hello, welcome, you're watching the spotlight on press tv. i'm at the israeli genocide in gaza, the death toll. continues to rise with over 80 palestinians killed in the past day alone. israeli air strikes, artillery, fire and ground operations have devastated civilian areas, including un shelters and schools. while properties have been destroyed and tensions remain high across gaza, the situation remains dire for the palestinians in the west bank as well. with nearly 10,000 palestinians detained since october 7th, some 600 people, including over 1 130 children

killed and more than 5,350 others injured by the israeli army and addition of spotlight we will discuss the dimensions of the recent developments in the occupied territories. and to do so we are joined by jamal wakim, professor of international relations from the lebanese university of bayrut. also we have with us eve angler, author and political activist joining live from montreal. thank you very much to both of you gentlemen. let's begin with mr. jamal wakim who's joining us from beirot. how do the latest israeli military operations in gaza in the west bank compare to the previous escalations? well, the israelis are trying to enforce uh and new

reality in the west bank trying to take over more land for settlement for illegal settlements and at the same time there's a way for them to make the living of the palestinians and the west bank unbearable as part of their plan to cause the mass exhausts of the palestinian towards jordan. this is what they are also doing in gaza by the way because they want to transfer the palestinian people out of their land. towards sai on one hand and jordan on the other hand in order implement the the the original plan of the science to impose the jewish state in palestine on all of the lands of the historic palestine. so even your opinion what is what are the key drivers behind this surge and violence? well the was in our guest from montreal, i'm sorry sorry. "well, i think

that the, i mean, the drivers are the, fanatical, uh, zianist regime. uh, netanyaho, i think specifically, the the the recent massacers in gaza, killing nine people, claiming they were seeking out a hamas official, that was designed sabotage the negotiations, uh, which nean yahu doesn't want anything to do with, he wants to prolong the the the the fighting and the killing, um, now..." in the you know in the west bank i think the dynamics a little bit different, i think that the point there is of course to just steal more and more land and uh and they crush any any uh any palestinian resistance, but i think yeah the macro, the drivers are this a you know a regime, a colonial project that wants um as few palestinians and as much of their land as um as possible. okay so back to beirut mr. wakim, you just heard uh our other guest if uh drawing a line between

drivers in the west bank and those in gaza, you agree with what he said? yeah, i fully agree with what he said, because this is part of a colonization plan, this is the policy of designs ever since they established their project in in palestine and the the genocide that is being committed by the israelis in the in gaza. and in the west bank are part of fulfilling this aim of establishing this state in palestine and render it as base for israeli and us gemony in the with okay so eve considering the fact that you pointed to the motivation of land grab as the main drive in the west bank uh do you believe that the international community has turned a blind eye what's happening to the west bank because

of the atrocities that are happening in gaza? you know, i wouldn't, i don't like the word blind eye here, because i think that and and and you got to break down the international. community, i think everything israel does, it is being uh massively assisted by the us uh, obviously giving them weapons, giving them intelligence, giving them all kinds of charitable donations, same thing government with much lesser extent, but nonetheless significant extent provides all kinds of support, so so i i think that the horrors in gaza take most of the attention, and so that kind of gives a little bit of a... opportunity uh for the you know the soldiches and the the really hard lionists to to steal even more land even more quickly than they have been doing in recent years or recent decades, and that's what we're seeing with the you know decision to make a whole bunch of palestinan land, israeli state land and

stuff like that um, but but i think that the you know it's it's it's it's something much more than you turning a blind eye, it's it's direct involvement, now the king government. claims and the us government to sl they claim that you know settlements are are undermine the peace process or they'll say they contraven uh international law um but in practice they don't do anything uh they don't or they do them absolute minimum of a couple fanatic settlers will be you canada sanction like four fanatic settlers and and stuff like that um but but they basically they enable they enable the israeli state and there's all kinds of ways of stuff, i mean there's like there's thousands of canadians for instance that are like living in settlements in the west bank, you have you have these these um uh real estate here in montreal where i a few months ago there was a real estate fair where they were selling uh homes to to jewish canadians or israelies in in in montreal in

the west bank right so that you'll have them come and do like real estate fair to sell off you illegal colonies to sell off the land in these illegal colonies right in front of everyone's eyes and similar dynamics have been taking place in us cities um so there's a a um direct uh complicity enabling um and yes the the horrors in gaza i think have kind of put the west bank dynamic a little bit uh you know off of the media tension but it's um you know that's mostly what we're talking about okay so eve uh the reason why i use the phrase turn a blind eye is basically because we do have uh legal proceedings underway in the icc and in the... icj, which is specifically with respect to what's happening in gaza, genocide there and the humanitarian situation there. however, we do know that all settlements are illegal in the occupied territories, according to a un resolution. still, there are no legal proceedings there.

this is basically why i use the word turn a blind eye to these uh land grabs. do you still believe that it's not the proper phrase to use? i do, i do. i still, i think the canadian government, there was um... decision or the general assembly about year and a bit ago, year half ago uh put forward a resolution calling on the international court of justice before the you know horrors and guys over the past nine or 10 hours uh calling on the international court of justice to render an opinion about state's responsibility responsibilities visa v israel's uh illegal uh colonies war crimes in the west bank the canadian government went and uh actually sent a um letter to the icj requesting the icj uh refuses to fulfill what the general assembly of the un voted by the vast majority member states to render its legal opinion on state's responsibilities so like the level of of um complicity of a

country like canada in in these in these war crimes is is starting also you look at if you look at back in 2020 the international criminal court the the previous chief prosecutor and looking at israel's uh uh war crimes, which of course include the settlements in in the west bank, and the canadian government's reaction was to uh send letter to the icc uh uh with basically a threat that canada is a big funder to the icc and maybe will cut your money if you start investigating israel's uh israel's war crimes, so so the role of a country like canada, you is even even greater, also there's all these registered charities canada that are supporting uh projects in the occupied uh west bank, so they getting financed, the subsidized but they can government individuals give donations to these or these groups, they're being they're receiving tax credits so being subsidized by the canadian state um so there's all these just different ways in which uh we're facilitating and this is this is a more than

hundre year process, you look back historically look back at the role of things like the jewish national fund of canada that was set up in 1910 to raise funds for the colonization of palestine we've been doing uh for a long time um the the intensity is ebbed and flow and there slightly different dynamics over the past century plus, but but basically you know canada has been uh uh a participant in israel's uh crass violation of international law uh in the west bank for you 60 years. okay, so mr. wiem, our guest from montreal did extensively explain to us uh canada's position regarding the situation, particularly in the west bank, and your opinion, how has the biden administration's approach to uh the whole issue, impacted the situation? well the bidon administration has

been one of the most supportive administrations, us administrations to israel, and it turned a blind eye to all claims by the palestinian people for forbidding them from having the rights of statehood and national sovereignty and the biden administration didn't start to... talking about as two states solution for example, except after the eruption of the 7th of october attack by hamas against settlements, so and so far the bodian administration has been supportive of israel by giving it full political support and at the same time providing it with all that it needs. in terms of ammunition and support, so the biden administration has been one of the

most supportive administrations in the history of the united states to israel, the with this regard to the hostility, the personal hostility between biden and netanyahu, and that's why i don't believe that the palestinians can count on administration, all they could count on is their strength. the the their resistance and of course the support that is given to them by the other resistance groups such as the hethies in yeman, lebanon, syrian government and iran and the iraqi, mr. wakim, well there seems to be some technical difficulties there, so if in uni sorry the the... the the internet is is so bad, okay, please continue, please continue, yeah, yeah, well, once

again, let's bring in eve from montreal, our guest from beirot did point to the regional aspects of this genocidal war that is ongoing now, what are the potential regional implications in your opinion, this conflict, particularly considering the tensions in southern lebanon? yeah, first thing i just want to say to add to my colleague who was describing the american's indifference to the settlement expansion, they it was i think i believe it was jake sullivan, the security advisor for biden that like four days before october 7th published this piece, maybe two days uh in foreign affairs and prestigious establishment uh foreign policy journal where he he talks about the quiet and says nothing about palestine and then he actually has like change the article uh few days later after know what happened, so the americans until hamas

uh launched their operations october 7, they were happy to just see israel stealing more and more palestinian land and oh it's quote and quiet and and that's good for us and the like now with regards to uh the regional implication, i think the regional implications are really serious, i mean i think this still has the possibility of leading to a regional war and and it's you there's obviously fighting uh with against yemen, the americans are bombing, there's that which is completely tied israel's holocaus to gaza, also there's of course the um the on the lebanese front uh there's you know i think 550 lebanes have been killed over the past uh nine or 10 months uh there's i don't exact number of israelies but dozens and dozens of israelis that have been killed there's you know 60 90 100 thousand people on both sides that have been have been displaced. "and that fighting is is picking up, you have these crazy statements from israeli officials about we can you know turn

uh beirot into the back to the stone age and stuff like that uh which galant made when he was in washington dc two or three weeks ago um uh so that fighting uh can very well pick up and and um i i think the netanhou government does want to just continue the fighting uh of course they've been trying endlessly to draw the us into..." uh war with iran, there was that effort back in april, of course, blowing up iranian diplomatic compound in damas, um, and but i think with regard to uh hezbolah uh... of course has the ability uh to you know hurt israel in a very significant way, much, much, much greater than than hamas has or any palestinian resistance, um, and and then and then israel would probably ramp things up and you you get spiral out of control, but you know the hezbil has been pretty clear that that there

uh they're willing to stop if israel puts a stop to its horrors in gaza, but it refuses to do that, wants to you know blow up uh unra schools and unra facilities like they just did in recent hours and and they have unra you know denounced uh israel for doing that and they just you continue to destroy more and more stuff uh across gaza and and uh you know this is this is the history though i mean realistically this is the history of zionism the history of zionism is is not just stealing palestini land and and you know killing palestinians and that it's it's causing mayham across the region and bombing. they bomb pretty much every country in the region, you destabilized countries in the region, they've they've been this outpost of of uh european north american power in the middle east, and and i think that you know the the situation with regard to lebanon is just more of of that, which is that israel's reaction to everything is is violence and more violence, and so long as the us is

delivering these 500 pound or 2000 pound bombs, giving them to israel, um, it's... likely that israel is gna keep uh keep with its violent hapts. okay, so it seems that we have mr. jamal wakim back on the phone with us. mr. wakim, if you could please tell us in your opinion, if you could please tell us uh, the potential regional implications were explained by uh our guest from montreal. in your opinion, is there any possible negotiation for a cease fire? are there any doors that? remain open for any kind of settlement? well, i believe that from the palestinian side there is a the door is open for settlement, however it's mainly benim that is obstructing all possibility for settlement because he he represents the extreme right wing in the zinest entity on

one hand and he wants to achieve victory which is which he is far from doing so far, so that's why he keeps trying, he has failed in all his declared objectives and this is the reason why he is trying to to pressure the resistance through what considers as softy which is targeting the civilians and he wants to continue his attack and genocidal war counting on the election of donald trump in few months. thinking that he would fair better with donald trump and that's why i believe that we are facing a dilemma here, because the israelis, the majority of the israelis want to see fire, the resistance is ready for a c fire if it fulfills its preerequisites, which is sustained spire on

one hand, the the the liberation of the palestinian prisoners of war. in in the presence of the zionist occupation and at the same time to rebuild the the gas trip. this is something that netanyahu doesn't want to do, he wants to keep targeting the the resistance on one hand, he wants to pressure the civilian population to leave the gaza strip and at the same time he wants to forbid them from returning mainly to their homes in northern gaza. while maintaining a certain status for where he could control the gaza trip without having to occupy it uh so all this makes us face dead block and this is why the negotiations are still dragging on okay thank you very much and eve just wrapped this up and we have less than a minute left so a

quick answer to this question do you expect anything to come out from the un palestine meeting on the 17th of july? in two days, i don't, i don't, buse buse, so long as the us keeps giving the bombs and countries like canada uh keep uh all its different forms of support, i don't i don't think that there's going to be any uh fundamental change to the dynamic unless of course if there's some popular up rising within israel and finally the uh the israeli public starts seeing palestinians as human beings um but so long as the they're giving the all the weapons and all the support. from the world's on, there's nothing significant that's going to change. thank you very much. now was eve angler, author and political activist to joined us from montreal. we also had with us, professor of international. relations from lebanese university in beirot, and with that we come to the end of this edition of spotlight. thank you for watching.

sending an iranian oil tanker to syria. to golf, the oil tanker was seized by irgc forces.

really impressive how still today mountain give to people the sent the idea of freedom, imam hussein's message of defiance against oppression and dictatorship. is relevant for all times and applicable for broad audience for generations to come, in the land where

the righteous took a sam with freedom in his hands for justice and for liberty he fought with might against the dark. oppressive night, they wrong him, left us king to first, in the cruelest sun their pain was cursed, baby's cry, the freak from dark pierced in a sense, broke the heart, sayings are true, every land, and the surah forever will stand, don't think it ended with husain's last breath, or his infants cry at the edge of death. whose sing find our guiding lines in just falls to in this night from kababala to

palestine in every land his spirit shines today in palestine infants fall to the echo - trueers call in first and hunger. oppressed they lie underneath a relentless sky, the spears that struck hussain back, then other rockets raining down again, the stones once cast with cruel disdain, a bullets now causing endless pain, hussain lives on his path still clear a fight for justice without fear, in this journey no side and joseph neutrality means the oppressers are embolden, who says fight our guiding lines injustice

falls to inless night from kabala to palestine in every land his spirit shines and choose our path in his noble way with husain spirit. we fight today for freedom, justice and humanity, we stand with him in solidarity.

your headlines on press tv, israely forces kill 80 more palestinians in gaza strip in one day, raising the death doll of the genocidal war to almost 38,700. the yemani army hits two israeli link ships in the red sea and targets another ship in the mediterranean in cooperation with the iraqi resistance. and millions of muslims around the world are commemorating the mar'.