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January 28th, 2022 
Awake Goy ADL Opposes Censorship, Unless It Concerns Palestine
Last week a Florida school district canceled a professor’s civil rights history lecture over concerns about “critical race theory,” even though the lecture had no connection to the topic. This was obviously always the ultimate intent of CRT scaremongering.
The CRT hysteria has been criticized by the Anti-Defamation League, a group that many still view as a civil rights organization despite its history of supporting surveillance, colonialism, and apartheid.
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“Some people support these laws because they don’t want their children to learn about racism in school, such as through reading a book about Ruby Bridges or the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, or discussing current issues like the racial disparities in the criminal justice system or housing discrimination,” reads an explainer on the subject from the ADL’s website. “This opposition is concerning because it is important for young people to learn accurate history so that they can think critically about history and current events. This includes understanding how systemic racism and other inequities play a role in past and present-day issues – and learning that throughout history, people have worked together to overcome injustice, another key aspect of U.S. history.”
The opposition to censorship and desire for young people to learn accurate history only extends so far. Predictably, the ADL draws the line at Israel. Look at Castro Valley, California, where the school board just unanimously approved a contract with a group of ethnic studies teachers. We’ve covered this battle at the site before and it was clear that the saga would reemerge. Now here we are.
This new contract lays out a plan for teacher training and curriculum development from a group called the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Coalition. “Ethnic studies is the study of the experiences, the contributions and the perspectives of racial and ethnic groups across the country,” says the Castro Valley superintendent. “The team is comprised of ethnic studies professors, curriculum experts and, most importantly, teachers of ethnic studies — people who are experienced in actually implementing an ethnic studies program.”
However, pro-Israel groups like the ADL disagree. The group’s website contains a toolkit with tips on how to teach Palestine. Big no-nos can be found throughout this document. Comparisons between Israeli apartheid and South Africa, references to the fact Zionism is a colonial ideology, an acknowledgement that groups like the ADL fight to quash anything that embraces Palestinian humanity, etc.
The ADL put out a statement expressing its “deep disappointment” with the contract, suggesting that the criticisms of Israel might violate district policy and California’s Education Code. A representative from the organization even showed up at a school board meeting to publicly oppose the move.
Last fall I reported on a group of California students who had a Zoom meeting on Palestine shut down after the local ADL complained to the school’s principal. The ADL’s regional director for Long Beach and Orange County sent the school a message claiming that the students had shared a graphic containing antisemitic tropes.
“I think that’s an Instagram post that was circulating but none of us ever liked it, shared it, or put it on our Instagram,” one of the students told me. “We’ve never referenced it at all. It’s literally a blatant lie that we ever did anything with it. I had to look it up to even know what it was.”
The truthfulness of these efforts probably aren’t a central concern. If you’re able to stifle an honest discussion about apartheid, or an innocuous civil rights lecture, we can safely assume that the end justifies the means.
Israel Wants to Derail UN Probe
Axios Barak Ravid reports that Israel is trying to discredit a United Nations investigation into its attack on Gaza. Last May the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) narrowly voted to establish the Commission of Inquiry (COI) after Israel bombarded Gaza for 11 days, killing 253 Palestinians. “Such strikes raise serious concerns of Israel’s compliance with the principles of distinction and proportionality under international humanitarian law,” said human rights chief Michelle Bachelet after the onslaught. “If found to be indiscriminate and disproportionate in their impact on civilians and civilian objects, such attacks may constitute war crimes.”
According to a classified Foreign Ministry cable, the Israeli government is making the probe their number one UN priority. They’re also concerned that the forthcoming report (due out in June) might acknowledge the fact that Israel is an apartheid state. As Ravid points out, Israel has had some success discrediting UN investigations.
There’s some things worth recapping here:
-The Biden administration has publicly opposed the commission and helped to cut some of its funding. “We have concerns with the council,” said State Department spokesperson Ned Price last October. “We will vigorously oppose the council’s disproportionate attention on Israel, which includes the council’s only standing agenda item targeting a single country.”
-After Israel pummeled Gaza, Biden responded by selling the country another $735 million in weapons.
You’d think a hawkish track record like this would appease our rabidly pro-Israel congress, but alas. Over 40 lawmakers from both sides of the aisle recently sent Secretary of State Blinken a letter, calling on Biden to lead an effort to “eliminate” the commission and claiming that the UNHRC is motivated by anti-Israel bias:
“COI’s mandate is designed to accelerate the political, economic, and legal challenges to Israel and undermine its legitimacy by pressuring international legal institutions to take action against Israeli leaders,” declares the letter.
Imagine that.
Odds & Ends
🇺🇸 Nina Turner is officially running for congress in 2022, setting up a probable rematch against Rep. Shontel Brown in Ohio’s 11th district. Pro-Israel groups like DMFI were instrumental in defeating Turner the first time around and they’re already fundraising off the announcement. Here’s a new email from the group:
In 2016, Nina Turner refused to endorse Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump. In 2020, she compared voting for Joe Biden to “eating half a bowl of sh*t.” In the 2021 OH-11 special election primary, DMFI PAC stepped up and used mailers, TV, radio, digital, and newspaper ads to educate voters about Brown’s successes and Turner’s record of trashing other Democrats.
But after her stunning upset loss to Shontel Brown, Turner refused to take responsibility for her disparaging remarks, instead telling her supporters, “We didn’t lose this race — the evil money manipulated and maligned this election.”
Turner was talking about donations from pro-Israel Democrats and DMFI PAC supporters — supporters like you — which helped erase her 35-point lead over Rep. Shontel Brown and put a pro-Israel champion in Congress. We need your help to do it again.
🇧🇫 Burkina Faso’s democratically elected president was recently ousted in a military coup. The country’s new leader is Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, a U.S. trained soldier. Here’s Nick Turse writing about the situation at The Intercept:
In 2010 and 2020, he participated in an annual special operations training program known as the Flintlock exercise. In 2013, Damiba was accepted into an Africa Contingency Operations Training and Assistance course, which is a State Department-funded peacekeeping training program. In 2013 and 2014, Damiba attended the U.S.-sponsored Military Intelligence Basic Officer Course-Africa. And in 2018 and 2019, he participated in engagements with a U.S. Defense Department Civil Military Support Element in Burkina Faso.
Damiba is just the latest in a carousel of coup leaders in West Africa trained by the U.S. military as the U.S. has pumped in more than $1 billion in security assistance to promote “stability” in the region. Since 2008, U.S.-trained officers have attempted at least nine coups (and succeeded in at least eight) across five West African countries, including Burkina Faso (three times), Guinea, Mali (three times), Mauritania, and the Gambia.
🇺🇸 I interviewed Michigan congressional candidate Huwaida Arraf on our podcast. We talked about growing up in Michigan, her relationship with Palestine, how she first became an international peace activist, and why she decided to jump into politics:
I am going to be attacked. From the moment I announced my campaign, I was attacked by people who specifically don’t like the work that I’ve done on Palestinian human rights. Actually just a few days ago, there was another attack article in Breitbart News. So those attacks are going to come. What’s important to me and my campaign is that we ensure we have the resources and support. So that our message, our vision, what we’re fighting for, the kind of policies and principles that we want to bring to Washington that centers people, civil and human rights domestically and also internationally.
Our vision for human rights is louder than the hate they’re going to put out. We’ve been able to do that, but I know we have a lot more work to do. We know more attacks are coming and we’re fired up.
🇮🇱 The Jewish Institute for National Security of America put out a report praising the Abraham Accords. The group did not disclose that many of its members have connections to the Gulf arms sales that the deal ushered in. Eli Clifton reports on it at Responsible Statecraft.
🇺🇦 Representatives Pramila Jayapal and Barbara Lee put out a statement on regarding United States involvement in Ukraine:
We continue to watch Russia’s threatening behavior towards Ukraine with alarm. There is no military solution out of this crisis — diplomacy needs to be the focus. We support the Biden Administration’s efforts to extend and deepen the dialogue, allowing for robust negotiations and compromise.
We have significant concerns that new troop deployments, sweeping and indiscriminate sanctions, and a flood of hundreds of millions of dollars in lethal weapons will only raise tensions and increase the chance of miscalculation. Russia’s strategy is to inflame tensions; the United States and NATO must not play into this strategy.
In past crises, where events are moving quickly and intelligence is unclear, vigorous, delicate diplomacy is essential to de-escalation. We call upon our colleagues to allow the administration to find a diplomatic way out of this crisis.
Oxfam today called on the UN Security Council to condemn the recent attacks in Yemen and inject new urgency into peace talks to end the seven-year conflict. The call follows airstrikes that have killed and injured hundreds of civilians in the last week and led to the suspension of humanitarian aid in parts of the country. At the same time, people are struggling with spiraling prices for food, fuel, and basic essentials in what was already one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.
🇦🇪 Matthew Cole writes about new revelations regarding UAE adviser George Nader at The Intercept:
GEORGE NADER, an American adviser to the government of the United Arab Emirates, convicted sex offender, and frequent visitor to the White House during President Donald Trump’s first year in office, has pleaded guilty for his role in helping the UAE pump millions of dollars in illegal campaign contributions into the U.S. political system during the 2016 presidential election, according to documents submitted in federal court last month.
Federal prosecutors disclosed in a December sentencing memo that Nader had agreed months earlier to plead guilty to a single count of felony conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government by funneling millions in donations to Hillary Clinton’s campaign and concealing the funds’ foreign origin. Nader’s plea has not been previously reported.
🇪🇬 The Biden administration authorized a $2.5 billion weapons sale with Egypt.
Stay safe out there,
Michael
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