Capitalism, climate change and workers’ health: Notes on a research agenda

Raju J Das
18 May, 2024



Abstract:

 Climate change is producing health challenges. It has therefore contributed to an enhanced scholarly attention to public health. This article presents some basic ideas about how capitalism, workers’ health and climate change are inter-connected. It explains: a) the impacts of the production of capitalist wealth on workers’ health, and b) how these impacts are mediated by climate change, which is also a product of capitalism. Building on Friedrich Engels, the article introduces the concept of “eco-social murder” to explore the ways in which the ecological character of capitalism is killing and harming workers.

Capitalism produces a lot of wealth, including the development of new technologies. Karl Marx admired capitalism for this in the Communist Manifesto and elsewhere.1 But it is also a society where workers’ health is severely compromised relative to the opportunities available to escape from avoidable illnesses and deaths. There have been significant improvements in health conditions, as demonstrated by a massive increase in longevity, thanks to the capitalist development of science and technology aided by the state and thanks to workers’ struggle for better health. Yet, capitalism produces conditions for illnesses and deaths too. In Capital 1, Marx (1887) says: “the capitalist mode of production…has seized the vital power of the people by the very root” (ibid.: 181, italics added).2 In our time, the scope of this idea from Marx, along with Friedrich Engels’ idea of social murder, can be broadened to include the impacts of climate change.

Engels (1845), Marx’s co-writer, independently wrote about workers’ health.3 He has deservingly received much attention for his work on workers’ health and, especially, for his concept of social murder. This concept refers to avoidable deaths of workers caused by the operation of the capitalist economic system and the capitalist state policy. Social murder is an “early and an unnatural death” caused by the people’s deprivation of necessaries of life. It is “one which is quite as much a death by violence as that by the sword or bullet”. Social murder is social and a murder because it is the capitalist society that forces people “through the strong arm of the law, to remain in such conditions until that death ensues” and society knows that people will suffer and die and yet does nothing to stop this. The capitalist society commits this murder “daily and hourly” by placing common people “under conditions in which they can neither retain health nor live long” and it “undermines the vital force of …workers gradually, little by little, and so hurries them to the grave before their time” (Engels, 1845:84).

The idea of social murder has relevance in the context of climate change, which contributes to workers’ illnesses often causing death. So what Engels calls social murder should be called eco-social murder.

The health impacts of climate change on the population have been the subject of a large amount of literature.4 However, the impacts of climate change on workers have not received the serious attention through the theoretically informed empirical work that it deserves. This is a significant intellectual neglect, in part because workers’ health challenges caused by global warming are not exactly those of the general population. The workplace experience of people is an important determinant of health.

In this article, by building on Marx’s Capital 1, I discuss the idea that capitalism has adverse impacts on workers’ health.5 I also show that these impacts are mediated by climate change which is also a product of capitalism’s private property and profit maximization principles. So health challenges of workers — including social murder, or eco-social murder — in capitalism are caused by “direct” impacts of the capitalist labour market and workplace dynamics, and by “indirect” impacts of capitalism (transformation of the environment, including climate change). This approach constitutes a class dimensions of health approach (Das, 2023; 2024), which, in the current age of climate change, must be broadened to include a class-ecological dimensions of health approach.
Impacts of capitalism on workers’ health in an age of climate change
Value of labour power, employment precarity and low income

Labouring individuals, as part of nature, have “natural wants, such as food, clothing, fuel, and housing” which “vary according to the climatic and other physical conditions of [their] country” (Marx, 1887: 121). These natural wants also vary over time: for example, with climate change resulting in extremely high or extremely cold temperatures, people need energy for cooling or heating, respectively. So, people’s energy needs must be met for them to return to work daily with a healthy body and mind. “If the owner of labour-power works to-day, to-morrow [they] must again be able to repeat the same process in the same conditions as regards health and strength” (ibid.: 121). But in reality, the value of labour power does not include all the social-ecological needs, or if it does, wages fall below the value of labour power. The situation where wages fall below the value of labour power is called “super-exploitation”.6 Super-exploitation is bound to make people fall ill because they find it difficult to access the financial resources needed for good health (e.g. medicine, hospital facility and doctor’s advice) which are available only/mainly as commodities.

By producing extreme weather events, heat waves, floods, etc climate change is increasing the cost of housing, food, healthcare, etc. The nominal wages conventionally paid do not cover the increased costs of reproduction (for example, cooling devices at home, costs of illness caused by climate change which has become a grave problem in the last 50 years or so). This situation impacts workers’ ability to lead a healthy life.

One’s annual income determines one’s ability to obtain the financial resources needed for good health. Annual income is normally a function of a) wages per hour and b) employment (hours worked in a year). There is no guarantee that one’s wage covers all the necessary costs of reproduction as we have seen. Nor is employment guaranteed. Whether or not one gets hired depends on capital’s need for a worker and on capital’s economic ability to hire. Climate change adversely impacts employment opportunities.7 By weakening profitability in sectors affected by climate change, the latter is reducing employment-generating capacity of employers. Disruption of supply chains caused by climate disasters can make many businesses unviable, so they may not be able to hire people. When individuals experience illnesses (for example heat-related illness or infectious diseases) due to climate change, they are less likely to be hired and be able to work. Adverse impacts of extreme weather events are weakening economic viability of small-scale producers (peasants, fishermen/fisherwomen) as well who are joining the urban reserve army and precarious labour market, a process that puts downward pressure on wages.

All in all, when people’s wages are inadequate and/or when they are un- or under-employed, they are bound to be in poverty. Poverty is an important determinant of health. And poverty — which is being exacerbated by consequences of climate change — is the inevitable effect of capitalist production (Das and Mishra, 2023).8
‘Absolute and relative’ overwork

For some workers, unemployment and under-employment is a curse, with its health implications. For others, having to work excessively long hours is a problem and has health implications too.


It is not the normal maintenance of the labour-power which is to determine the limits of the working day; it is the greatest possible daily expenditure of labour-power, no matter how diseased, compulsory, and painful it may be, which is to determine the limits of the labourers’ period of repose. (Marx, 1887: 179)

Both tendencies — overwork and under-employment/unemployment — coexist in capitalism. Just as wages are expected to be enough to pay for the normal expenses, the length of the working day should be reasonable to ensure that the worker gets enough rest. In reality, workers are forced to work longer than their body-mind complex can normally tolerate. Long working days ruin workers’ physical and mental/spiritual health. By excessively extending the working day, capitalism subjects workers to “the premature exhaustion and death of this labour power itself” (Marx, 1887: 179; italics added). This problem — the problem of physical harm to the working bodies including exhaustion and workplace-caused mortality, etc — is compounded by the impacts of climate change on health, that is, by the fact that when workers working outdoor have to work long hours, they are exposed to excessive atmospheric heat and to an air that contains harmful gases that are released when fossil fuels are burnt. So they experience ill-health.

The impacts of climate change produced by capitalism on workers’ health proves a more general point: “Capital cares nothing for the length of life of labour-power” (Marx, 1887: 179; italics added), unless “under compulsion from society” (ibid.: 181), that is, government regulation, which is difficult in times of neoliberalism. When temperatures are very high during the working day, workers need more rest in part to cope with exhaustion and to avoid peak heat hours, and there is a need to reduce the length of the working day. Capitalism will not normally allow this, however.

When the working day is excessively prolonged, when the temperatures are high and when there are not enough rest breaks, wages — that is, the price of labour-power — may fall below its value for an interesting reason. Thus the law of equal exchange may be violated in the sense that the expenses that workers need to incur to deal with the extra wear and tear and exhaustion caused by excessive heat (or indeed excessively low temperatures without availability of heat) are not included in the normal price of labour power. This results in “The price of labour-power and the degree of its exploitation ceas[ing] to be commensurable quantities” (Marx, 1887: 371). And, precisely because of the violation of the law of equal exchange, the long-term interests of the capitalist class as a whole are threatened. This is because more value (a greater quantity of resources in their commodity form) needs to be commonly spent to reproduce a healthy working class — to replenish the used-up forces — to be made available for work. If workers are ill and die prematurely, there is an additional cost to capital as-a-whole, and yet capital does not prevent workers from experiencing the health effects of climate change. Why?

One reason, obviously, is that the longer the workers work, other things being constant, the more is the surplus value and therefore profit. If workers take a lot of rest for their body to cool down or to avoid heat exhaustion, capital suffers a loss. In pursuit of a value greater than the value of labour power, capitalists make workers work very long hours at the cost of their own health. But capital is indifferent towards workers’ health: “in its blind unrestrainable passion, its were-wolf hunger for surplus labour, capital oversteps … physical maximum bounds of the working day” (Marx, 1887: 179; italics added). Another reason is that driven by the competitive pressure to reduce the cost of production, every capitalist is forced to extract as much work as possible from their workers, even if they work under extremely adverse climatic conditions. This tendency, in many cases, is expressed in the form of excessive overwork which ruins workers’ health. So bad health due to excessive overwork — that is, overwork relative to the physical, including, climatic conditions of work — when temperatures are very high is to be explained at the level of capital as a whole and in terms of the competitive interests of individual capitalists.
Physical conditions in the despotic capitalist workplace

An important aspect of capitalist society is its “hidden abode of production” (Marx, 1887: 123): the workplace where surplus labour is produced and appropriated. The physical conditions of the workplace — or, “the material conditions under which factory labour is carried on” (ibid.: 1887: 286) — are often characterized by “unhealthiness and unpleasantness” (ibid.: 170). In some workplaces, “Every organ of sense is injured in an equal degree by artificial elevation of the temperature, by the dust laden atmosphere, [etc.]” (ibid.: 286). Consider how workers in textile industries work in factories without air-conditioning, and especially in summer times in tropical climates. Consider also how harmful the conditions of capitalist workplace are when the workplace is outdoors when temperatures are much above the body temperature of 37oC.

Workers engaged in strenuous outdoor activities are particularly vulnerable to heat stress as well as infectious diseases. In some cases, heat strokes can cause death (Yang et al, 2018).9 In the US, extreme heat is one of the three main causes of death and injury in the workplace, contributing to between 600 and 2000 deaths a year, along with 170,000 injuries (Baker, 2023).10 As well, adverse impacts of climate change on workers’ health cause low productivity and dent companies’ profit, which in turn may affect workers’ chances of employment.

The health impacts of extremely high temperatures are especially severe for construction workers. They often engage in physically demanding tasks outdoors, increasing their susceptibility to dehydration and heat stress (Acharya, et al, 2018).11 Adverse impacts of climate change on construction workers’ health cause low productivity as indicated by the fact that, for example, construction activities involving physical work take, on average, 36% longer to execute during extreme heat (Bleasby, 2023).12 Construction workers are indeed at an elevated risk of heat stress, due to the strenuous nature of the work, high temperature work condition, and a changing climate (Acharya, et al, op.cit.). Other outdoor workers — for example workers engaged in sanitation, parks and nature conservation, eco-tourism, refuse collection, fire-fighting, farming and mining, and infrastructural work (such as fixing damaged electricity lines) — suffer in similar ways.

The health impacts of climate change on workers can be especially serious in the urban landscape: indeed, health impacts are compounded — if not created — by rapid urbanization and consequent high population density, and climate-sensitive urban built environments where heat accumulates preventing atmospheric cooling leading to urban heat islands.

It is through the despotic control that during the working day capital seeks to fill all potential pores by making workers work every single minute. Capital “steals the time required for the consumption of fresh air and sunlight” (Marx, 1887:179). One could say that capital steals the time required for rest to cope with heat exhaustion. On the whole, in the workplace, most workers have little control over the conditions of their work. “Every kind of capitalist production ... has this in common, that it is not the workman that employs the instruments of labour, but the instruments of labour that employ the workman” (ibid.: p. 286).

This lack of control must have some impact on workers’ mental and physical health. Workers have no control over speed of work, rest hours, etc. in this time of global warming.
An interim summary

Marx’s discussion on the political economy of health centres on wage-labour and production of value. If a worker does not produce surplus value, they are not needed or hired by capital, so they are denied access to the required means of subsistence, including food and healthcare. Climate change, by causing massive destruction of capitalist wealth, is contributing to weaker economies and lowering the ability of capital to employ people. Even if people are hired, they may not receive adequate compensation, one that covers additional expenses that need to be met because of climate change. If one does not have adequate income from wage-work because of low wages and/or under- or unemployment, one does not have the money to meet basic needs such as health. Clearly, health is an important part of the value of labour power and of the process of the production of value. Therefore, health is an important part of Marx’s political economy and indeed of his class theory as such (Das, 2017, op. cit.).

And, health has an ecological dimension. Climate change impacts workers’ health in diverse ways. Among other things, as we have seen, it causes extremely high temperatures, including heat waves and urban heat islands, which lead to health challenges (e.g. heat exhaustion) for workers who work outdoors.13 This happens globally — in countries that are tropical and temperate, poorer and richer — although there are important differences.
Towards a research agenda

There is a limit to what can be said about the world at a theoretical level. Theoretical reflections must be supplemented by theoretically-informed empirical research. It is important to examine the health impacts of climate change in an urban context as well as in rural areas, where farm and mining workers work. It is useful to compare the impact of climate change on the health of outdoor workers in the less developed and more developed worlds. An international comparative perspective would allow one to examine if the level of economic development matters when it comes to health impacts of climate change and how they are sought to be mitigated.

There is a need to understand how the impacts of climate change on people’s health are not direct but mediated by specific economic-political processes. These are: companies’ need to maintain an average level of profit; state’s “duty” to maintain a conducive business environment by promoting labour productivity; and state protection of workers’ health prompted by workers’ own agency demanding the latter. It is important to examine in particular:What health issues do (outdoor) workers face due to high temperatures during the working day? How do they explain the health challenges their face?
What are the state policies (and employers’ voluntary actions) to mitigate the health impacts of high temperatures, and to what extent do they actually meet workers’ health needs?
How have workers’ climate awareness and class consciousness, as well as their action through unions or civil society associations, influenced state’s and employers’ responses to workers’ health challenges?
What constraints do the state and employers face in helping workers cope with the health consequences of climate change, and why? What limits are there to the improvements of workers’ health conditions in capitalism that are impacted by climate change, and why?

Research asking the types of questions suggested above will contribute to the understanding of the social and ecological dimensions of public health, from a global perspective. It will show how the character of the workplace itself and economic conditions of workers are an important social dimension of public health in the age of climate change.14 More specifically, such research will shed light on the ways in which the impact of the capitalist economy on workers’ health is mediated by climate change, which is also largely a product of the market economy. This research will shed light on the climate-sensitive nature of the capitalist workplace, not only as a site where profit is made but also one where workers experience health challenges. Such research will also support workers’ organizations by providing vital intellectual resources to fight for “a social-ecological wage” that is automatically adjusted to inflation, and that covers the need for a sustainable environment, including a cooler planet and other needs such as food, shelter and healthcare, as a part of their fight for a democratic society beyond the rule of capital that subordinates working people and nature.15

Raju J Das is Professor at the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Research, York University. https://rajudas.info.yorku.ca1

See Das (2022:218-219) on this point: Das, R. (2022). On the communist manifesto: ideas for the newly radicalizing public. World Review of Political Economy, 13(2), 209–244. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48687800
2

Marx K. 1887. Capital, vol. 1. Available at: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Capital-Volume-I.pdf
3

Engels, F. (1845) The conditions of the English working class. Available at: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/condition-working-class-england.pdf
4

See the collection of articles in: Levy, B and Patz, J. (eds) 2015. Climate Change and Public Health. Oxford: Oxford University press.
5

In doing so, I draw on Das, R. J. (2023). Capital, Capitalism and Health. Critical Sociology, 49(3), 395-414. https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205221083503
6

See, Das, R.J. 2017. Marxist class theory for a skeptical world. Brill: Leiden/Boston (p. 269; 294; 302; 311; 347; 366; 386-88).
7

Newman, F. and Humphrys, E. 2020. Critical Sociology, Vol. 46(4-5) 557–572
8

Das, R. and Mishra, D., Eds. 2023. Global Poverty: Rethinking Causality. Leiden: Brill.
9

Yang Xia, Yuan Li, Dabo Guan, David Mendoza Tinoco, Jiangjiang Xia, Zhongwei Yan, Jun Yang, Qiyong Liu, Hong Huo, Assessment of the economic impacts of heat waves: A case study of Nanjing, China, Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 171, pp. 811-819.
10

Baker, A. 2023. Extreme heat is endangering America’s workers – and its economy. Time. https://time.com/6299091/extreme-heat-us-workers-economy/.
11

Acharya P., Boggess, B., and Zhang K. Assessing Heat Stress and Health among Construction Workers in a Changing Climate: A Review. International Journal of Environmental Research on Public Health. 2018 Feb 1;15(2):247.
12

Bleasby, J. 2023. Climate and Construction: Extreme heat increases worker safety risk and reduces productivity https://canada.constructconnect.com/dcn/news/resource/2023/09/climate-and-construction-extreme-heat-increases-worker-safety-risk-and-reduces-productivity
13

Habibi, M, Ghahria, A., Karimi, M, Golbabaeif. 2016. The Past and Future Trends of Heat Stress Based On Wet Bulb Globe Temperature Index in Outdoor Environment of Tehran City, Iran. Iranian Journal of Public Health. 45(6):787-794.
14

Flynn, M. 2021. Global capitalism as a societal determinant of health: A conceptual framework. Social Science & Medicine.;268:113530. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113530.
15

For details on ecological social wage, see Das, R. J. 2018. “A Marxist Perspective on Sustainability: Brief Reflections on Ecological Sustainability and Social Inequality.” Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal. https://links.org.au/marxist-perspective-sustainability-brief-reflections-ecological-sustainability-and-social Such a fight for a social-ecological wage must be connected to a fight for a social-ecologically remunerative price for peasants and other such small-scale producers who also experience health and other challenges because of climate change caused by capitalism, which means that there is a need for an alliance between workers and small-scale producers, especially in the South. On this topic, see: Das, R. J. 2023. ‘On the worker-peasant alliance in India (and other countries of the Global South)’. Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal. https://links.org.au/worker-peasant-alliance-india-and-other-countries-global-south

House Democrat Probes Trump's $1 Billion 'Quid Pro Quo' Deal With Big Oil

Rep. Jamie Raskin expressed concern that some firms, "which have a track record of using deceitful tactics to undermine effective climate policy, may have already accepted or facilitated Mr. Trump's explicit corrupt bargain."


Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), speaks outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on January 5, 2024.
(Photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)


JESSICA CORBETT
May 14, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

A top U.S. House Democrat announced Tuesday that he is demanding answers from fossil fuel executives after Washington Post reporting revealed last week that former Republican President Donald Trump recently told industry leaders he would gut climate regulations if they raised $1 billion for his 2024 presidential campaign.

Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin, ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, on Monday wrote to the heads of the American Petroleum Institute (API) and eight companies: Cheniere Energy, Chesapeake Energy, Chevron, Continental Resources, EQT Corporation, ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum, and Venture Global LNG.

Raskin's letters note that the executives "appear to have attended" Trump's fundraising dinner at Mar-a-Lago in Florida last month and "media reports raise significant potential ethical, campaign finance, and legal issues that would flow from the effective sale of American energy and regulatory policy to commercial interests in return for large campaign contributions."

"Mr. Trump's unvarnished quid pro quo offer is especially troubling evidence in light of recent accounts that the 'U.S. oil industry is drawing up ready-to-sign executive orders for Donald Trump aimed at pushing natural gas exports, cutting drilling costs, and increasing offshore oil leases in case he wins a second term,'" he wrote, citing Politico. "These preparatory actions suggest that certain oil and gas companies, which have a track record of using deceitful tactics to undermine effective climate policy, may have already accepted or facilitated Mr. Trump's explicit corrupt bargain."



Raskin also highlighted findings from a January Oversight Committee Democrats staff report, which shows that "when Mr. Trump was in office, he accepted at least $7.8 million from kings, princes, and foreign states, including the People's Republic of China and Saudi Arabia, in blatant violation of the Constitution's foreign emoluments clause, and rendered a sequence of foreign policy favors to his patrons."

The congressman—and constitutional scholar—asked the executives to respond to questions and document requests by May 27. He is seeking the names of employees who attended the April 11 fundraiser, copies of materials distributed during the event, descriptions of all policy proposals and related campaign contributions discussed, and draft executive orders or policy paperwork prepared by members of the companies.

"The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is the principal oversight committee of the House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate 'any matter' at 'any time,'" Raskin explained. "The requested information is needed to investigate and legislate on matters related to presidential and presidential-candidate ethics and to continue to address the major ethics crisis created by Donald Trump's efforts to profit off the presidency."

As Raskin released the letters on Tuesday, Media Matters for America's Allison Fisher pointed out that "unfortunately, over a four-day period, TV news broadcast and cable networks—with the exception of MSNBC—did not cover Trump's proposition to oil executives."



However, Trump has made his policy plans clear. Even before the fundraiser, he publicly pledged to "drill, baby, drill" if he beats Democratic President Joe Biden in November. One March analysis found that a second Trump term would lead to the release of 4 billion more tons of planet-heating carbon dioxide—the combined annual emissions of the European Union and Japan—by 2030 than if Biden were reelected.

The letters aren't the first time Raskin has taken aim at the fossil fuel industry this month. At the beginning of May, he testified before the U.S. Senate Budget Committee about a nearly three-year investigation into "Big Oil's campaign of deception and distraction," which he said "undermines the efforts we need to mobilize our people and government to save our climate, our habitat, and our species."

"Unless the deception ends, and until the industry is held accountable," the congressman warned, "we are unlikely ever to be able to muster the national political will to effectively tackle climate change."

Cable News Refused to Report Trump's Bombshell Quid Pro Quo Offer to Big Oil Execs

"The most under-covered Trump story is his complete selling-out of the American people on issues they care about most," one political insider said.


Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media during an election night event at Mar-a-Lago on November -8, 2022 in Palm Beach, Florida.
(Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

OLIVIA ROSANE
May 15, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

Major cable news networks Fox News Channel, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC all failed to cover former President Donald Trump's promise to Big Oil executives that he would reverse President Joe Biden's climate regulations if they donated $1 billion to his campaign, according to an analysis published by Media Matters for America late Tuesday.

When the news first broke, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch wrote, "You won't read a more important story today." Yet, in the four days after the story broke, it only received 48 minutes of cable airtime—all on MSNBC.

"The most under-covered Trump story is his complete selling-out of the American people on issues they care about most," Jesse Lee, a former Biden communications adviser, posted on social media in response to the report. "If gas prices go up soon, these same networks that ignored Trump's $1 billion oil bribe will cover it constantly—and crucify Biden."

"He is basically saying he's going to destroy the planet that our children... are growing up on just if these guys will write him a check."

The story of Trump's quid pro quo offer to fossil fuel executives was first reported by The Washington Post on May 9. It detailed a dinner the former president hosted at Mar-a-Lago in April attended by leaders of oil and gas firms including ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Occidental Petroleum. During the dinner, Trump told the executives that a $1 billion donation would be a "deal" for the industry "because of the taxation and regulation they would avoid thanks to him."

To assess how cable covered—or didn't cover—the story, Media Matters for America looked at the transcripts from May 9 to May 12 for CNN; Fox News Channel; MSNBC; ABC's "Good Morning America," "World News Tonight," and "This Week;" CBS' "Mornings," "Evening News," and "Face the Nation;" and NBC's "Today," "Nightly News," and "Meet the Press." They searched the transcripts for the words "Trump," "former president," or "Mar-a-Lago" close to the words "oil," "donor," "executive," "billion," "industry," "fossil," or "fuel," as well as any version of the words "environment" or "CEO."

Only the MSNBC transcripts turned up any results. These included:Just over 18 minutes—or nearly 40% of the total—on "Velshi" on May 11, featuring interviews with climate activist Bill McKibben, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington president Noah Bookbinder, and The Atlantic's David A. Graham.
A discussion on the May 9 edition of "Alex Wagner Tonight" between host Wagner and guests former Obama Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes and former Biden Press Secretary Jen Psaki.
An interview on the May 10 edition of "All in With Chris Hayes" with New York Times climate reporter Lisa Friedman.
An exchange on the May 11 edition of "Alex Witt Reports" between host Witt and New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker.
An interview on the May 12 edition of "Ayman" with Princeton University sociology professor Kim Lane Scheppele and New York Times columnist and analyst Michelle Goldberg.
Mentions on "The ReidOut" and "The Weekend."

Several of the MSNBC interviews did highlight the importance of the story—which has prompted an investigation by a top House Democrat.

McKibben told Ali Velshi that "in a very real sense this is the most important climate election ever."

Others focused on the blatant corruption of the exchange. Graham noted that it was particularly brazen.

"He is making it clear what the quid pro quo is without any kind of pretense. It's just right here, 'You give me money; I'll do what you want me to do,'" Graham told Velshi.

Rhodes called it "basic pay-to-play corruption," adding, "He is basically saying he's going to destroy the planet that our children... are growing up on just if these guys will write him a check."

There were also comments on what the news said about the fossil fuel executives themselves.

"These are the same executives who, in the wake of January 6, said, 'We're not going to support people who undermined our democracy,'" Bookbinder pointed out. "And there they are, these couple of years later, meeting with Donald Trump, courting his support, hearing his offer—his demands—that they give a billion dollars to his campaign."

Baker told Witt: "I think it's going to confirm for a lot of people who are already suspicious of the fossil fuel industry that they have, over the years, bought off Washington writ large. That's been a longtime conviction on the part of people who think that the energy industry has too much power."

"It's going to cause a lot of cynicism, obviously, especially if Donald Trump were to win and then to try to roll back some of these climate initiatives," Baker continued. "People will make the assumption—and it will have some obvious evidence to back it up—that he is doing so in exchange for large contributions from an industry that's affected by it."

They will, that is, if they caught the 48 minutes of reporting the story received.

Israel 'Has Gone to War Against the Entire Palestinian People': Sanders


"Any objective observer knows Israel has broken international law, it has broken American law, and, in my view, Israel should not be receiving another nickle in U.S. military aid," Sanders said.


Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) delivers a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate on March 6, 2023.
(Photo: Sen. Bernie Sanders/YouTube Screengrab)

OLIVIA ROSANE
May 12, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders repeated his calls on Sunday for the U.S. to cut off military aid to the far-right government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as it continues its devastating war on Gaza.

Sanders spoke on NBC's "Meet the Press" in response to a U.S. State Department report released Friday, which found that it was "reasonable to assess" that Israel had used U.S. weapons to violate international humanitarian law in Gaza but that the U.S. was "not able to reach definitive conclusions" as to whether U.S. weapons had been used in any specific incidents.

"Any objective observer knows Israel has broken international law, it has broken American law, and, in my view, Israel should not be receiving another nickle in U.S. military aid," Sanders said.

Friday's report came in response to National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20), in which President Joe Biden tasked Secretary of State Antony Blinken with obtaining "certain credible and reliable written assurances from foreign governments" that they use U.S. arms in line with international humanitarian law and will not "arbitrarily deny, restrict, or otherwise impede, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance."

The report, made to Congress, was criticized by human rights organizations who said it mischaracterized both the law and the facts in order to avoid imposing consequences on Israel for waging a war on Gaza that the International Court of Justice has determined could plausibly amount to genocide.





"The people of our country do not want to be complicit in the starvation of hundreds of thousands of children."

Amanda Klasing, Amnesty International USA's national director of government relations and advocacy, called it the "international version of 'thoughts and prayers.'" Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) called it "woefully inadequate" and told reporters, "If this conduct complies with international standards, God help us all."

Speaking before Sanders on "Meet the Press," Blinken denied that the report was an attempt to get out of holding Israel accountable.

"What the report concludes is that, based on the totality of the harm that's been done to children, to women, to men who are caught in this crossfire of Hamas' making, it's reasonable to conclude that there are instances where Israel has acted in ways that are not consistent with international humanitarian law," Blinken said.

He added that both Israel and the U.S. would continue to investigate those incidents.

"When we can reach definitive conclusions, we will," Blinken said, "but it's very difficult to do that in the midst of a war."

In response to Blinken's remarks, Sanders countered that "the facts are quite clear."

He said that Hamas was a "terrible, disgusting terrorist organization" and blamed it for starting the war. But he argued that Israel's response had been beyond disproportionate.

"What Israel has done over the last seven months is not just gone to war against Hamas—it has gone to war against the entire Palestinian people, and the results have been absolutely catastrophic," the senator told NBC.

Sanders went on to outline some of that catastrophe: a death toll that surpassed 35,000 on Sunday, with two-thirds of the dead women and children; the destruction of around 60% of all housing; the devastation of infrastructure such a as water and sewage as well as the healthcare and education systems; and the fact that hundreds of thousands of children are now at risk of starvation.

Sanders referred to Section 6201 of the Foreign Assistance Act: "Any country that blocks U.S. humanitarian aid is in violation of law and should not continue to receive military aid from the United States," Sanders explained. "That is precisely what Israel has done."

Sanders' remarks came as Israel escalated its assault on Gaza over the weekend, issuing new evacuation orders in both Rafah and areas in the north. Biden has said that a major ground invasion into Rafah would be a "red line" and threatened to withhold certain kinds of weapons if Netanyahu ordered such an invasion, but Palestinian and human rights advocates say that Israel's current actions in Rafah should already count as a major ground operation.

Speaking on "Meet the Press," Blinken acknowledged that the U.S. had not seen a "credible plan" from Israel to safely evacuate the more than 1.4 million civilians sheltering in Rafah ahead of an invasion.

Sanders told NBC that he thought many Republicans and also some Democrats wanted Israel to invade Rafah, but that this was not an opinion shared by the majority of people in the U.S.

"Poll after poll suggests that the American people want an immediate cease-fire. They want massive humanitarian aid to get in," Sanders said. "The people of our country do not want to be complicit in the starvation of hundreds of thousands of children."

'Watershed Moment': Anti-Apartheid Conference on Palestine Kicks Off in South Africa

South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said the movement to end Israeli apartheid is "following in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela" and "will not rest until the freedom of the peoples of Palestine is realized."


Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti and South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor hold hands and talk at the Anti-Apartheid Conference on Palestine in Sandton, South Africa on May 10, 2024.
(Photo: Katlholo Maifadi/DIRCO)

BRETT WILKINS
May 10, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

As Israeli forces continued their devastating assault on the Gaza Strip and deadly occupation of the West Bank, human rights defenders from around the world gathered Friday in South Africa—which is leading a genocide case against Israel at the World Court—for the inaugural Global Anti-Apartheid Conference on Palestine.

The conference began with a moment of silence for the nearly 35,000 Palestinians—most of them women and children—killed by Israeli troops during the 217-day war and "complete siege," which has also wounded more than 78,000 people, displaced around 90% of the strip's population, and starved at least hundreds of thousands of others—dozens of whom have died.

Meanwhile, Israel's illegal occupation and settler colonization have intensified in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where soldiers and settlers have killed at least 467 Palestinians and wounded or arrested thousands of others—some of whom were tortured—over the past seven months.

"This conference must make sure that we mobilize the world... and free the people of Palestine," Rev. Frank Chikane of the African National Congress (ANC) and World Council of Churches said at the start of the symposium.



Thanking Chikane for "spearheading" conference organizing efforts, South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor hailed the "watershed moment" of "anti-apartheid movements on Palestine from around the globe coming together and joining forces in the struggle for justice for the Palestinian people."

"It has never been so urgent for the progressive forces around the globe to come together in a collective effort to exert maximum pressure to end the genocidal campaign underway in Gaza, and to end the apartheid system in Israel and the occupied territories, which is worse than what we experienced in our own country," she asserted, echoing past remarks by other South Africans and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

Pandor highlighted South Africa's December filing of a genocide case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, a move supported by over 30 countries and regional blocs and hundreds of advocacy groups. In January, the ICJ found that Israel is "plausibly" committing genocide in Gaza and ordered its government to prevent future genocidal acts—an order human rights monitors say Israel has ignored, largely by blocking humanitarian aid. In March, the ICJ ordered Israel to allow more aid into Gaza.


"We will continue to do everything within our power to preserve the existence of the Palestinian people as a group, to end all acts of apartheid and genocide against the Palestinian people, and to walk with them towards the realization of their collective right to self-determination," Pandor said. "We continue to do so following in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela and will not rest until the freedom of the peoples of Palestine is realized."


Ronnie Kasrils—a communist who went from being a guerrilla fighter in the ANC's armed wing during the apartheid era to a government minister in a free South Africa—warned against compromising in the fight for freedom. He also reaffirmed Palestinians' legal right to "armed struggle, an international right of resistance against tyranny, against military occupation."

"There is no need to pussyfoot around the fact when we have our discussions about the rights of the Palestinians to resist with arms," Kasrils stressed.

Palestinian lawmaker, physician, and activist Mustafa Barghouti said that "we've woken the people of the world against genocide and injustice... and hypocrisy of international governments."

"Israel initiated this war but Israel will not be the one who decides how it ends," he added.

Lamis Deek, a New York-based attorney specializing in international human rights, called for "liberation of all the land from institutions of Zionist violence and supremacy, return, reparations, justice and accountability for every Zionist crime, and restitution."

Declan Kearney, a member of Northern Ireland's Legislative Assembly and national chairman of the Irish republican and democratic socialist party Sinn Féin, noted that "Palestinian and Irish freedom fighters share a special bond. Our commitment is absolute and unbreakable."

The Republic of Ireland said in March that it would intervene in the South African ICJ case and the country—along with fellow European Union members Spain, Slovenia, and Malta—is set later this month to join the nearly 140 nations that recognize Palestinian statehood.

The United Nations General Assembly voted 143-9 on Friday to approve Palestine's bid for full U.N. membership. The United States—Israel's leading international backer—and Israel voted against the proposal, which will head to the U.N. Security Council and an almost certain U.S. veto.

Kearney echoed other speakers who stressed the importance of international solidarity, applauding the "unprecedented" global outpouring of support for Palestine.

"We are with the Palestinian people on their long walk to freedom and will never abandon them," he vowed.

While many Israelis and their backers bristle at the apartheid label, Palestinians and individuals ranging from Carter to the late South African bishop and human rights campaigner Desmond Tutu to United Nations special rapporteurs have for decades called Israel's policies and actions in Palestine apartheid.

Major human rights organizations—including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the Israeli groups B'Tselem and Yesh Din—have also done so. So have prominent Israelis including a former Mossad chief, multiple former attorneys general and ambassadors, and a growing number of journalists, artists, veterans, and others.

'Unhinged' Israeli Ambassador Literally Shreds UN Charter Ahead of Palestine Vote

"Shame on you," said Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan shortly before the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution supporting full membership for Palestine.

Gilad Erdan, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, puts a copy of the U.N. Charter through a paper shredder on May 10, 2024.
(Photo: Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)

JAKE JOHNSON
May 10, 2024
COMMOM DREAMS

Shortly before the United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution Friday supporting full U.N. membership for Palestine, Israel's ambassador took to the podium and put a prop copy of the U.N.'s founding document through a handheld paper shredder.

In a speech that one journalist described as "unhinged," Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Gilad Erdan described Palestinians as "modern-day Nazis" and condemned the U.N. General Assembly for choosing to "reward" them with "rights and privileges."

"You are shredding the U.N. Charter with your own hands," Erdan said as he fed a small copy of the document through a miniature paper shredder. "Shame on you."

Watch:

Erdan's bizarre performance came just before the U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution urging the Security Council to reconsider Palestine's request to become a full U.N. member following a U.S. veto last month. Palestine is currently a nonmember observer state of the U.N.


The General Assembly voted by a margin of 143 to 9—with 25 abstentions—in support of the resolution. The nine countries that voted no were the United States, Israel, Argentina, Czechia, Hungary, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, and Papua New Guinea.


In addition to backing its bid for full U.N. membership, the resolution gives Palestine "the right to introduce and co-sponsor proposals as well as amendments within the assembly," The Guardianreported.

Riyad Mansour, Palestine's permanent observer at the U.N., said ahead of Friday's vote that support for the resolution "is a vote for Palestinian existence."

"I stand before you as lives continue falling apart in the Gaza Strip," said Mansour, noting that "more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed, 80,000 have been maimed, 2 million have been displaced, and everything has been destroyed" by Israeli forces over the past seven months.

"No words can capture what such loss and trauma signifies for Palestinians," Mansour added.

"The U.S. and Israel are isolated and the world is on the side of Palestine."

Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, called the U.N. General Assembly's passage of the resolution "an unprecedented move that shows once again how unbelievably isolated [U.S. President Joe] Biden has made the U.S."

In anticipation of Friday's vote, a group of Republican U.S. senators led by Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) introduced legislation that would halt U.S. funding for any entity—including the U.N.—that gives Palestine "any status, rights, or privileges beyond observer status."

Current law requires the U.S. to "cut off funding to U.N. agencies that give full membership to a Palestinian state—which could mean a cutoff in dues and voluntary contributions to the U.N. from its largest contributor," The Associated Pressreported Friday.

Craig Mokhiber, a former U.N. official who resigned in October over the body's failure to act in the face of Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza, wrote that Friday's vote further shows that "the U.S. and Israel are isolated and the world is on the side of Palestine."

'Most Thorough Legal Analysis' Yet Concludes Israel Committing Genocide in Gaza

The University Network for Human Rights report also stresses that other nations are legally obligated to "refrain from recognizing Israel's breaches as legal or taking any actions that may amount to complicity."


A Palestinian boy observes the site of an Israeli strike on a school

 sheltering displaced people in the central Gaza Strip on May 14, 2024.
(Photo" Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)


JESSICA CORBETT
May 15, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

The University Network for Human Rights on Wednesday released and sent to United Nations offices a 105-page report that it called "the most thorough legal analysis" yet to find "Israel is committing genocide" against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The network partnered with the International Human Rights Clinic at Boston University School of Law, the International Human Rights Clinic at Cornell Law School, the Center for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria, and the Lowenstein Human Rights Project at Yale Law School for the analysis, which draws from "a diverse range of credible sources" and the territory's history.

"After reviewing the facts established by independent human rights monitors, journalists, and United Nations agencies, we conclude that Israel's actions in and regarding Gaza since October 7, 2023, violate the Genocide Convention," the report states. "Israel has committed genocidal acts of killing, causing serious harm to, and inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, a protected group that forms a substantial part of the Palestinian people."

As of May 1, Israel's assault had killed "more than 5% of Gaza's population, with over 2% of Gaza's children killed or injured," the analysis notes. In recent days, Israeli forces have ramped up their attack on Rafah—where over a million people from other parts of the besieged enclave sought refuge—and the total death toll has risen to 35,233, according to Gaza health officials, with another 79,141 Palestinians injured.

"Israel's military operation has destroyed up to 70% of homes in Gaza, and has decimated civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, universities, U.N. facilities, and cultural and religious heritage sites," the document says, noting the "staggering" number of forced displacements. "Civilians in Gaza face catastrophic levels of hunger and deprivation due to Israel's restriction on, and failure to ensure adequate access to, basic essentials of life, including food, water, medicine, and fuel."



"Israel's genocidal acts in Gaza have been motivated by the requisite genocidal intent, as evidenced in this report by the statements of Israeli leaders, the character of the state and its military forces' conduct against and relating to Palestinians in Gaza, and the direct nexus between them," the publication continues, pointing to comments from "officials at all levels of Israeli government, up to and including" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel has faced mounting allegations of genocide since launching its retaliation for the Hamas-led October 7 attack—including an ongoing South Africa-led case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in its January preliminary ruling ordered Israel to uphold its obligations under the Genocide Convention.

The Wednesday report declares that "Israel's violations of the international legal prohibition of genocide amount to grave breaches of peremptory norms of international law that must cease immediately."

"These violations give rise to obligations by all other states: to refrain from recognizing Israel’s breaches as legal or taking any actions that may amount to complicity in these breaches; and to take positive steps to suppress, prevent, and punish the commission by Israel of further genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza," the document adds.

The United States has long provided Israel with billions of dollars in military aid and diplomatic support—which have soared since October 7, despite growing pressure on U.S. President Joe Biden to cut off such assistance. The Democrat has incrementally increased his criticism of the Israeli assault in recent weeks, angering far-right leaders in both countries.

The new legal analysis—which was sent to the U.N.'s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect, and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel—came on the same day that 20 human rights groups issued a joint statement.

The rights organizations—including Amnesty International, Mercy Corps, and Oxfam—called on world leaders "to urgently act in bringing to an end, and pursue accountability for," Israel's grave breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza.

Both documents were released on Nakba Day, which commemorates the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Some experts and campaigners contend that the Nakba—Arabic for catastrophe—continues today.

Critics Denounce Israel's Defense Against Genocide Charges as 'Dishonest Talking Points'


"The problem for Israel is that the world has seen what they've done," said one observer.


Israeli representatives attend a hearing at the International Court of Justice regarding South Africa's claim that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza on May 17, 2024 in The Hague, Netherlands.
(Photo: Mouneb Taim/Anadolu via Getty Images)

JULIA CONLEY
May 17, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

The arguments presented by Israeli representatives at the International Court of Justice on Friday were not unexpected, as the government faced a new set of hearings on the Israel Defense Forces' assault on Gaza, but observers said the legal team's defense of the country's actions in the Palestinian enclave were "hard to stomach" in light of mounting reports about the lack of humanitarian aid and the rising death toll.

Tamar Kaplan Tourgeman, principal deputy legal adviser of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Gilad Noam, the deputy attorney general for international law, presented Israel's arguments against South Africa's claim that the ICJ must stop the IDF's invasion of Rafah, from which 630,000 Palestinians have been forced to flee since Israel seized a border crossing there and began moving troops into residential neighborhoods.

More than 1 million people have been forcibly displaced to Rafah since October as Israel has decimated cities across Gaza in what it claims is an effort to target Hamas fighters—but which has killed at least 35,303 people, two-thirds of whom have been women and children. The World Food Program and the U.S. Agency for International Development have both said in recent weeks, following months of warnings from humanitarian groups, that famine has taken hold in parts of Gaza due to Israel's near-total blockade on humanitarian aid.

Tourgeman claimed that South Africa—which launched the genocide case against Israel in December—has turned "a blind eye to Israel's remarkable effort" to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza residents and said Israel has taken "proactive steps" to ensure medical care is still being provided. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) disputed the claims at a press briefing shortly after the hearing.

"The last medical supplies that we got in Gaza was before May 6," WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic said at a U.N. press briefing, referring to the date Israel seized the Rafah crossing. "We don't have fuel. We have hospitals under evacuation order. We have a situation where we cannot move physically."

Al Jazeera journalist Tareq Abu Azzoum reported Friday that U.N. officials had confirmed no aid has come through either the Rafah or Karem Abu Salem crossings in recent days.

"That reflects how much Israel is working to erase truth and change the facts on the ground as it continues its relentless bombardment of Rafah and the Jabalia refugee camp," Abu Azzoum said.

Marc Owen Jones, associate professor of Middle East studies and digital humanities at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, accused Israel of using the ICJ hearing to promote "dishonest talking points" to the international community.

"This is why a lot of what it says comes across as completely dishonest—because it is completely dishonest," Jones told Al Jazeera. "There is a difference between the reality on the ground and what Israel is trying to present to the international community... The aid situation is desperate."

Kate Stegeman, a policy and advocacy consultant in South Africa, said it was "particularly hard to stomach" Israel's denial that civilians and medical staffers were killed by the IDF at Al-Shifa Hospital, one of the facilities where multiple mass graves have been found containing hundreds of bodies, including those of women and children.



Tourgeman also focused part of her defense on statements made by Israeli officials about their objectives in Gaza. She claimed that when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Gaza must not pose a threat to Israel and when Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the military operates "neighborhood by neighborhood" and will reach every location in Gaza, they were speaking expressly about Hamas.

The legal adviser did not mention Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's recent call for the "total annihilation" of Rafah and other cities, Gallant's statement that he had "released all the restraints" on the military, or a former intelligence chief's comment in October that "the 'noncombatant population' in the Gaza Strip is really a nonexistent term," among other statements.


While the Israeli representatives claimed the country "has been and remains committed to acting in accordance with its international legal obligations," said one critic, "the problem for Israel is that the world has seen what they've done."

Citing Ethnic Cleansing, US Army Major Resigns Over Israel's Assault on Gaza

"As the descendant of European Jews, I was raised in a particularly unforgiving moral environment when it came to the topic of bearing responsibility for ethnic cleansing," wrote Maj. Harrison Mann.

Members of the Nofal family mourn next to the bodies of their relatives, who were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Rafah, Gaza on January 9, 2024 in an attack that used U.S.-made bombs.
(Photo: Mohammed Talatene/picture alliance via Getty Images)

JULIA CONLEY
May 13, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

An American Army officer on Monday described months of being increasingly disturbed by the images and news of Israel's U.S.-backed bombardment of Gaza, which culminated in his public resignation from his position at the Defense Intelligence Agency to avoid further complicity in Israel's "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians.


Army Maj. Harrison Mann published his resignation letter on LinkedIn, saying he had distributed it internally on April 16 to announce his resignation from the agency.

As an officer at the DIA, Mann said, he has been unable to escape the fact that his place of work "directly executes policy" for the Biden administration, including its "nearly unqualified support for the government of Israel, which has enabled and empowered the killing and starving of tens and thousands of innocent Palestinians."

"My work here—however administrative or marginal it appeared—unquestionably contributed to that support," wrote Mann.


He described wrestling with the question of whether he could continue working at the DIA, reasoning with himself that, "I don't make policy and it's not my place to question it."

"However, at some point it became difficult to defend the outcomes of this particular policy," Mann wrote. "At some point—whatever the justification—you're either advancing a policy that advances the mass starvation of children, or you're not."


At the time Mann sent his letter to his colleagues, Israel was conducting airstrikes and preparing its ground invasion of Rafah, the southern Gaza city that over 1 million Palestinians have been forcibly displaced to since October.

Israel has continued to block aid to Gaza even after saying in early April it would open a crossing and a port, and has now pushed the enclave into what the United Nations World Food Program chief said earlier this month was a "full-blown famine." Dozens of people have died of starvation. At least 35,091 people who have been killed in Israel's military assault—two-thirds of those killed have been women and children, despite Israel's claim it is targeting Hamas fighters.

Mann wrote that as the bombardment dragged on and U.S. President Joe Biden's defense and funding of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continued, his mind turned to his European Jewish relatives.

"As the descendant of European Jews, I was raised in a particularly unforgiving moral environment when it came to the topic of bearing responsibility for ethnic cleansing—my grandfather refused to ever purchase products manufactured in Germany—where the paramount importance of 'never again' and the inadequacy of 'just following orders' were oft repeated," wrote Mann. "But I also have hope that my grandfather would afford me some grace; that he would still be proud of me for stepping away from this war, however belatedly."

Mann publicized his letter about six weeks after foreign affairs officer Annelle Sheline resigned from her position at the U.S. State Department, saying her work in the human rights realm in the Middle East had become "impossible" in light of Biden's material and political support for Israel's assault on Gaza.

Education Department official Tariq Habash, a Palestinian American, also resigned in protest earlier this year, and a top official who oversaw arms transfers at the State Department, Josh Paul, stepped down in October, citing the Biden administration's decision to send more arms to Israel as the war began.

In February, U.S. Air Force member Aaron Bushnell died after self-immolating in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., having said he was engaging "in an extreme act of protest" to avoid being complicit in genocide.

On LinkedIn, Mann wrote Monday that he "received an unexpected outpouring of support" when he distributed his letter internally, and appeared to address other federal employees who may be questioning their complicity in Biden's policies.

"I am sharing [the letter] now in the hope that you too will discover you are not alone, you are not voiceless, and you are not powerless," wrote Mann.

Feds United for Peace, which includes employees across 30 federal agencies who have advocated for a cease-fire in Gaza, called Mann's letter "incredibly significant."

The New York Times reported that it is not known "whether other military officers have resigned in protest of U.S. foreign policy" since the Hamas-led attack on Israel in October and the IDF's deadly retaliation, "but the resignation of an active-duty officer in protest of U.S. foreign policy is likely uncommon—especially one in which the officer makes public the reasons for doing so."

Israel's Deadly Bombing of World Central Kitchen Convoy Was No Anomaly: Report


A new analysis from Human Right Watch argues that numerous attacks on humanitarian relief operations by Israeli forces prove the April 1 bombing that killed 7 people was "far from being an isolated 'mistake.'"

A view of damaged vehicle carrying Western employees after Israeli attack in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on April 02, 2024. Seven staff members of the humanitarian organization World Central Kitchen (WCK), including Western nationals participating in food relief efforts and a Palestinian were killed due to attack.
(Photo by Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images)

JON QUEALLY
May 14, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

A deadly attack on a convoy of World Central Kitchen aid workers which killed 7 people last month was not a one-off occurrence, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday, but rather representative of a documented pattern in which Israel military forces have targeted relief personnel and infrastructure despite being informed of the exact locations of those operations.

"Even though aid groups had provided their coordinates to the Israeli authorities to ensure their protection," an analysis by HRW found that eight such attacks on such operations, including the April 1 bombing of the WCK in Deir al-Balah, have been carried out by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) over the last seven months.


According to the group's report, "Israeli authorities did not issue advance warnings to any of the aid organizations before the strikes, which killed or injured at least 31 aid workers and those with them."

"Israel's allies need to recognize that these attacks that have killed aid workers have happened over and over again, and they need to stop." —Belkis Willi, HRW

Details of the various attacks, said HRW, show that the WCK bombing was "far from being an isolated 'mistake,'" as the Israeli government has claimed.


Citing figures from the United Nations, HRW notes that over 250 aid workers have been killed in Gaza by Israel since the Hamas-led attack on October 7 of last year.

"Israel's killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers was shocking and should never have happened under international law," said Belkis Wille, associate crisis, conflict, and arms director at Human Rights Watch. "Israel's allies need to recognize that these attacks that have killed aid workers have happened over and over again, and they need to stop."




The other seven attacks documented in the report are:Attack on a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF or Doctors without Borders) convoy, November 18, 2023
Attack on a guest house of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), December 9, 2023
Attack on an MSF shelter, January 8, 2024
Attack on an International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) guest house, January 18, 2024
Attack on an UNRWA convoy, February 5, 2024
Attack on an MSF guest house, February 20, 2024
Attack on a home sheltering an American Near East Refugee Aid Organization (Anera) employee, March 8, 2024

Human Rights Watch sent a letter to Israeli authorities requesting more information about these documented incidents, but said it received no response.

"Israel should make public the findings of investigations into attacks that have killed and injured aid workers, and into all other attacks that caused civilian casualties," the group said on Tuesday. "The Israeli military's long track record of failing to credibly investigate alleged war crimes underscores the importance of the International Criminal Court's (ICC) inquiry into serious crimes committed by all parties to the conflict."

In addition to military targeting of relief operations, the Israeli military has been accused of various crimes, including indiscriminate bombing of civilian populations, forced displacement, and the targeting of medical facilities.

Also on Tuesday, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF/Doctors Without Borders) released a report documenting Israel's pattern of attacking its facilities, including hospitals, clinics, and ambulance services in Gaza during the current campaign.

"In view of this extensive timeline of reprehensible actions, MSF once again calls on all parties to respect and protect healthcare facilities, healthcare workers and patients in Gaza and the West Bank," the group said Tuesday. "An immediate and sustained ceasefire must be implemented in Gaza now to put an end to the suffering of people and the destruction of Gaza. We demand an immediate and unfettered flow of aid into the entirety of the Gaza Strip. We demand accountability for our colleagues and their family members who have been killed and wounded, and for patients."

In early May, following a month pause of Gaza operations following the deadly attack, WCK announced it was resuming its relief efforts in the area. It has also started construction on a new kitchen facility to elevate and support its mission to feed the people of Gaza as Israel's assault not only continues but intensifies.

"We have spent the past few weeks honoring the lives of Saif, Zomi, Damian, Jacob, James, John, and Jim. We are restarting our operation with the same energy, dignity, and focus on feeding people as these seven heroes brought to their work every single day," the groups said on May 5. "As our work in Gaza resumes, our demand for an impartial and international investigation into the April 1 attack remains."