Despite brand boycotts and backlashes, Pride events see solid corporate support

Story by Sara Ruberg • June 18, 2023

Some corporate sponsors have kept lower profiles at Pride celebrations this year, but most have not tightened their purse strings or ditched LGBTQ causes in the face of conservative blowback, event organizers and advocates say.

Many Pride organizers across the country say high-profile brand backlashes, restrictive legislation and heightened threats against LGBTQ people have fueled record crowd turnout this year. While that has often meant spending more to keep attendees safe, the polarized climate has also kept sponsorship dollars flowing to Pride events and the groups they support.

Nearly 78% of U.S. Pride organizers surveyed this year by InterPride, a network of Pride events around the world, said their corporate sponsorships either rose or held steady since last year — higher than the 62% global figure — while 22% reported declines.

Indy Pride, which organizes official celebrations in Indianapolis, faced new difficulties in the run-up to this year’s festivities. One corporate sponsor pulled its logo from an event, and another raised questions about a youth Pride carnival it had agreed to sponsor after getting “blasted” on social media, said executive director Shelly Snider.

NBC News
Majority of Americans comfortable seeing LGBTQ people in ads, report finds
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Most of the Pride organizers NBC News spoke with, including Snider, declined to identify corporate sponsors that shrunk their involvement or visibility, concerned about alienating important financial backers. Like Indy Pride, Pride organizations are typically nonprofit organizations that also offer year-round services to the LGBTQ community, such as grants, educational events and support for political activism.

Indy Pride’s security costs have tripled, Snider said, and its events have beefed up their safety protocols.

“We’ve hired extra security, gone through ‘stop the bleed’ training in case there is an active shooter,” she said. “This is new to this year. I didn’t think when I took this job that we would have to [learn how to] use a tourniquet, but here we are.”

Even so, Indy Pride raised a record $641,000 and saw crowds swell to an estimated 60,000 at its festival and parade last weekend, putting the event at full capacity.



A couple kisses Saturday, June 10, 2023 during the Indy Pride Festival at Military Park in Indianapolis. (Clare Grant / IndyStar / USA TODAY)© Clare Grant

The mix of changes Snider and other organizers described paint a more complicated picture than recent headlines around brands’ scrambles to respond to anti-LGBTQ backlash — like that faced by Bud Light and Target — may suggest. While some businesses have walked back their ties to LGBTQ events and causes, including Pride-related marketing, many more have maintained or increased their support.

Josh Coleman, president of Central Alabama Pride in Birmingham, said some longtime corporate sponsors dropped out this year, including Wells Fargo. Others have demanded more input on where their branding appears. But donations have held steady this month, he said, in part because more local and regional sponsors have filled the gaps left by larger companies’ retreats.

“It’s been a little frustrating,” Coleman admitted. “Some folks use allyship when they want to.”

Overall, though, “we’ve seen an uptick in support throughout the year,” he said. “More people are showing up and out, including allies.”

In Tennessee, where a federal judge recently rejected a drag ban that state Republicans enacted earlier this year, corporate backing for Memphis’s Mid-South Pride hasn’t suffered.


McKenna Dubbert and Sophie Fuller lie on a blanket during the Franklin Pride TN festival, Saturday, June 3, 2023, in Franklin, Tenn. (George Walker IV / AP)© George Walker IV

“We had issues,” festival director Vanessa Rodley said in an email, but after the judge temporarily blocked the measure from taking effect in late March, “we saw a wave of new sponsors that wanted to show support. There are a few we never got back, but thanks to our community stepping up and new sponsors, we were able to make it.”

A handful of major brands, including Kroger and Terminix, didn’t return as Mid-South Pride sponsors after making $7,500 and $3,500 contributions, respectively, in 2022, the group’s public sponsor lists in recent years show.

But others, such as Nike, Ford, Charles Schwab and Tito’s Vodka, either matched or upped their previous-year investments, which ranged from $5,000 to $10,000 apiece. And regional businesses, including a mortgage brokerage and a dentistry practice, jumped in this year with $5,000 sponsorships.

A Wells Fargo spokesperson said the bank “is a longstanding supporter of the LGBTQ+ community” and still “sponsoring parades in cities across the country.”

After being contacted by NBC News, a Kroger spokesperson said the grocery chain “discovered a recent retirement left the [Memphis] parade without a contact at the company” and reached out to Mid-South Pride organizers. “We provided a contact from which to request support for this year or a future event.”

Terminix didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Some advocates warn that any pullback in the visibility of corporate support during Pride Month — especially by the most well-known brands — risks signaling that LGTBQ consumers are expendable. Others have long called for fewer rainbow-slathered logos and more substantive, if quieter, support from private-sector allies.

“Visibility is the least important,” said Bruce Starr, CEO of the marketing agency BMF. “What are you actually donating and giving” to support LGBTQ causes year-round matters more, he said.

In Auburn, Alabama, Pride on the Plains President Seth McCollough said one of the group’s three corporate sponsors gave money this year but asked to not be thanked or recognized publicly.

“It was kind of surprising to me,” McCollough said, but added, “I guess I understand where they are coming from.”

McCollough said Pride on the Plains hasn’t lost its biggest corporate backers even though state lawmakers advanced anti-drag and anti-trans bills this year.

Among them is Target, which drew national attention for pulling some Pride merchandise last month after store employees were threatened. The retailer continues to be a top sponsor and provides volunteers to Pride on the Plains, McCollough said. But while big businesses can often contribute larger sums, the group relies on smaller companies for most of its funding anyway.


Pride month merchandise at the front of a Target store in Hackensack, N.J.

 (Seth Wenig / AP file)© Provided by NBC News

Many Pride celebrations facing difficulties are in the Midwest and South, regions that have seen a wave of Republican-led anti-LGBTQ legislation this year. Organizers in bluer states haven’t experienced much difference.

Pride officials in New York City, home to the first Pride March, in June 1970, said this year would be on par with last in terms of arranging sponsors and security. But Pride organizers in Charleston, South Carolina, said they’ve seen a significant drop in funds and sponsorships post-pandemic, after setting records in 2019.

Kendra Johnson, executive director of Equality NC, said threats against the community and Pride events have risen dramatically throughout North Carolina.

“I’m 52 — I’ve never seen it like this,” Johnson said, citing threats of violence and cases in which she said organizers were doxed. Johnson’s LGBTQ advocacy group doesn’t plan Pride festivities, but she said some organizers in the state have told her of sponsors pulling out of local events.

Ron deHarte, co-president of the United States Association of Prides, an umbrella group representing nearly 100 organizers across the country, acknowledged that many groups face growing challenges.

“We’re hearing that there are a few organizations that have made their own decision to modify their programs or cancel based on legislation, out of fear of government action” by some state authorities, he said.

But many sponsors remain committed after years of support for the LGBTQ community, despite the criticism that often comes with it. Tense political climates, as well as presidential election years, tend to drive enthusiasm and attendance at Pride celebrations because many people become more engaged, deHarte said.

“This certainly isn’t the worst we’ve seen,” he said, “and we’ve continued to survive for decades.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

How 'the ineluctable rise of worldwide free market capitalism' has been a 'stunning failure': columnist

OXFORD, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 18: A protester holds a sign criticizing the inequality of 15-minute cities as protesters gather in Broad Street on February 18, 2023 in Oxford, England. The concept of 15-minute cities suggests that all services, amenities, work, and leisure are accessible a 15-20 minute walk or cycle from a person's front door. Protesters argue that the measures will ghettoise areas and restrict their freedom to move around as they want to. Car journeys will be restricted at certain times of the day and will be policed by number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras and fines 

(Photo by Martin Pope/Getty Images).

Maya Boddie

June 18, 2023

Writing in Sunday's New York TimesNew York Times, global economics correspondent Patricia Cohen broke down how financial globalization proves that "almost everything we thought we knew about the world economy was wrong."

Cohen notes the stark contrast between "the world's business and political leaders'" optimistic outlook on the global economy during the 2018 "annual economic forum in Davos," to "now, as the second year of war in Ukraine grinds on and countries struggle with limp growth and persistent inflation, questions about the emerging economic playing field have taken center stage."

The columist points to the "heady triumphalism that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991," adding, "Associated economic theories about the ineluctable rise of worldwide free market capitalism took on" a sense "of invincibility and inevitability," as "open markets, hands-off government and the relentless pursuit of efficiency would offer the best route to prosperity."

READ MORE: The world economy is changing. People know, but their leaders don't

During that time, Cohen continues, "There was reason for optimism," noting, "During the 1990s, inflation was low while employment, wages and productivity were up. Global trade nearly doubled. Investments in developing countries surged. The stock market rose."

She then emphasizes, "It was believed that a new world where goods, money and information crisscrossed the globe would essentially sweep away the old order of Cold War conflicts and undemocratic regimes," but "there were stunning failures as well," as "globalization hastened climate change and deepened inequalities."

Cohen acknowledges even though "the financial meltdown in 2008 came close to tanking the global financial system," it wasn't until the Covid-19 pandemic, that "the rat-a-tat series of crises exposed with startling clarity vulnerabilities that demanded attention."

READ MORE: A Pride Month reminder: Corporations are not allies

Furthermore, she notes "the consulting firm EY concluded in its 2023 Geostrategic Outlook, the trends behind the shift away from ever-increasing globalization 'were accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic — and then they have been supercharged by the war in Ukraine.'"

Cohen adds:

The economic havoc wreaked by the pandemic combined with soaring food and fuel prices caused by the war in Ukraine have created a spate of debt crises. Rising interest rates have made those crises worse. Debts, like energy and food, are often priced in dollars on the world market, so when U.S. rates go up, debt payments get more expensive.

She emphasizes, "as the dust has settled, it has suddenly seemed as if almost everything we thought we knew about the world economy was wrong, referencing a recent World Bank analysis, saying, "Nearly all the economic forces that powered progress and prosperity over the last three decades are fading," adding, "The result could be a lost decade in the making — not just for some countries or regions as has occurred in the past — but for the whole world."

READ MORE: Washington's $849 million capital gains windfall shows 'taxing the rich is a really good idea'

Cohen's article continues at this link (subscription required).

Donnie Creek wildfire in B.C. now the largest recorded in province's history

Blaze southeast of Fort Nelson covers nearly 5,344 square kilometres, remains out of control

CBC
Published on Jun. 18, 2023

The Donnie Creek wildfire in northeastern British Columbia has now surpassed the 2017 Plateau fire as the largest individual fire, by area burned, ever recorded in the province's history.

It was sparked on May 12 by lightning, according to the B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS), and covers an area of 5,343.88 square kilometres as of 10 a.m. PT on Sunday. It is still not responding to suppression efforts and remains out of control, according to the BCWS.

Before this year — which has seen an unusually early start to fire season — the largest single fire was the 2017 Plateau fire near Williams Lake, an amalgamation of several smaller fires that burned a total of 5,210 square kilometres.

The wildfire is burning 136 kilometres southeast of Fort Nelson, and 158 kilometres north of Fort St. John, in the province's Peace River region.

RELATED: We know the human costs of wildfires, but what about our wildlife?

BCWS fire information officer Marg Drysdale said the blaze was "extremely active" on Sunday and that in some pockets, the fire was so aggressive it was burning the tops of trees — what is called "Crown fire" behaviour.

"We have cooler conditions today," she said on Sunday morning. "But this fire is so large that there's different weather patterns and different weather conditions on different parts of the fire."

Drysdale said that if the 948-kilometre-long perimeter of the fire was stretched out, it would go from Fort St. John in northeast B.C. all the way to Kamloops in the Central Interior.

While the blaze isn't burning near major population centres, it has resulted in evacuation orders for a sparsely populated region primarily used by the forestry and oil and gas industries.

It was burning two kilometres away from the critical Alaska Highway route at a point north of Trutch, B.C. Evacuation orders and alerts are in place for a 160-kilometre stretch of the road.

"Our objectives are to protect and keep the Alaska Highway open because we understand what an important corridor that is for many people," Drysdale said.

Crews conducted planned ignitions around the perimeter of the fire, near the highway, on Friday. The BCWS says the fire perimeter is currently holding at that spot, but warmer weather conditions are expected to return on Thursday.
Drought, high temperatures are factors in fire size

The Donnie Creek blaze is not as large as the 2018 Tweedsmuir complex of fires, nor the 2017 Hanceville-Riske Creek complex, which burned 3,015 and 2,412 square kilometres, respectively. However, wildfire officials say because those complexes consisted of multiple fires burning in separate but nearby areas, they are not considered a single blaze.

The Plateau fire complex in 2017, which also consisted of nearby fires, burned an area of 5,451 square kilometres.

The Donnie Creek fire now covers an area 1.8 times the size of Metro Vancouver. Drysdale said the Peace region began early May facing drought conditions, and there hasn't been the precipitation that would have helped ward off large fire starts in the spring.

"The fire started in May, which is during what we call spring dip. So, the area hadn't greened up and vegetation hadn't accepted the moisture that it normally does," she said.

"We saw 30 degree temperatures in the spring. And we've had high and continuous winds throughout."

More than 80 fires are burning across B.C. as of 12 p.m. PT on Sunday, and 25 of them are considered out of control.

Thumbnail courtesy of B.C. Wildfire via CBC.

The story was written by Akshay Kulkarni and origially published for CBC News

Visit The Weather Network's wildfire hub to keep up with the latest on the active start to wildfire season across Canada.

REVANCHIST REACTIONARIES ATTACK HUMAN RIGHTS FOR ALL
A majority of Republicans now say same-sex relations are immoral after a year of 'groomer' attacks on the LGBTQ community

Charles R. Davis
Jun 18, 2023, 

Overall, 64% of Americans say that gay or lesbian relations are "morally acceptable," according to Gallup. 

Only 41% of Republicans say gay or lesbian relations are morally acceptable, according to Gallup.
That is a 15% drop from 2022, the largest single-year change since Gallup began asking the question.
The drop comes amid a right-wing campaign to link LGBTQ people with "grooming" and pedophilia.

The right-wing campaign to tar the LGBTQ community with false allegations of pedophilia appears to be having an impact on Republican voters, a majority of whom now say that same-sex relations are immoral, according to a poll by Gallup.

In the survey conducted last month, just 41% of Republicans said that gay or lesbian relations are morally acceptable, a 15% drop from 2022. It was the largest single-year change in the past two decades.

Democratic approval also fell from 85% to 79%.

Independents who say same-sex relations are morally acceptable has remained steady in recent years, with 73% expressing approval in 2023 compared to 72% the year before, according to Gallup.

The sharp drop in support among some Americans follows an especially aggressive year of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and politics.

Over the last year, right-wing activists and politicians have increasingly attacked the LGBTQ community, claiming that public school teachers are "grooming" students by acknowledging the existence of gay or transgender people.

The attacks have led school districts across the country to pull books from libraries over claims that depictions of gay or transgender relationships are "pornographic."

Last year, the crisis monitoring group ACLED found that right-extremists had held at least 55 protests explicitly targeting LGBTQ people, with the rise in such actions correlating with a spike in violence against the community.

The rhetoric has also been picked up by conservative news outlets, with Fox News last week reporting last week that "critics" were accusing the Biden administration of promoting "grooming and pedophilia" for flying a transgender-inclusive Pride flag at the White House.

Overall, 64% of Americans still say that gay or lesbian relations are "morally acceptable," including 79% of Democrats and 73% of self-described independents, according to the Gallup poll.

Americans have come a long way since 2001, when just 40% of respondents to the same poll expressed approval of same-sex relations.

Approval of gay and lesbian relations hit a record high last year, when 71% of Americans told Gallup that such relations were morally permissible — including 56% of Republicans.

AMERIKA

White communities prefer to risk repeat flooding rather than move to safer but more diverse neighborhoods

by Amy McCaig, Rice University

Distribution of owner–occupant FEMA HMGP participants, 1990–2017. 

Credit: Environmental Research Letters (2023). DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/acd654

Even after suffering flood damage, homeowners in mostly white communities prefer to accept higher risk of disaster repeating itself than relocate to areas with more racial diversity and less flood risk, according to new research from Rice University.

James Elliott , professor and chair of sociology, and Jay Wang, a senior spatial analyst at Rice's Kinder Institute for Urban Research, are the authors of "Managed retreat: a nationwide study of the local, racially segmented resettlement of homeowners from rising flood risks," published today in Environmental Research Letters.

To conduct their research, they tracked where nearly 10,000 Americans sold their flood-prone homes and moved through the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program—the largest managed retreat program in the country—between 1990 and 2017. The data included address-to-address residential relocation information, flood risks of different addresses, community-level racial and ethnic composition, average housing values and more.

"We found that across the U.S., the best predictor of the risk level at which homeowners voluntarily retreat is not whether they live in a coastal or inland area, or whether they live in a big city or a small town," Elliott said. "It is the racial composition of their immediate neighborhood."

He and Wang found that homeowners in majority-white neighborhoods are willing to endure a 30% higher flood risk before retreating than homeowners in majority-Black neighborhoods, after accounting for the various types of areas people live in (coastal, urban, rural, etc.).

"But, there are also some universal tendencies," Wang said. "One is that, regardless of location, most retreating homeowners do not move far."

Nationwide, the average driving distance between people's bought-out homes and new destinations is just 7.4 miles. Nearly three-quarters—74%—stay within 20 miles of their flood-ravaged homes.

"In other words, homeowners are not migrating long distances to safer towns, states and regions," Elliott said. "They are moving within their neighborhoods and between nearby areas."

The research also showed that despite being short-distance, these moves do reduce homeowners' future flood risks. Nationwide, the average reduction is 63%, from 5.6 on First Street's flood factor at origin to 2.1 at destination.

"This shows that sustained community attachment and risk reduction can go together," Wang said. "But, these dynamics remain deeply divided by race, especially for those living in majority-white communities."

More information: James R Elliott et al, Managed retreat: a nationwide study of the local, racially segmented resettlement of homeowners from rising flood risks, Environmental Research Letters (2023). DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/acd654

Journal information: Environmental Research Letters 

Provided by Rice University 

When homes flood, who retreats and to where? The average move is only seven miles, and race plays a role

White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity

Drawing on history, public opinion surveys, and personal experience, Robert P. Jones delivers a provocative examination of the unholy relationship between American Christianity and white supremacy and issues an urgent call for white Christians to reckon with this legacy for the sake of themselves and the nation.

“This book is a marvel. It manages to quietly excoriate the insidious, entrenched attitudes that continue to sow racial hatred and division and to show the large and small ways that they continue. Devoid of moralizing, this powerful, heavily researched and annotated book is a must-read for religious leaders and academics.”
—Booklist (Starred Review)

“A concise yet comprehensive combination of deeply documented religious history, social science research about contemporary religion, and heartfelt memoir. . . . An indispensable study of Christianity in America.”
—Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

“A refreshing blend of historical accounting, soul-searching reflection, and analysis of white supremacy within the American Christian identity. . . . Jones’s introspective, measured study is a revelatory unpacking of influence and history of white Christian nationalism.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Robert P. Jones’s searing White Too Long brilliantly argues that his fellow white Christians must dissent from their received faith and embrace a theology of racial justice. White Too Long is a prophetic call of redemption for folk who have too often idolized whiteness and worshipped America instead of the God of Martin, Fannie Lou and Jesse.”
—Michael Eric Dyson, University Professor of Sociology, Georgetown University; author of Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America

“White Too Long is a powerful and much-needed book. It is a direct challenge to white Christians to finally put aside the idolatry of whiteness in order to release the country and themselves into a different possibility.  With clarity of moral vision, historical nuance, and the sensitivity of an artist’s pen, Jones has written a critical book for these troubled times.”
—Eddie S. Glaude Jr., James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of African American Studies, Princeton University; author of Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lesson for Our Own

“In White Too Long, Robert Jones offers both searching personal testimony and a rigorous look at the facts to call white Christians to account for the scandalous ways white supremacists have regularly distorted and manipulated a faith dedicated to love and justice to rationalize racism. Jones is a rare and indispensable voice in our public conversation about religion because he combines painstaking data analysis with a sure moral sense. May this book encourage soul-searching, repentance, and conversion.”
—E. J. Dionne Jr., Columnist for The Washington Post; author of Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country

“White Too Long is meticulously researched and compelling throughout. It’s also a damning moral indictment of the way white supremacy has infected the white church in the United States from its very beginnings—which lays bare the need, now more than ever, for white Christians to systematically repent of white supremacy.”
—Jim Wallis, Founder and President of Sojourners; author of Christ in Crisis? Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus

“With integrity and vulnerability, Jones exposes the subtle but profound compatibility between white supremacist ideology and white Christian theology. This remarkably courageous, must read book helps white Christians in America finally face the question Jones had to ask himself, “Can you be “white” and Christian?”
—The Very Reverend Kelly Brown Douglas, Dean of Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary; Canon Theologian, Washington National Cathedral

“Robert Jones combines the passion of a memoirist, the rigor of a social scientist, and the tenacity of a historian to produce this piercing exploration of the dark ties that bind aspects of American Christianity to the nation’s original sin of racism. For anyone hoping to understand the cultural, racial, and religious fault lines that divide America today, White Too Long is timely, insightful and indispensable.”
—Ronald Brownstein, Senior Editor at The Atlantic, Senior Political Analyst for CNN

Synopsis:

As the nation grapples with demographic changes and the legacy of racism in America, Christianity’s role as a cornerstone of white supremacy has been largely overlooked. But white Christians—from evangelicals in the South to mainline Protestants in the Midwest and Catholics in the Northeast—have not just been complacent or complicit; rather, as the dominant cultural power, they have constructed and sustained a project of protecting white supremacy and opposing black equality that has framed the entire American story.

With his family’s 1815 Bible in one hand and contemporary public opinion surveys by Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) in the other, Robert P. Jones delivers a groundbreaking analysis of the repressed history of the symbiotic relationship between Christianity and white supremacy. White Too Long demonstrates how deeply racist attitudes have become embedded in the DNA of white Christian identity over time and calls for an honest reckoning with a complicated, painful, and even shameful past. Jones challenges white Christians to acknowledge that public apologies are not enough—accepting responsibility for the past requires work toward repair in the present.

White Too Long is not an appeal to altruism. Drawing on lessons gleaned from case studies of communities beginning to face these challenges, Jones argues that contemporary white Christians must confront these unsettling truths because this is the only way to salvage the integrity of their faith and their own identities. More broadly, it is no exaggeration to say that not just the future of white Christianity but the outcome of the American experiment is at stake.

Outrage as Algeria lengthens jail sentence for prominent reporter El Kadi

An Algerian court of appeal on Sunday increased to seven years the prison term issued to a prominent media boss, but suspended two years, a watchdog said.


Issued on: 18/06/2023 - 

The media boss Ihsane El Kadi in a screen grab from a video published online on March 31, 2021. 

© Radio-M
Text by:NEWS WIRES

Ihsane El Kadi, 63, whose release had been sought by the European Union and international media, is one of the last independent media leaders in the North African nation. He is director of the Maghreb Emergent news website and Radio M.

He "was condemned to seven years in prison, including five behind bars with two suspended by the Alger Court of Appeal," North Africa representative for Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Khaled Drareni, said on Twitter.

"A totally incomprehensible verdict," he added.

 

    Open letter calling for journalist's release

In April, El Kadi had been sentenced to five years for "foreign financing of his business", in a case denounced by rights groups, but he was effectively serving three years because two were suspended.

Seven years is the maximum penalty under an article in Algeria's penal code which criminalises anyone who receives "funds, a grant or otherwise... to carry out acts capable of undermining state security".

El Kadi has been in custody since December 29.

Algeria ranks 136th out of 180 countries and territories on RSF's 2023 World Press Freedom Index.
'Trumped-up'

The court has ordered the dissolution of the company Interface Medias, which is behind El Kadi's two outlets, and the confiscation of its assets. The company was also fined 10 million dinars (about $73,500), while El Kadi himself received a 700,000-dinar fine.

At the time of the April verdict his lawyer, Abdelghani Badi, told AFP that he would appeal, though the defence team boycotted that session over the "absence of just trial conditions".

In January, Amnesty International said the accusations against El Kadi were "trumped-up state security related offences".

"El Kadi's unjustified detention by the Algerian authorities... is yet another example of their ruthless campaign to silence voices of dissent through arbitrary detention and the closure of media outlets," said Amnesty's Amna Guellali.

Earlier that month, 16 international media figures including Russian journalist Dmitri Muratov, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, called for his release and urged Algeria to lift "unacceptable" restrictions on his media outlets.

In response to a European Parliament resolution last month calling for El Kadi's "immediate and unconditional release", Algeria's legislature denounced "flagrant interference in the affairs of a sovereign country."

El Kadi had been sentenced in June last year to six months in prison but remained free at the time as a warrant was not issued for his arrest.

Less than two weeks after his April sentencing Algeria's parliament passed a law further restricting press freedom in the North African country by tightening media ownership rules and preventing journalists from protecting sources.

(AFP)

Algerian court sentences prominent journalist to 5 years

April 2, 2023 GMT

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — A court in Algiers on Sunday sentenced a prominent journalist in the North African country to five years in prison with two years suspended and ordered his website and a radio station shut down based on the accusation that they threaten state security.

Ihsane El-Kadi was detained Dec. 23 at his home in the capital, Algiers. He was accused of receiving foreign funding for his outlets. He has remained in custody since his arrest and appeared in court on Sunday for the verdict, along with a collective of lawyers, defending him, journalists and family members.

The court also ordered El-Kadi to pay a fine of 700,000 Algerian dinars ($5,200). The media company which owns El-Kadi’s website and radio station was ordered dissolved, its assets seized, and a fine of one million Algerian dinars ($7,390) was slapped on its owners.

El-Kadi, who was active in Algeria’s Hirak pro-democracy protest movement in 2019, appears to be the latest target of an encroaching crackdown on dissenting voices in the North African country.

His outlets were seen by many as outposts of free debate in Algerian media that provided journalists and opposition politicians a platform to point out contradictions or shortfalls in the government’s policies.

ALGIERS

Noted thinkers, writers and filmmakers call on Algeria to free jailed journalist seen as independent

Algeria dissolves pro-democracy group amid wider crackdown

Algerian journalist jailed and his media offices shut down

The case against him is linked to the crowdfunding used to finance his media outlets, Maghreb Emergent and Webradio. The website and radio station operated in Algeria for years but did not have government recognition as official media organizations.

El-Kadi was accused of violating an article in the criminal code targeting anyone who receives funds aimed at “inciting acts susceptible to threaten state security,” stability or Algeria’s fundamental interests, his lawyers said before the verdict.

Israel set to approve thousands of settlements in West Bank

Israel vows to continue with settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank despite their illegality and pressure from ally Washington.

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
18 June, 2023

The settlements are deemed illegal by most of the international community [Getty/archive]

Israel's hard-line government on Sunday tabled plans to approve thousands of building permits in the occupied West Bank, despite US pressure to halt settlement expansion that Washington sees as an obstacle to peace with Palestinians.

The plans for approval of 4,560 settlement units in various areas of the occupied West Bank were included on the agenda of Israel's Supreme Planning Council that meets next week, although only 1,332 were up for final approval, with the remainder still going through the preliminary clearance process.

"We will continue to develop the settlement of and strengthen the Israeli hold on the territory," said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also holds a defence portfolio that gives him a leading role in West Bank administration.

The international community deems Israeli settlements, built on Palestinian land captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, as illegal.

Palestinians seek to establish an independent state in the West Bank and besieged Gaza Strip with occupied East Jerusalem as their capital. Peace talks that had been brokered by the United States have been frozen since 2014.

Since entering office in January, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right cabinet has approved the promotion of more than 7,000 new housing units, most deep in the West Bank.

It also amended a law to clear the way for settlers to return to four settlements that had previously been evacuated.

In response to Sunday's Israeli decision, the Palestinian Authority - which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the occupied West Bank - said it would boycott a meeting of the Joint Economic Committee with Israel scheduled for Monday.

The Palestinian Hamas group, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, after Israel's withdrawal of soldiers and settlers, condemned the move, saying it "will not give (Israel) legitimacy over our land. Our people will resist it by all means".

(Reuters)

FAR-REACHING MOVE HAILED BY SETTLERS, DENOUNCED BY OPPONENTS

Netanyahu hands Smotrich full authority to expand existing settlements

Cabinet decision with immediate effect also dramatically expedites approval process for construction at settlements, scraps requirement for okay from defense minister or cabinet

By JEREMY SHARON 

Today

The Times of Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich during the cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on June 18, 2023. (Amit Shabi/POOL)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government passed a controversial resolution Sunday that gives practically all control over planning approval for construction in West Bank settlements to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, an ultranationalist advocate of settlements.

The decision approved at Sunday morning’s cabinet meeting, which takes immediate effect, also dramatically expedites and eases the process for expanding existing West Bank settlements and retroactively legalizing some illegal outposts.

The resolution was warmly welcomed by settlement leaders for the expected boost to settlement construction it is likely to create.

According to the resolution, which is an amendment to a 1996 government decision, the numerous stages of authorization hitherto needed from the defense minister for the approval of land usage designation masterplans will be reduced to just one required approval.

And, in line with a previous agreement, that approval will now come from Smotrich, the head of the far-right Religious Zionism party, in his secondary role as a minister within the Defense Ministry.

Settlement leaders praised Smotrich and Netanyahu for advancing and approving the change, and welcomed the streamlined approval process, which they said would make planning approval “routine” and make construction planning in the West Bank more similar to that in sovereign Israel.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich takes part in a march to the illegal West Bank outpost of Evyatar, near the West Bank city of Nablus, during the Passover holiday, on April 10, 2023. (Sraya Diamant/Flash90)

Groups opposed to the settlement movement denounced the decision, saying it constituted further “de facto annexation” of the West Bank and would allow for unchecked expansion of the settlements.

According to the amendment, a key clause in government resolution 150 — which required the approval of the defense minister before a planning committee could hold hearings on a proposed land usage masterplan — has now been erased.

Previously, there were at least five stages in the planning process that required the authorization of the defense minister, although the minister could give approval for more than one stage at once.

In practice, this process meant that planning for settlement expansion or the legalization of illegal outposts required input from the political echelon at every stage, and the defense minister could take into account defense and diplomatic considerations at those stages.

According to legal activist Michael Sfard, an attorney who campaigns against the settlement enterprise, the protracted approvals process has often helped put the brakes on settlement planning in the West Bank, since there were numerous windows of opportunity for internal and international pressure to be applied against such steps.

Under the terms of the amended resolution, the minister need only need give his approval once, or a maximum of twice in certain circumstances, in order to advance a masterplan, meaning that the process can advance much more rapidly.

The only other requirements for settlement planning approval are the authorization of technical issues by the Higher Planning Committee of the Civil Administration and its subcommittees — which are under the authority of the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration department, which in turn comes under Smotrich’s authority as an additional minister in the Defense Ministry.

The change does not give Smotrich the authority to approve new settlements, which still require cabinet approval.

Head of the Benjamin Regional Council in the West Bank Yisrael Gantz applauded the government for the decision, saying it would “reduce international scrutiny and criticism over construction in the settlements,” and thanked Smotrich for advancing the amendment.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (center) and MK Zvi Sukkot (to his left) dance during a prayer service marking Independence Day in the illegal West Bank outpost of Homesh in the northern West Bank, April 26, 2023.

 (Screenshot used in accordance with clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

“This government resolution brings the residents of Judea and Samaria to the regular situation of the entire State of Israel,” said Gantz, using the biblical name for the West Bank region. “This step will turn construction in the settlements into something that is not newsworthy but rather, routine.”

Head of the Samaria Regional Council Yossi Dagan similarly said, “We must stop treating residents of Judea and Samaria as second-class citizens. It’s unthinkable that only residents of Judea and Samaria need approval from the political echelon in order to build a home or a kindergarten.”

“After the last government froze thousands of housing units [in the West Bank], a need was created to restore the pace of work to that of the previous decade,” said Shlomo Ne’eman, the chairman of the Yesha umbrella settlement organization.

Opponents of the settlements issued intense criticism of the move, warning that Smotrich, as a powerful advocate for settlement expansion and a firm opponent of Palestinian statehood, would now be at liberty to massively increase construction in the settlements and legalize illegal outposts.

Palestinian demonstrators hurls stones at Israeli forces amid tear gas during clashes, as they protest Israeli Jewish settlements, in the Jordan Valley of the West Bank, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020. (AP/Majdi Mohammed)

“Decisions over new [settlement] construction have until now required approval at the political level and by the defense minister, since construction in the territories has security and diplomatic consequences of the highest order,” said Peace Now’s Yoni Mizrachi in a written opinion on the decision.

“Construction in the territories is designed to eliminate the possibility of a two-state solution and this is a political decision,” he continued, adding that such settlement expansion includes very real security considerations, such as where IDF forces need to be deployed in the West Bank, and the size of those forces.

“From a planning point of view, there is [now] no difference between the Tel Aviv district and the Judea and Samaria, except for an initial decision by the political echelon,” protested Mizrachi.

“Israel is moving towards full annexation of the West Bank and does not intend to allow security or diplomatic considerations to stop it,” said Peace Now after the resolution was adopted.

“The government has decided to tie the fate of the residents of Israel to the messianic vision of endless settlements among millions of Palestinians whose rights are being trampled upon every morning. [Control over] planning has passed into Smotrich’s hands but the cost of construction will be borne by us all.”

The left-wing, anti-settlement Yesh Din organization said the amendment “puts the ability to expand and establish settlements into the hands of Smotrich’s people without any oversight.”

Israeli security forces in action while Palestinians protest against Israel’s plan to annex parts of the West Bank, in the Palestinian village of Haris, June 26, 2020. 

(Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)

Earlier on Sunday, Smotrich himself noted that the Higher Planning Committee of the Civil Administration, under his authority, is set to hold deliberations next week on the approval of some 4,560 housing units in the West Bank settlements.

Smotrich said these units, together with other planning projects advanced earlier this year, “make the six months since this government was formed a record for the rate of settlement construction [planning] in the last decade.”

Smotrich, who lives near the northern West Bank settlement of Kedumim, in a home built in violation of that settlement’s master plan, said: “The construction boom in Judea and Samaria and in all parts of our country continues. As we promised, today we are advancing the construction of thousands more new units in Judea and Samaria… We will continue to develop the settlements and strengthen Israel’s hold on the territory.”