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Category: Human rights/civil liberties

Haim Saban, a ‘virulently anti-Muslim’ mega-donor, slams Biden’s decision to halt weapons shipment to Israel

Haim Saban, a ‘virulently anti-Muslim’ mega-donor, slams Biden’s decision to halt weapons shipment to Israel

The Los Angeles Times reports: Democratic mega-donor and Hollywood media mogul Haim Saban slammed President Biden’s decision to put a shipment of weapons to Israel on hold because they could be used in an offensive against a densely populated city in southern Gaza. “Let’s not forget there are more Jewish voters who care about Israel than Muslim voters who care about Hamas,” Saban wrote in an email to senior Biden aides Steve Ricchetti and Anita Dunn, Axios reported Thursday. The…

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Cornel West on Israel Hamas war, greedy ruling class and Biden vs Trump

Cornel West on Israel Hamas war, greedy ruling class and Biden vs Trump

  US Presidential candidate Dr Cornel West is a philosopher and prominent advocate for social and racial justice. He’s taught at some of the top universities in the US including Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, but has one major plan if he becomes President: to “dismantle the American empire”. The 71-year-old activist, who campaigned for Biden in 2020, has recently been vocal against both the Democratic and Republican’s party’s stance on Gaza, which he calls “morally bankrupt”. Though he faces very…

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A majority of Democratic voters believe Israel is committing genocide

A majority of Democratic voters believe Israel is committing genocide

Medhi Hasan writes: Despite President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s impassioned denials, and the self-censorship of the New York Times, almost four in 10 likely voters and more than half of all Democrats believe Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza, according to a new poll of 1,265 U.S. likely voters from Zeteo and Data For Progress, conducted from April 26 to 29. Seven months after the Oct. 7 attacks, and as the Israeli military…

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A threshold crossed: On genocidal intent and the duty to prevent genocide in Palestine

A threshold crossed: On genocidal intent and the duty to prevent genocide in Palestine

In the Journal of Genocide Research, Dr Nimer Sultany, Reader in Public Law at SOAS University of London, writes: By any measure, Israel’s onslaught on Gaza is unprecedented. Israel claims that the killing of civilians is typical of warfare. Yet by the end of November 2023 it was clear that “even a conservative reading of the casualty figures” showed that “the pace of death during Israel’s campaign has few precedents in this century.” It also showed that the proportion of…

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Where are the artists and other celebrities willing to show the courage of America’s protesting students?

Where are the artists and other celebrities willing to show the courage of America’s protesting students?

The Nation reports: Honestly @macklemore’s “Hind’s Hall” is the most Rage Against The Machine song since Rage Against The Machine. — Tom Morello (@tmorello) May 7, 2024 The foremost authority on the revolutionary rock/rap band Rage Against the Machine, their own guitarist Tom Morello, tweeted this. Rage Against the Machine filled stadiums in the 1990s with its brand of radical, political fire. Now Macklemore is carrying the flame. For those who haven’t heard it, “Hind’s Hall”—named after Columbia’s renamed building…

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We’ve shown Gaza’s suffering for over 200 days. Don’t look away now

We’ve shown Gaza’s suffering for over 200 days. Don’t look away now

Mohammed R. Mhawish writes: As Israel’s cruel war on Gaza surpasses 200 days, the toll it inflicts on the Palestinian people grows ever deeper. Both the land and population of the besieged Strip have been obliterated to a degree not seen since the Nakba of 1948. Famine and malnutrition have tightened their grip, leaving hundreds of thousands of families in the north and south desperate for food and medical aid as they attempt desperately to flee the bombing campaign that…

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World Food Programme Director Cindy McCain: Northern Gaza is in a ‘full-blown famine’

World Food Programme Director Cindy McCain: Northern Gaza is in a ‘full-blown famine’

NBC News reports: Cindy McCain, the executive director of the World Food Programme, said she believes there is a “full-blown famine” in northern Gaza. “Whenever you have conflicts like this, and emotions rage high, and things happen in a war, famine happens,” McCain said during an interview with Kristen Welker set to air Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press.” “What I can explain to you is — is that there is famine — full-blown famine — in the north, and…

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U.S. diplomat who quit over Biden administration’s Gaza policy speaks out

U.S. diplomat who quit over Biden administration’s Gaza policy speaks out

CNN reports: Hala Rharrit never expected that she would choose to leave her career as a US diplomat. She had spent her “entire adult life” at the State Department having joined the foreign service in 2006, raising her hand for one of the toughest postings — Yemen — for her first assignment and going on to serve in places like Hong Kong, Qatar and South Africa. About a year and a half ago, after mostly behind-the-scenes roles, Rharrit became an…

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We Columbia University students urge you to listen to our voices

We Columbia University students urge you to listen to our voices

Columbia College Student Council: On Tuesday night, we watched in horror as hundreds of riot police flooded our beloved campus and brutalized our classmates. The next day, students awoke with swollen faces, bruised wrists, and lacerations – all results of inhumane police treatment. The past two weeks have been tumultuous, marked with mass arrests of student demonstrators, an encampment on our lawns, national media attention, and vile acts of hatred. Countless have spoken on our behalf. But by speaking over…

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Prominent Palestinian doctor tortured and killed in Israeli detention

Prominent Palestinian doctor tortured and killed in Israeli detention

Middle East Eye reports: Adnan al-Bursh, a Palestinian surgeon and professor of orthopaedic medicine, was killed by torture while in Israeli detention, according to a statement from the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society. In what has been termed a “deliberate assassination”, Bursh, 50, died in the Israel-controlled Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank on 19 April, according to the Palestinian Civil Affairs Committee, and his body remains withheld. Another detainee, Ismail Abdul Bari Khader, 33, also died in custody, according to…

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‘People could have died’: Police raid UCLA Gaza protest after pro-Israel mob attacked encampment

‘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…

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As college campuses erupt in protest, some see a political transformation

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…

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Why it took hours for police to quell attack by Zionist mob on pro-Palestinian camp at UCLA

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….

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A hidden war

A hidden war

  A war following the Hamas attacks of October 7 continues to take its toll on civilians. Israel’s stated aim in this conflict was to remove Hamas and bring hostages home. But in this documentary for “In Real Life,” on-the-ground reporting and open-source intelligence show how the conflict has expanded, growing into a campaign of clearing and claiming land — from Gaza to the West Bank. Hamas fighters first breached the border with Israel at the Erez border crossing. 1,200…

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