August, 25 2015, 10:45am EDT
Hundreds Rally For Equitable Climate Action
Residents from across the state call for statewide climate policy that protects communities of color; commemorate Hurricane KatrinaÂ
SACRAMENTO, CA.
Today, commemorating the 10th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, 200 community leaders from across the state are rallying in the Capitol to demand climate policies that benefit and protect low-income communities and communities of color. Residents from some of the most pollution-impacted communities are pushing state legislators to pass policies to transition away from dirty fossil fuels and build clean energy in their communities.
Ten years ago with Hurricane Katrina, we saw just how devastated communities of color can be by extreme weather and the racial disparities in disaster response from the federal, state and local government. Residents from communities of color have converged in Sacramento to stand in solidarity with the struggles for climate justice in the Gulf Coast and across the nation, and win equitable climate and energy policy for all communities.
Rally speaker Leo Esclamado, who organized in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, explains, "Working class communities and communities of color throughout the Gulf Coast bear the harshest conditions of confronting both man-made disasters of poverty and climate change. Climate justice is not only essential, but must inspire community's just transitions in the face of uncertainty."
Strela Cervas, Co-Director of the California Environmental Justice Alliance says, "Community leaders hope to see policies passed that ensure another Katrina never happens again. We are on the frontlines of pollution and should be on the frontlines of solutions. Bills like SB 350, the Clean Energy and Pollution Reduction Act, and AB 693, the Multifamily Affordable Housing Renewables Program, will bring clean energy right into communities that need it the most."
New polling shows that 90 percent of Latinos agree that climate change is a serious threat to Latinos and want to see government action. Reflecting this strong support, CEJA and the organization Presente.org collected approximately 6000 signatures from Latinos across California urging passage of SB 350. CEJA is also delivering approximately 5000 signatures from community leaders to decision-makers, calling for provisions to improve local air quality in SB 32, Senator Pavley's bill that would create greenhouse gas reduction goals for 2050.
The grassroots advocacy effort and rally are part of the California Environmental Justice Alliance (CEJA)'s annual Congreso, a two-day conference that seeks to build a stronger movement for justice in statewide environmental policy. CEJA is a statewide coalition of community-based organizations working to advance equitable environmental policies.
CEJA is also honoring California Senate President pro Tempore Kevin De Leon (D-Los Angeles) for his leadership in advancing policies that protect communities overburdened by pollution, poverty, and impacted by climate change. CEJA will give Senate pro Tem De Leon the first ever Environmental Justice Leadership Award at the Congreso.
"Without clean air, clean water, and a livable planet, justice is merely an abstraction. I am honored to receive the Environmental Justice Leadership Award and proud to stand on behalf of a healthy environment for all Californians," said Senator De Leon.
The leadership award, rally and Congreso elevate the need for community-led solutions in climate policy. As people across the country and around the world gear up for another round of international climate negotiations in late Fall, people are looking to California to be a leader in equitable climate policies that benefit low-income communities of color who are hit first and worst by the impacts of climate change.
"While California leads the US in climate policy, the soul of it comes from integrating climate equity solutions that environmental justice communities are developing to move us away from toxic industries and toward renewable energy and clean transportation that our families build," says Mari Rose Taruc, State Organizing Director at the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, a member of CEJA.
Environmental Justice Leadership Awards with Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin De Leon: Holiday Inn Capitol Plaza, 300 J Street, California Ballroom, 10:00-11:00am.
Rally: 12-12:45 pm, West Steps of the Capitol, 10th & L Street.
For more on the new statewide poll released by Presente.org, CEJA and other partners: https://www.myhomesinpolucion.org/
LATEST NEWS
No 'Clear Message of Peace': Russia, China, and Algeria Vote Down US Gaza Resolution
"Only by ceasing hostilities we can alleviate the immense suffering and ensure that large-scale humanitarian assistance reaches those in need," said Algeria's ambassador to the United Nations.
Mar 22, 2024
This is a developing news story... Please check back for updates...
Russia and China on Friday vetoed a U.S. resolution at the United Nations Security Council that called a Gaza cease-fire "imperative" but stopped short of demanding a halt to Israel's monthslong assault on the besieged enclave.
Algeria, which does not have veto power, joined Russia and China in opposing the U.S. resolution, which 11 Security Council members supported. Guyana abstained.
Friday's 11-3-1 vote came just over a month after the U.S. used its veto power to tank an Algeria-led resolution demanding "an immediate humanitarian cease-fire that must be respected by all parties."
Amar Bendjama, Algeria's ambassador to the U.N., said Friday that he was speaking not only for his country "but as a representative of the whole Arab world" as he explained their shared opposition to the U.S. resolution. Bendjama said Algeria proposed edits to the U.S. draft, but the final resolution left central concerns "unaddressed."
"We echoed the demands of millions of people and humanitarian actors for an immediate cessation of hostilities," said Bendjama. "Regrettably, the draft resolution falls short of our expectations. It fails to adequately address these main issues and the immense suffering [being endured] by the Palestinian people."
"Those who believe that the Israeli occupying power will choose to uphold its international legal obligation are mistaken," he argued. "They must abandon this fiction."
Bendjama, who cited the 32,000 people killed by Israel so far and the tens of thousands more wounded or permanently disabled, said the draft of the resolution "does not convey a clear message of peace" and "tacitly allows for continuing civilian casualties and lacks clear safeguard to prevent further escalation."
Russia's ambassador to the U.N., Vassily Nebenzia, argued the U.S. resolution was "not enough" and accused the Biden administration of "deliberately misleading the international community."
Outside analysts also criticized the U.S. resolution. Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said that while the resolution is "significantly stronger" than previous U.S. drafts, "it still falls short of a clear and unequivocal demand for an unconditional cease-fire."
Craig Mokhiber, a former U.N. official who resigned in late October over the international body's failure to respond to Israel's assault on Gaza, said the U.S. measure "is not a cease-fire resolution. It is a ransom note."
Instead of clearly demanding a cease-fire, the U.S. resolution proposed more ambiguous language expressing "the imperative of an immediate and sustained cease-fire to protect civilians on all sides, allow for the delivery of essential humanitarian assistance, and alleviate humanitarian suffering."
The resolution also tied support for a cease-fire to "the release of all remaining hostages."
Parsi said in a statement Friday that "undoubtedly, Biden's rhetorical shift in favor of a ceasefire is noteworthy, but the devil is in the details."
"The unnecessarily convoluted operative clause raises concerns that this shift is less straightforward than it could and should be," Parsi added.
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UN Panel Says IDF Appears Set on 'Physical Destruction of Palestinian Children'
"Children in Gaza can no longer wait, as each passing minute risks another child dying of hunger as the world looks on," said the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child.
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A United Nations panel said Thursday that the Israeli military's siege of Gaza appears "calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinian children," pointing to the growing number of kids starving to death as Israel obstructs the delivery of humanitarian aid.
"They are cut off from food, even crumbs are not easy to find," the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child said in a statement. "A little girl wept in front of the BBC's camera, crying, 'I miss bread.' The occupying power has blocked or severely restricted food and other life-essential supplies and aid."
At least 27 children have died of malnutrition or dehydration in recent weeks, a toll that the U.N. panel said is "likely to be significantly higher" and is "set to rise" as Israel's blockade and attacks on aid convoys continue. An alarming analysis released earlier this week by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification found that Gaza's entire population—roughly half of which is children—is "facing high levels of acute food insecurity."
"Children in Gaza can no longer wait, as each passing minute risks another child dying of hunger as the world looks on," the U.N. committee said.
Children are also at high risk from ongoing Israeli bombings, which have inflicted immense physical and psychological suffering on Gaza's children. Israel's military has killed more than 13,000 children in the territory since October 7, a figure that the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) called "astronomically horrifying." Save the Children estimated that between October and January, an average of more than 10 children per day in Gaza lost one or both of their legs due to Israeli attacks.
"I think these numbers that we're seeing out of Gaza are just staggering," Catherine Russell, UNICEF's executive director, said earlier this week. "We haven't seen that rate of death among children in almost any other conflict in the world."
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child #UNCRC delivers its strongest statement. Gaza: Halt the war now to save children from dying of imminent famine. #childrensrights @lexpsy pic.twitter.com/uXHtxonlVz
— UNChildRights (@UNChildRights1) March 21, 2024
The U.N. panel on children's rights called attention to the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) January ruling ordering the Israeli government to "enable the provision" of humanitarian aid and do everything in its power to prevent acts of genocide—directives that Israel has been accused of systematically violating.
"Since the ICJ order on 26 January, and as of 19 March, an average of over 108 Palestinians have been killed and another 178 injured every day in Gaza, and children are amongst them," the committee said Thursday. "The looming invasion of Rafah will take the fragile situation to the breaking point, putting the lives of 600,000 children at immediate risk, and will rapidly reach the tipping point of famine."
"While reiterating its calls for the remaining children held hostage to be released immediately," the panel added, "the committee also calls on all parties, including the General Assembly and the Security Council, for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire to protect hundreds of thousands of innocent children's lives."
The statement came as the United States, Israel's chief arms supplier, proposed a draft U.N. Security Council resolution declaring that an "immediate cease-fire" is "imperative." The U.S. has repeatedly stonewalled and vetoed cease-fire resolutions at the Security Council in recent months even as its top officials, including President Joe Biden, have expressed concerns about the grisly civilian death toll in Gaza.
In a scathing op-ed for The Guardian on Thursday, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders Mary Lawlor wrote that "the international human rights architecture is creaking under the weight of the hypocrisy of countries who profess support for a rules-based order yet continue to provide weapons to Israel that kill more innocent Palestinians."
"There exist no moral arguments," wrote Lawlor, "that can justify the continued sale of weapons to Israel by states that respect the principle of the universality of human rights."
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'Everyone in the World Needs to See This': Footage Shows IDF Drone Killing Gazans
"There is no way they could have been considered combatants," said one writer and analyst. "This is unreal."
Mar 21, 2024
Adding to the mountain of evidence that Israel is engaged in a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera on Thursday aired footage of what the news outlet reported was an Israeli drone targeting four Palestinians in Khan Younis last month.
Those killed by the unmanned aerial vehicle in the rubble of the southern Gaza city appear to be unarmed teenagers or young men. According to a translation of the coverage, they were not identified in the reporting.
While Al Jazeera deemed footage "too graphic" to be included on its daily live blog covering the war, a clip of it quickly spread on social media, where critics of the Israel Defense Forces operation expressed outrage.
"OUTRAGEOUS even after months of outrages," declared Palestinian American political analyst Yousef Munayyer. "This video shows an Israeli military drone literally stalking four unarmed civilians posing no threat and eliminating them one after the other!!!"
Tariq Kenney-Shawa, Al-Shabaka's U.S. policy fellow, said: "This is among the worst footage I've seen. Not only were these boys clearly unarmed and present no threat whatsoever, but they were struck multiple times even after stumbling/crawling away. There is no way they could have been considered combatants. This is unreal."
Note: The following video contains graphic images.
Assal Rad, an author with a Ph.D. in Middle East history, said: "Have we ever seen so many war crimes take place right before our eyes? Any country still providing weapons and aid to Israel is complicit in these crimes."
Exiled American whistleblower Edward Snowden asserted that "everyone in the world needs to see this. Note that this footage permits no room for 'it was a mistake,' showing repeated, specifically targeted strikes on the unarmed and even wounded."
"The sort of behavior the ICJ explicitly forbid in the genocide ruling against Israel," added Snowden, referencing the International Court of Justice's preliminary order in January for an ongoing case led by South Africa.
Since the ruling, rights groups around the world have accused Israel of ignoring the ICJ order by continuing to bomb and starve people across Gaza. The mounting casualties—at least 31,988 killed and 74,188 wounded—have elevated demands for the U.S. government to end arms transfers to Israel.
The United States gives its Middle East ally $3.8 billion in annual military aid and since the Israeli assault was launched in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on October 7, the Biden administration has sought $14.3 billion more while bypassing Congress to send more weapons. U.S. President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin face a genocide complicity case in federal court.
While the Biden administration has repeatedly vetoed and opposed cease-fire resolutions at the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly, Nate Evans, a spokesperson for Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., confirmed Thursday that the United States plans to unveil a new one on Friday.
The resolution will "unequivocally support ongoing diplomatic efforts aimed at securing an immediate cease-fire in Gaza as part of a hostage deal, which would get hostages released and help enable a surge in humanitarian aid," Evans told Al Jazeera. "This resolution is an opportunity for the council to speak with one voice to support the diplomacy happening on the ground and pressure Hamas to accept the deal on the table."
Blinken said Thursday that "there's a clear consensus around a number of shared priorities. First, the need for an immediate, sustained cease-fire, with the release of hostages. That would create space to surge more humanitarian assistance, to relieve the suffering of many people, and to build something more enduring."
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