News Releases

Variety reported that “more than 1,000 Jewish creatives, executives and Hollywood professionals have signed an open letter denouncing Jonathan Glazer’s ‘The Zone of Interest’ Oscar speech.” The letter accused Glazer (who is Jewish) of “drawing a moral equivalence between a Nazi regime that sought to exterminate a race of people, and an Israeli nation that seeks to avert its own extermination.”

The accusation was in sharp contrast to Glazer’s emphasis in his speech accepting an Academy Award for his film “The Zone of Interest.” In the present, he said, what’s crucial is “not to say, ‘Look what they did then,’ rather, ‘Look what we do now.’”

The open letter “refused to look at what Israel is doing now as it bombs, kills, maims and starves Palestinian civilians in Gaza, where there are now 32,000 known dead and 74,000 injured,” Norman Solomon wrote in an article published this week, “Death Culture: When 1,000 in Hollywood Proclaim Support for Gaza Slaughter.”

He added: “The letter even denied that an occupation actually exists — objecting to ‘the use of words like ‘occupation’ to describe an indigenous Jewish people defending a homeland that dates back thousands of years.’ Somehow the Old Testament was presumed to be sufficient justification for the ongoing slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, most of whose ancestors lived in what’s now Israel. The vast majority of 2.2 million people have been driven from their bombed-out homes in Gaza, with many now facing starvation due to blockage of food.”

But in the letter signed by more than 1,000 in the entertainment industry, Solomon continued, “all the ire is directed at Glazer for pointing out that moral choices on matters of life and death are not merely consigned to the past. The crimes against humanity committed by Nazi Germany against Jews are in no way exculpatory for the crimes against humanity now being committed by Israel.”

Solomon observed that much of the focus of Glazer’s Oscar-winning movie “is on the lives of a man and a woman preoccupied with career, status and material well-being. Such preoccupations are hardly unfamiliar in the movie industry, where silence or support for the Gaza war are common among professionals — in contrast to Jonathan Glazer and others, Jewish or not, who have spoken out in his defense or for a ceasefire.”

Available for interviews:

NORMAN SOLOMON, solomonprogressive@gmail.com
Solomon is the author of War Made Invisible. He is the executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy.

As the country faces an increasing number of measles cases, researchers say anti-vaccine narratives reach from Covid to measles to HIV.

TARA C. SMITH; tsmit176@kent.edu 
    Smith leads the Smith Emerging Infections Laboratory at Kent State University. 

Smith told the Institute for Public Accuracy: “HIV denial narratives [which were in the media in the early 2000s] have become resurgent in the last few years. We’ve seen them come back” especially since the 2021 publication of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s book The Real Anthony Fauci, which covers the years that Dr. Fauci worked in HIV research. “That’s where the HIV denial started from. It’s being pushed on different platforms. 

“There are different ideas being promoted by different groups that don’t agree with one another. On the extreme end, there is the Perth Group in Australia. They believe that HIV doesn’t exist and is ‘cellular debris.’ If the virus doesn’t exist, it can’t cause you harm. That’s the extreme end. Most of the denial––like what RFK Jr. pushes––is what was championed by [molecular biologists who worked on retroviruses in the 1980s, like] Peter Duesberg. When HIV was discovered, Duesberg didn’t buy into it. He argued that HIV could be detected and was associated with sexual activity, but was a harmless ‘passenger virus.’ It didn’t do anything. That hypothesis was adopted well beyond AIDS––into Covid and measles. 

“For the anti-vaccine groups I follow, everything has coalesced into a denial of germ theory. [These groups are saying] why are we getting vaccines, or kids should get measles because it prevents cancer. There’s a meta-narrative around infectious disease no longer being considered dangerous.

“We have also seen a lot of the Covid denial and pushback on Covid vaccines and pandemic precautions. People on the right were angry about how Covid was dealt with. It’s easy to believe that if you’re healthy and eat well and exercise, you’ll be okay. They’re taking any piece of science, no matter how dubious, to support those ideas. We’re seeing vaccine mandates start to fall––in Mississippi, in West Virginia. [Recently], it’s starting to move into childhood vaccines” like the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines. 

Smith notes that although infectious disease outbreaks have been covered relatively well by the media, the public is missing stories about people who have been “harmed by these diseases. Twenty percent of kids with measles are hospitalized. That’s getting glossed over in exchange for the controversy about vaccination.” 

ARUN GUPTA, arun.indypendent@gmail.com, @arunindy
Gupta’s latest reporting on allegations of sexual and gender-based violence during the Oct. 7 attacks is in YES Magazine: “Claims of Mass Rape by Hamas Unravel Upon Investigation” and The Intercept “American Media Keep Citing Zaka — Though Its October 7 Atrocity Stories Are Discredited in Israel” about the scandal-ridden Israeli organization.

He said today: “For months U.S. media have published hundreds of articles lending credibility to Israeli claims that Hamas carried out a campaign of rape during the Oct. 7 attacks. Those claims were dubious from the start, lacked solid evidence and survivor testimony, and many have been discredited. Most recently the New York Times was forced to retract one of the most widely cited rape claims, that of an Israeli special forces paramedic with Unit 669, after evidence surfaced showing he fabricated the story. But that story was never credible. Myself and other journalists have been warning for months his story was false based on a close examination of available evidence, as were many of the other high-profile claims credulously accepted by Western media.

“At the same time, evidence was growing that Israeli military forces in the West Bank and Gaza were committing sexual violence against Palestinian women, girls, and men. Unlike Israeli claims, Palestinian survivors have been openly testifying about sexual violence committed against them. Additionally, three different International human rights organizations have corroborated claims and interviewed Palestinian survivors of sexual violence.

“In February, two U.N. Special Rapporteurs and four U.N. experts said they were ‘distressed’ at reports ‘that Palestinian women and girls in detention have also been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers. At least two female Palestinian detainees were reportedly raped while others were reportedly threatened with rape and sexual violence.’”

“Later in February, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor released a report that included the testimony of four Palestinian women in Gaza who ‘report being subjected to sexual violence, torture, inhuman treatment, strip searches, sexual harassment, and rape threats while being arrested and held by Israeli army forces.’”

“Most recently, Al Jazeera received access to unpublished report from UNRWA on Israeli sexual violence against Palestinian detainees: ‘Practices recorded by UNRWA include the use of a nail gun on prisoners’ knees, sexual abuse against both men and women and the insertion of what appears to be an electrified metal stick into prisoners’ rectums.’ Also see the Al Jazeera investigation on Oct. 7 that debunks many atrocity stories and unmasks Yossi Landau, an official with the scandal-plagued Zaka organization tasked with collecting human remains after Hamas’ massacre, for fabricating atrocities.

“Many claims of sexual violence have been made by both Palestinians and Israelis. Some are clearly fake stories. In an atmosphere where atrocity propaganda is being used to further military aims, the media have a critical role in corroborating allegations of sexual violence as much as possible by scouring for details, hard evidence, documentation, and supporting witnesses.

“But so far only Palestinian survivors have spoken out, and the only clear photo evidence of sexual violence is that committed against Palestinians, including more than a dozen men, fully naked, blindfolded, and trussed up, with some bearing wounds that may indicate torture. Additionally, at least half-a-dozen Palestinian women and men have spoken on camera or to the media describing in detail sexual violence and torture that they or female relatives endured at the hands of Israeli military forces in Gaza. It is imperative that the media finally give the same amount of prominence and space to presenting credible Palestinian allegations of sexual violence as it gave to dodgy and false Israeli claims.”

On Friday, China and Russia vetoed a U.S. resolution at the UN Security Council which did not call for a ceasefire, contrary to reports in major media. See IPA news release: “Beyond U.S. Isolation at UN: What’s Not Being Done.”

[Oxfam recently released a statement: “Israel Government Continues to Block Aid Response Despite ICJ Genocide Court Ruling.” The International Court of Justice has scheduled a hearing for April 8 and 9 on the case of Nicaragua against Germany regarding its “participation in the ongoing plausible genocide and serious breaches of international humanitarian law and other peremptory norms of general international law occurring in the Gaza Strip.” See latest in reporting regarding South Africa’s genocide case against Israel. The Electronic Intifada reports: “British Lawyer Heading ICC’s Palestine Probe Can’t Be Seen as Neutral.” See from Al Jazeera via Euro-Med Monitor: “An Israeli army drone pursued four civilian youths who attempted to reach their destroyed homes and killed them with missiles.”]

The group Geneva International Peace Research Institute recently released an “Open letter to the EU Leadership Demanding an Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza,” which states: “By opening a maritime corridor via Cyprus, the EU is effectively surrendering any remaining moral authority it may have had to the Israelis, by presenting the scenario as though no other possible alternative exists, when in fact many alternatives do exist.

“Through adopting this approach, the EU continues to support the Israeli blockade by steadfastly refusing to call for a ceasefire, and by not calling for Israel to open the land borders to allow the hundreds of aid trucks already positioned to enter Gaza. This is the only effective means through which aid can be distributed to the population by the United Nations agencies, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and other international partners and organizations. These agencies have been calling for months for rapid and unhindered access to deliver aid, calls that continue to fall on deaf ears. …

“We demand that the EU calls for an immediate and unconditional end to the Israeli bombing of Gaza right now, and we demand that the EU also calls for an opening of the borders, allowing rapid and unhindered delivery of food, shelter and medical supplies to the population.

“Anything less than this is unacceptable and in breach of international law, which you all claim to uphold, but which it is evident that you are in breach of.

“Short of this, we will be amplifying calls at the public level for your immediate resignations, as you no longer represent the population of the EU, with your continued support for a racist, murderous, apartheid regime.”

Contact for interviews from the Geneva International Peace Research Institute:
Prof. Gilles-Emmanuel Jacquet, ge.jacquet@gipri.ch

The New Republic recently reported that the conservative political organization Moms for Liberty, which rose to prominence during the Covid pandemic, is “slowly imploding.”

MAURICE CUNNINGHAM; maurice.cunningham153@gmail.com 
    Cunningham is the author of Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization. 

Cunningham, who has followed the ups and downs of Moms for Liberty, told the Institute for Public Accuracy: The group’s problems “have been mounting. It’s accelerated since the [school board] elections went badly for them. It’s been one thing after another: They severed ties with some chapter heads over their associations with the Proud Boys; they had a chapter head resign for shoplifting. Then their 60 Minutes interview was a disaster. They were exposed [by interviewer Scott Pelley] in a way they hadn’t been exposed before. Pelley was not having ‘gender ideology.’ He wasn’t having ‘grooming.’ And they weren’t prepared to answer.

“Mainstream press and national papers have done an acquiescent job in covering them. This is a new moment in mainstream press, and I hope it will foster a more critical eye toward [the group]. This is the kind of tough questioning they deserve. I hope the media continues to press them. They’re not what they purport to be, and they have a lot of explaining to do. 

“The biggest misconception about [Moms for Liberty] is that they’re just moms. The creation story is always ‘two or three moms gathered around the kitchen table over coffee, discussed issues their kids are having in schools, and formed a group.’ Then boom, they’re sitting on a million dollars and are going on Rush Limbaugh. They’re [actually] part of a right-wing infrastructure that includes the Leadership Institute and the Heritage Foundation, which exert great control over them. These organizations are part of a secret right-wing directorate. These are obedient franchises––they’re not just moms. They’re part of an existing infrastructure and they answer to those superior organizations. The Leadership Institute and the Heritage Foundation have existed for over 40 years. That expertise has been gained over a number of years. Moms for Liberty was founded [in January 2021].

“Moms for Liberty touched this latent conservative anger around schools. It’s out there to touch when you’re a political actor. They took advantage of Covid, and that helped their rise, because there was anxiety and anger about kids not being in school. They have moved from Covid, masks, vaccines, and school closings to ‘DEI’ and ‘CRT.’ There is a constant need to churn the emotions of their followers.” 

The group is “playing defense lately more than anything else,” Cunningham says. “They attacked [the Southern Poverty Law Center] for designating them as an extremist group. That [designation] was extremely damaging. They’re trying to distract us. They try to change the subject, but it’s hard to do. After their poor performance in the 2023 school board races, they’re in retreat.”

NATHAN SCHNEIDER, n@nathanschneider.info, @ntnsndr
Schneider is a professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he directs the Media Economies Design Lab. He is author of the new book Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for Online Life, published by University of California Press. His articles on this subject include “Let Users Own the Tech Companies They Help Build” for Wired magazine.

MICHAEL BRENNAN, michael@usworker.coop, @mrbrnn
Brennan is a researcher on democratic public ownership and currently works as a project coordinator for the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives. In 2020, he and Schneider co-authored the Jacobin article, “There’s No Solution to Big Tech Without Public Ownership of Tech Companies,” and the accompanying report “A Common Platform: Reimagining data and platforms.”

They said today: “The bipartisan move to ban TikTok does nothing to address the crisis of surveillance capitalism that Americans are experiencing. Even if TikTok ceased to exist tomorrow, foreign governments would still have access to the personal data of Americans via U.S.-based big tech companies because the business model is fundamentally predicated on selling data for targeted advertising; there is nothing unique about TikTok in this regard. Worse still, the potential fire sale of TikTok to Steven Mnuchin and American capitalists suggests that Democrats have no real strategy for addressing the underlying problem, and are solely interested in advancing a new Cold War consensus for short-term political gain. …

“Because this is a government-compelled event, there is a window of opportunity for lawmakers to stipulate a democratic ownership structure as a requirement for the divestiture, including through direct public ownership or facilitating a buyout to convert TikTok into a user-owned platform cooperative. …

“Instead of targeting TikTok in particular, lawmakers concerned with Americans’ data and privacy should coalesce around a comprehensive data bill of rights, such as Senator Sherrod Brown’s 2020 DATA Act. Congress should recognize that we need another option than another venture-backed tech monopoly. …

“The situation with TikTok is yet another reminder that we need policy that can support technology owned and governed by the people who depend on it. Whether the platforms are surveilled from abroad or at home, the current model of building technology for investor control and state surveillance is a dead end. Just as we have done through history with rural electric co-ops, credit unions, and more, we need the ability to finance innovation on the foundation of community ownership.”

See from Sam Husseini: “Did the Israel Lobby Push for the TikTok Bill so that its Allies Could Control it?“

AP reports: “Former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin says he’s putting together investor group to buy TikTok.” See from 2021 Axios: “Scoop: Israeli spy chief in talks to join Mnuchin’s investment fund” and from the Times of Israel: “Former U.S. treasurer Mnuchin leads $275 million funding in Israeli Cybereason.” In January, the Jerusalem Post ran the piece “Time to invest in Israel, says former U.S. treasury secretary Mnuchin.”

Craig Mokhiber, former director of the New York office of the UN High Commission on Human Rights stated: “They are not trying to ban #TikTok. They are trying to use government power to force TikTok to be taken over by pro-Israel ownership to silence criticism of #Genocide and #apartheid.” The Wall Street Journal recently reported of the bill targeting TikTok: “It was slow going until Oct. 7.”

JAMES REHWALD, rehwald15@gmail.com
Rehwald has over 400,000 followers on TikTok. He said today: “This bill is nothing but an attempt to censor young Americans’ progressive political education, activism, and organizing under the guise of protecting national security. The U.S.-backed Israeli genocide of Palestinians exposed on TikTok and the abundance of pro-Palestinian content has renewed calls for tighter imperialist control of the narrative while protecting U.S. monopoly capitalist interests.”

JAMES RAY, jimray598@gmail.com
Ray has over 400,000 followers on TikTok at @jamesgetspolitical. He said today: “I think that the decision to pass legislation that could lead to a ban of TikTok and really any website that the U.S. deems necessary is a step that results from several overlapping factors.” The sale would be “a windfall for the investors involved in the buy. …”

“The historic institutional players are seeing their grasp on information weaken in the midst of a platform that gives people the easy ability to spread information that might not (and in some cases most certainly would never) be covered or covered accurately by traditional media giants. That weakening of the grip of information distribution also likely is on the minds of many U.S. politicians who on both sides of the aisle are likely threatened by a platform that circumvents their traditional channels. …

“Palestine also very much so in my mind plays a role in this discussion as well. … With the typical Zionist attack dogs like Senator John Fetterman of PA openly and vocally taking a break from tweeting about Hamas to clarify his support for the ban legislation. When the typical Zionist allies are circling the wagon it’s more or less a dead giveaway. …

“The fact that Bytedance is a Chinese company only makes it easier for them because they can justify their support for this draconian legislation with the typical sinophobic handwringing we’ve come to expect from Washington.”

RICCI SERGIENKO, ricci@rootsaction.org, @Roots_Action
Ricci Sergienko is with RootsAction, which notes “Well… who is the #1 contributor to the TikTok ban bill’s author, Rep. Mike Gallagher? That’s right — AIPAC. …

“‘We have a major TikTok problem. A Gen-Z problem.’ Leaked audio of ADL chief executive Jonathan Greenblatt freaking out because global youth aren’t buying Israel’s propaganda anymore. THIS is why they’re trying to ban Tiktok. …

“This legislation’s practical ban on TikTok would constitute a serious First Amendment violation and an infringement upon free speech. This does very little to address broader concerns about privacy rights, as U.S. based social media companies extensively violate those rights.”

See videos from Ian Carroll on TikTok and on X.

A new report from Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies found that 35 major U.S. corporations paid less in federal income tax between 2018 and 2022 than they paid their top five executives. Those companies were all cumulatively profitable during that time period. 

Among those 35 corporations, their total executive compensation over the five-year timespan was $9.5 billion, while their combined federal income tax bills came to negative $1.8 billion, i.e. they received refunds totaling that amount.

The 64 firms in the study paid an average federal tax rate of 2.8 percent. 

WILLIAM RICE; will.rice@americansfortaxfairness.org 
    Rice is a senior writer at Americans for Tax Fairness and a coauthor of the report.

Rice told the Institute for Public Accuracy: “Dozens of big corporations are paying their top five executives more than they are paying in taxes. It resonates with the public as being unfair. 

“The financial reports of these corporations are not clear for anyone who isn’t an accountant. They are very long, have lots of small print, and the information provided is not user friendly. The actual tax returns are [also] not public––they’re private. Corporations complain that [research on corporate taxes from the last 40 years] lacks context, but no corporation has successfully pointed out why the numbers are wrong or supplied their tax returns to show what they’re paying.

“If you include corporations that [paid more to their top executives than they did in federal taxes] in all five years, you’re talking about $15 billion in executive pay. The scale is astounding. They’re not doing anything illegal here, but the way Congress has set up the tax code, even companies that are doing reasonably well get to pay little to no taxes or else get refunds. 

“It’s important that people know about this. One of the ways that large corporations and other wealthy people get away with this is that they live in a totally different world than average Americans or citizens of any other country. [The public] is unaware of the details of how they pay so little in taxes relative to their wealth and income. People have a vague, accurate understanding that the system is rigged against them, but they are busy with their own lives. This is a concrete example of the sense of unfairness.

Rice emphasizes that there are solutions to the problem, however. The corporate tax rate was 35 percent prior to the Trump presidency, when it was cut to 21 percent. In President Biden’s State of the Union address this month, and in the follow-up budget, he proposed “raising the corporate tax to 28 percent and increasing the minimum tax for corporations with more than $1 billion in assets [to 15 percent]. Some of those companies can go years paying very little taxes or none… [Biden] also wants to close the loophole that currently allows companies to deduct salaries of over $1 million.” Those are two main corporate reforms, along with ensuring that offshore profits are taxed at the same rate as domestic profits. 

Rice noted that reforms included in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, like the new corporate minimum tax, were promising but did not go into effect until 2023. “We can expect some changes. Some of these companies are getting caught up in the new rules.” Companies like Duke Energy and Whirlpool were both hit by Biden’s 15 percent minimum tax in 2023. Both those companies make the Americans for Tax Fairness report’s “Terrible 10.” Duke paid top executives over $180 million and received a tax refund of almost $2 billion, while Whirlpool paid top executives over $160 million and paid an effective tax rate of just 7 percent––one-third of the official 21 percent rate.

KATHY KELLY, kathy.vcnv@gmail.com, @voiceinwild
Kelly is board president of World BEYOND War and a co-coordinator of the Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal.

She just wrote the piece “When Starvation Is a Weapon, the Harvest Is Shame” for The Progressive. She recounts how in the Irish famine, “starving people died with their mouths stained green because, according to historian Christine Kinealy, their last meal was grass. Shamefully, British occupiers profited from exporting out of Ireland food crops so desperately needed. Over a seven year period, beginning in 1845, one million Irish people died from starvation and related diseases. It was a conscious mass killing. …

“Now, in the occupied Gaza Strip, weapons dealers benefit from increasing military shipments to Israel. Palestinians, like the Irish, have resorted to eating mixtures of grass and animal feed. …

“Human Rights Watch says the Israeli government is starving civilians as a method of warfare in the Gaza Strip. Aiding and abetting this war crime, the U.S. government has approved 100 military sales to Israel over the past five months. …

“In Northampton, Massachusetts, six activists are on day three of occupying the office of Representative Jim McGovern. They are demanding he call on the president to immediately halt all weapons shipments to Israel, even if Israel allows humanitarian aid into Gaza. …

“In May of this year, an Irish NGO called AFRI (Action From Ireland) will hold an annual ‘famine walk’ to commemorate when hundreds of desperate people trekked in cold and stormy weather to beg mercy from British officials designated to assess who would qualify for small portions of food or tickets to enter a workhouse. …

“Each year, the organizers of AFRI’s famine walk focus on a place in the world afflicted by famine. ‘This year’s famine walk will focus on the unspeakable horrors being visited on the population of Gaza,’ says AFRI’s coordinator, Joe Murray, ‘with “Irish” President Biden forgetting his history and playing the part of a “Black and Tan” in providing the means to obliterate an entire population.’ …

“People in the United States ought to occupy local offices of every elected official, denouncing all forms of violence, insisting on an immediate end to any support for Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza.”

See resource list on X/Twitter.

DIMITRI LASCARIS, dimitri.lascaris@proton.me, @dimitrilascaris
Lascaris is a Canadian journalist, activist and lawyer currently in Jenin on the West Bank. Available for a limited number of interviews, he just wrote to the Institute for Public Accuracy: “The Israelis committed an atrocity at a hospital in Jenin this morning. I just interviewed the hospital director and he showed us videotape of the crime. An unarmed Palestinian man was shot in the back as he was running into the hospital to take cover from gunfire.” See his latest articles: “In Jenin Refugee Camp, Israeli Forces Terrorize Palestinian Artists,” “In Jenin, Israeli Soldiers Brutalize Young Men While Using Their Mother as Human Shield,” and “Sheikh Jarrah and Israel’s Kangaroo Courts.”

YAZAN RISHEQ, yazan@grassrootsalquds.org, @grassroots_quds
Risheq is with Grassroots Al-Quds [Arabic for Jerusalem]. He said today: “I believe that ‘existence is resistance.’ Maintaining identity, culture, beliefs and rights in the face of oppressors who always try to erase, and change it, is itself a form of resistance and using knowledge, memorization, heritage, archive, and the potentials of the past, the present and the future as a tool for liberation.” See in-depth interview of Risheq by Israeli activist Miko Peled from April of last year. See from last year during Ramadan: “‘Heinous Crimes’: Global Outcry as Israeli Forces Attack Al-Aqsa Worshipers for Second Night.”

MAZIN QUMSIYEH, mazin@qumsiyeh.org, Skype: mbqumsiyeh
Qumsiyeh is a professor at Bethlehem University. His books include Sharing the Land of Canaan. He is founding director of the Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability. He recently wrote “Impact of the Israeli military activities on the environment” in the International Journal of Environmental Studies.

He addressed long-term Israeli military and settler violence in the West Bank which he has written about extensively and directly confronted, but stressed what is being done to Gaza: “Over one million people also are suffering from the spreading (and curable) diseases associated with the Israeli blockade. …U.S./France/Jordan doing air drops is a sick propaganda stunt. One airdrop cargo is equivalent to one truck. Gaza needs a minimum of 800 trucks of food and medical supplies per day now to avoid full genocide. Over 2,000 trucks are at the borders waiting for weeks.”