03/20/24 03/20/24 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> kids in gaza are dying from the deliberate withholding of food. in addition to the horror of that news, one other thing is true. that is a war crime. it is a textbook war crime.

and that makes those who orchestrate it war criminals. amy: today u.s. senator chris van hollen on the biden administration's support for israel's assault on gaza and why he is calling for a cease-fire and for israel to allow humanitarian aid into gaza. food trucks, not airdrops. he traveled to the rafah border crossing in january. and then journalist shane bauer where he met israeli settlers who were recently sanctioned for violence against palestinians by the biden administration. >> the elephant in the room here is this man, along with neria ben pazi, is supported by the state of israel directly. according to the language of the sanctions, that would mean that

state itself and other supporting him should also be sanction but they have not been. amy: all of that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in a surprise ruling, the fifth circuit court of appeals has blocked texas from enforcing a harsh new anti-immigrant law that gives local police sweeping powers to arrest and deport annual a suspect has entered the united states without the appeals court ruling came just hours after the u.s. supreme court ruled the law could go into effect while the case is being heard by lower courts. texas governor greg abbott signed sb4 into law in december, but the law was challenged by the biden administration. oral arguments before the appeals court will be held today.

on tuesday, supreme court justice sonia sotomayor criticized the texas law, writing in her dissent -- "this law will disrupt sensitive foreign relations, frustrate the protection of individuals fleeing persecution, hamper active federal enforcement efforts, undermine federal agencies' ability to detect and monitor imminent security threats, and deter noncitizens from reporting abuse or trafficking." authorities in mexico have also condemned the texas law. israel has carried out a number of deadly strikes in gaza over the past 24 hours. in gaza city, an israeli attack killed 24 people at the kuwait roundabout where palestinians had gathered to collect aid. meanwhile, an israeli attack on the nuseirat refugee camp has killed at least 27 palestinians. the official death toll in gaza is approaching 32,000.

the world health organization warned tuesday many infants in gaza are on the "brink of death" due to the lack of food. a w.h.o. spokesperson said newborn babies are "simply dying because of low birth weight." the u.n. high commissioner for human rights volker turk said israel may be committing war crimes by limiting aid into gaza. >> the extent of israel's continued restrictions on the entry of aid into gaza, together with the manner in which it continues to conduct hostilities, may amount to the use of starvation as a method of war, osha's a war crime. the clock is ticking. everyone, especially those with influence, must insist israel act to facilitate the unimpeded entry and distribution of needed humanitarian assistance to end starvation and avert all risk of

famine. amy: israeli forces are continuing the deadly raid on al-shifa hospital in gaza city. al jazeera reports dozens of people have been killed. hundreds of palestinians have also been detained, including another al jazeera journalist, mahmoud eliwa, who was reporting inside the hospital complex. his colleague ismail al-ghoul was detained monday, stripped naked, held for many hours, released and beaten. the world health organization says it has documented 410 attacks on healthcare facilities in gaza since israel began its assault on october 7. in other news on gaza, canada's government has announced it will halt weapons shipments to israel after the canadian parliament approved a non-binding resolution on the issue. the motion, which passed by a vote of 204 to 117, also called on canada to work towards the establishment of the state of

palestine. in the united states, voters headed to the polls tuesday for primaries in arizona, florida, illinois, kansas, and ohio. in ohio, bernie moreno won the republican senate primary, defeating state senator matt dolan and ohio secretary of state frank larose. moreno is a wealthy former car dealer backed by donald trump and senator jd vance. moreno will now face democratic senator sherrod brown in november in a race that could decide which party controls the u.s. senate. joe biden and donald trump won all of their races tuesday, but there continue to be signs that many voters are not happy with their party's presumptive nominees. in arizona, over 18% of republicans chose nikki haley over trump even though she has already suspended her campaign. meanwhile, in kansas, more than 10% of democrats selected "none of the names shown" instead of biden.

in illinois, some democrats including ibrahim rashid said they stayed home instead of voting for biden. >> i can best for biden -- i can best for biden. i am planning on sitting out the election because i am just horrified at his stance on israel-palestine. i am of the view we delivered biden's majority and he is failing us as young progressive voters. right now i'm going to say no cease fire, no vote. amy: in more campaign news, donald trump is facing widespread criticism over comments he made about jewish democratic voters. pres. trump: jewish person that votes for democrats hates their religion, they hate everything about israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves. amy: on tuesday, senate majority leader chuck schumer blasted trump's remark as "unadulterated

anti-semitism." trump made the comment on a podcast hosted by former white house aide sebastian gorka, who has faced accusations of anti-semitism as well. in 2017, the jewish newspaper "the forward" reported that gorka had ties to a hungarian far-right nazi-allied group and that he supported an anti-semitic and racist paramilitary militia in hungary while he served as a hungarian politician. trump's son-in-law and former advisor jared kushner has weighed in on israel's war on gaza saying that israel should move palestinians out of the besieged territory, which he said contains very valuable waterfront property. kushner made the remarks during a recent event hosted by the middle east initiative at harvard kennedy school. >> the waterfront property could be very valuable to people, focus on building up livelihoods. think of the money that has gone into this tunnel network a

munitions, if that would have gone into educational innovation what could have been done. i think it is a little bit of an unfortunate situation but from israel's perspective, i would do my best to move the people out and clean it up. i don't think israel has stated they want people to move back there afterwards. amy: the humanitarian aid group médecins sans frontières has accused libya's coastguard of thwarting the rescue of over 170 migrants, most of them syrian refugees, from two vessels stranded in the mediterranean sea as they made their way to europe. msf said a libyan coastguard ship had started to perform dangerous maneuvers, blocking two rigid inflatable boats used by msf to rescue the migrants. the libyan coastguard, which is funded by the european union, also reportedly attempted to tow away one of msf's inflatable boats. a number of those on board the migrant vessels were unaccompanied children and children under the age of 13. just last week, at least 60

people are believed to have drowned in the mediterranean after departing libya on a migrant vessel. according to the international organization for migration, 2500 migrants died or went missing in the mediterranean last year as they attempted to reach europe. 200 deaths have been recorded since the start of 2024. the cuban government is accusing the united states of inciting recent protests in cuba, where a growing economic crisis has resulted in power black outs and food shortages. on sunday, hundreds of people took to the streets of santiago, cuba's second largest city. cuban president miguel díaz-canel criticized u.s. policy in an interview with nbc news in havana. >> they are always looking for justifications and turning things around. the most absurd thing is they have a criminal blockade against us for more than 65 years. the absurdity of that locate is

reflected in the things that are happening -- of the blockade is reflected in the things that are happening stop amy: the u.n. weather agency has issued a red alert about the climate emergency as new data from the world meteorological organization shows last year was by far the warmest year on record and that this year may be even hotter. celeste saulo, the secretary general of the wmo, spoke on tuesday. >> 2023 set new records for every single climate indicator. the annual report shows the climate crisis is the defining challenge that humanity faces. it is closely intertwined with inequality crisis as witnessed by growing food insecurity, population displacement, and biodiversity loss. amy: in jackson, mississippi, two white former sheriff's deputies who belonged to a group that described itself as the "goon squad" were sentenced to

lengthy prison time for raiding a home and torturing two black men in january 2023. hunter elward received a 20-year prison sentence. jeffrey middleton was sentenced to 17.5 years. both pleaded guilty to multiple felony federal and state charges last august, along with four other former law enforcement officers. the six men burst into a home and then beat, handcuffed, waterboarded, and tasered michael corey jenkins and eddie terrell parker. the officers also sexually abused them with a sex toy while shouting racial slurs. one of the officers put a gun in jenkins' mouth for a mock execution and pulled the trigger. the bullet lacerated jenkins's tongue, broke his jaw, and exited through his neck. the officers then planted drugs at the scene in an attempt to cover up their act. one of the officers was also sentenced for his role in separate assault just two weeks earlier when another member of

the goon squad repeatedly tased a man and pressed his pinnacles into the man -- genitals into the man's mouth. and in a touching speech on the arizona state senate floor tuesday, democrat eva burch shared she plans to obtain an abortion after receiving news her pregnancy is nonviable. the first-term lawmaker spoke about her struggles with fertility and a miscarriage she had over a decade ago. >> two years ago while i was campaigning for this senate seat, i became pregnant with what we later determined was a nonviable pregnancy. it was a pregnancy we had been trying for and we were heartbreaking -- heartbroken over it. i wish i could tell you otherwise, but after numerous ultrasounds and blood draws we have determined my pregnancy is once again not progressing and is not viable. once again, i've scheduled an appointment to terminate my pregnancy.

i don't think people should have to justify their abortions but i am choosing to talk about why i made this decision because i want us to be able to have meaningful conversations about the realities of how the work we do in this body impacts people in the real world. amy: arizona state senator eva burch is a former nurse practitioner who worked at a women's health clinic and has been widely critical of abortion restrictions and arizona where abortions are banned after 15 weeks of pregnancy. there are no exceptions for rape or incest. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. would we combat, our guest will be u.s. senator chris van hollen. he is recently back from the rafah border. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "free" by narcy. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in gaza, the israeli military's

brutal attack on shifa hospital is continuing for the third day. dozens had been killed and others forced to evacuate intense bombardment and shelling on the hospital and surrounding area. tens of thousands of wounded and displaced palestinians have been seeking shelter at al-shifa. the israeli army said in a statement it had "eliminated 90 people at the hospital and detained 300." among those arrested was an al jazeera journalist. his arrest comes two days after another al jazeera journalist was beaten, stripped naked, and detained in the cold for 12 hours before he was released. elsewhere in gaza, 24 people were killed in an israeli at the kuwait roundabout where palestinians had gathered for aid. another 27 were killed in an israeli on a refugee camp in central gaza. among those killed yesterday was

the director of police investigations in northern gaza responsible for securing and facilitating the entry of aid trucks into northern gaza. his death comes one day after israeli killed another senior police officer in gaza who was also in charge of coordinating aid distribution in the north. this comes as the world health organization warned tuesday many infants in gaza are on the brink of death due to the lack of food. meanwhile, the israeli prime minister netanyahu repeated his determination to invade gaza's southernmost town rafah, where some 1.4 many people from across gaza happened forcibly displaced. on monday, netanyahu agreed and a phone call with president biden to send a team of israeli officials to washington meet with biden officials after biden urged him to find an alternative

approach to a full-scale ground invasion of rafah. but on tuesday, netanyahu told the parliament trick committee while he would listen to you proposals out of respect for biden, he said "we are determined to complete the elimination of these hamas battalions in rafah. there's no way to do this without a ground incursion." the official death toll in gaza is approaching 32,000 with over 74,000 people wounded. for more we're joined by democratic senator chris van hollen of maryland. in january he traveled to the egyptian side of the rafah border crossing. he is joining us from kensington, maryland. welcome back to democracy now! thank you for joining us. can you talk about netanyahu's threat to launch a full-scale ground invasion of rafah and what you want biden to tell him? >> it is good to be with you. since my visit to rafah in

january, things have gotten even worse. the situation, humanitarian situation in gaza is even more catastrophic and now, as you said, prime minister netanyahu has said he is going to ignore president biden's request and launch a full-scale invasion of rafah. president biden was right in my view to say that would be a redline, that you can't cross it. so now it is going to be very important the president, the biden administration, back that up and make it clear they will hold the prime minister accountable. as you know, the netanyahu is going to be sending some officials to washington this week to discuss how they might go about this rafah invasion. i am very worried the biden administration will simply get dragged into the planning of this, something that is bound to

go terribly wrong based on what has happened already in the months of war in gaza. and then somehow become complicit in netanyahu's actions in rafah. i would warn the administration not to get sucked into this because we have seen time and again that at the end of the day, prime minister netanyahu simply ignores the president of the united states. so we need to do more to do make netanyahu accountable for our requests. amy: i want to play some of what you said on the senate floor in february about the withholding of humanitarian aid to gaza. >> kids in gaza are dying from the deliberate withholding of food. in addition to the horror of that news, what other thing is true. that is a war crime.

it is a textbook war crime. and that makes those who orchestrate it war criminals. amy: are you clearly calling israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu a war criminal? >> i am calling those who are responsible for these actions, having committed war crime. at that moment was the moment we first learned -- i learned from cindy mccain and others that kids had gone from being on the verge of starvation to having died of starvation. and smotrich, the finance minister, was holding up thousands and thousands of pounds of flour at a port, flour that could reach starving kids and others in gaza. ben-gvir was calling on folks

down -- testers to continue to protest and say the police officials should not intervene and allow the blockage to continue. ultimately, my view is that we are going to have to look into all of this but for now, we just need to do a president biden has said needs to be done, which is lived these -- lift these restrictions that are in place that are creating this humanitarian disaster in gaza. we learned yesterday the highest number of people facing catastrophic high-grade any time in recent history are in gaza today. amy: in february, the senate passed a bill that includes $14 billion for israel's assault on gaza, along with $60 billion for ukraine and $8 billion for indo-pacific allies like taiwan.

the bill also strips u.s. funding for unrwa, the united nations relief and works agency for palestine refugees. you have been very critical of that yet you voted for the bill. why? >> in my view, we desperately need to get ukrainian people, the weapons they need to rebuff putin's assault. this was the other way forward took publishing that. the bill also included a $9 billion in humanitarian assistance for people around the world, including 1.4 billion for humanitarian assistance to help those suffering in gaza. the unrwa provision is incredibly problematic. that bill, which was a supplemental one time bill, it would not have disrupted the annual u.s. appropriations for unrwa, which are actually being

discussed and debated as we speak with respect to the foreign operations bill. in my view, that bill -- the supplemental bill was necessary in order to make sure we got weapons to help the folks in ukraine repel putin's brutal assault and we could revisit, as we are now, the unrwa issue. i am very worried as we speak that republicans have insisted that in the current appropriations bill that we no longer fund unrwa. this would be a huge mistake. amy: i want to turn -- you have independent bernie sanders opposing the bill joined by two democratic senators who broke ranks with the party. jeff merkley, who went with you to the rafah border crossing, and the other vermont senator, peter welch. this is welch.

>> i voted against the supplemental for one key reason. i cannot in good conscience support sending billions of additional taxpayer dollars for prime minister netanyahu's military campaign in gaza. it is a campaign that has killed and wounded a shocking number of civilians. it has created a massive humanitarian crisis with no end in sight. it has inflamed tensions in middle east, eroding support among arab states that had been aligned with israel. of course it has severely compromised any remaining hope, almost all remaining hope, for a two state solution that we all know is ultimately essential for peace in the middle east. amy: senator chris van hollen, do you disagree with your fellow colleague? you have been so

outspoken on this issue as well but took a different stance on voted for the bill. >> i don't disagree with what peter said about the situation. but as i said, if the senate had not pass this piece of legislation, ukraine would fall to putin. these are difficult choices that we made. i think allowing ukraine to fall to vladimir putin would be an historic mistake. what i have done is focus on making sure we try to hold up the arms transfers at the time they're noticed by the biden administration until the netanyahu government meets requirements with respect to allowing humanitarian assistance in and other criteria, which is why a group of us, including peter and others, wrote to president biden just a little while ago saying, mr. president,

please enforce current law, which is the humanitarian aid quarters act, which says that if a country is essentially preventing or restricting humanitarian assistance from getting in, then you have to, mr. president, not allow offensive weapons to be provided as long as that situation continues. so there are other mechanisms we have that we should be using right now to address that situation. amy: i am wondering if you can respond to donald trump, the former president, who was speaking on sebastian gorka's podcasts and also put out a statement. he is facing widespread criticism. this is part of what he said. pres. trump: when you see those palestinian marches, even i -- i

am amazed at how many people are in those marches. and guys like schumer see that and -- he was always pro israel. he is very anti-israel now. any jewish person that votes for democrats hates their religion, they hate everything about israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves. amy: called democrats anti-semitic. also his son-in-law, former advisor jared kushner, i want to turn to what jared kushner just said. jared kushner is talking about weighing in on israel's war on gaza same palestinians should be moved out of rafah which he says contains valuable waterfront property. your responses to what many are saying is the front runner in the presidential race right now, donald trump, and his

son-in-law, who was one of his top advisers? >> amy, here we go donald trump again. donald trump thinks you cannot beat pro-american without being pro donald trump. he equates the two. it is my it is heresy if you don't believe and say you want donald trump leading our country. in the same way he thinks if you don't support all the policies of netanyahu, smotrich, and ben-gvir, you are opposed to israel. the reality is, you can be very pro-american without supporting trump policies. i would argue it is a duty of hours as americans to make sure we defeat trump's heinous policies here at home. similarly, you can be pro-israel and the people of israel and understand the trauma of the

atrocious october 7 attacks without supporting the policies of the netanyahu government, ben-gvir -- amy: yet many people are extremely frustrated. democrats and progressives, with president biden. you have expressed criticism. the fact the biden administration has approved relief secretly, just keeping it right under the threshold, over 100 u.s. weapons sales to netanyahu to israel to carry out these attacks in gaza that have killed at this point near 32,000 people and have engaged in food drops from the air and building a peer because israel is using those very bombs to attack the people of gaza and that gets in the way of food trucks. are you equally critical of president biden and what he is doing and what your final words would be for him as increasingly

young people, people of color, arab-american population, and many jews are utterly frustrated with and say they won't vote for the democratic candidate for president, president biden? >> amy, you are right. i have expressed my strong frustration with the biden administration for essentially not backing up the president's demands and assistance that the netanyahu government change course. for example, implementing the committed hearing aid act. in the coming days, we are making sure they enforce the provisions of national secured a memorandum number 20 with respect to the responsibilities of the netanyahu government to allow aid into gaza. i do believe that the biden administration needs to do a lot

more. i have said when you insist on the netanyahu government doing one thing and then don't back it up, it does weaken our credibility and it essentially sends a message to others around the world that you can do what netanyahu is doing. which is ignore american request without any consequence at all. i have expressed the frustration. i am continuing to push the biden administration to do more. i really hope the biden administration will change course. i hope in the sense -- i hope they won't get sucked in to a major invasion in rafah and i think they need to make sure in the coming days -- and sunday is the real deadline -- that they will enforce the provisions of

national security memorandum 20. because in my view, there is no way to determine with a straight face -- and right now the netanyahu government is facilitating and not arbitrarily restricting directly or indirectly humanitarian aid into gaza. and we can see with our own eyes, we can hear it the people on the ground. so it is really important the biden administration enforce those provisions -- more in my view, there credibility will be even more enter my. amy: senator chris van hollen, thank you so much for being with us. democratic senator from maryland. thank you. when we come back, investigative journalist shane bauer on his journey to the occupied west bank where he met with israeli settlers who were recently sanctioned by the biden administration for violence against palestinians. that in 20 seconds. -- back in 20 seconds.

♪ [music break] amy: "take me to palestine" by el founoun. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the biden administration imposed sanctions last week on three israeli settlers and two israeli outposts in the occupied west bank over their involvement with assaulting, harassing, and threatening palestinians, violently expelling many from their land. the u.s. state department sanctions target moshe sharvit, the owner of the moshe's farm outpost, zvi bar yosef, founder of zvi's farm, and neria ben pazi.

over the past five months, israeli settler violence has intensified across the west bank, with human rights groups accusing the israeli government of encouraging attacks against palestinians. according to health officials, well over 400 palestinians have been killed in the west bank by israeli forces and settlers since october 7. investigative journalist shane bauer recently wrote a piece for "the new yorker" magazine which features two of the israeli settlers sanctioned by the biden administration -- neria ben-pazi and moshe sharvit, whom bauer described as two very dangerous men. shane bauer traveled to their illegal outposts in the west bank and spoke to several other settlers, mapping out the violence against palestinians that has escalated since october 7. his piece for "the new yorker" was published in february. it is titled "the israeli settlers attacking their palestinian neighbors." i recently interviewed shane bauer and began by asking him

about his journey to the west bank and how he came to meet the settlers who were eventually sanctioned by the biden administration. >> october 7 came sort of in the middle of an unprecedented wave of settler violence in the west bank starting around the beginning of 2023 come to sort of uptick in violence came after the new government came to power in israel, which included very powerful settlers like ben-gvir and smotrich. before october 7, the u.n. was recording about three settler attacks a day. then october 7 comes and the violence increases exponentially. just days after, i was seeing from human rights groups about attacks in some villages that were being depopulated. i traveled to the west bank

while i was there i met with two of the settlers who were just sanctioned, moshe sharvit and neria ben pazi. these are guys who run farms. shepherding farms. this is a fairly new type of tactic used to seize land by settlers in the west bank. essentially, settlers setting up outposts. these are illegal under israeli law, not only under international law. however, israel has -- was supporting them in setting up the outpost. take consulted with many branches of government. they got support from the army. this outpost that i went to was sort of a small farm where they

have a bunch of sheep. the idea of these shepherding outposts is the settlers, with relatively small number of people, can control a large area of land. what they do is they go out and graze their sheep and forcibly push out any palestinians that are in the territory. so they are part of a strategy which is to sort of clear the part of the west bank known as area c, 60% of the west bank that is essentially under israel i control, to keep a clear palestinians in the hope of eventual annexation to israel. amy: i want to interrupt for a second because when you talk about area c, i don't think most people understand the divisions. if you can explain? >> and the oslo accords of the 1990's, the west bank was basically divided into three

zones. area a would be under the full control of the palestinian authority including the major cities like ramallah. an area b was mostly the palestinian villages. israel would have security control and the palestinian authority would have administrative control. the rest is area c were israel would have full military security control and administrative control. what you have if you look at the map of these areas, you essentially have hundreds of islands of area a and b sorted in a sea of area c. if you manage the annexation of area c, it would like the creation of many palestinian enclaves. like many gaza strips. these areas would have

palestinians living in them but according to the plan of smotrich, who is in charge essentially of the west bank, palestinians living there would not have voting rights. there is this sort of ongoing campaign by settlers to sort of claim area c for israel. since the 1990's, treated by israel more of a part of israel but there is a push to make it more official and smotrich has come out with a plan years ago which essentially says he wants to annex the west bank. palestinians who don't like it can leave or stay as nonvoting. amy: i want to go to a clip i would like you to set up. this you felt while you were reporting on the west bank. if you -- it is an image that

you are talking to an israeli soldiers who are speaking in english to you. explain where you are, what the circumstances were, why you ended up talking to them. >> when i got to the west bank, i first started to try to meet people who had been attacked previously. i went to a village which had just days after october 7 been very violently attacked by settlers. a number of people were killed. the following day, there was a funeral. in the funeral procession where the bodies were being taken from the hospital to the village, the procession was interrupted by a settler -- a blockade of settlers and soldiers and settlers shot and killed two more people. i was interviewing the brother of a man who was killed. he happened to be busy working

picking olives. i went to interview him while he was working. while we were speaking, we saw soldier start to approach from an outpost. amy: this is the clip that shane recorded. >> harvesting olives. the army is coming in. >> but they are just harvesting olives. there are no weapons. it is clear, right? they don't have weapons. amy: the soldier is putting up his hands and sing "we don't have weapons" but of course he is living the automatic weapon

that is slung over his shoulder. and he is saying there are terrorists and all of these villages, there is hamas in all of these villages. shane? >> right. so one thing that was happening while i was there was it was olive harvesting season. many palestinians supplement their income through harvesting olives for orchards that generally have been in there families for generations. i was on social media groups talking to settlers and they were pushing a narrative that olive harvesters were undercover hamas agents. they were using this as a precedent for an excuse to sort of forcibly push people out of their growth and prevent the harvest. of course this is impacting our livelihood in an attempt to sort of encourage people to leave. there was one village where they

actually put flyers on the cars people who were out at the harvest threatening a new nakba. that is sort of the palestinian word for the expulsion of 750,000 palestinians in 1948. people have been killed. i reported about a man killed by settlers in his olive grove. i saw this over and over again, this sort of claim that regular civilian palestinians were in fact hamas agents and that in order to protect the settlements, they had to push them out. amy: and the effective smotrich -- smotrich and bin devere, is really settlers, powerful members of the israeli government, cabinet members. the effect of the national security minister ben-gvir

announcing his department was in the process of purchasing 10,000 rifles to equip civilians so-called security teams based around israel's borders and the illegal settlements in the west bank giving out these guns? >> yeah, and that is in addition to 7000 rifles that were handed to settlers by the army after october 7. it is very apparent. palestinians tell me settlers who have been harassing them before now had m-16s. when i went to settlements, just walk into a supermarket and are people walking around with m-16s. very prevalent. a part of this is not just the handing out of weapons to civilians, but after october 7, the army recruited thousands of settlers into the army who then served locally. so someone like moshe sharvit

who was just sanctioned by the biden administration, he had had his outpost for several years and had been documented dispersing the flux of local palestinians, pressuring the palestinians around his outpost to move away. then after october 7, he becomes a soldier. then here showing up at houses of some of these people trying to kill them if they don't leave. 12 families left. i heard this over and over again from palestinians. especially people who have been directly under pressure from settlers before october 7, they then just days after october 7, star saying the same people in military uniforms. the line between settlers and army virtually disappeared after october 7. amy: i want to go to a separate clip -- second cliff you recorded. in an interview with an older palestinian man who said he had

been beaten by moshe sharvit, one of the israeli settlers the biden administration has now sanctioned, had been beaten by moshe sharvit and his brother who showed up to his house he said with m-16s and the west bank. do you want to set it up a little more, who this man was? >> this man is one of the men i met who lived right next to moshe sharvit's outpost, which is now under sanctions. he and others described to me what happened after october 7. these people have been harassed for years by moshe before october 7 but then in this clip he describes what happens. >> when i came i was alone. they told me to leave. then they started beating me. he had much him in with him. -- she had four men with him. i spent the night in the

hospital. i spent two days in the hospital. i was injured on my hand and my back. they beat me with a staff and kicked me. amy: we are looking out into the horizon at moshe's outpost. moshe is one of those sanctioned by the biden administration. tell us more.

>> what did not in that clip was what nabil told me that they soldiers arrived at his house first and said moshe had claimed he was hiding terrorists in his house. they searched his house and let and as soon as they left, moshe and some other guys showed up and beat him up. something i want to emphasize is that moshe -- i spoke extensively to his wife. she described to me the different types of support they are getting from the government for their outpost, again, considered even by israel to be illegal. when i set up the outpost, she said they had gazillion meetings with various branches of the government. the army gave them m-16s. they said of -- the army set up to real its cameras in the area

surrounding the outpost, which the army controls itself. his wife said they were the eyes for the army. moshe himself is now a soldier. when we talk about the sanctions the biden administration has implemented, the sanctions targeting moshe as an individual come the executive order that authorized the sanctions authorized sanctions also against individuals for officials and government entities who who offer punish or material support to these individuals. the elephant in the room here is this man, along with neria ben pazi, is supported by the state of israel directly. according to the language of the sanctions that would mean the state of israel itself and the

various organizations supporting him should themselves be sanctioned. but of course, they haven't been posted and call you wrote -- haven't been. amy: you wrote on x. senior idf officers, including defense minister gallant, regularly visited his outpost. tell us more. >> code 2015, he established an outpost considered by israel's internal security branch to be sort of a center of jewish terrorism. people who lived there later convicted for hate crime's, including the burning to death of a palestinian child. arrested and released.

later, netanyahu called for the annexation of a large part of the west bank during the trump administration. at that time, neria ben pazi's relationship with the government started to change. the civil -- the israeli occupation sort of bureaucratic arm and the west bank allocated land to neria ben pazi for his illegal outpost. the ministry of agriculture gave him money for the volunteers from an organization which is notorious for violently attacking palestinians. this is an organization that essentially takes delinquent israeli youth and put them on these shepherd farms where they range the sheep and attack palestinians who enter their territory. amy: if you can talk about who was willing to speak to you and who was it?

for example, the wife of moshe. though he was not willing to speak to you. expand who she was, born in new jersey, now a settler in the occupied west bank. >> i will say getting an interview with settlers is not easy. many refused to speak to me as a journalist. i reached out to moriah because there settlements -- i found it on google maps it was designated as a tourist site and had a website where they offer sort of via the experience on the website where people can stay in air-conditioned bedouin tents. ironically, there displacing bedouins. i reached out and told her i was a journalist and she invited me to come.

she herself is from new jersey. she moved to israel when she was young and grew up in settlements like moshe did. some of the settlers tended to be very hesitant. i found one sigh started -- once i started speaking to them, i was surprised at how open they were. numerous settlers compared what is happening now to 1948. the head of original counsel, one of the more -- the governing bodies of the settlers of the west bank, he told me today is -- a battle today is like the battle of 1948, it is a battle over land. you like these shepherding outpost, moshe's in particular, to the pre-1948 settlements of jewish settlers that were sort of setting up settlements in areas that were largely arab

areas to expand the borders for a future state. he was saying what these outputs were doing were exciting territory taking land. amy: tell us more about moriah and what she told you. >> she was frank about her views about palestinians. she told me she didn't consider palestinians to be regular people. she thought they should leave to jordan, to syria. and she told me sort of about the work of their outpost. the way she described it is the way a lot of sellers describe it, which is protecting area c. this is seven who believes the west bank belongs to her. she believes the west bank was given to her by god. which is important because,

again, we have the sort of religious fundamentalists allied with the secular state of israel. she would use these religious arguments but also these legalistic arguments that area c was israel's and they were defending it. she describes what they were doing was preventing land theft that palestinians merely by living in the west bank were stealing land from israel. amy: you wrote, they had a gazillion meetings with government bodies to set up the illegal outposts. the farm was activist eyes. israel seizes land while avoiding the legal hurdles of starting official settlements. the settlement ministry said, take people who believe in that bowl as a painting remission and let them spearhead the work to

keep control of the land. if you could further elaborate on this very close relationship between the israeli government and the settlers? >> something to note, you read this quote, this is out in the open. this is not a secret. you hear is politicians talking about this type of land seizure that the settlers are doing. the connection is very direct. neria ben pazi, who has been sanctioned come after october 7 come on october 12, he coordinator the expulsion of the community -- a small palestinian community. that expulsion happened with dozens of settlers and soldiers together. they came in and threatened that if people did not leave they would be killed. settlers and soldiers then tortured a number of palestinians who were there.

accusing them saying, why are you in gaza? why are you protecting terrorists? neria ben pazi's lawyer had written and legal documents he had extensive ties with the security establishment. this is well-established. even in the u.n., i mission before the 600 attacks were so that have happened since october 7, the u.n. said in at least half of those attacks, soldiers are present. it is not a coincidence. it is not merely just soldiers not stopping the settlers. there is an active and ongoing collaboration between many of them. amy: you say the sanctions do not address this. >> right. they are targeting these individuals. a handful of individuals out of

hundreds who are attacking palestinians and sort of targeting them as individuals but not the sort of state that is supporting them and encouraging them to continue to take land. amy: journal shane bauer's piece is headlined "the israeli