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Suppression

Private Israeli Security Firms Are Killing Free Speech On College Campuses

Following the unprecedented proliferation of student-led protests against Israel’s war on Gaza across U.S. and international college campuses, educational institutions have found themselves under immense pressure to crush the movement from private Israeli security firms. Following a surge of demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience in protests of Israel’s genocide in Gaza by students across U.S. college campuses, university administrations faced immense pressure to strengthen security measures and suppress the movement.

Legislating Silence: How Congress Plans To Target Critics Of Israel

A coalition of civil rights groups is sounding the alarm over three proposed bills that, they argue, represent an audacious attempt to stifle dissent and curb free expression in the United States. The legislation—H.R.6408, H.R.9495, and S.4136—claims to combat terrorism by targeting the tax-exempt status of nonprofits deemed to be in violation. But critics insist the true aim is more insidious: to suppress organizations that are critical of Israel. Championed by lawmakers with deep ties to AIPAC, the bills, if passed, could pave the way for an unprecedented crackdown on dissent under the guise of national security.

Trump Isn’t Hiding Plan To Use Military To Quash Protests

Employing federal troops to suppress domestic protests and deport immigrants from U.S. soil en masse would be illegal, but Donald Trump has been pushing to do so since his first administration. The recent Supreme Court decision granting presidents nearly absolute immunity for official acts has created a situation with far fewer guardrails to prevent Trump from abusing his authority in his second presidential term. Trump and his allies have reportedly drafted plans for him to deploy the military against civil demonstrators on his first day in office, according to a Washington Post report from November 2023.

Chris Hedges: Israel’s War On Journalism

There are some 4,000 foreign reporters accredited in Israel to cover the war. They stay in luxury hotels. They go on dog and pony shows orchestrated by the Israeli military. They can, on rare occasions, be escorted by Israeli soldiers on lightning visits to Gaza, where they are shown alleged weapons caches or tunnels the military says are used by Hamas. They dutifully attend daily press conferences. They are given off-the-record briefings by senior Israeli officials who feed them information that often turns out to be untrue. They are Israel’s unwitting and sometimes witting propagandists, stenographers for the architects of apartheid and genocide, hotel room warriors.

Students And Faculty Encountering Stricter Anti-Protest Rules

This semester returning university students have encountered stricter anti-protest regulations at their schools, while advocates continue to deal with fallout from last spring’s Gaza solidarity “University administrators across the United States have declared an indefinite state of emergency on college campuses,” wrote National SJP organizer Carrie Zaremba in September. “Schools are rolling out policies in preparation for quashing pro-Palestine student activism this Fall semester, and reshaping regulations and even campuses in the process to suit this new normal.” Palestine Legal senior staff attorney Radhika Sainath told Mondoweiss those changes have included new encampment bans, stricter rules against wearing masks, a weaponization of ‘Time, place, and manner restrictions’, and stricter rules for holding protests.

UK Police Raid Home, Seize Devices Of Electronic Intifada’s Asa Winstanley

British counterterrorism police on Thursday raided the home and seized several electronic devices belonging to The Electronic Intifada’s associate editor Asa Winstanley. Approximately 10 officers arrived at Winstanley’s North London home before 6 am and served the journalist with warrants and other papers authorizing them to search his house and vehicle for devices and documents. A letter addressed to Winstanley from the “Counter Terrorism Command” of the Metropolitan Police Service indicates that the authorities are “aware of your profession” as a journalist but that “notwithstanding, police are investigating possible offenses” under sections 1 and 2 of the Terrorism Act (2006). These provisions set out the purported offense of “encouragement of terrorism.”

Louisiana’s CRT Ban Continues Long History Suppressing Black Education

As more than 700,000 students across Louisiana recently headed back to the classroom, a troubling reality looms: Black history wasn’t allowed in with them. In an increasing number of states, books on Black history and lesson plans about systemic racism are barred from schools — and Louisiana has followed suit. Gov. Jeff Landry’s executive order in late August bans critical race theory (CRT) — on top of previous restrictions already in place — and makes Louisiana the latest state to pass a law prohibiting antiracist education. Incredibly, laws preventing honest education about race impact nearly half of all public school students in the United States.

US Jewish Institutions Are Purging Their Staffs Of Anti-Zionists

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.”

First Just Stop Oil, Now Extinction Rebellion Activists Found Guilty

Extinction Rebellion activists who took action in defence of life, known as the “Worley Three,” have been found guilty of causing £6,000 in “damages” for their peaceful protest at the offices of multinational corporation Worley. It was over the so-called EACOP project. Sentencing will take place on 14 November. The action involved washable fake oil and chalk spray, designed to spotlight Worley’s ties to the controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), a project widely condemned for its devastating environmental and social impacts and to ultimately demand a boycott of the pipeline.

Human Rights Activist Sarah Wilkinson Arrested By UK Police

British human rights activist and social media influencer Sarah Wilkinson was arrested by UK police on 29 August, reportedly over “content she posted online.” “The police came to her house just before 7.30am. [Twelve] of them in total, some of them in plain clothes from the counter-terrorism police. They said she was under arrest for ‘content that she has posted online.’ Her house is being raided, and they have seized all her electronic devices," Jack Wilkinson is quoted as saying by the social media account Suppressed News. “The pro-genocide UK regime has arrested [MENAUncensored's] roving reporter and Human Rights Activist Sarah Wilkinson for supporting the Palestinian resistance and relaying what is really happening in Gaza and the West Bank to the world,” MENA Uncensored announced.

Acclaimed Journalist Charged With ‘Anti-Semitism’

For retweeting two tweets on X critical of Israel, famed Australian journalist Mary Kostakidis is facing charges of allegedly violating the country’s Racial Discrimination Act. The complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission from Alon Cassuto, the CEO of the Zionist Federation of Australia, highlights just two Kostakidis retweets from January this year, both of which contain a video of a speech by Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah in which he allegedly called for the ethnic cleansing of Israel. One of the retweets is from independent British journalist Richie Medhurst, who was arrested at Heathrow airport and held for nearly 24 hours under the U.K. Terrorism Act this month.

Milwaukee Shipped In 4,500 Cops To Suppress Protest At RNC

Contestations over the Republican National Committee’s efforts to foreclose avenues for lawful protest outside this week’s Republican National Convention (RNC) were already heated months before GOP delegates started booking their flights to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for the convention. So it was something of a victory for free speech that, after months of mobilizing and negotiations — and in the unexpectedly heightened state of policing following the July 13 assassination attempt on Donald Trump — some protesters managed to demonstrate close enough to the RNC to be seen and heard by its attendees. The path leading up to that point was filled with uncertainty over whether protest rights would be subordinated to GOP demands.

Environmental Protesters Under Attack And Often Treated As Terrorists

Events in February felt like a legal double whammy for the environment and its defenders. First, the United Nations Environment Assembly declined a Bolivian proposal to grant rights to nature and Mother Earth. Then, Michel Forst, the U.N. special rapporteur on environmental defenders under the Aarhus Convention, raised the alarm with his new paper: “State Repression of Environmental Protest and Civil Disobedience: A Major Threat to Human Rights and Democracy.” Although the right to protest is safeguarded by universal human rights like freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, Forst signals a worrisome rise in police brutality in dealing with environmental defenders.

Open Letter On The Anti-Palestinian And Islamophobic Environment At Emory University

We are a coalition of community and civil rights organizations, writing on behalf of Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students and students perceived to be Palestinian or Muslim at Emory University (“the University”) who have been targeted by racist, anti-Palestinian, xenophobic, and Islamophobic harassment and doxing attacks for their support for Palestinian human rights. We write to express our concern about the University’s failure to protect its students from these bigoted doxing and harassment campaigns and the lack of official, public support shown to Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students.

Milei’s Shock Therapy And The Workers’ Response

Less than two weeks after President Javier Milei took office in Argentina, his term is turning out to be as convulsive as promised. His economic policy is a textbook example of shock therapy, and includes massive cuts to social spending, a drastic currency devaluation–with the consequent depreciation of wages–, the reduction of subsidies on energy and transport, and price liberalization. This program was accompanied last week by the implementation of a new “security protocol” aimed at suppressing social protest and penalizing those who mobilize to reject government policies. In this context, a mass mobilization to Plaza de Mayo last Wednesday, followed by spontaneous pots and pans protests in front of Congress, was the first show of strength by those who vow to resist the onslaught.

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! 

Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

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