Category Archives: HUMAN RIGHTS

‘We Are All DC’: Tens of Thousands March to White House

. HUMAN RIGHTS .

An article from Common Dreams

The heart of Washington, D.C., pulsed with defiance on Saturday (September 6) as tens of thousands of demonstrators surged down 16th Street toward the White House. It was the city’s first major organized protest since President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency and unleashed federal troops onto its streets.

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The struggle for human rights, is it gathering force in the USA?

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Banners waved and voices rose in unison at the “We Are All D.C.” march, a massive show of resistance led by a coalition that included Free DC, defenders of local self-rule, Democracy Forward, and the American Civil Liberties Union. Their message was clear: the federal occupation of the capital must end.

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HUMAN RIGHTS, North America

Nearly 1,000 ‘Workers Over Billionaires’ Protests Planned Across US for Labor Day

. HUMAN RIGHTS .

An article by Stephen Prager from Common Dreams (reprinted according to Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Unions and progressive organizations are planning nearly 1,000 “Workers Over Billionaires” demonstrations across the United States this Labor Day to protest President Donald Trump’s assault on workers’ rights.


Thousands of labor union members and activists march in Philadelphia for May Day, on May 1, 2025. (Photo by the Philadelphia Democratic Socialists of America)

The day of national action has been organized by the May Day Strong coalition, which includes labor organizations like the AFL-CIO, American Federation of Teachers, and National Union of Healthcare Workers, as well as advocacy groups like Americans for Tax Fairness, Indivisible, Our Revolution, and Public Citizen.

“Labor and community are planning more than a barbecue on Labor Day this year because we have to stop the billionaire takeover,” the coalition says. “Billionaires are stealing from working families, destroying our democracy, and building private armies to attack our towns and cities.”

Since coming into office, the Trump administration has waged war on workers’ rights. Among many other actions, his administration has stripped over a million federal workers of their right to collectively bargain in what has been called the largest act of union busting in American history and dramatically cut their wages.

He has also weakened workplace safety enforcement, eliminated rules that protected workers against wage theft, and proposed eliminating the federal minimum wage for more than 3.7 million childcare and home workers.

Despite Trump’s efforts, Americans still believe in the power of collective action. According to a Gallup poll published Thursday, 68% of Americans say they approve of labor unions, the highest level of support since the mid-1960s.

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The struggle for human rights, is it gathering force in the USA?

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“Just like any bad boss, the way we stop the takeover is with collective action,” the coalition says on its website.

The May Day Strong coalition previously organized  hundreds of thousands of workers to take to the streets for International Workers Day, more commonly known as “May Day.” On Monday, rallies are once again expected  across all 50 states.

Four months later, their list of grievances has grown even longer, with Republicans having since passed a tax cut expected to facilitate perhaps the largest upward transfer of wealth in US history, featuring massive tax breaks for the wealthy paid for with historic cuts to the social safety net.

“There are nearly 1,000 billionaires in the country with a whopping $6 trillion, and that is still not enough for them,” said Saqib Bhattie, executive director of the Action Center on Race and the Economy, another group participating in the protests. “They are pushing elected officials to slash Medicaid, [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] benefits, and special education funding for schools in order to fund their tax breaks. We need to claw back money from the billionaire. We need to push legislation to tax billionaires at the state and local levels. We need to organize to build the people power necessary to overcome their money.”

The group also plans to respond to Trump’s lawless attacks on immigrants and his militarized takeovers of American cities.

“This Labor Day,” said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, “we continue the fight for our democracy, the fight for the soul of our nation, the fight against the vindictive authoritarian moves Trump and the billionaire class aimed at stealing from working people and concentrating power.”

“This is about workers showing up and demanding what workers deserve all across the country,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “This Labor Day is really different, because it’s not just labor unions, as important as we may be to the workers we represent. It has to be all workers and all working families saying enough. Workers and working families deserve the bounty of the country.”

May Day Strong will host a national “mass call”  online on Saturday. The locations of the hundreds of protests on Monday can be found using the map on May Day Strong’s website.

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HUMAN RIGHTS, North America

United States: Hundreds of Organizations to Join Forces this Fall to Confront Trump & Billionaire Allies Nationwide, Marking Historic Collaboration of Movements

. HUMAN RIGHTS .

An article by 350.org from Common Dreams

In a historic collaboration of movements, climate justice activists, migrant rights defenders, and frontline communities are joining forces across the U.S. on September 20th to confront Trump and his billionaire allies as they accelerate climate chaos and fascism.

Under the banner “Make Billionaires Pay,” mass mobilizations nationwide will unite demands for climate action, migrant justice, gender and economic equality.

As Trump, other world leaders, and their billionaire allies gather for the UN General Assembly and New York Climate Week, a major march through New York City will demonstrate opposition to the tax cuts for the wealthy and Big Oil handouts that drive oppression and climate chaos.

Make Billionaires Pay is being convened by Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM), Women’s March, Climate Defenders, and 350.org, with over 100 endorsing organizations. It is part of a global week of action for climate justice, called “Draw the Line” (convened by 350.org, Demand Climate Justice, Climate Action Network and War on Want).

Make Billionaires Pay will focus on three key demands:

1. Make Billionaires Pay: Tax extreme wealth, end fossil fuel subsidies, make big oil pay for the damages they’ve caused.

2. Reunite Families: Return abducted migrants, end collaboration with ICE, stop deportations.

3. Fund our People and Our Future: A just transition to 100% renewable energy, and justice for frontline communities.

Candice Fortin, U.S. Campaign Manager, 350.org, says: “This isn’t a new story—billionaires have always prioritized profit over people. This is a system working exactly as it was designed, but now without even the pretense of justice. As the U.S. braces for more extreme heat, wildfires, and hurricanes, the Trump administration has been systematically defunding our communities to give handouts to billionaires. They’re dismantling our democracy, attacking immigrants, and feeding the war profiteers. We are proud to be calling out this hypocrisy through Make Billionaires Pay and to be joining colleagues and communities mobilizing around the world to demand we Draw the Line for people and the planet.”

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Renata Pumarol with Climate Defenders, says: “Billionaires caused the climate chaos, spearheaded the rise of authoritarianism and they continue to profit from our suffering. But they forgot one thing: there are more of us than there are of them. On September 20th, we will send a strong message—it’s time for billionaires to pay.”

Kazi Fouzia, Organizing Director, DRUM-Desis Rising Up and Moving, says: “Our South Asian, Indo-Caribbean and many Global South peoples contribute the least to the root causes of the climate and migration crises. Yet we are targeted by these oppressive forces and policies. We risk everything to survive—we are forced to leave our homes, put our bodies in dangerous situations and end up working hard in new places far from our families. As displaced working class migrants, we are hit hard in the frontlines of our home countries and here in the US. Just last month, in my ancestral homeland in Bangladesh, more than 60,000 people have been affected by flooding and are without electricity or mobile phone coverage. By 2050, Bangladesh will lose one-third of our agricultural land because of rising sea levels caused by Big Oil.

Here in New York City, our streets and homes are flooded, too. Black, Brown, Indigenous and migrant people our life, labor and care are the backbone of this city but we are kidnapped, disappeared, terrorized and hunted down by ICE and the police. Who is responsible? Billionaires profit off climate chaos. Billionaires are destroying our planet. They are damaging our land, polluting our air and contaminating our water. Billionaires cause displacement and migration. They profit off detention centers, militarizing our communities and separating our families. They take over our governments and make us believe that we are each other’s enemies. But we are not. We are many and billionaires are few. We demand respect and dignity. We demand to be treated like human beings. We will fight alongside masses of people to shut down fascist billionaires.”

Tamika Middleton, Managing Director, Women’s March, says: “Women, migrants, queer and trans people, and communities of color have long been at the center of overlapping crises, from climate disaster to economic injustice to gender-based violence and forced displacement. These are not separate struggles; they stem from a global system designed by billionaires who exploit our struggles to maintain power. This mobilization isn’t just about climate — it’s about reclaiming our voices, our families, and our futures from those who seek to divide and dominate. When we unite across movements, we become an unstoppable force.”

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350 is building a future that’s just, prosperous, equitable and safe from the effects of the climate crisis. We’re an international movement of ordinary people working to end the age of fossil fuels and build a world of community-led renewable energy for all.

Contact:

Lindsay Meiman,Senior U.S. Communications Specialist,lindsay@350.org,us-comms@350.org,+1 347 460 9082,New York, USA

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HUMAN RIGHTS, North America

In Largest Israeli Protest to Date, 1 Million Israelis Demand Gaza Ceasefire to Free Hostages

. . HUMAN RIGHTS . .

An article and video from Democracy Now (licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License)

August 18: Massive protests have erupted in Israel, with about 500,000 people marching in Tel Aviv Sunday [August 17] to demand an end to the war in Gaza. Organizers say 1 million took part in demonstrations across the entire country. Most of the Israelis who were out on the streets “blame Netanyahu” for prioritizing his political survival over an end to the war, says Oren Ziv, reporter and photographer for +972 Magazine. Ziv notes that most Israelis are “not speaking directly on the suffering in Gaza, on the killings, on the children, on the starvation,” but instead focus on the survival of the hostages held in Gaza.


Frame from Democracy Now video

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

We turn now to Israel, where over 500,000 people protested in Tel Aviv Sunday to demand an end to the war in Gaza and for the Israeli government to reach a deal to free the hostages in Gaza. Over a million people took part in protests across Israel as the families of Israeli hostages called for a nationwide day of stoppage. This is Lishay Miran-Lavi, the wife of Omri Miran, who’s being held in Gaza.

LISHAY MIRAN-LAVI: Last week, we decided to call to everyone in Israel, to all the citizens, to stop, take a day and stop all the country, in one saying: Please release the hostages, bring them home, and stop the war. We are really caring about our dears that’s over there. My Omri is over there 681 days. I miss him. Our daughters, Roni and Alma, really miss him, and I’m really, really scared and afraid about his life. I want him here, and I want all the hostages here.

AMY GOODMANAMY GOODMAN“Those who call to end the war delay the hostages’ release and guarantee that the horrors of October 7 will return,” unquote.

For more, we go to Oren Ziv, reporter and photographer for +972 Magazine and the independent Israeli news site Local Call.

Oren, welcome back to Democracy Now! You were covering the protests. Can you talk about the significance of the size of these protests, and what exactly the Israelis were calling for?

OREN ZIV: Thank you for having me.

I think it’s a really interesting moment, because over the past almost two years, we’ve seen big protests, but not huge like that. And we’ve seen also moments during the war with Iran, with Lebanon and other occasions that the numbers were really low. People — you know, Netanyahu is doing what he’s doing the best, and he’s dragging time and making people tired. And this is also true to the Israeli public, that went in tens of thousands in the last year and a half or two years. But yesterday, a big and a significant number of people went out.

And it’s even more important with the incitement we’ve seen from Netanyahu and other ministers that were even more harsh than Netanyahu, saying that protesters are helping Hamas, making the price of a deal higher, and so on. So, in the fact of in the end of this day — during the day, there were hundreds, if not thousands, small vigil, direct action roadblocks. The country was shut down, basically, traffic-wise. And in the evening, we saw one of the biggest vigils and demonstration we’ve seen in recent years, of almost half a million people in the streets in Tel Aviv. And this is, first and for all, a message from the Israeli public, and what the polls show, that the vast majority of the Israeli public is willing to end the war in order to release the hostages.

Now, it’s important to say that this is from an internal Israeli perspective. It’s not like the protests we see abroad. These are people who are calling to return the hostages in any price. And after two years, many of them, many in the Israeli public, blame Netanyahu. He’s trying to blame Hamas. But many of the people, or the most of the people who went out yesterday to the streets, are blaming Netanyahu for not doing a deal, to survive politically. This is a very common statement you hear from everyone on the streets. And they’re calling to end the war. They’ve seen in the last two years that only political agreements and ceasefire agreements bring back hostages alive. We’ve seen over 40 hostages that died in captivity, either from the army’s attack or from reaction of Hamas when they were trying to — when the army was coming nearby. And people had enough.

In the same time, it’s important to say that the vast majority of the protesters yesterday, although the fact they called to end the war, they’re not speaking directly on the suffering in Gaza, on the killings, on the children, on the starvation. You can hear it here and there. You can hear it from smaller groups that have been protesting from the beginning of the war against the genocide and the ongoing ethnic cleansing. But it’s not on the stages. It’s not the main message yet.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to get your response to how Israelis have responded to Israel’s Channel 12 airing those leaked recordings of Israel’s former military intelligence chief saying 50 Palestinians must die for every victim of October 7th, saying tens of thousands of Palestinians must die. In the recording, Aharon Haliva is heard saying, quote, “It does not matter now if they are children.” He said, quote, “They need a Nakba every now and then to feel the price.” Oren Ziv?

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How can a culture of peace be established in the Middle East?

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OREN ZIV: So, to be honest, the vast majority of the discussion inside Israel was regarding the fact that this person, that many Israelis see as the responsible for the catastrophe of October 7th, for the failure of the Israel intelligence to finding out that this will happen, so people thought this kind of leaked recordings — some people say that he might have leaked it out — are kind of serving him, to clean him and to blame the problem is the general system. So, in Israel, the vast majority of discussion was about that. Was it really leaked? Is it serving him? Why? You know, many people, hostages — family members of hostages are saying he should be trialed and sit in prison.

But this segment didn’t catch a lot of attention in Israel, because, unfortunately, this is very common. It’s something we heard from day one from politicians, from army people, in the public, in the — in right-wing demos, we hear it. We hear it everywhere. So, unfortunately, this didn’t cause a lot of noise in Israel.
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But definitely, it shows you that such a high commander saying these things openly, you know, without being ashamed and without getting any attention in Israel, show you that this decision of revenge, of genocidal war, was done from day one. And Israel, also to cover the failure of October 7, decided to go to a revenge, a horrific war, as we’re seeing now. And you can see that this decision is not just by soldiers on the ground or right-wing or extreme so-called settlers. This is all across the army, from the high-ranked commanders and the politicians to the simple soldiers. And now when we see the horrific reality in Gaza after almost two years, we can understand this was planned. The army felt they have to revenge to cover up the failure of October 7.

AMY GOODMAN: I also wanted to ask you about the Israelis who are refusing to enlist in the Israeli military. You just posted a short video of 19-year-old Yona Roseman, who was sentenced to 30 days in military prison.

YONA ROSEMAN: Today, I’m going to show up at a draft office and declare that I refuse to serve in an army that’s committing genocide. And for that, I will probably be sent to military jail.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s Yona Roseman. How common is this, the refuseniks?

OREN ZIV: So, it’s not very common, especially in mandatory service. Eighteen-year-old students, high school students are all the system, all their life — all the education system is pushing them to go to the army. That’s the norm. In order to be like Yona and other brave young Israelis, you have to go against the stream and to educate yourself and to go to demonstration and meet people and not watch the Israeli mainstream media, who doesn’t show you what’s going on in Gaza and the West Bank. And so, it’s not very common.

But we’ve seen some increase in the number. Already from the beginning of the war, more than 12 announced, ones who went public, a youth who refused. And they pay a price. It’s not only 30 days in prison. They have to go again and again to prison a few times. But among reservists, we’ve seen — reservists, we’ve seen a growing movement of people refusing, because of what’s been happening in Gaza, also calling to release the hostages. And we’ve seen hundreds of people refuse. With some of them, the army chooses not to deal with prison, but to release them quietly.

Specifically about Yona and her group from Mesarvot — “refusing” in Hebrew — they are showing — they want to show that not everybody in Israel, that there is a small group who resists the genocide and the horrific things the army does. And as she told us, that’s her duty. That’s the only thing you can do when you see what the army is doing. She told me in the interview before she went to prison that she decided even before October 7 and before the war in Gaza to refuse, but after the genocide started, it was much easier for her to take this decision. And we hear it from other refuseniks, as well.

And, you know, it’s very hard. When she appears on social media, on national media, they get a lot of incitement, hatred, inside the prison and also when they go out. Last month, they burned some of the enlistment orders in the streets in Tel Aviv. And to do something like that in the general atmosphere in Israel, that is very hostile to this action, is very, very brave.

AMY GOODMAN: I finally wanted to ask you, as you cover protests, yes, the protests this weekend of a million Israelis, but also about the protest outside the hotel where GHF staff were staying in Tel Aviv. That’s the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, this shadowy U.S.-backed Israeli company that is supposedly providing food aid, but when people come, they are often shot dead as they try to seek food, children and adults alike. What about that protest?

OREN ZIV: So last week, a group of activists, radical left-wing activists, located where the so-called GHF staff, including CEO and other senior members, are staying in Tel Aviv, because, you know, they work in Gaza in coordination with the Israeli army and other companies, but they’re staying in a very fancy hotel in the shore of Tel Aviv. And they wanted to come there to send a clear message that this is not accepted, that they’re not welcome here, and to stop this lie that is called the Gaza Humanitarian Fund. So, they came there, around 50 protesters, to surprise. The police was not aware of it. They arrived there to the entrance of the hotel, we know from people inside. They heard them inside the hotel. And they were protesting there for about an hour. The police was trying to push them away.

Some tourists and people who passed by tried to confront them. And this happens, by the way, in every demo like this, against the genocide, against the starvation, in Tel Aviv and other cities, that are often attacked by the Israeli public. The Israeli mainstream media doesn’t show the images or the voices from Gaza like you do and many other media outlets. So, when the Israeli public is met on the streets with people who are trying just to show the facts, to shed light on what’s happening on the other side of the fence, people are many times surprised or even angry and try to attack the protesters. And they are telling me this is only one of first actions they will do against the GHF operation here in the region.

AMY GOODMAN: Oren Ziv, we want to thank you for being with us, reporter and photographer for +972 Magazine and the independent Israeli news site Local Call.
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HUMAN RIGHTS, Mideast

United States: Indivisible, the team that organized the No Kings demonstrations

TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

Text from an article by Brad Reed from Common Dreams

Progressive advocacy organization Indivisible is launching  an ambitious new campaign aimed at training more than one million organizers to oppose the policies of U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration.


Indivisible’s national team offers strategic leadership, movement coordination, and support to Indivisible activists, and also directly lobbies congress, builds partnerships, runs media campaigns, and develops advocacy strategies.

Over the next several weeks, Indivisible will be hosting online organizing sessions as part of its One Million Rising initiative, which it describes as “a national effort to train one million people in the strategic logic and practice of non-cooperation, as well as the basics of community organizing and campaign design.”

Indivisible this year has already organized high-profile nationwide protests this year including the “Hands Off” and “No Kings” events that were attended by millions of Americans. However, it says that its aim with One Million Rising is to go beyond big one-day mobilizations to create more sustained local campaigns throughout the United States that would fight the Trump agenda on a daily basis.

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Is there a renewed movement of solidarity by the new generation?

The struggle for human rights, is it gathering force in the USA?

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In its message promoting the event, Indivisible emphasizes that “it’ll take all of us” to mobilize against the Trump administration and added that this effort “is how we build people power that can’t be ignored.”

Indivisible held its first One Million Rising session last Wednesday and a recording of the session is available to watch on YouTube. The next session will be held on Wednesday, July 30 and will focus on “how you can lead a discussion with others and get them on board with taking action in your community” and will also help attendees organize their first “community resistance gathering” in the span of two weeks or less.

The third and final session, scheduled for Wednesday, August 13, will have attendees “onboarded to basic campaign design” where they will “learn how to implement it locally as well as get plugged into our next national campaign work.”

Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, recently told publication Axios that Indivisible’s new campaign shows that it’s entering a second stage in its approach to organizing.

“That outrage is still there, but now it’s going to be funneled and channeled into strategies and tactics on how we actually make change in the government,” she explained. “As more and more protests happen, local, state, and federal elected officials will feel uncomfortable maintaining the stance they have.”

(Editor’s note: Click here to see Indivisible’s support for local election candidates.)

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HUMAN RIGHTS, North America

Colombia: At Hague Group Emergency Summit, 30+ Nations Seek to ‘Halt the Genocide in Gaza’

. . HUMAN RIGHTS . .

An article by Brett Wilkins in Common Dreams (reprinted according to Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Ministerial delegates from more than 30 nations gathered in the Colombian capital Bogotá Tuesday [July 15] for an emergency summit focused on “concrete measures” to end Israel’s U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza and other crimes against occupied Palestine.

(Editor’s note: According to a followup article, “On the second and final day of an emergency summit in Bogotá, Colombia—which co-chairs the Hague Group with South Africa—the coalition announced a six-point plan for “coordinated diplomatic, legal, and economic measures to restrain Israel’s assault on the occupied Palestinian territories and defend international law at large.”)


Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, speaks during the emergency conference of The Hague Group at the San Carlos Palace in Bogotá on July 15, 2025. (Photo: Luis Acosta/AFP via Getty Images)

The two-day Hague Group summit ultimately aims to “halt the genocide in Gaza” and sois led by co-chairs Colombia—which last year severed diplomatic relations with Israel—and South Africa, which filed the ongoing genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) joined by around two dozen countries. Progressive International first convened the Hague Group in January in the eponymous Dutch city, which is home to both the ICJ and International Criminal Court (ICC), whose rulings the coalition is dedicated to upholding.

“This summit marks a turning point in the global response to the erosion and violation of international law,” South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola said ahead of the gathering. “No country is above the law, and no crime will go unanswered.”

Colombian Deputy Foreign Minister Mauricio Jaramillo Jassir said before the summit: “The Palestinian genocide threatens the entire international system. Colombia cannot remain indifferent in the face of apartheid and ethnic cleansing. The participating states will not only reaffirm their commitment to opposing genocide, but also formulate concrete steps to move from words to collective action.

That action includes enforcement of ICC arrest warrants issued last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza including murder and forced starvation in a war that has left more than 211,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Hague Group members Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, and Senegal will attend the summit. Algeria, Bangladesh, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, China, Djibouti, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Lebanon, Libya, Mexico, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Uruguay, and Venezuela will also take part.

Notably, so will NATO members and U.S. allies Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and Turkey. Like Israel, the United States denies there is a genocide in Gaza, despite growing international consensus among human rights defenders, jurists, and genocide experts including some of the leading Holocaust scholars in Israel and the United States.

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Question related to this article:

How can war crimes be documented, stopped, punished and prevented?

How can a culture of peace be established in the Middle East?

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A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department—which has sanctioned ICC judges and United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese for seeking accountability for Israeli crimes—told Jewish News Syndicate Monday that the United States “strongly opposes efforts by so-called ‘multilateral blocs’ to weaponize international law as a tool to advance radical anti-Western agendas.”

The spokesperson added that the Trump administration “will aggressively defend our interests, our military, and our allies, including Israel, from such coordinated legal and diplomatic warfare,” even as U.S. allies take part in the summit.

Undaunted by U.S. sanctions, Albanese is among several U.N. experts who spoke at the summit, which she hailed as “the most significant political development in the past 20 months.

In prepared remarks, Albanese—who earlier this month said that “Israel is responsible for one of the cruelest genocides in modern history”—told attendees that “for too long, international law has been treated as optional—applied selectively to those perceived as weak, ignored by those acting as the powerful.”

“This double standard has eroded the very foundations of the legal order,” she argued. “That era must end.”

According to Albanese:

The world will remember what we, states and individuals, did in this moment—whether we recoiled in fear or rose in defense of human dignity. Here in Bogotá, a growing number of states have the opportunity to break the silence and revert to a path of legality by finally saying: Enough. Enough impunity. Enough empty rhetoric. Enough exceptionalism. Enough complicity. The time has come to act in pursuit of justice and peace—grounded in rights and freedoms for all, and not mere privileges for some, at the expense of the annihilation of others.

The Israeli Mission to the United Nations told Jewish News Syndicate that “what the event organizers, and perhaps some of the countries attending, forget is what triggered this conflict—namely, the butchering of 1,200 innocent souls on October 7, and how 50 Israelis remain in brutal captivity to this day by Hamas in Gaza.”

“Attempting to exert pressure on Israel—and not Hamas, who initiated and are prolonging this conflict—is a moral travesty,” the mission added. “The war will not end while hostages remain in Gaza.”

In addition to the ICC warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the ICJ—whose ruling in the genocide case is not expected for years—has ordered Israel to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza, to stop blocking lifesaving humanitarian aid from entering the strip, and to halt its assault on Rafah. Israel has ignored all three orders.

“The choice before us is stark and unforgiving,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro wrote in The Guardian last week. “We can either stand firm in defense of the legal principles that seek to prevent war and conflict, or watch helplessly as the international system collapses under the weight of unchecked power politics.”

“While we may face threats of retaliation when we stand up for international law—as South Africa discovered when the United States retaliated for its case at the International Court of Justice—the consequences of abdicating our responsibilities will be dire,” Petro continued. “If we fail to act now, we not only betray the Palestinian people, we become complicit in the atrocities committed by Netanyahu’s government.”

“For the billions of people in the Global South who rely on international law for protection, the stakes could not be higher,” he added. “The Palestinian people deserve justice. The moment demands courage.”

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The Hague: Rally against Gaza genocide June 15

. . HUMAN RIGHTS . .

An article from the New Arab

Tens of thousands of people dressed in red marched through the streets of The Hague on Sunday (June 15) to demand more action from the Dutch government against Israel’s ongoing atrocities in Gaza, calling it a genocide.

(Editor’s note: the following video of the three-mile march supports claims that there were 150,000 people and that it was the largest demonstration in the Netherlands in this century.)



Video copied from twitter account of Rutger Bregman

Rights groups such as Amnesty International and Oxfam organised the demonstration through the city to the International Court of Justice, creating a so-called “red line”.

Many waving Palestinian flags and some chanting “Stop the Genocide”, the demonstrators turned a central park in the city into a sea of red on a sunny afternoon.

Protesters brandished banners reading “Don’t look away, do something”, “Stop Dutch complicity”, and “Be silent when kids sleep, not when they die”.

Organisers urged the Dutch government – which collapsed on 3 June after a far-right party pulled out of a fragile coalition – to do more to rein in Israel.

(continued in right column)

Question related to this article:

How can war crimes be documented, stopped, punished and prevented?

How can a culture of peace be established in the Middle East?

How can we best express solidarity with the people of Gaza?

(continued from left column)

“People in Gaza cannot wait and the Netherlands has a duty to do everything it can to stop the genocide,” they said in their call to action.

Dodo Van Der Sluis, a 67-year-old pensioner, told AFP: “It has to stop. Enough is enough. I can’t take it anymore.”

“I’m here because I think it’s maybe the only thing you can do now as a Dutch citizen, but it’s something you have to do,” she added.

A previous protest in The Hague on 18 May drew more than 100,000 people, according to organisers, who described it as the country’s largest demo in 20 years.

Police did not give an estimate for that demonstration.

Israel began waging a war on the Gaza Strip on7 October, 2023, in response to a surprise attack launched by Hamas. Israel’s actions have been decried globally over the months, with many experts labelling it as a genocide against the Palestinian people.

Israel’s military operation has killed at least 55,207 people, the majority of them civilians.

The International Court of Justice is currently weighing a case brought by South Africa against Israel, arguing its actions in Gaza breach the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.

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Europe, HUMAN RIGHTS, Mideast,

Protest and National Guard in San Antonio, Texas

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION .

Headline and photo from the Texas Monthly

Greg Abbott Sent the Texas National Guard to San Antonio. Protesters Threw a Fiesta.

The stage was set for a photo-worthy showdown in the Alamo City. Instead, protesters marched to mariachi and conjunto music and lots of honking.


People gathering in protest of ICE raids at San Antonio City Hall on June 11.

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Transcript of PBS interview by Geoff Bennett with mayor of San Antonio from PBS, Public Broadcasting Service

Geoff Bennett:
Mayor Nirenberg, welcome to the “News Hour.”
How would you characterize what unfolded in San Antonio last night? What did you see and what did it signal to you?


Ron Nirenberg, Mayor of San Antonio, Texas:

It was a peaceful demonstration in opposition to very cruel and inhumane ways that the Trump administration is carrying out its interpretations of immigration law.


Once again, San Antonio has demonstrated that we have a long tradition of peaceful demonstrations and protests in support of human rights and civil rights. And it was there last night. And it was also monitored and supported in people exercising their First Amendment rights by our San Antonio Police Department, which does a great job in supporting people’s right to assemble.

Geoff Bennett:


Governor Abbott says the decision to send in the National Guard will allow for what he called a more robust response. Do you agree?


Ron Nirenberg:


Well, we don’t need the National Guard. We know how to handle these kinds of protests and demonstrations. We have a long history of that. We didn’t ask for the Guard. We weren’t notified about it. My hope is that DPS and the San Antonio Police Department will remain coordinated.


But, in my estimation, this kind of anticipatory show of force only feeds into the people that want to escalate tensions. And that’s not the goal if our effort is to protect public safety.

(article continued in right column)

Question related to this article:

The struggle for human rights, is it gathering force in the USA?

(article continued from left column)

Geoff Bennett:


And how does that complicate your job as mayor?


Ron Nirenberg:


Well, number one, this nation and our democracy is founded on the right to exercise speech and to assemble and to oppose dictatorial law — or dictatorial rule. And that’s what people are doing here in the street of San Antonio and so many other places.


It ought to be supported by people, at the same time protecting public safety. And that’s what we have continued to remind our community. There is a way to do this right and also make your voice heard. And that is to ensure nobody gets harmed and property isn’t damaged. That’s what the police department here is very good at supporting. And they’re going to continue to do that.
National Guard hasn’t been deployed in San Antonio in a very, very long time. And we don’t see it’s necessary, given what we saw last night and what we have seen repeatedly over the years.


Geoff Bennett:


How have the ICE raids affected the San Antonio community?


Ron Nirenberg:


Well, San Antonio is an international city. We are a binational community by heritage. We are a community that’s the largest Latino majority in the country.
And so we treat people with dignity and respect and compassion, and that goes for immigrants too. And so the kind of really cruel and inhumane approach to immigration policy that you have seen from the Trump administration really rips at the fabric of families here. And that’s why you’re seeing the resistance and the opposition out in the street.


We stand up for our neighbors. We stand up for the people that we work with and go to school with and who fight our battles in the military for us. And that’s going to continue. It’s making people very angry. It’s making people who have immigrated here fearful. And that rips away the fabric and social cohesion that is an earmark of the San Antonio community. That’s why people are upset.


That’s why I, frankly, agree with their anger. And that’s why we need to peacefully assemble and oppose these kind of inhumane laws and try to bring some reason back into our lawmakers.

Geoff Bennett:
Ron Nirenberg, the mayor of San Antonio, thank you for joining us this evening. We appreciate it.


Ron Nirenberg:
Thanks for having me, Geoff.


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FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, HUMAN RIGHTS, North America

United States: No Kings, No War, on Pride Day

. HUMAN RIGHTS .

Received at CPNN by email from the Campaign for Peace, Disarmamen and Common Security

Friends,

I am writing to everyone on the CPDCS e-list, except those who feel personally vulnerable to unconscionable ICE detentions, to join one of the 1,800 No Kings protests across the country this Saturday.



Map of planned NoKings events

If you had doubts about Trump/MAGA tyrannical ambitions and the threat to democracy, think about Trump’s illegal and totally mobilization of National Guard troops,  the dispatch of Marines to repress protests in Los Angeles, the threat to arrest Governor Newsom or Trump’s stupid birthday gift to himself – his massively expensive and wasteful military parade.

(Article continued in the right column)

Questions related to this article:

The struggle for human rights, is it gathering force in the USA?

(Article continued from the left column)

All this to press his white supremacist mass deportation campaign and to distract media tension from the pathetic Trump-Musk competition for who can be more corrupt and disgusting.

Mass Peace Action, on whose board I serve, has created an excellent announcement with information about how to access and join any one of the 1,800 protests, close to 100 are in Massachusetts alone.

Mass Peace Action – No Kings

This is a critical moment that requires compromises and a united front unity to resist tyranny.

Join Us!

Joseph Gerson
For CPDCS

Find an Event Near You

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DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, HUMAN RIGHTS

Fasting for Gaza’s Children

. . HUMAN RIGHTS . .

An article by Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate, in the Transcend Media Service

Salam


I have recently finished a 40-day fast and prayer for the children of
Gaza and

Other parts of the world where children

Are being massacred by gov polices of cruelty militarism and war.


The Israeli gov and its criminal Israeli

Defence force carry out genocidal mass

Murder of Palestinian unarmed civilians

In their Zionist policies of ethnic

Cleansing of Palestinian land.  This

Is aided by their friends in USA uk  and

Europe with money arms weapons and

Political support.   Starvation of little

Children and denying them water food

Medical care and their very lives is evil and war crimes and against international laws.
It was in deep sorrow for the suffering of

People of Palestine that I undertook this fast.

Question related to this article:

How can war crimes be documented, stopped, punished and prevented?

How can a culture of peace be established in the Middle East?


I also prayed that I would not allow

Seeing such Israeli cruelty ’harden my

Heart’ and I would not be bitter against

The perpetrators of such violence but

Would deepen my love for all and

Increase my acts of forgiveness nonviolent resistance and justice and peace.

I took liquids, no solids for 40 days.

I was tired and thought of Palestinians

In Gaza trying to protect their children

From bombs and famine.

To the people of Gaza and occupied West Bank I am very sorry for this

Death and destruction perpetrated on

Your people.
thank you for your example of Sahmoud.

Thank you for your resilience against

Evil and your courage in proclaiming

Human dignity and decency for

Palestinians and the human family.

Salam aleikum.

Mairead Corrigan Maguire

Nobel peace laureate

Your Irish friend who loves you

‘Stay gentle’
27 May 2025

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HUMAN RIGHTS, Mideast