Lowkey “Long Live Palestine”
Welcome
to Back in the USSR on 93.3 FM CFRU, I am Siegfried, and tonight, on the last
show of 2017, I’m going to pick up where I left off last week talking about the
Palestinian people and their struggle for liberation against the Apartheid
state of Israel and its US ally. Last
week I talked about the recent decision by the Trump administration to move the
US embassy in Israel from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem, in violation of international
law and the aspirations of the Palestinian people for a viable independent
state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
I also talked about how this action, which was overwhelmingly condemned
at the United Nations, was not in defiance of but actually was the logical
conclusion of the so-called “peace process” starting with the Oslo accords in
1993, which, far from granting a viable independent state for Palestinians or
guaranteeing refugees the right of return to lands stolen by Israel, reduced
the Palestinian people to living in a permanent state of siege – hemmed in by
expanding Israeli settlements, subject to constant aggression by Israeli
security forces, and dominated by a Palestinian Authority that actively
collaborates with the Israeli government in its oppression of the Palestinian
people. I quoted from Greg Shupak’s
excellent article “The Jerusalem Gambit”, in which he details how these things
are connected in what is a decidedly colonial situation as Israel illegally
grabs more and more Palestinian land with the aid of the United States, the
supposedly “honest broker” in peace talks that offer nothing but betrayal to
the Palestinians who have fought an anti-colonial struggle since 1947.
Since
U.S. President Donald Trump 'recognized' Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on
December 6, 610 Palestinians have been arrested for resisting the occupation,
including 170 children and 12 women, the Palestinian Prisoner's Society (PPS)
reported on December 27, so even these figures are out of date.
According
to the Israeli human rights organization, B'Tselem, at least 6,831 Palestinians
are already being held in Israeli custody, including 331 children. The latest arrests bring the total number of
Palestinian prisoners to 7,441.
In addition, 12 Palestinians have been killed by
Israeli forces since Trump's Jerusalem declaration and many thousands wounded
from rubber bullets, tear gas and the many other weapons in the IDF's arsenal.
But if there's one case that has truly stood out and
captured headlines recently, it's the case of a sixteen 16-year old Palestinian
girl, Ahed Tamimi, who was arrested and is currently being held without charges
by Israeli authorities.
I'd like to read an Al-Jazeera article on this case
from December 26th in full, because I believe it shows quite well the kind of
reality Palestinians in the Occupied Territories are living in today.
The Real News Network interviewed Ahed Tamimi's father
earlier this week, a man who has long been active in the Palestinian liberation
struggle. This is what he had to say.
Play Bik - "Monsters, Devils and Strangers"
Play Public Enemy - "By the time I get to Arizona"
You're listening to Back in the USSR. One of the tactics of a colonial power is
always the ideological demonization of those it colonizes, and Israel is no
exception. You've seen how Israeli
social media demonized Ahed Tamimi, a sixteen year old girl, baying for her
blood because she stood up to Israeli soldiers and would not be
intimidated. We've seen how high-profile
Israeli government ministers have called for outright genocide of the
Palestinian people. We've even seen
current Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu try to blame the Holocaust on
the Palestinians, effectively letting the Nazis off the hook in an attempt to demonize the resistance against his own genocidal policies. That was back in 2015
when Israel launched its last assault on Gaza and more than a thousand
Palestinian civilians, including hundreds of children, were killed, and the
Israeli media and political establishment was bending over backwards trying to
justify the atrocities they were committing on a daily basis. This is what Max Blumenthal had to say about
this horrendous propaganda from an interview he did with the Real News two
years ago.
Play Max Blumenthal "Netanyahu's record of inciting violence against Palestinians"
Play Harry Fear "Erasing Gaza, Israeli shell hits another UN school"
Lowkey "Keep your hand on your gun"
Michael Parenti "On racist imperial propaganda"
Amir Sulaiman - "Danger"
Lee Reed "Bazooka Rap"
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