Author: Brett Wilkins

Human rights defenders on Friday welcomed a move by Chile’s progressive president to put off accepting the new Israeli ambassador’s credentials in response to the killing of a Palestinian teenager earlier in the day.

A spokesperson for the Chilean Foreign Ministry confirmed to Reuters that the decision to delay a meeting between President Gabriel Boric and Israeli Ambassador Gil Artzyeli was made “because of the death of a minor.”

Israeli occupation forces fatally shot 17-year-old Odai Trad Salah in the head during a Thursday morning raid in the village of Kufr Dan outside Jenin in the illegally occupied West Bank of Palestine.

According to The Palestine Chronicle, Artzyeli was inside the Chilean presidential palace awaiting his scheduled meeting with Boric when Foreign Minister Antonia Urrejola informed him that his credentials would not be accepted that day, and that the formal ceremony would be delayed until next month.

Continue reading “Chile Refuses Israeli Ambassador Over Killing of Palestinian Teen”

As the Biden administration on Thursday announced billions of dollars in additional aid for Ukraine’s defense against Russian invaders, peace activists renewed calls for a diplomatic solution to the nearly seven-month war.

“The White House and Congress are fueling this war with a steady stream of weapons instead of pushing for talks to end the conflict,” Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the peace group CodePink, said in a statement. “That’s why we, the people, have to rise up with a demand of negotiations, not escalation.”

CodePink and other antiwar groups including Veterans for Peace, World Beyond War, and Peace Action are set to launch a global week of action for peace in Ukraine next Monday. Demonstrations are scheduled in U.S. cities including Washington, D.C., metropolitan Boston, Milwaukee, Nashville, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Pasadena.

Continue reading “Peace Groups Decry Billions More in US Military Aid as Blinken Visits Ukraine”

Peace activists on Friday challenged what they called Saudi Arabia’s “sportswashing” of war crimes in Yemen and domestic human rights abuses by protesting outside – and over – a Massachusetts golf tournament funded by the repressive kingdom.

Members of Massachusetts Peace Action and supporters rallied at the Bolton Fair Grounds in Lancaster, site of the shuttle bus to the LIV Golf tournament at The International golf club in Bolton. The professional golf tour is financed by the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.

Demonstrators held signs with messages including “Saudi Money is Blood Money” and “Saudi Arabia Kills Journalists and Kids in Yemen” while an airplane circled over the event trailing a banner reading “Bolton Rejects Saudi Blood Money.”

Continue reading “Massachusetts Pacifists Decry ‘Saudi Blood Money’ at Kingdom’s Golf Tournament”

Human rights groups were cautiously optimistic Thursday as the United States military – which has killed more civilians in foreign wars than any other armed force on Earth in the post-World War II era – published a plan meant to reduce non-combatant casualties.

Declaring that “the protection of civilians is a strategic priority as well as a moral imperative,” the Pentagon’s 46-page Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan (CHMR-AP) lays out a series of policy steps aimed at preventing and responding to the death and injury of non-combatants.

Continue reading “Groups Cautiously Welcome Pentagon’s New Civilian Casualty Action Plan”

Congressional progressives this week urged top Biden administration officials to end the transfer of military weapons to local law enforcement agencies under a program that critics say disproportionately harms communities of color.

In a letter led by Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), the 22 lawmakers called on Cabinet members to implement part of a May executive order signed by President Joe Biden aimed at reforming federal policing standards.

“Police militarization has never made our communities safer,” Pressley tweeted. “It’s time to stop transferring military-grade weapons to local police.”

Continue reading “Progressive Lawmakers Push Biden To Stop Transferring Military Weapons to Cops”

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly told President Joe Biden during their meeting in Jeddah Friday that while the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is “regrettable,” U.S. hands are not clean and other journalists are killed with impunity.

Bin Salman specifically mentioned the torture scandal at the US military prison at Abu Ghraib, Iraq and the killing of Palestinian-American Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli forces in May, according to Al Aribiya, which is owned by the Saudi government.

The de facto Saudi ruler also said that the CIA – which along with other American intelligence agencies concluded that Khashoggi’s gruesome 2018 murder was likely ordered by bin Salman – makes mistakes, as it did when it falsely claimed Iraq had an active weapons of mass destruction program prior to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and occupation.

Continue reading “‘Remember Abu Ghraib,’ MbS Tells Biden When Pressed on Khashoggi: Report”