They added: “Instead of absolute condemnation, some Israeli far-right leaders have rallied to support the suspects of abuse, which is emblematic of the root causes that enable such abuse to happen in the first place.”
However, for the first time in a generation, the Israeli public is forced to contemplate a “day after” scenario, creating space for new political imaginations. As protests and public anger intensify, this collective rage could fuel a transformative new future.
Saturday evening witnessed the biggest Israeli demonstrations against the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since the outbreak of war on October 7, 2023, according to the Israeli press as summarized by Al Jazeera. Some 150,000 are said to have rallied in Tel Aviv alone. They demanded that the prime minister resign.
In recent days, this action has led to tangible results. Trinity College Dublin in Ireland agreed to divest from three Israeli companies linked to settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. After the university made the announcement, students began dismantling their protest camp.
Rather than acting as a check on the powerful, media outlets like CNN and MSNBC are allowing police to give their interpretation of student Palestine protests with few challenges, even in cases where police are blatantly lying or distorting the truth.
We must honor the student demonstrators and all who champion them as the heroes they are, cease the opportunistic abuse of the term ‘antisemitism,’ and urge them to continue their protests.
Pro-Palestine student protesters are being smeared as puppets of shadowy “outside agitators.” The presence of community members and experienced activists in the protests is nothing to be ashamed of: we need outside agitators to build a better world.
My conclusion: While protest movements are often ignited by many different things, and attract an assortment of people with a range of motives, this one is centered on one thing: moral outrage at the slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent people — most of them women and children — in Gaza.
To interpret these protests as anything else — as antisemitic or anti-Zionist or anti-American or pro-Palestinian — is to miss the essence of what’s going on and why.
Then on Tuesday a spokesman for President Biden’s White House actually denounced the term “intifada” as “hate speech” and hinted that using it was a form of antisemitism. But Arabic is a Semitic language, so how can a Semitic word be “antisemitic”? I’m confused.
This sequence of events is far from exceptional. Since October 7, Israel’s police have been implementing a consistent policy of preventing or limiting any protest against the war — in contrast to protests in solidarity with the hostages and their families, which have been permitted in certain areas. This policy is still in effect despite Israel’s Supreme Court issuing an interim injunction earlier this month prohibiting National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir from interfering with the policing of demonstrations; in large part, police appear nonetheless to be enforcing the minister’s desired crackdown on freedom of expression during the war.
Hundreds of protesters in dinghies, tinnies and canoes will lay siege to the world’s largest coal port as they call on the government to stop new fossil fuel projects.
“In our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians,” demonstrators chanted at Saturday’s march, described as one of the largest political protests in U.K. history.
Today, the same is even more true for the large, impressive protests about Gaza led specifically by Jewish Americans. There have also been smaller protests in Israel calling for a ceasefire.
Netanyahu promised “In the future he will do things differently and look for a measure consensus”. Yes,at one and the same time he passed a Bill to form a Specialist Domestic National Guard to deal with domestic situations just like this, and in particular any Israeli or Palestinian protest. A specialist SS force, is his wants rather than an ineffective police force. Doesn’t it remind you of another place and another time in history where a force of head kickers was established?
Key points Prime Minister Netanyahu faces his biggest domestic crisis. Medics are on strike, and all-black ads cover newspapers. Two reservists have been punished for not heeding the training call-up. An officer has warned that absent reservists could damage military readiness. Netanyahu says he will seek political consensus in the future. Advertisement Jerusalem: Israeli doctors declared a strike and more army reservists have asked to halt service in a public backlash over the hard-right government’s ratification of the first stage of a judicial overhaul that critics say endangers democracy.
Israel’s Netanyahu Government wants the application of “Unitary Executive Theory” and do away with the “Separation of Powers”. In simple terms establish a Fascist State disguised as a Democracy in name only. Simply because it will still have ” show elections”. Guess Russia is a Democracy in the eyes of Netanyahu. A unitary executive would also keep him from being jailed for corruption.
The country does not have a formal constitution, but some laws, on human rights issues, have been taken as the basis for overturning subsequent legislation that contradicts the basic laws. Removing the Supreme Court’s power of judicial review would make Israel an elective dictatorship, where the ruling party can pass retrograde laws permitting discrimination against women, Christians, Muslims, secularists and gays, in accordance with the principles of the Israeli Religious Right.
The Supreme Court has also branded some squatter-settlements by Israelis on Palestinian-owned land in the West Bank as illegal, and extremists Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir want to prevent the court from so ruling in the future.
Since June 27, every news channel has been covering the recent protests in Paris. On the surface, these disturbances are the result of a police shooting of an unarmed 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk who was attempting to flee the police at a traffic stop. However, many news outlets neglect to note that this is neither an isolated incident nor a simple case of poor policing. These riots and similar instances in France demonstrate the country’s deep-seated institutional racism.
TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Israel’s business hub Tel Aviv saw the biggest anti-government protest in weeks on Saturday against a renewed push by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition to overhaul the justice system.
The extremist Israeli government is preparing a law to dismiss Israeli Arab students who raise the Palestine flag or express their support for Palestinian resistance inside universities, Israel Hayom revealed on Thursday.
Republicans are weary of Donald Trump’s calls for protests amid the belief by the former president that he’ll be arrested this week in connection with a years-old hush-money payment to a porn star.
Mr. Trump has called on his supporters to protest and “take our nation back!” prompting warnings of caution Sunday from prominent conservatives who say they do not want a repeat similar to the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The statement differs from a set of facts tendered by police during Coco’s case last year, which saw her sentenced to 15 months in prison with a non-parole period of eight months. She has launched an appeal against the sentence.
Carrying signs reading, “Together against fascism and apartheid” and “Democracy in danger,” thousands of Israelis on Saturday marched in protest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition government, which less than a week after being sworn in has already threatened to strip the country’s judiciary of power and announced punitive measures against Palestinian people and leaders.
Hartcher can’t see the difference between Democracies, Protest and what people want,
Just who this message is meant for is uncertain. The economic gains of democracy are probably not all that high on the priority list for Iranian demonstrators, or for the Chinese who are increasingly demanding change. Democracy for these courageous people is about freedom and for the chance to live without fear of arbitrary arrest. It’s certainly not about electing one group or party to organise a capitalist economy that will deliver better economic returns to a minority.
Today, the right to abortion is secure across Australia. It wasn’t won by parliamentary means, however, but by militant campaigning and union solidarity.
With every wave of protest, the desire for freedom gets stronger, the voices get louder and success is within reach. Once again, Iranian women are at the forefront of demanding transformative change. With the strong support this time of men, political and ethnic minorities and other disenfranchised groups, they may be leading their country closer to a freer and more just society.The Conversation
Across Australia, Labor and Liberal governments are cracking down on the right to protest. Their motivation is clear: both parties care more about the fossil-fuel industry than the environment.
Some of the participants invoked the words of the late John Lewis. The civil rights leader who became a Democratic congressman and represented Georgia for over three decades famously encouraged getting into ‘good trouble’ when fighting against injustices.
Misinformation breeds the misconception that our climate isn’t up shit creek which in turn leads to governments not feeling much pressure to actually do something about it. And even ostensibly left-wing governments need to feel pressure on this issue.
This is why activists of the sort that pissed off half of car-owning Sydney this week are so important. They serve as a counter-balance to the mainstream narrative that things are just fine and dandy the way they are. Yes, being late on the road sucks, but you should have seen the traffic in Lismore earlier this year.
The Russian TV editor who interrupted a news broadcast to protest the Ukraine war said on Sunday she acted out of dissatisfaction at propaganda disseminated by Vladimir Putin’s government, and said she had turned down an offer of asylum in France despite fearing further retaliation. Republicans in Washington have expressed concern that Carlson has veered too close to defending Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Marina Ovsyannikova, who describes herself as “a patriot”, was fined 30,000 roubles ($280) by a court in Moscow last week for the “spontaneous” act of rebellion in which she appeared during the live newscast with a sign saying “No War”. On Sunday, she told ABC’s This Week she needed to speak out after watching her employer, Channel One, spread “lies” about the Ukraine war.
Canada isn’t the target it’s the example to encourage a second coming in the USA
They are happily giving very official-looking press conferences designed to increase the hostility of the gathering and make a violent public crunch with law enforcement all but inevitable. “As the authorities threaten to arrest people blocking the streets of the capital,” reports The New York Times, “protest organizers on Wednesday appealed to supporters to pour into Ottawa and make their gatherings too large for the police to disperse.” Worst of all, I am mortally certain variations of this thing will be the Hot Item on right-wing calendars by March. I’m fairly shocked we’re not already seeing Trump trucks at intersections all across the country. In Canada, it was about vaccine mandates. Here, if it does come, similar actions would certainly seem to be another tactical maneuver toward a second insurrection; a practice run, if you will, under the cover of “We Hate Everything” protest cacophony. What better way to bog down a federal response to a second coup attempt than to clog the intersections of vital areas with Peterbilts and Macks? Park it, cut the engine, throw the keys in the river and walk away. It’s just that simple.
Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Brussels on Sunday to demand Belgium’s elected leaders and others from around the world finally dispense with proclamations, broken promises, and half-measures and instead “act” on the climate emergency.
Cue the sound of one invisible hand clapping – doing nothing undoes everything. The Covid Crusader’s government presides over the baffling mystery of who gave permission to the Ruby Princess to dock in Sydney 19 March 2020 and to let all 2650 passengers disembark. It’s an enigma. At least the ruling elite’s cult de jour, our Hillsong prosperity gospellers, are allowed to come ashore and bring their covid infections with them. No-one is brought to account. What we do is have an inquiry. Normalising corruption is something the Morrison government has turned into an art form, the embossed wallpaper of modern politics. Instead of penalties, Ministers get promotions. Witness sports rorts’ Bridget McKenzie. Back with not one but five portfolios. In the end, Gladys makes a bad exit. Whilst she may appear to enjoy a type of celebrity, this is not to be confused with legitimacy. Indeed, her authority is undermined by the corporate media’s wilful myth-making, in which she is taken captive, made into a type of mascot or trophy wife for appeasing business demands for as little regulation as possible.
Email Twitter62 Facebook8.6k LinkedIn Print Scenes of protesters clad in hi-vis jackets and shouting anti-vaccination slogans have dominated the news this week.
As the ABC reported: Some of those gathered held a banner reading ‘freedom’, while others sang the national anthem and chanted ‘f*** the jab’. Some attacked union offices, drawing criticism from officials such as ACTU chief Sally McManus, who described the protests as being orchestrated “by violent right-wing extremists and anti-vaccination activists.” These images may shock some but for researchers like me — who research far-right nationalist and conspiracy movements, and explore the online spaces where these people organise — these scenes came as no real surprise.
“Not far from here, such marches, even now, are being met with bullets, but not here in this country.” That comment elicited a furious response from Greens leader Adam Bandt and Senator Larissa Waters, who blasted him for an “insulting” message. “The Prime Minister’s message for women who were demanding justice and change, was ‘be grateful we didn’t shoot you’. This is unbelievably appalling behaviour,” Mr Bandt railed.
“We are not afraid to protest on the roads, we are not afraid to be shot, because our future has already been destroyed by this military coup,” he told the ABC. “We think this is really unfair to
disrespect our votes, and also our country was transforming into a democracy just a few years ago, but right now we are going back to the stone age.”
Tennessee protesters will face harsh penalties, including losing the right to vote, as punishment for participating in protests under a law enacted by the Tennessee GOP-dominant General Assembly. Right-wing Governor Bill Lee quietly signed off on the bill Thursday, AP reports.
For everyone so worried about the Protest causing a spike in COVID infections this photo was taken at the same time as the protest was on, it shows people at a market in North Sydney, no masks, no physical distancing, no health precautions, all of which were happening at the protest. Direct your anger equally or stfu
When white politicians and media judge peaceful #BlackLivesMatter protests as “selfish” while turning a blind eye to violent outbursts by anti-lock-down conspiracists, we are a long way from equality, writes Dr Jennifer Wilson.
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