The Summit of the Future

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

An article by Jeffry Sachs* in the Transcend Media Service

The world’s geopolitical system is not delivering what we want or need.  Sustainable development is our declared goal, meaning economic prosperity, social justice, environmental sustainability, and peace.  Yet our reality is continued poverty amidst plenty, widening inequalities, deepening environmental crises, and war.  To get back on track, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has wisely called for a Summit of the Future (SOTF)  at the United Nations on September 22-23, a call that has been endorsed by the 193 UN Member states.

The core idea of the Summit of the Future is that humanity is facing a set of unprecedented challenges that can only be solved through global cooperation.  The crisis of human-induced climate change (especially the warming of the planet) cannot be solved by any one country alone.  Nor can the crises of wars (such as in Ukraine and Gaza) or the geopolitical tensions (between the US and China) be settled by one or two countries alone.  Each country, even the major powers including the US, China, Russia, India, and others are part of a complex global structure of power, economics, and politics that requires truly global solutions.

The Summit will revolve around 5 core topics, all of them related to multilateralism, meaning the system by which nations co-exist with the rest of the world.  These topics are: (1) the goal of sustainable development; (2) the goal of peace; (3) the control of new technologies such as artificial intelligence; (4) the empowerment of young people and future generations; and (5) reform of the UN architecture.

The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), which I direct on behalf of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, has issued a statement summarizing the view of leading academics around the world about the reform of the multilateral system.  The SDSN statement on the SOTF  is Chapter 1 of the SDSN’s 2024 Sustainable Development Report.

On the goal of sustainable development, the core challenge is global finance.  Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – including the fight against poverty, hunger, disease, and environmental degradation – requires sizable public investments.  The main priority public investment areas including education, health care, zero-carbon energy, sustainable agriculture, urban infrastructure, and digital infrastructure.  The problem is that the poorer half of the world — the low-income countries and lower-middle-income countries – lack the access to financing they need to achieve the SDGs.  The most urgent reform of the global system these countries need is access to long-term, low-cost financing.

On the goal of peace, the core challenge today is great-power competition.  The US is in competition with Russia and China.  The US aims for primacy in Europe over Russia, and primacy in Asia over China.  Russia and China resist the US.  The result is war (in Ukraine) or risk of war (in East Asia).  We need a stronger UN-led system in which great-power competition is governed and restrained by the UN Charter rather than by militarism and power politics.  More generally, we are past the era when any single country can or should aspire to primacy or hegemony.  The major powers should live in peace and mutual respect under the UN Charter, without threatening each other’s security.

On the goal of technology, the main challenge is to ensure transparent and responsible governance of the new advanced technologies, including biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and geo-engineering.  Such powerful technologies cannot continue to be managed in secrecy by the militaries and powerful corporations.  They need to be governed by honesty, transparency, and responsibility to the public.

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Question for this article:

Despite the vested interests of companies and governments, Can we make progress toward sustainable development?

Sustainable Development Summits of States, What are the results?

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On the goal of youth and future generations, the major challenge is to ensure that every child can achieve his or her potential through a high-quality education.  Education is essential for a decent job and a life of dignity.  Yet hundreds of millions of children, especially in the poor countries, are either out of school or in sub-standard schools that are not teaching the skills needed for the 21st century.   Without a quality education, these children will face a lifetime of poverty and under-employment or unemployment.  We need a new global financial arrangement to ensure that every child, even in the poorest countries, is given the opportunity for a decent education.

On the goal of reforming the UN system, the key is to give more power to UN institutions and to make them more representative.  The UN today depends too much on a few powerful countries, most on notably the US.  When the US doesn’t pay its dues to the UN, for example, the whole UN system is weakened.  We need to strengthen the UN system by ensuring that it is properly and reliably financed through a new system of international taxes – for example, on CO2 emissions, shipping, aviation, and financial transactions – rather than the contributions of individual governments.

We also should make the UN institutions more representative of the world of 2024 rather than the world of 1945, when the UN was established.  India, for example, should become a permanent member of the UN Security Council.  India is the world’s most populous country, the third largest economy, and a nuclear power as well.  In 1945, India was still a British colony, and so was not given its proper place in the UN system at that time.

Another core recommendation of the SDSN is to introduce a UN Parliamentary Assembly as a new chamber alongside the UN General Assembly (UNGA).  The UNGA gives each member state one vote, with the power of that vote in the hands of the executive branch of each government.  A UN Parliament would represent the peoples of the world rather than the governments.

Most importantly, the Summit of the Future is an invitation to intensive global brainstorming on how to make our deeply interconnected world fit for sustainable development in the 21st century.  It is a great challenge that should be welcomed and joined by people all over the world.  A great debate will open in September and then continue for years to come.
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* The author, Jeffrey D. Sachs, Professor of Sustainable Development and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University, is Director of Columbia’s Center for Sustainable Development and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He has served as Special Adviser to three UN Secretaries-General [Kofi Annan (2001-7), Ban Ki-moon (2008-16), and currently serves as an SDG Advocate under Secretary-General António Guterres. His books include The End of Poverty, Common Wealth, The Age of Sustainable Development, Building the New American Economy, and most recently, A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism. Sachs was also an advisor to the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, as well as to the first president of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin.

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global, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, United Nations,

‘It’s Time To Give Peace Another Chance’: Thousands Gather for Israeli-Palestinian Peace Conference in Tel Aviv

DISARMAMENT AND SECURITY .

An article from Portside

Two hundred and sixty-eight days into Israel’s war with Hamas, thousands of Israelis queued at the entrance Tel Aviv’s Menora Mivtachim Arena on Monday night, waiting to enter an event called “It’s Time: The Great Peace Conference.” The rally was organized by a confederation of some 50 organizations and individuals from Israel’s left and pro-peace camp, with a message that revolved around the arena’s LED screens: “It’s time to reach a deal. To stop the war. To make peace.”


Thousands of attendees shine their lights in solidarity at ‘The Great Peace Conference’ in Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, July 1. (Haaretz)

The attendees represented a mixture of organizations, from Peace Now and Breaking the Silence to the anti-judicial overhaul protest groups. Some wore shirts reading “Bring them home now,” a call for a deal to return the hostages to Israel; others depicted watermelons, a stand-in for the Palestinian flag, which Israel’s police largely prohibit waving. A group of high schoolers in hijabs toted iced coffees, and a man in red and yellow Buddhist monk robes climbed over the barriers into the orchestra section to greet friends.

The speaker lineup was similarly diverse. It featured Israelis who lost family to Hamas’ onslaught in southern Israel and Palestinians who lost family to Israeli air strikes in Gaza. A woman in a Jewish headscarf recited a prayer for mothers beside her friend, an observant Muslim, who repeated it in Arabic.

Screens on either side of the stage provided English, Arabic and Hebrew subtitles for the speakers, and sign language interpreters translated the Hebrew and Arabic as it was spoken. In one video presented to the crowd, former generals and security officials endorsed peace as the only viable path to safety; in another, Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem gave their blessing to the event.

“Our mutual goal here is many different organizations and movement is to build together a peace camp in Israel,” Alon-Lee Green, co-director of Standing Together, one of the groups that organized the conference, told Haaretz. “I’m not even saying to rebuild. I’m talking about building from this from the beginning – a peace camp that is grounded in reality. And in reality, millions of Palestinians are living under violent military control.

“Millions of Jews are living with no safety, not just in the south and the north; it is unsafe for people to imagine that they’ll keep living on this land. And in this reality, we also need to recognize the hegemony, and the hegemony is of the Israeli government, the Israeli military, and we must be able to look at it and to face it. So what we’re trying to do is to build a new camp in the Israeli society, a peace camp that is equal for Palestinians and Jews, and a peace camp that is courageous enough to not do the mistakes of the ones of the 90s and the beginning of the 2000s.”

Maoz Inon, whose parents were killed in the Hamas-led massacre on October 7, was one of the key organizers of the rally. “On my journey, I learned that hope isn’t something you lose, or something you find, or something that you wait for until it finds you. Hope is something you make,” he told the crowd.

Rula Hardal, a Palestinian from Peki’in who now lives in Ramallah, presented a dire forecast: She said that she and the Jewish activists she shared the stage with may have different opinions on particular issues, but they have a commonality. “We all share the same space between the Jordan River and the sea, that we, Palestinians and Israelis, Jews and Arabs, call a homeland,” she said “But this homeland is bleeding. Spirits of vengeance and bloodshed hover over it, and if we don’t stop it now, we’ll all be on the way to collective suicide.”

The event also made room for up-and-coming leadership, bringing young activists to the stage. One was Yanal Jabarin, a journalist from Jerusalem, who recounted his harrowing experience in January at a right-wing rally calling for the resettlement of Gaza.

He told Haaretz that this event is something of an antidote to the messaging coming from the far-right government. “In this show of force we have here, the thousands of people who came here, it doesn’t matter what your opinion is on ‘the day after,’ or whether you believe in two states or one, we just have to say that there’s a side that stands against all of this fascism and all of this racism and messages about transferring the Palestinian people anywhere.”

Another young leader was Josh Drill, an expat from New Jersey who found his way to activism after serving as an IDF officer in Hebron. “The amount of injustice and suffering from so many sides, and from so many different perspectives, really pushed me to understand that I’m going to be a part of this peace movement that’s going to change the reality on the ground,” he told Haaretz.

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Question related to this article:

How can a culture of peace be established in the Middle East?

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“We cannot accept this cycle of bloodshed, we cannot accept the current reality. It’s just not livable for anyone. And I think that the clear understanding that the Israelis and Palestinians are here to stay, no one is going anywhere. We need to understand how we can live amongst ourselves as Israelis, and also Israelis and Palestinians. Because if we don’t, the cycle of bloodshed will just continue and more lives will be lost.”

Elana Kaminka spoke of her son, Yannai, who was killed by Hamas terrorists on October 7 while protecting his soldiers as a platoon commander at the Zikim Base. “We have three more children, and the way that things are going now, and that people want to continue living in a consistent state of war, isn’t acceptable to us,” she said backstage. “We lost one son, we understand the pain that that involves. And for my other three children, I don’t accept that there’s no other option, that there’s no other alternative. I refuse to accept that, and I don’t accept it for Palestinians, and I don’t accept it for Israelis, we all deserve a better future.”

In speeches and private discussions, particular themes and messages reemerged. Both Israelis and Palestinians have a claim to the land, and must find ways to live with each other upon it; there must be a sea change in Israeli and Palestinian society’s perception of peace, security, self-determination and the other; enough of our parents, children and friends have died to this cycle of violence.

“War isn’t a law of nature – it is a human choice,” said Prof. Yuval Noah Harari n his keynote speech. “And at any moment, it is possible to make a different choice, and start to make peace. True, we have tried to make peace in the past, and we weren’t good at it. So what? We haven’t been that good at making war, either, which doesn’t prevent us from making another one, and another one. All these wars have led us to the abyss. It’s time to give peace another chance.”

Despite the roaring cheers of the crowd, something felt a bit empty. It is not the stadium, whose seats were almost fully booked, but perhaps the fact that it was in a stadium, an enclosed room, in the first place. The participants had all bought tickets; they were a choir being preached to. “It’s an event for us, to make us feel good,” one girl told another in the stairwell. “To make us feel like we’re on the right side.”

When asked about this, Jabarin said that it seems the organizers had already considered this aspect. “It’s going to be livestreamed and there’s a lot of media here, so any message spoken here will make its way to people around the world, not just in Israel, so it’ll have an impact.” And, he added, although the audience belongs mostly to the left, Israel’s left has long been fractured – something that has cost it elections.

“There’s a broad spectrum of people [here], between Balad voters for the most left-wing Palestinian, [Israeli leftist party] Hadash, even the National Unity Party and Benny Gantz. There’s a big chance that we have something in common, this whole audience. So it’s important for us to work together as a united community on ‘the day after’ and not argue over petty things, because that’s what we’ve been arguing over for 70 years. Now is the time, because we see that the other side is already organized. It knows what it wants. We also need to know what we want, and we need to work together.”

After about three hours of speakers and musical guests, the attendees started to make their ways out of the arena. Ibrahim Abu Ahmad, one of the hosts of the Third Narrative podcast, lingered to talk to friends. “I think it was sort of a support group to all of us to know that we’re not alone,” he said of the conference, which he described as beautiful and moving. “But maybe the next step will be to be in the masses, to not just say it in a closed auditorium, but to go and call it out on the streets to the entire country.”

He added that in the 1990s, about two thirds of both the Israeli and Palestinian populations believed in peace – but that fraction is down to less than a third. “We need to continue and push it more and more and more,” he said.

“I always say that these people didn’t vanish, they didn’t all die, they didn’t disappear. They lost hope. And if they lost hope, they can regain hope, and new people can also gain hope. And that happened right after the First Intifada, when everybody thought that there was never going to be peace out of nowhere. Somehow, we started to talk about peace. So we can do that again,” Abu Ahmad said.

“But maybe this time, not to let the extremists take control because back then they did everything they can to prevent peace. And unfortunately, they succeeded. We saw the worst terror attacks at the time in the 90s during Oslo and you know, one radical Israeli killed the Israeli prime minister. Peace died, then we can’t let that happen again.”

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DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, Mideast

English bulletin July 1, 2024

GLOBAL OUTCRY AGAINST GAZA GENOCIDE

The global outcry against the Gaza genocide, that began last November, continues to develop around the world.

As we reported last month, the youth of the world are taking the lead at their universities. This month, we publish photos from university mobilizations in 36 countries. The motivation of the participants is expressed in a valedictorian speech given at the University of Toledo, Ohio: ““We are the generation that must address these issues at home. We must ask why we have sent around 320 billion dollars in foreign aid to a state convicted of war crimes, countless violations of international law and who are on trial for genocide while Americans are dying due to lack of access to health care” A similar statement from a young Arab-American activist was published last month by CPNN: “In their dedication to speaking out for the protection of human life, their commitment to non-violence, and their courage to act regardless of legal reprimand, thousands across the globe have found hope and regained a battle cry against the Palestinian genocide that continues to unfold. Through attending the George Washington University encampment, I have seen firsthand the nature of these spaces of protest — their spirit, their power, and their peace.”

The global scope of the mobilization is shown by the tour conducted by Palestinian Mazin Qumsiyeh and his wife Jessie to Australia and New Zealand last month. They held 212 events, including speaking at lectures, workshops, rallies, informal gatherings, radio interviews, and media appearances. They reached a total of 22,000 individuals and collected more than 3,400 emails to add to their contacts. Furthermore, they initiated over 20 potential joint projects.

Of special importance are the mobilizations for peace within Israel itself. “Standing Together brought together hundreds of people at a rally in Haifa on December 16 and another 1,000 people at a rally in Tel Aviv on December 28. In January, we held our first anti-war march, in which a coalition of more than 30 peace movements and organizations mobilized thousands of people. The latest and largest demonstrations to date occurred in early May, featuring Palestinian and Jewish speakers and thousands of people marching in Tel Aviv under the slogan “Stop the war, bring back the hostages.”

In May, in response to far-right attempts to block aid convoys heading to Gaza; “Standing Together announced the formation of the Humanitarian Guard, an initiative to bring together peace activists from across Israel to act as a physical barrier between extremist settlers and the trucks, document what was happening, and force the police to intervene. . To date, more than 900 people have signed up to volunteer for this initiative. Every day, dozens of people flock from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv to the checkpoint.”

As we have reported previously, women are at the forefront of the mobilizations for peace between Israel and Palestine. And indeed, last month, Nava Hefetz, a female rabbi and activist for peace and human rights, and Ghadir Hani, a Palestinian Israeli, were both in Jerusalem to organize “humanitarian guards.” And Reem Alhajajra, co-founder of Women of the Sun, a Palestinian association campaigns alongside Women Wage Peace on the Israeli side for justice and peace.

As CPNN published in March, 31 Israeli human rights organizations issued a joint statement, including the following: “We call for the immediate release of all hostages and an end to the bombardment of civilians in Israel and in Gaza. Humanitarian aid must be allowed to reach civilian populations, medical facilities and places of refuge must not be harmed, and vital resources such as water and electricity must not be cut off. The killing of additional civilians will not bring back those who were lost. Indiscriminate destruction and a siege harming innocents will not bring relief, justice, or calm.”

Based in the United States, the American Friends Service Committee, has published “6 ways you can support Palestinians in Gaza.” These are:

1) Contact your member of Congress and call for an immediate cease-fire. 
2) Help bring attention to what’s happening in Gaza.  
3) Learn more about Gaza and lift up Palestinian voices. 
4) Hold corporations accountable for their role in violating the rights of Palestinians in Gaza. 
5) Join us in working to dismantle Israeli apartheid. 
6) Make a gift. 

At the same time as these developments in the global consciousness of activists continue to develop, the efforts of national and international authorities to stop the genocide also continue.

After previous attempts were blocked by the American veto, on June 10, the UN Security Council finally adopted a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. Israel rejected it, saying “Israel will not engage in meaningless and endless negotiations which can be exploited by Hamas as a means to stall for time.”

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has recommended arrest warrants  against two top Israeli  officials, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three prominent Hamas leaders. Richard Falk, former UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Palestine, called it “the first truly historic move since (the court’s) establishment in 2002.”

The UN General Assembly convened on May 10 for an emergency special session on the Gaza crisis and overwhelmingly passed a resolution which upgrades Palestine’s rights at the world body as an Observer State, without offering full membership. It urged the Security Council to give “favourable consideration” to Palestine’s request.

Of special importance is the growing opposition to the genocide in the United States, because, as argued by the prestigious Center for Constitutional Rights, the Biden administration, far from a neutral spectator, is actively supporting the genocide through military, economic and diplomatic assistance. They filed suit in the US court system to stop the complicity, and although the judge rejected it on technical grounds as “outside the court’s limited jurisdiction,” in his ruling he urged Biden and his administration officials to scrutinize “the results of their unflagging support” for the Israeli government’s assault on Gaza. In his ruling he stated that testimony shows that the ongoing military siege in Gaza is intended to eradicate a whole people and therefore plausibly falls within the international prohibition against genocide.”

According to the most recent American polls, a majority of Democrats (56%) and a slight plurality of Independents (36%) say they believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. This poses a serious threat to Biden’s election campaign.

One is reminded of the movement against the war in Vietnam in the 1960’s, that initially developed on college campuses, and later was taken up by the rest of the country in the United States and around the world. Although Vietnam suffered enormously, the movement was able to force a halt in the escalation of the war, and eventually Vietnam was able to expel the invaders and to survive.

TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY



Gaza protests at universities around the world

HUMAN RIGHTS



Bringing the Palestinian Message to Australia and New Zealand

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT



News from the Culture of Peace Foundation in Nigeria

WOMEN’S EQUALITY



These Israeli and Palestinian women who do not want to decide between Israel and Palestine
  

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY



Advances by the anti-war left in Israel: Interview with Uri Weltmann

EDUCATION FOR PEACE



Mexico: UAA inaugurates the CONEICC 2024 Meeting “Communicating for a culture of peace”

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION



Speech by Alba Barusell i Ortuño, President of Mayors for Peace European Chapter

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION



2024 Theme for the International Day of Peace: Cultivating a Culture of Peace
d-disarmament

How can peace be promoted by radio?

Perhaps the most successful of all the national culture of peace programs undertaken by UNESCO during the 1990’s was the radio services for non-formal education and information for the women of El Salvador. The radio programs provided non-formal education, information and counselling on different problems that women face in their daily lives, including contributing to the elimination of the various forms of discrimination and violence suffered by poor women. The initiative played a major role in assuring a transition to peace in that country following its bitter civil war.

The initiative received a comprehensive evaluation, from which the following quotations are taken.

Broadcasts took place on six national radio stations with an estimated audience of more than one million listeners and 15 stations with regional coverage operating in ail provinces with an average of about 300,000 listeners each.

In addition to the reception via individual radios, in many market places loud speakers were set up which constantly transmit radio programmes, including “Buenos Tiempos Mujer”, to the visitors of the market place.

The radio programs were accompanied by education campaigns that reached 14,000 women. Evaluation surveys found that twelve per cent of the persons interviewed listen continuously to the radio-shows 47 per cent occasionally, and 42 per cent never. Thus, it can be concluded, that the radio­ shows and the education campaigns complement each other for the majority of participants.

Most women talked about the contents of the seminars with friends and neighbours, and to some extent also with their husbands. The subjects which provoked most discussions were “equal rights”, followed by “self-esteem” for the women and “better treatment of women” for the men, issues which were rarely dealt with by mass media before.

Ninety-three per cent of men and 89 per cent of women interviewed confirmed that they had learnt something in the campaigns which helped them to change for better in their private life. The issues mentioned were in the order of importance: defending rights, better communication in family relations, increasing self-awareness, division of labour in the household, and self-esteem.

According to the conclusion of the evaluation, the project contributed to make the concepts of culture of peace and of gender equality accepted or at least tolerated in large parts of the society.

Here are the CPNN articles that touch on this subject:

South Kanem, Chad: the ADM promotes the culture of peace and peaceful cohabitation

Celebrating Radio Day in Haiti

World Radio Day: Celebrating radio as a tool for feminist peace

Cameroon: A radio station for the protection of the Waza biosphere reserve

Peace promotion in the Sahel: The best award-winning radio productions

Colombia’s rural radio stations are a key to peace

Mexico: Zacatecan Radio and Television System to introduce “the culture of peace” as a transversal theme

Making Waves: Local radio transforming perceptions of gender-based violence in Africa

The European Union gives voice to peace in Colombia with community radio

Cameroon: Community radio in the service of peace education

Why radio is proving the best medium to promote Colombia’s peace process

In Nepal, Woman Radio Host Makes Big Splash over Airwaves

d-democratic, d-information

South Kanem, Chad: the ADM promotes the culture of peace and peaceful cohabitation

. . DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION . . .

An article by Djidda Mahamat Oumar in Alwihda Info (translation by CPNN)

The Association “Développement du Mondo” (ADM) launched a campaign yesterday Wednesday June 26, 2024, an ambitious initiative aimed at combating intercommunity conflicts in the Kanem-Sud department.

During the event, the ADM distributed solar-powered radios to around fifteen local listening clubs.

This initiative, led by the President of the Association, Ali Younous Ali, aims to provide communities with easy and regular access to educational and awareness programs on conflict management and prevention.

(Click here for the original French version of this article.)

Questions related to this article:

Can a culture of peace be achieved in Africa through local indigenous training and participation?

How can peace be promoted by radio?

“Our goal is to promote a culture of peace and peaceful cohabitation through effective communication and community education,” said Ali Younous Ali, during the launching ceremony. The solar radios will play a crucial role in allowing members of the listening clubs to stay informed, and participate in constructive discussions on conflict resolution.

This action is part of a broader strategy of the ADM, aimed at strengthening social cohesion and encouraging peaceful dialogue between the different communities in the region. The beneficiaries of these radios expressed their gratitude for this valuable support, emphasizing the importance of having communication tools to promote peace and mutual understanding.

“These radio stations will allow us to stay connected and informed on best practices for conflict management,” said a member of a local listening club. The ADM reiterates its commitment to continue its efforts to promote peace and stability in South Kanem, in close collaboration with local communities and international partners.

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Africa, DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION

Australian MPs react to Julian Assange’s release

. . HUMAN RIGHTS . .

An article of Yahoo News Australia

Julian Assange has walked free from prison after the WikiLeaks founder reached an agreement with the US Department of Justice, ending a years long legal saga that centred on the release of hundreds of thousands of classified State Department cables, a development that has been welcomed across the Australian parliament.


Kristinn Hrafnsson, editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, addresses supporters Julian Assange outside Australia House on April 10, 2024 in London, England. (Photo: Leon Neal/Getty Images) Photo reproduced by Common Dreams

According to court documents filed on Monday, Mr Assange is expected to plead guilty to a single felony of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information, a violation under the US Espionage Act.

The plea deal will spare him further time in prison in the UK where he was reportedly suffering health issues and living in solitary confinement.

Having left prison on Monday after he was granted bail by the UK High Court, Mr Assange then boarded a private jet at Stansted Airport joined by UK High Commissioner Stephen Smith and left the country en route to Bangkok.

The 52-year-old is expected to front a US Federal Court on Wednesday in Saipan, a self-governing US territory located in the western Pacific, about 2400km east of the Philippines.

After being sentenced to the 62 months he has already spent in prison, he is expected to return to Australia.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has previously raised Mr Assange’s case in talks with US president Joe Biden. Mr Albanese told parliament in February he hoped that a resolution to the case could be found.

In a short statement released on Tuesday morning, an Australian government spokesman confirmed Mr Assange’s legal proceedings scheduled in the US.

“The Australian government continues to provide consular assistance to Mr Assange,” the spokesman said.

(continued in right column)

Question related to this article:

Julian Assange, Is he a hero for the culture of peace?

Is Internet freedom a basic human right?

(continued from left column)

“Prime Minister Albanese has been clear – Mr Assange’s case has dragged on for too long and there is nothing to be gained by his continued incarceration.”

Coalition frontbencher and Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce on Tuesday thanked those who had supported Mr Assange’s release, including members of a self-funded parliamentary delegation to lobby US Congress for his freedom.

“There were so many people who were part of this process, and what it showed was people from both sides of politics, for different reasons, arrived at the same place,” Mr Joyce said on Tuesday morning.

But Mr Joyce warned there were still further steps to be taken before Mr Assange’s freedom was assured.

“In a 1500m race, you don’t stop and start waving at the crowd with 2½ laps (to go). Wait to the end of the race and then the race is over,” he said.

Greens senator David Shoebridge also welcomed Mr Assange’s release and remarked that he was “looking forward to welcoming Julian back home”.

“Let’s be clear, Julian Assange should never have been charged with espionage in the first place or had to make this deal. (He) has spent years in jail for the crime of showing the world the horrors of the US war in Iraq and the complicity of governments like Australia and that is why he has been punished.”

With Mr Assange en route to Australia, a statement released by WikiLeaks thanked those who had lent their support to co-ordinated efforts to free him.

“This is the result of a global campaign that spanned grassroots organisers, press freedom campaigners, legislators and leaders from across the political spectrum, all the way to the United Nations,” a WikiLeaks statement read.

“This created the space for a long period of negotiations with the US Department of Justice, leading to a deal that has not yet been formally finalised.

“Julian’s freedom is our freedom”.

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East Asia, HUMAN RIGHTS

In Remembrance of James Lawson, a Force for Good and Champion of Peace

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION .

An article by Ethan Vesely-Flad in Common Dreams (licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called him “the leading theorist and strategist of nonviolence in the world.” To Rep. John Lewis, he was “the architect of the nonviolence movement.” Jesse Jackson simply called him “the Teacher.” We at the Fellowship of Reconciliation are blessed to have counted him among our core team of organizers. It is with reverence that we remember his life and time with us.


James Lawson at work with the Fellowship of Reconciliation in 1960. (Photo credit: FOR archives)

Rev. James M. Lawson, Jr., who died Sunday at age 95, was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and moved with his family to Massillon, Ohio, shortly after. As part of a deeply Christian family, James began regularly reading the bible and developed a prophetic and liberatory interpretation of the gospels at an early age. In a 2014 interview published by  Fellowship  magazine, Lawson told Diane Lefer, “By the end of my high school years, I came to recognize that that whole business – walk the second mile, turn the other cheek, pray for the enemy, see the enemy as a fellow human being – was a resistance movement. It was not an acquiescent affair or a passive affair. I saw it as a place where my own life grew in strength inwardly, and where I had actually seen people changed because I responded with the other cheek. I went the second mile with them.”

While attending Baldwin-Wallace College, Lawson met A.J. Muste, the Fellowship of Reconciliation’s executive secretary, a renowned pacifist and nonviolent direct action strategist. Deeply inspired, Lawson immediately joined the FOR. Graduating college in 1950, as the Cold War grew, Lawson determined that he would refuse the military draft. Instead of Korea, he was sent to prison, where he served 13 months.

In 1953, Lawson accepted an offer from Hislop College in Nagpur, India, to teach and coach athletics, giving him the opportunity to, like FOR members Howard Thurman and Bayard Rustin had done before him, explore the connections between the Indian self-determination movement and the African-American freedom struggle. Lawson spent the next three years on the subcontinent studying Gandhi’s life and the Satyagraha movement. “I combined the methodological analysis of Gandhi with the teachings of Jesus, who concludes that there are no human beings that you can exclude from the grace of God,” Lawson described to Lefer.

(Article continued in the column on the right)

Questions related to this article:

How can we carry forward the work of the great peace and justice activists who went before us?

(Article continued from the column on the left)

Lawson was completing a graduate degree at the Oberlin School of Theology when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., while visiting the campus, recruited him. King insisted to Lawson that his expertise was needed, not eventually, but immediately! “I mentioned to [King] that while in college I had long wanted to work in the South – especially because of segregation – as a place of work, and that I wanted to do that still,” Lawson told Fellowship magazine editor Richard Deats in 1999. “His response was: ‘Come now! Don’t wait! Don’t put it off too long. We need you NOW!”

When Lawson told A.J. Muste of his decision to move South, Muste quickly offered him a position as FOR’s Southern Field Secretary. Basing himself initially in Nashville, Lawson began working throughout the South, initially with FOR and then the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He focused especially on recruiting and training a generation of nonviolent direct-action activists. Those young people then launched the sit-ins and Freedom Rides and founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

In 1965, while representing SCLC on an International FOR delegation to Vietnam, Lawson met Thich Nhat Hanh. This encounter significantly affected Lawson, inspiring him to facilitate a meeting between the Buddhist monk and Dr. King, and ultimately led to King’s dramatic public stance against the U.S. war in Vietnam. Lawson’s profound assessment of U.S. militarism and what he called “plantation capitalism” shaped not only the interweaving of the 1960s civil rights and anti-war struggles but ultimately how our intersectional social movements are shaped today.

In 1974, in Los Angeles, Lawson continued his solidarity with impoverished low-wage workers. He founded Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice to enlist faith communities in this struggle and pushed direct action campaigns for which he was arrested “more [times] than [during] all his work in the South.”

Lawson spent his last decades both working within peace circles while offering critiques that their movements devoted too much of their focus outside U.S. borders. He believed that true change could only come from within. “Only by engaging in domestic issues and molding a domestic coalition for justice can we confront the militarization of our land,” he argued to Lefer in 2014. “We must confront that here – not over there.”

Whether prophetically interpreting the scriptures, challenging America’s original sin with the fierce power of nonviolent direct action, or strategically connecting with other monumental peace leaders, Lawson’s commitment to social justice was relentless and unwavering. We at the Fellowship of Reconciliation are blessed to have worked with and been mentored by him. As we continue to confront the injustices of our times, we know that Lawson’s spirit is walking beside us.

(Editor’s note: You may find a more detailed biography on the website of The Nation, but we have no budget to pay for reproduction.)

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FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, North America

Complicity in Genocide—The Case Against the Biden Administration

. . HUMAN RIGHTS . .

An article from In These Times

Early this month (February 2024), a federal judge dismissed a case brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) charging  U.S. President Joe Biden, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken with complicity in the Israeli-led genocide in Gaza.

But while many media outlets were quick to report on the case not moving forward, they largely missed a key aspect of the ruling: the judge did not dismiss the case on its merits but rather because it fell  “outside the court’s limited jurisdiction,” therefore rejecting it on technical grounds. In fact, U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White’s statement appeared to uphold some of plaintiff’s key charges in the case:  “Both the uncontroverted testimony of the plaintiffs and the expert opinion proffered at the hearing on these motions as well as statements made by various officers of the Israeli government indicate that the ongoing military siege in Gaza is intended to eradicate a whole people and therefore plausibly falls within the international prohibition against genocide.”


US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, US President Joe Biden, and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin look on during a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on October 2, 2023.
(PHOTO BY BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES)

The judge went further, urging Biden and his administration officials to scrutinize  “the results of their unflagging support” for the Israeli government’s assault on Gaza.

Judge White was not alone in his appraisal. The case, first heard on January 26 in front of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, saw roughly 100 human rights and humanitarian aid groups write briefs supporting CCR’s charges against the Biden administration. 

These briefs make it abundantly clear that the Biden administration, in its steadfast support of the Israeli government, is complicit in the ongoing genocide, the displacement of approximately 80% of Palestinians from their homes and the deaths of more than 29,000 so far in this latest chapter of a year-long Nakba (catastrophe) that never ended.

CCR’s lawsuit underscored the plight of a Palestinian people asserting their humanity and refusing to be sacrificed at the altar of  the 1948 Genocide Convention—which tasks governments with preventing genocides and forbids their complicity in genocides perpetrated by another party — and the U.S. Genocide Convention Implementation Act, passed in 1988, which incorporates this mandate into U.S. law.

As multiple human rights advocates and experts such as Israeli historian and Associate Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies Raz Segal have laid out, Israel is carrying out a textbook case of genocide” in Gaza, backed by clear genocidal intent, laid bare in Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant’s Oct. 9 declaration: “We are imposing a complete siege on Gaza. No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we will act accordingly.”

In response to the case, the Biden administration countered that CCR’s lawsuit should not move forward because supporting Israel is a foreign policy decision reserved for the executive branch, free from judicial interference; that the United States is not responsible for how Israel, a foreign government, acts; and that there is no federal law allowing the plaintiffs to sue.

CCR noted, first, that the issue is not whether the U.S. can make foreign policy decisions involving Israel but rather that the decision to aid in a genocide violates federal law, and the courts have a duty to uphold the law even against U.S. officials.

Second, CCR explained in detail how the Biden administration, far from a neutral spectator, is actively supporting the genocide through military, economic and diplomatic assistance.

Militarily, Secretary Blinken exercised emergency powers twice in December to approve the sale of armament worth approximately $254 million. According to the Defense Department, these supplies come from the War Reserve Stocks for Allies-Israel (WRSA-I), an obscure U.S. stockpile in Israel containing billions of dollars’ worth of equipment.

The administration now seeks to loosen WRSA-I restrictions for Israel, expanding access to weaponry, increasing the annual stockpile limits, and removing legislative oversight, while adding to the privileges Israel already enjoys such as permission to withdraw WRSA-I items without the prior justification required of all other recipient countries.

The U.S. has provided (or is on track to provide) Israel over 25,000 tons of military supplies: dozens of F‑35 and F-15 fighter jets (to be received in the coming years), a dozen Apache helicopters, two thousand Hellfire missiles, MK‑ 84 bombs and Joint Direct Attack Munitions to guide them, Spice bombs, M141 bunker‑buster munitions, one million rounds of 7.62 mm munitions and thousands of 155 mm artillery shells, 30 mm cannon munitions, night‑vision devices and much more. Meanwhile, the presence of U.S. surveillance drones in Gaza suggests the possibility of greater U.S. military involvement than previously thought.

Financially, President Biden requested an emergency supplemental budget exceeding $14 billion to support Israel. The House of Representatives responded with a bill reflecting this amount plus billions of dollars for joint operations assistance. The Senate has now passed a bill for $14 billion permitting the supply of currently forbidden military items to Israel, as well as waiving WRSA-I caps. These bills are currently being debated in Congress but enjoy broad bipartisan support.

And, diplomatically, the United States exercised its veto privilege at the United Nations Security Council to stall international calls for a cease-fire in Gaza on October 18, December 8 and February 20. The December instance followed UN Secretary General António Guterres’s invocation of Article 99 of the UN Charter to refer to the Security Council a “ matter which, in [his] opinion, may aggravate existing threats to the maintenance of international peace and security.”

Article 99 was last invoked in 1971 preceding the split of Bangladesh from Pakistan. Additionally, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly supported cease-fire resolutions on October 27 and December 12 , both of which the U.S. voted against. And, on December 22 , the U.S. abstained from a Security Council vote to direct humanitarian aid to Gaza after stalling for four days to remove a call for cease-fire from the resolution.

These various forms of support unequivocally constitute aiding and abetting of Israel’s cataclysmic destruction of Gaza, and the CCR argued as much in establishing that the U.S. has been actively complicit in the ongoing genocide.

Relatedly, the CCR referenced this very aiding and abetting in claiming that they do have a federal right to sue under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS). As they explained, “aiding and abetting liability, particularly for U.S. defendants,” triggers the ATS goal of “provid[ing] a forum for violations of international law.”

(continued in right column)

Question related to this article:

How can war crimes be documented, stopped, punished and prevented?

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Therefore, the CCR concluded, the courts do have a constitutional duty to put an end to the executive branch’s complicity in genocide; the executive branch is complicit based on its clear aiding and abetting in the form of military, financial and diplomatic support; and the ATS permits plaintiffs to sue federal officials for their violations of the Genocide Convention.

No conditions

CCR further charged Biden, Blinken and Austin with failure to prevent the genocide. The Genocide Convention and customary international law compel governments to exercise due diligence to prevent genocide, and self-defense is legally insufficient as a justification for eradicating a population. U.S. officials are liable if they could likely influence Israel’s conduct and if they should have known that Israel’s acts raised a serious risk of genocide in Gaza.

In Gaza, the U.S. indisputably can influence Israel’s conduct. The U.S. fills 92% of Israel’s arms imports. Much of this equipment can only originate from the U.S. as it utilizes proprietary technologies. Defense Minister Gallant admitted as much, when the U.S. pressured for humanitarian aid to Gaza, noting that “[t]he Americans insisted and we are not in a place where we can refuse them. We rely on them for planes and military equipment. What are we supposed to do? Tell them no?” The Biden administration similarly boasted about its influence in persuading Israel to pause aggressions for seven days in late November.

And the United States is doubtlessly aware of the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The CCR shared its emergency legal briefing paper with Biden, Blinken, and Austin in October explaining these exact points. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in January that there is a plausible risk that Israel is carrying out genocide. Additionally, more than 800 public officials and diplomats across a range of countries, close to 80 of whom are based in the U.S. and work primarily within Blinken’s State Department, warned in February that their governments were at risk of being complicit in genocide.

In a previous case, the ICJ found Serbia to be liable for failing to prevent the genocide of Muslim communities in Srebrenica in 1995 by the Bosnian Serb forces, an independent actor that perpetrated the genocide with the support of the Serbian government. Dr. William A. Schabas, a renowned Professor of Human Rights Law and International Criminal Law, concluded that U.S. complicity in the war on Gaza “ has many parallels” with the Serbian government’s complicity in Srebrenica since, like the relationship between Israel and the U.S., “[t]he Bosnian Serb forces were very dependent upon weaponry and other logistical support from Serbia, and there were strong political and economic ties” between the two. The U.S. acknowledged this very duty to prevent genocide when it commented in support of Ukraine’s case against Russia at the ICJ in 2022.

The Biden administration blanketly denies the genocide charges against Israel while refusing to investigate them altogether. President Biden vowed that his “ administration’s support for Israel’s security is rock solid and unwavering.” Secretary Blinken has stated his view that South Africa’s “ charge of genocide [against Israel before the ICJ] is meritless.” And White House Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said, on behalf of the Biden administration, that “[w]e find [South Africa’s] submission meritless, counterproductive and completely without any basis in fact, whatsoever,” later insisting that “ we find that that claim is unfounded.”

More recently, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi baselessly claimed that “ nothing [the U.S. has] sent since Oct. 7 [to Israel] has contributed to this brutality,” despite well recorded evidence to the contrary.

The U.S. State Department ordered officials to refrain from using the phrases “ de‑escalation,” “ cease-fire,” “ end to violence,” “ end to bloodshed,” and “ restoring calm” in press releases, and Secretary Blinken was found to have deleted references to a cease-fire in his posts on X (formerly Twitter) after they had already been sent out.

Conspicuously, a State Department task force on preventing atrocities took a full two weeks into the extremely brutal assault before meeting to discuss Israel and Palestine, and it was nevertheless sidelined by the administration.

According to Kirby, the U.S. imposes no conditions on weapons transfers to Israel even though the Foreign Assistance Act, the Leahy Law, and the Conventional Arms Transfer policy prohibit transfers when the weapons are likely intended to be used for genocide. Notably, transfers to most countries can be put on hold if one stakeholder suspects an item will be used unlawfully. In the case of Israel, multiple stakeholders, including the Bureau of Near East Affairs (NEA) and the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, must first agree that such risk exists, and the hold must be approved by the Deputy Secretary of State.

Moreover, these transfers are shrouded in secrecy. Whereas the U.S. published pages detailing what weapons, and in what quantities, it provided to Ukraine, governmental disclosures concerning Israel amount to one brief sentence. Josh Paul, former director in the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, remarks that there is no benefit in this secrecy except diminished oversight.

And the administration insists that it has remained close to the Israeli officials perpetrating the genocide. Kirby claimed that “ we have, since the beginning of the conflict, in the early hours, maintained a level of communication with our Israeli counterparts to ascertain their intentions, their strategy, their aims.” Secretary Blinken has held hours-long conferences with Israeli military officials, and Secretary Austin had near-daily calls with Minister Gallant “ to meet Israel’s needs, which include air defense, precision guided munitions, artillery and medical supplies.”

Responsibility to act

The U.S. District Court in California, spotlighting the ICJ’s finding of plausible genocide, implored the administration to reconsider its course for the welfare of the Palestinian people, finding the judiciary to be lamentably powerless to interfere with foreign policy decisions.

Looking to the future, a group of South African lawyers stated to the Biden administration their intention to sue the U.S. government for “ aiding, abetting and supporting, encouraging or providing material assistance and means to Israel” during a genocide. On February 12 , the South African government urgently requested that the ICJ use its powers to prevent further genocidal acts by Israel in light of the most recent attack on Rafah, “ the last refuge for surviving people in Gaza.”

As the CCR case makes clear, the United States government is currently facilitating the annihilation of Gaza and the Palestinian people. In the face of this massacre, Congress has a responsibility to rein in the abuses of the Biden administration by exercising its review authority to end any further aid to the Israeli government. While recent efforts to condition such aid have failed, that should not prevent members of Congress from taking a clear stand: now is the time to hold the Biden administration accountable for its complicity in the crime of genocide.

(Editor’s note: Recent polling data (May 8) in the United States indicates that 39% believe Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people living in Gaza, 38% saying Israel is not, and 23% saying they don’t know. A majority of Democrats (56%) and a slight plurality of Independents (36%) say they believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.)

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HUMAN RIGHTS, Mideast, North America,

Gaza protests at universities around the world

. TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY . .

A pictorial survey by CPNN

As of June 12 Wikipedia lists protests against the Israeli attacks on Gaza in more than 25 countries. “Twenty encampments have been established in the United Kingdom; across universities in Australia, beginning with the University of Sydney; and in Canada, including an encampment at McGill University. On May 7, protests spread further on European campuses after mass arrests at the University of Amsterdam campus occupation, including occupation of campus buildings at Leipzig University in Germany, Sciences Po in France, and Ghent University in Belgium. As of May 8, protests have taken place in more than 25 countries. On May 13, approximately 1,000 Dutch students and university staff took part in a national walk-out.”

Here are photos from the various countries. Click on the country name if you wish to see the source for the photo and caption.

AUSTRALIA


The pro-Palestinian student protesters who set up the camp at the University of Sydney want disclosure of and divestment from all university activities that support Israel, as well as a ceasefire and the end of government ties to Israel. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

BANGLADESH


Bangladeshi students wave Palestinian flags, as they march during a pro- Palestinian demonstration at the Dhaka University area in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, May 6, 2024. Credit: AP/Mahmud Hossain Opu

CANADA


Pro-Palestinian supporters take part in a sit-in at the University of Ottawa, in Ottawa on Monday, April 29, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle

COSTA RICA


Estudiantes de la Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR) instalaron un campamento desde la noche del Primero de Mayo en el pretil de la Ciudad Universitaria Rodrigo Facio en solidaridad con Palestina

CUBA


Cubans rally in support of US students, Palestine (frame from video)

DENMARK


Pro-Palestinian protesters set up camp at the city campus of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. Photograph: Thomas Traasdahl/AP

EGYPT


Students at American University of Cairo call for university to divest from corporations tied to occupation

FINLAND


Students began a pro-Palestinian demonstration on the University of Helsinki campus on Monday. The demonstration is organised by a group called Students for Palestine, which is demanding that the university cut ties with Israeli universities.

FRANCE


Students demonstrate outside La Sorbonne university with a huge Palestinian flag, Monday, April 29, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)”

GERMANY


Protesters attend a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Berlin. Photograph: Lisi Niesner/Reuters

GREECE


A woman shouts slogans during a protest against Israel’s military action in Gaza at Syntagma Square, central Athens, Greece, on May 11, 2024. People protesting at Athens Law School the following Tuesday were arrested [Michael Varaklas/AP]

INDIA


From Jatinangor, Unpad Students Support Pro-Palestinian Demonstrations in the US. Photo: ist

INDONESIA


The University of Indonesia academic community held a solidarity camp action at the University of Indonesia Campus, Depok, West Java, Friday (3/5/2024).

IRAQ


Iraqi university students carry Palestinian flags and placards during a rally at the Baghdad University campus. Photograph: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images

IRELAND


A student encampment on the grounds of Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, as seen from above. Photograph: Damien Eagers/Reuters

ISRAEL


Demonstrators protest calling to end the war in Gaza at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem on May 28, 2024.Yoatan Sindel/Flash90

ITALY


Pro-Palestine protests, the first Italian protest with tents at the University of Bologna: “Stop complicity with Israel” Frame from video.

JAPAN


Japanese students rally at the Waseda University in Tokyo on Friday (May 3, 2024). Pro-Palestine student rallies spread across other countries after it began at Columbia University in April. (Anadolu)

continued in right column)

Question related to this article:

Presenting the Palestinian side of the Middle East, Is it important for a culture of peace?

(continued from left column)

KUWAIT


Faculty members and students of Kuwait University carry placards during a protest in solidarity with Gaza and Palestine on April 29, 2024. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

LEBANON


Demonstrators hold Lebanese and Palestinian flags during a protest in solidarity with Gaza at the Lebanese American University (LAU), in Beirut, Lebanon April 30, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azaki

MEXICO


Pro-Palestinian activists erect a tent in front of the rectory building of the Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Photograph: Yuri Cortéz/AFP/Getty Images

MOROCCO


From the student movement in Morocco in solidarity with Gaza, May 8, 2024 (Al-Araby Al-Jadeed)

NETHERLANDS


Teachers from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) held a walk-out on the Roeterseiland campus on May 13. Image ANP

NEW ZEALAND


Students take part in a pro-Palestine rally at the University of Canterbury on Thursday. Iain Mcgregor / The Press

POLAND


Students from the Jagiellonian University are occupying one of the buildings of the Jagiellonian University. The protesters demand unequivocal condemnation of Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip and the severance of all contacts with Israeli companies and universities. Photo PAP/Art Service.

PORTUGAL


Occupation of the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Lisbon organized by the Student Climate Strike movement and several groups of students demanding justice for Palestine. Photo: Nuno Fox

ROMANIA


Several dozen young people are protesting at the University of Bucharest, where some of them have set up tents in the yard of the Faculty of Psychology, in a pro-Palestine movement, modeled on those in the USA. They say they will stay as long as it takes for the University of Bucharest to end any collaboration with Israel or institutions in Israel. The protesters put Palestinian flags around them, Photo: David Leonard Bularca / Hotnews

SOUTH AFRICA


Students have set up a “Wits liberated zone” solidarity encampment on the Wits University library lawns. Photo: Ihsaan Haffejee

SOUTH KOREA


Members of SNU Soobak, a student organization for solidarity with Palestine, carry out an anti-war sit-in on the campus of Seoul National University on May 8, 2024. (Kim Jung-hyo/The Hankyoreh)

SPAIN


Students camp at the University of Barcelona cloister to support Palestine on May 6, 2024 / Natàlia Segura

SWEDEN


Students all over Sweden are today joining the global student uprisings and are now occupying universities in Sweden, against the genocide in Palestine, for a permanent ceasefire and an end to the occupation. Photo from twitter of Greta Thunberg

SWITZERLAND


The hall of EPFL’s architecture building in Lausanne is currently (May 7) occupied by around 50 Pro-Palestinian protesters. KEYSTONE/© KEYSTONE / JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BOTT

TUNISIA


Since yesterday Monday (April 29), students of the Institute of Press and Information Sciences have observed an open sit-in day and night, boycotting classes and exams, setting up tents and launching a movement they called “ Camp Shirine Abu Aqla”, in support of the Palestinian people.

UNITED KINGDOM


Students gather outside Oxford University Museum of Natural History in the UK
Photograph: Hollie Adams/Reuters

UNITED STATES


CNN May 10:.As pro-Palestinian protests have erupted on college campuses nationwide, protesters — including students and faculty — continue to be arrested. Map: Where university protesters have been arrested across the United States. (click on map to enlarge)

YEMEN


DHAMAR April 29. 2024 (Saba) – Members of the Faculty of Education at Dhamar University organized a protest to denounce the massacres committed by the Zionist enemy in Gaza.

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global, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

6 ways you can support Palestinians in Gaza

. TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY . .

An editorial by Jennifer Bing for the American Friends Service Committee

Many people of conscience are looking for ways to support Palestinians in Gaza as violence continues to escalate. On Oct. 7, a Hamas-led attack on Israel killed at least 1,200 Israelis and took an estimated 200 hostages. Israel immediately launched attacks on Gaza. After months of bombardment, Israeli attacks have killed more than 37,000 Palestinians in Gaza and displaced nearly 2 million from their homes.

Now Gaza is facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis that grows worse by the day. People are dying of starvation and disease. The entire health care system has collapsed. Still, Israel continues to hinder the delivery of aid and maintains its total siege on the territory.


A Palestinian girl walks next to a Banksy mural of children using an Israeli army watchtower as a swing ride, on a wall in Beit Hanoun town, in the northern Gaza Strip. April 10, 2015. Sameh Rahmi

Gaza’s 2.3 million people have long faced suffocating conditions imposed by Israel and upheld by the international community. For 16 years, Palestinians in Gaza have lived under Israel’s brutal blockade, isolated from the rest of Palestine and the world. More than 50% of Palestinians were unemployed and over 80% relied on humanitarian relief to survive. They had limited access to clean water, electricity, and medical care.  

Previous Israeli military attacks on Gaza—including devastating bombing assaults in May 2021, August 2022, and May 2023—killed hundreds of civilians and destroyed critical infrastructure. Even before Oct. 7, 2023, the psychosocial well-being of children, young people, and their caregivers had declined to alarming levels, according to Save the Children.  

Today, we must renew and strengthen our efforts to change these realities. Here are six ways you can support Palestinians in Gaza today.  

1) Contact your member of Congress and call for an immediate cease-fire. 
 
Popular opinion polls show a majority of people in the U.S. favor of a cease-fire. Millions have joined protests around the globe. Yet only a few members of Congress have publicly called for a cease-fire. Our elected officials must keep hearing from us.  

° Take a few minutes today to call your representative using this online form. Then, send them an email.  

° Join AFSC online for our weekly Action Hour for a Cease-Fire. Every Friday, we’ll share updates from AFSC’s staff in Gaza, tips for advocacy, and then make calls and write letters to Congress. Register here. 

2) Help bring attention to what’s happening in Gaza.  

° Take part in protests. Marches, rallies, and vigils are a powerful way to publicly demonstrate solidarity with Gaza. To make your message loud and clear, download and print our free posters for Palestine. 

° Write a letter to the editor. This is an effective way to show support for Gaza, counter harmful media narratives about what’s happening, and add context that news outlets often miss out on. Use these letter-writing tips.

(continued in right column)

Question related to this article:

Presenting the Palestinian side of the Middle East, Is it important for a culture of peace?

How can just one or a few persons contribute to peace and justice?

(continued from left column)

3) Learn more about Gaza and lift up Palestinian voices. 

Read “Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire.” This anthology features work by 12 Palestinian writers who imagine the future of Gaza beyond the cruelties of occupation and apartheid.  For a limited time, you can download the e-book for free. You can also listen to online conversations with “Light in Gaza” contributors and organize a group in your community to read the book.  Use our study guide  to help facilitate discussions.  

Check out articles by AFSC staff, including: 

Yousef Aljamal’s articles on decimation of education in Gaza and impact of 200 days of genocide in Gaza.

Article by Firas Ramlawi on AFSC’s efforts in Gaza to bring relief to children. 

Article by Zoe Jannuzi on creating community on AFSC’s weekly Action hours for a cease-fire. 

Check out our list of resources about Gaza, including films, articles, books, and websites. Seek out news coverage from outlets with Palestinian journalists reporting from Gaza including the Electronic Intifada, Middle East Eye, Mondoweiss, and Al Jazeera. 

4) Hold corporations accountable for their role in violating the rights of Palestinians in Gaza. 

This war is enabled by the U.S. military industrial complex, as was the case with Israel’s previous attacks on Gaza. This short list includes large weapon manufacturers  that have been complicit in military attacks on Gaza. Here is the list of companies that are profiting from current attacks on Gaza, which will continually be updated by AFSC.

However, that is the tip of the iceberg. Many U.S. corporations are involved in Israel’s apartheid regime and other routine human rights violations against Palestinians. Ensure your money is not contributing to human rights violations—and call on these companies to end their complicity in apartheid and war crimes. 

Visit AFSC’s Investigate website to learn more about companies involved in the occupation, and how you can join efforts to divest or boycott them. 

5) Join us in working to dismantle Israeli apartheid. 

In 2023, AFSC and partners launched the Apartheid-Free initiative. Over 324 communities, groups, and organizations, have pledged to call themselves “Apartheid-Free” and join others in working to end all support to Israel’s apartheid regime, settler colonialism, and military occupation. Use the resources on the Apartheid-Free website and sign up to receive our monthly newsletter to get involved and help build a movement for a world where all people are equal and treated with dignity and respect.

6) Make a gift. 

Donate to support AFSC’s emergency relief in Gaza: Your donation will bring humanitarian relief and support efforts to stop the violence and build conditions for peace.

Support AFSC’s advocacy for Palestinian rights. Help fund our ongoing work with communities across the U.S. to bring about peace, justice, and human dignity for all people. 
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