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Forums - Politics Discussion - Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

SvennoJ on 24 April 2024

University of Texas professor witnesses police attack on pro-Palestinian student protest

Speaking from Austin, Texas, Professor Jeremi Suri said he had just finished teaching a class at the university’s history department when he saw a group of about 200 students demonstrating peacefully on a grass lawn.

“These students were shouting ‘free Palestine’, that’s all. Maybe they had one or two signs. They were saying nothing anti-Semitic. They were saying nothing that was threatening. And as they were standing and shouting, I witnessed the police – the state police, the campus police, the city police – an army of police almost the size as the student group … many were carrying guns, many were carrying rifles, and then, within a few minutes, this group of police stormed into the student crowd and started arresting students,” Suri told Al Jazeera.

The students “were loud, but they were peaceful”, he said, “and the police just started attacking them. And that led to more shouting. More students then arrived when they saw this and the situation became more violent”.

“But it became more violent because the police had attacked the students, not the other way around”.



America, the land of oppression, no wonder the US has such strong ties with Israel


Texas governor says anti-war protestors ‘belong in jail’

Greg Abbott has said that students protesting against the war in Gaza “belong in jail” in a post on X.

“Arrests being made right now and will continue until the crowd disperses,” the Texas governor added, as dozens of State Troopers and police surrounded students at the University of Texas at Austin.

Abbott claimed the protestors were engaging in antisemitism, although he did not provide evidence of his allegations in the post.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) described Abbott’s response to the protests as “unconstitutional”. “The First Amendment applies to the State of Texas, whether Greg Abbott likes it or not”, CAIR said in a post on X.

Abbott issued an executive order in March requiring Texas universities punish antisemitism on campus using the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. Examples listed by IHRA in its definition include claiming the “existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour.”




Tense scenes as police surround anti-war protest at University of SC

There is a mixture of campus security officers and Los Angeles police department mobilised here at the University of Southern California. They have their batons at the ready, some of them have what appear to be tear gas canisters at the ready.

Over here is a small knot of protestors who apparently have decided that they will be arrested. Police have given them a deadline, they say if they don’t disperse, they will be arrested. Previously there were just hours of peaceful protest.

Now there is one person that is being handcuffed and led away. It appears to be a young woman. Why that person was singled out of all the hundreds of others here, I have no idea. There are a lot of defiant students here who are refusing to obey the police.

There are still hundreds of students on the steps where police used to be, and students within a few yards of police chanting their demand for an end to the war in Gaza by the Israeli military.

This is a very tense situation, not sure how long this is going to last.



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SvennoJ on 24 April 2024

Smear Campaign Against US Gaza Protests Taken Apart - w/. Nara Milanich

Student protests over Gaza at Columbia University have become international headline, with young protesters becoming vilified. But what's the truth? History professor Nara Milanich joins me to explain exactly what is going on.

Jewish Columbia Student Debunks Media Narrative About Protest


This recent news cycle has been absolutely ridiculous.



SvennoJ on 24 April 2024

Pro-Israel LITERAL False 'Flag' EXPOSED: Briahna Joy Gray

Briahna Joy Gray delivers a radar on the media's disingenuous coverage of pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses.

Alum describes student-led Gaza protests in Columbia University


"... a bunch of kids whose only weapons are the truth and love for Palestine..." Columbia alum Professor Danny Shaw, who was fired from John Jay College of Criminal Justice for protesting against Israel's onslaught in Gaza, describes student-led protests at Columbia University.



SvennoJ on 24 April 2024

Israel's Most LETHAL Lie Falls Apart - But Leave Catastrophic Impact


Israel's claims about Gaza's main humanitarian agency fall apart - but leave a catastrophic human impact.

IDF Soldier Admits Israel Targets Civilians





SvennoJ on 24 April 2024

Gaza solidarity camp set up at Sciences Po in Paris

Students at Sciences Po in Paris have set up an antiwar camp in solidarity with the people of Gaza. Video clips shared on social media show tents pitched inside the university’s Saint Thomas campus and Palestinian flags hanging from buildings.

According to the French news agency AFP, the protesters are demanding that Sciences Po management cut all ties to Israeli universities and companies that are “complicit in the genocide in Gaza”, and are also calling for an end to “repression against pro-Palestinian voices on campus”.

The encampment, organised by the Palestine Committee of Sciences Po, comes as students have mobilised at universities across the US.


 

Thousands of students remain at USC protest after arrests

We told you earlier that there was a group of students here who had committed to being arrested. That group has been completely removed now. The last student was just taken away minutes ago. The only thing that’s left now is a Palestinian flag crumpled on the ground.

There are still thousands, perhaps, of other students outside the police perimeter here who have been chanting ‘Let them go’.

The protests, of course, centred around Israel’s war on Gaza. The students are demanding a ceasefire, demanding an end to US support in terms of weaponry for the Israeli military, and closer to home, demanding that the university itself divest from any ties to Israeli institutions.


USC Public Safety officers surrounded students at the University of Southern California’s Alumni Park on Wednesday

I've never seen a single public safety officer in my 4 years at the University of Amsterdam. However when protesting in The Hague the Dutch police send the ME (military police) in to violently disperse the crowd. (Which led to parliamentary inquiries later) Protect the establishment against the children.

This has become a war on children world wide.



Most of this and the ludicrous mainstream media reaction is of course to distract

Number of bodies recovered from Nasser Hospital rises to 324

Palestinian Civil Defence teams have recovered 324 dead bodies at Nasser Hospital as of Wednesday, the UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, has said in its latest daily update. OCHA cited Palestinian Civil Defence as saying women, elderly persons and patients were among the people found buried at the hospital, and noted, “only few were identified”.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk on Tuesday called for “independent, effective and transparent investigations” into the deaths.

“Hospitals are entitled to very special protection under international humanitarian law, and the intentional killing of civilians, detainees and others who are hors de combat is a war crime,” Turk added.

 



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SvennoJ on 25 April 2024

One comment stood out from one of the above videos about Student protests

With calls for the National Guard to crush the protests, punishing pro-Palestine protesters, and stifling pro-Palestine speech, we are essentially speeding towards becoming just another Israeli-occupied territory. When has this ever been done on behalf of a FOREIGN country?



 

House Republicans back Netanyahu in comparing anti-Israel college protests to 1930s Germany

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/education/2978331/house-republicans-back-netanyahu-anti-israel-college-protests/

“What’s happening in America’s college campuses is horrific,” Netanyahu said. “Antisemitic mobs have taken over leading universities. They call for the annihilation of Israel. They attack Jewish students. They attack Jewish faculty. This is reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s.


And once again Netanyahu twists reality to his upside down worldview

Legitimating Nazism: Harvard University and the Hitler Regime, 1933–1937

https://www.jstor.org/stable/23887353

Harvard invited Nazism and contributed to Nazi Germany's efforts to improve its image in the West.

It's exactly what the student protests are about now, telling their universities to divest from Israel, to stop contributing to legitimizing Israel's genocide on Gaza. They're protesting against what happened in 1930s Germany. Except in this case it's not jews but Palestinians (and those looking like them) that are prosecuted.

https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/controlling-universities  

https://www.vox.com/24134018/usc-valedictorian-speech-canceled-palestine-israel-asna-tabassum

Asna Tabassum, a graduating senior at the University of Southern California majoring in biomedical engineering, is at the center of the latest firestorm on college campuses after the university named her valedictorian, then barred her from speaking at graduation.





SvennoJ on 25 April 2024

‘Anti-Semitism should not be weaponised’: USC law professor

Jody Armour, a law professor at the University of Southern California, says anti-Semitism should not be weaponised to silence “valid protests” against what “may plausibly be genocide”.

“We have lots of Jewish and Muslim and Palestinian and Catholic, like I am, Protestants, too, intergenerational, coming together,” Armour said.

“Everybody should hate anti-Semitism and fight anti-Semitism, but being opposed to Israel’s slaughter in Gaza that the UN has said may plausibly be genocide, does not mean that you’re anti-Semitic,” he said.

“We need to stop allowing people to weaponise anti-Semitism against real, valid protests.”


Students sit in a circle during a pro-Palestine encampment protest at the University of Southern California’s [USC] Alumni Park in Los Angeles, California, on Wednesday

US House speaker Johnson threatens use of National Guard against student protesters

Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the US House of Representatives, has warned that the National Guard could be deployed to quell student protests at US universities.

During a visit to New York’s Columbia University to show support for Jewish students, Johnson described the antiwar protesters as “lawless radicals and agitators” who had taken over the campus, and he called for the resignation of Columbia President Minouche Shafik.

“If this is not contained quickly and if these threats and intimidation are not stopped, there is an appropriate time for the National Guard,” Johnson said during a speech, which was drowned out by heckling students and chants of “Mike, you suck!”

“He definitely shouldn’t have come here. We don’t want some people that really don’t know what’s happening and then come here to intervene,” Columbia student Grace Dai told the Reuters news agency.

“What makes us scared or threatened is that the president had to bring the NYPD to our campus and people like him say he’s bringing the National Guard to our campus. We don’t need that. That is the thing that makes us feel scared and threatened,” Dai said.


Students want universities to cut ties with companies arming Israel

A growing number of students are calling on their universities to end investments and partnerships with weapons manufacturers they say are profiting from Israel’s war in Gaza.

At Cornell University in New York, just under 70 percent of students who voted in a recent referendum said the university should divest from companies supporting the ongoing war in Gaza. The question specifically named several companies including BAE Systems, Boeing, Elbit Systems and Lockheed Martin.

Meanwhile, in Australia, students participating in a Gaza Solidarity encampment at the University of Melbourne issued a statement calling for their university to cut ties with companies including BAE Systems, Boeing and Lockheed Martin.




SvennoJ on 25 April 2024

Israeli warplanes, artillery pound sites in southern Lebanon

The Israeli military has released the latest video footage of its now daily attacks on southern Lebanon, reporting that jet fighters carried out overnight raids on targets in the vicinity of Maroun el-Ras and Markaba villages.

Grainy footage accompanying a post on social media showed buildings and other structures being destroyed in huge blasts following apparent missile attacks from the air.

Israeli artillery also shelled “several areas” in Lebanon to “remove a threat”, Israel’s military said, describing the targets as “terrorist infrastructures” of the Hezbollah movement.

Lebanon-Israel border conflict entering ‘different phase’

This is becoming a higher-intensity conflict on both sides. In recent days, we’ve seen an increase in attacks by the Israeli military and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

Yesterday, Israel carried out the largest number of strikes in a single day. In a matter of minutes, it hit 40 targets belonging to what it says were Hezbollah positions. The air strikes continued into the early hours, not just targeting front-line villages, but targeting eastern Lebanon. It seems to be a different phase.

What Israel wants is for Hezbollah to pull back a few kilometres but Hezbollah is still here firing rockets south of the Litani River. Fighters are still being killed in their homes.

So there are two options on the table: Either escalation to try and force Hezbollah back – so far that has not worked – or we are going to see an escalation to improve negotiating positions to try to find a diplomatic settlement.

What is clear is this conflict is tied to what is happening in Gaza. Until there is a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the Lebanon-Israel border will remain an active front line.


Lebanese troops cross the Litani River in southern Lebanon


Israeli settlers enter Al-Aqsa Mosque compound

More than 430 Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem.

A video verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency shows settlers walking through Al-Aqsa. The Palestinian news agency Wafa reports the settlers were under “heavy protection” from Israeli forces.

The settlers performed rituals of the weeklong Jewish holiday known as Passover. Under a longstanding status quo agreement, prayer at Al-Aqsa is reserved for Muslims.



SvennoJ on 25 April 2024

Hamas willing to lay down arms if two-state solution implemented: Report

A top Hamas official, Khalil al-Hayya, has said the group was willing to agree to a truce of five years or more with Israel and transform into a political party if a two-state solution is implemented, The Associated Press news agency has reported.

Al-Hayya, who made his comments in an interview with the AP in Istanbul, said Hamas wants to participate in the formation of a unified government for Gaza and the West Bank.

“All the experiences of people who fought against occupiers, when they became independent and obtained their rights and their state, what have these forces done? They have turned into political parties and their defending fighting forces have turned into the national army,” he said.

Al-Hayya also said Israel’s planned ground invasion of Rafah would not succeed in destroying Hamas. Israeli forces “have not destroyed more than 20 percent of [Hamas’s] capabilities, neither human nor in the field,” he said.

“If they can’t finish [Hamas] off, what is the solution? The solution is to go to consensus,” he added.


President Biden: ‘The security of Israel is critical’

President Joe Biden says he authorised “vital support for Israel” after signing the $95.3bn aid bill for US allies. The legislation provides Israel’s military with about $15bn as it continues to attack Gaza, where more than 34,000 people have been killed in the past six months – mostly children and women.

“The security of Israel is critical. I will always make sure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself against Iran and the terrorists it supports,” said Biden. The military assistance comes as Israel threatens a ground invasion of southern Rafah city, where more than one million Palestinians are sheltering.

Oh still sticking to the self-defense story?



More empty words from Washington

US demands ‘thorough and transparent’ mass grave investigation

The White House says it wants “answers” from Israeli authorities after the discovery of mass graves at Gaza hospitals destroyed in Israeli sieges.

More than 300 bodies of people – allegedly killed and buried by Israeli forces at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis – have so far been recovered. Other graves at al-Shifa Hospital in northern were also located.

“We want answers. We want to see this thoroughly and transparently investigated,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters.

Israeli army spokesman Major Nadav Shoshani said the graves at Nasser were “dug by Gazans a few months ago”.

Hospitals, which have protection under international law, have repeatedly come under Israeli bombardment during more than six months of war in Gaza.

They just don't want an independent investigation, only asking for more Hasbara from Israel that they can repeat in the media. Bodies with their hands and feet zip tied have been found as well as bodies with IVs still attached. Bodies buried under piles of rubble. There is no way Gazans could even do that without bulldozers. And there are over 300 bodies...

Grim mass grave search continues at Nasser Hospital

It’s the sixth day in a row where medics and civil defence workers are still recovering bodies from this mass grave – bodies of children, women, the elderly. Bodies of patients with bandages and catheters attached.

Survivors have described the horrors of the Israeli raid on the hospital with people dragged outside and executed. When we visited the mass graves we saw family members searching for missing loved ones. Some identified relatives from the clothes they were wearing because the bodies were too badly decomposed.

This is not the first time a mass grave has been discovered, with another at al-Shifa Hospital with about 400 people reportedly killed and buried there.

There will be a press conference shortly by civil defence paramedics who will present evidence they’ve collected.



SvennoJ on 25 April 2024

UN urges ‘paradigm shift’ for Gaza aid, Israel’s cooperation uncertain

Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo reports that a new United Nations-led mechanism for monitoring aid routes into Gaza will be up and running within days.

Sigrid Kaag, the UN’s senior humanitarian coordinator for Gaza, said the mechanism will initially monitor aid travelling to Gaza via Cyprus and Jordan and then, shortly after, will monitor aid entering through Egypt.

Kaag said she expects that Israel will help to facilitate the new routes for Gaza aid shipments.

But the reality currently on the ground in Gaza is very different.



Gaza famine: ‘Clearly some of them are dying of hunger’

A UN official has warned that Gaza now faces imminent famine.

“We are getting closer by the day to a famine situation,” said Gian Carlo Cirri, director of the Geneva office of the World Food Programme. “Malnutrition among children is spreading.” About 30 percent of children under the age of two in Gaza are severely malnourished, Cirri said. In northern Gaza, 70 percent of the population is facing catastrophic levels of hunger.

“People cannot meet even the most basic food needs. They have exhausted all coping strategies, like eating animal fodder, begging, selling off their belongings to buy food. Most of them are destitute, and clearly some of them are dying of hunger,” he said.

The United Nations has long complained of Israeli obstacles to getting aid in and distributing it throughout Gaza in the six months since Israel launched its war.


A Palestinian child suffering from malnutrition receives care at Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip