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For Immediate Release
May, 28 2026, 01:01pm EDT
Contact:
Sonya Meyerson-Knox | sonya@jvp.org
Jay Saper | jaysaper@gmail.com
Statement by the NYC chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace on the illegal sale of Palestinian land
NEW YORK CITY
“Tonight, the municipality of Jerusalem and the Israeli Building Center are hosting a discriminatory event in which they plan to sell stolen Palestinian land, open to Jews only. This event is illegal under international law and has no place in New York City.
“Right now, Palestinians across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem are being expelled from their homes through a coordinated campaign of state policy and settler violence. In East Jerusalem, families are being harassed and attacked while the developers hosting this event build luxury developments available to Jews only.
“The municipality of Jerusalem is directly involved in imposing and administering discriminatory apartheid policies, and should not be hosted anywhere in the city.
“As Jewish New Yorkers, we condemn the sale of stolen Palestinian land and we condemn racist housing practices that discriminate based on race, religion, and national origin. New Yorkers know the importance of fair housing practices and reject these racist events. We, along with Palestinian New Yorkers, know that apartheid practices have no place in New York City.”
Background
Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion
The Mayor of Jerusalem will be in attendance at today’s event. He has publicly stated his intention to oversee the construction of at least 100,000 new housing units in Jerusalem, as part of a “Judaisation plan” for Jerusalem.
Illegal annexation in the West Bank
Israel is illegally annexing the West Bank at an unprecedented rate, resulting in over 50 attacks of settler violence and displacing nearly 1,700 Palestinians in the first three months of 2026 alone. The number of Palestinians displaced in early 2026 surpasses the total displaced in all of 2025. Land sales in New York City further contribute to this annexation.
Jewish Voice for Peace is a national, grassroots organization inspired by Jewish tradition to work for a just and lasting peace according to principles of human rights, equality, and international law for all the people of Israel and Palestine. JVP has over 200,000 online supporters, over 70 chapters, a youth wing, a Rabbinic Council, an Artist Council, an Academic Advisory Council, and an Advisory Board made up of leading U.S. intellectuals and artists.
(510) 465-1777LATEST NEWS
Brutality Against Anti-ICE Protests Caused Blindings and Traumatic Brain Injuries: Medical Experts
"The high number of head injuries... suggests a pattern of force directed towards the head. Whether intentionally or recklessly, this violates virtually all use-of-force guidelines."
Jul 14, 2026
Federal, state, and local law enforcement agents' brutal attacks on protesters across the US have caused blindings, traumatic brain injuries, permanent disabilities, and other maladies, according to a report released Monday by researchers at Physicians for Human Rights and the Human Rights Center at the University of California at Berkeley.
In an examination of actions taken by authorities in response to demonstrations against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions over the span of a year, the report documents 412 instances of misuse of force against protesters, journalists, and bystanders.
Just over half of the misuses of force were directed at demonstrators, while 43% were directed at journalists, the report finds.
This misuse of force led to 203 documented injuries affecting 119 individuals, including 44 incidents of laceration, 19 traumatic brain injuries, 10 ocular injuries, seven permanent disabilities, and one instance each of amputation and hearing loss.
The report adds that the actual number of injuries inflicted upon anti-ICE demonstrators "is likely far greater" given researchers' limitations in documenting "invisible injuries" such as chronic pain or hearing loss.
What is particularly troubling, the report emphasizes, is the number of injuries impacting people's heads.
"The high number of head injuries (19 brain, 10 eye, 1 hearing loss) suggests a pattern of force directed towards the head," the researchers write. "Whether intentionally or recklessly, this violates virtually all use-of-force guidelines and results in significant harm."
The report documents 97 incidents of law enforcement officials shooting crowd control projectiles at people's heads, making it the second-most frequent type of improper force used, following shots taken at close range.
Dr. Rohini Haar, the lead author of the report, said in an interview with The Guardian that she started tracking misuse of force in response to anti-ICE protests after a federal agent shot a pastor in the face at close range during a demonstration in Oakland last year.
"Those weapons can cause harm,” said Haar, who for years has been researching the health impacts of crowd control weapons. "It’s just when they’re used, how they’re used, and if they’re used."
Tactics used by ICE and other law enforcement agencies have come back into focus over the last week after the fatal ICE shootings of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas and Joan Sebastian Guerrero in Maine over the span of less than a week.
Salgado Araujo, 52, was an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who had lived in the US for more than three decades and ran a small construction business. Sebastian Guerrero, 26, was a Colombian national who was authorized to work in the US and was shot and killed by ICE in front of his three-year-old daughter.
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More defenders of human rights and the rule of law weighed on Tuesday after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's announcement of a "campaign to dismantle" the International Criminal Court, many of whose judges and prosecutors have already been sanctioned by the administration of President Donald Trump.
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On Tuesday, Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, called Rubio's announcement "utterly shocking but not a surprise."
"All states and people who care for freedom must rise up in defense of the ICC and international justice now, before it's too late," added Albanese, who is under legally contested sanctions imposed by the Trump administration for her outspoken criticism of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza. "It's rule of law or barbarism."
Responding Monday to the secretary of state's remarks, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said on social media that "Rubio's announcement that he will dismantle the International Criminal Court is reckless and dangerous. It undermines the rule of law, weakens global accountability, and turns America's back on the values we claim to champion."
"The ICC is an international court of last resort, intended to prosecute only the most horrific crimes—war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity—when countries are unable or unwilling to do so themselves," Omar added. "The best way to avoid ICC scrutiny is simple: Don't commit atrocity crimes, and if credible allegations arise, investigate them transparently and hold those responsible accountable."
The Trump administration has already hit ICC judges with sanctions, including asset freezes, travel bans, and other penalties for ordering the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, as well as for seeking to investigate US atrocities in Afghanistan.
ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan and two deputy prosecutors, as well as eight judges, have been sanctioned by the US.
While the US and Israel are not parties to the Rome Statute governing the ICC and do not recognize the tribunal's legitimacy, the treaty states that individuals from nonsignatory nations can be held liable for crimes committed in the territory of a member state.
State Department spokesperson Tommy Piggott echoed Rubio's remarks, telling Newsmax on Tuesday morning that "if the ICC continues to try to threaten our sovereignty, they will know the full power of American resolve."
Responding to the interview, independent journalist Aaron Rupar asked, "Are we going to, like, bomb the International Criminal Court?"
Astute observers noted that the American Service Members’ Protection Act—passed during the George W. Bush administration and known colloquially as the "Hague Invasion Act"—authorizes the president to use “all means necessary and appropriate,” including military intervention, to secure the release of American or allied personnel held by or on behalf of the ICC.
"The ICC is not doing great. There's a lot to complain about. But this, we cannot allow. We cannot allow these hegemons and bullies to run this project into the ground because there is something worthy of protection and improvement in it," Iva Vukušić, an assistant professor of international history at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, said Tuesday on Bluesky in response to Rubio's threat.
I cannot stress this enough: If this institution is destroyed, we will have nothing new at the international level negotiated for a generation, if ever. I don't believe the ICC is amazing, and there's a lot going on on the domestic level, but we need an ICC. A better one. #Accountability #Justice
— Iva Vukušić (@vukusiciva.bsky.social) July 14, 2026 at 12:54 AM
"The arrogance of this man, his boss, and their corrupt administration is insufferable," Vukušić said in a separate Bluesky post. "The empire must fall for a thousand reasons, but this childish arrogance is among the most important ones."
Journalist Thor Benson also took to Bluesky, writing: "I hope Marco Rubio eventually gets tried before the ICC. That would be a good way for this to go."
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"The one thing I know is they don't want us coming together to stop this bullshit, and that is what we have to do."
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Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson was among the Mainers and progressives nationwide placing blame on Republican Sen. Susan Collins after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement shot and killed a 26-year-old Colombian man in the small southern Maine city of Biddeford Monday morning.
"Enough is enough. Susan Collins voted to send $70 billion dollars to ICE with no reforms. I'd abolish it altogether," Jackson said on social media Monday, sharing footage of the ICE Out rally in Biddeford after the fatal shooting of Joan Sebastian Guerrero.
A former candidate for governor and Maine state Senate president, Jackson is among several Democrats vying to replace primary winner Graham Platner on the November ballot and unseat Collins, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee. Maine residents descended on her office in Biddeford after the shooting.
"Susan Collins must be held accountable for funding this terror," Jackson reiterated Tuesday, sharing his remarks from Monday night's rally in Portland, about 18 miles northeast of where Guerrero—who was authorized to work in the United States and had a Social Security number, according to locate advocates—was gunned down by ICE agents reportedly looking for another man.
"This has got to end, and we have to abolish ICE," the Democratic candidate said. "And as sad as I am, I'm also very angry... I'm angry that Mr. Guerrero's not coming home tonight. I'm angry that he has a wife and a kid that will never see him again."
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"I don't want to see this happen again, and the only way we can do that is by pushing back and making sure that we don't have any more rallies like this, because it's damn depressing, it's damn heartbreaking, and it pisses me off to no end that we have to be in a world like this, but we can change it by standing together," Jackson added, also urging donations to the Maine Solidarity Fund to help Guerrero's family.
Collins on Monday called for "a full and impartial investigation" into Guerrero's killing and shared that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told her that "the Boston office of the DHS inspector general has taken over the investigation of the Biddeford shooting in cooperation with the FBI."
In addition to Jackson, various critics in Maine and across the country—including Nirav Shah and Jordan Wood, other Democrats running to replace Platner—have responded to the shooting by called out Collins for helping the GOP give ICE billions more in funding without reforms.
The fatal shooting has also spurred fresh calls from across the country to abolish ICE, which has injured and killed a growing number of US citizens and immigrants during President Donald Trump's mass detention and deportation campaign.
New York City's democratic socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, said late Monday: "This morning in Biddeford, Maine, a 26-year-old man said goodbye to his wife and daughter and left for work. Moments later he was dead, shot in the head by ICE agents, the second man ICE has killed in six days. ICE is killing our neighbors. ICE cannot be reformed. Abolish ICE."
Guerrero's killing came after ICE fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas last week. The 52-year-old was from Mexico. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday that her government is seeking criminal charges in his and other deaths.
When asked about the recent killings in Texas and Maine on Monday, US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)—a progressive facing some pressure to run for the Senate or even president in future cycles—pointed to Republican funding for ICE.
While Mullin supposedly told Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) that Guerrero had "weaponized" a car he was driving—similar to DHS claims after previous shootings that were ultimately discredited by video footage—in this case, the department said on social media that "the vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon."
Multiple critics read the DHS statement as "a murder confession."
Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) responded that "ICE murdered a 26-year-old in front of his wife and daughter. It’s just pure evil. This statement makes clear there was no threat whatsoever. Our taxpayer dollars are funding a fascist murder machine. Abolish ICE, and prosecute anyone who carried out, ordered, or enabled crimes."
Collins announced Tuesday morning that "while the investigation of the Biddeford shooting is not yet complete, it raises sufficient critical questions that I spoke with DHS Secretary Mullin last night and urged him to cease all non-urgent vehicle stops."
Amid reporting that the Trump administration has given that order to ICE, Shah quickly fired back: "Sen. Collins voted to fully fund ICE without any guardrails. A single late-night phone call isn't going to cut it."
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