I studied international human rights and humanitarian law, and that's what I specialized in for many, many years, it is only recently that I started saying that we need to look into Israel committing the crime of genocide, and now we are seeing it unfold, and our countries are failing in their obligation to intervene. The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the very first article before the even Defined Genocide calls on all signatories to pledge to prevent, not just punish, and even us as lawyers, I was on a call with international lawyers the other day and we were talking about possible prosecutions, but our first priority is trying to prevent this from happening, and that's where we all come in. I was asked to talk a little bit about international law, but I almost feel silly talking about international law because it is a construct of the West, and it has been so hijacked to serve the interests of the West, and specifically, I think there has been no other context where it's more clear that international law only serves the interests of the powerful nations as it is in the case of Palestine, where international law has been hijacked really so the Western countries can back Israel in the way that it does and shield Israel from its obligations to abide by international law, and yet we have it and because I was asked to talk about it, maybe I'll touch on it a tiny bit, but before that I want to say, and I'm sorry because I was traveling, I traveled to DC for some of the national actions here, and so I got on late and I didn't hear some of what was said before me, so I hope I'm not repeating, but one of the things that I saw quickly in the chat right before I got on is, and I don't know who made the comment, but it was a statement to the effect that what Palestinians need is like good PR and PR advice, and I would push back on that. We have a lot of Palestinians that are eloquent, they know how to describe what's happening, but their voices, our voices being silenced. As we see the mainstream media has been not actually honestly reporting the news, but it has been parroting Israeli talking points, it has been putting our politicians on that don't have a freedom and human rights and international law at the forefront of their agenda, but they have unconditionally backing Israel at the forefront of their agenda, and not only have they been not presenting the news honestly, but they have actually been putting forth fake news and continuing to repeat things that have been debunked that has come out from the Israeli military and you probably all know about the the rape and the beheaded babies and all of these things. So it's not that Palestinians need PR or training or anything like that, it's that Palestinian voices need to be listened to in our media actually needs to be more honest about the way that it reports. And even when it does report the Palestinian side, it's almost as if in passing everything is qualified, whereas Israel everything is seen through the lens of our occupiers, of our colonizers, and that's how it's presented. And Palestinian deaths are always a kind of collateral damage, and the fault always goes back to the Palestinians, whether in this context and blaming Hamas or even before that how Palestinians never wanted to accept peace and whatnot. And what we saw on October 7th, what kind of shocked the world was something that Palestinians and people who have been working on this have been warning about for a very long time. The situation is absolutely unbearable, it is untenable, it cannot stay this way. We have been campaigning not only for freedom for Palestinians, but specifically the situation in Gaza which has been completely sealed off, it is one big concentration camp. And that's another thing, you know, this always the headlines are what they're calling it a war and we're calling for a ceasefire as if there's war between kind of two equal sides or two states, instead of presenting it as what it is a nuclear power, the most powerful military in the world that is really attacking an imprisoned large refugee camp where people have nowhere to go. That is what's happening, it is not a war on Hamas or Israel-Gaza war, it is Israel's continuation of its settler colonial project, and now what it is doing using these genocidal policies, it can be argued as part of its settler colonial project. I got a little bit off track here, let me go back because international law it's you know what we're talking about what's happening today but Israel has been violating international law for the past eight decades and we are constantly documenting and talking about it from expulsion to mass transfer to the continued building of settlements which are a war crime torture which is a war crime specifically prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention. You have collective punishment, the targeting of civilians, apartheid, major human rights organizations, apartheid is a crime against humanity and again as I said what good has it done the Palestinian people for eight decades international law, international law, but when it's international law is used as a weapon of the powerful states we see what happens and how that turns out. So Gaza specifically the situation there has been a situation of ongoing war crimes and violations of international law and when I said that the situation we've been warning about is going to explode for 16 years a criminal blockade, a criminal blockade that UN a team of international experts in 2009 put out a report saying that this blockade is unlawful it is punishing an entire civilian population. Another report called it persecution which is another crime against humanity that's in back in 2009 and in 2008-2009 Israel launched on this closed territory Operation Cast Lead which killed over 1300 people destroyed thousands of the buildings homes, mosques, schools, UN places, devastation me and a small team of US attorneys were able to get in shortly after Operation Cast Lead and the devastation was overwhelming the trauma children who had who were buried and locked in in homes that had been targeted with the bodies of their dead parents or those who are now living on the rubble of their homes the children that we met then back in 2009 have lived 15 more years of a criminal closure that has denied them any basic sense or ability to live a dignified life and on top of that four major military assaults that has killed thousands from their friends to their neighbors to their relatives and we expect them not to try to break out from that prison I keep saying I am amazed that there are not more armed fighters that there are that almost every single person in Gaza isn't a fighter because the world has shown that people of Gaza nothing more than violence for their entire lives their entire lives they've known nothing more than violence an unlivable situation 97% of the water is not portable they can't even drink it as before the water was even cut off the UN said Gaza would be unlivable by 2020 and the world is turning a blind eye and on top of that allowing one of the most powerful military in the region to bomb them every few years and destroy everything else they have while the world looks away I'm not a psychologist but I don't see how someone that has lived that can be expected to just resist peacefully call for your rights or have better you know PR and then maybe the world will understand you better despite that Palestinians have been for decades the overwhelming majority of our resistance has been nonviolent and in 2018 1000 and 10 thousands of gardens marched to the barrier that Israel uses to cage the man demanding a right to return to their homes we saw what happened Israel put its snipers on hilltops and shot at them like fish in a barrel killing over 220 and injuring 36,000 a lot of them maimed lost limbs was anyone held accountable no the international criminal court finally opened an investigation in 2015 and it is looking into Israel's war on war I'm using that but Israel's assault on Gaza in 2014 it's looking into Israel's response to the Gaza freedom march and it's looking into the continued building of settlements 2015 it's been eight years there hasn't been any progress it took less than a year to issue international west warrant for Putin after his attack on on Ukraine so let me stop there because I could definitely go on I'm sorry if I'm fired up but there is so much and I just can't believe that we have to plead for people to recognize Palestinian humanity the last thing and nothing I said is to justify I'm absolutely against any killing of civilians but if we want to really stop the violence it is not by demonizing an entire people blaming this all on Hamas as if there is no context to it whatsoever we want to stop the violence we have to address the root cause of the violence and that's not only calling for a ceasefire now but that is dismantling Israel's settler colonial apartheid regime so Palestinians can be free only freedom and justice will bring about an end to the violence thank you so much oh wait a rough co-founder of the international solidarity movement I agree and you know people say well what's the solution the solution is equal rights and dignity for all and Israel Palestine you know personally I don't think you're going to have a state an exclusive or supremacist ethnic or religious state treat a fifth of its population a second-class citizens continuously expand settlements order home demolitions indefinite detentions torture I could go on apartheid roads apartheid walls and think that this is safety this is security now this is a recipe for endless violence until this occupation ends all right we were going to take a few questions Medea or Nur if you have a question maybe one each and then we'll go to our capital calling party okay Nura you want to start yeah I could start um so I think a question that came up a lot um was does Hamas allow people to leave Raza um and I feel like there's a lot to say about this question so if anybody wants to I can answer that to the best of my ability controlling all exits and entrants into Gaza is Israel there is one border um that is not directly controlled by Israel but it is indirectly controlled by Israel it is controlled jointly controlled between Egypt and and Israel and that was specifically explained to me by Egyptian authorities while we were organizing one of the flotillas and we were trying to get things in through Rafa and they explained that they do not like basically Israel approves when they open and when they don't know what goes it through and what doesn't so um so Hamas has kind of no control on what gets out but now as they're talking I think you've been hearing in the media Hamas is encouraging Palestinians not to leave uh as if you know it's being presented as if Hamas just wants civilians there as as human shields that is not the case uh Palestinians you're hearing over and over Palestinians likening this to and even saying it's worse than the original neck bay in 1948 when 750,000 Palestinians were were pushed out and uh thinking they'd be able to come back so Palestinians are seeing it as that if we go if there is if Rafa opens and an Israeli official I forget who it was right now but um actually said that they want the Palestinians and Gaza to go and and will make tent cities for them in Sinai uh of course they want they want to push the people out but the people themselves don't want to leave because they don't think that they'll be able to come home and certainly from their experience they won't be so no I don't believe it it's Hamas that's uh one they have no say in and so far the uh border the Rafa border crossing has not been opened and you know Israeli officials saying they can go and live in tent cities in the Sinai why don't you let them come back home which is inside Israel with their original homes yes and I've been reading about Israeli airstrikes on the border crossing tons of aid truckloads of aid sitting on the other side of the border that cannot get through because of the Israel's relentless bombing genocide yes in the making we are witnessing it Medea do you have a question before we go to our capital calling party um yeah maybe we could start with uh Noura and then Hueda to say where do you suggest that people go for their information I think uh the most um broad a range of options possible really I think you know to get information on the ground from the ground on social media um Ion Palestine has been a invaluable source I think updates more broadly El Jazeera has been really helpful there's IMU Institute for Middle East understanding that always provides really great analysis and voices and resources for journalists and others trying to find out more facts and context but yeah for return and like more historical knowledge I think that's really critical too um Ilam Poppe has uh you know a lot of really great history from Israeli perspective as well as um I think um yeah just there's uh there's there's yeah so those are some that for now but um yeah Hueda do you have any others no I think you covered a lot of the important ones on social media Ion Palestine that's been outstanding I don't understand how they even get all kind of these these videos um as they are happening and and some other people that you can follow on social media El Jazeera definitely if you're more like to watch the news if you like to read electronic intafada is probably a good source and IMU I think has a list of other sources but watching the U.S. and mainstream media right now will do you a great disservice U.S. disservice thank you so much Huad Arraf nor Akhuri I'm wonderful to have you as guests tonight and I just added in the chat others to follow on Insta on Twitter include Omar Badar a Middle East policy analyst terrific and Anthony Lowenstein an Australian journalist a Jewish man who is very critical of Israel and knowledgeable author of the Palestine lab exporting Israel surveillance technology etc all right with that we because there's so many on the call I'm just going to ask you to please post in the chat your thank yous your gratitude to our guests and we're going to move into our take action portion and of course we're not saying that this is to be all an end all to call your congressperson it is one action we can take certainly it's a part of an overall approach that also includes being very visible part of part of those protests around the country and in your local


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