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Category: Human rights/civil liberties

Why Zionism no longer unites American Jews

Why Zionism no longer unites American Jews

Ezra Klein writes: It’s a tense time in the Jewish family group chats. The consensus that held American Jewry together for generations is breaking down. That consensus, roughly, was this: What is good for Israel is good for the Jews. Anti-Zionism is a form of antisemitism. And there will, someday soon, be a two-state solution that reconciles Zionism and liberalism. Every component of that consensus has cracked. Zohran Mamdani’s triumph in New York City’s Democratic primary for mayor has forced,…

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‘No Kings’ activists develop strategies to confront Trump’s ‘authoritarian breakthrough’

‘No Kings’ activists develop strategies to confront Trump’s ‘authoritarian breakthrough’

Rolling Stone reports: The “No Kings” movement is shifting gears to counter what they’re calling the “authoritarian breakthrough” of Donald Trump’s second presidency. On Wednesday evening, the No Kings movement hosted a video conference call for more than 130,000 pro-democracy activists. The call seeks to build off the success of mass anti-Trump street protests — which also continued Thursday evening with more than 1,600 nationwide “Good Trouble Lives On” demonstrations, inspired by Civil Rights icon John Lewis. The 90-minute video…

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IDF assassinated a cardiologist ‘because he is a human, he is someone kind, and everyone in Gaza knew him’

IDF assassinated a cardiologist ‘because he is a human, he is someone kind, and everyone in Gaza knew him’

Clayton Dalton writes: Five months ago, when I was on a medical mission in northern Gaza, a Palestinian cardiologist named Marwan Sultan showed me what was left of the Indonesian Hospital, a hundred-bed facility that had been shelled and raided by Israeli forces. The building was riddled with shrapnel scars; its hallways were dark and cluttered with debris, and a cold wind blew through broken windows. Sultan, who directed the facility, was wearing a long white coat, a necktie, and…

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Less than a quarter of Americans say Israeli military actions in Gaza are fully justified, poll finds

Less than a quarter of Americans say Israeli military actions in Gaza are fully justified, poll finds

CNN reports: Americans are increasingly skeptical of Israeli actions in Gaza, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS that also finds rising sentiment that the US should pull back on military aid to Israel. Only 23% of Americans say Israel’s actions have been fully justified, a 27-point drop from a October 2023 poll taken shortly after Hamas’ October 7 attacks. Another 27% now say those actions have been partially justified and 22% say that they have not been…

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Marjorie Taylor Greene votes alongside Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar to cut funding for Israel

Marjorie Taylor Greene votes alongside Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar to cut funding for Israel

Middle East Eye reports: Hardline America Firster and staunch Trump supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene voted alongside progressive Democrat Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar to strip Israel of $500m in US funding, hours after it bombed the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza. The House of Representatives, however, rejected in a 422-6 vote on Thursday, to cut funding for the Israeli Cooperative Program – an agreement through which the US provides Israel with $500m to boost its missile programmes. It…

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He came to the U.S. to support his sick child. He was detained. Then he was disappeared

He came to the U.S. to support his sick child. He was detained. Then he was disappeared

By Melissa Sanchez, ProPublica; Perla Trevizo, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune; Mica Rosenberg and Jeff Ernsthausen, ProPublica; Ronna Rísquez, Alianza Rebelde Investiga; and Adrián González, Cazadores de Fake News This story was originally published by ProPublica José Manuel Ramos Bastidas never set foot in the U.S. — at least not as a free man. He left Venezuela in January 2024, hoping to earn enough money to pay for his newborn son’s medical needs. Born with a respiratory condition, the family’s…

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Inside an ICE women’s prison: ‘Even God cannot hear us here’

Inside an ICE women’s prison: ‘Even God cannot hear us here’

Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk was held as a political prisoner for 45 days in a South Louisiana processing facility. She writes: As a developmental scientist in training, I secretly feel a sense of gratitude for not having a child of my own, knowing how costly adverse early childhood experiences and family separation can be on children’s development. All children should have the opportunity to live, grow, and flourish in nurturing environments, surrounded by the love, peace, and support…

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Holocaust scholar Omer Bartov: Yes, Israel is engaged in a genocide in Gaza

Holocaust scholar Omer Bartov: Yes, Israel is engaged in a genocide in Gaza

  We speak with leading Israeli American historian Omer Bartov about his latest essay for The New York Times, headlined “I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It.” Bartov cites the United Nations definition of “genocide,” which includes an intent to destroy a group of people that makes it impossible for the group to reconstitute itself. “This is precisely what Israel is trying to do,” he says. “Israel is trying to concentrate the population of Gaza in…

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Israel and the U.S. are no longer pretending they support a two-state solution

Israel and the U.S. are no longer pretending they support a two-state solution

  For decades, the U.S. has officially held the position that it has supported a “two-state solution” that would create a Palestinian state alongside Israel. But after the Oslo Accords, little to no progress was made towards that goal, and the U.S. constantly condoned Israel’s actions that made that goal a more distant possibility – supporting it with military and financial aid. Today, under Trump, the U.S. is supporting Israel during its plans to ethnically cleanse Gaza and annex the…

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ICE campaign of violence and intimidation will lead to more deaths and disappearances

ICE campaign of violence and intimidation will lead to more deaths and disappearances

Natasha Lennard writes: After weeks of brazen rights violations and outright impunity from America’s secret police force, a federal judge in Los Angeles on Friday issued a sharp rebuke of the racist tactics of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong blocked ICE’s “roving” patrols in Southern California, halting agents from carrying out unconstitutional arrests based on racial profiling alone. Going forward, they’ll need to have specific grounds for believing someone to be undocumented before they can…

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The Trump regime’s contempt for the rule of law has roots in America’s pre-civil rights era

The Trump regime’s contempt for the rule of law has roots in America’s pre-civil rights era

Steve Chapman writes: America is supposed to be the land of the brave, but under the second administration of Donald Trump, it’s fallen under a climate of fear. Universities and law firms have been punished for their perceived disloyalty. Foreigners have been abducted by masked agents and shipped to foreign gulags without due process. News organizations have been bullied for performing honest journalism. Federal employees have been cashiered by the thousands. Corporations harmed by his trade policies have been vilified for telling the truth…

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No life without water: How Israel’s actions in Gaza echo other genocides

No life without water: How Israel’s actions in Gaza echo other genocides

Mark Zeitoun, Laurence Boisson de Chazournes, Ghassan Abu-Sittah, Danilo Türk, and Reem Abu Shomar write: Of all the many forms of deprivation imposed on Palestinians, Israel’s strategic control and denial of water stand out as particularly insidious. Taken alongside the denial of entry of life-saving aid, dismantlement of medical services, and imposed hunger, Israel’s long-term disruption of water services in Gaza redefines the limits of acceptable suffering of civilians. This weaponization of water echoes historical genocides and threatens to normalize violations of humanitarian standards. Depriving…

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‘People are going to die’: A malnutrition crisis looms in the wake of USAID cuts

‘People are going to die’: A malnutrition crisis looms in the wake of USAID cuts

Wired reports: Few lifesaving tools are as effective as ready-to-use therapeutic foods, known as RUTFs, which are specially designed to treat severe malnutrition and often resemble fortified peanut butter. Despite announcing a $50 million pledged to fund RUTFs earlier this summer, the Trump administration’s deep cuts to foreign assistance have wreaked havoc on RUTF distribution globally, and the State Department hasn’t placed orders with leading suppliers this year. Experts say the disruptions will result in more children dying from hunger….

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California’s cruelly demonized immigrant farmworkers share their stories

California’s cruelly demonized immigrant farmworkers share their stories

  Aeon: In the United States, a large share of fruit and vegetable production comes from California, where the agricultural industry relies heavily on immigrant labour. Many of these workers arrive from Mexico and Central America, and a significant number are undocumented. Directed by the Mexican American filmmaker Andrés Lira, who has Indigenous Purépecha roots and a family history of farm work, Primero, Sueño (‘First, I dream’) is a stirring portrait of a group often rendered invisible – or worse,…

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‘Blood for food’: The American soldier-spies sidelining UN aid work in Gaza

‘Blood for food’: The American soldier-spies sidelining UN aid work in Gaza

Anas Baba reports: What does it take to get food today in Gaza? It involves a perilous journey that I took myself. I faced Israeli military fire, private U.S. contractors pointing laser beams at my forehead, crowds with knives fighting for rations, and masked thieves — to get food from a group supported by the U.S. and Israel called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF. Every day since the group began offering food on May 26, thousands of hungry Palestinians…

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From Bush’s war on terror to Trump’s war on immigrants

From Bush’s war on terror to Trump’s war on immigrants

Axios reports: Mass surveillance. Pre-emptive military strikes in the Middle East. Shipping people to domestic and foreign prisons. Citing national security to hide information from the courts. Labeling people as “terrorists” as a political and legal strategy. Why it matters: Donald Trump became president in part by running against the legacy of George W. Bush, the last Republican in the White House before him. But now Trump is supercharging many of the post-9/11 legal, tactical and political strategies Bush used. Driving the news: Trump’s push to…

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