donderdag 11 februari 2021

Zionist Terror

An Israel-Connected Lawyer is Trying to Dox Pro-Palestine Students in California

SJP Battle at UCLA

One of the issues we cover most frequently at Mondoweiss is the crackdown on campus Palestine activism. Under the Trump administration, pro-Israel groups looking to stifle such activity were given a decisive political boost. For the last four years, they had an Education Department that was receptive to formal complaints and willing to use civil rights law as a cudgel to attack pro-Palestine students.

Ironically, some of the same people who consistently decry the horrors of "cancel culture" have no problem with advocates for Palestine being canceled. In fact, they often cheer it on.

Let's take a look at a case in California. In 2018, UCLA hosted the annual National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) Conference. That event was met with hostility and repeated attacks. The vice chancellor of the school sent a cease and desist letter to the student group over its use of UCLA's mascot on promotional materials. The big issue was that Bruin Bear was "being associated with a Palestinian kite which some may interpret as an intention to endorse violence against Israel."

Los Angeles City Council Member Paul Koretz introduced a resolutioncalling for the event to be canceled.

The conference took place anyway, but now a right-wing lawyer with connections to the Israeli government is trying to reveal the names of everyone who attended the event.

David Abrams is the executive director of the Zionist Advocacy Center (TZAC) and has launched a number of frivolous legal attacks on Palestine advocates throughout the years. TZAC is a registered foreign agent for the International Legal Forum (ILF), a group that works closely with Israel's government. An 2019 investigative report by Alex Kane at In These Timesrevealed that the ILF has received up to $1 million from the country.

So far, UCLA has refused to hand over the names. Oral arguments for the case begin on March 11.

“Our clients have worked hard to build a better future not only for Palestinians but for our society as a whole,” said Palestine Legal staff attorney Zoha Khalili in a statement. "UCLA should never have fallen for the racist narrative used to attack this conference with false claims of links to terrorism. We are glad UCLA has come to recognize the unfair backlash these activists face, and we hope the judge will, too.”

Glenn Katon, the Litigation Director at Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus also put out a statement: "Student activists for Palestine have the right to host gatherings on their campuses without threats to their privacy and safety. David Abrams is abusing the courts to threaten students who are exercising their First Amendment rights. These attacks, based on the bigoted premise that Palestinian human rights activists are terrorists, could lead to threats of virtual and physical violence and serious impacts to employment and education."

Biden & Israel

In recent days the Biden administration has repeatedly signaled that nothing will fundamentally change when it comes to the United States' policy toward Israel/Palestine.

Last Friday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) confirmed that it has the authority to investigate alleged war crimes that were committed in the occupied territories by Israeli and Palestinian groups. The Biden team quickly voiced its opposition to the move.

"We have serious concerns about the ICC’s attempts to exercise its jurisdiction over Israeli personnel," read its statement. "The United States has always taken the position that the court’s jurisdiction should be reserved for countries that consent to it, or that are referred by the UN Security Council."

"If the US doesn’t support the International Criminal Court's investigations into alleged war crimes, where should people go for recourse?," tweeted Rep. Ilhan Omar. "When we try to block peaceful means of pursuing justice, it undermines any claims of credibility we have on human rights."

Interestingly, Vice President Kamala Harris signed a letter last May calling the ICC's intentions towards Israel “dangerous” and stating that “the US should stand in full force” against them.

Finally, earlier this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken went on CNN and told Wolf Blitzer that the Biden administration regarded Jerusalem as Israel's capital:

Blitzer: Do you regard Jerusalem as Israel’s capital?

Blinken: I do, yes. And more importantly, we do.

What about a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem? That's when things suddenly become complicated I guess:

Blitzer: As part of an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, would you support Palestine having its capital in East Jerusalem.

Blinken: Look, what we have to see happen is for the parties to get together directly and negotiate these so-called “final status issues.” That’s the objective and, as I’ve said, we’re unfortunately a ways away from that at this time.

What about Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights? The area is viewed by almost the entire world as Syrian territory that's being illegally occupied by Israel. Trump formally proclaimed it Israel's property in 2019 as an election gift to Netanyahu. Will we see things change now that Biden is President? No.

Blitzer: The Trump administration, as you know, also recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which was captured from Syria back in 1967. Will your administration, the Biden administration, continue to see the Golan Heights as part of Israel?

Blinken: Look, leaving aside the legalities of that question, as a practical matter the Golan is very important to Israel’s security, as long as Assad is in power in Syria, as long as Iran is present in Syria. Militia groups backed by Iran, the Assad regime itself. All of these pose a significant security threat to Israel and as a practical matter, control of the Golan in that situation I think remains of real importance to Israel’s security.

Legal questions are something else and if over time the situation was to change in Syria, that is something we’d look at it but we are nowhere near that.

"Leaving aside the legalities of that question." What an amazing turn of phrase.

Odds & Ends

🇾🇪 Democracy Now! interviewed Yemeni scholar and Michigan State University assistant professor Shireen Al-Adeimi about the Biden administration ending offensive support for Saudi Arabia's war on Yemen.

🇮🇱 A panel of UN human rights experts have called on Israel to stop their torture and ill treatment of Palestinians. The panel said it was alarmed over by the “enhanced interrogation techniques” that were used by Israeli security forces against Palestinian Samer al-Arbeed in 2019. He was hospitalized for life-threatening injuries after his interrogation and "now suffers irreparable physical and psychological conditions."

“We are alarmed at Israel’s failure to prosecute, punish and redress the torture and ill-treatment perpetrated against Mr Al-Arbeed. Addressing such abuse is not at the discretion of the Government or the judiciary, but constitutes an absolute obligation under international law,” said the experts.

Current Affairs editor Nathan J Robinson has a piece about how he got fired as a Guardian columnist for making a joke about US military aid to Israel on Twitter:

I have noticed that a lot of people who are ostensibly pro-free speech have little to say when critics of Israel are met with professional consequences. Still my case is a relatively trivial one, and focus should remain on the Palestinians who have been massacred and maimed by Israeli military aggression (the lives of these Palestinians mean absolutely nothing to those who voice more outrage over my tweet than over the actual uses of the weapons systems we are buying Israel). The real problem with censoring critics of Israel is that it makes it easier for that country’s government to keep murdering protesters and maintaining a blockade that the United Nations says “deni basic human rights in contravention of international law and amounts to collective punishment.'...

Here's the journalist Jonathan Cook on Twitter: "The Guardian sacks a columnist – and indicates he should keep quiet – after he comments on US aid to Israel. Nathan J Robinson is surprised by his treatment, but others - myself included - were similarly forced out into the cold after criticizing Israel. This goes back to at least Michael Adams, who got into trouble with the Guardian in 1967 for trying to report on Israel's covert ethnic cleansing of three Palestinian villages during that year's war. No one at the paper wanted those crimes covered."

UC Irvine student government passed legislation to divest from companies that work with Israel. The school had passed something similar in 2012, but it was repealed last year. The text of the legislation notes that the school divested from apartheid South Africa in 1986.

🇺🇸 At Buzzfeed, Jason Leopold and Anthony Cormier reveal that the man overseeing Biden's daily intelligence briefing advocated for the CIA’s false claims about its torture program:

In 2013, during a dramatic standoff between the Senate Intelligence Committee and the CIA, Morgan Muir, then a senior CIA analyst, played a pivotal role that has never before been reported. After the Senate committee found that 'enhanced interrogation techniques' against terror suspects were not effective, he led a series of tense meetings in which the CIA attacked those findings.

Though the committee’s politically explosive 6,700-page report on the subject was based on the CIA’s own documents, Daniel Jones, the lead author, said Muir continued to defend the value of the torture program, citing information that the CIA would later publicly admit was inaccurate.

Stay safe out there,

Michael