Free Them All! Free Palestine!
Divest from Israel! Free Torture Survivors, The Wrongfully Convicted, and All Political Prisoners!
Date: Sunday May 19
Time: 3:00 P.M.
Location: 1160 N Larrabee St, Chicago, IL
MARK YOUR CALENDARS. We’re calling a demonstration May 19th at 3:00 P.M. here in Chicago bringing together the struggles to free torture survivors, the wrongfully convicted, and ALL political prisoners with the struggle to free Palestine! Join us as we unite our movements and raise our demands on the powers that be! Free Them All! Free Palestine!
Learn More About the March on the DNC here
Help us sustain our work with a donation
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Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression
6353 S Cottage Grove Ave
Chicago, IL 60637
United States
caarpr.org
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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 - 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) A Brief History of the 2,000-Pound Bombs Central to U.S.-Israeli Tensions
The one-ton Mark 84 bomb was designed shortly after World War II. Adding guidance kits has kept it in use for more than 70 years.
By John Ismay, Reporting from Washington, May 11, 2024
An unexploded Israeli Mark 80 bomb lying among the rubble in a refugee camp in southern Gaza last month. Credit...Mohammed Saber/EPA, via Shutterstock
When President Biden threatened to pause some weapons shipments to Israel if it invaded the southern Gaza city of Rafah, the devastating effects of one weapon were of particular concern to him.
“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs,” Mr. Biden said in remarks to CNN this week.
He was referring to U.S.-made 2,000-pound aerial weapons, the largest in the Pentagon’s Mark 80 series of bombs.
In the military’s banal lexicon, the Mark 80s are “general purpose” bombs, meaning that they can be used on almost any target the military typically expects to encounter in war. In addition to the 2,000-pound Mk-84, they also come in 250-pound, 500-pound and 1,000-pound versions — the Mk-81, Mk-82 and Mk-83.
The president has already delayed a shipment to Israel of 3,500 bombs in the Mark 80 series that he feared could be used in a major assault on Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians have taken refuge.
A New York Times investigation in December found that American 2,000-pound bombs were responsible for some of the worst attacks on Palestinian civilians since the war in Gaza began after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
According to a U.S. Army office that manages ammunition for the Pentagon, the ideal targets for weapons of that size are “buildings, rail yards and lines of communication.”
However, Defense Department data indicates that U.S. warplanes typically use far less powerful munitions for supporting ground troops engaged with enemy fighters.
The explosive warheads of these bombs have changed little since the U.S. Navy created them shortly after World War II, but the Pentagon has kept them in service by developing new parts and pieces that can be attached for a variety of purposes.
About 40 percent of each one’s weight is composed of a high explosive mixture; the rest comes from its steel case. When detonated, the bomb’s smooth skin shatters into razor-sharp fragments that can shred human bodies and unarmored vehicles alike.
Course guides used in teaching American troops how to call in airstrikes state that anyone within 115 feet of a 250-pound bomb’s impact has a 10 percent chance of being incapacitated or killed. That lethal radius jumps to nearly 600 feet for a one-ton version that explodes just above the ground.
For a time, the United States held a monopoly on these bombs. But now Mark 80s are made and sold by a number of countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Italy, Pakistan, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
Israel makes its own versions, but export data suggests that the country purchases most of its bombs from the United States through an annual $3.5 billion grant of American taxpayer money.
How have the bombs evolved?
Classified through much of the 1950s, the Mark 80 came fully into public view during the Vietnam War.
Most Mark 80s dropped over Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos from 1965 to 1973 were unguided weapons that cost a few hundred dollars each. Under the best of conditions, about half of them could be expected to land within 400 feet of their target.
When they missed, whether because of pilot error or winds pushing them around after being dropped, they sometimes killed American troops in large numbers in addition to killing civilians.
The use of radar signals to better determine the right place to drop these unguided bombs sometimes failed spectacularly, such as one incident when five jets flying in bad weather mistakenly dropped 34 Mark 82 500-pound bombs on the American air base in Da Nang.
But in the late 1960s, Texas Instruments developed a kit called Paveway that gave the Mark 80 far greater accuracy by adding parts to the bomb’s nose and tail that allowed the bomb to steer itself to a target using lasers shined from warplanes above. That shrank the average miss distance to about 10 feet. Because of their high cost, though, Paveways made up only a tiny fraction of the bombs dropped by the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War.
These weapons were commonly called “smart bombs” during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, and the term has endured to describe a host of guided weapons fielded in the decades since.
But the laser-guided weapons often failed in bad weather and sandstorms, leading military officials to develop a new guidance kit for the Mark 80 in the early 1990s. Called JDAM — for Joint Direct Attack Munition — they cost half as much as Paveway and used radio signals from the military’s nascent constellation of GPS satellites in outer space to guide them. They can generally hit within 30 feet of their targets.
How often are 2,000-pound bombs used?
For American forces, not that often.
During the Vietnam War, Air Force warplanes dropped more Mark 82s than all other kinds of aerial weapons combined, including cluster bombs — and usually reserved Mark 84s for destroying large buildings or infrastructure like bridges. In the decades since, the Mark 82 has remained the most commonly used warhead by Americans in combat, especially when combined with a Paveway or JDAM guidance kit.
By comparison, Israel reaches for its 2,000-pound bombs far more often.
In the first two weeks of the war, roughly 90 percent of the munitions Israel dropped in Gaza were satellite-guided bombs of 1,000 to 2,000 pounds, according to a senior U.S. military official. The rest were 250-pound small-diameter bombs.
Israel also uses a slightly different kind of 2,000-pound bomb called the BLU-109 that can penetrate underground to reach buried targets like Hamas tunnels. Like all so-called bunker-busters, most of that weapon’s weight comes from a much thicker steel case than general-purpose weapons, and it explodes with the force of just 525 pounds of TNT — far closer to the power of the 1,000-pound Mark 83.
Are there even larger bombs?
The United States makes very few conventional bombs larger than 2,000 pounds. Israel has acquired one of them, an even thicker-cased 5,000-pound bomb built for attacking targets deeper underground.
Israel purchased 50 such bombs from the United States in 2015. Each carries the equivalent of just 625 pounds of TNT.
The other two weapons have never been sold or provided to allies.
One is a 21,000-pound bomb called the Massive Ordnance Air Blast, or MOAB, which explodes just above the ground with the force of 18,700 pounds of TNT and can only be dropped from cargo planes. It was used once in Afghanistan in 2017, in what is the sole publicly acknowledged use of that weapon in combat.
The service also has a 30,000-pound bomb called the Massive Ordnance Penetrator capable of punching even farther underground before exploding, but it can only be carried by the B-2 stealth bomber. It explodes with the force of 5,600 pounds of TNT.
What’s the opposition to Israel’s use of the Mark 84?
Many politicians and activists say 2,000-pound bombs are too powerful to be used responsibly in Gaza, a densely populated enclave.
“The U.S. cannot beg Netanyahu to stop bombing civilians one day and the next send him thousands more 2,000 lb. bombs that can level entire city blocks,” Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont posted on social media on March 29, referring to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. “This is obscene,” he added. “We must end our complicity: No more bombs to Israel.”
In May 2021, Mr. Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, attempted to block a $735 million sale of American bombs to Israel for similar reasons.
Israel has used these weapons before. Israel relied on Mark 80s during another “all-out war” against Hamas in 2008 and used them again in 2021 to destroy a building in Gaza City that housed the offices of The Associated Press, Al Jazeera and other news media organizations.
Israel’s Ministry of Defense did not respond to multiple calls and emails asking for comment on transfers of American-made bombs, including questions about the provision of Mark 84s.
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2) Israeli troops engaged in ‘close-quarters combat’ against Hamas in Gaza City, the military says.
By Liam Stack reporting from Tel Aviv, May 12, 2024
Evacuating from Jabaliya, in northern Gaza, on Saturday. Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Close-quarters ground combat between Hamas fighters and Israeli troops raged in parts of northern Gaza over the weekend, both sides said on Sunday. The fighting fit into a now familiar scenario: Israeli forces returning to an area where they had defeated Hamas earlier in the war only to see the group reconstitute in the power vacuum left behind.
That persistent lawlessness has raised concerns about the future of Gaza. On Sunday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on “Face the Nation” that Hamas was already “coming back” in parts of Gaza and that Israel had not presented the United States with any plan for when the war ends.
That had left him concerned that Israeli victories there would be “not sustainable” and would be followed by a gap “that’s likely to be filled by chaos, by anarchy, and ultimately by Hamas again.”
“We’ve been working for many, many weeks on developing credible plans for security, for governance, for rebuilding,” he said. “We haven’t seen that come from Israel, we’ve been working with Arab countries and others on that plan.”
On Sunday, the Israeli military said its soldiers had “eliminated a number of terrorists in close-quarters combat” in the Gaza City neighborhood of Zeitoun. In nearby Jabaliya, from which Israel ordered civilians to evacuate on Saturday, troops went in overnight after fighters jets struck more than two dozen targets, according to a statement from the military.
The operation was “based on intelligence information regarding attempts by Hamas to reassemble its terrorist infrastructure and operatives in the area,” the statement added.
On Sunday, Hamas said that its fighters were engaged in “fierce clashes” with Israeli soldiers near Jabaliya and that they had fired heavy-caliber mortar shells at Israeli forces in Zeitoun. Neither claim could be independently verified.
The United Nations’ human rights chief, Volker Türk, expressed alarm about the fighting in northern Gaza on Sunday.
“I am deeply distressed by the fast-deteriorating conditions in Gaza as Israeli forces intensify airstrikes on Jabaliya and Beit Lahia in northern Gaza,” he said in a statement.
Throughout the war, Israeli forces have returned to parts of Gaza that they had previously left, especially in the north. Military analysts have said Hamas may reconstitute itself in those areas because Israel has declined to administer those territories itself, and has also declined to transfer them to non-Hamas Palestinian control.
That has led to lawlessness across much of northern Gaza, including in Gaza City and Jabaliya. In Beit Lahia, another northern town, fighting over the weekend killed at least 12 people whose bodies were brought to Kamal Adwan Hospital, Wafa, the official news agency of the Palestinian Authority, reported on Sunday.
Palestine TV, a network affiliated with the Palestinian Authority, a rival to Hamas based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, broadcast footage that it said showed Palestinian civilians, including many women and children, fleeing northern Gaza.
Some were on foot, while others were on bicycles, in cars or piled onto carts drawn by a donkeys. The footage could not immediately be independently verified.
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3) The U.N. says about 300,000 Gazans have fled Rafah.
By Mike Ives, May 12, 2024
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/05/12/world/israel-gaza-war-hamas-rafah#rafah-gaza-evacuation
Tents housing displaced Palestinians in Rafah, in southern Gaza, on Saturday. Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The main United Nations agency aiding Palestinians in Gaza said early Sunday that about 300,000 people had fled over the past week from Rafah, the city in the enclave’s southernmost tip where more than a million displaced Gazans had sought shelter from Israeli bombardments elsewhere over the past seven months.
The U.N. agency, known as UNRWA, made the announcement on social media hours after the Israeli government issued new evacuation orders in Rafah and elsewhere in Gaza, deepening fears that the Israeli military was preparing to invade the city despite international warnings.
The World Food Program echoed those warnings on Sunday, expressing concern about displacement of civilians and saying that a full-scale invasion of Rafah would be “catastrophic.”
“Families are once again on the move, searching for shelter, food, water — but with fewer resources,” it wrote on social media.
Paltel, the Gaza Strip’s largest telecommunications company, said on Sunday that internet service was down in parts of southern Gaza because of Israeli military operations and that crews were working to restore services “as quickly as possible.”
Doctors Without Borders, an aid group whose staff members have been working in Gaza during the war, also said on social media that it had started to refer the last 22 patients at one hospital, the Rafah Indonesian Field Hospital, to other facilities because it could “no longer guarantee their safety.”
Gaza’s health care system is in a state of near collapse, and one of the three major hospitals in Rafah that were partly functioning before the Israeli military’s operation there this month has already shut down.
There has been intense bombardment and fighting around Rafah since Monday, when Israel seized control of the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, largely halting the flow of aid. Dozens of people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Rafah since then, local health officials say.
Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets over parts of Rafah and over a part of northern Gaza on Saturday that ordered people to flee. The warning about Rafah added to existing evacuations orders there.
The Israeli military has told Gazans in Rafah to temporarily evacuate to an “expanded humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi,” a coastal area north of the city that the United Nations and international officials have stressed is neither safe nor equipped to receive them.
“Forcing civilians to evacuate Rafah to unsafe zones is intolerable,” Josep Borrell Fontelles, the European Union’s top diplomat, wrote late Saturday on the social media platform X. He urged Israel not to go ahead with a ground offensive in Rafah, saying it would “further exacerbate an already dire humanitarian crisis.”
Israel has called its incursions into eastern Rafah this month “precise operations” targeting Hamas, the armed group that led the Oct. 7 attacks into southern Israel. Several countries and international aid groups have condemned the prospect of a full-scale Rafah invasion, saying it would be catastrophic for civilians.
President Biden paused an arms shipment to Israel out of concern that the weapons might be used in a major assault on Rafah, and he has warned that the United States would withhold certain weapons, including heavy bombs and artillery shells, if Israel goes ahead with the operation.
Matthew Mpoke Bigg contributed reporting.
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4) The flow of food and other aid into Gaza has almost entirely dried up over the past week, the U.N. says.
By Matthew Mpoke Bigg, May 12, 2023
Palestinians lined up for food distribution in Deir al Balah, Gaza, on Friday. Credit...Abdel Kareem Hana/Associated Press
The flow of aid into Gaza has almost entirely dried up in the past week, according to the United Nations, at a time when humanitarian agencies say the enclave needs a drastic increase in the amount of food, medicine and other goods to tackle a looming famine.
Since the start of the war, most aid for Gaza has entered through two border crossings in the southern end of the territory. Israel shut down one of those, Kerem Shalom, after a Hamas rocket attack nearby killed four Israeli soldiers on May 5. The next day, Israel’s military seized and closed the second, in Rafah, on the Egyptian border, as part of what it called a “limited operation” against Hamas, bringing the flow of aid to a near-total stop.
Six trucks of flour arrived through the Kerem Shalom crossing on Saturday, and on Friday, some fuel also came through the same crossing point, according to Juliette Touma, the communications director for the main U.N. agency that aids Palestinians, UNRWA. She said that no other supplies arrived through Kerem Shalom this past week and that the Rafah crossing remained closed.
“That’s all since May 6,” Ms. Touma said in a text message. “Basically nothing.”
The Israeli agency that coordinates aid to Palestinians, COGAT, said on Sunday that Israel was “operating to enable the flow of aid to Rafah” through a road that runs through part of the length of the enclave. It did not provide additional details.
The extremely limited amount of aid will almost certainly aggravate a cumulative food deficit that has built up in the past seven months.
Before the war began last October, about 500 aid trucks and additional commercial trucks a day carried supplies into Gaza. But the number entering the territory through the two main border crossings has fallen by about 75 percent since Oct. 7, according to the United Nations. Some food has also been delivered by air and sea and, more recently, through the Erez border crossing in northern Gaza, but aid groups say it is insufficient to make up for the deficit at the main border crossings.
At the same time, Ms. Touma said that around 300,000 liters of fuel is needed per day for all humanitarian purposes, including to run generators in hospitals and relief operations. Aid groups said last week that they had just a few days of fuel stocks left.
Only 157,000 liters of fuel entered Gaza on Friday, Ms. Touma said. COGAT put the figure at 200,000 liters. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.
“At this desperate moment, exacerbated by acts impeding the entry of humanitarian aid in Gaza through the three crossings, there is a dire shortage of fuel, which is hindering everything,” Volker Türk, the U.N.’s high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement on Sunday.
Israel’s military said that Hamas’s deadly rocket attack toward Kerem Shalom last Sunday was launched from the area of Rafah, in southern Gaza. When Israel’s military captured the Rafah border crossing last week, it told people to evacuate from the east of the city. Since then, the military has expanded the evacuation orders.
Mr. Türk said that he could “see no way” that the latest evacuation order imposed on civilians in Rafah “can be reconciled with the binding requirements of international humanitarian law.”
In Nuseirat, in central Gaza, the local authorities were bracing for a potential public health crisis, the town’s mayor, Iyad Maghari, said in a statement released on Sunday by Gaza’s government press office.
Mr. Maghari said the municipality had only 48 hours worth of fuel left and would soon have to halt what few services remained after seven months of war.
“We call on all U.N. organizations to intervene urgently and quickly to supply the fuel necessary to operate water wells, sewage pumps and waste collection,” Mr. Maghari said in the statement, adding that otherwise Nuseirat could soon see “sewage overflowing and waste piling up in the streets.”
One reason for the overall hold up in aid is that Egypt, where most of the assistance for Gaza is collected and loaded, is refusing to allow trucks from the Rafah crossing to drive on to Kerem Shalom, according to two U.S. officials and a Western official who are involved in the aid operation, as well as two Israeli officials with knowledge of the situation. The American and Israeli officials say they believe Egypt is trying to pressure Israel to pull back its forces from Rafah.
After rocket sirens sounded in the area of Kerem Shalom again on Sunday, Israel’s military said that two launches from Rafah had been intercepted by air defenses.
Liam Stack contributed reporting.
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5) A Chaotic Night at U.C.L.A. Raises Questions About Police Response
Counterprotesters attacked a pro-Palestinian encampment for several hours without police intervention, and none were arrested. Now, the police response is under investigation.
By Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Mike Baker and Serge F. Kovaleski, May 12, 2024
“Marie Salem, a U.C.L.A. graduate student and one of the protesters, questioned why the police had arrested dozens of student protesters but had not yet arrested any of those who had attacked them. ‘The majority of the encampment is students that attend this university, and who were not violent,’ Ms. Salem said. ‘We were met with violence, and the other side looked like majority not-students, which the university chose to protect over their own students.’”
Nearly two weeks after a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles, was attacked by counterprotesters, university officials still have not explained why security officers stood by for hours while the attack was underway, nor have the authorities arrested any of those who swarmed in wielding metal rods, water bottles and firecrackers in one of the worst outbreaks of violence in the college protests that have rocked the country.
The extent of the policing failure has become clearer in recent days, as witnesses have come forward to describe a chaotic night of violence on April 30, in which students and bystanders repeatedly called 911 and nonemergency lines, finding little help and calls that were disconnected. A dispatcher told one caller pleading for help that they were ending the call because “I have actual emergencies to handle.”
One man was filmed by a local television station on the phone with emergency dispatchers, alerting them that people were getting hurt. “Security has abandoned this encampment,” he could be heard saying before lowering his phone and looking at it. “They just hung up on me again,” he said incredulously.
Miles away in Sacramento, staff members in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office contacted the U.C.L.A. chancellor’s office shortly after 11 p.m. to make sure that law enforcement officers were responding to the scene, and were assured that more officers were coming, according to a person familiar with the situation, who described the discussions on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make them public.
But as the night wore on and there was still no intervention, the person said, the governor’s office moved to circumvent local authority and ordered California Highway Patrol officers to the campus. The state officers began assembling on campus at 1:45 a.m., a few moments before L.A.P.D. riot police arrived, but it took another hour to quell the clashes.
The chancellor’s office, the L.A.P.D. and an outside consultant hired to investigate the tardy response have all declined to discuss it, pending the outcome of an inquiry that could take weeks or months. The campus police chief, John Thomas, also did not comment. He told The Los Angeles Times that he had relied on private security officers who were not authorized to make arrests, but that he had done “everything I could” to keep students safe.
To understand what happened, New York Times journalists conducted interviews with several people who were at the protests that night, including two people who were involved in the counterprotest; reviewed and analyzed video footage; and spoke with organizations involved in both the pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli movements on campus.
The review found no public callouts for such a violent attack and no clear signs that one group coordinated the attack, though some people had arrived wearing black clothes and masks and seemingly prepared for violence. There was also no indication that the police had prepared for the kind of severe assault on the encampment that took place.
Instead, it appeared that contract security officers who did not have sufficient authority or numbers to halt the escalating melee had been caught by surprise and left to wait for reinforcements that did not arrive for hours.
“Either the university was hesitant to do anything to get law enforcement involved, or law enforcement was dealing with authorization issues and political considerations from elected officials,” said Ed Davis, a former Boston police commissioner who is familiar with crowd control policing issues. “And then things got out of hand.”
Despite growing concern on campus about the pro-Palestinian encampment, complaints about antisemitic incidents and the potential for violence, in the early days of the protests, university officials made it clear that they would consider calling in outside police only as a last resort.
“We are following University of California systemwide policy guidance, which directs us not to request law enforcement involvement preemptively, and only if absolutely necessary to protect the physical safety of our campus community,” Mary Osako, the vice chancellor for strategic communications, said in a statement on April 26, shortly after the encampment had been set up.
On the night of April 30, a range of counterprotesters had gathered, a group that grew in size as expectations mounted that the police would begin dismantling the encampment. In interviews, witnesses said there had been little warning before counterprotesters went on the offensive.
One of the counterprotesters, Liel Asherian, was seen on video footage kicking at the encampment’s plywood barrier, pulling boards to the ground and slamming a tennis racket against the wood that remained. He said he had gone that night to see the encampment on his own, though he later acknowledged that a friend of his was also pictured at the scene. In an interview, he said he was not part of any group and had not intended to participate in a conflict.
Mr. Asherian said he had approached the pro-Palestinian encampment to ask some people why they were protesting. He said he believed Jewish people such as himself and Palestinians were like cousins, and he expressed alarm at the innocent Palestinians being killed in Israel’s military campaign. But he said he disliked the disruptive tactics the pro-Palestinian protesters were using at U.C.L.A.
He said things devolved when someone called him a “dirty Jew” and he was doused in pepper spray.
“That made me start breaking down their barricades,” he said.
Also among the counterprotesters that night was Narek Palyan, an activist known for making frequent antisemitic statements, as well as comments critical of gay and transgender people. He said he went alone and was motivated to show up in part because he had seen a video of a Jewish woman on the pro-Palestinian side criticizing white people.
“I wanted to go find her, specifically,” he said, adding that he was not able to.
Mr. Palyan said he did not necessarily support either side in the protest or the war.
He said he spent much of the night asking people questions about their positions and trying to keep people from fighting by throwing makeshift weapons into nearby bushes. Mr. Palyan, who is Armenian-American, also said he had warned two younger Armenian boys to stay out of the melee.
“I told them, ‘This isn’t ours,’” he said.
Anthony Cabassa, a self-described conservative independent journalist who posted videos of the chaos, said many people may have flocked to the scene on Tuesday night in the hours after U.C.L.A. declared the encampment illegal, believing that the police would move in to clear it and make arrests.
But then the counterprotesters descended on the protest, pulling metal gates away from the group and attacking protesters.
“We were all waiting for the L.A.P.D. to show up, and they never did,” Mr. Cabassa said in an interview. “As the night went on, more and more pro-Israel folks started showing up, to the point where it was starting to get worrisome.”
He said some people seemed to have arrived after seeing broadcasts of the tense scene that he and other livestreamers made, wanting to witness what would happen next.
“People were responding to my livestream and saying ‘I just showed up because of you. I live nearby,’” he said. But others, he said, appeared to have planned for potential clashes, wearing all-black outfits and ski masks. Mr. Cabassa recalled being concerned about their presence.
In the end, more than 30 protesters were injured, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations Los Angeles, before police dispersed the crowd.
Brian H. Levin, the founding director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, said that, with religion and ethnicity at the heart of the recent protests, the attack had amounted to a hate crime.
“This comes at a time when major U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, have had a surge in anti-Arab and Muslim hate crimes and have hit a record for anti-Jewish crimes,” he said.
Mr. Levin watched the incident via livestream and said the weapons, the presence of some of the same people from previous protests and the waving of a yellow flag associated with Chabad-Lubavitch, a Hasidic Jewish movement, suggested some organizational coordination among the counterprotesters.
The director of the nearby Chabad House said the group had no role in the protest that night.
But he also noted that some of the implements wielded by the counterprotesters “were spontaneous weapons of opportunity,” and that some people “may have just showed up randomly with their own separate xenophobic and religious bigotries.”
The next day, after the counterprotesters had left, police officers moved in to remove the pro-Palestinian encampment, making more than 200 arrests.
Marie Salem, a U.C.L.A. graduate student and one of the protesters, questioned why the police had arrested dozens of student protesters but had not yet arrested any of those who had attacked them.
“The majority of the encampment is students that attend this university, and who were not violent,” Ms. Salem said. “We were met with violence, and the other side looked like majority not-students, which the university chose to protect over their own students.”
Jonathan Wolfe and Shawn Hubler contributed reporting. Susan C. Beachy and Kitty Bennett contributed research.
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6) Frustrated by Gaza Coverage, Student Protesters Turn to Al Jazeera
Students active in campus protests value Al Jazeera’s on-the-ground coverage and its perspective on the Israel-Hamas war. They draw distinctions between it and major American outlets.
By Santul Nerkar, May 12, 2024
Pro-Palestinian protesters from Jewish Voice for Peace lead Friday evening Shabbat services at the University of California, Los Angeles. Credit...Mark Abramson for The New York Times
Students active in recent campus protests said in interviews they are especially drawn to on-the-ground coverage and often, outlets’ pro-Palestinian perspectives. Credit...Mark Abramson for The New York Times
Nick Wilson has closely followed news on the war in Gaza since October. But Mr. Wilson, a Cornell student, is picky when it comes to his media diet: As a pro-Palestinian activist, he doesn’t trust major American outlets’ reporting on Israel’s campaign in Gaza.
Instead, he turns to publications less familiar to some American audiences, like the Arab news network Al Jazeera.
“Al Jazeera is the site that I go to to get an account of events that I think will be reliable,” he said.
Many student protesters said in recent interviews that they were seeking on-the-ground coverage of the war in Gaza, and often, a staunchly pro-Palestinian perspective — and they are turning to alternative media for it. There’s a range of options: Jewish Currents, The Intercept, Mondoweiss and even independent Palestinian journalists on social media, as they seek information about what is happening in Gaza.
Their preferences embody a broader shift for members of Generation Z, who are increasingly seeking out news from a wider array of sources and questioning legacy outlets in a fragmented media ecosystem.
Israel’s recent ban on the local operations of Al Jazeera has only elevated the network’s status among many student protesters. They prize coverage from reporters on the ground, and Al Jazeera has a more extensive operation in Gaza than any other publication. Students also noted the sacrifices it has made to tell the story there. Two Al Jazeera journalists have died since the start of the war.
“Al Jazeera is sort of playing that role for a lot of younger Americans, in terms of getting a different perspective than they feel like they’re getting from U.S. media,” said Ben Toff, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Minnesota.
While many Western media outlets, with few if any journalists in Gaza before the war, have struggled to gain access to the territory, Al Jazeera has been recognized for its raw, searing portrayals of the death and destruction there. A typical report may show video of Israeli tanks rolling into cities, alongside drone shots of leveled buildings in Gaza City and Palestinians fleeing their homes.
“It’s news about the Middle East, and it doesn’t really convey it in a Western perspective,” said Alina Atiq, a student at the University of South Florida who has pushed her university to divest from Israel.
The network, owned by Qatar, has its headquarters in Doha and operates two separate newsrooms that provide English- and Arabic-language content. Its mobile apps have been downloaded in the United States 295,000 times since October, an increase of more than 200 percent from the previous seven months, according to Appfigures, a market research firm.
Among the outlets frequently cited by protesters, Al Jazeera English is by far the most popular on social media. It has 1.9 million followers on TikTok — up from around 750,000 at the outset of the war — and 4.6 million on Instagram.
Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, described the network’s Arabic-language channel as more outwardly pro-Palestinian than the English one, which he said has a more subtle slant.
Critics say its coverage veers into support of the armed resistance to Israel. The Israeli government, which has accused Al Jazeera of acting as a “mouthpiece” for Hamas, last Sunday seized its broadcast equipment and shut down its operations in the country for at least 45 days.
Al Jazeera called the government’s accusation “baseless” in a statement, adding that it has broadcast every news conference held by the Israeli cabinet and representatives for the Israel Defense Forces, in addition to videos from Hamas.
It also said that its reporting “provides diverse viewpoints and narrative and counter narrative,” and that charges of pro-Palestinian bias should be “scrutinized through careful analysis of our journalistic standards and reporting practices.”
The Israeli government’s rejection of Al Jazeera appears to have bolstered the network’s reputation among some of the students.
“It goes to show the extent to which Israel is afraid of the coverage and reportage of Al Jazeera,” said Matthew Vickers, a junior at Occidental College in Los Angeles who has been active in efforts to persuade his school to divest from companies tied to Israel.
The protesters rattle off a list of mainstream American publications as having coverage they find objectionable, including CNN, The Atlantic, the BBC and The New York Times, among many others. Though major news outlets have reported extensively on Israel’s campaign in Gaza, the death toll and the damage, the coverage in the view of student protesters doesn’t assign enough blame to Israel for Palestinian deaths, or thoroughly fact-check Israeli officials. And they said protest coverage has focused too much on antisemitism on college campuses instead of Islamophobia.
“There’s a fair amount of misinformation that is being fed to us by mainstream media, and just a clear bias when it comes to the Palestine issue,” said Cameron Jones, a student at Columbia University and an organizer with Jewish Voice for Peace, a pro-Palestinian organization.
The activists’ interest in Al Jazeera stands in contrast with the outlet’s previous struggles to find an audience in the United States. The network started an American channel in 2013, but that folded in 2016 with nightly ratings that hovered around 30,000, far shy of viewership for cable networks like Fox News and CNN.
Part of what doomed the network back then was “a distinctly anti-American bent” to its coverage, Mr. Ibish wrote in a 2016 guest essay for The Times. But now, broadcast from a different country, the network’s tone is finding its audience on university campuses, he said.
“There’s a third-worldist, anti-imperial point of view, and that’s also the view that many college kids have adopted,” he said.
Jeremy W. Peters contributed reporting.
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7) Protesters disrupt Israel’s day of mourning, highlighting wartime divisions.
By Patrick Kingsley and Myra Noveck reporting from Jerusalem, May 13, 2024
Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, left, speaking at a Memorial Day ceremony in Ashdod, Israel, on Monday. Credit...Nir Elias/Reuters
Israel’s Memorial Day is normally one of the most somber on the country’s calendar, a date when Israelis put aside their differences to grieve fellow citizens killed in war or terrorist attacks.
But as Israelis gathered across the country on Monday for the first national day of mourning since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks, protesters disrupted several ceremonies by heckling government ministers. Their interventions underscored how feelings of wartime unity have given way to deep disputes over the war in Gaza, the fate of hostages taken on Oct. 7 and domestic politics.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was heckled by critics as he attended a memorial at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, the site of Israel’s national cemetery. One person was heard shouting, “Garbage.” Another said, “You took my children.”
At a ceremony in Ashdod, in southern Israel, bystanders shouted at the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, calling him a “criminal,” before his supporters tried to drown them out.
Such disruptions have precedent. Protesters taunted Mr. Ben-Gvir and other ministers last year, before the war began, when anger over the government’s efforts to overhaul the judicial system were the most prominent source of social division.
This year’s protests reflected growing anguish among parts of the population about the way Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition government has handled the war. While Israeli society closed ranks immediately after the Hamas-led attack and the Israeli military offensive in Gaza that followed, critics increasingly blame Mr. Netanyahu for failing to prevent the atrocities on Oct. 7. The Israeli authorities say that roughly 1,200 people were killed and some 240 others abducted in the attack.
While the government has managed to secure the release of more than 100 hostages, at least half are dead or are still in captivity. Many of their loved ones want the government to agree to an immediate cease-fire with Hamas that would allow for the remaining captives to be released, even it means leaving Hamas in control of parts of Gaza.
A poll conducted this month by the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem-based research group, suggests that a majority of Israelis see a hostage deal as a priority over a military operation in Rafah. Israel calls the city, where more than a million Palestinians had sought shelter from fighting elsewhere, Hamas’s last major stronghold in Gaza.
But Israel and Hamas have not agreed to such a deal despite months of mediation. And Mr. Netanyahu has insisted that Israeli forces will invade Rafah amid threats by his far-right coalition partners — including Mr. Ben-Gvir — that they will bring down the government if the war ends without the total defeat of Hamas.
On Monday at a Memorial Day ceremony in Holon, in central Israel, hecklers shouted at Miri Regev, the transport minister, and called on her to resign. One asked: “What about the hostages?”
As Yoav Gallant, the defense minister, attended a ceremony in Tel Aviv, a protester held up a sign that said: “Their blood is on your hands.”
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8) A ceremony reflects on losses suffered by both Israelis and Palestinians.
By Matthew Mpoke Bigg, May 13, 2024
“‘The Israeli army is still killing shamelessly. Everyone in Gaza is a terrorist in their eyes,’ said Mr. Helou, as he recounted a litany of death his family had endured in Gaza. ‘Does causing unsurmountable pain promise peace for the Israelis?’”
The Joint Israel-Palestinian Memorial Day Ceremony was prerecorded on Wednesday to avoid the possibility of disruption by protesters, and shown online on Sunday. Credit...Gili Getz, via Combatants for Peace
With Israel’s most sacrosanct day of remembrance as a backdrop, peace activists in Israel broadcast their annual Joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day Ceremony on Sunday night, with parallel events in London, New York and Los Angeles.
The ceremony, organized by Combatants for Peace and the Parents Circle — Families Forum, two peace-building organizations, is unusual in that it tries to recognize not only Israeli grief, but also the toll of Palestinian suffering over the decades. This year’s event was especially poignant given that it was the first since the deadly Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and comes amid the devastation caused by the war in Gaza.
This year the ceremony, which has been held annually since 2006, was prerecorded to avoid the possibility of disruption by protesters. In previous years it attracted sharp criticism and a legal challenge in Israel, and on Sunday organizers said just before the ceremony was set to be broadcast that its website had been hacked. As a result, the organizers said it was not possible to watch it on YouTube as planned, and viewers instead watched on Facebook.
The ceremony, an annual focus for peace activists in Israel, featured speeches, songs, a poem about peace and a video that showed children in Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank talking about the effect of war. One child wished “for everyone who died to come back to life.” Palestinians in the West Bank did not participate in person, given that Israel stopped allowing many Palestinians to work in Israel after the Oct. 7 attacks led by Hamas, which the Israeli authorities say killed around 1,200 people. There were also no direct contributions by speakers in Gaza.
“For many Israelis it seems provocative,” Yuval Rahamim said of the ceremony in an interview by telephone from Tel Aviv. Mr. Rahamim, co-director of the Parents Circle — Families Forum, an Israeli-Palestinian organization of families who have lost immediate relatives in the conflict, said that his father had been killed in the 1967 Arab–Israeli War. He acknowledged that many Israelis would find the event jarring, given the scale of suffering on Oct. 7, but he said that also gave it more significance.
“Many people have woken up to the reality that this conflict cannot go on,” he said, referring to the decades of violence. “People are willing to stand up.”
His sentiment was echoed by Magen Inon, 41, whose parents were killed on Oct. 7 and who spoke in person at the start of the screening in London, which was held at a Jewish community center. He said that he did not want what had happened to his family to be used as an argument for further war. “We felt as if our personal pain is being hijacked by the national cause,” said Mr. Inon, who now works as a peace activist.
Many Israelis have argued the country is still bound by a sense of national shock and loss over Oct. 7. and are stunned by international criticism of the war in Gaza, which they mostly see as justified.
More than 35,000 people have been killed in Gaza during Israeli’s military campaign to defeat Hamas, health officials there say, and almost everyone there has been displaced from their homes amid a hunger crisis that aid workers say has been largely caused by Israeli restrictions on aid deliveries to the enclave.
But the ceremony, which was screened at more than 200 venues in Israel, spoke to the diversity and complexity of opinion within Israeli society about the issue. Several speakers discussed their hope for an end to generations of bloodshed, and for peace.
Among the most stark contributions came from Palestinian speakers who described conditions in Gaza.
Ghadir Hani read a contribution from a woman in Gaza, whose name was given only as Najla, describing how she had lost 20 family members in the war, including her brother, a father of two, who she said had been killed while going to look for food for his parents.
“They killed him while walking in the street though posing no threat whatsoever,” Ms. Hani read. “The death machine is still ready to kill,” she added. “But I know that on the other side there are many people who believe in peace.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has repeatedly said that Israel’s war is with Hamas, rather than the people of Gaza, and that his government regrets civilian casualties.
Another contributor, Ahmed Helou, a member of Combatants for Peace, which gathers people who have fought either for Israel or for Palestinian groups, suggested that the ferocity of Israel’s campaign had forced him to reassess the personal cost of his commitment to peace.
“The Israeli army is still killing shamelessly. Everyone in Gaza is a terrorist in their eyes,” said Mr. Helou, as he recounted a litany of death his family had endured in Gaza. “Does causing unsurmountable pain promise peace for the Israelis?”
Israel’s Memorial Day began at sundown on Sunday and ceremonies will be held through Monday afternoon.
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