September, 28 2010, 09:51am EDT
Rights Groups Welcome Human Rights Council Report on the Israeli Attack on Flotilla to Gaza and its Finding that On-Going Blockade of Gaza is Illegal, Denounce U.S. Response to Report
HRC Report Says That Gaza Blockade Was Imposed to “Punish” People of Gaza for Hamas Election
NEW YORK
Discussions at the Human Rights Council (HRC) continued today following the
release of a report of the fact-finding mission that investigated the May 31,
2010 Israeli attacks on the flotilla of ships travelling to Gaza, in which it
found that Israel violated international law in attacking the flotilla and by maintaining
a blockade of Gaza. Nine people were killed during the Israeli attack on the
flotilla in international waters. The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR),
the Free Gaza Movement (FGM), an
organizer of the flotilla, and the National Lawyers Guild (NLG)
responded to the report and the comments made by the United States at the
Council today.
Today, at the HRC, the
United States criticized what it termed as the report's "unbalanced language,
tone and conclusions." Rather than
acknowledging the harm to the "peace process" that comes from the on-going
blockade of Gaza and the building of settlements on occupied Palestinian
territory, the U.S. urged that the report not be used to "disrupt" direct talks
between Israel and the Palestinians.
"Unfortunately, the United States
used the opportunity of the HRC's discussion on the flotilla fact-finding
mission's report to promote its political agenda instead of engaging on the
issue of legal accountability for Israel's illegal blockade of Gaza and the
unlawful attack on the Gaza flotilla," said CCR attorney Katherine Gallagher. "The U.S. must recognize that there can be no peace without
justice, and that until it supports accountability for violations of
international law - even when violations committed by Israel - instead of a
culture of impunity, it lacks the legitimacy necessary to serve as a broker of
peace."
"It has always been
the position of the Free Gaza Movement that when governments fail to act, it is
up to civil society to stand against injustice," said Audrey Bomse, Legal
Coordinator of the Free Gaza Movement. "The Fact-Finding Mission rejected
the notion that such intervention by civil society is meddlesome and called for
space for both humanitarian intervention to alleviate the crisis in Gaza, and political action
to address the causes creating the crisis. The Second Freedom Flotilla now
being organized, like the one so brutally attacked by Israel, will aim to do both. We
will continue sailing until the illegal siege of 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza is ended."
Among its findings, the
report stated that "one of the principal motives behind the imposition of the
blockade was a desire to punish the people of the Gaza Strip for having elected
Hamas [and there is] no doubt that Israel's actions and policies amount to
collective punishment as defined by international law."
The report also found:
That the flotilla
presented no imminent threat but the Israeli attack was based in concerns
regarding a "possible propaganda victory" of the flotilla organizers;That "the Israeli interception of the flotilla was
unlawful," and "the use of force by the Israeli forces in seizing control of
the...vessels was also prima facie unlawful";
That "much of the force used by the Israeli
soldiers...was unnecessary, disproportionate, excessive and inappropriate and
resulted in the wholly avoidable killing and maiming of a large number of
civilian passengers";
That based in forensic evidence, at least six of the
killings [including U.S.
citizen Furkhan Dogan] can be characterized as "extra-legal, arbitrary and
summary executions";
That "the conduct of the Israeli military and other
personnel towards the flotilla passengers was not only disproportionate to the
occasion but demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary and incredible
violence. It betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality"; and
That Israel's
confiscation of "a large amount of video and photographic footage...by
passengers, including many professional journalists... represents a deliberate
attempt by the Israeli authorities to suppress or destroy evidence and other
information" related to the flotilla attack.
"As a retired US Army Reserve Colonel and a former US diplomat, and as a
passenger on the Gaza flotilla, I am grateful that the UN Human Rights Council
commissioned an investigation into the Israeli military attack on the six
unarmed, civilian ships that formed the 'Gaza flotilla,'" said Ann Wright, one of two US diplomats who were passengers on the Gaza flotilla.
"Despite the passengers' notification to their respective diplomatic
representatives of criminal incidents that took place on the ships, including
murder, shootings, assaults, kidnapping on the high seas and theft of personal
property, the lack of required accountability by the Israeli government
pertaining to these crimes is outrageous. The lack of investigation on the part
of the U.S. government of the death of an American citizen and the assaults on
other American citizens by the Israeli military is a total renunciation of the
responsibilities of my government toward its citizens."
Sixteen U.S. citizens were part of the
flotilla, five of whom were on the U.S.-registered vessel Challenger I and one of whom was killed on the Mavi Marmara. U.S. citizens were injured, and their property,
including computers, video and photographic equipment which contain potential
evidence for investigations, was seized and appropriated by Israel and has not
been returned.
Marjorie Cohn, immediate past president of the NLG, said, "Israel could not maintain its illegal occupation
of the Palestinian territories without the support of the United States. Three weeks after
the flotilla attack, 329 out of 435 members of the House of Representatives and
87 out of 100 senators wrote letters to President Obama supporting what they
called Israel's right to 'self-defense.'
The Human Rights Council report says unequivocally that Israel had no
need to 'defend' against the flotilla because it posed no imminent threat and
that Israel's actions were illegal."
The Free Gaza Movement is a
human rights group that in August 2008 sent the first international boats to
land in the port of Gaza in 41 years. FGM seeks to break the
siege of Gaza, to raise international awareness
about the prison-like closure of the Gaza Strip and pressure the international
community to review its sanctions policy and end its support for continued
Israeli occupation.
The National Lawyers
Guild, founded in 1937, is the
oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United
States. It is a member of the International Association of Democratic lawyers,
headquartered in New York with chapters throughout the United States.
The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to
advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States
Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by
attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a
non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of
law as a positive force for social change.
For more information on
CCR's response to the attack on the flotilla and the blockade of Gaza, go to: https://www.ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/gaza-freedom-flotilla.
The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. CCR is committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.
(212) 614-6464LATEST NEWS
ICE Goons Pepper Spray Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva During Tucson Raid
"If federal agents are brazen enough to fire pellets directly at a member of Congress, imagine how they behave when encountering defenseless members of our community," Grijalva said.
Dec 05, 2025
In what Arizona's attorney general slammed as an "unacceptable and outrageous" act of "unchecked aggression," a federal immigration officer fired pepper spray toward recently sworn-in Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva during a Friday raid on a Tucson restaurant.
Grijalva (D-Ariz.) wrote on social media that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers "just conducted a raid by Taco Giro in Tucson—a small mom-and-pop restaurant that has served our community for years."
"When I presented myself as a member of Congress asking for more information, I was pushed aside and pepper sprayed," she added.
Grijalva said in a video uploaded to the post that she was "sprayed in the face by a very aggressive agent, pushed around by others, when I literally was not being aggressive, I was asking for clarification, which is my right as a member of Congress."
The video shows Grijalva among a group of protesters who verbally confronted federal agents over the raid. Following an order to "clear," an agent is seen firing what appears to be a pepper ball at the ground very near the congresswoman's feet. Video footage also shows agents deploying gas against the crowd.
"They're targeting small mom-and-pop businesses that don't have the financial resources to fight back," Grijalva told reporters after the incident. "They're targeting small businesses and people that are helping in our communities in order to try to fill the quota that [President Donald] Trump has given them."
Mocking the incident on social media, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin contended that Grijalva "wasn’t pepper sprayed."
"She was in the vicinity of someone who *was* pepper sprayed as they were obstructing and assaulting law enforcement," she added. "In fact, two law enforcement officers were seriously injured by this mob that [Grijalva] joined."
McLaughlin provided no further details regarding the nature of those injuries.
Democrats in Arizona and beyond condemned Friday's incident, with US Sen. Ruben Gallego writing on social media that Grijalva "was doing her job, standing up for her community."
"Pepper spraying a sitting member of Congress is disgraceful, unacceptable, and absolutely not what we voted for," he added. "Period."
Democratic Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said on social media: "This is unacceptable and outrageous. Enforcing the rule of law does not mean pepper spraying a member of Congress for simply asking questions. Effective law enforcement requires restraint and accountability, not unchecked aggression."
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) also weighed in on social media, calling the incident "outrageous."
"Rep. Grijalva was completely within her rights to stand up for her constituents," she added. "ICE is completely lawless."
Friday's incident follows federal agents' violent removal of Sen. Alexa Padilla (D-Calif.) from a June press conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Congresswoman LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) was federally indicted in June for allegedly “forcibly impeding and interfering with federal officers" during an oversight visit at a privately operated migrant detention center in Newark, New Jersey and subsequent confrontation with ICE agents outside of the lockup in which US Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez, both New Jersey Democrats, were also involved.
Violent assaults by federal agents on suspected undocumented immigrants—including US citizens—protesters, journalists, and others are a regular occurrence amid the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign.
"If federal agents are brazen enough to fire pellets directly at a member of Congress, imagine how they behave when encountering defenseless members of our community," Grijalva said late Friday on social media. "It’s time for Congress to rein in this rogue agency NOW."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Gavin Newsom Wants a 'Big Tent Party,' But Opposes Wealth Tax Supported by Large Majority of Americans
"A wealth tax is a big tent policy unless the only people you care about are billionaires," said one progressive organizer.
Dec 05, 2025
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, considered by some to be the frontrunner to be the next Democratic presidential nominee, said during a panel on Wednesday that he wants his party to be a “big tent” that welcomes large numbers of people into the fold. But he’s “adamantly against” one of the most popular proposals Democrats have to offer: a wealth tax.
In October, progressive economists Emmanuel Saez and Robert Reich joined forces with one of California's most powerful unions, the Service Employees International Union's (SEIU) United Healthcare Workers West, to propose that California put the nation’s first-ever wealth tax on the ballot in November 2026.
They described the measure as an "emergency billionaires tax" aimed at recouping the tens of billions of dollars that will be stripped from California's 15 million Medicaid recipients over the next five years, after Republicans enacted historic cuts to the program in July with President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which dramatically reduced taxes for the wealthiest Americans.
Among those beneficiaries were the approximately 200 billionaires living in California, whose average annual income, Saez pointed out, has risen by 7.5% per year, compared with 1.5% for median-income residents.
Under the proposal, they would pay a one-time 5% tax on their total net worth, which is estimated to raise $100 billion. The vast majority of the funds, about 90%, would be used to restore Medicaid funding, while the rest would go towards funding K-12 education, which the GOP has also slashed.
The proposal in California has strong support from unions and healthcare groups. But Newsom has called it “bad policy” and “another attempt to grab money for special purposes.”
Meanwhile, several of his longtime consultants, including Dan Newman and Brian Brokaw, have launched a campaign alongside “business and tech leaders” to kill the measure, which they’ve dubbed “Stop the Squeeze." They've issued familiar warnings that pinching the wealthy too hard will drive them from the state, along with the critical tax base they provide.
At Wednesday's New York Times DealBook Summit, Andrew Ross Sorkin asked Newsom about his opposition to the wealth tax idea, comparing it to a proposal by recent New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who pledged to increase the income taxes of New Yorkers who earn more than $1 million per year by 2% in order to fund his city-wide free buses, universal childcare, and city-owned grocery store programs.
Mamdani's proposal was met with a litany of similar warnings from Big Apple bigwigs who threatened to flee the city and others around the country who said they'd never move in.
But as Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein explained in October for the American Prospect: "The evidence for this is thin: mostly memes shared by tech and finance people... Research shows that the truth of the matter is closer to the opposite. Wealthy individuals and their income move at lower rates than other income brackets, even in response to an increase of personal income tax." Many of those who sulked about Mamdani's victory have notably begun making amends with the incoming mayor.
Moreover, the comparison between Mamdani's plan and the one proposed in California is faulty to begin with. As Harold Meyerson explained, also for the Prospect: "It is a one-time-only tax, to be levied exclusively on billionaires’ current (i.e., 2025) net worth. Even if they move to Tasmania, they will still be liable for 5% of this year’s net worth."
"Crucially, the tax won’t crimp the fortunes of any billionaire who moves into the state next year or any later year, as it only applies to the billionaires living in the state this year," he added. "Therefore... the horrific specter of billionaire flight can’t be levied against the California proposal."
Nevertheless, Sorkin framed Newsom as being in an existential battle of ideas with Mamdani, asking how the two could both represent the Democratic Party when they are so "diametrically opposed."
"Well, I want to be a big-tent party," Newsom replied. "It's about addition, not subtraction."
Pushed on the question of whether there should be a "unifying theory of the case," Newsom responded that “we all want to be protected, we all want to be respected, we all want to be connected to something bigger than ourselves. We have fundamental values that I think define our party, about social justice, economic justice.”
"We have pre-distribution Democrats, and we have re-distribution Democrats," he continued. "Therein lies the dialectic and therein lies the debate."
Polling is scarce so far on the likelihood of such a measure passing in California. But nationally, polls suggest that the vast majority of Democrats fall on the "re-distribution" side of Newsom's "dialectic." In fact, the majority of all Americans do, regardless of party affiliation.
Last year, Inequality.org examined 55 national and state polls about a number of different taxation policies and found:
A billionaire income tax garnered the most support across party identification. On average, two out of three (67%) of Americans supported the tax including 84% of Democrats, 64% of Independents, and 51% of Republicans.
In national polls, a wealth tax had similarly high levels of support. More than three out of five Americans supported the tax including 78% of Democrats, 62% of Independents, and 51% of Republicans.
That sentiment only seems to have grown since the return of President Donald Trump. An Economist/YouGov poll released in early November found that 72% of Americans said that taxes on billionaires should be raised—including 95% of Democrats, 75% of independents, and 48% of Republicans. Across the board, just 15% said they should not be raised.
Support remains high when the proposal is more specific as well. On the eve of Mamdani's election, despitre months of fearmongering, 64% of New Yorkers said they backed his proposal, including a slight plurality of self-identified conservatives, according to a Siena College poll.
Many observers were perplexed by how Newsom proposes to maintain a “big tent” while opposing policies supported by most of the people inside it.
"A wealth tax is a big tent policy unless the only people you care about are billionaires," wrote Jonathan Cohn, the political director for Progressive Mass, a grassroots organization in Massachusetts, on social media.
"Gavin Newsom—estimated net worth between $20 and $30 million—says he's opposed to a billionaire wealth tax. Color me shocked," wrote the Columbia University lecturer Anthony Zenkus. "Democrats holding him up as a potential savior for 2028 is a clear example of not reading the room."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Case That Could Bless Trump's Bid to End Birthright Citizenship
"That the Supreme Court is actually entertaining Trump’s unconstitutional attack on birthright citizenship is the clearest example yet that the Roberts Court is broken beyond repair," said one critic.
Dec 05, 2025
The United States Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide whether US President Donald Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship—as guaranteed under the 14th Amendment for more than 150 years—is constitutional.
Next spring, the justices will hear oral arguments in Trump's appeal of a lower court ruling that struck down parts of an executive order—titled Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship—signed on the first day of the president's second term. Under the directive, which has not taken effect due to legal challenges, people born in the United States would not be automatically entitled to US citizenship if their parents are in the country temporarily or without legal authorization.
Enacted in 1868, the 14th Amendment affirms that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside."
While the Trump administration argues that the 14th Amendment was adopted to grant US citizenship to freed slaves, not travelers or undocumented immigrants, two key Supreme Court cases have affirmed birthright citizenship under the Constitution—United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) and Afroyim v. Rusk (1967).
Here is the question presented. It's a relatively clean vehicle for the Supreme Court to finally decide whether it is lawful for the president to deny birthright citizenship to the children of immigrants. www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25...
[image or embed]
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjsdc.bsky.social) December 5, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Several district court judges have issued universal preliminary injunctions to block Trump's order. However, the Supreme Court's right-wing supermajority found in June that “universal injunctions likely exceed the equitable authority that Congress has given to federal courts."
In July, a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit unanimously ruled that executive order is an unconstitutional violation of the plain language of the 14th Amendment. In total, four federal courts and two appellate courts have blocked Trump's order.
“No president can change the 14th Amendment’s fundamental promise of citizenship,” Cecillia Wang, national legal director at the ACLU—which is leading the nationwide class action challenge to Trump's order—said in a statement Friday. “We look forward to putting this issue to rest once and for all in the Supreme Court this term.”
Brett Edkins, managing director of policy and political affairs at the advocacy group Stand Up America, was among those who suggested that the high court justices should have refused to hear the case given the long-settled precedent regarding the 14th Amendment.
“This case is a right-wing fantasy, full stop. That the Supreme Court is actually entertaining Trump’s unconstitutional attack on birthright citizenship is the clearest example yet that the Roberts Court is broken beyond repair," Edkins continued, referring to Chief Justice John Roberts.
"Even if the court ultimately rules against Trump, in a laughable display of its supposed independence, the fact that fringe attacks on our most basic rights as citizens are being seriously considered is outrageous and alarming," he added.
Aarti Kohli, executive director of the Asian Law Caucus, said that “it’s deeply troubling that we must waste precious judicial resources relitigating what has been settled constitutional law for over a century," adding that "every federal judge who has considered this executive order has found it unconstitutional."
Tianna Mays, legal director for Democracy Defenders Fund, asserted, “The attack on the fundamental right of birthright citizenship is an attack on the 14th Amendment and our Constitution."
"We are confident the court will affirm this basic right, which has stood for over a century," Mays added. "Millions of families across the country deserve and require that clarity and stability.”
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular