Category: students

  • In California, the federal government was deep into an investigation of alleged racial discrimination at a school district where, a parent said, students called a Black peer racial slurs and played whipping sounds from their cellphones during a lesson about slavery. Then the U.S. Department of Education in March suddenly closed the California regional outpost of its Office for Civil Rights and…

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  • Shortly after the Trump administration took office, the State Department warned international scholars and students — people who had come to the U.S. to teach, conduct research and learn — that it planned to revoke visas based on allegations of antisemitism or for their purported support for groups like Hamas or Hezbollah. What happened was far more expansive — a sweeping termination of…

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  • Universities are in a bind. As institutions of learning and teaching, knowledge learnt and taught should, or at the very least could, be put into practice. How unfortunate for rich ideas to linger in cold storage or exist as the mummified status of esoterica. But universities in the United States have taken fright at pro-Palestinian protests since October 7, 2023, becoming battlegrounds for the propaganda emissaries of Israeli public relations and the pro-evangelical, Armageddon lobby that sees the end times taking place in the Holy Land. Higher learning institutions are spooked by notions of Israeli brutality, and they are taking measures.

    These measures have tended to be heavy handed, taking issue with students and academic staff. The policy has reached another level in efforts by amphibian university managers to ban various protest groups who are seen as creating an environment of intimidation for other members of the university tribe. That these protesters merely wish to draw attention to the massacre of Palestinian civilians, including women, children, and the elderly, and the fact that the death toll, notably in the Gaza Strip, now towers at over 50,000, is a matter of inconvenient paperwork.

    Even worse, the same institutions are willing to tolerate individuals who have celebrated their own unalloyed bigotry, lauded their own racial and religious ideology, and deemed various races worthy of extinguishment or expulsion. Such a man is Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who found himself permitted to visit Yale University at the behest of the Jewish society Shabtai, a body founded by Democratic senator and Yale alumnus Cory Booker, along with Rabbi Shmully Hecht.

    Shabtai is acknowledged as having no official affiliation with Yale, though it is stacked with Yale students and faculty members who participate at its weekly dinners. Its beating heart was Hecht, who arrived in New Haven after finishing rabbinical school in Australia in 1996.

    The members of Shabtai were hardly unanimous in approving Ben-Gvir’s invitation. David Vincent Kimel, former coach of the Yale debate team, was one of two to send an email to a Shabtai listserv to express brooding disgruntlement. “Shabtai was founded as a space for fearless, pluralistic Jewish discourse,” the email remarks. “But this event jeopardizes Shabtai’s reputation and every future.” In views expressed to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Kimel elaborated: “I’m deeply concerned that we’re increasingly treating extreme rhetoric as just another viewpoint, rather than recognizing it as a distortion of constructive discourse.” The headstone for constructive discourse was chiselled sometime ago, though Kimel’s hopes are charming.

    As a convinced, pro-settler fanatic, Ben-Gvir is a fabled-Torah basher who sees Palestinians as needless encumbrances on Israel’s righteous quest to acquire Gaza and the West Bank. Far from being alone, Ben-Gvir is also the member of a government that has endorsed starvation and the deprivation of necessities as laudable tools of conflict, to add to an adventurous interpretation of the laws of war that tolerates the destruction of health and civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.

    After a dinner at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort (the bad will be fed), Ben-Gvir was flushed with confidence. He wrote on social media of how various lawmakers had “expressed support for my very clear position on how to act in Gaza and that the food and aid depots should be bombed in order to create military and political pressure to bring our hostages home safely.” By any other standard, this was an admission to encouraging the commission of a war crime.

    In July last year, Israel’s State Prosecutor Amit Aisman reportedly sought permission from Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to open a criminal investigation into Ben-Gvir for alleged incitement of violence against residents of Gaza. The move was said to be a gesture to placate the International Court of Justice as it considers the genocide case filed by South Africa against Israel over the war in Gaza. In a string of increasingly agitated interim orders, the ICJ has asked that Israel comply, as signatory member, with the obligations imposed by the United Nations Genocide Convention. These include prohibitions against incitement to genocide.

    Incitement has become something of a nervous tic for the minister. In November 2023, for instance, Ben-Gvir remarked that “When we say Hamas should be destroyed, it also means those who celebrate, those who support, and those who hand out candy – they’re all terrorists, and they should also be destroyed.” Seeing himself as essentially immune to any form of prosecution, Ben-Gvir gave the State Prosecutor a sound verbal thrashing, claiming that it was “trying to make an Israeli minister stand trial for ‘incitement’ against citizens of an enemy state that danced on the blood our soldiers on the streets of Gaza on October 7.”

    In a statement responding to protests against Ben-Gvir’s visit, Yale stated that the student encampments set up on April 22 on Beinecke Plaza were in violation of the university’s policies on the use of outdoor spaces. Students already on notice for previous protests along similar lines would face “immediate disciplinary action”. With dulling predictability, the university revealed that it was looking into “concerns … about disturbing anti-Semitic conduct at the gathering”.

    University officialdom had also focused on the activities of Yalies4Palestine, a student organisation whose club status was revoked for “sending calls over social media for others to join the event”. The statement makes the claim that the group “flagrantly violated the rules to which the Yale College Dean’s Office holds all registered student organizations”. Consequently, the body cannot receive funding from Yale sources, use the university name, participate in relevant student activities, or book spaces on the campus.

    This profaning of protest in a university setting is a convenient trick, using the popular weasel words of “offensive” and “unsafe” while deploying, more generically, the pitiful policy inventory that makes freedom of expression an impossibility. Mobilised accordingly, they can eliminate any debate, any discussion and any idea from the campus for merely being stingingly contrarian or causing twinges of intellectual discomfort. The moment the brain aches in debate, the offended howl and the administrators suppress. Play nice, dear university staff and students, or don’t play at all. Besides, Ben-Gvir, by Yale standards, is a half-decent fellow.

    The post Yale, Ben-Gvir, and Banning Palestinian Groups first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • The schools in Steubenville, Ohio, are doing something unusual—in fact, it’s almost unheard of. In a country where nearly 40 percent of fourth graders struggle to read at even a basic level, Steubenville has succeeded in teaching virtually all of its students to read well. 

    According to data from the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University, Steubenville has routinely scored in the top 10 percent or better of schools nationwide for third grade reading, sometimes scoring as high as the top 1 percent.

    In study after study for decades, researchers have found that districts serving low-income families almost always have lower test scores than districts in more affluent places. Yet Steubenville bucks that trend.

    “It was astonishing to me how amazing that elementary school was,” said Karin Chenoweth, who wrote about Steubenville in her book How It’s Being Done: Urgent Lessons From Unexpected Schools.

    This week on Reveal, reporter Emily Hanford shares the latest from the hit APM Reports podcast Sold a Story. We’ll learn how Steubenville became a model of reading success—and how a new law in Ohio put it all at risk. 

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    This post was originally published on Reveal.

  • A federal judge has ordered Rümeysa Öztürk to be transferred to Vermont as she seeks to challenge what her lawyers call her “unconstitutional detention” in an ICE detention center in Louisiana. Öztürk is a Turkish national and a Tufts University Ph.D. student whose abduction off the streets by plainclothes U.S. agents was caught on camera, one of the most controversial examples of the Trump…

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  • This content originally appeared on Laura Flanders & Friends and was authored by Laura Flanders & Friends.

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  • Image by Xiangkun ZHU.

    Dear President Trump:

    We are Harvard Law students who have read the lengthy and comprehensive list of demands on our Harvard University by your staff. They are assuredly designed to turn this institution of higher education, older than the U.S.A., into a fiefdom under your iron rule. As modest students of medieval history, we see that your demands provide a status for the peasants – the students, the vassals – the faculty, but no one for the role of the Lord of the Manor.

    It is obvious that you want to become the LORD OF THE MANOR. We have a proposal. There is no more exalted status at Harvard than that of the law professors. They are the best and brightest law professors in the land; if you doubt that, just ask them. They are specialists in knowledge of the law. However, they are not specialists in the seriously destabilizing arena of lawlessness.

    Quite candidly, we believe and can document that you are the world’s expert on lawlessness – its range, depth, rewards and modes of escape from accountability. For some unfathomable reason, you have been far too modest about your unparalleled knowledge in this fast-expanding area of immune business and political activity. We make this claim after reading your statements – about twenty of them – where you explicitly declare your superior knowledge over all in such subjects as “trade,” “technology,” “drones,” “construction,” “devaluation,” “banks,” – “renewables,” “polls” and even “the power of Facebook.” (See the book, “Wrecking America: How Trump’s Lawbreaking and Lies Betray All” by Mark Green and Ralph Nader, 2020).

    Missing from your expansive proclamations of expertise is the subject of LAWLESSNESS. Having engaged in over 3000 lawsuits and having been sued under tort law and indicted under criminal law, you have demonstrated an escapist skill that even seasoned attorneys find breathtaking. No sheriff has ever caught you. Only one prosecutor has ever convicted you. E. Jean Carroll won two civil tort cases with damages that are still on appeal.

    One of your remarkable tactics is interminable stalling of the legal process. Another is how you can personally and continually attack in public, with tough language, the judges and other judicial personnel with complete impunity. As we know from our studies, such vituperative language in the United Kingdom would have landed you in contempt of court and a jail term.

    Now, therefore, here is our proposal to fill the position of LORD OF THE MANOR, without impinging on your Day Job as president of the United States. With your permission, we will approach our Dean and request that he appoint you as a VISITING FULL PROFESSOR OF LAW CONDUCTING THE FIRST AND ONLY COURSE IN LAWLESSNESS – its nature, function and strategies of escape from the long arm of the rule of law. It would be the largest class in Harvard Law School history, overflowing our largest auditorium, AUSTIN HALL.

    YOU would provide, effortlessly from your extraordinary memory, empirical information never before revealed and analyzed.

    Your self-awareness is exceptional, having said in 2019 – “With Article II, I can do whatever I want as President,” and having openly wished that you could be King. To understand the rule of law better, it is necessary to understand the outlaws. This is especially true for you, Mr. President because you once declared, “I know more about courts than any human being on earth.”

    Going deeper, you are eminently qualified to lecture us on regions of lawlessness abroad and how you think one should try to establish peaceful and law-abiding governance. The Middle East comes to mind. By enlisting the law school’s reservoir of scholarship on these conflicts you could establish yourself as a Nobel-Prize worthy implementor of a profound peaceful PRO-SEMITISM between Arab and Jewish Semites. Just envision your going to Norway to receive the coveted Award that your detractors could never believe was remotely possible.

    We anticipate your affirmative response and understand fully if a condition of your acceptance is that the course be taught by Zoom from the Oval Office. Should you wish to have your lectures streamed to a wider audience, the Law School has all the requisite facilities.

    Just your exalted title “Honorable visiting Professor of Law, Donald J. Trump” along with your presiding over the White House will anoint you as the LORD OF THE MANOR. You would be addressed by all members of the Harvard University community as “MY LIEGE.”

    We look forward to hearing from you.

    Very truly yours,
    Harvard Law Students

    The post What If Trump Received This Invitation from Harvard Law Students? appeared first on CounterPunch.org.


    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Ralph Nader.

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  • More than 100 colleges and universities across the country have reported cases of student visas being revoked by the U.S. State Department, with the department changing the legal status of over 600 international students and recent graduates, according to Inside Higher Ed. “No president should be allowed to set an ideological litmus test and exclude or remove people from our country who they…

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  • Over the last several weeks, demonstrations have erupted across Indonesia. They were reported  in Medan (North Sumatra), Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Solo, Malang, Surabaya, Makassar and, no doubt, they erupted in other towns as well. Although these demonstrations have not been massive, – ranging from a few hundred to one or two thousand people, they have been notably militant. The incidents include a police post being set on fire, street clashes between students and police, students breaking down gates of government buildings and shattering the Parliament’s compound walls, and the use of few Molotov cocktails. The police have used water cannons and resorted to beatings  to disperse some demonstrations. Meanwhile, the government, unanimously backed by the Parliament, has been downplaying the unrest, yet it is unable to ignore the uprising. The demonstrations, which have been going on for several weeks, continue as we near the end of March.

    Agus Suwage (Indonesia), Circus of Democracy I, 1997.

    The protests are not limited to students, they reflect the broader sentiment among the public. Coalitions of non-government organisations, trade unions, and other civil society groups have issued statements echoing the concerns of the students. Academics and public intellectuals have also articulated similar criticism.

    The demonstrations were broadly  held under the banner or slogan: “Indonesia Gelap” (Indonesia is Dark), reflecting the bitter and angry sentiments about the state of the country.

    What has triggered the demonstrations? What lies behind this sentiment?

    The demonstrations were triggered by the accelerated passing of a new law in the Parliament, regarding the Indonesian Army. The part of the new law that has attracted the most hostility is the expansion of the list of civil institutions where military officers can be appointed. While the list has not been drastically increased, to 16, it comes at a time when more military officials, often cronies of President Prabowo, are being placed key positions, both within and outside the scope of the Law.  Some of the military cronies have also been placed in crucial economic of business positions. These moves are perceived by the protesters as the first steps towards returning to the military-backed crony capitalist rule, one that ruled Indonesia from 1965 until 1998. This period began with the mass slaughter of Indonesia’s communists and Sukarnoist leftists, it led to a near totalitarian rule for 32 years. It is under such a rule that  a class of crony capitalists emerged throughout the country, with bog conglomerates at the top of the crony pyramid.

    Taring Padi (Indonesia), in the name of resistance we fight till the end, 2023.

    The students, NGOs and academics are protesting against the moves of the ruling elite who are turning back in that direction.

    The banner “Indonesia is Dark” is not only a reflection of anger because people believe Indonesia is sliding back into the corrupt, militarist, crony capitalist period of the past. It is an expression that the “darkness” has already  arrived for the mass of the people and for democracy. Over the past several weeks, many horrific corruption scandals have come to light. The scandals mount to hundreds of millions of dollars, involving the Pertamina (the state oil company) as well as operations in the banking sector, palm oil sector, import and export segments and others. These cases were suddenly exposed by the Attorney-General’s Department and by the Corruption Eradication Commission.

    Being exposed one after the other, without any pause, over the past several weeks, these scandals have widely revealed the extent of corrupt relations between government officials and the private sector. In December, the Corruption Eradication Commission raided the residence of an official of the Supreme Court, who accused of taking bribes from business interests, and found tens of millions of dollars’ worth of cash and 51 kilograms of gold. The exposure of these cases 25 years after the fall of the notoriously corrupt President Suharto has deepened the sense of worsening “darkness” with absolutely no signs of lessening corruption.

    The fear that the situation would worsen has intensified with President Prabowo’s announcement of the creation of a new state-holding company, Danantara which he will directly oversee. It would include a company owned by his own brother, and members of his cabinet and close business associates , will hold key positions within the Danantara. Former Presidents Yudhoyono and Widodo, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin have been appointed as advisors. This includes the plan that dividends from all public companies, estimated to be US$980 billion, will need to be surrendered to the company. The company’s funds are supposed to be used to finance more upstream production projects in the country. Given that it is under the direct control of Prabowo and his close circle, however fantastic the idea may seem on paper, it is viewed as a situation of never-ending corruption and cronyism, and people do not trust the government’s plans. This decision comes after almost a year of the government, first under Widodo and then Prabowo, granting coal mining licences to secure political support from private players, including religious organisations and universities.

    Meanwhile, Prabowo gains military backing by making the currently serving and ex-military officers in-charge of government project with large budgets. Such as the welfare program providing lunch to school students or a major Food Estate project in Papua.

    Heri Dono (Indonesia), Bull VS Pistol, 1984.

    At the same time, the feeling of engulfing “darkness” is exacerbated by the sudden announcement of huge budget cuts in the name of efficiency, which have affected the functioning of several ministries. It has worsened the working conditions of public servants who lose lighting and air-conditioning for some parts of the day or have fewer equipment to work with. The funds from these cuts have been diverted to some private sectors for their services to the ministries, such as the transport sector.

    Meanwhile, the state has imposed more burdens on the people, such as increasing the application fee for two-wheeler license.. These trends are accompanied by increase in unemployment. There have been announcements of layoffs in manufacturing and textiles industries as the businesses are shutting shop due to loss. Media reports estimate 40,000 layoffs over the past several weeks.

    The “Indonesia in Darkness” protests, petitions and statements are not the only manifestation of the sense of “darkness” and political despair. Another response that went viral on social media, was the cry “Kabur aja dulu” (Let’s Get of Here First), suggesting an escape overseas. Of course, this sentiment resonates with the millions of Indonesia’s poor who have been forced to seek work abroad, often working as maids or coolies in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the Middle East for several decades. However, there is a positive side to “Indonesia in Darkness,” it is accompanied by a word popularised in the poetry of the disappeared poet of the 1990s, Wiji Thukul: “Lawan!” (Resist!). While one side of the darkness is answered with Escape, the other side bravely calls for Fight!

    The most recent wave of demonstrations has shared the call: “The Army Should Stay in Their Barracks”. Notably, the first wave of the “Indonesia in Darkness” protests had no specific demands. But the following waves have so far raised nine demands under the Dark Indonesian banner, which include: review President Prabowo’s budget cuts; change the Mineral and Coal Mining Law that allowed arbitrary allocation of mining licences; reject the Army’s interference in civilian affairs, and more transparency in development projects and taxes and imposts on the common people.

    Agung Kurniawan (Indonesia), Very, Very Happy Victims, 1996.

    A defining feature of these demonstrations is their largely spontaneous character, organised by local coalitions of students and NGOs, with each town having its distinct pattern. However, the slogans and demands are shared nationally, with no national organisation of mass resistance or opposition. The political opposition in the country remains dispersed, lacking unified organisation, strong leadership or a clear ideological perspective. Many are aware of this challenge, and the constructive discussions are unfolding among student groups, workers and farmers unions, democratic rights campaign organisations, feminist groups, political formations and others. Their discussions also focus on the unity of progressive forces. Some of this discussion is already formal, while others underway are informal in setting. The emergence of a national leadership and organisations would accelerate the current ferment and could alter the whole political framework. As of now, Indonesia, without a progressive opposition, is in a state of hiatus, waiting for the necessary jolt for the next step.

    The post Student Protests Continue in Indonesia first appeared on Dissident Voice.

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  • This content originally appeared on Human Rights Watch and was authored by Human Rights Watch.

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

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

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  • Mahmoudkhalil theencampments

    The new documentary The Encampments, produced by Watermelon Pictures and BreakThrough News, is an insider’s look at the student protest movement to demand divestment from the U.S. and Israeli weapons industry and an end to the genocide in Gaza. The film focuses on last year’s student encampment at Columbia University and features student leaders including Mahmoud Khalil, who was chosen by the university as a liaison between the administration and students. Khalil, a U.S. permanent resident, has since been arrested and detained by immigration enforcement as part of the Trump administration’s attempt to deport immigrants who exercise their right to free speech and protest. “Columbia has gone to every extent to try to censor this movement,” says Munir Atalla, a producer for the film and a former film professor at Columbia.

    We speak with Atalla; Sueda Polat, a Columbia graduate student and fellow campus negotiator with Khalil; and Grant Miner, a former Columbia graduate student and president of the student workers’ union who was expelled from the school over his participation in the protests. “Functionally, I was expelled for speaking out against genocide,” he says. All three of our guests emphasize their continued commitment to pro-Palestine activism even in the face of increasing institutional repression. The Encampments is opening nationwide in April.


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

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  • Who will save the Palestinians from genocide? Nobody.
    Who will save Americans from moral, political, economic, and social decay? Nobody.

    Uncontrolled criminals prance around Gaza and West Bank neighborhoods, shooting whom they want, destroying what they don’t want, stealing whatever pleases them. The locals can’t interfere and the authorities have been told to protect the criminals from harm. Alarmed citizens in foreign neighborhoods organize to halt the criminality and are accused of illegal activity against the criminals, who are portrayed as victims. The appointed U.S. representative to the United Nations, previously a New York congressional representative, designates students who fought courageously to halt the genocide of the Palestinian people as anti-Semites. Some students are arrested for deportation, while the serial killers continue their “benevolent” activity of depopulating the earth. Is this science fiction of a dystopian world; no this is the reality of our dystopian world.

    A contradiction tells the true story.
    The students demonstrating against the obvious genocide of the Palestinian people, in which Israel, who claims to represent the Jewish people, is the perpetrator, are accused of anti-Semitism, of falsely labelling the Jewish community of being involved in the genocide, and supposedly, preventing some Jews from attending class. Nothing specific in these accusations and no names mentioned. If there have been anti-Jewish occurrences, they have been few and not alarming. Miscreants among the student protestors are incidental and are not representative of the mass of protestors.

    The contradiction occurs from the guardians against ant-Semitism asserting you cannot accuse all Jews of genocide because of the genocide tactics of Israel, and they accuse the protestors of being “Hamas managed” because a few of the student protestors may incline to favor Hamas. Adding to the contradiction is that labelling an organization, which notable and credible persons consider a “resistance organization,” and has never committed a terrorist action against the United States, is arbitrary and not a considered action. Not allowing people to express thoughts that do not violate laws or harm the American people is not thoughtful guidance; it is thought control, a perversion of the U.S. constitution. Giving more importance to a few Jews who could not attend class (Is this true?) rather than giving attention to the genocide of a population is demented.

    We realize the enormous problem the Palestinians have to survive the onslaught; we do not realize that this is a problem, a punishing and challenging problem, but is not the problem. The problem is the Zionist Israelis and their followers, who arm the murderers, steer the masses to accept criminally insane activities, determine our present, and command our future. Who are they and why do we have them determine our lives?

    If, at the end of the 19th century, a Jewish person was asked, “What does it means to be a Jew?” most would have stumbled over the question. At that time, a preponderance of Jews considered themselves “secular,” an expression that meant they did not want to be Christians or atheists. These Jews were mostly humanists, “a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism or other supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good” – American Humanist Association. Beneath the cloudy skies, there were reform Jews, Reconstructionist Jews, conservative Jews, orthodox Jews, ultra-orthodox Jews, and people who called themselves Jews by heritage. Zionist Jews made its entrance upon a disparate crew of worshippers and non-worshippers.

    Unlike other Jews who had interpretative connections to Judaism and positive reasons for expressing their alliance with Judaism, the Zionists had no connection to Judaism’s doctrines and an entirely negative approach. Their outlook that the Jews were a people who needed to be united in a nation, were subjected to cruel anti-Semitism that had no vindication, and only they knew the path to Nirvana did not agree with knowledge and attitudes of the 19th century Jewish community.

    A people is “a body of persons that are united by a common culture, tradition, or sense of kinship, that typically have common language, institutions, and beliefs, and that often constitute a politically organized group.” The late 18th century Jews, who lived in different countries, spoke different languages, and had different customs and histories did not fit the description. At the end of the 19th century, life was not perfect for European Jews (nor for anyone else), but they had made tremendous economic, social, and political gains, and the trend continued positive. With Jews represented in educational institutions and government positions, becoming well known in all cultural representations — music, art, theatre, and writing — and managing to become successful wage earners in many avenues of employment, the Zionist case that “Jews could never satisfactorily integrate into western nations” became more dubious with each passing day.

    Despite a century of repetition and recitation, little evidence exists of extensive deadly attacks on Jews in the late 19th century, during the era of incipient Zionism. A few isolated groups in France and Germany accused Jews of attempting to dominate the economy and culture. Due to these reason, some attacks occurred early in the century in Germany (Hep-Hep riots). Other happenings, which related to exaggeration of acts by Jews and the assassination of Czar Alexander II in 1881, occurred later in Russia. The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, an English-language reference work on the history and culture of Eastern Europe Jewry, prepared by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and published by Yale University Press in 2008, relates,

    Anti-Jewish violence in the Russian Empire before 1881 was a rare event, confined largely to the rapidly expanding Black Sea entrepot of Odessa. The first Odessa pogrom, in 1821, was linked to the outbreak of the Greek War for Independence, during which the Jews were accused of sympathizing with the Ottoman authorities. Although the pogrom of 1871 was occasioned in part by a rumor that Jews had vandalized the Greek community’s church, many non-Greeks participated, as they had done during earlier disorders in 1859.

    The pogroms of 1881 and 1882, which occurred in waves throughout the southwestern provinces of the Russian Empire, were the first to assume the nature of a mass movement. Violence was largely directed against the property of Jews rather than their persons The total number of fatalities is disputed but may have been as few as 50, half of them pogromshchiki who were killed when troops opened fire on rioting mobs.

    In all of Europe, from what I have been able to confirm, less than 100 Jews were killed and possibly a few thousand were injured in anti-Jewish riots during the 100 years of the 19th century that witnessed the establishment of political Zionism. For context, compare those figures to two other atrocities during that time, which may be exaggerated and are rarely mentioned.

    Circassia, Caucasus 1864-1867, 400,000-1,500,000 perished or deported.
    Armenians, Turkiye, 1894-1896, 100,000 Armenians killed in Hamidian Massacres.

    The Zionist game plan in the late 1800s made no sense. Why would Western Jews, whose principal problem was verbal abuse from a few detractors, want to leave industrial nations and go to an unknown place and deprived area that had nothing to offer, except prevention by the local authorities and animosity by the local inhabitants? The East European Jews lived in difficult surroundings but had an escape route ─ from 1881 to 1914, more than 2.5 million Jews migrated from Eastern Europe. Of these, about two million reached the United States, 300,000 went to other overseas countries, and approximately 350,000 chose Western Europe.

    During the time that 2.5 million East European Jews migrated to Western nation, only 30,000 of them travelled to Palestine and 15,000 returned. It would take a century, if possible, to accommodate millions of new arrivals to Palestine. If the Zionists wanted to relive pressure on East European Jews, why didn’t they finance immigration to the United States? They’ll say that history proved them correct. Seems so, but not so; fortuitous events and plain luck enabled their agenda.

    From its beginnings to start of World War I, Zionism proved a stagnant adventure. During that period, about 80,000 Jews came to Palestine, not all of whom were Zionists, many being adventurists, utopian Socialists, and some seeking opportunities. By 1918, only about 60,000 remained. World War I conveniently destroyed the Ottoman Empire, and the mysterious Balfour Declaration revived the Zionist adventure. In addition, the League of Nations’ certification of the British Mandate in Palestine prevented the formation of a national Palestinian governing body and provided opportunities for English speaking European Jews to work in the British administration. Suddenly, there was no longer an impediment for Jews to enter Palestine. They came with the blessings of a Balfour Declaration that certified their validity and protection by his Majesty’s forces. From 1918-1922, approximately 24,000 Jews arrived in Palestine.

    The year 1924 was more fortuitous for the Zionists. The US Immigration Act closed the doors to mass Jewish immigration from East European nations and this Act steered Jews to Palestine. By 1931, Palestine housed 175,000 Jews. Did they arrive as Zionists or to seek an improved economic situation from their depressed surroundings? In the 1930’s, and until the end of World War II, Nazi persecutions of the Jews drove more than 60,000 German Jews to immigrate to Palestine (about 280.000 German and Austrian Jews migrated to other places, with about 125,000 managing to come to the to the United States).

    Revelations of the Holocaust and plight of Jewish refugees after World War II gained worldwide sympathy for the Zionist cause and propelled more immigrants to Palestine. The Cold War provided the most decisive benefit for Zionism ─ the Soviet Union support for an Israeli state drove the United States to compete for Zionist attention. Votes from both nations and a few bribes provided a narrow passage of United Nations Declaration 181 and established the Zionist state, one of the darkest days in world history.

    The rest is history, and that history is one of constant attacks on Palestinians, expropriation of their lands, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, oppression, battles between Israel and its adversaries, which Israel always won and from which it was able to expand its initial territory and dominate the original inhabitants of the Levant; not a proud outcome for Theodore Herzl, who, in his 1903 novel, Altneuland,

    ….did not foresee any conflict between Jews and Arabs. One of the main characters in Altneuland is a Haifa engineer, Reshid Bey, who is one of the leaders of the “New Society.” He is very grateful to his Jewish neighbors for improving the economic condition of Palestine and sees no cause for conflict. All non-Jews have equal rights, and an attempt by a fanatical rabbi to disenfranchise the non-Jewish citizens of their rights fails in the election which is the center of the main political plot of the novel.[

    The Zionist assumptions that the Jews were a people who needed to be united in a nation, were subjected to cruel anti-Semitism that had no vindication, and that only they knew the path to Nirvana have proven to be paranoid, diabolical, and senseless.

    A new people

    The Middle East and North African Jews who came to Israel were Arabs; the Ashkenazi were European; the Beta Israel were Ethiopians; and the Yemenites were from the Arabian Peninsula. Israel replaced the different languages, dialects, music, cultures, and heritage of these ethnicities with unique and uniform characteristics, and created a new people, the Israeli Jew, who spoke a new language, modern Hebrew. Reshef, Yael. Revival of Hebrew: Grammatical Structure and Lexicon, Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics, (2013) reveals.

    While Modern Hebrew is largely based on Mishnaic and Biblical Hebrew, as well as Sephardi and Ashkenazi liturgical and literary tradition from the Medieval and Haskalah (18th century Jewish enlightenment) eras, and retains its Semitic character in its morphology and in much of its syntax, the consensus among scholars is that Modern Hebrew represents a fundamentally new linguistic system, not directly continuing any previous linguistic state, being a koine language (dialect) of the same language, based on historical layers of Hebrew, as well as incorporating foreign elements, mainly those introduced during the most critical revival period between 1880 and 1920, as well as new elements created by speakers through natural linguistic evolution.

    Destruction of centuries-old Jewish history and life in Tunisia, Iraq, Libya, and Egypt accompanied the creation of a new people. The Zionists, who complained about the persecution of Jews, wiped out Jewish history, determined who was Jewish, and required all Jews to shed much of their ancestral characteristics before they could integrate into the Israel community. The significance of the construction of a new Jew, in contrast to the reconstruction of an ancient Jew, has been given scant attention. The shaping of a new Jewish mind from a central educational source has distorted a population that previously had no central control and can no longer control individual destiny.

    Jews were the principal victims of the Nazi regime, and the Zionists have consistently publicized atrocities committed upon the Jews by their Nazi executions. The same Zionists, in their attempts to dominate the Palestinians, have adopted the Third Reich tactics they exposed and condemned. The evils of Nazism — separation of ethnicities, virulent nationalism, irredentism, constant warfare, racist laws, killing of opposition, punitive measures after an attack, ethnic cleansing, indoctrination of the young, and genocide are in the Zionist handbook and have been conveniently brushed away by Israel’s propaganda artists. The atrocities committed by the Nazi regime have earned their followers the adjectives of deranged and insane. Atrocities by the Israeli regime and its worldwide followers are lightly treated and tacitly supported by western nations and peoples. No epithets to their violent actions are applied. If this is a state that the Jews desire, a state built on oppression of other people, theft of their lands, and now an intentional genocide, then the Jews cannot escape the enmity of the world.

    Conclusion

    The real problem, which devours the Palestinians, is a Zionist movement that is irrational and demented. The ferocity and sadistic war against the Gazan people is the most cruel and unnecessary action against a people during modern times. Only the demented would follow up that war by reinvigorating it at a more escalated scale. We can understand the mentality that dictates the sadism by regarding expressions from Zionist leaders, a few of dozens. No rational leader or normal person would utter these disgusting words.

    “One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail.” —Rabbi Yaacov Perrin, New York Times, Feb. 28, 1994.

    “The Palestinians are like crocodiles.” —Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Jerusalem Post, August 30, 2000.

    “They are beasts walking on two legs.” —Prime Minister Menachem Begin, in a speech to the Knesset, New Statesman, June 25, 1982.

    “We shall use the ultimate force until Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours.” —Deputy Prime Minister Rafael Eitan.

    “[When we build settlements] Arabs will only be able to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle.” —Deputy Prime Minister Rafael Eitan

    “We shall reduce the Palestinians to a community of woodcutters and waiters.” —Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, 1960, The Arabs in Israel.

    “There is a huge gap between us and our enemies not just in ability but in morality, culture, sanctity of life, and conscience.” —President Moshe Katsav, Jerusalem Post, May 10, 2001.

    Trying to talk honestly, operate fairly, and cooperate with the irrational and demented is an almost impossible task. Talk of two-states, one state, and relieving the genocide goes nowhere. Even the academic analysis that indicates this is settler colonialism, of which there are elements, does not lead anywhere and may lead astray ─ the Western nations, to whom the Palestinians appeal, are not likely to admit to participation in settler colonialism. Best not to antagonize them. Settler colonialists need a reason for their voyages — free land, ample resources, and colonial protection. Palestine did not provide any of these ingredients for the original settlers. Palestine only provided Palestinians, waiting to be destroyed.

    The complacent world does not realize the immensity of the problem. Political, social, and economic life has been skewed by a control that dominates information and thought. The Ill equipped and easily manipulated are elected to highest political offices, partisan politics rules, and economic divide grows. Those, who have much, gain more; those who gain more dictate more. Defeat of Zionism is an international priority and can be done if the populations prioritize. If not ─ Nobody Saves the World. The demented command the future.

    The post Nobody Saves the World first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • The Trump administration has ramped up efforts to target free speech on college campuses and one doctoral student at Cornell University who was involved in pro-Palastinian protests on campus now finds himself targeted for deportation once again. Momodou Taal is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Africana Studies at Cornell University who is a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and the Gambia.

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Seg3 faizapatelbox

    We speak with the Brennan Center’s Faiza Patel, who warns the Trump administration is ramping up efforts to target international students and other visitors and immigrants to the United States over pro-Palestinian speech. The State Department has reportedly launched a new effort using artificial intelligence to help identify and revoke visas for people the government deems to be supporting U.S.-designated terrorist groups, based primarily on the individuals’ social media accounts. “Foreign students are running scared,” says Patel. She also notes that while “AI-driven sounds really fancy,” the process is more likely to be a basic keyword search prone to “rudimentary mistakes.”


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.


  • This content originally appeared on The Grayzone and was authored by The Grayzone.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Read more on this topic in Vietnamese

    Students in Vietnam have been coming under pressure to share and “like” a Facebook post promoting the political theories of Communist Party General Secretary To Lam.

    The article, titled “Firmly and Adamantly Rejecting Distorted Rhetoric About the Nation’s New Era,” discussed the phrases “the new era” and “the era of national rise,” with which To Lam has peppered his speeches since becoming Communist Party General Secretary last year.

    A student at a high school in Dak Lak province told Radio Free Asia that on Feb. 18, he received a text message from his class’s Youth Union secretary, instructing him to like, react with a heart emoji, and share the article posted on the Facebook page Hung thieng Tay Nguyen (Holy and Heroic Central Highlands) which describes itself as a “news and media site” although it is unclear who runs it.

    The Youth Union is Vietnam’s largest youth organization and operates under the leadership of the Communist Party.

    The 200-word Facebook post – since restricted from general users – is an excerpt from an article on the Communist Party’s online portal. It defends the argument that, “the new era – the era of national rise – is a well-founded concept, not vague as hostile forces have distorted it to seem.”

    Vietnam is entering a period of growth and prosperity under the party’s leadership, the article argues. It also discusses efforts to reform leadership methods, streamline government operations, promote a digital transformation, combat corruption and waste, and develop a comprehensive economic and social strategy, all key Lam policies. The article calls on citizens to counter “hostile narratives about the nation’s rise” and asks everyone from the party to the people to familiarize themselves with the goals and tasks of the new era.

    The student told RFA Vietnamese he was told to like and share the post the same day

    “We were told to take a screenshot and send it to student leaders before 9 p.m. the same night,” said the student, who didn’t want to be identified for fear of reprisals.

    However, he said he ignored the order because he thought the article was boring.

    Another student, who also declined to be named, said he shared the post despite feeling “annoyed” about the request, adding that he only skimmed the article. He said all of his classmates were told to share the post but some told him they hadn’t bothered.

    RFA called the phone number listed on the Facebook page of Huynh Thuc Khang High School’s Youth Union. A man who identified himself as the school principal but who didn’t give his name said the school had nothing to do with the request for students to like and share the post. He also declined to provide contact information for the school’s Youth Union secretary.

    RFA emailed the school’s Youth Union and sent text messages to Buon Ho town’s Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union to verify the information about the Facebook campaign but no one replied.

    Widespread request

    RFA checked the post before it was restricted and saw that pupils from other schools in Dak Lak had also shared, “liked” and put heart emojis on it.

    A screenshot of a phone message from a student leader shared by a student, but not verified by RFA, explained how to share a short link to the post using the site 263.org.vn which is used by Youth Union officers.

    The instructions were to: “click the ‘like’ or ‘heart’ button or leave a positive emoji; share the post en masse on all [Facebook] pages and groups of agencies, units, and personal Facebook accounts of party members, cadres, youth union members, young people, and children; and comment with positive content/feedback or expressions of approval to react to the post,” from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Feb. 18.

    It included a link to a page, since deleted, featuring 36 suggested comments praising the “new era,” a phrase introduced by Lam last August.

    The Facebook post, which was put up at 3:40 p.m. on Feb.18, generated approximately 1,500 likes, 1,500 comments and 1,900 shares as of 6:00 p.m. on Feb. 19 before being blocked from general view.

    It generated comments from various Dak Lak student unions and hundreds from personal accounts, most of which had few posts or locked profiles.

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    Communist Youth Union branches in other parts of Vietnam made similar requests of students. None of them responded to RFA’s emails.

    “Many agencies and organizations have monthly quotas for the number of likes and comments they want to see. Those who fail to fulfill the quota may be ‘evaluated’ in terms of moral conduct,” said Ho Chi Minh city-based journalist Nam Viet.

    “Thousands of comments and likes with heart emojis have been made to comply with the above requirements. However, in many cases, participants couldn’t even understand the content of the posts.”

    Translated by Ann Vu. Edited by Mike Firn.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.


  • This content originally appeared on Amnesty International and was authored by Amnesty International.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • On Monday, Chicago teachers, community members, and some elected officials participated in “walk-in” actions at more than 100 Chicago public schools. Participants rallied to show support for marginalized students — including undocumented youth and queer and trans students — amid Trump’s attacks on immigrants, trans people, and the honest discussion of history in schools. The walk-ins were part of…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Mohammed Isa Khatam was a 16-year-old minor and high school student when Bahraini authorities warrantlessly arrested him on 5 August 2024, just three days before his 17th birthday. During his detention, he has endured enforced disappearance, torture, denial of lawyer and guardian access during interrogations, unfair questioning, deprivation of family visits and contact, denial of education, prohibition of practicing religious rituals, and reprisals. Heartbreakingly, he was denied the chance to bid farewell to his mother, who passed away during his detention. He has been held in the Juvenile section of the Dry Dock Detention Center for six months, awaiting trial.

    On 5 August 2024, Mohammed and his friends, Ali Salman Marhoon and Husain Saleh AlBarri, went to Sitra Police Station after receiving a phone call from their detained friend, Sadiq Hobail, requesting them to deliver his mobile phone. Upon arrival, the three minors were unexpectedly arrested and accused of multiple charges, including unlawful assembly, rioting, burning tires, and posting pictures. The officers presented no arrest warrants. Mohammed was then transferred from the Sitra Police Station to the Qudaibiya Police Station. When Mohammed failed to return home, his family grew worried and began searching for him by contacting his friends and their families. They learned he had gone to the Sitra Police Station and rushed there to inquire, but officials denied he was being held. 

    On 6 August 2024, Mohammed was interrogated at the Qudaibiya Police Station without legal representation or a guardian present, despite being a minor. His family remained unaware of the interrogation due to his enforced disappearance. During questioning, officers subjected Mohammed to psychological abuse, including insults and degrading language. They also attempted to coerce a confession through violent and humiliating methods, which Mohammed chose not to disclose to his family to protect their feelings. Despite the pressure, he consistently denied all charges against him. 

    On 7 August 2024, Mohammed was brought before the Public Prosecution Office (PPO) without legal representation, a guardian, or prior notification to his family. He was also denied adequate time to address the judge and defend himself. The judge read the charges against him, including arson and other accusations unknown to his family, and asked him to confirm or deny them, and then ordered his detention before postponing the session. A social researcher present during the session advised the judge against releasing Mohammed and his friends, claiming that the external environment negatively influences their behavior. Following this session, Mohammed was transferred to the Dry Dock Detention Center. Later that day, at 1:00 A.M., after two days of enforced disappearance, he called his family and informed them he was detained at the Dry Dock Detention Center. He remains at the Dry Dock Detention Center while awaiting trial, with his detention repeatedly extended through investigation sessions conducted via video calls.

    Since his arrest, Bahraini authorities have denied Mohammed’s family the right to visit him at the Dry Dock Detention Center. He has also been deprived of his right to practice religious rituals and continue his education while in detention. On 22 September 2024, his family submitted requests to both the Ombudsman and the National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR), demanding Mohammed’s release and his right to resume his education. While a representative from one of these institutions met with Mohammed, who expressed his desire to continue his formal education, the Ombudsman later informed the family that their request had been dismissed, citing that the matter falls outside its jurisdiction.

    On 10 January 2025, Mohammed’s mother passed away after a long battle with cancer. Despite Bahraini law guaranteeing prisoners the right to attend funerals and mourning ceremonies for immediate family members, Mohammed was denied the chance to bid farewell to his mother or participate in the ceremonies. He had a court session on 12 January 2025, which coincided with the second day of his mother’s mourning ceremonies. Mohammed submitted a request to attend the ceremonies, and the judge approved his release for the remainder of the mourning period, with the condition that he be handed over and returned to the Sitra Police Station. However, the PPO disregarded the judge’s order and failed to carry out the necessary procedures for his release.

    On 20 January 2025, reports revealed that Mohammed, along with his friends Ali Omran, Husain AlBarri, and Ali Salman Marhoon-detained at the Juvenile Detention Center in Building 17 of the Dry Dock Detention Center- had been subjected to punitive retaliatory measures. These included confinement to their cells without family contact or outdoor breaks for up to seven consecutive days and denial of access to purchase basic necessities from the prison canteen, all as punishment for speaking loudly. These harsh measures, effectively isolating Mohammed and his friends, have taken a severe toll on their mental and physical health

    Mohammed’s warrantless arrest as a minor, enforced disappearance, torture, denial of legal counsel and guardian access during interrogations, deprivation of family visits and phone contact, unfair investigation, withholding of his right to education, prohibition from practicing religious rituals, refusal to allow him to bid farewell to his deceased mother, unjust denial of outdoor breaks and access to the prison canteen as retaliation, and prolonged arbitrary pre-trial detention constitute blatant violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the Convention against Torture (CAT), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, also known as the Nelson Mandela Rules, to which Bahrain is a party. 

    Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) calls on Bahraini authorities to uphold their human rights obligations by immediately and unconditionally releasing Mohammed. ADHRB further urges the government to investigate allegations of arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance, torture, denial of legal counsel and guardian access during interrogations, unfair investigations, denial of family visits and phone contact, withholding of Mohammed’s right to education, prohibition of religious practice, refusal to allow him to bid farewell to his deceased mother, and acts of reprisal, while ensuring that those responsible are held accountable. ADHRB also demands compensation for the violations Mohammed has endured during detention. At the very least, ADHRB calls for a prompt and fair trial for Mohammed in line with the Bahraini Restorative Justice Law for Children and international legal standards, leading to his release. Additionally, ADHRB urges the Bahraini authorities to permit Mohammed to resume his education, freely practice his religious rituals, and maintain regular family visits and phone calls. Finally, ADHRB calls on the Dry Dock Detention Center’s administration to immediately end all retaliatory measures against Mohammed and his friends, ensuring they are allowed family contact, outdoor breaks, and access to basic necessities through the prison canteen.

    The post Profile in Persecution: Mohammed Isa Khatam appeared first on Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain.

    This post was originally published on Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain.

  • Ma Phyu, 31, spent years working to protect ethnic minorities in her native Bago region in central Myanmar. She made her way through university and long hoped to get an advanced degree, but though she was a careful saver, she had to care for her parents and the cost of school was always out of reach.

    Finally, last year, Ma Phyu received word that she qualified for a U.S.-funded scholarship program that would cover her tuition, room and board at a public policy program in neighboring Thailand. Upon graduation, she planned to return home to apply her development studies expertise in poverty-hit regions inhabited by ethnic minorities that make up about one-third of Myanmar’s population.

    With news of the program’s cancellation last week, however, she is uncertain what will happen to her and other students — many of whom face forced conscription by the military junta should they return to Myanmar. The country is mired in armed conflict triggered by a military coup against the democratic government four years ago.

    “Given the existing education gap in the country, these scholarships have been a vital lifeline for those who cannot return home,” she told RFA.

    On Wednesday morning, the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency posted to X that a program providing “$45 million in DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] scholarships in Burma” had been canceled.

    Speaking during a signing ceremony in the White House later that day, Trump referred to the scholarships as part of a list of canceled aid projects deemed wasteful by the new administration.

    “We also blocked $45 million for diversity scholarships in Burma. Forty-five: that’s a lot of money for diversity scholarships in Burma,” Trump said.

    The Department of Government Efficiency posted this documentation showing the cancellation of the “DEI” scholarship program for students in Myanmar. Highlighting in document is from source.
    The Department of Government Efficiency posted this documentation showing the cancellation of the “DEI” scholarship program for students in Myanmar. Highlighting in document is from source.
    (DOGE via X)

    Launched in March 2024, the Diversity and Inclusion Scholarship Program, or DISP, was a five-year project aimed at offering Myanmar students degrees from top universities in Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines and Indonesia, as well as online courses from the University of Arizona in the United States.

    Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, the scholarship was intended to provide “quality educational opportunities for young community leaders in Burma, especially those from marginalized and vulnerable groups,” as well as boost the capacity of regional universities, according to a press release issued at the launch, which has since been taken down.

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    There are currently 400 students enrolled in universities across the region, with the program expected to reach approximately 1,000 students over the five-year period, according to a source familiar with the scholarship who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.

    The scholarship had several key aims, the source told RFA, including strengthening democracy in the long run by training future leaders; creating a favorable impression of the U.S. in order to counter China; and improving ties between Myanmar and its regional neighbors.

    The word “diversity” reflected the program’s goal to help staunch decades of ethnic conflict by ensuring “all ethnic groups feel they are being treated fairly and have a stake in democracy,” the source explained.

    “We really wanted this program to be politically neutral and merit based, but merit based with an eye to including everyone — giving everyone a fair opportunity.”

    The Trump Administration has deemed DEI programs illegal and on Jan. 20 terminated them by executive order. The same day, he issued an executive order calling for a 90-day pause in foreign aid so that programs can be evaluated to ensure they adhere to the new administration’s priorities.

    President Donald Trump holds executive order after signing in Washington, Jan. 20, 2025.
    President Donald Trump holds executive order after signing in Washington, Jan. 20, 2025.
    (Matt Rourke/AP)

    It is unclear whether the Burma program was reviewed before its cancellation. USAID did not reply to requests for comment by press time.

    Maw Htun Aung, deputy minister of electricity and energy for Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, who studied in the U.S. on a Fulbright scholarship in 2010, told RFA the scholarship program appeared to be “hostage due to its name.”

    “When a powerful nation steps away from its responsibility, it is detrimental not only to smaller countries like ours but also to the U.S. itself, as it risks weakening its position as the world’s leading power,” he said.

    Whatever the reason for the cancellation, the news couldn’t have come at a worse time for those suffering from the impacts of the February 2021 coup, which on Saturday entered its fifth year.

    “I see many young people in Myanmar struggling to access education and seeking opportunities for international-level learning,” said Tracy, a scholarship adviser in Myanmar who goes by one name. “The loss of these opportunities is having a deeply negative impact on them.”

    Hlwan Paing Thiha has been pursuing a master’s degree in public affairs in Thailand on a DISP scholarship. He hoped to attain a doctorate and then return home as a teacher. The announcement of cancellation has thrown his future plans into disarray and much of his cohort has been panicking.

    “I have to say it’s quite a blow,” he told RFA in an interview. “The uncertainty for the current students is where they’ll get their tuition for the next semester. We all come from different backgrounds. We’re minorities. So, I think the biggest challenge is going to be for those who can’t afford to go [study] on their own.”


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Trigger Warning: Graphic Visuals

    A video showing a man’s still, lifeless body in a pool of water in the midst of a field is viral on social media. A group of people surrounding the body can be heard saying that his hands were tied.

    Users on social media circulating this video have claimed that the deceased was a Hindu man named Sumon living in Bangladesh to insinuate that it was a case of persecution of Hindu minorities in Bangladesh.

    X user @pakistan_untold shared the video alleging that the Yunus Mohammed-led Bangladesh government had opened the “floodgates of Hindu persecution”. At the time of this article being written, the post had over 10,000 views and has been reshared almost 900 times. (Archive)

    Aanother X user @avroneel80 shared a similar video alleging that student league leader Sumon was targeted and killed by “terrorists”. (Archive)

    Verified X user @MithilaWaala also shared the video claiming he was killed by Islamists in Bangladesh. (Archive)

    Meanwhile X account @@zamalhossain alleged that the minority Hindu population in Bangladesh is under threat and the country is full of corpses. (Archive)

    Fact Check

    To understand the truth behind the viral video, we ran a reverse image search on some key frames from the video. This led us to a report by a Bangladesh news outlet Live Narayanganj.

    The report said that the body of a man named Nayan Mia was recovered from the Brahmaputra river in Sonargaon upazila of the Narayanganj district on the morning of January 28. Mia was reportedly an autorickshaw driver and resident of the Sonargaon area. The police suspect a snatching gang was behind the killing.

     

    We then did keyword search in Bengali and came across other articles by Bangladeshi news portals reporting the murder. Several of these carried the same visuals.

    News outlet Jugantor cited Mahbubur Rahman, in-charge of the Baidyerbazar Naval Police Outpost in Sonargaon, saying that Mia left home in an auto in the afternoon of January 27 but did not return home. Police suspect that he may have been killed as robbers tried to seize his battery-powered rickshaw.

    To sum up, the deceased in the viral video is of a Muslim rickshaw driver, Nayan Mia, and not of Hindu student leader Sumon. The killing was likely on account of theft and had no communal angle to it.

    The post Muslim rickshaw driver’s body found in Bangladesh river; Footage falsely viral as Hindu student’s murder appeared first on Alt News.


    This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.


  • This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.