Boeing threatens lockout of Seattle firefighters over pay dispute

May 4, 2024

NEW YORK (AP) – Boeing is threatening to lock out its private force of firefighters who protect its aircraft-manufacturing plants in the Seattle area and bring in replacements beginning Friday night unless the workers accept the company’s last offer on wages.

The company said the two sides were far apart in negotiations. It described the lockout as a precautionary move because the union could go on strike at any time once the current contract expires at midnight local time.

Each side accuses the other of bad-faith negotiating.

The labour showdown comes as Boeing deals with mounting losses — more than USD24 billion since the start of 2019 — and increased scrutiny over quality and safety in its manufacturing since a door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max flying over Oregon in January.

On Friday, Boeing dismissed any safety concerns about the dispute with its industrial firefighters. The company said it has made arrangements with “highly qualified firefighters” to replace the union workers, and the lockout will not affect operations at plants where it builds planes.

Boeing has about 125 firefighters in the Seattle area and a facility about 275 kilometres away in central Washington state. They serve as first responders to fires and medical emergencies, and can call in help from local fire departments. The union says their constant presence lets Boeing get much lower insurance rates.

The company says firefighters were paid USD91,000 on average last year.

Casey Yeager, president of Local I-66 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said Boeing was proposing raises of 18 to 20 per cent that would still leave crews earning 20 to 30 per cent less than firefighters in the cities where Boeing plants are located. He said the union is seeking raises of 40 to 50 per cent.

A major sticking point is Boeing’s demand to make firefighters wait 19 years to hit top pay scale, up from 14 years. The union is proposing five years.

“If they keep pushing it out, you’ll never get” to top scale, said Kjel Swedelius, a Boeing firefighter for more than six years. “Our turnover rate is super, super high.”

Swedelius said he needs financial assistance to cover care for his autistic 7-year-old son.

“I really like working at Boeing, but it’s getting harder and harder,” he said. “They don’t want to keep up with inflation.”

In a letter to the union this week, Boeing said the union had rejected two previous proposals, and the company “has gone as far financially as it is willing to go and will not add any more money to its offer.”

The company, which is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, said it proposes to pay firefighters four hours of overtime in every 24-hour shift, which would increase their pay USD21,000 a year on average.

Boeing has lodged a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing the union of bad-faith bargaining during more than two months of negotiations and several meetings with a federal mediator.

“With a potential for a strike, we have activated our contingency plan that includes the use of highly qualified firefighters,” a company spokesperson said in a statement Friday. “If a contract is not ratified by 12.01am (Saturday), we will lock out all members of the bargaining unit.

U.N. Official Warns That Famine in Northern Gaza Is Already ‘Full-Blown’

USAID Administrator Samantha Power talks with Mana operations director Harry Broughton during a tour of its factory in Fitzgerald, Ga., that produces emergency nutritional aid for starving children, on May 3, 2024. Russ Bynum—AP

BY ELLEN KNICKMEYER AND RUSS BYNUM / AP

MAY 3, 2024 


WASHINGTON — A top U.N. official said Friday that hard-hit northern Gaza was now in “full-blown famine" after more than six months of war between Israel and Hamas and severe Israeli restrictions on food deliveries to the Palestinian territory.

Cindy McCain, the American director of the U.N. World Food Program, became the most prominent international official so far to declare that trapped civilians in the most cut-off part of Gaza had gone over the brink into famine.

“It’s horror," McCain told NBC's “Meet the Press” in an interview to air Sunday. “There is famine — full-blown famine — in the north, and it’s moving its way south."

She said a cease-fire and a greatly increased flow of aid through land and sea routes was essential to confronting the growing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, ilhome to 2.3 million people.

There was no immediate comment from Israel, which controls entrance into Gaza and says it is beginning to allow in more food and other humanitarian aid through land crossings.

The panel that serves as the internationally recognized monitor for food crises said earlier this year that northern Gaza was on the brink of famine and likely to experience it this month. The next update will not come before this summer.

One of the U.S. Agency for International Development's humanitarian officials in Gaza told The Associated Press that on-the-ground preparations for a new U.S.-led sea route were on track to bring in more food — including treatment for hundreds of thousands of starving children — by early or mid-May. That's when the American military expects to finish building a floating pier to receive the shipments.

Ramping up the delivery of aid on the planned U.S.-backed sea route will be gradual as aid groups test the distribution and security arrangements for relief workers, the USAID official said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity over security concerns for work done in a conflict zone. They were some of the agency’s first comments on the status of preparations for the Biden administration’s $320 million Gaza pier project, for which USAID is helping coordinate on-the-ground security and distribution.

At a factory in rural Georgia on Friday, USAID Administrator Samantha Power pointed to the food crises in Gaza and other parts of the world as she announced a $200 million investment aimed at increasing production of emergency nutritional paste for starving children under 5.

Power spoke to factory workers, peanut farmers and local dignitaries sitting among pallets of the paste at the Mana nonprofit in Fitzgerald. It is one of two factories in the U.S. that produces the nutritional food, which is used in clinical settings and made from ground peanuts, powdered milk, sugar and oil, ready to eat in plastic pouches resembling large ketchup packets.

“This effort, this vision meets the moment,” Power said. "And it could not be more timely, more necessary or more important.”

Under pressure from the U.S. and others, Israeli officials in recent weeks have begun slowly reopening some border crossings for relief shipments.

But aid coming through the sea route, once it's operational, still will serve only a fraction — half a million people — of those who need help in Gaza. Aid organizations including USAID stress that getting more aid through border crossings is essential to staving off famine.


Children under 5 are among the first to die when wars, droughts or other disasters curtail food. Hospital officials in northern Gaza reported the first deaths from hunger in early March and said most of the dead were children.

Power said the U.N. has called for 400 metric tons of the nutritional paste “in light of the severe hunger that is pervading across Gaza right now, and the severe, acute humanitarian crisis.” USAID expects to provide a quarter of that, she said.

Globally, she said at the Georgia factory, the treatment made there “will save untold lives, millions of lives.”

USAID is coordinating with the World Food Program and other humanitarian partners and governments on security and distribution for the pier project, while U.S. military forces finish building it. President Joe Biden, under pressure to do more to ease the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza as the U.S. provides military support for Israel, announced the project in early March.

U.S. Central Command said in a statement Friday that offshore assembly of the floating pier has been temporarily paused due to high winds and sea swells, which caused unsafe conditions for soldiers. The partially built pier and the military vessels involved have gone to Israel's Port of Ashdod, where the work will continue.


A U.S. official said the high seas will delay the installation for several days, possibly until later next week. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operation details, said the pause could last longer if the bad weather continues because military personnel and divers have to get into the water for the final installation.

The struggles this week with the first aid delivery through a newly reopened land corridor into north Gaza underscored the uncertainty about security and the danger still facing relief workers. Israeli settlers blocked the convoy before it crossed Wednesday. Once inside Gaza, the convoy was commandeered by Hamas militants, before U.N. officials reclaimed it.

In Gaza, the nutritional treatment for starving children is most urgently needed in the northern part of the Palestinian territory. Civilians have been cut off from most aid supplies, bombarded by Israeli airstrikes and driven into hiding by fighting.

Acute malnutrition rates there among children under 5 have surged from 1% before the war to 30% five months later, the USAID official said. The official called it the fastest such climb in hunger in recent history, more than in grave conflicts and food shortages in Somalia or South Sudan.


One of the few medical facilities still operating in northern Gaza, Kamal Adwan hospital, is besieged by parents bringing in thousands of children with malnutrition for treatment, the official said. Aid officials believe many more starving children remain unseen and in need, with families unable to bring them through fighting and checkpoints for care.

Saving the gravely malnourished children in particular requires both greatly increased deliveries of aid and sustained calm in fighting, the official said, so that aid workers can set up treatment facilities around the territory and families can safely bring children in for the sustained treatment needed.

___

Bynum reported from Fitzgerald, Georgia. Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor in Washington and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed.

Top U.N. Official Cindy McCain Says Northern Gaza Is Now In 'Full-Blown Famine'

“It’s horror," McCain told NBC's “Meet the Press” in an interview to air Sunday.

ELLEN KNICKMEYER and RUSS BYNUM

AP
May 3, 2024



WASHINGTON (AP) — A top U.N. official said Friday that hard-hit northern Gaza was now in “full-blown famine” after more than six months of war between Israel and Hamas and severe Israeli restrictions on food deliveries to the Palestinian territory.

Cindy McCain, the American director of the U.N. World Food Program, became the most prominent international official so far to declare that trapped civilians in the most cut-off part of Gaza had gone over the brink into famine.

“It’s horror,” McCain told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview to air Sunday. “There is famine — full-blown famine — in the north, and it’s moving its way south.”

She said a cease-fire and a greatly increased flow of aid through land and sea routes was essential to confronting the growing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, home to 2.3 million people.

There was no immediate comment from Israel, which controls entrance into Gaza and says it is beginning to allow in more food and other humanitarian aid through land crossings.

The panel that serves as the internationally recognized monitor for food crises said in March that northern Gaza was on the brink of famine and likely to experience it in May. Since March, northern Gaza had not received anything like the aid needed to stave off famine, a U.S. Agency for International Development humanitarian official for Gaza told The Associated Press. The panel’s next update will not come before this summer.

The USAID official said on-the-ground preparations for a new U.S.-led sea route were on track to bring in more food — including treatment for hundreds of thousands of starving children — by early or mid-May. That’s when the American military expects to finish building a floating pier to receive the shipments.

In this image provided by the U.S. Army, soldiers assigned to the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary) and sailors attached to the MV Roy P. Benavidez assemble the Roll-On, Roll-Off Distribution Facility (RRDF), or floating pier, off the shore of Gaza in the Mediterranean Sea on April 26, 2024. The pier is part of the Army's Joint Logistics Over The Shore (JLOTS) system which provides critical bridging and water access capabilities. (U.S. Army via AP)

Ramping up the delivery of aid on the planned U.S.-backed sea route will be gradual as aid groups test the distribution and security arrangements for relief workers, the USAID official said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing security concerns accompanying the official’s work on conflicts. They were some of the agency’s first comments on the status of preparations for the Biden administration’s $320 million Gaza pier project, for which USAID is helping coordinate on-the-ground security and distribution.

At a factory in rural Georgia on Friday, USAID Administrator Samantha Power pointed to the food crises in Gaza and other parts of the world as she announced a $200 million investment aimed at increasing production of emergency nutritional paste for starving children under 5.

Power spoke to factory workers, peanut farmers and local dignitaries sitting among pallets of the paste at the Mana nonprofit in Fitzgerald. It is one of two factories in the U.S. that produces the nutritional food, which is used in clinical settings and made from ground peanuts, powdered milk, sugar and oil, ready to eat in plastic pouches resembling large ketchup packets.

“This effort, this vision meets the moment,” Power said. “And it could not be more timely, more necessary or more important.”

Under pressure from the U.S. and others, Israeli officials in recent weeks have begun slowly reopening some border crossings for relief shipments.

But aid coming through the sea route, once it’s operational, still will serve only a fraction — half a million people — of those who need help in Gaza. Aid organizations including USAID stress that getting more aid through border crossings is essential to staving off famine.

Children under 5 are among the first to die when wars, droughts or other disasters curtail food. Hospital officials in northern Gaza reported the first deaths from hunger in early March and said most of the dead were children.

Power said the U.N. has called for 400 metric tons of the nutritional paste “in light of the severe hunger that is pervading across Gaza right now, and the severe, acute humanitarian crisis.” USAID expects to provide a quarter of that, she said.

Globally, she said at the Georgia factory, the treatment made there “will save untold lives, millions of lives.”

USAID is coordinating with the World Food Program and other humanitarian partners and governments on security and distribution for the pier project, while U.S. military forces finish building it. President Joe Biden, under pressure to do more to ease the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza as the U.S. provides military support for Israel, announced the project in early March.

U.S. Central Command said in a statement Friday that offshore assembly of the floating pier has been temporarily paused due to high winds and sea swells, which caused unsafe conditions for soldiers. The partially built pier and the military vessels involved have gone to Israel’s Port of Ashdod, where the work will continue.

A U.S. official said the high seas will delay the installation for several days, possibly until later next week. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operation details, said the pause could last longer if the bad weather continues because military personnel and divers have to get into the water for the final installation.

The struggles this week with the first aid delivery through a newly reopened land corridor into north Gaza underscored the uncertainty about security and the danger still facing relief workers. Israeli settlers blocked the convoy before it crossed Wednesday. Once inside Gaza, the convoy was commandeered by Hamas militants, before U.N. officials reclaimed it.

In Gaza, the nutritional treatment for starving children is most urgently needed in the northern part of the Palestinian territory. Civilians have been cut off from most aid supplies, bombarded by Israeli airstrikes and driven into hiding by fighting.

Acute malnutrition rates there among children under 5 have surged from 1% before the war to 30% five months later, the USAID official said. The official called it the fastest such climb in hunger in recent history, more than in grave conflicts and food shortages in Somalia or South Sudan.

RAFAH, GAZA - MAY 03: Children in Rafah city queue to receive a bowl of food for their families from charity organizations, in Rafah, Gaza on May 03 2024. As the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip continues unabated, the full embargo imposed on the territory has left Palestinians unable to obtain many vital needs, including basic food supplies.

 (Photo by Doaa Albaz/Anadolu via Getty Images)

One of the few medical facilities still operating in northern Gaza, Kamal Adwan hospital, is besieged by parents bringing in thousands of children with malnutrition for treatment, the official said. Aid officials believe many more starving children remain unseen and in need, with families unable to bring them through fighting and checkpoints for care.

Saving the gravely malnourished children in particular requires both greatly increased deliveries of aid and sustained calm in fighting, the official said, so that aid workers can set up treatment facilities around the territory and families can safely bring children in for the sustained treatment needed.

___

Bynum reported from Fitzgerald, Georgia. Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor in Washington and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed.

 

The spread of anti-war protests could become ‘Biden's Vietnam’

Posted May. 04, 2024 07:29

   ,  Headline News | The DONG-A ILBO (donga.com)  S. KOREA 

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As protests against the Middle East conflict spread in the U.S. and European university campuses, U.S. President Joe Biden issued an urgent statement urging restraint. He affirmed the right to protest while unequivocally denouncing violence, saying, "There’s the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos." However, despite its issuance as an emergency response following a week of deliberation, critiques suggest it fell short of fully appeasing both proponents and opponents of the protests.

President Biden delivered an impromptu address at the White House on Wednesday (local time), saying that no individual had the prerogative to incite chaos, and emphasized that maintaining order was of paramount importance. Against the backdrop of ongoing clashes at Columbia University in New York and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), an official response was issued eight days after the declaration on April 24, saying that there was "no place in America for antisemitism." According to media outlets such as the Associated Press, approximately 2,200 college students had been arrested or detained by law enforcement across the U.S. as of Wednesday.

After his speech, President Biden dismissed calls to halt support for Israel when asked if protests influence Middle East policy, he responded, "No." Additionally, he rejected the opposition Republican Party's demand for deploying state National Guards. Professor Douglas Brinkley of Rice University commented to the U.S. political media outlet Politico, “He was taking a sane, centrist approach to appease people on both sides of the barricades, but it will do nothing to placate the anger on college campuses.

Some argue that this incident could serve as a trigger damaging President Biden's path to the presidential election. Sen. Bernie Sanders (Independent, Vermont) said that people believe this incident could become “Biden's Vietnam.” In 1968, then President Lyndon Johnson was swayed by public opinion against the Vietnam War and eventually gave up running for re-election.


워싱턴=문병기 기자 weappon@donga.com

Palestinian journalist describes fight to protect his family while covering war in Gaza

On World Press Freedom Day, the Committee to Protect Journalists says some two dozen journalists have been killed so far this year, the vast majority of them dying in Gaza. At least 97 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, Israel and Lebanon since the start of the war. Nick Schifrin has a look at the life of our journalist in Gaza, cameraman and producer Shams Odeh.

Read the Full Transcript


Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

William Brangham:

Today is World Press Freedom Day.

The Committee to Protect Journalists says some two dozen journalists have been killed so far this year, the vast majority of them dying in Gaza. All told, at least 97 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, Israel, and Lebanon since the start of the war, making this by far the deadliest conflict for reporters in recent memory.

So we wanted to give you a look at the life of our own journalist in Gaza, cameraman and producer Shams Odeh. He's been filming in Gaza since the October 7 terrorist attacks.

Here's Nick Schifrin.


Nick Schifrin:

Gaza today is defined by destruction, death and displacement. And Gaza producer and cameraman Shams Odeh has documented and experienced all three.

Shams Odeh, Photographer and Producer: There is a lot of people killed here in this place in Rafah. This is my tent, my bed, and my kitchen.


Nick Schifrin:

Today, this is his canvas home, where the war forced him and his family to flee in December. They live underneath the constant sound of Israeli drones in Emirati tents, part of a tent city in Deir al Balah, one of tens of thousands of displaced families finding a way to live.

Four-year-old Kareem leads a gaggle of grandchildren. The youngest, 1-year-old Rose, sleeps with a prized possession. Their mother, Diana, is Shams' eldest child.

Diana Odeh, Daughter of Shams Odeh: My message to the world is, we are humans. We are not numbers. We deserve to live a better life, such as any person in the world. So we all here evacuated our homes.


Nick Schifrin:

In November, even after an initial displacement, they had a real roof over their heads near Nuseirat. A madhouse of extended cousins lived in a house Shams built himself, with Benjamin Netanyahu's televised speeches and Diana Odeh's deferred dreams.


Diana Odeh:

We here in Gaza suffer, that we need our children to have a better future. I want my kid Kareem to be a doctor in the future, but we don't know if we are going to make until the morning.


Nick Schifrin:

But the children now know things they should never have to know.


Diana Odeh:

My son Kareem even knows if this bomb — if this bomb is dangerous or not. He tells me: "Mom, it's far away. It's far away. It's not beside us."


Nick Schifrin:

But, one day, it was beside them, and Shams' house is now reduced to rubble, where grandkids once played, debris and devastation.


Shams Odeh:

I choose to live here far away from troubles, far away from militant places. I choose this place to live in peace, me and my kids.


Nick Schifrin:

This house was his life's work, his family's safe haven.


Shams Odeh:

My dream was that everyone, Israelis, Palestinians live near each other with peace, with love. And this bloody war must end, must end because of our kids and their kids, for a good future for them. We must teach them how to love each other.


Nick Schifrin:

Love might feel lost in Khan Yunis, once home to half-a-million people, where today houses are flattened like pancakes and apartment blocks are cut into carcasses, including one more Odeh family home.


Shams Odeh:

This is the last home that our — my family owned in all of the Gaza Strip, after destroying my apartment in North Gaza, then my house in Nuseirat camp.


Nick Schifrin:

The Israeli military says it does not target journalists, and blames Hamas for the death of Gaza civilians.


Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister:

Hamas places its weapons, it's terrorists in hospitals, schools, mosques and throughout civilian areas. They do this in order to win immunity and to maximize civilian casualties.


Nick Schifrin:

As for Shams, he will keep working and trying to protect his family…


Shams Odeh:

They are refugee like me.


Nick Schifrin:

… including the newest members. But he couldn't protect everyone.


Shams Odeh:

They were playing here, spend their life here.


Nick Schifrin:

Thirty-one of his extended family have been killed.


Shams Odeh:

This is Shams Odeh. Journalist Shams Odeh spend his life as a peaceful person. But this is what happened to me.

Hardly, we can find food. Hardly, we can have money. But this will not stop our hope. We love you all, and I will keep love you all.


Nick Schifrin:

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nick Schifrin.

38% of Americans disagree with US policy in Israel-Hamas war

The new ABC News Ipsos poll reveals how Americans feel about U.S. policy toward Israel.

May 3, 2024

Hamas, CIA director to hold talks in Cairo on Gaza truce

AMERIKA DOES NOT NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS, THUS HAMAS ARE NOT TERRORISTS


A Palestinian man walks on piles of garbage, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, at Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, May 2, 2024. ― Reuters pic
Join us on our WhatsApp Channel, follow us on Instagram, and receive browser alerts for the latest news you need to know.

Saturday, 04 May 2024 

CAIRO, May 4 ― Hamas said yesterday it was sending a delegation to Cairo to discuss a deal for a truce and the release of hostages in Gaza, hours after US CIA Director William Burns arrived in the Egyptian capital, according to Egyptian sources.

Egypt, along with Qatar and the United States, has been leading efforts to mediate between Israel and Hamas to broker a deal for a ceasefire in the conflict that began on October 7.

The Hamas and CIA officials will meet Egyptian mediators today, an Egyptian security source said, though it was unclear whether they would meet separately or together.

Hamas said its delegates were travelling to Cairo in a "positive spirit" after studying the latest proposal for a truce agreement.


"We are determined to secure an agreement in a way that fulfils Palestinians' demands," the Palestinian militant group said in a statement.

A US official said the United States believed there had been some progress in talks but was still waiting to hear more.

The CIA declined to comment, reflecting its policy of not disclosing the director's travel.

Ceasefire talks have continued for months without a decisive breakthrough. Israel has said it is determined to eliminate Hamas, while Hamas says it wants a permanent ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Egypt made a renewed push to revive negotiations late last month. Cairo is alarmed by the prospect of an Israeli ground operation against Hamas in Rafah in southern Gaza, where more than 1 million people have taken shelter near the border with Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

Egyptian sources say both sides have made some concessions recently, leading to progress in the talks, though Israel has continued to say an operation in Rafah is imminent.

The war began after Hamas staged a cross-border raid on October 7 in which 1,200 people in southern Israel were killed and 253 hostages taken, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 77,000 have been wounded by Israeli fire during a campaign that has laid waste to the coastal enclave, according to Gaza's health ministry.

A major Israeli operation in Rafah could deal a huge blow to fragile humanitarian operations in Gaza and put many more lives at risk, according to UN officials. ― Reuters

Falling aid pallet kills, injures several Palestinians waiting for aid in Gaza

May 3, 2024 

A pallet of Jordanian Aid, rigged with a parachute and ready to be dropped over Gaza by a US Air Force flight on March 12, 2024 

[Steve Hendrix/The Washington Post via Getty Images]

Several Palestinians waiting for aid were killed and injured on Friday when an aid pallet airdropped on the northern Gaza Strip fell without its parachutes opening, Gaza’s Civil Defence Agency said, Anadolu Agency reports.

“The falling of an aid pallet from the air directly onto a group of citizens in the northern part of the Strip led to the deaths and injuries of several people,” the Agency’s spokesperson, Mahmoud Basal, said in a statement.

Basal, however, did not specify the number of casualties.

Similar incidents in the past have resulted in the deaths and injuries of a significant number of people in Gaza.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on Gaza since the 7 October Hamas incursion, which killed around 1,200 people.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

Tel Aviv, in comparison, has killed nearly 34,600 Palestinians and wounded 77,700 others amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities in the Palestinian Territory.

More than six months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85 per cent of the enclave’s population into internal displacement besides a crippling blockade on food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which, in January, issued an interim ruling that ordered it to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

Over 10,000 women killed in Gaza, says UN Agency

IS ISRAEL'S VENGENCE SATIATED YET

May 3, 2024 

Women mourn together over their fallen relatives who were killed during Israeli bombardment, at Al-Najjar hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on April 16, 2024 [/AFP via Getty Images]


More than 10,000 women were killed in the ongoing Israeli onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip, the UN Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Friday, Anadolu Agency reports.

In a statement, the agency said: “The war in Gaza continues to be a war on women.”

“Over 10,000 women have been killed and 19,000 injured,” it added.

The Agency also said: “37 children lose their mother every single day.”

It stressed that “conditions are appalling,” noting that “over 155,000 pregnant or breastfeeding women faced with severely limited access to water and sanitary items.”

Israel has, for over half a year, waged a war on Gaza that has resulted in widespread death and destruction in the coastal enclave.

More than 34,600 Palestinians have since been killed and over 77,800 injured. The vast majority of the dead have been women and children. Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which, in January, issued an interim ruling that ordered it to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

Majority of Rafah's 600,000 children face injury, illness, malnutrition, trauma, disabilities: UN

May 3, 2024 

Displaced Palestinian children cool themselves with water from a hosepipe at a temporary camp in Rafah, southern Gaza, on May 3, 2024

 [Ahmad Salem/Bloomberg via Getty Images]

The UN, on Friday, issued a stark warning on the potential consequences of a ground operation in the Gaza city of Rafah, emphasising the grave threat it poses to the lives of some 600,000 children in the region, Anadolu Agency reports.

Citing reports from UNICEF, the UN deputy spokesperson, Farhan Haq, at a news conference said a military operation into Rafah “would bring catastrophe on top of catastrophe” for the children there.

Echoing UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell’s sentiments that emphasised the dire conditions faced by the children of Rafah, Haq said “nearly all of the some 600,000 children in Rafah are either injured, sick, malnourished, traumatised or living with disabilities.”

Additionally, the World Health Organisation (WHO) underscored the precarious state of healthcare facilities in Rafah, revealing that three out of the 12 hospitals in Gaza that are still partially functioning are located in the region.

WHO warned that these facilities “will quickly become non-functional if there’s a military incursion into Rafah, and then a full scale military operation into Rafah could lead to a bloodbath,” Haq said.

He also stated that the convoy carrying humanitarian aid from Jordan was attacked by “civilians” in the Occupied West Bank, and some items were damaged. Haq noted that the convoy later reached Gaza.

Saying that, upon convoy’s arrival to Gaza, it was redirected to a different facility instead of the previously designated location by an armed group, Haq said this issue was addressed through discussions with local authorities to resolve the misunderstanding.

NOT HAMAS
READ: Jordan says Israel settlers attacked Jordanian aid convoys on way to Gaza

Haq expressed confirmation of the local authorities’ respect for humanitarian aid convoys, stating that the convoys reached their destinations and that aid distribution was ongoing.

Emphasising that the redirection to a different facility was purely a communication error, he said it was promptly corrected, adding that officials in Gaza confirmed that such incidents would not recur.

Jordan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that Israeli settlers attacked two aid convoys from Jordan who were on their way to Gaza.

“Two Jordanian aid convoys carrying food, flour and other humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip were attacked by settlers,” the Ministry said.

The aid convoys were the first major shipment from Jordan into the Erez Crossing, which was reopened for the first time by Israel since 7 October after months of pressure from the US.

US Senators intensify efforts to block ICC arrest warrants against Israeli officials

May 3, 2024 

A pro-Palestinian demonstrator holds a sign that reads, Selective Justice is Injustice during a pro Palestine demonstration in front of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on October 18, 2023 in The Hague, Netherlands [Roger Anis/Getty Images]

US Senators have intensified their efforts to block potential arrest warrants being issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other top Israeli officials over the ongoing military assault in Gaza, Axios has reported. This development comes as the US is also reportedly considering inviting the Israeli Prime Minister to address Congress, despite the ICC’s investigation into possible war crimes committed by Israeli forces supported by Washington.

According to three sources who were either present in the meeting or briefed about it, a bipartisan group of Senators held a virtual meeting on Wednesday with senior ICC officials to express their concerns about the potential arrest warrants.

The ICC, based in The Hague, Netherlands, has been investigating possible war crimes dating back to the 2014 Israeli onslaught on Gaza and has extended its investigation to the recent attack which has killed nearly 35,000 people, the vast majority of whom are women and children.

In February ICC Prosecutor expressed deep concern over Israeli bombardment and potential ground incursion by Israeli forces in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Since then, the death toll in Gaza and devastation of the besieged enclave has increased.

Israeli officials have grown increasingly apprehensive over the last two weeks, fearing that the ICC may issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Israel Defence Forces Chief of Staff, Herzi Halevi. The Israeli government has warned the Biden administration that, if such warrants are issued, it will take punitive measures against the Palestinian Authority, potentially leading to its collapse.

Read: International Criminal Court applies double standards on Palestine: Euro-Med

The issue of potential ICC arrest warrants was reportedly discussed during a recent call between Netanyahu and President Joe Biden, with the Israeli Prime Minister seeking US assistance in the matter. Republican lawmakers have threatened to pass legislation against the ICC if it proceeds with the arrest warrants, a move that the Biden administration has stated it opposes.

Sources, reported in Axios, familiar with the meeting between Senators and ICC officials have not disclosed the identities of the participants, citing the confidential nature of the discussion. However, one source described the meeting as an opportunity for the Senators to voice their concerns about the ICC’s investigation into the war in Gaza.

The office of the ICC Prosecutor is said to have declined to comment on the specifics of the meeting, stating, “Confidentiality is a crucial aspect of the work of the Prosecutor. Therefore, we do not publicly discuss specifics related to the office’s activities and engagements.”

‘Hypocrite, racist’ Western media enabling Israel war crimes in Gaza: Palestinian journalist

May 3, 2024 

Pro-Palestinian protestors gather outside of the New York Times building to protest the newspaper’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war on December 11, 2023 in New York City. [Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images]


Western media has lost all semblance of neutrality and has become “part of the problem” when it comes to Israel’s ongoing war crimes against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to a Palestinian journalist, Anadolu Agency reports.

“The Western media is enabling Israel to commit these war crimes and massacres of Palestinians because they refuse to cover what’s actually happening on the ground,” Ahmed Alnaouq, a Palestinian journalist based in London, told Anadolu.

“It’s very loud and clear that Western media is now a hypocrite when it comes to this war on Gaza.”

Alnaouq has had more than 23 family members killed in Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza, including his father, brothers, sisters and 14 nieces and nephews.

For him, Western media outlets are “partners” in Israel’s crimes.

Western media: an accessory in Israeli war crimes

“The Western media have a job. Their job is to report the news as it happens and they’re not doing their job,” he said.

“The international community also has the responsibility to stop Israel from committing these atrocities against the Palestinian people but, unfortunately, they’re not doing their job.”

He also called out Western media outlets for their apathy on the relentless killing of journalists in Gaza, where at least 142 media workers have been killed in Israeli attacks since last October.

Western media does not care about their Palestinian colleagues because of their “identity” and “skin colour.”

“If this mass killing of journalists happened in another country, if they were not Palestinians, we would have seen uproar from all the Western media,” he said.

“Unfortunately, just because they’re Palestinians, the world did not care much about it. This is a tragedy. The Western media is racist.”
Israel will not succeed in silencing Palestinian journalists

Israel is facing a genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its assault on Gaza, which has now killed over 34,600 Palestinians, the vast majority being women and children, and wounded nearly 77,900.

It has displaced millions more, around 85 per cent of the population, leaving them facing famine and acute shortages of medical aid and other essentials.

Israeli attacks have also laid waste to large swaths of the besieged enclave, devastating everything from housing to medical facilities, educational institutes, and all sorts of civic infrastructure.

These are the crimes that Israel wants to somehow hide with its “assassinations” of journalists, but it will not succeed, said Alnaouq.

“When you kill a journalist in Palestine, another 100 people will want to become a journalist,” he said.

Palestinians and the people of Gaza have long relied on “citizen journalists who take it upon themselves to record what’s happening … and share it with the world,” he said.

Despite all of Israel’s atrocities, these people will continue doing that because they view it as a “moral, ethical and professional responsibility” that will do anything to fulfil, he added.

Censoring Israeli violence: Western media outlets capitulate

First Global Anti-Apartheid Conference for Palestine to be held in South Africa

May 3, 2024

A banner reads ‘Against apartheid, Boycott of Israel’. Thousands of people demonstrate in support of Gazans, in Toulouse France on November 18th 2023

 [Alain Pitton/NurPhoto via Getty Images]


The First Global Anti-Apartheid Conference for Palestine will be held in South Africa later this month in an historic move that aims to amplify the urgent need to address Israel’s ongoing genocidal actions against Palestinians – especially in Gaza.

Organised by the South African Anti-Apartheid Steering Committee (SAAASC), the conference will be held from 10-12 May and reflects a collective aspiration to mobilise worldwide action, aiming to hold Israel accountable for its crimes against the Palestinian people and to dismantle Israeli apartheid from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

The conference will lay the groundwork for intensifying global mobilisation, organisation and coordination against Israeli apartheid and “develop comprehensive political, legal, public diplomacy, and media strategies aimed at isolating Israel’s regime of oppression,” organisers said in a statement.

It also aims to “support the struggle of the Palestinian people for all their rights, including the right to self-determination, and the right to return.”

“The conference is a testament to the enduring spirit of international solidarity that helped dismantle apartheid in South Africa, and marks the beginning of a renewed, global movement against apartheid in all its forms. We stand at a watershed moment, ready to translate collective indignation into concrete actions for freedom, justice, and equality in Palestine and beyond,” they added.

The conference will consist of a number of panel discussions and workshops. Speakers include Declan Kearney, chairperson of Sinn Fein; Mustafa Barghouti, leader of the Palestinian National Initiative; and Reverend Munther Isaac from Bethlehem.

Student journalists cover campus protests at their peril

May 03, 2024 By Robin Guess

Protests related to the Israel-Hamas war have boiled over on college campuses across the United States, some leading to clashes with police and confrontations between student groups. And despite the dangers, student journalists and their news organizations are leading the press coverage. 

VOA’s Robin Guess has the story. Camera: Keith Lane

Netizens ask Columbia University prez to resign after her message to students: ‘Your term has been an abject failure’

BySumanti Sen
May 04, 2024

Columbia University president Minouche Shafik has broken her silence following the NYPD raids on the campus, and her message has sparked outrage

Columbia University president Minouche Shafik has broken her silence following the NYPD raids on the campus, telling students in a video message that the past two weeks’ events were “among the most difficult in Columbia’s history.” “The turmoil and tension, division and disruption have impacted the entire community,” she said. “You are students who paid an exceptionally high price.”

Netizens ask Columbia University prez Minouche Shafik to resign (@Columbia/X)

Shafik said although the authorities tried to solve the problem through dialogue, the students refused to comply, prompting them to seek NYPD’s help. Noting that protesters “crossed a new line” by occupying Hamilton Hall, she said, “It was a violent act that put our students at risk as well as putting the protesters at risk.”

‘The students of Columbia deserve better leadership’

Shafik’s message has sparked outrage, with many X users flocking to the comment section of the video, asking her to resign. “You have made campus considerably less safe for Palestinian and Jewish students who are anti-Zionist. Shame on you,” one user wrote. One user said, “Here’s an even better message. Resign,” while another wrote, “Empty words for an institution that has fueled the fire of antisemitism for years. Shame on you for allowing this to happen. Columbia will never recover from this as long as you are the President. Resign and let people who are truly committed to doing the hard work clean up this mess you created.” “Too little too late. You let things on your campus become very unsafe and acted only when things got ridiculously out of hand. The students of Columbia deserve better leadership than what you have demonstrated,” wrote one.

“Your term has been an abject failure. Want to see a university responding well right now? Look at UT Austin. Ole Miss. Not Columbia, which now stands as one of the flagships for academic failure in the nation. Way to go. Enough with the toxic empathy, expel them. Resign. Move on,” one user said, while another wrote, “Patronising, robotic and devoid of any understanding”. “This gives me anxiety. It feels disconnected from reality and the state of the situation,” one said. Another wrote, “You have presided over unprecedented chaos, unbridled anti-Semitism and unencumbered woke insanity. If you had any integrity you would resign.”

Clash at Gaza stir at University of Chicago, counter-protesters chant 'USA'

VIOLENCE IS THE COUNTER PROTESTERS

Clashes erupted at the University of Chicago between pro-Palestine protesters and opposing groups, leading to police intervention.


Pro-Palestinian protesters remain on the University of Chicago campus for a fifth day, Friday, May 3, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)


India Today World Desk
New Delhi,UPDATED: May 4, 2024 07:54 IST
Written By: Vani Mehrotra

In ShortPolice intervene clashing groups at University of Chicago
Pro-Palestine protesters asked to remove encampments
No injuries reported


Police officials entered the University of Chicago on Friday to separate protesters after two groups clashed on campus. The development came hours after pro-Palestine protesters at the University of Chicago were asked to remove their encampments.

As per local media reports, the university president had said the encampment had run afoul of university policies.

The clashes were reported on the Main Quad of the Hyde Park campus.

According to CBS News, the protesters are part of a nationwide movement calling for immediate divestment from countries profiting from Israeli business amid the war in Gaza.

A video shared on X showed protesters at the University of Chicago chanting 'Born in the USA' as they waved the flags of their country.

The sloganeering reportedly took place while Muslims had gathered for prayers.

The Chicago Maroon student newspaper reported several Chicago Police squad cars were parked on Ellis Avenue, about a few hundred yards west of the quad, on Friday afternoon.

Following reports of some 'physical alterations', the university community received a warning advising all on campus to avoid the Main Quad.

No injuries were reported.

Anti-war demonstrations ceased this week at a small number of US universities after school leaders struck deals with pro-Palestinian protesters, fending off possible disruptions of final exams and graduation ceremonies.


The agreements at schools stand out amid the chaotic scenes and 2,400-plus arrests on 46 campuses nationwide since April 17.

Tent encampments and building takeovers have disrupted classes at some schools, including Columbia and the University of California, Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, Israel has called the protests antisemitic, the Associated Press reported, adding that its critics say the country uses such allegations to silence the opposition.

Although some protesters were caught on camera making antisemitic remarks or violent threats, protest organisers — some of whom are Jewish — have called it a peaceful movement to defend Palestinian rights and protest the war, the report said.

Footprints: Students, not security threats

Sarah Eleazar 

DAWN

Published May 4, 2024

“Excuse me, Mr Amb­as­sador! I am shocked by the audacity that you are here to talk about civil rights while your country is brutally abusing the people speaking for the rights of the Palestinians!”

A member of the Prog­ressive Students Colle­ctive (PSC) shouted this statement, interrupting the German ambassador’s ad­d­­ress on human rights at the Asma Jahangir Confe­rence org­a­nised in Lahore last week. Quickly, the organisers shuffled the protesters out of the conference hall as they shouted: “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free.”

The PSC members claimed they were manhandled whereas the conference organisers explained that the students’ actions had posed a security threat to attendees. The framing of protesters as disruptors creating security threats for peaceful attendees needs to be held to critical examination.

Students across the world have been holding demonstrations on their campuses and in their cities to demand de-platforming of pro-Zionist representatives, as well as boycott, divestment and sanctions on companies operating in the state of Israel. In the US, university administrations justified police lockdowns of campuses and arrests of over 2,000 students and teachers since April 18 by labelling student protesters security threats.

Demonstrations of solidarity with people suffering in Gaza are increasingly being framed in the language of security and risk

Students-led protest camps

On the morning of April 29, students at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, gathered at a library with tents, paintbrushes, books, food supplies and banners.

Salman Sikander, a PhD student at UMass, shares that protesters created a ‘Rafaat al Areer Library’, and expressed their collective anger through art, dance, and teach-ins.

From New York University, graduate student Mohiba Ahmad shares about two hundred students were huddled together in rain and chilly weather on April 27, as the administration had threatened to call the police if students put up a tent. Some of those attending sat on yoga mats while others covered food and water supplies with plastic sheets to protect them from rain.

When students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign set up their encampment last week, the administration brutally evicted the camps twice on the first day.

On the second occasion, police contingents with riot gear were called to disperse the nonviolent gathering, shares Umair Rasheed, a PhD student of Sociology.

Meanwhile, he adds, the university administration has cancelled a pre-scheduled meeting to discuss the demands of disclosure and divestment of investments in firms directly profiting from the Israeli war in Gaza. The students have also reported vehicles parked near the encampment through which the cops are recording the encampment activity using facial recognition software.

There are growing concerns that the university is acting in bad faith, he says.

At Rice University in Houston, PhD student, Zahid Ali says students organised a 48-hour liberated zone on campus. On March 25, members of the student association introduced a resolution asking for boycott and divesting from corporations implicated in the Gaza genocide. However, the university unilaterally stopped the vote on the resolution, while students were intimidated and harassed for tabling the divestment resolution.

Asmer Asrar Safi, a senior year undergraduate student at Harvard College, says the university booked around 30 students for disciplinary action which is worrisome, specially for international students who are not protected by first amendment rights to free speech and can be deported.

Unparalleled support

On April 24, a coalition of Harvard students called the ‘Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine Coalition’ set up an encampment in the middle of Harvard Yard. The camp, termed Liberated Zone, was set up following the suspension of the Palestine Solidarity Committee, Safi adds. “Our demands have enjoyed widespread support among the Harvard community, evidenced by the divestment resolutions passed by the Harvard Law School, the Harvard Divinity School, and the Harvard Graduate School of Design,” he says.

At UT Austin, nearly 600 faculty members signed a letter of no-confidence against the university president for violating the trust of faculty and students by calling in state troopers to “forcibly disperse students gathering for a peaceful teach-in”.

Instead of opening channels of dialogue with students, the administration said they were in talks with a local mosque. The Islamophobic framing of the protests fails to account for the overwhelmingly multi-faith support and presence at the demonstrations often led by Jewish protesters in yarmulke skull caps and members of the Jewish Voice for Peace. With posters and banners saying, “Not in my name”, protesters made it clear that they opposed the ongoing genocide on principle regardless of faith.

Salman Sikander says protesting students are a crossroads between a world of police, riot gear, and genocide on the one hand and encampments, possibilities of love, colours, dance, and radical democracy on the other. If humanity must win it has to choose the later.

The author is a former staff member and a PhD candidate at the University of Texas at Austin. With reporting and comments from US-based international students: Zahid Ali, Umair Rasheed, Mohiba Ahmad, Salman Sikander and Asmer Shah Shafi.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2024

Congressman praises heckling of Gaza protesters at University of Mississippi that included racist jeer


In a photo taken from video by a student journalist, hecklers shout at a pro-Palestinian protester at the University of Mississippi on Thursday. In the video, the man on the far right makes monkey sounds and gestures at the protester, a Black woman.

(Stacey J. Spiehler via Associated Press)

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS

May 3, 2024 

JACKSON, Miss. —

Israel-Hamas war demonstrations at the University of Mississippi turned ugly this week when one counterprotester appeared to make monkey noises and gestures at a Black student in a raucous gathering that was endorsed by a far-right congressman from Georgia.

“Ole Miss taking care of business,” Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Collins wrote Friday on the social platform X with a link to a video showing racist jeers.

The Associated Press left voicemail messages for Collins on Friday at his offices in Georgia and Washington and sent an email to his spokesperson, asking for an explanation of what Collins meant. There was no immediate response.

The taunting brought sharp criticism on and off campus.

“Students were calling for an end to genocide. They were met with racism,” James M. Thomas, a sociology professor at the University of Mississippi, wrote Friday on X.

The Rev. Cornell William Brooks, a former president and CEO of the NAACP and professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, wrote on X that a white man mocking a Black woman as a monkey “isn’t about ‘Stand With Israel’ or ‘Free Palestine.’ This is protest as performative racism.”

Collins, a first-term congressman, posted several social media messages criticizing campus protests against Israel’s war on Gaza.

Nobody was arrested during the demonstration Thursday at the University of Mississippi, where hecklers vastly outnumbered antiwar protesters. According to a count by AP, more than 2,400 arrests have occurred on 46 university or college campuses nationwide since April 17 as protests have grown.

The student newspaper, the Daily Mississippian, reported that about 30 protesters gathered on the Oxford campus, calling themselves UMiss for Palestine. Videos and photos from the event showed the protesters were in a grassy area near the main library, blocked off by barriers erected by campus security.

They chanted, “Free, free Palestine,” and carried Palestinian flags and signs with slogans including, “Stop the Genocide” and “U.S. bombs take Palestine lives.”

Student journalist Stacey J. Spiehler shot video that showed campus police officers and the dean of students standing between antiwar protesters and hecklers. After the Black woman protesting the war had what appeared to be a heated exchange of words with several white hecklers, one of the men made the monkey gestures and noises at her.

About 76% of the university’s students were white and about 11% were Black in 2022-23, the most recent data available on the school’s website.

University of Mississippi Chancellor Glenn Boyce said the school is committed to people expressing their views. He said some statements made on campus Thursday were “offensive and unacceptable.”

In another statement Friday, Boyce said that one “student conduct investigation” had been opened and university leaders were “working to determine whether more cases are warranted.”

“To be clear, people who say horrible things to people because of who they are will not find shelter or comfort on this campus,” he said.

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves reposted a video on X that showed counterprotesters on the campus singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

“Warms my heart,” Reeves wrote. “I love Mississippi!”

Pettus writes for the Associated Press.

'Part of the American spirit': Arrested student denies campus Gaza protests are violent

A student at UCLA tells Sky News that his arrest has not deterred him from continuing in demonstrations, saying the "protests in general are part of the American spirit".

Mark Stone
US correspondent @Stone_SkyNews
Saturday 4 May 2024 

Aidan Doyle was arrested early on Thursday morning for being part of an encampment at UCLA


Much has been said about the students whose protests have gripped America this past week.

Their cause has been framed in polarising ways. A violent Hamas-sympathising mob? Or peace activists striving for equality?

Within a frenzied spectrum of views and noise, one young student sat down with me for a conversation.

Aidan Doyle, 21, is a philosophy and jazz double major at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA).

He was arrested early on Thursday morning for being part of an encampment at the university.

He told Sky News he was shocked that the police arrested so many student protesters, despite not intervening in an attack on the protesters by a pro-Israeli group the day before.

Police clash with pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the UCLA campus on Thursday. 

Pic: AP

He said his arrest had not deterred him from continuing his protest, which he likened to the Vietnam War demonstrations of the 1960s.



The protests at US universities are about much more than Gaza and Israel

Mr Doyle rejected the notion, from President Biden, that the protests are not peaceful.

"Graffiti, putting posters up, that's all peaceful," he said, commenting on the president's statement from the White House.


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"I also think that President Biden needs to actually take some introspection and realise that maybe the reason so many of these protests are happening is partially due to him."

Police advance on demonstrators on the UCLA campus.

Pic: AP/Ryan Sun

Mr Doyle added: "Protests in general are part of the American spirit. They're part of being an American. And if we were to just stand around in circles and sing and dance, and pretend everything was fine, then nothing would change and nobody would care at all.

"Part of a protest is causing disruption and causing at least a minor level of chaos that is, again, not violent but that actually disrupts things."

Read more:
Why are university students protesting in the US?

Inside pro-Palestinian protest as police break up UCLA encampment

He denied any accusations of antisemitism, but conceded there is a spectrum of opinion within the movement.

"If you're going to criticise a movement, I think you have to look at the movement's goals and their mission, not what fringe members of the group say or do.

"You have to actually look at what we say, what the organisers say, and what is in the mainstream, and what our mission and our goal is: the peace and prosperity of the Palestinian people."

Asked if he believed in Israel's right to exist as a country, he said: "I think Jewish sovereignty is incredible. I think it's an amazing thing."

Demonstrators are detained on the UCLA campus. 

Pic: AP

He added: "I think that if there is a country for Jewish people that protects the Jewish people, that is of utmost importance, especially with the vile and rampant antisemitism that exists across the world that I see every day and that I try and combat as much as possible.

"But doing that and then simultaneously repressing another group of people, dehumanising them and brutalising them, then the question of whether your state has the right to exist becomes secondary."

Student Spring leads some universities to open talks on Israel divestments

Amidst nationwide chaos and anti-war protests with over 2,400 arrests on 46 US campuses since April 17, notable deals have emerged at elite academic institutions like Brown, Northwestern, and Rutgers.



At Brown University, students have achieved a significant milestone by successfully negotiating a deal with the administration. The governing body is now set to vote on a proposal aiming to divest the university's $6.6 billion endowment from Israel-affiliated companies./ Photo: X


Anti-war demonstrations ceased this week at a small number of US universities after school leaders struck deals with pro-Palestine protesters, fending off possible disruptions of final exams and graduation ceremonies.

The agreements at schools including Brown, Northwestern and Rutgers stand out amidst the chaotic scenes and 2,400-plus arrests on 46 campuses across the nation since April 17.

Tent encampments, building takeovers and police crackdown have disrupted classes at some schools, including Columbia and UCLA in massive "Student Spring" protests.

Deals included commitments by universities to review their investments in Israel or hear calls to stop doing business with the longtime US ally. Many protester demands have zeroed in on links to the Israeli military as Tel Aviv's "genocidal" war grinds on in Gaza.

The agreements to even discuss divestment mark a major step on an issue that has been controversial for years, with opponents of a long-running campaign to boycott Israel saying it veers into anti- Semitism.

But while the colleges have made concessions around amnesty for protesters and funding for Middle Eastern studies, they have made no promises about changing their investments.




Heartened by the progress

"I think for some universities, it might be just a delaying tactic to diffuse the protests," said Ralph Young, a history professor who studies American dissent at Temple University in Philadelphia.

"The end of the semester is happening now. And maybe by the time the next semester begins, there is a cease fire in Gaza."


Young said dialogue is a better tactic than arrests, which can inflame protesters.


Talking "at least gives the protesters the feeling that they’re getting somewhere," he said. "Whether they are getting somewhere or not is another question."


Israel has falsely claimed the protests are "anti-Semitic," while majority of students, including Jewish protesters, say Tel Aviv uses those allegations to silence opposition.


The University of Minnesota reopened on Thursday after administrators said they reached an agreement to end an encampment in the heart of the Minneapolis campus.


Interim President Jeff Ettinger said demonstrators agreed not to disrupt final exams or commencements. In return, student organisations can address the university’s board at a meeting next week, where protesters are expected to demand divestment from Israel.


"While there is more work to do, and conversations are still planned with other student groups affected by the painful situation in Palestine, I am heartened by today’s progress," Ettinger said in a statement.


Demonstrators at Rutgers University — where finals were paused due to the protests on its New Brunswick campus — similarly packed up their tents on Thursday afternoon. The state university agreed to establish an Arab Cultural Center and to not retaliate against any students involved in the protest camp.


In a statement, Chancellor Francine Conway noted protesters' request for divestment from companies doing business with Israel and for Rutgers to cut ties with Tel Aviv University. She said the the request is under review, but "such decisions fall outside of our administrative scope."





'Stop investing in Israel'

Protesters at Brown University in Rhode Island have also agreed to dismantle their pro-Palestinian encampment. School officials said students could present arguments to divest Brown’s endowment from companies contributing to and profiting from the war in Gaza.


In addition, Brown President Christina Paxson will ask an advisory committee to make a recommendation on divestment by September 30, which will be put before the school’s governing corporation for a vote in October.


Northwestern's Deering Meadow in suburban Chicago also fell silent after an agreement. The deal curbed protest activity in return for the reestablishment of an advisory committee on university investments and other commitments.


Faculty at Pomona College in California voted in favor of the school divesting from companies they said are funding Israel’s war in Gaza, a group of faculty and students said Friday.


The vote on Thursday is not binding on the liberal arts school of nearly 1,800 students east of Los Angeles. But supporters said they hope it would encourage the board to stop investing in these companies and start disclosing where it makes its investments.


"This nonbinding faculty statement does not represent any official position of Pomona College," the school said in a statement Friday. "We will continue to encourage further dialogue within our community, including consideration of counterarguments."