Statement by New York City Councilmember Charles Barron.

Let’s be very clear. The attack on Israel by Hamas, on October 7, 2023 was not an “unprovoked attack”; it was inevitable and must be put into historical context and cannot be used as a justification for escalating the continuing genocide against the Palestinian people.

Let me state unequivocally that I have always deplored any intentional killing of innocent non-combatant women, children, and men in any theater of war, anywhere in the world including the so-called Middle East.

The road to peace in the so-called Middle East can be achieved if the international community calls for the apartheid Israeli government to end its decades-long colonization and illegal, immoral occupation of Palestinian land, since the Balfour Declaration in 1917. The international community must support the right of Palestinian refugees who were forcibly displaced from their land, to return to their homes.

From the Englishman Lord Balfour’s Declaration, in 1917, to support the Jewish people in establishing a “national homeland” in Palestine; to the Nakba (“Catastrophe”) when 700,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes in 1947 to establish a Jewish state in 1948; to the present; tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian women, children, and men have been killed by Israeli forces.

In 2014, a United Nations report documented that in the attack on the Gaza strip, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) killed 1523 Palestinians, which included 509 children.

Earlier this year, before the October 7th attack, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Donald Trump of the Middle East, and his fascist right-wing government annexed more settlements in the West Bank, killing over 239 Palestinians and 40 of them were children. The armed Jewish civilian settlers participated in the killings, according to international reports.

The United States for decades has supplied the state of Israel with billions of dollars worth of arms to continue the occupation of Palestinian land. For over 16 years, Israel has imposed an illegal blockade on Gaza. Nothing comes in by land, sea or air! No food, no electricity, no fuel! The blockade did not start as a reaction to the latest attack.

This madness must stop! How much blood must be spilled before Israel ends its occupation of Palestine?

Free Palestine and there will be peace in the Middle East!

Oct. 12, 2023

The International League of Peoples’ Struggle stands united in unconditional solidarity with the Palestinian resistance. The Palestinian people are absolutely united in their aspiration to bring an end to the Zionist occupation and to finally live in a free and democratic Palestine.

The actions by the Zionist state are nothing short of a genocide.  Since the latest attacks against Gaza began, over 3,000 have been killed in indiscriminate airstrikes, including at least 500 getting medical treatment and taking refuge in a hospital.  A complete blockade has deliberately cut Gaza off from food, water, fuel and electricity, leaving the people starving and with a medical system on the brink of collapse with over 10,000 injuries and rising.  Palestinian health officials cannot keep up with carrying away the dead bodies that lie unattended throughout the strip, leading to the high risk of a disease outbreak amongst the population.  Zionist forces have also demanded that 2.3 million Gazans evacuate to the south to make way for their ground invasion and likely attempt to re-occupy the strip while killing even civilians obeying this order.  Airstrikes have even hit the southern border between Gaza and Egypt, the only way for Palestinians to leave the strip if they want, leaving desperately needed humanitarian aid packages sitting at the border unable to enter.  In addition to airstrikes, the Zionists have even used internationally banned weapons such as white phosphorus gas.  Included is the continued violence by soldiers and armed settlers which has killed over 70 in the past 11 days alone.

Indeed, the Zionist government may have declared war on October 7th, but the previous 75 years of occupation and ethnic cleansing policies since the Nakba have been a never-ending war against the Palestinian people.  What we see now is merely a heightened general offensive by Zionism within Palestine itself with continuing aggression against neighboring rival countries.

The Zionists may have openly declared war this time, but that’s only because of the Palestinian resistance’s decision to unite in struggle to take up arms against the US-backed occupation state and its “state-of-the-art” military.  For over 75 years, the Palestinian people have used every option they’ve had against the occupation of their land, to no avail.  The international governance system has allowed the occupation to become normalized with no end in sight.  The people have chosen to take the courageous path of united coordination in armed resistance, bravely tearing up the Zionist-imposed border fence of Gaza and launching coordinated strikes in air, land and sea that inspired peoples’ movements the world over to see a united people taking the military might of an imperialist satellite state off guard.

The Palestinian resistance is a beacon to our resistance!  By this, we mean that this strike against a running dog of US imperialism is a move that weakens US imperialism as a whole.  The global imperialist system is entering into a new stage of multipolar turmoil, from the US-NATO proxy war in Ukraine, to the build up to war in Asia-Pacific, to the upsurge of peoples’ movements for national self-determination in Latin America and Africa, and of the continued advance of armed resistance movements in the Philippines, India, Kurdistan, West Papua and of course Palestine.  The Palestinian resistance gives inspiration to all people struggling in this context for national and social liberation, and therefore we must support their resistance as if it was our own.

The ILPS supports all resistance fighters regardless of organizational affiliation – now is the time to unite!

We also condemn the attacks on Palestinian and Palestine solidarity organizations around the world on behalf of the US and Zionist forces.  We are witnessing an unprecedented outlawing of democratic organizations and bans on free speech when it comes to the Palestinian cause while pro-Zionist slogans are given full support, even within the so-called “democratic” liberal states of North America and Europe.  Now is the time to defend peoples’ struggle in all its forms.

The ILPS calls on its members to take actions worldwide outside of Israeli, US and European embassies to condemn the genocide taking place in Gaza.  We also encourage members to demand of their own governments official condemnation and to push for the unconditional end of the blockade, assault and genocide of Gaza, as well as the end of all military aid to the Zionist state, especially from the US.

All organizations are encouraged to hold educational sessions on the history and current situation of the US-Zionist occupation and resistance of Palestine.  Ongoing actions in support of the Palestinian resistance must be maintained worldwide, especially amidst the crackdown and banning of anti-Zionist organizations.  We must assert that activism and resistance of any form is not terrorism.

From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!
Palestinian resistance is a beacon to our resistance!
Long live international Solidarity!

 

Signed:

Len Cooper
ILPS Chairperson
20 October 2023

Oct. 18: The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) confirmed today that the occupation government and its army committed the crime of bombing the Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital, knowing in advance that it was impossible for any humane person to justify it or accept it, but had planned in advance a series of similar crimes and prepared the tools of justification, analysis, and fabrication.

The Front said: “Since yesterday, we have faced another crime besides the massacre, which is the enemy’s attempt to attribute the horrific massacre it committed to the Palestinians and their resistance.”

PFLP pointed out that “the enemy’s intention was clear in targeting hospitals from the beginning of the aggression. It had previously attacked the Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital, Al-Durrah Children’s Hospital, and the Indonesian Hospital, and threatened Al-Awda Hospital, Al-Quds Hospital, Kamal Adwan Hospital, and the Kuwaiti Hospital as part of its comprehensive war on hospitals, and followed its brutal massacre at Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital with another bombing of the European Hospital.”

The Front denounced the reluctance of some international bodies to discuss the number of conflicting lies that occupation spokesmen competed to present and withdraw in succession after they were refuted by conclusive evidence from dozens of institutions concerned with verification around the world, not only in Palestine.

The Front also confirmed that the German chancellor and the U.S. war criminal Joe Biden are complete partners in killing us, along with all those governments and parties that gave cover to the aggression or refused to condemn it.

The Front called on the masses of the Arab nation, the resistance and its supporters, and the friends of Palestine around the world to punish the Zionist enemy for this heinous crime.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Central Information Department

Translated by Melinda Butterfield

Source: PFLP

Excerpts from a talk by Christynne Lili Wrene Wood at the Oct. 7 National March to Protect Trans Youth & Speakout for Trans Lives in Orlando, Florida.

To all our beautiful and loving Floridian rainbow family and allies, I bring our unlimited love and support from the Western end of the rainbow, the great golden state of California! With each swipe of the poisoned pens in Tallahassee, we feel your pain and share your outrage.

I fought against a very well-organized campaign at the Santee City Council near San Diego. During that meeting, a well-coached teenage girl emotionally described her horror and experience at seeing a “naked man” in the women’s locker room of the Cameron YMCA in Santee. 

Even though several members of the YMCA staff assured her and her family that I was indeed a woman, her lie was picked up by a local right-wing media outlet and within 72 hours was both national and international news, with said girl being a keynote guest on the “Tucker Carlson Show.”

During a protest of hate coordinated by a couple of East County churches featuring failed politicians and more right-wing media coverage, I quietly and with resolute conviction made my way to a counter-protest that featured love, diversity, acceptance, and joy. The number of families there to support our rainbow family was overwhelming. 

It was there that I introduced myself as the “scary transgender woman” who was being vilified just 50 yards away at the hatefest event. I invited them all to please join me at the next meeting of the Santee City Council, where I would address the lies being spread! It was at that City Council meeting that I first met Gloria Verdieu and was introduced to Struggle-La Lucha and Women in Struggle.

Salute to Miss Major

Now it is my duty, my responsibility, and my great honor to bring your attention to a civil, human, and trans rights icon who has seen fit to grace us with her divine presence today. I refer to Miss Major Griffin-Gracy – activist, author, mentor, and mother to countless of our trans sisters. 

Miss Major’s accomplishments and sacrifices are far too numerous to mention during the short time allotted, but here are two quotes I particularly love: “Get off our backs and let us live,” and a particular favorite from the HBO special “The Trans List,” when asked how she would summarize her life, stated, “She came, she saw, she cared!”

Check out the magnificent interview in The Guardian by Sam Levine with Miss Major in Little Rock, Arkansas, in the sanctuary she has created.

Miss Major, our love for you is eternal, beloved mother!

 

Deputy Secretary-General of the Popular Front: The “Al-Aqsa Flood” surprised the enemy and inflicted a humiliating loss on it

Oct. 17: The Deputy Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Comrade Jamil Mezher, affirmed tonight that “our Palestinian people are experiencing the heroic epic (Al-Aqsa Flood) that was inaugurated by a group of heroic resistance fighters who, in a few hours, in a surprise operation, managed to inflict a humiliating loss on the enemy, during which their security strategy was destroyed.” 

Comrade Jamil Mezher stressed, through a recorded speech broadcast on Al-Mayadeen satellite channel, that “the Zionist enemy is committing a heinous massacre in the Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital in Gaza City [alternatively known as Al-Maamadani Hospital], which claimed the lives of hundreds of martyrs, children, women and the elderly, in an attempt by this enemy to subjugate our people and impose surrender on them, and displacement under bombing fire.

“We say to this criminal enemy: No matter how many bloody massacres are committed, our people will not leave, but will remain steadfast on their land and will not leave it, no matter how heavy the sacrifices are.”

Mezher pointed out, “These crimes cannot cover up the defeat of the enemy; the shame that befell its soldiers and its security system, and in the face of this madness and Zionist crime, it has become necessary to take urgent action to save our people who are being subjected to a war of genocide and ethnic cleansing.”

In response to this hideous massacre, Comrade Mezher called on “the masses of our people in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the territories of 1948 for a comprehensive uprising in the face of the occupation and the herds of settlers,” while he called on “the Arab leaders for a common position to boycott the U.S. administration, expel its military bases, and close its embassies in the region.”

Comrade Deputy Secretary-General stressed the necessity of “expelling the enemy state’s ambassadors and withdrawing the Arab ambassadors from the state of the Zionist entity,” calling on “the Arab masses to take mass action in the squares and streets and besiege the U.S. and Zionist embassies in their countries.”

Mezher also called on “the free forces in solidarity with the Palestinian people around the world to escalate their struggle against the Zionist enemy, the U.S. administration, and the colonial powers in Europe that are partners in this aggression against our people.”

At the end of his speech, Comrade Jamil Mezher addressed all of the people by saying: “Our people and our proud, heroic people: Despite the bombing, destruction, and war of extermination practiced by the enemy against our people, and despite the American and Western partnership, our people and our resistance are fine, they are performing heroically, they will not surrender, and they will not raise the white flag.

“With all certainty, the resistance of our people will pave the way to a decisive and inevitable victory over this criminal and defeated Zionist entity. The struggle continues, and victory will inevitably belong to the Palestinian people and their valiant resistance.”

Translated by Melinda Butterfield 

Source: PFLP

 

On October 13, 2023, the Chicago City Council held a meeting to vote on a “Resolution in Solidarity with Israel.” Gabriel Miller was one of the voices who spoke up against the double standard that is being held in favor of Israel and against Palestine.

In the end, Chicago City Council passed the pro-Israel resolution, despite the protests of people like Gabriel.

Gabriel Miller:

I would like to add my voice to the court here today in opposition to this ridiculous, ridiculous resolution. At a time when the rest of the world is condemning Israel for committing war crime after war crime, Chicago is fiddling around on whether to condemn Hamas. By doing so, Chicago will be doing its part in enabling the genocide of Palestinians, and this resolution acts like it’s on the side of innocent civilians.

So, in that case, I’d like to add, are you considering a resolution for condemning Israel for using white phosphorous against a civilian population? Are you considering condemning Israel for its planned war crime of forced removal of one million Palestinians from Gaza? Are you going to condemn them for cutting off food, water, and electricity to Gaza (another war crime called Selective Punishment)? Did it ever cross your mind to ever condemn Israel when they assassinated Palestinian journalist Shereen Abu Akleh in broad daylight or when they brutalized the people carrying her coffin peacefully? Or when Israeli snipers killed innocent people protesters throughout the March of Return? Did the people in the office before you ever consider condemning Israel at any point since its inception when it crams a country full of people into a 60-mile corner of its own country, creating the largest concentration camp in history, the largest open-air prison in the world?

The answer is a resounding NO. You never considered it, nor did your ancestors. But unfortunately for you, times have changed. The world is increasingly aware of the crimes of Israel and increasingly aware of the framework of politicians who enable their continued apartheid by resolutions such as these. And in a city like Chicago, with a majority Black and Brown people who have experienced the apartheid-like conditions of oppression in the United States, a generation of young people have emerged to understand immediately we have everything in common with the Palestinian people and nothing in common with the brutal Zionists under who they suffer.

A generation of people who are not surprised when we found out that our politicians, up to our president, spread lies about 40 babies being beheaded in order to rationalize genocide. We’re only surprised that they’re forced to walk those lies back, but of course, the damage is done. People are still spewing the debunked lies about rape and massacre of babies even here in this very meeting, when there is endless evidence of Israel having killed over 500 babies in the last 48 hours alone, having dropped more bombs in 24 hours than the US dropped on Afghanistan in one year.

And finally, let it be known that condemning the attack as the actions of some fringe group misses the point of what is actually going on. The attacks were carried out by a broad coalition of groups from every section of Palestinian society, not just a mosque. That coalition represents a people determined to attain freedom at any cost, and they have arrived at this point in the face of a broad coalition of right-wing Zionists and their supporters, like those in the city council who would start a meeting with a prayer calling for their attempts at freedom, a second Holocaust, were so silent you could hear a rat piss on cotton, when innocent, peaceful Palestinians are annihilated day in and day out, like the Native Americans of this country. If it were another time, these same people would be condemning Africans for rebelling against their slave masters and slavery, such as Nat Turner or the Haitian Revolution.

Thank you.

The survivor of the initial attack by the Gaza resistance also says Palestinian fighters treated their captives ‘humanely’ before the arrival of the army

A survivor from the Palestinian resistance offensive on Israeli settlements on 7 October says the Israeli army is “undoubtedly” responsible for killing many of their civilians.

“They eliminated everyone, including the hostages, because there was very, very heavy crossfire,” 44-year-old mother of three Yasmin Porat told the Haboker Hazeh radio program on Israeli Kan radio last week.

When the interviewer asked if Israeli troops were responsible for civilian deaths, Porat said, “Undoubtedly.” Her interview has been scrubbed from the online version of Haboker Hazeh and the Kan website; however, Electronic Intifada procured a copy and translated it from Hebrew.

“There are five or six hostages lying on the ground outside. Just like sheep to the slaughter, between the shooting of our commandos and the terrorists,” Porat describes.

Porat says that, before the arrival of Israeli troops, she and other civilians had been held by the Palestinians “for several hours” and treated “humanely.”

“They did not abuse us. They treated us very humanely,” Porat said, adding, “They give us something to drink here and there. When they see we are nervous, they calm us down. It was very frightening, but no one treated us violently.”

She recalled one Palestinian fighter who spoke Hebrew saying: “Look at me well, were not going to kill you. We want to take you to Gaza. We are not going to kill you. So be calm, you’re not going to die.”

“I was calm because I knew nothing would happen to me,” she added.

Furthermore, during a lengthy interview on Israel’s Channel 12, Porat speaks of intense gunfire after Israeli forces arrived and elaborates that, although the resistance fighters were heavily armed, she never saw them shoot captives or threaten them with their guns.

She also highlights that the Israeli army announced their arrival at the settlement “with a hail of gunfire,” catching the resistance fighters and their captives by surprise.

Her account echoes that of another Israeli settler who spoke with Channel 12 last week about her experience as a prisoner of war (POW) of Hamas.

The accounts from survivors stand in stark contrast to the widespread claims found in western media outlets that say Hamas forces did everything from “beheading babies” to torturing and raping settlers.

Salah al-Aruri, Deputy Head of Hamas’ Political Bureau, last week addressed claims that resistance fighters were ordered to deliberately kill as many Israeli settlers as possible, telling Al Jazeera TV that fighters from the Qassam Brigades – the military wing of Hamas – were “under strict protocol to not harm civilians.”

He also said that after Israel’s Gaza division disintegrated in the face of the Gaza factions, others rushed the border, “causing chaos.” Furthermore, he notes that some of the deaths of Israeli settlers are a result of the so-called ‘Hannibal Directive,’ which is a protocol that allows Israeli soldiers to use overwhelming force to kill one of their own captured soldiers rather than allow them to be taken, prisoner.

“We are certain that young men [fighters] were bombed along with the prisoners who were with them,” Aruri said last week.

According to the Israeli army, at least 199 settlers were taken as POWs by the Palestinian resistance. The Israeli death toll from Operation Al-Aqsa Flood stands at over 1,300.

Source

Talk given by Sally Jane Black of the Louisiana Women’s Action Committee at the Oct. 7 National March to Protect Trans Youth and Speakout for Trans Lives in Orlando, Florida.

I have lived my entire life here in the South, part of the country so many people have abandoned and written off. But I am standing right here in Florida, seeing all of you marching with us, and I am inspired.

I am honored and inspired to be here in solidarity with you. I am honored and inspired to stand with those of you who are right here on the frontlines of the fightback against fascism here in Florida and the Ron DeSantis regime. Y’all are standing up against DeSantis and against the billionaire backers who pull his strings.

Back home in Louisiana, we have our own fascist puppets to worry about. Right now, state Attorney General Jeff Landry — an arch-racist scumbag — is running for governor and leading the far-right agenda there. The same capitalists who are funding DeSantis here are funding his campaign. The same people who fund them, they’re also funding the Democrats across the country. 

The same people are funding the anti-trans laws, the anti-abortion laws, the attacks on our immigrant siblings, and they’re attacking all of our social programs and all workers’ rights which we’ve won over the years. And the same people are responsible for endless war and climate change.

We all have this common enemy: the capitalist class. They’re very organized, and so far they have been successful at keeping us divided. That’s the purpose of these laws and the attacks upon us, to make us hate each other instead of standing united against them.

But there are more of us than there are of them. We outnumber them greatly. Today we’ve shown them: We’re certainly outnumbering the fascists here today.

Today has to be the start of building a movement that remains united. Today has to be the start of all of us coming together.

‘Turn hundreds into millions’

As many of you here saw, our demands go beyond just the attacks on trans people here in Florida. We’re standing here today in solidarity with everyone who is under attack by the fascists and the capitalists who back them, the capitalists who coordinated their campaigns around the country. We have to continue that fight. We have to sustain this. We have to build from this. We have to turn the hundreds who have turned out here today into millions. And we can do it.

In order to do that, in order to build a movement that is united, we’re gonna have to do the work. We’re gonna have to keep showing up. And the unfun part is we’re gonna have to get out there and talk to people who might not yet be on our side, who might not yet know that we are all in the same fight. 

We’re gonna have to be willing to talk to people who don’t yet agree with us. I’m not talking about the fascists or the Klan, but I am talking about people who might not have heard anything about trans rights before today. They might not realize these attacks on trans people are attacks on them as well. We have to be willing to talk to them, and get that message to them.

If they can tell us how to dress and which bathroom to use, they can tell anyone how to dress and which bathroom to use. If they succeed at these attacks on us, they’ll succeed with these attacks on everyone. That’s what they’re doing right now.

I encourage all of you to help us keep building this movement because in the coming year, we’re not just gonna be facing the continued attacks of these fascists and the capitalists. We’re also going to be facing massive campaigns from both Democrats and Republicans to draw everybody into the election next year.

I’m not telling you not to vote. You can vote, that’s fine, but it’s gonna take more than voting. We have to build a movement. We have to grow that movement. We have to bring every progressive group and force out there together so that no matter who is in office, they will answer our demands.

That’s what it’s gonna take to beat back the fascists, to beat back the capitalists, and to win our liberation. We owe it to ourselves to do this.

Talk by Tsukuru Fors of Red Berets for Queers at the Oct. 7 National March to Protect Trans Youth & Speakout for Trans Lives in Orlando, Florida.

My name is Tsukuru Fors. Born and raised in Japan, I came to the United States at age 19. I am an Asian, immigrant, and nonbinary trans person.

Looking at the world through the eyes of an Asian, immigrant, trans person, I see a common enemy. Who shows up at anti-trans rallies are often the same people who inflict violence on my Asian siblings. So, it’s clear to me that we must work together. 

It’s been super-exciting to build the movement with all of you, and this is just the beginning. I am an antinuclear/peace/health care justice activist. I tell everyone that I meet in these spaces that trans rights are their business, too. 

Peace is about human rights, so how can that not include trans rights? When we talk about health care for all, gender-affirming care must be included, because trans health care is a human right.

Ron DeSantis is trying to take away our rights to exist. And yet we are still here. We have always been here, and we are not going away.

Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for being who you are, loud and proud.

When we talk about states like Texas and Florida, we Californians say things like, “Oh, they are horrible states,” but they are not. Coming here, interacting with all of you, I see this is a beautiful place, it’s just that there are people who want to rule by fear and hate. 

My new brother Lindsey Spero, when they spoke of their love for their state, brought tears to my eyes. In my antinuclear work, I’ve worked with many displaced people. No one should be displaced. This is your home. You should be able to live here, be safe, be loved, and pursue dreams as who you are. That is why we fight.

For those who choose to leave, I run a grassroots initiative called Trans Migrants Support CA. We aim to support trans and nonbinary siblings relocating to California from other states. 

Let me be honest by saying that housing in California is a huge challenge. In fact, I am currently housing-insecure myself. But we are fighting to hold cities like West Hollywood, a supposedly trans sanctuary city, accountable by pushing them to fund housing programs for trans people. 

We are a work in progress, but here is a promise. You have a family in California. The community has your back. We protect us.

I spent most of my life being closeted. I was 50 years old when I began my HRT [hormone replacement therapy]. This fight is personal. I am fighting for the young me who was afraid and alone. 

My trans/nonbinary siblings, our community is strong, joyful, caring, creative, and beautiful. You showed me what community looks like, what family looks like, after my own birth family disowned me. You showed me what belonging feels like. 

If I had a way to talk to my 15-year-old self, I would tell him that this is what he can look forward to. That’s why I fight. We protect us.

Lastly, I would like to honor my sibling back in California who couldn’t be here. Xodiak Rose is an Indigenous Two-Spirit organizer who was arrested at the West Hollywood Pride this year due to a false police report filed by a known fascist. I would like to end this speech by inviting you to do her favorite chant with me:

It is our duty to fight for our freedom.

It is our duty to win.

We must love and protect each other.

We have nothing to lose but our chains.

Thank you so much. I love you all.

 

An Israeli woman who survived the Hamas assault on settlements near the Gaza boundary on 7 October says Israeli civilians were “undoubtedly” killed by their own security forces.

It happened when Israeli forces engaged in fierce gun battles with Palestinian fighters in Kibbutz Be’eri and fired indiscriminately at both the fighters and their Israeli prisoners.

“They eliminated everyone, including the hostages,” she told Israeli radio. “There was very, very heavy crossfire” and even tank shelling.

The woman, 44-year-old mother of three Yasmin Porat, said that prior to that, she and other civilians had been held by the Palestinians for several hours and treated “humanely.” She had fled the nearby “Nova” rave.

A recording of her interview, from the radio program Haboker Hazeh (“This Morning”) hosted by Aryeh Golan on state broadcaster Kan, has been circulating on social media.

The interview has been translated by The Electronic Intifada. You can listen to it with English subtitles in this video and a transcript is at the end of this article:

Notably, the interview is not included in the online version of Haboker Hazeh for 15 October, the episode in which it apparently aired.

It may well have been censored due to its explosive nature.

Porat, who is from Kabri, a settlement near the Lebanese border, undoubtedly experienced terrible things and saw many noncombatants killed. Her own partner, Tal Katz, is among the dead.

However, her account undermines Israel’s official story of deliberate, wanton murder by the Palestinian fighters.

Although it no longer appears on the Kan website, there can be little doubt about the recording’s authenticity.

At least one Hebrew-language account posted part of the interview on Twitter, now officially called X, and accused Kan of functioning as “media in the service of Hamas.”

Treated “humanely”

Not only does Porat tell Kan that Israelis were killed in the heavy counterattack by Israeli security forces, but she says she and other captive civilians were well treated by the Palestinian fighters.

Porat had been attending the “Nova” rave when the Hamas assault began with missiles and motorized paragliders. She and her partner Tal Katz escaped by car to nearby Kibbutz Be’eri where many of the events she describes in her media interviews took place.

According to Porat speaking to Maariv, she and Katz initially sought refuge in the house of a couple called Adi and Hadas Dagan. After the Palestinian fighters found them they were all taken to another house, where eight people were already being held captive and one person was dead.

Porat said that the wife of the dead man “told us that when they [the Hamas fighters] tried to enter, the guy tried to prevent them from entering and grabbed the door. They shot at the door and he was killed. They did not execute them.”

“They did not abuse us. They treated us very humanely,” Porat explained to a surprised Golan in the Kan radio interview.

“By that I mean they guard us,” she said. “They give us something to drink here and there. When they see we are nervous they calm us down. It was very frightening but no one treated us violently. Luckily nothing happened to me like what I heard in the media.”

“They were very humane towards us,” Porat said in her Channel 12 interview. She recalled that one Palestinian fighter who spoke Hebrew, “told me, ‘Look at me well, we’re not going to kill you. We want to take you to Gaza. We are not going to kill you. So be calm, you’re not going to die.’ That’s what he told me, in those words.”

“I was calm because I knew nothing would happen to me,” she added.

“They told us that we would not die, that they wanted to take us to Gaza and that the next day they would return us to the border,” Porat told Maariv.

In the Channel 12 interview, Porat elaborates that although the Palestinian fighters all had loaded weapons, she never saw them shoot captives or threaten them with their guns.

In addition to providing the captives with drinking water, she said the fighters let them go outside to the lawn because it was hot, especially as the electricity was cut.

Young and scared

About eight hours after the start of the Hamas attack and about half an hour after Porat’s calls to the police, Israeli forces arrived and chaos ensued, Porat told Kan.

“At first there was no [Israeli] security force with us,” Porat recalled, noting that her first call to the Israeli police went unanswered. “We were the ones who called the police, together with the abductors because the abductors wanted the police to arrive. Because their objective was to kidnap us to Gaza.”

“They understand that soldiers will not kill hostages. So they want to come out with us alive and for the police to permit it,” Porat told Channel 12.

Though the Israeli captives numbered only a dozen, Porat was instructed to tell Israeli police that 40 of them were being held by the Hamas fighters, who themselves numbered between 40 and 50 men mostly in their 20s, by Porat’s estimate. They themselves were young and scared, she told Channel 12.

A fighter Porat described as a commander in his 30s asked to speak to the police and was put on with an Arabic-speaking Israeli officer.

After their brief conversation, the four dozen or so Palestinian fighters and their dozen Israeli prisoners awaited the arrival of the army, with some of the group spilling outside to the garden for relief from the afternoon heat.

Hails of bullets, mortars and tank shells

Israeli forces announced their arrival with a hail of gunfire, catching the fighters and their Israeli captives by surprise.

“We were outside and suddenly there was a volley of bullets at us from the [Israeli unit] YAMAM. We all started running to find cover, Porat told Channel 12.”

Porat said she surrendered to the Israeli soldiers half an hour into the fierce gun battle that consisted of “tens and hundreds and thousands of bullets and mortars flying in the air,” and that one of the Palestinian fighters, a commander, decided to surrender and used her in effect as a human shield.

“He starts to disrobe,” Porat recalled to Kan’s Aryeh Golan. “He calls to me and he starts to leave the house with me, under fire. At that time I yell to the [Israeli commandos] … when they can hear me, to stop firing.”

“And then they heard me and stopped firing,” she added. “I see people from the kibbutz on the lawn. There are five or six hostages lying on the ground outside. Just like sheep to the slaughter, between the shooting of our commandos and the terrorists.”

“The terrorists shot them?” Golan asks.

“No, they were killed by the crossfire,” Porat responds. “Understand there was very, very heavy crossfire.”

Golan presses: “So our forces may have shot them?”

“Undoubtedly,” the former captive responds, and adds, “They eliminated everyone, including the hostages because there was very, very heavy crossfire.”

“After insane crossfire, two tank shells were shot into the house. It’s a small kibbutz house, nothing big,” Porat explains.

Porat and the man who took her captive both survived. The Palestinian was taken prisoner by Israeli forces. But according to Porat, almost everyone else in the settlement was killed, wounded or missing, believed to have been taken to Gaza.

Porat told Kan she lost dozens of friends who had been at the rave – people she would regularly see at parties in Israel’s trance scene.

“I’m angry at the state, I’m angry at the army,” Porat told Maariv. “For 10 hours the kibbutz was abandoned.”

The joint American-Israeli effort to paint Hamas as worse than ISIS in order to justify Israel’s unfolding genocide against the civilian population in Gaza depends on the international public not seeing or hearing accounts like Porat’s.

Israeli leaders, already under intense criticism for failing to anticipate and prevent the Hamas offensive, will also not want their catastrophic failures to be compounded by knowledge that many of the Israelis who died may well have been killed by “friendly fire” in a disastrous Israeli counterattack.

Hannibal Directive?

Saleh al-Arouri, a senior Hamas military commander, has directly addressed Israel’s claims that his fighters set out to deliberately kill as many civilians as possible.

The Israeli propaganda campaign has included lurid atrocity tales – for which no evidence has been produced whatsoever – that Palestinians beheaded dozens of Israeli babies and that women were raped.

Al-Arouri said in an interview with Al Jazeera on Thursday that fighters of his organization’s military force, the Qassam Brigades, were under strict protocol to not harm civilians.

But al-Arouri said that after Israel’s Gaza division – the army unit that surrounds the Gaza Strip – collapsed much more quickly than expected, people in Gaza rushed to the boundary area after learning it had been opened, causing chaos. He said this may have included other armed persons who were not part of Qassam.

Al-Arouri said that this caused Qassam fighters to engage with soldiers, settlement guards and armed residents, which led to civilian deaths.

Al-Arouri also invoked the possibility Israel used the so-called Hannibal Directive – a protocol that allows Israeli forces to use overwhelming force to kill one of their own captured soldiers rather than allow them to be taken prisoner.

The rationale for the Hannibal Directive is to avoid allowing an enemy to have captives that can be used in prisoner exchange negotiations.

However in this case, if the directive was implemented by Israeli forces, it would have been used against civilians.

Al-Arouri told Al Jazeera, “We are certain that young men [fighters] were bombed along with the prisoners who were with them.”

Porat’s account, among others, underscores the need for an independent investigation, one which Israel is unlikely ever to permit.

The current propaganda narrative is simply too valuable to the genocidaires in Tel Aviv.

Ali Abunimah is executive director of The Electronic Intifada.

David Sheen is the author of Kahanism and American Politics: The Democratic Party’s Decades-Long Courtship of Racist Fanatics.

Transcript of the Kan interview with Yasmin Porat

Yasmin Porat: For an hour they were banging about 10 terrorists on the reinforced safe room. There were screams in Arabic and it was a very tense hour. And we felt great fear that’s indescribable. After an hour they managed to break in and they removed the four of us to a nearby house where there were already eight other additional hostages. We joined those eight and we were about 12 hostages with 40 terrorists that were guarding us. I’m keeping the story short.

Aryeh Golan: Did they abuse you?

Yasmin Porat: They did not abuse us. They treated us very humanely, meaning …

Aryeh Golan: Humanely? Really?

Yasmin Porat: Yes, by that I mean they guard us. They give us something to drink here and there. When they see we are nervous, they calm us down. It was very frightening but no one treated us violently. Luckily nothing happened to me like what I heard in the media.

Aryeh Golan: Horrible, horrific things occurred.

Yasmin Porat: True. But after two hours briefly at first there was no [Israeli] security force with us. We were the ones who called the police together with the abductors because the abductors wanted the police to arrive. Because their objective was to kidnap us to Gaza.

[SKIP OR CUT IN AUDIO]

Yasmin Porat: Meanwhile one of the terrorists decides to surrender, the terrorist I made a connection with. Over the course of those two hours I connected with some of the abductors, those that guarded the hostages.

Aryeh Golan: Yes

Yasmin Porat: And he decides to use me as a human shield. He decides to surrender. I am not aware of it in those moments its in retrospect. He starts to disrobe, he takes he calls to me and he starts to leave the house with me, under fire. At that time I yelled to the YAMAM [Israeli commandos] when we were already when they can hear me, to stop firing.

Aryeh Golan: Yes

Yasmin Porat: And then they hear me and stop firing. I see on the lawn, in the garden of the people from the kibbutz. There are five or six hostages lying on the ground outside, just like sheep to the slaughter, between the shooting of our [fighters] and the terrorists.

Aryeh Golan: The terrorists shot them?

Yasmin Porat: No, they were killed by the crossfire. Understand there was very, very heavy crossfire.

Aryeh Golan: So our forces may have shot them?

Yasmin Porat: Undoubtedly.

Aryeh Golan: When they tried to eliminate the abductors, Hamas?

Yasmin Porat: They eliminated everyone, including the hostages. Because there was very, very heavy crossfire. I was freed at approximately 5:30. The fighting apparently ended at 8:30. After insane crossfire, two tank shells were shot into the house. Its a small kibbutz house, nothing big. You saw it on the news.

Aryeh Golan: Yes

Yasmin Porat: Not a large place. And at that moment everyone was killed. There was quiet, except for one person limping, Hadas [Dagan], in the garden.

Aryeh Golan: How were they all killed?

Yasmin Porat: From the crossfire.

Aryeh Golan: Crossfire, so it could also be from our forces?

Yasmin Porat: Undoubtedly.

Aryeh Golan: Really?

Yasmin Porat: That’s what I believe.

Aryeh Golan: Oy it sounds so bad.

Yasmin Porat: Yes. And everyone died.

Aryeh Golan: And you, thanks to that terrorist who decided to give himself up …

Yasmin Porat: Exactly.

Aryeh Golan: And you survived and all the rest were killed there.

Yasmin Porat: Except for one other woman who survived, they found her later [trails off]. The person who dealt with the event checked her or something. They found her when she lifted her head, amongst all the bodies. And then, simply …

Aryeh Golan: And your partner, who was with you?

Yasmin Porat: Killed.

Aryeh Golan: He was killed too?

Yasmin Porat: Yes. Everyone was killed there. Just horrible.

Aryeh Golan: Have you returned to Kabri?

Yasmin Porat: I returned to Kabri and then the chaos started there.

Aryeh Golan: In the north?

Yasmin Porat: Yes. So now I’m a guest. I’m being hosted in a lovely way in Kibbutz Ein Harod. And I’m here for now.

Aryeh Golan: You’re in the [Jezreel] Valley now. Alright, Yasmin, you’ve undergone a horrific experience.

Yasmin Porat: True.

Aryeh Golan: You lost your partner, you saw people killed alongside you.

Yasmin Porat: And I …

Aryeh Golan: [INTERRUPTS] What happened to that terrorist who gave himself up?

Yasmin Porat: He is still arrested, and he was just called in for interrogation to help … You know, he will be interrogated about the accused. And sadly dozens more of my friends were killed because …

Aryeh Golan: [INTERRUPTS] Dozens of friends?

Yasmin Porat: Yes because its a community, the trance scene, we go to the same parties. It means that besides my partner, I knew dozens and hundreds [CUT OFF]

Source: Electronic Intifada