Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-08-21 Friday

Episode Date: August 21, 2026

Headlines for August 21, 2026; As International Pressure Grows, Israel Finally Opens Probe into 2024 Killing of Hind Rajab in Gaza; Meet Loui Ridi: Palestinian American Returns to West Bank Home Besieged by Israeli Settlers; How Trump Admin Weaponized “Antisemitism” Probes to Dismantle Higher Education “Brick by Brick”

From New York, this is Democracy Now. I left my business and decided to be here at my home to protect it from the settlers to steal it and raising the American flag to send the message to the American embassy and the U.S. officials that I am currently under siege and I need a protection. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers continue. to lay siege to homes in the village of Kusra. We'll be joined by one of the homeowners, Louis Reedy, who is Palestinian-American. Then Israel has admitted for the first time that its soldiers fired into the car where five-year-old Palestinian Hind Rajab and six family members were

killed in Gaza in January 2024. Israel has opened a criminal investigation. We'll speak to Sharif Abdul-Qadduz, who's investigated Hymn's killing in the Peabody Award-winning Al-Jazeera documentary, the night won't end. Then a Justice Department whistleblower has claimed the Trump administration's task force pushed Harvard, Columbia, and Brown into massive settlements, despite turning up little to no evidence of anti-Semitism on campus. We will speak to Columbia Professor Marianne Hirsch. This terrible repression under the guise of fighting anti-Semitism. And I think people are now saying that this is not just morally, completely wrong. corrupt, but that it's also not good for Jews, certainly, but that it's not good for anybody

and that the reason for this was never to fight anti-Semitism, but it was to decimate academia. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Anjali Khamuth. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson said Thursday the U.S. will impose the toughest sanctions in history on Iran. After President Trump promised to wage, quote, economic warfare and isolation on an unprecedented scale,

Besson told CNBC that U.S. economic pressure would eliminate the need for return to direct combat with Iran. He said tough new sanctions would collapse Iran's government and warned other nations could face severe economic penalties if they continue to trade with Iran. We are going to all of our allies, and this is going to be the greatest coordinated economic isolation, in the history of the world, and we are going to them and saying you were either with us or against us. Iran's foreign ministry condemned the threat of new sanctions as illegal and inhumane. Meanwhile, the USS George Washington aircraft carrier has arrived in the Middle East to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has now been plagued by low morale, faulty plumbing, poor quality rationed meals, and shortages of basic supplies.

The Lincoln is reportedly heading home to San Diego after a record-setting deployment of more than 270 days at sea. In Yemen, Houthi fighters and government forces have traded dozens of attacks, raising fears that Yemen is sliding back into full-scale civil war for the first time since a UN brokered peace deal in 2022. Government forces claimed 81 attacks over 24 hours, while Houthi fighters said they'd successfully use drones to strike an airport and an oil facility in Saudi Arabia. Sudan's humanitarian crisis is deepening, as more than 200,000. thousand people have been newly displaced across the Cordofan region due to intensifying attacks

between the Sudanese army and paramilitary, rapid support forces. Dron strikes have targeted critical water and power infrastructure in the city of Elobaid. Mass floods in North Darfur have also compounded the displacement crisis with torrential rains damaging hundreds of homes. In Tunisia, hundreds of protesters marched through the streets of the capital Tunis on Thursday, calling for the ouster of authoritarian president Kais Saeed, the release of jailed opposition activists and journalists, and the restoration of democracy.

The protests come as Tunisia faces deteriorating public services and affordability crisis, and a shortage of some basic supplies and medicines. Many of the protesters chanted, the people want the fall of the regime, a popular refrain during the Arab Spring uprising that ousted longtime dictator Zain al-Abiddin bin Ali in 2011. We have gone back to a state where people are afraid to speak to truth or to defend their rights.

We fear differences or opinion. We fear debates and discussions. Personally, I say we have returned to the same concepts that existed during bin Ali's regime. It's the exact same story. We've returned to the concept of people fearing the ruler, and we've gone back to many ideas that led absolutely nowhere. In Mali, a Russian-controlled paramilitary force faces accusations that had carried out the summary execution of nine civilians.

including four children during a raid on a village in the central region of Mopti in July. According to Human Rights Watch, about 100 fighters with the Russia-backed Africa Corps, accompanied by several Malian soldiers, broken to homes, dragged people out, and separated men and boys for beatings and interrogations. They've reportedly killed six civilians who tried to flee and detained and executed three others. Since 2021, Mali's military junta has relied on Russian mercenaries in its fight against Islamist armed groups. In the occupied West Bank, large groups of armed Israeli settlers stormed Palestinian homes in the town of Sa'err, northeast of Hebron earlier today,

killing a young Palestinian man and leaving a 70-year-old with serious gunshot wounds. Survivors say the settlers set fire to at least one home. Elsewhere, Israeli settlers set fire to a quarry in the south side Hebron Hills overnight, causing severe damage to excavators, bulldozers, and stone-cutting equipment. The United Nations reports attacks by Israeli settlers and Palestinians have reached an all-time high in 2026, with an average of more than six attacks per day as the Israeli government continues to approve new illegal settlements. After headlines, we'll go to the Palestinian village of Kusra to speak with Louis Reedy, a Palestinian American who flew to the occupied West Bank on Monday to help his relatives defend the family home,

which Israeli settlers have surrounded for more than a week. In California, progressive Democrat Aisha Wahab has won a special election to fill the congressional seat vacated by disgraced representative Eric Swalwell, who quit amid sexual misconduct claims. In 2018, Wahab became the first Afghan American elected to public office in the U.S. She'll now be the first Afghan American U.S. Congress member representing parts of the East San Francisco Bay until the new Congress begins in January. This is Aisha Wahhab speaking to supporters on election night. We saw a lot of negative ads distorting our record. Shame. Talking about us in a negative way that we're not good enough or we're not American enough.

And the fact that because I'm an Afghan American, because I'm a Muslim American, because I'm a woman of color, because I'm relatively young, that we don't belong. And the voters of this district spoke out. Aisha Wahab won with 53% of the vote against Democrat Melissa Hernandez. Polls it showed Wahab with a double-digit lead in early August before APAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, poured over $6 million into negative ads and mailers targeting her. Meanwhile, APAC and its super PACs channeled at least $3 million to Hernandez's campaign, according to Politico. They will face off again in November to decide who will represent the district. in the 120th Congress beginning in January.

In related news, FBI agents seized a cell phone and laptop from former Congress member Eric Swalwell after he was stopped at the San Francisco Airport Saturday. The following day, federal agents also searched Swalwell's home in Washington, D.C., as part of a civil rights investigation into allegations of sexual assault. Swalwell is also facing probes by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. CNN reports a... least four women who've accused Swalwell of serious sexual misconduct have been contacted by the FBI as part of that investigation. In more election news, Reuters reports a handful of billionaires

and companies are driving record levels of spending on congressional contests ahead of November's midterm elections, with crypto gambling and artificial intelligence firms fueling a flood of campaign cash. So far, U.S. corporations have spent over half a billion dollars on U.S. House and Senate races. That already exceeds the previous record of $461 million spent by corporations during the entire 2024 election cycle and does not include millions of dollars in additional contributions made by dark money groups that hide the identities of their donors. Meanwhile, President Trump is in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina today to support the campaign of Republican Senator Darlene Graham, who was appointed to fill the vacancy left by the sudden death of her brother, Lindsay

Graham in July. Darlene Graham faces Republican Congress member Ralph Norman in a special Senate runoff on Tuesday. Critics have called Graham dangerously unqualified after her poor performance at a debate earlier this week. Senator, are Taiwan and the South China Sea national security issues for the United States? If so, why? I'm sorry, could you repeat the question? Are Taiwan and the South China Sea national security issues for the United States and If so, why or how? I'm just going to be honest here. I'm not on national security.

I'm not that informed on national security. So I do support the military. Trump administration has deported 20 immigrants to Liberia as part of a new third country agreement that will help see the West African nation receive up to 1,200 immigrants with no ties to Liberia, removed from the United States. The first group arrived at the Robberia,

International Airport outside the capital Monrovia on Thursday. As part of the deal, the U.S. has reportedly agreed to extend visitor visas for Liberians from 12 to 36 months, according to the Guardian, and pledged some $124 million in assistance. Immigrants deported to Liberia will include people from Latin America and the Caribbean. In related news, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports ISIS seeking to deport an Iranian woman to the Central African Republic, a country to which she has no ties, and which the State Department has deemed too unsafe for travel. She's currently detained at the Stuart Ice Jail in Georgia. Meanwhile, in Texas, a minor league catching coordinator for the San Diego Padres was detained by

ICE at an El Paso airport as he attempted to travel Brack home to Arizona. Oswaldo Pirella is originally from Venezuela and has a pending asylum claim and valid work authorization. Pirella lives in Phoenix with his wife and two U.S. born daughters. He previously played for the Texas Rangers minor league team. His brother, Jorge Pirella, wrote on social media, quote, The people who have worked and lived alongside him can speak to his character, his work ethic, and the positive impact he's had on those around him. The Department of Homeland Security is defending harassment tactics deployed against people who've criticized the agency's deadly crackdown in immigrants. That's the claim at the center of a First Amendment lawsuit filed by David

Strever, a U.S. citizen who was on a trip to Finland, when two ICE agents showed up at his home in Rochester, New York in June. The agents reportedly presented his wife with a warning notice due to an email Strever had sent months earlier to former ICE acting director Todd Lyons, comparing him to a Nazi and calling him, quote, in monstrous human being. And the New York Times is reporting that the owner of a major Dominican sugar producer accused of forced labor at one of his plantations has closed ties to President Trump. Central Romana's owner, Jose Fanhul, a Cuban-American businessman known as Pepe donated to Trump's 2024 campaign and his White House ballroom. Just weeks after Trump returned to the office, the Trump administration lifted a measure that

had prevented the company from shipping its product to the U.S. On Tuesday, the corporate accountability lab at independent nonprofit issued a report finding the company is still responsible for abusive conditions. The report found many of the plantation's workers are of Haitian descent. They face poverty wages, excess overtime, and intimidation. and threats from management. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org,

The War and Peace Report. I'm Anjali Khameth, Amy Goodman, will be back next week. Coming up, Israel has admitted for the first time that its soldiers fired into the car where five-year-old Palestinian Hindrajab and her six family members were killed in Gaza in January 2024. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Anjali Khammet.

On Wednesday, Israel's military admitted for the first time that its soldiers opened fire in a car carrying five-year-old Palestinian Hindrajab, along with her aunt, uncle, and five of their children, as well as Palestine Red Crescent Society medics dispatched to rescue them. Israel's army fired more than 300 bullets in the attack in January 2020. In Gaza City, Hind Rajab's grandmother responded to the announcement. We as Hind Rajab's family do not trust the judiciary of the state of Israel. We hope that justice will be delivered from the entire world. We appeal to the international justice system as a whole. The Israeli military said it would also investigate the killing of 15 Palestinian paramedics whose bodies and crushed emergency vehicles were recovered from a mass grave in Rafa in March 2025.

This is Gada al-Attar, the widow of Anwar al-Attar, one of the 15 medics. She spoke while holding the couple's young daughter. The truth will not come, and the wound will keep bleeding. The pain is still the same. The loss grows day by day. Every time this girl gets older and asks me where her father is, and I can't answer her, the wound grows deeper. He was the pillar and support of the family.

He's gone. The investigation won't achieve anything. Israel said it would not investigate three other attacks on Gaza that killed eight workers from World Central Kitchen and Doctors Without Borders. And Israel made no mention of thousands of other incidents where Palestinian civilians were killed by Israeli forces. For more, we go to Los Angeles, where we're joined by Sharif Abdul-Kudus,

award-winning journalist in the Middle East North Africa editor at DropSight News. He was correspondent on the fault lines documentary The Night Won't End on Al Jazeera English that investigated the killings of civilians in Gaza by the Israeli military. Sharif, welcome back to democracy now. Can you talk about why these investigations have been announced, why these two particular cases, and why now? Well, so firstly, these were five incidents out of apparently 150 that were reviewed by the Israeli military. I think it's not a coincidence that all five of events.

these were among the most widely covered incidents of the war. They were documented in real time, and they were very prominent cases, mostly massacres. We don't know what happened to the other 145 incidents that they apparently reviewed. Now, the two incidents that you mentioned that are being referred to military police for criminal investigations, you know, this seems to be nothing more than political theater, to be honest. As numerous Palestinian and international human rights groups, have documented for years, Israel's internal investigations into the criminal conduct of its own soldiers are fundamentally flawed, and they can't be regarded as credible mechanisms for accountability, and they instead function primarily to shield Israel from international tribunals or prosecution abroad,

rather than delivering any kind of justice. The Israeli human rights group, Betzelam, has called these investigations a sham. It's called them, quote, a legal iron dome to protect Israeli soldiers from international accountability. And let's remember that since the genocide began, Israel claims to have referred over a thousand incidents involving its soldiers to its fact-finding assessment mechanism. And, you know, it says it's opened dozens of criminal investigations. There is no comprehensive public accounting of the status or outcome of these investigations. There was a review by the NGO action on armed violence of over 50 reported

Israeli military probes. It found that 88% had been either closed or that a finding of wrongdoing had been closed without a finding of wrongdoing and they remained under review. Only one of them resulted in a present sentence. So, you know, I think this is a lot more political theater and maybe becoming, as Israel is coming under increasing international scrutiny, international criticism, for the genocide in Gaza. And finally, I'll just say, it doesn't matter what Israel says or what its investigation concludes in these two incidents. The responsibility for the murder of Hind Rejab and her family was well-established long ago through multiple in-depth investigations by the media, by human rights groups, and the evidence is overwhelming.

We know that an Israeli tank fired at least 335 rounds at a civilian car at Hinderajab, a five-year-old and six members of her family from a range of just 13 to 23 meters away. The Red Crescent, which had Hind on the phone for close to three hours, was waiting for approval to try and go rescue her, and finally they'd go. get approval from the Israeli military. The Israeli military issues an approved route with a map to emergency workers with the Red Crescent, go in an ambulance along that route.

When they reach the destination, Israel fires a tank shell at them. It's a direct hit and kills both of them and destroys the ambulance. Then the Israeli military continuously lied afterwards. It repeatedly denied it had any tanks operating in the area, even though there's clear satellite images that show multiple tanks in the area on that day.

even though we hear a recording of Hinn's cousin Lé-en, 15-year-old Lé-N, saying there's a tank right next to her right before she starts screaming as a hail of bullets from the tank murders her. And then we have five-year-old Hind hours of recordings of her saying also that there's a tank right next to her before her voice eventually fades away and she dies. So we don't need to wait for an Israeli investigation to know what happened here. Sheree, if you've set that up so movingly, I want to turn to an ex-examination. excerpt of your Al Jazeera English documentary, The Night Won't End,

which takes an in-depth look at these attacks on civilians by the Israeli military in Gaza, including on Hind Rajab and her family. Let's go to a clip. Eventually, relatives were able to reach the Red Crescent in Ramallah to see if their team in Gaza could send an ambulance. We received an appeal that the car had been targeted in Ferris gas station in Gaza City. When Amur called, It was Leyen who picked up. Hello, dear.

They are shooting at us. Hello. They are shooting at us. The tank is next to me. Are you hiding? Yes, in the car. The tank is next to us. Are you inside the car?

Hello? Hello? A girl dies while she's on the phone with you. I disassociated. I reached a stage where I was just meant. caught off. I'm trained for situations like this, but when it involves a child, your emotions get all mixed up.

After calling back the same number that Lyonan answered, the voice sounded different this time. So I asked her, the girl that was speaking with me, I was speaking with me. Where is she? She told me. She's dead. Who am I speaking with now? Hind?

You're going to be, where are you in the caravan? You're in a carousie? Ah, so you're in the carousie. Mait be me by me by me. After a few minutes, Omar asked other colleagues to help and speak with Hind.

The tank is next to me. The tank is where. Where? Next to me. The tank is next to you? Yes. Is it moving or still? Did anyone come out of it? It's moving. It's moving?

Okay. Is it moving next to the car? Behind the car or in front of the car? In front of the car. The tank is coming towards you from the front of the car? Yes. Is it close? Very, very. And it's moving?

Yes. Come get me. As the Red Crescent dispatcher spoke with Hind, colleagues were trying to get an ambulance to her, something that would require coordination with and approval by Israeli authorities. Usually, ambulances in the whole world, once they got the call, they directly dispatched the ambulances and sent to save people's life.

Unfortunately, this is not the case in Gaza. Come get me. Any area that there is Israeli occupation forces, Israel considered as it is a military zone. That means even if there is wounded people, people who are killed and need to be evacuated, we are completely denied access to these areas. and if any ambulance to try to reach, it will be targeted. That's why, in order to be

able to save hand, we had to coordinate our safe access. That last voice was Nebel Farsak, the spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent, explaining how emergency medical teams in Gaza need to get clearance from Israeli authorities before going in to rescue

Hind. They eventually do get clearance. Let's turn back to the documentary the night won't end to see what happened next. Finally, Nearly three hours after requesting clearance, the Red Crescent says Israeli officials gave the approval for the ambulance to go to the scene and provided this map with an approved route. We had to wait almost three hours until the green light was given.

So they sent a map with a road, which means it identifies exactly which route the ambulance should take. And once we received the green light, ambulance was dispatched. Oh, the two paramed from Amur. The two paramedics who started driving to the scene were Ahmed al-Madrude and Yusuf Zeno.

By the time they left, the sun had said, Can you see the car? I can't see a thing here. have your siren and flashing lights on. Just the lights, not the siren. Oh, there it is. The connection to the ambulance was lost right after that loud noise. To ask her, did you hear a bomb now?

Did you hear anything around you? And she said, yes, yes, I heard it. Her yes means our colleagues who went to, rescue her had died. That clip from the award-winning documentary, The Night Won't End. Sharif, as you said, so much about this case is very well known. Hindrajab is one of the most visible victims of the genocide in Gaza. There's even a feature, there's even a film made about her, the voice of Hindrajab.

Why now, what is so significant about, what is new about this new investigation and how much does it have to do with the international? criminal court's investigation. I mean, it's unclear why now. I think it's because Israel is coming under more international scrutiny. There's more criticism of the genocide. There is more political pushback from its backers in the United States and Europe, or from some corridors of power within those countries.

And also, when a state says that it's investigating itself, this shields it from international law accountability if those investigations are found to be credible. So it may just be a push around that. And again, as you mentioned, these are, you know, the Red Crescent massacre, the aid worker massacre, and Hindrajaab are among the two most high-profile incidents. And I think we should talk about, you know, the massacre of the aid workers, the other case that they're looking at. This was 15 Palestinian aid workers from the Red Crescent, from civil defense, that were massacred in, in Rofah in March of 2025. And their bodies were buried in a mass grave. The ambulances and the fire truck and the vehicles that they arrived into the scene were flattened

and buried alongside them. And in the aftermath of this, the Israeli military again lied about it and was forced to change its story several times following the discovery of the bodies and the vehicles in this mass grave and the emergence of video and audio recordings taken from the bodies of the dead aid workers from their phones. The group forensic architecture and earshot did an incredible report around this just a few months ago using video and audio recordings about the incident and open source material as well as satellite imagery and interviews with two of the survivors. And they reconstructed what happened. And essentially what happened is.

was an ambulance went to a scene. They were fired on, and then a five-vehicle convoy of ambulances and a fire truck, and the rest of the aid workers went to go and try and find them and rescue them. And Israeli soldiers, over the course of a couple of hours, fired nearly a thousand bullets, a thousand bullets at these aid workers. And the findings showed that they were slowly approaching the vehicles on foot, the Israeli soldiers, walking while they were shooting,

until they were as close as one meter away and essentially executing these aid workers in cold blood from point-blank range essentially. Then, as I mentioned, the Israeli military lied about it. They claimed initially that the vehicles advanced, quote, suspiciously towards the troops without their headlights on or without their emergency signals on.

Then the video emerges, first published by the New York Times, showing the vehicles with their lights on. So they backtrack. They admitted that their soldiers from the Golani Brigade did fire on these aid workers, but they said that they had approached suspiciously and that they blamed it on poor night vision or something, that they couldn't really see them. And then they doubled down and said that six of the 15 aid workers were found to be Hamas terrorists. Just kind of ridiculous statements.

And then it said, you know, it buried them in a mass grave to prevent harm and clear the vehicles to prepare for civilian evacuation. I mean, I don't know how people are supposed to take this seriously. And as you mentioned, again, these are just two of the most high-profile incidents. Out of countless war crimes in Gaza, we're talking about over 20,000 children killed. We're talking about starving Palestinians being gunned down as they're searching for food. Of an unprecedented number of journalists killed over 270, many of them openly assassinated. We're talking about displaced families being bombed in their tents.

of hospitals, nearly every hospital being attacked, of mass graves being found in the courtyards of the hospitals afterwards, of the torture of prisoners, of sexual assault. I mean, we could go on and on. So I don't think that these investigations that were announced are anything more than political theater, and I don't think anyone's really taking them seriously. Shreif, last week was the one-year anniversary of the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Anna Sashirif, along with five of his colleagues and a collective of media workers called The Writers Against the war in Gaza, have launched an online memorial to Anasin over 250 journalists who have been killed. It's called The Living Record and includes testimonies from Palestinian journalists in Gaza,

remembering their slain colleagues and friends. As we talk about accountability and the possibility of it within Israel for Israel's crimes in Gaza, your final thoughts on, you know, what is going on in terms of investigating the deaths of journalists in Gaza? I mean, very little is going on. What we're seeing, and as was it the case of Enessa Shedif, one of the, the most prominent journalists to be openly assassinated, is that Israel keeps killing them in actually a more brazen way. Israel has reached the point where it is preemptively targeting journalists.

So it put Anas Shadiq, for example, who was murdered on August 10th of last year, in a media tent along with five of his colleagues outside of Shifa Hospital. It put Enhasa Shadif on a hit list in October of 2024, along with five other journalists from Al Jazeera, including our colleague at DropSight News, Hossam Shabbat. and it said that these are not terrorists, these are terrorists, these are militants, and we're going to kill them. And it has killed two of them.

And after it killed them, it bragged about it. It bragged about killing this prominent journalist and said that this wasn't a journalist. It said, don't let the press vest fool you. It did the same with Hossem Shabbat. It just killed during a so-called ceasefire. Two brothers working for Al Jazeera at different times. One, a correspondent, one the cameraman. killed them both, called them both Hamas terrorists.

So it is not, there's not even a semblance of an investigation. There is open bragging about the killing of these journalists. And let me just say that tribute site that was put together by writers against the war in Gaza is very moving. I would encourage many people to go to it. You can click, I think there's over 50 now journalists who are profiled there. And you can listen to their colleagues, their mentors, their family members, members talk about them and discuss who they were and talk about their importance and what they

meant to them. And so it's a very fitting tribute to these journalists in Gaza, Palestinian journalists, who have performed the most heroic act of journalism in our lifetime and should be remembered for their bravery. Sharif Abdul-Qadduz is an award-winning journalist in the Middle East North Africa editor at DropSight News. Sharif, please stay with us. Coming up, we'll look at how. Israeli settlers are laying siege to the village of Kusra in the occupied West Bank. the hafiz, and no faheim, jah, man,

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Tama, Greed by the for the Pallas for performing in our Democracy Now studio. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Anjali Kammat. We turn now to the occupied West Bank, where Israeli settlers are continuing to lay siege

on homes in the village of Kusra, south of Nabilus. The siege has attracted international attention in part because one of the homes is owned by a Palestinian American. The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Hockaby, surprised many when he recently described the siege as a, quote, horrific act of terror being committed by, quote, Israeli terrorists. Louis Reedy, who lives in Ohio, spoke to Reuters before he flew from the United States to the West Bank to protect his home there. I have a lot of emotion in Kusra. I was born and raised in Kusra. My mother, 83 years old, is still in Kussela, my sisters, my brothers, my nieces, my nephews, my cousins, my friends. Shortly after Louis Ridi landed at Ben-Gurian Airport in Israel, he received a video showing Israeli soldiers,

shaking the hands of the Israeli settlers laying siege to his home. My brother said me this video. That's terrifying. That's just happened like an hour ago. And they need the soldier. They're shaking hand with the soldiers. That's just happening today. I'm going to stay in this house tonight. So I'm terrified. I'm asking the U.S. official, the embassy, to provide me protection. And you'll move the settlers permanently from our village and my area. Then after Louis Reedy arrived back in the village of Kusra and reunited with his brother and other relatives, he raised an American flag on the roof of his home. I came here to be present with him. I left my luxury home in America. I left my luxury vehicles in America. I left my wife, my two daughters. I left my business and decided to be here at my home to protect.

it from the settlers to steal it and raising the American flag to send the message to the American embassy and the U.S. officials that I am currently under siege and I need a protection. Despite Louis Ridi's return, settlers have continued to confront the family. In this video, a settler is seen approaching and harassing Ridi on his own property. You are a terrorist. Sucker. You know that? You are a terrorist sucker. You are a terrorist sucker. It's garbage. You know what that means?

You stink. Move. Move. Don't touch me. Don't touch me. Terrorist. You are a terrorist. We go now to Kusra, where we're joined by Louis Reedy. Welcome to Democracy Now, Louis. Thank you so much for joining us. How are you doing right now? Describe the scene, do you still have settlers coming into your property? Thank you for having me. Yes, this is my fourth day here in Kusra in my house that is still under siege by the IDF and the settlers. The settlers still manage every day to pass by my house and the IDF present and not doing anything to them.

They're not arresting them whatsoever. Your reaction, Louis, to the comments by U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, describing the settlers as, quote, Israeli terrorists. Well, again, I appreciate Mike Hacopi condemned it, called them terrorists. and I've been in contact with the embassy that nothing has been done on the ground and actually I asked the U.S. embassy to send me a team

to see themselves what's going on here in my own house so themselves can see what's going on. And what kind of protection have you gotten? I'm not getting no protection here. I'm still feeling. for my life. I still feel for my family's life here. The IDF, not even making it better here. They're not allowing us to leave the house. They're not allowing anyone to come to my house freely. If we need to bring food, we have to do coordination through the mayor of Osran, and he has to call the

Palestinian Authority, and they have to call the Israeli Authority. It takes hours. if not days. Louis, this area of Kusra has been under siege for months and your home specifically for at least a week, if not longer. And you've had, when you reach out to the U.S. embassy, I mean, you have the ambassador to Israel speaking out about this. What are they seeing in response when you reach out for help? You have an American flag on your home.

That's right. This house has been under attack by Israeli settlers since January this year. It's been under siege for 13 days. We have the U.S. member Congress, local office. I have reached multiple times at the U.S. Embassy that I need help. Yes, I raise the Amher. American flag sent my message to the American people to the government, the United States, that there is an American under siege by the Israeli settlers.

It's help. I want to bring into the conversation, Oran Zeev in Tel Aviv. He's a reporter and photographer for Plus 972 magazine and the independent Israeli local news site, Local Call. His most recent article is headlined Kusra is where Israel's lies about settler violence hit a wall. Welcome to Democracy Now. Can you talk about what are these lies? What did you see in Kusra? Yeah, thank you for having me. I've been to Kusra twice in the recent week. First, a week ago on Friday, where for a group of activists tried to march to Ridi's house to bring food and water and medicine and were blocked by the Israeli Army and Border Police, the same army and police who allow for months the set. to attack, to murder there, to injured, Israeli human rights activists were severely injured there

a few months ago. Houses were attacked and vandalized Amir Ode, a young Palestinian, was shot there during the war against Iran. And this is all happening, of course, with the active support of the army and the police. So the first time I was there on Friday, and we were blocked as journalists, also the activists that were coming, bringing the food. And the police and the army just let the activists leave the food near. a few meters from the house and later

MK, a parliament member of Kasif managed to bring it in. The second time I actually managed to go in after waiting for a long time outside and talking to the army. And what I could see is the same reality that Lai is describing.

Despite all the international attention, the media attention, the American speaking about it, the Israeli army and authorities are doing barely nothing to control the situation. The house is still under siege. Settlers are roaming around. And you know, myself

and the journalist and many people are asking, does the army... Does the army... Does the army doesn't want to do anything or under the political current situation? Israel, they can't do anything. They don't control the situation in the West Bank. And, you know, and I think it's a hard question,

but either way, the situation on the ground is that the house is under siege. You know, the army cannot deal with this 20, 30, 40 settlers that are acting violently attacking this property and others. And I think this is happening because of the, of course, the support from the Israeli extreme government, but because of the perception that any settler, 10 years old, 15 years old, can do anything that he wants in the West Bank, putting an outpost, putting a siege, killing, attacking,

going to all these tours or trips and harassing Palestinians, and soldiers are just not, they don't think about the option to put a limit to that. And even though that the chief of staff talk about it and the commander of the West Bank, and I think this story gained a lot of attention

because it shows the current situation of the Israeli army that they cannot deal with five or ten settlers, but this kind of perceptions that settlers can do whatever they want and the army just have to support it is very, very strong. And, Oran, can you talk about this argument that, you know, Libby Netanyahu is making, also to some extent Mike Huckabee,

U.S. ambassador to Israel, that there's some sort of distinction between the settlers here. I believe Mike Hacobie called them unsettlers and the vast majority of other settlers. And there also seems to be a distinction, you know, so sort of good settlers and bad settlers. Exactly. This is something Netanyahu, so Netanyahu doesn't give. give interviews to local media talks in American media. And when he's asked about this, he always said, this is a group of troubled youth. You know, sometimes he say 70, 150.

But it's very, very clear. They can act like this because of the active support from the Israeli government that gives them weapon, give them ATVs, like the ones they raid, Ridi's house in Kusra and other houses. Because of Smotich and Bangvir, the establishment of more and more outputs that are, kind of front bases for this terror attacks. And they could not stay one day without the active support of the police that is completely

controlled by Benville, by the army that is controlled by the settlers and by the extreme government. We did a story a few months ago about how the settlers, after, since October 7th, they managed to ethnically cleanse dozens of Palestinian communities in area C, mostly farming and herding communities, they just moved on and they say to only to area, they say to area A, to area B of the West Bank, caging houses, villages and town

and taking over them. And according to our investigation, a few months ago, they already took over tens of thousands of acres inside area B and A that according to the also according, even according to official Israel, are under Palestinian control. So all this is happening

with like this example. it's happening in 100 other locations in the West Bank. The thing is here, because even next to Aburiri's house in Jalud, the same tactic from the same violent outpost happened a month ago that the Tubasi family was forced out. And the only difference here is that this brave family managed to slow down the process a bit with their decision not to leave, even with they had barely no food and water, with the violent tax.

the fact they're under siege, they insisted to stay. He came from the U.S. and managed to get media attention, including mainstream media, even local mainstream media. And I just want to go back to Louis Reedy, Palestinian-American, whose home in Kusra is under siege by settlers. Louis, why did you return from Ohio to your home in Kusra? Well, I've been watching all the attacks on my house, on my brother and his son. life on my security cameras. I couldn't sleep anymore.

I have to stay up all night. And the situation reached into a dangerous way when they completely blocked him off from food on August 9th. And I was talking to my brother and I told him, you know, I'm going to come. and I will do whatever it takes to provide you food and supplies and the siege and trying to protect you. Louis Reedy, thank you for joining us. We will continue to follow the settler siege on your home in Kusra.

Thank you also to Orrin Zeev of 972 magazine. We will link to your new piece. Kusra is where Israel's lies about settler violence hit a wall. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Anjali Khamit. We turn now to new revelations from a former Justice Department attorney who's filed a whistleblower complaint, claiming that the Trump administration task force charged with investigating anti-Semitism, pushed universities into massive settlements despite turning up little to no evidence of anti-Semitism on campus.

Haley Van Aram, a former career attorney in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, said in her complaint that the government's probes into schools like Harvard, Brown, and Columbia, were, quote, an unlawful process designed to achieve predetermined political goals. Brown University settled for $50 million. Columbia settled for $200 million. Harvard refused to settle and a judge threw out a case against the university. Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, has launched a probe into the whistleblower allegations.

He wrote in a statement, quote, It has been apparent that its investigations have been structured deliberately to harass and intimidate, rather than protect anyone from discrimination. For more, we're joined by Marianne Hirsch, Professor Emerita at Columbia University, whose work has focused on the transmission of memories of violence across generations. She joins us from Norwich, Vermont.

Welcome to Democracy Now. Professor Hirsch, your reaction to these revelations from this whistleblower. Well, thank you so much for having me. Well, it's what we've been saying all along. So I'm so grateful for this whistleblower report. We are also grateful because it restores a sense of reality and a sense of truth and trust in human decency and injustice to expose what we've known all along that these were not probes into anti-Semitism accusations, but they were efforts to dismantle higher education brick by brick. So it couldn't have come at a better time at the beginning of a new school year when, as you've just reported in your last two segments, the genocide in Gaza, the expropriations in the West Bank are going on.

And this is what our students have been protesting over since 2023. And these protests have been squashed. They've been silenced. pro-Palestinian voices have been silenced, all under the guise of protecting Jews. And then with the establishment of the anti-Semitism task force by the federal government, they've been used as a ruse and as a pretext to enact major funding cuts. They've also encouraged our universities to settle, to concede some of these accusations, to concede that they haven't done enough to combat.

anti-Semitism, when that is absolutely untrue. I don't know how they could have done more than they've already done, certainly at Columbia. And I feel that certainly at Columbia, which is the university I know best, Columbia affiliates from the Board of Trustees down have actually collaborated with the federal government in these sham investigations. So, Professor Hirsch, what happens next? Will these universities get their money back? Well, I think that by the time the settlements were reached, the anti-Semitism accusation was no longer the major one. As far as I know, a lot of other infringements were found in order to extract the money from our universities. In fact, some of the research funding was returned, but in exchange for at Columbia the $200 million settlement,

and then a $21 million fund to compensate Colombia affiliates who claim that they've suffered anti-Semitism on campus. But Colombia, when it settled, did not admit wrongdoing. So I don't know where that leaves the $200 million settlement. On the other hand, they did not need to admit wrongdoing because they had a lot. already done so. I think they laid the stage for this sham investigation from the fall of 2023 on in multiple ways. And Professor Harsh, can you describe the impact of these investigations and this kind of climate of fear that it's created on campus and the repression that students like Mahmoud Khalil have felt? You know, professors have been forced out at different universities.

Talk about what you've experienced at Colombia. Well, I think Colombia is just a shell of what it was before all this started. I think there's tremendous fear and suspicion that across the campus. I think there's certain topics that cannot be discussed, and this is an academic community, where academic freedom is the, of which academic freedom is the cornerstone,

we no longer have that. People are afraid to discuss certain topics in class for fear of being reported, on by students, by fellow faculty members, and that's happened. There have been very similar kinds of sham investigations by the Office of Institutional Equity at Columbia against faculty, who've been reported on by students for anti-Semitic infringement for infringements of Title VI. So, I mean, I think there's an atmosphere of unfridom and of silencing. At the same time, there have been much more dire consequences, which is that some of our students have been named and arrested and slated for

deportation in ways that I think the tactics that have been used for this are very much aligned between the university and the Trump administration. For example, if you will allow me one example. The Gerald Rosberg, who was the senior executive vice president of Columbia at the time, when two student groups, pro-Palestinian student groups, were suspended in the fall of 2023, he said they had engaged in threatening rhetoric and intimidation of pro-Israeli bystanders. That was the reason that was used.

Now, that was exactly the same phrase that was used against our student, Mosin Madawi, who was arrested and slated for. deportation used by Marco Rubio to say that he was a threat to U.S. foreign policy. These alignments are extremely troubling, and I think there's a lot more that we need to find out about how the revelations of the whistleblowers aligned with what happened at Columbia itself, with Colombia's own anti-Semitism task force, which just recently issued its fourth report with equally unfounded. non-evidentiary findings that were predetermined just as the ones for the Justice Department.

Now, when that happens inside the university as well as outside, where is the trust that makes education? What it's supposed to be, a system of free inquiry, an atmosphere of trust, where we can meet with each other and discuss some of the burning issues of our moment. There is, you know, it's very, very difficult to find a space at American universities and at Columbia to discuss what's going on in Gaza and the West Bank, according to your last two segments. And there are pockets in the university where we find these spaces, but it's very difficult to do so openly without setting ourselves up for major harassment and then also the Trump administration's threats. Mary Ann Hirsch, Professor Emerita at Columbia University, thank you very much.

Part of the $200 million settlement with Colombia included a $21 million fund, and you have, along with other Jewish faculty members, filed claims to say that your support for Palestinian rights was part of the anti-Semitism. And that does it for today's show. Happy birthday, Kuros Ismaili. Amy Goodman will be back hosting next week.

She'll also be speaking at Middlebury College in Vermont on August 28th. Visit DemocracyNow.org for more information. I'm Anjali Kometh. Thank you for joining us.