Dr. Ahmed Alhussaina, Vice President of the now-destroyed al-Israa College, speaks out in opposition to Israel’s systematic concentrating on of Palestinian academic and cultural establishments.
On Jan. 17, the Israeli army detonated 315 mines to destroy Gaza’s final standing college, al-Israa College, positioned south of Gaza Metropolis. For 70 days prior, the Israelis occupied the college as a army base, posting snipers in its buildings and utilizing it as a detention and interrogation middle. Based on college authorities, previous to the detonation Israeli troopers looted the college museum, which contained 3,000 artifacts relationship again so far as the Roman period. With al-Israa College’s destruction, Israel has now destroyed or broken all of Gaza’s 12 universities, and likewise focused 280 authorities faculties and 65 UN faculties, lots of which had been sheltering civilians after they had been attacked. Al-Israa College Vice President Dr. Ahmed Alhussaina joins The Chris Hedges Report to debate Israel’s struggle on Gaza’s academic and cultural establishments.
Studio Manufacturing: Adam Coley, Cameron Granadino
Put up-Manufacturing: Adam Coley, Kayla Rivara
Chris Hedges: The Israeli assaults on Gaza have included systematic assaults on Gaza’s cultural and academic establishments. Israel has broken or destroyed all 12 of Gaza’s universities. Some 280 authorities faculties and 65 UNRWA-run faculties or UN-run faculties have additionally been destroyed or broken, typically leading to dozens of fatalities.
About 133 remaining faculties are used to shelter these displaced by the Israeli assault. Greater than 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million folks have been pushed from their properties amid continued Israeli floor and air assaults which have killed greater than 25,000 folks, together with 10,000 kids. The Geneva-based unbiased Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported that Israel destroyed Gaza’s 12 universities in levels. The primary stage included the bombing of the Islamic and Al-Azhar universities.
On January 17, the Israeli army detonated 315 mines to show Gaza’s final standing college, Al-Isra College – South of Gaza Metropolis – Into rubble. The Israelis have occupied or had occupied the college for 70 days, utilizing it as a army base, together with positioning snipers inside its buildings in addition to turning it right into a detention and interrogation middle. The college housed a museum with 3000 archaeological artifacts relationship again to the Roman period. College authorities have charged Israeli troopers with looting the museum earlier than blowing it up. Al-Isra College was dwelling to the one college hospital within the Gaza Strip, one among solely two in the entire Palestinian-occupied territories, in addition to buildings that housed medical and engineering laboratories, nursing labs, media coaching studios, the regulation schools, courtroom trial, and commencement halls.
The Israeli assaults have killed 94 college professors. These embody Professor Sofyan Taya, the president of the Islamic College of Gaza, an award-winning physicist, and UNESCO chair of astronomy, astrophysics, and area sciences in Palestine, who died alongside his household in an airstrike. Dr. Ahmed Hamdi Abo Absa, dean of the software program engineering division on the College of Palestine reportedly shot lifeless by Israeli troopers as he walked away having been launched from three days of enforced detention. Professor Mohammed Eid Shabir, professor of immunology and virology, and former president of the Islamic College of Gaza, Professor Rafat Al-Araeer; a poet and professor of comparative literature and inventive writing on the Islamic College of Gaza was killed together with members of his household.
Some 4,327 college students have been killed and seven,819 others have been injured. 231 academics and directors have additionally been killed. Palestinians who’ve one of many highest poverty charges on the earth however cherish training. Additionally they have one of many highest literacy charges on the earth and Palestinian graduates excel in medication, arithmetic, engineering, and different fields. Israel seems decided to obliterate Palestinian cultural, academic, and historic properties, a part of its deliberate erasure of the Palestinian folks.
Photos of Israeli troops cheering as faculties are blown up and appeared on social media together with one video displaying the demolition of a particular blue UN college in Northern Gaza. Becoming a member of me from Cairo to debate Israel’s wholesale destruction of Gaza’s academic and cultural establishments is Dr. Ahmed Alhussaina, the vp of Al-Israel College. Dr. Alhussaina’s dwelling block in Gaza was bombed by Israel, ensuing within the loss of life of 102 of his members of the family. Physician, thanks for becoming a member of us, and naturally my heartfelt condolences not solely in your loss however for every thing that has been taking place in Gaza.
Dr. Ahmed Alhussaina: Thanks, Chris, for having me.
Chris Hedges: I wish to start with what it took to construct this college and the way essential the college was. We must also observe that this isn’t the primary time that Israel has struck or bombed universities; they did so in earlier assaults. Let’s start with the college itself as a result of Gaza could be very poor and some of the densely populated areas on the planet. And to construct that construction and create what you created is nearly Herculean. So speak in regards to the inception of the college and what you constructed.
Dr. Ahmed Alhussaina: The college was established in 2014. We began instructing within the fall of 2015. We began with a small constructing north of Gaza, which additionally was demolished partially or 70% demolished throughout this struggle. It’s within the North, near the North of Gaza. On the similar time, two years later, we began constructing this campus, which is 4,000 sq. meters of space multiplied by seven flooring, it was one of many largest buildings, if it’s not the largest constructing, in Gaza. And we had the designs and we had loads of hope. It was a bunch of pioneers that we had. All people pitched in. We spent years constructing that constructing and we adopted each single element of it. It was, by witnesses, everybody in Gaza, everyone visited the constructing. It is among the greatest buildings, one of many nicest buildings in Gaza.
It appeared like a lodge while you walked in. Among the best. The whole lot was so elegant, was luxurious really. We tried to make it one-of-a-kind and we had so many hopes for this. We had laboratories, we had every thing. We had 4,300 college students. We haven’t even been right here for 10 years. Of 4,300 college students, 65%, greater than two-thirds had been feminine. We had given alternatives to loads of females even after they had been moms and single moms or divorced, they weren’t dwelling as a result of we provided so many scholarships. We had our imaginative and prescient, our motto was poverty won’t stand as an impediment in entrance of any Palestinian who desires to pursue a school diploma. In order that’s what we began with and that was our slogan or motto for that. That’s one of many important causes we began this college and that was the main target of everybody.
So we had been serving to, we had been giving so many scholarships to lots of people. We had been getting assist, we had donations from Kuwait, from UNDP. We had been working with all our NGOs and worldwide organizations and we had been serving to lots of people. Even when they didn’t have the cash, we had been giving a scholarship to excel the scholars. It was 90% or extra a 3.6 common get a full scholarship. Ladies who’re divorced or minorities get full scholarships. Orphans, if their mother and father died we gave them a full scholarship. We had been giving a lot assist and we had been about to do a grand opening of the museum. The museum we had, we constructed a constructing subsequent to this campus, which additionally was destroyed this time. We had a pleasant constructing in there. We had every thing in there and it was looted out and destroyed. The whole lot went away within the blink of an eye fixed. We additionally constructed the primary college hospital in Gaza. We simply began instructing and opened this system every week earlier than we began the season. We began the semester for the Bachelor of Drugs and we simply began this new program, not even every week instructing, after which every thing was gone. The whole lot.
Chris Hedges: When did you permit the college or when did you permit Gaza?
Dr. Ahmed Alhussaina: I had spent 45 days. I left November 14 and I used to be within the North. I used to be in the course of town of Gaza besides I used to be on the south facet. We went via a horror leaving from the North to the South. Once we left, the Israeli IDF was on Salah al-Din, which is the primary street that connects between the North and South of Gaza. That’s the primary street. And the Israeli tanks and troopers had been there, so that you needed to undergo them. All over the place else you may’t go as a result of that’s what they introduced: It’s important to undergo that. You go there after which it’s important to stroll as a result of there are not any automobiles, they don’t enable any automobiles to come back in.
You’d have to drag the bag into the sand. There’s no pavement as a result of every thing was uprooted by the Israeli bulldozers or no matter. So it’s important to pull the bag and proper earlier than you bought to the Israeli’s military, there was one thing they have you ever stroll via, there have been cameras in there and stuff, you stroll in there after which they might put batches of 150 to 100 folks. You stand in entrance of troopers, you’re going through them, and it’s important to maintain your ID in your hand standing up. We had been on this place for 2 and a half hours, standing on our ft, within the solar, with our IDs in our fingers. When you drop one thing, you may’t kneel up and down to choose it up since you topic your self to a loss of life sentence. You may get sniped out by… You may get killed.
Whilst you stand there… Inside that two and a half hours they had been calling folks. They had been like 100 yards from us and so they had ditches on the bottom between them. They name you, they are saying, you, the donkey with the purple shirt – That’s how they name you. Humiliation – They name you, you come on the market, you go right into a small ditch and so they make you stand. They decide folks at random. I don’t know if it’s random however they make you are taking all of your garments off, completely bare. Even your underwear. You maintain it in your hand after which they both come out, blindfold you, handcuff you, or they take you in. Some folks, they made them sit there for the following day and used them as a human defend so folks wouldn’t get shot.
All this humiliation. A 70-year-old man needed to stand and take all his garments off and so they made him flip round in entrance of individuals. There have been ladies, children had been standing there, ladies had been crying, children had been crying. My granddaughter was with me. She’s three years outdated. She was horrified. And when you cross via, two and a half hours later they make whoever is left to stroll. You needed to stroll. You then stroll one other mile and then you definately discover a cart that’s pulled by a donkey. That’s the one factor they allowed there. It’s going to take you one other mile to get to the place automobiles are purported to be. Then we discovered an outdated automobile we took to the Rafah border.
Chris Hedges: And also you had been in Northern Gaza. Did you permit since you had been ordered to depart or as a result of the place your own home was destroyed?
Dr. Ahmed Alhussaina: Yeah, my dwelling was destroyed. It was unlivable and we had no alternative after which there’s nowhere to go and also you both go to the South or depart. We had an opportunity to dwell with my household via the State Division. They’d our names as twin residents. We went via the State to Rafah Crossing. I forgot to say, that when you cross previous the IDF, whilst you’re strolling, there are our bodies on either side of the street. They began decomposing. You might see them –
Chris Hedges: So let’s speak in regards to the assault on academic and cultural establishments. It’s clearly by design. This isn’t unintentional. Why is it that Israel is decided to obliterate academic and cultural establishments? There are various that I haven’t talked about together with Gaza’s public library and Gaza’s cultural middle. Why are these essential targets for the Israelis?
Dr. Ahmed Alhussaina: – They wish to wipe out every thing that factors to the Palestinian id or Palestinian tradition. It’s just like the propaganda says: Individuals with no land got here to a land with no folks. They contemplate there have been no Palestinians and so they’re nonetheless saying it now. Oh, there have been no folks there. There’s no such factor as Palestine, there have been no Palestinian folks in there. So who was there? Who was dwelling there? The place had been my grandparents and my great-grandparents? They nonetheless have the keys to their properties in there. They’ve currencies. The State of Palestine, the outdated foreign money, was in 1927 and 1918. The place did that come from? It was a manhole cowl in Jaffa. Nonetheless, I noticed any individual posted an image that it says the State of Palestine. They most likely forgot to take that out too. I don’t know.
However they don’t need folks to teach themselves. They don’t need training. They wish to destroy universities as a result of that’s the one means the Palestinian has. We’ve got no weapon, we’ve got no future. Each Palestinian in Gaza, as I do know, will derive themselves from meals and they’re going to ship their children to varsity. It turns into like a necessity; it’s a should. All people sends their children to varsity. They don’t allow them to – After highschool they sit down, they drive them or ask them to go to varsity. Even the younger children are satisfied that you just construct a future and you may get your nation again by educating your self. You possibly can’t be illiterate and you may’t symbolize your self in entrance of anyone. It’s not simply that. They uprooted olive timber; Olive timber are a logo of Palestinian land and also you see what occurs within the West Financial institution: The settlers, each different day go to the olive timber and so they uproot loads of them. They burn them. It’s a struggle in opposition to every thing that’s Palestinian.
One other factor, they wished to make Gaza unlivable. When you have no hospitals, no faculties, no universities, no mosques to wish, and no place to go, what else would you will have there? They gained’t be alive in there. And it’s surprising what they did to the college. Why would you keep in it for 70 days after which go boobytrap it and blow it up in entrance of individuals whereas cheering? I don’t perceive, he was there for a way lengthy? I noticed the American spokesman for the States say, oh, they mentioned it was headquarters for Hamas. It has by no means been for Hamas there. I don’t perceive the place that got here from. There was no weapon. If they’d one thing, they might’ve had movies and photos or they might state one thing like they did in Al-Shifa hospital or no matter. I don’t know what to say anymore.
Chris Hedges: If I bear in mind, Palestinians have a 97% literacy fee. It’s excessive.
Dr. Ahmed Alhussaina: Sure. All people makes positive they go to high school.
Chris Hedges: When it comes to Palestine, for viewers who could not know, from the Muslim conquest within the seventh century till the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, historic Palestine – Which earlier than World Struggle I used to be below the Ottoman Empire – Was a Muslim entity. It was Muslim.
Dr. Ahmed Alhussaina: Sure.
Chris Hedges: And far of what Israel seeks to perform is not only an erasure of Palestinian cultural and historic id, however a type of historic amnesia.
Dr. Ahmed Alhussaina: Sure, that’s precisely what I wished to say.
Chris Hedges: Let’s speak about a number of the figures: Rafah and others. They’ve killed over 100 journalists. To a sure extent, for these of us who’re watching it from a distance, it appears clear that some or many of those folks had been focused; They weren’t killed by accident. And Rafah, he was receiving threats from Israel earlier than they bombed him and I believe he was killed along with his sister and his household. However they’ve been worn out, together with a journalistic class – And overseas journalists usually are not allowed into Gaza, so we will’t cowl. I used to be a part of a gaggle from the Egyptian Press Syndicate that attempted to go to Rafah to protest a number of weeks in the past – However I would like you to deal with this problem of the killing of main lecturers, poets, and writers. What your reflections on it are, and whether or not you imagine they had been intentionally focused by the Israelis?
Dr. Ahmed Alhussaina: Sure, I do. Most of those persons are distinguished figures. They know – And what I heard is that they’re typing them via their Fb accounts and their social media accounts proper now and anyone that’s publishing one thing or posting something, you get threats. Generally it’s directed threats, generally it’s oblique threats. You submit one thing easy on Fb, you get one thing. You get notified, generally you get telephone calls, you get this recording telephone name from the Israeli military that it’s important to depart your home or no matter, and generally it’s… You don’t know what’s occurring. I’ve seen journalists get… One of many journalists that was within the North, in Jabalia, had come. His title is Anas Al-Sharif, he bought textual content messages that had been threatening him to cease as a result of when Al Jazeera left, solely this man was videoing within the North. He’s the one who was staying. Then they bombed his home and killed his father and he’s nonetheless there. I don’t know if he’s nonetheless alive or not. There are such a lot of instances of journalists getting threatened and killed.
There are such a lot of lecturers that had been killed. We had a number of from Al-Aqsa College. We had Dr. Fadel Abu Hein, he was a professor of scientific psychology. He was a distinguished psychologist for 30 years he was working for the Gaza Scientific Psychological Well being Middle, and he retired. Then he got here to work for us and he was instructing within the scientific psychology division. He was the pinnacle of the scientific psychology division. He was killed two weeks in the past, perhaps three weeks, along with his household by a bomb on his home.
Rafat Al-Araeer was bothering them along with his poetry and what he was preventing for; He was at all times posting issues about Palestine. Dr. Sufyan Tayeh, the president of Islamic College and a distinguished physicist, was primary in Palestine – One of many 10% of the folks on the earth for physics. I don’t know why would you kill any individual like that. He had nothing to do with anybody and also you bomb their home with their household. They know who’s there earlier than they bomb – There’s new know-how proper now, they know who’s in there via their cell telephones and different know-how, even with voice recognition and different stuff. In order that they know who’s in the home earlier than they bomb the home. And it appears like this was intentionally concentrating on all these folks on function to rid Gaza or Palestine of intellectuals and academic future.
These persons are very well-known scientists and most of them had been killed in chilly blood with their households and kids, a few of them with their grandchildren, with the entire household worn out. A few of them left slightly child or a father or no matter, however a lot of the households are wiped off this civics register. I don’t know what else we will say. It’s there, everyone sees that it’s intentionally focused, however the US doesn’t wish to see it. The State Division spokesman doesn’t wish to see it. After I see any individual’s press convention for him with journalists and ask him – He tries to keep away from questions and say, I don’t know. I don’t have sufficient info to touch upon that. We nonetheless wait and we ask Israel for remark, for a proof. I’ve by no means heard him say, I’ve a proof. I don’t know.
Chris Hedges: The US understands very effectively what Israel is doing. It’s finishing up not solely genocide but additionally making an attempt to create a scenario or a humanitarian disaster that’s so excessive that Palestinians must select between dying of publicity, illness, bombs, hunger, infectious illness, or leaving. That’s the objective, whether or not Israel can obtain that objective – As a result of the place are the Palestinians going to go? I don’t know. And having lined Israel for seven years, this has lengthy been the intent of Israeli political figures like Netanyahu, it’s not a secret. They’ve lengthy advocated for this wholesale ethnic cleaning. Are you in contact with anybody inside Gaza in the intervening time?
Dr. Ahmed Alhussaina: Sure. It’s very arduous, however I nonetheless have brothers and sisters again there. I’ve a brother and a few sisters within the North, nonetheless in Gaza Metropolis, and I’ve one brother along with his household in Khan Younis with all this bombing proper now. He evacuated to the place they advised him to go. They mentioned, go to Khan Younis. It was wonderful, it was protected, however proper now it’s the worst space for him. Day-after-day there’s a bombing near the place he’s staying and he’s so scared for his life. He sends me messages generally saying we would not make it via the morning. I felt the identical factor after we had been staying initially of the struggle for over 40 days. That’s what we had been feeling.
The bombing; The home shakes and also you don’t know when the following hit shall be. We’d say our prayers, we’d collect collectively in a single room so we may die collectively and we didn’t know if we had been going to make it till the morning. No one is aware of. You say your prayers and fall asleep and also you say goodbye to everyone for those who can sleep.
Chris Hedges: What do you assume the tip objective of Israel is and the way achievable do you assume their objective is? They are saying that it is a struggle in opposition to Hamas. The proof argues in opposition to that. It’s a struggle in opposition to the Palestinian folks. A couple of days in the past, the US intelligence experiences within the New York Occasions and mentioned that solely 20% or 30% of Hamas fighters had been killed. And I used to be stunned Hamas had the capabilities to proceed the resistance for 2 or three months. Out of your perspective, what’s Israel’s objective? How achievable is that objective?
Dr. Ahmed Alhussaina: The objective is to evacuate folks from Gaza. They need Gaza an empty land; That’s what they’ve been planning for years. Considered one of their leaders mentioned earlier than that Gaza needs to be emptied. It’s imposed – I don’t know if that is a part of the deal of the century – That’s what they do after they wish to make it unlivable. They wish to make it so folks haven’t any alternative however to depart. Both you die there of bombing, famine, hunger, starvation, thirst, or illness that’s spreading proper now due to all of the our bodies which are on the market. They wish to make it unlivable – Make or migrate.
Their objective is to push folks into the Sinai desert, into Egypt, and it’s occurring step-by-step. It’s virtually there. What I heard is 1.5 or 1.7 million out already in Rafah, near the border. I see photos of tents lower than 20 ft from the Egyptian border. So the persons are there, they’re able to go. If they begin bombing from the North, that’s what’s going to occur. My very own perception is that they’re going to cease bombing and pushing folks towards the border. Then they bomb the partitions of the border, make it open, and folks will run for his or her lives. They’re going to go in there after which as soon as they go in there, they’ll seal it and cease them from coming in or again to their locations.
What stopped them? The folks’s steadfastness within the North, there’s lots of people nonetheless there. They don’t wish to depart their homes, no one desires to depart. Some folks left however lots of people are nonetheless there. There are massive numbers nonetheless within the North in Jabalia and different locations and that delayed their plans. For now, the fourth month began already, 120 days. However there are lots of people. If they will try this, they’ll push who’s left in Rafah, and stick with greater than half the inhabitants. They’ve this coverage, it’s known as mowing the grass. I don’t know for those who’ve heard of that.
Chris Hedges: Yeah.
Dr. Ahmed Alhussaina: They had been doing that each few years. Each couple of years there was a struggle in Gaza.
Chris Hedges: Yeah. Let me clarify: Mowing the grass was Israeli slang for periodically finishing up armed assaults together with aerial assaults in opposition to Palestinians in Gaza as a type, of their eyes, of deterrence to maintain them below management. During which hundreds of Palestinians had been killed.
Dr. Ahmed Alhussaina: Yeah, after all. That’s what’s a goal: They wish to kill numbers. They don’t need the numbers to go up. Even when the blockade was there, they had been counting the energy. What number of energy are you purported to devour in Gaza? They’d go from one particular person to a different and so they had been controlling the meals. They measured the meals, how a lot meals that you must go. So for all of the previous 17 years with the blockade in it, they had been controlling every thing that go out and in of Gaza. The meals was portioned, they weren’t giving sufficient meals, they weren’t supplying you with wholesome meals: some stuff was even forbidden.
Laboratory tools… In our case, we had bought a PC, PCR, and CPR unit through the COVID-19 unfold. It was coming in and since then, it’s been there at Delta. They blocked it from coming. They didn’t enable it to come back into Gaza. I don’t know why. There isn’t any permission for this. One other instrument we needed to look forward to a yr and a half and we had the ICRC, the Crimson Crescent, assist us get that from the Israeli facet. So all obstacles hinder every thing. Whenever you wish to construct one thing, the constructing materials, the cement, it’s important to register and it’s important to inform them precisely the place the cement goes and it’s important to present that you just used the cement. There have been cameras on the warehouse, UNDP was there with the workers, and so they needed to calculate each ton of cement, the place is it going, who it was going to, and what it was getting used for.
That was the coverage for the previous 10 years, at the least. Because the struggle in 2014. You possibly can’t herald something until they monitor or conform to let it in. And that’s a part of making Gaza unlivable for folks. You will have financial hardship, you will have siege, a blockade, and you may’t journey – By way of them, 1% get the allow to journey – You didn’t deny your entry, they deny you to depart. You undergo the Egyptian web site. Additionally, within the first few years, the border was closed for like 200 days out of the yr. Now it’s began opening however with loads of restrictions. It’s important to pay folks. There’s a bribe. When you got here right here now, you’d should bribe any individual to get out of Gaza.
Chris Hedges: Sure and people bribes are within the hundreds of {dollars}.
Dr. Ahmed Alhussaina: $5,000 proper now.
Chris Hedges: $5,000. Now we’re speaking about Egyptians who will enable folks to get out.
Dr. Ahmed Alhussaina: They’ve an commercial that exhibits it, I didn’t imagine it. They promote that. They’re not even ashamed of what it says, $5,000 per particular person, $1,200 for those who carry an Egyptian passport or Egyptian citizenship.
Chris Hedges: We must also point out that the Israelis have introduced that they’re going to make an assault on Rafah.
Dr. Ahmed Alhussaina: Yeah, we’re about to go there.
Chris Hedges: That is proper on the border with Egypt. That’s the place the border crossing is.
Dr. Ahmed Alhussaina: This a part of the planet continues to be getting into there. I don’t know if Egypt would enable this or not, so hopefully, not. God is aware of.
Chris Hedges: I’m questioning what this implies for the Palestinian folks. In some ways, what’s taking place in Gaza is even worse than the so-called Nakba, the disaster, Palestinians name it in 1948. When 750,000 Palestinians had been ethnically cleansed from historic Palestine, hundreds had been murdered by Zionist terrorist teams and villages like Deir Yassin. How do you place this second in Palestinian historical past? What does this imply for the Palestinian folks?
Dr. Ahmed Alhussaina: In my view, that is the second Nakba, or worse, the third Nakba. 1948, 1967, and now: 2023 or ’24 proper now. My uncle was 95 years outdated most likely, he was killed within the final bombing of our blocks with our household. He noticed the Nakba, he left via the Nakba. He was a teen at the moment or perhaps 20 years outdated. He mentioned that that is one other Nakba however it’s a lot bigger and extra horrifying in scale. He’d by no means seen this type of killing and a deliberate concentrating on of mosques, hospitals, and faculties. That is the worst ever. I’ve by no means seen it in every other a part of the world the place you intentionally assault a hospital or college. And what affected person within the hospital and unplug… I might cease a number of from getting into there for kids or infants within the NICU constructing. Persons are dying of every kind of stuff.
There was a killing, there was an assassination. They had been gathering folks and shot them behind the pinnacle. Now they discover our bodies buried with their fingers tied behind their again, it’s loads of executions. That is the third Nakba and I believe they wish to do it as a result of one among their leaders, they’re saying that they remorse holding Palestinians inside Israel. They wish to do away with the Israeli Arabs, they are saying. 1948 folks. They mentioned we should always have by no means left anyone in there and so they wish to do what they couldn’t do in 1948: They wish to do away with everyone in there.
If this works, their subsequent flip is that they’re going to go to the West Financial institution and kick them to Jordan. I believe that’s a part of a much bigger plan and that’s what makes me imagine that. Individuals ought to imagine that Netanyahu within the United Nations, held the map and it didn’t present West Financial institution on Gaza. When you can do not forget that was –
Chris Hedges: Yeah, you’re speaking about, it was in September. He addressed the overall meeting and he held up a map of the way forward for the Center East and it confirmed Israel having integrated the occupied West Financial institution and Gaza into one nation. That’s proper.
Dr. Ahmed Alhussaina: – Sure. That’s what I’m speaking about.
Chris Hedges: What do you assume the results are for Palestinians? You will have tens of hundreds, most likely lots of of hundreds of people that have been so deeply traumatized, that you’ve got misplaced in depth members of the family, kids are going to develop up with this: Not solely this trauma, however having misplaced shut kinfolk, perhaps their mother and father, their properties, their group. How is that this going to play out among the many Palestinian folks? You will have roughly 5.5 million dwelling below Israeli occupation and about 9 million Palestinians dwelling within the diaspora. What are going to be the results for the Palestinians?
Dr. Ahmed Alhussaina: I believe after this, the Palestinian folks may have reached some extent of despair. I don’t assume anyone thinks there’s a future for peace with Israelis. Earlier than that, it was divided. There have been lots of people who believed that we may dwell, we may have our personal state, and so they may have their state and two-state options. Their proper is extremist, they destroyed that hope for everyone, and I don’t assume that’s going to work anymore. Such as you mentioned, all these children that misplaced their mother and father, misplaced their kinfolk, misplaced their properties, what are they going to assume? They assume they’re going to wish to dwell in a single state or two states subsequent to any individual who killed their mother and father. I believe they’re destroying the two-state answer and that’s what they wished to do for tens of years, many years as a result of Netanyahu mentioned that he doesn’t imagine that there must be a Palestinian state. They don’t need it. They need a one-state answer for themselves, by themselves.
They need a Jewish state like they handed a few years in the past. They don’t need Palestinians and the extremists are holding energy in Israel and that’s what they need. And I believe they’re getting loads of assist from the US and it doesn’t appear that assist is diminishing. No, I believe it’s rising extra, particularly between the Republicans and Democrats, it’s not diminishing in any respect. I don’t know what to anticipate. The youngsters are despaired, we really feel in despair. I’m not so optimistic in regards to the future. I don’t know when are we going to have the ability to go to Gaza and begin constructing. Gaza is destroyed. Greater than 70% of the homes and buildings are became rubble. The whole lot is destroyed. Faculties are gone; universities, hospitals, mosques, medical facilities. What can we anticipate? What life are we ever going to return to, to begin this type of stuff?
Chris Hedges: What in regards to the penalties throughout the area? As a result of with a lot justification throughout the Arab and the Muslim world, that is seen not solely as an assault on Palestinians, however an assault on Muslims, and an assault on Arabs. And there’s been large unrest which has put stress on Arab regimes which have, past rhetorically, denouncing, the genocide hasn’t finished a lot aside from Yemen. How is that this going to play out throughout the area?
Dr. Ahmed Alhussaina: To be trustworthy with you, I don’t assume there’s [going to be] loads of change. There’s not a lot condemnation. They had been condemned initially, they’re not condemned now. Edy Cohen, one of many journalists, says if loads of Arab nations are supporting our operation in Gaza, then a few of them are funding it. They wish to do away with no matter is left of resistance in Gaza and Palestine. They wish to end this wrestle and do away with it as a result of it’s giving them unrest, giving them a headache as a result of the folks in Arab nations and the Muslims are nonetheless alive and so they need a answer. They wish to cease the killing in all of the nations, even the neighboring nations to Gaza Jordan, Egypt, and all different nations.
However they’re not transferring it. The leaders of these nations usually are not doing a lot or they’re not doing sufficient to ease that struggling or to cease the genocide, the ethnic cleaning, or cease the killing. They’re not making an attempt, they’re not even saying it. A few of them didn’t even minimize their political ties or financial ties with Israel. I heard that they’ve vans coming from Dubai via Saudi Arabia to Jordan bringing merchandise and stuff to Israel to make up for the legal guidelines via the Crimson Sea, which the Yemenis are stopping. I don’t know if that’s ever going to vary and I believe the leaders are fearful about their place and authority to lose their energy, however I believe that’s too early. Perhaps sooner or later, it will begin. It’s bought a domino impact, however it’s going to take time to begin. I don’t assume it’s going to be a time quickly. That’s my considering.
Chris Hedges: Nice, thanks. That was Dr. Ahmed Al Alhussaina, vp of Al-Isra College. I wish to thank The Actual Information Community and its manufacturing group; Cameron Granadino, Adam Coley, David Hebden, and Kayla Rivara. You’ll find me at chrishedges.substack.com.
