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tv   SPOTLIGHT  PRESSTV  March 22, 2024 10:02pm-10:31pm IRST

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hello and welcome to spotlight. nearly six months into israel's genocidal war on gaza, the regime's relandous bombardment and shelling has claimed more lives in the besieg a territory. the palestinian's death toll has now surpassed 32,00 who are mostly women and children. israel keeps expanding the scope of its crimes against palestinians by bombing and raiding hospitals, opening fire at displaced people quewing to receive aid and assassinating civilians with drone strikes and these atrocities are committed with
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impunity due to unconditional support from western powers, particularly the united states. we'll discuss that more in tonight's spotlight program. our guests joining us are author and political activist eve angler joining us from montreal. and from chicago we have political commentator shabir rizby. gentlemen, welcome to the program. let's start off with mr. angler in montreal. uh, now attacking hospitals and shelters, uh, it's been a hallmark of the israeli regime's conduct throughout its genocidal assault, now al-shifa hospital, where 30,000 palestinians are taking shelter, has been under attack and under siege for almost a week. now, some of the details of what's going on there, israeli forces have cut off water and electricity, uh, to the, medical facility, has the
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impunity of the israelis completely in line with the inaction of the international community reach this point where they can push the boundaries of monstrosity and act in complete contravention of all international conventions and rules of armed conflict. uh, unfortunately it has, mean it's war crime after war crime after war crime after war crime, uh, they boast about it israeli. of soldiers boast about it online, and um, it looks like the us is going to be videoing another un resolution, uh, they they uh, i mean, the israel just keeps getting the support, gets new weapons and um, there seems to be almost no threshold, which they can um, surpassed, that's that leads to uh, serious uh, consequence. um, it's uh, it's almost uh,
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it's almost beyond belief uh, but um, this is uh, we just have to keep raising the pressure uh in the countries like canada where i am, that have been enabling this uh unbelievable uh, horror. uh, mr. rizy, the us uh proposed a resolution at the security council earlier today, calling for a ceasefire in gaza and hostage deal uh, that was not asked as russia and china vedoted moscow and beijing of course voting down the us resolution uh it shouldn't come as a surprise as an immediate and unconditional cease fire not linked to the release of the captives was all they would accept break down what happened today at uh at the security council and how did you view the us proposal in the first place? yes well it's clear that the us so-called ceasefire proposal isn't a real proposal force fire if you read the detail "this is
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this basically just abides by israel's demands without making any real concessions to the palestian resistance, and first and foremost, this so-called deal would allow for the full invasion of raffa where the israely army would without a doubt continue the ethnic cleansing, continue the war crimes and continue the genocide. this is being falsely promoted in my opinion as a cease spire deal in order to make russia, china and whoever..." um disagrees with the that that may disagree with this cease fire proposal, look like the bad guys a time where there is more violence and more ethnic cleansing happening before our eyes, within the actual cease fire resolution, the quote on quote seesfire resolution proposed by the united states, this was basically just blanketed as israeli demands and they may they might say that they're allowing or they're they're asking for more humanitarian aid to come into uh gaza. but what we're seeing is the
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delivery of the humanitarian aid is being impeded by israeli settlers who block off access to the humanitarian aid to the delivery of the humanitarian aid in itself is a weapon because as palestinians are being starved out, starving palestinians run to the deliveries wherever the the aid is being delivered only to be shot down by israeli forces or be crushed by the the crates that are being air dropped anyway, so in and of itself the the delivery of the so-called humanitarian aid is actually allowing for the further elimination and ethnic cleansing of palestinians and last but not least baked into that would likely be the expansion of this so-called humanitarian port. that's being built on gaza, which by the way, the palestinians never had access to or the ability to build their own ports in the first place due to being beseed by the israeli occupation, this would allow the united states to then create this port, which would lead to more further um occupation of palestine, perhaps even um installing some
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sort of us-israel uh partnership base to besege gazza even further, so the whole deal is not really deal. mr. angler, the us, it wants to establish a port to deliver humanitarian assistance in gaza, but at the same time it provides weapons and lethal arsenal to the israelis, break down this questionable and appalling hypocrisy and inconsistency by the us, many critics have described the us's involvement in efforts force fires nothing but facade. correctly, so uh, there is no problem with getting food. and other things into gaza if israel just stops blocking it by truck, and a simple way to pressure israel to stop blocking it by truck would be to say that we are going to at minimum stop the weapon shipments until you
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stop doing that, let alone the $4 billion a year annual military donations or aid donations to israel that the us gives. plus this plan to expand that um, so this is not uh rocket science, there is no reason why there can't be hundreds, if not thousands of trucks that uh enter gaza every single day, like they have in the past, this is just that israel um wants to collectively punish palestinians, israel wants to uh drive palestinians out, israel wants to make it unlivable and and it's the responsibility of those governments that have provided so many forms of diplomatic uh financial, military etc support to uh withdraw that um to make
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sure israel lets in food, but so that's that's not that's not complicated, this is a this is a sort of all a big diplomatic game. are playing to act like they're getting tough on israel uh they're against the operation in rapha uh uh because it's bad for public opinion when it comes to uh the us internationally and so they're making a big huge uh show of uh you know visiting blinken visiting israel and acting like they're trying mean the yeah if if if if they really want this to happen they really want there not to be a full-onsat they really want food to get in, they have to exchange that, bring in pressure, it's it's it's simple, and it's not, it's not even, it's not, we're not talking about boycotting and devestment and sanctions, which many people are calling for, we're talking about just stop these huge
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financial subsidies that are already being given, just withdraw this, this unique form of support that's that's already being given to this country that... going back five months was a brutal apartide state and is now engaged in a uh holocaus uh in gaza. mr. risvy, israel has backtracked a photo collage of resistance fighters it claimed to have captured during uh the raid on al-shifa hospital. hamas said of course earlier dismiss the israeli regime's allegations that tens of members of the palestinian resistance movement had been arrested. during the ongoing attack uh and siege of the al-shifa hospital in gaza, hamas says that the attack on al-shifa is part of the systematic destruction of health facilities by the israeli regime, do you see it in that light as well? absolutely, what the israeli regime
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is doing is they're intentionally attacking hospitals and when people are in the hospitals they're going to pull out anyone that is a military aged male, which to them by definition is going to be anyone. that this justifies their operations within hospitals, everyone knows that this is this is false, that they are lying, but they are going to keep pedaling this lie in order to continue their their their war crimes against these hospitals, against the palestinian people, it's becoming clear that it's becoming clear at least to the international community, i've known about this for years, many people that are familiar with the palestini issue known about this for years that israel has always wanted to ethnically cleanse the gaza strip that's always been a thorn on their side and they are taking this
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opportunity to commit an ethnic cleansing before the world and and kick out the palestinian people and one of their ways of doing this is as you said systematically destroying whatever healthcare is left in the in the gaza strip which to begin with was already terrible um people couldn't get cancer treatment people couldn't get um treatments for various diseases they actually had to leave the gauza strip to do it so these health facilities were already uh not in grape shape, they weren't allowed to have various devices, various medicines and even even doctors weren't even able to be trained properly by world health standards and so what israel is doing is eliminating what's left so that if so that when palestinians return back to their to the guzza's trip to these various hospitals they have absolutely nothing to start off with um and so it's clear that what we're seeing here is war crime upon war crime. and they're justifying it by calling anyone that stands in their way hamas or hamas affiliates. m, the raffi
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offensive, it appears to be imminent on that issue, the us secretary of state anthony blincan has called it a quote unquote mistake. now that's a severe understatement to call it just a mistake, as it would be a mass slaughter of civilians taking shelter and their last refuge. as her homes have been demolished uh, what has the international community learned uh over the past six months of this genocide unfolding, and with that, how can the international community stop this massacre of rafat from happening? well, i think most of the world's population has had it confirmed that uh, israel zionism is a absolutely brutal... uh country political movement that needs to be um overturned,
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needs to needs to be uh um altered, radically altered, whatever you want to call it. um, so i think for the vast majority of the world's population, they've learned just that there is kind of um no horror that that israel won't uh won't commit. for when we talk about the international community, when we talk about the... powerful uh anglosphere or nato countries, um, anyone with the minimum of of heart of humanism in those positions of of authority and power, they should have learned at this point that the only way that israel is is going to be restrained from its most uh odious uh tendencies, is to end the the forms of support that we are giving to it, mean so
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so no matter how many times blinkin repeats some some concern about human lives being lost, there's too many or biden uh claims that he's caught in a hot mic saying that there's too many people being killed and this kind of stuff uh it's a matter of bringing in something that's going to... bring some form of cost to the israeli government and quite frankly to the israeli public, the israeli public are genocidal, the israeli public are drunk on supremacism and they need to be restrained, they need to, they need to understand that the the world's hegemon and the uh powerful countries are no longer going to provide the weapons, to give one example for... the holocaust they're committing um so so yes the mean the international community
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blinking at this point if if he's has any seriousness about wanting to curtail slaughter top of the however many slaughters that have been committed um he has to bring in some form of of of sanction in israel video has been released showing israeli forces killing or better set executing four unarmed palestinians in gaza using drones, now the unfolding events of the past few days i uh the continued blocking of entry of aid the siege of al shifa hospital. "they clearly expose israel's intentions of engineering this famine and contributing to this genocide that's taking place. is this a clear indication that this massacre has not only been a war against gaza's resistance, but against uh all of the population of gaza? i saw that footage, it was terrible, it would, it made me tear up just how criminal they are
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towards the palestinian people. i think from day one, even and day one being years ago, day one was in october." 7th, i think from day one israel sites were set on on gaza and removing all the palestinians from there, what we're seeing right now is for israel uh closing window, because they feel that, the united states, as you said earlier that they want to continue the operation with or without the united states support, we all know the united states um is the main financier and the main political backer of israel, in fact without the united states help. "israel wouldn't last second uh, it would be crushed, and what we're seeing is an unhinged israel that knows that the united states will support it no matter what, but now clearly being challenged to some degree as joe biden and the democratic party here face uh resistance not only in the streets of the united states for millions and millions of people across the country weekly,
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demonstrate for the palestinian cause, the palestinian cause in the united states is more popular than ever." but now it's actually even reflecting at the polls where in states like michigan which has a significantly large uh arab population and a muslim population um they're they're voting uncommitted to point where it's showing in the polls it's hurting biden where 10%, 20%, 30% of people are voting uncommitted. i live in the state of illinois where in chicago a significant portion of people that typically vote democratic are now voting uncommitted, in fact they wrote... the words, they wrote down the word gazah in instead of uncommitted. the palestinian cause is becoming more popular, and with this israel is afraid. israel is afraid of the the the support that it used to enjoy throughout the international community, and so right now what it's doing is it's lashing out. um, and unfortunately, their soldiers also have, unfortunately for them, i should say, their soldiers have no discipline, they feel
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completely embolden if you check their telegram channels, they're uploading videos them torturing palestinians of them massiring. palestinians and the world is seeing this, the world is seeing the israeli experiment for what it has been since it started. these types of massacres have been happening since the 1940s and they've happened every year since then. the world is finally waking up to the the ongoing horror that palestinis have have faced, and the israeli regime for this part is panicking. they see to some extent a window closing on that support, and they're willing to do whatever is what necessary within that window to meet their goals. those goals are clearly not being. that the palestinian resistance is still alive and well, they still have not been able to save any hostages um without massacrering uh, without even massacring those hostages and in fact they've allegedly killed 70 out of the 100 something hostages um with their own bombs and bullets, um we're seeing this israeli regime fall apart in real time and with this falling apart they're
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becoming more and more heinous and committing more war crimes in order to meet their political goals but to no avail. mr. angler, iran's foreign minister has recently said the world has realized that israeli prime minister benyamin netanyao has reached the end of the line and is desperately trying to survive. now us intelligence reported earlier surfaced in this regard that the white house was um likely searching for an alternative to netanyahu. is netanyahu now a liability even not just for israel itself but for israel's allies. and do you think that he's one? the main reasons that any negotiations a cease fire keep failing? yeah, well i think netanyahu has been a liability uh, well specifically the the right far right cabinet is even before the last six months, so there was a a concern that these fascists have have
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taken over um the israeli government um so the us and at this point netan yahu has very very particulist uh narrow personal interests in uh not having an election and not finding himself in jail and stuff like that um so so that's all part of it and i think that the us uh would prefer benny gants in in in the as prime minister and have a little bit more uh compliant a little bit um less extreme uh uh leader leading this genocide, but but there's not really that substantive difference, and um, and and this is, this is the... us doesn't need to continue uh, they can withdraw, i mean again, they don't have to send weapons, the shipments of weapons don't have to happen, the us soldiers that us intelligence assisting the us doesn't have to
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happen, or assisting israel doesn't have to happen, um, all these different forms of support, they don't have to happen uh, but um, but i think that netanyahu is a is a liability, um, but but uh, that was that's been the case for a long time, and yet the the, us is policy is to uh back this uh european uh colonial outpost destroying um uh destroying the middle east. shaby rizvy uh 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 uh to israel to blockade israel to cut ties uh with israel. why is? not happening. the sad fact is that lot of these arab leaders are traders. uh, saudi arabia, the uae, jordan, they created within months, within weeks of the rather,
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the yemeny blockade of the red sea, they created a land bridge to make sure that israel still gets its exports, or rather gets its imports one way or another. the same could be said for turkia, which has become one of the main exporters of fruits and vegetables to the israeli regime, especially as um as hezbolah rains down rockets on the north which uh hurts their agricultural sector only for turkia to come around and basically give them the same goods um of course they have to pay more for these but that's besides the point lot of these regimes are now showing their true face they're showing these leaders are showing their true colors they want to be part to some extent of the american experiment or rather they want to play both sides of it and hope for the best but the fact of the matter is "you can't play both sides, if you're playing both sides then you're essentially playing into the hands of the americans. now is the time to pick a side, do you want to stand with the palestinian resistance or do you want to
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stand with israel? do you want to stand with the us hegemonic order and eventually become those victims yourself, and i want to remind whoever is sympathetic to saudi arabia or to the uae or to the or to turkia, that israel has plans to expand, it's not just going to stop on occupied palestine, there is a concept." that many of israel's current leaders float around called greater israel that actually expands into lebanon, that expands into jordan, that expands into iraq even, and the fact of the matter is if they don't retaliate against israel, if they don't do something about the this cancer on the region, one day the gun is going to be pointed at them, and the same people that are financing israel right now, the united states will be nowhere to be found, because at the end of the day the united states wants to make the world in its own image, and they will... back israel 100% when it comes to this greater israel project, it doesn't matter how how profane it is, how destructive it is, they want to control that land, they
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want to control west asia, they want to control the middle east, whatever you want to call it, israel serves as the 51st state of the united states and it wants to expand, we're going to allow that to happen, all right, that's all the time we have for tonight's show, allow me to thank my guest political commentator, joining from chicago and author and political activist evangler joining us from montreal. thank you gentlemen, and uh, thanks to our viewers for staying with us tonight spotlighters, good night for now, see you next time. abu hussein, iraq. intifada shabaniah during saddam hussein's regime.
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يعني ايران بالنسبه لنا كشيعه وعايشين برا بالخارج يعني تحس اكو. see the story of a man who is recounting the tales from the recent past. for muslims across the world, aid alfiter, which marks one month of obedience to god in the holy fasting month of ramadan is a special feast. muslims feel festive and proud
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for their servitude to god. ramadan is called the month of blessings. out of respect for the holy month, muslims put aside their differences and hostilities and forge a stronger unity. different cities and villages in iran have their own traditions for ramadan, which... back to centuries. get a glimpse of it in this documentary on press tv. how designs come from across the world to palestine to occupy a land belonging to
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another nation. how do they form their secret army, hagana? how do they grab lands belonging to palestinians? how did they build and expand their illegal settlements? israel's former prime minister goldomir answers these and more questions in this documentary.
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the headlines, the israeli regime strikes various locations in gaza, including rafa and gaza city, raising palestinians death tool to over 32,000. russia and china have idod a us draft resolution at the un security council for. failing to genuinely call for immediate ceasefire in gaza, and also in our headline, several israelies have been injured in a palestinian retaliatory operation in the occupied west bank.