It is an honor to be here to introduced Amy Goodman.
I really want to thank Damon cater for his flexibility and his work and everyone here at WTS Q and Charleston, community radio, everyone who helped to organize the grassroots Radio Conference, I have so much respect for keeping this network of community and college and low power FM, community radio outlets all over the country connecting the dots, dots of local voices, who are so important to be heard. You know, instead of that small circle of pundits, we get on the networks, who knows so little about so much, explaining the world to us and getting it so wrong. And that is so serious today, in the midst of what's happening with Israel, Palestine, because the lies take lives. The work you do is so important. And there is no time that tells us this more than today. At a global level. We have so much to learn from independent media. I also want to thank my colleague, Dennis Moynihan, I work with him at Democracy Now. We also write a column together every week to that appears in newspapers and websites around the world. In the last few weeks, we've written several columns. The first is Israel levels Gaza, the US media fuels the fire. That's right as Israel intensifies its brutal response to Hamas is brutal October seventh attack. It's important to hear from those at the target end of the weapons. The mainstream media in the United States consistently brings us the voices of his rallies who've suffered violence at the hands of Hamas gunmen. Let that be a model for the coverage of Palestinian pain as well. We rarely hear from Palestinian civilians from Israeli peace activists. Hearing people speak for themselves is the first step to breaking down barriers to fostering understanding that can lead to adjust and enduring peace.
I originally come from Pacifica radio, which was founded how many decades ago, almost 80 years ago by a man named Blue Hill in Berkeley, California and his allies, who was a war resister came out of the detention camps out of after World War Two, and said there's got to be a media outlet. That's not run by journalists. That's not run by corporations that profit from war, but run by journalists and artists. That's how Pacifica was born. As George Gervin are the late dean of the Annenberg School of Communications and founder of the cultural environment movement would say, not run by corporations that have nothing to tell and everything to sell that are raising our children today. So KPFA was the first Pacifica station born in 1949. In Berkeley, California. 10 years later, KPFK I was just pitching on KPFK yesterday, on the way to the airport, on the phone. Yes, please go to kpfk.org as we were bringing out the voices of people in Israel and Palestine, that you are not hearing but should be hearing everywhere else. But amazingly, because of the incredible network of grassroots radio and television around this country and around the world was heard right here on WTSQ. KPFK went on the air in 19 5960. Then my station WBI in New York went on the air in 1960 KPFT in Houston, Texas in 1970 and WPF. W in Washington, the youngest of the Pacifica five the Fab Five went on the air in 1977. I want to talk about Houston for a second 1970 KPFT goes on the air with In a few weeks, within a few weeks, it was blown up by the Ku Klux Klan. They strap dynamite to the base of the transmitter and blew it to smithereens. KPFT got back on their feet rebuilt the transmitter a few weeks later went back on the air, and then the Klan strapped 15 times the dynamite to the base of the transmitter and blew it up again. Right in the middle. I think it was of Arlo Guthrie singing Alice's restaurant. And I thought that was a good song. But it would then take months for KPFT to rebuild the transmitter. And in January of 1971, Guthrie came back into Houston live to finish his song live on the air and the national media was there to cover this phoenix rising from the ashes. And it's been broadcasting ever since. I can't remember if it was the Exalted Cyclops or the Grand Dragon because I often confused their titles. But he said it was his proudest act, I think because he understood how dangerous Pacifica is, how dangerous independent media is dangerous because it allows people to speak for themselves. And when you hear someone speaking from their own experience, a child in BRAFA a grandma in Haifa, and uncle in Ramallah, a human rights lawyer in Gaza City. When you hear someone's aunt speaking from Jerusalem, when you hear a great grandfather speaking in Afghanistan, or a great grandma in Iraq, it changes you. You may not agree with what you hear. I mean, how many times do we agree with our family members? In fact, that uncle that you're listening to you may hate the uncle he reminds you of. But somehow you identify with them you understand where they are coming from. And that understanding is the beginning of peace. I think the media all too often has acted as a weapon of war. And there's no time more relevant to this point than today. In the Middle East. Whether it's direct lies, or omissions, the voices you are not hearing. And that's why grassroots media is so absolutely critical. Not long after the Hamas attack, Israel began its latest intense bombardment of the Gaza Strip bearing the full force of that retaliation are the more than 2 million Palestinians who Israel's blockade and in Gaza, almost half of whom are children. the Gaza Strip roughly four miles wide and 25 miles long, is one of the most densely populated places on earth has long been described by human rights organizations and Israeli intelligence officials. As a as an open air prison, under normal so called conditions Gazans live under severe military occupation. No one gets in or out without Israel's permission Israel controls causes water, food and fuel now in the wake of the attack, the Israeli siege and bombardment of Gaza has become cataclysmic. What did the Israeli Defense Minister yo of Golan just say we are imposing a complete siege in Gaza, there will be no food, no water, no fuel, everything will be closed. We're fighting against human animals. The Israeli Defense Minister said. So what is the result of this attitude? A Palestinian child is dying every 15 minutes 100 Palestinian children are dying every day. Who first said that on Democracy Now and this last week? It was sorry, Bashi. She's a top official with Human Rights Watch. And she happens to live in Ramallah in the West Bank. And you might say well Ramallah West Bank. Israeli occupied territory is not the same as Gaza. It's not, but they are killing so many Palestinians there as well. How mast does not control the occupied West Bank. And yet, since the beginning of this year since way before that brutal Hamas attack on October 7 that killed over 1300 Israelis. And they took it looks like more than 200 hostages to American hostages, a mom and her daughter were just released. I saw that last night when I came back for your event from your event. In this last year, since January, more than a Palestinian a day on the West Bank, has been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers. So we have to understand this was happening way before October 7. And when you hear those say, do not try to justify I agree. But context is not justification. Context is understanding what is happening so we can change the situation. And that involves everyone. It particularly involves us in the United States, because the US is the most powerful country on Earth. We have an awesome responsibility here to speak to our government of how we want our resources to be used, what we want done in our name, whether it has an effect or not, it is our job, whether we are journalists or everyday civilians. So the Israeli Defense Minister, you'll have Golan says we're imposing a complete siege in Gaza, there will be no food, no water, no fuel, everything will be closed. We are fighting against human animals. And how did the former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, respond to a Sky News Anchor who said what about the Palestinian civilians? Notice I wasn't talking about an American anchor, a Sky News, a British news anchor. What about the Palestinian civilians? And Naftali Bennett lost it? He said he his voice got loud. And he said, Are you seriously asking me about Palestinian civilians right now? Yes. It's absolutely critical. We understand who is on the ground. And in the case of Gaza and the occupied territories. I was just watching an Israeli government official saying why should we have to be responsible for them anyway? Well, the fact is they are. They are responsible under international law because they have illegally occupied them for decades. So until that ends, they have a responsibility
to protect them. And instead, one child, every 15 minutes, one Palestinian child is dying. 100 children are dying a day and Israel hasn't even begun. Its massive ground assault if it does do that. We don't know at this point, although someone may have news as I'm speaking right now. And that's where the world weighs in. Right now, there is a so called peace summit going on in Egypt, we will see what happens. Raji Serani, director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, and winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, said on Democracy Now there is no single place you can call a safe haven and Gaza. Airplane fighters drones rolling all over the sky, whether it's an apartment, whether it's a tower with hundreds of apartments, whether it's a house, whether it's a hospital, whether it's a school, or a shelter used by UNRWA. That's the UN's Palestinian relief agency. He said he spoke as his house shook from an explosion. We learned that the Islamic University just been gone right down the road. He says Netanyahu says Gaza and should leave Gaza where to we don't have safe passage. It's genocidal. We were talking to Raji on Skype, you could actually see him, you know, you on the radio, listen. And we are the first TV radio broadcast daily global grassroots broadcast for the last 27 years. But sometimes, if you want to go to democracy now.org, or your local public access, or PBS station, democracy now might be on you could see Raji, he said, do you hear my house shaking? That was the first time we talked to Rajiv two weeks ago we'd spoken him long before he's come to the United States is whenever Human Rights Award world renowned own human rights lawyer that was two weeks ago. I just got and then we spoke to him for the second time. A week ago, it because I had just seen a letter that he had written. This was last Monday. He shared this message with his friends. Good morning from Gaza, the most wonderful city I loved and wish to end my life on its soil terrible and unbelievable. The criminality, we did not sleep from the bombing, freedom and dignity so costly, we're ready to pay our lives for it. No right to give up. I am so proud of my people, unbelievable courage and strength, keep the strategic optimism, love and hugs to you all my friends. We immediately called him and spoke to him now no longer Skype. Pete doesn't have the power, the electricity, but we were able to make out what he said on the phone. And we played that for about half an hour and you can read the transcript at Democracy Now. And then, as we got up this morning, I got a text from a colleague that Raj use Ronnie's house has been bombed. He lives in Gaza City, right. That's in the north. That's the main population center of Gaza. Right, the main population center of one of the most densely populated places places on Earth. The Israeli military is said all the people of Northern Gaza must move to southern Gaza. We're talking about 1.1 million people. The UN said this is impossible. How do you expect the people for example from the hospitals, people who are unconscious, the doctors and nurses who are treating people there? How do they move south? What we are talking about folks, is the illegal act of collective punishment. We do not accept this anywhere. So I got word that Raj his house had been bombed and then I started to ride around then I got more and more tax. Shawn Tom Maloney a great Italian human rights lawyer just tweeted. He and his family are alive. They're disconnected, but I'm in contact through other people in Gaza. On the seventh of October, he told us I know they will massacre us. Raji Serani spent his life defending the rule of law against the rule of jungle he is a human rights champion, a true hero. To which read Brody long time, Human Rights Watch, a lawyer, activist, going after dictators around the world, said, more tragedy, as he heard about the bombing of Rajiv his house. I'm told Rajiv surrounding his family, fortunately, are alive. Raji is simply one of the most precious human beings a beacon of light, and then a beautiful picture of Rashi. This is what's happening in Gaza. If this was the home of an Israeli human rights lawyer that was bombed by Hamas, I would be the first to condemn it. This is the home of a Palestinian human rights lawyer. You know, Sweet Honey in the Rock has a wonderful song and they're celebrating I think it's their 50th anniversary coming up. And the song goes something like until the killing of black men, black women sons, is equal to the killing of white men, white mother's sons. And that's what I keep on thinking about through this time. I speak to you as a journalist, as a Jewish journalists as the granddaughter of an orthodox rabbi. And growing up the Holocaust was very much the context of our lives. And all of us, me and my brothers, my cousins, my aunts and uncles, I think we imbibed the what was more than a slogan, never again, that never again applies to everyone, everywhere. That is something that has really influenced every way I see the world and our role in the world. Never again. And it's our job as journalists to go to where the silence is. The next time you look at CNN, with all of their host all of their anchors, so many of them right now in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, look how many are in Gaza. They do have a Gazan reporter, a Palestinian reporter. You don't hear him live. He is fleeing with his family from north to south. And he's trying to document that journey. And occasionally CNN plays it. It is so utterly powerful. He takes his two little kids and his wife and they're driving south and he says we're going into a hotel, he doesn't want to make his kids afraid. And his son says to him, but do they bombed the hotels? And he said, Absolutely not. And then he says to the camera, I have to say this to my son, he's so distraught. And then they felt it wasn't safe even to be at that hotel, and they left there. And there was a bombing right next to the hotel, right as they were leaving. And then the next time I saw him, he said, I'm giving my children toilet water. I am giving my children toilet water to drink. That's the exception on CNN. The rule is all of the anchors that you're so familiar with being there reporting outside of Gaza, interviewing so many of the victims of October 7, again, as they should, but we need to use that as a model of the victims right now in Gaza. Because a war crime is being committed as we speak, unfolding every day. Oh, you know, we brought you on Democracy Now overcast, safe and Israeli Jewish member of the Knesset. That's the Israeli parliament. He said, I got a WhatsApp message from a very good friend of mine who was hiding with her husband in the kibbutz. She told me she was very afraid, and she could hear the Hamas fighters outside. Unfortunately, those were probably the last words she ever wrote. Because she was murdered and her husband just after she sent me that message, MP ofor Cassidy said to us, her husband, she was murdered with her husband just after she sent me that message. She was a very good friend of mine who was also against the occupation. Innocent people innocent civilians on both sides, Israelis and Palestinians pay the price of the arrogant criminal ongoing occupation that Israel refuses to end, he said, and Israeli Jewish Member of Parliament, did you hear their voice and the corporate networks? No. But on all of your grassroot stations, you heard it as you play democracy now.
I just read that overcast seIf has been sanctioned by the parliament. He has been suspended for his criticism. And that's another issue until now and this may change and you should demand because the airwaves are the public airwaves they are yours to whether the corporations are using them or you are the word occupation, how important it is to understand that context. Yes, US networks. US networks have dispatched correspondents to Israel to cover the violence but there are few Palestinians being interviewed or Israeli peace activists or reporters who've been documenting that occupation for decades. We also spoke to Rashid Halladay preeminent Palestinian American historian and scholar. He's the Edward Saeed professor of modern Arab Studies at Columbia University. We've had him on several times on Democracy Now in the last few weeks, his family from the occupied West Bank, he lives in New York. He said the idea that you can coop up 5 million people put them behind walls, tighten the siege on them use an eyedropper to allow them some food, some water, some electricity. That idea has exploded as a result of the horrific events. This cannot continue, he said an eye dropper for millions of people and just as we gathered here today, you may have heard that the Rafah border was opened for 20 trucks. This was negotiated for more than a week 20 trucks humanitarian trucks that have medicine that have some food. Israel said they could not contain fuel. The human rights organizations Doctors Without Borders and the Palestinian Red Crescent and the International Red Cross all said the number one thing they need is fuel to run the hospitals that are barely operating they allowed in 20 trucks and then closed it. Do you know how many trucks of humanitarian aid have been coming in to this occupied population before this siege it has been under an almost total siege, actually for 16 years 400 trucks a day. How long do you think that 20 trucks of humanitarian aid will go? As I heard one humanitarian worker say even 100 trucks a day would be far from sufficient right now. So we cannot forget this. Professor Halladay said the United States should be trying to defuse the situation. We financed this occupation. We finance this violence. There are American weapons that are being used today right now in Gaza to kill innocent civilians in violation of US Law. Professor Halladay said, yes, the United States does have the power to pressure Israel to end its occupation of Gaza of the West Bank and Jerusalem. But first, the media must allow the American public to hear the voices of the victims, you will be changed no matter who that victim is. We have to be able to hear Rashi we have to be able to hear all of those voices. That is what self determination and empowerment is all about. This week, Dennis and I wrote a column called ceasefire in Gaza now, you know, the numbers started at 1300 Israelis were killed and that Hamas attack over 200 hostages taken at this point, the number of Palestinians killed is something like well over 4000. And again, the ground invasion has not started now. You may have followed the controversy this last week, much of the Western mainstream media Wednesday was focused on who is responsible for that horrific explosion at the Lee Hospital in northern Gaza, which killed hundreds of people. The attention was directed less at the carnage in the hospital. Given the apparent scale of the explosion responsibility was first widely believed to lie with Israel, which has a vast arsenal with numerous types of bombs, missiles and other munitions. While enroute to Israel, President Biden and Western mainstream media almost immediately embraced the Israeli military's explanation that the explosion was caused by an errant Palestinian Islamic Jihad missile. Al Jazeera contended something else an organization called forensic architecture started to document everything. It is not clear what exactly happened. In that particular case, as we watched on CNN, the pictures that the Israeli military provided of the trajectory of the missile and whether it was shot down from above and whether it was you know, it was just an errant missile. I couldn't help but think of Colin Powell, the Secretary of State right before the invasion of Iraq, who went before the UN Security Council, he his voice had enormous power because he'd been dragging his feet on the war, to the horror of Rumsfeld and President George W. Bush. So they had him be the one to deliver the message that Saddam Hussein did have weapons of mass destruction. One of the things that was played to prove athlete was hit by an errant Palestinian Islamic Jihad missile was a conversation between militants, they said they'd captured in some kind of phone call, and I couldn't help but think about what Colin Powell played at that time. It said this conversation these voices were proof that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and they had photographs they were showing of trucks being moved. This led up to the US invasion of Iraq that has killed so many 1000s of people so many innocent civilians, even though the world rocked, or I should say, people all over the globe, millions marched in February 2003. For peace, they rock the globe for peace. That voice of Colin Powell at the UN Security Council prevailed and President Bush would bomb Iraq invade Iraq in March of 2003. In fact, Rasheed Halladay I just heard him say that he thinks it's much more relevant to talk about the Iraq War, when we're looking at what's happening now in Israel and Palestine then 911. So, Colin Powell, the late Colin Powell, would later say that speech he gave in February of 2003 was a stain on his career. He said he had been given false intelligence. We spoke to his aides who said he was horrified but by what he had done paving the way for war, I don't know what happened at a Lafley. That still has yet to be fully determined or proven. But what I do know, is that lower third that peered almost for 24 hours straight on CNN that said Israel is not responsible. It would say sources say, US Intel says Israel says Israel is not responsible. I know that what was forgotten on that day as President Biden flew in and embraced Netanyahu and embrace President Hertzog Arab leaders, canceling their summit in rage. I know what wasn't talked about that day, with a 1000s of Palestinians already killed, separate from play by the more than 10 days at that point of the Israeli bombardment and the unknown number buried alive or dead beneath the rubble. So we talk to Mustafa Barghouti, he is a Palestinian physician, General Secretary of the Palestinian national initiative. He said the atrocities are beyond description were subjected now as Palestinians not only in Gaza, but also the West Bank, horrifying war crimes ethnic cleansing acts of collective punishment against the population of Gaza where civilians are dying because they don't have water, electricity, don't have food don't have medicine, and active genocide. Every five minutes a Palestinian is killed in Gaza every 15 minutes a Palestinian child is killed in Gaza. And it goes on he said, across the Arab world as well as in the United States in Europe, the protests are mounting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank to Amman, Jordan to Baghdad Iraq, from Tunisia to Turkey, but also at the US Capitol. In the cannon Rotunda there a Jewish led protests organized by the groups, if not now, and Jewish Voice for Peace, brought 1000s out to demand a ceasefire 300 protesters were arrested inside the rotunda. A number of rabbis were leading the protest. Did we hear them one after another not just the faraway image of the rotunda which was impressive, but hear their voices why they felt this way as us as Jewish US citizens what they were demanding of their elected leaders.
Among those who attended the DC protest was Amira Hass, the renowned Israeli Jewish journalist with Haaretz, who's lived in the occupied territories for decades. She's the only Israeli Jewish journalist to live in Gaza and Ramallah. For some 30 years. She wrote drinking the sea at Gaza, in Gaza. And she wrote the foreword and afterword to a book by her mother on a levy. Her name is Hannah levy Haas. It's a holocaust memoir of her time in Bergen Belsen. Yes, Amira is the daughter, the only daughter the only child of Holocaust survivors, her mother and her father. I introduced her by saying she was covering the protests in Washington. I mean, she's usually in Ramallah, and she corrected me. She said, No, I wasn't covering it. I was part of the protest, she said, as a Jew, not as a journalist. This pounding of Gaza it has to be stopped right now. She said. Not far from that protest. Came a protest from another quarter that is quietly gaining strength and you should all pay attention. It's from inside the US State Department. Josh Paul served for 11 years as a director of congressional and Public Affairs Bureau of political military affairs. This is a government office most directly involved with the delivery of weapons to foreign governments. On Wednesday, Josh Paul wrote a two page resignation letter, which he shared publicly online and I will quote at length. This is a man who has been part of the establishment for over 11 years particularly involved with buying weapons or With the purchase of incenting weapons abroad, he has resigned. He said we cannot be both against occupation and for it, we cannot be both for freedom and against it. We cannot be for a better world while contributing to one that is materially worse, I believe to the core of my soul that the response Israel is taking and with it, the American support both for that response and for the status quo of the occupation will only lead to more and deeper suffering for both the Israeli and the Palestinian people, and is not in the long term American interest. This administration's response is immensely disappointing, and entirely unsurprising. Josh Paul wrote decades of the same approach have shown that security for peace leads to neither security nor to peace. There is beauty to be found elsewhere everywhere in this world, and it deserves both protection and the right to flourish. And that is what I most desire for Palestinians and for Israelis. The murder of civilians is an enemy to that desire, whether by terrorists as they dance at rave or by terrorists as they harvest their olive grove. The kidnapping of children is an enemy to that desire, whether taken at gunpoint from their cupboards, or taken at gunpoint from their village. And collective punishment is an enemy to that desire, whether it involves demolishing one home, or 1000, as to is ethnic cleansing as to is occupation, as to is apartheid, he said that was Josh Paul resigning his high level State Department post after more than a decade. The saving of Israeli lives is intimately connected to the saving of Palestinian lives. We must vow you all life. And as journalists, the way we do that and our grassroots news organizations, is by letting them be heard. And that is your power. That is what you're facilitating happening all over this country, whatever role you're in, in the independent grassroots media movement. Yes, it's our job to go to where the silence is. And it's often not silent there. Oh, it doesn't hit the corporate media radar screen. But it's often raucous, it is loud, it is people wailing. It is people laughing. It is people demanding. We have to put our mics there. We have to be there. That is media serving a democratic society. Now trade talks about the work that democracy now and before that the work that I did at WB AI around East Timor, and I really wanted to end with the story. It is so important that we show up that we cover especially what As Americans, we don't see at the other end, for example, of a US weapon. And that's what brought us to East Timor. I went there with my colleague Alan narron. First in 1990. East Timor is a tiny at the time, occupied country half of an island about 300 miles above Australia. It was occupied by Indonesia in 1975. Now, I want to make one comment from Israel to Indonesia. Often, people are afraid to criticize the actions of the Israeli state, because they will be smeared with the epithet or what their criticism is, will be described as anti semitic. I am very sensitive to anti semitism, and it is extremely serious in the world. But when you are criticizing the Israeli state, that is not anti semitic. And when we covered Indonesia, and criticize the Indonesian state, Indonesia, the largest and the largest Muslim country in the world, it is not anti Muslim. We are describing with a state with the full power of its military at the time, Indonesia had the fourth most powerful military on Earth. It is Absolutely credit. That criticism is not silenced. When you are falsely accused of being Islamophobic or anti semitic, that's just a way to prevent you from speaking about the reality of the actions of a state. So, Indonesia, invaded East Timor, December 7 1975. It was a day after Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who just turned 100 years old feted all over the country as an elder statesman, as the people of Chile. Whether he should be feted as an elder statesman, or whether he should be tried as a war criminal for Henry Kissinger and President Nixon support of the coup against the democratically elected leader of Chile, Salvador Allende, September 11 1973, another September 11, almost exactly 50 years ago. So Henry Kissinger and President Ford went to Indonesia, and met with the murderous dictator Suharto. As they flew out to meet with another dictator. It was Fernando Marcos and the Philippines. Suharto, invaded East Timor, by land by air and by sea. 90% of the weapons used were from the United States, Kissinger and Ford had given the green light for that invasion. And I could only think about what happened with Israel when President Biden the first president to go to a war time Israel personally visited, and we got the reporting from HuffPost and other places that those within the State Department who were using words like de escalation were to stop. And when the readout was done of President Biden's phone call with Netanyahu right before he went to Israel, the White House made a point of saying he did not use the word restraint. So Ford and Kissinger gave the green light on that case, left, and Suharto invaded East Timor, by land by air and by sea 90% of the weapons from the United States. It was a brutal invasion they occupied for almost two decades, they killed a third of the population of East Timor. It was
one of the worst genocides of late 20th century. My colleague, a very brave journalist, Alan Neron, and I got to go in 1990. And what we found was a true Hell on Earth. Indonesia occupied every space and East Timor. People were being dragged out of their homes in the middle of night disappeared, killed. We went back in the fall of 1991, because for the first time the UN was going to send a delegation to investigate what was happening in East Timor. It was a Portuguese parliamentary delegation. Portugal had occupied Timor for decades, but they'd pulled out in 1974. And then Indonesia invaded. We got to Timor, we went to the main Catholic Church and Dili Timor is a Catholic country. And during the service, the women started to wail and we didn't know if it was just the common sorrow of Timor, or if something had just happened, and afterwards, we learned that the Indonesian military had surrounded the church and killed a young man who was taking refuge there. His name was Sebastio Gomez, his blood was still fresh on the steps of the motel church. So what was happening was the delegation was going to come. And we learned that the Indonesian military had issued a nationwide death threat against the people of Timor, you will not speak to that delegation. And so people dropped out of their workplaces, their schools, their regular lives to take refuge in the churches. It was the one place that Indonesia had not yet invaded the Catholic churches. And they were taking refuge because they wanted to speak to the delegation to talk about what was happening in East Timor, their first chance to get word out to an official UN delegation. And Sebastio was one of those in this church, and he was shot at point blank range. And so the next day was the funeral. And we covered this funeral people incredibly brave. 1000 people followed the family carrying the coffin, they didn't know Sebastio but they knew what a violation This was of their church of their the threat to their continued threat to their freedom. And they marched to the Santa Cruz cemetery. And there, they buried him. And then we heard as we traveled around Timor that there was going to be a two week commemoration procession for Sebastian And we went to the motel church two weeks later. And there were so many people who came out to the church for the 6am mass that the priests had to come outside to perform the service to hold mass. And then people took to the streets and they unfurled banners that they had stuffed into their Catholic school blouses. That said things like why the Indonesian military shoot our church, they appealed to President Bush that was George HW Bush, at the time. Please do something about this. They appeal to the United Nations. And they marched 1000s of people their hands up in the V sign Viva East Timor, Viva Subash Zhao, Viva independence they chanted incredibly brave as the Indonesian military lined the streets, they marched to the cemetery. Alan and I were following them talking to people when we got to the cemetery. There were high walls on either side of the road for the cemetery. And so the people could only escape if they went through a tiny opening in the wall. And we would say, why are you doing this? I mean, the Indonesian military has killed so many hundreds of 1000s of people and they say for my mother for my father for my cousin who was killed, my whole village was wiped out and they would say things like that. And then we saw from the direction the procession was coming from hundreds of Indonesian soldiers marching up with their USM 16. So at the ready position, people couldn't escape the wolves on either side of the road. We were talking to people at the back. And we always hid our equipment because anyone caught talking to a Western journalist, they too could be disappeared. So this time we took out our equipment, I slung my bag over my shoulder, I held out my tape recorder and I held up my microphone like a flag, Allen put the camera above his head, and we walked to the front of the crowd. Indonesian soldiers were marching up 10 to 12, abreast USM sixteens. at the ready position. They swept around the corner. They swept past us and without any warning without any hesitation without any provocation. They open fire on the crowd gunning people down from right to left a little boy behind us with his hands up in the V sign exploded before our eyes. A group of soldiers came then at us. One threw me to the ground, they were beating me. Alan took a picture of them at first opening fire. Then he threw himself on top of me to protect me from further injury. And they took their USM sixteens like baseball bats and they slammed them against his skull. A group of them stood in front of us and firing squad fashion, put the guns to our heads. We had nothing now they had stripped us of everything. But I had my passport and I threw it at them as they were shouting, Australia, Australia. They were asking if we were from Australia. We knew what had happened to Australian journalist 17 years before, right before Indonesia invaded East Timor. They were from a tent they were in a town called Valley bow. Oh Greg Shackleton Australian Broadcasting Corporation and other ABC and other journalists. And they had lined up up against a house and they had executed them. The person in charge of that execution later became Indonesia's Minister of Information. So we knew what had happened to those journalists. And as we lay on the ground, Allen covered in blood, we shouted back no America, America. At some point, they took the guns from our heads, we believe because we were from the same country their weapons were from, and they would have to pay a price for killing us that they had never had to pay for killing the temporaries. And they moved on. We were able to get into a Red Cross Jeep that had bravely driven up. And then dozens of temporaries jumped on top of us on top of the Jeep. And we drove as a human mass to the hospital. They were trying to escape the massacre scene at the hospital. The doctors and nurses started to cry when they saw us when they saw Alan dripping with blood because of how the temporaries see us. And I don't just mean memories or just us. I mean how people in the world see people from the United States. They see us in two ways as the shield and the sword, the shield because when the American people speak up, we can have an effect on our government if people know and the sword because all too often the US provides weapons to human rights abusing regimes and that day they saw All that shield bloodied and it just deepen their despair. We left the hospital. It was clear this would be a place that the Indonesian military would probably go after were surviving temporaries were and we had to get word out. We went to the compound of the temporaries Bishop, Bishop Carlos Jimenez Bella, who would later win the Nobel Peace Prize with Weldon our presidential is a Ramos Horta, who I just saw in New York at the UN General Assembly. We went to Bishop bellows compound 1000s of Tim Murray's were taking refuge there. I think about that, as I think of the 1000s of Palestinians who are taking refuge in schools and hospitals and how they're being bombed. In the case of Gaza, the Israeli government tells them to move south, they move south and then they are bombed as they move to places like Kenyatta, Han Yunus and other places. But I in that compound den with Bishop Bello. Allen again dripping with blood. We knew the only way to stop this killing is if we could get word out and we figured we had to get to the airport. There was one playing out that day. Bishop bello gave Allen a shirt we're cleaning off his neck, I took Alan's bloody shirt and I wrapped it around my skirt under a towel he had given us so at least I would have evidence if they denied that a massacre had taken place. And then we went out onto the road. And we knew if it was an Indonesian taxi cab driver, they cleared the roads now. So very few cars were there tanks had rolled through the streets or Jeeps of soldiers. But a temporary driver picked us up and we said to the airport quickly. And we raced to the airport. And when we got there, we went up to the counter and said we have to get on that plane the one plane out that day. And they started to yell shout, we had cleaned them up enough to know because we didn't want them to see we were at the massacre site. Either they would deny us or if they had actually decided not to kill us they would want us to get out of the country.
And so as the only thing I had left, we couldn't go back to the hotel, they'd already run, overrun it. Were my one tick in my pocket and they were throwing it around. They were waving it in the air shouting at each other going behind the counter coming back going into an office coming back, but they decided that they would let us get on that plane. And so we walked on the tarmac company by a soldier Alan was having electrical charges through his body from the beating they had fractured his skull using the USM sixteens as bats against his skull, and I didn't want them to see how slowly he was walking. So I kept stopping next to him and saying what a beautiful country we will be back soon. What a beautiful country. We got into the plane and as they close the doors. The Indonesian flight attendants gave me a silver bowl of water and they said clean him. We flew on to West Timor, and then to Bali, and we tried to get onto a plane it was Continental Airlines at the time and the top executive was saying we were not allowed on that plane because we were such a mess. And the US consul representative in Bali was there he was a music teacher. And he said we're gonna get them on that plane. And they wrapped us in blankets. They brought us on the plane. Allen couldn't sit down there. He asked if he could be tied to the side of the plane. And when they close the doors of this plane, the flight attendants asked on the plane if there were any doctors in the house for Alan. Doctors were helping him on the plane. They came from the US Naval Base Guam, and they said they were going to have an ambulance from the military hospital. But we said no. We wanted to go to the Provincial Hospital of Guam because we were afraid the US military who had so allied itself with so long with the Indonesian military would prevent us from communicating the whole point we had to get out of the country, we'd made one call out in Bali. And as Alan spoke on the phone, I took the towel and I would wipe the blood off the phone as he called back into the United States and said there's been a massacre. You know, the military denied a massacre taken place. And then they had to admit maybe a few people than maybe dozens of people then ultimately hundreds of people of course, they had killed over 270 temporaries on that day. And that was not one of the larger massacres in East Timor. When we got to the United States, we went directly to Washington. And when Alan got out of the hospital the next day we held a news conference saying The weapons were used. The weapons used were from the United States as people heard around the world the massacre that had taken place and global movement grew up against the occupation of East Timor, the illegal occupation of East Timor. In 1999. The people of East Timor got to vote for their freedom, the UN sponsored a referendum after mass protests around the world. And they voted overwhelmingly for their freedom. The UN ran the transition for three years. Sergio de Mello was the UN representative who oversaw that transition. And you may remember that Sergio de Mello was one of the UN officials who died in a bombing in Iraq, and in May of 2002. The Democratic Republic of East Timor was born during the period of after the massacre of 1991 Ellen and I were banned from entering East Timor, the Indonesian Parliament held up pictures of us and said we would not be allowed to come into the country. But on that day, May 2002 I entered through Darwin, Australia, Alan made it to to East Timor, and there with 1000s of Memories right at midnight, with a fireworks display. shenana Gustavo, the rebel leader of East Timor, who had been imprisoned for years by Indonesia, ascended the stage the first president of Timor Leste day, that is, East Timor, ascended the stage and speaking in at least four languages. He unfurled the flag of the Democratic Republic of East Timor. The fireworks display you could see reflected in the tear stained faces of the people of East Timor. They had resisted and they had won at an unbelievably high price. But they had prevailed, and they thanked people all over the world who stood up for them, who ensured that they could arrive at this day, though so many a third of the population could not. And it was a lesson to all of us, whether we are journalists or farmers, whether we are doctors, nurses, teachers, artists, whether we're employed or unemployed. We have a decision to make every day whether we want to represent the sword or the shield, Democracy Now.
