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Billionaires for Trump and Vance

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

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman speaks at The New York Times DealBook Conference at Jazz at Lincoln Center on November 10, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for The New York Times )

Here they are. They have names. They have billions. And they’re the leading American oligarchs backing the ticket that wants to kick the working class and poor people in the face.

No matter who may be supporting them in public opinion polls, Donald Trump and JD Vance are not the saviors of the middle class, the working, class, or the poor. They are not the champions of Blacks, whites, Latinos, men, women or any other demographic group. Their policy proposals won’t even benefit better off but not rich Americans. They are the candidates of casino, real estate, fossil fuel, and tech billionaires. Many are affiliated with Trump 47 or one of the other pro-Trump Super PACs.

I am a union member and have been since I started working as a teenager in the 1960s and I support the Harris-Walz ticket. I think it is a moral transgression in this election to vote for any down ballot Republican candidate that appears on the same line as Trump and Vance. The Democrats must win the House and Senate and local elections to stop the billionaire financed anti-democracy MAGA movement.

Below, in alphabetical order, is a list and description of some of the Trump-Vance team’s key super-wealthy supporters. It is a billionaire’s club.

Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman is the chief executive and portfolio manager of Pershing Square Capital Management. Ackman demanded that Trump resign after the January 6 attack on the Capitol, but now endorses Trump. Ackman is a leading crusader against DEI policies and what he perceives of as a wave of antisemitism on college campuses. He played a leading role in forcing Harvard President Claudine Gray to resign, in getting New York City Mayor Eric Adams to use police to breakup protests at Columbia University against Israel’s action in Gaza and contributed to SuperPACs that defeated progressive candidates in Democratic Party primaries because they criticized Israel. Forbes estimates Ackman’s net worth at over $9 billion.

Casino magnates Miriam Adelson and her deceased husband, Sheldon Adelson, were Trump’s biggest donors in 2020. They contributed $90 million to the pro-Trump SuperPAC Preserve America. Adelson is the wealthiest Israeli citizen and one of the fifty wealthiest people in the world. She pledged $100 million to Trump’s 2024 campaign in exchange for his promise that if he is elected President the United States would recognize Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, torpedoing any possible of an independent Palestinian state.

Marc Lowell Andreessen is a Silicon Valley tech businessman, former software engineer, member of the Facebook Board of Directors, and worth $1.8 billion. In 2016 he endorsed Hillary Clinton for President because of Trump’s anti-immigrant stance, but he is now donating mega-bucks to SuperPACs supporting Trump, hoping to secure policies that favor his investments.

Scott Bessent is founder of the global investment firm Key Square Group with an investment portfolio of $8 billion. Previously Bessent was the Chief Investment Officer of Soros Fund Management, a much more liberal company. At some point, Bessent changed his stripes, and he is now a co-chair of Trump 47, a Republican Party fundraising group in Palm Beach, Florida. Bessent is considered a possible Secretary of the Treasury if Trump is elected.

Robert Thomas Bigelow owns Budget Suites of America and is founder of Bigelow Aerospace. He is a notorious conspiracy theorists providing financial support for investigating UFOs and paranormal phenomena including consciousness after death. Bigelow has originally a DeSantis supporter but switched to Trump when DeSantis dropped out of the race. Bigelow gave Trump a million dollars to help with his legal fees and promised to give $20 million to pro-Trump Super PACs. Bigelow’s net worth is $1.5 billion.

Robert H. Book is chairman of Book Capital Enterprises and Jet Support Services, and a Vice Chairman of Axxes Capital. His net worth is only half a billion dollars so he may not belong on this list. Book, a major philanthropist in support of Israel, was critical of Trump in 2017 for not forcibly condemning neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville, Virginia. However, in 2020 he gave over a million dollars to the Trump Victory Committee.

Timothy Dunn is the CEO of the fossil fuel company CrownQuest Operating. Dunn contributed to the Trump 2020 campaign and in 2023 he gave $5 million towards the 2024 campaign. He’s an active donor in rightwing Texas politics, giving approxinately $10 million to the conservative Defend Texas Liberty PAC. He co-founded a Christian school where he is on the board of trustees and teaches Sunday school. Dunn opposes abortion, same-sex marriage. and adoptions by same sex couples. He is worth an estimated 2.2 billion.

José Fanjul is a Cuban American a sugar magnate with investments in Domino Sugar and real estate who gave over $800,000 to the Trump 47 Committee and hosted a Trump fundraiser. Fanjul’s company received an estimated $65 million in federal agricultural subsidies that he uses political influence to protect. The family’s business interests are valued at over $8 billion.

Kenneth Griffin is a hedge fund manager who gave $10 million to the House Republican Super PAC and $5 million to the Senate Republican Super PAC. Griffin initially backed Nikki Haley for the 2024 Republican nomination and called Trump a “three-time loser,” but is now prepared to endorse Trump. Griffin is worth about $35 billion.

Harold Hamm, executive chair of Continental Resources, is an oil and gas magnate heavily invested in fracking who is worth $18.5 billion. Hamm is part of the Koch brothers rightwing donor network. He contributed $320,000 to the 2020 Trump campaign and organized a major Trump fundraiser with the fossil fuel industry.

Diane Marie Hendricks and her deceased husband were major supporters of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Her net worth is over $20 billion. From 2014 to 2016, she gave millions of dollars to a Republican Super PAC created by the Koch Brothers and in 2020 Hendricks contributed $1.1 million to Trump’s presidential campaign. She spoke at the 2024 Republican Party National Convention and is also a financial supporter of Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. Hendricks’ investment in Trump paid off bigtime. She saved $36 million in income taxes from a provision in the 2017 Trump tax cut.

Benjamin Horowitz is a co-founder of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz along with Marc Lowell Andreessen and is personally worth $3.5 billion. He pledged to give money to the 2024 Trump campaign.

Robert “Woody” Johnson is co-owner of the New York Jets football team and an heir to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical company. He is worth an estimated $10 billion. Johnson was a co-financial chair of the Republican Party during Trump’s 2016 campaign and was appointed ambassador to the United Kingdom when Trump was elected. During the 2024 campaign, Johnson has already given over a million dollars to Trump Super PACs.

Doug Leone is a partner at and former head of Sequoia Capital. Forbes magazine estimates he is worth $8.4 billion. In 2021, Leone said Trump lost his support because of the January 6 attack on the Capitol, but he is now back on the Trump bandwagon. He gave $2 million to the Right for America Trump Super PAC and $1 million to the America PAC.

Joe Lonsdale is a technology entrepreneur and investor and co-founder of Palantir worth about half a billion dollars. He donates to Trump through the Super PAC America Pac.

Howard Lutnick is CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and has a net worth of an estimated $1.5 billion. Lutnick has hosted New York metro area fundraisers for Trump in his home since 2019.

Omeed Malik, who formerly supported Ron DeSantis, changed track and pledged to raise over $3 million and donate at least $100,000 to the Trump campaign. Malik is president of 1789 Capital and CEO of Farvahar Partners. He has an estimated net worth of $6.15 billion.

Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus supported Trump for President in 2016 and 2020 and announced he would support Trump again even if he were convicted of crimes. He gave the Trump campaign $25 million in 2020. Marcus, who is worth almost $9 billion, originally supported DeSantis this round and then Haley, but he is now boosting Trump again. He said his donations to the 2024 Trump campaign would be “in line” with past contributions.

Vincent and Linda McMahon are professional wrestling promoters. The McMahons gave $5 million to the Donald J. Trump Foundation. Linda was appointed administrator of the federal Small Business Administration during the Trump administration and spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention. The McMahon’s have a combined net worth of $3.2 billion.

Timothy Mellon is a descendant of the founder of the Mellon Bank and railroad interests. The bank, under different names, today manages about $50 trillion in assets and the current generation of the family is worth about $15 billion. Mellon is a major Trump supporter. In April 2020, he gave $10 million to Trump’s America First Action Super PAC, and he has pledged $75 million to elect Trump in 2024. He also contributed $25 million to the independent candidacy of Robert Kennedy. Mellon is the definition of rightwing weirdo. He posted online comparing climate scientists to ISIS, is a COVID anti-vaxxer, donated to build a Southern wall, and issued statements that led to him being accused of racism.

Robert and Rebeka Mercer (his daughter and fellow conservative activist) Pappa Mercer was an artificial intelligence proponent and co-chair of the Renaissance Technologies hedge fund. Mercer has a string of companies based in the Caribbean that he uses to avoid paying American income taxes. Among his rightwing activities, he contributed to the Brexit campaign for Great Britain to leave the European Union, works with Koch brother’s groups, financially supported Breitbart News, donated to the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute, labels civil rights acts as racist, and helped fund JD Vance’s Ohio Senate campaign. Daughter Rebekah is in charge of the Mercer Family Foundation. She home schooled her children, is on the Heritage Foundation Board of Trustee, was on the 2016 Trump transition team, and works closely with Steve Bannon who she introduced to Trump. Pappa Mercer is probably worth a little less than a billion dollars.

Elon Musk is going all in to elect Trump, providing money through his private pro-Trump Super PAC and free publicity on his social media site including an interview scheduled for posting on August 12. Musk reportedly pledged to contribute $45 million a month to his America PAC, which has already been accused of using data from a subterfuge voting registration drive to aid the Trump campaign. After Musk purchased Twitter, which he rebranded X, there was a surge of antisemitic and racist postings on the platform. Musk himself has also posted or retweeted hateful conspiracy theories, targeted Anthony Fauci, and made fun of people using gender pronouns. It is estimated that Musk is worth over $200 billion.

Chamath Palihapitiya, an early senior executive at Facebook, is a champion of digital currency and a competitive poker player. He co-hosted a San Francisco fund raiser for Trump with David Sacks that raised $12 million and promotes Trump on his podcast. Palihapitiya’s net worth is estimated at $1.2 billion.

Geoffrey Palmer is a Los Angeles-based real estate developer and competitive polo player worth $3.1 billion. His company contributed $5 million to Trump’s 2016 campaign, and he has hosted fundraisers for each of Trump’s campaigns. This round he gave $2 million to Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC and $814,600 to the Trump 47 Committee. He was also a major financer of efforts to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom.

John Paulson, net worth $3.5 billion, made his money from the 2008 housing market collapse. He was an early supporter of Trump in 2016, has already raised $50 million for the Trump 2024 campaign, and is another potential Treasury Secretary.

Hedge fund broker Nelson Peltz stated that he regretted voting for Trump after the Capitol attack, but he is now hosting Trump fund raisers at his Palm Beach, Florida mansion, although he says he is not happy about it. Peltz is worth $1.6 billion.

Isaac Perlmutter is an Israeli American billionaire who has had stakes in several companies including Revco drug stores, Remington gun manufacturers, and Marvel Entertainment. He is a friend and unofficial advisor to Trump who helped oversee the Department of Veterans Affairs when Trump was President. Isaac and his wife Laura Perlmutter gave Trump almost $2 million in 2016, and Laura was part of Trump’s inauguration planning committee. In 2024, the Perlmutters have already contributed $10 million to Trump’s Right for America Super PAC. Isaac and Laura Perlmutter live near Mar-a-Lago in Florida and are worth over $4 billion.

Vivek Ramaswamy originally ran against Trump in Republican primaries but then endorsed him and was awarded with a spot at the Republican National Convention. Ramaswamy opposes affirmative action, abortion rights, and birthright citizenship. During his campaign he called the “climate change agenda a hoax” and for raising the voting age to 25. He has endorsed conspiracy theories that the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was a “inside job” and questioning the official story about the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center. He made his money in pharmaceuticals and is worth about a billion dollars.

Todd Ricketts is a co-owner of the Chicago Cubs, a TD Ameritrade board member, and a former Republican Party finance chair. Since 2016 he has been a Trump fundraiser and was chair of the Trump Victory Committee in 2020. The Ricketts family is worth over $4 billion.

Phil Ruffin, a casino magnate, is a longtime associate and business partner of Trump who was with Trump at the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow. Ruffin, worth $2.6 billion, contributed $2 million to Trump’s MAGA Inc. Super PAC and more than $800,000 to Trump 47.

Tech investor, podcast host, and venture capitalist David Sacks spoke opening night of the Republican National Convention. on Monday, co-hosted a fundraiser for Trump in San Francisco. Sacks, a former chief operating officer at PayPal, is now a big promoter of crypto currency along with JD Vance. Sacks supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, recently toyed with support for Robert Kennedy, but is now a prominent Trump fund raiser.

Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman, a longtime friend of Trump, was chairman of his Strategic Policy Forum when Trump was President. In that role he marshalled billionaires to support Trump tax cuts and economic policies. Schwarzman denounced the January 6 attack on the Capitol Building as an “insurrection” and an “affront to the democratic values we hold dear” and in 2022 he announced he would not support Trump for reelection however Schwarzman is now a Trump supporter and fundraiser again. He is worth $39 billion.

Paul Singer is a hedge fund manager with a net worth of over $6.1 billion. His specialty is buying the debt of poor countries and then forcing them to pay. Singer and the workforce at his company, Elliott Management are a top source of contributions to the National Republican Committee. Singer has contributed to the political efforts of the Koch brothers and gave one million dollars to the Trump 2017 inaugural committee. He originally supported Nicki Haley’s 2024 campaign but has now endorsed Trump.

Jeff Sprecher and his wife, former Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler are worth over $1 billion. Each contributed over $800,000 to a Trump Super PAC. Sprecher is the former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange.

So far Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, has not endorsed Trump again. He contributed a million dollars to the trump 2016 campaign but did not give money in 2020. Thiel, who is gay and part of a same-sex marriage, remains unhappy with Trump and the Republican Party’s focus on hot-button cultural issues. However, he was a major supporter of JD Vance’s Senate campaign and is expected to eventually support the Trump-Vance ticket because of his major investment in crypto currencies. Thiel, the person who introduced Trump to Vance, is worth $4.2 billion.

Richard Uihlein and Elizabeth Uihlein are founders of Uline and Richard is also an heir to Schlitz. They are anti-union, anti-tax, anti-regulation, and anti-gay and transgender rights. Their $10 million contribution to the Trump 2024 Make America Great Again Super PAC is currently the second largest Trump gift. The Uihleins are worth over $6 billion.

Kelcy Warren, the chairman and former CEO of a pipeline company with a net worth of over $6 billion gave over $800,000 to the Trump 47 Committee and $5 million to the MAGA Inc. super PAC.

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss each gave over $1 million to the Trump 47 Committee and $250,000 to the America PAC. The twins run the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini and are each worth $2.7 billion. When endorsing trump, Tyler Winklevoss called him “pro-Bitcoin, pro-crypto, and pro-business.”

Steve Wynn was vice-chairman of Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee. He is casino and real estate magnate worth $3.4 billion who is accused of sexual misconduct and acting as a foreign agent for China. Wynn gave over $800,000 to the Trump 47 Committee.

Jeffrey Yass is the co-founder trading and technology company Susquehanna International Group, a major investor in TikTok which is under attack because its parent company is owned by China, and Trump’s sham media company. He has a net worth of $27.6 billion. He is a self-proclaimed libertarian, on the executive advisory council of the Cato Institute, and an advocate for charter schools and vouchers. Yass is one of the largest Republican Party deep pockets and contributed to several candidates challenging the results of the 2020 Presidential election.

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

Continue ReadingBillionaires for Trump and Vance

‘Heinous’: Children Among 100 Killed by Israel Bombing of Gaza School Just Hours After US Weapons Approval

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

Relatives of Palestinians killed by the Israeli attack on Nuseirat refugee camp mourn as the bodies are brought to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on August 10, 2024. (Photo by Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“It is hard to comprehend how the Biden administration can justify rewarding Israel with new weapons, despite Israel’s persistent defiance of every single plea the Biden administration has made urging a modicum of restraint.”

Just hours after the Biden administration Friday announced approval of $3.5 billion in military funds for Israel and shipments for new weaponry, an Israeli bombing of a school-turned-shelter in Gaza has killed 100 people or more, including scores of civilian men, women, and children in what was described as a “bloody massacre” that struck during morning prayers, leaving body parts scattered “in pieces” and healthcare workers overwhelmed with the dead and wounded.

The Palestinian Authority’s Fatah government in the Occupied West Bank released a statement Saturday describing the attack on the al-Tabin school in Gaza City as a “heinous bloody massacre” that represents the “peak of terrorism and criminality” by the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Committing these massacres confirms beyond a shadow of a doubt its efforts to exterminate our people through the policy of cumulative killing and mass massacres that make living consciences tremble,” said the PA.

“If the ICC doesn’t take action now, then when?”

Footage taken by volunteers working alongside Palestinian medical units in Gaza City showed wounded small children and adults being taken to local hospitals as well as scenes of carnage from the scene of the bombing [Warning: Images are graphic]. Gaza journalist Motasem A. Dalloul also posted his reporting from the scene, including footage of the carnage [Also graphic].

Al-Jazeera spoke with witnesses at the scene of the massacre, one of whom said many of the dead—which included women, children, and old people who had been praying and others sleeping when the missiles struck—were collected afterward “in pieces”:

– YouTube

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Tamer Kirolos, a regional director for Save the Children, called Israel’s attack on al-Tabin the “deadliest attack on a school since last October.”

“It is devastating to see the toll this has taken, including so many children and people at the school for dawn prayers,” Kirolos said. “Civilians, children, must be protected. An immediate definitive ceasefire is the only foreseeable way that will happen.”

Just hours before the bombing, the U.S. State Department announcement that a $3.5 billion tranche of funds—part of a larger $14.1 billion in overseas military aid approved by Congress earlier this year—would be released to the Israeli government for weapons procurement.

As CNN reported, while some of those weapons purchases made possible by the fund may take years, the “supplemental funding also allocated billions of dollars’ worth of equipment that the Pentagon can draw from its own stockpiles to send directly to Israel on a much faster timeline.”

Unverified reporting indicated that at least one of the missiles dropped on the al-Tabin school overnight may have been a U.S.-made MK-84 bomb weighing 2,000 pounds.

On Friday night, after the State Department announcement but before news of the latest bombing in Gaza broke, Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the human rights and advocacy group Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), was among those confounded by the U.S. government’s continued determination to arm the Israelis in the face of the human suffering in Gaza and the repeated massacre of civilians, day after day and month after month.

“It is mind-boggling that despite the overwhelming evidence of the IDF’s unprecedented crimes in Gaza that has shocked the conscience of the entire world, the Biden administration is greenlighting the transfer of additional lethal weapons to Israel,” said Whitson in a Friday night statement following news that the State Dept. had greenlit the release of taxpayer funds for a new round of weapons destined for Israel.

“It is hard to comprehend how the Biden administration can justify rewarding Israel with new weapons, despite Israel’s persistent defiance of every single plea the Biden administration has made urging a modicum of restraint,” she said, “and despite the very apparent fact that such sales violate black letter U.S. laws prohibiting weapons to gross abusers like Israel.”

Making a similar argument in a Saturday morning post on X, Sami Abou Shehadeh, leader of Israel’s leftist Balad Party, said that while President Joe Biden “could have stopped the genocide” by using his leverage of military aid to force the Israelis in a different direction, instead “he just released $3.5 billion for more weapons to kill civilians.”

Shehadeh warned that without any internal opposition “to the genocide” by Israel’s Zionist political parties, Netanyahu’s policies would continue, even as the region inches toward further destabilization over the crisis in Gaza that has also spread to Lebanon and beyond. Calling for the International Criminal Court to intervene, he asked, “If the ICC doesn’t take action now, then when?”

Yanis Varoufakis, former finance minister of Greece and co-founder of Progressive International, asked the same on Saturday.

“Israel has now killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and wounded well over 92,000 others,” said Varoufakis. “Thousands more lie, uncounted, under the debris. Some 10,000 Palestinians have been abducted by Israel’s occupying forces. Question: Where is the ICC indictment?”

“It is truly horrific,” Raed Jarrar, DAWN’s policy director told Common Dreams via email Saturday. “Last night’s massacre was another example of how Blinken and Biden have blood on their hands.”

Referencing a separate decision by the State Department to suspend an investigation into documented abuse violations by the “notorious” Netzah Yehuda Unit within the IDF, Jarrar said the “decisions of sending weapons to Israel and not sanctioning Israeli human rights abusers are not just corrupt policy decisions, they are criminal acts.”

Update: This article has been updated from its original to include additional comment from DAWN.

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

Continue Reading‘Heinous’: Children Among 100 Killed by Israel Bombing of Gaza School Just Hours After US Weapons Approval

Western Media, Leaders Slammed for ‘Deafening’ Silence Over Israeli Torture Revelations

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

A leaked photograph obtained by CNN shows a blindfolded man with his arms over his head at the Sde Teiman detention facility. (Photo: CNN)

“Can you imagine the response if Palestinians were holding Israelis in mass rape camps and torturing them to death?” asked one critic.

Human rights defenders are calling out Western news outlets and political leaders for their conspicuous lack of coverage and vocalized condemnation after leaked video footage appeared to show Israeli soldiers gang-raping a Palestinian detainee in the notorious Sde Teiman prison and the release of a new report documenting systematic torture of prisoners held by Israel.

Earlier this week, Israel’s Channel 12 aired a video showing Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reservists assaulting a Palestinian man at Sde Teiman, which is often called “Israel’s Guantánamo.” The victim was reportedly hospitalized with a severe anal injury, ruptured bowel, broken ribs, and lung damage. In addition to torture, former Sde Teiman detainees have described rampant rape and sexual abuse, allegedly often committed by female soldiers.

Instead of avoiding the Sde Teiman rape story, Israeli media have aired an interview with one of the IDF suspects—who are being hailed as “heroes” by far-right Israelis including multiple Cabinet ministers—and panel discussions including one in which a journalist called for “institutionalized” rape of Palestinian prisoners. This, as Israeli leaders demanded an investigation of the rape video to find and punish whoever leaked the footage, and as Israeli lawmakers argue that it’s permissible to rape Palestinian prisoners.

Meanwhile, there has been very little coverage of Sde Teiman on U.S. broadcast media, which have come under fire for allowing Israeli officials to censor their coverage of the Gaza onslaught. This stands in stark contrast to the myriad—and sometimes outright false—reports of Hamas militants raping Israeli women during the October 7 attack, which have prompted embarrassing corrections.

“Can you imagine the response if Palestinians were holding Israelis in mass rape camps and torturing them to death? Every U.S. politician would condemn it, there would be congressional resolutions, countless CNN segments, and celebrity outrage,” Palestinian American poet Remi Kanazi said Thursday on social media. “But the victims are just Palestinians.”

Dazed politics editor James Greig said on social media Wednesday that “it feels redundant to complain about double standards at this point but still, the contrast between the silence about Sde Teiman and the months of lurid, detailed, and at best factually dubious reporting published when Hamas was accused of sexual violence is extremely stark.”

Syrian British journalist Richard Medhurst wrote Thursday on social media that “the silence by mainstream media on the IDF’s rape culture is deafening.”

“These journalists are literally covering for the most violent form of rape, recorded on camera, and documented by doctors,” he added.

When there is coverage of alleged Israeli crimes in the U.S. media, it is often presented in a manner that casts doubt upon the veracity of Palestinian claims—which are increasingly beyond doubt amid an avalanche of evidence.

On Monday, asCommon Dreamsreported, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem released a detailed report, ominously titled “Welcome to Hell,” which documented widespread torture and abuse of Palestinians across Israeli’s detention apparatus. The report found that “there is no room to doubt” that Israel’s torture methods are a systematic, organized policy of its prison authorities.

Israeli whistleblowers have described having to frequently amputate Sde Teiman detainees’ limbs due to damage from constant shackling. IDF officers have admitted that dozens of Palestinians have died at the prison. IDF soldiers allegedly murdered one detainee by shoving an electric baton in his anus. United Nations experts and the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem have confirmed what the latter described as the “systematic” torture of detainees “that amounts to a war crime and even a crime against humanity.”

Meanwhile, Israeli protesters have rallied for the right to rape Palestinians, and a far-right mob whose members included a Cabinet minister and multiple Knesset lawmakers stormed two military bases last month in an attempt to free the alleged IDF rapists after nine suspects were arrested.

Yet “there is still no international outcry,” journalists Lubna Masarwa and Peter Osborne wrote in a Middle East Eyeopinion piece published Friday. “This collective omerta from politicians and the media about Israel’s monstrous conduct is hard to comprehend, given that we are talking about systematic war crimes committed on a horrifying scale by a country already under investigation at the International Court of Justice for potential genocide.”

“Their silence amounts to complicity,” the authors continued. “As for Israel, the majority of the political and media classes do not appear to think there is much wrong in the torture and abuse of prisoners, with some ministers actively defending the abusers.”

“These are the signs of a very sick society indeed—one that has passed through an invisible barrier into savagery,” they added. “There are no red lines, no respect for international law, and no accountability. The silence of the West shows that we, too, have entered the same nightmare universe.”

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

Continue ReadingWestern Media, Leaders Slammed for ‘Deafening’ Silence Over Israeli Torture Revelations

Zarah Sultana: The enemy of the working class travels by private jet, not migrant dinghy

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/09/enemy-working-class-far-right

…

The fuse may have been set alight by online disinformation and secretive social media channels, but this explosion of far-right violence has been decades in the making. And while Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (AKA Tommy Robinson) and his mob of far-right agitators are its immediate instigators, much of Britain’s political and media class is complicit in laying the groundwork for this eruption of hate.

This truth of how we reached this point flips the normal classist narrative about racism in Britain. The reality is that racism isn’t a bottom-up expression of popular discontent, but a top-down project propagated by people in positions of power.

Just think about how the billionaire-owned rightwing press drip-feeds hate into British politics, splashing fearmongering headlines across their papers: “Islamist plotters in schools across the UK” – the Telegraph; “1 in 5 Brit Muslims’ sympathy for jihadis” – the Sun; “Migrants spark housing crisis” – the Daily Mail.

Or think how Conservative politicians normalise far-right rhetoric, dehumanising people and spreading hate. From “one nation” Conservatives such as David Cameron who as prime minister described migrants as a “swarm”, to the likes of Suella Braverman who as home secretary said there was a migrant “invasion”. Rishi Sunak’s “Stop the boats” slogan is now a far-right chant and just this week the Tory party leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick said the police should “immediately arrest” people shouting “Allahu Akbar” on the street, the Arabic phrase meaning “God is great” – the equivalent of a Christian saying “hallelujah”.

This rhetoric was propagated further by the privately educated, former City trader Nigel Farage, who claims to be a man of the people. In the general election campaign, he said many Muslims didn’t share “British values” and this week promoted the “two-tier policing” conspiracy.

But it’s not just rightwing politicians, pundits and publications at fault. So-called centrists too often refuse to push back against this hate as well, sometimes peddling the same dangerous tropes or dismissing the concerns of those subject to this hatred.

I was confronted by this painful reality just this week. On Monday morning I was invited on to ITV’s Good Morning Britain to talk about the recent racist riots, only to be interrogated – and it did feel like an interrogation – about why I, a Muslim MP, thought it was important to call the recent racist violence Islamophobic. “Why is it important to use that specific word?” Kate Garraway repeatedly questioned me.

Almost before I could answer, and behaving with the same sneering condescension he did throughout the segment, the former Labour shadow chancellor and now broadcaster Ed Balls repeatedly interrupted me, seemingly incredulous that I thought this hate should be called by its proper name. The show has now been hit with more than 8,200 Ofcom complaints about that morning’s episode, many of them about his handling of my interview.

This wasn’t a one-off, even for Ed Balls. In the summer of 2010, as he set out his Labour leadership pitch in the Guardian, Balls blamed “eastern European migrants” for a “direct impact on the wages, terms and conditions of too many people”. He’s far from the only Labour figure to echo rightwing talking points: from then leader of the House of Commons Jack Straw, who in 2006 said that he asked veiled Muslim women to remove their veils in meetings with him, to the former Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth recently claiming asylum seekers can stay in hotels for “the rest of their lives”.

…

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/09/enemy-working-class-far-right

Continue ReadingZarah Sultana: The enemy of the working class travels by private jet, not migrant dinghy

Top lawyer urges UK to halt arms sales to Israel following ICJ ruling

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Original article republished from Middle East Monitor under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.. Published on July 31, 2024, the article is still relevant.

Activists drop a banner from Westminster Bridge, calling on Labour leader Keir Starmer to say he’ll end arms sales to Israel if he becomes prime minister, on 3 June 2024, in London, Uk [Luca Marino]

A prominent lawyer who represented Palestine at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has called on the UK to stop selling arms to Israel in light of the court’s recent advisory opinion. Professor Philippe Sands KC, a member of Palestine’s legal team, has called on the new Labour government to comply with the ICJ ruling, which found Israel’s occupation and settlement policies in Palestinian territories to be illegal and found that Israel’s practice in the occupied territories amounted to the crime of apartheid.

The ICJ opinion, issued earlier this month, declared that UN member states have an obligation to neither recognise the occupation as lawful nor assist in its maintenance. Sands emphasised the significance of this ruling for the UK, stating: “The most immediate issue is the obligation in the advisory opinion on the states, which includes the United Kingdom, not to aid or assist in the maintenance of the current situation in the occupied territories of the West Bank, including [East] Jerusalem.”

He explained further: “That legal obligation precludes sales of military material which could be used directly or indirectly to assist Israel in maintaining its unlawful occupation of the occupied Palestinian territories.”

While ICJ advisory opinions are not directly binding on individual UN member states, Sands asserts that it will be “recognised as an authoritative statement of the law and one that the UN and its specialised agencies will follow as law.”

The lawyer also highlighted implications for trade, noting that, “Anything that is produced in the occupied territories, such as food, or that is sold there over the internet, is in principle subject to the international prohibition, if it can be said to aid or assist in the maintenance of the unlawful occupation.”

The ICJ ruling comes at a time when the UK is already under scrutiny regarding arms sales to Israel, particularly in light of Israel’s aggression against the Palestinians in Gaza. The apartheid state is also under investigation by the ICJ for the crime of genocide, the worst of all crimes against a people. The military offensive, launched in response to the 7 October cross-border incursion by Palestinian resistance groups, has claimed the lives of almost 40,000 Palestinians, mainly women and children, and wounded 91,000 others. An estimated 10,000 Palestinians remain missing, presumed dead, under the rubble of their homes and other civilian infrastructure destroyed by Israeli bombs.

There has been widespread speculation about how the new Labour government will respond to the ICJ opinion, particularly concerning arms sales. Labour has recently stated that UK arms sales to Israel have been delayed as ministers review weapons potentially linked to war crimes in Gaza.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy has indicated that officials are conducting a “comprehensive review of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law” and is considering banning certain arms sales to the country.

Sands also addressed the issue of Palestinian statehood, referencing the ICJ statement on “the realisation of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including its right to an independent and sovereign state.” He noted that while recognition of a state is ultimately a political decision, the UK remains part of a “small and diminishing group” that has not recognised Palestine as a state.

As the international community awaits the UK’s official response to the ICJ advisory opinion, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has stated that it is “considering it carefully before responding” and “respects the independence of the ICJ.”

Original article republished from Middle East Monitor under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.. Published on July 31, 2024, the article is still relevant.

UK Labour Party Shadow Foreign Secretary repeatedly heckled at a speech to the Fabian Society over his and the Labour Party's support for and complicity in Israel's genocide of Gaza.
UK Labour Party Shadow Foreign Secretary repeatedly heckled at a speech to the Fabian Society over his and the Labour Party’s support for and complicity in Israel’s genocide of Gaza.
Continue ReadingTop lawyer urges UK to halt arms sales to Israel following ICJ ruling