Following 19 hours of negotations, a two-week encampment and a 3 day non-violent occupation, Bard College administration agreed to all the students' demands.
Yesterday tens of thousands of people marched in Brussels, Belgium against Israel’s war on Palestine.
This marked the sixth such large-scale protest in Belgium since the latest in the 75 year war began with the Hamas attack on October 7th.
The protest was organized by a coalition of organizations including the Belgian Palestinian Association (ABP), the Palestinian collective Beitna, Francophone and Dutch-speaking umbrellas CNCD-11.11.11, ABVV/FGTB, Solidaris, Een Andere Joodse Stem (EAJS), the Union of Progressive Jews of Belgium (UPJB), Intal and Vrede vzw.
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Meanwhile, closer to home, students at Bard College in upstate New York won agreement from the college’s administration on every one of a list of demands. The two-week encampment and 3 day occupation was led by the schools chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine.
The demands included college divestment from Israel and greater student voice and oversight.
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The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that Advocate Health is engaging in a double standard when it comes to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza compared to what was done for Ukraine.
About 90 people, including many Advocate employees still wearing scrubs and badges, staged a silent demonstration in front of Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn Friday. Some wore keffiyahs and waved signs bearing the names of healthcare workers killed in Gaza.
Advocate Health, which operates 11 hospitals and more than 250 care facilities in Illinois, serves the largest population of Palestinians in the United States. Said said helping with the humanitarian crises in Gaza is an important part of providing the “culturally competent” care Advocate prides itself on. Instead, the group says the health system’s response has sent a message that the Palestinian community isn’t welcome.
Advocate Health employees and supporters march around Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.Violet Miller/Sun-Times
Within days of Russia invading Ukraine, Advocate Health called for peace, began donating “critically needed items” and partnered with local health systems to “ship additional supplies,” according to a March 2022 internal newsletter article written by Advocate’s president and CEO Jim Skogsbergh.
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Is faculty support for Palestine the target of the new McCarthyism?
Since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza, academics in fields including politics, sociology, Japanese literature, public health, Latin American and Caribbean studies, Middle East and African studies, mathematics, education, and more have been fired, suspended, or removed from the classroom for pro-Palestine, anti-Israel speech.
These educators have little in common. They live in different cities and states and hail from different countries. Some have been teaching in their institutions for decades, some were newly hired. Some taught at private universities, others public. They have varying degrees of job security, from a tenured professor to the most precarious adjunct contracts. And they are racially, ethnically, religiously, age, and gender diverse.
What they share is that, in recent months, they have all staked out positions in favor of Palestinian freedom — positions that lead them to be targeted by pro-Israel groups.
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Join my brother Mike and me on Friday’s edition of Hitting Left where we will be talking about the protest movement against the war on Palestine.
Joining us will be Lucy Gunderson, a student activist at Bard, who happens to be my granddaughter.
Hitting Left airs live on Chicago’s Lumpen Radio. 105.5fm at 11:00am and streaming around the world on Lumpenradio.com.
A later podcast version can be found on hittingleft.libysn.com