RT | December 18, 2023
The European Union announced on Monday that it was taking “formal infringement proceedings” against Elon Musk’s X social media platform over a recently implemented law intended to crack down on illegal content and disinformation online.
The announcement of the probe comes weeks after X (formerly Twitter) was asked to provide assurances that it was complying with the terms of the European bloc’s Digital Service Act. Under the law, which came into effect in August, a company can be fined up to 6% of its annual global income or banned from operating in the EU if it is found to have breached the sweeping legislation.
“Today we open formal infringement proceedings against X,” Thierry Breton, the EU commissioner responsible for the law’s enforcement, wrote in a post on the social network on Monday.
Breton added that the move had been taken in response to a “suspected breach of obligations to counter illegal content and disinformation; suspected breach of transparency obligations,” and “suspected deceptive design of user interface.”
The probe will also look at the effectiveness of X’s ‘community notes,’ in which users can fact-check or provide comments on the accuracy of certain posts.
Responding to the charge on Monday, X said it was “cooperating with the regulatory process,” and added that it was “important that this process remains free of political influence and follows the law.”
The platform, which was subject to a multi-billion-dollar takeover by Elon Musk last year, said it was focused on “creating a safe and inclusive environment” for its users, which it said it balances against “protecting freedom of expression.” At the time of the takeover, Musk branded himself as a “free speech absolutist.”
On October 10, the EU warned X in a formal letter that it had received “indications” that the social media platform was “being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation in the EU” related to Hamas’ attack in Israel on October 7.
In a letter to Breton, X chief executive Linda Yaccarino responded to say the firm was “working to address the operational needs of this fast-moving and evolving conflict.” She added that X had removed hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts from the service.
Earlier this year, X was among several tech giants to sign up to an EU code of conduct to prepare for the launch of the Digital Services Act in August. However, X withdrew from the agreement in May, prompting backlash from Breton. “You can run but you can’t hide,” he warned Musk and X.
By Wyatt Reed | The Grayzone | December 17, 2023
Lawsuits accusing top US universities of harboring antisemitism all originate from one source: a corporate law firm that fielded the pro-settler ex-US ambassador to Israel, and which was registered as a foreign agent of an Israeli principal as recently as 2021.
The firm now represents professional Israel lobby activists posing as victimized “Jewish students” and seeking to crush the free speech rights of Palestine solidarity activists.
The fallout from December 5 House Committe on Antisemitism hearings has already cost University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill her job, while demands by billionaire pro-Israel donors and politicians for the firing of Harvard’s Claudine Gay have grown by the day. Both stand accused of refusing to condemn calls for the genocide of Jews, even though no such calls have taken place on their campuses.
Meanwhile, little attention has been paid to the forces orchestrating the carefully choreographed, heavily-funded campaign to crush Palestine solidarity activism on campus.
The law firm leading the assault on the universities has included David Friedman, the former ambassador to Israel under Donald Trump, among its partners. Until 2021, this firm, Kasowitz Benson Torres, was registered with the US Department of Justice as a foreign agent on behalf of an Israeli principal.
The firm’s clients include associates of a jailed Ukrainian billionaire who bankrolled neo-Nazi militias, along with a who’s who of corporations accused of defrauding and even killing consumers.
Meanwhile, the “Jewish student” witnesses who set the stage for the attacks on Magill and her fellow university presidents at the House Antisemitism Committee were employed on at least a semi-professional basis by Israeli lobbying cutouts.
They included Jonathan Frieden, a Harvard Law student who moonlights as president of Alliance for Israel; MIT graduate student Talia Khan, the president of MIT Israel Alliance; and Bella Ingber, co-president of NYU’s Students Supporting Israel.
Israel lobbyist moonlighting as UPenn student calls for Covid-style lockdowns on Palestine protests
The most harrowing — and clearly questionable — claims furnished during the December 5 congressional hearings came courtesy of Eyal Yakoby, an Israeli-American senior at UPenn.
“Over the course of the last few weeks, I’ve… read the statement, ‘Ninety-percent of pigs are gas chambered!’ on the pavement as I walked to class,” Yakoby moaned.
The most likely explanation for the appearance of this phrase on UPenn’s Locust Walk was not the presence of chalk-wielding neo-Nazis but rather, that of animal welfare advocates, who were presumably calling attention to the fact that most pigs are killed by slaughterhouses which employ a grotesque method of gas inhalation exposed by activists in late 2022.
“‘You’re a dirty little Jew and you deserve to die’ are not words said by Hamas, but by my classmates and my professors,” Yakoby claimed during a December 5 press conference convened by the House GOP leadership. Oddly, he neglected to name a single student or UPenn employee responsible for such inflammatory remarks.
Conjuring up images of a campus overwhelmed by Hamas-linked hatemongers, Yakoby seemed to call for imposing Covid-era lockdowns on students protesting Israel’s blood-drenched assault on the besieged Gaza Strip.
“During Covid, strict guidelines governed everything from class attendance and graduation walks,” he said. “But now, when students and faculty defy policies to intimidate Jewish students, where is the same resolute enforcement?”
Lawsuits target top US campuses with flimsy, unprovable allegations
Just hours after his appearance alongside members of Congress, Yakoby filed a lawsuit against UPenn, claiming the university violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by failing to respond to antisemitism.
Yakoby’s lawsuit was filled with dubious, highly politicized accusations, including complaints about the chanting of “antisemitic slurs” such as “Intifada revolution” and “from the river to the sea.”
A closer examination of other incidents described in the lawsuit against Penn reveals a great number of them appear to have been seriously exaggerated or manufactured out of whole cloth.
The most ‘threatening’ episode described by the Yakoby, for example, consists of a man who “threateningly approached him” and “yelled ‘fuck you.’” As a result of this experience — and the agony apparently endured when the plaintiff observed other students removing posters showing Israeli captives — the suit claims that “Yakoby missed his next two classes” because he was “shaken by these escalating acts of hate.”
The vast majority of claims of overt antisemitism appear to consist of statements by students and professors who criticized the state of Israel but generally took pains to distinguish between the political ideology of Zionism and the religion of Judaism.
Elsewhere, the lawsuit accuses professors of antisemitism because they questioned now-debunked Israeli atrocity propaganda about the October 7 attacks, including a demonstrably false claim by Yakoby that the “killing of 40 [Israeli] babies” by Palestinian militants had been “confirmed.”
Many of the alleged incidents described as “assaults” fail to meet basic evidentiary standards, leaving the court with no option but to take the plaintiffs’ word that the contents of the complaint happened as described.
Claims that a Jewish student was taunted with exhortations to “keep walking you dirty little Jew,” for instance, are typical of the highly suspect claims found throughout the lawsuit.
Indeed, no proof of this alleged interaction was provided, nor did the plaintiff’s provide even a vague sketch of the assailant’s identity. Instead, the entire emphasis is placed on the supposed lack of “sympathy” subsequently shown to the student by a professor who decided not to award her an “extension on her class lecture note assignment.”
The plaintiffs also took aim at Palestinian academic and poet Refaat Alareer, who had been invited to a literary festival at Penn before being murdered in a December 6 Israeli strike described by human rights monitors as a “targeted assassination.”
The demands of the pro-Israel activists include “terminating deans, administrators, professors and other employees” who they say are “responsible for the antisemitic abuse permeating the school, whether because they engaged in it or permitted it; suspending or expelling students who engage in such conduct… the adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism,” and “compensatory, consequential, and punitive [financial] damages.”
Israel lobbyists are also targeting America’s most expensive campus, New York University, leveling a litany of flimsy and unprovable antisemitism allegations to extract heavy financial damages, including a full refund of tuition. Bella Ingber, who also featured prominently at the House Republican press conference, is a leading face of the NYU lawsuit.
During the Republican presser, Ingber compared conditions at NYU to life under the German Nazi Reich.
“Since Oct. 7,” Ingber said, “the unmistakable anti-Semitism that I have experienced on campus is reminiscent of the Jew-hatred I’ve heard about from my grandparents, Holocaust survivors who experienced first-hand the deafening silence of their neighbors in Poland and Germany when the Nazis first rose to power.”
The plaintiffs of the Israel lobby-led lawsuit “request that a judgment be entered in each of their favor, and against NYU” which would see the university “terminating deans, administrators, professors and other employees responsible for the antisemitic abuse permeating the school, whether because they engaged in it or permitted it… suspending or expelling students who engage in such conduct,” and “compensatory and punitive damages.”
In other words, the lawsuit seeks campus-wide regime change, replacing any and all administrators with those willing to take instructions from the Israel lobby.
“Bibi Netanyahu’s guys in the Trump White House” lead legal assault on campus speech
If the language of the NYU lawsuit sounds familiar, that is because it was brought by the same high-powered corporate legal firm presiding over the legal action against UPenn: Kasowitz Benson Torres, best known for its work on behalf of former President Donald Trump. The firm’s leadership has been aptly described as “Bibi Netanyahu’s guys in the Trump White House.”
The law firm was known as Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman until 2017, when its partner, David Friedman left to become US Ambassador to Israel. Friedman has been credited with working alongside former presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner to pressure Trump into adopting more radically anti-Palestinian positions.
The firm was founded in 1993 by attorney Marc Kasowitz, who gained national notoriety for his work representing Big Tobacco, describing himself as one of the “most feared lawyers in the United States.” Though reports describe him as a strong Trump ally and a go-to source for the former president, financial disclosures show Kasowitz and his wife have donated thousands of dollars to Democratic politicians as well, including former President Barack Obama, current President Joe Biden, and Sen. Chuck Schumer. Also employed by the firm is former Sen. Joe Lieberman, a hardcore neoconservative who now serves as chairman of the pro-war United Against a Nuclear Iran. While in Congress, Lieberman advocated for moving the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as far back as 1995.
A quick glance at Kasowitz Benson Torres’ recent handiwork reveals a lengthy track record of defending Goliath from David. For example, its website boasts of successfully defending Comcast against a class-action lawsuit by angry customers. Other high-profile clients include Israeli pharmaceutical giant Teva, best known for causing the ongoing worldwide shortage of a vincristine — a crucial drug in treating most types of childhood cancers with no known substitute — after it deemed production insufficiently profitable.
In 2019, the firm signed on to represent the US-based co-defendants of notoriously-corrupt Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, who now languishes in a Kiev prison and is known for bankrolling current president Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian military’s neo-Nazi Azov Regiment. Ukrainian financial giant Privatbank maintains that Kolomoisky and his associates defrauded the bank out of billions of dollars.
A year later, Kasowitz Benson Torres was required to register as a foreign agent with the US Justice Department after agreeing to represent an Israeli real estate developer specializing in building luxury condos for ulra-Orthodox Jews living in illegal settlements.
This November, The Grayzone revealed a leaked letter signed by David Friedman and delivered to NYU administrators in advance of the lawsuit. The letter demanded NYU establish a position dedicated to “combating antisemitism,” and disband student clubs dedicated to Palestine activism.
Now, the law firm’s crusade to crush the free speech rights of Palestine solidarity activists is spreading across the country. This November, two of the firm’s partners revealed that the legal team plans similar suits for Harvard, Cornell, Columbia, MIT, Stanford, and UC-Berkeley, accusing them all of “deliberate indifference” to the supposed plight of Jewish students.
MEMO | December 18, 2023
The Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs Commission has warned that Israel is subjecting Palestinian female prisoners held in Damoun Prison, especially those randomly arrested from the besieged Gaza Strip, to “inhumane” treatment and “horrific” detention conditions including severe punishments on a daily basis.
In a report issued yesterday, the rights group quoted its lawyer saying that since 7 October, Israeli occupation forces have launched a massive arrest campaign in the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem, inside Israel and in Gaza, specifically targeting female prisoners, who were tortured and abused from the moment of their arrest.
“The female prisoners were subjected to degrading treatment including beating and insults, strip searches, isolation and deprivation of the most basic rights,” the lawyer said.
The prison administration deliberately singled out female detainees from the besieged Gaza Strip for the worst type of torture, according to one female prisoner.
In her testimony, the prisoner said: “A few days ago, an elderly woman [80 years old] from Gaza arrived at the department, walking on a crutch and without a cover on her head. Her body and clothes were covered with blood and she appeared to suffer from Alzheimer’s.”
According to the report, all the female prisoners from the Gaza Strip had their clothes taken away and replaced with summer clothes, and had been tortured before arriving at Damoun Prison and were subjected to physical and verbal abuse.
“Some of them had spent seven days outdoors in the rain and in the cold, and all of them arrived at the prison in a deplorable condition both physically and psychologically.”
The report lists the case of a female prisoner from Gaza who is a mother of four children and who was forced to hand her children to an unknown man in the street when she was detained.
“Other female prisoners were also forced to leave their children in the street when they were arrested by the Israeli army forces,” the detainee said.
Palestine Information Center – December 17, 2023
The Hamas Movement has accused the Israeli occupation army of using different types of internationally prohibited ammunition and bombs in its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip and persisting in its indiscriminate bombardment of homes, shelter centers, tents and hospitals.
“All this is happening in full view of the world, with support from the US, Britain and some European countries,” senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told a news conference in Beirut on Saturday.
Hamdan criticized the failure of the international community and the UN to stop the brutal Israeli aggression against Gaza as a result of the US use of its veto power to support what he called the “neo-Nazis” in their crimes and massacres.
“About 19,000 citizens of our people have been martyred and about 52,000 others have been injured, while there are approximately 800 missing persons — 70 percent of them children and women,” Hamdan pointed out.
Hamdan said that a staggering 45 percent of the martyrs in southern Gaza are displaced persons, which contradicts the Israeli occupation’s claims about the presence of safe zones.
“There is no safe place or safe passages in the Gaza Strip. These are lies the occupation keeps repeating and every official of the US administration keeps parroting. The entirety of Gaza, from its northernmost to southernmost areas, is targeted by the Zio-American weaponry,” Hamdan underscored.
“The war trio and losers, Netanyahu, Gantz and Gallant, achieved nothing of their aggressive goals and their ongoing Nazi war against the Gaza Strip … Their dreams and illusions will be shattered on the land of proud Gaza,” he said.
Press TV – December 17, 2023
An Israeli military sniper has shot dead a Christian mother and daughter on the grounds of a Catholic church in the Gaza Strip sheltering displaced Palestinian families.
The fatal shooting took place inside the Holy Family Parish in Gaza City at around noon on Saturday, the Latin Patriarchate of al-Quds, which oversees Catholic Churches across Cyprus, Jordan, the Israeli-occupied territories, Gaza and the West Bank, said in a statement.
“Nahida and her daughter Samar were shot and killed as they walked to the Sister’s Convent. One was killed as she tried to carry the other to safety,” it added.
The patriarchate also said that no warning was given before the shooting and that the victims “were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the Parish, where there are no belligerents.”
Seven more Palestinians were also wounded by gunfire as they tried to protect others at the church, according to the statement.
The patriarchate further said that an Israeli tank fired three projectiles, destroying a convent’s generator and fuel supplies, and rendering a building housing 54 disabled people uninhabitable.
“The 54 disabled persons are currently displaced and without access to the respirators that some of them need to survive,” it noted.
Meanwhile, the Vatican press agency said the Israeli strikes wounded three people.
Israeli air raid kills nearly two dozen Palestinians in Jabalia
In another development, at least 20 Palestinians were killed and some 100 others injured following an Israeli aerial assault on a residential block in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.
The attack targeted the home of the Shehab family, causing extensive damage to neighboring houses.
Israel waged the brutal war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
Since the start of the onslaught on Gaza, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 19,088 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 54,450 others.
Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under the rubble in Gaza, which is under “complete siege” by Israel.
RT | December 16, 2023
Over half of US adults from ages 18 to 24 believe the ongoing crisis in Gaza should be resolved by abolishing the state of Israel and turning it over to Hamas and the Palestinian people, a new poll has found.
The Harvard-Harris poll, conducted this week and released on Friday, showed that 51% of young Americans believe the Israeli state should be “ended,” compared with 32% who favor a two-state solution. Just 17% said Arab countries should absorb the Palestinians to resolve the conflict. Among all age groups, six in ten Americans call for a two-state deal, while only 19% want Israel to be given to the Palestinians.
The survey marked the latest poll showing a dramatic divide between Americans young and old on issues relating to Israel and the Jewish people amid the ongoing war between West Jerusalem and Hamas. An Economist/YouGov poll released last week found that nearly half of US adults under age 30 either believe the Jewish Holocaust perpetrated by Nazi Germany is a myth or are not sure that it happened.
Two-thirds of 18- to 24-year-olds in the Harvard-Harris poll said they agree that “Jews as a class … should be treated as oppressors.” By contrast, 73% of Americans in all age groups – and 91% of respondents ages 65 and older – disagreed with the anti-Jewish statement. Similarly, half of the youngest respondents said they support Hamas in the war, while 81% of overall participants favor Israel. Six in ten young adults – but only 37% of overall respondents – believe Israel is committing genocide against the people of Gaza.
Americans are similarly divided on identity politics. For instance, 79% of young adults believe that “white people are oppressors” and that non-white people should therefore be shown favoritism in college admissions and employment, the poll found. Among all age groups, 65% of Americans oppose such anti-white discrimination.
Just 42% of Americans approve of how US President Joe Biden is handling the Israel-Hamas war, down from 45% in November, the poll showed. Only 32% believe that the country is on the “right track,” and 33% see the nation’s economy as heading in the right direction.
Such perceptions may bode poorly for Biden as he seeks reelection in 2024. The president has a net favorability rating of minus 10%, the poll showed. By comparison, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has the highest favorability rating among all political figures listed in the survey, at plus 18%.
The poll found that if the election were held today, former President Donald Trump would defeat Biden by a margin of 43% to 35%, while Kennedy would garner 17% of the votes. More than seven in ten Americans believe that a vote for Biden would essentially be a vote for Vice President Kamala Harris because the 81-year-old incumbent wouldn’t likely complete a second term.
By Christina Maas | Reclaim The Net | December 15, 2023
The TikTok account of a popular show hosted by journalist Glenn Greenwald was permanently banned, sparking debate over censorship practices on social media platforms. The account, primarily used for posting show clips, was banned for allegedly violating TikTok’s community guidelines, specifically the integrity and authenticity policy.
“Your account was permanently banned due to multiple violations of our community guidelines,” the notice from TikTok said, giving little detail about why.
“We could not get any kind of an answer on why it is that our account is banned, but we know that it’s permanently banned,” Greenwald said.
Greenwald, a seasoned journalist with numerous awards, expressed frustration over the lack of clear reasons provided for the ban. He emphasized that his show strictly adheres to fact-based reporting and avoids disinformation or conspiracy theories. The content often critiques US foreign policy and censorship regimes, which Greenwald suspects might have influenced the ban.
This incident has raised questions about the influence of the US security state on social media platforms. Greenwald argues that companies like TikTok, Facebook, and Google are under pressure from US authorities to censor content, a claim that resonates with wider concerns about free speech and media control.
The ban on Greenwald’s show highlights the precarious nature of relying on major tech platforms for disseminating information. With the risk of sudden and unexplained bans, content creators find themselves vulnerable and at the mercy of these platforms’ opaque policies. This situation underscores the importance of alternative platforms committed to free speech principles, as pointed out by Greenwald.
“Look at how arbitrary and capricious this is. If your livelihood, if your ability to be heard, rests on Big Tech, you’re just in the palm of their hands,” Greenwald said.
The Cradle | December 16, 2023
Israeli bulldozers have killed dozens of Palestinians by running over and crushing the tents in which they were taking shelter outside the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, Al-Jazeera reported on 16 December.
“Dozens of displaced, sick and wounded people were buried alive. The occupation [Israeli] bulldozers trampled the tents of the displaced people in the hospital yard and brutally crushed them,” Al-Jazeera Arabic correspondent in Gaza Anas al-Sharif reported.
“A terrifying massacre and unspeakable scenes. What the Israeli occupation did inside Kamal Adwan Hospital is a horrific crime against citizens and medical staff,” Sharif said in a post on X.
Some 3,000 Palestinians have been sheltering on the grounds of the hospital, which has been under siege by the Israeli army for eight days.
According to the Gaza health ministry, 12 Palestinian babies are still trapped within incubators at the hospital. The statement added that Israeli forces “are gathering men, including medical staff, in the hospital courtyard.”
The ministry called on “the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and the Red Cross to take immediate action to save the lives of those in the hospital.”
After Israeli forces occupied the Al-Nasr Children’s Hospital in northern Gaza City in early November, forcing the staff to evacuate, five babies on incubators died as they were left behind. Their decomposed bodies were discovered two weeks later when Emirati journalist Mohammad Balousha was able to visit the hospital when a 7-day-truce temporarily halted the fighting.
Israel’s attacks on Gaza hospitals appear to be a deliberate effort to collapse the health system in the bombed and besieged enclave.
“Since the beginning of the war, Israel has been strategically attacking healthcare facilities,” Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for Red Crescent, told The New Arab.
Israeli attacks have targeted the Al-Shifa hospital, the Al-Quds hospital, the Al-Ahli hospital, the Al-Nasr and Al-Rantisi hospitals for children, and the Indonesian hospital, among others.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 18,800 Palestinians have been killed, the majority women and children, and more than 51,000 wounded since the beginning of Israel’s horrific bombing campaign in Gaza began on 7 October.
By Naila Ahmed | MEMO | December 14, 2023
You may be unaware that currently eight people are standing trial for shutting down an Israeli weapons factory, amongst other actions. Over the course of the last few weeks I have managed to attend some of their hearings at Snaresbrook Crown Court. For the duration of that time, the courtroom was packed as the defendants, known as the Elbit Eight, gave evidence about why they took action for Palestine, Israeli war crimes and Elbit Systems’ participation in those crimes.
Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer
Elbit Systems is Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, profiting off the genocide of Palestinians, it markets its drones and weapons as “battle tested”. The weapons are tested on civilians in Gaza before being mass produced. Elbit Systems supplies up to 85 per cent of the Israeli military’s drones and land based equipment. These weapons are produced here in the UK by Elbit Systems’ factories across the country. In the last few weeks alone Israel has murdered over 20,000 Palestinians and destroyed hospitals, schools, homes and the entire infrastructure in Gaza – using weapons produced by Elbit Systems. One of the main witnesses from Elbit, their chief of security, was due to give evidence for the prosecution at the trial, but Israel refused to let him travel or even give evidence remotely, despite him being a crucial witness for the prosecution.
The Elbit Eight have been on trial since 13 November,two of them are founders of Palestine Action. They are all on trial for the direct action they have taken against Elbit Systems in the first six months of Palestine Action’s work, from July 2020. Direct action is a form of protest that seeks to shut down and disrupt. For the Elbit Eight this included protesting inside Elbit Systems offices, spraying red paint to signify Palestinian blood, and shutting down weapons factories by blocking entrances and locking themselves to the building so they cannot be moved and weapons supply is halted. The charges against these actionists are politically motivated and there’s even evidence of Israel’s involvement in them being charged.
Choose courage for Palestine
I’ve been listening to testimony from the Elbit Eight, and reflecting on the actions they took and why they took them. One thing that stood out to me most was that these actionists chose courage for Palestine. They didn’t let the fear of prison or prosecution stop them from using their voices and their bodies to prevent weapons being sent to kill our brothers and sisters in Palestine.
In each testimony given by the eight actionists, they stated their moral and legal obligation to stop an apartheid regime, to prevent the genocide of the Palestinian people and to shut Elbit down. Many of them testified to the numerous ways they engaged in the system prior to taking direct action, whether that be writing to MPs or other forms of traditional campaigning, all of which amounted to nothing. One actionist said that they wished direct action wasn’t necessary, that our government would just sanction Israel and stop arming them. But that isn’t a reality. Britain is responsible not only in the creation of the Zionist state but also in the continuous arming of this apartheid regime. So the obligation is upon us to take action in order to stop arming Israel.
As the state seeks to protect institutions and warmongers at every level, taking action to shut down the flow of weapons to the occupation becomes the most moral action we can take. There’s a moral duty to prevent the genocide of an entire people. The state seeks to criminalise such principled actions by arresting, charging and in some cases imprisoning those who take action.
With courage comes risk
All of the actionists that work with Palestine Action are the same. They choose courage and compassion over all else. They take actions knowing there is inherent risk – risk to their livelihood, to their liberty, but the moral obligation to act and prevent harm overrides the concern for their personal lives.
I have been privileged to work alongside the Elbit Eight and many other activists in the run up to this trial. One of my colleagues at CAGE also took action previously and won her case last year by a unanimous not guilty verdict. The acts of courage she took, could have cost her a career as a barrister, but it was a material risk she was willing to take in the defence of the Palestinians and to prevent harm from reaching them.
Over the last three years, Palestine Action has been highly effective in its campaigning and direct action against Israeli arms manufacturers, in particular Elbit Systems. Its stated aim is to shut Elbit down, and this has galvanised across the country, and across the globe as you see people taking direct action to stop weapons being sent to Israel. Palestine Action in the UK has been successful in:
Costing Elbit over £280 million ($356 million) in lost contracts,
Shutting down Elbit’s offices in central London,
Forcing the permanent closure of two of Elibit’s weapon factories,
Just this month, getting their sole recruiter in the UK, iO Associates, to stop working with Elbit,
Getting the property managers of Elbit’s drone factory in Shenstone (UAV Engines), Fisher German, to cut all ties with Elbit Systems.
These successes have inspired the launch of Palestine Action US and Italy who have already taken a series of effective actions.
‘Let him change it with his hand’
When I see those actionists taking direct action to stop Israeli weapons from being manufactured here in the UK, I am reminded of the often repeated hadith – saying – of the Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) – one we may cite often, but how often do we implement it?
“Whoever among you sees evil, let him change it with his hand. If he cannot do so, then with his tongue. If he cannot do so, then with his heart, which is the weakest level of faith.” (Sahih Muslim 49)
I see the work of Palestine action and the Elbit Eight as an embodiment of that hadith, of seeing an evil and changing it with their hands – that is, taking direct action.
We have all been witnessing what’s been happening in Gaza, the daily massacres, destruction, devastation and we often respond with despair and helplessness. There is an obligation upon us as Muslims to end oppression. This is not a time for despondency, confusion or weakness, we must not be bystanders as we witness genocide. The Elbit Eight chose courage for Palestine and we must choose courage too. Either by joining Palestine Action’s movement or by using our voice and supporting them in their work. Courage is indeed a choice. It may not be comfortable for many of us, but it is a choice we can build up to.
No matter the outcome of the trial, the Elbit Eight have already succeeded. First, in taking action that stopped weapons and parts being sent to Palestine. And secondly, for drawing attention to Israel’s and Elbit’s war crimes in open court, testifying to the massacres and current genocide of our brothers and sisters in Palestine.
Whatever comes from this trial, the Elbit Eight have already won, they put their bodies and freedoms on the line for Palestine. A courage many of us would hope to emulate. And I’m honoured to have supported them in the Elbit Eight campaign.
By Dan Frieth | Reclaim The Net | December 14, 2023
On Thursday, the US House of Representatives passed a funding bill for next year’s defense expenditures, which controversially incorporates a short-term extension of certain surveillance authority.
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) received overwhelming bipartisan support in the House, passing with a vote of 310 to 118. This count far exceeded the two-thirds majority needed for approval. Following its passage, the bill is now headed to the White House, where it awaits President Joe Biden’s signature to become law.
The temporary extension in question belongs to the surveillance capabilities under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which was slated to expire at year’s end and have now been renewed through April 2024.
Utah GOP Senator Mike Lee led a robust effort to axe this extension, despite facing defeat.
Notably, a group of thirty-five senators, featuring Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul, rallied behind him. However, the movement fell short of the forty-one votes needed to successfully exclude the provision.
A warrantless surveillance mechanism provided for by Section 702 targets non-Americans overseas, a point of sensitive debate because the provision has, despite failed promises from the likes of the FBI to stop, caused surveillance of US citizens.
Two improvement proposals for these mandates were put forth by Republican members but were subsequently withdrawn by House Speaker Mike Johnson amid significant intra-GOP conflicts over the issue.
Kentucky GOP Rep. Thomas Massie expressed his dissatisfaction with the inclusion of the FISA extension in bill.
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By Paul MacRae | May 1, 2012
A while ago, I received an email from a friend who asked:
How can many, many respected, competitive, independent science folks be so wrong about [global warming] (if your [skeptical] premise is correct). I don’t think it could be a conspiracy, or incompetence. … Has there ever been another case when so many ‘leading’ scientific minds got it so wrong?
The answer to the second part of my friend’s question—“Has there ever been another case where so many ‘leading’ scientific minds got it so wrong?”—is easy. Yes, there are many such cases, both within and outside climate science. In fact, the graveyard of science is littered with the bones of theories that were once thought “certain” (e.g., that the continents can’t “drift,” that Newton’s laws were immutable, and hundreds if not thousands of others).
Science progresses by the overturning of theories once thought “certain.” … continue
Aletho News If Americans Knew No Tricks Zone
Aletho News 