Music: Bugge Wesseltoft’s New Conception of Jazz — ‘Existence (Live)’
‘People could have died’: Police raid UCLA Gaza protest after pro-Israel mob attacked encampment
We get an update from the University of California, Los Angeles, where police in riot gear began dismantling a pro-Palestinian encampment early Thursday, using flashbang grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas, and arresting dozens of students. The raid came just over a day after pro-Israel counterprotesters armed with sticks, metal rods and fireworks attacked students at the encampment. The Real News Network reporter Mel Buer was on the scene during the attack. She describes seeing counterprotesters provoke students, yelling…
The effects of an alarmingly disproportionate police response to peaceful campus protests
Andrew Lee Butters writes: I teach a course at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin School of Journalism on covering the Middle East, and this semester I gave my students the option of writing a final project about how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is showing up here locally. Until now the answer was: not much. I invited pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli student activists to come talk to my classes and they recounted incidents of harassment on or nearby campus — “Free…
Bernie Sanders speaks in Congress on student protests, Gaza, and the humanitarian disaster
USA Today reports: Sen. Bernie Sanders has always been a political maverick, but these days the longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history is not afraid to show his pragmatic side. In an exclusive interview with USA TODAY on Wednesday, the senior senator from Vermont spoke about topics including the Israel-Hamas war, antisemitism, college protests, and President Joe Biden’s record. One throughline that quickly became apparent was that Sanders would not let his differences with Biden on some issues get…
He helped define ‘antisemitism’; now he says the term is being weaponized
The crisis across America’s campuses is causing some controversy over the current definition of antisemitism, as written by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. It’s a definition which has been adopted by countries across the globe. Author Kenneth Stern led the drafting of that document, and he joins the show with a warning that it’s being used to stifle free speech.
Former Brandeis University president on Gaza protests: Schools must protect free expression on campus
We look at how university administrators have responded to Palestine solidarity protests by students with Frederick Lawrence, former president of Brandeis University and now the CEO of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and a lecturer at Georgetown Law School. Brandeis was founded in 1948 by the American Jewish community in the wake of the Holocaust and named after the first Jewish Supreme Court justice, the celebrated free speech advocate Louis Brandeis. Lawrence says the nationwide university crackdown on student…
Alarm in Israel at reports of possible ICC legal action over Gaza
BBC News reports: Israeli officials are increasingly concerned that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is planning to seek arrest warrants for their military and political leaders on suspicion of war crimes. Reports suggest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could be among them. The ICC, based in The Hague, has been investigating Israel’s actions in the occupied territories for the past three years – and more recently the actions of Hamas as well. It has the power to charge and try individuals…
Extremist militias are coordinating in more than 100 Facebook groups
Wired reports: “Join your local Militia or III% Patriot Group,” a post urged the more than 650 members of a Facebook group called the Free American Army. Accompanied by the logo for the Three Percenters militia network and an image of a man in tactical gear holding a long rifle, the post continues: “Now more than ever. Support the American militia page.” Other content and messaging in the group is similar. And despite the fact that Facebook bans paramilitary organizing…
Music: Bugge Wesseltoft & Dhafer Youssef — ‘He Is’
As college campuses erupt in protest, some see a political transformation
Arun Kundnani writes: In the summer of 2020, millions of teenagers, outraged by the police killing of George Floyd, took to the streets of American towns and cities as part of the largest protests against police brutality in U.S. history. Though years have passed, that energy has not entirely dissipated. Many of the young people who protested in 2020 are now college students campaigning for the U.S. to withdraw its support for Israel’s war in Gaza. They constitute the cutting…
I’m a UCLA professor. Why didn’t the administration stop last night’s egregious violence?
David N. Myers writes: UCLA, the top-rated public university in the United States, experienced one of the darkest nights in its 105-year history on Tuesday. Over the course of my 33-year career at UCLA, I have never seen anything so terrifying take place. Around 11 p.m., a group of masked counter-demonstrators made their way to the Royce Quad in the heart of campus and began to attack the encampment set up last week by demonstrators opposing the war in Gaza….
Why it took hours for police to quell attack by Zionist mob on pro-Palestinian camp at UCLA
The Los Angeles Times reports: When dozens of counterprotesters swarmed UCLA late Tuesday night, attacking the Palestinian solidarity encampment at the center of campus, university authorities were quickly overwhelmed. Law enforcement sources told The Times there were only a few UCLA police officers on hand. They tried to stop the violence but were no match for the crowd and had to retreat, having been attacked themselves, the sources said. A group of unarmed private security guards was there as well….
House passes antisemitism bill over complaints from First Amendment advocates
The Washington Post reports: House Republicans are seeking to unite their unruly majority around an evergreen conservative cause, devising a strict response to the wave of pro-Palestinian protests that have roiled college campuses across the country in recent weeks. GOP leaders this week announced plans for new oversight investigations of elite universities where — in the words of House Republican Whip Tom Emmer (Minn.) — “pro-terrorist anti-Semites [are] taking over.” And on Wednesday, they passed the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which…
The role of U.S. citizens in Israel’s settlement & military activities
Settler violence and Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank have surged since October 7. Residents have been displaced, homes have been attacked and Palestinians have been killed and injured. More than a dozen countries, including the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Australia have condemned the violence, and some have announced visa restrictions on anyone found to have taken part in the attacks. But these restrictions miss a big loophole: dual nationals. It is estimated that…
A huge gender gap is emerging among young voters
Thomas B. Edsall writes: It has become clear that one constituency — young voters, 18 to 29 years old — will play a key, if not pivotal, role in determining who will win the Biden-Trump rematch. Four years ago, according to exit polls, voters in this age group kept Trump from winning re-election. They cast ballots decisively supporting Biden, 60 to 36, helping to give him a 4.46-point victory among all voters, 51.31 percent to 46.85 percent. This year, Biden…
A U.S. push to use ethanol as aviation fuel raises major climate concerns
MIT Technology Review reports: Eliminating carbon pollution from aviation is one of the most challenging parts of the climate puzzle, simply because large commercial airlines are too heavy and need too much power during takeoff for today’s batteries to do the job. But one way that companies and governments are striving to make some progress is through the use of various types of sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs), which are derived from non-petroleum sources and promise to be less polluting than…