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tv   Up Front  Al Jazeera  May 18, 2024 8:30am-9:00am AST

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self sufficient hunters of the sea are becoming akin to beggars line on handouts from locals. that's because the coast of mickey units, population, 13000, is home to more than 40 industries, including 12 cornfield thermo electric plants. the consequences of industrial pollution are everywhere. irises, fishermen, and non b. a genie. i'm gonna highlight a what i got into the crowds are all black underneath the coal. so when you crack them, the meat is all black too. and that proves there, contaminate one fisherman. jose sanchez tells us the floating waist from a nearby factory stings to the touch, which you will see here is a catch of muscles or in spanish mission eunice or these. and that's what gives this town it's name. the fisherman used to be able to get these just by going about 20 minutes from here and there boats. now we have to go out at least 4 hours, sometimes overnight, a day,
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even 2 days to be able to bring back as much as this. because it's the only way that they can bring back a product that's not contaminated. and they say studies show alarming levels of heavy metals in the water including mercury and the town has one of the highest cancer rates into the. to me not only by this is convinced that her 16 year old daughter is sy, really tumors an auto immune disease with a result of her having a large amount of local shellfish which she was pregnant. like allow, the doctor asked me if i leave the machine, the onus. no wonder he said, and the air and the water contaminated even the machine. but it's difficult to prove and even harder to demand compensation. cold is being phased out to reduce to these carbon footprint, but the industry is responsible for the damage that's already been done or not legally liable, because they didn't violate environmental standards at the time they were built.
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making eunice is one of julie's 5 thermo electric centers. nick named sacrifice owens k b a, b as belong to industrial, which provide a lion's share of employment. so people think twice before containing that defect environment and that has and given the shortage of alternative work here, the people of making units are left with a few good choices. see and human al jazeera mickey units. julie up front is next time. well madison, stay with us and i'll just here the why have american evangelicals become? is real strong. as backer is us president, you'll find the right to stand with israel with no red line. as long as us support continues. is there anything that can stop is real, solve on concept,
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from going on in? definitely a quizzical look at us. the bottom line, the us senate is points to vote on the anti semitism awareness that a bill that some say with complete criticism of israel with anti semitism. so what would it mean for the movement against israel's war on garza and to jewish communities grappling with fear for their safety? that conversation is coming up. but 1st, as israel continues this war on guys that it's leadership is far from presenting a united front, that support continues to grow within prime minister benjamin netanyahu, whose cabinet, as the government also faces discontent and protest from this really citizen. so what lies ahead for the countries leadership and what impact will it have on the palestinian israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu government has been called the most right when governments, since the countries inception. and in the midst of israel's war on gaza,
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which is now when its 7th month, the pool of the far right agenda has left a pronounced mark when the manner in which the war is being conducted. but these rarely public discontent with this government is growing. as are the divisions within netanyahu's cabinet itself. so what lies ahead here to speak with us about it is journalist and editor of is really new site local call, or the noises on upfront or lee, thank you so much for joining us. is real, seems to be preparing for a full scale invasion of the southern city of rough, but meanwhile tensions continued to mount between members of the government. with many, from the far right, urging the prime minister to ignore international pressure to call. busy a further assault on the city of norfolk, there been numerous times and the disagreements have come out to the public. they've been airing their disagreements in the public sphere. how deep right now are the cracks in these really government? let's thank you so much for having me. it's a very problematic composition of, of governments, and the disagreements are quite deep,
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but not deep enough to really threat. mr. now, is government, at least not at this point. it is very obvious that the guns and he's camp are the very much not satisfied with the way that that they need out has been handling the war. and they are very, very much aware of the growing public pressure to end the war. not because these really public is so much worried with the whole horrifying massacre that these are and has been kind of conducting in gaza. but rather because there is a growing understanding among these rarely publics, that there is actually no waiting to bring back those among the hostages that are still still alive and, and those who are not without ending the war that's on the other hand it to me,
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y'all, is very much a hostage, so to speak, in the hands of the ex, treatments in these governments. people like it's a mile bank via but to lead small toilet. so it stops. and in the so that's very clearly a threatened to british top the, the, the government, if latonya backs down from a full sledge attack on the roof off. that seems to be approaching you, you raise an important point here. benjamin. that's in. yeah. whose position as prime minister is directly linked it's beholden to, hostage to, to use your language. but his political alliances with the far right people likes motors and been viewed. but that's what, that's what that's he has always been good at managing those alliances and doing what's necessary to stay and offices that continue. which i think that's uh, nathan, you know, i got to caught up with the self image of himself as this, you know, in,
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in hebrew is very often referred to as the magician, the political magician that can always, you know, make his way as through the most difficult of surfing political circumstances. i don't think that this is the case. any more of it i, there hasn't been a single reliable opinion. public opinion poll that shows any degree affected of public satisfaction with his conduct as prime, and they still read the way he's been handling the the war. so you know, at the best scenario, furniture and yeah, we are talking only to enable him to finish. that's term there is no few calling because future for understanding. yeah, this is quite clear for everybody. i'm not sure he's understanding it, but there is no way around it. he cannot, he will not be able to form
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a government the following the next election. may i ask more? so what i mean is your question about that because we keep talking as if nothing yahoo is gesturing to the right and appealing to the right out of political expediency. but why are we not to believe that he actually is the right wing extremist, that he lives in self with. and he only appears moderate to uh, to, to, to get more widespread acceptance of me. who is that in yahoo at the core? honestly i don't see it. i mean, for me personally, it doesn't really match or does it matter is a person is promoting fascist, racist, of a supremacy policy is because he truly believes in them or just to, to accommodate his put a put a to co partners. i don't think that this has been relevant. the fact is, but that then y'all has been promoting extreme needs all of those uh,
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policies and not totally visa because uh you said that uh uh mr. neal has been shooting, you know, uh, 2 or directions. he's been provoking of the situation in the north. she's being provoked. seems to be the situation visa be wrong. he has been promoting extreme anti democratic conduct against the palestinian citizens of these when there is a growing persecution. and because this, the persecution of notes on the palestinian citizens, but also of jewish activities, or anybody who you know, expresses any har recently what's going on, even john saw or speech and about a genocide. so to, you know, if, if this is really the person or just who's putting to go persona,
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i don't think that there is a difference anymore. it, it makes any difference at this point. speaking of the far right, the far right has been very vocal in israel over the last week, particularly after president biden announced that he wouldn't be sending any more weapons to israel if they were going to be using a ground evasion in the rough or now of course, since that announcement biden is agreed to send other stuff to you know, oh, billions of dollars over $1000000000.00 in, in aid to israel. so it was a shortly in a moment of frustration for the right, but never the less. when it happened, a security minister, it's more been a very tweeted, mass loves buying and how may i have heart bided in response when you see this type of rhetoric coming out of these really government and aimed at israel's top ally the united states. when critics would argue the us has been very little terrain in israel during this time. how does that impact the
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international standing of israel? and there is no question that you spend these at the most difficult position i regarding its international position since its establishment 76 years ago. there is no doubt about that. we are losing grounds not . we've only we saw our biggest ally of the united states, but also we split our countries, we school, we have peace treaties and they are burning all of the political breaches of israel. we to forge of for rights ministers in the cabinets. how there's no fee, dodge of for is, was international staff to they are really searching for something fundamentally different to be a chipped through chaos through our govern armageddon. and in the time you know who
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it is, is really a captive right right now in their hands. and that's in yahoo. doesn't have to call for elections until october of 2026. but there's still been a mounting pressure for all the reasons you've mentioned. for him to schedule early elections, he of course has dismissed these uh these, these demands, arguing that israel is at war and that elections would essentially, to use his language, paralyzed hostage negotiations, and that it would bring it in to the war before the goals are completely achieved, how do you respond to this argument from net in yahoo that effectively he's not going to call for early elections, which is what the people want because it would undermine the stability and growth of the country to? nope, i think that's following up until the 7th and the horror and the shock into the
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rage. that's uh, of the east. really public salesman. some yeah. i knew that he had to do something drastic. and i think that's in a way his thoughts, that massive massacre would ease the sense of re bang. sure this was very much existing amongst, among these rarely public. and therefore in that way, reduced the political pressure that he was under. that's the best thing is, is that he promised these really public things that he could never filled. 2 things . one is the return of the hostages, and the 2nd is the ultimate victory. the final victory, the absolute speak 3, which nobody really has any idea of what it is supposed to look like. the big list of these to the find the low to absolute, the victory a allows the fall right?
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to sink. oh, to imagine the absolute victory as the final, the in elation of gospel street. and we should really be aware of that that there are people in these when not so few that understand that is really victory as the ultimate to 9 nations of the gaza strip. and this among other is what brought us to it is the international court of justice or the noir. and we thank you so much for joining me on upfront. thank you. back the, the anti semitism awareness act is points for a vote in the us senate to pass in the house earlier this month by a large majority. the bill with right into law, the international holocaust remembrance, alliances definition of anti semitism which civil liberties groups 8, will both suppress criticism of the state of israel and make it more difficult to address the actual anti semitism. pro israel politicians have been pushing for the
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bill since 2016, but appear to be capitalizing on the climate of fear that it has arisen in recent months or with demonstrations against israel's continued war on guys. so what will this mean for pro palestinian organizing, as well as for conversations around anti semitism? joining us to discuss this is read by j michael since he is a contributing column this for the forward. and we also have lar friedman with this president of the foundation for middle east peace. thank you both for joining me. laura. i'm actually going to start with you if past this bill is going to write the international holocaust remembrance alliances. a definition of anti semitism into federal law saying that quote, anti semitism is a certain perception of use which may be expressed as hatred towards use. now this girl seems like a pretty benign definition. but human rights watch the c o u american civil liberties union and, but selling these really human rights group and others are sound the alarm over
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adoption of an i h r a definition. why? so that the battle are on the ice r i definition of had to semitism has been going on, as he said, since 2016 and it really isn't over the sentence you read. although experts on anti semitism will say that that sentence is badly written and doesn't really say much. the battle is really around a set of examples that are appended to that definition. and there's controversy over how they became appended to it. but those, those examples of the majority of them deal not with hatred or discrimination or threats or violence against jews as jews. they deal with criticism of israel and this is the latest controversy. this isn't the 1st with the anti semitism awareness act, is that this is really a self effort to redefine anti semitism to not only include criticism of as well, but just focus on and prioritize it. and then have that as a weapon against palestine rights activism against organizing and even against jewish people around the world to criticize this route. because according to that
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definition, examples, for example, if you're an organization like mine which focuses only on israel palestine or narrowly focused, people argue, well that means you're anti semitic because under the ira definition, criticism is deemed to be anti semitic. if you are not equally criticizing all others who are guilty of similar bad behavior, which is sort of like saying, you can't have an organization that focuses only on the welfare of say, elephants. if you focus on the welfare and elephants, it means your anti, the welfare of every other, organise every other animal. right? it's, it's, there's something in name about this to suggest that in order to criticize, in order to engage in criticism of israel, you have to be an anti semite that that's what it's setting up as an argument. jay, what do you say to the person who pushes back to that argument? that large is laid out and says, yeah, but there has to be some room uh to criticize a very real practice of isolation. for example,
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if we criticize israel for having an imperfect democracy, right? all the nations in the world, they call themselves democratic, are imperfect democracies. but if we only focus on israel's, then that represents an example of isolation and exceptionalism and ultimately anti semitism. what do you say to people who say that these kinds of double standards are the problem? well, i think the question is whether it is a double standard. i mean, israel is so uniquely situated, some of the countries of the world's leading recipient of us foreign aid. it has a lot, there is a whole special relationship between the countries. there are many reasons why one might focus on the imperfect democracy to use your phrase in israel, rather than somewhere else. it's just, it's just as far as that, there are many reasons why you might want to focus on the, let's say, misdeeds or, or actions of one country and not necessarily another. and again, israel as is reliant on american foreign aid. so these things are happening on our dime. the ira definition has no space for any of that nuance. now j if the bill is
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past the, the department of education is going to be required to use the i h r a definition. when judging anti semitism complaints within american universities and against universities. it'll also revolt funding for schools that failed to discipline or even ban events. uh professors, campus groups who speak out against israel. now jewish parents, warren's us, that we're seeing and unfolding what they call maro panic. that power, those the red squares or the 19 twenties and the 1950s. how do you see it? i mean, i, i describe this as a moral panic back in december, january, where we saw university presidents hauled before a congressional committee in a process designed to trap them. and i think what's interesting about moral panic is it is a panic. there are a lot of reasons and i think it's important make space for those. there. a lot of reasons why americans choose to feel profoundly unsettled right now. obviously october 7th and the unprecedented hires of that day. and then also the ways in
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which many of our allies in the progressive community either did or didn't respond . and then the rupture of both legitimate, i would say anti israel protests and illegitimate anti semitism. and americans who is, are in this really heightened state and it's very, it's a very tough time that a lot of people are experiencing. and that condition is being weaponized by opportunists, primarily on the right to further their own ends, which are ends, which are really about attacking all kinds of a university education. attacking what they see is instruments of liberal culture and indoctrination and so forth that jews have been enlisted in this war on work. is there a tremendously cynical i think exploitation of the real pain that so many americans use are feeling right now a lot. there's been a pattern in recent years of defining anti semitism very, very broadly in the us, the anti defamation league has tally the near 400 percent increase in anti
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submitting incidents since october. this number, however, explicitly counts all palestinian solidarity activism is anti semitic spring opposition from the inside of the atm. you have a po, staff, or say, hey, this is too broad, we're going to far, that's a red flag. what does this trend mean for, for, for efforts to actually combat anti semitism? look, i mean, as we move further and further away from what is the common sense understanding of what is anti semitism which really boils down to threats, discrimination against violence, against hatred of jews because they are jewish and you move further and further into conflicting being jewish with supporting israel, which let's remember, has always been considered anti semitic. you open the door for a whole new surge of real anti semitism which you don't record and you're not watching because you're given cover to it by saying, well, they support israel, so they're not anti semitic. and by the way, we're much more worried. and if you look at the last couple atl reports,
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you'll see that even in their huge 3rd, they're saying of what they call into some it doesn't. the majority of anti semitism of the recording is not related to what they call israel, or, or hatred, or protest against israel's treatment of palestinians. it's actual hatred against jews. but if you read the headlines, all they're focusing on is the palestinian rights protest. criticism that is around what it's doing in gaza there. prioritizing that in the fight against that above all else. well 1st that's picking up our largest side. if you compare the anti semitism that is present in some quarters of the far left to what's happening in the far right, we've got a holocaust deniers being the republican nominee for the governor of north carolina . that if this, that is a way, more serious threat, i feel as a rabbis to my own safety to the safety of american choose the, then any, you know, anti semitic offense that happened on a college campus. you know, by
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a lone activists here there by somebody who has, who has maybe even coming, you know, from the outside and, and, and kind of trying to stir up trouble. there is just no comparison. there's no, there's no democratic equivalent with, you know, donald trump, dinings next one days, for example, you noted white supremacists and indeed anti semite and a neo nazi basically. so there's just, it's, it's, there's sort of a comparison or an equation of occasional over steps on the left or i would say, i do think i do think that at some campuses didn't, protestors could do a better job of drawing clear lines, making sure that no individual jewish students are being harassed in any way, making sure that no conspiratorial claims about, do you know, some jewish conspiracy controlling politics are made in any way. however, the vast majority of those protests are at the appalling nature of the war and gaza . and i may agree or disagree with, you know, everything, some active assess,
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but that is a political protest obviously. and i want to add one thing, which is, you know, i think it might be helpful for viewers to kind of see where some of the jewish students are coming from on these campuses. you know, i grew up in the conservative jewish move in kind of the middle of the road in terms of religiosity in america and zionism. not just love of the land of israel or historical ties land result. but political scientism was part of my jewish education. and it became part of my jewish identity when i was a teenager. and to see that attacked can make a lot of folks feel as though they were being personally attacked. and so i think it could be helpful to just sort of what are we doing, but that's a lot of i can say, what do we do with that logic? right. so if we say right political zionism was baked into this in the same way that maybe slaveholding was baked into, you know, early american, you know, education isn't for white americans, right? in any disruption of people's way of life can be unsettling. and it can, they can feel as a personal attack, but at the marlin political levels,
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how do we respond to the fact that people personalize those things? you know, that's right. i don't love that analogy, but even so i think there's, yeah, that just because somebody feels as though they may be being targeted because of their identity, that doesn't mean that that's what's actually happening. i think we could both both sides so to speak, could do with a little more empathy of what's happening. i think jewish students on campus uh do feel as though they're under attack. we could put kind of understand that subjective experience without weaponized thing it. and in listing the role of the federal government to police speech into punish campuses that don't punish free speech. right? that's clearly not the way to deal with the pain that people are feeling. i think it could also and, and conversely, people who were concerned about these protests and who were scared by these protest could use a bit more empathy of the with the protestors let alone with the people and gods of course. and could see where they're actually coming from, but in neither case should the power of the states and the power of the purse strings and also the criminal power, you know, the power of the state to, to,
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to punish crime, being listed to patrol political speech lout journalist musher guessing has pointed out that even the a claimed german jewish philosopher, honda, all right, would be labeled anti semitic under the h r. a definition. specifically, the portion that deems quote, comparisons of contemporary is rarely policy to that of the nazis. 1 or rent widely considered when the 20th century is great, as scholars on anti semitism, genocide and holocaust once compared to jewish is really power military group to the nazis were attacking and killing in error village. if this does become the legal definition of anti semitism, where does the ultimate lead use? who are critical design is to all, i mean, much like the debate around the demonstrators and the protests right now. it's effectively invisible lives of jewish people who are critical of as early as effectively deems them not existing in the debate or themes. i'm not jewish. and
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therefore legitimate to that. and we have terms that have come up in recent years like, and you or, you know, as you mean, or as soon as i'm china, no jew in name only. i mean, there is a new framework being being brought in by some parties who really want zionism to be. judy isn't. which says that if you are not an ardently zionist you, you're not really jewish. and by contrast, if you aren't jewish, but are ardently zion is, you are kind of jewish or more jewish than the jews who criticize. so we're in this moment of great irony is where, you know, you have this enormous pressure. a lot of it from forces like the ideal but also forces like the anti woke. right. and we're not particularly interested in jewish safety saying you must pass this to protect jews even as it will, you know, invisible as a large part of the jewish population. united states and other places, and an israel that is extremely critical of israel and does not believe that zion is in is exactly the same as being jewish, larry freedman,
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rabbi j. michelson. thank you both so much for joining me in upfront everybody. that is our show upfront. we'll be back the the 2 of us didn't even customs their smuggling undocumented workers across the legs from the occupied westberg to witness their incredible stories from over 9 years. desert smugglers with this document on the jersey in the news? yes. again, these palestinians families in rough rep what little they have following forward is from the east really military evacuation or risk that they what told roughly what
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to provide safety. the closure of the rough are crossing has prevented the departure of thousands of wounded people. and patients who were waiting to travel among them is a 2 year old lumber of a holy. she and her cousin, sustained injuries and isabel s try it costs money off to 7 months of the path for more than one point. $5000000.00 palestinians remain some such and as does this apply to humanitarian aid into this trip with the warnings they could be further depleted? was this place from all? shoot ya on the sierra 10 to daniel bella tend to alpha. and this will be the 5th displacement, 8 groups holding for isabel to de escalate now and say there's no planned the for the people in rough. the, the challenges here where the
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overnight is there any attack, some jobs, a southern region of us are killed at least 2 palestinians, emergency workers say others may be trumped under the rubble the enrollment center. this is obviously have a lot for me to have also coming up. there are trucks on the other side waiting to get in with desperate material that people need. and it's absolutely vital we get those crossings on the 1st day of shipments delivered via.

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