It Could Happen Here Weekly 38

happen here. I'm Garrison Davis, and this episode I will once again be talking about the Defend the Atlanta Force project. Last month I released two episodes totally like three hours in content, uh, discussing the movement from its inception up until the current state of affairs at time of recording,

which was like early May. If you want background on this uh, really interesting and vital piece of resistance that's happening in Atlanta, Georgia, then I would recommend you at least attempts to check out the Juggernaut of Audio, which is that too part a long story short. There's this police training facility that the Atlanta Police Foundation and other corporate interests in the city are trying to build on one of the city's last remaining like massive swaths of

of a continuous forested land. On an adjacent piece of forest at Land, a movie studio called Black Hall is trying to expand their sound stage onto a whole other section of the woods. The joint projects of the police training Facility dubbed Cops City and the Black Hall Studios sound stage expansion threatened hundreds of acres of the largest continuous piece of the Atlantic Forest, located in southwest in

Decab County. The area is often referred to as the Lungs of Atlanta and produces a massive amount of tree canopy in the city and is a wonderful little ecological spot. I was lucky enough to visit in late April to help in putting together those those two episodes, and a lot of a lot a lot has happened since then. Coming off the success of getting Reeves Young to cease work on the Cops City project, I felt like there was this sense of renewed optimism regarding the potential of

actually winning. On the other hand, in just during the week before the Week of Action, attempts by cops to enter the forest increased and there was talk of increasing crackdowns against the forest offenders by local law enforcement, who also announced that they called in the FBI to assist them, which leads us to the Week of Action. On the morning of May nine, which was a Monday, barely a day into the Week of Action, a bulldozer was brought

into the Atlanta Forest. This is based on reporting by the Great Folks at the Atlanta Community Press and other on the ground reports from forced offenders hosted by the Defend the Atlanta Forest account and scenes dot no blogs. So around nine thirty a m Monday morning, people inhabiting the Wilani Forest woke up to the sounds of trees

going down and metal machinery. A bulldozer marked with Dodd Drilling LLC, accompanied by to Decab County cops, had bulldozed a path through the forested Entrenchment Creek Park, directly adjacent to the old Atlanta Prison Farm. The park land is currently under threat by the Black Hall Studios sound stage development. The Dodd Drilling bulldozer destroyed a significant swath of forests,

injuring plants and animals in its path. When people learned about this, around forty folks quickly mobilized and gathered around the bulldozer, confronting the project managers and the police officers on the scene. Those gathered showed it at the workers and cops to go home and declared that this is a public park. When the two Decab County police who were protecting the bulldozers were confronted, it was revealed that they were actually working as off duty uniformed private security,

seemingly taking orders from the construction management. The management, who wore vests labeled Contour Engineering and Dot Phillips, claimed that they were not working for Black Hall Studios. Who who knows if that's true or who they might be working for that Georgia state law does permit off duty police officers to be hired, along with their uniforms, service weapons,

and vehicles, by private companies for their own purposes. The police expressed that they were not aware that they were in a public park along with the bulldozer they were protecting, and faced with a confident group of responders intent on defending the forest from further destruction, police and the construction management quickly made the decision to retreat from the woods. The off duty cops had called in reinforcements from Decab County.

Seven more Decab County Leah calls showed up, but by the time the extra police survived, workers were driving the bulldozers back into the parking lot. The police were persuaded to leave by the actions of intelligent people acting quickly and collectively in defense of the land. The force defenders then escorted the cops and the workers out of the park and made sure the destruction of the woods had

truly ceased. Police scanners reported that vehicles transporting the bulldozer faced a brage of rocks and had their windshield smashed. Entrenchment Creek Park is still a public park and property of Decab County under a civil court injunction. The pending

case prevents construction or clearing by Black Hall Studios. Later that same day, a group of around forty people marched to the home of Shepherd Long, the principle of Long Engineering, an engineering firm subcontracted to do surveying and other preconstruction work on the Atlanta Police Foundations Public Safety Training Center,

which we called Cops City. The group rallied for about ten minutes outside Shepherd Lungs home and was demanding that Long Engineering sever its contract with the Coup City Project. One of the group members read aloud a statement directed to Shephard Lung, which I will play the audio of here. Atlanta is a city of forests with the most tree coverage of any urban city in America. If you continue to work with Brassfield and Gory, the entire city will

experience worse floods, higher temperatures at small Field afternoons. You have the power to stop that. This proposed military training compound is in the nucleus of a culturally rich Black community full of churches, preschools, and community centers. Dozens of

children and grandparents have lived there for years. If you continue to work with Brassfield and Gory, our streets and backyards when we filled of shootings, explosions, and here gas, where we want our children and neighbors to be able to breathe clean air and experience the vastness of the Atlanta for wris not to be victims of a domestic war zone. You have the power to stop that. We are here to fight for the future of our city, our children, our neighbors, and our planet. We all no

ill will towards you personally. We just want you to make this one right decision. We no long Engineering has many other contracts with many other companies. We are only here to ask you to drop this one company, brass Field and Glory, until they dropped their contracts with the Atlanta Police Foundation. The group distributed flyers alerting neighbors to the work of Shepherd Long and what his company was doing in De capp County. After about ten minutes, the

group quickly dispersed without incident. The next day, there's a lot of other events related to the Week of Action. There was a security culture workshop and activist primer about building a collective understanding of ways to keep us all

safe from imprisonment the government repression. There was a night of hip hop and punk at a local radical venue that served as a benefit show for the Forest Defense, and other random events throughout the Week of Action included stuff like clothing swaps, bike rides through the forest, yoga in the park, plus daily breakfast and dinners, history talks, art parties, wood walks, skill shares, and a sick night rave along with you know, forest tours and much more. So.

That's just two days of the Week of Action. Um the Monday and the Tuesday, when we get back from this ad break, I will get into what happened on Wednesday and then and then Thursday. You know, we're going to go through it linearly. Um, despite my criticisms of linear time, we will go through this in a linear fashion because that's how formatting this episode was easiest. Anyway, here's some ads and we are back talking about the

Defending Atlanta Forest Week of Action. So, just after ten am on Wednesday, May eleven, to de Cab County Park Police entered the forest to inspect the path created by the bulldozer that previous Monday. As they were exiting the forest, forest offenders ambushed them by throwing rocks and bottles at their vehicles and smashing the cars windows. At noons like two hours later, a van marked law enforcement Department of Juvenile Justice pulled up into the parking lot of Entrenchmant

Creek Park. It's worth noting that the area of Entrenchment Creek Park and the forested area on the Atlanta Prison Farm has like two child prisons on it. We talked more about those in the in the two part series from last month. But anyway, so this van marked Department of Juvenal Justice pulled up into the parking lot inside in Trenchmant Creek Park, But an hour later, the van was attacked suddenly by a brage of rocks and multiple

tires were slashed. The van attempted to escape, but was left stranded in the parking lot until the cab police were able to escort it out. Police were nervously walking backwards in order to keep their eyes on the tree line, where they knew forced defenders would be watching them at every moment. Multiple police vehicles were damaged. Nobody was detained or arrested. Portions of that report came from scenes dot

no blogs dot org. Earlier that same day, like early in the morning, around forty people visited the home of Keith Lanier Johnson Jr. In Kensaw, Georgia. Keith is the Eastern Regional president of Brassfield and Gory. Brassfield and Gory are the current general contractor on the Atlanta Police Foundations Cops City Project. Flyers were posted around the neighborhood, past

the low barrier fencing around the gated community. An anonymous statement released online at scenes dot no blogs read quote now that Keith is no longer busy on the board of the Mount Perrin Christian School. It seems he is now managing the one hundred and forty two thou dollars of fines levied against his employer for safety and wage theft violations. He's also overseeing the destruction of grave sites, leveling of a vital tree canopy, and the militarization of

the American Police Force. It is for those reasons that community members went to his home at six am. We hope that Keith is able to convince the two owners currently sitting comfortably back at home in Birmingham, that the current Atlanta Police Foundation contract is untenable and there is an urgent need to cancel it. It could turn out that Keith personally is carrying to brunt the pressure for his boss's decisions. Brassfield and Gory will eventually drop the

Cop City project. Anonymous groups are developing new methods for disincentivizing the project. The next day, on May twelve, a tightly packed crowd around eight mask protesters converged on the Brassfield and Gory Atlanta office in broad daylight. People holding banners and launching fireworks arrived at the building, and force defenders covered the side of the office with stop Cops City graffiti and chanting will be back as they left.

Unicorn Riot reported that five people were arrested following the action and booked on several charges, including some felonies. Charges were including riot and criminal damage to property and quote terroristic threats and acts. I know that some but possibly not all, people's charges got dropped, and the listed bond amount for some individuals was extremely high, getting up to

around fifty dollars just for an individual. Nearing the end of the week of action, on Saturday May eleven, a march to Defend the Forest took the streets in East Atlanta Village, led by local preschoolers. There were some really nice signs and artwork done by kids. The Defend the Forest twitter account posted some beautiful photos of kids protests. Signs that says forest is life and love you trees stop, never cut down the trees aloged with very very good art.

It was very very pleasant to see. A Few hours later, another march to Atlanta at the top Cops City drew around two hundred protesters. After about an hour of marching, the crowd returned to Freedom Park, where they were then attacked by police without warning. Dozens of cop cars pulled up and police helicopters loomed overhead. Armored cops were arresting people on the sidewalks for marching on the streets, for playing drums, or for just standing in the wrong place.

Atlanta police and Georgia State Patrol officers assaulted, shoved, and tackled multiple people, deployed tasers, and threatened neighbors who filmed the arrests. One person violently arrested was taken to the hospital for treatment. To defend the forest twitter account posted quote at least seventeen arrests to night by Atlanta Police Department. Spirits high as the forest raves and the encampment grows outside the forest, men stand vigil at the jail, welcoming

arrestees as they are released. We are strong together. The forest unites us. The cops cannot divide us. Atlanta police say that the march was in violation of pedestrian laws, which is why they charged and start of assaulting people on the sidewalk. And that wraps up some of the week of action stuff. I know there was a lot more things that happened, but trying to crime it all into a tight package was challenging. So that that was the general general week week of action vibes. But there

is there's more. We still we still have like half the episode to go because a lot, a lot else has happened in in the days since then. In the early morning on Monday May sixteen, a week after the bulldozer descended on the forest, accompanied by off duty cops acting as security, a home associated with Dodd Drilling LLC.

Was painted with slogans including Dodd Rilling, stay out, stop cops, city, and drop a p D. A message for the homeowner associated with Drilling was released, which you can read the full version of online at scenes dot no blog dot org. I'll read some portions of it here. Quote. Last Monday, a bulldozer with your logo forced its way into the Wolani Forest and left one hundred foot trail of destruction in its wake. Forced defenders responded quickly with rocks and rage,

but some damage was already done. Despite having no permit, you allowed Atlanta Police to use your equipment to intimidate and injure the forest and its residents. Today, you know what it's like to have your space invaded. You came into our home, so we came to yours. Your private property is not as private as you may think. We demand that you stay out of the Wolani Forest and stop working with Atlanta Police and Cops City contractors. To all others who would support Cops City, it might have

more costs than you anticipate, financial and other wise. Many creatures care deeply about this forest and are prepared to defend it. Any partner of the A p D or contractor for Cops City is our enemy and a potential target. The Wulani Forest is not dying, it is being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses. A list of local Atlanta evil doers is available at

stop reeves young dot com. The next day, on Tuesday, May seventeenth, Atlanta police, backed by other state and federal law enforcement, including the CAB Police, Georgia State Patrol, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and the FBI, raided the South Atlanta Forest. The raid came just days after the Week of Action, which brought hundreds to the Atlanta Forest to participate in workshops, plant gardens, watch films, and protest at

the homes of developers plotting the forests destruction. Shortly after the scheduled events ended, police gathered their forces to raid the forest encampment. Police started staging at around nine am on Tuesday and started coming in at around ten am. Force defenders started mobilizing and calling for support. Cops blocked off the roads leading to the forest access points and told drivers stuck at the blockade that quote were opening

up the site for construction. Soon, cops started arresting protesters that gathered in Entrenchment Creek Park and towed any car on the streets outside of the park. Helicopter circled the forest, trying to track the movement of forest offenders under the cover of the tree canopy. Police near occupied trees were heard talking about quote flushing out people inside tree houses

in the face of militant resistance. Police did manage to cut down trees and destroyed multiple treehouses, destroyed force defenders, personal belongings, and other protest infrastructure set up by the land defenders, all in an effort to allow contractors to begin development of the ninety million in dollar Cops City project.

On Twitter, they defend the Atlanta Forest account posted quote reports that the Atlanta Police and Georgia State Patrol are chainsawing in an area of the old Atlanta prison farm where people have occupied trees to defend the forest. Dozens of forest defenders moving in groups all over the woods throughout the raid. No arrests inside the forest reported so far, only from the perimeter at the public park. Police seem

unwilling to pursue people through the forest. Swat rifles trained on forest defenders occupying a treehouse to stop Cops City. The Defend the Forest twitter account also posted a video of a semitruck packed full of building supplies headed into the north boundary of the proposed Cops City site where police were raiding the forest defense occupation. I'm gonna do a little quote from Unicorn and Riot, who reported on

the police raid. Quote. According to police, those committed to defending the forest put up a fight, pelting the officers with rocks, and what appeared to be a Molotov cocktail was deployed along a fence line. In the wake of the raid, a truck barricade constructed months ago to protect those occupying the forest from police incursions showed signs of having being set on fire. Flaming barricades are a common tactic used by protesters around the world. To push back

against police unquote. Eventually, police let media enter a small contained area on the other side of the blockade. Police wanted to talk with the multiple press outlets that had gathered near the site in an attempt to gain control of the media narrative. Atlanta Police Deputy Chief sheer Bomb, Yes, that's how I'm pronouncing it. I've no idea has actually said, but I think it's sheer Bomb held an interview staged

by the Public Affairs Office. Overall, the goal seemed to be to control the media narrative by painting police as the heroes and the protesters as a very small group of outside agitators. After getting the statement from police, most media left the scene. While the blockades were still up on both sides of the forest access road. Deputy Chief sheer Bomb said that police escorted contractors into the forest

and preliminary work was being done. Police later specified that they were at this site to a company contractors tasked with removing some temporary illegal structures that were set up

by protesters, and that quote no one was hurt. Media framed the raid and subsequent arrests as the police cracking down on a group of violent outside agitators cops giving statements like quote, we will not be deterred by the acts of a few that do not represent our community, and with local news covering the incident like quote several protesters who are arrested after they threw a molotov cocktail at police as officers raided a camp on the grounds

of the planned Atlanta Police Departments training facility unquote, even though the arrests took place in a completely different section of the woods, where protesters were gathered openly in a public park and actually happened before the cocktail was thrown. Yet there was a lot of attempts to link the arrests to them altof cocktail. But you know, media media just do that, and they gobbled up the story of of the of the cocktail and of the outside agitators

attacking Atlanta police and it's not representing our community. Eight people were arrested and faced charges ranging from criminal trespassing

to police obstruction. Despite attempts by police to paint the movement as the work of quote outside agitators, while also working alongside of growing list of out of town law enforcement organizations, the movement to Oppose Cops City has been directly rooted within a broad localized opposition, whether that be with Atlanta based organizations fighting against gentrification, local chapters of climate change protest organizations, or just anonymous individuals that reside

across Atlanta, or the indigenous people who have incestral connections to the land. And hours after the raid, there was a Atlanta community press conference put on at Entrenchment Creek Park, and I'm going to read a statement that somebody gave at the press conference. Quote, this is an attempt to demoralize a vibrant and diverse movement led by local community members against the replacement of the largest urban tree canopy in the United States with the largest police training compound

in the United States. The police will attempt to depict this movement as a small group of hard line activists. We are all neighbors of the forest. We are intelligent people who know that the future of the world is on fire, and who are determined to act and to defend what remains to sustain life in this city and on this planet. The city is only going to get hotter, wrench is only going to get more expensive. Food and gas prices are only rising. The city has no answers

for this, except for a more militarized police force. You can't prop up a free society with violence alone. The next day, protesters from Saturday's Stop Cop City march had court and all of their charges were dropped. Atlanta police is just desperate to get a good boogeyman to blame any potential uprising on, and they're not being super successful

and letting any of these charges stick. There was this really great point made by this person named Audi Khali and was going to quote from a thread they posted quote. Thirty seven arrests were made in relation to the decentralized Defend the Atlanta Force movement over the past weeks, mostly for made up jaywalking charges, but only twelve had their legal identities revealed to corporate media and right wing doctors.

Why all twelve protesters who were docked these past couple of weeks were said to be from out of state. When journalists asked if other protesters had Georgia residences, answers were denied. The answer to why is simple. These twelve currently possessed out of state I das and appeared white passing. The other twenty four arrestees might not necessarily fit these categories. Noticed that right wing troll and you know, amitted the ages of the arrestees who are not in their twenties

as well. This is yet another iteration of the outside educator and narrative and an attempt to delegitimize resistance while denying local agency unquote. Police are continuing to target stop copsy of protesters with extremely high bales. Just getting nine protesters released during one week cost over a hundred thousand dollars. So please if you're able to consider donating to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, there will will be links in the description. So that was the raid that took place a few

weeks ago. Six tree houses were destroyed. And those tree houses weren't just like tree sets to defend the forest, as were also like people's homes like that that that's where people were living. Uh so six six of those were destroyed, multiple force defenders, personal belongings were stolen or are just dismantled and decimated by the cops. And overall the raid was pretty bad. I mean, it's it kind

of it kind of sucked. We will talk about what has happened since the raid when we come back from a little at break all right, we are back after the raid. Officers from Atlanta Police Departments Zone three Field Investigations Team discussed using deadly force against protesters if they used molotov cocktails to defend themselves from a raid. According to scanner audio publicized by activists, listen closely for like thirty seconds to hear their conversation discussing deadly force. The

good thing we didn't get out the damnal today. I don't do well with fire. Oh yeah, right, howld you deadly force encounter? Wait? Whatever doing with fire? That's why I brought it up. I was saying, as long as we're all that they paid the deadly fourth encounter, you liar, ro cop bails them at the road pure the treehouse they had up, they had cars like on it, people coming in a protest against copy. Sure, So I'm just gonna reread one little section in case it was hard

to hear. Quote, I told you deadly force encounter. That's why I brought it up. As long as we're on the same page, I'm atop cocktail is the deadly force encounter unquote. So a deadly force encounter is a situation where officers are legally allowed to shoot to kill. Basically, what this scanner audio ins anuates is that police are preparing or thinking about just killing people when multov cocktails

are deployed. So that's a thing. Also, it's a little interesting that police themselves referred to the project as cops City.

But yeah, keeping track of scanner audio has been a big part of the not on the ground portion of the movement is being all to track police communications, police locations all using open source information, and tops are really scared and paranoid when it comes to stuff around the forest and just don't seem to be able to grasp the idea of a decentralized resistance movement that is capable

of a diversity of tactics, including militant ones. There's this other scanner audio that was released displaying Atlanta police's ignorance, cowardice, and paranoia related to what they believe is a group dubbed Black Flag Atlanta. You guys gotta be carefully had a um to the cab jobs are sitting in the van and they they attacked the van or you know,

knocking windows out with flatting attires and stuff. But they're supposed to be a group called a Black Flag Atlanta that are targeting police and they have an app and stuff back can monitor our vehicles and shows about patrol cars are sitting at with lab updates. You know, you know, you know, they could be dropping the fans pointing something or you know, sort of trap or damaged property and shout in the range you said, they gotta what's the name of that? I just pulled back around find it.

But the group is called black Flag Atlanta, So the so called group that police refer to as black Flag Atlanta is likely just referring to a hobbyist website that simply collects on the ground reports and open source police scanner information. The website is an open resource for anyone to use. It's not a group of people. It's just a random online tool that lets you listen to scanner audio.

The cops mentioned that they're afraid because of the actions of some anonymous individuals who surrounded a law enforcement vehicle and damaged it while officers were inside just sitting terrified, and then did the same to a juvenile detention facility. Van I discussed the details of that direct action earlier in this episode, when anonymous people through rocks and slash

tires of those law enforcement vehicles. Quoting from an anonymous statement on scenes dot no blogs, quote, the cops believe that Black Flag Atlanta is a group that tracks and monitors cops and their locations around the forest and works to attack them. This is laughably wrong. Rather than understanding that our power comes from open source intelligence, horizontal organizing, and transparency, they have conjured up a shadowy organization that

organizes hits on police officers and publishes their targets right beforehand. Unquote. Cops really just don't seem to have a clue on what's what's actually going on um or how any types of decentralized infrastructure works, or how movements are really operated. It is an interesting thing to see. But scared cops are also dangerous cops. As we just mentioned about them planning to use lethal force if there's a multip cocktail in the area right when cops are scared. That's not

necessarily always a good thing. Um. It just you know, a lot of police training is based on being afraid and then using deadly force if you are afraid. So it's just a thing to think about. I'm not I'm not I'm not making any like commentary here, I'm just saying, yeah, cops seem really scared, and that can be good. It

also can be dangerous. I'm now going to talk a bit about solidarity actions, because you know, not everyone's able to go to Atlanta, even if even if they would like to go to Land and help help participate, some people just aren't able to. But that doesn't mean people are unable to assist in the movement. I'm gonna do

a little quote from Unicorn riot quote. In recent weeks, autonomous attacks in solidarity with efforts to defend the Atlanta Forest have occurred throughout the country, according to a website that tracks such actions, One repeated target has been at Las Technical Consultants, the apparent company of Long and Airing, a subcontractor of the cop City project, which had its windows of its office smashed in Albany, New York, in Minneapolis, Minnesota,

and it's building tag with the graffiti in Highland, Indiana. The website also received reports of attacks on Bank of America, which donates money to the police foundations across the country, including the Atlanta Police Foundation. Attacks were reported in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Portland's Enemy Appolis unquote, and I'm going to just go through a list of solidarity actions that have happened in

May and now up into June. Most of these were posted on scenes dot no blogs that seems to be the main site for anonymously posting communication or report backs. You can find guides to how to do so with more Internet security on websites like scenes and websites like Warrior up. So anyway, here's just a list of little communications that have been released related to solidarity actions that

have taken place in the past month. Quote. On the evening of May to I smashed seven windows at the office building where the northeast offices of Atlas are located in Albany, New York. I also tagged Atlas stopped destroying the Atlanta Forest, destroying concience of acres of forest during the sixth greatest mass extinction of species. To build a police training facility following one of the largest anti police

uprisings in decades is fucking disgusting with his vandalism. I urge Atlas to do the right thing and to drop any contracts with Brassfield and Gory and the Cops City Project. During the week of Action, the brass Field and Gory Corporate HQ in Birmingham, Alabama was targeted. According to a strongly worded anonymous statement published on scenes. The report back reads quote. On the morning of the thirteenth, the windows and glass doors to the brass Field and Gory Corporate

HQ were smashed. The words drop cops city or else were spray painted on the windows. Paint was applied to the front sign. Let it serve as a warning to the executives at brass Field and Gory. We know where you work and we know where you sleep. Your houses could be next Keith Johnson Miller, George James Gory. You will drop this contract eventually. Why wait to see how far will go? In solidarity with a struggle in Atlanta unquote. And then just a few days ago, construction offices in

Pennsylvania were hit. The community was short and sweet, just reads quote. Door windows smashed and building tagged at the northeast office of Atlas Technical Consultants at two one to six Fillmore Avenue in Erie, Pennsylvania. Stop cops City, defend the Atlanta Forest and forests everywhere. A few days ago, on May thirty one, there was a massive police mobilization involving helicopters and a road checkpoint around the Atlanta Forest

at the proposed Cops City site. According to reports, Atlanta Police Department accompanied Long Engineering, who seemingly were surveying for a perimeter fence. No arrests were reported. Long Engineering, as we've stated, is owned by Atlas Technical Consultants, and it's currently being contracted by Brassfield and Gory, the Atlanta Police Foundation's general contractor. The stoft Reeves Young Campaign least a statement discussing the events of the past few days quote.

On May thirty one and June one, Brassfield and Gory subcontractor Long Engineering entered the old Atlanta prison farm with chainsaws and heavy machinery. They are cutting down trees in order to build a fence around the zone. This is where the Police Foundation believes they will build the Cops City training compound. They hope to prevent the community from seeing what they are doing. Long Engineering, owned by a man named Shephard Long of ken Saw, Georgia, has already

participated in destructive acts in the South River Forest. For this, they have become the object of a nationwide pressure campaign by activists and communities organizing to oppose police militarization and climate change. Long is a subsidy of Atlas Technical Consultants. If activists in community bers can convince brass Field and Gory to drop their contract with the Atlanta Police Foundation,

the project could lose funding and fall apart. Brass Field and Gory uses many subcontractors to do their projects, including Atlas Technical Consultants subsidy Long Engineering. By encouraging Long Engineering to drop the contract with Brassfield and Gory, we encourage Brassfield and Gory to drop their contract with cops city. Climate collapse and police militarization are not abstract processes so that nobody can stop. They happen because of observable and

preventable reasons. If you care about police brutality, if you want to stop climate change, this is your chance to do something unquote, and I do think there are a lot of signs that people actually can make actual impacts.

At the last Community Stakeholder Advisory meeting, Atlanta Assistant Police Chief Darien schnear Bomb said that construction plans could be quote delayed or deferred because of the actions of a very few unquote, and said that this is why police agencies are working to quote addressed criminal protests very quickly so it doesn't get into that realm unquote. And on the day I record this, which is June second. Earlier this morning, to police chased Force defenders into the woods

near a work site and found a camp. Ten Force defenders confronted and surrounded a bulldozer that was in the woods, resulting in a work stoppage. On a communicate released online at scenes read quote work stopped today Thursday, June second, as a group of ten Force defenders confronted a bulldozer in the forest just west of the Duvy today forcet. Defenders launched rocks and fireworks, yelling get the funk out

of the woods. As the machine was attacked. Four to five workers, likely with long engineering, hid behind the bulldozer while one Atlanta Police officer stood idly with his hands on his hips. Force defenders retreated into the woods. How polling, no arrests were made. We call upon anyone who wants to defend the forest and stop cops city to support the struggle by sewing chaos along the perimeter. Plan a slow moving car caravan on Constitution Road, or a rally

at the juvie workers and pigs. We repeat, stay the funk out of the woods unquote. And also today a new timeline was released detailing the construction plans for a cops City. The Atlanta Police Foundation plans to begin cutting down massive swaths of trees in about two weeks. The clearing is planned for nearly of the four hundred acre property, so defour stations seems to be just two weeks away now based on the full site plans that are viewable online.

I will link the plans in the show notes along with the Stop Reeves Young campaign, which details ways to assist, like calling campaigns and random stuff that is maybe more possible from afar. But the sty Copsdy project is going to continue all throughout the summer and seems to have no sign of cooling down. It is only it is only heating up as the summer gets hotter, so well the stuff in the forest in more ways than one,

But anyway, that doesn't for us. Today. You can check out stop Reeves Young dot com for the calling campaign and for the list of quote evildoers that are working to DeForest sections of the Atlanta South River Forest. You can go to scenes dot no blogs dot org to read communicates and report backs, and I'll put links for the Atlanta Solidarity Fund in the description as well. See you on the other side. Welcome to it could happen here.

It's the show with things fall apart and we put them back together again and there may may not be enormously allowed lawnmowers in the background. Yeah, this is this is This is a podcast also about abolishing lawns, although I guess I guess not to today. It's only about abolishing lawns because I'm extume we know it about neighbors. But we can we can do an anti lne episode in the near future. Yeah, one day, one day, but

but it is on on. On a more serious note, is I have Garrison with me, and I have Tanya with me, who is an abortion clinic escort and has been doing this for a very very long time. Tanya, thank you for joining us, Thank you for having me. Yeah, I'm I'm really excited to talk with you about this because, um, this is well, this is something we've been wanting to do for a while because I think not enough people

know what this is. So I guess I guess the first thing is is, Yeah, can you explain to people who aren't familiar with this what clinic escorting is. Absolutely so. There are a number of volunteer clinic escorts across the country and many are they're they're not necessarily organized nationwide, but many metro areas do have organizations where you can

volunteer to be a clinical score. And what that means is that you are essentially someone who goes to a clinic that performs abortion services and you stand outside that clinic and you help the patients get into the clinic, uh hopefully free of harassment from protesters outside, and just ensure that protesters don't block access to the clinic and that the patients are able to get inside you know, know where they're going and get insanely Yeah, and that

seems like that it seems like a really hard job

in a couple of ways. But both of the sense that like there's a bunch of extremely angry and very weird people with really signs and very sincerely held beliefs on in a different uh side where they they do want to stop people from going and convince them not to go in um, you know, and it is interesting as as a clinic escort, you know, you're you're really you don't have an opinion, Like I don't have an opinion on whether someone goes in, someone can go in,

someone cannot go in. It's not you know, where the people who do the clinic escorting are there because we believe that women and their partners should have a choice about what to do. And so if a woman chooses that she doesn't want to go into the clinic, you know, that's fine by me. I'm just there to ensure that she has the choice to go into the clinic um and and get whatever services she needs, whether it's uh,

whether it's crenatal care or contraception or abortion services. So um, it's it's fascinating because yeah, there are a lot of people. You know, the protesters on the other side can really run the gamuts. Some of them, um, are very angry and have very interesting signs, but some of them, you know, you they also range to those who are just standing there saying the Rosary, walking up and down, and the

carrying crucifixes. And you know, if it was just people saying the Rosary and then going coming saying the Rosary and going, I probably wouldn't do what I do because that's neither here nor there from me. It's the people who are you know, they will try to get in the window of a car when a car pulls up if if they happen to have the windows down and uh, you know, get in the like put their heads in the car to try to talk to the people or

hand them literature. Um And I've seen some of the literature that you know, people have shared with us after it's been given to them, you know, and it's a lot of it is full of misinformation, um and and kind of also you know, as someone who was raised Catholic. Uh and and it's coming from people many many of the people who are protesting are Catholic. It's very emotionally

manipulative and not actual information on some of them. I remember seeing one once around Christmas time that was like a whole cartoon about how excited Mary was to be Jesus mom and uh and and how therefore that means that you should not have your pregnancy terminated because you should be more like Mary and be excited too. Yeah, yeah,

pretty fascinated. Yeah, And I guess that's another thing that that I was wondering about to what extent, like so Obviously there's a physical component of this, right is okay, trying to make sure that people aren't physically interfering. Um, how much of it also is sort of like providing emotional support to the to the people you're with, sure,

because it's really stressful it can be. I mean, the clinic where I'm an escort is has a little bit of a perimeter where uh, there's there's a parking lot and between the people where they can actually protest out on the sidewalk which is public property obviously and the actual entrance to the clinic. Um. But there are people who come in off a public transport to and not necessarily aren't necessarily coming in a car where they can get sort of beyond where the protesters are um to

the clinic. And so I actually have a vivid memory. I've been doing this for sixteen years, and I have a vivid memory of a woman who came off the bus. She got down off the bus at the bus stop, like,

and the protesters really got up in her face. And one of them in particular was a guy who is I'm not a small person, I'm about five ten and and and pretty decent size, but he's definitely over six ft tall, and he was just like looming over her, and I had to physically insert myself in between her and him and say, Hey, you want to go to the clinic, this is how you get there. You don't

have to listen to these people. If you want to talk to them, you can, but you know you don't have to, and you know, and and really, you know, they're in such a fragile moment, most of them. Interestingly, that that particular individual had come to find out wasn't even coming for termination services. She was coming to get an ultrasound. She was having twins, and it was the lowest cost place that she could go to actually find an ultrasound to make sure that her twins were okay,

um and so. And she even came out afterwards with the ultrasound and like shoved it in the guy's face and was like, you know, you know, go take a flying leap, but um so, But yeah, I mean, part of it is just showing that there are people who believe that you have the right to make the choice you're making, and that we're not judging you. We're not here, you know. I think a lot of women in the position of who feel that the need to terminate a pregnancy,

they feel very judged. It's it's it's society is very judgment Bault And I think you know, being there, we have so many people who come up to us UM and just say, hey, thanks for being just thanks for being right. It's it's just helpful to know that someone is here, uh, and and and and believes that I have the right to make this decision and that I'm the best person to make this decision about me and my body and my family. UM is really it's it

makes it that much, it makes it better. And and people will come up and tell the most personal stories

as well. We've had someone who came up to me once and said, hey, no, ten years ago, my wife was pregnant UM and we had been trying for so long to have a baby, and we found out that there was this massive, you know, genetic defect that was not really compatible with life, and we had we had we faced the tough decision about do we go ahead and terminate this pregnancy and and try to start again and have it and and and get pregnant again, or do we carry this to term knowing that this child

isn't going to live um for very long and that individual, uh, you know, and his wife and decided to to terminate the existing pregnancy, knowing that the baby wasn't going to live. And he said, and uh, when we went to actually have the abortion, we had to run the gauntlet of all of those people outside, all those people like this telling us how we were killing our baby. Um, I wanted baby. You know that we were killing our child

and we were murderers and all of that. And so he was just like, just thank you for being here, thank you for being here and showing because you don't know what what's going on in the lives of all of these people who are coming in here and they don't know all what's going on. And so and he said, I really wish we had had someone like you know, you standing here to let us know that it was okay, you know, at the end that moment of time to to to do this. So, yeah, it's it's interesting people

will tell very very personal stories. The next thing I was wondering is about how how this has changed over time. I mean, yeah, you've you've been in this for like longer than I've been, like very seriously a conscious person.

So yeah, so so I'm wondering what has it been like, how how has this changed over the past sort of like a decade and a half, And has there been a change like very very recently as in in in the sort of like as as Row looks like it's dying and what do you think that's going to mean going forward for this? Yeah? Um, so yes it has changed over time. Um, and and yes it has changed very recently as well. Um, what I what I can say.

You know, when I first started doing this, it was really just kind of you know, the same hand and and it still is the same handful of usual suspects who show up at least at the clinic I escort at um. But it was really it was it was a small handful. And uh, it was the same people every week, week week, week after week after week. And um, you know on the clinic sport side, you know, we're volunteers, so you know, we need people to come and be sort of energized, and so you know, we have a

cadre of people who have been doing it. Yes, I've been doing it for sixteen years. But there's a woman that I I a sport with. There are several women that I sport with who've been doing it decades longer than I, right, and yeah, I mean really amazing, really amazing women and who probably have even more interesting stories

than I do. But you know, in the you know, we and we would see after after something happened, like when George Tiller was murdered, we had an influx of volunteers who came, people who were angry and said, you know, I was so upset and I realized I needed to do something about it. Um. So periodically there have been you know, obviously, you know, the murder of George Schiller was a tragedy, but we've had things like that that have energized people and brought them in two actually doing

clinic escorting. UM. And there's been a little bit of a pickup recently in the number of escorts, but it's nothing like the pickup that I think I've seen in terms of antis anders. And it's you know, and it's important because you know, if you really believe that people should have the right to bodily autonomy and the right to make this choice, UM, that that requires people to actually make it happen for them, and there are a

lot of people trying to make it not happen. And I actually I was actually esporting, um because the clinic esports, uh they you know, we actually change off, we have a schedule. We don't all go every week at least at the clinic where I am, because you know, we also want to have our own lives and not just

be standing at this clinic every every weekend. Um. But I was esporting the weekend after Ruth bader Ginsberg died and I was standing by myself kind of it went end well, another person went and just I think picked up a sign or took a bathroom right or something, and one of the newer anties um stood across from me and yelled at me that Ruth bader Ginsburg was was burning in hell now and that if I didn't repent, you know, that the same thing would happen to me,

and that that's just how plan that, you know, people who believe in in killing babies, uh just are going to rotten hell for eternity. And and so that was an interesting you know, and it was the first time.

Most of the time they don't really try to engage us in conversation, but it was the first time someone was really just saying super super like sort of inflammatory stuff to me as an personally, as an escort, we certainly had heard, you know, they'll they'll say things to patients where they say, you know, don't go in there, it's not safe, you're good mom to your baby, and that kind of stuff, which is also you know, obviously incredibly emotional views to women going through uh, you know

what they're going through when they feel that they have no better choice than determinate pregnancy. UM. But uh, yeah, the actual sort of the vitriol towards towards the escorts is a little is increasing UM. And I would say around the time Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, we also have seen an enormous uptick in the number of protesters outside the clinic um each each week, as well as the length of time that they will stay. UM. They actually about doubled the length of time that they should stay UM.

And so you know, it's it's been a challenge. It's been a challenge for us on the escorting side to actually cover the ships because you know, we are again we're all volunteers who have lives and want to live our lives. You know, we're women who are mothers, grandmothers, Uh men, who are you know, father's grandfathers who just

you know, want want to do something good and help out. Um. And you know, more and more of the time, Uh, we were having to stay later, come earlier, stay later, to ensure that there's someone there, that there's a there's there's a friendly or at least protective president. Uh. For the women coming into the have they gotten like have they gotten more violent? Um? You know, like I said, there's actually so for us. It's where we are in kind of the clinic where I work, are in kind

of a privileged position, so to speak. And that where they are stationed, you know, out on the sidewalk is uh is far enough away. Um, you know, across a parking lot from from the clinic that you know that the physical altered you know, interactions are are relatively rare. Um. I'm sure you know that that wouldn't really be better

A question? Better place to a clinic escort? Who's on a clinic at a clinic where you know, the entrance to the clinic is right on a public I'd walk right where I think you know, they definitely do have significantly more physical interactions. UM. I guess it's hard to say, it depends on how you define that is it there

For a long time. The one of the signs outside the clinic was a photo of of the doctor who provided the termination services, um, a photo of him and his name, and it said retire this person you know his name and the retire abortionist and then his name um. And that that showed up, I think, as I vaguely recall around the time George Schiller was was murdered. UM, So what does that mean? Right? So that's that's violent in and of itself. It's it's it's an a suggestion

there of UM. You know, I won't pretend that it's not. You know, it doesn't sometimes go through my head like you know, because there are clinic esports who have been murdered. Um. And and so it doesn't. It sometimes does go through my head, especially like you know, certain times of year when we're bundled up and it's cold. Um, you know, someone could come up behind me and I you know,

wouldn't necessarily always hear them or see them. Um. And so it is, it's you know, there's definitely always an undercurrent in a feeling of you know, something could escalate. We're fortunate at my clinic that it It hasn't too much recently, but we you know, I would say, you know, again, as Roe is dying, you know, they're getting more bold. Um. They're not supposed to trespass, they're not supposed to come

on into the parking lot. Um. And yet there are some who are really trying to test that boundary now who will go to their car not in the clinic parking lot, and then as they leave, drive into the parking lot and around the by the clinic just to sort of um, intimidate people and and and to can make the escorts concerned because obviously, you know, when we're on foot, it's very hard to get physically between them

and something when they're when they're driving, um. And so yeah, it's it's there's definitely an escalation in that front, and and an escalation in in the rhetoric. Um. You know, there are more I would say, kind of pointed signs, uh that that are used to try to intimidate the

women into not going into the clinic. There was actually there's a sign that had been used for for that actually has been used for a little bit longer, but it basically it had the names of two women who, according to the antis uh had died under the care of the services of the doctor at our clinic, which in the end, when I actually did my own research,

wasn't true. One one just very unfortunately had an allergic reaction to the anesthetic, which is not something you know unless you've been under anesthesia, and uh the other and and it wasn't and neither of them wasn't actually the provider at at our clinic who was performing the service at the time. Uh, those individuals died, but it said, you know, dead, and it had these two women's names, um and a hundred and fifty thousand babies and um,

which is a little bit inflammatory. And then it and also misleading when you think about it, because you know, the maternal more totality rate in the United States is like over twenty three women for a hundred thousands. So I was like, well, even if this is accurate, even if this sign was accurate, which is not, you know, two women out of a hundred and fifty that's way safer than actually for pregnancy UM. And you know, so it's those kinds of things. It's it's the mind games.

And you know, as someone who uh, you know has seen this for a while, Like you know, to me, the mind game is part of the violence, even though it's not physical. It's it's really you know, trying to to make people feel ashamed and feel that they shouldn't come out. And I think that you know, as as we're looking at Robe possibly being overturned, you know, you're suddenly seeing all of these people coming out of the woodwork.

Because you know, so many women in this country actually do abort a pregnancy at some point in time, do terminate a pregnancy, and yet it's not something anyone talks about because it's it's still because of the dialogue in this country, and because of the way it is portrayed.

It is something that most people, you know, I don't want to be public about, not just because of the politics of it, but because you know, there are people who are made to feel ashamed and as opposed to you know this, This was the right choice for me at this point in time. Um, And maybe under different circumstances it might have been a different choice. UM. But yeah, So I think it's hard to say whether violence has increased, um, because it's always had that undercurrent. I mean ever since

I've started, ever since I started doing. One of the things that we've talked to a few other people, we talked to someone who was doing security for sort of security plans for clinics, and one of the things they were talking about was like a shift in the kinds

of people who were getting involved in these clinics. And I'm wondering, in these clinic protests, like I wonder, have have you have you seen like I don't know, they were talking about, like there's been some specifically fascist groups getting involved, and I was wondering if like the kinds of people who've you've seen have been like that, or like, you know, in terms of the new people who are getting involved, are they closer to like the kinds of

people you usually see see outside these clinics. So that's actually an interesting point that I hadn't I hadn't thought too much about. But I think, you know, the previously, you know, when I first started doing this, it tended to be kind of your older Catholic uh folks who are you know, coming and saying the rosary, you know, uh, standing there with the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, like in front of the clinic and um and and

you know, some could be pushy. Um, but I think it is accurate to say there is actually a younger element of anti abortion protester or anti choice really because in the end it's really about the choice, not and and so I think, yes, I'm seeing younger and younger people. And it's interesting that you mentioned that because a lot of them are men. Uh, they're young, almost almost entirely white. There is a few a handful of people of color,

but um, they they tend to come very very rarely. Um. And you know, the it's interesting, So it was largely older white men and women previously, and now I would say there are many more younger men getting involved, a few women. But when for most of the young and when I say young, I would say, you know, well, while for the for the clinic I'm at, I would

say anyone under probably the age of forty. But you know, also, um, you know, really when when you know, even under the age of thirty or twenty five, it's with the exception of one, it's met it is it is white men. Um. And uh, yeah, so that's that's interesting. I hadn't It's quite possible. Um, certainly there are some that but you know, we as clinic escorts are not actually engaging these individuals

and conversation. That's not something that you know, we have to sign pledges that were you know, at least for the for the organization that we volunteer with, that we're not going to engage in conversation with them. That we're not, you know, because no one you know, and I guess this is sort of the whole point of your podcast. No one is going to change each other's minds on this issue, right um, and you know over over the parking lot, uh and and one uh, you know sort

of interaction. So we actually we we don't and we actively don't because we we just you know, it's it's not worth it. We're there. The point of being there is not to try to get to know the other the the anti choice demonstrators, it's not to try to you know, change their minds. It's just to ensure that the women who have made their decision are able to freely access the health care services that they have made the decision access. Yeah, that makes a lot of that.

That's definitely seems like the like, it definitely seems like the best strategy for this. It seems like something that like other people could learn from as like a tactic to deal with this kind of stuff, because yeah, and

engaging with those people. It doesn't I have limited experience with this, but they showed up to my well, okay, show up to my high school, but then they also show up to my college, and we just like that they were trying to like get in use footage, and so we wound up just like sitting down in front of the like just sitting down in front of their signs so people couldn't see them, and then just like refusing to talk to them, And that I think worked a lot better than like, I don't know a lot

of the other stuff that I've seen, because yeah, like definitely right, like yeah, like you're not gonna those people, Like yeah, like just there's no way you're gonna change the mind of like someone if you's holding a sign there. And I guess that's also another thing that that that it's interesting about this, which is yeah, like it's like your your emphasis on it's not about the audiological debate as much as it is, like it's not about like

you going to confront these people. It's about making sure that the people who need these services are safe and are able to do it, and that that seems like a very powerful way to sort of like bypass this, Like I don't know, bypass is weird like discourse circuit that everyone gets in. Yeah, I mean I think you know what I what I can tell you. I mean, listen, I would love to sleep in on my Saturday mornings.

I don't. I don't like to to get up and give up, you know, you know, two to four hours of my Saturday um, you know, in the freezing rain or the you know wind and cold auran a really hot some more day and and get up out of bed to do that. But you know, on you know, there are cold winter mornings and I'm like, oh gosh, it's it's early. I'm that that alarms awfully early and

it's really cold outside. But I always just in my mind, the thing that I tell myself is you never know who's coming in today, who just needs to see you

and just needs to see someone there too. You know, whether it's to give her the directions because she's so distraught after having to drive or walk by a number of protesters telling her how she's you know, going to regret her decision and how she's a terrible human being and she's a killer, and she's at this, she's a slut, she's a whole earld whatever, you know, whatever the message that someone in that um situation gets by walking past those protesters, um, you know, I never know who needs

to just see me there, and whether it's that she just needs directions because she's so distraught after going through, you know, running that gauntlet, that she's kind of lost her bearings and she's Okay, which door do I need to go in? How do I do this? Or actually just needs to see you know, a friendly face or you know, have someone tell her that it's okay to

not listen to what they have to say to her. Um, and it's okay to not internalize that, which you know, UM, I think it is probably very very hard when you're already in a somewhat emotionally frauds because how could how could people who want to start escorting what what would be the best way that they could go about doing that? Or learning more information about how to do it and the different places that that allow it and well not not allowed, but like the different places where different groups

that help facilitate uh this type of work. Yeah, so I mean, I think there there isn't necessarily that I'm aware of one sort of national site, but I think, UM, a lot of individual sort of local providers have clinic escorts. UM. I know that if you most like most, if not many, Planned parenthoods will have um, you know, a clinic escort program. And so I think you know, sometimes your best that maybe just to google you know, clinic escort in my area or contact a provider in your area to say, hey,

how do I get involved? Um, because you know, at least in my area where I where I live, there is one that sort of covers the area, but it is by no means nationwide, and there definitely are sort

of localized groups that do it. So I think it may be just a matter of reaching, you know, googling the clinic escorts or reaching out to your local Planned parenthood or if there's another abortion provider in your community that isn't planned PARENTO, because there are still many that are not in parented uh that you know they may And I guess my other thing is so for people who for whatever reason can't to escorting but want to help support, I mean it basically people who want to

support the providers and the people who need these services, UM is like, yeah, what what would you recommend that

they do? So there are also similarly to to those those groups, there's UM there's abortion funds throughout the country UM that whether you know, many of them are you know, sort of dedicated to individual areas, like local areas, but you can look up the abortion fund in your area and that is a you know, an organization that will actually take donations from from individuals who want to help UM and provide sir, you know, provide financial support to

women who are seeking abortion, whether they it's because they have to travel out of state, uh or to somewhere even within their state but not where they live in order to to actually obtain an abortion UM. And you know, because many women who are are seeking seeking termination services, they can't always pay for them, you know, especially if

they're publicly insured. You know, a lot of public insurance, you know, federal dollars cannot be spent on abortion services, and so they can also help pay for the abortion for those individuals, if you It's it's a little bit um tougher now that we're in you know, sort of

in the midst of coronavirus pandemic. There are some organizations that also if you live in an area that where there are providers and there are people potentially traveling from out of state, especially if you're in an area where there is a provider who provides um, you know what they call, you know, later term services for people who you know, find out that there's a major genetic abnormality along far into the pregnancy or whatever and they need

to term their pregnancy. UM, you know, there are organizations that will actually help you volunteer to house them or provide even transportation services to and from appointments if if you so choose. But then you know, there's also all of the sort of national if if you're looking to kind of get more you know, involved at the sort

of overarching national legal level. UM. Certainly there are a number of organizations, whether it's you know, the Planned Parenthood Federation or may Rail or any of those organizations that you could certainly don't to as well. Yeah, we will, we will will put some of the links in in theset description. And I'm sure that there are many things I forgot, but those are the ones that jump to

mind right now. People listening to this, please like go help in whatever way you can, because like, if like if a wition services continue to be a thing where them existing is a small number of volunteers, they're not going to So yeah, please please do that. Yeah, Tanya, Tanya, thank you, thank you so much for joining us, Thank you for having me. Yeah. Yeah, this has been Make it happen here. Uh yeah, it's happening here. Do the things that you can do to make sure it doesn't.

Oh yeah, it could happen here. It being a podcast hosted by myself, Christopher Wong and the minute It's inimitable, Amena, but blah blah blah blah blah, and Andrew, Andrew High, you're in charge. Thank you. Thank I almost stuck that landing. I was so still not sucking it up. Are you guys proud the way there being consistent and I consisted, I mean that you funked it up again, I'm proud. Yeah. I shouldn't have tried to say inimitable. That was that

that was always going to be a disaster. Yeah, it was, it was. It was. It was like one of those gymnastics landings where it's like they landed and then both your feet go in the ground and they jump and they fall. Yeah, it's very impressive stuff like that. When yeah, well all right, Andrew, what do you? What do you? What do you? What do you? What do you? What do you? What do you got for us today? Right? So for this UM, this this episode's topic. UM. The

story begins with reddittun god, that's not a great sign. Well, reddits and Twitter? Yeah, the the two horsemen UM and the discourse that occurred on those sites. Uh a while ago UM, particularly related to like infrastructure and infrastructure under anarchis right. I mean, we all know the basic principles a society UM related to autonomy allow people to define themselves and organize themselves on their own terms. UM horizontalism.

You know, people able to organize so that no one dominates anyone else and no one exercises power UM move others. Mutual aid, so the people able to help one another voluntarily, their bonds of solidarity and networks of generosity that keep the social fabric together. You know. Free association allows people to cooperate with who they want to and how they see fit and also converously you know, refuse and disassociate when needs to be. Yeah, that's a key one that

people don't emphasize it. Yeah, the free disassociation to not be associated it with certain people. Yeah yeah, I mean, because you can't freely associate. If you don't have the option to freely disassociate, it's like running into a cage and then you can't exit. Everyone should be able to

move freely as well. Can emphasize which is I think one of the things that radicalized me most was, um, the existence of borders, because to me, at least, like when you're born, you know, you have this spawn point, and it seems absurd to me that your spawn point should have so much control over you know, the outcome of your life, you know, what rights and stuff you enjoy, and where you can and can't go freely because none

of us have a choice in that matter. You know, we can't exactly choose our parents or choose or you know, neighborhood or where we grew up whatever. And of course, borders of the national kind of the only ones. And I guess suppose you know, um you also put as bort as related to gender and race and citizenship, and well that's relates to borders. But yeah, and so how anarchists proposed we get to this society is first and foremost the people liberating themselves. The concept of self liberation.

So people and not even speaking just in terms of workers, you know, speaking in terms of gender and sexual minorities, speaking to terms of racial groups, um, speaking in terms of disabled people. You know, they must be at the forefront of their own liberation. Freedom cannot be given, it

has to be taken. And so through direct action, which is when we directly act, without the middle channels of authorities representatives, we make those changes for ourselves, and through other methods we pursue the world that we wish to live in, which is the whole prefigurative process of building

a new in the shell of the old. And so I think part of the issue when it comes to discussions of anarchism and infrastructure and supply lines and all these different things, is that, um, I think people have this misconception. There's this real strange idea of what an anarchist revolution looks like. Um, where you know, we flip

a switch just overnight and boom anarchist society. We have nothing in place, We have no organizations or systems or networks in places, just boom, staff of fingers and all of a sudden we are all living under anarchy. But in reality, um, you know, as Kirpotkin expressed, there's no fallacy as harmful as the fallacy the One day revolution. Obviously there's going to be a transition. UM. In fact, a lot of people like to define anarchism as an

ongoing process moving food and food towards the ideal of anarchy. UM. The whole idea is not whether or not there will be a transitional society or kind of transition that will be. And so in this period of transition is when we would be engaging in the different forms of social experimentation to UM manifest you know, anarchist principles in every facet

of life. And of course this is a process will involved engaging with local conditions and UM local people and allowing those communities, those individuals to the two in for themselves, what structures and systems are put in place. Part of the struggle is going to involve mirroring the society that we wish to create. So for our final goal is you know, communistic and archistic society. That our methods must be communistic kind as an artistic as possible, basic you know,

duality of means and ends. So when we speak of supply lines, when we speak of infrastructure, the reality is that existing infrastructure is not going to disippay overnight. Were are starting from complete scratch. This isn't a new you know, minecraft world that we have to go and punch some trees and start society all over again. Revolution is destructive, but it's also constructive and transformative. So I mean, we're not going to get rid of all experts and all expertise.

We're not going to be floundering to figure out how to make penicillin. You know, people in all fields and all industries and all layers and all um you know backgrounds are going to be involved in the process, you know, adapting their work places, adapting the industries towards sustainable and

anarchic ends. And it's a process that is going on now and will continue because if you know, we look at at revolution as a combination of I think Eric Ollen right, he had in his book Envisioning Real Real Utopias three basic concepts of transformation. You had ruptural transformation, interstitial transformation, and symbiotic transformation. And so interstitial revolution is

basically the idea. Um It's basically a mirror of you know, prefigurative politics as a theoretical means of societal transformation through progressively and strategically enlarging spaces of social empowerment and ruptural transformation is of course, I guess, the dichotomy between the insurrectionists and everybody else, you know, where you have these moments of social outposts, these moments of rupture, where social forms and social developments you know, undertaken and we sort

of figure out how we are, or rather we directly fight back against you know, the systems are in place. I think rupture is one of the more exciting forms. It's a kind of form of revolution that people tend to think of when they think of the tomb revolution, this idea of you know, all these this is this massive people that's crowd of people storming the bastille or whatever. Um. But the real work of transformission is the stuff that occurs,

you know, prior to and post those moments of rupture. Well, I I one of the terms I tend to like that I've been thinking and reading about a lot is is shatter zones. And these are this is like the post rupture, right, These are the areas where state power kind of collapses, or at least pieces of state power collapse, and it's you know, the the shatter zones were kind of you you see, the state retreat in the wake of a rupture are where very terrible things tend to happen,

but they are also these zones of possibility. You know. It's the places. It's the kind of place where you you can get an ethnic cleansing, and it's the kind of place where you can get um rojava, you know, like it's it's there. They're these kind of zones of possibility in the wake of of rupture, and I think that's you know, a lot of the a lot of the revolutionary kind of um imagery focuses on on the rupture, but the future is decided in the shatter zones, you know. Yeah.

And I think what people miss as well is the stuff that builds up to those you know, shatter zoons, which is that their organizations, their affinity groups, their networks and structures in place that are able to support those zoons, that are able to you know, when those ruptures are could support the people taking part in those fights and

expand you know, those zoons of possibilities. Yeah, I mean This is the kind of thing where like if you're looking at what what causes the difference between you know, these disastrous, uh like disasters that happened kind of in the wake of a rupture, horrible crimes against humanity, and situations where something better gets built. Like again to use

the example of Rajava. The reason why that happened there and why isis didn't win in that terrain is that groups of activists had been organizing in a variety of ways for years in that area, and so when the state collapsed, there were armed groups, and those armed groups were supported by farming cooperatives and groups of people who had been organizing to provide supplies to each other and um like community organizations like focused on social like development

and aid like there was. It's it's yeah, there's an exactly exactly and that's that's what when you know, things fall down and you could catch Yeah. And I think that's also because there's another way this can go to where it's like you get a lot of moments where you know, like like May sixty eight in France looks like this right where like like the like the prime minister at the present, I forget what deal was at

that time. But that's like you like literally like the country's leaders are flying out of the country on helicopters because I think everything is going to collapse and then it just sort of doesn't. And I think one of one of the ways you get you get this period that looks like rupture but then everything sort of closes back up in on itself is if those networks aren't strong enough and you don't have some kind of sufficient level of organization, like there there isn't there isn't anything.

It's like it's like you have these moments where the state is discredited but there's nothing to replace it, and then the and the sort of void, the void isn't strong enough to just sort of like have the state collapsed entirely. And so what you guys at this moment where it looks like everything is going to change and then nothing happens. And I think that's also a product

of essentially the same thing. It's just depending on the strength of the state, you can get very different sort of outcomes from these moments where sometimes it's able to restabilize it self, sometimes it isn't. Right, Yeah, And I think we kind of saw that in a way with protests where you had this massive, massive rupture, probably the largest one of the largest American history. Um yeah, people

in the streets and cities all over the country. Um it's what's the vast majority of them were just peaceful marches, but you also did have some like serious movements of rupture,

like in Minneapolis and stuff. And I mean look at us, you know, two years later, and while they are you know, more community organizations, I think they're more people who are a bit more conscious, with more whale who are you know, radicalized and expanded their knowledge through that rupture, things basically went back to the way they were in a lot of ways and other ways, you know, police budgets were

just increased. I think there was a current with the analogy but I'll just go to the analogy of like a hydro, where you know, the state, whatever it's attacked and stuff, it's able to just restore itself, just able to recover itself and able to like adapt to those sorts of attacks. I remember reading in Tone of Everything where the David's were talking about how the state they're

using the example the American state. They were saying, you know, the American state of right is completely different in a lot of ways from the American state of the two thous you know, because the the state and statecraft is constantly evolving, constantly expanding, constantly responding to you know, the conditions that they face. We saw what happened in the twentieth century, you know, the different movements that I could in that time, the state was able to respond to

those movements and adjust itself accordingly. And so obviously when we have these ruptures, we have these you know, moments of struggle, and obviously the times in between where we are prefiguring um robust systems and alternative institutions that can support people those moments of rupture. Um. Part of that isn't going to involve you know, defense, and the sue is not, oh, well, how you defend revolution? Christ to want to defend revolution, They don't know how to defend revolution.

But rather part of defending it is defending it from people's attempts to seize power from the masses, from the working class. Two you know, cipher and that energy and use it for the ends of smaller group, smaller class of you know, whether it being partties or whatever the

case may be. Yeah, there's something there I think you're going back to like thinking about borders and freedom of movement, because if you look at like both the USSR and China do this very quickly, which is that, okay, so you you you you have the communist revolution, okay, and theoretically class and power, and then like the first thing they do is set up in turn of border controls and these like like I mean in China that they're

technically like the the prohibition on movement is like technically over, but the like the household registration system still exists, and it's still determines whether you where you can get benefits and how you get benefits and whether you can live in a say and like what like how what's so security you can access? Can you buy houses? Things like that,

like that kind of stuff. If if you're not if if what you're doing is just putting a group of people in power and not actually putting you know, like if you want to talk about it in class terms, right, it's like, okay, either the actual working class governs itself, like the class in the entirety collectively makes decisions, or you've just created to do like buacrat class. And if you wind up with a new baruracract classes like yeah,

immediately look at what happens. It's like, oh, hey, a bunch of people have now decided that, like you can't leave your home province because you don't have the right registration. And it's like okay. It's like that kind of reminds me what you were saying about, you know, if all the looking classes was met with the steam reminds you of the video I was watching last night actually from this Youtuba Anak Daniel Brian Um and he was talking about I believe how the state is necessarily um exclusive.

If everybody holds power, then the state necessarily um must be wiped out, must be wipe to it. If not, it's going to try to reclaim its monopoly on power, it's monopoly on violence. UM. It cannot exist without people

under it, you know. And so as you know, we are engaging in this as we are you know, organizing strikes, creating networks of activists, creating assemblies UM, creating you know, self financed schools and social centers and co operatives and all these different forms of infrastructure that can weather and exists under capitalism, but serve as prefigurations of all potential beyond capitalism. And so I guess the pivot um back to the topic I was speaking of in the beginning

with regard to infrastructure. You know, all of history books and stuff, general history books tend to speak of the government, centralized government, states and souff arising all do they need to build and maintain like these big infrastructure projects. They

tend to use example of irrigation. It's taken for granted, you know, staken as a given that bureaucracies and such were necessary for organizing these large populations, and that while you know, the Galter and principles may thrive in a small scale, they just cannot scale up when populations get

any bigger than like a small band of people. But what we do know is that complex rural irrigation systems and the Galter and urban decision making systems have occuld in you know, human history, that our answers were able to organize those those institutions without the state, without a centralized body, with a h with with cosive you know, authority.

There's also like this implicit assumption, you know, when people make these assolutions, that societies must necessarily grow and endlessly grew, and that we cannot choose to limit our scale in any way to avoid centralization, to enhance eqalitarianism. You know, we can't skeeal ourselves down to more manageable levels a d growth um. And as we've see, that's just not true. You know, we are capable of making those shifts. You know, large scale projects like irrigation or or you know, supply

lines and stuff. They do require coordination, but coordination is not synonymous with the state. Coordination is not synonymous with hierarchy. Yeah, and that's something that's interest It's interesting to me the way people, like how badly people think about that because like even even even in terms of sort of like im berking tal is trade right, like that kind of like long range coordination, long range like moving goods across the world has like it's but mostly not been states

doing that. Like it's you know, and you can talk about like, okay, whatever, it's like it's however, you sort of want to think about the market mechanisms here, but like, yeah, like people have been people, people have been moving stuff from one side of the world to the other, like essentially without the state having anything to do with it for like as long as there have been people exactly.

I think that's one of the things that frustrates me most about the discourse about like any kind of post capitalism, is this um this purposefully. I think in a lot of cases like malignant ly um inaccurate um attitude that like the idea of people like exchanging goods and services

is fundamentally capitalist. That the idea of people like organizing that the that like a factory right is something that has to be has to be either organized under capitalist models or under state socialist models exactly as if people haven't done it in other ways. Right, this is not theoretical. We're not like trying to pose it like, well maybe it could work this way. It's like, no, motherfucker's have

done this. Yeah, we have practical examples even, Yeah, because stuff like the mon Dragon Corporation and whatnot, Like it's not um, it's like it's this is not like theoretical stuff that we're talking about. I was thinking more long lines of what happened in Argentina. Yeah, yeah, you don't something going back as you know, like the CNT get into Yeah yeah, yeah, like that's something. Well, I mean, I think I think part of what's happening there is.

It's like, yeah, like people have run factories in other ways, and every single time they try to do it, every other political faction on Earth sets out, set aside all their political which just goes and tries to kill them, and it's like this is not that's that's true. That's true. I'm also reminded of the fact that you know part of what happened and probably assue that you know, it

could in Argentina and as I could elsewhere. Um is this concept that I think Michael albert Um talks about a lot, this idea how they coordinates a class and the issues that arise out of that sort of coordinates a class, And so I think part of that sort of organization is going to involve confronting that, you know, we tend to think of it in terms of, you know, the capitalist ownership and getting rid of the capitalist but there's you know, a lot more play than than just

just the capitalist kind of the firm is the firm. I think it's also like this sort of assumption that people aren't capable of like taking any kind of you know, I think there's this kind of way to submition that people aren't capable of taking initiative that people aren't capable of of, you know, um, seeing the needs around them and organizing to fulfill them. So when people end up, you know, trying to do these scultures and stuff with archists like oh well, how are you going to do

with garbage? It's like people don't like garbage around them, you know, which is why we have a sanitation system, which is why we have corbage disposal systems in place. But you know, under this system, because everything is all the costs of you know, our consumption and stuff are externalized and hidden, people don't have to think about the ways that you know, our actions are affecting our local

um you know ecosystem. You know, we see that we pay other countries to or at least one like I say a week um, the US, the USPS, other countries.

I mean, we have a problem and in turned out as well, where all of our waste um just gets dumped like right next amount groove and there's a community right opposite the highway where the dump is located, and you know they burnt garbage day and it's like the bunt garbage is like a constant smell of boont garbage around that community and it's of course the most impoverished community in the country, and it's it's a whole thing. Um,

But I digress. You know, when we aren't able to just you know, externalize the costs of you know, how we live, communities are able to you know, notice how to you know, who notice the problem and figure out who used to handle it, you know, whether it be um small rewards people who volunteer to you know, deal with trash um or you know, just there's people who enjoy doing that as well, you know, UM and the same goes for other undesirable jobs or you know, people

have decided to go on like a routating basis. And the reality is, you know, we don't have to like define our lives around a career, so you know, a person doesn't have to be entirely like a garbage collector. On top of that, you know, as we scale down the mount of garbage we produce, that task would become you know, less and less necessary. Yeah, so you know what waste infrastructure people are able to take care of that.

You know, we can't externalize those sorts of issues. UM with food infrastructure, you know, we're able to like for example, in in the title Hills region of what is now Kenya. You know, people were able to create these complex irrigation systems that you know, lasted hundreds of years before you know, colonial states moved in and ended these agricultural practices. You know, the back then, you know, the households would share the day to day means and the uns of that irrigation infrastructure.

You know, everyone will take care of the part of the infrastructure that was closest where they lived. And you know, as it was commons, people enjoyed it in common, people maintained it in common, people benefited in common. People will also come together um periodically for like major repairs. And it was a form of collective, socially motivated rule work that we see in many other you know, essentialized societies.

And often he had um conversations where I often read about, you know, these different societies and even on the capitalism you have communities that you know, when someone needs somewhere to live, the whole community gets together and helps them build their house. And when someone else needs somewhere to live, you know, everyone gets together and builds their houps and so on and so forth. You know, people already doing

this in parts of the world. These systems already in place in parts of the world, these sort of reciprocal networks of of of support UM. And I mean whether you're talking transportation or power, or communications, or housing or food or healthcare, there's a precedent set. You know. These presidents may have certain flows, but we could study them, we can learn from them, and we could establish something better. You know. For example, like as we mentioned earlier in

Anarchists Spain, Right and Felt. During the Spanish Civil War, Barcelona's Medical Syndicate, which is organized largely by anarchists, managed eighteen hospitals, six of which they had created, seventeen sanatoriums, twenty two clinics, six psychiatric established ones, three nurseries, and one motility hospital. Whenever they had a request, the syndicate would send doctors to places in need, because medicine was considered to be in suis of the community, not the

other way around. You know. Funds these clinics would come from the contributions of like local municipalities, and this syndicate UM had a health workers union that included eight thousand health workers dying, operated three six health centers and distributed through Catalonia and fried Health get to everyone in the region. And these syndicates would send delegates you know, um to Barcelona and they would be able to deal with common

problems and implement common plans. But every department was both autonomous but also not isolated, so they supported one another where needs to be and under the CNT. You know, we also see like lands being taken by peasants syndicates um, who would organized properties and allow equal community to take care of you know, their land and their animals and

you know, their crops as needs be. Yeah, there were something I've been the more I've read about it, the more impressed I've been with the way that I guess you would call it like the like the anarchists in Spain like did basically did a universal healthcare program in one year in the middle of the civil war, and like you know, and like the I think the other thing about it that that was important is it like they were able to, like they had this whole program

that was about like sending like sending doctors into the countryside to get to like into committees that have never

actually had regular access to medical care before. And they're able to do this extremely quickly and had a system the benefits of which are like enormously better than like basically like if you can go find I'm forgetting the exactly, but like you can go find like their their their policy for like how much time off you can get for like an injury and stuff, and it's like, yeah, you can take you can get like six months, eight months off at like full pay, like people family will

be provided for. Like they had. They had all of this just like incredible, like health care infrastructure. They they're able to set up like really really fast. Yeah, yeah, because they also had you know, these regional federations of different collectives and they were able to basically you know, distributes surplus goods and distribute as you said, healthcare, and you know, basically pool infrastructure so that everybody are the

pool resources so that everybody was able to benefit. You know, they often pool resources for things where you know areas well unevenly developed, you know, so that you know, more um developed regions able to help other regions improve their infrastructure, you know, build roads and canals and hospitals as this.

When I read about you know, what happened Cantonia, I'm not seeing they were perfect they definitely had a lot of issues when I read what what happened there, you know, in the midst of a civil war, Um, the possibilities that room present and what could have potentially happened further along, Um,

you know, it's it's it's very inspiring. Yeah, And I think it goes back to the sort of the the point we've been we've been talking about, which is that like the capacity to provide care for people, the capacity to do stuff like this exists in our society, right. It's not something that has to be just sort of just like completely manufactured from the ground up. It's just that the capacity is not being used to actually like

give to the benefits of people what they need. Is like, well, okay, it's not a it's it's it's it's less like a process of just completely reconstructing the society and more a process of like, hey, why don't we use the resources we already have to do the things that are like

actually useful. And people for some reason think that likes being true if you don't have a state, and it's like no, like the state disappearing to every single doctor suddenly vanishes from the face of the earth, Like yeah, it doesn't mean every single salentation we suddenly disappears every single construction we because suddenly disappears every single like every

every teach us and disappears every Yeah. Yeah, like I said, we're not starts and from like a new Minecraft food you know, you not to go and kill the end of dragon and all that. But um, I mean, I guess that's a that's a good place to wrap up. Basically, we have these possibilities we always have, UM and in a lot of ways, the state and you know, capitalism and all these other um manifestations of hierarchy holding us back. They're preventing us from reaching all full creative the full

unleashing of our creative potential as people. Yeah, we should do that instead of this. Yeah, we should do this instead of that, you know, rather, we should do that instead of this. Yeah. Well, Andrew, thank you so much. Where can where can people follow you? I believe I believe you just put out a new a new video

this week if I'm remembering correctly. Yes, I don't know if they will hear this episode before my next video is out, um, but um you can find me on YouTube dot com slash Andrewism and you can find me on Twitter at under school saying true. Awesome. Alright, well go start a hospital. Lookt hi everybody, Wow, you served Jesus Sharne. Oh, I thought that's what Sophie said I should do. I should I know you did that. You did the right thing. I'm the one being an asshole here. Okay,

well this is Sharine. This is also what can happen here. It's a podcast that happens every day that I am now on. Um, what is it about again? It's about everything happening here. Yes, it's about everything happening here. And this week's episode is about my neighbor Dave, who appears to be gardening. No, that's not what this show is about. I'm sorry. No, society is crumbling and how maybe we could put it back to here? There it is? That's what. Yeah,

that's what. That's what is Wantinginess is going to take lead today. But we also have Christopher Long, Robert Evans, and it is me Sophie. Yes, that's good to see that. This is what I'm going to keep in mind next time if I ever have to do this again. Like what in trowing this show means? But it is a daily show so I have a lot of opportunities to get this right. Um yeah. I wanted to do something

a little different today. So hopefully the listeners are okay with it, be easy on me well, and if they're not, we will simply club them into submission. Um yeah, Well I appreciate that. Um. I live for violence. That is why we've spent half of our years podcasting budget on

she ailes Um. But I wanted to take a couple episodes to talk about something very important that I don't think it's not a lot like enough news coverage, and I want to talk about Palestine, and this first episode I wanted to focus on how bias these coverages as far as depicting what's happening in Palestine in Israel. So that's what we're gonna talk about today. So are you ready? Are you all strapped in? I'm gonna start talking at

you guys for a long time. Oh yeah, okay. At the height of the war between the Israeli military and Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip, New York Times ran an article headlined Israel says that Hamas uses children's shields,

reviving debate. It was a reference to the hundreds of Palestinian civilians who have been killed in the Israeli attacks by that point in the war, and there was no question about who had killed them, yet the language shifted the subject to a debate about who was really responsible.

A few weeks earlier, after an Israeli air strike had killed several Palestinian soccer fans, the Times ran another absurd title titled Missile at beachside Gaza Cafe finds patrons poised for the World Cup, and they later found the poise just sitting there. It's amazing people talk about the exonerative case in like journalism, and it it appears to apply

to the Israeli military and American cops. Yes, exactly, um And they did later ament this title because they had like a widespread like backlash and discussed that was expressed

on social media. It only changed after that. But the whole point is that headlines matter, and it's the first and sometimes only exposure the general public has two world events, and especially like now, I believe that in our current time, the words at the top of that page or like sometimes the only words that show up in a hyperlink are more important the articles themselves, because sometimes it's all people see before they keep on scrolling UM, and in

the case of Israel and Palestine, UH, inappropriate, misleading and biased headlines like those that appeared in The New York Times that I just mentioned have been all too common, accepted and treated as accurate reporting and quote unquote journalism. UH. In twenty and nineteen, there was a study titled fifty Years of Occupation that was published by four one six Labs, which is a research and data data analytics firm based

in Canada. This firm analyzed nearly a hundred thousand news headlines about the conflict and the American press over the past five decades and found that the Israeli point of view surprise surprise, was featured much more prominently than the Palestinian one, and that references to Palestinians experiences of being refugees or living under occupation that word especially, that has

steadily declined over time. So one of the studies authors, Ohi sahre He, told The Intercept that the findings demonstrate a persistent bias and coverage of the Israeli Palestinian issue, one where Israeli narratives are privileged and where despite the continued entrenchment of the occupation. The very topics remain to

the Palestinians day today, reality have disappeared. It calls to attention the need to more critically evaluate the scope of coverage of the Israeli occupation and recognize that readers are getting, at best, a heavily filtered rendering of the issue. So this study analyzed fifty years of news headlines on the Israeli Palestine conflict. I put that in quotes, I feel like conflict is suggested equal. Uh, also like understating it. Yes, come, yeah,

it's very Uh, it's understating what's that. Actually it's happening, and it just depicts a a somehow neutral playing field. But it's not. But the study analyzed fifty years of headlines from five major American publications, The Chicago Tribune, the l A Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. It employed this thing called natural language processing or n lp UM, and these techniques are used to analyze massive databases of headlines published over

this period. NLP is a big data analysis approach used to identify statistical trends and patterns and large caches of text. In this case, researchers analyzed nearly a hundred thousand headlines and identified dozens of frequently recurring terms and word sequences

and stories about Israel and Palestine. While studies of media coverage Israel and Palestine have been conducted before, this one by the four one six Labs analysis is the largest and most comprehensive look at headline coverage since the occupation began in and they're finding show a clear slant towards

the Israeli perspective. Headlines like the one that I mentioned earlier from New York Times about civilian deaths in Gaza that used the term Israel says where two and a half times more likely to appear than headlines citing Palestinian equivalents. Headlines centering Israel were published four times more than those centering Palestinians, and words connoting violence such as terror appeared

three times more than the word occupation. And since nineteen sixty seven, that's the year that the Israeli military took control of the West Bank, there has been an eighty five percent overall decrease in the mention of the term occupation and headlines about Israel, despite the fact that the Israeli militaries occupation of the Palestine territory has in fact intensified over this time, and the mention of the term Palestinian refugees, meanwhile has declined a massive And while this

is maybe subtle from the outside, it's just a consistent disproportion of article headlines which by default gives a greater airtime to one side and avoid certain key issues, and this obviously can impact public perception. Yeah, I mean it's very noticeable ones you realize what the biases looking, especially on like social media and stuff. When you see just

just the headline of an article, it's it's it's obvious. Yeah, it's it's just I don't know, Like what you have is a a conflict where one side is treated like a military force and the other side is treated like um, almost like weather like. That's that's almost how they write about when the Israeli military does something, it's like like like a thunderstorm came in right, like it's nobody's fault.

This is just what happened, you know, like the palaceine that you know, the Hamas or whatever, that's like a military force, and so we talk about them the way that we talk about you know, a military force carrying out a strike or something. But but the Israeli military is like it's like with a weather right, like there's nothing to be there's no blame to go around. It

just rained, you know. Yeah, and also like legitimizes Israel and like the legitimizes any kind of force that Palestine exerts because it's like shown in this like yeah, like a militant terrorist lens um when I was just acting

in self defense. It's interesting because the US media actually does a better job of discussing the US military as if it actually can be like guilty of crimes, Like the New York Times in particular has done some like not that there's not still problems with it, but they it's like there's there's something unique about the way they write about Israel that I guess not quite unique, because they do often write about police in a similar way,

but it's it's very peculiar that it's like, I don't know, Yeah, there's definitely a lot of crossover with US police and Israel and more ways than one. Yes, they trained them first of all, but also just like the way and I'll talk more about this later, but the fact that there are so many videos like blatantly showing like brutal acts against like humanity or like just brutalism in Britain in general, and like they still get away with it.

It just shows that they know there's no punishment, they know that there's a certain amount of immunity because they have big brother America to always fucking get their back. But yeah, despite this ongoing American involvement, the total volume of US media coverage about the conflict has been in

an overall decline since the Oslo Peace Accords. This was a negotiate agreement between the then Palestine leader Yasser Arafat and then Israeli Prime Minister yet Daike Raban, and it was intended to establish conditions for peace in the region. The decline and use coverage says little about the conditions on the ground because they didn't get better. But the hopes that were briefly raised by this Oslo piece accord effectively died. After an Israeli extremists assassin, they had Rabine

and a new hardline Israeli leader, Benjamin and Yahoo. He took power and since then, the Israeli military their occupation of the West Bank, has only expanded, with new settlements eating away at the remaining areas of Palestinian control, even while global media attention has declined. And it's not just American media that shows a clear bias that favors Israel.

British media coverage on the violence and Palestine is also very biased against Palestinians, which in turn skews public perception internationally. The Muslim Council of Britain's Center for Media Marketing, the CFMM, published a forty four page report that was titled media Reporting on Palestine one. And this report came after two weeks of violence in which Israeli police cracked down on protests against the eminent evictions of Palestinians and the occupied

East Jerusalem neighborhood of Schecha. This report came after two weeks of violence in which Israeli police cracked down on protests against the eminent eviction of Palestinians and the Occupi hid East Jerusalem neighborhood of schechtered off and the subsequently attacked Palestine you worshippers and at the Luxe Mosque, and that wounded hundreds. I don't know if you guys remember, but in one last year there was a lot of

violence occurring in Palestine. There was more coverage than usual, especially covering Schechtera, and obviously news headlines didn't always come out in an even handed way. But the brutal escalation of violence that followed as rockets were fired from Gaza and Israeli air strikes on the besieged enclave, it killed at least two hundred and forty eight Palestinians, including sixty

six children. The occupied West Bank in East Jerusalem, twenty nine Palestinians were killed, and the rockets fired from Gaza

killed twelve people in Israel. The CFMM stated that between May seven and um that's twenty when a ceasefire was announced, there were sixty two thousand, four hundred online print articles in nearly eight thousand television broadcast reporting on the events, and this report found that the narrative was extremely unbalanced due to quote skewed language, misleading headlines, and problematic framing.

Razwanna Hamid, the director of CFMM and the co author of this report, told The Middle East I that the overwhelming amount of complaints that was received by the maunchoring organization about the biased media coverage in Britain um covering the events in Palestine. It aligned with the analysis and evidence that this is all skewed and it makes sense to get defensive when being rightfully called out, um just to kind of talk a little bit about sex really quick.

This report cited several examples of media referring to the situation and sea which the situation was Palestinians being forcibly removed from their homes. Um. They called this an eviction or a real estate dispute, which implies a legal basis for these forced displacements, when in reality it was a viola, a violation of international law. So that's minimizing it to

an extreme. UM. It also found that fifty of broadcast media clips between May seven and May t referred to quote unquote evictions or similar terms to describe illegal sentiment plans in Schechterra, And that also kind of just conflates

that this is there's nothing you can do. This is like a legal dispute, not your problem, you know, like let them let the mess be over there, and we're just sitting here all pretty In America, they make it seem like it's like, oh, landlord, thing, this is like yeah, yeah, there's there's also this this way in which the actual thing that is happening is a bunch of people are showing up with guns and stealing people's houses, and this is getting treated as like, oh, this is like this

is you know this, this is some kind of sort of like it's like a rental dispute. It's like it shurts into this this like completely bloodless legal thing, and then you know, you look at what's actually happening and it's like, yeah, they're stealing people's houses at gunpoints. They are like blowing up children with high explosives. It's just like, yeah,

it's definitely not presented an accurate way. And especially if you don't know what's actually happening, like you do, and you just see these like random headlines and whatever, you don't think it's anything but what it is what they're telling you, Like, why would you deep dive any further

if you're not affected by it? You know. Um. And one of the one of the things I noticed, like when I was reading some of the coverage that this is like the the reporters would like go try to find some kind of legal basis for this, and they'd start like they these like like five paragraph long things about like weird legal stuff from like nineteen three, like this has nothing to do with what's happening, Like this is you've taken you've taken the Yeah, yeah, it's it's

like they've they've they've taken the exonerative case from from the title and then gone and just done exonerative journalism. Yeah. I do have to say that is we are. We keep using the term exonerative case. Somebody came up with that, and I keep forgetting who it was. But it's a one of the better, one of the better developments and discussing the way the media talks about Palestine. Yeah, yeah,

it's uh yeah, I I just hate the word. I hate that even the word journalism has like it's not I don't even like calling this journalism, you know what I mean. I don't like that New York Times doesn't use anything anything, but it is what it is. That's what we got well and it's you know, as is always the frustration with the New York Times. They have also done some really good journalism on fucked up ship done by like on them. I think it was the

New York Times. We did one of the articles on Sharene's murder, but that I know that was seen in I think this Time did a really good article. Ye a really good And it's like all of these, like these problems are systemic. All of these news agencies have people who do care and who have been over there and know how fucked up things are. So it's not like there aren't people within the system trying to wrench it.

It's just like a sign of kind of how powerful, um the fucking how much a ner ship there is built up in Israel's favor here, I guess, but maybe that's maybe that's too exonerative for what's actually happening. I think it's also like I'll get into this a little bit later, but New York Times, for example, it's like there are some writers that are clearly had to clearly have a bias in favor of Israel, whether it's like

they've described themselves as being like right wing or whatever. Obviously, so it's like it's there's no, there's not even an option for balanced journalism if you're giving someone that kind of voice, and there I mean even if you are, uh, if you have an opinion, you would think as a journalist, you would understand what journalism means when it comes to like reporting accurate and fair information. But I think bias

always wins. Yeah, well because not like if you're even if you're like because I think, honestly, if you know what's going on there, if you've actually spent time in the area and not just like hung out with the Israeli military, Uh, the honest take is a tremendous amount of sympathy for the Palestinian cause and Palestinian people. Um. But even so, if you're an honest journalist, you're going to try to be carefully like you do have to

report on stuff like you know, missile strikes. But because you've got that side, and then you've got the people who are overwhelmingly in Israel's corner and refused to report on the other side of things, the coverage de facto is always going to tilt towards Israel because the side that would be kind of reflexively and purely on kind

of the Palestinian side just has no visibility here. You know. Um, I I don't know like what you do with that, because this is again a broader as with all these things, is your broader problems in media. Um. But yeah, you know what else is a broader problem in media. It

is the fact. It is the fact that me that that news and journalism is heavily advertising supported, which leads to deep amounts of bias UH in journalism and and also problematic graphic seeking behaviors in a wide variety of things that are careening us all towards an unsurvivable outcome. And we're back. Hopefully that was um and if not, well it is what you get. But I want to bring up something about ahead. No, I just was apologizing

for calling the audience motherfucker's never alze for that. Never apologize for go to hell, you sons of bitches. Thank you for listening. Yeah, thank you so much. Also be nice to me. But I want to bring up something that I hear all the time as far as like people that have been to Israel UM on birthright. I want to say that birthright does not count unless you have like critical thinking and you understand how biased that trip even is and the fact that like you don't

even have to be from that land to go back there. Meanwhile, Palestinians are not allowed to even step foot in that land. So that's another episode entirely. I won't get into it, but it does really make me mad. And I'll stop there before I rage talk any further. But um, let's go back to Israeli violence and police. So with regards to the violence at the ax A Mosque, it resulted

in hundreds of Palestinians being wounded. And the report, uh, the British report that we're talking about, documented widespread instances of media outlets using terms like clashes, conflict, scuffles and skirmishes, which kind of applies equal blame, which is obviously not true because one side is armed in swat gear um. And it also cited several news reports speaking of an into fada, which it said played into fearmongering and framing

Palestinians as violent aggressors. I want to point out that the word into fathera is just an Arabic word that means rebellion or uprising and or a resistance, a resistance movement. It's a key concept in contemporary Arabic usage. It refers to a legitimate uprising against a pre usion. And I feel like, like so many Arabic words, it's been skewed into something to fear, like even the words allaho akbud, which literally just means like thank you God or like

dear God. You know what I mean, Like, I think the fact that those words are invoked in fear like it's really breaks my heart to hear like my native language being used to incite fear. Like trust me, I've been on airports in my parents who have gotten really strange looks just for speaking in Arabic. So again another episode. I keep getting distracted. There are so many things that

make me bad. But um, I just wanted to bring up that if you're free afraid of the word and defaulta, don't be because that's also public media skewing your brain. Don't believe it. And um I mean the director of this organization and the co author of this report. She said that as far as language is concerned, terms like evictions max they mask the illegal force removals and expulsion of Palace Indians from their homes, references to conflict and clashes.

They try to equalize what's what's in effect a battle between David and Goliath. And it also, as I said earlier, masking ethnic cleansing as rental disagreements is absurd, but it's uh. It also like implies that there's like a legal basis for everything. Um, but it's all surprising at this point, Like I feel like clashes also, isn't. It's just anytime you see a writer using the word clashes, it like clashes is just like is it's it's just a coward tense.

It's clashes. Yeah, Clashes is what you say when you are incredibly desperate not to at any point talk about who started the violence as happening and why, because clashes, let's just righte it off. Okay, there's two people, Funny, I mean a clashes fight, like if you're just if you're discussing like Ukrainian and Russian troops like fighting in a village, Like, yeah, you can call that a clash. Both sides showed up with tanks and and weaponry to like fight a war. And if you're talking about the

band the clash, you can talk about the clash. But otherwise maybe don't use the term clash. Yeah, if you're talking unless you're talking about someone who's not dressed well or who's dressed really well, one of the two, I forget what. No, but you're right, I think, especially if you're talking about literal an army coming to an unarmed

family's home and kicking them out. That's not a fucking clash that is, yeah, yeah, Or like you're tear gassing someone in a mosque and it's like, this is not not a clash, No, this is a chemical weapons attack. Like what, Yeah, it's a chemical weapons attack on a house of warship, which is what what we in the biz call not cool. What's really ironic, too, is that that mosque and that region, like that point in particular,

is sacred to Muslims, Jewish people, and Christians alike. So the fact that they're desecrating it at all in any way is really ironic to me because it's they don't care about anything. Um. But another area of concerns surrounding this reporting on Jerusalem was an over emphasis on religion. That's a good segue. Look at that, an accidental segue.

I'll take it. It's pronounced s okay. The report found that nearly two thirds of nine nearly two thirds of ninety clips in this timeframe referred to Palestinians religion, in some cases explicitly just saying that they're Muslim. One I TV report from a tent reference sirens, which prompted quote Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall to flee and run for cover, and Palestinians using the quote third holies Sitan Islam as a base to throw stones at Israeli police.

And while religious significance may be important to know at times, journalists I believe should avoid implying this religious motivation unless it's necessary, because it portrays the history of Israel versus Palestine as anything other than settler colonialism. If it's a religious dispute, then it's just like a far away, a decades centuries long fight that there's nothing we can do about. Our hands are in the air. But really it's really simple,

it's just settler colonialism. And skewing as anything kind of any kind of religious conflict is very purposeful to get people not to care and get people not to think that there's a solution. And as I said, not only that's this false religious narrative, it ignores the existence of persecution also of Palestinian Christians, because not not all Palestinians are Muslim, There are Palestinian Christians UM and Palestinian Jews, but it ignores their existence and of their in their

persecution by Israel. And it further is a narrative that there is a centuries long religious war that is too complex. That word is always used in this conflict. Conflict Again, I hate that word, but it's always used to describe what's happening is too complex to talk about or understand, when instead it's opposite. It's the opposite. It's simple. It's an oppressor, and there's an oppressed. Israel is an apartheid state that had has been ethnic cleansing Palestinians and stealing

their land ever since it was established. Uh. And i'd even say that war and conflict, it's not a fair fight. It's not an even word. And we've been witnessing a genocide that has been occurring in Israel since it was established. And it's like there's a clearer pressor and a clearer pressed. Any kind of wording that implies otherwise is a lie. Let's go on to Gaza for a moment, and the

headlines that describe what's happening in Gaza. There are multiple examples of problematic language and framing regarding violence in Gaza. An article in the Sun on May twelve one was titled fifteen kids mass occurred in Israel Hamas conflict as an and Yahoo warns we will inflict blows you couldn't dream of. This headline failed to mention that fourteen and the fifteen children were that were killed or Palestinians, because reading it, it implies that those children, all Israeli and

Palestinians are monsters. That's not the case. Um. And then on the seventeenth of May, i Knews reported that forty two Palestinians died over the weekend. They died over the weeks from heart failure, Like fuck you, um it failed to mention is that all of those deaths were Palestinians in Gaza that were killed. Because died does not give

the same impression as murder. If you swap out the truthful word at any of these headlines, it makes a huge difference for people that only see these headlines, like forty two Palestinians died is not the same as forty two Palestinians were murdered. There's a huge into like connotation difference for the people that just read something and move on, and popular headlines tell us time and time again, just like this, that Palestinians have died, while stating that Israeli's

on the other hand were killed. Israelis don't die, they're always killed. Palestinians they always died, though they're never killed. There's a huge misproportion of those two words being used for those sides. Christopher brought up earlier about like passive voice in journalism and saying Palestinians died. It's another example

of that. And biased media outlets use this passive voice and they avoid specifying in its headlines who was killed and who was responsible if it portrays Israel as the aggressor. The use of passive voice that d emphasizes or hides those perpetrating such negative action on Palestinians, and this has the rhetorical effect of minimizing the responsibility of Israeli aggressors

and and causing Palestinians suffering. A lot of headlines also refer to the Israeli military while referring to Palestinian groups as militants or Slamists, which implies differences in legitimacy. Like we mentioned earlier, there are also headlines describing Israeli air strikes of having come quote after Hamas rocket attacks, but this ignores that the violence from Israeli settlers and police

in Jerusalem preceded those rocket attacks. It's like starting in the middle of a fight where you punched themselves to fence, and that's where the argo starts. Like you punch someone, not the person that punched you first. Maybe that's a bad example, but it's just think of it that way. You're starting in the middle of a timeline versus the beginning.

And Hamide told the Middle East Ie that the media narrative a racist history, context and legitimacy of the Palestinian cause by presenting Palestinians as the aggressors and Israel as acting in self defense when it is quite the opposite. And I can't talk about Palestine or Israel without mentioning the anti semitism claims that a lot of people bring up every time you mentioned Palestine. Other instances of skewed media coverage, they included articles that conflated pro Palestinian activism

with anti Semitism. There was an article in the Telegraph that said that demonstrators in London that were in support of ha Mass were therefore anti Semitic because the group was committed to the ilimination of Jews, which is not correct.

I don't agree obviously with everything that Hamas does is but you have to keep in mind that no one else is fighting for Palestinians, and desperate times desperate measures, and there's no there's never a reason to excuse any kind of murder if any anyone that's unarmed or innocent, but against David and Goliath, which what choices Palestine have if no one in the international community is coming to the rescue and h and every everyone who anyone who

supports any military action anywhere supports the kind of collateral damage that Hamas does. They just supported under different circumstances and with different weapons systems. Doesn't make it okay to fire rockets blindly into a city, but the United States Air Force fires way more rockets just as blindly into way more cities. Um, It's like, yeah, war is horrible,

it's fucked up in bad. It doesn't say anything about the broader cause, Like sure, certainly you can have you know, whatever the moral there's moral condemnation to be had for military leaders with Hamas as there is for the military leaders with any militant force, and for you know, some of the soldiers doing some of those things. But at the end of the day, it says nothing about the overall righteousness of the cause, because there's not a discrepancy

in the willingness to accept civilian casualties between Hamas and Israel. Um, they're both very willing to accept civilian casualties in pursuit of their goals. So you have to set that aside when you're trying to determine what is what is happening here and where is righteousness? And I think righteousness overall lies on the side being ethnically cleansed. M hmm, yeah, very well said. I think it's a good place to

take an ad break. And you know who also condones heavy civilian casualties in pursuit of their goals, the good people. But that works too. That does also work. Honestly, has gotten a lot more people killed than Hamas right to be to be fair, they may have gotten more people killed than the Israeli military has cost a lot of

blood shed over the years. Nikes. Anyway, here's our sponsors it. Okay, we're back, Um before the break, we're talking about pro Palestinian activism being complated with anti Semitism, and I want to bring up this um quote from a Daily Mail column commentator Richard little John stated that anti Semitism like COVID comes in waves. This is the Palestinian variant. Excuse me, Wow, Sometimes I just have to like read that and really

just remember what planet I'm on. But this research also mentions examples of insufficient challenge to views and broadcast interviews. This included a Sky News interview with to Zippi Hotel Levy Hotel Velli, the Israeli Ambassador to the UK, failing to sufficiently answer or be challenged on questions about ethnic cleansing and check. She has previously described herself as a religious right winger and has referred to the displacement of

seven and fifty tho Palestinians No listen. She describes it as a quote strong and popular Arab Live. This is the Israeli Ambassador to the UK. And it's like there's

a lot that's frustrating here. One is that, like you do have to take some care when you particularly when you talk about the media complicity and like pushing the Israeli narrative and all of the different things like a pack that like fund us politicians and whatnot, because like it is, you do have to be careful to not like vierendos conspiracy territory, and I have to be careful with the sources that you pick, because since a lot of mainstream news doesn't cover it, you find some of

this written about by people who are definitely not the folks you want to have on your side. But that doesn't make talking about this anti semitic. It just means that the entire discourse is poisoned because of the way the Internet functions. Yeah and yeah, no, good point. I'm not going to expand because I will restated in a

worse way. But um, that quote just really baffles my mind, especially because this person has a lot of power as an ambassador, but she has also been accused of holding racist and Islamophobic views and has expressed support for the

annexation of the entire illegally occupied West Bank. Yeah. Really great stuff there something No, it seems like nobody's calling that racist though you don't, like, like like you think about the reaction to like to like, hey, yeah, we're like we want to literally take over all of this landing, Like you can compare that to the reaction to like someone saying from the river to the sea, which like everyone immediately loses their minds and it's just like ya,

this is the ambassador saying this stuff and nothing happens. Yeah, it's really unsettling. And having someone like that in power, as I will mention later with than Yahoo. Uh, someone that is so right wing or uh can extremist. It's just like um, it encourages people like that, that that in the in the population, encourages that kind of leases them to like expand just like Donald Trump did, Just like Donald Trump did with his fan base or fan base,

his base. But here. Yeah. The British report that I'm mentioning are also reported that Palestinians were regularly asked to answer for the actions of Hamas and recommended that spokespeople for the group should instead be given a platform to respond to allegations. Meanwhile, you don't see like random Israeli's being asked to answer for murders committed by the ideas. It's always very one sided. There was also another study that was conducted by M I T titled The New

York Times Distores the Palestinian Struggle. It was written by Holly M. Jackson and it was tracking changes in news coverage bias UH, showing how anti Palestinian bias has persisted in The Times coverage by analyzing its articles during the Fur and Second Palestinian into Father's, both periods in which

Israeli violence far exceeded that committed by Palestinians. Deploying machine learning methods to analyze over thirty three thousand articles, Jackson focused on bias and the language of The Times reporting through two linguistic features. First was to identify with their actions by Israeli and Palestinian groups were being described in the active and passive voice, and the second was to

classify the objectivity and tone of the language used. And this content analysis conducted across sixteen thousand articles during the first and fifather, which was from nine to sepend nine, it revealed some revealing results. Nearly of these articles reference Israeli's while only forty percent reference Palestinians, and about twelve percent all references to Palestinians used violent language, as opposed

to only five point nine percent for Israeli's Palestinians. Meanwhile, We're referred to in the passive voice nearly sixteen percent of the time, while the passive voice was used only about six percent of the time to describe Asraeli's and like I know this is just like all numbers and percentages, because we obviously know how bias it is. But I think it's helpful to like scientifically mathematically see that this is like actually accurate and there's not just like us

talking about it. This is actually true. So I do believe these studies are very important in showing people that might be uh, I don't know, um, skeptical, that this is actually the reality. And then Jackson also highlighted that during this period, the Times stable of reporters were filled with those, know, those with those with no prejudices, like Thomas L. Freedman and Joel who framed their articles by elevating Israeli perspectives alongside blatant anti Palestinian sentiment. So, like

we said, they're giving platforms of people with really clear biases. Um. Yeah. Oh. Also Tom Tomas Friedman uh famously super fucking ish on the Iraq War. Uh and also very famously said when he was trying to rally support for the Iraq War that the Iraq War was about telling Muslims to quote suck on this good guy Tom Friedman, real cool, dude, unbiased. They gave this man a pulitzer. I think they gave him multiple I I would give him a pulitzer very

quickly and thrown overhand. Yeah. Uh, that makes me sick. Thank you for sharing that. I'm glad I know that. Now it's cool. He doesn't talk about that anymore. Shut the absolute funk up. I mean, realizing that was the Iraq War and now he's he's still obviously given a platform talking about Palestine. There's no there's no repercussion or even like red flags about this kind of language because

it's accepted and it's very really normalized. Um it sucks, Yes, Um headlines served aid for bias, drudge up editorials like quote Israel and Arab neighbors must bend a little no more Palestine and quote and Israel has controlled little of Palestine.

So they're really clearly trying Jesus to frame this an incorrect way as if is if Israel's Arab neighbors haven't basically just abandoned Palestine by this point, right, like it has been pretty much like even the like fucking idiot tankies talk about how like Assad supports them, but he put them into fucking camps. He's like arrested and tortured and killed Palestinian activist it like it like you know. One of the thing none of these people ever want you to do is google Google what have al Asad

was sucking doing? And uh, why why why he didn't bring in the air force at a a certain very critical moment that al Asad famed buddy of Henry Kay my friend. Yeah, everyone's friends. Everybody's friends. That's what makes politics fun. Yeah. Additionally, there are a systematic attempt to highlight petty disputes between Palestinian groups or contradictions in their leader strategy to frame Palestinians as a rational or disorganized um.

And I will say that there has been significant changes in US media coverage of a conflict, especially in the last couple of years, and this is driven in part by popular pressure coming from social media. UM. There are also signs that Israel is becoming a part as an issue that divides liberals and conservatives in the US, with polls showing that growing numbers of Americans would like their

government to take a more even handed stance on the conflict. However, hardline supporters of the Israeli government have seemingly shifted their approach from winning quote hearts and minds to punishing opponents. They've published blacklists of Palestinian activists, they've censored public figures that are vocal about the conflict, they've speared them as anti Semitics, and they've advocated for laws to restrict boycotts of his really goods. I want to just take a

really quick sidebar to mention that boycotting works. I'll lose another episode probably one day about the BDS movement. But BDS stands for boycott investment in sanctions and it works to end international support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians UM and pressure Israel to comply with international law UM just by boycotting products and companies that are either based in

Israel or have products from Israel. And it works because Israel doesn't like it, and I think that's fair, Like that's telling enough that if Israel's has a problem with boycotting ship, you should keep doing it. And it's now a vibrant global movement made up it's made up of unions, academic associations, churches, and grassroots movements across the world. B d S launch in two thousand and five, and it has a major impact and effectively challenging international support for

Israeli apartheid and settler colonialism. So that's my sidebar about b DS. But nonetheless, people that have followed the US debate on the quote quote conflict for decades say that there are serious tectonic changes occurring at the level of the American public, both in media and in popular sentiment.

Phyllis Bennie, the director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, a DC based progressive think tank, said, although news coverage is not even handed and is still generally skewed towards the Israeli perspective, there has been a massive shift over the past five years and how this issue is both reported and discussed in the United States. We are seeing a shift in the types of stories that are being covered by major outlets, as well as

the stances that public figures are willing to take. There are still huge problems, but things are changing. The discourse on Israel Palestine is nothing like it was in decades past, which is very true and for me personally, seeing the public discords change firsthand has been very surreal, uh and amazing, but really surreal because I think a lot of Palestinians and Palestinian supporters never thought it would happen um seeing public figures talk so actively about being pro Palestine, and

even though this occupation, this problem seems insurmountable, outing these quote unquote journalists and news outlets is extremely important. Because of public opinion and pressure is strong enough, things have

to change. And the proof of this is seeing the headline that I mentioned at the very top, where The Times changed their headline because of widespread discussed express on social media and speaking up and sharing the truth on social media is extremely important, especially if you aren't Palestinian, and especially if you live somewhere that is skewing all these news headlines against Palestinians. There's nothing else but your voice left and Palestinian voices have been and are continuing

to be silenced. And this is not simply Palestinian issue. It's a human issue that calls for humans to stand up when they are witnessing extreme injustice take place and boycotting works or else Israel wouldn't be so afraid of it. Choosing to remain silent is choosing the side of the oppressor. You've heard it before, It's true, uh, and I am hopeful with the chains that we've seen the last few years with public figures using their platforms to speak out

and depend Palestine. I think it's honestly the best use of their platform and I respect them for that. Uh And I know that, like the concept of celebrity is ridiculous and stupid, but I think if you have the platform and you have millions of people watching you, using your voice in a way to support people that are in danger and like stand up for the oppressed is

the one of the only things you should do. And people that I respect this includes Bella Hadid, Susan Sarandon, Nightie Portman, Selena Gomez, Dualipa The Weekend, just to name a few. These people are huge names, they have millions of people watching them, and they're not afraid to speak up, especially Bella Hadid recently, like every other story she posts on Instagram is about these really occupation um which I really respect. I really respect that she has take in

such a clear stance and utilizing their platform. It does make a difference in public perception because fans that follow her might not follow news or anything else. It's there's just a lot of crossover that I think is really valuable, and ultimately, I think using your voice is the only right thing to do and any alternative or silence is simply cowardice. And that's my time. That's what I got today.

All right, Well, thank you Sharne. Um. This was pretty bleak but important, and um I tried to uplift at the very end, all of you go go okay, oh oh, don't ever do it again. Nope, it could be How are we opening a show? We're going to distance? Sharine going the distance? Hello for speed. Hello, this is Sharene and I'm talking to you from It can happen here? Oh, it could happen here. Isn't that a podcast? Yeah? Robert, you're correct. Do you want to tell everybody what that is? Okay,

jortya today is Robert Evans, Sophie and Chris and Garrison. Um, I'm going to be running the show today for those of you but didn't like yesterday. Too bad. Yeah, motherfucker's die and go to hell. I'm sorry at much that was a little much death threats. It was more of a promise. Okay, Okay, I do want to take over today. Uh. I wanted I wanted to focus an episode on Sharin a blue acklet who was a Palestinate American journalist who

worked as a reporter for Aldo Zeerra for twenty five years. UH. She was one of the most prominent names across the Middle East for her decades of reporting on the Israeli occupied Palestinian territories. And she was killed last month. And you might have heard of it, you might have not. But I think her death deserves some more attention. And I also think it reflects a bigger issue. Um, let's just jump right in. She was killed by Israeli soldiers

on May eleven. UM. And although Israel commits these kinds of like vile crimes against humanity and against Palestinians virtually every day, including but not limited to murder, torture, imprisonment, harassment, force displacement aka ethnic cleansing, um, Israel gets away with its crimes every time. And last episode we talked about how the media enforces a blameless view of Israel and how that's an element to all the passes it was eaves.

And even though I'm going to focus mostly on one woman's death in this episode, like I said, she represents something so much more. And while I wish I can give every victim of Israel an entire episode. I would take a million episodes. Um. So here we are Palestinians live in a constant state of trauma, and there's no time to grieve. They're dead, and even when they do grieve, it becomes a target for the I d F, which I'll get into later, but I want to tell you

for now how Sharne was killed. For a while, there was only one video, which should be more than enough, but I digress. There's only one video in the beginning that seemed to prove that Sharne was targeted and assassinated despite wearing a press vest. She had been standing with a group of journalists near the entrance of the Agenda refugee camp, where the journalists were there to cover uh

in Israeli raid. While the footage does not show of being killed, eye witnesses told CNN that they believe Israeli forces on the same street deliberately fired on the reporters in a targeted attack. All of the journalists were wearing protective blue vest and um they identified themselves as a member of the news media to the Israelis that were

across the street. So this video This first video was filmed by al Jazi or a cameraman Meschi Banura, and it shows that round six thirty am on May eleventh and Genin, multiple shots are fired. The cameraman filming the scene scrambles backwards to take cover behind a low concrete wall. The man cries out in Arabic Sharine injured, Sharine, ambulance.

When the camera finally pans around the corner, you see Sharine lying motionless on the ground, face down, and another Palestine reporter shaped the Handsha She She crouches down beside her and uses a tree chunk for cover. She reaches out and tries to get her colleague. The gunshots continue and there's no response. Both women are wearing helmets and

blue protective vests. Mark Press and in the moments that followed, there's a man in a white shirt that makes several attempts to move a Buckle's body Uh and is forced to repeatedly back away by gunfire, and after a few very long minutes, he manages to drag her body from the street. One of the reporters, Hanaisia. She told CNN that we stood in front of the Israeli military vehicles for about five to ten minutes before we made moves to ensure that they saw us. This is a habit

of ours as journalists. We move as a group and we stay in front of them so they know we are journalists, and then we start moving. So this is like they do this cautious approach every time towards when they're in the midst of the Israeli military so they can be safe. And she says that I didn't think they were trying to kill us. On the day of the shooting, is really military spokesperson Ran Katchov told Army Radio that Abu Akla had been filming and working for

a media outlet amidst armed Palestinians. He said, they're armed with cameras, if you'll permit me to say so. According to the Times of Israel, the Israeli military says it is not clear who fired the fatal shot, and in a preliminary inquiry, the army said that there was a possibility that she was either hit by an indiscriminate Palestinian gunfire or by Israeli sniper positioned about two ds away that was in an exchange with a Palestinian gunmen, So

no blame to the Israelis at all. The i d F said that on May nineteenth had not yet decided whether to pursue a criminal investigation into her death. On May three, the Israeli military's top lawyer, Major General Yafat tomd you you're a shelm me. I'm sorry, I probably saying that wrong, but he said in a speech that under the military's policy, a criminal investigation is not automatically launched if a person is killed in quote the midst of an active combat zone, unless there is credible and

immediate suspicion of a criminal offense. A lot of US lawmakers and UH, the U N and international community have called for an independent probe, which hasn't really met anything because it's not happening. An investigation by CNN. Uh, it offers a lot of new evidence and UH, it's an investigation that really respect. The article is really well done. It will be in the sources whenever that comes out whatever. But this report, this investigation included two videos of the

scene of the shooting. Uh. There was no active combat nor any Palestinian militants near Abo the moment that led up to her death, and the videos are Crow crob raided by testimony from eight eyewitnesses, an audio forensic analysts, and an explosive weapons expert that suggests that she was shot dead in a targeted attack by Israeli forces. A lot of the footage shows a calm scene before the reporters came under fire in the outskirts of the jen

And refugee camp. The other journalists and three local residents said that it had been a normal morning in Jenin. It's home to about three forty five thousand people, eleven thousand and four hundred of whom live in the refugee camp. Many this morning were on their way to work or school, and the street was relatively quiet it. Sharienabu Klea was a veteran journalist. She's a household name across the Arab world for her coverage of Israel and Palestine and Israel's

occupation of the Palestinian territories. She arrived in Jenna to report on the raid uh. She was an icon. She's really loved, or was really loved and admired by the entire Arab world. It's weird to use past tense. It's really sad for me. But when she arrived there but a dozen or so men, some dressed in sweats or flip flops, They had gathered to watch Abu Klea and

her colleagues at work. They were milling around, chatting, some smoking cigarettes, and others were filming the scene on their phones. In one sixteen minute cell phone video, the man filming walks towards the spot where journalists had gathered, zooming in on the Israeli armored vehicles that were parked in the distance that they could see, and he says, look at the snipers. This is before anything had happened. And a teenager in this video that he peers tentatively over the

street and he shouts, don't kid around. Do you think it's a joke. We don't want to die, We want to live. The person that recorded the sixteen minute video Salim Awad. He's a twenty seven year old jedd And Camp refugee resident who filmed the video and told CNN that there were no armed Palestinians or any clashes of any kind in the area and he hadn't expected there to be gunfire at all given the presence of journalists nearby. He said that there was no conflict or confrontations at all.

We were about ten guys give or take, walking around, laughing and joking with journalists. We were not afraid of anything. We didn't expect anything would happen because when we saw journalists around, we thought it would be a safe area. Obviously, the situation changed rapidly, and he said that the shooting broke out about seven minutes after he arrived at the scene, and his video captures this, and he also captures the moments that the shots were fired at the four journalists.

And the four journalists by the way uh Abuka that I mentioned earlier, another Palestinian journalist Jahil Sadi, and then the L Jazeera producer Ali Elsa Maudi, who was injured in the gunfire. But these four journalists, they walked towards the Israeli vehicles. They showed them that their pressed in the footage, as the gunfire starts, can be seen turning away from the barrage, and then the footage shows a

direct line of sight towards the Israeli convoy. He said, we saw around four or five military vehicles on that street with rifles sticking out of them, and one of them shot Sharine. We were standing right there. We saw it. When we tried to approach her, they shot at us. I tried to cross the street to help, but I couldn't. He added that he saw a bullet strike a lackland then gap between her helmet and her protectivest right by

her ear. Another sixteen year old he was among the group of men and boys on the street, told CNN that they were no shots fired, no stone throwing, nothing

when she was shot. And he said that journalists had told them to not follow them as they walked towards these really forces to identify themselves, so they so he stayed back, and then when gunfire broke out, he ducked behind a car in the road and he watched the moment that Shrine was killed, and he shared his video with CNN that was filmed at six thirty six am, just after the journalist left the scene too for the hospital, and it showed the five Israeli army vehicles driving slowly

past the spot where Sharne was killed before leaving the camp. CNN reviewed a total of eleven videos showing the scene and the Israeli military convoy from different angles, before, during, and after a was killed. Eyewitnesses who were filming when the journalist was shot, were also in the line of fire, and they pulled back when the gunfire started, so it doesn't capture the exact moment that she was hit with the bullet, which I think is the little amount of

sliver of space that Israel needs to be like. It wasn't us, but obviously it was our multiple witnesses. There multiple videos that show it. Um. But regardless, there wasn't a clash, there wasn't any Palestinian gunfire. The idea for shooting directly at the journalists and they assassinated Sharine. A. Buachl, a senior is really security official, flatly denied to CNN on May eighth that has really troops killed her intentionally. The officials spoke under the condition of anonymity to discuss

details about an investigation that remains formally open. UH. The officials said, in no way would the I d F ever target a civilian, especially a member of the press. An I d F soldier would never fire at M sixteen on automatic. They shoot bullet by bullet. Uh. This is in contrast with israel assertion that Palestinian militants were firing recklessly and indiscriminately while its soldiers conducted the raid. In Genin, there's a security consultant and British Army veteran

Cobb Smith uh. He told CNN that he believed Doubly was killed in discrete shots, not by a burst of automatic gunfire, and to reach the conclusion, he looked at imagery obtained by CNN that showed markings that the bullets left behind on the tree where she had fallen and her other colleague was taken cover. He told CNN that the number of strike marks on the tree where Sharine was standing proves this wasn't a random shot. She was

targeted at two. He said that there was no chance that the random firing would result in the three or four shots hitting such a light or such a tight configuration. From the strike marks on the tree, it appears that the shots, one of which hit Sharine, came from down the street from the direction of the I d F troops. The relatively tight grouping of the rounds indicate Sharine was intentionally targeted with aim shots and not the victim of

a random or stray fire. This tree is now referred to in Jenin as the Journalist Tree and has become a makeshift shrine to ebo Auklet with photographs of the beloved reporter taped to the trunk and Palestinian hafia scarves the checkered, not checkered, but like the black and white scarves that you probably see Palestine and protests UH draped on the branches. She was lugged by very many and the entirety of Palestine, everyone who supports its liberation, have

been grieving for this like insurmountable loss. Uh. And to look this discussion back into yesterday's extreme media bias episode where the media favors Israel. Here are a few headlines that describe her murder. The New York Times said, Sharine abu akly, trailblazing Palestinian journalists dies at fifty one. She dies from what heart failure disease? Like and I will

I will, I will bet you. And this is not to let the the the New the New York Times off the hook, but I will bet you the fact that the title even acknowledged her death that much was the result of a tremendous battle behind the scenes, for sure, Like yeah, yeah, it's which they wouldn't do for anybody else, right, Like they would, they would fucking immediately call out, like the Russian military or even the U. S Military if it had killed an American journalist, which I'm not saying that.

I don't think it's you know, I'm going to bring that up right now than if she was Palestinian. No, I'm going to bring that up right now. Brent Renaud, he's an American journalist that was killed in Ukraine. There were two headlines that were that for articles. His headline read an American journalist killed in Ukraine. Hers said a Palestinian journalist dies at fifty one. Keep in mind, Sharine

is a it's a Palestinian American. Not that it fucking matters, but these are both American journalists and they were killed working on their assignment. It matters to highlight the hypocrisy, not because one nationality of journalist is less worthy of being killed than another. I mean even it's even frustrating that their their value of life is even greater because they're a quote unquote journalist. Yes, there's a lot that's

frustrating about it. They can killed dozens of like Palestinian people and it doesn't matter, But one quote unquote American journalist eyes, and now it's a big story, which like it's horrible, it would be. They're not not downplay how bad it is. But I am really uncomfortable with how much emphasis we put on like Americans. And then of course just like someone being a journalist as opposed to just like people who are like worshiping or killing people

in the street, right, who are just regular Palestinians. And that's that's a whole other aspect. You know, war zone, the only like ethically, really the only division should be between soldiers, people under arms and civilians who are not right um, and it should always be seen as like a tragedy and a mistake worthy of like some sort of restitution or vengeance when civilians are killed by soldiers in a war zone like that would be ideal. But also you know the world, that's what it is. But no,

I second everything you guys said. And I'm looking at tweet from Amon Martin Dean. He's an Egyptian board journalist that's based in New York and he works for NBC MSNBC. But he tweeted this contrast these headlines of right Renaud, an American journalist killed in Ukraine, and Sharina Buccoli, a Palestinian journalists dying at fifty one. Like, first of all, everything, you guys, just it's it's repetitive at this point to keep talking about it. But they've stripped her of her

American identity. Her Palestinian identity erases um the importance that her death has for some reason, because she's not seen that as an American journalist, even though she is. And again, the concept of that being important is ludicrous to begin with. But that's the world. It's still a way to do it's still in their minds. It's still a way to dehumanize them, which is like gross on a whole other level. But it's it's it's yeah, there's there's so many ways

that it's horrible that it's hard to even like cover head. Yeah, totally, I agree. And now it's time for a break. And I don't have a great segue, like this is a hard one to you know, who will X the break? We're back. I want to talk about her funeral now, Sharne's funeral. Just to bring up one last headline, I'll get into a half at the funeral. But the BBC News said that Sharine abu Akle violence at Al Jazeera

reporter's funeral in Jerusalem. Side note, Even saying that she's an El Jazeera reporter versus just like an American journalist is another way to dehumanize her because Al Jazeera is seen as like this scary Arabic organization. It's like, oh, they're brown people, is what they're trying to say exactly. And the real headline that should have been shared is that Israeli forces were attacking and beating Palestinian mortars at

her funeral. Let's talk about that. The Friday following her death, May, a funeral procession was held for Sharine in Jerusalem, but her funeral role was marred by another burst of violence early that afternoon, as thousands of people masked East Jerusalem for one of the largest Palestinian funerals in recent memory. A mob of Israeli riot police assaulted a group of mourners that were carrying the casket containing her body, uh and they almost dropped the casket because of the attack.

There are videos of this and it was streamed live at one point, and it shows Idea soldiers clearly attacking people holding up a coffin, a coffin holding the body of someone Palestine loved, um, and they're just attempting to mourn. And even this is deemed punishable by Israel. I want to bring up that it was live and then all these videos are shown because there's just so many videos of a blatant blame like blatant attacks by Israeli's and uh,

the Israeli military, and that that's not enough to condemn anything. Um. And there were no weapon, there was no provoking on any of any kind on the side of Palestinians. And again, like we have thousands of videos like this and the idea of clearly beating and at times killing Palestinians and nothing happens. Um. It's like similar to me of videos of police brutality in the US. Uh. They both keep doing it because they know they can't keep they won't

be punished. Um. If this is what they duan camera, you can only imagine what they do off camera and when it's not being captured. Uh. In a separate episode, I'm sure I can bring up the crossover of Israel and US police because Israel trains US police um, and so there's a lot of connection there, But I digress. Um. It's just really horrifying if they know that this is all being captured, it doesn't stop them. It doesn't matter.

And this assault occurred outside a hospital in East Jerusalem, where her body had been kept since another memorial happened the day before on Thursday, where hundreds had gathered to witness the start of her funeral cortage. Tensions arose between Palestinians and these really police officers after Palestinians began waving Palestinian flags. Things escalated after the police refused to allow mourners to take the coffin on their shoulders to the church,

and then they began beating anyone in sight. The Israeli police later said that they had intervened because the mourners who wanted to carry the coffin by foot to the funeral had refused to put it in a hearse, which is an arrangement the police said had previously been agreed upon by her family. This obviously is address cause for starting to beat people um, which is absurd. It's so

absurd because it's just like a traditional mourning. It's they're they're carrying this loved one on their backs, and the fact that she was almost dropped is like horrifying to me, Um, But regardless, there was this standoff between mourners and the police who refused to let them leave with the coffin from the hospital or like in the in the direction from the hospital to the church. And keep in mind

again this is the standoff is really unbalanced. One side of it is as heavily armed and wearing helmets and swat gear, and the other side is holding a fucking coffin. And mourning officers swung their batons and they kicked and beat the men carrying the coffin, forcing them backward. They knocked over one man who had backed into the group that was carrying the coffin, and then they proceeded to kick him as he was lying on the ground. This

is caught on video. Uh and I don't understand how anyone could possibly defend or gloss over why this happened. And as they were being hit, the coffin carriers briefly lost control, as I said, of one end of the coffin, which sagged suddenly to the ground. Um and mourners through projectiles in response, included what appeared to be a stick it officers through what appeared to be a stun a stunt in smoke grenades in response, so super warranted on

their on their side. Um, but this occasion that was intended to be a moment of Catharsis had instead descended into chaos, and it just compounds the indignity the pain that too many Palestinians Abu Akli's death had embodied. And let's quickly fast forward to Sunday May twenty nine, where about seventy thousand Israelis marched through the Old City occupied East Jerusalem, waving Israeli flags, emphasizing that they, in their eyes,

were the true rulers of Jerusalem. They were celebrating Jerusalem Day, which is an Israeli holiday that marks the capture of the Old City in nine seven seven also marks the occupation and the subsequent annexation of East Jerusalem, and Palestinians see this event, which passes through the heart of the Muslim center, as a provocation. Last year, the parade helped trigger an eleven day war with Goza militants. This doesn't stop the Paradian papping again, and this year it attracted

one of the largest crowds on record. Palestinians old and young were attacked while Israeli forces watched on. Some marchers sprayed pepper spray at Palestinians and journalists. In one video shared on social media, a young Jewish man kicked and sprayed an older Palestinian woman in the face, sending her

crumbling to the ground. Police fired rubber bullets, um and use clubs and pepper spray to disperse Palestinian protesters from the area, and all this time Palestinians were forced to listen as ultra nationalist Jews chanted anti Palestinian and Islamophobic chants such as death to Arabs and Muhammad is dead. Um. Groups of Orthodox Jewish youths gathered outside Damascus Gate, waving flags,

singing religious and nationalistic songs. The crowds, who were overwhelmingly young Orthodox Jewish men, were shouting the Jewish nation lives before entering the Muslim quarter, one large group chanted death to Arabs and mayor village bird, which is a reference of the ethnic cleansing and the start of the occupation that occurred in and it's one of their very common chants. A lot of Zionists that parade through. These are the two most popular chance, if you want to call them that.

Another chance, accompanied by boisterous dancing and the sound of drums. Included a Jew is a soul, an Arab is the son of a whore, and Shofayatte is on fire. And this is a disgusting chant. I mean, they're all disgusting, but this one, Shiffayatta is on fire. It celebrates the murder of fifteen year old Palestinian teenager in Muhammad Abuhadir by Israeli settlers in Jerusalem. And this child was kidnapped by Israeli settlers, tortured, forced to drink gasoline, and burned alive.

So that's what they're celebrating when they're saying Shayata is on fire, and there's this tragedy is the focus of a miniseries that HBO did in twenty nineteen, which is pretty good and I recommend watching. It's called Our Boys, Um, and it was created by collaboration of both Israeli filmmakers and Palestinian filmmakers, so I respected their approach to this and I highly recommend watching it if you have the

stemach for it. I cried a lot, but it's really good, um. Regardless, settlers were also chanting Sharin is a whore and Sharine is dead. So not only was her funeral this huge, like this huge portrayal of disrespect and in humanity, but this is the sentiment of these ultra nationalist Jewish protesters. They are happy she's dead. That's why she was targeted by the idea of probably they recognized her as a threat and this icon in the eyes of the Palestinians.

Prime Minister and of Tally Bennett issued a statement instructing police to show quote no tolerance towards the racist groups. He described them as a minority that came to set the area on fire and vowed to prosecute violent extremists,

which never happens and hasn't happened. An article in the Israeli daily Jerusalem Post that interviewed some of the Israelis participating in the march reflected a fervent nationalist mentality that interchanged the words Arabs and terrorists without a second thought. According to this article, most of the marchers are quote not driven by hate for Palestinians, but rather a love for Israel and the constant fear that it might not exist forever. Yeah, it would suck to feel like your

home is not going to be around forever. Yeah, exactly. Yes, Uh, the irony is definitely lost on them. It's definitely the yes um. But the director of the Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies, j Does Anim, she said that the political views of Israelis who attended the march are absolutely not a fringe element of Israeli society. She says, demographically speaking, they are from the religious settler class. They transformed from being a marginal group to an essential part within Israeli

society and the Jewish body as a whole. And I mentioned this briefly. I don't know if it was this episode of going before, but former Prime Minister Benjamin and Yah who's twelve year rule bolstered the presence of this class into the mainstream, this very right wing mental be where their figureheads held top positions in state institutions and

in various governments. Regardless the current Prime Minister Tally Bennett, he used to be the Minister of the Settlement Council, and that should speak volumes about the change and in the heart of Israeli society. This mentality is really encouraged. And Klanem went on to say the Israeli government is getting more religious and giving more powers to the ultra orthodox factions and to the ultra religious and ultra nationalists,

the extreme settlers. It is a continuous shift for the whole society to be on the right of the political spectrum, the fanatical religious and the settler right. And before I continue you further, let's take a second break, because I can rage for a long time. I don't have a segue again, Robert, it's not this is the break, I know, but Sophie still has to believe it because you said it. So my goal has been a conflience. We did it to get or we did it. Okay, we're back. Wow,

that wasn't that a fun ad? Okay, let's go back to we were talking about right extremism being like bolstered in Israeli society. Ole Renoi is an Israeli political activist and journalist, and they agreed and described this annual event as a congratuatory, mainstream is Israeli event, and she said the marchers are not the minority, not in numbers, not in ideology, and not in their political status. So regardless of what the Prime Minister says, it's not a fringe

element at all. She goes on to say that maybe many Israelis do not like to see photos of an old Palestinian woman being beaten up by a kid, but the march itself is a huge Israeli celebration. It's not something on the political periphery anymore. I also want to quickly mention that as I was writing this, another Palestinian journalist was killed by the IDEA F last week. Thirty one year old lefran I made uh what Esna was

shot in the chest. Um at the autub refugee camp and the occupied West Bank, Israel said that she tried to attack a soldier with a knife. In a statement, these really armies, said, an assailant armed with a knife advanced toward an I d F soldier who was conducting routine security activity. However, witnesses told Al Jazira that in their view, she posed little threat to the soldiers. She had just started a new job at a radio station

three days prior to being killed. She was leaving her home on the way to work, according to eyewitnesses, and doctors at the hospital said the bullet she was shot with pierced her heart. Um and local and international rights groups have condemned what they call Israel's excessive use of force and their shoot to kill policy against Palestinians, including

suspected assailants and the occupied West Bank and got the strip. Um. Senior Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister Bennett, have encouraged the use of legal force and given orders to shoot Palestinians who did not post an eminent threat. These other orders to shoot Palestinians even if they don't pose a eminent threat.

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights noted that in the reports, Israeli forces quote often use firearms against Palestinians on mere suspicion or as a precautionary measure in violation of international standards. Um. And yeah, surprise, surprise. Her funeral was also attacked by these really occupation, just like Sharnes was. Um. They beat the mourners and uh, nothing nothing changed in the the several days that followed

that funeral. It happened again because they knew they could happen again. There was no punishment for the first round. Um. And that's all I got for today. Um, I do, I mean, there's so much more to talk about, but just they'll take a lifetime and maybe I'll chip out it away over time. I do want to plug a film that I really love called Gaza Fights for Freedom.

It's a twenty nineteen documentary. It's on YouTube for free, and it's by Abby Martin and it's filmed by Caraman on the ground and Gaza, and it really shows the imbalance that takes place, especially in that region. I know we didn't cover Gaza that much in this episode, but just like Shrine's death, that reflects the larger issue and the just blatant genocide and ethic cleansing that's happening. So

I would really recommend that if you want to learn more. Again, just like our boys the mini series, it's really hard to watch um, at least for me, UM and another. I mean, the reason I mentioned I wanted to describe the video Shreen's death earlier is because I haven't seen it and I don't want to see it. Like I it really triggers me when I see like a photo of and I mean anybody like I don't want to sensationalize their death. UM, but I do want you guys

to know about it and to understand that it's important. UM. That's my shoe. I have. I have seen it, and just as a general rule of someone who's worked in those conditions, she's very obviously not in a situation which it makes sense that she would have gotten on a cross fire between a gunfight like obviously this has been documented, but it was pretty obvious from the beginning that this was not like two sides shooting at each other and someone getting caught up in the middle. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

it's depressing. I guess I didn't end this one with any kind of uplifting anything, But I just encourage everyone who's interested or who doesn't know uh and who wants to know more to just get your information from Palestinians. Um spread awareness of social media because Palestinian voices are usually silenced, and it really makes a difference when people speak up, because that's the only way things change, just the only way articles change their headlines. That's the only

way anything even pivots in the right direction. But this is the end. Should I say goodbye now? Goodbye? Now? Okay, thank you, but no, I appreciate the listeners of today and yesterday's episodes. It means a lot to me. You know, I'll see you when I see you. Bye bye. Bye, now Hey, We'll be back Monday with more episodes every week from now until the heat death of the universe. It Could Happen Here is a production of cool Zone Media.

For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website cool zone media dot com, or check us out on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could Happen Here, updated monthly at cool zone media dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.