Charlotte Kates, international coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, appeared on Press TV’s “Spotlight” program on 30 September 2021 to discuss the official Bahraini U.S.-backed normalization deal with the Israeli regime. She joined Palestinian commentator and analyst Lamis Andoni on the program.
Both guests discussed the role of U.S. imperialism in the region, providing support to Zionist colonialism and Israeli occupation through direct military aid as well as promoting and coercing these normalization agreements. They also discussed the widespread Palestinian and Arab popular resistance and rejection of all of these normalization attempts, despite the complicity of reactionary ruling classes.
Andoni drew particular attention to the dangers of the gas deal linking Arab development of natural gas in Jordan and Egypt to stolen Palestinian gas extracted by the Israeli regime, as well as the danger of U.S.-backed attempts to impose normalization on Lebanon through the importation of this gas. The Campaign to Boycott Supporters of “Israel” in Lebanon has been struggling to expose and block these attempts.
Kates also discussed the self-liberation of the six Palestinian prisoners from Gilboa prison and how the prisoners’ movement reflects the ongoing Palestinian resistance that has not been quashed despite 73 years of Nakba, imprisonment and colonialism. She emphasized the growing global support for Palestinian resistance and liberation from the river to the sea, as well as the unity of the Palestinian people to attain these goals.
