Up First from NPR - Rafah Crossing, Biden Islamophobia Plan, Portland Teachers Strike

Episode Date: November 2, 2023

Negotiations are ongoing to allow hundreds more foreign nationals to flee war-torn Gaza through Egypt's Rafah border crossing. The White House plans to combat Islamophobia as frustration mounts among Muslims in America. And, schools in Portland, Oregon, are closed for a second day as the teachers' strike continues.Today's episode of Up First was edited by Michael Sullivan, Roberta Rampton, Alice Woelfle, and Mohamad ElBardicy. It was produced by Julie Depenbrock, Shelby Hawkins and Chad Campbell. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. And our technical director is Zac Coleman.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Days of airstrikes on Gaza's largest refugee camp leave behind devastation. Meanwhile, wounded Palestinians and some foreign nationals are finally being allowed into Egypt. Working nonstop to get Americans out of Gaza as soon and as safely as possible. I'm E. Martinez with Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News. The White House says it is working on a plan to combat Islamophobia. I think a lot of people are going to have extraordinary cynicism right now with this White House. How can the Biden administration repair frayed relationships with Muslim Americans? And no school in Portland, Oregon today as the teachers union continues its first ever strike demanding better pay and benefits.

Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day. Now Our Change will honour 100 years of the Royal Canadian Air Force and their dedicated service to communities at home and abroad. From the skies to Our Change, this $2 commemorative circulation coin marks their storied past and promising future. Find the limited edition Royal Canadian Air Force $2 coin today. More people are expected to be allowed to leave Gaza today through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. Several hundred, including foreigners and severely wounded Gazans, got out yesterday. And President Joe Biden says the U.S. is working with regional partners to get more people out and desperately needed aid in. We're continuing working to significantly step up the flow of critical humanitarian assistance into Gaza. The number of trucks entering Gaza

continues to increase significantly, but we still have a long way to go. All this while Israel continues pressing further into Gaza in its war against Hamas, and as international condemnation of civilian casualties, especially from airstrikes in the Jabalia refugee camp, continues to grow. Joining us now from Tel Aviv to tell us more about all this is NPR's Alyssa Nadwani. Alyssa, welcome. Thank you for joining us. Good morning. So can we just start with the people who are getting out? What can you tell us about who they are? Yeah, so today the

list of people allowed to leave includes about 400 people with American passports, according to a list provided by Hamas. The list also includes people with passports from other countries, including Croatia, Mexico, and the Netherlands. And it is a time-consuming process at the border, so it's not clear everyone on the list from today will actually get to Egypt. Yesterday, we saw the first people to leave Gaza since the conflict began. There were critically injured Palestinians, like you said. There were a handful of American aid workers and about 300 people with foreign passports

from places like Australia, Bulgaria, and Jordan. Our producer Anas Baba was there on the Gaza side of the crossing this morning and talked with Yumna Shafi, who was there at the crossing with her mom, Sanaa. Some of my friends are in there in Gaza, and my family's there, so I'm kind of scared and sad, but I'm also happy to leave because I'm going to be able to be safe. It's been so difficult living in Gaza in the last 25 days. I think this is our only chance to get to a better place and a safer place just for the sake of the kids. So we know a little bit more about who's getting out.

What about relief supplies going in for the people who desperately need it? Yeah, there have been an increased number of aid trucks allowed into Gaza in recent days. At first, you know, it was just 20 or 30 trucks with things like medical supplies and food. But that has more than doubled. Israel has agreed to allow 100 trucks of humanitarian aid a day. Aid organizations say it's still not enough, you know, given how dire the situation is there. I talked with Heba Thiby about this. She is the country director of the NGO CARE in the West Bank and Gaza. And she's been talking to our colleagues in Gaza who are sheltering in crowded homes,

sometimes with up to 100 people in one house. They are running out of water and they are running out of food. My colleague mentioned that yesterday they had the last bed that they tried to save for the kids since two days before. And Alyssa, tell us, where does Israel's ground assault stand? So according to the Israeli military, ground forces pushed further into Gaza. They are now on the outskirts of Gaza City. Before the war, that city had a population of about half a million people in it. The Israeli military for weeks has told civilians to leave the north of Gaza and head south, but the UN estimates there are still 300,000 Palestinians there. And Israel has said again and again, they believe that Hamas is operating extensively in tunnels underground under very

densely populated areas, under hospitals, under places like the Jabal al-Refugee Camp, which they struck repeatedly. And as long as they believe Hamas is doing that, the Israeli military says they're going to continue to go after what they see as legitimate targets, despite this growing international outrage over civilian deaths. And Paris, Alyssa Nadwani. Alyssa, thank you so much for this reporting. Thank you. President Biden is announcing new plans to develop a strategy to counter Islamophobia. But what might have been seen as an overture to Muslims comes as the administration is facing widespread frustration from Muslims in America over the Israel-Gaza war. NPR White House correspondent Asma Khalid has been reporting on this,

and she's with us now to tell us more about it. Good morning, Asma. Good morning, Michelle. So tell me more about this frustration. What is the White House hearing? There is a deep cynicism among Muslims in the United States right now because of the president's support for Israel's military actions in Gaza. And there was this striking poll that was released this week by the Arab American Institute that found support for Biden has plummeted. It showed support had fallen from 59% in 2020 to now just 17%.

Likewise, a survey of Muslim voters found a staggering number of people say they cannot vote for Biden's reelection. And Michelle, I have covered campaigns for years. I will acknowledge that Arab Muslim voters are a sliver of the electorate. But this is a major shift in a very short amount of time. And that is extremely unusual. The president knows that many Muslim voters are unhappy. He heard about it directly when he met with a handful of Muslim leaders at the White House. The group included Rami Nashashibi. He's a community organizer in Chicago. And more than an Islamophobia plan,

he wants to see the specific issues they asked the president about during the White House meeting addressed and acknowledged. I think a lot of people are going to have extraordinary cynicism right now with this White House until and unless there are much more explicit ways that we begin to see policy shifts, including the utter dehumanization of Palestinians here and across the globe. Asma, this is a very sort of delicate and sensitive issue. I mean, this is a president who campaigned on healing the soul of the nation. And this is a very fraught time,

and you're talking about some very deep divisions. Yeah, I spoke with multiple people who feel like the White House policy in the Middle East is itself contributing to Islamophobia at home. I'm hearing even from some Muslims who work within the administration. And, you know, when it comes to this specific Islamophobia initiative, some people feel like it's a distraction from the fundamental issue of civilian deaths in Gaza. The White House has invested also in a very important anti-Semitism plan. And some people told me that they felt like this Islamophobia initiative was an afterthought. You know, then there are others who say it's going to be a challenge for Muslim

voters to hear this message from Biden, given their anger about Middle East policy, but it is still important. And here's Salam al-Maryati with the Muslim Public Affairs Council. I think it's an error on our part as American Muslims to consider this a throwing a bone to our community. It's not. It's very serious and it's very important, not just for our community, but for American society. You know, but it's not easy. He pointed out that in this current climate, there are new challenges specifically around how support for Palestinians may be cast as anti-American or perhaps anti-Semitic. So I assume we'll hear more about this in coming days. But as briefly as you can, what is this White House plan to counter Islamophobia? What does it do? The announcement itself is not much. So there is no strategy yet. This is basically a plan

to come up with a strategy. It'll be spearheaded by the White House Domestic Policy Council and the National Security Council. You know, months before this immediate crisis in the Middle East, the White House did meet with a number of Muslim organizations who had expressed concerns about things like the terrorism watch list and harassment at airports. So this has been a work in progress, but there is certainly a newfound urgency to show some action. That is White House correspondent Asma Khalid for NPR. Asma, thank you so much. My pleasure. Schools in Portland, Oregon are closed for a second day today as a teacher strike continues.

The strike is the first for Portland Public Schools, which serves around 45,000 students. The Portland Association of Teachers have been negotiating with the district since their last contract expired in June. Here's Renard Adams from the Portland Public Schools bargaining team. We have already offered a cost of living increase that is more than our increase in revenue. We know the union's bargaining team believes that it's insufficient, but we cannot responsibly accept their proposed 23 percent increase. Lisa Bailick, a reporter with KOIN-TV in Portland, Oregon, is with us now to tell us more about it. Good morning, Lisa. Good morning, Michelle. Lisa, just tell us a little bit more,

if you would, about the conditions that led to the strike, or at least the conditions that the teachers say led to the strike. There's really just some key issues. Obviously, higher pay, they want smaller class sizes and more planning time. You know, we talk about the pay. The district is offering currently a 4.5% the first year, 3% each of the next two years. Teachers want almost double that. And what are you hearing from teachers? They are strong in support of a strike action. There were hundreds that turned out for a rally yesterday. They believe the district really can find the money. It's about 200 million dollars by making cuts and further depleting the reserve fund. Now the president in fact of the National Education Association was here in Portland yesterday for rallies. It's really a sign we may be seeing more of

these strikes around the country. You know, in other parts of the country, we've also heard that it's not just the pay, but it's also the working conditions, like the conditions that the buildings are in, for example, or things like that, lack of heat, lack of AC. Is that part of this as well? Definitely. These are some of the issues they are discussing at the table, for sure. Now, school closures, look, are very disruptive to students and their families. Do you have a sense of, I know this is early days, do you have any sense of, you know, how the broader community feels about this? Yes, I have been talking to a lot of parents as they were getting ready for this

because the teachers had given their 10-day notice, and there was a sense this was going to happen even before that. Families really want more for the teachers. Having the kids home during the pandemic, I think they're painfully aware of how much work it is to help kids with their academics, behavior issues, mental health issues. Very grateful that the teachers take on that responsibility of caring for many, many students in their day. And say a bit more, if you would, about what officials from the Portland Public Schools are saying. They were saying at their news conferences yesterday

that, to me, the teacher demands they would have to make massive cuts, laying off teachers, shortening the school year possibly. Even the governor, who is a labor supporter, says the teacher demands would send the district off a financial cliff. The district is blaming the state for not giving them enough money for education. But what happened in Oregon back in 1990 is that voters passed a measure to limit the property taxes, which essentially pushed the biggest burden paying for schools to the state through income taxes. So what's next?

Do we have a sense of when the two sides might return to the bargaining table? I talked with both sides, and they both tell me that Friday they will both be at the bargaining table. But essentially what this means is no school for a second day today or on Friday, which was a scheduled day off. That is Lisa Bailick of KOIN-TV in Portland. Lisa, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks, Michelle. And that's Up First for Thursday, November 2nd. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Ian Martinez. Today's

episode of Up First was edited by Michael Sullivan, Roberta Rampton, Alice Wolfley, and Mohamed El-Bardisi. It was produced by Julie Deppenbrock, Shelby Hawkins, and Chad Campbell. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott, and our technical director is Zach Coleman. Start your day here with us tomorrow. And every morning we tell you about a couple of stories you need to start your day, but for a deep dive on one story, listen to Consider This in the Consider This feed right now.

Egypt's border with Gaza was opened for a few hundred foreign nationals and dozens of critically wounded Palestinians to leave the territory. But what about the millions of others still trapped? Listen to Consider This wherever you get your podcasts.