05/31/18 05/31/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! carrying out the agreement is the best option. this agreement was a fraud. it was sold fraudulently to the american people. there are numerous ideas thahat were not disclosed to congress. amy: the white house taps fred fleitz, a longtime senior staffer at an anti-muslim think tank as the new chief of staff for national security adviser john bolton.

fleitz also wrote a book titled "obamabomb: a dangerous and growing national security fraud" : on a future president to tear up the nuclear agreement with iran on their first day in office. we will speak with new york magazine editor eric levitz. his latest keys, "bolton installs anti-muslim wingnut as nsc chief of staff." dineen israeli navy intercepts a boat of protesters wounded by israeli snipers during nonviolent protest. >> we demand to breakak the blockade. i hope to seek medical t treatmt and other arabic countries because of my injuries. flotilla and to break on anniversary of the mavi marmara. we will speak with an ororganizr ofof the gaza f flotilla and d n

israeli citizen on boboard the freedom flotilla ship which just arrived in the port of amsterdam and plans to go to gaza. then to canada, where prime minister justin trudeau has announced the canadian government will purchase the highly contested transplant kinder morgan pipeline. nationales both a price on pollution, things like was in class protection plan, then gettingng a oil resources o responsibles throughgh pipelines. amy: wwill go o alberto to speak th eriel tchekwie deranger, member of the first nationon with indigenous, and action. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. talks between secretary of state mike pompeo and north korea's former spy chief kim yong chol have entered a second day here in new york. kim is the most senior north korean official to visit the

united states in two decades. the meeting comes just days after president trump called off a june 12 summit with north korean leader kim jong-un, but there is still hope the summit will take place. meanwhile russian foreign , minister sergei lavrov is in pyongyang where he met with kim jong-un. the federal reserve has s votedo loosen the volcker rule, a key financial regulation enacted after the 2008 financial crisis. the rule b bars banknks from usg customers' d deposits to m makee bank's s own ririsky bets. it was one of the key aspects of the dodd-frank wall street reform and consumer protection act. this comes as banks are taking in record profits. $56 billion during the first three months of this year. in news from afghanistan, u.s. forces reportedly killed dozens of taliban leaders while they were holding a meeting in helmand province last week. according to the u.s., the dead included the deputy taliban

shadow governor of helmand. russian journalist arkadad babchenko showed up at a press conference on wednesday, just one day after he was reportedly murdered. he revealed he had worked with ukrainian security services to fake h his own death in an effot to catch those who were trying to kill him. he apologized to his friends and wife who were not informed of the plan. >> i have buried both friends and colleagues many times and i know this horrible feeling of having to bury them. i would like to apologize for what you have on to go through but there was no other way of doing it.. separately, which apologize to hell she is been through. there were no other options. amy: babchenko is a veteran warr correspondndent who has been sharply crititical of russian president vladimir putin's annexation of crimea.

president trump has finally weighed in on abc's cancellation of its hit show "roseanne" after its star, roseanne barr, fired off a series of racist comments on twitter. trump made no reference to roseanne's racist tweets about former obama aide valerie jarrett. instead trump criticized abc for , never apologizining to him abt what he described as the "horrible statements made and said about me on abc." meanwhile, roseanne blamed her comments on sleeeeping pills. she said she was "ambien tweeting." in response, the drug's manufacturer said "racism is not a known side effect of our drug." in related news, the cable news networks are facing criticism for spending far more time covering the roseanne story than the stunning new harvard report that found at least 4645 people died in puerto rico due to hurricane maria. that figure is 70 times higher than the official death totoll.

according to media matters, the main cabable news networks c cod roseanne for over 10 hours on tuesday and wednesday morning. they covered hurricane maria's death toll in puerto rico for just over 30 minutes. fox news spent just 48 seconds covering the puerto rican story. on san juan mayor carmen yulin wednesday, cruz posted a message on twitter reading -- "never forgotten! never again!" in an attached photo, she was wearing a hat with the number 4645. to watch democracy now!'s coverage of that study, go to democracynow.org. a coalition of more e an 40 racial-justice and civil-liberties groups have called on the department of homeland security to releaease a secretet memo about govevernmenl efforts s to monitor black actitivist groups. in wha the fbi calalls black identity extremist. the memo is known internally as simply the "race paper." a redacted version of the memo

was released in 2016 but the government blacked out the entire document. in a letter to the department of homeland security, the civil rights groups wrote -- "we are concerned that biases and inaccuracies reflected in the 'race paper' could result in unconstitutional law enforcement activities throughout the country that disproportionately impact activists, protesters, and d communities of color." to see our coverage of the issue, go to democracynow.org. in charlottesville, more than 400 theologians, ethicists, and religion scholars have asked the university of virginia to drop charges against a theology arrested foras entering an office in the school's law library where white supremacist jason kessler was doing reresearch. kessler organized last year's deadly neo-nazi rally in charlottesville at the university. the student, eric martin,

defended his act of disobedience. he said -- "it was done with a rosary in my pocket. this is what it is for me to be a christian, to resist things that are evil. white supremacy is evil." martin is a graduate student at fordham university where he is writing his dissertation on father daniel berrigan. in environmental news, a former top attorney for the chemical industry has been named to lead the environmental protection agency's superfund task force. steven cook worked for two decades at the chemical giant lyondellbasell. thinkprogress reports cook will now be responsible for overseeing the cleanup superfund sites polluted by his former employer. illinois has become the 37th state to ratify the equal rights amendment guaranteeing equal rights for women. this potentially means jusust oe more state is now needed for the era to be added to the u.s. constitution. the proposed amendment states -- "equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the united states or

by any state on account of sexe" the amendment was passed by congress in 1972. here in new york, harvey weinstein has been indicted on charges of rape and a criminal sexual act. if convicted, he could face up to 25 years in prison will stop the movie mogul was arrested last week on charges related to two women, total of more than 100 women have accused him of sexual misconduct. weinstein is expected to plead not guilty. at the white house wednesday, a 13-year-old student reporter named benje choucroun took part in the white house press briefing. press secretary sarah sanders briefly choked up while answering his question about school shootings. >> we recently had a lockdown drill. one thing that affects mine and other students' mental health is the worry about the fact that we or our friends could get shot at school.

specifically, can you tell me what the administration has done and will do to prevent these senseless tragedies? >> i think that as a kid, and certainly as a parent, there is nothing that could be more terrifying for a kid to go to school and not feel safe. so i'm sorry that you feel that way. this a administration takes it seseriously. the school safety commission that the president convened is meeting this week again in an official meeting to discuss the best ways forward in how we can do everything within within our power to protect kids in our schools and then make them feel safe and make their parents fell good about dropping them off. amy: meanwhile, republican congresswoman diane black, who is running for governor of tennessee, has weighed in on the cause of school shootings. "huffington post" reports black recently told local pastors in tennessee that access to pornography was a root cause of gun violence in schools. in news from north dakota, a water protector who took part in the protests at standing rock against the dakota access pipeline has been sentenced to 36 months in prison.

michael "little feather" giron was arrested on october 27, 2016, while defending the oceti sakowin treaty camp. he has been held in jail for the past year. little feather's wife leoyla cowboy said on wednesday -- "the legacy of genocide and broken treaties has shown us that when indigenous people stand up to protect the water and the land from the colonization of resources, we will always be met with repression and violence. this struggle continues." in news from mexico, a top united nations official has said there are strong indications mexin n secuty f fors haveve been invveved inhe r rect sappearances of nearly t dozen pelele in e cicityf nuevo laredo thcity is cated across rio grande from reredo, xas.s. elizabetththross is s a spokesrsrson f the u.nhighgh commisoner foruman rigs. >>he u.n. man righffice has documted 21 casesf

laredoancesn nuevo inhe past ur monons a there e strong indications members of the federal security force may hahave been involveden their disappearances. amy: in other news from mexico, a journalist has been beaten to death in the northeastern state of tamaulipas. hector gonzalez antonio becomes at least the sixth mexican journalist killed so far this year. cnn is reporting the united states has quietly funded and equipped elite paramilitary police officers in el salvador who are accused of illegally executing gang members. one u.s.-backed police unit killed 43 alleged gang members in the first six months of last year. the u.s. funding c came as partf the mano dura, or firm hand program, w which began in 2003 d was expanded by president obama in 2014. brazilian oil workers are waging a 72-hour strike in a new blow to president michel temer. this follows a nationwide 10-day

trucker strike that is coming to an end. oil workers oppose plans to privatize the state-run oil firm petrobras. >> this company belonged to the brazilian people. the oil belongs to the brazilian people. we are fighting for that and we are not taking a step back. amy: in news from florida, the family of an african-american father shot dead by authorities in his own garage has been awarded just $.04 by a federal court jury. gregory hill, jr. was shot dead in 2014 by a white st. lucie sheriff's deputy who was responding to a complaint about loud music. the deputy shot hill through a closed garage door. the jury initially ordered $4 in damages -- $1 to hill's mother for funeral expenses and $1 to each of hill's three children. but since the jury found the sheriff's office was only 1% liable for hill's death, they reduced the amount to o just $.. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. nermeen: and i'm nermeen shaikh. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the cocountry and around the w worl.

we turn now to the longtime senior staffer at an anti-muslim think tank who has been chosen by the white house as the new chief of staff for national security adviser john bolton. fred fleitz formerly served as bolton's undersecretary of state in the george w. bush administration. he now joins the trump administration from the center for security policy, a think tank founded by former reagan administration official frank gaffney. the southern poverty law center designated the organization an anti-muslim extremist group, saying its main focus is "demonizing islam and muslims under the guise of national security. statements from frank gaffney and other csp staffers, along with claims made in csp publications, have become increasingly conspiratorial in nature, making such claims as muslims are attempting to overthrow the u.s. government from within, and that shariah law is trumping the constitution in american courts." after last year's london bridge

terror attack that killed eight people, fleitz said the failure of british muslims to assimilate was partially to blame for islamic radicalism in britain. in an interview on breitbart news daily, fleitz was asked about other religious communities in the united states who have also not assimilated. close it is certainly true there are some communities in the united states is not assimilated. arell tell you that there enclaves of muslim communities in michigan and minnesota that concern me. we know that in minnesota, measlesa rising rate of because the community has not assimilated into the rest of the community and is not vaccinating their children. this is wrong. this is a big problem. the problem with these muslim communities is that it is making a susceptible to this radical world view that wants to destroy modern society, create a global caliphate, and impose sharia law on everyone on earth.

amy: fred fleitz is also the author of the 2016 book "obamabomb: a a dangerous and growing national security fraud" in which he wrote -- "the most intellectually honest way for a future u.s. president to deal with the nuclear agreement with iran is to tear it up on his or her first day in office." civil rights groups condemned fleitz's appointment, and the group muslim advocates issued a statement that -- "the white house continues to oe the nation's central organizing body for white supremacists." for more, we're joined by eric levitz, associate editor for new york magazine's "daily intelligencer," whose latest piece is headlined "bolton installs anti-muslim wingnut as nsc chief of staff." welcome to democracy now! why don't you just lay out who fred fleitz is, this man john bolton has just appointed as his chief of staff. and bolding go back

many decades. they did a little work together under the first bush administration when fleitz assisted him with intntelligence and under the second bush administration, fleitz was boltonon's chief of staff. he was don't as bolton's enforcer does she was known as bolton's s enforcer.. amy: and this is when bolton worked under george w. bush. talk about some of the controversies that fleitz was then and since been involved with. >> in that particular period, one special point of contention was bolton wanted to give the spspeech about cuba, pursuing biological weapons and had very belligerent language you wanted to convey this point in that put cia, thests at the state department. they did not feel it or the intelligence supported what old and wanted to say war it would be diplomatically wise for him to say what he wished to. the controversy over this got so was so, and fleitz

forceful in advocating the view, one of the career staff in an email letter disclosed said fleitz was having an effect on his health and well-being an interest in serving government. this is especially relevant given the trump administration has complex with the so-called deep state in bringing in fleitz suggests they're going to escalate those conflicts. nermeen: in 2011, he insisted 16 or 17he position of intelligence agencies, u.s. national security agencies, that iran was in fact on the cusp of getting a nuclear weapon. and this is especially relevant since he has said multiple times that trump should tear up the agreement as soon as he is in office. >> and fleitz has spent -- he is a column in the nanational reviw and in momost every single colun is about trump, please get around t to killing the seal no.

he is intensely anti-iran. he shares all of the pillars of john bolton's worldviview on foreign policy. amy: let's s go to john bolton spspeaking on fofox news i in 2. >> you w written in an op-p-ed n the e new yorkrk times. it is an e eyecatcher.r. to stop iran's bomb, mb i iran. what do you memean? >> the negotiatitis, whetherer ththey lead to an agrereement or not,t, are not g going to stop n from gettingng nuclear weaeapon. ththey're so far r events now, e coconcessions they havave made e soso trivialal and easily rereve that thehe deal legegimizes ir's existing nuclear program mymy conclususion is notot a hay one, but given if iranan gets nuclear r weapons, so we'll saui arabia, egypypt, turkekey, maybe otrsrs, that just t as israel twice before has s strk k nucler weaponss p programs s in the haf hohostile states, i'm afraid gin the circumstances, that is the only real option open to us now. nermeen: that is john bolton

speaking in 2015 saying iran should be bombed. >> yes. he shares that opinion with i believe mike pompeo, the new secretary of state similar views and we can be confident that fleitz is no less reluctant to use military force against iran or any other american adversary. amy: you also write until he wastapped might frank and the center for security policy and islamaphobic think tank.k. talk about the things he has called for during that time or with the think tank has called for. >> like bolton, bolton also intrude governmentnt from the gates some institute. flamboyant than the institutions that are working for, but have been happy to collect paychecks from them. the center for security policy, its core belief is islam is not a religion, should not be

protected by the first amendment because it is a totalitarian political ideology. they are sort of self identified mccarthyites. the muslime organizations are front groups for the muslim brotherhood that once to take over the united states. fromnalogy is run directly soviet communism. amy: they believe the muslim brotherhood has infiltrated the highest levels -- >> correct. that we need a new committee to set up the muslim brotherhood infiltrators. when theed about that obama -- amy: calling for an investigation of the islamist fifth column in this country. >> correct. nermeen: gaffney was once banned from bpac. it was john bolton who intervened and had that been

lifted on gaffney. can you explain what happened? startedthe mccarthyites shooting at targets that even matter to their own coalition. i believe it was 2011, gaffney accused both a muslim conservative member of the american conservative union and grovover norquist t of being abettors. ththreaction was to informally pass this resolution that gaffney was not allowed to speak at bpac. in 2016, after trump's campaign really s sort of changed with te conservative movement thought about the bounds of acceptability of f islamic phoba and anti-muslim bias, bolton personally intervened according to reports through the atlantic, of did andfney's ban

gaffney has spoken at the last i think three conservative political action conference is. amy: let's go back to two months june 2013, after the boston marathon bombing, compmpass member mike pompeo erroneously claimed muslim groups had not condemned the attack. >> just t under two months since the attacks in boston, and in those intervening weeks go the silence of muslim leaders has been deafening. one of the most devastating terrorist attacks on america in the last 20 years come overwhelmingly from people of a single fate and are performed in the name of that faith, special obligation falls on those that are e the leaders of that faiti. silence is m made atomic l leads potentiaially compmplicit in the acts. if a religion claims to be one of peace, mr. speaker, it's leaders must reject violence perpetrated in its leaders. amy: a day after congressman pompeo gave those remarks, the council on american-islamic relationons wrote to himim demag an apology. cair a and a number of othther r muslim organizations had in fact

condemned the marathon bombings -- many within hours of the attack -- and organized blood drives and other relief efforts in boston. pompeo never apologized or responded to the letter from cair. pompeo now the secretary of state. if you can talk about -- this era were talking about, john bolton comes in and amid early troubles out of the iran nuclear deal and then goes on to cancel the summit with north korea. you write that in march of this published a book "coming of the north korea nuclear nightmare: what trump must do to reverse obama's strategic patients." >> f fleitz predictably, exams like and bolton are on the same pagege -- predictably, it seems like fleitz and bolton are on the same page. not really worth pursuing, good ththat trump and cameron are meeting hurslsley, then w we can have the highestst possible lev,

diplomatic efforts fail and proceed to bombing north korea. position seems to be similar. nermeen: bolton is in fact that third of the national head of security council under the trump administration. could you say a little about his predecessors, virginia the, michael flynn in the positions that they have taken on islam and muslims in general? >> a argument, what of the scariest things about the trump administration when he first took our was michael flynn was in charge of the national security council. flynn was the intelligence operative for many years, but he took a turn after he left the obama administration and he was a rabid conspiratorial islamaphobic and felt the florida democratic party was tried to install sharia law in the sunshine state will step he suggested there were billboards lining the southern border with messages to isis telling them where the border was week so they could come in. he brought with him people of

similar frame of mind so the national security council under flynn did things such as compose this memo that suggested -- detailed this elaborate conspiracy between establishment republicans, globalist bankers them islamist scum and marxist to take down president trump because they recognized him as an existential right to cultural marxist means. this is the economy -- as a critic policy that was being formulated -- they were doing other stuff, but wacky stuff was happening. h.r. mcmaster came in. he is more hawkish. he cleared out the crazies and now that mcmaster is in and he is reshaping the national security council in his image and we''re going to get a more intensely hawkish and more homophobic -- nermeen: you compare the response that keith ellison received for his previous associatations with the nation f islam when he was running for dnc chair and the response of have islamaphobic figures

received as they've been appointed in the trump administration. could you talk about that? >> this is very well illusustrad that we live in a a country whee bigotry against muslims is fundamental he seeeen as acceptablele. keith ellison when running for dnc chair was a congressman from minnesota who had decades ago relationship with an organization -- in 2006, he denounced louis farrakhan, denounced in testament to them, bigotry, had no relationship with them for a decade. he also spent most of the pastor campaigning for a jewish candidate for president. nonetheless, none of this resolved that the facts he once had relationship with an anti-semite. "new york times" wrote articles about democrats, do they have their own hateful populism? ,hen you have bolton and fleitz they have not been as

islamaphobic as the organizations they represent and applied ins been ellison'n's case. you have these people who are currently members of anti-islamic groups, have never denounced the views o of those institutions -- in fact, defend those institutions -- and made into a islamic -- anti-islamic remarks. this fairly has been a point of authorization. amy: eric levitz, thank you for being with us associate editor , for new york magazine's "daily intelligencer." we will link to your piece "bolton installs anti-muslim wingnut as nsc chief of staff." when we come back, we go to gaza and amamsterdam to look k at the gaza flotilla's, challenging israel's embargo of gaza and what has happened to them. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: we turn now to gaza, where a tentative ceasefire appears to have taken hold after hamas said it had agreed to a truce with israel. the fighting followed a recent wave of nonviolent protests near israel's militarized border with gaza, in which israeli snipers killed 116 palestinians and injured thousands of others.

on wednesday, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu stopped short of declaring a formal ceasefire. >> those responsible for the escalation inspired by a ran, the hamas regime, the islamic jihad, the other terrorist organizations, i'm not detailing our plans to go as i do not want the enemy to know what lies in store for him. but one thing is clear to him, when they test us, they pay. if they continue to test us, they will pay far more. nermeen: this comes as four israeli warships intercepted a flotilla thahat tried to challee israel's naval blockade of the gaza strip on tuesday. more than a dozen unarmed people were on board, including injured protesters and cancer patients seeking medical treatment abroad. the protest came as isisel is constructing a fortifified maritime barririer. this is flotilla participant mohammmmed abu eidah. >> we demand to b break the

blockade. hope to seek m medical treatment because e of my injuries. the attempt to sell today aims to help us break the blockade. amy: the flotilla's attempt to break israel's naval blockade coincided with the eighth anniversary of israel's attack on the mavi marmara flotilla, which killed nine actctivists while the boatat was sailing i n international waters. one of them in american citizen. a 10th person died after four years in a coma. well, for more, we are joined by two guests. in gaza, ramadan al-hayek is one of the organizers of the gaza flotilla that tried to break the israeli naval blockade tuesday. and amsterdam, we're joined by zohar chamberlain regev, an israeli citizen who is on board the freedom flotilla ship, alawda. it has just arrived in the port of amsterdam. the flotilla set sail april 30 and plans to arrive in gaza in july. regev has lived in spain for the

last 14 years and has participated in the coordination of the spanish component of the freedom flotilla since 2012. she is also the owner of the women's boat to gaza, which was seized in 2016 and is still the object of court proceedings in israel. we welcome both of you to democracacy now! talk about what happened to your ship and who was on it. how many people were there and what has taken place over these last few days? all, the idea came from the severe pain and suffering of a 12 year israeli blockade on the gaza strip in which julian of the palestinian people's lives were devastatete. we''re talalking about more than 4545% in ray, one of the highest rates in the world and more than 45% of shortages and medical inatment, medical equipment the hospitals of gaza.

momore than 150,000 palestinians students who have graduated and are without jobs or work. the same time, on the eighth anniversary of attacking mavi marmara, which was sailing towards gaza to break the siege, the passengers -- there were about 17 passengers on the boat, which is calalled freedom vote. these passengers include papatients of cancer, injured people, anand also students who want to convey the message for the free world we need to live basicers and we want our and isights as others the international conventions and inteternational humanitarian law stated that. secondly, after 14 naututical miles, the freedom flotilla boat was surrounded by four israeli warships and they shot on the

freedom flotilla and dragged them to seaport. at 3:20, we lost contact with them. at 11:00 p.m., at night, the 14 out forcrces released of 17 passengers. after three hours, the israeli's released another two people, one of them injured.d. 17, all exceptof the crewmen.ne of now we are makining a call and contntact with international organizations to support and protect this man. nermeen: have you been in touch with these passengers who have been released? yes, i have been in touch

with them and i met them twice. i felt and i saw determination by all of them. they told me personally we will continue and we want another boat to go outside to the world in order to live our future, for access for medical treatment and education. this is our right. we will struggle for life. amy: i want to go to zohar regev , the israeli server -- citizen on board the ship. in thee just arrived port of a amsterdam. talk about this ship and what you're planning to do with it and why you as an israeli citizen n are ababoard. >> thank you v very much foror

having me.e. i wowould like to speak about te return, a b boat that as s you d left norway about t a montnth ao and we've just arrived in amsterdam. we'rere stopping inin many portn ththe way. the e rest of thee b both cominm c coming fromats sweden. our plan itoto mak a voyage justst as importanant as actualy reaching gazaza. we go with the message of solilidarity and hope and d 're oflly humbled by the efefrts the papalestinians i in gaza a w ththe world t that all they wani just to lead a normal life, to be able to move about freely like most citizens of the world. anand ours are just small effor, but we tryry to amplify theirr voices through ourur action. our b boats will sail.. therere will be two vesessel sag

the atlantic route and two smaller wi b big way and the canal roeses of europe e and we wiwill joioin together i in the mediteterranean andd conontinueo gaza f from there. as a an israeli, i i feel likiki have double obligigation n to participate in this because it is my own people who o are inflicting this susuffering on e palestininians of gaza. and what we try to convey is a message that we only try to prototect human rights, make israel compliaiant with international law. we are not there to threaten or to provoke. we just think itit is time thehe inteternational community felt isel accountable for whait is doing. nermeen: can you explain why the ship is called the return, alawda? >> yeses, of course.

we planned this missssion for quite some timime. acactually, sincnce before the wowomen's boat to gaza mission. we said in 2 2018 we will l tryo make a a m more visiblele misis. we knew w it was goingng to be e anniversarary of t the nakakba. we tried through our mission calllled "right toto a just fute for palesestine," and we try to fofocus on both the youth in gaa -- there are many young people in gaza. as we see, they're willing to risk their lives just to be visisible. they s say we would rather die y snsnapper shots and still do ths in front of the world's s eyes. actually, ththeir march ofof ren is madade gaza a newews item rit now.

we wanted to combinine our e eos the gaza and to putut situation in the context of the occupationon and dispositionon f palestininians from ththeir nate lands that goes back 70 years and even more. amy: zohar chamberlain regev, you are an israeli citizen and also in amputee. i was wondering if you could talk about how that affects the way you see this situation. again, the last six weeks of the nonviolence posted new protests has seen over 115 palelestinians killed, ovever 12,000 wounded. you have many amputees. can you discuss this?

>> my experience, i would say -- i was injured inin a car accidet and tataken to hospipital straigightaway, g given the bloi neededed. i wawas taking carare of. and d now when i h hear about isisraeli sniperers shooting pee with all sorts of strange ammunition that nobody recognizes and it is just destroying their limbs and the israeli authorities or israeli courts refuse to let them come through israel to get treatment and, you know, they ampututate them becausese they cannnnot tae carere of them in gaza, i ththik this i is heartbreaking. i thinink this i is really, rery terribible. -- it just givess me a glimpse into what that would be. message do

you have for prime minister benjamin netanyahu? heardrd in anotother rt of yourur program that he w s speaking about hamas and beieing led by iran. wewe just want to l look at the palestiniansns in gaza as humann beings. and d something basic. you should not do toto others wt you u don't wantone to youourse. i think this is just very, very basic. compmply witith international l, respspect human righthts, and ts will be the best guararantee e r the sesecurity of ththe people n israel as wellll as palestinian i think it is just common sense. caneen: ramadan al-hayek, you talk about what you expect to happen next? what are you advocating for now? actually, we're talking about

the gaza strip, which is under an israeli siege from more than 12 years ago. power,is occupying already disengaged from gaza in dish control the air and land and sea of gaza strip. so in the coming days, there might be another shift toward the free world in order to convey the palestinian people's message in gaza strip and the palestinian code. -- we're talking about a siege that is more than before. for example, 2018 is the most worst year in the papast 12 yea.

it is on the verge of collapse.. all aspects of life in gaza strip is becoming more dangerous. amy: and whahat does it mean to iou, ramadan, an israel citizen, people like zohar are on this flotilla? actually, international law and international convention supports humans regardless of the religion or citizen. is an israeli citizen and come into the gaza strip. the people in gaza are waiting with warm feelings for her and the other free people who will come here to support and to respect human rights as her and other free people on the boat, which is called the return or

alawda boat. we as palestinians respect and we want also from the international community to make pressure on the israeli side to deal with the palestinians as human beings and to respect and obey the i international obligations. nermeen: today is the anniversary of the attack on the mavi marmara. how much do you think has changed in israel since then or in the gaza strip? well, it is the eighth anniversary of mavi marmara. unfortunately, nine of the turkish activists were killed by the israeli navaval forces. totoday, the palestinian people, especially the freedom flotilla or freedom boat, they want to

confirm for the world that we will continue the duty of this mavi marmara and other boats in the duty of free people who can't come to gaza strip. the people in gaza strip are going to do a peaceful event and they will do their best to face obstacles and challenges that have been imposed by the israeli side. they want international community to make also another kind of pressure on israel to andect human rights international conventions. amy: we want to end with 2010 interview that we did on democracy now! with filmmaker iara lee, one of the few americans on the mavi marmara ship that came from turkey. she shared with us footage of the attack that she was able to save. 10 people ultimately died on

that ship, nine turkish, one young american citizen. this was footage she was able to sasave after soldiers confnfiscd her r equipment. of theu showed the video helicopters above -- and we are showing that now -- we see there is an we can here below the sound of an explosion. what was happening? >> i can't give you all of the technical information about what is the sound, you know, what is live in ththe nation, but obviously, they came with live ammunitionon. minutetes afterward, with a megaphone in our rooms, everery roomom in our ship saying,g, sty quiet andd c calm, no way to resist. they're taking over the ship. just stay calm. usedther boats, they rubber bulullets and tear gas. they did not kill people.

it in our ship, they killed. amy: in fact, nine people were killed. another one would die after that. one of them, young american citizen. that was iara lee, showing her footage eight years ago, the mavi marmara was attacked by the israeli lee terry. now we're talking about this latest f flotilla and endingng h zohar r chamberlain regevv, who just came into the port of amsterdam from norway, an israel i-jewish citizen on board the freedom flotilla. the name of the ship alawda. the peaceful challenge to the israeli military in gaza was also the march of return. can you talk about the people who are on your ship, how many people are on the ship and who people represent, where they come from?

>> yes. we comome from manyny different countries. muslilims,s, christians, , atheists. we have people from different nationalities. wewery to keepep a diverse.. righght now comingng into amste, ththere was a palestininian on board, two american citizens. we have c crew that arere swedih and no region.n. we have people f fm malaysia a d myself, israeli, but living spain. we have language diversrsity on the boboat as well. there will be manany more people coming on and getting offff at e didifferent ports because we jut want to giveve the impression tt wewe are regular peoplple. to do a a little bitt to make this woror a b betr placace. believe that respectcting human

rights and s stoppining the violations of human rights of the palestinian people in gaza is what we need to do.o. amy: we e want to o thank you bh fofor being withth us. zohar chambeberlain n regev is n israeli have an jewish citizen who is on board the freedom flotilla. and speaking to us, ramadan al-hayek one of the organizers , of the gaza flotilla that tried to challenge israeli naval blockade of gaza tuesday by leaving the port filled with people needing medical assistance as well as students and crew. they were intercepted by israeli naval forces. when we come back, we go to alberta. the canadian government has taken over the trans mountain pipeline, the can or morgan pipeline. we will speak with indigenous activist about what this means. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: we now turn to canada, where prime minister justin trudeau has announced that the canadian government will purcrchase t highly cocontested kinder morgan pipeline, vowing to commit taxpayer money to the project despite widespread indigenous-led protests and a slew of lawsuits. if built, the pipeline will triple the amount of oil flowing from alberta's tar sands to the coast of british columbia. oil giant kinderer morgan had sd that if legal challenges were not resolved by may 31, it would abandon plans to build the proposed pipeline expansion. the canadian government stepped in and purchased the pipeline for 4.5 billion canadian dollars

-- $3.5 billion american -- just days before this deadline. the decision has sparked widespread condemnation from first nations and environmental activists who say that expanding the pipeline will increase pollution in alberta's tar sands region, endanger indigenous communities, and increase greenhouse gas emissions. but trudeau is championingng the pipeline purchase asas part t oe cocountry's efforts to fight climate change. he is the prime minister speaking to bloomberg television tuesday. >> our plan to fight climate change features both a national price on pollution things like the role class oceans protection plan, but also getting our oil resources to new markets through responsible pipelines. nermeen: trudeau says that the canadian government purchased the pipeline because kinder morgan deemed the project "too risky." the government will now be responsible for the expansion project, which will add a second pipeline to about 610 miles of the already existing 715-mile trans mountain pipeline.

this is not the first time trudeau has supported big oil. last january, he welcomed the decision by donald trump to move ahead on the keystone xl pipeline project. >> trump now, keystone xl came up as a topic. i reiterated my support for the project. i've been on the record for many years supporting it because it leads to economic growth and good jobs for albertans. responsible approach on growing the economy, creating good jobs , while we protect the environment for now and for future generations. this is what canadians expect of us. the expansion project has sparked widedespread outcry by indigenous groups in canada

citing environmental concerns. now some first nations community's have expressed interest in buying stake in a trans mountain pipeline. we now go to edmonton, canada, where we're joined by eriel deranger, the executive director of indigenous climate action and a member of the athabasca chipewyan first nation. she recently wrote a piece for canada's national observer titled "i feel betrayed by the government and a system that has destroyed the spirit of my people." eriel, whose greatest see you saturday. you are back in edmonton. talk about what has just taken place and the significance of the canadian government finally this pipeline -- buying the pipeline. >> what has just happened is just another chapter in the neocolonial agenda of the canadian government. we are seeing land being appropriated from indigenous community's the construction of a project in collusion with corporations that is deep in the public interest as undermining

indigenous community's but also undermining the safety and health and security of all people by perpetuating more greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere and violating the rights of everyone. we're talking about a government that is doing a 180 on all of its election platforms to implement the yuan declaration on the rights of indigenous people, plat forms to address the, crisis, platforms to address the boil water advisories and first nations community's. instead, we're seeing public funds taken to invest in the risky economically risky projects, environmentally devastating projects in a project that violates the rights of indigenous peoples. we are taking huge steps backwards in progress. this is no longer a progressive government. this is a backwards government. nermeen: could you talk about what trudeau said about his commitment to indigenous communities in a steps he is not taken? were indigenous communities consulted at all on this

decision? >> this is a tricky, tricky area. the trudeau government even the alberta government in the province under the premier, they have made big promises to implement the u.n.n. declaration on the r rights of indndigenous peoples. its foundatitions are ememised n free and informed consent. what we're seem slowly since election time is this prise has been sort of d degraded and downgraded a little bit from consent toto sayaying first nans don'n't have e veto power, const doesn'n't fiininto ourystetems, realallyooking a ahow are we doing real consultation with first nation communities?? the coconsultations h h been downgraded. yes, first natioions are consnsulted, but w what does tht mean? if we say y no to a project, its just no. it means nothing in the long run. it just means they have checked off the box they have insulted with communities and they don't agree and let's keep moving forward. when we talk about things like in the public interest, whose

interest is that? interest of first nations communities. it gets to a point where first nations are bullied. literally bullied. we are coerced, which is another violation. we don't have that free of coercion, intimidation, prior information being given to our communities so we can make the best informed decisions on yes or no of these projects. instead, we are bullied by both the government and corporations to say yes to these projects so they can go on record and say they did their due diligence. amy: can you talk about the environmental effect of mining tar sands oil in alberta where you are and what it means to government now to be in charge of that? >> so right now what we're seeing is this project, the kinder morgan project, sending a signal to alberta that absolutely let's keep going, it is business as usual, let's just keep developing this oil as much as we can. but what we've seen over the last 50 plus years in the region is this project has led to the

degradation of our ecosystem from contamination to water systems, contamination to food sources like fish and land mammals. we assume the contamination to our air quality. what this has led to is the degradation of the overall health of indigenous communities in the region, but also the overall health and survival of indigenous and rights of those committees that rely on those ecosystems for there were just for their lives. we'll have jobs, but what caused? the cost is degradation to our human, health, and safety, not just for multiple generations to come. we have not created the policies and rhetorical oversights to ensure the safety of our communities to the point we are still approving projects that are not even meeting the bare minimum standards that aren't even protecting environmental and human health right now. funds and tarng

sands -- amy: we have to leave it there. we will do part two and put it online at democracynow.org. eriel tchekwie deranger is the executive director of indigenous climate action. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693ççzñvpx]

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