President Donald Trump is encouraging deadly hate toward women, Blacks, people of color, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, and immigrants. It is grassroots responses and mutual aid that can block Trump’s power grab. More forms of revolt will erupt in the face of the downward spiral of this capitalist world in crisis.
Who can stop Israel’s genocide against Palestinians? Israel’s citizens need to confront their own rulers for this cycle of madness to end. Those in the U.S. also bear a heavy responsibility, and must pressure the government to stop arming Israel’s genocide.
Dr. Alice Rothchild, feminist obstetrician-gynecologist, received the National Arab-American Museum annual book award for ‘Old Enough to Know’, in which recent immigrant Palestinian children who have been bullied in school, learn the history of Palestine through their grandmother’s stories.
Review of “Gaza Writes Back,” a collection of short stories, the majority written by Palestinian women, in the wake of Operation Cast Lead, perpetrated by the Israel Defense Forces 2008, through 2009.
The Israeli military occupation of Jenin is the latest manifestation of the state terrorism the government is carrying out against the Palestinian population. What is new about this repression? How can continued occupation and neo-fascist tendencies in Israel be overcome?
Early this spring, Palestinian-American attorney and activist Huwaida Arraf was invited to speak at Bloomfield Hills Senior High School. The debate among Jewish, Arab and Muslim community members over whether her talk was anti-Semitic and anti-Israel continues to intensify.
For the sixth time Benjamin Netanyahu has become Prime Minister of Israel. This time he returned to power by bargaining for a government of the most extreme right: an ultranationalist, ultra-Orthodox coalition.
People are robbing banks in Lebanon as the only way to get to their own money. The economy has experienced a meltdown. Years of war, sectarian violence, and rampant corruption have led to extreme poverty for Lebanon’s citizens and thousands of Middle East refugees there.
In light of the ongoing Israel-Palestine crisis, we present a piece that takes up the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the connected slaughter of Palestinians at Sabra and Shatila in Beirut. This piece goes beyond exposé to explore the treacherous nature of halfway revolutions, which set the stage for counter-revolution. It thus illuminates today’s crisis.
The death of counter-revolutionary Qassem Soleimani, together with Donald Trump’s war moves, illuminate this changed world.
Palestinians in Gaza face a double brutality: Israel’s blockade and bombardment, and Hamas’ brutal repression.
On July 18-19 the Israeli Knesset passed a law creating outrage among Arab and Druze citizens who see it as writing their second-class citizenship into law. It encourages the growth of illegal settlements on the West Bank and the continued dispossession of Palestinians.
Free Syria activists gathered in Chicago on June 8 in a vigil opposing the ongoing genocide against civilians who are ignored by most of the world.
Since protests began on March 30, at least 135 Palestinians have been murdered by Israeli sharpshooters who targeted medical workers and youth.
The March of Return is a Palestinian national event—reaching toward a new politics that would transcend the failures both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.
Readers’ views on: U.S. Racism on trial, the right’s crocodile tears, creeping fascism, climate change, nuclear alarms, teachers as labor, Pat Hunt Presente! and Judy and Dan presente!
The recent uprisings in Iran start where the 2009 revolt left off. This analysis focuses on the rebellious working-class youth as well as the interconnections to the Arab Spring, Vladimir Putin’s interference, Donald Trump’s racist agenda, and the philosophic-historic significance of the Bosnian and Syrian struggles against genocide.
Htun Lin’s Workshop Talks column takes up his experience as a refugee from Burma to the U.S. and today’s plight of the Rohingya, who are experiencing ethnic cleansing at the hands of the state and Buddhist nationalists in Burma today.
Women’s news worldwide including a march against rape culture in cities in Canada; a march across Israel for peace by Israeli and Palestinian women; and South African teenagers challenging health clinics to give young women contraceptive information.
We condemn these horrific massacres and the reaction that feeds upon them. To destroy ISIS and all other counter-revolutionary forces will require a battle of ideas, even more than a struggle of arms.
From the signing of a nuclear weapons agreement by the U.S. and Iran, to the ongoing war in Syria including the roles of Turkey and of the Left, this wide-ranging article delves into the Middle East situation with an emphasis on the forces fighting for genuine freedom and a multi-ethnic society.
Worldwide, the refugee crisis is unprecedented and is fueled by war, terrorism and climate change. The worldwide response is paltry with country after country turning away or deporting frantic and desperate people in search of a safe haven.
The world’s attention was once more belatedly drawn to the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, Syria, by the invasion by IS/Daesh terrorists, facilitated by another fundamentalist faction, Jabhat al-Nusra.
Letters and comments sent in by readers or taken down, to and about the articles in News & Letters or current events.
Revolt and Counter-Revolution, from Greece to Syria; Here Come the Reformers; Women’s Freedom; Against Racism
The UK government may have a fight on its hands as activists and lawyers tighten the noose on British weapons sales to the Israeli Defence Force (IDF).
From the September-October 2014 issue of News & Letters
Regarding “New York City and Ferguson, Missouri, police show pattern of violence against Black people” (Aug. 11 N&L web statement): In 2009 in the UK we saw something similar. Police officers killed a man in the vicinity of a political protest, then told the press [=>]
From the September-October 2014 News & Letters
THE FREE SPEECH MOVEMENT AND THE BLACK REVOLUTION
I am in the movement still because of the Free Speech Movement (FSM)—it turned my life around. I studied everything about the New Left. I came to Berkeley and decided this is where I needed to be. [=>]
The war crimes being committed by the Israeli government in its current assault on Gaza are reminiscent of 2008’s brutal “Operation Cast Lead.” The bombing has not spared hospitals, UN compounds, schools or homes for the disabled. A huge percentage of the dead and injured are children. This is collective punishment on a vast, criminal [=>]
As it becomes more commonplace to openly criticize Israeli apartheid and occupation, peace activists, human rights workers and even people who have publicly criticized the state of Israel are deemed a security risk, deported and banned from entering Israel for 10 years.
Tens of thousands of African asylum seekers demonstrated in Tel Aviv calling for “Freedom!” for the refugees detained in a Negev desert facility under Israel’s new anti-immigrant laws.
The Feb. 26 assassination of Tunisian Marxist Chokri Belaid is a tragedy, not least because it denies this serious and courageous activist a chance to help work out the contradictions in his own movement. His funeral—perhaps a million people took to the streets—became a massive demonstration in favor of continuing the Tunisian Revolution.
It is instructive to compare the 1990s, when pretty much only the women’s movement gave vocal support to Bosnia, with Syria today. Some of the same crimes are happening now.
A new South Asian edition of Marxism and Freedom, from 1776 until Today by Raya Dunayevskaya has been published in India.
South Asian readers can order it from Aakar Books, http://aakarbooks. com/, 28-E, Pocket-IV, Mayur Vihar Phase-I, Delhi-110 091, India. Phone: 91-11-2279-5505. Telefax: 91-11-2279- 5641. Email:aakarbooks@gmail.com.
Franklin Dmitryev
Chicago
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In Mexico, there has come to light a [=>]
Editorial
Nov. 14, 2012–Israel’s current onslaught against the Gaza Palestinians, beginning with the assassination of Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari, are more than a response to Hamas’ recent round of rocket attacks. Syrian rebels have begun to take over land around the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, bringing revolution to its borders. As with the recent bombing of [=>]
Lead
by Gerry Emmett
The unprecedented uprising in Syria has been called the “orphan revolution” because it seems that the Syrian people have stood almost alone in their epic struggle for freedom. The Arab League observers achieved nothing. The UN has been stymied by Russian and Chinese vetoes in the Security Council. Most recently, the meeting in [=>]
In Chicago on Dec. 31, well over 100 demonstrators came to show solidarity with Palestinians by releasing 300 black balloons in downtown Grant Park—one balloon for each child killed during Israel’s 22-day assault on the Gaza Strip three years ago.
On the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian people, Nov. 29, we reflected on [=>]
Palestinian women discuss statehood
Ramallah, Palestine—The Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development (PWWSD) organized a political discussion on the UN approach to Palestinian statehood. Mrs. Amal Khreishe, the general director, facilitated the meeting, which hosted Mr. Bassan Essalhi, the secretary of the Palestinian Popular Party, and Mr. Hanna Eissa, an expert in international law.
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by Gerry Emmett
Israel has seen an unprecedented protest movement grow in the wake of the Arab Spring. Around 250,000 people marched through Tel Aviv, Israel, on Aug. 6 in the biggest protest rally the country has ever experienced. Another 50,000 participated in other cities and towns. It is being seen as a direct challenge to [=>]
The area of the world where the right to water is perhaps most severely abused is the Gaza Strip. Since 2003, no piped water has existed. Out of Gaza’s 145 wells, only 55 are functional. The World Health Organization reported that 80% of the “drinking” water in Gaza is unsafe for consumption. Since the closure [=>]
From the new July-August 2011 issue of News & Letters:
Lead
Palestinian youth open new front in Arab Spring
by Gerry Emmett
When thousands of unarmed Palestinians marched upon the Occupied Territories on May 15, they were met by gunfire from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). A dozen were killed and many more wounded. But the Arab [=>]
New July-August 2011 issue of News & Letters is online
News & Letters, Vol. 56, No. 4
July-August 2011
You may view this issue of News & Letters in pdf form here
Lead
Palestinian youth open new front in Arab Spring
The Arab Spring’s arrival has marked a new stage in the Palestinian struggle…. The vision of massive, non-violent protests by [=>]
From the May-June 2011 issue of NEWS & LETTERS:
World in View: Counter-revolution targets Palestine
by Gerry Emmett
Something is becoming more apparent in the Middle East. Whenever counter-revolution raises its head, it begins looking in the direction of Palestine.
The governments of both Jordan and Syria have made efforts to blame the Palestinians for the freedom demonstrations that have [=>]
by Gerry Emmett
Dutch Rightist Geert Wilders, who has also visited New York to attack the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque,” visited the West Bank settlements last month to declare that Palestinians should leave, to live in Jordan. “There already is a Palestinian state, and that state is Jordan,” he lied. Wilders, who sometimes tries to present [=>]
