Israel has been rocked by an explosion of protests in recent weeks, with trade unions staging a general strike on September 2 and an estimated 750,000 Israelis taking to the streets on September 7 to demand a hostage deal with Hamas.
'We were standing, visible to the army, just standing around not doing anything. Nothing was happening. I heard two shots,' says a fellow protester who also attended the demonstration where Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was killed.
We spoke with Uncommitted movement cofounder Abbas Alawieh about the movement’s accomplishments at the DNC, the disaster of a Trump presidency for Palestine, and Uncommitted’s vision to change the Democratic Party’s support for slaughter in Gaza.
The huge Israeli protests have been about bringing down the Netanyahu government. They also had a deeper, more subversive message. Without any of the speakers explicitly saying as much, Sunday’s demonstrations were for an end to the war.
In addition to a press conference with foreign media, Netanyahu dispatched his confidant Ron Dermer to US media to address the hostage negotiations, as the PM is anxious about increasing U.S. media attention on the hostage families' criticism of him.
US policies strengthen Benjamin Netanyahu – whose political preference in the short term is an open-ended war, not a deal. Netanyahu is a loose cannon, which Kamala Harris should have no interest in reloading 10 weeks out from an election.
Debates over how to describe conflicts in Gaza, Myanmar and elsewhere are channeling a controversy as old as the word itself. The Genocide Convention emerged as an immediate response to World War II-today its being renegotiated to bring it up to date
Read what Georgia State Rep. Ruwa Romman hoped to tell Democrats. Romman has been a vocal and prominent activist for Uncommitted. Waleed Shahid, a strategist for the movement, said she was among a list of potential speakers given to the DNC.
What Israel could have achieved earlier with a hostage/cease-fire agreement has become impossible due to new conditions that Netanyahu introduced into the proposed deal. The paths chosen by Israel's leadership are leading down a slippery slope.
Past solidarity movements teach us that organization is just as important as mobilization. For Palestine solidarity activists it could be useful to look more deeply at the history of international solidarity, particularly in the last three decades.
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