Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2025-10-20 Monday

Episode Date: October 20, 2025

Headlines for October 20, 2025; “The War Has Not Really Ended”: Gaza Reporter on Israeli Attacks & Reuniting with Imprisoned Brother; The Forgotten Captives: Israel Still Imprisoning 9,000 Palestinians Even After Hostage Deal; No to Authoritarianism: 7 Million Rally Across U.S. in Historic No Kings Day Protests; “This Is Ethnic Cleansing”: Civil Rights Icon Dolores Huerta Decries Trump’s Targeting of Immigrants

From New York, this is Democracy Now. It's back for one year and seven months in detention, in Israeli detention after torture. We got detained with each other, but now I got released. Now after one year and seven months, he's back again home. Al Jazeera reporter Ibrahim al-Halili, reunited with his brother, Muhammad, released last week by Israel, as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal that saw nearly 2,000 Palestinians released. Today, Ibrahim joins us from Gaza for the latest as Israeli attacks have killed 40 Palestinians Sunday and nearly 100 since the Trump-backed truce went into a little.

effect. Then some seven million people march at No King's rallies across the United States. We'll hear voices from the streets of Washington, D.C. I'm here because I'm a federal worker who's furloughed, who's been fired under this administration, and whose agency had been shut down way before the current shutdown. So I'm here to make sure that we make our voices heard because federal workers want to work. We want to serve the people. We need to make it clear that We can't have an authoritarian government, a government that's turned into nothing but a weapon. Finally, to California, where immigrant rights activists' labor icon Dolores Huerta address the no-king's rally in Watsonville.

People here that are right now being arrested, reported, and terrorized. They are not immigrants. They are the indigenous people of the continent. The real immigrants to the United States came from Europe, right? All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. An estimated 7 million people took part in No King's rallies Saturday to protest President Trump's embrace of authoritarianism. Organizers say protests were held in over 2,600 cities, towns, villages,

across all 50 states in what was one of the largest days of protests in U.S. history surpassing the first No King's Day of Action in June. In Chicago, the protest stretch for two miles as about a quarter of a million people took to the streets. Chicago Mayor Brendan Johnson addressed the crowd calling for a general strike. An estimated 200,000 rallied in Washington, D.C., Senator Bernie Sanders addressed the crowd. This moment is not just about one man's greed, one man's corruption, or one man's contempt for the Constitution. This is about a handful of the wealthiest people on earth who in their insatiable greed have hijacked our economy and our political system in order to enrich themselves at the expense. of working families throughout this country.

At a no-kings rally in Atlanta, Georgia, speakers included former gubernatorial candidate, voting rights activist Stacey Abrams. And yet we are living in a moment where ethno-fascists are in charge of the government, when Christian nationalists are making economic policy, when we have a secret police telling us who we are. Their destination is division.

Their destination is destruction. and their destination is denied. We will not go back and we will not let them turn us around. President Trump responded to the No King's protest by posting an AI-generated video that showed him wearing a crown flying a jet labeled King Trump. In the video, Trump is seen dumping feces on the heads of protesters from the plane. Trump has also repeated his threat to investigate billionaire philanthropist George Soros, who Trump claimed it helped fund the No King's protests,

which attracted massive crowds despite attempts by House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans to label the protest as a hate America rally. Israel carried out a wave of deadly attacks in Gaza over the weekend and temporarily halted aid deliveries. But Israel's now saying it will resume enforcement of the U.S. brokered ceasefire. Israel had accused Hamas of killing two Israeli soldiers in Rafah. But there are reports the soldiers died when their bulldozer ran over unexploded ordinance. Officials in Gaza say Israel's killed at least 97 Palestinians and injured 230 since the ceasefire went into effect October 10th. On Friday, Israeli forces fired a tank shell killing 11 members of a Palestinian family in the Zaytun neighborhood of Gaza City. The dead

included three women and seven children between the ages of 5 and 13. Israel also bombed the headquarters of the Palestine media production company in central Gaza, killing broadcast engineer Ahmed Amu Mertar. His colleague Ajib Mohamed described the attack. We were sitting here safe and sound, and as you can see, the place is closed off to us. No one enters or leaves. We are all journalists. No strangers were entering or staying with us.

Then the bombing happened right next to us. In the middle of the chalet, our colleague, the broadcast. engineer was martyred. And our colleague's child's son was also martyred. On the diplomatic front, President Trump's special envoy, Steve Whitkoff, and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner have returned to Israel ahead of Vice President J.D. Vance's trip to Israel. President Trump says the government will send National Guard troops to San Francisco and may invoke the Insurrection Act to do it. It comes as President Trump asked the Supreme Court Friday to allow him to send National Guard to the Chicago area by lifting lower court orders blocking the

deployment. Meanwhile, seven officials in Tennessee are suing the Trump administration for sending the National Guard to Memphis. The lawsuit backed by the nonprofit democracy forward says, quote, our nation's founders recognized military rule was incompatible with liberty and democracy. The facts on the ground cannot justify defendants' overreach, unquote. Meanwhile, Vermont's Republican Governor Phil Scott blasted Trump's deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago and Portland, calling it unconstitutional. Following Oklahoma's Republican Governor Kevin Stitt, criticizing the deployment of Texas National Guard to Illinois. Stid is the head of the National Governors Association. The federal government shutdown has entered its 20th day. Senate Democrats

proposed a bill last week to keep funding the government through October 31st, reversing to Medicaid and extending Affordable Care Act subsidies, but that measure failed to garner a veto-proof majority of 60 votes. It comes as President Trump's tried to lay off thousands of furloughed workers, but that move was temporarily halted by the courts. President Trump is threatening to cut off foreign aid to Colombia and raise tariffs on Colombian goods after the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, condemned the U.S. for blowing up boats in the Caribbean, many off the coast of Venezuela.

In recent weeks, the U.S. has blown up at least seven boats alleging without proof they were used for drug trafficking. Petro accused the U.S. of killing innocent Colombians. Trump responded by calling Petro a, quote, illegal drug leader, unquote. Petro then responded by writing, quote, trying to promote peace in Colombia is not being a drug trafficker, unquote. Meanwhile, the U.S. has repatriated two people from Ecuador and Colombia who survived a deadly U.S. strike on a vessel last week. This all comes as President Trump is threatening to begin launching attacks inside Venezuela. Despite reports, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has offered to give the U.S. a stake in Venezuela's oil wealth and other natural resources. Trump was asked about this on Friday at the White House and responded by using an expletive to warn Venezuela.

Offering mediation, what soon do we do to stop that? He has offered everything. He's offered everything. You're right. You know why? Because he doesn't want to be around with the United States. Trump has admitted that the United States has launched a covert CIA operation in Venezuela. In Bolivia, Senator Rodrigo Paz won Sunday's presidential election, defeating another right-wing candidate, former President Jorge Tutu Kiroga. Paa's election marks the end of 20 years of rule in Bolivia by Moss, the movement towards socialism party, which first came to power in 2006 with the election of

Evo Morales. Rodrigo Paz is the son of the former Bolivian president Jaime Paz Zamora. Ukrainian drones struck a major gas processing plant in southern Russia Sunday, sparking a fire. It follows an explosive White House meeting Friday between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Trump that reportedly descended into a shouting match where Trump, Zelensky to accept Russia's terms for ending the war. Trump also refused Ukraine's request for long-range tomahawk missiles. Trump reportedly told Zelensky, quote,

if Putin wants it, he will destroy you, unquote. Speaking to reporters, Trump referred to Ukraine's Dombas region as cut up, urging Ukraine to, quote, leave it the way it is right now, unquote, which would essentially mean seating territory to Russia. It comes as Trump and Putin are set to meet in Budapest in the coming weeks. Prince Andrew has announced he's giving up his royal title as ahead of the publication of an explosive book by Jeffrey Epstein Survivor, Virginia Jewfrey. In her book, Nobody's Girl, a memoir of surviving abuse and fighting for justice. Jewfrey details how she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew, beginning when she was 17 years old.

She also said she was beaten and raped by a quote, well-known primary. minister, unquote. In the book, Jewfrey also details how she was recruited to work for Epstein by Elaine Maxwell, who met her at Donald Trump's Marlago resort where both Jufri and her father worked. The Metropolitan Police in London are investigating claims. Prince Andrew tried to ask his bodyguard to obtain personal information about Jewfrey before a photo of the two of them, including Maxwell, was released to the public. A British government minister said that leaked. emails show Prince Andrew had passed on Jufre's date of birth and Social Security to his bodyguard. Virginia Jufrey died reportedly by suicide earlier this year in Australia.

Vermont State Senator Republican Samuel Douglas announced his resignation after it was revealed he was involved in the exchange of racist and anti-Semitic messages with other young Republican leaders. Douglas was the only elected official in the chat. Last Friday, the New York GOP officials voted to suspend its young Republican chapter. In one message, the chair of the New York State Young Republicans, Peter Gunta, wrote, quote, I love Hitler. President Trump commuted the seven-year sentence of former Republican George Santos. Santos was expelled from Congress in 2023 and pleaded guilty earlier this year to wire fraud and identity theft, including lying to Congress, stealing

money from campaign donors and fraudulently collecting unemployment benefits. Trump's decision to commute Santos promoted outrage from other lawmakers, including Republicans. New York Republican Congress member Nick Lelota wrote on X, George Santos didn't merely lie. He stole millions defrauded an election, and his crimes for which he pled guilty warrant more than a three-month sentence, unquote. In one of his first interviews since being released, Santos said he's now free to get Botox. A five-day strike organized by tens of thousands of Kaiser Permanente nurses and other frontline medical staff in California, Hawaii, and Oregon has ended. No agreements reportedly

been reached, but the union representing the health care workers said there's, quote, new momentum to begin negotiations. The union's requesting salary increase of 25% over four years. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now. Democracy Now, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. We begin today's show in Gaza, where repeated Israeli attacks have killed nearly 100 Palestinians and wounded over 200 since the Trump-backed ceasefire deal went into effect over a week ago. On Friday, Israeli military forces opened fire at a civilian bus, killing 11 members of a Palestinian family attempting to return home into Gaza City.

Among the Abu Shaban family victims were seven children between the ages of five and 13 an attack many of decried as the deadliest truce violation yet. Israel also bombed the headquarters of the Palestine Media Production Company in central Gaza killing the broadcast engineer Ahmed Abu Matar. Israel accused Hamas of killing two Israeli soldiers and Rafah. But Hamas says there are reports the soldiers died when their bulldozer ran over unexploded ordinance and that they're not active in Rafa. Gaza officials report Israel's breach the fragile U.S. brokered agreement some 80 times. Despite the wave of

Israeli strikes this weekend, President Trump said the ceasefire is still in place. Israel's also continued to hinder the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, again suspending the entrance of aid over the weekend. But Israeli officials are now saying aid distribution in Gaza and the ceasefire have resumed. This all comes as more Palestinians recently released from Israeli prisons have described torture while in Israeli jails. In a minute, we'll be joined by Al Jazeera reporter Ibrahim al-Halili, who reunited with his brother Mohammed last week after Muhammad was released following 19 months in Israeli prison. This is his report on Al Jazeera, his brother held without charge.

He's my brother. He's back up for one year and seven months in detention, in Israel detention, after torture, we got detained with each other, but now I got released. and now after one year and seven months, he's back again home. Muhammad, how was this situation in prison after they detained you? It was a big struggle. We were beaten and humiliated in wrong ways.

We suffered a lot. My brother is so tired. He needs to be back home again. But I can now say the war has really came to an end. Last month, Al Jazeera reporter Ibrahim Ahalili was on air when he broke the news of Israeli forces killing his own family members in Gaza. I'm here today reporting from Gaza's Alduraj neighborhood, east of Gaza City, where didly Israeli airstrike flattened this complete residential block behind me.

Many Palestinians have been confirmed, killed, and at least 50 Palestinians are still trapped under the rubble. Tragically, many of my close relatives were among those. killed in this air strike. It came without any prior warning at midnight while people slipped. This plaque used to shelter at least 100 Palestinians and they saw refuge here believing that this residential neighborhood is safe, but they ended up being targeted and brutally killed. This area once meant to be a place of refuge for many Palestinian families now has become a site of death, a massive destruction.

It has turned into a mass graveyard for Palestinians in the light of the unprecedented escalation of Israeli attacks, targeting towers, residential, plaques, and sheltered schools, killing many Palestinians, and leaving thousands with nowhere to run. Bahraim Khalili, Al Jazeera, Gaza City, Palestine. We now go to Gaza, where Al Jazeera, reporter Iber Heber Abraham Ahalili is joining us from Al-Shifa Hospital. Ibrahim, welcome to Democracy Now.

I want to start with your first report. I watched it live on Al Jazeera when you reunited with your brother. Talk about why he was jailed, how long he was jailed. Yes, first of all, thank you for having me. My brother, Muhammad, the oldest brother in my family, was detained on the 18th of March of 2024 around the Shifa medical complex where I where my family used to live so that day the Israeli military stormed at Shifa hospital at midnight without any prior running and loudspeakers started saying don't move the the area is under extreme siege

don't move the army is operating in your area and just basically don't move I was with my whole family inside my house at that time. So the Israeli midday in the morning, after midnight, they stormed my house, and then they took us all out, forced us into the freezing cold, and we were forcibly stripped of our clotheists in the freezing wither after interrogation and torture and harsh circumstances in that harsh arrangement.

with her, I was at relief. But my brother, Muhammad, was detained. And since that day, during that time, we did not know anything about his whereabouts. So he was detained by the Israeli military. When the Israeli military operation assault on a ship and medical complex came to and then we returned back to our homes to find nothing. We have not found my brother Muhammad or the house even standing. So after 19 months in Israeli detention, my brother Muhammad got released and we met up in Nassaf Hospital in San Yunus. And this is a very historic moment for us, the Palestinians, and for my family in particular to have my brother back after 19 months in Israeli jails. As I talked to my brother

Muhammad, he's tired now. He was telling me he was under extreme torture and interrogation and hard circumstances in Israeli prisons. He lost almost 30 kilos. He was almost 100 kilograms, but his weight to drop to 70 kilograms during the 19 months of detention. So this is, this still, it fills the whole story about the torture, interrogation, and the extreme harsh conditions. All Palestinians go through in the Israeli prisons, they go well and they just released with the unhealthy, whether mentally or physically.

So we are all lucky now to have my brother, Muhammad, back home to his four beautiful children and his wife, who have been waiting for him for so long and the sense of relief and joy, happiness inside the family prevailed offer. where they got their loved ones, Muhammad, back home after 19 months in Israeli detention. So this is a historic moment, not for me in particular. We're talking about 1,700 prisoners were released in that after the ceasefire took effect. And now these families are happy, and they expressed a lot of joy to have their loved ones back to Glasgow City. after spending years under severe and harsh condition in Israeli jails, and the situation for other prisoners who are still remain trapped inside Israeli.

The prisons are very dire. They just focus on these and mention these to our viewers, that the Palestinian prisoners are enduring harsh realities in terms of the lack of basic necessities. as I talked to my brother Muhammad, he was having just two meals a day and they are not sufficient and they are not high in proteins to help these Palestinian prisoners survive the next day. And yes, the situation remains dire wither for the released Palestinians. They endured a lot of harsh memories in Israeli jails that last for them, even after they got released from Israeli prisons

and we just focused on the Palestinian prisoners who are still killed in the extension. And worse mention is to remind our viewers that my brother Muhammad was held without any charge. He was not affiliated to any political group whatsoever. So they detained him without any legal reason for him to be detained by the Israeli. military and to endure all that has been through the 19 months in Israeli prison.

These are the harsh realities of Palestinian prisoners face during their time of detention in Israeli prisons. And I talked to many prisoners, and I came with a prisoner who just was released after the ceasefire and the war ended. he came back home to find his family members all wiped out of Cedar Regis Street. 400 family members of that prisoner were killed in Israel's war and there are many, many stories, as well as another prisoner, who was Mahmoud Abu Fuul, who got his legs amputated previously before the war, and she was detained in Kamal-Adwan hospital. And after interrogation and torture, he lost sight. He can't see in his both eyes after the torture

that he has endured in Israeli prisons. And as we continue to speak with many prisoners, the same story would be to itself, both torture and circumstances and lack of accessities. This is the harsh reality that we Palestinians all go through. Even me when I was detained, they claim that I belong to a political group, which is not true,

and the serious allegations and acquisitions against us, Palestinians, and we are ordinary civilians living in Gaza City, and they still accuse us of something we don't belong to. They just make accusations about us so that they can just create some sort of an environment or a reason to detain us and torture us in our very harsh conditions and circumstances. And the situation also remains dire in the whole city. The government media offices states that Puri is wrong. Israel committed 47, 47 beach.

Israel is breaching the ceasefire multiple times. Like we're talking about 47 times when Israel committed a violation in the ceasefire. And this is something we also endure. Yesterday, Israeli the military targeted different sites and locations here in Gaza City. And many, many families who returned to Gaza's city. after the sea's first phase of the ceasefire took effect. They found nothing but rubble, they returned to a wasteland, and then seeing that it was to resume or violate the ceasefire,

resurgents started to hit different sites and locations. One of the targeted sites were in southeast Gulf of city, where 11 family members were targeted without, any sort of warning. Israeli military should have just issued warning to these families like you are, for example, being

in a dangerous zone, but instead they ended up being targeted and brutally killed another attack in the wider area south of the Gallo strip at least three Palestinians were killed in a coffee shop

without any prior warning. This is a serious a violation for a ceasefire to press to witness as Palestinians. And like many people have believed that the war has really came to an end. But with these violations that are being committed by the Israeli ministry on daily basis, creates a sense of uncertainty for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who wished once

that a war will end and they came back to their homeland and the areas they once called home and we're talking about the destruction of much of thousands of residential neighborhoods and these neighborhoods are not just the loss of property

they are they represent the loss of memories in the homeland which thousands of Palestinians once called home but they return to find nothing but rubble and violations and

of lack of basic necessities to know these families will return to Gaza City to survive the next day. The situation is getting much more dire. The war has not really ended for hundreds of thousands of palisines who are still struggling to survive the next day with the lack of basic necessities and the restrictions imposed on Zaza's border crossings, whether to get the medical supplies and the basic necessities, food, water, and whatsoever, at the same time, Israeli military continues to restrict the borders for patients, hundreds of, hundreds of patients are waiting for the Giles border crossings to be open and we open again so that they can get the proper medication they urgently need. As I talk to doctors, medicine and

medical equipment are not even available in Java to just conduct such operations for chronic diseases of patients. So they need the borders to be open again so that they can survive and get the urgent treatment. They need abroad. And we have talked about this many, many, many times, about the restrictions of the borders to allow aid in, to Gaza City, like before the war, Gaza needed at least 500 truck sports of food and medicine to help support the population in the Gaza Strip. Ibrahim, I just wanted to end by asking you, some prisoners were released, 1,700 in Gaza, to learn that their families had been killed, as you described.

Then there were others who were told that their families were killed in Israeli prison and found them alive. I wanted to refer to Shadi Abu Sido, who said Gaza is now gone when he came out of the bus, shouting to the cameras in the southern city of Han Yunus. It's like a scene from Judgment Day, he said, of the destruction. Shadi Abu Sido said his world shattered in Israeli. detention when guards told him his wife and two children had been killed in the Gaza war. Reuters reports, he said, I heard her voice. I heard the voice of my children. I was astonished. It cannot be explained. They were alive. I saw my wife and children alive. Imagine amidst death,

life. He said about prison, it was the graveyard of the living. The journalists who've gotten out and the journalists who have died, if you can comment most recently this Palestine media production company just yesterday, where a broadcast engineer was killed in yet another Israeli strike after the ceasefire went into effect and this production company's offices were bombed. Yeah, yeah. These are one of the methods Israeli military and Israeli armed. you need is to just

written the prisoners. For example, not just Abu Sidu, who was told that his family was wiped out and Gaza has been completely destroyed, but my brother Muhammad was told the same thing. The

Israeli military told him that your family was killed, but in fact, we were still alive in Gaza City, and he told him that your brother, Abraham, that your youngest brother, was killed, and these are the methods used to torture psychologically the prisoners. So many, many methods, not just these rumors and lies that the issue that in a minute's

to just torture Palestinian psychologically. And yeah, many of them, and when Muhammad came out, he found out that his family was alive. He told me that, listen, I was very worried about you for you to be killed in Israel's war on Gaza. And, yeah, as I said, many myths. And Muhammad just shared a testimony, a horror interesting about these related Britain that I can't mention because many methods that human beings can't bear to go through. and this is the Israeli military what they are using torture whether prisoners

or the people who endure two years of Israel's war on Gaza, where there's assault on the Gaza strip. We continue to endure and let me say that these prisoners are still like bearing the brunt of years and days of

torture in Israeli prisons. They told them lies that your families were completely wiped out of civil registry. And now they came back home to find their families alive. They were shocked for them to be told that your family is alive after an Israeli military, a claim that your family was killed. And one of the things that Israelian military told my brother that they told, that they told him, we destroyed your company.

Muhammad used to have a company in Gaza City related to the detergent and warehouses supplies, and they show him on camera that your company has been completely destroyed. And these are the missiles. They use just to tell us Palestinians that we are going to destroy you or we have already destroyed you.

The situation remains dire. Even after the ceasefire took effect, one of the BMB media company was targeted in a Zawada area, south of Gaza City. And he was working with us. He was a cameraman. He has kids, but he ended up being targeted. He thought that he survived two years of Israel's war on Gaza, but when Israel, when Israeli military just to preach and violate the ceasefire agreement, he was taken away, he was killed in cold blood.

I want to thank you so much for taking this time with us as you stand outside El Shifa Hospital. Ibrahim is an Al Jazeera reporter based in Gaza. He just reunited with his brother, Muhammad, who was released from Israeli detention. He'd been held without charge in an Israeli jail for 19 months, as so many of the 1700 Palestinian prisoners were who were released to Gaza. Next up, we go to Jerusalem to speak with the Israeli-American human rights lawyer Saribashi, former program director at Human Rights Watch back in 20 seconds. People have the power. Come on.

People have the power. Believe it. People have the power, Patty Smith, performing an anniversary concert of Democracy Now. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman. An estimated 7 million people took part in no king's rallies on Saturday.

We're going to go to that in our next segment. But right now, we remain talking about Israel and Gaza. As we have reported, Israel carried out a wave of deadly attacks in Gaza over the weekend, temporarily halting aid deliveries, but Israel's now saying it's going to resume enforcement of the U.S. brokered ceasefire. This comes as both the U.S. envoy, Steve Whitkoff, and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner are in Israel awaiting J.D. Vance to arrive. For more, we go to Jerusalem, where we're joined by Saribashi, an Israeli-American human rights lawyer, former program director at Human

Rights Watch, her forthcoming memoir, Upside Down Love, tells the unlikely story of how she fell in love with her Palestinian spouse. We welcome you back to Democracy Now, Sari. You've been following the Palestinian prisoners who have been released. We have this overnight news of Israel killing something like 40 Palestinians Sunday to today. They said it was in response to two Israeli soldiers being killed, but it's unclear whether they were killed as a result of their tank rolling over an unexploded ordinance. What do you know? and then tell us about the prisoners released not only in Gaza, but in Ramallah.

Thank you. So on the ceasefire deal, my main concern is that things that are absolute obligations to civilians, like, for example, humanitarian aid, like, for example, avoiding unlawful attacks on families in cars, are being used as bargaining chips in political negotiations over the ceasefire. And if there's one thing that the last two years have taught us, it is that, obligations to civilians cannot be used as leverage. So in response to allegations of violations of the ceasefire, the Israeli military stopped humanitarian aid to Gaza yesterday, despite having promised to allowing at least 600 trucks every day to a starving population. It is up to the United States to ensure that whatever happens with this ceasefire deal that nobody quite knows

what it means, obligations to civilians continue to be fulfilled, and that no matter what Hamas does, the Israeli government does not starve children in Gaza in response. Reportedly, the Israeli government agreed today to resume humanitarian aid in response to U.S. pressure. So when the U.S. government wants to, they can, and they should insist on obligations to civilians. And talk about the prisoners. We have heard and seen the incredibly moving reunions of Israeli hostages, returned to their families. We know their stories, their names, deeply emotional. But when we see the Palestinian prisoners released in bus after bus, we're talking about nearly 2,000.

We do not know these stories. Talk about the condition of the men that have been released. Sorry. So it's not only men, it's also women and children. Even after having released almost 2,000 people last week, the Israeli military is still holding about 9,000 Palestinians and what it calls security prisoners or detainees. Only about 1,000 of them have actually been convicted of any crime. The vast majority of people being held are being held without trial, either in what's called administrative detention for the West Bank or the unlawful combatants law for folks from Gaza. That means that there's no allegation that they've committed a crime.

they're being held on a charge of dangerousness that is backed by secret evidence that neither they nor their lawyers can either see or challenge. It is an arbitrary system in which every day, including yesterday, the Israeli military is rounding up more and more Palestinians from the West Bank now and just refilling those detention and prison cells where people are subject to serious abuse. For the last two years, at the request of Israel's police minister, The conditions that were already bad for Palestinian prisoners have been worsened. Food rations have been reduced. Israel has unlawfully suspended both family visits, as well as visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross, which is supposed to ensure humane treatment.

And there have been persistent, credible, and systematic reports of rape, starvation, and torture. People are coming out of those prisons, badly malnourished with scabies, dozens have died in detention. there has been no accountability, no investigations, and that needs to change for the 9,000 people who are still being held. And I just want to clarify a number when you said 1,000 have been convicted of crimes. Of the 1700 release to Gaza, almost none have been convicted, is that right? But you're saying of the people who are being held in prison, is this the largest prison population of Palestinians in Israeli jails for decades? Yes. And what happened last week was 250 people who had been convicted of crimes, as well as 1,700 who were being held without charge or trial were released. Still, even after that release, Israel is still holding about 9,000 prisoners. About 1,200 have actually been convicted of crimes. Another few thousand are in pretrial detention, and the majority are being held without trial, either under administrative detention or the unlawful combatant's law. This process completely lacks transparency or due process.

And what's most worrying is that the Israeli government is not allowing neutral humanitarian actors like the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit, to ensure that conditions are humane. And based on the fact that some people who were released were released directly to the hospital, they are not humane. And that needs to end. Sorry, you wrote a deeply moving piece in the New York Times in August. And it's about your relationship with your husband. The article, the headline, One Marriage, Our Marriage includes an emergency backpack. Your husband is from Gaza, but you live in Ramallah. if you could summarize how your husband is dealing with everything that's happening right now.

And his relationship to Gaza as he stays in Ramallah. Look, it's been hell. And this is, you know, a relationship that I also explore in my forthcoming memoir, upside-down love, which will be out in January. His whole family is in Gaza. Their homes have been destroyed. they've lost weight. My sister-in-law, for her, the timing of the ceasefire is unbearable. Her son was killed two and a half weeks before it went into effect.

And so for her, it was almost not too late and then it was. There is no way of describing the anguish that he and so many others have felt living next to a genocide, knowing that the people he cares the most about at any moment could be killed, knowing that we sit down to a family dinner and we eat, but we know that his siblings don't have enough food. I pray that that will end. I pray that the United States will finally put an end to that and require the Israeli government to fulfill its obligations to civilians in Gaza,

in particular to allow humanitarian aid in. Sorry, Bashi, I want to thank you so much for being with us, Israeli-American human rights lawyer, former program director at Human Rights Watch, speaking to us from Jerusalem. When we come back some 7 million March at No King's Rally, across the United States, believed to be one of the largest protests in U.S. history. We'll hear voices from the streets of D.C. And we'll speak in California with Labor icon, Dolores Swerta.

Back in 20 seconds. If it was president, honestly, if it were president, honestly, if it were president, for my people, if it were president, honestly, for my people, If I was president If I was president by Las Cafetas performing in our Democracy Now studio This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman.

An estimated 7 million people took part in no king's rally Saturday across the United States to protest President Trump's embrace of authoritarianism. Organizers say protests were held in 2,600 villages, Hamlets, towns, cities across all 50 states in what was one of the largest days of protests in U.S. history, surpassing the $5 million in the first No King's Day of Action in June. In Chicago, the protest stretch for two miles as about a quarter of a million people took to the street. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson called for a general strike in his address. An estimated 200,000 people rallied in Washington, D.C. The metro area of Washington, D.C., has the highest concentration of federal workers furloughed and fired.

Estimated 200,000 people were in the nation's capital. My name is Anthony Lee. I'm from Woodlawn, Maryland. I'm a member of National Treasury Employees Union, Chapter 2. that represents employees at the Food and Drug Administration. I'm here today because we shouldn't have kings in America and to stand up for our democracy, to get our services back, to make sure that what's been happening in this country

that someone stands up to, it stops it, and makes a change. I'm currently furloughed. I'm a federal employee at the FDA, myself, and hundreds of our employees there. We want to work. We want to get back to work to getting back to doing the job that we were hired to do to protect and promote the health and safety of the American public. And so employees are now going without a paycheck, struggling to figure out how they're going to make ends meet,

how they're going to pay for the bills, and uncertain about their future in the federal government. My name is Kathleen Romig, and I formerly worked at the Social Security Administration. Well, we're asking Congress to stand up. They have the power of the purse. They have oversight control over all of these important federal programs, including Social Security, and we're asking them to be the co-equal branch of government that they really should be and to push back against something that all their constituents and voters rely upon. I'm Kathleen. I'm from Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, and I'm here because

we got to get ice out of the streets. I'm Sophia. I'm from Massachusetts. I'm here from U.N.C. Chapel Hill visiting my friend, and I'm here because I am a big supporter of women's rights, women's reproductive freedom, abortion, etc. It's a really big Latin community back home, and it's really affected our city because, honestly, the immigrants run our city. Like, the only reason everything works, the restaurants, like everything is because of the immigrants and we need them in America. I'm Paul Asidebe. I'm a resident of D.C. And I'm here because I'm a federal worker who's furloughed, who's been fired under this administration, and whose agency had been shut down way before the current shutdown. So I'm here to make sure that we make our voices heard

because federal workers want to work. We want to serve the people. That's what I came here to do. We were already not being allowed to do that, so we need to change things up. We need to make it clear that we can't have an authoritarian government, a government that's turned into nothing but a weapon, because that's what it seems like is happening right now. I'm from the U.S. I'm U.S. citizen originally from India, and I'm here today because I think that governing by fear is a really bad idea. I think that we're not getting our voices out there, and if you think about how we're, Social change actually happens.

It happens through collective action. And I really believe in this. And though I was scared to come here because of the threats, the quite overt threats coming from the other side, I'm very happy to be here, and I really felt it was important to be here. I mean, if you look at the actual polls, we're not divided the way they're trying to present at all.

We care about the same things. We care about affordable health care. We care about affordable education. We care about a living wage. care about fair housing and affordable housing. And those are things that unite us, not divide us. So I think it's super important for us to be out here and to demand a government that represents us

and not the billionaires. I'm Carolyn. I'm from Reston, Virginia. And when I heard the Republicans start calling protesters terrorists, it got my blood boiling. I cannot believe that they are trying to squash our First Amendment, along with everything else that they're doing to America. And my other sign is, I want my democracy back. We're all looking for a little bit of hope

because we're all very distressed at what's happening to our democracy. They're stripping away our rights, left and right, and the rule of law is just disappearing like the pardon he gave to George Santos last night. As long as you're a Republican, he'll let you go. If you're not, then he puts you in jail. So I'm very terrified about what's happening to the U.S. right now.

And being here, it's with like-minded people, and hopefully together we can make our thoughts known and to put up some protest to what's happening. We're losing our democracy. Voices from the streets of the No King's protest in Washington, D.C., that is the highest concentration, the D.C. metro area, of furloughed and fired federal workers. This was one of some 2,600 rallies nationwide. Special thanks to Jessel Noor. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. We go now to California, where immigrant rights, labor icon Dolores Huerta, address the No Kings Rally Saturday in Watsonville.

People here that are right now being arrested, reported, and terrorized. They are not immigrants. They are the indigenous. people of the continent. The real immigrants to the United States came from Europe, right? That was Dolores Huerta. She is 95 years old.

Amidst intensifying immigration raids, she's joined with People for the American Way in the Dolores Werta Foundation to release a short film that shows neighbors joining together a nonviolent civil disobedience to protect a dramatized immigrant elder from being zipped tied and disappeared by ice.

It's a dramatization. At the end of the video, the ICE agents hear protesters outside, including Dolores Huerta, and stop their arrest. She released this right before the No King's Rally and is joining us from her home in California. Welcome back to Democracy Now, Dolores. Talk about what you told the crowd and how large that gathering was. for Watsonville and the significance of Watsonville of the center of migrant worker organizing in California.

Yes, we had a really great rally. We had a lot of farm workers that were there and, of course, people lined the street toward their signs, and it was just amazing. And as you know, here in California, we were some of the first people hit by the Border Patrol in Isson, they arrested 90 people, and of those 90 people, only one person out of the 90 had any kind of a criminal record, which could be a traffic ticket, some kind of misdemeanor. And we just have to say to everyone, this is not about going after immigrants. This is about going after people of color.

This is ethnic cleansing. This is exactly what is happening now in the United States of America. And God knows that we have to put a stop to it. We have never seen such horrific, horrific attacks on our people. When you talk about ICE targeting day labor centers in Los Angeles, for example, the Van Nuys Center being rated 14 times since June, the focus on labor, on workers who are out at work when they are taken? yet not only farm workers but do we know our hospitality workers that work in our hotels

people who are laborers that work on construction sites i mean absolutely no one is safe i mean we happen to be just anybody on the street that happens to be a person that looks Latino or Asian or black you are subjected to the kidnapping and all of these tortures and as we know people have already been killed you know this is the kind of of horrific, horrific terrorism that the Latino and the people of color community are not living. And God knows that it has to stop. It has to stop. And so it's so important here in California. We're working on Proposition 50, which will be voted on on November 4th, and so that we can change the Congress. Because we know our Congress has the one that

has allocated the funding, the millions of dollars that they're giving to eyes and putting detention centers. This is all coming from our own government. Not only the president, but the Congress right now, the current Congress, which is controlled by Republicans, is putting all of these horrible maneuvers in place right now to terrorize our community. And God knows it's got to be stopped. We know we have elections in 2026 until we are not preparing the ground so that we could get more Democrats, more progressive people in the Congress so that we could stop the madness that is happening to our community. Dolores Huerta, you, Maxine Waters, other U.S. citizens have filed a petition with the

Korea law firm to the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate the Trump administration for potential human rights violations denouncing these ice raids as a form of ethnic cleansing. Can you talk about the significance of this petition? The petition itself is actually, and the law firm is representing several U.S. citizens that have been detained, arrested, or attacked by ICE agents. And so they are actually representing U.S. citizens and people that have the documented right to work here in the United States of America. And yet they have been detained and they have been attacked by the ICE agents. And we are hoping that we can get many more people. here in the United States to also sign

onto that petition, and we are asking the United Nations to please send an envoy to the United States as ridiculous as it sound, but to think that we have to petition the United Nations to come in and investigate what is happening to people of color

here in the United States of America. Just like they did in Guatemala when all of the assassinations were taking place in Guatemala and the people that were being attacked, you know, we have the a similar situation in the United States, that we need, we need help or not. We can't get it from our own government.

Maybe people in the United Nations can help and assist us. There were many around the country who called for a general strike, you know, bringing together the issue of labor and immigrant rights. You are a leading labor, immigrant rights activist in your final comment in these 30 seconds. Do you endorse this? absolutely but we know it has to take a lot of good planning to make sure it's effective and we also want to say to people you can go to aclu.org slash know your know your dash rights slash immigrants rights to help and get more information

and also to nilc.org slash resources everybody has rights We want to thank you so much for being with us, renowned civil rights activists, co-founder of the United Farm Workers, and president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation. We spoke to her at her home in Bakersfield, California. She is 95 years old. Happy birthday to Safi Nazal. I'm Amy Goodman. Thanks for joining us.