News Releases

  • “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.” 


  • Ralph Nader: “Palestinian Holocaust,” 500,000 Dead

    “You can’t have a tiny enclave, the size geographically of Philadelphia, with 2.3 million people, have 170,000 tons of bombs, all kinds of artillery, sniper fire, denial of food, water, medicine, health care, all kinds of infectious diseases, destroying homes, apartment buildings, markets, religious institutions, educational institutions, anything that stands, anything that moves — 75 percent of Gaza is now completely destroyed. And they’re trying to persuade us that there are still 97 out of every 100 Gazans alive? What are they made of — steel and asbestos?” 


  • Judge in Epstein Case Has Financial Conflicts of Interest

    Judge Loretta Preska “through her husband’s law firm” has “connections to a number of other financial institutions tied to Epstein, throwing an even darker shadow on her prior sealing of these documents.” Preska’s spouse is Thomas Kavaler, “a fifty-year veteran of Cahill Gordon & Reindel.” The firm “defended Deutsche Bank after it was sued by a group of its investors over the fact that it had done business with Epstein long after he had been convicted and his crimes had become widely known.”


  • “Healthcare Deserts”Have Worsened Since 2021

    A new report from GoodRx finds that healthcare deserts––areas that lack adequate access to and infrastructure for healthcare services––exist in about 80 percent of counties in the United States. Nearly 60 percent of counties have more than one type of healthcare desert, and roughly one in three Americans are affected by healthcare deserts. Pharmacy deserts have expanded since 2021 while access to critical hospital services like trauma care and hospital beds has remained stagnant. The report pairs metrics with interactive maps and a video that follows Americans living in healthcare deserts as they try to access care. 


  • Amazon Union Leader Beaten by Israeli Military

    “’The Freedom Flotilla Coalition confirms that upon arrival in Israeli custody, U.S. human rights defender, Christian Small, was physically assaulted by seven uniformed individuals,’ wrote the Freedom Flotilla Coalition on Instagram. ‘They choked him and kicked him, leaving visible signs of violence on his neck and back.’”


  • Perspectives on Sen. Lieberman’s Policies

    RABBI MICHAEL LERNER Editor of Tikkun magazine, a bimonthly Jewish critique of politics, culture and society, and author of Spirit Matters: Global Healing and the Wisdom of the Soul, Lerner said today: “It’s great that a Jew is on a major party ticket but unfortunately, just as many African Americans noted Supreme Court Justice Clarence…

  • Below the Surface in Philadelphia

    RON McGUIRE “What we’re seeing in Philadelphia is a First Amendment crisis that could become a First Amendment catastrophe,” said McGuire, an attorney working with the R2K legal collective. “The authorities in Philadelphia have set bail for demonstrators facing misdemeanor charges as high as $30,000. It’s unprecedented. We have $1 million bail set for demonstrators…

  • “Compassionate Conservatism”?

    WILLIAM HARTUNG Senior research fellow at the World Policy Institute and author of the recent report “Lockheed Martin and the GOP: Profiteering and Pork Barrel Politics with a Purpose,” Hartung said today: “Bush-Cheney is the arms industry’s dream team. Bush tried to give Lockheed Martin a contract to run the Texas welfare system. Lockheed Martin…

  • Republican Convention: Issues of Economic Justice

    RICKIE SOLINGER Author of the forthcoming Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Abortion, Adoption and Welfare in the U.S., Soliger said today: “If the Republicans believe ‘no child should be left behind,’ they really ought to consider that children who might be left behind in this country are the children of poor…

  • The Conventions: Brought to You by Corporate America

    The Republican Party convention has a price tag of more than $50 million. The Democratic Party plans to spend about $35 million on its convention. Federal funds will cover $13.3 million for each of those two conventions. Large corporations will cover the rest, many with major issues pending before the government. Among the GOP’s top…

  • Big Oil Greasing Politics?

    WENONAH HAUTER Director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy Project, Hauter said today: “High prices at the gas pump have translated into windfalls for oil companies, which saw first-quarter profits in 2000 rise nearly 500 percent over the same period in 1999. Oil companies are ripping off the public and picking consumers’ pocketbooks clean… After…

  • Internet: Major Issues

    Privatization, Open Access, Privacy, Copyright RONDA HAUBEN Co-author of Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet, Hauben said today: “While the Internet’s infrastructure grew up under public administration and funding, the U.S. government has set out to give away vital Internet functions to a private corporation called the Internet Corporation for…

  • Camp David: Deadline?

    FRANCIS BOYLE Boyle, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, served as legal advisor to the Palestinian delegation to the Middle East peace negotiations from 1991 to 1993. He said today: “The Palestinians have a very strong case they should take to the UN and the World Court. Everything that…

  • Police Brutality; Welfare “Reform”

    JILL NELSON Editor of the recently released book Police Brutality: An Anthology, Nelson said today: “On the day President Clinton addressed the NAACP, the mayor of Philadelphia was not present because a dozen or more of his officers were caught on video beating and kicking a suspect. Clearly there is a problem when it comes…

  • Mideast Talks at Camp David

    LAMIS ANDONI An independent analyst and journalist who has covered the Mideast for nearly two decades, Andoni said today: “U.S. officials are apparently presenting a package to the Israelis and Palestinians, hoping that will become the basis for negotiations instead of international law. U.S. officials have been making references to achieving an agreement that will…

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