 Welcome to Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report, I'm Amy Goodman. Israel's military launched airstrikes overnight in southern Lebanon in the Gaza Strip, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised that Israel's enemies would pay a price for any aggression. The strikes followed rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza and from Lebanon in the largest such barrage since 2006. Two Israeli women reportedly sustained minor injuries. The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said Israeli airstrikes hit a children's hospital east of Gaza, terrorizing medical workers and patients, but causing no injuries. In the occupied West Bank, gunmen opened fire on a vehicle near an illegal settlement near Jericho, killing two sisters and injuring a third person, their mother. Meanwhile, tensions were high at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Occupied East Jerusalem ahead of Friday prayers, after Israeli soldiers were filmed beating and tear-gassing Palestinian worshipers earlier this week during the Holy Month of Ramadan. Later in the broadcast, we'll speak with Mohamed al-Kurd, Palestine correspondent for The Nation magazine. More than 3,300 Afghan men and women employed by the United Nations remained idled for a second straight day Thursday after the Taliban ordered a ban on women's staff in Afghanistan. This is Amina Mohamed, the UN's deputy secretary general. It's a clear violation of our fundamental human rights of women. I have met our female staff members, and they're essential for UN's work, including in the delivery of life-saving assistance, and some national colleagues have already experienced restrictions on their movements. This comes as the UN warns a record 28.3 million people in Afghanistan are in need of assistance this year, with 6 million of them one step away from famine. Meanwhile, the Biden administration has released its long-anticipated report on the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2021. The report found U.S. officials should have begun an evacuation sooner, but determined actions taken by former President Trump set the stage for chaos as the Taliban overrun the capital Kabul. In the United States, the Tennessee House of Representatives voted Thursday to expel two Democratic members for joining peaceful protests against gun violence inside the state capital last week. Justin Jones of Nashville and Justin Pearson of Memphis, both African-American, from Tennessee's two largest cities. Jones made an impassioned case against the proceedings before the Republican supermajority voted 72 to 25 to expel him. He called for you all to ban assault weapons, and you respond with an assault on democracy. That is why the nation is watching you today, and I say to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that no matter what you vote, you have the votes, but you will not be victorious because there are generations of young people who see what is going on. They were called the Tennessee Three, but the third Democratic representative, Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, who is white, narrowly survived a vote on her expulsion. Thursday's extraordinary proceedings were interrupted at times by thousands of protesters who packed the House Gallery and flooded the capital grounds to support the lawmakers and their efforts to stem gun violence in the wake of the March 27th mass shooting at Covenant School in Nashville, which left three adults and three nine-year-old students dead. And Biden condemned the expulsions as shocking undemocratic and without precedent, after headlines will go to Nashville to speak with one of the expelled state representatives, Justin Jones. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is facing renewed calls for his impeachment after a pro-publica investigation revealed he failed to report frequent luxury trips paid for by the GOP billionaire Harlan Crow. For more than two decades, Thomas frequently joined Crow aboard his private yacht, jet at his private estates and at Bohemian Grove, an exclusive all-male retreat in California. The junkets likely violate a law passed after Watergate, requiring justices and other federal officials to disclose most gifts. New York Congressmember Alexandra Cazio-Cortez tweeted in response, this is beyond party or partisanship. This degree of corruption is shocking, almost cartoonish. Thomas must be impeached, she said. Later in the broadcast, we'll speak with Justin Elliott, who co-authored the pro-publica investigation. The Biden administration proposed new regulations under Title IX Thursday to make it illegal for schools to impose blanket bans on transgender students playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity. Schools could, however, still bar transgender students for participating in competitive high school and college sports if deemed necessary to maintain, quote, fairness in competition, unquote, after evaluating the sport, the level of competition, and the greater education level involved. Twenty states currently have blanket bans on trans student athletes, meanwhile the Supreme Court ruled Thursday in favor of a 12-year-old transgender girl in West Virginia, allowing her to continue competing on her school's girls' track in cross-country teams while a lawsuit over a state ban proceeds. Idaho Republican Governor Brad Little assigned to Bill criminalizing the act of helping someone under the age of 18 obtain an abortion in another state without parental consent. It's the first so-called abortion trafficking law passed in the U.S. and carries penalties of two to five years in prison. Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said, quote, the law will isolate young people and put them in danger, including those who are in abusive situations, she said. Meanwhile, in New Mexico, Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a bill shielding abortion providers from prosecution, disciplinary action, or extradition attempts by other states. A warning to our audience the following story contains graphic footage and counts of police violence. The Justice Department is open to federal civil rights probe into the death of Delano Martin, a black 17-year-old who was fatally shot by a U.S. Park police officer in Washington, D.C., last month. The investigation was announced after Tuesday's release of police body cam video showing the March 18th shooting. The video shows officers investigating what they call the suspicious vehicle with Martin sleeping behind the wheel. An officer opens the rear driver's side door of the SUV and issues the command, police don't move. Martin accelerates with an officer in the back seat. The officer then fires multiple times before the SUV crashes into the side of a home. A medical examiner later reported Martin was shot six times and died instantly. His mother, Tara Martin, spoke to reporters on Wednesday. I want the officer name released immediately. I want him arrested. I want him to stop getting paid while he murdered my son and still home with his family, not doing no work and getting paid for murder. Sudan's military rulers have once again delayed signing an agreement that would transition the nation from military to civilian rule. Thursday's postponement prompted a new round of protests in the Capitol, Cartoon and other cities. The agreement would allow for elections in the formation of a civilian government after over a year of military rule following the October 2021 coup. Security forces fired tear gas at massive crowds as protesters were heard chanting, no militia can rule a country. Protesters also marked the fourth anniversary of a 2019 sit-in that led to the overthrow of the longtime authoritarian president Omar al-Bashir. For the martyrs who have given their lives for this country, the protest will reach its end, God willing, and we will keep going until we reach a civilian democratic rule and without the return of any totalitarian system in Sudan again. Many have criticized the deal for excluding the establishment of a transitional justice system or the implementation of key military reforms. And Oklahoma's attorney general is asking for the murder conviction of death row prisoner Richard Glossop to be vacated in a decades-long case in which Glossop narrowly escaped execution three times. In 1997, 19-year-old maintenance worker Justin Snead killed the owner of a budget motel in Oklahoma. He admitted to the murder but accused Glossop, the motel's manager of orchestrating it, allowing Snead to avoid the death penalty. Glossop has always maintained his innocence. Oklahoma's attorney general cited evidence in a new report that shows Snead, who was a heavy drug user at the time of the murder, gave false testimony about his psychiatric condition and the state's failure to turn over key evidence. An appeals court must now decide whether to vacate Glossop's conviction and order a new trial. Glossop is currently scheduled to be executed May 18. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report, I'm Amy Goodman. We begin today's show in Tennessee, where a Republican supermajority in the state legislature carried out its threat Thursday to expel two black Democratic lawmakers from their seats for peacefully protesting gun violence on the House floor last week, breaking with decorum as thousands rallied outside the Capitol to demand gun control days after the Covenant Elementary School shooting in Nashville that killed six, including three nine-year-olds. Justin Jones of Nashville and Justin Pearson of Memphis are both African-American and from Tennessee's two largest cities. They were part of the Tennessee Three, but the vote to expel their white colleague, Gloria Johnson, who joined them in solidarity, narrowly failed. In a minute, we'll speak with Jones. But first, we bring you some of the historic scenes that unfolded as Justin Jones and his colleagues defended themselves and supporters looked on from a packed gallery, but stayed quiet so they could witness the proceedings. This is Representative Jones facing questioning from his Republican colleague and laying out his defense. I was shocked to have the Speaker of the House condemn mothers and children and grandmothers and parents and concerned citizens' clergy lie on them and say that they were violent insurrectionists. And I think that he owes the people of Tennessee an apology because at no point was their silence. At no point did we encourage violence. In fact, what we were doing was calling for the end of gun violence that is terrorizing our children day after day after day and all we offer are moments of silence. It is in that spirit of speaking for my constituents, of being a representative of the people that I approached this well on last Thursday, breaking a house rule. But exercising moral obedience to my constitutional responsibility to be a voice for my people, to be a voice for the Tennesseans who you choose not to listen to because of those NRA checks that are so hefty in your campaign funds. There comes a time where people get sick and tired of being sick and tired. One of the questions that keeps coming back to my mind that I hope maybe you can answer is when you say no action, no peace, what do you mean? What does Representative Jones mean by no peace? Thank you. Representative Jones. Thank you. I would invite my colleague from Putnam County to join any protest where that is a very familiar chance that it usually goes no justice, no peace. And I believe the roots of it lie in something that Martin Luther King stated that true peace is not merely the absence of tension, but it is the presence of justice. That's what I was saying, is that until we act, there will be no peace in our communities. In addition, I would like to read some context about that chance that comes from Jeremiah 614. I'll read the New Living translation. It says, they offer superficial treatments for my people's mortal wound. They give assurances of peace where there is no peace. I'll go to the new international version. They dress the wound of my people as though it was not serious. Peace, peace, peace, they say where there is no peace. That's what the chant means, is that we have no peace. And that until we act, there will be no peace for the thousands of children who came here demanding that we act. We're afraid that if they're in school, they'll be gunned down because you have passed laws to make it easier to get a gun than it is to get health care in this state. You've passed laws to make it easier to get a gun than it is to vote in this state. There will be no peace in Tennessee until we act on this proliferation of weapons of war in our community. That is the peace I was talking about. That is what I was saying. Representative Williams, thank you for your question. After his questioning by Republican Ryan Williams, Tennessee Republican lawmakers gave Representative Justin Jones five minutes before their vote. This is how he concluded. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, I want to say that you have the votes to do what you're going to do today. But I want to let you know that when I came to this well, I was fighting for your children and grandchildren, too, but to those who here will cast a vote for expulsion. I was fighting for your children, too, to live free from the terror of school shootings and mass shootings. When I walked up to this well on last Thursday, I was thinking about the thousands of students who were outside demanding that we do something. In fact, many of their sign said, do something, do something, do something. That was their only ask of us is to respond to their grief, to respond to a traumatized community. But in response to that, the first action of this body is to expel members for calling for common sense gun legislation. We were calling for a ban of assault weapons and the response of this body is to assault democracy. This is a historic day for Tennessee, but it may mark a very dark day for Tennessee because it will signal to the nation that there is no democracy in this state. It will signal to the nation that if it can happen here in Tennessee, it's coming to your state next. And that is why the nation is watching us what we do here. My prayer to you is that even if you expel me that you still act to address the crisis of mass shootings, because if I'm expelled from here, I'll be back out there with the people every week demanding that you act. I pray that we uphold our oath on this floor because, colleagues, the world is watching. Pursuant to Article 2, Section 12 of the Constitution of the State of Tennessee, I hereby declare Representative Justin Jones of the 57th Representative District expelled from the House of Representatives of the 113th Assembly of the State of Tennessee. That was Speaker Cameron Sexton announcing the expulsion of Tennessee State Representative Justin Jones from the statehouse Thursday in a party line vote. Republicans also voted to expel his fellow freshman, another 27-year-old, Black Democratic Representative Justin Pearson, who also faced questions as he defended himself. This is part of Representative Pearson's exchange with Republican Representative Andrew Farmer. That's why you're standing there, because of that temper tantrum that day, for that yearning to have attention. That's what you wanted, but you're getting it now. So I just advise you, if you want to conduct business in this House, follow Bill. Be recognized, stand there and present it, and pass it. All you've got to do is pass the bill. Cheers. Now, you all heard that. How many of you would want to be spoken to that way? How many of you would want to be spoken to that way? We're not talking about politics, we're not talking about even gun violence. How many of you would want to be spoken to that way? The reason that I believe the sponsor of this legislation, of this resolution, spoke that way, is because he's comfortable doing it. Because there's a decorum that allows it. There's a decorum that allows you to belittle people. We didn't belittle nobody. What we said was that we cannot be beholden to gun lobbyists, to the NRA. We can't be beholden to organizations that don't want to see us make progress on gun violence. We can't be beholden to folks who don't want to see us help save our communities and protect them. But there's something else I think that the sponsor of this resolution has alluded to and there were a few things here that you said that I want to address. He called a peaceful protest a temper tantrum. Is what's happening outside these doors by Tennesseans who want to see change a temper tantrum? Is Sarah, whose son Noah was at the Covenant School, he survived, he's five years old. And she showed up here demanding that we do something about gun violence. Is that a temper tantrum? Is elevating our voices for justice or change a temper tantrum? But there's something in the decorum of this body that makes it okay to say that folks who are exercising the First Amendment rights to speak up for the hundreds of thousands of people collectively that we represent. There's something in the decorum of this body that says it's okay to call that a temper tantrum, to call people we disagree with on the issues, to say that all they want is attention. But I'll tell you what, I don't personally want attention. What I want is attention on the issue of gun violence, but instead we're here with a resolution you put up talking about expelling me for advocating for ending gun violence in the state of Tennessee. I'd much rather be talking with you about legislation to protect Shelby County and to protect our communities than talking about why we don't deserve to have our representation lost because we came to the camp house saying we've got to do something. That's what I would like to be doing. And so you brought attention or tried to bring attention to me, but I want to turn the attention to the people, the people who will never be able to throw a temper tantrum for gun violence. You know, the Larry Thorns, the Catherine Coons, the Mike Heels, the Cynthia Peaks, the Evelyn DeKal, the Haley Scruggs, the William Kinnies who will never have a chance to throw what you call a temper tantrum for justice, for gun reform, for the ending of gun violence. Now, never have a chance, because we haven't taken our oath seriously, because we don't take people who we disagree with seriously. We tell them you just are throwing a temper tantrum. Ultimately, Tennessee Republicans voted to expel Democratic Representative Justin Pearson from the House as well. At one point during his final remarks, the official TV feed for the Tennessee House continued to wrongly identify him as his colleague Justin Jones, as he was giving his final statement. Pearson ended by saying the struggle had just begun. Who's, folks? We've got good news that Sunday always comes. Resurrection is a promise, and it is a prophecy, is a prophecy that came out of the cotton fields, is a prophecy that came out of the lynching tree, is a prophecy that still lives in each and every one of us in order to make the state of Tennessee the place that it ought to be. And so I've still got hope, because I know we are still here, and we will never quit. During the votes, thousands of supporters rallied in the halls of the state Capitol and outside. When a reporter asked Democratic Representative Gloria Johnson why she thought there was a difference between her outcome, she was not expelled, but her colleagues were. This was her response. I will answer your question. It might have to do with the color of our skin. Representative Gloria Johnson was a teacher at Central High School in Knoxville that faced a school shooting more than a decade ago. At the end of the night, the lawmakers, now known as the Tennessee Three, stood together again, and Johnson vowed to work to get her expelled colleagues back in the house. And I just cannot say enough about how proud I am always and forever to stand with these two brilliant young men who connect with their community, who really listen and understand the voters in their districts and across the state, who can tell everybody in the most powerful way. They spoke to our members. They won't admit it, I don't think, but they spoke to those hearts. I could see it on faces. But still, what's the difference where I made it through? And these two young men did not make it through. I think you're right. We know. We know why. We know. But here's the difference. I think we might have these two young men back very soon. Representative Gloria Johnson standing next to the Justins, Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, who had just been expelled by the Tennessee State Legislature. Well, we're joined right now by Justin Jones, Expelled Democratic Tennessee State Representative of Nashville. Welcome back. Thanks so much for joining us again after this marathon day. Your feelings yesterday, as you stood with such passion, yet composure, dressing down your colleagues who are questioning you, then expelling you. Justin Jones. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me again, Amy. It's good to be here. So your feelings right now, how is it possible? I mean, it's not like you were hired to work at a store, and then you were fired. You were elected by the people of Nashville. So how is it that a Republican supermajority can fire you, can expel you? Got you. Sorry, I couldn't hear your other question. But, I mean, I'm feeling, you know, when it happened, it didn't feel real. I didn't, you know, if I didn't know what happened to me, I would think it was 1963 and not 2023, that a predominantly almost entirely white Republican caucus expelled the two youngest black lawmakers, not for any unethical or criminal behavior, but for our First Amendment activity and for standing and doing our job to speak up for our constituents and to speak up particularly for young people who are terrified of these weapons of war on our streets. And so I'm feeling, I'm tired, but more so, I'm tired of the injustice that rules the state capital. But I think that what they've done, though, is the complete opposite. They may have won yesterday, but they have not won the moral narrative as we go forward, that they thought by expelling us they would silence us, they would silence our movements that were a part of. And in fact, they've amplified it, because the nation can see how racist they are. The nation can see how retaliatory and absurd and authoritarian they are. And so I think that is what gives me hope, is that they tried to kick us out, but instead they put a spotlight on themselves for their shameful policies that make it easier to get a gun than it is to get health care in this state. You know, we spoke to you a few days ago. I was going to say Representative Jones, but you are Representative Jones. The question is, will you be just immediately reinstated next week? They're talking about your behavior as you spoke out from the well of the House of Representatives in Tennessee. But I wanted to ask you about Republican State Representative Justin Lafferty. He showed this a few days ago as well, of Knoxville, who pushed you and grabbed your phone as you filmed the interaction. He attacked you. Can you talk about was he disciplined for violent behavior? I'm not at all. I mean, Representative Lafferty, the same representative who tried to justify the three-fifths compromising the Constitution a couple years ago, I mean, he can act, you know, out of decorum, out of rules, act violently, and he's welcome within his party. I mean, that's what we brought up here, is that we've had so many instances of behavior. You had Republican caucus chairman get upset at his son's basketball game and pull down the pants of the referee. That, you know, does not mirror any type of sanction. You had a member who admitted to being a child molester, Representative David Byrd. He sat there without being expelled. You have David Hawk, you know, who was, you know, guilty of domestic violence. I mean, these things happened, and there was no accountability. But for us, for exercising our first amendment activity, for saying that, you know, we took our oath seriously to protest against and dissent from any legislation that is injurious to the people, Article 2, Section 27 of the State Constitution, we took that seriously. They expelled us, the most serious measure taken against us. And it's wrong and shameful. And what it really was about was about trying to silence the voices of the 78,000 people each of us represent. So— In the most diverse districts in the state. Can you tell us—and this is an absolutely key point. You represent the largest and most diverse cities in Tennessee. The local governing bodies, for example, of Metro Nashville, could reappoint you immediately? That's what we're hearing. The question will be, will the Republican supermajority seat us? And so, I mean, we would have to still run in a special election, and will the speakers seat us back in the body? Or will they—will this be a legal battle? Just like Julian Bond, you know, they refuse to seat him in Georgia when he was a young man who ran for the legislature during the civil rights movement. And so, we don't know what to expect. I mean, I don't think the nation—what happened yesterday was unprecedented, and it should alarm us all that if it can happen in Tennessee, it can happen anywhere. And so, I hope that people are paying attention. I hope that people realize that this is authoritarianism, that this is ousting of opposition voices from a legislative body, is authoritarianism. This is not democracy—I know I'm on democracy now, but this is definitely not what democracy looks like. And we are on a very scary path toward fascism, toward authoritarianism, toward autocracy in Tennessee, the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan. And let's remember the significance of this week. I mean, this is the week of April 4th, April 4th, 1968, Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was gunned down, and we're also here talking about gun violence that began this protest you were involved with, Justin Jones. But so, there was the Tennessee Three, you, Justin Pearson, and Gloria Johnson. You both are 27, she's 60 years old, you are both black, she is white. She made no bones about this. She said the reason she is—was not expelled, and you two were—was the color of your skin. At the end, I was watching—walking through the streets of New York, watching on my phone what was happening. And when Justin Pearson gave his final comments, the Tennessee feed from the House of Representatives called him Justin Pearson, like they couldn't tell the difference between the two of you. Yeah. Yeah, they called him—they confused his name, Justin Jones. Oh, sorry. Called him Justin—called him Justin Jones. Your name. Yeah. I mean, that is it, is that they just—they saw two young black men who, you know, speak up on the House floor, you know, speak up in committees and challenge this dominant narrative of white supremacy, of plantation capitalism, of patriarchy. And that terrified them, that we, you know, were the two youngest lawmakers. I'm 27. Pearson's 28. And that, you know, we represent the future of this state. And that is what they're trying to stop, is that they want to hold on to this old South, and we're trying to bring a renewed South that uplifts human rights and democracy, multiracial democracy and social justice. And so, these—what we saw yesterday was a public lynching, let's be real. And it was meant to set an example, but we did not bow down. And that's what I think has them, you know, really upset, is that we didn't, you know, we didn't break, we didn't bow down. They wanted us to, you know, to feel broken, but we left with our fists up in the air because we knew that this was not the end, that they may expel us, but they can expel our movements. And that's what terrifies them. Well, Justin Jones, I want to thank you for being with us. Of course, we'll continue to follow this major protest as planned for Monday, I know. Will you be out there? I definitely will. I'll be outside of that chamber with these young people, showing up every week until we take action to take these weapons of war off our street and until we honor the victims of covenant elementary school by acting. Justin Jones, Expel Democratic Tennessee State Representative, representing Nashville, author of The People's Plaza, 62 Days of Nonviolent Resistance, with a forward by Bishop William Barber. Thanks so much for being with us. Coming up, we go to the Middle East. Israel's bomb Southern Lebanon Gaza's tensions soar in the region after Israeli forces repeatedly raid the al-Aqsa Mosque, beating and tear-gassing Palestinian worshipers during Ramadan. Stay with us. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. Israel bombs Southern Lebanon Gaza overnight, its tensions soar in the region. Days after Israeli police repeatedly attacked Palestinian worshipers inside the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem. In response to the Israeli raids on the Mosque, militants in Southern Lebanon and Gaza fired dozens of rockets into Israel, the largest rocket attack from Lebanon in 17 years. Israel says most of the rockets were intercepted. Meanwhile, earlier today, two Israeli sisters were shot dead, their mother critically wounded in a shooting near an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank. Israeli authorities are searching for the perpetrators. This all comes as Israel continues to impose a violent crackdown in the occupied West Bank, where the Israeli army has killed at least 94 Palestinians this year. Israel's raids on the al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan have sparked international condemnation. Palestinian worshipers said they were beaten and tear-gassed as they prayed. We were spending the night in the mosque, and after we were done with late-night prayers, the police started to evacuate worshipers from the outdoor yards. We were inside and the young men closed the doors, but police stormed in and detained the young men and women. There were other worshipers to the eastern part of the compound. In the yard to the eastern part of the compound, the police were firing tear gas and stun grenades. It was a scene that I can't describe. Then they stormed in and started beating everyone, and they detained people, and they put the young men on their faces to the ground. They also beat them while in detention. Joining us now is Mohammed Kurd. He is the Palestine representative for the nation, where he recently wrote an article titled, Israeli Protesters Say They're Defending Freedom, Palestinians Know Better. Mohammed O'Curd is from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem. Mohammed, welcome back to Democracy Now! What is happening right now in Israel and Palestine? Good morning. What is happening has been a crackdown on Palestinians from the Israeli regime on all levels. But it's important to remember and it's important to contextualize that these tensions that may arise and this kind of violence that may quote-unquote erupt does not happen in a vacuum and it does not happen in isolation of the larger settler colonial enterprise of the larger military occupation that Palestinians are forced to live under. As you said, there have been 94 Palestinians killed since the start of this year, and that within itself is an escalation of violence. But in the past two days, Israelis who have been emboldened by international impunity, by international inaction, have been using the bodies and using the site of al-Aqsa Mosque as stage to display brute force to send a message of sovereignty and security to the Israeli public, as well as send a message of intimidation to the Palestinians who use that mosque as one of their only remaining public spaces in a shrinking city. Can you explain what you understand happened in al-Aqsa? Yes, well, according to eyewitness reports and according to the video footage that has been circulated all over the internet, as well as TV channels, Israeli occupation forces stormed al-Aqsa Mosque. They used rubber bullets. They used tear gas, sun grenades. They used butts of their rifles to beat on the worshipers and arrest a mass number of them. Over 400 worshipers were detained and then they were handed orders, preventing them, denying them entry to al-Aqsa Mosque or the old city for 15 days. Later that day, an armed Israeli settler, which by the way, many of the settlers who live in East Jerusalem are armed, shot a 15-year-old boy in the old city of Jerusalem. And of course, to no one's surprise, the settler was not arrested. And explain what's happening from Gaza and Lebanon. You've got this barrage of rockets in response to al-Aqsa going into Israel. And then you have Israel rocketing Lebanon, though they were careful to say they weren't calling out Hezbollah but saying Palestinian militants. And it looks like Lebanon is not trying to escalate this. Absolutely. It seems like the internal chasm that is splitting apart Israeli society today might prevent them from entering a fully-skilled war, which is why I assume they have been very cautious in their wording. But we must understand that the Palestinian people, regardless of the geography, regardless of the legal status, be it in a refugee camp in Lebanon or in BC's in the Gaza Strip, are one people, and they feel each other's pain. But it's not just retaliation for al-Aqsa Mosque. I mean, the Israeli regime has been bombing Syria for well over a year. It has been bombing the Gaza Strip on and off for the past 15 years. And the most important piece of context here is that we must remember that the Gaza Strip is an open-air prison. The largest in the world. This is a densely populated refugee camp where people do not have an inch to stretch. People do not have the right to movement. People do not have access to clean water. It has been declared uninhabitable. That, within itself, is an aggression. You mentioned the Israeli settlers in Jerusalem and Israelis carrying guns. I wanted to ask you about Itamar Ben-Gavir, Israel's new minister of national security, ultra-nationalist convicted of racist incitement against Palestinians and supporting a terrorist group. In October, he waved a gun and shouted, this was during a confrontation in your neighborhood, Mohammed, in Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem, where settlers attempted to violently evict your family and others from their homes. Just going to play a brief clip. If they, Palestinians, throw stones, shoot them. Explain what he was saying and what he did. Absolutely. I've had a few interactions with Ben-Gavir and also Smuttsch. And, you know, while adjectives like far-right and ultra-nationalists certainly do describe him, these adjectives make him sound as though he is fringe, as though he is marginal, when, in fact, he represents, I would argue, a large portion of the mainstream. You must understand that these politicians use our neighborhoods, use our front yards as avenues for political campaigning. These displays of racism, these displays of brutality, these threats, this—all of them serve to embolden and bolster his election campaign, which was insanely successful. He is now the Minister of National Security. This has been a pattern with Ahmad Ben-Gavir, but it is just—he is just a man saying the quiet part out loud. Truly, the differences between him and the liberal Zionist parties are purely cosmetic. He is willing to say in public what they say behind closed doors and what their policies and what the laws that they have put forth have done for the Palestinians, for the past seven decades. They've all been policies and laws and actions of racism, ones that promote ethnic cleansing, ones that reek of racism. Let me ask you, Mohamed El-Kurt, about the massive Israeli protests, not about treatment of Palestinians, but about what Netanyahu wants to do to the Supreme Court, severely curtail the powers of the judiciary. Can you talk about whether you think they will transform into supporting Palestinians and also the mainstream media's coverage of what's happening right now with the escalating violence? I mean, I want to—watching the protests, I want to tell the Israeli public that they have a lot more in common than they realize, because the body that they are protesting to defend, the body that they are trying desperately to save, the Supreme Court, which they say is a beacon of democracy, has its fingerprints all over the Israeli government's settler-colonial enterprise and apartheid regime. I mean, this is the same Supreme Court that, in 2018, when the Israeli occupation forces created a generation of martyrs and amputees in the Gaza Strip following the Great Martyr Return, ruled that they were doing so in self-defense. This is the same Supreme Court that upheld the legality of the family reunification law, which prevents tens of thousands of Palestinian couples and families of living together and uniting together. This is the same Supreme Court that, in January, ruled in complete violation of international law to forcibly expel over 1,300 Palestinians from Masa Fariata. And one of the Supreme Court judges, which made this ruling possible, by the way, is himself a settler in the West Bank. So, this is the body that these people are trying to defend. So, I absolutely do not think they can transform into talking about or protecting the rights or defending the lives or being advocates of the Palestinian liberation movement, because they are defending a body that is settler-made and that serves settlers and that was built on top of the rubble of Palestinian lands and that was made to ethnically cleanse Palestinians and to legalize that kind of ethnic cleansing. Do you think that there is growing resentment about what the government is doing to Palestinians when it comes to these massive protests? I wonder. I mean, they have been able to show us that they can mobilize in the hundreds of thousands and they can speak up and they can do all of this civil disobedience. They can engage in the boycott, the investment in sanctions campaign against their own government. They have been showing us this, and we're just told that they're just not choosing to do it in favor of the Palestinians, which makes sense. I mean, defending the lives of Palestinians or protesting against the apartheid regime or the settler-colonial regime would mean that they have to undermine their own privileges and the own luxuries they enjoy as settlers in historic Palestine. Well, Mohammad al-Kurdwun, thank you for being with us. Palestine Correspondent for the Nation will link to your latest piece at democracynow.org. Coming up, calls are growing for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to be impeached after ProPublica reveals Thomas has frequently taken free luxury trips paid for by a Republican billionaire Harlan Crow. Stay with us. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is facing renewed calls for his impeachment after a ProPublica investigation revealed he failed to report frequent luxury trips paid for by a billionaire Republican megadoner named Harlan Crow, who serves on the board of the right-wing American Enterprise Institute. The investigation revealed set for about 20 years Thomas secretly accepted luxury vacations from Crow in apparent violation of a law requiring justices and other federal officials to disclose most gifts. One vacation involved nine days of island hopping in Indonesia aboard a 162-foot super yacht. Clarence Thomas and his wife, Ginny Thomas, flew to Indonesia on Crow's private jet. Thomas also frequently vacationed at Crow's 105-acre resort in the Adirondacks of New York. Hanging on the walls of the resort is a painting of Clarence Thomas sitting with four other men, including Harlan Crow, as well as Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society. Thomas never reported any of the free trips as gifts. On Thursday, New York Congress member Alexandria Casio-Cortez tweeted, quote, This is beyond party or partisanship. This degree of corruption is shocking, almost cartoonish. Thomas must be impeached, she said. We're joined now by Justin Elliott, who co-authored the ProPublica investigation headlined Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire. Lay out what you found, Justin. Yeah, well, what we found is that Justice Thomas has this extraordinary and apparently unprecedented relationship with this outside billionaire who is basically subsidizing his life. I mean, we're talking about trips on a private jet that charters for $10,000 to $15,000 per hour cruises around the world on the super yacht that you described. Regular vacations with this billionaire and his friends, who in some cases are people that have either ideological or potentially financial interests before the court. Well, explain what the rules are for Supreme Court justices. You know, one of the striking things here as we got into this is that it's just how few rules there are, especially compared to other people in the government. I have friends who work in the federal bureaucracy who say they can't even have somebody buy them lunch. Supreme Court justices have very few rules in terms of accepting gifts. One of the few things the law requires them to do is to simply disclose gifts, most gifts. This was a law that was passed back in the 1970s after Watergate. And Clarence Thomas, by not reporting these private jet trips and some of the other travel, you know, appears to be in just repeat violation of that law, according to the ethics lawyers we spoke to. So I wanted to read from your investigation, Thomas's frequent vacations at Topbridge have brought him into contact with corporate executives and political activists during one trip in 2017. His fellow guests included executives at Verizon, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, major Republican donors, one of the leaders of the American Enterprise Institute, a pro-business conservative think tank, according to the records you reviewed. The painting of Thomas at Topbridge—and so I want to show this for our TV audience—shows him in conversation, as we said earlier with Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society. Explain who the other people are and what Topbridge is. Yeah, Topbridge is this incredible, essentially private resort in Upstate New York in the Adirondacks. It was actually built by Marjorie Maryweather Post, who is the same heiress who built what is now Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago about a century ago, to give you a sense of the kind of lavishness of the property. And this property is now owned by this Dallas real estate billionaire, Harlan Crow, and he regularly hosts Thomas there. And we're not talking about just sort of a lake house. It's a whole campus of buildings. There's a staff of chefs and waiters and that sort of thing. And, you know, it's very difficult to find out who is on these trips with Justice Thomas. We were able to get the names of guests on one or two occasions. And even though Harlan Crow told us in a statement that he and his friends are not trying to influence Justice Thomas, you know, the people, for example, in the painting you describe are... And what is the sculpture behind them? Yeah, it's a sculpture of a Native American man sort of with his hands outstretched. We're not really sure why it's there, what it's supposed to mean. I actually spoke to the painter who created the piece. And, you know, he said that in real life that sculpture is actually two or three times bigger and he shrunk it in the painting because for scale. But we don't really know why it's there or why they made the choice to pose in front of it. But, you know, all of the men in the painting besides Harlan Crow are conservative lawyers. People are active in one way or another in the conservative legal movement, you know. Of course, Leonard Leo key to the choosing of conservative justices, especially under Trump. Yeah, Leonard Leo has been very involved in creating the current Supreme Court supermajority and Harlan Crow has donated to Leonard Leo's groups. And this is a guy who now has a war chest of over a billion dollars. And, you know, again, when you look at that painting, it raises a lot of questions about Harlan Crow's statement that this is all about sort of friendship and just socializing. So tell us more about who Harlan Crow, the billionaire GOP super donor is. Can you tell us more about Harlan Crow? Can you hear me? Can you hear me, Justin? All right, while we're while he's fixing his IFB, I'm Justin Elliott writes in the piece that Clarence Thomas has presented himself as a quote every man with modest tastes. We're going to turn to a clip right now of Justice Thomas speaking in the documentary created equal Clarence Thomas and his own words. You know, I don't have any problem with going to Europe, but I prefer the United States and I prefer seeing the regular parts of the United States. I prefer going across the rural areas. I prefer the RV parks. I prefer the Walmart parking lots to the beaches and things like that. There's something normal to me about it. I come from regular stock and I prefer that. I prefer being around them. That's Clarence Thomas. Your response to that, Justin Elliott. And if you can tell us more about the man he spends a lot of time with, even if he extols Walmart parking lots, and that is Harlan Crow. Yeah, a couple thoughts. I mean, one is irony is the documentary you just showed, which was made by friends of Justice Thomas, it was actually financed in part by hundreds of thousands of dollars from none other than Harlan Crow. And yeah, there's been a deliberate effort over the years by Clarence Thomas and his supporters to present to him as a kind of every man, a regular guy who likes driving around in his RV. And he absolutely does drive around in his RV around the country, but they've never mentioned that he also is flying around on private jets and going around on yachts, hanging out at resorts, essentially private sort of boutique luxury hotels hosted by this billionaire that has somehow never come up in all these interviews he's given about his RV. So it's starkly different than the reality. With respect to Harlan Crow, he was actually born into money. He was heir to a major Dallas real estate fortune. He was the son who took over the family business. So he has wide-ranging business interests, particularly in real estate. But I think more relevant for this story, he's also been involved for over 20 years now in conservative legal politics, giving to groups like the Federalist Society and others. As you mentioned earlier, he's a longtime board member of the American Enterprise Institute at the Think Tank, which of course is active on a lot of issues, but including conservative legal advocacy and advocating for various things related to the Supreme Court. So he's very deep in the kind of political world and specifically the world of conservative legal politics. And says that the greatest threat is Marxism. Is that right, Justin? Yeah, he didn't agree to an interview with us, but he gave an interview recently in which he said his greatest fear is Marxism. Well, we're going to leave it there as you write in ProPublica. Soon after Crow met Thomas three decades ago, he began lavishing the justice with gifts, including a $19,000 Bible that belonged to Frederick Douglass. Justin Elliott will link to your ProPublica report, Clarence Thomas and The Billionaire. A very happy birthday to Matt Ealy. I'm Amy Goodman. Tune in to democracynow.org. Thanks so much for joining us.