Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-09-25 Friday

Episode Date: September 25, 2026

Headlines for September 25, 2026; “Stop Arming Israel”: 100+ Arrested at Jewish Voice for Peace Sit-In Outside Netanyahu U.N. Speech; “Grotesque”: Ex-Israeli Negotiator Daniel Levy on Netanyahu’s U.N. Speech & Israel’s Impunity; The Hague Group: South Africa Leads Coalition Against U.S./Israel’s “Unilateral Bullying” of the ICC; “Crossing the Red Line”: Akbar Shahid Ahmed on Biden, His Advisers, Harris & Israel’s War in Gaza

From London, this is Democracy Now. Here's a simple truth. Israel didn't commit genocide. Israel prevented genocide. New Yorkers here today will likely be the ones facing arrest and not the person wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Hundreds of New Yorkers, including elected officials and congressional candidates, protested outside the United Nations,

ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address Thursday. Over 100 people were arrested. We'll hear voices from the streets and go to the UN to speak with former Israeli peace negotiator, Danielle Levy. Then as President Trump escalates his campaign to dismantle the International Criminal Court, we'll look at the Hay Group, a block of countries co-led by South Africa, committed to enforcing accountability in international law and defending Palestinian rights. are growing. We will not move and we shall not be moved. We continue to sing this anthem of resistance and solidarity because we know that nothing is more unsettling to injustice than

collective voices that refuse to be silenced. We'll speak to the Hay Group executive secretary Varsha Gandakota. And finally, crossing the red line, Biden, his advisors, and Israel's war in Gaza. We'll speak to author Akbar Shahid Ahmed. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now. DemocracyNow.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in London.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a defiance speech to a half-empty chamber at the United Nations General Assembly Thursday. after dozens of delegations walked out and protest at the start of his address. Netanyahu assailed his critics as anti-Semites and lavish praise on President Trump for joining Israel strikes on Iran. This battle against the barbarians, we've had no greater partner than President Trump. I thank him. I thank him for his bold leadership.

He boldly confronted an enormous. danger to America, Israel, and the world. Netanyahu's remarks followed a speech by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who addressed the General Assembly by video stream after the Trump administration denied visas to Palestinian delegates to attend the UN talks for the second year in a row. Abbas said Palestinians now face one of their most dangerous moments in history due to a quote, genocidal war that has created an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, unquote. Prime Minister Netanyahu rejected allegations of genocide in Gaza as, quote, the biggest lie of the century.

And Netanyahu lashed out at critics, including New York City mayors or on Mamdani. So to all those spreading these lies about my country and about our brave soldiers, whether they sit in this hall or in the the office of the anti-Semitic mayor of New York, I say this, shame on you. New York Mayor Mamdani responded in a statement, quote, as he has done time and again, Prime Minister Netanyahu used his speech to repeat baseless lies meant to sanitize his genocide of Palestinians, unquote. Netanyahu's speech at the UN General Assembly sparked demonstrations outside the United Nations Thursday, more than a hundred people were arrested during a sit-in led by Jewish

Voice for Peace that blocked roads near the UN headquarters. Protesters held banners that read end the genocide and stop the U.S. Israel war machine. Among those arrested were Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon, Hacks star Anna Heinbinder. Democracy Now spoke with Democratic Socialist Congressional Candidates Chris Raab of Philadelphia. and Darya Lisa Villa Chevalier of New York City. I'm here with so many New Yorkers to demand that Netanyahu be held accountable. He's currently wanted by the ICC. And the irony is that so many New Yorkers here today will likely be the ones facing arrest

and not the person wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity, but for the very body that he's set to speak in front of. And for those of us who are going to Congress, we have a responsibility to speak up for all those folks who are on the right side of history, but do not have enough people in Congress holding people like him to account. We are complicit in those atrocities. We are funding that genocide. We are showing up on the front lines, letting people know.

We see them. We care. We stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and all over the Middle East. We'll hear voices from Thursday's protest after headlines. In northern Ethiopia, to grand separatists, have seized control of three regional airports and launched heavy artillery attacks on government forces. The fighting erupted in Tigray Wednesday and has spread to the Afar and Amhara regions. A leader of the Tigray People's Liberation Front told the AFP News Agency, quote,

we're in the situation of full-blown war now, unquote. It's the worst fighting in Ethiopia since the government and Tigray rebels agreed to a ceasefire in 2022, ending a two-year civil war that displaced millions of people, triggered a famine and left 600,000 people dead, according to African Union estimates. Venezuela's interim leader, Delci Rodriguez, delivered a first address to the UN General Assembly since the U.S. abduction of Venezuela and present Nicolas Maduro back in January. Rodriguez vowed Venezuela would hold elections at the right moment. Meanwhile, many in Caracas are demanding the return of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado,

who's been blocked from entering Venezuela three years. times. Machado's largely been sidelined by U.S. officials after Maduro's abduction, even though she once had a friendly relationship with Trump as she pressured the U.S. to topple Venezuela's government by force. She also gave President Trump her Nobel Peace Prize. This is an opposition supporter in Caracas. Unfortunately, the hand of Donald Trump is involved here. It is regrettable, but that's how it is. We are not fools. We notice what is happening. They are saying there is a change. My God, what change? Salaries are still the same. Hospitals still have no supplies. Political prisoners are still imprisoned. So what is the change? I don't see it. The Senate has voted narrowly to reject a war power's

resolution compelling President Trump to end attacks on Iran. The resolution failed in a vote of 49 to 50 with four Republicans voting in favor and Pennsylvania Senator John Federman, the lone Democrat in opposition. The House and Senate previously approved a war powers resolution in June, but the White House ignored it, arguing it infringed on President Trump's powers as commander in chief. President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping for a state dinner at the White House Thursday with executives from some of the largest U.S. companies in attendance. The guest list included Elon Musk, the world's wealthiest person, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Open AI CEO Sam Altman, Google, Sundar Pichai, Metas Mark Zuckerberg,

and videos Jensen Huang, Microsoft CEO, Satcha Nadella, and Apple's former CEO, Tim Cook. Forbes reports the billionaires attending the dinner hold a combined worth of more than 2.4 trillion dollars. They've nearly doubled their wealth since Trump won a second presidential term in 2024. In more news from Washington, the Trump administration allowed reporters from CNN, MS now, and Politico back into the White House around noon on Thursday, 12 hours after a Trump appointed federal judge reversed a ban on the three media outlets. However, by Thursday evening, a TV pool that provides video coverage of White House events, remained suspended with networks promising to boycott pool coverage until CNN's participation is

restored. On Thursday evening, President Trump lashed out at CNN and MS Now on a social media site blasting the networks for failing to provide live coverage of his meeting with President Xi Jinping. Meanwhile, an Iowa judge has dismissed President Trump's lawsuit against Polster Ann Selzer and the Des Moines Register over a poll that showed, Marilla Harris narrowly leading Trump in Iowa on the eve of the 2024 election. Trump went on to win Iowa 56 to 43 percent. Judge Scott Beattie rejected Trump's claim that the poll constituted a defective product, writing, quote, simply labeling the poll a product does not change the analysis.

The rights protected by the First Amendment are not a word game, he said. In more media news, the merger of Paramount and Warner Brothers Discusses. is on hold again despite settlements reached earlier this week among Paramount, the Writers Guild, and a dozen state attorneys general. On Thursday, a U.S. District Judge in California declined to immediately approve the consent decree after advocacy groups filed an emergency motion seeking more time to file a formal challenge to the media at mega merger. A lawyer with the Committee for the First Amendment, one of the groups opposing the $11 billion deal, said, quote, The consent decree fails to meaningfully address or mitigate the harms that will be caused by this monopoly merger to the entertainment industry, diverse storytelling, independent filmmaking, consumer interests, a free press, First Amendment rights, and fundamentally democracy, unquote.

Meanwhile, some of four reports, Paramount Skydance executives, including CEO David Ellison, asked trillionaire Elon Musk to join a team. of equity investors in the media giant. David Ellison's father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, previously invested one billion dollars in Musk's hostile takeover of Twitter and served on Tesla's board of directors. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are demanding answers from the Trump administration after whistleblowers describe dangerous conditions and illegal practices inside the Miramar ICE jail in Florida. In a letter to the acting director of ICE and the Homeland Security Inspector General, Congress members Robert Garcia, Benny Thompson, and Maxwell Frost, write quote, ICE's detaining people, including men, women, families, and elderly people with chronic medical conditions for days to weeks and abusive and life-threatening conditions, including overcrowded cells, prolonged shackling, inadequate access to medical care, and hygiene, insufficient food, and limited to no,

legal access. ISIS simultaneously attempting to cover up these horrific practices, unquote, the lawmakers wrote. Miramar at one point held 342 people instead of its maximum capacity of 50. And in Spain, thousands of protesters have taken to the streets from Madrid and other cities across Spain amidst outcry over the eviction of an 87-year-old woman from her home. Marie Carmen Abascal resided in her apartment for most of her life for more than 70 years. A developer bought the apartment building, more than tripling her rent to over $1,800. That's more than Marie Carmen's monthly state pension of about $1,500. On Wednesday, police arrived at the residence, broke down the door of her home,

forcibly removing her on a stretcher. She was reportedly given about 30 minutes to pack her essentials. As Marie Carmen was driven away in an ambulance, supporters shouted, you're not alone. She remained hospitalized Thursday. Her eviction is renewed anger over Spain's worsening housing affordability crisis and calls for the government of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to enact stronger policies to protect tenants. This is a university employee speaking from Madrid.

It's simply the best illustration. It shows exactly what these evictions. in the service and big business are all about. What lies ahead is a continued pursuit of profit at the expense of a basic right. Right now, there is a great deal of pain and a great deal of anger, but we're going to keep fighting. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, DemocracyNow.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman today, broadcasting from London, where the film about Democracy Now steal this story,

please, is playing throughout the weekend in theaters. you can check our website at DemocracyNow.org. I'll be speaking along with the Oscar-nominated director after each film screening. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the United Nations General Assembly Thursday. In a few minutes, we'll play excerpts of his address and get reaction from former Israeli peace negotiator, Daniel Levy, who's at the UN right now. But first to the streets outside the United Nations, where hundreds of protesters called on world leaders to stop. Stop arming Israel and to end the genocide in Gaza. Democracy now Zambar Gargarian was there.

Head of Israel, ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech at the United Nations on Thursday. Hundreds of demonstrators led by Jewish Voice for Peace staged a sit-in protest in New York City, stopping traffic for more than an hour just three blocks away from the UN's headquarters. Over 100 protesters were arrested. prominent figures such as actors Susan Sarandon, Elliot Page, Hannah Einbinder, and Cynthia Nixon attended the protest. Democracy Now spoke with some of the congressional candidates

and elected officials who were there. This is Dari Elisa Avila Chevalier, a Democratic nominee for Congress from New York City. I'm here with so many New Yorkers to demand that Netanyahu be held accountable. He's currently wanted by the ICC. And the irony is that so many New Yorkers here today will likely be the ones facing arrest and not the person wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity, but for the very body that he's set to speak in front of. This is Chris Rob, a Democratic nominee for Congress from Philadelphia.

We got to speak up. And for those of us who are going to Congress, we have a responsibility to speak up for all those folks who are on the right side of history, but do not have enough people in Congress holding people like him to account. We are complicit in those atrocities. We are funding that genocide. We are showing up on the front lines, letting people know. We see them. We care.

We stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and all over the Middle East, who are victims of this extraordinary regime that's working with Israel, because I'm talking about the Trump regime. And I'm talking about all those complicit in this genocide. We have to speak up. We have to acknowledge and affirm that Benjamin Netanyahu, is a war criminal, he should be in the Hague, not the U.N. This is Abir Kawaz, a Democratic nominee for New York State Senate.

I'm here today because Benjamin Netanyahu, who is the architect of a genocide that has been going on over three years, the Palestinian people, feels entitled enough to be welcomed onto the world stage, and we are letting him know that he is not welcome in New York. This is Stephanie Fox, the executive. Director of Jewish Voice for Peace. I'm the executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace, and we are here as Nessonya who makes his way to the UN, an institution built to prevent the exact atrocities he's perpetrating right this minute.

People risking arrest him at that point. It's the very least we can do in this moment, as it's three years of genocide rages on, backed fully by U.S. government, and the complicity starts right here in the U.S. It's absolutely our responsibility to demand. that that impunity end and be replaced with accountability. Thanks to Amba Gagarian and Hannah Elias for that report outside the United Nations. At least 104 people were arrested, including nine elected officials and congressional and other candidates. Arrests included Democratic congressional nominee Dary Elisa Villas Chevalier, actor.

Anna Einbender, author Glennon Doyle, whistleblower Chelsea Manning, Democratic State Senator nominee of Arquas, and Democratic State Assembly member David Orkin. Over 20 New York City and state representatives participated in the demonstrations. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman. We are broadcasting from London. As the protest took place outside the United Nations, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a defiant speech to a half-empty chamber at the United Nations General Assembly Thursday after dozens of delegations walked out in protest at the start of his address. Netanyahu assailed his critics as anti-Semites and lavish praise on President Trump for joining Israel's strikes on Iran. Against the barbarians, we've had no greater partner.

than President Trump. I thank him. I thank him for his bold leadership. He boldly confronted an enormous danger to America, Israel, and the world. In his speech, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also lashed out at his critics, including New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani. Mr. Mamdani, you try to stop me from coming here. you try to silence me

well you can't silence me you can't silence the truth and here's the simple truth here's a simple truth Israel didn't commit genocide Israel prevented genocide and that's exactly that's exactly what Mr. Mamdani's

Hamas buddies would have done to us had we not stopped them they would have killed every last one of us. For more, we go now to the United Nations, where we're joined by Daniel Levy, president of the U.S. Middle East Project, a former Israeli peace negotiator under Israeli Prime Minister Zahud Barak and Yitzhak Rabin. Welcome to Democracy Now.

It's strange, Daniel, for you to be in New York and for me to be in London where you usually are. But if you can start a democracy now, it's strange, Daniel, for you to be in New York, and for me to be in London, where you usually are. start off by overall responding to Netanyahu's address? Well, this was the grotesque figure that we have become familiar with on the international stage, and we saw that in all its appalling lack of profundity yesterday here on this stage. I would say, Amy, that we understandably focus on the person of Natanyahu, but this goes so much deeper. We may not have him on the stage next year. We'll see what happens in the Israeli elections, but the sad truth is it's not just about Natanyahu, that human rights for Palestinians,

that a change in approach and policy, that ending genocide, apartheid and occupation are not on the ballot in Israel's election. No Zionist party is standing on a fundamentally different platform. And perhaps it's easy to understand why when Natanyahu can get away with this. when Israel is treated with impunity, where you have, look, you had more leaders here talking in quite a strong way about their opposition to what Israel is doing, but that needs to be translated into action if we're going to see change. There's a meeting today here that I will be joining of the Hay Group led by South Africa to hold Israel accountable, to have an arms embargo so Israel can't continue these crimes, to stop complicity of civil.

States in Israel's illegal occupation, illegal settlements. But unless you see those measures, I don't think we're going to see change. And of course, it's unsurprising that Natanyahu should offer the kinds of words he did when just a couple of days previously, the President of the United States stood there and talked about annihilating Iran. And when elsewhere in the building, you've had equally grotesque presentations by Kushner, Blair, the guy they've appointed as governor of Gaza, Mladenov, who have been offering us these slide shows of how you're going to privatize construction projects in Gaza when the daily suffering, killing, prevention of desperately needed supplies for Palestinians, the continued occupation of Israel there, that's all ongoing.

So what I'm saying is, yes, the grotesque person of Natanyahu, but let's also understand why he can get away with it. It's the impunity that so many are complicit in. In his speech in the United Nations General Assembly, Netanyahu downplayed violent settlers in the West Bank as young juvenile delinquents. This is what he said. They try to murder us thousands of attempts per year on families, peaceful families driving along the roads. They shoot at pregnant women. They shoot entire families. Of course, none of this is covered in the international press or in the social media.

None of it. None of it. What they cover is a handful of young juvenile delinquents, about 150 a number, who throw stones, who chop down olive trees. Occasionally, they do, they fire up, they lit some fires. I can't stand that. I won't stand for vigilanteism. We're a country of law.

So we put our shin bed on them. Daniel Levy, can you respond to what Netanyahu is, how he is describing the settlers on the West Bank? Well, it's very on brand for him to take this to its most extreme place by calling this a handful of juvenile delinquents. But actually, Natanyahu here is more closely aligned with many who talk about this, the problem is settler violence. And here we have to understand that, yes, there is an issue there, but there is no such thing as a settler militia, as a settler, as a settlement without the state of Israel. The problem is not a few, as he calls them, juvenile delinquents. The problem is the policy of the state and the government that he leads, and that for decades has confiscated Palestinian land, displaced

Palestinian people, built these settlers, armed the settlers, put the military in, prevented Palestinians from moving freely, connected these settlements to infrastructure, to water, to sewage. So this isn't about a few juvenile delinquents, and it's also not a broader question of settler violence. This is the policy of the government of Israel. And shortly after that, if I may, Amy, he then turned, not only, look, this was a domestic election broadcast in many respects. Okay, Israel's in an election. It was prime time TV. But he then turned beyond the Israeli electorate and he turned to Jews around the world. And this is really important because he said Jews should be proud of what Israel is doing. And you know what we are seeing increasingly. Can

I finish the thought? Or carry on him. Sorry. No, no, go ahead. Sure, I just want us to acknowledge here that there is nothing in what Israel is doing for people to feel proud of. That's not a Jewish ethic. That's not a Jewish value. And that is why, whether it's Jewish Voice for Peace and others, and you were just referencing their demonstration, that is why there is an ever-growing and more significant cohort of Jewish people saying, do not claim to speak in our name. What you are doing is a blip in Jewish history. And actually what you told us yesterday and what you proved to us is that the Zionist project, as you have lived it out is not only a moral failure, but it is a practical failure because Nathenae

who kept repeating, we will win, we have no choice, permanent war. You do have a choice. You can end occupation, apartheid and genocide, and Jews around the world, whether New York or anywhere else, have a choice not to align with those policies. And that's why you see that more Jews are aligned with the mayor of New York, who Nathenaahu gave a tirade against. And we saw Mayor Mamdani with his dignity and his profound humanity with his profound humanity with his video of planting an olive tree with Palestinian family. More Jews align with Mayor Mamdani than they do with that grotesque character in the policies that he represents, Natanyan. I wanted to go to the UN Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez, who said Israeli actions in the occupied West Bank raise the specter of ethnic cleansing.

Violence, displacement, and settlement expansion by Israel in the occupied West Bank, are bulldozing the past to peace and raising the specter of ethnic cleansing. We cannot allow the two-state solution to disappear before our eyes. The significance of the UN Secretary-General saying this, addressing the UN General Assembly. Look, we should be focused on the fact that under international law, everything we're seeing there is a violation. You have UN independent commissions of inquiries that have made the designation, that this is ethnic cleansing. We have that inquiry and elsewhere

that has made the designation that these are violations of the genocide convention. South Africa has a case at the International Court of Justice. Israel's already in violations of provisional measures that were issued to avoid genocidal crimes. And Israel has not done any of that. And so the crucial thing is to translate those words, whether it's the words of Guterres, whether it's the words of many of Israel's allies in the West when they took to this podium, whether it's the words of so many leaders in the global South that said that if you can't uphold international law on this case, then the edifice, the structure of international legality, is going to collapse. We have to translate that from words at the podium of the United Nations

to policies which impose an arms embargo, which end the complicity in funding and financing Israel's illegal settlements, for instance. Every Israeli bank is involved up to their eyeballs in investments in loans in mortgages, and you have to disentangle that from the international financials. system. It will only happen if there's more pressure like the people out on the streets yesterday. Like what we saw, by the way, in the UK, where I normally am, where you are now, Amy, where after years of public pressure, you see a UK government that is beginning to move in significant ways in that direction. And that's what's going to change things. Unfortunately, not more empty

rhetoric here. And talking about grassroots actions, the mayor of New York, Mayor Zoranam Donnie, planted olive trees at Gracie Mansion, planted them alongside Palestinian families from Gaza who had lost loved ones. Your final comments, Daniel Levy? I think that is precisely the kind of dignified, responsible, peace-loving approach that should be taken and that should stand in contrast. to what the Israeli Prime Minister offered us yesterday. And, you know, he's shown that you can do that. You can have that olive tree planting at Gracie Mansion, and you can have the fantastic, very moving video that he released

on the Jewish New Year, on Russia Shona. You can straddle those divides if you believe in the universality of humanity rather than in the narrow warmongering of an ethno-supremic state led by Prime Minister Netanyahu. Daniel Levy, I want to thank you for being with us, President of the U.S. Middle East Project, former Israeli peace negotiator under two Israeli prime ministers, Ahud Barak and Yitzhak Rabin. Coming up, Varsha, Gandakota, executive secretary of the Hay Group, now sitting outside the United Nations. Stay with us.

Voices of protesters yesterday outside the UN protesting. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. Warm Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. I'm here in London and the UK. At the United Nations in New York this week, President Trump repeated his attacks on the international criminal court and urged other nations to pull out of the ICC.

The United States is equally opposed to the out-of-control institution known as the International Criminal Court. We will never allow U.S. service members or anyone else to be investigated or given show trials by an anti-American tribunal with no jurisdiction over us. You're an evil group of people. I call on all nations that are members of the ICC to officially resign from this rogue institution immediately. Trump's speech came just a month after the U.S. imposed sanctions on the president of the ICC and a senior prosecutor who was part of the two. team that issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for crimes

against humanity in Gaza. The United States is reportedly preparing new sanctions on the entire international criminal court itself, as well as entities that cooperate with it. While President Trump's attacking the ICC, a coalition of nations has formed the Hay Group to defend international law and solidarity with the people of Palestine. The Hay Group was established last year by eight countries, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal, and South Africa. We're joined now by Varsha Gandh Dakota, Executive Secretary of the Haye Group, also the co-general coordinator of Progressive International. We thank you so much for being with us, Varsha.

There you are outside the United Nations. If you can start off by talking about this direct threat on the ICC, on the International Criminal Court, and respond to what President Trump. said in his UN address. Thanks for having me, Amy. It's an absolute low point for the sacred grounds of the United Nations that President Trump has shown up here and attacked the international legal order. And this isn't the first time that he's done it.

We've seen these attacks on the ICJ. We've seen these attacks on UN Special Rapporteurs like Frances Calabini. But this particular announcement about sanctioning the court as a whole, its bank accounts, its software, its staff, its officials, wherever they may. be in the world is an absolute low point, but opens a clear opportunity for all of the other countries in the world to rise up, to use the tools at their disposal within national legislations like blocking statutes that exist in China, that exist in the European Union, that exist for countries across the global south to create alternate payments, to create

alternate softwares, to halt the effect of unilateral bullying from the United Nations and the United States. How does this differ, Varsha, from individual people associated with the international criminal court being sanctioned, which has made it very difficult for them? We should say the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, but now what this would mean for the entire court system at the Hague. In practice, Amy, we're not talking about a few individuals, but anyway, and any institution across the world that cooperates with the court essentially coming into what is a giant dragnet of U.S. sanctions. It could be a researcher in a civil society organization.

It could be a trade unionist calling for accountability. It could be a journalist that writes something that's picked up by an ICC judge and used in a judgment. It could be a journalist reporting on cases inside the ICC. It's essentially a giant dragnet that's meant to send out a chilling effect on anyone that is hoping to hold war criminals to account. But furthermore, we know that this impunity will not be limited to the ICC, will not be limited to just the ICJ or the Hague. We know that this is about a message that is sent across the world that friends of powerful countries will never be held to account for crimes against humanity, for war crimes that they commit.

I want to go to South Africa's Foreign Minister, Ronald Lomola, who spoke earlier this week at the historic Riverside Church in New York City. It's where Dr. King gave his address a year to the day before he was assassinated his speech against the war in Vietnam. Lumola spoke about South Africa's commitment to the Palestinian cause and the need for international solidarity to end Israel's genocide, South Africa's co-chair of the Hay Group. This is an excerpt of what the South African Foreign Minister said. After years of pushing and matching, ordinary people across the world compelled the international community to declare apartheid a crime against humanity in South Africa.

More than eight years since its adoption, the UN Charter's principles of fundamental human rights, the dignity and the worth of every person, and the equal rights of nations, large and small, are more imported than ever before. when we approach the ICJU, the UN's principal judicial organ to challenge Israel's violation of the Genocide Convention, we do it so as part of our commitment to upholding and defending international law and multilateral institutions. We acted because we knew what the global solidarity can do. In so doing, we summoned the same global solidarity. that broke apartheid in South Africa

to help dismantle the apartheid under which Palestinians continues to live. We chose to act because democratic South Africa was made possible by multitudes of ordinary people who heard and answered our call for freedom in our lifetime. We acted to stop Israel's impunity and to secure justice for a people suffering a live stream genocide

that you see in real times in your fingertips. This has not been a solitary journey because of all of you. Many countries, some of whose representatives are here today, have joined this effort to put a stop to the

destruction of the Palestinian life. The hair group embodies that solidarity, Kamradar and shared conviction that concrete action is needed to uphold an international order based on the rule of law. In the face of

brave injustice, silence is complicity. As one of the 20th century's greatest beneficiaries of international solidarity, we have no choice but to act despite trial in tribulations and challenges that we face as a result of our choices to act in defense of humanity. We carry this challenge as a badge of honor. Today we declare that indeed we are many. our numbers are growing. We will not move

and we shall not be moved. We continue to sing this anthem of resistance and solidarity because we know that nothing is more unsettling to injustice than collective voices that refuse to be silenced.

Let me conclude by borrowing another rallying cry from the people of Sofia Town in South Africa, who a little over 70 years ago took racial segregation head on and declared in the face of apartheid bulldozers. We will not move on Zadakene

on Spola here. Amanda. All power. All power. All power. Amanda. Away too. Amanda.

Away. Thank you very much. Farrakha's foreign minister, Ronald Lamola, speaking Monday at the historic Riverside Church in New York City. He was speaking in front next to a sign, we shall not be moved, which was the theme of the night. Among those who spoke was independent senator, Democratic socialist, Bernie Sanders of Vermont. To hear an excerpt of that speech, you can go to Democracy Now.org. Varsha Gandakota, your head of the Haye group, your meeting inside the United Nations today in this last 30 seconds,

the point of this meeting and who will be there? This meeting is an extraordinary meeting in defense of international law. Amy, you mentioned that we began as a group of nine nations in January 2025. Today, it would be nearly 40 countries meeting to ask, what are the three significant shifts that we need to make, from complicity to compliance, from impunity to country. and towards a new multilateralism. Exactly as Foreign Minister Ronald Lammala mentioned in his speech at Riverside Church,

we want to win the victory, similar to the victory against a South African apartheid regime through a UN Special Committee against apartheid, through a Security Council, UN Arms Embargo, and ensuring that all countries come together to coordinate their actions at the national level so that international law isn't just something that's proclaimed or declared, but actually practiced and enforced. Varshra Gandh Dakota, I want to thank you for being with us. Executive Secretary of the Hay Group will link to your new piece in The Guardian, which is headlined Israel and the U.S. have battered the international legal order.

The impunity must stop. Coming up, Akbar Shahid Ahmed. He's author of the new book, Crossing the Red Line, Biden, his advisors, and Israel's war in Gaza. Stay with us. I'll ask that That this Frue no me

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and performed by the Chilean American musician and producer Nicholas Jarre in our Democracy Now Studios this week. This is Democracy Now Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman. We end today's show with journalist Akbar Shahed Ahmed. His new book is crossing the red line. Biden, his advisors, and Israel's war in Gaza. The book is based on interviews with more than 150 officials and others involved in shaping the Biden administration's

policies in the Middle East. Akbar Shahed Ahmed covers U.S. foreign policy for the Washington's son. Welcome back to Democracy Now, Akbar. This is a fascinating. book. What I found so interesting is that so many of these officials who spoke to you did not want to be identified. Can you talk about why that is? And as we talk about what's happening in Israel, occupied territories in West Bank and Gaza, why you have chosen to write a book on the Biden administration? Thanks for having me, Amy. I think it's so crucial to look back at the Biden administration's policy for two reasons. First, because the policies that we've seen entrenched and, frankly, worsened and become more dangerous and deadly under Donald Trump were really established by Biden's team. The full unprecedented blockade on Gaza, a real U.S. tolerance of expanded violence in the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, and a dodging of accountability for what U.S. government officials very often know are violations of American and international law.

I also think when we look at people like the policymakers, some of whom you interviewed earlier, Tari Elisa, from New York, the agenda that they are setting out when they talk about a different approach to Gaza to Israel Palestine to respond to the popular demand for a new U.S. position there, that hinges on the Biden team. A lot of the people I talked to, as you mentioned, were anonymous for fear of reprisal, for fear of pro-Israel hardliners preventing them from getting future jobs. And what's shocking about this kind of Biden team too in the culture I cover is that meanwhile, the architects of that Gaza policy, figures like Biden's Middle East advisor, Brett McGurk, who was celebrated this week at the UN, Jake Sullivan positioning himself to be in a future Democratic administration, they're not afraid of facing any reprisal for their choices that very often were enabling atrocities. So if you can talk about their significance and what? exactly they did in the Biden administration. You argue, obviously, that they set the stage for what Trump has simply escalated. And who was speaking inside against what was happening? Absolutely. So President Biden, a long time professed sinus, right? And obviously, in mental decline, as we now know, in that final year or so of his presidency, it was really him and this small group

of about four men around him. Sullivan and McGurke, who I mentioned, Tony Blinken, the Secretary of State, John Feiner, his Deputy National Security Advisor. What I heard so often from officials was the sense that Gaza policy was treated differently. Even officials up to the cabinet level, officials in intelligence positions,

people in nonpartisan career jobs, told me they were seeing the president less and involved less than they had been even earlier in the Biden administration and in handling crises like Ukraine, Sudan, other top issues. What this has led to in the Trump era is really a tolerance of increased Israeli escalation, right? So if we look at a policy like the Iran war, the Biden administration very often positioned itself as a defender of Israel, as Israel was

escalating, as we've discussed on the show, again and again versus Iran, making clear that they were kind of building up for the assault we've now seen with all its consequences. The Biden team made the choice rather than tell Israel, we need you to reign this in. And importantly, while they were publicly saying they wanted to avoid the regional war, to send the troops, to send the weapons that made these escalations now under Trump possible. When we think about who was challenging this, there were some figures, I mean, Samantha Power, famously author of a book on genocide, was Biden's U.S. aid chiefs. She, to a degree, was someone who inside the administration was arguing for a different approach. But I'll note, Amy, that a lot of those figures weren't willing to

resign, and frankly, other than power, even in talking to me for the historical record, weren't willing to put their names on what they had said, or importantly, to criticize their colleagues. And I think until you break from those cycles of tolerating mass civilian casualties and U.S. officials' role, you're not going to have a different approach. Okay, I want to go to President Biden's National Security Advocates. Vice, Jake Sullivan, back in 2024, denying Israel's carrying out a genocide in Gaza. We believe Israel can and must do more to ensure the protection and well-being innocent civilians.

We do not believe what is happening in Gaza is a genocide. We have been firmly on record rejecting that proposition. We have paused the shipment of 2,000-pound bombs because we do not believe they should be dropped in densely populated cities. And the State Department spokesperson under former President Biden, Matt Miller, admitted in May last year that he believes Israel committed war crimes in Gaza. This reversal came after he spent more than a year as the face of the Biden administration's foreign policy, repeatedly defending Israel against allegations of war crimes in genocide. This was Miller speaking in April of 2024. We have been very clear that we want to see Israel do everything it can to be.

minimize civilian casualties. We have made clear that they need to do everything, that they need to operate at all times in full compliance with international humanitarian law. At the same time, we are committed to Israel's right to self-defense. But during an interview with Sky News in June, Matt Miller said he believed Israel did commit war crimes in Gaza and that Israeli soldiers are not being held accountable. I don't think it's a genocide, but I think the, I think it is with out of doubt true that Israel has committed war crimes? You wouldn't have said that at the podium. Yeah, look, because when you're at the podium, you're not expressing your personal opinion.

You're expressing the conclusions of the United States government. I mean, you're at the podium expressing the views of the government, not my own views. Akbar Shahid Ahmed, that was Matt Miller, what he said. If you can elaborate on this and how the tone was set, right through the top, And exactly what we're talking about now, you had President Biden and the person who may run for president again, Kamala Harris. And the significance of what she did when she was running for president and lost, and then how she views this issue today, what you understand. The kind of denials that you highlighted there, Amy, was so crucial to sustaining this horrific policy. because as I reveal in my book, figures like Jake Sullivan and Brett McGurke, Biden's Middle East advisor,

were, for instance, telling their colleagues, we don't believe the Palestinians are starving, they don't look skinny in the photographs. That sends a signal throughout the entire U.S. government apparatus of what the top of the system thinks, chilling people further down. Also, when you look at that Matt Miller's statement, what I illuminate in crossing the red line and hope people can take from it for future policy and for accountability is a system of denial. The Biden administration, in 16 months,

never reached a single firm conclusion of a war crime. But I was told by several lawyers, State Department, White House, in the words of one, if they wanted us to find a war crime, we could have confirmed it. Instead, the Biden administration sustained what one official described to me as, quote, heard impunity, essentially allowing plausible deniability because, as Matt Miller says there,

the U.S. government never confirmed. so there wasn't that one piece of paper that required them to say something happened that was a war crime or ethnic cleansing. Meanwhile, I reveal in the book, they were using the term ethnic cleansing all the time. On Harris, she wasn't a major player in these decisions that doesn't wash her hands of responsibility, right?

And I've asked her team repeatedly if she wants to express specific regret right up until August of this year, just before this book tour, they haven't been willing to provide any kind of statement on policies she would have opposed. And in my reporting, again, nearly 175 interviews, I never found evidence that Harris pushed for a policy change,

although sometimes she pushed for rhetorical shifts to show more sympathy towards Palestinians. Back in 2024, when she was Vice President, Kamala Harris called for a ceasefire in Gaza, made the comment in a speech in Selma, Alabama, marking the 59th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. This is what she said. And given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire.

At least the next six weeks, which is what is currently on the table. This will get the hostages out and get a significant amount of aid in. This would allow us to build something more enduring. to ensure Israel is secure and to respect the right of the Palestinian people to dignity, freedom, and self-determination. Hamas claims it wants a ceasefire. Well, there is a deal on the table. And as we have said, Hamas needs to agree to that deal. Let's get a ceasefire.

Let's reunite the hostages with their families. And let's provide immediate relief to the people of Gaza. So that was Vice President Kamala Harris speaking in Selma, calling for a six-week ceasefire. Then you have the DNC. And Akbar Shahed Ahmed, this is particularly significant as we were there at her presidential convention. When people sat down overnight, the uncommitted demanding a Palestinian American legislator be also able to address the DNC. They were denied that.

Talk about Kamala Harris's role in that. I remember you and Armin and me covering that sit-in, Amy, right? We were there with them for hours. And what was so significant about that moment was these were people saying, we're Democrats. We want to help you win the election and defeat Donald Trump. They were not saying, by any means, were your opponents. Instead, what Harris and her team did was reach a decision at that point to not permit a Palestinian

speaker. And I was told in my reporting to sort of present the idea of a Palestinian-American speaker after, by the way, in Israeli-American couple whose son was held hostage, had already spoken, to present that as too politically risky, something they weren't willing to do. I wasn't able to confirm whether Harris made that call, the donor class made that call, or figures like Gen O'Malley-Dillin, the Biden campaign manager, who was still running. her campaign, that the fact that it's that kind of collective ethos of treating Palestinians that way also gives the lie to the Biden administration's repeated claims that they were, quote,

the most diverse administration in history. They were running with that kind of administration. Harris was running as a historic candidate to potentially be the first woman president, half black, half South Asian, speaking at places like Selma, while I was told the people who actually made the decisions, particularly on Gaza, were by no means representing a broad range of experience or a broad range of diversity in this country. And Palestinians and various communities inside the Democratic coalition felt really dismissed. I was told by Juan Harris Campaign Staffa after her speech at that convention, well, we felt we got everyone except the Muslims and Arabs. So that's what it was. That gives you a taste of the ethos.

In this last minute we have together, in your book, Crossing the Red Line, Biden as advisors and Israel's war in Gaza, what do you want people to take away from this as we move forward? I hope people understand there was a bipartisan continuity between Trump and Biden on Israel, Palestine, prior to October 7th, that helped fuel the conditions that led to that attack and the atrocities of that day. The war that followed. and then the Biden administration, as I detail in the lame dark period, despite new intelligence findings, despite new legal conclusions, essentially enabled Trump to get on a past Iran war, to have a Gaza ceasefire in which Palestinians were still consistently being denied food and medicine that's not optional on international law and to permit continued fighting in Lebanon and beyond, as we've seen. So I hope people understand that that's a pattern that can be broken.

I'maqar Shahed Ahmed. I want to thank you so much for being with us. Author of Crossing, The Red Line, Biden, his advisors, and Israel's War in Gaza. The book is just out. And that does it for Tatee's show. I am in London for the weekend. Steal the Story Please is playing at the Hackney Picture House tonight. I'll be speaking afterwards with director Carl Deal of the film, Steal the Story, Please, about democracy now. Sunday at Cinema Lumier, also in London in South Kensington, and then in Lewis. than to Copenhagen and Berlin. I'm Amy Goodman.