Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

 

US Presidential Hopefuls Cornel West, Jill Stein, Federal Employees, Join Pro-Palestine Protests

January 16, 2024

Pro-Palestine protesters holding posters of 'Abandon Biden' during a protest in Washington, holding him responsible for butchering tens of thousands of Gaza children and women, January 13, 2024	US presidential hopefuls, Cornel West and Jill Stein, joined protesters, condemning the Israeli genocidal war and calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, January 13, 2024
Pro-Palestine demonstrators during the March on Washington, for Gaza rally, in front of the White House, January 13, 2024	Protesters rally during the March on Washington for Gaza, January 13, 2024

 

Presidential Hopefuls Join Massive Pro-Palestinian 'March on Washington'

Story by Jason Lemon  

Newsweek, January 13, 2024

Longshot 2024 presidential candidates Dr. Jill Stein and Dr. Cornel West joined thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators who converged on the nation's capital in Washington, D.C., on Saturday—demanding a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war that has devastated Gaza for more than three months.

The large demonstration was scheduled to mark 100 days since the war broke out. On October 7, 2023, Palestinian militant group Hamas killed some 1,200 people in Israel during a surprise attack and took 240 people hostage. Israel responded by cutting off critical supplies and electricity to Gaza, declaring war against Hamas.

In the months since October 7, more than 23,000 Palestinians, or roughly 1 percent of Gaza's population, have been killed, the Associated Press reported. Thousands more Palestinians remain missing or severely wounded, and an estimated 80 percent of the more than 2 million people residing in Gaza have been displaced.

Newsweek reached out to the Israeli embassy in D.C. and the rally organizers, American Muslim Task Force for Palestine, via email for comment.

"Today marks a significant moment in our ongoing pursuit of truth and justice," West, who is running for president as an independent, wrote in an X, formerly Twitter, post on Saturday. "We are calling on all people of conscience to join this national rally for Gaza to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and an end to U.S. complicity in the genocide," he wrote, urging his supporters to join the Saturday march.

In a video posted to X, the presidential hopeful also said that Palestinians in Gaza are undergoing "vicious genocidal assault."

"I'm at the March on Washington for Gaza because we have to do everything we can to stop this US-backed genocide," Stein, who is Jewish and is seeking the Green Party's 2024 presidential nomination, wrote in an X post.

"A landslide majority of US voters want a ceasefire and an end to the genocidal war on Gaza, but the politicians aren't listening. It's time to make them listen," she said.

Newsweek reached out to press representatives for Stein and West via email for comment.

President Joe Biden has expressed strong support for Israel, and his administration has defended the nation's government against accusations of "genocide." This position has angered many young and minority Americans, who are more likely to be sympathetic toward Palestinians, according to polls. Biden's polling numbers have plummeted further as he's continued to back Israel in its war against Hamas.

Protests against Israel's actions have taken place across the country and around the world since the war broke out. Demonstrators in the United States routinely disrupt major roadways and bridges, rally on college campuses and confront lawmakers at events or government buildings—urging them to back a ceasefire in Gaza. Jewish-led groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, along with Muslim and Palestinian groups, have been key organizers in these protest actions.

The U.S. government was previously credited, along with Egypt and Qatar, in helping negotiate a temporary ceasefire in Gaza that ultimately lasted for a week in late November. During that time, 105 Israeli hostages taken by Hamas were released in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

Meanwhile, protest signs seen in videos and photos from the Saturday demonstration in Washington, D.C., read: "End the war on Gaza" and "Let Gaza Live." In a video posted to X, protesters could be heard chanting "End occupation now" in Freedom Plaza. Many marchers wore Palestinian keffiyeh scarves and carried Palestinian flags.

Biden has said he is listening to pro-Palestinian activists and has begun to raise concerns about some of Israel's actions. However, some staff from his own administration have resigned in protest as he continues to back Israel. Many Muslim and young voters, who largely backed Biden in 2020, have said they will not vote for him in 2024 due to his support for Israel.

Biden's defenders, however, say that these voters will inevitably come around to supporting him. They say that given the choice between the Democratic incumbent and an "extreme" MAGA Republican, young and minority voters will ultimately choose Biden.

Newsweek reached out to press representatives for Biden via email for comment.

Presidential Hopefuls Join Massive Pro-Palestinian 'March on Washington' (msn.com)

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About Dr. Cornel West

Dr. Cornel West, affectionately known to many as Brother West, is the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary. Dr. West teaches on the works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as well as courses in Philosophy of Religion, African American Critical Thought, and a wide range of subjects -- including but by no means limited to, the classics, philosophy, politics, cultural theory, literature, and music. He has a passion to communicate to a vast variety of publics in order to keep alive the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. – a legacy of telling the truth and bearing witness to love and justice.

Dr. West is the former Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. Cornel West graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton.

He has written 20 books and has edited 13.  He is best known for his classics, Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and for his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud. His most recent book, Black Prophetic Fire, offers an unflinching look at nineteenth and twentieth-century African American leaders and their visionary legacies.

Dr. West has partnered with MasterClass.com to provide teachings on several influential courses including a class with Pharrell Williams on Empathy, MasterClass’s first-ever multi-instructor class on Black History, Black Freedom & Black Love, as well as Dr. West’s standalone class on Philosophy. Visit www.cornelwest.com and click the MasterClass banner to learn more.

Dr. Cornel West | About Dr. Cornel West | Official Web Site

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Meet Jill Stein

Jill Stein is a Harvard-educated doctor, a pioneering environmental health advocate, and an organizer for people, planet, and peace. She has helped lead initiatives to fight environmental racism, injustice, and pollution, to promote healthy communities, and to revitalize democracy. She has helped win victories in campaign finance reform, racially-just redistricting, and the clean-up of incinerators, coal plants, and other toxic threats. She was a principal organizer for the Global Climate Convergence for People, Planet, and Peace over Profit.

As a practicing physician, Jill became aware of the links between toxic exposures and illness emerging in the 1990s. She began to fight for a healthy environment, assisting non-profits and marginalized communities in combating environmental injustice and racism. She helped lead the fight to clean up the “Filthy Five” coal plants in Massachusetts, raising the bar nationally for a cleaner standard for coal plants. She helped close a toxic medical waste incinerator in Lawrence, MA, one of the poorest communities in New England. She played a key role in rewriting the MA fish advisories to better protect women and children, Native Americans and immigrants from mercury contamination. 

Jill has received several awards for health and environmental protection, including Clean Water Action’s “Not in Anyone’s Backyard” Award, the “Children’s Health Hero” Award, and the Toxic Action Center’s Citizen Award. Jill has appeared as an environmental health expert on the Today Show, 20/20, Fox News, and other programs. She also served on the board of directors for Physicians for Social Responsibility.

She is the co-author of two widely-praised reports, In Harm’s Way: Toxic Threats to Child Development, published in 2000, and Environmental Threats to Healthy Aging, published in 2009.  The first of these has been translated into four languages and is used worldwide as a community tool in the fight for health and environmental justice. The reports connect the dots between human health, social justice, a healthy environment and green economies.

Jill was born in Chicago and raised in Highland Park, Illinois. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1973, and from Harvard Medical School in 1979.

Meet Jill (jillstein2024.com)

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US government employees plan walkout over Biden’s Gaza policies

Al-Monitor, January 12, 2024

WASHINGTON —

US federal employees across nearly two dozen agencies plan to walk off the job Tuesday to protest the Biden administration’s handling of the Gaza war, according to organizers of the dissent effort who spoke to Al-Monitor. 

The group — calling itself Feds United for Peace — consists of dozens of government employees who will be observing a “Day of Mourning” to mark 100 days of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. The organizers, who are choosing to remain anonymous, say they expect “easily hundreds” of others to join in their walkout after securing commitments from individuals at 22 federal agencies. 

According to a list obtained by Al-Monitor, those include the Executive Office of the President, the National Security Agency, the Departments of State, Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs as well as US Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Naval Research Laboratory. 

Others expected to join in the protest work for agencies including the Food and Drug Administration, the National Park Service, the Federal Aviation Administration and Environmental Protection Agency. 

The planned walkout reflects mounting anger among US officials over the Biden administration’s refusal to call for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, where health officials in the Hamas-run territory say more than 23,000 people have died in three months, most of them civilians. The United Nations estimates that around 85% of the population — some 1.9 million Palestinians — have been displaced. 

One of the walkout organizers told Al-Monitor their initiative “grew out of a collective desire to do what we could to influence the Biden administration’s policy on this issue.” 

“What you're seeing with this effort is something very unusual, and that is for dissent to be manifested via a physical act,” they said.

Internal disagreements over the administration’s policy burst into public view as the US began surging weapons and ammunition to Israel for use in its battle against Hamas, whose militants killed 1,200 people and took some 240 others hostage on Oct. 7. 

A number of letters criticizing the administration’s policy have been drafted through the State Department’s private “dissent channel,” which was established during the Vietnam War. Anonymous staffers from President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign also penned an open letter warning that his policy on Gaza could cost him voters. 

Two US officials, including one working in the State Department bureau that oversees arms transfers, have publicly resigned in protest. Josh Paul, who served as the director of congressional and public affairs for the department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, cited the administration’s “blind support for one side” as being among his reasons for leaving.

One of the walkout organizers said that rather than quit, they felt “a moral obligation and a patriotic duty” to influence change from inside. They blamed the White House for policy decisions they lament, including the obstruction of cease-fire resolutions at the United Nations and weapons sales to Israel that have bypassed Congress.  “I don't think that the block is inside the State Department. It is fair to say that it's definitely in the White House," they said.

Asked if they tried to address their concerns internally, they said, “Unequivocally, the answer is yes.”  

“It’s one thing to write letters from within, but when policy discussions and dissent cables yield no shift in policy — and in some views, a double down on that policy — then people feel they have no other option because they’re not being heard,” the organizer said. 

Biden administration officials have tried to address the internal frustrations. As first reported by Al-Monitor, Secretary of State Antony Blinken participated in “listening sessions” with Arab American, Muslim and Jewish staffers. 

Other senior State Department and White House officials have since held similar meetings with staff members, and Blinken has sent two department-wide emails to update concerned staffers after his trips to the Middle East. 

State employees have also held sessions — which one attendee described as being often "frank and emotional" — with an in-house mental health professional.

Following the publication of this article, US House Speaker Mike Johnson threatened on Sunday to take disciplinary action against any federal employee who participates in the effort. 

“Any government worker who walks off the job to protest US support for our ally Israel is ignoring their responsibility and abusing the trust of taxpayers,” Johnson, R-La., posted on X.

“They deserve to be fired,” he added. Johnson said he would work with House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., “to ensure that each federal agency initiates appropriate disciplinary proceedings against any person who walks out on their job.”

In response to Johnson, Feds United For Peace said the Tuesday initiative differs from a strike.

“This is not a strike. This is a day of mourning. The purpose is to provide space for ourselves to mourn and heal. We serve the American people every day and do so with conviction and pride,” the organizers told Al-Monitor in a statement.

They went on to say that “sometimes, our leaders take actions counter to our values, and the broader values of the American people. We have a right to freedom of expression too, and our views express only those in our personal capacities."

Editor’s note: Jan. 14, 2024. This story has been updated to include House Speaker Mike Johnson’s comments and the organizers’ response.

Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2024/01/us-government-employees-plan-walkout-over-bidens-gaza-policies#ixzz8OzHxrl1Q

US government employees plan walkout over Biden’s Gaza policies - Al-Monitor: Independent, trusted coverage of the Middle East 

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Hundreds of Biden administration employees plan to WALK OUT of their jobs next week in protest of his support for Israel in Hamas war after young White House staffers sent letters criticizing their boss

White House employees and staff from more than two dozen federal agencies are set to strike on Tuesday   The walk out will mark 100 days of Israel's siege on Gaza, which has killed upwards of 23,000 people, mostly civilians  It comes amid growing internal resentment toward the Biden administration's handling of the Middle East crisis 

By WILL POTTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

The Daily Mail, 13 January 2024 

Hundreds of Biden administration employees and federal staffers from more than two dozen agencies are set to walk off the job next week in protest of the White House's handling of the Middle East crisis. 

An anonymous internal cabal calling itself 'Feds United for Peace' have organized the strike for Tuesday, marking 100 days of Israel's siege on Gaza, according to AI Monitor. 

The move is reportedly fueled by growing resentment inside the administration over Biden's unwavering support for Israel's military bombardment of Palestine, which has killed upwards of 23,000 people, mostly civilians. 

There are concerns that Biden's support for the conflict is costing him significant political currency, particularly with young voters, just as his 2024 re-election campaign heats up. 

The White House is bracing for a walkout of hundreds of employees in protest to its handling of the Middle East crisis and funding of Israel's war efforts 

President Biden (pictured January 12) is facing the internal revolt from a group calling itself 'Feds United for Peace.' There are fears his support for Israel is costing the White House significant political capital, especially with young voters, as he heads into the 2024 election 

The walk out is a drastic departure from how top federal employees have shown their disapproval toward White House policy in the past, which was typically reserved to media leaks or public resignations over policy. 

But the organizers, who have remained anonymous, say they are intent on changing direction from within, and they expect 'easily hundreds' of staffers to join their efforts on Tuesday. 

They say they have commitments from people inside 22 federal agencies for the strike, including from the Executive Office of the President, the National Security Agency, Homeland Security, Defense Department, and the FDA. 

The Biden administration has so far sent upwards of $14 billion to Israel alongside significant military support, with United Nations estimates placing the number of displaced Palestinians since at 1.9 million people - 85 percent of its population. 

One of the organizers of the strike told AI Monitor that they decided to launch the protest as it 'grew out of a collective desire to do what we could to influence the Biden administration’s policy on this issue.' 

'What you're seeing with this effort is something very unusual, and that is for dissent to be manifested via a physical act,' they added. 

The unrest has also reportedly seen a number of letters also drafted through the State Department's private 'dissent channel', a way for staffers to raise concerns anonymously that was set up during the Vietnam War. 

To curb the internal revolts, White House officials have reportedly held meetings with their aides to hear out their concerns, including 'listening sessions' between Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Arab American, Muslim and Jewish staffers.

There is mounting internal backlash to Biden's approach to the crisis in Gaza, as he has sent upwards of $14 billion to Israel alongside significant military support

The United Nations estimates the number of displaced Palestinians stands at 1.9 million people - 85 percent of its population

The organizer said they had 'unequivocally' tried to raise their points internally, but feel the mass walkout is one of their last resorts. 

'It’s one thing to write letters from within, but when policy discussions and dissent cables yield no shift in policy — and in some views, a double down on that policy — then people feel they have no other option because they’re not being heard,' they added. 

While top federal staffers in years past have resigned in protest over disagreements, the organizer said they felt a 'moral obligation and patriotic duty' to change Biden's approach from the inside. 

Specific issues cited for the walkout also included America's obstruction of ceasefire campaigns within the United Nations, and the bypassing of Congress to send weapons to Israel. 

The demonstration comes as reports cite growing anger from Washington elites over the attitude of young staffers in showing their disapproval to their bosses.

A series of anonymous letters penned by staffers in the White House, State Department and Biden's re-election campaign have been levied since the conflict erupted in October, a move that would have been unthinkable decades ago. 

Amid the internal revolt, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken (pictured) has reportedly been holding 'listening sessions' with Arab American, Muslim and Jewish staffers.

Hundreds of Biden administration employees plan to WALK OUT of their jobs next week in protest of his support for Israel in Hamas war after young White House staffers sent letters criticizing their boss | Daily Mail Online

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