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Category: Protest

  • Eurovision welcomes genocidal Israel as more mass graves uncovered in Palestine

    This weekend the final of the Eurovision Song Contest is set to go ahead, where representatives from 26 countries will compete. Up to 30,000 protestors are expected to demonstrate against Israel’s participation in the competition.

    As of 9 May, the death toll of Palestinians has passed 34,000 – that’s not including the likely thousands more buried underneath rubble. Even more mass graves continue to be discovered daily, with the latest at Al Shifa hospital.

    Israel has caused such devastation that it’s been accused of war crimes. In fact, a new report alleges that as Israel relies so heavily on US arms “the Biden administration may have acted in violation of not just international law, but its own regulations.”

    Western colonialism being what it is, sounds like the perfect time to include Israel in a singing competition.

    Protests ongoing

    Heavily armed police patrol the city of Malmo in Sweden, where the final will take place. Since October, pro-Palestinian rallies have been a regular occurrence in Malmo, which is home to the majority of Sweden’s population of Palestinian origin.

    Eurovision organisers have banned all flags other than those of the participating countries inside the arena, as well as all banners with a political message.

    Of course, it’s one rule for dead brown people, and other for dead white people.

    When Russia invaded Ukraine, Eurovision promptly banned them from competing. This came amidst waves of rejection of Russian culture, and official sanctions that underscored the devastation Russia has wrought in Ukraine.

    No matter what officials say, we refuse to ignore Israel’s cruel and callous siege against Palestine. One commenter said:

    Another person pointed out how laughable Eurovision’s attempt at keeping politics out was:

    Remember, if it’s white people and white-majority societies that are being destroyed, then it’s a matter of basic humanity. If it’s brown Muslims being bombed, that’s called ‘politics.’

    Former Eurovision contestant Eric Saade performed at an official event this week, and shocked organisers with his ‘politics.’ Saade, who is both Swedish and Palestinian, wore a keffiyeh on his wrist during a live performance. The organisers of Eurovision, European Broadcasting Union, released a statement saying:

    All performers are made aware of the rules of the contest, and we regret that Eric Saade chose to compromise the non-political nature of the event.

    Are we supposed to swallow this bullshit?

    How exactly is it political for Saade – a Palestinian! – to wear a traditionally Palestinian symbol on his wrist? Is it political to see videos of dead children flooding our timelines for months, and to object to the killing of said children? Does ‘political’ mean non-responsive? To have no reaction to genocide?

    Plenty of folks have been sharing Saade’s performance which seems to have been taken down from official Eurovision platforms:

    ‘Politics is everywhere’

    In fact, for the artists representing Ukraine, “politics is everywhere”. Ukrainian rapper Aliona Savranenko, known by her artist name alyona alyona, told Agence France-Presse (AFP):

    Culture is a part of politics, so every song is political.

    Magnus Bormark, who is competing for Norway, told AFP:

    There should be demonstrations, people should voice their opinions, people should boycott.

    Eight other contestants have  publicly called for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza, including Ireland’s entry Bambie Thug. The Irish Times reported that:

    As part of their stage costume, Bambie had Ogham script written on their face and legs. Some of the writing was about the conflict in Gaza, with script spelling out “Ceasefire” and “Freedom for Palestine”.

    Speaking at a press conference in Malmo, Sweden, after the semi-final, the artist said they changed the initial Ogham that they had written due to a request from the European Broadcasting Union.

    One commenter was glad of Bambie’s protest:

    Another person recalled how the inclusion of the Ukrainian orchestra at last year’s Eurovision was a stark contrast to the censoring of Palestinians and protection of Israel:

    Clearly, the more Eurovision dig their heels in about this, the more they’re making sure that artists, attendees, and protestors make their opposition to genocide known.

    Upcoming weekend

    Security checks have been stepped up, in particular for access to the various sites, where bags will mostly be prohibited. The police presence has also been strengthened, with reinforcements coming from Norway and Denmark.

    Of course, wherever there’s shitty moral decisions being made, piggy cops are there snuffling around for any opportunity to suppress dissent.

    As the final starts at 9:00 pm (1900 GMT) on Saturday, activists will be organising the first edition of Falastinvision in solidarity with the Palestinian people. It feels apt to end this article with the testimony of Motassem Salah, director of the Palestinian health ministry’s emergency operations centre, who said:

    Some of these bodies were found in pieces, some of these bodies were found without heads.

    Any cursory look at footage filmed by Palestinian journalists shows heads, detached limbs, bodies of children that died with tears on their faces, families carrying the broken remains of their loved ones.

    A mediocre singing contest isn’t all fun and games when they’re inviting Israel to the party.

    Palestinians are the ones having their homes destroyed, being killed by carpet bombing, and Eurovision wants to not be ‘political’?

    They can absolutely get fucked.

    Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

    Featured image by Unsplash/Nikolas Gannon

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Activists protest Vietnam’s human rights repression in front of UN | Radio Free Asia (RFA)


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Hundreds protest in Geneva on human rights repression in Vietnam | Radio Free Asia (RFA)


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Court bans protest song over ‘insult’ to China’s national anthem

    A Hong Kong court has banned “Glory to Hong Kong,” a protest song from the 2019 pro-democracy movement that has been frequently mistaken for the city’s official anthem, calling it a “weapon” that could be used to bring down the government and an “insult” to China’s national anthem.

    The Court of Appeal granted a temporary injunction that is largely aimed at getting the song taken down from online platforms, after the government repeatedly asked Google to alter its search results to no avail.

    Public performances of the song are already banned, as its lyrics are deemed illegal under national security legislation, but that ban can currently only be enforced in territory controlled by China.

    A Wikipedia entry for the song appeared at the top of Google search results for the phrase “Hong Kong national anthem” on Wednesday.

    “The composer of the song … was reported to have said that he … wrote the song to boost the morale of the protesters and to appeal to people’s emotions and sentiments,” Court of Appeal judges Jeremy Poon, Carlye Chu and Anthea Pang wrote in their judgment handed down on Wednesday.

    The songwriter, who first published the song on the Dgx Music YouTube channel in August 2019, also said “that while the front-line protesters used umbrellas, bricks, stones and petrol bombs as weapons, the song was the most important ‘weapon’ he could contribute to the fight,” according to the judgment.

    ‘Insult’ to China’s national anthem

    “Glory to Hong Kong,” which sparked a police investigation after organizers played it in error at recent overseas sporting fixtures, was regularly sung by crowds of unarmed protesters during the 2019 protests, which ranged from peaceful mass demonstrations for full democracy to intermittent, pitched battles between “front-line” protesters and armed riot police.

    The song calls for freedom and democracy rather than independence, but was nonetheless deemed in breach of the law due to its “separatist” intent, officials and police officers said at the start of an ongoing citywide crackdown on public dissent and peaceful political activism.

    The ban comes after the Court of First Instance rejected the government’s application for an injunction on performances or references to the song on July 28, 2023 citing a “chilling effect” on freedom of expression.

    ENG_CHN_GLORY TO HONG KONG_05072024.2.JPG
    Performers sing ‘Glory to Hong Kong’ during a protest against an extradition bill in Hong Kong, Sept. 18, 2019. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

    But Judges Poon, Chu and Pang said that decision had failed to take into account the “insult” to China’s national anthem, “The March of the Volunteers,” caused when others repeatedly played out “Glory to Hong Kong” at sporting events instead of the Chinese national anthem.

    Hong Kong passed a law in 2020 making it illegal to insult China’s national anthem on pain of up to three years’ imprisonment, following a series of incidents in which Hong Kong soccer fans booed their own anthem in the stadium.

    Injunction ‘crystal clear’ to public

    The song’s labeling as “Hong Kong’s national anthem” on YouTube had also been “highly embarrassing and hurtful to many people of Hong Kong, not to mention its serious damage to national interests,” the judges said.

    “The song has also been sung and promoted by prominent anti-China destabilizing forces and national security offenses fugitives in events provoking hatred towards the People’s Republic of China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government,” they wrote, adding that the song remains freely available online despite the National Security Law that took effect in 2020.

    The injunction was temporarily granted to prevent anyone from “broadcasting, performing, printing, publishing, selling, offering for sale, distributing, disseminating, displaying or reproducing [it] in any way,” including on any online platform, the court said.

    The court said the injunction would “make it crystal clear to the public” that such actions were legally prohibited, adding that Google had refused to interfere with the song’s position in search results without a court order.

    The song was still available on YouTube as of 1200 GMT Wednesday.

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Edward Li for RFA Cantonese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Why have student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza gone global?

    Ceasefire and divestment calls have spread beyond US campuses, with more expected as Rafah offensive begins

    University campuses around the world have been the stage of a growing number of protests by students demanding academic institutions divest from companies supplying arms to Israel.

    The protests, which first spread across college campuses in the US, have reached universities in the UK, the rest of Europe, as well as Lebanon and India.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Palestine Action target multiple arms companies, smashing LORRY into factory in its most audacious move yet

    Early on Wednesday 8 May, Palestine Action targeted multiple arms manufacturers – smashing a lorry into one Elbit-owned site to shut down operations, and blockading another. It was, of course, over Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.

    Palestine Action: a proportionate action in the face of genocide

    Several activists from Palestine Action targeted Elbit’s Leicester drone factory, UAV Tactical Systems.

    One contingent smashed through the fence and into the weapons manufacturer using an article lorry, which two activists climbed on top off:

    Simultaneously, another contingent scaled the building and occupied the roof of the Israeli drone maker:

    Red paint has been sprayed across the building to symbolise the company’s involvement in spilling Palestinian blood:

    Those on the roof have used tools to break through the roof and expose the contents inside the murder factory:

    They then proceeded to damage the arms-making kit inside:

     

    Elbit: hiding it’s complicity

    UAV Tactical Systems is majority owned by Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems — who manufacture 85% of Israel’s military drone fleet amongst other lethal arms. Despite the company’s previous attempts to obscure their relationship with Israel, previous export licenses reveal drone technologies are regularly exported from the factory to the apartheid state.

    The Elbit and UAV Tactical Systems business model is based on, firstly, facilitating Israel’s war crimes including genocide and apartheid; in doing so, Elbit develop their technologies through ‘battle-testing’ on Palestinians, before repackaging and selling on products used to fuel violence abroad.

    UAV Tactical Systems’ flagship drone, the Watchkeeper, has been used by the British military in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the English Channel – but is itself modelled on the notorious and deadly Hermes 450 drone, after the latter was ‘tested’ on Palestinians.

    Israel’s genocide happening in real time

    Elbit’s drones are regularly used by the Israeli military during the ongoing genocide in Gaza. According to the UN, since 7 October the Israeli military has killed over 34,735 Palestinians, injured over 78,000 and destroyed over 70,000 housing units.

    Previous bombardments forced over one million Palestinians to flee to Rafah in Gaza. Now, the Israeli military is now invading this area – the only supposed ‘safe zone’ left in Gaza.

    A week ago the US paused a shipment of munitions to Israel over the then impending Rafah invasion. Yet, the UK government has failed to impose a two way arms embargo and continues to allow Elbit Systems to operate in this country.

    Palestine Action: if politicians won’t act, we will

    Simultaneously, Palestine Action supporters also blockaded arms manufacturer Leonardo in Edinburgh:

    The government’s ‘political violence and disruption’ advisor, snivelling former Labour MP John Woodcock (now a ‘lord’), immediately jumped onto Palestine Action’s operations. But the group quickly shut him down:

    Ahead of the action, one of the Palestine Action activists said:

    This country is a signatory to the Genocide convention. These laws are not to be discounted just because it’s politically expedient. They were set up for a reason and I cannot accept that the country I was born in and have lived in all my life is deciding to flout those laws.

    Another said:

    If the government aren’t going to act, it is my personal, moral and legal right to take direct action.

    Featured image and additional images via Palestine Action

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Media Scorn Gaza Protesters for Recognizing Corporate Reporters Aren’t Their Friends

    An emerging complaint the corporate media have against the nationwide—and now international—peace encampments is that many student protesters won’t speak to them. The problem, pundits and reporters say, is that these encampments have designated media spokespeople, and other protesters often keep their mouths shut to the press.

    WSJ: What I Saw at Columbia’s Demonstration

    Peggy Noonan (Wall Street Journal, 5/2/24), based, apparently, on talking to no protesters, concluded that “they weren’t a compassionate group. They weren’t for anything, they were against something: the Israeli state, which they’d like to see disappear, and those who support it.”

    Conservative pundit Peggy Noonan (Wall Street Journal, 5/2/24) said of her trip to the Columbia University encampment:

    I was at Columbia hours before the police came in and liberated Hamilton Hall from its occupiers. Unlike protesters of the past, who were usually eager to share with others what they thought and why, these demonstrators would generally not speak or make eye contact with members of the press, or, as they say, “corporate media.”

    I was on a bench taking notes as a group of young women, all in sunglasses, masks and kaffiyehs, walked by. “Friends, please come say hello and tell me what you think,” I called. They marched past, not making eye contact, save one, a beautiful girl of about 20. “I’m not trained,” she said. Which is what they’re instructed to say to corporate-media representatives who will twist your words. “I’m barely trained, you’re safe,” I called, and she laughed and half-halted. But her friends gave her a look and she conformed.

    Peter Baker (Twitter, 5/4/24), the chief White House correspondent for the New York Times, supportively amplified the former Ronald Reagan speechwriter’s claim, saying the protests are “not about actually explaining your cause or trying to engage journalists who are there to listen.”

    A reporter for KTLA (4/29/24) complained that his news team was not granted access to the encampment at UCLA, and Fox News (4/30/24) had a similar complaint about the New York University protest:

    Fox News Digital was told that the outlet was not allowed inside, and only student press could access the gated lawn. A local ABC team and several independent reporters were also denied. However, Fox News Digital witnessed a documentary crew and a reporter from Al Jazeera reporting inside the area.

    One has to wonder: What could make activists suspect that the network that produced “Anti-Israel Agitators: Signs of ‘Foreign Assistance’ Emerge in Columbia, NYU Unrest” (4/26/24), “Pressure Builds for Colleges to Close or Shut Down Anti-Israel Encampments Amid Death Threats Toward Jews” (4/26/24) and “Ivy League Anti-Israel Agitators’ Protests Spiral Into ‘Actual Terror Organization,’ Professor Warns” (4/21/24) wouldn’t give them a fair shake?

    Organized structure

    NYT: Campus Protests Give Russia, China and Iran Fuel to Exploit U.S. Divide

    A New York Times news report (5/2/24) ties protests to the US’s official enemies, despite “little evidence—at least so far—that the countries have provided material or organizational support to the protests.”

    What is clear is that the student protesters across the country have organized a structure where many participants who are approached by media defer to appointed media liaisons (Daily Bruin, 4/27/24; KSBW, 5/3/24; Daily Freeman, 5/4/24; WCOS, 5/4/24).

    For Baker and Noonan, this is evidence that the protests are at best not serious, and at worst not democratic. Indeed, corporate media, at every turn, have attempted to sully calls to halt a genocide as some kind of perverted anti-democratic extremism (Atlantic, 4/22/24; New York Times, 4/23/24, 5/2/24; Washington Post, 5/6/24, 5/6/24; Free Press, 5/6/24).

    But why would such a communications structure even be considered unusual? Most organizations that corporate journalists cover have dedicated spokespeople to handle media inquiries, while others stay silent. Noonan’s experience is no different than how many street reporters interact with the cops; ask a cop for a comment and you’ll get sent over to the public information officer. You’ll rarely if ever see a news story that complains or even notes that a government or corporate employee directed a reporter to talk to the press office.

    It’s true that in the worlds of business and bureaucracy, restrictions on employee speech can hamper investigative reporting  (FAIR.org, 2/23/24). But the media discipline at these encampments seems more like a way to keep the message clear. Vox-pop free-for-alls at these encampments could make it harder for news consumers to figure out what the protests are about; the demands and the aims of the movement might be muddled if every participant sounded off into the nearest reporter’s microphone.

    With the current media strategy, Baker and Noonan really don’t have to wonder what the messages are: The encampments want their campuses to divest from Israel, and now students are protesting their administrations and the police violence against free speech and assembly. They are not entitled to the time of every individual protester.

    It’s also all too easy for corporate reporters or right-wing commentators to find one loose cannon at a protest who can be prompted to go off-message during an interview, giving media outlets the ability to paint protesters generally as unhinged and ignorant. The fact that the Gaza encampment protesters have such a structure in place is a sign of political maturity, because they have found a way to keep the message simple and unified.

    “The college kids are showing a precocious message discipline to reporters hostile to the substance of their protest,” Chase Madar, a New York University adjunct instructor, told FAIR.

    Insinuating illiberalism

    Baker and Noonan don’t express alarm that student reporters covering the protests have been subjected to extreme violence by the police (CNN, 5/2/24, 5/2/24), a very real form of state censorship. Nevertheless, Noonan and Baker insinuate that an aversion to speak to the corporate press signifies the movement’s illiberalism.

    Perhaps establishment media are a little bitter that student reporters at places like Columbia University’s WKCR are doing a better job of covering the unrest than some salaried professionals in the media class (AP, 5/3/24; Washington Post, 5/4/24; Axios, 5/4/24).

    If anything, what Baker and Noonan are lamenting is that the discipline of the students is making it harder for corporate media to misrepresent, ridicule and embarrass students who are protesting the US-backed genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. They’re telling on themselves.

    Featured image: Fox News depiction (4/30/24) of the Columbia University encampment it complained it had been shut out of.

    The post Media Scorn Gaza Protesters for Recognizing Corporate Reporters Aren’t Their Friends appeared first on FAIR.

    This post was originally published on FAIR.

  • Student photojournalist knocked down by police at UT Austin protest

    Student photojournalist Manoo Sirivelu was pushed and knocked to the ground multiple times by law enforcement while covering a police crackdown on a pro-Palestinian protest April 24, 2024, on the University of Texas at Austin campus, he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

    Sirivelu, the associate photo editor at UT Austin’s student newspaper The Daily Texan, told the Tracker he arrived at the protest at 1:15 p.m. and saw state troopers as well as officers from both the Austin Police Department and the UT Police Department.

    Sirivelu’s photo editor, who was also there, told him that she and another photographer had been pushed repeatedly by police on horses, so he said they were on “high alert.”

    Police deployed riot shields and batons and tackled protesters, pushing them off the school’s Main Mall lawn. Sirivelu was photographing arrests when a Texas Department of Public Safety officer accidentally hit him in the chest with his fists while wrapping his arms around a protester to arrest her.

    Sirivelu was also pushed into chains that surround the lawn as the troopers advanced. “My legs were getting crushed against the chains,” he said. “I just fell on my butt. I said, ‘Stop, stop, the chains,’ they paused for a moment and I made my way out,” he recalled. The experience of being pushed into the chains was scary, Sirivelu said, so he took a break in a building near the lawn.

    After returning, Sirivelu was standing nearby when UT Austin police officers tackled a protester to the ground. One of them then pushed him down.

    “The guy right in front of me shoved my chest,” he said. “I fell. I was lying on the ground, police in front of me. I was pretty shocked when I fell on the floor. The shock came from being on the same level and space as the girl who was being arrested and zip-tied. I was looking her straight in the eyes. I sat up, made some space, found the gap between legs, and took that photo.” The image was later published by The Guardian.

    Sirivelu told the Tracker that he did not suffer any injuries and his camera was undamaged.

    But he stayed farther away from law enforcement for the rest of the day. “I am definitely more situationally aware now,” he said. And after working that day with no press identification, he and his colleagues at The Daily Texan wore press tags the next time they went out to report.

    “If I had to do the same thing again, despite them having pushed me down, I would,” Sirivelu told the Tracker. “There’s no other way I would have gotten that picture.”


    This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • “Stop Weaponizing Antisemitism”: Police “Body-Slam” Jewish Dartmouth Prof. at Campus Gaza Protest


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • “Stop Weaponizing Antisemitism”: Police “Body-Slam” Jewish Dartmouth Prof. at Campus Gaza Protest

    Seg3 split guest police

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


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Photojournalist violently arrested while documenting UT Austin protest

    Freelance photojournalist Joseph Rushmore was violently arrested on April 24, 2024, by Texas Department of Public Safety officers and charged with misdemeanor trespassing while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest on the University of Texas at Austin campus, he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

    Rushmore arrived at the university’s South Lawn between 5:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., he told the Tracker, and saw that law enforcement had cordoned off the lawn and formed a ring around it, surrounded by protesters.

    The protest generally seemed peaceful, Rushmore said, and for about an hour, law enforcement made periodic arrests of single protesters.

    Then, he said, state troopers formed a line and started using their shields to push the crowd on one side of the lawn, where Rushmore was standing. He was pushed into an alcove on the side of a building and fell on top of protesters who had been pushed along with him.

    “Their shields are on my back,” Rushmore recounted. “I’m crushing three or four people under me. I’m yelling, ‘We’re crushed, we can’t move.’”

    One of the state troopers pulled Rushmore back into the police line. “At first I thought they were trying to relieve the crush that was happening,” he said. Then a trooper put a knee on Rushmore’s back, shoved his face into the ground and zip-tied his hands.

    “I yell, ‘I’m press, I’m press, I’m press,’” Rushmore said. “No response. So I stop talking. I realize I’m getting arrested.”

    Rushmore was held for 30 minutes in a law enforcement van and then taken to Travis County Jail, where he was held overnight.

    At 8 a.m. the following day, Rushmore said, “They come and get me and a group of four protesters; they say, ‘OK, your charges are dropped’; they give us our stuff back; and we’re out the doors.” His camera equipment, which the officers had confiscated overnight, did not appear to have been damaged.

    At least one other journalist was arrested that day on campus.

    Rushmore said that he believes that law enforcement cracked down simply to prevent the protest from occurring.

    “It felt like they were trying to make a point: if you come and do this, we will arrest you,” he said. “I was targeted not for being press but for being there.”

    Rushmore told the Tracker that he had a large camera around his neck but had not been wearing any visible press identification at the time of his arrest, adding: “I feel like the same constitution that protects me as a journalist is also protecting the right to nonviolently protest — which is exactly what was happening. To see that level of nonantagonistic gathering assaulted in the way it was, was pretty astounding.”


    This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Dartmouth journalist arrested while reporting on campus protest

    Student journalist Charlotte Hampton and a colleague at their college newspaper were arrested while reporting on a pro-Palestinian encampment at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, on May 1, 2024.

    The student newspaper, The Dartmouth, reported that a group of students planned to erect an encampment at 6:30 p.m. that day in solidarity with protests at universities across the country calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war.

    Hampton, a managing editor and reporter for The Dartmouth, and reporter and photographer Alesandra Gonzales were among the student and professional journalists covering the demonstration.

    The Dartmouth reported that officers with multiple departments, including the New Hampshire State Police and Hanover Police Department, arrived on campus shortly after 8 p.m. They gave protesters a final warning to leave the area under threat of arrest, noting that physical force may be used, then began making arrests approximately 30 minutes later.

    Both Hampton and Gonzales were wearing credentials issued by the newspaper and standing alongside other press and a representative from the college’s communications department, Gonzales told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

    Gonzales said she had just finished filming the aggressive arrest of a history professor when two officers grabbed her.

    Hampton was standing next to her, Gonzales said, and tried to intervene. “From what I understand,” Gonzales said, “she was arrested while telling them not to arrest me because I was press.”

    According to The Dartmouth, they were detained at around 9:45 p.m. and transported to the Lebanon Police Department seven miles away, Gonzales said, where they were booked on charges of criminal trespassing. The journalists were released on bail at 11:30 p.m., The Dartmouth reported.

    Gonzales told the Tracker that in addition to their $40 bonds, both student journalists are barred from multiple locations on campus as a condition of their bail, including the green where the protest took place, the administrative building and the hall where the president’s office is located.

    Both student journalists have initial appearance hearings scheduled for Aug. 5.

    In an editorial published by The Dartmouth the following day, the newspaper condemned the arrests and said the college should be embarrassed.

    “We are glad Hampton and Gonzales are back in the newsroom safely, but having to retrieve them from the station at all was a slap in the face,” the editorial board wrote. “If Dartmouth has any commitment to the freedom of the press, it must do everything in its power to get the relevant authorities to drop the charges against our reporters.”


    This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Student journalist arrested while covering protest at Dartmouth College

    Student journalist Alesandra Gonzales and a colleague at their college newspaper were arrested while reporting on a pro-Palestinian encampment at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, on May 1, 2024.

    The student newspaper, The Dartmouth, reported that a group of students planned to erect an encampment at 6:30 p.m. that day in solidarity with protests at universities across the country calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war.

    Gonzales, a reporter and photographer for The Dartmouth, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was on assignment to photograph the demonstration as protesters erected tents, and student and community members formed a barrier around them.

    The Dartmouth reported that officers with multiple departments, including the New Hampshire State Police and Hanover Police Department, arrived on campus shortly after 8 p.m. They gave protesters a final warning to leave the area under threat of arrest, noting that physical force may be used, then began making arrests approximately 30 minutes later.

    “At least in my perspective, we were relatively clearly separated from the protesters themselves,” Gonzales said. “We were with a group of other journalists, both for The Dartmouth and other local organizations, as well as being with a representative from the college’s Office of Communications.”

    Gonzales said she had just finished filming the aggressive arrest of a history professor when two officers grabbed her.

    “I told them many times while I was being arrested that I was press, and even my arresting officer took a picture of my press credential,” Gonzales said. “So I think they were very aware that I was press.”

    Her colleague, managing editor and reporter Charlotte Hampton, was standing next to her. “I called out to her,” Gonzales said, “both as another journalist and as a mentor, because I wasn’t sure entirely of what was going on.”

    It wasn’t until they were loaded into the same van that Gonzales realized that Hampton had been arrested as well. According to The Dartmouth, they were detained at around 9:45 p.m. Gonzales told the Tracker that both were wearing press credentials issued by the newspaper, and that she was holding her professional camera while Hampton had her reporter’s notebook.

    They were transported to the Lebanon Police Department seven miles away, Gonzales said, where they were booked on charges of criminal trespassing. The journalists were released on bail at 11:30 p.m., The Dartmouth reported.

    Gonzales told the Tracker that in addition to their $40 bonds, both student journalists are barred from multiple locations on campus as a condition of their bail.

    “Because of that, we cannot walk across or on the green. We cannot enter the administrative building or Parkhurst Hall, which is where the president’s office is located as well as various other departments,” Gonzales said.

    Both student journalists have initial appearance hearings scheduled for Aug. 5.

    In an editorial published by The Dartmouth the following day, the newspaper condemned the arrests and said the college should be embarrassed.

    “We are glad Hampton and Gonzales are back in the newsroom safely, but having to retrieve them from the station at all was a slap in the face,” the editorial board wrote. “If Dartmouth has any commitment to the freedom of the press, it must do everything in its power to get the relevant authorities to drop the charges against our reporters.”


    This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Editor struck, sprayed with chemical irritant at UCLA protest

    Dolores Quintana, co-editor of the weekly newspaper the Santa Monica Mirror, was sprayed with a chemical irritant, struck in the back and harassed while reporting on pro-Palestinian protests at the University of California, Los Angeles, on May 1, 2024.

    UCLA’s student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, reported that protesters had erected the encampment on campus April 25 to call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war and demand that the UC system divest from companies that invest in weapons manufacturers for the Israeli military.

    As the protest neared its seventh day, a group of approximately 100 pro-Israeli counterprotesters attempted to storm the encampment, the Bruin reported, tearing down the barricades surrounding it and shooting fireworks inside.

    Quintana told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she arrived shortly before 1 a.m. on May 1 while the clash was well underway.

    “My job as a journalist is to get the story, to take photos and capture video,” Quintana said. “So I walked right into it.”

    Over the 15 minutes that followed, the journalist told the Tracker, she was assaulted multiple times. First, she said she felt pain on her back and believes she was struck with one of the sticks she had seen counterprotesters carrying. Then, as someone stepped backward and she raised an arm to prevent them from toppling into her, another individual shouted “Fuck you!” at her and grabbed her.

    Quintana told the individual to let go of her and they listened, after which she moved to another area of the protest encampment. While there, she said an individual deliberately knocked her phone from her hands. Though it took her a couple of minutes to find her phone in the darkness, Quintana was able to retrieve it undamaged.

    As she then moved back toward the main protest area, Quintana told the Tracker someone came from behind her and sprayed a chemical irritant on the left side of her face from inches away.

    “I saw the spray go into my eye, that’s how close they were,” she said. “I was lucky that they didn’t choose to continue attacking me in that moment, because what could I have done?”

    Quintana said a medical student came to her aid and helped flush her eyes with water and saline.

    She told the Tracker that later that night, after she had regained her bearings, a group of individuals she identified as counterprotesters surrounded and began harassing her, filming her and shining lights in her eyes while calling her derogatory names.

    In a post on social media, Quintana shared images of her face after she was sprayed and of the residue left on her mask, and a video clip of individuals surrounding and harassing her.

    “They are deliberately targeting us so that there’s no one there to take pictures and get video of the crimes that they are committing,” Quintana wrote.

    Quintana told the Tracker she intends to file a police report about the attacks she suffered that night.


    This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Disabled Charlie Chaplin found NOT GUILTY over Israel protest at parliament

    As the Canary previously reported, last December Neil Goodwin did a one-man protest outside the Carriage Gates of the Houses of Parliament, in his mime character of Charlie X – in horror at Israel’s atrocities in Gaza.

    He was arrested, bizarrely as Bella Ciao, the Italian anti-fascist classic, belted out from a nearby protest sound system, to be beautifully recorded on the arresting officer’s body cam:

    Up before the beak

    Then, on Wednesday 1 May – workers solidarity day and of course the ancient festival of Beltane – Neil went before the beak.

    He had one witness: impeccably besuited, silver-haired videographer Paul, who bears an uncanny likeness to the late and beloved journalist Paul Foot.

    Charged with obstruction and failure to obey a lawful instruction under the oxymoronically named Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act, Neil stood his ground, metaphorically coz he can’t walk.

    Beltane mayhem wafted through the stifling court. ‘Your name’s not on the list, proceed to court 3.’ ‘Your name’s not on the list because it’s a different court.’ ‘Oh you can’t get in the other court in a wheelchair. So the judge, the clerk, the cop, and the CPS will all come to you.’ Neil is a magic man.

    The British government: complicit with Israel

    The judge was strict, with a shimmer of kindness.

    The CPS prosecutor gamely made his case, though with some weird swerves:

    Why didn’t you go to the Israeli embassy?

    Neil:

    It’s scary there, and the disabled facilities at Westminster are pretty good. My protest was also against the British Government for failing to call a ceasefire and for facilitating arms exports.

    The tech failed, so the CPS had to show their footage of Neil’s arrest twice on laptop, once to the cop and once to the judge.

    Bella Ciao reverberated through the room. I could barely contain my chuckle at this beautiful juxtaposition.

    ‘What has Guernica got to do with this? Why have you got a picture of your grandparents?’ demanded the judge. Bombs, Nazis, war crimes, the Blitz, refugees, horrors of war, Neil got it all in there.

    Neil’s closing argument (self representing with the excellent assistance of a Green and Black Cross McKenzie Friend, a lovely woman called Ruth) a powerful and tearful testimony of murdered and maimed children which compelled him to act.

    Synchronicity

    To target the British government on a Wednesday during Prime Minister’s Questions to achieve maximum newsworthiness – hoping to draw press and public attention to war crimes being committed in Gaza with the compliance and cooperation of the UK state.

    Adjourned for lunch, we stepped and wheeled out of the court, to find Palestinian flags waving in the wind, held aloft by two women. Neil whipped out his home made Palestine/Guernica placard and joined the photo opportunity.

    After some confusion, it became apparent they were there to show solidarity with another woman, a young student, charged with criminal damage against war profiteers Lockheed Martin, as part of a Palestine Action group. Of course it transpired that the lovely Ruth of Green and Black Cross was also to attend this trial in support.

    What amazing synchronicity we all agreed.

    Hastily scoffing hot paninis we returned for the Judgement.

    A heartfelt act of solidarity

    Barely begun, our new comrades unexpectedly joined us in the public gallery as their case was inexplicably adjourned.

    Her honour continued, she agreed with the law, the instruction was lawful, case lost we thought.

    She laboured on through the various aspects of the defence, demolishing every one. Until the last, lawful excuse and proportionality. Was it proportionate to find Neil guilty of a criminal offence? We waited for the hammer to fall.

    And then:

    The CPS and the Police have failed to prove that there was any detrimental impact to anybody, therefore, the case is dismissed.

    Hushed, astonished, and gleeful glances exchanged, we could barely believe it.

    Neil, cheeky Charlie Chappy that he is, pipes up:

    Judge, can you please say the words not guilty?

    The judge obliges:

    As I have just explained, the lack of evidence leads me to say the case is dismissed [a little smirk, the aforementioned shimmer is shining now] in other words you are NOT GUILTY! And by the way, no need for receipts, we’ll send you a cheque for your travel expenses.

    Unfuckingbelievably, this happened on Mayday 2024.

    We posed again for photos outside, whilst we all understand this is a little victory in the face of such atrocities, it is a victory nonetheless. A glimmer of hope for good people of conscience who stand up, and a heartfelt act of solidarity from us, the little people – because what else can we do?

    Featured image via Saskia Kent

    By Saskia Kent

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Auckland academics call out university stance over pro-Palestine protest

    RNZ News

    A group of academic staff at New Zealand’s largest university have expressed concern at the administration’s move to block a protest encampment that was planned to take place on campus calling for support for the rights of Palestinians.

    This week, the University of Auckland warned that while it supported the right of students and staff to protest peacefully and legally, it would not support an overnight encampment due to health and safety concerns.

    The university’s statement said advice from police had been taken into account, and the university would “work constructively” with the protesters to facilitate an alternative form of protest.

    “This compromise enables students and staff who wish to express their views to do so in a peaceful and lawful manner, without introducing the significant risks that such encampments have brought to other university campuses,” the statement said.

    On Wednesday, more than 100 people gathered at the university’s central city campus for the rally, with those taking part expressing a range of views toward violence between Israel and Palestinians and the war in Gaza.

    Protest organisers Students for Justice in Palestine, said the demonstration was the initial event in a long-term campaign to advocate for Palestinian rights, in “support for justice and peace”, and invited any member of the university to take part, “regardless of background or affiliation”.

    After the university’s statement against the planned encampment, the group changed the event to a campus rally, which they said would make it more accessible to a more diverse range of people.

    Open letter of concern
    However, now an open letter signed by 65 university staff and academics says they held deep concerns about the university’s stance toward the protest.

    The institution’s reaction “mischaracterised” the focus of the protest, minimised the violence in Gaza, and had not acknowledged a call for the institution to “divest from any entities and corporations enabling Israel’s ongoing military violence against Palestinians in Gaza”, the letter said.

    It condemned the university for not seeking advice about the planned protest from its own students and staff, and said the institution’s stance had implied the protesters would “introduce significant risks”.

    One of the signatories, senior law lecturer Dylan Asafo, told RNZ the University of Auckland vice-chancellor had taken poor advice.

    “The vice-chancellor is essentially blaming the violence and unrest that we’re seeing on the newest campuses [overseas] on staff and students who set up peaceful encampments there, rather than on university administrators and police forces who have broken up those peaceful encampments.”

    The academics also want confirmation protesters won’t be punished by the university.

    “We also urge you not to discipline or penalise students and staff who may choose to participate in peaceful protests and encampments in any way, and to engage with them in good faith,” the letter said.

    The university has been approached for comment.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • New Caledonia’s women sit-in to support smeared Kanak journalist

    By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk

    A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics.

    The peaceful demonstration was held on Nouméa’s Place des Cocotiers to protest against violent messages posted by critics against Waia on social networks — and also against public comments made by local politicians, mostly pro-France.

    Political leaders and social networks have criticised Waia for her coverage of the pro-independence protests on April 13 in the capital.

    “We are here to sound the alarm bell and to remind our leaders not to cross the line regarding freedom of expression and freedom to exercise the profession of journalism in New Caledonia,” president Sonia Togna New Caledonia’s Union of Francophone Women in Oceania (UFFO-NC).

    “We’re going to go through very difficult months [about the political future of New Caledonia] and we hope this kind of incident will not happen again, whatever the political party,” she said.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    Paris-based World Press Freedom Index
    Pacific Media Watch reports that yesterday was World Press Freedom Day worldwide and France rose three places to 21st in the Paris-based RSF’s 2024 World Press Freedom Index rankings made public yesterday.

    This is higher than any other other country in the region except New Zealand (which dropped six places to 19th, but still two places higher than France).

    New Zealand is closely followed in the Index by one of the world’s newer nations, Timor-Leste (20th) — among the top 10 last year — and Samoa (22nd).

    Fiji was 44th, one place above Tonga, and Papua New Guinea had dropped 32 places to 91st. Other Pacific countries were not listed in the survey which is based on media freedom performance through 2023.

    New Zealand is 20 places above Australia, which dropped 12 places and is ranked 39th.

    Rivals in the Indo-Pacific geopolitical struggle for influence are the United States (dropped 15 places to 55th) and China (rose seven places to 172nd).

    Pacific Media Watch


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • As Peace Protests Are Violently Suppressed, CNN Paints Them as Hate Rallies

     

    As peace activists occupied common spaces on campuses across the country, some in corporate media very clearly took sides, portraying student protesters as violent, hateful and/or stupid. CNN offered some of the most striking of these characterizations.

    CNN's Dana Bash: Clashes at Campuses Nationwide as Protest Intensify

    CNN‘s Dana Bash (Inside Politics, 5/1/24) blames the peace movement for “destruction, violence and hate on college campuses across the country.” 

    Dana Bash (Inside Politics, 5/1/24) stared gravely into the camera and launched into a segment on “destruction, violence and hate on college campuses across the country.” Her voice dripping with hostility toward the protests, she reported:

    Many of these protests started peacefully with legitimate questions about the war, but in many cases, they lost the plot. They’re calling for a ceasefire. Well, there was a ceasefire on October 6, the day before Hamas terrorists brutally murdered more than a thousand people inside Israel and took hundreds more as hostages. This hour, I’ll speak to an American Israeli family whose son is still held captive by Hamas since that horrifying day, that brought us to this moment. You don’t hear the pro-Palestinian protesters talking about that. We will.

    By Bash’s logic, once a ceasefire is broken, no one can ever call for it to be reinstated—even as the death toll in Gaza nears 35,000. But her claim that there was a ceasefire until Hamas broke it on October 7 is little more than Israeli propaganda: Hundreds of Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the year preceding October 7 (FAIR.org, 7/6/23).

    ‘Hearkening back to 1930s Europe’

    Eli Tsives confronting protesters at UCLA

    “They didn’t let me get to class using the main entrance!” complains Eli Tsives in one of several videos he posted of confrontations with anti-war demonstrators. “Instead they forced me to walk around. Shame on these people!”

    Bash continued:

    Now protesting the way the Israeli government, the Israeli prime minister, is prosecuting the retaliatory war against Hamas is one thing. Making Jewish students feel unsafe at their own schools is unacceptable, and it is happening way too much right now.

    As evidence of this lack of safety, Bash pointed to UCLA student Eli Tsives, who posted a video of himself confronting motionless antiwar protesters physically standing in his way on campus. “This is our school, and they’re not letting me walk in,” he claims in the clip. Bash ominously described this as “hearkening back to the 1930s in Europe.”

    Bash was presumably referring to the rise of the Nazis and their increasing restrictions on Jews prior to World War II. But while Tsives’ clip suggests protesters are keeping him off UCLA campus, they’re in fact blocking him from their encampment—where many Jewish students were present. (Jewish Voice for Peace is one of its lead groups.)

    So it’s clearly not Tsives’ Jewishness that the protesters object to. But Tsives was not just any Jewish student; a UCLA drama student and former intern at the pro-Israel group Stand With Us, he had been a visible face of the counter-protests, repeatedly posting videos of himself confronting peaceful antiwar protesters. He has shown up to the encampment wearing a holster of pepper spray.

    One earlier video he made showing himself being denied entry to the encampment included text on screen claiming misleadingly that protestors objected to his Jewishness: “They prevented us, Jewish students, from entering public land!” (“You can kiss your jobs goodbye, this is going to go viral on social media,” he tells the protesters.) He also proudly posted his multiple interviews on Fox News, which was as eager as Bash to help him promote his false narrative of antisemitism.

    ‘Attacking each other’

    Daily Bruin: Pro-Israel counter-protesters attempt to storm encampment, sparking violence

    “Security and [campus police] both retreated as pro-Israel counter-protesters and other groups attacked protesters in the encampment,” UCLA’s student paper (Daily Bruin, 5/1/24) reported.

    UCLA protesters had good reason to keep counter-protesters out of their encampment, as those counter-protesters had become increasingly hostile (Forward, 5/1/24; New York Times, 4/30/24). This aggression culminated in a violent attack on the encampment on April 30 (Daily Bruin, 5/1/24).

    Late that night, a pro-Israel mob of at least 200 tried to storm the student encampment, punching, kicking, throwing bricks and other objects, spraying pepper spray and mace, trying to tear down plywood barricades and launching fireworks into the crowd. As many as 25 injuries have been reported, including four student journalists for the university newspaper who were assaulted by goons as they attempted to leave the scene (Forward, 5/2/24; Democracy Now!, 5/2/24).

    Campus security stood by as the attacks went on; when the university finally called in police support, the officers who arrived waited over an hour to intervene (LA Times, 5/1/24).

    (The police were less reticent in clearing out the encampment a day later at UCLA’s request. Reporters on the scene described police in riot gear firing rubber bullets at close range and “several instances of protesters being injured”—LA Times, 5/3/24.)

    The mob attacks at UCLA, along with police use of force at that campus and elsewhere, clearly represent the most “destruction, violence and hate” at the encampments, which have been overwhelmingly peaceful. But Bash’s description of the UCLA violence rewrote the narrative to fit her own agenda: “Pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups were attacking each other, hurling all kinds of objects, a wood pallet, fireworks, parking cones, even a scooter.”

    When CNN correspondent Stephanie Elam reported, later in the same segment, that the UCLA violence came from counter-protesters, Bash’s response was not to correct her own earlier misrepresentation, but to disparage antiwar protesters: Bash commended the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles for saying the violence does not represent the Jewish community, and snidely commented: “Be nice to see that on all sides of this.”

    ‘Violence erupted’

    Instagram: "I am a Jewish student at UCLA"

    “For me, never again is never again for anyone,” says a Jewish participant in the UCLA encampment (Instagram, 5/2/24).

    Bash wasn’t the only one at CNN framing antiwar protesters as the violent ones, against all evidence. Correspondent Camila Bernal (5/2/24) reported on the UCLA encampment:

    The mostly peaceful encampment was set up a week ago, but violence erupted during counter protest on Sunday, and even more tense moments overnight Tuesday, leaving at least 15 injured. Last night, protesters attempted to stand their ground, linking arms, using flashlights on officers’ faces, shouting and even throwing items at officers. But despite what CHP described as a dangerous operation, an almost one-to-one ratio officers to protesters gave authorities the upper hand.

    Who was injured? Who was violent? Bernal left that to viewers’ imagination. She did mention that officers used “what appeared to be rubber bullets,” but the only participant given camera time was a police officer accusing antiwar students of throwing things at police.

    Earlier CNN reporting (5/1/24) from UCLA referred to “dueling protests between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and those supporting Jewish students.” It’s a false dichotomy, as many of the antiwar protesters are themselves Jewish, and eyewitness reports suggested that many in the mob were not students and not representative of the Jewish community (Times of Israel, 5/2/24).

    CNN likewise highlighted the law and order perspective after Columbia’s president called in the NYPD to respond to the student takeover of Hamilton Hall. CNN Newsroom (5/1/24) brought on a retired FBI agent to analyze the police operation. His praise was unsurprising:

    It was impressive. It was surprisingly smooth…. The beauty of America is that we can say things, we can protest, we can do this publicly, even when it’s offensive language. But you can’t trespass and keep people from being able to go to class and going to their graduations. We draw a line between that and, you know, civil control.

    CNN host Jake Tapper (4/29/24) criticized the Columbia president’s approach to the protests—for being too lenient: “I mean, a college president’s not a diplomat. A college president’s an authoritarian, really.” (More than a week earlier, president Minouche Shafik had had more than a hundred students arrested for camping overnight on a lawn—FAIR.org, 4/19/24.)

    ‘Taking room from my show’

    Guardian: CNN staff say network’s pro-Israel slant amounts to ‘journalistic malpractice’

    “The majority of news since the war began…has been skewed by a systemic and institutional bias within the network toward Israel,” a CNN staffer told the Guardian (2/4/24).

    Tapper did little to hide his utter contempt for the protesters. He complained:

    This is taking room from my show that I would normally be spending covering what is going on in Gaza, or what is going on with the International Criminal Court, talking about maybe bringing charges. We were talking about the ceasefire deal. I mean, this—so I don’t know that the protesters, just from a media perspective, are accomplishing what they want to accomplish, because I’m actually covering the issue and the pain of the Palestinians and the pain of the Israelis—not that they’re protesting for that—less because of this.

    It’s Tapper and CNN, of course, who decide what stories are most important and deserve coverage—not campus protesters. Some might say that that a break from CNN‘s regular coverage the Israel’s assault on Gaza would not altogether be a bad thing, as CNN staffers have complained of “regurgitation of Israeli propaganda and the censoring of Palestinian perspectives in the network’s coverage of the war in Gaza” (Guardian, 2/4/24)

    The next day, Tapper’s framing of the protests made clear whose grievances he thought were the most worthy (4/30/24): “CNN continues to following the breaking news on college campuses where anti-Israel protests have disrupted academic life and learning across the United States.”

    ACTION ALERT: Messages to CNN can be sent here. Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective. Feel free to leave a copy of your message in the comments thread of this post.

    The post As Peace Protests Are Violently Suppressed, CNN Paints Them as Hate Rallies appeared first on FAIR.

    This post was originally published on FAIR.

  • Authoritarian Biden cracks down on dissent on US campuses

    US President Joe Biden insisted that “order must prevail” at US universities after weeks of turmoil and mass arrests at student protests against Israel’s siege on Palestine.

    For weeks, authorities on campuses from New York to California have tried in vain to suppress protests from students demanding arms divestment and a stop to the continued murder of thousands of Palestinians. More then 2000 students have been placed under arrest, with more expected.

    Biden has, characteristically, bided his time as his country erupts in flames. When he finally did speak, it was a pack of lies and fanciful notions of America as some kind of haven of free speech. He said:

    We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent.

    But neither are we a lawless country. We’re a civil society, and order must prevail.

    Let’s take a look at how this very much not authoritarian nation squashed dissent in the name of order.

    Menacing cops

    UCLA students clad in white helmets linked arms and formed a line facing off against officers, who were detaining protesters and leading them away.

    Police used flashbangs to disperse the crowds gathered outside the encampment who chanted “Let them go!” as helicopters hovered overhead. In another part of the encampment at UCLA, students carrying umbrellas, helmets, and plastic shields squared off against police in mostly tense silence, with sporadic chants of “Free Palestine!” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”

    University staff spoke out against the violence from police, with UCLA Professor Danielle Carr expressing outrage:

    Officers blocked stairs accessing the site, with students dressed in yellow jackets and serving as medics telling AFP they were being largely prevented from reaching the area. Reports have flooded in of pro-Israel protestors charging at the UCLA encampment, and what did the police do?

    Once UCLA student was shot in the face with a rubber bullet, and later appeared to have had his Twitter account removed:

    Human rights attorney Noura Erakat expressed disbelief:

     

    The large police presence, including LAPD and California Highway Patrol officers, came after law enforcement were criticised for being slow to act during violent clashes late Tuesday, when counter-protesters attacked the encampment of pro-Palestinian students.

    Perhaps those claiming the police were slow to react were confused with the slow reaction from cops at Sandy Hook. Guardian reporter Lois Beckett laid out how security hired by UCLA hid as pro-genocide supporters attacked students – and one commenter noted the similarities to the Uvalde shooting where police were criticised for a slow response time:

    The kids are alright

    Demonstrators have gathered on at least 40 US university campuses since last month, often erecting tent camps to protest the soaring death toll in the Gaza Strip.

    Officers detained several people at Fordham University in New York and cleared a protest set up inside a school building, officials said. Police appeared to kettle students:

    At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, protesters dug in, blocking an avenue near the centre of the campus in Cambridge during the height of Wednesday afternoon’s rush hour commute. Students paid touching tribute to visionary journalist Wael Al Dahdouh:

    Riot police were menacingly decked out as they dragged students off their own campus at the University of Texas, Dallas:

    Police said about 300 arrests were made at Columbia, and the tents shown in the tweet below have since been cleared by over-eager cops:

    However, students remain steadfast:

    BreakThrough News shared footage of alarming police violence at Dartmouth:

    Lecturer at Middlesex University Tarek Younis summed up what students across the US face:

    The mayor’s office said Thursday night that almost half of those arrested at the two schools Tuesday night were people unaffiliated with the schools.

    Balancing act

    Like university leaders, Biden’s administration has also tried to walk the fine line between free speech and complaints of intimidation. Biden said:

    There should be no place on any campus, no place in America for anti-Semitism, or threats of violence against Jewish students.

    Honestly, it’s getting tired.

    Student protests across America and around the rest of the world are not antisemitic – they’re a response to the interminable siege of Palestine.

    What else are students supposed to? Sit back and watch as universities in Palestine are razed to the ground? Do nothing while the US arms Israel? Twiddle their fingers while experts predict that 10,000 Palestinians are buried in rubble that will take years to clear?

    What are the police supposed to do then, you may ask?

    Stay the hell away:

    Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

    Featured image via the Canary

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Palestine Action use van to block entrance to Elbit factory – as the police look haplessly on

    Cops are getting more and more hapless when it comes to dealing with Palestine Action – as a blockade of Elbit’s Bristol site – involved in Israel’s genocide – just showed.

    Palestine Action: blocking Elbit again

    On Thursday 2 May, Palestine Action activists have, once again, managed to halt business-as-usual at the centre of Elbit System’s operations in Britain, at their headquarters located at ‘Aztec West 600’ in Bristol:

    That site is used by Elbit – Israel’s largest weapons company – to oversee their logistical, financial, and operational affairs throughout the country, making it a key hub for Israel’s arms trade in Britain.

    Activists used a van to blockade the road leading to the site, directly outside the premises’ gates, affixing themselves to it to prevent its removal:

    Palestine Action Elbit Bristol

    From inside, and utilising holes cut in the van roof, they launched red paint at the Elbit site – to mark it in a symbol of the Palestinian bloodshed staining Elbit’s profits:

    They held the blockade for hours, preventing the headquarters from opening and thus hindering the manufacture and supply of weaponry to Israel. Eventually though, cops managed to get themselves organised enough to arrest the actionists:

    This is far from the first time that Palestine Action has blockaded Elbit’s Bristol HQ in the months since Israel’s genocide in Gaza commenced.

    The action successfully forced the site closed despite the ongoing police harassment of activists in Bristol – last week conducting a raid on a dwelling to make nine arrests. As Bristol Live reported:

    Multiple people have been arrested after an overnight police raid in Bristol. Nine people were taken into custody at an address in Bristol overnight between April 24 and 25, police have confirmed.

    According to the group Palestine Action, members were arrested for “allegedly conspiring to commit criminal damage”. Posting on social media, the organisation said 15 people had been taken into custody, but Avon and Somerset Police has said nine people were arrested.

    A spokesperson for Avon and Somerset Police said: “Nine people were arrested at an address in Bristol over the night of 24 and 25 April on suspicion of conspiracy to cause criminal damage. They have since been released on conditional police bail.”

    Shut Elbit down

    It is obvious, however, that the need to shut this site, and all Elbit sites, down could not be more urgent: their weapons are playing a central role in Israel’s campaign in Gaza, which has already claimed over 34,000 Palestinian lives.

    According to Israeli media, Elbit provides up to 80% of the Israeli military’s land based military equipment and 85% of its military drones. It supplies vast numbers of munitions and missiles – including the ‘Iron Sting’ recently developed and deployed for the first time in the 2023-2024 Genocide in Gaza, along with wide categories of surveillance technologies, targeting systems, and innumerate other armaments.

    Palestine Action said in a statement:

    We have a moral duty therefore not to permit these weapons to be manufactured in Britain, if we wish to not be complicit in Israel’s genocidal acts.

    Underscoring this risk of complicity, Somerset Council’s CEO last week reversed the democratic decision of the Council – apologising to Elbit for passing a motion which provided the mandate for evicting the weapons giant from the Aztec West site ultimately owned by Somerset Council.

    Palestine Action have made clear that this site, and Elbit generally, should not be permitted to operate – and that activists will continue to take direct action until it is shut down permanently.

    Featured image and additional images via Palestine Action

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Divestment Can’t Work, Media Tell Protesters—Even Though It Has

     

    WaPo: Secret meetings, social chatter: How Columbia students sparked a nationwide revolt

    A Washington Post “expert” (4/26/24) assured readers that divestment is “way more complicated” than protesters think.

    In a piece on how the nationwide protest campaign against the Israeli slaughter in Gaza came to be, the Washington Post (4/26/24) explained that the central demand of the protests—university divestment from companies that support the genocide—is, well, stupid.

    The article reported: “Experts say student requests for divestment are not only impractical but also are likely to yield little if any real benefit.”

    “How universities invest their money makes disinvestment complicated,” declared one such expert—”Chris Marsicano, a Davidson College assistant professor of educational studies who researches endowments and finance.”

    “First, it’s impossible to know just how and where universities’ endowments are invested,” he maintained, because “schools are notoriously close-mouthed about it, revealing as little as they can.” Yes, which is why, as the Post noted, investment transparency is the second of three demands from Columbia University protesters, and a key issue in many other encampments.

    But not so fast, Marsicano warns: “Disclosing investments can lead to complications large and small,” including “the possibility that a university disclosing its decision to sell or buy stock could affect the price of that stock.”

    Surely that will keep a lot of protesters up at night—the fear that their university’s sale of stock might cause Boeing’s stock price to drop.

    Doing Israel’s supporters a favor?

    WSJ: Dear Columbia Students, Divestment From Israel Won’t Work

    The Wall Street Journal‘s James Mackintosh (4/30/24) compared the Gaza protests to “misguided demands to quit investments in fossil fuel companies to slow climate change.”

    But they need not worry, assured James Mackintosh, senior market columnist for the Wall Street Journal, who offered some friendly advice in “Dear Columbia Students, Divestment From Israel Won’t Work” (4/30/24).  “The impact of even a lot of universities selling would be negligible,” he wrote. In fact, any financial impact from divestment would be counter-productive:

    Selling the shares cheaply to someone else just leaves the buyer owning the future profits instead, at a bargain price. The university would have less money to spend on students, while those who are pro-Israel, pro-oil or just pro-profit would have more.

    The economic logic is so compelling, you have to wonder why supporters of Israel aren’t supporting the divestment movement, rather than pushing for laws that make divestment from Israel illegal.

    But, really, why is anyone even talking about divestment, when it can’t even happen? As former Berkeley chancellor Nicholas Dirks told CNN (4/30/24):

    The economy is so global now that even if a university decided that they were going to instruct their dominant management groups to divest from Israel, it would be almost impossible to disentangle…. It’s not clear to me that it’s really possible to fully divest from companies that touch in some way a country with such close political and trade ties to the US.

    Helping spark a movement

    Columbia Spectator: Mandela Hall: A History of the 1985 Divest Protests

    Columbia Spectator (4/13/16): “During that fateful month in 1985, a protest movement in favor of divestment from the National Party of South Africa’s apartheid regime rocked Columbia to its core.”

    So, divestment would be dangerous, self-defeating and impossible, is what we’re hearing from corporate media. Why are students even bothering?

    At Columbia, protesters are well aware of the history there, where students blockaded Hamilton Hall for three weeks in April 1985 to protest the university’s investments in South Africa. A committee of the school’s trustees recommended full divestment in August 1985, a recommendation the board adopted in October 1985.

    The first secret negotiations between the imprisoned Nelson Mandela and the South African government about ending apartheid began in November 1985.

    Obviously, this wasn’t just a result of Columbia’s protest—but the divestment campaign there helped spark a nationwide movement that spread beyond campuses, establishing a consensus that South Africa’s behavior was unconscionable and had to change.

    It’s hard not to suspect that corporate media are telling us so firmly that divestment can’t work because they’re worried that it can.

     

     

     

     

     

    The post Divestment Can’t Work, Media Tell Protesters—Even Though It Has appeared first on FAIR.

    This post was originally published on FAIR.

  • Journalist pushed, his phone charger stolen at UCLA protest

    Independent journalist Anthony Cabassa was pushed against a wall and his phone charger stolen while reporting on pro-Palestinian protests at the University of California, Los Angeles on April 30, 2024.

    UCLA’s student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, reported that protesters had erected the encampment on campus April 25 to call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war and demand that the UC system divest from companies that invest in weapons manufacturers for the Israeli military.

    Shortly after 1 p.m. on the 30th, Cabassa reported on social media that an individual had stolen his phone charger because he refused to stop filming in a public space. He noted that by the time he was able to speak to university police, the thief was long gone.

    In subsequent posts, Cabassa also said that a group of protesters grabbed him and kept him pinned against a wall for approximately a minute in order to prevent him from entering or otherwise reporting on the encampment. In footage of the incident, Cabassa can be heard identifying himself as a credentialed journalist and stating that he has a right to be on public property.

    Cabassa did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment.


    This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • UCLA journalist sprayed with chemical irritant at protest

    Four student journalists were assaulted by counterprotesters while reporting on protests at the University of California, Los Angeles in the early hours of May 1, 2024. One was beaten and kicked, another repeatedly punched and briefly hospitalized, and all were sprayed with chemical irritants.

    UCLA’s student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, reported that protesters had erected the encampment on campus April 25 to call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war and demand that the UC system divest from companies that invest in weapons manufacturers for the Israeli military.

    As the protest neared its seventh day, a group of approximately 100 pro-Israeli counterprotesters attempted to storm the encampment, the Bruin reported, tearing down the barricades surrounding it and shooting fireworks inside.

    Catherine Hamilton, news editor for the Bruin, told the Los Angeles Times that shortly before 3:30 a.m., counterprotesters started chanting her name while shining a light on her, and that she recognized the leader of the group as someone who had previously harassed her.

    Hamilton told the Times that the individual directed the others to encircle her, senior staff reporter Shaanth Kodialam and two other Bruin journalists. The group then began spraying the journalists with a chemical irritant while continuing to shine lights on them and chanting Hamilton’s name.

    As she tried to break free, Hamilton said, the assailants punched her repeatedly in the chest and abdomen. Another student journalist was pushed to the ground and then beaten and kicked for nearly a minute, the Times reported.

    Kodialam told the Times they watched as their friend was pummeled and begged the counterprotesters to stop.

    Hamilton said that the Bruin reporters were instructed to travel in pairs, report from outside the student encampment and leave if the protest became unsafe.

    “We expected to be harassed by counterprotesters,” Hamilton said. “I truly did not expect to be directly assaulted.”

    The encounter lasted approximately five minutes, the Times reported, and the journalists returned to the Bruin newsroom afterward. Hamilton was the only student who reported going to the hospital for injuries sustained during the attack.

    “It’s not easy to do that job. It’s not easy to cover this event,” Kodialam said. “At the end of the day, we’re all trying our best to serve our campus community and make sure our students, our faculty, our staff get the information they need.”


    This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Student journalist kicked, beaten at UCLA protest

    Four student journalists were assaulted by counterprotesters while reporting on a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles in the early hours of May 1, 2024. One was beaten and kicked, another repeatedly punched and briefly hospitalized, and all were sprayed with chemical irritants.

    UCLA’s student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, reported that protesters had erected the encampment on campus April 25 to call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war and demand that the UC system divest from companies that invest in weapons manufacturers for the Israeli military.

    As the protest neared its seventh day, a group of approximately 100 pro-Israeli counterprotesters attempted to storm the encampment, the Bruin reported, tearing down the barricades surrounding it and shooting fireworks inside.

    Catherine Hamilton, news editor for the Bruin, told the Los Angeles Times that shortly before 3:30 a.m., counterprotesters started chanting her name while shining a light on her, and that she recognized the leader of the group as someone who had previously harassed her.

    Hamilton told the Times that the individual directed the others to encircle her, senior staff reporter Shaanth Kodialam and the two other Bruin journalists. The group then began spraying the journalists with a chemical irritant while continuing to shine lights on them and chanting Hamilton’s name.

    In an interview with Democracy Now, Kodialam said: “By the time I had finally managed to help get three of us out of there, we found one of us had turned back. And by the time we had looked back around, they were on the ground being violently assaulted.”

    The student journalist who had been pushed to the ground was beaten and kicked for nearly a minute, the Times reported, while Kodialam begged the counterprotesters to stop.

    Hamilton told the Times that the Bruin reporters were instructed to travel in pairs, report from outside the student encampment and leave if the protest became unsafe, but that she didn’t expect they’d be directly assaulted.

    The encounter lasted approximately five minutes, the Times reported, and the journalists returned to the Bruin newsroom afterward. Hamilton was the only student who reported going to the hospital for injuries sustained during the attack.

    “It’s not easy to do that job. It’s not easy to cover this event,” Kodialam told the Times. “At the end of the day, we’re all trying our best to serve our campus community and make sure our students, our faculty, our staff get the information they need.”


    This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Student journalist sprayed with chemical irritant at UCLA protest

    Student journalist Shaanth Kodialam and three colleagues were assaulted by counterprotesters while reporting on a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles in the early hours of May 1, 2024. Kodialam was sprayed with a chemical irritant — as were the others — while another was repeatedly punched and briefly hospitalized and a fourth beaten and kicked.

    UCLA’s student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, reported that protesters had erected the encampment on campus April 25 to call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war and demand that the UC system divest from companies that invest in weapons manufacturers for the Israeli military.

    As the protest neared its seventh day, a group of approximately 100 pro-Israeli counterprotesters attempted to storm the encampment, the Bruin reported, tearing down the barricades surrounding it and shooting fireworks inside.

    Catherine Hamilton, news editor for the Bruin, told the Los Angeles Times that shortly before 3:30 a.m., counterprotesters started chanting her name while shining a light on her, and that she recognized the leader of the group as someone who had previously harassed her.

    Hamilton told the Times that the individual directed the others to encircle her, Kodialam and two other Bruin journalists. The group then began spraying the journalists with a chemical irritant while continuing to shine lights on them. As Hamilton tried to break free, she said the assailants punched her repeatedly in the chest and abdomen, and another student journalist was beaten and kicked on the ground.

    Kodialam, a senior staff reporter for the Bruin, told the Times they begged the counterprotesters to stop as they watched their friend get pummeled.

    “It’s not easy to do that job. It’s not easy to cover this event,” Kodialam said. “At the end of the day, we’re all trying our best to serve our campus community and make sure our students, our faculty, our staff get the information they need.”

    Hamilton told the Times that the Bruin reporters were instructed to travel in pairs, report from outside the student encampment and leave if the protest became unsafe, but that she didn’t expect they’d be directly assaulted.

    The encounter lasted approximately five minutes, the Times reported, and the journalists returned to the Bruin newsroom afterward. Hamilton was the only student who reported going to the hospital for injuries sustained during the attack.

    Kodialam told the Times that they resumed their coverage of the encampment that same day.

    “I can’t sit back while I watch my friends, my peers, the people who have trained me, the people who I have trained, be hurt that way and allow myself to not continue to do my job,” Kodialam said.


    This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Student journalist injured in targeted attack at UCLA protest

    Student journalist Catherine Hamilton and three colleagues were assaulted by counterprotesters while reporting on a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles in the early hours of May 1, 2024. Hamilton was briefly hospitalized following the attack, in which she was repeatedly punched and another student journalist beaten and kicked.

    UCLA’s student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, reported that protesters had erected the encampment on campus April 25 to call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war and demand that the UC system divest from companies that invest in weapons manufacturers for the Israeli military.

    As the protest neared its seventh day, a group of approximately 100 pro-Israeli counterprotesters attempted to storm the encampment, the Bruin reported, tearing down the barricades surrounding it and shooting fireworks inside.

    Hamilton, news editor for the Bruin, told the Los Angeles Times that shortly before 3:30 a.m., counterprotesters started chanting her name while shining a light on her, and that she recognized the leader of the group as someone who had previously harassed her.

    The individual directed the others to encircle Hamilton and three other Bruin journalists, Hamilton told the Times. The group then began spraying the journalists with a chemical irritant while continuing to shine lights on them and chanting Hamilton’s name. As she tried to break free, Hamilton said the assailants punched her repeatedly in the chest and abdomen, and another student journalist was beaten and kicked on the ground.

    Hamilton told the Times that the Bruin reporters were instructed to travel in pairs, report from outside the student encampment and leave if the protest became unsafe.

    “We expected to be harassed by counterprotesters,” Hamilton said. “I truly did not expect to be directly assaulted.”

    The Times reported that the attack lasted approximately five minutes, and the journalists returned to the Bruin newsroom afterward. Hamilton went to the hospital when she experienced difficulty breathing and standing, but reported in a post on social media that she was released several hours later.

    “Wasn’t expecting the night to end like this, but please continue following the Daily Bruin’s coverage on the pro-Palestine encampment at UCLA and the violence toward it,” she wrote. “Amid the assaults on reporters, student journalism will remain so important.”


    This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Police shove journalist covering pro-Palestinian protest outside NYC campus

    Independent journalist Katie Smith was shoved by police officers while covering a pro-Palestinian protest outside a New York City college campus on April 30, 2024.

    Smith, who covers protests and social movements in New York, was documenting a group of protesters visiting student encampments at five campuses around New York that day. When the protesters reached City College of New York in upper Manhattan, they were met by police at metal barricades and gates blocking access to the encampment, according to local news reports and Smith’s posts on the social media platform X.

    At one point, Smith posted that “the situation at CCNY has rapidly spiraled out of control,” adding, “Protesters tried to break through the barricades which led to absolute chaos breaking out. People thrown to the ground and journalists (including me) were hit and shoved by officers in the melee.”

    Smith detailed her encounter for the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, explaining that she was standing on the sidewalk outside the CCNY campus and filming with her phone when protesters started moving barricades that the police had set up.

    “Officers began grabbing and pushing protesters near the barricades when a group of Community Affairs officers moved in behind me and grabbed a protester. At that point, I intentionally backed up so I was not directly in front,” she told the Tracker. “Then, a group of Community Affairs officers moved in from behind and grabbed and surrounded a protester, which is when one of the Community Affairs officers shoved me hard directly in the center of my chest.”

    Smith said she was “wearing my NYC-issued press credential around my neck, clearly displayed.” She added, “I believe I was just caught up in the protest for the most part.”

    There were additional confrontations between police and campus protesters in New York that night, leading to several hundred arrests at CCNY and Columbia University, according to news reports.

    In response to a request for comment about the incident and any measures the department was taking to protect the safety of journalists covering the protests, the NYPD sent the Tracker a video of a news conference held May 1 by Mayor Eric Adams, Police Commissioner Edward Caban and other police officials.

    While the officials did not directly address Smith’s case, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Tarik Sheppard and Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry said press access needed to go through the department so that the media didn’t interfere with police operations or get mistaken for students or protesters.


    This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • “People Could Have Died”: Police Raid UCLA Gaza Protest After Pro-Israel Mob Attacked Encampment


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • “People Could Have Died”: Police Raid UCLA Gaza Protest, Waited as Pro-Israel Mob Attacked Encampment

    Ucla1

    We get an update from the University of California, Los Angeles, where police in riot gear began dismantling a pro-Palestinian encampment early Thursday, using flashbang grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas, and arresting dozens of students. The raid came just over a day after pro-Israel counterprotesters armed with sticks, metal rods and fireworks attacked students at the encampment. The Real News Network reporter Mel Buer was on the scene during the attack. She describes seeing counterprotesters provoke students, yelling slurs and bludgeoning them with parts of the encampment’s barricade, and says the attack lasted several hours without police or security intervention. ”UCLA is complicit in violence inflicted upon protesters,” wrote the editorial board of UCLA’s campus newspaper, the Daily Bruin, the next day. Four of the paper’s student journalists were targeted and assaulted by counterprotesters while covering the protests. We speak with Shaanth Kodialam Nanguneri, one of the student journalists, who says one of their colleagues was hospitalized over the assault, while campus security officers “were nowhere to be found.” Meanwhile, UCLA’s chapter of Faculty for Justice in Palestine has called on faculty to refuse university labor Thursday in protest of the administration’s failure to protect students from what it termed “Zionist mobs.” Professor Gaye Theresa Johnson, a member of UCLA Faculty for Justice in Palestine, denounces the administration’s response to nonviolent protest and says she sees the events as part of a major sea change in the politicization of American youth. “This is a movement. It cannot be unseen. It cannot be put back in the box.”


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • US university occupations over Israel’s genocide in Gaza have now spread to the UK

    As students in the US hold the line across multiple universities in their occupations over Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, young people in the UK are now joining them – with encampments being set up in both Manchester and Sheffield – as well as Edinburgh, Bristol, Leeds, Newcastle, and Warwick.

    Manchester: students set up encampment

    First, and over 50 students at the University of Manchester have taken camp in solidarity with Palestinians facing genocide in Gaza. They demand that the University ends its partnership with BAE Systems and other arms companies, cuts its ties with Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, stops all unethical research, and refrains from taking disciplinary action against students.

    With a coalition of over 200 students involved in the encampment, inspired by other similar actions across the world, they are calling for the University of Manchester to be held accountable for its complicity in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people, and failure to take action over its extensive ties to Israel:

    The Encampment demands that the university must:

    • End its partnership with BAE Systems.
    • Cut ties with Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
    • Adopt a policy ensuring that all research is ethical and doesn’t contribute towards the arms trade.
    • Not pursue disciplinary action against any students involved in the Encampment, occupations or other protests.

    Universities: tied to genocide

    Tel Aviv University – whom the University of Manchester has a research partnership with – developed the Dahiya Doctrine, which calls for the mass targeting of civilian infrastructure. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is built on illegally occupied land, with exchange students from UoM sent to live in these settlements.

    BAE Systems is Europe’s largest arms company and is involved in producing F-35 and F-16 jets, which are used against Palestinians in Gaza. The University of Manchester has no policy regulating whether research could be used to harm lives or for other unethical purposes, and has received at least £15 Million in research funding from arms companies in the last 5 years.

    The current encampment follows the previous Roscoe and Simon building occupations, and other actions taken across campus by students, including several BAE and BNY Mellon event crashes.

    The University of Manchester has not responded to the demands of the students, and when pressed on the issue of the University’s research ties during an open meeting in March, Vice-Chancellor Nancy Rothwell denied that arms companies are unethical.

    Solidarity with the struggle

    A student was suspended earlier this month for releasing a recording of Nancy Rothwell’s comments, as well as for participating in other protests on campus. Students are demanding that the suspension is lifted and that disciplinary action is not taken against any students participating in protests. There have been further controversial comments in open meetings by the Vice Chancellor since this occurred.

    The launch of the encampment coincides with others in at least four other cities, who are joining Warwick and Edinburgh in camping for Palestine.

    A spokesperson for the Encampment said:

    The struggle of the Palestinian people to keep their dignity and livelihood is still going strong. We stand in solidarity with all who are fighting for a Palestine free of genocide and occupation, from the River to the Sea.

    The movement is spreading across the UK now – with seven universities currently witnessing occupations:

    For example, students in Sheffield have taken similar action over Israel’s genocide and apartheid.

    Sheffield: the occupation begins

    Students at the University of Sheffield have also begun a mass encampment in solidarity with the Palestinian people and in protest against allegations of their university’s complicity in Israel’s apartheid and the ongoing bombardment of Gaza.

    On Wednesday 1 May, the action started with planned walk-outs of lectures and teaching activities, followed by a demonstration. As the demonstration neared its end, students could be seen setting up tents and gazebos outside university buildings.

    Combined with solidarity encampments created by students at the Universities of Warwick and Edinburgh last week, this marks the spread of the tactics of the US student movement (as seen at Columbia and at least 30 other US institutions) to the UK. Multiple other coordinated encampments are expected imminently.

    The protests are led by the Sheffield Campus Coalition for Palestine (SCCP), a coalition of staff, students, and alumni from the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University. They are backed by staff members,  local trades unionists, and community groups such as Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and Jews Against Israeli Apartheid.

    Calling out the university’s complicity

    The latter have issued a statement of support, saying they welcome the walk out and:

    call on all students and staff to do so and resolve to hold their University to account for its complicity with the genocide perpetrated by Israel in Palestine.

    Student demonstrators point to the role played by the university’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) in manufacturing the F-35 combat aircraft used by the Israeli military. The AMRC boasts that its ‘novel, fully automated manufacturing process’ has been used to provide ‘critical fuselage panels’ for more than 500 F-35 Lightning II aircraft, saving arms manufacturer BAE Systems £15m in costs in the process.

    A Dutch court recently ordered the country’s government to immediately suspend all exports of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel, due to concerns that they were being used to violate international law.

    Multiple demands

    Sheffield students have several demands:

    • Divest (سحب العلاقات): We call on the University of Sheffield to divest from weapons manufacturing. The University should not be aiding in supplying instruments of warfare to a genocidal state.
    • Boycott (مقاطعة): We demand that the institution sever all ties to Israeli universities. Israeli academic institutions have long served as pillars of Israel’s system of oppression against Palestinians, with many universities utterly entangled in the violent machinery of Palestinian dispossession, occupation, incarceration, surveillance, siege and most recently genocide.
    • Accountability (مساءلة): We hold the University of Sheffield accountable for their complicity in the genocide of the Palestinian people. The campus community demands that the University agree to a meeting with students and staff.

    A student spokesperson for SCCP said:

    The university can house decolonial lecturers in their theatres whilst simultaneously profiting off settler-colonial projects. But now the fig leaf has fallen, revealing the University of Sheffield not as an academic institution, but rather as a brazen hub for weapons manufacturers.

    Most egregiously, the University has been found to have helped streamline and produce the very instruments of warfare Israel used in its ruthless and indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza. It is for that reason that we students have come to charge the university with complicity in the genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza. Our demand is clear: divest now.

    UK universities joining a worldwide movement

    The university’s involvement in F-35 production supplying Israel is part of a pattern of close ties with the arms industry. In 2022, a freedom of information request (FOI) revealed that Sheffield took at least £72m in investment from the arms trade over the preceding decade.

    This level of investment is exceptionally high in the context of British higher education. Last year openDemocracy reported that Sheffield University received more defence funding than any other institution, taking over £42m, while Oxford and Cambridge took £17m and £10m respectively.

    University of Sheffield lecturer, Dr Lisa Stampnitzky, said:

    I am proud to see our students taking a stand and joining this worldwide movement against the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Our university needs to confirm its commitment to be an ethical institution and divest itself of ties to the development of weapons used to perpetrate atrocities.

    Students have expressed concerns about the influence exerted by these companies on the university’s research agenda and teaching. The protesters draw attention to the AMRC’s membership scheme, which allows private companies to mould research priorities, and to the role played by Industrial Advisory Boards (IABs) in some university departments. Both feature representation from arms companies.

    Featured image via SCCP

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.