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Category: Politics

Israeli finance minister calls for ‘utter destruction’ of Gaza’s Rafah, end to truce talks

Israeli finance minister calls for ‘utter destruction’ of Gaza’s Rafah, end to truce talks

Middle East Eye reports: Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for the “utter destruction” of Rafah and other cities in Gaza while slamming Israel’s ongoing hostage negotiations with Hamas. “No half jobs. Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat, total and utter destruction,” Smotrich said, referring to the two cities in Gaza and the Nuseirat refugee camp. Smotrich’s remarks underscore the pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces among members of his governing coalition to press ahead with an attack on Rafah, the…

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Israeli Holocaust scholar Omer Bartov on campus protests, weaponized antisemitism, silencing dissent

Israeli Holocaust scholar Omer Bartov on campus protests, weaponized antisemitism, silencing dissent

  As Biden administration and U.S. college and university administrators increasingly accuse peaceful pro-Palestinian protesters on school campuses of antisemitism, we speak with Brown University professor of Holocaust and genocide studies Omer Bartov, who visited the student Gaza solidarity encampment at UPenn alongside fellow Israeli historian Raz Segal. “There was absolutely no sign of any violence, of any antisemitism at all,” says Bartov, who warns antisemitism is being used to silence speech about Israel. “There’s politics, and there’s prejudice. And…

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Gen Z sees the Gaza protests as their 1968 moment: ‘We built this on their legacy’

Gen Z sees the Gaza protests as their 1968 moment: ‘We built this on their legacy’

Richard Hall writes: Historical comparisons between the mass protests of 1968 and today’s student demonstrations in solidarity with Gaza are both imperfect and hard to avoid. It’s been just 10 days since Columbia University students pitched the first tent on the campus lawns, and already the protests have galvanised a generation of college students much in the same way the Vietnam war did 56 years ago – spreading from coast to coast. It is not just the scale of the…

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How a few secret donors are fueling the new right-wing infrastructure

How a few secret donors are fueling the new right-wing infrastructure

Mother Jones reports: In early 2021, Stephen Miller—former White House senior adviser to Donald Trump and architect of the 45th president’s hopeful second-term mass deportation agenda—announced his next venture: America First Legal (AFL). Paraded as “the long-awaited answer to the ACLU,” AFL fights for Trumpist values in the legal system. And the group is prolific: In its three years of existence, AFL has taken on more than 100 legal actions—between lawsuits filed, complaints lodged with the US Equal Employment Opportunity…

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International Criminal Court poised to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials

International Criminal Court poised to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials

The Times of Israel reports: Israel is making a concerted effort to head off feared plans by the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials, an Israeli government source told The Times of Israel on Sunday. The National Security Council is leading the campaign, according to the source. The Foreign Ministry is also involved. “We are operating where we can,” said an Israeli diplomat. The first source said the major…

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Attorneys inside and outside the administration urge Biden to comply with law and cut off arms to Israel

Attorneys inside and outside the administration urge Biden to comply with law and cut off arms to Israel

Politico reports: A coalition of lawyers domestic and abroad — including at least 20 that work in the Biden administration — are calling on President Joe Biden to halt military aid to Israel, arguing that its actions in Gaza do not comply with U.S. and international humanitarian law. They plan to send a letter arguing their case to Attorney General Merrick Garland and general counsels across the administration in the coming days. In the letter, obtained by POLITICO, the lawyers…

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Columbia University faculty stand up to defend students in Gaza Solidarity Encampment

Columbia University faculty stand up to defend students in Gaza Solidarity Encampment

NOW: Columbia University faculty link arms and form a wall in front of the entrance to the ‘Gaza Solidarity Encampment’ as hundreds of students encircle the both lawns Students remaining in the encampment were told they could face disciplinary action after 2PM pic.twitter.com/C1XRgHzs8b — katie smith (@probablyreadit) April 29, 2024 My office was right by the encampment, and I cannot understand how it interferes with exams. It’s that little red circle. Not a single notable the protest in the history…

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Academic freedom under fire

Academic freedom under fire

Louis Menand writes: The congressional appearance last month by Nemat Shafik, the president of Columbia University, was a breathtaking “What was she thinking?” episode in the history of academic freedom. It was shocking to hear her negotiating with a member of Congress over disciplining two members of her own faculty, by name, for things they had written or said. The next day, in what appeared to be a signal to Congress, Shafik had more than a hundred students, many from…

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The storm brewing in Michigan

The storm brewing in Michigan

Slate reports: With its rich, dark wood, golden décor, and an invigorating oud musk, the American Moslem Society on the south end of Dearborn, Michigan, masks its age well. Opened in 1937, it was the first mosque in America to broadcast the call to prayer through loudspeakers. It was founded by Arab immigrants who had initially been drawn by the promise of $5-a-day jobs at a nearby Ford plant, which laid the foundation for what is now America’s largest concentration…

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Yes, it is genocide

Yes, it is genocide

Holocaust scholar Amos Goldberg (translated by Sol Salbe) writes: Yes, it is genocide. It is so difficult and painful to admit it, but despite all that, and despite all our efforts to think otherwise, after six months of brutal war we can no longer avoid this conclusion. Jewish history will henceforth be stained with the mark of Cain for the “most horrible of crimes,” which cannot be erased from its forehead. As such, this is the way it will be…

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Over 600 Israeli extremists storm Al-Aqsa Mosque during Jewish Passover holiday

Over 600 Israeli extremists storm Al-Aqsa Mosque during Jewish Passover holiday

The New Arab reports: Over 600 Israeli extremists stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem early on Sunday, the Islamic Endowment Department which runs the holy site said. The storming coincided with the sixth day of the week-long Jewish holiday of Passover, The extremists performed Talmudic rituals in the mosque’s courtyards under the protection of Israeli forces, the department said. Video clips shared online showed the extremists entering the site, considered the third holiest in Islam. Many prominent extremist Israeli figures…

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The far right alliance dedicated to the cause of raising the U.S. birth rate

The far right alliance dedicated to the cause of raising the U.S. birth rate

Gaby Del Valle writes: The threat, we are told here this weekend, is existential, biological, epoch-defining. Economies will fail, civilizations will fall, and it will all happen because people aren’t having enough babies. “The entire global financial system, the value of your money, and every asset you might buy with money is defined by leverage, which means its value depends on growth,” Kevin Dolan, a 37-year-old father of six from Virginia, tells the crowd that has gathered to hear him…

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Renewables cover 56 percent of Germany electricity use in March quarter

Renewables cover 56 percent of Germany electricity use in March quarter

Renew Economy reports: Renewable energy sources covered around 56 percent of electricity consumption in Germany in the first three months of the year, according to preliminary calculations by the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) and utility association BDEW. “In total, renewable energy plants generated around 75.9 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity from January to March, around nine percent more than in the same period last year,” BDEW said. Onshore wind energy plants alone produced 39.4…

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Naomi Klein: Jews must raise voices for Palestine and oppose the ‘false idol of Zionism’

Naomi Klein: Jews must raise voices for Palestine and oppose the ‘false idol of Zionism’

  Hundreds of protesters were arrested in Brooklyn on Tuesday when Jewish New Yorkers and allies gathered for what they called a “Seder in the Streets to Stop Arming Israel” on the second night of Passover. The demonstration, held one block away from the home of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, came just hours before the Senate overwhelmingly approved a $95 billion foreign aid package that includes about $17 billion in arms and security funding to Israel. “Too many of…

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‘Political arrest’ of Palestinian academic in Israel marks new civil liberties threat

‘Political arrest’ of Palestinian academic in Israel marks new civil liberties threat

The Guardian reports: The arrest and interrogation of a leading Palestinian legal scholar based at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem marks a new threat to civil liberties in Israel, her legal team and employer have said. Prof Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian was detained by police on the afternoon of 18 April over comments made on a podcast more than a month earlier and held overnight in conditions her lawyers described as “terrible” and designed to humiliate. “This case is unique,” said Hassan…

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Some U.S. officials say in internal memo Israel may be violating international law in Gaza

Some U.S. officials say in internal memo Israel may be violating international law in Gaza

Reuters reports: Some senior U.S. officials have advised Secretary of State Antony Blinken that they do not find “credible or reliable” Israel’s assurances that it is using U.S.-supplied weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law, according to an internal State Department memo reviewed by Reuters. Other officials upheld support for Israel’s representation. Under a National Security Memorandum (NSM) issued by President Joe Biden in February, Blinken must report to Congress by May 8 whether he finds credible Israel’s assurances that…

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