We speak with Human Rights Watch researcher Milena Ansari about the organization’s new report detailing the torture of Palestinian medical workers in Israeli prisons. HRW spoke with eight doctors, paramedics and nurses who were picked up in Gaza before being transferred to the notorious Sde Teiman camp and other facilities, where they say they suffered beatings, starvation, humiliation…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Alaa Jamal’s pain and suffering is wound so tightly around her heart that it shields it from all the horrors she’s lived through. So even though she’s in the crosshairs of Netanyahu’s hatred’s sights, her heart beats unceasingly, in defiance of what the Occupation has done to her. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be able to keep the remnants of her family alive: a one year old son named Eid and a three year old daughter named Sanaa. Alaa calls her daughter Princess, an apt nickname for Alaa’s life has always been a fairytale, just one punctuated by war every two to four years. Birth, war. School, war. Adolescence, war. Friendship, war. Family, war. University, war.
Then, when she was eighteen, Mohammed came, and Alaa forgot about the wars. Instead, she says, “A great love story arose.” Handsome, smart, and strong, Alaa knew they were meant for each other. He was a civil engineer, and she, a future architect. He proposed on Eid-al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice. Alaa’s parents agreed, and the lovebirds married. In photographs they’re the quintessential couple. He’s sharp in casual clothes, she’s dazzling demure in repose.
“I was so happy dressed in white,” she says, reminiscing about her wedding.
And for a moment, I could see Alaa, smiling with the groom in the midst of her fairytale. Two children later, it would end. Now, the only white garments worn in Gaza are shrouds for the dead.
When the war began, Alaa was at the hospital with her infant son. Eid had been born with an enlarged heart and needed close supervision whenever he was ill. Now, Alaa found herself trapped with him, as fighting raged on all around her. Israeli soldiers raided the hospital and dragged people out of their beds to kidnap or kill. Terrified, Alaa grabbed her son, ripped out the IV in his arm and ran out the back of the hospital, covered in his blood.
Alaa ran all the way home, but when she arrived, things got worse. The neighborhood children were playing in the street in front of her house. A missile landed on the next block, and a large piece of shrapnel was sent reeling from the resulting explosion towards the children, decapitating Mohammed’s 12-year-old cousin Badr as Alaa watched. Mohammed’s father was next.
Alaa was still in shock when the Israelis dropped leaflets ordering them to go south. She left first, taking the children. Mohammed was supposed to follow a few days later. In the meantime, their neighborhood was destroyed one block at a time. Dozens of Alaa’s friends and relatives were martyred—wedded to the land they loved in the ultimate sacrifice. Day-by-day, hour-by-hour, with each new message, Alaa learned of their deaths. And it was there, among the hordes of refugees walking south along the sea of Gaza, that Alaa’s fairytale life finally came to an end:
“My brother Bahaa was volunteering to drive refugees trapped in the fighting to safety. Mohammed was with him, when the Occupation shot up the car they were in. My brother was wounded, and Mohammed tried to drag him to safety. That’s when they shot my husband in the face. Somebody called an ambulance, but the Israeli soldiers wouldn’t let the paramedics through. They bled out for charity.”
Alaa began to weep.
“The Occupiers refused to let anyone collect the bodies for burial. My beloved husband and brother became food for stray dogs and crows.”
Alaa didn’t have time to properly mourn. Even after reuniting with her remaining relatives, things continued to get worse. As the days and weeks rolled by, they faced a lack of clean water, food and medical care. Winter came, and they had nothing to keep them warm. Everyone was malnourished and sick.
Eid and Sanaa went to the hospital to get treated for starvation with a nutrient IV drip. The elderly had no such luck. Three different times Alaa woke up on a cold morning to find one of her aunts dead. Their bodies simply couldn’t produce enough heat with so little food to eat. I wondered about her own health.
“How much weight have you lost since October 7th?” I asked.
“Thirty pounds,” she said.
I wanted to know more, but Alaa steered the conversation back to her children.
“My daughter Sanaa lost her ability to speak after her father died. She was in shock, depressed, and fell seriously ill. I tried to comfort her. Then one day she began to sing: ‘When I die, I will go to Heaven to be with my father.’”
Sanaa’s understanding of the afterlife allowed her to be a child again.
By April, when I met Alaa, the food situation had improved. But in May, Sanaa contracted hepatitis C and wouldn’t eat. The hospital fed her through another IV. In June, Eid got a bacterial skin infection on his face. Day-by-day I watched it spread in photographs Alaa sent me. The hospital in Deir al-Balah wanted one hundred dollars for the medication. One hundred more than what was reasonable. I used my connections in Gaza to get a charity to pay for it. But Alaa wouldn’t leave her children alone to retrieve the medicine. She was afraid she’d come back to find them dead. Her father went instead. Just in time too, because the skin on Eid’s face began to rot as it decayed. With all his other health issues, it could have been the end of him.
Eventually, Alaa realized that she needed to make a future for her children. She began to study online to finish her degree. She’s already started on her senior project: designing a rehabilitative mental health center for healing from PTSD. She wants to build it as soon as the war stops. It’s part of her overall plan: “I want to make Gaza beautiful again.”
In the meantime, she’s desperately trying to raise money to buy a tent. It’s crowded and unstable the way she lives, always shuffling around between her remaining relatives. Whenever I try to get a charity to help her, she asks if she can work for them. How can she simultaneously work, mourn, study, raise children and survive? Her life is one of incomprehensible contradictions.
“I hope God will compensate Alaa for her loss,” one of her relatives told me.
I concur, if things go well. If they don’t, Alaa tells me what will happen next: “I am an ambitious person, and I love life very much. But I know that one day my blood, and the blood of my children, will water this land.”
May God be pleased with her.
Alaa Jamal, Sanna, Eid with Mohammed
Alaa and her children
• You can learn more about Alaa Jamal here
• You can find more stories about Gaza at https://erossalvatore.com/
The post Gaza’s Last Fairytale first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
The lives of millions of Palestinians are at risk as the UN has been forced to suspend its operations across all of Gaza after Israel’s mass evacuation orders and violence has made it nearly impossible for humanitarian groups to distribute or even access aid. The UN’s aid operations “ground to a halt” on Monday after the latest round of evacuations of Deir el-Balah, Reuters reported…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Palestinian American journalist Rami Khouri responds to the latest exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah and the drawn-out ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, which Khouri calls a “fictitious political dynamic” that is primarily used as diplomatic cover for Israel’s warfare. “The ceasefire talks should not be taken very seriously as an effort to bring about a ceasefire,” he says. “It’…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Patients, staff and families sheltering in the last remaining hospital in central Gaza are being forcibly displaced as the threat of a raid by Israeli forces looms large and Israel orders evacuations in the areas surrounding the crucial medical facility. In recent days, Palestinians have been fleeing al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital as Israel ordered evacuations in nearby neighborhoods of Deir el…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
The United Auto Workers union has become a major political force in the US, and the union’s endorsement of Kamala Harris carries a lot of weight in the lead-up to the general election in November. But that endorsement doesn’t mean the union will stop pushing Democrats for bolder, more worker-friendly economic policy, or for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to military aid to Israel. At the DNC in Chicago, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez speaks with UAW Region 9A Director Brandon Mancilla about the UAW’s endorsement of Harris, the threat Donald Trump poses to labor, and the critical role that unions are playing in this election.
Videography: Kayla Rivara
Post-Production: Adam Coley
Brandon Mancilla: Brandon Mancilla, UAW Region 9A director.
Maximillian Alvarez: Brandon, thank you so much for talking to me, man. So we are here on day three of the DNC. UAW’s got a significant presence here. Organized labor has a significant presence here. I was wondering if you could just tell us a little bit about how the reception has been for you guys, especially after President Shawn Fain’s speech on Monday.
Brandon Mancilla: Yeah, well, definitely on Monday we had a lot of labor leaders speak. Shawn had a prime time spot to talk about our message, our working class agenda moving forward within the Democratic Party, and just making sure that we organize as many workers as possible and get our issues fought for.
I think labor has always had a place within the Democratic Party. But I think right now something is shifting, which is instead of us going to the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party has now realized how important labor actually is to them winning, and also moving forward and recapturing working class votes, because working class people deserve a party that actually fights for them. And that has not been the message that the Democratic Party has relied on for the past 20, 30 years.
And I think the rise of Trump and the MAGA movement says a lot about that. They don’t care about working class people, they don’t fight for working class issues. They definitely do not support the labor movement. But the Democratic Party has not been there, especially with its support of free trade policies such as NAFTA that have led to the immiseration of our industrial towns and so many good union jobs, or jobs with union standards.
So, that’s what we’re fighting for. Our message is pretty clear. We’re fighting for a living wage, we’re fighting for retirement security, we’re fighting for healthcare. And we’re fighting to get our time back. Workers are working two to three jobs, seven days a week, 12-hour days or plus. And that’s just not a life. So, that’s what we’re fighting for, and that’s the path we’re trying to chart with this new labor movement.
Maximillian Alvarez: The UAW quite famously refused to endorse a presidential candidate before the stand-up strike at the Big Three automakers. And in many ways, sending a very clear message that, depending on how you guys respond to the strike, we’re going to make our decision thusly.
What does that say to rank and file members and to workers out there about the change in strategy for how unions in general, but the UAW specifically, is approaching its relationship to the Democratic Party right now?
Brandon Mancilla: Yeah, so essentially what happened last year after Shawn got elected president of our union was that we had to take a conversation forward with President Biden and his administration about the fact that even though he had passed landmark legislation such as CHIPS, IRA, wanted to subsidize a green transition, green energy, infrastructure, et cetera, a lot of this was done with very little consideration of labor and with unions at the table. A lot of the things that were in Build Back Better, for example, were left behind, things that a lot of unions were hoping would make it in the final version of what became the IRA.
And with that, the EV industry, for us. That was the big question. Were we simply going to give Ford and all these companies millions if not billions of dollars in subsidies to just get rid of the UAW? Or were we going to actually fight for these plants to have union jobs and a pathway for our membership to actually keep jobs, to keep jobs in their communities and not get immiserated like they’ve done over the past 20, 30 years of all these plant closures?
So, that’s what the future was. The future was plant closures. And then our strike and finally having Joe Biden move on this issue was crucial. But he only moved because we’ve pushed. We didn’t endorse right away. We forced the conversation that I think he lived up to in the end with our pressure and our strike. And I think that’s how he earned our endorsement.
And going forward, Kamala Harris, same idea. We needed to have a conversation about the future of the party, where the working class program fit in her agenda, and what she was going to do for working people. And so far, that’s what we’ve been able to push with this campaign.
Maximillian Alvarez: It really is a historic moment. Because of course, it was during your guys’ strike last year that President Biden became the first sitting US president to stand on a picket line. So that visually, symbolically, in so many ways, really did signal the changing of the times.
And we are hearing some of that change in the rhetoric over the course of the Democratic National Convention. A lot of folks have mentioned, say, the PRO Act, and the protections that we need for union workers and improving people’s ability to organize in this country. But of course, we also know the PRO Act has not been made a legislative priority for either party. It’s stalled in Congress.
So what conversations are you getting into with members who don’t want Donald Trump to win. Your guys’ shirts all say “Donald Trump’s a scab”, so clearly, your position’s clear there. But we also know there are a lot of members who are still fighting for these other issues that they want to see and they’re not currently getting. How do you navigate that space, pushing the Democratic Party without just giving an endorsement and letting the chips fall where they may?
Brandon Mancilla: So the future of this country is going to depend on two things: protecting jobs, especially union jobs, and also growing the labor movement. Under Trump, we couldn’t protect jobs because he did absolutely nothing about plant closures. When Lordstown closed, he told everyone, don’t sell your house, don’t move. Plant closed, he did absolutely nothing. During the GM strike of 2019, he did absolutely nothing.
The difference with the Biden administration was Stellantis had plans to close Belvidere. Our strike forced them to actually agree to a plant reopening and getting more investment, more product in Belvidere with a battery plant and a PDC. And right now, the struggle is to get Stellantis to keep their promise and actually live up to the commitment. That wasn’t a promise verbally. It was in writing, it’s in the contract. We need to hold them accountable for what they agreed to and get them to live up to their promise.
And with the Biden administration, that pressure is possible. With the Harris campaign, the same thing. We’re going to keep pushing that. Because we want good union jobs in this country, good manufacturing jobs in this country. Not just for the sake of it, but because we know that working people need solid jobs to build communities, to have a life.
And I think what the labor movement needed to grow, we need the PRO Act passed. The PRO Act should be the floor. We should be repealing Taft-Hartley, we should be doing so much more to make it easier for workers who want a union, who want a better life, who want a union contract to be able to get that without so much resistance, and honestly, just employers being able to get away with breaking the law.
Under Trump, we know what he did to the NLRB. He put a bunch of his corporate friends in charge of the Labor Board, and they reversed a bunch of decisions. They came after labor. They did not support labor whatsoever.
So the Democrats aren’t perfect, but we need to absolutely push. And it’s only possible for us to do that with an administration that understands the importance of labor and in both Houses of Congress, in Democratic control. And then we keep doing our thing, we keep organizing. So, that’s the mission right now. If we want Medicare for all, if we want green jobs, green union jobs, we need to have a political voice in this country and need to build power to be able to do that.
Maximillian Alvarez: And I just wanted to ask, because I know so many of our viewers and listeners have asked us this very question. We interviewed International Teamsters Vice President John Palmer days after Sean O’Brien spoke at the RNC last month. Very controversial speech that was also historic. Sean O’Brien first Teamsters president to address the RNC at Donald Trump’s invitation.
The tenor of his speech and the reception of it and the discussion around it is markedly different from what we saw here this week, from the message of Shawn Fain on Monday, from the “Trump is a scab” shirts. What do you see in these two visions for how labor is approaching the electoral process and the pitch that it’s making to the working class out there?
Brandon Mancilla: I think our message is clear. We know what the experience of our members have been under both administrations. And we know how we’re able to move under these two different administrations, and how we can push forward our program and our vision for what the country can look like and what this movement can look like.
And so, we’re not under no illusions about what a Trump Administration would look like for working people, and beyond that, for humanity, for social justice issues, and just keep going down the line.
These are all issues that, no matter how they’re labeled, they’re all working class issues. Because working people have lives and so many different issues that affect them on a day-to-day. If we care about economic justice, racial justice, climate justice, et cetera, we need to have an administration that’s going to listen. And under another Trump Administration, we’re not going to have that.
So, other unions are free to do what they want and talk to whoever they want to talk to. And we know that the membership is not uniform. Members, for whatever reason, are going to have different political parties, backgrounds, candidates. But I think as leaders within the labor movement, it’s our responsibility to put the facts out there and analyze what the reality is.
Under one candidate, this is possible, under another one… And we know their history already. It’s not that we have to make things up. We know what they did. This is going to happen. And we know it’s going to happen because of who they put around them, what their agenda is, Project 2025, all of that stuff. It’s all in writing, it’s all out there, we know what they’re going to do.
Maximillian Alvarez: Last question, I just want to ask you this, because we’ve actually spoken about this at The Real News before. Of course, while the Democratic National Convention is going on, the genocide in Gaza continues. The United States continues to be the primary supporter financially in terms of arms and political support for Israel’s war on Gaza.
And the UAW has also been a real leader in the labor movement, being among the first to call for a ceasefire earlier this year. Also joining other unions and signing on for a call to end arms sales to Israel.
And I just wanted to ask A, about that. For folks who are saying, well, why has the UAW taken a position on this? Why is that important to you guys? And how is that part of your overall message for the working class?
Brandon Mancilla: It matters because it matters to our members. We’ve got many members who are Arab-American, live in Dearborn, Michigan, and have family who have been directly affected, who have been killed because of the war on Gaza. We also have members of the University of California who struck to defend their right for free speech last spring. So, we know the situation on campuses where we also represent thousands of UAW members as well.
And just generally speaking, UAW members, union members, they’re citizens of this country. And if you look at the polls, most people, there’s a democratic majority for a ceasefire. And in order to get that ceasefire at this point, we need an arms embargo because we’re the ones that supply the fire to the state of Israel and its military campaign to carry out these atrocities. So, that’s what we need to see. We need to see concrete action to end this.
And it’s also a political issue for the Democratic Party. We know what the uncommitted movement was able to accomplish, especially in a state like Michigan, over 100,000 voters who came out and voted uncommitted. Those voters still have those same concerns because the war isn’t over. The genocide continues. And in order for us to move forward in this country and build social justice and economic justice in this country, we can’t turn a blind eye to what’s been happening in Gaza over the past 10, 11 months. So, we need to see real change there.
We’ve had conversations. Just like we’re having conversations about working class issues on the economy, on green jobs, and all this other stuff, we’ve also talked to the Harris campaign about the need for a ceasefire and an arms embargo. And to their credit, they’ve listened. They’re saying some of the right things in engaging with these topics. They have spoken to many activists about these questions.
And I was at the panel the other day at the DNC for… That we heard from Palestinian-American and Palestinian activists about the situation in Gaza. But we need action at this point. And I hope we get to hear from a Palestinian-American on the stage this week too.
This post was originally published on The Real News Network.
Throughout the week of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, Palestine and US support for Israel’s ongoing genocidal war on Gaza was the issue that could not be ignored or silenced. From the protests that took place in the streets to Uncommitted delegates staging a sit-in at the DNC to demand the inclusion of a Palestinian voice on the Convention main stage, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez speaks with Chicago writer, scholar, and activist Eman Abdelhadi about the presence of the Palestine Solidarity Movement at the DNC and what comes next.
Videography: Cameron Granadino, David Hebden
Post-Production: Cameron Granadino
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Maximillian Alvarez:
We’re here in Union Park, in Chicago. It’s Thursday, August 22nd, and just hours from now, the final night of the Democratic National Convention is going to kick off. Kamala Harris, who’s formally accepted the party’s nomination to take on Donald Trump and the general elections, is going to speak, and in just a short time, the Coalition to March on the DNC will be leading their final March of the week starting here at Union Park. This is also the site where the march on the DNC on Monday took place within sight and sound of the United Center, which is within a mile from where we are currently standing.
I’m standing here right now with the great Eman Abdelhadi, a writer, an activist based here in Chicago, who’s been doing incredible coverage all week for our amazing partners at In These Times magazine. Eman, thank you so much for chatting with me today. You’ve been doing really critical coverage, focus a lot on the Uncommitted campaign, on the Gaza solidarity protests, and also the role that Gaza is playing in everything that’s happening this week. I wanted to ask if you could kind of start from the beginning of this week before even the convention started. What were you going into this week looking for? And over the course of this week, inside the convention center and here in the streets, what did you find?
Eman Abdelhadi:
Let me go back even a step further. I think over the last 11 months, the Palestine Solidarity Movement has developed more than we’d seen in the decades of amazing work that we’d already been doing, and what we’ve been seeing is that people are fighting on all fronts for Palestine, whether that’s people who are committed to the Democratic Party and are trying to push it, or people who see their work mostly on these streets, mostly in terms of protests, mostly through disrupting the status quo and showing a disaffection with democratic politics and electoral politics. What I was hoping to see this week, and I think what we’ve seen is both of these parts of the movement really coming home, really stepping it up, really trying to send a unified message to the Democratic Party that a weapons embargo is our floor. A weapons embargo is the bare minimum that we would accept as a movement because we have seen over the last 11 months that the war is going to keep going if the endless supply of weapons and money keep going to Israel.
So we wanted to send a strong message to the Democrats that, for a lot of us, you haven’t backed our votes. We’ve watched you enact a genocide for 11 months, and you haven’t given us any reason to trust you. You changed the top of the ticket. The platform is the same. There have been no meaningful policy changes. So we wanted to be out here on the street to say this protest movement is not going away, and we want it to be in the halls of the DNC, or the Uncommitted folks want it to be in the halls of the DNC to say there’s a protest movement even within this party.
Maximillian Alvarez:
What did that protest movement, I guess, look like for you on the ground over the course of the week? We saw you on Sunday speaking at the bodies outside of Unjust Laws march, so that was like a kicking off, in many ways, the week of protests. But tell us what else you found and what you saw happening over the course of this week as part of that movement.
Eman Abdelhadi:
We are seeing exactly how coalitional this movement is. So the Bodies March was about reproductive justice, was about queer and trans rights, and about Palestine. It was about linking those issues together, reaffirming that these are not separate issues for us. These are issues that are interrelated substantively but also are interrelated in terms of the people working for them. We are all on the same page about wanting this genocide to end and wanting, trans rights, and wanting reproductive justice.
I think we’ve seen that throughout every march, protest, and rally is that we’ve seen folks from the Black community, folks who work on defunding the police, folks who work in grassroots organizations that are pro-migrant grassroots. We’ve seen Labor out here. We have seen, really every segment of the left has been represented. So a coalescing around Palestine as a core issue of the left as a… That the genocide is a red line for us, and we’re united in that stance. Just because you changed the top of the ticket for the Democratic Party doesn’t mean that members of this coalition are going to abandon the Palestine Solidarity Movement. We’ve seen that here on the ground today.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Right, and we’ve seen it on the first march that happened on Monday. Like you said, we saw it. This is not to say that every direct action, every protest is all necessarily coordinated by the same groups, of course. Resistance is cropping up in a lot of places. But we had our own reporter, Mel Buer, at the Israeli Consulate earlier this week, where there were protesters there clashing with police and Zionist counterprotesters. We’re here back again for the march on the DNC, where a lot of those coalitions, labor, reproductive justice, are going to be here as well. As we speak, there is a sit-in of Uncommitted delegates who bet, who sat through the night out front of the United Center, demanding that Kamala Harris and the party allow a Palestinian American voice to be on that stage tonight. So it’s looked, sounded, and felt a lot of ways in a lot of different places.
But I think one thing that is really clear to both of us, we’ve been discussing off camera is that Gaza looms incredibly large over this entire week, whether it’s people actively discussing or decrying it in the streets or people cheering when a ceasefire is mentioned on stage. If it’s not that, it is the thing that others are really actively trying not to discuss. So it’s this presence even when it’s not there. So that leaves us with the question of, “Where do things go from here after the convention’s done heading into the election while the genocide and Gaza continues?” Where are you sensing this movement’s going and this struggle within the Democratic Party over Gaza, over the genocide, over U.S. support for Israel is going?
Eman Abdelhadi:
Regardless of what happens in November with this election, we are going to be continuing to push for the end of this genocide. If Kamala Harris wins, we are going to be pushing her administration to end their support for Israel, and we’re going to be doing it with the majority of her base. Poll after poll shows that the clear majority of Democrats, not just 80% of Democrats, want to ceasefire, but a majority of Democrats also want a weapons embargo or conditioning of aid to Israel. So I think that there’s this attempt to say, “Okay, well, let’s put this aside until the election.” Well, 200,000 people are dead, 40,000 directly through bombs that we supplied, and another 160,000 are dead because of the conditions of the war. So there’s no sidestepping Gaza. There’s no sidestepping it for whoever comes into power. There’s no sidestepping it on any level.
Right now, we’re focused on the elections because they’re looming large. But the reality is that people have been organizing for Gaza on the local level, on the state level, and that’s why you’re seeing so much support, even from the democratic base. So none of that is going to go away. In fact, we have been building power. We’ve been building institutional power, and so all of that is actually going to ramp up. So what I would like us to do is to continue to flesh out the flanks of our movement. I would like us to get smarter about the direct actions that we do. I would like us to continue consistent, large protests. I would like us to be building in grassroots organizations and in labor unions and pushing not just for symbolic support of Gaza, but what would it look like to give us material support?
What would it look like to withhold labor? What would it look like to schedule a walkout? We know that the ruling class does not give us anything if we do not demand it and if we do not impose a cost on the status quo. That’s precisely why we’re here. That’s how our movement got to where it is. Because we impose costs. We impose costs on universities. We impose costs on cities. We impose costs on this system, and it’s working. We’ve seen big BDS wins, like Intel pulling out of Israel. So all of that is going to continue regardless of what happens with the election. So I think it’s important to push on the electoral front, but to not mistake it for our main arena of the fight. Our main arena has always been on the streets and in our grassroots coalitions.
Maximillian Alvarez:
What would you say to folks out there? What are the biggest misconceptions that you’re seeing about this movement and what the goals are right now, heading into the election and after? I guess, what are the things you would most want folks out there in the country to know about what you’ve seen from inside this movement all week?
Eman Abdelhadi:
This is fundamentally a movement about peace and about transitioning our relationship as a nation to the world. This is just another case of America acting like an empire, another case of America acting like the big military dog in the world. It hasn’t served us. It serves our ruling class. It serves the weapons manufacturers, and it serves the tech companies, but it doesn’t serve you and me. In fact, it robs us of our resources. That’s what this movement is about. It’s about bringing our resources back here and having a relationship with the world that is not about empire and domination. I think that we’re long overdue for that relationship. We’re long overdue for that transition. Over and over, we’ve engaged wars in this country that Americans have disapproved of, and our ruling elite come back and all act all mea culpa about them. “Oh, whoops. We shouldn’t have gone to Vietnam. Oh, oops, we shouldn’t have done Iraq. Oh, oops. Afghanistan was a mistake.” Well, Israel is a mistake too. Supporting Israel is a mistake too.
So I want people to know that the demands of this movement are actually so basic, are actually so basic. Our weapons embargo is literally following U.S. and international law. It is illegal for us to be funding a government that is killing civilians. It is illegal for us, by our own laws, to be funding a government that is committing war crimes, and those are well documented. So when we say we want a weapons embargo, that means we want to follow our own laws. What does it mean when our ruling elite tell us, “That’s impossible. That’s so hard. That’s so complicated. You don’t know what you’re doing”? What they’re telling us is, “You don’t deserve a democracy. You don’t deserve to know where your money goes, and you don’t deserve, as a voice, in how this goes.”
We have to reject that, not just for Palestine but for the way this country runs overall. So in the Palestine Liberation Movement, we always say, “Palestine liberates us. We’re not liberating Palestine.” And this is another way that that’s happening. That if we change this relationship, we assert a power as a people that we need to have asserted. We have tried to assert over and over, and we can win this time, and hopefully we’re done. Hopefully, after that, we’re done with senseless wars. After that, we’re done with our money going to weapons manufacturers. That’s the horizon of this. But first, we have to start with the weapons embargo. We have to stop killing residents today.
This post was originally published on The Real News Network.
Israel’s military deployed around 100 fighter jets to launch a massive bombing campaign in southern Lebanon on Sunday, endangering tens of thousands of civilians and heightening the chances of an all-out regional war. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) characterized the wave of airstrikes as an effort to preemptively “remove the threat” posed by a purportedly imminent Hezbollah attack…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
After a week of protests, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets for a final March on the DNC, marching within sight and sound of the United Center on the concluding day of the 2024 Democratic National Convention. The demands of marchers and the Coalition to March on the DNC were clear: they called on the Biden Administration, the Democratic aarty, and the Harris campaign to take action to secure an immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza, and to end US aid for Israel. TRNN’s Mel Buer reports on the ground from Union Park and speaks with march attendees.
Video/Post-Production: David Hebden
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Protesters:
Hey, hey. Ho, ho. The occupation’s got to go.
Hey, hey. Ho, ho. The occupation’s got to go.
Mel Buer:
Over the last four days, thousands of demonstrators have gathered in the streets to march within sight and sound of the DNC to make their demands known that a permanent ceasefire in Palestine and an arms embargo against Israel are the only ways to end this genocide. Today we are walking around to talk to demonstrators about the last four days and why they are out here today.
Speaker 3:
As someone of the Afghan diaspora, it is beautiful to see so many people come together and advocate for Palestinian human rights, something I just never imagined that folks would come together and just push forward. As an environmental science teacher, what is happening is an ecocide, and it’s environmental destruction. And so we also think about the rights of nature. And so, nature’s rights are being violated, too. And so we’re looking at various types of rights being violated, and how do we protect our environment? And nature includes us as well.
Mel Buer:
And for you?
Speaker 4:
I think it’s incredible to see the numbers that we’re seeing this week, and I think as someone that’s new to the labor movement, we’re seeing a lot of people coming together in different causes and seeing how all of these issues are connected. And we cannot stand for labor rights, we cannot stand for environmental rights without standing for Palestinian liberation.
Mel Buer:
So we’ve been out here, I’ve been out here every day since Sunday. I’ve been seeing thousands of demonstrators come out to this park and elsewhere in the city, and it’s been really heartening to see just how big the crowds are. On a personal level, beyond just the policy and being part of the labor movement, what is it like to be a part of this?
Speaker 3:
It’s surreal. I think a lot of us who have been part of movements like these since we’ve been young, because we’ve been impacted by war or our generations of communities that have been impacted by war, and we’re here seeing the diverse community build and come together, and educators, teachers that I wish I had growing up, that advocated for me when we were at war with Afghanistan. But seeing folks being able to speak up and learn and educate and uplift our most marginalized voices has been very powerful and moving. It gives me a lot of hope.
Speaker 4:
For me, it’s been really reinvigorating coming to these events, being around such an intergenerational community that is fighting for Palestine. I think it’s incredible, and it really pushes me every day to work harder and think about and reflect on what I’m doing in this larger movement.
Mel Buer:
Now that we’re at the end of the DNC, day four, last night, what is one message that you would like to send straight into the convention center, to the Harris campaign?
Speaker 3:
Let’s humanize Palestinian voices. Let’s make sure Palestinian voices are able to be uplifted on that stage. The time is now.
Speaker 4:
Words mean nothing. If you don’t commit to taking tangible action, like stopping funds to Israel, stopping arms to Israel. We need to make moves now.
Speaker 5:
This coalition put together the march on the first day and also the last day. It was important that we set the tone of the week by having that march on Monday. And it’s important that we set the final impression of the week as well with the march today. And so, we’re really happy with the turnout on Monday. We’re really happy with the turnout today. We’ve brought together people from all over society, all different sectors of the movement and united under these demands of standing with Palestine and ending US aid to Israel.
Mel Buer:
So the DNC has been going on for four days, and we’ve seen a lot come out of the convention, and we’ve seen a lot happening on the ground here outside the convention. What is one of the main messages that you want this march to bring back to the DNC before they leave today?
Speaker 5:
Yeah. I think what we want from the DNC or what we want the DNC and the Democratic Party leadership to hear and see is that there is an organized movement of the very people that they claim to represent that don’t stand with them in this genocide, that want an end to US aid to Israel. And at the same time, we want to see a stop to a deterioration in our rights. We need our rights defended. And the reality is that the Democratic Party has overseen a deterioration. And so, we want people to also know that there’s a mass movement, to join the mass movement, and to be willing to fight for more. Because if there is change, we forced it to happen.
Mel Buer:
Now, there’s been a huge police presence at every single march. I’ve been out here since Sunday. It’s kind of wild to watch. What is your thoughts about the police response in the city of Chicago for the last couple of days? And what does that say about where we’re at currently?
Speaker 5:
The police only have one role, and it’s do not infringe on our First Amendment right to protest. We know how to keep us safe. We’ve gone to great lengths to ensure that we can have a safe protest because we have people from all walks of life at this protest, people of all ages, people of all ability, statuses, undocumented people, and we know how to keep our own protest safe, so they need to stay as far away as possible. That’s our view.
Mel Buer:
Do you have any other message that you would like to share with our audience before I let you go?
Speaker 5:
Yeah. We believe that the movement for a free Palestine, the movement to end this genocide, it has shown that people in this country are outraged. People in this country are of conscience, most people. We’ve seen continuous mobilization every week in Chicago especially, but all over the country. And it’s been people in vast numbers from all different communities. And it shows that there is a sizable movement for justice, and we need to come together, unite all our demands, and also push for a free Palestine.
Speaker 6:
Well, the main tenet of our organization is to stop war. So I’m out here saying, spending billions and billions of dollars to kill people anywhere, but especially now Gaza, Palestine, is an utter waste of resources, utter waste of, well, monetary as well as human resources. And it makes no sense to me. We have 20% of the children going to bed hungry right here in this country, but we don’t have any money for that. We always have money for war. So that’s why I’m here. And also, I guess, I don’t guess, one of my mottoes is keep planting seeds, and so I’m here planting seeds of peace. Sometimes they take, sometimes they don’t, but you got to keep planting.
Mel Buer:
So there’s been a big mass movement the last couple of days. We’ve seen people out here every night. I’ve been out here every night. It’s okay. How do you feel personally about seeing the movement, as it is, out in the streets in the last couple of days?
Speaker 6:
I’m very grateful. I was in the infantry in Vietnam, and I saw a lot of children. And so when I see these clips of children being massacred, it’s just beyond me, and it takes me to another spot, and I got to do what I can to stop this. I’m very glad these people are out here. I talked to a musician the other night, and he spends a lot of his time in Europe, and he says they have demonstrations in most of the nations in Europe every day, if 10, 20,000, every day. On the weekends, 100 thousand. He just can’t believe the US is so… People just don’t know. The news media, other than you guys and a few others, don’t carry it. They carry all these fluff stories, and they carry the pro-Israel stories, which are just lies, but they don’t carry the truth. So it’s good to see folks out here. It does my heart good.
Mel Buer:
What is one message that you would have for the folks attending the DNC or for the Harris campaign or the Biden administration?
Speaker 6:
Spend money on we the people, not on war.
Speaker 7:
Thank you so much for watching The Real News Network, where we lift up the voices, stories, and struggles that you care about most, and we need your help to keep doing this work. So please tap your screen now, subscribe, and donate to the Real News Network. Solidarity forever.
This post was originally published on The Real News Network.
On Aug 23, dozens of labor organizers and allies joined the thousands of demonstrators marching within sight and sound of the DNC for the final March on the DNC action in Chicago, Illinois. The Real News spoke with union members who showed up to demand a permanent ceasefire in Palestine and an end to military aid for Israel about why they felt it was important for labor to be represented in the movement for Palestinian Liberation.
Video/Post-Production: David Hebden
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Mel Buer:
We’re here at the fourth and final day of the Democratic National Convention, outside at Union Park for the final night of the march on the DNC. For the last week, we’ve seen thousands of demonstrators stream into this park, all demanding an arms embargo on Israel and a ceasefire, permanent ceasefire, in Palestine.
Today, a large contingent of the Chicago Labor for Palestine Coalition have come out today to support the march on the DNC and its demands. We talked to a number of members of various unions about why they’ve come out today, and what they think labor can do for this movement in the future.
So, we see a huge crowd out here, the Labor for Palestine, particularly the Chicago Labor for Palestine. Why is it important for you to be out here, part of this group, and be represented at the march today?
Speaker 2:
Well, Palestine is a labor issue because we should care about humans no matter what part of the world they live in. And what’s happening in Gaza and the West Bank now is a crisis, a humanitarian crisis. It’s a genocide that our tax dollars are paying for. So, there’s just that. It’s wrong on that standpoint. The fact that it’s our tax dollars paying for it is even worse. The fact that we’re spending money on that.
And in this country we have people who don’t have healthcare, that don’t have proper housing, they’re struggling to buy milk and eggs because prices are through the roof, rent is through the roof, and pay has not gone up with that.
And so, there’s money to destroy, to maim, to murder children, women, men in Gaza and the West Bank, and yet we don’t have money for healthcare. We don’t have money for housing, transportation, all the things that people in this city deserve and work very hard for. So, I think those are reasons why we’re out here today. We want to stop arming Israel. We want an immediate end to aid to Israel. And we should be funding our communities and healing them, not providing genocidal war funding.
Speaker 3:
I think witnessing a genocide unfold in real time on my phone has permanently changed me. And I can’t look my students or my children in the face, after knowing intimately what dead toddlers look like, and then seeing… I would doomscroll through my phone every night, and then sneak into my children’s room to give them a kiss and make sure they were okay, and that’s just not a world that I can be okay with, and I cannot look in the faces of my children and my students if I’m not doing something about it.
Speaker 4:
Well, in my experience, I was on strike last year. I’ve been to many picket lines. Workers stand in solidarity with other workers around the world, and we’re just here to show our support for the Palestinian trade unionists, and also the people of Palestine and their right to self-determination.
And we just want to make sure that our presence is known, that it’s here. We support as a ceasefire, we support an end to sending military aid and weapons that contributes to the genocide in Gaza, and it’s our tax dollars that are funding this.
And that’s the way I talk about it with people, with other workers, that might not understand or know exactly what’s going on. They’re like, “Why does this matter? Why should this matter to me?” I’m like, “Well, we look at our neighborhoods and our communities, and my daughter’s school’s falling apart. And they say, “Oh, there’s no money to fix anything in our infrastructure,” but we have billions of dollars to fund a genocide. And that’s not right.”
Mel Buer:
As a member of the UAW, how do you feel about your international president not only speaking at the DNC, but also continuing to advocate for a ceasefire and an arms embargo in Israel?
Speaker 4:
Yeah. Well, I’m glad that he did mention that. Just wish it would’ve gone a little bit further. Even with AOC’s remarks today, the uncommitted delegates are demanding to have a Palestinian voice in the DNC, in the convention, and they were denied, so they’re doing a sit-in.
One of my friends who’s a delegate is also there, participating. And I wish they would’ve not just mentioned a ceasefire, but also ending the aid to Israel, ending the… No more bombs, no more weapons, no more money to fund this war, or this genocide.
Mel Buer:
So, the last four days have been full of these incredible marches. I’ve been out here every day since Sunday watching these thousands of people walking in the streets. How does it feel on a personal level to be part of this movement?
Speaker 2:
It’s inspiring. The Democratic Party does not talk about Palestine. I was listening to one of the panels chaired by Zogby, and the only time Palestine ever got mentioned was when Jesse Jackson was running for president as part of the Rainbow Coalition. It’s absolutely stunning. I had no idea. It’s fitting. Both parties have backed Israel to the hilt because it’s part of the Us international policy and project for many years, so it’s heartening that those ideas are being challenged by so many people.
The fact that they’re having to talk about it now, within the DNC spaces and without the DNC, is a testament to all the work that people are doing. Because they’ve been moved by what they’re seeing in Gaza, they’ve been moved by what they’re seeing in the West Bank, they have to act. They have to get out in the streets. And so, it’s inspiring to me that people are seeing that regular people can stand up and make a difference.
At least it’s just getting the issue to the forefront. I think the next step for us is, how do we start to actually put pressure on the decision makers to do what’s right and stop arming Israel immediately? That’s going to be the more difficult challenge. Because we’ve had these protests, we’ve had mass movements in this country since really October. In my own union, Chicago Teachers Union, and November 1st at our House of Delegates, we passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire, which is one of the earlier unions to do so.
But the city of Chicago also passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire, but obviously Netanyahu and his war buddies, war criminals really, don’t care about that. And so, the question I think for us, as workers in this country, as citizens, as activists, as people who live in the city, not just citizens, but anybody, how do we take it to the next level so that we can actually stop this funding and this material support for this awful genocide?
Speaker 3:
I think labor has a unique ability to mobilize a lot of people, and a lot of people quickly. As a CTU member, I have seen the ways that we can get tens of thousands people into the streets at a moment’s notice. And I have also, having been teaching for about a decade, and involved in CTU for about a decade, have been really proud to see the ways that CTU has evolved over the years, evolved in our politics, evolved in our engagement with our communities, and I am just excited to be part of this campaign.
Mel Buer:
As a member of the labor movement, do you have any thoughts about how the labor movement can continue to put that pressure, or escalate that pressure?
Speaker 2:
Yeah. I think one of the things we’ve done in the Chicago Labor Network for Palestine is start with education. The mass media, the politicians, give this story that this all started on October 7th. Hamas just sprung out of the ground out of nowhere and launched this unprovoked attack on Israel. And that’s just fiction. This goes back to ’48. It goes back even before then, earlier, if you really want to get into history.
So, one of the things we’re trying to do is just educate people, saying, “Here’s actually what is going on.” We had a forum over at the Chicago Teachers Union. We brought educators, Palestinian educators, talking to about 150 unionists about what the history of Palestine is, what the history of Israel is, how Zionism is not a religion, but a political project, and how we as people in this country should learn what our country has supported. Why is that we should be against political Zionism? Why we should oppose funding in the state of Israel.
And I think those kinds of things are a start to get people’s minds changed, to get them educated. And then, I think further, we have to do things like take action within our unions. Are our unions investing in Israel? Are there pension funds that our unions contribute to that may be associated with either war profiteers or the state of Israel itself? Is there work action that we can take, like docks that are providing shipping services to bring material to Israel’s war?
Those are the kinds of things I think we should start to talk about and organize and activate around now, to support this Palestinian struggle.
Mel Buer:
Any of the delegates, the attendees at the DNC, the Harris campaign, is there a message that you would like to send to them as a member of the labor movement also involved in this kind of work?
Speaker 4:
Yeah, for sure. To demand that, not only to call for a ceasefire, but to also stop sending aid to Israel. Stop sending bombs and weapons.
We want amnesty for all our newcomers, our new arrivals. I was just at a rally in Lockport for Julian Electric. They’re trying to join the UAW. Most of those workers are undocumented, so we need to stand in solidarity together, because all these issues are related, and let’s hold these electives accountable.
They’re not going to get a guaranteed vote from everyone just because we don’t want Trump. Obviously we don’t. Nobody wants another four years of that nonsense, but it’s sad that these are only two options. I see Kamala as just Biden 2.0, and we need to have a Labor Party. We need to have other parties that can have candidates that people will want to vote for, and not just have this two-party system.
Speaker 5:
Thank you so much for watching the Real News Network, where we lift up the voices, stories and struggles that you care about most. And we need your help to keep doing this work, so please tap your screen now, subscribe, and donate to the Real News Network. Solidarity forever.
This post was originally published on The Real News Network.
As Vice President Kamala Harris officially received the presidential nomination Thursday evening, thousands of people marched within sight of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) demanding an embargo on U.S. arms shipments to Israel and an end to the war on Gaza. Democrats wanted the protests — and any conversation about Palestine in general — kept on the sidelines of their convention as…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) is slamming leaders of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) after they rejected the demands of the pro-Palestine uncommitted movement to have visibility at the convention — and are now lying about their meetings with campaign leaders. This week, DNC leaders denied the uncommitted campaign’s request for a Palestinian American to speak on the main stage of…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination Thursday after a four-day convention in Chicago where her campaign refused to allow a Palestinian American to take the stage to address Israel’s war on Gaza. We hear Georgia state Representative Ruwa Romman, who was among the list of speakers offered by the Uncommitted National Movement that the Harris campaign rejected…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
The UN has confirmed that a baby in Gaza has paralysis from the polio virus — the first recorded case of the disease in Gaza in 25 years due to Israel’s genocide and disease campaign against Palestinians. UN agencies have publicly confirmed the case first reported by the Gaza Health Ministry earlier this week. Gaza health officials had declared a polio epidemic in late July after poliovirus…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Earlier this week, the Uncommitted National Movement requested that the Democratic National Convention (DNC) allow a Palestinian American to speak after the parents of one of the Israeli hostages were allowed to do so:
We are waiting for a phone call from Vice President Harris and the DNC to allow a single Palestinian American speaker to address delegates from the convention stage. #LetPalestineSpeak #NotAnotherBomb pic.twitter.com/nqU7NTX2Um
— Uncommitted National Movement
(@uncommittedmvmt) August 22, 2024
Palestinian American voices deserve to be heard at the DNC. Still time to make the right decision. We hope they do. #DNC #Palestine #Israel #ceasefire #CEASEFIRE_NOW pic.twitter.com/5XGH3J98UT
— Mandy Patinkin (@PatinkinMandy) August 22, 2024
Yesterday at the DNC, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin addressed the crowd. He is an Israeli-American who is currently being held in hostage in Gaza. Notably, he was born in Berkley California, and he immigrated to Israel with his family in 2008.
During their speech, they stated:
‘it is not a political issue. It is a humanitarian issue’
Importantly, they also mentioned a ceasefire and talked about Biden and Harris both working tirelessly to ‘stop the despair in Gaza’. However, at this point it is worth mentioning that neither Biden or Harris have committed to stop arming Israel. Whilst Harris has publicly mentioned a ceasefire, we have seen little in the way of actual effort in making that happen:
The parents of a hostage are willing to express more sympathy towards the people of Gaza than the tone deaf organizers of the DNC convention.
— Naseem Haffar (@NaseemHaffar) August 22, 2024
Several times now, Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire deal negotiated by various foreign governments.
Each time, the Israeli government have shut it down and taken control of more Palestinian land. All along, Israel has wanted to ‘reserve the right to continue operations in Gaza’. It has been noted by analysts that a permanent ceasefire deal could lead to Netanyahu’s far-right coalition collapsing, meaning early elections.
Realistically, Netanyahu doesn’t give a shit about the lives of the hostages. He cares about staying in power.
Over the last 24 hours, many individuals and campaign groups have spoken out since the DNC said they wouldn’t welcome a Palestinian-American to the stage. This included Muslim Women for Harris-Walz, who have now disbanded in protest:
“Muslim Women for Harris-Walz” is disbanding over the DNC’s refusal to allow a Palestinian-American on stage.
They write: “The family of the Israeli Hostage that was on the stage tonight, has shown more empathy towards Palestinian Americans and Palestinians, than our candidate… pic.twitter.com/Gc2VcHNPxn
— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) August 22, 2024
A non-exhaustive list of all the elected officials & groups who have spoken out in just roughly 24 hours since the DNC/Harris campaign said they would not welcome a Palestinian to the convention stage.
(Most, if not all, had endorsed Harris before this): https://t.co/K2DpVSCRhZ pic.twitter.com/KAqYXYHkJX
— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) August 23, 2024
As previously reported by the Canary, a recent poll showed that Kamala Harris would earn more votes by supporting an arms embargo on Israel, than on opposing it:
.@KamalaHarris. Arms spending and destruction of Gaza are not fringe issues. Loss and damage in Gaza are unconscionable and the US will be permanently damaged by refusing to #letPalestinespeak. You will not win without uncommitted support. #NotAnotherBomb https://t.co/Ko6cEfLEWo
— Virginia A (for Abolition) Spatz (@DCspatz) August 22, 2024
Over the last four days, the DNC saw speakers from all walks of life and all nationalities. However, they didn’t invite a single Palestinian-American to speak despite Harris’s recent calls for a ceasefire:
I’ve been watching the DNC Convention for hours every night and loving it! I also feel deeply disappointed that @TheDemocrats have not included a speaker from this community when so many others are represented. There’s still time…@KamalaHarris
https://t.co/kVeyIgYVEt
— Lynne Jackier
(@YourNeighbor57) August 22, 2024
Thank you Mandy.
We need to hear the voices of Palestinians in Gaza alongside the voices of the Israeli hostages.
Everyone deserves justice and their human rights restored.
Same goes for the Syrian political prisoners and refugees. https://t.co/QyxqrAGtrK— Syria Report (@SyriaReport) August 22, 2024
The DNC had the opportunity to show that it stands for what is right – and they squandered that opportunity. They may as well have made a public statement that Palestinian voices don’t matter:
The @DNC is squandering an opportunity to show that it stands for more than politics. It stands for what is right. Don’t claim justice for all when all are not welcomed and heard—especially the most vulnerable. Let a Palestinian American speak tonight @DNC! Not doing so is wrong. https://t.co/4PkPHcCY03
— Michael T McPhearson (@MTMcPhearson) August 22, 2024
The @DNC is really fucking up on multiple levels by not having one Palestinian American speaker. It’s not only the right thing to do but if they want to win the electing, abandoning marginalized people is not the way. The majority of us want this. Take a damn stand. https://t.co/hkNanYkjYV
— Michele Sommerstein (Rebelwheels NYC)
(@RebelWheelsNYC) August 22, 2024
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is a lobbying group with close links to Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. AIPAC has been the biggest and most influential outside spender during the Democratic elections this year:
Their donors @TrackAIPAC make the rules for them to follow. They have no control or care as long as they’re lining their pockets. https://t.co/FdAMfrFosm
— Hasani Gooding (@GenGod888) August 22, 2024
AIPAC are able to do this through their side hustle, the United Democracy Project (UDP).
The project:
is an organization comprised of American citizens—Democrats, Republicans and Independents—united in the belief that America’s partnership with our democratic ally Israel benefits both countries. United Democracy Project works to help elect candidates that share our vision and will be strong supporters of the U.S.-Israel relationship in Congress.
Previously the project has come under fire as AIPAC didn’t make it clear that it was their project. In 2022 they threw $2.3m into the Democratic primary race for the open congressional seat in Pennsylvania. Critically, they targeted the seat because the leading candidate was ‘overly sympathetic to the Palestinians’.
Clearly, AIPAC have already been very influential in this years presidential race, including at the DNC:
Under strict AIPAC demands, the Democratic National Convention rejected appeals by some of their own delegates and outside protestors to give a few minutes to a Palestinian American pediatrician back from Gaza to describe the horrors of civilian death and destruction and urge a…
— Ralph Nader (@RalphNader) August 22, 2024
AIPAC is literally a lobby group for a terrorist, apartheid state. Yet, not only are they allowed to donate to presidential candidates they are allowed a say in who speaks at the DNC and more importantly, who doesn’t:
AIPAC is a foreign lobby for a terroristic, apartheid nation currently committing genocide and they have purchased and taken over both American political parties. They must be destroyed and the Israeli government must be dismantled. https://t.co/rJqNyEEOjS
— Benjamin (@benjaminfleet) August 23, 2024
The tax records for both AIPAC and UDP organisations show hundreds of donations to various current and potential members of congress and the senate. AIPAC and UDP are literally buying Israel’s power through American politicians.
As The Canary reported last week, Kamala Harris’ has a long history with the pro-Israel cause. In total she has taken over $5m from AIPAC
While she may have now publicly called for a ceasefire, she is still accepting money from a genocidal state. She also publicly stated she would ‘ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself.’ Clearly she means, providing Israel with weapons. She has Palestinian blood on her hands. But why would anyone receiving such a huge amount of money speak out against the very people who were financing them?
The new hope Dems feel was born through LISTENING.
Biden listened to the call to pass the torch.
Harris listened to the call to pick Tim Walz to unite our party.
Now she must listen to this call. Heal our party. Let a Palestinian speak from the DNC stage. https://t.co/Pupv2SI9Dw
— Kai Newkirk (@kai_newkirk) August 22, 2024
Allowing a Palestinian-American to speak at the DNC would be a tremendous opportunity to unify people around defeating Trump and to affirm the humanity of Palestinians. It’s an absolute disgrace that the DNC is refusing to do even the bare minimum with this. https://t.co/1RYUxxX4zG
— Tom Hendrickson (@AgawamTom) August 22, 2024
Do the Democrats really care about marginalised voices?
Do they only care about them when it doesn’t stand in the way of their colonialist agendas?
The DNC has denied Palestinian-Americans the chance to speak.
Meanwhile, Harris took up space with her own take on Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Incidentally, the word genocide didn’t feature once. Nor did she place the blame to the war criminal occupying Palestine. She had strong, decisive words of condemnation for Hamas.
Meanwhile, for Israel’s slaughter of tens of thousands of Palestinians – it was silence. Her speech made it all the more clear how badly the DNC needed to platform a Palestinian voice on its stage. At the same time, it made it all the more obvious precisely why it was never going to do that.
Feature image via Democracy Now!/Youtube
By HG
This post was originally published on Canary.
Thousands of protesters marched on the DNC on Thursday night calling for an end to U.S. aid to Israel. Protesters rallied into the night as Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic presidential nomination on the DNC stage. Demonstrators had planned to march toward the convention site but were blocked by hundreds of police in riot gear who forced the march to disperse. We hear from some of the protesters who took to the streets.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
In 2007, the writer Tal Nitsán isolated instances where Israeli male combatants systematically used sexual violence against Palestinian women to the war of 1948. In essentially marking off such conduct from more contemporary practices, she relied on media accounts, archival sources, the reports of human rights organisations and the testimony of 25 Israeli reserve male soldiers.
Seven years later, the American feminist legal scholar Catharine MacKinnon, following a lecture in Israel in 2014, had this to say: “I spoke to Palestinian women, and they testified that there are no attacks of rape by Israeli soldiers. And that, again, is an interesting question we should address: Why do men not rape in conflicts or war? And if it doesn’t happen, why doesn’t it happen.”
A revision of such questions is long overdue and should include the current treatment by Israeli forces of Palestinian males held in custody, not to mention their strident defenders. On the night of July 29, hundreds of right-wing Israeli activists gathered outside the Beit Lid army base. Notably present was a group of oppressively masked soldiers, identifiable by the insignia of a snake in the Star of David, usually sported by Force 100. Force 100 was created in the aftermath of the First Intifada, an IDF unit tasked with the express role of keeping Palestinian detainees in check and suppressing revolt in military prisons.
The unit was also involved in a violent disruption at the Sde Teiman military base in the Negev desert, where detained Palestinians from the Gaza Strip had been subjected to various forms of torture and maltreatment. The detention facility at the base had been created in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks to accommodate some 120 Hamas militants, members of the Nukhba military wing and various Palestinian civilians. Over time, the numbers from the Gaza Strip swelled by over 4,500 people.
It did not take long for grim accounts, available in both Israeli and foreign press outlets, noting instances of starvation, beatings and torture. The field hospital established near the site also featured allegations of brutality against patients. In June, it was revealed that the IDF was investigating the deaths of 36 detainees, vaguely attributing them to ongoing hostilities.
A number of Israeli non-government organisations filed an appeal with Israel’s Supreme Court seeking closure of the Sde Teiman facility, with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel arguing that the “egregious violations at Sde Teiman make depriving these people of liberty blatantly unconstitutional”. With matters rapidly getting out of hand for IDF officials, hundreds of prisoners were transferred to the Ofer Prison located in the West Baak, and Ktzi’ot, in the Negev, with the Israeli state announcing that the camp would return to its original role “as a facility of interrogation and classification only.”
On August 16, Haaretz published eight anonymous testimonies in chronological order, featuring reservists and physicians. They resemble the accounts of many a torture camp in history: routine brutality, systematic dehumanisation and abundant justification from various officials. In the words of one reservist, “there was a female officer who gave us a briefing on the day we arrived. She said, ‘It will be hard for you. You’ll want to pity them, but it’s forbidden. Remember that they are not people.”
On July 29, some 10 Israeli reservists held at Sde Teiman were arrested after collectively using various ghoulish methods against a Palestinian detainee, including anal penetration with iron bars. The account was captured on a video and leaked.
Such alleged methods did not concern the protesters. The Beit Lid contingent proved noisy in demanding the release of their comrades. In doing so, there was plenty by way of venomous accusation directed at the official authorities. In holding such personnel in detention to face charges – not that these would necessarily amount to much – the smell of treason had begun to waft. “The Military Advocate General [Yifar Tomer-Yerushalmi] loves Nukhba,” bellowed one sign located outside Beit Lid, a pointed reference to an alleged sympathy by Israel’s own MAG for the Hamas unit.
Members of the Israeli parliament found appearing at the protest irresistible. “I came to Sde Teiman to tell our fighters that we are with you, we will protect you,” trumpeted Knesset member Limor Son Har-Melech. “We will never allow the criminal Military Advocate General to hurt you. She cares about the Nukhba terrorists and cares about their rights, instead of caring for our fighters, she is weakening our fighters. History will judge her and we will judge her too.”
In a broader sense, the idea of holding Israeli soldiers to account for their brutality through standard legal processes has been a matter of performance. That the military court at Beit Lid even went so far as to hold a hearing for the soldiers – of which two were released on July 30 – was impressive if only for show. But the show was suitably enraging for protesters adamant that such figures could ever be held liable for committing crimes against enemies long bleached of their humanity, let alone political worth.
Outside the court, a spouse of one of the soldiers, whose name was not provided due to a gag order regarding the suspects, offered a cold dismissal of rape charges. “This is a testimony of a despicable Nukhba fighter with blood on his hands, who dared to complain, and all the country is raging because of it. We shouldn’t forget who our real enemy is. We are facing monsters, a terrorist organization, and I say we will defeat them.”
The sentiments of rage could also be found among various members of the Israeli cabinet. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich had no issue with the conduct recorded on the video less than the fact that it had been leaked. Nothing less than an “immediate criminal investigation to locate the leakers of this trending video” was required, given its “tremendous damage to Israel in the world”. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called the arrests “shameful”. Such individuals were “our best heroes”.
In the Knesset, a grotesque debate ensued. Arab MP, Ahmad Tibi, queried whether it was a legitimate practice “to insert a stick into a person’s rectum”. Hanoch Milwidsky of the ruling Likud party was unequivocal in reply: “If he is a Nukhba, everything is legitimate to do! Everything!”
The notion of Israeli forces being the exceptional standard bearers of civilised conduct, reluctantly engaged in violence they would otherwise wish to avoid, has vanished before the colonial settler’s violent logic so commonly found in the West Bank. Be it illegal settlements or orchestrated gang rape, all is fair in hate and war against the Palestinians.
The post Apologists for Rape: The Sde Teiman Protests first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
Israeli officials’ ceasefire demands show that they aren’t just using ceasefire negotiations to prolong their genocide of Gaza, but also to secure permission to further deepen their colonization of Palestine, a UN expert has said. In the latest ceasefire talks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been insistent that Israel be able to maintain a permanent military occupation of Gaza’…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Recent Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank has caused the largest wave of forced displacement of Palestinians from their homes since October, a humanitarian group has reported, just weeks after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued its landmark ruling against Israel’s settlements in Palestine. Over the past two weeks, Israeli settlers have forced 119 Palestinians to…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
In a resounding victory for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, the French multinational insurance company AXA has sold its investments in all major Israeli banks and divested from Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems. The news was confirmed by a new report published by the corporate accountability group Ekō, which is part of the coalition that’s been…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Tanya Haj-Hassan is a pediatric intensive care physician who has volunteered in Gaza multiple times over the past 10 months. She joins us to recount what she witnessed there and to explain why she is calling for an end to U.S. support for the Israeli military and the resumption of comprehensive humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. Over the course of Israel’s assault, Haj-Hassan has treated victims…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Israel’s forced evacuations in Gaza are now so widespread that Palestinians are not only being almost completely separated from crucial resources like water, they are also being squeezed into a “safe zone” that has shrunk to a point where they are never more than a few blocks away from the frontline of Israel’s ground assault, humanitarian groups warn. According to the UN Relief and Works…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
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The mood inside the Democratic National Convention is triumphant, but not everyone is content to toe the party line. On the first day of the convention, three uncommitted delegates dropped a banner calling for a stop to US arms to Israel. In what has now become a viral internet moment, the delegates around them responded by hitting the banner-drop activists with their DNC signs. Liano Sharon, one of the DNC delegates who dropped the banner, speaks to The Real News in an exclusive interview.
Video: Kayla Rivara
Post-Production: David Hebden
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Liano Sharon:
Hi, my name is Liano Sharon. I’m a Democratic National Committee member elected from Michigan, and I emphasize elected because 55% of the Democratic National Committee are not elected to be members of the Democratic National Committee.
Speaker 2:
Liano, thank you so much for talking to us. I know you’ve had a busy week, and we’re only halfway through this thing, and you were part of an action that started on first night of the DNC last night. I was wondering if you could tell our viewers and listeners a little bit about what happened, and how the reaction has been since then.
Liano Sharon:
Sure. So myself, and Nadia Ahmad, and Esam Boraey, the three of us raised a banner during Biden’s speech, and in the highest part of the Florida delegation area that said, “Stop arming Israel.”
And we did that because first of all, for myself as a Jew, I was always raised to believe that never again means never again for anyone, anywhere, ever, period. And that’s not what we’re doing. What we’re doing is we’re continuing to support a genocide and the mass murder of children, and that has to stop. But another very important reason that I did it, and that we did it together, is that it’s good electoral politics.
A poll came out a few days ago, for example, that said that 60% of undecided voters under 30, across three of the big swing states, Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, 60% of them will be more likely to vote for Harris if she supported an arms embargo, which is to say that if she chose to enforce the Leahy laws, which already exist on the books, which already make it illegal for us to be sending over the weaponry that we’re sending over there.
And there are statistics like that out of the individual states, Georgia and Arizona, etc., and it’s similar numbers. For example, it’s 60% in favor, 7% against or 39% in favor, 5% against. It’s that kind of big difference that’s in favor of significant electoral gains from making this move. And at the same time, she’s running on the idea that she’s the prosecutor, she’s the law enforcement official, she’s going to enforce the law. Well, if she’s going to enforce the law, then she needs to enforce the Leahy laws, which would require imposing an arms embargo.
So it’s good electoral politics, it’s good law, and more than that, we have to understand it’s good politics in general, because Netanyahu is an ally of Donald Trump. He is going to do everything he possibly can to incite things in the Middle East, not have a ceasefire, and do everything he can to tank her campaign in order to remain in power because if he gets out of power, which would happen if he agreed to a ceasefire, that would stop the war, which would mean that he’d have to run for re-election, 72% of Israelis don’t want him, and he’s under investigation for corruption from before October 7th.
So if he accepts a ceasefire, he’s probably losing power, and he may more than likely going to jail, from what I understand of the court case against him. So he has every incentive not to accept ceasefire, as demonstrated by the fact that a few weeks ago he murdered the person on the other side of the table doing the negotiations in Tehran.
So if you have a situation where a guy is your political opponent, and he has every incentive not to accept any kind of a ceasefire, if he has every incentive to try to drag this out and try to make Trump win so that Trump will give him carte blanche, then if you’re calling for a ceasefire but you’re not calling to enforce the Leahy laws, you’re not calling for any kind of an arms embargo, then how do we take you seriously?
If you’re not going to use leverage against a guy who has demonstrated that he doesn’t want a ceasefire, if you’re not going to use leverage to get a ceasefire, you’re not making a credible argument that you actually want to ceasefire. And given all of those facts, then the question arises, are you really serious about defeating Donald Trump? Okay, here is an ally of Donald Trump who’s literally going to do everything he can to ensure that you lose, and you have leverage available to you over him that are actually just enforcing the laws, okay, but you’re not going to do that? Why should anybody take you seriously that you really want a ceasefire?
Speaker 2:
Oh, please.
Liano Sharon:
No, no. Those are the key things.
Speaker 2:
Well, and as you said, you’re an elected delegate from the great state of Michigan, where I myself lived for many years, but where a lot of this political struggle has been coming to a head. The uncommitted campaign in Michigan made a really big statement earlier this year. Of course, Dearborn has a massive Arab population, a long history of activism in the state. But also this is where Kamala Harris was speaking recently, and when protesters were making the case that you’re making now, she infamously responded with, “If you want Donald Trump to win, just say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking.” I guess, what is your message as a rep elected delegate from Michigan who, as you said, you don’t want Trump to win. What is your response to that way of framing from Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party?
Liano Sharon:
Well, let’s just be clear. That way of framing things is really actually a fascist kind of way of framing things. I get to say what I want, but the rest of the coalition, the supposed big tent party, they have to be quiet. Okay? That’s not an acceptable way to deal with. And I commend her for subsequently changing her framing of that, and addressing the issue with more compassion.
And that actually gives me a bit of hope in the sense that she’s clearly responding to the pressure that she’s being put under. And she’s clearly, it seems to me what she’s been doing so far is running a very data-driven campaign. I think that’s a good part of the reason why she picked Tim Walz, which I think is a great pick. Because I think that she’s got a team that’s looking at the data, and if you look at the data, it clearly mitigates towards, it clearly drives towards having actual leverage and actually using that leverage over Netanyahu.
And literally all it takes is enforcing our own laws. So on the one hand, the way that she responded to it is the way that the Democratic Party has generally responded to these kinds of things, and I’m encouraged by the fact that she changed. But then again, that’s her and she’s trying to win an election, whereas like last night, the people that ripped the banner out of my hand and hit my colleague Nadia Ahmed over the head with their signs, here’s a hijab-wearing woman, and they’re beating her over the head with their signs.
That is the more common way that we have seen the Democratic Party behave in general. And that’s just brown shirt behavior. I mean, it is political violence designed to silence people. We were not practicing violence. All we did is we held up a banner that said, “Stop arming Israel.” We weren’t chanting, we weren’t disrupting, we held up a sign. Lots of other people were holding up different signs. That’s fine, that’s political expression. We’re supposed to be a big tent party. But the problem is what the party tries to do is it tries to enforce unity, and enforced unity is just a kind of authoritarianism.
What we need in the Democratic Party in order to be democratic is solidarity, that way in a situation we have a lot of different factions, they have differences, but we do have commonalities. And when different factions feel that they need to express themselves, we encourage that expression. We don’t try to shut it down.
Speaker 2:
And you’ve been so gracious with your time, I really appreciate it, I just got one more question for you. What’s your message for folks out there who are heartsick about the ongoing genocide and Gaza, they want it to stop, that is their primary concern. They also don’t want Donald Trump to win. So now they’re caught between this rock and a hard place heading into the general election in November. Where does this movement go, and what room is there to push Kamala Harris in the Democrats in the next few months? What would you say to folks out there who are in that position now?
Liano Sharon:
I would say get out there and demonstrate, show what you want. Because this similar situation that happened under FDR. Where he was talking with the socialists, and the communists, and the labor unions who want the New Deal, and what he said to them is, “Make me. Make it politically impossible for us to do anything else here in Washington.” That’s what we need to do. We need to have people out there protesting every time there’s an opportunity to get in front of her with a sign that says, “Stop arming Israel, enforce the Leahy laws.” If she’s not going to do that, it undercuts her entire argument that she’s the law enforcement officer, that she’s the great prosecutor, if she’s not going to enforce the laws. So I really think that that is a key part of what we need to do.
There are a lot of people out there, and I support them 100% because that’s democracy, that will not vote for Kamala Harris if there is not something like that going on that really demonstrates that she’s serious about shutting down this genocide. There’s an awful lot of people who will not vote for her. I’m not one of them. I don’t want Donald Trump, and I’m perfectly willing to say that I’m going to vote against Donald Trump.
My only option to vote against Donald Trump in this election is Harris. Same thing happened last time with Biden, and 68% of actual Biden voters in 2020 told exit pollsters that they didn’t vote for Biden, they voted against Trump. So for myself I’m in the same situation as I was back then, though I will also say that I want to vote for her. I want the opportunity to vote for her. I want the opportunity to vote for somebody who does not support genocide.
But we have to understand it’s not only about the genocide that’s going on in Israel. We have to recognize that there’s genocide of a kind going on right here in the United States when we have a privatized health insurance system that literally murders 68,000 specifically poor people, disproportionately women and minorities every single year like clockwork. And the only thing that I know of that murders tens of thousands of people every single year like clockwork, is a Nazi death camp. That’s the kind of health insurance system or health care, “health care system” that we’re running in this country and that she’s supported.
So there’s a lot of different issues that we need to look at, and we need to understand how these things are connected, because right now, given the electoral math, given the logic of her campaign about enforcing laws, given all that stuff, the only forces pushing against this kind of an arms embargo enforcing the Leahy laws is number one, APAC. And number two, the military industrial complex who want to keep up their contracts and get lots of money. So literally, in both cases, in the insurance industry case and in the Gaza case, we’re murdering people for money.
And that’s got to stop. And I think that right now, the logic of stopping the murders in Gaza demonstrates that the way to make her do it is to make her do it. To demonstrate that it is not politically viable to not do it. And I think that’s the same thing that we have to do with the mass murder that we’re experiencing every year in healthcare as well.
Speaker 2:
Thank you so much for watching The Real News Network, where we lift up the voices, stories and struggles that you care about most. And we need your help to keep doing this work so please, tap your screen now, subscribe and donate to The Real News Network. Solidarity Forever.
This post was originally published on The Real News Network.
Climate activists disrupted a DNC-adjacent event sponsored by ExxonMobil on Wednesday, the same day that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz formally accepted his nomination as vice-presidential candidate for the Democratic Party. Walz has faced harsh criticism from Indigenous and environmental rights groups in Minnesota for his authorization of the Line 3 oil pipeline through Native treaty lands in the state. We host a roundtable discussion on the climate crisis and the Democratic Party’s response with Ojibwe lawyer and founder of the Giniw Collective Tara Houska; climate organizer Collin Rees, who was part of the ExxonMobil action at the DNC; and climate scientist Michael Mann.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
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Israeli forces regularly use children as human shields in Gaza, a rights group finds in a new report shining a light on horrific stories of abuse faced by children detained by Israeli forces. As part of its genocide in Gaza, the military registered by the UN as a violator of children’s human rights is “systematically” detaining and torturing children, according to Defense for Children…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Over the past months, Israeli forces have been clearing space for and building a road in northern Gaza that may indicate that Israel is intending to maintain a permanent military presence in the region that was home to the largest and most bustling city in the Gaza Strip, a new analysis finds. According to analysis group Forensic Architecture, satellite imagery shows that Israeli forces have…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
DNC delegates unfurl banner during Biden’s speech at the DNC. Photo credit: Esam Boraey
An Orwellian disconnect haunts the 2024 Democratic National Convention. In the isolation of the convention hall, shielded from the outside world behind thousands of armed police, few of the delegates seem to realize that their country is on the brink of direct involvement in major wars with Russia and Iran, either of which could escalate into World War III.
Inside the hall, the mass slaughter in the Middle East and Ukraine are treated only as troublesome “issues,” which “the greatest military in the history of the world” can surely deal with. Delegates who unfurled a banner that read “Stop Arming Israel” during Biden’s speech on Monday night were quickly accosted by DNC officials, who instructed other delegates to use “We 
Joe” signs to hide the banner from view.
In the real world, the most explosive flashpoint right now is the Middle East, where U.S. weapons and Israeli troops are slaughtering tens of thousands of Palestinians, mostly children and families, at the bidding of Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu. And yet, in July, Democrats and Republicans leapt to their feet in 23 standing ovations to applaud Netanyahu’s warmongering speech to a joint session of Congress.
In the week before the DNC started, the Biden administration announced its approval for the sale of $20 billion in weapons to Israel, which would lock the US into a relationship with the Israeli military for years to come.
Netanyahu’s determination to keep killing without restraint in Gaza, and Biden and Congress’s willingness to keep supplying him with weapons to do so, always risked exploding into a wider war, but the crisis has reached a new climax. Since Israel has failed to kill or expel the Palestinians from Gaza, it is now trying to draw the United States into a war with Iran, a war to degrade Israel’s enemies and restore the illusion of military superiority that it has squandered in Gaza.
To achieve its goal of triggering a wider war, Israel assassinated Fuad Shukr, a Hezbollah commander, in Beirut, and Hamas’s political leader and chief ceasefire negotiator, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran. Iran has vowed to respond militarily to the assassinations, but Iran’s leaders are in a difficult position. They do not want a war with Israel and the United States, and they have acted with restraint throughout the massacre in Gaza. But failing to respond strongly to these assassinations would encourage Israel to conduct further attacks on Iran and its allies.
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The assassinations in Beirut and Tehran were clearly designed to elicit a response from Iran and Hezbollah that would draw the U.S. into the war. Could Iran find a way to strike Israel that would not provoke a U.S. response? Or, if Iran’s leaders believe that is impossible, will they decide that this is the moment to actually fight a seemingly unavoidable war with the U.S. and Israel?
This is an incredibly dangerous moment, but a ceasefire in Gaza would resolve the crisis. The U.S. has dispatched CIA Director William Burns, the only professional diplomat in Biden’s cabinet, to the Middle East for renewed ceasefire talks, and Iran is waiting to see the result of the talks before responding to the assassinations.
Burns is working with Qatari and Egyptian officials to come up with a revised ceasefire proposal that Israel and Hamas can both agree to. But Israel has always rejected any proposal for more than a temporary pause in its assault on Gaza, while Hamas will only agree to a real, permanent ceasefire. Could Biden have sent Burns just to stall, so that a new war wouldn’t spoil the Dems’ party in Chicago?
The United States has always had the option of halting weapons shipments to Israel to force it to agree to a permanent ceasefire. But it has refused to use that leverage, except for the suspension of a single shipment of 2,000 lb bombs in May, after it had already sent Israel 14,000 of those horrific weapons, which it uses to systematically smash living children and families into unidentifiable pieces of flesh and bone.
Meanwhile the war with Russia has also taken a new and dangerous turn, with Ukraine invading Russia’s Kursk region. Some analysts believe this is only a diversion before an even riskier Ukrainian assault on the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Ukraine’s leaders see the writing on the wall, and are increasingly ready to take any risk to improve their negotiating position before they are forced to sue for peace.
But Ukraine’s recent incursion into Russia, while applauded by much of the west, has actually made negotiations less likely. In fact, talks between Russia and Ukraine on energy issues were supposed to start in the coming weeks. The idea was that each side would agree not to target the other’s energy infrastructure, with the hope that this could lead to more comprehensive talks. But after Ukraine’s invasion toward Kursk, the Russians pulled out of what would have been the first direct talks since the early weeks of the Russian invasion.
President Zelenskyy remains in power three months after his term of office expired, and he is a great admirer of Israel. Will he take a page from Netanyahu’s playbook and do something so provocative that it will draw U.S. and NATO forces into the potentially nuclear war with Russia that Biden has promised to avoid?
A 2023 U.S. Army War College study found that even a non-nuclear war with Russia could result in as many U.S. casualties every two weeks as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq did in two decades, and it concluded that such a war would require a return to conscription in the United States.
While Gaza and Eastern Ukraine burn in firestorms of American and Russian bombs and missiles, and the war in Sudan rages on unchecked, the whole planet is rocketing toward catastrophic temperature increases, ecosystem breakdown and mass extinctions. But the delegates in Chicago are in la-la land about U.S. responsibility for that crisis too.
Under the slick climate plan Obama sold to the world in Copenhagen and Paris, Americans’ per capita CO2 emissions are still double those of our Chinese, British and European neighbors, while U.S. oil and gas production have soared to all-time record highs.
The combined dangers of nuclear war and climate catastrophe have pushed the hands of the Doomsday Clock all the way to 90 seconds to midnight. But the leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties are in the pockets of the fossil fuel industry and the military-industrial complex. Behind the election-year focus on what the two parties disagree about, the corrupt policies they both agree on are the most dangerous of all.
President Biden recently claimed that he is “running the world.” No oligarchic American politician will confess to “running the world” to the brink of nuclear war and mass extinction, but tens of thousands of Americans marching in the streets of Chicago and millions more Americans who support them understand that that is what Biden, Trump and their cronies are doing.
The people inside the convention hall should shake themselves out of their complacency and start listening to the people in the streets. Therein lies the real hope, maybe the only hope, for America’s future.
This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
