colleagues my desire to have all updates to the committee report completed this month and approved for declassification. we're not going to stop. i intend to move to have the findings conclusions and the executive summary of the report sent to the president for declassification and release >> a public version is still being worked on and ranking member of georgia posted a statement saying -- the final report is expected in the coming weeks. discussion of efforts to improve health care for veterans and then a forum on palestinians by

israelis. on augustongress is break, c-span prime time will feature a wide range of political views and topics. these programs include the national association of latino elected officials and western conservative conference and will have a update on 2014 senate races. c-span prime time monday through friday at 8:00 p.m. eastern. a discussion about improving veterans' health services. this is just over 40 minutes. >> "washington journal" continues. the first guest of the morning is alex nicholson. good morning. for those who may not know about your group, what would you want people to know? ours is the first large

organization of veterans of the conflicts in iraq and afghanistan. we are growing exponentially and we represent the interests of that constituency here in washington and around the country. i assume you have been closely watching the a reform bill process. when it was finally passed by the house and the senate one of the things they referred to was the band-aid falling off soon. guest: we have been closely involved in it. yes. it is intended to basically be a stopgap measure. an emergency response to a crisis. it is not everything that is needed to respond to the crisis and congress certainly has more work to do when they get back, but it was meant to be a first step to stop the bleeding and repair the damage that has been done.

host: some of the elements go to paying doctors within the system , establishing an independent committee. breakdowns, are those figures enough? what about using private doctors rather than building up the doctors in the system now? there are short-term fixes, intermediate term fixes, and long-term fixes. the issue with ringing in and for theseoutside care providers is the reason they are in this position is they clearly don't have the capacity to deal with it right now. so, allowing the v.a. to expand capacity by utilizing private community providers is a way to get those who have been on the secret waiting list to come out of the shadows and for them to come into the care and treatment that they need right now.

there are longer-term infrastructure capacity solutions in the legislation. including expanding the number of health care providers. it is something that the v.a. needs for long-term sustainability. one of the reasons that we ended up in this position to begin was we don't have the capacity to deal with the demand for care, treatment, and service . there are short-term, intermediate term, and long-term fixes involved. just to clarify, who would qualify to go outside and who stays within the system? it is about whether the

v.a. can serve them in a timely manner. for those folks living over 40 miles from a facility or being forced to wait over 30 days, they will be authorized and facilitated to go outside the system and utilize a network of private community providers. host: in your opinion, what is the long-term fix? in your view, what has to happen in the long term in terms of manpower and money? --guest: v.a. has been underfunded for a long time. congress has given the v.a. every dime it has asked for and more over the past five or six years. we strongly suspect that the budget requests from the administration and ba every year have testified as repeatedly sufficient to meet demands were lowball. the v.a. is going to first of all have to do a more realistic

assessment of its own resources and need moving forward. the infrastructure capacity augmentation that is a part of the bill and conversation moving asward will have to continue they don't have the capacity to deal with the population. so, they will have to increase their number of providers, increase the infrastructure facilities and lease and build out more. they will have to partner with private community providers. basically, the v.a. has some serious, serious cultural problems. accountability is another big issue. one of the reasons we are where we are today is because of the ofture of the lack accountability and essentially a culture of moral corruption amongst some at the v.a.. there are a lot of great

employees there doing a lot of great work, but scandal after scandal it has become clear that there are some in the v.a. for too long who have not been accountable and have gotten away with very likely criminal some fromreventing getting the treatment that they need that sometimes. going to have to be a multifaceted, multidimensional approach. one of the aspects of the bill just passed by congress is the new accountability provision that will allow the secretary to fire underperforming or negligent senior executives. that only affects senior executive service employees. 400 to 500 folks within ba. certainly in most cases i would imagine that those are not the most senior executives actually doing the reactions on the ground that led to the v.a. not being able to serve veterans like they should, so there will have to be more accountability

provisions further down in the v.a., getting at what we call the title 38 employees who are , doctors,e providers general schedule employees, admin folks who manage these lists and create these workarounds, who have to have more bunker busting accountability mechanisms deep down in the system to attack the culture. host: our guest is here to talk about the veterans affairs reform bill that was recently passed in the house, alex nicholson, of the iraqi and afghanistan veterans of america. one to give him a call and add comments or ask questions? we have set aside a line for veterans this morning, 202-585-3883. were you surprised that a deal came forward from both sides? honestly?est:

in this situation i was in. i thought that there would be hell to pay of congress went on recess and went back to their constituents without having something done. the typical thing to do these days is to try some partisan things don't get done or evolve the way that some a risk that that would happen, procedural tricks, blaming republicans and democrats. however, in this environment, with the recess coming up for so long in august, i would have been shocked if they had not come to an agreement. senator sanders and jeff miller, leading the charge. what do you think about their efforts?

guest: we were disappointed that it took a long as it did. congress started on the package of fixes to the crisis in early june. they were originally talking about being done by the july 4 recess. been.ould have there was grandstanding in the beginning. there was blame passing back and forth in the beginning. staff, of course, are the ones who really sit down and allow the deals, the terms to the deals like this. there was some obstruction in the beginning, i think. the senate works very differently from the house. some of it was the constraints and politics of the senate. i believe. from what i saw, not only talking and working with them, we have seen the results.

we are nonpartisan and i am fiercely independent. but you know, i mean, if you look at the objective evidence of how many hearings the house has held and the oversight conducted by the house, the bills conducted out of the house side and passed the floor compared to the lack of productivity in all of those dimensions in the senate, it is hard to conclude that the house -- we talked about congress generating bodies. in this case, on these issues, with these committees it is hard to lump those together when there is such a disparity between the productivity of the house on veterans issues and the lack in the senate. host: host: first call for you is paul in south carolina. caller: i have a main question.

first of all, i would like to say this. i did not know you had a line for veterans. in any case, i go to the veterans administration or the va hospital for some treatment. i find that most of the people working there are veterans. problem, in ae lot of cases. but my main question calling in this morning -- they have all of these outfits working for veterans groups, working for veterans. i would like to know if these outfits are audited to see where that money goes that people send them? host: thank you, caller. guest: good question. a couple of different points there. i am originally from south

carolina there. my father lives there and goes to the ba there as well. -- v.a. as well. there are a significant number of veterans that work in the v.a. the vast majority of folks are honest, hard-working folks who want to serve vets and do right by vets. it depends on what paul means by outfits working on behalf of veterans. there are elements within the v.a. and outside advocacy organizations. if there is a nonprofit, most of those are independent. but most of them are rated and audited. you have veterans services organizations and veterans advocates organizations. there's a slight distinction. you also have the genre of veterans charities. people tend to focus on that

when they talk about organizations taking money on behalf of veterans services. when they are wrong, they are usually exposed. host: jerry is a veteran from point pleasant beach, new jersey. hello. caller: good morning, gentlemen. thank you for taking my call. the main forgets this i am pointing out is the corruption, not only of the ba system. i served in 1961 to 1963. the only thing that is ever going to solve v.a. or health business -- it is a health business in this country. if we do not start addressing the overall problems, which is greed of the two-party system. we just cannot deal with these peacocks down here in washington strutting around with reams of

paper. i want results. i am sick and tired of these osturingostering -- ps over all these committees, doing nothing, putting on the back burner constantly. i take care of myself. i take vitamins, i exercise. i see the people affected by agent orange. the afghan veterans with s hots and uranium. this is a government that is harming our own citizens. host: thank you. guest: that has been one of the biggest problems we face, the frustrations. the bureaucracy, the politics, just getting to this emergency sure to try to stop the bleeding took almost two months, way longer than it should have. the reason was grandstanding, it was politics, to an extent.

this is a largely complicated bill. there was clearly more politics involved in this bin should have been. and a significant delay resulted. host: if we are adding more private doctors, who is responsible for oversight? guest: v.a. will have to be the court nader of all care for making sure that vets go out and get the care that they need and following up and getting medical records, making sure that the actual care and treatment is delivered. host: if there are concerns about things happening within the v.a., do you extend that outside the walls? guest: there are jeff only concerns about all this. ultimately, it is a matter of personal belief. v.a. is going to have to improve its game pretty quickly. the alternative there is to just --

some people mistakenly think that is what this bill will do. the alternative is to turn everyone loose in the private sector. i cannot happen. some folks will not get the treatment they need or not know where to go. the response developed in phoenix. some veterans were discovered to be on waiting lists and were not in the system. they were some letters and said, we will pay for it. go off and find the treatment you need now. that was some solution. v.a. is going to have to be involved in coordinating the care for the people who need it. host: here's another from hershey, pennsylvania. caller: i am listening with interest. there are so many issues here. my question has to do with the way the system works now. and though it worked after world war ii. i am old enough to have seen both sides of it and i am a veteran. i think that, as i understand

it, in the days before this current time -- a veteran to go to the v.a hospital had to have a service-connected injury or i believe and, today, that anybody who is a that can claim the need to use the ba system and it is just overwhelmed by it. in turn, i think that implies that the current system is just inadequate. we are trying to service people who do not need that system. the need should be based on whether or not you have had a service-connected injury or disability. host: -- guest: his point is a good one. the v.a. was setup up to deal with service-connected injuries. in order to get a determination, one has to submit a claim and be

evaluated. usually, that involves a disability determination and payment as well. is of the issues that v.a. dealing with is that it has had a severe backlog of actually making those disability and service connected injury determinations. one of the things that was done a number of years ago to try to help that need care -- especially those that deploy to combat, where they may have had any number of injuries in addition to physical wounds -- essentially the criteria that you have a predetermined injury for a certain number of years after you get off of active duty. it used to be 90 days they've could go to the a for treatment. i was extended to two years, then five years. they're trying to extend that to 5 for mental injuries

and visible injuries like ptsd that might show up 10 years later. right now, it is still five years. if you get on active duty and you want to serve, you can go to v.a. without a service-connected injury determination for up to five years. that may change with some of the legislation changing now. v.a. has steadily had a huge increase in numbers in terms of the patients who use v.a. the system has not kept up. they have been lowballing numbers. estimates of that offer a couple of years. one of the interesting things we have seen is a failure to acknowledge and predict -- or acknowledge predictable spikes in future v.a. usage. that is one of the things going on now. we are drawing down from afghanistan. the army is drawing down.

we will have a lot more active-duty troops becoming the vets. has notast, the v.a. done a good job of increasing resources relevant to the numbers coming off of active duty. that is one of the reasons, certainly. in additions to the others we have talked about. the system has been overwhelmed. host: you are hearing from alex nicholas. mike, ottawa, illinois. hi. are you there? caller: hello? host: you are on, go ahead. caller: i am from ohio. you know a marina general wrote a book -- hello? host: go ahead. caller: butler, a marine general, wrote a book "war is a racket." remember the old saying, he spilled the beans? we need to look back and think about what he told us. eisenhower warned us about the military-industrial complex.

co saidspector slum there is no database for the money spent that we have handed out. all these weapons, we don't know where they went to. what bothers me is the language being used. patriotism, democracy and all of that business. asse soldiers are being used corporate international spearheads. that is a problem. guest: you touched on a good point there. the lack of accountability with the money that is being given out. especially with respect to dod. there have certainly been issues with unaccountability. to same thing applies v.a. they just came back and asked for another $17.8 billion, trying to plug the holes.

they're trying to make up for these budget shortfalls and lowb alling. pages ofe two or three budgetary justifications for that $17.8 billion. one of the things the chairman of the committee kept making was -- this is late for the secretary, who has a background in business . you cannot get a loan for $100 with two pages of data and justification. a grant for $17.8 billion for the american taxpayer, with two pages of justification for what that would be sent on. is evidentlyv.a. very good at wasting money. that has been one of the problems as well. some of the investments in technology and infrastructure have gone wasted. systems that have been purchased have been an enormous cost to

taxpayer and have been abandoned. wasted and accountability is another big issue that the new secretary will have to deal with. host: that is robert mcdonald, the new secretary. what do you think of the choice? guest: it was an interesting one. we expected the president to look outside of expected circles. we expected him to look for someone who had a business background. there was even consensus from what i can tell on the hill that it did not matter if a candidate had health care in his background. that has been a big issue, managing the health care system. but i think the main criteria was going to be someone who had an excellent accomplished business management background. that is what we found in mcdonald's. -- mcdonald. we did not know he was on the shortlist. they did not consult us about it. we had some other candidate so we had heard about and names

that had floated. we had some people we thought may be under consideration. was big onelli suicide prevention, which is another big issue they will have to deal with. host: does he have a military background? guest: he went to west point and served as an officer in the army early on in his career. theoon left and went into private sector and spent the majority of his career in business leadership. host: as far as the qualifications you are looking for, did you look for someone with more of an afghanistan experience? guest: we wanted someone -- whoe is a huge cool now have served in iraq and afghanistan with senior leadership backgrounds who could have been qualified. we think the president was not going to choose someone who was a veteran from iraq or afghanistan, who had significant experience with that exposure to the community. as we talked about earlier,

you're going to have more and more folks coming off of active duty. this is going to grow. it is quickly going to become the largest group. experience with an exposure to the community, the issues and trends -- this generation of veterans is very different and unique from our generation. they have unique challenges. their associated with the tech savvy, for example. at least experience and exposure with this generation will be key. it is something we were pressuring the president for. host: here is another vet, patrick from california. caller: thank you for your service. i'm a vietnam veteran and i have been getting health care from the v.a. for about five years, including just over three years for agent orange. i have to say that the health care has been phenomenal. is healtwo parts, vha

care, vva is the benefit side -- that is where it usually has the backup. my compensation took 20 months. there have been a court case where 80,000 iraq and afghanistan veterans cases were thrown out. soy were then reinstated, they got pushed ahead of everybody else waiting in line. that was fine with me. the other thing is -- almost anybody who has served, whether overseas or not, has some kind of ptsd. not sure what pray while. i assume that you have to make a claim. v.a. does not come out and say, come to us. they say you can come to us, but not that you have to sign yourself up. as far as the technology part, it seems to be cutting-edge.

they have a working relationship with uc davis and other teaching hospitals. isnford, the palo alto v.a. one of the premier burn centers. i could not be happier with the care. host: you put a lot out there. guest: he makes a very good point. the quality of the v.a. is of a very high standard. it is generally good. once they can actually get access to v.a. care, the quality of the care is above standard. the issue is getting access to it. that has been the focus of the recent crisis. not only scheduling appointments, but the backlog of claims to get that service determination, especially for folks who have been out for five years. five generations of vets have delayed onset ptsd and other issues that come out.

those veterans are no longer eligible for the ability to walk into v.a. and daycare without service-connected disability determination. they're the ones who have been stuck in this backlog, waiting for determination. and then waiting for the appointment to get in. so, once you actually get into v.a., veterans across the board -- this is reflected in independent surveys. veterans agree that the quality of care, especially specialty care, for service related injuries and wounds of war, is very good. host: we have a line set aside for veterans this morning. robert is up next in missouri. republican line. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. i want to relate to this young man here. he seems knowledgeable in what he is talking about.

i would like to relate to him. i believe that these veterans -- i am 32 miles from mount vernon, missouri. i grew up there once a year for a physical. i have always been treated well there. i needed an operation about two years ago. so, i decided not to go through v.a. so many times, the veterans in the rock arkansas -- rock, arkansas -- you have to go down there. the v.a. here does not do all the procedures. it is set in america -- when the veterans come back all shot up. that is mostly what causes that.

they should be first in mind. a veteran like me -- a vietnam veteran. i went in in 51 and retired in '79. guest: he brings up another good point. one of the issues that dominated this conversation about how to fix the v.a., especially on an emergency and short-term basis -- it ended up being a private sector utilization part of the bill that came out of congress. it will be a larger conversation. many veterans out there, and passng to v.a. facilities, any number of high-quality health care systems at which they could be getting health care in a much more convenient and perhaps quicker fashion. drive, forho has to example, 32 miles -- that would be within the scope of what the v.a. would attempt

to take care of itself, post legislation. someone who is more than 40 miles -- unless they had to weigh 100 days for an appointment, he would still be required to be seen at the v.a. for a specialty operation, having to drive more than 300 miles is ridiculous. especially veterans who are older. the toll of the journey itself could outweigh the benefit of doing it within the v.a. system. that has been a big part of the conversation. there is a movement on the hill and elsewhere to even beyond, outside of the context of the expand out options so that veterans are not forced to go outside of the system to private providers. for those who want to, they would have the choice to do so. host: do you have a sense of when the president will sign this bill? we had a previous guest to said he was going on vacation at the end of the week. guest: i think he is going to

sign by the end of the week, yes. host: jane from ohio, independent line. caller: yes. i would first like to thank you for your service. and the veterans, your unselfish bravery is something i would never be able to muster in my own mike. -- life. i followed the hearings fairly well as they were going on. i was struck by the level of corruption, the culture of corruption. criminal and immoral behavior was going on at the v.a. i'm embarrassed by the behavior of nurses that i heard, threatening doctors. i would have been fired. i would have had my licensed or stripped from me and i could've been placed under arrest for such behavior. i would like to know what you think the part played by the federal government union workers -- health-care workers seem to take precedence, especially with the democrats, as far as what protects them.

what is in the best interest of them? they continue to give bonuses. there is no fear and no consequences for what they do. the issue of not being able to fire people is not american law, as far as i know. that is not a federal law. that is a union rule. you cannot fire a union worker, even when they kill a veteran. i think that people like bernie sanders fire things up install things out. democrats get 80% of political donations from unions. familytwo members of my who are republicans that work in the federal government. they have to request at the end of the year to receive their union dues back. host: thank you. guest: that is a great point. that is a part of what caused this and what is going to have to happen to fix it. accountability. she is right. it is too hard to fire an

underperforming v.a. provider these days. there are rules in place to prevent someone from being able to be fired, just on a whim. some of those protections are enforced. one of the arguments that has been made against extending the accountability measures to lower level v.a. employees is that i can be is to fire or punish someone who blew the whistle about inappropriate behaviors wtiithin v.a. it is a double-edged sword. you have to have protections. it is also ridiculously hard to fire people who are outright negligent and even criminal. we hope to see some of them prosecuted. host: the washington post was test with the accountability -- here is what they wrote. the top civil servants of

long-standing protection are exposed to firing at a moments notice. ofhaps this is the thing inefficiency at the v.a. most likely, it would have the opposite effect. guest: that was part of the debate about whether or not to do this or go further. that is one of the things that held the bill up as well. the original bill that would do this was the v.a. accountability act, which passed the house with enormous bipartisan support. it would never have had the seven or 10 day follow-on protections. i was insisted upon by senator sanders. the original bill would not have done that. it is striking a balance here between enabling the secretary to be able to get rid of these folks, who were so --

whose behavior we are so enraged by. the couple of examples of when that power can be abused. that is why oversight will continue to be key. host: philadelphia, pennsylvania. john, democrats line. caller: i would just tell the lady from ohio that private hospitals are not the answer either. there was a maryland hospi tal that cut salaries over time. soldiers were being left on the tarmac at dover air base. threeladelphia, we had people from africa who came up your because they were disgusted. soldiers were dying on the tarmac. it was connected with a maryland hospital during the bush administration. on labor day weekend, and article was coming out in the new york paper.

it was shut down after that. that should be investigated. that was connected with the dover air base. justtold us that they were so disgusted that they left and cut their salaries. they don't give bonuses. this was during the bush administration. i really think something like that should be investigated. host: thank you. guest: that is a good point. there is mismanagement in the private sector and the public sector. there is a lot more light shone on it in the public sector, especially v.a. right now. i don't think anyone expects the private sector to be w ithout laws. bet is why they will have to intimately involved in controlling and coordinating and following up on care. host: from the south dartmouth, massachusetts on the independent line, this is ray. caller: hi, how are you? i was not a veteran, but i did have two brothers serve in vietnam. hearts, got two purple

died christmas day, 1969. my other brother was older. i tried joining, but i was already married. they put me -- they would not take me. i had a kid. what i would like to know is -- arizona had the worst v.a. senator mccain is from arizona. why wasn't this investigated such a long time ago? you know? guest: arizona is sort of ground zero for the scandal. the phoenix v.a. and the media reports that came out of some of the experiences there is what started this whole firestorm that led to the increased oversight. there has been a recital long. this got folks to pay attention to it. egregious case can focus the nation's attention.

the nation has such a short attention span. we almost have add. if kim kardashian does something funny one day, that will detract from it. it did take the case of the vet dying in phoenix and his family coming forward and being willing to talk about it -- that painful and fresh experience -- to get the nation's attention and get it to stay on this. reasons thatf the senator mccain has been a leader in trying to solve this problem. i don't know why he didn't know about it before. we didn't know about it before. we certainly have known for years that there have been problems. the thing that was interesting about this particular set of issues is that those who engaged in these practices became so skilled at covering them up and covering their tracks. they're still trying to track down the secret waiting list. they're still trying to figure out who was on these lists.

the folks who committed these, what are probably going to end up being actual crimes, are still being investigated and hopefully will be held accountable. call.one more susan in boston, massachusetts. independent line. caller: thank you for your service. i was never in the military, but my father was in the army air corps and all his brothers, in world war ii and several cousins in vietnam as well. the one thing i have noticed or heard is that when you have a v.a. medical center is situated near or major medical schools, usually in an urban area -- anhester, minnesota might be exception. you just get top drawer care. you get a wonderful, skilled team of doctors who will volunteer or do rotations at the v.a. hospitals. i just think that is a wonderful model, when possible.

the other thing is to establish a med scholars program where they would have medical debts aived if they did a good chunk of service and a v.a. system, maybe four years. the other thing is -- there are so many problems that the current group of vets experience -- it is directly related to the fact that so many of them have such trouble reintegrating to a highly competitive, technical and education-based society and work environment. many of them come from small hamlets are disadvantaged backgrounds. either has military to consider national service to get a more balanced military, where people can mentor each other and avril models to look up to. host: thank you, we have to leave it there. guest: she makes a good point

about the partnerships. there is quality of care within v.a. it does vary across the system. she is absolutely right. when v.a. is able to partner with local medical centers, like in minnesota and other places, it does tend to increase the quality of care across the system. you'll be happy to hear that student loan repayment is part of legislation that is going through congress now. it has been identified as an incentive to increase capacity and make v.a. a more attractive workplace for health care providers. that is already being addressed. her last point in terms of integration -- that is the key. that is another bigger, wider ongoing issue. host: we're just about to finish. what would you like to see the v.a. tackle next? the biggestnk that

issue v.a. has to tackle is implementing this bill. there's going to be some discretion. we hope to see the secretary actually utilize the authority he has been given, like the authority to fire people who have been negligent in performing at the senior level. when congress comes back from recess, they have to tackle another round of legislation. v.a. is the starting point. v.a. needs more. i only have three weeks of work before they go to another recess before the campaign in october. they will have to get back to work and do something more, additional. host: alex official talke about u.s. policy in the middle ease author jason riley discusses welfare and the african-american community and his book, please stop helping us. and as always, we will take your

calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. >> on friday, the council on islamic relations held a meeting . included palestinian-american teenager who recently returned to the u.s. from israel after having been arrested and detained by israeli security. this is one hour and half.

is israel complying and examining the impunity and killing civilians in the gaza strip in the west bank including and i am the josh policy director for the u.s. campaign to end the israeli occupation and we are extremely glad a number of organizations have joined in helping to organize and to cosponsor this event this afternoon including american muslims for palestine, the council on american islamic relations and the defense for children international palestine and jewish voices for peace and national lawyers guild, peace u.s.-palestinian

community network. we are hosting this briefing obviously as everyone knows at a time of sustained on capitol hill, it is incumbent upon us to ask ourselves whether israel is lawowing the tenets of u.s. when it comes to its use of force against palestinians in the occupied territory. actarms export control strictly limits the uses that u.s. weapons can be used for by

foreign countries to legitimate sites itself and internal security. if panelists will address these weapons are being used in this manner. we have seen israel bomb and damage more than 160 schools and hospitals and in the occupied gaza strip over the past three weeks. the u.s. foreign assistance act states very clearly that any systematict commits violations of human rights is ineligible for any form, any form of u.s. aid. , part know that the law of the foreign assistance act cuts off any u.s. aid to any ineign military that engages human rights abuses and they are

restricted from gaining access to the united states by being denied visas. the question before us is, are we a country of laws? is goingcountry which to insist upon the application of the very laws that were written and this hall of congress? --r is israel above the law or is israel above the law? we will be examining these questions and progress -- for congressional staff, we have more information about this issue for you to take back to your offices. fromo elucidate both personal experience and professional expertise, the use of force that israel employees against palestinians living under military occupation, we have a very rich lineup of

speakers to address us here today. i will introduce a them all at once at first and then they will come up and speak and the order in which they were introduced. introduceould like to -- on my left. teenagernian american from a tampa, florida who was viciously beaten by the israeli police on july 3 of this year in jerusalem, an incident caught on video. he will share with us his experiences going through that. mother.him is his also to the left. -- who is an attorney for the family and works for the council on american-islamic relations.

after that, we will hear from brad parker to my right. who is an attorney and international officer for defense for children international palestine. to be followed by -- the middle officer north african for amnesty international usa and rounding out the panel will -- the author of two books about the gaza strip. correspondentr for al jazeera english based in the gaza strip. watchingwe are overflow, we will -- because we are running overflow, we will run this again for those who cannot come and.

i would like to ask our guest to come to the mic. [applause] >> good afternoon, everybody. i am really happy to be back safely. overseas, it was really tough. i had been through a really tough time. as i arrived in the airport, they kept me in the airport for 10 hours. , i actuallyday visited there for six weeks and what i've been through is a small taste of what they all go through. they do not have a right and they are not given rights. over there, when i visited over there, i actually forgot i had freedom.

for my cousins, i really wish they had the same for them i do -- the same freedom i do living in america. now that i am bank safe, i really appreciate all of the freedom and rights i have. i am just a kid born in baltimore and i moved to tampa at 11 years old and i am 15 years old now and i'm going into the 10th grade. palestine, it in was so hard to believe what they have been going through. the first friend i made was mohammed, the one who was murdered. kidnappedy she was was really tough because i passed up by him and i asked him a question. i was passing by and i asked if he wanted something from the

bakery. he was my best friend. i asked if he wanted anything 80 was like, yeah, sure. i go to the bakery and come back with a nice piece of bread. i find the police in there and not mohammed. i was really worried. and then i found that he was kidnapped. as if that point, we were losing time. every second was important. that point i at was scared for his life. i was scared there were going to do something that was going to be hard. and when we found out that he died, he was murdered, he was stabbed and burned alive. it just made us think, how could they do that to a person? i do not know. and if so, to make it worse,

they began to shoot at the old city. they began to fire at everyone, rubber bullets. .hey hurt and so, later on that day, i was in an alley down the street from my house and i was watching the point i saw aat couple people screaming from the left side of me. they were screaming like a bunch of words. behind them i saw soldiers. i was afraid myself. i was shocked. everybody panicked and started running because the soldiers were running towards us. people rane some into the alley and some jumped the fence. i jumped the fence and i kept running a little further until they grabbed me from behind and

slammed my face into a wall and zipline to me and started to punch and kick me in the face and ribs. after a little bit of them no idea what had was going on after that. i felt the beatings, the beginning. i woke a blindfolded in the jail. they took me to jail with no medical treatment. did not know what to do. i was confused and i was in so much pain. they did not take me to the hospital until after six hours. i heard my dad was out of the jail and trying to get me to a hospital,the nearest but they would not let him. they would not let me go. me come back to the jail after a couple of hours. jail for 4 gl for --

days. i had a court date. they sat me in a room for six they took person by person for the court date. waited was my turn, i six hours. i go and i met my parents into this room where i saw a judge and a couple of people and there to me andslator next she translated everything for me. they were speaking hebrew. househey released me on arrest for nine days. i had no charges from the beginning. i was never charged. right when i left palestine, the day i left, they raided my house. my family's house. they took by own goal and cousins and to custody -- uncle and cousins into custody with no charges.

i appreciate the support that made me feel so thankful i am american. i am really sad for my cousins still persecuted in israel. i have three cousins that were arrested with him he. they were taken to jail with me. gl -- jailill in because they are not american alike to me. it did not matter. all people should be treated equally. we should all have rights. we are all humans. we were all created equally. have rights. we deserve to be treated equally. and i think my cousins should be treated with the same rates that i have because they should be treated of how israel treats the israelis. debbie going through a tough time. goingthey have been

through a tough time. if israel is a would give palestinians the same rights that everyone is given then there could be a possibility of peace in the middle east. willy one day my cousins not feel scared to walk outside to be with their friends and play outside and not to be and toto go to the store have fun. continue live nba regular human. well, i do not want them to be scared. -- continue to live and be a regular human. thank you, every body. [applause] >> good afternoon, everyone. my name is suha khdeir. i cannot describe the pain that i felt seeing my beloved son

held in an israeli prison without charges. denied medical care and suffering from a brutal beating given to him by the israeli police. when i first heard about his vicious attack, he faced at the hands of the israeli police, i saw his bloody face and his swollen -- his swollen face. his unconscious body in the hospital. i feared for his life. i didn't know whether my son was going to survive or not. i could not bear to watch the video of his beating. what if he was screaming for help? i could not be by his side to comfort him. hospitalrived at the to see him, there was an israeli police officer guarding his door

. he refused to let me in at first and i pleaded to him. i told him, i am his mother. finallynd convinced him to let me see my son. when i got the chance to go in and see him, before i got in, the israeli police officer told me that i could not get near him, touch him or speak to him. when i looked over at him, it was like looking at someone i didn't know, i was meeting for the first time. his face was distorted. he did not look normal. i wasn'teeping and used to seeing him sleep at that time. he liked to stay up with his friends. we were on vacation. it was

midnight and i knew that he always told me, mom, can i stay up? when i saw him in that state, i thought he was dead. i fell into a state of shock and my husband took me off to the side and i told him to stay in the hospital. i didn't know what could happen next. he was handcuffed to the hospital bed as well. finally -- i went home. the next day, josh wagner from the u.s. consulate had contacted me and told me he made an appointment at the jailhouse to visit tariq. we all went. when we got there, we were told that we weren't allowed to see him. josh wagner proceeded to tell them that he had an appointment and he was persistent and he told them that he wasn't going to leave until he was able to

see tariq that day. he called the u.s. embassy and the israeli embassy for three hours back and forth until finally they let him in by himself to see tariq. i told him a couple of things before he went in. i said, please make sure he is ok. make sure he is getting his antibiotics. i was told he was given antibiotics but they were in hebrew. he doesn't read hebrew. at that point, he was in the jail with the people, the same people which were the israeli police that beat him. i didn't know what to expect from them next. were they going to give him the antibiotics he needed? were they going to comfort him with the comfort that he needed? because they took him out of the hospital just a few hours after his little bit of medical attention that he received.

with his condition, he needed comfort. he needed to be in an air-conditioned, comfortable bed with people who could comfort him. and be able to take his medication. i am grateful to be back in america, safe with my son, but i know palestinians go through what my son faced every day of their lives. tariq was not able to grieve his cousin's death. as a result of the beating, israeli police gave him that same day that his cousin was brutally murdered by israeli extremists. .s we are still grieving today instead of the police protecting us, they taunted us and told us that muhamed was just the first to be killed and that 300 palestinians would be killed for

the three israeli teenagers who were killed. we did not kill those three israeli teenagers. why were they doing this to us? my son and family have been very traumatized by this whole experience. our cousins are still in jail to this day. the only reason tariq got out was because he was an american and his beating was caught on tape. while some israeli officials tried to justify the vicious beating my son received by smearing his name, my son has never been charged with any crime. the lack of sympathy that they beatingowards my son's was just unbearable for me. restrainingjustify the hands of a 15-year-old child and beating him unconscious. even after he was unconscious, they proceeded to kick him in

the face. americans we enjoy great freedom in america, in jerusalem we felt treated worse than second class citizens by the israeli government who treated us differently because we had a different religion and ethnicity. like my palestinian cousins, i felt that my family had no rights. my son was viciously attacked while in custody. he was in jail for four days. we were forced to pay a $1000 bond and my son faced nine days of house arrest away from his family although he committed no crime and faced no charges. this room and the rest of his vacation. when we left america, israeli police raided the family home we were staying in and arrested all the males in the household. they are still being held today

without any charges. the israeli police involved in the beating of my son must be held accountable so that no mother, no other mother must go through the pain that i went through. most of the officers involved in the beating and denial of medical care have yet to face any repercussions. my son still suffers from body aches and pains and headaches, not to mention the emotional trauma he must now struggle through. pray that america and the world can have the same sympathy for the countless children who are wrongfully arrested or even killed by israel, who do not carry a u.s. passport like my son. none of this would have happened if the israeli government value the life of my son and other palestinian muslims and christian children in the same

way they value the life of israeli children. gaza, so many children are dying, mostly women and children. someone needs to take a stand. stop this now. not later, not tomorrow, now. if it was the other way around, where israeli civilians were being killed, this would have been dealt with differently. it is not fair. the life of a palestinian in gaza should be valued as much as the life of any human being. thank you. [applause] >> thank you so much for those beautiful words. thank you all for coming.

i appreciate everyone's sacrifice. tariq's father who also walked in, welcome. we make a request that whoever is in the back, tariq's uncle, can you make sure that people can hear without interruption. thank you for everyone's patience. y. --me is hossein shibl hassan shibly. i am attorney for the khdeir family. this is probably the largest civil rights advocation organization that has lawyers for victims of government harassment. as an american attorney, what happened to tariq at the hands of a nation that claims to be a democracy and claims to be an ally of the united states and receives billions of dollars of foreign aid, really boggled my mind.

what i have seen happen to my client and what i am seeing right now happened to his family members is unconscionable for somebody who has grown up in a legal system that respects ideas of due process, the judicial process, innocent until proven guilty and so forth. there are three things that really disturbed me from a legal perspective in how tariq and his family have been treated and are currently being treated. first, that the israeli police can brutally beat a child whose arms are restrained without the officers involved being brought to justice. you can watch the video. see multiple officers were involved. they restrain his hands. one sat on him. the other kept kicking him in the face. continued to kick his unconscious body and dragged him by holding the hands behind his back. you can see a pool of blood

where they beat him. only one of those officers has received any repercussions, a 15 day suspension. none of the other officers involved faced any charges. at the same time, the police department which denied him proper medical care for six hours and took him to see a doctor very briefly, the doctor said tariq has internal bleeding and received severe kicks to the head, he needs to see a specialist immediately, the israeli police denied him that request. the request of their own doctor. he went back in jail for another four days without medical attention. none of those officers has been brought to justice. what kind of message does that send when israeli officers can brutally attacked one of our citizens, a child, and yet none of those officers or maybe only one faces any sort of repercussion? it gives the green light for the police to continue to treat the palestinian people in such an

inhumane way. i am sure they did not know he was american, nor did they realize the repercussion. this will only escalate the violence. the palestinian people will see that israel the officers can do whatever they want to them. while nothing can ever justify terrorism, it only pushes people towards the struct it engagement when the government is actually brutally attacking them without any repercussions. we need to ensure that those officers who attacked toric are brought to justice. and that u.s. taxpayer dollars are not funding those kinds of police forces. police can israeli indefinitely detained palestinian children in jail without charges. tariq has not faced any charges. nor has he done anything wrong. three of his cousins who were beaten up and arrested with him, they are still in jail without charges.

it is unconscionable that a country that claims to be democracy can lock up children indefinitely without charges and we are funding that nation. this is something that we really need to reconsider. third, the israeli officials can with impunity retaliate against the family of tariq by ransacking his home and arresting his uncle and cousin. the night they left, they went in the home where suha was staying and ransacked the place. they arrested his uncle and cousins. they are still in jail to this day without any charges in what is very clearly retaliation because tariq spoke out about the injustice. what has become manifestly clear to me in my representation of family is that the israelis have a double standard because they have a different africa background -- different

ethnic background and different religion. palestinians are not treated equally before the law. another example is the double standard we have seen in home demolitions. we know that those who brutally ariq's cosan, they burned him alive. that is terrorism. their homes were not demolished. thank god, because i do not believe the homes of any suspect should be demolished. those terriblef terrorists who brutally killed the three israeli teens, their homes were demolished right away because the suspects were palestinians. that is a clear double standard. this will only escalate the conflict. cannot continue to fund israel the police and military so long as israel continues to engage in gross human rights and civil rights violations and continues to

treat an entire group of people differently because they are of different ethnic or religious origins. it is contrary to u.s. national security. victims of israeli human rights violations may hold the u.s. accountable for crimes by israel that were made possible by our tax dollars. in light of the billions of dollars congress authorizes for israel annually, we call on congress and the executive administration to do everything in their power to make sure all officers involved in tariq's beating are brought to justice to make sure this never happens to any child again. ren should be treated equally under the law. we are calling on the state department to help secure the release of his cousins and family members who were wrongfully arrested in retaliation. three, we must condition further aid to israel on israel adopting

laws and practices to ensure all people are treated equally before the law, regardless of race or religion. four, we are calling on the state department and congress and the executive branch to do everything within their power to pressure israel to ensure that all people have basic due process. there should not be a country in the world that calls itself an ally of the u.s. that can indefinitely detained children or any person without due process and without charges. failure to take strong action to ensure that the individuals are brought to justice and the policies and practices which led to the beating are changed will only escalate the conflict. think about what kind of message that sends to the world. ensuring all people have due process is in everyone's best interest. the best way to support israel is to ensure that it abides by the highest standards of due process and the law. what happens to the officers

involved in the beating and retaliation against the family will be very telling as to whether israel tolerates this treatment of palestinians and whether the u.s. will tolerate that sort of behavior. may god bless america and israel with leadership that values all human life equally regardless of race, religion, ethnic origin or nationality. thank you and god bless america and god bless you all. [applause] >> thank you. it is refreshing in the times we are working in now to see a full room here and to have people flowing out into the hallway. refreshing for the work he are all involved in and the things we are consumed with day-to-day. i would like to thank everybody for being here and sharing

stories that are difficult to speak about. i can't imagine. i think as an american with the privilege that we do have, the rights and freedom that we take for granted, think about a prolonged occupation that has gone on since 1967, where soldiers live near communities .egularly settlements cut throughout the west bank, through jerusalem, -- the occupation is unjust. that is it. at the heart of it, it is systemic impunity. whereve arrests palestinian teens are targeted and particular communities that are located near settlements,

military bases, roads used by israeli settlers, anything where the occupation has infrastructure, this is where palestinian children particularly are impacted. i work for defense for children international palestine. we are the only palestinian human rights organization that focuses specifically on children. we started in 1991 providing legal aid to palestinian children charged in israeli military courts. children arealem, brought within israeli civilian courts. but the treatment is very much the same across the palestinian territory. q's case is horrific but it is not exceptional. his case is a typical case. we document hundreds of cases each year.

we provide legal representation to kids. you really have a system that provides very little legal protection, very little legal rights for children. children are arrested in the middle of the night by heavily armed soldiers. they are blindfolded, their hands are tied behind their back. there is some form of physical violence in varying degrees during the arrest, transfer and interrogation phases. is set up to control people. the military framework really is not a justice system. it is a system of control. you see that in the way that arrests play out. you don't see very many kids being arrested in the center of ramallah but if you go around the northern west bank, the southern west bank where you have military presence, these are the communities being

impacted. document,ases that we the kids that we represent, it doesn't matter if you throw stones or not. it really doesn't. based onm isn't evidence. it is not based on the rule of law. it is not based on international juvenile justice standards or any new international standards at all. you have kids that, based on location and the west bank, maybe it is a village that has weekly demonstrations against the confiscation of land, the separation wall, these communities are impacted. these communities where kids abused,iq are violently run through a criminal justice system that provides very little legal protection. we take for granted the right to

counsel in the u.s. everybody can probably recite them around the warnings. you should be able to. they are privileges we enjoy that protect us. maybe not all the time but in theory they should. those rights don't exist. a child arrested in their home in the middle of the night. if they are arrested at 2:00 a.m., they may show up at an interrogation center in an israeli settlement, being interrogated by an israeli police officer at 9:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m. during that transfer period, they are in the back of a jeep bound and blindfolded. they are taken out of that jeep, placed outside in the rain and cold temperatures. they might not have shoes. this is the systematic ill-treatment that has been documented by our organization, but also other organizations. for over a decade.

you still have very little practical change. when there are practical changes to the military law system, they don't really affect anything. children were considered anyone below 16. if you were 17, 18, you were an adult. under israeli law, anyone under 18 was considered a child. the basic definition of discrimination, you are treating people differently based on their identity. that has been changed. what did it do? not much. it doesn't affect sentencing provisions. if you are 16 or 17, you can still be sentenced as an adult. it didn't affect time belong for when you have to first be brought before a military judge. 15 youare 12, 13, 14, have to be brought within a

military judge within 48 hours. if you are 16 or 17, it is four days, the same as an adult. that is why we need to push for challenging the systematic impunity that exists as part of the occupation. when people think of military law, international law, the occupation, there is a strong focus on laws but there is not much focus on the rule of law, implementation of law, what those protections mean. that is one thing that our organization works to do. documented the case of two palestinian teenagers shot with live ammunition at a demonstration. they were killed. it was caught on video. at the time, this felt like a significant shock. it can't be worse than this.

case isence for this just insurmountable. we have so much. it is on video. there has to be some type of accountability. to this day, the soldiers that are responsible for those brought toe not been justice. have not even had any accountability of any sort produced by the israeli military, the israeli government. the investigation is ongoing. there is a gag order, can't talk about it. there is no information about it. what we do know from is veryting kids, there little accountability. that is really the heart of the problem. the occupation is impunity. , i can't sayza enough. it is systematic impunity.

kids are dying. kids are being bombed. kids have been shot, shelled, bombed for years. the siege of gaza, it violates international law. you see governments not standing up and not pressuring foreign end to the an crisis. a cease-fire needs to happen immediately. that needs to come with a lifting of the siege. status quo is not sustainable. children will continue to bear the brunt of the violence as long as the status quo is perpetuated. it has been depressing. andbring a smile to my face i just want to thank you for being here, for listening. please, talk, do something. thank you. [applause]

>> thank you, everyone, for coming today. perhaps the folks in the hallway could keep it down. my name is sunjeev bery. it is my privilege to join all of you here today in these very dark and troubling times. i want to thank all the members of the press who are here, folks in the community who have been concerned, congressional staff as well as congressman keith ellison. thank you for your opinion piece in the washington post. thank you for calling a listing of the gaza blockade. thank you.

[applause] these are very challenging times. about the to talk human rights violations happening across israel and the occupied palestinian territories. theave heard the story of experiences of tariq abu khdeir, his mother and their family. sadly, they are not alone in their experiences. israeli occupied palestinian territories are in a human rights crisis of massive proportions. worth talking about the crisis that has brought us into this room today. that is what is happening in gaza right now. the latest numbers are to rubble. 1400 palestinians, perhaps many more killed. soldiers or more killed. perhaps a quarter of a million or more palestinians in gaza

displaced from their homes. some numbers going much higher than that. civilians nowza's having fled their homes, lying huddled in u.s. schools and facilities across the gaza strip. this is a terrible time for human rights. not only because hamas rockets are firing into israel, indiscriminate rockets that do not discriminate between civilians and combatants, but also because the israeli government is engaging in likely war crimes in the gaza strip. these likely war crimes, against the backdrop of a gaza blockade which has deprived palestinian civilians of opportunities to work and live. every time you see a press release by the israeli government praising itself for allowing humanitarian shipments, remember the following, palestinian civilians do not want humanitarian shipments.

the only reason they are coming into the gaza strip is because the israeli government has shut down the gaza economy. gaza palestinians no longer have factories to work in. they no longer have jobs. you have unheard of employment rights. is a terrible problem and it amounts to a collective punishment and the gaza blockade needs to be lifted immediately. we have the problem of what are likely war crimes by the israeli government in its strikes in the gaza strip. gaza's main power plant has now largely been shut down as a result of strikes which are likely to have originated from the israeli military. that would not only be a grave war crime, but also amount to collective punishment. much of the gaza strip is being dropped into a situation without power. those twitter pictures you are seeing of civilians being killed, those images, if the

people who are taking those photos can't charge their phones, if they can't turn on their computers because they don't have power, how is the world going to know what is happening in gaza today? this is the problem that is faced by the 1.8 million civilians living in the gaza strip. that is why amnesty international is calling for some significant moves that need to happen. the united nations security council needs to establish an arms embargo on all parties in the conflict. israel, hamas and palestinian armed groups. until the security council does so, individual nations and parties must stop immediately. here in the united states, amnesty international is calling on the u.s. government to stop supplying weapons, arms, military equipment and aid to israel. u.s. time to stop the supply of weapons, arms and military aid to israel.

it is ridiculous that john kerry is talking about a cease-fire while simultaneously the u.s. government is releasing more artillery shells and other munitions to the israeli government. just yesterday, amnesty international released the latest information on some $275 million of arms, equipment and other forms of aid released over the past 2.5 years ranging from rifle parts to missile parts and rockets to the israeli government. dollars doillions not include the big-ticket items like jets and naval equipment and other sorts of high technology. all of this needs to stop. all countries supplying weapons to israel, hamas or palestinian armed groups need to stop immediately and that includes the united states. referral ofdiate the entire matter in a binding

security council resolution to the international criminal court court so there can be a potential prosecution of everyone involved in violations of international law, whether we are talking about israeli soldiers or those who are firing artillery which is indiscriminate and untargeted into dense civilian areas, or we are talking about hamas militants firing rockets into israel. everyone who is filing in turn -- violating international law needs to be held accountable. now i want to move to the question of what is happening in the other parts of occupied palestinian territories. specifically the west bank. what we have heard today is one example of many in which palestinians have suffered greatly under israeli occupation and their conduct in the west bank. year, in february

of 2014, amnesty international released its latest report with regards to this called "trigger-happy." i have a copy with me on the table for journalists. we documented how israeli soldiers and forces have repeatedly violated their obligations under international human rights law by using excessive force to stifle dissent and freedom of expression, resulting in a pattern of unlawful killings of civilians including children in the west bank. the report shows how israeli forces have been permitted to do so with virtual impunity and perhaps just one exception. none of the soldiers or combatants involved in these violations of human rights have been prosecuted by the israeli government. just to give you an idea of some of the numbers we are talking andt, between january 2011 december 2013, over 8000

palestinians including at least 1500 children were injured by means other than live ammunition including rubber coated metal bullets and the reckless use of tear gas. injuredion to the 8000 by means other than live ammunition, 261 palestinians were seriously injured by live ammunition. in terms of deaths, according to the u.n. office of coordination 2014manitarian affairs, in some 27 palestinians were killed in the occupied palestinian territory of west bank. eight were killed in 2012. 10 were killed in 2011. what we were seeing in 2013 was a number of deaths due to excessive use of force by israeli security forces that was more than 2011 and 2012 combined. i want to be clear about what numbers are not included in

this. these numbers do not include cases of killings or injuries in search and arrest operations and the report also does not cover israel's use of excessive force against palestinian protesters in the gaza strip, such as the so-called buffer zone. we are talking about deaths and wounded outside of those numbers. this leads to a situation in which you have no accountability. israeli soldiers and security forces are never held accountable with perhaps one exception that i know of. all of this happens against the backdrop of repressive laws in which you have a racist system where in the west bank palestinian civilians live under israeli military law while israeli settlers living in a legal settlements that are war crimes under international law, they live under civilian law. just to give you a couple examples of the laws palestinian

civilians live under, that they are forced to violate, military order 101 regarding the prohibition of acts of incitement and hostile propaganda issued by the israeli military commander, that law has remained in place since 1967. military order 101 prohibits all gatherings of 10 or more persons for political purpose or a matter that could be interpreted as political or even to discuss such a topic unless they have received authorization in advance. let me break that down for you. under is really military order 101, in occupied palestinian territories, it is illegal for palestinian civilians to peacefully protest the occupation they live under without the permission of the israeli military commander in forcing the occupation. when they do violate the order, they are at high risk of

becoming one of the 8000 or more palestinians who has experienced serious injury through bullets, tear gas or other forms of violence. -- i forgot toe mention the penalty for breaking israeli military order 101. anyone breaching the order faces imprisonment for up to 10 years or a hefty fine. these are the penalties for engaging in basic freedom of expression. this is what we are up against. i want to flag for everyone one last case. that is a man who i met a year ago when i participated in a research mission to the occupied palestinian territories. i visited a village which is a palestinian village whose main road has been blocked by israeli soldiers so that a neighboring settlement can expand. i sat in the living room of a man who is a community leader who has been leading peaceful

protests against the settlement and the enforcement of the settlements. he is now in jail. he is in jail under a combination of false charges, supposedly throwing rocks and inciting others, but also he is being held right now for a demonstration without a permit, which is an example of how palestinian civilians face harsh crackdowns simply for peacefully protesting the very reality of their occupation. for the u.s. government today, the time is coming to start holding the israeli government accountable. this should have happened a long time ago. with world opinion shifting, with the images of dead babies, dead children, dead civilians flooding twitter accounts and in boxes, it is time for a substantial shift in the way the u.s. government approaches this issue. the u.s. should stop supplying weapons to the israeli government, hold the government

accountable and start standing up for civilians, whatever their ethnicity or religion. thank you. [applause] >> good afternoon, everyone. thank you for joining us here today. my name is lela el-haddad. i am a palestinian author and social activist from gaza. i live in columbia, maryland. my tax dollars killed eight members of my family this morning. i would like to take a moment to read their names. [reading names]

yara and mohammed were fleeting their homes when the second israeli missile fall on them and killed them. i would like to take a moment of silence and prayer for these fallen and the thousands of others. thank you. i would like to talk to you about gaza, because that is why we are all here. i would like to start by giving you a little bit of context. all too often, we hear about this as the latest cycle of violence, as a response, as a justified retaliation by israel, as self-defense for the killing of three israeli teens. gaza is being, bombarded. it is completely blacked out. this he aged and blockaded -- besieged and blockaded.

alreadypulation that is largely refugees, that is already stateless, to then be bombarded mercilessly with no intervention. gaza is roughly twice the size of washington dc. it has a little over a million and a half inhabitants. inhabitants are under the age of 18. they are under the age of 18. three quarters of them are refugees, meaning they are not in the place they are compelled to live. they are in towns and villages, many of them destroyed, ethnically cleansed by zionist militias. they sought refuge in gaza and they were besieged in gaza and they are not allowed to return to their native land. acr that has a

mandate to protect these refugees, there is no protection mandate. these palestinians that are being targeted have nowhere to run. it bears reminding. no one to protect them. there are no bomb shelters, no sirens, no one to protect them. this leaves many to refer to gaza as the world's largest open-air prison. this assumes that there is a crime that is punishable. i would like to refer to it more as an internment camp or a zoo. a holding pen for animals where it is open season 24/7, where the question of freedom is never raised. gaza is still legally occupied. we hear about israel disengaging, they left everything, what more do they

want, rockets are still flying out of gaza. all of gaza's effective markers of sovereignty are still controlled by israel. the borders, the airspace, the sea, there is a naval blockade on gaza. gazahild who is born in must be registered through israel. tens of thousands of palestinian families are split apart because one member of the family is a resident of gaza and the other is not and israel denies them the right to reside with their own family. my husband is a refugee from palestine. he is not allowed to visit me when i visit gaza. again, all of gaza's effective markers of sovereignty continue to be controlled by israel. gaza has been subject to some form of closure for more than two decades.

ofhear of it being a result /hamas' election to power. the reality is, hamas is a red herring. this started prior to the election of hamas. i was there at the time. it started immediately after israel's disengagement in 2005. they shut down all commercial crossings resulting in billions of dollars lost in the economy, decimating the economy, lunging it into unprecedented crisis. this is before hamas was elected to power. they cut off gaza from the rest of palestine and from the world. it is not just gaza. gaza cannot survive on its own. it is part of the greater palestinian nation. it is part of the west bank. siege that has gotten more stringent over the years.

it is not a siege that targets hamas or whoever the israelis say it is targeting. it is in the israeli architects' own words, designed to target gaza is productive the civilianse and deny them their most basic human rights. is, i quote, the purpose of the siege. no prosperity, no humanitarian crisis. the siege is intended to stifle development, to stifle prosperity, but not to get things so bad that it creates immediate outcry. enough foodstuffs and goods are allowed into gaza, just enough to keep them teetering on the edge. there is a caloric equation. just enough calories are allowed in to make sure there is food for the population.

because of unemployment, people cannot buy it. this has resulted in mass aid dependence. something like 80% of palestinians in gaza are food insecure. they rely on some sort of food ration to survive. this should not be the case. this is deliberate. also intended to further the fragmentation of palestinian people and separate them from one another. it is a siege that has restricted gaza's fishing zone, one of its main industries, to three nautical miles. threere allowed to fish nautical miles into the sea. if you go as i did with anthony boardgame, to the fishing

markets in gaza, all the fish you see are about this big. there is nothing for them to fish anymore. siege that restricts farmers. half of them are along the border area that is now under israel the control. it restricts their ability to reach their farmland at the risk of being shot, incarcerated, which we always hear of. you don't hear of these palestinians being killed. this is what is happening. restricts,ge that denies, bans palestinian students run going to study in the west bank. there is a categorical ban. they make up the majority of gaza's population. it is a siege that largely bans the exports of goods outside of gaza. the movement of people in and out of gaza as well as the import of construction materials to rebuild the factories and

homes. we are going to be facing the same problem after the current assault. the result is universal unemployment which has resulted in increased poverty rates, massive aid dependence, food insecurity. there is no shortage of food in gaza, just reduced access to these foods. almost zero purchasing power. all this is happening while israel reserves its right to , toke gaza at any moment strike any facility anywhere, to assassinate at will, to incarcerate and blockade gaza. palestinians are asked to remain silent in the face of all this, these unspeakable brutalities and slow, silent strangulation. we have only the right to remain silent. once this picture is painted, you can begin to understand what life is like, what life has been like for palestinians in gaza.

no sane person would tolerate this status quo, comprised of such conditions carefully designed to crush there will to survive. nobody. nobody would accept this. i spoke about the fishermen. i spoke about the farmers. one farmer i knew in 2010 was at a farming workshop put on by a union trying to learn how to rebuild his life. palestinians in gaza don't sit quietly and resigned themselves to the status quo. they want to survive. for them existence is a form of resistance. i asked him why he was there. he said 500 acres of his land were razed to the ground. he was trying to make a difficult decision of whether he should replant those trees.

in the meantime, become a dependent or resort to some other method of livelihood. i see farmers all the time. with a smile on his face in bethlehem saying they uprooted all of his olive trees but he was going to continue to plan his land because this was his way of resisting peacefully. inlanden have created freshwater fish forms, which is absurd to think you would need a freshwater fish farm in gaza. this is the ingenuity of the population there. on to the current situation. we got some figures. 1400 palestinians killed. it is not just figures and statistics. theirhan 55 families in entirety, completely

eviscerated. families huddled together in their arms, children running for safety. thousands and thousands maimed and traumatized. more disturbing are accounts we hear of schools taking direct hits, despite multiple ports to the israelis of their location. just as recent as two days ago. we heard about the power plant very bombed, which i am active on twitter and immediately after it was bombed, the gaza twitterverse went silent. there were hundreds of eyewitnesses giving minute i minute accounts as they were being bombarded. it went silent. you can draw the connection. i would like to end with this account from my aunt, who is a

physician and a women's and human rights activist in gaza. she was seeing a couple of young children in this clinic being sent from the main hospital which was flooded. she gave this account to me yesterday morning. she says, first i will begin with a story of an unnamed child. he was around three years and i have identifying stickers on his arm saying unknown and number six. i was shocked. i asked the nurse is what his name was. no one knew. they found him in a mass of destroyed houses. he was the only survivor of his family. he had a head injury and wounds to other parts of his body. i asked, doesn't anyone remember where the house was? all the buildings were destroyed and mixed up with one another. sometimes children are thrown from one area to another. nobody knew where he lived. i realized, my aunt said, he is

number six. that means there were five other unknown children before him and many more children after him. i stopped asking questions because i needed to do my work. -- sixis the story of years old. he arrived in the x-ray unit. she has a name also and she used to have a family. she was the only surviving member. she lost her parents and all of her brothers and sisters. these are just two small examples of what is being done in gaza. we hear a lot of talk of israel's need to defend itself, its right to defend itself, israel's security. israel's security can never be derived from imprisoning, bombarding, systematically incarcerating, demolishing houses and repressing the indigenous population of palestine. gaza is just a symbol of the broader palestinian struggle.

i will end with this. chris guinness has said on twitter that after the israeli attacks on the first u.n. school, there have been two others since this tweet. u.n. schools turned shelters. we should all hang our heads in shame. from the shame should come justice and dignity. i should add, security, freedom and accountability for the palestinian people. thank you so much. [applause] >> before we take a few questions, i would like to ask congressman keith ellison to deliver some remarks. [applause]

>> i would simply like to welcome all of you to capitol hill, ask you to continue to come here. this is the people's house. whatever answers might be found here, given the u.s.'s involvement in this matter, knock the doors and walk the halls. about the cases and talk about the people. i want to give a special thank you and congratulations to tariq who very bravely told his story eloquently and honorably. he came to visit me yesterday and i want to thank you for visiting me again. i also want to thank your mother and father. i am a father of four myself.

i don't know what i would do if i saw my son's face looking like that. i guess i would be grateful that he was still alive but i would be heartbroken. my prayers are with you. certainly with you. that is all. i want to thank our experts who gave us a good testimony. if there is one thing that we really do need to do, it is to be in this space on capitol hill much more. anotherontemplating theing, a briefing after august recess. hopefully we get a bigger room. thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much. we really appreciate all of your courageous work in standing for a cease-fire and a lifting of the blockade.

in the few minutes that we have left, i would like to open this up for very brief questions from the audience. i would like to turn over the floor to congressional staff people or media that may have questions. we will take maybe three at a time and the panelists can decide which particular one they would like to answer. i would ask the panelists to mic'sinto these two thin when they respond. are there any questions? yes, please. >> [inaudible] >> ok, yes please. [inaudible]

how do you counter that, framing it -- >> do we have a third question? in the back, please. [inaudible] >> great. i am going to turn this over to the panelists. when anyone like the first question? >> in the context of what is happening now, we also have to

place this in the context of the seven year long siege. when it comes to indiscriminate attacks, hamas is guilty of that. amounts to a war crime. so does targeting a united nations school, bombing civilian structures, targeting civilians directly. those also amount to war crimes. it is important to think about the context in gaza. someone else's work crime does not justify your war crime. international humanitarian war crimes are individual.