Rebel Roundup： Abagail Hamman and Keean Bexte
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
149.5365
Summary
This week, Rebel News returns to Hong Kong to cover the Hong Kong protests, and what it's like to be a part of the pro-democracy movement in the former British colony. In place of the usual interviews with your hosts, we re running their standalone video reports on the latest breaking news stories happening all over the world.
Transcript
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Hello Rebels! You're listening to a free audio version of my show, Rebel Roundup,
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where we cover the hottest Rebel stories of the week.
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If you like the podcast, then you should become a premium content subscriber.
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That gets you access to the video version of my show,
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as well as shows from Ezra Levent and Sheila Gunn-Reed.
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Just go to premium.rebelnews.com to become a member.
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Thank you for listening, and now, enjoy the show.
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Welcome to a special edition of Rebel Roundup, ladies and gentlemen, and the rest of you.
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So, what's so special about this edition, you ask?
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Well, all of your favorite Rebels are currently on assignment, hard at work, the world over.
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They're digging into some very important breaking news stories,
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and making some exciting videos in the process.
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Yes, they are producing the sort of hard-hitting journalism you just won't see anywhere else.
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So, in place of the usual interviews with yours truly,
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we're going to run their standalone video reports instead.
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So, please feel free to grab some popcorn, sit back, and enjoy.
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Rebel News came to Hong Kong trying to uncover the other side of the story,
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to share with the world the side of the story that Beijing doesn't want the world to hear.
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We came to Hong Kong just a few days before a massive election was held,
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and it really was a historic election for Hong Kong.
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There was a massive sweep for the Democrat Party here.
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The pro-democracy camp won an overwhelming victory, over 90% of the seats.
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This is an amazing movement that we're seeing here today,
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and it's being capped off here tonight in an evening of song.
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They're singing Glory to Hong Kong and Can You Hear the People Sing.
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Tonight is a time when they're thinking about the folks that are trapped in PolyU.
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There's still 20 students in PolyU, and their fate is yet unknown.
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These folks here held a moment of silence amid their song,
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When Rebel News came here, we weren't sure what we were going to find.
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What we did find was millions of Hong Kongers passionate to hold on to the liberty
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that was left to them at the handover from the British Empire
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We found people willing to stand eye to eye with riot police,
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to stand up for their fellow protesters who are now locked in PolyU.
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We found people who will gather in an auditorium like this to sing
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and remember those that they've lost in these protests.
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Don't forget, many people have been arrested, thousands.
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at the hands of what looks like to be the police.
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She's the head of the New People's Party here in Hong Kong.
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She's someone who has a direct hand in the police brutality that we've seen here.
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We've seen people who have been curb stomped by the police,
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people who have been bowled over with riot shields.
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These people really have something to fight for,
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when we say we stand with the people of Hong Kong.
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To the world at large, I would like them to keep reporting on Hong Kong.
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The world needs to know that our government is lying to the world.
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It sounds like it's just a small number of people
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who are trying to defy the government, which it's not.
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A majority of Hong Kong people are fighting against the government.
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I went to York University in Toronto to ask students
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what they knew about the violent protests that occurred last week
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when Israeli soldiers visited campus to discuss the Arab-Israeli conflict
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I wanted to hear if students knew about the anti-Semitic statements
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that were being hurled and the violence that took place
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What I found to be astonishing is that some of the individuals I talked with
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didn't want to admit that the anti-Semitic slurs were spouted forth,
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and they tried to put the blame for the violence on the other side.
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Last week, some Israeli soldiers came to talk about Israel
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and about the Arab-Israeli conflict, and there was a protest.
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Honestly, I've heard from some friends, which are kind of part of it,
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and then they're saying how the Palestinians were there
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and peacefully protesting, and then supposedly the other group started using violence.
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People just, like, stormed the whole building and were yelling and screaming and chanting.
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It was pretty upsetting that even in today's day and age,
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we still have people coming to cause violence on campus
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for people who just want to express their opinions.
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It was kind of scary because I easily could have been at that event,
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and there was an ambulance called, and it's just very upsetting.
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You heard about the protest, and you said you were there, right?
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Okay, so what do you think about what happened there?
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So basically, there were a lot of protesters for Palestine
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and actually, like, what I saw, the protesters were so peaceful.
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There was a lot of, like, chaos and violence and stuff going on.
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And I was screaming. It just didn't look good for the school, to be honest.
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Was it the protesters who were becoming violent?
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The violence, I think that's just unacceptable at any school, right?
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But I feel like the whole point of the event was, yeah,
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go and listen to what they have to say if you want to challenge them.
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And ask questions, especially, you know, if you have good points
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That's, you know, I don't think that yelling and screaming
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and starting violence is going to get anyone on your side,
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In the video, what I've seen, it looked like the protesters were being violent.
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So you guys reject that, like, you say that it didn't happen.
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They didn't say these hateful quotes and no violence happened.
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No, no, no. Not from our side. Not from the protesters.
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He, like, called the protesters, like, bad things.
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And, like, honestly, like, I heard chants, words from them, like, not us at all.
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They were like, you get your protection from us.
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Like, I heard it from multiple, like, persons from their side.
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Did you hear about the violence that took place?
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and also some of the things that were being said, like, go back to the ovens.
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Did you, so you haven't heard how, you know, a fight started
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and about how some really angry statements were said, like,
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go back to the ovens and from Toronto to Gaza, globalize the Intifada.
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So these are really anti-Jewish statements, anti-Israel statements.
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And I've heard a couple people share that they think that the pro-Jewish side is the one who started the fight.
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But according to the news stories out there, that's not what's being shared.
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Do you think that there's a missing story in the news?
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Or do you think other people are sharing another narrative?
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I feel like, honestly, I feel like it's a missing story.
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But even though, even if the missing story was missing, like, what happened was not proper in a sense, you know.
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Did you also hear about the slogans they were saying, like, go back to the ovens?
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And in the other one that they were saying, from Toronto to Gaza, like, let's start a global Intifada?
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I just don't think that schools should have any violence.
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Yeah, those are all terrible things that I heard when I was in Israel.
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And there were riots there and people being attacked and stabbed and shot.
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But same exact words, Intifada, Intifada, is what they shout there.
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And they were shouting the same thing here on campus.
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So it's not like we don't have knives here that could be used for the same purposes if they wanted to take it to the next step on their end.
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So it's really disheartening, really, because I thought in Canada we might be past that.
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There were chants about the Intifada, but that's it.
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Like, there were no ovens or sort of that at all.
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I saw signs all over the campus where it said, don't let them in, no Israeli soldiers on campus.
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There was even a picture of an edited photo of an Israeli soldier strangling a child.
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They had put around campus a flyer which had been modified, but it was of an Israeli soldier strangling a child.
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Stuff like that's unfortunate that it's taking place, and I feel like we need to be more conscious of everybody that's around us.
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Did you think there was any violence, or you didn't hear about any slurs that were said or anything?
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I don't think there was violence on the people protesting for Palestine, but I think the people supporting Israel and everything that ended up coming.
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I don't blame them for the way they were, because what's happening over there, it's kind of crazy.
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There's people getting murdered during prayers, stuff like that.
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That the Israelis are murdering the Palestinians?
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We're not even sure if it's real or not, but I don't blame the Palestinians for reacting the way they did.
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They punched people and shoved people and stuff like that.
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I saw punching, but it came first from the other side, because they were trying to rip the flags of the Palestinian flags.
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And the protesters were retaliating against the first attacks from the other side.
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Do you think the school will punish those who were involved in trying to hurt others, like there was punching and scuffling, or do you think they're going to just let it go?
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If you looked at the email that the dean sent, she was intentionally ambiguous when she said there were groups here to cause violence.
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That could obviously refer to the JDL as well as the pro-BDS protesters.
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And I think she intentionally left it ambiguous like that, even though the JDL did not come to cause violence.
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They were there to protect people for a good reason, because there was violence, and they knew there would be.
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So, by leaving things ambiguous like that, she's leaving one foot out the door to make sure that she doesn't actually have to respond to these allegations.
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Do you think that the people who became violent, the protesters who became violent, are going to get in trouble for that?
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Do you think that there is any room for violence at a protest?
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I think that in a protest, you have to be required to be civil and hear, you know, I'm saying both sides of the story.
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Regardless of how I'm right, I feel like that violence on both sides definitely shouldn't have been a thing.
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So, I think it was wrong on both ends, for sure.
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Well, thanks so much, ladies and gentlemen, for watching yet another edition of Rebel Roundup.
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And, hey, never forget, without risk, there can be no glory.