It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
By AFP November 18, 2024 A Sudanese army soldier mans a machine gun on top of a military pickup truck outside a hospital in Omdurman - Copyright AFP Omar AL-QATTAA
Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Monday calling for an immediate end to hostilities in Sudan where a war between two rival generals has been raging since April 2023.
A draft of the resolution prepared by Britain and Sierra Leone, which was seen by AFP, had called on both sides to “immediately cease hostilities” and begin talks on “a national ceasefire.”
“One country stood in the way of the council speaking with one voice. One country is the blocker,” British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said after the vote, which showed 14 countries in favor and only Russia against.
“One country is the enemy of peace. This Russian veto is a disgrace, and it shows to the world yet again Russia’s true colors,” Lammy added.
Sudan has been ravaged by fighting between the regular army of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who seized power in a 2021 coup, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by his one-time deputy, General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
Before Monday’s vote, a diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity that Russia had appeared to become “visibly more aligned” with General Burhan’s camp during negotiations over the draft.
During previous votes on Sudan in the Security Council, Russia had abstained.
Sudan’s army under Burhan has accused the United Arab Emirates of providing arms to the RSF, a charge rejected by Abu Dhabi.
– Civilian toll –
The draft had called on member states to avoid any “external interference which foments conflict and instability” and urged all sides to respect an embargo against arms transfers to Darfur.
The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 11 million people, including 3.1 million who have fled the country, according to UN figures.
Recent weeks have seen violence flare up again, with each camp seemingly “convinced they can prevail on the battlefield,” Rosemary DiCarlo, UN under-secretary-general for political affairs, said recently.
The fighting has taken a high toll among civilians, with some 26 million people facing severe food shortages and both sides exchanging accusations of sexual violence.
Against that backdrop, the draft resolution called on both parties to “fully implement” commitments made in 2023 to protect civilians, to “halt and prevent conflict-related sexual violence,” and to allow “rapid, safe, unhindered” humanitarian access into and throughout Sudan.
The UN has been largely paralyzed in its ability to deal with conflicts from Ukraine to Gaza because of splits between permanent Security Council members, notably Russia and the United States.
Even if it had been adopted, it was unclear what effect the Sudan resolution would have produced.
A resolution in March calling for an “immediate” ceasefire during the month of Ramadan had little impact.
And a council demand in July for the RSF to end its “siege” of the city of El-Fasher, where thousands of civilians were trapped, was similarly ignored.
Saturday, November 16, 2024
Nature pays price for war in Israel’s north
By AFP November 14, 2024 A flock of pelicans flies over the Hula Valley in northern Israel during their winter migration from Europe to Africa - Copyright AFP Menahem KAHANA
Ahikam Seri with Ruth Eglash in Tel Dan
Across northern Israel’s lush, green nature reserves, the ecological toll of the war between Israel and Hezbollah militants is laid bare: wild boar hit by shrapnel, trees reduced to ashes and swathes of charred vegetation.
In the Hula Valley, home to a unique migration sanctuary for birds, a flock of common cranes and their cacophony of calls fill the air — but smoke billows in the distance and their sounds soon compete with the whir of Israeli military helicopters overhead.
The impact is particularly clear at the Agamon Hula Valley Nature Reserve, where all that remains in some areas after more than a year of Hezbollah rocket fire from Lebanon are burned plants and cinder-strewn soil.
Inbar Rubin, field director at the reserve, worries about the war’s effects on birds.
“The noises of war, the sounds of interceptions, of (rockets) falling and the loud booms — these are the sounds that birds hear,” Rubin said. “It’s a huge source of stress.”
The war has driven visitors away from the reserve, which sits approximately 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the border with Lebanon.
“People say to me, ‘Wow, the birds must be happier because there are no people,’ but the damage the war does to nature is a million times more than the damage visitors do.”
The reserve is an internationally known resting spot for hundreds of millions of birds migrating from Europe and Asia to Africa and back during the spring and autumn seasons.
It is home to pelicans, ducks, eagles and other birds of prey, as well as flamingos, which Rubin said is “a fairly new phenomenon”.
But she noted that fewer birds were stopping at the sanctuary than in previous seasons, adding there was “much less nesting than in normal years” and reduced mating.
– Paradise lost? –
Hezbollah began launching low-intensity attacks on Israel last year, in solidarity with its ally Hamas following the Palestinian militant group’s October 7, 2023 attack.
After nearly a year of trading cross-border fire with Hezbollah, Israel widened the focus of its operations from Gaza to Lebanon, launching a massive aerial campaign and sending ground forces across the border.
The bombing has devastated villages in Lebanon, especially areas along its southern border with Israel, where Hezbollah holds sway.
Around 50,000 cranes came to the reserve the previous winter, said longtime ornithologist Yossi Leshem, “and for them, it was really paradise”.
But after the Israel-Hezbollah war started, he added, the number of birds arriving dropped by 70 percent.
“It is a real threat,” said Leshem, also the founder of an international bird migration research centre. The fighting and fires have also caused food resources for the birds to dwindle.
“Even if the war will stop in a year now — and I hope it will stop as soon as possible… the impact can be felt for many more years,” he told AFP.
In the long term, however, the conflict would not ultimately change the birds’ pattern of migration, Leshem said. The birds passing through will be “less successful and so on, but finally, when the war stops, it (migration) goes on”.
The damage is not limited to the reserve.
Israel’s nature and parks authority has assessed that since the October 7 Hamas attack, around 92,400 acres (37,400 hectares) of nature reserves, national parks, forests and open areas have been burned across the country.
“The damage to nature is of course extensive and in numbers we are not used to,” said Amit Dolev, an ecologist for the authority’s northern district.
Israel’s military has said nearly 16,000 projectiles, including exploding drones, have been fired into the country from Lebanese territory, many sparking wildfires.
Others, shot down by Israel’s military, have sent shrapnel flying into open areas.
– Nature’s resilience –
At the nature reserve of Tel Dan, adjacent to the Lebanese border, around 17 acres (seven hectares) out of 400 have been devastated by fires ignited by rockets.
On the banks of the burbling Dan stream, beside the silhouette of a burnt-out blackthorn tree, Ramadan Issa, who manages the reserve, said he had spent the last year putting out fires and rescuing animals injured or distressed by the fighting.
He pointed to suffering wildlife including porcupines, snakes and wild boars injured or killed by missiles or shrapnel, as well as the destruction of ancient trees.
But on the charred earth where he stood, small green blades of grass and vegetation were already sprouting.
“Nature is strong,” Issa said. “It can grow back very fast and after the first (winter) rains, a lot will start to come back.”
Friday, November 15, 2024
Israel trying to make Gaza uninhabited by targeting health facilities, says Palestine Minister of Health at WISH
Ministers and world health leaders set bold policy recommendations to protect healthcare in war at Qatar Foundation’s World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) 2024
WISH/QF
image:
Maged Abu Ramadan, the Minister of Health for Palestine, speaking at WISH 2024
14 November 2024. Doha, Qatar — Speaking at a World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) panel discussion in Doha today on protecting healthcare systems, Maged Abu Ramadan , the Minister of Health for Palestine said that numbers of people dead or hospitals destroyed don’t tell the story: “What is important is human life, human beings, human dignity. In Gaza, the most important things to us are our country, our dignity and our children. What is very important is that they want to make Gaza uninhabited. That's why they are targeting health facilities.”
Protecting healthcare in conflict is a theme being discussed throughout the two-day Summit. At the morning’s plenary session, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, discussed the increase in attacks on health, especially in the past two years. “Healthcare facilities should not be a target, especially given the increased need for healthcare during war,” said Dr. Tedros. He emphasized that two-thirds of the people dying are women and children and that stopping the war in Gaza and bringing the parties to a negotiating table is crucial.
“The key to a solution lies with Israel,” Dr Tedros said. “Israel should understand that it's in its best interest to resolve this.”
Dr. Tedros recalled the scenes of “horror” he has witnessed in Gaza, Sudan and elsewhere. “We are sleepwalking into a nuclear war,” said Dr. Tedros.
Discussions on these topics were based around the newly published WHO/WISH report ‘In the Line of Fire: Protecting Health in Armed Conflict’, that emphasizes the need for a bold, unified response to protect health in times of conflict.
Among other actions, the report calls for a global alliance and a UN Special Rapporteur for the protection of healthcare in conflict.
Speakers at the panel session included Dr. Rick Brennan Regional Emergency Director for WHO, Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean; Ms. Sigrid Kaag, UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza; Prof. Leonard Rubenstein, Distinguished Professor of the Practice, Center for Public Health and Human Rights; Dr Mads Gilbert, Professor of Emergency Medicine, The Arctic University of Norway; H.E. Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Deputy Prime Minister for Human Development and the Minister of Health and Population; and H.E. Mr. Yousef Bin Ali Alkhater, Qatar Red Crescent President.
Since 2000, violence against healthcare and health workers during times of conflict has risen, according to the WHO/WISH report, despite the International Humanitarian Law protecting medical care in conflict. Vital health services have been attacked and severely disputed, leaving civilians and vulnerable populations without essential care.
Since 2018, WHO has documented more than 7,000 incidents of attacks on health care in which more than 2,200 health workers and patients lost their lives and more than 4,600 people were injured across 21 reporting countries and territories with complex humanitarian emergencies.
This year, WISH was opened in the presence of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation and founder of WISH. The opening ceremony, held at Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha, included speeches from Her Excellency Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, Qatar’s former Minister of Public Health; Lord Darzi of Denham, Executive Chair of WISH; and Christos Christou, President of Médecins Sans Frontières.
The theme of WISH 2024 is ‘Humanizing Health: Conflict, Equity and Resilience’. It aims to highlight the need for innovation in health to support everyone, leaving nobody behind and building resilience, especially among vulnerable societies and in areas of armed conflict.
Ahead of the summit, WISH entered into a strategic partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO), collaborating on the development of a series of evidence-based reports and policy papers, as well as working with the United Nations’ health agency to develop a post-summit implementation strategy.
The summit features more than 200 experts in health speaking about evidence-based ideas and practices in healthcare innovation to address the world’s most urgent global health challenges.
Qatar Foundation’s WISH 2024 Summit begins with focus on global health challenges in times of conflict
International leaders in health discuss some of the world’s most pressing health issues at the World Innovation Summit for Health’s seventh biennial global conference in Qatar.
WISH/QF
image:
Lord Ara Darzi at the opening ceremony of the World Innovation Summit for Health in Doha
Doha, Qatar, 14 November 2024: WISH 2024 – the seventh edition of a biennial global gathering of healthcare expertise hosted by Qatar Foundation’s World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) – opened with an emphasis on the importance of innovative solutions to ensure equitable health access for all.
Speakers at the opening ceremony, held at Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha, included Her Excellency Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, Qatar’s former Minister of Public Health; Lord Darzi of Denham, Executive Chair of WISH; and Dr. Christos Christou, President of Médecins Sans Frontières.
In her opening remarks, Her Excellency Dr. Al Kuwari said: “Under the visionary leadership of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, WISH continues to expand as a global community committed to making healthcare accessible and humane.
“At WISH, we strive to present the world’s most cutting-edge ideas and scientific advancements. But we also focus on confronting the urgent challenges before us.
“This year’s theme, ‘Humanizing Health: Conflict, Equity, and Resilience’, reflects our commitment to addressing the profound health challenges people face worldwide, especially those who have, and continue to endure unimaginable hardship…. The toll of war and displacement has tested humanity’s resilience and underscored the urgent need for peace, health and protection.”
Lord Darzi of Denham, Executive Chair of WISH, spoke of challenges faced by those working to provide care during armed conflict: “War is a healthcare catastrophe. There can never be any justification for targeting healthcare personnel or infrastructure – it is purely and simply wrong. We must stand together to condemn such actions and honor those who courageously continue to provide care in the most appalling conditions.”
Reflecting on the summit theme of conflict, equity, and resilience, Dr. Christou said he was gravely concerned that attacks on healthcare facilities and workers have become the “new norm”.
“We need to know that there is a place that is respected, and that place is a hospital. We are scrambling without basic medicines, anesthetics or antibiotics. There are many doctors in Gaza who are amputating on children without anesthetic, for example,” Dr. Christou said.
When asked about the neutrality of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), he reiterated that the values of the organisation remain consistent, and they treat all in need, but doctors “have a mandate to bear witness, to be a voice of the voiceless.… Neutrality means many things, but it does not mean silence.”
A film shown during the opening ceremony told the story of 11-year-old Dareen Al Bayaa, a Palestinian girl who lost 47 members of her extended family on 22 October 2023 as a result of a devastating attack on her home in Gaza, with only Dareen and her five-year-old brother surviving and being taken to Doha for medical treatment. “Why is it ok for me to suffer? Is this fair?” asked Dareen in the film.
Ahead of the summit, WISH entered into a strategic partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO), collaborating on the development of a series of evidence-based reports and policy papers, as well as working with the United Nations’ health agency to develop a post-summit implementation strategy.
Day one of the summit hosted discussion forums based on reports published by WISH and the WHO, alongside roundtable discussions and open sessions.
The first main discussion of the day was based on the joint WISH and WHO 2024 report titled ‘In the line of fire: Protecting health in armed conflict’, chaired by Richard Brennan, the Regional Emergency Director of the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office of the WHO. He was joined by expert speakers including His Excellency Yousuf Al Khater, President of Qatar Red Crescent Society; and Sigrid Kaag, the United Nations’ Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza.
This forum was followed by a discussion on antimicrobial resistance, based on the report ‘Tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR): How to keep antibiotics working for the next century’, chaired by the report’s co-author Professor Dame Sally Davies, UK Special Envoy for AMR. She was joined by Her Excellency Dr. Karin Tegmark Wisell, Sweden’s Ambassador for Global Health; Dr. Hanan Balkhy, the Regional Director of the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office of the WHO; Dr. Christos Christou; and Dr. Nour Shamas, a member of the AMR Narrative.
The final main discussion of the summit’s first day was based on the report ‘AI and Healthcare Ethics in the Gulf Region: An Islamic Perspective on Medical Accountability’, and discussed the ethics of Artificial Intelligence in healthcare. This session featured the report’s lead author Dr. Mohammed Ghaly, Professor of Islam and Bioethics at the Centre for Islamic Legislation and Ethics at Qatar Foundation’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), and an expert panel including Dr. Barry Solaiman, Assistant Professor of Law at HBKU.
Alongside discussions based on WISH reports, additional sessions focused on topics such as women’s cancer, palliative care, and Sudan’s ‘forgotten’ war.
The summit has brought together more than 200 experts in health to discuss evidence-based ideas and practices in healthcare innovation to address the world’s most urgent global health challenges.
Doha, Qatar, 13 November 2024: WISH 2024 – the seventh edition of a biennial global gathering of healthcare expertise hosted by Qatar Foundation’s World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) – opened today, emphasizing the importance of innovative solutions to ensure equitable health access for all.
Speakers at the opening ceremony, held at Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha, included Her Excellency Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, Qatar’s former Minister of Public Health; Lord Darzi of Denham, Executive Chair of WISH; and Dr. Christos Christou, President of Médecins Sans Frontières.
In her opening remarks, Her Excellency Dr. Al Kuwari said: “Under the visionary leadership of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, WISH continues to expand as a global community committed to making healthcare accessible and humane.
“At WISH, we strive to present the world’s most cutting-edge ideas and scientific advancements. But we also focus on confronting the urgent challenges before us.
“This year’s theme, ‘Humanizing Health: Conflict, Equity, and Resilience’, reflects our commitment to addressing the profound health challenges people face worldwide, especially those who have, and continue to endure unimaginable hardship…. The toll of war and displacement has tested humanity’s resilience and underscored the urgent need for peace, health and protection.”
Lord Darzi of Denham, Executive Chair of WISH, spoke of challenges faced by those working to provide care during armed conflict: “War is a healthcare catastrophe. There can never be any justification for targeting healthcare personnel or infrastructure – it is purely and simply wrong. We must stand together to condemn such actions and honor those who courageously continue to provide care in the most appalling conditions.”
Reflecting on the summit theme of conflict, equity, and resilience, Dr. Christou said he was gravely concerned that attacks on healthcare facilities and workers have become the “new norm”.
“We need to know that there is a place that is respected, and that place is a hospital. We are scrambling without basic medicines, anesthetics or antibiotics. There are many doctors in Gaza who are amputating on children without anesthetic, for example,” Dr. Christou said.
When asked about the neutrality of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), he reiterated that the values of the organisation remain consistent, and they treat all in need, but doctors “have a mandate to bear witness, to be a voice of the voiceless.… Neutrality means many things, but it does not mean silence.”
A film shown during the opening ceremony told the story of 11-year-old Dareen Al Bayaa, a Palestinian girl who lost 47 members of her extended family on 22 October 2023 as a result of a devastating attack on her home in Gaza, with only Dareen and her five-year-old brother surviving and being taken to Doha for medical treatment. “Why is it ok for me to suffer? Is this fair?” asked Dareen in the film.
Ahead of the summit, WISH entered into a strategic partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO), collaborating on the development of a series of evidence-based reports and policy papers, as well as working with the United Nations’ health agency to develop a post-summit implementation strategy.
Day one of the summit hosted discussion forums based on reports published by WISH and the WHO, alongside roundtable discussions and open sessions.
The first main discussion of the day was based on the joint WISH and WHO 2024 report titled ‘In the line of fire: Protecting health in armed conflict’, chaired by Richard Brennan, the Regional Emergency Director of the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office of the WHO. He was joined by expert speakers including His Excellency Yousuf Al Khater, President of Qatar Red Crescent Society; and Sigrid Kaag, the United Nations’ Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza.
This forum was followed by a discussion on antimicrobial resistance, based on the report ‘Tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR): How to keep antibiotics working for the next century’, chaired by the report’s co-author Professor Dame Sally Davies, UK Special Envoy for AMR. She was joined by Her Excellency Dr. Karin Tegmark Wisell, Sweden’s Ambassador for Global Health; Dr. Hanan Balkhy, the Regional Director of the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office of the WHO; Dr. Christos Christou; and Dr. Nour Shamas, a member of the AMR Narrative.
The final main discussion of the summit’s first day was based on the report ‘AI and Healthcare Ethics in the Gulf Region: An Islamic Perspective on Medical Accountability’, and discussed the ethics of Artificial Intelligence in healthcare. This session featured the report’s lead author Dr. Mohammed Ghaly, Professor of Islam and Bioethics at the Centre for Islamic Legislation and Ethics at Qatar Foundation’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), and an expert panel including Dr. Barry Solaiman, Assistant Professor of Law at HBKU.
Alongside discussions based on WISH reports, additional sessions focused on topics such as women’s cancer, palliative care, and Sudan’s ‘forgotten’ war.
The summit has brought together more than 200 experts in health to discuss evidence-based ideas and practices in healthcare innovation to address the world’s most urgent global health challenges.
Reporting from Israel in the aftermath of October 7th demands guts and courage. Censorship, rouge military personnel and an entire state hellbent on their goals of national security and ethnic cleansing spells a nightmare for journalists seeking to expose the truth. This nightmare became a reality for Grayzone reporter Jeremy Loffredo, who was detained in Israel in solitary confinement for three days after reporting on the Iranian missile attacks on October 1.
Loffredo joins host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report to review his reporting covering Israel in the U.S., the Occupied Territories and Israel itself—as well as his frightening detainment by the occupying forces.
From covering Israeli counter protests in New York City to witnessing Israeli settlers obstructing humanitarian aid to Gaza, Loffredo was consistently shocked by the attitude and drive of Israelis. The widespread nature of extreme rhetoric isn’t just isolated to a handful of individuals, Loffredo learned. “It was the first time I heard anyone be so candidly racist and genocidal, and truly, I didn’t know the face of fanatical Zionism,” he tells Hedges.
During his time in Israel, Loffredo documented not only more of the genocidal rhetoric and actions from Israelis but also the suffering and bravery of Palestinians. One particular instance involved a woman who, out of a list of 50 previously detained people, was the only one willing to speak to him on record. The others were too frightened of the consequences that telling the truth might bring them.
Beyond revealing the utterly authoritarian and censorious climate of Israel, Loffredo’s detention and treatment by the IDF and Israeli police also expose the U.S. government’s corrupt devotion to the Jewish State, and how it abandons its purported democratic values when they interfere with the goals of their most “reliable partner” in the Middle East. When an Israeli social worker was sent by the American embassy to do a “wellness check” on Loffredo while he was in solitary confinement, the journalist hoped she would get him food and water, which he had been deprived of for days. Instead, she berated Loffredo because he “hurt Israel” and told him that he’d likely remain in prison for a long time. “That is the only help that the American Embassy afforded me… was giving me this Zionist social worker to berate me because of my reporting and give me no help at all,” Loffredo recounts. Host:
Chris Hedges Producer:
Max Jones Intro:
Diego Ramos Crew:
Diego Ramos, Sofia Menemenlis and Thomas Hedges Transcript:
Diego Ramos Transcript
Chris Hedges
Jeremy Loffredo, a reporter for The Grayzone, did some of the best reporting from inside Israel and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, on what is happening in Israel since the attacks by Hamas and other resistant groups on October 7, 2024. His reporting saw him detained in Israel on October 8, 2024, at a checkpoint in the West Bank. The allegations against him stemmed from a report about exposing the locations of strikes launched at military targets inside Israel by Iran. He was blindfolded, shackled in a military truck and placed in solitary confinement for three days with little food or water. He was eventually deported. His detention and deportation highlight the cases of Palestinian journalists, over 130 of whom have been killed in Gaza, many after being targeted by Israel. Israel has also arrested dozens of Palestinian journalists since October 7, 2023. At least 43 Palestinian journalists remain imprisoned by Israel, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Many are held under Israel’s “administrative detention” law, which allows for indefinite detention without charge or trial. Even a detainee’s location is often unknown. Human rights organizations have reported evidence of Palestinian journalists being tortured in Israeli prisons. Today we are going to look at several of Loffredo’s reports for the Grayzone, examine the heavy censorship in Israel, the suppression of all speech that raises concerns about the genocide in Gaza by Palestinians and Israelis, the heavy-handed repression against Palestinians that has been turbo charged since Oct. 7 and how this internal repression is reconfiguring the Israeli state into despotism. Joining me to discuss his reporting and detention is the journalist, Jeremy Loffredo.
I want to look at several of your reports before we go into detail about your arrest and what happened, so people can get a look at the kind of reporting you did. One of your earliest reports, before you even go to Israel and the occupied territories, is a story about Zionists at protests in New York City from last year. Just set that up for us and tell us what it is we’re going to see.
Jeremy Loffredo
Sure, so this was a few days after October 7, [2023], and this wasn’t a protest, this was a counter protest. So, a few days later, Israel was well into launching their attack into Gaza, and there was an anti-war rally, a pro-Palestine rally in New York City outside of the Israeli embassy. And there was these counter protesters, these counter, Zionist protesters, pro-Israel protesters, cheering in opposition to the pro-Palestine people. And I, instead of covering the Palestinian protesters, which I was very familiar with their language and what they were saying, what they were arguing, free Palestine, end the occupation. And then I thought it would be more interesting instead to speak to the other side. And I interviewed them and allowed them to be extremely candid with me. And I interviewed many of them. They called for genocide. They called for a second Nakba. You’ll see it right here.
Pro-Israel Protestor 1
Fuck Palestine. Palestine to my dick.
Jeremy Loffredo
What do you think the response should be from Netanyahu and the military to Gaza?
Pro-Israel Protestor 1
Kill all Palestinians! All of them! Not one left from the river to the sea, Palestine will be deceased.
Pro-Israel Protestor 2
Israel need to do like this. You see now, Gaza like this. Gaza need to do like this or like this, but all this, Jewish. Two options.
Jeremy Loffredo
What do you think the response should be?
Pro-Israel Protestor 3
We gotta wipe them off the fucking map. Flatten them like a parking lot.
Pro-Israel Protestor 4
There’s nothing else you can do. They proved to us, there’s nothing else you can do. We tried…
Pro-Israel Protestor 3
We tried everything, it doesn’t work. We have to wipe them flat off the fucking map, like a fucking parking lot.
Pro-Israel Protestor 1
I’m not stopping till all Arabs are wiped out.
Pro-Israel Protestor 5
I think now it’s the time that we need to erase Gaza. There is people inside, our people inside that [are] kidnapped and now we need to kill all of them and free Israel. All of the Arab belief[s] is killing Jewish [people] and killing and murder[ing] our people.
Pro-Israel Protestor 6
Flatten it. Flatten Gaza.
Pro-Israel Protestor 3
That will be the last war in Gaza.
Jeremy Loffredo
This will be?
Pro-Israel Protestor 3
Yes. It will be.
Chris Hedges
So Jeremy, how reflective were those statements to the kinds of statements you heard from Israelis once you got to Israel?
Jeremy Loffredo
Well, when I interviewed those people, I had never been to Israel before. I interviewed them and it was the first time I heard anyone be so candidly racist and genocidal, and truly, I didn’t know the face of fanatical Zionism. I didn’t know that people spoke like that. So I was surprised, and I was surprised that it wasn’t just one person [that] says something crazy. It was a group of 100 people all saying the same thing, all saying things like that. And obviously this is everyone… I went to Israel a few weeks after that. Everyone has war fever. There’s flags everywhere that weren’t there a few weeks before. “Together, we will win” signs, “bring them home” signs. It’s like post 9/11, almost, the war propaganda is everywhere. And it was also reflective, like in what people were saying. Maybe I was at a pub talking to someone who went to a liberal arts school, likes to paint, everything you hear them say, they’re left leaning they want free health care, they want affordable housing. And then they speak about the Palestinian question and then they [say] the Arabs are smelly, we need to take over Gaza. And so even the people that I would expect to hear more progressive language from sounded exactly like the far-right, fanatical Zionists that I interviewed weeks before New York City. So it was kind of a shock to me.
Chris Hedges
Yeah, we had the same thing during the war in Yugoslavia. We used to interview Serbs, who were artists and well educated. And we called it the Linda Blair effect, because as soon as they started talking about Muslims, their heads started to spin around and around and around like, of course, fanatical Zionists. Let’s talk about the West Bank. I was in the West Bank this summer. The genocidal tactics that are commonplace in Gaza are increasingly being used in the West Bank, and you have a very good report called “On the Silent War in the West Bank,” and perhaps you can, because we’re not showing the whole clip, just explain what it is we’re going to see.
Jeremy Loffredo
Sure. So surely, after October 7, no journalists are allowed in Gaza. And so I went to the West Bank. I wanted to be with the Palestinians after this war began, see what they were dealing with in the occupied West Bank. See what life was like. And after the war began, the hundreds of thousands of settlers in the West Bank, who are illegally there, they were all turned into military reservists, all of them, all of the military aged ones.
Chris Hedges
So just to be clear, Jeremy, there are 700,000 colonists in the West Bank. We’re talking about a pretty large number.
Jeremy Loffredo
Yeah, a giant number. They were all given military uniforms. Some settlements were given Humvees, they were given guns. Even though they already had guns, they were given guns. And they were kind of given carte blanche to do what they already wanted to do, and were already doing in a smaller frequency. They wanted to cleanse the Palestinians of the West Bank. They wanted to get rid of them. They wanted to get rid of villages and then put in paperwork and build more Jewish settlements, more apartment buildings. And so no one was there. No one’s there post-October 7. The military, the police, were not there to break up the fighting, or stop the sellers from doing things that are illegal. I mean, their entire existence there is illegal, but from being extra violent. So the military and the settlers were working together after October 7 to get rid of the Palestinians in the West Bank while all eyes were in Gaza.
Chris Hedges
Yeah, they created rogue militias. It’s been the largest land seizure in the West Bank since the Israeli occupation, I think 30% of the Jordan Valley if I have that right. And they have created reins of terror by going into these Palestinian villages, and you’re in one of these villages.
Jeremy Loffredo
Yeah, of course. The thousands of Palestinians from villages that have already been cleansed and displaced from their rural lands have had to find land away from settlers and pitch tents. Residents of this village were told by settlers accompanied by the Israeli military that if they did not vacate their land in 24 hours, they would all be killed. Entire bedrooms remain. Children’s toys, school books, food, dresses, and clothing. Before fleeing, the Palestinians spray painted one of their shacks. “We will return one day,” it says. The settlers have destroyed many of these structures in order to ensure that no one returns before they begin building a new illegal Jewish development. This Palestinian, along with his children, lived in this village. They are now living on a small plot of land alongside other displaced residents. I spoke to him in a gas station parking lot because he was terrified of what sellers would do if they spotted him being interviewed by a foreign journalist. Another West Bank Palestinian displaced from his village is Mohammed. He now lives with his entire extended family in a tent on someone else’s property.
West Bank Resident
[In Arabic] We left our town because of the settlers. The settlers and the military stormed our village back in October. In the middle of the afternoon. We were taken by surprise. It was a coordinated attack between the Israeli army and armed settlers both in plain clothes and uniform. Some 30 vehicles, 70 armed personnel with rifles and batons. Some of the settlers were even carrying big knives. They started to beat us. They threw us to the ground and kicked us. They took all of our phones so nothing could be documented. For more than half an hour everyone in the village remained tied up. Tied up with steel wire and plastic handcuffs. After about half an hour of torture, beating, kicking and shooting, they said you have to take your cattle, children and women and evacuate your land. Leave everything. You can’t take your tents and shacks. That’s what the militants told our people. “In an hour, who stays here will be shot dead,” he said. They fired guns at people and sheep. Just to scare everyone. Since the war, they began taking our homes, beating our people and blocking our roads. Once the war began, they didn’t allow us to go out to get any food for our families or fodder for our sheep. They imposed a siege on us. I wish I can go back because my life is very tough now without a home or anything for my family. I have no adequate bathroom. No adequate food to eat. No adequate water. Even my sheep… have no shelter from rain, and no food. I can’t return out of fear for my life and my children’s lives.
Mohammed
[In Arabic] I am starving and some of my sheep have died due to lack of fodder. We are all suffering from a deadly lack of water and food. It’s the same as Gaza, they cut off water and food and also the electricity. And here they also cut me off from water and electricity. What am I supposed to do? Being a Palestinian and driving a Palestinian plated car is now enough reason for them to kill me. They are stealing the lands and removing all Palestinians from areas classified as “C” according to Oslo Accords. Life has been hard in Gaza. They have been compressed and compressed and squeezed until they went off like atomic explosion. The settlers here in the West Bank are squeezing the Palestinians as in Gaza and the Palestinians will explode against the settlers just like Gaza did if this compression situation continues. It’s the Palestinian people who suffered most severely in this war. 10,000 people have died so far. All victims [on both sides] died as a result of the terrorist policy of the [Israeli] government. Yes, it’s a terrorist policy. It’s a policy of pressure and blockade against people. There are, for instance, Arab Muslims from Syria living in Europe, have there been violent troubles? Why here can’t there be coexistence on an equal basis? If there is coexistence among citizens like in America or Europe, nothing like this would ever happen. It wouldn’t exist.
Chris Hedges
Let’s talk about Palestinians who are arrested for their activism. You interview a woman who was detained in an Israeli prison, and then she’s released as part of the November hostage exchange. So maybe you can talk a little bit about that report.
Jeremy Loffredo
Sure, so this is now, I guess, two years ago. Her house was raided, just like her neighbor’s houses have been dozens of times, just like her house has been dozens of times, and they made some vague accusations against her, as they do all Palestinians living in the West Bank, saying that, you said something wrong, you talked to someone wrong, you posted something on social media that we didn’t like. I don’t know exactly what they told her. And they took her away, and they put her in prison. And she was in prison under this administrative detention, and so she is not charged. She’s a woman. She’s not charged. She’s in prison for however long the Israelis say, and she can be kept wherever the Israelis say. She’s in a prison where her family doesn’t know where she is. She has no rights. And this is a woman probably the age of my mother. And this is outside of Bethlehem, in a refugee camp. And after interviewing her, I will say, she reached back out to me, explaining that they just came and took her neighbor. This is just like they took her. So this is not happening to one person. This is, I didn’t find the one person who this has happened to, this happens to all Palestinians. They get put into administrative detention for things, for political speech. And this is just one of the women.
Palestinian Woman
[In Arabic] The army detained me on April 4 last year at around 6:10 in the morning. The reason for my detention as always and with everyone was the same pretext which is “a danger to the security of Israel.”
Jeremy Loffredo
While over 100 Israelis are being held captive in Gaza, Israel is holding over 10,000 Palestinians in its own jails. More than 3,000 of these Palestinians were arrested and detained without charge, trial or the ability to appeal. The State of Israel calls this type of procedure administrative detention. It’s reserved for Palestinians who engage in any type of political activity or speech against Israeli occupation and their family members. What it amounts to is official kidnapping. Rawda Abu Ajamieh is a 47 year old Palestinian woman who’s lived her entire life in the Dheisheh refugee camp outside Bethlehem in the West Bank. She was taken from her home by military police last year and kept in one of the Israeli prisons. In November, Hamas used 50 Israelis they took prisoner on October 7 as political leverage to free 150 Palestinians from Israeli jails. Rawda is one of the Palestinian prisoners who was released. She served seven months in Ofer prison and Damon prison. I traveled through dozens of military checkpoints in order to sit down with Rawda in her living room as she recounted her arrest, Israeli prison and coming home.
Palestinian Woman
[In Arabic] They stormed a number of our family houses including my sisters’ place here where I was staying during Ramadan. They also stormed my house and my brothers’ houses in the central neighborhood. They blew up the front and back doors. After less than ten minutes, they detained my young nephew. A couch in my brother’s house caught fire because of the stun grenades. Out of all the soldiers there wasn’t a female soldier among them to handcuff my hands and put the blindfold over my eyes. So once they put me into the back of the army truck, the male soldiers did all of that to me. I was taken to Etzion detention center, then to another called Panorama, I never heard of before. Then the soldiers transferred me to Ofer prison. It was during the Jewish holiday. After that, they told me I’d be in administrative detention.
Jeremy Loffredo
Without any hearing, without any trial and no ability to appeal, Rawda was sent to prison. They also arrested her teenage nephew.
Chris Hedges
Let’s move on to the Israeli settlers.
Jeremy Loffredo
Can I just say one thing about that video real quick?
Chris Hedges
Yeah.
Jeremy Loffredo
Just how I found that woman. We had a list given to us by Addameer, which is a prisoner rights NGO in Ramallah. And it was a list of 50 people who were recently released from administrative attention, and out of the 50 people, only one, that woman, she’s so courageous, only one was willing to speak to us. Everyone was so afraid that if they spoke to a journalist, they would get thrown right back in prison. So that’s how arbitrary, that’s how strict, that’s how scared these people are. Out of 50 people, almost everyone is too scared to just speak about their experience to a journalist except her.
Chris Hedges
Well they’re told when they’re released, not to speak out.
Jeremy Loffredo
Yeah, truly, it makes it even more brave.
Chris Hedges
So you go down to one of the crossings. This is a great report. And you spend time with the Israeli settlers, I think you’re there for a week, who are—with the collaboration of the Army, of course, and the police—blocking the aid trucks coming from Egypt into Gaza. So talk about this first, and then we’ll watch the clip from that report.
Jeremy Loffredo
Sure. So I was there. I was in Jerusalem at the time, and I knew this was happening, and I didn’t really know how exactly to ingratiate myself or kind of embed myself with these people. I, at first, drove down to these aid blocks, these Direct Action Aid blocks with a fellow journalist, like an anti-Zionist, like leftist journalist inside of Israel. And we walked around, I was interviewing people, and I noticed that this person was almost getting a little too emotional. This person was kind of arguing with the settlers, and like you’re not going to change these people’s minds, arguing about how many women and children in Gaza, et cetera, et cetera. And they were looking at me as if to say, like, we’re not going to speak to these people. So I changed my strategy, and instead, I began taking a bus that left from Jerusalem with them through the occupied West Bank. It would stop at settlements, pick up fathers and young children and mothers, and go through the West Bank all the way down south to the Kerem Shalom, or the [inaudible] border crossings. And they would take these busses through the West Bank, pick up the protesters and bring them to the crossing. And once they would get to the crossing… I mean, this is a closed military zone, so, like no one is supposed to be allowed here, but as soon as these settlers show up, the military uses their presence as justification to shut down the aid crossing. So the military knows, the State of Israel knows that if they actually shut down the aid crossing, there will be international political outcry. So the settlers do it instead. And they use the settlers to justify shutting down aid to Gaza. So they work hand in hand, the settlers kind of rid the Israeli government of actual political responsibility for not allowing aid into Gaza. And they were sharing sandwiches. And listen, they’re not supposed to, it’s illegal that they’re there, but the military is giving them sandwiches, watermelon, ice pops, they’re paling around. They’re hanging out. And day after day, as soon as the settlers show up and I’m with them, the blocking gets closed. No aid gets into Gaza day after day after day, and they consider that a giant, giant success. And after I filed this report, I was told these are fanatics, this isn’t really the government line. These people are fringe, even though the military is working with them, like you could see that it’s the government line. But now you have people in the Knesset, people in the Likud party, arguing that they should stop aid, that they shouldn’t send aid, something that just a few months ago, we were told is fringe, and no one was saying that. So it very quickly became reality and so that’s a good intro. We could watch the video.
Israeli Settler 1
The police man, the head commander, came to us and said, “Okay, you guys came and blocked. We don’t want to fight.” And he said to us, “I’ll just lock the gate. You guys don’t need to stand in the sun.” We got lollipops. We got watermelon from the police.
Jeremy Loffredo
The police gave you lollipops and watermelon?
Israeli Settler 1
Yeah, watermelons and it was great with them.
Jeremy Loffredo
So no food, no nothing?
Israeli Settler 2
No, they don’t deserve it [aid]. What I care? Kill them. I don’t care.
Jeremy Loffredo
Do you trust Palestinians?
Israeli Settler 2
No, I know all about them. I don’t trust them. I want them out of here.
Jeremy Loffredo
What do you think should happen to Gaza?
Israeli Settler 2
I want it to be civilized with Jews from Israel.
Israeli Settler 3
My unit was in charge of explosions. We blew up houses of terrorists, mosques, UN offices. I remember we got into some UN office that was in charge of helping families in Gaza that was affected by the war and we destroyed it.
Israeli Settler 4
We give pastries for the people, for the soldiers, for the cops, for everybody. This what we give to our people. This is real humanitarian aid, okay? We need to block the aid to Gaza. We need to block the gas to Gaza. Everything to block. And this what we do every week. Two, three, four times a week.
Israeli Settler 1
And as the Bible says, this place is for us. It’s promised for us so they can starve to death to pay on the things that they’ve done to us on the seventh of October.
Israeli Settler 5
[In Hebrew] I think what we need, I don’t know. We need to be united and kill all of them. We all need to go back into Gaza and control all of it, make it part of our country.
Israeli Settler 1
Bibi [Netanyahu] is a puppet of Biden because we cleaned all Gaza except in Rafah. Why aren’t we going in there? Because Biden asked us not to. That’s the only reason. There’s no reason not to.
Chris Hedges
By that last segment, Jeremy, we actually see settlers walking towards Gaza.
Jeremy Loffredo
Yeah, they went into Gaza. These are the same people that were blocking the aid. Sometimes they would go to the northern part of the Gaza Strip, the Erez Crossing, and they would have a caravan of people, and they would get you as close as they could to the Erez border crossing, and they would bring vinyl and plywood and drills and hammers, and the military would allow them into Gaza. Again, this is a closed military zone. There’s not supposed to be any civilians here, let alone civilians crossing into Gaza. And they were building what they called symbolic outposts. And these are little sheds or houses that they would build on the Gaza side of the Erez border crossing in a way to tell the government like we are ready to move to Gaza when you tell us that we’re allowed to, and a lot of them are from Gush Katif, the last settlement that was in Gaza before the disengagement. And they’re calling for the resettlement and the Judaization of Gaza. And they say settlements equal security. So they believe if they were to settle in Gaza, then the military would have to protect them, and that means the military would be permanently occupying Gaza. And a permanent occupation of Gaza would lead to no more October 7’s, as they would argue.
Chris Hedges
If you speak out, even if you’re Israeli, of course, against the genocide in Gaza, you are targeted, and you have a report speaking to Israelis protesting the war. We’re going to see just three clips from it. I’ll let you set it up. One is from a Yom Kippur veteran. One is from a high school teacher, Meir Baruchin, and the other is from the principal of a school, [inaudible]. Just explain that report, and then we’ll watch those clips.
Jeremy Loffredo
Sure, so shortly after October 7, there is a high school teacher named Meir Baruchin and he would post things on Facebook to the effect of “Muhammad was 13 years old, Muhammad wanted to be a professional soccer player, but Muhammad will never be a professional soccer player because he was killed by our wonderful men and women in the Gaza Strip.” And so he was trying to humanize children in Gaza through these Facebook posts, and his house was raided, his computers and his cell phones were seized, and he was put in solitary confinement for eight or nine days, and they tried to charge him with incitement, which carries 25 years to 50 years in prison. And eventually he was let out of prison. But I was there when he was originally getting arrested. And at the courthouse, there was maybe 10 or 15 [people], older Israeli Jews there showing their support for Meir Baruchin, and they were brutally beaten by a special police force inside of Jerusalem. And so the first interview that we’re going to see right now is one of the older men who was there voicing his support for Meir Baruchin who was getting charged with incitement for simple Facebook posts and he was beaten by the police.
Israeli Dissenter 1
To say it in one sentence, they came in order to beat us. I didn’t see such cruelty, such violence from the side of Jerusalem police in terms of chasing, beating, not hesitating to beat adults. I would say even old ladies. And people were cursed. I mean, the policemen didn’t hesitate to curse people in sentences like “go to Gaza, go to East Jerusalem, go to Sheik Jarrah, we don’t want you. You are lousy leftists,” this kind of stuff. They didn’t hesitate, as people of the law to curse citizens, and we did nothing. For me, it was a fascist event, really. Coming and doing these horrible things to the people who respect the law, who did nothing. I was attacked in Jerusalem, and my son, Nadav, serves in the army very near the northern border. I mean to treat me, as a Yom Kippur War veteran and first Lebanese war veteran, as a traitor, as a person whom you have to attack, whom you have to curse or mock, is impossible by shouting or saying different things that are not in the national consensus, you reveal yourself as a traitor.
Chris Hedges
And we should be clear that that older man that you interviewed, he is a veteran from the Yom Kippur War, and his son is in the military.
Jeremy Loffredo
Yeah, he’s not an anti-Zionist by any means. He lives in Israel. He’s Jewish. He served in the Army. His son is in the army. He just didn’t believe that this high school teacher, Meir Baruchin, should be in prison for 50 years for trying to humanize Gazan children on his Facebook. And that’s the level where they’re at in terms of repressing freedom of speech inside of Israel against Israeli Jews, not even Palestinians.
Chris Hedges
So this last clip we’re going to look at is probably the one that got you in really serious trouble, and this is your reporting on the Iranian air strikes in Israel. Though, I want to, before we talk about it, be clear that you weren’t the only one who showed footage from strikes. They came very close to hitting the Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv, but you weren’t the only one who did it. But of course, they went after you, and I think, having shown clips from all of these reports, we can understand why. So talk about this last report, and then after that, we’re going to talk about what happened to you.
Jeremy Loffredo
Sure. So my original plan was to go to the northern West Bank on this most recent trip, to spend time in the refugee camps in Jenin, around Nablus, Tulkarm, where there’s been regular raids and seizures. And they shut off the water. It’s one of the few places in the West Bank where there’s resistance. And so, like these people don’t want them entering the refugee camp. The Palestinians don’t want the military to come in. And so I wanted to go there and document the destruction caused by these raids, and speak to people who have to deal with these raids. And for the first time in a long time, there’s been a handful of air strikes in the northern West Bank. People are saying it’s another front opening up in this war. So that was my plan. But the day I got to Israel, we had, it was October 1, and that was the day of the Iranian ballistic missile retaliatory attack. And I spoke to my editor and friend, Max Blumenthal. He said, you are there, maybe you should file a report about this missile strike. I thought, I don’t really know what to say about it, everyone’s talking about it. How about if I just try to find where the missiles landed? Maybe that could be the report. I do that. I go to the Nevatim Air Base in the South. I don’t really see much. I go to the Mossad headquarters around there. There’s a filled-in crater, I document it. I look at the news. And because I’m only one person, I’m not a news crew, my turnaround was a few days. So my report came out after the mainstream media. PBS NewsHour, Ynet, mainstream Israeli media and American media situated inside of Israel published very similar information that I did, and only I was acted on and arrested. So we could watch a part of that video and talk about it. I’m Jeremy Loffredo for The Grayzone in Israel, where last night, Iran fired over 200 ballistic missiles in retaliation for the assassinations of Lebanese and Iranian political and military leadership. Since the missile strikes, Israeli authorities have attempted to downplay the significance of the attacks, censor the locations of missile impacts from media publications and claim that Iran was targeting Israeli civilians. What I saw today, here in Israel, is clear evidence that Iran was targeting the same Israeli intelligence and military infrastructure that’s been used over the past year to carry out brutal assassinations and attacks. The military took away most of the missile, but there was still a piece left. The missile fell a quarter mile west of Nevatim Air Base and about a quarter mile from the Bedouin village, which is unrecognized by Israel, so it isn’t supplied with any type of state of the art bomb shelters, like Jewish communities. Where were people in the communities around here hiding yesterday during the [missile] sounds?
Bedouin Villager
Some of our people ran to the school. Lots of us went to the bridge underpass. We aren’t safe because our people have not been given any shelters or safe places to hide.
Palestinian Cab Driver
Many people sheltered here last night. With sounds of the rockets we came to hide here.
Jeremy Loffredo
Using visual clues from footage circulating online, I set out to locate where the missile may have landed. Driving down a street I believe to be in one of the missile videos, I saw a heavily damaged SUV, its windshield shattered debris and concrete caked into the vehicle. Further down, the scene unfolded, destroyed vehicles, torn up asphalt and a massive crater roughly 30 feet wide, recently filled in with dirt.
Palestinian Cab Driver
That’s the Mossad headquarters.
Jeremy Loffredo
The missile had hit less than 1,000 feet from Mossad headquarters. This information is missing from all Israeli media reports due to the fact it’s been officially censored. Right here are the censored coordinates. Given the proximity to what is considered one of the world’s most advanced intelligence agencies, it seemed clear that Israel was taking extra precautions to conceal the exact impact location. As we left the area, an unsettling incident occurred. Our cell phones lost GPS functionality. Maps went blank, and then both devices, mine and my taxi driver’s, suddenly showed we were at Amman Airport in Jordan, over 120 miles west.
Chris Hedges
So now explain what happened. I think you were at a checkpoint, were you in Qalandia? In Ramallah? But explain what happened.
Jeremy Loffredo
It was the first day where I finally was getting to do what I went there to do, which was reporting the northern West Bank. I was at a checkpoint maybe 15 minutes outside of Nablus and the military asked everyone in the car with me, there was five of us, to hand over our passports, which isn’t super strange, asking for ID at a checkpoint, hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank. I wasn’t nervous at all. I give the passport to him, and then they came back, and they asked for us all to hand over our cell phones. And my phone was locked, and I knew all the information in my phone. Maybe I was communicating with people who were in the northern West Bank who maybe knew people who would be considered by them as resistance fighters as the military, as terrorists, but it’s valid journalistic inquiry for me to be communicating with these people for interviews. So yeah, I handed over my cell phone. Everyone did, except one journalist. He refused to and he had a gun pointed at his face. He was dragged out of the car. He was punched a few times, and then they took his phone as well, and then told all of us to get out of the car and stand on the street, sit on the street beside the military checkpoint. And then, maybe after an hour of us sitting on the dirt, one of the army officers pointed at me and said, Mr. Loffredo, will you come here? And so I crossed the street towards the checkpoint, and I said, what’s happening? And they said, You’re being arrested. And they pulled out maybe 20 or 30 feet of blindfold cloth, and they wrapped it tightly around my head, you know, maybe 10 or 15 times around my ears, my eyes and part of my nose. They shackled my legs, and they zip tied my hands, and then I was put in a military Humvee and kind of arbitrarily driven around, and then it stopped. I was then transferred into a police car, or what seemed to be a police car, I was blindfolded, still. And then the police car drove about an hour south towards Jerusalem. It took me to the biggest police headquarters in the West Bank, and I was put in a holding cell. My blindfold was finally taken off my head. I was in the holding cell, and they actually arrested all of us who were in the car. So we were all here at this kind of West Bank military compound. The other journalists that I was with were allowed to go home. And that’s kind of when I thought to myself maybe this is something more serious for me, because everyone’s allowed to go home except me. And I heard them playing this report, my voice. I heard my own voice when I was sitting in my holding cell. I heard them listening to my report. So I knew it was something, not that I was at a checkpoint, not that I was maybe with some people that have Israeli citizenship, and they’re not allowed into Nablus. But it was not about any of that. It was about my video report. Before I was able to speak to a lawyer or anything like that, they called me out of my cell and they told me to stand in front of a big flag that said, “Together We Will Win,” which is like the nationalist wartime slogan for the war. And they didn’t take official photos. They all took out their phones. They were yelling at me in Hebrew. They were just snapping photos for, maybe they have a group chat or something. Just kind of taunting me, telling me to stand here, telling me to smile, telling me to stop smiling, and then they would send me back to my holding cell. They were really just trying to confuse me and scare me. And then finally, after a few hours in the holding cell, they said, your lawyer’s on the phone. I said, I don’t know why I even need a lawyer like I still don’t really know what’s happening. I answer the phone and the lawyer says, “Mr. Loffredo, I want you to think very hard. What have you done? You’re being charged with giving information to the enemy during wartime. It’s a very grave offense. And can you think of anything?” I said, I filed a report, and I am trying to speak to this woman, and she barely speaks any English, and I have like 45 seconds to speak to my lawyer. So she doesn’t really understand what I’m saying. I don’t really understand what she’s saying. The phone call ends. She says, “Listen, they’re gonna interrogate you. You’re gonna be brought to a prison, and I’ll see you in court tomorrow.” And so that’s that was the first day, and that’s how I originally got arrested. And then I was put in an unmarked… Well, first I was interrogated. They asked me if I was familiar with Israel’s military censor. I said, yes. And they said, then why did you publish your video? Et cetera, et cetera. I said, I published my video, I’m familiar with your censor, of course, but because your entire mainstream media was publishing information similar to mine, I didn’t know I was breaking any censorship laws. They asked me if I have any connections or friends or family in foreign militaries. I said, No. They asked me why I included the coordinates in the video. I said, because as a journalist giving as much information and context is important, and many journalists would say the same thing. And this entire interrogation, it was in Hebrew. It was only translated from a person on a cell phone who spoke Russian, very little English. So I’m trying to tell this person on the cell phone why I think what I did is right, and why I’m innocent, and she doesn’t really understand me, and she’s trying to tell the Hebrew guy who also doesn’t understand me, we are all upset. I’m getting frustrated, and I’m scared. The intelligence officer doesn’t understand what I’m saying and is upset with the person on the phone who’s supposed to be translating. So it’s a horrible way to hold an interrogation, to communicate with someone, and then I’m put in an unmarked police vehicle, and I’m taken to the Russian compound in Jerusalem, which is about a 15 minute drive west. And so I get to the Russian compound, they open a solitary confinement cell. It’s about 10 feet by eight feet. There’s a concrete slab with a bed or blanket, depending on how you want to use it. It’s so thin it could be used as both. And I get put in there. They slam the door shut. I don’t know at that point what time my court hearing is the next day. I’m just kind of in solitary confinement now, and eight hours before, I was in a car driving to meet someone in Nablus and do my job, and I’m being charged as an enemy of the state. And so I had my first night in prison and then the next morning—and keep in mind, at this point, they did not give me any water or any food—I had my court appearance and the intelligence, the prosecutors, they wanted to keep me in solitary confinement for seven days. And the judge said, why seven days? And they said, because he’s dangerous. And they said, why do you think he’s dangerous? And they said, it’s top secret. And this is all being translated to me. The entire court hearing is in Hebrew. I don’t understand what’s happening, and the judge doesn’t believe them really when they say it’s top secret, thankfully. And she says, you can have him for one day. You can interrogate him for one day. You can interrogate him, you can go through his cell phone. You can go through his computer. You have one day to continue on this, with these charges. And so they bring me back to solitary confinement. They don’t feed me that night either, and they also don’t interrogate me. The police don’t interrogate me, even though the judge told them that they were allowed to. And so the next day in court, a Ynet journalist came and testified on my behalf and said I am a journalist for Ynet, I have a GPO card, I have a Government Press Office card. I am mandated to go through the military censor whenever I publish something, and I published something very similar to Mr. Loffredo and not only that, I published information relating to why Jeremy Loffredo was detained, and the military censor allowed me to explain what was in his video, and even allowed me to embed his video in my article. And they said there’s nothing secret in it. And so he showed his conversation with a military censor to the judge. The judge read all of it and said, Okay, if Mr. Loffredo can publish this, and I mean, if the Ynet journalist can publish this, why can’t Mr. Loffredo? And the police said, well, it’s because Mr. Loffredo doesn’t like Israel. And so it’s not even an opinion, this was very political, and this had very little to do with that actual video. This had much more to do with my prior reporting and maybe with what The Grayzone publishes and what I’ve published in the past in Israel, in the West Bank. But thankfully, that is the opinion, and that is the view, and that is how the police and the military conduct themselves. But this judge didn’t really accept that and said he needs to be let out of detention. I was brought out of the prison. I was brought back to the court, brought back to prison. I was signing the paperwork to leave prison, and a few guards said something in Hebrew to me, and they grabbed me. They pulled me away from the paper. They took the pen out of my hands, and they threw me back in solitary confinement. I did not know what was happening. They didn’t tell me anything. And a few hours later, this is now, this is probably 8pm. Intelligence officers, plain clothes, come to my cell and take me out. They shackle me, they handcuff me, they load me into a car, and they take me back into the West Bank. And I’m frightened. I’m wondering if I’m going to get tortured now. I really don’t know what’s happening. The people driving the car aren’t really telling me anything, the police officers. And I just asked them, what’s happening? And they said, interrogation. I said, but I was just about to leave prison, what happened? And the court allowed the police to appeal the court’s decision hours after the window for appealing the decision had closed already. They were allowed to retroactively appeal it and throw me back in prison and take me to the West Bank. And so I was interrogated at night in the West Bank, at this military compound, and now, I know they have my phone, so I’m wondering, are they going to ask me now about what’s on my cell phone? You know, if you have someone’s cell phone, you’re kind of in their brain, like these are now different questions than just why or why not is your video legal or illegal? But thankfully, the all the questions still pertained to my video, and then they brought me back to the prison. And so at that point, I was thinking a little more positively about the situation, that they really don’t have anything. They’re trying to charge me as an enemy of the state, as a spy and but like, they just keep going back to this video, and I keep answering why I think this video is legal, other people reporting on it, and I’m saying it very confidently. And they say if everyone committed murder, does that mean you could commit murder? Like making the analogy that everybody had reported on it, that means, can I report on it. They know very well that everyone else is reporting on it, so like they’re making it clear in court transcripts to my face, in secret, they know that I already reported on it. I get brought back to prison, still have not gotten any food or water. I spent the night. In the morning, they finally give me a cup of chocolate pudding, and someone comes to my cell and they introduce themselves as a social worker, doing a wellness check on me, sent to my cell because the American Embassy told the prison to send me a social worker. I said, this is great, maybe I’ll get more food, maybe I’ll get some water, maybe I’m going to get some help. And she said, “Why did you hurt Israel? You know you hurt Israel. Do you love Israel?” And I was taken aback. I thought I was about to get some help. She’s berating me for my reporting. She’s berating me because I don’t agree with her when it comes to the occupation. And she tells me that I’m probably going to spend a long time in prison. And then she closes the steel window to my solitary confinement cell. She walks away. So just to clarify, that is the only help that the American Embassy afforded me, was giving me this Zionist social worker to berate me because of my reporting and give me no help at all. But that’s beside the point. I went to court a few hours later, and finally, I was allowed out, and I had to spend the next 10 days in the country without my passport, my phone or my laptop, and allow the authorities to continue to continue interrogating me.
Chris Hedges
And then what happened? And while you were in the prison, I believe you heard screams or cries from Palestinians. Is that correct?
Jeremy Loffredo
Yeah, I was in solitary confinement. But maybe there were 100, 150 other prisoners in there, all Palestinian. I was the only white person from what I can tell, I didn’t see any Israelis. But I can’t see anything for myself, but I can hear everything, and I heard really, really harsh crying and yelling only to be interrupted by quick demands and questions in Hebrew from, I would assume, obviously, is a guard or a police officer. Crying and yelling for maybe four hours straight, and I’m hearing this, and I’m sitting in my cell, and it’s, for lack of a better word, torturous just to hear that. And obviously, I can’t imagine what these people are going through. I mean there’s torture happening in this prison, and this is prison that is notorious… for they bring Palestinians to this prison, and they torture them in order to manufacture false confessions. And this prison is also notably criticized by human rights groups because it’s not in the West Bank, it’s not in Palestine. So they’re bringing Palestinians from the West Bank into Israel and interrogating them there. So that’s where they brought me. So that’s where they bring an American journalist. They’re not treating me as an American, they’re not treating me as a journalist. They’re treating me as an enemy of the state. And clearly for them, there’s no difference.
Chris Hedges
And you’re allowed to leave, your lawyer calls it an informal deportation, and they’ve left your case open, which essentially means you can’t go back, because if your case is open, then they grab you again, is that correct?
Jeremy Loffredo
Yes, my lawyer called, so I’ll just back up, I’ll tell you exactly what happened. So I was interrogated for probably a combined time of 15 hours during that 10 days. One interrogation was six hours long, and then other interrogations were an hour or two hours, where they’re just continuously asking me the same questions in different ways trying to see if I’m lying or if I slip up on an answer, just like playing semantics. And one interesting question they asked me was, they said, you expect me to believe that you went to school for journalism. You took all these classes, you had all these professors, but you never learned about the importance of a military censor. I explained that we have the First Amendment, and that’s not exactly how it works in America. And I would assume he understands this, and it was as if he was learning about America for me, you know, he couldn’t wrap his head around the military not censoring journalists. And of course, that happens here, but it’s much more like self-censorship. But that was one question they asked me. And they’re asking me about other reports that I’ve seen that I knew had happened in Israel that had the same information as me. So I had to tell them these reports. And I was kept in these interrogations for hours and hours and hours without water, still shackled, still handcuffed. And then finally, after 10 days, the 20th of October came, and that was the day that the Court said I find out if I’m getting re-arrested, or if I get my passport, my phone and my laptop back. And they called my lawyer and they said, can Mr. Loffredo book a sooner flight? Because my flight was for the 23rd, two days later. And she said, of course. So I went to my lawyer’s office. I used their computers. I booked a flight. We sent them the flight information, and they went entirely incommunicado. They had not answered us since. So we booked the flight, and we thought they told us to book a flight. Maybe we should try to get my passport, my phone and my laptop back. So we gave one of my friends there in Jerusalem, power of attorney. Sent him to the West Bank military compound, and they gave him all my stuff back, including my passport, and so that was the moment where I found out that, I think I am able to leave. And I got on a plane, and they interrogated me at the airport a couple times, but I did leave the country, and they left my case open still. I have a case open there right now, I spoke to my lawyer yesterday. Giving information to the enemy during wartime, it’s open and they but they allowed me to leave, and if I come back, back through Ben Gurion Airport, the most securitized airport, probably in the world, and I will be immediately detained, my lawyer says, for the same charges that they were trying to get me on before. So I’m dissuaded from going back until the case is closed. I don’t know if I really ever want to go back.
Chris Hedges
Great. Thank you. That was journalist Jeremy Loffredo. I want to thank Max [Jones], Diego [Ramos], Sofia [Menemenlis] and Thomas [Hedges] who produced the show. You can find me at Chris Hedges.Substack.com.
Jeremy Loffredois an investigative journalist based in New York. Loffredo has produced long form investigative reports on topics ranging from the corporate capture of U.S. and global regulatory health agencies, the influence of the Western and US intelligence apparatus on the national politics of the Global South and the nefarious surveillance capabilities of novel technologies. Loffredo has produced documentary reports from Russia, France and Palestine covering issues of economic unrest, state-backed terror and war.
Wednesday, November 06, 2024
Diwali brings light to Unitarian Universalist congregation
BETHESDA, Md. (RNS) — Diwali's transcendent message of good over evil comes at the perfect time, say Unitarian Universalist congregants, who celebrated the festival of lights in the DC area just days before a critical presidential election.
Alexandra Dass performs a Bharatnatyam dance to help start the evening’s festivities on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church in Bethesda, Maryland.
BETHESDA, Md. (RNS) — As he stood at the pulpit on Sunday, the final day of Diwali (Nov. 3), the Rev. Abhi Janamanchi addressed his congregation in the words of one of the oldest Sanskrit mantras, the Gayatri Mantra, said to illuminate and guide the mind toward truth and righteousness.
“Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti (peace, peace, peace),” chanted the group of more than 100 worshippers in response, their heads bowed. “May we carry forward the light, the strength and the resolve of this sacred celebration,” added Janamanchi, an immigrant from India who describes himself as a “Hindu UU.”
Diwali marks the new year in some traditions, an “opportunity to begin anew, similar to Rosh Hashanah,” said Janamanchi, who pulls tenets from all faith traditions in his sermons. “We say Unitarian Universalism is many windows, one light. While Diwali does have Hindu origins, it transcends a religious perspective. There is a universality in it and a unity, not conformity. It is a unity that is centered in diversity, in our differences.”
Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church, established in 1951 in this suburb on the northern edge of the nation’s capital, was celebrating the Hindu festival of lights in partnership with Hindus for Human Rights, a progressive advocacy organization, adding a call to action to go with the holiday’s traditional dance, food, song and fireworks.
“We are living in critical, troubling and troubled times, and there is a need for us to be coming together in finding ways in which we can recommit ourselves to the work that we are charged with,” said the minister, “to rise up against injustice, to rise up against oppression and to rise up against authoritarianism.”
Rev. Abhi Janamanchi speaks to the gathered congregation on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church in Bethesda, Maryland. RNS photo by Richa Karmarkar A large crowd filled in Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church for their annual Diwali celebrations on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, in Bethesda, Maryland. RNS photo by Richa Karmarkar Lakshmi Swaminathan is a dance teacher and joined in for the annual Diwali celebrations on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church in Bethesda, Maryland. RNS photo by Richa Karmarkar
The line of oil lamps that many Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists use to light their homes and temples, said Janamanchi, represent the divine light of truth meant to “guide us through the darkest of times,” he said, including the looming American presidential election. “My faith enjoins me to speak to the moral issues we are confronted with.”
Pranay Somayajula, organizing and advocacy director for Hindus for Human Rights, told the congregation in his address that rather than treat Diwali as an “abstract or detached celebration,” it is important to remember that the ancient holiday’s lessons apply while “we are still grounded here in the real world,” and against the backdrop of injustice across the globe.
“If we are talking about this being a festival of good triumphing over evil, and knowledge over ignorance, and truth over falsehood, that actually has to mean something in terms of how we carry that spirit forward after today, in the way we engage with the world, whatever that looks like for each of us,” said Somayajula. RELATED: The mashup holiday ‘Diwaloween’ celebrates light as the year turns dark
Celebrated across the worldwide Indian diaspora over a span of five days, Diwali’s significance varies from region to region. Somayajula said Sunday’s event demonstrated the vast diversity of stories told on Diwali, of Lord Rama’s return to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile and victory over Ravana; Lord Krishna’s defeat of the demon Narakasura; and the Sikh observance of Bandi Chhor Diwas, commemorating the release of Guru Hargobind from Mughal imprisonment, along with 52 kings he freed along with him.
At the evening service at Cedar Lane, young children reenacted the battle between Krishna and Naraka, a duo sang Indian and American folk hymns and three Sikh men sang a kirtan, a traditional devotion.
“True Diwali is if we see the lamp as the name of the God, if we see the wick as the name of the God, and the oil as a name of the God, so that the life of the Creator should come to our values,” said Mandeep Singh, one of the kirtan performers.
Mmamohau Tswaedi and Balaji Narasimhan, a couple in their mid-30s from Germantown, Maryland, have been attending Cedar Lane services together since the pandemic and celebrated Christmas and Ramadan there. Tswaedi is the daughter of a Lutheran pastor from South Africa, and Narasimhan is from a religious Hindu family in Chennai, India.
The Narasimhans family brought their baby for his first year of Diwali celebrations on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church in Bethesda, Maryland. RNS photo by Richa Karmarkar
Bringing their 2-month-old son to his first Diwali celebration, the couple feels strongly that this congregation, where they have been “educated on what is out there,” is where their family belongs and where their son will eventually be able to “figure out what he wants to keep and what he wants to give up.”
“The culture where I grew up is very communal, and I find the U.S. is more individualistic, just generally,” said Tswaedi. “So I think spaces where you feel community — not necessarily that look like the community I grew up in, but where you can feel the togetherness — are places that you want to be in. And I think that’s what this space and events like this create. It’s that level of togetherness that transcends, like, one belief or another.”
Diwali is not new to Cedar Lane. Students at Lakshmi Swaminathan’s Natanjali School of Dance have been dancing Bharatanatyam, a traditional Indian form, at Cedar Lane’s celebrations for almost a decade. In 2010, they performed at the Washington National Cathedral, dancing to music of Hindu gods and goddesses in front of Jesus on the cross. For their teacher, the performance yielded a profound realization. “God is one. When you’re connecting with God, where you are doesn’t matter,” she said. “Whether you’re in a church or in the basement of your home, God is within you.”
It was the first Diwali for Beth Brofman, a member of the UU fellowship for the past month. A long-time member of a Dutch Reformed Church in New York, Brofman sought a more diverse and socially active spiritual community on moving to Bethesda, happily trading “How Great Thou Art” for “Get Up, Stand Up” by Bob Marley, she said, the latter of which played after Sunday’s sermon.
Congregants huddled outside to paint rangoli, or colorful mandala patterns, with chalk after the Diwali service on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church in Bethesda, Maryland. RNS photo by Richa Karmarkar
After researching the correct greeting for Diwali, and the most auspicious colors to don, Brofman said her first Diwali came at the perfect time.
“I’m actually needing to distract myself and to be around other people who will reflect my values,” said Brofman, a retired social services worker whose level of anxiety has reached that of the 2016 elections, when she was a canvasser. “Regardless of what happens on Tuesday, we will have that community of like-minded individuals who will continue to advocate for the things I consider important. You know you’re not alone, and the people we know are way more important.”
Janamanchi agreed and said Sunday’s celebration was well timed. “The ‘Narakas’ of the world are pretty active,” he said, citing the evil figure battled by Lord Krishna and his queen, Satyabhama, in Hindu lore. “Like Krishna and Satyabhama, we can recognize that we’re not in this alone, that together, we can overcome, overcome evil, overcome oppression and overcome injustice.”
“In all of this, there is joy,” he added. “Joy is not the opposite of sorrow. Joy is present even through sorrow and challenge and despair and hopelessness. And to me, those are also messages that Diwali presents us with. So if there is one thing I want people to take away, it is joy.” RELATED: In suburban Washington, a new ISKCON temple marks a new beginning for devotees
