this in one of the meetings and he did not answer it. what is the difference >> you want me to take a few questions in the what them together -- and deal with them together? maybe three or four and then i will be what them altogether -- deal with them altogether. [laughter] >> of course, yes. >> thank you, you made a lot of very important questions. my question is the relationship between palestine and the arab

governments. you mentioned going to the arab regimes at the u.n. there have been lots of changes in the last several years of those government and i am wondering if you can give us an overview of where palestine stands in terms of those governments that are trying very hard to win support in washington particularly. >> thank you very much for your time. i'm with the institute of palestine studies. one question -- i know we are talking about the new leadership in the u.s. but there is also new leadership at the united nations. the new secretary-general starting january. how is the palestinian leadership feeling about any roles he might have regarding a

more active, more serious approach dealing with palestine. thank you. >> go ahead. work the united nations commission of refugees. from my perspective, it seems like there is already two states that exist in palestine. it is just that the actual community might not recognize it, but i believe you are in the same position as africa was under apartheid and india under the british rule. you do exist and exert your dominion as a sovereign nation externally to other nations with ambassadorships. in due time, that cloud, that

colonialism that is dominating you will have to subside. fouransour: these are excellent questions. take one more before we go to the next one. >> dr. musa asked the questions -- the linguistic question between illegal and illegitimate. a linguistic repressor of contemporary -- professor of contemporary languages. i think this languaged -- this new used by the united states is related to illegality of settlement activities. 14elieve that, of course,

members of the security council, they use the language illegal. the secretary-general of the united nations uses it. alsoew secretary-general used illegal. we are not yet at the final language. what we need from the united states of america is to accept the concept that the security council has a role to play and have to legislate a new resolution. then weare on board, will begin the exercise of the language. but, we need to get commitment from them that, yes, they will allow the security council to show its responsibility and adopt a resolution. for example, if you translate both of them, the amount to the same thing.

maybe in other languages, but in english, it appears there are differences. thery are too close to each they, but i do think are synonymous with each other. there is no need for us to engage in a linguistic discussion. we need to reach at the moment of a political decision. yes, the security council has a role to play and it has to legislate a resolution on continuing on this path. oft is part of the sequences israel continuing its illegal behavior. if we are all on board, including the united states, we need to find appropriate language that would address that. your finger ont something very important. to goted, as palestine,

to the security council from the beginning of the year from that question of settlement. in fact, i have a very tedious exercise through the council of arab ambassadors to move in that direction. some of them sometimes use big notuage, but they have intentions. we had resolutions in the past on settlements that were so awful and strong, why do we need resolutions? the essence of the argument is what the security council defines as sentiment. -- settlement. we had a resolution in 1980 which called for dismantling the settlement and having a mechanism to the security council. we had that resolution. does that mean we do not go back to the security council? i do not believe that.

we have to show it has responsibility to put israel in a corner with a view that this illegal behavior has to stop because we cannot have opening doors for peace as long as this illegal behavior continues to exhibit itself. thatyou know, ronald said we could be moving into a situation similar to south africa. those who are continuing this illegal behavior of settlement are creating that one state reality with two political systems which is apartheid. that has been acknowledged by many including the secretary-general of the u.n., the special representative. even in the white house and washington, d.c., they are saying the path that you

continue, you are destroying the dream of zionism of having a state that is jewish or a jewish state. therefore, the arabs at that time, some of them use that argument. what is the value of a veto? as if we are the ones that decide. we will negotiate in good faith. we will use the argument to convince the united states to be on board to legislate. in the end of the day, the united states is responsible for its actions, whether it allows the revolution to be adopted or of struck it -- obstructed. they should be held responsible by the security council. inmpose a draft revolution march and they said we cannot

proceed until we have authorization from the arab ministerial committee. that committee did not meet for six months to consider the issue. then, when we made it in september over this issue, they met. they authorized us to begin the consultation. now, why are the arabs behaving this way? they are our brothers. we appreciate their help. we belong to that group. the arabs, if they are unified to a certain extent on any issue, they are unified on the issue of palestine. they exhibit this behavior because there are those among them that think if we go to the security council in the current conditions and push the united

states and they use a veto and the environment of the russians are using vetoes versus syria, from their perspective as it relates to the issues of syria o r iran, then that is important to them. unfortunately, when they think a lot that way, in certain ways it is at the expense. that theye go again were floating an idea that after the election, and hillary clinton wins, then president barack obama will put something more important in. i think that that reality is not with us anymore. there is going to be a new person in the white house. it is not hillary clinton. what will present barack obama do before he leaves? will he allow something to be put to the table? i think if we do not work hard,

if we don't continue with the momentum we generate, not only through the consultation, but we have a very important committee under the aria formula. an open meeting for the security council in which they bring experts. they brought two very important individuals. washington, d.c., from american peace. both of them said very clearly to the security council, settlements are illegal and you have to act and occupation has to end. a great ambassador made a statement that the head who participated is engaging in diplomatic terrorism. they are now trying to have a piece of legislation to deprive him of israeli citizenship.

he's talking about fascism and crazy things. tocould not get a jew entertain that idea. the u.s. representative involved in the formula and the open frome defended the lady american peace now. in the two occasions. does that mean the united states of america will allow the security council to legislate something on settlement remains to be seen. the issue with my brother of the arabs is not easy. they are fixated on other issues -- iran, syria, yemen. the derivative of that, palestine question -- i have always to keep the palestine

question alive. i have to keep it alive at the united nations. we created this momentum during the course of the month of october. we need to continue with it and andpt a new form of delay we will wait until the new administration takes place in d.c. we cannot wait. we have to act now. as a representative says to the members of the security council. -- antonio is a very smart diplomat. he worked for the u.n. for a long period of time. very, very smart. very quick on his feet. he was the prime minister of portugal. he speaks many languages. i was in a meeting with all the ambassadors of the u.n. and they were asking questions.

he was answering in english, french, spanish, portuguese. very fluid in all of these languages. he was quick, understanding the essence of the questions. in a very concise way. i spoke at the end and i was frustrated when i spoke because i'm an observer. when will i speak free at last, free at last? the famous speech of martin luther king. i do not want to be speaking at the end. i said what are you going to do differently to see the end of occupation and the independence of palestine. he said in front of everyone that nothing will give me more pleasure than celebrating the moment to see the independence

of the state of palestine and israel living in peace and security next to each other. he will visit us hopefully soon next year. let's hope that in his time watch, we will see something good happening to palestine. inh regard to apartheid palestine, of course, president carter wrote a famous book. the extremists in israel keep pushing for one state reality then they are bringing with it the violence of apartheid. if they think that apartheid in our area will survive, they need to think again. it did not survive in south africa. i don't think it can survive in palestine and israel. heshimmir?

>> sorry. you had a very good statement today. i'm wondering why our position is not explained to americans. is it the question of the media? the media is not very friendly, i understand that. don't we resort to the obvious way of doing it which is advertising it? as you well know, in the last two months, the israeli side have paid for pages in the new york times. ius it too expensive to put a full-page ad to cover your remarks today, highlight them? you are an excellent speaker. we need to get the american public aware of what is going on, especially when we have a very right-wing regime in this

country. what about a full-page ad? put the article -- money, i know. i tell you what, i have a follow-up. we can campaign for financial support for a full-page article. >> all right. we will have a question and moved to the side. yes, sir. >> i see one, two. i'm just answering. >> hi, mark harrison with the united methodist church office in washington. i was involved in the apartheid era. the u.n. had these conferences, many with african governments, on the apartheid. the white majority rule.

what do you think for the committee of the inalienable rights of palestine to have an international conference during the 50th year of occupation and bring international ngo's and others together? i know there are regional buterences on this issue, do you think there is a need for international conferences? >> ok, all right. >> one and two. >> thank you so much for being here. from georgetown university and running a startup called go palestine. -- youd to ask you about talked about the weapons that we have in the u.n. in working with a lot of young palestinian activists, there is a bit of a disillusionment with the u.n. structure, feeling that

because of the way the security council has the veto power, because of the u.s.'s inability to make any progress, we'll never be able to push these kinds of fantastic resolutions forward. so, what are those weapons that we have if the u.s. pushes back and we cannot push this resolution forward? thank you. >> ok. we will also take a fifth question from the left. >> i'm a board member of the jerusalem fund. today, donald trump said that from tel aviv move to jerusalem. whatld like your views on impact that would do. >> ok. last question of this round.

the young lady on the left. michigan just to attend this. [applause] theuld like to know what ambassador knows about the secret weapons. why have they not been used before because we are really desperate right now? iso, from year-to-year, always attended the arab relations conference in october. example, turkey talking about palestine, it was heartwarming. year-to-year, we are just talking. now two administrations have gone by by obama and

nothing has materialized. what i would like to know is about this arab government because we know at the same time that few countries like uae and qatar have relationships with israel under the table. also, yesterday, i read that donald trump said settlements are not an obstacle. could you respond to all of that? thank you. >> five excellent questions. dr. mansour? dr. mansour: with regard to the question asked by my friend, there are those who think advertising is a good thing to do. you have the resources, by all means, do it. do -- weou know, we

fight the united nations, people listen to us. people work in our favor and we organize conferences and meetings. we do things in order to articulate our position. we cannot publish our position everywhere. that is why we rely on friends like you and others to do some of that work. onee good campaigns to have page advertisement as you wish. if you want help from us in terms of articulating the message, we would be delighted to do so. there is a tremendous amount of opportunity for all of those who want to work towards this. why are you here this morning? because you want to do something. you are eager to do something. you can do whatever you think is a good idea. get the people who believe in

the idea and try to make it a reality. i think it can be done. as i said to you from our side, we try to sometimes publish whatever we can. message to convey our to the largest number of audiences that we can reach. gentleman back there, mark harrison, i believe. we are in the same wavelength. the bureau of the palestine committee and the exercise of the inalienable rights of the palestinian people. we are planning to organize a big international conference as we used to do in the old days. we are thinking of doing it in june to mark the 50th anniversary. you are all invited. you, your friends. methodists are very active

friends. we have a very good relationship with them in new york city. we want to organize as many as we can in washington, in chicago, san francisco, all the cities everywhere to mobilize all of your friends, all organizations to do as many in theies as possible year 2017 which will be the year to end israeli occupation. the palestine committee at the u.n., we are going to have an international conference in june to commemorate that occasion. with regard to the disillusionment of some young palestinians, i can understand that. when you are young, you tend to be radical. i was young and i was super radical. when you get older, you decide

to balance between that. churchill was right when he said when you are young, you have to think from your heart and when you are old, you have to think from your brain. of course, the young want more things and it is good they push and they push and they push more. they keep us on the right track. if we try to be complacent and not try as hard as we should. i'm delighted that more than half of my team are young. they always challenge me. it does not mean i will agree with you, but do not be afraid to say what you believe in because this is how we can take into account all the positions and opinions. serve palestine in

the best possible way because it is an important cause. have we used these weapons? i gave you an example of the strategy. we in new york, myself and my team, we were able to influence leadership thinking to push for that direction. i was a junior, young radical diplomat in 1988 when we declared independence. i pushed for doing what we did in 2012. i was in the minority faction then. felt when we declared independence in 1988, we could have gone directly to the general assembly to change our status. unfortunately, i was overruled because i was in the minority. when i came back in 2005 as ambassador, that was one of the issues in my head. we were able to articulate the strategy that the leadership

accepted, promoted and voted for. there was a historic resolution in 2012 in which the general assembly recognized the state and changed the status. what are some of these weapons? from 2012 until now, when you see that palestine is a state party equal to all other states in all of these conventions, this is part of that weapon. even when i go to conferences in which we have to sit in alphabetical order, they used to ask us to sit in the back as observers. conferences,rs of palestinian sit in the back. order.is in alphabetical i said to my team, open your eyes. every conference, they could potentially make these mistakes. correct these mistakes.

go outside the building and see of our flight is there or not. make sure to tell the organizer it should be in alphabetical order. i was in a meeting. i went outside and our flag was at the end. i said i'm calling ban ki-moon now who is in charge. i said i need it to be corrected. they said 8:00 tomorrow morning, it will be corrected. i was there at 8:00 to make sure with my camera. people do not see these things, but these are remarkable things. when you see the flag of palestine as we legislated that and implemented that to be flying in front of the u.n., it is inspiring to me and my team and all of those who, and visit. these other kinds of things we do. we are peaceful, diplomatic matters but if people

attacked us by trying to move jerusalem -- i mean the embassy to jerusalem which is violation of security council resolution, violation of resolution 181 which was drafted by the united states of america. if the u.s. administration wants things thathe legal they were legislating, it means they are showing belligerency against us. what do you expect for me? just to accept it peacefully? what can i do? maybe i cannot have resolutions in the security council, but i can make them lives miserable every day as a member state. received three consecutive vetoes to the united nations from the soviet union. the united states would come

today, we are putting the petition for legislation. the following day, the united states is submitting the application. if they are going to do these things, these other kinds of things i can do. you show belligerency against me, then i will do the things i can. i can have emergency meetings in the security council. box onpened a pandora's the ruling with all of the regimes and settlements. i will do what i can do. i do it legally because it is illegal to defy the security council resolution. the united states is party to it saying the unilateral actions of israel annexing jerusalem is illegal and it cannot go out with legal ramifications. if the u.s. administrations wants to defy international law,

they are doing something illegal. i hope we do not see that reality because many candidates during the election promised a similar promise, but they did not implement it because what you do when you are campaigning is something, but when you deal with the legal things, it is something else. we sincerely hope they do not go that route. we sincerely hope they do not do that. we sincerely hope they don't , illegitimategal to an obstacle. obstacle to peace. that is the israeli language. as the young lady who came from forhigan, and we thank you coming from michigan to watch this conference. if they think they are going to say in athens that settlements are condone, that is another

violation of international law. if they want to go the path of illegally, nobody should blame us for defending ourselves legally. that is what i meant by the potent weapons that we have. maybe they might say it is only a resolution. and hence interviewed was asking me what i was doing at the u.n. i explained what i was doing. he said all of these resolutions are meaningless. i said i don't think they are meaningless. when we legislate resolutions every time, for example, for the mandate and making this organization that looks after the palestine refugees, in which it spends more than $1 billion annually to educate more than half of the palestinian children and to provide aid for palestine

refugees and the social services, this is important. he screened at me -- screamed at me. he said i don't care who gets educated. did you liberate palestine? i did not but i am doing useful things. erdogan, wet for would not be having the contemporary palestinian movement because it came from the refugee camps. now, when i negotiate with the language and my team to stabilize the financial situations and we succeeded to that effect. oft may be to have portion the budget as part of the permanent budget of the u.n. and not to keep it at the mercyof voluntary contribution. i think it is in a concrete way

for the palestinian people. these are the things we do. if some of the young people see it as a relevant -- irrelevant, too bad. it is the responsible thing to do to try to minimize the pain of our people. that is why we are continuing until week succeed in putting an end of the occupation and maintaining the inalienable rights of the palestinian people. i think it is valuable. >> we have other -- [indiscernible] focus. let's there are other questions. one more question and then we status. otherwise, we will be here all day. no, we don't really have time for it. government.

>> yes, yes. >> then, we have a break. not our job it is to add more misery for our people and have more problems and have more enemies. we are part of the arab nations. thinkw how some of them because they have their own calculations, including those who might think that they are in the same camp with israel, objectively speaking, not intentionally speaking. because they are afraid of iran, for example, in the region. so they justify these activities based on that. of course, this tends to push our question into the back burner. that does not mean that they are becoming our enemies, those arab countries. we don't look for enemies.

we have a formidable enemy supported by a superpower, the united states of america. we are in the business of always trying to have more friends. we will accept half a friend better than nothing because this is our responsibility in defending the lives and minimizing the pain of our people. that is the responsible way of being a leader, in looking for ways to minimize the pain of your people and to maximize the gains. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you very much. we need to stay on time. there are some refreshments and pastries, etc. over there. let's have a 15 minute break and then come back for the first panel. thank you.

>> the palestine center's annual conference continues now with a panel of historians discussing the history of the air of israeli conduct -- arab israeli conflict. this is two hours and 15 minutes. >> good afternoon, everybody. i hope you enjoyed the lunch. this is the best we can do under the circumstances. [laughter] the caterer objected. next time maybe. all right. we have had an excellent morning.

. think that was refreshing the afternoon is no different. our second panel for the next two hours, as you can see in the brochure, is a timely subject. we have a panel of experts. to present that. one person that was posted be on the panel is -- that was supposed to be on the panel is in syracuse and could not be here. the panel will be moderated by hamed. . the interim executive director of the jerusalem fund as well as

the -- hamed has been here for over two years. and actually, he holds two master degrees. master of art in international relations and a master of science in international and political economy. want to turn it to hamed will introduce the speakers. i'm looking forward to hearing what they have to say. i will negotiate my way out of here. >> good afternoon, everybody. thank you for joining us today at our annual conference. thank you for bearing with the heat. i know it is pretty hot in here. we cannot do much once the cold

weather kicks in. if you could please silence your cell phones so we can keep the distractions at a minimum. there will also be a question and answer session afterwards. tweet web audience can their questions. we have a twitter handle of # pccnos2016. today, we are discussing israel's agenda me -- hegemony in the region. we will consider future prospects. panelists will analyze the continuing occupation and incursions. intensifiedlements, domination of jerusalem and the tensions of palestinian children. they will also offer expert perspective on washington's policies towards israel and

palestine, especially in light of this year's presidential election, as well as the very serious consequences of israel's claims to an encroachment on jerusalem. this panel, we are pleased to have three distinguished speakers. all of them are experts in their field. a specialist in international law, could not make it today unfortunately. that gives more time to our speakers who i'm sure have a lot to talk about. ood.t, we have dr. thomas ab an urban anthropologist and historian. he received his phd from columbia university in 2003. "colonials titled jerusalem."

it was published in 2011 by syracuse university. in 2006, he received a postdoctoral research award to study housing, politics in contemporary jerusalem. 2009,008 2 2009, -- to continuefellow to research on housing politics and housing rights activism in jerusalem. today, he will talk about jerusalem settlements, economic isolation. right, we have brad parker, an attorney and international officer at events for children international which is an independent palestinian child's rights organization. it is dedicated to defending and promoting the rights of children living in the west bank, east

jerusalem. he specializes in issues of juvenile justice and grave violations against children during armed conflict. he leads the legal advocacy efforts on palestinian children's rights. parker space on the rights of palestinian children in the occupied palestinian territory, particularly issues involving detention and torture of palestinian detainees as well as violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. he leads the u.s. program at a graduate of the university of fromnt and received his gd the school of law. to his right, professor of middle east science at rutgers university. he's a united nations veteran, serving 27 years in the department of political affairs

and peacekeeping for which he .erved as a spokesperson in his last capacity, he was a spokesman for the late special representative of the secretary-general who was killed 2009ghdad on august 19, when the u.n. headquarters were attacked resulting in the death of 21 other colleagues. and also the bureau chief author of the book "that horrible day" and appeared as a commentator on many arab radio and tv stations including al news.a, bbc and sky please join me in welcoming our speakers. [applause]

>> thank you, everyone. is this good enough? great. thanks to the organizers and for all of you for coming today. this is one of my favorite events in november, every november, this wonderful conference even if it happens a few days after a certain election. [laughter] it tends to be somewhat depressing. i will say a few words today about jerusalem. i want to flesh out the contemporary situation in arrangementd the that is separate but equal, apartheid like arrangements we see today. todaylier presentations, addressed colonial legacies and i want to do that as well. i want to connect what is undeniably a colonial legacy,

namely the british period of role in palestine. also, the present is really -- israeli governance which i condemned -- contend is a certain colonialism. it is based on elimination of the indigenous, but not necessarily through genocide as was done in this continent. there are different sorts of colonialism. has largely tried to eliminate palestinians or regulate the population of palestinians is not inconsistent with what settler colonialism has done internationally and throughout time. it is important to note that there is a sad anniversary that's coming up in june, namely

the 50th anniversary of israel's conquest of east jerusalem and the west bank, the gaza strip. in terms of the palestinian territories which have not yet even really one square meter been liberated or returned to the palestinians, israel so-called withdrawal gaza aside, i think there is a need to be understood. to think about some of the reminders, remind ourselves about what is really militant -- meant. military rule this is a larger project i am doing. in looking at speakers like uber and other israelis that are alive today and talking about different arrangements between an apartheid state, i want to

contend that today and into the future against a more democratic, binational arrangement is the refusal to see israeli governance as colonial governance. because with that, if you deny that or don't want to talk about those realities, you deny the elementary seminal events that have produced the palestinian catastrophe that is going on. this is not just one moment in 1948 or one moment in 1957, but a continuation of a logic of elimination that is with us today. and i would say -- i will zionistit is not just a movement whose grandsons are in power i israeln, but in certain ,ealms and assumptions

havetists -- zionists ignored and sought to erase or the silent about the colonial beginnings which grew out of british colonialism which we heard earlier in the day. it is important to remember as we come upon the 50th anniversary of israel's conquest of east jerusalem that does far in israeli history, think of it this way, to .5 times longer than the british rule in pat's palestine. we are talking about a period of time. i know it is a contentious argument, but if you hear that argument or sort of subscribed to it provisionally if you went out there yet, it is important to understand we are talking about a period of israeli governance involuntarily over the palestinians which is more

than three times as long than british rule in palestine. where has this half century gone? i have this map to share with you. i'm writing about how israeli may jerusalem spatially and demographically. has remadere israel the city historically. let me remind all of us of a few crucial realities with regard to the rapid transformation of the city. quite a bit has been done in 1967east jerusalem since which has been emphatically remade. one, this is a map of before 196 7. wasany of you know, it jordanian held east side. the westside almost completely ethnically cleansed of

palestinians in 1948 and 1949. -- this is not working. i will do it manually. in 1967, as most of you are aware, when israrel concord the west bank, what they did was begin to expand the boundaries of what is jerusalem which is not some fixed internal space. which has been depicted by israeli mainstream. they are not changing the part of history but the city has been radically remade and was was expanded -- and was expanded about 10 times. a 70 square kilometers to 70 square kilometers which was a

largely gerrymandered boundary againstrael drew international law. it was a spatial logic. very crucial to colonialism. it was also a racial logic. a boundary and annex that territory under the idea and jerusalem was israel jerusalem was israel. the minimum of palestinian people. israelis, rviewed like one who wrote for many publications, she was in the circles right after 1967. she si openlaid -- she said openly to circles me it is takis

much land with the fewest number of arabs. they would not have said palestinians, they would have said arabs. in june 1967, there were no settlers in east jerusalem. areoday, roughly there 200,000 fewer in east jerusalem. and 600,000 just in the west bank. 1977, do remember, by there were only 5000 jewish settlers in the west bank. there were 50000 and east jerusalem. 55,000 in the territories occupied in 1967. with the ascension, the expansion of the settlement movement beyond east jerusalem which was the labour party's planning. this was done by the labour party primarily.

after 1977, the labour party and its associates expanded the settlement enterprise radically, even more radically. that the israeli settler population decreased almost 12 fold in the west bank outside of east jerusalem. i've mentioned that in addition to that -- there is no easy way to do this, but the darker colored areas in the east part of jerusalem are jewish settlements that were built after 1967. the lighter colored are palestinian neighborhoods that have been surrounded by these hilltop fortresses known as settlements. that if one examines this massive transformational

process, you see an you rac -- eraser project. raciste will have openly discourse is about to many people of this country or this religion or whatever. in israel, in the mainstream, there are open discourses about birthrates.bs, arab you can get a hold of those documents. for also not uncommon israeli leaders to make statements that express real concern about the wrong kind of people having too many children. there is a real racial logic, not just spatial. -- ii want to emphasize don't want to speak for ever -- what is important to understand about colonialism is it is not simply a project for creating territorial conquests.

it is also a project that requires substantive ideological armaments, the weaponization of myths. apresentations -- he wrote piece and talked about israeli ideological efforts to assert the kind of jerusalem that is the city of different heritages andreligious backgrounds privileges want to the exclusion of all others. biblical notion of unchanging jewish connections to the holy land. l accountsy ahistorica of other people's presence. there were different opinions about zionists. having potents myths, including the ones about who's city this along to and for

whom the city is most important to. those myths both construct and colonialism and create colonialism. jerusalem andg make up what earlier speakers mentioned to dominant israeli narratives and how it has shaped politics and how it is changing. hegemony is in the title of this panel. i'm not so sure it is hegemony in the classical sense. but, maybe the occupation of u.s. imagination in political circles have a lot to do with the acceptance of ideals about the city and east jerusalem, for the vast majority of the world does not share that at all. years,a's eight monday, wednesday and friday, he

considered it occupied territory and the other days he did not. the statements occasionally that the so-called israeli neighborhoods named settlements could be recognized by other figures and not can be done about it. there was an incident of march of 2010 which some of you may remember as we are moving into a post obama era. it is interesting to remember that there was a moment in his early first term where he was thinking about doing something a little different with regard to this conflict. there was a moment in march of 2010 in which joe biden was sent to israel-palestine to talk about maybe creating a new formula, whatever that might have meant. arrived --that biden

i don't know if you remember that -- the jerusalem municipality, the israeli jerusalem municipality and the construction of additional 1600 constructions. biden going into the airport, anchoring and humiliating him and others in the administration. the next day, the new york times ran a story about this. the 1600 units that were announced were to be in a relatively recently constructed jewish settlement in east jerusalem which is not -- a little bit older, but a settlement that was built at a time that oslo was happening. the new york times, following the lead up to upset u.s.

administration that had begun to think about little rumblings about east jerusalem settlements being a legal -- illegal, the new york times did not follow it because they mentioned this controversy was because but the next day, the times --rected their story, and this is a picture from the story, of the neighborhood now of about 20,000, mostly ultra orthodox jews. it was built for an ultra-orthodox community, generally poor, and have housing crises. bad aste as palestinians, but the settlement was for them. the new york times ran a correction under this picture in the next edition that said the following. "a picture captured on thursday with the continuation of a news

analysis article about a shift in the obama administration's referredst policy incorrectly to the name of the jewish housing development that israel says it is expanding, despite objections to the united states and palestinian authority. this is not a settlement, it is a neighborhood in east jerusalem, not a settlement in the west bank." the point i'm making is these practices of exclusion and conquest are made by these little terms that relabel settlements as neighborhoods. you can't think of anything more benign than a neighborhood. it's a nice innocent place. but they are billed illegally in violation of international law, overwhelmingly on land taken from palestinians. palestinians. part of the fortresslike arrangement to police and regulate palestinian growth and

expansion is not often mentioned. i want to talk a little bit -- we haveistory of seen a little in congress, but hopefully it will make sense. what is the opposition to seeing israeli governance as colonial governance, and the israeli state as a settler colonial state? i have been studying the life and times and writings of someone who many of you will know, and his life was one of the major advocates for by nationalism. he was opposed to the idea of a jewish state. he was one of the great philosophers of his time. he's a serious guy with serious ideas, opposed to the notion of a jewish state. he wanted cooperation and coexistence between different peoples of the region. but his project was also said very firmly within the terms of separate colonialism, and it is also forgotten. it's not just the movements

speaking and organizing and articulating themselves within the terms settlers of colonialism. crucial to what he referred to as this unique settlement, these were settlers who called himself settlers -- and fact, he had this idea that he referred to as -- he rejected the idea by israeland others that and zionism was a separate colonial movement. called for what he called concentrated colonialism in palestine, which of jews in gathering from all over the world to build and not a jewish state but the jewish cultural realm. -- fledmoved from germany under the not seize -- n azis, he fled and came to

palestine. lived in a place where edward sayed was born. no sooner did he arrive in palestine, then he died. he died in jerusalem in 1965. there began to be a squabble between buber and gandhi, who had written a current need of zionism that same year, which may be some of you have heard about. maybe more of you heard about buber's response. he sent an open letter to gandhi , that the zionist movement in all its manifestations is an example of colonialism, and had imperialism.ish gandhi, not far into the statement that he published in india, it's remarkable how people at that time could stay

current with what was happening in different places in the world, but not a paragraph income he says palestine belongs to the arabs. zionism was dangerously attaching itself to this other -- the british empire. this is the thing. response, he said it is uncharacteristically straight and ended addition to trying to justifying why zionism, and he doesn't differentiate between what he articulates as zionism in the mainstream. only to defend drawing from biblical references like leviticus -- it's a very strange letter that he writes -- but he goes further. this is where it is important to see how this european project which began in europe is implicated, even in the segments of the movement that don't wish to assert a kind of expansionist

colonial set of ideas. he goes on to this, and not only defends his tosence here, but goes on actually label the native palestinian population as inheritors of a legacy of conquest. gundy is saying, you are going in there, conquering this land, the people did nothing to you. and then buber comes back and says, what are their claims? by what means? by what means did the arabs obtain the right of ownership in palestine >> surely by conquest, and conquest of settlement. first islamic invasions of palestine, appropriations back 13 years -- 1300 years before he writes.

palestinians under the severity of the british colonial rule in 1939, witnessing the designs on their land by a proliferating seller population -- settler population of which buber was a they excluding the notion were conquerors. but he would go even further. he would not only abandoned by nationalism, but i don't know how many are familiar with this, but he moved his family from the , and in 1949 was given another home after the expulsion of palestinians from western muslim. he was given the home of -- western jerusalem. he was given the home of the sununu, whose great-grandson is governor of new hampshire.

family, her from the andr mentioned the family, said it was his home. he did not mention the conditions under which the home had been taken. his grandchildren, who also lived in the home, would later say when they were interviewed, that he bought the home from the previous owners. they did not mention the sununu name. and they bought it after they went back to lebanon, suggesting that lebanon was where they were from, not mentioning they were exiled and that the home had been taken by the israeli and custodian of the absentee property. this is emblematic of the broader realities. i think i'm running out of time. am i running out of time? where is the minute person? ok.minutes,

let me share a second story, a more recent story about a bigger and political voice who is still alive, someone who has been very clear about how he read everything buber wrote. in many ways in the ilk of the pre-1948 -- the pre-48 buber. a few years before edward sayed's passing, in the interest of reaching out, they intersected in pretty violent ways. in the interest of reaching out, he agreed to be the keynote speaker at a conference i attended in 1999 at the israeli anthropological association in

nazareth. he spoke to an israeli group of academics. he then added -- then didn't beingiew about forthright about his family's lives, and the destruction of their lives in jerusalem, and the responsibility that the israeli state and citizens have for the continued appropriation of their land. benvenisti is one of the few born there before and after. in a response to sayed's memoir, isti, who had over -- ever in the post to -- i will end with this. he said he was upset. he said, as i read sayed's memoir, "i reflected on his pampered childhood, and on my own childhood.

sayed and those like him had never understood the power of the desperation of my parents' hearts. now he cries over his lot, and i'm supposed to feel guilty for our victory, for the sacrifices my parents made, to the fact that we stayed and fought, while he and his ilk fled." the expulsion of the palestinians is set as self-sacrifice and bravery, it is not referred to as colonialism. 's response to people , to critiqueonism colonialism,d by -- i will stop there. thank you very much. [applause]

>> thank you very much. thank you. ok. how is everybody? it's nice to be here. thank you to the palestine center and jerusalem fund, everybody for inviting me. it is nice to have a packed room. it's nice to have a great fellow panelists.

i'm an attorney with defense for children international palestine. what i will try to do today is the zoom in and focus on a specific issue that impacts palestinian children throughout the occupied territory. palestinian children in the israeli military detention.it's an issue that is always in the news . it's an issue that seems to pop up regularly, particularly post-october 2015. there's been a number of high-profile cases that has made it into mainstream media and the u.s. i want to explore this a little bit, and give you a bit of information on the exact experience palestinian children face in the detention system, as well as work going on in the individuals toe advocate on behalf of these palestinian children.

dci palestine is a local palestinian child rights organization. we are the only local palestinian human rights organization focusing on children's rights. as a legalin 1991 aid organization providing legal aid to children in the military. for the past 25 years, that is what we have done. in 2000, we extended what we would call a full-fledged human rights organization, monitoring againstmenting rights palestinian children, no matter the perpetrator. we have focus on occupation soldiers andeli settlers, and also monitor the duck -- and document the situations of israeli kids and violence against them, and some palestinian actors. i'm a lawyer. sometimes that's good, sometimes that is bad.

a mixed room today. i would like to give a bit of an overview of the legal framework, it's essential to understanding why these kids are targeted, and how they are targeted. the israeli military detention system, it is not limited to the west bank. it has military bases, settlements, the tatian -- detention facilities. the green line does not exist when we talk about the detention system. kids are transferred from inside the west bank, to prisons inside israel, in violation of the geneva conventions, and the same way settlements are illegal for transferring the civilian population into occupied territory. it's also a violation to transfer occupied population out of occupied territory. -- any given month, about 45%-60% of palestinian children

detained by israeli forces in the west bank will be housed in prisons inside israel. the -- the fundamental piece to understand about israeli detention is that there are two separate laws operating in the same place. if you are a palestinian, israeli military law applies to you. israeli forces occupy the west bank, institute of military law. legally, it applies to anybody located in the occupied territory. in practice, it's only applied to the palestinian population. if you are an israeli person, living in the israeli center, you have the benefit of the system, criminal law, and the civilian law. you do not end up in the military court in the west bank. you are in jerusalem magistrate court and district court, and have additional protection from the israeli civilian law. face, the legal framework

is discriminatory. count tothing they can determine what law applies to you is your identity. we have been saying essentially since 2002, ill-treatment in the detention system is why it is spread and systematic. he we are in 2016. it is still happening, still occurring. this gives you a sense of the trend that we have seen recently. the israeli prison service monitors and is responsible for children in israeli prisons and the military prisons in the west releasingthey started monthly figures of how many

children are in detention on the last day of each month. these are not comprehensive figures. you don't know how many kids were in detention on the 29th of the month. you get the snapshot from the 30th of the month, the 31st of the month, to give you an idea what the number looks like. will see there is a dramatic increase in october. escalating violence, stabbing attacks, different things, happening in the west bank, east jerusalem, and insight israel. the response, as you can see, more children were arrested. in february, the number was up to 440 palestinian children in israeli detention. were in know how many detention the day before or day after. it is just a snapshot. sinceumber is the highest the prison service began releasing figures in january 2008.

get figures for march. april, 414. since april, figures have not been released. to do aorking now request to have the figures continue to be released, but really, we don't know how bad the situation is. we estimated it is still somewhere between 350-400, and that has been ready since the spring. we also saw a spike in the youngest palestinians that are arrested. age of criminal responsibility is 12 years old. if you are 11, you can't be prosecuted before a military judge in a military court. 10, doesn't mean that 11-year-olds are not detained, questioned and then released. it just means you cannot be prosecuted in the military court.

this figure goes back to february, and you will see the very high levels. these are the highest level since the israeli prison service began releasing data. when you look at palestinian girls, you see similar increases. this is the only country in the world that automatically and systematically prosecutes kids in military court. there prosecuted in military court other places the world, but it is not automatic and systematic. if you are palestinian living in the west bank, you are in the court. we typically say since 2000, that number, each year, around 500-700 kids prosecuted in the military court. that has spiked this year, and through last year. sort of some key

stats from a report that we did that looked back on our documentation and affidavits from kids, from 2012 through the end of 2015. experienced some form of physical violence following arrest. 97% of cases, they were denied access to attorneys in the presence of their families both prior to and during interrogations. they were not informed of their rights. they don't have many under the israeli military law. the ones they do have, they are not informed of. they are not implemented, and not informed. maybe i will leave it there for now. back to the military law. order that isary applicable in these cases is military order 1651, order regarding security provisions.

this is the law, the military order, that gives authority for the military to arrest for a number of different offenses. does offenses are very similar to what we see here in washington, in new york, wherever it might be. they are similar to a traditional criminal code. you have assault, you have homicide, a range of offenses that are common that we are used to. you also have more occupation related offenses. so, throwing stones. there's a specific charge in the law. street, andon the thomas is shouting at me, and we have a little dustup, i pick up a stone and throw it at him or at his car, i'm not getting arrested on the charge of

throwing stones. it's assault, battery, something else. military law has a specific charge for throwing stones. if you throw a stone at -- it's at a militaryaw base. you don't have to hit it or se damage. you could be terrible at throwing. it could fall two feet in front of you. it is not about the impact or harm. it's about the conduct. throwing the stone at the separation wall comes with a potential maximum of 10 years. if you throw stones into traffic at a moving object, that comes with a maximum sentence of 20 years under israeli military law. to give you a sense of the scope and breadth of the israeli military law, there's a specific

charge for conduct toward soldiers. soldier, itlt a comes with a potential seven-year maximum sentence under military law. but the lesser charge is insulting the honor of a soldier, which comes with a potential one-year maximum sentence. what does that mean? if you are a palestinian at a checkpoint, how do you not -- how do you make sure that you don't insult the honor of a soldier? you smile at that soldier as you hand your id? if you don't give your id fast enough? what could it be? who knows? that is military law. you can be arrested for anything at anytime. soldiers don't need warrants. there's no independent oversight over arrests. it's not a system where there are criminal investigations

going on into ongoing criminal conduct or past criminal conduct. soldiers have the authority to arrest without warrant. if i am an israeli soldier and i see thomas walking down the street, i catch his face in the rearview mirror of the jeep, i think that face is a phase i saw two weeks ago, or two months ago, at a demonstration where there was stonethrowing, i don't have to be 100% sure. i don't have to be 50% share. i don't have to be 20% sure. i just have to have a suspicion that he has violated one of the military -- one of the offenses in the military order. that is enough to justify an arrest. just want through the process. of what kids experienced anywhere from 40%-50% of kids are arrested at their homes in night.dle of the

the other chunk are arrested from demonstrations or the street in daylight hours. let's pick on thomas. if you are 15-year-old calmness -- thomas, in the northern west bank in a small community, israeli forces, to the village in the middle of the night, bang on his door, heavily armed soldiers come in, and maybe his father or older brother opens the door. the families gathered into the room. the ids are checked. the israeli intelligence officer for that village if your name is on their list,, which thomas' n is, he is taken out the front door, blindfolded, his hands are tied behind his back with plastic. he will likely suffer some form of physical violence during that arrest. could be maybe he's pushed into a wall, slapped, punished,

kicked, hit with a rifle. you would not be surprised at the ways kids are treated during the arrest process. his family will not be informed of where he is being taken.they will not be told of the charges against him. he essentially disappears from that moment. ,e's put into a military jeep usually on the floor. military jeeps have benches in the back. soldiers sit on the benches and kids sit on the ground. think of yourselves as adults in that situation. your hands bound, blindfolded, you don't know where you are being taken, and you don't know what comes next. an incredibly vulnerable position kids. experience a range of physical violence in the back of the jeep, a range of verbal assaults, intimidation. once they get out of the jeep,

the transfer could last anywhere from several minutes, several hours, to days. if you are a 12 or 13-year-old , you have tooy appear before a military court judge within 24 hours. if you are 14 or 15, the time period is 48 hours. if you are 16 or 17, it is 96 hours, which is the same as adults. typically, if thomas is arrested 3:00 a.m. from his home in the middle of the night, put in a jeep, transferred to a military base in a settlement nearby, he will be taken out. if it is summer, maybe on the ground outside. if it is winter, maybe he's inside, but he still could be outside, bound and blindfolded sitting on the ground. he doesn't know what is coming next. 8 a.m., 9:00 a.m., he is

put back in the jeep and brought to an interrogation center, or a settlement to an interrogation room. 97% of kids do not have access to attorneys prior to or during the interrogation. interrogators also don't have any record of evidence against the child for a crime. you see the interrogation process being used to essentially create evidence that could be passed to a military prosecutor to allow an actual prosecution in military court. kids often, whether they confess or not, in their statement will be something incriminating that gives the prosecutor something to use to bring charges against them. opened past years, it has

fluctuated drastically. 20%-30% of cases, signed documents in hebrew. they don't understand hebrew. they don't understand the document. these are used to keep them in the military court. we have not seen as much physical violence during interrogations recently in the past few years, but what you do see is psychological intimidation and coercion. a lot of stress against -- threats against people's families, people's homes, we will arrest your mom or your dad , we will destroy your home or demolish your home. all to pressure these kids into saying that they did throw stones or not. in reality, it doesn't matter if you throw stones or not. based on theeted locations and where their community is. settlements,ear

near military bases, near the anywhere where, the occupation has infrastructure, these are the communities being targeted for arrest. the military detention system and court system is not about justice. that gets lost a bit when people hear core systems, particularly systems, particularly americans. it's not about justice. if you're interested in justice, you don't arrest kids in the middle of the night and deny them access to attorneys and parents. you don't subject the majority of them to the tension. a whole list of violations that occur, it is not about justice. of the waya sense the occupation and the legal framework in a military court system is used to control in thesean population,

communities. some of the trends we have seen, i mentioned the increase in spikes and detentions. since october 2015, we have seen the renewed use of administration detention for children. this has been a practice that, while not prohibited by law, hasn't been used in the west bank since 2011. beingr 2015, we saw it renewed use. jerusalem, since 2000, we had not documented a case of a palestinian child health pursuant to administration order. that changed in october 2015. there were two cases. since october 2015, we have had 19 cases of kids between east jerusalem and west bank held in administrative attention. this is detention without

charge, indefinite. the great indefinite. it is renewed every six months. two of the kids that have been arrested have now turned 18, and they are still on administrative detention. we are seeing increasing use of solitary confinement since 2013. this isn't solitary confinement for punishment, for conduct in prison serving a sentence. which is something that we think about here in the u.s. context. this is pretrial use of solitary confinement, specifically for interrogation purposes. if you have a child that is suspected of throwing a molotov additionalomething to the stone throwing charge, they will be arrested, detained in the middle of the night,

usually. they don't necessarily end up at the military base nearby. they get transferred it inside israel -- transported inside israel to an interrogation center. they meet with a translator briefly before they are ushered solitary confinement. casein 2015, the longest we had, a child spent 45 days in total in solitary confinement. this is torture. detention is law, a measure of last resort for children. everything must be done in the best interest of the child. it can't be retribution. it is very much about recognizing that children have a special status. children are still developing. policiesee increasing targeting palestinian children, now not only in the west bank, but also creeping into the

israeli civilian system to target palestinian youth and palestinians in east jerusalem. so in the media, we heard about the changes to stonethrowing sentencing, 10 years, 20 years. that was already the case in the west bank. the changes this physically east jerusalem to target palestinian use there. there's been a number of that areve changes essentially taking the military law framework and applying it in the system to discriminatory ily target palestinian use outside the west bank. let me turn to what we are doing here. started a program. tying into what was spoken about before, the

us-based palestine solidarity movement has made a lot of success, and has grown and expanded and created a lot of space to be engaged in direct ways with policy and also churches across the board of civil society. we saw our goal as a child rights organization, from the showinghuman stories, the human impact of occupation. we saw a very big opportunity for us to increase the reach of what we were doing well. we were not creating anything new so much as plugging the things we were doing into a us-based movement that was gaining steam. in 2014, i moved back to new york, and we worked with american service committee to create the campaign.

the campaign focuses specifically on ill treatment and torture of palestinian children in the israeli detention system. our idea was, we can bring a small, narrow issue to u.s. policymakers. we can use that to build a ,ovement throughout the country on these issues, to create space to talk about palestinian rights, to bring the human face of occupation into communities where there's already been organizing. we wanted to create something that was the gateway drug to palestinian rights work in the ,.s., and focusing on children and a narrow and compelling issue was the way to do it. up. this, i will wrap the change, after this election, is a bit unknown. we have a campaign that focuses

on members of congress. everybody in the u.s. has a member of congress, everybody can go into the office and talk to them. but those members of congress are now going to have to deal with a lot of other issues related to israel palestine. the landscape hatched -- has shifted a bit. the thing that is important to ,hink about and realize is sometimes, when we don't have a baseline for where the members of congress are, we haven't really done a great job of creating the baseline. so that we as constituents can go in and say, we moved this member of congress on the issue down this path. he needs to move more, she needs to move more, but we have done this. the idea of the campaign was to do that. it doesn't matter if a member of congress says, yes, i agree with you or no i don't. if you are putting an issue like -- a 12-year-old palestinian

child in solitary confinement for 30 days for interrogation purposes, i think that is wrong. it is clearly against international law, and it is torture, by supporting israel we support that. with our tax dollars, with your votes. let that person say no to that. say, i don't agree with you. you can use that. it should be pretty shocking tear communities, your churches, other constituents, and as a tour to organize locally. to organize locally. congress and the executive, they will be the last institutions to change. they will not change without a movement pushing them to be different. we are building that movement. there is a lot of great work going on. down more andble more with recent events. i will leave it there. thank you. [applause]

>> thank you very much for inviting me. it is a great honor for me to talk to you. i will tell you something very heartbreaking. i am going to be talking about that. , i before i start my remarks want to say two things. talking about gaza is hard for me. i become emotional. i'm from the west bank, for your information. i can talk five minutes, five hours, five days. we should vote. but before we go into that, i want to show you aim -- a video

about life in gaza. and then i will talk after that. thank you.

this is normal. always something wrong with technology.

♪ >> gaza, with more than 1.7 million people living there, one of the most densely populated places in the world, one of the worst places to live. it has been called the world's largest open-air prison. in 1948, israel declared statehood and hundreds of thousands of palestinians were forced out of their home.many fled from the gaza strip. for decades, it was controlled by air, land, and sea. one hamas got parliamentary election in 2006, this intensified punishment of palestinian people living there. that is because if you are

called hamas a terrorist organization. -- israel called hamas a terrorist organization. this has been condemned the the you asian -- the u.n.. life in gaza, pretty unbearable. more than 50% of households lack enough food for family. water is also a huge problem. more than 90% of the water is unsafe or great -- drinking. medicine and doctors are also in and only those with immediately life-threatening conditions are allowed out of gaza for health care, if they are lucky. it doesn't help that egypt also keeps a tight order on gaza, heavily limiting what is coming in and out. --ael is also substrate

basic items are banned from entering gaza. they can build enough to keep up with the growing population. sometimes fuel shortages for up to 12 hours a day. the unemployment rate is one of the highest in the world at nearly 40%. -- [indiscernible] israel says operations are in response to rockets. isy have pointed out this disproportionate.

much of gaza's infrastructure was different -- destroyed in 2008. in november 2012, and operation killed 133 people. one airstrike took out 12 people in one family, including five children. the violence continues to this day. that is a glimpse of life in gaza. for a generation of young being ables, never to leave is all they know. the next time you see gaza and the headlines, don't forget. ♪ >> so, that gives you a glimpse of the life in gaza, which i will be talking about. i have been associated with gaza as a you and officer -- ua toicer, and all the way 2000, through every year, and sometimes twice a year.

i had a chance to sit with them. i sat with people who lost their homes, lost their children. some of them were left homeless. onlyught with a woman who -- was by the road. i have been going back and , i couldt since then not go back. i have tried the last two years to get permission to go, and for legal reasons, i couldn't because of the liability system. if something happens, i am no u.n. staff, so i am no longer protected. however, i have maintained strong relations with people there. i received a call from a friend of mine, who told me another

young man committed suicide this morning. old.s 22 years he just jumped from the roof of his home. i will be talking about the social ills in gaza. i will go through some basic information. gaza,s a basic fact about it is very small. the size of a golf course, some of the rich golf courses of the princes. it is very densely populated. square kilometers. $600.erage income is the population at as of 2015, 1.85.ted at

it will exceed 2 million in the next three years. ok. so just to remind you, gaza was under the administration between 1948 and 1967, and then captured. 1994, it came under

the palestinian authority. the largest proportion of local refugees. more than 50% of the population are refugees from 1948. this is a very peculiar situation. you could have a travel document issued by egyptians, and you still could not go to egypt. you need permission. frustration, militancy, and radicalism, is in gaza. the most radical groups came from gaza. gaza came under occupation until 1987.

in 1993, it fell under a palestinian authority. was developed in 2006 and ruled gaza after 12 -- 2007, after skirmishes. unilateral decision to withdraw in 2005. thought it was liberation, but it turned out to be one of the most disastrous decisions to take prisoners from inside and put them outside, and keep gaza completely cut off from the world. it remained under israeli control. in -- electedt it in the west bank in 2007, in 2006. it remains under israeli control.

there are six crossings. one of them to egypt and five to israel, and they are all closed. they open occasionally. the egyptian crossing used to be 45% of the time, during move thmubarak. there are shortages of food, and medical supplies. people always have shortages of .asic needs repeatedly, the u.n. has criticized that. in fact, a senior official resigned because of that. he submitted a report and said, i cannot take it anymore and gaza. and the world bank president also resigned.

are generalission rwa resigned. the situation has been criticized as unbearable and unsustainable. what brought more misery to gaza also, when they kiss -- kidnapped a young israeli soldier. no one in the world doesn't know this may. imprisoned by hamas, the whole world would know his name. thousands of palestinians, and no one knows their names. that brought a lot of misery to gaza. there were so many attacks on gaza during that. he was kidnapped in june 2006. operationy, and

occurred. follow that another attack. released in 2011, with egyptian and german mediation, get abouts able to 1000 prisoners. it became harsher following the kidnapping. 2000, seven palestinians were killed. in july 20 -- 2007, hamas took members ofexpelling security forces. this added major problems to gaza in addition to the problems they already have. the siege became harsher. i want to go through some of the pictures.

these are some pictures in the life of gaza. transportation. this is very common to see now. very common to see these views. these are pictures from gaza. they went through four major wars. some people think it is only ur.ee, but it is fo four wars in six years. from 2006 through 2014. how many years? eight years. i'm not good at math. as we can look at this, abrasion

,tomic cloud -- the operation, in the northern part of gaza. they attacked for eight consecutive days. 22 members of one family were killed. 82 palestinians were killed. 260 were wounded. one israeli was killed and three were wounded. the human rights commission sent the late, great human rights activist desmond tutu from south africa to investigate the war. he submitted and ask lynn report, -- excellent report, but i was always, the israeli ambassador from the u.n. said it would take its place in the garbage.

he said that about the report. nothing happened. although tutu said the attacks and some of the crimes committed qualified to be were crimes, but nothing happened. war, the next , i just want to remind , thehat during this period wentgn minister of israeli to cairo one day before the work. she held a press conference with the foreign minister of egypt.

you know what his job is now, right? comingholding her hand, out of the foreign ministry. when she said that we are going hamas, and declared war. cairo, which is supposed to be -- ok, you know what happened. that war, it lasted until january 18, two days before inaugurated. he put pressure, and the war stopped because he wanted to have a beautiful inauguration party. , someone elseall

from south africa was sent to investigate the war. he had 500 pages, or crimes. he tried to discredit him. they attacked him. his grandson was thrown out of the school. said in the washington post that had i known what i know now i would not. but as an experienced person in ae u.n., want to submit report it is no longer your report. it is a human rights council report. this report who put in the field, not one, who participated in this report. that is -- longer, he has no right to do that.

since i have five minutes only because they deducted it from my time. [laughter] >> i will go fast. as you know, the war in 2004, you are all familiar with it. you all know about the numbers. that is some of the pictures. there was so much with the 2008-2009 war, but not the others. there was some solidarity movement with gaza. we have not seen any during the summer of 2014. this demonstration here, nothing like that before. is 2004. ok, i wanted to mention that

important part of this. everyone should read this report. onecalled gaza2020, and after the 2014 war. written by three officers, one importantf, and this report says that life in gaza, becontinued as is, would not sustainable after 2020. life will end as normal life in gaza. dothis, we do m --unless we major infrastructure work in gaza. another was written by 30 u.n. u.n. organizations in

2000 -- 2015. some important facts from both reports indicate a bleak future for gaza until major strategic endeavors that address the basic needs of water, electricity, health, housing, schooling. in 2012, by the way. imagine what happened after 2014. so, the basic thing, in 2020 the population of gaza will be 2.3 million. electricity must be doubled from 550.from 242 megawatts to it is going backwards now. it is not even standing still.

it is much worse now than it was. to then you need water increase by 60% of the need for water. million cubic meter. gaza needs to add 100 50 schools. let alone how many schools were destroyed, even if that level stayed the same effect added a shorthanded 50. you need to have 1000 doctors, 2000 nurses, and 8000 hospital beds. children who need psychological assistance. went through this war. a child was born in 2000 who is now 16 years old, he went through all these wars. imagine what kind of childhood he went through.

so, there was a conference in cairo in 2014 to pledge money. billion.ged $5.4 nothing had arrived except a few hundred million, which by assigning agreements between pa and israel, everything has to go through israel. so israel destroyed gaza, and to rebuild gaza, you have to go through israel. kind ofget any rebuilding material except by the approval of israel. they're making some profit from that. >> who pledged the $5.4 billion? >> united states, european union, japan, saudi arabia, some of them put some.

and kuwait put some. the bulk of the money i think was --t 30% and once it this conference was held in cairo. theyis an insult that didn't hold throughout the war. they didn't do anything. they blend both sides. equally, him -- blamed both sides equally, imagine. this was a fiasco, the conference in cairo. thein 2016, as we speak, unemployment in the territories, stand to 27, gaza, the largest in the world. least 42%, that is very recent data. , 50%.the youth and gaza

's president receive some form of subsidy from the united nations. the highest number of phd and ma holders. after the siege everybody went back to school and they got master degrees and phd's. nikolais is what mladenov said, gaza is desperate, gaza is angry at the siege. angry at the closure, angry at hamas, and the donor countries, and, he added, angry at everybody. briefly, i would say some of the social behaviors from january until now, 3000 cases of

divorce, something that is not known and gaza. .000 cases of divorce and gaza that is the number i received yesterday. divided, they are fight over the land. very common. boy just killed his father 2 days ago. i have many examples. the violence, killing each other, killing wives, a son, 16 years old, killing his father. this happened two days ago. he was accused of being a shiite. of and wascture

accused of being a shiite and was killed. a young, naked man here so much at stake here and they shot and 25,ed him in december, 2015. some stories, it is really heartbreaking, when you hear that. there is suicide. this morning, a few days ago, on the night of his wedding, he jumped and killed himself. hanged himself. gaza used tog, know each other. but this is becoming a phenomenon now. a friend of mine said i have to put a new wall, a new iron

gate, because people are so desperate. killed on theople background of theft, because people know each other. they they catch each other kill either the owner or the owner kills the the. -- thief. they are still waiting. the frustration of when you have a long list of 30,000 who want to cross into egypt and they keep going every day and they come back. they are angry at pa, palestinian authority, because they accuse them and said they can pressure the egyptians. e doesn't. they think the population will rise against hamas. of course, they are angry at

hamas because it is changed every law. the people don't have money to pay for their food. hamasose that work with say they are ok. they get salaries. they are fine. but those that don't, they are really desperate. isant to conclude that gaza reaching an unbearable condition. as the report said, he used this word -- gaza is a powder keg that could explode anytime. i want to finish with some, i think that i put some nice pictures. i don't know why this is not responding. as a want to say a

home of every genius people. we had a new one now which we hope she will get the new title of arab idol from gaza. a solar carould put together i put this picture there. i don't know where they are. a positive with note. i simply updated the version. car andey put a solar drone, a to make a pilotless small plane. there is so much competition and indonesia for the best math students. the first four of them came from

gaza. this is a creative people come of every genius. -- people, very genius. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you to our speakers. these are not happy subjects. we are glad that you are helping to shed light on these issues. so, thank you. we will take questions if you can keep your questions brief and to the point so everybody can have a chance. please wait until the mic comes to everybody can hear you. the gentleman in the back, please.

a palestiniani am journalist. all the way through you gave very compelling presentations that were really quite bleak about the current situation. we are likely to see more ,iolence inflicted on gaza because that happened right before a new administration takes place traditionally. be ready for something like this to happen to them. the absence, and every conversation on palestine, the absence of -- yeah, ok. the absence of ideas, creative ideas to really resist the occupation creatively. this chassis to be -- this just seems to be completely absent effort on behalf of palestinian intellectuals are those wanting

to work with them to come up with ways to change the situation that you so compellingly presented. here, please? aboutry, i have to talk that comment. if you think people are not offering creative ideas and be should offer some yourself. i think there is an awful lot being done in palestine and outside. this is not what this panel was about. >> the gentleman right here. >> first of all, i am from gaza, lived five blocks from

gaza. i worked during the last war in gaza for 50 days. i have two comments. on your presentation, first of all, the soldier wasn't kidnapped, he was on the border. comment is about the story. you didn't complete the story that our president is the one who may be halted it, just for now. the thing is, can you describe at least about that report? that, iust acted like think our gazan, i

president just cheated all gaza people, what do you think? e members of him, th emem hamas who went underground engaged in a courageous military operation with israeli soldiers. they managed to take him back and kidnapped him from the military. they captured him and took him as prisoner of war. in engagement, that is what i meant. amt doesn't mean that i trying to undermine the courageous operation. while he was under the handle of world knewwhole about him. like in 2006, went to visit the times to, and he had

visit the families. but he didn't have any time to visit the families of any of the 7000 imprisoned. exactly the same thing with before. he also went and will always expressh the family and solidarity with them and condemn those who kidnapped him. they didn't have time to meet with the families who have their children imprisoned in israel the jails -- israeli jails. regarding the report, once the report is submitted to the huma beights council, it must voted upon to go to the transfer to the security council. if it is to be submitted to the icc, international criminal

court, during that period, palestine was not recognized as an observer state in the u.n. it was not. it had to go through votes in the human rights council to transfer to the security council to vote to send it to the icc. this is the process. the ambassador of palestine, calle the vote, received a . when they were sure they had enough numbers to approve it to go to the security council, it was voted upon later. but they lost some votes on that. they still have the majority. however, going to the security which it never made it to the security council, it cannot go except with a vote.

and it would be a veto, you know the u.s. would veto it. and the u.s., for your information lately from the last resolution adopted by the u.n. on palestine, it was on january. , for the cease-fire. that is the last time. the resolution is adopted after that. inking about settlement 2011, it was vetoed. the report never made it to the security council to vote upon. an observer became state, they don't need to go to the security council. they could go directly to the international criminal court, and they did. i am not giving them credit, by the way. but that is a fact. they have three time submitted to the icc, and the delegation just concluded.

the family submitted eyewitness accounts to what happened in gaza. now they don't need to go to the security council most of the u.s. will not have the pleasure of destroying a resolution as they will do if there is a draft resolution system. i think the ambassador spoke about that this morning. the u.s. tactics now is to prevent a meeting on palestine, not only to submit a resolution. of 20141st of december insisted on putting a draft resolution and in the years, eight three countries voted for it so it died automatically. it was an embarrassing moment not to have at least nine. i swear, i appeared on

al-jazeera and said i appeal to the palestinian authority is not to submit this resolution it will not get nine. wait until january and we have five friends coming. and they didn't. u.s. the to spare the embarrassment, i'm sorry to say that. now, there are three before the icc, the war in gaza, children, and the settlement. the prosecutor of the icc has sent a delegation to the west bank and they can go to gaza, as you all know. they are collecting data. still, we should not put our hopes on that. >> i hope this doesn't sound awfully naive.

that the cairo conference there were certain pledges and hadn't been paid and i asked of the question about who didn't pay. to somebody who is not from that part of the world, the question comes up how is it that the emirates and kuwait is so rich? yet, none of it gets to gaza. an impossibility to understand. that does not mean that one does not understand the part they are playing. >> i said if i was going to talk about gaza it would take a long time. this siege, embargo, has not happened by israel. it was by others, and by pa, and by banks, and companies.

u.n.'sw, one of the special envoys negotiated in cash. they said they would pay, since we cannot transfer money to the banks would you please kindly and the money to gaza distribute that as cash. the represented as that. israel..s. and ?nd he was notified, ok a has some heart, he was special u.n. envoy. him personadeclared non grata after that. so, if he brings money he would be immediately asked to leave the country.

they brought somebody who is more lenient now. we keep fighting with him every ss conference a pre in the u.n. he always talks about israeli victims. i always raise some example of palestinian victims and why he only mentioned israel evict them's. so, -- victims. like that end, necessarily after the report. the last report, my friends, it is really a disaster. blame squarely on the palestinians. we, the one who are occupying israel now. any kind of movement, israel destroying the palestinians and taking their land and building the wall, it is self defense. so that is the problem

even if you want to send simple money to gaza, you cannot. no banks will take any transfers to gaza. many of those conferences, there bedouin camen this and they were pledging to her. said --y they do that. yemen, for example, they pledge under the secretary first that same thing with somalia,, and central africa's which they need. and it is called donor fatigue.

you are asking too much for stub so we will give you bits and pieces here and there and don't ask us for more. they pledge to much but actually put down on the table very little. i am an attorney here in the district. i have two questions. one, i wonder what the situation the hovering over the scene, and what his role has been during this time. and what is his future on the palestinian scene? also, regarding jerusalem, there is a situation where parts of the map lies on the west bank side of the wall, if you will. including huge population refugee camps, for example/

aree is a rumor they trying to move people into these areas for the purpose of taking away their jerusalem identity. and everybody outside the wall is going to have that happen. if you can just talk about those points. >> go ahead. >> thank you so much with -- for the question with regard to jerusalem. is this on? ok. thank you for the question. i wanted to show a slide that demonstrates the continuity of israeli policy sense 1948 which i think are consistent with the andciples of expansion exclusion. that is been the way policy on jerusalem test if you go to the third one to -- jerusalem -- if he go to the third one. this is a map that speaks to,

i'm sorry, your name again? has expanded after 1967 the east side of the city to take in as much land as they could with the fewest number of palestinians. those were bureaucratic lines that were drawn. since the establishment of the wall, which, though it is not completed in the west bank, in jerusalem it is almost completely complete. you can see a further expansion of what israel is trying to unilaterally due to jerusalem. the idea, there is broad consensus and israel at least formally and in political discourse jerusalem will never be we divided and never shared in a meaningful way with the palestinians for anything israel defines as jerusalem is therefore part of israel and will never be shared.

they are constantly with the wall expanding even be on the 1967 unilateral redrawing of the boundary. you can see -- this is the path of the wall that israel is establishing around gaza. it is not always concrete, sometimes it is electric fence. , youu can see, at the top have the municipal boundary that israel recognizes that the up here, this is the boundary but the path of the wall is excising part of what would otherwise be jerusalem. other neighborhoods that are about 70,000 palestinians who ,ave jerusalem ids, who israel it is clear want a future arrangement to not have them be residents of jerusalem. they want to strip them of that

to reduce the demographic danger of too many palestinians. they outnumber israelis in eastern jerusalem fairly dramatically. thathat do you do with demographic problem? you build a wall and put these people on the other side of it. the refugee camp, which is here, is technically within what israel considered its boundaries of jerusalem. yet, the wall is going to take those people out. this is a demographic battle, it is a racial project. you can see it exhibited in the is constantlyalem being expanded in the interest of the occupying powers. thank you for that question. that is very illustrative. >> question? [indiscernible] just -- if we could

keep the mic with you. answer, iwant me to will ask you to shut off the camera. [laughter] >> ok. a very complexis story. very close associate of the president for a long time. , and he wastogether one of the favorites of the united states of america. washingtonght to following the victory of hamas. elliotworked with abram, or abram elliot, i have to ask said. they put a plan together, to

undermine hamas. he started working on that, failed miserably and fled gaza. he came back to the west bank in 2009 during the sixth the meeting- while was going on he came with force. at the end of it, he took the first two rows of seats and was elected to the central committee. he was coaching himself and others who were supporting him to be if not the king, at least the kingmaker. when he started solidifying his

power, i think that happened between him and the president. finally, they stripped him of his membership of the committee and accused him of so many things. speech, in the counsul, accusing him of many things, including, but not confined to, the knowledge of the arafat's poisoning. the channel, the egyptian channel dream, a few days later gave them unprecedented ministry for hours to talk. that means that now we have the cc government. of status approval you can be on tv talking about four

hours of a head of state without the approval of the authorities. it is impossible. that means he had a new alignment, especially in power. he became in charge of security in due by -- dubai. he expanded his businesses to be a small country like almost.rinenegro, many other places, there will always be a question about where are the money of the pielo? which is two people in charge of it. west bank and gaza, there is so much dissension. they are not happy. we are not talking about

leadership. there is so much pressure on members of the leadership no matter what they do. they do criticize the behavior of the leadership. thes like you say, democratic party here. you are not happy with the leaders say you go and vote against them. there was so much trouble inside the movement in the west bank and gaza, the leadership was imposed for example who is in charge of the organization. they will choose the one who was most loyal to them, not necessarily the most qualified. there will be disobedience. it happened. there could be confrontation. taking advantage of the economic miseries in the west bank and infiltratede in and

through the cracks of these resentment and dissension. he started building his own organization. the by theported by ever court which is made that. countries, they want him because he is the bridge to cross over to israel and to make romanization with israel a fate i, sony -- fait accompl that is what they want. not because because it was 81 and is about to give the torch to somebody else. on the 29th of this month, which

happens to be the international day of solidarity with the palestinian people and the partition plan of 1947, they are holding the second conference. he did two things. he accosted the membership of the international police, which is called interpol. it has been rejected two days ago, by the way. ago,u noticed, two days the attorney general in palestine gave abas the right strip and a member of the palestine legislative council

and could be tried. that is just two or three days ago. then the conference will be held , so they will be something happening in that conference. which means, that will be a decision by the conference, accusing him of being a conspirator regarding arafat, or something like that. and he was hopeful that the interpol would also be notified to arrest him. since now the palestinian legal president toed the strip him of all his immunities, that will happen. is -- thisthat conference might empower them. maybe he is the most eligible

person. he just spoke at the arafat museum yesterday. he is smart enough to distance himself from all of this mess. although he did not break his relations with them. something that might happen, he might be appointed as the prime minister, and he maybe the acting president. he is gazan himself. he was born in gaza. a gazan family originally not from gaza, but he, his mother, and his father are from gaza. .e is in the west bank people respect him. he is not known to be corrupt. arafat legality

senses of his uncle. he is most qualified to probably be the future of -- yes to eliminate the huron from this first. >> the fixture which is heartbreaking and gaza, it is very hard to hear and see it. i would like to have a short comment on the west bank. the picture there is not better than gaza. our people are becoming slaves for the dollar and defendants. [indiscernible] been going back to the west bank since i became a u.s. citizen. 2006-2010 i couldn't

because i was waiting for my papers. i got my papers and in 2010 i've got every year to date to the west bank. that i spendoint one day going to see people and talking to people and visiting refugee camps. i recorded every visit in a series of articles. i am a columnist. all of the articles are published under the title "on homeland and occupation." i want to throw your attention to two articles i wrote recently. [indiscernible] seen soid, i had never much dispair, and feeling of loss, and loss of direction, and

hope, and indifference, like this last summer. ispent one day at a camp, and them for a long time. over to seeled all friends. we always talk about where we go from here. the only person i try to see, who was a friend of mine, but minister, i asked because we were

longtime friends but because also i am the official trainer of the foreign ministry of palestine. i train them on communication and media. i did four workshops for them. but he doesn't have time for that. other people, i don't like to see the minister, except friends, and i do have many friends. no one can answer that question. where are we going? solution stille viable ? can they establish a viable contingent independent, sovereign, palestinian estate with jersusalem as its capital? slogan? the

ashave been fools palestinians. this imaginative state, and we believed it. i always compare that to the mother who had five grand children dying of hunger and put some rock and started boiling them and telling them wait, it will be ready in five minutes. and they are crying out, and asleep they fell all because there was no food. this is what happened. this palestinian leadership has betrayed its people talking about a two state solution. where is the two state solution? it is time to stand and say wow this is a disaster in those who fight them should not be glorified. thank you. [applause] very much for your

insight. if some closing remarks from dr. ali. >> good afternoon, again. this has been a fantastic panel. status ofed the palestinians as it is right now. said theam palestinians agency and future , we told you about the history over the last 100 years. you heard about the agencies right now. there's been a question about the prospects. siyam has talked about that. we don't know what the prospects are. i do know one thing.

seenold enough, and of this for some time. is a fair solution to the palestinian issue come up the refugees still in the camps and have been more than any of the group in history, there will never be peace in the middle east regardless of how much money there is in the gulf, in the emirates. in the banks that belong to the until there on, and is peace in the middle east there will never be peace in the world. .ever, mark my words we will still be talking about it. why did we choose in this

subject? why did we talk about the palestinians? 1967, 70 years since 1947, 48 it is because the palestinian issue has been put on the shelf. everybody is talking about what is going on in the arab spring. i don't know what kind of spring it is. everybody has put the palestinian issue on the shelf, on the back burner, or whatever they put it. the issues in of the middle east. regardless of how much turmoil, i won't characterize that any which way because i think that has been explained by the speakers, you heard about the children. you heard about gaza.

you heard about literally the miserable situation that palestinians are working through. that is part of it. that is why you are here. we are curious about what is going on and palestine. we've been hearing about those palestinians. rigch andrab world, poor, will never see peace until the palestinians have a fair solution. includes the return. -- haven'tad heard heard a word about that today. [applause] >> regardless of what the authority says about it, and oft they promise, regardless

what the u.s. has about it, regardless of what my ,randparents would say about it i can tell you that is something that nobody can mess with. one more thing, if my generation old surgeon who has been active since high school. if we get by it, and were to sign something, regardless of who signs it or which president signs it, regardless of what their relationships -- even if it goes back to the prophet signature is worth nothing. i have said that in a speech to the association. i've been in the u.s. army since

1968, sent to vietnam. it is the young palestinians who make the decision. i said regardless of what my generation signs, it is this generation that will throw our signature in the trash can. they will flush it in the toilet as they should. the signatures are worth nothing. the violation you have seen, the children you have seen, they constitute in most cases much more than 50% of the populations. on solutions will never go anywhere. your been a fantastic audience. we've had some excellent panels. -- delighted to see youth [laughter] , you presented a real picture for what is there.

things refreshing to see rather than in diplomatic terms and in political terms or campaign terms. promises,ampaign you've been presented things as they are. i think we owe the panelists a round of applause. [applause] >> the round of applause should also go to our staff. that is what the palestine said it is for. it will be next to. thank you very much. [applause]

>> now the election is over weird -- congress returns next week for its lame-duck session. we are joined by scott wong. the headline of your current trump and ryant have a new chapter. how does this play into next week's elections for speaker? how does this bolster paul ryan's chances? >> before tuesday night election the theory was that hillary clinton was going to win the race and donald trump had been threatening to make life miserable for paul ryan saying that because he had not sufficiently supported. for president during the campaign

trail that he would come after speaker ryan. now that donald trump is the president-elect, the dynamic has completely shifted. the two men, who met yesterday, were praising each other. speaker ryan rolled out the red carpet, hosted a lunch for him in the capitol hill club. then brought him back to the capitol where he took him out on the speakers back at showed him the view of the entire d.c. skyline, the platform where he would be inaugurated and sworn in on january 20. the dynamic and the relationship, which had been a pretty testy one throughout the campaign, has completely shifted. >> congress has plenty to do. help us out a bit. walk us through this lame-duck session next week in addition to the leadership elections. >> the presidential race has completely changed everything as

one leadership source told me today. thinking before the election was that congress would try to tackle an omnibus bill, perhaps break it up into smaller pieces with a minibus type of approach that would extend funding for the 2017 fiscal year. now the thinking, with republicans controlling both the white house and both chambers of congress, is that republicans will try to push for a cr that will take funding into early 2017. perhaps february or march. that would allow then president trump and a republican-controlled congress to hash out a much better deal on spending levels than republicans would have gotten in the lame-duck session. again, donald trump's victory on

tuesday night has changed almost everything in washington. >> on the spending measure, let's take a look at some reference on where things stand. go back to september 28, hal rogers on the house floor. here is what he has to say. >> i rise today to present the senate amendment. the legislation includes the fiscal year 2017 continuing resolution and full-year appropriations for military construction and veterans affairs. it also includes funding to prevent the spread of the zika virus and assistance to communities affected by recent devastating floods. this is a reasonable and necessary compromise that will keep the government open and operating them address urgent needs across the country, and provide the necessary support for our service members, their

families, and our veterans. first and foremost, mr. speaker, this bill helps us avoid the unwarranted damage of a government shutdown by providing the funds required to keep the government open and operational past our september 30 deadline. the funding is provided at the current rate of one trillion and last through december 9. the short timeframe will allow congress to complete our annual appropriations work without jeopardizing important government functions. secondly, the package contains the full year military construction, the v.a. bill for fiscal 17 which was conferenced by the house and senate and passed by the house already in june. in total, $82.5 billion is

provided for our military infrastructure and veterans health and benefits programs, $2.7 billion above current levels with targeted increases to address mismanagement and improve operations at the v.a.. it is important to note that once the president signs this bill into law, it will be the first time since 2009 that an individual appropriations bill has been conferenced with the senate and enacted before the september 30 fiscal year deadline. third, this legislation includes $1.1 billion in funding to respond to and stop the spread of the zika virus. this funding is directed to programs that control mosquitoes, develop vaccines, and treat those affected. this funding is spent responsibly, balanced by $400 million in offsets, in unused funding from other projects.

this legislation includes important provisions that address current national needs, including an additional $37 million to fight the opioid epidemic, which has struck my district especially hard, and additional $500 million in disaster designated funding to help states recover and rebuild from recent destructive flooding. i believe this legislation is a good compromise that this house can and should support. it is not perfect. it ensures we meet our nation's current critical needs. i have said many times before, standing in this exact spot, that a continuing resolution is a last resort. at this point, it is what we must do to fulfill our congressional responsibility to ke the lights on in our

i urge my colleagues to vote aye on this necessary legislation so we can send it to the president's desk without delay. >> hal rogers from september 28. that short-term cr runs to december 9, a couple of outstanding issues. the house republican study committee wants a short-term cr into the beginning of the trump administration. who will win out in the end? >> it depends on what donald trump wants. he has a lot of political capital right now. president obama still has a few months left in his turn and will be the one signing any sort of funding bill at the end of this year. president-elect trump will be dictating a lot of what happens.

he had the support of the voters. members of congress are falling in line. we have not seen any signals about what he wants, but i expect there probably will be a short-term cr into either february or march. >> on that to-do list, is aid to flint, michigan -- the congressman talked about that aid package. >> this amendment is something i've been working on for some time and it would bring urgently needed aid to my hometown of flint, michigan. for over a year, the water crisis has been public. it has been even longer since the residents have been using

water that is poison. to be clear, what happened in flint was a failure of government at every level of government. through this amendment, congress can take its rightful place in fulfilling its obligation in its responsibility to help my hometown recover. the amendment would authorize $170 billion to restore the safety of water infrastructure and communities like my hometown that have led in their water. it would create a concrete commitment from both bodies of congress to get aid to my hometown, for my hometown, to the president's desk. the senate passed similar legislation by a vote of 95-3. this amendment would ensure the

house also supports communities like flint. we have waited an awful long time for this. we worked very hard to get this amendment. i want to thank all of our friends. >> he mentioned that the senate passed their own measure. the house passed it as far as -- what is left to do? >> the negotiators need to come together and settle on a final product and present that back to their respective chambers. that is another item that needs to happen during the lame-duck session in terms of the flint funding, the house bill that was negotiated is about $170 million.

the senate bill contains a little bit more, $300 million. they will probably have to meet somewhere in the middle. the good news for the people of flint is that donald has been very supportive of those efforts. he visited flint back in september and spoke to a number of the residents and has been talking a lot about infrastructure spending on the campaign trail. i would expect -- everything is up in the air, but i would expect the two sides will be able to come together on flint. >> mitch mcconnell prioritized getting down the defense authorization bill and this 21st century cures bill. >> i do not have too much information. i do know when mcconnell spoke

to reporters the other day, one of his top priorities was the to reporters the other day, one repeal of obamacare. a lot of the discussion that will be happening is going to be about what republicans do in the first 100 days of the new trump administration. that was part of the discussion that happened yesterday between trump and mcconnell and trump and ryan. reince priebus was there as well, what i'm hearing from members today, a lot of the focus is going to be on the top priorities of those first 100 days. >> we started talking about the house leadership elections next week. let's talk the senate.

what is the relationship between chuck schumer and mitch mcconnell? >> schumer is seen as more of a deal maker compared to harry reid. harry reid was somebody who often would throw up roadblocks in the process and accuse republicans of doing the same. he was a fiery leader. chuck schumer is from new york, much more of a deal maker. it will be interesting to see how chuck schumer works across the aisle with mitch mcconnell and with his fellow new yorker donald trump who he has known for many years. that is one relationship all of washington will be watching. >> you can follow his reporting at thehill.com.

and also on twitter. thank you so much. scott one: thank you. >> c-span's, washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up this morning, look at president-elect donald trump's trade proposals and potential trade policy with the senior fellow for the peterson institute for international economics. and a discussion of the oftorical precedents presidential pardons and the process of the questions about whether president obama will pardon secretary clinton. by the dean of chicago college of law. in washington post political reporter catherine talks about what a donald trump presidency could mean for lobbying firms. be sure to watch c-span's washington journal coming up at

7:00 a.m. this when. join the discussion. every we can come a book tv brings you 48 hours of nonfiction books and authors. tonight at 10:00, afterwards -- harvard university economist examines the historical impact of immigration on the u.s. economy in his book "we wanted workers." he is interviewed i a senior fellow. -- by a senior fellow. >> one thing is the wages. by reducing the wages. the other thing is>> that wage -- someone else's lower wages someone else's higher profit. >> sunday at 7:00 p.m. eastern. a trio answer many of the questions of the university

looting how it began, and the likelihood of intelligent life elsewhere in their book "welcome to the universe." >> we calculate how you might go about finding echo planet. and what you would be after -- not necessarily rings. you are after whether they can harbor life. president obama participated in the last veterans base their money of his presidency at arlington national cemetery. after a leading -- after laying a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier, the president spoke about sacrifice. we also hear from robert donald.

♪ ["national anthem" plays]

[drumroll]

[drumroll] ["taps" plays] ♪ ♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, please

rise for the arrival of the official party. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the commander general of the united states military district of washington. [applause] >> mr. patrick j hallinan. executive director, army cemetery program. [applause] >> mr. robert swan. polish legion of american veterans. [applause]

and the honorable robert a mcdonald, secretary of veterans affairs. [applause] ♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states. ♪ [applause] [cheering]

>> ladies and gentlemen, please remain standing for the procession of our nation's colors and those of our veterans services organizations. as we march on the colors, the united states navy band will play the national emblem march. please place her hand over your heart or render a hand salute. [playing "national emblem march"]

>> please remain standing

for the prayer for all veterans. delivered by chaplain michael mccoy senior, director of chaplain services, national chaplain center. >> let us pray, almighty and eternal god, who gives us the freedoms we enjoy in this great nation. come visit us in this most sacred garden of where many of our veterans have gathered and many of our veterans and nation's heroes rest. fill our hearts with thankfulness for our veterans who answered the call to defend the honor and just causes of our nation. we thank you for their patriotism, their devotion to liberty and justice, human dignity and rights, compassion and self giving. we thank you for their diversity and unity and mission. let all who would beget war

reach out in compassion to those who must remember, made the nightmare of all wars cease so healing can take place. may each american find a reason to love, not hate, and strength to build than to destroy. renew our sense of unity, hope, and faith through times of testing and difficulties. god give us the joyous spirit of celebration of our nation's veterans and their families. bless us now with your presence. in the name of our god, who challenges us to care. amen. >> i would like to invite mr. robert swan, national commander of the polish legion of the veterans to lead us in our pledge of allegiance.

>> i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> please be seated. it is my distinct pleasure to introduce the members of the veterans day national committee. it was formed by president order in 1954 to plan this observance in honor of america's veterans and to support veterans day observances throughout the nation. please hold your applause until i have introduced these special guests. if you are able, please stand when your name is called. robert swan, national commander

of the polish legion of veterans, usa. tomas stevens. korean veterans. angel. catholic war veterans of the usa. david eberly, chief executive officer. american ex-prisoners of war. karl singer. john rowan, president vietnam veterans of america. al kovac paralyzed veterans of america. brian duffy, commander in chief, veterans of foreign wars of the united states. harold chapman, national commander. dale stamper, national president, blinded veterans association. richard gore senior, national commandant.

marine corps league. donald larson, national president, fleet reserve association. richard rinaldo, national commander. leader of valor, united states of america. lyman smith, director military chaplains association. donald youngblood, national commander, army and navy union of the usa. john, executive director, noncommissioned officers association. douglas bolt, national vice commander, the american legion. mr. david riley, national commander, disabled american veterans. mike plummer, director of uniformed services.

clay junior, commander in chief, military order of the world wars. john adams, national president. the retired enlisted association. herschel gober, national commander, military order of the purple heart. dana adkins, national president, military officers association of america. the associated members of the committee are located in the boxes to my left. i would like to ask the president and national commanders that comprise our associate membership to stand and be recognized. ladies and gentlemen, please recognize our veterans national leadership with your applause. [applause]

>> it is now my pleasure to introduce our veteran organization host for 2016. polish legion of american veterans, usa. the polish legion of american veterans, usa is honored to serve as the host organization for the 2016 veterans day national observance at arlington national cemetery. it was founded after the end of world war i, holding its first official convention in 1921. today, they celebrate over 95 years of providing assistance to veterans and their families. chartered by congress, it represents over 3 million veteran americans of polish descent who have served in all wars and conflicts of the united states since its inception. with a knowledgeable and trained service officers as well as representation in washington, d.c., they continue to provide

assistance to veterans and their families with posts and chapters around the country. veteran and ladies auxiliary volunteers donate endless hours of service and help in v.a. medical centers, providing aid and support to hospitalized heroes. they also have scholarships available at the national as well as state-level departments, providing financial aid to qualified students. they are represented today by their national commander. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome mr. robert swan. [applause] mr. swan: thank you. welcome, mr. president, mr. secretary, veterans, friends, all of you gathered here today. it is a great honor i am able to speak to you on this special

day. it marks the 95th anniversary of the polish legion of american veterans. after years of lobbying, the polish legion of american veterans, congress unanimously -- an honoraryim united states citizen on november 6, president obama signed public law 111-94, which proclaimed him the seventh in history to receive this posthumous honor. we would like to recognize the contribution of all men and women that was provided while they were on active duty. and there continuing volunteering, which ups many veterans in need at the v.a. hospitals and homes and even individual families in need. the values and principles gained in the military offers many a pathway to success.

as a veteran family, or friend of a veteran, we know what they go through well serving and we know how hard it was when our service members return home. we are uniquely interested in helping in many ways. v.a. hospitals and homes are always in need of support. either monetarily or through comfort item donations. organizations that are -- membership in the organizations that are declining, i am pleased to see younger veterans are still joining or creating newer, more specific organizations, where they are able to continue to help our nation's veterans. now, may we salute our military service members and their families that made that ultimate sacrifice. thank you for the honor of speaking to you today. [applause]

>> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the honorable ronald mcdonald, secretary of veterans affairs. [applause] >> mr. president, fellow veterans, honored guests. in the last scene of spielberg's "saving private ryan," he kneels in front of captain miller's grave. captain miller gave his life in combat to save private ryan's. ryan says to miller and all veterans, i have tried to live my life the best i could. i hope that, at least in your eyes, i have earned what all of you have done for me. i am a veteran. when i come to arlington, i

imagine myself saying that to every veteran resting here. i hope that, in your eyes, i have earned what all of you have done for me. we would all do well to kneel at any one of these markers and repeat ryan's words. we would all do well to turn to a veteran and ask, am i earning this? seven years ago today, right here in arlington, president obama made a sacred vow to veterans. america will not let you down, he said. we will take care of our own. then, he fulfilled that vow. president obama and congress provided the largest single year

the a -- v.a. budget increase in over three decades, his very first year. [applause] >> under his leadership, the v.a. budget has nearly doubled. he opened it their doors to nearly half a million veterans who had lost their eligibility in 2003 and supported three presumptive conditions for veterans exposed to agent orange. today, even though there are 2 million fewer veterans than in 2009, there are nearly 1.2 million more veterans receiving some type of v.a. care and services. [applause] 1.2 million more veterans are enrolled for v.a. health care. 1.3 million more receive

disability compensation. half a million more veterans have v.a. home loans. we have seen a 76% increase in veterans receiving educational benefits. we have cut veteran homelessness and half since 2010. veteran unemployment has dropped. [applause] >> veteran unemployment has dropped by over half in the last five years. unemployment for post-9/11 veterans has dropped by 70%. america will not let you down, the president said. we will take care of our own. he stood by that commitment year after year after year. and for good reason. america met sergeant first class cory remsburg when president obama introduced him during the 2014 state of the union address. the president met corey 4.5

years earlier in france. corey was one of the elite rangers who parachuted into commemorate the d-day landings. then, he returned to afghanistan for his 10th tour. the president next saw corey in a hospital bed in bethesda naval. he had been grievously wounded by a 50 pound roadside bomb. corey could not speak. he could barely move. but, he gave the president a thumbs up. three years later, when the president and i traveled to phoenix, president obama quietly took a detour. he needed to see corey.

corey had made miraculous progress in the tampa v.a. unit. this time, with help, corey stood, saluted, and said what you would expect. rangers lead the way, sir. corey is the apparently of that -- is the epitome of that rare sense of a combination of qualities that characterizes the best among us. a dogged sense of duty, indomitable courage, plain, american grit. president obama admires that in corey. he admires it in all american veterans. it is why he loves them. ladies and gentlemen, honored guest, the commander-in-chief and the 44th president of the united states, barack obama. [applause] [cheers]

pres. obama: thank you. thank you so much. thank you. thank you very much. thank you so much. thank you. thank you very much. please. thank you. thank you. thank you. secretary mcdonald, distinguished guests, most of all, our extraordinary veterans and your families. the last time i stood on these hallowed grounds on memorial day, our country came to together to honor those who had fought and died for our flag. a few days before, our nation observed armed forces day.

honoring all who are serving under that flag at this moment. today, on veterans day, we honor those who honored our country with its highest form of service. you, who once wore the uniform of our army, air force, marines, navy, or coast guard. we owe you our thanks. we owe you our respect and we owe you our freedom. we come together to express our profound gratitude for the sacrifices and contributions you and your family made on the battlefield, at home, and at outposts around the world. america's gratitude towards our veterans is always grounded in something greater than what you did on duty. it is an appreciation of the

example that you continue to set after your service has ended. your example as citizens. veterans day often follows a hard-fought political campaign. an exercise in free speech and self-government you fought for. it often lays bare disagreements across our nation. the american instinct has never been to find isolation in opposite corners. it is to find a strength in our common creed. to forge unity from our great diversity. to sustain that strength and unity, even when it is hard. and when the election is over, as we search for ways to come together, to reconnect with one another, with the principles that are more enduring and

transitory politics, some of our best examples are the men and women we salute on veterans day. it is the example of young americans, our 9/11 generation, whose first responders went into smoldering towers, then ran to a recruiting center and signed up to serve. the example of a military that meets every mission, unites teams, all looking out for one another, all getting each other's backs. it is the example of the single most diverse institution in our country. soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, coast guardsmen who represent every corner of our country, every shade of humanity. immigrant and nativeborn. christian, muslim, jew, and nonbeliever alike.

all forged in the common service. that is the example of our veterans. patriots, who when they take off their fatigues, put back on the camouflage of everyday life in america and become our business partners and bosses, teachers, coaches, first responders, city councilmembers, community leaders, role models, all still serving this country we love with the same sense of duty and with valor. a few years ago, a middle school from missouri entered an essay contest about why veterans are special. this is what he wrote. when i think of a veteran, i think of men or women who will be the first to help an elderly lady across the street.

i also think of someone who will defend everyone, regardless of their race, age, gender, hair color, or other discriminations. after eight years in office, i particularly appreciate that he included haircolor. [laughter] pres. obama: but that middle schooler is right. our veterans are still the first to help, still the first to serve. they are women, like the retired military policewoman from buffalo who founded an american veterans post and is building a safe place for homeless female veterans with children. [applause] pres. obama: they are men like the two veterans from tennessee, one in his 50's, one in his 60's, who wrote me to say they would happily suit up and ship out if we needed them.

we might be a little old, they wrote, but we will be proud to go and do what we were taught to do. whenever the world makes you cynical, whenever you seek true humility and selflessness, look to a veteran. look to someone alike first lieutenant irving lerner. he was born in chicago to russian jewish immigrants during world war i. he served as a bombardier in the air corps, flying dozens of missions towards the end of world war ii. when he returned home, he did what a lot of veterans do. he put his medals away and kept humble about his service, started living a quiet life. one fall day, walking on sheffield avenue on chicago's north side, a stranger stopped him and said thank you for your service, and handed him a ticket

to see the cubs play in the world series. [applause] pres. obama: it is a good thing irving took that ticket. because it would be a while until his next chance. [laughter] pres. obama: irving worked hard, managing warehouses for his brother-in-law's tire company. he got married to a sargent in the woman's air corps, no less. he raised four children, the oldest of whom is celebrating her 71st birthday today. on a june morning many years ago, another one of his daughters, carol, called the check in. her mother answered but was in a rush. we can't talk, she said, your father is being honored and we are late. carol asked, honored for what. the answer came, for his heroism in the skies above normandy exactly 50 years earlier.

you see, his children never knew their father flew over the french beachheads. he never mentioned it. now, when they call to check in, the children always say, thank you for saving the world. irving, sharp as ever at 100 years young always replies, well, i had a little help. whenever the world makes you cynical, whenever you doubt the courage and goodness and selflessness is possible, stop and look to a veteran. they do not always go around telling stories of their heroism. so it is up to us to ask and listen and tell those stories for them. and to live the values for which they were prepared to give theirs.

it is up to us to make sure they always get the care they need. when i announced my candidacy for this office almost a decade ago, i recommitted this generation to that work. we have increased funding by more than 85%. we have cut veteran homelessness almost in half. today, more veterans have access to health care and fewer are unemployed. we help the disabled veterans afford prosthetics. [applause] pres. obama: we help disabled veterans, we are delivering more mental health care services because we know not all wounds of war are visible. together, we began this. together, we must continue to keep that sacred trust with our veterans and honor their good work with our own, knowing that our mission is never done. it is still a tragedy that 20 veterans a day take their own lives.

we have to get them the help they need. we have to keep solving problems like long wait times at the v.a. we have to keep cutting the disability claims backlog. we have to resist any effort to outsource and privatize the health care we owe america's veterans. [applause] pres. obama: on veterans day, we acknowledge humbly that we could never serve them quite the same way they served us. but we can try. we can practice kindness, pay it forward, we can volunteer, we can serve. we can respect one another. we can always get each other's backs. that is what veterans day asks us to think about. the person you pass as you walk down the street might not be wearing our nation's uniform today.

but consider for a moment, that a year, a decade, or a generation ago, he or she might have been one of our fellow citizens who was willing to lay down their life for strangers like us. we can show how much we love our country by loving our neighbors as ourselves. may god bless all who serve and still do. and may god bless the united states of america. [cheers and applause]

>> ladies and gentlemen, please remain standing and join the united states navy band in singing god bless america. >> ♪ while the storm clouds gather far across the sea let us swear allegiance to a land that's free let us all be grateful for a land so fair

as we raise our voices in a solemn prayer god bless america land that i love stand beside her and guide her through the night with a light from above from the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with foam god bless america

my home sweet home god bless america my home sweet home ♪ [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please remain standing as we retire the colors. retire the colors. ♪ [playing "national emblem march"]

♪

>> this concludes the 2016 national veterans day observance. please be seated for the departure of the president of the united states. thank you for joining us as we celebrate and honor all who served. [applause] ♪

+ >> today on c-span "washington journal" is live next with your phone calls and postelection reaction and analysis from conservatives at the heritage foundation and progressives at the institute for policy studies. we talk trade policy and the from administration and the dean of

the chicago-kent college of law on presidential pardons. we will talk to washington post reporter catherine ho about donald trump's ties to the lobbying industry. ♪ host: good morning to you, it is saturday, november 12. president-elect donald trump has taken mike pence to lead the transition team, the future vice president taking over the role from chris christie. donald trump told the wall street journal he is open to keeping parts of the affordable care act in place, signaling a potential compromise on one of his key campaign pledges. we will get to these headlights and more this morning but first our question for you will be -- do you think the traditional media has lost its influence?