They Walk Among Us: Mississippi Goddamn, Still
As the dystopian movie Civil War sets records depicting the "colorful horrors of the American future" on its current trajectory, we saw the same mindless, time-honored rancor play out at "Ole Miss being Ole Miss," where a pack of rabid, jeering, shit-for-brains frat bros with white-supremely punchable faces set upon a black female student protesting genocide in Gaza. On foul display: That "Southern Heritage we’re always Jim Crowing about," and, without change, the next generation of GOP goons and bigots.
Robert Reich recently posted a message of hope to his students, graduating at a "tremulous" time in a world beset by racism, genocide, climate change, culture wars, rising authoritarianism. Like many of us, Reich also entered adulthood at a bitter time, in 1968, amidst war, assassinations, cities burning. "I ask my students to hold on," he writes. "To use their lives and careers to make America better. To try to heal the world." It's a tough ask in a fractious time, now grimly depicted in Alex Garland's Civil War about a nihilistic America "at war with itself." What one critic calls "a cautionary tale about America’s inevitable self-destruction," it offers a harrowing look at "the horrors that lie ahead for a great country on the rocks - and what America has done to itself already," with its "motiveless carnage," tarnished ideals, president "who has raped the U.S. Constitution," and beleaguered free press, including "an aging survivor of what’s left of the New York Times," "trying to record what they witness in the line of fire (as) the rest of us die." Its bleak message: "If things continue in the (current) political direction, no one will be safe from annihilation in the next decade."
In real life, America's political landscape takes it down a notch or so, but still leans dark. A GOP-controlled House big on "pointless gestures and posturing" just plumbed new McCarthyist depths by passing a bill that conflates anti-Zionism with antisemitism, "an insult (to) historical memory erasing decades of Jewish anti-Zionist politics"; its crypto-fascist "leader" Mike Johnson plans hearings on anti-genocide college protests to "look at the root causes funded by, I don’t know, George Soros or overseas entities." A corrupt, far-right judicial system now includes in its plutocratic ranks not just Alito, Thomas et al but Trump fangirl Aileen 'What Classified Documents?' Cannon, who claims her newly exposed omission of fat-cat-funded vacations was "completely inadvertent." Thanks to such chicanery - and despite efforts to protect election integrity and its stewards - a new survey shows over half of all election officials fear for their safety, from harassment to assault, and for their ability to do their jobs without political meddling. And the "petty little shit-stain" who so helped shred our democratic norms is still free (for now), and jabbering.
Of course, the "whining train-wreck" now seething through his sordid criminal trial - as Stormy Daniels say she was "ashamed" of their (ewww) sexual encounter - still pursues his rampage back to power. Last weekend, free from the legal strictures he gripes keep him from campaigning, he again fled to his tacky golf club to beg rich people for more money to keep him out of jail; with no low, he even scrounched for $9,000 in gag order fines. At a $40,000-a-plate bash, he groused about taking selfies with small donors who don't deserve them, called Biden "the Gestapo" and Jack Smith "a fucking asshole," deemed 40% of Americans moochers who "get welfare to vote and then they cheat," and paraded his trashy VP hopefuls like a motel pageant of Miss Florida also-rans: Doug Burgum - "He's a very rich man"; Kristi Noem, now urging Biden's dog Commander be added to the kill list - "Somebody that I love"; Byron Donalds - "Somebody who's created something very special, donors worth millions of dollars...I like diversity. Diversité, as you would say." And sniveling lapdog Tim Scott, in limbo with no word from on high even as he faithfully declinessix times to say he'll accept the 2024 election results.
Sigh. With such civic and moral mentors, thus do we get the savage, racist, redneck frat boys at Ole Miss who somehow never learned - so much for teach your children well - it is not acceptable, when witnessing a group of righteous fellow students acting in conscience to protest the slaughter of many thousands of innocents in Gaza, to single out a black woman and leer, jeer, boo, screech, give her multiple fingers, jump up and down making grotesque faces and grunting monkey noises, clutch their crotches, throw food and cups of water, chant "We Want Trump!" "Fuck Joe Biden!" and shriek, "Who’s your daddy?,” "Take a shower," "Lizzo, Lizzo!", "Fuck you fat-ass!" "Your nose is huge!" "Shave your legs!" "Fuck you fat bitch!" and "Lock her up!" The woman, identified as graduate student Jaylin Smith, kept filming as the idiot yahoos, safely surrounded by hundreds of barbarian peers, some in stars-and-stripes overalls, feverishly bounced around her. Reports said they outnumbered by about 10-to-1 the roughly 30, diverse students with UMiss for Palestine, who calmly carried Palestinian flags and signs: "Free Palestine," "Stop the Genocide” and “U.S. Bombs Take Palestine Lives.”
Many of the yokels - one sage: "A thousand faces of 'peaked in high school'...The end product of a failed state" - reportedly had no idea what the protest was about. Said one, "I don't know what they’re doing here. I just want them gone." See the ever-prescient William Faulkner: "The past is never dead. It's not even past." For many, the ugly spectacle summoned "the ghosts of UM's past" at a school nicknamed for a plantation term, that long called its sports teams the Rebels and its mascot Colonel Reb, still has only 11% black students in a state nearly 40% black, and remains famous for the 1962 riots that followed the admission, a full eight years after Brown v. Board of Education banning segregation, of 29-year-old veteran James Meredith, the school's first African-American student, whose arrival on the Oxford campus was accompanied by 1,400 US Marshalls and federal troops and who later said of the experience, "I considered myself engaged in a war from Day One." In 1964, Nina Simone released her searing song, Mississippi Goddamn: "Hound dogs on my trail/school children sittin' in jail/thinkin' every day's gonna be my last/I don't belong here, I don't belong there."
Nina Simone: Mississippi Goddamwww.youtube.com
After video of the douchebag behavior toward a lone black woman by a horde of hooting good ole boys was met with outrage, UM Chancellor Glenn Boyce faintly acknowledged the school’s "challenging" history, noting, "Incidents like this can set us back." Citing "offensive and inappropriate" statements and "actions that conveyed hostility and racist overtones," Boyce said the school would "investigate" the conduct of at least one student and "determine whether more cases are warranted." "Behaviors and comments that demean people because of their race or ethnicity...undermine the values that are fundamental to a civil and safe society," he said in a statement. "People who say horrible things to people because of who they are will not find shelter or comfort on this campus." Still, it remains to be seen if so-called adults who likewise say horrible things - like Mississippi's Gov. Tate Reeves, who posted video with, "Warms my heart," and Georgia Rep. and "racist POS" Mike Collins, who captioned the repulsive scene "Ole Miss taking care of business" - will also be held accountable. (His Congressional office number is 202-225-4101. Just sayin'.)
A ghastly piece of work who's suggested murdering migrants by throwing them Pinochet-style from helicopters and introduced a bill to ban federal "zealots" from removing Greg Abbott's deadly razor buoys from the Rio Grande, Collins later backtracked, slightly. He bombastically noted there "seems to be some potentially inappropriate behavior that none of us should seek to glorify” and suggested if someone "is found" to be a racist POS "they should be punished (and) will hopefully seek forgiveness" before doubling back down on "pro-Hamas, anti-American, Antifa anarchists" who "run roughshod" over nice rebels "there to learn and enjoy college." Meanwhile, UM's NAACP chapter swiftly condemned counter-protesters' "reprehensible actions," identified the monkey asshole as James "JP" Staples from Phi Delta Theta, and called for his expulsion along with that of Connor Moore and Rouse Davis Boyce from Kappa Alpha Order as the "primary perpetrators." The next day, Phi Delta Theta removed Staples for behavior that was "offensive, outside the bounds of this discourse, and contradictory to our values." The school has yet to take any further action.
But Toby Morton has. A writer for South Park and MadTV, Morton is also the "immature and irresponsible" creator of a series of Fascist Websites paying tribute, thanks to idiotically unregistered domain names, to the vile likes of Greg Abbott - "People die on his watch" - Elise Stefanik - "Let's keep it white" - DeFascist 24 - "I've always strived to promote a safe and welcoming space for every white nationalist in Florida and beyond" - and Tennessee's Cameron Sexton: "You racist? I got your back." Now, he has a campaign website for J.P. Staples - "Racially driven experience in hate" - starting with a Hitler quote, "The first million was the hardest." "I've been carrying this burden for far too long, and I can't hold it in any longer," it reads. "I hate so much it consumes me...I hate the way black people look at me, the way they talk, the way they exist...Here I am, confessing my deepest, darkest secret. I'm a scared little bitch. I fear those who are superior to me. I fear people will see who I truly am - a piece of shit. Thankfully, I represent many Americans and how we think." And there are testimonials! Kristi Noem: "Does he have a dog?" MTG: "Welcome to the GOP."
Staples has scrubbed his social media accounts, forgetting the Internet is forever, but sleuths were quickly on it. From a Texas MAGA family whose father is a repeat DWI offender, "Monkey Boy" evidently "hates all races but his own." His posts are both racist and anti-Semitic, raging at "cock-sucking Jews" who after a week removed from streaming a movie he wanted to watch and idly wondering "if Jews use the term 'baby in the oven'" for someone pregnant. Observers mused on his future job prospects: Hero good ole boy a la Kyle Rittenhouse, or landscaping assistant, Trump advisor, guy "asking people if they want fries with their order for the rest of his life?" Many see him as "a sterling (result) of spectacularly bad parenting - mini-racists pop out." "You're looking at the next generation of racists," said one, who included girlfriends "cheering (them) on - the Klan rode up to the meeting, but the wives sewed the capes and hoods." They deem him "the true face of Mississippi," of "the Republican Party and how they behave when nobody's looking" - or even when we are - and of the ghosts of America's racist past: Still and all, "They walk among us."
Extreme Flooding Creates Nearly Quarter-Million New East African Climate Refugees
The United Nations migration agency warned Wednesday that extreme flooding caused by weeks of torrential rain has triggered widespread displacement in half a dozen East African countries, with hundreds of thousands of people affected and more than 200,000 displaced over the past five days alone.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that more than 637,000 people in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Tanzania have been affected and at least 234,000 people have been displaced as "torrential rains have unleashed a catastrophic series of events, including flooding, mudslides, and severe damage to vital infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and dams."
"These disasters have not only claimed numerous lives but have also escalated the suffering of the affected populations and heightened the risk of waterborne diseases," IOM added.
At least 238 people have died in Kenya alone, with many more injured. Kenyan President William Ruto has declared a day of mourning on Friday.
"No corner of our country has been spared from this havoc," Ruto said in a May 3 address to his nation. "Sadly, we have not seen the last of this perilous period as this situation is expected to escalate."
While Africa is responsible for less than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions—the lowest share on the planet—the continent is suffering disproportionately during the worsening planetary emergency, with 17 of the 20 countries most threatened by global heating located on the continent of nearly 1.5 billion people.
East Africa and the Horn of Africa are particularly affected. Yet fossil fuel projects including the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP)—which, if completed, will transport up to 230,000 barrels a day of crude oil nearly 900 miles from fields in the Lake Albert region of western Uganda to the Tanzanian port city of Tanga on the Indian Ocean—continue apace.
Meanwhile, activists who oppose projects like EACOP face persecution and even arrest.
"The unprecedented and devastating flooding has unveiled the harsh realities of climate change, claiming lives and displacing communities," IOM East and Horn of Africa Regional Director Rana Jaber said in a statement. "As these individuals face the daunting task of rebuilding, their vulnerability only deepens."
"In this critical moment even as IOM responds, the call remains urgent for sustainable efforts to address human mobility spurred by a changing climate," Jaber added.
UN Tax Convention Presents Historic 'Opportunity to Create Well-Being for All'
Tax justice advocates this week are expressing hope that delegates at a United Nations summit aimed at drafting an international tax convention will take the "once-in-a-century opportunity," as one campaigner and researcher said, to place the common good at the center of the global tax system instead of individual and corporate greed.
Representatives of U.N. member states are meeting for the Ad Hoc Committee to Draft Terms of Reference for a United Nations Framework on International Tax Cooperation, following decades of campaigning by countries in the Global South.
"It's happening," said Rebecca Riddell, policy lead for Oxfam America. "The start of historic negotiations for a fairer global tax system. We're here because of the leadership of African countries. Because of the 125 states that voted yes. And because of tireless civil society efforts."
The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution last November calling for the meeting, with the committee required to submit "terms of reference to the General Assembly by August and a final vote on a tax convention framework expected by the end of 2025.
At the Tax Justice Network (TJN), Sergio Chaparro-Hernandez wrote last week that the negotiations are taking place with an "unprecedented level of transparency," with civil society groups able to account for the positions adopted by each state.
Another "noteworthy development" as the meeting gets underway, said Chaparro-Hernandez, is that "several of the 48 countries that had voted against Resolution 78/230 last year are now actively participating in the process."
"The European Union, for example, which voted as a bloc against the resolution last year, accepted the path set out by the resolution by stating in its initial statement at the organizational session that, 'the UN framework convention on tax cooperation can and should serve to further promote tax transparency and fair taxation,'" he added.
Along with TJN, other civil society groups including the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR), Eurodad, and Greenpeace are participating in the committee meeting and lobbying for a far-reaching convention framework that will "redefine the pillars of the international tax system and to make it fully inclusive, just, and effective."
"At the U.N., low- and middle-income countries are in the majority, and they want a fair system where their voices are heard," said Maria Ron Balsera, a researcher at CESR.
Under current global tax rules, the wealthiest individuals and corporations pocket $480 billion each year through the use of tax havens and other forms of tax evasion, said Greenpeace on Tuesday, "most countries just can't cover people's basic needs, nor meet their climate and biodiversity targets and commitments."
"The U.N. Tax Convention is a historical opportunity to create well-being for all, by moving decision-making power from a few rich [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] countries to the U.N. where every country has a vote," said the group.
Chenai Mukumba, executive director of Tax Justice Network Africa, spoke to attendees of the committee meeting about prioritizing mechanisms to crack down on tax evasion.
"While we flag the importance of this work to developing countries, we cannot overemphasize that inclusive and effective tax cooperation is important that has benefits for our global community," said Mukumba. "The international community as a whole is better off when we have more countries that have resources and capacity to provide their citizens with essential services."
On Monday, Greenpeace Africa's pan-African political strategist Fred Njehu wrote to Ramy Mohamed Youssef, chair of the U.N. Tax Convention Committee, and addressed him not only as an advocate but as "a dad, a concerned citizen, and a taxpayer."
Changing global tax rules and ensuring the wealthy pay their fair share, said Njehu would unlock "the money for everyone’s basic needs and the recovery of climate and nature."
"We both know that this is mostly because multinational corporations have been exploiting the majority of the world for way too long, and governments in some rich countries have facilitated it," said Njehu. "They're making billions on the destruction of the world and our suffering. And then, they hide their profits in tax havens. A downward spiral where wealth and power have become so concentrated as to threaten democracy, civilization, and the living world we're part of."
"Mr. Youssef, you have a big responsibility and a unique opportunity to turn things around this year," he added. "Civil society, academics, and countries that represent 80% of the world’s population are backing you and your colleagues at the U.N. Tax Convention Committee to change the global tax rules, which are critical for how the global economy works... Now we need equality, transparency and accountability. Polluters must pay and the wealthy must be taxed fairly."
UK Voters Send 'Shout' for Change to Tories as Labour Sweeps in Local Elections
Nearly two weeks after the British Conservative Party pushed through a proposal to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda in what one lawyer called "performative cruelty" in the name of winning the general election expected later this year, the local election results announced throughout the day Friday made increasingly clear the ploy hadn't worked.
Elections expert John Curtice projected the Tories could ultimately lose up to 500 local council seats as vote counting continues into the weekend, following elections in which voters cast ballots for 2,661 seats.
The Conservatives have lost around half of the seats they are defending Curtice told BBC Radio.
"We are probably looking at certainly one of the worst, if not the worst, Conservative performances in local government elections for the last 40 years," the polling expert said.
Curtice added that if the results were replicated in a general election, Labour would likely win 34% of the vote, with the Tories winning 25%—five years after the right-wing party won in a landslide in the last nationwide contest.
Labour leader Keir Starmer said the results represented a decisive call for "change" from British voters, particularly applauding the results of a special election in Blackpool South, where Labour candidate Chris Webb won nearly 11,000 votes while Conservative David Jones came in a distant second with just over 3,200.
Webb's victory represented a 26% swing in favor of Labour.
"That's the fifth swing of over 20% to the Labour party in by elections in recent months and years. It is a fantastic result, a really first class result," Starmer said. "And here in Blackpool, a message has been sent directly to the prime minister, because this was a parliamentary vote, to say we're fed up with your decline, your chaos... your division and we want change. We want to go forward with Labour."
"That wasn't just a little message," he added. "That wasn't just a murmur. That was a shout from Blackpool. We want to change. And Blackpool speaks for the whole country in saying we've had enough now, after 14 years of failure, 14 years of decline."
The Conservatives also lost ground in the northern town of Hartlepool, where they lost six council seats. The region swung toward the Tories after the party led the push for Brexit, the U.K.'s exit from the European Union.
A similar result was recorded in York and North Yorkshire, which includes the area Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak represented as a member of Parliament.
"Yorkshire voted for Brexit in 2016," wrote William Booth, London bureau chief for The Washington Post. "But long gone are the days when many Conservatives want to stand before the voters and extol the advantages of leaving the European Union, which has been, in most sectors, a flop."
Sunak, added Booth, is "betting that immigration is still an issue with resonance and has promised to 'stop the boats,' the daily spectacle of desperate migrants risking their lives on rubber rafts trying to cross the English Channel. Sunak's government plans to fly asylum seekers arriving by boat to Rwanda. No flights have taken off yet. But the Home Office last week began a self-proclaimed 'large scale' operation to detain asylum seekers destined for removal."
The Labour Party has called Sunak's Rwanda plan a "gimmick" and said it would reverse a Tory policy blocking refugees from applying for asylum.
Average wages in the U.K. last year were "back at the level during the 2008 financial crisis, after taking account of inflation," according toThe Guardian.
"This 15 years of lost wage growth is estimated by the Resolution Foundation thinktank to have cost the average work £10,700 ($13,426) a year," reported the newspaper in March. "The performance has been ranked as the worst period for pay growth since the Napoleonic wars ended in 1815."
Analysts noted one setback for Labour in Oldham, where the party lost some seats in areas with large numbers of Muslim voters to independent candidates, costing it overall control of the council.
Arooj Shah, the Labour leader of the Oldham Council, told the BBC that the party's support for Israel in its bombardment of Gaza was behind its losses.
"Gaza is clearly an issue for anyone with an ounce of humanity in them, but we've asked for an immediate cease-fire right from the start," said Shah. "We have a rise of independents because people think mainstream parties aren't the answer."
The losses "should be a wake-up call for the Starmer leadership: Every vote must be earned," said the socialist and anti-racist group Momentum. "That means calling for an immediate arms ban to Israel, calling out Israeli war crimes, and delivering real leadership on climate."
NYC Driver Rams Into Anti-Genocide Protest, Hospitalizes One
One pro-Palestinian protester was hospitalized on Tuesday after a pro-Israel driver "intentionally drove" into a group of picketers outside the home of one of Columbia University's trustees on New York City's Upper East Side, as demonstrations against Israel's bombardment of Gaza continued.
According to Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), the protesters "were attacked on the crosswalk" by an "Upper East Side Zionist."
CUAD reported that the man drove up to the demonstrators, who have been calling on Columbia to divest from companies that contract with Israel and for the U.S. government to stop supporting the Israel Defense Forces, and asked for a flyer before grabbing a protester by the arm.
He then "circled the block to drive into our peaceful demonstration," striking one person who was "arrested and handcuffed to the bed while in the hospital," said CUAD.
The New York Police Department
toldUSA Today that an argument broke out between the driver and the protesters and that "as the group of roughly 25 demonstrators walked away, a driver hit one person with his Volvo."
CUAD noted that the alleged attack took place as U.S. politicians including President Joe Biden have condemned the campus protest movement, with at least one lawmaker
applauding abusive behavior by anti-Palestinian counter-protesters and New York City Council member Vickie Paladino (R-19) saying last week that the student movement is being led by "monsters, and it's now our job to slay them."
Paladino's "call for vigilante justice was almost fulfilled today," said CUAD.
USA Today also reported that at a separate protest on the Upper West Side near the apartment building of the co-chair of Columbia's board of trustees, "a woman punched a demonstrator in the face, seemingly at random."
In Los Angeles last week, city police stood by while a mob of pro-Israel counter-protesters
attacked nonviolent students who had set up an encampment in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel has killed at least 34,789 and on Monday invaded Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians have been forcibly displaced.
On Tuesday, in honor of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Annual Days of Remembrance, Biden gave a speech on antisemitism, conflating protests in support of Palestinian rights with the hatred of Jewish people.
CUAD and independent reporter Talia Jane said the driver is a relative of the late Meir Kahane, an American-born Israeli far-right extremist.
The driver's "actions today model a trend in which Zionists weaponize their discomfort over political slogans as an excuse to assault Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Black, brown, and dissident Jewish protesters in violent retaliation for imagined threats," said CUAD. "Just as white supremacists ran over a protester in Charlottesville, Zionists on the streets and in police precincts have declared open season on young people fighting for Palestinian liberation."
'Indomitable' Gaza Journalist Bisan Owda Awarded Peabody for War Coverage
"It's Bisan from Gaza and I'm still alive."
The line has become familiar to social media users and viewers of the Al Jazeera Media Network's show of the same name, hosted by Palestinian journalist and activist Bisan Owda. On Thursday the show was lauded by the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors as it awarded Owda one of journalism's highest honors.
"Despite a lack of clean water and the increasing scarcity of food, she draws on her indomitable spirit to keep the world informed," said the board. "For showing bravery and persistence in the midst of imminent danger, and for carrying a heavy journalistic burden as the entire world looks on, It's Bisan from Gaza and I'm Still Alive is honored with a Peabody Award."
Since Owda first broadcast from her bombarded home of Gaza in early November, less than a month into the Israeli onslaught that has now killed at least 34,904 Palestinians, she has given viewers a glimpse into how civilians across the enclave are impacted by air and ground attacks.
Her first broadcast—opening with the words: "Good morning, everyone. This is Bisan from Gaza. I'm smiling because I'm alive"—documented the makeshift tent encampment Owda was living in at Al-Shifa Hospital, after fleeing her home in Beit Hanoun with her family.
Since then Owda has interviewed her neighbors and documented the spread of disease at overcrowded shelters; the plight of families forced to leave northern Gaza due to Israel's total blockade on aid, pushing them toward starvation; and her family's experience marking Ramadan "in the rubble" left by relentless Israeli airstrikes.
On Thursday, Save the Children International featured Owda's reporting on Israel's takeover of the Rafah crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border as it invaded the city of Rafah this week.
"No people can evacuate to a safe place, no humanitarian aid trucks entering," she said in the video. "Now I am in the middle of Rafah, and these people behind me are trying to gather their stuff. Their mattresses, some food. And they're taking now their stuff again to be displaced again after living [here] for months."
The situation in #Gaza is devastating.
The takeover by Israeli forces of the #Rafah crossing means no aid can enter.
Due to the rise in violence & evacuation orders, families are fleeing again, despite there being nowhere safe to go.
Bisan reports from Rafah👇#CeasefireNOW pic.twitter.com/5vISDNweOl
— Save the Children International (@save_children) May 9, 2024
Accepting the Peabody, Owda said she and other journalists in Gaza "rise simply to document the genocide happening to our people."
"The victory of the Palestinian cause was never just for Palestinians," she said. "It is rather a victory for humanity."
She dedicated the award to people around the world who are helping to defeat "one of the [Israeli] occupation's strongest tools": dividing people "so we can never support one another."
"I dedicate this award to all the college students who are protesting," she said. "To all the people who took to the streets. To all the people at home who are participating in boycotts. To all the people worldwide, regardless of their religion, color, and ethnicity. Regardless of what makes them different, they're united in one mission: in their demands for a free Palestine. You deserve this award. And so do we."
Bisan Owda has just won one of broadcast journalism’s highest honors – the Peabody Award – for her work with AJ+.
Bisan is currently facing intense Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the occupied Gaza Strip. This is her message to the world: pic.twitter.com/rFTV7jjBIN
— AJ+ (@ajplus) May 9, 2024
"And one day, this genocide will end," she continued. "And Palestine will be free. And we will welcome you here on Gazan soil. All of you... Thank you so much for this award and for always supporting us, standing by us, and for continuing to do so until we reach our demands: an end to the genocide, a cease-fire, and a free Palestine."
Tony Karon, editorial lead at AJ+, which has collaborated with Owda since Israel's onslaught began, applauded Owda's "heroic storytelling."
"We strive to tell the human story from where the missiles land, to elevate the human spirit and the hope that it brings for better days, to shine a light on places and stories those in power would rather keep shrouded in darkness," he said.
Zahira Jaher, a professor at University of Sussex in the U.K., said Owda and other journalists in Gaza "are rewriting how reporting is done... She is the future of Palestine."
The award was announced days after the Pulitzer Prize Board awarded a "special citation" for all journalists covering Israel's attack on Gaza—without giving recognition to those who are reporting from the frontlines, more than 100 of whom have been killed by Israeli forces.
"No one deserves this award more than Bisan, who is risking her life to ensure that the world bears witness to Israel's atrocities," said writer and foreign policy analyst Tariq Kenney-Shawa. "But no award will bring back the over 100 Palestinian journalists Israel has killed over the last seven months."
'Watershed Moment': Anti-Apartheid Conference on Palestine Kicks Off in South Africa
South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said the movement to end Israeli apartheid is "following in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela" and "will not rest until the freedom of the peoples of Palestine is realized."
As Israeli forces continued their devastating assault on the Gaza Strip and deadly occupation of the West Bank, human rights defenders from around the world gathered Friday in South Africa—which is leading a genocide case against Israel at the World Court—for the inaugural Global Anti-Apartheid Conference on Palestine.
The conference began with a moment of silence for the nearly 35,000 Palestinians—most of them women and children—killed by Israeli troops during the 217-day war and "complete siege," which has also wounded more than 78,000 people, displaced around 90% of the strip's population, and starved at least hundreds of thousands of others—dozens of whom have died.
Meanwhile, Israel's illegal occupation and settler colonization have intensified in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where soldiers and settlers have killed at least 467 Palestinians and wounded or arrested thousands of others—some of whom were tortured—over the past seven months.
"This conference must make sure that we mobilize the world... and free the people of Palestine," Rev. Frank Chikane of the African National Congress (ANC) and World Council of Churches said at the start of the symposium.
Thanking Chikane for "spearheading" conference organizing efforts, South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor hailed the "watershed moment" of "anti-apartheid movements on Palestine from around the globe coming together and joining forces in the struggle for justice for the Palestinian people."
"It has never been so urgent for the progressive forces around the globe to come together in a collective effort to exert maximum pressure to end the genocidal campaign underway in Gaza, and to end the apartheid system in Israel and the occupied territories, which is worse than what we experienced in our own country," she asserted, echoing past remarks by other South Africans and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
Pandor highlighted South Africa's December
filing of a genocide case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, a move supported by over 30 countries and regional blocs and hundreds of advocacy groups. In January, the ICJ found that Israel is "plausibly" committing genocide in Gaza and ordered its government to prevent future genocidal acts—an order human rights monitors say Israel has ignored, largely by blocking humanitarian aid. In March, the ICJ ordered Israel to allow more aid into Gaza.
"We will continue to do everything within our power to preserve the existence of the Palestinian people as a group, to end all acts of apartheid and genocide against the Palestinian people, and to walk with them towards the realization of their collective right to self-determination," Pandor said. "We continue to do so following in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela and will not rest until the freedom of the peoples of Palestine is realized."
Ronnie Kasrils—a communist who went from being a guerrilla fighter in the ANC's armed wing during the apartheid era to a government minister in a free South Africa—warned against compromising in the fight for freedom. He also reaffirmed Palestinians' legal right to "armed struggle, an international right of resistance against tyranny, against military occupation."
Anti-Apartheid stalwart Ronnie Kasrils gives a passionate address at the Global Anti-Apartheid Conference On Palestine. #PalestineAfrica2024 pic.twitter.com/32i6KQfA85
— Salaamedia (@salaamedia) May 10, 2024
"There is no need to pussyfoot around the fact when we have our discussions about the rights of the Palestinians to resist with arms," Kasrils stressed.
Palestinian lawmaker, physician, and activist Mustafa Barghouti said that "we've woken the people of the world against genocide and injustice... and hypocrisy of international governments."
"Israel initiated this war but Israel will not be the one who decides how it ends," he added.
Lamis Deek, a New York-based attorney specializing in international human rights, called for "liberation of all the land from institutions of Zionist violence and supremacy, return, reparations, justice and accountability for every Zionist crime, and restitution."
"The Palestinian resistance is on the frontline against global descent into darkness and barbarism" @Lamis_Deek speaks powerfully about what it we means when we speak about Palestinian liberation. At The Global Anti Apartheid Conference on Palestine#PalestineAfrica pic.twitter.com/2eKGrS2EZ6
— CAGE International (@CAGEintl) May 10, 2024
Declan Kearney, a member of Northern Ireland's Legislative Assembly and national chairman of the Irish republican and democratic socialist party Sinn Féin, noted that "Palestinian and Irish freedom fighters share a special bond. Our commitment is absolute and unbreakable."
The Republic of Ireland said in March that it would intervene in the South African ICJ case and the country—along with fellow European Union members Spain, Slovenia, and Malta—is set later this month to join the nearly 140 nations that recognize Palestinian statehood.
The United Nations General Assembly voted 143-9 on Friday to approve Palestine's bid for full U.N. membership. The United States—Israel's leading international backer—and Israel voted against the proposal, which will head to the U.N. Security Council and an almost certain U.S. veto.
Kearney echoed other speakers who stressed the importance of international solidarity, applauding the "unprecedented" global outpouring of support for Palestine.
"We are with the Palestinian people on their long walk to freedom and will never abandon them," he vowed.
While many Israelis and their backers bristle at the apartheid label, Palestinians and individuals ranging from Carter to the late South African bishop and human rights campaigner Desmond Tutu to United Nations special rapporteurs have for decades called Israel's policies and actions in Palestine apartheid.
Major human rights organizations—including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the Israeli groups B'Tselem and Yesh Din—have also done so. So have prominent Israelis including a former Mossad chief, multiple former attorneys general and ambassadors, and a growing number of journalists, artists, veterans, and others.
Former Officials Say US Arms Transfers to Israel Unlawful
Despite documented abuses, said one former State Department staffer, the weapons "are just continuing to flow."
Ahead of the release of a much-anticipated report on how U.S. weapons have been used by Israel in its ongoing military assault on Gaza, former State Department officials came forward early Friday to contend that sales to the Israeli regime have clearly violated "legal limits."
Speaking to the Washington Post, Josh Paul, who worked on arm transfer policies before becoming the most senior U.S. official in the State Department to resign over the war in Gaza, explained that in addition to international laws that Israel may be breaking in Gaza, the U.S. has violated its own binding mechanisms for how weapons sold to other nations are deployed.
"Just from a legal perspective within U.S. domestic law," said Paul, "there's a much wider body of rules that is being ignored right now" by the Biden administration. "The arms are just continuing to flow."
Axiosreports that the anticipated report by the State Department—known as the NSM-20 (or National Security Memomardum 20)—may be made public as early as Friday, though the government has already been harshly criticized by human rights groups for delaying its release beyond a May 8 deadline.
"The Biden administration had months to put together a report on information they should already be collecting—whether grave human rights violations and other serious violations of international law are being committed using U.S.-provided weapons in seven conflicts around the world," said Amanda Klasing, national director for government relations at Amnesty International USA, after the deadline came and went on Wednesday.
Charles Blaha, who from 2016 to 2023 worked as Director of the State Department’s Office of Security and Human Rights, told the Post that documented evidence, as well as common sense, reveals that the massive amount of U.S. arms sold to the Israelis both before and during the last seven months of fighting in Gaza have been used in gross human rights violations.
"When you look at those collapsed buildings where people are trapped underneath, the odds are that that death and destruction is being caused by a United States-supplied weapon," explained Blaha, who co-authored an independent analysis last month exploring possible NSM-20 violations.
According to that April analysis:
The final report features sixteen clear, credible, and compelling incidents that should certainly be included in the administration’s upcoming reporting to Congress as well as an 18-page appendix of additional incidents worthy of examination. It also identifies multiple restrictions on humanitarian assistance, including strikes by the IDF, that trigger Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act (which bars military assistance to states impeding U.S. humanitarian aid) and should be reportable to Congress by the Departments of State and/or Defense under the terms of NSM-20.
Our findings were striking. Though Israel has attributed the 34,000 Palestinian casualties, 70 percent of whom are women and children, to alleged human shielding by Hamas, we found that in 11 out of the 16 incidents we analyzed, Israel did not even publicly identity a military target or attempt to justify the strike. Of the remaining five incidents, Israel publicly named targets with verification in two incidents, but no precautionary warning was given and we assess the anticipated civilian harm was known and excessive.
According to Axios' reporting, the NSM-20 report—which will be officially submitted to Congress for review by Secretary of State Antony Blinken upon its release—will be "highly critical report about Israel's conduct in Gaza" but stop short of "concluding it has violated the terms for its use of U.S. weapons."
Citing people with internal knowledge of the behind-the-scenes discussion at the State Department, Axios reports the existence of an internal "tug-of-war" in which "the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, and USAID recommended Blinken conclude that Israel has violated the terms of the national security memorandum, but other parts of the department pressed Blinken to certify that it didn't."
In response to the reporting, Alexander Langlois, a contributing fellow at Defense Priorities, said the Biden administration hopes to have it both ways.
"As expected, the Biden admin is going to attempt (and likely fail) at threading a needle on the NSM-20 report, reported to be released today," said Langlois. "Anyone with eyes can see what is happening here. This is a political decision and not one based on facts."
UNRWA's East Jerusalem HQ Closed After Arson by Mob of Israeli Extremists
"This is an outrageous development," said the head of the Palestinian refugee agency. "Once again, the lives of U.N. staff were at serious risk."
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said Thursday that it was forced to shutter its headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem after a mob of Israeli extremists set fire to the perimeter of the facility, causing significant damage and endangering staffers inside the building.
Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said late Thursday that the fire was the latest escalation by Israeli extremists who have been protesting outside the UNRWA compound for months, ginned up by the Israeli government's unsubstantiated claims about the agency staffers' ties to terrorist groups.
An independent probe released last month concluded that Israel "has yet to provide supporting evidence" that "a significant number of UNRWA employees are members of terrorist organizations."
In his statement Thursday, Lazzarini said U.N. staffers have "regularly been subjected to harassment and intimidation" and that the East Jerusalem compound "has been seriously vandalized and damaged."
"This is an outrageous development. Once again, the lives of U.N. staff were at serious risk," said Lazzarini. "In light of this second appalling incident in less than a week, I have taken the decision to close down our compound until proper security is restored."
This evening, Israeli residents set fire twice to the perimeter of the UNRWA Headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem.
This took place while UNRWA and other UN Agencies’ staff were on the compound.
While there were no casualties among our staff, the fire caused extensive damage… pic.twitter.com/ZqHFDNkiWC
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) May 9, 2024
Attacks on the agency's East Jerusalem headquarters began in February after Arieh King, the far-right deputy mayor of Jerusalem, called on the Netanyahu government to kick the UNRWA "out of Israel and specifically from Jerusalem."
Lazzarini said that demonstrations "became violent" this week when Israeli protesters "threw stones at U.N. staff and at the buildings of the compound."
"On several occasions, Israeli extremists threatened our staff with guns," said Lazzarini. "It is the responsibility of the state of Israel as an occupying power to ensure that United Nations personnel and facilities are protected at all times."
"I call on all those who have influence to put an end to these attacks and hold all those responsible accountable," he continued. "The perpetrators of these attacks must be investigated and those responsible must be held accountable. Anything less will set a new dangerous standard."
Espen Barth Eide, Norway's foreign affairs minister, said Friday that he was "shocked" by the attacks on UNRWA's East Jerusalem headquarters and echoed Lazzarini's call for an investigation.
"As host country, Israel has a duty to protect U.N. personnel and premises at any time. The incidents must be investigated, those responsible must be held accountable. UNRWA is the lifeline for millions of Palestine refugees."
"Forced displacement and military operations in Rafah are worsening an already catastrophic situation. We need a cease-fire now."
Norway was among the nations that did not suspend funding for UNRWA as the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and other Western countries cut off donations to the agency earlier this year following Israel's baseless allegations against the body's employees. UNRWA's chief has accused the Netanyahu government of launching a "concerted campaign" to destroy the agency.
The U.S., historically UNRWA's largest donor, has yet to resume funding for the agency, which is the primary relief organization operating in the Gaza Strip. Legislation that President Joe Biden signed into law last month prohibits U.S. government funding for UNRWA until at least March 2025.
The latest attack on UNRWA's East Jerusalem headquarters came as the agency worked to aid displaced Palestinians in Rafah, the overcrowded city in southern Gaza that Israeli ground forces invaded earlier this week, worsening an already grave humanitarian disaster.
UNRWA wrote in a social media post Friday that it has been forced to close 10 of its 34 medical points in Rafah amid the Israeli military's attack on the city.
"Forced displacement and military operations in Rafah are worsening an already catastrophic situation," the agency said. "We need a cease-fire now."