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As we continue our conversation with Congressmember Pramila Jayapal, we turn to recent developments involving the United States military. On Wednesday, Jayapal was one of over half of all House Democrats to vote in favor eliminating over $3 billion in military aid to Israel. Although the proposed amendment was ultimately shot down, the final tally with over 100 members voting yes is still a "sea change" in U.S. political support for Israel, says Jayapal. Following Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, "it is the horror of what has unfolded that has finally allowed us to confront the fact that we should not be using taxpayer dollars to send to Israel to perpetrate this kind of violence."
Jayapal also responds to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's new order mandating testosterone testing and offering testosterone replacement therapy for servicemembers aged 30 and over. "Providing testosterone is actually gender affirming care," Jayapal remarks. Last year, Hegseth ordered a halt to all gender-affirming medical procedures for military servicemembers and banned openly trans people from service. These actions are "intrusive behavior," says Jayapal, "where the government is getting involved in prescribing what medication you do or don't take, without your consent."
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Israeli settlers armed with clubs, rocks and a knife attacked a convoy of journalists in the West Bank on Saturday, the latest targeting of foreign journalists documenting the Israeli occupation. Four settlers have reportedly been detained over the attack. The convoy, which included CNN's Jeremy Diamond, were accompanying the father of Palestinian American Saif Musallet to the site where he was beaten to death by Israeli settlers one year ago. To date, no one has been arrested for Musallet's killing.
Independent journalist and Palestine solidarity activist Adele Shoko, who was in one of the cars, says the attack is part of an "unprecedented" escalation of settler activity in the occupied West Bank, taking place in so-called Area A, which is nominally under the full control of the Palestinian Authority. "Area C is almost entirely ethnically cleansed by the settlers backed by the Israeli state, and they moved to Area B, attacking big villages. But Area A is another level."
We also speak with Jasper Nathaniel, who was also in the convoy and has been attacked multiple times while reporting in the occupied West Bank. He says pro-Israel advocates who accuse journalists, activists and other international observers of staging "publicity stunts" are downplaying how routine settler intimidation and violence has become. "If you spend enough time in the West Bank — and by enough time, I mean a couple days — something like that is going to happen to you," says Nathaniel.
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Trump announced on Tuesday at the NATO summit in Ankara that he would lift U.S. sanctions on Turkey and is considering selling the country F-35 fighter jets. Trump made the comment following a lavish state dinner hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom he praised as a "great leader." The mayor of Istanbul and other Turkish politicians, civil society figures and journalists remain jailed on politically motivated charges.
"Here in Ankara, and in Turkey more broadly, this NATO summit is not taking place in a climate of freedom. We saw, in the two weeks leading up to this summit happening, authorities in Ankara arrested over 200 people in dawn raids," says Ruth Michaelson, a journalist based in Istanbul. "There has also been a protest ban enforced in Ankara, and that is a protest ban that extends even to leafleting."
Repression from the Turkish state has not been addressed during the summit; instead, "something that we've been hearing throughout the summit is that Turkey has this indispensable place in NATO," says Michaelson.
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