McCaul, HFAC Members Call for UNRWA Chief to Publicly Testify Following Disturbing Allegations Linked to Hamas

02.29.24

Media Contact 202-226-8467

Washington, D.C. – Yesterday, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX), Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman Brian Mast (R-FL), Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations Chairman Chris Smith (R-NJ), and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) sent a letter to Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, requesting he testify publicly before the committee regarding the many troubling allegations leveled at UNRWA, including that employees participated in Hamas’ brutal October 7 attacks, which killed more than 1,200 innocent people. The letter follows a statement made in January by Chairman McCaul demanding Lazzarini testify publicly regarding these allegations. The Members previously sent a letter to Lazzarini requesting answers about reports that Hamas diverted food, fuel, and supplies from UNRWA humanitarian relief efforts. 

“[On] January 30th, the Committee received public testimony from subject matter experts who testified to these recent allegations and other past UNRWA failures,” wrote the lawmakers. “Their statements stand in sharp contrast to UNRWA’s claims. Given their critical testimony, the allegations of connections to Hamas terrorists, and the millions of taxpayer dollars already sent to UNRWA this fiscal year, it is now more important than ever that the American people hear from you directly in a public setting.”

 

The full text of the letter can be found here and below.

 

Dear Mr. Philippe Lazzarini:

Thank you for your January 25, 2024, letter indicating your willingness to appear before the members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in a closed, members-only setting. The letter cites UN privileges and immunities that forebear you from being compelled to testify in an open session.

With regards to your letter, we must first point out that UN privileges and immunities do not forbear voluntary testimony. Second, many members of this Committee are gravely concerned, but sadly, unsurprised, by allegations that employees of UNRWA participated in the horrendous October 7th attack and that thousands of employees have familial or direct ties to Hamas and other terrorist organizations. Furthermore, we are outraged by recent reporting that a Hamas military installation and server room is located directly beneath UNRWA’s Gaza headquarters. To make matters worse, Hamas operated this installation by siphoning electricity from UNRWA.

While we support the pause of future funding to UNRWA, we know that the agency has received roughly $121 million in funding from the State Department since October 1, 2023. Moreover, on January 30th, the Committee received public testimony from subject matter experts who testified to these recent allegations and other past UNRWA failures. Their statements stand in sharp contrast to UNRWA’s claims.

Given their critical testimony, the allegations of connections to Hamas terrorists, and the millions of taxpayer dollars already sent to UNRWA this fiscal year, it is now more important than ever that the American people hear from you directly in a public setting.

Therefore, we request that you appear voluntarily before the House Foreign Affairs Committee to testify at a public hearing. While you initially indicated this was untenable, we will note that you appeared before the European Parliament on September 1, 2021, and August 31, 2022, for an Exchange of Views in the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET). If you are willing to appear before the AFET, you surely can and would be willing to appear before the House Foreign Affairs Committee especially given the United States’ long term and considerable financial support to UNRWA.

Please indicate your willingness and availability to appear voluntarily for a public hearing by no later than March 14, 2024.

House Foreign Affairs Committee leaders called on the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency to testify before the committee about concerns that U.S.-funded aid flowing into Gaza is being diverted by Hamas.

Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Reps. Brian Mast (R-FL), Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Darrell Issa (R-CA) wrote to UNRWA’s commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, on Wednesday raising concerns about reports that Hamas has stolen food and other supplies during the recent war.

“There have been a number of concerning reports that have called into question the very mission and effectiveness of UNRWA,” the lawmakers wrote. “We must be clear-eyed about the reality that diversion by Hamas is a real threat and one that is very likely happening with UNRWA aid… Our constituents are horrified that their taxpayer dollars may have, through UNRWA failures, supported Hamas terrorists.’

The lawmakers highlighted that there is a documented history of Hamas stealing U.S. aid, and said that the U.N. agency has a track record of failing to remain neutral in its work in Gaza.

They specifically highlighted Hamas tunnels found in and around UNRWA schools and reports that an Israeli hostage was held in an UNRWA teacher’s home, as well as numerous instances of UNRWA employees sharing antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric.

“Assessments by NGOs continue to reveal anti-Israel content in educational materials used in UNRWA schools, which increases our concern that UNRWA, through this curriculum, has in some way aided Hamas’ call to destroy Israel,” the letter continues.

The House members asked the UNRWA leader to respond to their request by next Wednesday.

An HFAC subcommittee held a hearing with outside experts on potential reforms to the U.N. agency in November, following long-running efforts from lawmakers to reform or defund the U.N. agency. House Republicans are seeking to cut UNRWA funding entirely in 2024.

“Make no mistake, antisemitic bigotry is at the root of the UN’s hostility to Israel, which is ugly, evil, and manifests itself in almost every UN entity, especially and including UNRWA,” Smith, who chaired the November hearing, said in a statement.

JANUARY 19, 2024

The Biden Administration Joins Israel’s War on UNRWA

Following Washington’s lead, key US allies have cut funding for the United Nations Relief Works Agency for Palestine—making them all complicit in genocide.

PHYLLIS BENNIS
FEBRUARY 28, 2024

A group of Palestinian children is pictured at a school run by UNRWA in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on February 22, 2024.(Majdi Fathi / NurPhoto via Getty Images)

When the 17 judges of the International Court of Justice issued their near-unanimous ruling on January 26, making clear that Israel’s actions in Gaza plausibly constituted genocide, they asserted the legitimacy of the world’s most influential judicial body to hold Israel provisionally accountable for those violations.

Israel was having none of it.

Just hours after the court’s decision was announced in The Hague, Israel went public with an unsubstantiated allegation that 12 Gazan employees of the UN’s Relief Works Agency, the primary body responsible for providing humanitarian support to Palestine refugees, supposedly were tied to Hamas and may have played some role in the attack on Israel on October 7. (In fact, the names of all UNRWA employees had been provided to Israel earlier in the year for Tel Aviv’s vetting—and Israel made no complaints.) Despite the lack of evidence, UNRWA—presumably in an effort to avoid a dangerous collective punishment by Israel’s allies—immediately announced that it was firing the named employees (two were confirmed dead) and the UN launched two separate investigations.

Not wanting to wait a moment, however, Washington announced on the same day that it was cutting its entire aid allocation to UNRWA, despite the agency’s irreplaceable role in getting desperately needed aid into Gaza. A few hours later, key US allies announced that they were joining Washington in cutting aid: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and new NATO-member Finland. The United States provides by far the largest annual donation available to the UN agency (although, at just over $300 million, it’s a pittance compared to the almost $4 billion the US sends to the Israeli military every year). And combined with the at least 15 countries that eventually joined the US cuts, the impact on UNRWA’s ability to provide even the most minimal of basic services is enormous. With those services destroyed by Israel’s war, this US role in further undermining Palestinians’ access to water, food, medicine, shelter, and fuel makes Washington—again —directly complicit in Israel’s genocide.

Then things got worse. Two weeks later, on February 9, Israel launched another PR attack on UNRWA, this time claiming that a tunnel under the agency’s headquarters in Gaza City had been used by Hamas—variously identified as a communications center, a command center or a data center. Again no evidence was made public, but, among other responses, the US Senate bill authorizing $14 billion for unconditional aid to the Israeli military stated explicitly that none of the bill’s separate humanitarian aid (for conflict zones around the world) could go to UNRWA. US officials themselves had argued earlier that UNRWA was “the only game in town” in terms of getting any significant aid into Gaza, but the bill still imposed a permanent ban on US funding. (If passed by the House, it would even prevent UNRWA from receiving a tiny $300,000 grant that had already been approved.)

The impact of the aid cuts on the already threatened lives of 2.3 million displaced Gazans, as well as millions more Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, can hardly be overstated. US officials who suggested redirection of UNRWA funds to UNICEF and the World Food Program only showed their ignorance of conditions on the ground, and the capacities of aid organizations. UNICEF and WFP together have less than 70 staff on the ground in Gaza; UNRWA has over 13,000 providing, for more than half a century, all the services that ordinarily would be provided by a government civil service. Most of Gaza’s doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers, street sweepers are UNRWA employees. Without UNRWA, all the UN agencies and NGOs would be unable to carry out their crucial work. Thousands, probably tens of thousands more civilians—especially babies, children, pregnant women, and the elderly—will die.

And there is another price to be paid as well. Along with its critical role in lifesaving humanitarian assistance, UNRWA remains the only international agency in the UN system whose mandate includes protection of the rights of Palestinians as refugees. The work of UNRWA, from its creation in 1949, was designed to continue until Palestinian refugees achieved “a just and durable solution to their plight” on the basis of all the human rights and refugee rights to which they are entitled.

That means that UNRWA’s work is unfinished until the Palestinian refugees’ right to return to their homes, guaranteed by international law, is made real. Refugees—dispossessed in 1948 of their homes and land from what is now southern Israel—make up 70 percent of Gaza’s population. Without UNRWA, their right of return, indeed the very existence of Palestinians as a refugee community, is threatened with erasure. And that—creating conditions that make the survival of all or part of a threatened group as a group impossible—is part of the very definition of genocide.

No wonder Israel is so eager to get rid of UNRWA. And for the same reason, no wonder the defense of UNRWA remains such a critical factor in our continuing work for an immediate cease-fire and Palestinian access to unhindered humanitarian assistance in Gaza.

THE NATION 

2 Scientists in Canada Passed On Secrets to China, Investigations Find

After a prolonged Parliamentary debate, details about two microbiology researchers who were found to have shared secrets with China have been released.

The couple were escorted from their labs at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 2019 and later stripped of their security clearances. They were fired in January 2021.

Credit...John Woods/The Canadian Press, via Associated Press


By Ian Austen
Reporting from Ottawa
Feb. 29, 2024,

Two scientists who worked at Canada’s top microbiology lab passed on secret scientific information to China, and one of them was a “realistic and credible threat to Canada’s economic security,” documents from the national intelligence agency and a security investigation show.

The hundreds of pages of reports about the two researchers, Xiangguo Qiu and Keding Cheng, who were married and born in China, were released to the House of Commons late Wednesday after a national security review by a special parliamentary committee and a panel of three retired senior judges.

Canadian officials, who have warned that the country’s academic and research institutions are a target of Chinese intelligence campaigns, have tightened rules around collaborating with foreign universities. Canadian universities can now be disqualified from federal funding if they enter into partnerships with any of 100 institutions in China, Russia and Iran.

The release of the documents was the subject of a prolonged debate in Parliament that began before the last federal election, in September 2021. Opposition parties asked to see the records at least four times and found the Liberal government to be in contempt of Parliament in 2021. The government filed a lawsuit in an attempt to keep the records hidden, but dropped it when the vote was called.

The release comes as the country is holding a special inquiry led by a judge to look into allegations that China and other foreign nations have interfered in Canadian elections and political parties. Some of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s political opponents have charged that his government has failed to respond adequately to Chinese meddling in Canadian affairs.

But Mark Holland, the federal health minister in Canada, told reporters late Wednesday that at “no time did national secrets or information that threatened the security of Canada leave the lab.”

The couple were escorted out of their labs at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, during the summer of 2019 and later stripped of their security clearances. They were fired in January 2021.

More on China China’s Hacker Network: Leaked documents recently posted online show how the Chinese government is working with private hackers to obtain sensitive information from foreign governments and companies.

Fed-Up Investors: It’s a perilous time for investors in China. As their losses pile up, they are losing confidence not only in the stock market but in the government’s ability to turn the economy around.

Seeking a Friendlier Image: Faced with declining foreign investment at home, China has sought to soften its image abroad. Liu Jianchao, a Communist Party official, has played an unusually prominent role in the shift in tone.

‘Shawshank’ on Stage: A stage adaptation of the film “The Shawshank Redemption” in Beijing, cast with Western actors speaking fluent Mandarin Chinese, has raised questions about translation, both linguistic and cultural.

The same year, the government released heavily redacted records about their dismissal, setting off a battle with opposition parties that were demanding more detail about the security breach.

The large cache of newly released documents, which have significantly fewer redactions, offer more details about the scientists’ unauthorized cooperation and information exchanges with Chinese institutions. The documents also revealed that Dr. Qui had not disclosed formal agreements with Chinese agencies in which a Chinese institution agreed to pay substantial amounts of research money. It also agreed to pay her an annual salary of 210,000 Canadian dollars (about $155,000).

The couple could not be located, and they did not appear to have any obvious local representatives. Some Canadian news outlets have reported, based on undisclosed sources, that they moved to China after being dismissed. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police opened a criminal investigation in 2021, but its status is unclear and no charges have been laid.

The documents released on Wednesday do not include any general response from the couple. But they show that during questioning by investigators, Dr. Qui repeatedly said that she was not aware that she had broken any security rules, blamed the health agency for not fully explaining procedures and frequently tried to mislead investigators until confronted by contradictory evidence.

In a letter to Dr. Qui, the public health agency said that she “did not express remorse or regret. You failed to accept responsibility for your actions and deflected blame onto P.H.A.C.” It added that she did not show “any signs of corrective behavior, rehabilitation or desire for resolution of the situation.”

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service also found that Dr. Qiu repeatedly misrepresented her ties to researchers and organizations in China, relationships it characterized as “close and clandestine.”

In one secret report, the intelligence agency said that when she was asked about her exchanges with scientists and organizations in China, she “continued to make blanket denials, feign ignorance or tell outright lies.”

An internal investigation report for the Public Health Agency of Canada, which includes the lab, shows that the couple fell under suspicion in 2018, when Dr. Qiu was named an inventor on a patent granted in China that appeared to use research developed by the agency for an Ebola vaccine.

That revelation, in turn, suggested that the couple had engaged in several violations of security rules at the laboratory, portions of which are designed for work on the world’s most lethal microbes, including ones that could be used for biological warfare.

Those breaches included attempts by graduate students of Dr. Qiu at the University of Manitoba, all of whom were Chinese nationals, to remove material from the lab and being allowed to wander through the facility unescorted.

In one episode, X-rays revealed that a parcel delivered to the lab for Dr. Cheng — and labeled “kitchen utensils” — contained vials of mouse proteins. The discovery underscored that Dr. Cheng had broken protocols, according to the documents.

An investigation by the intelligence agency found that Dr. Qiu had a formal agreement with Heibei Medical University to work on a “talent program,” something it described as a project “to boost China’s national technological capabilities.”

A report documenting the investigation added that it “may pose a serious threat to research institutions, including government research facilities, by incentivizing economic espionage.” That agreement promised about 1.2 million Canadian dollars (roughly $884,000) in research funding. The agency said the couple did not disclose, as required, that they maintained a bank account in China.

Dr. Qiu, the intelligence service said, also had a résumé she used only in China that showed she was a visiting professor at three Chinese health research institutes and a visiting researcher at a fourth one.

Exactly what information Dr. Qiu may have provided to China and how China may have used it is not clear either from the internal investigation or the intelligence agency reports.

The intelligence service said that many of the institutions she worked with researched “potentially lethal military applications.” When asked as part of an internal investigation about the potential military uses of her work, Dr. Qiu said that the idea had not occurred to her, the documents show.

The internal investigation found that a trip Dr. Qiu made to Beijing in 2018 was paid for by a Chinese biotechnology company.

Mr. Holland said that the lab’s management had demonstrated an “inadequate understanding of the threat of foreign interference.”

He added, “I believe that an earnest effort was made to adhere to those policies, but not with the rigor that was required.”

In a statement, Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative leader, said that the Chinese government and its agencies, “including the People’s Liberation Army, were allowed to infiltrate Canada’s top-level lab.” The statement added, using the abbreviation for the People’s Republic of China, “They were able to transfer sensitive intellectual property and dangerous pathogens to the P.R.C.”

Vjosa Isai contributed reporting from Toronto.

Ian Austen reports on Canada for The Times based in Ottawa. He covers politics, culture and the people of Canada and has reported on the country for two decades. He can be reached at austen@nytimes.com. More about Ian Austen

16 Russian satellites embark on a mission for maritime oversight

By Boyko Nikolov On Feb 29, 2024

On the last day of Febrary, Russia made headlines by launching a Soyuz-2-1b rocket into space. The spacecraft was filled with 16 Russian-made ASTRO-AIS automatic identification system satellites.

Photo credit: Roscosmos

• Russian satellite Kosmos-2570 detached two military objects – US
• US launched an orbital fleet to shadow Russian hypersonic missiles
• Russian Soyuz launch: speculations stir US over nuke-space weapon

Other essential payloads included a Russian meteorological satellite named Meteor-M2-4, the Zorky-2M Earth observation satellite, also Russian-built, as well as the Iranian Pars-1 satellite, designed for earth observation. The stage was set and the launch was successfully carried out from the Vostochny spaceport. 

The 16 ASTRO-AIS satellites aboard the Soyuz-2-1b deserve special mention. These satellites serve a unique role. They’re engineered mainly for marine tracking, surveillance, and monitoring. AIS is a communications system used by sea vessels, which allows the exchange of identifying info and positional data, offering comprehensive insights into ship movements, positions, and other vital information. 

The brilliance behind the ASTRO-AIS satellites’ design lies in their ability to capture these AIS signals sent from sea vessels. This capability allows for global oversight of maritime traffic, enhancing safety and boosting the efficiency of maritime operations. 

These satellites have numerous uses including avoiding vessel collisions, maintaining maritime area knowledge, assisting in search and rescue efforts, and monitoring and preventing illegal activities at sea. 

The International Maritime Organization [IMO] has mandated that AIS equipment is compulsory on all ships, irrespective of size, involved in passenger service, and cargo ships weighing more than 500 gross tonnes on local voyages and those above 300 gross tons on international voyages. 

Photo credit: Reddit

Data bursts from AIS transponders are automated and happen at regular intervals. Navigation status data is transmitted every 2 to 180 seconds, depending on the vessel’s movement. Additionally, data related to the voyage is broadcast every 6 minutes. These signals can be picked up by other ships equipped with AIS or land-based systems. 

Military purpose

The AIS system was initially designed to prevent ship collisions, but over time, due to its effective tracking and oversight abilities, it has evolved into a versatile multi-purpose tool. For example, tracking and monitoring the activities of military vessels and coast guards, provides vital data for military and security operations. 

However, it’s crucial to note that not all sea vessels are required to install AIS transponders. Some warships may choose to turn off their transponders for security reasons, indicating that while ASTRO-AIS satellites can effectively monitor numerous military and coast guard vessels, some might remain undetected. 

Photo credit: NPO Mashinostroyeniya

With a cruising altitude of roughly 700 kilometers around the Earth, ASTRO-AIS satellites can oversee vast swathes of the ocean. This unique design enables them to receive AIS signals from thousands of vessels at once, making them a potent global maritime traffic monitoring tool.  

In conclusion, information gathered by ASTRO-AIS satellites can be amalgamated with additional data sources like radar and optical satellite imagery to provide a more extensive view of maritime activities. This combined data approach assists in mitigating certain limitations associated with AIS data, such as the potential for vessels to turn off their transponders.

***

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THIS IS A FIRST

Most Democrats prefer a president who doesn't support military aid to Israel

Poll shows 56% of party's voters say less likely to vote for candidate who supports aid to Israel; More Democrats now blame Israel for Gaza war

Ynet, News Agencies|

A survey published Thursday by the Reuters news agency and the Ipsos polling institute has provided some extremely worrying data for Israel: It shows that the majority of Democratic voters now prefer a presidential candidate who does not support the transfer of military aid to Israel. According to the survey, which was conducted over three days this week, 56% of the respondents who identified themselves as Democrats said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who supports military aid to Israel, and only 40% said that such support would actually increase the chance that they would vote for him
The survey's data fits into an already worrying trend for Israel vis-à-vis Democrats. In recent years, the power of the radical progressive camp in the party has greatly strengthened, and highly vocal figures such as Reps. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Ilhan Omar, and American-Palestinian congresswoman Rashida Tlaib are convincing masses of Democratic voters to demand that the Democratic Biden administration halt traditional U.S. aid to Israel due to its alleged "abuse" of the Palestinians.

 
President Joe Biden continues to support Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza
(Photo: AP)

Despite the pressure on him from Democratic lawmakers and a large portion of his party's voters, President Joe Biden continues to give the green light to Israel's military action in Gaza. This week there was a reminder of the political danger inherent in this for him, when more than 100,000 voters in the Republican primaries in the key state of Michigan chose the "uncommitted" option instead of voting for Biden, to express their protest over his support for Israel.

According to the new survey, an increasing proportion of Democrats, even if it is still a minority, blames Israel for the war in Gaza, with 23% of Democrats saying that they blame the Israeli government, up from 13% in November. Some 46% of Democrats said they blame Hamas, down from 54% in November. An overwhelming majority of Democrats also state that they want a presidential candidate who will call for a cease-fire.


A majority of Democratic voters now prefer a presidential candidate who does not support the transfer of military aid to Israel
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

On the other side of the political aisle, the situation is, predictably, the opposite. Some 62% of the Republicans who participated in the survey said that they prefer a presidential candidate who would support the transfer of military aid to Israel, while 34% said that supporting such aid would make them less likely to vote for him.

According to poll released on Thursday, public opinion is equally divided between Biden and his expected opponent in the elections, Donald Trump , with each receiving the support of 36% of the voters - an extremely low rate.

Donald Trump leads over Joe Biden in seven key states

Still, U.S. presidential elections are decided by the electoral system, from that perspective Biden's situation continues to look grim. According to a survey published on Thursday by Bloomberg, Trump leads over Biden in seven key states and the president must win in almost all of them if he wants to win the presidential election in November.

Trump leads by 9% in North Carolina, 6% in Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Nevada, 4% in Wisconsin and 2% in Michigan. If these are the results of the election, it will mean a resounding defeat for Biden.

An Open Letter to the Women of the Congressional Progressive Caucus

BY COUNTERPUNCH NEWS SERVICE

 FEBRUARY 29, 2024

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Specifically Jasmine Crockett, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Jill Tokuda, Grace Napolitano Sylvia Garcia, Val Hoyle, Lisa Blunt Rochester, Sheila Jackson Lee, Frederica Wilson, Sydney Kamlager-Dove, Jennifer McClellan, Lori Trahan, Madeleine Dean, Gwen Moore, Suzanne Bonamici, Teresa Leger Fernandez, Yvette Clarke, Nanette Barragan, Andrea Salinas, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Rosa DeLauro, Katie Porter, Grace Meng, and Shontel Brown

Dear Women of the Congressional Progressive Caucus,

We, the undersigned, are writing to you because although you are part of a progressive caucus, you have yet to do the most bare minimum progressive act: call for a ceasefire in Gaza. 26 women in this committee already have—it’s time for the 24 of you to join them.

March 8 is International Women’s Day, a fitting reminder of the thousands of women in Gaza who are being slaughtered, clearly abandoned by women like you who hold positions of power and privilege yet refuse to call for a ceasefire. Many of you will use the discussion of reproductive justice in the US as an opportunity to say you stand with women. Many of you will release statements about IWD, citing your membership to the Congressional Progressive Caucus as evidence of your commitment to progressive advocacy for women, but your inaction tells us the truth.

Your words mean nothing when you fail to center the women of Gaza, who need our attention the most right now. You lose credibility when you fail to demand an end to Israel’s genocide campaign. What is more anti-feminist and less progressive than war? Since the start of Israel’s most recent bombardment, miscarriages in Gaza have gone up 300%. Women are forced to undergo C-sections without anesthesia. Israeli soldiers in the Tal al Zaatar area of Gaza shot at and bulldozed over pregnant women carrying white flags. What significant action have you taken to stop this genocide? None. We will not allow you to continue virtue signaling by simply being part of this caucus. We demand consistency.

This IWD, we call on you to reject traditional Western and colonial “feminist” narratives that have long perpetuated war, occupation, and genocide! War-mongering fuels the oppression, mistreatment, and murder of women around the world. The struggle for reproductive justice and Palestinian liberation are deeply intertwined feminist issues.

Be a real feminist and call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Reproductive justice starts there.

Towards peace and liberation,

CODEPINK staff, chapters, volunteers, and supporters

CODEPINK, along with Mothers and Daughters Against Genocide, will be in the halls of congress on March 8, International Women’s Day, delivering the letter to the specified progressive caucus members.

Click here to  learn more about the IWD campaign. 

Click here to sign the petition.

Alabama’s Anti-DEI Bill Fits Nicely With Its History of School Segregation

The Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama, US, on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. Photographer: Andi Rice/Bloomberg


By Claire Suddath
February 29, 2024 at 2:00 PM MST

Hello, it’s Claire Suddath and welcome back to the Equality newsletter. This week I’m going to take a closer look at Alabama’s anti-DEI bill, one of more than 30 such proposed bills in states across the U.S. 

But first...Anti-DEI lawsuits are leading to job losses, fleeing investors.

Morgan Stanley, UBS Group are paying male staff over 40% more than women in Australia.

Anti-Diversity in Alabama

It’s been a busy week in Alabama. Just days after the state’s Supreme Court granted embryos personhood status (throwing IVF clinics into disarray and sparking federal attempts to protect fertility treatments) , the state Senate also passed a controversial bill barring diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in education.

In short, the bill bans DEI offices at public schools and universities, and prohibits schools from sponsoring programs that are open only to people of a certain race or gender (more on that in a minute) or advocate for what it calls “a divisive concept,” a term found in several similar bills proposed in other states. If the House approves it, Alabama will become the seventh state to pass an anti-DEI bill within the last year.

The bill is, well, hard to understand. If you read the text (which you can here) you’ll find that while disbanding DEI offices seems pretty straightforward, later the bill says that “promoting racial, cultural or ethnic diversity or inclusiveness,” is still fine. Presumably in some other, less formal way that doesn’t involve a DEI office, although it doesn’t specify what’s allowed. It’s all very confusing. And maybe that’s the point.

“Usually when a bill is vague, you assume they want it to be vague,” says Ralph Richard Banks, a law professor at Stanford University, “People don’t want to go to jail, so when they don’t know what a law prohibits, they might refrain from doing lots of stuff that should still be legal.”

This has been the situation in Texas. Last year the state banned DEI offices at public institutions as well as any program that provides “special benefits” to people based on race, color or ethnicity. Texas’ law says that it doesn’t apply to student groups but according to the Texas Tribune, the University of Texas at Austin has closed a multicultural center that was used by several student groups, terminated a scholarship program for undocumented students, and declined to fund the school’s Black Student Alliance for fear of running afoul of the new law.

Alabama’s bill will likely have the same effect, says Banks. It prohibits state funds to be used for school organizations that condition participation on a person’s “race, sex, gender identity, ethnicity, national origin or sexual orientation” — but then carves out exceptions for athletic and “social organizations” that segregate based on sex. In other words, the legality of a university’s Black student alliance may now be in question but fraternities and sororities are just fine. Your Bama Rush TikTok videos are safe.

The list of “divisive concepts” that schools can’t teach is also confusing. Among other things, schools are not allowed to promote the idea that “slavery or racism are aligned with the founding principles of the United States.” But it does allow for historical events to be taught in a “historically accurate context.”

So let’s do that.

In January 1861, Alabama became the third state to secede from the United States of America. “Our new government is founded,” Alexander Stephens, the Confederacy’s Vice President, said in his speech a couple of months later, “upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition.” At the time, Alabama had one of the largest enslaved populations in America.

More than 100 years later, in his 1963 inauguration speech, Alabama’s governor George Wallace honored the Confederacy’s legacy and promised to enforce “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

Also that year, 14 Black students were denied admission to Tuskegee High School, an all-White public school in Macon County, despite the fact that the Supreme Court had struck down racial segregation in schools nine years previously. They sued. A federal judge issued a desegregation order. In response, Wallace issued an executive order postponing classes and mobilized the National Guard to prevent the students from attending. (President Kennedy overrode his order.)

When the Black students finally enrolled in Tuskegee High School, Wallace promised White parents that they could receive tuition assistance from the state if they wanted to enroll their kids in the newly created private school, Macon Academy. (A federal court later prohibited this.)

According to Auburn University’s Encyclopedia of Alabama, between 1965 and 1975, nearly 100 new all-White private schools opened in Alabama and 50,000 White students left the public school system. A 2021 study by professors at the University of Kansas and the University of Alabama found that Black children in Alabama’s “Black Belt” (the term for the area that was once home to many of the state’s plantations; many current Black residents are descended from former slaves and the area has some of the highest poverty rates in the state) attend schools that are more racially segregated now than they were in 1990.

The University of Alabama didn’t officially desegregate its sororities and fraternities until 2013. The share of Black students who are Greek members at the school remains miniscule. Explicit language requiring racial segregation in public schools was not removed from Alabama’s state constitution until 2022. The poverty rate for Black people in Alabama is twice that of Whites.

“You don’t have to have a formal DEI office to address educational inequality—or could you just change the name?—but it does take real, concerted work,” says Bryan Mann, an education and policy professor at the University of Kansas, and co-author of that 2021 study of Alabama’s Black Belt. “If you’re legislating whitewashed interpretations of history and proscribing how schools and educators can address the issue, you’re making it a lot harder for them to put people on equal playing fields.”

Today, 27% of Alabamans are Black but they account for only 11% of University of Alabama students.
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