Gaza
NYU Philosophy Graduate Students Call for Divestment
“Six months on from the brutal Hamas attacks of October 7th, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed… Some 1.9 million people… have been displaced. Over two hundred aid workers have been killed during the conflict. At least 103 reporters are dead… Gaza is facing a famine. As long as it continues to invest in war, NYU is implicated in this devastation. Divestment is an issue of dire moral urgency…”
That’s from a statement issued by some current and former graduate students in the philosophy program at New York University.
In the statement, they make several demands regarding police presence on campus, allowing peaceful protest, disclosure of the university’s financial investments, and the divestment “from weapons manufacturers, war profiteers, and other companies complicit in the Israeli military’s ongoing war in Gaza.”
The full statement is below.
Statement on Divestment and NYU’s Response to Protesters
We, the undersigned graduate students and recent alumni of the NYU Department of Philosophy, join the NYU chapter of the American Association of University Professors and members of the faculties of the Departments of Philosophy, History, Sociology, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, the School of Law and many others in condemning the NYU administration’s decision to call NYPD officers to arrest peaceful protesters on the night of April 22nd and the morning of May 3rd. We also stand in solidarity with the graduate students of the Columbia University Department of Philosophy, who released a statement on April 29th decrying similar police involvement in peaceful protest on their campus.
On April 22nd, NYPD officers, many in riot gear, arrested over 100 peaceful protestors at NYU’s Gould Plaza, including students and faculty. Since then, the past two weeks have seen NYPD officers use stun grenades, tasers and pepper spray to injure student protesters at Columbia and CCNY; faculty members violently slammed to the ground by police at Emory; and violent, hours-long, explicitly racist assaults on peaceful protesters at UCLA. Despite nationwide condemnation of these events, including condemnation of violence committed specifically by the NYPD, NYU’s administration once again made the irresponsible decision on May 3rd to invite NYPD officers onto campus. These officers arrested a further 14 students who were protesting peacefully at the Greene Street encampment. The increasingly brutal responses of universities across the country to mostly peaceful student protesters have only worked to further erode trust and create a cross-campus atmosphere of antagonism and fear. Rather than follow this dark path, we urge NYU administrators to deescalate by removing NYPD presence from campus and engaging with protesters in good faith.
Beyond these issues of free speech, we call on the university to directly address the demands of the anti-war movement. Institutional neutrality on questions of academic interest is essential for free inquiry. But, for better or worse, the modern university is not merely a place of learning: universities are also employers, landlords and investors. It is reasonable and correct for students and employees to hold these institutions accountable for their actions as economic entities. Indeed, given the clear academic interest in the question of the legitimacy of the ongoing war in Gaza, we believe that the university can only maintain institutional neutrality by disaffiliating itself from the companies involved in prosecuting that war.
But divestment from war is not just an academic question. Six months on from the brutal Hamas attacks of October 7th, more than 34,000 Palestinians – most of them women and children – have been killed by the disproportionate Israeli military response. Some 1.9 million people, the vast majority of Gaza’s population, have been displaced. Over two hundred aid workers have been killed during the conflict. At least 103 reporters are dead; they make up over 75% of the total number of reporters killed worldwide in 2023. Gaza is facing a famine. As long as it continues to invest in war, NYU is implicated in this devastation. Divestment is an issue of dire moral urgency, and demands an immediate response.
Some have argued that NYU’s investments are simply too tied up in a complex network of managed funds and diversified assets to be efficiently divested; others, like NYU SVP for Public Affairs John Beckman, have claimed in public statements that divesting from implicated institutions would have financial consequences for NYU’s endowment. It is impossible to assess the force of these concerns unless NYU fully discloses its current investment portfolio. Even without disclosure, however, neither claim provides a meaningful defense against divestment. Investment portfolios of NYU’s scale have a range of options, and the administration has an obligation to explore these thoroughly and in good faith. NYU cannot claim to run an ethical institution unless it is capable of investing in a socially responsible manner that involves full oversight and knowledge of its investments.
To all of these ends, we demand that the NYU administration:
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- Immediately remove all NYPD presence from campus,
- Pledge to never again call police to arrest NYU students, faculty, staff or community members for exercising their right to peaceful protest,
- Provide general amnesty for and reverse any outstanding disciplinary measures, such as there are, against any and all students, staff and faculty members involved in peaceful protest,
- Disclose all investments and financial assets,
- Engage in a good-faith process to divest from weapons manufacturers, war profiteers, and other companies complicit in the Israeli military’s ongoing war in Gaza.
Precedent is on the students’ side. Divestment is possible. In 1985, NYU divested from South African Apartheid. In the last few years, universities across the country, including NYU, have begun divesting from fossil fuels. As of this week, Brown University has announced that it will formally consider divestment from the Israeli military. Faculty at Pomona College have already voted in favor of divestment. We urge NYU to listen to its students and stand on the right side of history.
Signed:
Carl Christian Abrahamsen (graduate student)
Cristina Ballarini (graduate student)
Evan Behrle (graduate student)
Banafsheh Beizaei (alum)
Daniel Brinkerhoff Young (alum)
Caroline Bowman (alum, lecturer)
Preston Budd (graduate student)
Clifford Carr (graduate student)
Tez Clark (graduate student)
Sophie Côte (graduate student)
Nikhil Dominic (graduate student)
John Fan (graduate student)
Tom Forster (graduate student)
Iliana Gioulatou (graduate student)
Noga Gratvol (graduate student)
Eugene Ho (graduate student)
Jenny Judge (alum)
Bin Hui Kwon (graduate student)
Clara Lingle (graduate student)
Annette Martín (alum)
Ariel Melamedoff (graduate student)
Laura Mora (graduate student)
William Nava (graduate student)
Samuel Rogers (graduate student)
Rose Ryan Flinn (graduate student)
Alec Sault (graduate student)
Soren Schlassa (graduate student)
Daniel Sharp (alum)
Kimon Sourlas-Kotzamanis (graduate student)
Christopher Sun (graduate student)
Rioghnach Theakston (graduate student)
Justin Zacek (graduate student)
The post NYU Philosophy Graduate Students Call for Divestment first appeared on Daily Nous.
Biden Is Deeply Concerned About Israel’s Behavior, Media Claims
President Joe Biden is deeply concerned and worried about Israeli behavior in Gaza. We know this because corporate media constantly tell us this.
Biden, we are told, is “outraged” by Israeli missile strikes that kill civilians, has privately warned that his administration’s patience is wearing thin, ordered Netanyahu to do everything in his power to protect civilians and even branded Netanyahu an “asshole”, in a sign of supposed increasing tensions between the two leaders.
Yet these leaks stand in total contrast to the very public actions of President Biden and his administration, which have repeatedly stated that there are no “red lines” that Israel could cross, effectively giving it a free hand to carry out whatever violence it wishes with no consequences. In this video for MintPress News and Behind the Headlines, MintPress Senior Staff Writer and Podcast Producer Alan MacLeod delves into this disparity and explains why we are constantly told that Biden does not like what is going on and not to believe our lying eyes.
Most of these stories, MacLeod notes, are based on little more than anonymous leaks from U.S. government officials and repeated credulously by sympathetic, well-connected reporters. These reporters ignore mountains of evidence to the contrary to carry weight for the administration, effectively helping them wash the blood off their hands and distance themselves from the genocide they are actively supporting. In doing so, corporate media who publish these stories are aiding the U.S. government to get away with murder and are doing a disservice to the public, who are increasingly turning against Israel and its actions.
Washington, after all, has approved more than $100 billion worth of arms sales to Israel since October 7 and has gone out of its way to protect Israel diplomatically, including blocking Palestinian statehood at the United Nations and threatening the International Criminal Court.
Every day, Palestinian homes, schools, hospitals and places of worship are being destroyed by U.S.-made bombs supplied to Israel with the blessing of President Biden. Corporate media, however, are trying to convince the public that Biden is deeply angry and concerned by the violence and by the positions that the Israeli government has taken.
MacLeod concludes that we need a truly independent media that will hold governments and other powerful entities to account. Unfortunately, if this example is anything to go by, we are a long way from having that.
Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams.
The post Biden Is Deeply Concerned About Israel’s Behavior, Media Claims appeared first on MintPress News.
The Destruction Of Gaza SHOULD Be Radicalizing People
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):
https://medium.com/media/0a8bfe21c338a93a4bbb83ed826d7638/href
What’s happening in Gaza should radicalize you. It absolutely should.
Right now, even as its own criminality hits fever pitch, the western political-media class is fretting with increasing shrillness about young people getting “radicalized” and turned against their government by the spread of information and ideas at campus demonstrations and on TikTok.
But young people should be radicalizing right now. Everyone should.
When you see Israel rejecting a Hamas ceasefire and beginning its long-threatened assault on Rafah (the last so-called “safe zone” in Gaza), that should radicalize you.
https://medium.com/media/e2ac53fa45d15c62748df79cceb6fdb7/href
When you see US senators assist this horrifying onslaught by publicly threatening the International Criminal Court if they dare to indict Israeli officials for war crimes, that should radicalize you.
When you see Israel shutting down Al Jazeera to quash news reporting about its criminality immediately before launching this mass atrocity, that should radicalize you.
When you see The New York Times receiving a Pulitzer Prize for its scandalously discredited, notoriously biased and widely-mocked Gaza coverage, that should radicalize you.
When you see the US president publicly supporting and encouraging violent police crackdowns against protesters opposing his genocidal actions in Gaza, that should radicalize you.
If the so-called “moderate” position of your nation’s political status quo is to accept, normalize, support and defend the sort of evil that is being inflicted upon the people of Gaza, then you should want to get as far away from that “moderate” position as possible, and you should seek the complete annihilation of that political status quo.
https://medium.com/media/366d54663c9a4430b420efbf1e8e70e1/href
This obvious point is being aggressively attacked with rapidly intensifying frenzy by the empire and its lackeys.
After police violently shut down anti-genocide campus demonstrations in New York City, Mayor Eric Adams said “There is a movement to radicalize young people, and I’m not going to wait until it’s done… I’m not going to allow that to happen as the mayor of the City of New York,” as though preventing the spread of radical political opinions is something a mayor is elected to do in the United States.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry ominously told the press that there is “some organization” who is “radicalizing our students,” and that the New York police force intends to “find out who that is.” Again, the implication being that it is the job of the police to control the spread of unauthorized political opinions.
In an article with the incredibly propagandistic headline “Anti-Israel protests infiltrated by ‘outside agitators’ who radicalize students, sow violence,” The Washington Times presented these unevidenced assertions from New York City officials as though they are established fact instead of highly convenient fiction.
In a talk at the McCain Institute on Friday, Senator Mitt Romney told Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Congress supports banning TikTok because it shares information that turns people’s opinions against Israel, saying such information has a “very, very challenging effect on the narrative.”
Arnaud Bertrand on Twitter: "Incredible mask-off moment: Romney and Blinken say that the ban of TikTok was directly because "the emotion, the impact of images has a very challenging effect on the narrative", the narrative being "Israel's PR".pic.twitter.com/WkIGTAXG2X / Twitter"
Incredible mask-off moment: Romney and Blinken say that the ban of TikTok was directly because "the emotion, the impact of images has a very challenging effect on the narrative", the narrative being "Israel's PR".pic.twitter.com/WkIGTAXG2X
A new report from The Intercept reveals that congressmen Mike Lawler and Josh Gottheimer called on the FBI to investigate campus protesters at a “centrist” political group called No Labels, suggesting there these demonstrations have a nefarious support system which the federal police should look into.
The Wall Street Journal has been losing its mind over the campus protests, posting articles with headlines like “Activist Groups Trained Students for Months Before Campus Protests” and “Rules for Campus Radicals, 2024 — A website reveals the planning and strategy behind the current college mayhem” which suggest that there is something sinister and unacceptable about these demonstrations receiving support from “longtime activists and left-wing groups.”
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough went full Alex Jones on his show last week, telling his audience that these university protests have been happening because Qatar has “poured hundreds of millions of dollars into American universities to have a radicalizing effect on Middle Eastern studies.”
Empire managers and propagandists have been pushing the narrative that foreign governments are behind this new protest movement to radicalize young people against Washington and Israel, though as we discussed recently they humorously can’t yet manage to agree on which foreign government that is.
The imperial spinmeisters have been churning out these talking points about radicalization and nefarious support because that’s the narrative bludgeon they plan on using to stomp out the burgeoning antiwar movement the empire has created with its genocidal atrocities in Gaza. If they can establish a narrative that it is the government’s job to shut down political dissent and stop the spread of unauthorized political opinions, then they can justify doing pretty much anything to stop this movement in its tracks.
All to shut down something that absolutely should be happening. Young people should be cultivating radical political positions in response to an active genocide that’s supported by their government. An antiwar movement should be forming against the imperial murder machine as its murderousness gets more and more insane. People should be aggressively rejecting the political status quo that has allowed this nightmare to be unleashed upon humanity.
Everyone should be turning against the US-centralized empire right now. Don’t let the imperial manipulators dupe our society into believing this turn is anything but a correct and appropriate response to what the empire is doing.
____________________
My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to find video versions of my articles. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.
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Israel rejects Egypt/Qatar-brokered ceasefire deal, begins Rafah invasion
Netanyahu’s political survival and potentially freedom from prison depends on continuing slaughter
Israel has rejected a ceasefire deal, brokered by Egypt and Qatar and accepted by Hamas, that earlier saw jubilation among Palestinians currently kettled in Gaza. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, whose political future depends on continuing the war and who faces the resumption of criminal proceedings for alleged corruption as soon as he is out of office, is unsurprisingly putting his own interests ahead of the lives of Palestinian civilians and Israeli troops and prisoners of war.
Israel’s invasion of Rafah, where most Palestinians in Gaza have been driven by Israel’s mass murder of civilians, is said to be underway, despite token comments from the US government that it would ‘not support’ such a military operation.
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Administration Sets Police on Peaceful Student Protestors
Milagros Peña, president of Purchase College, State University of New York, authorized campus and local police to forcibly break up what appears to be a peaceful gathering of student protestors, in a continuing trend across the country.
The faculty have called the event “a catastrophic failure by the administration to uphold the fundamental pillars of justice, academic freedom, and the democratic principles our institution is supposed to embody and impart.”
–
You can watch footage of the police attack on the protestors here:
According to Emiliano Diaz, chair of the Department of Philosophy at Purchase, philosophy students at Purchase have been among the leaders of the protestors.
He writes:
Philosophy students at SUNY Purchase have been deeply involved in the pro-Palestinian protests on campus. Sabrina Thompson, a junior in philosophy and president of the Philosophy Society, has been a key organizer.
On the night of Thursday, May 2, a group of students, led by Thompson and others, attempted to establish an encampment on campus near the dormitories. They were eventually persuaded not to set up tents, but they were steadfast in their commitment to remain. At 10pm, when the university quiet hours began, they sat silent in observance of the student code of conduct. This is when police moved in to disperse them with substantial and violent force…
In an email about what would transpire, President Milagros Peña cites the “quiet hours” policy as justification for the use of force. She also notes that fire alarms were set off and that this was disruptive for students who are entering the final weeks of class. Students have noted that the quiet hour rule is not uniformly enforced. Students regularly congregate in the quad after 10pm without issue. During “Culture Shock,” a music festival held on campus near the end of the year, this rule is also flouted. Fire alarms were set off, but this happened only after the police moved in, and some students are claiming that it was a diversionary tactic meant to distract police and give room to students who wished to flee the violence that unfolded. President Peña also suggests that “outside agitators” were somehow threatening the safety of the campus. There was no evidence of immediate or even inchoate threat as the police moved in. Also, at least some of those who were “outsiders” (a difficult word to parse in the context of a public college) were human rights lawyers invited by a faculty member to observe the protest.
In all, 70 people were arrested. In order to jail all of them, Police spread them across Westchester County. If not for their friends, many of them, college students with few resources and parents who do not live locally, would have been stranded. According to reports, many were not told the charge during the arrest and were also denied information about arresting officers.
Faculty who were present only to observe, support the students’ right to free speech, and help de-escalate the situation were among those arrested. One of these faculty, who has participated in other protests, noted the lack of training on the part of the officers involved in the arrests. He cited the fact that students were told to disperse but then given no clear means of egress. Some were even pursued as they tried to leave. He also noted that he has never witnessed such violence in response to protests.
The next morning, arrested students would find the belongings they were forced to leave behind, pillows, book bags, blankets, and other things, in and strewn around a dumpster.
Students were back out protesting last night, May 3, and have remained peacefully encamped throughout the night and into this morning.
Below is President Peña’s email, followed by a response from the faculty.
Dear Campus Community,
As an academic institution and a diverse campus of individuals with a vast range of backgrounds, experiences, and opinions, we are committed to upholding the right to free expression and also the right to safety on campus for all who dwell, work, and learn at Purchase. That tension has been at the forefront of many conversations over the past several months.
I wanted to update you on last night’s events in a way that also responds to the many messages, conversations, and emails I have received, which run the gamut from fear related to the protests to passionate support of the protestors’ cause. I have read them all and thank you for reaching out.
I also want to dispel any myths about what happened, to the best of my ability at this time, considering it is an ongoing investigation.
Last night, as has been the case all semester, students were allowed to protest peacefully, which they did for several hours.
However, this right to protest is only honored as long as protestors follow SUNY’s rules for maintenance of order and the student code of conduct, something we have been communicating repeatedly, for the safety and well-being of the entire campus.
This right does not apply to outsiders. Dozens of non-affiliated people were turned away from campus. We are investigating their role in escalating the protest activity on campus, but their presence put the police on high alert. It is believed many of them snuck back onto campus once turned away.
At 10pm, once campus quiet hours started, protestors were given multiple opportunities to disperse peacefully, as ordered, more than 10 times by the campus police and other local police forces there to assist.
Those who didn’t disperse after multiple warnings of consequences were arrested for trespass violations, most without incident.
The 10pm deadline was not arbitrary. Quiet hours are especially important during the lead up to the end of the semester when students need time to sleep, study, and complete final projects andgo to dorm rooms without fear or concern for personal safety. We received numerous complaints that this did not happen last night due to the fire alarms being repeatedly pulled by students in protest.
Protestors were brought to local precincts for processing as the University Police Department couldn’t hold that many individuals. Students will also go through the student code of conduct process, which may include consequences up to expulsion. As the investigation continues, a few individuals may face additional criminal charges.
To the best of our knowledge, there were approximately 70 individuals arrested including students and faculty members.
Despite last night’s activity, we plan on preserving the rest of the semester’s activities as scheduled, including commencement.All scheduled activities will continue without disruption, as long as it is safe to hold them. Please carry your Purchase ID with you when coming to campus and leaving campus at this time.
Our long-standing policies limit the time, place, and manner for protest, for good reason, and in support of our entire community.
Anyone who adheres to these policies is welcome to take part in free speech activities. We know from witnessing protests at other campuses that when these policies are ignored and especially when outsiders are involved, intimidation, bias, and violence may occur, along with disruption of events and activities central to the campus experience. Anyone who has been struggling or impacted by recent events is encouraged to reach out to Counseling and Behavioral Health Services for additional support.
We can disagree and debate the emotionally charged issues related to the protest and the complex issues we are grappling with globally, but the well-being and safety of the entire Purchase community will and must always be my top priority.
Thank you.
Milagros (Milly) Peña, PhD (She, Her, Hers)
President, Purchase College, S.U.N.Y.
Here is the faculty response:
Dear President Milagros Peña,
We, the faculty of Purchase College, are outraged and condemn in the strongest possible terms the violent and disproportionate actions taken by campus authorities against our students and faculty colleagues on the evening of May 2nd, 2024.
Our students were participating in a peaceful protest on campus – an act protected by their constitutional rights to free speech and assembly. Our faculty members were present solely to ensure the safety of students and observe their non-disruptive demonstration. Despite this, a staggering number of over 70 students and faculty, were arrested after police violently intervened and disrupted the lawful gathering.
This represents a catastrophic failure by the administration to uphold the fundamental pillars of justice, academic freedom, and the democratic principles our institution is supposed to embody and impart. Rather than fostering an inclusive environment supporting a range of ideas, the leadership has chosen a path of alienation, vilification, and unjust criminalization of responsible free expression.
The hostile actions of the university police and other law enforcement agencies on May 2nd have sent a chilling message that peaceful assembly may lead to undue punishment and violence, in blatant violation of core rights. Not only were the rights of those arrested trampled, but the incident has undermined the entire community’s faith that the administration will protect our freedoms.
We demand immediate and decisive action. All charges against arrested community members must be vacated, and any related disciplinary actions dropped. Furthermore, the administration must clarify its processes for community engagement to prevent further acrimony and restore trust. We demand an immediate outside and independent investigation into all aspects of this incident, particularly the excessive use of police force, to ensure full accountability.
Swift and thorough corrective measures, including resignations of those culpable for the infringement of student and faculty civil liberties and rights, are imperative to begin healing these wounds and reaffirming our institution’s commitment to its integral rights and liberties. The time to act is now.
Sincerely,
The Faculty at Large of Purchase College, SUNY
The post Administration Sets Police on Peaceful Student Protestors first appeared on Daily Nous.
I Oppose Israel’s Atrocities In Gaza Because I’m Not A Psychopath
Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):
https://medium.com/media/71cbacc23a60b2c96e4c6a46b00197b6/href
❖
I don’t oppose the butchery in Gaza because I love Hamas or hate Jews or love Islam or hate America.
I don’t oppose the butchery in Gaza because I’m a lefty or a commie or an anarchist or an anti-imperialist.
I oppose the butchery in Gaza because I’m not a fucking psychopath.
Opposing Israel’s butchery in Gaza is so obvious, so common sense, such a bare-minimum, fundamental-level, Being Human 101 position that if it isn’t immediately self-evident to you after learning the basic facts, your problem is much, much deeper than whatever ideology or bias or prejudice you might happen to have. There’s something wrong with you as a person.
If you support Israel’s butchery in Gaza, you’ve got much bigger problems than merely not having the correct ist or ism belief system. You’re just all fucked up inside. Your conditioning has made you into a generally shitty human being. You have deep and immensely consequential flaws in your character, and you won’t mature as a person until you heal and transcend them.
Opposing Israel’s atrocities in Gaza doesn’t make you a good person, it just makes you a normal person — and supporting Israel’s atrocities in Gaza makes you a bad person. Nobody gets any points for opposing an active genocide; that’s just the basic, bare-minimum requirement for a normal human being with a functioning empathy center in their brain. If you can’t meet that basic, bare-minimum standard, you deserve to be viewed with suspicion and disdain, and anyone in your personal life who cares about truth, morality and humanity should seriously reassess their relationship with you.
❖
https://medium.com/media/27a727d0325a47268efea546fe90dcc6/href
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One reason the empire is losing young people is because the imperial status quo has given them no investment in it. They’ll never own property. They can’t support a family or retire. They’ve been given no reason not to want to rock the political boat. So they’re rocking it.
The only vested interest young people have left is an interest in breathable air and a livable planet, and the possibility of a future that isn’t intolerably dystopian. All of which are diametrically opposed to the interests and trajectory of the status quo politics of the western empire.
So they’re going for it. They’re beginning to see that there’s no reason for them not to plunge headlong into a push for real change, in direct opposition to the mainstream politics of our time. Like Bob Dylan said, when you got nothing you got nothing to lose.
❖
One of the many things that’s beautiful about this particular protest movement is that these young people aren’t protesting a war that they could get drafted in or could harm their personal interests in any way. They’re opposing something cruel and evil solely out of compassion.
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One Palestinian life is worth more than every college campus window in the world.
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If you’re wondering why you’re suddenly seeing the word “radicalizing” a lot in mainstream politics and media, it’s because that’s the big scary boogieman the empire plans on using to justify stomping out the burgeoning antiwar movement it created with its atrocities in Gaza.
https://medium.com/media/366d54663c9a4430b420efbf1e8e70e1/href
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Israeli police raided Al Jazeera’s office after the Israeli cabinet voted to shut down the broadcasts of the Qatari media outlet on Sunday. The west is protecting freedom and democracy by stomping out its own freedom and democracy to assist the genocidal atrocities of a nation that is also stomping out freedom and democracy.
❖
Trump supporters are such foam-brained bootlickers that they’re now united in shitting on protests against a genocidal mass atrocity that’s being pushed by neocons, the Biden administration, and every other warmongering establishment swamp monster they claim to oppose.
Trump supporters: fighting the Deep State by siding with every intelligence agency, weapons contractor, mainstream media outlet and professional war whore in America.
❖
Republicans pretend to fiercely oppose Biden, but when it comes to issues that really matter like the president encouraging violent police crackdowns against people protesting his actions they’re in furious agreement, even saying he didn’t go far enough. They’re on the same side.
_____________
My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to find video versions of my articles. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.
Bitcoin donations: 1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2
Featured image via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0 DEED)
Tradies Will Be Allowed To Take Uni Students Lunch Money Under A Dutton Government
Opposition leader and self-described friend of the worker, Peter Dutton, has declared that any Government that he leads will allow the Nation’s Tradies to be able to bully Uni students out of their lunch money.
”What sort of World do we live in when our poor hard working tradies have to walk past Uni students and aren’t able to shake them down for cash,” said the Opposition leader. ”Anthony Albanese, needs to stop pandering to the inner-city leftie elites with his cuts to HECS and get out their and look after our beloved Tradies.”
”Why can’t we get a negative gearing type scheme going for flannelette shirts?”
When reached for comment on the Opposition leader’s anti-Uni students policy, a Spokesperson for the National Union of students said of the idea: ”Jokes on Dutton, no Uni student that I know has any lunch money on them.”
”What with rent, HECS, books, bus fare, to be honest I’m not sure when the last time I actually bought lunch was.”
”I mean I dived a good dumpster the other day and got some great day old bagels.”
”Well, I would’ve enjoyed them if I wasn’t boycotting anything Jewish over the whole situation in Gaza.”
”Anyway, got to head off to my part-time job, I’m lucky, I get to follow Barnaby Joyce around parliament and make sure he is always stocked up with frangers.”
Mark Williamson
@MWChatShow
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Video: students walk out of graduation in protest against Gaza genocide
University of Michigan graduates walk out holding Palestine flags
Student graduates at the University of Michigan have walked out of their graduation ceremony, holding Palestinian flags an challenging Israel ‘How many kids have you killed today?’, in protest at Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The protest is part of a growing trend of students protesting at their graduation that has been added to the student encampment movement, holding placards and calling out the horrors being perpetrated on Palestinian civilians despite increasingly brutal state repression of students, including many Jewish students who are playing a prominent role in the demonstrations, for exercising their freedom of speech.
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The New Issue Of JOHNSTONE: Biden’s Bloodlust
For those who don’t know, I publish a print version of my work once a month called JOHNSTONE magazine. The new edition is called “Biden’s Bloodlust”, and is now available to order in print or download in pay-what-you-want digital.
As November gets closer and the Biden administration gets more murderous and tyrannical by the day, liberal spinmeisters are falling all over themselves to portray the president as some kind of passive witness to the atrocities we’re witnessing in Gaza and the authoritarian suppression of dissent we’re seeing in the US. No no, he’s completely powerless to stop the government that’s completely dependent on US military support from conducting a military operation. No no, he’s completely powerless to stop the violent police crackdowns he’s openly supporting and encouraging on protesters against his genocide.
Bullshit. Biden has always been a murderous swamp monster. That’s the only reason he got the job. And that’s why the cover of today’s issue of JOHNSTONE features the US president dining on an ice cream cone of gore.
You can get a paperback copy of this issue by clicking here, or a pay-what-you-feel digital copy by clicking here.
Other paperback editions of JOHNSTONE can be purchased by clicking here. Other digital editions can be downloaded by clicking here.
You can also get a subscription to the digital versions which will be sent to your inbox every month by clicking here.
Contents:
Biden Wanted To Sanction An Israeli Battalion But He Didn’t Because Israel Said No … 3
Empire Managers Say Russia, China And Iran Are Tricking Students Into Opposing Genocide … 6
Quashing University Protests And Banning TikTok To Make The Kids Love Israel … 10
Israel Is Turning Hospitals Into Mass Graves While The West Fixates On ‘Antisemitism’ … 13
In This Dystopia, Opposing A Genocide Is Considered Worse Than Committing One … 16
Stopping The Slaughter In Gaza Is More Important Than Your Feelings … 18
In Gaza The Sniper Drones Are Crying Like Babies … 20
The US Doesn’t Support A Two-State Solution, It Just Supports Saying It Does … 22
Things That Have Been Discredited During The Destruction Of Gaza … 25
Israel Apologia Is One Big Fat Appeal To Emotion Fallacy … 28
Half Of Americans Have No Idea Whether Israelis Or Palestinians Are Suffering More Deaths … 30
Aviator Sunglasses … 32
A Barely-Disguised Genocide … 34
Ghost Town … 36
The Empire Slowly Suffocates Assange Like It Slowly Suffocates All Its Enemies … 38
Imagine If Russia Or China Did The Things Israel Is Doing In Gaza … 41
Violent Extremists Get Called “Moderates” By A Violent Extremist Empire … 44
Israel Lies About Being A Victim So That It Can Victimize … 47
Liberal Finger-Wagging At Netanyahu Is A Phony, Cynical Charade … 50
The Plan Is To Turn Palestine Into A Historical Footnote So It’s Too Late To Save It … 54
Israel’s Savage Destruction Of Gaza’s Healthcare System Is Exactly What It Looks Like … 56
Israel Keeps Getting More Murderous … 58
The ‘Human Shields’ Lie Has Been Conclusively, Irrefutably Debunked … 61
Six Months Of Hell On Earth … 64
Stop Reporting On Biden’s Angry Feelings Toward Israel. It’s Not News. It’s Not Interesting. … 66
Israel Lets Some Aid Into Gaza So The US Will Keep Giving It Weapons To Kill People In Gaza … 68
Dancing Outside The Concentration Camp … 71
As Support For Gaza Goes Mainstream, Don’t Let The Empire Co-Opt The Movement … 72
Australian Military Refuses To Disclose Arms Deal With Israel To Protect Its ‘Reputation’ … 75
Idiot Republicans Are Saying Genocide Joe Has ‘Abandoned Israel’ … 78
CNN Finally Tells The Truth About The Flour Massacre After Previously Shilling For Israel … 81
Israeli Suffering Is Not Comparable To Palestinian Suffering … 84
Getting Gaza Right Is The Absolute Bare Minimum Requirement … 86
Empire Managers Keep Acting Like Iran Is About To Attack Israel Without Provocation … 88
US Declines Israel’s Invitation To Start WW3 (For Now) … 91
Anyone Who Wants The US To Attack Iran Is An Enemy Of Humanity … 94
Israel’s Latest Lie Is That It Has ‘No Choice’ But To Attack Iran … 97
Stop Pretending Biden Is Some Passive Witness To Israel’s Warmongering … 100
Assange Extradition Case Moves Forward While The CIA Covers Its Tracks … 102
Escalation With Iran Seemingly Over; Now We Have To Worry About Rafah … 104
“Rules-Based Order” Means Rules For Thee But Not For We … 106
The Amputated Limbs Of Children … 110
Again, you can get a paperback copy of this issue by clicking here, or click here for a digital pay-what-you-feel copy.
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My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to find video versions of my articles. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.
Bitcoin donations: 1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2
Israel’s Defenders Talk So Much About Feelings Because They Can’t Talk About Facts
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):
https://medium.com/media/09142876b534ccc19b7b41ae47d657c5/href
The Guardian has an article out titled “Israelis voice sadness and defiance over Gaza protests on US campuses”, subtitled “People in Jerusalem express little sympathy with anti-war demonstrators, with some accusing them of hatred for Israel”.
It’s exactly what it sounds like: an entire news report about the feelings that some Israelis are feeling in their feely bits about protests in another country on the other side of the world. The Guardian’s Jason Burke asked some random people about their feelings outside a theater in Jerusalem, and then presented this weird nothing thing as relevant news reporting.
“We didn’t know so many people hated Israel,” some random security guard is quoted as saying.
“Such feelings appear widespread among the Jewish majority in Israel, seven months after war was triggered by surprise attacks launched by Hamas into the south of the country in which about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 250 taken hostage,” writes Burke.
“Jewish Israelis interviewed by the Guardian this week blame outrage overseas on misinformation, ignorance, historical hostility from international institutions such as the UN, global ‘double standards’ and entrenched antisemitism,” Burke informs us.
Guardian news on Twitter: "Israelis voice sadness and defiance over Gaza protests on US campuses https://t.co/Qv88bnSRO5 / Twitter"
Israelis voice sadness and defiance over Gaza protests on US campuses https://t.co/Qv88bnSRO5
If you’re just tuning in, it might seem odd to you that a major news outlet would publish a story about the emotions that some Israelis are feeling about foreign protests against an active genocide being committed by their country. After all, this is not a news story. A story about how some people’s feelings are feeling is not news, and is not journalism.
But that’s exactly what the last seven months have looked like in the imperial media: a nonstop fixation on feelings instead of facts. Israelis have upset feelings about anti-genocide protests. Western Jews have upset feelings at campus demonstrators. Biden has upset feelings at Netanyahu. Last October the imperial media suddenly got a lot less interested in reporting on the facts on the ground with Israel and Gaza, and a whole lot more interested in reporting on how some groups of people feel about it instead.
Western reporters, pundits, politicians and officials cannot stop talking about this. The feelings of Israelis and western Jews are not only given more importance than the feelings of Palestinians or any other group, they are given more importance than Palestinian lives. Some Zionist kid pretending to feel “threatened” on an Ivy League campus will get more coverage than the daily massacres that have been occurring in the densely-packed city of Rafah.
Watch Matt Orfalea’s latest video about the deluge of coddling, cooing media coverage that was given to a Zionist activist who falsely pretended to have been “stabbed in the eye” by a pro-Palestine activist for a good example of this behavior:
https://medium.com/media/2f1a760ec13728f250226d3463b8c5ec/href
Israel is the only issue where the western political-media class treats people’s feelings as a matter of supreme importance.
If you’re a stressed-out single parent struggling to pay bills and keep a roof over your kids’ head, they don’t care about your feelings.
If you’re an American who’s been cast into destitution and homelessness by medical bills, they don’t care about your feelings.
If you’re a Palestinian whose apartment complex was bombed with your entire family inside, they definitely don’t care about your feelings.
But if you’re a western Zionist who doesn’t like the cognitive dissonance that comes with encountering anti-genocide protesters, or even if you’re an Israeli who’s upset about anti-genocide protests in whole other country on the other side of the planet, they’re very, very interested in your feelings.
This is of course because the west’s unconditional support for Israel cannot be defended through facts, so the narrative control needs to focus instead on one nonstop appeal to emotion fallacy. Their position is so gross and indefensible that all they have left is babbling about some select people having upset feelings and holding those feelings as more important than stopping an active genocide.
The propagandists and empire managers don’t have facts on their side and don’t have morality on their side, so they attempt to manipulate by pulling on the heart strings using sympathy and compassion. They appeal to some of the healthiest impulses within us in order to dupe us into supporting some of the most evil actions the world has ever seen.
Which is an absolutely disgusting thing to do, naturally. But, again, it’s all these freaks have left.
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My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to find video versions of my articles. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.
Bitcoin donations: 1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2