It Could Happen Here - Aid as a Tool of War in Gaza feat. Dana El Kurd

Episode Date: August 5, 2025

Dana El Kurd sits down with Bushra Khalidi – policy lead at Oxfam – to discuss the aid and humanitarian crisis unfolding across Palestine. They discuss how the devastating hunger and aid restriction happening in Gaza speaks to broader strategies of ethnic cleansing and forced displacement. Sources/Links: Oxfam statement about Gaza Humanitarian Foundation - https://www.oxfamamerica.org/press/more-than-100-organizations-are-sounding-the-alarm-to-allow-lifesaving-aid-into-gaza/ Fogbow in Uganda and Sudan - https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/investigations/2025/06/16/fogbow-operations-south-sudan-raise-red-flags-aid-private-sector Bezalel Smotrich’s “Decisive Plan” - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/09/israel-leaders-palestinian-territories-bezalel-smotrich-gaza-7-october Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini on dismantling UNRWA - https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/notes/unrwa-may-be-forced-stop-saving-lives-gaza-will-world-let-happen NPR report on famine in Gaza - https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/07/25/g-s1-78968/what-does-it-take-for-a-famine-to-be-declared-in-gaza US Green Beret on what he saw at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites - https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-07-26/ty-article/i-witnessed-war-crimes-in-gaza-u-s-veteran-and-former-ghf-worker-tells-bbc/00000198-47e0-d6be-a1bd-4ffd67f90000 Aljazeera op-ed by former UN official - https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/7/21/why-is-the-un-not-declaring-famine-in-gaza UN reporting on deaths at aid sites - https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/07/1165396 Dr. Nick Maynard on what he witnessed in Gaza - https://www.channel4.com/news/teenagers-being-shot-by-israeli-soldiers-british-surgeon-in-gaza Suppressing Dissent edited volume - https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Suppressing-Dissent/Zaha-Hassan/9781836430971See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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My name is Dan Al-Kurd. I'm a writer, analyst, and researcher of Palestinian and Arab politics. I'm an associate professor of political science and a senior non-resident fellow at the Arab Center, Washington. Today we'll be speaking with Ushah al-Qaeda, the policy lead for Oxfam. Our discussion will cover Oxfam's work in the occupied Palestinian territories and the current crisis in aid distribution. We are recording end of July, July 27th, 2025, NPR reported in May of this year that Gaza has already reached phase four of the integrated food security phase classification, the IPA, which is coordinated out of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and an organization called the Famine Early Warning Systems Network. So what does this all mean? Phase four means emergency.

As NPR writes in their main report, hardships deepen, food gaps widen, and people resort to really extreme forms of coping. So the famine early warning systems network does not have a presence in Gaza at the moment. This is their best guess. Phase five is when they declare. a famine. We're seeing very terrible images in the media and on our phone screens about the level of deprivation in Gaza at the moment because aid has been blocked off by the Israeli government. Writing for Al Jazeera, just a few days ago, former UN official Monsakhani accuses the UN of not declaring famine despite overwhelming evidence because he says officials are worried about their careers and possibly worried about antagonizing the U.S. But regardless of whether it's

phase four or phase five, the situation in Gaza is dire. In July 27th, today, when we're recording, there's reporting that there might be airdrops, that the trucks on the Egyptian border are moving towards Gaza after the Israeli government has received a lot of pressure over the ongoing aid crisis. But of course, that may be too late for many Gazans. As I said, we're speaking with Busha Khaledhi today, who will talk to us about her work from the vantage point of Oxfam. Busha, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me.

So let's begin with first describing Oxfam's work in occupied Palestinian territories. Yeah, sure. We've been here since 1956. We have offices in Ramallah and Jerusalem and Gaza. And Oxfam was originally set up as an organization to fight famine. You know, the first kind of famines that we've seen globally. That's originally why Oxfam was set up. And then so a lot of its programming is around water and sanitation.

food security, livelihoods, working with farmers. A big part of our program is water and sanitation helping, for example, farming communities, providing them with irrigation pipelines. You know, it could be agricultural inputs needed for growing their crops. It could be technical support to farmers to support them in growing, for example, vegetables. How do you grow crops of vegetables around date trees? You know, and so it's kind of that kind of work in terms of the food security, that we have a big part of our work is with women's organizations, women's cooperatives, women's farming cooperatives as well, especially in the West Bank. And then a lot of work with kind of the relevant ministries and relevant trade unions on, for example, agricultural

insurance. So getting, you know, trying to get insurance for farmers in case their crops or are ruined or sabotaged or damaged, for example, by settler violence, et cetera. So there's kind of like a piloting kind of program where we're looking at the potential providing insurance to the farming sector here in Palestine. Other things could be, could look like, you know, small grants to start a small kind of business, women, for example, ceramics, women's cooperatives and farming. I mean, and so a lot of it worked like this, and most of our operations are actually run through partners. So we have about 90 partners kind of across the occupied Palestinian territory, and about 80 and 90 of other operations are actually completely

implemented through partners. But of course, after 7th of October, our programming really drastically kind of shifted to fully humanitarian, where, you know, we are now basically providing hygiene kits, food parcels, some agricultural inputs as well, where we could, you know, set in Gaza, it looks like setting up latrines, hand-washing state, like mobile stations, It can be like water trucking. I mean, it's changed, you know, depending on the access that we've had. So, for example, since March, this year, we've not been able to enter anything because of Israel's full total siege on Gaza.

So nothing kind of entered. So our operations looked like psychosocial support to women, young girls in shelters, trucking water from one area to another, where we felt like these communities potentially needed water or had a little access to water, it could look, it looked like a cash for work. We do a big, big, big, big part of our, both now in the West Bank and in Gaza is providing cash for work. So, for example, we have daily workers that will remove solid waste with their bare hands, unfortunately, because there's no materials to remove waste in Gaza. But then they would receive like kind of daily, daily rates in order to get paid. And then there's like cash vouchers

but the most vulnerable, where they can, you know, have a voucher in a store and they can, you know, purchase items that we read, for example, with a store owner that, you know, people can purchase with our kind of cards. So it's very versatile, and especially in last years, had to adapt and change, you know, very quickly and flexibly, depending on the situation, what's available in the markets. But that's kind of like what our programming looks like across the territory. Yeah, thank you for explaining that. And it brings me to, I mean, you touched on a little bit, but it brings me to a second question that I think is important for listeners to understand is, how has the war in post-October 7th really impacted

the restrictions that the Israeli government is imposing? So we know there's a siege in Gaza, but also in the West Bank. Absolutely. There is so much happening. How has that impacted Oxfam's work? It's completely restricted us. And not just us. It's all of the international kind of sector, including UN agencies. I mean, we know what they did with Inrawah. Would we maybe explain that? Yeah, I'll, I mean, Israel, the government of Israel's kind of attacks, or let's say, attacks on humanitarian and civic space, it's been a longstanding policy affairs

and started well before 7th of October. It's gotten just, you know, much tighter, much more restrictive sense. But, you know, this goes back decades. I would say kind of the most notorious development in shrinking space, we call it shrinking space, is 2021 when they declared six organizations, Palestinian civil society organizations, mostly are human rights organizations, some of the most notorious and well-known human rights organization where they're designated as terrorist organizations. So that was kind of the first big, you know, development where many of those partners, those six partners were actually

partners of international organization. So, you know, we found ourselves kind of advocating for continuing our support to these six, despite the designation by Israel, you know, and there was never, of course, evidence provided by the Israeli government as to what evidence they had. Why would they deem these organizations, terrorist organizations? But, you know, they continue to operate under very, very difficult circumstances. Their offices were raided. their assets were confiscated, but, you know, they're still operational and we're still

certainly supporting them. And of course, you know, shrinking space or the restrictions on humanitarian civic space, it translates into, you know, into so many different restrictions. It could be, you know, restrictions on permits, restrictions on what crossings you're able to use as a humanitarian, you know, whether you can go through that crossing or another. It can be visa restrictions. And we started seeing that visa restrictions. even before the war, and after the war, of course, everything kind of changed. And now we're facing, and I'm talking more about, like, legal restrictions in terms of our work, and then I can talk more about, like, the siege and the actual blockade of humanitarian aid into Gaza,

which is, you know, effectively completely restricted and our operations and has dismantled, really, the humanitarian sector in its entirety and has reverberating impacts to the rest of the territory. But for us, I think the first kind of sign of turmoil was when there was already a decision, but nothing had been kind of formally communicated of a new registration process for international organizations. That started already in 2024, where the civil administration announced to our respective organizations that there will be a new registration procedures. But the Israeli civil administration. The Israeli civil administration.

And so it was only kind of 10 months later that the criteria was kind of presented to us. And only a year later that the criteria actually came into effect. But in that time where they were announcing these new measures, there were lots of visa denials. Permits, of course, were completely non-existent for humanitarian. So for example, you know, I had a permit to Gaza for six months. that, of course, stopped. All of our staff in the West Bank had permits to travel both to Gaza and in Israel. Those stopped on 7th of October and same vice versa are our colleagues in Gaza who had permits to come to Israel to travel through the Allenby bridge.

Because, of course, you know, Palestinians don't have an airport. So they have to travel through Allenby to travel through Amman. Those also stopped. So that's one other kind of like, you know, measure that was taken against international organization. And then when the new registration rules were made public and the criteria was made public, there's a new ministry set up called the Ministry of Diaspora and Something Affairs. I know Diaspora Affairs. I forget the full name of the ministry.

But it's an interministerial committee that is made of basically ducks. If you look at the background of some of these people that are in the committee, I mean, you know, and they are now deciding of the registration. of international organizations. And the criteria is onerous, it's political, it's big, and even it crosses some of our red lines in terms of organization. I mean, one of the, I think, the most contentious criteria is submitting staff lists and all of the information of our staff

to the Israeli authorities, which is something we'd never had to do before. It's not something that is actually, in any other context, It's not abnormal for an authority or a country or state to ask, you know, who is your staff working for this organization you're seeking registration from. But obviously, because of the, you know, unprecedented number of humanitarian workers that have been targeted and indiscriminately targeted as well, in Gaza, we've got more than 400 humanitarian workers killed. At this point, we are unable to submit our staff list because of, you know, we have no

guarantees of protection, even though we have guarantees under, you know, international law, this is not applied when it comes to Gaza and in Israel's conduct and in the hostilities against humanitarian workers in humanitarian space. So that's one of the criteria. But there's also other criteria where, for example, we would be revoked or not re-registered if we are seen to support some of the designated organizations that were designated earlier on, which most of our organizations do. So many of us are facing about to face basically being deregistered in Israel. and losing our presence in Jerusalem,

which has such a big implications, not because we're so desperate to have presence in Jerusalem, but because it says a lot about what the future of East Jerusalem means. Right. Because you're removing Enrawa, you're removing the INGOs, and you're moving all the program and the support that goes to organizations that are operating in Jerusalem,

providing legal services to people that are losing their homes, that are getting their homes demolished on a daily basis, legal services per settler attacks that happen also in East Jerusalem and school provision of school services, educational items, educational activities, summer camps, you know, I mean, etc., etc. The list goes on. That will be removed and that's kind of, you know, it's working now in parallel with the annexation kind of plan that Israel has been threatening and implementing at the same time. So, you know, everything is moving towards this annexation. It also has vast implications because many of our organizations operate in Area C because the most vulnerable communities, you know, are in Area C.

And so we always, you know, we as part of our programming is obviously reaching the most vulnerable Palestinians and those that need to help and support the most. And so annexing Area C and deregistering at the same time. De-registering us from Israel means that we will also have very, a lot of difficulty accessing these communities and accessing Area C as you met here. organizations. We've not had visas for international staff for since the beginning of the war. And then when you look at, you know, Gaza, so this is kind of like looking at the West Bank and what is how it's evolving in the West Bank. But then, you know, the fact that we would be deregistered would effectively mean that we cannot operate in Gaza anymore because you have to have an Israeli registration in order to be able to bring goods inside Gaza. And so if

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Bring your brain. Listen to Now You Know with Noah DeBarras on the IHeart Radio app. Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. the humanitarian and civic spaces is all encompassing. In Gaza, of course, it looks like our materials have been systematically and deliberately denied,

rejected, delayed, you know, over the course of the last 20 months, but of course, adding to worse since March 2nd when Israel imposed its total siege on Gaza and basically has completely sidelined the UN, INGOs, and policy and civil society, and since then we've not been able to enter anything

in Gaza. And I doubt that we will be able to enter anything moving forward, especially that the registration kind of window ends in September, beginning of September, that's when we'll finally know who is going to be registered, who's not. But I expect for an organization like Oxfam as part of the registration process, it's very vague. So we don't know how they will apply it, but there's something about basically calling, again, you know, calling out or speaking out or calling for accountability of individual soldiers and members of the IDF. So what that means, I don't know,

but we call for accountability every day because it's part of our mandate. We're not just an operational organization. We're a rights-based organization, and so we have a mandate to also, you know, where we witness violations of human rights or of international law, it is our mandate to speak out on it. And so there's no operations without that. So that's where we're at right now. It's an incredibly difficult space. It is, of course, deliberate.

This is a deliberate policy of Israel that is carried out against the kind of a humanitarian civic space for years. it's also, there's another law, there's a law that's against Israeli human rights organization where it will start taxing, Israeli human rights organization that are receiving foreign funding by 50 to 80% or something like that. So it's just, it's, you know, it's deliberate, it's thematic. We have been the only ones in Gaza that have been able to actually report independently on what's happening in Gaza, like the humanitarian's happened, not even a journalist, because of course, you know, I can argue that yes, Palestinian journalists are independent, but, you know, most of the world would probably disagree with that. So really, I mean, the independent kind of eyes and the neutral eyes, or let's say

impartial eyes, I won't say neutral, happen the humanitarian and UN agencies. Sidelining us means that we'll also see a reduction of quality reporting on what's actually happening in Gaza. So it's terrifying. It's an attack on our ability to even understand the level of the problem. Absolutely. That is being left in the wake of this war, which of course is ongoing. But also, I think it's really important. I mean, the things you just described, I think it's really important for listeners to understand this. The aid question, the question of these humanitarian organizations and what's happening to them, whether it's the registration through the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, and I think combating anti-Semitism is its full name.

That's it. Sorry. I should have a record. So, yeah, I mean, there are so many problems with this ministry and it has been even internally criticized by Tel Aviv University, for example. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or even actually members of the government itself, by the way. I think there was a, yeah, there was something about somebody in Israeli government, not attending the interministerial committee meeting, you know, because it was not wanting to be associated to it. So yeah, there's, it's a very problematic committee. But I mean, if this kind of committee is responsible for registering international organizations and humanitarian organizations, then there's all the blockade of aid. All of these are parts of the same ethnic cleansing strategy that what we're seeing in Gaza,

whether you want to call it ethnic cleansing or genocide, you know, people are being eradicated. Yeah. We're seeing large-scale displacements in the West Bank. And as you mentioned, if these organizations also stop existing in Jerusalem, we'll see Jerusalem next. Yeah. Not piecemeal the way that we've been seeing it possible, absolutely, you know, more aggressive way. And so I really think it's important to kind of underscore for listeners that this is part and parcel

of an annexation and ethnic cleansing plan that people from the religious Zionist Party have been saying since the early 2010s. Bezalas Motritch, a finance minister today, had the decisive plan that said, you know, you either surrender or transfer. And we're at that level. They are transferring. They are making sure that that happens. And they are in the West Bank as well. I mean, you know, it's quiet and all eyes are in Gaza, but I mean, we've seen displacement of entire communities in the last few weeks only, let alone the largest numbers of forcibly displaced Palestinian since 1967 in the West Bank this year. And in the refugee camps that have been attacked.

Exactly. So, you know, and again, I mean, you know, you can look at the history of smear campaigns against UNOWA by the Israeli authorities. I mean, that's just in itself, you know, the services that One of what provides, you know, we have to, we emphasize, like, education, health services. I mean, you know, shelter. Oh, no one of what provides key services that the Palestinian Authority has no ability to respond to. What is going to happen to all these people when, you know, and already, you know, so listeners, electricity cut off in Ramallah. This is our lives.

Yeah. So we might have to restart some of that answer. That's fine. Yeah, so did you want to pick up where you left off? I was, yeah, I mean, the point is, is that this is, you know, a longstanding policy by Israel. It's just, like, very much accelerated. Like every other policy affairs when it comes to, you know, forcible displacement, collective punishment, you know, detentions. I mean, everything is at a record high and accelerating so quickly with this, you know, right wing, far right wing government that's, you know, has zero checks and balances, zero, nobody holds them accountable.

anything. And so, you know, they're able to get away with all of this. So, I mean, my, my sense is that, you know, very soon, you will no longer see kind of the longstanding organizations that have been here for decades that have very much understood the context very well and have understood that it's impossible to do the work that we do without also bearing witness and speaking out on what we're witnessing. And I think the UN in that way, you know, even the United Nations where in Palestine has made sure that the states committed to that mandate because of how important it is to speak out on what you're seeing around you. I think like that's purely, I think like, you know, we're the only ones that are able to witness

and record independently what we're seeing on a day-to-day basis. And I think the UN has been incredible in keeping a record of that. I mean, I think they started recording in 2008. So it's like 18 years now almost of monitoring violations all across the territory. And if it wasn't for the work that the UN has done in that, we wouldn't be able to say that there is a genocide being carried out in Gaza or that the risk of ethnic cleansing has risen exponentially in the West Bank. The reason why we're able to say this is because we're able to see the patterns and the data. and, you know, you can contest the data. But, you know, even you were talking about the IPC,

the IPC is not even reflective of what's really happening. And they say it themselves, but, you know, of course, the media, the way the media kind of focuses on what the results, because, you know, you only have time for sound bites. But if we read the IPC alerts, it's clear that, one, they're always delayed. So they're always talking about a time that's already passed and we're way beyond that. And two, it says,

that it doesn't have access to Gaza. But look at the testimonies, you know, just like just reading the testimonies that some of our organization have recorded in the last week, just talking about our own colleagues and how they're facing starvation themselves. I mean, I think the testimony speaks to themselves

on what is happening in Gaza, and I don't need the IPC to tell me that there's a classification four or five. It's never going to declare famine when it's not there. Like, there's never going to be a time where the IPC, because that's not even the role of the IPC, The role the IPC is not to declare a firmament.

The role the IPC is just to collect the data and publish the data. And then it's the role of the UN or another international body to do so. So we're not going to see a payment declaration because we don't have access. And so, you know, we're not going to be able to say that with confidence because the IPC is never going to be able to publish that data. But I don't think it matters. I think what matters is what we're seeing on the ground, what's being reported. And, you know, I mean, it's undeniable really. by the pictures themselves.

I mean, the videos and the pictures that are coming out of Gaza just speak for themselves, really. So it's definitely unprecedented times for us, and it's going to be a very, very interesting and frightening, terrifying year, to be frank. Yeah. No, I mean, as I said at the beginning, and there are, of course, critiques also of the limitations of the UN.

But this idea that they are wanting organizations as a condition of registering them to somehow not bear witness to what is happening and not to write reports about what's happening, it's a way of hobbling the ability of actually creating policies. Like, if you want to talk about famine or if you want to talk about poverty, as Oxfam does, how could you solve it without talking about the root cause in every way, in every direction, the Israeli government is attempting to hobble the ability of international. national organizations of the Palestinians themselves to be able to solve the root causes of these

problems. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it will have to be find creative ways, just like, you know, our Palestinian civil society partners that, you know, have been also designated, have had to find, you know, ways to continue doing their work. But, you know, I mean, even them, you know, they've lost funding. They've had to reduce their operations. They've had to reduce their field officers that go to the field and do this work. So, I mean, I it's it's so uncertain but I think the fact that many of these organizations have been here for so long understand so deeply the context I think organizations will also do whatever they can in order to ensure that they continue their important work here and find ways to continue

to work I don't know how it's really a new time for us like we've never been there before so we don't know what it looks like what what how we're going to be able to to continue our work but we're committed to that. So we will find, you know, whatever, I don't want to say loophole because, you know, there are none, but we'll find whatever way to continue, to continue kind of being here and being present and remaining present because I think it's also part of our commitment

to the work that we've been doing in OPT for decades. So, yeah. Yeah, I think maybe we should end on a discussion about the Ghazi Humanitarian Foundation. I mean, I've already mentioned it in a previous episode, so I encourage listeners to look into that. But I, you know, think it's important. We discuss what is this foundation

and what is the impact it has had on people in Gaza and on international organizations that are already doing this work. Yeah. Okay, the GHF or Gaza Humanitarian Foundation slash GHF, I don't like talking about it. as such, because the issue, of course, that's one of the issues, but GHF is part of many actors, okay, and it's not GHF.

GHF is a facade for many actors that, you know, the U.S. and Israelis, it's an Israeli plan. And I don't think we need to, we cannot, you know, I know there's U.S. military actors and GHF at, you know, the border and shooting at people, but this is an Israeli plan, okay? And we have to dub it as such. This plan actually came into, we started hearing about this plan a year and a half ago. It was maybe May last year. We saw the General Islands plan on what they wanted to do in the north when they started the ethnic cleansing campaign in the north of Gaza where they deceased the north and tried

to force everybody south. The idea then was already, they had already, we were already hearing about something called humanitarian bubbles. And the bubbles are the sites of what, it's what's, what's, what's been. become the sites, right? But this idea what has been floating around for more than 18 months, it's just that nothing kind of transpired

until May, I guess, that's when May the operation started. So it really launched this as an authorization mechanism. This is how it was originally kind of, and that would expand basically Israeli military control over how aid enters,

moves within, and is distributed inside Gaza. And of course, I mean, that and on own is a clear attempt to instrumentalize humanitarian aid. So, you know, and I think it's very important to clarify, you know, our organizations, we operate under extremely rigorous standards and mechanisms where we ensure that aid is not diverted. And I think aid diversion, you know, it's been talked about like Hamas aid. Diversion. It exists everywhere. It exists in every crisis we work in. Like it's something that

is part of, you know, crisis mode. Like, this is where when there's a crisis, when there's chaos, that's where there's space for informal actors to start popping up. So it's a symptom of every crisis around the world. And so, you know, it's not just a Gaza thing. So we have protocols on how we can ensure that aid diversion doesn't happen in operations. And of course, as humanitarian, we would never accept military or profit-driven intermediaries overriding what we call principled aid delivery.

Because it basically means that you're expanding military control over aid operations by an actual party to the conflict, which of course risks that aid will never reach the most vulnerable, you know, of course at a time when it was most needed. So from our perspective, there is no scenario where we would accept any attempts to militarize of privatized humanitarian aid, whether it's in Gaza or anywhere else, because such actions actually violate international humanitarian law.

But also, they undermine the core principles of humanitarian law, which are impartiality, independence, and humanity. These are principles that guide all of our work. And of course, what is the most dangerous about this model is not only the massacres that have occurred near daily at these food distribution sites

run by the GHF and other actors, it sets such a dangerous precedent where occupying powers around the world will now be able to dictate the terms of aid based on their political agendas and their military goals. That is what's effectively now happened. Is that if it's happened,

and Gaza, why can it not happen in Uganda, in D.R.C. and Sudan. The stuff you should know, guys, have made their own summer play of their must listen podcasts on movies. It's me, Josh, and I'd like to welcome you to the Stuff You Should Know Summer Movie Playlist. What Screams Summer?

More than a nice, darkened, air-conditioned theater, and a great movie playing right in front of you. Episodes on James Bond, special effects, stunt men and women, disaster films, even movies that change filmmaking, and many more. Listen to the Stuff You Should Know Summer Movie playlist on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Have you ever looked at a piece of abstract art or music? or poetry and thought, that's just a bunch of pretentious nonsense?

Well, that's exactly what two bored Australian soldiers set out to prove during World War II. When they pulled off what was either a bold literary hoax or a grand poetic experiment, publishing over a dozen intentionally bad but highly acclaimed works of expressionist poetry under the name Earn Malley in an incident that caused a media firestorm and even a criminal trial. The Earn Malley episode made fools of believers and critics alike and still fascinated. poetry lovers to this day. We break down the truth, the lies, and the poetry in between on hoax, a new podcast hosted by me, Lizzie Logan, and me, Dana Schwartz.

Every episode, hoax explores an audacious fraud or ruse from history, from forged artworks to the original fake news, to try and answer why we believe. Listen to hoax on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's the biggest party of the summer. WWE SummerSlam is here and wrestling with Freddie is all over it. We're talking wild matches, big surprises, and our boldest predictions yet.

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and those, oh my God, did that just happen, moments that make SummerSlam legendary. Don't miss it. Listen to Wrestling with Freddy as part of the MyCultura podcast network. Find us on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Noah. I'm 13, and as you might have seen from the news,

I got a podcast, and I explain those fake headlines like your uncle would, like your cousin would. Like your cousin would if he actually did the research. Honestly, adults don't ask the right questions. Now you know with Noah de Barroso is a show about influence. Who's got it, how they use it, and what it means for the rest of you. It's not the news. It's what the news should be if someone Gen Z or Gen Alpha made it.

And I'm watching everything. The majority of the youth, 18 through 24, say they trust Republicans more than Democrats to from the economy. You kidding me. Politics is wild and I'm definitely not here to payment, but I'm here to make sense of it. Just what's happening, why it matters, and what it means for us. Bring your brain.

Listen to Now You Know with Noah DeBarras on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And I want to also take it a little back. Let's talk about the peer. The pier last year is exactly the same, it's the same thing. It's an international company called Fogbo run by former U.S. military veterans and soldiers and others, other actors, that, you know, spent $320 million on a floating pier that brought virtually nothing in and in fact was used for one rescue mission, rescue operation by special forces, where they ended. entered, I think it was the way that camp, the refugee camp at the time, and we're able to obviously, yeah, rescue hostages, but kill, I mean, you know, dozens in that operation using

the pier. And hence why we're like, we do not, we would distance ourselves and from the beginning distance ourselves from the pier. There's no difference with the distribution sites. It's the same kind of idea that with logistics, we can, we can address a political issue. The issue of Gaza is not issue of logistics, the UN or INGOs don't know how to do the work, policies of society has been responding to the civilian needs in Gaza from before the war. Right. You know, 80% of the Gaza population was dependent on humanitarian assistance before the war. So, I mean, you know, but it's not that we didn't know how to do it.

It's that we were prevented from doing it. Right. We were deliberately prevented from doing it. So it's a political decision. It's not a logistical decision that prevents us from doing our war. work in Gaza. And so granting Israel control over who receives the aid, where they

received the aid, and from who has basically turned what is relief, what should be relief to the civilian population, into actually a tool of coercion because what we saw is massacres, people being shot indiscriminately at. I mean, we heard Dr. Nick Maynard yesterday. Yesterday,

he came back from Gaza a week ago where we've heard of children being shot in the testicles at these distribution sites. you know, and not one, he said he mentioned on the same day he saw a half a dozen boys with the same injury. Sniper shots. Sniper shots in the testicles at food distribution sites.

Right. So what's happened now is that what Israel has done is that it blurred the line between what humanitarian assistance is, what a military objective is. And of course, putting the civilian, Palestinian civilians and aid workers as well, because aid workers, we know of some of our colleagues in different organizations, but even the, themselves have had to go to these food distribution sites because there's nothing and we're unable to even support our own staff at risk. And of course, I mean, this entire system has eroded any protections that are guaranteed to aid workers and humanitarian responses under

international law and under the Geneva Conventions. So it's not only that it killed people and that it's harmed Palestinians, but it actually, it's also a complete disregard for international law, complete disregard of international law. And at the same time, I think what people failed to remember is that at the same time as this plan of the distribution sites was set being set up in the South, at the same time, Israel every two days was evacuating,

forcibly displacing, basically the population towards the South, right? And in less than two months, we've got almost a thousand Palestinians that were killed, but also an immense movement of the population towards the south because that's the only place that they had food, right? So, you know, this is not protection. This is complete coercion. You know, when you move aid into fence, supervised spaces under military is really military

control, frankly, and what we saw from the pictures, recall some of the darkest chapters of humanitarian failure of our history. It's not protection, it's coercion, and, you know, no countries, nobody should ever support a model that is basically treating civilians as prisoners. And that's not what humanitarian aid is about. Humanitarian responses have to be guided by international law. It has to remain voluntary. It has to be grounded in the dignity of the people.

And it has to be delivered impartially, not shaped by Israel's occupation or Israel's siege or Israel's military control. So not only has this scheme reinforced military control over the Gaza's ship, it has completely dehumanized Palestinians by design. line. Like, Palestinians are only worth a box of food. That's what, basically, essentially, what has happened is that we have, we have reduced a humanitarian response that addresses hospitals, medical care, water, sanitation, wastewater, shelter. It goes right to dignity to a box of flour, you know? That you can get killed getting. Or you get killed. And not only that,

it's a first come first serve. You know, it's whoever's the strongest. It's the survival of the fittest. That's not what humanitarian aid is about. We're supposed to meet the most vulnerable. We need to reach the pregnant moms, the people with disabilities, the record number of amputees in Gaza, the record number of disabled people in Gaza right now. Children, half of Gaza are children.

They are part of some of the most vulnerable sections of society. Age should be going to them. They don't have, they shouldn't have to come to us, walk for, you know, I mean, some people have said 20 kilometers they've had to walk to go to these distribution sites in the middle of the night, in sand dunes, they have to duck because otherwise they might get shot by sniper shot. And then when the gates of hell open of these, you know, fence zones, whatever you want to call them, I don't even like calling them distribution sites because they're not distribution sites. It implies that there's some sort of

like system to it. There's no system. It's literally the gates to hell and then everybody flows into, the, you know, floods. And we've heard of people carrying knives to protect themselves because they're getting looted because it's not enough, of course, food. And then there are gangs that are being weaponized by the, you know, so, and, and actually what I, what I was saying to people is that actually what GHF has created, it has created the perfect, it's the perfect recipe for armed gangs and aid diversion to occur. Like, it's actually, like, providing the perfect environment for these informal

actors, gangs, criminals to prosper to, you know, this is, this is, you're creating that kind of environment. Because let's just be very directed. This is not about aid. No, of course not. No, about coercion. It's about coercion. I mean, as you mentioned, from the very beginning, it was about sequestering Palestinians. Yeah. And they said it. Actually, and by the way, they said it, the Israeli War Cabinet has said that, you know, and it's like, we have to take things at face values sometimes. They said it. They've been saying it for the last year, we just, you know, waited until it happened on the ground to be able to now say it and confirm it. But this was their plan from the beginning and there was nothing implied. It was very

explicit. Right. No, I mean, very, very clear. And it really frustrates me personally because you know, Arab media, Palestinian journalists, Palestinians on the ground testimonies would say we're being arrested at these sites. They're using facial recognition. They're very much politicizing aid, and it took forever for us to even be able to say it, to even be able to report on it until Western media source is confirmed. Yesterday, a number of children were released from being arrested at these aid sites. And I couldn't mention that in things that I wrote, because they didn't believe Palestinian testing. I mean, the GHF contractor themselves, themselves have admitted

to what is happening and everything that we've been seeing and saying and warning. I mean, you know, I'd like to say as well, I mean, I want to underscore actually, humanitarians have been underlining this very, very explicitly to everybody since before they were even set. So

you know, I can sleep with a clear conscience that we did what we needed, you know, what we could do. And we did warn that this would happen and this would be the result. And now here we are. Right. No, I mean, it's absolutely important. For calling.

So I want to mention to listeners, I will put in the show notes a lot of, you know, these citations, the UN reporting that close to 1,000 people have died at these sites. Yeah. The doctor, Nick Maynard, speaking to Channel 4 News in Britain about what he saw. Yeah. I also want to point listeners to a volume that was released called Suppressing Descent, edited by Zaha Hassan and H. H.A. Hellier, because full disclosure, I do have a chapter in that book, but it's about the shrinking

civic space prior to October 7 and the dynamics that we have seen, you know, basically playing out at this point. Thank you so much, Bushra, for coming and speaking with us under such severe circumstances and explaining, I think, really succinctly. The dangers of this moment, because what what is happening in Gaza will change the world. It will change everywhere. And it already is. I think, you know, I would tell listeners go look at AP's article on

Fogbo in Uganda and Sudan. We're already seeing it. It's not even that it will change the world. We're already seeing the precedent that Gaza has set for other humanitarian crises. And for these military actors and private contractors to profit from misery. Like, that's

essentially what is happening. It's happening. So, you know, I would also direct you to that article from AP that came out a couple weeks ago about the same companies operating in Gaza and being complicit in the atrocities that we're seeing unfold in Gaza now operating in other contexts and crises, humanitarian crises.

Really? Terrible, breaking world. Yeah, I know. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. Thanks, Dana. Thank you. And hopefully see you soon and talk to you soon. Inshallah. Take care. What Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website,

coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources for It Could Happen here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening. The stuff you should know guys have made their own summer playlist of their must listen podcasts on movies.

It's me, Josh, and I'd like to welcome you to the Stuff You Should Know Summer movie playlist. What Screams Summer? more than a nice darkened, air-conditioned theater and a great movie playing right in front of you. Episodes on James Bond, special effects, stunt men and women, disaster films, even movies that change filmmaking, and many more.

Listen to the stuff you should know summer movie playlist on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Have you overlooked at a piece of abstract art or music or poetry and thought, that's just a bunch of pretentious nonsense? That's exactly what two bored Australian soldiers set out to prove during World War II. when they trick the literary world with their intentionally bad poetry,

setting off a major scandal. We break down the truth, the lies, and the poetry in between on hoax, a new podcast hosted by me, Lizzie Logan, and me, Dana Schwartz. Every episode, Hoax explores an audacious fraud or ruse from history. Listen to Hoax on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We're breaking down SummerSlam, the biggest party of the summer on wrestling with Freddie,

From our bold picks to storyline breakdowns, we will discuss who walks out with gold, who shocks the night, and which matches steal the show. We call the winners, the upsets, and the chaos to expect, plus whatever swerves nobody saw coming. Listen to Wrestling with Freddy

as part of the MyCultura podcast network available on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When I became a journalist, I was the first Latina in the newsrooms where I worked. I'm Maria Inojosa. I spent my career creating journalism that centers voices who have been historically sidelined. From the most pressing news stories to deep cultural explorations, Latino USA is journalism with heart.

Listen to Latino USA, the longest running Latino news and culture show in the United States. Hear it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.