10/09/23 10/09/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> this is israel's 9/11, and israel will do everything to bring our sons and daughters back home. there is no reconciling with genocidal terrorists. israel will exact a heavy price on hamas so what we witnessed will never repeat itself.

amy: israel has order to complete siege of gaza after fighters from hamas broke out of the blockaded gaza strip saturday to carry out an unprecedented attack by air, land, and see on israel. over the past three days, at least teen hundred people have died, including over 800 inside israel and over 500 in gaza. >> israel expects and demands political and military support while advancing goals letter fundamentally with international legitimacy and consensus. its policies are an assault on our humanity come on international law, on peace, and are a threat for its own people. amy: we will go to israel and gaza for the latest. all that and more, coming up.

welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the death toll across israel and gaza has topped 1300 as the bloody conflict stretches into its third day. israel today announced a total blockade on gaza, including food, water, electricity, and fuel. on sunday, israel declared war on hamas after hamas fighters launched a surprise coordinated attack on israel saturday. among the targets was a music festival where hamas gunmen killed some 260 people. israel responded by pounding the gaza strip with airstrikes, which hit housing blocks, tunnels, and a mosque. over 800 people have been killed in israel, over 500 in gaza. thousands more have been injured on both sides of the separation barrier. hamas says it has taken over 100 hostages, including civilians and israeli army officers.

the israeli prime minister has told gazans to leave, though it's unclear where they would be able to go, vowing to all-but decimate the besieged territory. >> all the places where hamas are deployed, hiding and operating in, that wicked city, we will turn it into an island of ruin. i'm telling gazans put elite those places now because we will take action everywhere. amy: over 120,000 people in gaza have been displaced from the israeli attacks. a 65-year-old man who lost his home in and airstrikes as he refused to be uprooted. >> i am not the only one left out on the street. there are 17 other families in this area made homeless following this barbaric strike, which killed around 17 or 18 people. several families are left without refuge. this is not the first displacement. it is as if they are displacing the palestinian people every now

and then on purpose. it was the 1948 migration, followed by similar waves of people leaving the country. our children are also migrating and now they are destroying homes or resident sleep without any warning or reason with the aim to displace and destroy and uproot them from this land. however, we refused to be uprooted. amy: the u.s. that it will send more military aid, and munitions to israel. they will also bring military ships and aircraft closer to israel. the u.n. special rapporteur blasted what she called the selected outrage of many western nations following the conflicts outbreak as they failed to recognize the ongoing violence against palestinians she said. she said "human rights organizations have said all along that continuing to oppress a population with total impunity would lead to a catastrophe and

this is what is happening. the responsibility is also on the international community, which has one opportunity now to be wise and be evenhanded." meanwhile, "the wall street journal" is warning iran helped plan the attack. antony blinken says he has not seen any evidence to substantiate that claim. solidarity protests with gaza took place around the world this weekend, including here in new york city's times square. >> the whole reason i am yelling is because the powers that be in new york city and new york state do not want this rally to happen. perhaps the police chief, we have seen the governor has denounced but they don't want us to have any amplified sound because they don't want us to be heard by the people of new york

because they don't want people to know that palestinians are right to stand up against occupation, apartheid resistance is not terrible as him -- terrorism. amy: in afghanistan, taliban officials say more than 2000 people were killed and nearly 10,000 others injured after a magnitude-6.3 earthquake and several powerful aftershocks struck the western herat province on saturday morning. the quake flattened buildings in six villages, trapping hundreds of people in their homes. the death toll could rise as rescue workers continue to search for survivors using shovels, and in some cases, their bare hands. it's one of the deadliest earthquakes to strike afghanistan in 20 years and risks further exacerbating the ongoing humanitarian crisis. in ecuador, the six suspects accused of being involved in the august murder of presidential candidate fernando villavicencio have been killed in prison.

the six men, who were all colombian, were being detained in the city of guayaquil after their arrest two months ago. they were all alleged members of a drug trafficking group. villavicencio was running on an anti-corruption platform for president and was critical of organized crime and its ties with the ecuadorian government. this comes just days before voters take to the polls this sunday for a run-off presidential election between leftist luisa gonzález and wealthy businessman daniel noboa. colombia's government has announced the start of long-anticipated peace talks with the largest faction of dissident members of farc, the revolutionary armed forces of colombia. on sunday, both sides said offensive actions had been suspended as the government of president gustavo petro prepares to issue a formal ceasefire decree in the coming days. the estado mayor central is a group of former farc members who rejected a 2016 peace accord with the colombian state that removed farc from the decades-long conflict. this is an emc representative.

>> we can't disregard this historical moment which will have a positive impact on our communities. without a doubt, stopping killing each other is the wisest path to start constructing a better future. ending the war and violence will lead to a constructive peace discourse. amy: in related news, colombia's superior court is allowing a witness tampering and fraud case against former colombian president álvaro uribe to move forward. uribe is accused of attempting to discredit allegations he had ties with right-wing paramilitary groups during his time in power from 2002 to 2010. there were thousands of extrajudicial killings of civilians who were then purposely mislabeled as rebel fighters in what became known as the "false positives" scandal. in guatemala, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in recent days as nationwide protests intensify in the ongoing persecution of president-elect bernardo arevalo

and his progressive semilla party. demonstrators are demanding the resignation of guatemala's attorney general consuelo porras, who's intensified efforts to disqualify arevalo's landslide victory in august's runoff presidential election. arevalo and semilla of election fraud and other charges, ordering raids on electoral offices and the seizing of ballots. without any evidence to support their claims. porras, who's backed by the guatemalan political and business elite, has repeatedly been accused of corruption. protests continued through the weekend across guatemala, led by indigenous groups, student activists, human rights defenders, and workers. >> to into the democratic era, there has been bloodshed. for a small group of people to come and destroy democracy overnight, we will not allow that. amy: meanwhile, the organization of american states has named a delegation of representatives charged to mediate bernardo arevalo's transition of power ahead of his scheduled inauguration in january. the oas has itself been accused

of meddling in democratic election results across latin american countries, most recently through the removal of morales. a new report from unicef finds that over 43 million children were internally displaced in the past six years due to extreme weather events, the vast majority caused by floods and storms. the u.n. agency notes displacement can negatively impact children's education, healthcare, food security, and health. children are also more likely to be separated from their families following a major disaster, increasing the risks of exploitation and child trafficking. unicef warns the situation will only worsen as the climate crisis intensifies. >> the reports for the future projects a terrifying future. with one degree of warning, they believe the global risk of displacement by flooding could rise by 50%.

we are not prepared for this climate changed future. the displacement of children is barely on the radar of leaders. amy: a new study finds an average of 7.6 million renters face eviction across the united states every year, nearly 3 million of whom are children under the age of 18. researchers at princeton, rutgers, and the u.s. census bureau also found eviction filing rates for black renters are four times higher than for white renters. in labor news, nearly 4000 united auto worker members employed by volvo's mack trucks are on strike after voting down a tentative agreement reached last week. mack workers in pennsylvania, maryland, and florida are joining some 25,000 fellow uaw members on the picket line as they continue their historic strike against ford, gm, and stellantis. mack workers say they were inspired to seek a better deal because of the historic strike against the big three. on friday, uaw president shawn fain announced a major win in talks with gm. >> gm has now agreed in writing

to place their electric better manufacturing under our national master agreement. we have been told for months that this was impossible. we have been told the ev future must be erased to the bottom, and now we have called their bluff. amy: fain was wearing a t-shirt that said "the rich." he did not announce any additional strike actions for now. meanwhile, 75,000 health care workers employed by kaiser permanente returned to work saturday. more strikes could be on the horizon if no deal is reached on improvements to pay, staffing, pension plans, and other benefits. a georgia prosecutor has declined to bring charges against state troopers who fatally shot environmental activist manuel esteban terán, known as tortuguita, during a raid on the stop cop city protest encampment outside atlanta in january. on friday, district attorney george christian released a 31-page report concluding that

none of the six officers who fired shots that resulted in tortuguita's death acted unreasonably. an autopsy by the dekalb county medical examiner's office revealed tortuguita was struck 57 times by police bullets. and although tortuguita possessed a 9 millimeter pistol, an autopsy also found no traces of gunpowder residue on their hands, challenging police claims that tortuguita fired a shot that injured a georgia state trooper. in a statement, the stop cop city campaign wrote -- "from the start, the state's response to tortuguita's murder has been to lie and cover up the facts. today's announcement is just the latest in a long line of changing stories and withholding evidence." and today is indigenous people'' day. over 100 u.s. cities and a dozen states have adopted the holiday after long-time calls by indigenous activists to stop celebrating the genocidal legacy of christopher columbus. last week, over 50 u.s. senators

and representatives again introduced a bill to formally replace columbus day with indigenous peoples' day as a federal holiday. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. when we come back, israel has ordered a complete siege of gaza after fighters from hamas broke out of the blockaded gaza strip saturday, carrying out an unprecedented attack i air, land, and see on israel. over the past three days, at least 1300 people have died, including 800 inside israel and over 500 in gaza. we will go to israel and gaza for the latest. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "a time to cry" by rim banna. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. israel has ordered a complete

siege of gaza two days after as many of the hamas fighters carried out unprecedented attack as they broker security locked gates. at least 1300 people have died, including over 800 inside israel and almost 500 in gaza. one israeli military spokesperson described saturday as "by far the worst day in israeli history." the surprise attack came almost 50 years to the start of the 1973 yom kippur war. the hamas attack killed at least 44 israeli soldiers, including several commanders. over 250 people were killed at an israeli music festival. hamas militants also took about 100 hostages. entire israeli communities were forced to evacuate. meanwhile, israeli air strikes

have killed over 500 palestinians in gaza since saturday, but the death toll is expected to soar as israel threatens to launch a ground war. israel has called on 300,000 reservists, sending heavy armor toward the border. this comes as a u.s. is sending more any nation to israel and warships to the region. earlier today, israel's defense -- dozens of residents were killed earlier today as israel's defense minister gallant announced a total blockade on gaza, including a ban on food, electricity, and fuel. israel has imposed a siege on gaza for the past 16 years, largely cutting off the area from the rest of the world. gaza has been widely described as an open air prison. hamas named its military operation "al-aqsa storm" in response to the desecration of the al-aqsa mosque in jerusalem. hamas also cited the blockade of

gaza and increasing settler violence in the occupied west bank. the attack also came as israel was moving to normalize relations with saudi arabia. in a moment, we will go to israel and gaza for response. but we begin with the voices of two parents, one in israel and one in gaza, whose lives have been devastated by this weekend's violence. this is yoni asher, a 37-year-old father whose wife and two children have been taken hostage by hamas. >> yesterday while my wife and daughters by five years old and three years old, went to visit my mother-in-law near gaza. and during the morning, i contacted my wife and she told me on the phone that there are terrorists inside the house.

later on, i saw video come the same video that was in social media, which i identified my wife, my two daughters, and my mother-in-law on some kind of a cart and terrorists of hamas all around them. i want to ask of hamas, don't hurt them. don't hurt it'll children. don't hurt women. if you want me instead. amy: and this is a mother in gaza, sabreen aub daqqa, who survived after being trapped in rubble after an israel rocket hit her home. the attack killed three of her children. >> i was at home and suddenly i hear a sound and everything fell over our heads. my children were next to me. one of them was next to my legs

and the others were next to me. my brother was a bit further. nothing happened to him. i was hiding between the sofa and the door, so there was no pressure on me. only on my leg. but i did not hear any sound coming from my children. i called them but i did not hear a sound coming from them. suddenly, i heard my brother calling. the first moment i heard his voice, i shouted and said, "i am here" and when they recognize me, they started calming me down. then they started removing the rubble from above me. it took them three hrs remove the rubble above me but my children died. when they pulled me out of the rubble, i saw everything damaged. the houses are damaged. that is the only thing i saw. and then i went to the hospital. i found that everybody was injured and we have many injured and dead people. amy: we spend the rest of the

hour with four guests. in gaza city raji sourani, , award-winning human rights lawyer and director of the palestinian center for human rights in gaza. he is the 2013 right livelihood award laureate. as well as in rfk human rights laureate. we hope to be talking to him soon in gaza. the bombing is heavy and unprecedented bombing he said in his area in gaza. joining us from mexico city, ofer cassif, a member of the israeli knesset and hadashta'al coalition. he was born in a city that was hit by rocket strikes. here in new york, professor rashid khalidi, edward said professor of modern arab studies at columbia university. author of a number of books, including "the hundred years' war on palestine." and joining us from jerusalem, orly noy, israeli political activist and editor of the

hebrew-language news site local call. she is also the chair of b'tselem's executive board. b'tselem is in israeli human rights organization. orally, let's begin with you in jerusalem. can you respond to all that is happened over the weekend, the surprise attacks, the 1300 people dead at this point in gaza and in israel, and now the defense minister of israel announcing a total siege of gaza as tanks and military equipment head down to gaza. >> thank you, amy, for having me. these are very dark days in the area. we woke up saturday morning to the sirens rushing us into the shelters. as the picture cleared, it became darker.

we have been witnessing since the heinous hamas attack on civilians saturday morning, a long list of israeli failures this started even before the attacks with the lack of intelligence information. we are talking about an intelligence operation that basically surveillance every breath every palestinian takes and they knew nothing about the planned attack. it has continued the chaos that has been going on for long hours where hostages were held, where people were slaughtered without the army or police forces coming to the rescue. and until today, there is still a tremendous amount of unclearness.

people are still searching for their loved ones. there is no organized body by the government to inform those worried people. and of course the israeli government is doing only thing that israel does to do is revenge and more force and more death, very random bombing of civilians in gaza strip. there is a very strong sense of demanding revenge within the israeli public. even if that can be understood, it does not by any means justify the brutal attacks that will be fruitful like any previous promise we have been given by the israeli authorities to

annihilate the terrorism and someone. this is just about revenge, which will end up with more death and violence. amy: one of the questions, will this lead to the fall of the netanyahu government? allied with the fall right, for example, the national security head ben-gvir himself convicted in israeli court 15 years ago of inciting hatred against palestinians. he is the national security chief. are there so many in the leadership that have been so focused -- who are part of the israeli settler movement on the west bank that they were not paying attention to gaza? >> absolutely. first it should be mentioned he was convicted more than just hatred toward palestinians, he was convicted with supporting a

terrorist organization. he is a convicted supporter of terrorism. there is a tremendous amount of anger directed toward the government in general, specifically toward netanyahu and the leadership. we know now most of the military troops that were supposed to be posted in the south, protecting the southern border, had been relocated to protect the settlers in the west bank. these are things -- i mean, right now the israel public is too deep into the grief and shock, but there will come a time that they will demand answers from the government, personally from netanyahu. in the short-term, it looks like they are going to -- emergency

coalition. this is not unprecedented. israel tends to unite politically around the leadership in times of crisis, but there is no doubt that once the immediate crisis is over, the israeli public will be demanding answers from the government of netanyahu. amy: we're going to go from orly noy in jerusalem come you can hear the wind blow on her microphone as she talks to us about the israeli reaction, to raji sourani. i want to go to you quickly because i understand you are experiencing unprecedented bombing in your area. can you describe what is happening in gaza? then media in the united states, there's a must no one in gaza to bring us voices of the gazans. can you hear us?

>> -- nonstop bombing. it is ongoing all over the place. there is no place you can -- in gaza. airplane fighters, drones all over the sky. hundreds of apartments, whether it is a house, a hospital, a school, shelter -- i mean, even the marketplace, the biggest refugee camp with 300,000

palestinians were bombed. many injured in critical situation. all of this is happening in the daylight. no one is caring about that. netanyahu says gazans should leave gaza. where to? we don't have safe passage. the ministry of defense says we are going to cut electricity, water, food, oil -- everything will be cut off from gaza. 2.4 million civilians in gaza are subject to unprecedented situations. it is very genocidal. it is coming from the highest level of israel. if they have a problem with

hamas, we have no problem if they contact them. with the fighters of the resistance, that's fine. this is not our area of interest. our area of interest is the civilians. in the civilians who are reeling in the eye of the storm and are subject of the israeli ongoing crimes and still the icc prosecutor keeps silent, doing nothing, moving nowhere in this conflict. for the ongoing crimes they committed over the course of years, oppression, killing, blockade, apartheid -- you name it. the crimes and no one is moving.

no one is moving to provide any protection toward palestinian civilians. once and again, this is going on now. we are having hundreds of people that have been killed. children, we have above 100 children that have been killed. women, almost the same number. the worst is yet to come. we are sure we know that. amy: peace rally prime minister has told gazans -- the israeli prime minister has told gazans to leave. it is unclear where they would be able to go. then they said he was misunderstood, that he was saying you should leave the hamas sites in gaza. can you respond to this, raji sourani?

>> this is nonsense. he is leading people who say palestinians don't exist and say palestinians should leave. this is the art of israel. this is historic of israel. there is no other state and there is no other people. there is one people. it is all the israeli do. he came after -- after a meeting with his top security and military people and he was reading from a paper. so it cannot be a mistake. he knows what he said any meant what he said. i do believe what they are doing

deliberately will lead to that if this is continued. amy: what level of support does hamas have? hamas is a government of gaza. right now, since saturday morning, the actions of the thousands or so hamas fighters preaching the -- breaching the wall? >> i don't think it is a matter of the people -- or not. you have to know when you are suppressed deeply by criminals, when you are suffocated -- do you hear the bombing? amy: we hear it. >> my entire house is shaking while i am talking to you. i am living in the best area of gaza and should be away from every problem, but everything

around us is being bombed. and you don't know -- there is no safe haven in this place. i have lived all my life in this part of the world. mathematics and chemistry. i never come ever witnessed anything as such. the situation would be much, much worse than this. amy: you have heard, i assume come israeli tanks and military equipment are making their way to gaza right now. so you are being bombed by the air but the question is, world there be a total land invasion -- will there be a total land invasion? can you respond to this? you are talking about this strip of land, gaza, that is about the size of detroit.

there are about 600,000 people in detroit. we are talking about 2.4 million people. it is one of the most densely populated areas on earth. raji, if you could take it from there. >> exactly. gaza is one of the most densely populated areas. if the army comes in, it will be like -- i don't think anyone would love to be a good victim. they want to strip us not from our own security, they want to strip us from the food for our children. they are not satisfied with the blockade. they are not satisfied with the

killing and bombing as has happened in the last years. but they want to do more. we are the storms of the valley. we will continue here forever. if the israelis did that, that means they are melting the people of palestine, of gaza, just to be one body. this is our right and obligation . resistance, it is not only a right, it is your dignity, amy. and people should not be a good victim for criminal occupation. when russia invaded ukraine and

occupied ukraine, the whole world stopped and said, we cannot support russia and we have to support the ukrainians against the occupation of the russians. and we will support them not only politically, we will support them with money, we will support them with arms, we will support them with what we can and ask all the free people of europe and the u.s. to go and join the forces and to join the resistance in ukraine against the occupation. i don't know why palestinians -- if we think we are a criminal, if we do peaceful and to fodder, we are terrorists.

massacres one after another. just being supported by the u.s. and by major european countries. it is a shame. it is a shame to leave in this way. amy: i'm not sure -- >> what we want is simple and clear, end of occupation. we want dignity and freedom, period, like any other people. amy: i'm not sure if this is the blast we just heard, but middle east eye reporting israel just blown the salama university -- islamic university of gaza. is that near you? >> it is 800 meters from me. that is when i was not able to talk to you.

the entire building was collapsing on our heads. amy: i want to bring a knesset member into this conversation. this may be unusual in u.s. television to be joined by the leading palestinian human rights lawyer in gaza raji sourani and to also bring in ofer cassif, a member of the israeli knesset. as you listen to raji speak from gaza and from before that orly noy the board chair of b'tselem, ofer cassif is a member of the knesset with the hadashta'al coalition. you were born in an area that was hit by rocket fire, hamas rocket fire on saturday. can you respond to what is happening right now and the

decision of the prime minister of israel and the cabinet to declare war on hamas? >> thank you for hosting me. i would like to express my gratitude for my former speaker orly noy, a very good friend of mine. and raji, i wish you security and peace. first of all, allow me to begin with some personal statements. my family lives in israel. at the moment i am in mexico. i imagine international conference of leftist parties, including the delegation from palestine. we also had a press conference

together, the palestinian delegation and myself, because we share against the occupation and war. two days ago, i got a message from a very good friend of mine who was hiding with her husband. she told me she was very afraid. unfortunately, those were probably the last word she ever spoke. a very good friend of mine was also against the occupation. what i'm trying to say is innocent people, innocent civilians, israelis and palestinians, pay the price of the criminal ongoing occupation of israel.

i want to say something very, very clear -- absolutely nothing justifies, can justify or legitimize the carnage that hamas carries out in the towns and villages in israel. nothing can justify it. it is appalling. even the occupation crimes -- the crimes that israel is you have, -- the crimes that israel is guilty of cannot justify the carnage. nothing can justify the massacre that the israelis carry out now in gaza. not even the crimes of hamas.

what i would like to say, the bottom line, following what orly and raji said, the palestinians deserve the national and individual right, reserve the right of self-determination to enjoy their own independent sovereign state, their own government, the freedom of movement. they deserve to live in peace and security. the israelis deserve peace and security. they deserve to live in a state which doesn't occupy, which does not oppress -- not a fascist and

racist government. i would like to include if i may by saying taking will issue within -- [indiscernible] israel wanted this violence. in 2017, a member of the knesset , a racist thug is a minister of finance within the defense ministry. he published six years ago -- it is explicit. you can google and read it. it was titled subgrade gratian play -- subjugation play. it is about granting basic rights to the palestinians stop

second, those palestinians who do not deserve to live under this subjugation will be expelled from their homeland. those palestinians were going to resist are going to be killed. what we see now is the coup, by the look, the government of israel within israel, all of those are means to that goal. the goal is to realize this horrific, racist, colonialist, fascist plane. the attack on gaza is part of it. they use the terrible unacceptable carnage in the struggle of israel as an excuse to attack gaza as part of the realization of this fascist plan .

we should stand together, joined forces -- palestinians and israelis -- stand together and join forces to say to israel, you are going to end the occupation now. you're going to end the occupation. the palestinians must be liberated. the liberation of the palestinian people is a just cause. it will also liberate the israel is of occupation because although they have called them victims -- the palestinians victims, but the israelis are victims. we must push pressure on the government. it is up to the international community, it is up to us to act together to end violence in

gaza, west bank, and israel. amy: we're going to turn now to leading palestinian american professor columbia university rashid khalid in a moment. we have to take a break. ofer cassif is a knesset member in the israeli parliament with the hadashta'al coalition. we will be back in 30 seconds. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "carry the earth" by le trio joubran. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. israel has order to complete siege on gaza after hamas broke out of the blockade gaza strip by air, land, and sea by israel. over the past three days, at least 1300 people have died, including over 800 inside israel over 500 in gaza. we have been to gaza and jerusalem. now we're joined in new york by rashid khalid, edward said professor of modern arab studies at columbia university. author of a number of books, including "the hundred years' war on palestine." professor, thank you for being with us. as you listen to voices of orly noy in jerusalem, the human rights lawyer raji sourani in gaza, the attack we heard on air live, and ofer cassif, the

knesset member of israel, can you respond to what has taken place and what it looks like is about to take place? israeli letter equipment and tanks are headed down to gaza now. >> i'm afraid the horrific casualties among civilians, israelis and increasingly palestinians, is just the beginning of what is going to be an awful, awful, awful massacre in gaza. the desire for revenge after the killing of a very large number, hundreds apparently, of innocent israeli civilians, is going to lead to a horrific massacre in gaza of probably many, many more people than we can imagine. i agree with what raji said, my friend, who i hope is ok, and i agree with what orly said and

ofer cassif said. war crimes don't justify other war crimes. we are about to see horrific war crimes. but i think two things have to be added. this has to be put in context. the contacts is not just occupation, it is settler colonialism and apartheid. the people of gaza, the refugees in gaza originate in the areas where hamas fighters were attacking in the last couple of days. those were palestinian towns and villages in 1948. the ethnic cleansing of palestine led to the 2.4 million people in gaza. today is indigenous peoples' day in the united states. these are the indigenous people of the southern parts of israel that hamas fighters were attacking over the weekend. the second thing, i think we are about to see a paradigm shift. the idea you can cooped up filing people and put them behind walls, tightness siege on

them, use an eyedropper to allow them some food and water and electricity, and idea has exploded as a result of the horrific events of the past 2.5 days. this cannot continue. it is not just a matter of occupation. we have to recognize you cannot treat an entire people the way israel, not just under this neofascist government, but under all of its previous governments, have treated them. you cannot expel three quarters of a million people in 1948 and not expect the return of the repressed. you cannot commit daily violence against -- one palestinian has died every day this year, slightly more, in the occupied west bank. you cannot expect that not to lead to a reaction. the reaction will be violent and sometimes may include things that are unquestionably war crimes, but that kind of pressure put on an entire people over three quarters of a century will inevitably bring a violent

reaction. this pressure cooker the palestinians are in, which the hamas military commander listed -- she said what they're doing in jerusalem, trying to take over the al-aqsa mosque and turn it into a side of jewish prayer, what they're doing in the occupied west bank in terms of the effective annexation of more and more palestinian led to israel and israeli law and military law -- apartheid. two legal systems in one place. the imprisonment of 5000 palestinians. the detention of hundreds. and finally, the siege of gaza when the ministry of defense announced he was cutting off fuel, food, water, and electricity to gaza come he called the gazans human animals. that is two point 4 million people who are being treated as if they are animals. they are not hamas fighters post of the fighters are one thing. hamas is one thing.

hamas has impose itself on the city of gaza. the people of god are the ones who will suffer. almost all of the casualties are going to be civilians. this will be the fifth or sixth attack on gaza. i'm very afraid that raji is right, we are going to see unparalleled massacres. i think we have to see this may be the end of an era when the in washington and arab capitals assume you just fly over palestine and ignore it and pretend we are in the middle east of peace while an entire people's living under this kind of incredible oppression -- a pressure cooker. it had to explode. amy: talk about what is happening now. you the republicans attacking biden saying it is his support for iran, making a $6 billion deal, unfreezing iranian assets, that allow this to happen. the wall street journal saying

iran is behind us, though white house pushing back and blinken saying they don't have evidence at this point. what this means? and also hezbollah on the border of lebanon and the incursion this weekend as well? >> well, the possibility of a wider conflict should terrify everybody. instead of moving aircraft carriers, the u.s. should be trying to defuse the situation. instead, i think there blindly going ahead without possibilities they have followed in the past. you do not sin presence as president biden has done to an apartheid government that is moving toward basically destroying the protections of the israeli constitution for israeli jews and that is what this administration and previous administration's have been doing. we finance this occupation, this violence. there are american weapons being used right now in gaza to kill innocent civilians in violation

of u.s. law and american politicians blindly talk as if they live on another planet. i think the ground has shifted and even though american politicians live in never never land, as far as palestine is concerned, reality is going to intrude itself sooner or later. there is a widespread revulsion across the arab world against what israel does and palestine. authoritarian, dictatorial, absolute monarchies are trying to ignore that, ignore the feelings of their own people, the sentiments of their own people. that is not going to work. you cannot make peace over the bodies of palestinians. that is not peace. that is the piece of the dead. the kind of repression that is being exerted day in and day out , theft of land, expansion of settlements and so on, inevitably is going to bring a reaction. whether the people living in washington, d.c., in their own alternative reality believe it

today or tomorrow, sooner or later, i think that reality is going to dawn. you cannot do this forever. amy: the national security advisor jake sullivan just 10 days ago ed it has been very quiet in the middle east, which has allowed the u.s. to move on to other areas of the world. very quiet he said. i am wondering if you can comment on that? and do you think what led to this attack by hamas fighters on saturday had anything to do with saudi arabia and israel normalizing relations at the behest of the united states? >> i don't doubt that was a factor. i think the baker's -- basic factor is that people could not live under these circumstances. hamas has basically acted in a way involving enormous brutality against the victims, things that are unquestionably war crimes.

it has acted in a way to shatter that paradigm. i think people are thinking carefully and places that have normalized with israel. the other thing that should be said, i think ofer cassif --orly mention this, this is -- they transferred three battalions from the gaza front to the west bank to protect rampages against palestinians, denuding that towns on the southern borders of the gaza strip, of the people who could have defended against the attack by hamas. this is one of the great deception operations in modern military history. people are going to teach this. leaving aside the war crimes, they will teach this military academies for years and years to come. this is on level with the 1973 war in terms of deception. entirely mistaken concept on the part of israelis thinking you could do this to gaza forever

and they would just take it. amy: this news just came out from times of israel also from the associated press, egyptian intelligence repeatedly told israel hamas was planning something big, warnings were discounted stuff this according to intelligence official in cairo. your thoughts on this? >> it is similar to what happened before the 1973 war when israel was given information. the conception that these people would never do such a thing, they are not capable of this most the arrogance involved in ignoring those intelligence reports in 1973 and in 2023 are among the things that led to this catastrophic outcome, which i think is going to change a lot of things in the middle east in the months and years to come. amy: rashid khalid, thank you for being with us, edward said

professor of modern arab studies at columbia university. his latest book "the hundred , years' war on palestine." raji sourani, award-winning human rights lawyer and director of the palestinian center for human rights in gaza. ofer cassif, a member of the knesset. and orly noy, israeli political

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