Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-03-24 Tuesday

Episode Date: March 24, 2026

Democracy Now! Tuesday, March 24, 2026

New York, this is democracy now. With Iran, we've been negotiating for a long time. And this time, they mean business. And it's only because of the great job that our military did is the reason they mean business. They want to settle and we're going to get it done. U.S. and Israeli war on Iran enters its 25th day. President Trump claims Iran's begun negotiations with the United States. But the Iranian government has dismissed the claim.

is fake news, accusing Trump of trying to manipulate financial and oil markets. We'll speak to former Israeli negotiator Daniel Levy about Iran and the latest from Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza. Then hours-long waits at airports are drawing attention to the plight of TSA workers who've been without pay for over a month due to a partial government shutdown. Trump has deployed ICE agents to more than a dozen airports nationwide. We'll speak to a lead TSA officer and union shop steward in Boise, Idaho. Plus, we are highlights from Democracy Now's 30th anniversary celebration Monday night. We'll hear the Pulitzer Prize-winning Palestinian poet, Masab Abu Toha,

as well as a surprise guest, Bruce Springsteen, who performed and talked about his new song, The Streets of Minneapolis. us. Last winter, the federal troops brought death and terror to the streets of Minneapolis. They picked the wrong city. We're in the solidarity of the people of Minneapolis with an inspiration to the entire country. Their strength and their commitment told us that this is still America. All that and more coming up.

Welcome to Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the Warren. Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. Iranian officials are denying President Trump's claims, his envoys have had very good and productive conversations with their Iranian counterparts. On Monday, Iran's foreign ministry said there had been no dialogue between the U.S. and Iran with the top officials stating Trump, quote, retreated after hearing that our targets would be all power plants in West Asia, unquote. Iran's denials Monday came as President Trump continued to insist Iran had reached out to him. and that talks are going, quote, perfectly. So they called, I didn't call, they called, they want to make a deal. And we are very willing to make a deal.

It's got to be a good deal. And it's got to be no more wars, no more nuclear weapons. Trump insisted he'd been in contact with a top and respected Iranian official, but refused to name the person saying only it wasn't Iran's new supreme leader, Mostobar Khomeini. Trump also said he would jointly control the strait of Hormuz personally, along with, quote, whoever the next Diatollah is, unquote. Meanwhile, the U.S. and Israel are continuing airstrikes across Iran where the government says more than 1,500 civilians have been killed since February 28th. Huge explosions were reported overnight in Tehran, while other airstrikes targeted the cities of Tabriz, Isfahan, and Karaj, as well as two gas facilities and a pipeline.

In Israel, Iranian missiles struck several areas of Tel Aviv, injuring several people and setting buildings and cars on fire. Elsewhere, Iranian missiles and drones targeted Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates will have more on the U.S. Israeli war on Iran after headlines with the former Israeli negotiator, Daniel Levy. In Lebanon, Israeli defense minister Israel Katz says his forces will establish a so-called security zone stretching. to the Latani River, cutting off Lebanon south from the rest of Lebanon, while indefinitely displacing hundreds of thousands of residents who've been ordered to evacuate their homes. On Monday, Israel's far-right finance minister Bezalal Smotrich said Israel should annex southern Lebanon with the Latani River as Israel's new northern border. Meanwhile, there's been no let-up in Israeli airstrikes.

Earlier today, Israel bombed a residential apartment in the county. Beirut, killing at least three people, including a three-year-old girl. Israel also blew up a bridge in the western Beqar Valley. This is Ali Atar, a local official who survived an Israeli strike on the town of Chhat. After fasting, we were having dinner. All we heard was a strike, a huge boom in the roar of aircraft. It left. We went outside to see what had happened.

When we got here, we found people collecting body parts from the building. The building had nothing in it, nothing at all, except civilians living there. Lebanon's health ministry reports Israeli attacks have killed more than a thousand people in Lebanon since early March. More than a million are displaced. In Gaza, local and international media outlets report Israeli forces tortured a Palestinian toddler to coerce a confession from his father. According to reports, the child's father, Osama Abu Nasir, was detained near the Almagazi refugee camp Saturday after he came under fire from Israeli soldiers. He was forced to approach an Israeli checkpoint where he was separated from his 18-month-old son, stripped naked, and forced to watch his soldiers used a cigarette to burn one of the toddler's legs while using a nail puncture to the other. This comes as a new report published by a UN expert on Palestine warns Israel.

systematically torturing Palestinians on a scale that, quote, suggests collective vengeance and destructive intent, unquote. This is Francesca Abenesi, UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupy Palestinian Territory. Since October 2020, torture has effectively become state policy, sustained by a torturous culture that is socially produced, politically defended, and publicly normalized. The proposed build on the death penalty for Palestinian detainees marks yet another dangerous as have therefore recommended that those responsible, including senior officials such as Itamar Ben-Givir, Bezalel Mothric and Israel Katz, be investigated and were warranted that arrest warrants be issued. In Cuba, an estimated 11,000 children are awaiting surgery as a U.S. fuel blockade is pushing hospitals to the brink amidst worsening blackouts and supply shortages. Cuba's deputy foreign minister Carlos Fernando de Casio said in an interview with NBC's Meet the Press Sunday, more than 96,000 Cubans are in need of surgery, but hospitals have been

forced to suspend some medical procedures due to limited electricity and as they run out of supplies like syringes and antibiotics. Cuban officials have condemned Trump's intensifying siege on Cuba as energy asphyxiation, as the island has not received any oil imports in more than 3,000. three months reducing its fuel supply by about 90%. UN experts have condemned the U.S. blockade on Cuba as a violation of international law. In Washington, D.C., Oklahoma Republican Senator Mark Wayne Mullen has been confirmed as Homeland Security Secretary installing another Trump loyalist to oversee mass immigration

raids and deportations. Mullen was Trump's pick to replace Christy Nome, who was fired earlier this month. Mullen was confirmed in a 54-45 Senate vote. Republican Senator Rand Paul broke from his party to vote against Mullen. The two clashed at Mullen's confirmation hearing last week with Paul referring to Mullen as a freaking snake, unquote. Meanwhile, two Democrats join Republicans in backing Mullen, Senators John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico. Mullen's confirmation comes as lawmakers warn a DHS partial shutdown could drag into April. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, ICE agents, deployed to more than a dozen airports across the U.S. on Monday,

amidst persistent staffing shortages within the Transportation Security Administration, the TSA, caused by the prolonged partial government shutdown. TSA workers have gone without pay for more than a month, leading many to call in, sick or resign. That's led to wait times of up to six hours at some airport security lines. This is Pasquo Contreras, a union member and TSA worker in Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport. On a personal level, I don't think we need them here. We need to be paid. Why would you bring another agency to be TSA when you already have TSA? What I'm getting from some of the officers is that they're just in the way.

Now we're on top of having the heavy burden. Now we have to train them in how we do our job. Later in the broadcast, we'll speak with a TSA worker, union steward in Boise, Idaho. Meanwhile, videos have emerged of ICE agents in plain clothes, violently detaining a woman on Sunday inside San Francisco International Airport in front of her daughter. The woman who's from Guatemala is seen crying as agents pin her down before dragging and restraining her in a wheelchair. Her daughter was also reportedly in custody as the ICE agents were enforcing a removal order. Bystanders are heard asking the agents to identify themselves with the officers refusing to say their names or show their badges.

The Supreme Court appears poised to overturn a Mississippi law allowing mail and ballots to be counted as long as their postmarked by. election day. On Monday, the court's right-wing majority appeared to reject arguments that mail and ballots are consistent with federal election laws because voters make their final choices by election day. More than two dozen states have similar laws, meaning the Supreme Court's ruling expected by June or July could have a big impact on November's midterm elections. Meanwhile, Postmaster General David Steiner is warning the U.S. Postal Service is running out of money and might stop delivering mail by next February unless Congress changes a federal law

that caps the agency's borrowing limit at $15 billion. USPS has operated with a deficit almost every fiscal year since 2007. Hawaii's governor has asked the White House for a presidential major disaster declaration after heavy rains and floodwaters for thousands of people to evacuate their homes on the north shore of Oahu.

It's the worst flooding, Hawaii is seen in more than 20 years. In North America, rapid analysis of this month's early spring heat wave by world weather attribution has found record shattering triple-digit march temperatures across the southwestern U.S. would have been virtually impossible, if not for climate change. On Monday, the United Nations warned in a new report that concentrations of greenhouse gases have reached all-time highs with the climate, quote, more out of balance than at any time in observed history, unquote. Co. Barrett of the World Meteorological Organization said the report confirms 2025 was at least the third hottest year on record. It was about 1.43 degrees C above the 1850 to 1900 baseline.

Between 2015 and 2025, we experienced the hottest 11 years on record. In 2025, our glaciers continued to retreat and ice continued to melt. the warming ocean and melting land-based ice are driving the long-term rise in global mean sea-level rise. And here in New York, nearly a thousand unionized full-time faculty members at New York University of Gunn on strike, calling for higher wages, job stability, and for the school to address heavy workloads. The non-tenured faculty members are represented by the contract faculty United UAW Union, which had been negotiating with NYU's administration for a fair contract that would address pay inequities between non-tenured and tenured staff. The CFUUAW said on social media, quote,

we're dismayed that the administration prefers the disruption of a strike to settling a fair contract, unquote. Classes have not been canceled. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in New York, joined by for the first time in six years, except for yesterday. Juan Gonzalez, also in New York. It's great to be with you again, Juan. Thanks, Amy. And welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. As the U.S. and Israel's unprovoked war on Iran enters its 25th day, President Trump is claiming that Iran has begun negotiations with the United States. But the Iranian government has dismissed the claim, fake news, accusing Trump of trying to manipulate financial and oil markets. Over the weekend, Trump threatened to, quote, obliterate Iranian power plants of Iran did not fully reopen

the Strait of Hormuz by Monday night. But on Monday, Trump reversed course, extended his deadline to five days and repeatedly claimed the U.S. was now in productive conversations with Iran. With Iran, we've been negotiating for a long time. And this time, they've been business. And it's only because of the great job that our military did is the reason they mean business. They want to settle and we're going to get it done. And I hope. Earlier in the day, President Trump claimed he might personally take joint control of the Strait of Hormuz with Iran's next Ayatollah. Be jointly controlled.

Maybe me. Maybe me. Me and the Ayatollah, whoever the Ayatollah is, whoever the next Ayatollah. Look, and there'll also be a form of a very serious form of a regime change. Now, in all fairness, everybody's been killed from the regime. They're really starting off. There's automatically a regime change. But we're dealing with some people that I find to be very reasonable, very solid. The people within know who they are.

They're very respected. And maybe one of them will be exactly what we're looking for. Look at Venezuela how well that's working out. We are doing so well in Venezuela with oil and with the relationship between the president-elect and us. And maybe we find somebody like that in Iran. Despite Trump's claims of U.S.-Iran negotiations, U.S. Central Command says U.S. forces, quote, continue to aggressively strike, unquote, Iran. Meanwhile, Iran's retaliated by striking other Gulf nations and Israel.

Israeli officials said Iran has launched seven missile barrages since midnight, targeting Tel Aviv and other cities. The Israeli military said one of the missiles that hit Tel Aviv carried a 220-pound warhead. Israel's health ministry said nearly 4,800 people have been injured by Iran's attacks on Israel since the war began. We go now to London, where we're joined by Daniel Levy, president of the U.S. Middle East Project, former Israeli peace negotiator under Israeli prime ministers, Echu Barak and Yitzhak Rabin.

His recent piece for Zateo is headlined, why Netanyahu dupe Trump into the illegal war with Iran? Well, Daniel Levy, thanks so much for being with us again. Why don't you explain that headline? Well, good to be with you, Amy, Juan, Natanyahu himself and other Israeli leaders, although he's been at the helm for much of the last three decades, have during an awfully long period, told us Iran is at the precipice of becoming a nuclear power. By the way, we should always remind ourselves, Israel is the only nuclear armed state in the region. But they've been telling us it's imminent, we have to act now. And they've been trying to pull successive American presidents. into that war to launch such a military campaign. They've never succeeded.

You have had American presidents across the decades from whichever party has been in power, who have created an extremely indulgent, permissive environment for Israel in the region, and in particular, when it comes to Israel's consistent war crimes against the Palestinians. What you have not had is a president who could be led into this kind of a military operation, and we're seeing right now in almost the last month of

this war precisely why. But this president is made of different stuff, less serious stuff, apparently, and Natanyahu saw his opportunity. But the reason, I think, why this was of such significance for Natanyahu is we are in a new era. It's not an era of a Pax Americana with, alongside all that indulgence of Israel, there were still certain break mechanisms. This time, Israel sees us in an era of what I would call a Pax greater Israel. This is about how far Israel can extend its dominion, how much of a hard power, dominant hegemon. It can be in the region, seizing parts of Syria or of Lebanon, trying to finish an eradicationist approach to the Palestinians, and crucially. To do that, you have to weaken Iran militarily to remove some kind of deterrent.

You can only do that with the U.S., so you need to pull the U.S. into this war. If that means further accelerating American decline and even accelerating Israel's loss of support in America, then it's a price to pay. It's kind of use it or lose it because those things are happening anyway. In saying all of this, I don't want to suggest that America has. has no agency in this. There are things to do with the Trump administration, the neocons, the people who still have positions of influence in the US that have brought them into this. But that's what Natanyahu is trying to achieve. To achieve greater Israel, domination in the region, including the weakening of the Gulf, which is intentional,

at the expense of America bleeding further reputational, political, economic assets in this war. And Daniel Levy, you've also written that, quote, the idea that this is a war to serve American rather than Israeli interests resonates primarily in three spaces. The gullible, the true believers, especially of end of times, religious thinking, or those who are paid up members of Israel's echo chamber. Could you elaborate? Yes, I think there is a lot of attention being paid to this question.

of who does this serve. Now, you can make the case that you also have a US government that is locked into its own kind of logic of war. You have, if I may suggest, a decline anxiety in the US. You have an attempt to reassert primacy and preponderance. I don't think that is or can go well. you have Marco Rubio, for instance, telling the Europeans, join us in the next western century of imperial domination. That can perhaps play out in the Western hemisphere, the crime committed with the kidnapping of a leader in Venezuela, the illegal blockade on Cuba. But if you travel too far afield to find monsters to slay, and if you have an incoherent strategy and an incoherent strategy and an incoherent, competent administration implementing that strategy, then things are going to go very badly wrong, which was entirely predictable in this illegal war of choice launched by the US and Israel.

And therefore, if you look at this and even if you factor in the attempt to assert American interest, this war would not have happened if Israel's leader had not been there, whispering in the presidents here, making the case, seven bilateral meetings in the first 13 months of the second Trump term between Trump and Natanyahu. Two meetings in the eight weeks leading up to the launching of this illegal war. Daily phone calls, we are told. Now information coming out in the New York Times that the Mossad apparently bamboozled Americans with idea that if you could decapitate some of the regime leadership, the Mossad could ferment a coup on the streets, that you could arm Kurdish, groups from the outside to take geographical parts of Iran to start dismantling the central state. You really have to be therefore either extremely gullible, as I suggested, or a true believer that, well, this is high risk, but it's worth it because maybe you're ideologically committed to

the greater Israel cause. Maybe that comes from a place of evangelical. dispensation list belief in the end times, or you simply are part of an echo chamber whose wheels are greased very consistently, and we see that play out over so many years in American politics. That's what I'm suggesting. And I do think that the attempt to suggest this is more than Israel first, that somehow this serves America's interests are not going to go well, and Israel will pay a tremendous price for that over time. I wanted to ask you also, there appears to have been a shift in the last few days in how the Israeli government permits damage within Israel from Iranian attacks to be

publicized by the press, because clearly during the first two weeks of the war, Israel essentially prevented any kind of images from the U.S. media, especially going out to the world. Now, in the last few days, it's almost as if Netanyahu and the government want their own people and the rest of the world to see some of this damage. I'm wondering your thoughts about this. Has there been a change in approach or tactics by the Israeli government? So I'm not so sure. I think it's an interesting question to dwell upon. But what one might be seeing is an inability and therefore a degradation of,

credibility if Israel tries to claim that none of this destruction is happening. In other words, an inability to prevent those images from coming out when those strikes are now causing very significant damage. I don't want to exaggerate that either. I don't think that is what causes this unnecessary war to come to an end. But what one perhaps has to look to is if you, if you, if, remember early on in the war, one of the real questions, as this became a war of endurance, almost a war of attrition, was could the US and Israeli side sufficiently deplete Iran's missile launching capacity before Iran both sufficiently degraded the interception capacity on the Israeli-U.S. side. So they have to be a bit more selective in terms of what they use

the interceptors for because they can't take everything out and they are going to run out. And also Iran apparently holding back some of its heavier kit because in its strategy, it assumed this could go on for a long time and it had to have a plan for week one, week two, week three. And so I think the, to the extent to which we're seeing more images, it is likely because that equation hasn't played well for the US and Israel and because we're seeing more damage being done. I think you have a war where Israel has a strategy. It's an extremely ambitious overreach strategy in terms of not regime change, but regime collapse, state collapse, implosion, the dismantling of the Iranian state, where Iran has a strategy of escalating

horizontally, testing American endurance, and holding out and winning that way. But I think you'd be really hard pushed to find a coherent strategy on the U.S. side. I wanted to play a clip of President Trump speaking to reporters about U.S. aims in negotiations. No nuclear bomb, no nuclear weapon, not even close to it, low-key in the missiles. We want to see peace in the Middle East. We want the nuclear dust, we're going to want that. And I think we're going to get that. We've agreed to that. If this happens, it's a great start for Iran to build itself back, and it's everything

that we want. And it's also great for Israel, and it's great for the other Middle Eastern countries. So Daniel Levy, you are a former Israeli negotiator under two Israeli prime ministers. if you can respond to what he's saying and also to what Iran is saying, that the idea that there's any negotiation going on is fake news intended to manipulate financial and oil markets and to escape the quagmire in which America and Israel are trapped, said the Speaker of Iran's parliament. So there are a couple of things going on here.

And I want to try and disentangle those. First of all, the question of our negotiations taking place. And what I think is very clear is that there are channels of communication via third countries. Those have been available all the time. Partly one has to understand that countries in the region who were not a party to launching this war, nor to the decision to go to war, who in fact cautioned against this war, in the Gulf and elsewhere, they are feeling tremendous blowback and taking hits from this war, and they are keen to bring it to an end.

There may be some who, for some reason, still believe America can do the job and that they should trust America's competence and coherence in attempting to do so. I think most are not in that camp. They know that the cost is too high, and they are experiencing daily what it means to rely on America for your security and the answer is not good. So there are a number of states, also beyond that, Turkey has been super active, Pakistan, for instance, Egypt, who are maintaining open channels with both parties and obviously sending messages, because by the way, the whole world is suffering from this, higher fuel, food, fertilizer prices, etc. So there are active channels. Are they

talking directly? I don't know. I doubt it, but I also think it doesn't matter. very much. What matters is the question you kind of raise there, Amy, which is are these talks, first of all, intended to produce an outcome? Was this another American deployment of diplomacy as a ruse? We saw in the lead up to this war that America played with negotiations, attempted that as a distraction, but actually intended to go for the military option. So, Is this trying to buy some time while the US waits for a third aircraft carrier, more of your taxpayer dollars to be deployed in the West Asia, Middle East region? Was this a Monday morning pre-stock market intervention on the part of the president? Because if there's one thing he does pay attention to, it's that.

So was he trying to calm the markets, give himself a few more days? Or is this a serious attempt to chart a path to de-escalation? If it is the latter, then that would have to include an acknowledgement that in negotiations, you have to listen to the other side. You have to take into account their interests. If you go in with maximalist positions, often designed by the worst elements of maximalism in your administration and by the Israelis intentionally trying to make sure that talks cannot succeed, then guess what? the talks won't succeed. So if you think you can impose on Iran in these talks, things that you couldn't achieve in your military assault, or things that they weren't willing to accept beforehand, then the talks are doomed to fail. The one thing that may be working to our benefit is not who

might host these talks. It's certainly not the fact that Jared Kushner and Steve Wickoff might be involved because that would be very bad news indeed, given their record of failure if they're the only people. But the one piece of good news is that the loose and perhaps non-existent relationship between what Trump says and the realities out there in the real world, that relationship means that Trump can claim what he likes, because what we're probably looking for is three victory speeches given in Tehran, Jerusalem and Washington, D.C. They won't. They won't. align, they won't match up, but they might allow for a cessation and then for some of these issues to be addressed afterwards. But as long as that doesn't happen, we still have to

contend with the fact that Israel has been driving a lot of the escalatory logic in this war. It will continue to attempt to prevent a ceasefire. It's not alone. There are certainly American sources trying to do that as well. Israel is still on the impunity high from its Gaza genocide, which has led us here. And we have to contend with the fact that each time you try and get a mission accomplished victory image, you might escalate leading to a further cycle of escalation. And then that can collapse any putative path out of this. Daniel, we only have about a minute left.

But I wanted to ask you, while the war is continuing Iran and Israeli forces are in Lebanon, the settlers in the West Bank continue to perpetuate. violence against Palestinians and the IDF continues to attack Palestinians in Gaza. I'm wondering your sense of how this has basically faded from the international view while the war against Iran continues. Well, I wish I could say that it needed the war in Iran in order to shift attention away from this, in order for Israel to be able to continue to not be held accountable and to get away with these daily violations of international law

and with these appalling atrocities against the Palestinians. But it didn't take the war. Israel is doing that and it will continue to do that unless and until it is held to account. It is contained and deterred. And of course you also see one million displaced in Lebanon and the attempt apparently to reestablish a zone of Israeli domination there, still in control of territory in Syria as well.

But I also want to challenge this notion that the problem in the West Bank is the settlers. There is no armed settler militia without the IDF. The settlers roam the West Bank with the active backing of Israel's military. Occasionally they may call a handful of people to out and say, no, stop. But most of the occupation and the entrenchment of a matrix of control and an apartheid regime, that is run not by lone settlers. That is run by the Israeli state. That is run by the IDF.

It is the IDF and the Israeli state that run that regime of control. That also, as you mentioned, despite the so-called ceasefire, are in control of about 60% directly of Gaza, are carrying out daily military assaults, daily killings of Palestinians in Gaza, still not allowing the necessary humanitarian assistance or shelter into Gaza, and in parallel, conducting the largest military intervention in the West Bank,

the largest displacement and destruction, often focused on refugee camps like Janine, Taukham, Noral Shams, that we have seen since 1967. I think this will ultimately end very badly for Israel and generate tremendous blowback. But in the meantime, it is again the Palestinians bearing the brunt. Daniel Levy, we want to thank you so much for being with us, President of the U.S. Middle East Project, former Israeli peace negotiator under Israeli Prime Minister's Ahud Barak and Yitzhak Rabin. We'll link to your piece in Zateo, why Netanyahu dupe Trump into the illegal war with Iran. You can follow Levy's writings on his substack.

Coming up, we air highlights from Democracy Now's 30th anniversary celebration last night, including our surprise guests, Bruce Springsteen, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Palestinian poet Masab Abu Toha. Back in 20 seconds. And Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Musaub Abu Toha singing last night at Democracy Now's 30th anniversary celebration. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org.

I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. Well, on Monday night, over 2,000 people packed into the historic Riverside Church in New York to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Democracy Now. Speakers and performers included Angela Davis, Patty Smith, Michael Stipe, V, formerly Eve Ansela, Hooray for the Riffraff, and the surprise appearance by Bruce Springsteen. We will be airing excerpts over the coming days. We begin with the Pulitzer Prize-winning Palestinian writer and poet Masab Abu Toha. He fled Gaza with his family in December, 2023, after he was detained by Israeli forces for two days.

He was close friends with the Palestinian poet Rafat Alarid, who was killed in Israeli air strike in 2023. This is Masab Abu Toha speaking last night at Riverside Church. Thank you so much, democracy now. Thank you, Amy, Hermine, and Juan. I mean, these are very hard-to-broken moments. There is no language that can describe my feelings listening to my dear friend, Rafat. He's somewhere else bitter than... this ugly world that we are trying

all of us to survive. It was October 12, 23, when I had my interview with Amy, I was still in our house in Gaza. This house has been a heap of rubble since October 30th,

2020. Just two days after the interview I did with Amy on October 12, Israel killed 30 members of my extended family, including including my great uncle, Kaddra Abo Toha, his wife, his children, the wives of his children, the grandchildren, the youngest was four years old.

That same, Khadr was the only one in my family who was interested in doing the family tree. And I ended up doing his family tree after he was killed. And that's something that I kept doing, unfortunately, to document. the genocide that Israel perpetrated not only against Palestinians, but the Palestinian families. Israel has erased thousands, hundreds of families in Gaza, including some of my relatives, some of whom remain under the rubble even now.

Under the rubble. She slept on her bed, never walk up again. Her bed has become her grave, a tomb beneath the ceiling of her room, the ceiling a cenotaph no name, no year of birth no year of death, no epitaph only blood and a smashed

picture of Raymond ruin next to her. In Jabalia camp, a mother collects her daughter's flesh in a piggy bank hoping to buy her a plot on a river in a faraway land. A group of mute people were talking sign when a bomb fell, they fell silent.

It rained again last night, the new plant looked for an umbrella in the garage. The bombing got intense, and our house looked for a shelter in the neighborhood. I leave the door to my room open so the words in my books, the titles, and names of authors

and publishers could flee when they hear the bombs. I became homeless once the rubble of my city covered the streets. They could not find a stretcher to carry your body. They put you on a wooden door they found under the rubble. Your neighbors, a moving wall.

The scars on our children's faces will look for you. Our children's amputated legs will run after you. He left the house to buy some bread for his kids. News of his death made at home, but not the bread. No bread. Death sits to eat whoever. remains of the kids. No need for a table, no need for bread. A father wakes up at night, at night, sees the random colors on the walls drawn by his four-year-old daughter. The

colors are about four feet high. Next year they would be five, but the painter has died in an air strike. There are no colors anymore. There are no walls. I changed the order of my books on the shelves. Two days later, the war broke out beware of changing the order of your books what are you thinking what thinking what you you? Is there still you

you there? Where should people go should they build a big ladder and go up but the heaven has been blocked by the drones and F-16s and the smoke of death my son asks me whether when we return to

Gaza, I could get him a puppy. I say I promise if we can find any. I ask my son if he wishes to become a pilot when he grows up. He says he won't wish to drop bombs on people and houses. When we die, our souls leave our buddies, take with them everything they loved in our bedrooms. The perfume bottles, the makeup, the necklaces, and the pens. In Gaza, our buddies. And rooms get crushed. Nothing remains for the soul. Even our souls, they remain stuck under the rubble for weeks. Now, for years.

For Gaza, for Rifat al-Aarir, for all our loved ones, those who were killed, those who are surviving in the streets and tents, for my three sisters who are in Gaza right now, for my beloved ones who remain under the rubble while we are speaking, for a free Palestine. That was the Pulitzer Prize winning Palestinian writer and poet Mosab Abu Toha on Monday night at Democracy Now's 30th anniversary celebration.

To hear the whole celebration, you can go to DemocracyNow.org. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. We turn now to the boss. That's right, Bruce Springsteen. A Monday night, he made a surprise appearance at Democracy Now's 30th anniversary celebration at the historic Riverside Church to sing his new song, the streets of Minneapolis. Federal troops brought death and terror to the streets of Minneapolis. They picked the wrong city.

Minneapolis was an inspiration to the entire country. Their strength and their commitment told us that this is still America. American city will not stand. Their strength gave us hope, they gave us courage, and for those who gave their lives, for Né Good, mother of three, brutally murder, Alex Preddy, be a nurse,

executed, shot the back by ice in the street, left to die. Their bravery, their sacrifice, and their names will not be forgotten. This is Street's mayor. Thank you. Nathan, there's to New Angeles, of course, to other cities

where they had to deal with ICE, ICE is terror, and then we're going to end up in Washington, D.C., and with a few words to say, if I'm in the White House. You're saying where ICE is present, does that mean you're taking it to airports now? I've been in plenty of them, probably so, you know. One other question.

I mean, the streets of Minneapolis Now you just made news again this morning. The ACLU launching a national ad campaign featuring your born in the USA height citizenship Supreme Court case that they're going to be arguing on April 1st. Right, right. Well, it's our pleasure to be working with the ACLU

and they finally put born in USA to some good and righteous use, so I'm glad about that. That's Bruce Springsteenstein, Performing at Democracy Now's 30th anniversary celebration Monday night at Riverside Church to watch the full event. Go to DemocracyNow.org. This weekend, Bruce will be performing on Saturday at a No King's protest in St. Paul, Minnesota. Coming up, Trump's deployed ICE agents to more than a dozen airports nationwide. We'll speak to a lead TSA officer in Union Shop Stewards. Stay with us. And the night in chaffir, rabbi,

I'm yet al-a-lop in Pope Musaub, Abutthouha, singing last night at Democracy Now's 30th anniversary. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. Well, immigration and customs enforcement agents have been deployed to more than a dozen airports nationwide amid severe staffing shortages within the Transportation Security Administration, TSA, caused by the prolonged partial government shutdown.

TSA workers have gone without pay for more than a month, at least 400. TSA officers have quit in absences as high as 40 percent at some airports, leading to hours-long wait times. ICE agents deployed to airports are supposed to assist TSA workers, but President Trump said they could also conduct the rest. For more, we're joined by Cameron Cochams, a lead TSA officer in Boise, Idaho, vice president of AFG, the AFGE, the AFGE, TSA local 1127, union representing over 4,000 workers.

Cameron, thanks so much for being with us. And these last few minutes, first respond to Trump deploying ICE agents. What are they going to be doing? You're a TSA worker. That's a great question. Thanks for having me, Amy. We don't really know what they're going to be doing as of right now, as of yesterday. and this morning what they've been doing is they've been standing around just like pulling security,

which isn't really what we need. We need people manning the checkpoints. And so it really feels like they're a band-aid over a gaping wound. You know, our officers, they're not getting paid. And having people that come in that are getting paid just feels like an insult to a lot of us. And Cameron, how's your union managing the potential punishment of workers choosing to find other means of sustenance? So that's a big thing, you know, during the shutdown, all ways of them, disciplining us are paused. But when this is over, they're going to try to get all these people who have been calling out because they can't afford rent and they can't afford gas and they can't afford child care.

And so we're just preparing for grievances to be filed against them because we need to protect our officers. And that's just where we're at right now. Cameron, supposedly if you didn't take time off, if you didn't call on sick, you get some extra money, is that right? Who does this penalize? Who are the people who are taking off during this time they're not paid? Yeah, so as of right now, there hasn't been any talk of a bonus or an incentive like there was last time. But even the last one, that came out after the fact. So same thing if that happened this time, you know, the people. people who get rewarded are the ones that are able to weather this storm. So the people who can't

afford child care, the people who can't figure out how to get to work because they can't pay for gas, those are the ones that are going to get affected, and those are the ones that are going to be heard the most by not being able to get the bonuses. That's why the union is advocating for an across-the-board bonus, like what has happened before in the past. And what's your message to people who are dealing with long lines at the airports across the country and maybe frustrated with what's going on? Yeah, I mean, if you have to wait in line, don't blame the TSA officers. They're just trying to live their lives, try to work as best as they can, you know.

What I recommend them doing, since they have a lot of free time when they're waiting in line, is they should be calling their Congress member and telling them to fund the TSA so we can get our paychecks and we can get back to work. Can you talk about what TSA workers do, what you're trained to do, and the fact that ICE agents are going to be there and what they are also arresting people at the airports? Yeah, so when TSA officers are hired, you know, we go through about six months at minimum of rigorous training to become certified in the positions we do. You know, we're trained in how to detect fake IDs. We're trained on how to run x-rays. We're trained on how to run the body scanners, which are called AITs.

We're trained in detection of, you know, people acting suspiciously and stuff like that. And so we're trained in pat-downs. So all those different things you have to be recertified on every year. We have a rigorous training program, like I said. We have training instructors that are constantly watching us. to make sure that we're constantly up to date on all of our stuff. And so as the union, you know, we don't think any person should come in untrained. And so anyone who is going to be helping us in those positions should be trained to the same standards as TSA officers.

I wanted to ask you also, back a year ago, March of 2025, the former Homeland Security Secretary Kristy Knoem, she basically terminated the collective bargaining rights of the 50,000 TSA agents. Could you talk about how this was actually part of that notorious Project 2025 and the long-term strategy of the Republicans? Yeah, absolutely. Project 2025, their intended goal for the TSA is step one, get rid of the union, step two, privatize the TSA. and they cannot privatize the TSA without getting rid of us. And so if they can get rid of us, which they're trying to in court and we're fighting back on it, then they can privatize TSA and then their millionaire buddies can make more money by having contracts and everything like that, which would lead to not better security,

not better screening for anyone, but just more possibilities for gaps in the system that terrorists can get through. We want to thank you so much for being with us, Cameron Cochams, Vice President of AFGE. That's American Federation of Government Employees, TSA Local 1127, Union representing over 4,000 workers, lead TSA officer in Boise, Idaho. Thanks, Cameron. That does it for our show. Democracy Now currently accepting applications for our Development Associate position. Learn more at DemocracyNow.org. Juan, it's been wonderful doing this show with you here again.

New York. Can't wait to have you back Friday. Oh, I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez.