The building, that or the buildings. I should say that the Israeli Defense Forces are demolishing here are making way for illegal settlements, as is evidenced by new reporting from drop site News Now. Drop Site News is a relatively new publication [00:00:16] that was founded by a friend of the show, Ryan Grim, and Jeremy Scahill, an incredible reporter who has put himself in harm's way multiple times in order to do incredible, you know, war reporting. But in this case, drop Site news actually had a guest correspondent [00:00:34] write about a story involving illegal settlements or plans to build illegal settlements in Gaza. And it's pretty devastating once you get into the details. So the journalist is actually a Palestinian journalist in the area. His name is Younis Tirawi. [00:00:51] And I want to give you some of the excerpts from his piece, some of the evidence that he provided in his story. And so he says that in addition to the Israeli military conducting extensive demolitions, drop Site news has uncovered that Israel has now contracted private companies [00:01:09] specializing in settler construction to work in northern Gaza, which is fascinating considering the fact that The New York Times literally just acted as stenographers for Netanyahu's lies. Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, [00:01:27] claimed that this was not happening. Some Israeli ministers have said that the military control in Gaza should pave the way for renewed Jewish settlement, although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has ruled that out for now. [00:01:44] Has he has he ruled that out? Why would you just repeat what a proven liar like Benjamin Netanyahu is claiming? Maybe dig a little deeper. And luckily, this report out of drop site news did just that. So one construction company even confirmed [00:02:02] that it is currently hiring workers specifically in Beit Lahiya. Okay, this is the first time a private company has been documented working in northern Gaza. And so there is documentation of this. [00:02:18] They posted their job listing in a Facebook page for reservist for Israeli Defense Forces, reservists who are part of the Israeli Defense Forces. And look, it's not like Israeli officials were even hiding the ball. Now, what do I mean by that? [00:02:34] Well, take Israel's housing and construction minister, who is quoted as saying that illegal settlements on stolen land are, you know, just retaliation for the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants for Yoav Galant and Benjamin Netanyahu? [00:02:51] I'm going to read you his exact quote. This is what he said. Today I toured the Gaza Strip. Settlements Jewish settlement. Here is the answer to the terrible massacre and the answer to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, who, instead of caring for the 101 hostages, chose to issue arrest warrants [00:03:10] against the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense. Now he continues by saying that the tour that took place today included a visit to several significant points of view at the entrance to Tazir Tazir [00:03:26] or the Nazarene corridor, which is what we were covering on the show yesterday, and all the destruction and demolition of buildings there. To understand the decisive importance of the place and its immediate readiness for Jewish settlement. [00:03:42] So they are, in fact, like, I just need everyone to understand, okay, this isn't about rooting out Hamas. This isn't about saving the hostages. What Hamas did in kidnaping and holding captive those hostages [00:03:59] was disgusting and wrong. What's equally, if not more disgusting and wrong, is the fact that the Israeli Defense Forces have been obliterating the Gaza Strip, where those hostages currently remain. I mean, you have Israeli Defense Forces literally, literally killing [00:04:16] three Israeli hostages on purpose as they are asking for help after they had escaped Hamas capture and were looking for help. The idea that the Israeli government, the current Israeli government, gives a damn about those poor hostages is laughable, to say the least. [00:04:36] I feel so horrible for those family members who have to, on a daily basis, hear about, read about, know about the military operations that are currently raining terror in Gaza as their family members remain there. [00:04:52] I just wanted to get that off my chest. Now, construction companies, as I mentioned, are even putting out these job listings on Facebook. So Construction and Infrastructure Limited is one of these settlement construction companies. And they recently posted a job listing on a Facebook group named reservist [00:05:11] in order to find workers who are willing to conduct demolition in Gaza. Now, Libby Construction is owned by several settlers that have been documented by various monitoring groups as raining terror on Palestinians [00:05:26] in occupied areas like the West Bank, for instance, and Libby constructed a 62 unit neighborhood in the settlement of Itamar, which is located in or near, I should say, Nablus in the West Bank. And so in July, a settler tagged the Libby Company, thanking them for its role [00:05:46] in building a new settlement compound Pound in illegal territory. I mean, it was illegal settlements in the West Bank. It was in the Palestinian city of Salfit, which is, of course, also in the West Bank. Now, in addition to that, in an article from the Israeli newspaper [00:06:03] Haaretz from 2012. Harel, Libi. So this is the person behind this construction company appears as one of the 12 settlers given removal orders from the West Bank for being involved in attacks against Palestinian residents and and Israeli military in the West Bank. [00:06:22] So look, oftentimes when we discuss this story, I feel like we need to do a better job in expressing that, you know, the Israeli population is not a monolith, and the settlers are the extreme ones. [00:06:38] And for a long time, you know, you have some of the more moderate individuals living in Israel condemning these settlers. And part of the reason why is, yeah, they're not doing Israeli civilians any favor by raining terror on innocent Palestinians who have done nothing wrong. That only serves to increase tensions, increase conflict, [00:06:57] increase war and violence. But on top of that, these people are unhinged. Like, they literally attack Israel's own military members as well. And as for their recent job listing, what did it read? Well, it says looking for bulldozer operators for demolition work in Gaza. The job description reads the job is also relevant for those [00:07:16] who have not served in the Army. Good pay. Good pay. Fascinating. Okay, so what is the good pay? It's decent pay. I'm not going to lie about that. But it's decent pay. Destroying people's homes in order to make way for illegal settlements. [00:07:33] And you literally couldn't pay me any amount of money to comply with that type of job title or those types of responsibilities as part of the job. So they pay $165 a day. The days are long. 5 a.m. To 7 p.m., five days a week. [00:07:48] And, you know, this is all again. In order to destroy people's homes, destroy buildings, destroy what remains of Gaza, in order to clear the land and make way for these illegal settlements. [00:08:04] And as we were sharing with you all recently, you know, we showed you a map of the amount of land that Israel is basically cutting off from the Palestinian people in Gaza, basically ethnically cleansing them from the northern region. Nearly 50% of the Gaza Strip, which was a tiny strip of land [00:08:22] with literally 2.3 million people. It's like the most densely populated area of the world. That tiny strip of land has now been cut in half. And it all started with Israel claiming, we're doing this for our own safety. We're doing this because we need a buffer zone. [00:08:38] Now, you're doing this because you want to build illegal settlements in northern Gaza. And regardless, regardless of how illegal they happen to be, there will be no consequences because the world's superpower, military superpower, the United States, will back Israel no matter what it does, [00:08:55] regardless of the, you know, the international laws that are being violated, regardless of how many war crimes are being committed, regardless of how many arrest warrants have been issued by the International Criminal Court. As long as America, a military superpower, backs Israel. [00:09:14] And the reason why we do so is because of how corrupt our political system is. Well, then they're going to go ahead and do whatever they want. And it is honestly beyond humiliating to see our government do this beyond shameful. [00:09:31] Because say what you will about Hamas. I have no problem with anyone saying terrible things about Hamas, but these innocent civilians don't deserve this. So when people come back at me and say things like, oh well, you shouldn't. You shouldn't have started a war, you know you couldn't end. [00:09:49] Yeah. Those kids that are being bombed to smithereens, they started a war. Did they really? Do they deserve to have their hospitals, schools, universities, basically all of their infrastructure demolished? Do they deserve to have their land stolen? [00:10:06] Do they deserve to see, you know, Israeli settlers build illegal settlements on the tiny strip of land that remained for them. It's really sick. And by the way, the workers are not even allowed to leave the area unless [00:10:24] they're escorted by a military escort, because it's a dangerous situation, right? Stealing land is dangerous work. And both civilians and reservists were welcome to apply. So Libi sent. It's interesting because the writer of this piece, [00:10:40] the Palestinian journalist decided to apply for the job because he wanted to learn more information about what the plans were for these illegal settlements, and he writes that the construction company, quote, sent me a document to complete in order to proceed. [00:10:56] The document does not mention Gaza, but asked me to acknowledge that the work will be done outside the Israeli border. Israel's current acts, in fact, are just so bad, so horrific, that even individuals [00:11:13] who served in Israel's military, who they say people who have committed war crimes themselves and bragged about it themselves, are horrified by what's going on. I'm not even kidding. Okay, so this is incredible. [00:11:29] You have Moshe Yaalon, who is the former Israeli military chief. Okay. He says that Israel is carrying out ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza. There is no bet Lahiya no bet Hanoun, former Israeli military chief of staff [00:11:47] and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, said in a widely publicized critical remarks on November 30th. They are currently operating in Jabalia and clearing the area of Arabs. Now. He had previously bragged about destroying thousands of residential units in Gaza. [00:12:06] So let's just keep it real. This isn't some innocent person who has, you know, a bleeding heart for the Palestinian people. But even he is saying that the IDF is going too far, that the current Israeli government is going too far. You want to know who isn't saying that? Our current president, Joe Biden. [00:12:25] Almost the entirety of the United States federal government. They're totally standing behind Netanyahu and his unhinged, you know, regime. Totally in favor of the war crimes. Totally in favor of the slaughter of [00:12:44] innocent women, children, elderly people, civilian men, close to 45,000 people gone killed in the Gaza Strip. That doesn't even include the numbers in the West Bank. That doesn't include the numbers in Lebanon. [00:13:03] How much are we going to allow here? Like how much death and destruction is the American government willing to bear? Is there even a second where these so-called pro-life Republicans are looking [00:13:18] at what's happening and thinking to themselves, yeah, this is a bit too much. This this goes way too far. I'm really curious. Or are they really just these empty shells, these sociopaths who feel absolutely nothing as they see the carnage [00:13:35] that our taxpayer dollars are funding, aiding and abetting. It's just horrific stuff. It really is. So please check out Drop Site News. This piece is excellent. Really, really well done. [00:13:51] And it provides evidence and additional details that we don't have all the time in the world to get into, but subscribe if you can as well. Please support good journalism. There isn't a lot of it in America, but when there is some, we should support it as much as we can. This is a good example of that. Thanks for watching. [00:14:07] The Young Turks really appreciate it. Another way to show support is through YouTube memberships. You'll get to interact with us more. There's live chat emojis, badges. You've got emojis of me Anna John Jr. So those are super fun. But you also get playback of our exclusive member only shows [00:14:26] and specials right after they air. So all of that, all you got to do is click that join button right underneath the video. Thank you.