 Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Your weekly movement news roundup. You always give the people what they want brought to you from people's dispatch. That's Zoe and Prashant and Vijay from Globetrotter. This is show 157. We're now deep into January of 2024. Looks like in Israel, there's some trouble. Mr. Eisencott, former head of the military, made comments saying, hey listen, maybe Israel needs to go to the ballot box to renew trust. That's the word he used. Mr. Eisencott is an observer in the war cabinet. This is not a marginal figure. He has close relationship to Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, breaking fracturing consensus among the elites in Israel. An interesting development. We're going to have to see what this means. Meanwhile, great sense of desperation among the Arab states that circle Gaza. Saudi Arabia seems to be faltering, ready to blink at Davos, senior high officials of the Saudi government, starting to talk about what they call an Arab plan for a ceasefire and a post-war Gaza. An Arab plan, not sure it really is an Arab plan, more like a plan being put on the table by the Arab elites. What is the center of this plan? Saudis were asked at Davos, would you normalize relations with Israel as a sweetener for a ceasefire and post-war Gaza? Yes, they said. Certainly, the Saudis said Israel is a part of our neighborhood. We have to normalize. Very interesting development looked like in October and November of last year that normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel off the table. Now it looks like the Saudis are in a way rebranding the question of normalization, saying that well, normalization is a price we are willing to pay in order to have a ceasefire in Gaza. It is quite a price, in fact, because it sells the Palestinians down the river. One of the reasons Gadi Aisankot has said that Mr. Netanyahu has lost the trust of the Israeli people is that within Israel, fissures are opening up amongst the population about what to do with Gaza. Now some people are saying, look, we're going to militarize all of Gaza so that Palestinians can remain there if they'd like, but it will basically be a direct military camp, even more than the West Bank. There are even suggestions borrowing from the British government of Rishi Sunak. There are suggestions of deporting as many Palestinians from Gaza to Rwanda. You may have followed the fact that the British government has been in turmoil debating this in parliament, trying to circumvent rules of human rights that they still are obliged to in relationship to European treaties and so on. The British are saying anybody who comes to the UK seeking forms of asylum or refugee status might be processed, put on a plane and sent to Rwanda. Paul Kagame of Rwanda has shown himself to be a willing ally of some of these governments. Remember again that Paul Kagame's Rwanda entered northern Mozambique in Cabo Delgado on behalf of the French. Now Mr. Kagame's government in Rwanda happy to do a deal with the British. The problem lies in Britain. Will Rishi Sunak's government get enough of a consensus to deport people from British soil to Rwanda? Israel is picking up on that saying we are going to effectively deport the Palestinians to Rwanda. All of this of course amounting to a war crime. It's called population transfer, illegal as far as the Geneva Conventions are concerned. This is creating some tension within Israeli society. I think some elements of Israeli society not comfortable being alive during this second Nakba. They're okay with the occupation it seems, but not quite to the level at which Mr. Netanyahu wants to go. That's why Gadi Eisencourt says maybe we need an election at this time. Well at this moment when there are fissures within Israel along comes Saudi Arabia and puts a palm leaf on the table, almost an escape hatch for the Israelis. Although I must say this palm leaf on the table will not be picked up by Mr. Netanyahu because it could mean if they pick it up that they'd have to allow the Palestinians to remain in Gaza right now off the table for the Israeli war cabinet. They want to either erase the Palestinians from Gaza or allow them to live there in a military camp. Neither of those two options I think will be possible for the Saudis to accept. Meanwhile conditions in Gaza appalling. Prashant, people's dispatch has a couple of stories about this online. Tell us what's the latest on the ground in Gaza. Right, which are quite a few shocking number of reports coming out from various sections over the past few days, past 10 days or so and we have been hearing these reports of course from various sections including UN experts. But I think every report sort of showing in some senses how the crisis has sort of escalated. We have a report for instance based on a press release and a testimony basically from UN experts, a number of UN experts, UN special rapporteurs who have sort of been chronically in the situation in Gaza and it has some very horrific facts including the most staggering facts basically being that everyone in Gaza is right now at this point food insecure and this is I think was one of the experts. Another expert pointed out last week that even during conflicts, even during wars, say 40 to 60% of the population being food insecure or is maybe common has been seen in various instances but even those are really, even those are unique situations and outliers. But here in Gaza we have a situation where 100% of the population is food insecure and Palestinians right now make up 80% of all people across the world who are facing famine or catastrophic hunger. So these two numbers alone really kind of show the extent of the devastation Israel has caused and it's important to kind of see this as a multi-dimensional crisis in the sense of what they describe because this is not just a shortage of food, the shortage of food happens because of a shortage of supplies. The shortage of food leads to conditions where children especially are suffering from a great deal of malnutrition. They become increasingly vulnerable to disease. Pregnant women for instance having it especially difficult in terms of especially when it comes to the unborn children and what this leads to basically is a crisis that affects every aspect of life and it's one of the aspects that South Africa also highlighted in its case at the ICJ the fact that of course the horrific death toll is one aspect of this genocidal act but it is also the attack for instance on health convoys and the other aspect of it is basically the health crisis where we have two copies by our colleagues and the people's health dispatch who talk about really two aspects of the health crisis one the fact that at an unprecedented level there has been an attack on health workers this includes the abduction of senior medical personnel who are currently imprisoned many of their whereabouts unclear what is happening to them unclear the possibility of trials being conducted against them because medical personnel have been in the forefront of chronicling the devastation Israel has caused and on the other hand we have the staggering amount of damage that health facilities have faced and you have medical personnel in a position where and even aid agencies for that matter in a position where they're having to make horrible, horrible choices like in a relief vehicle do you prioritize food or do you prioritize medicine this is the kind of horrible choice that has to be made on a day to day basis in Gaza right now there's a huge shortage of a number of essential medicines amputations for instance have increased because the fact that earlier in cases where amputations would not be necessary there would be enough medicines for that but right now they're just forced to conduct amputations in that the number is drastically increased in recent times so basically what we're seeing is the collapse of various sectors sorry in the of the economy the collapse of various sectors in the health sector when it comes to nutrition etc and it's extremely dangerous scenario where this continues you know one of the big problems of being a reporter is at the most inopportune moments your sources keep trying to reach you and they try to reach you incessantly despite the fact you can't pick up because they have a story to give you Prashant of course always fielding calls from his sources I wonder which one that's from sources that's one thing the other is attacks my goodness Zoe the weaponization of the idea of anti-semitism around the question of protests over this genocidal war in Gaza this weaponization New York seems to be at the core of this weaponization tell us what's happening in the city of New York well I would just take a step back and say that for many years any sort of criticism of Israel has been painted as anti-semitism and I think it's important to contextualize because for example many legal cases have been brought forward for people who were participating in boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns a completely peaceful form of protest in solidarity with the Palestinian people that they had been demanding and calling for for years as of around 2005 so BDS was already anti-semitic because people were boycotting companies which actually a lot of times were multinational companies maybe based in Europe, based in the United States that in some way or another facilitated or profited from the apartheid system profited from the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people from their land so already BDS was considered anti-semitic, unclear of course we know that's not true and of course now following October 7th and just throughout this genocidal onslaught on the people of Palestine I mean again remembering the horrific conditions that people are living in over these past three months this humanitarian crisis which has gotten so much worse in this past month and I just wanted to add the freezing temperatures in addition to hunger in addition to disease and it almost as an attempt to distract the world's attention from what actually is happening in countries across the world not only the United States and not only in New York but even in Brazil, across Europe this weapon has been used to say that okay if you're criticizing Israel you're anti-semitic and so in New York City there's been almost daily protests there's been daily protests against not only Israel's genocidal war but also the position of US elected officials in supporting this war in constantly supporting giving more funding giving more military funding giving the political backing to Israel to continue this genocide despite mass popular opinion in the United States actually supporting a ceasefire which has proven which has been documented in multiple polls and so there have been daily protests and to be honest I think in history it hasn't been seen in New York City a city which maybe at one point was considered fully behind Israel it has become a city where it's actually impossible to be Zionist because you're going to be met with protesters at every single moment because people are actually not standing for this genocide and so the response to this of course has been let's distract from what's really happening in Palestine what's happening to the Palestinian people and actually just attack the people who are calling this to light and calling this to the fore so there have been multiple social media vilification campaigns attacks, threats that have been launched to different organizers and the People's Forum has once again it's been the center of many organizing efforts across the city a lot of the speakouts that people have seen in front of for example different lawmakers, apartments in the city these have been coming out of the People's Forum so it's really no surprise that now the Zionist lobby and these for example elected official Richie Torres from the poorest congressional district in the United States in the Bronx he's made many comments on his social media trying to vilify, trying to alienate trying to stigmatize People's Forum and saying that they're anti-Semitic and it's interesting because you know as a Jewish person who works in People's Forum who organized that People's Forum I know that's completely ridiculous it's not, I mean there's so many reasons why being anti-Zionist is not being anti-Semitic and it's actually just a completely principled position in support of the Palestinian people and their right to dignity and to life and to you know the possibility of a future but also just people of the world because we know that Zionism is and the state of Israel actually poses a threat to the entire region in its you know attacks against other countries I mean already it's been launching rocket attacks against Lebanon you know the US has already in defense of Israel has attacked Yemen has attacked Iraq, has attacked Syria so we're talking not just about one state but we're talking about an entire regional project the people of the United States are impacted by Zionism as well their tax dollars are going to fund this they don't have healthcare so it's just so essential and so obvious what's happening here so it's that's they're trying to distract from what's really happening but I think that people are beyond that and they know that this is not based in any sort of fact of reality but it's just a distraction Zoe where we give the people what they want brought to you from people's dispatch that Zoe and Prashant I'm Vijay from Globetrotter Zoe I was going to say that you know the kind of attacks in New York were being mirrored of course at Davos in Switzerland where the great hero of the moment was Argentina's president Mr. Mele Mr. Mele arrived there and said the west is in danger that was the banner line from him quite an extraordinary speech in fact I would say this year's Davos Mr. Mele of Argentina's speech was the most widely reported of the lot where he attacked what he called radical feminist, socialist, communist he said all these people are leading us to poverty and then he turned to businessman and said you are the real heroes you are the heroes don't be intimidated he said by the political cast that was Javier Mele of Argentina apparently the workers in Argentina have different ideas Zoe tell us what they are up to I'll just add that Javier Mele is also a staunch defender of Israel and yeah he is not you know that was the most widely reported speech because I think it was a complete shock it definitely had the shock value that he wanted to convey but not only was it rejected by many even you know centrist people who were at Davos but of course in his home country of Argentina this is completely you know not based on reality I think the result of capitalism in Argentina is the current situation that we are seeing right now it's not like there's been some socialist state in Argentina that has just come to ruins it's you know he and his predest you know Mauricio Macri who served in government from 2015 to 2019 have implemented and are calling for this complete new liberal economic regime already in Mele's just over one month in office he's implemented a series of anti-worker legislation and this is not through the congress but actually through presidential decree and through omnibus law you know laying off thousands of workers who had state jobs devaluing the currency taking away subsidies and as we've said before this has been met with mass opposition and these constant attacks to workers the trade unions have protested and they're calling for a new national strike which will be held on January 24 all of the major labor confederations are participating in this call calling for the national strike if anyone has any experience in Argentina you know that the unions there are extremely strong so we're not just talking about the left unions but we're talking about the truck drivers who essentially make the economy move they are going on strike saying no to these anti-worker laws we're going to see a complete shutdown of the economy and what's interesting as well is that some of Mele's bills that he's tried to pass his anti-worker legislation has actually been met with resistance again not only on the streets but by the courts and so he has been met with some sort of kind of break or obstacle and actually passing these and implementing them some checks and balances as we love to say in liberal democracy but I think the power of the streets is really going to be present throughout these the years that he is in office people are not standing for this they're mobilizing in every way possible we've seen the governor of the province of Buenos Aires which is Buenos Aires is the most populous province in the country he has also been very active in opposing this bringing together different political and social forces so huge moment a huge uptick in social organizing and mobilization people will be on the streets again on January 24th huge national strike we're definitely going to see what it looks like when he's saying all these things in Davos but I think the reality that he's met with is a very different one you know it's interesting Davos is always the place where a lot of chit chat happens also at Davos of course the question of Ansar Allah Yemen the attacks on international shipping on people's mind Prashant and here comes the Chinese government wading into this saying that shipping has to be protected wasn't quite sure exactly what the target of the statement from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce is take us to Yemen Prashant right Yemen has had a tumultuous week especially because the fact that now it's back on the so called list of Ansar Allah specifically back on the list of so called terrorist organization surprise weapon by the United States to use against whoever it doesn't like at the moment whoever seems to sort of resist its political machinations at the moment we know that of course Cuba is on that list Ansar Allah was on that list as well until Joe Biden after taking power removed them from the list and sort of tried to claim moral superiority in whatever ways by saying that he was trying there the government was trying US administration was trying to help providing aid to the people of Yemen the fact of course is that by 2023 was a year where there was actually relatively less conflict in Yemen part of it was also because of the normalization of ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran nonetheless the number of people in Yemen who need humanitarian aid is massive we're talking about if I'm not mistaken around 18 million people still requiring humanitarian aid Yemen continues to be a country where you know there is a considerable amount of crisis there's a huge dependence on aid that comes in from across the world and one reason that human rights organizations had very strongly opposed that the terrorist tag basically on this organization was that it would actually make it difficult for aid to be provided to the people who need it but that does not seem to have deterred the United States from taking the step now I think important to also step back and see what were the events that led to the US administration taking the step the fact is that very shortly after Israel's war on Gaza began and so I learned it say that they were going to stop any shipping to and bound to and from Israel initially because Israeli link ships and then it was shipping to and from Israel and they took a very clear stand on it they said that we are not you know going to we are not going to touch any other kind of shipping at all it is specifically ships bound to and from Israel and it is part of our solidarity towards the Palestinian people it is part of our duty to prevent the kind of Israeli bombing that Israel has been conducting and they took a very clear stand on that now the United States of course like you said like Zoe was saying earlier in its bit to defend Israel they practically made this about navigation about commercial shipping etc etc and sort of gathered together this coalition of countries you know a coalition of willing countries which were sort of supposed to sort of protect shipping and of course while the Houthis did carry out attacks on satellite it carry out attacks it is specifically on shipping no reports of loss of life and the United States responded with attacks inside Yemen for the first time since 2016 I believe you know I think it's very when you look at the picture here it's very clear the one hand the United States which professes say to be concerned for human rights which you know beat its own drum considerably in 21 while removing what was a very unfair designation has now put place that designation again and I think just a few maybe a day or so ago Joe Biden was confronted with this question when he asked that whether bombing was going to stop the Houthis and he said no and then he said we want to continue nonetheless so you know that I think in a nutshell explains the US policy towards the region towards Palestine and you know a good example is also the recent report on what Brett Muckirk and senior officials are planning which is that they're looking to sort of renormalization is once again the name of the only strategy they have so basically what the US is doing is repeating its own patterns old patterns again and again patterns which have failed to have any kind of impact patterns which do not respect the sovereignty and desire choices of people of the region and patterns which lead to large scale death there's no other way of explaining it the US was you know backing the Saudi led coalition that war in Yemen caused you know hundreds of thousands of life through millions of people into great despair so we have this designation again we don't know of course whether how much aid will be affected you know what's going to be the practical impact whether there's going to be an escalation but you know things are quite dangerous on that front right now very dangerous in Yemen but equally something strange then happened this week on the other side of of this region in 2002 a group was formed in Pakistan's Balochistan province called Jundul Allah which then proclaimed the aims to be uniting an independent Balochistan province the province to the west of Pakistan in Pakistan's west with the Sistan province of Iran eastern province this Balochistan Sistan region these people claim should have independence they were kind of a secessionist group Jundul Allah conducted various strikes at the time particularly against Iran but also in Balochistan at the time the Iranians went hard found the leader executed him in 2010 and it looked like that insurgency ended two years later the group reformed as Jashul Adil which is the army of justice similar people from Jundul Allah they sort of came back in and created themselves based again in Balochistan a target of both the Iranian and the Pakistani government now Jashul Adil has been conducting strikes all over the place you know it's well known to be a slightly troubling organization because it doesn't have mass support but it has capability and has been conducting these strikes and so on out of nowhere it seemed informing the Pakistani government on Thursday the Iranians conducted a strike at the Jashul Adil camps this strike was conducted without notification really of anybody and came as a bit of a surprise at a time when the conflict against the Palestinians is so heated up at a time when the situation in Yemen is heated up at a time when there is pressure by the United States against Hezbollah the political party in Lebanon where there have been strikes in Iran there have been strikes in Syria and in Iraq at that time it seemed a bit reckless for the Iranians to go and strike these camps in Pakistan well what did the Pakistanis do it's important to bear in mind this particular government in Pakistan very much pro-western government and doesn't need to advise to do something no idea where the idea came from but somehow Pakistan felt the need to retaliate and I'm going to come back to this idea of retaliation in a moment because bear in mind Iran conducted a strike on Pakistani territory without in any way coordinating at least publicly with the Pakistanis that's what the Pakistanis said in response so Pakistan launched missiles to Iranian territory will this escalate I'm not sure I have a feeling that Pakistan was making a point now let's remember in 2011 United States military crossed the boundaries the frontier from Afghanistan into Pakistan landed in the military town of Abatabad seized people including the body of Osama Aladdin who was killed there and left Pakistani airspace Seymour Hersh argued that this was privately coordinated with the Pakistanis hence American choppers were able to come all the way into not only into Pakistan but into a military town which is Abatabad how come there was no anti-aircraft fire and so on that's what Hersh alleges well Pakistan was a bit humiliated by this like their sovereignty had been violated and they worried because would this give India permission now to conduct cross-border strikes in Pakistani territory against various militant groups that operate in Kashmir and so on would India take this as license now to go and attack Pakistan in my view that Pakistan most likely struck back against Iran to send a message not to Iran but to India as well to say that look you can't it's not an open door into Pakistan to strike whoever you want hopefully this situation will not escalate hopefully looks like it's relatively closed off because both sides have a problem with Jaisal Adil it's not just one side I think that's important well this is the kind of information you get and give the people what they want doubt you're going to get this from most of the corporate media come back and join us next week we're with you every Friday and also available on many platforms as a podcast give the people what they want from People's Dispatch, Zoe and Prashant go to the website I'm Vijay from Globetrotter really really happy to have you along with us for the ride see you next week