Mass-murdering cnuts. If they collaborate and facilitate genocide aren’t they just as bad as the soldiers actually doing it? Would it happen without them facilitating it? If they’re collaborating with Fascists, aren’t they Fascists themselves?
14/8/24 Mass-murderers of children.
‘Genocide Joe’ Biden
Kamala Harris
Democratic Party
Keir Starmer
David Lammy
Angela Rayner
Rachel Reeves
The UK cabinet
UK Labour Party
We are oppose Fascists
Original article by Natalia Marques republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
Following the first day of the Democratic National Convention, which runs from August 19 to 22 in Chicago, delegates voted to approved the 2024 Democratic Party platform. Notably, the platform still reads: “President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Democrats are running to finish the job.”
While there are still no concrete policies outlined in the Harris-Walz official campaign website, the 2024 Democratic Party platform can be seen as the first glimpse into what this administration promises to offer to the people of the US.
Many were waiting to see if the platform would indicate any changes to the Democratic Party’s unconditional support for Israel, given the mass movement for Palestine ongoing in the US since October 7. The document reveals that the Democratic Party policies will not shift in any major way, and it still outlines a plan for continued war on the people of the West Asia region.
The US in recent weeks has intensified efforts to reach an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian resistance groups in the latest round of ceasefire negotiations in Qatar and Egypt. However, this current push has been widely criticized for continuing to undermine bare minimum red lines from Palestinians. A widening of the current genocidal war on Gaza has become a likely possibility following the assassinations of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr and Hamas leader and key negotiator Ismail Haniyeh while he was in Iran. Both Hezbollah and Iran have vowed to retaliate.
In their platform, the Democrats show that they still stand outside of international laws and consensus in declaring that the party “opposes any effort to unfairly single out and delegitimize Israel, including at the United Nations or through the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement,” and that “President Biden and Vice President Harris believe a strong, secure, and democratic Israel is vital to the interests of the United States.”
Palestinian journalist Ali Abunimah points out the irony that the platform begins with a so-called land acknowledgement which is meant to acknowledge the country’s Indigenous people and land, while the Democrats are “arming the genocide of another Indigenous people.”
According to Abunimah, the platform is “completely out of touch with the base of the Democratic Party.” He continues, “this is not a platform that represents Democratic voters,” most of whom support an end to US aid to Israel.
The Democratic Party machine has shifted their nominee from “Genocide Joe” Biden to Kamala Harris, in an attempt to rebrand their candidate as not being as directly associated with the US arming and enabling of Israel’s genocide. However, the movement for Palestine has continued to put pressure on the party, pointing out that not only has Harris been a crucial figure in the Biden administration as vice president, but the party as a whole continues to play a role in sustaining unshakeable support for Israel.
This year’s DNC counter-protests have unsurprisingly focused on calling out the party’s significant complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Since October, people across the US have called on their elected officials at all levels and of both mainstream parties to call for a ceasefire and an arms embargo against Israel. And yet, Biden’s administration has done nothing but double down in its support for Israel. Last week on August 14, the Pentagon approved a USD 20 billion weapons sale to Israel. The US Congress not only invited Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to speak in a special joint session on July 24, but also gave him a standing ovation.
On Monday August 19, the first day of the DNC in Chicago, thousands of people participated in a mass march with grassroots organizations, including CODEPINK, the ANSWER Coalition, American Muslims for Palestine, and Jewish Voice for Peace. The crowd of protesters even managed to breach the security fence outside of the convention.
In addition to the mass mobilizations outside the convention, activists have also been disrupting events related to the convention itself to voice their protest to delegates directly.
A Palestine solidarity activist disrupted a welcome party for Democratic Party delegates in Chicago, hopping onto the stage and shouting into the microphone, “you are funding a genocide! The Harris-Biden administration keeps pumping money to Israel!” before being dragged away by security.
A protester also confronted former Speaker of the House and leading Democrat Nancy Pelosi at a DNC event on feminism, asking her, “what do you have to say about all of the women in Gaza who have been murdered?” Pelosi avoided the question.
Harris’ running mate Tim Walz, current Governor of Minnesota, was disrupted by activists with anti-war group CODEPINK at the DNC women’s caucus on Tuesday. Activists shouted “stop killing women in Gaza!” and “arms embargo now!” while Walz’s supporters chanted in response “USA! USA!”
This year’s DNC is also marked by the dozens of delegates representing the around 700,000 people across various states who cast “uncommitted” or protest votes in their respective Democratic Party primaries when Biden was the presumptive nominee. The uncommitted delegates are keeping up the pressure on Harris to change the US’s policy on Israel, and requesting that Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, who volunteered in Gaza, be permitted to address the convention.
Original article by Natalia Marques republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Amid reports that government officials have expressed doubt that the United Kingdom can continue supporting Israel’s assault on Gaza without breaking international law, a legal expert commissioned by a rights group warned the Labour Party on Wednesday that government ministers could be liable for possible war crimes committed by the Israel Defense Forces.
Global Justice Now director Nick Dearden wrote to Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Wednesday, advising him that the organization has commissioned a leading lawyer, Sam Fowles of Cornerstone Barristers, to provide a legal analysis of the U.K.’s potential breach of international law via its support for Israel.
Fowles determined that “the U.K. and individuals, including government ministers and senior civil servants, may be liable for crimes committed by the Israeli state or Israeli personnel during the country’s ongoing military operation in Gaza and through the country’s unlawful occupation of Gaza and the West Bank,” wrote Dearden, with the potential liability arising from the U.K.’s continued “aid and assistance provided to Israel.”
The legal opinion, said Tim Bierley, campaigner for Global Justice Now, should send “alarm bells… sounding across Whitehall.”
“The U.K. government is putting its own ministers and civil servants at risk of prosecution by its continued failure to withhold support for Israel,” he said.
In a 28-page report, Fowles pointed to the U.K.’s involvement with Israel since October 2023, when the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began its bombardment of Gaza in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.
U.K. surveillance aircraft have reportedly flown more than 200 missions over Gaza to assist Israel since October, and about 100 Royal Marines were sent to the Eastern Mediterranean shortly after the Hamas attack. The U.K. has also sent military aid to Israel and granted at least 42 new weapons licenses since Israel began its operations in Gaza, where Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered the IDF to release “all the restraints” that would protect civilian lives.
Israel’s full-scale assault on Gaza has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom have been women and children, and has included numerous strikes on so-called “humanitarian zones.” It has also included Israel’s blocking of nearly all humanitarian aid, leading to a mass starvation crisis that United Nations experts last month said qualifies as famine, and the spread of diseases including polio.
According to Fowles’ legal analysis, said Dearden, the U.K. government “could be liable for Israel’s alleged breaches of international humanitarian law and crimes against humanity during its military operation in Gaza since October 2023.”
Fowles also found potential liability for “Israel’s breaches of the right to self-determination and the prohibition of obtaining territory by aggression in its illegal and ongoing occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.”
The barrister pointed out that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled on July 19 that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza is unlawful and that it breached international law by obtaining control of the territories by force. The ICJ also ruled in January that it was plausible that Israel has violated Gaza residents’ rights under the Genocide Convention since October 2023.
Fowles’ finding that the U.K. and its high-level government officials could be liable for war crimes was also bolstered, he said, by a report presented in May by the U.N.’s Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which found Israel “had committed multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Dearden wrote that Global Justice Now is hopeful that the findings will lead to “the swift and decisive action needed to end U.K. complicity in Israel’s war crimes,” particularly following the decision of Foreign Office official Mark Smith to resign from the government this week, saying there is “no justification” for continued arms sales to Israel.
The government is reportedly considering an arms embargo on Israel, but Dearden noted that on July 29, officials announced they were “seeking to develop a new trade deal with Israel.”
“We seek to highlight the legal advice which states that ‘it seems likely that the U.K., through its trade relationship with Israel, has helped facilitate the unlawful occupation,'” wrote Dearden.
Earlier this year, lawyers for the Conservative government that was voted out in July advised officials that Israel, with U.K. support, has breached international humanitarian law.
“What on Earth is [the government] waiting for?” asked Bierley. “It is long overdue for the U.K. to match words with actions by immediately suspending arms sales, trade talks, and other aid and assistance to Israel.”
Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Original article by JAKE JOHNSON republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Sen. Bernie Sanders said during his primetime appearance at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night that overturning the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision should be “at the very top” of the party’s list of priorities, particularly given the outsized role that billionaires and dark-money groups have played in recent elections.
“Billionaires in both parties should not be able to buy elections, including primary elections,” Sanders (I-Vt.) said in his speech to Democratic delegates and activists gathered in Chicago. “For the sake of our democracy, we must overturn the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision and move toward public funding of elections.”
Sanders, a two-time Democratic presidential candidate, argued during his remarks that billionaire and corporate influence on U.S. elections is a major barrier obstructing policy changes that are overwhelmingly popular with the American public.
“These oligarchs tell us we shouldn’t tax the rich,” said the Vermont senator. “The oligarchs tell us we shouldn’t take on price gouging; we shouldn’t expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing, and vision; and we shouldn’t increase Social Security benefits for struggling seniors.”
“Well I’ve got some bad news for them: That is precisely what we are going to do, and we’re going to win this struggle because this is precisely what the American people want from their government,” he continued.
Watch Sanders’ full speech:
According to the campaign finance watchdog OpenSecrets, super PACs—products of the 2010 Citizens United decision—and other outside groups have already spent more than $1 billion on federal elections this cycle, far outpacing previous election years.
The largest spender thus far has been Make America Great Again Inc., a super PAC supporting Republican nominee Donald Trump.
OpenSecrets also found that so-called “guardian angel” megadonors—”a term for big donors who supply 40% or more of a committee’s funds and are a political group’s top contributor”—have spent nearly $200 million so far this cycle.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s super PAC, which is funded by Republican billionaires, has spent big on Democratic primary contests this year in an effort to oust lawmakers who have backed a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. Two members of the progressive “Squad”—Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.)—recently lost primary contests to AIPAC-backed Democrats.
“We must take on Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Egg, Big Tech, and all the other corporate monopolists whose greed is denying progress for working people.”
In recent years, Sanders has repeatedly urged the Democratic Party to ban super PAC spending in its primaries, arguing that it’s hypocritical for Democrats to call for campaign finance reform while simultaneously allowing billionaire-funded groups to pour staggering sums into their primary contests.
“What you’re seeing from AIPAC and other super PACs is simply outrageous,” Sanders said earlier this week. “Democrats often talk about the need to end Citizens United, and we agree. They talk about moving to public funding of elections. But if you’re serious about the power of money in politics, you can say today, sorry, no super PACs allowed in primaries.”
During his DNC speech on Tuesday, Sanders also demanded an immediate cease-fire to end Israel’s “horrific war in Gaza” and said he looks forward to working with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, to pass an agenda that strengthens public education, slashes prescription drug prices, and expands healthcare to all.
“Let us be very clear: This is not a radical agenda,” said Sanders. “But let me tell you what a radical agenda is, and that is Trump’s Project 2025. At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, giving more tax breaks to billionaires is radical. Putting forth budgets to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid is radical. Letting polluters destroy our planet is radical.”
“We must take on Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Egg, Big Tech, and all the other corporate monopolists whose greed is denying progress for working people,” Sanders continued. “On November 5, let us elect Kamala Harris as our president and let us go forward to create the nation we know we can become.”
Campaign FinanceCitizens UnitedDemocratic National CommitteeDemocratic PartyDonald TrumpElection 2024Kamala HarrisOligarchyProject 2025Bernie Sanders
Original article by JAKE JOHNSON republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).