hello and welcome, you're watching the spotlight on press tv. i'm at the israeli genoside in gaza, the deaththoll continues to rise with over 80 palestinians killed in the past day alone. israeli air strikes, artillery, fire and ground operations have devastated civilian areas, including un shelters and schools. while properties have been destroyed and tensions remain high across gaza, the situation remains dire for the palestinians in the west bank as well. nearly 10,000 palestinians detained since october 7th, some 600 people, including over 130 children killed and more than 5,350 others injured by the israeli army. in this edition of spotlight, we will discuss the different dimensions of the recent developments in the occupied territories. and to do so, we are joined by jamal wakim, professor of internet. national relations

from the lebanese university of bayrut, also we have with us eve angler, author and political activist, joining us live from montreal. thank you very much to both of you gentlemen, let's begin with mr. jamal wakim who's joining us from beirot, how do the latest israeli military operation? in gaza in the west bank compared to the previous escalations? well, the israelis are trying to enforce new reality in the west bank by trying to take over more land for settlement, for illegal settlements, at the same time, this is a way for them to make the living of the palestinians in the west bank unbearable as... part of their plan to cause the mass ex

of the palestinians towards jordan, this is what they are also doing in gaza by the way, because they want to transfer the palestinian out of their land towards sinai on one hand and jordan on the other hand in order implement the the the original plan of the science to impose a jewish state in palestine on all of the lands of the historical. so uh even your opinion, what is what are the key drivers behind this surge and violence? well the wasing our guest from mal, i'm sorry, oh sorry, well i think that the mean the drivers are the you know fanatical uh zionist regime uh netan specifically the the the recent massacres in gaza killing 90 people claiming

were seeking out a mass official, that was designed sabotage the negotiations uh, which netnyahu doesn't want anything to do with, he wants to prolong the the the the fight. and killing um now in the you know in the west bank i think the dynamics a little bit different, i think that the point there is of course to just steal more and more land and uh and they you crush any uh any palestine resistance, but i think that yeah the macro the drivers are this a you know a regime a colonial project that wants um as few palestinians and as much of their land as um as possible okay so back to beirot, mr. waakim, you just heard uh our other guest if uh drawing a line between the drivers in the west bank and those in gaza, do you agree with what he said? yeah, i fully agree with what he said, because this is part of a colonization plan, this is the policy of the

sciences ever since they established their project in palestine and the the genoc. side that is being committed by the israelis in the in gazas and in the west bank are part of fulfilling this aim of establishing this quote and quote jewish state in palestine and render it as base for israeli and us germany in the middle east okay so eve considering the fact that you pointed to the motivation of and grab as the main drive in the west bank uh do you believe that the international community has turned a blind eye on what's happening to the west bank because of the atrocities that are happening in gaza? you know, i wouldn't, i don't like the word blind eye here, because i think that and and and

you got to break down the international community. i i think everything israel does, it is being uh massively assisted by the us uh, obviously giving... them weapons, giving them intelligence, giving them all kinds of charitable donations, same thing the canadian government to a less much lesser extent, but nonetheless significant extent provides all kinds of support, so so i i think that the horrors in gaza take most of the attention, and so that kind of gives a little bit of a opportunity uh for the, smolderiches and the the really hard line zionists to... to steal even more land even more quickly than they have been doing in in recent years or recent decades, and that's what we're seeing with the, new decision to make a whole bunch of palestine land, israeli state land and stuff like that, um, but but i think that the, it's it's it's it's something much more than you

know turning a blind eye, it's it's direct involvement, now the canadian government claims uh and the us government to lesser they claim that you know settlements are are undermine the peace process. or they'll say they contraven uh international law um, but in practice they don't do anything uh, they don't or they do the absolute minimum of a couple fanatic settlers will be you canada sanction like four fanatic settlers and and stuff like that um but but they basically they enable they enable the israeli state and there's all kinds of ways stuff mean there's like there's thousands of canadians for instance that are like living in settlements in the west bank you have you have these these um uh real estate here in montreal where i a few months ago there was a real estate fair where they were selling uh homes to to jewish canadians or israelis in in montreal uh in the west bank right so that you'll have them come and do like real estate fairs to sell off illegal colonies to sell off the land in these illegal colonies right

in front of everyone's eyes and similar dynamics have been taking place in us cities um so there's a a um direct uh complicity enabling uh and yes the uh the horrors in gaza, i think have kind of put the west bank dynamic a little bit off of the media attention, but it's um, that's mostly what we're talking about. okay, so eve, uh, the reason why i use the phrase turn a blind eye is basically bec do have uh leak proceedings underway in the icc and in the icj, which is specifically with respect to what's happening in gaza, the genocide there, and the humanitarian situation. there, however, we do know that all settlements are illegal in the occupied territories, according to a resolution, still there are no legal proceedings there, this is basically why i use the word turn a blind eye to these land graps, do you still believe that it's not the

proper phrase to use? do, do, i still, i think like you know the canadian government, there was decision or the general assembly about year. year and a bit ago, year and a half ago, uh, put forward a resolution call on the international court of justice before the you know the horrors and gods over the past nine or 10 months uh, calling on the international court of justice. to render an opinion about state's responsibility, responsibilities visa v israel's uh illegal uh colonies, war crimes in the west bank, the canadian government went and uh actually sent a letter to the icj requesting the icj uh refuses to fulfill the general assembly of the un voted by the vast majority of member states to render its legal opinion on state's responsibilities. like the level of of um complicity of a country like canada in in

these in these war crimes is is startling also you look if you look at back in 2020 the international criminal court there were the previous chief prosecutor began looking at israel's uh uh war crimes which of course include the settlements in in the west bank and the king government's reaction was to uh uh send letter to the icc uh uh with a basically threat that canada is a big funder to the icc and maybe will cut your money if you start investigating israel's uh israel's war crimes, so so the role of a country like canada, us is even even greater, also there's all these registered charities in canada that are supporting uh projects in the occupied uh uh west bank uh so they're getting financed subsidized by the canadian government when individuals give donations to these or these groups they're being they're receiving tax credit so being subsidized by the canadian uh uh state um there's all these just different ways in which uh we're facilitating and this is this is a more than year process, you look

back historically, look back at the role of things like the jewish national fund of canada that was set up in 1910 to raise funds for colonization of palestine, this is something we've been doing uh for a long time it's the the intensity is ebbed and flow and there slightly different dynamics over the past century plus, but but basically you know canada has... has been uh uh a participant in israel's uh crass violation of international law uh in the west bank for you 60 years okay so mr. wakim uh our guest from montreal did extensively explain to us uh canada's position regarding the situation particularly in the west bank and your opinion how has the biden administration's approach uh to uh the... issue impacted the situation, well the

bidon administration has been one of the most supportive administrations, us administrations to to israel, and it turned eye to all claim by the palestinian people forbidding them from having their rights of statehood and and national sovereignty and the biden administration did start talking about is two states solution for example except after the eruption of the seventh of october attack by hamas against the sist settlements so and so far the budyan administration has been supportive of israel by giving it full political support and at the same time providing it with all that it needs in terms of ammunition and economic

support, so the biden administration has been one of the most supportive administrations in the history of the united states to israel, the with this regard to the hostility, personal hostility between biden and netanyahu, and that's why i don't believe that the palestinians can count. on administration, but all they could count on is their strength, their resistance and of course the support that is given to them by the other resistance group such as the heuties in yeman, lebanon, the syrian government and iran and the iraqi uh... mr. wakim, well, there seems to be some technical

difficulties there, so eve, in your opinion, i'm terribly sorry, the the the internet is, okay, please continue, please continue, yeah, yeah, can you hear, well, once again, let's bring e from montreal uh, our guest from beirot did point to the regional aspects of this genecidal war that is ongoing now, what are the potential regional implications? in your opinion of this conflict, particularly considering the tensions in southern lebanon? yeah, first thing i just want to say to add to my colleague who was describing american's indifference to the settlement expansion, they it was, i think i believe it was jake sullivan, the security advisor for biden that like four days before october 7th published

this piece, maybe it was two days uh in foreign affairs and prestigious establishment uh foreign policy journal where he... he talks about the quiet and says nothing about palestine and then he actually has to like change the article uh few days later after what happened so the americans until hamas uh launched their operations october 7th they were happy to just see israel you stealing more and more palestinian land and oh it's quote unquote quiet and and that's good for us and the like now with regards to uh the regional implications i think the regional implications are really serious i mean i think this still has the possibility of leading to a you know regional war and and it's you know there's obviously fighting uh with the against san americans are bombing and there's that which is completely tied to israel's holocaust in gaza. also there's of course the um the on the lebanese uh front uh there's you know i think 550 lebanese have

been killed over the past uh nine or 10 months uh there's i don't know exact number. of israelis, but dozens and dozens of israelis that have been killed, there's you know 60, 90, 100 thousand people on both sides that have been have been displaced, and that fighting is is picking up, you have these crazy statements from israeli officials about we can you know turn uh beirot into the back to the stone age and stuff like that uh which galant made when he was in washington dc two or three weeks ago um uh so that fighting uh can very well pick up and and um, i i think the netanyahu government does want to just continue the fighting. of course they've been trying endlessly to draw the us into a war with iran, there was that effort back in april, of course, blowing up iranian diplomatic compound in damascus. um, and but i think with regards to uh, hezballah,

hezballah of course has the ability uh to you know hurt israel in a very significant way, much... much much greater than than hamas has or any palestinian resistance um and and then and then israel would probably uh you know ramp things up and you you can spiral uh uh you know out of control but you know the hezbil has been pretty clear that that they're uh they're willing to stop if israel puts a stop to its horrors in gaza but it refuses to do that it wants to you know blow up uh unre schools and unre facilities like they just did in recent hours and and the head of unra you denounced uh israel for doing that and they just you know continue to destroy more and more stuff uh across uh uh gaza and and uh you know this is this is the history though i mean realistically this is the history of zionism the history of zionism is is not just stealing palestinian land and and killing palestinians and that it's it's causing mayham across the region and bombing

they bomb pretty much every country in the region they you destabilize countries in the region they've been this outpost of of uh european north american power in the middle east and and i think that you know the the situation with regards to lebanon is just more of of that which is that israel's reaction to everything is is violence and more violence and so long as the us is delivering these 500 pound or 2000 pound bombs uh giving them to israel um it's likely that israel is going to keep uh keep with its it's violent habits. okay, so it seems that we have mr. jamal wakim back on the phone with us. mr. waakim, if you could please tell us in your opinion uh, if you could please tell us uh, the potential regional implications were explained by uh our guest from montreal. in your opinion, is there any

possible negotiation for a ceasefire? are there any doors that remain open for? any kind of settlement? well, i believe that from the palestinian side, there is the door is open for settlement, however it's mainly benyamin netanyahu that is obstructing all possibility for settlement because he he represents the extreme right wing in the zinast entity on one hand and he wants to achieve victory with... which is which he is far from doing so far, so that's why he keeps trying, he has failed in all his declared objectives and this is the reason why he is trying to... to pressure the resistance through what he considers as a soft belly which is targeting the civilians and he wants to continue his attack and his genocidal war

counting on the election of donald trump in few month thinking that he would ferber with donald trump and that's why i believe that we are facing a dilemma here because uh "the israelis, the majority of the israelis want to see fire, the resistance is ready for seas spire if it fulfills its prerequisites, which is sustained seas spire on one hand, the the liberation of the palestinian prisoners of war in in the presence of the azionist occupation and at the same time to rebuild the the gaza strip ' this is something that netanyahu doesn't want to do, he wants to uh keep targeting the the resistance, on one hand, he wants to pressure the civilian

population to leave uh the gaza strip and at the same time he wants to forbid them from returning mainly to their homes in northern gaza while maintaining certain status quo where he could control the gaza strip without having to occupy it ' so all this makes us face dead block and this is why the negotiations are still dragging on. okay, thank you very much, and ev just wrapped us up, and we have less than a minute left, so a quick answer to this question, do you expect anything to come out from the un palestine meeting on the 17th of july, in two days? i don't, i don't, buse, buse as long as the us keeps getting the bombs and countries like canada uh keep uh all its different forms of support, i don't, i don't think that there's going to be any uh fundamental change to the

dynamic unless of course if there's some popular uprising within israel and finally the uh the israeli public starts seeing palestinians as human beings um but so long as the they're giving the all the weapons and all the support from the world's hedgemon um there's nothing significant that's going to change thank you very much now that was ' angler, author and political activist to joined us from montreal. we also had with us jamal wakim, professor of international relations from the lebanese university in beirot, and with that we come to the end of the edition of spotlight. thank you for watching. silion rose with freedom in his hands, for justice and for liberty he fought with might against the dark oppressive night, they wrong

him left to skip to first, in the cruelest son the pain was cursed, baby's cry, freak on darkest innocence broke the heart, sayings are true, covers every land and the sure are for. forever will stand, don't think it ended with hussein's last breath, or his infants cry at the edge of death, who sains five our guiding life, injustice falls to win this night, from carbala to palestine, in every land his spirit shine. today in palestine infants fall to the echos of aasulus call in first and hunger oppressed they lie

underneath a relentless sky. the spears that struck hussain back then other rockets raining down again. the stones once cast with cruel disdain a bullets now causing endless pain. fame lives on his path still clear, a fight for justice without fear, in this journey no side un chosen, for neutrality means the oppresses are in bolden, who sants fight our guiding light, injustice falls to endless night, for cabala to... palestine, in every land his spirit shines, they choose our path in his noble way, with husain spirit we

fight today for. freedom, justice and humanity, we stand with him in solidarity.

the headlines, millions of muslims around the world are commemorating marcher of the anniversary of imam hussain the third shia imam. israeli forces kill 80 more palestinians in the gaza strip in one day, raising the death toll of the genocidal war to almost 38,700. we'll be free. and rallies are being held across the globe in commemoration of the israeli crimes against palestinians in gaza and the west bank.