CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—Rubio will be a suitable addition to the list of sadistic manipulators who have served in that role before him, joining the likes of Antony Blinken, Mike Pompeo, Hillary Clinton, Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger as the next soulless manipulator to lead the US State Department in pressing the imperial boot into the throat of the global south.
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DEMOCRACY NOW!—We are joined by U.N. special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, who says Israel is committing genocide on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Facing accusations of antisemitism from Israeli and U.S. officials, Albanese is in New York to present her report, titled “Genocide as colonial erasure,” which finds that Israel’s genocide is founded on “ideological hatred” and “dehumanization” and “enabled through the various organs of the state,” and recommends that Israel be unseated from the United Nations over its conduct. She argues that Israel’s attacks on U.N. employees, including the killings of at least 230 U.N. staff in Gaza, its flagrant violations of U.N. resolutions and international law and the unique status of “the first settler-colonial genocide to be ever litigated before [an international] court” justify this measure. Israel’s continued impunity, Albanese warns, “is the nail in the coffin of the U.N. Charter.”
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MEE—What is the link between Zionism, capitalism and the American empire? Fresh off the back of a deeply toxic, all consuming US election – one in which the issue of Palestine and the war in Gaza was largely ignored – we examine what it means to survive a system intent on silencing and marginalising dissenting voices. Despite the key role the Biden Administration has played in arming and supporting Israel, a position opposed by the majority of Americans, few political voices were interested in challenging or even speaking about this policy. A policy which mirrors the US’ own bloody history of colonialism, empire and exploitation. An environment in which voices who challenge the status quo have fewer and fewer platforms to express their dissenting views.
This week on The Big Picture Podcast, Mohamed Hassan sits down with human rights attorney, legal scholar and professor at Rutgers University Noura Erakat. -
EDITOR—The story continues to fall apart. After an impassioned denunciation of “violent and intolerable antisemitism” supposedly victimising the Maccabi football fans, who, as events have shown, may have had ulterior plans for their trip to Amsterdam, the city mayor is now forced to denounce her own opportunistic statements claiming a “pogrom” had taken place.
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A Jewish-American film-maker expressed her solidarity with the suffering of the Palestinian people at the Venice Film Festival last September. “I stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and their struggle for liberation.” Her brave statements were welcomed by many in the audience, probably contrary what might have happened if the venue had been in the USA.
Jewish American filmmaker Sarah Friedland expressed her solidarity with the Palestinian people as she accepted the Luigi de Laurentiis prize for best first film for Familiar Touch.
She expressed her solidarity with the Palestinian people on the 336th day of what she referred to as “Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the 76th year of occupation”. She stated that she believes it is the responsibility of film workers to use the institutional platforms they work through to redress “Israel’s impunity on the global stage”.
