11/28/23 11/28/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> there is understandable fear across the country. even as we speak, the atf and fbi are investigating the tragic shooting of reman of palestinian descent in vermont. that investigation, including whether this is a hate crime, is

ongoing. amy: three posted college students were shot saturday night in burlington, vermont, as they headed to eat dinner at the home of one of their grandmother's. the fbi is now investigating the shooting as a possible hate crime. we will speak to joyce ajlouny, the former head of the ramallah friends school in the occupied west bank where all three students went to school. she is now the general secretary of the american friends service committee. then we speak to prize winning investigative journalist jeremy scahill about israel's propaganda war over al-shifa hospital in gaza city. >> israel's propaganda campaign about al-shifa hospital being this important hamas pentagon, basically, underground that was entirely backed up by the president of united states and his administration. amy: plus, we will remember the life and legacy of pablo yoruba guzmán who co-founded the new york chapter of the young lords

and later became a pioneering journalist in new york. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. israel and hamas have agreed to pause fighting for an additional 48 hours after mediators secured a deal for both sides to release more captives. on monday, the red cross said it facilitated the release and transfer of 11 israeli hostages held in gaza. their release came as israel freed three palestinian women and 30 children from israeli prisons. it was the fourth exchange since the gaza truce came into effect last week. israeli attacks on gaza since october 7 have killed about 15,000 people, more than 6000 of them children. the world health organization warns more palestinians could soon die of preventable diseases than of israel's bombardment unless gaza's health system is rapidly repaired.

on monday, british-palestinian surgeon dr. ghassan abu sitta spoke about his experiences in gaza hospitals. >> one of the most horrific scenes that i witnessed in al-shifa hospital was went after the air raid and the dead and wounded were brought in, members of the shifa medical staff and nursing staff would be running frantically in the emergency department looking at the faces of the wounded and the dead to see whether their relatives had been among the wounded and, in many cases, it their children were among the wounded and dead. amy: billionaire elon musk has met with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. on monday, musk joined the israeli leader on a tour of the kfar aza kibbutz, which was attacked by hamas on october 7. after the tour, musk said his spacex company had agreed, in principle, to allow aid

organizations in gaza to access the starlink internet satellite service but only with israeli approval. aid groups spent weeks pleading for help restoring communications after israel's siege repeatedly triggered internet and cell phone blackouts. that contrasts with february of 2022 when musk rushed starlink terminals into ukraine just days after russia's invasion. elon musk's trip to israel comes amid an exodus of advertisers from the social media site x, formerly twitter, after musk tweeted his support for a user's racist antisemitic comments attacking jewish people and promoting a far-right anti-immigrant conspiracy theory. in vermont, a 48-year-old man accused of shooting three palestinian college students pleaded not guilty monday to three counts of attempted second-degree murder. he allegedly shot the students from his porch as they walked by. u.s. attorney general merrick garland said the fbi is investigating whether the shooting was a hate crime. two of the students remain hospitalized. hisham awartani, who was shot in

the spine, has reportedly lost feeling in the lower part of his body. he is a brown university student. we'll have more on this story after headlines. here in new york, a former senior state department official has pleaded not guilty to hate crime and stalking charges after a viral video showed him harassing and threatening a food cart vendor with violent, racist, and islamophobic language. stuart seldowitz served as deputy director of the u.s. state department's office of israel and palestinian affairs from 1999 to 2003. he was a national security adviser under former president obama. in washington, d.c., a group of state lawmakers, palestinian rights advocates, and supporters have launched a hunger strike demanding a permanent ceasefire in gaza. on monday, they gathered outside the white house for the five-day peaceful action. this is rana abdelhamid, a former candidate for congress and an egyptian-american

community organizer from queens, new york. >> over the past couple of weeks, we have seen an incredibly harmful uptick in violence impacting across all of our communities. when we normalize the deaths and murder of palestinian people, vis-à-vis our foreign policy, we normalize death and violence here in united states, across all of our communities. we need to understand violence only allows for more violence. what we need is negotiation. what we need is diplomacy stop what we need is human rights and for all families to return safely, to not have to endure more bombing, more violence, and more destruction. amy: activist and actor cynthia nixon, best known for her role in "sex and the city," is among those who joined the hunger strike. nixon, former candidate for new york governor, also spoke monday. >> we are hunger striking as a way of amplifying that, yes,

palestinians are being bombed and killed by they are also being starved and so many of them are on the brink of starvation. amy: the united nations secretary-general has once again called on nations to act to prevent a catastrophic rise in global temperatures. antónio guterres spoke to reporters in new york monday head of the cup 28 -- cop28 united nations climate summit, which opens later this week in dubai. over the weekend, guterres visited antarctica to witness firsthand the "deadly impact of the climate crisis." guterres warned sea ice along antarctica's coast is now 1.5 million square kilometers below average for this time of year and southern sea ice is melting three times faster than the rate in the early 1990's. cook's it is shocking to stand on the ice of antarctica and hear directly from scientists fast the ice is disappearing.

this year, and arctic is cis -- antarctica sea ice is at an all-time low. that matters for us all. what happens in antarctica does not stay in antarctica. we live in an interconnected world. amy: president biden will not attend the world leaders' summit at cop in dubai next weekend. 28 the white house has not officially confirmed whether biden will make an appearance at the u.n. climate summit at a later date. biden has attended the last two cop summits and just this month said climate change was "the ultimate threat to humanity." cop28 is expected to be the largest summit yet, with some 70,000 delegates and world leaders and senior officials from nearly every nation in attendance. last week, the european parliament approved a resolution for its cop delegation to push for an end to all fossil fuel subsidies worldwide "as soon as possible and by 2025 the latest." democracy now! we'll be broadcasting live all next week from the u.n. climate summit in

dubai. meanwhile, the labor rights group equidem has released a report highlighting the ongoing abuse of migrants workers in the uae, including at expo city in dubai, the site of the climate summit. workers cite extreme heat, inadequate food allowances, and wage theft as some of the violations they are facing. an undercover sting operation by the center for climate reporting has exposed a saudi government plan to artificially raise global oil demand just days before the u.n. climate summit. a team posing as oil investors spoke to officials from saudi arabia's oil sustainability programme, or osp, who admitted to targeting africa and asia with oil and diesel products under a program controlled by the saudi ministry of energy. their investigation aired as part of a report on channel 4 news. >> an extraordinary admission from the saudi's they are trying to artificially raise oil demand in a climate crisis. >> my impression is it is a risk

of declining will demand, so they've been artificially stingley to man? >> yes, it is one of the aspects we are trying to do, one of the main objectives we are trying to accomplish. amy: mohamed adow, the director of the climate and energy think tank power shift africa, said in response -- "the saudi government is like a drug dealer that is trying to get africa hooked on its harmful products. at a time when the rest of the world is weaning itself off dirty and polluting fossil fuels and saudi arabia is getting desperate for more customers and is turning its sights on africa." and related news, document obtained by the center for climate reporting have revealed cop 28 host, the united arab emirates, plan to use the climate talks as an opportunity to strike oil and gas deals with 15 nations. more united nations officials are expressing grave concern over the worsening humanitarian crisis in the democratic

republic of the congo. the u.n. refuge agency and unicef said they're greatly alarmed by the escalating violence between armed groups and government forces in eastern congo that's led to the displacement of millions of people. the ongoing conflict has also hindered the access of humanitarian aid. the agencies also warn of severe human rights violations including against children. reports of rights, arbitrary killings of civilians. -- reports of rapes, arbitrary killings of civilians. many shelter sites are overcrowded with limited access to food and clean water. >> we don't want this life of begging. at home we have fields and cattle and lived very well. the most important thing is to stop the war so we can return home. amy: this comes as the drc is gearing up for a presidential election in december. security in the eastern region has been a center issue for candidates who hope to unseat the congolese president felix tshisekedi. russia has opened a criminal

case against award-winning russian-american writer and journalist masha gessen. the kremlin is accusing gessen, who's a staff writer for "the new yorker," of spreading false information over remarks gessen made about the massacre of ukrainian civilians by russian forces in the city of bucha in march 2022. gessen lived in russia for decades before returning to the u.s. in 2013 after the enforcement of anti lgbtq+ laws. the criminal charges in russia will also limit gessen's travel to countries with extradition treaties with moscow. in related news, a russian court has extended the pre-trial detention of "wall street journal" journalist evan gershkovich for another two months. the ruling was made in a closed-door hearing earlier today. he's been jailed since march on espionage charges and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. and ken squire, an american broadcasting legend, lifelong advocate of independent media, and owner of wdev, died

november 15 at the age of 88. he was the first journalist inducted into the nascar hall of fame in recognition of his role in bringing car racing to national television as an announcer for cbs. he also brought democracy now! to vermont when wdev become one of the only commercial radio stations carrying it into thousand four. he believed radio must serve the community and have diversity of you so everyone felt represented on the air. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman in new york, joined by democracy now!'s juan gonzález in chicago. hi, juan. juan: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: we begin today's show in burlington, vermont, where three palestinian college students

were shot on saturday as they walking to dinner at the home of one of the student's grandmothers who lives near the university of vermont. two of the men were wearing keffiyehs and speaking arabic at the time of the attack. the young men have been identified as hisham awartani, a brown university student, kinnan abdalhamid, of haverford college, and tahseen ahmad, a student at trinity college. they were all graduates of the ramallah friends school in the occupied west bank. two of the students remain hospitalized. hisham awartani who was shot in , the spine, has reportedly lost feeling in the lower part of his body. authorities have charged a 48-year-old man named jason eaton with three counts of second degree attempted murder. he is being held without bail. he pleaded not guilty on monday. he reportedly shot the students from his porch as they walked by.

u.s. attorney general merrick garland said the fbi is investigating whether the shooting was a hate crime. the shooting comes just weeks after a six-year-old palestinian american boy was stabbed to death near chicago. by his landlord. the mother of one of the students told abc news "to us it is decades of dehumanizing policy and rhetoric from u.s. leaders toward palestinians and arabs, including from the biden administration which has caused our children to be in the situation that they are in. on monday, relatives of the men shot in vermont joined local authorities at a news conference. this is rich price, the uncle of hisham awartani. >> we speak only on behalf of the family because the family can't be here. i want to say these three young men are incredible. that is not just proud uncle speaking but it is true. they are -- they have their

lives in front of them. i moved here 15 years ago. i never imagined that this sort of thing could happen. my sister lives in the occupied west bank, and people often ask me, aren't you worried about your sister? worried about your nephews and your niece? the reality is, as difficult as their life is, they are surrounded by incredible sense of community. tragic irony is not even the right phrase, but to have them stay with me for thanksgiving and have something like this happen speaks to the level of vitriol, sinks to the level of hatred that exists in some corners of this country. it speaks to a sickness of gun violence that exists in this country. amy: that was rich price, the

uncle of hisham awartani, one of three college students of palestinian decent who were shot on saturday in burlington, vermont. and this is kinnan abdalhamid's uncle radi tamimi. >> kinnan grew up in the west bank and we always thought that could be more of a risk in terms of his safety and sending him here would be, you know, the right decision. we feel somehow betrayed in that decision here. we are just trying to come to terms with everything. amy: we are joined by two guests. in burlington, vermont, is wafic faour, a palestinian refugee from lebanon. he's a member of vermonters for justice in palestine. joyce ajlouny is the general -- former director of the ramallah friends school, the school where all three of the students shot in vermont had graduated from.

she is now the general secretary of the international quaker social justice organization american friends service committee. she herself is palestinian american. we welcome you both to democracy now! wafic faour, let's begin with you. where were you on saturday when you got the news that three young palestinian students, all 20 years old, best friends visiting one of their grandmothers for thanksgiving, were shot? >> i was at my house in richmond. thank you, amy, for inviting us. i was at my house. we were organizing many activities and rallies because of what is happening in palestine in this genocide war against our people over there. definitely, i was shocked.

our community here is terrified and angry. but, amy, we should talk about what brought this atmosphere of hate. this is a hate crime and we should call it as is. from the federal level, the actions of the biden administration and secretary of state blinken and the defense secretary that supporting israel unconditionally and talking about the palestinian victims and questioning the numbers of the palestinian health ministry -- this is the federal level. and here in vermont for the past two years, we have living under siege, too, from attacks from institutions will be brought

resolution to talk about palestinian rights, hollis tinian rights -- palestinian rights, the protection of the palestinian people. we found attacks from administration from many faith-based institutions. and they called us anti-semitic. and this atmosphere will bring to the american public that if you talk about palestinian rights, you are going to be called terrorists. if you where ar keffiyeh like this, will be called a terrorist. this is a hate crime. unfortunately, our leaders here in vermont did not call it as is . and we should call it as is and use the right words. juan: specifically at the press

conference that was held on monday by law enforcement, what do you believe should have been said but was not? >> when the state attorney mentioned it is a hateful event but it is not a hate crime, i mean, if it happened to another community, it would have been called a hate crime immediately. and now they are questioning the mental capacity of the attacker. believe me, we feel here if the name of the attacker is a muslim name or arab name, he would be called a terrorist immediately by the media and the media will have a field describing that person. now the attacker is a white

supremacist and because of the atmosphere and racism against the muslims, arabs, and the palestinians here, in this state and all across the united states, we don't call it as is. at the same time, the mayor of burlington who opposed -- and he promised to reject and veto any resolution in our progressive city that calls for palestinian human rights and our rights as a palestinian-american citizen and solidarity groups to use our first amendment and call for the right of bds. and that happened a year and half ago. you cannot have a double standard that attack us because we are activists for the rights of the palestinians at the same

time when something like this, you just bring sorrow and mour ning and defend yourself where you stand. you have to stand with people regardless. and you have to be the mayor of all the citizens. and i call for the burlington councilmembers to bring stronger resolution and mainly for cease-fire now. the palestinians are dying. we are working to stop this genocide over there. we have our local -- we have responsibility to support our solidarity group and the people in burlington, vermont. juan: i wanted to ask you, the mother of one of the injured young men hisham awartani has been trying to leave ramallah

and travel to the u.s. to see her son. is there any news about whether she will be able to come? >> i don't know. i heard she is coming. i saw a statement about that. i don't know if she is on her way already. i know a sister and her husband of another victim is here. i am in contact with the stepfather of another victim. he told me his health is improving now. but we have to take this crime as example of what feel and what we are experiencing here. we stand by those victims. but at the same time, i have to talk to you about the fear and the anger of our community here

in vermont. the palestinians and the arab community in particular. and our solidarity groups and young students who are getting attacked by uv administration's urine half ago from middle very administration -- a year and a half ago from middlebury administration. amy: i want to bring in joyce ajloalesnian american who served as the director of ramallah friends school from romolo. she is now the general secretary of american friends service committee, joining us from virginia stop can you talk about where they went to school? these were three best friends, now 20 years old.

i think you are muted. >> terribly sorry. thank you for having me. as you are speaking to wafic, i received a message from two saying they are on their way to america, just answer your russian about if they are planning en route. correct you are in bethesda, maryland. >> close enough. vermont friends school was established in 1869 by quicker missionaries. it is a phenomenal place. i'm a graduate of the school myself. my grandmother who is a palestinian quaker graduated from there in the 1920's. this is a probably for many of us.

not that it is academically superior, but it is also the quicker values and the foundations of peace and nonviolence of teaching tolerance and service and technique, conflict resolution, emphasizing dialogue and inquiry. that is what school is about. any track record is phenomenal -- and the track record is phenomenal when we look at our graduates and what they are to was that graduates say they are because of the ramallah friends school. it is a phenomenal place that just transform the lives of many throughout generations. so i know hisham awartani, kinnan abdalhamid, and tahseen aliahmad are proud alums. getting together as most of us

are, palestinian-americans here. i also want to share three of them are posting-american so sometimes that is dropped from the news. two are american citizens. they gathered together to provide solace for each other and just vent sometimes. i'm for it like, they have witnessed this horrific crime in the midst of them coming together to comfort each other. i think that is what has happened, unfortunately, this time. the amy: you posted on facebook their poems. i'm wondering if you could read them for us? how old were they, sixth? >> they were six grade.

i had the privilege of being the head of school when they were in middle school. the librarian -- i will read hisham awartani's who now goes to brown. brilliant students, all of them. accomplished, top-notch, value-driven. i wanted to say, amy, before i read his poem, that is how selfless our students are. hisham awa wrote to his purposea brown come "it is important to recognize this is part of the larger story. a serious crime this to happen in a vacuum. as much as i appreciate and love every single one of you here today, i am but one casualty and a much wider conflict. this is why when you say your

wishes and let your candles today, you should -- your mind should not just be focused on me as an individual but rather a proud member of a people being oppressed." these are his words since the shooting. when he was in sixth grade in 2015, he wrote, "hope dwells in my heart. it shines like a light in darkness. the light cannot be smothered. it cannot be drowned. -- john out by the screams of the wounded. it only grows in strength. this light can outshine hate. this light can outshine justice. it out shines apartheid. peder opened a box.

when she did that, all the evil escape. luckily, pandora closed the jar before hope could escape. as long as hope stays in that jar, hope would never escape. i ask you one thing, learn from the story, learn to never give up hope, learn to let hope get power in the darkness of times and let the light shine." amy: wow. hisham in sixth grade. how about tahseen? >> there are two poems. one depicts where students are coming from. they are coming from living under a brutal occupation, apartheid system that agonized system, that traumatizes them day in and day out. children, sixth-graders.

he writes "my ears are pounding for some children dying. mother's crying. by authorities lying. my ears are pounding. my ears are pounding. missiles destroying. bombs exploding. bullets exploding. dreams trace list. wents -- lands ownerless. kids without mothers. palestine without others. my ears are pounding. my ears are pounding. there is one sound i heard. not from a breeze or a bird. the sound of darkness. my ears are pounding. my ears are pounding. i'd rather be deaf." that says a lot about where we

are at today in the story of the palestinian struggle, which is often depicted that this all started on october 7. this is 2015. when you read this poem, feel like you're reading it about today, about our people in gaza and what they're going through. yes, this was eight years ago. the struggle continues. juan: joyce, i wanted to ask you if you could comment on the tragic irony that the families of the victims haveai interviewy thought the u.s. would be a safer place for their children than the west bank and then to have this terrible tragedy occur here. >> of course. i think that is the actual truth. i know a large number of

palestinians from the ramallah friends school edited u.s. -- attend u.s. colleges. when they come here, the parents know they are keeping them away from being subjected to violence from not just israeli military but israeli settlers. i have a 31-year-old son there now and i worry about his safety . the settlers have been emboldened. there is violence there every day. you wonder you send them here and this keffiyeh has now become a symbol instead of our struggle, instead of a symbol of our tradition -- our traditional dress and our struggle, it is now being painted and painted as a symbol of violence.

i have another son in washington, d.c. he does not leave home without his keffiyeh. i worry about him, too. that is where we are at right now. i can't but agree with wafic about the dehumanization taking place. this is not new. palestinians -- even in our grief, we are depicted as palestinians dying, right? while israelis are being killed and massacred. language matters. that is what we have seen time and time again. the 47 children dying on the west bank between january and august of this year, way before this war started, and i wonder, who cry for them? who mourned tghhem?

where was the u.s. mainstream media talking about them? it is not just the language, it is also the framing. that this is the worst attacks as the holocaust. painting palestinians as jew haters. this is a religious struggle rather than a people seeking freedom, seeking liberation from a settler colonial system. remembering palestinians of all faith are in the same struggle as well. they have not been offered the humanity and unity that they deserve. this is all manifest due to the continued dehumanization not only by the media but by our government. that they continue to turn a blind eye. they continue to embolden the

israeli atrocities by sending more aid and supporting the genocide of our people. so that is truly the reason why this is happening. i also want to take the opportunity, there is an exchange of hostages. when they talk about that, they talk about israelis released our children while the palestinians who are released are teenagers. children versus teenagers. in my book, they are all hostages. the fact the media is not talking about the 3000 palestinians who have been kidnapped, basically, since october 10 and put in israeli

jails and calling them -- they are not prisoners, they are bargaining chips that they will use in exchange. to us, they are hostages come just like the hostages that are held in gaza. that is the narrative that is being talked about the in and day out. and people who have sentiments that are anti-arab, anti-muslim are emboldened by that and take action like jason eaton who felt emboldened because no is portraying palestinians as human beings that deserve the dignity and respect that everyone else is granted. amy: jason eaton is the alleged shooter of the three palestinian

young men. i want to thank you, joyce ajlouny, former director of the problem friend school where they all went to school in the -- ramallah friends school where they all went to school. joyce is now the general secretary of the american friends service committee. and i want to thank wafic faour, palestinian refugee from lebanon. member of vermonters for justice in palestine. speaking about the vermont representatives, you have becca balint who is the first jewish congressmember to call for a cease-fire. bernie sanders has not called for a cease-fire but has called for conditions on u.s. aid to israel. he said "while israel has the right to go after hamas, netanyahu's right-wing government does not have the right to wage a must total warfare against the palestinian people." coming up, we speak to jeremy scahill about is was propaganda

for over al-shifa hospital and what is underneath it, who built what is under al-shifa hospital. 20 seconds. -- back in 20 seconds. ♪ [music break] amy: "borders behind" by adnan joubran. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. israel is continuing to detain

the head of al-shifa hospital, the largest hospital in gaza. last with the israeli military detained him as he was evacuating patients south from gaza city. israel raided al-shifa claiming hamas ran a command and control center under the hospital but israel is yet to provide any hard evidence to back that up. the former minister spoke with cnn and admitted israel built bunkers decades ago underneath al-shifa. >> it is already known for many years the bunkers, built by israeli constructors underneath shifa, used as a command post of hamas in a junction of -- part of the system. i don't know what to say to what extent. probably not the only command

post. there were others under other hospitals were sensitive places but it is for sure has been used by hamas even during the conflict. >> when you say it was built by israeli engineers, did you misspeak? >> decades ago, we were wanting the place so many decades ago, for five decades ago, we helped them to build the bunkers to enable more space for the operation of the hospital within the very limited size of the compound. amy: again, that was the former israeli prime minister barak. we are joined by jeremy scahill, senior reporter and correspondent at the intercept, and the author of "blackwater: the rise of the world's most powerful mercenary army" and

"dirty wars: the world is a battlefield." one of his most recent pieces for the intercept is "al-shifa hospital, hamas's tunnels, and israeli propaganda." can you talk about what he just said? >> first of all, the al-shifa hospital originally going back to the use of the british mandate in the 1940's, was a british military barracks and then converted into a hospital. under both the israeli and the egyptian occupations of that area. in the 1980's, the israelis began to do extensive construction. i was looking at the architecture archives that were set up and you can go back and look at from that era and two tel aviv architects oversaw the expansion of the al-shifa hospital. i 1983, they had finished the construction of underground facility at the hospital.

it is not uncommon for hospitals the world over to have underground facilities for a variety of reasons. but when you're in an act of war zone, it is very common. israel has many underground facilities throughout israel and has been using them since october 7, certainly, consider more secured places to hold vulnerable patients. what we know about israel's construction is they at least build an underground operating room, built a network of tunnels. during some of the construction, the son of one of the israeli architects who designed the underground facility said when israel was building these in the 1980's, they hired people from hamas as security to guard the construction project to ensure it would not get attacked. juan: jeremy, could you talk also about that thousands of prisoners that israel has been holding, many of them without

any trial for extended years yet the netanyahu government refers to all of them as terrorists? >> this connects to the narrative around al-shifa but israel released a list of 300 names that it said were fair game for hostage-prisoner handover because of the truce with hamas. i went through 15 pages and read each of the individual dates of birth, dates of arrest, the nature of the charges were if there were any charges -- some. even list charges against them. i discovered of the 300 names, 233 of these prisoners, most of them teenage boys, one is a teenage girl who is 15 years old, they have not been convicted of anything. they have not been sent is for anything. israel is the only country in the so-called developed world that tries children in military

court. the israeli narrative is these are hardened terrorists. palestinians are not allowed to have any contact. they are not treated as full human beings. so when a child, maybe his brother was killed by the israel i forces or mother, throws a rock at a soldier, their houses are often raided at night, they are snatched and taken for interrogation without the presence of a parent or lawyer, and then pressured to plead guilty. i say this relates to al-shifa because the colonial narrative -- you can look at the british with the ira, the position against nelson mandela -- those who are victims of the occupation have no rights to legitimate struggle. there prisoners are people accused of committing political

acts of violence. that context bleeds into israel 's narrative about al-shifa. al-shifa is not really a hospital. i don't know if you have the video but you should plate if you do. israel puts out a video to justify the siege of al-shifa hospital where he had dozens of children that needed incubators. israel knocked out the power supply. yet the most horrible patients. the israel defense forces put at this high-tech three-dimensional rendering they said and underground what i call a hamas pentagon and imply this is the central facility where hamas is planning its terror operation. when israel finally lays full siege to it with the backing of the biden administration and biden himself said hostages have been held under the hospital, said it was used as a command and control center, when israel starts to access tosthey take es

on these propaganda tours. what they found was essentially nothing of any major significance. they go in and say, look, we found these rifles behind this mri machine. which is ridiculous. they are conveniently placed, neatly arranged. one hamas vest with a hamas logo on it. skepticism even by corporate media outlets that historically prints israel's propaganda as established fact. they finally gain access to a tunnel in the area. they say, this tunnel is x number of meters long and there's a whole so hamas tears can fire at us so we need to take some time before we blow it open. on the others is this command-and-control center. last week that go in on what did they find? they find three rooms, basically. one looks like a very old-school

1980's style exam room from a hospital. there is a sink. two toilets. you have this clown from the idea who has made a full of himself by doing these tours like geraldo rivera. san, there is electricity in here, this is a command center. they have an air conditioner. the pipes are rusty. many of the wires are not even connected. i don't know for a fact hamas guys under there. it would not shock if they did. we were told this was a hamas pentagon and it was so dangerous that it justified length to a hospital filled with the most vulnerable people. this is akin to the george h.w. bush lies about the iraqis pulling babies from incubators, cosigner promoted by president joe biden and his administration. they should be made to answer for this. this was not just al-shifa.

they did it at other hospitals. 152 threaded kilometers underneath. -- 150 to 300 kilometers underneath. that is not news. israel tried to rebrand something that anyone but wallace knows to make it seem like it is a smoking gun. it was a lethal lie. amy: jeremy scahill, thank you for being with us senior , reporter and correspondent at the intercept. we will link to your pieces at democracynow.org. coming up, we remember the life and legacy of pablo yoruba guzmán. back in 20 seconds. ♪ [music break]

amy: "pa'lante" by hurray for the riff raff. this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. visionary former minister of information of the young lords pablo yoruba guzmán, longtime reporter who died of a heart attack. in 1969, heath cofounded the new york chapter of the predominately puerto rican radical group the young lords which fought against police brutality, racism, u.s. imperialism, militarism. they also provided health care, child care, breakfast to impoverished people. from december 1969, pablo guzman .

>> it ain't just y'all in this church. it may sound ridiculous, but this all links up to what is happening from puerto rico to watts. don't ever forget that. what you do here today, what you do after you leave this church, whether we get busted or we have to walk out -- either way, it is still a victory. whatever happens after that is going to be important for the fate of the world. people all over waiting. i am kind of a pessimist. no matter what happens, we have

won. we have a victory here today. they can never take that away from us. you go out proud matter what happens. this church is ours. this is the people's church. amy: that is pablo yoruba guzmán speaking in 1969. in addition to be joined by juan who cofounded the chapter of the young lords, we are joined by johanna fernandez author of the , award winning book "the young lords: a radical history." juan: i think one of the things that people underestimate that pablo as our minister of information grasped from the start, the critical importance for any people's movement of controlling its own narrative. not allowing it to be determined or defined by others. it was he, for example, who launched the palante radio

program in 1970 and launched an initially supervised the editor of the newspaper. as an 18-year-old, he had already studied one of the seminal figures of the 20 century media studies, and absorbed their theory that all mass media function as extensions of the human brain. that each medium print, radio, television, distinct way has its own language and seeks to directly affect our emotions. public insisted -- pablo insisted we had to tailor our messages to each medium and to use humor and bravado. he was an extremely funny guy. basically captivated the corporate media in many ways.

thanks to his approach, the lords received perhaps the most sympathetic press coverage of any 1960's revolutionary organization. pablo guzman was in short the first great public relations expert of the u.s. latino community. amy: johanna fernandez, if you can talk about the significance of he was known then as pablo yoruba guzmán to the entire new york community for the decades, on the street journalist. juan called him the best street journalist there was in new york, working for the various networks from cbs to nbc2 wnet. >> yes, and he received two enemies. he was a street reporter and he was bold and he got his boldness from his experience in the young lords. that experience theorizing what it meant to be an activist, to engage in creative disruption.

and how to use the media to speak to a larger audience. write something that activist around the crisis in gaza are trying to do today. but i think pablo got his pizzazz, his humor, from his heritage. his grandfather was in cuba when he enrolled and applied to the tuskegee institute, the first institution of higher education for african-americans in alabama , and got in and graduated after four years. so he was a man of color, a black cuban who instilled in pablo's father a sense of pride in being black and latino. black and cuban. pablo's father took him to hear

malcolm x speak on 125th street when he was 12 years old will . pablo was one of the first afro latino people in the media before the young lords emerged, when he thought about puerto ricans in the media or in the public sphere, it was light skin puerto ricans. pablo brought to the young lords a there is asian of race in latin america. he talked about the influence of colonialism on the psyche of the colonized and the oppressed step latinos who tend to deny their blackness. part of what the young lords did through pablo guzman and others was to build common cause with black americans and except and be proud their own blackness.

this is spectacular figure would to china with the delegation of 70 radicals in 1971 was the pablo guzman, that is. he was one of the people present at the formal announcement of the rainbow coalition initiated by black panther fred hampton in chicago. we can go on and on. there really is no time to talk about how significantly important he was as an actor in the history of the 1960's. amy: juan, yet 30 seconds to wrap up and then we will do this interview in spanish after the show. juan: he was a unique figure in new york city history and the latino and puerto rican community. we are all going to miss him and our condolences to his wife debbie, his children, and to his mother sally who was always a big supporter and friend of the

young lords. amy: juan and johanna, our condolences come into the whole community, about the death of pablo yoruba guzmán. johanna fernandez is an associate professor of history at the city university of new york's baruch college. al