A big focus in part of the conversation with Josh Gottheimer was the Israel-Hamas War, which is rapidly nearing the one year mark.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday said the United States will continue pressing Israel to do more to spare humanitarian sites in Gaza.

Comments that came a day after an Israeli airstrike killed 14 people, including six UN staffers, at a U.N. school complex sheltering displaced Palestinians.

At the same time, according to the Associated Press, Turkey announced its own investigation into the death of a Turkish American activist who was shot and killed by the IDF last week while protesting settlements in the occupied West Bank.

All of this sounds harrowing, familiar to a 32 year old Jersey city teacher who's using the pseudonym Amado Sison for safety reasons.

He returned recently after being shot by the Israeli army during a protest in the West Bank.

And he joins me now, which.

Welcome to you Amado.

And today it came out in the Washington Post.

Your real name, Daniel Santiago.

Why were you using a pseudonym?

So, over in the West Bank, we, just use pseudonyms, just for safety reasons.

And also so I can get back.

But, Yeah.

And I also use the pseudonym, to point towards, Filipino revolutionary.

So he passed away two years ago.

Palestinian and, Filipino solidarity has been along, solidarity with each other.

So you volunteered to go to the West Bank as part of a larger effort to protect Palestinians there.

You were shot in the leg.

You survived.

You are here.

Tell me about that experience.

What happened?

Yeah.

So just like I said, it was my second day, in the West Bank.

And we're there to pretty much, bring light to the settlement in beta.

I have a two hour settlement, I believe.

They try to go back to their land, and, it starts out with the Juma prayer, and after the Juma prayer, they start chanting, and then that's when the teargas started.

And the live rounds.

Live rounds from Israeli forces.

And so we hid behind the concrete wall when that was happening.

We had to go over the concrete wall at some point.

When we thought the Israeli army was coming towards us, we regrouped.

And then there was a few Palestinians at the end of the road where, the Israeli army was, they shot some more teargas, some live rounds.

And then we saw, Palestinians to our left running.

So we always follow their lead.

And so we ran into the olive grove behind us.

That's when, while I was running, I felt a pain in my leg.

A loud bang, and I thought it was a tear gas canister that hit me.

But it wasn't.

But it wasn't.

I was still running.

My friend helped me, limp away and once I got into a clearing, that's when the Palestinians lift me up.

And I saw there was blood on my leg.

So that's the moment where I was like, I was shot, and, then they took me to a pickup truck.

I went to, emergency clinic and, and then after that, two Israeli army trucks, were blocking our way to the hospital, to check points where they demand to see who was inside.

And then finally, I was able to get to the hospital.

The IDF has has claimed responsibility for your incident, saying it was an accident.

But the IDF also claims that they were firing rounds into the air, warning shots.

Yeah.

So I would refute that because if they were firing warning shots in the air, bullets don't go up, down and straight through my leg.

So it went straight through my right thigh, my upper thigh, from the back all the way through.

And that just does not align with the account that they gave when you were taken into medical care.

Did you see other Palestinians?

Were you around others who had been injured?

Yeah.

So once I got into the hospital, I believe it was the next day a 13 year old boy came in.

He was shot in both legs just for playing soccer.

That was the same day that I heard the school was bombed, where 100 plus people were murdered.

And then the day after, there was four young boys that were shot, three in the leg and one in the shoulder.

And even when all that happened, everyone in the hospital greeted me and, wished me good health.

So they had a lot of care and love, inside of their hearts.

So the sense is that Americans or volunteers from Western countries go and by being their Yorkshire presence, provide somewhat of a shield.

Yes.

To Palestinians to protect them.

Or at least that's the hope.

Yes.

So, protective presence, whether it's through international solid international solidarity mission, which I shared or was part of or Faz3a, which I was part of.

Our goal is to provide protective presence, with the power of our passports and documenting, we hope to become a deterrence and a buffer between Israeli army, the settlers and Palestinians.

And would you say that that is an effective way of protecting them?

I mean, are there folks who said to you before you left, you're essentially going to a death sentence here?

Yeah.

They were like, why are you going to a war zone?

But for me, it was the solidarity that Palestinians have shown, Filipinos here our presence, usually provides, protection, at least because, Israel doesn't want international outrage.

When an international activist is hurt, there's international outrage, as we see with Eisner.

And have you received any of that here at home?

Has anyone accused you of being antisemitic or a terrorist sympathizer by volunteering to go there?

In comments.

Yes.

But not personally.

I'm surrounded by a lot of beautiful people that are in solidarity with Palestine.

And actually, there has been no response from politicians to me.

No State Department has reached out.

Except for the embassy.

Cory Booker has wanted to, meet with me.

But I would invite him to come to the 20th to the September 23rd and fourth.

Lobbying day, where Americans for Justice in Palestine is meeting with Representatives Daniel Santiago, formerly Amado Sison.

Thank you so much for sharing your story with us.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.