Rebel Roundup spotlights Abagail Hamman and Keean Bexte’s Hong Kong election coverage, where pro-democracy forces won 90% of seats amid protests, unresolved Poly U student detentions, and alleged police-linked deaths. Their reporting clashes with Regina Ip’s People’s Party over brutality claims like curbstomping and shield attacks. The episode also examines York University’s IDF event, where Jewish students accused pro-Palestinian protesters of racist chants ("go back to your countries") and violence, while Palestinian attendees defended their actions but acknowledged clashes—including flag-tearing and physical altercations—sparked by tensions over Israeli military actions, like child murders during prayers. The university’s vague response risks shielding extremists, underscoring how activism’s risks often mirror its failures in fostering meaningful dialogue. [Automatically generated summary]
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Welcome to a special edition of Rebel Roundup, ladies and gentlemen.
And the rest of you.
So what's so special about this edition, you ask?
Well, all of your favorite rebels are currently on assignment, hard at work the world over.
They're digging into some very important breaking news stories and making some exciting videos in the process.
Yes, they are producing the sort of hard-hitting journalism you just won't see anywhere else.
So in place of the usual interviews with yours truly, we're going to run their standalone video reports instead.
So please feel free to grab some popcorn, sit back, and enjoy.
Rebel News came to Hong Kong trying to uncover the other side of the story.
To share with the world the side of the story that Beijing doesn't want the world to hear.
We came to Hong Kong just a few days before a massive election was held and it really was a historic election for Hong Kong.
There was a massive sweep for the Democrat Party here.
The pro-democracy camp won an overwhelming victory, over 90% of the seats.
This is an amazing movement that we're seeing here today and it's being capped off here tonight in an evening of song.
They're singing Glory to Hong Kong and Can You Hear the People Sing.
Tonight is a time when they're thinking about the folks that are trapped in Poly U. There's still 20 students in Pali U and their fate is yet unknown.
These folks here held a moment of silence amid their song and it really was an emotional night.
It was something like I've never seen before.
When Rebel News came here we weren't sure what we were going to find.
What we did find was millions of Hong Kongers passionate to hold on to the liberty that was left to them at the handover from the British Empire to what they have today with their basic law.
We found people willing to stand eye to eye with riot police to stand up for their fellow protesters who are now locked in Poly U. Found people who will gather in an auditorium like this to sing and remember those that they've lost in these protests.
Don't forget, many people have been arrested, thousands.
Many people have committed suicide allegedly at the hands of what looks like to be the police.
We faced off with Regina Ip.
She's the head of the new People's Party here in Hong Kong.
She's someone who has a direct hand in the police brutality that we've seen here.
We've seen people who have been curbstomped by the police, people who have been bowled over with riot shields.
These people really have something to fight for.
And I know I speak on behalf of Rebel News when we say we stand with the people of Hong Kong.
To the world at large, I would like them to keep reporting on Hong Kong.
The world needs to know that our government is lying to the world, that they make it sound like it's just a small number of people trying to defy the government, which is not.
A majority of Hong Kong people are fighting against the government.
We want five demands to be met.
Violence On Campus?00:09:20
I went
to YORK University in Toronto to ask students what they knew about the violent protests that occurred last week when Israeli soldiers visited campus to discuss the Arab-Israeli conflict after being invited by a Jewish student group.
I wanted to hear if students knew about the anti-Semitic statements that were being hurled and the violence that took place on the part of the pro-Palestinian protesters.
What I found to be astonishing is that some of the individuals I talked with didn't want to admit that the anti-Semitic slurs were spouted forth and they tried to put the blame for the violence on the other side.
Last week, some Israeli soldiers came to talk about Israel and about the Arab-Israeli conflict, and there was a protest.
So, what do you know about the protest?
Honestly, I've heard from some friends, which are kind of part of it, and then they're saying how the Palestinians were there and peacefully protesting.
And then, supposedly, the other group started using violence.
People just like stormed the whole building and were yelling and screaming and chanting.
It was pretty upsetting that even in today's day and age, we still have people coming to cause violence on campus for people who just want to express their opinions.
It was kind of scary because I usually could have been at that event, and there was an ambulance called, and it's just very upsetting.
You heard about the protests, and you said you were there, right?
Yes, I was there.
Okay, so what do you think about what happened there?
So, basically, there were a lot of protesters for Palestine against an event for IDF soldiers on campus.
And actually, like what I saw, the protesters were so peaceful.
They didn't do anything violent.
There was a lot of chaos and violence and stuff going on, the screaming just didn't look good for the school, to be honest.
It wasn't a good looking.
Was it the protesters who were becoming violent?
It looked like that, to be honest.
Yeah.
The violence, I think that's just unacceptable at any school, right?
You can be against or for whatever you want.
It's, you know, freedom of speech, but I feel like the whole point of the event was, yeah, go and listen to what they have to say.
If you want to challenge them and ask questions, especially, you know, if you have good points and you want to ask them these questions, that's, you know, I don't think that yelling and screaming and starting violence is going to get anyone on your side, no matter what you're standing for, right?
In the video, what I've seen, it looked like the protesters were being violent, were being violent.
So you guys reject that, like, you say that it didn't happen.
They didn't say these hateful quotes and no violence happened.
No, no, not from violence.
Not from that point.
I have videos of that happening.
There was a guy from the other side.
He wore like a MAGA hat.
He like called the protesters like bad things.
He was so racist and sexist and Islamophobic.
He was like, go back to your countries.
You got our protection from us.
And honestly, I heard chants, words from them, not us at all.
What did they chant?
They were like, you got your protection from us.
Not just this guy.
I heard it from multiple persons from their side.
Did you hear about the violence that took place?
There was punching and scuffling around and also some of the things that were being said like go back to the ovens.
You heard about those comments?
Yeah.
So you haven't heard how a fight started and about how some really angry statements were said like go back to the ovens and from Toronto to Gaza.
Yeah, globalize the intifada.
So these are really anti-Jewish statements, anti-Israel statements.
And I've heard a couple people share that they think that the pro-Jewish side is the one who started the fight.
But according to the news stories out there, that's not what's being shared.
Do you think that there's a missing story in the news or do you think other people are sharing another narrative?
I feel like, honestly, I feel like there's a missing story, but even if the missing story wasn't missing, like what happened was not proper in a sense, no?
Did you also hear about the slogans they were saying like go back to the ovens and the other one that they were saying from Toronto to Gaza, like let's start a global intifada?
I did not hear that.
In fact, I'm not that educated on the topic, I'm not gonna lie.
So I can't really share too many opinions.
I just don't think that schools should have any violence.
It's a safe space, right?
Yeah, those are all terrible things that I heard when I was in Israel and there were riots there and people being attacked and stabbed and shot.
Same exact words, antifada, antifada is what they shout there and they were shouting the same thing here on campus.
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.
So it's really disheartening really because I thought in Canada we might be past that but looks like we're not.
There were chants about the intifada but that's that's it like there was there were no ovens or sort of that at all.
It was like viva Palestine and Viva Intifada.
I saw signs all over the campus where it said don't let them in no Israeli soldiers on campus and there was it said protest protest and then I heard there was even a picture of an edited photo of an Israeli soldier strangling a child.
Right.
I heard that was edited.
I heard it wasn't real.
It was photoshopped.
They had put around campus a flyer with which had been modified but it was of an Israeli soldier strangling a child.
It wasn't a real image.
They had edited it.
Yeah, that's 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.
Do you think there was any violence or you didn't hear about any slurs that were said or anything?
I don't think there was violence on the people protesting for Palestine, but I think the people that anti the people supporting Israel and everything that ended up coming.
I don't blame them for the way they were because what's happening over there, like it's kind of crazy.
Like there's people getting murdered during prayers, stuff like that.
Like that's what you see on the news.
That the Israelis are murdering the Palestinians?
That's stuff you see on the news.
We're not even sure if it's real or not, but I don't blame the Palestinians for reacting the way they did.
That they were, they like punched people and shoved people and stuff like that.
Is that okay?
They're kind of angry, you know?
You didn't see any punching or shoving?
I saw punching, but it came first from the other side because they were trying to rip the flags of the Palestinian flags.
And the protesters were retaliating against the first attacks from the other side.
Other than that, it was peaceful.
Even the chants, the chants were not anti-Semitic.
Do you think the school will punish those who were involved in trying to hurt others?
Like there was punching and scuffling, or you think they're going to just let it go?
Absolutely not.
If you looked at the email that the dean sent, she was intentionally ambiguous when she said there were groups here to cause violence.
That could obviously refer to the JDL as well as the pro-BDS protesters.
And I think she intentionally left it ambiguous like that, even though the JDL did not come to cause violence.
They were there to protect people for a good reason because there was violence and they knew there would be.
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.
Do you think that they're gonna, the people who became violent, the protesters who became violent are gonna get in trouble for that?
Or you think it's gonna slide?
I feel like it's gonna slide to be honest.
Yeah, I don't, yeah, probably slide.
Do you think that there is any room for violence at a protest?
Oh, no, for sure not.
Not at all.
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, regardless on our right.
I feel like that violence on both sides definitely shouldn't have been a thing.
So I think it was wrong on both ends for sure.
Well, thanks so much, ladies and gentlemen, for watching yet another edition of Rebel Roundup.
And hey, never forget, without risk, there can be no glory.