 So, if you've tuned into the mainstream media lately, I'm sure that you've heard something about a clash between Israel and Palestine as it relates to Sheikh Jarrah, a small territory in East Jerusalem. Now, the most charitable reporting that you'll probably hear from mainstream media is that both sides are equally culpable here and both sides need to stop so that way the violence can dissipate. But I think the most common and worst interpretation that American audiences are fed, which is propaganda, obviously, is this line that Palestinians are unilaterally responsible for all of the violence. Had they not provoked Israel, Israel would not have been violent against Palestine. But all of that is nothing more than propaganda. Because what's actually happening here is that the apartheid state of Israel, who is occupying the Palestinian territories, is committing war crimes against the Palestinian people. And this is what you need to know. You need to know the context, because I don't think that neutrality for the sake of neutrality is useful at all. If you're wondering why the violence isn't ending, why both sides aren't stopping the violence, it's because both sides aren't equally culpable here. Israel is the aggressor. And in this situation, what's happening is Israel is trying to expel eight families out of their homes in Sheikh Jarrah. And as any reasonable person would, they're refusing together, saying, no, this is our homes. We don't want to leave. So there have been protests. And as a result, Israel has responded to the protests with brute force, firing rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters who are rightfully refusing to leave their homes. Now, thankfully, we have members of Congress who are actually courageous enough to condemn Israel. But better than that, we have members of Congress. We have a Palestinian American member of Congress and Rashida Tlaib, who's calling on the Biden administration to stop them sitting, actually take a side and condemn the actions of the apartheid state of Israel. But before I tell you what Rashida Tlaib said, because I think what she says here is really important, I do want to give you some additional context here. And this isn't a comprehensive list of things that's happening. But this is a jumping off point for you to do more research on your own to learn about this situation, because really what we're seeing is a rehash of what's been happening. And when you learn about the history here and the history of violence that Israel has done against the Palestinian people, this story is just another chapter in a very long book that isn't going to end unless the U.S. government stops being complicit in Israel's ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. So as Reuters reports, a putrid stench hangs over Sheikh Jarrah, a tiny neighborhood of East Jerusalem where protesters are trying to prevent Israel from evicting eight Palestinian families and letting Jews move in. Over the past week, Israeli police have repeatedly fired a foul-smelling liquid known as skunk water that lingers through the night to try to disperse the demonstrators. The standoff has seen violent clashes around the walled old city and on Monday led to rocket fire by Gaza militants drawing Israeli airstrikes on Gaza that health officials there said killed nine Palestinians and of the nine Palestinians killed by Israel, three of them were children. Now you probably even got a sense of the bias in that article that we just read. There were clashes which led to, but they're not actually giving you all of the details. Now for more on this we go to Andrea Germanos of Common Dreams who adds, Hamas said it fired rockets into southern Israel Monday in retaliation for over 300 Palestinians injured by rubber bullets, stun grenades, and tear gas at the site known to Palestinians as Al-Haram al-Sharif. Describing Israeli forces' attack on Monday, Nawor Mator, a Palestinian who spent the night inside the al-Aqsa Mosque, told Al-Jazeera, snipers went on the roof of the gate at the mosque compound and began to shoot rubber bullets at everyone, women, men, everyone. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said it was denied access to treat the injured inside and that members of its team had been targeted. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Net-Yahu, meanwhile, vowed to respond to the rocket attacks which left one civilian lightly injured with great force. So to simplify the story, Israel triggered all of this violence by stealing land from Palestinians and forcing them out of their homes. Palestinians rightfully protested that injustice, which triggered Israel to crack down on said protesters, which provoked a response from Hamas, which Israel then used as justification to indiscriminately kill Palestinians. This is a war crime. And then they targeted the medical groups who were trying to provide aid to people who were injured. Now, this is going to be a bit of a difficult video to watch. It's explicitly violent. So content warning for those of you who don't want to see it. But this is a video of Israeli forces targeting the al-Aqsa Mosque, shooting into it with tear gas and rubber bullets. Take a look. Now, to be clear, there were protests around the al-Aqsa mosque. But the people in the mosque were praying. They weren't actually part of the protest. Israel chose to target them. And for some additional details here, we're going to go to a clip from Democracy Now, who talks to someone who is an eyewitness of what happened. And additionally, it's then going to cut to somebody who's a writer living in Sheikh Jarrah, who is forcing eviction by the Israeli government. And he gives us some more details about about what's happening. And this is absolutely gut wrenching. But I think it's really important that we hear out this story. Eyewitnesses described a scene of terror when Israeli forces began opening fire while people prayed. We were praying in the mosque. Suddenly, the soldiers get to the mosque without any alert. They started to shoot the bombs. And there are many dozens of injured, dozens of people who were injured from the bomb here and the bullets. It's amazing. This is a praying place, not for a fight. Al Jazeera reports 305 Palestinians were wounded. 228 have been hospitalized with seven in critical condition. Israeli forces also attacked the al-Aqsa mosque on Friday, on a night when at least 205 Palestinians were injured. Today's raid came hours before Israeli nationalists were scheduled to begin an annual march through occupied East Jerusalem to mark Israel's 1967 capture of the area along with the West Bank and Gaza. Tension has been escalating in Jerusalem for weeks. On April 22nd, a group of right wing Israelis marched through the old city, chanting death to Arabs and Mayor Village Byrne. Video from the night shows Israeli mobs attacking and harassing Palestinian families and throwing rocks at Palestinian buses and homes. Meanwhile, Palestinians have been staging weeks of protests to block Israel from evicting dozens of Palestinians in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem to give their homes to Jewish settlers. A court hearing on the eviction scheduled for today was postponed Sunday. The United Nations has described the planned eviction as a possible war crime. U.N. Rights Office spokesman Rupert Colville said last week, quote, the occupying power cannot confiscate private property and occupied territory. This comes as the Biden administration is coming under increasing pressure to directly condemn Israel's actions. Last week, governments of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain issued a joint call for Israel to stop all settlement expansion in the occupied territories. We go now to Jerusalem, where we're joined by Mohammed El-Kurd, a Palestinian writer and poet who's organizing to save his family's home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem. First, give us the overall picture, Mohammed, of what has been happening. Describe what's been happening at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and all around the area. And then we'll talk about Al-Jurrah, Sheikh Jarrah. Thank you, Amy. Yeah, thank you, Amy. And it's a pleasure to be here with you to sum up what's been happening at Al-Aqsa Mosque. It's complete state settler collusion. There is it's clearly that the Israeli occupation forces are working in service of the Israeli settlers to terrorize and assault Palestinian worshippers and their marks in their mosque. Today, Palestinians have been met with rubber coated bullets in the face and in the upper body tear gas inside the mosque at the women and the children praying in their, in addition to many other forms of brute force. The same thing is in Sheikh Jarrah and this image becomes even more stark when compared by how the Israeli occupation forces are treating the settlers. Today, an Israeli settler ran over a Palestinian youth and instead of being captured, the Israeli police raised his gun at Palestinians who are protesting this act of terrorism. So we're seeing clear state settler violence and clear state settler collusion in Jerusalem and occupied Jerusalem. I just want to reiterate that last point that he made, a far right extremist ran over a young Palestinian and when Palestinians protested that rather than actually trying to apprehend the individual who committed an act of terror, they threatened violence against the protesters who are protesting a terror attack. It shows you how much the Israeli government has dehumanized the Palestinian people and it gets worse than that. I want you to try to imagine yourself in this situation. So the young Palestinian writer, Mohamed, in that last video that we saw, he's going to explain to Amy Goodman how not only is he facing eviction, but for the last 12 years, he had a literal squatter move into his home where he and his family lives and he's not really able to protest or speak out against the squatter because if he does, he knows that the IDF is going to hurt him, potentially kill him for speaking out. Take a look at this. You are stealing my house. And if I don't steal it, someone else is going to steal it. No, no one is allowed to steal it. In 2009, we were coming home from school and we found that the entire neighborhood was on lockdown. It was besieged from or areas and there were more occupation forces and settlers than there were residents of the neighborhood. And they used tear gas and sound bombs and sun grenades to take over our home. And these settlers, these thieves have squatted into in our home since then. And obviously you cannot resist this or otherwise you will be shot and killed. We know how the Israeli occupation forces behave around Palestinians. We know how they target Palestinians. So they've been forced to live with strangers under the threat of violence. But somehow that was even more preferable of a situation because now they're just outright facing expulsion. I mean, put yourself in their predicament. Imagine if somebody just moved into your apartment, they just chose to occupy one room in your apartment and they wouldn't leave. And if you tried to get them to leave, if you called the police, the police would actually side with the person who's squatting in your apartment. And they might actually shoot you if you speak out against the person who's squatting in your apartment. After putting up with that for 12 years, now they're just being kicked out of their homes. Do you understand why they're protesting? Why that's absolutely justified? This is a takeover of their land. And this continues to happen. Israel keeps building more and more settlements. And the United States keeps rewarding Israel with aid. And we're usually the one defender of Israel at the UN Security Council where that veto vote. So anytime the international community condemns Israel, we have Israel's back. And we're literally defending apartheid. That's what our government is doing. So you can understand why progressives like Rashida Tlaib are calling on the Biden administration to actually take a stand here. You know, the stance that the US has taken historically has been very staunchly and unapologetically pro-Israel. But Rashida Tlaib is calling on Joe Biden to do better as the situation worsens. Now, the Biden administration released an embarrassing mealy-mouthed condemnation of the violence and kind of both sides it. And, you know, stated that we'll remain committed to Israel's peace and security. But we do express some concerns about the evictions in Sheikh Jarrah. But of course, you know, the rocket fire from Hamas. That's definitely indefensible, even if it lightly injured one person. But I mean, you killing people, oh, maybe could you could you tone it down a little bit? I know that three children were killed, but maybe tone it down a little bit. And I want to show you this video from the State Department because they can't even condemn children being murdered. And the line that we hear from the US government is, well, look, Israel has the right to defend itself. They have the right to self-defense. But look at what happens when a reporter asks, does Palestine have the right to defend themselves? Watch how embarrassing this is, because a US government official is going to be incapable of even condemning, even tepidly, children being murdered by the apartheid state of Israel. Talk about what you said about the principle of self-defense. Does that in any way apply to the Palestinian? Do they have a right to self-defense? Do Palestinians have a right to self-defense? I'm in broadly speaking, Said, we believe in the concept of self-defense. We believe it applies to any state. I don't think that I certainly wouldn't want my words to be construed. I understand. I want to ask you, I don't want to harp on this either, but, you know, the Israelis killed 13 people just now, you know, including maybe five or six children. You condemn that you can condemn the killing of children. Said, I'm asking you, do you condemn the killing of Palestinian children? Obviously, in these reports, they're just emerging. And I understand I was just speaking to the team. I understand we don't have independent confirmation of facts on the ground yet. So I'm very hesitant to get into reports that are just emerging. Obviously, the deaths of civilians, be they Israeli or Palestinians, are something we would take very seriously. So the United States government has been complicit and endorsed the crimes against humanity that Israel has committed against Palestine. But Rashida Tlaib went on MSNBC and not only did she condemn Israel and what they're doing, which is pretty rare for a U.S. lawmaker to do, given how influential and powerful the Israel lobby is. But she also called on Joe Biden to do the right thing. If he wants to be taken seriously, take a look at what she had to say. Do you think the Biden administration needs to take a stronger stance right now towards Israel for the developments that we're seeing there? Absolutely. We need to hold the international human rights laws that are saying to our folks across the country that they have to buy by. Well, why not Israel? Why not say to Netanyahu currently who is, you know, running on anti-arab rhetoric consistently, accepting violence by allowing Israeli police and military forces to side with Israeli citizens who are literally throwing, physically throwing people out of their homes. U.S. taxpayer dollars should not be used to commit human rights violations. That needs to be said. I have yet to hear anybody from the Biden administration declare that that our money will not be used to degrade, to dehumanize and to kill or evict people out of their homes. Now, other progressive lawmakers, besides Rashida Tlaib, are speaking out against this. And it's really nice to see because this hasn't really been something that's that's very common. It's a new phenomenon to see U.S. lawmakers, even self-proclaimed progressive speak out because a lot of folks have been too afraid to speak out and condemn the apartheid state of Israel as they commit war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people in the Palestinian territories that are occupied. Now, the interviewer asked Rashida Tlaib, well, look, I know that progressive lawmakers are all tweeting about this, but is there anything that can be done legislatively to stop this, to at least stop aid to Israel? I'm paraphrasing what he asked her, but she made a really, really devastating point. She said that 75 percent of lawmakers in the House of Representatives signed a letter supporting Israel unconditionally, meaning that most U.S. lawmakers will support Israel no matter what. Even when they do things like this, when they try to expel Palestinians from their own homes, they'll support it. Even if they kill protesters and end up killing children, they'll support it because their support is unconditional. So the only way that we can actually make a difference here that progressives can make a difference here is if they pressured Joe Biden. Now, I think that just initially starting by pressuring him is important, but they can also threaten to withhold votes for key legislative items that Biden wants passed if he doesn't take a good stance on this. I think that they have to actually draw a line in the sand here and the Obama administration didn't really take an adversarial stance towards Israel until the end of his two terms. So hopefully progressives are going to exert prolonged pressure on Joe Biden so that way we don't see this coward kind of semi repudiation of what Israel is doing when you have like two weeks left in office, actually take a stand now when it matters, when it's going to count. Now, to get back to my original point that we started this video with about propaganda, you know, a lot of folks might question, how can anyone see what Israel is doing? Killing children, you know, brutalizing protesters and accept it. Well, it's because in the United States of America, we are bombarded with propaganda. And I want you to see the short clip that the Empire Files shared on Twitter. This is from the documentary Gaza Fights for Freedom. It's available to rent on YouTube. I'll link you to that down below. It's also streaming for free on Means TV. Basically, this is the way that the US propaganda machine justifies violence against Palestinians by dehumanizing them so much to get actual viewers to think that they're so barbaric that it's Palestinians responsible for killing Palestinians, not the Israeli government. They're paying them to get shot, believe it or not. They're paying them something of five hundred dollars per gunshot war. You know, Hamas sent a seven year old girl who was wearing a mini mouse sweatsuit right up to the fence so that IDF troops would in their perverse in the perverse mindset of Hamas would shoot her and kill her. It is reported that someone in a wheelchair was fatally shot. Mr. Ambassador Hamas is always very good at trying to put out all sorts of propaganda and myths. That's their experts. And they intentionally moved up the day so that it would coincide with the opening of the embassy move so that we would all be disgusted and heartbroken when we saw this horrible split screen of Ivanka Trump looking like she was at a country club next to poor desperate people dying. I agree with you. They planned that. Absolutely. Right. And I'm just saying, let's not fall for a trap that is being set by a theocratic authoritarian group that is sending women and children. I don't think I'm falling for a trap. I couldn't agree more with all of that. I think it's terrible that Hamas is butchering its own children. Hamas is conducting massive self-genocide. They want to pile up as many civilians dead as they can because somebody said they use an exclusive. They use telegenically dead Palestinians for their cause. They want the more dead, the better. They're pushing civilians, women, children into the line of fire with the view of getting casualties. We try to minimize casualties. They're trying to incur casualties in order to in order to put pressure on Israel, which is horrible. What they're deliberately doing is seeking to kill as many Palestinians as possible in order to yell to the world to help us. And much of the world is condemning us for war crimes. Basically, they're serving Hamas's goal. That's just what Hamas is about. Make no mistake, Hamas is pleased with the results from yesterday. No country in this chamber would act with more restraint than Israel has. And that said, Israel only targeted people who were actively engaged in violence. We only use live fire in a measured and surgical way. Why the Israeli forces were shooting dead protesters at the Gaza crossings? Well, we can't put all these people in jail. You're probably thinking there's no way that Americans believe this, right? There's no way that they're being told that Palestinians actually want Palestinians to die and they're believing this, right? Unfortunately, most people believe it because when you've dehumanized a group of people so much, you're inclined to believe everything about them, that they're barbaric. They're not human. They deserve what Israel does to them. Everything is justified. Perhaps Israel is harsh, but they're the aggressors. But what we have to do is break away from this propaganda and understand what's happening. This is apartheid. This is ethnic cleansing. Israel is committing war crimes against the Palestinian people. And right now it might be difficult for folks to see it. But when we look back at this moment in history, I think it's going to be clear what's going on here. It wasn't clear at the time when it was taking place. Ronald Reagan wouldn't condemn apartheid in South Africa. But now I think it's pretty clear who was on the right side of history. And so if you are one of the individuals who's duped by propaganda, I encourage you to actually inform yourself about this subject. And there are some folks who are just willfully ignorant or they are cowards and they take a pro-Israel position and vow to never be critical of Israel under any circumstances because that is what is currently politically expedient. But I think that the tide is starting to turn. The problem is that it might be a little bit too late because Palestine is shrinking more and more. Israel continues to do these settlements. And by the time everyone actually acknowledges that what Israel is doing is wrong, Palestine might be erased from the face of the earth and might be too late. So educate yourself and call out the folks who are propagating lies against the Palestinian people.