Israel-Hamas war may not restore Israelis' support for military reserves

Arie Perliger, UMass Lowell
Tue, December 12, 2023 

THE CONVERSATION

Israeli reservists take a moment to rest in southern Israel on Nov. 13, 2023. 

Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images


One of the first Israeli government responses to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack was the mobilization of about 360,000 reservists into active duty for the Israel military. This amounts to roughly 4% of the nation’s population and boosted the strength of the 170,000 people already serving in the military, either doing compulsory service or as career soldiers.

As someone who has studied Israel’s security policies and society for the last 20 years, I see the rare decision to mobilize more than three-quarters of Israel’s entire reserve forces, as reflecting more than the practical need for soldiers to secure the nation and respond to Hamas’ attacks. I believe the mobilization decision was also intended to signal that Israel is prepared to fight any other potential adversaries who might consider the country vulnerable.

But the success or failure of those efforts depends on whether the unique circumstances of the current conflict can reverse a decadeslong decline in Israelis’ support for a reserve army. My assessment is that in the long term, the importance of the reserves will continue to diminish within Israeli society.
Mandatory military service


All Israeli citizens are required to serve in the military when they are between the ages of 18 and 21 – men for 32 months and women for 24 months. After that service period ends, most of them are required to serve in the reserves, training several weeks a year until their early 40s.

If they are called up for active duty, most reservists are deployed for routine law and order missions in the West Bank and the quieter border areas. Also, elite units of reservists serve as the backbone of the air force and some infantry and armored units.

But changes to the military’s reserve policies means that less than 5% of the country’s population are in the reserves, The New York Times reported in November 2023.
Israel as a ‘garrison state’

At Israel’s founding in 1948, its leaders wanted the country to be prepared for enduring military clashes with its neighbors, with a strong, well-equipped and highly trained military force. But Israel has a relatively small population and limited natural and financial resources. So they chose to form the Israel Defense Forces based on a small standing army largely made up of conscripts, and a much larger reserve force.

With this model, often called a “garrison state” by scholars, the founders believed Israel could fight much larger Arab nations without having to maintain a large standing army, which would tie up both personnel and funding that could undermine the country’s economic development.

Just days after the Hamas attack, people lined up at a Greek airport to fly to Tel Aviv, Israel. The country’s call for reservists brought people from overseas, including volunteers who wanted to join the fight. 

AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis

Decreasing support for reserves

Massive numbers of reservists were crucial to Israel’s victory over Egypt and Syria in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. But since the 1980s, the Israeli public’s support for a large reserve force has waned.

In part, many Israelis didn’t want to serve in the reserves after they had fulfilled their active-duty obligation. This was because reservists’ duties became more controversial and divisive. A growing number of reservists were assigned to policing and maintaining Israel’s military control of the Palestinian population in the West Bank and, until 2005, also in the Gaza Strip.

In addition, civilian life and military life in Israel were less entwined than they had been in earlier decades. Success in the military service didn’t guarantee prestige and opportunities in the private sector, as it once had. Lastly, the aura of success that surrounded the Israel military faded following its failure in the 1990s and 2000s to effectively reduce growing threats from Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip
A return to dependence on reserves

The Oct. 7 attack appears to have restored many Israelis’ support for the reserves. Israelis experienced and view that attack as not just another round of skirmishing between Palestinian terrorists and Israeli forces, but rather as a serious and significant attack on the nation’s existence.

The country’s leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, faced immediate and powerful criticism for failing to prevent the Hamas attack and for abandoning civilians who were killed, kidnapped or injured.

The public saw this mobilization, then, as an appropriate response to help ensure the survival of the Jewish state – rather than an act of expanding controversial occupation and security policies.

Moreover, Hamas’ attack mainly targeted civilians, which reminded Israelis of their civic responsibility to defend each other and the nation.

For the most part, Israelis appear to have accepted this message. They continue to blame Netanyahu and his government for the failures that allowed the attack, but agree that the war must come before political repercussions. The formation of a unity government, in which a major opposition party joined the governing coalition for the duration of the war, was one significant political signal of this public sentiment.

At least thousands of Israelis who were not formally mobilized volunteered to return to reserve service, even traveling from their homes in faraway countries.

In August 2023, Brothers in Arms, an Israeli reservists organization, demonstrated against proposed judicial reforms in Israel. 

Matan Golan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
The future of Israel’s reserves

It’s unclear whether the shift in support for the reserves will last beyond this war. Regardless of how – or when – the war ends, Israel’s military occupation and policies in the West Bank will continue to be a source of political division in Israel.

Relatedly, Israel’s reservists have begun to explore the political power their role confers upon them. Netanyahu’s efforts in early 2023 to undermine the nation’s democracy, including by reducing judges’ independence, met widespread public protest. Reservists were prominent in the resistance to Netanyahu’s proposals, even threatening to end their service or resign from the military roles if certain initiatives moved forward.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and analysis to help you make sense of our complex world.

It was written by: Arie Perliger, UMass Lowell.

Read more:

Hamas assault echoes 1973 Arab-Israeli war – a shock attack and questions of political, intelligence culpability


Intelligence failure or not, the Israeli military was unprepared to respond to Hamas’ surprise attack

What Israelis see, and don’t see, about the war in Gaza

Neri Zilber
Tue, December 12, 2023

A new exhibit opened last week at the Tel Aviv fairgrounds under a title that has become infamous: “Nova, 06:29.”

For every Israeli, the name is immediately recognizable as the outdoor rave that turned into a massacre on Oct. 7, with over 300 young revelers killed and some 40 taken hostage. The time stamp connotes the moment Hamas’ cross-border assault from Gaza began, near the fields outside the Re’im kibbutz where the festival took place.

This past Saturday Israelis bought tickets and shuffled into a cavernous hall, now an authentic re-creation of the party itself complete with an empty stage and somber electronic music.

In the “camping area” are tents and coolers abandoned in a panic. Charred cars placed on top of each other in the “parking lot” are situated next to bullet-ridden port-a-potties. And the “lost and found” section features an entire boutique of clothes and makeup kits and shoes left by partygoers either now deceased or too traumatized to retrieve them.

The shoes in particular, one attendee says, evoke similar memorial exhibits for the Holocaust. The Oct. 7 attack was the heaviest loss of life in Israel’s history, with at least 1,200 dead, drawing comparisons in its savagery to the horrors of eight decades ago.

For over two months, as the devastating war that Oct. 7 spawned in Gaza has dragged on, Israelis are reliving it daily – in the media, on the street, and in conversations with each other and the world.

Lost from sight, and the public conversation, is the toll on Palestinians in Gaza, with over 18,000 killed and a million people displaced amid an ongoing humanitarian disaster.

“This gap between Israel and the world isn’t bridged or mediated,” says Meital Balmas-Cohen, a professor of media and political psychology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. “In both places the messages are too simple, for a situation that is very complicated.”

Amos Harel, the veteran military correspondent for the Haaretz daily, points especially to an imbalance in Israeli television coverage. The cost, he says, is that Israelis have “no perspective” about the reality on the ground inside Gaza, and about why it has engendered so much liberal anger against Israel globally.

In Israel, heart-wrenching accounts from the survivors of Oct. 7, as well as the relatives of those killed, are aired in the media constantly.

On Israel’s leading Channel 12 television broadcast, this past weekend had a blow-by-blow account of a standoff between Israeli troops and Hamas militants inside a kibbutz where only two out of the 15 Israeli civilians being held hostage survived. Also featured: the story of twin babies orphaned after their parents were shot dead and the harrowing testimony from a Nova attendee who was moments away from captivity after watching her friends be murdered.

The families of the 240 hostages seized have also worked tirelessly to raise domestic and international awareness to free their loved ones.

Pictures of the hostages are omnipresent across the country: on highway billboards, in shop windows, and in schools. On Tel Aviv’s central Dizengoff Street, giant red-stained teddy bears are sat on benches, a reminder of all the children initially taken hostage as well.

With over 100 women and children released last month as part of a temporary truce deal, many are now speaking out about the trauma and abuse they suffered inside Gaza.

The mounting death toll of Israeli soldiers has also been widely covered in the media. Every night, short clips attempt to recount the life of an entire person, and his or her entire world.

This past Friday afternoon, one such funeral for a 25-year-old reservist was aired live by all the major media outlets. In the eulogy, the soldier’s father, former army chief and now senior government minister Gadi Eisenkot, summed up the national mood as he choked back tears.

“You told me that you and your comrades in the company feel that this is a just war, that all the hostages must be returned and Hamas must be defeated after the barbaric and cruel event they committed,” Mr. Eisenkot said, as Israel’s top leadership looked on, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Such a phenomenon is not unique to Israel, Professor Balmas-Cohen submits.

“After a war or terror attack or natural disaster anywhere, there is always a ‘rally around the flag’ effect,” she says. “The same thing happened in Israel. In an instant, all the divisions were put aside and the public conversation united towards a common objective.”

The Israeli media in the current moment is no exception, Professor Balmas-Cohen adds, with the coverage rotating around not just personal stories of tragedy and heroism, but also military strategy and the Israel Defense Forces. The IDF spokesperson has now become a national figure, with his nightly briefings carried live to the entire country. The one exception in Israel is that criticism of the government, often muted during wartime, has continued unabated, even in right-wing outlets.

But what has been lost, some analysts say, is any sense of the other side in the war.

“The country and the coverage are wrapped inside a patriotic bubble,” says Haaretz’s Mr. Harel. “Yes, something terrible was done to us on Oct. 7. It’s a just war, and there’s probably no other way this time, but you can’t live in denial about what’s happening inside Gaza.”

Mr. Harel criticizes the television coverage beamed to the Israeli public in particular for being too “sterile”: vast scenes of destruction, but seldom few people and no close-ups of dead bodies, as is so prevalent in the international media.

“You may have half a minute in the [main] evening news of a faraway image of Gazans searching through the rubble, but it’s only usually in the context of Hamas losing control,” Mr. Harel says. “The news editors think they’re acting like ‘responsible adults,’ trying to shield us like we’re kids – ‘This isn’t good for you.’”

Yet even for those Israelis fully aware of the reality inside Gaza, the lack of understanding from the world, even from Palestinians themselves, engenders deep frustration and furthers the sense of isolation and alienation.

As one prominent Israeli expert on Palestinian affairs, who requested anonymity, puts it: “I feel like I can be empathetic toward the suffering on the other side, inside Gaza. But I don’t feel like that is extended to me and my own people for Oct. 7. Some we hear question whether it even happened.”

The expert has cut off contact, he says, with many Palestinian friends. In a similar vein, many Israelis have cut off contact with those outside Israel who are not similarly supportive of the military offensive in Gaza, just as the Israeli government has reconsidered ties with those foreign capitals and international bodies critical of the civilian and humanitarian toll inside the enclave.

This “us versus them” mindset – manifest now during the Jewish Hanukkah holiday as “the battle between light and darkness” – is a recipe for greater fear, anger, and polarization across Israeli society, says Professor Balmas-Cohen.

With the war not set to end anytime soon, regular Israelis will find it very difficult to break away and disconnect, even if just for a moment.

“You can’t run away from it. It’s everywhere,” she says.

At the exit to the Nova memorial exhibit in Tel Aviv, a small stand was selling commemorative T-shirts (for charity) in black and white colors. The festival logo, now sullied forever, had below it a simple tagline, connoting both resilience and defiance: “We Will Dance Again. 7/10/23.”

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Bowen: Israel determined to finish Gaza operation despite civilian suffering

Jeremy Bowen - BBC International editor, Jerusalem
Tue, December 12, 2023 

Israeli soldier uses phone while smoke rises over Gaza in distance


Israel is on holiday. Schools are out, and away from the frontline areas the shopping centres are full. Cake shops are bursting with the doughnuts that Jews like to eat during Hanukkah, the current religious festival.

It is different the closer you get to the fighting. Along the Gaza border, the area known by Israelis as the "envelope", tanks and troops are moving, civilians are mostly elsewhere and it looks like a war zone.

In the north, along the border with Lebanon, communities have also been evacuated and the military continues to exchange fire with Iran's strongest ally, Hezbollah.

But casual visitors might be able to deceive themselves that life has somehow returned to "normal" in central Israel, the broad swathe of land between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

A sharp reminder of how wrong that impression would be came as I drove down to Tel Aviv.

The air raid sirens started, and the red alert app Israelis have on their phones sent out warnings as cars swerved onto the hard shoulder so the people inside could stop to take cover. Other drivers accelerated to speed out of the area. In the confusion, three cars managed to crash into each other.

We pulled over as a group of women left their car and held each other in a tight, terrified embrace.

Overhead, vapour trails from the Iron Dome anti-missile system arched towards the rockets coming from Gaza, loud explosions cracking across a deep blue sky as they downed most of the projectiles. One man was injured, in Holon, just off the highway.

Holon in central Israel was hit by a rocket attack on 11 December

The fact that Hamas can still attack Israel is more proof that it is not beaten. The response of the motorists shows the depth of the trauma Hamas has inflicted on Israel, which is without doubt good news for the leaders of Hamas. Israel believes they are somewhere under Gaza, in some part of the tunnel system.

"First of all, forget everything you thought you knew about Israel before 7 October. It's all changed," Amos Yadlin, a retired major-general said as we set up for an interview in his office in Tel Aviv, overlooking Israel's defence ministry. Mr Yadlin was a veteran fighter pilot who retired as head of Israeli military intelligence.

We decided to interview him to get an idea of Israel's war strategy. In the end everything he said was just as interesting for what it said about mood in Israel.

Mr Yadlin repeatedly compared Israel's fight against Hamas to World War Two. He was defending the huge number of killings by Israel of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, and making the point that eliminating Hamas was vital for Israel's future.

In a reference to the destruction of Dresden in Germany by the RAF in 1945, Mr Yadlin said: "You bombed Dresden with 120,000 people, killed women, children. We are trying to avoid this collateral damage. We ask them to leave. We ask them to go to the southern part of Gaza."

I reminded him that Israel was also bombing the areas they had told Palestinians would be safe. Mr Yadlin insisted Israel was bombing Hamas, not civilians.

"No, we didn't bomb them. We bombed the Hamas targets. Only Hamas targets and Hamas uses them as a human shield."

He dismissed criticisms by the Biden administration in the US that Israel was killing too many Palestinian civilians. He said Israel was more careful about avoiding civilian casualties than the US and UK had been when they were bombing jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq.

His interpretation is not shared by former generals involved in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A senior British officer told me he was appalled by what he saw as Israel's disdain for the laws of war that mandate the protection of civilians. He said it would not be allowed in the British army.

Amos Yadlin, who still advises his successors in the Israeli military, believes Israel needs more time to reach its ambitious objectives in Gaza. It wants to rescue its hostages, kill the leaders of Hamas, annihilate it as a military formation that can threaten Israelis and destroy its capacity to govern.

I pointed out that even though the US had vetoed the latest ceasefire resolution it was signalling that Israel had weeks not months to finish what it wanted to do.

"It is not enough to achieve the goal," said Mr Yadlin. "If there is a ceasefire without returning the rest of the hostages, there will be no ceasefire."
More on Israel-Gaza war

Explained: Who are the hostages released from Gaza?

Israel: Hamas raped and mutilated women on 7 October, BBC hears

Gaza: How much damage has been done?

History behind the story: The Israel-Palestinian conflict

Israel has an immensely powerful army and the backing of the US. But it is discovering that for all its deep conviction that it has no choice other than to destroy Gaza to eradicate Hamas, allies as well as critics are appalled by the way it has killed more than 18,000 Palestinians, of which perhaps half were children.

Israel has also discovered, as the Americans and others warned, that fighting a determined and prepared enemy in a built-up area is one of the hardest military jobs.

As Amos Yadlin indicated, though, the Israelis look determined to push through the criticism to reach their objectives. After that comes the thorny issue about the governance and reconstruction of Gaza.

Mr Yadlin said there would be no long Israeli occupation of Gaza, but if the current leadership's determination to control the strip for the foreseeable future does not change, occupation looks certain.

Israel can and will ignore US appeals to minimize casualties in Gaza

Gregory F. Treverton, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

THE CONVERSATION
Wed, December 13, 2023 

Israeli army soldiers take up positions near the border with the Gaza Strip on Dec. 11, 2023,. Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images

While the Biden administration has maintained its strong support of Israel’s war aim of eliminating Hamas in Gaza, that support has for weeks been tempered by statements from U.S. officials saying Israel needs to minimize deaths of civilians as it continues fighting.

Those mild rebukes appear to have been ignored by the Israelis. Their continued widespread bombing has raised the death toll in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, to 18,600. And the growing tension between Biden and Israel’s leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, broke into the open on Dec. 12. Biden warned Israel that it is “losing support” over the war. Netanyahu publicly disagreed with the U.S. goal of having the Palestinian Authority run Gaza.

The Conversation’s senior politics and democracy editor Naomi Schalit interviewed Gregory F. Treverton of USC Dornsife, a former chairman of the National Intelligence Council in the Obama administration, about the divisions between Israel and the U.S. In the end, Israel’s behavior, says Treverton, shows “the limits of influence” the U.S. holds.

U.S. President Joe Biden, left, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Oct. 18, 2023. Anadolu via Getty Images


The U.S. has criticized Israel’s conduct of the war. Israel has ignored that criticism. That looks like humiliation for the Biden administration. What is going on?

This is a pattern we’ve seen before. We saw it in the war Israel fought against Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006. The U.S. was trying to push Israel to be more humane in the way they conducted that war. So while the disagreement is not especially new, it is not just humiliating but also shows the limits of influence.

Indeed, throughout the U.S.-Israeli relationship, there has been a lot of the tail wagging the dog. Israel has been good at playing American politics. And so it is hard to put the kind of pressure on Israel that the objective facts would suggest the U.S. should be able to wield. After all, Israel is by far the biggest recipient of U.S. foreign aid. And the U.S. has stood with Israel firmly for a very long time. So to that extent, it is a bit humiliating that all that apparent influence doesn’t get listened to.

Is Israel, as you say, “very good at this” because they they live in a rough neighborhood, or because of the pressure domestic politics plays on Biden? What gives them the power to do this?

Surely it is partly the rough neighborhood – Israelis certainly see themselves as living in a very rough neighborhood. So the typical pattern is the U.S. says “go easier.” Israel says “give us a few more days.” That was the pattern in 2006 and has been the pattern this time – Israel asks for a little bit more time to accomplish its military objective. But if its ability to ignore U.S. demands stems primarily from living in a rough neighborhood, Israel does have a lot of influence in the United States. Majorities in both parties in Congress support Israel, though there is increasing dissent over that support on college campuses and elsewhere. In a recent Pew poll, four times as many Democrats as Republicans in the U.S. thought Israel was going too far in its military operation.

Biden recently said Israel is “losing support” over the war and its “indiscriminate bombing of Gaza.” Netanyahu said the Palestinian Authority will never run Gaza, despite U.S. support for that idea. What does this more open division tell us?

It tells us that things are getting worse between the two countries for sure. It obviously reflects the frustration on Biden’s part and the administration’s part. It is a marker, I think, of how isolated Israel is now in global public opinion and is obviously taking the U.S. with it. So that’s a big source of frustration for the administration. It really is time for some kind of cease-fire again, and maybe another release of some hostages. But that doesn’t seem in the cards soon.

What are Biden’s options at this point? It sounds like you’re saying Biden doesn’t have much that he can do. And, in fact, it looks like within Israel, Netanyahu – whose government may fall once the war slows or ends – is using Biden’s disapproval to shore up his political standing with his right-wing supporters.

Certainly, Netanyahu’s playing to the right makes the problem even harder for the Biden administration. Netanyahu’s problem is more his right flank than Washington. And so that makes it difficult for the U.S. to exert the kind of influence it should. And we still don’t have an understanding of what the Israeli sense of the endgame is. On the current track, they wind up, it seems, occupying Gaza. They surely don’t want to do that. My guess is behind the scenes the Israelis are thinking about some option involving the Palestinian Authority, even though Israel says it wants no part of that.

Biden went to a fundraiser the other day and told attendees that Netanyahu was the leader of “the most conservative government in Israel’s history” that “doesn’t want a two-state solution” to the Palestinian conflict. “I think he has to change, and with this government, this government in Israel is making it very difficult for him to move,” Biden said. When a president makes such a statement in a fundraiser, it’s not going to remain secret. What an extraordinary thing for a head of state to say about another government.

It amounts in some sense to calling for regime change in Israel. We all assume that once the war is over, Netanyahu will be gone. But obviously if he has any thoughts of staying on, he does need to think about a different coalition. World opinion is going to force him to think seriously about the Palestinians, if not about a two-state solution. Whatever else has happened, Hamas certainly succeeded in its objective of getting the Palestinians’ desire for statehood back on the global agenda. And Netanyahu is going to have to deal with that at some point.

A group of Palestinian men look at the destruction of buildings following Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip on Dec. 1, 2023, Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images)

What are the elements that Biden has to consider as he manages this situation going into the future?

He starts with generally strong American support for Israel that cuts across both parties. But the thing he needs to cope with is the increasing concern among progressives, especially young people in the Democratic Party, that there’s way too much suffering by the Palestinians, that something has to be done. And now it seems to me there’s almost a global consensus that this war needs to end. That’s the challenge that the administration faces: to try and heed that global consensus while letting Israel do the things it feels it needs to do in Gaza.

And that’s really an impossible circle for Biden to square. President Lyndon Johnson used to say that sometimes being president was like being a mule in a hailstorm. “There’s nothing to do but to stand there and take it,” he said.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and analysis to help you make sense of our complex world.

It was written by: Gregory F. Treverton, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

Read more:

Gaza war: US-Israel relationship is in period of transition as Biden says Israel is losing support

Why we should consider a transitional administration for Gaza

Gregory F. Treverton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

 Los Angeles freeway blocked by Jewish protesters against Gaza war

Reuters
Wed, December 13, 2023 





Los Angeles freeway blocked by Jewish protesters against Gaza war
Protest demanding a ceasefire and an end to U.S. support for Israel's attack on Gaza, in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Activists from a Jewish group demanding a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip blocked traffic on a busy Los Angeles highway during Wednesday morning's rush hour and snarled traffic for miles, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The protesters from the If Not Now organization sat down on the southbound lanes of the 110 Freeway downtown at about 9 a.m., bringing commuters to a halt. The protesters wore black shirts reading "Not in Our Name" and held up placards demanding Israel halt military operations in Gaza.

Video on KCAL TV showed a few enraged motorists fighting with protesters before police arrived.

About 75 protesters were detained when CHP officers began clearing the highway around 10 a.m., the highway patrol said.

Israel's military campaign on Gaza has sparked protests in cities around the world.

(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Longmont, Colorado; Editing by Frank McGurty and Cynthia Osterman)

Commuters Clash With Ceasefire

 Protesters Blocking LA Freeway

Storyful

Wed, December 13, 2023 

Video shows clashes breaking out between commuters and protesters blocking the 110 Freeway in Los Angeles on Wednesday, December 13.

Organization IfNotNow said its Los Angeles demonstrators had shut down the interstate to demand politicians call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Footage filmed by Sergio Olmos shows people kicking signs and grappling with protesters who had sat down on the busy Los Angeles roadway. The demonstrators chanted “Let Gaza live” and “Ceasefire now” before they were confronted by drivers attempting to pass. One man is heard saying, “I have a wife who is in the hospital.”

Police read an announcement to disperse protesters and threatened arrest and “necessary force” before beginning to detain demonstrators. Credit: Sergio Olmos via Storyful

Video Transcript

- (CHANTING) Let Gaza live. Let Gaza live. Let Gaza live.

Ceasefire now. Ceasefire now. Ceasefire now.

[MUFFLED SINGING]

[SINGING AND CLAPPING]

Let Gaza live. Let Gaza live. Let Gaza live. Let Gaza live. Let Gaza live. Let Gaza live.

--fire now. Ceasefire now. Ceasefire now. Cease--

[MUFFLED CROWD SOUNDS]

[ANGRY CROWD ARGUING]

- I have a wife that's in the hospital.

- --California Highway Patrol. I am a Peace Officer of the state of California. All persons on the 110 freeway southbound, around Second Street, are in violation of blocking the freeway. You are hereby ordered to immediately leave the area within-- or fail to submit to the arrest, necessary force will be used. This warning also applies to members of the media. There is no delay in the arrest.

[ANGRY CROWD SOUNDS]

- (CHANTING) --will never be divided. The people united will never be divided. The people united will-- united will never be divided. The people united will never be divided.

Ceasefire now. Ceasefire now. Ceasefire now. Ceasefire now.

- Thank you. Woo!

[SIRENS]

- (CHANTING) down, down with occupation. Up, up with liberation. Down, down with occupation.

[CROWD CHEERING]

Let Gaza live. Let Gaza live. Let Gaza live. Let Gaza live. Let Gaza live.

Let Gaza live. Let Gaza live. Let Gaza live. Let Gaza live. Let Gaza live.

Let Gaza live. Let Gaza live. Let Gaza live. Let Gaza live. Let Gaza live. Let Gaza live.

- Get outta the way.

[ANGRY CROWD SOUNDS]

- (CHANTING) Ceasefire now. Ceasefire now. Ceasefire now. Ceasefire now.

[ANGRY CROWD SOUNDS]

Gaza protesters shut down L.A. freeway, angry drivers lash out: 'Just hurting working people'

Nathan Solis, Terry Castleman
Wed, December 13, 2023 

American Jews and allies block the 110 freeway in downtown Los Angeles. 

(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)

In the middle of morning rush hour on one of the most notoriously congested thoroughfares in Los Angeles, dozens of protesters sat in a row stretching from one edge of the southbound 110 Freeway to the other.

Calling for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, they chanted, sang in Hebrew and erected a 7-foot menorah in the middle of the freeway in downtown L.A. on Wednesday. Behind them, those at the vanguard of a miles-long traffic jam grew heated.

Videos from news helicopters and social media showed angry motorists exiting their vehicles and skirmishing with the demonstrators south of the interchange with the 101 Freeway. In aerial footage from KCAL News, a man is seen pinning a protester up against the hood of a car while others yell.

Some in the crowd grabbed and shoved demonstrators, throwing a traffic cone and protest signs across the freeway. A motorcyclist behind the protest line revved his engine repeatedly.

Read more: Hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather outside Biden fundraiser

"You idiots are just hurting working people," someone is heard shouting in a video posted to X by freelance journalist Jon Peltz.

Off the freeway, a mother with her daughter in the backseat sat at a red light near the 3rd Street onramp. She threw her hands up and shouted, "Is it over? I'm in support of a cease-fire but we're late."

Another woman hung out the passenger window of an SUV with a Palestinian flag shouting, "Free Palestine."

Ysidro Palacios idled in his pickup truck on Beaudry Avenue. He was supposed to drive to South Los Angeles at 10 a.m. for a painting job but he was about an hour late. "I turned around and got a coffee when I saw the traffic earlier," he said in Spanish. "I hope they reopen soon."

Protesters calling for a cease-fire in Gaza block the 110 Freeway in downtown Los Angeles with a 7-foot menorah. OF COURSE ITS CHAHNUKHA

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

The California Highway Patrol was notified shortly after 9 a.m. that the freeway was blocked, and by 10 a.m. officers were detaining protesters, leading them over to two dozen police cruisers. A tow truck was called to remove protesters' vehicles that were left blocking traffic. By around 10:30 a.m., the last protester had been led away, and the freeway was fully reopened by 11:30 a.m.

Authorities arrested 75 protesters on suspicion of failing to comply with a dispersal order, according to the CHP. The agency will investigate any reports of physical altercations, Officer Roberto Gomez said.

Organizers with IfNotNow, the progressive Jewish group behind the protest, apologized to drivers but said they felt there was no other way to make their voices heard to stop the killing and mass displacement in the Middle East.

“We have tried everything else. We have called, we have marched, we have sung, we have prayed. We have written letters and visited offices,” Noa Kattler-Kupetz, spokesperson for IfNotNow, said in a statement. “Yet politicians like President Biden continue to stonewall, and Israel continues to slaughter innocent Gazans by the thousands. Enough. We cannot wait another day.”

Read more: Palestinians struggle as a brutal war sours business. Just ask West Bank sweets makers

The protesters sang "cease-fire now" and lighted a 7-foot menorah, marking the seventh night of Hanukkah on Wednesday, as cars waited helplessly behind them. They also sang the folk song "Lo Yisa Goy" in both Hebrew and English, whose lyrics roughly translate to “nation shall not lift sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore,” according to the protest group.

A protester with his arms bound behind his back said "Free Palestine" when asked for comment as officers led him away.

In a statement to the media, IfNotNow wrote that its members "demand an end to the financial support of Israel’s occupation and documented war crimes."

Read more: Campus Palestinian allies demand UC board chair resign, citing 'one-sided' social media actions

About 100 people were involved in putting together the protest, Kattler-Kupetz said.

"Our action is grounded in our nonviolent philosophy and doing what we can with our bodies and voices" to bring attention to elected officials, Kattler-Kupetz said.

The group's action was meant to honor the lives of Israelis and Palestinians who have died in the war, according to organizers with IfNotNow. Hamas militants killed about 1,200 and took more than 200 hostages in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and Israeli forces have killed at least 18,400 in Gaza in the two months since, according to local health authorities.

Another protest organized by IfNotNow shut down a Hollywood intersection in mid-November, and during President Biden's visit to Los Angeles last week, over 1,000 pro-Palestinian protesters gathered at Holmby Park, across from the site of a fundraiser.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

U.N. Palestinian refugee agency decries Swiss move to cut funding

Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber
Wed, December 13, 2023

Global Refugee Forum, in Geneva

Donate today | UNRWA


By Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber

GENEVA (Reuters) - The head of the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA)

 denounced a move by Switzerland to cut aid as the Gaza Strip faces a humanitarian crisis described as apocalyptic by the United Nations.

Speaking at the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva on Wednesday, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini deplored the agency's "chronic underfunding", a day after he expressed disappointment in the Swiss initiative.

"Despite our successes, UNRWA suffers from chronic underfunding which impacts the quality of our services," he said.

"Upholding refugees' rights is not only the responsibility of humanitarian and development actors, it is a responsibility ... shared with donors and host countries," he added, without mentioning the Swiss move.

Switzerland's National Council, the lower house of the Federal Assembly, approved cutting an annual contribution of 20 million Swiss francs ($22.83 million) to the agency by 116 to 78 votes on Monday. The initiative's author, who was part of a parliamentary delegation that visited UNRWA earlier this year, has argued that the agency lacked objectivity.

The upper house is scheduled to assess the initiative on Thursday. Both houses have to approve for the proposal to be put into effect.

"As a country that leads on international humanitarian law, I am disappointed in this decision to cut aid to the largest and most active humanitarian agency on the ground in Gaza today," Lazzarini wrote on X on Tuesday.

Lazzarini - who said last month he believed there was a deliberate attempt to strangle UNRWA's operations - said that the agency's capacity to do its work in the Palestinian enclave was on the verge of collapse.

Other U.N. bodies deplored the Swiss move. Filippo Grandi, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said he hoped Switzerland and other countries would continue funding UNRWA.

"If UNRWA goes away and is not funded, the Palestinians that have already been so tragically penalized by history will be even more penalized," Grandi said.

Weeks of Israeli bombing, in response to a deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants, have internally displaced 85% of Gaza's population. More than 130 UNRWA staff have also been killed since the start of the conflict on Oct. 7.

Established in 1949 following the first Arab-Israeli war, UNRWA provides services including schooling, primary healthcare and humanitarian aid in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Gaza 'most dangerous place in the world' to be a woman

Charity ActionAid warns two mothers are killed every hour in the Gaza Strip


Rabina Khan
·Contributor
Wed, December 13, 2023

Two women mourn at a funeral following airstrikes in southern Gaza Strip earlier this month. (Reuters)


Women and girls in Gaza face alarming levels of brutality with more than three women killed every hour, a charity has warned.

Thousands of women in the besieged enclave have been killed during the recent escalation of violence sparked by Hamas insurgents' brutal assault on 7 October, which itself has prompted the gathering of more than 1,500 testimonies about Hamas fighters committing sexual violence during the attack.

The Hamas-run health ministry puts the toll in Gaza at more than 4,000 women, constituting nearly 70% of the total death toll in the region. The numbers tell a grim story – two mothers lose their lives each hour, and seven women perish every two hours.

Yara, a mother and humanitarian worker displaced to southern Gaza, told ActionAid: "Today, I no longer have hope. I have become more afraid than before. Every day that passes, this fear and terror increases more. I, as a mother, have only two wishes. The first thing I wish is that I die before my children. I don't want to see my children die in front of me.

“The second wish is that I die quickly, so when the missile comes to bomb us, I die quickly and I do not stay under the rubble for 16, 17, 18 hours.” she added.

Watch: Midwife says pregnant women in great danger in Gaza


The crisis extends to maternal health, with about 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza risking their lives daily due to the lack of adequate medical care.

Naimah, a midwife at Al-Awda hospital, recounted the experiences of pregnant women in Gaza to ActionAid, including that of one woman whose house was bombed. Despite suffering multiple injuries, the woman was in active labour and urgently taken to the operating room. Both mother and child were lucky to survive.

“This woman, who had suffered physical abuse due to the attacks, will also suffer mental health and psychological repercussions. Food scarcity will heavily affect her milk supply when she’s breastfeeding her baby,” said Naimah.

Riham Jafari, coordinator of advocacy and communication for ActionAid Palestine and a gender specialist said: “Gaza is the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman or girl right now. The number of women and girls being senselessly killed in this violence rises by the hour.”

Read more: Video emerges from inside al-Shifa hospital where newborn babies have had their incubators switched off

Hana, a doctor at ActionAid’s partner Al-Awda hospital in the north of Gaza recounts another incident: “One woman's house was bombed, resulting in her needing an emergency C-Section. She lost her newborn, tragically, her husband and the rest of her children were also killed. This woman, who dreamt of a safe family life, is now grappling with mental health issues after losing her newborn and family.”

Human rights organisations have warned the crisis in Gaza impacts women in specific ways. (Getty/Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto)

What is gender-based violence?

The issue of gender violence in warzones is one of major concern to human rights organisations. Sexual violence in conflict zones is a gross violation of human rights, recognised as a war crime as rape as a weapon of war, and a crime against humanity under international law.

The Hamas attack on 7 October, in which more than 1,200 civilians and soldiers in Israel were killed, includes evidence of rape and mutilation.

"The reports of alleged sexual violence during the attacks on October 7 are also extremely concerning and must be investigated," ActionAid said.

US president Joe Biden said of the accounts last week: “Reports of women raped, repeatedly raped, and their bodies being mutilated while still alive. Of women corpses being desecrated, Hamas terrorists inflicting as much pain and suffering on women and girls as possible and then murdering them."

Human Rights Watch has warned that, while there is little data on current trends in Gaza, women and girls typically are at increased risk of sexual violence in times of armed conflict.

The risk of HIV transmission heightens without access to sexual and reproductive health services, including emergency contraception and psychosocial support.

These critical needs are at risk of going unmet as Gaza already struggles to treat those injured by Israeli airstrikes, women urgently require medical supplies, treatment for injuries and diseases, including psychosocial support.

The United Nations defines violence against women as, ‘any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women.

In Afghanistan, under Taliban rule, 87% of women had experienced gender-based violence, while in Yemen, a woman dies in childbirth every two hours. In South Sudan, more than 65% of women face sexual or physical violence, and more than 40% of Nigerian girls marry before 18.

Now, with the conflict in Ukraine, the alarming reality persists: women and girls are particularly targeted during wartime, including as a tactic of war.

Read more: Israel battles Hamas as UN labels Gaza 'hell on earth' (AFP)

Displaced Palestinian women in a refugee camp amidst the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (Reuters)

Displacement of women

In Gaza the displacement of 800,000 women, often multiple times, exacerbates the crisis, leading to overcrowded facilities with severe sanitation challenges.

‘We are among the displaced people from Beit Lahia from the north of the Gaza Strip. We have no clothes and no water. We go to a far place to gather water. It is not only the lack of clothes or cold weather, but until now we have slept on the ground. The rain has impacted us,” Lina told ActionAid.

Women and girls, living in these conditions, lack essential hygiene resources, privacy, and face additional hardships during menstruation.

Aya, a displaced mother, voiced her struggles: "As a woman, I’m suffering. I don’t have access to the basic necessities of life. There is no water. I suffered during my period. There was no water available for me to get clean during my period. I had no sanitary pads for my own needs throughout my period.”

Psychological impact

Even before the current war women and girls had experienced human rights violations due to Israel’s blockade and previous offensives, impacting their mental health. Now with the crisis the psychological toll on women and girls in Gaza is severe, ActionAid has said.

“The war is disproportionately affecting women. Women who have lost their children, husbands, relatives and family members will continue having feelings of sadness for years,” ActionAid's Riham Jafari told Yahoo News.

“Women who have children with deep injuries will feel pain and sorrow for them. They will be frustrated as those children could not be treated under the collapse of the health system in Gaza.”

RED TORY   Keir Starmer Says He Still Does Not Support A Ceasefire In Gaza (HP 2-min read)

The future

Last Friday the United States vetoed and Britain abstained on the UN resolution at the UN Security Council to pause hostilities.

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, said in response that the US "displayed a callous disregard for civilian suffering” and “brazenly wielded and weaponised its veto to strongarm the UN Security Council”.

ActionAid says that women and girls in Gaza feel the world has abandoned them and the NGO is demanding a permanent ceasefire.

For women like Inaya, a displaced woman from East Rafah, whose home was destroyed by bombing, fled with her family to southern Gaza, will continue to face the challenging conditions of living in a refugee camp.

“Don’t we need to sleep or [water] to drink? Don’t we deserve protection?” she asks.

 Moms for Liberty co-founder asked to resign by Florida school board

Florida school board approves resolution calling for Bridget Ziegler to resign over Republican sex scandal

SHE IS CHAIRWOMAN OF THE BOARD!

Steven Walker, USA TODAY NETWORK
Updated Wed, December 13, 2023 

SARASOTA, Fla. — As the Sarasota County School Board convened for the final time this year on Tuesday, Bridget Ziegler entered the board chambers facing a rift largely driven by agenda item No. 1: a colleague's resolution calling for her resignation.

Despite Ziegler's four board colleagues voting to call for her to resign and hours of public comment mostly urging her to do so, there was no indication she was considering stepping down.

The rising demands for her resignation came amid emerging details of her involvement in a three-way sexual relationship, which became public as a sexual assault investigation into her husband, Christian Ziegler unfolded.

In her first public appearance since reports surfaced of the sexual assault allegation against her husband, Ziegler appeared defiant. She asked the board's legal counsel, Patrick Duggan, about the nature of the resolution, who described it as "ceremonial in nature" because the board has no authority to remove a member.

“You know, I am disappointed. As people may know, I serve on another public board and this issue did not come up and we were able to forge ahead with the business of the board," said Bridget Ziegler, referring to her governor-appointed position on the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.

Bridget Ziegler did not respond to several requests for comment from Herald-Tribune reporters before the meeting. At a workshop earlier in the day, Bridget Ziegler quickly exited the chambers with a police officer while communications director Craig Maniglia told reporters that the board member was not available for comment.

Bridget Ziegler won her most recent election in August 2022, meaning her term expires in 2026 should she choose to not resign.

Only Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis could remove her from her seat, and school board members are not subject to recall elections. If Bridget Ziegler were to resign, the governor would appoint someone to serve until the next election cycle in 2024.

Before the meeting, board Chairwoman Karen Rose and members Tom Edwards and Tim Enos each publicly called on Bridget Ziegler to resign. Both conservative and liberal School Board activist groups have also called on Bridget Ziegler to resign.

Christian Ziegler also faces mounting pressure from DeSantis and other Republicans to resign his position as Florida GOP chairman. In police documents, the alleged victim and Bridget Ziegler both told police they had a three-way sexual encounter more than a year ago that included the two women and Christian Ziegler.

The seat of the student representative on the Sarasota County School Board was left empty during the board meeting Tuesday evening, Dec. 12, 2023, due to the nature of the topic of discussion. The School Board approved a symbolic resolution calling for board member Bridget Ziegler to resign.

Sarasota School Board members say the focus should be on students

At the start of Tuesday's meeting, Rose noted that the board had no student representative to honor and no student performances scheduled, citing the divisive circumstances of the meeting. She emphasized that her resolution to ask Bridget Ziegler to resign was intended to help keep the board focused on student achievement.

"It's not about the left it's not about the right, it's about students," she said.

Enos echoed Rose's sentiment following the vote but said he would leave the decision to Bridget Ziegler rather than taking the issue to the governor.

"Whether it's Democrat, Republican, whatever it is, it should be only about the kids," Enos said. "My decision tonight was only about the kids."

Sarasota County School Board member Tom Edwards, left, hands out a proposal for the board to consider writing a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis, asking him to remove their colleague, Bridget Ziegler, right, during a meeting Tuesday evening, Dec. 12, 2023. The School Board approved a resolution calling on Ziegler to resign, but it has no authority to force her off the board.

Activist groups have called Bridget Ziegler's involvement in a relationship "hypocritical" as Bridget Ziegler has been a vocal advocate for legislation such as the Parental Rights in Education Act, dubbed "Don't Say Gay" by critics. Bridget Ziegler has also posted transphobic content on her social media.

Rose, Edwards, and Enos all said that Bridget Ziegler would be a "distraction" from the work of the School Board should she remain. Enos, who told the Herald-Tribune, part of the USA TODAY Network, on Friday that he felt Bridget Ziegler should resign, campaigned with Ziegler under the "ZEM" movement promoted by conservative Republicans to flip the ideological majority of the board in 2022.

Edwards pointed out that at the previous board meeting, he asked the members to move forward with a focus on student achievement. Now, only two weeks later, the district board meetings were back to being about politics, he said.

"I am not judging Mrs. Ziegler, her husband or anything about the Zieglers, and I could," Edwards said. "What I'm going to do again is be student-centric myself, in every one of my actions. I'm going to ask you all to do the same because it doesn't appear that Mrs. Ziegler is going to resign."

Following the conclusion of the board workshop, @sarasotaschools comms dir. Craig Maniglia prevents media from approaching Bridget Ziegler for comment as she walks away for executive session.

Follow me for updates all day today. pic.twitter.com/Vr0Hopz56I 

— Steven Walker (@swalker_7) December 12, 2023

Public comment focuses on Ziegler and resignation

Bridget Ziegler, at her elevated seat overseeing the board chambers, sat largely expressionless during the three hours of public comment that largely lambasted her and implored her to step down.

More than 70 people signed up to speak at the meeting. The first to speak was Martin Hyde, an unsuccessful congressional and city commission candidate in Sarasota who famously threatened a police officer. Hyde lauded Bridget Ziegler's decision to be present at the meeting, calling the resignation resolution a political move for Rose.

"This meeting is devoted to a motion that has no more authority than I would if I stood out in the street," Hyde said. "An utter and complete political charade for re-election."

Timothy Wagner also spoke in support of Ziegler, urging her to "stand strong."

Paulina Testerman, a local activist from Support Our Schools, called on Bridget Ziegler to resign. Testerman said she initially pitied Bridget Ziegler but said she felt Bridget Ziegler's hypocrisy made that difficult.

"Mrs. Ziegler, every time you want to wallow in self-pity and feign victimhood, just remember that you can't complain that it's raining when you're the one who created the storm," Testerman said.

Screenshot of a Tweet from Sarasota School Board Chairwoman Bridget Ziegler where she points to her shirt that reads "real women aren't men", which she posted to her Twitter account April 2.

Another local activist, Robin Williams, touted a petition to the board with nearly 2,000 signatures asking for Bridget Ziegler to resign.

Joyce Peralta also called on Bridget Ziegler to resign, adding that she felt Bridget Ziegler and her husband sought to profit from their positions instead of working for student achievement.

"Sarasota parents delighted this week in having to answer the question from their children: 'What is a three-way?'" Peralta said.

Representatives from activist groups also spoke during public comment, such as Nicholas Machuca from Equality Florida. During his comment, he said Bridget Ziegler had caused "indisputable" harm to the LGBTQ+ community and called for her to resign immediately.

"She has turned this school board into a circus and her continued occupation of a board seat is a joke and a stain on this district," he said.

Protestors, including Judy Nadler of Sarasota, with her "Don't Say 3-way" sign, gather outside the Sarasota County School Board Tuesday evening, Dec. 12, 2023, calling for school board member Bridget Ziegler to resign. Following the demonstration, the school board approved a symbolic resolution calling for Ziegler to resign after admitting to involvement in a three-way sexual relationship.

Late in the public comment section, a coalition of LGBTQ+ students spoke against Bridget Ziegler and urged her to resign her seat.

August Ray, a senior at Sarasota High School, said policies that Bridget Ziegler advocated for almost made their parents disown them and asked Bridget Ziegler to resign.

"I find it deeply ironic that you, as a champion of the 'Don't Say Gay' bill, have been outed in the same way trans kids are outed in Sarasota County Schools," Ray said.

Zander Moricz, who was the class president at Pine View School in Osprey and now attends Harvard, said Bridget Ziegler deserved to lose her job, but not because of her private sex life.

"That defeats the lesson we've been trying to teach you, which is that a politician's job is to serve their community, not to police personal lives," Moricz said. "So, to be extra clear Bridget, you deserve to be fired from your job because you are terrible at your job."

John Wilson, counter protester, attempting to speak over the Rally for Ziegler to resign. Wilson is asking for Tom Edwards to also resign. pic.twitter.com/bmFI4AutMq

— Steven Walker (@swalker_7) December 12, 2023

Rally against Ziegler

Ahead of the board's 6 p.m. meeting, activist groups such as Support Our Schools rallied outside of the board chambers to call on Bridget Ziegler to resign. Drivers on Tamiami Trail honked in support as they traveled past the district building.

More than 50 people gathered to hear activists speak out against Bridget Ziegler, calling out her "hypocrisy" and urging her to resign.

Lisa Schurr, center, with Support Our Schools, briefly stops John Wilson, right, from using his megaphone after Wilson tried to disrupt a protest outside the Sarasota County School Board Tuesday evening, De.b 12, 2023 in Sarasota, Florida. Demonstrators gathered before the board meeting to call for the resignation of school board member Bridget Ziegler after admitting to involvement in a three-way sexual relationship.

"I'm not a big believer in karma, but this is a pretty good advertisement for it," said Tsi Day Smyth, a queer parent of four Sarasota students.

One counter-protester arrived halfway through the rally with a bullhorn. He yelled for Edwards to resign instead.

Follow Herald-Tribune Education Reporter Steven Walker on Twitter at @swalker_7. He can be reached at sbwalker@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Moms for Liberty co-founder asked to resign by Florida school board

Wisconsin Supreme Court refuses to hear lawsuit challenging voucher school program

SCOTT BAUER
Wed, December 13, 2023

The Wisconsin Supreme Court listens to arguments from Wisconsin Assistant Attorney General Anthony D. Russomanno, representing Gov. Tony Evers, during a redistricting hearing at the state Capitol, Nov. 21, 2023, in Madison, Wis. The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday, Dec. 13, declined to hear a lawsuit brought by Democrats seeking to end the state's taxpayer-funded private school voucher program. 

(Ruthie Hauge/The Capital Times via AP, Pool, File)

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to hear a lawsuit brought by Democrats seeking to end the state's taxpayer-funded private school voucher program.

The lawsuit could be refiled in county circuit court, as both Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' administration and Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos had argued. The Supreme Court rejected it without comment in an unsigned, unanimous order.

Democrats who brought the lawsuit asked the state Supreme Court to take the case directly, which would have resulted in a much faster final ruling than having the case start in lower courts.

Brian Potts, attorney for those challenging the voucher programs, did not reply to a message seeking comment.

Supporters of the voucher programs hailed the court's rejection of the lawsuit.

The lawsuit “was plagued with misleading, misinformed, and nonsensical legal arguments,” said Rick Esenberg, president of the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. That group represented private schools, parents of students who attend them and other advocates of the program.

Democrats have argued for decades that the voucher program is a drain on resources that would otherwise go to public schools.

The lawsuit argues that the state’s revenue limit and funding mechanism for voucher school programs and charter schools violate the Wisconsin Constitution’s declaration that public funds be spent for public purposes. It also contends that vouchers defund public schools, do not allow for adequate public oversight and do not hold private schools to the same standards as public schools.

The nation’s first school choice program began in Milwaukee in 1990. Then seen as an experiment to help low-income students in the state’s largest city, the program has expanded statewide and its income restrictions have been loosened. This year, nearly 55,000 students were enrolled.

The lawsuit was filed two months after the state Supreme Court flipped to 4-3 liberal control. But the justices were in agreement on this case, unanimously deciding not to take it up at this point. They offered no comment on the merits of the arguments.

The lawsuit was brought by several Wisconsin residents and is being funded by the liberal Minocqua Brewing Super PAC. Kirk Bangstad, who owns the Minocqua Brewing Co., is a former Democratic candidate for U.S. House and state Assembly.