When US-Palestinian academic and human rights lawyer Noura Erakat went to a budget hearing in Florida’s Palm Beach County, she was not expecting to leave in handcuffs, but she did. The author and friend of Zeteo attended the hearing to protest the county’s massive investments in Israeli bonds (the largest globally), a matter the county’s mayor, Sarah Baxter, had no appetite for.
“I wanted the comment on the budget. It was my constitutional right,” Erakat tells Mehdi, “I was told I need to leave the room. I was never told I was arrested before I was rough-handled by two officers who placed handcuffs on me, on purpose, very tight, who began to rough-handle me, to spread my legs to search me, and to explain that this is what happens when you don’t listen.”
Erakat was charged with trespass and obstruction after the mayor prohibited discussion of Israeli bonds during the hearing. Joining Erakat on the show is Lydia Ghuman, executive director of the Internationalist Law Center, who organized the effort to protest the county’s investments in Israeli bonds.
“No other foreign country can get investment of local taxpayer dollars, but Israel can,” she says. “Florida is in many ways an experiment, a lab for Zionist influence, and uses Florida as a test case to see what policies, what they can push, due to the relationships they’ve been able to form with local politicians.”
Watch the full interview above to hear the details of the hearing that led to Erakat’s arrest, and how a county in Florida became the world’s largest government investor in Israeli bonds.
This video is being shared without a paywall. If you believe in the work we do and want to see more of it, do consider becoming a paid subscriber. And if you’re not ready for the commitment, then a donation would still go a long way.
Check out more from Zeteo:
