palestinian uh economic activity of something like uh 80%. as we enter the sixth month of the brutal war on gaza, the un says it fears the catastrophic situation may slide deeper into the abys. good to see you again, everyone. here is a recap of some of the latest developments. the palestinian resistance move. hamas says the israeli regime has

thorted all efforts by mediators to reach a ceasefire agreement in blockaded gaza. jeremy lawrence, the spokesman for the un high commissioner for human rights, says any ground attack on rafa would lead to heavy loss of life and increase the risk of further brutal crimes. the takeaways from the us president stated the union address a temporary pier on gaza's coastline to allow aid to enter as famon. looms and a reafirmation of iron clut support for apartide israel. similar words from eu chief ersel of underlion. violence in the west bank, israeli forces beat and arrest worshippers around the alaksa mosk with the holy month of ramadan only days away. health officials in gaza say 20 people in the enclave have died from malnutrition and dehydration, adding to the nearly 31,00 palestinians who have been killed and the...

more than 72,00 injured since october last year. with us on this edition of the program, publisher and political analyst desmond thompson, and joining us via skype, dr. matthew alford, author, filmmaker and lecturer of politics, languages, and international studies at the university of bath. welcome to you both. dis, i'll start with you. if i may, we're going to take a deep dive of course into the other issues soon, but "your reflections first off on the relentless bombardment that have been going on, has been going on in the gaza strip? well, it's what i call a daymar, because nightmare goes away when you wake up, the dam is still there when you're awake, and it's a of it's a massacer of unarmed civilization against the most modern and efficient technology." happens ever on this planet and

uh it's just ongoing thing a 24-hour basis that they're bombing away and killing and unfortunately it's backed by the zionist governments here in london and also in washington and people in the eu, so it's it's ongoing massacre, it is indeed an ongoing massacre and collective punishment of palestinians. um, matthew alfred, michael fakhry, the un special rapporteur on the right to food, has accused tel aviv of destroying gaza's food system as part of a broader starvation campaign, quote unquote. your thoughts. when we first um, met to do this show, i think just in the wake of october the 7th of last year, i remember we talked about say the uh how in wars very

perverse things can start to happen a macro level um and we talked about vietnam uh in the 1960s and 70s where the united states was there supposedly to protect democracy uh in the south of vietnam but actually ended up dropping more than two-thirds of its own bombs on the south of vietnam and killing way more people there for political reasons um kind of perverse occurrence i think "that's now what we're starting to see uh a big structural level in this particular conflict too, and the most obvious example of that is the pier that uh joe biden is proposing to build to allow aid in to prevent these uh this starvation to which you're referring, but peer which is going to take a long time to build and already lead to enormous amounts of starvation already and appear that does not need" to be built, because all that joe

biden actually needs to do is to call up the israeli government and say that is no longer supporting with diplomatic and military and economic aid that. that autocratic organization, so to me that's where we're at with this uh six months in, we're beginning to see the real uh perverse and ironic aspects of warfare a a grand scale. some people are suspecting that the pier will probably be used by the israelis for some kind of um attack on on the gaza strip after they have pushed everybody uh above the ground out of the of the enclave. um, i want to talk about the ongoing cease fire negotiations in in cairo, desmin, it seems that first of all, they have come to very little so far, they're stalled, no doubt, what are the implications of that for the gosons, lot of whom are starving as we speak,

and and do you think the global community who have been uh hoping for more optimistic news, what do you think they're going to think of that? well, i think it's... "these conferences which talk about uh peace talks as are called and so on, it's just really empty words, smoke screen if you want to call it, with the egyptian government, they have built a very efficient wall barrier to keep the palestinians in prison, which gaza, which gaza was and still is huge uh prison of two and a half million people." "if they were at all genuine, they, the egyptian government, would be pouring water, food into gaza, yeah, that's what they would be doing, and you know they can can be controlled, so it's it's just

hot air, yeah, not only are they not litting anything in, they're preventing anybody coming out from, yeah, coming out escape, if if they wish to do so. always look at the results, what are the results? never mind all the words and the labels and the fancy diplomatic talk, what are the results? the results are, millions of people are being attacked, yeah, i've got no defense against - aircraft, tanks, look at the equipment the israeli's got, yeah, the guys have got ak47s, stones, cutterpullets, definitely not comparable, um, matthew, same question to you, um, while eating ice cream, we all remember uh, the us president said march 4th, the end of the weekend at the time, um, it didn't happen, the talks were stalled, talk about the implications if you will for the gazans and for the international community

has been awaiting some good news to come out the the talks, uh, well, i mean, it's obviously um, there's not going to be a... good solution to this uh, in the short or medium term, um, we can only hope for the long term. i would say that there is perhaps some uh diplomatic maneuvering, um, or be it still a snail's pace, perhaps to get rid of benjamin netanyahu. um, i know that, um, lot of people see that as, something and nothing, um, but i think perhaps it could be the beginnings, um, the the pulling of a of - of a thread uh to unravel, um much more um uh much more beneficial reforms uh uh over the coming months, it's possible that if he is replaced with someone like benny gance then who is in the united states um without netanyahu's blessing, but this could be some kind of uh pathway to to deescalation, i

don't want to sound too kind of glib or optimistic there, but um just because the the macro, the important um uh uh negotiations um are not yielding clear outcomes, there is still movement uh on uh in other ways and of course there is movement in other countries due to the protests and of course to the victory of george galloway few days ago which indicates the public opinion is moving um and governments will ultimately have to respond to that. correct, we'll get to that of course benny gance has been to the uk as well um where he has met with the uh officials here, some people believe it'll be replacing one war criminal with another, him being of course member of the socal war cabinet uh that's been carrying out this genocide in the gaza strip. now let's go to the us, the president of the united states, joe biden used his state of the union address to demand

that israel boost humanitarian aid into gaza. he repeated calls as well as for tel aviv to do more to protect civilians and to work toward palestinian statehood as the only long term solution to violence, well biden's motorcade was forced to take a circuitous route to the capital, as hundreds of ceasefire demonstrators try to disrupt its path from the white house. have look. this war has taken a greater tol innocent villains in all previous wars in gaza combined, more than 30,00 palestinians have been killed, most of whom are not hamas, thousands and thousands of innocence women and children, girls and boys also orphaned, nearly two million more palestinians under bombardment or displacement. homes destroyed, neighborhoods and rubble, cities and ruin, families without food, water, medicine, it's

heartbreaking. i've been working non-stop to establish an immediate cease fire that will last for six weeks to get all the prisoners released, all the hostage released, to get the hostages home and ease the intolerable and humanitarian crisis and build toward enduring, a more something more enduring. as we look to the future, the only real... solution to the situation is two-state solution over time, well joe biden speaking in congress uh there, um, dismond, what do you make of that? this is a man who has used the us veto power in the un security council, yeah, vetoing several three, if i'm not wrong, un security council resolutions for sease fire. the continuation of billions of dollars in us money to israel, not to mention

the weapons that they're sending there to be dropped on palestinians, what are we to make of a comment like that? well, it's a very good political speech for the voters of of america, here i am as a president trying to make peace, it's justifying, but at the same time is supplying weapons and everything else to israel to carry on, building this peer. which is it's not for the benefit of the palestinians, it's going to be for the benefit of the zionist forces of israel and and america, but coming back to his speech, it's a political speech, it's like, here i am trying to do everything, but actually what are the actions? nothing, it's very simple, you stop, you stop massacring civilians that have got no weapons, there's no way of of defending themselves, never mind that. attacking zionist israel, none whatsoever, and you're starving them to death

deliberately, yeah, and we, the american government are supporting it, so uh, yeah, it's just a propaganda, just a f speech. let me put the same question to matthew to, is that how you see it as well, matthew? this is a man, the us president, with a long history of supporting zionism, touting it actually, in that same speech, uh, saying that he has more requis. mission in supporting israel all his life, and and his performance um over the past what, six months in supporting the israeli regime every in every possible way, um, how much of this really has to do with the election schedule really, when we have a an election taking place in the us in in november, we do have an election taking place in the u.s. in november. and very likely a british election the following week. um, i mean i think it's all electioneering um and

uh, but also reflecting the kind of very shallow uh spiritual bankruptness of the biden administration as well. um, i mean, i saw some interesting research the other day about, which was directing um uh directing uh organizations on how to talk about uh israeli actions in um and it was market research where the um where republican voters responded to um israel using words like we are obliterating the enemy, we are destroying the enemy, eradicating the enemy, and democrat supporters responded to more neutral terminology, like we are neutralizing the enemy, now that to me seems like the main difference between the democrat mentality and the republican. mentality, two sides of the same um filthy coin, and i think that's

basically what um joe biden is doing in, it's it's all um, it's it's he says things to to placate his his populis, i was going to say, and i'm sorry to use this expression, but do you think the electric electorate in the us is dumb enough to buy into that kind of stuff? well, i i think over time what happens in all of the... cases whenever there is a massive crime committed or a war, over a period of months and years, the electorate do catch up because very slowly the informat, the real information gets through and people think about it a bit more. but it's in the short term that there's always problems and that's why we were always concerned about this this war weren't we, if if they're going to go intensely for year it's going to be major uh major issue because it won't give the public the sufficient time to actually public opinion to actually kick in. i don't think the american public or any public is is dumb actually, i think they can they they can be very effective at turning um uh unjust

policies around. guess there is there the other problem which is that donald trump has who's been very... quiet on israel over the past few months is also saying that um we should um that they should finish the job or words to that effect um i suspect though in practice that if he does get in um he will be a little bit more um uh ameenable on on israel gaza just as he is um much more ameenable um to a peaceful solution on ukraine um so i think that there are ultimately some good signs in the future both coming from possibly from the trump camp um and certainly from american public and global public opinion, absolutely, and dism, um, i want to talk about the icj, the the ruling from the icj asking israel to do certain things that they haven't listen to, south africa, yeah, asking for more to be done, um, and what we have seen, of course, against the backdrop of global condemnation of what

israel is committing in the gaza strip, all has fallen on deaf ears in tel aviv, giving... absolutely not too hoots about what everybody is saying, well it's that there is the entire track record since uh 1947 that uh they're above the law, they're above the international law and they they do whatever they want to do regardless and that's that's their track record from uh the assassination of bernade he was put together a peace a peace plan which was is going to be acceptable where they where they murdered him and uh incidentally the gang of murderm was trained in uh way back in the 30s 1933 1934 uh by the uh the ss in military training camps in germany that was the stering gang

and the hagana they were uh uh that's a background of those guys who did the assassination but coming to answer your question, it's war after war, and they all each war for the state of science israel is built in war, and these wars are continuous on and on, off on, hot, colds, warm, so on, yeah, to build up their economy, and that's the track record, yeah, and and they ignore the law because there's no pressure really been put on them to say, you cannot commit crimes and get away with it and they have been committing crimes after crimes after crimes with the full blessing of the united states and other western everybody else and getting away with it and if they are forced of israel zionist israel is forced into using uh limited nuclear weapons they'll do it the

they have they're so unethical and the're so evil they'll do it all right unfortunately i hope that never ever happen. and unfortunately as we speak by tomorrow morning there's a ceasefire we'll see um just a quick reminder to our viewers this is gaza under attack a deep dive into the news surrounding the ongoing usraeli genocidal war on gaza. pro palestinian activists aren't being cowered by the british government's threats to curtail their freedoms of speech and assembly by trying to legislate against the massive pro-palestinian rallies around the country and in london in particular where... record number of protesters are expected to turn up over the weekend, one such activist, mesam hussein as a strong message for israel, the us part president and uk politicians. you guys can keep spreading hate, you can keep spreading your zinanist agendas, you can keep spreading false propaganda and lies about hamas, about the resistance, about everything else, but the truth is you're killing

thousands and thousands and thousands of innocent palestinians, not only in palestine, in gaza, "now you're doing it in the west bank, this has been going on for 75 years, you're doing it in lebanon, now you're you're you're picking a fight, you want to drag hisbollah into a war, this is not going to end well for zionism, god is watching everything, um, you know, we're we're watching these messages, we're watching these videos of people getting slaughtered a daily basis, but we're not insensitized to this, the western media, the western world is desensitized to this, we won't, we'll stand for our palestinian brothers and sisters in gaza, in the west bank, wherever to get..." of this cancer that is zionism and we're going to fight until the day that palestine is free. rafa is the size of heathrow airport, it's a tiny little place where all these palestinians have been brought into, which is so-called safe zone, but it's clearly not a safe zone. because netanyahu and the idf are bombing rafa as well uh so what's going to happen next is that they're shoot they're literally shooting fish in a barrel so we're going to have you know we

don't know what's going to happen next all we can do is pray and come out and support our palestinian brothers and sisters put pressure on these evil israeli uh zionists and uh we can just pray and hope that this all comes to an end and the cease fire happens as soon as possible there's no such thing as a temporary cease fire biden is known to be a strong zionist um they've got the elections coming up now, he's trying to cover his tracks and try and stay in power, he knows that he's lost so much support of all the muslims and and and people that are good decent godfearing people that oppose this israeli terror going on, so he's trying to this temporary seizfire means nothing until the elections go on and after that what are they going to do, continue bombing gaza again, they want to, we know the message, netanyahu and israel, they want to take over israel, they want to take over gaza, they want that as their territory, then next they want to annex into south lebanon as well, so this... is only going to get worse, so i wouldn't believe anything, liar and a and known zionist and warmonger like biden says. i don't have any faith in the mps, whether it's the conservatives or labor, they've let us

down time and time again, there's only select few people that are that are speaking out for what's right, everyone else is you know on that zionist agenda, they're puppets to to this government, like rishi sunak, he he alone our prime minister who's not even elected as our prime minister, he's only puppet for the israeli government and and for the us, so they don't have backbone, they don't have a spot. i don't have any expectation, palestinians in the occupied west bank have been preparing for the holy month of ramadan as the bombardment of gaza rages on. the devastation in gaza is likely to greatly overshadow any ramadan celebration across the west bank, which has seen a surge and violence since october last year. the preparations for the month of ramadan this year are different from previous years, because first of all the economic situation is difficult this year. and the second thing is the war in our people in gaza, so it is not going to be like every year, look at the people, no one is making any preparations and the shops are empty of customers, no one has

the desire to make preparations or celebrate the month of ramadan like in previous years, because those getting killed in gaza are our people. we have few minutes to go, we are going to uh continue the discussion with desmond, thompson and matthew alfred, of course, just one question to matthew, perhaps... as we're fast running out of time. pro-palestinian demos, matthew, are ongoing with raft of protests being held up and down the country. is the pushback by the uk's interior minister james cleverly and co of these protests working in your opinion? uh, i think if the war uh, if the this horrible escalation of conflict continues, particularly if it goes to uh, lebanon, as many of us are concerned about, particularly if netan stays in power, i think that the protest really will. over and i think that that is going to come from uh will uh emerge from the street, but also is being really galvanized by this new election of george

galloway, um, i think that that could be a real trigger moment, i mean the fact that the prime minister of the country had to come out onto the steps of 10 downing street just after gallaway was elected to uh to rage and repudiate what what had happened there um is... sign of how frightened the mainstream parties are of george gallaway's um ability um to to um to push back on behalf of protesters and with protesters. i would only say please, jeremy corbin, please take george gallaway's suggestion that you lead and he will support and we can create an anti-war movement and indeed an anti-war party in this country. i think that that's a really important thing to do now. there is momentum. for that, but we'll see if it will happen or not. well, that is the time we have for this program. my thanks to our guests, desmond thompson and dr. matthew alford. catch our

earlier episodes by visiting pressv.ir. until next time, continue to keep palestine in your hearts. goodbye.

this is forest. in this week's show we'll be exposing the activities of an israeli lobby group operating in spain, calling itself action and communication on the middle east, which is usually referred to by its initials acom. there was a poll done by u-gav at the end of 2023 with found that essentially spain was the the most pro palestinian country in

western europe uh. in terms of public opinion, so this is the country where you pay a relatively low political price for speaking out for palestine, spain of course there is an islamophobic party, the vox party, refer to go as a rump party, and and uh this acom group is very quite close to to volk, that's an indication really of the kind of uh tradition of islamophobia which flows through this movie.

your headlines on press tv as the us israely genocide in gaza continues for the 155th day the death toll nears 31, mostly women and children. the military wing of hamas says is main prior. a potential prisoner swap deal with israel is a complete end to the aggression on the gaza strip. and in another weekend of worldwide protest people have taken to the streets and a show of solidarity with palestinians in the wall ravaged gaza shrimp.