Abby and Robbie discuss Trump’s racist attacks on women of color in Congress and Omar’s brave introduction of a pro-BDS measure in the wake of a House resolution condemning BDS. In the second half of the episode, Abby goes in depth about every major Democratic contender’s true policy position on Palestine and Israel.
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Abby goes on the The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast to talk about everything from the demonization of “the Left,” Trump at the helm of US Empire, Kanye West’s meltdown, the Israeli lobby smear campaign for her previous appearance and the Israeli military’s massacre of Great March of Return nonviolent protesters on the Gaza border.
Abby Martin on Great March of Return Massacre
Abby talks about the Great March of Return massacre of nonviolent protesters on the Gaza border, including the Israeli Defense Force’s deliberate targeting of children, journalists and rescue workers.
On March 30, Israeli soldiers killed 17 civilians and injured more than 1,400 others with live ammunition, when 30,000 Palestinians gathered in peaceful protest for the “Great March of Return” on the Gaza border. Israel has imposed a deadly blockade on Gaza’s two million inhabitants for over a decade.
Robbie and Abby Martin interview journalists Max Blumenthal and Dan Cohen about the latest Israeli massacre, Western complicity in war crimes, and their film “Killing Gaza”, a devastating look at the aftermath of the 51 day war, where Israel killed over 500 children, and wiped out generations of families.
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The Holy Land Foundation Five are Palestinian political prisoners sentenced up to upwards of 65 years in US prison for providing aid to refugees.
Although no proof exists for the organization providing support for terrorism, it was targeted in the Bush administration’s post-9/11 dragnet, setting an alarming precedent for activists in the US. Abby Martin sits down with an expert on the case, Miko Peled, to learn more about this little-known case.
Miko Peled is an Israeli-born activist for Palestinian rights, and the son of a famous Israeli general. He is the author of “The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine” and “Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five.”
Nearing the end of Season II, The Empire Files team expresses our deepest gratitude to so many of you who have followed our reports, written feedback, and shared our work. 2017 was no-doubt a watershed chapter in the advancement of US Empire, and we are honored to have your support telling the stories that were marginalized and distorted by corporate press as weapons of propaganda for US militarism. We’re excited that our reports have been seen on a growing number of countries in Latin America on TeleSUR Spanish as well as across the United States on Free Speech TV. Don’t miss the launch of our new podcast archiving our full episode library.
Below is a summary of our work in 2017––we are looking forward to helping cut through the imperialist propaganda and featuring more untold histories and censored voices in the year to come.
In a year when so much of the corporate media was hyper-focused on President Trump, Abby Martin and the Empire Files crew sought to cover underrepresented domestic and international issues that affects real people.
Inside the Empire, that meantthe ongoing opioid epidemicin a discussion with leadingattorney Mike Papantonio, examining why 91 Americans die each day due to opioids, and how Big Pharma’s desperate pursuit of profit is attempted murder upon all injured Americans.
It meant examining the new Administration’s assault on the freedom of assembly in the form ofcontroversial J20 arrests, where more than 200 demonstrators faced decades in prison for conspiracy and other charges.
And it meant examining overarching issues in America, like racism, inequality, the dysfunction of capitalism and the US Empire’s need to prop up the system.
Always connecting struggles in here to the victims of US Empire, Empire Files revealed the censored history of how the US Empire destroyed and subjugated the Philippines, Colombia, Palestine, Venezuela and more.
While the mass media’s most-reported story in 2017 was fear-mongering and aggression towards Russia, Empire Files sought to explorewhat could happenif this trend continues how the US Empire looted Russia after it led the overthrow of the Soviet Union, and Russia’s own history of defeating the oligarchs a century ago.
The Places
In 2017, Abby Martin and the Empire Files crew traveled both domestically and abroad to cover the year’s most important stories: From Houston, Texas amonth after Hurricane Harveyto cover thegovernment’s inaction in communities that were affected the most, to Washington, D.C. to dive deep into theprotests surrounding the inaugurationof President Trump.
Alongside Trump’s major announcement to declare Jerusalem the official capital of Israel, Abby Martin’s interviews with Israelis in Jerusalem, who wished exile and worseupon Palestinians, gave an eye-opening counter-narrative to the corporate media’s depiction of the situation. Martin’s report was so controversial that shebecame the target of a smear campaignby Israeli organizations.
Amidst a relentless regime-change operation in Venezuela by the Pentagon and Venezuelan oligarchs, Empire Files went into the heat of the battle, producing the only widely-seen coverage countering US propaganda–everything from being tear gassed with opposition protesters, to using hidden cameras to investigate food shortages, to explaining the reality of the country’s economic crisis, to pro-government protests ignored by Western media.
Most recently Empire Files travelled to Colombia, covering the historic peace deal that ended a 53-year civil war–and went deep into the jungles to investigate abreech of trustthat left 8 farmers massacred by police.
In each location, Abby Martin spoke with victims of violence and colonization funded and perpetrated by the US Empire – points of view never found in the mainstream.
The Voices
Those voices, those marginalized individuals deemed too inconvenient to the Empire’s agenda, were amplified through Empire Files in 2017.
Profiling academics rarely seen on television, interviews withDr. Gerald Horne, Rosa ClementeandChris Hedgesgave essential perspective on the resurgence of neo-Nazis and white supremacists under Trump.
Brining grassroots voices to the forefront, Empire Files was especially honored to interview Filipina domestic workers fighting human trafficking, young radical organizers in the People’s Congress of Resistance, Sikh Americans responding to racism and Islamophobia, poor and working-class Venezuelans fighting US regime change, peasant farmers in Colombia in the wake of a state massacre, and unsung heroes who saved lives in the Hurricane Harvey.
Without these voices, these stories simply could not have been told.
You can view the full library of Empire Files episodes here, and be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook to see what we have coming in 2018!