Rev Left Radio - [BEST OF 2025] On The Ground in Gaza: Serving the People in Palestine

Episode Date: January 5, 2026

Feb 10, 2025   Willy Massay returns to the show to discuss his recent (second) trip to Gaza as a medical volunteer. He got back two weeks ago and stayed for over a month. He discusses his heart-wrenching experiences, the wintry conditions and terrible air quality in Gaza and how both are impacting the health of every single Palestinian on the ground. He also discusses the ceasefire, the spirit of the Palestinian people, the insane cruelty and horrific war crimes of Israel, and his personal relationships and experiences with Palestinians. Outro Song: "Kettering" by The Antlers Donate to 3 displaced families in Gaza HERE Donate to Fidaa and her children in Gaza HERE Learn more about Rahma Worldwide HERE Learn more about Jewish Voices for Peace HERE Learn more about Nebraskans for Palestine HERE   -------------------------------------------------- Support the show on Patreon Follow RLR on IG HERE Make a one-time donation to Rev Left at BuyMeACoffee.com/revleftradio

Hello everybody and welcome back to Rev Left Radio. All right, today we have back on the show. Honestly, a fan favorite, one of my personal favorite guests, and we have the added benefit of being local, so he is in studio. Willie from our previous episode on Gaza Solidarity as Service. He has returned from another trip to Gaza, this time for 36 days. He's been back for about a week, and I think it's very helpful to catch back up on developments in Palestine.

his experiences in Palestine, etc. Most of you will remember him from the previous episode, but for those who don't, Willie, can you kind of reintroduce yourself and explain kind of who you are? Yes, my name is Willie. I am a local nurse here in Omaha Nebraska in critical care. So I have been here for about eight years.

And I just returned from Gaza for my second mission trip during this genocide. And, you know, I heard a lot from you folks after my first interview. So I thought that it's really important for all of you, our listeners, to get a proper image of what is happening right now in Gaza and carrying on, piggybacking on from the previous experience. Yeah.

And, you know, this is obviously a fluid situation. A lot has changed. We're going to get into eventually we're going to talk about Trump and the ceasefire, etc. But I think the place to start is kind of just walk us through this second trip. You were there for 36 days. How have things changed since your first trip? And just what was your, what was, how did you spend your time in Gaza and where in Gaza were you at? So the process to go in was very difficult. Israeli will make it very impossible for you to go in. So the first time I entered, I tried to enter day one.

I was denied. I had to return to Amanda Jordan. But then two days later, they allowed me to go in. So it was very, very cumbersome process again. But this time I went to Al-Axa hospital. So we were receiving patients in Derbalah and Al-Mawesi, Rafa, and some patients coming from a New Israel camp, as you all know. Newzarat was a really hard hit and Rasfa was also being hit very hard. So the genocide was

horrific at that time too. So yeah. Yeah. How had things changed on the ground, if at all, since the last time you were there? The genocide has not changed. The devastation and destruction and death from Israeli military are horrific still. But what has gotten worse is the other illnesses that were happening, chronic illnesses, and as well as acute illnesses, for example, diarrhea, upper respiratory infections, because the air quality is very, very poor in Gaza.

Skin diseases, for example, I saw things like scabies. Skabies is very, very contagious. It spreads really fast. It's from a basic nutrition deficiency as well, right? Yes.

So people are just not getting the right nutrients. Yes. Not nutrients and then they start getting this. And then also the environment is very poor. It's very dirty because of no sanitation. Israeli has destroyed all the civilian infrastructure. So there's these bugs, these mites who are growing in the environment that will get into your skin and then they lay eggs in your skin.

and then those that are producing these blisters and itchy skin. And then, you know, it's just very, very, very contagious. And I have some images here. But also things like this has things that have changed like quasha coal. Symptoms like quashore that I've seen. The last time I saw quashicose was growing up in Africa where my nutrition causes this, you know, symptoms like big fat bellies, but it's not really fat. It's just because they're distended.

Distended brittle hair, falling hair, children, the hairs are falling. You see this situation where the skin is crackly and it's thin, eyes popping out, cheeks are puffy, but that's not because they are eating healthy or they are, but it's just because they are malnutrition. So I've seen a lot of those communicable diseases, you know, patients coming in dying of dehydration. And also weather, weather was horrific at this time because when I was there last time was summer. This time it was winter and it's very cold. People living in tiny thin paper-like tents.

We had the day, we had, in one week, we had six children die of hypothermia. And we had a nurse that died too because he was protecting his children. He didn't have anything himself to cover himself with that night. So, yeah, situation was really worse. Yeah, so, I mean, you know, when you destroy an entire society and disrupt its entire civil infrastructure, you have chronic illnesses, terrible air quality, terrible sanitation, malnutrition, dehydration, exposure to the elements. These things intensify. So you were there last time in the summer. The genocide continues.

Civil societies further destroyed. Chronic illnesses have time to continue to spread. And then you enter the cold, wintery months. And so that just adds a whole other layer of not only exposure to the elements, but obviously we know that in cold, you know, parts of the year, that's when, you know, diseases and respiratory infections are more likely to spread. So you have all those elements just kind of completely combining to create incredible misery. And I would assume that there's pretty much no person who is in Gaza who has not suffered directly in some way from these ailments. No, everybody is suffering.

And remember, when we're in Gaza, after Israeli has destroyed everything, people moved into hospitals and these are displaced families. So the same area we are living as emergency medical teams from overseas, that's the same area that patients are living and displaced families. So everyone is affected, either because their friend has been murdered and killed by Israeli forces or their family has been wiped out and their homes destroyed. Then they come in, you know, they have nothing. They have no protection from the elements.

So diseases spread really quick. You know, one toilet being used by, you know, 1,200 people outside. It's impossible, you know, you see a long line using the bathroom in the morning with barely any water, barely any sanitation systems, barely any soap to use to wash your hands. It's a total ethnic cleansing 101. You mentioned you were working this time in Al-Oxka Hospital. How is that hospital holding up? Do you, I mean, has it gotten worse since the last time you visited? Do you still have access to basic medical equipment?

What's the terrain on that front look like? It's getting worse because lack of equipment, lack of supplies, lack of antibiotics or medication, lack of gods. And also, remember this, folks, that people were displaced from the north. All people from Jabalia and the entire northern Gaza were in the south now and central Gaza. These are millions of people now. 1.2 million people in this tiny little area, Gaza is not big by itself anyway. So all these people are depending on this one tiny hospital that barely functions.

And so the situation was catastrophic. And meanwhile, Israel was bombing New Israel, Israel was still bombing Rafa, and still bombing Derbalah where we were. So to say that the situation was catastrophic is an understatement, the total brutality of Israeli occupation forces is something that the world has never seen. And the world is honestly being exposed to it less as time goes on because the ability for people on the ground in Gaza to get those images and those videos out have been systematically repressed and destroyed. And I think mainstream news has, I think, an easier.

time than they did at the very beginning of the conflict, suppressing those videos, that news, you know, I mean, you have to, if you're on these major social media websites, and certainly if you're trying to look at mainstream media, I mean, mainstream media is not going to show anything, but on even social media sites, you have to have a certain algorithm, you have to be in a certain part of that social media ecosystem in order to see any of this at all. And the videos and stuff coming out has lowered. So getting somebody that has been on the ground, getting their first person perspective of how things are, I think is increasingly crucial as the images and these narratives been increasingly squashed across the West. And so, yeah, that's absolutely

disgusting. Al-A hospital, is that the last functioning hospital in Gaza or one of them? So there's Al-Axha hospital that is last functioning hospital. There is Nassar Hospital in the south and the European Gaza Hospital, they're barely functioning. We remember in the summer that a European Gaza Hospital was completely evacuated and nothing was left there. So the ER is barely functioning. We are at Alaska Hospital, you know, the ER is partially functioning, but there's also medical ICU, surgical ICU. There's only about four, five beds in each of them.

But every patient, all patients are sleeping on the ground. the patients are families and patients are all over the hospital and these tiny little you know areas where patients have to kind of like gather with their families you know and there's nothing

there's really nothing but remember too that when I was there that's when Kamal Adwan was completely annihilated Indonesian hospital in the north

were completely annihilated so all these folks were forced to move Some of course were lost. Some of them are killed by Israeli forces. So, yeah, the hospital situation is catastrophic in Gaza. Did you personally come in, I mean, aside from entering Gaza, did you personally witness or come into contact with Israeli forces? Yes. Are you, or are you did? Okay. Yes, we did. Every checkpoint you enter. So we leave Amman. We get to to, to, Kamaladuan through King Hussein bridge in

in Amman. So then, so from that checkpoint you start seeing Israeli forces. So those ones work for Kogat. But then once you cross into Gaza and through the, yes we, we saw a lot of them.

And yeah, it's pretty unreal to see one in person and see I don't know how many children you've murdered. Yeah, exactly. You just wonder, your mind keep racing. You look at this person, you're thinking,

how many bombs did you drop? Absolutely. Or how many children did you shoot? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it is genuinely akin to, like, visiting a concentration camp in Germany at the time, like, you know, walking past those sorts of soldiers and knowing that they've all participated

in this brutal, disgusting, you know, genocidal mass murder campaign. And just like the Nazi Holocaust was the, you know, the greatest crime of the 20th century. So far, it is incredibly clear to me

that was happening in Gaza and in Palestine more broadly is the biggest crime against humanity of the 21st century. Yeah. And to piggyback on what you just said, Brett, when you look at the society in Israel

in general, you're morally they question this. You say, these are the folks that their ancestors survived the worst genocide in human history of the 20th century. Why are they doing this to another people? Their ancestors survived the Holocaust. I used to teach the Holocaust. I used to be a teacher. And I used to tell my students, never again. And so now they're asking me, What did you mean by never again? So the world has to, the world has to wake up and say,

how can Israel do this to the Palestinian people? How can we forget history? How can we stay silent and not speak up? I'm a healthcare worker. I can only do so much. But what about media? What about civil services? How about, you know, civilians out here?

People, you know, your regular folks on the streets, what are we doing to stop this genocide and settler colonialism against Palestinian people? Yeah. Absolutely. I actually just, I'm getting my master's degree in education currently, and last spring I was in a 4,000-level graduate mixed. undergraduate high-level history course, specifically on the Holocaust. And it was going on during the genocide in Palestine.

And I'm sure the teacher didn't want to bring up politics. He tried to stay away from it. But as we're learning it, I'm sort of in this surreal position where everything we're talking about is in one way, shape, or form happening as we speak, but nobody's talking about it. Nobody's bringing it up. And I made people uncomfortable by punctuating or, you know, puncturing that silence. and bringing it up. We had a speaker come in

that was, you know, kind of basically spitting out Zionist talking points, basically saying like the idea, don't call it Palestine. Palestine doesn't exist. It's called Israel, you know, saying things like that. And everybody was kind of quiet. Nobody would speak up. And, you know, I raised my hand

and kind of spoke up and pushed the person on it. It's a tiny act, but I'm just, that cognitive dissidents of being in a high-level course, of thinking people, studying the crimes of Nazi Germany during the Holocaust, and not being able to overtly communicate the fact that this is directly tied to current events that actually all of us in our room, by virtue of paying taxes, are funding, and by virtue of our silence, our complicit in. It's just, yeah, it's brutal. But I'm wondering, how were you treated by, when you came across these forces, how were you personally treated? And did it differ at all from last time? Um, not different.

Um, you know, as a brown man, you know, you always, you always kind of feel that, I know, I'm not too sensitive sometimes. But yet, you always feel that sense of, um, like this Israeli soldier was looking at me. He's like, why are you going to Gaza? I was like, because I want to be in Gaza. I know. He says, I said, have you been to Gaza? says yes. I said, well, how are the situation? He says, I don't know, because they're all anti-Semitic. I said, no, no. I said, not everybody can just be anti-Semitic if you are not

doing something, you know, and you cannot, you cannot mix, everything cannot be anti-Semitism. If you're monitoring children and you're a settler colonial state, you cannot blame. You blame everybody that questions your morality, your government, your fabric of the society as a racist state, you cannot blame everybody everything for anti-Semitism. And for whatever reason, this soldier had learned that I was, you know, of course he can tell that I was naturalized citizens. So he knew that, oh, I was born somewhere else. And he said, well, you're born. I said in Tanzania. He said, oh, is it good country? Is it safe? I said, safety is relative.

And I said, have you been to Africa? I said, no, because they hate Jews. I said, no, they don't hate Jews. They don't hate Jews. They might hate Zionism. They hate Zionism because everyone that's human has to absolutely be against Zionism. And he's like, I don't, you know, I think he just walked away. Yeah, it doesn't really compute.

No. Because in that society, in order to maintain that violent settler colonial society, the ideology that the people have to be conditioned with have to facilitate that. And so the ideology that emerges is one of you're taking the genuine victimhood that Jewish people faced throughout history, and you're turning that into an excuse to victimize the other. And nothing is more anti-Semitic, in my opinion, for what my opinion's worth, than committing mass murder and genocide in the name of Judaism. that is actually tying this beautiful historical, religious, cultural tradition of Judaism

in with the absolute worst impulses of a settler colonial genocidal state and saying, actually, these two things are the same thing. That is anti-Semitism. That makes Jewish people less safe around the world, and it's disgusting. I want a safe world for all people, and Jewish people have every right to be traumatized by their historical experiences. Correct. But that does not give you the right. not only to inflict that on others, but to use that trauma and that pain and the genuine desire for self-determination to build that on the corpses and rubble and land of another people.

Yes. And that's the fundamental crime. Exactly. I taught world of religions. I taught Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Jainism, Sikhism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Buddhism, Buddhism, Buddhism, Buddhism, Buddhism, Buddhism, all of that. And Judaism is a beautiful religion. Absolutely. You know, but Zionists have hijacked the religion to justify their brutal occupation and settler colonialism of the Palestinian people.

You cannot use religion to murder, kill, maim, and occupy Palestinian people. But the Jewish people, the non-Zionist Jewish people know that. They get it. Absolutely. But sometimes maybe the Jewish people don't want to speak up because of their trauma from the Holocaust, from the Nazis. But I think I'm asking my Jewish brothers and sisters out there, if you have not spoken out against Zionism, please do. Because Zionism is tournishing and killing your beautiful religion, your beautiful tradition, is convoluting your beautiful. your traumatic historical event of the Holocaust,

that six million Jews were murdered that we know of. It could be more. Absolutely. So I'm asking my Jewish brothers and sisters, speak against Zionism because Zionism does not represent you. Our mutual friend actually who connected us, Daniel, he's been on the show in the past as well. He's Jewish and he invited me for the first time to his family's Passover dinner.

And so I got to, for the first time in my life, experience, you know, this Jewish holiday and this Jewish tradition. And it was beautiful. And when you're doing the readings and you're learning about the history of Judaism, what comes through for me and what came through at that dinner, it was like this long history of resistance to tyranny. You know, this emphasis on liberation, this emphasis on human connection and interdependence, this refusal to be subjugated and oppressed. and the long history of Jewish people fighting against oppressors and tyrants and, you know, genocide errors. And so, you know, I think when we're talking about this, we always have to save Judaism from Zionism by emphasizing that element that is deeply embedded within Judaism, that human spirit that you can find in the best of every religious tradition. Every religious tradition has its liberatory, revolutionary, deeply human, beautiful sides.

And every religious tradition also has its fascistic, authoritarian reactionary side. It's like a spectrum. And we have to save the beautiful sides of every religious tradition from their, you know, grotesque, reactionary, abusive sides. And I think that's what's happening here. Yeah. And that's the same thing. The Palestinian people have been fighting for 76 years. Before arrival of Zionism in Palestine, Palestinian people lived in.

peace. And they had Jewish neighbors. They were living in peace, the land of Palestine. But since Zionism arrived, killing and displacing Palestinian people from their homes and land, 750,000 displaced and kicked out of their homes. And that's why the image of keys, of a key for the Palestinian family is really important. they say they will return and I know they will return

and and the Jewish people who have survived brutal historical events that you know they can associate with that they can see that hey we want people

to live in peace over and over and over again people in Gaza they say this I just want to live with peace I just want to live with and raise my family. I just want to be me and do my work and feed my family

and educate them and let them grow up. That's all they're asking. And they kept saying, I am tired, brother. He says, brother, I am tired of being a slave in my own land.

Of being a nobody in my own land. Or being occupied. I have no freedom to move Arugaza. Some of them, they were in the north. These teenagers, they have never even been to the south before. They're 18, 19, because of the restrictions from the Israelis.

So I think you are absolutely right. We cannot allow religious fanatics to overtake good elements of religion. And you mentioned that there has been a history of Muslims and Jewish people and Christians, in some instances throughout history in that area of the world, living in peace as more or less equals. And that's the thing that Zionism rejects.

The very possibility that Jewish and non-Jewish people in that area could live as under a single government of equality, constitutional protections for all, and be seen as equal with one another. So once you have a political ideology that says, I'm fundamentally hostile to the idea that I have to live,

live as equals with these people, you're getting into fascism territory because that it requires you to expel them, to denigrate them, to dehumanize them, and to teach children coming up in Israel. You know, Israel always says, like, Hamas is teaching, you know, Palestinians to hate Jewish people. But what are you doing when you inculcate Zionism? And actually what you do is this abusive weaponization of fear where you're saying, look what the Jewish people have been through. That's true. These people want to do it again. The whole world hates you. Live in a state of perpetual fear and hatred of others because if you don't, then you will be prayed upon once again. So when you tell that to an 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 year old kid, that's a form of sort of psychological abuse.

Because it makes them feel in a fundamentally hostile world where they grow up to feel like they have to do these sort of disgusting acts. Because if they don't, then they're going to be set upon by the world and destroyed. And it just ravages children in Gaza through the bombings and the malnutrition and the suffering. And even in so-called Israel, where the children are raised with this hate and this fear that is imposed on them. It's all disgusting. It's all a crime against humanity. Yeah. You've seen the videos of the Israeli settlers going into the hills of, uh, overlooking Gaza and watching, they call it fireworks.

With their children, this are birthday, these are birthday celebrations. Watching Gaza being wiped out, being carpeted. you know, carpet bombed. That's what they call it fireworks. These sellers. For us here in America, think about that. Let that sink in. Taking your children, watching other children being bombed and being shredded by the bombs we paid for.

Think about it. Yeah, when I do think about that, there's a parallel in American history where that occurred, which is in the Jim Crow South and actually throughout the country, the lynching of black people became a community event where white people would come out, bring their children, and they would stand around and watch a black person be lynched. Here in Omaha, in the 1800s, Will Brown, falsely accused of sexually assaulting a white woman, was jailed. you know, in the downtown here in Omaha, was set upon by a white racist mob. They literally broke into the fucking jail, pulled him out, strung him up by lampposts,

shot him over and over again, burned his body, dragged it through the street. The mayor that came down to try to stop it, was also he survived, but was strung up on the light pole. It was a brutal chapter in this place that I live right now,

Omaha, Nebraska, born and raised, not even the quote unquote south where this horrific event happened. The National Guard had to be sent in just to stop the race riot. And so there is that parallel in human history, and it's the absolute fucking worst of humanity. That aspect of humanity.

It's grotesque, and it is the evil aspect of our human nature. And for us, the American people, we have similar history to what is happening in Palestine today. Different roads, checkpoints after checkpoints, settler colonialism, taking Palestinian lands by force, annihilated in Gaza. We learned from history, my friends, out there. We learned.

We know what we did to the black folks in America. We cannot watch the same thing happen to the people in Palestine. Let me tell you something. I saw this. I saw children shredded. By our bombs. How can we allow that to happen, knowing our own history? If you speak who will, why will we watch a father lose his entire family by our bombs, you know, from Israeli military forces?

and why will a mother be a widow because her entire family has been wiped out? Why will these children today live in a world where they have lost both of their parents annihilated by our bombs? And if we look back as American people, we know what we did from the example of Brett Geh, lynching, you know, the total massacre of people here, slavery, we should be the beacon of hope, beacon of freedom and stop any, because we have come a long way. We're not a perfect union yet. We have still have some of those elements of racism, fascism, all that. But we have come a long way. Those who don't remember history are condemned to repeat it.

that's George Santana. Absolutely. Absolutely. I don't think you can understand the present and you can't even understand yourself if you don't understand history. And I believe that the Americans that are apathetic, that look away, that remains silent, you dehumanize yourself by doing that. It's too easy. I mean, it's easy if you're an American right now to just be like, hey, it's out of my control. What can I do about it? I'm just going to look away and focus on my personal life. When you do that, you disconsored. connect yourself from your own humanity and you belittle yourself spiritually, existentially, in all the ways that matter, you become a smaller person. And it hurts to see.

It hurts to look and to know that in some sense, because we're a part of this death machine by paying taxes and working and all that stuff that we are in some sense complicit. And what that should bring about is not a sense of passive shame, but a profound sense of responsibility. That if I'm going to, if they're doing this in my name, if I'm paying for those bombs, If my government is doing this with my tax dollars and in my name, I have a responsibility to look, to be educated, to do whatever I can to contribute to it stopping, to speak out bravely and courageously, and to inform others about it. And that's a responsibility no matter if you have a platform or not, if you, you know, you live in a small town or a big city where whatever your life circumstances are, you can take that responsibility up or you can look away from it. And there's two different types of people, the people that pick up that responsibility and the people that turn away.

And I understand, to some extent, I have compassion for wanting to look away because it fucking hurts. It brutalizes you to look into the eyes of suffering human beings. And, you know, there's a human recoiling away because of that pain. But I think opening up your heart, facing that pain courageously, and then taking on the responsibility that comes with it is the only thing that, like, a spiritually mature human being can do. I remember this. The fact that Israeli is bombing and killing children, I remember things like headless children coming in. Mothers and fathers shredded their legs because of the Israeli bombing. Another aspect that is really critical that I want people to remember is this.

Israelis quadcopters started shooting children Palestinian boys in the groin area and what that does this is this is it completely destroys their

reproductive organs I have images here of children bullets in the groin area boys they shoot them from the back or from the front so that way it to me that is a total ethnic cleansing.

Sterilization. Sterilization by gun. God, yeah. And it's a repeated pattern, so you know they're doing it. Over and over and over again. My first patient in Gaza this last time was

a 7-year-old boy who was playing outside his tent. He was by himself. The quadcopter was flying around. They just shot him. three bullets on his groin. The family comes in. He was the strongest little boy.

He was not crying. We didn't have anesthesia. We didn't have, you know, we're trying to do an assessment. And, you know, the two bullets are lodged in. Then I'm going to get out. You know, the surgeon looked at them. It's like, I don't think we can get him out in Gaza, at least. Maybe someone else.

But that's just one. there's many many many others after that that is yeah I mean as brutal as it can possibly get not only attacking children but it is a form of ethnic cleansing because you're purposely trying to prevent them from reproducing later in life that's what that's about that's what it's about

can you talk about your I mean the horrors and the tragedies we understand and you know they're worth saying because you need to see the realities and the contours of what's actually happening and the life's actually impacted but last time you came on you talked about your personal relationship with the Palestinians that you met, their generosity. And that was a

heartening aspect of it because, you know, under the worst crimes of the century and under unimaginable conditions, there's still a beauty, a love for life, a generosity to strangers, right? That is profound and speaks not only to the Palestinian spirit, but to the best of the human spirit. Can you talk about some of the positive relationships that you might have been able to, you know, develop this time around? Yes. One of the relationships I developed was with the kids, the kids that were living in the sleeping on the hospital hallways. So every morning I get up, I go get ready, and I'm going to the emergency room. These kids will be outside playing and will be waiting. Really? Really? I'm like, I don't even know how they remember my name. But, you know, I started giving

them some chocolates that I brought in because these kids have not had chocolate. piece of chocolate for over 14 months or so and so we'll take they will be asking me Sura, Sura, Sura, Sura means let's take a picture, let's take a picture and we'll take a picture and

they taught, they said teaching me how to count in Arabic and I can count up to 20 now so I'm getting better. Amazing, amazing children and these children will be saying can I come with you to America? Can I see how America looks like?

I said, I wish I can take all you to America. But there's a lot of American people who love you, but there's some who probably will hate you just because you're from Gaza. I don't say that to them. Of course, yeah. But they just hear America and they're like, oh, you're from America. How's America?

You know, do you know my cousin that his name is so-and-so? He lives in this city. He drives a Mercedes-Benzuela. I said, it's a big country. It's a big, big country. But this is the worldview I want folks to remember. The worldview of these children growing up in Gaza, Gaza is very small. So everybody knows everybody.

So it's kind of cute in a way that everybody knows everybody. If you're looking for someone in Gaza and they want you to, you know, somebody will know someone. They will find for you. But this is the worldview they see. It's how they look at this. They're lens. I said, no, but, you know. I'll keep an eye out.

I'll keep an eye out, you know. But is that innocence and the beauty of the Palestinian people? I want to tell folks this. I want to tell you all this. Palestinian people are the most resistant, most beautiful, powerful people you ever meet. The generosity and the kindness of the people. It's amazing. one night we were just sitting there and somebody had,

somebody had, uh, uh, uh, Nescafe, two packets of Nescafe. There was like eight of us. So this brother is like,

okay, we got a, we got a Nescafe. I'm looking, how many Nescafe? It's like, oh, I got two packets.

So he brought this tiny little cups of coffee. Mm-hmm. To split that Nescafe of two pockets to all these eight guys. Mm. And I'm thinking, I'm an American and I'm, I have a, I have about,

20 Nescafey packets in my bag I'm keeping I'm trying to I'm trying to say this will for tomorrow and I'm thinking why am I worried about tomorrow

just bring all the Nes cafe right now to this brothers let's enjoy it and these sisters here what's the point because that's what he was doing that's what he was doing it's like this is all he had and it's like here we go

let's enjoy it let's drink the next cafe it's the middle of the night but meanwhile you know as in America We want to think forward. Okay, I'm going to preserve this for tomorrow.

We keep things. We hold things. And I'm thinking, why am I holding this cafe for the next 20 days? I'm just going to give it out. Let's do it. I can survive without a nurse cafe. So the generosity and the kindness of the people, it's amazing. I had this respiratory infection when I was there.

My second week, I was really, really sick. But I said, I am going to work. I'm going to work. You can take me over my dead body. I will still be working unless I'm really dead, dead. And this nurses and doctors, they're bringing me herbs like sage and mint. Mint is not available when now is winter,

but somehow somebody's founded. They're bringing all these herbs that some of them, I don't even remember the names. They're like, you drink this with a little honey. There's no honey. somehow somebody found a tiny little bottle of honey. They brought it to help me. And the people I went to take care of,

they became my nurses and my doctors, my care care care. And teachers. And teachers teaching me about these herbs. And my flu cleared. So this is the people that we are watching, that Israel is ethnically cleansing. And all they're asking is for the world to wake up. Please wake up and see our cause.

Please fight for us. This is all what the Palestinian people are asking. One of the things I really appreciate and love about you is that, you know, we understand that these are people that are victimized. We understand their tragedies, the suffering that they have to endure. And that's all important to emphasize. But what you also do is you emphasize their positive traits, the positive aspects of their humanity.

They're not just victims. They're not just, you know, people that are destroyed by suffering and imposed upon. They have their own positive human spirit that needs to be emphasized as well. And the best, the truth about a human being is brought out in times of extremists, right? It's when you are under the most stress, when you have the most to lose, when things are at their highest pitch, that who you really are emerges. And what you seem to be saying is time and time again, whether children, adults or elderly, that what emerges from the Palestinian people is a spirit of generosity and love and care for others. And that speaks to who they really are at the end of the day.

Yes. And I kept telling people in Palestine that you teach us to be human. You remind us of when our souls are dead, when our hearts are dead from hate and racism and prejudice and settler colonialism. You remind us, you say, together, together we can fight the evil of this world. Together we can be our people that future generations can remember for the good we did for each other. These are the most big folks. You just have to go to Palestine.

Please go. You will see the generosity of the people. When Jimmy Carter, our former president, may he rest in peace, When the Israeli government refused him security to go to the West Bank, he went by himself. I remember that, yeah, that story. And Jimmy Carter was received like a royalty. The Palestinian people showed him so much love. They wanted him to drink from their cups.

Drink tea with Marmia, that's a sage. Drink tea with Nana. That is men. They tell him come eat with us our m'globba. That's like upside down rice, very delicious meal. They want to tell him come eat labna with us. You know, that's bread and zatar and come, come eat with us. Come, come eat with our malfoof.

Come eat, come eat with us. Yeah. Be with us. These are the people that the world has been watching and looking away. I'm a health care worker, but I also see, I also see the humanity and the kindness and the generosity of the people of Palestine. And that is what I want you to remember. These are not just some random people being murdered and killed and maimed by our taxpayer dollars by Israel. But these are the people who are saying, we still love you.

we still care for the world right yeah and I think what that Jimmy Carter story really highlights is like that that idea like you know Jimmy Carter's coming to a Palestine Israel's like these are dangerous people

these are animals you're going to need to have security and he just says no no no I'm going in as a human being and what he's met with is not danger and threats and crime and he's met with just overwhelming love and generosity and you know for all the faults of any American president

the fact that that he did that, I think, is wonderful. And what it does more than anything is just reveal the true spirit of the Palestinian people. Yeah, read his book. Read Jimmy Carter's book. Look at how he was treated after he went to, after he spoke about the atrocities of Israel and against Palestinian people. Look how the West treated him. You know, he was not treated very well.

His book is out there is, oh, you can buy it, about Palestine. By that book, read it. That's the first American president that has spoken against the atrocities of Israel. First and only, right? First and only. But look at how the media in America, the mainstream media, cannot even talk about him. Don't want to talk about that book. Most presidents will go and talk about their books and about their adventures around the world.

They don't want to mention him in the same light as like, Barack Obama or Bill Clinton. No, he's like a forbidden person. But in my opinion, he's a just man. He's in a beautiful soul. Yeah, in that instance, what he does is he humanizes the Palestinian people, and that's unacceptable to the Western media. Yes.

They can humanize the Israelis. They refuse to humanize the Palestinians. In fact, they dehumanize them, call them terrorists, and do all the ideological. groundwork to prepare people's minds to be passive in the face of mass murder. That's their job and they've done that for decades. I want to tell you folks, the person that I met that humanized that, you see, Khalid Naban, the rooh, the soul of my soul, the father, the grandfather that his granddaughter,

RIM was murdered. She was three years old by Israelis at the beginning of the war, I think last October. Khalid Naba and I met him this last time when I was there He you know He became because of the word That Israel he said this That Israel killed the soul of my soul Folks

Let us think in Arabic is such a beautiful Language is so powerful The words cannot be translated in English The soul of my soul Roah Roh The soul my soul And so the He be

became pretty very famous around the world about he because he he shared videos and pictures of his granddaughter RIM that he used to play with her he would bring a chocolate she would teach him you know she was so in love with her grandfather kind of grandfather so I wanted to meet this man this larger than life man because you know Israel wants to show the world that these Palestinian people are not humans so they want to show us that. But time and time again, what the Palestinian

people are showing us is that what Israel is trying to show is false. We are beautiful people by our actions, by our kindness, by our love. So Khalid Naban is one of those Palestinians that

became larger than life. Showing the true Palestinian spirit. The true Palestinian Samud, which is resistance and love.

I met him. He came to the hospital, Alaksa Hospital. And I had,

I brought him a sweatshirt that says Gaza, the soul of my soul that was made and created

by wear the peace, American company here. Beautiful people. Murad is a beautiful brother.

And, And so I gave him the gift that I bought with me. And he wore it in the ER. So we were about to drink coffee. And then all of a sudden there was mass casualties come in. Mass casualties. I think that afternoon there was like 20 people arrived at the same time. Some of them in donkey carts.

Some of them in like really broken cars. And he said, I had to leave because I was getting busy because the patient's coming in. He said, we'll drink coffee tomorrow. He would be back. That morning, the next morning, still wearing his sweatshirt, I brought him, the soul of my soul, drinking coffee in front of his home. Khalid Nabatin was targeted and killed by Israeli forces. Oh, my God.

One strike. Right in front of his home. We're in the sweater you just gave him the day before. Yes. he's buried with it. I was in my room. I went upstairs to get something. And one of the fellow doctors

from the U.S., she called me, and she says, hey, you cannot believe this. I said, what? At first I thought she meant that these mass casualties coming in. Sometimes it's too many people coming at the same time. I wasn't sure what she wasn't meant.

she says your friend has been killed by Israel I said who she says Khalid Naban has been killed I said he was coming this afternoon what do you mean he's killed he was coming back to drink coffee with me and yeah it's um these are the people now he joined his granddaughter RIM and I hope that someday when

when my time comes I hope that I meet him and we can drink that coffee whatever that is in heaven or I believe in heaven I don't want to push my religious views on anybody but someday I know I'll meet him in heaven and we'll drink that coffee absolutely

I think that if you're listening to this maybe just let's do a just a moment of silence and let that kind of sink in and open your heart to that. May he truly rest in peace. Amen. I want to move forward and I want to talk about the ceasefire. You said you came back more or less a week ago. I'm wondering if you were in Gaza when the ceasefire was announced and just anything you have to say around the ceasefire. if you were in Gaza at the time that it was announced,

how it affected people, et cetera. When I left Gaza, it was about to be announced. People were really, really excited about that. They knew it was coming. It was coming. I was coming. So I left.

And people were like, can you stay and watch us celebrate? I said, I wish I can stay. But the Israeli has to kick you out. They have their own timeline. So I want to remind folks out there. ceasefire is just the beginning ceasefire is just the beginning

we will continue fighting because Gaza is destroyed Raza does not exist if you look at the pictures online in Jabilia if you look at the pictures of Rafa that I was at in Newzarat camp nothing exists so besides reconstruction

of the Gaza Strip, we also need to remember that they still don't have water. In public infrastructure has not been installed. They still don't have communication. They still don't have medication. They still don't have supplies. They still don't have,

they are going back to their destroyed homes. They are so excited to go back to the north. People are kissing the rubble of their homes because they love their land. So reconstruction, there is about 50 million tons of rubble, according to the UN. We don't know where that goes. So that has to be, we have to make sure that we go through each piece of rubble because there's over 10,000 Palestinians missing steel.

So they're in the rubble. So we can not just go and grab the rubble and go and take it to the Sinai Desert or whatever they want out to this ocean. I hope not. But, and so reconstruction. And another thing is this, the fight for freedom is just starting. Seasfire, I hope it holds, but we will continue to fight for the right of the Palestinian people until independence. Yes, absolutely. Yeah.

I mean, I hope it holds as well. I mean, Israel already kind of chips away at it, even as it's formally in place. Israel still carries out operations and bombs and, you know, does violations of the ceasefire. But still, we can't negate the sigh of relief that has genuinely come to the people of Palestine just to have a little bit of breathing room. But again, yeah, they're returning to rubble, the air quality when you go into a destroyed area with all the chemicals and, you know, all the stuff that that comes. comes with, I mean, just look at what happened after 9-11.

The people that went to try to pull bodies out of that rubble, they had lifelong consequences health-wise. Correct. So a very similar situation, but even worse, because it's like there's no place to go. It's all rubble. Yeah. So the long term... 90% of homes in Gaza is destroyed. Yeah. And in northern Gaza, in some parts, it's just 100%.

Exist. Nothing exists. Chappalia does not exist. Yeah. And so it's going to take a generation to rebuild, and that's if the ceasefire hold. And now Trump has come in, this, you know, part of my language, but this piece of shit, he comes in, he takes credit for the ceasefire, which was actually a product of a long time of resistance. But every other signal he's given since then has been that he is trying to help Israel ethnically cleanse. He's asking Egypt and Jordan to check Palestinian people.

Exactly. So that they can just be pushed out of their own homeland once and for all, which has always been the goal of the Israeli project of Netanyahu. end of this post-October 7th operation. It is to ethnically cleanse more and more of what's remaining of historic Palestine. And Trump is seeming to completely facilitate that. One of his biggest donors, Adelson is her last name, spent tens of millions of dollars funding. Both Trump runs, both Trump administrations and campaigns leading up to them and is a hardcore Zionist. So the deep money that is in the Trump administration.

administration is all Zionist. His connections with Zionism are strong. When he went up for his inauguration, it wasn't just tech billionaires behind him. It was also Zionists standing behind him, making it very clear which side he's ultimately on. He liked, I think, the PR move of the ceasefire. He liked the idea of getting, coming in and saying, you know, taking credit for that ceasefire. But that is not indicative of all of his long-term plans. His long-term plans are to help Israel continue the ethnic cleansing. And look at who the people is elected. He has selected to be to like, you know,

to be the ambassador of the U.S. in Israel. You know, these are people who have been, you know, what is his name? He run for presidency before. These are,

you got the U.N. representative, you know, for the U.S. It's a Zionist. You know, all these people who, he has selected as a Zionist. I want to go back to something that folks, I want you guys to remember

this, folks, listen to this. If you've seen images of the Palestinian hostages coming out of Israeli camps, these people have been held for years

with no trial, just because you are Palestinian, thrown into jail by Israeli by, by, by, by, the scientist entity, they look sick, malnutritioned, and completely, completely looking like they have not eaten. Traumatized. Traumatized. You can see the trauma. You can see the pain and suffering

and mynutrition. Open wounds. Open wounds. Missing limbs. But look at what the Israeli hostages coming out of Gaza. They look healthy. I'm sure that the members, the people who were holding them, were feeding them. They would feed them before they feed themselves. They kept them safe from their own Israeli forces bombing. One of the hostages left Jabali yesterday. Jabalya does not exist.

But somehow, the Palestinian resistance forces kept him alive, protected him and it's healthy does not look malnutrition the post pictures post his October 7 and after this time they look the same but look at the Palestinian

hostages that have been held in horrible conditions this gets to show you this that the Palestinian people were still treating the Hamas, the resistance movement, was still treating the members of the Israeli hostages

with kindness and love. Like human beings. Like human beings. But the Israelis wasn't doing that. And you can look at the pictures yourself. I mean, you don't take our word for it. Yeah, don't take my word. Go look and make your own conclusions.

But it seems clear to me that on the whole, that is the case. And it's not to say that there's never been a bad situation that has happened. Being a hostage in war sucks no matter what side you're on. But just the overall. I'm not saying it's a vacation. Yeah, of course, yeah. We're just saying, just look at the pictures. Exactly.

And this is not a word. It speaks volumes. Yeah. No, you know, when Trump, one of the things that just, you know, kind of built on what I was saying earlier, too, with the Trump administration is when he came into office, he made a show of freezing international aid to various countries. But he excluded Israel. You know, so like he comes in. And so the war is still being funded. Israel is still being fully funded in every single way, and that's not going to change.

So, you know, part of the responsibility we have is, to oppose this entire brutal ruling class in the U.S. Democrat or Republican, they play their role in facilitating this genocide, and they'll continue to do that, and we have to be obstinate in our opposition to both parties, and we have to go all out in this fight against Trump, because Trump is ushering in an age of oligarchic control. He's dismantling what tiny shreds of democracy might still exist in this country, and he is going to assist Israel in whatever they want to do.

and so we cannot lose sight of that and we might not be able to go over and fight Israel ourselves but we can fight our own government in a million different ways protest it speak out educate others educate yourself and take responsibility for this historic moment that you find yourself in call the congress call your congressman call the White House our money

our money should not be used to kill children our tax in Israel why are we sending billions of dollars to Israel. Our health care is not good. Our education system is not good. We are the 10th, I think, in math and sciences and all the world. We have homeless veterans in our streets. Why would that be allowed in this country?

Absolutely. When we are sending billions of dollars to Israel to kill children and occupy a Palestinian people. Come on, America. Please wake up. don't listen to your Fox, CNN, all this mainstream media. They're just feeding,

they are complicit too. They're just feeding into this settler colonial regime that they want to continue fighting. They want to continue supporting. Find alternative news. This is where the truth is. Look for the real journalists

because that journalism, mainstream journalism is dead. Journalism is, these are life-changing people, heroes that are changing lives by telling the truth, speaking the truth, to the power and to the people. But mainstream America is dead. Yes, absolutely.

There's always been a spiritual rot at the center of American life, and it is coming to the fore once again in a really brutal way. The role of genuine, courageous journalist is exactly why Israel is targeted and murdered so many of them. Because they were the ones getting the word out. And as more and more of them have been killed, you do see, as I was talking about earlier, that dip in videos and news coming out of Palestine. Because Israel's killing everybody that was doing that work. And systematically, consciously, and targeted, killing those people to stop these real information, the truth from getting out.

Yes. Killing journalists. killing nurses and doctors, healthcare workers, EMTs, targeting almost 1,100 nurses and doctors have been murdered in Gaza by Israel. 400 now. The numbers are always changing. The journalists always changes. Don't quote me on that, but a lot of journalists have been killed. Targeting ambulances, targeting hospitals, targeting hospitals.

Israel targets hospitals against international law Kamala Duan, when I was in Gaza Kamala adwin has been in the north completely annihilated you know Abu Safia the director of Kamala Duan Dr. Abu Safi

he has been taken to Israeli captivity a prison not captivity he's been taken away we don't know where he is we don't know where he's alive or dead Dr. Muhammad died These are just doctors and nurses. Journalists targeted.

There's a journalist that went out in Gaza. He was waiting in the front of the hospital in a car with four other journalists. His wife is having a baby that day. She was in a world and he's just waiting to go in. While his child is being born, he got targeted. Five journalists dead. My God. Yeah.

So words don't suffice. No. And posterity will, the sober eye of posterity will be very clear about what this is. Yeah. And you're alive at this moment. If you're listening to this, you're alive and you're aware. And you don't have to do it all. None of us can save the world by ourselves, but we have to throw in our penny in the well

and contribute in whatever ways that we can and highlight the humanity of the Palestinians, highlight these crimes, educate the people around us, donate to whatever, you know, funds and donation links you can. And actually in that vein, I'm going to make sure that I include. I have some vetted and verified people in Gaza that have active go-fund-mys that I'm going to link to in the show notes. If you do have disposable income and, you know, giving money to these people obviously is a great way to help them access basic things that we take for granted.

And I don't know if you have any on the top of your head, but even after the show, if you have some links you want to send me, I'll make sure to include those as well so people can help out if they have extra money. Yes, yes, please, folks out there, these are organizations that I trust. These are people that I trust, organizations like Hill Palestine. In Omaha here, now we have a Hill.

Palestine community is called Community of Hillers. This is an organization that evacuates children out of Gaza. They provide food and medicine in Gaza right now. I see their work on the ground. They bring one meal, or they bring meals to the hospitals for people and the biggest thing they do there is supplying medical equipment and medicine

but also evacuating children we may be able here in Omaha ourselves we are probably when I end up getting a child coming from Waza from medical treatment by being brought here by Hill Palestine and then there is Med Global that as I

Raha'am worldwide Fajir is also another organization I have multiple organizations that I work with but and so please I will read that

onto Brett here and if you have something even a dollar counts it makes a difference and yeah not even money if you can spare time if you can join the organization help those organizations

in any way you can promote those organizations there's a million different ways to help it's not always about money and if you're if you're If you're committed enough, you'll find a way. Yes. Nebraska's for Palestine.

Nebraska's for Palestine is online on Instagram. Follow them. I think, you know, our radio station here follows the Nebraska's for Palestine as well. And you'll find me there too. And follow Hill Palestine. Follow Hill Palestine, Omaha. That's now becoming our local people here are able to contribute. It's not only money like Brett said, time and your creativity, if you're an artist, if you're a singer, if you're a teacher, if your father, if you're a mother, if you're a person, you like to hike, you like to do something.

When these children come here, come and hang out and take them to the park and play and teach them music or teach them soccer or something. Just normal things humans do. and be come join and be part of our Hill Palestine, Omaha community. Absolutely. Amazing work, you know. My heart goes out and my hat goes off to everybody in any way that are helping. And I think you, Willie, you go above and beyond. As one human being, as much as one human being can do, you do it.

And I don't want to make you uncomfortable with all the praise, but you genuinely are a hero. And you are putting your money and your time and your energy and your life. where your mouth and your heart is. And I think you're a beautiful role model for all of us. Thank you. Thank you. That's so generous of you, my boyfriend.

But I think all of us have something to do, something to play, a role to play. If you have children and when these children come here, please come and join them. They can be friends. and we are starting this program. It's a pen pal program for kids to start writing friends in Gaza. I brought hundreds of letters from Gaza from children there. Like children to children to children? Yeah, children to children.

And I think that this is how we open the minds and hearts of our children from the time they're young to help them grow up to be, you know, they have friends all over the world. This is the world we want to create, right? Absolutely. And Brett, you said this too, that, I mean, I can do, I'm just one tiny element. But thank you for what you said. However, I also thank you for your heart, your spirit, your kindness, and the voice of the voiceless.

That's where you fall in, brother. You are the voice of the voiceless. keep speaking for Palestine. Keep telling your listeners that selective justice is never justice. Selective morality is never morality. We are fighting for our lives. We are fighting for a just world.

We cannot continue with the same status quo. Absolutely. I really would love to get my almost 10-year-old son into that pen pal program because he's aware as much as I let a 10-year-old be aware. I don't want to put too much on him, but I do want to foster that part of him that cares about other people.

And so he is, again, as much of a 10-year-old should be aware, he's aware of the situation, and I think he would absolutely love to participate in something like that. I'll make sure to link to all those organizations and more in the show notes, including donation links if you have the extra money to spare. But before I let you go, Willie,

do you have any future plans to go back? back or is it dependent on the ceasefire? And then is there any last words that you'd like to say as we wrap up? Yes, I am working with multiple organizations right now to go back, date and time to be determined. Being in Gaza makes you complete. Being able to do something that you love, do something. This is what I want to tell people out there. This is my final words.

Do something that you love. Mine is this. For as long as I am here on earth, my mission is to speak for justice. And Palestine is the top. It's on the top list. And this is my promise to the people in Gaza that no matter what,

no matter where I am, my every waking moment will be speaking up to make sure that my heart, heart and my soul have been have stayed in Gaza and they are stayed with the people in Gaza and I will continue to carry them with me for as long as I'm alive and we will make sure that we'll speak I will speak for Gaza and Palestine in general until freedom I want and I'm asking all of you to join me and Brett here for that journey for a just world for a for a for a world that is and loving and kind

that fight for the freedom of everyone. Everyone. So my final words of this, keep fighting. Seasfire is just the beginning. Seasfire is just the beginning. People in Gaza are counting on you. Thank you so much.

Amen. And thank you so much for everything you do. And if you do end up going back, of course, I think you should, if you have the time and the energy, come back on the show and update us again. You're a fan favorite. You're one of my favorite guests of all time.

And just as a human being, I really look up to you and appreciate everything you do. So keep it up, my friend. Thank you, my friend. Here is a little gift from you, from Gaza. Oh, man. The children made it. A little bracelet. Beautiful, with the Palestinian geographical shape of the state and the flag.

Yes, yes. Gorgeous. I will make sure. And this is for your producer. Oh, thank you. Thank you. It's fresh from Gaza. Beautiful.

These gifts you bring back, they mean so much to me. They're my favorite object. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you. And thank you, folks. People in Gaza love you. And we love the people in Gaza.