UFO hearing: Whistleblower testifies government 'absolutely' has possession of 'nonhuman' craft

In testimony before the House of Representatives, former Air Force officer David Grusch said the U.S. has recovered "biologics" from downed craft.

·Senior Writer
Updated Wed, July 26, 2023

A former Pentagon intelligence official testified Wednesday that he was “absolutely” certain the government had possession of nonhuman craft.

David Grusch, a former Air Force officer, said during a House Oversight Committee hearing that his information was based on interviews with 40 witnesses and that he knew where the material was being held. Grusch added that nonhuman “biologics” were recovered along with the craft.

Who is David Grusch?

Retired U.S. Air Force Maj. David Grusch. (Nathan Howard/AP)

Grusch initially made the claims last month before adding the information about pilots in a NewsNation interview. He was an intelligence officer for the Air Force and eventually joined the task force looking into unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP, the military’s preferred term for UFOs. He said he became a whistleblower in May 2022 after he received a number of concerning reports that the government was acting with secrecy and without congressional oversight with regard to UAP.

A Pentagon spokesperson strenuously denied Grusch’s initial claims, saying they have “not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently.”

Grusch said he feared for his life and had faced professional and personal consequences from the government for speaking out, noting there was an ongoing whistleblower retaliation investigation into his treatment. He said he believed that the government first became aware of nonhuman technology in the 1930s and that there had been a “multi-decade campaign to disenfranchise public interest.”

The former intelligence officer said he had not seen any nonhuman bodies personally and responded to many questions by stating that he could not discuss details in an open forum but could brief legislators in private.

The hearing was the second public congressional panel this year on UAP. Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., was a major proponent of the hearing and said that other members of Congress had told him privately about their own UFO experiences.

'We're saying that there's something our pilots are seeing'

Retired Navy Cmdr. David Fravor at the House hearing. 

(Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)

Other witnesses at the hearing were Ryan Graves, a former Navy pilot who said he encountered numerous unexplained flying objects while flying near Virginia Beach, Va., and David Fravor, another retired Navy pilot who says he encountered UAP near the coast of San Diego.

“As we convene here, UAP are in our airspace, but they are grossly underreported,” Graves said. “Sightings are not rare or isolated.”

The pilots said the movements taken by the observed craft would be impossible with the current known technological limitations. They added that humans would not be able to survive the level of acceleration that occurred and that if the crafts had attacked, they would not have been able to defend themselves or their crew.

Graves said that since his initial reporting, he’d learned that pilots had similar encounters everywhere the Navy was operating. Fravor, asked about how he rationalized what he’d seen, said he wasn’t a “UFO fanatic,” but “I will tell you that what we saw with four sets of eyes over a five-minute period, still there's nothing we have nothing close to it. It was amazing to see. I told my buddy I wanted to fly it, but it's just an incredible technology.”

Former Navy pilot Ryan Graves. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)

Graves said that commercial airlines are not taking the threat seriously at all and that pilots are worried their careers will be negatively affected by reporting them, as well as noting the lack of a system for reporting through the Federal Aviation Administration.

The pilots added that the military reporting process needs to be streamlined, with Graves saying that, in his personal estimate, only 5% of UAP sightings were reported.

Last week at a White House briefing, John Kirby, a retired Navy admiral and the current Pentagon spokesperson, said that UAP “have already had an impact on our training ranges.”

“Now, we’re not saying what they are or what they’re not,” Kirby said. “We’re saying that there’s something our pilots are seeing. We’re saying it has had an effect on some of our training operations. And so we want to get to the bottom of it. We want to understand it better.”

Long history of UFO investigations

Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray with a video of UAP at a 2022 hearing.

 (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

UFO whistleblower tells Congress the US has likely been aware of 'non-human' activity since 1930s

At a Senate Armed Services hearing in April, the head of the office formed by the Pentagon last year to investigate unexplained phenomena said it had “found no credible evidence thus far of extraterrestrial activity, off-world technology or objects that defy the known laws of physics.”

The interest in UFOs has been bipartisan and active in both chambers of Congress. A group of senators led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are attempting to include an amendment in the annual defense appropriations bill that would require UFO records to be made public. Last year, Democrats in the House held the first public hearing on the topic in more than 50 years.

The military has had an interest in UFOs since at least the 1940s. In 1952, the Air Force set up Project Blue Book, a classified program that counted more than 12,000 UFO sightings over its 17-year existence, with hundreds still unexplained.

Then-Rep. Gerald Ford wrote to two fellow congressmen in 1966 to “strongly recommend that there be a committee investigation of the UFO phenomena.” In 2017, the New York Times published a story about how Democratic former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had pushed for funding to investigate unexplained aerial sightings from 2007 to 2012.

Congress holds hearing about claims US government has UFO evidence 

– watch live

 

Unilever sees Chinese consumer confidence at 'historical low point'


Richa Naidu
Tue, July 25, 2023 

Unilever headquarters in Rotterdam


LONDON (Reuters) - British consumer goods giant Unilever said on Tuesday that China's declining property market and exports had sent its consumer sentiment to a historic low, having earlier this year forecast a Chinese "consumption boom".

The maker of Dove soap and Ben & Jerry's ice cream in February flagged $1.5-$2 trillion in "excess household savings" in China that it believed could boost its sales in the country and in Southeast Asia.

Beijing at the time, after almost three years of a "zero-COVID" strategy, had recently dropped its restrictions almost completely and said it would boost imports and promote a consumption recovery to boost the economy.

But a lot has changed in the region since then.

Economic data from China this month showed its post-pandemic surge was quickly fizzling out, raising expectations that the government needs to bring out more stimulus measures to drive activity and bolster tepid consumer confidence.

"What we're seeing is a very cautious consumer in China, a declining property market and reduced export demand in China -- a lot of demand has shifted into the markets of Southeast Asia. Thailand, Vietnam, in particular benefit quite a bit from that," Unilever finance chief Graeme Pitkethly said on a call with journalists.

"And there is high unemployment in China, particularly youth unemployment...As much as we can tell we're at the historical low point in terms of Chinese consumer confidence."

Nonetheless, Unilever said underlying sales growth in China rose by high single-digits, recovering in the second quarter with volume-led, double-digit growth against a softer prior year comparison figure which was impacted by lockdowns.

Unilever on Tuesday reported earnings, beating underlying sales growth forecasts after again raising prices to offset higher costs and sending its shares higher.

(Reporting by Richa Naidu; editing by Jason Neely)

Brazil’s Citrosuco Threatens Force Majeure on Some Orange Juice Supplies

Dayanne Sousa
Mon, July 24, 2023 


(Bloomberg) -- Brazil’s Citrosuco, one of the world’s top orange juice producers, warned it may need to declare force majeure on supplies to some clients after disease and rainfall damaged crops.

In a July 17 letter sent to clients and seen by Bloomberg, the company said it was being “severely affected” by greening disease and rain that flooded farms. It added it won’t be able to ensure supplies at the volumes and prices previously agreed.

Citrosuco confirmed the contents of the letter, which it said was sent as a warning to some clients who had contracts for delivery earlier this year. In a statement to Bloomberg on Monday, the company added the communication was part of specific commercial negotiations.

While the letter stated “supply performance is currently prevented by force majeure, until further notice,” the company said it had not taken the actual legal step associated with invoking force majeure, a clause companies usually enforce when an unforeseen event, such as a fire or natural disaster, prevents them from complying with a contract.

Citrosuco’s letter is a reminder of just how tight global orange juice markets are. Brazil ships almost four of every five cups of orange juice consumed globally, according to data by the US Department of Agriculture, and Citrosuco is part of a group of three major juice companies — including Sucocitrico Cutrale LTDA and Louis Dreyfus Co. — that is responsible for most exports from the country.

Orange juice futures reached a record high Monday, rising by the exchange limit of 10 cents early in New York trading. Greening disease, which is spread by an infected insect and causes trees to produce unusable fruit, was responsible for decimating Florida’s orange groves.

Bloomberg Businessweek

TRADING PLACES 

ORANGE JUICE SALE ON WALL ST TRADING FLOOR

Adobe’s $20 Billion Figma Deal Faces EU Probe, Adding to Global Scrutiny

Samuel Stolton
Mon, July 24, 2023 


(Bloomberg) -- Adobe Inc.’s $20 billion takeover of design startup Figma Inc. is on course for an in-depth investigation from European Union merger regulators, adding to growing global scrutiny of the deal dubbed by Adobe’s boss as “transformational.”

Adobe won’t propose remedies to fix potential competition concerns, meaning an in-depth investigation from the EU’s competition branch is forthcoming, according to two people familiar with the matter.

So-called phase 2 probes add about 90 working days to deal reviews. Regulators typically demand remedies to solve competition concerns but sometimes also decide to give their unconditional approval if initial concerns are shown to be unfounded.

The purchase is a massive bet that more creative work will be done by small businesses and everyday users on the web, a market that Figma has rapidly seized. While Adobe has introduced less-expensive, streamlined products for that audience, most of its offerings are still heavyweight programs aimed at specialists.

A spokesperson for Adobe said that the company continues “to have productive conversations with regulatory bodies worldwide.” Figma didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Adobe, the longtime top seller of software for creative professionals, also faces scrutiny further afield, with the US Justice Department preparing an antitrust lawsuit seeking to block the merger, according to people familiar with the matter.

The UK antitrust watchdog already announced on July 13 that it will kick-off a longer review after Adobe didn’t offer remedies to address antitrust issues. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority will issue its findings by Dec. 27.

The deal comes as Adobe adds generative AI features throughout its products. The company last month unveiled enterprise-level subscriptions for the new tools, which include legal assurance against copyright claims. As part of the forecast, Adobe raised the revenue projection for its Digital Media unit, which includes Photoshop and other creative software.

--With assistance from Katharine Gemmell.

 Bloomberg Businessweek

Iranian judges diagnosed 3 female actors with mental illnesses for not wearing hijabs in public, prompting outrage

Joshua Zitser
Updated Mon, July 24, 2023 

Women stand under an Iranian flag during a rally in support of the hijab on July 12, 2023.

Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Iranian judges diagnosed three female actors with mental illnesses after they refused to wear hijabs, per reports.


They must attend psychiatric centers for treatment as part of their court sentencing, per RFE/RL.


The ruling caused outrage among psychiatrists, who wrote an open letter criticizing the move.

Judges in Iran have handed down diagnoses of mental illnesses to three famous Iranian female actors for refusing to wear hijabs, RadioFranceEurope/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported.

Azadeh Samadi, Leila Bolukat, and Afsaneh Bayegan recently appeared in public without headscarves, a violation of Iran's strict rules on modesty.

Women who refuse to wear a hijab in public in Iran can face up to two years in prison, though repeat offenders can expect to spend more time behind bars if proposed legislation passes.

Bayegan, a veteran actor who wore a hat instead of a hijab to a film ceremony, was handed a two-year prison sentence, as well as a ban on travel and using the Internet, on July 19.

She was also ordered to undergo mandatory psychological treatment for what was described by judges as an "anti-family personality disorder" — a condition that is not recognized by any major Western medical bodies, per RFE/RL.

Samadi, 44, was given a similar medical order.

Tehran's Criminal Court ordered on July 18 that she must visit psychiatric centers every two weeks to be treated for an "anti-social disease," RFE/RL reported, citing Iranian media.

Samadi was detained after wearing a hat instead of a hijab at a funeral. Though she was not given prison time, she was denied access to her phone for six months and had all of her social media accounts shut down.

Bolukat, 42, who was previously handed a sentence of six months in prison, with a further ban on professional activities for two years, was also diagnosed by judges with a mental illness, per RFE/RL.

Her punishment comes after she posted images of herself without a hijab on social media, the news outlet reported.

Iran's strict hijab laws have inspired major protests over the past year, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini last September.

Iran's major psychiatric bodies pushed back on this latest move, with the heads of four psychiatry boards going public with their criticism in an open letter to Iran's judiciary chief, RFE/RL reported.

"The diagnosis of mental disorders is within the competence of a psychiatrist, not a judge," the letter said, per the news outlet. "Just as the diagnosis of other diseases is in the competence of doctors, not judges."

Calling the diagnoses "unscientific and strange," the open letter demanded that authorities amend the sentences against the three women, according to RFE/RL.

Chevron Considers Lithium Production in Latest EV Bet by Big Oil

Mitchell Ferman and Kevin Crowley
Mon, July 24, 2023 


(Bloomberg) -- Chevron Corp. is considering opportunities to produce lithium that would be used in electric vehicle batteries, Chief Executive Officer Mike Wirth said in a Bloomberg interview.

Extracting lithium fits with the “core capabilities” of a company like Chevron that has deep experience producing oil and gas, Wirth said on Sunday, without providing details of specific plans.

Earlier in July, Exxon Mobil Corp. CEO Darren Woods said the energy giant is exploring opportunities to produce lithium. The price and availability of lithium is crucial to whether EVs can scale up.

The lithium interest from US oil majors contrasts with their counterparts in Europe, which have been more aggressive in certain energy-transition areas like wind, solar and power services. US companies have focused on adjacent areas of their fossil fuel business such as carbon capture and storage, hydrogen and lithium. Chevron itself has made clear it has no plans to invest significantly in big wind and solar projects, saying the returns are low and the competition is too high.

Chevron, originally scheduled to report quarterly results this Friday, posted better-than-expected earnings as output in the Permian Basin soared to a record and also said it waived the mandatory retirement age of 65 for Wirth. Shares climbed 2.9% as of 11:02 a.m. in New York trading Monday.

A Strange Invisible Line Has Always Run Through Indonesia. Scientists Finally Know Why.

Tim Newcomb
Mon, July 24, 2023 

Patchareeporn Sakoolchai - Getty Images

The Wallace Line runs through Asia and Australia, and shows an incongruity in the dispersion of animal species on either side.


Researchers have known about the differences in the animals for over 150 years, but have only just now released a theory as to why they exist.


Colliding continents could be to blame for some animal species failing to adapt to changing climates.

The imaginary Wallace Line in Southeast Asia and Australia isn’t so fictional for the differing animal species living on either side. The line—named after British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace—serves as a boundary, and each side of that boundary plays host to very different types of animals.

For over 150 years, scientists didn’t have an explanation as to why the line exists. Why would two regions in close geographic proximity have such different animal populations? For example, why does a koala live in Australia, but not in the Philippines? Or, why can we find kangaroos in Papua New Guinea (and Australia), but not in Malaysia? And why do some animals buck that trend, like the enjoyably named kookaburra, which can be seen throughout both Asia and Australia?

Now, we may finally have an answer. A new paper published in Science claims that, tens of millions of years ago, shifting plate tectonics forced a dramatic swing in Earth’s climate and produced what have come to know as the Wallace Line.

According to the biologists at The Australian National University and ETH Zurich, the Wallace Line was caused by Australia breaking away from Antarctica millions of years ago, drifting north, and ramming into Asia.

“That collision gave birth to the volcanic islands that we now know as Indonesia,” Alex Skeels of Australian National University says in a press release. The creation of the Indonesian islands produced stepping stones for animals from Asia to reach New Guinea and northern Australia.

But the research still shows that far more groups of Asian animals made the move to Australia than vice versa. That’s why the researchers believe the Wallace Line answer comes from more than just moving Earth, but in a climate change shift. The team says that when Australia broke free from Antarctica, a dramatic climate change came with it. This cooled and dried continents and led to a mass extinction event.

“When Australia drifted away from Antarctica, it opened up this area of deep ocean surrounding Antarctica which is now where the Antarctic Circumpolar Current is,” Skeels said. “This dramatically hanged Earth’s climate as a whole. It made the climate much cooler.”

Somehow though, according to the latest theory, Indonesia remained relatively warm, wet, and tropical. So, Asian animals that were well-adapted to and comfortable in the conditions could easily hop from Asia to Australia. “This was not the case for the Australian species,” Skeels said. “They had evolved in a cooler and increasingly drier climate over time and were therefore less successful in gaining a foothold on the tropical islands compared to the creatures migrating from Asia.”

That migration pattern still plays out in today’s distribution of species. “If you travel to Borneo, you won’t see any marsupial mammals, but if you go to the neighboring island of Sulawesi, you will,” Skeels said. “Australia, on the other hand, lacks mammals typical of Asia, such as bears, tigers, or rhinos.”

Millions of years of climate history, the authors claim, could help predict which species can better adapt to the modern world’s changing environments.

Opinion
Our time is up; global warming requires activism now

William Culbert
Sun, July 23, 2023 

Global warming is misunderstood by many people, and the politicization of the issue has made it even more difficult to explore potential solutions.

William Culbert

The world population is expected to peak as early as the 2040s or, by any estimate, the end of the century, but this alone will not help us survive as a species. The rich world’s disproportionate use of carbon-based energy needs to change.

To become carbon neutral by 2050, in addition to being off fossil fuels, we would have to remove 1,850 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere annually. “Decarbonizing” the air with industrial processes is expensive and at best will remove only 4 million tons annually with the industrial facilities that have been proposed in the United States.

Cultivating forests is far more efficient. Under the best scenarios, if we were to ween off fossil fuels immediately, we would still have high levels of carbon in the atmosphere for centuries.

But we don’t have centuries.

As much as 40% of sea level rise is the direct product of the thermal expansion of water and not related to melting ice on the continents. But this latter issue is perhaps much worse than once thought.

Over the next 1,000 years the collapse of the Western Antarctic ice sheets is expected to raise sea levels more than 10 feet. But new Harvard research suggests that as the bedrock supporting the ice rebounds from the decreasing weight, it may displace even more water, raising sea levels another 3 feet.

Forty percent of the world’s population lives within about 60 miles of the ocean. According to The Economist, only about 13% of the world’s coastal areas might be amenable to efforts to protect them, but 65% would have no chance.

Some large industrial coastal cities like several in Eastern China would be particularly affected. Most were previously farmland with rapidly shrinking water tables. Industrialization with construction of skyscrapers and the elimination of wetlands is causing these cities to sink rapidly. Shanghai, with a population of 26 million, will be in great danger in the coming decades.

The heat from a changing climate alone may be enough to kill us. Europe experienced almost 62,000 additional heat-related deaths last year. In three decades, 100 million Americans can expect at least a day with a heat index of 125 degrees. This could have the potential to kill rapidly, and the process is insidious.

The world has had five mass extinctions in the last 500 million years that have each resulted in the extinction of most of the plant and animal species on earth. Some estimates suggest that 99.9% of all species that have lived on earth are now extinct. A quarter of all existing species are now threatened with extinction, and the process is increasing rapidly. If we lose 80 specific ones that are mostly microscopic, food production could be devastated, resulting in mass global starvation.

Humans and all other mammals have evolved from the few opossum-sized hibernating creatures that were able to survive the meteor strike that killed most dinosaurs. All birds and some reptiles evolved from dinosaurs.

Global warming may be just another mass extinction for the planet and life will go on, but it will surely represent the end of humans.

It should be the focus of all of us to delay the process as long as possible. It is not enough to do this by living a life with a low carbon footprint. Everyone needs to become a political activist.

William Culbert is an Oak Ridge resident and retired physician.

This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Our time is up; global warming requires activism now

'As long as we have AC': Phoenix heat shows gap between US rich, poor

Romain FONSEGRIVES
Sat, July 22, 2023 

Rosalia Licea (L) and neighbor Wendy Salinas pose on July 20, 2023 near the remains of a neighboring mobile home recently destroyed in a fire, during a record heat wave in Phoenix, Arizona 

(Patrick T. Fallon)

Melanie Floyd took her kids to the zoo in Phoenix in the morning, when temperatures in the heat wave roasting the city and much of the US southwest were still bearable.

Standing before a turtle exhibit, she downplayed this extreme weather event in a world grappling with climate change.

"As long as we have AC and as long as everyone is making smart choices," this stay-at-home mother aged 32 told AFP, "staying hydrated, going in the shade, staying cool, not overexerting themselves, I think it's tolerable."

At her home it is, indeed, nice and cool. She keeps the air conditioning between 75 and 78 degrees Fahrenheit (23 and 26 degrees Celsius) so she can look after her kids, aged two and six, comfortably as they play with coloring books and crafts.


Outside, day after day for more than three weeks, the temperature in Phoenix is surpassing a hard-to-fathom 110F.

The heatwave affecting much of the southwest and southern United States -- including the record temperatures in Phoenix -- is igniting debate on how fast global warming is moving.

For Floyd, this particular weather event is no big deal.

"You have to fluctuate as the weather fluctuates, so you have to be flexible with it," Floyd said.

In this desert city many people that spoke to AFP expressed similar views about the rising frequency of brutally dangerous heat as global warming caused by human activity grinds on: One must learn to live with it.

- Living without AC -

For many of them life is a series of mad dashes from offices to restaurants to shops, all with air conditioning cranked up good and frosty.

In the city center and well-to-do suburbs, people do not think twice about leaving their car running while they get out to do an errand, so as to keep it cool for when they come back.

But in less wealthy areas, heat like this is another thing altogether.

"If the temperatures go on like this, many people will not be able to cope," said Rosalia Licea, 37, who is raising five kids on her own.

She lives in a mobile home park where most of the trailers are from the 1950s. Early in this heat wave her air conditioning broke down.

For two days the temperature inside their mobile home hit 97F. The whole family had to take refuge in the room of the eldest child, which had a window AC unit. One of the smaller kids started having headaches.

Licea, who hails from Mexico, works several low-paying jobs to make ends meet. She does not have the $2,000 it would cost to buy a new AC system.

So she came up with a makeshift solution: spend $800 to fix the broken one.

"I had no choice, what with my kids," she said. "It was the priority, more than buying groceries or paying my rent."

Even with the new motor in the old AC unit, one of the air conduits is broken so the cold does not reach her living room. That is something else she will have to pay to have fixed.

- AC going full blast -

Licea tried but failed to qualify for aid offered by the city or some utility companies for people to upgrade their air conditioning units.

A study in 2022 by Arizona State University found that while mobile homes make up five percent of all housing in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and its suburbs, they account for 30 percent of indoor heat-related deaths in the city.

"It is easy to say 'we can adapt' when you have access to everything," Licea said. "It is different for us."

A fire broke out some days ago at her mobile home park, where the residences are hooked up directly to electrical pylons through shoddy connections.

One mobile home was destroyed. The fire is believed to have started because of an electrical overload, with washing machines, dryers, fridges and full-blast air conditioning all operating at once.

After 19 years in Arizona, Licea lives in fear of an electrical short circuit. So she mainly prepares salads for meals and tries to avoid turning on the lights to keep her electricity consumption, and the temperature, as low as possible.

"If I could move to a state that is not so hot I would do it," Licea said.

rfo/dw/bfm

‘We are winning’: Are US Jews who oppose Israeli settlements finally getting somewhere?

Chris McGreal in New York
Mon, July 24, 2023

Photograph: Yuki Iwamura/AFP/Getty Images

Mike Levinson has been pushing back for 40 years and finally thinks he might be getting somewhere.

Related: West Bank medics given bulletproof vests after ‘rise in attacks by Israeli forces’

“There’s a change and the politicians see it. I think it scares them,” said Levinson, holding a sign demanding “Stop Israeli settler violence” as he marched through New York on Thursday.

“There’s a tremendous change going on in the American Jewish community. There are a lot of Jews, especially young people, who are not so quick to automatically and unconditionally support everything that Israel does. People are accepting the fact that it’s OK to be Jewish and criticise Israel.”

Levinson, a Jewish New Yorker, began protesting against Israeli government policies during its 1982 invasion of Lebanon. It’s been a long and often lonely road since then as he has sought to get his fellow Americans to pay attention to decades of Israeli occupation, military assaults on the West Bank and Gaza, and the unrelenting expansion of Jewish settlements.

People are accepting the fact that it’s OK to be Jewish and criticise Israel
Mike Levinson

Through it all, however, support for Israel in Washington has remained largely undiminished.

Nothing much looked to have changed last week as Democrats and Republicans alike feted Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, during his address to Congress. The Democratic leadership distanced itself from a boycott by some progressive representatives and joined the pile-on against Pramila Jayapal, chair of the influential Democratic Progressive Caucus, after she called Israel a “racist state” before rowing back to say she meant that its government is pursuing “outright racist policies”.

The Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, made a pointed defense of Israel while congressional Republicans quickly engineered a resolution declaring “Israel is not a racist or apartheid state”. All but 10 members voted for it.

The New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg described the backlash against Jayapal as a “hysterical overreaction” from Democrats and Republicans alike “demonstrating that, no matter how far Israel veers from liberal democratic norms, when it comes to American politics, it’s still protected by a thick lattice of taboos”.

But for all that, Levinson was upbeat as he marched last Thursday in support of proposed state legislation to block New York charities from funding illegal Israeli settlements. He said opinions about Israel have been shifting for years as increasing numbers of ordinary Americans, Jewish and not, see the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the prism of civil rights.

“I hear it from them. They see social media, they’re checking out information coming from the Middle East. They don’t have to rely on the mass media here any more. They’re more sceptical about what they hear from the politicians and mainstream Jewish groups,” he said.

The Israeli president, Israel Herzog, is applauded by the US vice-president, Kamala Harris, and the speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, on 19 July. 

Photograph: Will Oliver/EPA

Opinion polls suggest Levinson is right. A Gallup survey earlier this year found that for the first time more Democrats were sympathetic to the Palestinians than the Israelis by a margin of 11%, a significant shift from a decade ago.

In 2021, a Jewish Electorate Institute poll found that 58% of American Jewish voters support restrictions on US military aid to prevent Israel using it to expand West Bank settlements. One-third agreed that “Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is similar to racism in the United States” and one-quarter said that “Israel is an apartheid state”, numbers that shocked some Jewish community leaders.

Part of the shift has been driven by social media and the wide circulation of videos such as Israeli assaults on Gaza and the West Bank, the large-scale forced removal of Palestinians from the South Hebron hills, and armed Jewish settlers rampaging through Palestinian towns.

In addition, the repudiation by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, of a Palestinian state, and far-right members of his latest government openly advocating annexation, have undercut Israel’s longstanding defense that its policies are a response to terrorism. That has given traction to claims by Israeli and foreign human rights groups that Israel has imposed a form of apartheid on the occupied territories.

But protesters in New York on 20 July in Manhattan’s Herald Square who were protesting against Israeli settlements had no illusions that evolving public opinion is going to translate into a change in policy in Washington any time soon.

Rosalind Petchesky, a retired political science professor at the City University of New York whose family fled anti-Jewish pogroms in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, was also marching on Thursday. She said that some politicians were uncertain how to respond to the gap between the strong pro-Israel instincts of Washington and the views of some of their constituents.

Mainstream Democratic leaders get a lot of money from these groups and billionaires that support Israel, and that gives them power

Rosalind Petchesky

“Their response to Pramila Jayapal is a sign of weakness in the sense that they feel threatened because they’re exposed. But the mainstream Democratic leaders care about 2024 and get a lot of money from these groups and billionaires that support Israel, and that gives them power. So as long as that’s true, we are fighting an uphill battle. But we are going to win,” she said.

One way forward, said Diala Shamas, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights who joined the demonstration, is to focus on aspects of Israeli policies that are hard to defend.

American politicians mostly support Israel in the broadest terms, often referring to shared democratic values with the US and speaking up for Israel’s “right to defend itself”. But it is harder to justify individual Israeli policies, particularly over the settlements.

“It is, of course, an uphill battle to climb,” said Shamas. “But we know that the numbers are moving towards consensus around opposition to Israeli settlements. When you actually look at the demands of this campaign, they are the most uncontroversial from a legal standpoint. So those who oppose it have to actually say that they actually think that it’s OK to aid and abet war crimes.”

Still, it’s one thing to win support and another to get voters to care enough about an issue that it has political impact.

The challenge was clear in Herald Square. As the protesters chanted “We are winning”, New York shoppers mostly walked by without paying attention. Except for a man who stopped and started explaining to his son who the settlers are.