Shadowing Practice: One Young World Summit - South Africa - Learn English Speaking with Video
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I come to you from Jordan and as always I carry
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Jordan with me.
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But today I also come with a heavy heart our country
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was recently shaken by a horrific unprecedented attack on a church
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this violence is alien to jordan and an affront to everything we stand for
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the families of those we lost bear the deepest pain but their heartbreak is shared by an entire nation.
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So I've been thinking about how nations carry grief and what they choose to make of it.
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One country that has confronted that question is South Africa.
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There are some places that stay with you.
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Since my first visit, I've been struck by how this country has faced its past.
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It hasn't buried the pain of apartheid,
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it has channeled it into a moral power that continues to shape how it responds to injustice elsewhere.
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And there are some people that stay with you too.
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One Young World is right up there on my list,
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because not many bring together a group so diverse, so energetic and driven.
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So to be here with you as this country marks the 50th anniversary of the Soweto uprising feels especially meaningful to me.
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It's been said that youth is wasted on the young.
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Perhaps you take for granted your smooth, plump skin, bones that don't creak every time you stand up,
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or the ability for most of you to fall into a deep, uninterrupted sleep anytime, anywhere.
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Though please don't be in a hurry to test that theory tonight.
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but there is far more to you than
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that from climate change to income inequality to keeping big tech in check
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you are confronting challenges unprecedented in nature scale and urgency
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and you are doing so with curiosity scrutiny and more intellectual rigor than earlier generations systems.
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Your youth isn't wasted.
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It's exactly what the world needs right now.
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That is why, in discussions over pro -Palestinian student protests, when people say to me,
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most Most of them probably couldn't find Gaza on a map.
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I pushed back.
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Still I bet many of you have heard some version of that yourself.
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You're too naive, too idealistic.
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You'll understand when you're older.
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Well, I'm older, and when I've spoken up for the people of Palestine, I've been waved off as being too biased,
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too close to the issue.
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Now, I don't know about you, but when someone tries to get inside my head instead of addressing what I'm actually saying,
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well, that just makes me angry.
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But wait a second, if you get angry, well, then you're too emotional.
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It seems there is no point at which your conscience is allowed to count.
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You're either too young to understand, too close to be objective, or too upset to be rational.
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So let's be clear about what this is.
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A way to end the conversation without ever having it.
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In many ways, the dismissal compounds the injustice. In Arabic,
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we have a word that captures that special brand of anguish born out of an injustice that is not just ignored,
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but belittled, denied, even mocked.
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I couldn't find an English equivalent, but I'm certain many around the world know the feeling,
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not only for Palestine, but when their own struggles are trivialized, rising bills, lack of health care,
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or getting caught in the poverty trap.
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All gas -lit or ignored.
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It's not just salt in the wound.
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It's being told there's no wound at all.
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This form of dismissal is an old tool.
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It was used here in this country.
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The children of Soweto in 1976 were dismissed as idealistic.
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The elders who sustained the anti -apartheid struggle were called unrealistic.
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Nelson Mandela was labeled a terrorist.
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First, in 1997, Madiba said that
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South Africa's freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.
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And yet, when it comes to Palestine, dismissal has been taken to a whole new level.
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International law is dismissed.
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The world's highest courts are told their rulings don't apply.
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The genocide case this country brought before the International Court of Justice is waved away as politics.
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The Geneva Conventions are dismissed.
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The duty to protect civilians, to let food, water and medicine through, the prohibition on forcible transfer,
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on collective punishment, all treated as optional.
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And just as the rules of war were dismissed, so too are the rules of a ceasefire.
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It breaks my heart to remember that a year ago,
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thousands of Palestinians took to Gaza's shattered streets to celebrate what they believed was the end to their nightmare,
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only to discover, as more than 100 NGOs recently put it, that the ceasefire exists in name only.
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their suffering continues so does that of palestinians in the west bank where israeli checkpoints raids
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and land grabs have made their lives a living hell
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and settler violence is downplayed as the acts of just a few on the fringe
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in the past two weeks alone israeli authorities had placed the
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entire city of hebron under lockdown expelled thousands from their homes
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and wielded home demolitions as a form of collective punishment
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and the evidence of all these transgressions that's dismissed too
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when doctors in Gaza describe what they see in hospitals they're disregarded
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when Palestinian journalists document what is happening and are killed in record numbers for doing it their work is branded propaganda.
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When human rights organizations accuse Israel of the crime of apartheid, they are denounced as biased.
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Think about that.
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Doctors, journalists, human rights experts, the very people the world has always relied on to tell us the truth in war.
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All discredited.
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Even Jewish people around the world speaking from conscience and those within Israel who raised their voices are shunned and vilified.
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And once the witnesses have been silenced, the story can be rewritten.
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Reality is inverted.
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The oppressor becomes the victim.
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The powerless becomes the threat.
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The doctor, an accomplice.
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The child, a future terrorist.
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Some nations have even made dismissal of foreign policy strategy. As settlers terrorize
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Palestinian villages, governments call for restraint on all sides.
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As international law is violated, they speak of obstacles to peace.
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As Gazan cities are erased, they call it a tragedy instead of a crime.
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They intellectualize the conflict, saying it's too complicated, fixating on terminology and attaching disclaimers to every fact.
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They ask, is it technically a genocide, a famine, collective punishment?
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Then they brush aside the statistics, experts and genocidal statements made by Israeli officials
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that directly answer those very same questions
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when South Africa formally accused Israel of violating the genocide convention it did so boldly plainly unapologetically.
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Thank you South Africa.
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If only every nation had your moral clarity.
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Instead, we see selective courage.
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When governments push back against other injustices, yet keep the Palestinian issue at arm's length.
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That is not just a double standard.
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It's racism.
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You see, calling things what they are would trigger an obligation to act.
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Under international law, states have a duty not only to refrain from committing grave crimes,
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but to take all measures within their power to prevent them.
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Governments that see the evidence and look away are making a choice.
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It is a cop -out dressed up as neutrality.
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Ultimately, condemnation without consequence is just a cover for business as usual.
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Because injustice can survive an extraordinary amount of criticism when criticism changes nothing.
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This country's past demonstrates that all too well.
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Years of what many called constructive engagement with the apartheid government failed to achieve what sanctions and public pressure did.
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So what are we waiting for?
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Because as we debate terminology and tone, we are witnessing the gravest failing of all.
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The dismissal of the humanity of the Palestinian people.
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Their innocence is denied as children are ripped from their homes and thrown into military detention.
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Their history erased.
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Their olive trees set aflame.
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Even their dead are reduced to numbers, and the numbers themselves are disputed.
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Their grief, their stories, their memory,
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their victimhood – all dismissed.
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And their right to freedom, the same right
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South Africans fought and died for, is deemed unrealistic – something for later, something to be earned.
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What is that, if not racism?
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To expect Palestinians to settle for less freedom and less dignity, then call them unreasonable for demanding more.
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None of us should accept that for them.
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We owe each other more than that.
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The truth is, we are all born into debt.
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Debt for the progress we inherit, the freedoms others won for us, the trees others planted.
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No amount of distance can erase that debt.
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Standing up for each other isn't sentimentality.
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It's how we pay our dues.
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History has rarely been kind to those who stood aside as crimes against humanity unfolded.
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But we are living in the now.
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Nations can still shape what hindsight will look like for them.
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They can still choose to be on the right side of history.
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And that doesn't require some great moral leap.
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The ask is simple.
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Uphold international law.
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Give Palestinians the rights they're already entitled to.
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And hold all countries to the same standards and to account when they fall short.
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The law isn't a matter of opinion, it's not moved by feelings.
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And it protects everyone equally, Palestinians and Israelis, Muslims, Christians and Jews.
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Those are the obligations every nation has signed up for. And you and I?
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We have choices too you.
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Being dismissed is something they will try to do to you.
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Being undeniable is something you choose for yourself.
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How?
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For starters, know the facts better than anyone expects.
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Look at reports, not just reels.
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Find out where every number comes from.
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Because evidence This is the enemy of dismissal.
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if you choose to wave the palestinian flag remember the weight of what you are carrying
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it is a flag that represents a people denied their rights under the law
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the few that use it as a mere prop during acts of looting or lawlessness may harm the entire movement
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and don't let anyone convince you
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that this is a question of israeli narrative versus palestinian narrative
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reality doesn't change depending on who can best tell their story
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or better exploit the algorithms this isn't about public relations it's about the truth right in front of us
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facts are not bargaining chips reality is not a negotiation you start high i start low
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and the truth lands somewhere in the middle a settlement either exists
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or it doesn't a family was displaced or it wasn't neighborhoods were demolished or they weren't simply put what is is
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Most of all, keep your fire.
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When they mock you for being too emotional, remember that anger at injustice is not weakness.
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It's proof you're paying attention.
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Caring deeply is not the opposite of thinking clearly.
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recognize your for what it is the power that fuels your fight for fairness
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young and old we must stand together conscience is not a passing phase it belongs to every generation
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and to those who would tell young people
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they can't point to Gaza on a map I would say
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you don't need to know the coordinates of a hospital to know it shouldn't be bombed
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you don't need to know a child's religion or skin color to know they shouldn't be beaten starved or terrified,
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held in solitary confinement for days.
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You don't need to master every chapter of a conflict to recognize raw human suffering and injustice.
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Sure, you won't have the whole map at first.
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Start with your moral compass.
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then build the knowledge to fill in the rest.
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My friends, now is not the time to move on from Palestine.
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It is time to hang tough and press on.
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So when they dismiss your youth, we push back.
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when they dismiss our anger we push back
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when they dismiss the law the doctors the journalists
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and the aid workers we push back
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when they dismiss the humanity of the Palestinian people we
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push back.
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And when they dismiss their right to be free, we push back.
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Some places and people stay with you because they stood firm and pushed back.
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We too must.
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It was once a struggle in Soweto, in Sharpeville and Robben Island.
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Today, that struggle is history.
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And one day, it too will be history in a free Palestine.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “One Young World Summit - South Africa”. This video has 191 sentences and 2055 words to shadow. The speech runs for 19:34. The speaker talks slowly, about 105 words per minute, so there is time to copy every sound. Only 80% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| dismiss verb | /dɪsˈmɪs/ | To discharge; to end the employment or service of. |
| injustice noun | /ɪnˈd͡ʒʌs.tɪs/ | Absence of justice; unjustice. |
| dismissal noun | [dɪsˈmɪsəɫ] | The act of sending someone away. |
| moral adjective | /ˈmoɹəl/ | Of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behaviour, especially conforming to principles of rectitude. |
| apartheid verb | /əˈpɑːtheɪt/ | To impose a policy of segregation of groups of people, especially one based on race. |
| journalist noun | /ˈd͡ʒɝnəlɪst/ | The keeper of a personal journal, who writes in it regularly. |
| deny verb | /dəˈnaɪ/ | To disallow or reject. |
| punishment noun | /ˈpʌnɪʃmənt/ | The act (action) or process of punishing, imposing and/or applying a sanction, typically by an authority or a person in authority (for example: a parent or… |
| humanity noun | /hjuˈmænɪti/ | Humankind; human beings as a group. |
| collective adjective | /kəˈlɛktɪv/ | Formed by gathering or collecting; gathered into a mass, sum, or body. |
| conscience noun | /ˈkɑn.ʃəns/ | The ethical or moral sense of right and wrong, chiefly as it affects a person’s own behaviour and forms their attitude to their past actions. |
| genocide noun | /ˈd͡ʒɛnəsaɪd/ | The systematic and deliberate destruction of a group of people; typically by killing substantial numbers of them, on the basis of their ethnicity, religion… |
| erase verb | /ɪˈɹeɪs/ | To remove (markings or information). |
| ignore verb | /ɪɡˈnɔː/ | To deliberately not listen or pay attention to. |
| anger noun | /ˈæŋɡə/ | A strong and unpleasant feeling of displeasure, hostility, or antagonism, usually combined with an urge to yell, curse, damage or destroy things, or harm… |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| push back verb | To refute or argue against a position or an accusation; to express one's own view on a situation. |
| bring together verb | To cause people to do something together; to bring about togetherness. |
| brush aside verb | To disregard, dismiss or ignore something, as unimportant. |
| dress up verb | To put on special or fancy clothes. |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. |
| look away verb | To ignore something; to pretend not to have seen or noticed something; to avoid dealing with something. |
| stand aside verb | To step sideways to make a space for someone else. |
| stand together verb | To remain allied through difficulties. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- You're too naive, too idealistic.
- You'll understand when you're older.
- It's how we pay our dues.
- It's proof you're paying attention.
- Sure, you won't have the whole map at first.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has confronted · I've been struck · hasn't buried |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was recently shaken · is shared · I've been struck |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | those who stood · those who would |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 39 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: smooth /smuːð/, algorithm /ˈælɡəɹɪðm̩/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: punishment /ˈpʌnɪʃmənt/, conscience /ˈkɑn.ʃəns/, obligation /ˌɑ.blɪˈɡeɪ.ʃn̩/, capture /ˈkæp.(t)ʃɚ/, shake /ˈʃeɪk/
- Long words — get the stress right: humanity /hjuˈmænɪti/, unprecedented /ʌnˈpɹɛsɪdɛntɪd/, terminology /ˌtɝ.məˈnɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/, complicated /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/, extraordinary /ɪksˈtɹɔːrdɪn(ə)ɹi/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like dismiss, injustice, dismissal.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.