Climate Change, Gaza, genocide, Targeting Muslims
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Israel’s War As A Catalyst For World War
One issue flowing from the Israeli-Palestinian war, at first pretty much ignored, is the danger of the war widening. And as Israel’s war in Gaza drags on, with no end yet in sight, the threat of a much wider war grows stronger. Already the war has resulted in military action in Syria and Iraq, by forces loyal to Iran; U.S. military facilities have been targeted in Iraq by Iranian backed forces; the United States and Great Britain are now regularly bombing Houthi military installations in response to the Houthis militarily disrupting the free flow of shipping in the Gulf region, on behalf of their support for Palestine; and, there are now daily clashes between Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Israel, across their shared border.
So far, the adversaries have been careful to not go beyond an unspoken, but generally recognized “tipping point,” so as not to bring about open nation-on-nation warfare throughout the region. But a “slippery slope” has now been created that many fear could bring about what would amount to a “world war”, even if confined only to that part of the world. And if that happens, who knows how many other nations in the Middle East would end up drawn into such a wider war.
Guest – Richard Becker is the Western Regional Coordinator of the “Act Now to Stop War and End Racism” coalition, or ANSWER. He is the author of the highly praised book, Palestine, Israel, and the U.S. Empire, published in 2013, with an up-dated edition of the book about to be released, as well. He is also the author of the book entitled, The Myth of Democracy and the Rule of the Banks. Richard Becker is also a national leader in the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
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Climate Change And Legal Analysis
While it has been all too slowly, the reality of climate change and what it means for life on our planet, for human lives and the lives of the multitude of other life forms we share this planet with, has become clearer to all who’ve not buried their heads in the sand and closed their eyes and minds to this deadly reality.
For a few decades now we humans have been paying more and more attention to the issue, and have actually instituted some measures aimed at holding climate change in check, but so far with pitifully little effect. In fact, despite these more recent efforts, those greenhouse gases just keep reaching for the sky in greater and greater amounts every year. Is it hopeless? That is, are we humans hopelessly unwilling and unable to do what the science on the matter makes clear must be done if we are not to find ourselves, rather soon, on our way to extinction? Are there, in fact, things we could and should be doing that would actually work?
Guest – Professor Eleanor Stein is a climate change, environmental justice and human rights activist and advocate. She teaches climate change and human rights at the State University of New York, at Albany, and has just recorded a Continuing Legal Education session on this subject for the CUNY Law School. In addition, she facilitates international forums on climate change and energy. And for years, Professor Stein was an Administrative Law Judge at the NY state agency that regulates the energy industry. She guided state policy on recovery from Superstorm Sandy ten years ago. In this regard, her work centered on mediating processes to bring solar and wind energy to the state at scale, at speed, and with justice.
Hosted by attorneys Jim Lafferty and Maria Hall
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Gaza, genocide, Human Rights, Targeting Muslims, Violations of U.S. and International Law
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South Africa Brings Israel To World Court
On January 11 and 12, South Africa and Israel appeared in a historic case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court, in The Hague. South Africa’s legal team made a strong and persuasive argument that Israel is engaging in genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. South Africa asked the court to impose nine emergency “provisional measures” aimed at putting an end to the slaughter.
South Africa’s application to the ICJ places Israel’s genocidal acts and omissions in the broader context of Israel’s 75-year apartheid policy, 56-year occupation, and 16-year blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip. This siege was described by the Director of UNRWA Affairs in Gaza as “a silent killer of people.”
South Africa told the court that it “unequivocally condemned the targeting of civilians by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups and the taking of hostages on 7 October.” But, it continued, “no armed attack on a State’s territory no matter how serious — even an attack involving atrocity crimes — can provide any justification for, or defence to” genocide. Israel “has crossed this line.”
Israel responded by placing responsibility on Hamas for the situation in Gaza. It accused South Africa of an “attempt to weaponize the term genocide.” Israel argued that international humanitarian law is the relevant framework — that Hamas committed war crimes. In Israel’s view, this is not a genocide case; if anyone was the victim of genocide, Israel claims IT was on October 7 when Palestinian resistance forces killed what Israel claims were 1,200 people. However, Hamas is not part of this case, because it is not a state party to the Genocide Convention.
Guest – co-host Marjorie Cohn is Dean of the People’s Academy of International Law and a member of the Bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. Marjorie is also professor of law emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and former president of the National Lawyers Guild. She writes prolifically about Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory and Israel’s violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people.
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Honoring the Legacy Of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
We hear part of an hour long program honoring the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr.Martin Luther King. Our listeners know all too well that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate was shot on April 4, 1968. Not so well known is the radical Dr. King, who said in the last months of his life that:
“Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world, declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo.”
Joining us are special guests Ruby Sales, a colleague of Dr. King’s and co-founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; and Rev. Dr. Emma Jordan-Simpson, Executive Director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (F.O.R.). We’re also joined by author and activist Matt Meyer, a board member of the AJMI.
Dr. King began close ties with A.J. Muste and with the F.O.R. during the Montgomery bus boycott, when FOR staff members Bayard Rustin and Glenn Smiley came to Alabama to support local efforts nonviolently challenging racial segregation. Dr. King developed a special relationship with former FOR chairman A.J. Muste, whose absolute pacifism King had, as a theological seminary student, questioned.
Before heading F.O.R., Muste was a prominent labor leader, helping to found the militant Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). And Dr. King, of course, was killed exactly one year after taking a staunch anti-Vietnam war position and in the midst of supporting a significant strike of sanitation workers, linking—as he had been—issues of race, class, and violence as King deepened his critique of the roots of oppressive U.S. society.
Guest – Ruby Sales is the founder and director of the “SpiritHouse Project”, a national organization that uses the arts, research, education, action and spirituality to bring diverse peoples together to work for racial, economic and social justice as well as for spiritual maturity. A life-long organizer, scholar and public theologian in the areas of civil, gender and other human rights, she was a member of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee and served as national convener of the Make Every Church A Peace Church movement.
Guest – Rev. Dr. Emma Jordan-Simpson is the Executive Pastor of The Concord Baptist Church of Christ, Brooklyn, NY. She has combined pastoral ministry with the social justice community. The former Executive Director of the Children’s Defense Fund she is now the Executive Director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation.
Guest – Matt Meyer is Secretary-General of the International Peace Research Association, Chair of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation’s Financial Advisory Committee, Africa Support Network Coordinator of the War Resisters International, and Senior Research Scholar at U-Mass Amherst. As current National co-chair of FOR and former Chair of the War Resisters League, he is second only to AJ Muste in holding the top post of those two historic US peace organizations. He is author of the recently published White Lives Matter Most And Other “Little” White Lies.
Hosted by attorneys Heidi Boghosian and Marjorie Cohn (also as guest)
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Gaza, genocide, Human Rights, Targeting Muslims, U.S. Militarism, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister
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Unwavering U.S. Support Of Israeli War Atrocity
Israel, with indispensable American support, is destroying the people of Gaza. They are being bombed by American planes dropping American bombs and shot at by Israeli soldiers, using American weapons and ammunition. Israel has prevented them from getting food and water, medical supplies and fuel. They are sick and starving. 85% of the population of 2.3 million have had their homes destroyed and are living outside in the cold without food, fuel medicine or clean water
Already some 20,000 Palestinians have been murdered, the majority, women and children. At least 800 children have had their limbs amputated. It is a one-sided war. The American equipped Israeli Air Force and Army is the fourth largest military force in the world. The Palestinians are essentially defenseless against this. They have been herded to the south tip of tiny Gaza, their homes, schools, hospitals pulverized. They are living in the streets, in the cold, with no sanitation, awaiting their certain destruction by starvation, dehydration, and cholera.
The American government has fully supported this genocidal operation with military supplies, diplomatic, cover, and propaganda. Last week, the United States voted to block a cease-fire resolution at the UN Security council – 13 to 1. The US and Israel are looked upon as moral outlaws by the rest of the world.
Why has the American government supported Israel? What is the history of this support for the Israeli colony which was set up in 1948 in the heart of the Arab world and has been expanding and displacing Palestinians ever since?
Professor Khalidi OpEd LA Times
Guest – Columbia University Professor Rashid Khalidi is a Palestinian American historian of the Middle East, the Edward Said professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, and Director of the Middle East Institute of Columbia School of International and Public Affairs. He was educated at Yale and Oxford universities and is the author of many books on the Middle East. He is also the author of Under Siege: PLO Decision Making During the 1982 War, Brokers of Deceit: How the US Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East and recently The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017.
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Anti-Semitic or Pro Palestine, Quick Silencing Of Student Protests
Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past week or so, you know about the firings and attempted firing of university heads at M.I.T, Harvard, and Penn in the wake of the new Israeli-Palestinian war. At M.I.T. and Penn, their top bosses were, in fact, fired. So far, Claudine Gay at Harvard has held on to her job, but many still think her days there are numbered. The moves to get rid of these university bosses flowed from the claim that they were not strong enough in their condemnation of the October 7th Hamas attack, and of the way their students sloganized in the course of their boisterous on-campus protests against Israel, because of the humanitarian crisis resulting from what Israel is doing in Gaza.
In short, they were deemed to be, if not out and out anti-Semantic themselves, clearly insufficiently pro-Israel in their over-all statements and actions since this latest Israeli/Palestinian war began. Of course, there have been conflicts at many, many other U.S. colleges and university arising from the war, often resulting in the outlawing on campus of campus groups like Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace.
Put simply, despite the fact that a very significant pro-Palestine bias may exist among students on our nation’s campuses of higher learning, these students’ grownups know what’s best…and that means unwavering support for Israel and the supportive role played by the U.S. in that war. And it means trying to silence criticism of Israel and bold support for Palestine. Shout our certain slogans, such as “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, or “down with Zionism, down with Israeli apartheid”, or “Israel, Israel you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide”, and the censors won’t be long in attacking you, or simply silencing you.
Aside for my grief and anger over what is happening to the Palestinian people in this war, there are a couple of other aspects of all of this that have me particularly disturbed, have me angry and greatly worried. One is the simplistic, quick to condemn, efforts to shut down the actions and slogans of the pro-Palestinian demonstrators. The other is how reminiscent this is of how the ruling elite in this country went after the leadership, and rank-and-filers, in the anti-Vietnam war movement of the 60’s and early 70’s. Then, the charges were that the slogans and the demonstrations were “anti-American” and, in fact, down right “communistic.” I, along with a handful of other anti-Vietnam War leaders, was then called before the new House Un-American Activities Committee, to testify about the supposed, and I quote, “Soviet money and leadership that was supporting U.S. antiwar groups and coalitions.”
Are today’s pro-Palestinian leaders now to be called to account and asked by the authorities, “are you now or have you ever been, an anti-Zionist”? “Are you getting money from the Islamists?” Yes, the growing danger to free speech in our country, and the right to defend those who the government may disfavor, or claim to be the enemies of our people, is to be greatly feared. It often grows slowly, at first, like some cancerous viruses, but once it gathers strength…well, remember our history.
Guest – Stephen Rohde is a noted constitutional scholar, retired civil rights lawyer and activist. He is the past Chair of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California; the founder and current chair of Interfaith communities United for Justice and Peace; the author of Freedom of Assembly and American Words of Freedom. Steve Rohde is also a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times Review of Books, TruthDig, and a leader in the national campaign to free imprisoned investigative reporter, Julian Assange.
Hosted by attorneys Michael Smith, Maria Hall and Jim Lafferty
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, genocide, Human Rights, Targeting Muslims, U.S. Militarism, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister
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Jewish Voice For Peace Leads US Ceasefire Protests
In 1948, 750 thousand Palestinians were terrorized, murdered and driven out of their homeland in Palestine where they had lived for thousands of years. Many fled to Gaza at the southern end of what is now Israel.
Gaza is tiny strip of land along the Mediterranean and is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. More than 500 of their villages were destroyed and the remaining Palestinians were left to live in 22% of historic Palestine. The process of murder, terror, and displacement is going on again. 1.5 million Palestinians, many of them descendants of the refugees from 1948, have been driven out of northern Gaza. Their homes have been bombed and destroyed, their hospitals, schools, mosques, and churches have been bombed. To date, 11 thousand have been killed, almost half are children.
Israel has cut off clean water, medicine, electricity, fuel and food and ordered Palestinians to get out or be killed. Israeli ground troops are going door to door mopping up those who have not fled.
This genocidal operation has the full support of the American establishment and the corporate media. Israel is a strategic military ally of the United States and gets support from the military industrial complex and right wing Republican oriented American Jews.
But this time there is a push back. Thousands of young American Jews have not been taken in by the propaganda and identify with the new organization Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)
JVP has organized thousands of people in spectacular demonstrations that have shut down Grand Central Station in New York, blocked entrances to Congress, sat in on the Capital rotunda, and amassed at the Statue of Liberty. These have been some of the largest acts of civil disobedience since the Iraq war, and the largest demonstrations of Jewish people in solidarity with the struggle for Palestine freedom ever.
Guest – Elena Stein, Director of Strategy for Jewish Voice For Peace. She lives in New York.
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What Will It Take To End The War In Gaza?
Israel’s war in Gaza, which has already created a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions, now threatens to spread even more death and destruction as Israel’s military force, the IDF, has now occupied the last hospital in Gaza still barely functioning, as it attempts to operate without electricity or medical supplies. And this at a time when Israel’s IDF forces claim to control all of northern Gaza and Gaza City. Notably, the Israel forces occupying the hospital, despite its earlier claims to the contrary, has failed to produce any proof that the hospital was being used by the forces of Hamas for military purposes.
Of course, for some weeks now, many world leaders and United Nations officials have declared that what Israel is doing in Gaza amounts to genocide. And so far, even efforts at achieving any meaningful pause in the fighting, let alone a real ceasefire, remains beyond reach, still being opposed by Israel and the Biden Administration.
Meanwhile, no one is prepared to predict an end to the slaughter in Gaza, as the civilian death toll continues to grow, and as Gaza’s infrastructure continues to disappear. And so, the protests over the war, the accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity on the part of Israel continue to grow, as well. Indeed, in the last week there have been huge anti-Israel protests, including a massive one organized by the orthodox Jewish community in the United States. Meanwhile, the Biden Administration is coming under more and more attacks from members of its own Administration. Already more than 400 high level and mid-level government officials in the Biden Administration have sent Biden letters protesting his refusal to ask Israel to declare a ceasefire, and many of them have resigned in protest.
Guest – Attorney Ameena Qazi the Co-Executive Director of the Peace and Justice Law Center in Los Angeles. She formerly served as the Deputy Executive Director and Staff Attorney for the Greater Los Angeles Area Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (or “C.A.I.R.”), the largest American Muslim civil rights and advocacy group; and Ms. Qazi is also a former Executive Director of the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. US Campaign For Palestinian Rights
Hosted by Attorneys Michael Smith and Jim Lafferty
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, genocide, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry
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US Obligation To The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
A United Nations body has issued a damning report blasting the United States for its rampant violations of a major human rights treaty that it ratified in 1992. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, or ICCPR, enshrines fair trial rights, the right to life, to vote, and to freedom of expression and assembly. It prohibits torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. It also forbids discrimination in the enjoyment of civil and political rights based on race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status (which includes sexual orientation).
The Human Rights Committee is a group of 18 independent experts that monitor the implementation of the ICCPR by its States Parties, each of whom files periodic reports on their progress in implementing the obligations in the treaty.
In its November 3, 2023 report on U.S compliance with the ICCPR, the Human Rights Committee found 30 some violations of the treaty by the United States. Racial discrimination permeated two-thirds of the documented U.S. violations.
In addition to discrimination based on race, the Committee found several instances of discrimination against women, particularly in the area of reproductive rights. The Committee also found discrimination on the basis of real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.
Guest – Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, former president of the National Lawyers Guild, and a member of the national advisory boards of Assange Defense and Veterans for Peace, and the bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. Her books include “The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration, and Abuse” and “Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral and Geopolitical Issues.” Marjorie is founding dean of the People’s Academy of International Law. Her article about the report of the Human Rights Committee was published last week by Truthout.
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Voices of Mass Incarceration: A Symposium
Opening with a keynote discussion featuring Angela Davis, Pam Africa, Julia Wright, and Johanna Fernández, the event featured two dozen experts and artists working and studying incarceration and its wide-ranging effects on society. The second day of the symposium also marked the opening of the Mumia Abu-Jamal papers for research at the John Hay Library with the launch of the exhibit, Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Portrait of Mass Incarceration. This exhibition centers on the writing, music and art of Mumia Abu-Jamal, whose papers anchor the John Hay Library’s Voices of Mass Incarceration in the United States collection. Mumia has been imprisoned for 43 years for allegedly killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.
One of the panels focused on how systemic changes have strained the existing healthcare system. With 44% of prison detainees receiving a psychiatric diagnosis, prisons are now among the largest providers of healthcare, more so than major hospitals and other care facilities.
We are pleased to bring you the remarks of Hope Metcalf, Lecturer at Yale Law School, on medical care for incarcerated individuals including mental health and hepatitis C. We’ll also hear from Lauren Weinstock, Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University.
Hosted by attorneys Heidi Boghosian and Marjorie Cohn
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Gaza, genocide, Human Rights, War Resister
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American Jews Redefining Judaism
Israeli war planes are bombing the northern half of the Gaza Strip, reducing everything – hospitals, mosques, schools, homes – to rubble. Those who survive the march south may be driven into the Sinai desert. More than 1 million Palestinians had lived there. They have been ordered to vacate their homes and walk south on pain of death. Food, water, electricity, and medical supplies have been cut off to these people, half of whom are children. This is being facilitated by American military, financial, diplomatic, and media support.
Guest – Rabbi Brant Rosen is the leader of the congregation Tzedek Chicago whose members are not Zionists and who oppose the historic Zionist project of dispossessing the native Palestinians forcing them out of their homeland. The attention of the world today is focused on the tiny northern half of the Gaza Strip. Tsedek Chicago’s website states that “during the course of his rabbinate, Rabbi Brant Rosen became an increasingly vocal activist for justice and human rights, particularly in Israel/Palestine. After publicly wrestling with his relationship with Israel and openly questioning his lifelong Zionism, he eventually became a prominent Jewish presence in the Palestine solidarity movement cofounding the Jewish Voice for Peace rabbinical council .“
Rabbi Brant’s writings have appeared in many journals and publications, including Newsweek, the Chicago Tribune, the Jewish Forward, Tikkun, and Truthout. Tikkun, magazine editor Rabbi Michael Lerner wrote that Rabbi Brant Rosen is “at once a courageous rabbi and the voice of a new generation of American Jews who are refusing to allow the right wing voice of the Jewish world to define Judaism.“
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Christian Fascism Poised To Reshape The United States
Our guest today claims that we are far down the road that leads to fascism in the United States, and he places the blame at the feet of the liberal class to halt the corporate assault on working people that has spawned an ascendant Christian fascism that is poised to seize power and radically reshape America. As he says in his article of October 8th, “the parting gift, I expect, of the bankrupt liberalism of the Democratic Party will be a Christianized fascist state.
The Liberal class, a creature of corporate power, captive to the war industry and the security state, unable or unwilling to ameliorate the prolonged economic security and misery of the working class, blinded by a self-righteous woke ideology that reeks of hypocrisy and disingenuousness and bereft of any political vision, is the bedrock on which the Christian fascists, who have coalesced in cult-like mobs around Donald Trump, have built their terrifying movement.”
Guest – Chris Hedges, award-winning journalist and political writer reported for The New York Times from 1990 to 2005 and served as the Times’ Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief during the wars in the former Yugoslavia. In 2001 Hedges was one of the Times’ writers on an entry that received the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting. Prior to his work for the Times, he worked as a freelance war correspondent in Central America for The Christian Science Monitor, NPR, and the Dallas Morning News. His books include Death of the Liberal Class, War on America, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, and his book War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction.
Hosted by attorneys Michael Smith and Jim Lafferty
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