 Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Your weekly movement news round up. 64 weeks. 64 weeks we've been coming to you. Give the people what they want. This is the 64th show with Zoe and Prashant from People's Dispatch. You know that People's Dispatch is your favorite movement news website. People's Dispatch.org. I'm Vijay from Globetrotter. I got to tell you friends. Amnesty International brings out a 280 page report. Investigation done over four years. Summarizing the totality of the apartheid regime. Institutionalized and reproduced every day by the Israeli state against the Palestinian people. An extraordinary report. It's one of the first human rights organizations that's actually combined the experience of Palestinians in 48 Israel. That means within the borders of 1948 Israel. Combined that with the experience of Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza and not to forget Palestinians in the diaspora. It has put into the framework of apartheid the so-called right to return. UN Resolution 242, which said that Palestinians have a right to return. But Israeli immigration policy prevents Palestinians from entering the country, returning to their homeland. This is the first report of its kind that I've seen outside Palestinian human rights organizations, which brings together this important point. Also centrally documenting every aspect of humiliation undertaken by the Israeli state against the Palestinians. Questions like employment, questions like housing segregation, questions like lack of mobility, basic questions of citizenship rights and so on. It's a very comprehensive document worth looking at stunningly in the text Amnesty points out that the violations it has documented. Now, keep in mind Amnesty International is a human rights organization. It's not a judicial body. It has no judicial powers. It is merely through its analysis of the evidence concluded that there is an apartheid like condition in Israel imposed upon the Palestinians. That's all that Amnesty can do. It's not again a court or a judicial body. It's none of those things. It's it does an analysis of the facts. That's what it is produced in 280 pages investigation lasting not actually four years lasting much longer than that because they went back and used their earlier materials for people's dispatch. I had spoken this week to Philip Luther who has been with Amnesty for 23 years has been on this beat for a long time. It's a highly intelligent, highly informed person. So this is what Amnesty has said, but in the text they mentioned that there is culpability based on the Rome statutes. Now that's the treaty that established the International Criminal Court. The treaty happened to be signed in Rome. That's why it's called the Rome statute. Those Rome statutes include the crime of genocide, the crime of crimes against humanity and so on. These are very serious crimes under international law. Amnesty based on its analysis has said that there is a room here for the Rome statutes to be brought into effect. Meanwhile, last year, the special prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, Wathi Bensouda had come out after a very long period of investigation. And if you don't mind me saying so, also dithering. Some of that dithering has a consequence of US pressure on the International Criminal Court. Wathi Bensouda came out and she said, we're going to open a serious investigation. The file is open now on Israel. It's an open file. Meanwhile, friends, we've gone from Palestine to the International Criminal Court, but in between, in Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council paneled a commission last year led by the very respected South African jurist, Navi Pillay. They will put their report on the table sometime this year in Geneva. Now, her mandate is interesting. She is to look at crimes committed essentially by the Israeli state against the Palestinians from 1948 and the file is open indefinitely. There is no restricted time mandate, not this attack, that attack, this situation that it's an open mandate to investigate. That's going to be a very important text that they put out there. Now, my friends, this is the reason why the Israeli government has tried to squelch all use of the word apartheid. I wrote a piece for Globetrotter, which you can read at People's Dispatch about this. In fact, a very, very serious issue, very serious matter got to be because the Israeli government, interestingly, quite openly has said that they will not tolerate a look and see anybody who uses the term apartheid, anti-Semites or terrorists. Please go and read the report at People's Dispatch. Also, watch the interview with Luther. Philip Luther responds to allegations from the Israeli Foreign Ministry that amnesty used so-called terrorist sources. I really would like you to go and have a look at that interview because it's interesting to see what Philip Luther says. Moving on, Israel likes to position itself not as apartheid Israel, but as startup Israel, great company of technological developments and so on technological developments. I've seen you, Pegasus, you're on my phone. Prashant, probably on your phone as well. Tell us about Pegasus. Right, Vijay. So Pegasus, of course, the source of news that it's hardly difficult to find a week when a revelation does not come out. The latest one, of course, was the New York Times report. Now, what is the larger politics behind that report is a very interesting question, difficult to speculate, but I think some aspects of that report really need to be centered, which is, of course, I mean, a lot of attention has gone into the fact that the FBI tested a version of Pegasus called Phantom, and they finally decided not to use it, but they did nonetheless test it. And even other agencies such as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Authority and the Secret Service all tried it out or at least had negotiations with the NSO group. But I think the international implications are far more, you know, extremely important to note, for instance, we have the instance of Mexico where Pegasus was purchased. There's the case of, for instance, Tomás Zirón de Lucio, the head of the Mexican intelligence, who is believed to have been involved, for instance, in the Ayotzinapa massacre, and, you know, he was one of the people who was very actively involved in these discussions and in the use of this tool. We have the case of Panama, for instance, again, where international diplomacy itself is being, you know, whether the question of Pegasus and the ability to spy on your opponents played a role in international diplomacy in countries' votes in global bodies in support of Israel. And, of course, claims that we didn't ask for a quid pro quo, but the truth is a far more, might be a far more complicated matter. The stories of both the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, for instance, very important to note, they come much later in the story, but the fact that Mohammed bin Salman actually called Benjamin Netanyahu because, you know, Pegasus had briefly cut off Saudi, you know, Saudi operations, and he was able to bring it back on with just a phone call. It shows the extent to which, you know, all these regimes, all of them such close allies in the US, sorry, US bloc, so to speak, across the world. All of these powers, the extent of collusion between them, the extent of collaboration between them, of course, and the UAE also using it on a very prominent dissident. Same software sold to Poland, to Hungary, right wing governments across the world and also coming close home to India, where apparently it was the centerpiece of a two billion dollar deal which involved missile systems as well. We actually this week itself spoke to Paranjay Guhatakurtha, a very senior journalist whose name has also been in the list of those who may have been targeted with the Pegasus spyware. It was interesting the response in India because a lot of people pointed out that the Supreme Court has set up a commission to inquire into this, but this report actually, and I think later follow-up reports by organizations including the wire, for instance, make it very clear that the Indian government does seem to have purchased the Pegasus spyware, actually a cyber weapon. I think it's slightly problematic or misleading to call it just spyware because it is in fact a genuine weapon used by governments across the world against their opponents, many of whom are civil or human rights activists, many of whom are journalists. So one good thing, of course, has been the fact that, I mean, one important thing I think to note is that while this report paints the US in much, does not paint in much of a harsh light, the fact remains that the US is the home of a lot of these similar technologies as well. So the focus on Pegasus is, of course, taken away from the fact that most US agencies possibly have very similar technology and also the fact that US companies are probably bidding to take over the NSO Group as well, which is likely to be a possibility over the past couple of years. What we've also seen is that the constant leaks from the media, the constant news reports that are taking place are probably likely to lead to a situation where NSO itself is bought by maybe a US company, maybe a series, maybe a group or a partnership. So very interesting, I think, things to keep note of in coming weeks and months, maybe it might be a small news of a small purchase somewhere which might not get too much attention, but actually the ramifications are very, very important. I think for journalists across the world also, something to keep track of relentlessly because this should not be a story which just gets buried and there's no action further. I mean, God, it's a terrible thing. I'm afraid of my phone now and thanks Netanyahu and all your fellas in Israel and whoever's there now, thanks for that. Zoe, bring us some good news, please. Take us to Cuba. I gather they've decided they're going to revise the family code and so on. We need good news. Well, I suppose the amnesty story wasn't such a bad piece of news. It's good to have a report like that. It's good that Pegasus has been revealed, but we need some good news. Come on. All right. Well, I'm going to give the people what they want, which is that Cuba, once again, is kind of just a beacon for humanity. I think there's no other way to say it. Currently, yesterday marked 60 years since the beginning of the genocidal blockade against the country from the United States, which has been condemned over 30 times in the UN General Assembly. Over $144 billion have been lost by Cuba through this blockade. And yet, as we've covered for the past two years, not only has Cuba been a beacon in terms of medical internationalism, sending doctors and healthcare workers to, as far as Italy, countries across the African continent, Asia. And of course, creating five vaccines, which are some of the most effective in the world, but also currently they've started this process, as you mentioned, Vijay, of reforming their family code. And not only is this a very important step in terms of expanding rights to all of the people in Cuba, but also I think it's interesting when you look at the process under which this is happening. So over the past several years, there have been 23 versions of this family code that have been put through debate in the National Assembly, different modifications through consultations. Now a draft version is going to be presented to the Cuban population. They will be able to participate, give their opinions on this text at over 78,000 different posts across the country, where they will be able to say, you know, this is an interesting point. I don't really understand this. How do we take this forward? And really actively participate in the process of building this new family code, which would change the concept of what is the family nucleus, expand rights to LGBTQ community in the country, redefining what is the legal family institution, breaking with the heteronormative model which has been enforced across the world through fire and by blood, and establishing the right as a family to live free from violence, valuing love, affection, solidarity, and responsibility. I mean, this is really groundbreaking. And I think it's so important to value this process that's underway in Cuba. You know, as I mentioned, it's a participatory process. The Cuban people are actively partaking in democracy. This is really what democracy is, is being able to understand what laws are being passed, being able to add your voice, ask questions, understand what's going forward, the willingness to dialogue, to engage. I think it's really just an incredible example for all of us, and, you know, especially as Cuba faces so many challenges, faces the brutal challenges of the blockade, over $144 billion lost by Cuba. They're currently facing a very challenging situation, socioeconomic situation. You know, our comrades in part of the International People's Assembly have organized many solidarity efforts, bringing, you know, tons of powdered milk to, you know, stand with the Cuban people in this moment. And yet, despite all of these difficulties, they're undertaking an incredible process of democracy. I think we only have to look at the United States to see, you know, in the past year, all of Joe Biden's promises to, you know, bring back better, build back better for the American people, which received, you know, 70% approval rate has been struck down by two obstinate, right-wing Democratic senators. That's not democracy. This is democracy. Changing the concept of the family, bringing more rights to the people and allowing them to participate in that process. It's very difficult to change cultures. And, you know, I think that's why it's taken such a long time to advance a dialogue and so on. Very interesting developments in Cuba. I want to say, Zoe, it's not only those two right-wing Democrats. Don't forget the 40-odd right-wing Republicans who also stood against. They seem to get a pass because people always assume that, well, the Republicans are just going to be nuts. But, you know, this is about infrastructure and nobody seems, the ruling class in the United States doesn't seem to care about building their society. Whereas, you know, what you're reporting on in Cuba is a project which says, well, how do we advance things? A project that says, how do we advance things? Prashant I read Pavan Kulkarni's article at People's Dispatch, you know, about the situation in Sudan where he reports that the military junta is trying to bring back the government or the regime of Umar al-Bashir overthrown in April 2019. I was a little chilled. I'm afraid to say I haven't followed the recent developments in Sudan so closely. It's an excellent article. I recommend people go read it at peoplesdispatch.org. A very important article. Prashant, take us to this, I think disturbing development in Sudan. Right, Vijay. In fact, we'll be soon, sorry, we'll be soon having another report as well with an interview with the resistance committees, representatives of the resistance committees on the ground which will actually be covering a bit more of what exactly is happening on the ground. But a couple of important things I think to note in Sudan, first of all, what you mentioned, very problematic development, which is that the National Congress Party of former President Umar al-Bashir, which is pretty much along with Umar al-Bashir, many of these people were overthrown or removed from their positions after the Sudanese Revolution, are now making a comeback with the help of the military junta. And it's important to note because there was, there's something called the empowerment removal committee or the ERC. And this committee was set up specifically after the revolution to purge those elements which had been so complicit in financial crimes in suppressing the popular will in all kinds of abuses of various sorts. And this committee was actually set up as a structural solution to that problem in terms of, say, removing these elements from power because often what happens is that even if the figurehead or the ruler is moved, the regime nonetheless remains. You've seen that very strongly, for instance, in a country like Algeria, which is why it has not completely succeeded. But Sudan's set out to be different and after the coup on October 25th where the military and Abdul Fateh al-Burhan came back to power. One of the things they've slowly been doing is actually reinstating many of these people. The latest, I think on January 24th, about 100 civil servants were reinstated. So another important organization also brought back into prominence because of that. So that's one thing to very carefully sort of note. In terms of protests, we've seen that the death toll since the October 25th revolution, the coup itself has been 79 people have and protests have died. In fact, Human Rights Watch has a report which came out just yesterday, which states a fairly obvious thing in some senses in some ways like the amnesty report, but nonetheless needs very strongly to be mentioned that the security forces have repeatedly used excessive and unnecessary force against the protesters. So again, yet another, you know, and they've brought in again a lot of evidence, witnesses from the ground, say, photographic evidence to actually substantiate that point. So, of course, nonetheless, the struggles are continuing. For instance, I believe the resistance committees have said something, what is said, what is called the revolution timetable for this month. Then a protest going to take place on 7th, the 14th, the 21st, and the 28th. The other important thing to note, I think, is that Egypt has also been identified very clearly as an ally of the military junta. So there are blockades that are taking place on the road with, you know, on the roads leading to Egypt, connecting Egypt and Sudan by farmers, by protesters because they're unhappy. There are commercial reasons and economic reasons for it, but also political reasons in the sense of the support given by the LCC regime to the Sudanese junta and the close relations between them. Also need to see this in the context of the larger politics in North Africa and the horror Africa region. Egypt and the Sudanese military both close allies of Israel and the United States in that sense, it connects to what we're talking about. That, you know, that web of authoritarian and problematic and deeply problematic regimes across the world, which are connected by links like this. So very important month to watch out for February in terms of mass protests, and we'll be definitely covering more of this as well. Gotta go and read that story, friends, at People's Dispatch by Pawan Kulkarni. Very important, and Prashant says, another one coming interview. Gotta go and look at that. Zoe, I just spent some time last week looking at a bunch of reports, as I often do. God knows why. Read a report from Transgender Europe that actually got to know about this report from Brazil de Fatou, the website that is linked to People's Dispatch. It's a report that suggested that for the 13th consecutive year, Brazil is the country with the highest number of murders of trans peoples. Highest number for 13 years consecutively, 70% of murders of LGBTQ people take place in Latin America and Central America. I do not know that. I know you can say that this is about how reporting data is collected and so on, but still very significant. Now, there's been lynchings and so on in Brazil. It's not a new thing in Brazil. There have been protests. Tell us about what's going on. Well, it's a pretty tragic story, to be honest. And as you mentioned, there is a very high level of hate violence and hate crimes that take place in Brazil. We won't go into that. What's behind that? The deeper factors. But essentially, last week, a young Congolese migrant, Moise Cavangame, he worked two shifts at a kitchen in Rio de Janeiro in one of the restaurants next to the beach. He goes to ask for his salary because he wasn't paid, so asking for his stolen wages. And the owner and several of his friends tie him up and beat him to death and leave him there to die. And I think this really tragic case, which has been responded to with widespread rejection, protests from movements such as the Antipocular da Juventude really signifies the current moment of crisis, humanitarian crisis, of just deep crisis in Brazil right now. You have a situation where there's a large part of the population that's working in the informal sector. They don't have labor rights that Brazilian labor movement has fought so hard to win under the past couple of years under the Boltonar Presidency and, of course, following the coup against Zemba do Sef, a lot of these labor rights and protections to workers were taken away. So there's a great vulnerability of workers. You have a lot of workers like Moise who are forced to go day to day looking for kitchen jobs that they're not necessarily getting paid for. There's a tremendous growth in racist violence in Brazil. According to a popular, they say that every 23 minutes a black person is assassinated in Brazil. And that's an incredibly high number. I mean, we're talking maybe higher numbers than in the United States, which is a center of horrible racialized violence. And so I think this really brutal death of Moise is igniting a very necessary debate once again. And I think throughout the pandemic, there have been several instances of horrific violence against black people in Brazil just really pointing to the structural issues at play, the structural racism faced by black people in Brazil. Of course decades and centuries in the making, but there has been a significant increase under these far right presidencies, which are systematically cutting back at programs that were put in place by the workers' party government to ensure access to education to ensure access to rights, to try to bridge some of those historic gaps giving more space to hate speech. I mean, Bolsonaro has said horrible things about black people in the country. And so it's a really a really worrying shift. I mean, horrible for the family of this Congolese migrant, they flee from a violent, a situation of violence only to be met with horrific hate and violence in Brazil just truly tragic and so much solidarity for the family and the victims that are seeking justice right now. I think it's bringing this debate once against the four. Of course, this is a year of elections in Brazil. Will the projects of hate that is represented by Bolsonaro be victorious against the project of inclusion of granting rights, of trying to bridge these gaps, of trying to work towards and mend this horrific past that Brazil has of slavery, of colonization. It's an important task and it's obviously becoming more important than ever as inequality is, you know, Brazil's back on the hunger map, poverty levels like unseen before these all of these questions become more and more pressing at these moments. Well, I'm really glad that you've raised this issue because we know this is a global problem and it's important that it be tackled by social struggle and again it's a question of culture and changing attitudes and so on changing attitudes. The Winter Olympics has opened in China. There was quite a nice ceremony today. Vladimir Putin was there for the opening. Interesting. This means that the situation on the border with Ukraine is toned down. Unlikely otherwise the Putin would have left Moscow and gone to China for this. But it has been an interesting week and I want to, you know, do a little bit of thought about this week because this week revolves around the term imminent. United States at many points said that there was an imminent invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Let me share with you some of that. On the 25th of January, spokesperson Jen Psaki said, I think we said it was imminent. It remains imminent. This is 25th of January. On the, I guess it was the, you know, just this last Thursday she was asked do you change the term imminent and she said, no, nothing has changed. On Tuesday, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said at a news briefing that Putin could move imminently at any time. The necessity of adding at any time of imminent was John Kirby's. Now, you know the Ukrainian president himself Zelensky has been like, no, no, stop it. We can't afford this. He said that his government was strong enough to keep everything under control and derail any attempt at destabilization. Meanwhile, Boris Johnson shows up in Ukraine playing, you know, the role of the great warrior when he's got a problem at home can't tell the difference between a meeting and a party. NATO troops you know, getting ready arms weapons are going into Romania going into Ukraine and so on Germany has decided they don't want to conflict, but they send helmets to Ukraine. Thanks, Germany for that. So there was this whole discussion about imminent and then in the phone call this Thursday Zelensky and Biden spoke that means on the 2nd of February and they talked about this imminent business this tense business just today, I guess Zelensky was not happy with this imminent word and then we got Jen Saki say that I used that once she said this is a lie she's on record using it many times I think others have used that once and then we stopped using it. I don't know what she means by stopped using they just used it a day ago so apparently the word imminent is no longer on the table the Russians are going to return to the negotiation Victoria Newland who is in the State Department gave an interview to TASS actually the Russian news service where she said we're coming back to the table we're quite serious about negotiations and so on in order to sweeten the negotiation you know the Ukrainian country of 44 million it's not a small place there was a pretty controversial bill sitting in the Ukrainian parliament about the transitional period in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine well Russia wanted that bill withdrawn because it was going cart before the horse first they said let's deal with the situation of Donbas and then you can have a law and so on so what you had was the Ukrainian parliament withdrawing the bill just so that the quote-unquote Normandy format talks that's the talks of all the key parties would take place in Paris last week well these things are all going on let's see how it advances I'm actually feeling a little better I'm not sure about you Prashant and Zoe but the withdrawal of the word imminent signals that the United States might have peaked in its kind of warmongering on the Ukraine Russian border we don't know we don't know arms are going to come in there are still tensions afoot on that border one hopes that nobody is crazy enough to go to war we're going to follow this closely I am going to be looking at the word imminent and likely will be writing something about it also would like to explain to John Kirby you don't need to say imminent at any time but so be it you've been listening to give the people what they want which the people want give the people what they want brought to you by peoples dispatched that's Zoe and Prashant peoplesdispatch.org I'm Vijay from Globe Trotter we have a tremendous producer Surangya who gets out that meme or whatever it is that card on twitter every week tell your friends about this show don't forget we still accumulate selfies don't know what we'll do with them but we like them so let's see you saturate social media with selfies see you next week bye