Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-09-16 Wednesday

Episode Date: September 16, 2026

Democracy Now! Wednesday, September 16, 2026

From New York, this is Democracy Now. We discovered that Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding was secretly funded by a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin. This oligarch rented out a private island in the Bahamas for it for multiple nights. It was really an ultra-luxury affair. We're talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars and expenses all in secret. A bombshell report by ProPublica about a Russian oligarch bankrolling Donald Trump Jr.'s, wedding has sparked calls for federal investigations. We'll speak to the reporter, Joshua Kaplan. Then the Elimination Project, the Israeli Human Rights Group at Selim, has accused Israel of

dramatically escalating its assault on all aspects of Palestinian life in the occupied West Bank. These are all parts of a system with one aim to ensure Jewish supremacy and eliminate the Palestinian collective. Then to Iran. As Amnesty International reiterates its call for a ceasefire in the U.S. Iran war, amnesty has accused Iranian authorities of committing crimes against humanity during their bloody suppression of the 2022 woman life freedom uprising. The evidence leaves no doubt the Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity. In Iran, those responsible remain in power while survivors and families, seeking justice are persecuted.

The Iran protests began after 22-year-old Masa Amini died in the custody of Iran's morality police four years ago today. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the war on peace report. I'm Amy Goodman. The U.S. House of Representatives voted to end the war in Iran for a third time with seven Republicans backing the resolution. This comes as the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the U.S. Israeli war on Iran has cost the Pentagon $38.1 billion from the outbreak of the war in

February through August 1st. That's an average of $246 million per day over five months. The CBO reports the war could cost another two to three to three. $3 billion for each additional month of fighting. The CBO also warned the war has used up as much as two-thirds of the U.S. missile defense interceptors since June 2025. It would take at least five years to replace these interceptors. The CBO also expects the war to add half a percentage point to annual inflation by the first quarter of next year. Meanwhile, a separate report by the Pentagon's inspector general details how Iranian strikes have damaged. destroyed hundreds of buildings and other structures at U.S. military bases across the Middle East

causing about $184 million worth of damage. New photos obtained by CBS News reveal heavy damage of buildings and vehicles at multiple U.S. positions across the Middle East from Iranian missile and drone strikes. The images were sent anonymously to CBS News by active service members, One deployed service member told CBS News, quote, this is major damage to our bases that hasn't been communicated to the American public. We're standing there with our eyes closed, getting punched in the face, unquote. Saudi Arabia says it destroyed a Houthi drone south of Mecca before it entered prohibited airspace.

Houthi officials deny targeting Mecca. It comes as the Houthis claimed responsibility for using dozens of ballistic missiles and drones against a Saudi Arabian. in the south of the country on Monday. Air raid sirens were activated in six governorates, including Jeddah on Tuesday. In addition to long-range missiles and drones, there's now growing evidence that the Houthis are using artificial intelligence to attack shipping traffic in the Red Sea. The Houthis declared a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia back in July and captured the port city of Mocha last week, as well as islands near Babamandab Strait. The Houthis claim they're retaliating

against Saudi strikes on Yemen. The UN warns of a humanitarian crisis with a hundred thousand Yemenis already displaced. This is a Yemeni woman who is forced to flee her home. We fled from the war and took nothing with us. We didn't

even bring the children's clothes. We have no flower and no clothes for the children. We came to Aden and arrived today. After three days of walking, we made it today. The children are hungry. We have no food and it's been three days. They are hungry. Republican Congress member Thomas Massey of Kentucky introduced articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Tuesday, accusing him of illegally starting and continuing

the Iran war, defying Congress and causing needless civilian casualties. The House will have to act on Massey's proposal by tomorrow. This is Congress member Massey on the floor of the House. Wherefore, Secretary of Defense, Peter Hegeseth, by such conduct, has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to the Constitution if allowed to remain in office and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with his duties and the rule of law. Peter Bryan Hegeseth thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.

The Trump administration acknowledged for the first time the U.S. Space Force has deployed weapons in orbit. China warned against an arms race in space with a foreign ministry spokesperson saying, quote, we urge the U.S. side to stop expanding its military capabilities and preparing for war in outer space, unquote. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitri Peskov, urged, quote, that space must be free of any weapon, unquote. The Trump administration approved a $2.8 billion package selling 2,000 pound bombs to Israel. The sale includes 40,000 bombs made up of 20,000 MK84s and 20,000 BLU 117s. The sales funded by foreign military financing, a program in which the U.S. gives Israel taxpayer money that Israel then spends on U.S. made weapons. Human rights groups and governments around the world have condemned Israel for dropping the 2,000-pound bombs in densely populated civilian areas in Gaza.

In Gaza, a building housing 100 people suddenly collapsed this morning, killing at least 20 people, including women and children. The building was reportedly unstable due to damage from Israeli strikes. Dozens more are trapped in the rubble as the death tolls expected to rise. This comes as Israeli air strikes killed at least five Palestinians. including two children and a Hamas armed commander on Tuesday, according to Palestinian health officials. This is the brother of a Palestinian man who was killed in an Israeli airstrike. The killing, arrogance and brutality against children and innocent people is still ongoing. This enemy, which has no regard for humanity, international conscience, children or women, continues killing.

We are here appealing to the entire world. we appeal to the United States, the sponsor, and we appeal to the mediators. We hold them responsible for this happening to the Palestinian people. Meanwhile, the United Nations sounding the alarm about possible war crimes committed by Israel as hundreds of bodies have been recovered from the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli strikes in Gaza. According to the UN, the remains of entire families, many of them children are being unearthed from sites. This is the head of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner, for human rights in Palestine.

It is estimated that at least 8,000 bodies remain buried under the rubble across the Gaza Strip. Palestinian civil defense teams have recovered over 800 bodies since the announcement of a ceasefire in October 2025, despite severe shortages of equipment, fuel, and personnel. At this space, completing the recovery of the remaining bodies will take at least 10 more years, even longer when accounting for the time needed to identify bodies, if ever possible. Vermont's independent Senator Bernie Sanders and former Trump advisor and far-right strategist, Steve Bannon, shared the stage at a conference dubbed the Pro-Human Assembly in Washington. D.C. Tuesday, denouncing tech oligarchs and calling for AI regulations. This is Senator Sanders.

Despite living in a so-called democracy, the public has had virtually no input into the AI revolution that is transforming the world in which they live. Congress, under both Democratic and Republican control, have been asleep at the wheel, and we now have a president whose ignorance regarding this issue is truly embarrassing. In related news in New Jersey, cleanup is underway after some 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled from a storage tank at the Equinix data center in Succaucus and flowed into a creek near the Hackensack River. This comes as activists continue to warn of the catastrophic environmental impacts.

of unregulated AI data centers nationwide. Trump's board of trustees voted Tuesday to immediately close the John F. Kennedy Center for the performing arts, citing dire financial shortages and the need for renovations. The decision came just hours after a federal judge again blocked the board's latest effort to inscribe President Trump's name into the building's marble edifice without approval from Congress. Just after the ruling, President Trump called into the Kennedy Center's board of trustees meeting and yelled at Democratic Congress member Joyce Beatty, who serves as a trustee. Bady is an Ohio Democrat who spearheaded the campaign to block efforts to memorialize Trump at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts. Trump reportedly referred to Bady as incompetent to which she responded, quote,

You're holding up the whole country, unquote. An unnamed board member described Trump's phone call as, quote, effing crazy to CNN. Just a few days ago, the Trump-aligned board had claimed the Kennedy Center was on the brink of bankruptcy and fiscal collapse. And last month, Justice Department lawyers suggested the Trump administration could demolish the Kennedy Center unless the government is allowed to follow through with its plans for the site. A review by Bloomberg of President Trump's financial disclosures finds he made nearly 28,700 stock trades in 17 months more than all of Congress combined. This comes despite President Trump's backing of a House bill that would ban Congress members, their spouses and dependent children from trading individual stocks. The bill, sponsored by Republican Congress member Anna Paulina Luna, would exempt the president. In a Senate hearing Tuesday, FBI director Cash Patel suggested he might be willing to send federal agents to polling places during the midterm elections.

He made the omission during a contentious exchange with Vermont's Democratic Senator Peter Welch. I thought you weren't going to be sending people to the polls. When did you hear that? It's just another lie. When you answered Mr. Blumenthal? Nope. So you are sending, you are sending, yes, to the polls. crisis coordinators manned at all 56 field offices.

Election integrity is of paramount importance. This FBI is not going to shy away from that effort. In Pennsylvania, health officials have reported a fourth measles' death. All four deaths have occurred just in the last month. 2026 is now on record as the deadliest year for measles in the U.S. since the virus was declared eliminated in 2000. Pennsylvania had not had a measles-related death in at least 35 years. The deaths include an 18-year-old teenager and a 40-year-old woman,

both whom were unvaccinated, as well as a six-week-old baby and a newborn who died shortly after birth. And singer-songwriter Ed Shearin is facing growing backlash after removing Grammy-winning musician McElmore from Sharon's U.S. tour. Shearine caved into demands to drop McElmore after New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft organized a boycott among stadium owners over the rapper's advocacy for Palestine. Kraft reportedly told Shearin the tour would be canceled unless McElmore was dropped.

Hours after Sharon said he would not publicly speak up over Israel's war on Gaza, four of his supporting musical acts announced they're leaving the tour. Among them, Phineas, the brother of pop star, Billy Elish, who said on Instagram, quote, artists must not be silence when they speak up for the oppressed. I stand with Palestine and its people, unquote. The Irish folk band, Bayoga, Sharon's backing band, an Irish musician Aaron Rowe, dropped out as well. Roe said in a social media post, quote,

as Irish people, we know all too well about genocide, forced famine, and violent occupation. I cannot stand by and allow billionaires to use their position of power to silence the rightful voices of those who speak up against Israeli genocide and who highlight the savage murder of children, unquote. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. And I'm Anjali Kammoth.

Welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. Congressional Democrats have opened an investigation after ProPublica revealed that a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin bankrolled part of Donald Trump Jr's Bahamas' wedding in May. ProPublica revealed Omar Kremlin, paid hundreds of thousands of dollars on wedding expenses, including the rental of a private island. Kremlin also attended the intimate wedding. Other attendees included Trump Jr.'s sister Ivanka, his brother-in-law Jared Kushner, and his brother, Eric Trump. The president did not attend. Altogether, the guest list numbered around 50. Omar Kremlin, who is seen in photos at the wedding, is the president of the International Boxing Association.

Just weeks before the wedding, Putin awarded him the order of friendship. Donald Trump Jr. and his newly wed wife, Bettina Anderson, confirmed ProPublica's findings writing on social media, quote, our dear friend Omar very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us. It's unfortunate that something so personal and happy can be recast as something political or sinister simply because of who someone is or where they come from. Democratic Congressmember Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said the bankrolling of the wedding raises, quote, serious national security and public corruption concerns, unquote. And this is Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut speaking on the Senate floor.

Never before has a foreign enemy of the United States paid for the family wedding of the president. Why? Because it is naked corruption in plain view. It is as close to treason as you get. accepting lavish gifts, millions of dollars in gifts, perhaps, from the enemy of this nation. On Tuesday, Attorney General Todd Blanche, who is Trump's former personal lawyer, was asked if the Justice Department will probe the funding of the wedding. The president doesn't know who this person is. I think other members of the family don't know who this person is. The president's son has said that he's a very close friend and that he accepted a gift in the weekend of his wedding. When you say, am I investigating, am I investigating what?

And when you say, this person is a friend of Putin, I don't even know if that's true or not. And in a statement, President Trump said, quote, I have no idea who Omar is, never heard of him. He didn't pay for Don and Bettina's wedding, which took place at a totally different location on a different day from the wedding. It was an after party, given in their honor, not a big deal. I was not president at the party, Trump said. We're joined now by Joshua Kaplan. Pulitzer Prize winning reporter for ProPublica. He co-authored the expoise, Donald Trump Jr.'s Bahamas' wedding, was secretly bankrolled by Russian oligar close to Putin.

Joshua, thanks for joining us. Why don't we start off by you just explaining who is Umar Kremlin? So I think the most important thing to understand about Kremlin is the level of his connection with the Russian government. Right before the wedding, he wasn't just making sure his suit still fits. He was reportedly traveling in China as part of Putin's delegation. there. As you said, a month earlier, he got the latest in a series of state honors that he's received from Putin after Russia invaded Ukraine. The Ukrainian government sanctioned Kremlin personally. And that government connection is a throughline throughout Kremlin's entire life story.

He was an obscure figure with a criminal record in a different name. He changed his name. and over the course of his, the government has given him assets and taken other actions that have turned him into a very wealthy magnet, a dominant figure in the sports betting world in Russia. Really, it's impossible to understand him and his story without talking about and thinking about his connection with Putin and Putin's inner circle. And Josh, how exactly did he meet Don Jr.? I mean, this is a guy who used to be part of a right-wing biker gang in Russia. Yeah, I mean, it's an excellent question. It's not something we fully understand yet.

I mean, the strangest thing about this is that Don Jr. met this guy only very recently. Kremlov's office told us that they met a couple of years ago. Don Jr. said they met through a mutual friend in the hunting world and quickly hit it off because they both love boxing and outdoors. But how things got to this point where Umar is not only attending this very intimate wedding, but also paying for it is very much a mystery. And President Trump trying to make a distinction between paying for the actual wedding. It was very small. It was like 50 people, right?

Ten of them were part of this Russian party, 20% of the party. So there was a wedding and then the celebrations, the fireworks. Yeah, I mean, so I think it's a mistake to get bogged down in this distinction. Really what we're talking about is a reception. The, you know, quote-unquote, after party the president's referring to is where they had their first dance and ate wedding cake. The ceremony itself was just family. The oligarch did not attend that. The rest of this lavish, lavish wedding weekend was attended by Umar and this Russian entourage and paid for by Kremlin. And there were 10 people in the Russian entourage at a wedding of

50 people. That's about right. And I mean, Don Jr's wealth is put at about 300 minutes. million dollars. Did he need anybody to pay for the wedding? What do we know about why Omar paid for this wedding? It's, you know, I mean, the basic fact we have is that a member of Putin's circle is financially supporting the president's son. As soon as we get to why, I mean, we start to have all these really weird questions come up. Junior is rich. It seems like he could have afforded this himself. That doesn't mean he has $300 million in his checking account, of course, but still, this is objectively. It's just, it's very strange. And, you know, the other big question that we don't know is what's Kremlin's motive here. He mean, he spent a lot of money seemingly successfully cultivating a

relationship with the son of the president. And we have no idea why. And now the other son, one of the other sons, Trump Jr's brother, Eric, when you asked, put in a request for Eric's response, who was at the wedding. He said this about Kramlov, quote, Eric has absolutely no clue who this person is, nor has never heard his name. We're talking about a wedding party that went over days, and there were only 50 people there all together. It's like he didn't get his brother's memo, because his brother and his brother's new wife, they have admitted. Yeah. I mean, and this was, I mean, this was a very small wedding. I mean, Don has repeatedly said that it was just family and some, quote, really close friends.

I mean, frankly, there was some longtime friends of his that were understandably disappointed that they didn't make the cut. And then you have Umar, this big guy shaved head who not only met Don Jr. very recently, but also only speaks limited English. And this large crew of Russians he came with. I mean, it was apparently we talked to people there, and it was quite the scene. It was intimate setting, Palm Beach, Socialites, Jared Kushner, and then this large group that no one knew who sometimes stood off by themselves speaking Russian. What do we know about possible future cooperation between Don Jr. and Omar Kremlin? Not much. I mean, there is a press release. So the only instance that we actually know about besides what they taught, just the kind of vague,

story in their statements of them having a relationship before this was last year. In September, this boxing organization that Kremlin runs hosted a panel discussion in Istanbul about boxing. And the panelists were Manny Pachiao, Muhammad Ali's daughter, and then Donald Trump Jr. And people who went were a little confused of why is Don Jr. here talking about sports with legends of the boxing world. after that event, Umar's organization released, had a press release where they said, you know, this alliance will not remain symbolic. More joint initiatives will follow. What does that mean? We don't know. We asked both Kremlin and Don Jr. and neither of them said.

So you've done several pieces on this. Now the House Oversight Committee, Congress member Garcia, is calling for a federal investigation. What would this look like? as you have the House Speaker, Johnson, desperately trying to recess Congress until after the elections. I mean, I think realistically, this House investigation means nothing right now, except there was a document preservation request in these letters. So Don Jr. is under legal notice to keep all of his records related to this relationship. If the Democrats retake the House in the fall, we could be talking about something very different next year if Congress continues to be interested in looking into this.

Joshua Kaplan, I want to thank you for being with us. Pulitzer Prize winning a reporter for ProPublica. We'll link to your pieces. The latest Donald Trump Jr.'s Bahamas wedding was secretly bankrupt by Russian oligarch close to Putin. Coming up, the Elimination Project, the Israeli Human Rights Group at Selim, has accused Israel of dramatically escalating its assault on all aspects of Palestinian life in the occupied West Bank. Stay with us. I've had to have a man, and a man,

and all the way in it. No s'allel, hafiz, or not a fahem, Jahel, Ame, Ack, Ack, Ack, Ack, Ack,

Ack, Ack, Saff, Ame, Able, Aene, Haughted, halle, and hakeem on the Denea, and the Denea, me in

Yeah Tama greed by the musician performing in our Democracy Now studio This is Democracy Now This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman with Anjali comment.

A major new report by the Israeli human rights group at Salem titled The Elimination Project accuses Israel of systematically dismantling the conditions that allow Palestinians in the occupied West Bank to function as a community. The report says Israel is, quote, dramatically intensifying its attacks on every aspect of Palestinian life in the West Bank, including, quote, the ability to get to work, take children to school or university, receive medical treatment or municipal services, meet family and friends, cultivate land, or go on vacation, routine activities that make up human life. This is Betzelam executive director, Yuli Novak, in a video that accompanied the report. Israel is dismantling the basic conditions needed for collective Palestinian existence in the West Bank.

Our new report, the elimination project, shows how this mechanism works and how over the past three years, it has become more lethal, violent, and explicit. Come with us to the West Bank to see for yourself. The Elimination Project in the West Bank operates through five domains of action that work together and reinforce each other. Killing, violence, intimidation, movement restrictions, economic strangulation, social and political destruction, ethnic cleansing and territorial takeover, these are all parts of a system with one aim. to ensure Jewish supremacy and eliminate the Palestinian collective.

That's part of a video accompanying the new Betzelam report, the Elimination Project, Israel's systematic dismantling of Palestinian collective life in the West Bank. Leading celebrities have joined Betelam and calling for the international community to intervene on behalf of Palestinians. This video features Cynthia Nixon, Susan Sarandon, Michael Stipe, and the Emmy Award-winning Hannah Einbinder speaking alongside Betzelm researchers. Israel is carrying out a campaign to eliminate Palestinian collective existence in the West Bank. It is happening right now.

Another violent attack. Another killing. Another home demolished. Another home set on fire. Another community displaced from its land. Another checkpoint blocking the way. Another olive gruel destroyed. What is happening in the West Bank is not a series of isolated.

events. When you pay attention and connect the dots, the picture is clear. They are all part of a single political project. U.S. taxpayer dollars are funding these crimes. This project is rooted in an apartheid system that has been in the blaze for generations. Since October 23, it has accelerated dramatically. Its implementation is more violent and more unrestrained. The international community must end the impunity that allows it to continue. The world must act to stop Israel's elimination project in the West Bank. Since October 7, 2023, at least 1,707 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in the occupied West Bank. Over the weekend, an Israeli soldier shot a Palestinian man in the leg

during a confrontation between Israeli settlers and Palestinian villagers in the West Bank town of Fukua. Well, for more, we're joined by two guests. In Tel Aviv, Ori Gavati is with us. Batsalam, Director of International Relations. He's a former Israeli soldier who served as a tank commander primarily in the West Bank from 2010 to 2013. And in the occupied West Bank, we're joined by Mohamed Shaban, a Palestinian farmer from Halhul, just north of Hebron. We welcome both to Democracy Now.

Uri, let's begin with you on the breadth of this report. Talk about what you're calling, the elimination project and what's happening right now in the West Bank. Thank you for having me. For too long, Israel's policies in the West Bank have been kind of treated or looked at as isolated events, right? So the violence of settler militias, the home demolitions, military raids, and so forth. When we look at Israel's policies in the West Bank together and truly examine them, we actually find that there is one very coherent logic behind all of them, and this is the logic of elimination of Palestinian collective life in the West Bank.

This logic operates through five mechanisms that were identified. Violence and intimidation, movement restrictions, ethnic cleansing and territorial takeover, economic strangulation, and social and political destruction. Through all of these mechanisms that work together simultaneously, and also reinforce one another, Israel is systematically dismantling the ability of Palestinians to live as a collective in that land. As you mentioned in your introduction, it creates a situation that Palestinians and life are just almost inviable.

Starts from your home, your way to work, your way to school, your ability to visit your family, our ability to raise your olive grove and so forth. Simultaneously to all of that, Israel is also entrenching its own takeover off that land and also moving its own people and expanding the settlements, the outposts, the farms, and so forth to take over the space that Palestinian lives are becoming more and more inviable in. But, Ori, this project of settler colonialism, dispossession, settlement, it's not new. Talk about how in the report you connect what's happening.

the West Bank to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and what has happened in the West Bank, this escalation since 2023? Yeah, so in the report, we focus on, we talk about decades, but we also definitely mentioned, talk about how since October 23, since the elections of the government in 2022, the scale, the speed, the openness of all those different elements significantly intensified. The logic of elimination comes in practice in its most extreme form in the genocide in Gaza. And it's taken place across the territories that Israel controls.

We're definitely seeing a lot of the mechanisms, the tools that were used and are used still. The genocide is ongoing as we speak in Gaza being implemented in the West Bank practices like. aerial bombardments, for example, that we haven't seen in the West Bank for many, many years, are back in practice. You know, we're talking about it. We're talking about in Gaza, over 20,000 minors, kids, teenagers were killed by Israel as part of its genocide. In the West Bank, we're also seeing vast killings of minors. It's in a different scale, but the practices are very, very similar.

and the geologic of elimination is all encompassing across the territories. Rory, can you talk about what you describe as the elimination project, how it relates to Bezalos Motricks plan, the decisive plan? I want to go back to the video that came out with the new report, Elimination Project, Israel's systematic dismantling of Palestinian collective life in the West Bank. This is a clip of Israel's far-right finance minister, Bezalos Motricks, addressing the Knesset back in 2017. The basis for anyone who wants to stay is to abandon all national aspirations or the desire to express them here because there is no place here for national self-definition of anyone but the Jewish people.

Ori, your response, and if you can explain Smotricks' kind of plan and how that relates to what's happening today. Yeah, so in 2017, Betalalal Smotrich publishes his decisive plan. The plan basically talks about victory through settlement. It's one of the main concepts there. And then it talks about how Palestinians under Israel's control have basically three options left according to Smotritch. Either to submit to Jewish supremacy and apartheid, live, or face the military consequences of the decision to resist. And when we look at Israel's elimination project in the West Bank, we're seeing many. many of this kind of blueprint that Smotrich published in 2017 implemented on the ground.

Look, when Smotrich published this in 2017, he wasn't. It didn't have as much power as he has now. Today we're talking about a person who is a minister in the Israeli Ministry of Defense which holds significant power over the West Bank, and he was appointed to that position, very annoying. by the Prime Minister Netanyahu. So a person that designed this blueprint, this plan, now holds the power to implement many of its elements

and is, by the way, very outspoken about it as we speak, you know, these days, about his plan and about how he's intending to implement it. Now, when we look at what's happening on the ground in the West Bank, we're seeing exactly that. We're seeing violence by the military and violence by, Settler militias that are also supported by the entire Israeli apparatus and the military, causing the displacement of thousands of Palestinians in communities across the West Bank.

Over 66 communities were displaced since October 23 through the violence of settler militias that is supported by the state. Another 33,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced through the violence of the military in Palestinian refugee camps since the beginning of 2025. And this is just one example of how his blueprint is actually taken place on the ground. I want to bring Mohamed Shaban into the conversation, a Palestinian farmer. We're speaking to you in Halul, in the Hebron area of the occupied West Bank. Can you talk about your life there, your family, your community,

how you've been affected overall by the Israeli occupation, but by these gangs of Israeli settlers. If you can explain what's happened in Hulhul. Good afternoon or good morning maybe in your area. I would like to thank you to having me in this meeting or this broadcast. I am from Halhul. Halhul is a city north of Hebrew. In Halhul, we are our main business or our main business

or our main work is farmers. We are planting grapes. We're producing two main products. We sell grapes leaves and grapes fruit. Before October 7, we don't have any settlement in Halhul. Halhul located in Route 60. This route 60 joining like Biersheva to Jerusalem. It's a crossing Halhul.

Our land is separated, half of it. before Route 60, the other half is after Route 60. HALHOL area is 37 Dunhoms. Actually, majority of this land, 4,000 dunums only the city. The other is agricultural land. Sorry. Acre for our viewers who might not understand Dunhams.

But, Muhammad, can you talk about, you know, as you're talking about your life in Halhul and your, your occupation as a farmer, what has been the impact of settlers on your life, especially in recent months? Actually, in 2005, they start the first settlement in Halhoun. Now we have seven outposts. We lost 14,000 dunums from our land,

which is the richest land in agriculture, the best land for us. and this season we lost 40 million Shaql. In Halhul also, they installed 11 gates around Halhul. We cannot reach our lands. We cannot go outside Halhul. They open only one gate from 8 o'clock until 5 o'clock every day. Everyone in Halhul starts suffering because at the beginning I said

We are fully depend in agriculture, especially after October 7, we used to have some people working in Israel, and they don't have permissions to go now. So everybody comes back to his land, to work in his land, because it makes some money for the people to continue their life. So with this big loss, actually, as I told you, around 40 million shakers, around 70% from our product every year. Part of the report also talks about the economic strangulation of Palestinian communities. But, Mohamed, you know, can you talk about what kinds of interactions you've personally had with the settlers and with soldiers and your children as well? Yes. The farmers, they didn't stop going to their land.

When they go to the land, at the beginning, the settlers, if they are like a few people, the settlers attack them. beat them. We have I documented 60 cases when they attack farmers. It's between like seriously injured or injured in simple

way. Damaging our cars. Also damaging our fields. Uprooting our trees. Many, many lands. We cannot now reach it at all. We didn't work in it. The other lands, we, we didn't work in it.

which we managed to reach it. Now the season starts, when the season starts last month, now is the season for the grapes. Actually, unless they're collecting the product, all they damage the product. Our loss,

it's affected everything in Halal. Imagine what makes Halal Hoel special case because this thing happened only in six months. We have all of this loss, seven in six months. Nobody even think about it. I wanted to ask Uri Gavati of Betzalam,

what you're calling for at this point. The British Foreign Secretary at Miliband has announced new policies against illegal Israeli settlements, including a ban on imports, targeted sanctions, a prohibition on advertising, stolen

land, and more. The new sanctions announced in a conjunction with Canada and France. But is this enough? Look, the steps from last week are definitely a good step in the right

direction. We're seeing for the first time a move from empty statements and condemnations, which is what we're used to see from the international community, to something that looks like real true consequences. What must happen

is that these consequences will not only focus on the settlement project, right? This is exactly what we're talking about in the report. The settlement project is not separate from the elimination project. It's actually a significant mechanism within the elimination project. In order to truly challenge this system, to truly stop Israel and make sure that consequences are truly, kind of Israel truly has consequences for its crimes against the Palestinian people across the territory.

is under its control. We need to see measures that target the system. And this is the move that needs to happen by the international community. This move from empty statement, condemnations, into measures that target the system itself. What does that look like, ORI? How do you target the system? I mean, this has been going on for years and you say has escalated rapidly in recent years. What exactly are you calling for? What needs to happen? Look, you know, the international community has such a vast array of tools under its disposal. We, the different policy makers and

decision makers know exactly the type of tools they can use. At this point, the problem is not what to do. The problem is that there isn't true political will to do something. We're seeing this beginning of change, right? We're seeing it in the UK. We're seeing it in other places in Europe. But we need more of that change. What to do is

truly not a problem. The problem right now is that nothing has been done. And this is what we're calling for, to go through this transformation and truly face this Israeli system for what it is. It's a system that committing a genocide in Gaza, the elimination project in the West Bank, is managing torture camps in its detention centers, across its detention centers for Palestinians, and truly treated as such, the measures are known for everybody. The political will is missing. And finally, we're speaking to you from the United States. And in our headlines today, we reported the Trump administration approved a $2.8 billion

package selling 2,000 pound bombs in Israel. The sale, including 40,000 bombs funded by foreign ministry financing a program in which the U.S. gives Israel taxpayer money that Israel spends to get U.S.-made bombs. Your final comment on the significance of the U.S. support for Israel. There is no question that the U.S. is the primary enabler of the genocide in Gaza, of the elimination project in the West Bank, and basically of everything that Israel is doing. We are seeing amazing progress within the U.S. society. You know, you mentioned that in your introduction, the moving steps by artists to publicly,

resist the genocide. This is an amazing process we're seeing within the U.S. society. What must happen now is the translation of this process into actual actions by decision makers in order to, again, stop

the Israeli genocide and stop the elimination project in the West Bank. Ori Gavati, I want to thank you for being with us. Batsalam, Director of International Relations. We'll link to your new report, the Elimination Project, speaking to us from Telafiv, and Mohamed Shaban, Palestinian farmer, speaking to us from Halhul, just north of Hebron.

Coming up as Amnesty International reiterates its call for a ceasefire in the U.S. Iran war, Amnesty has accused Iranian authorities of committing crimes against humanity during the bloody suppression of the 2022 Women Life Freedom U.S. uprising. Stay with us. and Melmath Luthy, performing in our Democracy Now studio. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman with Anjali Kama.

Four years ago today, the woman life freedom uprising erupted in Iran after the death in custody of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman named Gina Masa Amini, who had been arrested by the morality police. For the next three months, hundreds of thousands took to the streets protesting against Iran's discriminatory, compulsory prevailing laws. In a new report, Amnesty International has concluded that the repressive measures used by Iranian authorities to crush the woman life freedom protests in 2022 constitute crimes against humanity. Investigating the killings of 377 protesters and bystanders in 2022, Amnesty International's thousand-plus page new report calls for international criminal investigations into 87 Iranian officials. Amnesty interviewed 270 people for its investigation, most of whom

participated in the protests. This is the testimony of Niyaz Ak, who was 14 at the time of the protests and living in Iran's Kurdistan province. On October 8, 22, I was at school. When the last bell rang, we went outside school. The protest started. One of the plainclothes agents came with a shotgun and tear gas. They fired tear gas and we all ran away. Agents fired metal pellets at two girls and they fell to the ground. All we could do was run. We fell to the ground.

An agent pulled our hair. He was pulling us into a car to take us away. But somehow we managed to escape from him. When I got home, I saw that he had pulled my hair so hard that all of it was stuck inside my headscarf. After that day, I didn't feel normal and didn't go to school anymore. We couldn't stay in Iran anymore. Since then, we haven't seen our home nor our family. No one.

Niaz Ah, again, 14 at the time of the 2022 protests. Amnesty International released its new report at a time when the organization is also calling for an enduring ceasefire and accountability for the ongoing illegal U.S. Israeli bombing of Iran that's killed nearly. 1,500 civilians. For more, we're joined by Rahabharini, Amnesty International's Iran researcher. Their new report out today is titled Architects of Atrocities, State Machinery, orchestrating crimes against humanity in Iran's 22, Women Life Freedom Uprising,

joining us from London. Raja, if you can lay out the findings of this massive thousand-plus page report, and then also releasing it at this time when Amnesty has come out against the U.S. Israeli war on Iran. Hello, Amy. Thank you very much for having me. Amnesty International is launching this landmark report to send a central message to the international community. Repeated protest killings in Iran have become normalized. Impunity is leading to the loss of thousands of lives, and it is beyond time for the international community to end the crisis of impunity that is fueling repeated cycles of protest killings in Iran. Our research included interviews with 270 people, extensive analysis of documentary evidence, and analysis of over 2,000 videos. The evidence leaves no doubt.

The Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity, the crimes against humanity of murder, torture, rape and sexual violence, enforced disappearance, and imprisonment and persecution on political, gender, ethnic and religious grounds to crush the woman life freedom uprising. And impunity for these crimes pave the way for further atrocities at even a more horrific level in January 2006. We are urging the international community to pursue justice because domestically there is no prospect for justice. We've explained in immense detail how the judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran is complicit in crimes against humanity. So the international community is kind of disconnected from reality by directing course accountability for the very authorities that are

part of the security apparatus committing crimes in the country. We've named 87 officials who must face criminal investigations, but this is a very important. is not an exhaustive list. It, however, shows how crimes against humanity are planned, coordinated, and waged across the country, terrorizing entire communities to crush descent. And as you noted, we are launching this report because we think that it's important that the crimes against humanity committed against protesters demanding dignity, freedom, and human rights are not overshadowed by the current needs. round of crisis that has also opened a new front of crimes under international law against

people in Iran this time due to the unlawful strikes of the U.S. and Israel, which violate the UN Charter. We've been very clear that the suffering of victims of crimes against humanity must not be instrumentalized or weaponized by actors such as U.S. and Israel. And at the same time, we are clear that we need people-centered strategies and crimes against humanity must also not be forgotten or overshadowed because of the current crisis, because people in Iran are at risk of further massacres if global action on justice is not taken. And Raha, you identify 87 officials within different levels of the Iranian government. How high does the responsibility go? And can you just say a little bit about how

Iranian authorities justified the crackdown when it happened in 2022 and what their response has been to your report? You just released it this morning. The responsibility goes all the way to the top of the chain of command. The 87 officials we've named include the Supreme Leader, the late Supreme Leader, who is the commander of the security forces. It includes the head of the general staff of the armed forces and commanders of the security forces leading on deadly protest dispersals, which are in the context of Iran, the police force and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. We've also named 25 Ministry of Interior officials. They include the then Minister of Interior, Ahmed Wahidi, who is now the general commander of the IRGC,

as well as provincial governors and county governors. Crimes against humanity are system crimes. this means that they require resources, organizations, structures, and state policy. And this is precisely what we have shown in the report. In over 260 pages, we have mapped the chain of command behind these crimes, and we've shown how security forces across the country, a vast network of security forces, are deployed, equipped with firearms, military-grade firearms, such as assault rifles, sub-machine guns and heavy machine guns to kill and injure protesters. There is a leak document that shows or sheds light on the inner workings of the deadly crackdown.

It's from a provincial police commander that instructed the security forces to respond mercilessly and go as far as causing death. These crimes were intended to take place because the authorities rely on a state policy of lethal force to crush the, dissent in the country. Raha, you know, as we're talking, this is in the midst of the ongoing bombing of Iran, conflict with U.S. Israel against Iran. This has been going on for over six months now. What has been the relationship between the crackdown on dissent? And the, you know, there was a people's uprising earlier this year that was brutally suppressed and this kind of war.

This has been a devastating year for people in Iran. The unlawful, attacks of the U.S. and Israel started as people were still reeling from the collective grief and trauma of the unprecedented January massacres. Just to remind ourselves, in January, 26, in less than 48 hours on the 8th and 9th of January, security forces massacred thousands of protesters and bystanders across Iran to crush the largest nationwide uprising that the country had seen since 1979. After experiencing decades of repression at the hands of their own authorities, people in Iran are also now suffering violations of international humanitarian law and war crimes because of the tens of thousands of air strikes by the U.S. and Israeli authorities.

So now they are caught between internal deadly repression and unlawful attacks by external actors. The Iranian authorities have also used the cover of wartime conditions to intensify domestic repression. They have further militarized public spaces. They are threatening almost on a routine basis, further massacres of protesters and dissidents. They are counting on the fact that the international community is now looking elsewhere. Other headlines are dominating the news. So they tell people that their fingers, their fingers are intrigued to launch further massacres. Raha, we want to thank you so much for being with us. Rahabar Bahraini, human rights lawyer researcher in Iran for Amnesty International.

We'll link to your new report. Architects of atrocities, state machinery orchestrating crimes against humanity in Iran's 2022 woman life freedom uprising today on the fourth anniversary of the death of 22-year-old Masa Amini in custody of Iran's morality police. I'm Amy Goodman with Anjali Komen. Look forward to seeing people in Bayshore New York tomorrow for Steal the Story, please. Thanks so much.