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gaza genocide
Hope in Northampton: Tiny Protesters Faced Off Against US Military Capitalism... and Won!
In an astonishing verdict, a judge ruled in favor of four elderly people who confronted authorities inside the facilities of one of the most powerful outposts of the US military-industrial complex: L3Harris.
Jan 04, 2026
Northampton, Massachusetts District Court Judge Mary Beth Ogulewicz put her neck bravely within the noose of potential political and corporate retribution when she rendered the verdict on December, 23: “After consideration of the testimony, exhibits, applicable law, and arguments of counsel, I find the defendants Not Responsible on all counts.”
This is an astonishing verdict in favor of four elderly people who confronted authorities inside the facilities of one of the most powerful outposts of the US military-industrial complex on March, 19, 2025. They armed themselves with only conscience, play money, red paint, and a whimsical sense of in vivo political theater. They entered the lobby of munitions profiteer L3Harris and tossed the paint-soaked play money on the floor, refused to leave, and tried to serve L3Harris CEO Chris Kubasik (who is headquartered in Florida) with an arrest warrant for war crimes. They fully anticipated that Northampton Police would arrest them, and they were predictably charged with trespassing and disturbing the peace.
From this point on, the narrative takes a turn toward the surreal. The defendants’ post verdict press release explains:
The case and the verdict are highly unusual for several reasons. First, Judge Ogulewicz converted the charges from criminal to civil offenses, with lower penalties, saying that the allegations against the Defendants did not merit criminal prosecution. In addition, the Judge allowed the necessity defense to be raised and argued at the hearing. Finally, victory in the use of the necessity defense in protest cases is extraordinarily rare.
The seldom used “necessity defense” appears to be a euphoric fantasy created as a gift for those committed to civil disobedience. The necessity defense gives legal flexibility to support those who violate legal norms in order to mitigate a more nefarious harm. A good Samaritan who breaks your house window to enter and put out a stove fire might use the necessity defense to avoid breaking and entering charges. Likewise, a well-intentioned bystander who prevents a rageful person from beating their own child might use the necessity defense if charged for assault.
Writ small, the necessity defense has a clear, logical function to assure that legal contradictions do not stymy justice. But writ large, what is the leeway given to a good Samaritan when confronted by the massive criminal intentions of their own government? Do we, as US citizens, hold the right to intervene in state-sponsored criminal violence? If I can legally prevent my neighbor from beating his child, why can’t I also attempt to stop my government from murdering countless children in... let us say, Gaza?
And even more subtly nuanced—can I attempt to confront my criminally violent government and its corporate proxies regardless of the likelihood that the confrontation will have the desired result? Is civil disobedience a subset of the necessity defense?
Judge Mary Beth Ogulewicz ruled that, indeed, civil disobedience ought to be seen as a perfectly legal, and critically useful, response to state-mandated crimes. Henry David Thoreau argued this position 165 years ago, but now the ideals of one of America’s preeminent philosophers has belatedly entered the realm of legal precedent.
The morning after Judge Ogulewicz’s decision, I spoke with Nick Mottern, an 86-year-old defendant found innocent of all charges. He was uncertain whether or not the case will be appealed, but of course the system will mobilize on behalf of war profiteers, he believed. We picketed L3Harris alone at first, before being joined by a sympathetic resident from an adjacent housing complex. The morning featured lovely cloud formations scattered by an icy wind. We struggled to keep our aging feet planted on a sleet-covered walkway. Two days before Christmas, the death factory looked half abandoned.
The fact that civil disobedience persists, led by people who could easily excuse themselves on the basis of their aged frailty, ought to be contemplated far and wide.
What will the decision mean for our quest to mobilize local opposition against our very own outpost of the military-industrial complex? How many people do we need to overwhelm the lobby of L3Harris? What if 1,000 people scrunched in—more people than the police have means to arrest? Can the police even arrest people on murderous L3Harris property after the courts have determined that civil disobedience conforms to the contours of the “necessity defense”? Nick and I parse these things often, but now something had moved, but how much?
Hope does not often assert itself when tiny protests face off against the might of US capitalism—a bizarre mismatch staged on a lonely sidewalk, a vigil of uncertainty. We are two aging, stubborn fixtures, to be ignored with a shake of the head. Our ritual may yield nothing, but it urgently must continue, and now, thanks to the court decision, the whole endeavor has been reframed.
Here is how the defendants reacted to their triumph:
Trish Gallagher:
L3H earns huge profits making weapons of war. We think this is blood money. The goal of our act of civil disobedience was to persuade L3H to stop making a killing on killing.
Priscilla Lynch:
We pushed for a jury trial because we believed that a jury of our peers would share our horror at what was and is happening in Gaza with weapons from L3 Harris and would share the belief in the necessity of our actions. In fact, the 75 or so “jury of our peers,” present in the courtroom and overflowing into hallway confirmed our belief. The Court’s verdict validates the necessity of our action against the perpetrators of Genocide, including L3Harris right here in Northampton.
Nick Mottern:
We are extremely grateful that our lawyer and the judge understood that the real lawbreaker in this case is L3Harris Technologies, which is violating various US and international laws daily to profit from the slaughter of Palestinians.
Paki Wieland:
The verdict gives weight to the Necessity Defense. This finding will strengthen Necessity as a stance in the future.”
(From the defendants’ post verdict press release)
The work of resistance begins again, a series of pauses and regroupings proceeds with new inspiration. The monstrosity of US war crimes, that did not begin with President Donald Trump (who merely carries on the traditions with newfound honesty), will not be halted by a few small town heroes like those quoted above. But the fact that civil disobedience persists, led by people who could easily excuse themselves on the basis of their aged frailty, ought to be contemplated far and wide. Nick hopes that the story of the court victory will be delivered on media platforms everywhere.
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Israel's Attack on Aid Organizations in Gaza Is an Attack on Palestinian Survival
What emerges is a coherent strategy: first, producing dependency through siege, destruction, and institutional dismantling; then, weaponizing that dependency by controlling or withdrawing the means of staying alive.
Jan 03, 2026
Israel’s decision to halt the operations of 37 international aid groups marks a dangerous escalation in its ongoing genocidal campaign, which has destroyed Gaza’s capacity to sustain life through bombardment and siege, and now moves to deprive survivors of the last remaining forms of assistance.
While framed as an administrative measure, this latest move cannot be understood in isolation. It is the culmination of a longer process that has unfolded over the past two years, as Israel has systematically dismantled the humanitarian and medical infrastructure sustaining Gaza’s civilian population.
By defunding and delegitimizing The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the primary agency tasked with aiding Palestinian refugees; and by leveling accusations against humanitarian and health personnel, in the absence of meaningful global pushback, Israel has further entrenched a longstanding system of weaponized aid.
While the Israeli government initially framed the suspension of aid groups as being linked to their failure to comply with new registration requirements, it later noted in a statement that the process was “intended to prevent the exploitation of aid by Hamas, which in the past operated under the cover of certain international aid organizations, knowingly or unknowingly.”
Such criteria not only regulate aid work; they effectively silence dissent, conditioning the ability to deliver humanitarian assistance on political conformity.
Israel has long accused Hamas of exploiting humanitarian aid, despite such claims having repeatedly been debunked, including by senior Israeli military officials themselves.The new regulatory framework extends well beyond technical compliance. It introduces explicitly political and ideological conditions for aid delivery, disqualifying organisations that have supported boycotts of Israel or engaged in “delegitimization campaigns.”
Such criteria not only regulate aid work; they effectively silence dissent, conditioning the ability to deliver humanitarian assistance on political conformity.
UNRWA Test Case
The dismantling of UNRWA was a critical test case. For decades, the agency served as the backbone of civilian life for Palestinian refugees, providing healthcare, education, food assistance, and social services, under conditions of Israeli occupation and siege.
After October 7, 2023, Israel intensified its efforts to recast UNRWA not as a humanitarian agency operating under an international mandate, but as a political problem to be neutralized.
Allegations that a limited number of UNRWA employees were affiliated with Hamas, or involved in the October 7 attacks, were rapidly generalized into claims about the organisation as a whole. These claims triggered sweeping donor suspensions—including the immediate freezing of US funding, among UNRWA’s largest sources of support—illustrating how fast states are willing to act on evidence-free allegations from Israel, whose overall goal is to avoid global scrutiny of its crimes.
The persecution of UNRWA thus demonstrated how easily a central pillar of the humanitarian system can be dismantled, setting the stage for what would come next, as Israel launched a broader attack on international aid groups operating in Gaza.
In the months that followed, Israel blocked UNRWA’s operations on the ground and passed legislation criminalizing its activities across historic Palestine.
The response from the international community was striking in its weakness: While some donors ultimately resumed funding to UNRWA, no binding enforcement mechanisms were activated, nor were any serious political costs imposed on Israel.
The persecution of UNRWA thus demonstrated how easily a central pillar of the humanitarian system can be dismantled, setting the stage for what would come next, as Israel launched a broader attack on international aid groups operating in Gaza.
The consequences of this latest move are devastating. For decades, such organizations have provided essential services, amid the systematic degradation of civilian infrastructure and repeated assaults on healthcare in Gaza. Groups like Doctors Without Borders and Medical Aid for Palestinians offer vital resources for emergency and trauma care, along with other key services to sustain Gaza’s fragile health system, at a time when many hospitals are damaged or out of service.
Buffers Against Collapse
The centrality of international aid groups to Gaza’s survival is itself a measure of the depth of destruction imposed on Palestinian society. Such actors have long operated in spaces where Palestinian institutions have been dismantled, and political solutions deferred.
In the absence of an end to Israel’s occupation and siege, their presence has become one of the few remaining buffers against total collapse. In the context of an ongoing genocide and the destruction of the infrastructure required to sustain life in Gaza, stripping away the remaining humanitarian presence amounts to a direct assault on survival itself.
The Israeli government has sought to downplay the impact of the suspensions by asserting that the targeted organisations “did not bring aid into Gaza throughout the current ceasefire, and even in the past their combined contribution amounted to only about 1% of the total aid volume.”
In Gaza, where Israel has already destroyed the material conditions of life, the suspension of humanitarian operations completes this logic.
But this calculation of material aid fails to capture the nature of the work and services these groups have provided, including specialized medical care, trauma surgery, rehabilitation for injured and disabled people, psychosocial and mental health services, and sustained institutional support to keep Gaza’s collapsing health system functioning.
In 2025 alone, Doctors Without Borders carried out nearly 800,000 outpatient consultations and treated more than 100,000 trauma cases in Gaza, while Medical Aid for Palestinians made many critical interventions, including through expanded cancer care in the territory’s north.
Israel’s 1% calculation, which has not been independently verified, reduces humanitarian impact to quantitative supply indicators, rather than lifesaving capacity. To present these organizations as marginal is not a factual assessment, but a narrative designed to normalize their removal.
What emerges is a coherent strategy: first, producing dependency through siege, destruction, and institutional dismantling; then, weaponizing that dependency by controlling or withdrawing the means of survival.
In Gaza, where Israel has already destroyed the material conditions of life, the suspension of humanitarian operations completes this logic. This is not a failure of humanitarianism, but part of a broader genocidal strategy, where the regulation and withdrawal of aid is used to render survival itself increasingly impossible.
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10 Good Things That Happened in 2025
I hope you can look back on 2025 as the year movements for peace and justice freed political prisoners, slowed the war machine, and helped turn the public against endless wars.
Dec 31, 2025
It’s true—2025 has been a hard year. It’s easy to focus on the disasters, and there have been many. But we also had real victories that moved us closer to a better world. Here are some of my highlights from 2025.
1. Israel Was Forced to Negotiate a Ceasefire
In October, a ceasefire agreement was reached in Gaza, though it would be a lie to call it an end to the genocide we’ve all been witnessing for over two years. Still, the pause matters because it reveals what Israel could not achieve. Israel failed to break the Palestinian people or erase them from their land. It was forced to negotiate. It also gave us one of the rare moments where we saw videos coming out of Gaza with Palestinians celebrating in the streets, and feeling a little bit of relief for the first time in a long time. Yes, the Israelis are violating the ceasefire every day, Palestinians continue to suffer, and the “Peace Plan” passed by the United Nations is a sham. But the fact that Israel was unable to accomplish its goal of defeating and expelling the Palestinians—and instead had to negotiate—is in itself a testament to the power of both the Palestinians and their supporters throughout the world.
2. Mahmoud Khalil Is Free
In June, after months in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention, Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil was freed! We got to see him at the People’s Conference for Palestine, and he’s been in action ever since. From the moment he was first detained, the Palestine solidarity movement never stopped demanding his freedom. We knew that if we allowed this to happen to Mahmoud, it could happen to any one of us. His freedom is a testament to the power we all have when we stand together and have a clear demand. The same goes for Turkish student Rümeysa Öztürk, Georgetown scholar Badar Khan Suri, Palestinian student Mohsen Mahdawi, and British Journalist Sami Hamdi—all were freed from ICE’s grip due to mounting public pressure.
3. Majority of Americans Are Against War
Polls came out all year in the US that proved that people inside the belly of the beast are becoming more and more anti-war! Whether the conflicts are in Ukraine, Gaza, or Venezuela, the people of the US are sick and tired of their country going to war. This, if people take action on their beliefs, this will have huge implications for the US war machine! The anti-war movement is growing, and we have the power of the people behind us!
4. People Came Together to Protest ICE Raids and Support Immigrants
From Washington, DC to Chicago to Los Angeles, people across the country have been rising up to reject the unjust and illegal ICE raids ripping through our communities. As ICE agents terrorized grocery stores, elementary schools, and neighborhoods, communities responded by forming rapid-response networks to document abuses, provide legal support, and protect those being targeted. This collective resistance has been an inspiring expression of humanity in action—proof that when President Donald Trump’s administration pushes fear, racism, and a fascist agenda, people come together in solidarity to defend one another and fight back.
5. Zohran Mamdani Will Be the Mayor of the Largest US City
Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the NYC mayoral race was fueled by the Palestine movement and the collective mobilization of hundreds of thousands who are unwilling to be swayed by centrist, big-money interests and are ready for a new system. His win has already inspired others to run for office on a similar platform, showing how campaigns that speak to people’s needs can break through. Mamdani now inherits a seat at the heart of the war economy—presiding over the largest police department in the country and a city with deep political and financial ties to Israel. That reality makes his victory not an endpoint, but an opening: a chance to push demands for divestment and a peace economy to the center of city politics, and to turn the energy of his campaign into sustained, collective action—in the streets, in organizing spaces, and at the ballot box.
6. Global Sumud Flotilla to Gaza Makes History
For the first time in recent history, the Global Sumud Flotilla sailed into Gaza’s waters and came close to breaking the blockade! I was so inspired by the selfless activists, including my friend Adnaan Stumo and his brother Tor, who set sail to Gaza despite great personal risk. The Global Sumud Flotilla was the largest flotilla in history, and even though Israel arrested and detained dozens of brave humanitarians, their souls weren’t shaken. Another Gaza flotilla will soon set sail again, unintimidated by Israel’s threats!
7. AIPAC Is Losing Power
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s grip is starting to crack, with a growing number of candidates openly rejecting its money. Even more striking, some AIPAC-backed members of Congress defied the lobby this year—voting against its positions and infuriating a group long used to unquestioned loyalty. More and more people are waking up to AIPAC’s influence over our government, and are calling for a widespread rejection of it!
8. Mexico’s Woman President Shows What Principled Leadership Looks Like
Overseas, Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s first woman president, has delivered bold progress at home—expanding public education, investing in clean energy, and strengthening labor rights and social programs that put working families first. When Trump tried to bully Mexico with tariff threats and demanded that Mexico play border cop, Sheinbaum defended Mexico’s sovereignty with competence, dignity, and a refreshing refusal to be intimidated. And when Trump blocked Venezuelan tankers from delivering oil to Cuba, Mexico stepped in to supply its own oil—a clear act of solidarity that showed what principled leadership looks like on the world stage.
9. Ecuador Rejects US Military Base
At a moment when the US is openly reviving the Monroe Doctrine in Latin America, Ecuador held a national referendum—and nearly 60% of voters said no to reopening a US military base on Ecuadorian soil. By rejecting a foreign base, Ecuadorians asserted their sovereignty and made clear they refuse to be a launchpad for US wars. Even amid a rightward political swing across the region, this vote shows that organized people can still block militarization and defend their self-determination.
10. US and Chinese Citizens Chose Connection Over Fear
This year offered a rare and hopeful reminder of how quickly walls can fall when people are allowed to meet one another as human beings. From the warmth and curiosity circulating on RedNote to iShowSpeed’s unfiltered encounters, a wave of everyday, people-to-people exchanges cut through political fear-mongering and brought Americans and Chinese together around shared humanity. In these small but powerful connections, the image of China as an “enemy” began to fade, replaced by curiosity and connection—and for the first time in five years, the number of Americans who consider China an enemy has dropped by nearly 10%.
I hope you can look back on 2025 as the year movements for peace and justice freed political prisoners, slowed the war machine, and helped turn the public against endless wars. Even in the hardest moments, that’s how I’ll choose to remember it. And I hope 2026 brings us closer to the world we all want to see.
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