Palestinians face famine amid persistent food shortages in Gaza

Issued on: 05/05/2024 

Palestinians wait in long queues for food in Gaza as shortages persist despite slight improvements in deliveries of aid to the besieged Strip. Gazans say they are forced to skip meals and haven’t seen vegetables in weeks. "There is famine, full-blown famine in the north and it's moving its way south," World Food Programme Executive Director Cindy McCain said in an interview Friday as she called for a ceasefire and unfettered, safe access to Gaza.

01:29  Video by: FRANCE 24

Guns and sheep: Settlers use shepherding outposts to seize West Bank land

Agence France-Presse
May 4, 2024

Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash

(AFP) – Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank say armed Jewish settlers are increasingly seizing their lands by bringing livestock to so-called shepherding outposts and refusing to leave.

One settler arrived recently near sunset on a hilltop near the village of Deir Jarir, wearing a black shirt and a green headscarf, like many Palestinian farmers, they said.

"The settlers imitate us in every way," said Abdullah Abu Rahme, a member of a Palestinian anti-settler group, who said the hardliners also employ violence and "throw stones at us and block roads".

One local man, Haidar Abu Makho, 50, looked sadly across to a hill where settlers' sheep were now grazing, in the rural area near Ramallah.

The land, where settlers' bungalows and cars could be seen ringed by a wire fence, he said, "rightfully belongs to my grandfather and father and is meant to be passed down through the generations".

But now, he said, "this shepherd, who is a settler... has obstructed my access to my land".

Israel has occupied the West Bank, home to three million Palestinians, since 1967. Around 490,000 Israeli settlers live there in communities considered illegal under international law.

Violence has often flared, but the bloodshed has intensified since the October 7 attack by Gaza's rulers Hamas sparked the devastating war in the Palestinian coastal territory.

'Aggressive' confiscations


Human rights groups have blamed the hardline religious-nationalist settler movement for an upsurge in attacks and land grabs since the start of the Gaza war.

Among the most radical are the so-called "hilltop youth", often teenage school dropouts who dream of settling all of the biblical land of Israel, and who sometimes also clash with Israeli security forces.

Israeli analyst Elhanan Miller said the hilltop shepherds are "far-right extremists who settle Palestinian land illegally", mostly in the southern West Bank and Jordan Valley.

Miller told AFP that many of them are "marginalised" youths who left school early and use shepherding of sheep and goats as a cover to seize land and natural resources.

Rights groups say settlers in shepherding outposts carry guns and have used attack dogs to threaten and attack Palestinians, sometimes killing their livestock and destroying their property.

The groups have been especially active around Deir Jarir, a village of about around 5,000 people, said the local man, Abu Makho.

"The settlers have effectively blocked access to vast stretches of land around Deir Jarir, preventing both agricultural use and grazing for the people across tens of kilometres," he said.

"By situating a shepherd with a flock of sheep atop a hill, a substantial portion of land is seized... denying Palestinians access to it."

He said settlers had "aggressively confiscated" local houses and tractors as well as horses and donkeys, all "symbols of the Palestinian traditional farming life".

'Defenceless'

Israeli rights group B'Tselem said in a report in March that attacks had surged, including incidents where settlers in vehicles were "speeding erratically directly into Palestinian flocks and herds".

B'Tselem also charged that settler groups have enjoyed backing by Israeli security forces.

"Through cooperation and collaboration among the military, police, settlers... Israel has reduced grazing areas available to Palestinians, blocked regular water supply and took measures to isolate the Jordan Valley from the rest of the West Bank," it said.

The Israeli army did not respond to an AFP request for comment on the Deir Jarir case.

Israeli settlement watchdog group Peace Now said that so far this year, as world attention has focussed on Gaza, Israel has seized more than 1,000 hectares of West Bank land.


In March, Israeli authorities declared as state land 800 hectares next to a farmer's home near the Jordan Valley village of Jiftlik, a move that often leads to restrictions on Palestinians' access.

In areas near Deir Jarir, other residents also said they had been impacted, at great cost to their livelihoods.

Suleiman Khouriyeh, the mayor of the nearby village of Taybeh, population 1,800, said the "entire eastern region has been encroached upon by numerous hilltop shepherds".

"We are unable to access the olive groves that we rightfully own" during harvest season, he said, adding that the community's losses amounted to thousands of dollars.

Khouriyeh said that locals don't have "the power or strength to confront the heavily armed" settlers.

"We are defenceless against them and their weapons."

I remember the 1960s crackdowns against war protesters. This is a repeat

The mistakes made at one point in time have an eerie way of re-emerging as memories fade

Robert Reich

Sun 5 May 2024

I’ve been spending the last several weeks trying to find out what’s really going on with the campus protests.

I’ve met with students at Berkeley, where I teach. I’ve visited with faculty at Columbia University. I’ve spoken by phone with young people and professors at many other universities.

We Columbia University students urge you to listen to our voices

My conclusion: while protest movements are often ignited by many different things and attract an assortment of people with a range of motives, this one is centered on one thing: moral outrage at the slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent people – most of them women and children – in Gaza.

To interpret these protests as anything else – as antisemitic or anti-Zionist or anti-American or pro-Palestinian – is to miss the essence of what’s going on and why.


Most of the students and faculty I’ve spoken with found Hamas’s attack on October 7 odious. They also find Israel’s current government morally bankrupt, in that its response to Hamas’s attack has been disproportionate.

Some protesters focus their anger on Israel, some on the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu, some on Joe Biden for failing to stand up to Netanyahu, for giving Israel additional armaments, and for what they perceive as Biden’s patronizing response to the protests.

Like any protest movement, the actions have attracted a few on the fringe. I’ve heard scattered reports of antisemitism, although I haven’t witnessed or heard anything that might be interpreted as antisemitic. In fact, a significant number of the protesters are Jewish.

To describe the protesters as “pro-Palestinian” is also inaccurate. Most do not support Palestine as such; they do not know enough about the history of Israel and Palestine to pass moral judgment.

But they have a deep and abiding sense that what is happening in Gaza is morally wrong, and that the United States is complicit in that immorality.

Many tell me they are planning not to vote this coming November – a clear danger to Biden’s re-election campaign, which in turn increases the odds of a Trump presidency.


When I tell them that a failure to vote for Biden is in effect a vote for Trump, they say they cannot in good conscience vote for either candidate.

Quite a number tell me that “the lesser of two evils is still evil”. I tell them Trump would be far worse for the world – truly evil. Many remain unconvinced.

I have sharp memories of the anti-Vietnam war demonstrations, in which I participated some 55 years ago.

I remember being appalled at the unnecessary carnage in Vietnam. I was incensed that the first world, white and rich, was randomly killing people in the third world, mostly non-white and poor. As an American, I felt morally complicit.

I was angry at college administrators who summoned police to clear protesters – using teargas, stun guns and mass arrests. The response only added fuel to the flames.

The anti-Vietnam war movement became fodder for rightwing politicians like Richard Nixon, demanding “law and order”. The spectacle also appalled many non-college, working-class people who viewed the students as pampered, selfish, anti-American, unpatriotic.

I vividly recall the anti war demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, and the brutality of the Chicago police and Illinois national guard – later described by the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence as a “police riot”.

As the anti-war protesters chanted “The whole world is watching”, network television conveyed the riotous scene to what seemed like the whole world.

I had spent months working for the anti-war presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy. The convention nominated Hubert Humphrey. That November, the nation voted in Richard Nixon as president.

History, as it is said, doesn’t repeat itself. It only rhymes.

The mistakes made at one point in time have an eerie way of re-emerging two generations later, as memories fade.

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His newest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com

Columbia University protests look increasingly like those in 1968 as police storm campuses nationwide

2024/05/02


The police have regularly been called in to squelch student protests over the past century.
Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images

Stefan M. Bradley, Amherst College

Columbia University has become the epicenter of student protests over the war in Gaza. In the following Q&A, Stefan Bradley, a history professor at Amherst College and author of the 2009 book “Harlem vs. Columbia University: Black Student Power in the Late 1960s,” touches on the similarities and differences between the protests of the 1960s and now.
How do protests now differ from those of 1968?

Similarities lie in students’ opposition to war, racism and prejudice.

A key difference is social media, which has contributed greatly to the ability of students to mobilize. News of various actions and protests spreads quickly.

Violence or the threat thereof is another difference. Initial demonstrations at Columbia University in April 1968 started with the threat of violence between radical students who wanted to end the university’s ties to war research during the Vietnam War and terminate a university gymnasium construction project and mostly white athletes who wanted to push forward with it. The gym had been designed for mostly Black and brown Harlem residents to enter one door and Columbia affiliates in another. Columbia affiliates also had greater access to various parts of the gym, leading residents to refer to the situation as “Gym Crow.”

Considering the institution’s history of expansion and the uprisings surrounding the assassinations of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that took place just weeks earlier, tension was in the air. Taking the demonstration to the gym site, student activists then clashed with police in the park before returning to campus to take over Hamilton Hall, the same building where dozens of Columbia student activists in this year’s protests over Gaza were arrested on the night of April 30, 2024.

Until April 30, students were less disruptive than they’d been in the past. The encampments on the South Lawn did not prevent major functions of the university.

But after students took over Hamilton Hall, the calculus has changed. By breaking into the building and barricading themselves in, the campus activists provided administrators with even more justification to call on the police to remove them.
How so?

Officials in 1968 called city police to forcibly remove students, who had subsequently taken over four more buildings, and to make arrests. It quickly turned violent. Police charged into buildings and around campus to make arrests. In a building called Math Hall, activists, including Tom Hayden – author of the Port Huron Statement, a leftist manifesto that called on students to work against racism, imperialism and poverty – fought back. Police struck observers and activists alike with batons.

With long-standing critiques of the university in their minds, and the death of King in their hearts, Harlem residents were ready to support protesting students.


NYPD officers run to head off striking students during the series of protests on the campus of Columbia University in New York City in 1968.
Authenticated News via Getty Images

Black Power leaders such as Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown explained to the press that if Columbia did not negotiate with the Black students in Hamilton, then the university would have to deal with the “brothers out on the streets” of Harlem. The threat of a coalition with Harlem neighbors aided in the success of the activists in ending the university’s construction of a private gymnasium in nearby Morningside Park and the cessation of the school’s ties to the Institute for Defense Analyses, a consortium of flagship and elite higher education institutions conducting government-funded defense research during the Cold War.

The threat of violence loomed with the recent building capture and arrests at Hamilton. The 2024 protest is starting to resemble the 1968 protest in terms of students feeling uncomfortable with their university’s decision-making and administrators feeling compelled to regain control of campus. The differences are becoming slimmer and the similarities thicker.

What about the use of symbolism?

In 1968 and today, students used symbolism to send a message.

Fifty-six years ago, demonstrators also took over Hamilton Hall – named after Alexander Hamilton – renaming it Malcolm X University and hanging images of Stokely Carmichael.

Today, protesters renamed it Hind’s Hall – in honor of a 6-year-old Palestinian child killed by Israeli tank fire in Gaza – and flew a Palestinian flag from a Hamilton window.
What is the legacy of the 1968 protest?

The major legacy is that students are the moral compass of these well-endowed, elite institutions – even if they engage in disruptive behavior. They are willing to act on campus when no one else will. If left to the trustees, administrators, faculty and staff, the university would likely be quiet and civil while waiting for the marketplace of ideas and countless committees to suss out what to do about real-time humanitarian crises.

Young people have always been impatient in their calls for justice. In 1968, the issues were Columbia’s construction of a gymnasium in West Harlem and the university’s relationship with the IDA; in the 1980s, it was the university’s financial interests in apartheid South Africa; and in the 2010s, the school’s investments in private prison corporations. The 1968 rebellion taught later generations not to accept indiscriminate killing and injustice.

Another legacy is that the deployment of police to break up demonstrations may end disruptions in the short term, but it may also end up radicalizing moderate students who see their friends get arrested or injured.

What makes a protest successful?

Of course, students want every demand met, but that is often unlikely to happen. A better mark of success is the disruption of the status quo and the amount of attention they bring to issues. In that regard, the protests have been a success.

Conflict at a place like Columbia garners attention because of its location in the media capital of the world. When administrators respond to issues students raise by focusing on policies and procedures, it can give the impression that the issues are not important.

Fifty-six years ago, campus activists inspired students abroad to chant “Two, Three, Many Columbias!” Administrators may want to remain apolitical, but campus demonstrators want to know where their tuition goes and have a say in how it is spent. Highlighting the conflict between key sources of funding – the students paying tuition and the school’s major donors – is a notable victory.

How unprecedented are the student arrests?

There is precedence for student arrests on and off campus. The NYPD violently arrested more than 700 students in April 1968 and dozens more in May.

When students in the 20th century rebelled against the idea that the university was supposed to act in the place of their parents, higher education officials turned to law enforcement in the hope that students would comply.

There were arrests at the Fisk Institute in 1925 for protests over strict student rules, including those that limited participation in civil rights movements; there was the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, when students demanded the right to pass out civil rights literature on campus.

In 1970, there were also police or National Guard-involved shootings of students at Jackson State and Kent State, a predominantly white university.

In 2016, police battled students protesting tuition hikes in California. There were no fatal shootings, but nonlethal weapons like pepper spray were deployed. Inviting police onto campus introduces an element that concedes power to those not interested in the educational well-being of students.

Stefan M. Bradley, Professor of Black Studies and History, Amherst College

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

© The Moderate Voice

Will the US campus protests harm Biden – and benefit Trump?

Rightwing media have seized on campus protests to portray the president as weak. Will it have an impact in November?


Robert Tait in Washington

THE GUARDIAN

Sat 4 May 2024 


At the height of the tensions on US campuses this week, with Republicans gleefully seizing on student unrest as an election issue that could propel Donald Trump back into the White House, Joe Biden tried to steer a middle path.

Weighing the democratic right to peaceful protest and the political necessity to stem disruption, Biden declared that “order must prevail”.


“Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear – none of this is a peaceful protest,” Biden said in a statement on Thursday. “Dissent is essential for democracy … There’s the right to protest. But not the right to cause chaos.”

His comments were his most notable intervention yet in the face of campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza. The protests are a potential minefield for Biden.


As his lead over Trump among younger voters continues to slip significantly from its 2020 levels and as he tries to fend off Republican attacks, he risks alienating young voters by siding with police.

On the other hand, as riot police have moved against pro-Palestinian encampments and arrested thousands of people, senior Republican figures and Trump himself have been pushing hard to depict the US president as losing control and allowing America’s universities to slide into upheaval.

Fox News has lavished round-the-clock coverage to what it has portrayed as a perfect storm of “Democrat chaos”, with riot police moving into occupied buildings on Columbia campus and open brawling at UCLA after a pro-Israel group attacked an encampment with sticks and fireworks.

The events have diverted attention from the Trump trial in New York, where he is facing charges over a hush-money payment to an adult film star. That has confounded hopes among Democrat strategists that details from the trial would deal a blow to the Republican campaign.

The focus of Fox and other conservative media on the pro-Palestinian protests marks a shift from other areas of supposed disorder allegedly caused by Biden administration incompetence – particularly the US-Mexico border, where there has been a continuous inflow of asylum seekers.


Trump – posing, somewhat incongruously given his current legal predicament, as the law-and-order candidate – led the chorus on his Truth Social media platform. He called for a “COMPLETE LOCKDOWN” of Columbia and other universities similar to what he claimed had been imposed on the area outside the Manhattan court where he is on trial, supposedly to stop his supporters gathering.

His pronouncement came after he had minimised a 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia – where a counter-protester was killed and after which he was condemned for saying there had been “fine people on both sides” – as a “peanut” compared with the current protests.

View image in fullscreenPolice officers on the UCLA campus earlier this week. Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

Trump is attempting to capitalise on a febrile campus atmosphere in which Jewish and pro-Israel students have complained of antisemitism and being subjected to threats.

So far, analysts say, there is scant evidence of the images of campus upheaval having a radical effect on voter attitudes – although some caution that this may change if protests continue into the autumn.

Biden is conscious of parallels with previous instances of student protests sweeping through American campuses, and producing arguably decisive effects in presidential politics.

In 1968, mass demonstrations against the Vietnam war spilled over into the Democratic national convention in Chicago – coincidentally, the city that will stage this year’s event, where Biden will be formally adopted as his party’s candidate – resulting in violent street clashes with police and punch-ups on the convention floor.

The anarchic scenes were followed by the defeat of the Democratic candidate, Hubert Humphrey, then the vice-president, to the Republican Richard Nixon.


With polls showing the president running neck-and-neck with Trump, but behind in most battleground states, the Biden campaign could be forgiven for fearing that the current tumult might be instrumental in engineering a repetition.

Analysts, however, point out that the Gaza war does not resonate with the American public in the same way as the war in Vietnam, where more than half a million US troops were deployed by 1968.

“The raw numbers [of protesters] would have been a lot bigger in 1968,” said Kyle Kondik of the Centre for Politics at the University of Virginia.

“The current protests are certainly large, but it does seem like Vietnam was fundamentally a lot different [from Gaza]. You had young people being drafted to fight overseas, America was engaged heavily in fighting a land war overseas.

“The US has indirect involvement in Gaza in terms of funding. But it’s different and less impactful overall. I don’t think the race has changed in any kind of a significant way.”

Other observers say that even for voters under 34, a cohort among which polls have shown Biden’s lead over Trump to be slipping significantly, Gaza plays a much smaller role than the passions emanating from college campuses would indicate.

Amy Walter, of the Cook Political Report, told the Wall Street Journal’s free expression podcast: “What we see from the data is that for voters under 34, the top issues are the same as the top issues for folks over the age of 34, which the economy and the cost of living – they are concerned about issue of gun violence.”

In a possible indicator that Gaza’s electoral impact even younger voters may be limited, an NBC focus group of college students opposed to US support for Israel’s military offensive revealed that few planned to vote based on the issue – although some said they would opt for third-party candidates such as Jill Stein of the Green party or Robert F Kennedy Jr.

Yet for Biden, even that could have disproportionately negative effects. Walter said: “If you take just a small percentage of younger people who feel very strongly about this issue and say, ‘I cannot vote for Trump, but Biden is no good, I’m staying home’ … for Biden that might be a lot.

“He has a coalition that’s dependent on voters who dislike Trump coming back to him.”

What electoral bearing the protests have could be decided by the effectiveness of the very crackdowns Republicans have been calling for – especially when combined with the imminent end of the academic year, which will see most students leaving campus.

JD Vance, the Republican senator and outspoken Trump ally, may have inadvertently highlighted a Republican dilemma when he posted on X: “No civilization should tolerate these encampments. Get rid of them.”


With more than 2,000 protesters having been arrested, that process may already have begun, apparently with Biden’s blessing.

If the college clampdowns successfully quell the protests, it would deprive Republicans of the images of chaos they crave – unless the war in Gaza continues to rage, fuelling future protests.

Writing in New York magazine, Jonathan Chait said it was in Trump’s interests for the protests to carry on – a development he connected to a continuation of the war in Gaza into the autumn, thus triggering a fresh round of unrest at the height of the election campaign.

“In a recent social-media post, Trump demanded, ‘STOP THE PROTESTS NOW!!!’” Chait wrote. “If they are still going on during a prospective second Trump term, he will probably stop them with maximal violence. In the meantime, he fervently wishes them to continue through November.”

Global Student protests against Israel’s offensive in Gaza spread


AFP
May 4, 2024

Students on campuses around the world have responded to the ongoing crisis in Gaza - Copyright AFP Guillermo Arias

Student protests against the Israeli military assault on Gaza following the unprecedented October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel have spread to several countries.

Here is a round-up of the main campaigns.

– United States –

Demonstrators have gathered on at least 40 US university campuses since April 17, often erecting tent camps to protest at the soaring death toll in the Gaza Strip.

Nearly 2,000 people have been detained, according to US media, in demonstrations reminiscent of protests against the Vietnam War.

In recent days, police have forcibly dismantled several student sit-ins, including one at New York University at the request of its administrators.

Demonstrators barricaded inside Columbia University, the epicentre in New York of the student protests, complained of police brutality when officers cleared the faculty.

At the University of California, Los Angeles, hundreds of police emptied a camp, tearing down barriers and detaining more than 200 protesters.

Brown University on Rhode Island reached an agreement with students to remove their camp from the grounds in exchange for it considering divesting from “companies enabling and profiting from the genocide in Gaza”.

President Joe Biden broke his silence on the protests on Thursday, insisting “order must prevail”.



– France –

Police on Friday forcibly evacuated protesters from a pro-Gaza sit-in at Sciences Po in Paris, the country’s top political science school.

Officials said 91 people were arrested.

Sciences Po interim administrator Jean Basseres rejected a student demand to examine the institution’s links with Israeli universities.

Outside the nearby Sorbonne University, the Union of Jewish Students in France set up a “dialogue table” on Friday.

“Jewish students have their place in this dialogue,” said Joann Sfar, a comic-book artist invited as a guest speaker.

He said he understood why students were “outraged by what’s going on in the Middle East”.

At Paris-Dauphine University, administrators banned a conference involving Rima Hassan, a Franco-Palestinian expert in international law who has been vocal in condemning “genocide” in Gaza.

The ban, introduced on the grounds there was a risk of public disorder, has been overturned by the judicial authorities.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday condemned the university blockades at Sciences Po and other French universities that “prevented debate”.



– Germany –

Police intervened on Friday to evacuate protesters outside Humboldt University in central Berlin.

A number of demonstrators were “forcibly” removed after refusing to decamp to another location, police said.

Berlin mayor Kai Wegner criticised the protest, saying on X, formerly Twitter, that the city didn’t want to see events like those in the United States or France.



– Canada –

Students have protested against the war in Gaza in several cities, including Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver.

Hundreds of demonstrators have joined the first and largest camp, at Montreal’s McGill University, in the face of threats of a police clearance.

They have vowed to remain there until McGill cuts all financial and academic ties with Israel.

University administrators said on Wednesday they wanted the camp removed immediately, alleging that certain protesters were not members of the student body.



– Australia –

Hundreds of rival supporters of Gaza and Israel faced off at Sydney University on Friday, shouting slogans and waving flags.

Except for a few heated exchanges, the protest and counter-protest passed off peacefully.

Pro-ceasefire demonstrators have been camped for 10 days on a green lawn in front of the university. They want it to cut ties with Israeli institutions and reject funding from arms companies.



– Ireland –

Students at Trinity College Dublin university began a sit-in on Friday, describing the protest as a “solidarity encampment with Palestine”.



– Mexico –

Dozens of students from the country’s largest university, UNAM, set up a camp in the capital on Thursday, chanting “Free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will overcome”.

They want the Mexican government to sever all ties with Israel.



– Switzerland –

About 100 students have since Thursday been occupying the entrance of a building at Lausanne University, calling for an academic boycott of Israel and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

The peaceful sit-in is due to continue until Monday.

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‘I was happy they still stand beside us’: Palestinians in Rafah on US campus protests

Word of the demonstrations that have spread across the west has cheered some in Gaza’s southernmost city

Malak A Tantesh in Rafah

Sun 5 May 2024 

THE GUARDIAN


In the tented camps and crowded streets of Rafah, the pro-Palestinian campus protests in the US have been followed closely.

“We hear a lot of news about students’ demonstrations in American universities … When I saw that, I was very happy that there are still those who stand beside us and in support of us,” said Nevin Abu Shahma, 39, who fled to Rafah from northern Gaza early in the war.


Pro-Palestinian protests that have fanned across US universities for weeks are now more muted after a series of clashes with police, mass arrests and a stern White House directive to restore order.

But similar demonstrations have spread in some form to campuses in Britain, France, Australia and elsewhere, and on Saturday students waved Palestinian flags and chanted anti-war slogans during a ceremony at the University of Michigan.

View image in fullscreen

More than a million people have been displaced to Rafah, creating a humanitarian crisis. Photograph: Saher Alghorra/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

Asmaa al-Najili, 30, who had arrived in Rafah from Khan Younis, a nearby city which was the site of heavy fighting in March, said she had used news clips of protesting students to cheer up her seven-year-old daughter.


More than a million people displaced from elsewhere in Gaza by Israel’s military offensive are sheltering in Rafah, the territory’s southernmost city. Most are kept up to date by social media – when they can get signals or charge their phones – or local radio channels broadcasting live feeds of Middle Eastern TV channels like Al Jazeera.

Haitham Abu Marsa said that before the recent unrest few in Gaza had heard of the US universities where the protests have been most intense. Like many in Rafah, he said the activism seen in the US highlighted the lack of protest in support of Palestinians in the Arab world.


Israelis voice sadness and defiance over Gaza protests on US campuses

“These protests [in the US] … made us happy by finding people from the west who stood with our cause … [But] at the same time it made us sad because our brothers in the Arab countries did not do what these people did,” the 33-year-old said.

The war has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s local health officials, caused widespread destruction and plunged the territory into an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Tens of thousands are unaccounted for.

The conflict began on 7 October when Hamas attacked southern Israel, abducting about 250 people and killing roughly 1,200, mostly civilians. Eighty hostages were released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails during a short-lived truce in November. Israel said Hamas is still holding about 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.

Repeated threats by Israeli officials to launch a major military operation into Rafah have made many in the city very anxious, and some have already moved on elsewhere. Israel said Hamas leaders and four battalions of militants are based there, as well as some of the hostages.

Though there is now more food available in Rafah, inadequate supplies, overcrowding and a lack of health facilities have caused a continuing acute humanitarian crisis.

The growing death toll in Gaza and images of the widespread destruction there have swayed public opinion in the US, with support for Israel’s military assault dropping from 50% in a November Gallup poll to 36% in late March. Bernie Sanders drew comparisons with protests in the US against the war in Vietnam.

In Rafah, Marwan Hegazy, from the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, also referred to the mass demonstrations of the 1960s.

“The protests of university students were the reason for stopping other wars in the past, such as the Vietnam war,” Hegazy, 60, said. “We hope that the rest of the students of the world will stand up for us.”

Messages to the protesters were scrawled on a handful of tents in the camp, with one reading: “Thank you students in solidarity with Gaza. Your message has reached us. Thank you students of Columbia. Thank you students.”

Student protesters interrupt University of Michigan commencement

With some demonstrating in solidarity with Gaza and others with Israel, students waved flags and chanted slogans

Maya Yang

Sat 4 May 2024 

THE GUARDIAN

Students demonstrating in solidarity with Gaza waved Palestinian flags and keffiyehs and chanted anti-war slogans during the University of Michigan’s commencement ceremony on Saturday.

Videos on social media showed students donning their graduation gowns as they appeared to chant: “Israel bombs, UMich pays!” and “How many kids have you killed today?” One photo showed a plane appearing to carry a sky banner over the university with the message: “Divest from Israel now! Free Palestine!”



‘They’re sending a message’: harsh police tactics questioned amid US campus protest crackdowns

According to the Associated Press, one banner read: “No universities left in Gaza.”

At one point, several graduates appeared to stage a walkout from the ceremony while carrying Palestinian flags and wearing keffiyehs as onlooking students applauded.

The protest, along with numerous other student-led protests across US universities, comes amid Israel’s deadly war on Gaza since Hamas’s 7 October attacks that killed more than 1,100 Israelis. In response, Israeli forces have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians across Gaza while leaving 2 million survivors displaced across the narrow strip amid a famine caused by Israeli restrictions on aid.

View image in fullscreenProtesters at Michigan Stadium on Saturday. Photograph: Jacob Hamilton, MLive.com/AP

Israel has also destroyed every university in Gaza, in addition to killing at least 5,479 students, 261 teachers and 95 university professors, according to the UN, which has condemned Israel’s actions as “scholasticide”.

No arrests were reported during the University of Michigan ceremony, which comprised tens of thousands of attendees, the Associated Press reports, adding that as US navy secretary Carlos Del Toro addressed the crowd, he at one point said: “Ladies and gentlemen, if you can please draw your attention back to the podium.”

While administering an oath to the armed forces graduates, Del Toro said they would “protect the freedoms that we so cherish”, including “the right to protest peacefully”, according to the Associated Press.

On Monday, University of Michigan students set up a Palestinian solidarity encampment on campus in calls for the university to divest from companies with investments in Israel. The encampment was led by Tahrir, a coalition of more than 80 organizations including the university chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace and Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, the Michigan Daily reports.

Pictures online showed various hand-painted signs at the encampment including ones that read: “Faculty and staff for liberation” and “Apartheid isn’t kosher! Jews demand divestment!”

On Friday, police arrested a pro-Palestinian protester outside the University of Michigan’s Museum of Art, the Detroit News reports, adding that police used a chemical spray to disperse students. According to a university spokesperson who spoke to the outlet, a dinner was held at the museum on Friday to recognize those receiving honorary degrees from the university.

One video online appeared to show Sarah Hubbard, chair of the university’s board of regents, waving and appearing to film students from inside the museum as they chanted: “Regent Hubbard, you can’t hide, you are funding genocide!”

In recent weeks, more than 2,000 people have been arrested during Palestinian solidarity and anti-war protests on US college campuses. University leaders have been heavily criticized across the country for authorizing police forces to conduct arrests on campus, many of which have been carried out violently.

At the University of Virginia, 25 people were arrested on Saturday for trespassing after police clashed with pro-Palestinian protesters who refused to remove tents from campus.

At Columbia University in New York, the Columbia Spectator reported police using stun grenades on the anti-war protesters while carrying out arrests. The Manhattan district attorney’s office confirmed that a police officer fired a gun during the arrests.

View image in fullscreenRawan Antar, 21, center, chants in support of Palestinians in Ann Arbor on Saturday. Photograph: Katy Kildee/AP

View image in fullscreenA protester in Ann Arbor on Saturday. Photograph: Katy Kildee/AP

At the University of California, Los Angeles, videos online showed police in riot gear firing rubber bullets on campus, with anti-war student protesters saying that multiple people had been shot in the head.

Other videos surfacing online throughout the week showed multiple faculty members at various universities being violently arrested by police. In a post on X, Steve Tamari, a 65-year-old Middle East historian at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, said that he had been “body-slammed and crushed by the weight of several St Louis county police officers, then dragged across campus by the police”. In addition to broken ribs, Tamari said he sustained a broken hand.

25 arrested at University of Virginia after police clash with pro-Palestinian protesters

Story by PHILIP MARCELO and DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press

 • 

Pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrate during the University of Michigan's Spring 2024 Commencement Ceremony at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Saturday, May 4, 2024. (Jacob Hamilton/Ann Arbor News via AP)© Provided by The Associated Press

Twenty-five people were arrested Saturday for trespassing at the University of Virginia after police clashed with pro-Palestinian protesters who refused to remove tents from campus, and demonstrators at the University of Michigan chanted anti-war messages and waved flags during commencement ceremonies.

In Virginia, student demonstrators began their protest on a lawn outside the school chapel Tuesday. On Saturday, video from WVAW-TV showed police wearing heavy gear and holding shields lined up on the campus in Charlottesville. Protesters chanted “Free Palestine,” and university police said on the social platform X that an “unlawful assembly” had been declared in the area.



Pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrate during the University of Michigan's Spring 2024 Commencement Ceremony at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Saturday, May 4, 2024.( Jacob Hamilton/Ann Arbor News via AP)© Provided by The Associated Press

As police moved in, students were pushed to the ground, pulled by their arms and sprayed with a chemical irritant, Laura Goldblatt, an assistant professor of English and global studies who has been helping student demonstrators, told The Washington Post.


Pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrate during the University of Michigan's Spring 2024 Commencement Ceremony at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Saturday, May 4, 2024.( Jacob Hamilton/Ann Arbor News via AP)© Provided by The Associated Press

“Our concern since this began has been the safety of our students. Students are not safe right now,” Goldblatt said.

The university administration said in a statement that the demonstrators were told the tents and canopies they erected were prohibited under school policy and were asked to remove them. Virginia State Police were asked to help with enforcement, the university said.

It was the latest clash in several tense and sometimes violent weeks at colleges and universities around the country that have seen dozens of protests and hundreds of arrests at demonstrations over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies they say support the war in Gaza have spread across campuses nationwide in a student movement unlike any other this century. Some schools have reached agreements with protesters to end the demonstrations and reduce the possibility of disrupting final exams and commencements.


Graduates sporting Israeli flags and pins shout at Pro-Palestinian protesters as they demonstrate during the University of Michigan's Spring 2024 Commencement Ceremony at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Saturday, May 4, 2024.( Jacob Hamilton/Ann Arbor News via AP)© Provided by The Associated Press

The Associated Press has recorded at least 61 incidents since April 18 in which arrests were made at protests, with more than 2,400 people being arrested on 47 campuses. The figures are based on AP reporting and statements from universities and law enforcement agencies.

Many encampments have been dismantled.

Michigan was among the schools bracing for protests during commencement this weekend, including Indiana University, Ohio State University and Northeastern University in Boston. Many more are slated in the coming weeks.

A plane bearing a banner that reads ""We stand with Israel jewishlivesmatter.us" flies overhead before the University of Michigan's Spring 2024 Commencement Ceremony at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Saturday, May 4, 2024. (Jacob Hamilton/Ann Arbor News via AP)© Provided by The Associated Press

In Ann Arbor, the protest happened at the beginning of the event at Michigan Stadium. About 75 people, many wearing traditional Arabic kaffiyehs along with their graduation caps, marched up the main aisle toward the graduation stage.

They chanted “Regents, regents, you can’t hide! You are funding genocide!” while holding signs, including one that read: “No universities left in Gaza.”

Overhead, planes flew banners with competing messages. “Divest from Israel now! Free Palestine!” and “We stand with Israel. Jewish lives matter.”


Campus Protests Commencements© Provided by The Associated Press

Officials said no one was arrested, and the protest didn’t seriously interrupt the nearly two-hour event, which was attended by tens of thousands of people, some of them waving Israeli flags.


A graduate waits for the University of Michigan's Spring 2024 Commencement Ceremony to begin at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor on Saturday, May 4, 2024. (Jacob Hamilton/Ann Arbor News via AP)© Provided by The Associated Press

State police prevented the demonstrators from reaching the stage and university spokesperson Colleen Mastony said public safety personnel escorted the protesters to the rear of the stadium, where they remained through the conclusion of the event.

“Peaceful protests like this have taken place at U-M commencement ceremonies for decades,” she added.




Pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrate during the University of Michigan's Spring 2024 Commencement Ceremony at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Saturday, May 4, 2024.( Jacob Hamilton/Ann Arbor News via AP)© Provided by The Associated Press

The university has allowed protesters to set up an encampment on campus, but police assisted in breaking up a large gathering at a graduation-related event Friday night, and one person was arrested.

At Indiana, protesters were urging supporters to wear their kaffiyehs and walk out during remarks by President Pamela Whitten on Saturday evening. The Bloomington campus designated a protest zone outside Memorial Stadium, the arena for the ceremony.


Graduate Ari Belchinsky wears pro-Israel pins during the University of Michigan's Spring 2024 Commencement Ceremony at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Saturday, May 4, 2024. (Jacob Hamilton/Ann Arbor News via AP)© Provided by The Associated Press

At Princeton, in New Jersey, 18 students launched a hunger strike in an effort to push the university to divest from companies tied to Israel.

One of them, senior David Chmielewski said in an email that the strike started Friday morning with participants consuming water only, and it will continue until administrators meet with students about demands including amnesty from criminal and disciplinary charges for protesters.

Graduates sporting Israeli flags and pins shout at Pro-Palestinian protesters as they demonstrate during the University of Michigan's Spring 2024 Commencement Ceremony at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Saturday, May 4, 2024. (Katy Kildee/Detroit News via AP)© Provided by The Associated Press

Other demonstrators are participating in “solidarity fasts” lasting 24 hours, Chmielewski said.

Princeton students set up a protest encampment and some held a sit-in at an administrative building this week, leading to about 15 arrests.


Rawan Antar, 21, center, chants in support of Palestinians during the University of Michigan's Spring 2024 Commencement Ceremony at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Saturday, May 4, 2024. (Katy Kildee/Detroit News via AP)© Provided by The Associated Press

Students at other colleges, including Brown and Yale, launched similar hunger strikes earlier this year before the more recent wave of encampments.

Meanwhile in Medford, Massachusetts, students at Tufts University peacefully took down their encampment without police intervention Friday night.

School officials said they were pleased with the development, which wasn’t the result of any agreement. Protest organizers said in a statement that they were “deeply angered and disappointed” that negotiations with the university had failed.


A graduate holds his cap with an Israeli flag while shouting at pro-Palestinian protesters as they demonstrate during the University of Michigan's Spring 2024 Commencement Ceremony at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., Saturday, May 4, 2024. (Katy Kildee/Detroit News via AP)© Provided by The Associated Press

The protests stem from the conflict that started Oct. 7 when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking roughly 250 hostages.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, around two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. Israeli strikes have devastated the enclave and displaced most of its inhabitants.

The Associated Press
25 arrested at University of Virginia after police clash with pro-Palestinian protesters
Duration 0:38  View on Watch

___

Marcelo reported from New York. Lavoie reported from Richmond, Virginia. Associated Press reporters Ed White in Detroit, Nick Perry in Boston and Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee, contributed.

London mayoral election 2024

Analysis

Sadiq Khan’s win heralds even bigger Labour victory at general election

‘Chipper’ Conservatives crumple in face of incumbent mayor’s broad appeal to London voters

Aletha Adu
Sat 4 May 2024 
THE GUARDIAN


Before the counting had even started, senior Tory sources were briefing that their candidate for London mayor, Susan Hall, had pulled off a spectacular, and unlikely, victory.

Despite the Labour incumbent, Sadiq Khan, having a consistent polling lead throughout the contest, Tory insiders briefed journalists that the mood was “chipper” at the Conservative headquarters on Friday night after polls closed, and that they were “utterly convinced” Hall had won.

Such was their conviction that even some London Labour figures, who probably should have known better given no votes had yet been counted, began privately questioning whether the result could be tighter than they had expected.


Sadiq Khan elected London mayor for third term in further boost for Labour


Khan himself had expressed concerns earlier in the week about the assumptions being made about a Labour victory, wary of complacency dampening his vote.


“People said Scotland was a Labour country, we’ve all seen how that ended,” the nervous London mayor told the Guardian on Tuesday. “I remember being told by Ken Livingstone’s team in 2008 that there wasn’t a cat in hell’s chance of Boris Johnson winning. We know how that movie ended.”

But as the votes mounted up for Khan, and it became apparent to even the more creative elements of the London Tory party that turn-out did not automatically translate into more votes for Hall, party insiders had to admit they had been wrong.

While senior party figures pointed the finger of blame at “overexcited” activists, despite the rumours appearing to originate from CCHQ, Labour sources noted the 24 hours between votes being cast and counted had left a “moral vacuum” to suck in social media speculation.

Khan’s allies were reassured after hearing voter turnout was 40.5%, only down 1.5% from 2021 despite the introduction of voter ID. It had been one electoral change that Khan had feared could greatly hamper his vote at this election.

The results when they came spoke for themselves, with Khan piling up votes right across the capital, including in “super constituencies” in the west and south-west of the capital that had previously been held by the Tories. At about 2pm, Labour called victory.


And contrary to suggestions his vote would suffer as a result of extending the Ulez road user scheme, it appears to have done him some favours. He took some of the Green party’s vote share in Merton and Lewisham, after weeks spent arguing that the London mayoralty was a two-horse race.

“It’s clear green voters heeded Sadiq Khan’s message that if they didn’t vote for him, in this first past the post voting system there’s a risk they’d end up with a Conservative mayor, Susan Hall, who was less enthusiastic about green policies,” said Prof Tony Travers of the London School of Economics, while noting the Liberal Democrats did much less tactical voting.


Local elections 2024: full mayoral and council results for England


The mayor’s allies will also have taken some comfort from the fact he seems to have retained Muslim voters and also, despite his stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict going further than the national Labour party, managed to keep the support of many Jewish voters in Barnet and Camden.

One Labour loyalist likened Khan to being the “sweetener for a Labour government”, noting his policies were able to attract leftwingers crying out for radical change, while also impressing those closer to the centre.

Yet his victory, while his biggest yet over the Tories in London, was still substantially below Labour’s national polling lead. The last-minute speculation over the result may have given some Tories a temporary reprieve, but their defeat in London simply foreshadows an even bigger one at the general election.

London mayor Khan wins record third term as Tories trounced in local polls

Issued on: 05/05/2024 - 

01:34 Video by: FRANCE 24

London's Labour mayor Sadiq Khan on Saturday secured a record third term, as the party swept a host of mayoral races and local elections to trounce the ruling Conservatives just months before an expected general election. Khan, 53, beat Tory challenger Susan Hall by 11 points to scupper largely forlorn Tory hopes that they could prise the UK capital away from Labour for the first time since 2016.

All the metro mayor election results

The Tories won just one of the metro mayor elections across the country.

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead 

Today

LEFT FOOT FORWARD

The Tories’ Bank Holiday blues have gone from bad to worse, having managed to win just one of the metro mayor elections across the country. A shock defeat in the West Midlands’ contest delivered another blow to Rishi Sunak and capped a dire few days of results for the Conservatives.

Here are all the metro mayor results.

Ben Houchen maintains Tees Valley

In what could be something of a political lifeline for Rishi Sunak, Conservative mayor Ben Houchen clung on to his post in Tees Valley, bucking the prevailing anti-Tory story of the local elections. Despite a 16.5 percentage swing point to Labour, Houchen won 81,930 votes against 63,141 for Labour, and 7,679 for the Liberal Democrats. Suggestions had been made that Houchen won the mayoral race partly because he distanced himself from the Tories, a claim which Conservative MP Andrea Leadsom described as “absolutely pathetic.”

Labour’s David Skaith elected first mayor for York and North Yorkshire

With North Yorkshire having been considered by many as a Conservative stronghold, Labour’s David Skaith victory in the York and North Yorkshire regions, represents a new blow to the Prime Minister, who is MP for the North Yorkshire constituency of Richmond.

Skaith won 66,761 votes. Conservative candidate Keane Duncan came in second place with 51,967 votes, with Lib Dem candidate Felicity Cunliffe-Lister in third on 30,867.

Labour’s Kim McGuinness elected as first North East mayor

Kim McGuinness has become the first-ever North East mayor, winning 185,051 votes, followed by independent candidate Jamie Driscoll with 126,652 votes. While campaigning for the role, the Labour mayor said her priorities would be “opportunity for everyone.” Following the declaration, she said: “Today is a really big moment for the North East as we take our first step towards taking control of our own future.”

Labour’s Claire Ward elected first mayor of East Midlands

Claire Ward, a former Labour MP for Watford, was elected the first mayor of the East Midlands, beating the Conservative candidate Ben Bradley by more than 50,000 votes. The Green party came third with 50,666 votes, just ahead of Reform UK. Ward said was “humbled” to have been elected to the role, and that voters had not only endorsed her but also a “changed Labour party that can now confidently and with conviction say we are ready to lead.”

Labour’s Steve Rotheram wins third term as mayor of Liverpool City Region

Steve Rotheram won his third successive term as mayor of Livery City Region. Rotheram beat his nearest rival, Conservative Jade Marsden, by more than 156,000 votes, increasing his vote share by 9.7 points. Marsden received 27,708 votes, narrowly beating the Green Party’s Tom Crane, who got 26,417 votes. Steve Rotheram was first elected as mayor in 2017. In his victory speech he said the people of Liverpool City Region had “just spoken, they have hollered loud and clear.”

“They have two messages – to the government, ‘enough is enough’, and locally, Labour is delivering.

“The road to Downing Street runs through transformative Labour administrations in local and regional government,” he added.

Oliver Coppard re-elected as South Yorkshire mayor

Labour’s Oliver Coppard has been re-elected as South Yorkshire mayor, having won 138,611 votes, equating to around 51 percent of all votes cast. Coppard was first elected mayor in 2022. Following his re-election, the South Yorkshire mayor said that people had the chance to “join with people from across the North to call out this government for their failure to level-up our country, to do what is right for the whole of our country.”

Andy Burnham re-elected as Greater Manchester mayor

Andy Burnham has won his third successive term as mayor of Greater Manchester. Burnham’s overwhelming win saw him receive 420,749 votes, more than 350,000 more votes than the Conservatives’ Laura Evans, who came second with 68,946.

The Labour mayor described the win as an “emphatic endorsement” of his policies.

Accepting his victory, he said he “ready to fight harder than I have ever fought for anything before, for a Greater Manchester where people can live free from the fear of debt, hunger and eviction, and where everyone is set up to benefit from the growing success of our city region today.”

Tracey Brabin re-elected as Labour mayor in West Yorkshire

Tracy Brabin has been re-elected as Mayor of West Yorkshire in what was thecounty’s second mayoral election. Under the first-past-the-post system, Brabin secured victory over second-placed Conservative candidate Arnold Craven by 275,430 votes to 82,757.

The mayoral position was created following a devolution deal between West Yorkshire’s five local authorities and the government. The re-elected Labour mayor pledged her new term in office would be about “delivery, delivery, delivery,” and said her focus would be on issues such as “franchising buses, mass transit and investing in our communities.”

Sadiq Khan re-elected in London

In a further boost to Labour, Sadiq Khan clinched a historic third term in London.

Khan beat Conservative rival Susan Hall by more than 276,000 votes, in what represented a 3.2 percent swing vote to Labour. Khan, who was first elected in 2016, won nine of the 14 constituencies including two gains from the Tories. Speaking after his victory, he said:

“We faced a campaign of non-stop negativity. I am proud we answered fearmongering with facts. It is truly an honour to be re-elected for a third term and an increased margin of victory. Today is not about making history it is about shaping our future.”

Labour’s Paul Dennett re-elected as Salford mayor

Paul Dennett has been re-elected for a third term as Salford’s mayor. Hereceived 30,753 votes, almost three times as Conservative Jillian Collinson, who got 10,930 in second place.

Dennett was first elected as mayor in 2016. Following his victory, he said that he believed the “Westminster and Whitehall model” of governing was “clearly broken and detached from ordinary people’s lives.” Calling for a general election, Dennett added:

“The Tories have been roundly rejected by the people in this country, losing nearly 500 council seats across 107 councils in these elections.”

Labour’s Richard Parker defeats Conservative incumbent Andy Street in the West Midlands

In what was a close contest with multiple recounts, Andy Street, the Tory incumbent’s hopes of a third term in the role were dashed.Receiving 225,590 votes, Parker clinched the win by just 1,500 votes – he, slightly ahead of Street’s 224,082, in what was a huge win for Labour.

In his victory speech, Parker said: “This week, the people voted for the person and the party. They recognised a Labour mayor can make a positive difference. It shows that people are calling for Labour and calling for change. People are asking us to govern.

“I hope the prime minister is watching too, because – in case you haven’t heard, Rishi Sunak – our people are calling for a general election.”

Image credit: YouTube screen grab

UK voters send 'shout-out' for change to Tories as Labour sweeps local elections

Julia Conley,

 Common Dreams
May 4, 2024

Photo by Chris Boland on Unsplash

Nearly two weeks after the British Conservative Party pushed through a proposal to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda in what one lawyer called "performative cruelty" in the name of winning the general election expected later this year, the local election results announced throughout the day Friday made increasingly clear the ploy hadn't worked.

Elections expert John Curtice projected the Tories could ultimately lose up to 500 local council seats as vote counting continues into the weekend, following elections in which voters cast ballots for 2,661 seats.

The Conservatives have lost around half of the seats they are defending Curtice told BBC Radio.

"We are probably looking at certainly one of the worst, if not the worst, Conservative performances in local government elections for the last 40 years," the polling expert said.

Curtice added that if the results were replicated in a general election, Labour would likely win 34% of the vote, with the Tories winning 25%—five years after the right-wing party won in a landslide in the last nationwide contest.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said the results represented a decisive call for "change" from British voters, particularly applauding the results of a special election in Blackpool South, where Labour candidate Chris Webb won nearly 11,000 votes while Conservative David Jones came in a distant second with just over 3,200.

Webb's victory represented a 26% swing in favor of Labour.

"That's the fifth swing of over 20% to the Labour party in by elections in recent months and years. It is a fantastic result, a really first class result," Starmer said. "And here in Blackpool, a message has been sent directly to the prime minister, because this was a parliamentary vote, to say we're fed up with your decline, your chaos... your division and we want change. We want to go forward with Labour."


"That wasn't just a little message," he added. "That wasn't just a murmur. That was a shout from Blackpool. We want to change. And Blackpool speaks for the whole country in saying we've had enough now, after 14 years of failure, 14 years of decline."

The Conservatives also lost ground in the northern town of Hartlepool, where they lost six council seats. The region swung toward the Tories after the party led the push for Brexit, the U.K.'s exit from the European Union.

A similar result was recorded in York and North Yorkshire, which includes the area Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak represented as a member of Parliament.

"Yorkshire voted for Brexit in 2016," wrote William Booth, London bureau chief for The Washington Post. "But long gone are the days when many Conservatives want to stand before the voters and extol the advantages of leaving the European Union, which has been, in most sectors, a flop."

Sunak, added Booth, is "betting that immigration is still an issue with resonance and has promised to 'stop the boats,' the daily spectacle of desperate migrants risking their lives on rubber rafts trying to cross the English Channel. Sunak's government plans to fly asylum seekers arriving by boat to Rwanda. No flights have taken off yet. But the Home Office last week began a self-proclaimed 'large scale' operation to detain asylum seekers destined for removal."

The Labour Party has called Sunak's Rwanda plan a "gimmick" and said it would reverse a Tory policy blocking refugees from applying for asylum.

Average wages in the U.K. last year were "back at the level during the 2008 financial crisis, after taking account of inflation," according toThe Guardian.

"This 15 years of lost wage growth is estimated by the Resolution Foundation thinktank to have cost the average work £10,700 ($13,426) a year," reported the newspaper in March. "The performance has been ranked as the worst period for pay growth since the Napoleonic wars ended in 1815."

Analysts noted one setback for Labour in Oldham, where the party lost some seats in areas with large numbers of Muslim voters to independent candidates, costing it overall control of the council.

Arooj Shah, the Labour leader of the Oldham Council, told the BBC that the party's support for Israel in its bombardment of Gaza was behind its losses.

"Gaza is clearly an issue for anyone with an ounce of humanity in them, but we've asked for an immediate cease-fire right from the start," said Shah. "We have a rise of independents because people think mainstream parties aren't the answer."The losses "should be a wake-up call for the Starmer leadership: Every vote must be earned," said
the socialist and anti-racist group Momentum. "That means calling for an immediate arms ban to Israel, calling out Israeli war crimes, and delivering real leadership on climate."

Five skeletons found under Wolf’s Lair home of Hermann Göring in Poland


Amateur archaeologists discover remains missing hands and feet at former Nazi military headquarters

Deborah Cole in Berlin

Tue 30 Apr 2024

THE GUARDIAN


Amateur archaeologists have unearthed five human skeletons missing their hands and feet under the former home of the Nazi war criminal Hermann Göring at Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair military headquarters in present-day Poland.

The remains, believed to be that of a family, were discovered as part of a dig at the site near the north-eastern town of Kętrzyn, where Nazi leaders spent large stretches of the second world war.

Mystery surrounds the chilling find, first reported by Der Spiegel, including the identity of the victims, the circumstances of their burial, and whether the Reichsmarschall knew the bones were there while he lived in the house.

The imposing brick building in a wooded stretch of moorland at the former Nazi Wolfsschanze has largely been reclaimed by nature. It was considered thoroughly researched before the team of German and Polish history buffs set upon it.

Oktavian Bartoszewski, the publisher of the magazine Relikte der Geschichte (Relics of History), said the Gdańsk-based team Fundacja Latebra had worked at the site for years, often turning up banal household items such as crockery and tools.

With the rise of dark tourism, Fundacja Latebra is one of the few organisations with explicit permission to conduct archaeological research at the Wolf’s Lair, which attracts more than 200,000 visitors a year.

View image in fullscreen

Hermann Göring with Adolf Hitler (left) and Benito Mussolini (back) at Wolf’s Lair in 1944. Photograph: Ullstein bild Dtl/Getty Images

Bartoszewski has released a YouTube video documenting the project. He said the team was “completely shocked” to discover in February a skull about 10cm underground while looking for buried wooden flooring in the home, which burned down in 1945. The team immediately notified local police.


“After the administrators of the site and forensic scientists gained an overview and nothing pointed to a recent crime, it was decided to lay the skeleton bare,” Bartoszewski said.

Further excavation revealed five skeletons, which subsequent analysis showed were three adults, a teenager and a baby.

“That was the most horrible thing we found,” he said of the newborn. “They were all lying next to each other, in the same direction.”

None had traces of clothing or other personal objects, meaning the corpses were probably stripped before they were placed there. While it is possible the hand and foot bones – finer than other remains – had simply decomposed, it could not be ruled out that they had been amputated.

Speculation abounds as to whether Göring was aware the bodies were buried below his living quarters, or whether they had been deposited there after the war. German media said the family could have been victims of a mass killing, possibly but not necessarily carried out by the Nazis. Polish prosecutors are investigating.

Senior Nazis including Hitler and Göring but also Martin Bormann, Wilhelm Keitel and Alfred Jodl used the Wolf’s Lair as an isolated, well-protected complex from which to plan military campaigns as well as the atrocities of the Holocaust.

Hitler spent more time at the Wolf’s Lair than anywhere else during the war. It was the site of the failed 20 July 1944 coup in which Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, a German count, planted a briefcase containing a bomb under an oak table in a botched attempt to assassinate the Führer.

Göring, Hitler’s appointed deputy and heir, and head of the Luftwaffe, was the highest-ranking Nazi official to be tried at Nuremberg. He killed himself with a cynanide pill in 1946 on the eve of his planned execution.