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‘Iran is Not Gaza’:Acclaimed Writer Arundhati Roy

The Wire5:06

Transcription

I have uh something to say because I'm my mother's daughter and because I need to straighten my shoulders and say this. It's a little statement about the war that is about to consume the world.

I know we're here today to talk about Mother Mary comes to me. But how can we end the day without talking about those beautiful cities Thran, Isvahan, and Beirut that are up in flames?

In keeping with my mother Mary spirit of cander and impoliteness, I would like to use this platform to say something about the unprovoked and illegal attack by the United States and Israel on Iran. It is of course a continuation of the US Israeli genocide in Gaza. It's the same old genocides using the same old playbook. Murdering women and children, bombing hospitals, carpet bombing cities, and then playing the victim.

But Iran is not Gaza. The theater of this new war could expand to consume the whole world. We're on the brink of nuclear calamity and economic collapse. The same country that bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki could be readying itself to bomb one of the most ancient civilizations in the world.

There will be other occasions to speak of this in detail. So here let me simply say that I stand with Iran unequivocally. Any regimes that need changing, including the US, Israel, and ours, need to be changed by the people, not by some bloated lying. [applause] [applause] Not by some bloated, lying, cheating, greedy, resourced grabbing, bombdropping imperial power and its allies who are trying to bully the whole world into submission. Iran is standing up to them while India cowers.

I am ashamed of how gutless and how spineless our government has been. Long ago, [applause] long ago we were a poor country of very poor people. But we had pride. We had dignity. Today we are a rich country with very poor unemployed people who are fed on a diet of hatred, poison and falsehoods instead of real food. We have lost pride. We have lost dignity. We have lost courage except in our movies.

What sort of people are we whose elected government cannot stand up and condemn the US when it kidnaps and assassinates heads of state in other countries? Would we like that done to us for our prime minister to have traveled to Israel and embraced Benjamin Netanyahu just days before he attacked Iran? What does it mean for our government to sign a graveling trade deal with the US that literally sells our farmers and textile industry down the river only days before the US Supreme Court declared Trump's tariffs illegal? What does it mean for us to now be given permission to buy oil from Russia? What does it mean? What else do we need permission for? to go to the bathroom, to take a day off work, to visit our mothers.

Every day, US politicians, including Donald Trump, mock and demean us publicly. And our prime minister laughs his famous vacuous laugh and hugs on. At the height of the genocide in Gaza, the government of India sent thousands of poor Indian workers to Israel to replace [clears throat] expelled Palestinian workers. Today, while Israelis take shelter in bunkers, it is being reported that those Indian workers are not allowed into those shelters. What the hell does this mean? who has put us into this absolutely humiliating, shameless, disgusting place in the world.

Some of you will remember how we used to joke about that Floridaid, overblown Chinese communist term, running dog of imperialism. But right now, I'd say it describes us well, except of course in our twisted toxic movies in which our celluloid heroes strut on, winning phantom war after war, dumb and over muscled, fueling our insatiable bloodlust with their gratuitous violence and their for brains. [applause and cheering]