The Electronic Intifada Podcast 11 March 2025
Although the future of those talks are now uncertain, Trump’s decision to engage with Hamas directly comes at the same time as the US and Israel are threatening to restart a full-scale war on Gaza.
Palestinians there are facing acute scarcity of food and other essential supplies after Israel ordered all crossings closed on 2 March, in violation of the ceasefire terms and international law, as associate editor Nora Barrows-Friedman explained in her weekly news briefing on The Electronic Intifada Livestream for 6 March.
As for the Trump administration’s talks with Hamas, “Watch what they do and not what they say,” was the advice from executive director Ali Abunimah.
He cited reports of Israeli soldiers unwilling to go back into Gaza.
Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the human rights group DAWN, joined the Livestream to talk about her organization’s request to the International Criminal Court in The Hague that it investigate former US President Joe Biden.DAWN is asking the court to investigate Biden and other senior members of his administration for their role in aiding and abetting Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza genocide.
Whistson also observed that “The ICC is dead,” if they fail to prosecute Israelis for war crimes. She said many countries would leave the court and it would lose all legitimacy.
Crackdown at Columbia
We were also joined by two anonymous students from Columbia University who spoke about the latest crackdown by the administration of Barnard College, which is affiliated with the university. Administrators brought in the New York Police Department against student protesters.
One student said it is dangerous to protest at Barnard and Columbia but, “We have a duty to Palestine.”
Since that interview, the situation has escalated dramatically, with the Trump administration’s arrest](https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/columbia-complicit-tru…) of Columbia University student leader Mahmoud Khalil.
The students who spoke to the Livestream called into question a bomb threat which Barnard College president Laura Rosenbury said was the pretext to call in the police to clear out students protesting at Millstein Library.
On Twitter/X Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine shared a photo of students being lined up next to the building that had supposedly received a bomb threat.
One of the anonymous students pointed out that people were not evacuated from the second floor above the supposed bomb threat. “If it wasn’t a bomb threat, it shows just how far President Rosenbury and the Barnard administration are willing to go to clear out disruptions and protests.”“Devastating cowardice and failure”
For the first time on the Livestream, contributing editor Jon Elmer reviewed footage from 7 October 2023 taken by the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, depicting its assault on the Nahal Oz military base.
Elmer compared Qassam’s footage to a report by the Israeli military released on 3 March. He said Israel had avoided releasing the investigation into what happened at Nahal Oz because it shows “devastating cowardice and failure,” by the Israeli military.
Hamas has also published a list detailing how Israel has violated the ceasefire agreement during its first phase, including killing Palestinians and barring aid from entering the Gaza Strip.
Elmer reviewed those details and more updates on the ceasefire agreement.
Arab plan for Gaza
Editors also discussed a so-called emergency meeting of the Arab League.
Associate editor Nora Barrows Friedman said their approval of an Egyptian plan for rebuilding Gaza was nothing “drastically different” from previous public statements.
The plan is an alternative to Trump’s scheme to ethnically cleanse Gaza.
The Egyptian plan opposes displacing any Palestinians from their land and proposes to invest $53 billion to rebuild Gaza, including 400,000 new homes, over five years.
Hamas broadly supports the plan but may not accept the Palestinian Authority taking over Gaza. The resistance group will also not agree to disarmament – something the Egyptian plan does not specifically address, but which the United States and Israel are likely to insist on.
Abubaker Abed on Ramadan in Gaza
We had an update from regular contributor Abubaker Abed about Ramadan in Gaza and his reaction to the latest threats from President Donald Trump.
Trump issued his most explicit and violent threat against Palestinians on social media, warning “the people of Gaza” that “a beautiful future awaits, but not if you hold hostages. If you do, you are dead! Make a smart decision. Release the hostages now, or there will be hell to pay later!”
But Abed pointed out that Trump made similar threats to take over Gaza last month but the ceasefire continued.And Israel made clear its intentions to ethnically cleanse Gaza since the start of the genocide in October 2023. “ However, Palestinians are stuck to their land. Palestinians remain steadfast and resilient,” Abed said.
He shared a saying “by every Palestinian from the children to the elderly” about the determination of the people in Gaza: ”Ending up in a grave inside Gaza is better than having a castle elsewhere across the globe.”
Abed emphasized that Palestinians plan to rebuild and have Gaza thriving again. He shared how people are celebrating Ramadan in “an atmosphere and ambience brimming with joy and beauty,” even amid the rubble.Israel has killed more than 100 people since the ceasefire started in mid-January.
But when asked how this year’s Ramadan differs from last year, Abed said it is, at least, not the same “bloodbath.” People can move about freely in the streets and markets are brimming compared to last year.
As another sign of hope and resilience, Abed said people are planting vegetables like lettuce, basil and parsley. He described with joy how his family ate spinach “from the land itself.”
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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