The following is an update of Remi Brulin’s earlier Mondoweiss article The death by drone memo:…
Meet If Not Now: a new, Jewish group that emerged out of the wreckage of the Gaza conflict. Dedicated to demanding that mainstream Jewish leaders take an anti-occupation stand, the group’s grassroots, social media-savvy messaging has lead others around the nation to take up its banner. The rise of If Not Now, a group whose founding members are deeply rooted in Jewish communal life, is just one of the latest signs that dissent on Israel is rising amongst young people.
At a press conference yesterday afternoon, Professor Steven Salaita spoke publicly for the first time since the termination of his employment. His focused and powerful address emphasized one clear message: the reaffirmation of his “commitment to teaching and to a position with the American Indian Studies program at UIUC.” Salaita and his lawyers repeatedly insisted that their goal was not to pursue legal recourse against the university, but for the Chancellor and the Board of Trustees to reinstate his position. However, it was clear that he and his legal team are prepared to pursue legal avenues to force his reinstatement if necessary.
The Gaza slaughter has fostered a crisis among American supporters of Israel. Art Spiegelman is the latest to speak out, calling Israel a battered child that has grown up to batter others. Roger Cohen at the Times asks why the US media are not questioning the tales about responsibility for the abducted teens’ deaths that Israel told to justify its invasion of Gaza.
Today Steven Salatia spoke publicly for the first time since he was fired from the University of Illinois. Below is the prepared statement he read to a packed audience at a press conference on the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign campus along with some some tweets and photos from the day’s events.
Barack Obama is working on his strategy to combat the radical Islamist group ISIS. How about upholding a core principle of democracy, the separation of church and state? We would affirm that principle not by sending drones and special forces to Syria but by opposing the idea of a Jewish state in Israel and Palestine.
Cornell professor Eric Cheyfitz writes: “It is no secret that Cornell’s institutional partner in the New York City tech campus is Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. It is also no secret that Technion is substantially involved in the development of systems used in the militarization of the Occupied Territories. The question might arise, then, at least in some minds, as to Cornell’s possible complicity in Israeli state policy in the Territories, including the latest invasion of Gaza and the ongoing blockade.”
Israel’s leading human rights groups will no longer provide information on solider misconduct to army investigators. After years of delayed military investigations for two Israeli wars in Gaza, the last without any army abuse convictions, the Israeli legal rights group Yesh Din and the human rights organization B’Tselem said, “the military law enforcement system is a complete failure” and is “incapable of conducting professional investigations.”
Open Hillel will host their first conference at Harvard University October 11-13, 2014 with guest speakers Judith Butler, Rashid Khalidi, Steven Cohen, among others.
After Ohio University student president Megan Marzec posted a video of herself dumping a bucket of fake blood over her head in solidarity with Gaza massacre victims, the school’s Hillel rabbi called on her to resign and she received death threats and the school has distanced itself from her. But a group of faculty are supporting Marzec, as are letter writers to local publications.