It's The Real News, I'm Aaron Maté.
Israel has committed one of its worst massacres of Palestinians in years.
At least fifty-two people were killed and more than twenty four hundred wounded when
Israeli forces opened fire on protesters taking part in The Great March of Return in Gaza.
Israel has followed that up with airstrikes.
The attacks come as U.S. officials have gathered in Jerusalem for the opening of the U.S. embassy
there.
Joining me from Gaza City is Dr. Basem Naim, former Minister of Health in Gaza, and he
took part in organizing for The Great March of Return.
Welcome, Dr. Naim.
There have been shootings of Palestinian protesters throughout The Great March of Return, for
the past several weeks, but today was by far the worst.
I believe the death toll today surpasses the combined toll from all previous weeks.
Your response to what we've seen today in Gaza.
I think this was a prepared massacre by the Israeli security forces.
Because what we have seen is immediately shooting on peaceful protesters without any signs of
violence from the Palestinian sides.
As you might have seen in the media, thousands and thousands of peaceful protesters, men
and women, elderly and children, marched to the fence to call for freedom, for dignified
and decent life without, as they say, any excuse.
They have started to shoot- more than fifty-two killed and more than two thousand four hundred
injured.
Many of them are seriously injured.
Many of them will, for the rest of life, be handicapped.
What do you say to Israeli officials who claim that they were acting in self-defense, that
Palestinians were trying to cross their border into Israel?
First, what does it mean, "cross the borders?"
If you live- two million Palestinians live in the biggest open air prison, according
to the former prime minister Cameron- or your live in one of the new concentration camps
in the twenty-first century, without any access to access to the outside world, poverty above
eighty percent, unemployment around fifty percent, ninety-five percent of our water
is poisoned and is not suitable for human being, ninety five percent of our beaches
are spoiled because of sewage water.
Those people are moving towards the fence to call for a dignified and decent life.
They cannot continue accepting to die slowly and silently.
Second, what does it mean, "fence?"
Israel itself, it doesn't recognize this as a border.
They call it "fence" because still they are not recognizing it as a border.
And if we will accept this as a border, according to the 1948 ceasefire, we have at least more
than two hundred kilometers still beyond the fence, both by Israel between Gaza and the
Israeli territories.
Therefore, we cannot talk about self defense.
Finally, if you- for example, today, fifty-two killed, two thousand four hundred, or more
than that, injured.
No casualties on the other side.
What does it mean, "self defense?"
If no one of those who has been killed or injured was a threat, a real threat, for the
soldiers, for the snipers, for the tanks, for the aircrafts- you can you can hear mention
one of the martyrs of today who has been killed.
He is a double amputee, who- he lost two of his legs in the aggression of Israel against
Gaza Strip in 2008, and now he has been killed near the border.
What can a double amputee man, what can he causing a threat for for foreign army, which
is fully armed from head to toes?
Therefore, you cannot at all talk about self defense.
And he's not the first amputee to be killed in protests at the border.
As well, I believe there were six children killed today in these protests.
I mentioned this being one of the worst massacres of Palestinians in years.
From what you've seen and heard, how does today compare to previous mass killings by
Israel in Gaza?
I was there for hours, near the fence and within this big mass of people who moved toward
the fence, calling, again, for a dignified life, for lifting the siege immediately and
unconditionally, again, without any excuse.
They have started to shoot- not only snipers, but even tanks started to shoot against civilians.
Innocent bursts of peaceful protesters.
In one shot, for example, they have killed thirteen young people, including children,
in one shot.
I think those protesters at no stage were causing any threat to the soldiers or to the
army.
I want to go to a clip of Jared Kushner speaking today at the ceremony in Jerusalem.
Because as this was going on, you had U.S. and Israeli officials and other visitors from
around the world gathering for the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, and Jared
Kushner mentioned the protests in Gaza.
On December 6, President Trump was very clear that his decision and today's celebration
do not reflect a departure from our strong commitment to lasting peace, a peace that
overcomes the conflicts of the past in order to give our children a brighter and more boundless
future.
As we have seen from the protests of the last month and even today, those provoking violence
are part of the problem and not part of the solution.
So that's Jared Kushner speaking today in Jerusalem.
Dr. Naim, if you could respond to what he says there, that those provoking violence
are part of the problem.
It is really shameful.
If a man who is representing the United States of America, who should defend human rights,
democracy, and dignity of people around the world.
If he meant describing innocent peaceful protesters, people- two million people.
I am not describing this as the biggest open air prison, or jail, or a collective punishment.
This is the description of the Nazi state.
The United Nations said Gaza in 2020, and maybe earlier, is unlivable.
If those people who are moving peacefully- until today, we are talking about more than
forty-four days protesting against the occupation near the fence.
Israel was not able to have one picture of someone who was using any kind of bombs, pistols,
or gun machines, or so on.
I mean they were not able to have one photo of a man or a woman who was using real violence.
Okay, they might throw stones, they might using- I mean burning tires, and so on.
But it is not violence.
The violence, the terrorism, is imprisonment of two million people, the siege, bombs in
Gaza.
This is the real violence, and this is a crime against humanity, by the way.
This is not our description.
This is the description of a report, who has written the very famous report after the 2008
aggression on Gaza.
I mean, the real violence is to besiege two million innocent people and to deal with them
as an animal farm, and to prevent them from the free movement.
A patient in Gaza has to wait more than seventy days to get a license to pass through Erez,
I mean, the checkpoint between Gaza and Israel, for treatment abroad.
This is the real violence.
Therefore, it is a shameful from a man who is representing the states, which should defend
democracy, human rights, and dignity, to to call about- to talk about the Gazans, or the
Palestinians in general, as violent provocating people.
All right, Dr. Naim, we'll pause there and come back in part two.
My guest is Dr. Basem Naim, the former Minister of Health in Gaza.