Watch the full, unpaywalled interview with Muhammad Shehada here:
Palestinian writer and analyst Muhammad Shehada returns to Useful Idiots once again to give an update on Gaza, Israel’s cynical and sordid fake aid scheme, and how the US is benefitting from keeping the genocide going.
Useful Idiots: Among countless Israeli atrocities in Gaza, there was the emergence of this so-called aid mechanism, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, basically an Israeli front group setting up a site in Southern Gaza to give meager amounts of aid to Palestinians desperate for food. We saw these horrific scenes that were reminiscent of the Nazi Holocaust, people caged, people being fired at, Palestinians reportedly being kidnapped while going to wait for this aid. What should people know about this whole fake aid mechanism?
Muhammad Shehada: To put it mildly, if you combine together the movies Mad Max, Fallout, Minority Report, and Black Mirror, you would get exactly this scenario. It's basically a fenced concentration camp that is run by American mercenaries surrounded by the IDF. They established a number of checkpoints leading up to these concentration camps.
Whenever I ask any friend in Gaza, ‘Would you go there?’ they said, ‘You would have to be completely out of your mind to step a foot into that trap.’ They saw it as bait rather than anything to do with humanitarian aid, because to get there, you have to cross a number of Israeli checkpoints where you can be kidnapped or detained at any moment without any explanation. And that's the last your family would ever hear of you.
Useful Idiots: Why did Israel create the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation?
Muhammad Shehada: The way this organization functions, it establishes four heavily militarized fenced hubs or concentration camps, all in the very south of Gaza. This is the most obvious exploitation of food as a way of luring people away from northern Gaza, as a way of forcible transfer, or mass expulsion. And it coincides with them saying that they have plans to conquer all of Gaza and concentrate the entire population beyond the Morag corridor, basically on the borders with Egypt.
Another concern is the clear risk of mass internment. And that is something that the United Nations and every single humanitarian organization has warned member states: Do not fund this ploy. Do not fund this Israeli shield organization.
They explicitly say there is a clear, credible risk of mass internment in which Israel would confine people in inhumane conditions, in fenced cages. What we saw in pictures, basically people being herded like cattle into feeding pens under the boiling sun of the desert, surrounded by sand dunes and IDF tanks and troops and mercenaries, waiting endlessly. Either you get a package of food, or you get shot dead, or you get kidnapped, or you get maimed.
Useful Idiots: What are you hearing from your friends and family who are still in Gaza?
Muhammad Shehada: I get messages everyday from colleagues, from family, from friends, literally begging me for an answer. When is this coming to an end? Is there any hope soon?
And I try to make up things. I try to give them some false hope from time to time. But I ran out after twenty months of telling them, ‘Okay, Netanyahu's government is about to collapse.’ ‘The EU is about to speak up.’ ‘Trump might be convinced otherwise.’ And then they see it ten times not happening. I lost words. The worst sentence that I can say to someone in Gaza is ‘stay safe.’ It feels insensitive, obtuse, and cruel. It's like mocking them because there's literally nothing to do to stay safe.
Everyday I see another report where someone walking on the street got hit in the head with a loose shot fired by Israel or someone got hit by shrapnel. And with all of this, the worst part is to know that there's no end in sight.
I had a conversation with an Israeli journalist recently. I asked her, “If Hamas is dismantled, the hostages are returned, and Gaza is fully disarmed, would Israel lift the blockade on Gaza?” And her response was, “You think that Israel would feel safe living next to Gazans after everything we've done to them? Now they have a revenge incentive.”
Our full discussion with Muhammad is unpaywalled. Help spread his important message by sharing this interview, and follow Muhammad on Twitter @muhammadshehad2
Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: CNN Claims ‘Free Palestine’ Protests CAUSED Israeli Embassy Staffers Shooting
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