Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: The best insight, instant feedback, accountability. The all new talk radio Freedom 106.5.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Let's welcome to our program pro of the concerned Muslims of Trinidad and Tobago, Mt as Mohammed. Good morning to you. Welcome to our program.
[00:00:17] Speaker A: Hi, good morning satish. Good morning to your listeners.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: It's nice to have you with us here this morning. This issue has been going on for a pretty long period of time. We see convulsions in other parts of the world about it, people raising their voices, asking for certain things to be done here at home. We've had some marches related to it. We have persons who've been making comments. It may not necessarily have been getting the kind of attention some people think it deserves. And that's the conflict taking place between Israel and Palestine and the Palestinians that has been going on for a long, long period of time. But the conflict that we see now is unprecedented. The loss of life and all of these other things. Let's begin by you giving us the perspective of the concerned Muslims of Trinidad and Tobago on what's going on and what you think our country should be doing.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: Okay. So again, good morning to all the listeners and good morning to all the staff at the station.
And you know, this issue with Israel and Palestine is over 75 years this has been going on and it is an injustice.
It is a, you know, the actions of Israel today, you know, is considered to be a genocide. The question is, why did the world leaders, the powerful nations, United nations, you know, all these superpowers in the world, why did they leave this to get to this stage where you have 34,000 people plus killed, you have over 15,000 children killed, right? You have journalists, 140 plus journalists killed. You have medical staff, over 200 killed as well. And you know, the numbers can just be increasing day by day.
So what happened is that in 1917, after, well, just after the world War two, the English, of which Palestine was a colony then, too, right, they decided to give the Jews, right, the jewish population that is part of Palestine so that they can live and settle there after the Holocaust took place in Germany, right? And when the jewish population settled in Palestine after 1970, between 1920 and 1947, right, during that period of time, while they are settling on other people lands, they started trying to take more and more of the lands in Palestine.
And that is why if you look at the historic map of where the jewish people started settling, you will see where more and more as years go by, they started getting bigger and bigger of an area. And when the Palestinians saw that were happening, there were conflicts and breakouts and fights and so on, right. With the palestinian people trying to say, no, I mean we have, you know, well, of course they are colony and this was done through the English, but you know, that was there land. It come like me in Trinidad and Tobago in the days of when we were under the English as a colony, not because we are colony that England could come and say, well, take half a Trinidad and give it out to whoever they want, right? So the Palestinians were in that same situation about the jewish people.
They went, were given part of the lands to live and then they started to increase that area, right? So that is the fights break out the struggle. And then eventually that led to 1948 where it had that big catastrophe. They call it the Nakba, which is celebrated every year. You know, it's something that's significant that that happened in the lives of Palestinians. And in the Nakba you had 750,000 Palestinians were expelled with no right to return to their lands or their homeland up to today, right. And then you had 15,000 of them killed at that time, 600 villages wipe out.
And in those same villages you have the Israelis of them going in and building up settlements as they are doing today.
[00:05:31] Speaker C: Right.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: As the war is happening. Do you know that the government of Israel today has given their people rights to go ahead and build and construction is going on in lands in the West bank, right. And those places where the settlers now are going in and building big home construction sites and so on, right? And they are even, and I mean, after Nakda, when all these people were expelled, they were sent to, they had to go to places like Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, where they are still there as refugees with no right. And I want to emphasize that. With no right to return to Palestine, right. And the powerful nation like the United States and England and all those european countries up to today, up to today, they do nothing to reverse that decision of the Israelis, right? So the Palestinians live under great oppression or aggression.
You know, Israelis go into their homes and this didn't happen just recently. You know, this, this type of life is for the last 75 years they have been putting up with this type of life, right? Israel, Palestine have their citizens have no rights like myself and you or even like the Israelis. If the Palestinians need to move from Gaza to the West bank, they have to get permission. They had to get a permit, right. And they could be refused as well.
[00:07:13] Speaker C: Right?
[00:07:13] Speaker A: So this is the type of life that they have been living for 75 years. And you know, it is unbelievable that the powerful countries in the world today who are fighting for Ukraine, right, they don't want Russia to go into Ukraine because they will be. Because Russia will be seen as doing the same thing the Israelis and them are doing.
[00:07:36] Speaker C: Right.
[00:07:37] Speaker A: And. But they side with, with Russia. They. Sorry, they side with Ukraine.
[00:07:43] Speaker C: Right.
[00:07:44] Speaker A: And the hypocrisy is that you don't see the same thing on the other side with the war with Israel and Palestine. You allow that to happen. Up to today, the United States of America, right. Up to today, they have not called for a ceasefire, even though you have 34,000 people dead, 15,000 of which is shurned.
[00:08:08] Speaker C: Right.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: And you will tell me that you don't seem necessary to call for a ceasefire. So that is more or less, you know, a picture of the historic background leading up to what is happening today.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: It has, this matter has been going on for a long period of time.
This didn't just pop up yesterday. And there's been a call on world leaders to get more involved.
Long before we had all of this fighting with Hamas and the attack, whenever it was last year or this year, whenever it was, that sparked this retaliation between Israel. And you already can't describe it as a war because Israel has been moving roughshod over the palestinian areas and they've been doing some things that are raising eyebrows. Israel's is, we spoke to the israeli ambassador and he, as others have said that Israel is well within its rights to defend itself against a Hamas that has been conducting activities that have been to the detriment of Israel.
Some would suggest that Israel has brought a tank, a war tank, to a knife fight because they are suggesting that Hamas and the Palestinians do not have the wherewithal to combat what the russian forces are. And that's one discussion.
They've been mounting calls on America, among others, to make some sort of intervention. Now, apart from flippant remarks that have been made by the US president saying, well, they don't support this and they don't agree with that. And the time has come for Israel to not do this and that there's been no real action on the part of America to try to intervene in this matter. Israel is a well known ally of the US.
Israel continues to be funded by the US.
So how, how realistic is the expectation that the US, which just passed, I think it was some kind of trillion dollar, billion dollar aid package to Israel, and we know that the longstanding relationship between Israel and the US exists. How realistic is it for us to think that the US is going to step in and make some kind of intervention to stop this thing? And on top of that, you know, they're selling arms and ammunition and war is a very profitable business. So realistically, is the call for the US to get involved a hollow call? Because people, if you look at all that's going on, it's not, it's not something that you would realistically expect the US to do. What's your take on it?
[00:11:03] Speaker A: Okay, so you know, the United States of America, the reason why in my view, is this. One of the main reasons is that the strategic position, geographical position, that is in the Middle East, Israel location is of key to them.
Israel is like their watchdog in the Middle east, right? And their strategic position, it's a place where they can easily store large number of weapons that they can use in war in case of a war breakout, let's say, in that part of the world and they have interest to protect and so on, right? So that is one of the main reasons why they fund Israel. But Israel, we must also remember that the zionist Jews and the zionist Jews are the ones who are behind this. Because where you will see the ordinary Jews in the United States and other places are protesting, right. And are against what Israel is doing in Palestine, right? So the Zionists Jews are really the enemies of the Palestinians and they are the wealthy ones. They are the ones who finance the board government, whether it be republic or democratic, in the United States, right? So they run the government in the United States of America. So you expect them to do what they are doing today, right now, they will go into the United nations. The Security Council arm of the United nations is one of the more powerful arms, right? And you have 15 countries that represent the Security Council at different times. I think they change them every year or two years or something. Anyway.
So, you know, 14 countries out of that 15 can vote yes. And if the United States come and say no, that's the end of it. So United nations, you know, is like a toothless bulldog. I say, right, which need people need to leaders in the world who lead their countries at these United nations have to look back and see if this is a kind of organization that they really want to belong to.
They have to change that. You can't have one country coming in because they just give the largest amount of money to the United nations coming and doing that. One of the biggest disadvantages that face the Palestinians in fixing this problem with the Israelis right now, Israel, Israel does what they want to do.
[00:14:01] Speaker C: Right?
[00:14:02] Speaker A: And you have the United States government sanctioning all of this.
[00:14:08] Speaker C: Right.
[00:14:09] Speaker A: If they were truly and really care about the lives of these people, they would have called for a ceasefire a long time, but they are now. They prefer to be part of the genocide that is taking place by letting this happen and saying that, you know, we are not going to announce a ceasefire.
[00:14:32] Speaker C: Right?
[00:14:33] Speaker A: What? They are announcing a humanitarian ceasefire. What is a humanitarian ceasefire? What purpose that will really serve at the end of the day in resolving this matter? Nothing. Because humanitarian ceasefire, you're looking at a period of time, maybe two weeks, a month, three months, six months, whatever.
[00:14:52] Speaker C: Right.
[00:14:53] Speaker A: And then you go back to killing people again. So in other words, you're feeding people, you're fattening them to kill them after.
[00:14:59] Speaker C: Right.
[00:15:00] Speaker A: So, I mean, the United States, right, they are the biggest culprits in this. And one. One of the reasons why the United States and Israel is doing what they are doing is because they are not members of the international criminal court. If they were members of the International Criminal court, they would have never do what they are doing today. But they know that because the ICC have no jurisdiction over them.
[00:15:32] Speaker C: Right.
[00:15:32] Speaker A: They will do and behave as they are doing today by killing people at will and nobody can touch them. The United States have told Israel at the very beginning, and they have warned countries, especially around the Middle east, that when this war had started and Israel started, this war actually started three days after the. After October 7, the United States made it clear that no country should jump in and told Israel that we have your back.
[00:16:05] Speaker C: Right.
[00:16:06] Speaker A: That is what they did. And they give the green light for all of this to happen.
[00:16:11] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:16:13] Speaker A: So they had no problem with civilians being killed up to today. They still have no problem with that because they have not announced a ceasefire.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: Okay, let's take the discussion back to home.
And there have been calls for our government to make more pronouncements than they've been making. Our minister of foreign affairs says that decisions will be made and the country will state its position and all that kind of thing. What do you think? What does your organization think we need to do?
[00:16:46] Speaker A: Well, I think we need to follow in the footsteps of countries like South Africa.
[00:16:52] Speaker C: Right.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: Another country like Ireland.
[00:16:59] Speaker C: Right.
[00:16:59] Speaker A: And also we have countries like Bolivia, Colombia and so on. There are Brazil.
[00:17:05] Speaker C: Right.
[00:17:06] Speaker A: All of these countries have severed their diplomatic ties with Israel. Why it is that our government are not following suit. Why it is that our government had to wait for Barbados and Jamaica and so on.
[00:17:20] Speaker C: Right.
[00:17:21] Speaker A: Then to make an announcement that they recognize Palestine. Since 2013, Guyana recognized Palestine, followed by St. Vincent and the Grenadines, followed by Grenada, followed by St. Lucia, followed by Antigua Barbuda, followed by St. Kitts Nevis since 2013, right? And only two countries remain, right. Trinidad being one of them. It took the ambassador of Palestine who is the ambassador in the UN right to come here approximately two weeks ago on our visit, right.
And ask the Trinidad and Tobago recognize and only after that all of this took place, right. Why must. What is the problem? Why it is that this couldn't be done ahead of these countries? Because these countries that I just call out in carry cop, right.
None of them have a population of Muslims, right.
That is larger than Trinidad and Tobago. And the reason why I say I bring the muslim thing into it is that when you have different faiths and live in our country you would start to learn and recognize the values and so on of the different people and their religion.
And these people in these countries have maybe if they have five Muslim they have plenty. If they have ten Muslims in some of these islands they have plenty. So these leaders in these countries have no knowledge of Islam and so on, right. But yet. But yet they find it compassion in their heart, right. And sympathy towards these people. And they did what they've said, what they look as being the correct decision and standing by these people of them and recognizing the country since 2013, right. So our leaders in trail and Tobago, you know, we have some leaders who in my view they are there for their own political purpose, right.
And they don't really. And if you look at the way how our own people at times are treated, let's say if PNM in power, PNM areas get all the biggest part of the budget and fixing road and providing houses and this and that if UNC get into power, similar thing takes place, right. So the politicians need to step up. They need to know that the people in this country no longer endorse that type of politics, right. And coming back now to this situation.
So we waited until now to say, well okay, we recognize Palestine, but recognize Palestine as a state is not enough. And this is what our organization is seeing. We want to see that you cut diplomatic ties like South Africa where South Africa decided to not recognize Palestine. They said, you know, we just can't just do that alone. We have to show you that we're serious about it, right. And they went ahead and they cut the diplomatic ties and cut the trading and so on with them. And that is the kind of thing that we country need to do and all other countries need to need to do. Right. You have to isolate Israel. The same thing when South Africa had apartheid the whole world stand together.
[00:21:04] Speaker C: Right.
[00:21:05] Speaker A: And cut trade and cut diplomatic eyes and sporting activities, you couldn't even have South Africans in it, right? So it's the same action you need to take because Israel is behaving the same way. It's an ethnic cleansing that is taking place in Palestine at this time. What these people are doing is that they want to kill all these Palestinians and take their properties and place it now. And we have proof of that. The proof is in the West bank, in the other places. That is not as Gaza. When the war started in Gaza, they started again. They continued the dirty and nasty treatment of the Palestinians. They go before October 7. I want people to understand, before October 7, Palestinians were being treated the same way like they are being treated now, right?
If you follow the story and you have been following the history and you have been following all the news, international news, in all the years gone by, you will always see Israelis going into palestinian homes, driving them out of the homes and so on, there is a video, there is a video that shows on Al Jazeera sometimes, right, where a palestinian woman is telling her jewish neighbor, but you have taken mine home. The jewish man tells she, if I didn't take it, somebody else will take it, right? So this is how bold they are with it, right? So this type of life that the palestinian people live in, when October 7 took place, right, when October 7 took place, right. It was like a boil over, right? It was a resistance to all that these people have been facing. Palestinians don't have, they have observer rights in the UN. They are not recognized as a full fledged country. They have no rights to army. They have no rights to any kind of security forces. They don't even have rights to airport if they have to get an airport if they have to leave the country, like you said, they have to get the permission of the Israel people. Do we know that? They have to get permission from Israel, right, to leave their country or to come into their country.
[00:23:25] Speaker C: Right.
[00:23:26] Speaker A: If they have to visit. Now, if you look at a map of Palestine today, you will see where Gaza is on one end of the border and you'll find West bank and so on on the other end of the border. And so what happened when they have to get to visit their family in Gaza or visit their family in West bank? They, again, they have to get permission. They have to go to checkpoints, they go to ID. What kind of life is this, right. What do you expect people to do?
[00:23:55] Speaker C: Right.
[00:23:55] Speaker A: So what they are doing, in other words, is that they are helping to create terrorists, as they call them, right? But these people are considered to be freedom fighters. Hamas is considered to be a freedom fighter for the palestinian people, right, not a terrorist group. But the minute, the minute a group goes against the United States, right, and its allies, they are considered to be terrorists. That is the best way and easy way to terrorize anybody and to have them blacklisted in the world is to name them a terrorist Hamas.
[00:24:34] Speaker B: I'm sorry, but unfortunately we're going to have to leave our discussion this morning because I do have a couple to take us up to the top. We probably might have another discussion on this incident because from all intents and purposes this is not going anywhere anytime soon. So I want to thank you for being with us here this morning and giving us your organization's perspective of what is taking place and what needs to be done. Thank you once again for being with us here this morning.
[00:24:57] Speaker A: The best insight, instant feedback, accountability the all new talk radio Freedom 106.5.
