The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.

Chants:

Employees are horrified. Employees are horrified. Our Tech for nine. I got Work.

Maximillian Alvarez:

All right, welcome everyone to Working People, a podcast about the lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles of the working class today. Working People is a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast network and is brought to you in partnership within these Times Magazine and the Real News Network. This show is produced by Jules Taylor and made possible by the support of listeners like you. My name is Maximilian Alvarez and today we’re going to take you to the heart of one of the most important labor struggles happening in the country right now, which should be getting a lot, lot more attention than it’s been getting tech workers at the heart of one of the biggest and most powerful tech companies in the world are revolting at Microsoft, taking bold, brave, continuing and escalating protest actions in solidarity with Palestinians facing genocide and in protest of Microsoft’s contracts with the Israeli military to provide tech that Israel uses to surveil, kill and retroactively justify the killing of Palestinians.

On August 19th, current and former tech workers at Microsoft along with community supporters established an encampment at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington. Very much inspired by the student Palestine solidarity encampments that we saw on campuses across the country and around the world. Last year, just before 12:30 PM on Tuesday, August 19th, members of the No Azure for Apartheid Coalition walked out to Microsoft’s East Campus Plaza to establish their liberated zone, renaming the plaza, the martyred Palestinian Children’s Plaza as the no Azure for Apartheid Coalition stated in a press release on the day the encampment began. This action is in response to Microsoft’s ongoing partnership with the Israeli military and the recent news of Microsoft technology being used to surveil, starve and kill Palestinians. This action marks the biggest escalation targeting Microsoft following multiple investigations that expose the company’s deep ties to the Israeli military. Recent reporting by The Guardian and 9 7 2 News revealed Microsoft Cloud storage services are being used to surveil Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank by collecting and storing recordings of millions of mobile phone calls and texts made each day by Palestinians.

The investigations included testimonies of how the surveillance data is being used to directly target Palestinians in Gaza and even retroactively justify extra judicial killings in the West Bank. And if you guys haven’t read the reporting that they’re talking about from The Guardian in 9 7 2 news, then you really, really need to read it and we’re going to link to it in the show notes, but just to give you a taste, the authors write One afternoon in late 2021, Microsoft’s chief executive Satya Nadella met with the commander of Israel’s military surveillance agency unit 8,200 on the Spy Chief’s agenda, moving vast amounts of top secret intelligence material into the US company’s cloud meeting at Microsoft’s headquarters near Seattle. The Spymaster Yasiel won NA’s support for a plan that would grant unit 8,200 access to a customized and segregated area within Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform. Armed with Azure’s near limitless storage capacity, unit 8,200 began building a powerful new mass surveillance tool, a sweeping, an intrusive system that collects and stores recordings of millions of mobile phone calls made each day by Palestinians and Gaza and the West Bank.

According to three unit 8,200 sources, the cloud-based storage platform has facilitated the preparation of deadly airstrikes and has shaped military operations in Gaza and the West Bank files suggests that by July this year, 11,500 terabytes of Israeli military data, the equivalent to approximately 200 million hours of audio was held in Microsoft’s Azure servers in the Netherlands while a smaller portion was stored in Ireland. Now Microsoft denied any wrongdoing of course, and has since launched a urgent external inquiry into allegations. Israel’s military surveillance agency has used the company’s technology to facilitate the mass surveillance of Palestinians as the guardian also reports. But the point is this is exactly what current and former tech workers and community members with the no Azure for Apartheid Coalition are fighting against. This is why they’ve been putting their bodies safety and their jobs on the line following their conscience and doing whatever they can do to stop the horrors of Israel’s genocidal war on Palestine and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

And that’s also why after police and company security dispersed the encampment on Tuesday, August 19th threatening everyone there with arrest current and former tech workers returned around noon on Wednesday, August 20th to reestablish their liberated zone. Over the course of the next hour, things got increasingly tense with Microsoft security and Redmond pd cops surrounding the encampment and Washington State Patrol. Bellevue Police and Kirkland Police were also reportedly there assisting. I definitely saw some of them. Eventually Redmond PD officers moved in to violently dismantle the encampment and arrest 20 members of the coalition. Now I was literally one of the only journalists there on the ground at Microsoft on both Tuesday and Wednesday reporting for the Real News. I filmed every second of the police dismantling the encampment and the moments leading up to it and the moments after it. Now, police did issue multiple dispersal orders to the encampment informing members that they were trespassing on private property and would be subject to arrest if they did not leave.

That is true. Coalition members did use some tables and chairs from the Microsoft courtyard to construct makeshift barricades around the encampment and red paint was poured on the ground and around the Microsoft sign in the plaza. That is also true. However, police have claimed that protestors became aggressive and a spokesperson from Microsoft said that protestors harassed others in the plaza and even said that the company would take clear steps to address unlawful actions that damage property, disrupt business, or that threaten and harm others. Now, the implication that the no Azure for apartheid encampment was threatening or harming others during the action is categorically false. Again, I was standing like 10 feet away the entire time and I saw absolutely nothing like that, but you really don’t have to just take my word for it because I was there filming. You can see for yourself we published my entire uninterrupted 37 minute shot of everything that went down on the Real News YouTube channel and you could find the link to that in the show notes for this episode.

And in this episode you’re also going to hear what it sounded like in the thick of the action. You’ll hear speeches from tech workers and community members on the first and second days of the encampment and in the immediate aftermath after cops busted up the encampment. You’ll also hear some exclusive interviews that I did on the ground with then current Microsoft workers and Julius Sean. However I say then current because since I got back from Washington, the coalition has continued to take escalating actions including occupying executives offices at company headquarters last week. But Microsoft has also been ramping up its punitive responses response. Julius and Reen have both been fired since I last saw them and they are not the only workers who have been fired. In the next episode, we’re going to speak with no Azure for apartheid members so that we can give y’all an update on where things currently stand, what’s been happening over the past two weeks and what you can do to show solidarity with these fired workers.

But in this episode you’ll hear what I heard when I was on the ground when the actions kicked off. If you want to help now, please share this episode with everyone that you can lift up these brave voices and listen to what they’re saying. Don’t let their actions and don’t let the genocide that they’re trying to stop be invisibleized and forgotten. If you want to get real time updates, you can also follow the coalition’s Instagram account, which we’ve linked to in the show notes as well. Alright, with all of that context upfront, buckle up guys and let us take you to the front lines of the know Azure for apartheid struggle At Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington,

Hossam Nasr:

We’re bringing the movement to the heart of this campus because this prophet shall profiteering company is sitting on mounds of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian corpses. Shame. We refuse to allow business as usual in the face of this genocide. We in the face of the erasure and the extermination of the Palestinian people today we choose to disobey, to revolt, to rise up against the world accompany and the war machine who insists on killing as many Palestinians as they can. This is a reminder to us all why we are here today. We are here because over 22 months of genocide, Israel powered by Microsoft has been killing starving maming Palestinian children every single hour.

Make no mistake, Microsoft is an active partner in the genocide. Microsoft, as we speak, is hosting storage data collected through mass surveillance of Palestinians that is used to target and kill Palestinians in HA that is used to enforce the apartheid system in the West Bank and even retroactively justify extra judicial killings of Palestinians. That is not a neutral act, that is an active political choice every single second to be complicit in the mass murder of Palestinians. Instead of listening to the conscience and the morality of its workers who have been sounding the alarm for over a year and a half. Instead of listening to the over 2000 employees who have signed the no Azure for Apartheid petition, instead of refusing to collaborate with this, Zionist is really military. Microsoft instead chose to repress its workers, to fire them, to brutalize them and to dox them and intimidate them.

I like many others, thought that working for Microsoft was the opportunity of a lifetime. I did my internship here my junior year of college and I joined this company as the first job out of college. I worked three years on Azure not knowing that my labor was being used to actively facilitate the murder of my people. The only honor I have in any affiliation with Microsoft is the honor and the pride in being able to join workers, community members and people of caution from all around the world to establish this historic liberated zone. There will come a time when everyone will have been against this. There will come a when Microsoft brands that this action took its place on its campus today. Microsoft brags that divested from apartheid South Africa in 1986. There will come a day when Microsoft brags about how in 2025 they divested from apartheid Israel.

When that day comes, the executives with blood soaked hands deserve no credit. They deserve shame, accountability, and the eternal hunting of the screams of the thousands of Palestinian children they massacre. The only honor will be for the workers, former workers and community members who are putting their jobs, their livelihood, their immigration status, and their lives on the line to stand on the right side of history. You do not have to be on the side of the genocide, profiteering executives, you do not have to comply. You do not have to listen to their orders. I’m talking to you. Every single one of you sitting there having lunch right now. I am talking to you, the security guards in blue vests. I’m talking to you. You do not have to comply. You do not have to listen to the orders of your masters. You do not have to shut down this encampment. You do not have to treat us like we’re the evil ones for trying to stop genocide. You have the choice to refuse. You have the choice to listen to your heart, not to your bosses. You have the choice to be on the right side of history. You have the choice to join us right here, right now, in the heart and liberated zone.

And lastly, a message to the Palestinian people, to the mom who couldn’t starve her dying baby until they died in her arms. To the mother of Raja, to the orphan children, to Shaban, alu and his family, to the hints and the RAs and the s and the ass and the bans, we see you. We hear you. We feel you. We arrange for you and we revolt for you. We refuse to be complicit in your murder. We refuse to be party to the crimes of your genocide. We choose to revolt against the forces that exploit our labor and our tax dollars to facilitate the worst moral tragedy of our lifetime and to the Palestinian people. We stand here today not as allies, not simply in solidarity with you, but as accomplices in your righteous. Fight for liberation in your nonstop struggle for freedom. And we will not stop fighting alongside you until you have the same dignity and humanity that every single Palestinian deserves. And until every single inch of your homeland is free,

Chants:

Palestine three Palestine, three Palestine have some shame.

Julius Shan:

Hi everyone. Thanks for having me here. My name is Julius Shan and I’ve been a Microsoft engineer for almost five years. When I joined five years ago, I did not know at all what I was signing up for. I did not want to work for a weapons manufacturer. I believe deeply that all people deserve the right to be free, to live in safety, to have safety in their community, and to have justice. When I learned that Microsoft reported by AP News, the Guardian N 9 72 magazine, that Microsoft Azure and AI systems were being used by Israeli military to conduct mass surveillance on Palestinians to determine which mothers, which families, which children to bomb. I was disgusted. I was horrified that even though my work did not contribute directly to these services, I was being paid by the money that Israel pays Microsoft or these contracts. Regardless of your beliefs, regardless of whether or not your work today actually supports Israel, know that Microsoft’s money does include blood money.

There are so many families, so many wonderful people that I’ve met here, and it breaks my heart to think that the only reason we are here is because we were lucky enough to be born on the right side of the world. One where we received just the fortune to live in safety. Palestinians have been living in a concentration camp for countless years. They have no safety. They have no ability to speak up. Microsoft systems are heavily used to determine targets. They are used to scrape data on millions of Palestinian phone calls. There are over 11,000 terabytes of recorded Microsoft, more recorded Palestinian phone calls and text messages in Microsoft storage systems. It breaks my heart to know that no matter what I was doing at Microsoft, that I would be complicit in this machine. That while I work on printing all the Israeli infrastructure involved in planning attacks and strikes on Palestine would in some way involve my work. Printing is just a small piece of that. I’m sure whatever you work on, whether it’s storage in AI system in some way or another, your work helps to support this company, which helps to support us and our ability to take contracts from entities like the Israeli military.

Unnamed No Azure for Apartheid Coalition Member 1:

That’s why we must remain grounded. We must remain grounded. We’re understanding of what’s happening in Za because ZA free us, hundreds of thousands of have been killed as a result of the current iterations of Israel’s ongoing. N with the destruction of nearly all of S housing, hospitals, schools, infrastructures, thousands more remain under the over 90% of S entire population has been displaced forest between refugee camps, eight centers and supposedly save zones, all of which end up asus of Israel’s corbit bombing campaign. Shame. We have seen families enable to more their loved ones entire families murdered harmlessly and call Palestinians. They’re afraid of how many more they will lose

Chants:

From the sea, the river from the sea, the river, the river, river. We want justice say how we want justice to say how we want justice to say we want justice. Say stop harm Israel. Now

Unnamed No Azure for Apartheid Coalition Member 2:

The liberated zone here is born out of desperation, extreme urgency and incredible grief. For 683 days, we have all witnessed the holocaust of our lifetime live stream to our phones. We’ve seen corporations who benefit from the economy of occupation and apartheid morph into an economy of genocide as our tech billionaire executives that run them continue to profit more and more off of the surveillance of targeting, of bombing, of and now forced starvation of Palestinian children, mothers and fathers alike sha. The Miller drives and violent response to our peaceful protesting that we’ve witnessed both today and yesterday is a reflection of the fact that Microsoft is an extension of the US imperial machine, driven by colonialism, powered by surveillance, suppression and state violence. Yesterday Microsoft responded to our peaceful protests with police force showing up with weapons threatening arrests and barricading us Let it be known that this response from Microsoft is not new. Microsoft workers who have spoken out in solidarity with Palestine or engaged leadership to get answers on Microsoft’s complicity have constantly and consistently been met with suppression, retaliation and violence. Almost one year ago, Microsoft fired two workers for organizing a peaceful, beautiful vigil honoring the martyrs who were murdered by Israel in a genocide. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Just four months ago, two more workers were terminated for confronting Microsoft executives and the founder for their war… and just three months ago, Microsoft deployed chemical weapons on current workers, former workers and community members rallying outside of their conference. In the past two months, Microsoft suspended two workers for simply sending out emails. Countless others have been suppressed by Microsoft leadership and executives being targeted in layoffs and pushed out by management. Lemme go talk to ’em, see if they can advance. What is this? Advancements in surveillance and suppression and silencing is Microsoft’s real contribution to the tech world. Though there are attempts to make you believe that they empower every person and every organization around the world to achieve more. Although those attempts are plenty, it turns out there’s a footnote that every person and every organization doesn’t include Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, or anyone calling for the liberation of Palestine.

As you see the barricades they set up around us, see how this is a strategy to suppress and silence, to isolate us from you despite the fact that we are all current workers, former workers and community members as you see the police surrounding us. Thank you so much. Know that Microsoft brought them here. Know that Microsoft is not only okay with deploying violence against its current and former workers, but that Microsoft called on them and relies on the police force to carry out the physical suppression for them. To all my fellow Microsoft workers here right now, our labor is directly enabling apartheid, powering genocide through tech weapons in the form of cloud and ai and effecting the starvation campaign in Gaza. It is our ultimate responsibility to put people over profits.

However, in order for that, reclaim the power of our labor by speaking up and rejecting this inal and illegal complicity. Right now, you do not have to accept being party to the crime of genocide. You do not have to be part of this system. You do not have to comply. Join us in answering Gaza’s call to action. Join us in honoring the countless lives of Palestinians who are victims of a Microsoft powered genocide. Join us in refusing to have our labor, labor enable and accelerate the massing of millions of Palestinians through bombardment, torture and starvation. Join us in confronting the same executives who continue to destabilize our livelihoods with mass layoffs while generating massive profits. Before you ask yourself the cost of speaking up, ask about the cost of not speaking up. Ask yourself about the cost of our silence. Every moment that passes. The Israeli genocidal machine is using Microsoft technology to continue starving and bombing Palestinians and Gaza every second. We do not act, Israel is using our labor to displace Palestinians in the West Bank in an ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing and apartheid. We must meet the urgency of this moment. Let us force an end to this Microsoft powered genocide right now.

Julius Shan:

Okay, my name is Julius Shan and I would like to be identified as a software engineer at Microsoft and activist. Right now we’re on Microsoft’s of former East Campus Plaza, which is now the Liberated Zone or the martyred Palestinian Children’s Plaza. Today we set up an encampment after yesterday’s encampment and we wanted this as an escalatory action in pressuring Microsoft to end all contracts with Israel current and former Microsoft workers and the community members came together today to Encamp here and protest together. The reason I’m participating in this is because it truly breaks my heart to know that there are very real people on the other side of our products who are being surveilled and profiled and being picked as targets to kill next, whether or not they’ve done anything wrong. We’ve seen endless images come out of Palestine of mothers wailing of children ripped to shreds of the starvation.

And I’ve seen on the news from AP News from 9 7 2 Mag and the Guardian, just so many reports from the Israeli military and these investigative journalists talking about how Microsoft technology is being heavily utilized by the Israeli military. They’ve described it as the critical military infrastructure, as the technological backbone of the world’s first AI power genocide. And because Microsoft takes money from these entities in some way, all Microsoft employees are paid in blood money. These contracts are funded by a military organization whose profits come from exploiting and stealing land. And it just pains me to know that I have the privilege today to be here having a six figure tech job simply because of where I was born and children on the other side of the world just had no choice to be born, but to be born in Palestine and that’s condemned them to a life where they could be shot simply for picking up flour.

A drone could drop on a 12-year-old just walking home with water and flour. And that sickens me deeply. It disgusts me. My heart is broken to know that so many Microsoft workers are becoming aware of what is happening within the company and they’re doing nothing about it. I am proud of those of us who have stood together and banded together to pressure Microsoft and begin this discussion with them and to tell people what is really going on with what our technology is powering cloud and AI are the bombs and bullets of the 21st century. And it just really, really disgusted me to know that I was being paid by mass murderers to know that my work truly is in some part condemning children to death and I could no longer live with that. After I spoke out for the first time in July, I heard from many, many coworkers who had family in Palestine or were Palestinian themselves.

Someone told me that they were very thankful that I spoke up and it pained them to know that they couldn’t because their entire family living in an apartment building in Palestine was bombed. And after the ambulances came for their family, the ambulances were bombed and all that was left was a child who lost their eye. And it just sickens me to know that Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Storage, Microsoft AI are all part of this technology system today that is being used to condemn Palestinians to a life of torture and death in their concentration camp. So the IDF Top Intelligence Agency you called Unit 8,200 has actually I think quoted in AP News how Microsoft is so embedded that they consider that Microsoft employees are almost like a part of the unit to this degree. This makes it seem like Microsoft is indeed part an extension of the Israeli military.

And regardless of which Microsoft product you’re consuming, you are providing the bottom line and giving Microsoft the power and ability to take these contracts and continue supporting the Israeli army. The Israeli military has stored over 11,500 terabytes of storage of mass surveillance conducted on Palestinian phone calls and text messages. And they use this data to just pick out targets and feed them into an AI and choose who to kill based on that. And it just sickens me to know that at this very same time in technology, we know that AI is capable of lying, it’s capable of hallucinations. And why are we trusting this untested system to decide who to kill when it’s killing children and children who have done nothing wrong? Children who are simply starving and wishing that their parents came back. And there are so many parents here, I just want them to know that it could have been them too if they just hadn’t been lucky enough to be born where they were to have had the opportunities they have.

Palestinians have no freedom. They have no justice, they have no one speaking up. They have few people speaking up for them and watching out for their safety. And it just pains me to know that right now inside of the tech industry, we have so much power. As workers, we outnumber our executives by an enormous factor. And by banding together we can use our collective power to pressure Microsoft and other tech companies to stop being so complicit in genocide. So for other tech workers out there, I asked you to just please try and look up some news about what your company may be doing in terms of supporting military and supporting ICE and supporting Palantir. A lot of the tech community is made up of immigrants to the United States and right now we are all becoming in danger as the current administration begins to target immigrants more and more simply for who we are.

And this should remind you of how Palestinians are treated because they’re treated the way they are simply because of their identity. Just like how ICE is targeting people based on their identity, and it would mean a lot to learn about it, to hold these conversations with other coworkers. You don’t have to be the one to speak out and risk at all. I understand that many are not in a position to do so. You might be here on a visa, you might have a family to take care of, but it’s important to feel like you’re able to have these conversations with people and help them just realize the truth of what we are doing and banning together for fellow workers and other organizations. I also encourage you just try and find out what you’re doing. Try and find out who your customers are, see what you can do to hold conversations and pressure your organizations to stop being a part of the technology military arm of the United States and Israel to consumers.

We have power together because money is just simply more powerful than our political power. These days, studies have shown that money speaks more than our vote and your wallet is now your vote. Choose wisely. Choose to boycott Microsoft. We stand with BDS and we ask you to boycott Xbox if you can and make these decisions wisely. The sacrifices that you make are nothing compared to the sacrifices that Palestinians make every day to simply try and get food while they line up. To get moldy bags of flour and risk being shot, risk being hit by artillery. We can afford to choose to stop playing games. We can choose to use different office software. We can choose use different cloud providers and divesting our money will speak. It speaks to the bottom line of these businesses and they will not choose to change how they act until we affect their bottom line ultimately. And that is the most power that you have. And I ask you to please use it.

Chants:

Microsoft have some shame. Microsoft has some shame. Every martyr has a name, every murder has a name. Microsoft have some shape. Microsoft has some shape. Every murder has a name. Every Marty has a name.

Unnamed No Azure for Apartheid Coalition Member 3:

I’m an American. I was born here. I went to American schools. I won American National Championships competing in American sports. I went overseas to represent America. Why is my country murdering children in Palestine? I studied my ass off. I was an honor student. I got my decree and I went to work in tech where I made good money and paid good tax to be used to slaughter people in Palestine. Sha, when my neighbor breaks his leg, my taxes do not have to alleviate his financial burden. But when Israel needs to drop a ball on the Palestinian family, uncle Sam always has a diamond hand to give.

How many Americans can Israel kill and get away with it? How many Americans can Israel kill and get away with it? Rachel Corie stood in Gaza. She was from Olympia, Washington. She stood in Rafa, the southern bus city and Gaza standing between a bulldozer and a Palestinian ho. She was smashed to death by the Israeli bulldozer operator as he committed ethnic clean, destroying a Palestinian ho. You are law men and law women. Why don’t you enforce the law? Why don’t you get justice for Rachel Corey’s parents who to this day have had no one answer for the crime of murdering their daughter as an American. She was 26 years old when she was trapped in the ER at the West Bank last September. She had just graduated from the University of Washington. A Seattle was murdered by distance, by Israeli Steiner and he’s living free while you come here to take the freedom away from people protesting genocide.

How many Americans are going to be killed by Israel before? Do as an American have an alps of shame to question where you are standing and who are you are supporting? How many will it take? Jacob Inger was a Canadian American special forces veteran. He went on a World Central Kitchen door in Gaza to feed Gaza because in December, 2023, the famine was declared level five catastrophic for 25% of the population. The World Central Kitchen coordinated with the idea, these are our trucks, this is where we will be. Do not harm us. The IDF conducted, not one, not two, but three airstrikes on their vehicles killing seven, including Jacob Flickinger. Those of you in law enforcement, most of you support veterans. Where is your support for the family of Jacob Flickinger? Where is your support for his widow and his children who had their father murdered and stolen from them by Israel? Like so many Palestinian families have had their fathers murdered and stolen by Israel, you walk away and shame you. Turn your back in shade. We’ll breathe.

Nisreen Jaradat:

My name is Nisreen Jaradat and I’m a current Microsoft worker. I have just exited the liberated zone of the martyred Palestinian Children’s Plaza, formerly known as the Microsoft East Campus Plaza. Microsoft security collaborated with the police department to arrest my comrades because they are afraid of their workers’. Understanding that they are betting genocide, that they are criminally complicit in the genocide of my people and to the Microsoft executives and to the entire public. We are telling you that we will continue. We will not be stopped. The more you try to silence us, the louder we will be. We continue to confront you unannounced, unapologetically, and loudly until you divest from genocide and to all people of conscience and to Microsoft workers. I encourage you to join the worker in ADA and do everything within your power to end the corporate abatement of genocide, apartheid and occupation of the Palestinian people.

Microsoft has done all at its can to brand itself as an ethical tech company with human rights statements claiming to follow the UN guiding principles on business and human rights with philanthropy. But all of this is just fate and all of this is a farce. Microsoft is the most complicit digital arms manufacturer in Israel’s genocide of Palestine. Microsoft has embedded itself into every facet and every unit of the Israeli military and has even worked with the Israeli military to develop a weapon that enables the mass surveillance and in turn the mass murder, blackmailing and kidnap of my people in a deal that Satya Nadela only took 10 minutes to approve as an incredibly powerful brand moment. In his own words, the public needs to know Microsoft is complicit. Boycott Microsoft. Do everything you can to end your corporation’s relationship with Microsoft and Israel and its entire economy of occupation and genocide.

Speaker 6:

Microsoft, you can’t hide Microsoft. You, you from Gen. Hey, how many kids did whatcha see? I on? Yes. On wherever we go.

The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.

Maximillian Alvarez:

Alright. Welcome everyone to Working People, a podcast about the lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles of the working class today. Working People is a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and is brought to you in partnership within these Times Magazine and the Real News Network. The show is produced by Jules Taylor and made possible by the support of listeners like you. My name is Maximillian Alvarez and I need you all to be brave and strong for today’s episode. As we speak. Israel’s military is invading and obliterating what remains of Gaza City. After 700 days of genocidal bombing, shooting four starvation, the systematic destruction of schools, hospitals, farms, refugee camps, roads, houses, the entire infrastructure of civilian life. The Palestinians who are still clinging to life in Gaza City are now being exterminated while others run or limp for their lives with nowhere safe in Gaza to go.

As the world continues to watch and scream and utter horror, Israel continues its monstrous efforts to prevent us from seeing the truth of what it is doing deliberately and criminally targeting and killing my colleagues, fellow journalists and media workers. As Al Jazeera English reports, quote, the Israeli military bombed Nasser Hospital in Kunis on Monday, August 25th, killing five journalists including Al Jazeera photographer Muhammad Salama. In total, 21 people were killed in a double tap strike, one missile hitting first. Then another moments later as rescue workers and journalists arrived on Southern Gaza’s main medical facility, the attack comes as Israel has intensified its offensive to disease. Gaza City, the main urban center in the enclave of 2.3 million people. Despite a famine being declared last week, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed the attack was a tragic mishap and four more. Al Jazeera journalists were killed by an Israeli strike in Gaza City just earlier in August.

And among them was 28-year-old correspondent Anas Al Sharif, who had been reporting continuously on the war since the beginning. And Al Jazeera said that three others were killed in that attack. Among them were freelance cameraman, Moen ua and freelance journalist Muhammad Aldi. Israel even tried to say that Sharif was the head of a Hamas terrorist cell, but has produced little evidence to support that Al Jazeera wrote, and we actually republished the text of Anal Sharif’s final message to the world over at The Real News and we will link to that in the show notes for this episode. But that’s not enough. Interviews like this one that you’re going to hear today are not enough documentary reports from Gaza in the West Bank, like the dozens that we’ve published in the last two years alone, it never feels like enough. Nothing will ever feel like enough because by definition, by results, it wasn’t enough to stop the inhumane slaughter that we borne witness to in Gaza these past 700 days. Nothing will ever feel like enough now or in retrospect because we can never get back the stolen souls of all our Palestinian brothers and sisters who have been murdered. The survivors can never recover who and what they have lost, and we can never get back what humanity has lost by allowing this to happen.

I feel this so deeply every day and saying I’m sorry will never ever be enough. And still we keep fighting. We fight for life itself for peace, for justice, for truth. As our fellow journalists and truth tellers confront evil, industrial slaughter and cruelty beyond measure and still somehow keep reporting until their dying breath, we must honor them and their sacrifice and we must honor our duty to humanity by lifting up their voices and carrying on their work to lift up the voices, stories and struggles of others as best as we can. We must do that and that is what we are doing here today. What you’re about to hear is my conversation recorded over a shaky zoom connection with Muhammad Abbot, a former English teacher and his nephew Abdul Rahman, a would-be college student. Both of them are Palestinians in Gaza right now and we talk about their daily reality fighting to live in the midst of a genocide that’s lasted for the past 700 days in the middle of a 22 mile open air killing field.

We also talk about the incredible vital and dangerous operation that they have developed to secure and transport clean water to people around Gaza who are clinging to life and have no other access to water to drink. You can see exactly what this operation looks like by following Mohammed’s Instagram, which we’ve linked to in the show notes. They use crowdsourced money that people donate online to rent trucks and buy fuel, which is extremely expensive and in short supply in Gaza, and then they deliver treated water to fellow Gazen who desperately need it. And I actually learned about Muhammad and this remarkable mutual aid work thanks to brother Brian Totman and I just wanted to give Brian a huge thanks for connecting us with Muhammad and Abdurrahman. When we recorded this episode on Friday, August 29th, only Mohammed was able to maintain a good enough connection to record this conversation with me live, but Abdul Rahman was able to record his responses to my questions and send them to us.

So we’ve stitched everything together here in this episode. Again, I beg you to be brave and strong here. I beg you to listen to every word that they have to say. I beg you to help us get their story and their struggles heard and I beg you to keep fighting to save their lives and to stop this slaughter. Thank you. Well, Muhammad, thank you Abdulrahman. My heart is absolutely broken knowing what you, your family, and your people are going through. And I just want you to know that all of us here at The Real News and all of our listeners and viewers are with you and sending our love and solidarity to you, I want to ask if we can start by giving people an understanding of what is happening in Gaza right now. Israeli forces are in invading your home of Gaza City as we speak. To start us off, could you both give our listeners an on the ground account of what is happening in Gaza right now as we record this on Friday, August 29th,

Mohamed Abu Tawila:

I am Mohamed from Gaza, especially in the North Gaza city. But now I am evacuation from the south with my family because my area and our neighbor was completely driven by Israeli occupation war like 2 million other deer. We have been suffering a row with genocide for over 6,091 day children. I verified when still screaming and sound of bombing. We live hour by hour but I never knowing if we will survive the next day. What makes it worse? It’s no safe shelter, no electricity, no clean water, no healthcare family are forced to sleep in intense or under plastic sheets and over crowded camps exposed to disease and hungry hung. And the situation here is very difficult here in Gaza and our house was destroyed in the Shiia area

And we now in the south in with my family. We live in a crowd dead room right now it’s fear and evacuation all the time and movement from one place to another. We hear drones all the time, schilling and bombing all the time, especially at night. People keep evacuating from one area to another, carrying children and a few bags. The roads are broken, the phone cut in and out and hospital and shelters are over pulling. And here every things is very expensive because the is closed crossings doing with the draw, the money, the commission, it costs very high. This is everything here is very hard. I hope to live safe and dignity and without of sounds of bombing. Everything here Is very difficult.

Abdul Rahman:

Firstly, I want to thank you for this interview that we have. It’ll spread our sound to the world. I’m Abdul Rahman Muhammad. I am 19 years old. I am in high school and there is no world. I’d be in my first year at university, but we have lost all our rights and life for me. I’m going to answer your questions and four points. First of all, I want to tell you about our life before this war to you can compare life before the war and life. Now for me as Abdurahman, I was supposed to have achieved my dreams of joining the college of medicine and surgery. My life was pride. Before this war, I was shining star in science and mathematics competitions and I had friends house, a garden and I have my beds. Before the war, I lost everything. I lost my friends, my relations. I lost my house, my garden, my beds. Until now we have been in high school for two years and the ministry has not been able to hold exams due to the lack of capabilities and places. The second point is displacement. It’s the hardest moment in the world. The moment of clearing the memories of the place, the moment of disputing death, bumping everywhere you are under bumping, you are harmless, you are hungry, you are angry.

Hearts are crying and bodies are bleeding. Sudden evacuated prices, ex exacerbative prices for transportation. Then you sleep and the street tell you find a tent or a place contains basic stables of life. The third point is getting food and the famine. This part shows that food sometimes is more expensive than human life and the famine people kill each other to get food. Merchants and American center cations kill people by hunger and shouting them and aid distributing centers. Thousands of children suffer from mal maturation, mal maturation, lack of food, young men, old men and women, Paul and in the streets from hunger. This is a diabetic patient and this is heart patient, kidney patient, pal. People hunger children, poor patients, exorbitant prices, soap papers and their parents left the life hang. The fourth point is medicine and medical tools and equipment. My grandfather, my dad’s father, left us before a few months he was patient and there was no medicine.

My other grandfather is Mohamed’s father. As a cancer patient, he has not in God health. Now here is no health, healthy food or medicine or medical health. And here is injured people and bombings. Every day there is other than 70 injured people and bombings. And in a centers there is many injured people and children. Doctors here in Gaza cannot or do not have ties to do operations because of the lack and medical tools. The most dangerous thing now is a dangerous illness spreaded in Gaza. Right now it’s GBS virus. It makes people unable to move at end with death of if there is no medicine. One of our relations is of this illness since a month and that medicine isn’t found till now. The occupation do not allow medical equipment to enter orgasm. My message to the world is that the dream of every family in Gaza now is to live this life together without seeing anyone or the family live and burn or to live this hand life without harmless and placement. Without hunger to live and home and free Palestine,

Maximillian Alvarez:

I know it’s truly impossible to communicate what life is like in the middle of a genocide, but I want our listeners to understand what you are going through as much as possible. Can you tell us what your daily life in Gaza has been like in these last few weeks?

Mohamed Abu Tawila:

Each days start with water and the bridge. We wait in long line. We check for safe and we lock for medicine and phone charging. We need in crowded room ready to move. If with a bomb come laws, every small things clean water can then call from family feels like a victory and when provide water, many family under the sun for a long hour and many children and many women come water. So this nation and destination and long lines is very hard. And the situation very hard here in Gaza.

Maximillian Alvarez:

And I mean people are starving and dying all around you. Correct?

Mohamed Abu Tawila:

That’s it. Yes.

Maximillian Alvarez:

I want people to also remember that this violence of occupation, this genocidal violence did not start on October 7th, 2023. Can you remind our listeners what life was like for you and your fellow Palestinians in Gaza before October 7th?

Mohamed Abu Tawila:

Life was hard, but it was life. We had long power and little war, but we had the school, the see family visit and the dreams be able to study, opened small jobs, go to marriage and tired to bend a future. We wanted the same, same things. Everyone wants safety, dignity, and it shines Before the seven October, I am English teacher and I am study many children in their school. But now everything has changed, it is completely changed. And our life is a change. It’s hard. No work, no school, every school is completely destroyed and every children. So the street to provide water, to sleep. The tents very hard situation.

Maximillian Alvarez:

Like you said, life was hard before but it was life. And now it sounds like every day is just a struggle to survive. And part of that survival is finding clean water for people to drink while they’re being starved. And you are trying to get people clean water in Gaza. Can you talk to us about your efforts to get people in Gaza clean water?

Mohamed Abu Tawila:

I came because in the place we were blessed too. There was no waters at all. We struggled being need to even a small amount or drinking or wishing. Then we thought of the other displaced people across the same or forest. I connected friends aboard and for their donation we bought water tanks and distributed them for free. Two families who had Gandhi day without the clean water, some children were drinking unsafe water causing illness. That when I realized water was not just a need, it was a mother of water, is life without cannot talk at or stay.

Maximillian Alvarez:

And can you tell listeners why there is no clean water in Gaza?

Mohamed Abu Tawila:

In Gaza there are no clean water because the Occupation destroyed the main facilities, and the fuel is very expensive here. And many tracks here cannot go to water because the diesel is very expensive and the cost of water tanks is very expensive. So many people cannot provide water and many water tanks cannot go to the camps and tens because the roads is bombing and many roads is bombings.

Maximillian Alvarez:

And so for our listeners, what Muhammad is saying is that under the Israeli occupation, bombardment and blockade, water systems have been destroyed. Water treatment plants have been destroyed, roads have been destroyed. So people can’t get water to refugee camps. This is what is happening in Gaza right now. I know I have to let you both go, but with the last few minutes I have you. This show is about workers by workers and four workers working people around North America and around the world are going to listen to this conversation. What final messages do you have for them? What do you want to say to them from Gaza? What can working people do to stop this horror?

Mohamed Abu Tawila:

I asking everyone, give us the in your eyes, use your voice, share the truth. Call for protection of civilians, and support… families getting food, water, medicine, shelter. We want life, safety, and a chance to live. And don’t forget us.

Maximillian Alvarez:

Thank you Mohamed. We will not forget you and we won’t stop fighting for you and everyone in Gaza until this horror stops. I am so, so sorry that the world has let you down, and my heart is with you. Thank you brother. I’m sending love and solidarity from Baltimore.

Mohamed Abu Tawila:

Thank you for the time.

Maximillian Alvarez:

Mohammed. Did you see the videos I sent of the Microsoft workers?

Mohamed Abu Tawila:

Yes, I have video. I see this video. We feel we are not alone.

Maximillian Alvarez:

You are not alone. Solidarity brother. Thank you.

Mohamed Abu Tawila:

Thank you.

Maximillian Alvarez:

Well that is going to wrap things up for us this week everyone. Once again, I want to thank our guests from Gaza, Mohamed Abbo Tola and his nephew Abdul. You can follow Mohammed on Instagram and you can learn more about and support their efforts to get people clean water in Gaza by clicking on the links in the show notes for this episode. And of course I want to thank you all for listening and I want to thank you for caring. We’ll see you all back here next week for another episode of Working People. And if you can’t wait that long, then please go explore all the great work that we’re doing at The Real News Network. We do grassroots journalism that lifts up the voices and stories from the front lines of struggle. And we have lifted up so many voices and stories from Gaza and the West Bank. But we need your help to get people to hear them and see them. Sign up for the Real News newsletter so you never miss stories like this. And help us do more work like this by going to the real news.com/donate and becoming a supporter today. It really makes a difference. Take care of yourselves, take care of each other, and may God help us all solidarity forever.