Nov 2, 2023
WATCH: IDF Spokesperson Blames PALESTINIANS For Not Evacuating
CNN’s Erin Burnett asked IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus what Palestinian refugees were supposed to do before their dwellings were flattened by Israeli bombardment.
- 8 minutes
The point, though,
about wanting them to leave.
I mean, these are 100,000 people
in a refugee camp.
By definition, they lack resources.
Where were people like that
supposed to go?
Was it even reasonable to tell them to go?
I mean, they don't have
anything to begin with.
No, no, that is unfortunately
not accurate at all.
[00:00:18]
And if you'll let me,
I'd like to explain why.
If you look at the footage
that you're showing, you don't see tents.
This isn't some makeshift refugee camp.
These are permanent dwellings
of Palestinians living in a Palestinian
controlled area under Palestinian rule.
[00:00:34]
These aren't refugees.
No more than my grandparents are refugees
who came from Poland and Morocco in 1948.
This is the time scope
that we're talking about.
These aren't refugees,
and it's not a refugee camp.
Any more than half of the population
in modern Israel are refugees of the
[00:00:51]
expulsion of from Arab countries in 1948.
While I. Understand the point you're
making about the permanency of the
residents, they are poor and they can't.
Leave.
Aaron. Yes, they could, they could.
They made a decision.
You can't even get foreigners
who have been trapped in Gaza
[00:01:08]
to to get out of Gaza.
Okay.
They're finally allowing some
of the foreigners slow and steady trickle
to leave through the border with Egypt.
Where are they going to go?
Where are they going to go?
How was.
[00:01:25]
They're not refugees
because they're not living in tents.
They're living in buildings.
So you see you see what he's doing there?
You see what he's doing there? It was okay.
Don't feel bad for them.
Don't feel they're not living in tents.
I mean, we're about to level their whole
neighborhood, their whole refugee camp.
We're going to level it so they end up,
if they can survive it, living on
[00:01:44]
the streets, whatever's left of that area.
But it's not like they're
living in tents now.
So we're going to destroy the buildings
and kill the innocent civilians
and pretend like we're conquering Hamas.
So just the idea that they're not refugees
because they live there permanently
[00:02:03]
is it ignores the fact of the occupation.
Israel controls everything
that comes in and out of that place when
they say it's under Palestinian control.
That's a superficial, distinction.
[00:02:19]
The Gaza Strip is controlled by Israel.
They control the ports.
They control everything.
Folks cannot freely come and go in Gaza,
but for a very few, select
few amount of people, they're stuck there.
[00:02:38]
They're they're stateless there.
They don't they don't
enjoy the same freedoms.
They don't enjoy the same rights
as their neighbors in Israel.
They're refugees.
They're stateless people
in the way that they live.
[00:02:54]
And again, for everybody at home
to understand they cannot beat Hamas.
What do I mean by that?
They're not fighting
a conventional military foe.
They're not going to,
you know, invade Gaza.
[00:03:10]
And there's going to be some, you know,
front that they're trying to conquer.
They're not going to take over villages,
village by village
and just push this army back.
This is a guerilla group.
They can't beat these guys.
Again, recent examples Vietnam when the
[00:03:28]
Russians invaded Afghanistan, when we
invaded Afghanistan, the nonsense that
happened in Iraq, like the the just look
at what's happening in Libya right now.
You cannot these wars cannot
be actually won militarily.
[00:03:46]
The only way for the Army to win this war
would literally be
to exterminate 2 million people.
They're working on it.
- They're working on it.
- That's it.
And by the way,
there's no military solution here, guys,
[00:04:02]
so they can't win there.
The airstrikes, which obviously
are taking out a lot of people.
And then look,
people get real uncomfortable when I use
words like ethnic cleansing and genocide.
But how else are you going to describe
a situation in which people are trapped in
a tiny strip of land, millions of people.
[00:04:19]
You're doing these air raids
and this bombardment,
the death toll is already 9000 people.
And then on top of that, the blockade
of humanitarian aid, the blockade of fuel.
Why don't we talk about that just briefly?
Just briefly.
Because we've been warning that not
allowing fuel into the Gaza Strip
[00:04:39]
is going to be incredibly destructive for
the civilians there, because the hospitals
can no longer function and operate.
And, look, wouldn't you know,
that's exactly what we're seeing now.
Nearly half of all hospitals in Gaza
are out of service due to bombardments
and fuel shortages,
including the leading cancer hospital
[00:04:58]
in the strip, according to the Palestinian
Ministry of Health in Ramallah.
It warned Gaza's largest hospital,
Al-Shifa, would be forced
to stop operating in less than a day.
Meanwhile, the main generator
for the Gaza Indonesian Hospital,
one of the few remaining hospitals serving
the northern part of the coastal enclave,
[00:05:16]
went out of service Wednesday night,
according to Dr. Atif Al-kahlout.
He's the head of that hospital.
So you're bombing the hospitals.
In some cases, you're refusing
to allow fuel so the hospitals
[00:05:32]
can function appropriately.
There's still significant restrictions
on humanitarian aid, meaning many of
these Palestinian civilians have no access
to food or clean drinking water.
Pregnant women are seen
drinking brackish water.
[00:05:47]
The aerial bombardments
keep happening over and over again,
day after day, with absolutely no concern
for human lives, innocent human lives,
civilian human lives.
And then they'll they'll they'll throw out
the ridiculous, nonsensical talking point
[00:06:06]
of Hamas uses them as human shields.
Well, you guys are the ones
who pulled the trigger.
- You're the ones who pull the trigger.
- So don't.
Don't know what to say.
I don't know what to say.
If I had the option, if I would not,
I would not do the airstrike.
[00:06:25]
Knowing that at least 50 civilians, many
of whom are children, are going to die.
So I can take out allegedly
one Hamas commander.
I wouldn't do it because I'm smart enough
to know that those innocent civilians
don't deserve to lose their lives.
[00:06:40]
And I'm also smart enough to know
that doing that leads to more extremism
and more hostility toward Israel
and Israeli civilians.
It doesn't take a genius
to figure that out.
All you have to do
is look at recent history.
Back in 2002, the George W Bush
administration condemned the Israeli
[00:07:00]
government for doing an airstrike in Gaza
that took out one Hamas militant
but killed 14 other civilians.
Think about how disgusting
and devolved our country has gotten.
Our government has gotten
where Joe Biden can't outdo
[00:07:20]
the war criminal George W Bush,
where George W Bush has more morality
and more of a conscience than Joe Biden.
Joe Biden is a disgrace,
an absolute disgrace.
I will not be voting for Joe Biden
under any circumstance.
[00:07:38]
I don't care about any other policy
that he has championed
and had a little bit of success on.
I cannot, as an Armenian American,
support a president who has greenlit
the ethnic cleansing and genocide
of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
[00:07:53]
I will not be voting for Joe Biden.
It goes against my morality
and everything I stand for.
This, for me, is the red line.
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[00:08:09]
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