Palestinian American teen shot dead by Israeli settler, officials say
Omar Mohammad Rabea, 14, killed alongside two other teenagers in West Bank town as settler violence escalates
A Palestinian teenager with US citizenship was killed by Israeliforces in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, Palestinian officials said on Sunday, with the Israeli military saying it shot a “terrorist” who was allegedly endangering civilians by hurling rocks.
The incident is the latest in a surge of violence and near-daily confrontations in the volatile West Bank, where settler violence and clashes between Israeli forces and armed Palestinians have kept it on edge.
The mayor of Turmus Ayya, Adeeb Lafi, told Reuters earlier in the day that Omar Mohammad Rabea, 14, was shot along with two other teenagers by an Israeli settler at the entrance to Turmus Ayya and that the Israeli army pronounced him dead after detaining him.
However, the Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the incident as an “extra-judicial killing” by Israeli forces during a raid in the town, saying it was the result of Israel’s “continued impunity”.
“During a counterterrorism activity in the area of Turmus Aya, IDF soldiers identified three terrorists who hurled rocks toward the highway, thus endangering civilians driving,” the Israeli army said in a statement.
“The soldiers opened fire toward the terrorists who were endangering civilians, eliminating one terrorist and hitting two additional terrorists.”
Settler violence in the West Bank, including incursions into occupied territory and raids on Bedouin villages and encampments, has intensified since Israel’s war on Gazabegan in October 2023.
European countries and the previous US administration under Joe Biden imposed sanctions on violent Israeli settlers, though the White House under Donald Trumpremoved these sanctions.
The Israeli military has also in recent months carried what it called a “large-scale military operation” in the West Bank to root out militants.
Militant group Hamas, based in Gaza, has over recent years expanded its reach in the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority, dominated by the rival Fatah faction, exercises limited governance.
I just took my kid yesterday to his admitted student fair at a University in New York. Many student activist groups holding court, from pro voters, republican club, democratic club, vegetarians, environmentalists, African American fraternities, and yes Hillel and other religious groups. The only group with a bullhorn and shouting at kids and parents aggressively? Like literally jumping in my face and shouting through a bullhorn. The pro palestinian group. That will not earn them any favors from me and it was disruptive for the students trying to learn about the different clubs/groups on campus. I have no problem with Universities trying to shut that down and remove disruptive students. It is one thing to speak your mind, and another to impede on a student experience to make your point. You are here on a visa as a privilege to attend a US university, that is not carte blanche, it comes with conditions imposed by the institutions and yes, that privilege may restrict freedom of speech. It is private property. The one rule, do not be an asshole, this group qualified.
Not sure exactly what you saw and how bad it was, but these foreign people and their supporters on the left do not understand the first amendment. Assembly can not express hatred or violence.
“The hate started flooding in almost immediately.” Debra Messing and her Oct 8 movie are lying to us. Hate is violent.
Shutting down college campuses and graduation ceremonies do not qualify as peace. Destruction of property, Screaming at people with a rage of hatred, is not peaceable assembly .
Israel’s military has backtracked on its account of the killing of 15 Palestinian medics in Gaza after video footage contradicted its claims that their vehicles did not have emergency signals on when Israeli troops opened fire.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Israel’s military has backtracked on its account of the killing of 15 Palestinian medics in Gaza after video footage contradicted its claims that their vehicles did not have emergency signals on when Israeli troops opened fire.
Been awful quiet regarding that truth. But we know why.
I just took my kid yesterday to his admitted student fair at a University in New York. Many student activist groups holding court, from pro voters, republican club, democratic club, vegetarians, environmentalists, African American fraternities, and yes Hillel and other religious groups. The only group with a bullhorn and shouting at kids and parents aggressively? Like literally jumping in my face and shouting through a bullhorn. The pro palestinian group. That will not earn them any favors from me and it was disruptive for the students trying to learn about the different clubs/groups on campus. I have no problem with Universities trying to shut that down and remove disruptive students. It is one thing to speak your mind, and another to impede on a student experience to make your point. You are here on a visa as a privilege to attend a US university, that is not carte blanche, it comes with conditions imposed by the institutions and yes, that privilege may restrict freedom of speech. It is private property. The one rule, do not be an asshole, this group qualified.
Not sure exactly what you saw and how bad it was, but these foreign people and their supporters on the left do not understand the first amendment. Assembly can not express hatred or violence.
“The hate started flooding in almost immediately.” Debra Messing and her Oct 8 movie are lying to us. Hate is violent.
Shutting down college campuses and graduation ceremonies do not qualify as peace. Destruction of property, Screaming at people with a rage of hatred, is not peaceable assembly .
Relatively speaking, it was probably not that bad. I do not have many comparables. But it was angry and loud, and it shook my kid. Activists jumping out in the walkway yelling at the students with a bullhorn. Might even scare a kid away from attending a top university. Can you expect a kid to actually listen to your message when your behavior is aggressive and loud? The takeaway was to stay away from those people at all costs. It only dilutes the message. No matter your position on the issue. The actions spoke louder than words. And the actions were not good. By contrast, the Hillel table was quiet, respectful, and kind. It is not about the first amendment IMHO, it is about the WAY you express your free speech.
You’re being told. It’s not going away. The more extreme the action(s), the more extreme the response(s). As we see with the recent SCOTUS decision, ‘Murica wants authoritarianism and credit the Dems for not going there, yet, to win elections. Long read but it’s part of the “truth.” So much for “far left policies.” Bolded sections within answers are my emphasis. From The Nation:
Palestine Reveals the Empty Promises of US Democracy
Kei Pritsker, a codirector of The Encampments, a documentary film that follows the pro-Palestine movement at Columbia, says the student protesters will be remembered as heroes.
When students at Columbia University occupied Hamilton Hall last spring, they renamed it Hind’s Hall in honor of Hind Rajab, a young Palestinian girl killed by Israel last January. Rajab’s final pleas were recorded by the Palestine Red Crescent Society and are included in The Encampments, a documentary film from Watermelon Pictures that offers an intimate look at the organizing efforts of Columbia students, including Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested and sent to an ICE facility in Louisiana last month.
Initially, The Encampments—which aims to counter claims that the student resistance at Columbia was antisemitic and violent—was going to be released in the fall, to coincide with the start of the school year. “With the abduction of Mahmoud…they were taking all the lies about the encampments and using it as the foundation for this deportation campaign against students who participated,” Kei Pritsker, a journalist with Breakthrough News and one of the film’s directors, said. So the film was released early.
After a record-setting opening weekend in New York City, The Encampments is now playing at select theaters nationwide. I spoke with Pritsker, who lived at the Columbia encampment while filming, about what the student resistance can teach us about the state of American democracy.
—Alyssa Oursler
Alyssa Oursler: Why do you think the encampments, and the encampment at Columbia specifically, are important for understanding the current political moment, from Trump’s reelection to the detention and possible deportation of graduate students by ICE?
Kei Pritsker: This moment reflects a much deeper trend that was expressed through Palestine, which is that we don’t really have much of a say in this so-called democracy. What are we always told? That this is the most democratic, the freest country in the world. This is a country where the people are in power through their elected representation. I think over the course of the last few years and the last decade, there’s been a slow realization among vast sectors of society that the people, the majority, the working class, the ones who do everything, get none of the say in society. The issue of Palestine is one of the greatest expressions of that. What kind of democracy do you live in if you can’t even tell your politicians that you don’t want to participate in a genocide?
People are afraid of Trump, but this happened under Biden. It was under Biden that every campus in America was turned into a police state. We start the film off with a question. We ask: What was it about a bunch of students camping out on lawns that made all the most powerful institutions and powerful people in the country freak out? It’s the fact that they realized they’re losing the narrative. I see what’s happening under Trump, this attempt to deport the students, as first and foremost an admission that they’ve lost the narrative are resorting to what authoritarian regimes use as tool of last resort: repression, censorship, and violence.
AO: It’s a good point that this issue predates Trump and has been years, if not decades, in the making. The documentary, for instance, cites the historical precedence of campus occupation going back to the ’60s. What has changed since then—and what hasn’t?
KP: What hasn’t changed is that students have always been on the right side of history. We look back on the actions of students and think: “Wow, they were ahead of their time.” Back in those days, the universities fought the students as well—especially Columbia. Columbia, as you see in the film, sent in cops to beat the students who occupied Hamilton Hall in the ’60s during protests against segregation. The students were also disciplined and chastised for protesting South African apartheid. But Columbia looks back on those protests and celebrates them. They talk about the 1968 protests, the 1985 protests, and they say: “Look at Columbia, look at our students, look at how forward-thinking they are, look at how they’re agents of history, agents of change. Come to Columbia, and you can be like them!” But they don’t realize that Palestine is this 21st-century human rights peace movement, and they’re repeating the same mistakes they made during South African apartheid and during Jim Crow.
What has changed is that this new generation is saying something much more fundamental about the society and the system we live in—that it’s fundamentally rigged against the vast majority of people and that the only way to change this is through a complete overhaul of the system. They want to see the whole system changed from bottom to top.
AO: What does institutional complicity at elite institutions like Columbia tell us about the depth and pervasiveness of Israeli influence in the United States and the state of the country more broadly?
KP: The influence of the Israel lobby is really unmatched by any other foreign lobby. You think about the Trump presidency; his campaign was so heavily financed by Israel, receiving $100 million from Miriam Adelson, Steve Witkoff, all these people. The fact that the US government would sooner arrest and tear-gas and handcuff its own students and turn every campus in this country into a police state rather than divest money from companies that are complicit in war crimes tells you everything about who the US ruling elite is loyal to.
AIPAC brags on their website about how they win 95 percent of the elections they intervene in. We saw that on display with the defeats of Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush. They spent the most they’ve ever spent in any congressional campaign cycle on these races, and they claimed responsibility. And now there are all these pro-Israel groups calling for the deportation of students whose only crime is criticizing a country that is committing a genocide.
People have to ask real questions: What does it mean that Israel is our greatest ally? Greatest ally to whom? I would say the answer is that Israel is the greatest ally to the military-industrial complex, to weapons manufacturers, but it’s not an ally to anyone else in the United States. [But also,] the US-Israel relationship and the power of the Israel lobby is symptomatic of something far more fundamental, which is that in the capitalist system the government itself is for sale to the highest bidder.
AO: There is a really powerful scene in the film where Mahmoud Khalil is asked what would happen if he were deported. How pervasive was fear of this type of repression while the encampment was happening a year ago?
KP: There was definitely fear, especially among Palestinian students. But anyone who’s been in the Palestinian movement for a while knows that Palestinian students have been relentlessly targeted for doxing. This is especially problematic because the border controls in occupied Palestine are controlled by Israel. If they’re doxed, they could be prevented from entering their own country. So we knew in the abstract that these images, the footage could be weaponized against them. Did we know it would be like this? Did we know that it would be using AI to comb through and target anyone on student visa who’s here? No. We definitely did not know that. We always knew it was in theory a possibility, but we never anticipated anything like this.
AO: Do you fear retribution from the Trump administration because of the film?
KP: I’m not afraid, no. I understand a lot of people are afraid, and that’s completely understandable. What’s happening now [with deportations] is a new development. But I don’t think anyone ever got involved in the Palestine movement because they thought they’d be more safe or more comfortable. Everyone that got involved, especially these students, did so knowing it would make them less safe, that they might get doxed, they might get harassed, they might face real violence. But they do it anyway because they understand this is a necessity for humanity. What ramifications does this have for the collective soul of this planet if we just watch a genocide happen in front of our eyes?
I would also say: What is history besides a series of tremendous risks and sacrifices? That’s the essence of history: sacrifice. Giving a part of yourself and risking everything to build a better world. Where would we be had people not taken risks, whether Martin Luther King Jr. or Frederick Douglass or any person of consequence? I believe we will look back at this one day—on this moment, on the Palestinian movement—and think: How could we have ever let this go on for so long? How could people have stayed silent for so long? People will look back on the students, on the movement, and think: Those were the real heroes. History will absolve us.
AO: That makes me think of the book titled One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This. The phrase is stuck in my head all the time. Which brings me to my next question. What do you think is the role of art and archival in this struggle?
KP: I think it plays a huge role. The thing we have to understand about war, warmongering, imperialism, and capitalism is that truth is always the first casualty. People know you cannot sell a war, sell a genocide, without a distortion. I’m 28. I’m part of the 9/11 generation. The United States has been at war every year of my life. You think about all these wars—all of them were based on total propaganda. You can’t go to the people with the truth and win them over. They couldn’t say: We want to invade Iraq, destroy its infrastructure, and clear the way for oil companies, energy companies, construction companies, and weapons companies to do whatever they want, to turn Iraq into a playground. We’re going to send a bunch of your kids over there to kill people and die so our people can make money. You can’t go to the American people and say that. You have to say we’re doing this for democracy, for freedom.
Similarly, there are billions and billions of dollars going into propaganda to justify the continued unconditional support of Israel. We don’t have billions of dollars, but we have some cameras. Art is so important because we are constantly fed images and artistic depictions that what the US and Israel are doing over there is heroic and good, when it’s actually imperial plunder. It’s the Palestinians who are marching for peace and protesting to uphold the UN Charter, the South African lawyers going into the ICJ, the students, they’re the heroes.
They’ve been trying to tell us for the last 20-something years that the politicians, the media, the think tanks, these are the people we can trust. A white guy in a suit and tie. What a lot of people are realizing now is that those people are actually the enemy. It’s the suits who are the ones selling us on a total lie—the ones not only selling us on these wars but also blocking social progress here. Part of the artistic undercurrent of the film is to make people evaluate who it is that we should really consider authorities in our society.
AO: Do you think another big wave of activism is brewing?
KP: Yes, absolutely. What the encampments and this latest deportation crackdown have shown is that we have absolutely no say in this system. Even when something is deeply, deeply popular—like a ceasefire in Gaza—even that, to this day, is being ignored. We’ve done peaceful protests, we’ve done civil disobedience, we’ve done social media campaigns, we’ve called our senators, which is what they always say to do. We did that every day, every week, every month, and nothing happened. It’s exposed how fundamentally undemocratic our system is, which is why protest is inevitable. The issue hasn’t been solved at all. This status quo is unsustainable. It’s unconscionable to live in a society where people can just be abducted in broad daylight for protesting a genocide. It’s not a way we can continue to live. It’s a pot that is boiling and is going to blow.
You’re being told. It’s not going away. The more extreme the action(s), the more extreme the response(s). As we see with the recent SCOTUS decision, ‘Murica wants authoritarianism and credit the Dems for not going there, yet, to win elections. Long read but it’s part of the “truth.” So much for “far left policies.” Bolded sections within answers are my emphasis. From The Nation:
Palestine Reveals the Empty Promises of US Democracy
Kei Pritsker, a codirector of The Encampments, a documentary film that follows the pro-Palestine movement at Columbia, says the student protesters will be remembered as heroes.
When students at Columbia University occupied Hamilton Hall last spring, they renamed it Hind’s Hall in honor of Hind Rajab, a young Palestinian girl killed by Israel last January. Rajab’s final pleas were recorded by the Palestine Red Crescent Society and are included in The Encampments, a documentary film from Watermelon Pictures that offers an intimate look at the organizing efforts of Columbia students, including Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested and sent to an ICE facility in Louisiana last month.
which is what they always say to do. We did that every day, every week, every month, and nothing happened. It’s exposed how fundamentally undemocratic our system is, which is why protest is inevitable. The issue hasn’t been solved at all. This status quo is unsustainable. It’s unconscionable to live in a society where people can just be abducted in broad daylight for protesting a genocide. It’s not a way we can continue to live. It’s a pot that is boiling and is going to blow.
…shortened to shed light on whether or not in Mr Prisker, are we are talking about the left supporting extremism?
“ Capitalism must end”
good grief
Just let them negotiate a treaty already. Don’t think this individual has any interest in peace:
an American socialist, working on a Russian Govt Broadcast , Ignored police orders and was arrested, and wanted students “. “To normalize civil disobedience and push people to take their activism to the next step.” let your eyes decide.
You’re being told. It’s not going away. The more extreme the action(s), the more extreme the response(s). As we see with the recent SCOTUS decision, ‘Murica wants authoritarianism and credit the Dems for not going there, yet, to win elections. Long read but it’s part of the “truth.” So much for “far left policies.” Bolded sections within answers are my emphasis. From The Nation:
Palestine Reveals the Empty Promises of US Democracy
Kei Pritsker, a codirector of The Encampments, a documentary film that follows the pro-Palestine movement at Columbia, says the student protesters will be remembered as heroes.
When students at Columbia University occupied Hamilton Hall last spring, they renamed it Hind’s Hall in honor of Hind Rajab, a young Palestinian girl killed by Israel last January. Rajab’s final pleas were recorded by the Palestine Red Crescent Society and are included in The Encampments, a documentary film from Watermelon Pictures that offers an intimate look at the organizing efforts of Columbia students, including Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested and sent to an ICE facility in Louisiana last month.
which is what they always say to do. We did that every day, every week, every month, and nothing happened. It’s exposed how fundamentally undemocratic our system is, which is why protest is inevitable. The issue hasn’t been solved at all. This status quo is unsustainable. It’s unconscionable to live in a society where people can just be abducted in broad daylight for protesting a genocide. It’s not a way we can continue to live. It’s a pot that is boiling and is going to blow.
…shortened to shed light on whether or not in Mr Prisker, are we are talking about the left supporting extremism?
“ Capitalism must end”
good grief
Just let them negotiate a treaty already. Don’t think this individual has any interest in peace:
an American socialist, working on a Russian Govt Broadcast , Ignored police orders and was arrested, and wanted students “. “To normalize civil disobedience and push people to take their activism to the next step.” let your eyes decide.
Protesting things that which you disagree with is “supporting extremism?” Nice goal post move though. Enjoy your authoritarianism.
"which is that we don’t really have much of a say in this so-called democracy." You don't have the same rights. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO VOTE. It is a democracy for its citizens. Not for people that we allow to come here and then spew hate and violence. You are here as a guest on a visa. Under the current administration you might get kicked out sooner rather than later. "A pot that is going to blow?" Yeah get the fuck out of here.
"which is that we don’t really have much of a say in this so-called democracy." You don't have the same rights. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO VOTE. It is a democracy for its citizens. Not for people that we allow to come here and then spew hate and violence. You are here as a guest on a visa. Under the current administration you might get kicked out sooner rather than later. "A pot that is going to blow?" Yeah get the fuck out of here.
Are you certain that every student protestor at every college protest in support of Palestine is here on a student visa and couldn’t possibly be a US citizen from down the street, your city, state or country? Listen to yourself.
Getting yelled at via bullhorn whilst on a college visit versus having family/extended family or friends killed in a bombed apartment building, school, hospital or other “safe zone” and funded with US tax dollars. Not any of whom could possibly be US citizens, eh?
Your opinion on this matter contributes to the quote you find so offensive. “to petition the government for the redress of grievances.” Whatever happened to that?
I know plenty of US citizens, both born in the US and in other countries who have participated in campus protests on behalf of Palestine. Are they all terrorists deserving of deportation? It’s a yes/no question.
Not one reporter asked Bibi the Butcher or COOTWH about a 14 year old US citizen being shot to death by the IDF at their joint news conference on Monday. Not one.
Palestinian American teen fatally shot by Israeli troops in West Bank village
The Israeli military shot three teenage boys in Turmus Ayya on Sunday, the mayor and mourners said, as violent attacks by Israeli settlers and troops in the West Bank continue to surge as part of the backdrop of the Israel-Gaza war.
"which is that we don’t really have much of a say in this so-called democracy." You don't have the same rights. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO VOTE. It is a democracy for its citizens. Not for people that we allow to come here and then spew hate and violence. You are here as a guest on a visa. Under the current administration you might get kicked out sooner rather than later. "A pot that is going to blow?" Yeah get the fuck out of here.
Are you certain that every student protestor at every college protest in support of Palestine is here on a student visa and couldn’t possibly be a US citizen from down the street, your city, state or country? Listen to yourself.
Getting yelled at via bullhorn whilst on a college visit versus having family/extended family or friends killed in a bombed apartment building, school, hospital or other “safe zone” and funded with US tax dollars. Not any of whom could possibly be US citizens, eh?
Your opinion on this matter contributes to the quote you find so offensive. “to petition the government for the redress of grievances.” Whatever happened to that?
I know plenty of US citizens, both born in the US and in other countries who have participated in campus protests on behalf of Palestine. Are they all terrorists deserving of deportation? It’s a yes/no question.
Good fucking grief.
Nope. Just the ones at risk for deportation. If you are citizen, then you have more rights. You do not hear too much about peaceful protests in the news and I can assure there were no professors protesting were I was. And yes, I selfishly care about me and my family's experiences here in the US more so than what happens overseas. Two factions fighting over the same piece of land for many many years. The whole thing is stupid and there has never been a good solution.
My son worked his tail off to get to college. He should be able to walk through a quad without being subject to harassment or disorderly conduct. Regardless of your cause.
You’re being told. It’s not going away. The more extreme the action(s), the more extreme the response(s). As we see with the recent SCOTUS decision, ‘Murica wants authoritarianism and credit the Dems for not going there, yet, to win elections. Long read but it’s part of the “truth.” So much for “far left policies.” Bolded sections within answers are my emphasis. From The Nation:
Palestine Reveals the Empty Promises of US Democracy
Kei Pritsker, a codirector of The Encampments, a documentary film that follows the pro-Palestine movement at Columbia, says the student protesters will be remembered as heroes.
When students at Columbia University occupied Hamilton Hall last spring, they renamed it Hind’s Hall in honor of Hind Rajab, a young Palestinian girl killed by Israel last January. Rajab’s final pleas were recorded by the Palestine Red Crescent Society and are included in The Encampments, a documentary film from Watermelon Pictures that offers an intimate look at the organizing efforts of Columbia students, including Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested and sent to an ICE facility in Louisiana last month.
which is what they always say to do. We did that every day, every week, every month, and nothing happened. It’s exposed how fundamentally undemocratic our system is, which is why protest is inevitable. The issue hasn’t been solved at all. This status quo is unsustainable. It’s unconscionable to live in a society where people can just be abducted in broad daylight for protesting a genocide. It’s not a way we can continue to live. It’s a pot that is boiling and is going to blow.
…shortened to shed light on whether or not in Mr Prisker, are we are talking about the left supporting extremism?
“ Capitalism must end”
good grief
Just let them negotiate a treaty already. Don’t think this individual has any interest in peace:
an American socialist, working on a Russian Govt Broadcast , Ignored police orders and was arrested, and wanted students “. “To normalize civil disobedience and push people to take their activism to the next step.” let your eyes decide.
Protesting things that which you disagree with is “supporting extremism?” Nice goal post move though. Enjoy your authoritarianism.
Guess you’ve never heard the term “good trouble?”
Good grief is right.
Non citizens have the right to speak freely but once it involves an organized protest in public…ASSEMBLY…in MUST be peaceful.
so your reply to a respected actress movie was to support one from an admitted socialist, who wants to end capitalism , with a history of angry protests,, including arrest, unlawful entry , support from Russian TV, and wants to normalize civil disobedience.
I’ve disagreed with violent protests since day one. I’ve disagreed with allowing foreigners coming onto our streets and chasing students with large sticks to barricade themselves in a library room. The goalposts are firm.
instead of bringing the Palestinian ways here, why not move there?
I just took my kid yesterday to his admitted student fair at a University in New York. Many student activist groups holding court, from pro voters, republican club, democratic club, vegetarians, environmentalists, African American fraternities, and yes Hillel and other religious groups. The only group with a bullhorn and shouting at kids and parents aggressively? Like literally jumping in my face and shouting through a bullhorn. The pro palestinian group. That will not earn them any favors from me and it was disruptive for the students trying to learn about the different clubs/groups on campus. I have no problem with Universities trying to shut that down and remove disruptive students. It is one thing to speak your mind, and another to impede on a student experience to make your point. You are here on a visa as a privilege to attend a US university, that is not carte blanche, it comes with conditions imposed by the institutions and yes, that privilege may restrict freedom of speech. It is private property. The one rule, do not be an asshole, this group qualified.
Not sure exactly what you saw and how bad it was, but these foreign people and their supporters on the left do not understand the first amendment. Assembly can not express hatred or violence.
“The hate started flooding in almost immediately.” Debra Messing and her Oct 8 movie are lying to us. Hate is violent.
Shutting down college campuses and graduation ceremonies do not qualify as peace. Destruction of property, Screaming at people with a rage of hatred, is not peaceable assembly .
Relatively speaking, it was probably not that bad. I do not have many comparables. But it was angry and loud, and it shook my kid. Activists jumping out in the walkway yelling at the students with a bullhorn. Might even scare a kid away from attending a top university. Can you expect a kid to actually listen to your message when your behavior is aggressive and loud? The takeaway was to stay away from those people at all costs. It only dilutes the message. No matter your position on the issue. The actions spoke louder than words. And the actions were not good. By contrast, the Hillel table was quiet, respectful, and kind. It is not about the first amendment IMHO, it is about the WAY you express your free speech.
Get_Right It may have not been that bad, but when was the last time you, when with your kids, were treated like that in this country?
What were the circumstances of that treatment?
perhaps “not many comparables” is very significant?
I just took my kid yesterday to his admitted student fair at a University in New York. Many student activist groups holding court, from pro voters, republican club, democratic club, vegetarians, environmentalists, African American fraternities, and yes Hillel and other religious groups. The only group with a bullhorn and shouting at kids and parents aggressively? Like literally jumping in my face and shouting through a bullhorn. The pro palestinian group. That will not earn them any favors from me and it was disruptive for the students trying to learn about the different clubs/groups on campus. I have no problem with Universities trying to shut that down and remove disruptive students. It is one thing to speak your mind, and another to impede on a student experience to make your point. You are here on a visa as a privilege to attend a US university, that is not carte blanche, it comes with conditions imposed by the institutions and yes, that privilege may restrict freedom of speech. It is private property. The one rule, do not be an asshole, this group qualified.
Not sure exactly what you saw and how bad it was, but these foreign people and their supporters on the left do not understand the first amendment. Assembly can not express hatred or violence.
“The hate started flooding in almost immediately.” Debra Messing and her Oct 8 movie are lying to us. Hate is violent.
Shutting down college campuses and graduation ceremonies do not qualify as peace. Destruction of property, Screaming at people with a rage of hatred, is not peaceable assembly .
Relatively speaking, it was probably not that bad. I do not have many comparables. But it was angry and loud, and it shook my kid. Activists jumping out in the walkway yelling at the students with a bullhorn. Might even scare a kid away from attending a top university. Can you expect a kid to actually listen to your message when your behavior is aggressive and loud? The takeaway was to stay away from those people at all costs. It only dilutes the message. No matter your position on the issue. The actions spoke louder than words. And the actions were not good. By contrast, the Hillel table was quiet, respectful, and kind. It is not about the first amendment IMHO, it is about the WAY you express your free speech.
Get_Right It may have not been that bad, but when was the last time you, when with your kids, were treated like that in this country?
What were the circumstances of that treatment?
perhaps “not many comparables” is very significant?
I’m just curious - you said hate is violent in a prior post. I hate Donald Trump - if I protest him, is that by definition violent?
My stance is pretty simple. If the government legally has grounds to use its discretion to deport people for situations like this, they can enforce the law, point blank, and people who don’t like it can protest to have the law changed. My question though, is when “expressed hatred” becomes unacceptable. If they weren’t chasing people but were shouting at them, is that enough?
Btw, you won’t hear any opposition to me on how these protests are being executed. I generally think they lack a unified next step, bring out mob mentality, and grow rage without purpose. That said, I feel this way about organized protest in general, in this world where the government doesn’t care what the population wants and spins things regardless.
'05 - TO, '06 - TO 1, '08 - NYC 1 & 2, '09 - TO, Chi 1 & 2, '10 - Buffalo, NYC 1 & 2, '11 - TO 1 & 2, Hamilton, '13 - Buffalo, Brooklyn 1 & 2, '15 - Global Citizen, '16 - TO 1 & 2, Chi 2
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
I just took my kid yesterday to his admitted student fair at a University in New York. Many student activist groups holding court, from pro voters, republican club, democratic club, vegetarians, environmentalists, African American fraternities, and yes Hillel and other religious groups. The only group with a bullhorn and shouting at kids and parents aggressively? Like literally jumping in my face and shouting through a bullhorn. The pro palestinian group. That will not earn them any favors from me and it was disruptive for the students trying to learn about the different clubs/groups on campus. I have no problem with Universities trying to shut that down and remove disruptive students. It is one thing to speak your mind, and another to impede on a student experience to make your point. You are here on a visa as a privilege to attend a US university, that is not carte blanche, it comes with conditions imposed by the institutions and yes, that privilege may restrict freedom of speech. It is private property. The one rule, do not be an asshole, this group qualified.
Not sure exactly what you saw and how bad it was, but these foreign people and their supporters on the left do not understand the first amendment. Assembly can not express hatred or violence.
“The hate started flooding in almost immediately.” Debra Messing and her Oct 8 movie are lying to us. Hate is violent.
Shutting down college campuses and graduation ceremonies do not qualify as peace. Destruction of property, Screaming at people with a rage of hatred, is not peaceable assembly .
Relatively speaking, it was probably not that bad. I do not have many comparables. But it was angry and loud, and it shook my kid. Activists jumping out in the walkway yelling at the students with a bullhorn. Might even scare a kid away from attending a top university. Can you expect a kid to actually listen to your message when your behavior is aggressive and loud? The takeaway was to stay away from those people at all costs. It only dilutes the message. No matter your position on the issue. The actions spoke louder than words. And the actions were not good. By contrast, the Hillel table was quiet, respectful, and kind. It is not about the first amendment IMHO, it is about the WAY you express your free speech.
Get_Right It may have not been that bad, but when was the last time you, when with your kids, were treated like that in this country?
What were the circumstances of that treatment?
perhaps “not many comparables” is very significant?
Not many. Maybe folks with mental illness on the subway. I lived in NYC for 17 years. So it was common to see protesters. Photos of dead babies, dead cows, torture, anti-capitalists, and many other causes. Especially in front of the embassies. But no one ever jumped in my face. This was the only time I felt the need to protect my child. And we travel all over the world. Shame that he felt scared on a college campus where I might end up paying 100k per year. Speak your mind the right way or get the fuck out of here.
You’re being told. It’s not going away. The more extreme the action(s), the more extreme the response(s). As we see with the recent SCOTUS decision, ‘Murica wants authoritarianism and credit the Dems for not going there, yet, to win elections. Long read but it’s part of the “truth.” So much for “far left policies.” Bolded sections within answers are my emphasis. From The Nation:
Palestine Reveals the Empty Promises of US Democracy
Kei Pritsker, a codirector of The Encampments, a documentary film that follows the pro-Palestine movement at Columbia, says the student protesters will be remembered as heroes.
When students at Columbia University occupied Hamilton Hall last spring, they renamed it Hind’s Hall in honor of Hind Rajab, a young Palestinian girl killed by Israel last January. Rajab’s final pleas were recorded by the Palestine Red Crescent Society and are included in The Encampments, a documentary film from Watermelon Pictures that offers an intimate look at the organizing efforts of Columbia students, including Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested and sent to an ICE facility in Louisiana last month.
which is what they always say to do. We did that every day, every week, every month, and nothing happened. It’s exposed how fundamentally undemocratic our system is, which is why protest is inevitable. The issue hasn’t been solved at all. This status quo is unsustainable. It’s unconscionable to live in a society where people can just be abducted in broad daylight for protesting a genocide. It’s not a way we can continue to live. It’s a pot that is boiling and is going to blow.
…shortened to shed light on whether or not in Mr Prisker, are we are talking about the left supporting extremism?
“ Capitalism must end”
good grief
Just let them negotiate a treaty already. Don’t think this individual has any interest in peace:
an American socialist, working on a Russian Govt Broadcast , Ignored police orders and was arrested, and wanted students “. “To normalize civil disobedience and push people to take their activism to the next step.” let your eyes decide.
Protesting things that which you disagree with is “supporting extremism?” Nice goal post move though. Enjoy your authoritarianism.
Guess you’ve never heard the term “good trouble?”
Good grief is right.
Non citizens have the right to speak freely but once it involves an organized protest in public…ASSEMBLY…in MUST be peaceful.
so your reply to a respected actress movie was to support one from an admitted socialist, who wants to end capitalism , with a history of angry protests,, including arrest, unlawful entry , support from Russian TV, and wants to normalize civil disobedience.
I’ve disagreed with violent protests since day one. I’ve disagreed with allowing foreigners coming onto our streets and chasing students with large sticks to barricade themselves in a library room. The goalposts are firm.
instead of bringing the Palestinian ways here, why not move there?
No, I won’t click on random YouTube links that you post. My post wasnt a reply to you at all.
I just took my kid yesterday to his admitted student fair at a University in New York. Many student activist groups holding court, from pro voters, republican club, democratic club, vegetarians, environmentalists, African American fraternities, and yes Hillel and other religious groups. The only group with a bullhorn and shouting at kids and parents aggressively? Like literally jumping in my face and shouting through a bullhorn. The pro palestinian group. That will not earn them any favors from me and it was disruptive for the students trying to learn about the different clubs/groups on campus. I have no problem with Universities trying to shut that down and remove disruptive students. It is one thing to speak your mind, and another to impede on a student experience to make your point. You are here on a visa as a privilege to attend a US university, that is not carte blanche, it comes with conditions imposed by the institutions and yes, that privilege may restrict freedom of speech. It is private property. The one rule, do not be an asshole, this group qualified.
Not sure exactly what you saw and how bad it was, but these foreign people and their supporters on the left do not understand the first amendment. Assembly can not express hatred or violence.
“The hate started flooding in almost immediately.” Debra Messing and her Oct 8 movie are lying to us. Hate is violent.
Shutting down college campuses and graduation ceremonies do not qualify as peace. Destruction of property, Screaming at people with a rage of hatred, is not peaceable assembly .
Relatively speaking, it was probably not that bad. I do not have many comparables. But it was angry and loud, and it shook my kid. Activists jumping out in the walkway yelling at the students with a bullhorn. Might even scare a kid away from attending a top university. Can you expect a kid to actually listen to your message when your behavior is aggressive and loud? The takeaway was to stay away from those people at all costs. It only dilutes the message. No matter your position on the issue. The actions spoke louder than words. And the actions were not good. By contrast, the Hillel table was quiet, respectful, and kind. It is not about the first amendment IMHO, it is about the WAY you express your free speech.
Get_Right It may have not been that bad, but when was the last time you, when with your kids, were treated like that in this country?
What were the circumstances of that treatment?
perhaps “not many comparables” is very significant?
Not many. Maybe folks with mental illness on the subway. I lived in NYC for 17 years. So it was common to see protesters. Photos of dead babies, dead cows, torture, anti-capitalists, and many other causes. Especially in front of the embassies. But no one ever jumped in my face. This was the only time I felt the need to protect my child. And we travel all over the world. Shame that he felt scared on a college campus where I might end up paying 100k per year. Speak your mind the right way or get the fuck out of here.
Guess you’ve never escorted women into a planned parenthood clinic?
I just took my kid yesterday to his admitted student fair at a University in New York. Many student activist groups holding court, from pro voters, republican club, democratic club, vegetarians, environmentalists, African American fraternities, and yes Hillel and other religious groups. The only group with a bullhorn and shouting at kids and parents aggressively? Like literally jumping in my face and shouting through a bullhorn. The pro palestinian group. That will not earn them any favors from me and it was disruptive for the students trying to learn about the different clubs/groups on campus. I have no problem with Universities trying to shut that down and remove disruptive students. It is one thing to speak your mind, and another to impede on a student experience to make your point. You are here on a visa as a privilege to attend a US university, that is not carte blanche, it comes with conditions imposed by the institutions and yes, that privilege may restrict freedom of speech. It is private property. The one rule, do not be an asshole, this group qualified.
Not sure exactly what you saw and how bad it was, but these foreign people and their supporters on the left do not understand the first amendment. Assembly can not express hatred or violence.
“The hate started flooding in almost immediately.” Debra Messing and her Oct 8 movie are lying to us. Hate is violent.
Shutting down college campuses and graduation ceremonies do not qualify as peace. Destruction of property, Screaming at people with a rage of hatred, is not peaceable assembly .
Relatively speaking, it was probably not that bad. I do not have many comparables. But it was angry and loud, and it shook my kid. Activists jumping out in the walkway yelling at the students with a bullhorn. Might even scare a kid away from attending a top university. Can you expect a kid to actually listen to your message when your behavior is aggressive and loud? The takeaway was to stay away from those people at all costs. It only dilutes the message. No matter your position on the issue. The actions spoke louder than words. And the actions were not good. By contrast, the Hillel table was quiet, respectful, and kind. It is not about the first amendment IMHO, it is about the WAY you express your free speech.
Get_Right It may have not been that bad, but when was the last time you, when with your kids, were treated like that in this country?
What were the circumstances of that treatment?
perhaps “not many comparables” is very significant?
Not many. Maybe folks with mental illness on the subway. I lived in NYC for 17 years. So it was common to see protesters. Photos of dead babies, dead cows, torture, anti-capitalists, and many other causes. Especially in front of the embassies. But no one ever jumped in my face. This was the only time I felt the need to protect my child. And we travel all over the world. Shame that he felt scared on a college campus where I might end up paying 100k per year. Speak your mind the right way or get the fuck out of here.
Guess you’ve never escorted women into a planned parenthood clinic?
Maybe I have maybe I haven't. Certainly not since Roe was overturned. The point is that I am familiar with all of it. But I have never felt more harassed than I did on that campus. Activism can be smart. Being a douchebag is not.
You’re being told. It’s not going away. The more extreme the action(s), the more extreme the response(s). As we see with the recent SCOTUS decision, ‘Murica wants authoritarianism and credit the Dems for not going there, yet, to win elections. Long read but it’s part of the “truth.” So much for “far left policies.” Bolded sections within answers are my emphasis. From The Nation:
Palestine Reveals the Empty Promises of US Democracy
Kei Pritsker, a codirector of The Encampments, a documentary film that follows the pro-Palestine movement at Columbia, says the student protesters will be remembered as heroes.
When students at Columbia University occupied Hamilton Hall last spring, they renamed it Hind’s Hall in honor of Hind Rajab, a young Palestinian girl killed by Israel last January. Rajab’s final pleas were recorded by the Palestine Red Crescent Society and are included in The Encampments, a documentary film from Watermelon Pictures that offers an intimate look at the organizing efforts of Columbia students, including Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested and sent to an ICE facility in Louisiana last month.
which is what they always say to do. We did that every day, every week, every month, and nothing happened. It’s exposed how fundamentally undemocratic our system is, which is why protest is inevitable. The issue hasn’t been solved at all. This status quo is unsustainable. It’s unconscionable to live in a society where people can just be abducted in broad daylight for protesting a genocide. It’s not a way we can continue to live. It’s a pot that is boiling and is going to blow.
…shortened to shed light on whether or not in Mr Prisker, are we are talking about the left supporting extremism?
“ Capitalism must end”
good grief
Just let them negotiate a treaty already. Don’t think this individual has any interest in peace:
an American socialist, working on a Russian Govt Broadcast , Ignored police orders and was arrested, and wanted students “. “To normalize civil disobedience and push people to take their activism to the next step.” let your eyes decide.
Protesting things that which you disagree with is “supporting extremism?” Nice goal post move though. Enjoy your authoritarianism.
Guess you’ve never heard the term “good trouble?”
Good grief is right.
Non citizens have the right to speak freely but once it involves an organized protest in public…ASSEMBLY…in MUST be peaceful.
so your reply to a respected actress movie was to support one from an admitted socialist, who wants to end capitalism , with a history of angry protests,, including arrest, unlawful entry , support from Russian TV, and wants to normalize civil disobedience.
I’ve disagreed with violent protests since day one. I’ve disagreed with allowing foreigners coming onto our streets and chasing students with large sticks to barricade themselves in a library room. The goalposts are firm.
instead of bringing the Palestinian ways here, why not move there?
No, I won’t click on random YouTube links that you post. My post wasnt a reply to you at all.
Except it was a using the quote function to my comment. Which is a direct reply.
For someone posting links every day, it’s more than a little disingenuous to not watch a movie trailer that proves your representations of the nyc college protests are outright false.
I just took my kid yesterday to his admitted student fair at a University in New York. Many student activist groups holding court, from pro voters, republican club, democratic club, vegetarians, environmentalists, African American fraternities, and yes Hillel and other religious groups. The only group with a bullhorn and shouting at kids and parents aggressively? Like literally jumping in my face and shouting through a bullhorn. The pro palestinian group. That will not earn them any favors from me and it was disruptive for the students trying to learn about the different clubs/groups on campus. I have no problem with Universities trying to shut that down and remove disruptive students. It is one thing to speak your mind, and another to impede on a student experience to make your point. You are here on a visa as a privilege to attend a US university, that is not carte blanche, it comes with conditions imposed by the institutions and yes, that privilege may restrict freedom of speech. It is private property. The one rule, do not be an asshole, this group qualified.
Not sure exactly what you saw and how bad it was, but these foreign people and their supporters on the left do not understand the first amendment. Assembly can not express hatred or violence.
“The hate started flooding in almost immediately.” Debra Messing and her Oct 8 movie are lying to us. Hate is violent.
Shutting down college campuses and graduation ceremonies do not qualify as peace. Destruction of property, Screaming at people with a rage of hatred, is not peaceable assembly .
Relatively speaking, it was probably not that bad. I do not have many comparables. But it was angry and loud, and it shook my kid. Activists jumping out in the walkway yelling at the students with a bullhorn. Might even scare a kid away from attending a top university. Can you expect a kid to actually listen to your message when your behavior is aggressive and loud? The takeaway was to stay away from those people at all costs. It only dilutes the message. No matter your position on the issue. The actions spoke louder than words. And the actions were not good. By contrast, the Hillel table was quiet, respectful, and kind. It is not about the first amendment IMHO, it is about the WAY you express your free speech.
Get_Right It may have not been that bad, but when was the last time you, when with your kids, were treated like that in this country?
What were the circumstances of that treatment?
perhaps “not many comparables” is very significant?
I’m just curious - you said hate is violent in a prior post. I hate Donald Trump - if I protest him, is that by definition violent?
My stance is pretty simple. If the government legally has grounds to use its discretion to deport people for situations like this, they can enforce the law, point blank, and people who don’t like it can protest to have the law changed. My question though, is when “expressed hatred” becomes unacceptable. If they weren’t chasing people but were shouting at them, is that enough?
Btw, you won’t hear any opposition to me on how these protests are being executed. I generally think they lack a unified next step, bring out mob mentality, and grow rage without purpose. That said, I feel this way about organized protest in general, in this world where the government doesn’t care what the population wants and spins things regardless.
Well your rights would be significantly different than these student protesters here as our guests, since if I recall correctly, you are a dual citizen. The left is screaming free speech, and this is more of an issue about peaceful assembly and the rights of our guests here.
Even if the protests , such as at Columbia, were peaceful, which is a huge if, their self stated purpose was to demonstrate “ full solidarity with Palestinian resistance against Israel.”
How is that not an attempt to effectuate “ serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” That’s the law for this class of foreigners on US soil.
I had assumed these protests were organized by Americans. The fact that they mostly were not, and I needed to learn this fact from the trump administration, is chilling.
Even Khalil, the Columbia organizer, has been misrepresented by the media. Yes he is now a green card holder, but at the time he organized these protests, he was here on a student visa, and the govt is alleging withheld his involvement in organizing protests against US policy when applied for a green card.
You’re being told. It’s not going away. The more extreme the action(s), the more extreme the response(s). As we see with the recent SCOTUS decision, ‘Murica wants authoritarianism and credit the Dems for not going there, yet, to win elections. Long read but it’s part of the “truth.” So much for “far left policies.” Bolded sections within answers are my emphasis. From The Nation:
Palestine Reveals the Empty Promises of US Democracy
Kei Pritsker, a codirector of The Encampments, a documentary film that follows the pro-Palestine movement at Columbia, says the student protesters will be remembered as heroes.
When students at Columbia University occupied Hamilton Hall last spring, they renamed it Hind’s Hall in honor of Hind Rajab, a young Palestinian girl killed by Israel last January. Rajab’s final pleas were recorded by the Palestine Red Crescent Society and are included in The Encampments, a documentary film from Watermelon Pictures that offers an intimate look at the organizing efforts of Columbia students, including Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested and sent to an ICE facility in Louisiana last month.
which is what they always say to do. We did that every day, every week, every month, and nothing happened. It’s exposed how fundamentally undemocratic our system is, which is why protest is inevitable. The issue hasn’t been solved at all. This status quo is unsustainable. It’s unconscionable to live in a society where people can just be abducted in broad daylight for protesting a genocide. It’s not a way we can continue to live. It’s a pot that is boiling and is going to blow.
…shortened to shed light on whether or not in Mr Prisker, are we are talking about the left supporting extremism?
“ Capitalism must end”
good grief
Just let them negotiate a treaty already. Don’t think this individual has any interest in peace:
an American socialist, working on a Russian Govt Broadcast , Ignored police orders and was arrested, and wanted students “. “To normalize civil disobedience and push people to take their activism to the next step.” let your eyes decide.
Protesting things that which you disagree with is “supporting extremism?” Nice goal post move though. Enjoy your authoritarianism.
Guess you’ve never heard the term “good trouble?”
Good grief is right.
Non citizens have the right to speak freely but once it involves an organized protest in public…ASSEMBLY…in MUST be peaceful.
so your reply to a respected actress movie was to support one from an admitted socialist, who wants to end capitalism , with a history of angry protests,, including arrest, unlawful entry , support from Russian TV, and wants to normalize civil disobedience.
I’ve disagreed with violent protests since day one. I’ve disagreed with allowing foreigners coming onto our streets and chasing students with large sticks to barricade themselves in a library room. The goalposts are firm.
instead of bringing the Palestinian ways here, why not move there?
No, I won’t click on random YouTube links that you post. My post wasnt a reply to you at all.
Except it was a using the quote function to my comment. Which is a direct reply.
For someone posting links every day, it’s more than a little disingenuous to not watch a movie trailer that proves your representations of the nyc college protests are outright false.
Show us where I quoted your YouTube video posts? If it’s the one with the “Party for Socialism and Liberation” graphic, I didn’t watch that either. Maybe complain to the mods?
You’re being told. It’s not going away. The more extreme the action(s), the more extreme the response(s). As we see with the recent SCOTUS decision, ‘Murica wants authoritarianism and credit the Dems for not going there, yet, to win elections. Long read but it’s part of the “truth.” So much for “far left policies.” Bolded sections within answers are my emphasis. From The Nation:
Palestine Reveals the Empty Promises of US Democracy
Kei Pritsker, a codirector of The Encampments, a documentary film that follows the pro-Palestine movement at Columbia, says the student protesters will be remembered as heroes.
When students at Columbia University occupied Hamilton Hall last spring, they renamed it Hind’s Hall in honor of Hind Rajab, a young Palestinian girl killed by Israel last January. Rajab’s final pleas were recorded by the Palestine Red Crescent Society and are included in The Encampments, a documentary film from Watermelon Pictures that offers an intimate look at the organizing efforts of Columbia students, including Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested and sent to an ICE facility in Louisiana last month.
which is what they always say to do. We did that every day, every week, every month, and nothing happened. It’s exposed how fundamentally undemocratic our system is, which is why protest is inevitable. The issue hasn’t been solved at all. This status quo is unsustainable. It’s unconscionable to live in a society where people can just be abducted in broad daylight for protesting a genocide. It’s not a way we can continue to live. It’s a pot that is boiling and is going to blow.
…shortened to shed light on whether or not in Mr Prisker, are we are talking about the left supporting extremism?
“ Capitalism must end”
good grief
Just let them negotiate a treaty already. Don’t think this individual has any interest in peace:
an American socialist, working on a Russian Govt Broadcast , Ignored police orders and was arrested, and wanted students “. “To normalize civil disobedience and push people to take their activism to the next step.” let your eyes decide.
Protesting things that which you disagree with is “supporting extremism?” Nice goal post move though. Enjoy your authoritarianism.
Guess you’ve never heard the term “good trouble?”
Good grief is right.
Non citizens have the right to speak freely but once it involves an organized protest in public…ASSEMBLY…in MUST be peaceful.
so your reply to a respected actress movie was to support one from an admitted socialist, who wants to end capitalism , with a history of angry protests,, including arrest, unlawful entry , support from Russian TV, and wants to normalize civil disobedience.
I’ve disagreed with violent protests since day one. I’ve disagreed with allowing foreigners coming onto our streets and chasing students with large sticks to barricade themselves in a library room. The goalposts are firm.
instead of bringing the Palestinian ways here, why not move there?
No, I won’t click on random YouTube links that you post. My post wasnt a reply to you at all.
Except it was a using the quote function to my comment. Which is a direct reply.
For someone posting links every day, it’s more than a little disingenuous to not watch a movie trailer that proves your representations of the nyc college protests are outright false.
Show us where I quoted your YouTube video posts? If it’s the one with the “Party for Socialism and Liberation” graphic, I didn’t watch that either. Maybe complain to the mods?
Your comments admitted to ignoring the YouTube video, which is admitting to ignoring the evidence disputing your characterization of how these protests actually occurred. The next day these comments celebrate an American socialist on amt, one who encourages civil disobedience and has gotten arrested for fighting cops, and spreading violent protests on college campuses.
You’re being told. It’s not going away. The more extreme the action(s), the more extreme the response(s). As we see with the recent SCOTUS decision, ‘Murica wants authoritarianism and credit the Dems for not going there, yet, to win elections. Long read but it’s part of the “truth.” So much for “far left policies.” Bolded sections within answers are my emphasis. From The Nation:
Palestine Reveals the Empty Promises of US Democracy
Kei Pritsker, a codirector of The Encampments, a documentary film that follows the pro-Palestine movement at Columbia, says the student protesters will be remembered as heroes.
When students at Columbia University occupied Hamilton Hall last spring, they renamed it Hind’s Hall in honor of Hind Rajab, a young Palestinian girl killed by Israel last January. Rajab’s final pleas were recorded by the Palestine Red Crescent Society and are included in The Encampments, a documentary film from Watermelon Pictures that offers an intimate look at the organizing efforts of Columbia students, including Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested and sent to an ICE facility in Louisiana last month.
which is what they always say to do. We did that every day, every week, every month, and nothing happened. It’s exposed how fundamentally undemocratic our system is, which is why protest is inevitable. The issue hasn’t been solved at all. This status quo is unsustainable. It’s unconscionable to live in a society where people can just be abducted in broad daylight for protesting a genocide. It’s not a way we can continue to live. It’s a pot that is boiling and is going to blow.
…shortened to shed light on whether or not in Mr Prisker, are we are talking about the left supporting extremism?
“ Capitalism must end”
good grief
Just let them negotiate a treaty already. Don’t think this individual has any interest in peace:
an American socialist, working on a Russian Govt Broadcast , Ignored police orders and was arrested, and wanted students “. “To normalize civil disobedience and push people to take their activism to the next step.” let your eyes decide.
Protesting things that which you disagree with is “supporting extremism?” Nice goal post move though. Enjoy your authoritarianism.
Guess you’ve never heard the term “good trouble?”
Good grief is right.
Non citizens have the right to speak freely but once it involves an organized protest in public…ASSEMBLY…in MUST be peaceful.
so your reply to a respected actress movie was to support one from an admitted socialist, who wants to end capitalism , with a history of angry protests,, including arrest, unlawful entry , support from Russian TV, and wants to normalize civil disobedience.
I’ve disagreed with violent protests since day one. I’ve disagreed with allowing foreigners coming onto our streets and chasing students with large sticks to barricade themselves in a library room. The goalposts are firm.
instead of bringing the Palestinian ways here, why not move there?
No, I won’t click on random YouTube links that you post. My post wasnt a reply to you at all.
Except it was a using the quote function to my comment. Which is a direct reply.
For someone posting links every day, it’s more than a little disingenuous to not watch a movie trailer that proves your representations of the nyc college protests are outright false.
Show us where I quoted your YouTube video posts? If it’s the one with the “Party for Socialism and Liberation” graphic, I didn’t watch that either. Maybe complain to the mods?
Your comments admitted to ignoring the YouTube video, which is admitting to ignoring the evidence disputing your characterization of how these protests actually occurred. The next day these comments celebrate an American socialist on amt, one who encourages civil disobedience and has gotten arrested for fighting cops, and spreading violent protests on college campuses.
It’s disingenuous to state that I directly quoted you. I don’t rely upon YouTube videos as a basis of truth or fact. I admitted I didn’t watch it, which is why I didn’t quote you or it.
Do you ever respond to questions or content of posts or just make baseless and false accusations?
This is what shutting down dissent and silencing the opposition looks like. Thing is, if Israel were in the right, this wouldn’t be necessary. Maybe she can post on twatter? Who funds StopAntisemitism? Couldn’t possibly be Israel, could it? Maybe Adelson? Behold the righteous. And I didn’t know “civil rights” only extended to members of the Jewish faith.
Pro-Israel group asks DoJ to investigate Ms Rachel over posts on Gaza children
StopAntisemitism questions if beloved children’s entertainer acted as foreign agent to spread ‘propaganda’
A prominent pro-Israel group that doxes people it deems antisemitic is calling on Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, to investigate whether beloved children’s entertainer Ms Rachel is operating as a foreign agent after sharing sympathetic content about children suffering in Gaza.
In a letter sent on Monday, the group StopAntisemitism formally requested the Department of Justice determine whether Ms Rachel, whose real name is Rachel Griffin Accurso, is “being remunerated to disseminate Hamas-aligned propaganda to her millions of followers”, claiming her social media posts about Palestinian children in anguish could constitute undisclosed work for foreign entities.
“Given the vast sums of foreign funds that have been directed toward propagandizing our young people on college campuses, we suspect there is a similar dynamic in the online influencer space,” StopAntisemitism’s director, Liora Rez, wrote in the letter shared with the New York Post.
Ms Rachel has been described as a modern-day Mister Rogers, and whose Songs for Littles videos have amassed more than 10bn views since she launched her YouTube channel in 2019. The 42-year-old former teacher who lives in New York with her husband, the Broadway music director Aron Accurso, just announced the birth of her second child via surrogate on Tuesday.
StopAntisemitism specifically objects to posts in which Ms Rachel shared widely reported images of malnourished children in Gaza and cited casualty figures from Gaza’s health ministry that align with UN reports. The group claims she has ignored “the suffering of Israeli victims, hostages, and Jewish children”.
When asked for evidence that Ms Rachel received foreign payments rather than simply exercising free speech, Rez told the Post: “It’s not a secret influencers such as Ms Rachel often have paid collaborations on social media ... We could not help but notice post-10/7, Ms Rachel posting a massive barrage of anti-Israel propaganda.”
The group called for an investigation under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (Fara), which requires Americans working on behalf of a foreign government or political entities to register as foreign agents with the US justice department. Hamas, however, is designated by the US as a terrorist organization. Invoking Fara in this case appears legally misplaced, since any support for Hamas would fall under anti-terrorism laws – though such allegations against a children’s entertainer sharing humanitarian concerns appear far-fetched.
The UN has reported that thousands of children have been orphaned or separated from their parents during the 15-month war in Gaza up until the first phase of a ceasefire in January. According to the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs, one-third of the 40,717 Palestinian bodies identified in Gaza – 13,319 – were children.
Unicef estimates that 25,000 children have been injured, while Yasmine Sherif, the executive director of the UN global fund Education Cannot Wait, reports that 650,000 school-age children have not been attending classes and the entire education system requires rebuilding due to widespread destruction.
Still, the StopAntisemitism group takes exception to Ms Rachel’s sharing of viral images, including one of a malnourished child with protruding limbs who became a symbol of Gaza’s humanitarian crisis. StopAntisemitism claimed the images were debunked, asserting the child suffered from cystic fibrosis rather than starvation. However, according to the Washington Post, the child’s mother confirmed he suffered from both conditions.
Ms Rachel did not respond to a request for comment on the allegations, but previously explained that her advocacy began after seeing a video of a traumatized child in Gaza who survived an airstrike. “The look in his eyes has stayed in my mind,” she told the Independent. “No child should experience that kind of fear, shock and terror.”
Last May, Ms Rachel launched a fundraiser through Cameo that raised more than $50,000 for Save the Children’s emergency fund supporting children in conflict zones including Gaza in just a few hours. The effort drew some hateful comments for not specifically including Israeli children, though Save the Children does not currently operate in Israel, a wealthy country.
“I care deeply for all children. Palestinian children, Israeli children, children in the US – Muslim, Jewish, Christian children – all children, in every country,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “To do a fundraiser for children who are currently starving – who have no food or water – who are being killed – is human.”
StopAntisemitism’s targeting of Ms Rachel appears to follow a pattern for the organization, which maintains an “antisemite of the week” feature on its website. The controversial list has included Gaza-based journalist Bisan Owda, the climate activist Greta Thunberg, the rapper Macklemore, and the actor Jesse Williams.
The group, which describes itself as a Jewish civil rights watchdog, identifies and “doxes” pro-Palestinian demonstrators on university campuses and across the country.
The backlash mirrors previous controversies Ms Rachel has faced for taking a stance on more serious topics, including postpartum depression, early childhood education funding and LGBTQ+ issues.
It is unclear whether the Department of Justice will pursue an investigation. StopAntisemitism did not respond to a request for comment.
I suppose this is what fists, flags and fire emojis are for, eh? Nice country, ‘Murica.
THE OTHER SIDE OF SIGNALGATE
The Trump Administration’s extraordinary security breach has elicited shock, amusement, and anger. An eyewitness in Yemen describes what happened when the bombs started to fall.
By Rozina Ali April 8, 2025
On the morning of March 14th, while Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Vice-President J. D. Vance debated a possible U.S. attack on Houthi targets in a now infamous Signal chat, it was afternoon in Yemen, and a five-year-old boy named Hamad was still alive. Hamad had spent the day running around the city with his father, and when night fell he was back home, playing in the yard with his cousins, likely slipping one too many sweets into his mouth.
In a thread called “Houthi PC Small Group,” which included other top national-security officials, Vance seemed concerned about getting dragged into another conflict that was peripheral to American interests. The operation was meant to disrupt the Houthis’ ability to attack commercial ships and American military vessels in the Red Sea, which they had been doing for about a year and a half, in response to Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza. Vance floated the possibility of delaying the strikes so that the Administration could work on the public “messaging.” “I understand your concerns,” Hegseth told him, but messaging would be “tough” no matter the timing. “Nobody knows who the Houthis are,” he explained.
The debate didn’t last long. Within half an hour, Vance was persuaded. The next day, as sunset prayers ended and families broke their Ramadan fast in north Yemen, Hegseth announced to the group in Washington, “Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/ CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch.” Shortly after, a “package” of F-18s was launched, the first of many strikes.
Just before one in the morning, a man whom I’ll call Hassan—he asked that we not use his real name, owing to concerns about his safety—bolted awake to a thunderous sound. His house, in the Qahza area in Saada, was shaking. The windows shattered as he heard another boom, and then another. “The noise of the air strikes were very unlike the Saudi ones, because they were too loud, too big,” he recently told me, referring to regular bombing campaigns that a Saudi Arabia-led coalition has conducted against Houthi strongholds since 2015.
Smoke and dust filled the rooms, and Hassan scrambled to rush his frightened children outside. He split his family into small groups among relatives’ homes and returned to the site of the strike. His neighbor’s two-story house, about a hundred metres from his own, was levelled. The house belonged to Mosfer Roga’ah, Hassan told me—a Bedouin from the country’s northern Kitaf district who had arrived in the neighborhood around six years earlier. Roga’ah had several sons who were married, so the house was often full of women and children, as it had been that night.
Hassan’s brothers were already there, digging through the rubble, searching for the remains of a family. “They were scattered and torn into pieces,” he said. Rescuers recovered mangled bodies. Among them were two faces Hassan recognized well: the five-year-old boy, Hamad, and a three-year-old girl, Dareen, who was rushed to a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital. Hamad was dead.
He “was roasted,” Hassan recalled, adding quietly that it was a “horrifying” sight. He later sent me photos of Dareen that were circulating on social media; she was attached to a breathing tube, her body covered in gauze and her face marbled with burn marks. In the debris, locals found remnants of Tomahawk missiles, which Airwars, a British nonprofit organization that tracks civilian harm in conflict zones, confirmed were the munitions used in the strike.
The controversy that has now been dubbed Signalgate has garnered considerable shock, amusement, and anger, illustrating the ineptitude of the Trump Administration for knowingly discussing war plans over a commercial phone app and for unknowingly inviting a journalistinto the discussion. (The White House has insisted that it did not reveal any “war plans.”) Less has been made of the strikes themselves, which raise their own set of questions, including what the U.S.’s aims are in Yemen, and under what legal authority it is pursuing those aims.
American Presidents have struck Yemen before, often pointing to the Authorization for the Use of Military Force, a joint resolution passed after 9/11, which gave the President the power to attack terrorist targets in foreign countries without a formal “declaration of war.” But Trump hasn’t invoked the A.U.M.F.; instead, he echoed aides who say that it is within the President’s constitutional power to launch attacks for defensive purposes. His predecessors, too, seemed to operate with that license: most recently, the Biden Administration continued to strike Houthi targets, without Congressional approval, even after taking the Houthis off the list of foreign terrorist organizations. “For years, Presidents have been asserting expansive power to use military force, under questionable legal authorities, with relatively little pushback from Congress,” Matt Duss, the executive vice-president at the Center for International Policy, a foreign-policy think tank in Washington, D.C., told me. “That’s extremely dangerous no matter who’s in the White House, but particularly with someone like Trump.”
The Trump Administration’s hostilities in Yemen appear more expansive than past campaigns, directed not just at Houthi weapons sites but also at Houthi leaders in residential areas. Perhaps more alarmingly, Trump hints at long-term engagement. “We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective,” Trump vowed. There remains little clarity on what right the President has to repeatedly strike a foreign country without the approval of Congress.
In addition to this legal debate, Signalgate raises questions about the reliability of American intelligence. According to Yemen’s health ministry, more than fifty people were killed in the strikes, and more than a hundred were wounded. One of the attacks hit a cancer-treatment center that was under construction, according to Houthi authorities. Another, the Roga’ah house.
Mosfer Roga’ah and his four sons were not home when the missiles dropped, Hassan told me. They were at the mosque for taraweeh, special prayers performed late into the night during the holy month of Ramadan. A video shared on Facebook shows them returning to where the house once stood. A few men can be seen helping someone stagger through the glare of headlights toward the wreckage. Seconds later, a loud scream pierces through a din of panicked voices. According to Hassan, that was one of Roga’ah’s sons, Abdullah—the father of Dareen and Hamad.
Eventually, Hassan told me, rescuers who dug through the rubble counted fifteen dead, all women and children. Among them were Risala, age thirteen; Saleh, age nine; Abdullah, age six; Nazam, age six; Abdulkader, age five; Hadi, age three; and Motlak, a newborn baby. The baby’s mother was also killed.
The New Yorker was not able to fully corroborate Hassan’s account, and Saada is nearly impossible for foreign journalists to access at the moment, but news reports and public social-media posts about that night counted civilians among the dead. (Many of the posts were made by people with Houthi affiliations.) Shortly after the strikes began, Trump declared on Truth Social that he had ordered the military “to launch decisive and powerful Military action,” adding that the Houthis “have waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft, and drones.”
Officials in the Trump Administration seemed unfazed by the prospect that civilians might die in the bombardment. “The first target—their top missile guy—we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed,” Michael Waltz, the national-security adviser, wrote on Signal, in an update to the team. “Excellent,” Vance replied. The C.I.A. director, John Ratcliffe: “A good start.” Waltz responded with emojis of a fist bump, an American flag, and fire. (Later, the U.S. Department of Defense said that it “takes allegations of civilian harm seriously and has a process in place to review them.”)
Trump’s White House, like its predecessors, continues to emphasize that the Houthis are supported by Iran. But the group also emerged from local political dynamics. The founders of the Houthi movement belonged to Zaydism, a Shia branch of Islam that ruled northern Yemen for a thousand years before being overthrown in the nineteen-sixties. A couple of decades later, Zaydism was revived as a cultural and political movement by Hussein al-Houthi, in part as a way to challenge Yemen’s central government, which disfavored Zaydis and neglected northern areas, like Saada. After 9/11, the U.S. poured military aid into Yemen as part of its global war on terror, expanding the Yemeni President’s ability to quell Houthi dissent—in turn drawing more support for the movement.
Yemen underwent a significant transformation. The Houthis grew in power and popularity, then launched an insurgency that spiralled into a series of wars with the central government. During the Arab Spring, in 2012, the Yemeni President stepped down; in the years that followed, Houthis stormed the capital. Regional and world powers, concerned that the group would expand, began to bombard and raid the country. The United States backed Saudi-led bombing campaigns, supported a naval and air blockade, and instituted a sanctions regime; together, these measures have further entrenched the Houthis’ hold on power, killed hundreds of thousands of people, and helped to push more than seventeen million into conditions of severe hunger. Today, Yemen remains one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
The U.S. continues to pummel Yemen. Recently, Trump shared a black-and-white video, from an aerial viewpoint, of a bomb landing on a group of about seventy people in a circle, which a Houthi-led news agency later described as a social gathering for Eid. Smoke fills the screen and, within seconds, a crater emerges. “These Houthis gathered for instructions on an attack. Oops, there will be no attack by these Houthis!” the President wrote.
Meanwhile, Roga’ah and his sons are surveying their own catastrophic damage. The fresh graves of their dead wives and children are lined neatly in a row, the result of a strike hastily agreed to over text message thousands of miles away. “They have hearts broken into pieces,” Hassan told me, of Roga’ah and Abdullah. “Every day they are crying, remembering this family that disappeared without any reason.” ♦︎
Deport them now, right? The director of ICE has publicly stated that he wants to detain and deport people with an Amazon style sense of efficiency. Sound familiar? Speaking of which, can anyone not see the similarities, particularly given the cabinet meeting today, or are you still with the belief that “it can’t happen here?”
People better wake the fuck up but maybe you’ll wait until the national emergency is declared and martial law is imposed?
I’m a Jewish Israeli in the US standing up for Palestine. By Trump’s logic, I’m a terror supporter
I’ve called the Gaza war a genocide and spoken in favor of sanctions on Israel. I was also in the IDF. I ask the FBI: should you arrest me?
Given recent patterns, the FBI might need to take a hard look at my actions over the years. If Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk, Yunseo Chung, Badar Khan Suri and other recent Ice detainees are considered threats to national security, then so am I.
I have committed the same acts they have committed, including publishing an article that calls the war in Gaza a genocide, participating in a protest against the genocide in Gaza, speaking and protesting in favor of BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions against Israel), participating in a sit-in at UC Davis about 10 years ago, and being vocal in general about the atrocities committed by Israel against the people of Gaza and Palestinians.
Let me tell you a little more about myself and all the additional reasons you might want to investigate and perhaps arrest me. I was born in Israel and became a naturalized US citizen through my American mother. Given the administration’s recent challenges to the 14th amendment, which provides birthright citizenship, you might proceed from detaining legal residents to revoking the rights of naturalized citizens. Like other fascist regimes before you, you’ve been testing how much resistance you face in your effort to turn the United States into a fascist country. You start with the most marginalized, sending incarcerated trans women to men’s prisons, Venezuelans accused of gang affiliation to El Salvador, and detaining Arab and Muslim legal residents. But if the past is any indication, your next target might well be children of undocumented immigrants or naturalized citizens. Of course, as every student of fascism well knows, the ultimate goal is to apprehend all the supposed enemies of this administration, regardless of their legal status.
Furthermore, I must confess to using academic concepts that have come under scrutiny as antisemitic by the Department of Justice taskforce for antisemitism. As a former member of the Israel Defense Forces, I have come a long way. It took me many years of soul-searching to realize that I was complicit in a settler-colonial occupation force and that my best recourse to make amends for that was to be outspoken about my country’s atrocities. As I tried to better understand the terrible tragedy of Zionism – a nationalist ideology that sought to free Jews from oppression only to end up as oppressors in Palestine – I confess to describing concepts such as apartheid, settler colonialism, ethno-nationalism and more. Perhaps even more disturbing from your perspective, I recently employed such concepts as genocide, settler colonialism and ethnic cleansing in a book I wrote about early American history.
I also confess that in the past I have targeted white supremacist allies of this administration in my community of Chico, California. Clearly employing extralegal militias is part of this administration’s fascist playbook, as Trump already proved during the events of 6 January 2021. For instance, when my house was a target of antisemitic leafleting, I sought the help of a colleague and a local investigative journalist to make this very real form of antisemitism known to authorities. In the process the journalist uncovered troubling information that there is an armed white supremacist in our community who holds deep antisemitic convictions and now knows where I work. Had you really been interested in investigating antisemitism, you might have looked into the whereabouts of that individual. But since you want people like him around so that they can be activated when needed, and since all you really want is to cynically weaponize antisemitism, you might want to arrest me instead. After all, according to your standards, I – a Jew targeted by white supremacists – was all along the biggest threat to Jews in my own community.
I have long heard stories about the rise of fascism in Europe from my grandparents, all of whom fled Europe and were refugees from antisemitism. The similarities between the actions of this administration and what my grandparents have lived through are unmistakable. I tell them here so that before you choose to arrest me, you will have one more opportunity to decide whether you will go down in history as aiding and abetting the rise of a fascist regime or as someone who refused to be part of another dark episode in this country’s history. Be forewarned: even if you yourself never directly suffer for your crimes, history will judge you.
My dear grandfather, Otto, may his memory be a blessing, escaped Austria by the skin of his teeth when he was only 13 after the Nazi takeover of the country. Having witnessed the horrors of Kristallnacht in November of 1938 – the night when local mobs violently rioted against Jewish homes, synagogues and businesses across much of Germany and Austria and arrested 30,000 citizens just for being Jewish – his parents made the decision to flee to Shanghai, the only port that would accept them. Clearly, our current president’s rhetoric regarding enemies of the American nation from within and without, against immigrants, trans people and people deemed un-American in their political commitments (like myself), are eerily reminiscent of the stories my grandfather told me about the scapegoating of Jews.
As I consider the memory of dear grandmother Rachel, may her memory be a blessing, who grew up in Poland and survived the Holocaust, including enduring a harrowing year in Auschwitz and the death march to Germany, I cannot shake the sense of another parallel. As Hitler and the Nazi party were consolidating power, they appointed sycophants like yourself and so many others to positions of power in the Nazi administration. The most important criterion for Hitler was not that the people in positions of power were competent or even knowledgeable, but that they would be spineless and loyal to him.
According to the historian Ian Kershaw, this type of leadership, where all bow to the great leader, led to the Holocaust, as the people surrounding Hitler constantly sought to outdo each other in their loyalty to the Führer. Knowing Hitler’s hatred for Jews, they constantly tried to curry favor by suggesting the most radical and far-reaching policy ideas towards Jews. This dynamic, which Kershaw called “working toward the Führer”, ultimately led Hitler and the people surrounding him to decide on the “Final Solution”, the plan to exterminate all the Jews in the world on an industrial scale in death camps. This idea of working toward the leader is upon us today, as we see institutions and even some in the Democratic party bowing before the great leader and his will. Instead of standing up to the administration at every turn, institutions, businesses and politicians across the country prefer to anticipate the administration’s wrath and eliminate any behavior or materials that might come under scrutiny. Meanwhile, Republicans rush to outdo each other in flattering the great leader, as American society seems frozen with fear in face of the rising tides of fascism.
So, Kash Patel, do you want to arrest me and help bring about fascism?
Eran Zelnik grew up in Israel and came to the US 15 years ago to complete his PhD in history. He now lives and teaches in Chico, California
I am once again sickened by any comparison to the Holocaust. There are no gas or ovens being used here. Is it unfair treatment of specific ethnic groups? Perhaps. But let's be real, there is no intentional murder of millions happening at the hands of the state.
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Palestinian American teen shot dead by Israeli settler, officials say
Omar Mohammad Rabea, 14, killed alongside two other teenagers in West Bank town as settler violence escalates
A Palestinian teenager with US citizenship was killed by Israeliforces in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, Palestinian officials said on Sunday, with the Israeli military saying it shot a “terrorist” who was allegedly endangering civilians by hurling rocks.
The incident is the latest in a surge of violence and near-daily confrontations in the volatile West Bank, where settler violence and clashes between Israeli forces and armed Palestinians have kept it on edge.
The mayor of Turmus Ayya, Adeeb Lafi, told Reuters earlier in the day that Omar Mohammad Rabea, 14, was shot along with two other teenagers by an Israeli settler at the entrance to Turmus Ayya and that the Israeli army pronounced him dead after detaining him.
However, the Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the incident as an “extra-judicial killing” by Israeli forces during a raid in the town, saying it was the result of Israel’s “continued impunity”.
“During a counterterrorism activity in the area of Turmus Aya, IDF soldiers identified three terrorists who hurled rocks toward the highway, thus endangering civilians driving,” the Israeli army said in a statement.
“The soldiers opened fire toward the terrorists who were endangering civilians, eliminating one terrorist and hitting two additional terrorists.”
Settler violence in the West Bank, including incursions into occupied territory and raids on Bedouin villages and encampments, has intensified since Israel’s war on Gazabegan in October 2023.
European countries and the previous US administration under Joe Biden imposed sanctions on violent Israeli settlers, though the White House under Donald Trump removed these sanctions.
The Israeli military has also in recent months carried what it called a “large-scale military operation” in the West Bank to root out militants.
Militant group Hamas, based in Gaza, has over recent years expanded its reach in the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority, dominated by the rival Fatah faction, exercises limited governance.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/06/palestinian-teen-citizen-killed-israeli-settler
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Not sure exactly what you saw and how bad it was, but these foreign people and their supporters on the left do not understand the first amendment. Assembly can not express hatred or violence.
“The hate started flooding in almost immediately.” Debra Messing and her Oct 8 movie are lying to us. Hate is violent.
Shutting down college campuses and graduation ceremonies do not qualify as peace. Destruction of property, Screaming at people with a rage of hatred, is not peaceable assembly .
https://youtu.be/_kyB_WXg2-E?si=K29WzpZF5J5rnbs6
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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Relatively speaking, it was probably not that bad. I do not have many comparables. But it was angry and loud, and it shook my kid. Activists jumping out in the walkway yelling at the students with a bullhorn. Might even scare a kid away from attending a top university. Can you expect a kid to actually listen to your message when your behavior is aggressive and loud? The takeaway was to stay away from those people at all costs. It only dilutes the message. No matter your position on the issue. The actions spoke louder than words. And the actions were not good. By contrast, the Hillel table was quiet, respectful, and kind. It is not about the first amendment IMHO, it is about the WAY you express your free speech.
Palestine Reveals the Empty Promises of US Democracy
Kei Pritsker, a codirector of The Encampments, a documentary film that follows the pro-Palestine movement at Columbia, says the student protesters will be remembered as heroes.
When students at Columbia University occupied Hamilton Hall last spring, they renamed it Hind’s Hall in honor of Hind Rajab, a young Palestinian girl killed by Israel last January. Rajab’s final pleas were recorded by the Palestine Red Crescent Society and are included in The Encampments, a documentary film from Watermelon Pictures that offers an intimate look at the organizing efforts of Columbia students, including Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested and sent to an ICE facility in Louisiana last month.
Initially, The Encampments—which aims to counter claims that the student resistance at Columbia was antisemitic and violent—was going to be released in the fall, to coincide with the start of the school year. “With the abduction of Mahmoud…they were taking all the lies about the encampments and using it as the foundation for this deportation campaign against students who participated,” Kei Pritsker, a journalist with Breakthrough News and one of the film’s directors, said. So the film was released early.
After a record-setting opening weekend in New York City, The Encampments is now playing at select theaters nationwide. I spoke with Pritsker, who lived at the Columbia encampment while filming, about what the student resistance can teach us about the state of American democracy.
—Alyssa Oursler
Alyssa Oursler: Why do you think the encampments, and the encampment at Columbia specifically, are important for understanding the current political moment, from Trump’s reelection to the detention and possible deportation of graduate students by ICE?
Kei Pritsker: This moment reflects a much deeper trend that was expressed through Palestine, which is that we don’t really have much of a say in this so-called democracy. What are we always told? That this is the most democratic, the freest country in the world. This is a country where the people are in power through their elected representation. I think over the course of the last few years and the last decade, there’s been a slow realization among vast sectors of society that the people, the majority, the working class, the ones who do everything, get none of the say in society. The issue of Palestine is one of the greatest expressions of that. What kind of democracy do you live in if you can’t even tell your politicians that you don’t want to participate in a genocide?
People are afraid of Trump, but this happened under Biden. It was under Biden that every campus in America was turned into a police state. We start the film off with a question. We ask: What was it about a bunch of students camping out on lawns that made all the most powerful institutions and powerful people in the country freak out? It’s the fact that they realized they’re losing the narrative. I see what’s happening under Trump, this attempt to deport the students, as first and foremost an admission that they’ve lost the narrative are resorting to what authoritarian regimes use as tool of last resort: repression, censorship, and violence.
AO: It’s a good point that this issue predates Trump and has been years, if not decades, in the making. The documentary, for instance, cites the historical precedence of campus occupation going back to the ’60s. What has changed since then—and what hasn’t?
KP: What hasn’t changed is that students have always been on the right side of history. We look back on the actions of students and think: “Wow, they were ahead of their time.” Back in those days, the universities fought the students as well—especially Columbia. Columbia, as you see in the film, sent in cops to beat the students who occupied Hamilton Hall in the ’60s during protests against segregation. The students were also disciplined and chastised for protesting South African apartheid. But Columbia looks back on those protests and celebrates them. They talk about the 1968 protests, the 1985 protests, and they say: “Look at Columbia, look at our students, look at how forward-thinking they are, look at how they’re agents of history, agents of change. Come to Columbia, and you can be like them!” But they don’t realize that Palestine is this 21st-century human rights peace movement, and they’re repeating the same mistakes they made during South African apartheid and during Jim Crow.
What has changed is that this new generation is saying something much more fundamental about the society and the system we live in—that it’s fundamentally rigged against the vast majority of people and that the only way to change this is through a complete overhaul of the system. They want to see the whole system changed from bottom to top.
AO: What does institutional complicity at elite institutions like Columbia tell us about the depth and pervasiveness of Israeli influence in the United States and the state of the country more broadly?
KP: The influence of the Israel lobby is really unmatched by any other foreign lobby. You think about the Trump presidency; his campaign was so heavily financed by Israel, receiving $100 million from Miriam Adelson, Steve Witkoff, all these people. The fact that the US government would sooner arrest and tear-gas and handcuff its own students and turn every campus in this country into a police state rather than divest money from companies that are complicit in war crimes tells you everything about who the US ruling elite is loyal to.
AIPAC brags on their website about how they win 95 percent of the elections they intervene in. We saw that on display with the defeats of Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush. They spent the most they’ve ever spent in any congressional campaign cycle on these races, and they claimed responsibility. And now there are all these pro-Israel groups calling for the deportation of students whose only crime is criticizing a country that is committing a genocide.
People have to ask real questions: What does it mean that Israel is our greatest ally? Greatest ally to whom? I would say the answer is that Israel is the greatest ally to the military-industrial complex, to weapons manufacturers, but it’s not an ally to anyone else in the United States. [But also,] the US-Israel relationship and the power of the Israel lobby is symptomatic of something far more fundamental, which is that in the capitalist system the government itself is for sale to the highest bidder.
AO: There is a really powerful scene in the film where Mahmoud Khalil is asked what would happen if he were deported. How pervasive was fear of this type of repression while the encampment was happening a year ago?
KP: There was definitely fear, especially among Palestinian students. But anyone who’s been in the Palestinian movement for a while knows that Palestinian students have been relentlessly targeted for doxing. This is especially problematic because the border controls in occupied Palestine are controlled by Israel. If they’re doxed, they could be prevented from entering their own country. So we knew in the abstract that these images, the footage could be weaponized against them. Did we know it would be like this? Did we know that it would be using AI to comb through and target anyone on student visa who’s here? No. We definitely did not know that. We always knew it was in theory a possibility, but we never anticipated anything like this.
AO: Do you fear retribution from the Trump administration because of the film?
KP: I’m not afraid, no. I understand a lot of people are afraid, and that’s completely understandable. What’s happening now [with deportations] is a new development. But I don’t think anyone ever got involved in the Palestine movement because they thought they’d be more safe or more comfortable. Everyone that got involved, especially these students, did so knowing it would make them less safe, that they might get doxed, they might get harassed, they might face real violence. But they do it anyway because they understand this is a necessity for humanity. What ramifications does this have for the collective soul of this planet if we just watch a genocide happen in front of our eyes?
I would also say: What is history besides a series of tremendous risks and sacrifices? That’s the essence of history: sacrifice. Giving a part of yourself and risking everything to build a better world. Where would we be had people not taken risks, whether Martin Luther King Jr. or Frederick Douglass or any person of consequence? I believe we will look back at this one day—on this moment, on the Palestinian movement—and think: How could we have ever let this go on for so long? How could people have stayed silent for so long? People will look back on the students, on the movement, and think: Those were the real heroes. History will absolve us.
AO: That makes me think of the book titled One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This. The phrase is stuck in my head all the time. Which brings me to my next question. What do you think is the role of art and archival in this struggle?
KP: I think it plays a huge role. The thing we have to understand about war, warmongering, imperialism, and capitalism is that truth is always the first casualty. People know you cannot sell a war, sell a genocide, without a distortion. I’m 28. I’m part of the 9/11 generation. The United States has been at war every year of my life. You think about all these wars—all of them were based on total propaganda. You can’t go to the people with the truth and win them over. They couldn’t say: We want to invade Iraq, destroy its infrastructure, and clear the way for oil companies, energy companies, construction companies, and weapons companies to do whatever they want, to turn Iraq into a playground. We’re going to send a bunch of your kids over there to kill people and die so our people can make money. You can’t go to the American people and say that. You have to say we’re doing this for democracy, for freedom.
Similarly, there are billions and billions of dollars going into propaganda to justify the continued unconditional support of Israel. We don’t have billions of dollars, but we have some cameras. Art is so important because we are constantly fed images and artistic depictions that what the US and Israel are doing over there is heroic and good, when it’s actually imperial plunder. It’s the Palestinians who are marching for peace and protesting to uphold the UN Charter, the South African lawyers going into the ICJ, the students, they’re the heroes.
They’ve been trying to tell us for the last 20-something years that the politicians, the media, the think tanks, these are the people we can trust. A white guy in a suit and tie. What a lot of people are realizing now is that those people are actually the enemy. It’s the suits who are the ones selling us on a total lie—the ones not only selling us on these wars but also blocking social progress here. Part of the artistic undercurrent of the film is to make people evaluate who it is that we should really consider authorities in our society.
AO: Do you think another big wave of activism is brewing?
KP: Yes, absolutely. What the encampments and this latest deportation crackdown have shown is that we have absolutely no say in this system. Even when something is deeply, deeply popular—like a ceasefire in Gaza—even that, to this day, is being ignored. We’ve done peaceful protests, we’ve done civil disobedience, we’ve done social media campaigns, we’ve called our senators, which is what they always say to do. We did that every day, every week, every month, and nothing happened. It’s exposed how fundamentally undemocratic our system is, which is why protest is inevitable. The issue hasn’t been solved at all. This status quo is unsustainable. It’s unconscionable to live in a society where people can just be abducted in broad daylight for protesting a genocide. It’s not a way we can continue to live. It’s a pot that is boiling and is going to blow.
https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/encampments-documentary-kei-pritsker-interview/
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denying the truth is a form of ____ _______
…shortened to shed light on whether or not in Mr Prisker, are we are talking about the left supporting extremism?
good grief
an American socialist, working on a Russian Govt Broadcast , Ignored police orders and was arrested, and wanted students “. “To normalize civil disobedience and push people to take their activism to the next step.” let your eyes decide.
Guess you’ve never heard the term “good trouble?”
Good grief is right.
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Getting yelled at via bullhorn whilst on a college visit versus having family/extended family or friends killed in a bombed apartment building, school, hospital or other “safe zone” and funded with US tax dollars. Not any of whom could possibly be US citizens, eh?
Your opinion on this matter contributes to the quote you find so offensive. “to petition the government for the redress of grievances.” Whatever happened to that?
I know plenty of US citizens, both born in the US and in other countries who have participated in campus protests on behalf of Palestine. Are they all terrorists deserving of deportation? It’s a yes/no question.
Good fucking grief.
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Palestinian American teen fatally shot by Israeli troops in West Bank village
The Israeli military shot three teenage boys in Turmus Ayya on Sunday, the mayor and mourners said, as violent attacks by Israeli settlers and troops in the West Bank continue to surge as part of the backdrop of the Israel-Gaza war.
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Nope. Just the ones at risk for deportation. If you are citizen, then you have more rights. You do not hear too much about peaceful protests in the news and I can assure there were no professors protesting were I was. And yes, I selfishly care about me and my family's experiences here in the US more so than what happens overseas. Two factions fighting over the same piece of land for many many years. The whole thing is stupid and there has never been a good solution.
My son worked his tail off to get to college. He should be able to walk through a quad without being subject to harassment or disorderly conduct. Regardless of your cause.
I’ve disagreed with violent protests since day one. I’ve disagreed with allowing foreigners coming onto our streets and chasing students with large sticks to barricade themselves in a library room. The goalposts are firm.
instead of bringing the Palestinian ways here, why not move there?
perhaps “not many comparables” is very significant?
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
Not many. Maybe folks with mental illness on the subway. I lived in NYC for 17 years. So it was common to see protesters. Photos of dead babies, dead cows, torture, anti-capitalists, and many other causes. Especially in front of the embassies. But no one ever jumped in my face. This was the only time I felt the need to protect my child. And we travel all over the world. Shame that he felt scared on a college campus where I might end up paying 100k per year. Speak your mind the right way or get the fuck out of here.
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Maybe I have maybe I haven't. Certainly not since Roe was overturned. The point is that I am familiar with all of it. But I have never felt more harassed than I did on that campus. Activism can be smart. Being a douchebag is not.
Even if the protests , such as at Columbia, were peaceful, which is a huge if, their self stated purpose was to demonstrate “ full solidarity with Palestinian resistance against Israel.”
How is that not an attempt to effectuate “ serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” That’s the law for this class of foreigners on US soil.
I had assumed these protests were organized by Americans. The fact that they mostly were not, and I needed to learn this fact from the trump administration, is chilling.
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Do you ever respond to questions or content of posts or just make baseless and false accusations?
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Pro-Israel group asks DoJ to investigate Ms Rachel over posts on Gaza children
StopAntisemitism questions if beloved children’s entertainer acted as foreign agent to spread ‘propaganda’
A prominent pro-Israel group that doxes people it deems antisemitic is calling on Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, to investigate whether beloved children’s entertainer Ms Rachel is operating as a foreign agent after sharing sympathetic content about children suffering in Gaza.
In a letter sent on Monday, the group StopAntisemitism formally requested the Department of Justice determine whether Ms Rachel, whose real name is Rachel Griffin Accurso, is “being remunerated to disseminate Hamas-aligned propaganda to her millions of followers”, claiming her social media posts about Palestinian children in anguish could constitute undisclosed work for foreign entities.
“Given the vast sums of foreign funds that have been directed toward propagandizing our young people on college campuses, we suspect there is a similar dynamic in the online influencer space,” StopAntisemitism’s director, Liora Rez, wrote in the letter shared with the New York Post.
Ms Rachel has been described as a modern-day Mister Rogers, and whose Songs for Littles videos have amassed more than 10bn views since she launched her YouTube channel in 2019. The 42-year-old former teacher who lives in New York with her husband, the Broadway music director Aron Accurso, just announced the birth of her second child via surrogate on Tuesday.
StopAntisemitism specifically objects to posts in which Ms Rachel shared widely reported images of malnourished children in Gaza and cited casualty figures from Gaza’s health ministry that align with UN reports. The group claims she has ignored “the suffering of Israeli victims, hostages, and Jewish children”.
When asked for evidence that Ms Rachel received foreign payments rather than simply exercising free speech, Rez told the Post: “It’s not a secret influencers such as Ms Rachel often have paid collaborations on social media ... We could not help but notice post-10/7, Ms Rachel posting a massive barrage of anti-Israel propaganda.”
The group called for an investigation under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (Fara), which requires Americans working on behalf of a foreign government or political entities to register as foreign agents with the US justice department. Hamas, however, is designated by the US as a terrorist organization. Invoking Fara in this case appears legally misplaced, since any support for Hamas would fall under anti-terrorism laws – though such allegations against a children’s entertainer sharing humanitarian concerns appear far-fetched.
The UN has reported that thousands of children have been orphaned or separated from their parents during the 15-month war in Gaza up until the first phase of a ceasefire in January. According to the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs, one-third of the 40,717 Palestinian bodies identified in Gaza – 13,319 – were children.
Unicef estimates that 25,000 children have been injured, while Yasmine Sherif, the executive director of the UN global fund Education Cannot Wait, reports that 650,000 school-age children have not been attending classes and the entire education system requires rebuilding due to widespread destruction.
Still, the StopAntisemitism group takes exception to Ms Rachel’s sharing of viral images, including one of a malnourished child with protruding limbs who became a symbol of Gaza’s humanitarian crisis. StopAntisemitism claimed the images were debunked, asserting the child suffered from cystic fibrosis rather than starvation. However, according to the Washington Post, the child’s mother confirmed he suffered from both conditions.
Ms Rachel did not respond to a request for comment on the allegations, but previously explained that her advocacy began after seeing a video of a traumatized child in Gaza who survived an airstrike. “The look in his eyes has stayed in my mind,” she told the Independent. “No child should experience that kind of fear, shock and terror.”
Last May, Ms Rachel launched a fundraiser through Cameo that raised more than $50,000 for Save the Children’s emergency fund supporting children in conflict zones including Gaza in just a few hours. The effort drew some hateful comments for not specifically including Israeli children, though Save the Children does not currently operate in Israel, a wealthy country.
“I care deeply for all children. Palestinian children, Israeli children, children in the US – Muslim, Jewish, Christian children – all children, in every country,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “To do a fundraiser for children who are currently starving – who have no food or water – who are being killed – is human.”
StopAntisemitism’s targeting of Ms Rachel appears to follow a pattern for the organization, which maintains an “antisemite of the week” feature on its website. The controversial list has included Gaza-based journalist Bisan Owda, the climate activist Greta Thunberg, the rapper Macklemore, and the actor Jesse Williams.
The group, which describes itself as a Jewish civil rights watchdog, identifies and “doxes” pro-Palestinian demonstrators on university campuses and across the country.
The backlash mirrors previous controversies Ms Rachel has faced for taking a stance on more serious topics, including postpartum depression, early childhood education funding and LGBTQ+ issues.
It is unclear whether the Department of Justice will pursue an investigation. StopAntisemitism did not respond to a request for comment.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/09/stop-antisemitism-ms-rachel-doj-investigation
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THE OTHER SIDE OF SIGNALGATE
The Trump Administration’s extraordinary security breach has elicited shock, amusement, and anger. An eyewitness in Yemen describes what happened when the bombs started to fall.
April 8, 2025
On the morning of March 14th, while Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Vice-President J. D. Vance debated a possible U.S. attack on Houthi targets in a now infamous Signal chat, it was afternoon in Yemen, and a five-year-old boy named Hamad was still alive. Hamad had spent the day running around the city with his father, and when night fell he was back home, playing in the yard with his cousins, likely slipping one too many sweets into his mouth.
In a thread called “Houthi PC Small Group,” which included other top national-security officials, Vance seemed concerned about getting dragged into another conflict that was peripheral to American interests. The operation was meant to disrupt the Houthis’ ability to attack commercial ships and American military vessels in the Red Sea, which they had been doing for about a year and a half, in response to Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza. Vance floated the possibility of delaying the strikes so that the Administration could work on the public “messaging.” “I understand your concerns,” Hegseth told him, but messaging would be “tough” no matter the timing. “Nobody knows who the Houthis are,” he explained.
The debate didn’t last long. Within half an hour, Vance was persuaded. The next day, as sunset prayers ended and families broke their Ramadan fast in north Yemen, Hegseth announced to the group in Washington, “Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/ CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch.” Shortly after, a “package” of F-18s was launched, the first of many strikes.
Just before one in the morning, a man whom I’ll call Hassan—he asked that we not use his real name, owing to concerns about his safety—bolted awake to a thunderous sound. His house, in the Qahza area in Saada, was shaking. The windows shattered as he heard another boom, and then another. “The noise of the air strikes were very unlike the Saudi ones, because they were too loud, too big,” he recently told me, referring to regular bombing campaigns that a Saudi Arabia-led coalition has conducted against Houthi strongholds since 2015.
Smoke and dust filled the rooms, and Hassan scrambled to rush his frightened children outside. He split his family into small groups among relatives’ homes and returned to the site of the strike. His neighbor’s two-story house, about a hundred metres from his own, was levelled. The house belonged to Mosfer Roga’ah, Hassan told me—a Bedouin from the country’s northern Kitaf district who had arrived in the neighborhood around six years earlier. Roga’ah had several sons who were married, so the house was often full of women and children, as it had been that night.
Hassan’s brothers were already there, digging through the rubble, searching for the remains of a family. “They were scattered and torn into pieces,” he said. Rescuers recovered mangled bodies. Among them were two faces Hassan recognized well: the five-year-old boy, Hamad, and a three-year-old girl, Dareen, who was rushed to a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital. Hamad was dead.
He “was roasted,” Hassan recalled, adding quietly that it was a “horrifying” sight. He later sent me photos of Dareen that were circulating on social media; she was attached to a breathing tube, her body covered in gauze and her face marbled with burn marks. In the debris, locals found remnants of Tomahawk missiles, which Airwars, a British nonprofit organization that tracks civilian harm in conflict zones, confirmed were the munitions used in the strike.
The controversy that has now been dubbed Signalgate has garnered considerable shock, amusement, and anger, illustrating the ineptitude of the Trump Administration for knowingly discussing war plans over a commercial phone app and for unknowingly inviting a journalistinto the discussion. (The White House has insisted that it did not reveal any “war plans.”) Less has been made of the strikes themselves, which raise their own set of questions, including what the U.S.’s aims are in Yemen, and under what legal authority it is pursuing those aims.
American Presidents have struck Yemen before, often pointing to the Authorization for the Use of Military Force, a joint resolution passed after 9/11, which gave the President the power to attack terrorist targets in foreign countries without a formal “declaration of war.” But Trump hasn’t invoked the A.U.M.F.; instead, he echoed aides who say that it is within the President’s constitutional power to launch attacks for defensive purposes. His predecessors, too, seemed to operate with that license: most recently, the Biden Administration continued to strike Houthi targets, without Congressional approval, even after taking the Houthis off the list of foreign terrorist organizations. “For years, Presidents have been asserting expansive power to use military force, under questionable legal authorities, with relatively little pushback from Congress,” Matt Duss, the executive vice-president at the Center for International Policy, a foreign-policy think tank in Washington, D.C., told me. “That’s extremely dangerous no matter who’s in the White House, but particularly with someone like Trump.”
The Trump Administration’s hostilities in Yemen appear more expansive than past campaigns, directed not just at Houthi weapons sites but also at Houthi leaders in residential areas. Perhaps more alarmingly, Trump hints at long-term engagement. “We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective,” Trump vowed. There remains little clarity on what right the President has to repeatedly strike a foreign country without the approval of Congress.
In addition to this legal debate, Signalgate raises questions about the reliability of American intelligence. According to Yemen’s health ministry, more than fifty people were killed in the strikes, and more than a hundred were wounded. One of the attacks hit a cancer-treatment center that was under construction, according to Houthi authorities. Another, the Roga’ah house.
Mosfer Roga’ah and his four sons were not home when the missiles dropped, Hassan told me. They were at the mosque for taraweeh, special prayers performed late into the night during the holy month of Ramadan. A video shared on Facebook shows them returning to where the house once stood. A few men can be seen helping someone stagger through the glare of headlights toward the wreckage. Seconds later, a loud scream pierces through a din of panicked voices. According to Hassan, that was one of Roga’ah’s sons, Abdullah—the father of Dareen and Hamad.
Eventually, Hassan told me, rescuers who dug through the rubble counted fifteen dead, all women and children. Among them were Risala, age thirteen; Saleh, age nine; Abdullah, age six; Nazam, age six; Abdulkader, age five; Hadi, age three; and Motlak, a newborn baby. The baby’s mother was also killed.
The New Yorker was not able to fully corroborate Hassan’s account, and Saada is nearly impossible for foreign journalists to access at the moment, but news reports and public social-media posts about that night counted civilians among the dead. (Many of the posts were made by people with Houthi affiliations.) Shortly after the strikes began, Trump declared on Truth Social that he had ordered the military “to launch decisive and powerful Military action,” adding that the Houthis “have waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft, and drones.”
Officials in the Trump Administration seemed unfazed by the prospect that civilians might die in the bombardment. “The first target—their top missile guy—we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed,” Michael Waltz, the national-security adviser, wrote on Signal, in an update to the team. “Excellent,” Vance replied. The C.I.A. director, John Ratcliffe: “A good start.” Waltz responded with emojis of a fist bump, an American flag, and fire. (Later, the U.S. Department of Defense said that it “takes allegations of civilian harm seriously and has a process in place to review them.”)
Trump’s White House, like its predecessors, continues to emphasize that the Houthis are supported by Iran. But the group also emerged from local political dynamics. The founders of the Houthi movement belonged to Zaydism, a Shia branch of Islam that ruled northern Yemen for a thousand years before being overthrown in the nineteen-sixties. A couple of decades later, Zaydism was revived as a cultural and political movement by Hussein al-Houthi, in part as a way to challenge Yemen’s central government, which disfavored Zaydis and neglected northern areas, like Saada. After 9/11, the U.S. poured military aid into Yemen as part of its global war on terror, expanding the Yemeni President’s ability to quell Houthi dissent—in turn drawing more support for the movement.
Yemen underwent a significant transformation. The Houthis grew in power and popularity, then launched an insurgency that spiralled into a series of wars with the central government. During the Arab Spring, in 2012, the Yemeni President stepped down; in the years that followed, Houthis stormed the capital. Regional and world powers, concerned that the group would expand, began to bombard and raid the country. The United States backed Saudi-led bombing campaigns, supported a naval and air blockade, and instituted a sanctions regime; together, these measures have further entrenched the Houthis’ hold on power, killed hundreds of thousands of people, and helped to push more than seventeen million into conditions of severe hunger. Today, Yemen remains one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
The U.S. continues to pummel Yemen. Recently, Trump shared a black-and-white video, from an aerial viewpoint, of a bomb landing on a group of about seventy people in a circle, which a Houthi-led news agency later described as a social gathering for Eid. Smoke fills the screen and, within seconds, a crater emerges. “These Houthis gathered for instructions on an attack. Oops, there will be no attack by these Houthis!” the President wrote.
Meanwhile, Roga’ah and his sons are surveying their own catastrophic damage. The fresh graves of their dead wives and children are lined neatly in a row, the result of a strike hastily agreed to over text message thousands of miles away. “They have hearts broken into pieces,” Hassan told me, of Roga’ah and Abdullah. “Every day they are crying, remembering this family that disappeared without any reason.” ♦︎
The Other Side of Signalgate
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/the-other-side-of-signalgate
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I’m a Jewish Israeli in the US standing up for Palestine. By Trump’s logic, I’m a terror supporter
I’ve called the Gaza war a genocide and spoken in favor of sanctions on Israel. I was also in the IDF. I ask the FBI: should you arrest me?
To Kash Patel, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation:
Given recent patterns, the FBI might need to take a hard look at my actions over the years. If Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk, Yunseo Chung, Badar Khan Suri and other recent Ice detainees are considered threats to national security, then so am I.
I have committed the same acts they have committed, including publishing an article that calls the war in Gaza a genocide, participating in a protest against the genocide in Gaza, speaking and protesting in favor of BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions against Israel), participating in a sit-in at UC Davis about 10 years ago, and being vocal in general about the atrocities committed by Israel against the people of Gaza and Palestinians.
Let me tell you a little more about myself and all the additional reasons you might want to investigate and perhaps arrest me. I was born in Israel and became a naturalized US citizen through my American mother. Given the administration’s recent challenges to the 14th amendment, which provides birthright citizenship, you might proceed from detaining legal residents to revoking the rights of naturalized citizens. Like other fascist regimes before you, you’ve been testing how much resistance you face in your effort to turn the United States into a fascist country. You start with the most marginalized, sending incarcerated trans women to men’s prisons, Venezuelans accused of gang affiliation to El Salvador, and detaining Arab and Muslim legal residents. But if the past is any indication, your next target might well be children of undocumented immigrants or naturalized citizens. Of course, as every student of fascism well knows, the ultimate goal is to apprehend all the supposed enemies of this administration, regardless of their legal status.
Furthermore, I must confess to using academic concepts that have come under scrutiny as antisemitic by the Department of Justice taskforce for antisemitism. As a former member of the Israel Defense Forces, I have come a long way. It took me many years of soul-searching to realize that I was complicit in a settler-colonial occupation force and that my best recourse to make amends for that was to be outspoken about my country’s atrocities. As I tried to better understand the terrible tragedy of Zionism – a nationalist ideology that sought to free Jews from oppression only to end up as oppressors in Palestine – I confess to describing concepts such as apartheid, settler colonialism, ethno-nationalism and more. Perhaps even more disturbing from your perspective, I recently employed such concepts as genocide, settler colonialism and ethnic cleansing in a book I wrote about early American history.
I also confess that in the past I have targeted white supremacist allies of this administration in my community of Chico, California. Clearly employing extralegal militias is part of this administration’s fascist playbook, as Trump already proved during the events of 6 January 2021. For instance, when my house was a target of antisemitic leafleting, I sought the help of a colleague and a local investigative journalist to make this very real form of antisemitism known to authorities. In the process the journalist uncovered troubling information that there is an armed white supremacist in our community who holds deep antisemitic convictions and now knows where I work. Had you really been interested in investigating antisemitism, you might have looked into the whereabouts of that individual. But since you want people like him around so that they can be activated when needed, and since all you really want is to cynically weaponize antisemitism, you might want to arrest me instead. After all, according to your standards, I – a Jew targeted by white supremacists – was all along the biggest threat to Jews in my own community.
I have long heard stories about the rise of fascism in Europe from my grandparents, all of whom fled Europe and were refugees from antisemitism. The similarities between the actions of this administration and what my grandparents have lived through are unmistakable. I tell them here so that before you choose to arrest me, you will have one more opportunity to decide whether you will go down in history as aiding and abetting the rise of a fascist regime or as someone who refused to be part of another dark episode in this country’s history. Be forewarned: even if you yourself never directly suffer for your crimes, history will judge you.
My dear grandfather, Otto, may his memory be a blessing, escaped Austria by the skin of his teeth when he was only 13 after the Nazi takeover of the country. Having witnessed the horrors of Kristallnacht in November of 1938 – the night when local mobs violently rioted against Jewish homes, synagogues and businesses across much of Germany and Austria and arrested 30,000 citizens just for being Jewish – his parents made the decision to flee to Shanghai, the only port that would accept them. Clearly, our current president’s rhetoric regarding enemies of the American nation from within and without, against immigrants, trans people and people deemed un-American in their political commitments (like myself), are eerily reminiscent of the stories my grandfather told me about the scapegoating of Jews.
As I consider the memory of dear grandmother Rachel, may her memory be a blessing, who grew up in Poland and survived the Holocaust, including enduring a harrowing year in Auschwitz and the death march to Germany, I cannot shake the sense of another parallel. As Hitler and the Nazi party were consolidating power, they appointed sycophants like yourself and so many others to positions of power in the Nazi administration. The most important criterion for Hitler was not that the people in positions of power were competent or even knowledgeable, but that they would be spineless and loyal to him.
According to the historian Ian Kershaw, this type of leadership, where all bow to the great leader, led to the Holocaust, as the people surrounding Hitler constantly sought to outdo each other in their loyalty to the Führer. Knowing Hitler’s hatred for Jews, they constantly tried to curry favor by suggesting the most radical and far-reaching policy ideas towards Jews. This dynamic, which Kershaw called “working toward the Führer”, ultimately led Hitler and the people surrounding him to decide on the “Final Solution”, the plan to exterminate all the Jews in the world on an industrial scale in death camps. This idea of working toward the leader is upon us today, as we see institutions and even some in the Democratic party bowing before the great leader and his will. Instead of standing up to the administration at every turn, institutions, businesses and politicians across the country prefer to anticipate the administration’s wrath and eliminate any behavior or materials that might come under scrutiny. Meanwhile, Republicans rush to outdo each other in flattering the great leader, as American society seems frozen with fear in face of the rising tides of fascism.
So, Kash Patel, do you want to arrest me and help bring about fascism?
Eran Zelnik grew up in Israel and came to the US 15 years ago to complete his PhD in history. He now lives and teaches in Chico, California
https://apple.news/AJgnd_GQjQSanlAWnxakSyw
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