MSNBC’s Ali Velshi is the kind of media personality who thinks his job is to combat fake news and disinformation and has no problem getting into fiery exchanges with guests if he thinks they are engaged in peddling such narratives. However, on his Saturday show when Velshi welcomed former Palestinian Minister of Higher Education and Research Hanan Ashrawi who accused the United States of having “aided and abetted genocide,” Velshi just sat in his chair with a solemn look on his face, at first saying nothing, before implying that he agreed.
During her diatribe against Israel, Ashrawi declared that “It’s a question of a whole system of land theft, of expulsion, of death, and murder. So in the West Bank and in Gaza, there is a apartheid system that is intent on ethnically cleansing Palestine.”
Moving on to the United States, she continued, “How do you deal with that? In order to do that, the mechanisms probably will have to involve international engagement and certainly the U.S. administration has disqualified itself completely. This administration has proven to be party to the conflict, has aided and abetted genocide, has funded it, has sent weapons to Israel without any kind of restraints or accountability and then talks about a two-state solution.”
If Velshi was consistent in his belief that journalists exist to tell the truth at the risk of neutrality, he would have interrupted Ashrawi, accused of her lying and anti-Semitism, and ideally cut the segment short because no reasonable definition of genocide aligns with what Israel is doing in Gaza.
But, he didn’t, so instead Ashrwai proceeded to demand Israel spare Hamas, “Again, it's disingenuous. Kill fewer people, they say. Well, don't kill any people! That's what we’re saying. And let's start immediately with a cessation of Israel's aggression and massacres and genocide, and then let's inject some kind of justice and respect for international law, humanitarian law, which Israel been totally rejected from the beginning.”
Velshi then concluded the segment and while he didn’t explicitly say he agreed with Ashrawi, he implied that he did by declaring such things must be discussed, “It sounds like those things that you outlined are a long way away, but we must discuss them in the hopes that they appear sooner than we all hope. Hanan Ashrawi, as always, thank you for joining us.”
Velshi claims his audience is devoid of conspiracy theorists and yet he has them on his show.
Here is a transcript for the December 9 show:
MSNBC Velshi
12/9/2023
10:36 PM ET
HANAN ASHRAWI: It’s a question of a whole system of land theft, of expulsion, of death, and murder. So in the West Bank and in Gaza, there is a apartheid system that is intent on ethnically cleansing Palestine. How do you deal with that? In order to do that, the mechanisms probably will have to involve international engagement and certainly the U.S. administration has disqualified itself completely. This administration has proven to be party to the conflict, has aided and abetted genocide, has funded it, has sent weapons to Israel without any kind of restraints or accountability and then talks about a two-state solution.
Again, it's disingenuous. Kill fewer people, they say. Well, don't kill any people! That's what we’re saying. And let's start immediately with a cessation of Israel's aggression and massacres and genocide, and then let's inject some kind of justice and respect for international law, humanitarian law, which Israel been totally rejected from the beginning.
ALI VELSHI: It sounds like those things that you outlined are a long way away, but we must discuss them in the hopes that they appear sooner than we all hope. Hanan Ashrawi, as always, thank you for joining us.
