February, 12 2019, 11:00pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Medea Benjamin | CODEPINK co-founder | medea.benjamin@gmail.com | 415 235 6517
Ariel Gold | CODEPINK national co-director | ariel@codepink.org | 510 599 5330
Activists Arrested During Elliot Abrams Testimony in Congressional Hearing on Venezuela
A group of CODEPINK activists, Ariel Gold, Caroline Debnam and Kei Pritsker, protested today during testimony by U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela Elliot Abrams at the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. The group spoke out against the US-orchestrated coup underway currently in Venezuela, against Elliot Abrams as a witness at the hearhing, and against the possibility of war and US military intervention.
WASHINGTON
A group of CODEPINK activists, Ariel Gold, Caroline Debnam and Kei Pritsker, protested today during testimony by U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela Elliot Abrams at the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. The group spoke out against the US-orchestrated coup underway currently in Venezuela, against Elliot Abrams as a witness at the hearhing, and against the possibility of war and US military intervention.
CODEPINK national co-director Ariel Gold was the first to get arrested. Standing on a chair in the hearing room, she stated to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, "Don't listen to Abrams. We must not go down a path to war. We need you to push for negotiations, not a US-orchestrated coup. No coup in Venezuela."
Caroline Debnam said after her arrested, "Setting up a parallel government with Juan Guaido is illegal, irresponsible and sets Venezuela on a path toward civil war. Instead of exacerbating the tensions, the US should be supporting with efforts of Mexico, Venezuela and the Vatican to mediate the crisis."
Kei Pritsker said, "Look at the history of Eliot Abrams throughout Central America and the Middle East, creating wars, chaos and mayhem on behalf of US corporations. He should be tried for war crimes, not testifying in the US Congress."
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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"Israel has continued to restrict the entry of aid and impose its suffocating cruel blockade," said Amnesty International's secretary general.
Jul 03, 2025
Human rights organization Amnesty International has released a horrifying new report alleging that the Israeli government is still deliberately allowing civilians in Gaza to starve as a "weapon of war."
In its report released on Thursday, Amnesty cites "heartbreaking testimonies gathered from medical staff, parents of children hospitalized for malnutrition, and displaced Palestinians struggling to survive" to document "acute levels of starvation and desperation in Gaza."
The report pins the primary blame for this situation on Israel's insistence on running what Amnesty describes as a "militarized" system for delivering humanitarian aid via the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that has resulted in hundreds of Palestinians being killed and thousands more being injured by Israeli forces who have opened fire on civilians seeking food in multiple instances.
Amnesty charges that the Israeli government has barred the United Nations and other international humanitarian assistance organizations from operating inside Gaza and has transformed the process of receiving aid into a "booby trap" for civilians who risk getting shot while standing in line for food. Compounding the problem, writes Amnesty, is that Israel is delivering a level of aid that is "way below the humanitarian needs of a population that has been experiencing almost daily bombings for the last 20 months."
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"As the occupying power, Israel has a legal obligation to ensure Palestinians in Gaza have access to food, medicine and other supplies essential for their survival," said Agnès Callamard, the secretary general of Amnesty International. "Instead, it has brazenly defied binding orders issued by the International Court of Justice in January, March and May 2024, to allow the unimpeded flow of aid to Gaza. Israel has continued to restrict the entry of aid and impose its suffocating cruel blockade and even a full siege lasting nearly eighty days."
Amnesty released its report hours after the Associated Press reported that two American contractors who are helping to distribute aid in Gaza are alleging that Israeli forces have been deploying "live ammunition and stun grenades" on unarmed civilians seeking food. In one instance, a contractor alleged he saw members of Israeli forces firing bullets in "all directions—in the air, into the ground, and at times toward the Palestinians."
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The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday indicted a longtime immigrant rights defender who allegedly distributed items including face shields and bottles of water to demonstrators during a downtown Los Angeles protest last month against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.
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Orellana was arrested during a June 12 raid by FBI agents backed by National Guard troops and county law enforcement on his family home in East L.A. According to Los Angeles Public Press, federal agents executed a search warrant two weeks later against fellow activist Verita Topete, seizing her phone and leaving her bruised.
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If fully convicted, Orellana—a U.S. Marine Corps veteran with no criminal record—could face up to five years behind bars.
Orellana and Topete are members of Centro CSO, a Chicano-led civil rights group that is no stranger to state surveillance and repression. Founded in 1947 by Fred Ross, Antonio Rios, and Edward Roybal—who was later elected to the Los Angeles City Council and then the U.S. House of Representatives—the group was originally known as Community Service Organization (CSO).
Notable CSO members have included César Chávez and Dolores Huerta of United Farm Workers, both of whom were targeted for FBI surveillance under longtime Director J. Edgar Hoover's COINTELPRO program.
Centro CSO was born out of CSO in the 2000s to "fight against the war in Iraq, and military recruiters, and also the fight for public education," longtime member Carlos Montes told Los Angeles Public Press. Another Centro CSO member, Sammy Carrera, told the outlet that the arrest of Orellana and seizure of Topete's phone are a continuation of state suppression of CSO.
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International law experts are describing Israel's Monday attack on a Gaza café as a potential war crime after an investigation in The Guardian revealed that the attack was carried out using a 500-lb bomb supplied by the U.S. government.
Reporters photographed fragments of the bomb left behind in the wreckage of the al-Baqa Café. Weapons experts identified them as parts of an MK-82 general purpose bomb, which it called "a US-made staple of many bombing campaigns in recent decades."
The attack killed anywhere from 24 to 36 Palestinians and injured dozens more. Casualties included women, children, and the elderly. A prominent photojournalist and artist were also killed.
Experts have called the use of such a weapon on an area full of civilians wildly disproportionate and a likely violation of the Geneva Convention, which outlaws military operations that cause "incidental loss of civilian life" that is "excessive or disproportionate" to the military advantage to be gained.
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According to reporting Thursday from Al Jazeera, these have included attacks on "shelters and displacement centers overcrowded with tens of thousands of displaced people, public rest areas, Palestinian families inside their homes, popular markets and vital civilian facilities, and starving civilians searching for food."
At least 33 people were killed Thursday at a Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF) aid distribution site, adding to the hundreds of aid seekers who have been killed in recent weeks. In a Haaretz investigation last week, soldiers described these aid sites, administered by the U.S. and Israel, as a "killing field," where they have routinely been ordered to fire on unarmed civilians who posed no threat.
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