News Releases

  • Gaza: UN Vote Today; Israel Cuts off Internet

    Today the UN General Assembly votes on a Uniting for Peace resolution on Gaza that reportedly: “Demands an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire. … Strongly condemns any use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. … Demands that Israel, the occupying Power, immediately end the blockade. … Stresses the need for accountability in order to ensure Israel’s respect of international law obligations, and in this regard calls upon all Member States to individually and collectively take all measures necessary, in line with international law and the Charter of the United Nations, to ensure compliance by Israel with its obligations.”


  • Mental Health Misinformation

    Investigative reporting by The Guardian found that more than half of the top 100 mental health TikTok accounts contain misinformation. Experts established that 52 out of 100 videos about trauma, neurodivergence, anxiety, depression, and severe mental illness contained misinformation. 


  • Israel-Backed Gangs with Ties to ISIS Kill Palestinians Seeking Aid

    “Israeli forces and an Israeli-backed gang fired on Palestinians near an aid distribution point in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Monday, killing 14 people, The Associated Press has reported. The report cited witnesses to the massacre who said gunfire came from a gang led by Yasser Abu Shabab, a criminal who has been involved in looting aid trucks. It was just recently revealed that Israel has been arming the gang, which has members who have ties to ISIS.”


  • Militarized Police Often Train in Israel

    “Thousands of law enforcement officials have traveled to Israel to learn new repression strategies and surveillance techniques from the Israel National Police, Israel Defense Forces, and the Shin Bet, who inflict violence, crowd control, and surveillance onto Palestinians.”


  • Israel Attacks Gaza Aid Boat, U.N. Action “Long Overdue”

    “The Israeli regime has just attacked and commandeered the humanitarian ship #Madleen, in blatant violation of international law.” Mokhiber lists a litany of other illegal acts by Israel and states: “The UN has a duty to respond to threats to international peace and security and to defend human rights. Expel, isolate, embargo, and sanction the regime now. #UnitingForPeace.”


  • CUNY Hunger Strikers: Divest from Israel

    Eight CUNY (City University of New York) students, staff, and faculty, began their “hunger strike on the steps of the CUNY Graduate Center demanding the university divest” from Israel ten days ago. See their most recent news release. The group states: “The hunger strike, which has occupied the main entrance to the CUNY Graduate Center building on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan now for over a week, has become a bustling community of political education and mutual aid


  • U.S. Veto Expected Today on Ceasefire and Aid for Gaza

    AP reports: “The U.N. Security Council scheduled a vote Wednesday on a resolution which demands ‘an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza respected by all parties.’ U.N. diplomats said the United States is likely to veto it.” … Mokhiber noted that in the face of the U.S. veto, the U.N. General Assembly “should call out the genocide by name, strip Israel of its credentials, convene under Uniting for Peace to mandate a protection force, call for a complete military embargo and robust sanctions against the regime, demand a ceasefire, and take action to hold all perpetrators to account. …”


  • DNC Remains in “a Bubble” Insulated from “Anger and Disgust”

    The DNC leadership “remains largely within a bubble insulated from the anger and disgust – toward the party – that is widespread among countless Democrats and other Americans. They want the Democratic Party to really put up a fight, while its leaders mainly talk about putting up a fight.


  • Can Uniting for Peace Help Save the International Legal Order?

    “The UNGA should call out the genocide by name, strip Israel of its credentials, convene under Uniting for Peace to mandate a protection force, call for a complete military embargo and robust sanctions against the regime, demand a ceasefire, and take action to hold all perpetrators to account — whether political officials, soldiers, settlers, or complicit private or third state actors. The lives of millions are at stake. The credibility of international law is at stake. And the future of the UN itself is at stake. The time to act is now.” 


  • “The Witkoff Massacre”; Fasters at UN Demand Aid to Starving Palestinians

    United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said today: “I am appalled by the reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid in Gaza yesterday.” Last year, Guterres stated: “We have failed the people of Gaza.” The following have been fasting since May 22 outside the U.S. Mission to the UN, just across the street from UN headquarters in New York. Their demands are: 1) Full humanitarian aid to Gaza under UN authority and 2) No more U.S. weapons to Israel.


  • Interviews on Human Rights: Indonesia and Israel

    KURT BIDDLE Coordinator of the Indonesia Human Rights Network, Biddle said today: “The Indonesian military has declared martial law in the region of Aceh and just launched a full-scale military offensive…. Top-ranking Indonesian military officials have boasted that they will ‘crush’ the rebel Free Aceh Movement in six months. But the civilian population will be…

  • 40 Days After Fall of Saddam Statue: Iraq * Democracy? * U.S. Role * Depleted Uranium

    NADA ELIA Elia is U.N. representative for the Arab Women’s Solidarity Association. She said today: “The New York Times reports that the U.S. and Britain have ‘indefinitely put off their plan to allow Iraqi opposition forces to form a national assembly’ and plan to ‘remain in charge of Iraq for an indefinite period.’ This is…

  • * Jobs * Trade Deficit * FCC

    HOLLY SKLAR Co-author of the book Raise The Floor: Wages and Policies That Work For All Of Us, Sklar said today: “If you want to stimulate unemployment, deficits and inequality, keep cutting taxes. More than 2 million jobs have been lost on President Bush’s watch. Like the 2001 tax swindle, the 2003 tax cuts will…

  • Saudi Bombing

    BEAU GROSSCUP Author of The Newest Explosions of Terrorism and professor of international relations at California State University in Chico, Grosscup said on an Institute for Public Accuracy news release on April 3, 2003: “The U.S. invasion of Iraq increases the likelihood of attacks against the U.S.” He said today: “It would seem that this…

  • Interviews Available: Lifting Sanctions; Controlling Oil; A New Mideast

    Today’s lead story in the Washington Post about the U.S. proposal to lift the economic sanctions on Iraq — headlined “U.S. to Propose Broad Control of Iraqi Oil, Funds” — notes that “the proposal would give the United States far greater authority over Iraq’s lucrative oil industry than administration officials have previously acknowledged.” Also today,…

  • * Halliburton: Scandal or Small Potatoes? * U.N. Sanctions on Iraq

    PRATAP CHATTERJEE Chatterjee is the author of the recent articles “Halliburton Makes a Killing on Iraq War” and “Cheney’s Close Ties to Brown and Root.” He said today: “The Cheney-Halliburton story is the classic military-industrial revolving door tale. As head of the Pentagon under George Bush senior, Cheney helped privatize army work on U.S. military…

  • Mother’s Day Proclamation

    Each year the president issues a Mother’s Day Proclamation. The original Mother’s Day Proclamation was made in 1870. Written by Julia Ward Howe, perhaps best known today for having written the words to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” in 1862 when she was an antislavery activist, the original Proclamation was an impassioned call for…

  • * Mideast ‘Roadmap’ * War Over? * War Crimes * AIDS Fund

    ELAINE HAGOPIAN Professor emerita at Simmons College, Hagopian said today: “The ‘roadmap’ is largely a façade so the Bush administration looks like it is doing something for peace. It is a great deal like Oslo, which was similarly not really rooted in international law and ended in shambles. Still, Oslo did succeed in ending the…

  • Will the Oil of Iraq Belong to the Iraqi People?

    On Friday (April 25) the Wall Street Journal reported on U.S. government plans to restructure Iraq’s oil industry. These plans, which would replace the oil ministry with a U.S. corporate model, are expected to be announced this week. The Journal reports that the Iraqi oil industry will be overseen by an “advisory board.” The board…

  • * Aziz’s ‘Urbanity of Evil’ * Kelly Back from Iraq’s ’12-Year War’

    NORMAN SOLOMON Solomon, co-author of Target Iraq, participated in three meetings with Tariq Aziz last fall and winter in Baghdad. He said today: “With Aziz in custody, top U.S. officials are patting themselves on the back. But they have only proven that victors are able to imprison the vanquished…. Aziz epitomized the urbanity of evil.…

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