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Why Israeli army refusers are crucial to ending the cycle of violence

Waging Nonviolence -

This article Why Israeli army refusers are crucial to ending the cycle of violence was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

Since the war in Gaza began in October, the world has been witness to horrific imagery in the news on a daily basis — with the Israeli Defense Forces, or IDF, increasingly facing accusations of war crimes.

Within Israel, criticism has been muted, as most media give platform to voices defending the IDF’s actions and the government’s general lack of restraint. In a country where joining or supporting the IDF is synonymous with patriotism, the few Israelis willing to break the mold and take an open stance against occupation and apartheid do so at great personal risk. 

Recently, 18-year-old Tal Mitnick became the first person jailed for refusing to serve in the IDF since the start of the war. As his case receives worldwide attention, it’s a reminder that such refusal is not new in Israel — with thousands joining the movement of conscientious objectors over the last couple decades.

Another “refusenik,” as they are also known, is 19-year-old Jerusalem resident Ariel Davidov, a friend of Mitnick who says he made the decision “not to cooperate with the occupation and apartheid” when he was just 15. Davidov now works with the Mesarvot Network, which was founded a decade ago in order to provide young people refusing to join the army with judicial, material and emotional support. 

I recently spoke with Davidov to learn more about the importance of refusing to serve in the army, the dangers that come with it and how refusers are working with Palestinians to end the cycle of violence. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What kind of attention have refusers received in Israel?

My friend Tal Mitnick has gone viral, and his case is now known to almost every country in the world. But, in Israel, a total of two leftist newspapers have written about him. Neither television nor more established Israeli media have spoken about it either — except for a few instances where they promoted anti-refusenik sentiments, painting us as “traitors” and interviewing people who say we are a problem to Israel and need to be taken out — as in killed, jailed or deported. 

Mitnick is currently serving a sentence of 30 days, which will most likely turn into a half-year sentence after this initial detention period. But his case shows that when we get arrested for our stance, our voice can be heard. That’s important because not joining the army is one of the most effective things you can do. And if you can do it publicly — be loud about it and not just get an exemption — it is maybe the most important tool we have.

Is one of your goals to make this movement more known to the Israeli public? 

We’re doing our best to raise awareness among Israelis, but it is really tough. Domestic media don’t show anything from Gaza or talk about the situation there. Sharing or viewing such content from channels like Al Jazeera might even warrant a police visit to your doorstep — all because you wanted to see what people living just a few kilometers away are going through. So, what Israelis know of Gaza, is what the IDF tells them, which is mostly lies.

What’s more, not many young people want to join something so explicitly against Zionism and the army — or showing support for cooperation with Palestinians and ending Israeli crimes. Also, it is quite dangerous to go public with such stances because then you might be targeted and doxxed. Many leftist networks have been infiltrated by the far right and fascist activists. Many people have been damaged, and organizations have been destroyed throughout the years. So, unfortunately, we can’t be open to everyone. 

There is always a long process of vetting when people want to join us, and they are mostly friends of friends. At the moment, our meetings aren’t open to the public. For protests, we invite people one by one or on Signal groups, so that the police won’t know beforehand — and fascists groups don’t get there before us to attack us and disrupt the protest. 

Fascist violence in Israel is one of the most dangerous things to us as Jews. It has always been so for the Palestinians. For them, democracy in Israel has never existed. But for Jews, it seemed to us like we had it. It seemed like we lived in a democratic state. But since Netanyahu came to power more than a decade ago, we have gradually lost our voice. With each passing year, protest and other forms of dissent become more dangerous. We are feeling more terrified as activists on the street — not only within Israel but also in the Palestinian territories, where we go to be with the Palestinians during hard times. We are seen as enemies to the settlers, the army and the police. And we are treated as such.

What has kept you going during these hard times? 

For me, one of the most fascinating things about activism as a Jew in Israel is that it can encompass several spheres. We can engage Israelis on politics, pressure the Knesset and try to create a democracy in Israel, while also working in fellowship with Palestinian activists and people in the occupied territories.

When bad things happen in the Palestinian territories, we organize a protest and have people join. I see my Palestinian friends, we get to talk again, and it feels like we have formed an engine of activism that never dies. 

How are your relations with Palestinians now?

It is very difficult for us, but especially hard for them. As an Israeli activist, I can go over and work with Palestinians and then leave, but they can get arrested. And when they get arrested, they are not in the hands of the police, but in the army’s hands, which is worse. Often they don’t even receive a sentence, meaning they can sit in jail for many years without ever seeing an advocate or receiving any type of legal or monetary assistance. Whereas, for the same action, I would be fine because the state would be more lenient toward me than them. This pattern creates many difficulties. 

Nevertheless, we have many brave and amazing Palestinian friends who — despite the situation — still want to see and work with us. They don’t have problems with Jews. They don’t have a problem with Israelis. They have a problem with Zionism. Similarly, I don’t have a problem with Palestinians or with Israelis. I have a problem with people who want the land all to themselves and are willing to even commit ethnic cleansing in order to achieve it. 

Zionism really detached Israelis from reality and that has led to increased violence and dehumanization, which might turn into a full genocide. This can also lead to a wider all-out war that our leaders don’t think about. Even their whole imperative to destroy Hamas is aimless and not feasible. Yet, they still don’t think about reaching a peace agreement. They don’t think about anything except murdering every Palestinian who even thinks about being against the occupation. 

What does your work with Palestinians look like?

We have several places where we work together with Palestinians. It is mostly in Area C of the West Bank, which is Palestinian land that’s completely controlled by Israel. We are mainly active there because of raging settler and army violence. It’s almost impossible to regularly move across lines. Our activism is mostly taking place from that area and has been going on for almost 40 years. 

Activists against the occupation go there and stay with the people who live in the surrounding villages, helping them in situations where the army shows up and trying to act as peacekeepers. Since the war in Gaza started, we’ve had an ongoing 24/7 productive presence in the area. The situation has dangerously escalated for both Palestinians and Jews. Violence has kept occurring throughout this time, and having far-right politicians like Itamar Ben Gvir in positions of power has only made matters worse. 

What can Israel even hope to achieve with the war at this point?

As an Israeli — and as someone who has friends that are now in Hamas captivity — we can see that our leaders don’t care about the hostages, especially now that several have been killed as a result of the IDF’s actions. They are carpet bombing the Palestinians along with the Israelis who are in Gaza as well. And by preventing medical aid, water and food from entering Gaza, they don’t just take it away from the Palestinians living there, but from the Israelis as well.

They keep saying “we are living in the Middle East, so we have to act like it. We will not be democratic. We will not be nice. If they murder, we will murder.” I think this is the real form of Zionism. I don’t see how this can go on for much more with the army weakening so much, with people living under so much terror and fright, with Palestinian villages that are always under attack and subjected to violence, with children and families in Gaza experiencing the worst. 

I don’t know how anyone will be able to save this strip of land, which is really one of the most terrifying places people can live. The only thing more terrifying might be knowing that there are so many entities — the United States, the United Nations and so on — that can speak out against the atrocities and put a stop to them, but don’t. 

What kind of path forward do you see after the war — both for Israelis and Palestinians?

We’re all in terror and traumatized because thousands of people have been murdered. We’ve lost friends or close ones. People have left their houses. The war has touched everyone.

While we gained a lot of new activists — some who were part of the wave sparked by the recent judicial reforms that Netenyahu tried to pass in order to cleanse Israel of its democratic facade — we also lost many. They just don’t agree with us anymore. They don’t view the situation the same way as we did before Oct. 7. But in our hearts, we know that our way is the right one. We will continue working to end the cycle of violence, achieve sustainable justice, promote Palestinian sovereignty and get rid of the fascist government — with all its helpers among the settlers and army controlling the West Bank and Gaza.

This article Why Israeli army refusers are crucial to ending the cycle of violence was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

Locals hit back at Spurs’ football plans for ‘green and biodiverse’ space

The Guardian | Protest -

Enfield council’s move to lease part of north London park to Tottenham Hotspur prompts local anger and judicial review

The expansion of women’s football has been pitched against public green space and a rewilded golf course in a growing dispute between Tottenham Hotspur Football Club and local residents.

The club are expected to submit a planning application for a “world-leading” women’s football academy with all-weather pitches, floodlights and a “turf academy” on a section of Whitewebbs Park a few miles from their stadium in north London.

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'Ceasefire now': pro-Palestine protesters interrupt Joe Biden's speech in Charleston – video

The Guardian | Protest -

President Joe Biden's speech at Mother Emanuel church in Charleston, South Carolina was interrupted by pro-Palestine activists who called for a ceasefire in Gaza. As the protest dissipated, Biden said: 'I have been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza and using all that I can to do that'

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German farmers block roads with tractors in subsidies protest

The Guardian | Protest -

Partial U-turn by Berlin fails to avert nationwide action by farmers and hauliers that could last for days

German farmers have blocked city centres, highways and motorway slip roads with tractors, severely disrupting traffic around the country in an escalating dispute over planned cuts to tax breaks and subsidies in the agricultural sector.

“We are exercising our basic right to inform society and the political class that Germany needs a competitive agricultural sector,” the president of the German farmers’ association, Joachim Rukwied, told Stern magazine on Monday.

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‘The mood is heating up’: Germany fears strikes will play into hands of far right

The Guardian | Protest -

Angry protests by farmers, hauliers and railway workers risk being exploited by populists such as Alternative für Deutschland

The symbolism that German farmers chose to express their discontent with the government in the first days of the new year was as unambiguous as it was ominous: by the side of rural roads across the country, there were sightings of makeshift gallows dangling traffic-light signs, a reference to the colours of the three governing parties.

The chilling sculptures are harbingers of unprecedented cross-sector protests and strikes hitting German roads and railways from Monday, and speak of a dramatic change of mood in a country long feted for its consensus-seeking approach to industrial relations, especially compared with its more traditionally strike-prone neighbour France.

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Hundreds block off Westminster Bridge in call for Gaza ceasefire

The Guardian | Protest -

Protesters also call for UK to stop arms sales to Israel and end to Israeli occupation of Palestine

Hundreds of protesters in London have staged a sit-in on Westminster Bridge, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in the first big demonstration of the year.

Elsewhere on Saturday, there were protests in Belfast and Dublin.

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We can end mass atrocities in Gaza and beyond

Waging Nonviolence -

This article We can end mass atrocities in Gaza and beyond was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

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In the past few weeks, the number of innocent Palestinian civilians killed in attacks by the Israeli government has reached unprecedented levels. Both a majority of people around the world and a majority of governments oppose the mass atrocities against civilians in Gaza. Why is this common-sense view not translated into action that stops these international crimes? And what can normal people do to end atrocities in Gaza and elsewhere?

Before answering these questions, I would like to start from my personal experience on the day this last round of violence started.

Like a scene in a horror movie, my Oct. 7 started the way many other Saturday mornings do — my 3-year-old daughter woke me up with a cry: “Aba, Aba!” (Hebrew for dad). But the normal morning shattered into pieces as I saw the news from Gaza.

Previous Coverage
  • 7 steps to end the cycle of violence in Israel and Palestine
  • My heart pounding, I immediately opened my family and friends WhatsApp chat groups. Living in Ann Arbor, where I lead a research project on global governance, wars and civil resistance at the University of Michigan, I am seven hours behind most of my family in Israel. While I was relieved to learn that they were all fine, I soon discovered some friends had lost family members in the Hamas attack or had them taken hostage. Palestinian friends in Gaza and the West Bank were posting on social media that the Israeli army had started attacking and that civilians were being killed. The Israeli government soon declared war.

    Like many millions around the world, I was scrolling through pictures in my news feed in shock. I couldn’t stop thinking of the question I am often asked by my students when we talk of wars and mass atrocities in class: “How can this be stopped?” As I tell my students, my inconvenient answer starts not with a “they” but with a “we” — the atrocities against civilians in the Israeli kibbutzes and in the Palestinian city of Gaza are a symptom of a system we have built, a system that requires our active or passive consent daily. We can re-build that system if we choose to. We have the power, and therefore the responsibility, to change the system that allows the atrocities in Gaza.

    Resisting war, occupation and apartheid

    Hamas’s attack that day killed more than 1,200 Israelis, including more than 40 children. Even before we knew this, it was clear the attack was serious enough to register as a societal shock in Israel — something comparable to what Sept. 11 was to Americans.

    Within a few hours, the Israeli army started attacking the Gaza Strip. Since then, those attacks have killed over 22,500 Palestinians, with the majority of them being children and women, who do not usually participate in fighting. To give some perspective: The United States killed fewer civilians in Afghanistan during its 20 years of occupation — and Afghanistan’s population is about 20 times larger than Gaza’s. More specifically, in Afghanistan, one in 3,225 civilians were killed by the U.S. government in over 20 years. In Gaza, Israeli government attacks are estimated to have killed one in 128 civilians in under three months.

    Serving as a volunteer on the board of Refuser Solidarity Network, a global network of 8,000 people who function as an international base of support for war resisters and peace activists in Israel, I have spent many nights and weekends since Oct. 7 working to amplify the voices of Israeli war resisters, trying to help in any way possible.

    This was and is a difficult period for war resistance, anti-occupation and anti-apartheid groups in Israel. (Again, this is perhaps comparable to U.S. antiwar organizing challenges in the post 9/11 period). Binational groups of Jews and Palestinians working for peace together have faced significant strains, dealing with two national narratives of the events that were at least initially largely unreconcilable. At one point, the national head of the police, Yaakov “Kobi” Shabtai, threatened to send antiwar protesters to Gaza. “Whoever wants to become an Israeli citizen, welcome,” Shabtai said. “Anyone who wants to identify with Gaza is welcome. I will put him on the buses heading there now.”

    The police have also refused to authorize antiwar demonstrations and conferences since the beginning of the war, particularly in Arab towns in Israel. A small invitation-only demonstration organized by a few former parliament members was met with arrests, despite being under the 50-person limit for which police authorization is required. Four former parliament members — all Palestinian citizens of Israel — were arrested by police, sparking demonstrations in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, only to be met with more arrests. When Hadash, a socialist Arab-Jewish parliamentary front, organized an antiwar conference, police threatened the venue owner to retaliate if he did not cancel the event.

    The network I volunteer with has been documenting and amplifying these antiwar voices — along with the police attacks against them — on social media and in our newsletters, while also coordinating international solidarity to help them. While it has taken up nearly every free moment, it is inspiring to see the Israeli antiwar movement find a way to focus on empathy and stopping the endless cycle of violence, even in this time of extreme hurt.

    For 15 years Israeli war resisters have been telling Israelis that the status quo in Gaza in unsustainable — that we cannot continue to keep millions of Palestinians in a large open-air prison and expect this to go on forever, or to end well. No amount of F-16 planes, billion dollar walls and high-tech weaponry funded annually by billions of American taxpayer dollars can change that reality. Even before the Israel-Hamas war, a majority of citizens in global north countries opposed the status quo in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and supported an end to the Israeli occupation and apartheid.

    Citizens in poor countries are unfortunately not often surveyed on their views on global politics, including the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but the governments in the Global South publicly state that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinians territories was the root cause of the conflict. At the same time, a majority of governments in various international organizations repeatedly vote for resolutions against the Israeli rule over the Palestinian Territories. And yet — because our international system is broken — this worldwide consensus does not (and will not) translate into action to stop Israeli apartheid and Israeli occupation.

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    My students often challenge me with a justified request: “So what is the solution to Palestinian-Israeli conflict? How do we fix this?” Often those asking want some kind of a quick fix. But after 10 years of research on conflicts and global governance, it is my difficult role to say that the Israel-Hamas war is a symptom of a far graver problem: the fact that our world system is broken. The good news is that we, normal people around the world, can repair it.

    In 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a text called “The Greatest Hope For World Peace,” which was only published recently. King argued there that the ultimate answer to war is the creation of a democratic supranational authority. Echoing language from his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” he wrote that it would “lessen many tensions that exist today, and it would also enable everybody to understand that we are clothed in a single garment of destiny, and whatever affects one nation directly in the world, indirectly affects all.”

    In advocating such a form of international democracy, King was following in the footsteps of the likes of Albert Einstein, Mohandas Gandhi and suffragist Rosika Schwimmer, who two decades earlier, in opposition to the creation of the postwar system, the One World movement and vadvocated for international democracy. Today, it is perhaps best understood as advocacy for a kind of worldwide European Union, or worldwide African Union. Einstein told a friend that he would devote his life to that vision, and indeed did so in his final years. Gandhi said in a speech: “I believe in One World…I would not like to live in this world if it was not to be One World.”

    My research on the One World movement led to the conclusion that their struggle against the remaking of the postwar order failed because they did not escalate their campaign to the point of using methods from the civil resistance toolbox (which I will get to in a moment). Nevertheless, while their theory of change failed, history has proved their analysis of the problems in the postwar system to be correct. Taking in the horrors of the Gaza massacre of Oct. 7 — like the intractable war in Ukraine, the climate crisis, the coronavirus pandemic, the rise of artificial intelligence, recurring financial crises, and the rise of ultra-nationalism and extremism — we cannot ignore what is staring us right in the face: Like Gandhi, Einstein, Schwimmer and King warned, the international system built in 1945 is simply not equipped for the& challenges of the 21st century.

    In the face of our broken world, I possess the same bitter optimism that a realistic observer might have felt in 1944 about the future of Europe. The end of the war was in sight, and the majority of people on the continent then understood that the status quo was unsustainable. At the same time, a small but growing number of people realized that normal people have the power to change Europe’s political structure. And because normal people had the power to change Europe, they also had the responsibility to try. Still, in the midst of a world war and the Holocaust, a few realistic observers nevertheless saw fertile ground for change. It was that limberness and vision that would give rise to a European Union emerging out of the ashes of the war.

    Now, to address the challenges we are facing in the 21st century, we must draw on that same limberness and vision. We must strengthen and radically democratize the international system, remaking the failing mechanisms we built to confront global crises.

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    The failing international mechanisms we built to confront global crises suffer from one core problem: The lack of popular control and democratic legitimacy leads to injustice and gridlock, in Gaza and beyond. A few examples of how this broken system works include:

    • The U.N. Security Council and the veto power that allows the United States to authorize war crimes against Palestinians, Russia to authorize war crimes against Syrians and China to authorize crimes against Tibetans.
    • The secretive Basel Committee on Bank Supervision, where decisions on the levels of risk allowed in the global economy are decided in meetings between government officials from a handful of rich governments and a handful of bank lobbyists (who later give the first ones jobs).
    • The U.N. sponsored climate change negotiations, where inaction by governments and corporations is hidden by a smoke screen of inter-governmental “summits” and “conferences of the parties” (COP 1 – COP 28) for over 30 years. Similar to the U.N. Security Council, a veto power over climate negotiations gives the most polluting superpower governments a tool to force non-binding “targets.”

    In my forthcoming book “The World Is Broken,” I look at these organizations and the international postwar system as a whole, and suggest three minimum components of any real international democracy.

    1. End the dictatorship of funding. Rich governments often control international organizations using a funding model that is based on voluntary and conditional contribution. This gives governments, and especially the rich governments total control. To be democratic, these institutions need to have independent public funding.

    2. End the dictatorship of veto. In the postwar era, the U.N. Security Council was tasked with maintaining international peace. It, and it alone, can authorize the legal use of force internationally, as well as financial sanctions against threats to international peace (that is, for example, how the sanctions on Iran and North Korea were established, and how individuals related to financing terrorism are blacklisted). But in the council, five superpower governments — the U.K., France, Russia the U.S., China and Russia — can veto or block any decision. This veto power was used by the United States to protect Israeli governments at least 53 times. The U.S. used its veto again and again to protect the Israeli government against an international community that rightly sees actions of the Israeli government — including the building of Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian lands — as war crimes according to international law. Other international organizations have similar mechanisms of formal or informal veto powers. We need to take this veto power away from the superpowers and move to rule by majority, where powerful governments can no longer force their will on the rest of the world.

    3. End the dictatorship of the executive. Only governments have real power in international organizations. The democratic idea of the “separation of powers” — such as judicial, executive and parliamentary — is about breaking political power to protect citizens and create checks and balances. But in the postwar international system, governments (the executive power) are unchecked; nothing can hold them accountable or balance them.

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    Two important proposals on ending these three dictatorships have gained momentum in recent years. There’s the campaign for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly modeled after the European Parliament and the Pan-African Parliament, but involving parliamentarians from all countries around the world. The other initiative aims to create a permanent sortition-based Global Citizens’ Assembly similar to the bodies that helped Ireland legalize abortion and the state of Michigan to redistrict itself in a democratic non-partisan way.

    Citizens assemblies — at all levels, including the global — are advocated by the visionary international climate movement Extinction Rebellion, as well as many experts and civil society organizations around the world. Citizens’ assemblies are composed of normal people that are selected by lottery (like a jury) but through a process that makes them representative of the general population demographically (such as by gender, income, education level, political views, etc). In 2022, a global citizens assembly was piloted for the first time, involving 100 normal citizens who represented the global population and were selected by lottery.

    While it may seem like a radical idea to govern the international system democratically, it actually makes common-sense in a very real way: In the rare cases when normal people are asked how they want the world to be governed, they overwhelmingly favor this option. For example, a 2005 poll in 17 countries including the United States, China and Russia found 58 percent support for eliminating the veto in the Security Council (with a majority favoring in every country except Russia). Meanwhile, 74 percent (and a majority in each country polled) favored “having your country’s official representative to the United Nations General Assembly be elected by the people of your country.” And 63 percent (also a majority in every country polled) supported “creating a new United Nations Parliament, made up of representatives directly elected by citizens, having powers equal to the current U.N. General Assembly (that is controlled by national governments).”

    As Dr. Farsan Ghassim of Oxford University shows by reviewing polls done in multiple countries over the past few decades — as well as by conducting new polls himself — support for international democracy is generally consistent across countries and nationalities. Ghassim’s own survey in 2020 found strong support for international democracy in all five countries polled: Brazil, Germany, Japan, the U.K. and U.S.

    Many will question whether normal people have the power we need to fix the world.My bitter optimism is fueled by the conclusion that history shows repeatedly that we do have the power to fix our world. Civil resistance, a social change methodology, offers a path to achieve that necessary change and fix our broken system of global governance.

    Civil resistance has led movements of normal people around the world to victory,especially in campaigns to democratize political structures and especially against powerful opponents. Examples abound, such as the crusade that won voting rights for women, the campaign that won India’s independence from British colonialism, the U.S. civil rights movement that expanded equality, freedom and voting rights, and the present-day global climate movement that is increasingly succeeding in making the climate crisis a central political issue in societies around the world.

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    One particularly apt example showing how civil resistance can successfully challenge the rules of global governance is the series of mass protests against the World Trade Organization in the 1990s. With its roots in the Indigenous Zapatista uprising in Mexico against the North American Free Trade Agreement, the WTO protests were aimed at stopping global trade agreements benefiting rich countries and damaging workers everywhere, particularly in poorer countries.

    Mass direct actions were organized around WTO summits worldwide, with the most well-known taking place in Seattle in 1999. A brilliantly organized walkout by Global South governments inside the summit was coupled with a brilliantly organized action of mass civil resistance outside the summit. This led to cancellation of the summit’s first day and later the collapse of trade agreement that had been negotiated. These protests ultimately helped usher in a wider understanding of “free trade” as anti-democratic and prevented the WTO from ever completing another new trade agreement.

    Looking at the number of deaths in Gaza and the U.S. veto blocking action in the Security Council, it’s hard to understand why the brilliant organizers in Jewish peace groups and many other antiwar groups are blockading Wall Street and shutting down Grand Central Station while not also targeting the U.N. Security Council. After all, the Security Council and the veto is what shields the Israeli government from the enforcement of international law. The undemocratic structure of the United Nations is what prevents the deployment of peacekeeping troops to protect civilians, economic sanctions and an arms embargo on the Israeli government. It prevents an International Criminal Court referral by the council and economic sanctions against individual Israelis who are the perpetrators of international crimes.

    What would a 1999 Seattle shut down moment look like in the United Nations Security Council? Could a coalition led by Global South governments inside the United Nations be joined by social movements outside to disrupt what is both the central pillar and one of the weakest pillars on which the Israeli occupation depends? Could the protests demand a global citizens’ assembly on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to make decisions on economic sanctions and an arms embargo instead of the Security Council? The United States and other superpowers need a functioning U.N. Security Council for various reasons — so if the Security Council were shut down like the World Trade Organization in 1999, “business as usual” could not continue.

    Previous Coverage
  • Rereading the lessons of Seattle for today
  • One key to the success of the 1999 protest in Seattle was the way it brought trade unions and environmentalists together in action. A diverse coalition could potentially be formed here too, as the victims of the Security Council veto are not just Palestinians but also Syrians, Ukrainians, Tibetans and other victims of mass atrocities. What’s more, environmental groups could also get involved. After all, the council has adopted over 70 resolutions that involved climate, but avoids taking real action on the subject. With the climate crisis already fueling wars and conflict and posing a threat to peace worldwide, we could really use a Security Council — a democratic one that is run by majority rule instead of a dictatorship of veto — to sanction corporations and individuals responsible for endangering the planet.

    Another way of challenging the Security Council using tactics from the civil resistance toolbox is to go after its finances. It’s a little known fact that the Security Council is funded by taxpayer money from each country around the world. Because of the way the United Nations is structured, no real enforcement mechanism was ever set up, which is a weakness often used by the superpowers to dominate, but rarely used by citizens. That funding includes payments collected by many governments who openly oppose the atrocities in Gaza, and taxes from each of us. Why are these governments and us, their citizens, funding an institution that, by design, allows for the atrocities in Gaza to continue?

    Why is there no national, regional or global campaign demanding that governments defund the Security Council unless it democratize? Why are we funding an institution that shields the war criminals who kill civilians, in Gaza and worldwide?

    Toward international democracy

    Civil resistance has been used for thousands of years — with the first documented act being a strike of tomb builders in ancient Egypt. It’s only until quite recently, however, that systematic research into the methods of civil resistance has occurred. For the most part, that research has focused on national democratic transitions, leaving a huge gap in the literature when it comes to understanding how civil resistance can challenge international injustice and democratize international organizations.

    Nevertheless, the success of civil resistance movements leaves much room for optimism. The two best-known examples — the U.S. civil rights movement and the Indian independence movement — were led by organizers who saw themselves as part of an anti-colonial transnational movement aimed at altering the international power structure and ending direct colonialism in most of the world. But old forms of domination, such as colonialism, ended up being re-created. The Security Council and its veto power are prime examples of this new system — which some called neo-colonialism and Albert Camus referred to as the international dictatorship. Building on that language, the alternative to this system could perhaps be best described as international democracy.

    I believe that an international civil rights movement using nonviolent struggle to fight for international democracy is not only possible but necessary. Repairing the world is possible — it has been done many times before. History shows us it is something normal people can do and have done many times in the past, by organizing and winning, even against the most powerful opponents.

    In the days since Oct. 7, when I look at my daughter, I can’t help but think how illusory our sense of security is. Invading Afghanistan, we now understand, did not create real and lasting safety, any more than blockading and then re-occupying Gaza is going to create real and lasting safety. Until we develop an international system of global governance enabling us to deliver accountability to war criminals (regardless of their nationality) and protect children ( regardless of their citizenship), none of our children will be safe. We are clothed in a single garment of destiny.

    This article We can end mass atrocities in Gaza and beyond was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

    Courtroom drama is Hong Kong’s highest grossing Chinese-language film ever

    The Guardian | Protest -

    Analysts suggest popularity of A Guilty Conscience is down to portrayal of recent abuses in judicial system

    Hong Kong’s highest grossing Chinese language film of all time is a courtroom drama exploring themes of power and justice in a city where many feel both have been abused in recent years.

    A Guilty Conscience, the directorial debut of the Hong Kong screenwriter Ng Wai-lun, tells the story set in the city of a single mother wrongly accused of murdering her daughter and the legal battle to clear her name.

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    Barcelona: the police install a camera to spy on a squat in the district of Gràcia

    House Occupation News -

    A camera hidden in a dark box on the roof of a restaurant monitored the activity of a squat house in the Gràcia district of Barcelona, at least since December 22 when it was detected. As disseminated by the group Ègida -Defensa Collectiva Anarquista, the video surveillance team focused directly on the door of the squat, which is why they rule out that it is the restaurant’s security system.

    Neighborhood witnesses have told La Directa that during the last weeks they had observed the presence of “strange” individuals and vehicles parked with people inside the house all day: “I saw them in front of the house, I am convinced that they were plainclothes policemen,” says a neighbor. One of the managers of the restaurant, where the state security forces had placed the camera, told this media outlet that they have “nothing to say”.

    The uncovered camera, which allows external control of the images, is a Dahua CA-HZ2030T and has been connected to the power grid and a Telefónica distribution box for real-time transmission of the recording. Through a statment published on Indymedia, signed by Ègid, they made public photographs from the camera and denounced the fact that “the state and private companies, in this case Dahua, profit at the expense of our limited sense of freedom, creating common enemies.”

    In the text where they denounce the facts, they recall that the inhabitants of the squatted house under the spotlight were arrested on August 23, following May Day 2023. As detailed by the press service of the Mossos at the time, the detainees were accused of “damaging establishments with blunt objects” that day. Specifically, these would be ATMs and the headquarters of Zara, Primark and Starbucks in the center of Barcelona, among others. The Central Research Unit of Violent Extremism of the Mossos d’Esquadra was in charge of carrying out the operation. Those affected say that since then “the presence of members of the secret police has been seen in the vicinity of the building”.

    Video surveillance of the Kasa de la Muntanya

    It is not the first time that the anarchist and squatter movement has been spied on in Barcelona, nor specifically in the district of Gràcia. In July 2013, the installation of a chimney that did not draw smoke from the roof of the Turó del Cargol school with a hidden object inside raised suspicions. The object turned out to be a video surveillance camera that focused on the interior courtyard of the CSO Kasa de la Muntanya, in the La Salut neighborhood.

    A few weeks later, a group of workers went up to remove the device, to reassemble it, days later, inside a false ventilation tube on the roof of the Hospital de la Esperanza. Facing directly on the façade and the entrances to the social center, the new perspective allowed the camera to record at all times who entered and left the building. Eventually, a group of activists dismantled the spy system.

    Directory of squats in Barcelona: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/city/barcelona/country/XC/squated/squat
    Directory of squats in Catalonia: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/XC/squated/squat
    Directory of groups (social centers, collectives, squats) in Catalonia: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/XC
    Events in Catalonia: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/XC

    author: Gemma Garcia, La Directa

    Farnborough airport’s biggest critic silenced as expansion plans continue

    The Guardian | Protest -

    UK’s busiest private jet airfield announced plans to double weekend flights weeks after campaign group chair received asbi

    For four years, Colin Shearn, a 62-year-old retired corporate executive, led the Farnborough Noise Group, a watchdog for locals worried about the operations of Farnborough airport, the UK’s busiest private jet airfield.

    Then, one day in August, police came knocking at his door.

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    Belo Horizonte (Brazil): “Casa Encantada” book project

    House Occupation News -

    Hello comrades, how are you all doing? I wish everyone a happy new year filled with struggle, solidarity, and a lot of revolutionary construction.

    I’m writing to friends and accomplices from various parts of the globe, whom I met during tours and conspiracies, those I visited or who visited our squat Kasa Invisível, and also who corresponded and cooperated with us at some point, to announce our campaign on the FireFund platform to launch my next book “Casa Encantada”, which documents 20 autonomous squats in our city, Belo Horizonte, Brazil. With this campaign, I hope to translate it into four languages and undertake a tour to release it in Brazil and Europe in 2024. The campaign is flexible, but I’m hoping to achieve the total amount to be able to print and cross the ocean for this tour and speak in different social centers and communities.

    On this first day of January, known as the day of “Universal Brotherhood and Peace”, it’s better remembered by us revolutionaries who dream of the end of capitalism and all forms of oppression as the day of the outbreak of the Haitian anti-colonial struggle in 1804, the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the Zapatista Uprising of 1994, and the declaration of autonomy of the revolutionary cantons of Afrîn, Jazira, and Kobanî in Rojava! It is on this day that we have chosen to spread the word about this campaign among our closest comrades and accomplices. The closing date is the famous March 18, the anniversary of the Paris Commune.

    Please visit the link below to learn more about the project and how to support it. If you can donate any amount, please do so. But don’t forget to share it with other individuals and collectives who might be interested in supporting. Feel free to post and spread it within your networks. Also, in the future, please write to me if you’d like to help organize a talk between April and May in Europe.

    Thank you very much! See you on the road!

    Support the project: https://www.firefund.net/casaencantada

    Contact me at: comofas@@@riseup.net

    Remember the tenacity of 400,000 Welsh women a century ago. Then use your power to shape events today | Rowan Williams

    The Guardian | Protest -

    As we celebrate the return to Wales of the peace petition sent to the US in the 1920s, we should also harness its spirit of togetherness

    One significant anniversary in 2023 passed almost without mention. In May 1923, the Welsh women’s peace petition was initiated – a plea from the women of Wales to the women of the US, urging the US to take its place in the newly formed League of Nations and encouraging its full participation in the permanent court of international justice, which had come into being in 1922. The text refers to American-Welsh cooperation in the 19th century, and welcomes the steps taken after the first world war to control the arms trade and tackle what we now call human trafficking and the movement of illegal drugs.

    These are issues that give it a startlingly contemporary ring. But more startling is the fact that nearly 400,000 women in Wales signed. The petition, with all its handwritten signatures (amounting to several miles’ worth of paper), was received formally in Washington DC, and travelled all over the US, as far as the west coast. Housed in a purpose-made chest of Welsh oak, it ended up in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC – where, after an initial flare of enthusiasm, it was forgotten for decades. In its country of origin, it was commemorated only by a small plaque in the Temple of Peace in Cardiff.

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    Our top stories of 2023

    Waging Nonviolence -

    This article Our top stories of 2023 was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

    Looking back at the stories Waging Nonviolence readers found most interesting and inspiring is always one of our favorite ways to close out the year. But the horrors and tragedies of 2023 have left many wanting to do as little with the news as possible. Recent polls have shown a major drop in Americans’ news consumption. Even the New Yorker was forced to reflect on this phenomenon as an explanation for why its top 25 stories list had: “No war in Gaza. No Trump. No politics.”

    We’re proud — and not at all surprised — to say that our list is very different. Where New Yorker readers escaped into true crime and the story of a fugitive princess, Waging Nonviolence readers leaned into stories about the war in Gaza and many other polarizing political and world issues.

    Our top stories list shows exactly what you want: original reporting and analysis on what everyday people around the world are doing to build a more just and peaceful society. And that’s exactly what we’ll continue to do in 2024. But as a very small media organization with no major foundation support, pay wall or ad revenue, our ability to bring you these stories is directly tied to the support we receive from readers.

    Please help us close the gap on our absolutely crucial end-of-year fundraising goal of $20,000 with a tax-deductible donation today.

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    Waging Nonviolence depends on reader support. Make a donation today!

    Donate today! WNV’s most-read stories of 2023

    10. The first boat to protest nuclear weapons is back to inspire a new generation
    By Arnie Alpert
    65 years ago, the Golden Rule ignited protests that led to a partial ban on nuclear weapons testing. Now it’s back to fight for nothing short of abolition.

    9. What’s next for Extinction Rebellion after a disappointing success?
    By Douglas Rogers
    The British climate movement’s ‘Big One’ brought out record numbers, but ran into a wall of silence. XR’s new strategy could turn this setback into a new lease on life.

    8. Europe’s climate movement is fractured and stuck — here is a way forward
    By Nicolò Wojewoda
    To regain momentum, we must organize with and lift up those on the new frontlines of the climate crisis.

    7. How worker ownership builds community wealth and a more just society
    By Pamela Haines
    Community wealth building initiatives are taking hold in cities across the world, strengthening worker pay, local economies and democracy.

    6. Lessons from Gramsci for social movements today
    By Mark Engler and Paul Engler
    From Gramsci’s political thinking and practical strategizing come a set of ideas that arguably have only grown more salient with time.

    5. How Jewish nonviolence can help guide the path forward on Israel-Palestine
    By Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb
    As a rabbi committed to the practice of Jewish nonviolence, I know a long road of reparative action stretches before us. But it’s the only way.

    4. Survivors of Oppenheimer’s Trinity test are still fighting for justice and recognition
    By Alessandra Bergamin
    Nearly 80 years after the first atomic test in New Mexico, a consortium of “downwinders” are documenting the bomb’s impact on their community and organizing for restitution.

    3. Lessons from Barcelona’s 8-year experiment in radical governance
    By Mark Engler and Paul Engler
    Activists who took over Barcelona’s City Hall have made lasting progressive gains, while also confronting the limits of being in power.

    2. 3 key insights for building a powerful and loving movement against oppression in Palestine-Israel
    By Rae Abileah and Nadine Bloch
    In a destabilizing moment like this, we need time-tested strategies and tactics that can help guide effective action.

    1. 7 steps to end the cycle of violence in Israel and Palestine
    By Mubarak Awad
    The path to peace requires nonviolent action not just from Israelis and Palestinians, but also Americans, the media, aid organizations and others.

    #newsletter-block_07c07e08a391fc10b9041091be432aee { background: #ECECEC; color: #000000; } #newsletter-block_07c07e08a391fc10b9041091be432aee #mc_embed_signup_front input#mce-EMAIL { border-color:#000000 !important; color: #000000 !important; } Sign Up for our Newsletter Additional favorites from the editors

    How cleverly subversive nicknames for China’s president fuel dissent
    By Xiao Huamei
    By using nicknames to disguise their dissatisfaction with Xi Jinping, Chinese people are building the kind of courage that has inspired recent protests.

    How Russians, Indigenous people and Belarusians are uniting to resist the war in Ukraine
    By Eleftheria Kousta
    Antiwar activists in Russia are finding support and solidarity in a growing resistance network comprised of Russian diaspora, Indigenous and ethnic minorities and Belarusians.

    Prisoners reignite movement to end mass incarceration
    By Raymond Williams
    A 50-year-old organization led by prisoners with life sentences has emerged from a COVID shutdown to fight for the abolition of legalized slavery.

    A major win against factory farming points to a powerful new direction for the climate movement
    By Nick Engelfried
    Small farmers in Oregon, backed by a coalition of animal rights and climate activists, secured a big legislative victory over industrial factory farms, providing inspiration for wider action.

    Disabled Southerners are building new paths to grassroots power
    By Justin A. Davis
    New Disabled South co-founder Dom Kelly discusses how disability justice can address the region’s most urgent political crises.

    Louisville’s multiracial tenant union is at the forefront of a growing national movement
    By Fran Quigley
    Despite the South’s challenging political geography, Black and white tenants are transforming Louisville and setting the pace for the wider movement.

    Inside the underground network supporting asylum seekers in Scotland
    By Agatha Scaggiante
    A movement led by people with lived experience of the U.K. immigration system has sprung up to fight for more humane treatment and housing for refugees.

    Donate to WNV today

    This article Our top stories of 2023 was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

    UK students launch Barclays ‘career boycott’ over bank’s climate policies

    The Guardian | Protest -

    Campaign at leading universities such as Oxbridge and UCL warns lender it will miss out on top talent if it finances fossil fuels

    Hundreds of students from leading UK universities have launched a “career boycott” of Barclays over its climate policies, warning that the bank will miss out on top talent unless it stops financing fossil fuel companies.

    More than 220 students from Barclays’ top recruitment universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, and University College London, have sent a letter to the high street lender, saying they will not work for Barclays and raising the alarm over its funding for oil and gas firms including Shell, TotalEnergies, Exxon and BP.

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    Marjorie Taylor Greene among US public figures hit by threats and swatting

    The Guardian | Protest -

    Congresswoman said hoaxer tried to trigger police response while Colorado justices who ruled against Trump face threats

    The political became personal over the Christmas holiday as the homes of politicos and judges were targeted by threats, protests and “swatting” hoaxes by pranksters who call in fake emergencies to authorities in the hopes of prompting a forceful police response.

    A swatting hoax targeted the Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Authorities said they were investigating threats against the Colorado supreme court justices who ruled that Trump could not appear on the state’s ballots in the 2024 presidential election because he incited an insurrection on the day of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

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