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hello and welcome to press tv spotlight. i'm marsia hashimi. thanks so much for being with us. well, it has been one month since the israeli bombardment on the civilian population of gaza started. over 9,700 people have been killed in the gaza strip, with at least 4,000 of them children. yet the genocide continues with no seas far inside, and instead the zionist regime is increasing the intensity of its attacks. hospitals,

ambulances, schools, refugee camps and anywhere where civilians exists, this all with the total support of the american and british regimes. however, the people of the world have awaken and are protesting against this genicide from indonesia to the united states, brazil to south africa, from north, south, east and west, the world has risen up against the zionist regime. the narrative is changing. i'd like to welcome my guest. to the program out of hamilton ontario, from hamilton coalition to stop the war, ken stone out of the johannesburg, south africa attorney activist and political analyst zakir ahmed, well thank you both for being with me, i'd like to start this off uh with ken, i mean your analysis of the... role the united

states is playing in this genocide and its continuation? well the us is continuing its traditional role of enabling israel to commit horrific war crimes, the us uses israel as a proxy state to try countries in the arab world under its thumb, and instance uh biden has publicly supported israel uh by refusing to call for a immediate ceasefire or lifting the siege of gaza, so publically uh the u.s. administration is supporting the israeli line, and the other thing that they're doing is they are sending massive amounts of firepower to the middle east area, west asia, four carrier fleets, which is half the operational surface fleet of the united states. plus 2000 marines, plus tons and tons

of of uh war material in dozens of cargo planes, plus funding, so the us is trying to create... a massive show of force in the middle east to deter hezballah and the people and the islamic republic iran from coming to the rescue of the people in gaza who are undergoing what is clear before everyone's eyes to be an unfolding. okay, okay, this is not the first war by the israeli regime. against the people of gaza, but there have never been such widespread protest that we're witnessing um right now, residential towers were bombed uh before and civilians were killed, especially kids and other wars, but what makes this time different in your perspective that we're seeing so many people

around the world um awaken? so look at it in terms of israel's previous engagements in gazza and their previous slaughters. particularly 2008 2009, one of the most documented massacres that had been committed amongst the palestinians in the history, and when you look at what transpired during 2008 to 009 operation gast leid, israel had a well-oiled pr machine, they use someone called avitar libovic, female spokesperson in the hope of soffening the image of israel, because in the israeli eyes death ' comes softer from lady's voice instead of a male's voice, so israel had these plans, but i think in this particular genocide that is taking place, israel has abandoned its mask, it has truly fallen, and the rest of the world is seeing israel for what it is, it is genocidal, colonialist, settler apart state.

in fact, the statements from the get go was about genocide when when yoaf gallant spoke about human animal. when he spoke about starving a population, preventing water, food, fuel, this is not to hamas, this is to the palestinian people, and when you look at the sheer scale of bombardment and the targets that have been chosen, it's admitted by the israelis that their target bank had been depleted within the first day, there after they started bombing anything and everything that they could put a target on, so what the world is seeing today is the true face of israel. and i think this is expressed even by the failure of the abraham accords, countries such as bahrain have expelled ambassadors etc and taken diplomatic action, so i think that what the world is seeing today is israel as it was, as it is, and no longer can the fasad of israel as democratic

state be upheled, it is being exposed as genocidal maniac state that cannot be allowed to continue in its trajectory as we see now today. your thoughts on that, ken, isakar says that the basically the mass has been lifted, um, there seems to be, i mean, if we look at the unbelievable amount of outrageous statements being made uh, whether we're talking about the israeli officials, um, from okay and genocide to nuking the people, and of course the american, some american officials too, um, actually, and what they have. said, why do you think this time around has been chosen to let the mass drop? it's probably due to the different nature of the israeli government, you have a criminal,

literal criminal, who is avoiding a prosecution by being a office, he's a lied with the most extreme, racist uh pro uh us elements in his government, they have been saying and doing things that are um that would would have been unthinkable to say publicly and do publicly some years ago, but we have to remember that the vast majority of the people in the world support palestine, and even in the west, there there has been a growing support for the palestinian cause. in canada, we know from... viable public opinion pulls that uh two-thirds of canadians support the palestinian cause, and the fact that the israeli government is coming out with these genocidal statements and blood thirsty calls for death of palestinians, racist statements

about palestinians being cockroaches and human animals has further enraged the population, which is already pro-palestinian. and has been increasingly so for decades, um, not, not a penny of their millions of dollars they spend here in canada on propaganda and uh their their... holocaust museums, none of those have any effect on the people of canada who are watching the this genocide or this ethnic cleansing unfold before their very eyes, and the fact that the government of canada, the the governments of france, britain, the us, the usual, the usual suspects of neocolonialism are refusing to bow to the wishes of the people who are in increasingly on the street, this only makes people angrier and angrier and more willing

to come out and demonstrations, we call this, i'm an old teacher, you know, and we call this teachable moment, and so at this moment people's eyes are open, their ears are listening, and so they whereas they they were kind of blind and indifferent in the past to our to our uh, our calls to support the palest unian people, this time, this time, they are joining us, they are listening, and they are coming out into the street to to demand of the western government to call for ceasfire, to call for the lifting of the siege of gaza, it's a sea change, it's a gigantic sea change, and and behind, just dealing with the zionist regime, uh, i want to look at it, because uh, more and more people are coming out, um, as kinness just said, and they're saying. "a lot of them, they never knew the the real story, they're just finding out the real story of uh

palestine and how the zinanists uh usurped their land and killed them and displaced them and so on, um, but these beyond what they're becoming aware of with the zionist regime, there also seems to be another aha moment, if we want to say, in dealing with these western regimes that said they stood for democracy, that said they said for human rights, um, that said they represented and supported international law, and and i want your take on that, and how likely is that to back fire on these regimes? i think you've hit the nail on the head, as to one of the reasons why, not the only reason, but one of the reasons why, this this particular conflict is different and is attracting global support in a manner in which the previous engagements have not, this time it's a... global configuration, they had spoken about regional wars before that if hazballah gets involved,

evaran gets involved, it would become a regional battle, no, it's now become a global battle, if we look at the resources that have been dispatch to protect israel while it commits a genocide, we look at the countries that are involved, the united states, the united kingdom, you have italy, france, germany sending statements and now i have noted that... the french has sent the helicopter carrier to participate in the protection of the zine state as well, so you have this configuration a global scale of the western nations against countries like the the people of lebanon, syria, iraq, the islamic republic of iran, of yemen, and you see this configuration, and that is attracting lot of attention from the global community, what it has also done is that... it has tested the true implementation of human rights, implementation of human rights

has been exposed to be for those that are in the western world, it's human rights for the united states, it's human rights for those in europe, but those that are not in europe, those that are perhaps in africa, or those in the middle east, no, they are viewed as lesser and not entitled to the protections of everyone else, and that is what we are seeing today, the united states is not going... to spread freedom throughout the world, they are protecting a colonial settler nation whilst they commit genocide, and the thing that changes, i think a lot of the the opinions of ordinary people is social media, because unlike other genecides unlike other atrocities, this is being documented by the minute, right now gazza is being pummelled by hundreds of air strikes, truly atrocious, internet is being cut, and this is being seen by the world. so what you have now is the fraudulence of democracy being exposed to the rest of the world and the global order as

well being demonstrated as not sustainable and must be changed, that is why you see this groundswell of people rejecting the current status quo? well, interesting point you made, can what do you think about that, as we're seeing on the one hand, this ground swell uh from civilians, regular people, um, we're also seeing this again, unbelievable support from these regimes, as if they have no choice, but whatever it takes to make sure that the israeli regime, continues as is and continues having this impunity, so what we're facing here, it seems is a transition, a global transition that is actually separating the people from their regimes, and and what's the significance of this overall and where is this going in your perspective? uh, i agree

with uh zucker, 100%. people are taking the streets because they realize. in the west, at least that their governments are complicit in this ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing in palestine, and it's never been so clear before, and it's on their tv screens every hour, every single hour on all the tv screens, so you cannot avoid it, and so people are having to make decision, and they're getting, as i said, because there are they were already mostly two-thirds in canada for example. on the side of the palestinian people, because for example in canada we've had years and years of trying to uh deal with the genocide of native people in this country and people talk about truth and reconciliation and they they know now about the residential schools and the attempts of uh to uh they know about the ethnic cleansing

in canada and they know about the the attempts at cultural genocide so they can understand uh finally what's going on in palestine and this has been a project of colonialism, european colonialism, first back by the british in the ballford declaration and later by the united states, using israell as a power projection point in the middle east, and so people are are are wisening up, and they are angry um... but they're the they're not angry uh, they are angry at the the politicians who are refusing to listen to what the people are calling for, namely immediate ceasefire and lifting the siege of gaza, and as a result, um, they are, they are becoming more and more um, i wouldn't say the word radicalized, but more involved in this

fight which is uh taking place on the streets to... try and try and pressure their governments to do the right thing. now i don't think that that the the actions of the us and israel call into question the international system. these these countries have a policy of exceptionalism, that the rules of international law don't apply to them. they are rogue states and every um every time there's a public opinion poll in the middle east or in the world, which are the most dangerous countries in the world, it's not. iran, it's not lebanon, it's not russia, it's not china, it's always the us, number one, and israel number two, so people are are wisening up, what, what, there is a problem at the un, in that there, the un security council cannot get its act together to bring about a ceasefire and a lifting of

the siege of gaza, so of course there are. just jump in here, is it that they can't get their act together? because we have seen the un get their acts together very quickly when it comes to certain countries, whether we're talking about libya, whether we're talking about iraq, um, whether we're talking about syria, um, whether we're talking about russia and dealing with the ukraine and iran itself, i mean, so they can, the united nations can, when it's wanted to um do something, but yes, we we know that we have the five countries and the... power, but we we have seen no fly um zones implemented over countries, we definitely have seen sanctions, we've even seen unilateral sanctions, which are actually illegal allegedly, but definitely still being implemented, so obviously there is a difference, and some ask, is it that those lives, those lives from these western regimes for them, what happens in that area is more

important to this international entity than what happens in this part of the world? are you are you asking me saying with you ken? yeah, saying with you. okay, uh, well, yes, there is a clearly double standard which you and i have talked about before, marzi, about, for example, the uh, the civilian casualties, the attack, the outright blatant attack on civilians in gaza, which gets away with virtually no condemnation in the western capital. and we're talking about few a lot fewer civilians who've been killed in ukraine uh the last year and a half of the russian special military operation, it's only listed in low thousands, whereas we see thousands killed every single day in gaza, so there is

double standard uh, in the world's media and and in the governments of the west, they clearly palestinian and non-white lives do not count as much as people who are in the west who have white skin and and blonde hair and the blue eyes and the blue eyes of course which we heard during the the whole ukraine. situation, but zanket, um, there are growing number of people making videos now, um that the people of gaza have inspired them to read quran um, increasing number of them are becoming muslim. i mean, your thoughts are on the irony of it all. it reminds me of being in the u.s. after 911, after the creation of all of that, and then people at the end of the day, they wanted to see what, what, what is this islam about? i mean, what does this quran say and what they saw was so different than what the the that they had heard all their lives, and it truly affected him, i

mean your take on this, it's been amazing, i've been um looking through lot of these videos lately, i think one of the key points that has drawn lot of attention to the religion of islam is the manner in which the people of ghaza have shouldered and accepted their pain. they have constantly relied on religious verses, we have complete reliance in god, this is god's plan, and i think that any human being that watches the devastation and the death that is being reined upon gazza a daily basis, as my colleague has referred to, i i think that would break any soul, yet the people of gaz remain resilient, they remain patient, they remain stead fast, and this is a truly astonishing feet, and when you look at the depth as to why they are still resilient after so many years of bloccade, after being bombarded after having

their family slaughted in front of their eyes, it comes back to the their depth in religion and their faith in the almighty's plan, and i think that's what's inspiring people, it's not just that it's giving them the strength, but it's inspiring humanity to understand that you need something deeper at times. and this is what the palestinian people have, and this is what israel is trying to extinguish, in fact they are trying to destroy a concept, if you look at hamas, hamas is not just a building or structure, it's a way of life, it's a thought process and it is anchored in islam, and that is what israel is stating as their goal of of destroying hamas and by implication the islamic movement and then the annexation of entire palestine, this is what they are trying to bring about, and the global community is not going to allow that. we are one nation, we are one people effectively, and that we must allow plurality, that is what the global community wants, and by doing so i think it will inadvertently attract

people to to the faith to determine what gives the palestinian the strength, and i think it's very clear for all to see today, and on that note, thank you both for being with me on this program, kenstone from the hamilton coalition, stop the war out of hamilton ontario, attorney activist and political analyst out of johannesburg, south africa. and thank you viewers for being with us uh on another spotl signing out for myself and all the crew right here in tehran, hope to see you right here next time.

بيعملوا برك وبيتسبحوا فيها وممنوع تسقي غنمك او جمالك او تشرب حتى. most of the water we

saw. قاموا في هدم ثلاثه ابار جوفيه في المنطقه واعتقال اصحاب هذه الابار. تصور المي اللي اسرائيل بتطالب انه احنا نستغلها هي ميه مجاري مجاري نابلس. now entering its uh uh fourth day, we're looking at uh.

israel pushing ahead with its attacks on refugee camps, medical centers and schools in gaza raising the fatalities a one-monh a war to nearly 10,000. iran's leader italy tells the visiting hamas political bureau.