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Retaliation

Defending Rights And Dissent Launches Investigation Into Retaliatory Tactics

April 14, 2025 Defending Rights & Dissent. , , ,
Washington, DC – Defending Rights & Dissent has launched a major new investigative project into the abuse of immigration process to retaliate against critics of Israel’s war in Gaza or supporters of the Palestinian people. As part of this project, the free expression organization has filed a series of Freedom of Information Act requests with the Department of State, Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Justice, requesting documents on the “Catch and Revoke” initiative and the agencies’ communications with private McCarthyite blacklisting organizations and the Government of Israel.

Make The World Scared Again: US Threatens United Nations Agencies

March 21, 2025 Daniel Warner, Counter Punch. , , , ,
“Are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?” was the key question at the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings during the 1950s McCarthy era. At the height of the anti-Soviet/Communist fear, HUAC cost thousands of people their jobs and created a powerful chill to freedom of speech and association. A similar chill with global consequences has now come to 2000 U.N. agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that receive U.S. funding. An Office of Management and Budget questionnaire asks them to describe with whom and how they do business. It has created stupor and confusion here in Geneva as they ponder how to reply.

How Miami Beach Became A Lab For Pro-Israel Censorship Laws

March 18, 2025 Robert Inlakesh, MintPress News. , , , ,
Despite winning an Oscar, the Israeli-Palestinian-made film No Other Land cannot be found on any streaming platforms in the United States, making independent cinemas the only places to view it. However, in Miami Beach, even featuring the film will get you labeled an antisemite and kicked out of the city. Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner, who is Jewish and has deep personal and political ties to Israel, stirred controversy last week for seeking to shut down an independent art house cinema over its showing of the “No Other Land” documentary after attempting to pressure organizers to cancel a planned screening. Meiner claims that the film is antisemitic and a “propaganda attack on the Jewish people that is not consistent with the values of our City and residents.”

Lyft, Uber Drivers Banned From Tennessee Airport

March 4, 2025 Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams. , , , , , ,
A Tennessee union announced Monday that 34 Uber and Lyft drivers received messages "informing them that they had been permanently banned" from working at Nashville's airport after joining scores of workers for a peaceful caravan there last month to support a state bill that would impact the companies. The Tennessee Drivers Union (TDU) said in a statement that some participants, "including those in the passenger's seat not driving," were banned from providing rides at Nashville International Airport following the February 14 action, during which "participating Uber and Lyft drivers had their apps turned off."

USDA Inspector General Who Refused To Leave Post Escorted From Office

January 31, 2025 AJ Dellinger, Gizmodo. , , , , , ,
Last Friday, President Donald Trump purged several agencies of their inspectors general, demanding that at least 17 people in the role immediately turn in their work laptops and ID badges. One of those IGs, Phyllis Fong at the US Department of Agriculture, decided not to leave, believing the order to be illegal. According to a report from Reuters, she was escorted from the building today by security. Fong is a 22-year veteran of the inspector general office with the USDA. And while that multi-decade career is probably in part why the Trump administration axed her (something something swamp, something something career bureaucrat, etc.), she also likely carried among the most institutional knowledge of IG operations in the federal government.

Demand The Reinstatement Of Dr. Rupa Marya At UC San Francisco

December 30, 2024 Alice Rothchild, Mondoweiss. , , , , , ,
In September 2024, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) placed Dr. Rupa Marya on paid leave and threatened her medical license. These actions against Dr. Marya, a professor of medicine who has written extensively on the health impacts of systemic oppression, provoked many important questions. After being approached by alarmed students, Dr. Marya raised concerns about the implications of admitting students who may have recently served in the Israeli Defense Force, which has credibly been accused of human rights violations, war crimes, and genocide in Gaza and the West Bank.

Court Rejects Starbucks’ Challenge To US Labor Board

December 30, 2024 Reuters, Portside. , , , , ,
A federal appeals court has largely rejected Starbucks’ appeal of a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) finding that the coffee chain illegally fired two Philadelphia baristas because they wanted to organize a union. The third US circuit court of appeals said the coffee shop giant lacked standing to challenge the constitutionality of administrative law judges of the NLRB, the government agency that is set up to enforce labor laws in the US concerning labor practices and collective bargaining. The judgment represents a possible setback for companies such as Amazon, the Trader Joe’s grocery chain and SpaceX that have sought to limit the agency’s enforcement powers.

Amazon Unleashed Flood Of Water On Striking Workers

December 24, 2024 Luis Feliz Leon, In These Times. , , , ,
Queens, New York — On the cold afternoon of Saturday, December 21, Amazon Teamsters and allies were walking in a circle in front of the entrance to the delivery station DB4K, holding pre-printed signs demanding ​“Amazon Obey the Law,” when striking workers were flooded by a torrential outpouring of water from the building. ​“This was just like a fire hydrant on full blast,” said Amazon driver Danny Batista. Christian Santana, another driver on the scene, said he had seen water trickle out of the fire suppression system but never a torrent like this.

How A Former ExxonMobil Employee Confronted Climate Disinformation

November 8, 2024 Matthew Green, DeSmog. , , , , ,
Lindsey Gulden, a climate scientist, spent more than a decade working as a data scientist for ExxonMobil until she was fired in 2020 after internally reporting an allegedly fraudulent overvaluation of the company’s assets in the Permian Basin, an oil and gas-producing region spanning Texas and New Mexico. (ExxonMobil says her termination was unrelated and denies fraud took place). That experience prompted her to ask deeper questions about the oil and gas company’s assurances to staff that it is committed to playing a leading role in the energy transition.

Microsoft Fires Employees Over Gaza Vigil; Tech Giants Face Scrutiny

October 27, 2024 Palestine Chronicle. , , , , , , ,
Microsoft recently fired two employees who organized a vigil at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, to remember Palestinians killed amid Israel’s ongoing genocide on Gaza, the Associated Press reported. According to the employees, they were dismissed over the phone late on Thursday, following a lunchtime gathering they had planned on the company campus. AP reported that “both workers were members of a coalition of employees called ‘No Azure for Apartheid’ that has opposed Microsoft’s sale of its cloud-computing technology to the Israeli government.” Tuesday’s event, however, was reportedly similar to other charitable campaigns organized within the company to aid communities in crisis.

US Jewish Institutions Are Purging Their Staffs Of Anti-Zionists

October 7, 2024 Shane Burley, In These Times. , , , , , ,
Dan Fischer had been working as a Hebrew and Jewish ethics teacher for three years at Sinai Synagogue in South Bend, Ind., when a television reporter asked him for comment during an ​“All Out for Palestine” rally held four days after October 7. “I am one of multiple Jews that are here today, proud to be in solidarity with the people of Gaza and Palestine,” Fischer said. ​“And I know that my tradition, the Jewish tradition, is a religion of tzedek, meaning justice, and shalom, meaning peace.” He was fired the next day. The synagogue sent a letter to the congregation saying it ​“had no choice but to release a teacher from his employment … effective immediately.”

Hezbollah Fires 115 Rockets Toward Israel In Retaliation For Exploding Electronics Attack

September 22, 2024 Palestine Bureau, Mondoweiss. , , , , , , ,
In the early hours of Sunday morning, September 22, Hezbollah launched several barrages of rockets on northern Israeli targets in the Haifa region, including a military airbase. The Lebanese resistance group said in a statement that the salvo of rockets was an “initial response” to the “monstrous massacre perpetrated by the Israeli enemy across Lebanese territory on Tuesday and Wednesday,” referring to the Israeli pager and electronics explosions last week, which claimed the lives of 32 people and injured over 3,000 others. The Lebanese response also comes two days after Israel’s bombing of Beirut’s southern Dahiya district on Friday that targeted and killed 15 leaders of the Radwan Force, Hezbollah’s elite military unit trained to invade Israeli territory. Among the slain were top Hezbollah commander and founder of the Radwan Force, Ibrahim Aqil.

Cal State Professors Targeted For Exposing School’s Ties To Genocide

September 11, 2024 Joshua Frank, Mondoweiss. , , , , , , ,
Last month, in a tangible victory for the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement, San Francisco State University (SFSU) agreed to pull its investment from four companies tied to weapons manufacturing and Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The four include Lockheed Martin, aerospace company Leonardo, military contractor Palantir, and construction equipment maker Caterpillar, whose bulldozers have been tearing up Gaza and the West Bank for decades. The success was four years in the making, as SFSU students successfully passed a divestment resolution in 2020.

The War On Palestine Within US Education Isn’t Just In Colleges

September 5, 2024 Mimi Kirk, Mondoweiss. , , , , , ,
In a May 2024 congressional hearing, the Committee on Education and the Workforce questioned leaders of three public school districts: New York City; the Washington, DC suburbs of Montgomery County, Maryland; and Berkeley, California. Similar to earlier hearings that cross-examined the presidents of Harvard, Penn, MIT, and Columbia, the event was premised on “pervasive antisemitism” in U.S. education and a demand for accountability from its leaders. As NPR reported, the K-12 hearing did not net the “headline moments” that lawmakers enjoyed with the university presidents, which saw the leaders struggle to answer questions and which helped bring about the resignation of three of them.

New Lawsuit Takes Canary Mission To Court Under Anti-Doxxing Law

August 10, 2024 Kelly X. Hui, Mondoweiss. , , , ,
It seems like Canary Mission, the shadowy pro-Israel doxxing operation that has targeted pro-Palestinian voices for nearly a decade, will finally have its day in court. Last month, the Chicago chapter of the Council On American Islamic Relations (CAIR Chicago) filed a landmark federal lawsuit against the blacklisting website—it is the first time Canary Mission has been sued. CAIR Chicago is representing Kinza Khan, a 34-year-old Pakistani woman who was doxxed after a tense encounter with Wayne Levinson, who is named alongside Canary Mission a co-defendant in the complaint. In November, Khan and her friend stopped on a busy street in Chicago to examine a light pole covered with “Kidnapped by Hamas” posters.
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