“Being an American complicit in this and being a student at an institution complicit in this genocide directly, I couldn’t imagine standing by and not acting,” says Duncan Kreps, who is graduating from Middlebury.

Aseel, a Palestinian student at Rutgers who is only using her first name out of safety concerns, tells Democracy Now! that nearly 100 of her relatives have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza. “The Gaza that I once knew is essentially gone, but I am more than confident, along with my family, that we will return and that we will rebuild it,” she says.

Headlines for May 8, 2024
Wed, 08 May 2024 08:00:00 -0400
U.N. Warns Gaza Could Run Out of Fuel & Drinking Water After Israel Seized Rafah Crossing, Biden Withholds 3,500 Bombs from Israel, But U.S. Approves Another $827M for Israel, Families of Israeli Hostages Urge Netanyahu to End War on Gaza, Police Raid Encampments at U. of Illinois & Fashion Institute of Technology, RISD Students Occupy Campus Building, Cousin of Rabbi Meir Kahane Arrested After Driving Into Pro-Palestinian Protest in NYC, Jewish Voice for Peace Criticizes Biden’s Antisemitism Speech at U.S. Holocaust Museum, Judge Rejects Mistrial Motion After Stormy Daniels Testifies in Trump Trial, Death Toll in Brazil Tops 90 After Catastrophic Flooding, Xi Jinping Visits Belgrade on 25th Anniversary of NATO Bombing of Chinese Embassy, Florida Sues Biden Administration over Transgender Protections, Tennessee Company Fined $649,000 for Employing Children to Clean Slaughterhouses

"Stop Weaponizing Antisemitism": Police "Body-Slam" Jewish Dartmouth Prof. at Campus Gaza Protest
Tue, 07 May 2024 08:47:41 -0400
Gaza solidarity protests continue at college campuses across the nation — as does the police crackdown. This comes as more than 50 chapters of the American Association of University Professors have issued a statement condemning the violent arrests by police at campus protests. At Dartmouth College last week, police body-slammed professor and former chair of Jewish studies Annelise Orleck to the ground as she tried to protect her students. She was charged with criminal trespass and temporarily banned from portions of Dartmouth’s campus. She joins us to describe her ordeal and respond to claims conflating the protests’ anti-Zionist message with antisemitism. “People have to be able to talk about Palestine without being attacked by police,” says Orleck, who commends the students leading protests around the country. “Their bravery is tremendous and is inspiring. And they really feel like this is the moral issue of their time, that there’s a genocide going on and that they can’t ignore it.”

Report from Rafah: Israel Seizes Border Crossing, Blocking Humanitarian Aid, as Ceasefire Talks Continue
Tue, 07 May 2024 08:33:44 -0400
In Rafah, we speak with Gaza-based journalist Akram al-Satarri about Israel tightening restrictions on humanitarian aid, refusing a ceasefire deal and planning to invade the city where over a million Palestinians are sheltering. Israel’s military seized control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt, blocking humanitarian aid from entering the besieged territory, and trapping Palestinians under heavy Israeli bombardment. This comes after Israel also closed the Karem Abu Salem crossing in southern Gaza this weekend after a Hamas attack killed four Israeli soldiers. “Israel is not allowing the entry of the humanitarian aid to Gaza, which is perceived as a lifeline,” says al-Satarri, who reports Palestinians are “in despair” as Israel orders a third of Rafah’s population to move ahead of their invasion. “They understand that more destruction, more devastation, more death and deprivation is coming for them.” Al-Satarri also speaks about Israel banning Al Jazeera, one of the only international outlets with reporters in Gaza. “I think they want to silence Al Jazeera and they want to silence all the free media for the sake of preventing any further exposure of the things that are happening on the ground.”

Fmr. Israeli Peace Negotiator Daniel Levy: U.S. Pressure on Israel Is Key to Lasting Gaza Ceasefire
Tue, 07 May 2024 08:11:53 -0400
Even after Hamas accepted a Gaza ceasefire proposal Monday, Israeli forces moved in with tanks to seize the Rafah crossing with Egypt. Israel says the ceasefire deal falls short of its demands, and Hamas has called for “international intervention.” Former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy says the limited information and political maneuvering of all parties raises more questions than answers right now, but the core issue is whether all parties can maintain a sustained end to hostilities. “In addition to testing each other, the Hamas and Israeli parties are testing the United States of America and the Biden administration in an unprecedented way,” says Levy. “Hamas detects that the U.S. may finally be serious about offering a sustained calm.” While Levy says growing external pressure from global protests are “having an impact,” he doubts U.S. and Israeli leaders feel they must change course yet. “The pressure does not feel sufficient that Netanuahu’s politics needs him to accept a ceasefire. He still thinks he can wiggle out of this,” says Levy. “If this deal doesn’t go through, I fear we’re in for the much longer haul.”

Headlines for May 7, 2024
Tue, 07 May 2024 08:00:00 -0400
Israel Begins Ground Invasion of Rafah After Hamas Agrees to Ceasefire, Israel Used U.S. Weapons in Lebanon Attack That Killed 7 Health Workers, Students Continue Gaza Solidarity Protests, Defying Arrests, Suspensions, Harvard and MIT Students Defy Deadlines for Ending Protests, Receive Faculty Support, SUNY Purchase Agrees to Student Demands; Columbia Cancels Commencement Ceremony, Gaza Solidarity Encampments Form in Copenhagen, Barcelona; French High Schoolers Join Movement, Belgian Police Arrest 132 Climate Activists During Act of Peaceful Civil Disobedience, Bomb Attacks on IDP Camps In Democratic Republic of Congo Kill 12 People, Incl. Children, Voters in Chad Cast Presidential Ballots 3 Years After Military Takeover, Russia to Launch Drills for Possible Deployment of Tactical Nuclear Weapons
, Tunisian Police Raid Refugee Encampments; Hundreds Reportedly Bused Then Abandoned in the Desert, Heavy Rains Kill at Least 17 People in Haiti, Flood Thousands of Homes, Judge Merchan Fines Trump for Violating Gag Order for the 10th Time, Threatens Jail

Revolt on Campus: Protests over Gaza Disrupt Graduation Ceremonies as Police Crack Down on Encampments
Mon, 06 May 2024 08:47:03 -0400
Police have now arrested more than 2,500 students at pro-Palestine protests across the U.S., yet students continue to call for an end to the war on Gaza and universities’ investment in companies that support Israel’s occupation of Palestine. We speak to three student organizers from around the country: Salma Hamamy of the University of Michigan, president of the school’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, about the commencement ceremony protest she helped organize, and Cady de la Cruz of the University of Virginia and Rae Ferrara of the State University of New York at New Paltz about police crackdowns on their schools’ encampments. De la Cruz was arrested in the UVA raid and banned from campus without an opportunity to collect any of her belongings. She says repression has strengthened the resolve of many protesters, who are willing to risk their academic futures to push for divestment. “All of us there felt like we have more time on our hands ... than the people of Gaza,” she explains, “We would hold it down for anything.”

"They Are Starving," Says Doctor Back from Gaza; World Food Programme Warns North in "Full-Blown Famine"
Mon, 06 May 2024 08:29:46 -0400
The World Food Programme is warning northern Gaza has reached a “full-blown” famine that is spreading south. This comes after the Israeli military has spent months blocking the entry of vital aid into Gaza, attacking humanitarian aid convoys and opening fire on Palestinian civilians waiting to receive lifesaving aid. We get an update on conditions among the besieged and starving population of Gaza — including of children now suffering from the psychological effects of intense and prolonged trauma — from Dr. Walid Masoud, a vascular surgeon and a board member of the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund who is just back from heading a medical mission to Gaza.

"Criminal Act": Israel Bans Al Jazeera, Largest Int'l News Org. in Gaza, Ahead of Rafah Invasion
Mon, 06 May 2024 08:11:19 -0400
As the death toll in Gaza soars to more than 34,700, Israeli authorities have taken Al Jazeera off the air in Israel and ordered Palestinians in eastern Rafah to evacuate ahead of an Israeli offensive. “The Israeli government is trying to conceal what’s happening in Gaza and trying to intimidate Al Jazeera ... and delegitimize the whole coverage,” says Al Jazeera’s managing editor Mohamed Moawad, explaining this is “a strategy” to “try to make sure that the story doesn’t reach the world.” Over the past eight months, Al Jazeera has been one of the only international outlets with reporters on the ground inside Gaza, where at least three of its employees have been killed by Israel’s monthslong assault. Israel has been threatening to ban Al Jazeera for “incitement” via “a series of intimidations” for months, culminating in “a criminal act,” says Moawad. He calls on the international community, including the U.S. government, to condemn Israel’s suppression of a free press.

Headlines for May 6, 2024
Mon, 06 May 2024 08:00:00 -0400
Israel Denounced for Ordering Displaced Palestinians in Rafah to Evacuate Again, Campus Gaza Protests Keep Spreading Despite Police Crackdown; 2,500+ Arrested So Far, Evergreen State College Agrees to Work Toward Divesting from Israel, Education Dept. Investigating Columbia for Anti-Palestinian Discrimination, “A Dark Day for Democracy”: Israel Takes Al Jazeera Off Air, Raids Local Office, Mass Protests in Israel to Demand Netanyahu Make Hostage Deal, José Raúl Mulino, Stand-in for Ex-President Ricardo Martinelli, Wins Panama Presidency, Major Flooding in Southern Brazil Kills at Least 78 People, with More Than 100 Missing, 5-Year-Old Child Killed as Houston Is Battered by Rains and Flooding, Conservative Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar Indicted for Bribery and Conspiracy, Trump’s Criminal Hush Money Trial Continues in New York, Canadian Police Charge 3 Indian Suspects in 2023 Assassination of Sikh Leader, Prominent British Palestinian Surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah Barred from France

"Dead on Arrival": Doctors Back from Gaza Describe Horrific Hospital Scenes, Decimated Health System
Fri, 03 May 2024 08:38:31 -0400
Nearly seven months of constant bombardment, siege and obstruction of aid deliveries have annihilated the healthcare system in Gaza. Last week, the Palestinian Health Ministry said that around 600,000 Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip no longer have access to any kind of healthcare. The World Health Organization has said that Israel is “systematically dismantling” the health system in Gaza. Only 11 hospitals out of 36 hospitals in Gaza are partially functioning. At both of Gaza’s largest hospitals, Al-Shifa and Nasser, Palestinians found hundreds of bodies buried in mass graves after Israel raided and destroyed the facilities. Democracy Now! speaks with Dr. Ismail Mehr and Dr. Azeem Elahi just after they volunteered at the largest hospital still operating in Gaza, the European Hospital in Khan Younis. “The healthcare system has been always in a noose, and that noose tightens at times when there’s conflict,” says Mehr. “Right now that noose has completely just hung the healthcare system.”

"This Militaristic Approach Has Been a Failure": Meet Hala Rharrit, First U.S. Diplomat to Quit over Gaza
Fri, 03 May 2024 08:13:21 -0400
Democracy Now! speaks with Hala Rharrit, the first State Department diplomat to publicly resign over the Biden administration’s policies backing Israel’s assault and siege of the Gaza Strip. Rharrit is an 18-year career diplomat who served as the Arabic-language spokesperson for the State Department in the region. “I could no longer be a part of the State Department and promote this policy. It’s an inhumane policy. It’s a failed policy that is helping neither Palestinians, neither Israelis,” Rharrit says. “We are not authorized to send military equipment, weapons to countries that commit human rights abuses. ICJ has determined plausible genocide, yet we are still sending billions upon billions of not just defensive weaponry, but offensive weaponry. It is tantamount to a violation of domestic law. Many diplomats know it. Many diplomats are scared to say it.” She adds, “I read the talking points that we were supposed to promote on Arab media. A lot of them were dehumanizing to Palestinians.” Rharrit also discusses how “corruption” in government allows for arms sales to continue. “I could not help but be concerned about the influence of special interest groups, of lobbying groups on our foreign policy and, as well, on Congress — on the people that decide whether or not some of those shipments of arms get sent. The bottom line is that our politicians should not be profiting from war. And unfortunately, we have some institutionalized corruption that enables that,” she says.

Headlines for May 3, 2024
Fri, 03 May 2024 08:00:00 -0400
Israel Continues Air Assault on Rafah, Killing Young Children, Ahead of Its Planned Ground Invasion, Palestinian Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh Dies in Israeli Prison; Released Detainee Describes Horror of Arrest, ICC Warns Netanyahu’s Comments Threaten “Independence and Impartiality” of Court, Student Protest Movement for Gaza Gains Steam Despite Police Crackdown, Biden’s Dismissal as “Chaos”, French Students Escalate Their Gaza Solidarity Protest, Pentagon Concedes U.S. Drone Strike in Syria Killed Civilian Farmer, U.S. Accuses Russia of Using Chemical Weapons in Ukraine, Imposes New Sanctions, Abu Ghraib Survivors Case Against U.S. Military Contractor Ends in Mistrial, Biden Admin Expands Affordable Care Act to Cover DACA Recipients, Senate Panel Blasts Deception, Greenwashing by Fossil Fuel Industry, Federal Court Dismisses Historic Youth Climate Case Against U.S. Government, U.K. Starts Rounding Up Asylum Seekers to Be Deported to Rwanda, Federal Court Rejects Louisiana Voting Map That Created New Majority-Black District, Democrat Timothy Kennedy Wins NY Special Election for U.S. House Seat, Manhattan DA Will Retry Harvey Weinstein After Court Overturned Rape Conviction, UNESCO Awards World Press Freedom Prize to Gaza Journalists

"Workers Have Power": Thousands Rally in NYC for May Day, Call for Solidarity with Palestine
Thu, 02 May 2024 08:55:50 -0400
Workers around the world rallied Wednesday to mark May Day, with many calling on the labor movement to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian cause. In New York, Democracy Now! spoke to demonstrators who demanded that U.S. unions apply political pressure for a ceasefire in Gaza and to stop their government’s arms trade with Israel. “Workers do have the power to shape the world,” said Palestinian researcher Riya Al’sanah, who was among thousands gathered at a May Day rally in Manhattan.

Amnesty Int'l: Biden Must Halt Weapon Sales to Israel After U.S. Arms Used to Kill Civilians in Gaza
Thu, 02 May 2024 08:42:56 -0400
A new report from Amnesty International finds the sale of U.S.weapons to Israel for use in its indiscriminate assault in Gaza is in violation of U.S. and international law. We speak to Budour Hassan, a Palestinian writer and contributing researcher to the report, who says the U.S. is “complicit in the commission of war crimes” and must “halt all arms transfer to Israel as long as Israel continues to fail to comply with international humanitarian law and international human rights law.” We also discuss Israel’s detention of thousands of Palestinians without charge, the inadequacy of U.S. human rights investigations into the Israeli military, and Israel’s threatened ground invasion of Rafah.

Former Brandeis President on Gaza Protests: Schools Must Protect Free Expression on Campus
Thu, 02 May 2024 08:32:23 -0400
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 protesters is a worrying violation of the principles of academic freedom. “Provoking people, challenging people, asking difficult questions, making people uncomfortable, that’s part of the price of living in a democracy,” he says. He also notes that what constitutes a threat to campus safety should be narrowly defined. “You are not entitled to be intellectually safe. You are entitled to be physically safe.”

"People Could Have Died": Police Raid UCLA Gaza Protest, Waited as Pro-Israel Mob Attacked Encampment
Thu, 02 May 2024 08:11:54 -0400
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 slurs and bludgeoning them with parts of the encampment’s barricade, and says the attack lasted several hours without police or security intervention. ”UCLA is complicit in violence inflicted upon protesters,” wrote the editorial board of UCLA’s campus newspaper, the Daily Bruin, the next day. Four of the paper’s student journalists were targeted and assaulted by counterprotesters while covering the protests. We speak with Shaanth Kodialam Nanguneri, one of the student journalists, who says one of their colleagues was hospitalized over the assault, while campus security officers “were nowhere to be found.” Meanwhile, UCLA’s chapter of Faculty for Justice in Palestine has called on faculty to refuse university labor Thursday in protest of the administration’s failure to protect students from what it termed “Zionist mobs.” Professor Gaye Theresa Johnson, a member of UCLA Faculty for Justice in Palestine, denounces the administration’s response to nonviolent protest and says she sees the events as part of a major sea change in the politicization of American youth. “This is a movement. It cannot be unseen. It cannot be put back in the box.”

Headlines for May 2, 2024
Thu, 02 May 2024 08:00:00 -0400
Police Violently Crack Down on Gaza Campus Protests at UCLA, Dartmouth, UW and Others, “This Is the Conscience of a Nation”: Columbia Faculty Back Students as Campus Movement Continues, House Passes Antisemitism Bill, Which Critics Blast as “Chilling”, “Catastrophe on Top of Catastrophe”: Fears Mount over Rafah Invasion as Israel Refuses to Retreat, U.S. Cities, Hawaii Vote for Ceasefire Resolutions as Washington Continues to Support Israel, U.S. and Saudi Arabia Reportedly Close to Finalizing Security Pact, Colombia Cuts Diplomatic Ties with Israel as Global May Day Protests Foreground Gaza Genocide, Police Crack Down on Intensifying Protests Against Georgia’s Foreign Influence Bill, Kenya Floods Claim Nearly 200 Lives as Mass Evacuations Ordered, Another Boeing Whistleblower Has Died, Arizona Senate Votes to Repeal 1864 Abortion Ban, United Methodist Church Overturns 4-Decade Ban on LGBTQ Clergy, Biden Cancels Another $6 Billion in Student Loans for Borrowers Enrolled at Shuttered Art Institutes

Reed Brody: U.S. Hypocrisy Laid Bare as Biden Admin Claims ICC Can't Prosecute Israel for War Crimes
Wed, 01 May 2024 08:48:59 -0400
The Biden administration is claiming the International Criminal Court has no jurisdiction to charge Israeli officials for war crimes. This comes after rumors that the ICC may be close to issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials over possible crimes in Gaza. The International Court of Justice has rejected a request by Nicaragua to order Germany to halt exporting arms to Israel, but the court declined to throw out the case. For more, we speak with human rights attorney and war crimes prosecutor Reed Brody, who says ICC charges would be a “huge” development. “Since Nuremberg, no international tribunal has issued an arrest warrant for a Western official. For decades, we’ve had this double standard where international justice has only been effective for crimes committed by leaders of developing countries or by enemies of the U.S. like Vladimir Putin,” says Brody.

USC Grad Student Union Files Unfair Labor Practice Charge Against University over Arrests
Wed, 01 May 2024 08:42:53 -0400
As protests continue on campuses across North America, we go to the University of Southern California, where the union representing about 3,000 graduate student workers at USC has filed an unfair labor practice charge against the school to end campus militarization and drop charges against students and faculty. The “rampant violence that they inflicted on our workers” violates the National Labor Relations Act, says Margaret Davis, president of UAW Local 872. “It was a clear act of retaliation because people were engaging in pro-Palestinian free speech, which they have a right to.”

Juan González, Veteran of '68 Columbia Strike, Condemns University Leaders' Silence on Gaza Slaughter
Wed, 01 May 2024 08:34:03 -0400
Tuesday’s raid on Columbia University came 56 years to the day that police raided Hamilton Hall, arresting 700 students protesting racism and the Vietnam War. Democracy Now! co-host Juan González, who was a student leader at the historic 1968 protest, says the violent crackdown on Columbia University and other campuses across the United States has refocused national attention on “an unjust war,” carried out by Israel with U.S. backing. “No commencement in America will occur in the next month where the war in Gaza is not a burning issue,” he says. He adds that the more diverse makeup of the protests today — led primarily by Palestinian, Muslim and Arab students — may have made school officials and police “much more willing to crack down” than when it was a mostly white protest movement.

Campus Crackdown: 300+ Arrested in Police Raids on Columbia & CCNY to Clear Gaza Encampments
Wed, 01 May 2024 08:12:48 -0400
New York police in full riot gear stormed Columbia University and the City College of New York Tuesday night, arresting over 300 students to break up Gaza solidarity encampments on the two campuses. The police raid began at the request of Columbia President Minouche Shafik, who has also asked the police to remain a presence on campus until at least May 17 to ensure solidarity encampments are not reestablished before the end of the term. Police also raided CUNY after the administration made a similar call for the police to enter campus. Democracy Now! was on the streets outside Columbia on Tuesday night and spoke with people who were out in support of the student protests as police were making arrests. We also speak with two Columbia University students who witnessed the police crackdown. “When the police arrived, they were extremely efficient in removing all eyewitnesses, including legal observers,” says journalism student Gillian Goodman, who has been covering the protests for weeks and who says she and others slept on campus in order to be able to continue coverage and avoid being locked out. We also hear from Cameron Jones, a Columbia College student with Jewish Voice for Peace, who responds to claims of antisemitism, saying, “There is a large anti-Zionist Jewish voice on campus, and it’s also important to recognize the difference between anti-Zionism and antisemitism.”

Headlines for May 1, 2024
Wed, 01 May 2024 08:00:00 -0400
NYPD Raid Columbia & City College, Arresting 200+ Pro-Palestinian Protesters, Pro-Israel Counterprotesters Violently Attack Student Encampment at UCLA, U.N. Decries Widening Police Crackdown on Student Protests in U.S., Netanyahu Vows to Invade Rafah With or Without a Ceasefire Deal, ICJ Refuses to Order Germany to Halt Exporting Arms to Israel, Career Diplomat Resigns from State Department over Biden’s Gaza Policy, Haiti’s Transitional Council Picks Little-Known Ex-Sports Minister to Be New PM, Judge Holds Trump in Contempt of Court, Fines Him $9,000 for Violating Gag Order, “It Depends”: Trump Refuses to Rule Out Political Violence If He Loses Election, Florida’s Six-Week Abortion Goes into Effect, Justice Department Moves to Reclassify Marijuana, U.S. Rowing Rescinds Honors for Olympic Legend Ted Nash over Sex Abuse, May Day: U.K. Workers Block Gov’t Building to Demand Gaza Ceasefire

Months After Israel Killed Gaza Poet Refaat Alareer, His Daughter & Infant Grandson Die in Airstrike
Tue, 30 Apr 2024 08:52:50 -0400
An Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on Friday killed the eldest daughter and the infant grandson of the prominent Palestinian poet and past Democracy Now! guest Refaat Alareer, who himself was killed in an Israeli airstrike in December. Shaima Refaat Alareer was killed along with her husband and 2-month-old son while sheltering in the building of international relief charity Global Communities. Shaima had recently lamented on Facebook that her father never got to meet his grandson, writing, “I never imagined that I would lose you early even before you see him.” “Why is the state of Israel and its military targeting the families and relatives of those it has already assassinated and murdered?” asks Jehad Abusalim, a scholar, policy analyst and friend of Refaat Alareer and his family. “Israel seeks to eradicate, to destroy the social environment that fosters resistance and defiance. This environment produced figures like Refaat.”

Israeli Holocaust Scholar Omer Bartov on Campus Protests, Weaponizing Antisemitism & Silencing Dissent
Tue, 30 Apr 2024 08:40:33 -0400
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 if we don’t make a distinction between the two, then what we are actually doing is enforcing a kind of silence over the policies that have been conducted by the Israeli government for a long time that ultimately culminated now in the utter destruction of Gaza.”

In Gaza Protest, Columbia Students Occupy Hamilton Hall, Site of Historic 1968 Takeover
Tue, 30 Apr 2024 08:28:14 -0400
Columbia University students began occupying Hamilton Hall shortly after midnight Tuesday as the university moved to suspend students who joined Gaza solidarity protests, and renamed it Hind’s Hall, after Hind Rajab, a 6-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza in January. We look at how it was 56 years ago today, on April 30, 1968, that the hall was also the site of the historic student occupation by students who renamed the building “Nat Turner Hall at Malcolm X University.” We feature an archival newsreel about the 1968 occupation and our interviews with campus activists on the 40th anniversary of the action about how they were protesting Columbia’s connections to the military-industrial complex and racist development policies in Harlem.

"We Don't Want to Trade in the Blood of Palestinians": Voices of Students & Profs at Columbia Protest
Tue, 30 Apr 2024 08:13:56 -0400
Nearly 300 peaceful protesters were arrested over the weekend as student-led Gaza solidarity encampments across U.S. university and college campuses face an intensifying crackdown. Democracy Now! spoke with Columbia University professors and students Monday as they were threatened with suspension but voted to continue the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, which began almost two weeks ago. “Hundreds of our students have been disciplined in the past six months on unfair premises,” said Sueda Polat, a Columbia student organizer who is studying human rights. “We are willing to put a lot on the line for this cause. My right to education shouldn’t come before the right to education of Gazans.”

Headlines for April 30, 2024
Tue, 30 Apr 2024 08:00:00 -0400
Columbia Students Occupy Hamilton Hall After School Suspends Students over Gaza Encampment, 100 Arrested at UT Austin Encampment as Campus Protests over Gaza Continue to Spread, Hamas Criticizes Blinken After He Claimed Israel Made “Extraordinarily Generous” Ceasefire Proposal, Palestinians Worry Negotiations Are in Vain as Israel Continues to Attack Gaza, Coalition of Lawyers Call on Biden to Halt Military Aid to Israel, Biden Administration Claims ICC Can’t Prosecute Israel for War Crimes, Journalism Professors Urge New York Times to Conduct Review of Reporting on Oct. 7 Attack, Russia Strikes “Harry Potter Castle” in Ukraine, Killing 5, U.S. Warns “Large-Scale Massacre” Could Occur in Sudanese City of El Fasher, Washington Post Reveals Indian Spy Agency Plotted to Assassinate Sikh Activist in NYC, Temperatures Reach 118 in Burma as Unprecedented Heat Wave Continues in Southeast Asia, Four Officers Killed in Charlotte as U.S. Marshals Attempt to Serve Warrant , UAW Reach Deal with Daimler Truck, Averting Strike

"Lyd": Palestinian & Jewish Directors of New Sci-Fi Doc on How 1948 Nakba Devastated Palestinian City
Mon, 29 Apr 2024 08:43:09 -0400
A new film about the once-thriving Palestinian city of Lyd, now known as the Israeli city Lod and home to Ben Gurion Airport, has begun screening in the United States. The film is a “science fiction documentary” that depicts the Palestinian city both with and without the 1948 Nakba, when over 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes and villages. In Lyd, Israeli soldiers massacred hundreds of Palestinians in Dahmash Mosque during their takeover of the city. “We use the story of Lyd to symbolize the story of the Nakba, the Palestinian Nakba, the demolition and expulsion of over 600 villages all across Palestine,” explains Rami Younis, a descendant of Nakba survivors from Lyd. Younis and Sarah Ema Friedland, the co-directors of Lyd, join Democracy Now! to share excerpts from their film and discuss the vision behind their project.

Rabbi Alissa Wise & Israeli-Born Novelist Ayelet Waldman Arrested Trying to Bring Food to Gaza
Mon, 29 Apr 2024 08:26:29 -0400
Israeli police arrested seven rabbis and Israeli activists Friday at the Gaza border during an action that accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinians. The delegation of Rabbis for Ceasefire carried bags of food to the Erez crossing between Israel and northern Gaza amid reports that famine is imminent for more than 1 million Palestinians in Gaza. “It is incredibly important that those of us who have privilege use that privilege to call attention to this ongoing catastrophe,” says Ayelet Waldman, one of the seven people arrested Friday. Waldman emphasizes that her “mildly uncomfortable” arrest pales in comparison to the violence and repression encountered daily by Palestinian detainees. “Right now what matters is stopping the starvation and murder of millions of people in Gaza,” she says. The action was planned to mark the tradition of Passover, which celebrates the Jewish exodus from slavery in biblical Egypt. “What does it mean to sit around a table and celebrate freedom when in our names a forced starvation and a mass murder is taking place?” asks our other guest, Rabbi Alissa Wise, a founder and organizer with Rabbis for Ceasefire and the former co-executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace.

Gaza Freedom Flotilla: Activists Blocked from Sailing to Gaza But Vow to Keep Trying to Break Siege
Mon, 29 Apr 2024 08:12:00 -0400
Hundreds of activists aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla were blocked in Turkey on Saturday as they attempted to set sail for the besieged Palestinian territory with 5,500 tons of aid. Organizers say Guinea-Bissau withdrew its flagged ships under pressure from Israel and the United States. The Gaza Freedom Flotilla brings together a “cross-section of humanity” in hundreds of community leaders from all walks of life to raise awareness of Israel's blockade of Gaza and rally support for its end. “We are determined to stop this by direct action” where international governments “have sadly failed,” says one of the organizers of the Freedom Flotilla, the Palestinian American human rights attorney Huwaida Arraf. “This is not the end. We are pursuing this legally and politically,” she says about this latest “minor setback.” Arraf was part of the previous iteration of the 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla, in which 10 participants were killed in an attack from the Israeli Navy when it raided the ships in international waters.

Headlines for April 29, 2024
Mon, 29 Apr 2024 08:00:00 -0400
Ceasefire Talks Resume Amid Expected Israeli Ground Invasion of Rafah, Israeli Airstrike Kills Daughter, Grandson and Son-in-Law of Acclaimed Poet Refaat Alareer, Police Arrest 275+ Campus Protesters as Student Uprising for Gaza Shows No Sign of Slowing Down, Protesters Outside Lavish WH Correspondents’ Association Dinner Highlight Massacre of Gaza Reporters, U.S. Decides Not to Sanction Israeli Military as Officials Warn Blinken U.S. Weapons Used Unlawfully, NYT: ICC Could Order Arrest of Netanyahu for Israeli Crimes Against Gaza, Israel Arrests Rabbis Attempting to Bring Aid into Gaza; Gaza Freedom Flotilla Stalled in Turkey, Ukrainian Troops Retreat from East as Russia Escalates Attacks During Lull in Weapons Transfer, Arizona GOP Appoints Indicted “Fake Elector” for RNC Post, Ohio Officials Investigating Police Killing of Frank Tyson, Who Died Days After Prison Release, Ex-Paramedic Involved in 2019 Killing of Elijah McClain Sentenced to 4 Years’ Probation, Protesters March Across Australia to Demand an End to “Epidemic” of Violence Against Women

"The Supreme Court Is a Product of Minority Rule": Author Ari Berman on America's Undemocratic System
Fri, 26 Apr 2024 08:41:10 -0400
We speak with journalist and author Ari Berman about his new book, Minority Rule, which details how the United States has since its founding privileged the rights and interests of a small elite over the needs of the majority. He outlines how, for the first time in U.S. history, five of six conservative justices on the Supreme Court were appointed by Republican presidents who lost the popular vote, and confirmed by senators elected by a minority of Americans. Berman says the court’s makeup is the product of two skewed institutions: how we elect our presidents through the Electoral College and how we appoint U.S. senators — both of which are flawed because they violate one person, one vote, violating the principle of equal representation, and empowering white, rural, conservative and wealthy citizens at the expense of more diverse and progressive parts of the country. “Our institutions are so antiquated, so undemocratic, that we need fundamental reform to change them, to democratize them,” Berman says.

"People Are Going to Die": Supreme Court Case on Idaho Abortion Ban Threatens ER Care Across U.S.
Fri, 26 Apr 2024 08:29:48 -0400
The Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the legality of Idaho’s near-total abortion ban, which criminalizes the procedure in all circumstances unless the life of the parent is at risk. It’s the first such case to reach the high court since the conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. A key issue is whether a state ban can take precedence over the federal right to receive emergency care, including an abortion. The Biden administration argued that Idaho’s law violates the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, or EMTALA. If the justices side with Idaho, it could have major implications for reproductive care and worsen racial disparities for healthcare in at least half a dozen other states with similar bans. “People are going to die,” warns Karen Thompson, legal director of the nonprofit advocacy group Pregnancy Justice. “They are going to be bleeding out in hospital rooms. They’re going to be dying from sepsis because doctors are not going to be able to make the choices that they need to make to give people the care that will save their lives in these emergency situations.”

Atlanta Police Violently Arrest Emory Students & Faculty to Clear Gaza Solidarity Encampment
Fri, 26 Apr 2024 08:11:32 -0400
As a wave of student protests against Israel’s war on Gaza continues to spread from coast to coast, schools and law enforcement have responded with increasing brutality to campus encampments. One of the most violent police crackdowns took place at Emory University in Atlanta on Thursday, when local and state police swept onto the campus just hours after students had set up tents on the quad in protest against Israel’s war on Gaza as well as the planned police training center known as Cop City. Police used tear gas and stun guns to break up the encampment as they wrestled people to the ground, and are accused of using rubber bullets. Among those arrested were a few faculty members. We hear from two of the arrested professors: Noëlle McAfee, chair of the philosophy department, and Emil’ Keme, professor of English and Indigenous studies. We also speak with Palestinian American organizer and medical student Umaymah Mohammad, who describes how Emory has repeatedly suppressed activism on campus since the start of the war in October, and says law enforcement in Georgia work closely with Israeli authorities as part of a police training exchange. “We no longer accept our tuition dollars and our tax money going to fund an active genocide,” she says.

Headlines for April 26, 2024
Fri, 26 Apr 2024 08:00:00 -0400
USC Cancels Commencement Ceremony Amid Mounting Campus Unrest, Police Crackdown on Emory and Other Schools Won’t Deter Students Protesting for Palestinian Rights, Rafah Under Incessant Israeli Attacks Ahead of Anticipated Ground Invasion, New York Court Overturns Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 Rape Conviction, SCOTUS Hears Arguments in Trump Presidential Immunity Case, Though Resolution Could Come After Nov., David Pecker Testifies He Helped “Kill” Stories That Could Damage Trump Campaign, HRW Finds U.S.-Trained Forces in Burkina Faso “Summarily Executed” 223 People, Haiti’s Unelected Prime Minister Steps Down as Transitional Council Prepares to Rule, Indigenous Leaders Fight for Land Rights and Their Survival in Brasília, Heat Wave Leads to School Closures Across South & Southeast Asia, EPA Finalizes Rules Curbing Power Plant Emissions, But Climate Groups Slam “Carbon Capture Fantasy”, FCC Restores Net Neutrality

Hundreds Arrested: Students Across U.S. Protest for Palestine as Campus Crackdown Intensifies
Thu, 25 Apr 2024 08:51:44 -0400
Student protests calling for university divestment from Israel and the U.S. arms industry have rocked campuses from coast to coast. The nonviolent protests, which have been characterized as “antisemitic” for their criticism of Israel, have been met with an intensifying police crackdown as university administrators threaten academic discipline and arrests. On Wednesday, local and state troopers violently arrested dozens at the University of Texas at Austin. Meanwhile, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson visited Columbia University in New York City, the site of a high-profile student encampment and one of the first to be met with police action, where he called on university president Minouche Shafik to resign. We hear from two Jewish students involved in protests at their schools. Joshua Sklar, a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin and an organizer with Jewish Voice of Peace Austin, says concern over campus antisemitism is insincere, and that, in fact, “The people who are being targeted are Muslim students, Arab students, and especially Palestinian students.” Sklar and Sarah King, a member of Columbia University Apartheid Divest who was arrested at the campus’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment, also point out that a large percentage of protesters are Jewish anti-Zionists concerned about their safety from state repression. “The threat is really coming from Columbia University, which has set the police on hundreds of its students who are entrusted to its care,” says King.

Amnesty International: Global Breakdown of Int'l Law Amid Flagrant War Crimes in Gaza & Beyond
Thu, 25 Apr 2024 08:27:30 -0400
Amnesty International has released its annual report assessing human rights in 155 countries. The report highlights Israel’s assault on Gaza with evidence of war crimes continuing to mount, as well as U.S. failures to denounce rights violations committed by Israel. It also points to Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine, and the rise of authoritarianism and massive rights violations in Sudan, Ethiopia and Myanmar. We speak to Agnès Callamard, the organization’s secretary general, who warns “the international system is on the brink of collapse” and decries the failure of rights mechanisms and Israel’s top ally, the United States, to rein in its “unprecedented” assault on Gaza.

Bodies Recovered at Mass Graves in Nasser Hospital Bear Signs of Torture, Mutilation & Execution
Thu, 25 Apr 2024 08:12:14 -0400
At least 320 bodies have been discovered buried in a mass grave at the destroyed Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, just weeks after a similar mass grave containing up to 400 bodies was discovered amid the ruins of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Some of the bodies, which include children, medical staff and patients, appear to have been executed or buried alive. Meanwhile, Israel continues its bombardment of Gaza as its assault of the beleaguered enclave surpasses 200 days. “Every single body that is being unearthed, you find tens of people rushing for the sake of identifying whether those are their relatives,” says Akram al-Satarri, a journalist based in Gaza. “Some of the people were tied. Some of the people had medical accessories on their hands, like the cannulas. And when they were unearthed from the ground, it was apparent that they were buried alive. Some people were tortured. Some of the bodies were extremely mutilated, which means that those bodies, some of their organs were taken by the Israeli occupation.”

Headlines for April 25, 2024
Thu, 25 Apr 2024 08:00:00 -0400
Biden Signs $95B in Foreign Aid, as New Report Details U.S. Weapons Transfer Violates Int’l Law, WFP Renews Famine Warning in Gaza, Where 70% of North Faces Catastrophic Hunger, Aid Groups Warns Lebanon on “Brink of Imploding” After Months of Cross-Border Attacks, USC Students Continue Protest Despite Mass Arrests, Inspired by Gazans’ “Spirit of Resistance”, Police Move In on Peaceful Gaza Solidarity Protests at UT Austin, Princeton, Emerson and More, House Speaker Mike Johnson Faces Heckling at Columbia After Calling for National Guard on Campus, SCOTUS Hears Case on Idaho Abortion Ban, Which Only Allows Emergency Care If Patient Risks Death, Three Arizona Republicans Join Democrats to Repeal 1864 Abortion Ban in State House, Arizona Grand Jury Indicts Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani in “Fake Electors” Case, Iran Sentences Rapper Toomaj Salehi to Death for Supporting Popular Protests, TikTok Vows to Challenge Law Forcing It to “Ban or Divest”, 33 Climate Activists Arrested After Shutting Down Citigroup HQ