Violence stuns UCLA as counter-protesters attack pro-Palestine camp
Counterprotesters tried to tear down the barricades surrounding the encampment. Some on campus said they were stunned it took so long before officials stepped in.
Hasnain says:
“Some on campus said they were stunned it took so long before officials stepped in to stop the clashes.
Ananya Roy, a professor of urban planning, social welfare and geography, condemned UCLA’s lack of response to the counterprotesters.
“It gives people impunity to come to our campus as a rampaging mob,” she said early Wednesday. “The word is out they can do this repeatedly and get away with it. I am ashamed of my university.””
Posted on 2024-05-01T14:13:31+0000
Letter to Columbia President Minouche Shafik - Boston Review
You are keeping no one safe, except for your donors, trustees, and the university’s endowment.
Hasnain says:
And this was written yesterday - before today’s madness.
“I need not say much else. You’ve been condemned by your faculty, by the majority of students, and by scholars and human rights activists around the world. You are keeping no one safe, except for your donors, trustees, and Columbia’s endowment. Among these same trustees and donors are persons who have vowed to punish these students by blocking them from future employment.”
Posted on 2024-05-01T05:42:15+0000
Attorneys inside and outside the administration urge Biden to cut off arms to Israel
So far more than 90 lawyers have signed on to a legal letter alleging Israel’s conduct in Gaza violates U.S. and international law.
Hasnain says:
““This is a moment where the U.S. government is violating its own laws and policy,” said a Department of Justice staffer who signed the letter and was granted anonymity to speak candidly to not risk their job. “The administration may be seeing silence or only a handful of resignations, but they are really not aware of the magnitude of discontent and dissent among the rank and file.””
Posted on 2024-04-30T01:42:49+0000
Yes, it is genocide
In most cases of genocide, from Bosnia to Namibia, from Rwanda to Armenia, the perpetrators of the murder said they were acting in…
Click to view the original at thepalestineproject.medium.com
Hasnain says:
“*Amos Goldberg is a Holocaust and genocide researcher at the Hebrew University, whose book VeZcharta — And Thou Shalt Remember: Five Critical Readings in Israeli Holocaust Remembrance will be published by Resling in the coming weeks.
Yes, it is genocide. It is so difficult and painful to admit it, but despite all that, and despite all our efforts to think otherwise, after six months of brutal war we can no longer avoid this conclusion. Jewish history will henceforth be stained with the mark of Cain for the “most horrible of crimes,” which cannot be erased from its forehead. As such, this is the way it will be viewed in history’s judgment for generations to come.”
Jury awards $16 million to a Philly man whose death-row murder conviction was overturned
Jimmy Dennis spent 25 years on death row and in solitary confinement for a murder conviction a judge later called a "grave miscarriage of justice."
Hasnain says:
First case I’ve seen in a while where the detectives themselves were held liable ($3m each) instead of the taxpayers paying for misconduct. I only wish that they were on the hook for all of it because this is egregious.
“It was later determined that detectives and prosecutors involved with the case had buried key evidence that, if presented to a jury, might have persuaded the panel to find Dennis not guilty, said Messing.
There was evidence that a critical eyewitness — the only person who said he was sure that he could identify the killer if he saw him again — told police after being shown Dennis’ photo that he was “definitely not the killer,” Messing said. But that was not turned over to Dennis and his lawyers.
Among the other evidence withheld was a document that corroborated Dennis’ alibi that he was on a bus around the time of the murder, police reports that impeached the credibility of an eyewitness, and additional relevant documents, Messing said.”
Posted on 2024-04-27T23:34:41+0000
Exclusive: Some US officials say in internal memo Israel may be violating international law in Gaza
Some senior U.S. officials have advised Secretary of State Antony Blinken that they do not find "credible or reliable" Israel's assurances that it is using U.S.-supplied weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law, according to an internal State Department memo reviewed by Reuters.
Hasnain says:
And yet Miller continues to say there are no concerns.
“A joint submission from four bureaus - Democracy Human Rights & Labor; Population, Refugees and Migration; Global Criminal Justice and International Organization Affairs – raised "serious concern over non-compliance" with international humanitarian law during Israel's prosecution of the Gaza war.
The assessment from the four bureaus said Israel's assurances were "neither credible nor reliable." It cited eight examples of Israeli military actions that the officials said raise "serious questions" about potential violations of international humanitarian law.”
Posted on 2024-04-27T22:35:28+0000
Morehouse College, get on the right side of history, rescind your invitation to President Biden
Faculty members are calling on Morehouse College to rescind its invitation to Joe Biden to speak at its 2024 commencement: “Any college or university that gives its commencement stage to President Biden in this moment is endorsing genocide.”
Hasnain says:
Powerful stuff from the faculty and students here (and at universities across the country as they stand up and get arrested). Was even more jarring for me to learn MLK is a morehouse alum and they still chose to disgrace his legacy by inviting Biden (read the article to learn more about MLK’s stance here)
“Morehouse College has announced that President Joe Biden will be the school’s commencement speaker this year. This announcement comes seven months into Israel’s genocidal siege on Gaza. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children. More than 77,000 have been injured. Every hospital and university in Gaza has been destroyed. None of this would have been possible without the support and sponsorship of the Biden Administration. Any college or university that gives its commencement stage to President Biden in this moment is endorsing genocide.
As faculty members at academic institutions in and around Atlanta—including Morehouse, Spelman, and Clark Atlanta—we did not see this coming. This is not the Morehouse College that history has known and that we have come to treasure. Over the years, Morehouse commencement speakers have amplified the school’s powerful moral legacy, often doing so by quoting the school’s former president, Dr. Benjamin E. Mays: “it will not be sufficient for Morehouse College, for any college, for that matter, to produce clever graduates,” but rather honest graduates “who are sensitive to the wrongs, the sufferings, and the injustices of society and who are willing to accept responsibility for correcting the ills.” President Biden has not demonstrated sensitivity to wrongs, sufferings, and injustices. And as the one person on the planet who has the power to stop an active genocide, he has not accepted responsibility for correcting the ills.”
Posted on 2024-04-25T06:16:32+0000
Senate passes TikTok ban bill, sending it to Biden, who has already committed to signing it
ByteDance will get up to a year to divest TikTok or face a ban.
Hasnain says:
““But what they have seen, beyond even this bill, is Congress’ failure to enact meaningful consumer protections on big tech, and may cynically view this as a diversion, or worse, a concession to U.S. social media platforms,” Warner continued. “
Posted on 2024-04-24T06:31:33+0000
U.S. bans noncompete agreements for nearly all jobs
The Federal Trade Commission has voted to ban employment agreements that typically prevent workers from leaving their companies for competitors, or starting competing businesses of their own.
Hasnain says:
“"We heard from employees who, because of noncompetes, were stuck in abusive workplaces," she said. "One person noted when an employer merged with an organization whose religious principles conflicted with their own, a noncompete kept the worker locked in place and unable to freely switch to a job that didn't conflict with their religious practices."
These accounts, she said, "pointed to the basic reality of how robbing people of their economic liberty also robs them of all sorts of other freedoms."”
Posted on 2024-04-24T02:55:54+0000
No Reservations
How bots, mercenaries, and table scalpers have turned the restaurant reservation system inside out.
Hasnain says:
“Alex Eisler, a sophomore at Brown University who studies applied math and computer science, regularly uses fake phone numbers and e-mail addresses to make reservations. When he calls Polo Bar, he told me, “Sometimes they recognize my voice, so I have to do different accents. I have to act like a girl sometimes.” He switched into a bad falsetto: “I’m, like, ‘Hiiii, is it possible to book a reservation?’ I have a few Resy accounts that have female names.” His recent sales on Appointment Trader, where his screen name is GloriousSeed75, include a lunch table at Maison Close, which he sold for eight hundred and fifty-five dollars, and a reservation at Carbone, the Village red-sauce place frequented by the Rolex-and-Hermès crowd, which fetched a thousand and fifty dollars. Last year, he made seventy thousand dollars reselling reservations.”
Posted on 2024-04-24T01:51:58+0000