Unlike Palestinians in Gaza, Israelis can rise up to challenge their leadership. Late-night skirmishes between protesters and the authorities Sunday on Tel Aviv’s usually hyper-busy eight-lane Ayalon Highway were a manifestation of that.
As flames and dense smoke engulfed wooden pallets and tires on the roads, I watched a young man, blue paint spray in hand, scrawl his message to the prime minister in foot-high letters on the roadside wall: “Hostages or revolt.”
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.”
“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.
(14.09.2023)
When CIA-trained terrorists tried to overthrow the Sandinista government in the 1980s, the left erupted in protest. Now the left is cheering for the CIA.
But something else is happening that is just as important: Palestine is being officially defended by the Global South. South Africa has taken the lead by launching the case for genocide at the International Court of Justice in the Hague.
Palestine, at the same time, is reemerging as a global cause, just as was the case in the fight against apartheid in South Africa. The composition of South Africa’s team of lawyers says it all: multi-ethnic, male, female, Irish, British, South African. There was no Palestinian officially with them in the group. And yet, a day after the hearing ended, there were massive demonstrations in 45 countries – but not in Egypt, Saudi Arabia or even Algeria.
(May 11, 2023)
Unrest has spread across multiple major cities, resulting in unprecedented scenes of defiant crowds breaking into military properties and setting the homes of army personnel ablaze, directly challenging a usually untouchable force that has long sat at the apex of power in Pakistan.
Since it won independence in 1947, Pakistan has struggled with political instability, regime changes and coups with the military having a historically decisive role in who stays in power.
I completely agree with those who say the protest should be peaceful, but if people are denied their constitutional right to protest, they will protest unconstitutionally. You cannot control an enraged mob that has been oppressed for the past 75 years. 2/
Regrettably, this fascist government banned internet and social media sites in order to conceal their incompetence and failed governance, as well as the lack of trust placed in them by the people of Pakistan. As a result, thousands of daily bettors are out of work. 3/
I am hoping that Pakistan‘s stakeholders will come together and accept the legal and constitutional demand for elections. Release all innocent people and reverse all fake cases so that a strong political government can take over Pakistan and avoid economic default.
In a late-night raid at her residence in the federal capital on Friday, PTI Senior Vice President Dr. Shireen Mazari was taken into custody, continuing the police crackdown on PTI leaders.
Officials claim that the Islamabad police raided her home early on Friday. Shireen Mazari was detained after a number of other PTI leaders, including Senator Ejaz Chaudhry, Imran Khan, Asad Umar, Fawad Chaudhry, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, and Ali Mohammad Khan, were also taken into custody.
Qureshi was arrested in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Islamabad police spokesperson confirmed that scores of PTI leaders, including Qureshi, Umar, Fawad , Jamshed Iqbal Cheema, Falak Naz Chitrali, Mussarat Jamshed Cheema, and Maleeka Bukhari, were arrested, Geo TV reported.
(11.05.2023)
The government and armed forces started a crackdown as mass protests turned violent on Wednesday as thousands took to the streets to protest the arrest of former prime minister Imran Khan, who was arrested on Tuesday.
After Fawad Chaudhry and Asad Umar, now the former foreign minister was detained in the wee hours on Thursday during a raid at Gilgit-Baltidstan House.
(May 10, 2023)
The interior ministry has turned the switch off yet again. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has said that mobile broadband services will remain suspended nationwide for an “indefinite period” on the interior ministry’s instructions, amid protests following PTI chief Imran Khan’s arrest on Tuesday.
Supporters of Pakistan‘s former Prime Minister Imran Khan, protesting against his arrest, entered the compound of the army commanders‘ residence in Lahore last evening. Media footage showed them also storming the army headquarters in Rawalpindi.
(May 9, 2023)
In another tweet, he said Rangers had captured the Islamabad High Court. The personnel of paramilitary force tortured many lawyers, also
PTI Secretary General Asad Umar tweeted that a six-member committee, headed by PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi, would determine the next course of action.
“Pakistan’s biggest political leader has been arrested,” Umar said. “The whole world is being shown that there is no law in the country.”
For an early election to be called, the nonviolent civic uprising must expand. The Histadrut labor federation must join in, and not just as a ruse in Netanyahu’s service. The demonstrations must become a routine that draws in hundreds of thousands of people every day, not just on weekends. More and more Israelis must engage in civil disobedience in a creative, original way.
Just as in Serbia, where mass demonstrations toppled the dictator Slobodan Milosevic two decades ago, our detached supreme leader must realize that an election is his only escape.
(21.03.2023)
The first motion, which was the only one ever likely to succeed, failed thanks to the decision of the conservative Republican party not to support it.
The joint leaders of the protest movement are constantly trying to synchronize the operations of more than 100 participating organizations. Eran Schwarz, an educator and former Air Force pilot and now the director of these efforts, told Haaretz that the number of communities in which protests were held last Saturday night jumped from 80 to over 100, and that the number of people participating in the demonstrations increasing weekly. (…)
One of the wise decisions made by protest leaders was to stay away from currently serving politicians. Opposition parties are not leading the protest and are only trying to ride the huge wave it is creating in the streets. In the central weekly rally in Tel Aviv, politicians who are currently serving in the Knesset have been barred from speaking. They’ve had to make do with subsidiary locations, in other cities.
Retrouvez ici toutes les infos et ressources concernant la campagne commune de la NUPES contre la réforme de la retraite à 64 ans !
The unions said in a joint statement that they would call for a national strike that would „bring France to a standstill“ on March 7 if the government „remained deaf to the popular mobilisation“.
(07.02.2023)
(08.02.2023)
A Communist lawmaker on Tuesday urge at the Knesset podium citizens of the nation to civil unrest against the “dictatorship” of the new Netanyahu government. MK Ofer Cassif (Hadash) was quickly removed by Knesset ushers. “In light of the current emergency situation, I call for civil unrest…” Cassif said before being interrupted by Deputy Speaker Nissim Vattori (Likud), who called on Knesset ushers to forcibly remove Cassif from the plenum.
The Hadash lawmakers present at the time then erupted in a shouting match, with Cassif and fellow opposition MKs labeling the coalition members as “fascists.”
The protests are a crucial test both for Macron and his opponents. The government has insisted it’s determined to push through Macron’s election pledge to reform France’s generous pension system. But strong popular resentment will strengthen efforts by labor unions and left-wing legislators to try to block the bill.
French protesters launched a new push Tuesday to pressure President Emmanuel Macron into dropping a pension reform plan, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets in bigger crowds than those seen on the previous day of rallies on January 19.
From tiny islands to major cities, demonstrators poured into France‘s streets Tuesday in the latest clash of wills with the government over its plans to push back the retirement age. Labor unions aimed to mobilize more than 1 million demonstrators in what one veteran left-wing leader described as a “citizens‘ insurrection.“
Meanwhile, the Army was deployed in the Huamanga, Huanta and La Mar provinces to support the police force in controlling the citizens who are demanding the resignation of Boluarte and the release of Pedro Castillo, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
The Ombudsman‘s Office demanded that the Joint Command of the Armed Forces order its troops to stop using firearms and launching tear gas canisters from helicopters.
To paraphrase Ben-Gurion: Every Hebrew mother should know that she has placed her children’s fate in the hands of a prime minister, other politicians and a school system that are unworthy of it. If there was ever a justification for a civil rebellion (not violent, but also not so polite and photogenic as the social protests of the summer of 2011), here it is – in all its sickening glory.
One weary-sounding Conservative MP said they felt they had been in the grip of a cult over the last six weeks – and had escaped just in time. Others, however, still felt trapped, they said. “That is literally what it’s been like … It’s such a sense of relief. I just thank God it’s over.”
– Liz Truss dramatically resigned as Prime Minister this afternoon after lasting just 44 days in the top job
– Her close friends said they knew she was going to quit after they began receiving texts from her at 4am
– Sir Graham Brady told her later that day she had lost the party‘s support and would lose a confidence vote
Liz Truss was facing a revolt by Tory MPs opposed to fracking on Wednesday despite whips saying a crunch Commons vote was a “confidence motion in the Government”.
At least three MPs signalled that they would not back the Government in the showdown vote, including the Prime Minister’s net-zero tsar Chris Skidmore, Conservative MP for Kingswood.
Earlier today, I sent an official document from my personal email to a trusted parliamentary colleague as part of policy engagement, and with the aim of garnering support for Government policy on migration. This constitutes a technical infringement of the rules. As you know, the document was a draft Written Ministerial Statement about migration, due for publication imminently. Much of it had already been briefed to MPs. Nevertheless, it is right for me to go.
As soon as I realised my mistake, I rapidly reported this on official channels, and informed the Cabinet Secretary. As Home Secretary I hold myself to the highest standards and my resignation is the right thing to do. The business of government relies upon people accepting responsibility for their mistakes. Pretending we haven‘t made mistake, carrying on as if everyone can‘t see that we have made them, and hoping that things will magically come right is not serious politics. I have made a mistake; I accept responsibility; I resign.
The immediate cause of the resignation was the breach of security rules after Ms Braverman admitted inadvertently sending a sensitive document from her personal email.
But a letter to the PM, released by Ms Braverman on her social media feeds, amounted to an assault on Ms Truss’s five-week record in office.
Borrowing one of Margaret Thatcher’s favourite put-downs, a Labour source described the prime minister as “frit” – meaning “frightened”.
The urgent question was tabled in a bid to force Ms Truss to answer MPs’ questions after she resisted Labour demands for a statement to the Commons today to explain the reversal of the bulk of her mini-Budget in a series of massive U-turns.
New Tory prime ministers currently enjoy a year of immunity from confidence votes under the party rulebook.
But George Osborne, the former chancellor, predicts the beleaguered PM will likely be gone by Christmas, adding that „there will be a way“ for the party to remove her from Downing Street.
Here are the Conservative MPs calling for Ms Truss to quit.
Under fierce fire from journalists, Ms Truss refused to apologise for ‚trashing‘ the Tories‘ reputation – before abruptly walking out after eight minutes and just four question.
Downing Street will now be waiting anxiously to see if the PM has done enough to cling on, but the early response was not promising, with one former Cabinet minister telling MailOnline the PM had been ‚robotic‘ and made the situation far worse.
9:28AM
Tory MP: ‚I have lost confidence in the Chancellor and the PM‘
The mood among some Tory MPs is particularly grim this morning.
One tells me they have now lost confidence in Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng and that many MPs now believe the PM needs to be replaced.
They said: “I have lost confidence in the Chancellor and the Prime Minister for that matter. It is a total mess and there is no obvious solution.
“The vast majority of people [MPs] I speak to think she has to go.”
The unnamed member of the parliamentary Conservative party told Bloomberg political editor Kitty Donaldson that they had handed in their letter to the 1922 committee on Sunday night.
While Tory MPs say letters have been going in for more than a week, this may be the first report of an MP personally admitting they have sent one themself.
Current rules give Liz Truss until next September before she can be ousted – but these could be changed by MPs.
– Prime Minister Liz Truss and Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng backtracked amid threat of losing Commons vote