News Releases

  • UN General Assembly: Deploy International Protection Force to Gaza

    “Now that Palestine has formally requested protection forces, the UN General Assembly should move urgently to mandate such a force under a Uniting for Peace resolution. Israel has made clear for the past two years that no amount of pleading, pressure or negotiation will end its atrocities and deliberate starvation in Gaza; only international peacekeeping forces can achieve that.”


  • Israel Targets Journalists in Gaza Ahead of Planned Invasion

    Just minutes before he was killed, al-Sharif said in a post on X that Israel was escalating its bombing of Gaza City. “Relentless bombardment,” he wrote. “For two hours, the Israeli aggression has intensified on Gaza City.” After the killing, a message was posted on his account: “This is my will and my final message. If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice.” Abed has been highly critical of reporting on the killing.


  • Satirizing the “Environmental Pollution Agency”

    At a satirical press conference in Washington, D.C. this week, activists unveiled a new name and logo for the Environmental Protection Agency, which they called “the Environmental Pollution Agency.” On the new logo, buildings are swallowed up by rising sea levels. The event included a spokesperson from the Environmental Pollution Agency, “Joe Gasfracker” from the “American Petroleum Institute,” and a spokesperson from the “Energy Villains for Increased Leakage.” Participants in the action leaned into the satire and held signs with slogans such as “we support the freedom to pollute.”


  • Doctors Against Genocide

    The Guardian reports in “‘No one should act surprised,’ says UN expert who warned of starvation in Gaza last year.” The piece quotes Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food: “Israel has built the most efficient starvation machine you can imagine. So while it’s always shocking to see people being starved, no one should act surprised. All the information has been out in the open since early 2024.” The Guardian also reports: “Fakhri argues that in light of the US persistent vetoing of ceasefire resolutions at the UN Security Council, it is incumbent on the UN General Assembly…


  • “Historic” $100K Settlement from University of Maryland for Unlawfully Suppressing Pro-Palestinian Student Speech

    The group has just announced a “historic victory. … The university has now agreed to a $100K settlement, the largest ever for pro-Palestine student speech known in the U.S. But this isn’t just about the money. It’s about forcing institutions to recognize that Palestinian voices cannot and will not be silenced.”


  • Palestinian Women on Hunger Strike to Demand Israel Return Body of Peace Activist Killed by Israeli Settler

    “More than 60 Palestinian women have launched a hunger strike to demand Israel return the body of a peace activist killed by an Israeli settler last week in the occupied West Bank. The body of Awda Hathaleen, who was shot and killed on Monday as Israeli settlers moved in to bulldoze his village, is still being held by Israeli authorities. “Meanwhile, his killer — Yinon Levi, a notorious settler who has been sanctioned by several governments, at one point including the United States before President Donald Trump lifted the sanctions — has been set free after a brief period of…


  • Preventing Criticism of Israel by Defining It as Antisemitic

    “In 2016, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), a group of 35 mostly European countries, drafted what it called a working definition of antisemitism. The Alliance had been founded in 1998 to promote Holocaust education and, in its own words, to ‘strengthen governmental cooperation to work towards a world without genocide.’ All too sadly, right now, its definition is being used to do the opposite: it’s helping to criminalize opposition to genocide.”


  • Nuclear Threats 80 Years After Hiroshima and Nagasaki

    “While we have succeeded in preventing the direct use of nuclear bombs since World War II, Daniel Ellsberg and others have highlighted that the U.S. government has used nuclear weapons repeatedly since 1945, like a thief uses a gun. It doesn’t have to detonate the weapon over a city, simply threatening to do so achieves a strategic purpose.”


  • ​LGBTQI+ Communities at Greater Risk of Losing Healthcare Access 

    While anti-trans and anti-DEI legislation is making it harder for a wide range of Americans to access healthcare, new survey findings show that LGBTQI+ people are at greater risk of losing access to healthcare under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”


  • Two-State Rhetoric Used as “Cover” for Israel’s Genocide and Continuing the Occupation?

    Many media outlets have been reporting on Saudi Arabia and France holding a conference at the UN for “recognising Palestinian statehood.” This narrative is scrutinized in an in-depth video with Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada: “UK, France, Canada ‘recognizing Palestine’ to cover up support for Israel’s genocide.” 


  • A Way Out?

    At the National Cathedral today, President Bush said “this nation is peaceful.” The following analysts are available for interviews. HOWARD ZINN A renowned historian who has authored numerous books including A People’s History of the United States, Zinn was a bombardier during World War II. He said today: “The images on television horrified and sickened…

  • “Blowback”?

    RABBI ARTHUR WASKOW Director of The Shalom Center and author of Godwrestling — Round 2, Waskow said today: “Even the greatest oceans do not shield us; even the mightiest buildings do not shield us; even the wealthiest balance sheets and the most powerful weapons do not shield us. The lesson is that only a world…

  • Another Gulf of Tonkin Resulution?

    FRANCIS BOYLE Professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, Boyle said today: “According to the facts in the public record so far, this was not an act of war and NATO Article 5 does not apply. President Bush has automatically escalated this national tragedy into something it is not in…

  • Terrorism Aftermath

    ROBERT JENSEN Author of the forthcoming book Writing Dissent and an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Jensen said today: “The last time the U.S. responded to a terrorist attack, on its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, it was innocents in Sudan and Afghanistan who were in the way. We…

  • Racism Conference

    The UN conference on racism in Durban, South Africa is scheduled to end on Friday. The following analysts are available for interviews: HUMBERTO R. BROWN Coordinator for the African and African Descendants Caucus, one of the main caucuses of the conference in Durban, Brown said today: “Colonization and slavery should be considered crimes against humanity,…

  • Attica, 30 Years Later

    Next week marks the 30th anniversary of the uprising at Attica prison in upstate New York. In 1971, on Sept. 13 — four days into a rebellion by 1,281 prisoners demanding humane treatment — more than 500 state troopers assaulted the prison compound, under orders from Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. The troopers’ gunfire killed 29 inmates…

  • Education Issues as School Year Begins

    WASHINGTON — With the start of the school year, Education Secretary Rod Paige is speaking today at the National Press Club. The following analysts are available for interviews: JOHN TAYLOR GATTO Former New York State Teacher of the Year and author of the recently released book The Underground History of American Education, Gatto said today:…

  • Labor Day

    HOLLY SKLAR Co-author of the just-released book Raise The Floor: Wages and Policies That Work For All Of Us, Sklar said today: “A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it. Most Americans believe that. But as we celebrate Labor Day, hardworking Americans [who are] paid minimum wage have to choose…

  • Major International Issues: * Racism Conference * Israel’s Occupation

    LORETTA ROSS Founder and executive director of the National Center for Human Rights Education, Ross is at the UN conference on racism, which begins on Friday in South Africa. She said today: “The Bush administration should not come to the conference. It would likely play an obstructionist role, refusing to acknowledge that the enslavement of…

  • Argentina and IMF

    As the IMF and Argentina’s government agree to another loan package of $8 billion and further austerity programs, the following analysts are available for interviews: BEVERLY KEENE Coordinator of Dialogue 2000, a coalition representing human-rights and other groups in Argentina, Keene said today: “This new agreement with the IMF brings no resolution to growing unemployment…

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