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Democrats Line Up Behind Abdul El-Sayed as He Clinches US Senate Nomination in Michigan
"I'm all in for Abdul," said US Sen. Chris Murphy.
Aug 05, 2026
Democrats from across the ideological spectrum lined up behind Abdul El-Sayed on Wednesday after he clinched the party's nomination for a US Senate seat in Michigan.
Shortly after The Associated Press projected El-Sayed as the victor in the closely watched primary, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) released a joint statement supporting the newly minted nominee.
"Abdul El-Sayed has run an energetic campaign that inspired thousands of Michiganders across the state, with a clear focus on lowering costs and standing up for working families," they said. "Democrats are united by a common purpose: putting a check on [President] Donald Trump by defeating his Republican enablers and taking back the Senate."
Schumer and Gillibrand also took a shot at El-Sayed's Republican rival, Mike Rogers, whom they described as "a rubber stamp for Donald Trump, backing the same reckless agenda that has driven up costs for working families, imposed chaotic tariffs that have hurt Michigan's auto industry, and put special interests ahead of the people of Michigan."
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.), El-Sayed's top rival for the Democratic nomination, conceded the race on Wednesday morning and offered "my full support as we work to defeat Mike Rogers this November."
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who had endorsed Stevens, also threw her support behind El-Sayed and all other Michigan Democratic candidates.
"They’ve got my support as we fight like hell together to win in November," said Whitmer. "Together, let’s stop MAGA Republicans so we can get to work and deliver results for the people of Michigan."
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said he was "excited" to see El-Sayed win the primary.
"Voters will have a clear choice in Michigan now," said Murphy. "A corporate-owned Trump loyalist or a doctor who will stand up for the little guy and will hold Trump and the corporations to account. I'm all in for Abdul."
Beth Miller, political director at Jewish Voice for Peace Action, hailed El-Sayed's victory as a "political earthquake," given that it came after the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spent an estimated $30 million trying to defeat him.
"Voters in one of the most consequential states for the 2028 Presidential race have just sent a clear message," said Miller. "They want candidates who will fight for working families at home while unapologetically speaking out for Palestinian freedom. This cycle, AIPAC is being relegated to the dustbin of history."
According to a Wednesday report from Semafor, Michigan Democrats have already begun pivoting toward the general election campaign by planning negative attacks on GOP rival Rogers as a tool of moneyed interests and labeling him "the biggest name in corruption."
During a Wednesday morning victory speech, El-Sayed accused Rogers of spending 14 years in Congress with the sole goal of "figuring out how to cash out the day he left."
El-Sayed: "Mike Rogers is a guy who wants to put a data center in your backyard so he can make himself feel a little more manly by making an AI video ... he's a guy who went back to Florida so he could lick every single boot Donald Trump owns to bet for his endorsement." pic.twitter.com/ZgvfaJ4PEL
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 5, 2026
"Mike Rogers is a guy who wants to put a data center in your backyard so he can make himself feel a little more manly by making an AI video," said El-Sayed. "Mike Rogers is a guy who will do anything Blue Cross Blue Shield wants him to do, including raise your rates... Mike Rogers is a guy who has never shied away from a corporation he could do a favor for."
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Mamdani Applauded for Veto of Bill Restricting Right to Protest Near NYC Schools and Universities
"These bills are not about Jewish safety," said a Jewish Voice for Peace organizer. "New Yorkers want elected leaders to protect our constitutional rights, not limit them."
Apr 24, 2026
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is earning plaudits for vetoing legislation passed by the New York City Council that critics say would have restricted the US Constitution's First Amendment right to peacefully protest.
According to a Friday report in The New York Times, the bill vetoed by Mamdani "would have required the New York Police Department to publicize plans to deploy security perimeters around educational facilities during protests."
In a statement explaining his veto, Mamdani said he worried that the bill as written would infringe on the rights of "workers protesting [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement], or college students demanding their school divest from fossil fuels, or demonstrating in support of Palestinian rights," among other causes.
"Nearly a dozen unions have raised the alarm about its impact on their ability to organize," said Mamdani. "That is why I am vetoing this legislation."
As noted by Gothamist, the bill drew opposition from the New York Civil Liberties Union and the 1199 Service Employees International Union, who warned it would criminalize the kinds of pickets that teachers' and nurses' unions regularly carry out at hospitals.
United Auto Workers Region 9A and Professional Staff Congress/CUNY also registered opposition to the bill and helped lead opposition to it, according to The City.
New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin (D-5), however, rejected these characterizations of the legislation, which passed the council by a 30-19 vote, just short of a veto-proof margin.
"Ensuring students can enter and exit their schools without fear of harassment or intimidation should not be controversial,” Menin said, according to the Times. “This bill simply requires the NYPD to clearly outline how it will ensure safe access when there are threats of obstruction or physical injury, while fully protecting First Amendment rights.”
According to Gothamist, Mamdani's veto drew rebukes from both the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the UJA Federation of New York, who accused the mayor of not taking the safety concerns of Jewish New Yorkers seriously.
However, anti-war group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) praised Mamdani's veto of the bill, which they said would have hindered their ability to protest outside educational institutions.
"We call on New York City's legislators to stop weaponizing our identities to justify repression of dissent—which is sacred to our Jewish tradition," said JVP. "Rather than limit our constitutional right to protest, our legislators should end the sales of stolen Palestinian land in our city."
A second bill, which the council passed by a veto-proof 44-5 margin, will place similar requirements on NYPD to create security perimeters around houses of worship that are being targeted by protests.
Eliza Klein, New York City organizer for JVP, disputed that this legislation protects the rights of Jewish New Yorkers.
"These bills are not about Jewish safety," said Klein. "Especially at a time when the federal government is attacking our cities—including specifically targeting those who speak out for Palestinian freedom—New Yorkers want elected leaders to protect our constitutional rights, not limit them."
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'Talk Is Cheap': 100 Arrested at Sit-In Demanding Schumer, Gillibrand Vote No on More Arms for Israel
"We call on Senators Schumer and Gillibrand to follow the will of New Yorkers and vote to block weapons and bulldozer sales to Israel."
Apr 14, 2026
Whistleblower Chelsea Manning, MPower Change founder Linda Sarsour, and actor Hari Nef were three of around 100 people who were arrested outside the New York City offices of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on Monday after the activists joined hundreds of anti-war campaigners in demanding the two Democrats vote against more weapons for Israel and block the Pentagon's $100 billion request to fund President Donald Trump's deeply unpopular war on Iran.
More than 300 people assembled outside the two US senators' offices, holding signs that read, "Fund People, Not Bombs" and "Stop Arming Israel."
“Schumer, Gillibrand, talk is cheap," the organizers chanted. "You’re sending bombs, how can you sleep?”
BREAKING: 300+ New Yorkers have taken over the offices of Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer demanding no more weapons for Israel.
Tell Congress: Fund people, not bombs. pic.twitter.com/7VuAj01bSZ
— Sunrise Movement 🌅 (@sunrisemvmt) April 13, 2026
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), one of the groups that organized the protest, said descendants of Holocaust survivors were among those who were arrested for speaking out against the Israeli government and the unprovoked US-Israeli war on Iran, which has killed more than 3,300 people in the Middle Eastern country, according to Iranian officials, and has spread to countries including Lebanon and Iraq.
In Lebanon, which Israel has insisted is not covered by a ceasefire deal reached last week, Israeli officials have said they are using their destruction of Gaza as a "model" as they bomb heavily populated areas, healthcare facilities, and other civilian infrastructure. At least 2,089 Lebanese people have been killed since March 2.
Meanwhile, Israel has continued attacking Gaza, killing more than 700 Palestinians since a ceasefire deal was reached six months ago as it joins the US in bombing Iran.
The protest was held as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) planned to bring Joint Resolutions of Disapproval up for a vote this week to block the transfer of bulldozers and hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons to the Israeli military.
BREAKING: Hundreds of anti-genocide activists who were rallying outside the offices of Sen. Gillibrand & Schumer have mobed into the street on 3rd Ave in Midtown Manhattan.
They’re calling on Gillibrand & Schumer to vote YES on an upcoming vote to block a weapons sale to Israel. pic.twitter.com/MEbqcQrtpg
— Talia Jane ❤️🔥 (@taliaotg) April 13, 2026
JVP joined the Palestinian Youth Movement, Democratic Socialists of America, Sunrise Movement, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, and other groups in demanding "yes" votes from Schumer and Gillibrand, who last July voted in favor of more weapons shipments to Israel.
“The Joint Resolutions of Disapproval is a crucial effort to stop the US from committing war crimes in Iran and aiding and abetting war crimes in Palestine and Lebanon," said Manijeh Moradian, a founding member of Raha Iranian Feminist Collective and a member of the Feminists For Jina Global Network, which also helped to organize the action. "As an Iranian American with loved ones who have survived more than a month of aerial bombardment, I am profoundly grateful to everyone in the United States who takes a stand and refuses to normalize the logics and instruments of mass death."
Artists who have been outspoken in their support for Palestinian and Iranian people and their criticism of Israel were among those who joined the civil disobedience action, including actors Hannah Einbinder and Taylor Trensch. US congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier and New York City Council members Alexa Avilés and Sandy Nurse also participated, and Chevalier and Avilés were among those arrested by the New York Police Department.
A poll taken by Quinnipiac University last year found that 60% of Americans want the US to suspend weapons transfers to Israel, and multiple surveys have recently found public support for Israel plummeting. The US-Israeli war in Iran is also broadly unpopular with Americans, with nearly six in ten saying late last month that it had gone too far.
“Our actions matter in shaping the course of history," said Manning. "Senators Schumer and Gillibrand have repeatedly supported weapons sales to Israel that are being used to commit atrocities across Palestine, Lebanon, and Iran. We call on Senators Schumer and Gillibrand to follow the will of New Yorkers and vote to block weapons and bulldozer sales to Israel."
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‘Genocide Is a Bad Investment’: Passover Seder Protests NYC Comptroller Plan to Reinvest in Israel
"Passover, our festival of liberation, compels us to ensure that our city’s funds do not underwrite the Israeli government carrying out genocide," said an activist with Jewish Voice for Peace.
Apr 09, 2026
More than 500 New Yorkers gathered for an "emergency Passover Seder" outside the office of New York City comptroller Mark Levine on Wednesday, where they called for him to divest the city's pension fund from bonds tied to Israel.
The city's former comptroller, Brad Lander, chose not to renew the nearly $40 million worth of investments in 2023. But in January, Levine reversed course, announcing plans to resume investment in the bonds, describing them as sound assets.
After Israel helped pressure the US to launch a war against Iran and began a new invasion of Lebanon—campaigns that have collectively killed more than 3,000 people—the city's chief fiscal officer is facing renewed pressure to stop what Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) described as a "plan to fund Israeli bombs with city pensions."i
Protesters with the group stood outside the comptroller's office holding signs reading "Apartheid is chametz" and "Genocide is a bad investment."
"Passover, our festival of liberation, compels us to ensure that our city’s funds do not underwrite the Israeli government carrying out genocide in Gaza, enabling rampant settler violence in the West Bank, bombing Iran, and destroying entire villages in Southern Lebanon," said Jay Saper, an activist with JVP who works as a children's teacher and Yiddish translator. "Comptroller Levine’s plan goes against the will of New Yorkers who do not want our city's money to be used to fund genocide and war."
Levine took office in January after Lander left the post to challenge Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman for his seat representing New York's 10th congressional district.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been a vocal opponent of using any city funds to support Israel. But while he has publicly pushed back against the decision to resume purchasing Israeli bonds, he lacks the power, as mayor, to personally overrule it.
"I don’t think we should purchase Israel bonds,” Mamdani said in January. “We don’t purchase bonds for any other sovereign nation’s debt, and the comptroller has also made his position clear, and I continue to stand by mine.”
Though Levine has expressed strong support for Israel, saying he has "very deep personal ties" to the country, the attendees at Wednesday's Seder said the money spent on Israeli bonds could be better used to help New Yorkers.
"New Yorkers deserve to have their city funds in bonds that prioritize financial stability, accountability, and the long-term security for city workers," said New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. "They should invest in life and the livelihoods of our communities, not the complete opposite. We cannot go backward to something financially unstable and, more importantly, morally bankrupt."
Last year's JVP Seder was held to call for the release of Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, who was imprisoned by immigration agents and threatened with deportation by the Trump administration for activism on campus against Israel's genocide in Gaza. More than 100 JVP activists were arrested after occupying Trump Tower in Manhattan to demand his freedom last spring.
This year, Khalil—released from detention after a judge's order last June—was in attendance at the Seder.
“Just as you prayed for my freedom last year, today let us all pray together that by next Seder the Israeli genocide will have ended,” said Khalil.
(Video by Jewish Voice for Peace)
The Seder comes amid a public reckoning for Israel, including among many American Jews. A Pew Research poll released on Tuesday found that an unprecedented 60% of American adults view Israel negatively, compared to just 37% who view it positively.
A majority of American Jews have expressed disapproval of the war launched by President Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu in Iran. Meanwhile, a poll last year found that around 4 in 10 American Jews believed Israel's actions in Gaza constituted genocide.
Rabbi Abby Stein of the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinic Council said the hundreds of Jewish people in attendance on Wednesday were “reclaiming our beautiful, ancient liberation holiday from those who would weaponize it, and Judaism itself, as tools of colonialism and supremacy—ideas that have been historically, and are, the opposite of what Judaism is and should be."
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'It Was Blowback': Michigan Synagogue Attacker's Family Killed by Israeli Airstrike
"The problem with blowback is, it almost never hits the right people," said one observer.
Mar 13, 2026
The Michigan man who rammed his vehicle into a suburban Detroit synagogue Thursday lost four relatives to an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon last week, according to an official in the Lebanese town where the massacre occurred.
Ayman Mohamad Ghazali—a 41-year-old naturalized US citizen born in Lebanon—was killed during a shootout with security guards at the Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield Township after crashing his truck into the building. Authorities said the vehicle contained mortar-type explosives and ignited upon impact. One security guard was struck by the vehicle.
No one else inside the synagogue was injured. Cassi Cohen, Temple Israel's director of strategic development, told The Associated Press that “thankfully, we have had many active shooter drills and our staff is prepared for these situations."
Jennifer Runyan, the FBI special agent in charge of the bureau's Detroit field office, described the attack as a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community."
However, a local official in Mashgharah, a town in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon, told the AP on condition of anonymity that Ghazali's two brothers, niece, and nephew were among five people killed by a March 5 Israeli airstrike on their home while they were eating their fast-breaking dinner during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
US investigative journalist Ryan Grim published photos reportedly posted by Ghazali showing his four slain relatives.
Numerous observers called the attack on Temple Israel—which flies an Israeli flag outside the building—"blowback" from Israel's renewed war on Hezbollah in Lebanon, which was launched despite a November 2024 ceasefire agreement alongside the US-Israeli war on Iran.
"The guy's family was killed last week by Israel and he was taking revenge. That’s wrong. Murder is wrong," US political commentator and author Matt Stoller, who is Jewish American, said on X. "But this isn’t some uptick of antisemitism, it’s blowback. A lot of us have been saying that Israel is bad for the Jews. It is. We have to reject that country."
Others cautioned against conflating Israel with Judaism, with Grim asserting that "it is extremely important we separate the actions of a foreign government from an American synagogue, or any synagogue."
Rights groups have noted a dramatic rise in both Islamophobia and antisemitism following the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023 and Israel's genocidal retaliation.
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)—which has led numerous protests against Israel's war on Gaza—said Friday that "Jewish communities, like all people, deserve to be safe in our houses of worship and schools."
"The person who reportedly carried out this attack was a man whose siblings, niece, and nephew were just murdered in Lebanon by Israeli bombs," JVP continued. "This is grief upon grief. War always begets trauma and further violence."
"It is clear that the Israeli government’s atrocities make all of us—including Jews—less safe," JVP added. "Israel carries out brutal wars and genocide against families and children, then falsely claims these war crimes are done in the name of Jews. This leads to more antisemitism."
"War always begets trauma and further violence."
More than 4,700 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli forces since October 2023, including over 1,100 women and children, according to Lebanese officials.
Israeli forces have also killed or wounded over 250,000 Palestinians in Gaza and the illegally occupied West Bank since the October 2023 attack. US and Israeli attacks on Iran have slain or injured thousands more people.
Originally coined by the CIA in the wake of its 1953 coup in Iran to describe the unintended and often deadly consequences of covert or military action, the concept of blowback gained widespread popularity after the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States, which is often regarded as a classic example of the term in action.
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NSPM-7: A Blueprint for Silencing Progressive Movements
Directing state power against those who participate in movements for justice and equality undermines genuine efforts to confront all manifestations of bigotry and oppression while weakening democratic life.
Nov 24, 2025
In the past few months, the Trump administration has intensified its assault on political dissent. The September 25 release of National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, titled “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,” capitalized upon the shooting death of Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirk and marked an alarming escalation in the regime’s suppression of political dissent in the name of national security.
The NSPM-7 memorandum casts a wide net by identifying a wide swath of previously protected criticisms of American policy, capitalism, Christian nationalism, and fascism as potential threats to US security. This language reveals the government’s effort to construct a political category of terrorism so broad that it can encompass nearly any form of progressive or left-aligned civil society work.
The intensifying campaign now unfolding against progressive movements in the United States did not arise overnight. It reflects an expansion of strategies that have been enacted since some of the country’s earliest days, with historical precedents in the US government’s attacks on anti-slavery movements, Civil Rights organizations, workers’ rights movements, and anti-war activists. NSPM-7 presents itself as a decisive response to domestic extremism, but in reality, it repurposes long-standing tools of state surveillance and criminalization, and directs them toward a broader range of political actors. By framing a wide spectrum of views that challenge the administration as potential state threats, it merges national security logic with partisan hostility.
The administration’s recent designation of several European anti-fascist groups as global terrorist entities, along with its earlier attack on the Palestinian civil society groups Al-Haq, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), and Al-Mezan, fits squarely into this same trajectory. It signals an effort to construct a transnational narrative in which resistance to authoritarian politics is reinterpreted as a form of organized danger to US security. This new global framing reinforces the domestic one. Together, they redefine dissent as a matter for preemptive national security intervention rather than as a form of democratic disagreement.
NSPM-7 does not establish new criminal prohibitions. It instead reorganizes existing authorities in order to expand their reach to subvert political dissent.
The approach embedded in NSPM-7 was foreshadowed in Project Esther, an October 2024 document by the Heritage Foundation that outlined the very methods now being enacted through federal authority. Presented as a plan to combat antisemitism, it has instead served as a justification for coordinated attempts to weaken civil society groups, especially those connected to Palestinian solidarity work. Jewish Voice for Peace, for example, appears prominently in Project Esther. The project treats dissenting Jewish movements as potential enemies of the state while ignoring the sources of real antisemitic violence from white supremacist organizations and Trump’s own network. In doing so, it advances an agenda that uses the language of Jewish protection to mask a campaign that targets, among many groups, Jewish progressives and anti-fascists.
NSPM-7 does not establish new criminal prohibitions. It instead reorganizes existing authorities in order to expand their reach to subvert political dissent. The most troubling aspect is the encouragement to intervene before any political act occurs. This “pre-crime” approach draws directly from earlier post-9/11counterterrorism practices that targeted Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian communities on the basis of suspicion rather than action. Those attacks produced widespread surveillance, infiltration, and community fear, and in doing so made the public less safe. The new Trump memo now positions those same strategies to be used against a much wider segment of civil society. Anyone associated with advocacy for Palestinian rights, critiques of US foreign policy, challenges to state violence, or left-aligned social movements is a potential target.
Historical parallels offer important context. Under National Socialist rule, Germany relied on security language to arrest, imprison, and murder political opponents. Italy and Spain under fascist regimes treated labor groups, social movements, and minority activists as subjects for surveillance, detention, and execution. The United States has its own history of using national security claims to silence and even execute dissenters during the Cold War. In each case, the crucial step was the transformation of political disagreement into a threat to national security.
As a scholar of modern Jewish history and Holocaust studies, I view the current moment in part through these historical precedents. The misuse of claims about protecting Jews while weaponizing antisemitic accusations against figures such as Zohran Mamdani and George Soros demonstrates that anti-Jewish hatred is not being confronted as a social prejudice but instrumentalized in support of a racist, authoritarian regime. The effect is to direct state power against those who participate in movements for justice and equality. This undermines genuine efforts to confront all manifestations of bigotry and oppression and weakens democratic life.
There is, however, another dimension to this history. Communities that endured earlier waves of repressive counterterrorism policy also developed strategies of collective defense and political resilience. What is required at this moment is recognition of the scale and coherence of the strategy being deployed. ICE raids, the false designation of peaceful Palestinian human rights groups as terrorist organizations, to attacks on transgender people—these should not be viewed in isolation. They are components of a coordinated effort to curtail the activity of civil society. The appropriate response begins with solidarity across movements, a clear understanding of the racial and political foundations of these policies, and, most of all, a refusal to allow this expansion of state power to become normalized.
The administration’s actions demand a collective defense of democratic spaces. The lessons of the past are clear: attacks on our civic freedom can be resisted, but only when communities recognize the stakes and act together. This moment requires precisely that resolve.
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South Florida Jews Organizing for Palestinian Justice: Reality Defies Reputation
The visibility of anti-Zionist organizing throughout South Florida breaks the normalization of mainstream Jewish and other support for Israel and will continue to do so.
Oct 09, 2025
The actual reality of organizing for Palestinian justice in South Florida defies the region’s reputation of near unanimous support for Israel and its genocide against the Palestinian people. And the belief that all Jewish people in South Florida support Israel (it’s almost a mantra) is also not reflective of the full picture.
Joining with a coalition of groups committed to justice—Palestinian, Muslim, student, socialist, and others—Jewish organizing for Palestinian justice in South Florida takes multiple forms. Its Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) chapter (of which this author is part) is unabashedly anti-Zionist, abolitionist, and socialist and stands firmly with Indigenous-led organizing (most recently against the Everglades Concentration Camp), queer and trans liberation, and disability justice. Part of what makes this work noteworthy is that it is happening in a state, with its reactionary governor, Ron DeSantis, at the helm, that is a step ahead of much of the country in its excessively repressive climate and policies. Though we know the rest of the country seems not to be far behind.
Community education is central to the group’s commitments, especially as more and more people are joining, rooted in the understanding that we are all learners and teachers. In ongoing workshops such as "SWANA Jews and Zionism After 1948 and in the 20th Century"; "The History and Current Day Reality of the ADL"; and "The Palestinian Nakba," participants meet outside (Covid-19 safety is a priority!) to learn together and to deepen and strengthen ongoing organizing. Jewish holidays are also observed within an anti-Zionist framework, often by the ocean, with learning including “Engineered Famine: Israel’s Starvation of Gaza–a Teach-in, Havdalah, and Solidarity Fast” and “An Anti-Zionist Shabbat Teach-in on Antisemitism from a Collective Liberation Framework.”
Most recently, one of the community’s areas of focus has been on challenging the fervent support for genocide in the rabidly pro-Zionist Miami Beach City Commission. Many across the country, and even beyond, followed the city’s fight with the local arts theatre, O Cinema, for showing the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, which was one chapter in an ongoing battle with the city’s mayor and City Commission in their attempts to censor criticism of Israel and its ongoing violence against the Palestinian people.
Contrary to what some may assume in South Florida’s political climate, activists have succeeded in being visible in the media and bringing these issues into the public eye.
The City of Miami Beach’s support for Israeli apartheid shows up in myriad ways: It donated an ambulance to Israel (smack in the middle of the genocide), has funneled millions of taxpayer dollars into Israel bonds, and adopted a resolution that prohibited the city from hiring contractors who refused to do business with Israel. At City Commission meetings, during the space for public comment, as residents stand up to speak against the city’s support for genocide, the mayor and commissioners consistently shut down opposition by turning off the mics and then ranting on and on in support of Israel. They accuse speakers of being antisemitic and invited the Consul General of Israel to give an invocation, whose words, in the middle of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people of Gaza, included, “We lift up the brave soldiers of the IDF.”
That has not deterred the community’s very visible presence and opposition at these hearings and in the streets.
But the Miami Beach commissioners and mayor didn’t just stop there. As a result of the ongoing organizing in support of Palestinian justice, the city instituted an anti-protest ordinance that denies the constitutional right to protest. After the ordinance was enacted, when activists attempted to protest at the Convention Center where large numbers of people have gathered for Art Basel and the Aspen Ideas Climate Festival, the Miami Beach Police Department barred protesters from gathering on the Convention Center sidewalk in violation of their constitutionally protected right of free speech.
In response, Jewish Voice for Peace South Florida has filed a lawsuit asking a federal court to declare the anti-protest ordinance and the actions of the Miami Beach Police Department unconstitutional as a violation of the First Amendment rights of its members.
“The First Amendment protects the right to protest in public places, including public sidewalks. It is for the protesters, not the mayor, the City Commission, nor the police, to determine where that right may be exercised, “ said Alan Levine, a member of the legal team representing Jewish Voice for Peace South Florida.
Another critical and vocal area of organizing among Jewish Voice for Peace South Florida and other local advocates is its Break the Bonds Miami campaign, devoted to challenging the county’s investments in Israel Bonds. Just recently, the campaign released a new report based on over 700 survey responses from Miami-Dade County residents, examining public opinion of the county’s $151 million investment in Israel Bonds. The findings show strong opposition to these investments and support for redirecting funds away from genocide toward much-needed local priorities.
“As a Jewish resident of Miami-Dade, I don't believe the county should be investing in a country committing a horrific genocide and starvation campaign…The $151 million Miami-Dade has invested in Israel Bonds should be redirected to empower our local community to flourish, not buy bombs and guns for Israel’s military to kill children, journalists, and doctors," said Hayley Margolis, a JVP South Florida member leader and Miami Dade County resident, at a recent press conference releasing the report.
Contrary to what some may assume in South Florida’s political climate, activists have succeeded in being visible in the media and bringing these issues into the public eye. The protests, actions, and campaign have been well-covered on TV and in print media, and numbers of opinion pieces have been published in all the local papers. The visibility of anti-Zionist organizing throughout South Florida breaks the normalization of mainstream Jewish and other support for Israel and will continue to do so. As the JVP South Florida chapter reiterates in all its messaging: “We will not be silent, and we will not be silenced.”
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Media Jamming for Gaza in Northampton, Mass
Our local paper wouldn't heed our requests to improve its coverage of the Gaza genocide, so we made our own.
Oct 05, 2025
River Valley for Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace W MA, and other community organizations in Western Massachusetts have been trying to persuade the editors and publisher of the Daily Hampshire Gazette, headquartered in Northampton, to improve the paper's coverage of the genocide in Gaza and to publish an editorial condemning Israel's targeted killings of hundreds of Gaza's journalists. We have also asked that when the Gazette provides news from Gaza in the form of reprinted articles from media sources such as the Associated Press, they precede each article with an editor's note* containing the caveat that the news piece provided may contain pro-Israeli bias and propaganda. We have not succeeded in persuading the paper to meet our requests.
Two other local papers—the Springfield Republican and the Montague Reporter—recently published strong editorials condemning Israel's systematic murders of Gaza's journalists.
Since we feel that the Gazette is failing its readership vis-a-vis coverage of the Gaza genocide, we have decided to publish an alternative version of the paper—the Alt-Daily Hampshire Gazette—containing material that we wish the editors and publisher WOULD include. We hope Gazette readers find the Alt-Daily Hampshire Gazette, which is being distributed widely in the readership area of the Daily Hampshire Gazette, interesting and helpful as they seek reliable news and opinion about the Gaza genocide, Israel's occupation of Palestine, and campaigns throughout Western Massachusetts to stand with the Palestinian people and all people fighting empire, militarism, colonization, and exploitation.
The first edition of the Alt-Daily Hampshire Gazette, released on September 23, 2025, contains news pieces, a letter to the editor, a piece by a journalist who resigned in protest from Reuters, and relevant photos and cartoons. It also included an editorial, below, that River Valley for Palestine wishes and repeatedly urged the Daily Hampshire Gazette to publish. Periodic editions of the Alt-Daily Hampshire Gazette will be published and disseminated widely by River Valley for Palestine. They will contain news and opinion about Gaza, Occupied Palestine, and the Israel-US genocide written by local activists.
EDITORIAL–WE STAND WITH GAZA’S JOURNALISTS
By Alt-Daily Hampshire Gazette editorial board member Jennifer Scarlott
As the war in Gaza grinds into its 23rd month, passing its 700th day, with incalculable, breathtaking suffering imposed by Israel and the United States on a caged civilian population of more than 2 million, the territory has been turned into an enormous death camp.
The Daily Hampshire Gazette rarely publishes editorials. We feel that the realities in Gaza DEMAND that our editorial voice be heard.
A feature of Israel’s war on Gaza has been its targeting of crucial civilian populations: healthcare workers, civil defense workers, government workers, academics, intellectuals, journalists like ourselves.
We acknowledge that though we are a local paper, we bear responsibility for creating conditions that have contributed to a genocide in Gaza and attacks on our journalist brothers and sisters.
In its killings of Gaza’s extraordinarily hard-working and courageous journalists (more than 270 as of this date, according to Al Jazeera, many of them in targeted assassinations) and its refusal to allow international journalists into Gaza, Israel is killing the messenger. It is targeting the profession of journalism. It is assaulting free speech and freedom of information. It is targeting international law and human rights. It is seeking to normalize censorship, official lies, war propaganda, and murders of journalists. Its enemy is the truth; its perceived enemies are truthtellers: Gaza’s journalists.
Readers of the Daily Hampshire Gazette are hopefully familiar with the most recent assassinations of journalists at Al Shifa Hospital (the entire Al Jazeera team, including Anas Al Sharif, in Gaza City on 8/10/25) and Nasser Hospital (8/25/25). These massacres have received some global attention due to their brazenness and the numbers of journalists targeted. But the frequent, targeted sniping and bombing of individual journalists in Gaza do not.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), “Israel is engaging in the deadliest and most deliberate effort to kill and silence journalists that CPJ has ever documented. Palestinian journalists are being threatened, directly targeted, and murdered by Israeli forces, and are arbitrarily detained and tortured in retaliation for their work. Israel has systematically destroyed media infrastructure in Gaza, and tightened censorship throughout the West Bank and Israel. By silencing the press, Israel is silencing those who document and bear witness to what human rights groups and academic and international legal experts say is a genocide.”
In an astounding attack on Yemeni civilians on 9/10/25, Israel massacred more than 25 journalists. The Yemeni Journalists Union condemned the direct targeting of the 26 September newspaper and the Al-Yemen newspaper in the capital, Sana’a.
During this time of unprecedented assault on journalists and the First Amendment in our own country, the Daily Hampshire Gazette wishes to be very clear to our readers, to our colleagues in Western media, and to our media colleagues in Gaza: We stand with the Palestinian journalists of Gaza (and with our colleagues everywhere). We condemn their deliberate murder by Israel. These murders are war crimes, as are killings of all civilians. They are flagrant violations of international law under the Geneva Conventions. They must be independently investigated. They must be prosecuted.
Twenty-three months into the war on Gaza, the Daily Hampshire Gazette acknowledges that media “neutrality” is complicity. For the past nearly two years, Western media, through silence or through pro-Israel bias, has been complicit in the Israeli-US genocide in Gaza and in the ongoing assassinations of journalists. We will not be complicit. We acknowledge that though we are a local paper, we bear responsibility for creating conditions that have contributed to a genocide in Gaza and attacks on our journalist brothers and sisters.
In acknowledging that the war in Gaza is a genocide being conducted by the Israeli and US governments, we call for: immediate ceasefire; the immediate, permanent removal of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from Gaza; a global arms embargo on Israel; global economic sanctions on Israel; the immediate and permanent opening of Gaza’s borders; the immediate, permanent influx, under the auspices of UNRWA, of humanitarian aid and supplies for the entire Gaza population; and removal of Israel from the United Nations. We call for the immediate assembly of an international protection force in Gaza under the UN General Assembly’s “Uniting for Peace” Resolution.
At this critical moment in world history, with the extermination of an entire people gaining momentum, the Daily Hampshire Gazette will not fail this test: We will defend Palestinian journalists and journalism, and in so doing, defend and stand with the civilian population of Gaza in its desperate hour of need. We understand that if we fail to do so, we fail ourselves, the readers of this newspaper, the people of Gaza, and humanity itself. We call on our colleagues throughout Western media—whether local, regional, or national and whether print, television, radio, or Internet—to do the same.
Lastly, as to news articles about the genocide in Gaza: We make a promise to our readers that if we reprint news articles from outlets such as the Associated Press, we will acknowledge our responsibility for the bias in those articles (the AP and other outlets routinely quote Israeli government and military sources without comment), by preceding them with the following:
*Editors’ Note: The following report may be inaccurate for the following reasons—Israeli government and military statements, frequently cited uncritically by Western media, are war propaganda and should not be taken at face value; many Western media outlets exhibit consistent pro-Israel bias. In addition, be aware that the Israeli regime bars international media from entering and reporting from Gaza or other parts of Palestine, all of which it illegally occupies.
(The above was written as if it were a piece by the editorial board of the Daily Hampshire Gazette. Instead, it was published in the Alt-Daily Hampshire Gazette on 9/23/25 by River Valley for Palestine, a community organization fighting for Palestine’s liberation.)
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GOP Investigation Pressures Wikipedia to Reveal Identities of Editors Accused of 'Bias' Against Israel
The effort furthers the goals of the Heritage Foundation, which has launched a plan to "identify and target Wikipedia editors" using a number of underhanded tactics.
Aug 28, 2025
A pair of House Republicans is moving forward with an investigation that will seek to reveal the identities of Wikipedia editors who have edited articles to include information that portrays Israel negatively.
On Wednesday, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chair of the House Oversight Committee, and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), chair of the House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation, sent a letter to the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that owns the free encyclopedia.
The representatives asked Wikimedia's CEO, Maryana Iskander, for "assistance in obtaining documents and communications regarding individuals (or specific accounts) serving as Wikipedia volunteer editors who violated Wikipedia platform policies as well as your own efforts to thwart intentional, organized efforts to inject bias into important and sensitive topics."
The letter requested information about "nation state actors" or "academic institutions" that may have been involved in efforts to "edit or influence content identified as possibly violating Wikipedia policies."
A spokesperson for the Wikimedia Foundation told The Hill that they were reviewing the request.
"We welcome the opportunity to respond to the committee's questions and to discuss the importance of safeguarding the integrity of information on our platform," the spokesperson said.
The GOP investigation coincides with a long-standing objective of the far-right Heritage Foundation, which has accused Wikipedia of anti-conservative bias and promoting content that portrays Israel in a negative light, and sought to unmask the identities of the internet users who run it.
The letter sent by Comer and Mace requests that Wikimedia provide Congress with "records showing identifying and unique characteristics of accounts (such as names, IP addresses, registration dates, user activity logs) for editors" who have been "subject to actions" by Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee, which resolves internal disputes between editors.
It was, in essence, a request by Congress for Wikipedia to "dox" many of its editors.
"In the culture of Wikipedia editing, it is common for individuals to use pseudonyms to protect their privacy and avoid personal threats," wrote tech writer and Wikipedia expert Stephen Harrison for Slate in February. "Revealing an editor's personal information without their consent, a practice known as doxing, is a form of harassment that can result in a user's being permanently banned from the site."
Of chief concern to the legislators is investigating Wikipedia's handling of content related to Israel. They cited a report from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a pro-Israel lobbying group, which the legislators said "raised troubling questions about potentially systematic efforts to advance antisemitic and anti-Israel information in Wikipedia articles related to conflicts with the state of Israel."
The ADL report makes the allegation that 30 "bad-faith" Wikipedia editors, whose identities are not public, were collaborating to edit pages about the Israel-Palestine conflict by "spotlighting criticism of Israel and downplaying Palestinian terrorist violence and antisemitism," and in the process violating Wikipedia's commitment to neutrality.
That report, however, has been heavily criticized, including by some of the academics it cited. In a piece for The Forward, Shira Klein, whose research on Wikipedia's documentation of the Holocaust appears in the report, said the ADL "inaccurately" used her work, and the work of others, as part of its "ramped-up efforts to police public discourse about Israel," and quoted other researchers who felt the same.
Klein described the study's interpretation of the facts as "very skewed" and said it was reliant "on a faulty premise: that criticism of Israel or Zionism is inherently antisemitic."
"To establish foul play, the ADL would need to demonstrate that Wikipedia content about Israel and Zionism regularly expresses as fact ideas that diverge from broadly held scholarly opinions on the matters in question," Klein said. "But where is the evidence of editors repeatedly misrepresenting or contradicting peer-reviewed literature? There is none. The report simply wants us to take the ADL's word for it."
The ADL's report, as well as a similar report from the Atlantic Council alleging that Wikipedia editors had conspired to spread pro-Kremlin propaganda, are the sole pieces of evidence cited by Comer and Mace in their request for identifying information on Wikipedia's editors.
However, right-wing efforts to undermine Wikipedia's independence and attack the privacy of its editors go back much further.
In January, documents obtained by The Forward's Arno Rosenfeld revealed a secret plan by Heritage, the think tank behind the authoritarian Project 2025 playbook, to "identify and target Wikipedia editors" who the organization said were "abusing their position."
Among the methodologies it directed Heritage employees to use include "analyzing text patterns, usernames, and technical data through data breach analysis, fingerprinting, [human intelligence], and technical targeting."
The targeting methods also included "creating fake Wikipedia user accounts to try to trick editors into identifying themselves by sharing personal information or clicking on malicious tracking links that can identify people who click on them."
According to Rosenfeld, "The Heritage Foundation sent the pitch deck outlining the Wikipedia initiative to Jewish foundations and other prospective supporters of Project Esther, its roadmap for fighting antisemitism and anti-Zionism."
Jewish Voice for Peace has described Project Esther as Heritage's "blueprint for using the federal government and private institutions to dismantle the Palestine solidarity movement and broader US civil society, under the guise of 'fighting antisemitism.'"
"Even if you take issue with how the site is currently framing the conflict, that doesn't justify Heritage's plan," Harrison wrote. "Targeting Wikipedia editors personally, instead of debating their edits on the platform, marks a dangerous escalation."
Coming amid the Trump administration's crackdowns against campus protests and efforts to deport immigrants over pro-Palestine speech, critics have described the House Republican investigation as the latest GOP attempt to censor criticism and the spread of unflattering information about Israel.
Adam Johnson, a co-host for the political podcast Citations Needed, described it in a post on X as "House Republicans working with the ADL and Atlantic Council to discipline Wikipedia into parroting the Israeli and NATO line."
Johnson noted that this push was coming as the clear majority of Americans, including an overwhelming number of Democrats, now oppose US support for Israel, with many now believing the country is committing a genocide.
"Rather than end the genocide," Johnson said, "the response instead is to continue firing, doxing, smearing, and attempting to censor inconvenient narratives."
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Global Outrage Grows Over Israel's 'Preventable' US-Backed Genocidal Famine in Gaza
"This is not an unavoidable famine, this is a campaign of mass extermination," said Jewish Voice for Peace.
Aug 22, 2025
International outrage mounted Friday following the official declaration of full-blown famine in Gaza, with human rights defenders underscoring the preventable nature of a crisis caused by Israel's 22-month US-backed obliteration and siege of the Palestinian territory.
As Common Dreams reported, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC)—the world's leading authority on hunger crises—issued a "special snapshot" on the situation in Gaza confirming the embattled Palestinian enclave has entered Phase 5, or catastrophic famine, characterized by "starvation, death, destitution, and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels."
According to the IPC, more than 500,000 Gazans are suffering Phase 5 conditions, more than 1 million Palestinians are currently in Phase 4 ("emergency"), and nearly 400,000 others are in Phase 3 ("crisis").
Hundreds of Palestinians have starved to death in Gaza, including at least 112 children, according to local health officials. Thousands more Palestinians have been killed or wounded while seeking food aid, including more than 850 people slain at or near distribution points run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation—described as "death traps"—where Israeli soldiers said they were ordered to fire live bullets and artillery shells into crowds of civilians.
"It is a famine on all of our watch. Everyone owns this."
The starvation crisis is so severe that even Israeli media and US President Donald Trump and senior members of his administration have addressed it, with Vice President JD Vance recently acknowledging that "you've got little kids who are clearly starving to death."
Critics—some of whom noted warnings of imminent starvation in Gaza dating back to late 2023—stressed that the Gaza famine is entirely the result of Israeli policies and practices.
"It is a famine that we could have prevented, if we had been allowed. Yet food stacks up at borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel," United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said during a Friday press briefing.
"It is a famine we could have prevented"
UN emergency coordinator Tom Fletcher says people should read the IPC report "in sorrow and in anger"
pic.twitter.com/X1dekCrQFh
— Peter Stefanovic (@PeterStefanovi2) August 22, 2025
"It is a famine within a few hundred meters of food, in a fertile land," he continued. "It is a famine that we repeatedly warned of, but that the international media has not been allowed in to cover. To bear witness. It is a famine openly promoted by some Israeli leaders as a weapon of war."
"It is a famine on all of our watch. Everyone owns this," Fletcher contended. "The Gaza famine is the world's famine. It is a famine that asks, 'But what did you do?' A famine that will and must haunt us all. It is a predictable and a preventable famine. It is a famine that must spur the world to more urgent action."
"My ask, my plea, my demand to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and anyone who can reach him: Enough," he added. "Ceasefire. Open the crossings, north and south, all of them. Let us get food and other supplies in, unimpeded and at the massive scale required. End the retribution. It is too late for far too many. But not for everyone in Gaza. Enough. For humanity's sake, let us in."
Irish Foreign Minister Simon Harris—who is also defense minister and the equivalent of deputy prime minister—called the situation in Gaza "heartbreaking and devastating."
"It is sickening and despicable," Harris continued. "In [Ireland], we have called it out for what it is—a genocide."
Erika Guevara Rosas, the senior director for research, advocacy, policy, and campaigns at Amnesty International—one of many international human rights groups accusing Israel of genocide—said Friday that "this famine is the direct consequence of Israel's deliberate campaign of starvation in Gaza."
"It is all the more harrowing that this famine is an entirely man-made, deliberately orchestrated, and preventable catastrophe," she continued. "The deliberate obstruction of humanitarian aid, the destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure, and the direct killings of civilians are a clear manifestation of how Israel is inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza as part of its ongoing genocide."
"With every hour that passes without decisive international action, more Palestinian lives are lost, and Gaza City edges closer to complete annihilation," Guevara Rosas added, referring to Israel's launch of Operation Gideon's Chariots 2, a campaign to conquer, occupy, and ethnically cleanse 1 million Palestinians, possibly into a concentration camp proposed for construction over the ruins of Rafah.
"History will never forgive us for standing by as emaciated children die, while food remains just miles away, yet blocked by Israel," Guevara Rosas asserted. "To even begin reversing the devastating consequences of Israel's inhumane policies and actions, the world must take action now."
The US group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), which has led many protests against the Gaza genocide, said on the social media site Bluesky, "This is not an unavoidable famine, this is a campaign of mass extermination."
Today, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN body, declared a state of famine in Gaza. While this is horrific news, it does not come as a surprise.
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— Jewish Voice for Peace (@jvp.bsky.social) August 22, 2025 at 9:23 AM
"The legacy of this genocide will last beyond any of our lifetimes," JVP added. "We've arrived at this point after decades of the US doing everything in its power to defend and fund the Israeli government's policies of ethnic cleansing, land theft, and now starvation and genocide. This depravity must end."
These statements follow similar condemnations earlier Friday by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, UN human right chief Volker Türk, and many others around the world on the 686th day of Israel's assault and siege, which have left more than 228,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Coinciding with the IPC designation, a report published Friday by Forensic Architecture and the World Peace Foundation detailed how Israel has dismantled the time-tested civilian aid distribution model and replaced it with a military-based system in which many Palestinians are not only dying from starvation but are also being killed while trying to obtain food.
The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem—which, along with Physicians for Human Rights-Israel recently became the first two groups in Israel to acknowledge the Gaza genocide—also published a report Friday on Israel's weaponized starvation of the strip.
Meanwhile, Israeli government officials responded to the IPC announcement in the same manner in which they've dismissed accusations of genocide for the past 22 months.
Netanyahu—who is a fugitive from the International Criminal Court wanted for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes including murder and forced starvation—called the IPC report "an outright lie."
"Israel does not have a policy of starvation," the prime minister incredulously claimed. "Israel has a policy of preventing starvation."
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, two more Palestinians starved to death in Gaza within the past 24 hours, including a 5-month-old infant.
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