By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | May 28, 2024
A former Biden administration official has declared that disinformation around elections is “becoming the norm rather than the exception.”
Samantha Vinograd, until recently of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), also asserted that these days, because of what she considers to be election disinformation, “there is an unprecedented level of physical threats” while the US information ecosystem is “incredibly vulnerable.”
Dramatic and alarmist statements like this may be necessary to justify the rest of Vinograd’s message, which in effect attacks free speech, as it is legally protected in the US.
Appearing on CBS, Vinograd – who was until last December Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Counterterrorism and Threat Prevention – warned that the First Amendment might protect free speech, but that engaging in free speech is apparently not “cost-free.”
The Face the Nation hosts framed the problem as, essentially, federal laws (the Constitution) protecting speech, but the damage being done at the state level – and then what states, who organize elections, can do to fix that “problem.”
Spreading lies about candidates, as they put it, was given as an example of legal, protected speech becoming an issue by having the ability to create “a threat at the state level” – and asked Vinograd who she thought was supposed to correct the situation.
Vinograd – who has been bouncing between various administrations (including those of Bush and Obama, and private companies like Goldman Sachs and Stripe before landing at Biden’s DHS) – seemed to suggest that Big Tech (i.e., social media companies) should be assisting the government.
The federal government said Vinograd, “should not be the omnipresent fact checker for the American people.”
And even though, according to her, the government is debunking information about elections that is deemed to be inaccurate, social media companies “should be thinking about what kinds of election disinformation violate their terms of service.”
It’s difficult not to take this as a not-so-veiled added pressure on social platforms to not only continue with censoring content but perhaps expand it in terms of what qualifies as election disinformation.
Either way, Vinograd is in favor of enlisting “every American” to help out as well (although it is not clear in what specific way), invoking even the concept of patriotic duty.
And Vinograd did not miss the opportunity to assert that election misinformation threats are now of such magnitude as to present a national security issue.
MEMO | May 28, 2024
The former head of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, personally threatened Fatou Bensouda, the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), and her family in a series of covert meetings, the Guardian has revealed in a shocking report exposing the clandestine campaigns of the apartheid state to thwart ICC probes into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israeli leaders.
Several sources have revealed that Yossi Cohen personally threatened the ICC‘s then chief prosecutor, Bensouda, and her family in a series of clandestine meetings aimed at pressuring her to abandon her inquiry into possible war crimes committed by Israel against Palestinians in the occupied territories.
The covert campaign is said to have been authorised at the highest levels of the Israeli government, with Cohen using bullying, blackmail and intimidation tactics against Bensouda. Sources say Cohen raised questions about Bensouda’s security and that of her family in a menacing manner on at least three occasions between late 2019 and early 2021.
In one disturbing incident, Cohen allegedly showed Bensouda photographs taken covertly of her husband during a trip to London. On another occasion, he suggested that proceeding with a full investigation would be detrimental to her career. One source briefed on the meetings said Cohen told Bensouda:
“You should help us and let us take care of you. You don’t want to be getting into things that could compromise your security or that of your family.”
The threats were part of a coordinated smear campaign by Israel to undermine Bensouda, which also involved Mossad actively seeking compromising information on the prosecutor and her family members. The spy agency obtained transcripts of an apparent sting operation against Bensouda’s husband, which Israeli diplomats then unsuccessfully attempted to use to discredit her.
Bensouda was so alarmed by Cohen’s increasingly threatening behaviour that she took the extraordinary step of briefing a small group of senior ICC officials about the incidents. Three sources familiar with her formal disclosures said she revealed Cohen had pressured her on several occasions not to proceed with the criminal investigation.
Mossad’s targeting of Bensouda was just one part of a nearly decade-long covert “war” waged by multiple Israeli intelligence agencies against the ICC. Israel’s actions underscore the lengths it is willing to go to shield its citizens from prosecution for their involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Palestinian territories.
However, Cohen’s intimidation tactics ultimately failed to deter Bensouda or the court. In March 2021, she announced the opening of a formal investigation. The move infuriated the Israeli government, which had long opposed the ICC inquiry and even vowed to try to dismantle the court.
Bensouda began her work to open a war crimes investigation into Israel’s actions following the 2014 onslaught on Gaza, despite facing intense pressure and opposition from Israel and the US. In December 2019, the Gambian lawyer announced that she had concluded her preliminary examination and determined that all the statutory criteria under the Rome Statute had been met to open a formal investigation. This move was met with further condemnation and threats from Israel and the US, with the administration of former US President Donald Trump imposing sanctions on Bensouda and other ICC officials in response.
In February 2021, the ICC’s pre-trial chamber ruled that the court did indeed have jurisdiction over the Palestinian territories, paving the way for Bensouda to open a formal investigation in March 2021. The landmark decision was hailed as a victory for accountability and justice by Palestinian officials and human rights groups. Bensouda’s term as chief prosecutor ended in June 2021, leaving her successor, Karim Khan, to take up the investigation and build on her work to hold those responsible for war crimes in Palestine accountable.
The investigation has now taken a dramatic turn under Bensouda’s successor, Karim Khan. Last week, Khan announced he was seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, alongside three Hamas leaders, over the country’s conduct in Gaza. The landmark case marks the first time the court has taken action against leaders of a country closely allied with the US and Europe.
Khan himself has not been spared from threats, warning recently that he would not hesitate to prosecute “attempts to impede, intimidate or improperly influence” ICC officials. While declining to comment on specific allegations, an ICC spokesperson confirmed that Khan’s office had been subjected to “several forms of threats and communications that could be viewed as attempts to unduly influence its activities”.
The revelations about Israel’s covert operation against Bensouda have been met with outrage from legal experts and former ICC officials. Efforts by the Mossad to threaten or pressure the prosecutor could amount to offences against the administration of justice under the Rome Statute, the treaty which established the court.
One individual briefed on Cohen’s activities accused him of using “despicable tactics” in a ultimately futile effort to intimidate Bensouda, likening his behaviour to “stalking”. Another source said: “The fact they chose the head of Mossad to be the prime minister’s unofficial messenger to [Bensouda] was to intimidate, by definition. It failed.”
By Craig Murray | May 18, 2024
The collective shrug with which the Western media and political class noted the attempted assassination of Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has been telling.
Can you imagine the outrage and emotion that would have been expressed by Western powers if not Fico but a pro-Ukraine, anti-Russian leader within the EU had been attacked? The new orders for weapons that would have been presented to the arms manufacturers, the troops that would have been deployed, the sabres that would have been rattled?
Instead we have the media telling us that Fico opposed sending arms to Ukraine and opposed threatening Russia. We are told he did not accept the mainstream narrative on Covid vaccinations. The media do not quite say he deserved to be shot, but they come very, very close.
Fellow EU leaders followed correct form in making statements of shock and disgust at the attack on Fico, but they were formal and perfunctory. The “not actually one of us” message was very clear.
There are now an ordered set of neoliberal beliefs to which anybody in a Western nation participating in public affairs must subscribe, or they are beyond the pale.
Not to subscribe to all of these beliefs makes you a “populist”, a “conspiracy theorist”, a “Putin puppet” or a “useful idiot”.
These are some of the “key beliefs”:
No. 1) Wealth is only created by a small number of ultra-wealthy capitalists on whom the employment of everybody else ultimately depends.
No. 2) The laws governing financial structures must therefore tend to concentrate wealth to these individuals, so that they may deploy it as they choose.
No. 3) State-created currency must only be concentrated in and distributed to private financial institutions.
No. 4) Public spending is always less efficient than private spending.
No. 5) Russia, China and Iran pose an existential threat to the West. That comprises both an economic threat and a physical, military threat.
No. 6) Colonialism was a boon to the world, bringing economic development, trade and education to people of inferior cultures.
No. 7) Islam is a threat to Western values and to world development.
No. 8) Israel is a necessary project for spreading Western values to the uncivilised Middle East.
No. 9) Security necessitates devoting very substantial resources to arms production and the waging of continual war.
No. 10) Nothing must threaten the military and arms industry interest. No battle against corruption or crime can override the need for the security military industrial complex to be completely unchallenged and internally supreme.
Dependent Orthodoxies
Within this architecture of belief, other orthodoxies hang dependent, such as the correct way to respond to a complex pandemic, or support for NATO and impunity for the security services. (Support for Israel is probably better portrayed as a dependent point, but with the subject of Gaza so prominent at the moment I have figuratively moved it into the main structure.)
Any deviation on any point of belief is a challenge to the entire system, and thus must be eradicated. You will note there is no room whatsoever, within this architecture of thought, for values like freedom of speech or freedom of assembly. They simply do not fit. Nor is it possible within this architecture to incorporate actual democracy, which would give people a choice of what to believe.
If you accept this architecture of thought, then you must argue that the genocide in Gaza is a good thing, and it threatens the entire structure if you state that it is not a good thing. That is why we have witnessed the spectacle of politicians defying and then repressing their own people, willing to place all of their political capital at the service of genocidal Zionism.
Words struggle to convey the horrors we have all seen from Gaza, and in no way does it lessen the terrible suffering nor the extent of the crime to observe that it has caused a major rift in the neoliberal belief system which cannot be hidden from the people.
Gaza has ramifications leading to questioning throughout the system. Why is Tik Tok being banned, to stop people getting information on Gaza? Why is it a problem that the platform is owned by China?
What has China done that makes it an enemy? China has no military designs on the West. Of recent purchases most of us have made of physical goods, a high proportion have come from China. Why is an important trade partner an “enemy”?
Why is Russia our enemy? The notion that the Russian army is going to land on the Wash is utterly implausible. The Russian state, over centuries and wildly differing regimes, has never had the slightest desire to invade the British Isles. In the U.K., under various governments, for almost three centuries charlatans have been claiming a threat of Russian invasion to justify higher defence expenditure.
Why the need to have “enemies” at all?
Craig Murray is an author, broadcaster and human rights activist. He was British ambassador to Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004 and rector of the University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010. His coverage is entirely dependent on reader support.
By Jacob G. Hornberger | FFF | May 28, 2024
Each Memorial Day, countless Americans recite the standard mantra that has been inculcated within their minds from the first grade of the public (i.e., government) schools to which their parents were forced to send them: American soldiers who died in America’s wars died to protect our freedoms and defend our country.
Each Memorial Day, it is worth reminding ourselves that such is simply not the case. American soldiers who died in those wars died for our government, not to protect our freedoms or our country.
And, yes, our government and our country are two separate and distinct entities, a phenomenon reflected by the Bill of Rights, which expressly protects our country from our government.
Afghanistan. The Taliban government never attacked the United States or even threatened to do so. The reason that the U.S. government went to war against Afghanistan was that the Taliban regime refused to comply with President Bush’s unconditional extradition demand, which the Taliban regime had the right to do given that there was no extradition treaty between the United States and Afghanistan. Thus, U.S. soldiers who died in Afghanistan died for our government, not to protect our freedoms or our country.
Iraq. Iraq never attacked the United States or even threatened to do so. Thus, U.S. soldiers died for our government, not to protect our freedoms or our country.
Vietnam. North Vietnam and the Vietcong never attacked the United States or even threatened to do so. U.S. soldiers died for our government, not to protect our freedoms or our country.
Korea. North Korea never attacked the United States or even threatened to do so. U.S. soldiers died for our government, not to protect our freedoms or our country.
World War II. While Japan did attack the United States, it was not with the intent of invading and conquering the United States. Japan’s aim was simply to knock out the U.S. Pacific Fleet to secure oil from the Dutch East Indies. The attack was a response to President Roosevelt’s oil embargo, whose aim was to provoke Japan into attacking the United States, as a “back door” to getting the U.S. embroiled in the European War against Germany, which the vast majority of Americans opposed. While a German victory over the United States in Europe combined with a Japanese victory in the Pacific might well have threatened people’s freedom here at home, it is worth reminding ourselves that American soldiers died as a result of FDR’s success in securing U.S. intervention into the war.
World War I. Germany never attacked or invaded the United States and had no interest in a war against the United States. President Wilson intervened in the European conflict with two war aims: make this the war to end all wars and to make the world safe for democracy. Thus, U.S. soldiers died for our government, not to protect our freedoms or our country.
Spanish-American War. The Spanish Empire never attacked the United States or even threatened to do so. Thus, U.S. soldiers died for their government, not to protect our freedoms or our country.
It’s also worth reminding ourselves that the government for which U.S. soldiers have died conscripted many of them to fight in the war in which they died. When a government has to force people to fight its wars, that’s a pretty good sign that soldiers have actually died for nothing.
By John Miles – Sputnik – 27.05.2024
Extremist settler groups are setting upon food trucks passing through the West Bank, assaulting the drivers and burning their cargo.
Video has emerged in recent weeks of Israeli West Bank settlers attacking and destroying aid trucks headed for the besieged Gaza Strip, reportedly with the acquiescence and even active participation of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and police.
A series of such instances was documented in a report by the Washington Post Sunday that described how extremist Israelis work together to plan the assaults with the help of security forces.
“The settler groups use a web of publicly accessible WhatsApp groups to track the trucks and coordinate attacks,” the newspaper reported. ”Groups of settler youth are tailing relief convoys, setting up checkpoints and interrogating drivers. In some cases, far-right attackers have ransacked and burned trucks and beaten Palestinian drivers, leaving at least two hospitalized.”
“Working off what they say are tips from Israeli soldiers and police, in addition to the public, members pore over photos to work out which vehicles might be carrying aid to Gaza and mobilize local supporters to block them.”
An attack on Thursday took shape after participants in a chat group with over 800 users spotted a truck carrying sugar. Israeli settlers descended upon the vehicle, tossing out its cargo, which its driver claimed was intended for a town in the West Bank. IDF soldiers cleared the scattered bags of sugar with a bulldozer before destroying them.
“The attack happened in front of the army,” claimed the owner of the truck, while its driver claimed IDF soldiers stood by as the ransacking took place.
“The environment around us is fed by hate and revenge,” lamented the chair of a Palestinian business group.
Other trucks have been burned by the settlers. One Palestinian driver suffered a broken nose, ribs and vertebrae after being attacked by a group of Israeli protesters who asked him whether he was “a Jew or Arab.” The driver’s vehicle was destroyed and his $200,000 worth of goods was lost.
“It’s not our job to stop them, it’s our job to protect them,” said one female IDF soldier, defending the military’s failure to stop the attacks.
An anonymous White House official claimed the Biden administration is considering sanctions on settlers involved in the incidents, although no action has yet been taken. Previous US sanctions on a handful of Israeli settlers were reversed after complaints from controversial Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, according to reports in Israeli media.
The World Food Program reports northern Gaza is in a state of “full-blown famine,” with food scarcity spreading south.
“I’m happy for every truck that doesn’t enter Gaza,” said 23-year-old Yosef de Bresser, a leader of an extremist settler group. “I’m also happy to see it catch fire.”
Al Mayadeen | May 27, 2024
The Geneva International Peace Research Institute, GIPRI, submitted a communication to the International Criminal Court (ICC), signed by two Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research (TFF) Associates, Professor Richard Falk and TFF director Jan Oberg, urging the Court to investigate the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen for complicity in war crimes in the occupied Palestine territories including Gaza.
On May 22, GIPRI sent a communication to the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC saying that reasonable grounds exist to believe that “the unconditional support of the President of the European Commission to Israel – military, economic, diplomatic and political – has enabled war crimes” and the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
They said that the various human rights and prominent academics and experts in international criminal law endorsed the communication and urged the prosecutor to launch investigations based on the information they provided against Von der Leyen.
GIPRI added that Von der Leyen “personally is criminally responsible and liable for punishment for some of the war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide,” which have been committed and are still being committed by the IOF in the occupied Palestine territories, emphasizing that she has “aided, abetted and otherwise assisted in the in the commission or attempted commission of such crimes” which includes giving the means for this commission under Article 25(3)(c) of the Rome Statute of the Court.
Remix News | May 27, 2024
Ukraine’s high causality rates combined with its struggle to conscript its own population means the EU will increasingly move to conscript European youth, mostly in the geographical proximity of Ukraine, to fight against Russia, said Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó following a meeting with EU foreign ministers.
“Ukrainian casualties are becoming more and more unbearable, Ukrainian men are not being allowed out of Ukraine, and now they want to conscript European youth into the war. And obviously, as the escalation hits this neighborhood first, one can almost clearly hear the argument that the soldiers should be sent from the geographical proximity first. All this means that they want to send Central European youth, including Hungarian youth, to the war with mandatory European conscription,” said Szijjártó during an interview with Hungarian media.
The Hungarian foreign minister said he would be firmly opposed to any efforts to institute a European mandatory conscription effort, stating: “Hands off Central Europeans, hands off Hungarian youth, we will not allow Hungarian youth to be involved in the war, because this is not our war.”
Szijjártó did not disclose which foreign ministers or member states are exploring the possibility of a European conscription effort, but recently, several countries have said they would consider sending their own troops to Ukraine if Russia had a breakthrough on the Ukrainian front, including France and more recently, the Baltic states.
However, a long-term goal of the left-liberal establishment in Brussels is the creation of an EU military force, including removing the decision-making process about defense from member states and centralizing it in Brussels. Under such a proposal, a potential conscription effort could arise that applies to all EU member states.
Szijjártó described an extremely intense atmosphere at the Council of Foreign Ministers in Brussels before the European Parliament elections. He stated that the mood turned sour when those present began to talk about the release of €6.5 billion for Ukraine, which the Hungarian foreign minister rejected, saying it would only escalate the war. However, his position came under extreme pressure from a number of other countries.
“And there was a big mess here. The German, Lithuanian, Irish, Polish and other colleagues fell against me in this matter, but this could not shake our position, despite the shouting of Europe’s pro-war politicians,” he said.
“They think that if they shout from many directions, then I will say that it is good, it is fine. However, they should already know us well enough to know this won’t happen,” he added.
The Cradle | May 25, 2024
Israeli jets bombed the An-Nazla elementary school in northern Gaza near Jabalia camp on 25 May, killing at least 10 Palestinians, among them several women and children.
“The children were playing in the schoolyard, and suddenly we were bombed,” one displaced woman whose daughter was injured in the attack told Al-Jazeera. “We lived something unnatural.”
An-Nazla School has been serving as a shelter for hundreds of refugees. According to eyewitness reports, a group of Palestinians were filling up gallons of water when Israeli jets bombed the school.
Soon after the attack on the school near Jabalia camp, Israeli jets bombed a group of civilians in the Al-Faluja area of northern Gaza, killing several.
Palestinians, including five children, were also killed in Beit Hanoon when Israeli forces raided a house.
On Saturday afternoon, medical sources in Gaza reported to WAFA News Agency that Israeli troops conducted five massacres against families in the Gaza Strip over the previous 24 hours, killing at least 46 and injuring 130 others.
Occupation troops are also regularly blocking ambulances and rescue teams from reaching the sites of the massacres.
The spike of Israeli violence in northern Gaza comes one day after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its military offensive in Rafah, where the army has also massacred dozens over the past 24 hours.
More than 900,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, over the past three weeks after Israel violently took control of the city’s only border crossing and “expanded” its military offensive.
Israeli troops earlier advanced towards Rafah’s Kuwaiti Hospital and struck residential buildings in its vicinity.
MEMO | May 25, 2024
The UN’s special rapporteur on Palestine on Saturday urged member states to impose sanctions on Israel along with an arms embargo until it stops “this madness,” Anadolu reports.
“Let’s be clear. As the ICJ orders Israel to stop its offensive in Rafah, Israel intensifies its attacks on it,” Francesca Albanese said on X.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its latest ruling ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza where more than 1.5 million displaced Palestinians had sought refuge.
“The news I am receiving from the people trapped therein are terrifying,” she said.
“Be sure: Israel will not stop this madness until WE make it stop,” she added.
Albanese urged all UN member states to “impose #sanctions, arms embargo and suspend diplo/political relations with Israel till it ceases its assault.”
On Friday, the ICJ reaffirmed its previous orders and indicated further measures including, keeping the Rafah border crossing open and allowing access for investigators to the blockaded enclave.
Over 35,800 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, the vast majority being women and children, and nearly 80,300 others injured since October following an attack by Hamas.
More than seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Al Mayadeen | May 25, 2024
The Palestinian Ministry of Detainees and ex-Detainees Affairs in Gaza warned that the vast majority of Palestinians detained from the Strip during the war by Israeli forces “disappear into the unknown” within the occupation’s prisons, camps, and detention centers.
In a press statement, the Ministry confirmed that the detainees are held in secret detention centers, such as the infamous Sde Teman detention center in the occupied Negev, where they are subjected to brutal and severe abuse and systematic torture, especially at the beginning of their detention.
It added that Israeli security agencies conduct investigation sessions using various forms of torture in order to “extract confessions and information by any means necessary.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation refuses to engage with any institution or entity, especially the International Committee of the Red Cross, requesting information or visits to any detainee.
The interrogation of a large number of detainees has been concluded, but the occupation still refuses to release them, the statement continued.
The Ministry emphasized that what the detainees endure in the occupation’s prisons constitutes “an intended, deliberate crime and a compound crime against our people and prisoners.” It highlighted that the occupation practices “killing, execution, and sadism against the prisoners,” imposing extremely harsh conditions that violate all international and humanitarian norms and laws.
It condemned “the heinous crimes committed against the prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons since October 7” and held the Israeli occupation and the US administration “responsible for the ongoing crimes against Palestinian detainees.”
As the situation of detainees continues to worsen, the Ministry called for a “serious international investigation into the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against defenseless detainees.”
The Ministry urged for “international pressure on the occupation to open the prisons and secret detention centers to international organizations, institutions, and lawyers” to conduct visits and assess the conditions of the detainees. It also called on the international community and all international human rights organizations and institutions to “assume their responsibilities towards this serious issue, which the world has never witnessed before.”
The statement concluded by calling on all Palestinian people and national factions to stand by the families of the detainees and offer them support.
1,000 Palestinians missing
Earlier this month, Palestinian human rights groups reported a lack of information regarding the whereabouts and status of hundreds of Palestinian workers from Gaza.
After the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza was launched last October, “approximately 6,441 workers were deported to the West Bank, and approximately 1,000 workers remain missing in light of the ongoing crime of forced disappearance against Gaza detainees,” the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, and the Ramallah-based Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association (Addameer) said in a joint statement.
The institutions stated that “Israel” has declined to reveal the location or provide any information regarding the well-being of these individuals. The only information provided by “Israel” is that there are two military camps for Gaza detainees: one near Beer al-Sabe and another near al-Quds.
New Guantanamo
Israeli media had repeatedly broadcast scenes showing dozens of Palestinian detainees of all ages in Gaza stripped naked and blindfolded before being led to an unknown location, sparking international outrage.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported last December that hundreds of Palestinians who were detained in Gaza and taken to the Sde Teman base near Beer al-Sabe’ were killed as a result of the harsh detention conditions.
It said that “the age group of the Palestinian detainees killed while under investigation ranges from minors to elderly individuals” and also described how “detainees are locked in fenced areas blindfolded and handcuffed for most of the day, with lights kept on throughout the night.”
Commenting on Haaretz’s report, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory later announced that the testimonies it collected were consistent with the Israeli outlet’s findings regarding the martyrdom of Palestinian detainees from Gaza due to torture in an Israeli center that the Observatory described as a “new Guantanamo”.
Among the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against civilians are forced displacement, field executions, random and arbitrary arrests, and harassment.
To this end, the Observatory called for “an impartial and urgent international investigation into the Israeli army’s field execution of Palestinian civilians after detaining them from various areas across the Gaza Strip.”
Press TV – May 25, 2024
German police have violently cracked down on pro-Palestinian student protesters at a university in the capital Berlin.
Students have gathered a Humboldt University’s Department of Socials to protest against Israel’s savage war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The demonstrations began on Wednesday.
Riot police entered the faculty building on Thursday evening and broke up the encampment.
A police spokeswoman said they briefly arrested 169 people and wrote down their identities.
She said that police also took further “measures restricting freedom” at a subsequent protest rally, and issued criminal summons to six more people.
Student organizers condemned violent police actions against protesters, saying the officers used unnecessary force against students.
“The violent eviction” of the student protesters, “marked by police brutality,” as well as “the failure of the university authorities to protect their students,” is a “grave injustice,” the group Student Coalition Berlin wrote in a post on Instagram.
However, the group called on students to continue protests in solidarity with Palestinians.
Encampment protests in Germany have stepped up in recent weeks after anti-Israel protests that have roiled campuses in the United States spread across Europe.
Students have been camping out and calling for their colleges to financially divest and dissociate from companies that profit from or engage in Israel’s brutal military campaign in Gaza.
The protests spread to university campuses in Berlin, Munich, Cologne and other cities across Germany.
Berlin authorities have taken a tough line against anti-Israeli protesters, labeling student demonstrators as “antisemites and terror sympathizers.”
Students say they are “witnessing a great endangerment of academic freedom” since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza.
In several cases, officers were seen carrying some students away, while punching their heads and repeatedly kicking them.
Despite repression and police interventions, students continue to mobilize in support of Palestine, leading demonstrations, and organizing lectures and sit-ins on university campuses across Germany and Europe as well.
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By Lisa Pease | Consortium News | September 16, 2013
More than a half century ago, just after midnight on Sept. 18, 1961, the plane carrying UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld and 15 others went down in a plane crash over Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). All 16 died, but the facts of the crash were provocatively mysterious. … continue
Aletho News If Americans Knew No Tricks Zone
Aletho News 