Jewish Voice for Peace

Thousands to join “Mass March for Humanity” in NYC against Israel’s starvation of Gaza

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Original article by Natalia Marques republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Protesters in New York City protest genocide in Gaza (Photo: Wyatt Souers)

Amid Israel’s starvation of Gaza, a broad coalition of pro-Palestine groups are planning a march of thousands through the streets of New York City

On Saturday, August 16, demonstrators are set to march in protest of Israel’s starvation of Gaza in a “Mass March for Humanity” through the streets of New York City. Over 200 organizations have endorsed, coming from an array of diverse backgrounds including the Palestinian diaspora, pro-Palestine solidarity groups, labor unions, anti-war groups, faith groups, and others. Buses are set to travel from across the northeastern United States, including from Baltimore, Boston, Burlington, New Hampshire, Philadelphia, Providence and Washington, DC.

Endorsing organizations include, but are not limited to, the Palestinian Youth Movement, the People’s Forum, the ANSWER Coalition, the Arab American Association of New York, the Palestinian American Organizations Network, American Muslims for Palestine, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Democratic Socialists of America, SEIU Local 509, Jewish Voice for Peace, CODEPINK, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Green Party of the United States, Healthcare Workers For Palestine, the National Women’s Studies Association, and Doctors Against Genocide.

Doctors take a stand against mass death

“​​Genocide will never stop without global intervention,” Dr. Nidal Jboor, the cofounder of Doctors Against Genocide, told Peoples Dispatch. In May of this year, Jboor was arrested while sitting in a US congressional building holding a sign that read “Let the children eat. Let the children live,” while Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. 

“We cannot abandon the victims to the mercy of their killers. Humanity must rise, mobilize, and save the starved population of Gaza – because governments will not act unless we force them to through relentless, unyielding pressure,” said Jboor. 

Members of Doctors Against Genocide, along with over 100 medical professionals across the globe who have volunteered in Gaza have signed onto a letter in solidarity with Palestinian medical workers. 

“We refuse to remain silent while our colleagues are being starved, and shot by Israel,” the letter reads. “Palestinian health workers are collapsing from hunger while performing surgeries, operating without basic medical supplies, and enduring relentless attacks on hospitals, clinics, and ambulances.” 

The letter demands urgent protection for Palestinian civilians and healthcare workers, an end to attacks on medical facilities, the lifting of Israel’s blockade to allow full humanitarian access, an immediate and permanent ceasefire, and accountability for those responsible for violence and abuses in Gaza.

Journalists’ contingent to denounce Israel’s targeting of Palestinian journalists 

The recent assassination of six Palestinian journalists by Israeli forces, including Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif on Sunday, August 10, has fueled a surge of outrage. On Saturday, journalists and media workers will join the demonstration to denounce the attacks on their colleagues in Gaza. 

Among these journalists include a group of writers organized by Writers Against the War on Gaza, a group that has been active since the first weeks of the genocide in October of 2023. WAWOG’s organizing hit the ground running with bold, targeted action against mainstream media outlets, including blocking a shipment of the New York Times newspaper at its printing plant in Queens, New York in March of 2024.

According to Nicki Kattoura, a member of WAWOG, “there is no press freedom if Palestinian journalists are being killed.” 

“Israel is targeting Palestinian journalists because they are threatened by the exposure of their war crimes,” says Kattoura. “But we also find, this is not the whole story, politically, although it may be, and also feels true, psychologically.”

“One thing that we can say with certainty is that Israel is killing Palestinian journalists because they are Palestinian. The Zionist entity’s clear stated intent is to exterminate the Palestinian people,” Kattoura continued. “And I would say the killing of Hossam Shabat or Anas Al-Sharif is as much about breaking the Palestinian spirit, because they are the beloved voices of the Palestinian people, as it is about ethnically cleansing the Gaza Strip.”

Original article by Natalia Marques republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.


Continue ReadingThousands to join “Mass March for Humanity” in NYC against Israel’s starvation of Gaza

Jewish Americans and Allies Occupy Trump Tower Demanding Release of Mahmoud Khalil

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Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Common Dreams is publishing many quality articles.

Demostrators from the human rights organization Jewish Voice for Peace hold a civil disobedience action inside Trump Tower in New York on March 13, 2025.
 (Photo: Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)

“We know what happens when an autocratic regime starts taking away our rights and scapegoating and we will not be silent.”

This is a developing story… Please check back for possible updates…

Nearly a year and a half after the advocacy group Jewish Voice for Peace began leading nationwide demonstrations against Israel’s U.S.-backed assault on Gaza, hundreds of organizers and supporters of the group risked arrest Thursday as they assembled in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York City, demanding the release of Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil.

“Three hundred Jews and friends in Trump Tower, because we know what happens when an autocratic regime starts taking away our rights and scapegoating and we will not be silent,” said Sonya Meyerson-Knox, communications director for Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). “Come for one—face us all.”

The latter phrase was emblazoned on banners that were displayed by campaigners, who chanted, “Never again for anyone, never again is now!” and, “Free Mahmoud, free them all!”

New York City police officers began arresting participants in the sit-in early in the afternoon.

Jane Hirschmann, a Jewish New York resident whose grandfather and uncle were abducted by the Nazis in Germany as Adolf Hitler rose to power, said Khalil’s detention “is further proof that we are on the brink of a full takeover by an authoritarian regime.”

“As Jews of conscience, we know our history and we know where this leads,” said Hirschmann. “This is what fascists do as they cement control. This moment requires all people of conscience to take bold action to resist state violence and repression. Free Mahmoud now.”

Actors Morgan Spector, Debra Winger, and Arliss Howard were in attendance at the sit-in, along with writer and artist Molly Crabapple and New York City Council member Alexa Aviles.

Khalil was abducted by plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents last Saturday night as he was returning home to his Columbia-owned apartment with his wife, who is eight months pregnant. He was a graduate student at the university until this past December, and took a central organizing role in student-led protests and negotiations against Columbia’s investment in companies that profit from Israel’s apartheid policy in Gaza, including the bombardment it began in October 2023 in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack.

Khalil, a legal U.S. resident and a citizen of Algeria, was detained under the State Department’s “catch and revoke” program, with the Trump administration revoking his green card and threatening to deport him. Administration officials have admitted that they are not accusing Khalil of breaking any laws by participating in Palestinian solidarity protests, but they said he is viewed as “adversarial to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States of America.”

After a hearing Wednesday, a federal judge is considering whether Khalil should be sent back to New York, where he was detained, from the Louisiana ICE facility where he is being held. The same judge blocked Khalil’s deportation this week.

Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Common Dreams is publishing many quality articles.

Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Continue ReadingJewish Americans and Allies Occupy Trump Tower Demanding Release of Mahmoud Khalil

Now ‘Things Get Much Worse’: Palestinian Rights Movement Under Threat as Trump Returns

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

Demonstrators march toward the Trump International Hotel & Tower demanding an end to Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip after the presidential election in Chicago, Illinois, on November 6, 2024. (Photo: Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“This administration will likely be coming very quickly to try to take down the Palestinian rights movement,” said a Jewish Voice for Peace Action leader.

Victims of violence by U.S.-armed Israeli forces and advocates for Palestinian rights across the United States are sounding the alarm over Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s looming return to the White House and GOP control of Congress.

President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and the divided 118th Congress have faced intense criticism for giving Israel diplomatic and weapons support to kill at least 45,581 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip over the past 15 months and attack Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. The outgoing Democratic administration and lawmakers have also faced backlash for their response to anti-war protests, particularly on U.S. university campuses, some of which were met with police brutality.

However, recent reporting in the United States and Israel has highlighted fear about promises from Trump and his Republican Party that, as the Israeli newspaper Haaretz put it last week, a “quick and complete” crackdown “on pro-Palestinian sentiment in America will be a defining factor of his administration’s early days.”

“The Palestinian rights movement is very clear-eyed in understanding that it is very likely that this Trump administration will mean that things get much worse for Palestinians.”

Beth Miller, political director of the advocacy group Jewish Voice for Peace Action, told Politico on Wednesday that “the Palestinian rights movement is very clear-eyed in understanding that it is very likely that this Trump administration will mean that things get much worse for Palestinians.”

“This administration will likely be coming very quickly to try to take down the Palestinian rights movement,” Miller added.

Leaders with the Adalah Justice Project and Arab American Institute also noted concerns about efforts to silence advocates and even dismantle organizations—some of which are already underway. In November, 15 House Democrats joined all but one Republican in voting for the so-called Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act (H.R. 9495).

The legislation would enable the U.S. Treasury Department to revoke the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit it deems a “terrorist-supporting organization” without due process. Advocates for various causes have condemned what they call the “nonprofit killer bill.”

Although H.R. 9495 never made it through the Democrat-held Senate, Republicans are set to take over the chamber on Friday. The GOP will also retain control of the House, which during this session has repeatedly voted to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism, or discrimination against Jews.

In addition to likely facing a new wave of legislative attacks—potentially spearheaded by GOP leaders like incoming House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast (R-Fla.), a U.S. military veteran who has volunteered with the Israel Defense Forces and denied the existence of “innocent Palestinian civilians”—rights advocates in the United States could be targeted by key officials in the next Trump administration.

As Haaretz recently detailed, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, Trump’s second choice to lead the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ); Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), his nominee for secretary of state; and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), his candidate for ambassador to the United Nations, have expressed support for deporting pro-Palestinian protesters who have student visas.

Although former federal prosecutor Kash Patel, Trump’s pick to direct the Federal Bureau of Investigation, “doesn’t have much of a record on campus protests, he is most notorious for his desire to remove any of Trump’s critics and doubters from the national security apparatus,” the newspaper noted. “Further, Patel’s experience as the National Security Council’s senior director of counterterrorism during Trump’s first term positions him to crack down on pro-Palestinian sympathizers.”

Aggressively anti-Palestinian appointees, who tend to describe all campus protesters as Hamas supporters, will soon steer both foreign and domestic policy, creating a Trump administration united in seeking a crackdown on the pro-Palestinian movement. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/…

— John Sloboda (@johnsloboda.bsky.social) 2024-12-26T23:07:07.299Z

Haaretz also highlighted comments from Harmeet Dhillon, Trump’s pick to lead the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, and Linda McMahon, his nominee for education secretary, as well as Project Esther: A National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism—an October proposal from the Heritage Foundation, the right-wing think tank that is also behind the sweeping Project 2025 policy agenda.

“The virulently anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and anti-American groups comprising the so-called pro-Palestinian movement inside the United States are exclusively pro-Palestine and—more so—pro-Hamas,” states the Project Esther report. “They are part of a highly organized, global Hamas Support Network (HSN) and therefore effectively a terrorist support network.”

Two co-chairs of the Heritage-backed National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, James Carafano and Ellie Cohanim, wrote earlier this week at the Washington Examiner that “Project Esther is a blueprint to save the U.S. from those utilizing antisemitism to destroy it.”

“The objective is to dismantle the infrastructure by denying it the resources required for its antisemitic activity,” they argued. “Targeting the groups and organizations that receive the funding and deploy it to their grassroots followers who engage in antisemitic activity, the useful idiots we see on college campuses, for example, will divorce the means from the opportunity, thereby rendering these activists incapable of threatening U.S. citizens.”

Posting the piece on X—the social media platform owned by billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk—Carafano declared that “when Donald Trump starts to take on the global intifada he will need partners. We will need to be there.”

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

Continue ReadingNow ‘Things Get Much Worse’: Palestinian Rights Movement Under Threat as Trump Returns

Voices Against ‘Extermination Campaign’ in Gaza Call Out to the World: ‘This Has to Stop!’

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

Jewish Voice for Peace activists and allies protest at NBC headquarters in New York City on February 26, 2024. (Photo: Jewish Voice for Peace New York)

“The president needs to start answering to the American people—not the far-right Israeli government indiscriminately bombing the people of Gaza,” said Jewish Voice for Peace.

The historic wave of Jewish-led protests against U.S. complicity in Isreal’s genocidal war on Gaza continued Monday as members of the group Jewish Voice for Peace were arrested for occupying NBC headquarters in New York City in a bid to disrupt the taping of President Joe Biden’s appearance on a popular late-night TV show.

JVP activists wearing shirts reading “Not In Our Name” unfurled banners and chanted slogans inside 30 Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan, where Biden was taping an interview with the eponymous host of the “Late Night Show With Seth Meyers.”

“Biden, Biden, you can’t hide, you are funding genocide,” the protesters chanted. Banners implored the president to “Stop Arming Genocide” and push for a “Lasting Cease-Fire” in Gaza, where more than 100,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded and around 90% of the population has been forcibly displaced since the October 7 attacks on Israel.

“President Biden’s deadly foreign policy has expedited weapons sales to Israel,” said Jewish Voice for Peace New York, which also criticized the administration for ignoring the International Court of Justice’s provisional ruling last month that Israel is “plausibly” perpetrating genocide, suspending funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, and vetoing three U.N. cease-fire resolutions.

“The president needs to start answering to the American people—not the far-right Israeli government indiscriminately bombing the people of Gaza, destroying 70% of infrastructure, including hospitals, universities, and the electricity and water grids,” the group added.

Jay Saper of JVP said Monday that “our Jewish tradition teaches us that life is precious.”

“As Jewish New Yorkers, we are absolutely outraged that President Biden is actively supporting a genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza,” he added.

In addition to taping Tuesday’s “Late Night” episode, Biden and Meyers visited the on-site Van Leeuwen ice cream parlor, where the president ordered mint chip in a sugar cone. While there, a reporter asked when there would be a cease-fire in Gaza.

“My national security adviser tells me that we’re close, we’re close; it’s not done yet,” Biden replied. “My hope is by next Monday we’ll have a cease-fire.”

Early in the war, Biden proclaimed his “rock-solid and unwavering” commitment to Israel while refusing to call for a cease-fire. As Israeli bombs and bullets killed and maimed tens of thousands of Palestinians—mostly women and children—the president asked for over $14 billion in additional U.S. military aid to Israel, which already receives nearly $4 billion from Washington annually. Biden also repeatedly circumvented Congress to expedite emergency military assistance to the key Middle East ally.

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

Continue ReadingVoices Against ‘Extermination Campaign’ in Gaza Call Out to the World: ‘This Has to Stop!’

Conservative US lawmakers hound pro-Palestine organizations

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Original article republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Volunteers meet at the People’s Forum to organize Palestine solidarity efforts around New York City. (Photo: Wyatt Souers)

Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and other Republican lawmakers launch direct attack against organizations standing with Palestine

On September 25, Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson took to social media to attack several pro-Palestine organizations, which have been leading in the solidarity movement across the United States. Johnson referenced the action taken by the United States House Committee on Ways and Means, led by conservative Representative Jason Smith, which has called on the IRS to revoke the tax-exempt status of eight organizations. According to Smith, these organizations have “organized and subsidized illegal activity on college campuses and beyond and have potentially provided support to terrorist organizations overseas.”

The eight organizations are the Alliance for Global Justice, the Westchester Peace Action Committee Foundation, Jewish Voice for Peace, Islamic Relief USA, United Hands Relief, the Peoples Forum, Tides, and Americans for Justice in Palestine Educational Foundation. 

“[Jason Smith] and [House Republicans] are putting you on notice. Your tax-exempt status should be revoked immediately,” Johnson said.

Some organizations have responded to these attacks and rejecting what they call political persecution. The Peoples Forum, a New York City based social movement center, was accused by the Ways and Means Committee of engaging “in conduct directly intended to incite riots, cause chaos, and disrupt education on college and university campuses and beyond, all despite its stated tax-exempt purpose and mission designed to support the working class.”

“This conduct is designed to sow chaos and discord in our society, has involved illegal activities, and certainly is not in furtherance of any tax-exempt purpose,” the accusation continues. 

The People’s Forum wrote in a statement, “Right-wing Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson has joined other Republican leaders in a major political attack designed to criminalize dissent, and silence those who oppose the Israeli genocide in Gaza. The allegations are “reminiscent of the worst part of the McCarthy Era,” the organization wrote.

Original article republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Continue ReadingConservative US lawmakers hound pro-Palestine organizations