Episode dated 15 May 2021
- Episode aired May 15, 2021
Photos
- Self
- (archive footage)
- (as Rep. Andrew Clyde)
- Self - Texas Congressman
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (as Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (archive footage)
Storyline
Did you know
- Quotes
Ali Velshi: Now, let's make one thing clear, Israel has a right to exist and to defend itself, that is an indisputable fact. But so do Palestinians. And that is a fact that's often ignored. Palestinians are at-best third-class citizens in the nation of their birth, the idea that it's even remotely controversial to call what Israel has imposed on Palestinians a form of apartheid, is laughable. One look at a current map of Israel, Gaza and The Occupied Territories conjures up only one other example: apartheid-era South Africa. The Israeli government, on an ongoing basis, declares parcels of land on which Palestinians live to be either of military or archeo, archeological importance, causing residents to be evicted. Sometimes there's a court case. And almost always the Palestinians lose. Yet months or weeks later that same "important" land suddenly becomes home to a brand new Israeli settlement. As more and more Jewish settlers take over land on which Arabs live the occupied West Bank becomes de facto more Israeli and in the explicit hopes of the Israeli government, more Jewish. This is a longstanding attempt and a deliberate attempt to force Arabs who have lived in that land sometimes for hundreds of years out. It's an attempt to dilute their presence because to have Arabs as full participants is in the opinion of the Israeli government and their courts "diluting Israel". Just prior to the pandemic, I toured many of the contested areas and homes from which Arabs are being pushed out both in Israel proper and in The Occupied Territories. Palestinians don't control the important parts of their lives. Palestinian families are refused permits to build or renovate their homes when they connect their homes to the municipal water supply; Israeli soldiers sometimes cut the pipes. When they attempt harvest solar energy because their homes are not on the grid Israeli soldiers literally come and remove solar panels from their homes. I spent an hour and a half traveling alongside a elderly Palestinian woman who was being transferred between three ambulances from Gaza to the no man's land in-between and than into Israel to get cancer treatment. Three ambulances over the course of one mile, more than an hour to cross the border. That's how Gazans live: without medical treatment because Israel prevents it. Without electricity much of the time because Israel prevents it. Without the ability to fish in the Mediterranean ocean because Israel prevents it. Without an airport or a seaport because... Israel prevents it. Like Israelis, Palestinians also have a right to exist and to defend themselves but there is no one willing to help them do that: not the Israeli courts and not the U.S. government. What the U.S. also shares with Israel is the belief that Hamas the political party that governs Gaza is a terrorist organization, that calls for the destruction of Israel. Hamas is supported by the majority of Palestinians in Gaza. Hamas may not be in the best long-term interest of the Gazans but peace hasn't really worked out for them. Faced with an Israeli government which pens them into what has been called the world's larked open-air prison they have chosen a government that most of us wouldn't prefer, one that is not given to negotiation and moderation and respect for it's neighbor. Israel needs a new approach to the Palestinians and America needs a new approach to Israel. After more than seven decades of not just being deprived of land from which they were evicted Palestinian frustration runs deep. It may be worth going deeper than what you may hear inside your bubble and understanding the depth to which the Palestinian people are subject to apartheid in their own land, deprived of basis necessities and subject to relentless civil rights violations. This is not a secret. It's out there for you to see. You just have to look for it.