News Releases

  • Hamas: A “Golem” that Emerged from Israel’s “Divide and Rule” Strategy

    The first Intifada, which began in 1987, avoided the use of firearms but was ultimately crushed. Hamas was formed shortly thereafter with its initial charter, which had a “scrambled mixture of the Brotherhood’s socially puritanical version of Islam, several concessions to the nationalism espoused by the PLO, and a superficial rehash of Euro-centric antisemitism.” (Hamas revised its charter in 2017.) … “All Israeli leaders have tried to play the divide-and-rule game, but perhaps none played it as deviously and myopically as Netanyahu. ‘Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring…


  • Is Air Force Hunger Striker Forced Back to Base After Confronting Top Brass About Illegal Policies?

    Hebert asked Gen. David W. Allvin on Capitol Hill about the U.S. government’s backing of Israel after Allvin testified before Congress: “I would just like to know why we’re committing a genocide and why we’re breaking U.S. and international law. Why are we allowed to do this?”  Hebert’s hunger strike has been covered by outlets ranging from Military.com: “Airman Starts Hunger Strike at White House over Gaza, Inspired by Another Airman’s Self-Immolation Death” to Democracy Now: “Active-Duty U.S. Airman, Inspired by Aaron Bushnell, on Hunger Strike Outside White House over Gaza.”  Hebert said: “When Aaron Bushnell, a fellow Airman, took…


  • Challenges to the U.S. and Germany for “Facilitating Genocide”

    The group notes: “A new Gallup poll March 27 shows 74 percent of Democrats disapprove of Israel’s handling of the war on Palestine, and 55 percent of all Americans disapprove. The Biden administration is shifting its public rhetoric against the Gaza genocide, but the Guardian reported on March 29 that the U.S. government is quietly transferring billions more in weapons to Israel. “More than one-third of Americans (poll here) believe Israel is committing genocide. Almost half of those surveyed aged 18-29, 49 percent, say Israel is committing genocide.  An Israel Palestine ceasefire resolution now stands before the Wisconsin legislature, Resolution…


  • Monday: Nicaragua v Germany at the World Court on Israel and Genocide Convention

    “Germany has provided political, financial and military support to Israel fully aware at the time of authorization that the military equipments would be used in the commission of great breaches of international law by this State and in disregard of its own obligations. In particular, the military equipment provided by Germany enabling Israel to perpetrate genocidal acts and other atrocities, included supplies to the front line and warehouses, and assurances of future supplies such as ammunition, technology and diverse components necessary for the Israeli military.”


  • What’s Getting Missed in Project 2025?

    Project 2025, a sweeping policy blueprint for the next Republican president, is a 920-page plan written by the Heritage Foundation and other right-wing groups. The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism is putting out weekly updates on the plan. 


  • Report: Over 1,000 Attacks on Health Care for Palestinians

    “In the Gaza Strip where 785 incidents were reported, most involved airstrikes damaging or destroying hospitals and clinics and killing health workers. The IDF’s unrelenting aerial attack on the strip has had a catastrophic and far-reaching impact on the population and the health care system. Only 12 out of 36 hospitals are still functioning at a limited capacity whilst ambulance teams continuously face obstructions in reaching injured and dead civilians trapped under the rubble due indiscriminate bombings which have devastated civilian infrastructure. This direct and indirect use of explosive weapon use in populated areas has also caused massive destruction in…


  • Israel Targets Children, Aid Workers; Escalates Attacks in Syria

        “One Israeli drone fired three missiles at three cars that were clearly marked with the WCK’s logos and were traveling on roads preapproved by the Israeli military. After the first car was hit, wounded survivors were picked up by a second car. After that car was hit, they went into the third car. Then, the Israeli drone finished the job. …”


  • Israel Destroys Hospital, Kills Aid Workers, Threatens Relief Organization

    The Cradle reports in “Israel presents plan to shutter UNRWA in defiance of ICJ order” that: “Israel has put forth a proposal to the UN for the dismantlement of its relief agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, in exchange for permitting more humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip.” Doctors Without Borders released a statement: “Israeli forces leave Al-Shifa Hospital in ruins.” See from Democracy Now: “’Genocidal Machine’: Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah on Israel’s Destruction of Gaza’s Hospitals.” Al Jazeera reports: “U.S.-based aid group World Central Kitchen confirms seven staff members were killed in a ‘targeted attack’ by the Israeli military and called…


  • Wisconsin’s “Uninstructed” Campaign: “End Israel’s Genocide Now”

    Ahmad is a spokesperson with Listen to Wisconsin, the group driving the state’s “Uninstructed” campaign. She notes that a majority in the U.S. are opposed to Israel’s attack on Gaza. Gallup recently found: “Americans now oppose the campaign by a solid margin.” In These Times magazine reports in: “’This Is a Movement of Hope’: Wisconsin’s Uninstructed Campaign Has Momentum” that organizers with the campaign say the primary will send President Joe Biden an “unequivocal message from the Midwest” that “if he wants to beat Trump, he must act immediately to end the genocide in Gaza. … Wisconsin may be the…


  • Far-Right Extremism in Brazil

    A new report examines the presence of and connections between far-right hate and extremist groups in Brazil. 


  • Post-Election Decisions

    ERIC FONER Professor of history at Columbia University, current president of the American Historical Association and author of The Story of American Freedom and Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, Foner said today: “In 1876, there was a dispute over the Hayes-Tilden presidential election returns from Florida, South Carolina and Louisiana. An electoral commission was formed (which…

  • The Election: Process and Results

    STEVEN HILL Co-author of “Reflecting All of Us” and Western regional director of the Center for Voting and Democracy, Hill said today: “This may be the push we need to get rid of the Electoral College — which was actually designed to limit the popular will. But if we have a direct popular vote, we…

  • Election Perspectives

    GWENDOLYN MINK Professor of politics at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Mink said today: “What’s wrong with the two-party system is not that there are only two parties. What’s wrong is that ours is a middle-class party system that leaves out a host of programmatic alternatives and choices, and correspondingly demobilizes millions of…

  • Keeping Millions From Voting

    MARC MAUER Co-author of the report “Losing the Vote: The Impact of Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States,” Mauer is assistant director of The Sentencing Project. He said today: “America has just replaced Russia as the world leader in its rate of incarceration and incarcerates far more prisoners than any other nation — nearly…

  • A Missing Campaign Issue: Economic Apartheid

    JOEL BLAU Author of Illusions of Prosperity: America’s Working Families in an Age of Economic Insecurity, Blau said today: “The economic fissure in American society is the great unmentionable of this year’s presidential campaign. Between 1977 and 1999, the after-tax income of the top fifth increased 43 percent, while the after-tax income of the top…

  • Military Spending and Policy

    WILLIAM HARTUNG President’s fellow at the World Policy Institute, Hartung said today: “When Gore and Bush have addressed the Pentagon budget, they have talked about how much to increase it, not whether to do so. That is remarkable if you consider that at $311 billion per year, the United States is already spending more on…

  • The Environment: Behind the Rhetoric

    PATTI GOLDMAN A managing attorney with Earthjustice Defense Fund, Goldman said today: “Differences between Bush and Gore include the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, which came up in the debates. There are also differences in the priority and strategies for recovering Pacific salmon…. Gore favors having labor and environmental protection in trade agreements while Bush has not…

  • Bush and Gore Agree Death Penalty Deters; But What Are the Facts?

    Last night, presidential candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore agreed that the death penalty is an effective deterrent. “I think the reason to support the death penalty is because it saves other people’s lives,” Bush said during the debate. Gore agreed, saying: “I support the death penalty…. I think it is a deterrence. I…

  • Big Oil Gets Bigger: Chevron and Texaco

    Chevron has just agreed to acquire Texaco for $36 billion. This follows the BP-Amoco and Exxon-Mobil mergers. The following analysts are available for comments: WENONAH HAUTER Director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy Project, Hauter said today: “This trend towards more consolidation in the oil industry is bad for consumers in the long run and…

  • Perspectives on Mideast Crisis

    MARC ELLIS Director of the Center for American and Jewish Studies at Baylor University in Texas and author of Oh Jerusalem: The Contested Future of the Jewish Covenant, Ellis said today: “The escalation of the Israeli helicopter gunships firing into civilian areas is just appalling…. Justice would mean a shared real sovereignty of all of…

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