Between The Lines - Mazin Qumsiyeh: Palestinian moderates & reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah (Week Ending April 8, 2011)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

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As Violence Erupts in Israel and Gaza, Palestinian Youth Call for Hamas-Fatah Reconciliation

RealAudio MP3

Posted March 30, 2011

Excerpt of Q&A with Mazin Qumsiyeh, professor at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities in West Bank, recorded and produced by Melinda Tuhus

The March 11 murder of five members of an Israeli settler family in their West Bank home, followed by the March 23 bombing of a bus in Jerusalem that killed one person and injured more than 30 others, has greatly increased tension between Israelis and Palestinians. Mortars and rockets fired into Israel by Palestinian militants from Gaza and Israeli air strikes on Gaza have resulted in further civilian deaths and dozens of injuries. Against the backdrop of increased violence, Palestinian academic and activist Mazin Qumsiyeh is touring the U.S. with his new book titled, "Popular Resistance in Palestine." It traces the history of non-violent struggles for self-determination throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, including opposition to Israeli occupation. It focuses on the Palestinian people’s demand that international law and human rights be upheld in the struggle for a just solution to the Middle East conflict.

His book tour was part of Israeli Apartheid Week, which was organized globally during the last week of March. The week of actions was an effort to support Palestinian civil society's call for "Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel" as a non-violent means of opposing Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and suppression of Palestinian rights.

During one of Qumsiyeh’s recent talks at Yale University, where he once taught, he took questions from members of the audience who held a variety of viewpoints on the Middle East. In this segment, we first hear Qumsiyeh’s response to a questioner who asked why the Palestinian author doesn't support what he described as "moderates" on both sides to reach a just resolution, rather than holding a "radical" position himself, thereby emboldening "radicals" on the Israeli side.

Mazin Qumsiyeh's new book, "Popular Resistance in Palestine: A History of Hope and Empowerment" is published by Pluto Press. This segment was recorded and produced by Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus.

MAZIN QUMSIYEH: Well, I think this construct that says there's a particular type of moderation -- the moderation is the people who accept that Israel is a Jewish state on 78 percent of Palestine and are willing to negotiate on parts of the remaining 22 percent; if they renounce the right of refugees to return tot heir homes and lands, and if they renounce their basic humans rights to their own lands and properties; and if they do A-B-C-D, then they become moderate and would be acceptable as negotiating partners to me is not a correct construct to think of this situation. It's like saying, why not concentrate on the moderates in South Africa under apartheid; Chief Buthelezi, for example, who was more than willing to recognize white South Africa in its current borders where the bantustans where they are and was more than happy to sit down with whites in South Africa and deal with this preconception of what is right and wrong and in so doing, of course, abandon the rights of his own people, the Bantu people had rights, they had rights to the land. The issue really is not an issue of moderates versus extremist. You have to define these terms: what is moderate, what is extremist? I consider Hamas to be extremist, let's be very clear. I consider Likud to be extremist, I consider Kadima to be extremist, I consider the Labor Party to be extremist. Why? Because all of them say that Palestinians do not have the rights to their lands, that Palestinian refugees cannot go back to their lands. This is a basic human right; do you support it or don't you support it?

BETWEEN THE LINES: Another person asked whether under the new Egyptian government that is emerging after the departure of president Hosni Mubarek, Qumsiyeh thinks that will result in an end to the blockade of Gaza from the Egyptian side?

MAZIN QUMSIYEH: I hope so, I pray so, but so far we haven't seen the change in Egyptian policy. Part of it, of course, is that the Egyptians still get over a billion dollars from the U.S., primarily for their millitary and the U.S. still has a lot of leverage on the military, and now the military's in charge in this transition period. So, until free and fair elections that we were promised from the military -- and they are following up on some of their promises, like a change in the constitution and so forth, they did the referendum on that -- so if they continue this and they do get a representative Egyptian government that represents the will of the Egyptian people...I can tell you I have many friends in Egypt and they tell me a big part of the uprising was about that subject; a big part of it was, How can you starve 1.5 million people to serve the Israeli government interests by collaborating with Israel and sealing the border with Gaza?

BETWEEN THE LINES: I got to ask the last question. Can you comment on the recent efforts of young Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to call for reunification of the Palestinian leadership?

MAZIN QUMSIYEH: I myself am not for this notion of unifying Palestinian leadership because Hamas and Fatah have two different ideologies and they will never come together; it's like asking Democrats and Republicans to form one party. There were demonstrations the 15th of March -- it was called the Day of Rage in Palestine. Thousands and thousands of Palestinians went in demonstrations in Gaza and the West Bank, against both Hamas and Fatah in the West Bank, telling them, Stop this charade. They did not call for unity between the two. No, they said, As Palestinians we want you to go back to being a representative Palestinian National Council that represents all Palestinians and not just those in the West Bank and Gaza, but the 1.5 million who are inside the Green Line plus all those in diaspora. If you recreate the Palestinian National Congress, that in itself wiill bring reconciliation becasue it will be a democratic institution. That's what they called for. Both Hamas and Fatah, by the way, hijacked this message and started sending message to their supporters saying that the demonstrations in Ramullah and Gaza were about reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas. This was a distortion of the message of what we had been calling for, and actually in both places they failed with this message among Palestinians, with trying to distort our message.