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18th Annual CODEPINK Mother’s Day Bridge Walk for PEACE!
Sunday, May 12, Noon
11:45: Gather at the Welcome Center Plaza, on the East (Hill) side of the San Francisco end of bridge.
(IMPORTANT: Arrive 30-40 min. EARLY, as “The Authorities” purposely close nearby parking lots to discourage participation!)
NOON: March Begins
1:30 P.M.: Short Rally after the March on the bridge.
In light of U.S. complicity in the ongoing genocide and forced starvation of the people of Gaza, we will put Palestine front and center. With over 12 thousand children killed and tens of thousands of children hungry and near famine in Gaza alone, not to mention the urgent crisis for the children of Sudan, Ukraine, and Haiti, this is an urgent call for the global family to rise up for humanity.
· FOOD NOT BOMBS! DEMILITARIZE NOW!
· FOOD to GAZA, not Weapons to Israel.
· NO TAX $$ for GENOCIDE
· Not Another Nickel, Not Another Dime, No more Money for Israel’s Crimes.
· Diplomacy Not War!
Let’s again pay tribute to the original meaning of “Mother’s Day,” a global call to ABOLISH WAR:
We’ll read: Julia Ward Howe’s (1870) Mother’s Day Proclamation
Bring your mamas and grandmamas, sons, daughters, and grandchildren—the entire family, and friends too! War is not healthy for children and other living things!
Bring your Kaffiyeh’s, Palestinian Flags, and signs that speak for you.
(Note: Authorities may restrict you from taking flags on the bridge—wear it as a cape!)
Signs larger than 2x3 ft. may also be restricted.
Bring a simple treat to share to celebrate 18 years of CODEPINK bridge walks, and our Bay Area community’s commitment to peace and justice.
We’ll sing John Lennon’s Imagine, one of Bay Area Troubadour Francis Collin’s favorite songs!
Francis Collins Presente!
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See Gaza Strip Access Restrictions.pdf since 2007 at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gaza_Strip_Access_Restrictions.pdf** This figure is released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.”
*** The death toll in West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. According to PA’s Ministry of Health on April 5, this is the latest figure.
Source: mondoweiss.net
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Boris Kagarlitsky is in Prison!
On February 13, the court overturned the previous decision on release and sent Boris Kagarlitsky to prison for five years.
Petition in Support of Boris Kagarlitsky
We, the undersigned, were deeply shocked to learn that on February 13 the leading Russian socialist intellectual and antiwar activist Dr. Boris Kagarlitsky (65) was sentenced to five years in prison.
Dr. Kagarlitsky was arrested on the absurd charge of 'justifying terrorism' in July last year. After a global campaign reflecting his worldwide reputation as a writer and critic of capitalism and imperialism, his trial ended on December 12 with a guilty verdict and a fine of 609,000 roubles.
The prosecution then appealed against the fine as 'unjust due to its excessive leniency' and claimed falsely that Dr. Kagarlitsky was unable to pay the fine and had failed to cooperate with the court. In fact, he had paid the fine in full and provided the court with everything it requested.
On February 13 a military court of appeal sent him to prison for five years and banned him from running a website for two years after his release.
The reversal of the original court decision is a deliberate insult to the many thousands of activists, academics, and artists around the world who respect Dr. Kagarlitsky and took part in the global campaign for his release. The section of Russian law used against Dr. Kagarlitsky effectively prohibits free expression. The decision to replace the fine with imprisonment was made under a completely trumped-up pretext. Undoubtedly, the court's action represents an attempt to silence criticism in the Russian Federation of the government's war in Ukraine, which is turning the country into a prison.
The sham trial of Dr. Kagarlitsky is the latest in a wave of brutal repression against the left-wing movements in Russia. Organizations that have consistently criticized imperialism, Western and otherwise, are now under direct attack, many of them banned. Dozens of activists are already serving long terms simply because they disagree with the policies of the Russian government and have the courage to speak up. Many of them are tortured and subjected to life-threatening conditions in Russian penal colonies, deprived of basic medical care. Left-wing politicians are forced to flee Russia, facing criminal charges. International trade unions such as IndustriALL and the International Transport Federation are banned and any contact with them will result in long prison sentences.
There is a clear reason for this crackdown on the Russian left. The heavy toll of the war gives rise to growing discontent among the mass of working people. The poor pay for this massacre with their lives and wellbeing, and opposition to war is consistently highest among the poorest. The left has the message and resolve to expose the connection between imperialist war and human suffering.
Dr. Kagarlitsky has responded to the court's outrageous decision with calm and dignity: “We just need to live a little longer and survive this dark period for our country,” he said. Russia is nearing a period of radical change and upheaval, and freedom for Dr. Kagarlitsky and other activists is a condition for these changes to take a progressive course.
We demand that Boris Kagarlitsky and all other antiwar prisoners be released immediately and unconditionally.
We also call on the authorities of the Russian Federation to reverse their growing repression of dissent and respect their citizens' freedom of speech and right to protest.
Sign to Demand the Release of Boris Kagarlitsky
https://freeboris.info
The petition is also available on Change.org
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*Major Announcement*
Claudia De la Cruz wins
Peace and Freedom Party primary in California!
We have an exciting announcement. The votes are still being counted in California, but the Claudia-Karina “Vote Socialist” campaign has achieved a clear and irreversible lead in the Peace and Freedom Party primary. Based on the current count, Claudia has 46% of the vote compared to 40% for Cornel West. A significant majority of PFP’s newly elected Central Committee, which will formally choose the nominee at its August convention, have also pledged their support to the Claudia-Karina campaign.
We are excited to campaign in California now and expect Claudia De la Cruz to be the candidate on the ballot of the Peace and Freedom Party in November.
We achieved another big accomplishment this week - we’re officially on the ballot in Hawai’i! This comes after also petitioning to successfully gain ballot access in Utah. We are already petitioning in many other states. Each of these achievements is powered by the tremendous effort of our volunteers and grassroots organizers across the country. When we’re organized, people power can move mountains!
We need your help to keep the momentum going. Building a campaign like this takes time, energy, and money. We know that our class enemies — the billionaires, bankers, and CEO’s — put huge sums toward loyal politicians and other henchmen who defend their interests. They will use all the money and power at their disposal to stop movements like ours. As an independent, socialist party, our campaign is relying on contributions from the working class and people like you.
We call on each and every one of our supporters to set up a monthly or one-time donation to support this campaign to help it keep growing and reaching more people. A new socialist movement, independent of the Democrats and Republicans, is being built but it will only happen when we all pitch in.
The Claudia-Karina campaign calls to end all U.S. aid to Israel. End this government’s endless wars. We want jobs for all, with union representation and wages that let us live with dignity. Housing, healthcare, and education for all - without the lifelong debt. End the ruthless attacks on women, Black people, immigrants, and LGBTQ people. These are just some of the demands that are resonating across the country. Help us take the next step:
Volunteer: https://votesocialist2024.com/volunteer
Donate: https://votesocialist2024.com/donate
See you in the streets,
Claudia & Karina
Don't Forget! Join our telegram channel for regular updates: https://t.me/+KtYBAKgX51JhNjMx
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We are all Palestinian
Listen and view this beautiful, powerful, song by Mistahi Corkill on YouTube at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQwuhbLczgI
Greetings,
Here is my new song and music video, We are all Palestinian, linked below. If you find it inspiring, please feel free to share with others. All the best!
Mistahi
We are all Palestinian
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Labor for Palestine
Thousands of labor representatives marched Saturday, December 16, in Oakland, California. —Photo by Leon Kunstenaar
Video of December 16th Labor rally for Palestine.
Bay Area Unions and Workers Rally and March For Palestine In Oakland
https://youtu.be/L9k79honqIA
For More Information:
bayarealabor4palestine@gmail.com
Production of Labor Video Project
www.labormedia.net
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Just Like The Nazis Did
By David Rovics
After so many decades of patronage
By the world’s greatest empire
So many potential agreements
Were rejected by opening fire
After crushing so many uprisings
Now they’re making their ultimate bid
Pursuing their Final Solution
Just like the Nazis did
They forced refugees into ghettos
Then set the ghettos aflame
Murdering writers and poets
And so no one remember their names
Killing their entire families
The grandparents, women and kids
The uncles and cousins and babies
Just like the Nazis did
They’re bombing all means of sustaining
Human life at all
See the few shelters remaining
Watch as the tower blocks fall
They’re bombing museums and libraries
In order to get rid
Of any memory of the people who lived here
Just like the Nazis did
They’re saying these people are animals
And they should all end up dead
They’re sending soldiers into schools
And shooting children in the head
The rhetoric is identical
And with Gaza off the grid
They’ve already said what happens next
Just like the Nazis did
Words of war for domestic consumption
And lies for all the rest
To try to distract our attention
Among their enablers in the West
Because Israel needs their imports
To keep those pallets on the skids
They need fuel and they need missiles
Just like the Nazis did
They’re using food as a weapon
They’re using water that way, too
They’re trying to kill everyone in Gaza
Or make them flee, it’s true
As the pundits talk of “after the war”
Like with the Fall of Madrid
The victors are preparing for more
Just like the Nazis did
But it’s after the conquest’s complete
If history is any guide
When the occupying army
Is positioned to decide
When disease and famine kills
Whoever may have hid
Behind the ghetto walls
Just like the Nazis did
All around the world
People are trying to tell
There's a genocide unfolding
Ringing alarm bells
But with such a powerful axis
And so many lucrative bids
They know who wants their money
Just like the Nazis did
There's so many decades of patronage
For the world's greatest empire
So many potential agreements
Were rejected by opening fire
They're crushing so many uprisings
Now they're making their ultimate bid
Pursuing their final solution
Just like the Nazis did
Just like the Nazis did
Just like the Nazis did
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Free Julian Assange
Immediate Repeated Action Needed to Free Assange
Please call your Congressional Representatives, the White House, and the DOJ. Calls are tallied—they do count. We are to believe we are represented in this country. This is a political case, so our efforts can change things politically as well. Please take this action as often as you can:
Find your representatives:
https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member
Leave each of your representatives a message individually to:
· Drop the charges against Julian Assange
· Speak out publicly against the indictment and
· Sign on to Rashida Tlaib's letter to the DOJ to drop the charges:
202-224-3121—Capitol Main Switchboard
Leave a message on the White House comment line to
Demand Julian Assange be pardoned:
202-456-1111
Tuesday–Thursday, 11:00 A.M.–3:00 P.M. EST
Call the DOJ and demand they drop the charges against Julian Assange:
202-353-1555—DOJ Comment Line
202-514-2000 Main Switchboard
Sign the petition:
https://dontextraditeassange.com/petition/
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Mumia Abu-Jamal is Innocent!
FREE HIM NOW!
Write to Mumia at:
Smart Communications/PADOC
Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM-8335
SCI Mahanoy
P.O. Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL 33733
Join the Fight for Mumia's Life
Since September, Mumia Abu-Jamal's health has been declining at a concerning rate. He has lost weight, is anemic, has high blood pressure and an extreme flair up of his psoriasis, and his hair has fallen out. In April 2021 Mumia underwent open heart surgery. Since then, he has been denied cardiac rehabilitation care including a healthy diet and exercise.
Donate to Mumia Abu-Jamal's Emergency Legal and Medical Defense Fund, Official 2024
Mumia has instructed PrisonRadio to set up this fund. Gifts donated here are designated for the Mumia Abu-Jamal Medical and Legal Defense Fund. If you are writing a check or making a donation in another way, note this in the memo line.
Send to:
Mumia Medical and Legal Fund c/o Prison Radio
P.O. Box 411074, San Francisco, CA 94103
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Leonard Peltier Update—Experiencing the Onset of Blindness
Greetings Relatives,
Leonard is in trouble, physically. He is experiencing the onset of blindness. He is losing strength in his limbs. His blood sugar is testing erratically. This, on top of already severe conditions that have become dire. Leonard has not seen a dentist in ten years. His few remaining teeth are infected. He is locked down, in pain.
As always, Leonard’s fortitude remains astonishing. He is not scared of dying. He does not want to die in lockdown.
Our legal team has an emergency transfer underway. They are going to extraordinary lengths. We must get a top ophthalmologist to him. Thanks to your calls, the BOP did see him. They told him a specialist would be 8 - 10 weeks out.
Leonard does not have eight to ten weeks. He needs emergency care immediately.
If you can, please donate to this GoFundMe. Every penny matters. If you cannot, please share. If you are so inclined, go to www.freeleonardpeltiernow.org and contact the officials listed.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-leonard-peltier-get-medical-care-freedom?utm_campaign=p_cp+fundraiser-sidebar&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer
As always, thank you for your support.
Dawn Lawson
Personal Assistant Leonard Peltier
Executive Assistant Jenipher Jones, Esq.
Secretary Leonard Peltier Ad Hoc Committee
1-800-901-4413
dawn@allfiredup.blue
www.freeleonardpeltiernow.org
Leonard Peltier Update - Not One More Year
Coleman 1 has gone on permanent lockdown.
The inmates are supposed to be allowed out two hours a day. I have not heard from Leonard since the 18th.
The last time I talked to Leonard, he asked where his supporters were. He asked me if anyone cared about these lockdowns.
Leonard lives in a filthy, cold cell 22 to 24 hours a day. He has not seen a dentist in ten years. I asked him, “On a scale of 1 to 10, is your pain level at 13?” He said, “Something like that.” Leonard is a relentless truth-teller. He does not like it when I say things that do not make sense mathematically.
That is why Leonard remains imprisoned. He will not lie. He will not beg, grovel, or denounce his beliefs.
Please raise your voice. Ask your representatives why they have abdicated their responsibility to oversee the Bureau of Prisons and ensure they adhere to Constitutional law.
Uhuru, The African People’s Socialist Party, has stepped up for Leonard. NOT ONE MORE YEAR.
Fight for Free Speech – YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM8GDeGv90E
Leonard should not have spent a day in prison. Click “LEARN” on our website to find out what really happened on that reservation:
www.freeleonardpeltiernow.org
Write to:
Leonard Peltier 89637-132
USP Coleman 1
P.O. Box 1033
Coleman, FL 33521
Note: Letters, address and return address must be in writing—no stickers—and on plain white paper.
Sign our petition urging President Biden to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier:
https://www.freeleonardpeltier.com/petition
Email: contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info
Address: 116 W. Osborne Ave. Tampa, Florida 33603
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Updates From Kevin Cooper
A Never-ending Constitutional Violation
A summary of the current status of Kevin Cooper’s case by the Kevin Cooper Defense Committee
On October 26, 2023, the law firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP wrote a rebuttal in response to the Special Counsel's January 13, 2023 report upholding the conviction of their client Kevin Cooper. A focus of the rebuttal was that all law enforcement files were not turned over to the Special Counsel during their investigation, despite a request for them to the San Bernardino County District Attorney's office.
On October 29, 2023, Law Professors Lara Bazelon and Charlie Nelson Keever, who run the six member panel that reviews wrongful convictions for the San Francisco County District Attorney's office, published an OpEd in the San Francisco Chronicle calling the "Innocence Investigation” done by the Special Counsel in the Cooper case a “Sham Investigation” largely because Cooper has unsuccessfully fought for years to obtain the police and prosecutor files in his case. This is a Brady claim, named for the U.S. Supreme court’s 1963 case establishing the Constitutional rule that defendants are entitled to any information in police and prosecutor's possession that could weaken the state's case or point to innocence. Brady violations are a leading cause of wrongful convictions. The Special Counsel's report faults Cooper for not offering up evidence of his own despite the fact that the best evidence to prove or disprove Brady violations or other misconduct claims are in those files that the San Bernardino County District Attorney's office will not turn over to the Special Counsel or to Cooper's attorneys.
On December 14, 2023, the president of the American Bar Association (ABA), Mary Smith, sent Governor Gavin Newsom a three page letter on behalf of the ABA stating in part that Mr.Cooper's counsel objected to the state's failure to provide Special Counsel all documents in their possession relating to Mr.Cooper's conviction, and that concerns about missing information are not new. For nearly 40 years Mr.Cooper's attorneys have sought this same information from the state.
On December 19, 2023, Bob Egelko, a journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle wrote an article about the ABA letter to the Governor that the prosecutors apparently withheld evidence from the Governor's legal team in the Cooper case.
These are just a few recent examples concerning the ongoing failure of the San Bernardino County District Attorney to turn over to Cooper's attorney's the files that have been requested, even though under the law and especially the U.S. Constitution, the District Attorney of San Bernardino county is required to turn over to the defendant any and all material and or exculpatory evidence that they have in their files. Apparently, they must have something in their files because they refuse to turn them over to anyone.
The last time Cooper's attorney's received files from the state, in 2004, it wasn't from the D.A. but a Deputy Attorney General named Holly Wilkens in Judge Huff's courtroom. Cooper's attorneys discovered a never before revealed police report showing that a shirt was discovered that had blood on it and was connected to the murders for which Cooper was convicted, and that the shirt had disappeared. It had never been tested for blood. It was never turned over to Cooper's trial attorney, and no one knows where it is or what happened to it. Cooper's attorneys located the woman who found that shirt on the side of the road and reported it to the Sheriff's Department. She was called to Judge Huff's court to testify about finding and reporting that shirt to law enforcement. That shirt was the second shirt found that had blood on it that was not the victims’ blood. This was in 2004, 19 years after Cooper's conviction.
It appears that this ongoing constitutional violation that everyone—from the Special Counsel to the Governor's legal team to the Governor himself—seems to know about, but won't do anything about, is acceptable in order to uphold Cooper's conviction.
But this type of thing is supposed to be unacceptable in the United States of America where the Constitution is supposed to stand for something other than a piece of paper with writing on it. How can a Governor, his legal team, people who support and believe in him ignore a United States citizen’s Constitutional Rights being violated for 40 years in order to uphold a conviction?
This silence is betrayal of the Constitution. This permission and complicity by the Governor and his team is against everything that he and they claim to stand for as progressive politicians. They have accepted the Special Counsel's report even though the Special Counsel did not receive the files from the district attorney that may not only prove that Cooper is innocent, but that he was indeed framed by the Sheriff’s Department; and that evidence was purposely destroyed and tampered with, that certain witnesses were tampered with, or ignored if they had information that would have helped Cooper at trial, that evidence that the missing shirt was withheld from Cooper's trial attorney, and so much more.
Is the Governor going to get away with turning a blind eye to this injustice under his watch?
Are progressive people going to stay silent and turn their eyes blind in order to hopefully get him to end the death penalty for some while using Cooper as a sacrificial lamb?
An immediate act of solidarity we can all do right now is to write to Kevin and assure him of our continuing support in his fight for justice. Here’s his address:
Mr. Kevin Cooper
C-65304. 4-EB-82
San Quentin State Prison
San Quentin, CA 94974
Call California Governor Newsom:
1-(916) 445-2841
Press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish,
press 6 to speak with a representative and
wait for someone to answer
(Monday-Friday, 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. PST—12:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. EST)
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The writers' organization PEN America is circulating this petition on behalf of Jason Renard Walker, a Texas prisoner whose life is being threatened because of his exposés of the Texas prison system.
See his book, Reports from within the Belly of the Beast; available on Amazon at:
https://www.amazon.com/Reports-Within-Belly-Beast-Department-ebook/dp/B084656JDZ/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
Petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/protect-whistleblowers-in-carceral-settings
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Daniel Hale UPDATE:
In February Drone Whistleblower Daniel Hale was transferred from the oppressive maximum-security prison in Marion, Illinois to house confinement. We celebrate his release from Marion. He is laying low right now, recovering from nearly 3 years in prison. Thank goodness he is now being held under much more humane conditions and expected to complete his sentence in July of this year. www.StandWithDaniel Hale.org
More Info about Daniel:
“Drone Whistleblower Subjected To Harsh Confinement Finally Released From Prison”
https://thedissenter.org/drone-whistleblower-cmu-finally-released-from-prison/
“I was punished under the Espionage Act. Why wasn’t Joe Biden?” by Daniel Hale
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Resources for Resisting Federal Repression
https://www.nlg.org/federalrepressionresources/
Since June of 2020, activists have been subjected to an increasingly aggressive crackdown on protests by federal law enforcement. The federal response to the movement for Black Lives has included federal criminal charges for activists, door knocks by federal law enforcement agents, and increased use of federal troops to violently police protests.
The NLG National Office is releasing this resource page for activists who are resisting federal repression. It includes a link to our emergency hotline numbers, as well as our library of Know-Your-Rights materials, our recent federal repression webinar, and a list of some of our recommended resources for activists. We will continue to update this page.
Please visit the NLG Mass Defense Program page for general protest-related legal support hotlines run by NLG chapters.
Emergency Hotlines
If you are contacted by federal law enforcement, you should exercise all of your rights. It is always advisable to speak to an attorney before responding to federal authorities.
State and Local Hotlines
If you have been contacted by the FBI or other federal law enforcement, in one of the following areas, you may be able to get help or information from one of these local NLG hotlines for:
Portland, Oregon: (833) 680-1312
San Francisco, California: (415) 285-1041 or fbi_hotline@nlgsf.org
Seattle, Washington: (206) 658-7963
National Hotline
If you are located in an area with no hotline, you can call the following number:
National NLG Federal Defense Hotline: (212) 679-2811
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1) Palestinians go on strike in the West Bank to protest a deadly Israeli military raid.
By Vivek Shankar and Isabel Kershner, April 21, 2024
Palestinians inspecting damage on Sunday after an Israeli raid in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank. Credit...Ronaldo Schemidt/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Palestinians in the West Bank on Sunday went on a general strike to protest an Israeli military raid at a refugee camp a day earlier in which at least 10 people were killed, in an episode that illustrated the continuing unrest in the territory.
The raid was the latest operation in a sweeping economic and security clampdown in the territory occupied by Israel, even as it prosecutes its war against Hamas in Gaza. Since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and detained in raids in the West Bank, which Israeli officials describe as counterterrorism operations against Hamas and other armed groups.
Sunday’s strike “paralyzed all aspects of life” in the West Bank, according to the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, with shops, schools, universities and banks shuttered. Public transportation also came to a standstill.
It was not the first shutdown in the occupied West Bank — where about 500,000 Israeli settlers live alongside roughly 2.7 million Palestinians — as an act of protest in recent months. The Israeli authorities have tightened restrictions in the territory since Oct. 7, canceling thousands of work permits that allowed Palestinians to work in Israel and squeezing the West Bank’s economy.
And violence in the West Bank has sharply escalated in recent months. Nearly 500 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces there since the Israel-Hamas war started, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Deadly violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers in the West Bank has also reached record levels since Oct. 7.
Early on Sunday, two Palestinian males in their late teens were fatally shot by Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Israeli military said one of them had opened fire at soldiers at a military post north of Hebron and the other had tried to stab them.
Later on Sunday morning, an Israeli man was slightly injured in an explosion in the West Bank, according to the Israeli emergency services. Video footage shared by Israeli news outlets showed him kicking down a Palestinian flag on a pole in a field near a settlement. The flag appeared to have been booby-trapped.
Those incidents came after the Israeli military’s hourslong raid in the Nur Shams refugee camp, in the northern part of the West Bank, on Saturday. The military called the raid a counterterrorism operation and said the 10 killed were militants, a claim that could not be immediately verified.
However, the Palestinian Ministry said that the Israeli operation in Nur Shams was responsible for the deaths of at least 14 people, including a 15-year-old boy. The Fatah party, which dominates the Palestinian Authority, labeled the operation a “heinous” crime and called on residents of the occupied territory to protest the raid.
The United States has called on Israel to increase commercial engagement with the West Bank, arguing that doing so was important for both Palestinians and Israelis. The war has also sent shock waves through Israel’s economy, which shrank nearly 20 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.
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2) The House, with a bipartisan vote, approves an aid package for Israel.
By Catie Edmondson, April 21, 2024
Speaker Mike Johnson talked to the news media on Saturday after the House voted to pass the foreign aid bills for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Credit...Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times
The House voted resoundingly on Saturday to approve billions of dollars in aid for Israel as part of a larger package that would also fund Ukraine and Taiwan.
In four back-to-back votes, overwhelming bipartisan coalitions of lawmakers approved the new rounds of funding for the three U.S. allies.
The legislation allocates $26 billion for Israel and for humanitarian aid for civilians in conflict zones, including Gaza; $60 billion for Kyiv; and $8 billion for the Indo-Pacific region.
The House approved assistance to Israel by a vote of 366 to 58. Representative Rashida Tlaib, Democrat of Michigan and a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause, voted “present.”
Thirty-seven liberal Democrats opposed the aid package for Israel because the legislation placed no conditions on how Israel could use American aid, even though there have been thousands of civilian casualties and Gaza faces the risk of famine.
That was a relatively small sliver of opposition given that left-wing lawmakers had pressed their colleagues to vote “no” on the bill to send a message to President Biden about the depth of anger within his political coalition over his backing for Israel’s tactics in the war.
“Sending more weapons to the Netanyahu government will make the U.S. even more responsible for atrocities and the horrific humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which is now in a season of famine,” said Representative Jonathan L. Jackson, Democrat of Illinois, speaking of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. “The United States Congress must be the moral compass. I continue to call for the release of all prisoners and hostages. I continue to pray and work for peace, security and stability.”
Mr. Netanyahu welcomed the news that the bill had passed in the House, saying it was “much appreciated” and a demonstration of “bipartisan support for Israel.”
Hamas condemned it, saying in a statement on Sunday that the aid allocation was “a confirmation of the official American complicity and partnership” in what the group described as Israeli war crimes in Gaza.
The Senate is expected to pass the legislation as early as Tuesday and send it to Mr. Biden’s desk, capping a tortured journey through Congress.
Isabel Kershner contributed reporting.
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3) Columbia Students Arrested Over Campus Rally May Face Other Consequences
Students who camped in tents to protest the war in Gaza, including the daughter of Representative Ilhan Omar, may be barred from finishing the semester.
By Troy Closson and Anna Betts, April 20, 2024
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/20/nyregion/arrested-columbia-students-suspended.html
Police officials said they arrested at least 108 students involved in the protest camp on Columbia’s campus. Credit...C.S. Muncy for The New York Times
Many of the more than 100 Columbia University and Barnard College students who were arrested after refusing to leave a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus on Thursday woke up to a chilly new reality this week: Columbia said that their IDs would soon stop working, and some of them would not be able to finish the semester.
The students who were arrested were released with summonses. The university said all of the 100 or so students involved in the protest had been informed that they were suspended.
For some of those students, that means they must vacate their student housing, with just weeks before the semester ends.
Yet whatever the consequences, several of the students said in interviews that they were determined to keep protesting Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.
They said that after being loaded onto buses with their hands tied, they had sung all the way to police headquarters. Many expressed a renewed belief in their cause, and were glad that the eyes of the nation were on Columbia and Barnard, its sister college.
The protests, the arrests and the subsequent disciplinary action came a day after the congressional testimony this week of Columbia’s president, Nemat Shafik, at a hearing about antisemitism on campus. Columbia has said there have been a number of antisemitic episodes, including one attack, and many Jewish students have seen the protests as antisemitic.
Responding to aggressive questioning from the House committee, Columbia officials said some of the protesters on campus had used antisemitic language that might warrant discipline.
But on campus fury was building. The administration called in the Police Department to quell the protests. Arrests — at least 108 — soon followed.
The aggressive response left students shaken — but also, they say, energized.
Among the protesters, whose demands included that Columbia divest from companies connected to Israel, was one particularly high-profile name: Isra Hirsi, a Barnard student who is the daughter of Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota.
At the congressional hearing on Wednesday, Ms. Omar had questioned Columbia administrators about their treatment of Palestinian and Muslim students. As Ms. Omar spoke in Washington, her daughter was in New York helping to organize the campus encampment of about 50 tents.
Ms. Hirsi, a junior, said in an interview that while she had been “mentally preparing” for being arrested, she was “shocked” at what actually unfolded. She left a precinct house at around 9:30 p.m. “So I was in zip ties for over seven hours,” she said.
Since being released, Ms. Hirsi, 21, said her professors had been supportive, although she was unsure what the future held. Still, she added that she was glad students had put a spotlight on the “hypocrisy coming from the Columbia University administration.”
“Everybody is invigorated,” she said.
“Even at this moment in time, they’re still holding down the south lawn,” she continued. “I think it’s beautiful.”
The next several weeks will be an uncertain period for those who were arrested, as well as for the university’s leaders. Many student protesters remained defiant after the arrests and vowed to continue their demonstrations.
For the unknown number of students who were suspended, a major shake-up looms as the semester ends.
Police officials said the students had received summonses for trespassing. The students said they expected to make initial court appearances next month. All of the students who were at the encampment have been suspended, university officials said, though it was not clear if every student at the encampment had been arrested.
The suspensions prohibit students from attending university events or getting into campus spaces, including dining halls, classrooms and libraries, the university said. It was not clear how long those prohibitions would last.
Some Barnard students said that they had received unexpected email warnings giving them 15 minutes to pack their belongings. Staff members would then escort any suspended students out of their dormitories, these students said they were told.
Some students, including Ms. Hirsi, said they were now bouncing between friends’ apartments. She said that she would fight her interim suspension. She said she had not yet returned to her room because doing so would require going with a chaperone from Barnard’s public safety team.
“I don’t really like the idea of that,” Ms. Hirsi said. “It makes me feel like more of a criminal than I think that I am.”
On Friday, Ms. Omar posted a message on social media saying that her daughter was not a lawbreaker, but a leader. She wrote that she was “enormously proud of her” for “pushing her school to stand against genocide.”
“Stepping up to change what you can’t tolerate is why we as a country have the right to speech, assembly, and petition enshrined in our constitution,” Ms. Omar wrote.
In a sharp editorial published this week, the campus newspaper, The Columbia Daily Spectator, denounced Dr. Shafik’s decision to arrest students and called on her to do more to protect protesters who have been doxxed, saying she had “demonstrated a complete lack of consistency in enforcing her principles, failing to differentiate between speech she personally opposes and speech warranting suppression.”
Dr. Shafik, who goes by Minouche, said in a letter on Thursday announcing her decision to summon the Police Department that the encampment had disrupted campus life and had created an atmosphere of intimidation.
Dr. Shafik said of calling in the police that she had taken “this extraordinary step because these are extraordinary circumstances.”
But many of the protesters, including several Jewish students, objected to the administration’s characterization of the tent demonstration. One Ph.D. candidate at Columbia who declined to give her last name said she was standing by the morals and ethics her Jewish faith had ingrained in her — not menacing her classmates.
Another Jewish sophomore at the university, Iris Hsiang, said it was the college — rather than her peers — that had made her feel unsafe. Her only crime, she said, was “sitting and singing on the lawns.”
She added that the coming commemoration of Passover, which marks Jewish freedom from slavery in Egypt, weighed on her. It was part of why she felt compelled to join the encampment.
“Judaism means standing for the liberation of all people,” she said. “And ‘never again’ means never again for anyone."
Ms. Hsiang was among the students who were shuffled into a series of holding cells and processed at police headquarters over the course of eight hours. Men and women were split up, and officers eventually cut off some of the zip ties. A number of Muslim students struggled to find space for their daily prayers, protesters said.
The Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.
The mood was anxious at times. But the students said they tried to maintain their morale.
“We were chanting all the way through until we were put in our cells,” said Marie Adele Grosso, a 19-year-old Barnard student.
Ms. Grosso said she joined the encampment in part to follow a model of activism her family had set. Her family has loved ones in Gaza.
“I’ve known for a while that this is something I would be willing to be arrested for,” she said.
When her grandmother heard about what had happened on campus, she sent her a text.
“She was proud of me,” Ms. Grosso said.
Eryn Davis and Karla Marie Sanford contributed reporting.
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4) 3 Officers Face Charges in Death of California Man Who Was Pinned Down
The officers, all with the Alameda Police Department at the time, were charged with involuntary manslaughter after the district attorney reopened the case.
By Ruth Graham, April 20, 2024
Three years after police officers in Northern California pinned a man face down for about five minutes as he begged for relief, prosecutors announced that the officers would face charges of involuntary manslaughter in the man’s death.
The charges against Eric McKinley, James Fisher and Cameron Leahy, all with the Alameda Police Department at the time, in the death of Mario Gonzalez, 26, were announced on Thursday, after a review by the Alameda County district attorney’s Public Accountability Unit.
The county’s previous district attorney closed the investigation into the officers in 2022, saying that the evidence did not justify criminal charges. But Pamela Price, who was elected district attorney later that year, reopened the case a year ago.
The new charges were announced just days after the county’s Registrar of Voters announced that a recall campaign against Ms. Price had submitted enough signatures to proceed.
The incident that ended in Mr. Gonzalez’s death began when the officers responded to a call that a man was loitering and behaving strangely in a public park on April 19, 2021.
Mr. Gonzalez was wandering at the edge of the park, near a row of houses. Body camera footage captured Officer McKinley approaching Mr. Gonzalez in a friendly manner, asking him if he was OK. Mr. Gonzalez spoke incoherently, standing near two shopping baskets of liquor bottles.
When a second officer arrived, the encounter escalated, as the men asked Mr. Gonzalez repeatedly for his name and identification. They grabbed his arms, and Mr. Gonzalez began to cry out. The officers brought him to the ground and held him there face down, a restraint technique that is known to pose a risk to a person’s ability to breathe.
An analysis of the footage by The New York Times in 2021 found that the death occurred after one officer appeared to keep his knee on the upper right side of Mr. Gonzalez’s back for 2 minutes 50 seconds. The officers appeared to be concerned about Mr. Gonzalez’s ability to breathe during the five minutes that they restrained him.
Eventually, the footage showed, they realized he was unresponsive and rolled him onto his side and then his back, before beginning chest compressions and calling for medical assistance. He was declared dead at a hospital soon afterward.
The city reached two settlements with Mr. Gonzalez’s family in December. One would pay $11 million to Mr. Gonzalez’s young son, and the other would pay $350,000 to his mother.
Mr. Gonzalez’s mother, Edith Arenales, told reporters at a vigil on Friday marking the anniversary of her son’s death that she had long hoped charges would be filed against the officers. “Thank God they opened the case again,” she said. “Tomorrow’s my birthday, but this is my present today.”
Two of the officers are on paid administrative leave from the Alameda Police Department, while Mr. Fisher is now a sheriff’s deputy in another county in Northern California. In a statement, Alameda’s police chief, Nishant Joshi, said he stood by the previous investigations that concluded the men “did not engage in any misconduct.”
The case drew comparisons to George Floyd, who died under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, sparking months of protests over racial justice across the country. That officer, Derek Chauvin, was found guilty of two counts of murder and sentenced to over 20 years in prison.
In Mr. Gonzalez’s case, the office of the district attorney at the time, Nancy O’Malley, published a 38-page report detailing the officers’ response and concluding that “the elements of the relevant crimes cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.”
An initial autopsy by the county coroner’s office attributed Mr. Gonzalez’s death to “toxic effects of methamphetamine” with other significant conditions, including morbid obesity, alcoholism and “physiological stress of altercation and restraint,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement on Thursday. A later autopsy commissioned by his family concluded the death was “a result of restraint asphyxiation.”
Ms. Price, the current district attorney, was elected after campaigning on a liberal platform that included reviewing old cases and lightening sentences. Soon after taking office, she reopened Mr. Gonzalez’s case, along with seven other cases of civilian deaths involving law enforcement.
“Every case that we’re looking at now was determined under a double standard,” Ms. Price told The New York Times last year. “Police officers received a different standard of justice than everyday people.”
Critics of Ms. Price’s approach started an effort to recall her from office less than a year into her term. A recall election will take place this summer.
An attorney for Mr. Leahy, Alison Berry Wilkinson, said in a statement that the officers acted reasonably and that a jury would exonerate the men. “There is no new evidence,” said Ms. Wilkinson, who represented all three officers until the charges were filed. “This is a blatantly political prosecution.”
The officers will be arraigned on May 30. All three are expected to plead not guilty, Ms. Wilkinson said.
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5) Columbia University to Hold Classes Remotely After Weekend Protests
The campus has been shaken by pro-Palestinian demonstrations that have left some Jewish students fearing for their safety.
By Derrick Bryson Taylor, April 22, 2024
Tents at the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on the campus of Columbia University on Sunday night. Credit...Bing Guan for The New York Times
Columbia University announced early Monday that it would hold classes remotely after a wave of agitated protests on campus over the weekend that drew widespread attention from city and national officials and raised safety concerns for some Jewish students.
The university’s president, Minouche Shafik, said in a letter to the Columbia community, “We need a reset,” adding that she felt sadness about how the university’s bonds had been severely tested in recent weeks. She urged students who do not live on campus not to travel there.
The campus has been embroiled in protests since last week. On Wednesday, as Dr. Shafik testified at a congressional hearing examining antisemitism at the university, pro-Palestinian students erected dozens of tents on a central campus lawn, vowing to stay put until Columbia met demands including divesting from companies with ties to Israel. On Thursday, after the students refused to stand down, the New York police arrested more than 100 of them.
In the coming days, a working group of deans, university administrators and faculty members will work to bring the crisis to a resolution, Dr. Shafik said.
“That includes continuing discussions with the student protesters and identifying actions we can take as a community to enable us to peacefully complete the term and return to respectful engagement with each other,” she said.
On Sunday, the atmosphere on campus was fraught, stirred by pro-Palestinian protests the previous day. Elie Buechler, a rabbi who works for Columbia, told hundreds of Jewish students on Sunday morning via WhatsApp that the university had failed to guarantee their safety and urged them to return home.
Some of those protests on Saturday evening lead to the harassment of some Jewish students who were targeted with antisemitic comments. The verbal attacks sowed fear in some of the 5,000 Jewish students at Columbia and drew condemnation from the White House and Mayor Eric Adams of New York City.
The student-led demonstrations on campus also drew protests outside campus by pro-Palestinian demonstrators who appeared to be unaffiliated with the university.
In her letter, Dr. Shafik urged anyone affected by the protests to report problems through the proper university channels. Many students and faculty have said the university’s decision to call in the police was too aggressive, and some also drew a distinction between the protests inside campus and those outside.
“Let’s remind ourselves of our common values of honoring learning, mutual respect and kindness that have been the bedrock of Columbia,” Dr. Shafik said in her letter. “I hope everyone can take a deep breath, show compassion, and work together to rebuild the ties that bind us together.”
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6) Jewish Students Are Targeted as Protests Continue at Columbia
After reports of harassment by demonstrators, some Jewish students said they felt unsafe. Others said they felt safe, while condemning antisemitism.
By Luis Ferré-Sadurní, Colbi Edmonds and Liset Cruz, Published April 21, 2024, Updated April 22, 2024
"Students who support the protesters say there is a wide range of opinion among Jewish students at Columbia. 'To say that it’s unsafe for Jewish people, to me, indicates that you’re only speaking about a certain portion of Jewish people,' Mr. Miner, 27, said at the university on Sunday.
“ 'We are totally opposed to any sort of antisemitic speech,' he added. 'We are here to, you know, stand in solidarity with Palestine. And we refuse — our Jewish members refuse — to equate that with antisemitism.'”
Grant Miner, a Jewish graduate student at Columbia University, says he doesn’t feel unsafe on campus. Credit...Bing Guan for The New York Times
Days after Columbia University’s president told Congress that she would work to tamp down antisemitism, some pro-Palestinian demonstrations on and around campus veered into the harassment of Jewish students, drawing the attention of the police and the concern of a number of Jewish students.
Over the weekend, the student-led demonstrations on campus attracted separate, more agitated protests by demonstrators who seemed to be unaffiliated with the university just outside Columbia’s gated campus in Upper Manhattan, which was closed to the public because of the protests.
Those demonstrations took a dark turn on Saturday evening, as protesters targeted some Jewish students with antisemitic vitriol that was captured in video and pictures, both inside and outside the campus. The verbal attacks left a number of the 5,000 Jewish students at Columbia fearful for their safety on the campus and its vicinity, and even drew condemnation from the White House and Mayor Eric Adams of New York City.
“While every American has the right to peaceful protest, calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community are blatantly antisemitic, unconscionable and dangerous,” Andrew Bates, a spokesman for the White House, said in a statement.
On Monday, the university’s president, Nemat Shafik, who goes by Minouche, called for classes to be taught virtually, saying that “over the past days, there have been too many examples of intimidating and harassing behavior on our campus.”
Student protesters have erected a sprawling encampment on one of the campus lawns. They have draped tents and the grass with Palestinian flags and protest signs, and the encampment has been surrounded with piles of supplies.
Protesters and counterprotesters have occasionally faced off, and there have been several moments in which demonstrators have yelled intimidating phrases. In one instance, video captured a person holding up a sign that said, “Al-Qasam’s Next Targets,” referring to Hamas’s armed faction, near several Jewish counterprotesters. Mr. Adams said the police had already increased its presence near the campus and would investigate any potential violations of the law.
Still, some Jewish students who are supporting the pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus said they felt solidarity, not a sense of danger, even as they denounced the acts of antisemitism.
“There’s so many young Jewish people who are like a vital part” of the protests, said Grant Miner, a Jewish graduate student at Columbia who is part of a student coalition calling on Columbia to divest from companies connected to Israel.
And in a statement, that group said, “We are frustrated by media distractions focusing on inflammatory individuals who do not represent us” and added that the group’s members “firmly reject any form of hate or bigotry.”
Reports of antisemitic harassment by protesters surfaced on social media late Saturday. A video posted on X shows a masked protester outside the Columbia gates carrying a Palestinian flag who appears to chant “Go back to Poland!” One Columbia student wrote on social media that some protesters had stolen an Israeli flag from students and tried to burn it, adding that Jewish students were splashed with water.
Chabad at Columbia University, a chapter of an international Orthodox Jewish movement, said in a statement that some protesters had hurled expletives at Jewish students as they walked home from campus over the weekend, and had said to them, “All you do is colonize” and “Go back to Europe.”
“We are horrified and worried about physical safety” on campus, said the statement, adding that the organization had hired additional armed guards to chaperone students walking home from Chabad.
Eliana Goldin, a junior at Columbia who is the co-chairwoman of Aryeh, a pro-Israel student organization, said she did not “feel safe anymore” on campus. Ms. Goldin, who is out of town for Passover, said campus had become “super overwhelming,” with loud protests disrupting class and even sleep.
In a statement, Samantha Slater, a Columbia spokeswoman, said that the university was committed to ensuring the safety of its students.
“Columbia students have the right to protest, but they are not allowed to disrupt campus life or harass and intimidate fellow students and members of our community,” said the statement. “We are acting on concerns we are hearing from our Jewish students and are providing additional support and resources to ensure that our community remains safe.”
The upheaval on and around the Columbia campus this week marked the latest fallout from the testimony that Dr. Shafik gave at a congressional hearing on antisemitism on Wednesday.
Dr. Shafik vowed to forcefully crack down on antisemitism on campus, in part by disciplining professors and student protesters who used language she said could be antisemitic, such as contested phrases like “from the river to the sea.” Her testimony, meant as an assertive display of Columbia’s actions to combat antisemitism, angered supporters of academic freedom and emboldened a group of protesting students who had erected an encampment of about 50 tents on a main lawn in the campus this week.
University officials said the tents violated the school’s policies and called in the New York Police Department on Thursday, leading to the arrests of more than 100 Columbia University and Barnard College students who refused to leave. But the police involvement only fueled the uproar. Students pressed on with their “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” sleeping in the cold without tents on a neighboring lawn, and some began to erect tents again on Sunday, without Columbia’s permission.
Students who support the protesters say there is a wide range of opinion among Jewish students at Columbia. “To say that it’s unsafe for Jewish people, to me, indicates that you’re only speaking about a certain portion of Jewish people,” Mr. Miner, 27, said at the university on Sunday.
“We are totally opposed to any sort of antisemitic speech,” he added. “We are here to, you know, stand in solidarity with Palestine. And we refuse — our Jewish members refuse — to equate that with antisemitism.”
Makayla Gubbay, a junior studying human rights at Columbia, said that as a Jewish student, she has mostly been concerned for the safety of her peers protesting for Palestinians.
Ms. Gubbay said that throughout the past six months her friends — particularly those who are Palestinian and other students who are Muslim — have been injured by the police and censored for their activism. Though she was not involved in the organizing of the encampment, she went there for the Sabbath on Friday, attended a speech given by a participant in Columbia’s intense 1968 protest and brought hot tea for friends.
“There’s been a lot of amazing solidarity in terms of other students coming on campus, hosting Shabbats, hosting screenings, having faculty give speeches,” Ms. Gubbay said.
Columbia officials have previously said there have been several antisemitic incidents on campus, including one physical attack in October — the assault of a 24-year-old Columbia student who was hanging fliers a few days after the Hamas attacks on Israel in October.
While many Jewish students had left campus to celebrate Passover, which begins on Monday evening, the rising tensions led at least one rabbi on campus to suggest that the Ivy League school was no longer safe and that Jewish students should leave.
Elie Buechler, an Orthodox rabbi who works at Columbia, sent a WhatsApp message to a group of more than 290 Jewish students on Sunday morning saying that campus and city police had failed to guarantee the safety of Jewish students “in the face of extreme antisemitism and anarchy.” He recommended that students return home “until the reality in and around campus has dramatically improved.”
“It is not our job as Jews to ensure our own safety on campus,” wrote Rabbi Buechler, the director of the Orthodox Union’s Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus at Columbia University and Barnard College. “No one should have to endure this level of hatred, let alone at school.”
Citing Passover preparations, Rabbi Buechler declined to be interviewed, but he said that his message was meant as a personal statement and did not reflect the views of the university or Hillel, the Jewish organization on campus.
Indeed, in an apparent response, Hillel issued a statement on Sunday afternoon saying that the organization did not believe that Jewish students should leave Columbia, but it pressed the university and the city to step up safety measures.
“We call on the university administration to act immediately in restoring calm to campus,” Brian Cohen, the group’s executive director, wrote. “The city must ensure that students can walk up and down Broadway and Amsterdam without fear of harassment,” he added, referring to the avenues that run alongside the Upper West Side campus.
Noah Levine, 20, a sophomore at Columbia and an organizer with Jewish Voice for Peace, said they found the rabbi’s comments “deeply offensive.”
“I’m a Jewish student who has been in this encampment since its inception,” they said. “I’m also a student who has been organizing in this community with these people since October, and even before that, and I believe in my heart that this is not about antisemitism.”
But Xavier Westergaard, a Ph.D. student in biology, said the mood for Jewish students was “very dire.”
“There are students on campus who are yelling horrible things, not about Israelis only or about the actions of the state or the government, but about Jews in general,” he said.
Sharon Otterman contributed reporting.
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