hello and welcome to press tv spotlight, i'm marsia hashi, thanks so much for being with us. well, after 48 days of israeli genocide, the regime was forced into an agreement and ceasfire. 39 palestinians were freeed from israeli prison on friday, out of the palestinians who had been held, 24 of them are women, and 15 of them were children. now, this reality brings to the forefront the frequency that the israeli regime arrests children arbitrarily and many times without ever. even charging them, why does the regime

target palestinian and women and children so much? israel persecutes palestinians by million detainment practices, there are currently about 8,000 palestinians in israeli jails including 3,000 detained over the past seven weeks since the events of october 7th, over 2,0 of the detainees are being held under administrative detention though, those legally charged are judged by israeli military courts with near total conviction rate. there are hundreds of children among the detainees. at least 700 palestinian children under 18 are prosecuted every year by israel. administrative detention refers to detention without charge and trial. the practice is illegal under international law. under the prisoners exchange deal, between

israel and hamas, several dozen palestinian prisoners, mostly women and children will be released. some of the released prisoners include mara bekir, a 24-year-old girl who was released after eight years in prison. she was brutally injured and detained by the israeli police in 2015 when she was 16 years old. during her detention she was abused and humiliated by israeli security. malak sulaiman, another 24 year old girl released after eight years in prison. she was kidnapped as a 16-year-old by the israeli police on her way back from school. ahmed manasrah, 21 years old, was released after eight years in prison. as a 13-year old, he was kidnapped and detained by the israeli forces after being overrun and injured by a car, during.... his detention, he was put in

solitary confinement several times against the international law and suffered from serious mental health problems. what i like to welcome my guests to this program and take a look at that, look at that in a lot more out of caventry uk steve bell activist, stop the war coalition and out of montreal, canada eves engler, arthur. and political activists. well, thank you both for being with me. on this spotlight, let's start it off in the uk. um, with steve, i want to look at first of all uh, the the situation with this secefire and the exchange of pris prisoners. mean, why do you think that the israeli regime agreed to the ceasefire and to the prisoner exchange, because of course in a very beginning they said that they would not pause at all. i think they have agreed the

ceasefire under pressure um directly from the of united states government, i think there's also been pressure applied internally from the relatives um of the prisoners and consequently these forces have um pushed the uh israeli government to accept a position it previously rejected behind this of course lies the resilience of the palestinians themselves, their absolute refusal to um surrender to the israeli war efforts, and secondly the extraordinary international mobilization of people around the world in defense of the palestinians, this has created pressure inside uh many governments which is reflected upon the shift. position of the us

administration, the breakup of the eu consensus on the issue, this is the big development which have led to the concession by the israeli government for a temporary ce fire and prisoner exchange. well eves, um, how is it that the fourth most expensive military in the world, the israeli regime has not been able to reach its goal of stopping hamas after over seven weeks of bombings and even a ground invasion. well clearly hamas is better organized uh we saw that of course with october 7th um then um the israeli military israeli intelligence uh thought uh also of course the palestinian people have have shown incredible steadfastness

resilience um and uh you know i i i think the israelis kind of hyped up the fact that their forces were all um keen to fight. uh and i think they are keen to launch um missiles into gaza and they are keen to uh stay outside and you know blow up shoot snipers shoot people's knee caps off like they did in 2018 and 2019 in the marching return um but um i think they're a little bit less uh keen on getting into the uh streets of gaza city and uh fighting hand to hand where the technological um advances of the israeli military are are uh lessened visas fighters and uh that's of course very brutal war i don't um you know no one should want to do that and and ideally in a better world no one would ever do that um but uh so i think that

the the resistance um of hamas has has clearly uh you know there dozens and dozens i don't know we don't know the exact number of israeli soldiers that have been killed. fighting in last couple weeks and um and so that's one of the factors that's gone into um forcing an about turn from uh netanyahu. well steve, when we look at the palestinians who were released in the exchange, we see that they are women and children. in general, why are there so many palestinian and women and children in israeli prisons? it's as if they're targeted. because this um, the oppression of the palestinians is an overall oppression, um, it is not focused on particular politics of parties or anything, it is a general oppression of the palestinians, consequently they face a risen

people with um, the whole of the palestinian community prepared to resist on occasion. by different means and the arbitrary character of um israeli power is that it cannot tolerate any genuinely independent expression um of palestinian self-determination and expression of their rights. consequently there is liable to pick up youngsters uh children in the community um as they are um older men um they're equally liable to pick up women who are resisting um the uh oppression of their uh community um as strongly as any uh men palestinian men are so the arbitrary nature of israeli rule means that they will sweep anyone up in the um from

the community let's look at the reality of israeli prisons because the palestinian kid can be imprison up to 20 years. for throwing rocks, i mean, what does this mean? well, it means that um israel oversees the brutal occupation, which we all knew, uh, but the release of prisoners has just sort of shown a light on the absolute utter, double standard hypocrisy of all those people who've been moaning on and on about hostages, hamas's hostages. well, we're seeing that israel has far more hostages and have had them for far longer, and they can come up with any, ostensible justification for imprisoning these these 12-year-olds, 13 year olds and 14-year-olds uh for extended periods, but

this is absolute brutality, um, it's it's just totally horrendous, this business that we hear endlessly about israel being this democracy, moral light, uh, it's just... complete and utter uh absurdness that um this you know the releasing of of children and women and and and the gaze into the conditions that the palestinians are are detained in often uh the just just complete depravity of of of how uh the zionist uh occupation force operates. well steve, over the years thousands of palestinians have been arrested arbitrarily and not even charged and can be held indefinitely under the israeli administrative detention law. your thoughts about this administrative detention. law and the way it is used, it serves very important

purpose for the um israeli regime because it allows them to act on suspicion rather than on um any evidence, it therefore has a function in terrorizing the general community that if you say a wrong word, if you appear to be in opposition, "if your family has connections, then you can face indefinite detention, which can be constantly renewed. this is a threat um, which uh is necessary for the israeli government, because they operate on the basis of oppressing the entire palestinian people, they have to have such brutal and arbitrary measures, because that's the only" way they can maintain their power, there's no element of consent in their relationship uh to the palestinian community,

is only coersion, evs there were uh children who released on friday who had been held in israeli prison, for years and some whom have never been charged, i mean doesn't this contradict international law, and why hasn't the regime been forced to abide by international law before now? because it's given uh diplomatic uh uh immunity essentially from washington primarily, but also from countries like canada, when there was an effort to bring uh israel to the international criminal court, the canadian government sent a letter um calling them for it not to happen, threatening canadian funding for the icc uh, a couple months ago, that was in 2020, couple months ago, un resolution for international court of justice to rule on the country's responsibilities uh

visa v israel's contravention of international law with its expansion of settlements in the west bank and uh again uh canada sent a letter to the international court of justice to to demand they don't even rule even though the general assembly had called for a for a its opinion a courts opinion on the matter called for not even to have an opinion, not even release an opinion on the matter, so israel gets away with this stuff because it has the backing of obviously the most powerful country in the world, but also those you know the other nato countries or the anglosphere, um that that basically uh make sure that not only that there it's not held to account in you international forums, but that the world media, the canadian, us, other the dominant, global media powers don't even really investigate um these matters, and

and they toe the israeli government line, um, so israel's able to operate um, in total violation of international law on innumerable different fronts, and um, and there's basically nothing that happens. do you think steve, that? as more more people have uh during this time come to realize the reality the israeli regime um and uh basically not abiding by international law, is it likely now that we're going to see a change perhaps with the people and the movement that is taking a place globally can put pressure on their governments which can pressure the regime, how likely do you think this is to happen? "well, i, i think the movement is already putting pressure upon uh, the

governments, the question, i think i take it as how, how how much further will this go, and will it be consolidated? i think that the us government, for example, is already shifting its position, it's allowed um, the israely government considerable uh latitude, but judging by biden's remarks, yes." today when he expressed some concern um about the number of civilian casualties and that um he indicated - perhaps there are circumstances that pressure should be applied to israel, rather than unconditional aid from the united states, this is a different shift, we see also in the british government um is now talking in terms of the need for israel to respect international law, there's been too many casualties, and so this isn't because these governments have suddenly developed a

conscience, this is because these governments have been witnessing very substantial popular mobilization. as have many and other european governments and governments throughout the world. this is very, this is a phenomenal movement and it is having uh already an impact. the question is can we keep the movement going so that the temporary fire can be extended. that is what we have to see in the coming days. well, what about that? is your political activist. you heard what steve said, can this movement be extended, because obviously what is necessary is continued awareness about uh what the israeli regime really does, and it's the illegalities. do you think that the activism that we've seen uh during the last six or seven weeks uh can continue and actually uh come up or possibly create a change in the way these western

governments especially back the israeli regime? yeah, mean i it can uh, obviously that's in the hands of the people and that's the hands of every individual uh who can make the choice to go to the demonstration, can make the choice to uh go to the occupation of a mps office, can make the choice to um sign the petition that can make the choice to donate to that organization, it of course can happen, we have uh the resources, the human resources, the creative resources, the financial resources, etc. to to continue it, it of course gets difficult uh with time. what we've seen here in canada is a the clearly the biggest internationalist anti-war and of course pro-palestinian mobilization that we've seen at least since 2003, maybe even uh uh since longer. um, and today in

ottawa, there is a march on otta, so people are coming from montreal, toronto. kingston, hamilton, the cities in the region to to march on uh parliament hill, canada's, canada's capital, um, where parliament is, that's that should be a big demonstrations happening right now, um, there's also mobilizations that have happened are happening today in other cities that are further away, and uh, we've had just an remarkable, yesterday uh justin trudeau, the prime minister in his meeting with the european union officials out in newfindland, uh, he was hackled by... dozens of people saying it blood in her hands, they protested at both venues where there were the meetings and that got reported on the paper today, um, there's been all kinds of um, you know, bridges that have been uh uh blocked, there have been uh tons of different fundraisers for different political parties that have been disrupted, press conferences, um, it

really is a remarkable uh people power uh, there's a the railway line and win was blockaded a couple days ago over this issue um so uh all kinds of arms companies have been targeted obviously all the stuff on university campuses, it's it's this is all people doing this voluntarily, it's very very difficult to sustain it, it's getting very cold here, gets harder in the winter time, but but it but it's possible, mean it's up to people, it's it's up to people finding that energy and saying that enough, enough of our government, our politicians uh enabling this apart time uh genocidal uh states violence against uh against palestinians, what about that steve, it has been amazing to see this turnaround and this growing awareness of people uh globally, um, and and to see the israeli regime losing the narrative. um, do you think that we are witnessing the

beginning of the end of the israeli regime? well, i think. think that this current situation is changing um the uh status quo in the middle east, it's unclear exactly how uh things will um develop and much of it depends upon whether or not the united states government is prepared to increase the pressure uh upon the israeli government in the short term. we know that the war aims of the israeli government um which are essentially annexing gaza, displacing the palestinian population wherever they choose to be driven, that's the israeli aim, that isn't. shared by the us government, they are quite happy to see the israelis assault um the palestinians and hopefully from their point of view finish hamers, however the is

the you biden cannot accept the idea of new nakbar. he knows that the u.s. government's position will be destroyed in the middle east for a generation, if that happens even amongst friendly regimes. so it's unclear exactly how things are going to develop, but the momentum um is there in the mass mobilizations, and the palestinians certainly aren't about giving up, so we know the situation is changing, the inside israel itself, there'll be an accounting at certain point over net with netanyahu, because we know that there's a great fury at the way. in which the israeli government has handled um uh matters, so there will be a change exactly how things develop, i think it's unclear, unclear at the moment, but the palestinian

action and the mobilization of people around the world has led to a changing situation, and on that note, i think both of you for being with me, on this spotlight, steve bell activist stop the war coalition, country uk zinkler. author and political activist out of montreal, and as always viewers, we appreciate you being with us on another spotlight, i'm signing out for myself and other group right here in tehran, hope to see you right here next time, goodbye.

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