August, 17 2022, 11:49am EDT
NARAL Pro-Choice America Endorses Maine Governor Janet Mills for Reelection
Governor Mills earns endorsement of nation’s leading reproductive freedom advocacy group.
WASHINGTON
Today, NARAL Pro-Choice America announced its endorsement of Maine Governor Janet Mills, a champion for reproductive freedom, in her bid for reelection. Governor Mills has led the state since she was first elected in 2018 and is looking to retain her seat against anti-choice Republican former governor Paul LePage.
NARAL Pro-Choice America President Mini Timmaraju released the following statement:
"Governor Janet Mills is a reproductive freedom champion who has dedicated her career to fighting for the health and well-being of Mainers, including their freedom to decide if and when to start or grow a family. If Paul LePage is elected, there's no doubt he will plow ahead with his out-of-touch MAGA extremist agenda to ban abortion and roll back other fundamental rights. Maine will remain in safe hands under Governor Mills, and we're proud to be fighting alongside her."
Governor Janet Mills said:
"Throughout my career, I have fought to expand access to reproductive health care and to protect reproductive freedoms. After a conservative majority of the Supreme Court launched an assault on these rights by wrongly striking down Roe v. Wade, I pledge that my veto pen will stand in the way of any effort to rollback, undermine, or outright eliminate access to safe and legal abortion in Maine. With so much at stake in this election, let me be clear: reproductive rights are not up for negotiation in Maine under my watch and they never will be."
Governor Mills has been a bold champion in the fight for reproductive freedom, consistently fighting to protect and expand abortion access in Maine. In her first year as governor, Gov. Mills signed legislation to expand the number of medical professionals able to provide abortion care, increase privacy protections for abortion care providers, and mandate state and private insurance providers to include abortion care under their maternity care coverage. More recently, Governor Mills signed an executive order protecting access to reproductive health care services in Maine, including prohibiting state agencies from cooperating with another state's investigation into a person, organization, or health care provider for delivering abortion care in Maine. Previously, Gov. Mills served as Maine's attorney general, where she opposed the Trump administration's rollback of contraception and supported a buffer zone around abortion clinics for patient and provider safety.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization--ending the constitutional right to abortion and opening the door for extremist state lawmakers to put total bans on abortion in place. This decision is already having a devastating impact throughout the country as 15 states have begun enforcing extreme or total bans on abortion. The people hurt most by these bans and restrictions are those who already face barriers to accessing abortion care--including women; Black, Indigenous, and other people of color; those working to make ends meet; the LGBTQ+ community; immigrants; young people; those living in rural communities; and people with disabilities.
These endorsements come as NARAL Pro-Choice America is ramping up its work to elect candidates up and down the ballot during a critical moment in the fight for reproductive freedom. NARAL, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and EMILY's List announced a partnership in May to collectively spend a historic $150 million on the 2022 midterms to elect reproductive freedom champions up and down the ballot across the country. Read more about NARAL's endorsed candidates here.
For over 50 years, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America) has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, and paid family leave—for everybody. Reproductive Freedom for All is powered by its more than 4 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.
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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."
May 10, 2024
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."
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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."
May 10, 2024
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."
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'Barbaric': Whistleblowers Further Expose Israel's Torture of Detained Palestinians
"What we know about Gaza is only tip of atrocity iceberg."
May 10, 2024
Three Israeli whistleblowers who worked at the notorious Sde Teiman prison camp in the Negev desert offered horrifying accounts of the treatment of Palestinians held there, tellingCNN that the facility's doctors have amputated limbs due to handcuffing injuries, allowed detainees' wounds to rot, and carried out vicious beatings.
A medic who worked at Sde Teiman's field hospital said that Palestinian detainees there are stripped "of anything that resembles human beings" and that the harassment and torture are done not to "gather intelligence" but "out of revenge" for the October 7 attacks.
Israel has detained thousands of Gaza residents since October, with many of them held under a recently amended law that empowers Israeli authorities to imprison people indefinitely without charge or due process. Human rights organizations have documented Israeli forces' brutal and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees, including women and children.
At the field hospital, CNN reported, "wounded detainees are strapped to their beds, wearing diapers and fed through straws."
One Israeli whistleblower took a photograph of a room at the facility, which the person said was filled with a "putrid stench" and the sound of "men's murmurs" as they were "forbidden from speaking to each other."
"We were told they were not allowed to move," the whistleblower said. "They should sit upright. They're not allowed to talk. Not allowed to peek under their blindfold."
CNN finally sheds light on Israel's shocking and barbaric torture chambers: thousands of people, detained for months:
Strapped down, blindfolded, held in diapers: Israeli whistleblowers detail abuse of Palestinians in shadowy detention centerhttps://t.co/XuOL4IaFQS
— Nimer Sultany (@NimerSultany) May 10, 2024
The whistleblower accounts, according to CNN, "paint a picture of a facility where doctors sometimes amputated prisoners' limbs due to injuries sustained from constant handcuffing; of medical procedures sometimes performed by underqualified medics earning it a reputation for being 'a paradise for interns'; and where the air is filled with the smell of neglected wounds left to rot."
The testimony provided to CNN is consistent with details that a doctor at the camp's field hospital included in a recent letter to top Israeli officials. The doctor described unlawful and inhumane conditions; in a single week, the person said, "two prisoners had their legs amputated due to handcuff injuries, which unfortunately is a routine event."
A report published last month by Al Mezan, a Palestinian human rights organization, also documented "harrowing accounts of torture and inhumane treatment" of people detained by the Israeli military.
"A 19-year-old detainee told an Al Mezan lawyer that he was tortured from the moment he was arrested," the group said. "He described how three of his fingernails were removed with pliers during interrogation. He also stated that investigators unleashed a dog on him and subjected him to shabeh—a form of torture which involves detainees being handcuffed and bound in stress positions for long periods—three times over three days of interrogation. He was then placed in a cell for 70 days, where he experienced starvation and extreme fatigue."
Mohammed Al-Ran, a Palestinian doctor who was arrested by Israeli forces in December, told CNN that he was "stripped down to his underwear, blindfolded and his wrists tied, then dumped in the back of a truck where... the near-naked detainees were piled on top of one another as they were shuttled to a detention camp in the middle of the desert."
Al-Ran was held by Israeli forces for 44 days. Just before his release, he told CNN, "a fellow prisoner had called out to him, his voice barely rising above a whisper."
According to CNN: "He asked the doctor to find his wife and kids in Gaza. 'He asked me to tell them that it is better for them to be martyrs,' said al-Ran. 'It is better for them to die than to be captured and held here.'"
Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director of Human Rights Watch, said in response to the new reporting that "what we know about Gaza is only tip of the atrocity iceberg."
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