The Electronic Intifada Podcast 21 July 2025
An engineer, Alnabih spoke from Gaza City about the horrifying conditions that municipal authorities are struggling to mitigate.
But he also spoke in a deeply personal way about the signs of love and caring he has seen in Gaza amidst the suffering and starvation deliberately inflicted by Israel.
He focused on the significance of one dried date.
“Arabs like dates. And I love dates. And my mother loves dates too,” he explained.
Alnabih carried a single date in his pocket for six months. Then he gave it to his mother. Alnabih’s mother gave the date to his 17-year-old sister, Nesma, who is still studying during the genocide with no internet, electricity or teachers. “ Just some old books,” said Alnabih.
Nesma then gave the date to her 2-year-old nephew who doesn’t even know what a date is because he has been living under a genocide for nearly his entire life.
Alnabih came to see the date as a symbol of the enduring love that Palestinians have for each other during Israel’s US-backed genocide.
During the war there are “ some bad actions from some people. Which I really understand. You know? It’s a genocide,” he acknowledged.But what he really notices is “ that people really understand each other and they support each other.”
Alnabih said he has not had a single day off work for nearly two years.
During the livestream and in his recent article he focused on the crisis of a life without fuel.Fuel “is a lifesaving need right now,” Alnabih said.
Israel’s refusal to allow fuel into Gaza affects food supplies, transportation, communications and waste management.
“We can see sewage flooding to tents, to homes, even to the displacement areas, to schools, to everywhere,” he explained.
The lack of fuel also means that in order to cook their meals, people resort to burning things like books, clothes, plastics, furniture, trees and sponges according to Alnabih.
This contributes to health and environmental crises.
“ The [Gaza] ministry of health, they talk about skin conditions, stomach conditions, especially among the children,” said Alnabih.
These crises are part of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.
Israel has destroyed 75 percent of Gaza City’s wells and prevents all but a trickle of fuel from entering Gaza. Israel cut off the supply of electricity in October 2023.
“ Every day we see examples that Palestinians deserve to live,” said Alnabih. He said they want to do good for their people and “even for… world civilization. So give us that chance.”Back to his own family, Alnabih said of his sister Nesma: “ I believe she’s genius… I wish Nesma would live in a better time. I wish she could study medicine as she wants. And to eat dates without counting them.”
650 people killed in a week
Israel continues its mass murder along with the starvation.
Israel killed 650 Palestinians and injured approximately 2,200 in one week alone between 9 July and 16 July.
On 16 July at least 21 Palestinians were killed by direct gunfire, suffocation and a stampede at a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation site in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, as reported by associate editor Nora Barrows-Friedman at the start of the Livestream and in her latest article.
Editors also discussed the latest genocidal complicity from Europe with associate editor David Cronin.Executive director Ali Abunimah led a discussion on why Israel bombed Damascus, despite the current Syrian regime’s friendliness to Israel since it took power in December 2024.
And contributing editor Jon Elmer shared the latest from the resistance in Gaza and analyzed reports of Israelis complaining about a lack of soldiers willing and able to serve in Gaza and recriminations against the Ultra-Orthodox who are not required to serve in the army.
You can watch the whole program in the video at the top of this article.
EU gives Israel a greenlight for more genocide
“Perhaps it’s best to focus on the biggest obstacle to any action by the European Union” against Israel’s violations of human rights, said associate editor David Cronin, author of Europe’s Alliance with Israel, speaking on the Livestream. “The name of that obstacle is Germany.”
As the most populous and wealthy country in Europe, Germany has been the strongest supporter of Israel’s genocide besides the United States – in weapons sales as well as political cover.
“To try and atone for that horrible holocaust in the 20th century, [Germany] is now fully supporting a holocaust against the Palestinian people in the 21st,” Cronin said.
But it’s not just Germany.The European Union has an association agreement with Israel that gives Israel huge trade benefits and other privileges but it is supposed to be contingent on Israel respecting human rights.
In May, there was “admittedly some ground for hope” according to Cronin, when 17 of 27 EU member states voted for a review of that agreement.
The review concluded: “There are indications that Israel would be in breach of its human rights obligations.”
Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign Minister, reportedly proposed 10 possible measures for member states to hold Israel accountable. These included suspending the whole association agreement, banning trade with settlements, ending visa-free travel for Israelis and denying Israel access to other EU benefits.
On 15 July, the EU voted to do absolutely nothing.
“The aim is not to punish Israel. The aim is to really improve the situation in Gaza,’’ said Kallas. In fact, under international law, every state is obligated to punish the crime of genocide.
”What she’s really doing is allowing a genocide to continue and abetting the crime of genocide,” Cronin said of Kallas.
Abunimah pointed out that the EU has passed 18 sanctions packages against Russia and regularly talks about punishing Russia in addition to helping Ukraine.
Cronin said he “ wasn’t in the least bit surprised” by the inaction in Brussels. “The European Union has been pretty consistent, appallingly consistent throughout this genocide.”
But Ireland, Spain and Slovenia are three European countries which have used the word genocide. Cronin said this is thanks to “popular pressure.”
“And there’s an onus on [Ireland, Spain and Slovenia] to act,” he emphasized.
Ireland does seem close to passing legislation that would ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements.
That prompted the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, to post on Twitter/X that it appears Ireland fell into a “vat of Guinness” and urged them to “sober up.”
“That is quite a racist stereotype of the Irish,” pointed out Cronin.
Cronin highlighted that Ireland is still complicit in the genocide.
”It’s flagrantly hypocritical that the Irish government on the one hand is prepared to call Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide – yet is also prepared to allow the sale of bonds which are financing this genocide.”
The Irish government has claimed it is obligated under EU law to continue to allow the sale of these Israeli bonds in Dublin.
Cronin doubts this legal reasoning and notes that the Palestine solidarity movement continues to pressure the Irish government to stop supporting the genocide.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog has emphasized the “crucial role of Israel bonds during this time of conflict and war.”
German aristocrats supporting genocide again
Cronin also discussed his recent article, “German aristocrats backed Hitler, now they support Israel”.
A Bavarian aristocrat, Katharina von Schnurbein has been the EU coordinator for combatting anti-Semitism for 10 years but has “acted essentially as an agent for Israel” instead of focusing on helping Jews in Europe – her job description.
Earlier this month, the publication EU Observer obtained a document showing that von Schnurbein has exceeded her mandate by lobbying against sanctions on Israel.
She even coined a new term, “ambient anti-Semitism,” and suggested that bake sales to benefit Gaza held by EU employees contributed to this.
Some members of the European Parliament are calling for von Schnurbein to step down, but Cronin believes she is “ supported from the top” by a fellow German aristocrat: Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission.
Israel bombs Syria
Since Bashar al-Assad was toppled in December 2024, Israel has been bombing Syria regularly including Syria’s air force, navy and other assets of the state. Often the bombings don’t even make the news.
But on 16 July Israel bombed central Damascus, including the defense ministry, and it made headlines in the US.
Abunimah noted that the long US-sponsored dirty war to topple the Syrian government was marketed as an effort to bring about a “renaissance of independence and sovereignty and self-determination and democracy.”
But the reality, he said, is that “Syria basically doesn’t exist as a state anymore.”
Editors highlighted the ways in which the new US-backed Syrian regime has been friendly towards Israel.
Abunimah says the lesson that resistance groups like Hizballah in Lebanon and Ansarullah in Yemen may take from this is: “If you disarm, no matter how servile you are towards Israel, Israel will attack you.”
You can watch the program on YouTube, Rumble or Twitter/X, or you can listen to it on your preferred podcast platform.Tamara Nassar produced and directed the program. Michael F. Brown contributed pre-production assistance and this writer contributed post-production assistance.
Past episodes of The Electronic Intifada livestream can be viewed on our YouTube channel.
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