bombings crisis, devastating wars, terrorism, the israeli lobby, crackdown, diplomacy, of israel blood bath in gaza. make sure to join the show through facebook, twitter, only on press tv, of a of escuela, hospital.

reinforcement, not only emotional force, have now been closed for.

it is genocide, but a massive scale. 12,00 tons of bombs, equivalent to the bomb the us dropped in hiroshima, which killed hundreds of thousands, new fuel to run the generations, the generators, that is for electricity to save human lives and starvation due to no food supplies. the gazan people are being massacred with multiple war crimes committed by the israeli. regime and

its accomplices such as the us. welcome to this edition of the spotlight. in this edition we will look at why this massacre is being pushed not only by the us but by few other countries as well who are against the seasfire and also the possibility of their involvement in this war. scott witter. former un weapons inspector, joining us alive from bethlehem, new york, also we have with charlie kates, international coordinator of samidun palestinian prisoner solidarity network from vancouver. thank you very much to both of you for joining us, let's begin with scott. we are witnessing massacre a large scale that could uh be called based on textbook. definitions, a genocide, ethnic

cleansing, and despite that, we are witnessing countries such as the us and few western european countries supporting israel, why is that? well, i mean, the united states and europe have for a long time uh been the top supporters of israel, uh, i think it's linked to the, let's just be very honest here, um, the the strong jewish communities in in both locations and the i guess the romance that they have attached to the israeli state based upon the horrors of the holocaust, the notion that there needs to be a jewish homeland in the middle east and uh and that this homeland must be secure, and on on the surface, none of that's a problem, except when you overlay the reality of political zionism, and and you understand that the creation of the... jewish homeland

came at the cost of the uh aspirations, the lives, the dignity of hundreds of thousands of palestinians back in 1948, millions of indians today, but the jewish lobby, the pro israeli lobby has taken control of the um the political dynamic in both the united states and in europe to the extent that you can't have meaningful discussion about the reality the situation today, give you an example right now of these palestinians who are suffering, simply call this out and and talk about it, you're accused of being anti-semitic, this is one of the... that's put out there any time somebody tries to have meaningful discussion about the reality of um the middle east, the reality of israel as it currently exists, and uh, we we continue to support israel blindly, i mean, and i mean literally blindly, because if we open our eyes, we'd see the that it's literal

genocide, it's not a suggestion of genocide, it's literal genocide that's transpiring today in gaza, and it's been going on for decades, we've just ignored it, we've. pretended it wasn't happening, but we can't ignore it now. uh, well, scott, since you pointed out and you mentioned that date, 1948, uh, well, that was a time when colonialism was still a thing, there's no doubt about it, uh, but the united states, look, the america's romance with israel didn't begin in 1948, we uh, actually the american jewish community uh was a little bit hesitant uh about embracing israel because the colonial aspects because of zionism, it wasn't until 1967 war that um, you know suddenly the notion of a tiny embattled uh jewish homeland uh, this this narrative took hold and the american jewish community embraced it, but america, that's the irony of it, america has been anti-colonial um from

from the very beginning of the united nations, we were against british conolial you powers, we were against the french, we were against uh the the the dutch holdings. in the uh in the far east and yet we allowed this zionist state to be created uh in the middle east uh which is a prototypical uh colonial um methodologies of acquiring land, oppressing people etc. okay let's bring in our guest from vancouver canada who could uh add a bit of zest to that argument you just put forward scott uh well charlotte uh canada has also... so a terrible history when it comes to taking over the land of the aboriginal, the people, the first nations who were there, so do you believe that the reason why these countries are backing israel is pretty much because they are in a way complicit themselves? if we go back in history, these are the people who have

committed the same crimes. the only difference is back then there was no social media, there was no smartphone, and that is why they could get away with it. it fundamental. fundamentally, yes, i mean, i, i have to uh differ um, with scot in the assertion that you, the united states has been an anti-colonial power, while uh, certainly uh, the u.s. rebelled against british colonialism, locally, it was also engaged in a settler colonial process targeting, indigenous land and indigenous lives, and of course it has become the center of imperialist power and control in the world, particularly in the past 75. years and is the dominant colonial force in the world today, and so it's support for zionist colonialism and occupied palestine, much like canadas, is not anomaly, but part and parcel of it of the same way that the united states and canada engage in relation to asia, africa

and latin america across the board and certainly uh towards iran and towards the arab region, and we've seen this over and over and over again through. throughout the years and the zionist project always saw itself as a colonial project and it was always viewed by its western backers and supporters as mechanism of maintaining control and division against the peoples of the region and their ability to control their own resources, their own destiny and their own future. and what we saw on october 7th with the tremendous uh military operation, resistance action that was undertaken by the... palestinian resistance on october 7th, was the fact that just as in lebanon, just as elsewhere in the region, the capacities of the resistance have reached the point where it is possible to talk about defeating the occupation, it is possible to talk about

undoing colonialism in palestine in a meaningful way, not only as an ideal, but as material reality on the ground, and so what we've seen is this absolute, this absolutely. panicked um and genocidal response to that, not only by the zionist regime in occupied palestine itself, but also by every imperialist power in the world, the united states canada, britain, germany, france, italy, the the the list goes on and on, and what these countries all have in common is that they are engaged in a process of extracting the resources and value from the people of the region against the will and without the consent of the people of the region, and that the colonization of palestine is, it plays an indispensable role. in this process and so all of these states view the future of so-called israel, the

future of this zianist setler colon colonial project in occupied palestine as essentially referendum on the future of us led imperialism in the world today, and so what the palestinian resistant, the action of the palestinian resistance posed a true threat to this form of violent domination and control that has done. so much harm to people around the world, to millions upon millions, hundreds of millions, billions of people around the world, um, and that is something that they are willing to engage in all-out genocide in order to prevent that from happening, and so we're seeing that reflected obviously, most glaringly and most brutally um, you know, in the rubel that we see in gaza, in the 7,00 marters that have fallen. but also in the ongoing repression and attacks and attempts to silence any kind of

movement for justice, even as larger rallies and demonstrations come out for palestine than we've ever seen any point in history. exactly, and the organization that you represent, sam has also been repressed particularly over the past 20 days and we will definitely get to that, but let's hold that thought and go back to see if uh you were actually. able to convince him about that, and scott, what do you think it will take for people in countries such as the us, and western europe and canada to stand up for what's right, to stand on the right side of history and uh side with the oppressed palestinians. well, i mean, it's going to take a fundamental shift in the narrative. look, in the united states, we have embraced israel as an extension of ourselves, uh, the the the notion that is. israel is just like us, democracy just like us, people who share the same values and such, and so um, of

course in united states we have this very peculiar religious aspect, where um fundamental christians who are waiting for the rapture, the uh, the end of days, um, believe that this can't happen unless there's an armagedden, and in order for an armageden to exist, israel must exist, and so they blindly support israel, for for these is for any number of reasons we've been supporting israel and we've been buying into the israeli narrative that they are good, the palestinians don't have their act together, they're immature nation, uh, the fata and hamas are terrorist organizations, etc. um, will it take what's happening right now? i don't mean to be too uh flippant here, but when you say 7,00 marters, there's two million marters in gaza today. "these are people who are carrying out the kind of

non-violent resistance that has to happen to break the spirit of the oppressors, their sacrifices played out live on tv a daily basis, help expose the lies of israel, every aspect about israel today is a lie, uh, it is not a democracy, it's a repressive, fascist, zionist state, they don't comply with the law of war, they violate." the law of war on an ongoing basis. in the past, if you dare to mention this, you were shouted down, but you can't be shouted down now with the images playing themselves, not just the horrors in gaza, but the israelis themselves. the mask has fallen, listen to the zionist, defend what's going on, and you understand that these are people, they may their ancestors may be survivors of the holocaust, but these are people who embrace the same methodologies that were used by nazi germany against their grandparents, the exact. same methodologies are being used today, and people are starting to wake up, the their eyes are being opened,

and this is why you see the demonstrations in the street, and i think this is going to mark the end of political zionism, i don't think political zionism survives this crisis, as long as the people of gaza stay strong, and what i mean say strong, i mean, don't surrender, don't give in, this suffering is horrendous, but it's the suffering they're doing today, i believe is the only thing that will wake the world up, exactly, you're absolutely right, and of course, since you mentioned a public opinion, and of course, the international community becoming more aware of what is exactly is happening on the ground, and that is basically due to the day and age that we live in, where we have social media, everyone of us has a smartphone with us and with that uh cell phone, well each one of us is a reporter, which brings me to the next question from charlotte, well charlotte, sami doon has been uh repressed, you haven't

been able to operate the way you used to, first of all tell us uh, give us more details about that and how uh mainstream media is trying to take away the narrative and not allow independent media outlets uh particularly social media platforms that can allow uh independent news to spread or being repressed by world powers. well absolutely so what we're seeing across the board for organizations and movements that are working to advance palestinian liberation is that hand in hand with this genocidal assault on what we're seeing are all of the western imperialist powers kind of lining up to engage in suppression internally to try to stop this you know undeniable sea change in popular support and this undeniable sea change in public energy and opposition and rejection of their government's policies of complicity with and support for active

genocide taking place against the palestinian people so in for example this includes germany where the german state while using the excuse of you know guilt over the crimes of nazi germany, but we have to push back and challenge that narrative, because the german state isn't acting like a party that feels guilty or bad about itself. instead was actually doing is supporting fascist forces in ukraine and elsewhere, while at the same time blaming palestinians and arabs for anti-semitism, so it's actually a way of of displacing. responsibility for naziism from germany, so we see the german state is engaged in a tremendous amount of fascist repression, it's state media and corporate media in germany is engaged in the kind of incitement against the palestinian, arab and muslim population that could easily be compared with the kinds of nazi propaganda

that we saw aimed at jewish people in the 1930s and the 1940s in germany quite frankly, it's that disgusting and it's that of... calling and what we're seeing from the german state are these bands on holding demonstration, on holding any kind of action for palestine, whether it's a vigil, demonstration, a protest, um, that police are going in, they're not just banning these demonstrations, but police are going in attacking people, beating people up. we saw in frankfurt just a couple of days ago, german police um, spraying down people with water hoses and scenes reminiscent of the civil rights era in the... united states because they were holding vigil um for the martyrs of palestine. we've seen in berlin these just vicious uh attacks on palestinians and arabs and solidarity activists in the street with hundreds of people getting arrested a daily basis for saying free palestine, wearing cafia or holding a palestinian flag. um and in this course of

all of this uh german chancellor olaf schults. before uh the bundestag, the german parliament and announced that he was banning sammi duon palestinian prisoner solidarity network, our organization in germany, which has been very involved in organizing demonstrations and actions and public education about the reality of what's taking place in palestine and specifically about the liberation of palestinian prisoners, and so what we're seeing is that the german state not only wants to prevent people from coming out and expressing support for. palestine, they're engaging in really a form of state terror against palestinian communities, seeking to deport people, seeking to strip people of their residency, seeking to denationalize people because they are palestinians, because they are arabs, because they are standing up for palestine, and it is so important that people in germany and

around the world absolutely see this fascism in progress for what it is, and that take a real clear stand against it, and it can just can be seen that it's very obvious that these forces that call themselves the international community promoting so-called rules-based international order, want an order in which they make the rules and everybody else is coers to obey. they're not talking about international law, they're not talking about the laws of war. instead, they're talking about an absolute dystopia in which people are denied their fundamental rights of freedom of expression. in order to promote and assist in the active genocide against the palestinian people. so this is what's happening in germany right now and we're seeing similar scenes in france where uh the interior. minister attempted to ban all demonstrations for palestine across the country and we've seen police attacks on demonstrators, we're seeing this in britain where uh suella braverman, the infamous home

secretary who was previously best known for her attacks on migrants and refugees uh saying that saying free palestine or holding a palestinian flag would be punishable as support for terrorism, and i mean in the united states we're seeing in florida uh governor ron de santos in attempt. to prop up his failed presidential campaign, seeking to ban students for justice in palestine on florida campuses, again once again in bladent violation of the first amendment protections the us constitution, so this is a really dangerous and critical time in which supporting the palestinian people, fighting back and resisting genocide is fundamentally the key to fighting back against fascism and preserving the most basic democratic rights and everywhere in the world. thank you very much, charlotte, now i'm going to have to give more time to scott, because that took a bit longer than expected, of course i'm really grateful to you for explaining exactly

what the challenges are that you and uh people like you who are supporting uh palestine are facing in uh western european countries. so we just heard uh charlotte um telling us uh what the challenges are scott. now um what i would like to focus more. since you are in the us and uh we've heard about the lihi law and we know that uh well according to this law the us government is prohibited from helping any government that would commit a war crime and as you mentioned so yourself what's happening in gaza at the hand of israelis is the textbook example of what genocide means with ethnic cleansing means this is exactly what we read in we're seeing it unfold before our very eyes and still we see the us supporting that uh the us always boasts to be a country of a law

abiding country, if it does not abide by its own law, what does it do then? that's a good question. first of all, i just like to say that i could listen to charlotte all day, and if uh, if if you want to take all my time and give it to her, i'd be more than happy to to stand by and let that happen, she uh, she's the one being. oppressed, suppressed, and um, any chance she has to speak out, i think is is good, so i'll answer the question quickly, maybe you can go back to her, look, the united states is a walking talking um, example of hypocrisy, uh, we claim to stand for one thing, but we do another, um, you know, and on the case of israel, we've been, we've been hypocrites from from day one, uh, israel has been carrying out the you, ethnic cleansing, um, they've been... carrying out um ethnic genocide, cultural genocide, they've been trying to eliminate the palestinian people, the the very definition of genocide uh in all the of its components

applies to the israeli policies against um against the palestinians uh, you know, we it it's funny, if if you compare contrast, the the position the united states says taken against russia in ukraine, where we exaggerate everything an effort to... make russia appear as the criminals uh that they aren't, um, the exact opposite is taking place visave israel and palestine, their policies as written are war crimes, examine for instance the policy, mowing the grass of collective punishment, examine for instance the dahiya policy, mowing the grass of collective punishment. it is the official policy of israel put in writing. it is a war crime in writing. but we ignore it, the policies that have been stated, the actions, the words, the deeds of israeli politicians,