MSNBC’s Ali Velshi Does Not Challenge Guest Who Says the U.S. Has ‘Aided and Abetted Genocide’
MSNBC’s Ali Velshi made no objections, but nodded affirmatively periodically as his guest accused Americans of stealing land, Israel of ethnic cleansing, and the United States of “aiding and abetting genocide,” among a slew of other accusations.
Former Palestinian Authority spox Hanan Ashrawi appeared on Saturday’s Velshi to discuss the war in Gaza and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejecting the idea of the Palestinian Authority overseeing Gaza.
Throughout her comments to Velshi, Ashrawi repeatedly accused Israel of genocide, ethnic cleansing, massacres, and being responsible for the outbreak of the war — never mentioning the October 7 terror attack and never being contradicted, challenged, or even asked follow-up questions by the MSNBC host.
Early in the interview, Ashrawi answered a question about the future with a series of accusations, including that Palestinian civilians are being “torn to pieces” by Israel and other characterizations with which Velshi took no issue.
“The most pressing need if we are to have the future, if the whole region is to have a future, is to put an immediate end to the carnage, to the slaughter,” she said. “You cannot talk about the future when people are not only being traumatized, they are being killed, torn to pieces, their homes, their institutions, hospitals, schools, universities, infra…, everything is being destroyed.”
“If you continue to bash the Palestinians, to kill them en masse, to continue with the massacres and the ethnic cleansing and the genocide, there’s no future for anybody,” said Ashrawi.
“What is the impact of that?” said Velshi, implicitly accepting those descriptions as fact. “What is the impact that all of these deaths that we are seeing?”
Before his guest could answer, he answered his own question, saying “They harden people. They harden people’s hearts. So things that look like a negotiated discussion, things that you were involved in in the ’80s and the ’90s seem farther away with each with each bomb that lands, with each with each new civilian death.”
After Velshi asked about the conditions needed for negotiation of a peace treaty and the future of a Palestinian state, Ashrawi, who called the idea of a two-state solution “disingenuous” on the part of both Israel and the United States, accused American citizens of stealing land and killing Palestinian civilians, trashed American policy, again said that Israel is engaging in ethnic cleansing, and said the United States has “disqualified” itself from participating in any peace process. She also accused President Joe Biden’s administration of being a willing party to genocide.
“This administration has proven to be party to the conflict, has aided and abetted genocide, has funded it, has sent weapons to Israel without any kind of restraints and accountability, and then talks about two-state solution. Again, it’s disingenuous,” she said. “Kill fewer people, they say. Well, don’t kill any people. That’s what they’re saying. And let’s start immediately with a cessation of Israel’s aggression and massacres and genocide.”
Velshi again responded with an implicit acceptance of the premises, saying that due to those evils, the conditions Ashrawi listed as necessary for Palestine’s future seem “a long way away.”
ASHRAWI: Right now, also, the most pressing need if we are to have the future, if the whole region is to have a future, is to put an immediate end to the carnage, to the slaughter. You cannot talk about the future when people are not only being traumatized, they are being killed, torn to pieces, their homes, their institutions, hospitals, schools, universities, infra…, everything is being destroyed.
And the American administration is saying, no, no, no, they need more time to carry out their objectives. And that and their objectives are really very lethal. And then they talk about the future. The best thing to guarantee a future is to give the Palestinians justice their rights, their freedom, their dignity and their future. But if you continue to bash the Palestinians to kill them en masse, to continue with the massacres and the ethnic cleansing and the genocide, there’s no future for anybody.
VELSHI: What is the impact of that? Sorry. Sorry about that. What is the impact that all of these deaths that we are seeing? They harden people. They harden people’s hearts. So things that look like a negotiated discussion, things that you were involved in in the ’80s and the ’90s, seem farther away with each with each bomb that lands, with each with each new civilian death.
ASHRAWI: Absolutely, yes. When the talks were beginning or started, there was an assumption that the disparity that international law would apply, that the future would involve two states, so to speak, with equal rights and so on. But now the Israeli government continued with settlement expansion, with land theft, with annexation, with again, a very violent policy on demolitions, extrajudicial executions, mass arrests and so on. So it was negotiating in bad faith.
ASHRAWI: And it’s not just Gaza, it’s also the West Bank that is traumatized, as you know. And disingenuously, they say, “ah it’s the settlers, so we’re not going to give them visas.” Well, tough luck because most of the settlers have American passports. They are American citizens who are stealing our land and who are armed to the teeth and are killing. And, and it’s also the Israeli army that is killing Palestinians in the West Bank, that is demolishing homes, and that is aiding and abetting the settlers. So don’t tell me a handful of settlers we won’t give them a visa. It’s a question of a whole system of land theft, of expulsion, of death and murder.
So in the West Bank and in Gaza, there is an apartheid system that is intent on ethnically cleansing Palestine. How do you deal with that in order to do that? The mechanisms probably will have to involve international engagement.
And certainly the U.S. administration has disqualified themself completely. This administration has proven to be party to the conflict, has aided and abetted genocide, has funded it, has sent weapons to Israel without any kind of restraints and accountability, and then talks about two-state solution. Again, it’s disingenuous.
Kill fewer people, they say. Well, don’t kill any people. That’s what they’re saying. And let’s start immediately with a cessation of Israel’s aggression and massacres and genocide. And then let’s inject some kind of justice and respect for international law and humanitarian law, which Israel has totally rejected from the beginning.
VELSHI: It sounds like those things that you outline are a long way away, but we must discuss them in the hopes that they they appear sooner than we all hope. Hanan Ashrawi, as always, thank you for joining us.
Watch the clip above via MSNBC.
