>> [APPLAUSE] >> That's Georgetown university student,
Nooran Hamdan, waving the Palestinian flag during her graduation ceremony.
She's about to dis the Secretary of State Antony Blinken?
Let's watch how that goes down.
>> Anthony Constantine.
>> So she just walks right past Anthony Blinken who
probably gave a speech during their graduation ceremony,
refuses to shake his hand and continues moving forward.
She is not the only Georgetown student who was graduating and
decided to take that opportunity to protest the US government's
decision to continue sending military weaponry arms over to Israel.
Despite what its government continues to do in its aggression and
actions against Palestinians.
It is referred to as an apartheid state for good reason.
And I have more details about what happened in the aftermath of this protest.
But before we get to that Jenk, why don't you jump in?
>> Yeah, so I think this is called freedom of speech and freedom of expressiona and
so I love that she exercised that right.
Is the American government fair to Palestinians?
Don't be ridiculous.
Are we neutral?
Are we objective?
Don't be ridiculous.
The Secretary of State for the United States of America is massively
one-sided against Israel and the endless occupation.
This is the bare minimum that you can do and I'm glad that she did that and
a lot more should be done in terms of protests.
Of course, everyone in power will see it completely differently.
In fact, they'll see the opposite.
There's a great outrage.
They'll take great umbrage, how dare you not bow your heads to our preordained
policy that is never debated in America and how we must be one sided.
And the Palestinians must never be free because, of course,
they're largely Muslim, and Muslims only no violence,
they say in their infinite bigotry without realizing how deeply bigoted they are.
There is no reason for the occupation at this point, it is unconscionable and
I like that we at least have some degree of protests here in America about it.
>> Right, and I do see the, I guess, the culture or
the reception to these stories coming out of the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem,
with the West Bank, it's being treated differently, right.
Before, I mean, it was either complete silence or
just condemnation towards Palestinians for throwing rocks or
what was referred to as incendiary devices, right?
But again, it's an asymmetric situation when you consider the military capability
on the Israeli government side versus what the Palestinians have, which again,
is very little to defend themselves.
Now, as I mentioned, she wasn't the only one who took part in this protest.
One individual on Twitter noted, I counted six Georgetown law
grads carrying the Palestinian flag across the stage.
We love to see it and later Nooran decided to share her perspective.
Talk about the motive for this protest saying, myself and
my classmates in Arab studies honored the legacy of Shereen Abu Aqleh during
Antony Blinken commencement address.
We demand an independent investigation and an end to American aid to Israel now.
I relayed these demands to Blinken personally and refused to shake his hand.
And to her point about refusing to shake his hand and catching up with
him after the ceremony, apparently, he told her, I hear you, but do you?
>> No, you don't hear her.
>> Do you hear her?
I mean. >> You don't hear at all.
You hear this sign of the cash register that's for sure.
Okay, you're not supposed to say that lobbyists don't exist.
The mainstream media will tell you there are no such things as lobbyists.
And when they say, hey, they're doing it specifically for a foreign government,
you're not to believe them, your lying eyes.
You're supposed to believe something else magical, so no.
And it's not particularly to Blinken, Blinken works for Joe Biden and
Democratic Party in general, which has taken millions
upon millions upon millions of dollars from packs in favor of Israel.
And if you think that hasn't affected them, welcome to planet Earth,
it's nice to have you here.
I assume you're calling yourself a reporter because you're the only people
left on the planet who don't realize that millions of dollars in bribes affect
politicians.
>> Also, it's worth noting in the aftermath of the shooting death of
journalist Al Jazeera journalist Akleh, who was mentioned in the tweet by Nooran.
I should note that the Israeli government has decided
to not conduct an investigation.
Of course, not. >> Which they claimed, well,
there's no evidence that the Israeli defense forces shot and killed her.
It could have been the Palestinians.
There's no evidence indicating it's the Palestinians.
It doesn't even make sense for it to be Palestinians considering
she's an Al Jazeera reporter who clearly had press written all over her vest and
I don't remember if she had a hat but she was labeled with press.
>> And you know who does investigations Ana?
People who are sure that they didn't do it.
>> Right, exactly.
You know who doesn't do investigations?
People are pretty sure that they did do it.
That's how it usually works.
A major journalist,
one of the most famous journalists in the region is killed, forget about it.
The only reason you would do that is if you were the culprit.
>> And going back to Blinken because I do think it's important to talk about why
there would be any ire directed toward him specifically.
Prior to him getting serving in Biden's administration,
he was actually the head of a think tank.
He had founded a think tank that worked pretty closely with defense
contractors and
any time you question what the motivations are in regard to US foreign policy.
You should follow the money including some of the favors that are made for
lobbying defense contractors.
Aside from that last year when the Al-Aqsa mosque was raided, by the way,
It was rated this year as well.
But last year when it was raided and that led to even more violence and
even more civilian deaths, Anthony Blinken was asked specifically about the pressure
toward the Biden administration to stop sending military aid to Israel.
And take a look at how he answered that question.
President reiterated strong support for Israel on Friday but
he's coming under increased pressure from progressives.
Bernie Sanders has introduced a resolution of disapproval over new arms sales
to Israel.
Others like Rashida Talib and AOC say, the US Should not be rubber stamping arms
sales to Israel when they use the weapons to abuse Palestinian rights.
What's your response to that?
>> We'll happily George, one of the things I don't do in this job is I don't do
politics, I focus on the policy so I'll leave the politics to others.
When it comes to arms sales, two things, first, the president's been equally clear,
we are committed to giving Israel the means to defend itself especially when it
comes to these indiscriminate rocket attacks against civilians.
>> So it's important to remember at the time you need more context.
Palestinians living in East Jerusalem were being forced out of their homes which
the international community with the exception of the United States referred
to as a war crime.
Raiding the Al-Aqsa mosque or I should say a violation of international law.
Let me be clear.
So not a war crime, a violation of international law.
They also said that the Al-Aqsa mosque being rated as Palestinians
were practicing their religion was also a violation.
And the response to that by Antony Blinken was,
the Israeli government has the right to defend itself.
Yeah, I didn't know that.
That's all breaking news.
Okay, by the way, real quick question though, think about this question for
a second, do the Palestinians have a right to defend themselves?
According to the United States government, no, they don't.
>> No, but that's literal.
>> Yeah. >> They say Israel has infinite right to
defend itself, which I agree with.
They say Palestinians have no right to defend themselves,
which I do not agree with.
And it's a barbaric and racist policy by the United States of America.
So let me clarify the levels here aid.
You wanna give iron dome to Israel and protect the civilians,
I'm perfectly happy with that, right.
Now, I say, okay, now let's give iron dome to the Palestinians.
[LAUGH] The way to [INAUDIBLE], no, that would protect innocent Palestinian lives.
Of course, we wouldn't do that.
Now you kill the Palestinians and you occupy them for
60 years because they only understand, they only understand violence.
No, sounds like we only understand violence and
we do it based on bigotry and racism and it is absolutely indisputable.
Take any group and say they cannot be free.
They must be occupied forever because of the nature of who they are.
And that is racist by definition.
Okay, so now, just the layers of this real quick when you're talking about a pack and
some of the lobbyist groups,
they are massively right wing are they spending in democratic primaries?
Yes, of course, for conservative democrats and corporate democrats and
against progressives, okay.
And then there is an ironically the ads that they are running say the progressives
aren't democratic enough.
You guys are funded mainly by Republican money, you give to Republicans and
including people who are in favor of the insurrection and
some who are in favor of the replacement theory?
That is an abomination.
>> Yep.
>> And so I have no interest in a pack in those lobbyst which are grotesquely right
wing, okay.
Now another hand, ADL, for example, has done great work, okay.
They're anti defamation league, they protect not just Jewish Americans, but
they protected Muslim Americans under trump neo great job.
But these days they're also doing false equivalence sees and
they're saying, well, the right wing murders us in synagogues and
the left wing disagrees with us slightly on Israeli policy, so they're the same.
No, no, not the same in a time of rising and deep anti-Semitism where
they're blaming all of the world's America's problems on the Jews and
that the Jews are trying to replace white Americans with immigrants.
You cannot do false equivalencies.
And then I don't say on behalf of the Palestinian people.
I say that on behalf of Jewish Americans here who desperately need your protection,
but instead you're too busy worrying about, my God,
how long can we keep the Palestinians under our thumbs, right?
Why don't you do the moral thing the, Jewish thing, go to a Passover.
Have you ever heard the speeches at Passover?
Why don't you actually do them?
Why don't you actually do them and free the Palestinians and
fight the anti-Semites here in America.
Finally, the last layer of this is the Jewish voters themselves.
They are actually fantastic, and among the most progressive in the country.
Do not make the mistake of thinking that these groups,
especially the right wing lobbyist groups, represent all Jewish Americans.
It is not remotely true.
In fact, some of our best fighters on the left and
on the progressive side are Jewish Americans who are brave and
who stand up to these lobbyists, that is a super important distinction.
We fight against bigotry anti-Semitism and racism together.
And you just saw it there at Georgetown, great job students