United States | News & Politics

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/22383492

Summary

Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are preparing to crack down on pro-Palestinian protesters.

Measures could include deporting foreign students advocating for Hamas, prosecuting protest leaders for failing to register as foreign agents, and applying anti-terrorism or hate speech laws.

Critics, including civil rights groups like the ACLU and CCR, warn this could criminalize protected speech.

Legal battles are expected, especially as groups like the Heritage Foundation push initiatives like Project Esther to target alleged Hamas supporters.

Campus protests and student visa revocations are likely focal points for enforcement.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/22836856

Interview with Vincent Bevins by Aaron Gell

On Thursday evening, the Senate voted on three resolutions introduced by Bernie Sanders to block three arms sales the Biden administration had previously approved for Israel. The resolutions failed 18-79, 19-78, and 17-80, respectively.

In the lead-up to the vote, the White House aggressively lobbied the Senate to reject Sanders’s resolutions (i.e., to vote against blocking the sales) despite the abundance of evidence showing Israel has used the same weapons in war crimes and probably will again based on past behavior. Let this be remembered as how Biden chose to spend his remaining days in office — lobbying senators to approve more weapons for Israel.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez voted for a resolution on Wednesday which endorses a bogus Israel lobby definition of anti-Semitism.

In backing the measure, she broke with several other members of the so-called Squad, the dwindling group of progressive Democrats in Congress, and sided with the Anti-Defamation League, a powerful Israel lobby group that welcomed the resolution’s passage.

Representatives Cori Bush of Missouri, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan were the only Democrats to vote no on the resolution.

Abdullah Akl, a long-time political organiser based in New York City, said the warrants for Netanyahu, while notable, would once again distinguish those who respected the rule of law and those who would find ways to disavow it.

For months, the US has found ways to shield Israel, refusing to support a ceasefire or an arms embargo, even as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said Israel's actions in Gaza amount to a "plausible genocide".

Akl said it was inconceivable that American names could be excluded from the charge sheets.

"Where are the rest of the arrest warrants for the people who were just as complicit as Netanyahu, the people that were just as complicit like [President] Joe Biden, like [Vice-President] Kamala Harris, and the list goes on and on with [Secretary of State] Tony Blinken and others?" Akl asked rhetorically, adding, "We want an arrest warrant for Biden."

"The Biden administration made sure to sign off on the weapons deals. They made sure to play the back door conversation."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/22786291

from #Zeteo [Note - may be paywalled]
Prem Thakker Nov 20, 2024

The mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, home to the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the US, has said that local police would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he stepped foot in the city.

Abdullah Hammoud shared his statement on X shortly after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants on Thursday for Netanyahu, his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and a senior Hamas leader in Gaza, Mohammed al-Deif.

The US is not beholden to the ICC because it is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, a treaty that established the court in 1998. There are 124 countries that are state parties to the Rome Statute, including Canada, the UK, and the European Union.

https://archive.ph/t4NCD