01/28/16 01/28/16 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from the sundance film festival in park city, utah, this is democracy now! -- without these photos and videos, first 10 experience, you can't really tell health -- tell the world how bad it might be. >> even was the second most recognition in recent history

after 9/11. jim was horrified by that. >> i think i was in denial about how dangerous this was. these four guys with guns stopped the taxi and they put jim into the back of their and. i did not know oppose going to see him again. amy: "jim: the james foley story." a new documentary opens at sundance looking at the life and legacy of the american journalist beheaded in syria in 2014. he became the first american citizen killed by the self-proclaimed islamic state. we will talk to his parents and the film's director who is a childhood friend of jim about his legacy, the failings of the u.s. hostage policy and jim's passion for reporting on the plight of civilians in war. but first, "the settlers." >> settlement activities are a front to the palestinian people and to the international community.

amy: as u.n. secretary general ban ki-moon condemns isrl's planto buildew settlent homein the oupied we bank, we will look at a new documentary examining the history and consequences of decades of israeli settlement construction on palestinian lands. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in virginia, the health department has confirmed its first zika virus infection in an adult, sparking concern the mosquito-borne infection could soon sweep the united states as it has dozens of other countries. the zika virus itself is usually not li-threateng, but appears to be link to a condion call microcealy, a rarend dangeus birthefect

that causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads. the centers for disease control says microcephaly also causes a host of other health impacts, including seizures, developmental delays, hearing loss and vision problems. ,a recent study estimates it could reach regions were 60% of u.s. population lives. at least 22 countries and territories in the americas have recorded confirmed cases of the zika virus. the world health organization director general said the virus is "spreading explosively." one of the hardest hit countries is brazil, where more than 4000 babies have been born with microcephaly since october. brazil has mobilized the military and health workers to combat the virus. another hard-hit country, el salvador, has taken the extreme step of recommending women do not get pregnant before 2018. scientists have linked rising temperatures from global warming to the increase incidence of

mosquito borne infections such as zika. i stress climate director said "zika is the latest example of the many mosquito-borne virus is which poses an increasing threat to humans due to warmer and wetter conditions associated with climate change." in oregon, ammon bundy has called for the remaining armed militia members occupying a federal wildlife reserve to "please go home." mon and s brotheryan bun we arrested following a trafc stop tuesday afternoon that left militia spokesperson robertavoy finum dead. in federal court wednesday, ammon bundy's lawyer read bundy's statement urging the protesters to end the armed occupation. this comes as law enforcement officers set up check points in and out of the wildlife refuge. officers arrested three more militia members at one of the checkpoints. in total, 11 militia members have been arrested, including the bundy brothers. they all face federal felony charges of conspiracy to impede officers of the united states from discharging their duties

through the use of force, intimidation, and threats. in news from europe, the swedish interior minister says sweden plans to expel up to 80,000 refugees who arrived in 2015 seeking asyl. the minister said the expulsions would require specially chartered aircrafts, and could take several years. this comes as refugees in copenhagen are protesting newly passed danish laws that permit denmark to confiscate refugees' money and valuables to pay for their stay in asylum centers. many have compared the so-called "jewelry bill" to the nfiscati of propty from jews during e holocat. the new laws also delay family reunification for one to three years. an iraqi refugee named hiwa spoke out during a protest in copenhagen tuesday. it is wrong and we don't accept this. we condemn this. we protest today only going to

keep protesting against this new law because this doesn't work, and we want the danish parliament to think again about this new law. dehumanizing us. amy: meanwhile, in south carolina, a new bill that would require state police to track refugees is headed to the senate floor after a senate committee approved the measure wednesday. if passed, the bill could mean refugees' home addresses would be placed on an internet registry, similar to the ones used for registered sex offenders. democratic senator kevin johnson, whose is african american, compared the bill to the treatment his ancestors received under jim crow, saying -- "they were told the same thing. we don't want you in our state. we don't want you in our neighborhood. we don't want you in our schools." in afghanistan, three prisoners who were formerly held at the secretive u.s. bagram military

prison and are now being held in afghan custody have launched a hunger strike to protest their continued imprisonment. two of the three prisoners, brothers sa'id jamaluddin and abdul fatah, were captured by u.s. forces ring a military id in 20 and wersent to e bagramrison. in 2010, the military found the brothers posed no risk to the u.s. the brothers were transferred to afghan custody in december 2014, as the u.s. moved to close its military prisons in afghanistan. two months later, an afghan court ruled that they were entitled to release, but they remain in custody to this day. an afghan court has also ruled the third hunger striking prisoner, musa akhmadjanov, is not guilty of any crime unr afghanaw and ialso entled to relse, yet , too, rains prisoned in newfrom theampaign ail, republic presideial candide donaldrump has annound he wilbe holdi a separa event adrake unersity iiowa tonht at thsame timas the f newsosted godebate.

th comes aer trumpaid he would n dissipa in the dete afterox refus to reve megynelly as e of the deba's derators inugust, ding the rst gop bate, kelly asked ump abou his history of calling women "fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals." after the debate, trump implied -- criticized kelly saying -- "she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions. and, you know, you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her, wherever." instead of participating tonight, trump says he's holding a special event to benefit veteran organizations, although it's unclear how the scheduled free event will in fact raise money for these groups. ted cruz, meanwhile, has booked another venue in sioux city, iowa, for his proposed mano-a-mano debate between him and trump on saturday. trump has dismissed cruz's calls for the one-on-one debate, derisively suggesting it be held in canada, a reference to cruz's birth place.

cruz's campaign website has also begun selling a version of trump's "make america great again" baseball cap, except on this version the hat reads, "make trump debate again." nate silver's fivethirtyeight website predicts cruz and trump are currently neck-and-neck in iowa. meanwhile, democratic presidential candidate bernie sanders' campaign has called for three more official debates sanctioned by the democratic national committee. this comes as his rival, former secretary of state hillary clinton, is calling on sanders to join her proposed debate in new hampshire next week, which is not sanctioned by the dnc. sanders has said he doesn't want to participate in clinton's debate for fear of being barred from future official dnc events. on wednesday, sanders' campaign manager jeff weaver said in a statement -- "from the beginning of this campaign senator sanders has , called for more debates. secretary clinton has not. now she is asking to change the rules to schedule a debate next week that is not sanctioned by the dnc. why is that? the answer is obvious.

the dynamics of the race have changed and senator sanders has significant momentum." msnbc rachel maddow hosted a live town hall in flint, michigan, wednesday to examine the ongoing crisis over lead poisoning in the drinking water. the contamination crisis began after flint's unelected emergency manager appointed by michigan governor rick snyder switched the source of the city's drinking water to the corrosive flint river in a bid to save money. at the town hall, national action network michigan president reverend charles williams spoke out against michigan's emergency management laws and called attention to the fact that governor snyder has used state-imposed emergency management almost exclusively against majority black cities. >> took over every black city in michigan. took over every black city in michigan. detroit, detroit public

schools, and has failed at every city he has taken over. i'm putting in an emergency management give detroit from going bankrupt. what happened? detroit goes bankrupt. i mean, it is ludicrous. and anybody who fails at the rate that governor snyder has failed, i would have been fired a long time ago. all i got to say is governor snyder -- amy: and civil rights lawyer michael john kennedy has died. throughout his career, kennedy represented a number of activists from some of the united states' most significant radical movements, including the black panther party, the american indian movement, and the weather underground. he successfully defended black panther party co-founder huey newton, and one acquittals -- won acquittals for six americans charged with raising money to fund the irish republican army, known as the ira. he was the general counsel for high times magazine for 42 years. he was arrested and jailed briefly after staging a silent protest during a senate house of

unamerican activities investigation, and he served as a legal aid to the sandinista movement in nicaragua. in his one and only divorce case, kennedy also represented ivana trump in her divorce from donald trump. kennedy was the general counsel for high times magazine for 42 years, during which he provided a legal shield for the magazine's effort to expose the u.s. government's war on drugs. he died on monday at the age of 78 after a battle with cancer. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. we are broadcasting from the sundance film festival in park city, utah. israel is facing international condemnation over its plan to build 153 new settlement homes in the israel-occupied west bank. the watchdog group peace now reports israel's defense minister approved the construction of the new jewish-only homes last week. the plan sparked swift criticism from u.n. secretary-general ban ki-moon, who called the settlements "an affront to the palestinian people and to the

international community." >> continued settlement activities are an affront to the palestinian people and to the international community. they rightly raised hundreds of questions about -- two state solution. amy: in response, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu said ban ki moon's criticism gives "a tailwind to terrorism," and that, "the u.n. lost its neutrality and moral force a long time ago." the words of the secretary-general only bolster terrorism. there's no justification for terrorism, period. the palestinian murderers do not want to bud a state, they want to destroy a state and they declare it blicly. amy: is comess presidt barack obama spoke at the israeli embassy to mark holocaust remembrance day saying, "we are all indeed

jews." well, we turn now to an extraordinary new film, titled, "the settlers," which just had its world premiere here at the sundance film festival. the documentary examines the history and consequences of decades of israeli settlement construction on palestinian lands. we'll be joined by the film's director in a minute. but first, i want to go to a clip from the film. talia sasson, the former head of the israeli state prosecution criminal department, explains the findings of an official israeli government report on the settlements outposts between 1995 and march 2005. the findings of my report were that the entity behind the establishment of the outposts was the state of israel. acting behind the governments back, illegally, that with the involvement of various government ministries.

amy: that was a clip from the just released documentary film, -- goat theents settlers." for more, we're joined now by the film's director, shimon dotan, an award-winning filmmaker. dotan teaches political cinema at nyu graduate school of journalism and film directing at new school university. welcome to democracy now! talk about the history of the

settlements. while we hear about what is happening every day, how 400,000 jews can to settle in these jewish only committed these in the occupied west bank is critical to understand today. heated and such a often discussed topic, but i find it so little is known and it isthe discussion about misinformed. i started the film as an attempt to explore the present reality in the west bank that soon understood it is to go back to the beginning of the settlement. what i found out, which is not a secret, but i think it is relevant to put it up front, no point in time in the israel government decided it is the best interest of the state of israel to keep settlements in the west bank will stop it all -- there was an

initiative from the settlers that were driven often by their religious, ideological political reasons and facing a reality, in my view, is the most critical to the state of israel and the region at large that without a calculated an educated decision from the government of israel. amy: so talk about the first jewish settlers, how they ended up there. talk about the numbers of people right now that are settlers in the west bank. >> maybe i will take it one step back. in may 1967, there was a celebration of israel rheumaticce work as -- charismatic rabbi started in outcry longing for the lost biblical sites of israel.

three weeks later, israel took possession of these three areas. the students at this particular moment, became the leader of the settlement movement where it's prime ideology is that the people of israel will get redemption of the land of the west bank. at the same time, it was a clear intention of the government of in a piecengage investigation with the neighboring states. allowedacy of the time these one or two settlements to take cold -- the prime minister at the time allowed one or two of the settlements to take hold.

400,000 of them. some of them are politically and religiously driven, but the vast majority is for quality of life reasons. cheaper housing, etc. assassination by an extremist israeli jew, talk about the significance. >> that a watershed. everything changed after the assassination. i think one of the reasons many do oppose the settlement enterprise in whatever it implies, the reason of inevitable revolution when you create a reality of settlements under occupation of the population within that territory , and you put the people in this region in eternal conflict with the immediate neighbors.

20 years earlier, he was a very strong opponent of the settlement enterprise. the driving force behind the they settlers, a cult of democratic fabric. 20 years later, he was murdered. amy: and talk about the man who murdered him. extremist jew the believed he had to take action in order to save the settlements, so to speak, to prevent the process, an attempt of a peace agreement between the israel's palestinians to take hold. tragically, it was an extremely successful political assassination. after that come also fell apart and israel was more or less

governed -- joint amy: you have actually for full moment to a poignant moment of a palestinian woman say, "get off my land" to israeli settlers will stop and also, talk about your interview in ramallah. >> first of all, i will present only settlers. it was clear i cannot just a way from those terribly affected by this. we have this woman that actually she has two olive trees and a stick in her hand and she comes to settlers who took a hold of her all of trees and she threatened them with this stick. she says, don't dare touch my olive trees. it is a nikon of moment and it does represent a reality of the day-to-day life of the people. the human rights activists in the west bank, based in roll

ramallah, present in a way that the expense of palestinians out of the substance throughout every -- i think it is extremely important to understand what drove the settlers. it is not something that will go away. one of the purposes i had in making this film is to inform and have a better understanding that will take us away from the black-and-white depiction of the reality. and i hope the movie does that. amy: we are talking to shimon dotan, award-winning film maker whose latest film premiered here at the sundance film festival called "the settlers." talk about the violence the settlers engage in. >> the pattern established for the early members started --

first established the jewish settlement. the kind of pattern that is been used throughout the years. tragically, today, almost 60 years after israel took possession of the land of the west bank, a new group of young settlers are engaging similar tactics. the main difference will be probably less educated, more extreme, and they stop at nothing. but the ptern thawas esblished yearsgo seem to relive itself once again. i find it terribly concerning. they may not have the political power to drive the dialogue, but they must definitely have the with the violence. amy: the significance of what ban ki-moon, once again, condemning the expanded settlements in the west bank? almost irrelevant,

if i must say so. the massive presence and hundreds -- meaningless. there'soint in time, ongoing construction in the west bank. the settlements are expanding and flourishing, more more people are moving into the west bank. it is a country established on ideas of inequality and secular liberalism. israel tothe state of hold a strong grip with the occupation of the west bank. that is what is relevant. we have to have a more far-reaching goal. amy: what do you see will end the occupation? >> i don't even try to propose a solution. what i do know is if the prime minister of israel does not wake up ever sing a morning and say, what can i do today to bring

peace to the region, he is not doing his job. amy: the settlements flourished no matter what. in the insult, not to mention killings of the palestinians in the west bank, would it means to them, their ancestral homes being pushed out by many jews who don't even come from the area. how many of them, for example, come from new york, brooklyn? >> i don't have the numbers, but allowedt is, jews are to gain citizenship as soon as they come to the state of israel. however, those who come directly to the west bank enjoy the same benefits. amy: and palestinians, and the issue of the right of return? >> there is no status for palestinians to game the right of return. it is a nonexisting element. you mention the violence before. i must say the violence against

israel, give settlers, is quite wider, quite present. facing an we're inevitable revolution. this violence is there to stay.