June, 13 2017, 03:45pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Medea Benjamin, 415-235-6517, medea@codepink.org
Jodie Evans, 310-621-5635, heartofj@gmail.com
CODEPINK Response to Resolution 42 Vote on Saudi Weapons
Today, shamefully, the US Senate voted 53 to 47 to approve the Trump administration's plan to sell precision-guided munitions to the Saudi regime, munitions that will be used to bomb innocent civilians in neighboring Yemen, as the Saudis have been doing for over two years now.
WASHINGTON
Today, shamefully, the US Senate voted 53 to 47 to approve the Trump administration's plan to sell precision-guided munitions to the Saudi regime, munitions that will be used to bomb innocent civilians in neighboring Yemen, as the Saudis have been doing for over two years now.
"Continuing to arm the regime most responsible for the spread of extremism and the regime that is wreaking such devastation on the Yemeni people is unconscionable," said Medea Benjamin, author of the book Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the US-Saudi Connection. "The vote is a mind-bending example of the utter subservience of our elected officials to the military-industrial complex and the lobbyists of the reprehensible Saudi regime."
CODEPINK thanks Senators Murphy, Rand and Franken for sponsoring Resolution 42 and for speaking out forcefully against the weapons sale. We also thank the other Senators who voted for the Resolution, although we had hoped more of them would have come out publicly before the vote, which would have given more momentum for passing the Resolution and allowed us to better target our efforts.
We also thank the many thousands of Americans who emailed, called and visited their Senators urging them to vote yes. It is thanks to their efforts that we achieved this unprecedented level of opposition in the Senate, which will certainly send an important message to the Saudis.
While we are heartened that so many Senators voted against the sale, it is not enough. Every single member of the Senate should have voted for the Resolution. It should have passed by consensus. "For those Senators who voted for the sale, we say: You have the blood of the Yemeni people on your hands," said diplomat and retired Army Colonel Ann Wright. "These weapons will just add to the death, destruction, hunger and cholera that the poor Yemeni people are suffering."
"Voting for the weapons sale, these Senators showed that they value the war profiteers more than lives of Yemenis and more than US national security," said CODEPINK cofounder Jodie Evans. "If they truly cared about national security, would they vote to arm the regime most responsible for the spread of the Wahhabist ideology that forms the underpinnings of terrorist groups from Al Qaeda to ISIS? Would they vote to arm the regime that has funded and supported these terrorist groups?"
CODEPINK will now focus on trying to pass the companion House Resolution 102.
CODEPINK is a women-led grassroots organization working to end U.S. wars and militarism, support peace and human rights initiatives, and redirect our tax dollars into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming programs.
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Report Exposes the Oil Giants 'Fueling Israel's War Machine'
Chevron, Exxon, BP, and other major oil and gas companies own stakes in pipelines that are helping Israel fuel its catastrophic assault on Gaza, new research shows.
Mar 14, 2024
A report published Thursday shows that major fossil fuel companies such as Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, and BP are playing a key role in propelling Israel's devastating military assault on Gaza, facilitating the country's supply of energy that powers Israeli jets and tanks as they bomb and shell civilians.
The new research, conducted by Data Desk and commissioned by the advocacy group Oil Change International, examines the sources of Israeli jet fuel and crude imports in an effort to shine light on the web of countries and corporations implicated in the war on the Gaza Strip.
Israel, which relies heavily on oil imports, has received at least three tankers of jet fuel from the United States since the start of the war, the research shows. A number of countries—including nations whose leaders have criticized the assault on Gaza—have continued supplying Israel with crude oil during its military campaign, which has killed more than 31,000 people in less than six months and sparked a horrific humanitarian crisis.
Israel gets "relatively small but regular shipments of crude oil via the SUMED pipeline," which "receives crude oil from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Iraq, and from Egypt through which the pipeline travels," the report notes.
"Countries and major oil companies fueling Israel's war machine are complicit in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people."
Data Desk's analysis confirms that the diesel and gasoline Israel uses to fuel its tanks and other military vehicles are generated by the country's own refineries, but those facilities rely on imports from Russia, Brazil, Azerbaijan, and elsewhere.
"Major international oil and gas companies complicit in facilitating these supplies of crude oil include: BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil,
Shell, Eni, and TotalEnergies," the report says.
The research points to several specific pipelines that deliver crude to Israel, including Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) and the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC).
BP operates the BTC pipeline and Exxon, TotalEnergies, and other prominent oil companies are shareholders. Chevron owns the largest stake in the CPC pipeline.
🚨 NEW: Our latest analysis tracks the trail of death and destruction along the supply chains that bring fossil fuels to Israel. Read about who is supplying the oil fueling the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.⬇️ #CeasefireNOW #OilFuelsWar 🇵🇸https://t.co/P0Z3yQx3dJ pic.twitter.com/x1vwDFXPzs
— Oil Change International (@PriceofOil) March 14, 2024
Allie Rosenbluth, U.S. program manager at Oil Change International, urged countries to "leverage their oil supply as a means to demand an immediate cease-fire and an end to the occupation."
"Countries and major oil companies fueling Israel's war machine are complicit in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people," said Rosenbluth. "By directly fueling Israel's military, on top of over a hundred other weapons sales, the U.S. in particular must be held accountable for potential violations of international law."
Human rights organizations have been calling for an arms embargo on Israel for months, but less attention has been paid to the country's energy supply.
In late February, a coalition of Palestinian advocacy organizations stressed that "energy supplies are instrumental to Israel's war machine: to operate its army tanks, armored personnel carriers, ships, and military bulldozers, including specialist jet fuel that allows Israeli jets to rain death and destruction down on Gaza."
The groups called on governments around the world to immediately halt all energy exports to Israel and implored workers and activists to do everything in their power to "disrupt the flow of energy making Israel's genocide possible."
Mahmoud Nawajaa, general coordinator of the Palestinian BDS National Committee, said in response to the new report Thursday that "states and companies that continue to provide Israel with fuel for its military forces are directly complicit in supporting its ongoing genocide."
"The BDS movement, which is already targeting Chevron with a growing global boycott and divestment campaign, will expose and target the complicit states and corporations mentioned in this valuable report," Nawajaa added.
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Progressives Condemn On-Air CNN Pundit's 'Disgusting Racism' Against Ilhan Omar
One progressive lawmaker described CNN contributor Scott Jennings' comments as "reminiscent of the anti-Muslim bigotry we saw in the George Bush post-9/11 era."
Mar 14, 2024
Progressive lawmakers, advocacy groups, and commentators rushed to the defense of Rep. Ilhan Omar on Wednesday after a CNN pundit called her a "public relations agent for Hamas" during a primetime segment earlier this week.
Scott Jennings, a conservative who has contributed to CNN since 2017 and also writes for the Los Angeles Times, made the remark in response to an interview in which Omar (D-Minn.) questioned whether Israel and the Biden administration are doing everything in their power to achieve a negotiated end to the war on Gaza, which is now in its sixth month.
Omar pointed to reports that Israel declined to send negotiators to Egypt after receiving a proposal from Hamas that it deemed unacceptable. The Minnesota Democrat also accused Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden's national security adviser, of "not sharing the full picture" when he provided an update on the status of cease-fire talks earlier this week.
"You can certainly have certain demands that you want, and we obviously want the hostages released to return to their families or American hostages that are included. There is an infant that is included in those hostages," said Omar. "And so it is important that we do everything that we can, but we can't be dishonest to the point where we are saying that everybody is doing everything that they can to be at the table to negotiate a cease-fire that can lead to a permanent solution."
Jennings said during Tuesday's segment that he is "surprised that in a year of our Lord 2024, there is a public relations agent for Hamas sitting in United States Congress." Jennings added that he didn't "hear a word" of concern about the hostages still being held by militants in Gaza—even though Omar explicitly said she supports their release.
Omar, who has received death threats for criticizing Israel's war on Gaza, has said repeatedly that she wants the release of all hostages and condemned the October 7 Hamas-led attack as "horrific" and "senseless violence."
CNN pundit calls Democratic Rep. @IlhanMN a “public relations agent for Hamas” with no push back.
Islamophobia is not only normalized in American politics, it’s rewarded. pic.twitter.com/aoe8qIIhNf
— Jeremy Slevin (@jeremyslevin) March 13, 2024
Jennings received no pushback from his fellow CNN panelists. Observers noted that CNNfired contributor Marc Lamont Hill over a speech in which he demanded an end to Israel's longstanding oppression of Palestinians.
"Scott Jennings is reverting to one of the oldest Islamophobic tropes in the book, which is to allege that Muslim Americans are secretly terrorist sympathizers. People have been fired from CNN for much less," said Waleed Shahid, a Democratic strategist and former spokesperson for Justice Democrats, an advocacy group that also spoke out against Jennings' comments.
"Disgusting Islamophobic and racist comments with no correction or condemnation from CNN," the group wrote on social media. "CNN should be issuing an apology to [Omar] and Scott Jennings shouldn't have a job. The normalization of Islamophobia like this on CNN is what leads to anti-Muslim hate crimes."
Mehdi Hasan, a former MSNBC host and editor-in-chief of the media company Zeteo, joined the chorus denouncing Jennings' remarks, which he described as "disgusting racism and Islamophobia."
Jennings is hardly a fringe character in conservative politics: He worked in George W. Bush's White House and on the 2002 reelection campaign of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), a leading cease-fire supporter and Omar ally in Congress, described Jennings' comments as "reminiscent of the anti-Muslim bigotry we saw in the George Bush post-9/11 era."
"It is disgusting and must not be normalized," Bush wrote. " CNN should denounce this hateful, dangerous, and blatant Islamophobia immediately."
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) asked, "How on earth is this kind of blatant Islamophobia so casually accepted without pushback?"
"This is shocking," she added.
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UN Staffer Among Dozens Killed, Injured by Israeli Attack on Rafah Food Center
"The United Nations, its personnel, premises, and assets must be protected at all times," stressed the head of UNRWA—which says that 400 Palestinian aid-seekers have been killed since last month's Flour Massacre.
Mar 13, 2024
At least five people including a United Nations humanitarian worker were killed and more than 20 others wounded Wednesday by an Israeli attack on a Rafah food distribution center serving starving Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), told the BBC that as many as 60 people were working at the warehouse for food and other essential humanitarian supplies when it was bombed by Israeli forces.
"Today's attack on one of the very few remaining UNRWA distribution centers in the Gaza Strip comes as food supplies are running out, hunger is widespread and, in some areas, turning into famine," UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement. "Every day, we share the coordinates of all our facilities across the Gaza Strip with parties to the conflict. The Israeli Army received the coordinates including of this facility yesterday."
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said the "precise strike" targeted and killed an alleged Hamas commander, Mohammed Abu Hasna, whose name was on a list of victims provided by Gaza officials.
UNRWA noted that it has recorded "an unprecedented number of violations against its staff and facilities" by Israeli forces "that surpasses any other conflict around the world."
According to the agency:
- At least 165 UNRWA team members have been killed, including while in the line of duty, since October 7;
- More than 150 UNRWA facilities have been attacked by the IDF, with some totally destroyed;
- More than 400 people have been killed while seeking shelter under the U.N. flag;
- Tunnels have reportedly been found under UNRWA facilities and installations used for IDF military activities; and
- UNRWA staff have reportedly been mistreated and humiliated while in Israeli detention centers.
UNRWA says its workers have been beaten and waterboarded by Israeli troops in an attempt to force them to make false confessions about their participation or complicity in the October 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel.
"The United Nations, its personnel, premises, and assets must be protected at all times," Lazzarini stressed. "Since this war began, attacks against U.N. facilities, convoys, and personnel have become commonplace in blatant disregard to international humanitarian law."
Israeli officials have claimed with little evidence that a handful of UNRWA's more than 30,000 employees were involved in the October 7 attacks, allegations that prompted nations including the United States to cut off funding for the agency. In what Lazzarini admitted was an act of "reverse due process," UNRWA fired nine staffers that Israel linked to October 7 without any evidence of their involvement.
Countries including Canada and Sweden have since reinstated funding for UNRWA, which Lazzarini said "is facing a deliberate and concerted campaign to undermine its operations" providing shelter, aid, and other lifesaving services to Gazans facing not only Israeli bombs and bullets but also a genocidal siege and blockade that are starving Palestinians to death.
Including people missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of bombed-out buildings, more than 111,500 Palestinians have been killed or wounded in Gaza, according to local health officials and international agencies and aid groups, who say that most of those slain have been women and children.
Gaza officials say more than 400 Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid have been killed and over 1,300 others injured by Israeli forces since the February 29 "Flour Massacre," in which IDF troops shot and shelled starving Gazans waiting for food aid. The attack—which Israel tried to blame on a "stampede"—killed at least 118 people and wounded upward of 760 others.
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