Pro-Israel billionaires urged New York crackdown on Gaza protests: Report
A small group of powerful businessmen pushed New York City Mayor Eric Adams to use police to crack down on pro-Palestine student protesters at Columbia University, according to a US media report, donating to the politician and offering to pay for private investigators to help break up the demonstrations.
The story asserts that several billionaires seeking to influence public perception of Israel’s war in Gaza discussed means of pushing the mayor and the university’s president to end the protests.
The WhatsApp chat cited by the Washington Post included prominent businessmen such as former CEO of Starbucks Howard Schultz, Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell, hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and Joshua Kushner, brother of former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser on Middle East issues, Jared Kushner.
Other leaders, such as snack company founder Daniel Lubetzky, hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb, billionaire Len Blavatnik and real estate investor Joseph Sitt also said that they held a video meeting with Mayor Adams on April 26.
The USA is a plutocracy, not anywhere close to a democracy.
Mural of murdered Palestinian child Hind Rajab unveiled in Irish capital
A street artist based in the Irish capital, Dublin, has created a giant mural of Hind Rajab, the six-year-old Palestinian girl who was slain along with six relatives in Gaza when an Israeli tank opened fire on the car in which they were travelling.
Artist Emmalene Blake painted the mural outside the stadium of the Irish league’s Bohemian Football Club, to mark the first time Palestine’s women’s team has played on European soil – beating the home side Bohemians 2-1 on Wednesday night in Dublin.
The friendly game was scheduled to coincide with Palestine’s 76th commemoration of the Nakba.
The killing of Hind and her relatives caused global outrage. Alone and terrified in the car with the bodies of her loved ones, Hind called the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) who sent an emergency crew to rescue her. The two PRCS staff were also killed by Israeli forces.
https://x.com/bfcdublin/status/1790820405436965253
‘Immeasurable cost’ as Gaza’s children still out of school
Since the war on Gaza began, all of the enclave’s schools have closed, leaving hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children without formal schooling or a safe place to stay.
While aid groups hope classes will resume by September, this would require a ceasefire to be reached and for much of Gaza to be cleared of mines. The process of rebuilding schools could take years.
For children already traumatised by war, losing out on education during key years of their development is another devastating blow.
“The immediate focus during conflict isn’t on education, but the disruption has an incredibly long-term effect,” said Sonia Ben Jaafar, of the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation, a philanthropic organisation focused on education in the Arab world. “The cost at this point is immeasurable.”
Children play in a charred van in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 12
They're learning early how the world works....
