Dr Moussa al-Haddad, Laila al-Haddad - The Battle of al-Furqan (2009)

Don Lemon: We want to give you a quick update now on the Israeli military that ground assault in Gaza. Thousands of troops have rolled into the territory targeting Hamas militants. The overnight hours have been filled with explosions and machine gun fire, much of which you can see there. Hamas is vowing that its fighters will battle... to the very last breath. And Israeli officials say the operation could be long-lasting. Also tonight, we have learned that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is headed to Israel as a show of support for the Jewish state. We know that the Internet now makes it possible for ordinary people to communicate with the entire world at the speed of light, even from the middle of a war zone. Laila Elhaddad is a Palestinian journalist. She writes a blog called A Mother from Gaza. She joins us from Raleigh, North Carolina. Her father joins us now from Gaza. His name is Musa Elhaddad. How are you doing, Mr. Elhaddad?

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: Yes, I'm fine so far. I'm still alive. Okay.

Don Lemon: We're glad that you are still alive. Thank you both for joining us tonight. I'm sure you have been speaking to your father. Tough for you at this point, I would imagine, to be here in the U.S. and to know that your father is in harm's way.

Laila al-Haddad: Absolutely. I mean, it's mortifying. I mean, minute to minute, I'm trying to get updates in whatever way I can by either communicating with him, calling him. On his landline, the mobile telecommunications centers have been bombed, so I'm not able to communicate that way. If we can, when he has electricity, which is about one hour in every 48, he tries to get online. We communicate on Skype. That way, giving us both, I think, a sense of security and safety, no matter how illusory.

Don Lemon: Okay, I want to go now to Musa, your father there, and the sounds that we're hearing are from the live pictures that we are showing, and it could be mistaken as happening in the background as Mr. Ahaldad, as I talked to him. How are you doing, and tell us what is going on around you at this point?

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: Well, the last nine days were horrible. It was a genocide by all standards against humanity. Everything that is living and beautiful is being targeted. All buildings, children, women. This is not a war against Hamas. This is a war against humanity. against everything and everybody in this place that was in the last nine days but this last night now it's almost sunrise here it's uh almost six o'clock in the morning uh since the beginning of last night it's been a horrible night uh explosions as you probably can see on the cnn explosions everywhere killing everywhere uh on the radio we hear uh ambulances, people asking for ambulances for help, because these bombs are falling on houses, not on just Hamas people. And by the way, those people who are defending the land are not just Hamas, it's everybody, Fatah, all other organizations. I just cannot tell you the situation here exactly. I have to move. I have to take the mattress off the bed and put it on the floor to stay away from the windows to be able to speak to you because it's very noisy by the windows. You can hear explosions all the time.

Don Lemon: Yeah, and we want you to stay out of harm's way. We appreciate you talking to us on CNN. Just real quick questions for you. Are you alone?

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: My wife is here next to me.

Don Lemon: How is your wife?

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: She's okay. She's also a physician. She's a pediatrician. She's very scared, but we thank God that we're still alive. The people are not so much lucky.

Don Lemon: I spoke with an Israeli spokesperson for the government a short time ago, and he says that Israel has no qualms, no problems with the Palestinian people, but yet and still Palestinian people are being injured in that. They said that they have problems with Hamas.

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: Well, not just injured. They've been killed. Five hundred people have been killed. Ten percent of those are children. Five percent are women.

Don Lemon: There are a number of people who are watching us right now who have family members in the area. And your daughter is watching as well and joining us here on CNN. Do you have a message for those people who may be concerned about their family members, Mr. Haddad?

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: Well, the only thing I can say is that God is here, and I'm sure God would not leave these innocent people alone, although the whole world has. I know that people, civilians in the whole world, in the U.S., Europe, and everywhere else, have been demonstrating and sympathizing with us. But we are here... supporting each other. I mean, as civilians, we pray to God just that this situation will be over soon. And these politicians and army people will come to their senses. They have their families of their own. And I'm sure none of them would like to see what's happening in Gaza to happen to their children and families.

Don Lemon: Mr. Haddad, Musa Haddad, and Laila al-Haddad, will you both stand by because I want to talk more, especially to Laila. I've been wanting to find out, Laila, how your dad is doing because he is in the middle of all of this happening now, and I'm going to talk to you a little bit more. Will you both stand by just a bit, and I'll talk to you after the break?

Laila al-Haddad: Yes.

Don Lemon: All right. Thanks to both of you. We'll talk to you in just a little bit. Pictures from the Associated Press on the devastation in Gaza. And also you're looking at live pictures now. At the top, that's Ramadan, the one that's at the top of your screen. And you can see that sun is now, the sun is starting to come up in Gaza. It is almost 7 o'clock in the morning there. And we will get the first daylight look. since this ground offensive went underway earlier this afternoon here in the United States. And of course at the bottom there, there was, just seconds ago, that was the White House, where we have heard a statement from the president, but we have not seen him on this situation. Before the break, we were talking with Leila Elhaddad, a Palestinian journalist. She writes a blog called A Mother From Gaza, and we were talking to her father there as well. Her father is in Gaza. His name is Musa Elhaddad. He told us about the situation, what he was enduring. We're looking at her blog now, and I have it up here on the screen as well, and I've been reading a little bit of it and how people have been responding to you and what you've been putting up there, Layla. I asked you about how you feel knowing that your dad is over in harm's way. How has this affected your work, and have you written about this on your blog?

Laila al-Haddad: absolutely I mean I've been basically trying to write I convey my conversations with him convey their emotions their fear as they're living through this having lived there myself and having raised my son there for the first few years of his life I know what it's like to live under this constant fear this terror under Israeli bombardment and sort of being the news yourself not knowing not being able to quantify any way what's happening around you it's an absolutely terrifying feeling and so I've been trying to convey that as I mentioned on my blog, been pretty much hysterical, unable to sleep, unable to thinking about them, thinking about all my family and friends over there. My mother and my aunts and my uncles and my, you know, et cetera, my cousins.

Don Lemon: I asked her father this, what he wanted people here to know about families in Gaza. What do you want people here in America to know? Can you help them deal with the situation? Obviously, it's unbelievable to watch these pictures and unnerving as well to see what's going on.

Laila al-Haddad: Absolutely. I mean, it's a modern-day Warsaw ghetto. It's unprecedented in modern history that you have a population that is stateless, that is occupied, and that is besieged, and that is the majority of these people in the Gaza Strip are refugees, refugees who fled from their homes in 1948. The same homes that are, you know, where rockets are falling, these were the homes of these Palestinian refugees that are now living in Gaza. Unprecedented in modern history that an occupied state was people. I mean, these people basically want their freedom. And the more, instead of aggravating, you know, Palestinians, we need to address their demands for their human rights, you know, their ability to achieve human rights and dignity.

Don Lemon: Laila El Haddad, we appreciate you joining us. She writes a blog. It's called A Mother From Gaza. If you want to keep up with her, keep up with her family, you can go to that blog. A Mother From Gaza, and I think it's blogspot.com. Thank you very much for that. We're going to let you go so that we can continue on our coverage here. Is your father still with us, guys?

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: Yes, I am. Yes, I am. Let me tell you something. Last night, up until now, 11 mosques have been bombed. Mosques are holy places, just like churches. Last night, two rocket attacks from F-16, American-made F-16, two rocket attacks were fired at the mosque during Maghreb prayer time, and 16 people were killed during praying. And probably you saw those on the TV screens, on CNN. Yes, we did, sir. Pictures are horrible. I mean, it's just... You know, I'm talking to you with my arms trembling. I just cannot explain the situation. And this is not, again, this is not a war against Hamas. This is, with all what this word means, it's a holocaust against humanity.

Sherif Fam: Today, we have the privilege of spending the rest of our time on the air with a retired Palestinian physician and resident of Gaza, Dr. Musa al-Haddad. Dr. al-Haddad is the father of well-known Palestinian journalist, photographer, and blogger, Laila al-Haddad, who has been featured in Democracy Now!, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, and Electronic Intifada, among other publications. Dr. Moussa joins us now from his home in Palestine. Good afternoon, Dr. Moussa Al-Haddad.

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: Yes, good evening, sir.

Sherif Fam: And thank you for being our guest today. I'm sorry, I apologize for having you wait so long.

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: No, that's okay, no problem. It's my pleasure.

Sherif Fam: Last night, Israel moved ground forces into Gaza. Events are unfolding so rapidly it is hard to keep up with them. Could you please update us on Israel's ground attack?

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: Well, the ground attack, as you probably can see on the news, started last night around 5 or 6 p.m. our time. And we had a horrid night all night. They were bombing everywhere. And from sea, they had warships. From the air, F-16s and Apache, they were shooting and bombing. And from the land, going from three different directions, from the north and from the east and from the southeast. According to the reports, the advance has been very, very slow, not as expected, at least on the Israeli side. There's been a lot of resistance. Of course, the night was probably the worst night in Gazan's life. The skies were lit most of the time with these firebombs or fires from missile attacks. They attacked a mosque during Maghreb prayer time. This mosque, people were praying around 5.30, 6 o'clock. And two missiles were shot at the mosque directly. It was leveled down. Sixteen people were killed instantly while they were praying. These people were innocent. Just now, as you, as I was holding, there was an attack on a house from the gunboat on the beach, beach camp. A family of five, father, mother, and three children, one year, three years, and five years old, were killed. This is, I don't know what I can tell you. This is a genocide. This is a war against humanity. I'm sorry to be so sentimental. I just cannot really collect my thoughts. Things have been so bad and so fast. There have been explosions all night and all day. We did not have any sleep last night on one side because of the explosions and the other side I had an interview with the CNN this morning in the early hours for one hour. Layla was on the TV on the other side. explaining what's going on. They bombed down a place for orphanage. It's just a building, two-story building for orphans. I just don't know whether this is a war, as they say, against Hamas, or this is a war against human consciousness. It's just they're killing everybody. So far around 500 people have been killed during this last nine days. Around 2,500 are injured. And about half of them are severe injuries with loss of a limb or two. Ten percent of those who were killed were children under ten years of age. Five percent of them are women, mothers of children. And I'm sure there are a lot of bodies under the rubbles of those buildings that were brought down to earth. But nobody dares to go and search under those rebels.

Sherif Fam: I happened to have watched your interview on CNN, the interview of yourself and Leila, your daughter. And I must say that the CNN people have been... have been lying all around and claiming and asking, didn't the Israelis have the right to attack Gaza because of the rockets? And it's just upside down. The Palestinians have a right to resist the occupation of Palestine. And when they retaliate for Israeli incursions, The Israelis use the retaliation as the cause of their incursions, which is just standing causality upside down.

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: That's just right, yeah. If I have some time, I can explain the situation to you a little bit further.

Sherif Fam: Yes.

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: Do I have time?

Sherif Fam: Yes, certainly. Please do.

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: Yes. Okay. Gaza is a stretch of land on the Mediterranean Sea, 360 kilometers, square kilometers, inhabited by 1.5 million people. So that is about 5,000 people per square kilometer. So if you throw a stone, you're bound to hit one or two people. So you can imagine if you shoot missiles from the air, what's going to happen. There was a truce between Hamas and Israel, signed by both and witnessed by Egypt. And that truce included a ceasefire for six months. After that, the ceasefire should be extended to the West Bank, and also all the borders have to be opened. Okay, the ceasefire was in effect at least on part of Hamas for six months, but the borders were never opened, except occasionally for a couple of hours or something. They were supposed to be opened 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In the last six weeks of this truce, Israel killed 23 people. Palestinian people on three different occasions. This is to intimidate Hamas and provoke them to start shooting rockets. And then Israel will start saying, oh, we have to attack Gaza to defend ourselves. Initially, Hamas or all the other organizations did not shoot any rockets. until the truce ended after six months. And then Hamas refused to renew it because there was no point, according to them, there was no point to renew it. Israel did not open the borders. Israel did not abide by the truce. They were killing people in spite of the ceasefire. So that's when the situation got worse and Hamas and other organizations started shooting rockets to defend themselves, not to attack the Israelis. And then, of course, that was when Israel started saying, oh, we have to defend ourselves. They did not say that. They started the attack. They started killing people. So now for the last nine days, they've been killing everything that is beautiful and living in this part of the world. They've been demolishing buildings that don't belong to Hamas. They've been killing innocent people that are not. Hamas people, kids and women, like, you know, kids of 10 years and below, about 60 of them or 70 of them, you know, you can't just believe it. You know, like, five days, four days ago, Two missiles hit a house. A woman was severely injured and her daughter. But five other daughters, six years and below and under, were killed. You probably saw those on the TV. It's horrible, the way, I mean, that was a massacre. Next day, two children, two sisters, three and four years old, were also killed by a missile from Apache, and their brother was severely injured. I mean, you go to the hospital, now Al-Shifa Hospital, it's full with people who are severely injured. They don't have, the hotel does not have equipment, they don't have electricity, the generators are half not working, Israel is not allowing any spare parts to come in, and unfortunately Egypt also is not allowing anything to come in. There is no fuel for those generators. Now we have a blackout for the last week or so. There is no electricity. People who are lucky, probably like myself, I have a generator that I can switch on for an hour or two a day, at least to check my emails and so on. Trees have been destroyed. So, I mean, I don't know what to tell you. I mean, you look around you, most of the buildings are nine mosques. Nine mosques have been destroyed. Are these Hamas mosques that throw rockets or shoot rockets? This is just ridiculous. And what is more ridiculous are those people who believe that Israel is doing this to defend itself.

Sherif Fam: Believe me. That is a total distortion. Israel had planned this attack months ahead of time. It had nothing to do with the rockets. It's all part of Israeli plans to continue the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and have Palestinians leave their land so they can annex the land and the buildings and the water supplies.

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: Exactly. But then I'm telling you right here on the air that Palestinians, at least in this part of the world, in Gaza Strip, None that I saw or knew would leave their houses. They would not. Whatever happens, they'd say, we'd rather die in our houses than leave this place. It doesn't matter what's going to happen. Israel is doing a big mistake by doing this. And unfortunately, I'm telling you, people are gathering around Hamas now here more than ever. So in the country, what Israel thought was going to destroy Hamas and the people around Hamas, no, people here... are resisting the idea of moving anywhere. Of course, we don't have shelters. I mean, people here don't have anywhere else to go. Even if they do, as I said, they say, we are not going to leave our houses. This is our land. We left our country before, from Palestine, before 1948, and we are not going to do it again.

Sherif Fam: Yes, and I have to tell you that we certainly admire the spirit of all Palestinians, that spirit which refuses to submit, the spirit that wants its own freedom, the freedom to which it is entitled. Unfortunately, the international community, if one can call such a thing as an international community without... The United States is looking on silently, complicit in all these attacks. Even the president of the European Council said that this was a defensive move on Israel's part and not an offensive move, which is very difficult to understand. Were there any casualties reported on the Israeli side?

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: Yes, during today's, you mean since last night?

Sherif Fam: Since last night, since when it started.

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: Yes, since last night there was a report of 30 Israeli soldiers injured. That was in the first couple of hours. 30 injured but no deaths? No, no. They were a report of... Initially, on the Palestinian radio, they said there were five deaths, but Israel admitted three. And then this afternoon, on the Palestinian radio, they said they kidnapped two Israelis. Israel admitted that one is missing. So you get different reports, but... I don't have access to Israeli news agency here. But definitely at least 30 Israelis were injured. And as I said, three to five people were killed. One or two Israelis were taken as hostages.

Sherif Fam: Yes, you know, unfortunately the media in this country are nothing but bullhorns for Israeli propaganda.

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: Yes, I understand. I mean, as you probably know, I live here now, but usually I spend half of my time in the United States, and I've been to... I've spent four years in England, And so I know how the people are thinking. But to tell you the truth, lately from the number of calls and the number of interviews that I have, I can sense that more and more people, and I don't mean governments, I mean people in the streets, are more sympathetic with us. They started to understand, they want to understand the real truth. They know that what Israel is saying and the propaganda in the United States is lying to them. So more and more people, if you check on Leila's blog, you can see how many people are reading her blog and following what's going on here.

Sherif Fam: It is true that more and more people are starting to question the line that they've been fed for years. Yes, yes. The question is how to get action out of it.

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: But this is the problem. I mean, you know, this Obama says we have one of the administration at the time and they cannot do anything about it. And Bush, as usually, he's hiding his head in the sand like an ostrich and he doesn't want to do or say anything in the last three weeks of his administration. You know, I'm sorry, this is a bullshit, but... If Israel finds somebody like the U.S. administration, tell them stop what you're doing, they would have stopped a long time back. But they have full support by the United States administration, and that's why they do what they are doing. And also, of course, most of the European governments are doing the same.

Sherif Fam: What has been Mr. Mahmoud Abbas's reaction in this? We haven't heard from him.

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: Yes, he was quite the first few days, and then he started to, I think he was supposed to go tomorrow to New York. And he was, of course, he threatened to stop all negotiations with Israel. He should have stopped them, not threatened just to stop them. He was calling for unity, but nothing really solid. that a president, if you call him a president or whatever, unfortunately, he does not have any support at all on the ground in Palestine. I'm sure if they have elections, he will not get 1% vote.

Sherif Fam: I was going to ask you that question. How much does he have of a following?

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: No, nobody. Even Fatah people don't support him anymore.

Sherif Fam: Is there anyone in particular, do you think, around whom Palestinians would gather for a leader? Is there any person of great popularity other than Marwan Barghouti?

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: Yes. Whoever, and I'm telling you, people now want somebody who is not... It does not belong to any organization. Not Hamas, not Fatah, not anybody. People who are liberals, and there are. You have, like you said, although Marwan Barghouti is a Fatah man, he's a good man, but he's in prison, and God knows when he will be out. Then you have Mostafa Barghouti, who is far related to him. He was actually in the elections last time for the presidency.

Sherif Fam: Yeah, he's a member of the PLC now.

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: That's right. And then you have Abdel Sattar Qasim, who is a professor in Najah University in political science and international policymaking in Nablus. He's a very good man. Of course, because they have not started talking about elections, you don't have their names. But if they decide about elections, then probably people will start nominating and things. But as I told you, the street does not want anyone for president to belong to any of these organizations.

Sherif Fam: Well, I mean, it is rather important that a government of national unity be established. I mean, is there... I know that according to Palestinian law, the president has four years of tenure. But there is a provision in Palestinian law that says... that the election of the president and the election of the prime minister should coincide. So we have a problem in that the president was elected in 2005 and the prime minister was elected in 2006. That's right. So that even though in theory the president's tenure ends in January of this year, In actual practice, it could be interpreted to be January of 2010.

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: Yes, this is true, but Hamas government is saying that is not right. On January 9, they will not consider Abbas to be president, and the head of the legislative council who is right now in jail.

Sherif Fam: In jail, Dr. Dweck.

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: That's right. He's supposed to take his place for six weeks until new elections... But, of course, nobody is talking about elections right now, and the U.S. wants Abbas to stay another year at least, and Egypt wants Abbas to stay for another year, and some other countries too.

Sherif Fam: Egypt does what it's told to do.

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: I know, I know, I know. And unfortunately, I mean, look at all these aid trucks waiting to come in. Some of them are sent back, like Qatar plane that came in with aids and medicines and whatever. It's just, you know, you're right. Mubarak is doing what he's told to do. And so, you know, I have a little bird in a cage in my balcony. It's a type of a canary. We call it Hassoun.

Sherif Fam: Hassoun Mubarak.

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: I was looking at it yesterday, and honestly, I thought about Gaza like that bird. You know, it's like a prison. It's been bombarded from the sea, from the air, from the land, and people in the whole world are just watching. It's just nobody's doing anything. A lot of demonstrations, I agree, in Europe and in the United States and in the Arab world, but again, no actions. Nine days. Today is day number nine, and I'm sure if this has happened to any other part of the world, probably it would have been completely demolished and the people would have been demoralized. But people still here... are doing what they are doing. Of course, the stores are empty, don't have much to buy. But again, people just have to cope with what they have.

Sherif Fam: We need one country. We need one country. that will send a formal request of the United Nations General Assembly to form an international criminal court for Israel.

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: Yes.

Sherif Fam: We need to find that one country.

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: And I'm sure I have great faith that one day we'll have that one country.

Sherif Fam: I hope so. I hope so, Dr. Moussa. Thank you so much for being our guest today.

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: No problem. It's my pleasure. And just pray for the people of Gaza. They are under a horrid attack, and only God can help them.

Sherif Fam: Yes, and we would like to express to you and to all our brothers and sisters in Gaza our profound admiration for your invincible spirit and our ever-abiding faith in your just cause.

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: Thank you very much.

Sherif Fam: May this be the year when Palestine will break free from bondage.

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: Inshallah.

Sherif Fam: Thank you very much.

Dr. Moussa al-Haddad: Thank you very much.

Sherif Fam: And that is all we have for today.