News Releases

At the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Nashville, Tenn., last month, former President Donald Trump told the audience that Christianity is “under attack.” NRB is a trade association of radio and TV evangelists with millions of listeners.

FREDERICK CLARKSON; f.clarkson@politicalresearch.org 
    Clarkson is a senior research analyst at Political Research Associates, a progressive think tank. He has been researching and writing about religion and politics for four decades. He is the author of Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy and editor of Dispatches from the Religious Left: The Future of Faith and Politics in America.

Clarkson told the Institute for Public Accuracy: Trump’s premise is that “there is an attack on Christianity going on, allegedly from the ‘radical Left.’ He calls Joe Biden a ‘communist.’ This is 21st Century McCarthyism, acting as if Christianity is under attack by communism. But it shouldn’t come as a surprise, since Trump’s advisor was Roy Cohn [the McCarthy-era prosecutor]. He learned politics from Roy Cohn” in the 1970s and 1980s. “This is his default mode: sleazy, fact-free demagoguery. He says [Democrats] want to tear down crosses where they can and replace them with ‘social justice flags.’ I don’t know where that is happening anywhere in the country. It’s made-up stuff. You could arguably say it’s a metaphor for what [Democrats] want to do. But [Trump] is saying it’s real. ‘No one will touch the cross under the Trump administration,’ he swears.”

Trump is seeking to maximize support from evangelical Christians. His claim to be defending Christianity “suggests that their kind of Christianity is the Christianity—that it is Christianity. But there are plenty of [religious] sectors—Catholicism, mainline Protestantism—that don’t agree. There is no one Christianity. [Trump’s idea] is not just factually wrong, but it’s counter to the values of American constitutional democracy. Constitutional democracy is not [about] the defense of Christianity but the defense of religious freedom, by which the framers of the Constitution meant religious equality under the law, in which your religious or non-religious identity would have no bearing on your status as a citizen: neither an advantage or disadvantage. That’s a core piece of the American experiment… a constellation of freedom, respect for religious pluralism, and separation of church and state. If you’re not talking in those terms, you’re not talking about religious freedom but [rather] religious supremacy or bigotry. 

“This is best expressed in the red and white hats they were giving out at the [National Religious Broadcasters] convention, which said ‘Make America Pray Again.’

“The Democrats should be prepared to say how offensive this is. I would like to see Joe Biden, or anyone in the Democratic Party, say [what it means to defend religious freedom]. It doesn’t mean just protecting one sector of Christianity. If you’re going to deal with the religious right and the politicians who pander to them, you have to engage with this.”

[On Friday afternoon, news broke that Nicaragua is suing Germany under the Genocide Convention at the International Court of Justice for facilitating Israel’s attack on Gaza. For background, see here and here.]

While outlets including NPR, MSNBC and CNN claim in headlines that Vice President Kamala Harris called for a “ceasefire” on Sunday, commentator James Ray stated: “She paused after ‘There must be an immediate ceasefire’ before saying ‘at least for the next six weeks’ because she knows supporters of the administration can now clip it easily and disingenuously tell supporters of Palestinian liberation that the administration is pro ceasefire.”

MARGARET KIMBERLEY, margaret.kimberley@blackagendareport.com, @freedomrideblog
Kimberley is author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents and executive editor and senior columnist for Black Agenda Report. She said of Harris’s statement: “They’re scared of the Super Tuesday uncommitted vote campaign.” Super Tuesday is tomorrow. (Biden’s talk of ceasefire, while licking an ice cream cone, similarly came just before the Michigan primary, which saw substantial support for anti-war forces.)

Kimberley added: “Is Harris calling for a ceasefire or is the president? She says this proposal is now on the table. So it isn’t new. … The word ceasefire has been co-opted. We must say end funding and weapons to Israel and no to displacing Palestinians in Gaza.”

Journalist Laila Al-Arian writes: “She’s not calling for a ceasefire. She’s calling for a six week pause to release the hostages. The people of Gaza have called for a permanent ceasefire. Giving them a break only to resume killing them is not a ceasefire.” Abed A. Ayoub of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee noted that six weeks is “just enough time to get most of the Democratic Primaries out of the way.”

Kimberley’s recent pieces include: “What Aaron Bushnell Had to Teach Us,” “Muslim and Arab-American Voters Show Black People How to Exercise Political Power,” and “U.S. Ramps Up War Crimes After ICJ Rules Against Israel.”

Today Harris meets with Benny Gantz, a member of the Israeli war cabinet. He said in November: “The fighting will continue and expand to any place necessary in the Gaza Strip. There will be no sanctuary cities.” See resource on “instances of Israeli incitement to genocide” from Law for Palestine.

Al Jazeera reports in “‘Massacre’: Dozens killed by Israeli fire in Gaza while collecting food aid” that “More than 100 killed and about 750 wounded after Israeli forces fired at Palestinians trying to get flour for their families as famine stalks the Strip.” [See video.] Jad Allah Al-Shafei, the Nursing Director at Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, told Al-Jazeera, “All injuries result from gunfire and artillery shells; claims of a stampede are entirely fabricated.” Euro-Med Monitor reports on a Palestinian being run over by Israeli tanks (graphic images).

The Guardian reports: “Israel has not yet provided evidence to back Hamas 7 October attack claims against UNRWA, UN says.”

STEPHEN ZUNES, zunes@usfca.edu
Professor of politics at the University of San Francisco, Zunes has written extensively on the Mideast. His latest piece for The Progressive is “U.S. Support for Israel Bolsters Its Own Interests” and states: “Despite growing public resentment of support for Israel, policymakers continue to fund violations of international law.”

MARY KOSTAKIDIS, Mary@marykostakidis.com.au, @MaryKostakidis
Kostakidis is a journalist and was anchor of SBS World News Australia for two decades. She just co-wrote the piece “Australian Civil Society submits statement on Gaza genocide to the International Court of Justice.” She said today: “Civil society organisations around the world are demanding political leaders listen to the voice of the public. They want action to end the genocide now. To turn a blind eye is to be complicit. Signatories to the Genocide Convention are doing worse: in abrogation of their responsibilities under international law, many are continuing to enable the supply of arms or arms parts to Israel. This is criminal state behaviour. …”

CHRISTOPHER GUNNESS, cgunness@outlook.com
Gunness is a former spokesperson for UNRWA. He has called the halting of funding to UNRWA, which provides food, education and other forms of relief for Palestinian refugees “utterly shocking” and a “violation of international law” and a “violation of the orders by the International Court of Justice.” He was featured on the IPA news release: “UK Channel 4 Finds Israeli Documents ‘Provide No Evidence’ in Charges Against UNRWA.”

See from the Guardian: “Israel is deliberately starving Palestinians, UN rights expert says.”

See IPA release: “Doctors Without Borders: Israel Is Attacking Our Convoys.”

See images of a vigil from Monday night for Aaron Bushnell who immolated himself in front of the Israeli embassy, shouting “Free Palestine!” over and over again.

MIKE FERNER, mike@veteransforpeace.org, @VFPNational
Ferner is national director of Veterans For Peace, which just put out a statement: “Aaron’s motivation is strikingly similar to that of Norman Morrison, a 35-year-old, Quaker activist who set himself ablaze in the Pentagon parking lot below Secretary of War McNamara’s office, November 2, 1965. …

“We could call our policymakers ‘madmen arsonists’ because they go around the globe setting fires much faster than we can extinguish them.”

MATTHEW HOH, matthew.hoh@icloud.com, @MatthewPHoh
Hoh is the associate director of the Eisenhower Media Network. He is a former Marine Corps captain, an Afghanistan State Department officer and a disabled Iraq War veteran. He said today: “It’s important to note Aaron Bushnell’s self-immolation was not just an act of resistance to genocide and a statement of non-complicity but that it also came from the pain and distress caused by the great and wide wreckage of this war and all wars.

“The moral injury Aaron was enduring by being part of a military whose purposes were not the interests of the American people but rather the political, economic and financial interests of the American Empire, and the great harm and suffering that those interests bring to so many millions of people, is a pain and distress felt by generations of American veterans. …

“Aaron realized he was not wearing a white hat but a black one. The distress and guilt caused by that realization, coupled with his desire to stand resistant to the genocide in Gaza, led to his act of self-immolation. We have to be careful not to celebrate his death, for this act of self-immolation is an extension and agent of the wicked violence of this war in Gaza, and his loss, like the tens of thousands killed in the war, is an act of permanent destruction and moral desecration. We should honor his act of sacrifice, while recognizing the moral injury he was suffering, and utilize his memory to sustain our resistance to genocide, war and occupation.”

RICK PERLSTEIN; nixonland@gmail.com, @rickperlstein
    Perlstein is a journalist and a historian of the post-1960s American conservative movement. He is the author of several  books including Reaganland.

Perlstein told the Institute for Public Accuracy: News media are meant to “give citizens a basic understanding of what is happening in the world around them. I’m attached to the idea that the First Amendment was the first thing that Congress did. Journalism is the most powerful tool of self-governance that we have, [especially] in a nation that is within spitting distance of dictatorship. A hundred years from now, what will historians make of the way this story was told by journalism? Was it adequate to the task? 

“A lot of the journalism about the rise of Trump and the increasing coarsening of American political culture looks more like the journalism of an authoritarian country. Just looking at the front page of the Washington Post or the New York Times, you would think that the Republican Party and the Democratic Party have equal responsibility for the acceptance of violent rhetoric, because of this professional norm [in journalism] that the contributions of Democrats and Republicans need to be ‘balanced.’ But if you have one political party in a two-party system that has built lying, cheating, and stealing into its DNA… and the media treats [both parties] as equal actors, then the media is biased toward the party willing to lie, cheat, and steal. The Republicans get a booster seat from mainstream journalism. 

“[American] journalists have fallen from their appointed role. As Trump has tightened his vice grip on the Republican party and openly embraced the idea that government is an extension of his own will for revenge and power, the norms at the highest levels of political journalism mostly, though not exclusively, haven’t changed. Journalism has gotten worse because it’s more inaccurate––because the stories they tell are the same stories they told in 1996.

“The coverage of what Republicans do in Washington––or even in state capitals like Austin or Madison––and the ‘insurgent forces’ within the party’s coalition that show up at the border with guns are part of the same story. They work together. Responsible political journalism has to make a space for reporting on how the next January 6th is going to happen. That’s not happening yet. The way insurgent campaigns are covered should be the way counterinsurgency warfare is covered in Ukraine. The Republican Party has evolved into a formulation with both parliamentary and paramilitary wings. These guys are on the same team, in ways that we can’t yet grasp.” 

On Sunday, Aaron Bushnell identified himself in a livestream video as he walked toward the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. as “an active duty member of the U.S. Air Force,” adding that “I will no longer be complicit in genocide.” He then lit himself ablaze and yelled “Free Palestine!” over and over. He has reportedly died.

As he burned up, uniformed personnel screamed at him to get on the ground. One officer had a gun drawn on Bushnell until after he collapsed.

Finally another officer said: “I don’t need guns, I need fire extinguishers!”

“I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest,” he had said calmly as he walked to the embassy. “But compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.” A vigil for Bushnell has been called for 4:30 at the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C.

Meanwhile, Ryan Grim writes: “Multiple NYT sources tell me that the paper is now cutting ties with Anat Schwarz after her social media history — ‘turn Gaza into a slaughterhouse’ — was exposed. Her explosive article shaped public understanding of 10/7 yet the team at The Daily has still been unable to produce an episode based on it, after producers found it full of holes. …

“This ‘freelancer’ played a lead role in the paper’s most consequential coverage of the war, and had no journalism experience. The better question is who assigned her these stories, why, and what were they thinking.”

ESHA KRISHNASWAMY, esha at umich.edu, @eshaLegal
Krishnaswamy is a journalist and podcaster. She has written an extensive thread on Anat Schwarz on X, formerly known as Twitter.

She is at work on an historical piece on self-immolations. She said today: “While Self-immolation became well-known in the West after Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc’s self-immolation in what was formerly known as Saigon (currently Ho Chi Minh City) on June, 11 1963, this practice has been described in ancient Hindu and Buddhist literature. In one of the earliest tales of the Jataka-Mala, they recount a story of a Bodhisattva (an enlightened being), who jumps into a wood fire to provide food for a hungry Brahmin. In the ancient literature, they always describe an enlightened man who makes a calculated self-sacrifice on behalf of a larger group or community.

“While western newspapers described Thich Quang Duc’s self-immolation as an act of suicide, another monk Thich Nhat Hanh explained why it was not suicide: ‘Suicide is an act of self-destruction, having as causes the following: (1) lack of courage to live and to cope with difficulties; (2) defeat by life and loss of all hope; (3) desire for nonexistence. … The monk who burns himself has lost neither courage nor hope; nor does he desire nonexistence. On the contrary, he is very courageous and hopeful and aspires for something good in the future. He does not think that he is destroying himself; he believes in the good fruition of his act of self-sacrifice for the sake of others. … I believe with all my heart that the monks who burned themselves did not aim at the death of their oppressors but only at a change in their policy. Their enemies are not man. They are intolerance, fanaticism, dictatorship, cupidity, hatred, and discrimination which lie within the heart of man.'”

Krishnaswamy said: “In the continued tradition of western chauvinism, many press outlets are describing this act as suicide and are even speculating if Aaron Bushnell was mentally ill. But, in the East, it seems like these acts have a completely different meaning.”

Also, see “See Dying without Killing: Self-Immolations, 1963-2002” by Michael Biggs at Oxford, though this overlooks self-immolations regarding the 1991 Iraq War.

See “Ignoring Immolators Lulls the Society to Sleep: Aaron Bushnell at the Israeli Embassy: ‘FREE PALESTINE!‘” by Sam Husseini, which notes that while self-immolation was used to spark the Arab uprisings, it has been largely ignored in the U.S.

 

Jewish Voice for Peace states: “Over 5,000 Jews and allies, including rabbis and descendants of Holocaust survivors, shut down the AIPAC headquarters in New York City on Thursday, protesting the organization’s involvement in U.S. politics that threatens to undermine democracy by funneling millions of dollars into swaying members of Congress to oppose a ceasefire in Gaza, which is favored by the vast majority of Americans.

“Down the block from AIPAC’s Midtown Manhattan headquarters, police arrested 18 protesters inside the offices of AIPAC-supported Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, who oppose a ceasefire and voted last week to send $14.1 billion in military funding to Israel.”

“The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as AIPAC, uses millions of dollars and racist smear campaigns to ensure Congressional complicity in the Israeli’s government’s genocide of Palestinians,” said Jay Saper of Jewish Voice for Peace.

AIPAC has raised an eye-popping $90 million in the past five months, helping bolster its influence on members of Congress who oppose a ceasefire in Gaza and ramp up aggressive campaigns against those who have spoken out against the Israeli military’s bombing of Gaza that has killed over 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza, over 11,000 of whom are children.

Protesters with Jewish Voice for Peace shut down traffic outside of AIPAC’s headquarters while chanting “Let Gaza Live.” They held held massive cardboard letters that read “Dump AIPAC” and piled up red trash bags emblazoned with that same message in the street, next to a massive mural that said “AIPAC funds genocide.”

They then marched to the offices of AIPAC-supported Sen. Schumer and Gillibrand, who voted last week to send an additional $14.1 billion in military funding to Israel. Observing a Jewish mourning ritual, they placed 30 stones, honoring the 30,000 Palestinians killed by the U.S.-backed bombing, in the lobby of the senators’ office. After staging a sit-in where they unfurled banners inside the lobby calling on the senators to “Stop Funding Genocide,” police made 18 arrests; in Jewish tradition, 18 signifies life.

“Polls show the vast majority of Americans want the war on Gaza to stop. And yet, because of pro-apartheid lobby groups like AIPAC, most elected officials still refuse to call for a ceasefire,” said Eliza Klein of Jewish Voice for Peace.

Protesters outside AIPAC on Thursday took inspiration from the historic Garbage Offensive organized by the Young Lords in 1969 to demand NYC divest from war and invest in communities. They called on elected officials to Dump AIPAC as it continues to make Gaza uninhabitable while simultaneously eroding democracy in the U.S.

“As a Palestinian Jew who supported the struggle for the Puerto Rican Studies Department at Brooklyn College, I’ve always been touched by the acts of solidarity between our communities. When the Young Lords led the Garbage Offensive in 1969, their platform also included support for Palestinians. I am honored to carry this legacy of solidarity forward in the streets today,” said Esther Farmer of Jewish Voice for Peace.

The protest was the latest in a wave of iconic protests led by Jewish Voice for Peace that halted Congress, shut down Grand Central Terminal during rush hour traffic, took over the Statue of Liberty, shut down the Manhattan Bridge, disrupted the President’s Hanukkah Party at the White House, and blockaded President Biden’s motorcade.

Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is “the largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the world. JVP organizes a grassroots, multiracial, cross-class, intergenerational movement of U.S. Jews into solidarity with the Palestinian freedom struggle, guided by a vision of justice, equality and dignity for all people.”

Contact:
Jay Saper, jaysaper@gmail.com
Sonya Meyerson-Knox, sonya@jvp.org

Chris Lockyear, Secretary General of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Thursday briefed the UN Security Council. He said: “Israeli forces have attacked our convoys, detained our staff, and bulldozed our vehicles, and hospitals have been bombed and raided. Now, for a second time, one of our staff shelters has been hit. … [See video clips.]

“Our colleagues in Gaza are fearful that, as I speak to you today, they will be punished tomorrow. Madame President, every day we witness unimaginable horror. …

“There is no health system to speak of left in Gaza. Israel’s military has dismantled hospital after hospital. What remains is so little in the face of such carnage. It is preposterous. The excuse given is that medical facilities have been used for military purposes, yet we have seen zero independently verified evidence of this. …

“We are appalled by the willingness of the United States to use its powers as a permanent council member to obstruct efforts to adopt the most evident of resolutions: one demanding an immediate and sustained ceasefire. Three times this council has had an opportunity to vote for the ceasefire that is so desperately needed. And three times the United States has used its veto power, most recently this Tuesday. A new draft resolution by the United States ostensibly calls for a ceasefire. However, this is misleading at best. This council should reject any resolution that further hampers humanitarian efforts on the ground, and leads this council to tacitly endorse the continued violence and mass atrocities in Gaza. …

“Surgeons have had no choice but to carry out amputations without anaesthesia, on children. …”

“Medical teams have added a new acronym to their vocabulary: WCNSF — wounded child, no surviving family. Children who survive this war will not only bear the visible wounds of traumatic injuries but the invisible ones, too — those of repeated displacement, constant fear, and witnessing family members literally dismembered before their eyes. These psychological injuries have led children as young as five to tell us they would prefer to die.”

Contact: MSF press team: press_inquiries@newyork.msf.org

CRAIG MOKHIBER, craigmokhiber@gmail.com, @CraigMokhiber
Mokhiber is an International human rights lawyer and former Director of the New York Office of the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights. He stepped down from his post in 2023 and penned a widely noted letter.

He was just interviewed by the Electronic Intifada. Regarding the ongoing International Court of Justice hearings on the legality of Israel’s 56-year occupation of Palestinian land, he noted: “This is the largest case in history — more than 50 countries are taking part in this, and the U.S. is virtually alone (but for Fiji) in defending the legality of Israel’s occupation. Most states are affirming its illegality and cataloging Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other gross violations of international law.

“This includes central tenets of international law (‘jus cogens norms’) from which there is no escape: the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force, the violation of the self-determination of the Palestinian people, and apartheid. Part of what’s on trial here is the political ruse of the Oslo process, which has attempted to subvert international law to the wishes of Israel and its western backers.”

Regarding the South African case against Israel under the Genocide Convention, Mokhiber said that the depiction that the ICJ Order was lacking because it didn’t include the word “ceasefire” is unfounded, since a ceasefire would be approrpriate for a war. “But this case is not about a war, but rather a genocide” said Mokhiber. “The Court’s command for Israel to stop all genocidal activity is in fact an order to stop the military activity, as well as the siege, incitement and other potentially genocidal activity.”

Regarding the UN: “U.S. vetoes of successive ceasefires in the UN Security Council, after which thousands more were killed in the genocide in Palestine, leave the U.S. directly responsible for those deaths. They will be responsible for what happens after this week’s veto as well. Complicity is a crime.”

Mokhiber said that given the U.S. “blocking appropriate action by the Security Council, the General Assembly could pass resolutions that contain teeth, like the removal of Israel from international organizations, the non-recognition of passports, and establish a criminal tribunal to prosecute individuals.”

He also notes that much activity is driven by “Civil society, unions, faith groups, engaging in protests which can fuel an upsurge in activity like boycott, divestment and sanctions.”

Reuters is reporting: “UN food agency pauses deliveries to the north of Gaza.” USA Today reports: “The head of the World Health Organization called Gaza a ‘death zone’ Wednesday, lamenting health and living conditions that are ‘inhumane’ and only getting worse.” Meanwhile, at the International Court of Justice, scores of countries are demanding an end to Israel’s 56-year occupation of Palestinian land, with the U.S. virtually alone in defending Israel’s actions (this case is seperate from South Africa’s invoking the Genocide Convention at the ICJ). Thursday morning, China, Ireland, Japan and Jordan were among the countries that spoke, see videos.

RICHARD SILVERSTEIN, richards1052@gmail.com, @richards1052
Silverstein writes at Tikun Olam and recently wrote the piece “Israel Unloads Gaza Ethnic-Cleansing on U.S., Saudi Arabia and Egypt: U.S. and Saudis would fund refugee camps while Egypt runs them.”

He writes: “There appear to be two separate plans: Egypt’s, which may or may not have been devised with U.S. and Israeli consultation. I broke the story that Egypt was clearing a massive empty space in Egypt surrounded by 20 feet walls and locked gates. The Washington Post confirmed my report the day after I published. …

“And who would care for these 1.5-million Rafah refugees? Who would administer the camps? Not Israel of course. Not its problem. … They palm that problem off on the Egyptians, who controlled Gaza until 1967.”

The Wall Street Journal recently reported in “Israel Proposes Rafah Evacuation Despite U.S. Concerns” that: “The Israeli evacuation proposal includes establishing 15 campsites of around 25,000 tents each across the southwestern part of the Gaza Strip, Egyptian officials said. Egypt would be in charge of setting up the camps and field hospitals, the officials said.”

Silverstein continued: “Given the close security relationship between Israel and Egypt, the latter would certainly permit Israeli troops to enter the camps at will. Isn’t that convenient? Prest-0 change-o, Israel solves its Gaza problem. It gets to destroy Hamas (and Gaza along with it), unloads 80 percent of Gaza’s population on others, and Bibi Netanyahu gets to run a victory lap in Jerusalem. …

The Barghouti factor

“There is one course events could take that would solve everyone’s problem, including the Palestinians. In the prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas, it could free Marwan Barghouti, the most charismatic leader in Palestine. All factions respect him and would join in welcoming him as the leader of a new country. That includes Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

“Barghouti has already accepted a two-state solution. Hamas itself has also endorsed two-states in a 2021 reconciliation agreement with Fatah, which Biden and Netanyahu rejected.

“This is the best and only way to solve the conflict. If Biden was smart he would push the Israelis hard on this. Even demand it. But in doing so, both he and the Israelis know that it will only work if the world creates a Palestinian state.”