Zionism

‘Not In Our Name!’ Hundreds Arrested at US Capitol as Jewish-Led Protest Demands Gaza Cease-Fire

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Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Jewish Americans and allies are lined up after being arrested during an October 18, 2023 protest calling for a cease-fire in Gaza at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Ariel Gold/X)

“Cease-fire is the first step to stop the ongoing genocide by the Israeli military of the over 2 million Palestinians in besieged Gaza,” asserted Jewish Voice for Peace.

Hundreds of Jewish Americans and allies were arrested at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday during a protest demanding members of Congress push Israel for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, where nearly 3,500 Palestinians have been killed over 12 days of relentless Israeli bombardment.

Thousands of protesters led by members of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), IfNotNow, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), and other groups rallied on the Capitol grounds and inside the building, where hundreds of people took part in a sit-in.

Their chanted slogans—including “not in our name” and “cease-fire now”—resounded thunderously under the Capitol Rotunda, while at other times they clapped their hands and sang with solemn determination in Hebrew.

“We’re here to say: not in our names, and never again,” JVP declared. “And we’ll continue our civil disobedience until Congress calls for a cease-fire in Gaza, or until they force us to leave.”

“Cease-fire is the first step to stop the ongoing genocide by the Israeli military of the over 2 million Palestinians in besieged Gaza, unable to leave,” the group continued. “In the past week, over 3,000 Palestinians, including 1,000 children, were murdered by Israeli and U.S. bombs. Over 1 million people are displaced. We have the power to stop this violence.”

“What we know from past Israeli state atrocities against Palestinians is that the bombs only stop once there is a sufficient mass outcry from the international community,” JVP added. “It’s on us to build that outcry—as fast as we possibly can.”

Speaking outside the Capitol, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.)—the only Palestinian American in Congress—said that “the majority of Americans are literally against oppression.”

“They are,” she insisted. “They are against occupation. They are against human rights violations. If you just tell them the truth, they will be on our side. So we have to speak the truth.”

Tlaib had a message for President Joe Biden, who has declared his “rock-solid and unwavering support” for Israel, which he visited Wednesday and receives nearly $4 billion in annual U.S. military aid.

“I want him to know, as a Palestinian American and also as someone of the Muslim faith: I’m not gonna forget this,” she vowed. “And I think a lot of people are not gonna forget this.”

Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), who led a resolution with Tlaib and 14 progressive co-sponsors calling on Biden to push for a cease-fire, also spoke at the rally.

“We thank our Jewish community for being out here saying ‘Never Again’,” she said.

Author and activist Naomi Klein told the demonstrators that “it’s crucial that we become huge, become unignorable, and throw all our support behind this brave legislation.”

JVP, IfNotNow, and peace activist Ariel Gold—who was at the event—said hundreds of protesters were arrested.

Wednesday’s protest and arrests followed a string of Jewish-led peace demonstrations across the nation, including two major rallies in Washington, D.C. IfNotNow’s website lists many events planned in cities around the country in the coming days.

“The Israeli military is preparing for a massive ground invasion of Gaza. Israeli and American leaders are dehumanizing Palestinians with vitriolic rhetoric that calls to mind the most hysterical days of… [the] War on Terror,” JVP said Wednesday. “We know where this will lead: genocide.”

“Many of us are mourning our Israeli and Palestinian friends and loved ones,” the group continued. “We are in pain and grief, trying to process a week of horrific violence that has left so many that we know injured, traumatized, kidnapped, or killed.”

“But we refuse to let our grief be weaponized to justify the murder of more Palestinians,” JVP added. “As American Jews, we demand a cease-fire now. No genocide in our name.”

Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Continue Reading‘Not In Our Name!’ Hundreds Arrested at US Capitol as Jewish-Led Protest Demands Gaza Cease-Fire

Labour-supporting Muslims tell Starmer to step down

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https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/labour-supporting-muslims-tell-starmer-to-quit

Thousands sign letter of no confidence as leader continues to back Israeli war crimes

Image of Keir Starmer and a poor child.
Zionist Keir ‘Kid Starver’ Starmer. Image thanks to The Skwawkbox.

LABOUR-supporting Muslims told Sir Keir Starmer to quit today as the row over the Labour leader’s backing for Israeli war crimes deepened with more councillors leaving the party.

Thousands of British Muslims across society signed an open letter telling Sir Keir that they had lost confidence in his leadership after he backed Israel cutting off food, water and power to Palestinians in Gaza, in breach of international law.

In another blow to the Starmer leadership, Labour MPs backed a Commons motion tabled by Socialist Campaign Group secretary Richard Burgon expressing “deep alarm at the Israeli military bombardment and total siege of Gaza and the resulting deaths and suffering,” and calling for an immediate ceasefire and an “end to the total siege of Gaza.”

Sir Keir tried to slither back onto the high ground today, using Prime Minister’s Questions to partially recalibrate Labour’s position.

He said that “food, fuel and water must get into Gaza immediately” — the very things he had endorsed the Israeli government cutting off.

But neither he nor PM Rishi Sunak backed calls for a ceasefire, instead emphasising Israel’s “right to defend itself” through continuing attacks on Gaza “within international law.”

…

Labour is facing large-scale resignations among councillors irate about Sir Keir’s pro-war crimes stance and the ban on attending solidarity marches.

Further departures were reported today in London, Cambridge, Gloucester and Gedling in Nottinghamshire, joining colleagues in Manchester, Stroud and Oxford who quit earlier.

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A Labour official, believed to be a member of the party’s executive, has described these councillors as “fleas” to be shaken off.

…

https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/labour-supporting-muslims-tell-starmer-to-quit

Continue ReadingLabour-supporting Muslims tell Starmer to step down

Morning Star : Over Palestine, it is time to stand up to Starmer – or face another era of war

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https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/over-palestine-it-is-time-to-stand-up-to-starmer-or-face-another-era-of-war

Palestinians evacuate a child after an Israeli air strike on Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, October 17, 2023

SOCIALISTS had limited expectations of New Labour when it won in 1997. But they did not anticipate Tony Blair’s bloody record in foreign policy, expressed above all in the word which will haunt him to his grave — Iraq.

International affairs were scarcely on the political radar in the years before the Blair landslide.

Labour supporters today have no such excuse. It is now clear that any government led by Sir Keir Starmer will be in the vanguard of international aggression and will be marked by the same indifference to international law and insouciance regarding war crimes as characterised the Blair administration.

Starmer himself has put the question beyond doubt with his comments regarding the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

He signalled his firm approval of the Israeli decision to cut off supplies of water, food and power to the besieged millions living in the Gaza Strip. He was indifferent to the fact that such collective punishment drives a coach and horses through international law.

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Labour leader Keir Starmer (centre) with then US secretary of state Mike Pompeo (R) and then US ambassador to Britain, Woody Johnson, in London, 21 July 2020.
Labour leader Keir Starmer (centre) with then US secretary of state Mike Pompeo (R) and then US ambassador to Britain,
Woody Johnson, in London, 21 July 2020. (Photo: US State Department)

https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/over-palestine-it-is-time-to-stand-up-to-starmer-or-face-another-era-of-war

Continue ReadingMorning Star : Over Palestine, it is time to stand up to Starmer – or face another era of war

‘There should be no hierarchy when it comes to the killing of civilians’

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https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/there-should-be-no-hierarchy-when-it-comes-to-the-killing-of-civilians

Campaigners slam Western governments for continuing to arm Israel as Palestinians in Gaza search desperately for food, water and shelter amid the bombs

Campaigners block the road in East London outside the DSEI arms fair Photo: @CAATuk / Twitter
Campaigners block the road in East London outside the DSEI arms fair Photo: @CAATuk / Twitter

ACTIVISTS have slammed the scheduled visit of United States President Joe Biden to Israel on Wednesday as the relentless bombardment of Gaza leaves Palestinians searching desperately for food, water and shelter.

The visit was announced just as Iran issued a stern warning to the Israelis that it may intervene in the conflict.

Israel bombed areas of southern Gaza where it had previously told Palestinians to flee, killing dozens of people on Tuesday.

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British companies provide 15 per cent of the components for the F-35 stealth combat aircraft that Israel is currently using in the bombardment of Gaza, in contracts worth £336 million, Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) said.

The group is demanding the government revoke all licences for arms exports and is backing calls from Palestine trade unions for workers to refuse to build or export weapons to Israel.

CAAT’s Emily Apple said: “There should be no hierarchy when it comes to the killing of civilians.

“However, in continuing to arm Israel, this government is showing that it does not value Palestinian lives.

“Through its arms sales, and particularly through the supply of components for the F-35s, the UK is complicit in war crimes in Gaza.

…

https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/there-should-be-no-hierarchy-when-it-comes-to-the-killing-of-civilians

Continue Reading‘There should be no hierarchy when it comes to the killing of civilians’

Spanish Minister Says Netanyahu Should Be Brought Before ICC for War Crimes

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Original article by JAKE JOHNSON republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Spanish Minister of Social Rights Ione Belarra delivers a statement on October 16, 2023. (Photo: Ione Belarra/Twitter.com)

“Using the horrific murders of Israeli civilians by Palestinian armed factions as an excuse to justify Israel’s crimes in general and the massacre in Gaza in particular is unacceptable,” said Spain’s minister of social rights.

Spain’s minister of social rights released a statement Monday calling on her country’s coalition government to petition the International Criminal Court to open a war crimes investigation into Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, citing the ongoing aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip and the devastating blockade that has prevented the free flow of desperately needed humanitarian aid.

“Using the horrific murders of Israeli civilians by Palestinian armed factions as an excuse to justify Israel’s crimes in general and the massacre in Gaza in particular is unacceptable,” Ione Belarra, the leader of Spain’s left-wing Podemos party, said in a video statement posted to social media.

“We ask our partner, the Socialist Party, to work together to present on behalf of the government of Spain a petition to the prosecutor’s office of the International Criminal Court to investigate the war crimes committed in Palestine by Netanyahu, as was done recently in the case of the Spanish aid worker murdered in the Ukrainian war, as well as those perpetrated by Hamas in Israel and occupied territories against the civilian population,” said Belarra, who also called for immediate efforts to protect civilians and negotiate an end to the violence.

Israel is not a member state of the ICC, but the top prosecutor for the Netherlands-based court toldReuters last week that war crimes carried out by Hamas and the Israeli government fall under the body’s jurisdiction.

“It’s horrendous what’s going on, what we’re seeing on our television screens. There has to be a legal process to determine criminal responsibility,” said Karim Khan. “Willful killing, hostage-taking are grave breaches of the Geneva Convention and one has to comply with the law.”

In the wake of Hamas’ deadly October 7 attack on Israel, the Netanyahu government began what international human rights groups and legal experts have described as a campaign of collective punishment, bombarding the densely populated Gaza Strip, devastating civilian infrastructure, and cutting off the enclave’s supply of food, electricity, fuel, and other critical supplies.

Israeli officials have admitted that the assault on Gaza is primarily geared toward inflicting massive damage, not on precisely targeting Hamas.

More than 2,600 people in Gaza have been killed since Israel’s bombing campaign began and more than a million have been displaced. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) warned Sunday that the Israeli airstrikes and blockade have sparked “an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe” as Gaza’s healthcare system nears total collapse.

On Friday, the Israeli government ordered the entire population of northern Gaza—more than a million people—to evacuate ahead of an expected ground invasion, a demand that prompted global outrage. Rights groups said the directive could amount to the war crime of forcible transfer, given that Gazans have been given no guarantee of safe passage or clear assurance that they will be able to return to their homes.

Israeli bombing on Monday reportedly dashed hopes of a temporary agreement to allow people to flee Gaza and let humanitarian aid enter through a border crossing between Egypt and the occupied territory.

In her remarks on Monday, Belarra decried the complicity of European governments and the United States—Israel’s primary supplier of weaponry—in the devastating attack on Gaza and urged the E.U. to “stop blindly following” the U.S.

“The United States and the European Union are not looking the other way or acting in a neutral manner, they are encouraging the state of Israel in its policy of apartheid and occupation that seriously violates human rights,” said Belarra. “Using Hamas as an excuse to murder thousands of Palestinian civilians, including children, is unspeakable hypocrisy on the part of both Israel and the countries that justify it.”

Original article by JAKE JOHNSON republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue ReadingSpanish Minister Says Netanyahu Should Be Brought Before ICC for War Crimes