Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2025-07-25 Friday

Episode Date: July 25, 2025

Headlines for July 25, 2025; Ben Crump on Breonna Taylor, William McNeil, Saniyah Cheatham & Demand to Release Malcolm X Files; “Why Is the World Letting It Happen?”: U.K. Surgeon, Back from Gaza, on Starving Children; Freedom Flotilla Sails to Gaza to Break Israel’s “Engineered Famine”: Activist Huwaida Arraf; Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Gaza Siege, American Killed by Israeli Settlers & Epstein’s Financial Network

From New York, this is Democracy Now! We are slowly dying every day. Is there anyone on this planet who can live what a human is living in Gaza? I don't think anyone can bear what we are bearing. At least 115 people in Gaza have died of starvation amidst the ongoing Israeli blockade. We'll speak with Dr. Nick Maynard, just back from Gaza. His piece in The Guardian headlined, "'I'm witnessing the deliberate starvation of Gaza's children. Why is the world letting it happen?'

Then to the Mediterranean Sea, where another freedom flotilla aid boat has set sail in hopes of breaking the siege. Israel is threatening to attack us. We are not the siege. We'll speak with Palestinian-American human rights lawyer Haweida Araf on board the boat, then to Detroit to the only Palestinian-American member of Congress, Rashida Tlaib. This is not a game, Mr. Speaker. These are human beings. And if colleagues need to close their eyes again and pretend they're not Palestinians

to care, then maybe they should. And we would stop this madness and stop supporting the genocide in Gaza. And finally, civil rights attorney Ben Crump on the sentencing of a Louisville officer involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor, as well as a Jacksonville, Florida, police stop of a black motorist smashing his window and beating him to the ground, the death of an 18-year-old young woman in New York police custody. And as President Trump defies calls to release the Epstein files, but releases the files on Dr. Martin Luther King, what about the files on the assassination of Malcolm X?

All that and more, coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. Malnutrition cases are soaring across the Gaza Strip, where starving children are pouring into overwhelmed hospitals. Earlier today, the Ahali Arab Hospital in Gaza City announced the death of a Palestinian child named Abd al-Qadr al-Fayoumi from malnutrition, the 115th starvation-related death since Israel reimposed its siege on Gaza in March.

Israeli attacks across Gaza killed at least 62 Palestinians Thursday, 19 of them while they were trying to collect food from militarized aid sites run by the shadowy U.S.-Israeli-backed so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF. On Thursday, displaced Palestinian women in Raqqa were directed by GHF to a woman-only distribution section, where they were attacked with tear gas and pepper spray. The Americans said, go, go. So we went. Then they said, no, leave.

After a while, they started spraying pepper spray on us. They burnt our faces and hands. We went outside, and they distanced us further away, so we went away. Five minutes later, they started throwing tear gas. We were suffocating because of the gas. Then they called on the tank from a distance. They called on the microphone for the tank to come, and the quadcopter came, and everything was on us.

The U.N. Human Rights Office says over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed trying to access food since May, mostly near GHF sites. This comes as a U.S. military veteran who quit his job as a security contractor for GHF says he witnessed other guards using deadly violence against unarmed civilians. The guard requested to have his face blurred and his voice scrambled to remain anonymous. He described an attack by U.S. contractors on a starving Palestinian man who dropped to his hands and knees to pick up noodles that had fallen to the ground. This guy was armed.

He wasn't a threat. This U.G. contractor sprayed an entire—an entire can of pepper spray, an entire can, into this guy's face. That's the lethal. I was standing next to these two women, and this contractor throws this sun grenade, and it lands in between me and them. This thing hit her, and she just drops, just lifeless, collapsing around.

It looked like she had been killed. And to me, that was the—I could not be a part of that anymore. The disguised contractor was speaking to Israel's Channel 12 TV. The former United Nations humanitarian affairs chief has condemned Israel's assault on Gaza as a genocide. In a wide-ranging interview with Middle East Eye, Martin Griffiths predicted, quote, "'My grandchildren will be learning in school about who did what in the worst crime of the 20th century.'"

Griffiths added, quote, "'There's no prior experience in my five decades of humanitarian experience that can come close to the comparison to the horror we are all seeing in Gaza,' he said." Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called Israel's denial of aid to Palestinians a violation of international law and said Israel's control of aid to Palestinians a violation of international law, and said Israel's control of aid distribution must be replaced by international organizations. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wrote in a statement, quote, Israel's denial of aid and the killing of civilians, including children seeking access to water and food,

cannot be defended or ignored. And French President Emmanuel Macron says France will formally recognize the state of Palestine during the U.N. General Assembly in September. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio strongly rejected what he called France's reckless decision that only serves Hamas propaganda, unquote. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said France's recognition of Palestine, quote, rewards terrorists. We'll have more on Gaza after headlines with Dr. Nick Maynard, who just returned from volunteering at Nasser Hospital in Chanyounis, south of Gaza City.

We'll also speak with the only Palestinian-American member of Congress, Rashida Tlaib. Thailand's prime minister says border clashes with Cambodia could lead to war. Meanwhile, Cambodia is claiming Thailand's committing war crimes using cluster munitions and heavy weaponry inside its territory. The death toll has climbed to at least 16 people on the second day of fighting. Survivors say they had to flee attacks with nothing but the clothes on their backs. We were looking after my mother at home, and we heard gunshots, bang, bang, bang, booming

loudly, and then continuous boom-boom sounds of explosion. I turned to my mother and said, Oh, my God, Mom. Then I quickly told her, Mom, get in the car. And we rushed off. We got in the car so fast. We didn't bring anything with us. An immigrant from Venezuela who was sent to El Salvador's mega prison, Secat, by the Trump administration, has filed a $1.3 million claim against the U.S. government over his

wrongful detention. Twenty-seven-year-old Narever Adrian Leon Rangel was among the more than 250 Venezuelan immigrants flown to El Salvador from the U.S. in March as Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. They were released and returned to Venezuela in a surprise so-called prisoner swap with the U.S. Rangel was taken by federal agents from the parking lot of his apartment building in Irving, Texas, with immigration officials wrongfully claiming his tattoos proved he was affiliated

with the Tren de Aragua gang. Rangel came to the U.S. in 2023 and worked as a barber. He described being brutally beaten by guards at Secat. The Washington Post reports immigration and customs enforcement has directed its agents to skyrocket the use of GPS ankle monitors, which advocates have long denounced as digital shackles. The move will sharply expand ICE's round-the-clock surveillance of some 180,000 immigrants under the so-called Alternatives to Detention program.

Activists who've challenged the use of tech for immigration crackdowns say these programs amount to digital prisons and have warned of privacy violations and the mass collection of personal data by ICE. In related news, an Afghan interpreter who came to the United States after working with U.S. troops during the invasion of Afghanistan was taken by masked federal agents this week after an appointment related to his green card application. The person was identified only as Zia. Zia and his family fled Afghanistan following the Taliban's return to power in 2021.

They were granted humanitarian parole by the Biden administration in 2024. This comes as thousands of Afghans in the U.S. face deportation after a federal appeals court refused to postpone the Trump administration's move to end temporary protected status for Afghans. The termination went into effect July 21st. The Trump administration's issued new threats against U.S. permanent residents. This week, Customs and Border Protection warned people must carry their green cards and proof of immigration status or face criminal charges and fines if detained by federal law enforcement. On Capitol Hill, the Senate voted 50-48 Thursday to advance the nomination of Emile Bovi, bringing Donald

Trump's former criminal defense attorney one step closer to a lifetime appointment on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Two Republicans, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, sided with Democrats opposing his nomination. Bovi has been called an extreme ideologue and has reportedly directed Justice Department lawyers to ignore judicial orders that undermine Trump's agenda. Meanwhile, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan said Thursday the independence of federal courts is under attack due to increasing threats of violence against judges and the refusal of Trump administration

officials to follow court rulings. Justice Kagan spoke at a judicial conference in California. Justice Kagan, I think, is right. This idea that litigants, and most especially here I'm talking about government officials—needn't obey the dictates of courts, needn't obey court orders. And, you know, that's just not the way our system works, not the way rule of law in this country works. And that's true for the Supreme Court, and it's also true for every district court.

President Trump has signed a rescission bill clawing back $9 billion that had been previously approved for foreign aid and public broadcasting. Just over a billion dollars was slated for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS. The rest of the money was destined for foreign assistance programs. Amid the cuts to USAID, Doctors Without Borders slammed President Trump's plan to destroy nearly $10 million worth of contraceptives that were set to be delivered overseas. In a statement, the organization decried the, quote, callous waste that puts the health

and lives of women and girls at risk. Meanwhile, public broadcaster GBH said Tuesday Tuesday it's laying off staffers who produce the series American Experience and pausing the production of new documentaries. Stanley Nelson, the award-winning documentary filmmaker, said, quote, these cuts are especially devastating considering the current state of affairs in this country, when the preservation and teaching of American history is more needed and more threatened than ever before," he said. And the Trump administration has cleared the way for an $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance.

In approving the deal Thursday, the Trump-appointed chair of the FCC, Brendan Carr, said, quote, "'I welcome Skydance's commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network,'' unquote. The FCC's approval comes less than a month after CBS's owner Paramount agreed to pay Trump $16 million after he sued 60 Minutes over how it edited an interview with his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. And just a week ago, CBS canceled the late show with Stephen Colbert, after Colbert called the settlement a big fat bribe. The show is supposed to go off the air next May.

Meanwhile, the cartoon satire show South Park, which has just signed a $1.5 billion streaming deal with Paramount, skewered President Trump, showing him sleeping with the devil. The White House, in response, called the show Fourth Rate. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report, back in a minute. Thank you. I'm gonna be. Yeah. Yeah. I say unite, unite, unite. Unite by Fatoumata Diwara, performed in our Democracy Now! studio.

This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. In a closely watched decision, this week a federal judge in Kentucky sentenced the former Louisville police officer, who blindly fired 10 bullets into Breonna Taylor's home in 2020, during a botched raid. Brett Hankison was sentenced to 33 months in prison for using excessive force during the deadly no-knock police raid that killed Breonna Taylor in her own home. U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings rejected the prosecutor's recommendation to have Brett Hankison sentenced to just one

day in prison, calling the effort not appropriate. Some of the bullets he fired penetrated the walls of a neighbor's home, where a family was sleeping. Taylor was a black 26-year-old emergency room technician whose killings sparked nationwide racial justice protests under the banner of Black Lives Matter. Louisville Metro Police arrested four protesters who blocked traffic outside the federal court where Hankison was sentenced on Monday. Among those arrested was Bianca Austin, Breonna Taylor's aunt.

Taylor's former boyfriend and her mother responded to the sentencing. I think the judge did the best she could with what she had to work with. There was no prosecution in there for us. There was no prosecution in there for Breonna. So I definitely, you know, I'm grateful for the judge for giving some time, because we could have walked away with nothing according to what they recommended. I'm grateful for the small piece of justice that we got. It's definitely not what I was expecting.

And Brad Hankinson told me I was going to go to jail for the rest of my life. So I definitely feel some type of something to see him going for, even if it's a little time. Breonna Taylor's boyfriend and mother. For more, we're joined by Ben Crump, civil rights attorney. We want to ask you about a number of cases, from the reason you are here in New York, the wake and funeral of an 18-year-old young woman in police custody, the beating of and the smashing of the window of a black motorist in Jacksonville, Florida. But let's begin with the sentencing of Brett Hankison, the former Louisville police officer

who shot into Breonna Taylor's home. Your response? Well, Amy Goodman, I think Breonna's mother and boyfriend expressed it best when Tamika Palmer said there was no prosecution for Breonna in the courtroom. It was like a George Orwell, Elmer Farm courtroom scene where the prosecutor was really the defense lawyer for Brett Hankinson. They were advocating harder for Brett Hankinson to be exonerated than his defense lawyers were. And it was just mind boggling. And so like Breonna's

mother, Tamika Palmer said, there was nobody advocating for Breonna. I mean, they recommended he get one day in prison. And that was where he had been served when he was arrested, Amy. So they essentially wanted him to get no jail time for a jury, an all-white jury, finding that he had committed a felony. And so, I mean, the judge, thank God for her, she even had to argue with the prosecutor that a violation of civil rights was a crime because they were trying to say, well, we don't even know if we ever would have prosecuted this case. That was the last administration. The Buddhists didn't hit anybody.

And she stopped him and she said no no She said civil rights violations are defined as crimes in America. They Shot those ten shots. It was a violation of her Fourth Amendment rights Brianna Taylor while he was shooting at her front door was not Allowed to leave her premises. And that constitutes seizure, Fourth Amendment violation against the unlawful search and seizure. And so it was like unbelievable, Amy. And as her boyfriend Kenny Walker said, you know, at least he got some jail time because

they wanted him to get no jail time for killing this black woman. Just to be clear, it was another officer named Miles Cosgrove who was determined to have fired the shot that killed Breonna. He was fired, but faced no legal consequences? Yes, because the court determined that black people don't have a right to the Second Amendment, apparently, because when Kenny Walker fired at who he thought was breaking into their apartment at one o'clock in the morning, who they didn't know who was coming through the

door because these no-knock warrants are inherently dangerous. And when he fired the shot back, a one-a-shot, letting the intruders know that he had a gun, and so Miles Cosgrove and the other officers started shooting, and the court determined that they were justified in self-defense. And so, I mean, it's almost as if they are telling black people, you all don't have a right to the Second Amendment. This week in Florida, the Jacksonville sheriff T.K.

Waters said Monday, none of the officers involved in the violent arrest and beating of a 22-year-old black motorist named William Anthony McNeil Jr. will face criminal charges. Video of the beating has since gone viral. Jacksonville Sheriff's Office deputies pulled McNeil over February 19th for driving without his headlights on, even though it was daytime and it wasn't even raining. Cell phone video from his dashboard shows McNeil posing no threat to officers, as he's questioning why they're pulling him over. An officer then breaks McNeil's window and punches him in the face before officers drag

him from the car, throw him to the ground and begin pummeling him. Just a quick clip. What is your reason, sir? What is your reason? Step out now. All right. No, no, no, no, no. Step out. No, no, no, no. Step out. No, no, no, no. No, no, no.

McNeil says he suffered a chipped tooth that pierced his cheek, requiring stitches, a concussion, short-term memory loss. The Jacksonville NAACP called the video said, this troubling behavior from law enforcement highlights the very reasons why many African Americans, especially African American men, feel fear during traffic stops. Ben Crump, you're representing him. Can you talk about the video being released months after and what you're calling for? Absolutely, Amy. First of all, you know, this lie that they were stopping him for driving over his headlight

zone, even though it was in the broad daylight and it wasn't inclement weather, is just a classic example of driving while black. Many people don't ever understand that and don't have to worry about that, but for many minorities of America, it is a constant threat for us, especially black people, this constant racial profiling. And I have articulated that what happened with William McNeil Jr. was a 21st century Rosa Parks moment where black Americans just get so fed up with having our constitutional rights and our civil rights

and our humanity constantly disrespected and ignored. And so William McNeil, once he heard the police say that I stopped you for not having your headlights on and broad daylight, he asked them, what did you stop me for? And that was the response. And then he said, I wanna talk to your supervisor. And because he dared ask, like any citizen have the right to do Amy Goodman for a supervisor, then you see this brutal assault on him, not on his car, but his person.

They get him out of the car, he's restrained, they're punching him, they get him on the ground with handcuffs, then they slam his head on the ground at least three times, looked like he could have been many more. And there are four officers there, and nobody seems alarmed by this behavior. So you know it must be business as usual. And so he was afraid. And you know, his family, after they arrested him and put him in jail for two days, took him to the hospital from the jail cell. And he just was afraid because his mom and dad said they don't want anything else to do with this. But thank

God they finally got the courage to release this video months later. And everybody, everybody should have video cameras recorded when the police have these interactions with them, because they did not tell the truth on their police reports when you look at the video. It is contradicting what they said on the police report. I can't believe I'm asking you about yet another case. But here in New York, you were here this week, family and community members gathered Tuesday for the wake to commemorate Sinaya Cheetham, an 18-year-old young black woman from the

Bronx who died in police custody earlier this month. City medical examiners ruled the teen's death a suicide, but her family continues to demand justice and answers in what led to her death after she was found hanging in a holding cell at the NYPD precinct in the Bronx on July 5th. Dr. Stephen Marshall, a National Action Network senior adviser, addressed the police during his remarks at her funeral. Where the hell were you, when Sinaiyah was actually begging for help? It is a disgrace. It is disgusting that this story has been told in a whisper.

Ben Crump, you're representing a Zanias family. What are you calling for? We're calling for transparency and we're calling for accountability. When you're having a mental health crisis, you should have the appropriate responses. NYPD in that Brunton jail had a camera that was facing the jail cell of Zaniya Lake Cheatham the whole time. This 18-year-old teen was crying out for help. That's what you do when you're a suicider. And the video is going to be shocking once you are released because you have this little girl who they clearly they're watching the video is having a mental health crisis and she's telling them things she's screaming and nobody does anything. And you see, it reminds me of George Floyd

when you say somebody certainly is going to intervene, somebody is definitely going to come and do something and nobody does anything. The fact that you're black and you're having a mental health crisis should not equal a death sentence for you. So NYPD, you have to have this matter addressed. Where were you?

Were you asleep at the wheel? Apparently, it seems you were. Ben Crump, finally, in just two minutes, the Trump administration released over 240,000 pages of FBI records on Martin Luther King Jr., despite opposition from the King children, who said J. Edgar Hoover had a campaign against Dr. Martin Luther King. The Trump administration released this, as so many calls were coming in for the release of the Epstein files. But you've been calling for, working with the Malcolm X family, the documents to be

released in the assassination of the slain civil rights leader Malcolm X. Your thoughts, what you're demanding now? Well, thank you so much, Amy, for acknowledging Malcolm X's family plight for justice 60 years later. You know, the Dr. King's family said, we don't want you to release the video. But they said, no, no, for transparency, we got to release it, even though they're not releasing Jeffrey Epstein's files. And Malcolm X's family said, we want you to be transparent.

We want you to release the files, but they're not doing it. And I believe that unless there's some motive, some motive that they have, they have been very selective and who they want to release files, who they don't wanna release files, Amy. I think a lot of it

is deliberate and intentional, and none of it is good for our causes. If they want it to be transparent, then they need to be consistent across the board. Release Malcolm X files, release the Epstein's file, release everybody's files, because we know a Finnish court, they just kept files on every significant black person trying to discredit them. Release all the files, Trump administration, if you want to be transparent. Ben Crump, I want to thank you so much for being with us, leading civil rights attorney in this country. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report.

I'm Amy Goodman. As we turn now to the forced starvation unfolding in Gaza, where malnourished children are overwhelming the remaining hospitals. Today, the Al-Akhli Arab Hospital in Gaza City announced the death of Palestinian child Abdul Khader al-Fayoumi from malnutrition, the 115th starvation-related death since Israel reimposed a siege on Gaza in March. Israeli attacks across Gaza killed at least 62 Palestinians Thursday, 19 of them while trying to collect food from militarized aid sites run by the

shadowy U.S.-Israeli-backed so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF. On Thursday, displaced Palestinian women in Rafa were directed by GHF to a women-only distribution section, where they were attacked with tear gas and pepper spray. For more, we're going to Oxford in England to Professor Nick Maynard, a consultant surgeon at Oxford University Hospitals, who just returned Wednesday after volunteering for four weeks at Nasser Hospital in Chanyounes, south of Gaza City. He's volunteered in Gaza several times. His recent piece for The Guardian is headlined, I'm witnessing the deliberate starvation

of Gaza's children. Why is the world letting it happen? Welcome back to Democracy Now! You've said that on some days you would see multiple patients injured in the same body parts, for example, gunshot wounds to the groin. Can you explain what you're saying? Yes, thank you very much for inviting me back. One of the big differences on this most recent spell in Gaza compared to previous trips during

this war has been the huge number of gunshot wounds I've had to treat and specifically gunshot wounds in young teenage boys who have been shot at the food distribution centers, the so-called Garsen Humanitarian Fund. The boys are aged from anything from 11 to 15, 16. They are going there to get food for their starving families. And the narrative, the stories I'm getting from their families, from some of the victims, and indeed from my gauze and healthcare colleagues who have been to these food distribution sites

is very much the same from all of them. They are going to get food. It is chaos. There is rioting there. And they are being shot by Israeli soldiers and by the quadcopter drones, which are all over Gaza at the moment. And even more disturbing from that, there is a very clear pattern that the emergency doctors in the

ER have recognized and indeed the surgeons like me have recognized that there is a cluster of injuries to particular body parts on particular days. So for example, one day there'll be, most of them will be coming in with gunshot wounds to the head and neck, another day there'll be gunshot wounds to the chest, another day to the abdomen and even to the head and neck. Another day there'll be gunshot wounds to the chest. Another day to the abdomen. And even to the 12 days ago we had four young teenage boys, all of whom were admitted with gunshot wounds to the testicles. And the clustering, the pattern we're seeing is very striking. And it would appear to us that there's almost like target practice, playing some sort of

game that we're going to go for the head today, the abdomen tomorrow, the testicles the day after that. Truly, truly shocking. In your piece, you describe a 7-month-old infant, saying, quote, the phrase skin and bones doesn't do justice. Describe what you're saying. Yeah, so I spent quite a bit of time in the pediatric unit. I'm an adult surgeon, but I was operating on children as well.

And I had one 11-year-old girl who was on the pediatric intensive care unit, who I was seeing several times a day. So I spent quite a bit of time on the pediatric unit. And I went to the neonatal unit and saw the most awful examples of malnutrition that the like of which I could not have imagined existed in this world. Little seven months old who looked newborn babies at times. They were all grossly underweight, there was no nutrition to feed them. There was

no, or there was virtually no formula feed to feed these newborn babies, all these infants. And indeed there'd be no formula feed allowed into Israel, into Gaza, since the last ceasefire for several months. And some American doctors I know who I was working with tried to bring formula feed into Gaza and all the cartons of formula feed were confiscated by the Israeli border guards and very specifically confiscated the formula feed nothing else just taking out every single carton of formula feed so these small children these newborns these toddlers these small children, these newborns, these toddlers, these other children in intensive care were all starving. There was not enough feed to allow them to heal properly.

Dr. Maynard, you write, Every day I watch patients deteriorate and die, not from their injuries, but because they're too malnourished to survive surgery. Can you describe this? Yes, this was particularly in the—I mean, most of the patients I operate on were adults. They come in—most of them come in very malnourished anyway. And they come in with severe injuries, explosive injuries from bombs, with severe shrapnel damage to their abdomen or their chest, or gunshot wounds, and they're very

serious injuries that require major surgery to deal with them. But they are injuries and surgery which in normal circumstances they would be expected to survive but because they're so malnourished their tissues don't heal their immune systems are suppressed the internal repairs we carry out to the liver the pancreas the duodenum the stomach the bowel they don't heal properly they often end up breaking down causing terrible infections inside the body and frequently these patients die. So the mortality rate from these injuries is much higher than one would otherwise expect and there is no nutrition in the

hospital to give the adults, there's no intravenous nutrition, there's virtually no liquid enteral nutrition to go into feeding tubes. They are totally reliant upon their families bringing in feed. And many of them are starving themselves. They can't get any feed to bring into their relatives. Professor Nick Maynard, we'll end with your headline, Why is the World Letting It Happen? You've come back to Britain. France has just said that they're going to recognize Palestine as a state, putting enormous pressure on Britain to do the same.

What you feel needs to be done? Well, to be honest, we need more than words. Our prime minister in the U.K., our foreign secretary, have certainly come out with stronger words in recent weeks, but there have been no actions. And we need more than words. They are worthless without actions. We need as much aid and food to go in as possible. We need a ceasefire.

And our government and the U.S. government's need to force the Israeli government to stop this. Professor Nick Maynard, consulting surgeon at Oxford University Hospitals in Oxford. He returned Wednesday after volunteering for four weeks at Nasser Hospital in Chamiunis. We'll link to your piece on witnessing the deliberate starvation of Gaza's children. Why is the world letting it happen? When we come back, we go to the Mediterranean Sea. Another Freedom Flotilla aid boat has set sail.

We'll speak with one of the members on board and with the only Palestinian American member of Congress, Rasheeda Tlaib. Stay with us. I see somebody marching down the street. The marching down the street. Yeah. I see somebody marching. The marching down the street. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org.

I'm Amy Goodman. A group of international activists from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition are sailing across the Mediterranean to Gaza to challenge Israel's blockade, illegal under international law. Over a month ago, a prior Freedom Flotilla boat, the Madeline, was raided by Israeli forces and seized in international waters. The current mission is called Handala for the children of Gaza. Mission comes as the starvation crisis and the besieged strip is rapidly worsening. According to Save the Children, Nearly Every Child in Gaza, there are more than 1.1 million

at risk of starvation. The Hanala launched from the southern port city of Gallipoli in Italy five days ago. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition says the boat's carrying life-saving humanitarian aid and quoted direct political message, the blockade must end," unquote. There are 19 crew members, two journalists, on board. Among those sailing are Chris Smalls, founder of the Amazon Labor Union, and our next guest, Huweta Araf, a Palestinian-American human rights attorney, steering committee member of the Freedom Flotilla.

She's on board the boat. Huweta, thank you for joining us again on Democracy Now! Talk about what you faced. You said that the boat was sabotaged twice and what you're hoping to accomplish. Thank you so much for having me, Amy. I recall talking to you in our first mission to try to break the siege in Gaza back in 2008. It's unfortunate that we are still sailing to do so because our governments have refused

to act. The blockade was illegal in 2008. It is illegal and deadly and part of a genocide now. Yes, over the years that we've been sailing, Israel has repeatedly attempted to sabotage our vessels and our missions and at times it has succeeded in delaying us but not in stopping us. Before leaving the Liberty on Sunday, we were subjected to two very serious incidents which we are asking for investigation because they are very unusual and they came on the heels

of Israel announcing that it was trying, exerting all efforts to prevent us from leaving port. The first of those was a rope that was tightly wound around the propeller of the ship. And while that sometimes happens, the way this rope was wound and attached to change that sunk in the sea was quite unusual. The second was as we ordered a water truck so that we can fill the tanks of the ship,

the water tanks with water that we could use throughout the journey. It is a seven, eight days before we reach from Gallipoli to Gaza. And instead of water, the truck brought sulfuric acid. And luckily we had not connected the hose to the boat, but our crew had smelled something and when they turned on, they turned on the faucet, they were splashed and burned. That could have been catastrophic. So,

you know, again, Israel announced that it was trying to stop us in various ways. It had sabotaged before. We suspect it was another attempted sabotage, but we are now focusing on just getting to Gaza. We got out of port safely. Everyone is safe and we are now focusing on just getting to Gaza. We got out of port safely. Everyone is safe, and we are focused on trying to get to Gaza. And so, can you talk about what your plans are at this moment, about how many hours are you from Gaza? And compare it to the Madeline, the ship that attempted before among those on that ship was Gretz Etunbetti, when the Israeli forces raided the ship and took everyone off and

ultimately deported them. Yes, currently, we are approximately two days from reaching Gaza. We are less than 24 hours from the point where Israel attacked the Magneen and abducted everyone from international waters taking them against their will to Israel. We you know over the years Israel has tried various methods to stop us. It has been very violent from attacking, beating, abducting, arresting, jailing and even killing our volunteers. 2010 April that I know you also covered and I was on Israel and even killing our volunteers. 2010, April, Tilla, that I know you also covered,

and I was on, Israel killed 10 of our volunteers. But that did not stop us, and it's not gonna stop us now. Yes, Israel attacked and abducted the activists of Utham Adil. One month before that, they bombed one of our ships that was preparing to leave from the, from Malta. It actually violated European air space to attack a civilian humanitarian vessel. And right now we know that this

is very much a possibility. This is a scenario that we may be attacked by armed, violent commando forces that will overtake our ship and updub this fall. We hope that's not the case. We've been putting out calls specifically as American citizens a couple of days ago. We have seven American citizens out of the 21 on this ship. We put out a call to President Trump, the US government, the US media to stop enabling Israel's genocide, stop participating in the genocide.

This is not what the American people want. And we are sailing in accordance with international law. Even if it wasn't acting to uphold the rights of the Palestinian people in Gaza, even if the US government was not interested in refraining from participating in a genocide, the US government should care about protecting the rights of US citizens. We are sailing, we are civilians, we are unarmed, we are carrying humanitarian aid, and we are sailing from international waters into Palestinian waters, which Israel has no right to control. An attack on us would

be an attack on American citizens. We expect our politicians to speak up, but sadly, we know that the administration, the U.S. Congress, they are not listening to the American people. Poll after poll is showing that the American people do not support funding this genocide, and yet our government continues to vote to send more money to starve and bane and behead children. Of course, more than children and civilians, but the children are the most severely impacted from but the children are the most severely impacted from the bombing, the maiming, and from this deliberate starvation, from this engineered famine.

The children, the infants are the first to, their bodies can't take it. And so this is why we have called our vessel, it's called the Handala, which is a 10-year-old Palestinian child, the which is a 10-year-old Palestinian child, the cartoon of a 10-year-old Palestinian child, but also filled both with things for children, not only food, but baby formula and diapers and stuffed animals that were donated from children in Italy to children in the message of

solidarity, love and hope. Of course it doesn't come close to meeting the needs. But our message is that the seeds of illegal blockade must be broken. It's not just about humanitarian aid. Yes, Palestinians and Gaza need humanitarian aid, but that is a deliberately created situation. You buy a train catastrophe that's been engineered and we need to fight the policy. And the policy is right now that the entire world is allowing Israel—has allowed Israel to turn Gaza into an extermination camp.

And they're standing by, letting Israel control what gets in and out of a people that they are actively annihilating. This is not something we accept. Ued Harap, we want to thank you so much for being with us, Palestinian-American human rights attorney, speaking to us on board the Gaza Freedom Faultilla. The ship is named Handala. We will continue to follow this.

They are expected to arrive in Gaza sometime around Sunday, if Israel allows them to land. We are also joined in Detroit by Congressmember Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American member of Congress. She addressed members of the flotilla, the Handala, earlier this week. What are you calling on the Trump administration to do to ensure the safety of this ship? You previously called for the safe passage of this ship, you previously called for the safe passage of the ship before that Israel raided the Madeline, congressmember? Yeah, I mean, we use the power of the letterhead and getting a lot of my colleagues, so it's

not just me alone, but other fellow Americans that don't share my faith or ethnicity or have a close connection to the movement for human rights for the Palestinians. But I can tell you, you know, many of my colleagues are expressing in words to me about the starvation, the forced starvation of the people in Gaza, Palestinians there, but they're lacking action. Their votes don't meet up with the words of it needs to stop. They have the leverage. They can sign letters, send their own letters. And so for all those listening to, you know, Hwada, who's from Michigan, from my home state, you know, talking to Chris Smalls, Jacob, and so many hearing their stories come out of why they're there. They are risking their lives and sacrificing so much to try to break

the siege to go there while they continue as all of us continue to see the images of just children and so many others, even the parents, you know, just dwindling their organs shutting down mothers just like me and Hoeda and so many others expressing like, is it because my child is Palestinian? Is it because they're in Gaza? And it is really incredibly difficult, but the Trump administration knows more. A letter is coming, knowing that again, all eyes on the Fotele. I'm asking everyone to keep your eyes on there. Pay attention no matter what country, no matter what community you live in. You know, the majority of folks globally have been standing up and saying enough is enough

and the genocide and the first for starvation. You know, I've been, you know, awakened and understanding. Sometimes I wish my colleagues would maybe pretend that they weren't Palestinian and they would actually care and do something to end this madness of again allowing people that are just hungry to go to death traps that we, the American people, are paying for to lure them in because they're so hungry and they know from hearing from other stories that they could lose their life trying to get food. And again, stories after stories, not only from the doctor we listened to and how wait as previous experience of even trying to get food. And again, stories after stories, not only from the doctor we listened to and how wait

as previous experience of even trying to break the siege. This is not the first nor will it be the last time that again, the Israeli government violates international law. They consistently do it. They have for decades. And so we're going to continue again, trying to elevate and make Congress move. And we can do that by having members, Americans from outside that institution, demand their member do what they're asking.

So, I want to ask you about where you're from, your family from the West Bank. And I want to ask you about the killing of another U.S. citizen by Israeli forces, Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, fatally beat 20-year-old Palestinian-American from Tampa, Florida, earlier this month, Sefola Musallet, known as Saif, by his family. He was visiting his village, Al-Masra al-Sharkiya, reportedly the seventh American killed in the West Bank Gaza, Lebanon, since October 2023.

A second Palestinian, Mohammed al-Shalabi, was shot dead during the settler attack. Moussallat's cousin Diana read a statement from the family. We are devastated that our beloved Saifullah Moussallat, nicknamed Saif, was brutally beaten to death in our family's land by illegal Israeli settlers who were attempting to steal it. Israeli settlers surrounded Seif for over three hours as paramedics attempted to reach him, but the mob of settlers blocked the ambulance and paramedics from providing lifesaving aid. After the mob of Israeli settlers cleared, hours later, Seif's younger brother rushed

to carry him to the ambulance. Seif was killed and died before reaching the hospital. And just this week, the Israeli Knesset, the parliament, voted 71 to 13 for a nonbinding motion to annex the occupied West Bank. It calls the West Bank an inseparable part of the land of Israel. Can I get your response to what the U.S. government is doing about the killing of its citizens safe and this latest news from the Knesset?

The American government is doing absolutely nothing, as per usual, around American citizen that has been killed. Again, military and others watch this happen, watch extremists. And you know, again, these are Israelis and people call them settlers. They're extremist Israelis. Nobody knows what these are. These are folks coming into, uh, with the Israeli citizenship coming in to take, uh, land.

But it's, you know, I don't like when people call it a clash. They came for the intention of forcibly with force, with violence, killing people, uh, to take again property or to harass. And sometimes it's just to intentionally harass, um, and, and target, uh, the Palestinian people because the goal here is, and the Knesset told us is the ethnically cons anyone who is a Palestinian that is again different faiths, but if you're Palestinian, if you're Christian, if you're Muslim, you again are going to be pushed out of the land, being pushed out again all under this

movement again to completely get rid of the Palestinian people from all corners of the country. And again, this is even Palestinian citizens of Israel are being targeted. I don't know if people realize there's integrated communities where the other Palestinian people there again that have Israeli citizenship are also being targeted. All this to say is I don't care if it's in Jerusalem and the integrated neighborhood or community or in the West bank, you know, what happened to safe, what happened to Muhammad, what happened again, continues to happen. American people is the experience of the Palestinian people there that are not American. It happens all the time. It is

consistent. And one of the things that people need to know is that these are, these are Israeli citizens, folks just walking around with the enabling and the support of the Israeli military and the genocidal maniac Netanyahu. They have set out the bass and go for it, go ahead and ethnically cleanse. And then the Knesset just showed them with the vote. That's exactly what they want to do. And the American government and my colleagues, Democrat and Republican sit by idly and say, that's terrible. Or I don't like Netanyahu. Great. Then stop sending him and the country our money. Use it as leverage to uphold human rights, use it in a way again to uplift what we all

believe in. No one should be forced to starve. No one should be pushed out of their land again illegally to violate international laws. All of those things to say is, you know, Amy, I watched in a committee people just distressed of an American being brutally killed in Syria and wanting to insist on sanctions, again, that hurt the people on the ground. But the fact that they were willing to do it there, but not when it comes to the Israeli government. There's always an exception when it comes to the Palestinian people. It is completely racialized. Again, I intentionally say in my speeches on the house floor,

if you need to close your eyes and pretend they're not Palestinian, they're not brown, they're not Muslim, they're not Christian, all of these things. I wonder if my colleagues would act differently. I really do think they would. And again, you know, many of my colleagues try to send letters, but even their letters are, there's racist tropes in those letters. There's words in those letters that even erase, again, the brutality of what happened to SAFE and so many others. And I've been there seven years and it's getting worse, not better, even as we watch the genocide

live on social media platforms, even as we hear from Americans in our own backyard talk about their loved ones being targeted and brutally murdered. And again, SAFE and Muhammad has exposed to us what happens to the Palestinian people who are not Americans every single day that they live there. Finally, the Republicans in the Financial Services Committee voted to block an amendment from you, Congressmember Rashida Tlaib. This is on a different issue, which would have forced the release of Jeffrey Epstein's financial files, particularly details about his shady, suspicious financial transactions,

the dead child sex trafficker. Recent reports reveal billions of dollars in payments to women, including those in Belarus and Russia. You also signed on to a House bipartisan measure introduced by Thomas Massey and Ro Khanna demanding the release of the files. In this last 30 seconds we have, why is this so critical to you and this on-the-second-day meeting of Trump's former personal lawyer, now the deputy attorney general, and Ghislaine Maxwell?

I think it's important to know there are three banks, very large banks, Morgan—JP Mortgage Chase and Bank of America and another bank, Mellon in New York. All three of them did not, within the regulations and regulations requirements within 60 days of those transactions by Epstein report those transactions. There's again require within 60 days. Amy, they waited until he was arrested in 2019. We're not talking about a hundred or 200 over 4,000 transactions amounting to $1.5 billion. It is important and critical to understand who was involved directly in the human trafficking

of young women. Who, again, enabled it. Three seconds. Democratic Congressmember Rashida Tlaib, I want to thank you for being with us, of Michigan, the only Palestinian American member of Congress. I'm Amy Goodman. Thanks for joining us.