She called herself a “reluctant chronicler of genocide.” The UN Special Rapporteur spoke at the University of Toronto tonight. 500 people packed into the auditorium and the line up was around the building to get in.
Thursday, November 7, 2024
Localizing the Conflict
“The fight against genocide is in our own backyards”
Paige Belanger stood with a megaphone on the bed of a white pickup truck outside the town hall in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, at a Palestine-solidarity rally on Oct. 10, 2023.
A few dozen people had gathered with Palestine flags, flaunting keffiyehs and holding up signs saying: “When People Are Occupied, Resistance is Justified,” and “End Aid to Israel.” They chanted: “From Iraq to Palestine, Occupation Is a Crime.”
Great Barrington has a population of about 7,000. Smithsonian Magazine honored it in 2012 as “the best small town in America.”
Across the street a small counter-protest group formed, holding Israeli flags.
Many of those on one side of the street knew someone on the other. Some of the people in the facing groups were long standing members of the same community. Some had gone to the same synagogue.
A few from the Israeli side crossed the street to argue with those on the Palestinian side.
“I’m sorry you feel that way,” a member of the Palestine faction told an envoy from the Israel camp. “But apartheid is apartheid.”
In 2021 a similar protest and counter protest occurred in Great Barrington at that same place during a surge of Israeli violence against Gaza that May.
The street had been divided in the same way; Palestine supporters on one side, Israel supporters on the other. There was arguing and taunting then. But this time, two years later, the hostility was more intense.
Some from the pro-Israel contingent mingled in an aggressive manner, filming people in the Palestine rally, where Paige Belanger spoke.
A photo of Belanger from that day now appears on her profile on Canary Mission, the Israeli-intelligence-run doxxing site. (In March the Israeli Cabinet abolished the ministry that was reportedly in charge of Canary Mission and moved its functions to the Prime Minister’s Office.)
“All of us here know that Palestine has been under an illegal and genocidal occupation for over 75 years,” Belanger yelled into her megaphone.
While expressing “great revolutionary love for the people of Palestine,” Belanger went on to devote her speech to the presence of a major weapons company there where she stood, in Berkshire County, and its connection to “human suffering.” (more...)
Related:
Israel, Blackmail & the Presidents
The web of connections linking Jeffrey Epstein to Israeli intelligence, U.S. presidents and the current U.S. secretary of state
Just days before Election Day, WikiLeaks reported: “Author of book about the Trump White House, Michael Wolff, claims to have 100 hours of Epstein talking about Trump but releases only a one minute fragment.”
More along these lines is now atop pages like The Daily Beast with journalistic scoops like “Epstein claiming Trump liked to ‘f—’ his friends’ wives.”
I didn’t realize until recently that Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s stepfather, Samuel Pisar — who Blinken has invoked at high profile events — was not only lawyer and confidant to media mogul and Mossad “super spy” Robert Maxwell but apparently to Jeffrey Epstein himself.
Robert Maxwell was of course father of Ghislaine Maxwell who was Epstein’s partner in crime.
It has been largely kept from public view and understanding in numerous ways, but there is substantial evidence that the Epstein network was involved in gathering information on political figures from both parties which could be used for blackmail. The molesting of the girls was often apparently the insidious means, not the ultimate goal. The above referenced Daily Beast piece, to take the most recent example, does not contain the word “blackmail.” (more...)
Israel, Blackmail & the Presidents
The World Court has called on UN member states to revoke the charitable status of Israel focused organizations
On October 18 the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel released its “Legal analysis and recommendations on implementation of the International Court of Justice, Advisory Opinion, Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.”
The International Commission of Inquiry’s Position Paper states:
“With respect to non-profit or non-governmental organizations, States must carefully review any organization that is financially or politically supporting the unlawful occupation. States shall not give support to these organizations, for example through allowing the organization to have tax-exempt status or providing tax deductibility for donations to the organization and must ensure that financial contributions to support the unlawful occupation, including settlements and settlers, cease.”
A broad reading of the UN mandate could ensnare maybe a 100 registered Canadian charities for “financially or politically supporting the unlawful occupation.”
But, even the most narrow reading of the International Commission of Inquiry’s advisory should lead to a dozen immediate charity revocations.
In disputing its revocation, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) told the Canadian Jewish News recently that “dozens of Canadian charities” operate in colonies the International Court of Justice ruled nations have a legal responsibility to not assist. The JNF responded to the paper’s question about its revocation by writing that “JNF Canada disagrees that it is contrary to Canadian foreign policy to develop projects on disputed territory.”
These “dozens of Canadian charities” operate in the disputed territories with CRA’s blessings. Among the “dozens” of these tax-payer subsidized organizations are: Mizrachi Canada, Jewish Heritage Foundation of Canada, United Israel Appeal (UIA), Canada Charity Partners, International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Emunah Canada, Jerusalem Foundation, Ronnen Harary Charitable Foundation, and Canadian Friends of Har Etzion. As well there are a number of Canadian charities supporting the Israeli military occupation such as HESEG and the Canadian Zionist Cultural Association.
Requests have been made to the CRA to audit these and others. (more...)
Tell CRA Magen Herut isn’t charitable
In a sign of its lax attitude towards charities promoting apartheid and genocide, the Canada Revenue Agency granted Magen Herut Canada (MHC) charitable status. With its roots in a pre-state terrorist organization, MHC operates as a vigilante group in Toronto.
Please take a minute to ask the CRA to immediately suspend MHC’s ability to grant donors’ tax credits.
A submission was recently made to the CRA calling for audit and revocation of HMC recently.
How is a Zionist vigilante group a registered Canadian charity?
In Toronto MHC acts as a vigilante group. Its members recently descended on the University of Toronto to intimidate opponents of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. MHC offers free workshops of Krav Maga, a training used by the Israeli military. The registered charity openly fundraises to purchase protective gear for members who must have experience in security, policing or the military.
MHC works closely with private security firm JFORCE, which provides “protest security” for Israel supporters. Charities aren’t supposed to have close ties to for profit companies. It’s unusual for a registered charity to have close ties to a private corporation since taxpayer subsidized charities aren’t allowed to underwrite for-profit firms. (more...)
Tell CRA Magen Herut isn’t charitable
Family Ties: Ukrainians and Nazi Germany
A little more than a year ago, Yaroslav Hunka, a 98-year-old war veteran of Ukrainian extraction, received two standing ovations in the House of Commons after its Speaker, Anthony Rota, singled him out for recognition. The visiting president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, and the prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, were among those who honored Hunka with rounds of applause.
Little did they know that Hunka had been a soldier in the SS Galicia Division, a unit of the German army formed in the final years of World War II. Once the embarrassing blunder was exposed, Rota resigned, Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution condemning Nazism and withdrawing its recognition of Hunka, and Trudeau issued an apology.
Russia exploited the incident to justify its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which it implausibly described as a “special military operation” designed to “denazify” its neighbor.
As Canadian journalist Peter McFarlane suggests in a new book, Canadians should not have been surprised by the Hunka affair. Canada, the first Western nation to formally recognize Ukrainian independence in 1991, has a record of tolerating Nazis. Canada, after 1945, welcomed Ukrainian Nazi collaborators as immigrants.
Thousands of them, like Hunka, served as foot soldiers in the German army. Still others, such as Mykhailo Chomiak, the grandfather of Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, edited a Nazi-financed antisemitic newspaper in German-occupied Poland.
Hunka and Chomiak worked for the Germans in the expectation that Adolf Hitler’s genocidal regime would recognize Ukraine, a province of the Soviet Union, as a sovereign state. (more...)
Family Ties: Ukrainians and Nazi Germany
How a tribute to 'victims of communism' became Canada's most controversial monument
A year after its unveiling was postponed indefinitely, concerns about Ottawa’s Memorial to the Victims of Communism remain
A year after its unveiling was postponed indefinitely, Canada’s most controversial monument remains fenced off and undedicated.
Officially named “Memorial to the Victims of Communism—Canada, a Land of Refuge”, the C$7.5m ($5.4m) public monument in downtown Ottawa was built by the federal government and intended to honour the victims of communist regimes who fled to Canada. Designed by the Toronto architecture firm Paul Raff Studio, it is composed of more than 4,000 bronze rods arranged on 365 slim posts. Each rod represents an hour of sunlight across an entire year, with a broken middle symbolising the winter solstice—the darkest day of the calendar.
In addition, there is a small “wall of memory” supposedly engraved with hundreds of names of alleged victims of communism submitted by the initial donors to the project. But this list was never vetted, and in 2021 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation revealed that several people listed for commemoration were wartime fascist leaders, Nazi collaborators or suspected war criminals.
The monument was supposed to be dedicated on 2 November 2023, but officials with Canadian Heritage—the ministry responsible for its construction—postponed the unveiling in the wake of the Yaroslav Hunka scandal. (Hunka, a 99-year-old Ontario resident, had been honoured by the Canadian Parliament in September 2023 for fighting the Soviets in the Second World War; it was later discovered that the veteran had volunteered to fight alongside the Nazis in a Ukrainian SS unit.)
Heritage department officials subsequently decided to review the monument’s commemorative content. That review is ongoing, but Canadian Heritage would not elaborate what specifically is being investigated, other than to say that the government is working to ensure that the monument aligns with “Canadian values”. (more...)
How a tribute to 'victims of communism' became Canada's most controversial monument
List of 900 alleged Nazi war criminals won’t be released by Ottawa
Ottawa has rejected calls to release a secret report containing the names of around 900 alleged war criminals who settled here after the Second World War.
The news was greeted with dismay by Jewish groups, which had joined dozens of leading scholars from around the world asking for the names to be published.
The Globe and Mail was among three organizations to file an access to information request to release Part 2 of the 1986 Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada led by retired Superior Court of Quebec judge Jules Deschênes. The second half of the report, containing the names of the alleged war criminals, was kept secret.
Library and Archives Canada, which consulted stakeholders for several months on whether to release the names, replied to The Globe on Monday, saying, “the documents you requested were identified, assessed and are withheld in their entirety.”
Among the 900 names in the secret report are members of the Ukrainian SS Galicia Division who settled in Canada. Last year, there was an outcry after a veteran of the Nazi-led division, Yaroslav Hunka, received two standing ovations in the House of Commons during a visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Anthony Rota, who invited Mr. Hunka and praised him as a hero, later resigned as Commons Speaker. (more...)
List of 900 alleged Nazi war criminals won’t be released by Ottawa
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
Courtroom Smackdown "Richard Marsh v Rick Fentiman and Lance Christie v Weavable"
Three stunning court cases have turned the tide in the cult’s long saga of vexatious litigation and SLAPP tactics against their critics. Following the example of Scientology, the exclusive brethren cult’s leaders have pursued a massively expensive undercover operation to harass outspoken former members with spurious and unreasonable court cases. Every congregation globally has been pressured into contributing to a huge legal slush fund, ostensibly to “protect the testimony”.
To give the so-called church “credible deniability” these legal cases are always taken by PBCC members personally, or by their businesses – these act as surrogates for the cult to maintain the fiction that the PBCC, as required by law, treats former members in a fair and compassionate manner.
In this intensive documentary style podcast, we hear eyewitness accounts of the courtroom dramas, and we show you numerous documents and reports that have never been published before. Dennis Wragge describes his dramatic intervention in a Toronto courtroom, where he was unexpectedly given the podium and invited to speak about the cult’s abuse of process. Guy Wilson takes us inside the UK courthouse in Leeds and recounts his interactions with Jed Christie and the infamous Charlotte Harris. We read the brethren’s own lawyers account of the David Wallace kidnapping saga and the mysterious appearance of a prominent member of the Hales family in a Canadian courtroom in the dead of winter.
These recent cases in the UK and Canada have seen the PBCC’s veneer of deniability publicly shredded, as a judge stated in public court that it was the CULT that was directing the “attack-dog” lawyers, and that the actual claimants were just puppets. This bold precedent will make future malicious attacks against PBCC critics all but impossible.
A few short years ago, the Hales Money Machine seemed almost invulnerable, using its financial clout to bribe and bully their way to whatever goal they set their greedy eyes upon. What a change we see now! The PBCC is in full retreat on every front - their public credibility destroyed by in-depth media investigations, their reputation now too toxic for politicians to dare to be associated with them, and their once feared lawyers exposed for the grossly overpaid immoral parasites that they really are.
The Bruce Hales regime has been on an alcohol and arrogance fueled slippery slope for a while now. Join us on this gripping podcast as we give them all a hefty shove down the hill.
Einstein opposed Zionist colonization in Palestine and predicted the current catastrophe
His views on Israel and Zionism were concealed and distorted for decades
A few weeks before the creation of the State of Israel, Shepard Rifkin, a New York-based representative of the Stern Group, a Zionist paramilitary organization founded in Mandatory Palestine, requested that representatives of the group meet with Albert Einstein in the United States, “the greatest Jewish figure of the time” according to journalist I.F. Stone. Einstein’s response was unequivocal:
When a real and final catastrophe should befall us in Palestine the first responsible for it would be the British and the second responsible for it the terrorist organizations built up from our own ranks. I am not willing to see anybody associated with those misled and criminal people.
To grasp Einstein’s prescience, one need only replace “the British” with “the Americans” and “terrorist organizations” such as the Stern Group and the Irgun with the Netanyahu government, the political descendants of the leaders of these groups, Menachem Begin and Yihtzak Shamir.
Einstein said that his “life was divided between equations and politics.” Yet, among his biographers—there are hundreds of them—and in the mainstream media, his extensive political writings on Israel and Zionism have been, at best, swept under the rug, or at worst, completely distorted, identifying him as a supporter of the State of Israel. (more...)
Einstein opposed Zionist colonization in Palestine and predicted the current catastrophe
Two Levy's vs. The United Nations
As UN Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, gets ready to come to Toronto on November 7th, many pro-Israeli organizations have been working hard to get her talk at the University of Toronto cancelled. But it's not just these organizations. Two Levy's have been working hard to try and silence her. French blowhard, Bernard Henri Levy and Britain's Levy lite, Eylon. Both have threatened the UN Special Rapporteur and both have now made their way to Toronto because of Albanese. The theatre of the absurd continues in our beautiful city, as every attempt is being made to silence the facts and truth about Israel's genocide in Gaza.
On the Line Media will be covering Ms. Albanese's talk on November 7 at the University of Toronto.
Stay Tuned!
Criminal appeal to be heard in case of alleged Israeli military recruitment
On Thursday, November 7, 2024, the Ontario Court of Appeal will hear arguments in a two-year legal battle centred around allegations involving alleged Israeli military recruitment in Canada.
In September 2022, a Justice of the Peace found that there was sufficient evidence for a criminal charge to be laid against Sar-El Canada for allegedly recruiting or inducing individuals to accept non-combat engagements as volunteers with the Israeli armed forces, contrary to section 11 (1) of the Foreign Enlistment Act.
Section 11 of the Foreign Enlistment Act states that “Any person who, within Canada, recruits or otherwise induces any person or body of persons to enlist or to accept any commission or engagement [combatant or non-combatant] in the armed forces of any foreign state or other armed forces operating in that state is guilty of an offence.
The case, which was commenced by Canadian Rabbi David Mivasair and Palestinian-Canadian artist Dr. Rehab Nazzal as a private prosecution, represented the first ever prosecution related to alleged Israeli military recruitment in Canada. However, the case never made it to trial. In December 2022 the Public Prosecution Service of Canada intervened, took over the case, and terminated the prosecution.
The appeal alleges that the Public Prosecution Service of Canada committed an abuse of process in terminating the prosecution, and that the move was reflective of a larger pattern of Canada refusing to enforce the law where Israel’s armed forces are concerned. The appeal seeks, among other things, an order that the prosecution be allowed to continue. (more...)
Criminal appeal to be heard in case of alleged Israeli military recruitment
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
UAW members push their union to divest from Israeli genocide
Rank-and-file members of the UAW are demanding that union leadership immediately divest from Israel Bonds.
On the morning of October 7, 2024, members of the International Executive Board (IEB) of the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) found their inboxes flooded with hundreds of emails from union members around the country. The messages all demanded the same thing: that the UAW immediately divest from a relentless U.S.-backed Israeli genocide responsible for the death of an estimated 186,000 Palestinians in Gaza.
The UAW—which represents about 370,000 auto, academic, legal, and weapons industry workers—maintains somewhere between $400,000 and $1,000,000 in investments in Israel Bonds, which directly fund the ongoing and spreading violence in occupied Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, and beyond. The company’s own website highlights “the crucial role of Israel Bonds during this time of conflict and war.”
Echoing demands by Arab, Black, and other UAW members in 1973, UAW members today are demanding to know why the IEB is investing their dues money to support an expanding U.S.-backed genocide.
The same day as the mass email campaign, members of UAW Labor for Palestine, a rank-and-file led initiative building solidarity with Palestinian workers as part of the Labor for Palestine National Network, confronted UAW President Shawn Fain at Black Lake Lodge, the union’s conference retreat center. Referencing a failed decision this past summer wherein the IEB voted against divesting from its Israel Bond holdings, union members asked Fain, “The next time the UAW IEB holds a vote to divest, will you vote ‘Yes’?” Fain assured rank-and-file members that he in fact will vote for divestment.
Days later, on October 13, Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD), the reform caucus whose members currently hold a majority of the seats on the IEB, voted overwhelmingly in its first ever convention to endorse rank-and-file UAW members’ resolution calling for the IEB to divest from Israel Bonds. This critical step reveals broad support for divestment from across the UAW. (more...)
UAW members push their union to divest from Israeli genocide
ISRAELI INTERFERENCE IN US ELECTIONS: Lobbying, Foreign Agents, Moles & Impunity
On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Emmy-nominated filmmaker and award-winning journalist James Bamford, author of ‘Spyfail: Foreign Spies, Moles, Saboteurs & the Collapse of America’s Counterintelligence’. He discusses Israel’s influence in the US Presidential election as the US enables Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Israel’s interference in the 2016 election by lobbying Donald Trump to agree to Benjamin Netanyahu’s demands, pro-Israel billionaire and dual US-Israeli citizen Miriam Adelson’s enormous $100 million donation to Donald Trump to buy pro-Israel policies, the Israel lobby’s purchasing of the Democratic Party and Kamala Harris who has never condemned Israel, the difficulty for journalists to write critically about Israel in the US and the attacks he has faced for his reporting on Israel, Israel’s infiltration of university campuses in the US, the embedding of Israeli Unit 8200 agents in the US’ NSA, the US’ assistance to Israel for assassinations against key figures in the regional resistance against Israel, the fate of the Russia-NATO proxy war in Ukraine, and much more.
Trump Plans UK-Style Attack on Israel Criticism
Joe Lauria says the Heritage Foundation’s “Project Esther,” as covered by Drop Site News, replicates the U.K.’s use of a terrorism law to criminalize pro-Palestine speech and activism.
A second Trump administration could criminalize criticism of Israel’s genocide in Gaza as support for terrorism, along the lines of the British Terrorism Act, according to a report in Drop Site News.
The report says the plan is to “break the pro-Palestinian movement in the U.S.”
“The plan, dubbed ‘Project Esther,‘ casts pro-Palestinian activists in the U.S. as members of a global conspiracy aligned with designated terrorist organizations. As part of a so-called ‘Hamas Support Network,’ these protesters receive ‘indispensable support of a vast network of activists and funders with a much more ambitious, insidious goal — the destruction of capitalism and democracy,’ Project Esther’s authors allege.
This conspiratorial framing is part of a legal strategy to suppress speech favorable to Palestinians or critical of the U.S.-Israel relationship, by employing counterterrorism laws to suppress what would otherwise be protected speech, legal experts told Drop Site News.”
The authors of the plan are part of the right-wing Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, Drop Site says. Former President Donald Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025 but he is a strong supporter of Israel, having moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and accepted Israel’s annexation of Syria’s Golan Heights, considered illegal by the U.N. Security Council.
The Washington Post reported in May that Trump told donors in New York that he would deport foreign students if they demonstrate for Palestine. “One thing I do is, any student that protests, I throw them out of the country. You know, there are a lot of foreign students. As soon as they hear that, they’re going to behave,” Trump told the donors, the Post reported. (more...)
Trump Plans UK-Style Attack on Israel Criticism
Related:
Project 2025 Creators Have a Plan to 'Dismantle' Pro-Palestine Movement
On ex RCMP officer Mike Burke
In this weekly series, Nighttime Podcast is joined by investigative journalist Paul Palango and legal analyst Adam Rodgers to discuss the past week’s news stories related to Canadian crime.
In this episode we discuss:
- Paul and Adam’s review of the ‘Fear Thy Neighbor’ episode covering Portapique
- much more on ex RCMP member Mike Burke and the murder the RCMP isn’t talking about
Monday, November 4, 2024
Challenging the Media’s “Palestine Exception”
This episode is a conversation with Jason Toney, Director of Media Advocacy at CJPME about Canada's Media Ethics and our Media Accountability Project. We talk about the Canadian media's ethics, standards, biases, and erasure of Palestinian content. We speak about the impact CJPME had on media and the challenges we face.
U of T community members reflect on Israel’s ongoing violence in Lebanon
Student leaders discuss solidarity with Lebanon amid Israel’s violent attacks
On September 17, thousands of pagers exploded simultaneously across Lebanon, resulting in more than 2,800 people injured and at least nine people killed. A Lebanese security source told Reuters that the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad planted explosives inside 5,000 pagers ordered by Lebanese political party and militant group Hezbollah, months before the detonations.
Since October 8, 2023, Hezbollah has been launching rockets to Israel and repeatedly vowed to cease attacks if Israel ends its war on Gaza. On September 24, Israel dramatically intensified its airstrikes in Lebanon, killing over 720 people. Lebanese authorities deemed the attacks the “deadliest barrage” since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
As of October, Israel’s escalating airstrikes on Lebanon displaced 1.2 million people. In response to the escalating humanitarian crisis, the United Nations World Food Programme and the United Nations Children’s Fund dispatched a humanitarian convoy to provide essential protection, health, water, and sanitation services to those affected.
In light of the ongoing violence, The Varsity spoke to U of T community members about Israel’s attacks on Lebanon. (more...)
U of T community members reflect on Israel’s ongoing violence in Lebanon
U of T students hold tri-campus walkouts in protest of ongoing violence in Gaza
Protesters march through UTM, UTSC, and Sidney Smith
On October 7, the University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (UTMSU) organized a campus-wide walkout to protest Israel’s ongoing violence in Gaza. Three days later, the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) and students at the UTSG campus followed suit.
Since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed around 1,200 Israelis, the Israeli military has killed over 44,000 Palestinians. Israel has continued its attacks on Gaza and recently intensified its attack on the Lebanese political party and militant group Hezbollah. Since September, Israel’s attacks on Lebanon have killed over 700 people.
The Varsity attended each walkout and spoke with students about their participation in the protests. (more...)
U of T students hold tri-campus walkouts in protest of ongoing violence in Gaza
Academic boycotts of Israel are an ethical imperative
Israeli academic institutions are complicit in the occupation of Palestine
A few years back, I celebrated the completion of my undergraduate studies with Professor Sofyan Taya. Taya is a renowned physicist and president of the Islamic University of Gaza, and was a visiting scholar at the University of Waterloo when we met. I shared my interest in pursuing a similar career: one day being a part of the esteemed enterprise of higher education.
In early December 2023, Israel murdered Taya and his family when an airstrike hit their home. Taya is just one of thousands of Palestinian students, staff, and faculty who have lost their lives amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza — a genocide that I believe is aided and abetted by Canadian academic institutions.
However, it is necessary to understand how North American universities partnering with Israeli academic institutions contributed to Israel’s scholasticide — the systemic obliteration of education — during this genocide of Palestinians.
An infographic by Palestine’s Ministry of Education and Higher Education highlights that Israeli attacks and occupations have targeted numerous universities in Gaza, resulting in the complete destruction of all universities in Gaza. The same infographic reveals that Israeli bombardment has murdered over 400 educational staff and denied more than 80,000 students access to their universities.
Since the 1980s, the University of Toronto has consistently opposed academic boycotts on the grounds of “promoting academic freedom” and “freedom of expression.” However, as a graduate student who cares deeply about my work, I often contemplate what it means to engage in an academic arena — particularly in the sciences — that expects political sterility. I believe that academic boycotts are a just strategy for achieving true academic freedom and expression, especially in response to a genocide. (more...)
Academic boycotts of Israel are an ethical imperative
Navi Pillay: South Africa is very close to proving genocide in Gaza
How do you legally establish whether a country is guilty of genocide?
Chair of the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Judge Navi Pillay, says it’s all about proving intent—a daunting task that South African lawyers are already “halfway” through in their ICJ case against Israel.
Growing up in apartheid-era South Africa, Pillay has spent her career navigating some of the world’s toughest human rights battles.
In conversation with Imran Garda, she opens up about the ongoing atrocities in the occupied Palestinian territories, the challenges of investigating them, and why she believes that, despite its flaws, the UN remains a vital force in the global pursuit of peace.
David Pugliese’s Work Is A Gift For Ukrainian Canadians Like Me
We need more journalists to call attention to the fascist underpinnings of some Ukrainian organizations in Canada and their supporters.
On October 24, former Conservative MP and cabinet member Chris Alexander baselessly accused Ottawa Citizen journalist David Pugliese of being a Russian agent. The remarks came during Alexander’s appearance before a Public Safety and National Security committee meeting, granting him parliamentary privilege and absolute protection from being sued for defamation.
Alexander’s accusation focused on Pugliese’s important reporting on national defence and Ukrainian Nazis in Canada. He claimed that Pugliese’s work often contains themes that “Moscow would be delighted to promote” and “weaken Canadian support for Ukraine.”
I’m a Ukrainian Canadian, and I disagree with Alexander’s remarks.
Pugliese’s reporting has been vital in exposing the fascist underpinnings of some Ukrainian organizations in Canada, as well as how the Canadian government welcomed Nazis after the Second World War. In order to deal with Nazis and Nazi sympathizers in the Ukrainian Canadian community, we need to first acknowledge that they exist. Without Pugliese’s work — as well as reporting by The Maple, The Breach and independent journalists such as Moss Robeson — far fewer Canadians would be aware of this blight on the country.
Alexander characterizing Pugliese’s reporting as advancing Russian propaganda is an attempt to divert attention away from the real issue, and is reminiscent of McCarthyism. Moreover, while Alexander frames his accusations as being in solidarity with Ukrainians, he actually ignores or outright denies the existence of Ukrainian Canadians like me who want our community’s Nazi problem to be known to the public.
It wasn’t always this way in the community, as the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada has a rich socialist and anti-fascist history. (more...)
David Pugliese’s Work Is A Gift For Ukrainian Canadians Like Me
Lobby in the US ensures unconditional support for Israel
With the US set to elect its next president in just over 24 hours, RT's Middle East Bureau chief Maria Finoshina examines the close ties between Washington and Israel, highlighting the influence of Israel's powerful lobby in the US.
Sunday, November 3, 2024
Latin American Governments Pay a Price For Challenging Israel’s Genocidal War
Governments in Latin America have been at the forefront of opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and several of those which have done so suddenly face new threats, even including attempted coups. Adrienne Pine, a professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies, said during a recent webinar hosted by the Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition that “anybody who stands with Palestine is going to be attacked in Latin America by the U.S. and by Zionists.”
Recent events appear to show the truth of her remarks.
Of the 165 countries that recognize Israel, only four have officially cut diplomatic ties with the country since it began its Gaza offensive, and all of them are Latin American: Bolivia, Belize, Colombia and Nicaragua (Venezuela severed its ties with Israel in 2009 while Cuba broke off relations during the Yom Kippur War of 1973).
A further eight countries have withdrawn their diplomats from Tel Aviv since October 7, 2023, of which Chile, Brazil, and Honduras are from Latin America.
This article looks at the experience of three governments in the region which have strongly opposed Israel’s genocidal war—Nicaragua, Honduras, and Colombia. All are suffering attacks that appear to be either in direct retaliation for their actions or which suspiciously coincide with them. All three have progressive governments which have historic reasons for challenging Israel, adding to their condemnation of its recent actions. (more...)
Latin American Governments Pay a Price For Challenging Israel’s Genocidal War
Related:
Israel’s Latin American trail of terror
From Israel to US politics, how do Evangelicals control the US?
How influential is the Evangelical church in US politics?
Macron’s minions are still in love with Israel
Emmanuel Macron and his advisers seem intent on taking contortion to a new limit.
As soon as the French president says something that upsets the Tel Aviv establishment, his entourage twists itself into various uncomfortable positions while trying to strike a different tone.
When Israel announced that it is taking legal action against the alleged exclusion of its firms from the Euronaval arms fair, Macron’s team at the Élysée Palace denied that a “boycott” is taking place. The palace just opposes “any promotion of weapons used in Gaza and Lebanon, which cause unacceptable damage to the civilian population,” Macron’s office has said.
The awkward attempts to fudge important issues should not distract from how quite a few of Macron’s allies are ensconced in the pro-Israel lobby.
Some of his allies may even be using the lobby to advance their careers.
Damien Bertrand-Fortobeaux is a new recruit at the Brussels office of the European Leadership Network (Elnet), a pro-Israel advocacy group. Before taking up that job, he was an assistant to Ilana Cicurel, until recently a lawmaker representing Macron’s Renaissance party.
Cicurel did not reply to a query, asking if she recommended Bertrand for the Elnet job.
Even if she did not provide a recommendation, Bertrand’s hiring is a case of revolving doors between institutions that theoretically serve the European public and pressure groups serving foreign states. (more...)
Macron’s minions are still in love with Israel
Israel is “perfecting” crimes committed by Britain
Committing a genocide is clearly not enough for a large bloc within Israel’s ruling coalition.
The far-right ministers in the government – backed by some members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party – are intensifying their push for recolonizing Gaza.
Their goal of building new settlements in a territory subjected to wholesale destruction is equally despicable and logical.
It is in keeping with the logic of the Balfour Declaration, the November 1917 document which kickstarted the process whereby a Jewish state would be established in Palestine.
The anniversary of the declaration – which falls this weekend – is an occasion to reflect on the thinking behind it, as well as its consequences.
Arthur James Balfour, Britain’s foreign secretary at the time, was under no illusions about what he was doing in issuing that pledge of support for the Zionist movement.
His declaration did not specify the contours of the state being envisaged, which was euphemistically described as a “national home.” Yet it did prove vital in creating “facts on the ground,” to use more recent Zionist parlance.
That is precisely what Balfour intended. (more...)
Israel is “perfecting” crimes committed by Britain
Germany’s Greens need to be denazified
Soon after joining Ireland’s Green Party in the 1990s, I attended a few discussions about the roots of ecological politics.
I don’t recall contributing much to those discussions. I just sat and listened to activists who were more clever and better informed than I was.
One such activist noted that there had previously been a political organization expressing a strong attachment to nature: The Nazis often talked about blood and soil.
At the time, I didn’t want to believe that Nazis could have influenced the international green movement in any way. The German Greens I had seen on television all appeared to be espousing a “make love not war” philosophy.
Today, the Greens’ Annalena Baerbock is foreign minister in the Berlin government. She talks about learning from her country’s past, while doing the opposite.
Baerbock identifies the Holocaust as “the worst crime the world has ever seen.” To atone for it, she is enabling a holocaust in Gaza, the worst crime that the world has seen so far this century.
Germany has just released new data showing that it approved military exports worth more than $100 million to Israel over the past three months. (more...)
Germany’s Greens need to be denazified
Trudeau’s ‘IHRA handbook’ Will Foster Persecution of Palestine Activism, Must be Withdrawn
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) warns that the pro-censorship ‘IHRA handbook’ released today by Canadian Heritage will have a chilling effect on pro-Palestine speech and activism and demands it to be withdrawn immediately. Civil society, human rights groups, and faculty associations broadly oppose the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism (known as “IHRA”) because it purposefully conflates criticism of Israeli policy with antisemitism and is frequently deployed by supporters of Israel to unfairly shut down Palestinians perspectives. CJPME warns that this seemingly innocuous handbook will result in public institutions persecuting people who criticize systemic racism within Israel, rather than fighting discrimination.
“After over a year of Canadians protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Trudeau has the audacity to publish a guide on how to crack down on pro-Palestine speech,” said Michael Bueckert, Vice President of CJPME. “This anti-Palestine, pro-censorship handbook poses a direct threat to civil liberties and will target the critics of Israel’s atrocities, especially Palestinians. We urge Canadian institutions to reject the use of the handbook,” added Bueckert. More than 11,000 Canadians have e-mailed the Prime Minister asking for the handbook to be shelved.
Based on a preliminary analysis of Trudeau’s IHRA handbook, CJPME has identified several important ways that it maliciously and falsely labels pro-Palestine speech and actions as antisemitic. (more...)
Trudeau’s ‘IHRA handbook’ Will Foster Persecution of Palestine Activism, Must be Withdrawn
Saturday, November 2, 2024
The dangerous acceleration of remote-controlled warfare
AI is creating a bonanza for tech companies and is being cast as a cleaner way to wage war, but the human cost is devastating
The tech industry’s emerging role as a defense contractor is transforming the global battlefield in ways that frighten and mesmerize. We’re now seeing how data-driven technology is shaping modern warfare, though it’s hard to fully fathom the level of death and destruction that is in store.
One of the most chilling examples of Silicon Valley’s military advance is Israel’s use of Amazon and Google cloud services and AI technology to store surveillance information on Gaza’s population, as part of a contract called Project Nimbus. The technology is helping Israel process and analyze vast amounts of data on Palestinians, including facial recognition and demographic information. The AI tools have been reportedly used to monitor and force Palestinians off their land, and in some cases, have enabled Israel’s military to carry out aerial assassinations that have killed and injured scores of civilians.
In Ukraine, the battlefield has turned into a laboratory for the latest military technologies. Palantir, a data-analytics company with close ties to the American intelligence community, uses AI tools to analyze satellite imagery, open-source data, drone footage, and oversee most of Ukraine’s military targeting efforts, in particular against Russian tanks and artillery. While Palantir has been dubbed the AI arms dealer of the 21st century, a host of other tech firms have descended onto Ukraine. These companies are selling weapons systems and collecting a trove of data about how battles are fought and how people and machines react under fire. The data itself is a crucial resource and a windfall for companies, because AI systems need data for fuel—they need to be fed with large amounts of images from complex environments in order to operate. (more.)
The dangerous acceleration of remote-controlled warfare
UK's Starmer targets journalists
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer targets journalists. In today's show, we'll be talking to the Electronic Intifada's associate editor, Asa Winstanley, about the impact of the British govt. misusing anti-terrorist legislation against journalists, after his home was raided by counter terrorism police last month.
Cutting through Gordian Knots
In this comprehensive roundtable, Mathew Crawford, Cynthia Chung and Matt Ehret share notes and discoveries pertaining to the subtle forces shaping our world.
‘100% Gentle Azovization’
Neo-Nazis train Ukraine’s Presidential Brigade, and top instructor calls Ukrainians slaves that must be weaponized
“War makes fascists of us all.” Paul Verhoeven, the director of Starship Troopers (1997), said this in an interview about his cult-classic film, which satirized a “fascist utopia,” based on a 1959 novel that some described as actually fascist. For Rostyslav Nyzytskyi, a captain in the Azov Brigade with the call-sign “Polack,” Starship Troopers is one of his favorite books: “The essence of this little work will always be immense to me. But briefly … the state belongs to the strongest.” Only military veterans can vote and hold public office. As for the Ukrainian state, “I want to take her, she belongs to me, she’s mine. I have to take it away from everyone who isn’t me.”
A few days earlier in May 2024, Nyzytskyi said what worries him are the modern-day “esirs” (a Turkish word for a slave, captive, or prisoner). This is apparently what he pejoratively calls Ukrainians unwilling to fight, who are increasingly rounded up by force and sent to the front with little to no training. Meanwhile, “Russia has long been wiping us out with its janissaries,” referring to the elite slave-soldiers of the Ottoman empire. When it comes to Ukraine’s slave-soldiers, “Everything depends on us, whether we can turn them into janissaries … because there are still many esirs, [but] we are almost gone, and the esirs don’t care who they work for or who rebuilds what.”
By “we,” Nyzytskyi apparently meant the “active nationalists” that dived into battle, some of them hoping to reach Valhalla. As the heavily Nazi tattooed pagan Azov veteran “Martyn” said a few days ago, “unconscious” Ukrainians “consider these people to be sick, misguided, and just plain crazy … [but] WE, the ‘fucked up’ nationalists, are the ones who allow our country to remain sovereign.”
It is the unhinged sportsmen, soccer fans, hooligans, etc. who are now in the management of the strongest units of the Armed Forces … so we are improving our skills, bringing ourselves a little bit [closer] to the ideal. To the ideal of a Ukrainian Nationalist!!! (more...)
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