tv SPOTLIGHT PALESTINIANS FACING GENOCIDE PRESSTV March 9, 2024 1:02pm-1:31pm IRST
1:02 pm
hello and welcome to spotlight. the genocidal war on palestinians in the gaza strip is nothing new now. as a western-backed um regime in tel aviv has been turning horrific of war crimes into new norms over the past five months after bombing schools, places of warship, medical facilities and residential buildings. now palestinians cueing for food in gaza have also become regular targets for the israeli forces. there have been meak efforts to establish at least a temporary season. fire in the besieg territory to
1:03 pm
alleviate the suffering of palestinians before the fasting month of ramadan, but israel is vehemently blocking all efforts for even a slight pause in the bloodshed. joining us on tonight spotlight, we have journalist and political analyst elijah magneer joining us from brussels and also we have journalists and political commentator mansfield joining us from austin. gentlemen, welcome to the program. let's start off with mr. magnier, in brussels, it's 154 days now into the israeli massacre as attacks from airland and sea continue on all areas of gaza, including rafa, where 1.4 million palestinians have taken shelter, and there's also this full ground offensive looming. the north of gaza has been totally demolished. medical
1:04 pm
facilities have been attacked and raided and left non-functional, the death tools passed 30,000, mostly women and children, there are how far will this clear intent to destroy gaza continue as the world looks on? thank you for having me, as long as israel is enjoying impunity, the support of the united states and the western country, this war is going to continue and it is going to continue as the israeli prime minister benyamin netanyahu for the next years or for the next 10 years until he occupies all of gaza and then he he allow the israeli occupation forces to remain in this strip so the americans are still supplying the israelis with more than 1000 shipment of ammunition that are necessary. to continue this war,
1:05 pm
without it there is no possibility for israel to be able to bomb gaza in the same way as it is bombing it, and for the first time president joe biden acknowledged in front of the congress that there are 30,000 civilians, mainly children and women killed in gaza and i have nothing to do with hamas and also acknowledge how these relies are starving the population, however he's doing nothing to prevent all of this horror that he has acknowledged in front of the representative of the american people, on the contrary, he continues supporting israel and he is asking for a temporary cease fire of six week for the war to continue after the temporary sees fire, so basically am... is full on in this
1:06 pm
war with israel, mr. mansfield, israel is bombing areas of gaza that it had designated a safe, wiping out entire families and has been planning this ground assault in rafa, which is holding more than half of the population of gaza, egyptian officials have opposed calls to take in palestinians in case they flee the south of gaza, with the north of gaza, as we mentioned earlier, totally obliterated and aid being withheld intentionally. by the israelis to deliberately starve the innocent there, how can this be viewed as anything but a genocide? yeah, well thank you, it can't be viewed as anything but a genocide, because that's exactly what it is. israel has this insatiable thirst for conquest, for land, for expansion, under the guise of you, safety for for the israelis and and you know these allegations of just horrific terrorism,
1:07 pm
committed, you want to see the terrorists are, look at what israel's doing, not just to gaza, but palestine as a whole, of course gaza is the the center of this horrific reality that so many arabs are now. facing uh and it's no surprise that egypt has basically turned its back its its brothers within within gods within the south when egypt is completely completely under the influence or control or whatever you want to call it of of the zionist project. i think the same thing can be said for the united states which is why despite biden now finally uh saying that yes this is this is horrible horrible situation and that we need to work towards uh ceasefire and even reports of biden cursing out netanyahu behind his back and i mean it is of course kind of an impotent thing that biden isn't willing to do it to uh bb's face, it indicates a broader picture that that
1:08 pm
zionism, world jewelry, whatever you want to call it has a stranglehold on the rest of the world and is going to use this stranglehold to carry out the most horrific. something that is is reminiscent of the medieval era where you're laying siege to an entire city and you don't let food in and you don't let medical aid in and your hope is either starve figuratively and literally everyone inside gaza into submission or starve them to death and there is no one left to submit. elijah, the largest muslim civil rights organization in the us, the council on american islamic... relations also known as care it is criticized president joe biden over his stance uh on the genocide and the humanitarian situation and gaza had called on biden to stop playing both firefighter and arsenist during the gaza genocide that's an interesting choice of words firefighter and arsenist at the same
1:09 pm
time break down this uh what i would say appalling hypocrisy by the u.s. i wouldn't agree with the fire fight. because from the first beginning of the war uh joe biden came to israel and gave the full blessing to the israeli prime minister to start the war, and he was fully aware of what the israelis are doing in gaza and how many civilians have been killed by the israelies, how the israelies cut the water, electricity, fuel, prevented the access of human. humanitarian aids and still are, therefore he cannot play the fire fighters at the exception of his vocally saying that he wants a temporary sees fire. this is not a firefighter, it is a full partner with the israelies. so far the
1:10 pm
israel, the americans have never said they want to end this war, they have never put pressure on the israelies to allow humanitarian aid, they have used their... vato three times at the united nation to stop the seasfire, therefore they are fully engaged with israel, the only thing that the americans want in this stage is they want the release of the six american israeli dual citizens, they are held by hamas because joe biden needs them to take few pictures for his presidential campaign otherwise. this is why biden is asking for a temporary cease fire of 40 days to allow the month of ramadan to go by and the jewish also pass over to go by so after that the war can continue again. he is
1:11 pm
not saying that he wants a permanent his fire. more over, he came up with new idea now is to create peer in. gaza, which is exactly falling into the plan for israel to go into rafah, close the road between egypt and gaza and then establish point in the mediterranean where the only access for gaza comes through the sea. that is more diabolic plan that he is offering today on the table and he's going to execute it. he sent ursula vonderlain, the president of the european commission. to cyprus to start putting in place this plan, so everything is leading to one thing, he wants to send tent to the palestinians and humanitarian aid so the israelis can remove them from, locate them in the middle or in
1:12 pm
the north and then for the israeli army to go and attack rafah, because with the presence of 1.5 million palestinians, then the israeli army already failing in the north and in south wants to operate in a more freely way, so the americans here are fully engage in the war against the palestinians. right, mr. "i want to get your thoughts on what mr. magnier just said, and in his state of the union speech, uh, president joe biden said, "us wants to establish that port that we were just talking about, to deliver humanitarian assistance in gaza, but at the same time, uh, it us provides weapons and lethal arsenal uh to the israelies, new report by the washington post reveals that the us has quietly made over 100 weapon sales to israel since the gaza war. began, so explain to us what is it that the us is doing right now?
1:13 pm
sure, well, i there's no surprise that us manufacturers or the united states government itself have been um, as you said quietly getting getting weapons, getting firearms to the idf to israel, i mean the profit motive is is very, very powerful thing, and unfortunately and unsurprisingly uh in pursue. to profits, we often lose sight of our morals or our scruples, if, that is to say, there were ever morals or scruples within the united states military, industrial complex to begin with, but that's a whole separate issue. you know, we talk about and with good reason, the us involvement, not just since this horrible, horrible increase of violence and death and destruction. against palestine, specifically with gaza, um, but even prior to that, i mean for over
1:14 pm
half a century, the united states has had some culpability or been complicit in one way or another with what israel does to the to the arab populations, going back all the way to the 60s and the 70s, even even the formation in the 1940s, but it is not as clear cut as some american. commentators, specifically conservative commentators would have you to believe, where it's simply the united states and israel, our best friends and our interests align, and and that's why we do what we do, and by goodness you out to support it if you're a real american, you look at the the hard numbers, the makeup of the american government, even biden's cabinet in specific, 80% of it is jewish, and so why are we as american? or the rest of the world surprised that when the american government, which is so heavily dominated by jews,
1:15 pm
carries out the interests of, in this case national jewry, the israeli state, and i think that first off it is a deep, deep crime against the innocent people of of gaza and palestine as a whole, not only is it an offense against them, but it's also an offense against the american people, american people have a right to sovereignty and... would seem that it would be in our interest in our true interest in in a much more less political, much more deep and national interest to remain out of these conflicts, to to not involve ourselves in horrific things like genocide. i think that should go without saying, but unfortunately it does not. um, but the bright side is, i think americans are waking up, americans are waking up to the reality that we have a zionist occupied government, and hopefully they'll be pushed back and solid. with palestinian resistance to this horrific blood lust and land grab
1:16 pm
that bb netanyahu and and all the israelis are attempting to carry out. sure. elijah magneah, as you mentioned moments earlier, the us, it vetoed three un security council resolutions for a gaza cease fire. iran has said washington's excessive use of the veto right actually threatens regional. uh and international peace and security as well while rendering the security council incapable of protecting global security. now there's been widespread criticism of not only the uh united states but the security council itself, prompting calls worldwide for the reform of the 15 member un body. do you also see this as major flaw in the world bodies functionality? i think since the w uh in ukraine between the russian and americans and their allies, we have seen how the double
1:17 pm
standard and the hypocrisy of the western system has been falling, and with the war on gaza, today we understand there is a strong necessity for the whole system to envisage new change, there is no way that the current system can hold in place the... us unilateralism is over, of course the us remained the strongest country in the world and it has more than 750 military bases around the world. however, the americans and their western allies have failed earn the heart and the mind of the population they were involved in many wars, particularly in the middle east, we talking about afghanistan, iraq, libya, syria, gaza, lebanon, so all this indicated that this
1:18 pm
system is no longer working, in gaza we have seen a... evidence by the international community that is incapable of stopping a crime against humanity, war crimes and ethnic cleansing, intent of genocide, life on camera, and the main allied israel is saying to the world, don't lecture us, and they don't care, they post the video of all their atrocity, and they challenge the world to the point that the icj, the international court of just... accept the case, the south african case against israel, and these really just don't care, there are more than 64 united nation resolutions against israel in favor of palestine, and the israely do not apply any, but they call for the applying a 1701 resolution on lebanon, because that is
1:19 pm
suitable for them, so we see not only the double standard and hypocrisy, but we see the... whole system is crumbling and is no longer holding the high ground of morale that the americans and the europeans were holding is over now and this is why we have seen how the organization like the shanghai cooperation like the bricks is forming like south africa like africa south america asia the middle east is gathering together because there is need of a strong change right uh mr. mansfield, why aren't regional blocks or even arab governments stepping up and taking matters into their own hands? many officials have called on muslim and arab countries to openly express their opposition to israel severtize uh even with the israeli regime. why is that not happening? because the their zionist occupied governments are no different
1:20 pm
than the united states. i mean, i don't what else there is to say, these countries, i believe egypt was egypt and... were the first countries to uh what do they call normalize ties with israel, you know kind of recognize its existence uh the the the saudi royal family who is intentioned to be you know the the protector, the sword, the defender of the two most holy sites in islam, sits and has has dinner with with israeli diplomats and figures and i get, i understand to a certain extent it's a matter of survival because israel israel is the big dog, it's small geographically, but you want to talk about punching above its weight clash, it holds the the leash on the the dog that is the might of the us military empire, and so i understand to a certain extent it's survival, but at at the same time it is capitulation, it is kind
1:21 pm
of giving up or giving in to the... want to call it revolutionary, if you want to call it counter-revolutionary tendency of islam, that is to defend one another, to to look out for your brothers in the faith, and it's just becoming complicit in the increasing globalization of the world where these sort of ideological or religious values lose their potency and get replaced with, as i had said earlier, the prophet motive, personal... success, you want to say playing the game of world politics, which is a sham, what uh, the colleague here, elijah had said about the united nations, yeah, well, even the united nations has passed, i don't even know how many resolutions declaring that food is human right, and what does it change, absolutely nothing, the united nations is an impotent joke, it can't do anything, um, and so in the
1:22 pm
same sense, when i i would urge. palestinians not to hold their breath that un resolutions are going to be what saves them, and i don't think, i don't think the palestinian resistance is deluted enough to believe that's the case, but we can get very easily caught up in the idea that, one more resolution, one more strongly worded letter is going to change things, it's not going to change things, israel has captured the government of every major power, and that includes the majority of the middle east, and so i think uh... as generally seems to be, i think iran is going to be palestine's best hope for survival, because iran seems to be one of the only governments that's left in the world. that isn't willing to cave to the interest of international jewry. elijah magnier, um, after over five months of lethal
1:23 pm
and deadly attacks of resistance groups, they're fighting back both uh strong both inside and outside of gaza. resistance leaders say that despite the western aid for israel, the regime has failed to achieve its stated military goals uh in gaza and will continue to do so. what have the israelis achieved then? "they have achieved to kill civilians, to destroy gaza, to starve the population, to put pressure on the families the resistance and the civilians families to show the brutality of the most immoral army in the world, all these are achievement, we have seen more what israel is capable of, for the first time the whole world is..." is looking at israel completely differently, they claim that this is the most democratic country in the middle east is has fallen, on
1:24 pm
the contrary is the brutal and killer most detrimental power and destructive army in the middle east, but without any ethics, so this is the achievement in the north, in gaza militarily speaking, they are... or they've been attacked today, area that they claim they have occupied on the 26th of october, in the middle, they are still fighting, they losing every single day several officers between killed and wounded, they are ambushed by the resistance, and in military terms, when the an army declares a specific goals and then fails to achieve them, it means the army has failed. "and the israelis have declared that their target is to eliminate hamas and to free all the prisoners, and they have failed in both. occupying area doesn't
1:25 pm
mean controlling it, they can occupy part of gaza, because they have very numerous and large army fighting against local resistance, but they cannot control it, because they are all the time harassed by the resistance and cannot stay in the same." place uh a long time and one last question before we wrap up this program uh from mr. mansfield, diff judicial bodies like the icj and the icc, they're effectively powerless in enforcing their rulings, especially in a case like the genocide in gaza, then where and how can the issue of accountability ever take shape? that's that's a difficult question to answer and i think it's something that all of us who are keeping up... with what's happening are kind of asking ourselves, you know, how how does this end? you know, is there a hope for gazins, is there a hope for palestinians, or
1:26 pm
is israel going to continue to steam roll uh, all the way to the to the nile river uh, and obviously we hope that's not the case, and i think a big part of that it's going to be, you know, it's it's easy, it's easy for uh, you know, guy a person. to talk a big talk and to you know really really make a you know show how strong and manly he is when he has a person twice as size and twice as powerful standing behind him and willing to back him up and so i think a big part of this is going to be uh reliant on americans on true americans willingness to stand up and say no we're not going to be complicit in this you know we had um uh was it minnesota and wisconsin where something like 10 to 15% of voters uh said that no, they democratic voters said no, we are not going to commit ourselves to vote to voting for genocide joe,
1:27 pm
and that well a small a small number relatively, that has some pretty big political impacts for the united states and i think biden has picked up on this and that's why he's now saying, well you know maybe maybe we do need to cease fire and maybe maybe we do need to give him a little bit of food and... no, but it's like too little, too late, it's too little, too late, and we've got to wake up to the reality that this is unacceptable. all right, unfortunately, that's all the time we have for tonight's show allow me to thank my guest, elijah magna, journalist and political analyst, joining us from brussels and thanks to keet mansfield, journalist and political commentator joining us from austin, and of course a special thanks to you our viewers for staying with us tonight spotlight. it's good night for now and see you all next time. ich will noch also meine studium zu ende bringen, ja, dann hoffe ich, dass einen guten
1:30 pm
your headlights here on pr. tv as us israel genocide and gaza continues for 155th day, more palestinians die as starvation is being used by the regime as a weapon of war. spokesperson for the hamas military wing stresses priority to strike a prisoner swap deal is to end the israeli aggression completely. and yemen's army announces conducting two naval operations against american ships into.
15 Views
IN COLLECTIONS
Press TV (Iran) Television Archive Television Archive satellite recordings Television Archive News Search ServiceUploaded by TV Archive on