tv SPOTLIGHT PRESSTV April 4, 2024 10:02pm-10:31pm IRST
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one reason would be since it would prevent the genocidal aggression and that the cleansing of palestinians from continuing. is this what israel is after? does the targeting of aid and aid workers also support that? in this edition of the spotlight, we look at how the israeli regime is doing all that it can to extinguish palestinians on the eve of day rallies and with the six month starting date of the us israel genocidal war coming up. first let me introduce our guests for this edition of the spotlight. kenstone, executive committee member at hamilton coalition to stop the war, joins us from hamilton, also joining us is zakir ahmed, mayat attorney, activist and political analyst from johannesburg. taking a look at uh what i
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mentioned in the intro and that were the statements that came from osama hamdan who's a senior rep uh in uh lebanon uh based on the most recent developments concerning the genocidal war. one of the most significant aspects of whatuh he made uh known in his speech was the fact that hamas is still um at the negotiating table when it comes to this ceasefire. in terms of some of the different parameters that were presented, he said that they were uh still sticking with what they had presented prior. uh things like uh for the israeli regime forces to be um removed from the gaza strip uh for there to be um obviously um some kind of route for the residents of uh the gaza strip to return especially uh he noted uh the northern part of the gaza strip and for aid to be delivered amongst many others, but overall he mentioned the fact that it doesn't seem like israel is uh interested in uh any type of agreement at this point uh putting the blame on the israeli prime minister. benjamin netanyahu
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and uh also the fact that uh any type of ceasefire as mentioned in the intro would prevent uh the genocide from continuing. so let's bring in now uh ken stone from uh executive committee member of the hamilton coalition to stop the war. who joins us. kenstone, welcome, this cease fire that was mentioned by osama hamdan in uh beirot he said squarely the blame falls on israel that it's not after. sease fire and then blaming the prime minister of netanyahu. we know that netanyahu's political career is hanging on this, but the mere fact that he said israel is not interested because that would prevent the regime from continuing his genocide, speaks volumes. would you think of a statement there? uh, first of all, i'd like to thank you for inviting me and wish everybody, ramadan mubarak. on the question of the cease fire, israel does not want a
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cease fire for number of reasons: the first reason is that it wants to ethnically cleanse the palestinians from gaza uh, just as it wants to ethnically cleanse them from the west bank as well, where they've conducted in the last six months some 300 murders of palestinian residents there, the they don't want to cease fire because they want to destroy, they they want to destroy the resistance to... in the west in gaza, which is of course hamas, part of the access of resistance to zionism and us imperialism in west asia, they'd like very much to wipe out hamas, thirdly, they like to take over the the gaza strip because it has an offshore gas field that israel would like to exploit, and
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okay, looks like uh, your connection, connection with uh, kenstone is not working. let's go to you, um, zakir ahmed, you know, this uh thing with the world central kitchen convoy. i think we lost actually both, so i was just gonna get into the uh whole issue of the world kitchen convoy that was targeted by israel, uh the whole uh scenario regarding that uh is basically falls into two parts, one uh why was this uh convoy targeted when the coordinates were given to the israeli regime and secondly um given the fact that this was us uh based and you had nationals on there uh such as from the uk and uh from other countries uh it doesn't seem like that even prevented israel from uh not targeting it, which brings about then the conclusion that has been made, some say speculation, but it's a conclusion that have been made by many as to the fact that uh israel does not want any type of aiduh to uh be uh distributed inside the gaza strip uh this then let lends a hand to the uh starvation that's happening
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more so in the northern part of the gaza strip where it's showing itself we have upwards or the average median of about 700 thousand palestinians who are uh um grappling with life and death uh because they're starving uh, i think around 50 so far have died as a result of starvation, but that number can quickly escalate given the fact that the aid that's reaching into the gaza strip is not enough, so that's one of the things that uh needs to be analyzed and dissected. another aspect of this war which has been ongoing now in terms of the complicity is from the us, we are going to be looking at uh how that is uh the genocide that's taking place, even on the day that the convoy incident happened and the us president joe biden came out and was in a heartfelt message showed sympathy for for what happened, the us signed off on more military assistance, so at this point that puts into
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question the sincerity of the us, even though many have said that the us is not sincere, that what it says out in the open or in public or to the media is not what it says to the... israel regime and how it acts with the israel regime in terms of the assistance that it gives that. the whole issue of aid of course is very pivotal to the existence of palestinians. we're looking at the aid workers to have been uh targeted in large numbers. kenstone, unfortunately you got cut off. i believe maybe it's best for you to continue from where you got cut off if you remember. i was saying that the um that israel doesn't want a cease fire for the simple reason. that they would like to ethnically cleanse the palestinians from gaza, they would like to uh destroy the resistance in the form of hamas, they would like to get the their hands on the offshore oil gas fields off gaza, and they have this greater, they have this colonial project, and
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they've had it for over a century, they want to create a greater israel that is clear of the people of arabs, the israeli government in the words of uh "defense minister galan considers to be subhuman, human animals, so this is the reason that the besides netanyahu's own personal ambitions and survival instincts that the uh israeli government is not in favor at all of sece fire. all right, we're going to hopefully touch on some of those topics, because maybe that gives an explanation as to why you killing so many civilians from the israely regime side, but taking a look at the whole world." central kitchen convoy incidents uh there zakir ahmed, what is the story there? i mean, um, the courtness were given to the israeli regime, yet it was targeted. we're looking at the fact that uh, even israeli regime spokesperson uh, i believe, of the army came out and apologized, didn't do that
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for the 32,00, 33,00 palestinians that have been killed uh, but more and more now conclusions are being reached that israel does not want any type of aid, especially food to be distributed in the gaza strip. and of course with the record number of aid workers to have been killed so far, is that what israel wants because it wants the genocide to continue? the strike on the aid workers distributing food, we believe that they had certain tons of food with them at the time and they were transporting them, the entire trip was coordinated with the israeli regime, they were notified of the root and they had been tracking the convoy for some period of time, the... for the argument that this was accidental strike can be thrown into the bin. this is intentional, but we have to look at the timing. i believe the timing is particularly significant. the incident that preceded this was the attack on the islamic
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republic of iran's consulate in damascus and this is an agridious violation of international law, it is precisely because of the protections of embassies and consults. that we don't have mass violations, for example julian assan, when he was in the ecuadorian embassy, the foreign powers could not intervene and extract him from the ' this underscores the importance of diplomatic sites and access and protections, so when this strike took place in the afternoon approximately at 5 pm, israel needed a distraction, and one of the other distractions that they could conjure up at short notice was to strike this particular eight convoy, we noticed on social media that the attention shifted very quickly from the strikes in damascus to the... atrocities of striking aid workers, this was merely tactic by israel to distribute some of the pressure
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they had obtained or received after they had committed such an agregous act, but going to the other point, israel has systematically targeted the united nations relief works agency, it is the campaign to deconstruct every form of aid giving organization, including this particular one ' "their aim is to create puppet regime, we know that they have made attempts to shape the ground by coopting tribal leaders, clan leaders, trying to convince them to distribute the aid and to turn their backs on the resistance. this has been openly rejected by the clan leaders stating very clearly that they would never abandon their resistance and they would never betray them, so this is all part of a grand scheme to deconstruct any" organization and also to deconstruct anarua, but in this particular instance, i believe it was meant
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to be destruction to distract from the blatant violations of international law that was committed in syria in the afternoon. i was going to get into the ibanan counselor building a little later, but let's get into it since i guess mentioned it there, kenstone, of course, if you agree with what our guests there said, whether it was a distraction, or it could also, as some have said, is um, the... israel regime uh feeling uh defeated whether it's on the ground in the gaza strip and uh the fact that it is uh fighting on multiple fronts in particular the one that's obviously a big threat it is uh lebanon's hezbollah movements and it's also on the receiving end of the resistance groups regionally that are targeting israel now more so than ever in the past week the islamic resistance of iraq uh from the highi airport to the high h um refinery i believe or that was before anyways. it's on the resist receiving end of it in the past week is uh just one example of it, do you think that
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it's because of that that it wants to detract the world and then start a regional uh war where some say to bring in the us? well, i agree that uh what the uh israelis are trying to do uh by uh attacking the uh the consulate in damascus which is a blatant ation of international law and actually castle's belly and grounds for a war, grounds for war, an act of war is because the israel would like to would like to change the narrative, israel is desperately striking out in all directions because it is not winning the war in in gaza against hamas, hamas is still holding its own, is not winning the war against hezbalah, hezballah is responding tit fortat to all the
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provocations of by israel, in the in the red sea ansralla is has turned the port of ailat into a ghost town, so israel is getting more and more desperate and is looking to strike out against iran and to change the narrative, the narrative of the world now is that is is settler colonial state, racist enterprise, something that doesn't deserve to exist anymore than the apartide regime in south africa. this does not mean that all the israelis have to be wiped out, it means that the government of the apartide regime in israel has to go and be replaced hopefully with a palestinian state and all of historic palestine. the us is in this deeply because of hegem. "the us had undisputed hegemony over west asia for about 75 years following
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world war ii, and right now they only have one reliable ally left there, a really reliable ally, and that is the state of israel, so they are working hand in glove with the state of israel to resupply it with all the munitions that they could possibly want and even send more aircraft of recently announced long-range..." attack aircraft which could be used theoretically against iran, so the us is behind this, and the us, i'm sure, was gave the green light to the attack on damas because they two want to change the narrative and make iran the bad guy in west asia when actually it's the us and israel. well, if there's anything that needs to uh needs support of that uh statement made there by ken stone zakir ahmed is the fact that on the same day uh that the world kitchen workers were killed um the u.s.
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actually agreed to more military haid for israel so that kind of shows exactly where the us intentions are. and what the us president joe biden says out in the public, as i said before, is not what's going on behind closed doors. the military aid is very pivotal because uh, without it israel can't continue what is doing. we're looking at average of between 50 to palestinians being killed every 24 hours, let alone the structural damage that's taking place there. uh, what is us's uh goal when it comes to this genocidal war? is it drawing up plans, military plans with israel as to how it? seeds, most definitely, the integration between israel and the united states reached its pinnacle during the trump administration, we know that there was an integration of israel into the central command structures and there was an integration of air defense radars etc. during this particular period, so
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this is an old relationship that has only grown from strength to strength, and the fact that... that the united states has provided diplomatic cover to israel when the most grotisk violations have been taking place, despite the icj's ruling that there's a plausible case for genocide, despite the fact that they have not complied with the united nation security council resolution which the united states abstained from, and this was a plan, it was by design, however even that israel was not willing to come to the table for, this is an indication that both the united states and israel are working together to towards a regional restructuring, it is very clear that israel is an extension of us foreign policy within the region and a projection of american power, when we see these weapons packages going forward and the
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if we look at what was given, it was f35, f35s that will be converted to f35 is, daily variant, you will look at the the bombs 1,800 and few others, there's conversions of these dumb bombs to to smart weapons with glide kits, these indicate precision strike capabilities, this is not for ghaza, ghaza has been pulverized, they dropped the equivalent of between two to four nagasaki hiroshima size bombs on ghazza, and it's very clear when you look at the aerial footage and you study the the maps of ghazza and the satellite imagery. that there's not much left of gaza and yet the resistance continues to organically grow from the ground and continues to defeat israeli armor and personal in a daily basis, so it therefore begs the question, what was this for? and i think you've hit the nail on the head when you look at the timing, you look at the strike on the the consulatate, the respected general, i believe his janaza was held this evening, the the funeral of prayer, and this
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is an indication that they wanted to strike the... individual that was in charge of the northern front and as well as ground forces in syria, they then proceeded to strike these aid workers and then you get the the eight packages that are coming in, it's to try and shift the islamic republic as well as the access of resistance away from the war theory of attrition and destruction over time to a more offensive war. what it does open up though is that israel is a state that is become a lunatic. it is committing genocide, number one, number two, it holds itself up to no rules in terms of international law, violating a diplomatic site and killing such a high ranking individual, the next best thing that they could do is assassinate a president or a senior minister, that is how ridiculous the actions of israel are and yet the united states has failed to rain them in,
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therefore i look at the united states and israel as one in the same and the defeat of israel will be the... defeat of the empire, what we are need to understand is this is not about ghazza, it's not about even the axis of resistance, it's about the empire versus the global south, those that are oppressed versus those that are arrogantly demonstrating their power and oppressing those around the world, that's the real battle we're facing today, yeah, kenstone, the reshaping of the landscape of the region i believe is one of the things that you mentioned, that may be one of the reasons, if not a key reason for israel, to continuous genocide in the gaza strip, we know that it wants to carve out buffer zone uh certain uh and wants participation of certain arab countries, that's not going to happen based on what's uh the response has been, but there's another... aspect to this, which is this trade route, this has been discussed and uh presented before, the india, middle east, europe, uh, economic corridor, and i don't believe that that's going to happen either, because it has
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to involve saudi arabia, and at this point, saudi arabia is not very receptive to what israel has done, so do you think that uh, israel is going to continue with these aspirations in mind uh, in terms of trade, for example, to uh, basically want to push the palestinians out of the gaza strip and then uh maybe go through with that trade route? well, first of all, i'd like to say i agreed with every word of your pr your other guests about the us and israel trying to change the landscape of the of what we uh called or the british called the middle east, west asia and north africa, and they have been doing that since uh the the the war on terror was announced by uh george bush, um, of course it was not a war on terror, it was a war of terror against the mainly muslim people of west asia go all the way from uh
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afghanistan across uh iraq and syria and uh of course all the way to uh libya and that plan has not gone away uh the us was has murdered uh millions of people in that uh war of terror. "and they have spent trillions of dollars and they have, they are still occupying syria, the eastern third of syria, their troops are still in iraq, um, they are still, they have bases circular circularing, they have bases circling iran, and they are uh in in palestine working their best to help uh the israelis uh create the so-called greater israel, so..." yes, they are still continuing their project in asia, i'm going to end with you, we're looking a good state tomorrow, some wondering how that's going to transpire given the fact that iran's leader
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has said that we need to have this support of people around the world, which obviously the palestinian cause has been getting, what is your projection about what's going to happen tomorrow when it comes to the rallies? i think it's going to be one of the most important goods days that we will ever experience, the battle is raging. on it's the battle not just for the soul of palestine, it's the soul of each and every one of us, those that believe in truth, those that believe in justice, those that believe that there is accountability in this world and that one cannot believe that you are superior to another, and i believe this is going to be water shit moment in south africa, johannesburg, i know that there is goodsday events and protests taking place outside the us councilate, the united states and israel is being viewed as one in the same, these are the... arbitrators of atrocities, genocide and violations of all peoples around the world, the israelis have also become victim to the apart mentality and colonialism, as
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south african white south africans were also victims of that, indoctrinated and brought onto the wrong side of history is going to define the world today tomorrow and i believe that it is important for each and everyone to participate in whichever way they can. thank you for that, zakir ahmed, we appreciate a attorney activist and political analyst from hannesburg. ken stone, uh, sorry, we're just out of time. i can give you about 15 seconds if you want only. it'll be defining moment tomorrow and on saturday in toronto as well, because we're marshaling lots of people in view of the fact that the police attacked a peaceful pro-palestinian protest last saturday. thank you. thank you for that. kenstone, executive committee member, hamilton coalition to stop the war. thank you. with that we come to an end for this edition of the spotlight. for me. in the team, it's goodbye.
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this is home, first was a car, then the house, then i hit the street, that was 15 years ago, we are in los angeles, they are building and modernizing everywhere, the rent is always increasing. "the city doesn't know what to do with all the homeless people. this is our main spot for the last 19 years, that's most likely to die on the streets if we don't get her off the streets to the next year. for everyone i house, there's probably at least 12 or 20 in similar situation, so that can make my work very discouraging. housing first is just the first step that they need emotional support, they need support to seek treatment, they need support to..." to manage life.
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first to be headlines: israel presses ahead with his relentless air strikes and shelling in the besieg gauza strip as the death tholl from the genocidal war surpasses 33, the most resistance movement once again says that any ceasefire must end the onslot of the gaza strip and to the pull out of israely forces, also on the headlines, the cramland has warned that relations between russia and nato have reached the level of direct confrontation.
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