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Category: War

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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Biden is days from a key statement on Israel and Gaza. Here’s what the ally who sought it expects

Biden is days from a key statement on Israel and Gaza. Here’s what the ally who sought it expects

HuffPost reports: With the Biden administration days away from issuing its opinion on whether Israel is violating international and U.S. law in Gaza, the lawmaker who pushed for a State Department probe of that question doubts he’ll get an honest answer. Starting in December, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) rallied 19 senators to support legislation demanding assurances that all countries receiving American weaponry — including Israel — are complying with international and U.S. statutes barring violence against civilians and efforts…

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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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Buoyed by a ‘certificate of excellence’ from Biden admin, Netanyahu is convinced he can remain PM

Buoyed by a ‘certificate of excellence’ from Biden admin, Netanyahu is convinced he can remain PM

The Times of Israel reports: In recent weeks, it’s become clear that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to once again run for prime minister in the next elections. Although he hadn’t been definitive on this issue since the war in Gaza broke out, we’re now beginning to hear clear statements from him about the dramatic need for him to continue leading the country even after the next general elections, despite — and perhaps because of — the terrible national…

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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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Student journalists report: perpetrators of violence at campus protests are police and counter-protesters

Student journalists report: perpetrators of violence at campus protests are police and counter-protesters

Politico reports: Over 50 schools. Nearly 2,000 arrests. One canceled graduation ceremony — so far. We’re in the midst of the most widespread campus unrest since the 1960s, sparked by the war between Israel and Hamas. Over the last two weeks, campus protests have escalated, with pro-Palestinian tent encampments set up in public spaces, triggering counterprotests and, on more than 30 campuses, clashes with police. With so many incidents taking place in so many places, it’s hard for anyone to…

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Turkey halts all trade with Israel over war

Turkey halts all trade with Israel over war

Middle East Eye reports: Turkey suspended all trade with Israel effective immediately over the humanitarian crisis it has caused in Gaza, the Turkish trade ministry announced on Thursday. “Export and import transactions related to Israel have been stopped, covering all products,” the ministry said. “Turkey will strictly and decisively implement these new measures until the Israeli Government allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz criticised the move on the social media…

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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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The effects of an alarmingly disproportionate police response to peaceful campus protests

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…

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Bernie Sanders speaks in Congress on student protests, Gaza, and the humanitarian disaster

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…

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Former Brandeis University president on Gaza protests: Schools must protect free expression on campus

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…

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Alarm in Israel at reports of possible ICC legal action over Gaza

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…

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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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I’m a UCLA professor. Why didn’t the administration stop last night’s egregious violence?

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….

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