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human rights vs human rights....

The [UK] government’s plan to ban Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation is a hugely significant step in the steady erosion of civil liberties.

This decline began under Tony Blair’s premiership, was advanced by the last Tory government and is now pursued enthusiastically by Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer.

His home secretary, Yvette Cooper, will be applauded by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, which said the protestors who spray painted aircraft at RAF Brize Norton should be charged with treason.

The government also knows the move has the added approval of the Israeli government, pro-Israel lobbies and arms companies. 

‘Treated harshly’

Palestine Action’s trademark is damaging machinery at factories in the UK that make weapons for Israel’s military. 

Cooper said several acts of serious damage by Palestine Action since its creation in 2020 had cost “millions of pounds”, unintentionally driving home the point that the alleged crime is financial loss and damage to property, as opposed to mass murder. 

The aircraft painted by Palestine Action at Brize Norton are from the Voyager fleet, which the RAF used to refuel US jets during Donald Trump’s bombardment of Yemen this year in sorties that killed hundreds of civilians.

Ministers might well assume the move would be welcomed by Trump, who called Palestine Action “terrorists” that should be “treated harshly” after they defaced his Scottish golf resort.

The Terrorism Act 2000, under which Palestine Action looks set to be proscribed, gives police enormous discretion.

They can question an individual for up to six hours “whether or not” there are “grounds for suspecting” the person has been involved in terrorist activities.

People convicted of “supporting” the group could face 14 years in prison. 

‘Bad move’

Counter-terrorism laws have long been the first refuge of governments anxious to promote a climate of fear and insecurity. 

Between 2000 and 2018 successive governments introduced 13 separate statutes designed to catch more and more people in the “anti-terrorism” net. 

Earlier this year, Starmer, said people-smuggling should be seen as a security threat “similar to terrorism”.

Stella Rimington, a former head of MI5, many years ago criticised politicians for trying to outbid each other in their opposition to terrorism. 

“National security has become much more of a political issue” she told me. “Parties are tending to use it as a way of trying to get at the other side. You know, ‘We’re more tough on terrorism than you are.’ I think that’s a bad move, quite frankly.”

Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, another ex-head of MI5, has warned the government risked banning “non-violent extremists” from speaking at universities. 

Similarly, Max Hill KC, when he was the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, warned the government about trying “to criminalise thought”. 

Then in the wake of calls that last year’s Southport killer should be treated like a terrorist, Hill’s successor Jonathan Hall warned the definition of terrorism should not be expanded or changed as it could lead to “the prosecution of people who by no stretch of the imagination are terrorists”.

He said this week that to his knowledge the ban on Palestine Action would be the “first time that a group has been proscribed on the basis of serious damage to property” in Britain rather than because of the use of, or support for, serious violence.

But he added that targeting the Brize Norton base had moved the group’s activities into “the zone of national security” and that had acted as “a tipping point” for the government.

Unprecedented 

In his introduction to the government’s new National Security Strategy, published on June 24, Starmer said: “We must strengthen our approach to domestic security, where threats continue to grow in their scale and complexity. Not just in terms of terrorism as traditionally understood…”

So the message from this Labour government is clear: protestors will face unprecedented jail sentences and fines for actions never before considered to be akin to terrorism and for crimes that involve no violence against individuals.

This should concern everyone, especially Starmer himself. When he was a human rights lawyer in 2004, he defended a man who broke into a Nato airbase in Gloucestershire and tried to burn down a warplane in protest at the Iraq war.

https://www.declassifieduk.org/palestine-action-ban-threatens-all-our-civil-liberties/

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

strikes 'n bleeds....

 

Airstrikes & Assassinations: America’s Violence Is No Longer Foreign Policy — It’s A Mirror

 

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The Empire Strikes Abroad And Bleeds At Home – A Nation Lost In Its Own Reflection

In an age where we scroll past news of missile strikes and assassinations the same as we do with weather reports, it’s essential to take a step back and ensure we analyze the bigger picture.

After decades of exporting violence, interventionism, and destabilization, the war has finally come home. Resulting from disastrous policy in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq – the U.S. is now devouring itself.

While homegrown attacks show the collapse of legitimacy against the outward gesture of control showcased with the Iranian missile strikes, the deliberate and practiced use of violence is as much spectacle as it is political signaling.

Does Donald Trump thrive in provoking attacks to appear strong, as well as times of crisis, and extreme polarization? Maybe so.

The general American public has become desensitized to violence and death, shrugging as military strikes and domestic political assaults dominate the headlines and quickly flicker away onto the next thing.

The Iranian missile strikes are meant to show strength but the real war is already inside our borders. The U.S. is seemingly a burning empire, lashing outward while warring from within as collapse seems imminent.

Rome burned. Weimar fractured. The Soviet Union collapsed under the weight of its own lies. America is not the exception – it’s merely the sequel.

The foundations are cracked. The center cannot hold. Yet the machine grinds forward – blind, bloodied, and thirsty for only war and killing.

What happens when a nation can no longer tell the difference between strength and cruelty? Between security and submission? Between spectacle and reality?

 

https://www.activistpost.com/airstrikes-assassinations-americas-violence-is-no-longer-foreign-policy-its-a-mirror/

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 

HR tempest....

 

University Officials Welcome the Genocide Apologists and Condemn the Protesters
A protest and its aftermath at the University of California, San Diego illustrates the moral myopia of administrators.

BY

 

Evidencing America’s profound moral depravity is the targeting of campus protesters rather than the genocidal actions of America’s closest ally Israel. President Donald Trump, members of Congress, Christian and Jewish nationalists, and university task forces on antisemitism all charge campus protesters with widespread antisemitism through singling out and demonizing Israel. Ominously, these accusations have prompted universities to impose far-reaching restrictions on campus speech and assembly which match or exceed the crackdowns of the McCarthy era. Consequently, while Israel’s genocide endures, to the silence or approval of leading political, media, and university leaders, it is the protesters who have been substantially silenced. 

Granted, within the surge of campus protests in 2023-2024, a few protesters crossed the line into crude antisemitism or other offensive behavior. The partisan university task force reports on antisemitism at places like Harvard, Columbia, and UCLA have seized upon these scattered instances and lumped them with controversial but defensible chants, such as “Globalize the intifada,” to paint a manufactured picture of rampant hostility toward Jews. Conveniently, neither the task forces nor university officials address the cause of these protests: the ongoing destruction of Gaza, judged to be genocide by Amnesty International and other human rights groups, and the complicity of many U.S. universities. To illustrate this moral myopia, I review a recent tempest at UC San Diego.

On May 19, the Murray Galinson San Diego Israel Initiative (MGSDII) collaborated with UCSD’s School of Global Policy and Strategy (GPS) to host a lecture by Ido Aharoni, a leading Israeli propagandist. In response, the UCSD Faculty Defense Group, GPS students, and the San Diego chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) converged in waging a vigorous protest. While the first two groups featured silent protests, SJP recited, with the help of amplification, multiple chants, including “Israel is an apartheid state. Genocide you celebrate” and “UCSD, you can’t hide. You’re supporting genocide.” Although the atmosphere was heated and a few participants yelled out “baby killer,” “Zionists not welcome here,” and personal insults at attendees entering the lecture hall, the protesters avoided direct altercations and did not try to shut down the talk. 

Ironically, in her rebuke of the protests, Dean Freund urged that UCSD continue “to uphold the values that define our community: curiosity, compassion, and a shared commitment to a more peaceful and just world.” The protesters did just that.

An irate MGSDII staff accused the demonstrators of hurling “dangerous antisemitic slurs” and asked for punitive action. Obligingly, the UCSD chancellor and the faculty senate chair issued a joint message that curiously declared anti-genocide protests “an affront to the mission of our university” and promised an investigation for violation of university rules. Dean Caroline Freund apologized for “the disappointment and discomfort this caused for many in attendance, as well as for others in our broader community.”

Following a familiar pattern of selective outrage, Dean Freund and the chancellor ignored the circumstances prompting the dissent. Most importantly, the event was a university platforming of a professional propagandist who founded the government’s “Brand Israel” program. The MGSDII, which funds visiting teaching positions by Israelis, sponsored the talk as part of its mission to exert “a significant potential impact on the image of Israel that is different to, but on par with or exceeding, results of pro-Israel advocacy organizations.” “[M]ore than ever,” it proclaimed in an email blast after October 7, “we need to bring Modern Israel studies to our university classrooms to counteract the hate and biased education being taught by too many faculty.”

The MGSDII chose well in sponsoring Aharoni. Just two months earlier at San Diego State, he boasted of Israeli accomplishments, praised the U.S.-Israeli alliance, defended Israel’s assault on Gaza, and attacked campus protesters. For good measure, Aharoni quipped “I hope he’s deported to Gaza” in reference to the then-detained Columbia graduating student Mahmoud Khalil. As a skilled diplomat, Aharoni evaded the one critical question he received. The MGSDII was right to see the UCSD event as another propaganda opportunity, this time where the dean was lending prestige by introducing the speaker. 

A second important dynamic ignored by Dean Freund and the chancellor was the chilling of Israel-related protests for the past year. In spring 2024, UCSD had become a hotspot for Gaza protests. On May 1, a coalition led by the campus chapters of SJP and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) assembled an encampment that grew to several hundred participants. The organizers avoided violent altercations with counterprotesters and facilitated cultural, educational, and religious activities, including an anti-Zionist Jewish Shabbat service, that attracted many visitors. This remarkable display of community activism ended abruptly on May 6 when the chancellor authorized police in riot gear to demolish the encampment and arrest resisters. 

Although the city has not filed criminal charges, UCSD has disbanded the SJP and JVP chapters, withheld diplomas from graduating students, and consigned continuing students to a prolonged academic probation while they await completion of investigations. In the fall of 2024, the UC and Cal State systems released revised time, place, and manner regulations, which prohibit encampments, establish new restrictions on protests, and impose harsher sanctions. Combined with the draconian moves from the Trump administration, UCSD’s crackdown has had the intended effect. As professor Gary Fields, a faculty mentor to many UCSD protesters reflected, “What happened in the aftermath of the encampment is that there is still on our campus a climate of surveillance and fear—and self-censorship.”

The UCSD protest of Aharoni marks a courageous effort to revive anti-genocide protests. I would have preferred a more disciplined message that did not insult attendees. Moving forward, protesters would be well advised to devote more planning in coordination with faculty and veteran protesters to wage effective protests. The Faculty Defense Group got the balance right in its press statement: “Our aim in this protest is not to cancel or censor the speech of Ambassador Aharoni. Instead, we want to call attention to the one-sidedness of the event at a time when speech on our campus, and campuses everywhere, decrying the genocide perpetrated by Israel and enabled by the U.S., is being censored and criminalized.” 

Above all, students are right to be angry. These frightening times demand robust protest, including the dreaded “disruption” that panics so many university officials. As of June 25, the official death toll in Gaza has surpassed 56,000. Having just joined Israel in a lawless attack on Iran, the U.S. continues to bestow Israel complete impunity to wreak destruction throughout Gaza and the West Bank. Ironically, in her rebuke of the protests, Dean Freund urged that UCSD continue “to uphold the values that define our community: curiosity, compassion, and a shared commitment to a more peaceful and just world.” The protesters did just that. Let us hope that Dean Freund and campus officials across the country absorb the lessons from the brave students on what moral responsibility demands.

 

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/universities-moral-depravity-gaza

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.