Professor, activist, and so-called human rights attorney Noura Erakat was welcomed to Katy Tur Reports on Thursday afternoon to accuse the Israelis of war crimes, lament the nation’s existence, “the siege of 16 years” as if just randomly happened, and anti-BDS laws because MSNBC suddenly finds the urge to go all in on both-sideism.
Erakat found outrage in all the wrong places, “If we want to apply the laws of war, then we apply all the laws of war across the board without exception. And unfortunately we are hearing a very racist, dehumanizing framework that is justifying these war crimes against Palestinians.”
There was no reason to have Erakat on the program. MSNBC would never have Sergey Lavrov on the network and for good reason, but at least Tur managed to ask, “Can you justify what you‘ve been seeing happen to the Israelis? Can you justify the images of the babies? I'm just—”
Erakat responded by asking, “Who justifies that? Who justifies that?” It sounds like she does as she immediately dropped the issue and focused on, from her anti-Semitic perspective, the real problem: Israel’s existence, “Palestinians are the people who have been protesting non-violently for decades. The Palestinian struggle for freedom is 100 years old, as they have been protesting against the usurpation of their land and forced displacement. Hamas wasn't established until 1987.”
MSNBC, including Tur, likes to pretend that the obstacle to peace is Israeli “settlements” in the West Bank, but for any mathematically-challenged MSNBC personalities, the Six Day War of 1967 was 56 years ago and the 1948 War of Independence was 75 years ago. Erakat is referring to the 1917 Balfour Declaration that committed the British government to recreate a Jewish homeland in the territory of the eventually defeated Ottoman Empire.
That Hamas wasn’t established until 1987 is not the point Erakat thinks it is because far from being non-violent, the history of violent opposition to Israel is too great to even try to begin to list.
Moving on, Erakat declared, “Palestinians have been protesting against the siege for 16 years.”
And why would that be? Maybe because after Israel unilaterally evacuated The Strip, a terrorist organization took over.
Erakat also lied that, “In 2018, 40,000 Palestinians marched week in and week out while Israeli snipers shot to kill them as the rest of the world didn't even interview them or ask them about their nonviolent resistance or the barbarism of Israel's response.”
That was the instance when Palestinians stormed the border fence—hardly “nonviolent resistance” — resulting the deaths of at least 24 terrorists.
Additionally, Erakat condemned “34 U.S. states” for not doing business with the anti-Semitic BDS movement, “These are the Palestinians, 34 U.S. states have made illegal Boycott Divestment and Sanctions, which is the quintessential non-violent tactic, and we are castigated as being against peace. Palestinians are leading a freedom movement and a future for everybody.”
They are doing no such thing. “A future for everybody” would require that you care more about your children then you do hating Israel.
Here is a transcript for the October 12 show:
MSNBC Katy Tur Reports
10/12/2023
2:30 PM ET
NOURA ERAKAT: If we want to apply the laws of war, then we apply all the laws of war across the board without exception. And unfortunately we are hearing a very racist, dehumanizing framework that is justifying these war crimes against Palestinians.
KATY TUR: Can you justify what you‘ve been seeing happen to the Israelis? Can you justify the images of the babies? I'm just--
ERAKAT: Who justifies that? Who justifies that? Palestinians are the people who have been protesting non-violently for decades. The Palestinian struggle for freedom is 100 years old, as they have been protesting against the usurpation of their land and forced displacement. Hamas wasn't established until 1987.
Palestinians have been protesting against the siege for 16 years. In 2018, 40,000 Palestinians marched week in and week out while Israeli snipers shot to kill them as the rest of the world didn't even interview them or ask them about their nonviolent resistance or the barbarism of Israel's response.
These are the Palestinians, 34 U.S. states have made illegal Boycott Divestment and Sanctions, which is the quintessential non-violent tactic, and we are castigated as being against peace. Palestinians are leading a freedom movement and a future for everybody.
