NawazWoodruff
© Arab News/Getty ImagesAmna Nawaz • Judy Woodruff
Last year the PBS News Hour was anchored by Judy Woodruff, who in two marquee interviews, exhibited a callous indifference to the Palestinian perspective. One was her interview with Secretary of State Antony Blinken last June, barely a month after Israel killed Shireen Abu Akleh. Woodruff pressed Blinken about the Saudis' murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 but said nothing about Abu Akleh. Then last fall, Woodruff did a softball interview of then former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, promoting his new book, allowing him to push for a military threats against Iran — and treating Palestinians as an afterthought, toward whom Netanyahu might have good faith:
"What sort of life do you foresee for them in the years, generations to come?... And do you see a home for Palestinians in years to come?"
Truly embarrassing.

What a difference a year makes. Woodruff has become a senior correspondent, and one of the new co-anchors is Amna Nawaz, an Asian-American and Muslim, who obviously is familiar with the Palestinian narrative and grants it honor.

Last night Nawaz interviewed former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett and repeatedly asked him about Palestinians' lack of rights under occupation, culminating with her comment:
"We have seen Palestinian families en masse evicted from properties they have occupied for generations."
What a breakthrough! Nawaz clearly feels supported by a trend she brought up: the Gallup poll findings that Democrats are now more sympathetic to Palestinians than Israelis, and by a whopping 49 to 38 percent. She observed:
"That's a real reversal in just a matter of years. Seven years ago, sympathy was 30 percent greater for Israelis than for Palestinians."
Bennett looked to be thrown by her questioning. He aimed to mend relations with the U.S. establishment last night, pooh-poohing the contretemps between Biden and Israel and declaring that Israeli democracy has been redeemed by Netanyahu's decision last month under tremendous pressure to put off his judicial overhaul plans.
"I can now openly declare that the democracy in Israel has prevailed... It'll take a while until everyone understands it, but I think what Israel got was a great gift for its 75th birthday."
Nawaz was having none of it. She brought up the Gallup numbers, and Bennett said the usual- Israel just needs to do a better job of explaining its beautiful complexity to America. Israel is an "imperfect" democracy.

Nawaz pressed the Palestinian experience -
it's not a democracy for them:
"Critics will say, how is this a real democracy, though, when you have five million Palestinians who have no voting rights, no access to government? I mean, in a true democracy, wouldn't everyone have equal rights?"
Bennett said Palestinians elected the P.A. and Hamas. Nawaz pushed back with the occupation:
"But under occupation... in the West Bank, specifically, Palestinians do not have voting rights or access to government.... they do live under a military occupation of Israeli forces."
Bennett claimed that apart from Israeli "security" concerns, Palestinians have "full freedom."

Again, Nawaz was unmoved. She said:
"People and critics who watch the mistreatment and the unequal treatment of Palestinian and Israeli citizens have said that the U.S. and Israel don't share values and the U.S. should condition military aid."
This was a reference to the congressional letter signed by 14 last week.

Bennett bridled, calling that impulse a "profound mistake," and said that "Israel is a full-fledged democracy," with two million Palestinian citizens voting for the Knesset.

Nawaz again addressed the "five million Palestinians who are not Israeli citizens" and went on to bring up "settlement expansions," and "the eviction of Palestinian families" and "the demolitions of their homes" as factors that the U.N. sees as "fueling... violence."

When Bennett said that Israel doesn't evict anyone who is legally in a home, Nawaz had the presence of mind to say:
"Legal by whose determination, though? We have seen Palestinian families en masse evicted from properties they have occupied for generations."
Amazing to hear those words coming from a mainstream American news anchor. Bennett appeared a bit flustered by the uncommon treatment.

In the remainder of the interview, Nawaz pressed Bennett about "settlement expansion" and said that Saudi Arabia, having resumed relations with Iran, "is calling Israel an occupation government again."

Nawaz was surely biting her tongue. It's too bad that she could not bring herself to say "apartheid" and cite the many human rights reports describing Israel as an apartheid state.

That day will come. Nawaz plainly feels buttressed by Israel's critics in Congress and its sinking sympathy among Democrats, but she took it upon herself to grant Palestinians dignity on a mainstream platform. It's a pity that we need to celebrate the discovery that Palestinians are human beings, but it was thrilling to watch this interview and see an Israeli politician on his back foot for once.