Rev. Al Sharpton: Jesse Jackson Helped Reshape Democratic Party & Paved Way for Kamala Harris

DEMOCRACY NOW!
Story  August 19, 2024

GuestsAl Sharpton
civil rights activist.

Reverend Jesse Jackson, the civil rights icon who worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr., ran for president twice, in 1984 and 1988, and founded the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, is expected to appear on stage on the opening night of this year’s Democratic National Convention. We play footage of an event held Sunday in Chicago to honor Jesse Jackson, which featured fellow civil rights activist Al Sharpton and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, among many other speakers. “We learned at his feet,” Sharpton said of Jackson’s impact on civil rights activism. “Every time a Black [person] opens their mouth and talks about democracy, Jesse Jackson is talking. Every time we march, Jesse Jackson is walking. And when you see Kamala Harris get on that stage this week, Jesse Jackson is on that stage.”

Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.


AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, “War, Peace and the Presidency: Breaking with Convention.” I’m Amy Goodman, here with Juan González.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, on Sunday, hundreds of people gathered here in Chicago to honor civil rights icon Reverend Jesse Jackson, the founder of Rainbow PUSH Coalition. In the 1960s, Jackson worked closely with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1984 and ’88, Jackson ran two groundbreaking presidential campaigns.

AMY GOODMAN: Reverend Jesse Jackson is expected to appear on stage tonight at the DNC. In 2017, he announced he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. On Sunday, the Reverend Al Sharpton praised Jackson as Jackson sat in the front row in a wheelchair, hundreds of people around him, family and friends. He praised Jackson for transforming the Democratic Party. This is the Reverend Al Sharpton.


REV. AL SHARPTON: I became a youth organizer under Reverend Jackson when I was 12 years old in New York. Many people do not understand the magnitude of what Jesse Jackson has done for this country. When Martin Luther King was killed in 1968, there was the vacuum of what was going to happen to the movement. I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Some of the ministers, even though I was a young minister, seemed like they were not connected to what was going on in the urban North. Jesse Jackson came from the South but organized in Chicago and knew how to organize in urban centers. There would not have been a continuation of that movement had Jesse Jackson not bridged that gap and started fighting for collective economics at that time.


Way before we started talking about corporate accountability, he was boycotting Fortune 500 companies, dealing with the economic policy, dealing with the exploitation of the poor. He became a national figure holding corporate America accountable. What people are doing now was started by Jesse Louis Jackson.


But directly, as they start the Democratic convention on tomorrow, let me just talk about his historic reshaping of the party. In 1983, he started saying a Black should run for president. There was, in 1972, the Gary, Indiana, convention, National Black Political Convention. There was the fights between the Black nationalists and those that were in elective office. Reverend tried to bridge that. It led all the way to '83. He went around the country trying to get certain Blacks to run. In the middle of him doing that, he started a Southern voting crusade. As he was on the bus going through Mississippi, through Louisiana, registering voters, people started saying, “You should run, Jesse.” And we started to chant, “Run, Jesse, run!” Most of the Black elected officials didn't see it. He ran anyway. And he ran and won many of those primaries, and he put us on the agenda, saying, “Our time has come.” …


It’s a remarkable career to be born in the Deep South, in the back of the bus, and to grow into being a world figure that literally changed the political structures as we knew it, put two of his sons in Congress — Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., who’s a constitutional scholar, Jonathan Jackson now — reshaped the civil rights movement. What we’re doing now with civil rights organization, we learned at his feet.


Let me end by saying there’s some people that say that it’s sad Reverend Jackson, from Parkinson’s, can’t walk like he used to and talk like he used to. But I want you to know that every time a Black opens their mouth and talk about democracy, Jesse Jackson is talking. Every time we march, Jesse Jackson is walking. And when you see Kamala Harris get on that stage this week, Jesse Jackson is on that stage. He’s sitting there watching the results of his work. There wouldn’t be no us if it wasn’t for him. Thank you, and God bless you.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s the Reverend Al Sharpton honoring the Reverend Jesse Jackson last night here in Chicago at a gathering at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition headquarters. Hundreds turned out. Jesse Jackson is expected to appear on stage at the Democratic National Convention tonight. He ran twice for president, in 1984 and 1988.

Democracy Now! is broadcasting two hours each day from the Chicago convention as we cover the DNC from the inside out. In our other hour today, we’ll be talking with Osama Siblani, who runs a newspaper in Dearborn, will talk about the “uncommitted” movement. We’ll also be talking about two men who were imprisoned for over 40 years and then exonerated, what that means. That does it for our show from Chicago, from CAN TV. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

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Protesters descend on Democratic convention, but aim to avoid chaos of 1968


Police line up on Wacker street in Chicago while preparing for protests against the Democratic Party prior to the Democratic National Convention on Sunday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

By Faith E. Pinho
and James Rainey

Aug. 19, 2024 


CHICAGO —

As Democrats from across the country convene in Chicago to officially crown Vice President Kamala Harris as their nominee, another group is descending on the city in protest of the Biden-Harris administration’s actions in the Israel-Hamas War — a sharp reminder of the divisions that still dog the party despite a show of unity for its new candidate.

The Coalition to March on the DNC — an affiliation of more than 200 activist groups from across the country — is planning two major protests during the four-day Democratic National Convention.

The first march is scheduled to step off Monday, just as the convention is getting started. The other, planned for Thursday, will coincide roughly with Harris’ headliner speech at the convention.

Several smaller protests are planned throughout the week. Organizers said they expect thousands, and perhaps tens of thousands, of demonstrators to descend on the Democratic convention.

It’s going to be family friendly. And, if there are any troublemakers, there are people trained to de-escalate that. 

— Carlos Montes, activist

Carlos Montes, a longtime activist from Boyle Heights, traveled from California to Chicago to join protesters this week outside the Democratic National Convention.
(James Rainey / Los Angeles Times)

While many Democrats are joyfully celebrating their new nominee, parts of the party’s left flank will be focusing protests on progressive issues. The coalition is demanding that Democrats support funding for jobs, housing, health and education — not money to fund the Israel-Hamas war.

But the broad array of imperatives advocated by the marchers also includes, for example, a demand for the government to grant legal status to the estimated 11 million immigrants now believed to live in the U.S. without legal documents.

The coalition already has experienced some pushback from city officials over the planned protests, first over the group’s permitting and then about a sound system.

On Friday the city agreed to a few concessions — including allowing protesters to set up a stage at Union Park, roughly a half mile east of the United Center arena, where Democrats will convene. The city also approved installation of a sound system and several portable toilets.

“The Law Department had to drop their unconstitutional denial of a sound system,” Hatem Abudayyeh, a coalition spokesperson, said in a statement Friday. “They knew it wouldn’t hold up in court, but they also knew that we have been organizing day and night to line up important supporters in Chicago who helped advocate for us too.”

Abudayyeh said at a midday news conference Sunday that group will continue to push the city to allow demonstrators to march up Washington Boulevard, which would put them within two city blocks of the United Center.

He said the thousands of marchers simply won’t be able to fit in the roughly 1.1-mile route approved by the city. The longer route that the Chicago-based activist favors would cover 2.4 miles.

Asked if the protesters would abide by the city-approved route, Abudayyeh said: “We will march the route,” adding: “Listen, we have a philosophy in Chicago that the numbers dictate what the route is.


Pro-Palestinian activists prepare to rally at Democratic convention in Chicago
Aug. 4, 2024

Organizers expect marchers to come from around America, many traveling overnight Sunday in car caravans and chartered buses and by train to be in time for the noon-time start of Monday’s rally.

Others speaking to the news predicted that months of planning would result in a well-managed and peaceful event — staffed with an internal security team, first aid workers and volunteer lawyers to monitor interactions with police and any outside agitators.

“It’s going to be very well organized and it’s going to be peaceful,” said Carlos Montes, a progressive activist since the 1960s, who came from Boyle Heights to participate in this week’s actions. “We don’t want to reenact ’68 in Chicago, right?”

During the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968, hundreds of demonstrators waged war with police and National Guardsmen on the streets of the city.
(Michael Boyer / Associated Press)

In 1968, protesters against the Vietnam War famously filled the streets of Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. The city’s police department responded with massive force and the violence that followed created indelible images, which Richard Nixon used to great effect in his successful campaign for the presidency against Hubert Humphrey.

“This time we are saying, ‘Bring your grandma, bring your kids,’” said Montes, 77, once a member of the leftist Brown Berets, a Chicano rights group. “It’s going to be family friendly. And, if there are any troublemakers, there are people trained to de-escalate that.”

Local leaders noted that the city had changed markedly since the reactionary administration of Mayor Richard J. Daley, who demanded a hyper-aggressive response by the Chicago police to the demonstrations of 1968.

Chicago today is governed by Mayor Brandon Johnson, a progressive who earlier this year helped pass a resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Gaza war, making his the biggest city in America at that time to approve such an action.

The protest leaders said they hoped the more liberal administrators running the city would help assure a more even-handed response by police, though Abudayyeh said it wasn’t clear that message was getting through to the police department’s leaders.

“It’s one thing to say that we have policies that say we respect the 1st Amendment and we respect protesters’ rights,” Abudayyeh said. “It’s another thing to see implementation [of that] by the Chicago Police.”

The demonstrations in Chicago will likely be the first major pro-Palestinian protests efforts since a rash of protests spread across American college campuses this past spring.

Asked whether there were any plans for protests or disruptions inside the conference hall, Abudayyeh said he did not.


Why her abbreviated campaign has helped Harris pull into the lead, for now
Aug. 18, 2024

While the activists promised to be peaceful, they expressed mixed feelings about Harris’ ascension to the Democratic presidential nomination. Some said they are hopeful she would work harder for Palestinian rights than Biden.

But others held her equally accountable for what they view as the Democrats’ blind support of Israel.

Faayani Aboma Mijana of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, blamed “genocide Joe Biden” and “killer Kamala Harris,” among many leaders, as guilty of supporting the violence by the Israel defense forces.

The activist said that the same kind of oppressive tactics on display in Gaza have been used by police against people of color in the U.S.

“The Democratic Party cannot bear to witness a coalition of nearly 270 organizations from all over the country,” said Mijana, who is Black, “composed of the very people they claim to represent from all sectors of society, marching on them and pointing out their hypocrisy.”

US: Pro-Palestine delegates at Democratic convention to push for Israel arms embargo


August 19, 2024

A Democrats sign is seen on the exterior of the United Center ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, United States on August 16, 2024. 

[Jacek Boczarski – Anadolu Agency]


Dozens of Muslim delegates and their allies, angry at US support for Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip, are seeking changes in the Democratic platform and plan to press for an arms embargo this week, putting the party on guard for disruptions to high-profile speeches at its national convention in Chicago, Reuters has reported.

Calling itself “Delegates Against Genocide”, the pro-Palestine group says that it will exercise its freedom of speech rights during main events at the four-day Democratic National Convention convening on Monday. The convention is expected to nominate Vice President Kamal Harris as the party’s candidate for president in the 5 November election against Republican former President Donald Trump.

Group organisers declined to give details, but said that they were encouraging supporters to wear Palestinian keffiyeh scarves and to carry Palestinian flags, and would seek changes in the party platform, while urging delegates to speak on the convention floor. On Sunday night, a crowd of roughly 1,000 pro-Palestine protesters marched through downtown Chicago, chanting “Shut down the DNC”.

President Joe Biden is due to speak on Monday and Harris on Thursday. Pro-Palestine delegates say that they deserve a bigger role in the writing of the party platform. The group wants to include language backing the enforcement of laws that ban giving military aid to individuals or security forces that commit gross violations of human rights.

“We’re going to make our voices heard,” said Liano Sharon, a Jewish business consultant and delegate who signed an alternative platform along with 34 other delegates. “Freedom of expression necessarily includes the right to stand up and be heard even when the authority in the room says to shut up,” he explained at an event hosted by Chicago’s large Palestinian population. “They want the convention to go smoothly. They don’t want to have any kind of disruption or any kind of statement or anything like that. I’m sorry. A convention is a political engagement vehicle, okay? And if we’re not using it for that, then it’s just a beauty pageant.”

The Harris campaign declined to comment.

READ: UK, France, Germany, Italy back Gaza ceasefire mediation, saying ‘too much at stake’

The party’s draft platform released in mid-July calls for “an immediate and lasting ceasefire” in the war and the release of remaining hostages taken to Gaza during the 7 October cross-border incursion by Palestinian resistance fighters in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed. Media reports claim that many of the victims were killed by so-called “friendly fire” from the Israel Defence Forces.

The platform does not mention the more than 40,000 Palestinians killed by Israel’s military offensive now in its eleventh month, nor does it mention any plans to curtail US arms shipments to the occupation state. The US approved $20 billion in additional arms sales to Israel last Tuesday.

Mediators including the US have sought to broker a truce between Israel and Hamas, which rules Gaza, based on a plan Biden put forward in May, but, so far, the efforts have not succeeded.

The Israeli war against the Palestinians in Gaza has reduced support for Democrats among Muslim and Arab-American voters, who represent crucial votes in election battleground states like Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania. While the activists make up a tiny fraction of convention delegates, disruptions inside the hall and large protests outside could mar the party’s plan to unite Democrats around Harris after Biden dropped out of the race in July.

Pro-Palestine activists say Harris has been more sympathetic to the Palestinians in Gaza than Biden has. Her national security adviser said on X this month, however, that she does not support an arms embargo on Israel. After meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month, Harris told reporters not only that Israel had a right to defend itself but also in reference to Gaza, “We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent.”

Some 40,000 protesters are expected to gather outside the convention on Monday to demonstrate against the Biden administration’s position on Israel. Organisers say that the number could swell to over 100,000.

Nadia Ahmad, a law professor at Florida’s Barry University and a delegate, said that there were about 60 Muslim delegates, a fraction of the overall total of 5,000. However, their concerns are shared by others, especially young voters, some of whom have disengaged with the party, she pointed out.

The Uncommitted National Movement, a separate effort pushing Democrats to change policy on Israel that won over 30 delegates in primary elections, also wants an arms embargo.

It has focused, unsuccessfully so far, on winning a main-stage speaking slot for a Palestinian American or Gaza humanitarian worker, although organisers agreed on Saturday to add a daytime panel discussion on Arab and Palestinian issues to Monday’s agenda and one on anti-Semitism. Jewish Americans, traditionally Democratic voters, have voiced concern about rising anti-Jewish activity and Muslims have denounced rising American Islamophobia.

Layla Elabed, the Uncommitted National co-chair, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a Muslim ally of Biden’s, and a doctor who has worked on the Gaza frontlines will be among speakers on the first panel, said informed sources.

Uncommitted, which said it is not planning to disrupt the convention proceedings, is pressing Harris to make a statement about the use of US weapons to kill Palestinians.

MBS ‘forged father’s signature’ to authorise Saudi war on Yemen

August 19, 2024 

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in Jeddah on 20 March, 2024

 [VELYN HOCKSTEIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images]


Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and de-facto ruler, Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS), allegedly forged his father King Salman’s signature to deploy ground troops to Yemen, a former royal adviser has claimed. According to the Times, citing a new BBC documentary, Saad Al-Jabri, an ex-aide to former Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Nayef (MBN), made the allegations.

Al-Jabri, who was a key figure in the Saudi intelligence community, stated that MBS, then the minister of defence, was the primary force behind the US-backed 2015 military intervention against the Houthi movement and allied forces in the Yemeni military.

In The Kingdom: The World’s Most Powerful Prince, which will air this evening, Al-Jabri said: “We started the war in March [2015] and MBS was pushing towards ground intervention. MBN — who was crown prince — said no. Our army was not tested and we do not think that they will do a job.”

“So MBN issued a decree by the king to prevent any ground interventions. Later on, we were surprised that there was a royal decree to allow the ground interventions.”

The joint Saudi and UAE-led coalition’s involvement in Yemen has resulted in nearly 400,000 deaths and displaced 4.5 million people, according to UN estimates. Saudi-led air raids also claimed the lives of almost 9,000 people, injuring over 10,000.

Al-Jabri, who now lives in Canada after fleeing the kingdom in 2017, insists his claim has reliable sources within the Ministry of Interior who confirm the forgery.

Sir John Sawers, former chief of MI6, said that although he did not know whether the royal forged the documents, “it is clear that this was MBS’s decision to intervene militarily in Yemen. It wasn’t his father’s decision, although his father was carried along with it.”

Report: Israel withholds $1.8bn in Palestinian tax revenues

August 19, 2024 

A man counts Israeli shekel banknotes in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on 30 November, 2023 [Ahmad Salem/Bloomberg via Getty Images]

Over the last few years, the Israeli government has deducted approximately 6.93 billion shekels ($1.8 billion) from Palestinian tax revenues and has refused to return these funds, exacerbating the financial difficulties faced by the Palestinian Authority (PA), according to the latest statistics of the Palestinian Ministry of Finance.

The WAFA news agency said Israel’s policy aims to tighten the economic siege on the Palestinians to pressure the Palestinian Authority to stop payments to its employees and retirees in Gaza, including salaries for government employees in essential sectors such as health and education.

According to the agency, since the onset of the Israeli aggression on Gaza in October 2023, occupation authorities have deducted nearly 2.55 billion shekels ($500 million) from the tax revenues allocated for Gaza, averaging 255 million shekels ($50 million) per month.

In addition to these deductions, Israel has withheld 3.48 billion shekels ($600 million) in funds intended for the families of martyrs and prisoners, a practice ongoing since February 2019.

These deductions average 53.5 million shekels ($14.4 million) per month, with Israel continuing to block the release of these funds.

Israel has also retained over 900 million shekels ($242.6 million) in taxes collected from Palestinian travellers at crossings with Jordan, bringing the total deductions to around 6.93 billion shekels ($1.8 billion).

The Palestinian Ministry of Finance has reported that Israeli deductions for services such as electricity, water, sewage and hospital bills from tax revenues have accumulated to roughly 20 billion shekels ($5.4 billion) since 2012.

Opinion

Prolonging the genocide is a smokescreen for Israel’s other war in the West Bank



Israeli troops enter Nablus, West Bank on August 19, 2024. [Nedal Eshtayah – Anadolu Agency]

by Dr Ramzy Baroud
August 19, 2024 


Promises of “absolute victory” in Gaza are nothing but “gibberish”, according to Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. Gallant’s comments were not meant to be public, but somehow were leaked and published by Israeli media on 12 August.

The explanation of why Benjamin Netanyahu is pursuing a losing war in Gaza has been largely confined to the prime minister’s personal interests, not least the avoidance of corruption trials, preserving his extremist government coalition and avoiding an early general election. Still, none of these rationales explain the absurdity of continuing with a war which, in the words of former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, is “The worst failure in Israel’s history.”

What else could explain Netanyahu’s motive for the war? And why are his most crucial government allies, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, determined to prolong it? The answer may not lie in Gaza, but in the occupied West Bank.

While Israel is extending its failed military campaign in the Strip with no clear strategic objectives, its war on the West Bank is driven by very clear motives indeed: the annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory and the ethnic cleansing of large sectors of the Palestinian population. This is not only obvious through Israel’s daily actions in the West Bank, but also because of the clear statements made by Israel’s extreme far right government officials, including a commitment by Netanyahu’s own Likud party to “advance and develop settlement in all parts of the land of Israel – in the Galilee, Negev, Golan Heights and Judea and Samaria.” The latter, of course, is what Zionists call the West Bank.

READ: West Bank Bedouin communities affected by Israel’s policy of forced displacement

An audio recording obtained by the Israeli group Peace Now conveyed the following remarks by Smotrich at a June 9 conference: “My goal is to settle the land, to build it, and to prevent, for God’s sake, its division… and the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

To do so, the far-right politician has assigned himself the job of “change(ing) the DNA of the system.” This “system” was put in place decades ago, following Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank in 1967. It began a slow but determined process of illegal annexation of Palestinian territories. The process included the establishment, in 1981, of the so-called Civil Administration.


This was and remains essentially a branch of the Israeli military.

However, it was described as “civil” as part of a government effort to convert a temporary military occupation into the permanent colonisation of Palestine. This entailed the practical annexation and continued expansion of the illegal Israeli Jewish settlements built on Palestinian land after the June 1967 Six-Day War.

The Oslo Accords in 1993-94 gave Palestinians nominal administrative control over small areas in the West Bank, designated as areas A and B. This necessitated the transfer of some of the Civil Administration’s responsibility to the newly-formed Palestinian Authority, based on the understanding that the PA will always prioritise Israel’s security. The arrangement allowed Israel to expand, unhindered, its illegal settlements in most of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, tripling both the size and population of the settlements between 1993 and 2023.

As Israel’s colonial plan in the West Bank reached its zenith, Netanyahu sought in 2020 to reinforce Israeli gains with the annexation of more than 30 per cent of the West Bank. Due to international pressure and growing Palestinian resistance, however, Netanyahu postponed his plan, albeit with the understanding that “annexation remains on the table”.

OPINION: It’s true, Netanyahu has never been a partner for peace

Without much fanfare, though, Israel swapped its hope for a sweeping de jure annexation of the West Bank with de facto control, through rapid seizures of Palestinian land and the expansion of its settlements, all of which are illegal under international law.


Although the Israeli military is faltering in Gaza, the genocide is being used as a smokescreen to finalise Israel’s settler-colonial plans in the West Bank.

This process was dubbed by Smotrich in 2017 as a “victory by settlement”. Now in a position of power and with access to a massive budget, he is making his life’s goal a reality.

For Smotrich’s dream to be realised, he needed to revitalise the once central role of the Civil Administration. In May, he invented a new position called “deputy head” of the administration, granting the position to his close associate Hillel Roth.

Now both men have unparalleled and sweeping rights to expand the settlements. Since coming to power in December 2022, Netanyahu’s latest government has approved 12,000 new housing units for illegal settlements, while ordering the demolition of thousands of Palestinian homes and other civilian infrastructure.

In the first three months of 2024, Israel declared nearly 6,000 acres of the West Bank to be “state-owned land”, and therefore made it eligible for settlement construction. The decision was described by the Israeli watchdog Peace Now as the “largest West Bank land grab in 30 years.”

The ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is already under way. According to the Norwegian Refugee Council, in the first half of 2024 alone, at least 1,000 Palestinians were forcefully displaced while nearly 160,000 were affected by home demolitions.

The Israeli war on the West Bank has come at a high price in Palestinian blood. As of 12 August, at least 632 Palestinians had been killed with 5,400 wounded in the West Bank alone, according to the Ministry of Health. When the war on Gaza is over, the war on the West Bank will grow more intense and bloodier, but with the clear strategic goal of annexing the whole territory, even though the International Court of Justice resolved on 19 July that Israel’s “annexation and… assertion of permanent control” in the West Bank is illegal.

To avoid an even greater war and genocide than that which is taking place before our eyes in Gaza, the international community must use all available means to enforce international law and bring to an end Israel’s brutal, genocidal occupation of Palestine.

West Bank Bedouin communities affected by Israel’s policy of forced displacement

August 19, 2024 

A view of Al Meite village, Palestinian Bedouin village, in Al Aghwar, West Bank. [Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency


The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has said that at least 40 Bedouin communities across the occupied West Bank have been forcibly expelled as a result of Jewish settlers’ attacks and crimes, Anadolu agency has reported. The ministry said yesterday that it views with great concern the crime of forced displacement committed against the Bedouin communities throughout the occupied Palestinian territory by Israeli settler-colonial gangs, especially in Masafer Yatta and the Jordan Valley.

It expressed profound concern over “colonists’ attacks against Palestinian Bedouin communities, which are carried out with the support and protection of the [Israeli] occupation army and the direct supervision of the extremist Ministers in the Israeli government, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir.” The latest of these was the forced expulsion of the last Palestinian Bedouin families in Umm Al-Jamal in the northern Jordan Valley.

Such Israeli acts, said the ministry, are on a par with “ethnic cleansing” as part of the “ongoing gradual annexation” of the occupied West Bank. “Israel wants to empty the area of its Palestinian residents in order to use it for its illegal settlement enterprise, with the aim of undermining any chance for the embodiment of the Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

The Palestinian ministry stated that it is following “this complex crime” and is “reporting it to the competent international courts”, adding that all decisions or sanctions issued by the international community or states on colonial activities as well as on colonists accused of committing crimes against the Palestinian people do not appear to deter the criminals responsible.

READ: EU warns of humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, West Bank amid rising dangers for aid workers

“There needs to be dissuasive international sanctions, not only on colonists and their armed militias, but also on ministers and officials in the Israeli government who provide protection, support and funding to the likes of Smotrich and Ben-Gvir.”

According to the Palestinian Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Israeli settlers have carried out a total of 1,530 attacks in the occupied West Bank from the beginning of 2024 until the end of July. The data indicated that 18 Palestinians have been killed by settlers and more than 785 have been injured as a result of these attacks since 7 October last year.

The Israeli leftist Peace Now movement has said that half a million Israelis live in 146 large settlements and 144 settlement outposts established on the West Bank, excluding occupied East Jerusalem.

In parallel with its devastating war on Gaza since 7 October, the Israeli army has expanded its operations in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, while settlers have escalated their attacks on Palestinians there, killing 635 and wounding about 5,400 others, according to official Palestinian data.

Israel’s war in Gaza has killed or wounded more than 132,000 Palestinians, most of them children and women, with a further 10,000 missing, presumed dead, under the rubble of their homes and other civilian infrastructure destroyed by the occupation state. Much of the Gaza Strip has been laid to waste, and Israeli impediments to the distribution of humanitarian aid mean that starvation is now a reality for 2.3 million people in the enclave.

NAKBA II

Smotrich launches annexation campaign to expel Palestinians from ‘Area B’ of West Bank

August 19, 2024 

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich gives a speech in front of the Israeli Parliament in Jerusalem on June 3, 2024 [Saeed Qaq/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images]


Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich today launched an annexation campaign to expel Palestinians and demolish structures in ‘Area B’ of the occupied West Bank.

In a statement on X, the far-right politician detailed his recent visit to the area, which constitutes about three per cent of the occupied West Bank and falls under Palestinian civil control and Israeli security control.

He described the area as strategically vital as it will form part of the illegal Gush Etzion settlement cluster and connect the region with nearby Jerusalem.

Smotrich, who heads a pro-settler party and who himself is a settler, accused the Palestinian Authority of investing significant resources to create territorial continuity in the region, which he claims threatens Israeli control and causes environmental damage.

READ: West Bank Bedouin communities affected by Israel’s policy of forced displacement

He wrote: “The Palestinian Authority in concerted efforts with a great deal of money and energy is trying to take over the east, to create a territorial continuity from north to south, and also from east to west, thus essentially interrupting our continuity.”

“There is also a very, very serious scenic damage here, in one of the most valuable and important areas in the State of Israel.”

He added: “As I recall, about a month ago, my proposal to enforce the Wye Agreement, which mandates the protection of the agreed reserve against Palestinian construction and takeover, was approved in the political and security cabinet. In accordance with the decision, the authority for enforcement passed from the Palestinian Authority to the Civil Administration.”

This comes after Israeli media reported that the Israeli occupation government, at Smotrich’s request, approved the legalisation of five illegal settlements in Area B of the Occupied West Bank.

The Oslo II Agreement of 1995 divided the West Bank into three areas: “A”, which is subject to full Palestinian control; “B” is subject to Israeli security authority and Palestinian civil control; and “C” which is subject to Israeli civil, administrative and security control. The latter constitutes about 61 per cent of the total occupied West Bank area.

Israel’s illegal settlements are creeping deeper into the West Bank and taking up greater swathes of the area’s land, with occupation forces claiming some areas a “closed military zones” forcing Palestinians off their ancestral properties.

Canada urges immediate cease-fire, boost in aid to Gaza on World Humanitarian Day

'One region where humanitarian aid is most needed today is Gaza,' says Prime Minister Trudeau

Merve Gül Aydoğan Ağlarcı |19.08.2024 - 



HAMILTON, Canada

On World Humanitarian Day, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for an urgent cease-fire and increased humanitarian aid to Gaza, underscoring the dire need for assistance in the region.

"Today, on World Humanitarian Day, we honor the heroes who risk their lives to protect the world’s most vulnerable," Trudeau stated.

Reflecting on the deadly attack that occurred 21 years ago on the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, which resulted in the deaths of 22 humanitarian workers and injuries to over 150 others, Trudeau highlighted the growing challenges faced by aid efforts worldwide.

"The effects of armed conflict and climate change have led to a record-high number of people in need of humanitarian assistance," he said.

Trudeau reaffirmed Canada’s commitment to aiding those in need through partnerships with organizations such as the UN, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, and various NGOs.

Addressing the crisis in Gaza, he described the situation as "catastrophic" and emphasized, "One region where humanitarian aid is most needed today is Gaza."

Canada has pledged $165 million in aid for Gaza and the West Bank. Trudeau called for "an urgent cease-fire" and stressed the importance of "the release of hostages, the protection of civilians, and an increased flow of humanitarian aid throughout the region."

Prime Minister talks Welsh steel industry with First Minister

Both the British and Welsh governments are now Labour Party run.


Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer meeting First Minister of Wales Eluned Morgan during a visit to Cathays Park in Cardiff (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

PA Wire
George Lithgow

The Prime Minister and First Minister of Wales have discussed the Welsh steel industry in their first meeting since taking over their respective roles.

Sir Keir met Eluned Morgan, who was sworn in earlier this month, in the Welsh capital Cardiff.

Baroness Morgan said “croeso”, the Welsh word for welcome, before shaking hands with the Prime Minister on the steps of the Welsh Government building at Cathays Park.



Both the British and Welsh governments are now run by the Labour Party.

“We can actually start working together,” a smiling Sir Keir told his Welsh counterpart.

Baroness Morgan is the third leader of the country this year.

She succeeded Vaughan Gething, who lasted less than 140 days as first minister, having presided over a turbulent period in office, beset by rows over donations and sacked ministers

Baroness Morgan was health secretary from 2021 until she succeeded Vaughan Gething – himself a former health secretary – as leader of Welsh Labour on July 24.

Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens said everything is on the table when it comes to negotiations with Tata Steel (Tejas Sandhu/PA)
PA Wire

Joined by the new Welsh secretary Jo Stevens, the trio discussed the country’s troubled steel industry

“We’re going to need more steel,” Sir Keir said, adding that there were “massive opportunities” in the sector.

“My concern is that we’re going to lose the capacity to make the steel,” he said.

Ms Stevens previously said “everything is on the table” when it comes to negotiations with Tata Steel.

The company is switching to a greener form of steel production at its plant in Port Talbot, South Wales, which will lead to thousands of job losses.

The trio are meeting to discuss resetting the relationship between the governments of the UK and Wales.

UK
Strikes at colleges suspended after 'progress' made in pay dispute

Rebecca Newlands
Mon, 19 August 2024

Strikes at colleges suspended after 'progress' made in pay dispute


ukUpcoming strikes at colleges have been suspended after 'progress' was made in a pay dispute.

College lecturers based at learning institutions across Scotland were set to walk out in a dispute over pay this week.

Dates were originally set for Tuesday, August 20, Wednesday, August 21, and Thursday, August 22 and would impact colleges across the country including Glasgow Kelvin College and West College Scotland, which has campuses in Clydebank, Greenock and Paisley.

Now the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) has revealed that strike action has been suspended after they reached 'significant' progress at a meeting with EIS-FELA representatives, College Employers Scotland and the Scottish Government Minister for Further & Higher Education on Monday.

EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley said: "EIS-FELA representatives met with representatives of Scotland’s Colleges after meeting the Minister responsible for Further Education, this morning.

"Significant progress was made at this meeting, with the result that EIS-FELA and the EIS have decided to suspend three days of strike action, scheduled for this week.

"This is intended as an act of good faith and in the interests of supporting students and is on the understanding that an improved offer will be made formally by College Employers Scotland in the coming days.

"While a final settlement has yet to be reached, EIS-FELA negotiators were significantly encouraged by today’s developments and believed it appropriate to suspend this week's strikes.

"Based on discussions this morning, we remain hopeful that a resolution can be struck that will finally see a fair pay settlement that will allow lecturers to return to working as normal, and to do what they do best which is supporting their students in colleges across Scotland to learn and progress.

"Discussions will now continue to iron out final details. Once a revised offer is formally on the table, our intention is to put this to EIS-FELA members in a ballot.

"Today has brought us closer to an end to this long-running dispute, and we hope that discussions will now move quickly and smoothly towards a fair agreement for all parties and a return for students to the uninterrupted, quality learning and teaching that they need and deserve."

Jeremy Corbyn offers support to Scottish college lecturers in long-running pay battle

Gabriel McKay
Sun, 18 August 2024 

Jeremy Corbyn


Jeremy Corbyn has offered his support to lecturers at Edinburgh College who face pay deductions as part of an ongoing industrial dispute.

As part of a long-running dispute over pay, members of the EIS-FELA union are engaged in action short of a strike, including not inputting results into college systems.

The dispute has been ongoing since 2021, with no pay rise agreed between college employers and the union.

EIS-FELA has announced that new strike dates will take place this month after a re-ballot of its members renewed its mandate.

Read More:

Scotland must increase investment in education or pay a 'very high price'


College lecturers renew industrial action as union warns strikes could follow


Lecturers 'stand between the students and disaster' as pay fight goes on

Last week, lecturers at Edinburgh College were told they faced having pay withheld as part of the dispute "unless there is an agreed reason for a resulting delay", a process known as 'deeming'.

Following a talk with Neil Findlay, the former Labour MSP, at the Edinburgh Fringe, Mr Corbyn offered his support to the lecturers.

The former Labour leader said: "I just want to send my solidarity to the lecturers, what they are doing is fighting for decent pay and conditions.

"Decent pay and conditions and proper funding of further and higher education means a better experience for students, means better achievements of our students, and in the end a much better society.

"Short-changing our teachers, short-changing our lecturers, short-changing our support staff, damages the life chances of all of our young people.

"So stick at it, and win."

EIS Branch Secretary Dan Holland said: "By choosing to punish staff for participating in Action Short of a Strike and deduct all their salary, this has now escalated the matter locally which will only serve to harm industrial relations.

"Following a local strike last year which damaged these relations, the local EIS branch has worked extremely hard with local management to repair this trust.

"This unconscionable act of deducting all our salary for refusing to complete less than 1% of our job is effectively locking staff out of coming to work, as the Principal clearly stated that any work carried out would be considered voluntary and go unpaid.

"The local branch implores the Principal to withdraw this punitive approach to evidence her commitment to the agreed cultural reset.”

Edinburgh College has been contacted for comment.