Will UK Ministers Now Be Held Liable for War Crimes?

 

Britain’s new government admits Israel could use UK weapons for war crimes in Gaza. So will their Conservative predecessors be investigated for complicity?

This week, the UK government finally decided to suspend some arms export licences to Israel, almost 11 months after the fighting began.

Speaking in parliament, foreign secretary David Lammy announced that “around 30 from a total of approximately 350” arms export licences to Israel had been frozen due to a “clear risk that they might be used to commit” war crimes.

The restrictions include equipment that could be used “in the current conflict in Gaza, such as important components which go into military aircraft, including fighter aircraft, helicopters and drones, as well as items which facilitate ground targeting”.

By contrast, the previous Conservative government did not cancel any licences for military goods to be sent to Israel between 7 October and the general election.

The latest restrictions consequently indicate that former ministers including Rishi Sunak and David Cameron, as well as Conservative leadership contenders James Cleverly and Kemi Badenoch, were complicit in Israel’s atrocities.

In particular, there is mounting evidence that Lammy’s predecessor, Lord Cameron, “sat on advice” he received that Israel was breaching international humanitarian law (IHL) in Gaza.  (more...)

Will UK Ministers Now Be Held Liable for War Crimes?

After DNC, we're escalating our protests for Palestine

 

With no end in sight to the suffering and horror, public pressure on the governments that aid and abet the Israeli genocide, particularly the United States, is essential. Today we will welcome Hatem Abudayyeh back to the program.

He is national chair of the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), a leading force in mobilizing Palestinians and allies across the country to protest US suppport for the Israeli genocide.

We spoke to Hatem last month, on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, when he served as spokesperson for the March on the DNC Coalition. We will talk to Hatem about where the protest movement goes next, and the struggle of Palestinians detained in Israel’s prisons and torture camps.

Contrived charges of antisemitism are the new ‘Red Scare’

 

How an evidence-free smear is being used to suppress those fighting for justice in Palestine.

U.S. Senator Joe McCarthy (R – WI, 1946-57) would have been proud. In the 1950s, McCarthy led a series of hearings and shadowy ‘investigations, attacking supporters of labor and progressive causes as ‘Communists.’ Evidence of wrongdoing was not provided and not needed, only allegations. People lost their jobs and their careers, faced hostile grilling by Congressional committees, and were sent to prison after being accused of Communism by McCarthy and his allies.

The “Red Scare,” as it was called, came to resemble the witch hunts in 17th-century New England. Now, supporters of Israel have resurrected McCarthy’s tactics, condemning all who call for peace in Palestine or an end to U.S. military aid to Israel as ‘antisemites.’

The new McCarthyites smear as Jew-haters anyone who calls for a ceasefire in Gaza or says “Free Palestine.” They have attacked universities, labor unions, and school districts around the country. Current targets include professors, doctors, students, and staff at my former employer, the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center.

Last month, congressional Republicans sent a chilling letter to UCSF. They threatened to stop Medicare and MediCal reimbursement, putting at risk the care of thousands of desperately ill patients. The letter said Congress is investigating “hundreds of complaints from UCSF employees and patients of antisemitism and/or a hostile work environment.” These complaints were conveniently “learned from confidential sources,” so no one can check them.  (more...)

Contrived charges of antisemitism are the new ‘Red Scare’

Palestinians Seek Review of Case Charging Biden With Enabling Israel’s Genocide in Gaza Because of Its “Exceptional Importance”

 

Palestinians, Palestinian Americans, and Palestinians human rights groups are urging the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to review their lawsuit charging President Biden and his aides with enabling Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Last month, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit affirmed the decision of a lower court, which dismissed the case on jurisdictional grounds even as it said Israel’s assault “plausibly” constituted genocide. In an en banc petition filed late yesterday, the plaintiffs argue that courts have a constitutional duty to assess the legality of the Biden administration's actions.

“Just this week, my brother’s apartment building in Gaza was completely destroyed– the second time he lost his home, after our family house was obliterated in 2009,” said Ayman Nijim, a plaintiff in the case. “The U.S. is providing the bombs for this genocide. I have lost countless friends and neighbors, so many that I couldn’t know where to start to grieve. When will the courts uphold the law and stop the horror?”

If the Ninth Circuit grants the petition for en banc rehearing, the case would be heard by an eleven-judge en banc court. A case needs to meet at least one of two requirements for en banc review: it must involve a matter of “exceptional importance” or have resulted in inconsistency with other court rulings. The plaintiffs’ petition, filed on their behalf by the Center for Constitutional Rights and Van Der Hout LLP, argues that their case fulfills both.

One indication of the case’s “exceptional importance,” the petition says, is the scale of the ongoing violence. With unconditional U.S. support, Israel has killed about 40,000 Palestinians – injured more than 90,000, forcibly displaced 2 million, and pushed large segments of Gaza into famine. Israel’s actions, which followed numerous expressions of eliminationist intent by its leaders, have led many legal experts and scholars to conclude that it is committing genocide, the most serious human rights crime. In January, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s assault “plausibly” amounted to genocide and ordered it to take provisional measures to prevent further harm to civilians.  (more...)

Palestinians Seek Review of Case Charging Biden With Enabling Israel’s Genocide in Gaza Because of Its “Exceptional Importance”

Revoking JNF tax status a step to ending genocide subsidies

 

The recent revocation of the Jewish National Fund’s charitable status may be the most important Palestine solidarity victory in Canadian history. The grassroots win is a boost to the global Stop the JNF campaign and efforts to disrupt Canadian charity assistance to Israel.

On August 10 the federal government officially revoked the charitable status of an organization that’s had many prime ministers, ministers and senators attend their events. Days before the revocation was made official former PM Stephen Harper headlined JNF fundraisers in Windsor and London, Ontario. Held across the country, the organization’s galas draw thousands of well healed and connected individuals each year. JNF Canada has partnered with provincial governments and has raised over a quarter billion dollars since 2003.

After 57 years of making all Canadians subsidize its racism, support for West Bank colonies and the Israeli military, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) finally withdrew the JNF’s ability to give its donors tax receipts, which often amount to half (or more) of donations. Within a year the JNF must wind up its charitable operations and dispose of its $30 million in assets.

In its letter explaining the revocation, the CRA highlights a slew of issues with JNF’s operations. Alongside a multitude of accounting issues, the revenue agency criticizes JNF Canada’s assistance to its explicitly racist parent organization in Israel. The CRA letter notes, “Our review identified that the Organization’s resources appear to have been applied to JNF’s non-charitable projects in the Occupied Territories, and to supporting the Israeli armed forces, and not to activities furthering its charitable purposes. It is our position that the Organization has operated as a conduit for JNF [Israel], a non-qualified donee, in contravention of the Act.”  (more...)

Revoking JNF tax status a step to ending genocide subsidies

Open Letter: Civil Society Coalition Urges Canada to Stop All Arms Transfers to Israel

 

Dear Minister Joly,

We, the undersigned civil society organizations, are deeply concerned at the enduring devastation in Gaza. Canada risks complicity in this humanitarian catastrophe through its ongoing transfer of military goods destined to Israel, exports which are incompatible with its obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). As organizations committed to upholding human rights, the protection of civilians, peace, and justice—several of whom are present in Gaza and seeing daily the grave consequences of the transfer of weapons to conflict parties—we urge the Government of Canada to take immediate action to cease all exports of arms and arms components to Israel, as well as any and all transfers for which Israel will be the end user.

In the past ten months, more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military campaign across the Gaza Strip, the majority being women and children. More than 92,000 have been injured and critical civilian infrastructure has been destroyed. Over the last few weeks only, Israel attacked at least seven schools. They add to the long list of schools, hospitals, refugee camps and places of worship hit since October—many of these crowded with displaced civilians sheltering from the violence.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the ATT, which Canada acceded to five years ago. Under the ATT, Canada is prohibited from exporting arms if those transfers would be used to commit serious crimes under international law including disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks. Moreover, states parties to the Treaty cannot authorize arms transfers if there is an overriding risk they could be misused, including to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian law (IHL)—the very type of behaviour that has become routine by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). These obligations are also reflected under domestic law in Canada’s Export and Import Permits Act (EIPA).  (more...)

Open Letter: Civil Society Coalition Urges Canada to Stop All Arms Transfers to Israel

CRA lays ground to revoke Schwartz and Reisman’s IDF charity

 

As protesters descend on 20 Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) offices across the country today to demand it apply the Income Tax Act towards 200 Israel-focused charities, the CRA has prepared the ground to revoke the charitable status of a much-criticized charity set up by billionaire power couple Gerry Schwartz and Heather Reisman. In its letters to the Ne’eman Foundation revoking its charitable status the CRA leaves little doubt that Schwartz and Reisman’s HESEG Foundation for Lone Soldiers violates charity rules.

In its rationale for revoking the Ne’eman Foundation the CRA makes it clear that it considers assisting the Israeli military and “lone soldiers” a violation of charity rules. Its recently released revocation letter notes, “We further stated that increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which is further discussed in section 2.b), is not a charitable purpose.” Referring to “lone soldiers” more than a dozen times, the CRA letter notes, “‘The Lone Soldier Centre’s website also clearly defines the term lone soldier as “an IDF soldier with no family in Israel to support him or her’… As such, we are unable to accept the Organization’s representations that this agent does not support the IDF and that lone soldiers are simply immigrants without a family in Israel.”

In 2005 Reisman and Schwartz established the HESEG Foundation for Lone Soldiers. Since then, they have given nearly $200 million to support Torontonians, New Yorkers and other non-Israeli “lone soldiers” who join an occupation force brutalizing Palestinians.

Up to “90%” of wealthy people’s donations to registered charities are covered by all taxpayers, explains charity law expert Mark Blumberg in a recent Canadian Jewish News interview on the revocation of the Jewish National Fund’s charitable status. “There’s a lot of wealthy people getting 80 or 90 cents on the dollar when they donate”, explained Blumberg. “What that means is their money is going to Israel, for very good stuff in Israel, but it’s only 10 cents their money. 90 percent [is] federal and provincial money.”  (more...)

CRA lays ground to revoke Schwartz and Reisman’s IDF charity

Releasing Canada’s WWII Nazi list will ‘help Russia’ – Ukrainian activists

 

A government commission named 900 alleged war criminals living in the country but its report has been kept secret since 1986

The Canadian state archives have been advised against releasing the names of alleged Nazi war criminals residing in the country, for fear it might boost “Russian propaganda” against Ukraine.

The Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has received multiple requests to declassify the list of around 900 names, compiled by a 1986 war crimes commission. After consulting with “multiple stakeholders,” the LAC has decided to hold off on its publication.

A report on these consultations said that many of the stakeholders were worried about the implications “of associating Ukrainian names with Nazis,” claiming that this would validate Russia’s claims about its military operation in Ukraine, according to the Globe and Mail. The newspaper is among those that filed a request to have the names released. 

Russia could use the list to “further these allegations or conduct disinformation campaigns in Canada,” which might affect public support for Ukraine, the LAC was reportedly told.  (more...)

Releasing Canada’s WWII Nazi list will ‘help Russia’ – Ukrainian activists

And more:

Canada publishing Nazi list would aid 'Russian propaganda': Ukraine

Feds say disclosing ‘Nazi blacklist’ could aid Russia’s war in Ukraine

 

Library and Archives Canada is contemplating disclosure of the Nazis who settled in Canada after WWII. However, some allege the report could ‘further … disinformation campaigns in Canada,’ which might affect public support for Ukraine.

The Trudeau government warned disclosure of Nazi war criminals who entered Canada would aid Russia’s war against Ukraine. Ninety eight known Nazi Party members immigrated to Canada in 1946.

A confidential blacklist of 27 Nazi fugitives recommended for prosecution remains sealed as of writing, reported Blacklock’s Reporter. The feds have yet to release the Nazi blacklist despite pressure from Opposition parties.

B'nai Brith Canada has also advocated for the disclosure of the Deschene Commission’s findings since the 1980s, but to no avail. 

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is in consultation on whether to publish Part 2 of the 1986 Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada. The commission, led by retired Superior Court of Quebec judge Jules Deschênes, held back names of Nazi war criminals living in Canada.

“LAC is still refining and concluding its analysis to respond to the ATI requests,“ spokesman Richard Provencher said, in accordance with the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act.  (more...)

Feds say disclosing ‘Nazi blacklist’ could aid Russia’s war in Ukraine

Chrystia Freeland provides a vague answer when asked if the government will reopen a report to establish how many people who fought with the Nazis are currently in Canada. https://t.co/q3IGy1jPSt pic.twitter.com/2BKnpw9vOJ

— Rebel News Canada (@RebelNews_CA) September 26, 2023

Releasing names of 900 alleged Nazi war criminals who fled to Canada could embarrass federal government, bureaucrats told

 

Large numbers of soldiers from a Ukrainian Waffen SS division fled to Canada after the Second World War.

A list of 900 alleged Nazi war criminals who fled to Canada could remain secret as federal officials come under increasing pressure to censor the records because they could prove embarrassing to this country.

Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa consulted in June and July with what it called a “discrete group of individuals or organizations” about whether the list should be made public, according to documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen.

Those consulted included members of Canada’s Ukrainian community, records show, but Library and Archives Canada, also known as LAC, did not include Holocaust survivors nor Holocaust scholars who had advocated for a full release of the list of alleged Nazi war criminals, Jewish and Holocaust academics say.

Some of the individuals and organizations consulted by LAC argued against releasing any of the information, warning it could be embarrassing or lead to prosecutions of the alleged war criminals.

“A few stakeholders were concerned that the release of the report would result in new legal action (criminal prosecution, citizen revocation, or otherwise) being brought against the individuals named in the report,” a summary of the library’s discussions noted.

Other stakeholders who advised LAC worried the list would embarrass Canada’s Ukrainian community or be used by Russians for propaganda purposes, the records show.  (more...)

Releasing names of 900 alleged Nazi war criminals who fled to Canada could embarrass federal government, bureaucrats told

Related:

Russia pledges to continue pushing for Nazi veteran’s extradition

In Hitler, Mackenzie King saw something of a saint: Excerpted from ‘Shadows of Tyranny’

 

‘As I talked with him I could not but think of Joan of Arc,’ Canada’s prime minister wrote of his meeting with the Führer.

Ken McGoogan’s new book “Shadows of Tyranny” seeks to parallel current political trends in the United States to the rise of totalitarianism in Europe in the 1930s. As some sounded alarm bells about Germany’s new leader, some were charmed — Canada’s PM emphatically among them.

In the spring of 1937, Canada’s prime minister was still clinging to the view, originally espoused by British prime minister Winston Churchill, that the greatest guarantee of world peace was a strong British Empire working in concert with the United States. By then, the media baron Lord Beaverbrook, a Canadian expatriate, had become furiously anti-Hitler. And Churchill himself was churning out syndicated political articles warning that the Nazis were rearming for war.

That William Lyon Mackenzie King did not perceive Hitler as a threat to the Empire presents a puzzle. What was wrong with the man? Certainly, he lived in a world of his own. Born in 1874 in Berlin, Ontario — now Kitchener, two hours west of Toronto — young William had grown up worshipping his mother far beyond what might be considered typical of a son, regarding her as a kind of saint. She was the daughter of William Lyon Mackenzie, leader of a failed Canadian rebellion in 1837. The grandson did not lack intelligence. He earned a scholarship to the University of Toronto, where he studied law, politics, and economics. Then he earned a doctorate at Harvard University before returning home to Canada and entering public service. He became a trusted adviser and confidant to prime minister Wilfrid Laurier and, after his death in 1919, became Liberal Party leader.

King would become the longest-serving prime minister in Canadian history — 22 years over three nonconsecutive terms. Having held the office from 1921 to 1930, he regained it in 1935. Two years later, King sailed to London, where at an Imperial Conference he met German ambassador Joachim von Ribbentrop. This man would serve as Hitler’s minister of foreign affairs from 1938 to 1945 and would play such a vital role in creating the death camps that, after the Nuremberg trials, he would become the first war criminal to be executed by hanging.  (more...)

In Hitler, Mackenzie King saw something of a saint: Excerpted from ‘Shadows of Tyranny’

Exposed: the US and Canadian Funding Behind Israeli Soldiers Accused of Rape

 

Cuffed and blindfolded 24 hours a day. Confined to animal pens. Attacked by dogs. This is reportedly the treatment of Palestinian detainees at Sde Teiman, an Israeli military base in the Naqab desert. While claims of torture and abuse at the facility began circulating in December, the Israeli military did not open an investigation into the allegations until July 29, when 10 Israeli soldiers were detained on suspicion of sexually abusing a detainee.

In response to the soldiers’ detention, a mob of right-wing extremists stormed Sde Teiman and later broke into the Beit Lid military base, where the detained soldiers were being held. Among those detained were soldiers from the Force 100 unit, which was resurrected at the onset of the war and has been responsible for guarding the detainees at Sde Teiman. Masked soldiers, wearing black shirts emblazoned with the unit’s logo—a snake inside the Jewish Star of David—were seen participating in the protests.

*Southern Israel:* Force 100 soldiers who walked away from there posts to join the protest against the investigation of their comrades are welcomed with cheers and dances. pic.twitter.com/mYCwPhQi9d

— (((IsraelMatzav))) (@IsraelMatzav) July 29, 2024

Several Israeli lawmakers took part in the riots, including Otzma Yehudit’s (Jewish Power) Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu, Religious Zionism member of parliament, Zvi Sukkot, and parliamentary members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, Nissim Vaturi and Tally Gotliv.

Protests have continued to erupt in support of the soldiers, including, most recently, outside an Israeli High Court hearing on the case on August 7, 2024.

As allegations of torture and sexual abuse at Israel’s Sde Teiman detention facility escalate and Israeli Military Police prepare to conclude their investigation and file indictments against the suspects, MintPress uncovers the financial and political infrastructure, including from the U.S. and Canada, backing these soldiers through tax-exempt organizations and crowdfunding platforms. This marks a disturbing shift in global support for human rights violations, now extending even to those implicated in the Israeli military’s acts of sexual violence.  (more...)

Exposed: the US and Canadian Funding Behind Israeli Soldiers Accused of Rape

Anti-Genocide Students Are Back

 

Sustained pushback against campus repression will be essential to upholding the right to protest as guaranteed by the First Amendment

With nearly 18 million students on U.S. college campuses this fall, defenders of the war on Gaza don’t want to hear any backtalk. Silence is complicity, and that’s the way Israel’s allies like it.

For them, the new academic term restarts a threat to the status quo. But for supporters of human rights, it’s a renewed opportunity to turn higher education into something more than a comfort zone.

In the United States, the extent and arrogance of the emerging collegiate repression is, quite literally, breathtaking. Every day, people are dying due to their transgression of breathing while Palestinian.

The Gaza death toll adds up to more than one Kristallnacht per day — for upwards of 333 days and counting, with no end in sight.

The shattering of a society’s entire infrastructure has been horrendous. Months ago, citing data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, ABC News reported that “25,000 buildings have been destroyed, 32 hospitals forced out of service, and three churches, 341 mosques and 100 universities and schools destroyed.”

Not that this should disturb the tranquility of campuses in the country whose taxpayers and elected leaders make it all possible. Top college officials wax eloquent about the sanctity of higher learning and academic freedom while they suppress protests against policies that have destroyed scores of universities in Palestine.  (more...)

Anti-Genocide Students Are Back

VIDEO: Columbia University Alma Mater statue dripping in red paint on the first day of fall classes as students protest against the university’s continue support for genocide.

Provided anon. https://t.co/ryMQTg2eeJ pic.twitter.com/IaHmQEXBKr

— Talia Jane ❤️‍🔥 (@taliaotg) September 3, 2024

Related:

Teach-In Network

How U.S. College Administrators Are "Dreaming Up Ways to Squash Gaza Protests"

 

As the fall term gets underway for students across the United States, we speak with journalist and academic Natasha Lennard about how college administrators are attempting to quash Gaza solidarity actions following mass protests at campuses across the country in the spring. One example is New York University, which recently updated its student policy to make criticisms of Zionism potentially punishable under its anti-discrimination rules. "It's extremely dangerous," says Lennard, who teaches at The New School. "It performs de facto apologia for Israel, and to have that put into writing by a university so clearly is just open for further abuses."

Related:

College Administrators Spent Summer Break Dreaming Up Ways to Squash Gaza Protests

"Campus Has Become Unrecognizable": Columbia Prof. Franke Faces Firing After DN Interview on Gaza

 

Columbia University law professor Katherine Franke last appeared on Democracy Now! in January to discuss an attack on Columbia's campus targeting pro-Palestinian student activists with a foul-smelling liquid that led to multiple hospitalizations. Following her interview, Franke now faces termination after two Columbia professors filed a complaint against her claiming she had created a hostile environment for Israeli students; she also became a target for Republican lawmakers.

Franke joins Democracy Now! to discuss the campaign against her, the ongoing crackdown on pro-Palestine activism at Columbia and more. "There's an overreaction by the university, a weaponization of the disciplinary system against students and faculty in ways that in my over 40 years at Columbia I have never seen," she says. 

We are also joined by attorney Kathleen Peratis, who is representing Franke along with the Center for Constitutional Rights after she quit her former law firm, Outten & Golden, because it dropped Franke as a client, saying she was too controversial. "What happened at Outten & Golden is the kind of thing that's happening all over," says Peratis.

Northwestern Suspends Journalism Professor Steven Thrasher After Gaza Solidarity Protest

 

We speak with journalist, author and academic Steven Thrasher, the chair of social justice reporting at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He was singled out by name during a congressional hearing about pro-Palestine protests on college campuses earlier this year, with one Republican lawmaker calling him a "goon" for protecting students in an encampment from violent arrest. Northwestern filed charges against Thrasher for obstructing police that were later dropped, but students returning to Northwestern for the fall term will not see him in their classrooms because he has been suspended as Northwestern says he is under investigation. In his first interview about the affair, Thrasher tells Democracy Now! that he stands by his actions and that he has "received no due process" from his employer. He says the university has previously celebrated him, including in "glowing" job reviews and by publicizing his work. "What they don't like is that I am now applying the same social justice journalism principles that I've applied to race and that I've applied to LGBTQ people, to COVID and HIV, that I was now applying those to Palestine," says Thrasher.

Undercover Empire: London’s Global Covert Revolution Strategy

 

On February 21st, 1994, Webster Tarpley delivered a lecture titled "London, The New Venice" at the Schiller Institute's conference. In this lecture, Tarpley provides a detailed analysis of the British Empire's strategies in the 19th century, focusing on Lord Palmerston's role in orchestrating revolutions and manipulating nationalist movements to establish British Empire supremacy. The lecture presents London as the nerve center of a new global order, modeled after the Venetian oligarchy, where British power is strategically deployed to dominate international affairs. Tarpley categorically identifies London as the epicenter of this global dominance, positioning the British Empire as the successor to the power and influence once held by Venice.

Details:

Undercover Empire: London’s Global Covert Revolution Strategy

First, Elon Musk made us pay for ‘free speech’. Now he decides who’s allowed it

 

The ‘saviour of free speech’ is cracking down on criticism of Israel’s genocide. What he calls the ‘faaaaar left’ is in his crosshairs. It’ll be erased so utterly, you won’t remember it was ever there

Many users of X, formerly Twitter, seem deeply misguided. They imagine that Elon Musk is the saviour of free speech. He’s not. He is simply the latest pioneer in monetising speech. Which isn’t the same thing at all.

All the blue ticks on X – mine included – are buying access to an audience. Which is why Musk has made it so easy to get a blue tick – and why there are now so many of them on the platform. If you don’t pay Musk, the algorithms make sure you get minimal reach. You are denied your five seconds of fame.

That has particularly infuriated corporate journalists. On what used to be called Twitter, they got access to large audiences as a natural right, along with politicians and celebrities. They never paid a penny. They felt entitled to those big audiences because they already enjoyed similarly big audiences in the so-called “legacy media”. They did not see why they start competing with the rest of us to be heard.

The new media system was rigged, as the old media system has been for centuries, to ensure that it was their voices that counted. Or rather it was the voices of the ultra-wealthy paying their salaries who counted.

Independent journalists, including myself, have been some of the chief beneficiaries of Musk’s X. But I don’t for a minute make the mistake of thinking Musk is really in favour of my free speech – or anyone else’s – compared to his own.  (more...)

First, Elon Musk made us pay for ‘free speech’. Now he decides who’s allowed it

A reminder that free speech in America is special and we need to do everything possible to preserve it https://t.co/yAvX1TpuRp

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 19, 2024

Related:

A Note by Global Research

The war on Palestine within U.S. education isn’t just happening in colleges, but in K-12 schools as well

 

K-12 educators around the U.S. who show support for Palestine have been targeted with false charges of antisemitism and have faced a clear pattern of punishment without due process based on disturbing double standards.

In a May 2024 congressional hearing, the Committee on Education and the Workforce questioned leaders of three public school districts: New York City; the Washington, DC suburbs of Montgomery County, Maryland; and Berkeley, California. Similar to earlier hearings that cross-examined the presidents of Harvard, Penn, MIT, and Columbia, the event was premised on “pervasive antisemitism” in U.S. education and a demand for accountability from its leaders. 

As NPR reported, the K-12 hearing did not net the “headline moments” that lawmakers enjoyed with the university presidents, which saw the leaders struggle to answer questions and which helped bring about the resignation of three of them. Yet despite the lower profile of K-12 education in the current controversy over pro-Palestine speech in the wake of Hamas’s attack on Israel, teachers are being punished for expressing what the lawmakers maintain is antisemitic rhetoric that makes Jewish students and fellow teachers “unsafe.” 

But are the teachers actually antisemitic, as the lawmakers would have us believe? And whose safety is in fact in question? A deeper look into the allegations demonstrates a problematic definition of antisemitism and a tendency to punish immediately, without due process, analysis, or care.  (more...)

The war on Palestine within U.S. education isn’t just happening in colleges, but in K-12 schools as well

Britains Invisible Empire The Empire Today

 

Ed Spannaus introduces the September 1997 panel on Britains Invisible Empire. Copies of the Fall of the House of Windsor Report that he mentions are available at www.larouchepub.com Counter-Intelligence editor Jeff Steinberg opens by detailing the structure and nature of the modern British Empire starting with Queen Elizabeth, her perrogative powers, the Privy Council, and the corporate power she wields. Are you deluded enough to think that the British Empire is a relic of a romantic bygone age? Think that Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip are mere figureheads? Living museum pieces, trotted out out once in a while to go through the motions of dull state events while the other members of the royal family provide scandal for the tabloid headlines? Subjects in her empire might repeat that poppycock, (probably because their mum told them it was so) , however, the truth is radically different. Jeff Steinberg presents the ugly genocidal reality of the corporate structure, the raw materials cartel, the mercenary armies, the modern opium war on most of civilization, terrorism, psychological brainwashing operations, & the religious and environmentalist lunatics, all run out of London.

Details:

Britains Invisible Empire The Empire Today

Ukraine’s FM quits – parliament speaker

 

Dmitry Kuleba has reportedly joined four former cabinet ministers who have already been dismissed by Vladimir Zelensky

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba tendered his resignation to the national parliament on Wednesday, according to Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk, amid an ongoing purge by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky.

Four other cabinet members; Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Olga Stefanishina, Minister for Strategic Industries Aleksandr Kamyshin, Minister of Justice Denis Maliuski, and Minister of Environmental Protection Ruslan Strilets were also relieved of their posts by Zelensky on Tuesday. Prime Minister Denis Shmigal will reportedly keep his job, the outlet claimed.

Rumors about Kuleba’s imminent departure began circulating as soon as the other changes in the cabinet were announced.

The Ukrainskaya Pravda newspaper previously claimed that Kuleba’s most likely replacement will be Andrey Sibiga, a former ambassador described by the outlet as both Zelensky’s deputy chief of staff and Kuleba’s own deputy. The prediction on Tuesday evening cited a source in Zelensky’s office. 

The cabinet purge comes after the official expiration of both Zelensky’s presidential mandate and that of the Ukrainian parliament. The Ukrainian constitution provides only for the extension of parliamentary terms, but Zelensky has argued the martial law announced in February 2022 allows him to postpone all elections indefinitely.  (more...)

Ukraine’s FM quits – parliament speaker

Lessons from Lebanon trips & resisting draconian attacks on journalism

The Canada Files spoke to Dimitri Lascaris, a Canadian eco-socialist journalist and lawyer, who recently travelled to Lebanon for the fourth time since October 2023. Lascaris detailed the lessons he's learned about Lebanon and the broader Axis of Resistance's resistance to Israel's colonial ambitions and those he's gained from the fierce pro-resistance journalists he's met in Lebanon. Lascaris also talks about how the West's promised 'free speech' is under all-out-attack as anti-imperialist journalists in the West face state repression which could come home to Canada, and the need to oppose this threat.

The truth never dies, but it lives a miserable life

 

Harley and Me, September 3, 2024

Canadian tax subsidies to Israel likely total billions

 

How many registered Canadian charities are assisting an apartheid state commit a holocaust? How much money are they raising? And what percentage of these funds are taxpayers covering?

It’s difficult to answer these questions but it’s almost certainly more than I and other critics have been stating.

“Over 200 registered Canadian charities finance projects in Israel”, I wrote eight months ago in a piece headlined “Time to fix Canada’s anti-Palestinian tax code”. “It’s difficult to quantify exactly how much they funnel to a country with a GDP per capita equal to Canada’s, but Just Peace Advocates research has put it at around a quarter billion dollars annually. A third of that sum would be covered by taxpayers through charitable write-offs.”

The statistic of 200 groups raising a quarter billion dollars a year is based on the amounts reported on charities’ T2 fillings. That doesn’t include tax-receipted donations subsidizing Israeli universities, which fall under a different filing category. Yet Canadian Friends of Tel-Aviv University, Canadian Friends of the University of Haifa, Canadian Friends of Hebrew University, Canadian Friends of Ben-Gurion University, Canadian Friends of Bar Ilan University, Weizmann Canada and Technion Canada help raise money for universities that collaborate with Israel’s military. And the sums raised are astounding. In December Canadian billionaire Sylvan Adams gave $135 million ($US 100 million) to Ben-Gurion University at a Canadian Friends of Ben-Gurion University gala. According to the 2021 report Who Gives and Who Gets: The Beneficiaries of Private Foundation Philanthropy, the single top recipient of private Canadian foundations between 2014 and 2018 was Israel’s Technion, which received $89 million. By my calculation, Canadians raised half a billion dollars for Israeli universities over the past decade.  (more...)

Canadian tax subsidies to Israel likely total billions

US universities impose 'police state' rules to prevent protests

 

School is back in session at American universities just months after protests over Israel's war on Gaza. The University of Southern California in Los Angeles is now fenced with all students screened before entering campus. Officials hope this will prevent pro-Palestine encampments and demonstrations. TRT World’s Martin Markovits reports.

The British Empire Wants You To Be Stupid

 

March 26, 1994, historian & author Anton Chaitkin spoke in Long Beach, California. Starting from a shooting massacre in Hebron during a religious service, Chaitkin describes the various means by which the British Empire since the Venetian takeover in the 18th Century has used to control and brainwash people. In Southwest Asia, extremists of Muslim, & Jewish faiths have a British origin.

Also, organized crime, its defenders in the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith and the subsequent creation of Hollywood & Las Vegas, newspaper cartels such as the Hollinger Corporation, Geopolitics, crackpot movements like Theosophy, Satanism, Astrology, the belief in the End Times & Revelation, the installation of Hitler as dictator through the bankers Montague Norman and Hjalmar Schacht and the brainwashing of Hitler through British cult movements like the Thule Society. A lengthy question-and-answer period is included...

This presentation by Anton Chaitkin delivers a powerful and uncompromising analysis of the British Empire’s enduring influence on global affairs. Contrary to the common belief that the Empire has waned, it reveals that the British Empire remains a dominant force, strategically manipulating global finance, media, intelligence, and even organized crime to maintain its supremacy. Through meticulously controlled institutions like the IMF, the Hollinger Corporation, and covert intelligence networks, the British Empire continues to shape the world’s political, economic, and cultural landscapes, ensuring that its imperial interests are advanced and protected across the globe.

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The British Empire Wants You To Be Stupid

Ex State Dept Staffer EXPOSES How Israel Lobby Works

 

Katie talks to Josh Paul, Former Director in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs of the State Depart. Josh explains what our political economy is and how political incentive works. He also explains the Israel Lobby and why it is so entwined with our political economy.

Student protesters rally outside Simcoe Hall amid June Governing Council meeting

 

Governing council members discuss financial statements, student encampment

On June 27, U of T’s Governing Council held its final meeting of the 2023–2024 academic school year. In the meeting, council members discussed the university’s world rankings, financial statements, and the student encampment at King’s College Circle. 

While the meeting was taking place inside Simcoe Hall, UofT Occupy for Palestine (O4P) — the student group that organized the encampment — held a rally outside the building.

On June 13, the Muslim Students’ Association at UTSG and UTSC collaboratively posted an open letter on their Instagram calling on the Governing Council to pressure U of T President Meric Gertler to meet O4P’s demands or remove him from his position.

For more than two months, O4P has demanded that the university disclose their financial holdings, divest from companies supplying Israel with weapons, and cut ties with Israeli academic institutions. The letter stated that none of O4P’s demands are unreasonable and that “it is essential for the university to respond as genocide unfolds before our eyes.”

The letter has since been signed by 490 U of T students, staff, faculty, and alumni.  (more...)

Student protesters rally outside Simcoe Hall amid June Governing Council meeting

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Canadian Foreign Policy Hour

 

Yves Engler discussed Mexico pausing ties with Canadian embassy, arms industry's exploding sales and opposition to Toronto airshow. He also talked about Trudeau’s racist ‘hostage’ double standards, McGill president doubling down on genocide, Elle Canada scrubbing accolade for Sarah Jama and 15 rallies this week against Canada subsidizing Israel.

British Israel and the Venetian Roots of Populism

 

In this February 21, 1993 lecture, Gerry Rose delivered a comprehensive analysis of the historical and philosophical foundations of populism. His exploration of the deep conflict between Natural Law and Populism and his argument that a true republic must be anchored in natural law rather than driven by emotion and prejudice provide a unique perspective. Rose's tracing of the Historical Roots of populism back to Aristotle and his contrast with Plato's rationalism offers a rich understanding of this complex topic. 

Rose highlights the Venetian Influence on the spread of populist ideas, demonstrating how Venetian oligarchs manipulated religious and political spheres to foster division and maintain control. He emphasizes the Foundations of the American Republic as a deliberate attempt to establish governance based on natural law, contrasting sharply with populist methods. 

Rose's lecture also underscores the crucial Role of Education in maintaining a republic. His critique of Modern Politics for neglecting to uphold and communicate these foundational principles, thereby contributing to the rise of populism, is a key aspect of his analysis. Rose further explores Religious Manipulation, where elites use sectarianism to consolidate power, and examines the Cultural Impact of post-World War I pessimism and nihilism, which have exacerbated populist movements. He warns against the dangers of relying on Rhetoric vs. Reason in governance, stressing the importance of reasoned debate and factual understanding over emotional appeals.

With an in-depth analysis of British Israel, Rose delves into its key doctrines, including the Gnostic belief that the physical universe is inherently evil and the **doctrine of the elect**, both of which have fueled religious and racial divisions throughout history. He examines the influence of John Milton, whose works, shaped by his interactions with Venetian figures, played a significant role in spreading these divisive ideologies. Additionally, Rose discusses the broader impact of these ideas during the English Civil War, the rise of Oliver Cromwell, and their lasting effects on Western Civilization. This lecture is essential for anyone interested in understanding the intricate connections between natural law, religious sects, populism, and the ongoing struggle against elitist control throughout history.

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British Israel and the Venetian Roots of Populism

Working with spies makes you a propagandist, not a journalist

 

Establishment journalists have often worked closely with intelligence, military officials

While it’s strange that anyone claiming to be a journalist would boast about working with the intelligence agency of a foreign state, National Post columnist Adam Zivo is certainly not the first international correspondent to have flouted journalism ethics by directly engaging in counterintelligence operations while on the job.

On August 9, Zivo claimed on X that in 2022 he had organized a sting operation with the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, the country’s spy agency. Zivo said someone he noticed “speaking English loudly” at a mall in Odessa seemed suspicious and so he invited Ukrainian intelligence operatives to observe a dinner he later organized with the individual and his wife. Little came of the undercover op in which Zivo wore a wire to catch the suspected Chinese spy.

PressProgress Editor Luke LeBrun asked the National Post about the matter, but the paper’s representatives ignored his inquiries, seemingly indifferent to one of their staffer’s admitted collaboration with the spy agency of a country from which he’s submitted dozens of articles since Russia’s invasion in February 2022 (Zivo was sanctioned by the Kremlin that same year).

People are dunking on this tweet but this actually happened to me in Odesa in early 2023 with a guy who seemed to be a Chinese spy. I ended up organizing a small sting operation with two Ukrainian intelligence officers to figure out what his deal was. https://t.co/UtyFcpVCZo

— Adam Zivo (@ZivoAdam) August 10, 2024

The ‘Zivo affair’ is an odd tale, but it’s not unheard of for Canadian war correspondents to have ties to intelligence agencies, as I detailed in my 2016 book, A Propaganda System. In 1976 a US Senate Intelligence Committee documented close links between the CIA and journalists, showing how agents wrote Associated Press stories and conducted journalism training.  (more...)

Working with spies makes you a propagandist, not a journalist

U.S. universities spent the summer strategizing to suppress student activism. Here is their plan.

 

Schools across the U.S. have altered policies and even landscapes in an attempt to make a repeat of last spring’s Palestine protests impossible. The result is a far-reaching war on free expression and the increased militarization of higher education.

University administrators across the United States have declared an indefinite state of emergency on college campuses. Schools are rolling out policies in preparation for quashing pro-Palestine student activism this Fall semester, and reshaping regulations and even campuses in the process to suit this new normal.

Many of these policies being instituted share a common formula: more militarization, more law enforcement, more criminalization, and more consolidation of institutional power. But where do these policies originate and why are they so similar across all campuses? The answer lies in the fact that they have been provided by the “risk and crisis management” consulting industries, with the tacit support of trustees, Zionist advocacy groups, and federal agencies. Together, they deploy the language of safety to disguise a deeper logic of control and securitization.

Schools used this past summer to hear from consultants and prepare the crackdown, with no time to waste. As the Assistant Director of Campus Safety at Oberlin College reminded participants on the recent webinar, Navigating Campus Controversy: Challenges of Managing Protests and Critical Events, “if your students are gone now, this is a good time to tighten up your policies.”

Run by ex-military, law enforcement, and campus public safety officials, the risk and crisis management consulting industry constitutes a critical node of a larger repression network of state actors, partisan off-campus groups, and the Zionist lobby, who collectively work to criminalize student political dissent. Risk management involves financial and non-financial risks, everything from regulatory compliance to campus safety. Institutional investors, driven by mandates for safe, predictable returns, encourage universities to adopt stringent risk management frameworks that prioritize financial stability and institutional reputation over intellectual integrity.  (more...)

U.S. universities spent the summer strategizing to suppress student activism. Here is their plan.