Rock Newman of the Rock Newman Show interviewed Palestinian teen activist, Ahed Tamimi's father, Bassem Tamimi, via Skype. Bassem is a principal organizer of the Palestinian resistance. He has been arrested nine times for the crime of organizing peaceful demonstrations, and in one incident, nearly died from the violent torture inflicted upon him during interrogation.
Referencing Ahed's detainment and rumored abuse in Israeli military prisons, Rock asks, "As a father who is responsible for the wellbeing and the care and the support and the protection of a daughter, how does this make you feel?"
Bassem seems poignantly weary as he replies, "It is hard and complicated to be a father--and a husband, to your wife and your daughter in a prison in the hands of your enemy. You feel scared, worried, and don't know what will happen...I am also feel proud, because every parent in the world would like their daughter to be strong as Ahed and face an armed man by this way that she faced (him), and to protect herself from this soldier...yes, I feel proud, I feel worried, it's complicated, but also, we haven't any choice, there is no safe place in Palestine, and the enemy of our humanity is the Israeli occupation."
In closing, Rock asked, "Do you see or have any hope at all for peace; for Israel and Palestine to be able to live peacefully?"
Bassem replied, "For me, I fight for the two-state solution since long time in my life, I have been in jail nine times in my life, I lost my sister, I lost my brother-in-law; my wife and my daughter are in jail, they arrested 20 persons from my family (and) killed more than 22...since (the) 1967 occupation. But also I have a hope, I have hope that peace will finally become the solution of this situation...my hope (is) to free our minds and our thoughts and our beliefs from all the thoughts that don't accept each other...(to) build a state of peace for everyone living in this land, despite his religion, his color or his ethnicity. We believe that the main and the important part of this struggle is the human being. For that we need to follow our humanity, to follow justice...and freedom until we reach the goal that everyone lives in this land in peace, to be an example of the land of peace in the homeland of the prophet of peace."
The Skyped Bassem interview runs thru 11:22, then Rock discusses the Tamimis as well as the topic of Israel's deportation of Africans with Raed Jarrar of Amnesty International and Melvin Foote, CEO and President of Constituency for Africa. ("Human Rights in Israel" video published March 8, 2018.)
The Rock Newman Show is live on Wednesdays at 8 pm EST, via Howard University Television.
