Every day, I bite my tongue to avoid handing the election to Donald Trump by pointing out X. The GOP is too damn stupid to get to X. I thought they were going to bring up X back in March. They still can't pick up on X. X is a topic that destroys the election for Joe. It's out there. All they have to is highlight it. But they don't because they're too damn stupid to see it.
I have been very clear that I do not want to call out Chris Hayes. I have noted time and again that I reached out to various people at various outlets ahead of Iraq Veterans Against the War's Winter Soldier action in March of 2008. I begged, I pleaded. Matthew Rothschild, then in charge of THE PROGRESSIVE, swore he'd get the word out. Swore. And did nothing until after the hearing. That was true of all the 'independent' media types. The only exception was Chris who kept his word. Many people in corporate media kept their word and did give a heads up to it or highlight it while it was going on. But the only one in little media -- Chris was at THE NATION back then and not on TV -- was Chris.
Student journalists covering protests over the Israel-Hamas war at college campuses across the country have been impeded, threatened, arrested and assaulted.
Why it matters: With outside media access limited, their work has illuminated the events reminiscent of college protests against the Vietnam War and divestment demonstrations against South Africa's apartheid system.
- The Pulitzer Prize Board, which is housed at Columbia University, praised the work of student journalists in a statement this week, recognized student journalists' tireless work "in the face of great personal and academic risk."
- The Student Press Law Center, which praised the work being done, urged student journalists facing barriers in their reporting to contact its legal hotline.
- Ireland Blouin, associate managing editor at The Daily Texan, told Axios the newspaper's reporters have had unique access to other students, even those with reservations about media coverage on the protests.
- "Although we are journalists, [protesters] have been more willing to speak with us," Blouin said. "And we've been grateful for that because not all news outlets are able to get that right now."
With tensions over pro-Palestinian protests escalating on college
campuses across the United States, the Committee to Protect Journalists
calls on university authorities and law enforcement agencies to allow
reporters to freely cover the demonstrations.
“Journalists –
including student journalists who have been thrust into a national
spotlight to cover stories in their communities — must be allowed to
cover campus protests without fearing for their safety,” said CPJ U.S.,
Canada and Caribbean Program Coordinator Katherine Jacobsen on
Wednesday. “Any efforts by authorities to stop them doing their jobs
have far-reaching repercussions on the public’s ability to be informed
about current events.”
Since the Israel-Gaza war began on October 7, the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker – a CPJ partner – has documented at least 13 arrests or detentions and at least 11 assaults of journalists covering protests related to the conflict.
Those arrested include FOX 7 reporter Carlos Sanchez, who was shoved to the ground on April 24 while covering a protest at the University of Texas at Austin. He is currently facing two misdemeanor charges.
As U.S. Republicans push for the deployment of National Guard troops to quell nationwide student demonstrations against the Gaza genocide, progressive lawmakers marked the anniversary of the 1970 Kent State Massacre by condemning police repression of peaceful protesters and reaffirming the power of dissent.
"On the 54th anniversary of the Kent State Massacre, students across
our country are being brutalized for standing up to endless war,"
Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-Mo.) said on social media. "Our country must learn to actually uphold the rights of free speech and assembly upon which it was founded."
Fellow "Squad" member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said that "54 years ago, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on unarmed students at Kent State."
"Students have a right to speak out, organize, and protest systemic wrongs," she added. "We can't silence those expressing dissent, no matter how uncomfortable their protests may be to those in power."
Bill Maher on his HBO talk show this week said that pro-Palestinian student protests on college campuses are what happens when “activism merges with narcissism.”
The Atlantic columnist David Frum referred to protesters like the UCLA students who were violently attacked Wednesday by a mob of counterprotesters as “banana-allergy revolutionaries.”
During Tuesday night’s tactical police response to Columbia University students' taking over a building on campus, author Judith Miller tweeted: “Hey Columbia protesters! If you’re so proud of what you’re doing, why are you covering your faces?”
Mocking student protesters has become a fun and easy pastime since they began marching and camping out in opposition to Israel’s ongoing military incursions in Gaza following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in Israel. All critics and jeering old folks need is a platform (cable TV, Instagram, a tattered soap box) to discredit the movement as the performative act of feckless snowflakes and spoiled children.
The protective gear of the “gluten-free warriors” is a form of dress-up. Their safety measures — encampment barricades and self-manned medical tents — are seen as ploys for attention. They’re called cowards for covering their faces with masks and goggles.
Video shot by The Times, other media outlets and witnesses at the scene show counterdemonstrators in black attire and white masks ripping down barricades, beating people with batons and poles and screaming racial epithets. Campers were dragged, kicked and pummeled by the predominantly male mob Tuesday night and Wednesday morning while police and campus security stood by for three hours before responding.
Law enforcement eventually cleared the counterprotesters, who reportedly included non-student organizations. No arrests were made.
During news conference hours later, New York Mayor Eric Adams said there were no incidents of violence. This is an abhorrent lie. Later on Wednesday, in an email sent to the entire university community, Columbia President Minouche Shafik thanked the NYPD for their “professionalism.” This supposed professionalism is also a lie.
What is nonviolent and professional about seizing a compliant 120-pound student with her hands up and slamming her to the concrete ground? What is nonviolent and professional about brutalizing students? What is professional about removing a woman’s hijab during police bookings and refusing to return it – yet offering me, a non-Muslim, my vest because the jail cell was cold? What is professional about forcing women to expose their genitalia to male officers in order to use the toilet because we “trespassed” on our own university?
We sang “Like a tree planted by the waters, we shall not be moved” as our bodies were seized – but we would not be moved.
Where the encampment once stood, there were only marks of discoloured grass in the shape of rectangular tent bases.
But the movement seems anything but a ghost; on Wednesday, protesters hosted a “light show” beside the campus, projecting titles onto the public-facing side of Hamilton Hall that read “Hind’s Hall forever.”
Every year, on the eve of exams, students gather to let out what is known as a “primal scream” on campus. On Thursday, they took that tradition to Shafik’s house, shouting outside her door.
On Friday, protesters again lined the street outside of Columbia’s gate. And the words still rang through the neighbourhood: “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest.”
As the genocide in Gaza continues, the student protest movement here in the U.S. keeps growing. The Associated Press reports nearly 2,200 people have now been arrested nationwide across college and university campuses. President Biden addressed the protests on Thursday.
President Joe Biden: “Dissent is essential to democracy, but dissent must never lead to disorder or to denying the rights of others so students can finish the semester and their college education. Look, it’s basically a matter of fairness. It’s a matter of what’s right. There’s the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos.”
Biden also said the historic student uprising will not affect U.S. policy in the Middle East.
On Thursday, police arrested students at Portland State University,
the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and SUNY’s Purchase and New
Paltz campuses. Meanwhile, new solidarity encampments went up in recent
days at the University of Washington and the University of Toronto,
among others.
Video of Dartmouth College history professor Annelise Orleck being
violently arrested on Wednesday night has prompted outrage. Orleck, who
is also chair of Jewish studies at Dartmouth, was trying to protect
students along with other faculty members as they were attacked by
police. Police made over 90 arrests that night.
Here in New York, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office says it is investigating after a police officer fired a gunshot on the Columbia campus while the NYPD was forcing out protesters on Tuesday. No one was harmed in the shooting.
Students at Rutgers University in New Jersey and the University of Minnesota have voluntarily disassembled their encampments after school leadership agreed to some of their demands and to continue conversations with the protesters.
Here in Newcastle, about 40 students have set up camp on the university’s quadrangle, with tents for sleeping, a makeshift first-aid centre, and tables for all the snacks donated by supporters - including crisps, water, and a Colin the Caterpillar cake.
Trinity’s campus is currently closed to the public. Only those with a valid student ID card are currently allowed to enter. On Trinity’s official Instagram account, a story uploaded last night stated: “A student TCD BDS encampment is in place in Trinity. Trinity supports students’ right to protest within the rules of the university.”
“To ensure that the protest is as safe as possible for all, access to campus is restricted to students, staff & residents with college ID cards only. We will keep you updated.”
Multiple protesters have spoken to The University Times on the condition of anonymity. They say they want to remain anonymous because of the potential risks faced by those identified, such as potential suspension, expulsion and/or fines.
One protester revealed that the encampment was due to begin on the morning of Saturday May 4th, but that “due to hearing that college were not allowing some members of the public in last night” members of TCD BDS rallied at short notice to begin the encampment that night.
One protester described the encampment as “an inevitable escalation”. TCD BDS have previously taken disruptive action in Blockading the Book of Kells exhibition and protesting senior administration meetings.
Another protester described a “nervous” energy in the group when the encampment was beginning. They revealed that they had had some interaction with security, but that this amounted to no more than their presence. As of yet, no protesters have said they have been asked to reveal their identities by campus security.
At many college campuses, students are protesting in opposition to the Biden Administration’s unconditional backing, with weapons and diplomatic cover, of Netanyahu’s continuing serial war crimes slaughtering tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, most of them children and women. Hundreds of faculty members are defending these valiant youngsters and criticizing excessively harsh crackdowns by failed University presidents who are calling in outside police.
With graduations approaching, pro-Netanyahu lobbies and cowed University heads (like Columbia University President Minouche Shafik, who makes a salary of over $2,000 an hour) expect the students to disperse from campus for the summer and end their demonstrations.
The Israeli genocidal crimes against Gazans will continue and intensify if Israel invades Rafah. Millions of refugees will suffer. What will become of the organized student calls for a permanent ceasefire, greatly increased humanitarian aid and cessation of U.S. weapons shipments? The students who leave their campus protests can and should focus on members of Congress in their Districts and in Washington.
In two weeks, hundreds of Congressional summer student interns will begin arriving to work in Congressional offices. Congress is the decades-long reservoir for Israeli colonial aggression. Moreover, Congress, under AIPAC’s extraordinary pressure, has blocked testimony by prominent Israeli and Palestinian peace advocates since 1948. Not once have any of these peace advocates, many of whom are Israeli retired cabinet ministers, mayors, security and military leaders been invited to a Congressional Committee Hearing.
This power center for the U.S. Empire – Capitol Hill – presents serious students with an opportunity to educate their elders. Such an opportunity materialized during the Vietnam War when Congressional interns in the late 1960s organized a highly visible petition drive and engaged in peaceful protests.
Back in the Congressional Districts, the access is easier and available to many more students and faculty. Because Congress is in “recess” for much of the summer – Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and the entire month of August to Labor Day – students and citizens can demand public meetings preceded by formal summons to Senators and Representatives. (See my column “Sending Citizens Summons to Members of Congress”).
“Full-blown famine” is present in the northern part of Gaza and is spreading south, said Cindy McCain, the executive director of the World Food Programme.
“What I can explain to you is that there is famine — full-blown famine — in the north, and it’s moving its way south,” McCain told NBC’s Kristen Welker in an interview to air on Sunday.
McCain’s comments are not an official declaration of famine, which must meet certain criteria, but she said it’s based on what WFP employees have seen and experienced in Gaza.
“It’s horror,” she added.
Israel has inflicted staggering levels of destruction and suffering on Gaza in its retaliatory assault after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, which killed 1,200 people. The IDF’s relentless bombing campaign has destroyed Gaza’s agricultural lands, critical infrastructure and large swaths of housing. More than 34,000 people in Gaza have been killed, the majority of them women and children, and over 10,000 more are believed to be buried under the rubble.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement this week that it could take up to three years to retrieve the bodies with the tools on hand.
As people in Gaza starve, Israeli officials have continued to restrict humanitarian aid shipments and to subject deliveries to excessive waits at checkpoints. Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, has accused Israel of using starvation as a “weapon of war.”
Gaza remains under assault. Day 211 of the assault in the wave that began in October. Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction. But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets: How to justify it? Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence." CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund." ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them." NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza." The slaughter continues. It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service. Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide." The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher. United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse." THE NATIONAL notes, "The death toll in Gaza has increased to 34,654, the enclave's Health Ministry said on Saturday. It added in a statement that 77,908 had been injured since the war began on October 7. More than 32 were killed and 41 injured in the previous 24 hours, the ministry said." Months ago, AP noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home." February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:
The Gaza Health Ministry has called on the International Criminal Court and The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory to open an investigation into the death of a senior Palestinian doctor in an Israeli prison after more than four months of detention.
On Saturday, the ministry also called for an investigation into the killing of 491 medical staff in Gaza.
Dr Adnan Al Barsh died at the Israeli-run Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank last month, the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Committee and the Palestinian Prisoners Club said in a joint statement on Thursday.
The two associations called his death an "assassination" and said his body remained in Israeli custody.
Exclusive footage obtained by Al Jazeera Arabic shows several Palestinian men wailing as they retrieved the remains of several people killed in an Israeli attack on the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City.
Our colleagues at AJA report that a mother and her two children were killed in the attack. Witnesses said the bomb hit while she was preparing a meal for her family.
The identities of the victims were not immediately known.
[Translation: A mother and her two children were killed in an Israeli bombing on the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City.]
