is a terror state the terrorists that terrorize i'll testify my television televise i'm telling lies how many more resolutions have to be violated how many more children have to be annihilated this is not a war it is systematic genocide but whatever they try palestine will never die hello i'm chris williamson and you're watching palestine

declassified, we're the only weekly tv show that's dedicated to investigating and exposing the israeli regime's global war against solidarity with the illegally occupied people of palestine. in this week's show we'll be exposing the activities and israeli lobby group operating in spain calling itself action and communication on the middle east, which is usually referred to by its initials acom. on its linkedin page, acom describes itself as an independent organization that to reinforce the political relationship between spain and israel by working with governments, political parties, the media and civil society, but latif abuchakra has been peering behind's benig veneer, where she discovered rather different and sinister reality, as she'll explain in this report. the former social rights minister in spain, ioni barara is one of the few european politicians who has been vocal from the outset in. cizing israel's genocidal

campaign in ghazza. while she was still a minister in the spanish government, she took to the streets in the aftermath of 7th of october, denouncing israel's planned genocide in razza, and calling for sanctions as well as a ban on arms sales to the zionist regime. balara was quickly hailed for her heroism, but she also came under attack from zionist lobby groups in spain. acom, which stands for action and communication on the middle east, is an ultra right. wing islamophobic israel lobby group which engages in lawfare and deformation tactics against supporters of palestine. the lobby group reported balara to the spanish prosecutor's office for incitement to hatred, claiming that she had abused her position and had exceeded her right to freedom of expression. acom has a long history of trying to shut down free speech on israel, in response to a boycott campaign which calls for apartide free spaces, which has seen shops and local...

authorities in spain boycotting the zionist regime. acom has taken dozens of legal cases to try to stop the boycott. one of their cases even reached the spanish supreme court, which declared the boycot discriminatory. while balada's views are popular in spain, she lost her job in the spanish government following a reshuffle in late november 2023. although it's likely that her dismissal was influenced by other factors. the spanish prime minister, pedro sanchez. has himself been much more vocal than other european leaders in support of palestine. sanchez declared last november that spain would soon recognize a palestinian state. sanchez also raised his concerns about the numbers of palestinian children being killed and said that he seriously doubted whether israel was complying with international humanitarian law. the israel lobby's influence in spain has been less powerful than in many european countries and poling indicates. that support

for palestine is strong in spain early last year, for example, the mayor of barcelona, ada colao, wrote to benjamin netanyahu to announce that the city was suspending relations with israel due to its systematic violation of palestinian human rights. even the european union foreign affairs chief joseph borell, who had a long career in spanish politics and who once volunteered on an israeli kibut recently criticized israel's allies. for continuing to supply the zianist regime with weapons. despite this broader support for palestine and spain, barara has been unique in the strength of her criticism of israel and has been at the forefront of highlighting the genocidal character of the zionist onslaught on razza. joining me in the studio as usual is our resident expert david miller. david's an academic and a former professor at bristol university and is now a non-resident senior research fellow at the center for islam and global affairs at

istanbul university, he's also a co-director of the lobby and watch dog spinwatch and is a leading british scholarly critic of israel. our guest today is via skype from madrid. author and political campaigner with a phd in philosophy, he's currently linguistics lecturer at madrid's camilo jose fella university. welcome to the show. tim, as we saw in our report there ioni barara has been an outspoken advocate for palestine hasn't she? i wonder if you could just say a word or two about how that's been received by the spanish public and indeed the political establishment for that matter. thanks for um invitation to speak chris, um, good evening, yes, the um uh, the reception she's had by the spanish political establishment has not been especially warm, um, although that's probably to do with the relationship between the political parties in spain, um, which is quite a a cantanchous relationship in

general, but on the substance of the issue, um, she's not really speaking um, too far out of turn, because there's a lot of consensus for palestine. amongst ordinary spanish people, um, there was a poll done by yuugav at the end of 2023 with found that essentially spain was the the most pro palestinian country in western europe um in terms of public opinion, so this is the country where you pay a relatively low political price for speaking out for palestine, i would say. david, i wonder what you would say then the sort of distinguishes spain from from other european countries. particularly in relation to you public opinion and and indeed to government policy, so as we just heard there, yes, i mean public opinion is very strongly in favor of palestines and critical of zianism, but that's been the case in many other foreign policy issues, i mean i remember when i first went to spain there was a there was a

referendum about whether they should leave nato and of course that the kind of anti-militarism has been very strongly warm movement against it in relation to iraq was very strong and of course we've seen cities like barcelona and others dec'. there that they're going to boycott uh israel, so there's been a strong pro- palestine sentiment in spain for some considerable time, and of course the spanish have - it's one of the only countries, one of the only two countries in europe which is actually decided to stop sending arms to israel, italy of course is the other one, other countries, the netherlands and belgium have done little things like stopped f25 parts going, or there's a part part part of uh the netherlands which is b which is said there will be no uh relations where? countries like germany have supply continue to supply significant proportions of the the the ordinance and the weaponry which is being used to kill children uh every day in gaza, so there's a sense really that that southern europe is more progressive than northern europe and in particular spain and public

opinion they're very strongly in favor of the palestinians and that's why bara is a popular figure there and has has been perhaps the most uh radical of all european politicians. even more radical in some politicians in places like ireland which have been a bit critical uh and that's that's part of the explanation no idea certainly set the standard i think for for other politicians to to follow but tim, i mean why do you think ioni belar was dismissed from a ministerial position then in the spanish government? well it's not exactly related to her position on on palestine but it's not unrelated either um she's able to speak out so... frankly and so tsly now on on palestine, let's say representing more of a humane position, perhaps precisally because she's distancing herself from the rest of the factions in the the left coalition government uh, which they've actually exiteted now in the parliamentary uh configuration as well as

obviously her losing her job in the ministry um, but uh the rest of the spanish left sort of talks a good game on palestine, but it seems slightly slow when it comes to taking out. action, mean they said they were going to, as was mentioned there, they said that they were going to stop arm sales immediately after in the after the current phase of the crisis began in october, um, but it just turned out that in november they were still, they were still sending arms to israel, um, they said that that was accident, but uh, you can, you can interpret that any way you like, really, no, indeed, well, david, i mean, in view of spain's criticism of the, the zinist regime then... mean, how do you see the um, spain's excuse me, relationship with israel actually evolving? well, i mean, you've got to remember that uh, that under the fascist regime of uh francisco franco up until 1978, that there was no relationship with with israel, and um, then after after the fall of

francko and the the introduction of of democracy in spain, then what happened was there was a a long campaign by by israel to try and uh create relations and that was eventually in 1984, the relations were established under felipe gonzales, the psa, the socialist leader uh, kind of like tony bler, i suppose you would say maybe a little bit more leftwing. and uh and so there was a kind of increase in in the relationships, but then of course more recently we've seen the cooling of the relationships, now we have the uh israelies have withdrawn their ambassador from spain, the're still diplomatic relations, they haven't totally broken off diplomatic relations, but they're much cooler now and and as this progresses i imagine they will get even cooler, but perhaps we'll look forward to spain being the first country in europe to to totally break off diplomatic relations with israel uh and not before. time, no indeed, and and that would certainly be a an example to follow, i think, but tim,

i mean, what's the broader political landscape, landscape like in spain regarding support for for palestine, and and what actions if any have been taken by other spanish politicians and officials? well, we had um, quite a good test of that this week, because podemos, the party that iona belara leads, brought a... build to parliament um proposing to break off relations with israel and to to completely stop um sales you know without exception um and all of the left parties voted for it in fact um so you know they are kind of um pinning their colors to the mast as it were um the um it didn't pass because the right-wing parties in in the spanish parliament voted against it the pp which is there. equivalent of the conservative party and vox, which is a sort of um extreme right uh rump party, they they

cynically voted against it, but even they have been forced to come speak out in favor of israeli restraint um so that shows that even the spanish right is probably an outlier uh within the the right-wing um political movements in the rest of the continent um that's there's historical reasons for that as as as was pointed out um and also i think perhaps sort of liminal position within europe means that it traditionally it's tried to maintain you know reasonable diplomatic relations with various other parts of the world the arab world um almost as a diplomatic imperative really so i think that's been a factor here as well so david i mean speaking up on your previous answer there i mean what's um shapes then spain's sort of diplomatic relations with with israel and how do you say that's actually changed under prime minister sanchez? well, i think it's important to to to endorse that point

that's just been made about the the liminal position of spain that it's kind of in between worlds in some kind of sense because if you remember what what happened with the american attempts to create this uh yemeny task force operation protect prosperity it was called of course and and what happened with that was that the us navy first of all said that that uh we did have enough ships to do this but then and france and italy all withdrew from that and you you ended up with just america and the uk and the say shells bombing yemen and and the other countries withdrawing so this part of the same kind of uh process now uh with the the sanchez government the movement has been very much against israel and away from friendly relationsships with israel as i said the they continue to have diplomatic relationships but the tendency is all the other way and really would be a a great breakthrough for a country like spain to to finally break relations, yes, yes, yes, indeed, well, we're just going

to watch our second report now about the response of spain's leading politicians to the genocide in gaz, particularly the former social rights minister, oni belara, and then we'll come back to the discussion. support for palestine among the spanish public remains comparatively stronger than in other major european nations. spain only established diplomatic relations with israel in 1986 after facing a concerted diplomatic campaign by israel's ministry of foreign affairs. the process was overseen by stalwarts of the spanish socialist workers party, which is the major party in spain's current coalition governments and is one of spain's two largest parties. however, under the leadership of prime minister pedro sanchez, spain now has troubled diplomatic relations with israel. over its genocidal campaign in gaza. sanchez has been supported

by the king of spain felipe vi. king felipe is normally considered to be a conservative figure. however, he is called for a permanent cease fire in gaza and for maximum humanitarian access. in addition to supporting sanchez in his desire for spain to recognize a palestinian state. this is in star contrast to other major european powers. like germany and the united kingdom, which have not only provided diplomatic cover for israel, but have also been supplying the zinanis regime with weapons. one of the reasons for spain's or pro-palestinian stance is the lack of power of israel lobby groups in the country. most of spain's major pro israel organizations are only around three decades old. one such group, the federation of jewish communities in spain was only established in 1993 and it does not quite enjoy the same kind of public influence as

its british counterpart, the board of deputies of british jews, which was established in the 1700s. nevertheless, the israel lobby in spain has been successful using law-fair tactics to harass and shut down pro-palestine activities, taking individual politicians and local authorities to court on the spain's anti-discrimination laws. once suits group, acom or action and communication in the middle east, states that its objective is to reinforce relations between spain and israel, and that one way it does this is through legal. action. accom openly insights hatred of muslims. on its youtube channel, it shared a speech by far right politician alberto taradas, talking about so-called islamism and spreading zinis mantra about a clash of civilizations between east and west. the group also spreads israeli war propaganda. it shared debunt and baseless

claims about ambulances in gaza being used to transport hamas fighters. and provided justification for israel's targeting of medical facilities like al-shifa hospital. moreover, acom lists as its friends, other notorious israel lobby groups, like the adl and apec in the united states, as well as bycom in the united kingdom, which have been at the forefront of efforts to silence criticism of the zianist war machine. whilst zinus lobby groups in spain are on the margins, the threat they pose remains. active davidom's uh support for islamophobic rhetoric and it's not unique to spain is it? it certainly isn't. i mean, this is why we say that the zionists are key part of the spread of islamophobia in the west, not the only part, the main part of course is is the forces of the state, the police, the intelligence services, but the zinits

movement has a specific component of islamophobia to add when it was zionis of course, invented the concept. of islamic terrorism, the idea of the islamist, all these concepts came from zionist intellectuals and of course the zionists themselves have pushed islamophobia through islamophobic think tanks for example in the uk and in the us and to some extent also it's the case in spain through some of the the new conservative and islamophobic think tanks that are there now in spain of course there is an islamophobic party the vox party refer to go as a rump party and and this acom group is very quite close to to. so that's an indication really of the kind of uh tradition of islamophobia which flows through the zianist movement, which we also see in the spanish zinis movement, well tim, how significant do you think king felipe's support has been in advancing, a more pro- palestine stance in spain? yes, he he's quite

a malethy monarch, isn't he, philip vi, i mean from a british perspective, uh, it's quite surprising. to see a monarch, a constitutional monarch calling for the recognition of the state of palestine, um, i, but i think really again, it that would take me back to the sort of broad consensus in spain about the necessity of of doing things like that, so it's not a particularly controversial thing to to say or, it's not unusual for him to make political uh comments, i don't know whether there's also an element of contion between the spanish crown and royal families in in arab countries or anything like that. i mean spain's former king juan carlos just uh emigrated to the united arab emirates um retired and emigrated so um i don't whether that's you know representative of more a more personalist strategy in their foreign relations generally you know historically david, i mean what connections then are there between acom and

and other pro israel groups uh israel lobby groups around the world and what? what influence do you think uh they have on global discourse about israel? well, mean the the designs coordinate with each other, big shock, they they all work together, they coordinate via tel aviv, they have common whatsapp groups to push particular narratives and you saw in on the the film there the the acom attack, legal attack on on sammi doon, palestinian solidarity organization, which of course is just an iteration in spain of a strategy which is adopted. through the world, in the us, in the uk, they attack pro- palestine organizations, so there are those kind of connections. acom advertises it its own website that it's connected to bycom, the the british organization, the main pr agency for israel in in the uk and of course to the adl, spy agency in in the us, to the american jewish committee and various other of the the lobby group, so it's not, it's not surprised

they work together and coordinate directly with the ministry of foreign affairs uh um in israel, so a global level, what what impact does that have, well it has an impact in the sense that that they they are all pushing the same messages, they have they have war what they call war rooms where they coordinate these messages and that that's the... by which they do this, these are not individual organizations in spain or the uk, this is a transnational zionist movement, as a as you've been seeing for a long time, yeah, well tim, i mean, what techniques then are are deployed by pro israel lobby groups in spain to manipulate public opinion and and policy decisions about palestine? well, they've brought lawsuits against activists um, for quote unquote glorifying terror. uh in public demonstrations, in the speaches in public demonstrations um, they threaten to take legal action against public institutions

like the university of granada for publicly declaring their support for palestine, their institutional support for palestine, um, they petition against um anra, and they petition the spanish government to prohibit. palestine demonstrations, so basically it's it, as was mentioned before, it's law fair, um, mix, and where that doesn't work, it's plain intimidation really, if you were generous you'd call it campaigning, but it's very aggressive campaigning to the point of intimidation really, which i think is all they've got less, got left, because they've lost the rest of the argument, you know, yeah, what david, i mean, how does the um, you the impact of uh, of pro israel lobby groups in spain then you differ from other european countries, well you can see from what we've been saying so far that they're weaker than than in other countries, they they haven't captured key processes of the

state and like we have in germany in the uk, france to a some extent are the tactics the same though, do you think well the tactics are are different in the sense that they they're not so embedded with the powerful right right so the they so you see in the spanish elites various different um statements you know it's not just it's also the king and it's the prime minister who are able to make very critical statements about about sees fire, yes compared to other european leaders, but they have so they have concentrated more at the local level, they've they've gone after uh um cities and who have declared boycots, in the cases that tim's just been talking about you legal action and they've been very successful in some of their legal actions uh with the collaboration of of judges who are evidently biased towards israel, but it's a lower level than in other european countries where... where the designers have been able to capture uh policy making and and key elements of those societies right? well finally and briefly tim because we've only got about a minute left,

mean do you think it's likely that spain will actually recognize a palestinian state then? um well suppose it's a bit like um the samuel play waiting for god though you know one assumes it will happen but one's not sure um mean i think of all the european countries. had to put money a country to do it um imminently it would be it would be spain, but it's always inhibited uh by its relationship with the eu. spain is intimidated by the eu and wants to do it at an eu level i think rather than just unilaterally, but if that doesn't work then maybe they'll maybe they'll do it, you never know, you never know your luck. well, indeed, yes, we never know our look, but let's hope we are uh lucky, um, but i'm afraid we're going to have to leave it there as the clock's beating us. again, so thanks for watching and and thank you to our guest timothy appleton and of course our resident expert professor david miller. palestine declassified, we'll be back of course next week with more forensic investigations and analysis. in the meantime,

you can follow the show on facebook, twitter and telegram where we post regular clips and updates. you can also help us to counteract the disinformation pedal by the corporate media about palestine and the resistance to zinis brutality by showing today's program on your social media platforms. so until next time, this is chris williams for saying. bye for now, in late 2023, south africa filed case at the international court of justice, icj over the israeli apath regimes. war against palestinians in the besaged gaza strip. south africa stated that the telabaib regime has failed to uphold its commitments under the 1948 genocide convention. south africa filed

the loss it against the. israel regime at the end of december, noting that israel's actions in gaza that started last october are geniciding character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the palestinian national, racial and ethnic group. we have a special guest to discuss the topic today. he's none other than south african ambassador to iran, his excellency dr. francis moloy. thank you, mr. ambassador for your time today. thank you very much for inviting me, mubarak. it's a pleasure to be here. information about palestine abounds on social networks, many times without context. they do not allow us to go deeper and understand all

the... dimensions of a catastrophe that is dragging on for centuries. daniel hardway, chilean mayor of palestinian origin, opens a window to palestine, to understand in depth the present cause of the palestinian people, exploring its history and future prospects. do not... miss a window to palestine.

"i have been detained 10 times since the first into fada or uprising in 1987, i was detained and released 10 times. so i have lot of experience and have lot to say about what takes place during the interrogations and about the horrifying stories i heard from my fellow detainees.

"the first pain when his house is rated by the occupations army, the troops detonate the doors using bombs and then enter the home and begin ransacking it, destroying everything inside, they terrify the children, women and fathers and mothers in plain sight of the prisoner who's handcuffed behind his back." "that prisoner is taken in plin side of the children who scream. this also constitutes suffering for the family, for the children, for the women, for the father, and for the mother. on the way to the interrogation, the detainee is physically and verbally

assaulted. and here's blasphemous words. the wives or sisters of some of the detainees were also detained and brought to the interrogation. there the men were threatened with subjecting their wives or sisters to sexual abuse if they refused to make a confession. "i personally spent a week, seven days sitting a chair with my hands cuffed behind my back and my face covered. i spent seven days without sleep and without food during the fasting month of ramadan. they were giving us just one meal every two or three days. when i was asking for water, they were spilling water on the floor, so if you wanted to drink water, you had to drink the water spilled on the floor." so they obtain a

decision from the court and set the detane down and shake him for a long period of time. and that subsequently inflicts a brain injury on him that leaves him either dead or mentally ill. they strip people of their clothes and put them a wet floor and turn on air conditioners, switching back and forth from cooling to heating. during one to two days those detainees fall ill due to that method of torture. while the detany is hungry, the interrogator brings delicious food and begins eating. what hurts more

is that the army brings those settlers to the prisons to see how palestinian detail. are humiliated or subsequently they boost the moral of their people and settlers through showing them the pains of the palestinians who are held in the prisons. what's currently happening in israeli jails is harsher than what happened in the us detention centers of abu ghraib and guantanamo bay. i can say that they all learned from the same source how to...

از من شد و اینکه گفتن که شما چه الگوی عملی برای زن امروز ما ارائه میدید؟ ببینید این بستگی داره که زن امروز این الگو بدون زیربنا بدون اون جهان بینی فکری معنا نداره یعنی من برای خانمی که این دنیا رو فقط همین دنیا می بینه یه خانواده ای که فقط همین و دو تا چهار تا رو می... می بینه و در ورای این مسائل معنوی و مسائل الهی درک نمی کنه هیچ الگویی نمیتونم داشته باشم.