The Nazis looted Europe's treasures. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling casts doubt on their return.

Yasmine Salam, Carlo Angerer and The Associated Press 1 day ago

It was no ordinary art deal.

The sale of a precious medieval collection by a group of tradesmen to the Prussian government in 1935 was notable not only for its treasured contents, but also for its participants.

The sellers were Jewish, a fact that defined their fate in Nazi Germany and hangs over the transaction to this day.

“They know they're under the gun,” Marc Masurovsky, a historian who specializes in plundered art during the Holocaust, said from his home in Washington. “The average position of Jews in Germany as of 1933 is nothing short of dangerous, perilous, fragile and precarious.”

Though historical consensus is clear that state-sponsored Jewish persecution took place from the start of Adolf Hitler’s rule, today three heirs of those very art dealers are struggling to prove just that.

And experts fear a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling could prove a bitter blow not only to those heirs, but also to hundreds of Jewish families seeking restitution from Germany as it struggles to atone for its past.© Tobias Schwarz Image: Detail of a reliquary crucifix of the so-called 'Welfenschatz' (Guelph Treasure) is pictured at the Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Decorative Arts) in Berlin on Feb. 24, 2015. (Tobias Schwarz / AFP - Getty Images file)

Pressured by agents sent by Hermann Goering, the second-most-powerful man in the Third Reich, the dealers sold half of the golden Guelph Treasure to the state for what the heirs say was a third of its value.

After a decadelong fight that saw a German commission on Nazi-looted art reject their claims that the treasures were forcibly sold, the heirs took their case across the pond.

But earlier this month America’s highest court unanimously ruled it had no jurisdiction in the case, as the Germans had argued.

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The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which runs Berlin’s state museums, has fought to keep the collection in the city’s Museum of Decorative Arts. It attributed the low sale price to tough negotiations in a damaged art market reeling from Europe’s financial crash, rather than Nazi persecution.

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers called the claim that pre-1939 conditions for Jews in Germany were not persecutory “deeply concerning” in a letter to the country’s ambassador in Washington in October.

“Hearing your grandparents being accused of simply being dissatisfied with whether they made enough profit in 1935 in Nazi Germany is pretty brutal,” said Nicholas O’Donnell, the heirs’ lawyer.

“By the time my clients came to me they felt very ill-treated by the German government.”© ullstein bild via Getty Images file Exhibition visitors in front of the Reliquary dome (Cologne, 1175), main piece of the Welfenschatz, in 1930. (ullstein bild via Getty Images file)

The treasures are now worth an estimated $250 million, but the cost of the case and others like it runs much deeper.

Germany has garnered praise for addressing its dark history, with concerted efforts in education and cultural spaces, but recent years have seen a resurgence in far-right support and anti-Semitism.

And while it also established the expert commission specifically to handle such cases, Jewish families and experts alike have cast doubt on the country’s appetite to help heirs retrieve their stolen property.

The Nazis seized an estimated 20 percent of art in Europe, with scores of items still not returned to the families that owned them.

Faced with the hefty task, dozens of countries signed up to the Washington Principles on Nazi-confiscated art in 1998 in an effort to boost the process.

The German federal government has appealed to private owners, collectors and institutions to follow the nonbinding agreement — under which thousands of objects have been returned to their rightful owners — a spokesman for the commissioner for culture and media said.

But Germany's restitution system fares poorly compared to neighboring countries, experts said, particularly in its speed.

The commission has dealt with a mere 18 cases since its creation in 2003. Compared to Austria, the light caseload reflects Germany’s “ad-hoc” approach, O’Donnell said.

“Germany doesn't deserve a win in Nazi restitution cases and I fear that this procedural victory will prejudice other claimants going forward,” said Christopher Marinello, a lawyer and the CEO of Art Recovery International, a firm that specializes in returning looted art. “Seventy-six years after the war, German laws remain wholly inadequate to deal with Nazi-restitution claims,” he added.

Enforcement is also an issue, with the commission struggling to implement its decision over a Jewish family’s rare 300-year-old Guarneri violin in a case that has drawn recent media attention.

It determined in 2016 that the instrument, currently owned by a private music foundation in Nuremberg, was either forcibly sold or seized by the Gestapo after Felix Hildesheimer's family fled persecution.

© Courtesy of Sidney Strauss Felix Hildesheimer plays piano accompaniment as his youngest daughter plays the violin in 1930s Speyer, Germany (Courtesy of Sidney Strauss)

Because of scant surviving sales records, the commission urged the music foundation to pay the equivalent of $120,000 to the family's surviving grandchildren and keep the violin as a compromise.

But four years later, the heirs have still not received the funds. Last month, the commission issued a stern censure to no avail.

A spokesman said the commission's proposals are not legally binding for citizens and private foundations due to legal fears over infringements on property rights.

Marinello, who is in a separate bitter tussle with Germany on behalf of a Jewish family hoping to retrieve their stolen Degas painting, described stalemates in such cases as “typical.”

“There has been an ever-increasing level of frustration on the part of everyone,” said Sidney Strauss, Hildesheimer’s grandson.

“It is also very important to remember that behind every item reviewed by the commission is a unique, personal family story,” he added. "That may include the loss of a business or a life."

For families like his, the fight to reclaim what they still can goes on.

COPOUT26

Scientists express doubt that Glasgow climate change conference will be successful

David Knowles

·Senior Editor

Thu, October 28, 2021

If there is a consensus about the forthcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, it is that it represents, in the words of U.S. climate envoy John Kerry, the “last best hope” for the world to keep the worst consequences of global warming at bay.

But for many of the scientists whose work has informed the grim reports issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in recent years, the chances that an agreement will be reached to keep global temperatures from rising 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels seem dim, at best. With the currently insufficient actions from developed countries to limit greenhouse gas emissions and fund developing nations in that pursuit, temperatures are forecast to smash through that threshold. And a growing body of research, some conducted by scientists who spoke with Yahoo News’ “The Climate Crisis Podcast,” shows that a cascade of dire consequences is all but certain to follow.

“Well, it is a critical time. You know, this is COP26, which means there have been 25 of these things already,” said Peter Gleick, a climate scientist, referring to the conference’s acronym. “We’re way behind the curve in acting on what we have known for many, many years to be the reality, which is that humans are changing the climate, that those changes are going to be bad, that they’re going to accelerate as we move forward if we don’t get emissions under control, and that we're running out of time to prevent the worst-case scenarios from occurring.”

A co-founder of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, Calif., Gleick has spent decades warning that rising temperatures have begun to wreak havoc with the water cycle, including more severe drought, deadly flash flooding and crop instability.

People in Milan, Italy, demonstrate for climate justice in advance of COP26 on Oct. 2. (Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters)

“A lot of us are looking forward to COP26 as an opportunity to make some real progress, but of course we’re worried that COP26 will turn out to be like COP25 and COP24 and COP23 beforehand, before us, and not really produce the kinds of changes that we know are necessary,” Gleick said, referring to previous U.N. climate change conferences that have inspired good intentions but not substantial enough actions from the wealthier countries that produce most of the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.

As far as the scientific community is concerned, there’s little mystery about what’s responsible for climate change. A review published this week in the journal Environmental Research Letters looked at 88,128 scientific papers on climate change published between 2012 and 2020 and concluded that 99.9 percent of the studies agreed that human beings were responsible for the current spike in global temperatures.

For UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, the only real suspense heading into Glasgow concerns whether world leaders will forge a consensus on how to act on what, scientifically speaking, is an open-and-shut case.

The Windy Fire blazes through Sequoia National Forest near California Hot Springs, Calif. (David McNew/Getty Images)

“We know how to solve this problem. We know the kinds of specific things we need to be doing even to fix the problem,” Swain told “The Climate Crisis Podcast.” “But that will involve a significant amount of social and economic, you know, inertia, that needs to shift pretty quickly. And that’s hard to do.”

A lead author of one of the IPCC reports that have synthesized the research on climate change and helped guide policymakers on how to keep global temperatures from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius, Stanford University climate scientist Noah Diffenbaugh has not been encouraged by the actions taken since COP21 in 2015, when many nations signed on to the Paris Agreement.

“The United Nations actually just issued a report in advance of the Glasgow negotiations that are coming up, basically tracking where the countries of the world are relative to the the Paris Agreement goals, and that puts the world on a trajectory that’s a lot above two and a half degrees [Celsius] of warming, and approaching three,” Diffenbaugh said.

This year, a string of deadly extreme weather events in the U.S. showed many Americans that the threat from climate change is real. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, weather-related disasters in 2021 have already totaled over $100 billion in damages and killed 538 people in the U.S.

President Biden at the White House on Tuesday. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Yet a Yahoo News poll released last week finds that while 50 percent of Americans now view climate change as an “emergency,” there is a partisan divide on the question. Though 78 percent of Democrats see climate change as “an existential threat that requires major legislation,” just 24 percent of Republicans and 45 percent of independents do.

At the same time, armed with more advanced computer modeling and thousands of new studies to back them up, climate scientists have grown increasingly confident linking those events to climate change.

Researchers like Benjamin Strauss, president and CEO of Climate Central, a nonprofit news organization that analyzes climate science, have long warned exactly what rising temperatures will mean for life on Earth. In 2012, Strauss testified before Congress on the number of homes in the U.S. that would be put at risk due to rising seas. He knows firsthand that domestic political gridlock on climate change could weigh heavily on Glasgow.

“I know that President Biden and the administration really want — as represented by John Kerry in the talks — to be ambitious and to encourage other nations of the world to be ambitious,” Strauss said. “And it’s going to be really hard to do if in the United States we don’t have some form of legislation or policy either in place or, you know, imminent, that’s going to be a big step in our own effort.”

While Congress continues to debate the legislation that will determine how aggressively the U.S. will go about the task of cutting greenhouse gas emissions, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has already killed the most powerful weapon in the president’s plan to do so: the Clean Electricity Performance Program. 

People wade through a flooded street in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in July. (Munir Uz Zaman/AFP via Getty Images)

The failure to enact an agenda that would be seen as restoring American climate leadership on the world stage comes as a stark reminder that any promises of future U.S. emissions cuts will require action in Congress. Yet the inward focus of many Republicans and some moderate Democrats like Manchin worries climate experts. Klaus Jacob, a research scientist at Columbia University’s Earth Institute who served for more than a decade on the New York City Panel of Climate Change, stresses that for new Glasgow commitments to have real impact, they’ll need to look beyond America’s borders.

“We’ve got to have a global plan that works both on the mitigation side, namely to reduce greenhouse gases as quickly as possible and get that financed internationally,” Jacob said, “and not just the main emitters — nations like the U.S., China, Brazil or Europe, and maybe India. But we also have to address it on the adaptation side, and just think about nations like Bangladesh or Vietnam, that have tens and hundreds of millions of people that by the end of the century will have to be moved.”

For many climate scientists, the mood ahead of Glasgow can best be described as one of grim realism. Despite that, many of those who spoke to Yahoo News also expressed a measure of optimism that human beings can still significantly slow climate change.

“We’re still where we were five or 10 years ago. You know, there’s a lot of pledges, there’s a lot of commitments that even then aren’t enough to solve the problem, but we aren’t really on track to meet a lot of those pledges that we’d previously made,” Swain said. “That's kind of the world that we live in right now, which is this tension between the fact that this is at a fundamental level a solvable problem, but we’ve so far not taken it seriously enough. I liken it more to being on a train, not a runaway train where the brakes don't work, but a train where the brakes are perfectly functional, but the conductor is just actively choosing not to apply them. So if we choose to apply the brakes, the train will slow down and come to a halt. But so far, we’re still just thinking about tapping the brakes lightly. It's not enough.”

Ben Adler contributed reporting to this story.

Gaza activist on speaking tour in France faces deportation

Reuters
Wed, November 8, 2023 

Palestinian activist Mariam Abudaqa poses for Reuters in Paris

PARIS (Reuters) - A French court has approved the deportation of Palestinian activist Mariam Abudaqa, who came to France for a speaking tour in September and was put under house arrest after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants.

The ruling, which overturns a court decision last month that the interior minister appealed, said 72-year-old Abudaqa, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), was "likely to seriously disturb public order."

The French government has cracked down on expressions of solidarity with Palestine in the wake of Hamas's Oct. 7 attack which killed 1,400 people, banning protests, cancelling events and accusing some pro-Palestine groups of condoning terrorism.

More than 10,000 people have been killed in Gaza by Israel's retaliatory assault on the enclave. Abudaqa said she had lost 30 members of her family since the beginning of the war.

"We are supposed to die without even saying ouch, without expressing pain," said Abudaqa of her arrest and speaking ban on Tuesday before the court decision came.

The anti-occupation and women's rights activist had been invited to speak at the French national assembly at an event on Thursday, but her participation was blocked in October by the Assembly president.

The Conseil d'Etat, France's highest administrative court, based its ruling on Abudaqa's membership of the PFLP, stating that she occupies a "leadership" position.

The PFLP is the second largest faction in the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), which is recognised by the UN and Israel, but is blacklisted by the EU and has carried out attacks on Israelis.

Pierre Stambul, activist with the Union of French Jews for Peace which supported Abudaqa's challenge in court, said she hadn't held a senior position in the group for more than twenty years.

The decision is a "continuation of the criminalisation of the Palestinian population", he said.

The interior minister's office did not respond for comment.

The court ruling does not specify by what date Abudaqa must leave and where she must go. Abudaqa said she plans to fly to Egypt on Saturday and hopes the border crossing will open so that she can return to Gaza.

She said she had trouble sleeping as Israeli strikes on Gaza continue and has become scared of checking her phone, for fear of more bad news.

"Death is much easier than staying here, while my heart aches for them. Or having to receive news everyday of one of them dying," she said.

(Reporting by Layli Foroudi, Antonia Cimini, Noemie Olive; Editing by Christina Fincher)

Gazans raise white flags to flee Israeli onslaught on foot

AFP
Tue, November 7, 2023 

Palestinian refugees have been ordered by Israel to flee south for their own safety, although nowhere in Gaza is free of bombing. (MAHMUD HAMS)

Clutching makeshift white flags, Gazans made their way in between dead bodies and Israeli troops on Tuesday as they followed Israel's orders to flee across the Palestinian territory.

"It was so scary," said Ola al-Ghul, one of the masses of Gazan civilians displaced in the month-old war between Israel and Hamas.

"We held our hands up and we kept walking. There were so many of us, we were holding white flags," she told AFP.

The majority of the Gaza Strip's 2.4 million residents have been displaced by the fighting, with around 1.5 million fleeing within the territory according to the United Nations.

Clutching one of her toddlers, Amira al-Sakani recalled Israel's repeated air drops of flyers, seen by AFP, telling civilians to flee to the south.

"We came by foot from the centre of Gaza to the south," she said. "I was not expecting the distance to be that long."

On the way, Sakani saw "bodies of martyrs, some in pieces".

"We want peace, enough is enough, we are tired, we want a happy future," she said.

More than 10,300 people have been killed across the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, mostly civilians, including more than 4,200 children.

The bombardment came in response to the unprecedented October 7 attacks by Hamas, which killed around 1,400 people in Israel, also mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas.

Sakani said her children have by now learnt what bombs are: "They tell me: 'That's dangerous mum, I don't want any strikes'."

Those seen fleeing by AFP journalists had few belongings with them, while some carried children or were using wheelchairs.

- 'It was really horrible' -

Haitham Noureddine said he walked four kilometres (2.5 miles) with his mother and other relatives until they reached the southern Bureij refugee camp.

He told AFP the family left their Gaza City home near Al-Shifa hospital, due to the heavy bombardment in the area, and saw decomposing bodies en route.

The Israeli military says its troops have encircled Gaza City but will allow civilians to leave the north.

But casualty figures show no area in the territory is safe, with nearly 3,600 people killed in southern and central Gaza, according to health ministry data.

Holding a walking stick, Hatim Abu Riash recounted his fear of walking past Israeli forces.

"Next to the soldiers, next to the guns, next to the tanks, the aeroplane... it was really horrible," he said, after fleeing the northern Jabalia refugee camp, which has been repeatedly bombed since the start of the assault.

"We are not terrorists -- we are civilians -- we want to live in peace," he added.

The Gazans' plight does not end once they flee to central or southern areas, where more than 550,000 people are sheltering in 92 establishments run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

Facilities are limited and disease is rife.

In one, UNRWA reported that more than 600 people were sharing one toilet.

There are also thousands of cases of acute respiratory illness, skin infections, diarrhoea and chicken pox, the UN says, while accessing basic supplies such as bread has become tough.

Standing on a dual carriageway as fellow Gazans walked past, resident Motaz El-Ajala described the conditions as "inhumane".

"The situation is catastrophic," he told AFP, as an elderly woman was pushed past in a baby's buggy.

Belgium wants sanctions against Israel for Gaza bombings - deputy PM

Marine Strauss
Wed, November 8, 2023 


Deputy PM Swearing-in ceremony of new Belgian government at the Royal Palace in Brussels

By Marine Strauss

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgium's deputy prime minister called on the Belgian government on Wednesday to adopt sanctions against Israel and investigate the bombings of hospitals and refugee camps in Gaza.

“It is time for sanctions against Israel. The rain of bombs is inhumane," deputy prime minister Petra De Sutter told Nieuwsblad newspaper. “It is clear that Israel does not care about the international demands for a ceasefire,” she said.

Israel struck at Gaza in response to a Hamas raid on southern Israel on Oct. 7 in which gunmen killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and took about 240 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. The war has descended into the bloodiest episode in the generations-long Israel-Palestinian conflict.

De Sutter said the European Union should immediately suspend its association agreement with Israel, which aims at better economic and political cooperation.

She also said an import ban on products from occupied Palestinian territories should be implemented and violent settlers, politicians, soldiers responsible for war crimes should be banned from entering the EU.

At the same time, she said, Belgium should increase funding for the International Criminal Court in The Hague to investigate the bombings while cutting money flows to Hamas.

“This is a terrorist organization. Terror costs money and there must be sanctions on the companies and people who provide Hamas with money," De Sutter said.With the war now entering its second month, UN officials and G7 nations stepped up appeals for a humanitarian pause in the hostilities to help alleviate the suffering in Gaza, where buildings have been flattened and basic supplies are running out. Palestinian officials say more than 10,000 people have been killed, 40% of them children.

(Reporting by Marine Strauss; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Michael Moore on Gaza: 'We need to stop the slaughter' | UpFront

Post Modern Conservatives

In an interesting article on the German Right Wing Conservative revisionist Carl Schmitt, who is the father of modernist conservative anti-parlimentary/ anti-liberalism, Matthew Sharpe contends that Schmitts theories apply to the Howard Government in Australia.

Australian conservatism & Carl Schmitt

What kind of conservatism (understood as non-liberalism) is emerging in Australia? I have mostly tracked this in terms of a hostility to multiculturalism, the national security state, the war on terror and hostility to Islam. I have taken it no further than this apart from gestures to Burke and Schmitt. AlI I've done is introduce Schmitt's idea of state of exception into the discussion as this is what the war on terror stands for.

Matthew Sharpe, in an article entitled A Coincidentia Oppositorium? On Carl Schmitt and New Australian Conservatism in Borderlands, argues that the new conservatism emerging in Australia has its roots in a different political paradigm to the Burkean one that is usually invoked by Tony Abbott and John Howard. Sharpe says that:

...my contention in what follows is that the recent revival within Western academe of the thought of authoritarian political theorist Carl Schmitt - already one more very interesting sign of the times - becomes only more interesting. For Schmitt's radical conservatism did not draw its inspiration from Burke. His conservative heritage instead came principally from Cattholic counter-revolutionaries Joseph de Maistre, Archibald de Bonald, and Donoso Cortes. This essay will read Schmitt's political theory as it were from within today's Australia, in the light or the quickly-changing shadows of our political times.

In fact they apply equally to the leadership style and politics of RH Stephen Harper as well. He has created a crisis of state over major issues, such as the Accountability act when he appeared in the Senate, the first Prime Minister ever to do so, to tell them to pass his act or else. Or else what? Face an election. On every issue that he has faced opposition over he challenges from a position of power; call an election. Knowing the opposition won't.

Matthew Sharpe
A Coincidentia Oppositorium? On Carl Schmitt and
New Australian Conservatism

After having deliberated on these theoretical matters, let me return to present political concerns, and the question of whether our circumstances allow us to say that a new political conservatism is emerging much closer to Schmitt's than to Burke's. A recent essay on "The Life and Legacy of Carl Schmitt" concludes with the ominous affirmation that "for better or for worse, the actuality of Carl Schmitt will soon become apparent" (anon., 2005).

In Part I of this paper, we saw how Schmitt's prescriptive positions are built around a strident critique of parliamentary liberalism, the "murky indistinctions" of its procedures, and its founding, internally divisive and existentially debilitating, faith in "unending discussion". The features of Schmitt's critique, I suggested, do strikingly anticipate the rhetoric, and many of the policies, of the Howard government in Australia which distinguish it from its Liberal predecessors.

In Part II, we proposed that Schmitt's thought can be differentiated from that of Burke and the anglophone conservative tradition, because it is above all a post-traditional conservatism. Schmitt is under no illusions about the sufficiency of a solely conservative appeal to tradition in the face of political liberalism, and the emerging social democracy of the twentieth century. Although Schmitt recognises the value of tradition or myth in generating cultural unity, that is, his fear that liberalism might collapse the "friend-enemy" distinction push him towards actively advocating the construction of new conflicts - for the sake of generating some post-traditional simulacra of the traditions uniting pre-modern societies. This move is carried out by him through the construction of an authoritarian theory of a decisionist sovereign defended for His existential "decisiveness" in the face of enemies and emergency alone, rather than by reference to any higher or inherited notion of the political good.

Harpers autarchic politics since gaining office reflect the politics of the crisis of the state that Schmitt adovcates. And it began with the crisis of morality of the Liberal party. The Conservatives used this as an excuse to manufacture a both a moral crisis of governance and a moral politcal response to it. As advocated by Schmitt.

Schmitt maintained that liberals overemphasized legality: their quest for a precisely organized system of legal rules was a futile effort to avoid political decision.

The crisis of a dithering Liberal party, indecisive, unable to resolve its own internal party crisis vis a vis being the State allowed Harper to then act as an autarch in power, with is Schmittian Strong Man act. Since then the main theme of the Conservatives is that they are The New Government of Law and Order.

Taking a leaf from the Spanish Catholic counter-revolutionary of the 1830s and 1840s (Donoso), Schmitt goes after middle-class parliamentarians for excessive reliance on legal arrangements.

And he is attempting to get around the Constitution and parliamentary law,as advocated by Schmitt, through Senate Reform, privatizing the Wheat Board and with their Law and Order agenda.

Regardless of our historical and political distance to Carl Schmitt, his writings continue to pose serious questions for any discussion of liberalism and parliamentary democracy,specially at a time when both in the United States and in the European Union the interpretation of constitutional law is undergoing considerable change.

Harpers first publicity act was to go out in uniform as Warrior King to visit the troops he sent to the front lines. And to go to war was not his toughest decision, it was a natural for the Schmittian autark.

In fact Harpers whole politics reeks of Schmitt. His self created political image; the strong man, decisive, decision maker, damn the torpedos. Unlike Mr. Dithers.

The crisis in the last parliment was a Schmittian construct, the Liberals legalistic approach compared to the Conservatives political approach. The Liberals wanted wrong doers exposed, the Conservatives knew who the wrongdoers were, the Liberal Party as a whole, and they wanted them punished.

True democracy, for Schmitt, means popular sovereignty, whereas liberal democracy and liberal parliament aim at curbing popular power. For Schmitt, if democratic identity is taken seriously, only the people should decide on their political destiny, and not liberal representatives, because "no other constitutional institution can withstand the sole criterion of the people's will, however it is expressed."

Harper has adopted the mantel of the Soverign. "The Peoples Soverign", and through his New Government of Canada the people are soverign. Not the politicians. They are not the real voice of the people, the real voice is Harper and his minority government. Best expressed in his outburst that only the Conservatives are the voice of the West and Western Farmers. So Damn the Constitution I will just go around it is his motto as it waqs for the Reform Party.

His is a short term government, one that face replacement by the Natural Governing Party; the Liberals. He must change Federalism and the Federalist State forever. In order not to allow the state to fall back into the hands of the Liberals, Harper must make irrevocable changes in the structure of the State, before he hands it back to the Liberals.

And he has only one chance to that. So his autarchic approach is not personal, a quirk, but is political, a Schmittian purge of all that is Liberal in the Canadian State. And this can be seen by the constant refrain of the Conservatives chanting You had 13 years and you did nothing, every time the Liberals say anything. The party of the Strong Man will do something. Because it may be the only chance they get.

Carl Schmitt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In 1921, Schmitt became a professor at the University of Greifswald, where he published his essay "Die Diktatur" ("On Dictatorship"), in which he discussed the foundations of the newly-established Weimar Republic, emphasising the office of the Reichspräsident. For Schmitt, a strong dictatorship could embody the will of the people more effectively than any legislative body, as it can be decisive, whereas parliaments inevitably involve discussion and compromise:

“If the constitution of a state is democratic, then every exceptional negation of democratic principles, every exercise of state power independent of the approval of the majority, can be called dictatorship.”

And Schmitt had a huge influence on the Godfather of modern Neo-Con Politics; Leo Strauss, who influenced both the Bush Cheney Rumsfeld White House and the Calgary School. When I think Strauss and Schmitt in practice besides Harper I think of one of his Calgary School mentors; Herr Professor Ted Morton.

Undoubtedly, the easiest access, and the best introduction, to Schmitt's radically original and disturbing vision of politics is afforded by his slim but immensely suggestive treatise, The Concept of the Political. Far more insinuative than what its modest title claims, the treatise forms, according to Leo Strauss, perhaps the most incisive and astute commentator of this infamous text, 'an inquiry into the "order of human things",... into the State.' Instead of offering an exhaustive and academic definition of the political, Schmitt conceptualizes it 'within the totality of human thought and action', in terms of the primordial and seminal antithesis between 'friend' and 'enemy': 'just as in the field of morals, the ultimate distinctions are good and evil, in esthetics, beautiful and ugly, in economics, profitable and unprofitable, so the significantly political distinction is between friend and foe.' For Schmitt, then, the political is primordial; it comes before the State and transcends its mundane and routine policies. It reveals itself, historically, at the foundational moment of the polity, and conceptually, in the unwritten metaphysics of the constitution. Indeed, the political in the specifically Schmittian sense incarnates existential totality and determines a choice between being and nothingness.

[PDF]

Carl Schmitt in English

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Stephen Harper

Autarky

Autarch




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Levi's CEO says Amazon's '$20 an hour' wages are forcing the jeans maker to rethink worker pay amid the tight labor market

dreuter@insider.com (Dominick Reuter) 

Chip Bergh, President and CEO of Levi Strauss. Thomson Reuters

Levi's CEO Chip Bergh said Amazon is adding to his challenges in the labor market in 2021.
Bergh told the AP that he's "considering right now what we have to do with our wage rates."
Amazon hired more than 500,000 people in 2020, and the majority of workers earn over $16 per hour.

Levi Strauss and Co. has been selling jeans for 168 years, but 2021 is proving particularly difficult for the company to find workers, thanks in large part to Amazon.

"There's no question that labor is challenging right now," said CEO Chip Berg in an interview with the Associated Press.

Even as Berg calls the Levi's "aspirational company for a lot of people to work for," he says the company is starting to face some headwinds when it comes to staffing its retail stores and distribution centers in the current labor market.

"We are considering right now what we have to do with our wage rates going forward," he said. "Candidly, we have folks that are right around the corner from Amazon distribution centers and Amazon is not afraid to pay $20 an hour."

A spokesperson said the company has been successful in recruiting and retaining workers at distribution centers based on the total value the company offers, including working for "an iconic brand with strong values," health care and retirement benefits, a bonus program and more.

"We believe this package of compensation and benefits will continue to make us an employer of choice," the spokesperson said.

Berg's comments are the latest evidence that Amazon is establishing a new minimum wage in America.

Indeed, the Amazon effect on local labor markets has been measurable.

"One study showed that our pay raise resulted in a 4.7% increase in the average hourly wage among other employers in the same labor market," CEO Jeff Bezos said in Amazon's latest shareholders meeting, citing research from economists at UC Berkeley and Brandeis.

The actual federal minimum wage was last raised in 2009 and is still $7.25 per hour, while Amazon has had a $15 starting wage since 2018.

"When we set a $15 minimum wage we did so because we wanted to lead on wages and not just run with the pack," Bezos said.

The decision certainly helped propel Amazon's expansion, but the disruption from the pandemic kicked off an even more dramatic reshuffling of the labor market across industries from retail to food service.

Like Levi's, apparel-maker Under Armour specifically cited Amazon as a catalyst for the company's recent wage hike.

"The reality is from a competitive standpoint of hiring, we know that we compete not just within our industry for talent but also outside of the industry to places like Amazon," Stephanie Pugliese, the president of the Americas region at Under Armour, told Bloomberg.

In 2020 alone, Amazon reported hiring more than a half million workers, the majority of whom earn more than $16 per hour, in addition to an extremely competitive benefits package.

And in May, the company announced it is hiring another 75,000 workers in fulfillment and logistics network across the US and Canada with a starting wage of $17 per hour and hiring bonus of up to $1,000.

As Miami chef Phil Bryant told The Washington Post, "If I can make $17 per hour at an Amazon warehouse but only $14 per hour as a line cook, a notoriously hot, stressful, intense job, why would I do that?"
Read the original article on Business Insider

Levi's found a way to make hemp feel like cotton, and it could have big implications for your wardrobe
Richard Feloni

Hemp fibers are naturally stiff and ropy, but Levi's has 

discovered a way to make it feel like cotton. Universal 

Images Group/Getty Images

Denim icon Levi Strauss & Co. debuted garments made from a soft hemp-cotton blend in March, and head of innovation Paul Dillinger said he expects 100% cottonized-hemp products in about five years.

Hemp uses significantly less water and chemicals than cotton during cultivation. Levi's has found a way to soften hemp using far less water than was previously used.

Dillinger said the long-term goal is to incorporate sustainable cotton blends by using fibers such as hemp into all of its products.

Recently, the brand has found a way to apply the indigo dyeing process to the cottonized hemp denim, as well as how to utilize its low-water finishing process on the material.

This article is part of Business Insider's Better Capitalism series, which tracks the ways companies and individuals are rethinking the economy and role of business in society.

Since the legalization of hemp in the United States at the end of 2018, the industry has been exploding: Reports and Data estimated it'll be worth $13.03 billion by 2026. While you've probably noticed hemp-derived CBD products everywhere, hemp also has major implications for sustainable clothing — and denim icon Levi Strauss & Co. has made significant progress in making this happen.

Last March, Levi's debuted a collaboration with the Outerknown label that included a pair of jeans and jacket made from a 69%-cotton/31%-hemp blend that feels like pure cotton. Why is that significant? Hemp, a cannabis plant with a negligible amount of the psychoactive chemical THC, uses significantly less water and chemicals than cotton. Unlike cotton, though, the material is difficult to work with. The cotton fibers in your shirt are derived from a puffy bud on top of a plant, while hemp fibers come from a tall, sturdy trunk.

"It's a longer, stiffer, coarser fiber," Levi's head of global product innovation, Paul Dillinger, told Business Insider last year. "It doesn't want to be turned into something soft. It wants to be turned into rope."

Levi's has found a method to make hemp fibers soft and able to blend with cotton, but in a way that uses significantly less water than the process used to turn hemp plants into a rough material. "It's great that it's resonating with the consumer, but it's more important that it's helping to future-proof our supply chain," he said.

We checked in again with Dillinger in January, and he told us that last fall, Levi's discovered how to get the indigo dyeing process to work with its hemp blend, which previously was only available in a natural white denim.

He explained that the work with hemp is a significant research project that will continue for years with the intention of scaling production, rather than a project that only results in a couple of high-end, niche items. "Our intention is to take this to the core of the line, to blend it into the line, to make this a part of the Levi's portfolio," he said.

Dillinger said Levi's is continuing to work on improving the quality of its cottonized-hemp, to the point where it can be nearly half of a cotton-blend for most apparel, as well as fully hemp for certain products. And in five years, he said, he expects "a 100% cottonized-hemp garment that is all hemp and feels all cotton."

Most recently, Levi's has combined its cottonized hemp with its low-water "Water

Dillinger said that the need for cotton alternatives became apparent when looking at the growth trajectory of cotton demand compared to access to fresh water required for its cultivation and processing. Since he was familiar with the nature of hemp, he did not expect to find a solution there — until Levi's discovered cutting-edge research in Europe, where industrial hemp was already legal in many countries. Levi's would not reveal its partners or details of its breakthroughs, except to say that it had a market-ready material after three years.

When Levi's finds a way to make 100% cottonized-hemp clothing, "We're going to go from a garment that goes from 3,781 L of fresh water, 2,655 of that in just the fiber cultivation," Dillinger said, drawing from data collected by the Stockholm Environmental Institute. "We take out more than 2/3 of the total water impact to the garment. That's saving a lot."

Despite his optimism, Dillinger was quick to point out that he doesn't want hype around the hemp industry to make it seem like Levi's and its competitors are going to fully replace cotton or revolutionize the industry overnight. To do it properly, there remains many years of research and development. Plus, it's likely hemp will be just one of several natural cotton alternatives. "Initiatives with the potential to create meaningful change and environmental value often take time and patience to bring to life," he said.

The idea is that hemp clothing, whether in a cotton blend or by itself, isn't going to be a fad. Levi's markets its cottonized hemp under the sustainable "WellThread" label, but Dillinger said that while he can't speak for the company on this point, he personally isn't too concerned about the marketing of cottonized-hemp clothing. That's because the ideal scenario down the line is that customers won't even notice a difference.

"So often there's the assumption that to purchase a sustainably-made product is going to involve a sacrifice, and that the choice is between something ethically made or something that's cute," he said. "You don't have to sacrifice to buy sustainably."

This is an updated version of an article that originally ran on May 8, 2019.

Global protests demand an immediate halt to Israeli bombing of Gaza

In the U.S., thousands converged on the capital to protest the Biden administration’s support of Israel and its continued military campaign in Gaza.

Anti-war activists rally during a pro-Palestinian demonstration asking to cease fire in Gaza, at Freedom Plaza in Washington.
Jose Luis Magana / AP

By AP via Scripps News
Nov 4, 2023

From Washington to Milan to Paris, tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched Saturday, calling for a halt to Israel's bombardment of Gaza.

The marches reflected growing disquiet about the mounting civilian casualty toll and suffering from the Israel-Hamas war. Protesters, particularly in countries with large Muslim populations, including the U.S., U.K. and France, expressed disillusionment with their governments for supporting Israel while its bombardments of hospitals and residential areas in the Gaza strip intensify.

The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has reached 9,448, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In Israel, more than 1,400 people have been killed, most of them in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that started the war.

In the U.S., thousands converged on the nation's capital to protest the Biden administration's support of Israel and its continued military campaign in Gaza. "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," demonstrators donning black and white keffiyehs chanted as an enormous Palestinian flag was unfurled by a crowd that filled Pennsylvania Avenue — the street leading up to the White House.

Leveling direct criticism of President Joe Biden, Renad Dayem of Cleveland said she made the trip with her family so her children would know "the Palestinian people are resilient — and we want a leader who won't be a puppet to the Israeli government."

Dozens of small white body bags with the names of children killed by Israeli missiles lined the street and demonstrators held signs calling for an immediate cease-fire.

Protesters held signs and banners with messages such as "Biden betrays us" and "In November we remember," highlighting how the issue could be a factor in Biden's reelection bid.

Jinane Ennasri, a 27 year-old New York resident, said the Biden administration's support of Israel despite the thousands of Palestinian deaths has made her rethink voting in the 2024 presidential election, where Biden will likely face GOP front-runner Donald Trump. "We thought he would represent us, but he doesn't," she said, "and our generation is not afraid to put elected officials in their place."

Ennasri, like many demonstrators, said they would likely sit out the 2024 election.

Israel admits to striking ambulance in Gaza; 15 killed, 60 injured


Israel claimed it targeted the ambulance because it was being used by Hamas. Fifteen people were killed and 60 others were injured in the air strike.LEARN MORE

Biden was in Rehoboth, Delaware, for the weekend and didn't comment on the protests. In a brief exchange with reporters as he left St. Edmond Roman Catholic Church on Saturday, he suggested there has been some forward movement in the U.S efforts to persuade Israel to agree to a humanitarian pause, answering "yes" when asked if there was progress.

Steve Strauss, a 73 year-old Baltimore resident, said he is one of many Jewish people protesting Israel's treatment of Palestinians. "They are trying to kill as many Palestinians as they can get away with," Strauss said. "I am here to stand up and be a voice for the people who are oppressed."

In Paris, several thousand protesters called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and some shouted "Israel, assassin!"

Banners on a sound-system truck at the Paris march through rain-dampened streets read: "Stop the massacre in Gaza." Demonstrators, many carrying Palestinian flags, chanted "Palestine will live, Palestine will win."

Demonstrators also took aim at French President Emmanuel Macron, chanting "Macron, accomplice."

Paris' police chief authorized the march from République to Nation, two large plazas in eastern Paris, but vowed that any behavior deemed antisemitic or sympathetic to terrorism would not be tolerated.

Multiple countries in Europe have reported increasing antisemitic attacks and incidents since Oct. 7.

In an attack Saturday, an assailant knocked on the door of a Jewish woman in the French city of Lyon and, when she opened, said "Hello" before stabbing her twice in the stomach, according to the woman's lawyer, Stéphane Drai, who spoke to broadcaster BFM. He said police also found a swastika on the woman's door. The woman was being treated in a hospital and her life was not in danger, the lawyer said.

At the London rally, the Metropolitan Police said its officers made 11 arrests, including one on a terrorism charge for displaying a placard that could incite hatred. The police force had forewarned that it would also monitor social media and use facial recognition to spot criminal behavior.

On Friday, two women who attended a pro-Palestinian march three weeks ago were charged under the U.K.'s Terrorism Act for displaying images on their clothing of paragliders. In its Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel, Hamas employed paragliders to get some fighters across the border between Gaza and southern Israel. Prosecutors said the images aroused suspicion they were supporters of Hamas, which U.K. authorities regard as a terrorist group.

In Berlin, around 1,000 police officers were deployed to ensure order after previous pro-Palestinian protests turned violent. German news agency dpa reported that about 6,000 protesters marched through the center of the German capital. Police banned any kind of public or written statements that are antisemitic, anti-Israeli or glorify violence or terror. Several thousand protesters also marched through the west German city of Duesseldorf.

In Romania's capital, hundreds gathered in central Bucharest, many waving Palestinian flags and chanting "Save the children from Gaza."

At a rally by several thousand people in Milan, Matteo Salvini, a deputy prime minister, spoke out against antisemitism, calling it "a cancer, a virulent plague, something disgusting.''

In another part of Milan, a pro-Palestinian rally drew about 4,000 people and there was also a march by several thousand in Rome. Yara Abushab, a 22-year-old medical student from Gaza University, who has been in Italy since Oct. 1, was among the participants and described Oct. 7 as a watershed for her.

"They bombed my university, my hospital. I lost a lot of loved ones and right now the last time I heard something from my family was a week ago," she said. "The situation is indescribable."

UK

29 arrests and police injured after thousands gather in support of Palestine

People at a rally in Trafalgar Square (Victoria Jones/PA)

By George Lithgow and Kristina Wemyss, PA

Today at 11:25

Four police officers were injured and 29 people were arrested after thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square demanding a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

They were arrested for inciting racial hatred, other racially motivated crimes, violence and assaulting a police officer, the Metropolitan Police said.

Demonstrators climbed on top of the square’s famous fountains as the mostly peaceful group waved flags and banners on Saturday afternoon.

But the force said some demonstrators had launched fireworks into crowds and towards police, leaving four officers injured.

There were scuffles with police as the evening went on, and smaller groups of protesters began moving away from the square.

More than 1,300 officers were on duty in the area, four of whom were injured, the force said.

At least one protester was seen carrying a banner which read “Let’s keep the world clean” with a picture of an Israeli flag being thrown into a bin.

An anti-Israeli sign is held up at a rally in Trafalgar Square (George Lithgow/PA)

A similar banner displayed at a protest in Warsaw was condemned by the Israeli ambassador to Poland as “blatant antisemitism”.

Other protesters chanted “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, despite controversy around the slogan’s meaning.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman has previously branded the slogan antisemitic and claimed that it is “widely understood” to call for the destruction of Israel.

However, pro-Palestinian protesters have contested this definition.

Effigies of dead babies were left on the ground in Trafalgar Square, next to pictures of children and candles.

The Met issued a dispersal order for an area around the square which will remain in force until 1am.

An order was also issued giving officers the power to require someone to remove any item being used to conceal their identity, the force said.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and comedian Alexei Sayle were among those who addressed the crowd on a stage set up in the square.

Other speakers led chants of “free, free Palestine” and were cheered by the large crowd which filled the famous square in central London.

Police said “retrospective facial recognition” had been used to identify a 24-year-old man who was arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated offence after he was filmed giving a speech.

Nine people were arrested for public order offences, including two that were racially aggravated, and three others for assaulting a police officer.

Two further people were arrested on suspicion of breaching section 12 of the Terrorism Act after they were seen displaying a banner appearing to support a proscribed organisation.

Protesters also gathered for a sit-in at Charing Cross station, which is near to Trafalgar Square in central London, on Saturday evening.

Earlier in the day, 350 people staged a sit-in protest which shut down Oxford Circus.

The demonstration stopped traffic during the shopping district’s busiest hours, following similar disruptive protests at major stations.

It comes after a week of similar disruptive actions at major UK transport hubs.

Effigies of dead babies laid out at a rally in Trafalgar Square (Victoria Jones/PA)

Met Police Commander Karen Findlay said: “The vast majority of people demonstrated peacefully during an extremely busy day in central London, with protests in a number of locations requiring a policing presence.

“It is disappointing that various splinter groups were again responsible for behaviour which has no place in London and we are determined to deal with this robustly. Fireworks were directed towards officers and four officers were injured.

“Today, we dealt with breakaway groups from the main protest quickly. Officers intervened to prevent further disruption, using the full range of powers at their disposal. This effective intervention ensured Londoners were able to go about their business.”

Protesters outside BBC headquarters in London call for 'cease-fire now' in Gaza

'Western media has never asked us to condemn the Nakba,' says sign carried by protesters, referring to Palestinians being driven off their lands in 1948

Burak Bir |04.11.2023 - 


LONDON

Demonstrators in London on Saturday protested four weeks of attacks by Israel and called for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

Amid continued relentless attacks on Gaza, people continue to take to the streets in London in solidarity with Palestinians.

Gathering outside of BBC headquarters in Portland Place, the crowd opened up a big banner saying: "Stop arming Israel."

Other signs read: "Stop the genocide," "Cease-fire now," and "The Western media has never asked us to condemn the Nakba," or catastrophe, referring to Palestinians being driven off their lands in 1948, when the state of Israel was founded.

Carrying Palestinian flags and signs, the group chanted pro-Palestinian slogans, including "BBC, shame on you," referring to its coverage of the situation in Gaza, which the protesters called biased.

They also criticized the British government, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and US President Joe Biden over their support for Israel.

Another huge pro-Palestinian rally was also expected to take place later Saturday in London’s iconic Trafalgar Square.

This week the Israeli army expanded its air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip, which has been under relentless airstrikes since a surprise offensive by Hamas on Oct. 7.

Nearly 11,000 people have been killed in the conflict, including 9,488 Palestinians and more than 1,538 Israelis.

Basic supplies are running low for Gaza’s 2.3 million residents due to the Israeli siege, in addition to the large number of casualties and displacements.​​​​​

Train station sit-ins for Palestine in Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Notts and Leeds

People staged train station occupations as part of a national day of action for Palestine

The occupation for Palestine at Manchester Piccadilly station

SOCIALIST WORKER NOV 4,2023 

Thousands of pro-Palestine protesters across Britain wanted to do more than just march on the national day of action on Saturday. In Manchester a massive 15,000 took to the streets. A group of several hundred then headed to the city’s main station, Piccadilly, and occupied the concourse.

“It was fantastic and inspiring,” Adam Rose told Socialist Worker. “And it was so important after the week of horror from Palestine. A small group of people left the march early to secure the station.

“Then much bigger groups of us left the march too and got the numbers up to about 300 people. The march organisers at the rally then told everyone to get down here, so by the end we had almost 1,000 people protesting in the station.

“Everyone was sitting down and chanting, and upstairs, in the gallery restaurants, there was an LGBT+ for Palestine banner—and a huge one against the genocide.”

Adam says the militancy of the protest reflects that protesters are feeling ever more confident. “We’ve already had three really big marches in Manchester, but today there were still people coming for the first time,” he said.

In Glasgow, protesters occupied the city’s Central Station before the main march started. The concourse was blocked by hundreds of chanting protesters. By the time they left to join a feeder march to the main demonstration their numbers had swelled to around 3,000.

Edinburgh had its biggest protest yet with some 4,000 people joining. The mood of militancy took them too as they occupied the main Waverley station.

In Dundee, where last week police officers arrested a march participant, some 750 people responded this week with fury at the cops.

They defied the clampdown and ragged against the British government and the Labour “opposition”. And crucially, this week they again marched around the town—in their biggest numbers yet.

Some 2,000 marched in Nottingham and then moved to occupy the railway station. While hundreds got in and blocked it, hundreds more were outside trying to join them.


Huge numbers stage protests and sit-ins for Palestine across Britain
Read More

One marcher said it was “the liveliest demo I have been on in a very long time” and added it was “inspiring to see all the young women leading the chants”. “And great to see the green and black smoke pyrotechnics which adds to the spectacle,” they said.

Hundreds of protesters in Leeds also occupied their station. Linda told Socialist Worker that the protest was planned on WhatsApp and then spread rapidly. “There were loads of young people there, especially young Muslim people—and it was really lively.

“The handful of police officers had no idea what to do about it, so they basically left us alone. And numbers grew as the afternoon went on. The main march in town was the biggest yet, so a lot of people came from there too.

“In the end we all left together and had a procession out of the station—and we looked really impressive. Lots of passers-by were filming us.”

Elsewhere the day was one of good-sized marches, with thousands on the streets of Liverpool, Sheffield and Cardiff.

Aimee from Bristol said some 4,000 people marched through city centre there, disrupting traffic and the shopping centre.

“It was amazing to be part of, and inspiring. All sorts of people are coming together for Palestine. I’ve been to the demos in London and they were incredible. But to be on Bristol with the streets crammed full of people was too.

“It was great to cause disruption. People spilled into the roads and stopped buses.”

In Cambridge around 1,200 came on the streets, the biggest in the city in recent weeks.

Despite reluctance from the local Labour Party to get involved, many trade unionists were on the demo. Protester Tom told Socialist Worker, “There weren’t as many as there should’ve been, but more than there has been.

“Trade unionists from the UCU, NEU and Unite were there—and many had clearly won arguments about Palestine in their unions. A lot of young people on the march really wanted to talk politics.”

A massive 2,000 people marched in Exeter and 1,500 marched in Rotherham, while hundreds were on the streets down the road in Chesterfield. Several hundred marched in Dorchester, Portsmouth and Plymouth on the south coast and in Lancaster and Halifax in the north west of England.

Pro-Palestinian protesters occupy railway stations

BBC

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters have occupied two of Scotland's biggest railway stations.

Demonstrators waved flags inside Edinburgh Waverley while a similar protest was earlier held at Glasgow Central.

Network Rail said train services continued to operate.

Marches have been taking place across the UK to urge an end to Israeli attacks in Gaza,

The retaliatory strikes came after Hamas gunmen killed more than 1,400 people in Israel on 7 October.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 9,400 people have been killed there.

Tens of thousands at pro-Palestinian marches in UK

Gaza war: When can protesting be illegal?

Edinburgh councillor Alys Mumford who was speaking at the Edinburgh protest said the gathering at Waverley station was "spontaneous" and "peaceful" after police interrupted their marching route.

She told BBC Scotland News: "I've been involved in Palestinian peace activism since 2008 and this is the biggest I've seen for a long time in Edinburgh.

"It is growing as people are realising that we are witnessing absolute horrific war crimes, the bombing of refugees, the bombing of hospitals, the bombing of refugee camps and children.

"That is one of the most powerful things about this protest, the amount of children here talking about how every child should have a right to life."

Protesters were heard chanting "free Palestine" and "ceasefire now". They waved flags and blew whistles.


A sit down protest was held inside Glasgow Central station

A large pro-Palestinian demonstration also took place in Glasgow on Saturday.

A sit-in was held in Glasgow Central Station, where protesters could be heard chanting "occupation no more".

They marched to the BBC Scotland headquarters at Pacific Quay for a rally.


Demonstrators in Glasgow staged a rally outside the headquarters of BBC Scotland

On Friday, protesters south of the border organised a sit-in at London's King's Cross Station after a demonstration was banned. Five people were arrested.

First Minister Humza Yousaf has repeatedly called for a ceasefire in Gaza.

On X, formerly known as Twitter, he said: "There is an acronym that is unique to the Gaza Strip, WCNSF: Wounded Child No Surviving Family.

"This acronym should be seared into our collective conscience, and haunt us.

"We need an immediate ceasefire so no more children suffer."

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has said there will be no temporary ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza until all Israeli hostages were released.

Israel believes more than 200 people were kidnapped during the Hamas attacks.

Thousands march through London in pro-Palestine rally to demand a ceasefire

Police had banned protesters from gathering outside the Israeli embassy

Demonstrators held sit-down protests in central London before gathering in Trafalgar Square on Saturday. AFP

Nicky Harley
London
Nov 04, 2023

Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza

Thousands of people marched through London on Saturday demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.

The demonstration came as Israel's military intensified its assault against Hamas.

Large crowds gathered across the capital, holding sit-down protests at Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus, before marching to gather in Trafalgar Square.

Protesters also gathered for a sit-in at Charing Cross station, which is near Trafalgar Square, on Saturday evening.

Protesters held “Freedom for Palestine” placards and chanted “ceasefire now” and “in our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians”.

Earlier the police had taken measures to prevent protesters from gathering outside the Israeli embassy.

London's Metropolitan Police said officers had made three arrests. In a post on X, police said one person was arrested for displaying a placard that could incite hate, contrary to terrorism legislation.

READ MORE
Gaza war protesters in 'positive dialogue' to avoid UK Remembrance disruption

Britain has supported Israel's right to defend itself after the Hamas militant group killed 1,400 people and took more than 240 hostages in an attack on October 7 in southern Israel.

On Friday, British police said they were working with pro-Palestinian protesters to prevent unrest over the war in Gaza from disrupting Remembrance Day commemorations next weekend.

Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, writing in the Times, said the lines between pro-Palestinian protesters and “those who support the brutal terrorism of Hamas” have become “badly blurred”.

Sir Ephraim highlighted a Manchester protest with a banner showing support for “Palestinian resistance” and said there was no ambiguity in the words used.

“Did every person who attended that march truly wish to associate themselves with acts of such barbarity? I sincerely hope that they did not,” he wrote.










A girl hands out sweets in Damascus to express solidarity with Palestine. AFP

“Nevertheless, it could not be clearer that, at the very least, the lines between those who wish only to advocate for the welfare of innocent Palestinians and those who support the brutal terrorism of Hamas have become badly blurred.

“It is imperative that we redraw these lines of moral clarity without delay.”

Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has also responded to concerns from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman about the prospect of pro-Palestine protests on Armistice Day.



Ms Braverman warned protesters against damaging the Cenotaph - a war memorial in central London - a week before the annual Remembrance Day services.

She said any protesters found to have vandalised the Cenotaph should be "put into a jail cell faster than their feet can touch the ground".

Mr Sunak said such a move would be “provocative and disrespectful”, amid reports that tens of thousands of demonstrators are planning to take to the streets to call for an immediate ceasefire on November 11.

Demonstration organisers have pledged to avoid the Whitehall area where the Cenotaph war memorial – the focus of national remembrance events – is located.

Sir Mark, in a letter to Mr Sunak, said: “Like you, I recognise the profound significance of Armistice Day and the events that take place across the weekend in central London and in communities across London.

“We will take a robust approach and yesterday I set out our intent to use all the powers available to the [Metropolitan Police], including putting in place conditions, if required, to ensure events in Whitehall and the surrounding areas as well as other locations of significance across London are not undermined.”

Ms Braverman, writing on X, described any such protest as a “hate march”.

Thousands attend pro-Palestinian march in Manchester

Published

IMAGE SOURCE,ASHRAF IH TIMOL

Image caption,

A rally was held outside Manchester Central Library

Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters have marched again in Manchester, calling for an end to Israeli attacks in Gaza.

It is the fourth weekend that rallies have been held in the city and elsewhere since war began on 7 October.

About 1,400 people were killed and more than 200 people taken hostage after Hamas attacks in Israel.

Since then 9,000 people have been killed by Israeli bombs in Gaza, Palestinian officials say.

Demonstrators repeated their calls for a ceasefire and an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

Earlier in the day, the North West Friends of Israel group held a vigil for the hostages taken in the Hamas attacks on 7 October.

They set up heart-shaped balloons attached to the hostages' names and photos in Manchester's Exchange Square.

IMAGE SOURCE,NW FRIENDS OF ISRAEL

Image caption,

Heart-shaped balloons were set up for Israeli hostages

Before last weekend's demonstration, Greater Manchester Police described previous events, which also drew thousands, as "generally peaceful".

Following large pro-Palestinian demonstrations nationwide, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said they were "hate marches".

However, she drew criticism from human rights campaigners, including the group Liberty, which described her comments as "inflammatory and dangerous".

Pro-Palestinian rally held at US consulate in Belfast

Publishe

IMAGE SOURCE,PACEMAKER

Image caption,

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched to the US consulate

About 6,000 protestors took part in a pro-Palestinian march to the United States consulate in Belfast on Saturday, police have said.

It was one of a number of rallies held across the UK on Saturday calling for an end to Israeli attacks in Gaza.

A number of pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrations have been held in Belfast in recent weeks.

The rally, organised by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, started outside Queen's University Belfast.

Speeches called for a ceasefire, with some speakers urging the US government to end financial support to Israel.

The US is Israel's largest military backer, providing about $3.8bn of defence aid a year.

Posters displayed were critical of the US government.

The march then made its way to the consulate near Stranmillis Road and Danesfort Park in the south of the city.

Teddy bears were placed at the consulate's gate to represent children who have been killed in Gaza.

IMAGE SOURCE,PACEMAKER

Image caption,

Teddy bears were placed at the gates of the consulate

Israel has been bombarding Gaza with prolonged air strikes following the 7 October attacks on southern Israel by Hamas, in which the group killed 1,400 people and took more than 200 hostage.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says Israeli air strikes have killed more than 9,000 people.

Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK.

On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there would be no temporary ceasefire until all Israeli hostages were released.

Protesters March in Major Cities to Demand Gaza Cease-Fire

November 04, 2023 
Reuters

People attend a demonstration demanding a cease-fire in Gaza, an end to airstrikes and an end to forcible displacement of populations amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Paris, Nov. 4, 2023.

LONDON —

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators staged protests Saturday in London, Berlin, Paris, Ankara, Istanbul and Washington to call for a cease-fire in Gaza and castigate Israel after its military intensified its assault against Hamas.

In London, television footage showed large crowds holding sit-down protests blocking parts of the city center, before marching to Trafalgar Square.

Protesters held "Freedom for Palestine" placards and chanted "cease-fire now" and "in our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians."

Police said they had made 11 arrests. One person was arrested for displaying a placard that could incite hate, contrary to terrorism legislation.

Britain has supported Israel's right to defend itself after Hamas killed 1,400 people and took more than 240 hostages in an Oct. 7 assault in southern Israel. Britain, along with United States and others in the West, has designated Hamas a terrorist organization.

Echoing Washington's stance, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's government has stopped short of calling for a cease-fire, and instead advocated humanitarian pauses to allow aid into Gaza.

Demonstrators rally in support of Palestinians amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at Freedom Plaza in Washington, Nov. 4, 2023.

In Washington

Thousands of protesters marched down the streets of Washington waving Palestinian flags, some chanting "Biden, Biden you cannot hide, you signed up for genocide," before congregating at Freedom Plaza, steps away from the White House.

Speakers denounced President Joe Biden's support of Israel, declaring "you have blood on your hands." Some vowed not to support Biden's bid for a second term in the White House next year as well as campaigns by other Democrats seeking office, calling them "two-faced" liberals who were "not a refuge from right wingers."

Others lashed out at civil rights leaders for not condemning the killing of women and children by Israeli bombings.

Gaza health officials said Saturday that more than 9,488 Palestinians have been killed so far in the Israeli assault.

Protesters gather near the residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem as the conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas continues, Nov. 4, 2023.

In Paris

In central Paris, thousands marched to call for a cease-fire with placards reading "Stop the cycle of violence" and "To do nothing, to say nothing is to be complicit."

It was one of the first, big gatherings in support of Palestinians to be legally allowed in Paris since the Hamas attack on October 7.

French authorities had banned some previous pro-Palestinian gatherings over concerns about public disorder.

France will host an international humanitarian conference on Gaza on Thursday as it looks to coordinate aid for the enclave.

"We came here today to show the people of France's solidarity with the Palestinian people and our support for peace, for a peace solution with two states, an Israeli state and a Palestinian state," said Antoine Guerreiro, a 30 year old civil servant.

Wahid Barek, a 66-year-old retiree, lamented the deaths of both Israeli and Palestinian civilians.

"I deplore civilian deaths on both sides. Civilians have nothing to do with these actions. It really is shameful," he said.

Demonstrators protest in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in London, Britain, Nov. 4, 2023.

In Berlin, elsewhere

In Berlin, demonstrators waved Palestinian flags, demanding a cease-fire. One woman marched with her arm in the air, her hand covered in fake blood.

Hundreds of protesters gathered in Istanbul and Ankara, a day before a visit to Turkey by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken for talks on Gaza.

Turkey, which has sharply criticized Israel and Western countries as the humanitarian crisis has intensified in Gaza, supports a two-state solution and hosts members of Hamas. Ankara does not consider Hamas a terrorist organization, unlike the United States, the European Union, and some Gulf states.

In Istanbul's Sarachane park, protesters held banners saying "Blinken, the accomplice of the massacre, go away from Turkey," with a picture of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blinken together with a red "X" mark on it.

"Children are dying, babies are dying there, being bombed," said 45-year-old teacher Gulsum Alpay.

Footage from Ankara showed protesters gathered near the U.S. Embassy, chanting slogans and holding posters which read: "Israel bombs hospitals, Biden pays for it."

Thousands march in capitals around the world demanding cease-fire in Israel-Hamas war


By —Oleg Cetinic,  Associated Press

World Nov 4, 2023 

Thousands of mostly young people filled the streets of downtown Washington D.C. on Saturday afternoon to protest the Biden administration’s support of Israel and its continued military campaign in Gaza.

“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” chanted demonstrators. They wore black and white keffiyehs as an enormous Palestinian flag was unfurled by a crowd that filled Pennsylvania Avenue, the street leading up to the White House.

Dozens of small white body bags with the names of children killed lined the street and demonstrators held signs calling for an immediate cease-fire.

WATCH: Calls for immediate cease-fire rejected as Israeli troops advance on Gaza City

In Europe, pro-Palestinian demonstrators demanding a halt to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza marched in Paris, Berlin and other cities on Saturday.

The marches reflected growing disquiet in Europe about the mounting civilian casualty toll and suffering from the Israel-Hamas war, particularly in countries with large Muslim populations, including France.

The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has reached 9,448, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In Israel, more than 1,400 people have been killed, most of them in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that started the war.

At a Paris rally that drew several thousand protesters, demonstrators called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and some shouted “Israel, assassin!” In central London, streets were blocked by protesters chanting, “Cease-fire now” and “I believe that we will win.”

People carry Palestinian flags and banners as they gather to stage a demonstration in support of Palestinians in Paris, France, Nov. 4, 2023.

 Photo by Ibrahim Ezzat/Anadolu via Getty Images

Banners on a sound-system truck at the Paris march through rain-dampened streets read: “Stop the massacre in Gaza.” Demonstrators, many carrying Palestinian flags, chanted “Palestine will live, Palestine will win.”

Some demonstrators also took aim at French President Emmanuel Macron, chanting “Macron, accomplice.”

Paris’ police chief authorized the march from République to Nation, two large plazas in eastern Paris, but vowed that any behavior deemed antisemitic or sympathetic to terrorism would not be tolerated.

Multiple countries in Europe have reported increasing antisemitic attacks and incidents since Oct. 7. In a new attack Saturday, an assailant knocked on the door of a Jewish woman in the French city of Lyon and, when she opened, said “Hello” before stabbing her twice in the stomach, according to the woman’s lawyer, Stéphane Drai, who spoke to broadcaster BFM. He said police also found a swastika on the woman’s door. The woman was being treated in a hospital and her life was not in danger, the lawyer said.

WATCH: Israel-Hamas war leads to increase of antisemitic threats on college campuses

In Berlin, around 1,000 police officers were deployed to ensure order after previous pro-Palestinian protests turned violent. German news agency dpa reported that about 6,000 protesters marched through the center of the German capital. Police banned any kind of public or written statements that are antisemitic, anti-Israeli or glorify violence or terror. Several thousand protesters also marched through the west German city of Duesseldorf.

People chant slogans during a “Freedom for Palestine” protest that drew thousands of participants at Alexanderplatz in Berlin, Germany. Nov. 4, 2023. 

Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images

At the London rally, with hundreds of protesters, the Metropolitan Police said its officers made 11 arrests, including one on a terrorism charge for displaying a placard that could incite hatred. The police force had forewarned that it would also monitor social media and use facial recognition to spot criminal behavior.

On Friday, two women who attended a pro-Palestinian march three weeks ago were charged under the U.K.’s Terrorism Act for displaying images on their clothing of paragliders. In its Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel, Hamas employed paragliders to get some fighters across the border between Gaza and southern Israel. Prosecutors said the images aroused suspicion they were supporters of Hamas, which U.K. authorities regard as a terrorist group.

In Romania’s capital, hundreds gathered in central Bucharest, many waving Palestinian flags and chanting “Save the children from Gaza.”

At a rally by several thousand people in Milan, Matteo Salvini, a deputy prime minister, spoke out against antisemitism, calling it “a cancer, a virulent plague, something disgusting,’’

In another part of Milan, a pro-Palestinian rally drew about 4,000 people and there was also a march by several thousand in Rome. Yara Abushab, a 22-year-old medical student from Gaza University, who has been in Italy since Oct. 1, was among the participants and described Oct. 7 as a watershed for her.

“They bombed my university, my hospital. I lost a lot of loved ones and right now the last time I heard something from my family was a week ago,” she said. “The situation is indescribable.”

Associated Press writers John Leicester in Le Pecq, France; Stephen McGrath in Bucharest, Romania; Brian Melley in London, Frances D’Emilio and Silvia Stellacci in Rome, and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.

'Save Gaza': Thousands march in Berlin in solidarity with Palestinians

The participants, many of whom wore the keffiyeh — the scarf worn by Palestinian activists — gathered on the famous Alexanderplatz in central Berlin, shouting "Free Palestine".


The demonstration was called by several associations supporting the Palestinians. / Photo: AFP

Thousands have taken to the streets of Berlin in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza amid ongoing bombardments by Israel.


"We estimate the number of demonstrators at around 3,500, but more are arriving," a police spokeswoman said on Saturday.


The atmosphere was calm at the start of the rally, and many protesters came with their families and children.


"Save Gaza", "Stop genocide" and "Ceasefire" were emblazoned on marchers' placards, according to journalists.



Many held Palestinian flags.

The participants, many of whom wore the keffiyeh, the scarf worn by Palestinian activists, gathered on the famous Alexanderplatz in central Berlin, shouting "Free Palestine".

The demonstration was called by several associations supporting the Palestinians.



Police had estimated there could be at least 10,000.

The organisers had said they expected around 2,000 participants, but the police had estimated there could be at least 10,000 and deployed some 1,400 officers to oversee the march, which is due to end at around 1800 GMT.

Israeli forces have encircled Gaza's largest city, trying to crush Hamas in retaliation for the October 7 raids into Israel.

The Health Ministry in Gaza says more than 9,200 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israeli strikes and the intensifying ground campaign.



"Save Gaza", "Stop genocide" and "Ceasefire" were emblazoned on marchers' placards.

Police had said they feared tensions at the demonstration following the ban on activities in Germany linked to Hamas and the Samidoun association, whose members are accused of celebrating the attack on Israel.

The ban was made official on Thursday.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has been criticised by the conservative opposition for delaying the implementation of the ban announced a fortnight ago by Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

SOURCE: AFP

Protesters take to streets in France to demand end to Israeli attacks on Gaza Strip

Demonstrators in French cities march in support of Palestine

Esra Taşkın |05.11.2023 - 


PARIS

Protestors in France took to the streets in various cities Saturday to demand an end to Israel's ongoing attacks on the Gaza Strip.

Demonstrators marched in support of Palestine in Paris and other cities, including Toulouse and Lyon.

Protesters urged Paris to take action to secure a cease-fire.

The march in Paris, which began at Republic Square, concluded at Nation Square.

Tens of thousands participated, including members of the La France Insoumise, a left-wing populist political party that includes MPs Louis Boyard, David Guiraud and Rachel Keke.

Protesters drew attention to the deaths of children in Israel's attacks as they carried small coffins covered in red paint and toy dolls, while some raised their red-painted hands in the air.

They carried banners that read: "Free Palestine", "Ceasefire" and "This is a genocide, not a conflict," and chanted: "Israel is a murderer, Macron is an accomplice", "Gaza, Paris is with you" and "Long live Palestine."

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz.

Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters rallied in London, Paris and Berlin on Saturday calling for a ceasefire in Gaza after Iranians took to the streets against the United States and Israel.

– 30,000 protesters in London –

Amid ongoing bombardments by Israel after the deadly Hamas attack on its territory last month killed 1,400 people, the British capital saw a large turnout in support of Palestinians for the fourth consecutive week.

Israel’s bombing campaign since the October attack by Hamas has killed nearly 9,500 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip.

Police estimated that about 30,000 attended the rally in Trafalgar Square, central London.

They said it had arrested 11 people, including one for displaying a placard that could incite hatred.

Many protesters waved Palestinian flags and held placards calling for an immediate ceasefire.

One group carried a bundle of fabric, representing a dead baby killed during the Israeli bombing campaign.

Sama Dababneh, 26, a Jordanian business consultant said she was tired of all upsetting images from Gaza.

“We came here to support the ceasefire,” she said. “We spend the whole week consuming the news and this is very draining, so this is our only form of outlet.” 

Pro-Palestinian protests also took place in cities across the United Kingdom on Saturday, including in Sheffield, Manchester and Glasgow.

– ‘Free Palestine’ calls in Paris –

French authorities said 19,000 people demonstrated in Paris, while the CGT communist-led trade union put the numbers at 60,000.

“Free Palestine” placards proliferated in the French capital, where slogans were heard calling for a boycott of Israel along with shouts of “Israel terrorist state”.

Legal assistant Leila Gharbi, aged 46, held a Palestinian flag and demanded “an immediate ceasefire”.

Her 21-year-old student daughter Ines wanted “the barbary to stop”.

Retired 75-year-old Algerian Keltoum Alouache said she turned out “for the children of Gaza and Palestine”.

Around forty other demonstrations were called across France, with 5,000 people turning out in the city of Lyon, according to a police estimate.

– Children and families on Berlin streets –

Berlin and Duesseldorf also saw thousands march in solidarity with the Palestinians.

Many protesters came with their families and children. 

“Stop genocide” and “Ceasefire” were emblazoned on placards and Palestinian flags were carried aloft.

German police estimated the crowd at 17,000 in Duesseldorf and 9,000 in the capital Berlin, where some 60 arrests were made including on suspicion of incitement to hatred.

Several placards playing down the Holocaust were confiscated.

– ‘Down with USA’ in Iran –

In Tehran, demonstrators gathered in front of the former US embassy chanting “Down with USA” and “Down with Israel”.

They set ablaze an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu as well as the US and Israel flags in front of flag-waving crowds.

The demonstrations come on the Islamic republic’s “day of the fight against global arrogance”.

November 4 marks the day Iranians attacked the US embassy in 1979 and the taking of 52 American diplomats as hostages, which lasted 444 days.

Iran, which backs Hamas, has labelled the Israeli bombardment of Gaza “genocide” and lambasted Washington for its strong support of Israel.

– Biden denounced at Washington protest –

Thousands of protesters in the US capital Washington called for a ceasefire in Gaza, with some slamming President Joe Biden’s support for Israel.

It was the largest protest in Washington since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas conflict on October 7.

“This is a massacre, a genocide… a stain on our history, and I cannot accept as a citizen that my taxes are funding this,” said 24-year-old Amanda Eisenhour of Virginia.

– Pakistan traders out in force – 

In Lahore, Pakistani traders took to the streets in large numbers holding Palestinian flags and placards saying “Save Gaza”.

– Senegal too –

Outside the grand mosque in Senegal’s capital Dakar, some 200 people gathered to support the Palestinians.

“I’m not here as an Arab or a Muslim,” said Farida Samane. “I’m here as a human.