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She Lived in Gaza for Three Years · UK Column Radio

0:35
None. Who are you?
0:39
Who is Eva? I am a journalist.
0:43
I started journalistically more as an activist and I'm, I'm not
0:48
ashamed to talk about that. I'm no longer an activist.
0:50
I'm no longer a Blogger. But that is how I started in
0:54
anything political. But I I didn't come from any
0:57
sort of academic or political background.
0:59
My parents were professional musicians, classical musicians.
1:03
I grew up in an environment not political at all, musical, and
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frankly wasn't interested in in news or politics or anything
1:11
like that. Fast forward through many
1:14
travels before, during and after university, and then I started
1:19
becoming interested in the world more politically.
1:21
In the first issue that I was really aware of and ashamed that
1:25
I didn't know about and astonished that I didn't know
1:28
about was that of Palestine. And I would say that like
1:32
anybody who I don't want to say it stumbles across, but
1:36
literally it is how it is if you've grown up in the West with
1:39
Western media, western so called education that we aren't
1:43
introduced to the issue of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine to
1:47
create the state of Israel and the ongoing atrocities ever
1:50
since before 1948 and ever since.
1:53
So I was not aware of that. And when in the 2000s I became
1:58
aware this is at the end of the second uprising, the second
2:01
Intifada, I was, as I said, astonished and I was trying to
2:06
learn as much as I could and eventually I decided I have to
2:09
go there for myself. So that's been basically the
2:13
motivation in what I've done journalistically is always going
2:17
somewhere to see for myself. And then it became, I wanted to
2:22
try to give voice to the people I was meeting, realising even
2:26
though I was still incredibly naive at that point about how
2:28
media works, I understood that I wanted to somehow at least
2:33
transmit their voices and their stories to people outside so
2:37
that they would have the option to at least consider a different
2:41
alternative review or opinion than that which they were
2:44
presented by Media Hollywood, etcetera.
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So I, in doing so, ended up spending quite a bit of time in
2:52
Palestine, both the West Bank and then in Gaza.
2:55
And then this year we'll probably talk about in Syria and
2:58
elsewhere. But on a personal level, you
3:03
you've also done one hell of a road trip.
3:05
I mean, you've got you. You went from Canada and you're
3:07
not in Russia? Yeah, that was, that was it's
3:17
it's pretty amusing because due to what I was reporting from
3:20
Syria, I started going to Syria in 2014 when it was extremely
3:24
unpopular to do so, both in terms of countering the Western
3:29
NATO narrative on Syria, which was just astonishingly awful.
3:34
And and very like once you, once you started looking at the
3:39
reality on the ground in Syria, it was just so clearly blatant
3:43
propaganda what NATO media was pumping out.
3:47
But because I was going to Syria in those very formative years, I
3:50
mean, the war in Syria started in in 2011.
3:54
And I actually, I can honestly and quite proudly say I never
3:57
believed it was a revolution. I was talking with people whose
4:01
opinions I trusted. I knew nothing about Syria.
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I hadn't been there. I hadn't researched it.
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But early on, when Western legacy media was saying there's
4:10
a revolution in Syria, I early on had information that to the
4:14
contrary. So I never bought into that
4:16
narrative. But it wasn't until I left Gaza
4:19
in 2013 and then in 2014 I was able to go to Syria.
4:23
Anyway. Fast forward to Russia.
4:26
So basically 2016 was a very important year in terms of the
4:30
war propaganda on Syria. And I spent four months of that
4:34
year in Syria, two months in the summer, two months in the
4:37
winter, going multiple times to Aleppo, which was a key city
4:40
being propagandised about. And as a consequence, at the end
4:45
of that year, Aleppo was liberated.
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I had just left there. I'd been there for my fourth
4:49
time in in November. And after it was liberated,
4:53
Western media said it fell. It was literally liberated from
4:56
Al Qaeda and the various terrorist factions that had
4:59
occupied parts of the city. And because I was reporting what
5:03
I'd seen talking to civilians in not only Aleppo, but western
5:07
Syria, Damascus, elsewhere, I, they started saying not only me,
5:11
but basically anybody that was presenting a different narrative
5:13
were Russian propagandists. So from then on, I was called a
5:16
Russian stood, a Russian propagandist, et cetera, et
5:18
cetera. So eventually in 2019, I
5:21
decided, well, I should visit since, you know, I've been
5:23
dubbed all these. Things.
5:25
I mean, why not? Why?
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Not, you know, that's, that's way overdue.
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So I visited it and I loved it. I spent two months here in 2019.
5:33
I went to the Dunbast for my first time.
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I went to Crimea and I, I saw a little bit else of the country,
5:40
Saint Petersburg in Moscow. And I loved it.
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And so then in 2020, I was still living in Canada and I left in
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February thinking I was just going to be gone for a month.
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I planned to go to Syria and as, as you, that's actually around
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that time that I became aware of you during the COVID tyranny.
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And I ended up spending six months of 2020 in Syria because
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once I arrived, the borders closed.
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And so for me it was fantastic because usually I was there on a
6:07
very short visa and I, I watched all the craziness unfold in the
6:12
West and I thought, OK, I'm done.
6:14
Like I, I was done with living in in Canada for quite a long
6:17
time. We can talk more about that.
6:19
But basically, my values didn't align with at least the
6:23
government of Canada's values or lack thereof.
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And I just felt more at home in Eastern cultures.
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So I debated trying to stay in Syria because I speak Arabic.
6:32
So I thought that was like a kind of a given to just stay
6:35
there. But in the end, I decided to
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come to Russia, and I'm really glad I did.
6:40
So I moved here in 2021 and have very happily so, yeah.
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I've interviewed a bunch of people over the years who have
6:50
either been to Russia or live in Russia, and not one of them has
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has said to me, no, no, no, I don't like Russia.
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I'm I'm not going back. I mean, I'm, I'm aware of some
7:00
of the Western propaganda and stereotypes of Russia and I will
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be honest and say I haven't travelled the entire country.
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It is on my list to do. And I'm a pretty seasoned simple
7:10
traveller. So I, I, I think that when I
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finally do do that road trip, I think it'll be fairly epic.
7:15
But then I look forward to dismantling the, the lies like
7:21
Russians don't have running water or all the ridiculous
7:24
things that are sad. But I will say this, I have
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travelled extensively to the Donbass, St.
7:29
Petersburg, obviously Crimea and a handful of other places as Far
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East that I've been has been Novi Sibirsk in Siberia.
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And the transportation is fantastic in Russia.
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It's just, it's, it's incredible.
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So and actually even if you don't speak Russian, which I
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didn't my first year or so here, you can get by fine.
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People are are quite helpful. It's it's a very different
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society than in the West and I love it here.
8:00
And yeah, I wouldn't move back to the West in ever, even if
8:04
bribed. Why do you think Western
8:12
propaganda exists? Why is everything that the West
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is fed seems to be inverted? You know, the late John Pilger
8:25
could probably answer that far more eloquently because I'm sure
8:29
you're aware of his fantastic journalism and documentary film
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making. But both he and some of the the
8:37
original journalists that really just went on the ground and and
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did what journalists should do, would speak about how initially
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journalism was going to places, interviewing people, writing or
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later on doing video reports about that.
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And then there arose this official narrative about what
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journalism should be. And that was essentially it to
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enable this Western propaganda to take hold.
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So journalists like myself or Vanessa Beeley, who I know you
9:09
know very well, we would be called not journalist because we
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didn't get our brains brainwashed in journalism
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school, so to say, so to speak. But those who've gone, and I'm
9:20
not disparaging all who've gone through journalism school, but
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this is to say you could spend however long it takes to get a
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journalism certificate and then be awarded the title of being a
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journalist without without having any skills or any
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experience. But this is to make the point
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that Western propaganda basically puts aside voices like
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yourself, yourself like myself, like many colleagues, like
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journalists from the region, whether it's Palestinian or
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Syrian, etcetera, and makes it so that the only acceptable
9:51
narratives, until now, I think we can speak about how that's
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falling apart. The only acceptable narratives
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were those coming out of the official legacy media site,
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which inevitably cited Western governments as their sources of
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information. And so why does that exist?
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Well, clearly when they're only promoting narratives that serve
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NATO and that disparage against countries that are deemed as
10:16
enemy States of America, then it exists to.
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But that that's the reason further existence is to promote
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these narratives. So in the case of Palestine, you
10:28
know, only that which supports Israel can be promoted.
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And you see it all the time. I mean, in the Gaza, which has
10:36
been under Israeli genocide, for which I think it's 20 months
10:40
now, you see so many headlines. If they even deemed to mention
10:46
Palestinians being slaughtered by Israel, they'll remove the
10:50
person, that entity that is doing the slaughtering and
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they'll just say X number of Palestinians died.
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And they won't say what the cause is, who the cause is.
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But if the situation's reversed or if it's another area of the
11:02
world, they'll be very clear. They being the Western
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controlled media to name who the perpetrator was, right?
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So it's, it's, it's, it's absolutely astonishing.
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And with with Gaza, it's, it's astonishing because we've seen
11:16
those paying attention. Even though it's not paying
11:18
attention. I would say can't help but have
11:20
seen if you're on social media, the horrors coming out of Gaza
11:25
because of brave Palestinian journalist and, and citizens as
11:28
well filming their genocide and putting it online.
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See, even with all of that coming 24/7 out of Gaza, you
11:36
still have these legacy media headlines removing Israel as the
11:40
perpetrator of frankly, crimes against humanity, perpetrator of
11:44
genocide, of ethnic cleansing. So back to your question, This
11:48
is why. This is why Western propaganda
11:52
existed, because now they weren't able to control the
11:56
narrative on Gaza. They're still able to control
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allowing Israel to continue slaughtering and starving
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Palestinians and and with the aid of US mercenaries in Gaza,
12:08
but they can't control the narrative.
12:11
But Eva, we all know Israel is just defending itself.
12:16
Yeah, you know, that's the trope that's been used for so long.
12:20
Also the anti semitism trope. But frankly, it just makes me
12:23
blink, you know, And I think anybody who's paying attention
12:26
because it's it, it's I can't even laugh because the the
12:31
tragic situation of the manifold ways in which Israel has
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slaughtered and tortured Palestinians, not only in Gaza,
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but primarily, I mean, that's where the worst of it is, is
12:41
ongoing. And so you would have to be
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absolutely well devoid of humanity for one, but also
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removed from any sort of access to Internet to truly believe
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that that's that's the it's the narrative.
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They've, you know, even I'm sorry to go on a tangent here,
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but Olmert, Ehud Olmert recently was on was shared on acts.
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At least I can't remember where it was originally published
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saying what is happening. I'm not verbatim.
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I'm paraphrasing what is what what Netanyahu is doing in Gaza
13:19
is genocide and he's saying he said something like the
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deliberate starvation of of civilians is unacceptable.
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It's it's a war crime. Ehald Olmart was doing the same
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thing when he was Prime Minister of Israel That that what they
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dubbed Cast Lead the 2008, 2009 3 before in Gaza.
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I was there at that time and the siege on Gaza, which began under
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Olmar's rule, that was a siege. It is a siege of starvation.
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All the policies that he enacted before he was then replaced,
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they began with him. So he's a extreme hypocrite.
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I don't know. It's not that important why he's
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saying this. But the fact is this has been
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Israeli policy for a very long time.
14:03
Sorry, that was a total tangent. But so it it, it is interesting
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that he's, he came out and said, you know, starvation of
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civilians is a war crime, but it's a war crime that he
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introduced and this siege which came into effect.
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I'm sorry, 2006 or 7 it it so brutally limited the import of
14:23
life essentials that life in Gaza was virtually impossible.
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I remember just before I arrived reading articles about how
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Israel was limiting the entry or forbidding the entry of cooking
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gas, which is the primary means of cooking in Gaza.
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So Palestinians started cooking or kerosene, which is terribly
14:46
toxic to cook over. So then Israel limited that
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prohibited that from being entering Gaza.
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There was reports back in 2008 and 9 and there was an Israeli
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journalist, Amira Haas, who broke the story in, I think she
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wrote it in 2012. But it referred to report in
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2008, which I believe was called the Red Lines document, in which
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the Israeli authorities calculated based on the
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population in Gaza, the minimum number of calories needed to
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sustain people, not to enable them to flourish as, as, as
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life, but just to sustain them, keep them from dying.
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And then they, they transmitted, they transferred that amount of
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calories into the necessary need amount of food trucks that
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should enter. And then they they cut that
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down, I forget like by 1/3 or almost 50%.
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So this sadistic policy of starving Palestinians is not new
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and if I may, on top of which they decimated Palestinians
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ability to provide their own food, whether by fishing or by
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farming, by growing their own food.
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They systematically destroyed this the wells and cisterns in
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the eastern and northern areas where which is the prime
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agricultural land in Gaza without water, how do you
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irrigate? But then even courageous
16:08
Palestinians, I say courageous because they would go on their
16:11
land knowing they would potentially be gunned down by
16:14
Israeli soldiers and they would still try to find ways to to
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irrigate their land, to harvest their crops and Israeli
16:23
soldiers, if not gunning them down, if the crops actually
16:26
managed to grow, then they'd throw incendiary devices onto
16:30
them and burn them. I mean, it was, it's so
16:32
sadistic. So all of these policies have
16:35
been going in on the sea. The fishers, whether they're on
16:39
a Hasakah, it's like a surfboard or a paddle board, whatever.
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They paddle out a couple of kilometres and drop their Nets
16:45
and later pull the Nets in. Even when they're in their
16:48
swimming shorts on the surfboard like boards and clearly unarmed,
16:54
clearly no threat to this massive Israeli gunboat, they
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would still be targeted by the Israeli gunboat and they'd be
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fired at. They'd be abducted.
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Or if they're in their fishing trawlers, then those would be
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fired at by machine gunfire, by shelling and by heavy duty water
17:11
cannon, which might sound well, we've seen the images from
17:15
France, I think it was, or Holland.
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It heavy duty water cannons are powerful.
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So you, you fire this at a fishing trawler which can't
17:23
escape this massive Israeli gunboat and it destroys the
17:26
trawler. And, and then as I mentioned,
17:29
the Israeli Navy would abduct Palestinians and take their
17:32
boat. So basically they decimated
17:34
their ability to grow or or catch food on top of extremely
17:38
limiting what food was allowed to enter Gaza.
17:41
So I mean that is starvation policies.
17:45
You went there in 2008. If that's correct, Tommy, how
17:49
you got there? Yeah, so I had spent eight
17:54
months in 2007 in the West Bank. I was ultimately deported and
17:58
banned from deported by the Israelis and banned from coming
18:01
back, they said for 10 years. But I believe it's probably a
18:04
lifetime ban. And at the same time, I had been
18:08
in contact with a Palestinian journalist from Rafa, southern
18:12
Gaza, and was helping with some editing.
18:15
And so I was very because of his writing, I was also very aware
18:19
of the horrific conditions in Gaza and had been trying to get
18:23
there even when I was in the West Bank.
18:25
But it's impossible. So after I was deported, I had
18:30
around that time, there was a movement that had started called
18:33
the Free Gaza Movement. And they're, they were the first
18:36
boat movement. And at the time it was, it was
18:40
important because as I recall, I don't believe Gaza was really in
18:45
the news back then. I don't think most people knew
18:48
what Gaza was, let alone where or, or the conditions there.
18:52
So this boat movement, they were their main focus was trying to
18:56
bring awareness to the siege on Gaza and to break the siege.
19:01
So they've they sailed five times from Cyprus and I was on
19:04
the third boat in November 2008. Many of the people that went
19:09
there, the boat I was on was a bunch of European members of
19:13
parliament. And on some of the previous
19:16
boats and maybe subsequent boats, they were activists like
19:19
I was at the time. So that was the only way we
19:21
could get to Gaza. So whereas the boats brought a
19:25
token amount of humanitarian aid, that wasn't the main focus.
19:28
The main focus was trying to bring political awareness to the
19:30
situation, but it was a means for activists to get there.
19:33
So most of the people came, stayed for a few days and left.
19:36
But I, I went another activist also went and stayed and I ended
19:40
up staying in total for three years.
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But the first bout was a year and a half.
19:46
Then I left through AFA in mid 2010 and returned off and on in
19:51
2011 until 2013. So back then though, you know, I
19:56
was, I mentioned earlier, I was still naive enough to think if
19:59
only I could get this information into the Guardian or
20:04
to BBC or CBCI mean. That's how dumb I was.
20:07
Frankly, I didn't know because the Guardian did at that point
20:12
have some. Seemingly honest articles, but
20:15
now I know of course they only allow certain narratives and I
20:19
have no idea what the reporting is on Gaza right now because I I
20:22
can't stomach that. But yeah, November 2008 was when
20:26
I first arrived and about one month and 1/2 after that the the
20:29
Israeli 2008 nine war in Gaza began.
20:34
So tell me more about your experience there.
20:36
I mean, this is something that very few people actually know
20:39
anything about. Yeah.
20:42
So, well, I think it's important to note that prior to December
20:46
27th, which was the date that that war began, there were
20:51
Israeli bombings all the time. So people seem to think just as
20:55
when the the genocide began, this this sorry, in October 2023
21:00
when Israel began bombing Gaza, which became very quickly clear
21:05
that Israel was intending to commit genocide in Gaza.
21:09
Many people who weren't aware would think, well, Israel only
21:13
bombs as you made your comment, which I know was tongue in cheek
21:18
or sarcastic about defending itself.
21:21
Many people would think Israel's only bombing in defence in
21:24
response to Hamas or other resistance firing some sort of
21:28
rocket into Israel, but that's not the case.
21:30
Frankly, having lived there for three years, there were so many
21:34
times when nothing was happening and Israel would just bomb
21:38
suddenly and they would then say, oh, they bombed a
21:40
terrorist, quote unquote parasite.
21:43
But I remember 1 evening, I couldn't sleep, it was hot.
21:46
I was on a rooftop and I saw an F16 I think it was.
21:51
And then a number of F sixteens fly.
21:53
It would have been east. And then I just lay there
21:57
wondering, OK, what's going to happen next?
21:59
And then as I recall, they flew back and then next thing I knew
22:02
there was a bomb like 200 metres away.
22:05
So they bombed some site. This was when I was living in
22:08
central Gaza, India and Bala. So they bombed some site close
22:12
to the sea. I have no idea what they bombed.
22:15
Maybe it could have been a resistance fighter's home, I
22:18
don't know. Or it could have just been an
22:20
Israeli terror bombing, because those happened all the time.
22:23
And so that's one thing. And I have blog entries from
22:27
back then. I remember, gosh, I think I even
22:30
remember it's name. Saleh Okul, I think was his
22:33
name. Anyway, a man in northern Gaza
22:35
who was outside his home in the early evening collecting herbs
22:38
for the dinner. And the Israeli army bombed
22:42
outside his home during tearing him apart, depriving the family
22:46
of their breadwinner. And this is before December
22:49
27th, 2008, when the war officially began.
22:52
So that's one thing I think is important for people to know is
22:55
that Palestinians in Gaza were living under constant threat of
23:00
Israeli bombing and also under the Sonic boom campaign, which
23:04
sound when when they create the Sonic boom, it sounds like an A
23:08
bombing. So they were under constant
23:10
state of stress. And I remember even back then
23:13
the Gaza community health, I forget their name, but a health,
23:19
a mental health group. There was doctor Iaad Siraj
23:22
would talk back then 2008 about how 8090% of children had PTSD
23:30
from the constant stress of Israeli bombs and Sonic booms.
23:34
So there's that. But even when I so the the siege
23:38
again, I, I think it began after Hamas was elected in 2006.
23:42
So the siege on Gaza, siege blockade, basically full
23:47
enclosure of Gaza and prevention of entry of people, exit of
23:52
people and goods. Same that began around 2006 or
23:57
7. And even when I arrived in 2008,
23:59
it was dire. The the hospitals were always
24:03
reporting on a chronic deficit of essential medicines,
24:08
Emergency medicines. They were because Israel had
24:11
bombed the only power station in 2006 and it wasn't able to be
24:15
fully repaired. We were living under constant
24:19
blackouts, power and outages up to 20 hours a day when I lived
24:24
there. I mean, imagine living even 12
24:27
hours a day, but then it was 14, then it was 16, then I was 20
24:30
hours a day. Imagine living like that.
24:32
Just on a personal level, it becomes impossible.
24:35
If you're a parent, it's impossible to keep your home
24:38
clean because the way the water functioned or didn't function
24:42
there was that if there was water running, that would be
24:45
based on if there was power to pump the water.
24:47
And then it would be pumped up to tanks on the rooftop.
24:51
And if the water wasn't pumped, you would go for days without
24:54
water. So how do you clean your
24:55
children? How do you clean your house?
24:57
And they're very clean people. They, they, it contrary to what
25:01
Israeli Hasbaro would say, Palestinians are very clean.
25:05
And if you can't, you know, if you can't have access to water
25:10
and electricity, it makes everyday tasks to keep your home
25:12
hygienic and sanitary very difficult.
25:15
But then you consider the impact on hospitals.
25:17
So not not only were they devoid of essential medicines, but also
25:22
running on generators and doing the bare minimum.
25:25
So meaning you'd have to triage, triage which operations were
25:29
done and which weren't. Could somebody have kidney
25:31
dialysis? Could they not?
25:33
And then you have, as I already spoke of, the attacks on their
25:37
food sources, the fishers and the farmers, and the
25:40
overwhelming reliance on food aid just to survive.
25:45
And this food aid, whatever the intention's good or not.
25:48
The food aid wasn't very, let's say it wasn't like the
25:52
traditional Palestinian diet, which is Mediterranean diet.
25:56
So you have, as a result of people relying on, you know,
26:01
carbohydrates and without their abundant vegetables and
26:05
proteins, you have a rise in malnutrition, in anaemia and
26:10
stunted growth in children, in diabetes, all these food related
26:13
conditions that were for the most part preventable.
26:16
So there's all these different layers of hell that Israel
26:20
created way back then, and they only got worse.
26:23
That's 2008 I'm talking about. It only got worse because the
26:25
conditions didn't change. Yes, there were tunnels and I've
26:29
seen the tunnels. I went in and out of Gaza
26:31
through a tunnel at one point, and I went down journalistically
26:36
to see a tunnel and interviewed the tunnel workers.
26:39
So yes, I didn't see any of the big tunnels.
26:41
I have to say I saw tunnels bringing in tomatoes and through
26:45
which people that needed medical attention abroad and couldn't
26:49
exit via Rafa were coming and going or had studies abroad in
26:54
Egypt or further were coming and going.
26:59
But this is the only way people were able to survive were were
27:02
the goods that were bought in through the tunnels and some of
27:04
the agricultural goods that were able to be grown that weren't
27:07
destroyed by the Israelis. So these are just a few elements
27:11
of life in Gaza that I would think were widely unknown and
27:15
probably are still widely unknown until this current
27:18
genocide. What are the people like?
27:22
Aggressive, friendly. I mean it's it's mostly it's
27:26
mostly Muslim, but I'm guessing there were Christians too.
27:29
Yeah, there are Christians, more so in the West Bank, but there
27:33
are a belief, I think at least two churches.
27:37
I went to one church on Christmas, Christmas Eve, I
27:41
think it was in 2008. So there was a small community
27:45
of Christians and then otherwise predominantly Sunni Muslims.
27:49
You would think. You would think that given their
27:53
circumstances of not even from the siege onwards but decades of
28:01
being having been expelled from their homes.
28:04
Most of the I think it's 2/3 of the residents in Gaza are
28:06
refugees from greater Palestine. So they they weren't even native
28:11
inhabitants, most of them of Gaza.
28:13
But this is where they ended up after Israel carved out its
28:18
existence on the, the, the villages and, and blood of
28:22
Palestinians. You would expect, just based on
28:25
all of the horrible circumstances they've endured,
28:29
you would expect them to be aggressive and hateful.
28:31
But I, I honestly can say in my time there, I found them to be
28:37
and I'm very, very well travelled, some of the most
28:41
loving people I've ever met. And Palestinians in general,
28:45
Arab society in general, but it's especially Palestinian,
28:48
also Syrian. But my experiences in in
28:50
Palestine are that they're so hospitable they would literally
28:55
give you I, I once in Nablus commented not knowing what would
29:01
be the effect of my comment. I just commented on a wall
29:04
calendar. It was a very nice, I, I didn't
29:07
know the painting at the time, but it was like it was a, a
29:09
famous painting of a Palestinian elderly man, a refugee with a, a
29:14
bag on his back depicting their, their naqva.
29:18
And I just commented on it and next thing I knew, they took it
29:20
off the wall and gave it to me, them, you know, that kind of
29:22
thing. It's a minor thing.
29:24
Another instance from Nablus, because I was in the West Bank
29:30
as an activist. So we would go to the worst
29:32
places, worst places, meaning where they endured, Palestinians
29:36
endured the worst treatment from the Israeli army or the illegal
29:40
colonists. And so in one example, after
29:43
Nablus had been invaded by the Israeli army and many homes
29:46
occupied, shot up, if not destroyed, as they say in
29:51
Arabic, Makluba turned upside down, shot up, looted
29:56
everything. You know, just as you can
29:58
imagine an army doing to a house and that the inhabitants kept in
30:03
one room for several days, denied the basics of life, maybe
30:08
given food, but anyway, held in horrible conditions.
30:11
And and when I met this elderly grandmother, she was beaming and
30:16
she was so happy to see me and she was trying to give me
30:18
things. And it's just, it was so in
30:19
Congress to me because I was thinking like, she just been
30:22
through hell. She's older, she needed
30:24
medication, She wasn't given the medication.
30:26
She's been terrorised by the Israeli army and she's treating
30:29
me like the most honourable guests.
30:31
And it was just it, it was I think one of the pivotal, one of
30:35
the pivotal moments that people have when they visit Palestine
30:39
that you can't after those experiences go back to living a
30:42
normal life. Because I, I wasn't from a well
30:46
off family, but well, anybody compared to what Palestinians
30:49
are living. We have homes or roofs overhead,
30:52
we have relative safety, food, etcetera.
30:55
And so going from that life where as I said, I didn't have
30:59
any sort of exposure to politics or wasn't even certainly hadn't
31:04
experienced anything to do with war or harsh conditions.
31:07
And then I go there and it's, it's already like, and I say I,
31:12
but I think this again, anybody who spends time in Palestine has
31:15
the same experience really. You go there and you see the
31:19
horrible conditions Palestinians are subjected to and that and
31:23
yet you meet these really kind and loving people and humorous
31:27
and full of life. I mean, now look at Gaza.
31:29
You still see people in Gaza doing things like teaching
31:33
children to dance or making the best of their their situation.
31:36
They've got nowhere to live and they still can can make jokes
31:40
and, and find ways to express themselves and their express
31:45
their humanity. And you know, back to your, your
31:48
question, like it's not what I expected.
31:51
I expected. And if they had been hateful and
31:54
said, you know, get get out of here, you're from the country
31:57
that's bombing us or supporting the bombing of us, I wouldn't
32:00
have held it against them. But they they don't do that.
32:02
And to be also clear, I am aware of many Jews that have gone to
32:07
to Gaza and they've also been met with hospitality and they
32:11
haven't been, you know, told to get out, you're Jewish.
32:14
Nothing. And but that is a line that
32:16
probably the Israeli propagandists, well, not
32:17
probably, definitely. In fact, definitely.
32:20
I see trolls on, on acts constantly saying, Oh, well, if
32:23
you were in, in Gaza, Hamas would rape you, which is
32:26
absolute nonsense. We've seen from many of the
32:31
Israelis that had been held hostage and that were released
32:34
that we've seen them talking about how Hamas treated them
32:37
with great humanity and protected them as much as
32:40
possible. And I can just speak from my own
32:42
experiences in Gaza. I was never treated like, let's
32:48
see, let's say with disrespect. I was never approached as a, as
32:52
a woman and treated in any way other than as a sister or a
32:57
daughter. And that's the way it, it was in
33:00
my experience. And I I would say many people
33:02
had that experience. When you talk about Palestine,
33:06
what exactly are you talking about?
33:11
That's a hard question. I mean, there is historic
33:15
Palestine, which was the land of Muslims, Christians and Jews
33:21
before the Zionist project to occupy, to establish Israel, but
33:28
then to expand the Israeli project, the the, the settler
33:33
project in Palestine. So Palestine, Palestine is the
33:38
historic land that Palestinians were expelled from.
33:43
It's well documented that they lived there and that there's the
33:47
Zionist narrative is that, you know, they, they developed a
33:52
desert that was not blooming and they made it bloom.
33:54
They went to a land without a people and that's all nonsense.
33:59
So for me, Palestine is all that historic land.
34:04
It's always a case of which came first, the chicken or the egg.
34:08
You have to go back in history. You can't even if you want to
34:11
start at October 7th, which would be just extremely
34:17
intellectually dishonest to do so.
34:20
But even if you want to, the narrative about what happened
34:24
that day has been refuted greatly in terms of the the loss
34:31
of lives and who is behind the overwhelming death amount of
34:36
Israelis that were killed. There have been many journals
34:40
that have looked into that. There have been interviews with
34:42
Israelis who talked about the Israeli army themselves
34:46
attacking them. And you know, so if you if you
34:49
want to start from October 7th, the narratives that came out
34:53
around that have been disputed, including especially the 40
34:58
beheaded babies atrocious lie that the Israeli Hospira
35:05
attributed to Hamas. And it just flatly was not true.
35:09
And it's been proven to be a lie that originated from Zionist
35:14
propaganda. And unfortunately, tragically,
35:17
we've seen since then endless scenes of beheaded babies,
35:23
babies and children and and adults burned alive.
35:26
And as I said, the manifold means in which Israel has
35:30
slaughtered and tortured Palestinians.
35:34
So even if you want to start from October 7th, at this point,
35:39
it's not even if you want to be as dishonest and start from that
35:43
point, at this point we can see that the lies that were built
35:48
around October 7th were lies. And everything Israel has done
35:52
quote in response is not a response.
35:55
This is not a response if even. How could you possibly imagine
36:01
everything that Israel has done repeatedly bombing every single
36:05
Gaza hospital in Gaza, ensuring that wounded people can't get
36:09
medical care. Do you remember a month, two
36:13
months ago perhaps the media was aghast when it was reported that
36:18
Israel had gunned down 14, I believe it was paramedics.
36:22
Initially the Israeli propaganda said no, these were Hamas.
36:26
And then it turned out that, well, aside from the fact that
36:30
Israel has historically gunned down paramedics to ensure that
36:34
they can't reach the people that need their help.
36:36
And I can speak from personal experience travelling with
36:40
paramedics in their ambulances in the 2008, 2009 war.
36:44
But then there was footage from one of the murdered paramedics
36:48
phones and it clearly showed, contrary to what the Israeli
36:52
propagandists had said, it clearly showed armed, sorry,
36:55
marked, not armed, excuse me, marked the vehicles with their
36:59
lights on, approaching slowly the point where they were going
37:03
to try to aid wounded Palestinians.
37:05
And the Israeli version was something like unmarked vehicles
37:10
speeding at them and they fired in self defence, which is
37:12
nonsense. So that was just a couple of
37:14
months ago. But everything Israel has done
37:18
to Palestinians and Gaza has not been proportional to what they
37:22
claim was the events of October 7th.
37:26
So if you only start out October 7th, that's a wrong starting
37:30
point. You go decades back to the
37:34
creation of Israel, go a decade or two back before then start
37:38
looking at the different Israeli terrorist groups.
37:41
The I'm actually not going to remember all of them, Hagana or
37:44
Goon. And there's a third one I was
37:46
blank on. They were committing acts of
37:48
terrorism against the British and against the Palestinians.
37:53
And you look at some of the notable massacres that occurred
37:56
up to and during the creation of of Israel in 48.
38:01
And so those are the points at which you need to start.
38:06
And then you look at all the decades of violence against
38:09
Palestinians since then. And you know, some people, many
38:12
people often say, well, why don't Palestinians resist
38:15
nonviolently? First of all, under
38:17
international law, they have the right to resist with arms.
38:20
But put that aside. They did resist nonviolently.
38:23
They still do resist nonviolently.
38:25
They did all number of strikes they had in the West Bank, for
38:31
example, from around 2005, I think the village of Bilane,
38:36
which is near the city of Ramallah.
38:38
And it's a village that lost 60% of its land to what is known as
38:43
the Apartheid wall, cutting through their land.
38:46
And every Friday they were demonstrating nonviolently.
38:50
And they were, they were met with extreme violence by the
38:52
Israeli army. I I went there about 10 times I
38:55
think it was. And I saw for myself, because I
38:58
would always walk with it, the villagers at the front of the
39:01
demonstration and I saw how the violence began and it was always
39:04
from the Israeli side. Yeah, sure.
39:06
Later Palestinian youths would take slingshots and lob tiny
39:09
rocks against these heavily armed Israeli soldiers that were
39:13
firing live ammunition, high velocity tear gas canister and
39:19
also rubber coated metal bullets at the crowd.
39:23
And the crowd comprised not resistance but Arnhem civilians,
39:27
including children, including elderly.
39:30
So, and then if you remember some years ago in Gaza, they had
39:33
the Great March of Return, then this was supposed to be, it was
39:40
hoping to be a movement that would bring again more light to
39:43
the horrible conditions they were living in before October
39:46
7th, 2023, under siege, under Israeli wars every two or three
39:51
years, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2000, I forget the next war.
39:59
You know, every so many years Israel waged a war in Gaza,
40:02
destroying more critical infrastructure, making life all
40:04
the more hellish to live in. And yet when I lived there,
40:08
people demonstrated nonviolently and they were gunned down.
40:11
I have a lot of documentation of Israeli soldiers gunning down
40:15
unarmed youths that were protesting the siege and during
40:18
the Great March of Return. I'd have to look because I don't
40:23
remember the number of people that were maimed and and killed,
40:25
but it was a huge number of people.
40:27
There was 1 notable case, a young woman who was a nurse and
40:32
she was shot in the back, I believe by an Israeli sniper.
40:35
You know, like there's just so many instances of
40:39
disproportionate and it's not even reaction because they
40:43
always like to say they're reacting.
40:45
But the original egg was their violence against Palestinians,
40:50
to your question. You said the Zionist project,
40:55
Eva. Does Israel have a right to
40:57
exist? Does any country have a right to
40:59
exist? Sorry, but that's the that's one
41:03
of their token lines. I actually don't believe Israel
41:11
has a right to exist. It was built on the blood of
41:14
Palestinians. Their land was divided up by the
41:18
United Nations and given to the Zionist.
41:22
The, the original Zionist considered different locations
41:26
for their Zionist project, among which was Palestine.
41:29
They considered, I believe Egypt.
41:33
I believe they considered in Africa, in South America, which
41:36
is very strange because later it became, well, this is our land,
41:41
this is our Holy Land. God gave us this land.
41:43
God is a real estate agent, you know, and so they came to a land
41:50
that was clearly occupied with the original habit inhabitants.
41:54
And by the way, in 2012 I was in Lebanon and in one of the
42:00
refugee camps there, Palestinian refugee camps there, I met a
42:04
Jewish Palestinian whose parents had joined resistance against
42:09
the Zionist. And his parents were amongst
42:12
those that were expelled from historic Palestine by the
42:16
Zionist and they were Jewish. So, and this is not uncommon.
42:21
So it it's not a question of Jews, it's a question of this
42:25
colonial project in Palestine. And it's very well known that it
42:29
was initially a British colonial project, then it became an an
42:33
American project as well in the Middle East.
42:36
So what do you ever hear such and such country has a right to
42:41
exist applied anywhere else? It's such a ridiculous phrase,
42:46
but do Palestinians not have the right to exist?
42:50
You they've ethnically cleansed them, they're genociding them.
42:54
They've not only created Israel on Palestinian land, but they're
42:58
continually, continually expanding.
43:01
I mean, even when people used to talk about this two state
43:05
solution, which was absolutely ridiculous and not a just
43:08
solution, you look at, if you look at a map of the West Bank
43:14
and the areas that are supposed to be allotted to Palestinians,
43:17
they're not. I mean, you go to the West Bank
43:21
and you see it. To get from a village 5 minutes
43:23
drive away, you have to take such a roundabout way of getting
43:28
there because of all the Israeli military checkpoints.
43:30
For example, there was a village named Sada which would have been
43:34
5 minutes from Nablus, which is a key city in the north.
43:38
And because Israelis had built a checkpoint there, uh, there's
43:43
various checkpoints. There's the mechanical ones,
43:45
like the very industrial looking ones with the turnstiles, like
43:48
outside of Nablus, Hawada or outside of Elkwoods or
43:51
Jerusalem. This one happened to be a
43:53
checkpoint, made a roadblock checkpoint made of massive
43:57
concrete blocks cutting the road.
43:59
So the people in this village couldn't get to Nablus in 5
44:02
minutes. They had to take the circuitous
44:04
route, which meant there could have been any number of
44:07
checkpoints, because also you could have a flying checkpoint,
44:10
which is when one or two, sorry, two or more Israeli jeeps will
44:13
close off the road. And then they can just say this
44:16
is a closed military zone, you can't proceed.
44:18
And that's what they do all the time.
44:20
So what if you need medical care and you can't get it in your
44:23
village and you're trying to go to Annapolis?
44:25
Or what if you simply need to get there to work or go to
44:28
university, etcetera, etcetera, or go see your family?
44:31
You have to go this roundabout route and maybe reach Annapolis.
44:34
So this is one example, but there's so many examples of how
44:40
even within the area that's supposed to be for Palestinians
44:42
themselves, their movement is so restricted that people just have
44:47
no idea. And there's a, there's a, at
44:50
least at the time it was called Highway 443 that went from Tel
44:53
Aviv to Jerusalem going through the West Bank.
44:55
And that was a Jewish only highway.
44:57
And that was another means of dividing Palestinians that they
45:00
couldn't get from their their village from, I mean, one side
45:03
to the other side. So why is the question always,
45:08
does Israel have the right to exist?
45:10
Why isn't it? Don't Palestinians have the
45:11
right to exist? Particularly now we look at
45:13
Gaza. Don't they have the right to
45:15
exist to have food? Can't.
45:17
Don't they have the right to have medical care, clean water?
45:20
Why is it now we have this fake NGO, an Israeli American NGO aid
45:27
organisation that's been recently created?
45:30
Because Israel says, quote, Israel says Israel claims and
45:34
accuses Hamas of stealing food aid, which in fact, there's a
45:39
twist to that accusation. But let's just start with their
45:42
solution. Their solution is not to use.
45:44
And believe me, I'm no fan of the UNI see the UN as part of
45:46
the problem. But the UN does have UNRWA,
45:50
which is an agency that's been working for decades in in the
45:55
occupied West Bank in Gaza, providing education, healthcare,
45:58
food, not the best food in my opinion, but still food aid.
46:03
They're established there. They have the means of getting
46:06
the food that is urgently needed and the medical supplies and
46:09
water, et cetera, to those needed.
46:11
They had distributed well, they had distribution centres, but
46:14
Israel has bombed them so many times I don't know what exists
46:16
any longer. But instead of that, Israel says
46:19
because they claim Hamas is stealing food, they will no
46:22
longer send or allow UNRWA to distribute this food.
46:27
They've had Gaza under full blockade for I think it's three
46:30
months now. So no food is being entering,
46:32
maybe a trickle now and then. Their solution was to create
46:37
this fake NGO that would operate under the control of the Israeli
46:40
army. They would have Palestinians
46:42
walk long distances to come get aid.
46:46
And do you know what they did to them?
46:47
They opened fire on them. This is their crowd control.
46:50
There was too many people. They opened fire on them.
46:52
They threw grenades at them. This has been ongoing for, oh,
46:57
maybe two weeks now. I'll have to check the timeline,
47:00
but the twist to the story is their accusation of Hamas
47:04
stealing food. There are actually gangs now.
47:07
I forget the guy's name. I can get it for you after, but
47:12
they've been operating under Israeli control in Gaza, looting
47:17
food aid, under Israeli watch, under Israeli protection.
47:26
What is the long game? I mean, what?
47:28
What is the ultimate conclusion here?
47:32
Because Eva, it appears to be a forever war now.
47:40
Israel's long game is is to expel the Palestinians.
47:44
Well, then no, it's it that's that's assuming it was equal
47:48
grounds and Palestinians would have the capability of doing so,
47:50
which they don't. They don't have an army, they
47:52
don't have Air Force, they don't have tanks.
47:56
They don't have any of the military shit that Israel is
47:59
using to murder them. I mean, just back to I'm I'm not
48:04
making about myself. I'm just I have to go back to
48:07
2008 in the years onwards. Imagine 2008 nine, because
48:12
during that was the first war I've experienced.
48:13
So imagine you're not only being bombed by F sixteens, it's the
48:19
drones in the sky constantly that are capable not only of
48:22
surveillance, but massive bombings.
48:25
The tanks, the Apaches, the warship, the warships, and then
48:28
on a daily basis the remote controlled gun towers, the jeeps
48:32
patrolling the fence and the soldiers that get out and will
48:36
shoot at farmers. And this is something I
48:38
experienced because we would accompany the farmers.
48:40
So, and then what do you have from the Palestinian side?
48:46
You have resistance and I respect the resistance.
48:49
And I, I believe they have the right to resist.
48:54
And I would, I would say they are resisting heroically, but
48:58
they do not have the same equipment and armaments that
49:02
Israel has. There's no comparison.
49:04
So wipe each other out is no. I mean, you will, you will see
49:09
updates of Palestinian resistance setting a trap in
49:13
some place in Gaza and killing or maiming a certain number of
49:17
Israeli soldiers. But that's no comparison to what
49:20
Israel's doing to overwhelmingly the civilian population.
49:23
But to answer your question about the long game, I mean,
49:26
Israel's long game is occupying not only all of Palestine, but
49:30
as we see in Syria, you know, they've been occupying the
49:33
Syrian Golan for decades, parts of Lebanon as well.
49:38
Their long game is expansion Egypt, their long game is
49:42
expansion Greater Israel Project.
49:45
And they're talking openly about expelling the over 2,000,000
49:50
Palestinians living in Gaza. They've been wanting to do that
49:53
for decades. They're talking about doing it
49:57
now, about sending them in a humanitarian gesture to Libya,
50:01
to somewhere else. I know Palestinians in Gaza are
50:05
feeling desperate. Those I speak with, including
50:09
those who formerly said I'll never leave, they have to kill
50:13
me before they will force me from my house.
50:16
After 20 months of genocide, they could be forgiven for
50:19
saying, OK, I would like some safety now for my family.
50:23
But to me, it's not conceivable that that the majority of
50:27
Palestinians will want to leave Gaza, even though we see what
50:31
they're being put through. So I, I don't see how that that
50:36
so called solution from the Israeli American perspective can
50:40
be enacted because I think most Palestinians would resist it and
50:44
it's completely unjust. It's ethnic cleansing.
50:46
But that is, that is their their intent.
50:51
And then for Israel to occupy that land.
50:53
And you know, we've all heard Trump's comment about naked into
50:57
the what was his terminology, but basically turning it into
51:00
prime real estate, which is just absolutely disgusting.
51:05
And so every I don't I don't know, we, we hear these, we hear
51:10
in the news, you know, now there's a rift between Trump and
51:12
Netanyahu. Maybe, maybe not.
51:15
Maybe it's just another distraction.
51:16
Bottom line, is there everything that happens like now talk of a
51:22
ceasefire, it's always just prolonging the suffering because
51:27
the bombing doesn't stop, the starvation doesn't stop.
51:30
It could be stopped immediately where the order is given.
51:34
So any of this, these talks of solution, it's, it's always just
51:38
more time for Israel to continue slaughtering and starving
51:42
Palestinians. You mentioned Trump and you
51:46
mentioned. Sorry, go ahead.
51:49
You mentioned Trump and the American connection.
51:53
Do you think that Israel is effectively now just an agency
51:59
of the US? That's a question that is asked
52:03
quite often. Who's which?
52:05
Who's controlling whom? I think you can argue both ways,
52:11
yes. But I I suppose the the
52:16
undercurrent is, why is there this strong link between the
52:20
United States and Israel? It's their base in the, in, in
52:24
West Asia. It's they OK, they have client
52:30
states, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, but Israel's their military base.
52:36
And this is an area that the US does want to control.
52:40
They're still occupying eastern parts of Syria.
52:43
But when you listen to people talk about Israel's, the AIPAC,
52:47
the Israeli lobbies, control over people in Congress and, and
52:52
the president himself, and you know, virtually every
52:55
politician, Yeah, in, in, in the US, there's almost, there's very
52:59
few. Cynthia McKinney, I don't know
53:01
if you've had her on your show, but she'd be great to have on.
53:04
She was former congresswoman back.
53:06
And I don't remember. I'm not going to say the date
53:08
'cause I'll get it wrong, but she was a couple decades ago or
53:12
more ago. Sorry Cynthia, but she was one
53:15
of the first, if not the first I think to speak out about how the
53:20
Israeli lobby controlled Congress.
53:22
And as I recall, she said that when she was being sworn in,
53:27
they were telling her she had to take an oath of allegiance to
53:30
Israel and she refused to do so. And at that time it was not
53:34
common for people to speak out about that.
53:36
But I mean, how preposterous is that?
53:39
You're AUS politician, Congress person and you have to swear an
53:45
oath to a foreign country and if you don't then you're going to
53:49
be kicked out of Congress on some false pretext of anti
53:52
semitism or some trumped up charge.
53:56
So in that regard, the amount of money that is poured in through
54:01
the Israeli lobbies, AIPAC, the prime one, but various different
54:04
people and groups to control US politics from that perspective.
54:09
It it you know that that creates the perspective of Israel
54:14
controlling the US. But on the other hand, as I
54:17
said, the the US with a strong a real word from the US to Israel,
54:22
it has to stop. For example, besieged in Gaza
54:24
has to allow food in that could trucks would be allowed in
54:28
immediately if that word was given, but it's not given.
54:31
It's just always hand wringing. Oh, Trump is upset with
54:33
Netanyahu kind of thing to create the illusion of that
54:36
something will be done, but it realistically won't.
54:40
It is theatre. It's and it's absolutely, it's,
54:43
you know, theatre, but these are people's lives at hand.
54:46
And it just, I, I still can't wrap my head around it, even
54:49
even though I lived there and I, I'm aware of the atrocities.
54:53
Israel was capable and is capable and has been committing
54:56
with the support of US and Canada and most Western
55:00
governments. But it's still it's really hard
55:04
to wrap your head head around. But Eva comment that always
55:08
comes up in comment sections and in articles and in social
55:13
settings is But Israel is such a small country.
55:17
Look at all the the Islamic countries surrounding it and why
55:21
aren't they helping the poor Palestinians?
55:24
I mean, why aren't they helping? It's a legitimate question and
55:28
criticism. But they're bought off by the
55:31
US. Egypt is bought off by the US
55:33
and it is a shame because the Egyptian people, there's a lot
55:37
of solidarity with Palestinians amongst the Egyptian people, but
55:42
they're also by and large desperately poor.
55:45
So why, why hasn't there been a tipping point where there's an
55:50
actual uprising and, you know, millions of Egyptians flood out
55:55
of various Cairo and other cities towards Gaza?
55:59
I don't know, but probably being kept in poverty for so long is a
56:03
large part of it. Saudi Arabia is an extremely
56:07
corrupt regime. They would never help.
56:09
They instead of helping Palestinians, OK, they might,
56:12
they might token send a token amount of aid back in the day.
56:17
But any tangible help, only Yemen has been doing that.
56:20
Only Ansar Allah and the Yemeni people have been really in
56:24
solidarity with with Palestinians.
56:27
Syria was under Bashar al Assad. Syria was supportive of
56:31
Palestinians and Palestinian cause and resistance, but
56:35
otherwise and Hezbollah obviously.
56:39
But in terms of the, the Gulf states, they're corrupt states.
56:43
They're not going to help in any tangible way.
56:46
They, they don't want to. Well, I, I think any ethics,
56:51
I'm, I'm not talking about the people.
56:53
I can't talk about the people I don't know, but the the regimes
56:56
in the Gulf states, they won't help in any way and.
57:00
We also know, I mean this isn't even a secret now, that Israeli
57:04
government was basically funding Hamas through Qatar.
57:09
It was in, in the original. I don't know when that ceased.
57:13
But what I would like to say is there was a prior to that Hamas
57:18
existed as a Islamic charity before any Israeli involvement.
57:23
And there has been progression. It's, it's not, you know, back
57:27
in the day when there was funding, whenever that ceased,
57:30
it's for, it's, it's not, I think it's not honest to say
57:34
they're for Hamas is an Israeli controlled opposition because
57:39
that takes away the agency of Palestinians and the fact
57:42
they're every generation produces new resistance
57:45
fighters. And it's not because of Israeli
57:47
funding or propaganda. It's because they've, they've
57:49
grown up under the Israeli bombs and they, they also have grown
57:53
up listening to the stories of their grandparents talking about
57:57
their historic homes that they were expelled from.
58:00
And even, I mean, there's, there's many notable people.
58:04
There's even, I forget the Israeli, I'll have to find that
58:08
quote for you, a former Israeli politician and he's pretty
58:15
notable. I'm so sorry, I'm forgetting his
58:16
name. But he basically said if he'd
58:18
been Palestinian, he would have been a resistance fighter.
58:21
And it's just common sense too. Like, honestly, if you're in
58:25
this situation, you're going to resist.
58:26
Anybody would resist. I want to go back to what you
58:29
were saying a moment ago, though, about Israel being a
58:31
small nation surrounded by Muslim countries.
58:36
It is well known by this point. It was well known 5-8 years ago
58:42
that Israel was working with terrorists in Syria.
58:45
They were helping terrorists in Syria.
58:47
They were treating them in Israeli field hospitals.
58:50
You even have photos of Netanyahu meeting with a
58:54
terrorist in an Israeli field hospital, being treated there
58:57
and then funnelled back into Syria to continue fighting.
59:00
You have, there was at some point years ago ISIS apologised
59:05
to Israel for accidentally attacking.
59:09
I mean, and you have now ISIS, Al Qaeda controlling Syria and
59:14
are they attacking Israel? No.
59:16
They allow Israel attacks on their country.
59:19
Do they retaliate? No.
59:21
Did they prevent Israel from invading?
59:23
No. And they Jolani, who goes by
59:28
President Shara, he says they have a common enemy.
59:33
And this is a, the guy was al Qaeda, ISIS, He's not reformed
59:38
by any means. I mean, I'm sure we could talk
59:41
for a very long time about the atrocities being committed under
59:44
the Jolani regime since they came to power in December last
59:47
year against Syrian civilians, primarily minorities, primarily
59:52
Alawite, but not only also Sunnis, Christians, Shia, Syrian
59:57
civilians in general. But but this notion that Israel
1:00:01
is surrounded by nations that want to kill it is another one
1:00:05
of these narratives Israel has been pushing for decades to
1:00:09
justify what it does to Palestinians and to Lebanese.
1:00:13
How can I follow your work? Well, I used to have YouTube,
1:00:17
but it's been obliterated, so I, I no longer have a channel.
1:00:22
I actually, if you want to know the story behind that, it was
1:00:25
right after I did a long thread on X talking about how when
1:00:28
Israel says it's targeting medics because they're Hamas
1:00:31
quote unquote terrorists. I did a long thread saying,
1:00:34
actually, no, in 2009, I rode in their ambulances and they were
1:00:38
only carrying civilians, maimed and murdered civilians.
1:00:42
There were no weapons and ambulances I was with and medics
1:00:47
I knew came under fire. So I did this long thread and I
1:00:50
gave examples and linked to my YouTube and blog entries and the
1:00:53
next day the next day my YouTube channel was deleted.
1:00:57
I did try to have it reinstated but they said no and then I had
1:01:01
a SO. It's just coincidence.
1:01:02
I'm sure. And then I had a smaller one
1:01:04
that I forgot about. It was like back in the day in
1:01:06
Gaza, I'd used it and posted a few videos, a handful of videos,
1:01:09
maybe a dozen. And so I was like, OK, I'll I'll
1:01:13
build this up. And the only reason I want to
1:01:15
build it up to 500 was so I could use the community section
1:01:18
and redirect people to my odyssey, my rumble, my telegram,
1:01:21
my blog and that YouTube channel was deleted as well.
1:01:25
So anyway, back to where people can follow me.
1:01:28
I'm on Telegram reality theories, Eva K Bartlett.
1:01:33
I'm on XI Believe also Eva K Bartlett.
1:01:37
And I'm not on Facebook. I've also been removed from that
1:01:41
platform and my blog in Gaza, which is mainly used for
1:01:46
republishing interviews like this or articles I've written
1:01:50
and my sub stack Eva Cream Bartlett.
1:01:53
All right, Eva Bartlett, it's been an absolute pleasure.
1:01:56
Thank you for joining me in the trenches.
1:01:58
Thanks so much for having me on.