Transcripts For CSPAN2 Palestine Center Conference Panel 2 20161121

We have had an excellent morning. I think that that was refreshing, and the afternoon is no different. Our second panel for the next two hours, as you can see in the brochure, is a timely subject. Living with islams hegemony. We have a panel of experts to present that. [inaudible] is in syracuse, she could not be here, so that is the onlity very is generals from the brochure. The panel will be moderated by Mohamed Mohamud who is the interim executive director of the jerusalem fun. Health care amed has been here hamed has been here for over two years and actually he holds two master degrees, master of art in International Relations and a master of science in political economy. Thats much more than a surgeon like me. So im going to turn it to mohamed who will introduce the speakers, and im looking forward to hearing what they have to say. Hamed . Let me negotiate my way out of here. Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for joining us today at our annual conference, and thank you for bearing with the heat. I know its pretty hot in here. Finish but we cant do much but we cant do much once the coldwet kicks in. Again, please silence your cell phones so that we keep december tractions at a minimum. There will also be a question and answer session afterwards. And, again, web audience can tweet their questions to palestinecertain, and we have a twitter handle of, which is whis pcconf2016. Today we are israels hegemony in the region. In this panel were going to look at the conditions of israels hegemony to consider future prospects. Panelists will analyze the continuing real estate of israel reality of Israeli Military occupation and and incurlses into incursions into gaza, intensified domination of jerusalem and the tensions of palestinian children. They will also offer expert perspectives on washingtons policy toward israel and palestine, especially in light of this years president ial elections as well as the very serious consequences of israels claims to and encroachment on jerusalem and the unsustainability of the ongoing sieging of [inaudible] for this panel we are pleased to have three distinguished speakers, all of them who are experts in their field. Again, as dr. Ali mentioned, deanna couldnt make it today unfortunately. But that gives more time to our speakers who im sure have a lot to talk about. First to my right we have dr. Thomas abowd, urban anthropologist and historian. He received his ph. D. From Columbia University in 2003. His book on spatial politics and contemporary jerusalem is titled colonial jerusalem the spatial construction of identity and difference. And it was published in 2011 by syracuse university. In 2006 he received a Postdoctoral Research award to study housing politics in contemporary jerusalem. From 20082009 dr. Abowd was the recipient of a faculty fellowship from the Humanities Center of Wayne State University to continue research on housing rights, activism in jerusalem. Today dr. Abowd will talk about jerusalem, settlements, economic isolation and efforts at judeoization. To his right we have brad peaker, staff attorney and International Advocacy officer at defense for children international, palestine, which is an independent child rights organization, and it is dedicated to defending and promoting the rights of children living in the west bank, East Jerusalem and gaza. He specializes in issues of juvenile justice and great violation against children during armed conflict, and he leads dcips legal advocacy efforts on palestinian childrens rights. Parker regularly writes and speaks on the situation of palestinian child in the occupied palestinian territory, particularly issues involving detention, ill treatment and torture of child detainees within the Israeli Military detention system as well as violations of International Humanitarian law and International Human rights law. He leads dcips u. S. Program and is a graduate of the university of vermont and received his j. D. From the City University of new yorks school of law. To his right we have dr. Abdelhamid siyam from rutgers, university. Hes a United Nations veteran having served 27 years in the department of public information, the department of Political Affairs and the department of peacekeeping for which he served as a spokesman in western sahara, iraq and pakistan as well as afghanistan. In this last capacity, dr. Siyam was a positionman for the late special representative of the attorney general, sergio, who was killed in baghdad on august 19, 2009, when the u. N. Headquarters were attacked. Results in the resulting in the deaths of 21 other colleagues. He is also the bureau chief of the panarab daily [inaudible] hes also the authority of the book that horrible day, and he has appeared as a commentator on many arab and nonarab radio and satellite stations including aljazeerakuwait tv, bahrain tv, bbc, and sky news. So please join me in welcoming our speakers. [applause] and dr. Abowd will be first. Thank you, everyone. Now, do i have to be wired or this good enough . Okay, great. Thanks to the organizers and for all of you for coming today. This is one of my favorite events in november, every november. This wonderful conference. Even if it happens a few days after certain elections. [laughter] that tend to be somewhat depressing. Let me say a few words today about jerusalem. I want to flush out both the contemporary situation in jerusalem and also look at some of the screenologies of rural genealogies of rule and power that have produced the kind of arrangement of very much separate and unequal, even apartheidlike arrangements that we see today. And earlier presentations, as many of you know, today address colonial legacies, and i too want to do that as well. But i want to connect what is undeniably a colonial legacy, namely the british period of colonial rule in palestine, with what is a little bit more controversial to aearth which is that the present assert which is that the present israeli maybe not in this room. [laughter] but with regard to the present governance which i contend is a certain kind of colonialism. This other colonialism based as all are on elimination of the native and indigenous but not necessarily through genocide as was done on this continent or through, you know, there are different sorts of colonialism. But to say that israel has been intent in jerusalem and elsewhere to largely try to eliminate palestinians or a large number of to regulate the populations of palestinians is not inconsistent with what settler colonialism has done internationally and throughout time. Its important to note as many of you probably are aware that theres a sad, particularly sad anniversary thats coming up in june, namely the 50th anniversary of israels conquest of East Jerusalem as well as the west bank, the gaza strip and the Golan Heights and the sinai. But the palestinian territories, which have not yet even really one square meter been liberated or returned to the palestinians, israels tocalled withdrawal from socalled withdrawal from gaza aside. I think theres some order that needs to be under. And to remind ousts about ourselves about what Israeli Military rule has meant. And one of the factors that i want to argue, and this is part of a larger project that im doing on zionists by nationalism in particular, but in looking at thinkers like martin buber or the other israelis who are alive today and talking about different arrangements beyond two states or beyond an apartheid state, i want to contend that one of the factors that militates today and probably into the future i hope im wrong against a more democratic by national arrangement is the refusal to see israeli governance as colonial governance. And because with that, if you deny that or if you dont want to talk about those realities, then you deny the elementary, seminal offense that has produced the Palestinian Catastrophe which is not just one note 1948 or one moment in 1967, but a continuation of a logic of elimination that i mentioned before that is with us today. And i would say, you know, im going to contend that its not just the wing of the Zionist Movement whose grandsons is and granddaughters, mostly grandson, are in power in israel and have been for the past decade, but in certain realms and assumptions, in formerly zionist or jewish binationallism that has ignored and sought to, has sought to erase or be silent about the colonial beginnings of the israeli state which grew out of British Colonialism too which we heard earlier in the day. Its important to remember as we come upon the 50th anniversary of israels conquest of East Jerusalem that thus far in israeli history its rule over East Jerusalem, think of to it this way, its two and a half times longer than the british rule in palestine. And thats just from 67. If you go back to 1948, were talking about a period of time. I know this is a contentious argument, to think of israel as a settler colonial state. But if you will hear that argument or subscribe to it provisionally, its important to understand were talking about a period of Israeli Government involuntarily thats more than three times as long as british rule in palestine. So what has this half century wrought . Ive got some maps to share with you, as you can see. I want to see how israeli rule has remade jerusalem spatially and demographically. Many of you are aware of that. Perhaps youre also aware that as i want to emphasize, israel has made the city historically. And let me remind all of us of a few crucial realities with regard to the Rapid Transformation of the city. Fifty years is not a short period of time, but quite a bit has been done in East Jerusalem since 1967 which has radically remade the city. For one, okay, so this is a map before is the 67. As many before 1967. As many of you know, the west side having been almost completely ethnically cleansed of pal palestinians in 4849. In 1967, wheres this 196 no, this is not working. Ill do it manually. Lets see, there we go. So in 1967 as most of you are aware, when israel conquered the west bank in East Jerusalem, among the first few things it did within a few weeks was begin to expand the boundaries of what is jerusalem. Which is not some fixed, eternal space, right . But which has been depicted by israeli mainstream discourse as an eternal place, an unchanging, immutable part of jewish history. But, in fact, the is city has been radically remain and was expanded between was expanded after 67 about ten times. From what i understand is about seven square kilometers to 70 square kilometers represented by this blue line which was a largely gerrymandered boundary which israel drew in violation of International Law and unilaterally. And the logic here was a racial logic. It was a spatial logic, very crucial and central to colonialism, but it was also a racial logic which had as its intent to draw a boundary and to annex a territory under the idea that israel jerusalem was israel, and israel belongs, israel is jerusalem and jerusalem is israel to include as much as possible Palestinian Land that was empty with the minimum of Palestinian People. And maximum, if you interviewed the israeli city planners, she was in these planning circles in the urban municipal planning circles right after 67, and she said openly to me that this was i dont know the hebrew, but, it wasnt said in hebrew probably, but in english it is the maximum, taking as much land with the fewest number of arabs. They probably would have said arabs. Now, what this meant was that in 67 there were no settlers in East Jerusalem, and by today roughly there are, you know, 200,000 jewish settlers just in East Jerusalem and about 600, roughly 630,000 throughout the entire west bank. Its almost unbelievable to remember back, but if you do remember, in 1967, right on the eve of the party taking power in israel, this were only 5,000 jewish settlers in the west bank. There were 50,000 in East Jerusalem. So 55,000 in the territories occupied in 67. But it was with the ascension of [inaudible] that the expansion of a Settlement Movement beyond East Jerusalem which was the labor partys planning, this was done by the labor party primarily, but after 77 they began to expand the settlement, the settlement enterprise radically, even more radically. That means that, essentially, 1970s the israeli population has increased almost twelvefold in the west bank outside of jerusalem and within occupied jerusalem fourfold. And ive mentioned that in addition to that came i dont have, theres no easy way to do this, but the darker colored areas in the east part of jerusalem are jewish settlements that have been built after 67, and the beige or the lighter colored are palestinian neighborhoods that are hemmed in and surrounded by these hilltop fortresses known as settlements. I submit that if one examines this massive transformational prompt, you see project, you see an interracial project. There are openly, i mean, soon in the United States well have more openly racist discourses about too many people from this country or this religion or whatever. But in israel, those in the mainstream know there are pretty open discourses about arab demographic time bombs and anxieties about arab birth crates. You can get ahold of those documents. I keep doing this, but its also not uncommon for israeli leaders to express real concern about the wrong kind of people having too many children. So there is a real racial logic here, not just a spatial logic. And what i want to also emphasize here, i dont want to speak forever and ever, but whats important to understand about colonialism, i contend, is that its not simply a project for creating territorial con kansass. Its also conquests. Its also a project that requires substantive ideological armaments, if you will, kind of the weaponization of myths. Representation that was called, a couple decades ago there was a piece called projecting jerusalem, and he talks about efforts to assert and project a certain kind of jerusalem that in the city of many different heritages and religious traditions extracts one and privileges that one to the exclusion of all others. So you get this deep sort of biblical historical notion of an unchanging jewish essence and connections to the holy land. And then totally ahistorical accounts of other peoples presence there. Or the fact that within jewish life there were different opinions about zionism, for one. So israeli rule is enabled by a range of potent myths such as a few of the ones ive already provided with regard to whose city this wrong belongs to belongs to and for whom the city is most important to. And those myths both construct or enable colonialism and are created by colonialism. These forms of colonial knowledging, as i mentioned projecting jerusalem, are linked up with what phyllis and earlier speakers regarded with dominant be israeli narratives and how theyre shaping and have shaped u. S. Politics and how thats changing. Though, i mean, hegemony is in the title of this panel, im not so sure its hegemony with regard to israelis israel doesnt rule palestinians by hegemony in the classical sense, but maybe the occupation of the u. S. Imagination in political circles has a lot to do with the acceptance of ideas about the city and East Jerusalem that the vast majority of the world does not share at all. But there was an incident in march of 2010 which some of you might remember as we were moving from come into the post obama eric, it might it come its interesting to remember it was a moment in the early first term when you think about doing Something Different with regard to this conflict. There was a moment in march 2010 in which joe biden was sent to israelpalestine to talk about maybe creating a new formula arrangement that starts talks whatever that might met. But on the day the joe biden arrived, i dont know if you remember this, jerusalem municipality, the israeli jerusalem municipality approved the construction of an additional 1600 settlement units or apartments. That announcement coincided right with the dissent of joe biden into the airport, angering and humility humiliating him and others. The next day. Ran a story about this. Let me say that the 1600 that were announced were to be in relatively recently constructed jewish settlement in East Jerusalem, which is not come which is a little older, not as new as some but a subtle but those built at about the time oslo was happening in the early 90s. The New York Times following the lead of what was a pretty upset u. S. Administration had begun to think about, little rumblings about East Jerusalem settlements being illegal, the New York Times didnt follow that because in the original story to mention this controversy was because israel announced more settlement units. The next day the New York Times corrected their story and in come this is a picture from the story which is a neighborhood of 20,000 mostly older orthodox might. It built for ultraorthodox communities in the city which are generally poor and have housing crises. Not quite like the palestinians but the cell so that was built just for them. New york times ran a correction under this picture in the next edition that said the following, a picture captured on thursday with the continuation of a News Analysis article in the ship article in the shift of the obama administrations middle east policy referred incorrectly to the name of the jewish housing development, that israel says it is expanding despite objections by the United States and the Palestinian Authority. This is not a subtle but. It is a neighborhood, not a settlement in the west bank. The point is these practices are enabled by these turns that we label settlements, neighborhoo neighborhoods. Which you cant think of anything more benign than neighborhood. Talk about this as if they were nice innocent places. They are built illegally and in violation of International Law, that their overwhelming a land taken from palestinians. To exclude palestinians and serve as fortress like him part of a fortresslike original on top of hilltops to police and regulate palestinian growth and expansion is not often meioned. I want to talk about the history of, this may seem in congress but i think it will hopefully make sense by the end, whats the opposition using Israeli Government as colonial governments and israeli state as a settler colonial state . Ive been studying as i mentioned before the life and times and writings of martin, who many of you will know it is pretty 48 life was one of the major advocates for by nationalism. Pre48. He was a great philosopher, one of the great philosophers of his time and so he was a series guy with serious ideas, opposed to the notion of a jewish state. He wanted to create cooperation and coexistence between the different peoples of the region. This project will also set from within the terms of the supper colonialism. Its often forgotten. Speaking of organizing under to giving themselves within of settler colonialism. It was even i would argue by nationalism before 48. Crucial to what he referred to as this unique settlement, so these resellers who call themselves settlers, in fact he had this idea he even referred to as Company Rejected the idea by gandhi and others Company Rejected the idea that israel and zionism was a separate Colonial Movement. He nonetheless called for what he called concentrated colonialism in palestine which was mass a gathering of jews fall of the world to build not a jewish state but a jewish cultural realm. When he moved from, fled germany under the nazis come he fled germany and came to palestine. The first place to live was and is subdivided section, a place where edward syed was born. No sooner did he arrived in houston and come, he died. He died in jerusalem in 65. There began to be a squabble between he and gandhi to adjust that very same year written a critique of zionism which maybe some of you have heard about. Maybe more of you heard about this response which was an open letter to gandhi, claiming that the Zionist Movement in all its different manifestations is an example of colonialism and that it has linked its cherry to british imperialism, damning the whole exercise. Gandhi not far into the statement that he published in his own, the move its publication india, is remarkable people at the time could stay current with what was happening different places in the world, but not a paragraph and he says palestine belongs to the arabs. He went on to say zionism was dangerously attaching itself to this other settler, not settler colonialism but the british empire. But this is the thing. And his response it was really quite remarkable response. In addition to trying to justify why zionism and he doesnt differentiate much between what you do getting as i do some, a nonstatist version and the mainstream. He goes on the battle to defend drawing from biblical references like leviticus, very strange letter that he writes but he goes further and this is what i think its important to see how the shipping project which began in europe is implicated, even in those segments of the movement that dont wish to assert a kind of expansionist colonial set of ideas. He it really is. In addition to this he goes on and not only defends his presence here but those on to actually label the native palestinian population as inheritance of a legacy of conquest. On the essay you are going into, conquering this land. People do nothing to you. Buber comebacks and says what do you mean, what are the claims . By what means . The arabs, of course. By what means did the arabs obtained at the right of ownership palestine . Surely by conquest and effect unless a settlement. He makes reference to the first islamic invasions of palestine or appropriations back 13 years before his writing. Speaking but not only jews but palestinians and arabs, too. Palestinians living under the severity of British Colonial rule 11939 and witnessing the designs other land via proliferating cell the population of whom buber was apartment will be excused for excusing the notion it was they who the conquerors of this land. But buber we go even further. He would totally abandoned by nationalism, but for those under mohammed are familiar with is, he moved his family from the segment, in 1900 was given a medal at the expulsion of the palestinians west jerusalem. He was given home of the family compound in the did, to subdue them with this great was just elected governor of new hampshire. This is his father be chief of staff of bushs senior, bush number one. But buber moved in this house under better a lot of his letters, all of his published letters in english which are voluminous, in the course of this whole time in his home that he took over from the family doesnt mention once that this was a big event is over to does not mention the sununu family. He doesnt mention under conditions under which this will have been taken. His grandchildren who also lived in the home would later say when theyre interviewed about it that we bought the home from the previous owners but they didnt mention the sununu name. And we bought it after they went back to lebanon, is whether from. Of making their exiled or the home had been taken by the israeli custodian of absentee property, et cetera, et cetera. The sununu almost a simply anecdotal but the mimetic of these broader relos. I think im running out of time. No, running out of time . Where is the bennett person . Two minutes, okay. Let me share with you a second story, a more recent story about a bigger and political voice who is still alive, someone who has been very clear about how he learned of buber and memorized his tracks by hard. In many ways at the same ilk of the pre48 buber. Peace to talk about different arrangements for a post israel in its present form. In the interest of reaching out, they intersected in pretty violent ways. Not physically violent but you will hear. Indicators of reaching out to israelis and zionists which society increasingly did towards it is like he agree to be the keynote speaker at a conference i attended. I was in recent in 1990 at the Israeli Association in nazareth. From that moment he spoke to an Israeli Group over the next. He did an interview in 2000 which he was very forthright about both his whole families, their lives and the destruction of their lives in jerusalem but also the responsibility of the israeli state and its citizens have for the continued appropriation of their land. He is one of the he was born in jerusalem but i just want to read you into response to syed memoir, his retort is now or the nl in with is the he said, he was upset. He said, as i read the memoir quote, i reflected on his pampered childhood, and on my own childhood. Syed and those like him and never understood the power of the desperation of my parents hearts. Now syed cries over his lot and im supposed to feel guilty for our victory, for the sacrifices my parents made, for the fact that we stayed and fought while he and his ilk fled. The expulsion of the palestinians is portrayed industries of selfdefense, self sacrifice and bravery. It is not referred to as colonialism. And it is both response to peoples critiquing zionism, critique it as a settler come as a Colonial Movement inspired by colonialism, a whole set of silences like were buber live and let what happened to the palestinians come simply seemed to evaporate. Into thin air. So i will stop there, and thank you very much. [applause] thank you very much. Okay, how is everybody . Its nice to be here. Thank you to the Palestine Center and jerusalem fund, everybody for inviting me. It nice to have a packed room. Its ne to have great fellow panelists. So i brad parker, ian attorney natiol vocy fir withefseor chdrenntnaon leste. Whatmoi tgoo zm inndoc oa sciis ialchdr tou palestia territory. Palestinian children in the Israeli Military detention, initiatives always in the news. Its an issue that seems to pop up regularly, particularly post october 2015. Theres been a number of high profile cases that have made into Mainstream Media in the u. S. I want to explore this a little bit and give you a bit of information on the exact experience that palestinian children face in the detention system, as well as some work thats going on in the u. S. To organize individuals to advocate on behalf of the palestinian children. So lets see. Dci palestine as a local palestinian child rights organization. We are the only palestinian, local Palestinian Human Rights Organization that focuses on childrens rights. We started in 1991 as a Legal Aid Organization for providing legal aid to palestinian children charged in the military courts. For the past 25 years thats what weve done. In 2000 we expanded the, what we call a fullfledged human rights organization, monitoring and documenting under the full range of violations against palestinian children, no matter who the perpetrator. We focus on occupation related senses from Israeli Soldiers come Israeli Settlers we also monitor and document the situation of palestinian kids in violations against them and some palestinian actors. So i a lawyer, sometimes thats good, sometimes thats bad. A mixed room maybe today. I would like to give an overview of the Legal Framework because its essential to understanding why these kids are targeted and how they are targeted. The Israeli Military detention system, its not limited to the west bank. It consists of military bases, settlements, detention facilities inside israel. The green light doesnt exist when we talk about the Israeli Military detention system. Kids are transferred from inside the west bank to present inside israel in violation of the geneva convention, in the same way settlements are illegal for transferring so if publishing into occupied territory. Anywhere, any given month about 45 60 of palestinian children detained by Israeli Forces in the west bank will be host in present inside israel. Under the fundamental piece understand about Israeli Military detention is about theres two separate lots operating in the same place. If you are a palestinian, Israeli Military law applies to you. Israeli forces occupied the west bank, institute military law. Legally it applies to anybody located in the occupied territory. In practice its only apply to the palestinian population. If youre an israeli settler or citizen living in the west bank and settlement you have the benefit of israeli civilian criminal justice law cant israeli civilian law. You do not end up in one of the military courts in the west bank. You are in jerusalem, budget accord, District Court and have additional protections from the israeli civilian law. The Legal Framework is discriminatory. The only thing thats taken into account is determined while a place to you is your identity. So palestinians, Israeli Military law. Israeli settlers, Israeli Citizens come israeli civilian law. We have been saying essentially since 2002 illtreatment in the Israeli Military detention system is widespread and systematic. Here we are in 2016. Its still happening, still occurring. This gives you a sense of the trends that weve seen recently. The Israeli Prison Service monitors and is responsible for children and israeli prisons in the military presence in the west bank, and they start releasing monthly figures of how many children are in detention on the last day of each month. Is not comprehensive figures. You dont know how many kids are in detention on the 29th of the month. You get a snapshot from the 30th of the month, the 31st of the month to give you an idea of what that number looks like. There is a dramatic increase in october. Escalating violence, stabbing attacks, Different Things in the west bank and East Jerusalem and inside israel. The response as you can see, more children were arresd. In february the number was up to 440 palestinian children in Israeli Military detention. The last day of february. We dont know how many were in detention the day before or the day after. Its just a snapshot. That number is the highest since the Israeli Prison Service began releasing figures in januar january 2008. We didnt get figures for march. April, 414. Since april figures have not been released. We are working to do a foia request to have these figures continued to be released but really we dont know how bad the situation is. We estimated it its still summr between 350400, and thats been steady since the spring. We also saw a spike in the youngest palestinians arrested. The minimum age of criminal responsibility is 12 years old. If you are 11, you cant be prosecuted before a military judge in a military court. That doesnt mean that 10, 11 year olds are not detained, questioned and then released. It just means you cannot be prosecuted in the military court. This figure goes back to february, and youll see the very high level. These are the highest levels since the Israeli Prison Service began releasing data. Palestinian girls, you see similar increase. Israel is only country in the world that systematically, automatically and systematically prosecutes kids in military court. Get to prosecute in the military courts. Other places in the world, but its not automatic and systematic. 75 experience some form of physical violence following arrest. 97 of cases kids were denied access to attorneys, presentation to attorneys both prior and during for interrogation. Theyre not implemented and not informed. Maybe i will leave it there for now. Back to the military law. The main military order thats applicable in these cases is military order 16. 51. Order regarding security positions. This is the law military law, military order that gives authority for the military to ayes for a number of different offenses. Those offenses are similar to what we see here, you know, in washington, in new york, wherever it might be. Similar to a traditional code. You have assault, you have homicide, a range of offenses that are common that we are used to. You also have more occupationrelated offenses. So throwing stones, right . A specific charge under military raw. Majority of children are charged with throwing stones. If i go out on the street and, you know, thomas is shouting at me and we have a dustup, i pick up a stone and throw it at him, maybe i throw it as his car, im not getting arrested on the charge of throwing stone, its a battery, its something else. Military law has a specific charge for throwing stone. If you throw a stone at the separation law, right, at a military base you dont have to hit or cause it any damage, you could just really be terrible at throwing. That stone could fall 2 feet in front of you. Its not about the impact or the harm, right, its about the conduct. Throwing that stone at that separation wall comes with a potential maximum sentence of ten years, if you throw a stone into traffic at moving objects that comes with a potential maximum sentence of 20 years under israeli law. To give you a sense of the scope of Israeli Military law, theres a specific charge for conduct toward soldiers. So if you, assault a soldier, 7year maximum sentence under military law. The lesser charge is insulting the honor of a soldier which comes with a potential oneyear maximum sentence. What does that mean . How do you make sure that you dont insult the honor of a soldier. Could be that you smile at that soldier when you hand your id, if you dont give your id fast enough, what could it be . Who knows . Thats really thats military law. You could be arrested for anything at any time. Soldiers dont need warrants. Its not a system where there are criminal investigations going on bo on going criminal conduct, right . Soldiers have the authority to ayes without warrant. If im an israeli soldier and i see thomas walking in on the street, 15yearold boy and i catch his face, i think that face is a face that i saw two weeks ago, two months ago as a demonstration where there was stonethrowing. I dont have to be 100 sure, i dont have to be 50 sure, i dont have to be 20 sure. I just have to have suspicion and thats enough to justify an arrest. So just to walkthrough the process of what kids experience. Anywhere from 40 to 50 of kids are arrested from their homes in the middle of the night. The other chunk of kids are arrested from demonstration from the street during daylight hours, if youre, we will pick a thomas. [laughter] 15yearold thomas in Northern West Bank in a Small Community outside of navas, the military forces come in the middle of the night, maybe his father or older brother open the door so they dont bang it down, the family is gathered into a room, ids are checked and Israeli Intelligence officer for that village, if your name is on their list, which thomas name is, hes taken out the front door, blindfolded, hands tied behind the back with plastic cords, he will likely suffer some form of physical violence during that arrest, could be, you know, maybe hes pushed into a wall, kicked, hit with a rifle, struck with a helmet. You wouldnt be surprised the way kids are treated during the arrest process. His family wont be informed of where hes being taken, he wont be told the charges against him. He essentially disappears from that moment, right . Hes put into a military jeep, usually on the floor, right, so military jeeps have benches in the back, soldiers sit on the benches abkids sit on the ground. Think of yourself as adults in that situation. Your heads bound and blindfolded, you dont know where youre being taken and you dont know what comes next. Its an incredibly vulnerable position and kids experience a range of physical violence in the back of the jeeps, range of verballal assaults, intimidation, once they get out of the jeep, the transfer period could last from anywhere several minutes, several hours todays. You have to appear within a military court judge, 14 to 15, that time is 48 hours, 16 and 17, thats 96 hours, which is the same as adults. If 15yearold thomas is transferred in a military base nearby and if its summer hes on the ground outside f its winter maybe hes inside but he still could be outside blind folded sited on the ground. Dont know what comes next, around 7 00, 8 00 a. M. Put back in a jeep. Interrogators dont have evidence against a child for a crime. So you see the interrogation process being used to essentially to allow an actual position in the military court. Kids often, whether they confess or something or not, in their statement would be something incriminated that gives the military prosecutor something to use to bring charges against them. Anywhere from over the past years its fluctuated quite drastically but kids in 20 to 35 of cases sign documents in hebrew. They dont understand hebrew. They dont know whats in that document. We havent seen as much physical violence during interrogations recently in the past few years but what you sigh is psychological intimidation, incoercion, a lot of threats against peoples families and peoples homes, we will arrest your mom or your dad, arrest your family, we will destroy your home or demolish your home to pressure kids to saying that they did throw stones or not. In reality it doesnt matter if you throw stones or not. Kids are targeted for arrest based on the location and where their community is. Kids living near settlement, near military bases, separation wall, anywhere where the occupation has its infrastructure, presence, these are the communities being targeted for arrests. The military detention system, core system thats not about justice, that gets lost a bit when people hear court systems, particularly americans. Its really not about justice, right . If youre interested in justice, you dont arrest kids from their homes in the middle of the night and arrest them access to their attorneys, access to their parents, you dont subject the majority of them to pretrial detention. The whole list of violations that occur, its really not about justice. So that gives a sense of sort of the way the occupation, the way the Legal Framework and the military core system is used to control palestinian population in the specific communities. Some of the trends that we have seen, i mention the increase sort of spike in detention since october 2015 we have seen the renewed use of detention specifically for children. This has been a practice that while not prohibited by law, the israeli civilian. In jerusalem hadnt documented a case a child pursuant to administration order. That changed in october 2015. We had two cases then. Since october 2015, we have had 19 cases of kids between east and west bank. This is detention without charge, indefinite detention essentially. Secret evidence, its renewed every years every six months and two of the kids that have been arrested have now turned 18 and theyve still in administrative detention. Increasing use of solitary confinement since 2013. This isnt solitary confinement for punishment for conduct in prison for serving a sentence, which is sort of something that we use in the u. S. Context. This is pretrial, use of solitary confinement specifically for interrogation purposes. If you have a child thats suspected of, you know, throwing cocktail, Something Like stonethrowing charge, theyll be arrested, detained in the middle of the night, usually. They dont necessarily end up at that military nearby, they get transported into inside israel to a prisoning interrogation center. Kids so 2015, the longest period a case that we had a child spent 45 days in total in solitary con fient confinement. This is torture. Detention is the last resort for children. It can want be about punishment, retribution, its very much about recognizing that children have a special status and children are still developing and yet we see increasing policies targeting palestinian children, now not only in the west bank but also creeping into the israeli civilian system to target Palestinian Youth and palestinians in east jers jerusalem. That was the case in the west bank. The change is specifically to East Jerusalem. So let me turn to what we are doing here. In 2014 the palestine started a program. The idea about what philip was speaking about before and the email was mentioning, the u. S. Solidarity across civil society. We saw our role as palestinian childs organization with documentation from the ground, human stories to show the human impact of occupation, we saw very big opportunity for us to come and really increase the reach of what we were doing well, right, we werent creating anything new so much plugging the things we were using into a movement that was gaining steam. In 2014i moved back to new york and we worked with American Service committee and a number of people in this room actually to create a campaign. The campaign focuses specifically on illtreatment and torture of palestinian children in israeli detention system. We could bring a small narrow issue to u. S. Policymakers. We can use that to build a movement throughout the country on these issues, to create space and to talk about palestinian rights, to bring a human face of occupation whether theres been organizing. We we wanted to create something that was essentially the gateway drug to palestinian rights work and focusing on children and very narrow and coelling issue was the way to do it. And with this i will wrap up. The change after this election is a bit unknown, right, we have a campaign that focuses on members of congress and everybody in the u. S. Has a member of congress, everybody can go into that office and talk to them, but those members of congress are now going to have to deal with a lot of other issues where israel palestine and the landscape has shifted a bit and the thing thats important to sort of think about and realize sometimes when we dont have a baseline for where the members of congress are, we havent really done a great job of creating that baseline, right, so that we as constituents can go in and say, we have moved this member of congress on this issue down this path, needs to move more, she needs to move more but we have done this. The idea of the campaign was to do that because it doesnt actually matter if the member of congress says, yes, i agree with you, no, i dont. When youre putting an issue like 142yearold palestine child for interrogation purposes, that is wrong, thats clearly against International Law and torture and by supporting israel, we support that with tax dollars, with your votes, let that person say no to that. Say, no i dont agree with you. You can use that no, it should be pretty shock to go your communities, churches, other constituents and as a tool to organize locally because it is what philip mentioned before, congress in the executive, theyre going to be the last institutions to change and theyre not going say without a movement pushing them be diffent. And so we are building that movement, theres a lot of great work going on and we need to doubledown, i think, more and more with the recent events, so i will leave it there. [applause] [inaudible conversations] thank you very much for inviting me, thank you, doctor, a very old friend of mine and its a great honor for me to talk to you but i will take you a place thats heartbreaking and im going to be talking about that. But before i start my remarks, i want to say two things. Talking about gaza is very hard for me. I have become emotional. Im from the west bank, just for your information. But also i can talk five minutes, five minutes, five days, what you want. We should vote . [laughter] before we go into that, i want to show you a fourminute video about life in gaza so at least we can change the format and i will come after that, okay, thank you. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] always something wrong with technology. [inaudible conversations] gaza, wasnt of the worst places to live. Worlds largest open air prison. Gaza has been home to to majority refugee population. Many fled, for decades controlled by gaza by air and sea regulating what goes out. Thats because israel considered a terrorist Organization Even though somehow its a legitimate resistance movement. Condemned by the un of International Law. Cut off palestinians to the world. 80 of the population is dependent on aide. 50 of household lack enough food for the family. Water is also a huge problem. More than 90 of water unsafe for drinking. Water treatment plans and medicine and doctors are also a short supply. It doesnt help that egypt keeps a tight border with gaza, basic items like cement are largely banned from entering gaza. Basically cant build enough to keep up with the growing population. Power outages for up to 12 hours a day. The economy is paralyzed. Unemployment is one of the highest in the world at nearly 40 . [inaudible] operations are response by armed palestinian groups in gaza many pointed out that are disproportionate. More than 1,400 palestinians are killed and much of the infrastructure was destroyed. An 8day operation killed 133 people. One air strike alone 12 people and one family including children. The violence continues to this day. Thats a glimpse of life in gaza. For a generation of young palestinians, its all they know. For the next time you see gaza in the headlines, dont forget. [music] thank you. So that gives you a glimpse of the life in gaza which i will be talking about. I have been associated with gaza as a un official. From 1996, in fact, all the way to 2000. Sometimes twice a year. I had a chance to sit with them, i sat with people who lost their homes,their children, some of them were left homeless. I talked to a woman only to live with a goat. [inaudib] and ive been going back and forth but since then, i left the un, i decide today leave the un, i could not go back, i tried in the last two years to get a permission to go and for legal reasons i couldnt because of the liability system. If something happens, im not longer a un staff so im not protected by the un law. However, i kept strong relationship. This morning i received a call who told me another young man committed suicide this morning. His name is muslim ayub, 22 years old. And he just jumped from the roof of his home and that i will be basically talking about the social ills in gaza due to the siege. I will go through basic information. So this is basic fact about gaza, its very small, tinny, size of the golf course, some of the rich golf courses of the princesses. Very densely populated as you see, 13,000 per square kill kilometer. Will exceed 2 million in the next three years. I will also mention that. Okay. Okay. Which one . [inaudible conversations] okay. So just to remind you that gaza was under the administration and captured by israel in 1961 as you all know and it is after 1994 it became under the po lestian authority. It has the the most proportion of local refugees. More than 60 of all population of gaza are refunnellies from 1948. You could have travel documents to go to egypt and you still cannot go to egypt. Most radical groups came from gaza. Gaza as you know came under occupation in december 9, 1987 and under Palestinian Authority and hamas elected in 2006 as you know and it became ruling the gaza after 2007 after fighting, it was a very, fact, we thought it was liberation but turned out to be one of the most disastrous decisions to take the prisoners from inside and put them outside and keep gaza completely cut off from the world sea, land and air. It remains under control. Hamas was elected in west bank in gaza in 2007, in 2006 and it remained under israeli control from all there are six crossings, one of them to egypt and five to israel and they were all as you can see closed or they open occasionally, the egyptian crossing, it used to be open around 45 persons of the time, but after its about 95 of all of the time its closed. Okay. It has shortage of food, fuel or medical supply because it became the north, people always have shortages of the basic needs and repeatedly the un had criticized that and, in fact, some of the un officials, senior officials resigned because of that. Alvaro de soto said he cant take it and resigned and james also resigned. And the karen abu zeid, commissioner general also criticized the situation. And as we speak every report comes from gaza criticizing the situation and unbearable and us sin tabl. I mention that as well in the remarks. No one in the world knows his name. When he was in prison by hamas the whole world would know his name. Nobody knows names included elected officials. In fact, there were so many attacks on gaza during that period. He was kidnapped in june 2006 and immediately is operation and followed by another attack on november which it will come as i proceed with the remarks. He was, in fact, released in 2000, egyptian and german mediation and hamas was able to get out about a thousand prisoners. So the siege became much harsher following the kid napping in june october 2007 they attacked, 77 palestinians were killed and hamas took over gaza, mayor problems in addition to the problems they already have, the siege became harsher and i want to go through some of the pictures, that is some pictures in the life of gaza. And transportation, this is very common to see that in gaza now. Very common to see these views, these are pictures from gaza, okay, and gaza went through four major worlds, and people think its only three but its four. Autumn cloud november and cast led and pillar of clouds and protective edge 8 july to 26, four wars in six years. How many years . Eight years. Im not good in math by the way. And we can look at these operation autumn cloud, they are information about the where whereabouts in the northern part of ga st a and gaza for eight consecutive days. There was a family completely eliminated. 21member family were killed together. Human Rights Commission sent the late great human right activist from south africa to investigate that war of 2006, 07, and he submitted an excellent report and the israeli embassador, he said, it will take its place in the bomb of garbage. He said that. Nothing happened. The attacks on some of the crimes committed are qualified to be war crimes, but nothing happened. Then the next war, okay, the operation. I want to remind you that during this period the the the foreign minister of israel went to cairo on 26 of december, one day before the war. She held a press conference together with ahmed aboul gheith. You know what his job is right now . Of course, you do. He was holding her hand coming out of the Foreign Ministry, when she said that we are going to punish hamas, that means she declared war while she was in cairo, so cairo, which supposed to be the capital and you know what happened. Lasted until 18 of january, two days before obama was inaugurated and obama put some pressure and he the war stopped because he wants to have beautiful inauguration party. Thats why that stopped. As you can recall, from south africa was sent to investigate and put a file of 500 pages in which he qualified most of the israeli actions in that war as war crimes. But they tried to discredit and they attacked him and attacked even his grandson thrown out of a school and he made that famous article in the Washington Post saying that had i known what i know now i would not write this report. Butt let me say two things because as an experienced person in the un wants to submit a report, its no long Internal Revenue your report. Its not goldstone report. Its a Human Rights Council report. The officers who put this report , not one including carl who participated in this report. And there is other, so its no longer, even if he says im wrong and you should try me, that is not he has no right to do that. So since i have five minutes only because the film was deducted from my time, i will go fast. [laughter] and as you know the war in 2004, you are all familiar with it. I dont want to repeat the numbers. You all know about it and that is some of the pictures and there was so much solidarity with 2008 war and 2009 but not with 2014. These are some of the sidarity movement during the war, but we have not seen any during the summer of 2014 war. A few demonstrations here and there but nothing like that before. So this is the 2000 war. Okay. I wanted to mention that there is an important report and i strongly recommend that everyone should read it. One called gaza2020 and gaza after 2014 war. One from unicef. Coordinator in the United Nations. This important report says that life in gaza if continued as is will not be sustainable after 2020. Life will end as normal life in gaza unless we do major, major infrastructure work in gaza, okay. So another report was written by 30 Un Humanitarian Organization right in february 2005 15. Some important facts from both reports indicate a bleak future for gaza until Major Strategic Development that addresses the basic needs in water, electricity, health, housing and schools in gaza, unless we do that even without the war of 2014, so imagine what happened after 2014. So the basic needs, in 2020 the population of gaza will be 2. 3 million. Okay. So electricity must be almost double from 242 now, 242 mega watts to 550 which is the case is going backward now. Its not even staying add standstill. Its much worse now as it was in 2012. Okay. Then you need for water will increase by 60 the need for water to reach 260 million cubic meters. Gaza needs to add 150 schools let alone how many schools were destroyed. Even if that stayed to add extra 150 schools. You need to have one thousand dollars, 2,000 nurses and 8,000 hospital beds. 400,000 from the report, 400,000 children who need psychological help assistance because they went through direct or indirect violence. They went through this war. I mean, a child who was born lets say 2000 who is now 16 years old, he went through all of these wars. So imagine what kind of childhood he went through with. So there was a conference in cairo to pledge must be and they pledged 5. 4 billion. Nothing had arrived except a few hundred million which by assigning agreements between pa and israel everything has to go through israel. So israel destroyed gaza and in order to fix gaza or rebuild it you have to go through israel and nothing can go under the pretext of security to gaza from any kind of Building Material except approved by israel. The Israeli Companies are making profit from that. The 5. 4 billion, who pledged that that didnt pay it . Its the donor country, United States, european union, japan, i can give you saudi arabia, i think qatar put some money and kuwait put some money but the full k of the money, i think, only stands at 30 reached that amount and once it was this conference was held in cairo which is an an insult. They didnt do anything. They blamed both sides equally, imagine, and to burden themselves from any criticism they called this conference, a fiasco, the conference in cairo. In 2016 the unemployment as in the palestinian territory both west bank and gaza, but in gaza it reached 42 exactly thats very recent data and among the youth in gaza, 58 and 80 of all gaza receive donations and highest number of ph. D and ma holders because after the seen everyone went wac to school. They are doing nothing. They got master degrees and ph. D. Now, this is what nikolai said in recent report. He said gaza is desperate, gaza is angry, gaza is angry at the seefnlg, angry at the closure angry at hamas and angry at everybody. Some of the social behaviors, 3,000 cases of divorce. Something thats not known in gaza. 3,000 cases of divorce in gaza. More . That is the number i received yesterday. Okay. So fighting on land, people now they divide, they have a small piece of land, member of one family they fight over. Very common. Violence, a boy just killed his father two days ago. Okay. I have many examples. Domestic violence killing each other, killing wife, a son killed his father. Was killed two days ago, he was accused of being a shiite. Although in his website he has a picture of george and Saddam Hussein and accused of being shiite and killed. A young naked man ran and they shot and killed him in december 25, 2015. Okay. Some stories, its really its really hard heartbreaking when you hear that. So many suicides. As i said this morning and a few days ago one in the night of his wedding with he jumped and killed himself. Exactly. Same night of his wedding he killed himself, hanged himself. Okay. 90 of killing on the background, now gaza used to know each other but its becoming a phenomena now and a friend of mine said, i have to put now a new wall, a new iron gate because people are so desperate and most of the People Killed on the background of theft because people know each other so if they catch somebody, of course, they know each other so they kill either the owner or the owner kill the thief. So there are 30,000 who just started to cross and they are still waiting. Now, you can see the frustration of when you have a long list of 30,000 who want to cross to egypt and they keep going every day and they come back every day and come back. They are angry at pa, Palestinian Authority because they accuse pa, first they dont pay salary and second they cant pressure the egyptians. At least they open the crossing for three or four days, he doesnt. They all want to pressure, they think the population were right against hamas and eliminate. Of course, they are angry at hamas because it has changed every law and they have new taxes called solidarity taxes as if people have money to pay for their food. Those who work with hamas say they are okay, they get salaries and they are fine, but those who dont, they are really desperate and the desperation in gaza, i want to conclude that it has reaching a level thats unbearable. As the secretary generals report, he used exactly this word, this could explode any time. And i just want to finish with some i think that i put some nice pictures. I dont know why its not responding. But gaza is also as i want to say its a home of talent and very genius people. You know, recently not only he came as the arab idol but it also a new one now which we hope she will get the new arab title idol from gaza and the gazan were able to put a solar car together. I dont know where they are. Just to end with a positive note. No, its not there. I sent the updated version and its not there. Its okay. But also they put a solar car and they also were able to create a drone, pilotless small plane that shows you theres so much talent in competition in indonesia for best math student, first four of them came from gaza. This created people very genius, very beautiful and they are if they live, i think, they will great create miracles. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you to our speakers. These are not happy subjects. So but we are flood that you are help to go shed light on these issues, so thank you. Now we will take questions. You could please take keep your questions brief so that everybody has a chance. Please wait until the mic comes so that everyone can hear you. The gentleman over in the back, please. Thank you. All of three gave compelling presentations that are really quite bleak. We are likely to see more governments inflicted on gaza because israel, traditionally bombs gaza so be ready. But im struck of the absence and conversation on palestine, the absence of yeah. Okay. The absence of lets say ideas, Creative Ideas to really resist occupation because there just seems to be completely absent, completely absent effort on palestinian splectuals intellectuals and activists to really change the way that you so compellingly presented. The lady back here, please. Sorry, i have to object to that comment. If you think that people are not often Creative Ideas maybe you should also sum yourself and i think theres an awful lot being done in palestine and outside palestine but this isnt what this panel was about. The gentleman right here. First of all, i am from gaza and actually i lived five blocks from gaza. I worked during the last war in gaza for 50 days. Actually i have two comments for your presentation, first of all, the israeli soldier wasnt kidnapped, he was on the duty on the border, so they prisoned him. The second comment is actually about you didnt complete the story that our president hes the one who the one maybe he hauled it for a moment until now. So t thing is can you describe at least about report why he acted like that . I think as a gazan i think our president just cheated all gazan people, what do you think . [applause] thank you. Regarding solid, the members of hamas went under ground and engaged in a military courageous operation with Israeli Soldiers, okay, and managed to take him back to kidnap him from the military in operation. So they captured him and took him as prisoner of war in engagement. Thats what i meant. Of course, it doesnt mean that i am trying to undermine the courageous operation. So nothing of that. I just want to say that while he was under the hands of hamas, the whole world knew about him like in 24006 went to visit the west bank and he had time to visit the family but he didnt have any time to visit the families of any of the 7,000 palestinian in prison, exactly the same thing with before. He also went there and he will always meet with the family, express solidarity with them and condemn those who kidnap him and didnt have time to meet with the palestinian families who have their children in prison and in israeli jails. That is what i said, however, regarding goldstone report, once the report is submitted to the Human Rights Council, it has to be voted upon to go to transfer to the Security Council if it is submitted to the icc, International Criminal court, during that period, okay, the pa was, pa lest tine was palestine was not state, it was not. It has to go both in human right council to transfer to Security Council to vote it on it to send it to icc. This is the process. The embassador, before the vote, he received a call, when they were sure they have enough number to to approve it, to go to the Security Council, and it was voted upon later but they lost some votes on that, but still had the majority. However, now going to the security which had never made it to the Security Council, of course, it cannot go to the icc except with a vote and there will be a veto. You know the u. S. Will veto it and the u. S. Information lately from from last resolution adopted by the un on palestine, it was 9 of january, 2009 on the cast led war to seize cease fire. It was vetoed. So the goldstone report never made it to Security Council to be voted upon. Once after pa became observer state, they dont need to go to Security Council. They can go directly and they did. Im not giving them credit, by the way. But that is a fact. There were three files submitted to the icc and a delegation from icc just concluded a visit to the palestinian territory. 2008 there was any countries that voted for it and it died automatically in it was most embarrassing not to have at least nine. And i swear, i appeared on al jazeera and other tv and i peeled to the Palestinian Authority is not to submit this resolution. Wait until january and we have five friends coming and they didnt on purpose. They want to spare the u. S. Embarrassment. Im sorry to say that. But now theres the war in pasta, children that is now the prosecutor and of course they can go to god as you all know it and collecting data. But still we should not put our hopes on it. Thank you good i hope this doesnt sound awfully naive, but at the cairo conference there have been certain pleasures and i asked a question about who didnt pay appeared to somebody somebody who is not from that part of the world, the question notice comes up in the how is it that the emirates are so rich . How was it that all these arab countries have all of this money and yet none of it gets to gaza. It is impossible to understand and that does not mean one does not understand the part that israel is playing. Do you want me to answer . I told you ever talk about gaza. Once hamas was put under complete siege. This embargo was not only by israel. It was by arabs. And by banks and by companies. You know, one of the u. N. Special envoy negotiated to bring salaries and cash. Well give you the cash. Since we cannot transfer money through banks, would you please kindly take the money to gaza and distribute the cash . They were prevented from doing that by the u. S. And israel. And he was notified. He has some heart. He was a special u. N. Envoy. They almost declare him after that so they threatened him if he brings money he will be immediately asked to leave the country. They brought somebody whos more lenient now. We keep fighting within every time he holds a press conference in the u. N. He always talks about israeli victims and i always raised as an example of pals and in fact does and why he only mentioned is really the dems. So the Current Special envoy not to the liking of the palestinian wrote a very strong article about 10. It is really a disaster. It puts the blame squarely on the palestinian. We are the one occupying israel right now. Any kind of movement cause terrorism, but israel destroying and taking their land, dodging to jerusalem and building the war in selfdefense. So that is a problem. Even if you want to send the money to gaza, you cannot. So its not a simple thing. By the way, many of those conferences, you know there is a joke when they are pledging to her and he said to his neighbor, said he said [inaudible] you know, yemen, for example, same thing with syria. Same thing with somalia. Same thing with africa and the republican with many of those conflict areas which they need. There is a term now and the u. N. Which is called fatigue. Too much. Youre asking too much. Well give you pieces here and there and damascus for more. They pledge to much but they actually put down on the table. Hello. Im an attorney hearing that this church. I have to question if its okay. When we talked about cause. Im wondering what the situation is with hovering over the same and what his role has been during this period in what you think his future role is on the palate indian theme and also regarding jerusalem, there is a situation where parts of the map we showed latest on the west bank side of the wall if you will, including Huge Population centers with the refugee camp, for example. There is a rumor in 2014, 2015 that they are trying to move people into the areas of the purpose of taking away their jerusalem identity and everyone outside of the wall will have that have been. You can talk about those points. Thank you. Thank you so much for the question with regard to jerusalem. Its what i left out in a already too long top. Is this on . Thank you for the question. I wanted to show a slide that demonstrates the continuities of israeli policy since 48 which i think i can list it with the principles of expansion and that has been the way policy on jerusalem if you go to the third one. So this is a map that really speaks to israels expanded after 67 the city, the east side of the city to take in as much land as they code with the fewest number of palestinians. Those are bureaucratic lines that were drawn. You couldnt see them. Since the establishment of the ball come in the creation of the wall, which though its not completed in the west bank, much of the west bank and jerusalem is almost completely complete. A further expansion of what israel unilaterally is trying to do to jerusalem territorially. The idea that its a pretty broad consensus within israel that at least formally and in political discourse jerusalem will never be divided come all never be shared in a meaningful way with palestinians. Anything defined is therefore part of israel. So they are constantly with the law now extending even beyond the unilateral redrawing of the boundary. You can see it doesnt hurt. This is the path of the wall that israel is establishing around jerusalem. Its not always a concrete wall. In some areas of the electrified fence. If you can see at the top, this is it. He had the municipal boundary that israel recognizes its internal capital. This is the boundary, but the path strangely excising part of the around what they regard as jerusalem. The reason is because here in other neighborhoods is about 70,000 palestinians who israel i think it is clear once and future arrangement to not be residents of jerusalem so as to strip them and reduce the democratic danger of too many palestinians. Palestinians outnumber pretty substantially. Theres about 200,000 jewish settlers in about 315,000 palestinians. What do you do with that demographic problem . You build a wall and put these people on the other side of a. Talking about the refugee camp that was here within which Israel Considers its boundaries of jerusalem and yet the wall is going to take those people out and outside of it. This is a demographic battle. Its a racial project you can see it exhibited very jerusalem is constantly being expanded in the interest of the occupying powers. Thank you for the question. I didnt get to that, but that is very illustrative. Question. [inaudible] if we could just do the question and keep the mic with you. If you want me to answer, i will ask you to shut off the camera. By [laughter] it was a very close associative foa long time and he was one of the favorites of the United States of america. He was brought to washington following the victory of hamas in the word but deleted abroad abroad elliott abrams. They put a plan together to undermine hamas and he started working with that, but he failed miserably. In july 2007 as you know. And he came back to the west bank in 2009 during the conference was the meeting was going on and he was not showing in the beginning, that he came with force. He took the first two rows of seed and he was elected to the community of fata. He was coaching himself and others were supporting him to be not the king, but at king, but at the least the kingmaker. When he started solidifying his power, i think the fraction have been between him and the president. Finally, they strip them of his membership of the community and the accused him of so many things. I gave a long speech in palestine with the conflict accusing him of many things including but not confined to the knowledge about arafats poisoning. The egyptian channel dreamed a few days later gave unprecedented ministry for hours to talk again does. Which that means now we have the government, which is a kind of approval that you cant be on tv for four hours talking about a head of state, quote, unquote, without the approval of the authorities. Impossible. That means he had a new alignment especially in the gulf. He became in charge of security in dubai and he expanded his business is to be not a small country like montenegro almost. Yes so much businesses and many other places and therell be always a question about where the money of the plo, which is the people who are in charge of it. So inside fatah in the west bank and gaza, they are not happy. We are not talking about leadership. So there is so much pressure on members from the leadership to be loyal no matter what they do and they do criticize the behavior of the leadership. So its like such a black the party here. Youre not happy with the leader so you go and vote against. There was so much from then Side Movement in the west bank and gaza. The leadership will impose for example who is in charge of the five Top Organization with the most qualified. Though the disobedience and not and it happened admin there could be a confrontation. Taking advantage of the economic misery in the west tank and gaza, they came in and infiltrated through the cracks of the resentment and dissension and hes building his own organization. Of course he supported by the court did, which is made of the egypt, United Arab Emirates and saudi arabia. Those countries especially saudis and amorous want that man because he will be the bridge to cross over to israel and to make normalization with israel completely something accepted. So thats what they want. Not necessarily because they see 81, 82 and is about to get the torch to somebody else. On the 29th of this month, which happens to be the International Date of the Palestinian People and the day the politicians planned resolution [inaudible] the pacific conference of fatah. He did two things that last. He requested a membership of the international police. It has been rejected two days ago. And if you notice two days ago, the attorney general in palestine gave us the right to strip and a member of the plc of his immunity and he could be tied. That is just two, three days ago. And in the conference will be held so there will be something happening in that conference, which means there will be a conference that will be a decision by the conference about the land, and accused him of being a conspirator regarding arafat or Something Like that for corruption or anything and he was hopeful that the answer will will also be occupied and since now the palestinian legal system overrides the president or allows the president to strip them of all his immunity is, that will have been. I expect that this conference might and power to do it. Maybe use the most illegible person at the museum yesterday and he was in the spotlight. Any smart enough to distance himself from all this mass. Although he did not rake his relation and sent band that might have been, he might be appointed as either Prime Minister and he will put in maybe not in president and it is popular both in the west bank and he was born in gaza. A godsend family, which is originally not from gaza. He and his father and mother were in gaza. Hes in the west bank. People respect him. Hes not going to be corrupt and he has that, you know, since its his uncle. She is most qualified to be probably the future. But you have to eliminate [inaudible] im from oklahoma. I think it is very hard to hear and see it, but i would like to have a callin on the west bank because it is not there then gaza where our people are becoming slaves [inaudible] ive been going back to the west bank since i became an american citizen after i left the u. N. So between 2006 and 2010 i couldnt because i was waiting for my papers. I got my paper in 2010 and i go every year to the west bank. And i make it a point that i dont want to spend one day just having fun, but going and seeing people and talking and visiting refugee country. And i recorded every visit. I am a columnist and all the articles are published under the title on homeland and occupation. I just want to draw your attention. [inaudible] [speaking in native tongue] so what i came on this trip, i had never seen so much despair and feeling of loss and loss of direction and loss of hope and in deference like this last summer. I spent one day on another day in columbia and i sat with laila van damme [inaudible] and i went all over and i went to see friends and we always talk about where we go from there. The only person i try to see but now hes minister,. I asked to see him, but not because we were longtime friends but because also i am the official trainer at the Foreign Ministry of palestine. I trained among community and the workshops were in so he does not time. So many other people are lower. Except friends, which many of them they do have many friends and no one can answer that question. Is the two state solution still a priority . Is there a viable contiguous and independent, sovereign palestinian state in which East Jerusalem as you say. You know the slogan. We have been fooled as palestinians. They sold us this imaginative state in oslo and we believe to i always compare that to the mother who had five grandchildren of hunger and she put some rock and start boiling and feeding her children. The food is ready, we will eat in five minutes. They are crying of hunger because there was no food. This palestinian leadership has betrayed its people talking about two state solution. Wheres the two state solution . Its about to say oslo was a disaster. [applause] mr. Parker, thank you. We are Closing Remarks from dr. Trent fix. Ali. This has been a fantastic panel. It described the situation of brazil as it is right now. The program said the palace indians from the agency and future prospects. I told you about the history over the last 100 years. Youve heard about the agencies right now than there has been a question about the prospects. They have talked about the prospects. We dont know what the prospects are. But i do know one thing. Im old enough and i have seen a sometime. Until there is a fierce aleutian to the palace tinian issue, to the Palestinian Refugees who are still in the camps and have been refugees more than any other group in history, they will never be peace in the middle east regardless of how much money there is in the old and the camera in the and the amaranth and so on. And until there is peace in the middle east, there will never be peace in the world. Never. Mark my words those of you who are talking about it. A few remarks. Why did we choose this subject . Why do we talk about the palestinians . Were talking about 50 years since 1967, 70 years since 1947, 48 because the palestinian issue has been shelved. Everybodys talking about what is going on in the air of spring. And everybody has an issue on the shelf on the back burner. But its a basic, the core of issues in the middle east regardless of how much im not going to characterize it any which way because i think that has been explained by the speakers. Youve heard about the children. Youve heard about where they just cost 2 million. You heard about literally the miserable heart wrenching situation the palestinians are living through. That is why you are here. We are curious about whats going on in palestine. We been hearing about those palestinians. But the arab world, rich and poor will never see peace until the palestinians have a failed solution and failed resolution. That includes the right of return. I havent heard a word about today. Regardless of the Palestinian Authority says about it, regardless of what the diplomat say about it, regardless of what my grandparents if they were resurrected would say about it, i can tell you that he sent a nobody can mess with. If my generation and im a 73yearold surgeon who has been active since high school. If we were to sign something regardless of who signs that, regardless of what the relationships to anybody, even if it goes back to the prophet mohammed, the signature is worth nothing. And i said that in a speech to the tennessee retired association. Ive been in the u. S. Army since 1968, since vietnam because it is the young palestinians o would make a decision. Regardless of what my generation finds, it is this generation. They will throw her signature in the trash can in no flush it as they should. The signatures are worth nothing. The population that you think, the the children that youve seen in most cases much red than 50 of the population. Theyll never go anywhere. You have been a fantastic audience. We have had some excellent panels and im delighted to see the youth. Seriously. You did a real picture of what is there. This is refreshing to see the names rather than in diplomatic terms in political terms or Campaign Turns the campaign promises. Youve been presented things as they are. I think we owe the panelists a round of applause. Another round of applause should go to our staff. [applause] thats what the palestinians centuries for. Thank you very much. [inaudible conversations] the president cant wave a magic wand and say civil rights repair. That doesnt happen. The executive is restrained in a very real way. Now one side that had spread at least gives me some hope is that this Justice Department Civil Rights Division has been busier than it has been in any Administration Prior baby except for johnson. It has been busy. The laws that Congress Passes constraint is to reach him very, very real ways. Ill give you an 11 way to pass the non. Hopefully we can talk more. Trey by martin in the last panel you know, it was the correct decision for the department of justice not to intervene in that train to march and because the law is in a way that makes it nearly impossible for them to intervene in that way. They have to show at the time that the mermaid to the death blow. He was