hello and welcome to spotlight. as we approach the grim milestone of nearly one year since the outbreak of the devastating war on gaza, the situation remains dire with over 41,000 palestinians killed and countless others injured and displaced. on the show we delve into the human cost of the senseless conflict and explore whether path to peace is

still possible. in order to do so, we are joined by mr. mahar salom. academic and commentator joining us live from beirout. we also have with us fra, journalist, author and activists joining us from belfast. thank you. to both of you, gentlemen, uh, let's begin with our guest from uh beirot, mr. salom, uh, yes, well uh, unfortunately, we are witnessing more and more killing, artillery shells, killing innocent civilians, most of them women and children in gaza, in places that are supposed to be safe, what do you think is the real aim of targeting these?

yes, well the real aim is or the main objective of the israeli strategy, the government of bb netanyahu and the fanatics, let me say the ministers, ben grafir and simotric. the main aim or the whole objective is to push out as much as possible, the population in gaza, whether in gaza or raffa or the major. population inside those de condensed territories, because there's a plan by israel, they want to move out the palestinian people from such area, which is it seems a very important area to the israelis after the october 7th, i'm sorry, thefan, you know, the whole the whole war that started actually between the palestinians and the israel. okay, so mr.

huse, why do you think, why do you think there has been a lack of accountability for the repeated targeting of civilian areas, especially those densely populated tent camps? i think there's no accountability, because the organs of society that would hold the israeli genocidal cabinet to account uh pieces like the united nations and also of western governments in europe and in north america. are fully complicit and fully uh behind the genocide that we're witnessing in gaza. if you think about whether or not people should be held to account and may be brought before the hag, there was a no one brought before the hag uh after the illegal uh occupation and invasion of iraq. that was an illegal war brought forward by both america and britain and no one's been held responsible for the one million deaths that occurred there. no one has been held responsible for. the 600 thousand children

who deed previous to the uh invasion due to the sanctions imposed on iraq, they were allowed to sell oil for food, but they were denied medicine and many other essential uh food stuffs and medicine that were needed in order to counteract very basic illnesses and very basic diseases, so we are witnessing the complicity of the western uh anglo. saxon community in the racist destruction of the people in gaza? this is definitely what we're witnessing, and uh, mr. salom, with over 41,00 to be precise, that's 41,200 uh palestinians dead, most of them women and children. what do you think the international community's responsibility as addressing uh these civilian casualties? and i do not mean uh the international. community by focusing

only a few western countries, i'm talking about the entire population on earth as a whole. yes, i believe... "the entire populations of the earth representing the countries internationally would be under supposedly under the auspices or under the management of the united nations, the un is is very irresponsible, let me state this, i mean transparently enough, they have not uh condemned so far as much as possible, and they have not taken israel so far ' seriously to their brutal and massacers that they have perpetrated against the civilians especially just like you mentioned 41,00 children and women and 90 plus thous injured right there

in gaza and the territories around like raffa and the major parts of the the west bank and ramala to so the whole territory. occupied territories of the palestinian people have been combatted by the cruelty and the aggression of the israeli de israeli army inside the inside that area or those territories, the international community have not shown enough responsibility to condemn such an act or act so far only. statements, only maybe spokes women or men from different or various foreign ministries in the world like state department in the us sometimes, but rarely, but they have not done anything on ground to stop the israeli aggression and

the killings and the massacers against the arab palestinians, actually the children and the women right there inside. gaza for example, yes, they're not doing anything, and on the other hand, we do uh see israelis uh repeating claims of unintentional casualties, so mr. huse, how do you interpret those uh claims of unintentional casualties, in light of clear evidence suggesting that uh, it is otherwise, we will be discussing uh further the targeting of journalists in particular, but let's talk about the civilian population first. well, i don't believe there is anything uh as uh collateral damage, i don't believe in that free is, i don't believe in uh in accurately bombing civilian areas and causing civilian uh casualties, we we have witnessed the uh assassinations and the

executions uh in both uh beirot and we've also seen them in damascus at the uh iranian embassy quarters and we've also seen them in uh tehron where they... have surgical strikes where they claim to have taken out the enemies of the state of israel that many people believe are leaders in the axis of resistance, we are the only group that are acting under international law to try and prevent genocide according to the fourth geneva convention, so if you drop a 2000 pound bomb or a 500 pound bomb a camps that are made up of tents where people are living in horrendous heat, they have sc diseases, they are starving, people have been brutalized, meemed and injured and are trying to recover from those injuries in uh temperatures that uh encourage disease and also encourage infection, to say that you dropped a two or 500 pound bomb a tent or

tent city in order to take out a command structure of hamas, it is total fallacy, it is a lie and more and more people are beginning to see the genesis. fascist, racist, sectarian nature of israeli society, which has elected these warmongers and war criminals into uh par in government, and through the idf they are carrying out a policy of totally destroying gaza to make it uninhabitable, and they're also destroying the west bank in order to try and leave the economy for the palestinians and tatters, the leave their lives and tapters. and to leave any future hope for a palestinian state uh devoid and uh without function. exactly, you're absolutely right, mr. uh hugue, so let's bring back mr. salom uh, now in light of uh the things that are happening on the

ground in gaza, the ongoing genocide and as mr. hues pointed out, devastated economy, uh, basically the entire infrastructure has been destroyed, no hope for any kind of bright future for the people of palestine who are living there, but in the meantime, let's not forget those who are getting this this news out are the journalists and they are now the main targets of israelis, how do you think the narrative uh should be surrounding the deaths of journalists such as shirin abu, more than hundred more during the gaza genocide that have been killed, and most recently there was an activist, the turkish american activist, ishanur igi uh was also participating in anti-israeli demonstration who was uh specifically targeted and killed. yes, also southern lebanon, we have lost

three children during the aggression, south lebanon and the other american lady that was brutally and unintentionally, and then as i remember and i... read so much in the into the articles of what happened exactly to her and many others like children and women, so the the purpose way was that israel is not being held accountable by any international community and united nation league and even the arab league, they have not moved forward in order to condemn such an act by israel, because some of the arabs unfortunately they have... a bilateral diplomatic relationship so far and i strongly condemn that as an arab

american and as a muslim american i believe that the islamic world should maybe move forward much in a in a wider angle and be you know more responsible, the only responsible state i witnessed is the islamic republic of iran and pac and maybe iraq and syria and lebanon and the yemenis that they have fought hard enough to stop the israeli aggression inside the palestinian occupied territory so far. the the the the action or there is no action by anyone internationally, we strongly condem as academicians myself, you know, as academician, myself or as an international political analyst. "i believe that there should be much more initiatives to be widened

by the the whole populations on earth, you just like you mentioned earlier, there have we have not witnessed so far enough responsible measures or transparency measures by international governments and main powers, let's say, even our friends, i would like to see more interv'. mentioned by the russian government for example inside such the situation in gaza and raffa, i would like to see beijing moving forward to as much as iran has moved so far, because iran has played pivital role in combatting israel, in defending the palestinians, the islamic resistance in labanon, hisbullah, and the syrian government has played a pivot role to the iraqi so far. and with i love the holes you know attacks against maybe sometimes

let's say the ships inside the red sea of uh that they are in relation to the israeli government or to the absolute allies of the israeli government inside the whole world, i'm saying the western powers, so far we need to have an initiative, deliberate initiative by any international government. to stop the aggression, have sees fire inside gaza, and let them have a chance to exchange such prisoners between the israeli community and the palestinian community. as an ambassador for peace, i hope that you understand me and the people that have been watching us so far tonight, i believe in dialogue and peaceful events, but to me or to myself as a lebanese or as an arab american, i cannot... you know lead or i cannot see a peaceful measure with a state so much aggressive like israel, we

cannot, we cannot think of any step forward that israel can move with a with the peaceful effort, they have only lied and lied and lied, and even the americans, the state department, tony blincon, joe biden and even camala harris, the vice president or the incumbant. vice president that's running for presidency inside the united states so far, so we are to have better measure, we ought to have more initiatives, we ought to uh, you know, through the... media, whether social media or international media, like press tv has been doing so far, we need to, you know, intensely cover all the massacers, all the bloodshed so far that has been on the on the grounds of gaza, and gaza to me means like karbala means to the shiits of the whole

world, whether in iran or iraq or syria or lebanon, so the whole idea, we need... to have action, we need to move up, we need to uh express ourselves much better, i believe so exactly, so mr. huse, how do you think we can reconcile western government's stated commitment to human rights with their complicity in the ongoing violence in gaza, as you pointed out yourself, yes, it's pure hypocrisy, it's uh, don't say uh, don't do what i do, do what i say, it's a... case of uh people in the west claiming to support, i mean when they went into iraq and they went into afghanistan and they went into syria and they went into uh ukraine, they're claiming that these are humanitarian interventions on behalf of the civilian populations who were living under draconian dictatorships and and

what we have is the the complete opposite, what we have are when they have these color revolutions when they destabilized sovereign nations that uh aren't under the control of western agemany and uh and the american sphere of influence they put in poppet regimes we had after the first world war the sex pecal agreement and we had puppet regimes and we had countries that never existed prior to the end of the first world war, common the being both france and britain carved up the middle east the way they carved up africa and looks at them up, you don't see uh natural boundaries between countries, you see uh strip ls and you see curves where the continent has been carved up in order to uh conquer and in order to divide the people in order to make it easy for imperialist uh conquest, so when we're talking about the west we must never forget it's western

imperialism and it's western capitalism that are at the bottom of all these conflicts. throughout the world, many of the conflicts taking place in africa at the minute or post-colonial conflicts which are still being in many respects uh run, handled and influenced by the governments and the countries that previously were the colonial masters specifically uh britain and france when it comes to africa and britain and france when it comes to the uh middle east uh we we mentioned russia briefly uh the very... in the donbass, but china came forward and china got about a reconciliation, not only between iran and saudi arabia, but between the uh disperate groups within the palestinian factions of resistance. it's interesting that shortly after that uh peace accord and that unity accord between the palestinian factions came into being that

israel murdered ismael hane, the man he would have been the leader of... any unity government uh in palestine, so the americans, the europes, the british and the israelies don't want to cease fire, they want to continue the war. israel has already said that they will be continuing this war in the 2025, and when we talk about 41, 42,00 dead civilians, let's remember the lanset, which is the official organ of the british medical association, said in march, it believe there were over 186. thousand dead because the health ministry and gaza can only register deaths that are brought into the hospitals, they cannot register the deaths of people who are perhaps starving in the north of gaza with the famon plus the mass grives plus the disappeared, so potentially 10% of the population of gaza are either uh dead or dead

and or wounded, if you transfer that to america, 335 million americans, you're talking about 33 million dead americans, so if that was happening, there would be huge global uh out cray and demand for this to end, because it's palestinians, because it's arabs, because they are muslims, the western media and the western governments and western establishment curre nothing for the lives of palestinians, nothing for the lives of arabs, and sadly nothing for the lives of people from the field. islam. so, mr. hughe, how would you respond to the argument that the israeli government is using the presence of hamas as a justification for its military actions against civilians? but they have to have an enemy and in order to have an enemy they must dehumanize the people involved, they must demonize the people, they're saying that hamas is a terrorist organization,

israel has the right to uh defend itself. israel was born in violence in 1948, it was the stern gang and the hagana and the lahi who murdered uh the people in theim and they murdered people in the different arab villages across palestine and israel doesn't, israel doesn't want peace, it wants to destroy gaza, it wants to rid uh, it wants to rid palestine of its palestinian population, the same way that the north american white anglo-saxon colonization uh give uh, not only did they murder 100 million uh native americans, they actually give them a blankets with smallpox, knowing that those people did not have any natural immunity to small. the genocide that we witnessed hundreds of years ago in north america, canada, australia and new zealand has been replicated in palestine by a white european colonial occupation that

is called israel, was born in violence, it it maintains itself in balance and in order to expand, it will continue its balance, it is a cancer in the political body of west asia, and if you don't treat a cancer it will kill the host and kill the body in its violent. interesting, so finally to wrap this up, what message you think the continued civilian casualties in gaza sends of the global community about the effectiveness of diplomatic efforts to resolve the israeli-palestinian conflict? mr. hughes, sorry, yes, well, i would say that uh, there, there is, there, sadly, there is no resolution. "the israeli resolution is the genocidal holocaust of the people in gaza and the people in the west bank. if you believe in arads israel, they want part of egypt,

they want part of jordan, they want part of lebanon, they want part of syria and they want part of iraq, so they want to destroy the palestinian resistance, they want to destroy the footprint of the palestinians who have been there for thousands of years in palestine and in the region, they want. to uh form an ethnocentric uh colonial uh entity where there are no palestinians or there are no arabs whether are only the jewish diaspora who are not semitic who were not born in the land of uh sham these people are coming from all over the world they refuse to allow israels to take uh the jews who live in in israel to take dna tests because over 90% of them will come from poland, they come from russia, they come from france and england. they are not indigenous to the land that they now occupy. israel doesn't want to see fire, and so long as the imperialist waste gives

them the financial, the political and the military cover uh and support that they enjoy today, uh, there won't be as far, there will be more death and there will be more destruction and we will witness more horrendous crimes against humanity carried out by the vicious. uh genocidal uh psychotic israeli cabinet, which is only a mirror of israeli society. thank you very much, mr. fran huis, journalist, author and activist joining us live from belfast. we also had with us mr. mahar salom, academic and commentator joining us from beirot. thank you very much to both of you gentlemen. and that brings us to the end of this edition of spotlight. thank you for watching. this is story of an unrivaled champion of the

african continent who captivated audiences with his skill and determination, hero who made history with a bold decision to withdraw from the olympics, refusing to face an israeli opponent. in solidarity with his principles and beliefs.

the siege of gaza must end.

we're coming back and we'll keep coming back until palestine is free. step into the compelling world of the syrian poet ahlam banawi as his captivating documentary explores her unwavering dedication to syria and the profound personal struggles that she endured during the war in syria.

mr. speaker, i want to thank you for giving me the profound honor of addressing this great citidal of democracy for the fourth time. and thanks to b that guys a one more time for helping me it i ran that's the crime let me spin you tail talk you in it's bedtime our world is an appevals ready made we really semites animals all on sale every option laid out no detail is too frail let me share my cl

it's all about me, survivals a gold friends just let me bee, through twisted lenses, he pretends to see clearly, i could quote the bible, but that's just for show, it's occupation versus civilization, as you know accusations by confession, the truths a low, we win they lose, not as i blame in the dead the night we're criminals in truth, but that's all clight, gentlemen in the headlines. suddenly heaven turned into hell the homes gave to order the shell bob schools say more to tell not just that hospitals fell as well thank you madams and sers for funding this hell i thank president for his heartful support me clean defense in the broad daylight good many years though his words supporting me even when his talk's not right they killed with rage air of women kids in

the prime guys is an open air cage than on borrow time more tas on the way they swor the crow so we pinches encouraging this bloody r what's green e rant in about i'll take you a ride no doubt but can't lie about genocide that's out humanity's priceless funs are what it's about they call it occupation or regime of hate racist dream built a blood thirsty state causing death grief and painted every date yet i stand here and you still wait and what i'm doing i stand up in the skies playing the victim that's my and i want to say thank you america, i love you and your hamburgers, my soldiers loved you as pampers, just enough, but we had our stuff, and we were the symbol of heroic c, not a part, not a racist to any place, but it wouldn't melt in my mouth, no trade from north to south, face, they call israel, they call israel a

colonialist state. irans take a re as the white house, they're trying to lead, but they need more training to follow my creed, that iran is funding and promoting anti-israel protests in america, they want to disrupt america. then find a new place to colonize get the world back from the infidel guys make this region a five star paradise thank you my lies have reached the demise israel does not seek to resettle gaza.

guantanamo bay, it's an us navy base, but it's in cuba in a least ese es territorio de cuba ilegalmente ocupado, la inmensa mayoría la población cubana están en contra de la perpetuación de la presencia de estados unidos en guatanamó, la hostilidad desde la base naval de guantánamo ha sido constante, llegó utilizarse como un...