Gaza war news.
We are in Brooklyn for a couple of days en route back to Chicago after a two-week break from the cold while on the Florida Gulf Coast.
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When we arrived in Brooklyn on Saturday multiple protests of U.S. support for Israeli genocide in Gaza and the West Bank were taking place at several locations: The Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum and the Studio Museum.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that UK’s channel four investigated the charge that United Nations relief workers had abetted in the Hamas attack on Israel last October. U.K.'s Channel 4 claims it 'contains no evidence' for Israel's allegations against UNRWA's workers.
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The Grayzone reports on the retraction by the Washington Post of the claim that Hamas militants had specific orders as to “which commander should rape which soldiers” indicates the publication censored itself at the behest of the Israeli government.
The Post has quietly removed a claim by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that Hamas battle plans included specific instructions on which Israeli troops should be raped during their October 7 incursion.
In the original article, was published on November 12 and promoted as a Washington Post “exclusive.”
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Patrick Lawrence in Scheerpost:
It was inevitable, then, that The Times would serve as Israel’s apologist as soon as the IDF began its murder spree last October. This was not a rampage worthy of the Visigoths, as plentiful video footage carried on social media and in independent publications revealed it to be: It was dignified as “a war,” a war waged not against Palestinians but “against Hamas,” and Israel fought it in “self-defense.” Hamas is “a terrorist organization,” so there is no complexity or dimensionality to it, and therefore no need to understand anything about it.
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“If you attended a funeral a day for all the children killed in Gaza since October it would take 27 years to attend them all.” - a sign outside the national headquarters in DC of the National Education Association.
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The New York Times is reporting that President Biden’s top foreign policy advisors have been in closed-door meetings with Arab American leaders in Michigan last week saying that they did not have “any confidence” that Israel’s government was willing to take “meaningful steps” toward Palestinian statehood and secretly expressing Biden’s regrets.
I’m sure this has nothing to do with the 300,000 Muslim voters in Michigan.
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I wrote a post in January about the decision by the University of Indiana to cancel an art exhibition by noted Palestinian artist Samia Halaby.
In response to IU’s cowardice local organizers will feature Samia Halaby’s life and work Feb. 17 at Bloomington’s Buskirk-Chumley Theater.
Indiana University professor Elizabeth Housworth said she was deeply troubled by IU’s decision to cancel Halaby’s exhibit at the Eskenazi Museum of Art.
“Samia Halaby Uncanceled” is a one-evening free but ticketed event. Tickets can be reserved on the Buskirk-Chumley Theater’s website. Housworth said she expects the event to sell out. It starts at 7 p.m.
“This is the event for people who want to understand what we are missing by having the art exhibit canceled,” Housworth said. “It will contain videos of Samia Halaby’s art, and her life and history.”
See you back in Chicago.