Does the Biden administration care about mass graves?
More than 300 bodies were recently discovered at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis and the UN says it found more at Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital.
“Among the deceased were allegedly older people, women and wounded, while others were found tied with their hands…tied and stripped of their clothes,” explained UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Ravina Shamdasani.
State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel was asked about these atrocities at a press briefing this week. Of course, The White House finds the situation “troubling” and “disturbing.” They take this kind of stuff “very seriously” and will continue to engage with the Israeli government on the issue.
When pressed about actual accountability, consequences, or investigations Patel quickly pivoted to a cascade of bureaucratic bilge.
He told reporters, “When it comes to the security relationships that we have with countries around the world – whether it be Israel, whether it be any other country where we have a robust security relationship – the applications and standards of the laws that guide that security relationship, including the laws and procedures that guide accountability measures that are in place within our system to ensure that human rights are not being violated, to ensure that American assistance is being used properly, the laws and guidelines and standards of those are applied consistently across the board.”
Obviously, none of this means anything. Israel will continue to receive military funding from Biden regardless of what it does to Palestinians. The President just signed a $95.3 billion aid bill, which includes another $17 billion in weapons for Israel.
A sizable number of House Democrats ended up voting against the bill, which points to a gradual shift on the issue, but it still sailed through Congress without a hitch. The final House vote was 366-58. It went 79 to 18 in the Senate with PEP liberals like Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren dutifully backing the measure.
The bill does include $9 billion in humanitarian assistance for the region but it prohibits funding to UNRWA over unproven allegations of terrorism made by the Israeli government. You’ll recall that Biden cut funding to the organization in March amid widespread reports that Gaza would soon endure a famine.
Few seemed to notice, but this week former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna released an independent report on the allegations. It found that none of Israel’s claims have been substantiated and that the country has still provided no evidence regarding the supposed connections.
There it is in a nutshell. Israel makes an accusation without evidence and life-saving aid is immediately cut off amid a famine. The UN says they found hundreds of bodies and the U.S. is looking into it.
Encampment protests
I’m sure the campus protests will be covered in future issues of this newsletter, but things are happening quite rapidly and I would recommend checking out our website for in-depth coverage on the situation.
The mainstream media has predictably been pretty bad on the issue and I wanted to cover two recent moments. They might seem small in the scheme of things, but I think they accurately represent some of the wider issues.
Let’s start with Jake Sherman. This guy is the founder of Punchbowl News. Yesterday he was at the Columbia campus doing some reporting, which included Twitter posts about what he was seeing and hearing.
One post was not a picture from inside the campus, but clearly from a nearby crosswalk. Sherman shared a picture of a masked individual, who is clearly too old to be a college student, holding an antisemitic sign. “One sign here at the Columbia protest,” wrote Sherman. “This man is ranting about Jews controlling the universe. He has a black face mask on.”
Except that person wasn’t part of the protest.
Locally he’s well-known as an anti-Jewish provocateur who attempts to infiltrate Palestine solidarity events. Multiple people pointed this out to Sherman right away.
Journalist Talia Jane provided further context for Sherman: “He’s not at the Columbia protest he’s near it and avoids getting close after protestors kicked him out and destroyed his sign. Learn what you’re reporting about before you hit ‘post.’”
“This is guy is a fairly well-known kook who’s not part of the campus protest,” reporter David Weigel told him. There are some people who see cameras and rush toward them with their crazy bullshit.
“Delete this as it is misleading and mendacious,” wrote Dave Zirin. “Why keep it up?”
Even AOC corrected Sherman’s ridiculous assertions. “Just a heads up: this is not the Columbia campus, evidenced by the street in the background,” wrote the Congress member. “There are horrific people wandering outside, their virulent antisemitism is disgusting and must be rejected at all costs – but this is not the Columbia protest. Important to distinguish.”
The tweet has now been up for more than 24 hours, as Sherman has not deleted it. Who knows how many bought it, unaware of the context.
Next let’s turn to MassLive, a website that covers news out of Massachusetts.
Last night over 100 students were arrested at Emerson College. The site runs a story on the incident, but it relies entirely on what a spokesperson for the cops says.
Here’s what they say: “Four police officers were injured during the arrests, and one officer was seriously injured but it is non-life-threatening. The other three officers had minor injuries…None of the arrested protesters reported any injuries.”
None of the officer injuries are substantiated of course.
On Twitter journalist Eli Gerzon simply rounds up actual statements from those arrested to expose this blatant copaganda.
Here’s some comments from the students:
“I was choked out, someone in my van had a visibly broken nose.” “They threw me chin first into concrete.” “There were students who were DRAGGED along the concrete.”
This morning students shared video of city crews cleaning blood off the street where the students were arrested.
“I was at nearly every protest during the George Floyd protests and that was the most violent police action I have ever seen,” wrote reporter Evan George. “Pure violence and rage directed against students peacefully protesting.”
New Mondoweiss Newsletter
2024 is an election year and the issues we cover at Mondoweiss will factor in like never before.
We have the Uncommitted movement hovering over Biden’s campaign, anticipated protests at the conventions, AIPAC poised to spend more than $100 million, and a multitude of local races where Gaza will surely factor in.
This weekly newsletter felt like an insufficient way of covering all these developments, so we are launching a second U.S. newsletter to carry us through November. Think of it as a supplemental component to The Shift. It will be less ranting and raving and more concise coverage of the week’s most important election news.
Look for it in your inbox soon.
Odds & Ends
⛺ We are occupying Emory University to demand immediate divestment from Israel and Cop City
🗳️ AIPAC stayed out of Pennsylvania so they wouldn’t lose to Summer Lee again
🏫 A note to fellow Columbia faculty on the current panic
🇵🇸 The student protests for Palestine are awe-inspiring. But we must not get distracted from Gaza
🏫 Announcing the Harvard University Liberated Zone
🏫 Morehouse College, get on the right side of history, rescind your invitation to President Biden
✊ CrimethInc: Report from within the Cal Poly Humboldt Building Occupation
🇺🇸 Common Dreams: ‘Blood on Their Hands’: 79 US Senators Approve Billions More in Military Aid for Israel
🇵🇸 PACBI: Palestinians Salute Unprecedented Wave of Protest and Divestment Camps on US Campuses
⚖️ Palestine Legal: Vast Majority of Charges Against GW SJP Dropped, Effort to Disband Group Defeated
🪧 Democracy Now: “Seder in the Streets to Stop Arming Israel”: 100s Arrested at Jewish-Led Protest Near Schumer’s Home
Jewish Voice for Peace Executive Director Stefanie Fox: “Over the past six months we watched in horror as the Israeli government has carried out a genocide, armed and funded by the US. Taking seriously the mandate of our liberation story of Passover requires us to show up with everything we have on the doorsteps of those still arming and funding this catastrophe.”
🇺🇸 Electronic Intifada: US senator recommends ripping skin off Gaza protesters
🏫 Reuters: Gaza protests grow at US colleges, thousands demonstrate in Brooklyn
🐘 The Intercept: Since October, Sen. John Fetterman Has Been Building a Roster of Republican Donors
🚫 Jerusalem Post: South Carolina to adopt IHRA definition of antisemitism
⛺ The Brown Daily Herald: Around eighty students begin indefinite encampment on Main Green in support of divestment
⛺ Truthout: Cops Raid Palestinian Solidarity Encampments, Arrest Protesters at Yale and NYU
🇮🇱 The Guardian: We need an exodus from Zionism
💰 Responsible Statecraft: The Democrats who flipped on Israel aid, and why
⛵ Counterpunch: Will the Freedom Flotilla Sail to Gaza?
Stay safe out there,
I watched that press briefing live. Patel was icy in his responses. Cold, matter of fact. Filled with denials delivered in a dismissive and oh so annoyed way. Patel appeared to be ready to explode if any reporters continued to ask relevant questions. No compassion or real concern about the atrocities committed by the IDF.
What a wicked dance the Biden administration continues to do. Looks like it could bury them this fall.
Well said.
Obviously, we need to “wait for Israel to investigate” and “see what they come up with.”
It is the lies, the indifference to loss of human lives, the deliberate starvation of civilians, the lies about UNWRA, and the vetoing of resolutions at the UN that condemn the apartheid nation’s war crimes, that are very obvious indications that the Biden administration says one thing, but does anything and everything to keep the unwavering support for the apartheid nation going, no matter what.
Biden has lied for them, and keeps ignoring warnings, and condemnations from Human Rights organizations. He has even ignored the fact, and denies, that the ICJ has concluded that there are plausible reasons to investigate Israel committing a genocide. Instead of taking the lead in pushing for investigations, the Biden administration, pretends it is “concerned” or says they are “looking into it”, but keeps the 2000 pound bombs and other deadly weapons flowing into the hands of the genocidal forces, to drop over terrorized and unarmed children.
The world is not fooled, apart from Biden’s buddies in the western nations, we are looked upon as being complicit in the killing, and deliberate starvation of helpless civilians, whose lives are of no value to the Biden administration. There is a chilling lack of humanity shown towards the victims of American bombs.
Actions do speak louder than words.