Craig Murray, a friend and advocate of Julian Assange explains why he was detained under the U.K. terrorism act and why he is running for Parliament.
Craig Murray is an historian, ex British ambassador to Uzbekistan, whistleblower, friend and campaigner for Assange's freedom and Workers Party candidate for Parliament under George Galloway's Workers Party in Blackburn.
On June 27, 2024, Joe Biden and Donald Trump took part in the first U.S. Presidential Debate in advance of the November 2024 U.S. election.
Immediately following the debate, Democratic Party big-wigs and the liberal media declared Biden's performance to have been a disaster, and urged him to consider stepping aside to make way for a more electable Democratic Party candidate.
On the following day, Dimitri Lascaris discussed the presidential debate with Diane Sare, an independent candidate for the U.S. Senate in the State of New York. In 2022, Sare ran as an independent against Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Sare has been an outspoken critic of U.S. foreign policy and the U.S. Government's forever wars, supported by both Republicand and Democrats. She argues that the left-right distinction in political discourse has become largely meaningless. According to Sare, the left and the right of the political spectrum can and should find common ground.
Katie, Palestinian organizer Remo Ibrahim and anti zionist Jewish activist Rich Siegel react to the double standards and the dehumanization of Palestinian life. While Biden presents protestors and antisemites and Van Jones equates a keffiyeh with a confederate flag, the media and political elites are virtually silent when it comes to actual violence against Palestinians. Remo then talks about the violence perpetuated by the police and the Zionists against Palestinians and their supporters.
Remo Ibrahim is an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement, LAOCIE chapter (@palestinianyouthmovement, @pymlaocie). He is committed to the struggle for Palestinian liberation, and to confronting Zionism and white supremacy wherever it appears.
Far from ending the genocide in Gaza, Israel continues its assault with the military and diplomatic backing of Western states
Israel’s genocide in Gaza is catapulting the Middle East, and the broader world, toward further destabilization. Only a few months ago, open war between Israel and Iran seemed like a possibility. Now, all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah may send the region careening into further chaos and uncertainty.
Following the Hamas-led October 7 attacks, military clashes between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Hezbollah along the Lebanon-Israel border have been nearly daily occurrences. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced. In recent weeks, however, things have escalated.
On June 7, Hezbollah declared that, for the first time in its history, it had used an anti-aircraft missile to force an Israeli jet to retreat from Lebanese airspace. As William Christou writes in The New Arab, Hezbollah’s use of anti-aircraft weaponry is a “revelation.” Christou explains:
Prior to the advent of the new anti-aircraft missile, Hezbollah’s most advanced air defence feat was the downing of an Israeli helicopter in the 2006 war—something which does not require advance weaponry. Hezbollah’s possession of more sophisticated anti-aircraft technology would mean Israel could not conduct aerial sorties over the country with abandon as it previously had. (more...)
Israel is stoking all-out war, and Canada is complicit
As the annihilation of life in Gaza continues, hope has become a precious commodity.
The bloodshed and suffering of the people of Gaza is becoming normalized.
Mass murder is being normalized. Mass destruction is being normalized.
But not to all.
Students in universities all over the world still hear the cries of the grieving mother, the orphaned child, the destitute father in Gaza.
The students of the University of Toronto heard those cries.
On 2 May, a group of 100-200 students took it upon themselves to answer the voice of the people of Gaza. Inspired by the international university campus protests, Toronto students mobilized for Gaza.
The encampment is still going strong nearly two months later.
There, Ameer Khoury, a key member and organizer of the Palestine Youth Movement in Toronto, told me that what he and his group does, what students at the campus are doing, is a responsibility.
Inspired by the late, great Ghassan Khanafani, Ameer recited his favorite quotation:
“Imperialism has laid its body over the world, the head in Eastern Asia, the heart in the Middle East, the arteries reaching Africa and Latin America. Wherever you strike it, you damage it, and you serve the world revolution.” (more...)
Gaza has moved hearts everywhere
It is June 12th. Western University hosts graduation convocations. Families fill the halls. Names reverberate. Students traverse the stage; gowns billow, tassels sway, and degrees are photographed. There is warmth, nostalgia, glee, cheer, and peace.
Among the tents and human rights slogans forming the student encampments, another graduation convocation unfolds.
This convocation is cheerless. This convocation is filled with tears and red eyes. This convocation is a vigil. It is called “Honouring those who will never graduate” – a title strung on a banner facing rows of chairs. No students sit here. Each chair holds only a candle, a rose, a graduation cap, and a sign.
The sign reads:
“Diploma of graduation: An honorary degree for the students in Gaza who hold steadfast in their vision of a free Palestine and were not able to graduate in Gaza this year. The Western Divestment Coalition recognizes these students as graduates with the highest distinction. From Turtle Island to Palestine, liberation in our lifetime.”
It is 7:30 pm. Vigil attendees encircle the chairs. The silence is pregnant with impending grief.
“These students are not just numbers,” an encampment attendee opens the vigil. “They had dreams and aspirations, just like all of us here today.” (more...)
If you support Palestine you have the mark of Cain on your forehead and will never prosper in politics. It’s even more true on the other side of the Atlantic
This revised and updated factsheet explains why the Palestine solidarity movement in Canada has been calling for boycott of Indigo Books & Music Inc., since 2006. It outlines how the founder and CEO of Indigo Heather Reisman co-founded the HESEG Foundation for Lone Soldiers, which encourages foreigners to join the Israeli army and continue their studies in Israel. The factsheet also explores additional ties between HESEG and the Israeli military.
Founded in 1996, Indigo Books & Music Inc., is the largest Canadian book retail chain. Heather Reisman is founder and CEO of the company, while her husband Gerry Schwartz is the founder and former president of Onex Inc., and a member of the board of directors at Indigo. Between them, they control over 60% of the shares of the company.
In 2005, Heather Reisman and Gerry Schwartz established the HESEG Foundation for Lone Soldiers, which encourages foreigners to join the Israeli army and continue their studies in Israel. Since any purchase at Indigo generates income for Heather and Schwartz, shopping at Indigo indirectly supports Israel’s military activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Due to the links to the HESEG Foundation, the Palestinian solidarity movement in Canada has been encouraging a boycott of Indigo for many years. In 2006 and 2007, the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid and other groups led many boycotts, pickets, and vigils in front of Indigo stores in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and across the country. In 2010, professors at Mt. Allison University protested the awarding of an honorary degree to Reisman due to her support for HESEG. In 2023, an Indigo store in Toronto was splattered with red paint and posters accusing Reisman of funding genocide in Gaza.
The boycott is also a response to the call from Palestinian civil society, who in 2005 asked the international community to use non-violent forms of economic pressure to force Israel to comply with international law. This strategy includes the use of boycotts against companies that are complicit in the oppression of Palestinians. (more...)
Boycott Campaign: Indigo Books & Music Inc.
The unprecedented live-streamed violence in Gaza has forced a crisis of conscience for many government employees. From the State Department to the US Military, individuals have taken individual rebellious action to remove themselves from participating in a blazingly obvious campaign of controlled famine and collective punishment.
Tonight on State of Play, we interview two conscientious objectors from the United States Air Force and reflect on military retention rates, the recruiting crisis, and the lessening of US military capacity due to increasingly unpopular foreign policy actions.
Will the younger generation’s lack of jingoistic zeal serve as a potential brake for US belligerence?
With Senior United States Airmen Juan Bettancourt and Larry Herbert.
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) is urging the Canadian government to put pressure on Israeli leadership to accept a ceasefire deal that would ensure a permanent end to hostilities in Gaza. The current proposal for a ceasefire as endorsed by US President Biden and the UN Security Council, despite being marketed as an “Israeli” plan, has not been accepted by Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu, who still opposes an end to Israel’s genocidal war. Amid famine conditions in Gaza and threats of all-out war in Lebanon, CJPME urges Canada to impose sanctions on Israel’s leadership to force an end to hostilities.
Despite claims from the West, CJPME points out that Israel’s Prime Minister is still publicly opposed to the premises of the deal being floated by the US and others. “It is evident that Israel’s leadership is preventing a ceasefire agreement, as Netanyahu continues to voice steadfast opposition to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza,” said Thomas Woodley, President of CJPME. “In the meantime, as we have asserted many times in recent months, Canada and the world must do everything they can to halt Israel’s genocidal assault. As a first step, Canada must impose sanctions against Israel to force its leadership to accept an end to the war,” added Woodley. (more...)
Canada Must Oppose Israeli Reluctance on Ceasefire: CJPME
Canada’s “humanitarian” interventionists clamor for military intervention to overthrow governments in black and brown nations but want Palestinians victimized by Israeli violence put under UN trusteeship.
As Israel has unleashed a holocaust in Gaza the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) crowd have stayed mum. As children’s heads were blown off in Rafah 48 hours after the International Court of Justice demanded Israel “immediately halt” its onslaught on the besieged city Ali Abunimah noted: “if the ‘responsibility to protect’ doctrine for military force had any validity or consistency, it would be invoked now. But instead, all the ‘R2P’ frauds like Samantha J Power are silent because all it ever was a cover for US aggression under ‘humanitarian’ cover.”
R2P was a showpiece of the previous Jean Chretien and Paul Martin governments’ foreign policy. In September 2000 then Liberal foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy launched the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, which presented its final report, The Responsibility to Protect, to the UN in December 2001. At the organization’s 2005 World Summit, Canada advocated that world leaders endorse the new doctrine. It asserts that where gross human rights abuses are occurring, it is the duty of the international community to intervene, over and above considerations of state sovereignty. The doctrine asserts that “the principle of non-intervention yields to the international responsibility to protect.” (more...)
Why no ‘responsibility to protect’ Palestinians?
Written as a letter to a child in Gaza by @ChrisHedgesChannel, the film takes the audience on a haunting & realistic journey through Gaza today from a child’s perspective imbued with guilt of a foreign journalist. Stylish, artistic, horrifying, yet hopeful that we can do better. We must.
265 days into Israel’s mass assault on Gaza, Palestinian-Canadian lawyer and former spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization Diana Buttu joins us from Haifa, Israel with a stark warning:
Things are going to get worse.
“For Netanyahu,” she explains, “he needs to open up another front in order to maintain his power. He's made it clear that he's not going to push for a ceasefire. He doesn't care about the Israeli captives. And so it's pretty clear to me that he's going to go ahead and attack Lebanon.”
Israel has no aim to rescue its hostages. It never did. “If they actually cared about them, they would have done what should have been done very early on, which is negotiate a ceasefire. Instead, they’ve done the opposite. And this is why you can look at these ceasefire proposals with such skepticism. Because instead, what they’ve done is bombed Gaza to virtual smithereens.”
Diana, whose father survived the Nakba in 1948, moved to Haifa in 2000. And like many others, she believed what the media told everyone to believe: that with a simple peace plan, Palestine would be fixed.
Then she arrived in Palestine and saw the true reality.
“All of the things that had been dismissed by the mainstream media,” she says, “I had dismissed too. I had dismissed this idea of settlements and the impact of settlements. And I kept thinking, it'll be undone. It'll all be undone. I dismissed the harm of what it means to be a Palestinian political prisoner, to be somebody who's abducted in the middle of the night. I dismissed the harm of the checkpoints. I dismissed a lot of things. And so when I arrived here, it was the first time that I had to confront the reality that this political process was not going to undo any of those harms.”
Stopping the bombs is one thing. Stopping settlements, returning land, granting rights to Palestinians, and removing the literal wall that cages them is another.
“They talk about reconfiguring the prison, reconfiguring the occupation, but they never talk about ending the occupation because this mentality of control permeates deep inside Israel.”
There’s only one way this ends, Diana says. “It's going to end when the world says that it's enough. And that's it.”
Diana also shares haunting stories of Palestinian children who were kept in Israeli torture prisons for months, and the ways that western corporate media has worked to cover it up.
Join Judge Andrew Napolitano for a crucial conversation with Ambassador Craig Murray as they address the urgent need to stop genocide around the world. Ambassador Murray, seasoned diplomat and human rights advocate, provides profound insights into international law, humanitarian crises, and global efforts to prevent mass atrocities. Don't miss this critical discussion that explores the moral imperative and political challenges of ending genocide.
Over the weekend, a protest was held against the illegal sale of stolen land in Palestine. The so-called “mega event” promised to help people move to “the best Anglo neighborhoods in Israel” was held at Adas Torah Synagogue in Los Angeles. The illegal land sale was advertised in the Jewish Journal.
No religious services were scheduled at the time of the real estate sale and the counter-protest. Contrary to what the media is falsely reporting, the entrance was never blocked by anyone.
It is outrageous that President Biden and certain media outlets have misrepresented this protest as an anti-Semitic attack on worshippers. President Biden went as far as to say it was “un-American.” Is Biden saying that using a place of worship to sell “Anglo neighborhoods” on stolen land illegally is an American value?
This mischaracterization by President Biden is outrageous and has real consequences, as seen recently when two Palestinian-American children were nearly murdered in Texas, likely influenced by such inflammatory rhetoric. President Biden has not commented on this crime. (more...)
CODEPINK Statement Regarding Adas Torah “Anglo” Real Estate Sale Protest
Rich Siegel, a Jewish activist who organized a protest against an Israeli real estate sale in his hometown of Teaneck New Jersey, and Remo Ibrahim, a Palestinian activist who helped organize a protest against an Israeli real estate sale at an LA synagogue explain why they took part in the protests. Remo also shares the violence he experienced and witnessed at the protest which has been unfairly smeared as antisemitic by Joe Biden, California Governor Gavin Newsom and LA mayor Karen Bass. Remo talks about how the violence committed against Palestinians and their supporters is never condemned or punished.
A group marked by pro-Israel bias within the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General pushed for more severe charges against Palestinian solidarity protests
A secretive committee within the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General has given “politically-motivated” backing to the Toronto police’s targeting of pro-Palestine activism, a Breach investigation can reveal.
The committee has attempted to impose more severe criminal charges against individuals involved in peaceful protests since Oct. 7, or thwart the dropping of charges, multiple lawyers told The Breach.
Known as the Hate Crime Working Group and formed in 2019, it is composed of nearly two dozen Crown prosecutors, some of whose public comments show pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian bias.
The committee’s chair has said she is “committed” to the state of Israel, while another member described a pro-Palestinian activist as a “terrorist” and collaborated with a group of lawyers that aggressively defend Israel’s assault on Gaza, which has killed 38,000 Palestinians.
In one case from 2021, involving a protest in front of the Israeli consulate of Toronto, the Hate Crime Working Group’s prosecutors had greater access to the consulate’s staff than the police. (more...)
Secretive committee in Ontario ministry pushed crackdown on pro-Palestine activism
The Varsity looked into encampment protesters’ divestment requests toward U of T
A May 2024 report issued by the student activist group U of T Occupy for Palestine (O4P) claims that the university is indirectly investing billions of dollars in companies that are profiting from Israel’s military operations in Gaza.
O4P, the student group behind the occupation of Simcoe Hall and the encampment on King’s College Circle, has been calling on U of T to disclose and divest all of its investments in companies contributing to Israel’s military aggression in Gaza. This includes arms manufacturers, automotive manufacturers, and surveillance technology developers.
Here is a breakdown of what O4P’s calls for U of T to “disclose and divest” means for the university.
U of T created the University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation (UTAM) in 2000 to manage the investment of U of T’s endowment, its expendable funds investment pool (EFIP), and — up until 2021 — its pension fund. The endowment consists of money donors give to the university, while the EFIP consists of the university’s “cash for operations, capital projects, [and] ancillary operations.” (more...)
Understanding UTAM’s investments in light of O4P’s divestment report
“People see what Israel is doing, and that should be a huge wake up call to Parliament.”
A series of recent polls showing significant levels of negative views on Israel and its conduct in Gaza highlights a growing gap between Canadian public opinion and this country’s political class, according to Palestine solidarity activists.
A Leger poll published this month and commissioned by the staunchly pro-Israel National Post showed 45 per cent of Canadians “agree that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip,” representing a two per cent increase from a similar Leger poll taken in January.
In the June poll, 23 per cent disagreed that Israel is committing a genocide, down from 31 per cent in the earlier poll. The number of those who responded “don’t know” increased by six per cent to 32 per cent of those surveyed.
Israel is currently on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which said in January that South Africa’s case against Israel was “plausible.”
International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan, meanwhile, requested arrest warrants for Israeli government officials accused of committing war crimes in Gaza, many of which have been thoroughly documented by journalists and human rights groups around the world.
To date, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 37,718 people, including more than 15,000 children. (more...)
Polls Show Gap Between Canadian Public Opinion And Parliament On Israel
The answer is No.
The Canadian government repeatedly tells the world that Canada upholds an international rules-based order that is the basis of democracy.
What the Canadian government says is not true. The evidence that it is not true is indisputable.
There is widespread concern that social media is putting out misinformation, that this practice is dangerous and harmful and should be challenged. What about when our government puts out serious misinformation that is dangerous and harmful? Should that not be challenged? What do you think?
I’m not talking about trivial matters. I’m talking about extremely serious issues where the health and survival of people and the planet are threatened. And I’m not talking about pretty words. The Canadian government excels at that. I’m talking about our actions. When words and actions contradict one another, it is the actions that speak the truth. In fact, it makes Canada’s role more destructive because it is dishonest. What do you think?
If the Canadian government told the truth, it would say that Canada does not uphold binding international laws that protect human rights and the environment. What the Canadian government means is that it upholds international trade Agreements that enforce the interests of powerful private corporations, override democracy and harm human rights and the environment.
Does that make sense to you? Does that reflect your values? Is that the world you want for your and everyone’s kids and grand-kids?
Or does that trouble you like it troubles me? (more...)
Does Canada Uphold Binding International Law?
One would expect a “holocaust museum” to oppose every genocide as well as all forms of racism. However, the Montreal Holocaust Museum (MHM) is offering excuses and cover for the perpetrator of what the World Court described as a “plausible genocide” in Gaza, occupied Palestine.
One would also expect governmental and media outrage when directors of this taxpayer-funded museum blame the victims of said genocide. But no, that outrage has been saved for graffiti writers who expressed their horror of what is happening in Gaza by scrawling “fuck Israel, fuck Quebec” on a sign devoted to the museum’s ultra-Zionist leading donor.
Recently political and media elites echoed genocidal Zionist organizations criticism of someone who wrote “fuck Israel, fuck Quebec” on the Azrieli Foundation sign in front of the site that will host the new MHM. According to the photos posted on X, graffitists also “tagged” that sign and an MHM sign.
The Montreal Gazette and La Presse reported on the markings. Heritage minister Pascale St-Onge posted about calling MHM while Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre declared that “hatred against the Jewish people is the world’s ugliest and most enduring form of hatred.”
But the MHM is not simply a museum. It’s promoting a holocaust in Gaza. After over 10,000 Palestinians had been killed in the latest round of Israeli barbarism directed at the besieged coastal strip, MHM released their position “on the continuing conflict in Israel”. The November 15, 2023 statement noted: “The past few weeks have been excruciatingly painful for our Museum community. We have seen the worst terrorist attack committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, an escalating war in a place that many of us call a second home, images of extreme violence, the proliferation of hate propaganda, and the terrorizing of Jews around the world. We share the pain of the Israeli and Palestinian families, equally victimized by the cruelty of Hamas. We are heartbroken thinking of the innocent hostages being held by these ISIS emulators, and we pray for their immediate release back to the loving arms of their Israeli families.” (more...)
Museum defending Israel’s genocide gets government grants
The Liberal legacy will be entwined with supporting more war. And the NDP as well.
I remember years ago hearing a discussion on the news about how it was unreasonable to expect Canada to reach its 2% spending commitment for NATO. It would never happen. With a GDP of $2.138 trillion, NATO’s 2% commitment would mean that Canada’s military spending should be just over $47.7 billion dollars; almost double what we currently spend on the entire Department of National Defense.
But then, as NATO became more important (as Russia became more threatening to The West and Western Democracy and Western Values and to You and Me Personally), NATO spending became more important.
It wasn’t simply a Russian invasion that made war more popular in Canada. There has been a concerted effort made by the military to play up its dismal state. If Russia’s attack on Ukraine represented a direct attack on Canada, then Canada needs to have firepower to fight against the attack. A crumbling military just won’t do. Here’s how journalist David Pugliese describes their campaign: “Military officers, along with retired generals and think-tanks and analysts partially funded by National Defence and the arms industry, have been promoting an image of a Canadian Forces on the verge of collapse. The communications strategy, defence insiders acknowledged, was to push such a message of significant decline to force the Liberals into pumping more money into the military.”
Fast forward to 2024 - the strategy worked. The Liberals promised $8 billion in new funding and $73 billion in spending commitments over the next 20 years, propped up by the NDP. (more...)
A deeper look at how McGill’s administration has criminalized pro-Palestinian protesters over the last two months.
In the early 1980s, a group of McGill students got together to explore the act of divestment.
The McGill South Africa Committee was concerned by the apartheid in South Africa and focused on campaigning for their university to divest from businesses operating in that country. Their work was similar to what we are seeing today at pro-Palestine protests on university campuses across Canada: they wrote letters, campaigned, organized demonstrations regularly, and even occupied university offices until the board of governors agreed to discuss divestment.
After years of protesting and raising awareness, McGill became the first Canadian university to divest from apartheid South Africa in 1985. The decision was a big win for the student groups who continued their work of educating people even after the divestment.
McGill also divested from Burma in 2006, and cut ties with Russian institutions and the Chinese-based company Huawei, all for geopolitical reasons. Most recently, the university also divested from fossil fuels thanks to enormous pressure from community members deeply concerned about the climate crisis. There is precedent for divestment. In fact, it’s well within the realm of possibility for divestment to happen again.
All these historical moves were only possible through student protests, continuous effort and pressure on the administration to act responsibly for where they allocate their funds. (more...)
Behind McGill Admin’s War on Dissent
Related:
This past weekend, dozens of activists from Quebec social movements erected Canada's first pro-Palestine encampment on public property. Until now, all Canadian encampments have been erected on university campuses.
The activists chose as the site of their encampment Square Victoria, which is named in honour of a former British monarch. Over a decade ago, this same square was taken over by protesters of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Square Victoria is steps away from the Montreal offices of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) CDPQ is an institutional investor that manages several public pension plans and insurance programs in Quebec. The CDPQ has assets of C$434 billion and is one of the world's largest institutional investors. It also has C$14.2 billion of investments in companies that are complicit in Israel's genocide.
On June 25, 2024, Dimitri Lascaris attended a press conference held by the organizers of the encampment at Square Victoria. He also spoke to one of them, former NDP candidate, Zahia El-Masri. El-Masri is Palestinian-Canadian. She explained to Lascaris the objectives of the encampment, and talked about the failure of the Quebec government of Francois Legault to take any meaningful steps to address Israel's genocide in occupied Palestine.
University of Toronto has a dark history of neglecting student mental health. Now at the current student led encampment on King’s College, students face psychological warfare and threats of violence from their administration.
At least five suicides have taken place at the University of Toronto’s (UofT’s) Bahen Centre for Information Technology. The building has become a cruel reminder for the university’s dark reputation for neglecting mental health care. Data from annual UofT Campus Safety reports show that cases of suicide/suicide attempts more than doubled in 2022 compared to 2021 (14 vs 6).
Instead of addressing the root causes of mental health issues, the UofT administration is focused on introducing superficial reforms (such as changing the name of Campus Police to Campus Safety). Worse, they appear to be taking more carceral approaches to addressing student concerns. Racialized and international students are disproportionately more likely to be subjected to hostile actions by the UofT administration.
These problematic trends have been laid bare in the UofT administration’s response to the genocide in Palestine. In addition to systematically disregarding the wellbeing of Palestinian students, the UofT administration has opted to take punitive actions against students protesting UofT’s complicity in genocidal profiteering. In doing so, the UofT administration is critically worsening the mental health situation on its campuses. (more...)
A pro-longing mental health and suicide crisis at UofT is extremely concerning
An Important Read⬇️
— UofT Occupy for Palestine (@occupyuoft) June 25, 2024
via @rabbleca https://t.co/NV6Ait83qC pic.twitter.com/PBNRnCiNKy
For over a century, some American Jews have modeled the idea that unqualified support for Israel and Zionism was “not in our name”
Since October 2023, American Jews have been engaged in an intense, fractious debate over Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.
Media reports say that American Jews are experiencing “the great rupture,” widening “rifts,” and stand at a “moral, political crossroads.”
While most American Jews remain broadly supportive of Israel, others have protested vigorously against U.S. support for Israel and are demanding a cease-fire in the Gaza war. They carry signs saying “Not in Our Name.”
Their slogan highlights the fact that American foreign aid to Israel has long relied on the support of American Jews. Unqualified U.S. support for Israel was built, in part, on the promise that Israel kept American Jews — and all Jews — safe, especially after the Holocaust.
But American Jews have never been entirely unified in their support for Israel or in their visions of what role Israel and Palestine should play in American Jewish life. (more...)
Silencing US Jewish Critics of Zionism
By collaborating with the Nazis, a small group of Zionists weakened anti-fascist resistance and contributed to the genocide of Europe’s Jews
As uncomfortable as it may be to many, Israel’s current apartheid policies took shape in the lead up to the Holocaust when Nazi Germany and a small group of influential Zionists formed an alliance to build their ethno-nationalist states.
On Aug. 25, 1933, German Zionists signed an agreement with the Nazi government that allowed some wealthy German Jews to immigrate to Palestine in exchange for purchasing German goods that were then exported to the Jewish community in Palestine.
As part of the deal, the Zionists also agreed to lobby the global Jewish community to end their boycott of German goods that began when Hitler came to power.
A 1933 memo from the Zionist Federation of Germany to the Nazi party promised:
“should the Germans accept the cooperation of the Zionists, these (sic) would try to dissuade Jews abroad from supporting the anti-German boycott.”
The so-called Transfer or Haavara Agreement (named for the Tel Aviv company where the funds were transferred) was endorsed by top Nazi officials including Adolph Eichmann and Hitler and future Israeli prime ministers David Ben Gurion, Moshe Shertok and Golda Meir.
For the Zionists, the deal allowed affluent German Jews to keep some of their capital and resettle in Palestine. For the Nazis, the agreement not only helped rid Germany of a small portion of its Jewish population (60,000 between 1933-1939) but, critically, it doomed the boycott movement to failure and opened up the global export market for German goods to boost its economy.
For the majority of mostly non- and anti-Zionist Jews around the world, it was a betrayal that deprived them of one of the few weapons they had to fight the Nazis.
It was symbolised by the freakish image of the Haavara transport ship, the Tel Aviv, with its name inscribed in Hebrew on the bow, and the Swastika flag hoisted on deck. (more...)
The Treachery of the Nazi-Zionist Alliance
Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is unhappy. Not so much with the Palestinians, whom he sees as terroristic, dispensable and a threat to Israeli security. Not with the Persians, who, he swears, will never acquire a nuclear weapon capacity on his watch. His recent lack of happiness has been directed against the fatty hand that feeds him and his country’s war making capabilities.
On June 18, the Israeli PM released a video decrying Washington’s recent conduct towards his government in terms of military aid. It was “inconceivable that in the past few months, the administration has been withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel.” Having claimed such an idea to be inconceivable, Netanyahu proceeded to conceive. He stated that US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken had “assured” him “that the administration is working day and night to remove these bottlenecks. I certainly hope that’s the case. It should be the case.”
The release coincided with efforts made by President Joe Biden’s envoy, Amos Hochstein, to cool matters concerning Israel-Hezbollah hostilities, a matter that threatens to move beyond daily border skirmishes. It was also a pointed reference to the halt in a single shipment of 2000 pound (900kg) bombs to Israel regarding concerns about massive civilian casualties over any planned IDF assault on Rafah.
The White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was uncharacteristically unadorned in frankness. “We genuinely do not know what he is talking about.” Discussions between US and Israeli officials were continuing. “There are no other pauses – none.” It fell to the White House National Security Communications advisor, John Kirby, to field more substantive questions on the matter.
On June 20, Kirby admitted to being perplexed and disappointed at Netanyahu’s remarks, “especially given that no other country is doing more to help Israel defend itself against the threat by Hamas”. As he was at pains to point out, the US military industrial complex had enthusiastically furnished “material assistance to Israel” despite the pause on the provision of 2,000-pound bombs. The notion “that we had somehow stopped helping Israel with their self-defense needs is absolutely not accurate”. Netanyahu, in other words, was quibbling about the means of inflicting death, a matter of form over substance.
Blinken confirmed as much, stating that the administration was “continuing to review one shipment that President Biden has talked about with regard to 2000-pound bombs because of our concerns about their use in densely populated areas like Rafah.” All other matters were “moving as it normally would move.” (more...)
Quibbling About Killing: Netanyahu is Unhappy with Washington
Give us the tools and we'll finish the job. pic.twitter.com/eQHpyd9q0X
— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) June 18, 2024
After a video message in which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reprimanded the Biden administration’s “inconceivable” decision to allegedly pause the shipping of weapons to Israel, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre darted to her podium to beg forgiveness.
“We genuinely do not know what he’s talking about,” Jean-Pierre cries, waving actual prayer hands. “We just don’t.” She then admits to one (“just one!”) shipment of 2000-pound bombs that was paused in May over the Rafah tent massacre but assures reporters that the US is in final talks with the Israelis to reinstate it.
“There are no other pauses,” she pleads. “None! No other pauses or holds in place.” Okay, we believe you. Hopefully when the International Criminal Court eventually tries you for aiding and funding a genocide, they’ll believe you too.
Also in this week’s Thursday Throwdown: NYC Mayor Eric Adams wants to ban masks on subways in order to dox anti-genocide protesters who wear masks in fear of losing their jobs or getting attacked by Zionists. He compares the student protesters to the KKK.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is giving the ok go to Ukraine to begin attacking deeper into Russia. It seems that in his tenure in this role, Sullivan has done everything but ensure national security.
In the past year, the United States, Canada and other Western countries have experienced a sharp rise in Islamophobia. Increasingly, Islamophobes are resorting to violence to oppress members of a religion they do not understand.
To explore the nature of the threats confronting Muslims today, Dimitri Lascaris spoke with Qasim Rashid, a former Democratic Party candidate for the United States Congress. Rashid has been subjected to frequent anti-Muslim smears, including death threats that led to a criminal conviction.
Rashid is a human rights lawyer and author who served as a visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Islamic Studies program. He has published numerous books and law review articles. His work has been published by the The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, and USA Today.
In a letter sent to the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) and the B.C. Prosecution Service on June 11, the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) has expressed concern over incitement and promotion of hatred charges laid against Charlotte Kates, the International Coordinator for the Palestinian prison solidarity network, Samidoun.
On April 29, Kates was confronted and arrested on a bus by VPD officers for allegedly committing two offences at a “Free Palestine” rally outside the Vancouver Art Gallery three days earlier. VPD charged Kates with public incitement of hatred and willful promotion of hatred.
In a video, Kates can be seen praising the strike by several Palestinian armed groups against the Israeli military on October 7. She does not appear to incite hatred towards any particular population, nor to express support for any particular Palestinian group. Rather, she describes the attacks as resistance and deplores the indifference of politicians to the deaths of over 40,000 Palestinians following October 7.
In its letter, BCCLA asks “that the investigation and charge approval process consider Kates’s constitutionally protected expression during its engagement,” citing the right to freedom of expression enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
BCCLA called the charges an “overreach,” saying it “sets a dangerous precedent,” criminalizing expressions of support for Palestinian resistance to colonialism, occupation and apartheid. “Charges of this nature not only serve to silence the political speech of the individual charged, but also have a chilling effect on protest and freedom of expression for everyone.” (more...)
B.C. Civil Liberties Group Denounces State Attack on Free Speech
Lawrence Davidson responds to a recent commentary in The New York Times by two heirs of the Black-Jewish alliance of the 1960s.
In the early 2000s, I was a member of a group called Academics for Israeli-Palestinian Peace. The group went often to the Middle East, visiting most of the countries of that region.
We repeatedly traveled to Israel and the Palestinian Territories. We interviewed both leaders and ordinary folks. When we would return to the U.S., I would seek out venues to report on our findings — which could be critical of Israel.
I spoke at academic institutions, civic organizations, and to religious groups. However there were always two groups which kept me away from their members:
Most synagogues — It was easy enough to explain this. Most organized Jewish institutions are partisan. They were and mostly still are, dedicated to the dream of a Jewish state functioning as a safe haven in an anti-Semitic world.
The downside of racism felt toward, and oppressive policies applied against, the Palestinians were realities they chose not to deal with. Even today, in the midst of overwhelming evidence of Israel’s failure to preserve either Jewish lives or Jewish ethics, most synagogues will not allow anti-Zionists to speak, even if they are Jewish.
The other group, Black churches, was at first harder to comprehend. During the struggle for racial justice in the U.S., culminating with the civil rights legislation of 1964-1965, there was an alliance between American Jewish and Black organizations.
That alliance was not as smooth and solid as it is popularly believed, but it was real in the sense that you had two groups who saw something to be gained by supporting each other. Black American success in the mid 1960s actually loosened the alliance because it created the space for a Black reassessment of Zionism.
However, that reassessment did not reach those Black Americans who were religiously motivated to identify with a biblically imagined picture of Jewish history. Or, as the authors we are about to analyze put it, “our shared history of slavery and oppression and our common biblical commitment to the prophetic traditions of justice and equality.”
Where this problematic picture held sway, someone speaking out against Zionism was, in my experience, not welcome. (more...)
‘Faith in Dialogue’ Won’t Stop Zionist Violence
Around the world Canadian mining companies are in disputes with local communities and governments.
Last week Human Rights Watch released a report detailing a string of abuses at Toronto-based Barrick Gold’s North Mara mine. Since February at least six Tanzanians have been killed there. Between 2006 and 2023 at least 77 were killed around the mine by police or security hired by the company.
It was also reported this week that the London bullion market will face a hearing in a suit launched by family members of two Tanzanians killed by Barrick security. Additionally, 21 Tanzanians have an ongoing suit against Barrick in the Ontario Superior Court over its complicity in violence at the North Mara mine. This week the company also reportedly sent a letter to the United Nations Human Rights Council denying abuses at the North Mara mine.
Despite the violence, Canadian officials have actively supported Barrick’s highly controversial operations in Tanzania. (more...)
Just say no to the Ugly Canadian
In a discussion with Wissam El Cheikh Hassan, a Palestinian now living in Canada, Dimitri Lascaris rants about Canada's supposedly 'progressive' political parties, the Liberals, the NDP and the Greens. Those three parties openly supported the arming of Ukraine, but their leaders have said nothing about the Palestinians' right to defend themselves through armed resistance.
Holocaust survivors say using the Holocaust to justify genocide in Gaza and repress student protest on college campuses is a complete insult to the Holocaust's memory.
The co-founder of Human Rights Watch, Aryeh Neier, has recently said that Israel is engaged in genocide in Gaza. He’s also said that using accusations of antisemitism to attack Israel’s critics “debases the whole concept of antisemitism.” As Holocaust survivors, we are writing to agree wholeheartedly with Professor Neier — who himself only survived the Holocaust by escaping Nazi Germany as a child in 1939.
At a recent Holocaust memorial, Netanyahu declared: “We’ll defeat our genocidal enemies. Never again is now!”
Meanwhile, at another memorial, Biden warned of a “ferocious surge of antisemitism” on college campuses.
In our opinion, to use the memory of the Holocaust like this to justify either genocide in Gaza or repression on college campuses is a complete insult to the memory of the Holocaust.
The dehumanization of Palestinians, describing them as “human animals,” the killing of tens of thousands of civilians, indiscriminate bombing, the destruction of universities and hospitals, and the use of mass starvation — these are clearly stages of ethnic cleansing and genocide. They cannot be defended any more than sending weapons to commit this genocide or refusing funding to UNRWA. With no better arguments, our politicians have resorted to misusing the memory of the Holocaust while claiming that protesting against Israeli genocide is somehow antisemitic. (more...)
Ten Holocaust survivors condemn Israel’s Gaza genocide
In this episode, Whitney and Ryan discuss how the epidemic of narcissism feeds the ambitions of the powers that be and leads many to invest in a false, virtual self.
Briahna Joy Gray and Katie discuss, react to and debunk claims made by Cheryl Samburg in her new documentary about alleged sexual violence committed on October 7th. Katie reacts to a monologue Brie recorded on this very issue, a monologue we won’t be seeing On The Hill anymore, which fired Brie over her criticism of Israel. Brie relates the propaganda regurgitated by Samburg to the interview she did with a hostage’s sister.
Briahna Joy Gray is the host of the Bad Faith Podcast, former co-host at The Hill's Rising, former press secretary for Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign and former politics editor at The Intercept.
