The nonbinding ballot initiative instructs the mayor and all other elected officials "to end all current city business and prohibit future city investments and contracts with companies as long as such companies engage in business that sustains Israel's apartheid, genocide, and illegal occupation of Palestine." It marks the first time voters in the U.S. have had the opportunity to directly declare their support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement through a ballot initiative.
I grew up in a war zone, full of insecurity and injustice. I was at risk of being attacked, singled out, or arrested. Fear came from everywhere: from my parents, from society, from the world, she recalls now. What did we do to deserve this? she constantly asked herself. Honey Thaljieh (Bethlehem, 41) pretended to be a normal girl in a context that wasn't, and she found refuge in the ball. It was a tool to escape social pressure and trauma, to free myself.
This film shows the reality of Israeli occupation and oppression against Palestinians - but that truth apparently didn't fit the narrative that big U.S. streamers wanted to promote. We talked to MUBI for months, and initially thought our film had found its home, but in the end we learned that they were accepting a huge investment from Sequoia Capital.
Dozens of celebrities came together across the pond to raise money for Palestine during a sold-out charity concert at London's OVO Arena Wembley on September 18. The star-studded Together for Palestine event included appearances from Florence Pugh, Benedict Cumberbatch, Riz Ahmed, Guy Pearce, Richard Gere, Bridgerton stars Nicola Coughlan and Charithra Chandran, and many more. Paloma Faith performed in a dress made from a keffiyeh, and other musicians in attendance included PinkPantheress, Bastille's Dan Smith, Gorillaz, James Blake, Rachel Chinouriri, Neneh Cherry, and Cat Burns.
"I think people would want to see that for their neighbours," "They would want to see that for members of their community. People would want to see people they don't know live with peace and safety and security. They wouldn't want to see their neighbours live in fear of hatred or racism. They wouldn't want to see their Jewish friends live in fear of antisemitism, and Muslim brothers and sisters live in fear of Islamophobia."
Checkpoint 300 is built into Israel's West Bank wall, serving as a barrier for Palestinians moving between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. The checkpoint is a complex organization of space, with turnstiles and corridors that confine and control a colonized population for inspection by soldiers and security staff.
Sariel had a plan to transfer large amounts of Unit 8200's data, including top-secret information, into Microsoft's cloud platform, Azure. This would enable mass surveillance on Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
"This legal victory reaffirms our protected rights to protest and speak out against the US-Israeli genocide of Palestinians - and we will keep exercising those rights," said Daniela Colombi, a UMD SJP member.
The surveillance system, operational since 2022, was built by Unit 8200, the Israeli military's secretive intelligence branch, enabling collection of millions of daily phone calls.