Archiv: peace / anti-war / social / civil rights / democracy movements


31.08.2024 - 19:15 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

Do Something Every Day To Help De-Normalize The Abuses Of The Empire

One very important task we can undertake as citizens of the western empire is to help de-normalize the tyranny, murderousness and savagery that the imperial propagandists work to normalize.

(…)

Denormalize poverty.

Denormalize injustice and inequality.

Denormalize the ruined buildings and ruined bodies in Gaza.

Denormalize the nuclear brinkmanship with Russia.

Denormalize the destruction of our biosphere in the ravages of ecocidal capitalism.

Denormalize the surging authoritarianism we’re experiencing as the empire works frantically to stomp out dissent.

Denormalize the war machinery rolling out around the world, and the increasingly militarized police forces in our streets.

Denormalize the psychopathy of the politicians and government officials who cheerfully serve the empire in facilitation of these horrors.

Denormalize the way media and government institutions controlled by the powerful work to manipulate the way we think and perceive every day of our fucking lives for the benefit of the powerful.

30.08.2024 - 15:28 [ Adalah ]

Israeli police foil film screening of Mohammed Bakri’s Janin Jenin by issuing temporary order to close Communist Party headquarters in Haifa

(August 27, 2024)

Monday night, the Maki Haifa Branch was shut down by the police for an event that included a screening of Mohammed Bakri’s new film. Bakri’s earlier film, Jenin, Jenin, was banned by an Israeli Court in 2021. Adalah demands immediate intervention by the Attorney General to ensure police will not obstruct the next screening. This action is part of broader Israeli police policies designed to suppress dissent against Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza.

30.08.2024 - 15:15 [ Communist Party of Israel ]

Fascism in practice

(4 days ago )

The Israeli police decides to close down the headquarters of the Communist Party in Haifa

Israel and Ben Gvir’s Police have just decided to shut the headquarters of the Communist Party in Haifa for ten hours starting at 19:00 this evening.

27.08.2024 - 13:15 [ International Federation for Human Rights ]

Suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement

Paris, 12 March 2024. Respect for human rights is an essential element of the EU’s association agreements with partner countries. Article 2 states that „relations between the Parties, as well as all the provisions of the Agreement itself, shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles, which guides their internal and international policy and constitutes an essential element of this Agreement“. Violation of the so-called „essential elements“ clauses allows the EU to denounce or suspend the agreements in whole or in part under Article 60 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. In the light of the deaths and suffering endured by the Palestinian people, the European Union has the duty and the means to act to prevent Israel’s crimes in Gaza and to reduce the extent of human suffering.

27.08.2024 - 13:00 [ Reporters Without Borders ]

Dear High Representative / Vice-President Borrell and Executive Vice-President Dombrovskis,

(August 26, 2024)

Our organizations are writing to request that the European Union take action against the Israeli authorities’ unprecedented killing of journalists and other violations of media freedom, in contravention of Israel’s human rights and international humanitarian law (IHL) obligations. These are part of widespread and systematic abuses committed by Israeli authorities in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and elsewhere, as documented or acknowledged by Israeli, Palestinian and international NGOs, UN experts, the International Court of Justice, and in a request for arrest warrants by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. These violations should trigger the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and further EU targeted
sanctions against those responsible. Regrettably, the EU 27 governments are yet to unanimously acknowledge, attribute, and condemn the Israeli forces’ crimes in Gaza.

27.08.2024 - 11:17 [ Reporters Without Borders ]

RSF and 59 other organisations call on EU to suspend Association Agreement with Israel

“It is time to move from verbal condemnations to action. Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement stipulates that their relations are based on an essential component, which is respect for human rights and democratic principles. The Israeli government is clearly trampling on this article. The EU, which is Israel’s leading trade partner, must draw the necessary conclusions from this and must do everything to ensure that the Netanyahu government stops massacring journalists and respects the right to information and press freedom by opening media access to Gaza. The credibility of the EU is at stake.“

27.08.2024 - 10:54 [ RFI.fr ]

Dozens of media associations call on EU to suspend treaty with Israel

„In response to the unprecedented number of journalists killed and other repeated press freedom violations by the Israeli authorities since the start of the war with Hamas, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and 59 other organisations are calling on the European Union to suspend its Association Agreement with Israel and to adopt targeted sanctions against those responsible“, the groups said in a joint statement.

The call came ahead of a meeting by EU foreign ministers in Brussels on 29 August.

27.08.2024 - 10:45 [ International Press Institute ]

60 organizations urge EU action against Israel’s attacks on press freedom

In an urgent appeal, 60 global press freedom and human rights organizations, including the International Press Institute (IPI), are calling on the European Union to take decisive action against Israel for its escalating violations of media freedom and killing of journalists. In a letter addressed to EU leaders, the signatories urge the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and the imposition of targeted sanctions on responsible Israeli officials.

05.05.2024 - 07:31 [ Fox News ]

More than 2,100 arrested at anti-Israel protests nationwide as police clear college encampments

– The initial arrests sparked a movement on college campuses across the country, including at the University of Texas at Austin, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and the University of California, Los Angeles.

– More than 2,100 protesters have been arrested at colleges and universities in recent weeks, including students, faculty, and outside agitators.

05.05.2024 - 06:37 [ Middle East Eye ]

Debunking three myths about pro-Palestine student protests in the US

Middle East Eye examines three of the most pervasive myths that have sought to discredit the pro-Palestine movement on campuses

05.05.2024 - 05:59 [ New York Times ]

From Free Speech to Free Palestine: Six Decades of Student Protest

“You’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop,” he said. Soon the students would flood into a campus administration building.

That scene played out 60 years ago at the University of California, Berkeley. The words were directed at the university leadership, and referring to its restrictions on campus political activity. But the speech, from the student leader Mario Savio, and the sit-in that followed could have happened yesterday.

04.05.2024 - 11:05 [ CNN ]

Australian student protests show US campus divisions over Gaza war are going global

n the past 10 days, pro-Palestinian protest camps have appeared at seven universities around Australia – from Melbourne and Sydney in the country’s southeast, to Adelaide in its center, and Perth along the western coast.

They were erected in solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli siege in Gaza and student protesters in the United States.

And it’s not just Australia.

04.05.2024 - 08:33 [ Jezebel.com ]

Biden and Harris Tweet Through It as Police Raid Anti-War Student Protests

Columbia called the NYPD on its own students Tuesday night for protesting Israel‘s war on Gaza. Similar raids have taken place at UCLA, USC, and NYU. The president and vice president responded with cringe tweets about women‘s rights and mental health.

03.05.2024 - 06:00 [ Common Dreams ]

Biden Condemned for Ahistorical and ‚Politically Suicidal‘ Attack on Campus Protests

„Biden‘s claim that ‚dissent must never lead to disorder‘ defies American history, from the Boston Tea Party to the tactics that civil rights activists, Vietnam War protesters, and anti-apartheid activists used to confront injustice.“

03.05.2024 - 05:20 [ Axios ]

Hundreds of protesters arrested at college campuses across the U.S.

Police said in a statement early Thursday that 90 people were arrested at Dartmouth College „for multiple offenses including criminal trespass and resisting arrest.“ Those arrested included both Dartmouth students and non-Dartmouth students, per the statement.

What else is happening: The NYPD said officers made several arrests at Fordham University on Wednesday evening, one day after they arrested 282 pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University and the City College of New York.

The University of Wisconsin at Madison said………..

03.05.2024 - 04:00 [ 6ABC.com ]

Biden says ‚order must prevail‘ during campus protests over the war in Gaza

President Joe Biden on Thursday defended the right to protest but insisted that „order must prevail“ as college campuses across the country face unrest over the war in Gaza.

„Dissent is essential for democracy,“ he said at the White House. „But dissent must never lead to disorder.“

01.05.2024 - 19:11 [ Middle East Eye ]

America‘s new generation of student protesters is giving hope to Palestinians

We raise our hats out of respect for them, as these protests in the universities and streets of the western world and the Global South keep the flame of hope burning in the souls of our people who long for freedom and justice.

These protests indicate profound, radical changes that separate an ageing American generation that blindly supports Israel and a new generation that promotes justice in Palestine and demands an end to the Israeli occupation and to the war on Gaza.

They represent the future of America and its bright face, the emergence of which we have long awaited.

01.05.2024 - 08:04 [ Columbia Encampment / Telegram ]

We have put up the most glorious fight. We did not allow the movement to end with a false deal from Columbia.

Keep all eyes on your comrades, mobilize to Columbia. If you are free, come to protect the encampment.

29.04.2024 - 22:35 [ theConversation.com ]

College administrators are falling into a tried and true trap laid by the right

For now, Trump has called the recent protests “antisemitic” and “far worse” than the 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville. Biden has similarly condemned “the antisemitic protests” and “those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.” (…)

Like their association of civil rights and peace demonstrators with communism throughout the Cold War, politicians on both sides of the aisle are now broadly hurling claims of antisemitism against anyone protesting Israel’s war in Gaza, many of whom are Jewish.

The purpose then, as it is now, is to intimidate administrators into a false political choice: Will they protect students’ right to demonstrate or be seen as acquiescent to antisemitism?

29.04.2024 - 08:52 [ Communist Party of Israel ]

Amid Police Provocation, Thousands Gathered in Nazareth to Celebrate May Day

MK Cassif said to journalists, “In spite of the fascist menace and terrorization, we marched today, thousands of Jews and Arabs together, to protest against the criminal massacre in Gaza, the occupation and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, against social injustice, class exploitation and fascism, and for the release of the hostages on the basis of ‘all-for-all’ principle, for social and national equality, democracy, and just peace.”

27.04.2024 - 18:35 [ URMI.org ]

Who is Noelle McAfee? All About Emory University Philosophy Professor, Arrested at Campus

Noelle McAfee (age 63, born November 25, 1960) is a prominent political theorist and feminist. Currently, she holds the position of chair in the philosophy department at Emory University, a role she’s held since 2010.

Alongside being a Professor of Philosophy, she’s also a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory.

27.04.2024 - 18:25 [ @Hindeyya7 / Twitter ]

Police arrested Noelle McAfee, Chair of the Philosophy Department at Emory University.

(25.04.2024)

27.04.2024 - 18:22 [ Common Dreams ]

Violent Arrest of Emory Professor Spotlights Brutality of Police Crackdown on Campus Protests

(25.04.2024)

„To sustain this level of blind support for Israel, the U.S. must erode its own democracy,“ said one foreign policy expert. „And that is what we see happening on U.S. campuses now.“

27.04.2024 - 18:19 [ CNN ]

See police detain members of crowd at Emory University during pro-Palestinian protest

(25.04.2024)

A CNN crew witnessed at least two professors detained by Atlanta police, including Emory University economics professor Caroline Fohlin and Noëlle McAfee, chair of the philosophy department.

27.04.2024 - 12:00 [ New York Times ]

The Ghost of the 1968 Antiwar Movement Has Returned

Those young demonstrators had come of age seeing continual — and effective — protests during the civil rights movement and national mourning after the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. A year earlier King staked out his opposition to the war, saying that while he wasn’t attempting “to make North Vietnam or the National Liberation Front paragons of virtue,” he wanted to underscore his belief “that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money, like some demonic, destructive suction tube.” He said he was “compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and attack it as such.”

27.04.2024 - 05:20 [ LA Times ]

Column: The crackdown on student protesters shows exactly why we need them

After all, the division over the war in Gaza is by no means confined to students. As has happened with so many rifts in our country’s history, students have simply used their activism to become a prism reflecting the wider world. Which is why they need to be taken seriously, for all of our sakes.

If they do nothing else, the growing demonstrations are forcing us to confront who we are, what we believe and why.

What is happening in Gaza is not a war “over there.” It’s right here, right now, among our own children. And we all need to figure out where we stand.

27.04.2024 - 05:00 [ The Rational National / Youtube ]

Campus Protests: Beautiful Moments Vs. Trampling Of Speech

Going over some of the news, good and bad, coming out of the campus protests. Including what happened to Emory University‘s professor of economics Caroline Fohlin, but also a beautiful speech given by an 88-year-old activist.

27.04.2024 - 03:33 [ Washington Post ]

Secret meetings, social chatter: How Columbia students sparked a nationwide revolt

“We talked about what it was like to recruit people and join, and what it meant to stand in solidarity together, and what it would look like if these camps started popping up everywhere,” said Soph Askanase, 21-year-old junior at Barnard College who was arrested at Columbia.

What followed was the start of what historians now call one of the most consequential student uprisings the nation has seen in recent times.

25.04.2024 - 06:43 [ Washington Post ]

How Americans felt about campus protests against the Vietnam War

There is no guarantee that history will eventually vindicate the positions of protesters. But it does seem safe to assume that the positions, not the protests, are what will be remembered.

24.04.2024 - 05:10 [ NBC News / Youtube ]

Campus protests spread around the country

From coast to coast, calls to end the Israel-Hamas war are spreading on college campuses.

24.04.2024 - 05:00 [ Democracy Now / Youtube ]

Pro-Palestinian Campus Encampments Spread Nationwide Amid Mass Arrests at Columbia, NYU & Yale

Palestinian solidarity protests and encampments are appearing on college campuses from Massachusetts to California to protest Israel‘s attacks on Gaza and to call for divestment from Israeli apartheid. This week, police have raided encampments and arrested students at Yale and New York University. Palestinian American scholar and New York University professor Helga Tawil-Souri describes forming a faculty buffer to protect students, negotiating with police, and the ensuing crackdown that led to over 100 arrests Monday night. Uptown in New York City, the encampment at Columbia University is entering its seventh day despite mass arrests of protesters last week.

24.04.2024 - 04:40 [ New York Post ]

12 suspended Columbia students reinstated just days after anti-Israel protest, as lawyer vows to take ‘fascist’ school to NY Supreme Court

“Speech, no matter how unpopular it may be, is the essence of academia. Protest against Zionism in Israel is pure protected speech. … If Jewish students are made uncomfortable by it, f— them!” Cohen, who was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home, told the Village Sun.

“Speech is supposed to make you uncomfortable. This is not lighting candles and kumbaya. … All speech is protected unless the imminent intent is to commit violence — like shouting ‘Fire!’ in a crowded movie theater,” he added. (…)

“I got f—ing suspended from Columbia 50 years ago. I got thrown out of Columbia after a week for anti-war protesting,” he lamented.

“Columbia is fascist,” he said.

24.04.2024 - 04:30 [ Washington Post ]

120 antiwar protesters arrested at NYU; Calif. students form barricade

At the University of Minnesota, police moved in during early-morning hours at the request of the institution, arrested nine people and cleared tents in a grassy expanse in front of the main library. That followed the arrest of 120 protesters at New York University on Monday night, according to the New York Police Department.

The developments at those two schools mirrored scenes at Columbia University on Thursday and Yale University on Monday. On the West Coast, California State Polytechnic University at Humboldt went into a lockdown after student protesters barricaded themselves inside a building.

24.04.2024 - 04:20 [ Associated Press ]

It began with defiance at Columbia. Now students nationwide are upping their Gaza war protests

What began last week when Columbia University students refused to end their protest against Israel’s war with Hamas had turned into a much larger movement by Tuesday as students across the nation set up encampments, occupied buildings and ignored demands to leave.

18.04.2024 - 19:10 [ Mojeek.com ]

Gaza, no fly zone

(search results)

17.04.2024 - 08:05 [ UnicornRiot.ninja ]

Amazon Blocked, Wells Fargo Windows Smashed on Day of Action for Palestine in Minnesota

Pro-Palestine activists blockaded an Amazon distribution center in the northwestern Minneapolis suburb of Maple Grove as part of A15 Action, a global day of action against Israel’s war on Gaza. In a separate action in the Twin Cities, a Wells Fargo Bank branch in South Minneapolis was vandalized and had its windows broken.

17.04.2024 - 07:55 [ Mastodon ]

#a15action

(search results)

17.04.2024 - 07:47 [ Middle East Eye ]

Aerial footage from ABC7 News shows pro-Palestine protesters shutting down Highway 101 on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, blocking traffic and calling for a ceasefire in Gaza on Monday. Protesters could be seen carrying banners reading, “Stop the World for Gaza” and “End the siege on Gaza now.”

According to the California Highway Patrol, protesters used their vehicles to chain themselves, resulting in approximately 20 arrests. Lanes began reopening shortly after noon.

17.04.2024 - 07:42 [ Fox5dc.com ]

‘A15’ Pro-Palestine protests disrupt traffic in multiple cities across US

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocked roadways in Illinois, California, New York and Oregon on Monday, temporarily shutting down travel into Chicago O‘Hare International Airport, onto the Golden Gate and Brooklyn bridges and on a busy West Coast highway.

On Sunday, Sky News Australia reported that a global anti-Israel protest had been planned for Monday, but in an effort to cause maximum disruption, the activists refused to disclose protest locations.

17.04.2024 - 05:52 [ Yahoo ]

Gaza war protesters attack ‚arteries of capitalism‘

(15.04.2024)

Pro-Palestine group A15 Action called on supporters to blockade „the arteries of capitalism“ as part of Monday‘s action, saying „the global economy is complicit in genocide“.

A15 Action said the protests were in retaliation for the federal government‘s actions since Israel declared war on Hamas in Gaza.

31.03.2024 - 21:20 [ USA Today ]

Gaza protesters dim the glitz and glamour of Biden‘s Obama-Clinton fundraiser in NYC

A leading New York pro-Palestinian group, Within Our Lifetime, was among those organizing protestors, billed as the “Flood Manhattan For Gaza” rally.

The group issued a call to supporters ahead of the fundraiser, writing on X: “GENOCIDE JOE HAS GOT TO GO! Protesting genocide Joe, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton outside their democratic fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall!“

31.03.2024 - 21:15 [ Bloomberg ]

Biden Says Arab States Ready to Recognize Israel in Future Deal

Biden’s comments came during a discussion with his fellow presidents at a star-studded fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall in New York intended to display Democratic party unity ahead of a general-election rematch with Republican Donald Trump. The presidents, though, were interrupted at least four times by pro-Palestinian protesters, highlighting the tensions within the party over Biden’s handling of Israel’s war with Hamas and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

31.03.2024 - 19:49 [ Times of Israel ]

Saturday night anti-overhaul protests canceled; Brothers in Arms urges all who are needed to report for duty

7 October 2023, 9:02 am

Organizers of protests against the judicial overhaul scheduled for Saturday night announce the cancellation of the weekly demonstrations.

“We stand with the residents of Israel and give full support to the IDF and the security forces,” the protest organizers say in a statement.

31.03.2024 - 19:40 [ Jerusalem Post ]

Black Flags movement disbands after over a year: ‚Mission accomplished‘

(June 25, 2021)

„Our beloved country faced the greatest threat since its inception — The dismantling of the democratic system and it becoming a dictatorship,“ the statement reads.
The movement claimed that former prime minister and current opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu — which they refer to as the „criminal defendant“ due to his ongoing bribery trial — „kidnapped the state and embarked on a campaign in which he planned to dismantle the judicial authorities, use the Israeli police as an executive arm of his government and make us all his subjects.“

20.03.2024 - 00:05 [ Communist Party of Israel ]

Human Rights Organizations Petition High Court: Israel is Preventing the Supply of Humanitarian Aid to Gaza

Five Israeli human rights organizations in Israel filed on Monday, March 18, a petition calling on High Court to order the far-right government, Prime Minister, Defense Minister, and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories to enable access of all humanitarian aid, equipment and staff to Gaza, especially to the north of the Strip; to significantly increase the volume of aid to Gaza, including by opening land crossings between Gaza and Israel, and to provide for all the needs of the civilian population in keeping with Israel’s obligations as the occupying power.

This in light of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and the lethal harm to civilians caused, in part, as a result of Israeli restrictions on access to aid into and throughout the Strip. The petition was filed by Gisha together with HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, and Adalah.

16.03.2024 - 20:52 [ Youtube ]

Yitzhak Rabin – The Last Speech (English Subtitles)

The last speech of prime minister and minister of defense Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated by right-wing Israeli radical on November 4th 1995 in Tel Aviv.

07.03.2024 - 19:34 [ Jonathan Cook ]

How the ‘fight against antisemitism’ became a shield for Israel‘s genocide

After all, a rise in “Jew hatred” is all but inevitable if you redefine antisemitism, as western officials have recently done via the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s new definition, to include antipathy towards Israel – and at the moment when Israel appears, even to the World Court, to be carrying out a genocide.

The logic of Israel and its supporters runs something like this:

Many more people than usual are expressing hatred of Israel, the self-declared state of the Jewish people. There is no reason to hate Israel unless you hate what it represents, which is Jews. Therefore, antisemitism is on the rise.

02.03.2024 - 18:52 [ The Australian / Youtube ]

Alexei Navalny funeral: Thousands of Russians defy Kremlins orders (Watch)

(01.03.2024)

Thousands of people defied the threat of arrest by attending the funeral of Alexei Navalny in Moscow, embracing one of the last remaining avenues to register their anger at President Vladimir Putin as well as mourning one of the few politicians capable of standing up to the Russian leader.

17.02.2024 - 20:24 [ NewArab.com ]

Pro-Palestinian groups file legal action against German politician over Gaza war

The charges, filed at five prosecutor offices across Germany, cite Beck‘s statements on social media, in opinion pieces and media interviews in which he expressed support for Israel‘s military operation in Gaza, calling for making humanitarian aid conditional on Hamas freeing Israeli hostages.

17.02.2024 - 20:12 [ Middle East Eye ]

Pro-Palestine groups file criminal charges of hate and war crime denial against German politician

Palestine Speaks and Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East filed the charges against Volker Beck, a former member of parliament and head of the German-Israeli Society.

„This is the first step in holding public figures who publicly make genocidal statements legally accountable,“ the groups posted on Instagram.