Transcripts For RT Going Underground 20240713

Speak to the Un Development and humanitarian chief in palestine Jamie Mcgoldrick scan the israeli Prime Minister netanyahu is going to virus justice we also have stopped a former israeli Prime Minister ehud barak also more coming up in todays going underground 1st lets go straight to gaza one of the most densely Populated Areas on earth tackling coronavirus talk to us or i would you may director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program Joins me now via skype yes and thanks so much for joining us so what is the situation in gaza israel is claiming it has sent you hundreds of testing kits thousands of or at least 1000 protective suits by the World Health Organization to say people saved 2000000 people arguably from coronavirus. Jeff thank you very much and the conditions as like this now we have only tool fortunately only 2 confirmed cases of corner of i am so around the same time we have about 1300 people who are in Quarantine Centers the these are mainly be pull out right from outside because this tip and we have about 3000 people who are of our asked requested to all be staying at their houses and like self county this is a place that is under blankets is more than 12 years the Health System itself is not in its best. Readiness for any. Or were not prepared to receive these kinds of complaints ok but i mean im speaking to you from a obviously from a area in lockdown britain it is better then then when israel was injuring tens of thousands of people let alone the 200 who were killed 8000 wounded in weekly protests it is better now. Well well in in one sense its better because the probability of getting infected is a lot lower because you are as you said locked down yonder block and however on the other hand you know if he thinks get. Me not controlling i mean then we will have a big and serious. Issue to have a. Bit if we have an outbreak you know let other places it will be a disaster from the if the sister if you do have a outbreak how many ventilators do you have in preparation if more cases emerge 60 or 60 intensive care units and again this is we speak about 2000000 people you know i think out of the 22 currently in centers we have 10 or 11 schools and then we have about 3 hotels and the list are like health or primary Health Care Facilities you know they started a few days ago to work on a hospital that is aimed at providing contin the place thats still in what is ongoing but in total we prayed just like that the numbers were not really increase well in fairness to israel obviously its not bombing those schools or hospitals at the moment as it has done i should ask you also have any news on israel of the possible release of thousands of imprisoned palestinians including hundreds of children people in gaza have no word of the. Well as far as a not theres nothing get there were talks about cases that might be from a pristine insincerely prisons who got the. Disease not sure that any of that this is confirmed it is known as that person after they have requested the community at large abbey who still is there is for release those prisoners most of them are not criminal prisoners we speak about just the people who are just acting against. Living under occupation you know and some of them are and that is simply administrative detention its against human rights its against the health. Effects its against all. Laws that would indicate how to deal with prisoners in any place you know i work in the field of Mental Health you know when you speak about gaza strip and speak about. More than 53 percent of people and poverty 33 pair of people percent of people under extreme poverty you simply talk about people who live on daily basis from like hand to mouth as this is we are basically still and the occupation on our gates are controlled by the israelis sold israel has if it can obligation towards the International Community towards the Palestinian People to do whatever is needed to improve the Health Conditions in gaza strip and to reduce any possibility or any chances of having serious complications caused by the comet 1900 s. Ok well just briefly then britain obviously has sold weapons to israel were told here that we have to wash our hands what are Water Supplies like in gaza given that washing ones hands is the World Health Organization advice and what is the toll on Mental Health of course your asika trist on the people of gaza as they live under a defacto siege their services we know reports of any extra medical equipment being let through the checkpoint. Well there you could say that. People are what it looks fairly anxious let others in on this planet at the moment the 1st time the local authorities announced that mosques are not to be open any more you know there are no. Players predator that exists lets it rock will have a toll free line that is open and operating and we are trying to increase that capacity in order to receive like for example a 5 course at the same time now it comes to hygiene as you asked you know what i dont is not enough you need to water with with with soap you know any you need something to clean your hands that we all know that more than 95 percent of the water in there is not portable you know however whatever is available for cleaning if i could say. But of course one of the interesting thing is that we heard in different places about shopping spree but shopping panic and that shows on the main books i mean on the main shops could be emptied this is not the situation in gaza and i dont think that this is going to happen and thats simply because people do not most of the people do not have the money that is needed in order to buy things of our years of look at the end of our economic and Financial Resources and with the larger scale operations of francis with the great mass of retained casualties a lot of families the good also the end of the day drained of resources and this is again that its a big issue and this is all 50 in the Mental Health of the population and just finally no news of any extra equipment in addition to the w. H. O. Testing kits that have come through to gaza as yet to my knowledge not yet but often you will see something some doctor a as average of a thank you. Well the u. N. Relief agency in palestine is facing the collapse of schools and Health Centers as the global body struggles to find funding this while palestinian Officials Say israel has intensified illegal settlement construction joining me via skype from jerusalem is u. N. Development and humanitarian coordinator in palestine Jamie Mccall Drake thanks jamie for coming on weve just been hearing about garza but obviously the news in developed countries is a record unemployment in the United States and the economic collapse here in the e. U. And the standard the u. N. Once a 2000000000. 00 fund to combat coronavirus what do you need in palestine well i mean we have a. Plan quite soon which will be covering the 1st 6090. 00 days its the militants at this once weve asked for 33000000. 00 and try and get it from that will fund and ideas to trying central the 1st step cure equipment such as the protective equipment testing equipment as well as ventilators and Oxygen Concentrator is all used for the all intensive care unit say the things so were trying to get a range of material that covers the full range of their core from you know ellie early testing or be through to see the treatment do you think the fact that youre having to call for this money and that it wasnt immediately given to you by richer countries suggests the message that corona virus the response from most developed countries will only be as good as its written as the response to what happens in poor regions of the earth something the u. N. Undersecretary for humanitarian affairs mark local copy has to be saying. Yeah i think theyre stray i mean i think the idea is that were all in this together in this doesnt know any burn trees i mean i think yes that the secular journal of self nor to the need for d a Global Response and thats why with the mark look at the message relief coordinator this idea of trying to make sure that richer countries are able to help them move under countries if youve got a place like palestine or some of these other catholic countries that meaning many different dimensions of conflict and vulnerability could not talk of that covert virus in a no group of that. Context you basically exacerbate an already weakened systems and more importantly a very wonderful people and so the important part of as is to prevent them becoming deep rooted in place the other state in another conflict yes difficult though for policymakers in the west to understand it when we were just hearing around 60 ventilators are available for 2000000. 00 besieged in gaza thats actually if you do the calculations maybe 3 times the amount per capita in terms of ventilators that britain appears to have. Yemen i think what we recognize is that has a lot of essential equipment required a specific as a i mean gaza has a place which as you know has been under siege but their team bus years and because of the economy is free for all the services are very poorly maintained that deliverable systems such as Water Sanitation Health and the great march its on the demonstrations of. Stress and pressure on the system which is already weekend a week and what youve got no is clearly there are massive gaps that need to be faute an order for us to have a position whereby if there were got 9 cases already in gaza if it was to excel that equate heavily in fust we have to be there police to actually have the equipment needed and therefore the ventilators and respirators Oxygen Concentrator was very sophisticated equipment this in short supply globally and there are many countries so there were very rich countries who are trying to buy that missing we were trying to response from a very poor country which does not the means themselves to take care of purchasing globally in the market and obviously doctors are saying the densely Populated Areas are more susceptible to corona virus 55000. 00 palestinians live on 5 percent of Jordan Valley land 12000. 00 or 95 percent of those in israelis any evidence for say barack claims that israel is using coronavirus for illegal Settlement Expansion which would mean again higher density populations of palestinians in smaller amounts of land but i think what you see right know theres a an unprecedented cooperation between the israeli authorities and the palestinians its been claussen its been an effort i think this there to contain the epidemic it doesnt mean others want trying to exploit the opportunity but i would say that you know the president of palestine has declared a state of emergency in the Prime Minister as the monday. And i think they have this Crisis Management sense center and unit which is then replicated all the government levels and the important thing ray knows to actually try to contain this virus and get in the spread and thats basically done 3 different ways in or screening existing isolation and Health Education and we want very costly with them and with the israeli authorities and that is very good cooperation to make sure that this can be contained and doesnt mean that the politics disappear but it means that politics d has diminished because the priority right know is the humanitarian dimension of the crisis in pakistan and the neighboring countries where there obviously some grounds for optimism there over here in britain u. K. Authorities are refusing to release julian a son of the worlds most famous prisoner what can you do is coordinator about palestinians including hundreds of children in israeli jails as regards coronavirus no well i mean i think that anybody and as we see in any country people in the present population because of the coding situation i mean having people close contact with the is that almost like an incubator for the virus to spread so the important thing is the social distancing where possible and all the other structures have been given out and unfortunately and prison systems and anywhere they are they are overcrowded and so they are possibly less likely to provide an opportunity for the virus spread and we know that information is going into the prison systems to make sure that does not and there be awfully there would be an attempt at some point to try and prevent it from becoming something that is locked into a prison or prison system you know uncoordinated thank you. After the break is coronavirus the corruption a get out of jail free card israeli pm netanyahu has been looking for. A former israeli Prime Minister and with all this all coming up about to have going on the ground. And were going to fulfill the repeated promises possible to the people and thomas you know weve all pots to. Be. Pretty. Pretty there. Now you want to 1st. Know. Paul. Well yeah. I cant show you my face but im going to teach you my story in 9093 this man was sentenced to death. They could charge county thats capital murder even though he didnt have the gun didnt pull the trigger didnt intend to kill anybody imagine living in your bathroom for that week with the scent of a 23. 00. That had to be. Confined within 4 green walls. Excusing. To help him to leave death row. Welcome back on the other side of the gaza strip British Armed israel is going into lockdown as a diagnosis thousands of cases of covert one team i mean political deadlock going to postpone corruption trial against its Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu the chair is the chief of staff to former israeli Prime Minister ehud barak join. You know via skype from tel aviv human thanks for coming on to a part of the best we have appears to be an epicenter in that region whats actually happening in tel aviv i mean to be wrecked now im looking through the window theres no one of us no movement called ours or people. This is almost all of the closure was severe restrictions on movements on business etc we have 2500 people already diagnosed with the virus 5 dead people. 40 very. Seriously. I think. Patients with severe conditions unemployment went up over 20 percent we have now we are waiting for a possible. Even even more serious condition. In next with patient for a complete lockdown depending of course on the trends in the coming days and the main problem as. I can analyze here now is that is that we have a shortage of. Of spirit or the systems are spirit or even changed. Everyone is mobilized here the home front command the i. D. F. Least of course all the a welfare and the health care bodies and his 2 sons are are all mobilized 247. Ok i thought day israel was a had a reputation of being a highly militarized society prepared for war an incoming rocket fire but that always seems to be very different to that assumption is the siege of gaza going to continue at the checkpoints going to be relaxed so that essential services can now go through to gaza a little known of course through the checkpoints in the west bank well in a in a in an awkward manner in an open session what we see is that the. Closures and. Borders that are. Hermetically or masoretic those provide better. Conditions for nonproliferation. But altogether you know that is really by the stand in relationship is put on the back burner there is cooperation there is cooperation on Security Matters and Even Health Care and other and. As i suppose there are some reports raised some reports of the World Health Organization working with a co gatt to distribute thousands of respirators and medical equipment to run the west bank where you just said theres a shortage of respirators in israel or in tel aviv how how can that be. Well. I want to stick to take the right decisions and the decisions are taken you know the virus does not. Just distinguish between israelis and palestinians which is our its and choose between muslims and christians and we are all in this in the same boat i can tell you that the political stalemate within israel is ocean creating 2. To that because theres no rockets no miss i was. Launched by hamas or Islamic Jihad from gaza straight from the israeli civilian centers which is which is a nice. A nice differentiation from from the very recent past. Will be and again you know the future will be that the those who are more pessimistic say the death toll may be high much higher from cope with 100 than any rockets fired from that can i just ask you given that you said theres a shortage of respirators do you blame the netanyahu administrations and what has happened to netanyahu is a corruption trial in the midst of this crisis. You know theres always a question of of. Prioritizing the prioritizing issues that that are pending on the governments table and i dont think that this is affected by by the china just against against yeah but i do think that there are always i think the health care. Public and scaring israel was not at its best during the last decade. Despite the fact that we are still one of the best public systems worldwide in terms of health care and hospitals etc one of our hospitals sheba. Is ranked 9th in the word in terms of the best hospitals in the world but anyway you know netanyahu was. Indictment has been has been postponed until late may for the very serious charges of corruption and bribery fraud rich of trial of trust well this is on hold of presumably Prime Minister netanyahu appears to say it is kind of on hold the corruption trial is on hold to the. Trial will not go ahead my career has been postponed a spawn but not not not it did not disappear from the. From the Public Discourse in israel and we are waiting until after as over easter. And probably i hope that we will be out of this major major challenge crisis of the coronavirus by the end of may and he will have to he will have to stand in court and and face his indictment would you have preferred. Would you have preferred if the trying to going to hand via video link the israeli Justice Minister amir honest complete saying the decision to not allow video link trial was completely nonpolitical it was a matter of the judiciary of course i think that this is much better than not or get it altogether. Well why do you think means to perform to perform any any kind of session in court with all the precautions taken and under the very severe restrictions. I wouldnt i wouldnt give any any discount to anyone facing such serious charges why do you think december is always a risk why do you think the judiciary disagrees with you on that point well this would not be the 1st disagreement that i have with them i believe that. That facing serious charges like that could be handled. Correctly by providing the right environment under or actions. And by the way this is why this is why it has been postponed but but eventually not later than september. This. This court will. Will come again and and start the trial in on an almost daily basis do you think the Prime Minister is trying to exploit coronavirus for his own political ends while i believe that. It will do whatever is possible politically and otherwise to avoid court and possibly because these are serious charges but you know every person is is completely innocent. Until there is a Court Resolution that. Defines otherwise so where. The benefit of doubt that we all enjoy i would like to to be hoping that we get out of that completely. Completely innocent and that. That the indictment we go through and be and be tried as as for anyone else i believe that israel is is a state. That preserves and cherishes the rule of law and the supremacy of the law over any any individual and this is the case here as well but of course politically its completely different whether. You confront court as a Prime Minister even an interim Prime Minister or. As a member of knesset or even as an individual. Individual or does not assume any responsibility government responsibility so this is why i believe that netanyahu will do his best in order to. Preserve is pissed as soon as Prime Minister until until the court. Until the court resumes its sessions i just say the Prime Minister of course denies all the charges of corruption over here the European Union they even in the United States people are talking about geopolitical realignment because of coronavirus would israel back the lifting of sanctions on countries like iran syria other countries in the region trying to tackle coronavirus wherever its its. Directly connected to the sanctions and the. Countering the coronavirus i would i would look into that in more or. With more flexibility but only when it is directly connected not indirectly connected i believe that. Now of course we have boundaries we have enemies we have we have the geo political system that does not stop even during the coronavirus however we need to alleviate our fears and at least temporarily look at humanity as one and not as and not as separate the one from the others so what israel you are recommending should work with iran to tackle coronavirus together the Health Professionals in both your countries ill tell you at least if israel develops a. Antivirus that helps. Get people in better better have and better protection against you coronavirus i would share it with iran is going to thank you thats it for the show well be back on monday to look at more Global Responses to the corona Virus Outbreak as we investigate communist cuba as medical internationalism until then will the news on some of my the Mainstream Media join me on the ground by following us on you tube Twitter Facebook instagram and so. Your government and our government and all the other major governments of the world know whats going to them when its gone. But they havent told you and they havent told me they havent announced. Imagine something as big as the earth is going to cause tidal waves earthquakes volcanoes are wrapped and its going to help. So very for a while right. My great grandfathers court. Nobody would care about the law or prison so youd have wallace the should have. A terrible life between the and the. Odd in 2016 millions of europeans are taking to the streets will learn and has refused to sign the Free Trade Agreement with canada triggering a crisis across europe. That. I am not and that the treaty negotiations brought to light a largely unknown Organization International arbitration. That allow multinationals to sue states and. Philip morris is trying to use i. S. T. s to stop the oracle way from implementing new tobacco regulations aimed at cutting domestic smoking rates a French Company sued egypt because egypt resists minimum wage astonishingly these arbitration tribunals