'A Virtuous Cycle': Local Business Owners Celebrate 2025  U$ Minimum Wage Hikes

“The minimum wage increase will recirculate back into the economy through spending at the main street shops that make up the fabric of our communities,” said one business owner in New York.


An employee of the Frosted Cakerie on Main St. sets up outdoor seating for the day in Joplin, Missouri 
(Photo: Terra Fondriest for The Washington Post via Getty Images).

Eloise Goldsmith
Dec 30, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

With 23 states and the District of Columbia slated to increase their minimum wages by the end of 2025, the national network Business for a Fair Minimum Wage reports that business owners in states around the country are cheering those increases, saying they will boost consumer spending and hiring, increase productivity, help retain employees, and in general strengthen the economy.

According to a statement Business for a Fair Minimum Wage issued on December 12, the following states will have either a planned or indexed minimum wage increase on January 1: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.

Florida, Oregon, and the District of Columbia will see increases later in the year, and some states like Alaska will experience multiple wage floor increases during 2025, per the statement.

Voters in Alaska and Missouri approved ballot measures in November that greenlit increases to the minimum wage. Hundreds of business owners in those two states worked with Business for a Fair Minimum Wage to support the ballot initiatives, according to the statement.

"Workers are also customers and minimum wage increases boost consumer buying power. They go right back into the economy as increased spending at local businesses," said Holly Sklar, the CEO of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage.

She added: "State raises are vital for workers, businesses, and communities as the federal minimum wage remains stuck at just $7.25, falling further and further behind the cost of living." The federal minimum wage hasn't budged since 2009, when it was raised to $7.25.

One business owner, Erik Milan, whose music store Stick It In Your Ear is based in Springfield, Missouri, praised the state's increase. "Raising Missouri's minimum wage will be good for workers and businesses. When workers in our community are paid more, they can spend more at local businesses ... Thanks to better wages and paid sick time because of Proposition A, businesses will also benefit from lower employee turnover, increased productivity, better health and morale, and better customer service," he said, per the statement.

Because of Proposition A, Missouri will increase the state minimum wage to $13.75 an hour on January 1 for private and non-exempt employees, and then increase it again to $15 in 2026. Beginning in May of this coming year, employers are required to give employees one hour of paid sick time per 30 hours worked.

Over in Alaska, the owner of Waffles and Whatnot in Anchorage, Derrick Green, said that "Alaska's minimum wage increases will help Alaskans thrive ... The more that people can make a living in Alaska, the stronger our businesses and communities will be."

Same as Proposition A, Alaska's Ballot Measure One mandates that workers will be able to earn one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. Alaska's minimum wage was already set to increase on January 1, and then thanks to Ballot Measure One it will increase again on July 1 to $13 and then again to $14 in July 2026.

The statement from Business for a Fair Minimum Wage in total quotes 11 business owners touting the wage floor increases, including Jessica Galen, owner of Bloomy Cheese & Provisions in Dobbs Ferry, New York.

"The minimum wage increase will recirculate back into the economy through spending at the main street shops that make up the fabric of our communities. It's a virtuous cycle. When we take care of our employees, they take care of us," she said.

Experts Warn Cybercrime Treaty Gives Governments New Powers to Crush Dissent


"States should not ratify this treaty," said Deborah Brown of Human Rights Watch.


A police officer from the central contact point for cybercrime at the Lower Saxony State Office of Criminal Investigation stands at a trade fair in Hanover, Germany.
(Photo: Julian Stratenschulte/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Jake Johnson
Dec 30, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

A technology expert at Human Rights Watch on Monday urged countries not to ratify a first-of-its-kind cybercrime treaty that the United Nations General Assembly adopted without a vote last week, warning that the measure would give governments additional powers with which to crack down on journalists, whistleblowers, and peaceful protesters.


Deborah Brown, HRW's deputy director of technology, rights, and investigations, said that the Convention Against Cybercrime "extends far beyond addressing cybercrime—malicious attacks on computer networks, systems, and data."

"It obligates states to establish broad electronic surveillance powers to investigate and cooperate on a wide range of crimes, including those that don't involve information and communication systems. And it does so without adequate human rights safeguards," Brown warned, noting that "years of heated negotiations" produced a "deeply problematic outcome" backed by the United States and other major governments that had previously expressed opposition.

Brown explained that the newly adopted convention—which is set to take effect 90 days after 40 nations ratify it—"will obligate governments to collect electronic evidence and share it with foreign authorities for any 'serious crime,' defined as an offense punishable by at least four years of imprisonment under domestic law."

"Many governments treat activities protected by international human rights law as serious offenses, such as criticism of the government, peaceful protest, same-sex relationships, investigative journalism, and whistleblowing," Brown wrote. "Additionally, the convention could be misused to criminalize the conduct of children in certain consensual relationships as well as the ordinary activities of security researchers and journalists."

"The U.N. Cybercrime Convention is excessively broad and introduces significant legal uncertainty."

The U.N. General Assembly's adoption of the treaty last week brought to an end a five-year negotiation process during which civil society organizations voiced deep concerns about the emerging document.

In October, a coalition of groups including HRW, Amnesty International, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation urged the U.N. General Assembly to oppose the treaty, warning that its adoption and ratification would undermine "democracy, human rights, and the rule of law, endangering a wide range of communities and jeopardizing the safety and privacy of Internet users globally."

"The U.N. Cybercrime Convention is excessively broad and introduces significant legal uncertainty," the coalition said. "It provides for states to leverage highly intrusive domestic and cross-border surveillance powers for the purpose of a broadly defined list of criminal offenses which bear only a minimal nexus to information and communications technology systems and go far beyond the scope of core cyber-dependent crimes."

The groups pointed specifically to Article 23 of the convention, which they said mandates "the collection of e-evidence on a wide range of crimes, even those that don't involve information and communication systems." Such a requirement, the coalition warned, could easily be "misused by governments to stifle dissent."

Brown echoed that concern on Monday and argued that the human rights safeguards embedded in the treaty are limited and "many are optional."

"Others lack any means of enforcement, which provides no confidence that international human rights standards will prevail over abusive state practices," Brown added. "States should not ratify this treaty and those that do should take significant measures through domestic law and negotiations over the protocol to ensure it will be implemented in a way that respects human rights in practice, not just on paper."

Rep. Summer Lee Leads Call for US Action to Aid Civilians in War-Torn Sudan

"Without decisive global engagement, violent conflict in Sudan threatens to destabilize the entire region, with devastating implications for countless lives and communities," argued Lee and two other Democrats.

Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), attends the House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing titled "Overdue Oversight of the Capital City: Part II," in Rayburn Building on Tuesday, May 16, 2023.
(Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Eloise Goldsmith
Dec 31, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

With only a few weeks left of President Joe Biden's administration, the progressive Squad member Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) is spearheading a call urging Biden to increase U.S. humanitarian aid to the war-torn country of Sudan, among other requests.

In a letter sent Monday, Lee—as well as Reps. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.)—warned that "without decisive global engagement, violent conflict in Sudan threatens to destabilize the entire region, with devastating implications for countless lives and communities."

Sudan has been racked by violence since fighting erupted between the between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF)—the nation's official military—and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023. The civil war has also led to widespread hunger in the country. According to the letter, roughly half of Sudan's population is in acute need of food, and over the summer, famine was declared in a refugee camp in Sudan's Darfur region. The letter notes that nearly 12 million people have been displaced due to the conflict.




The letter writers are asking Biden to act swiftly, including through "multilateral fora" to protect civilians by establishing safe zones and setting up humanitarian corridors. They are requesting an increase in U.S. humanitarian aid, specifically that a portion of that funding go toward supporting Sudanese organizations and entities that are aiding civilians on the ground.

The trio is also urging the U.S. to renew Temporary Protected Status for Sudan, a program that gives migrants whose home countries are deemed unsafe the ability to live and work in the U.S. for a period of time, and are asking for an update to the December 2023 "atrocity determination" to include new crimes committed by both the RSF and SAF.

The atrocity determination that the three lawmakers reference was issued by Secretary of State Antony Blinken in December 2023, declaring "that members of the SAF and the RSF have committed war crimes in Sudan. I have also determined that members of the RSF and allied militias have committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing."

Lee of Pennsylvania, Meeks, and Lee of California are not the only leaders urging more action. In September, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said during a visit to Sudan that "the scale of the emergency is shocking, as is the insufficient action being taken to curtail the conflict, and respond to the suffering it is causing."

The insufficient global action in the face of such warnings has caused many observers to call the conflict the world's "forgotten war," according to the think tank the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). "As the humanitarian situation deteriorates, sorely needed aid is not arriving, signaling a historic failure in the global aid system," wrote CFR in September 2024.

The three Democratic lawmakers also point out that "the massive refugee flows from Sudan have placed extraordinary burdens on neighboring countries—Chad, Egypt, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, and Ethiopia—each already struggling with their own domestic challenges."

"We therefore believe it is critical to continue our diplomatic work to secure a cease-fire, protect civilians, and ensure unobstructed humanitarian access," they conclude. "We urge you to take these bold and immediate actions."

Pentagon Repatriates Guantánamo Detainee Held Without Charge for Over Two Decades

The move came as the Biden administration faced pressure to clear the notorious military prison of all uncharged detainees before Donald Trump takes office.


Human rights activists organized a protest in front of the White House and called for the release of detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay on December 4, 2024.
(Photo: Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Jake Johnson
Dec 31, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

The Biden administration announced late Monday that it transferred a Tunisian man who was never charged with a crime out of the notorious Guantánamo Bay military prison in Cuba, a move that came more than a decade after the detainee was approved for release.

The man, 59-year-old Ridah bin Saleh al-Yazidi, had been held at Guantánamo since the day former U.S. President George W. Bush opened the prison camp in 2002. The Pentagon said in a statement Monday that al-Yazidi has been repatriated to the government of Tunisia.

With al-Yazidi's transfer, there are now 26 detainees remaining at Guantánamo, the majority of whom have never been charged with a crime and have been approved for release from the prison, which United Nations experts have said is "defined by the systematic use of torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment." More detainees have died at Guantánamo than have been convicted of a crime, according to the human rights group Reprieve.

The Biden administration said in 2021 that it intended to shutter the prison, and critics have accused the administration of "a lack of courage" as it has dragged its feet on the matter.

But human rights campaigners have welcomed recent progress. Al-Yazidi was the fourth Guantánamo detainee in two weeks to be transferred from the prison by the Biden administration, which has faced growing pressure to clear the camp of the remaining uncharged men before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes power next month.

"Fifteen men remain who have never been charged with any crimes and have long been cleared by U.S. security agencies to leave Guantánamo, some for more than a decade," Daphne Eviatar, director of the Security With Human Rights program at Amnesty International USA, said in a statement earlier this month after the Biden administration announced the transfer of three never-charged men out of the prison camp.

"President Biden must transfer these men before he leaves office, or he will continue to bear responsibility for the abhorrent practice of indefinite detention without charge or trial by the U.S. government," said Eviatar. "It has been 23 years; President Biden can, and must, put an end to this now."

The transfer was announced on the same day that a Pentagon appeals panel "upheld a military judge's finding that the plea deals in the September 11 case are valid, clearing the way at least for now for a guilty plea hearing next week with the accused mastermind of the attack, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed," The New York Timesreported Monday. Mohammed is among the Guantánamo detainees who have been charged with a crime by a military commission.

"Col. Matthew N. McCall, the judge in the case, had ruled that Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III acted too late and beyond the scope of his authority when he rescinded the three deals on August 2, two days after a senior Pentagon appointee had signed them," the Times reported. "Under the pretrial agreements, or PTAs, Mr. Mohammed and two co-defendants agreed to plead guilty to war crimes charges in exchange for life prison sentences rather than face a death-penalty trial."

Sanders Lays Out Plan to Fight Oligarchy as Wealth of Top Billionaires Passes $10 Trillion

"If there was ever a moment when progressives needed to communicate our vision to the people of our country, this is that time," wrote Sen. Bernie Sanders. "Despair is not an option."

Jake Johnson
Dec 31, 2024
COMMON DREAMS


A Bloomberg analysis of billionaire wealth published Tuesday found that the combined fortunes of the 500 richest people on the planet surpassed $10 trillion this year, a finding that came shortly after U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders issued an urgent call to action to prevent the emergence of "an oligarchic and authoritarian society."

The new analysis notes that the world's top 500 billionaires "got vastly richer" this year with the help of "an indomitable rally in U.S. technology stocks."

Just eight billionaires—Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jensen Huang, Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, Michael Dell, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin—added more than $600 billion to their collective wealth in 2024 and accounted for 43% of the $1.5 trillion increase in net worth among the world's 500 richest people, according to Bloomberg.


"But it was Musk—the so-called 'first buddy' of President-elect Donald Trump after unprecedented support for his reelection campaign—who dominated the world's wealthiest in 2024," Bloomberg observed, adding that Trump himself also saw his fortune surge to a record high this year, "boosted by the performance of his majority stake in Trump Media & Technology Group Corp."

Musk's use of his enormous fortune to influence the U.S. political system—including via his purchase of one of the world's largest social media platforms and donations to Trump's 2024 campaign—amplified existing concerns about the corrosive impact of massive wealth concentration on democracy.

And wealth inequality in the U.S. could soon get worse, with Trump and the incoming Republican-controlled Congress set to pursue another round of tax cuts for the ultra-rich and large corporations.


"They do not believe in democracy—the right of ordinary people to control their own futures. They firmly believe that the rich and powerful should determine the future."

In an email to supporters on Monday, Sanders (I-Vt.) called the rapid shift toward oligarchy in the U.S. "the defining issue of our time," warning that billionaires have come to increasingly dominate not only "our economic life, but the information we consume and our politics as well."

"A manifestation of the current moment is the rise of Elon Musk, and all that he stands for," Sanders wrote, pointing to Musk's outsize influence on the 2024 election and his key role in shaping Trump's billionaire-dominated Cabinet.

"But it's not just Musk. Billionaire owners of two major newspapers overrode their editorial boards' decisions to endorse Kamala Harris, while many others are kissing Trump's ring by making large donations to his inauguration committee slush fund," the senator continued. "They do not believe in democracy—the right of ordinary people to control their own futures. They firmly believe that the rich and powerful should determine the future."

Progressives, Sanders wrote, have a "radically different vision," one that prioritizes "an economic system based on the principles of justice," "a vibrant democracy based on one person, one vote," and making "healthcare a human right."

"Even though we are not going to succeed in achieving that vision in the immediate future with Trump as president and Republicans controlling Congress, it is important that vision be maintained and we continue to fight for it," wrote Sanders.

Since Trump's victory in the 2024 election, Sanders has focused heavily on the need to organize the working class to combat the threat posed by Musk and other far-right billionaires who have amassed obscene wealth and political power.

In his email on Monday, the senator said he intends to "travel, organize, hold events, and create content that reaches people where they are" in the coming weeks as part of the "struggle to determine where we go from here."

"Will this effort be easy?" asked Sanders. "No, of course it will not. Can it be done? We have no choice. If there was ever a moment when progressives needed to communicate our vision to the people of our country, this is that time. Despair is not an option. We are fighting not only for ourselves. We are fighting for our kids and future generations, and for the well-being of the planet."

'Where the Hell Is Doctor Hussam?' Israel Gives Mixed Messages on Gaza Hospital Director

"To suggest he isn't in custody is an insult to the public's intelligence," said Dr. Muhammad Brika, his colleague at Kamal Adwan Hospital.


Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, is treated by colleagues for his injuries following an Israeli strike on November 23, 2024.
(Photo: AFP via Getty Images)

Jessica Corbett
Jan 03, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

Israeli officials this week have given a human rights group and news media conflicting messages about Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza who was detained when Israel's troops attacked the facility a week ago.

Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) contacted Mashlat—the Israeli body responsible for coordinating with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) regarding the location of detainees from the Gaza Strip—on behalf of Abu Safiya's family.

On Thursday, PHRI shared on social media a screenshot of Mashlat's email claiming to have "no indication of the arrest or detention of the individual in question," which contradicts the IDF's Friday statement to CNN.



"On December 27, 2024, military forces raided Kamal Adwan Hospital, surrounded the building, and arrested Dr. Abu Safiya," PHRI detailed in the social media thread. "In a video recording, the senior doctor is seen walking toward an armored military vehicle and is taken from there for interrogation."

That same day, an Israeli spokesperson "confirmed that he was arrested and transferred for questioning, but since then, his whereabouts have entirely vanished," the group noted. "Unfortunately, the court gave the state one week to respond regarding the hospital director's location."

Following the email to PHRI, CNN reported Friday:

The IDF has since told CNN that Dr. Abu Safiya "was apprehended for suspected involvement in terrorist activities, and for holding a rank in the Hamas terror organization, while hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were hiding inside the Kamal Adwan Hospital under his management. He is currently being investigated by Israeli security forces."

It made similar allegations about the hospital and its director around the time of the raid on the facility, without providing evidence for the claims.

While decimating Gaza hospitals and other civilian infrastructure—and killing at least 45,658 Palestinians—since October 2023, the IDF has repeatedly accused those killed and detained of ties to militant groups, often without sharing any evidence.

Citing recently released former detainees, CNNreported Monday that Abu Safiya was among the medical professionals being held at Israel's notorious Sde Teiman military base in the Negev Desert, but his location has not been publicly confirmed as of Friday.

PHRI on Friday circulated comments from Dr. Muhammad Brika, Abu Safiya's colleague at Kamal Adwan Hospital, who said: "To suggest he isn't in custody is an insult to the public's intelligence. The events we experienced were very clear."

"We remained at Kamal Adwan until the very end, until the military invaded the hospital," Brika continued, recalling the attack. "Dr. Abu Safiya was there the entire time. The image shown in the media, where he appears to be led towards the tank, does not reflect the reality of his arrest... Many details haven't been made public, and the truth is far different from the narrative they've tried to create."

"That same day, around 10:00 pm, we were forcibly transported to Al-Fakhoora school, with Dr. Abu Safiya up front," the doctor explained. "Upon arrival, we were treated horribly—forced to strip down to our underwear and left standing in the freezing cold. This continued until 1:30 am, during which Dr. Abu Safiya was taken into the school, either for interrogation or to give testimony. It's unclear what exactly was happening."

Abu Safiya was then brought back to the rest of the hospital workers, according to Brika. Israeli officers "told us one group would be arrested while the other would be allowed to leave the school," the doctor said. "At the last moment, they called Dr. Abu Safiya back and dressed him in white prison clothes in front of the entire medical staff. He was then formally arrested and taken into their custody, while the rest of us were allowed to leave."



People worldwide have sounded the alarm over officials' mixed messages about the missing hospital director—including Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard, who on Thursday urged Israeli authorities to "urgently disclose" his location and said that he should be considered a victim of enforced disappearance, "and as such at great risk of torture and ill-treatment."

Following CNN's Friday reporting, Callamard reiterated her call for Abu Safiya's release. She also highlighted how, under his leadership, the Gaza hospital "played an indispensable role in treating children suffering from malnutrition and dehydration-related issues," and "received those wounded from a series of Israeli attacks on starving people as they waited for flour trucks, known as flour massacres.

From last February to October, Callamard said, "Dr. Abu Safiya was the go-to source for human rights and humanitarian organizations investigating the situation of the healthcare sector in north Gaza and the impact of the mixture of disease and hunger on children in particular, providing accurate, nonsensationalist, and credible information, coordinating with international health organizations, providing media briefings, all whilst obviously working as a dedicated pediatrician."

The human rights leader further emphasized that the IDF's unsubstantiated allegations about the hospital director and Hamas are relatively recent. She asserted that "Dr. Abu Safiya's unlawful detention is emblematic of the broader attacks on the healthcare sector in Gaza and Israel's attempts to annihilate it. It is part and parcel of Israel's genocidal intent and genocidal acts—meant to inflict conditions of life CALCULATED TO BRING ABOUT DESTRUCTION OF PALESTINIANS."

"Dr. Abu Safiya has been acting as a leading voice for the healthcare sector in the north of Gaza since October 2024 and refusing to abandon the hospital and his patients," Callamard noted. "He has stood against Israel's genocidal act and his arrest along with that of [hundreds] of Palestinian medical staff further provides evidence of genocidal intent."

"None of the medical staff abducted by Israeli forces since November 2023 from Gaza during raids on hospitals and clinics has been charged or put before a trial; those released after enduring unimaginable torture were never charged and did not stand trial," she added. "Those still detained remain held without charges or trial under inhumane conditions and at risk of torture."



According to PHRI, "Since October 2023, Israel has arrested thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, including 230 doctors."

"The whereabouts and fate of many remain unknown, and requests for their location remain unanswered for many months," the group said Thursday. "In some cases, only thanks to the persistence of human rights organizations, information has been provided regarding the whereabouts of some of the missing. In some cases, it was revealed that the missing individuals died while in military or prison service custody."

Drop Site Newsreported Friday that the IDF ordered the "evacuation of al-Awda Hospital in north Gaza, warning that those who remain by 3:00 pm will face death or bombing," and pointed out that "around 65 healthcare workers and 30 patients are currently at the hospital."

In a Friday statement, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group in the United States, demanded action from the U.S. government, which has given Israel billions of dollars in weapons support as it has waged an assault on Gaza that's led to a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.

"The Biden administration, which is a full partner in Israel's genocide, must act to secure the release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and to end the far-right Israeli government's systematic assault on hospitals and medical personnel in Gaza," said CAIR. "Israeli attacks on medical facilities, its daily slaughter of Palestinian civilians, and its forced starvation of an entire population are clearly part of the overall genocidal campaign of ethnic cleansing in Gaza."

Report: 

Israel Detaining North Gaza Hospital Director in Notorious Torture Camp

A Palestinian recently released from Sde Teiman said Israeli guards beat Hussam Abu Safiya “until his eye was bleeding.”

By Sharon Zhang , 

Truthout

December 30, 2024

Ambulances transport wounded Palestinians from the Kamal Adwan Hospital to the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, on December 28, 2024.

Omar Al-Qattaa / AFP via Getty Images


Did you know that Truthout is a nonprofit and independently funded by readers like you? If you value what we do, please support our work with a donation.

Israeli forces are reportedly detaining Kamal Adwan Hospital Director Hussam Abu Safiya in a camp notorious for torture, sexual assault and killings of Palestinians, after abducting him and carrying out a massacre in the hospital last week.

CNN reported on Monday, citing Palestinians recently released from Israeli custody, that Israel is holding Safiya in Sde Teiman camp, a camp likened to Guantánamo Bay for Israeli soldiers’ horrific treatment of detainees there, who are often held without charges. Detainees said that they had either seen and recognized the doctor or heard his name being read out.

CNN cited a man named Alaa Abu Banat, who was abducted and detained by Israeli forces 43 days ago while he was walking home. He said he talked to Safiya’s cellmate, who told him Israeli soldiers beat Safiya “until his eye was bleeding.” Israel’s torture camps, particularly Sde Teiman, have become infamous for their brutality against Palestinians throughout Israel’s genocide. The Israeli military has killed at least 60 Palestinian detainees in their custody since October 7, 2023, according to human rights sources.

“They are all still in detention. They treated them really badly especially the doctors,” Abu Banat told the outlet.

Safiya’s family also said in a statement on Monday that they have heard from recently released detainees that the doctor is being held at Sde Teiman.


Israel Orders Total Evacuation of North Gaza Hospital, Sets Facility Ablaze
The military threatened the hospital’s director, saying: “This time we will arrest you.”
By Sharon Zhang , Truthout December 27, 2024

Israeli forces claimed, without evidence, that Safiya was being held over suspicions that he is a member of Hamas — the same excuse used for nearly all Palestinian detainees from Gaza, even if they are later cleared of such claims. One eyewitness released from the torture camp said that soldiers there said they were holding prisoners simply for being from Gaza.

Images circulating online showed Safiya, a pediatrician, walking toward Israeli tanks in the wreckage of Israel’s assault on and around Kamal Adwan — formerly the last operational hospital in northern Gaza. His condition is unknown.

Israeli forces destroyed what was left of Kamal Adwan Hospital last week after having attacked and besieged the hospital for nearly three months straight. Soldiers set the facility ablaze after violently forcing dozens of patients and medical workers to evacuate, stripping many of them to their underwear and detaining others.

Safiya has been vocal throughout Israel’s assault, during which Israeli forces killed his son, Ibrahim. The doctor has provided crucial updates about Israel’s atrocities in and around the hospital while pleading, for months, for international intervention to help save the lives of dozens of patients and medical staff at Kamal Adwan. Israeli forces have detained him in previous raids of the facility, done as Israel has carried out its campaign of total ethnic cleansing in north Gaza.

Safiya’s family has put out an urgent appeal calling on the world, especially the World Health Organization and MedGlobal, to take action for his release. They warned that he is experiencing “extreme cold” in Israeli custody as witnesses have said that soldiers forced him to strip and used him as a human shield after the massacre.

“We have received testimonies from released detainees confirming that he has been subjected to humiliation and mistreatment, including being forced to remove his clothes and being used a as human shield,” his family said. “He is also suffering from extreme cold and deprivation of necessary medical care.”

MedGlobal, for which Safiya is a lead physician, has also called for his release.

“Dr. Abu Safiya has dedicated his life to protecting the health and lives of children in Gaza, providing care under conditions no medical professional should have to endure. His arrest is not only unjust — it is a violation of international humanitarian law, which upholds the protection of medical personnel in conflict zones,” the group’s president and co-founder, Zaher Sahloul, said in a statement. “We urgently call for the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Abu Safiya.”

UN Expert Urges Medical Boycott of Israel After It Detains Hospital Director


Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s health care system is a “critical tool of its ongoing genocide,” Francesca Albanese said.

By Sharon Zhang , 

Truthout

December 30, 2024

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese holds a press conference in Geneva on December 11, 2024.

Fabrice Coffrini / AFP via Getty Images

The UN’s top expert on the occupied Palestinian territories has called for medical professionals worldwide to cut ties with Israel after it destroyed northern Gaza’s last operational hospital and abducted its director, sparking an outcry.

UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese called on the medical community to act on Monday, as reports emerged that Israeli forces are holding the head of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Hussam Abu Safiya, at a torture camp for Palestinian detainees that’s notorious for its brutality.

“I urge medical professionals worldwide to pursue the severance of all ties with Israel as a concrete way to forcefully denounce Israel’s full destruction of the Palestinian healthcare system in Gaza, a critical tool of its ongoing genocide,” Albanese said.

Israeli forces are reportedly holding Safiya at Israel’s Sde Teiman, where Palestinians, including children, have reported enduring constant torture, sexual assault and severe deprivation by Israeli guards. One witness, recently released from the facility, has told reporters that Israeli guards beat Safiya until his eye was bleeding. His current condition, like that of the thousands of Palestinians held by Israel without charges, is unknown.

Israeli authorities have claimed that Safiya and Kamal Adwan Hospital have ties with Hamas — a claim for which they have provided no evidence, and which, even if it were true, experts have said could not possibly justify their nearly three month-long assault of the hospital that has rendered it inoperable.

Advocates for Palestinian rights have long condemned Israel for its system of medical apartheid, while UN officials have found that Israel is carrying out a systematic campaign to destroy Gaza’s medical system. Israel’s destruction of Kamal Adwan means that northern Gaza is left without an operational hospital.

Albanese has called on international leaders to demand Safiya’s release. “Palestinians must be protected, especially those who have become icons of humanity in the face of an implacable genocide,” the UN expert said.
Safiya’s family has issued urgent pleas for the doctor’s release, begging international powers to stand up to Israel’s aggression.

A multitude of figures and groups have called for the release of Safiya — one of many doctors and health care workers targeted by Israeli forces throughout Israel’s genocide.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the WHO has not been informed of Safiya’s condition and called for Israel to release him.

“Hospitals in Gaza have once again become battlegrounds and the health system is under severe threat. Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza is out of service — following the raid, forced patient and staff evacuation and the detention of its director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya two days ago,” Tedros said. “His whereabouts are unknown. We call for his immediate release.”

Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa office called for Safiya to be released “immediately and unconditionally.”

“For months Dr. Abu Safiya has been the voice of Gaza’s decimated health sector, appealing for the protection of his hospital and working under inhumane conditions, including following the killing of his son,” the group said. “Israel must immediately release all Palestinians arbitrarily detained, including health workers. Hospitals and health workers are not targets.”

Israel’s assault of Kamal Adwan has been extremely brutal, with weeks of attacks from Israel including weapons like booby trapped robots and barrels, drones and bombs. According to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, the Israeli military also carried out field executions and sexual assault in its attack on Friday. Some survivors described being used as human shields by Israeli forces, after being forcibly stripped.

The group urged the UN to immediately launch an investigation into Israel’s destruction of the hospital.

“During the assault, Israeli forces destroyed and burned most of Kamal Adwan Hospital’s sections after targeting it with shells. Preliminary information also indicates that several hospital staff members were killed while trying to extinguish fires in one of the hospital’s sections, which was completely rendered out of service,” the group found.

“Euro-Med Monitor reaffirms that the failure of states to fulfill their legal obligations to halt the genocide in Gaza over the past 14 months, coupled with their refusal to take decisive steps to compel Israel to stop its crimes, renders them internationally liable for these atrocities, with some states effectively becoming accomplices,” Euro-Med Monitor went on.

Allies Demand Release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya From Notorious Israeli Prison

"Bombing of hospitals and kidnapping, torturing, and killing doctors and healthcare workers is illegal and immoral and a crime according to the Genocide Convention," asserted Doctors for Humanity.



Kamal Adwan Hospital Director Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya approaches the open door of an Israel Defense Forces tank after an Israeli raid on the facility, in Beit Lahia on December 28, 2024.
(Photo: Channel 14 screen grab)


Brett Wilkins
Dec 30, 2024
COMMON DREAMS


Human rights defenders in the global medical community and beyond are demanding Israel immediately release Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Gaza's obliterated Kamal Adwan Hospital, who was seized by Israeli troops on Saturday and is believed to be imprisoned at a notorious detention center where dozens of detainees have died and where torture, rape, and other abuses have been reported.

"We appeal to world leaders, to the global medical community, and to all who value humanity: Help us save our friend, our colleague, and a true healer," Dr. Karameh Kuemmerle, a Boston-based pediatric neurologist and co-founder of Doctors Against Genocide, told Common Dreams on Monday.

"Put all kinds of pressure to ensure his release so he can return to his patients, who need him desperately, and to his family, who cannot endure this pain," Kuemmerle added. "We demand a reality that respects life, respects human rights, and respects every man, woman, and child for humanity's sake."



Doctors for Humanity—a coalition of groups including Global Health Coalition, Doctors Against Genocide, and Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations—said in a statement Monday, "We the medical community demand the immediate release of Dr. Abu Safiya and an immediate end to the bombing of hospitals and targeted kidnapping and killing of healthcare workers in Gaza."

"Bombing of hospitals and kidnapping, torturing and killing doctors and healthcare workers is illegal and immoral and a crime according to the Genocide Convention," Doctors for Humanity added.

Dr. Zaher Sahloul, president and co-founder the Illinois-based NGO MedGlobal, for whom Safiya works as lead Gaza physician, said over the weekend that "Dr. Abu Safiya has dedicated his life to protecting the health and lives of children in Gaza, providing care under conditions no medical professional should have to endure."

"His arrest is not only unjust—it is a violation of international humanitarian law, which upholds the protection of medical personnel in conflict zones," the group added. "We urgently call for the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Abu Safiya."

Dr. Yipeng Ge—who in November 2023 was suspended from his medical residency at the University of Ottawa for social media posts critical of Israel's "settler-colonialism" and "apartheid upon Palestinian people"—called for Abu Safiya's "immediate release," as well as "protection of hospitals and medical workers in Gaza" and "an end to the genocide" there.



Amnesty International secretary-general Agnès Callamard hailed Abu Safiya as "the voice of Gaza's decimated health sector," who pleaded "for the protection of his hospital" while "working under inhumane conditions, including following the killing of his son" by an Israeli drone strike at the hospital gates earlier this year.

"We at Amnesty are extremely concerned over the fate and well-being of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya," Callamard said. "He must be released immediately and unconditionally."

Recently released former detainees at the Sde Teiman prison in Israel's Negev Desert said Abu Safiya is being held there, and that the Israeli security forces working there—some of whom stand accused of gang-raping a prisoner—are treating captured Palestinian doctors "really badly."

Idrees Abu Safiya, Abu Safiya's son, toldThe Guardian on Monday that his father's leg was badly injured during the Israeli raid on the hospital.

"We are so worried, we haven't been able to sleep for three days because we didn't know until today where he is," Idrees told the British newspaper.

Relatives of Abu Safiya toldCNN that "Sde Teiman is known for brutality and torture, we can't imagine what our father is going through in that place and if he is well or not, warm or cold… hungry or in pain."

Kuemmerle told Common Dreams: "What is striking about Dr. Abu Safiya is his extraordinary composure, kindness, and unwavering dedication, even in the face of unimaginable hardships. We have come to know his bravery, dedication, humane professionalism, and gentle manners. We are terrified for his fate, knowing all too well as Palestinians the horrors that await our doctors in these torture camps."

Israel claims that Abu Safiya—who, despite the killing of his son and an injury caused by shrapnel from a November 23 Israeli attack on Kamal Adwan, refused to stop working at the hospital—is a suspected Hamas terrorist. That's a common allegation made by Israeli officials, who also often claim that hospitals are used as Hamas command-and-control centers. These officials usually offer very little if any evidence to support their assertions.

"The lies that are being spread right now that [Abu Safiya] is really a Hamas colonel are lies to prevent what is happening right now, which is a global wave of outrage, and that global wave of outrage must grow so we, the global medical community, can stop the relentless attacks on healthcare workers and healthcare infrastructure," Dr. Rupa Marya, a University of California, San Francisco professor of medicine who's currently on paid suspension after questioning whether an Israeli student and likely Israel Defense Forces (IDF) veteran may have committed war crimes, told Common Dreams.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, hundreds of healthcare workers have been detained and more than 1,000 have been killed since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. Critics accuse Israel of deliberately killing and wounding health workers.

The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor on Saturday published the testimonies of witnesses to alleged IDF war crimes during the Kamal Adwan raid, including "deliberate killings, field executions, as well as sexual and physical assaults on women and girls from medical teams and displaced women in the area."

Responding to Israeli attacks on hospitals and Abu Safiya's detention, Rohan Talbot, director of advocacy and campaigns at London-based Medical Aid for Palestinians, said on the Bluesky social media platform Saturday that "our leaders must demand the immediate and safe release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and all detained Gaza health workers."

"Health workers are not a target," he added, "and impunity for Israel's destruction of Palestinian healthcare must end."

The devastating truth about the GOP's war on education

Thom Hartmann
January 1, 2025 

ALTERNET


Thousands of Trump supporters gather at the Supreme Court to show their support for President Trump after the election. (Shutterstock.com)

“Those who control the present, control the past; and those who control the past control the future.” —George Orwell, 1984

From outlawing the polio vaccine to ignoring the scientific consensus on gender dysphoria to refusing to wear masks in hospitals to trying to strip evolution and science from our schools, stupid has become fashionable in today’s GOP.

When Republican politicians want to score points, they criticize their opponents as having had “elite” educations; the GOP’s war against Ivy League colleges was particularly evident during the student protests of Israel’s slaughter in Gaza. Congressional Republican inquisitors' voices dripped with scorn and contempt as they grilled university presidents.


It wasn’t always this way.

I remember when the USSR launched Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the Earth. It was the fall of 1957, I was six years old, and my dad and I watched it arc over our house from our backyard one clear October night. My best friend’s father, a ham radio operator, let us listen on his shortwave radio to the “beep beep beep” it was emitting when it was over North America. I’d never seen my dad so rattled.

That dramatic technological achievement lit a major fire under the Eisenhower administration and Congress. In his January 27, 1958 State of the Union address, Republican President Eisenhower pointed to Sputnik and demanded Congress fund a dramatic transformation of America’s educational system:

“With this kind of all-inclusive campaign, I have no doubt that we can create the intellectual capital we need for the years ahead, invest it in the right places--and do all this, not as regimented pawns, but as free men and women!”

In less than a year Congress wrote and passed the National Defense Education Act that poured piles of money into our public schools and rolled out programs for gifted kids.

I was lucky enough to be enrolled in one of those in 1959: by the time I left elementary school I was functioning at high school and college levels in math, science, and English. I’d had two years of foreign language and two years of experimental music instruction. IQ tests were all the rage: mine was 141 and my best friend, Terry, was 142, something he never let me forget.

Most all of those programs died over the following decades as a result of Reagan’s war on public education, which began with his bringing private religious school moguls like Jerry Falwell and bigots like Bill Bennett into the White House.


Repudiating Eisenhower’s embrace of public education, Reagan put Bennett in charge of the Department of Education, which Reagan had campaigned on shutting down altogether. Bennett is probably best known for defending his proclamation that:
“If you wanted to reduce crime you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every Black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.”

Much like Bennett back in the day, the catch phrase among white supremacists and their fellow travelers today is that “Western Civilization” is either under attack or at risk because we teach history, tolerance, and critical thinking skills in our public schools, which are often racially integrated. The answer, Republicans will tell you, is to defund our public schools.

When Reagan was elected in 1980, the federal share of total education spending in America was 12 percent; when he left office in disgrace in 1989 amid “Iran/Contra” rumors he’d cut a deal with the Iranians to keep the American hostages to screw Jimmy Carter, that share had collapsed to a mere six percent. (It’s three percent today.)


Reagan also wanted to amend the Constitution to allow mandatory school prayer, and unsuccessfully proposed a national tax credit — a sort of tax-system-based national voucher system — that parents could use to send their kids to religious schools like Falwell’s.

Reagan made anti-intellectualism a political weapon, repeatedly criticizing colleges and professors throughout his political career. When asked why he’d taken a meat-axe to higher education and was pricing college out of the reach of most Americans, he said that college students were “too liberal” and America “should not subsidize intellectual curiosity.”

Four days before the Kent State Massacre of May 5, 1970, Governor Reagan called students protesting the Vietnam war across America “brats,” “freaks” and “cowardly fascists,” adding, as The New York Timesnoted at the time, “If it takes a bloodbath, let’s get it over with. No more appeasement!”


Before Reagan became president, states paid 65 percent of the costs of colleges, and federal aid covered another 15 or so percent, leaving students to cover the remaining 20 percent with their tuition payments.

That’s how it works in many developed nations; in most northern European countries college is not only free, but the government pays students a stipend to cover books and rent.

Here in America, though, the numbers are pretty much reversed from pre-1980, with students now covering about 80 percent of the costs. Thus the need for student loans here in the USA.


Ever since Reagan’s presidency, the core of Republican positions on public education has been five-fold:

1. Let white students attend schools that are islands of white privilege where they don’t have to confront the true racial history of America,
2. Use public money to support private, for-profit, and religious schools that can accomplish this (and cycle some of that money back to Republican politicians),

3. Destroy public schools’ teachers’ unions,
4. End the teaching of science, critical thinking, evolution, and sex ed, and,
5. Bring fundamentalist Christianity into the classroom.



Earlier this year, Republican Senator Marco Rubio called America’s public school system a “cesspool of Marxist indoctrination.”
“Dangerous academic constructs like critical race theory and radical gender theory are being forced on elementary school children,” Rubio wrote for the American Conservative magazine, adding, “We need to ensure no federal funding is ever used to promote these radical ideas in schools.”

Instead, multiple Republican-controlled states are now actively gutting their public schools with statewide voucher programs and instituting mandatory bible instruction or posting of the Ten Commandments. Book bans and panics around queer kids using bathrooms or playing sports are the new wedge issues.


There is no more powerful urge we humans can experience than to protect and defend our children. For most people it beats hunger, sex, and money. So if you’re a politician looking for an issue to motivate voters, just tell them their children are under attack. It’s cynical but effective.

In an interview for Semafor, Trump’s former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo laid it out:
“I tell the story often — I get asked ‘Who’s the most dangerous person in the world? Is it Chairman Kim, is it Xi Jinping?’ The most dangerous person in the world is [American Federation of Teachers President] Randi Weingarten. It’s not a close call. If you ask, ‘Who’s the most likely to take this republic down?’ It would be the teacher’s unions, and the filth that they’re teaching our kids…”

Just a few months ago, Donald Trump laid out his plan to deal with the “major problem” America is facing. That problem, he said, is:

“[W]e have ‘pink-haired communists teaching our kids.’”

Turning the Constitution upside down and arguing the Founders intended to protect teaching schoolchildren religion, Trump elaborated, arguing that mixing religion, politics, and education was the intention of that document:
“The Marxism being preached in our schools is also totally hostile to Judeo-Christian teachings, and in many ways it’s resembling an established new religion. We can’t let that happen. For this reason, my administration will aggressively pursue intentional violations to the establishment clause and the free exercise clause of the Constitution.”

As Jonathan Chait wrote for New York magazine:
“More ominously, at every level of government, Republicans have begun to act on these beliefs. Over the past three years, legislators in 28 states have passed at least 71 bills controlling what teachers and students can say and do at school. A wave of library purges, subject-matter restrictions, and potential legal threats against educators has followed.”

George W. Bush followed the trend, bragging about his pathetic performance in college at Yale’s 2001 commencement:

“To those of you who received honors, awards, and distinctions, I say, well done. And to the C students I say, you, too, can be president of the United States!”

Similarly, JD Vance gave a speech in 2021 titled Universities Are The Enemy.

This isn’t the first time elected officials have used public education as a political weapon. In 1844, 25 people died and over 100 were severely injured in riots in Philadelphia over whether there should be daily Bible readings in that city’s schools. Two churches and several city blocks of homes were burned to the ground.

The Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 didn’t provoke riots, but was a major event in the history of public education. Tennessee high school teacher John Scopes was charged and convicted of the crime of teaching evolution. Mississippi and Arkansas joined Tennessee in passing laws making such instruction a crime that stood until the 1967 repeal of the Butler Act.

While Republicans across the country successfully rode a wave of white outrage about Critical Race Theory in November’s election, polls suggest the issue is really meaningful only to a fragment of the American electorate: an anti-science “Christian” subset of white Republican voters.

The annual PRRI American Values Surveyfound:
“Americans overwhelmingly favor teaching children history that includes both the good and bad aspects of our history so that they can learn from the past, versus refraining from teaching aspects of history that could make them feel uncomfortable or guilty about what their ancestors did in the past (92% vs. 5%).
“There are no substantial partisan differences, though Republicans favor excluding aspects of history slightly more (7%) than Democrats and Independents (both 4%). There are few differences across religious traditions or demographics. This consensus holds up across different levels of exposure to critical race theory: 92% of those who have heard a lot about critical race theory, 94% of those who have heard a little, and 93% of those who have heard nothing about it state that we should teach children the good and bad of history.”

Nonetheless, they note:
“[A] majority of Republicans (54%), compared with 27% of independents and only 7% of Democrats, believe that teachers and librarians are indoctrinating children.”

America spent $794.7 billion on primary education last year. For-profit private schools and megachurches that run schools look at that pile of money and drool. Republicans are committed to delivering as much of it to them as possible, regardless of the damage it does to our nation’s kids.

Their strategy for privatizing our public schools is pretty straightforward, and echoes the plan of action Republicans are using right now to replace real Medicare with the privatized Medicare Advantage scam.

First, they falsely claim that they’ll deliver a better product at a lower cost. In the education realm, we see this with Florida and several other Red states now offering vouchers that can be used at private or religious schools to every student in the state.

(Nearly 2,300 private schools in Florida accept vouchers, but “69 percent are unaccredited, 58 percent are religious, and nearly one-third are for-profit.”)

As more and more students use the vouchers to flee public schools, the public schools sink into deeper and deeper financial troubles, which cut the quality of teaching and upkeep of the school buildings, causing even more students to use the vouchers.

Because the vouchers never cover the full cost of private school tuition (typically they pay for half to two-thirds), the truly poor can’t use them: the result is that the public school system becomes ghettoized, leading to even more flight by middle- and upper-class (mostly white) people.

Once the public schools are dead and the state has transitioned entirely to private schools, the state will claim budget problems and begin to dial back the amounts available for vouchers. (The same will happen with Medicare Advantage once real Medicare is dead.)

This will widen the relationship between the educational and wealth divides; the racial and class cleavage will become so great that the state will have effectively gone back to a “separate but equal” educational system. Which, of course, is the GOP’s goal and has been since 1954.

Republicans are generally convinced — and surveys show they’re right — that when people have a good, well-rounded education they will vote for Democrats, who explicitly value science and egalitarian social values.

Thus, keeping our kids ignorant and destroying one of America’s largest unions, all while helping their education and religion industry friends get rich, is a complete win-win.

Much of this battle is playing out in state houses around the country, but there’s a huge and well-funded effort to take control of local school boards as well.

Driving this ethos with a constant flood of anti-intellectual, anti-science propaganda is an army of rightwing podcasters, YouTubers, hate radio hosts, and the billionaire-owned Fox “News” network (among others). They argue, essentially, that “stupid is the new smart.”

Barely coherent politicians like Tommy Tuberville and Marjorie Taylor Greene are their heroes. Donald Trump, who still refuses to release his grades, is their avatar. Bob Kennedy is their avenging angel. And people with college educations — and teachers/professors — are their enemies.

Bottom line: the Republican war on public education and science is real, and if we want to stop it we must get involved. Show up for your local school board meetings and, if you have the time and ability, run for a position on the board.

Lobby your state legislators and support pro-science and pro-education politicians. It’s time to make smart cool again!

Our children’s and grandchildren’s futures are literally at stake.