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On May 12, hundreds of Colorado community, climate and fracking activists will protest a Bureau of Land Management oil and gas lease auction at the Holiday Inn in Lakewood, Colorado (just outside Denver). Groups plan to rally and engage in peaceful civil disobedience to demand that public lands be no longer drilled, mined, or fracked. The protest is part of a global week of action focused on citizen action to keep fossil fuels in the ground and promote clean renewable energy, and comes days after the Colorado Supreme Court denied local authority to regulate fracking.
What: Keep it in the Ground protest of BLM oil and gas leasing auction
When: Noon, Thursday, May 12
Where: Holiday Inn Denver Lakewood 7390 W. Hampden Ave, Lakewood, CO 80227
Who: Residents and activists from Colorado and surrounding states, along with national environmental allie
Media availability: Protesters will be available for interviews before and after the action
Images: Protest photos and video will be available for media use; the url will be included on the press release
Background: The rapidly growing "Keep it in the Ground" movement is calling on President Obama to halt new federal fossil fuel leases on public lands and oceans -- a step that would remove up to 450 billion tons from the global pool of potential greenhouse gas pollution. Similar "Keep It in the Ground" protests have challenged fossil fuel auctions nationwide, with the BLM preemptively canceling nearly 10 auctions this past year.
The opening day of the Democratic National Convention on Monday will feature its first-ever panel on Palestinian rights, a result of persistent grassroots organizing against U.S. support for Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip—a war that a majority of Democratic voters believe is genocidal.
The co-founders of the Uncommitted National Movement—which urged voters to mark "uncommitted" on their Democratic primary ballots earlier this year to protest the Biden administration's support for Israel's bombardment of Gaza—announced the panel in a statement on Monday, calling it an "important step toward recognizing the rightful place of human rights advocates for Palestinian rights within the Democratic Party."
"With this panel and throughout our engagement at the DNC, we will use our platform to communicate the cries of the majority of Democratic voters who want an end to the unconditional flow of U.S. weapons that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is using to kill Palestinian families," said Layla Elabed—the sister of U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.)—and Abbas Alawieh.
"We thank DNC leadership for working with us on this historic panel, and we remain hopeful that they and the Harris campaign will honor our request for Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan and a Palestinian-American to be granted speaking time from the convention stage," they continued. "Our focus remains on policy change. Vice President Harris has an opportunity to unite the party against [Republican nominee Donald] Trump this week by turning the page toward a human rights policy that saves lives and helps us re-engage key voters for whom Gaza is a top issue."
"We will keep pushing for our party's leadership to break away from its current financing of Israel's horrific assault on Gaza and military rule over Palestinians," Elabed and Alawieh added.
On Monday, for the first time in its history, the Democratic National Convention will hold a panel on Palestinian human rights. We thank the DNC for recognizing this pivotal issue and remain dedicated to pushing VP Harris to stop providing weapons for Israel's assault on Gaza. pic.twitter.com/4rgvlPMG9w
— Uncommitted National Movement 🌺 (@uncommittedmvmt) August 18, 2024
The last time the DNC featured discussion of Palestinian rights was in 1988, during a policy debate that included Arab American Institute founder James Zogby, who will take part in Monday's six-member "Democrats for Palestinian Rights" panel.
"What's happening today is that it's not a candidate-led effort, it's a people-led effort," Zogby said in an MSNBC appearance on Sunday, contrasting the current Palestinian rights push with the 1988 effort spearheaded by Jesse Jackson.
Palestinian rights advocates "have elected their own delegates," Zogby noted, referring to the dozens of "uncommitted" delegates who will be in attendance at the Democratic convention in Chicago, where tens of thousands of demonstrators are expected to rally in the streets in opposition to the Biden administration's ongoing military support for Israel.
"They're not Jackson delegates, they're uncommitted delegates. They're not Bernie delegates, they're uncommitted," Zogby continued. "I think Kamala Harris has to read the room."
In recent weeks, Palestinian rights advocates have been pressuring Harris, the Democratic nominee, to substantively break with the Biden administration on Gaza by endorsing an arms embargo against Israel—a position backed by a majority of American voters.
Harris has expressed an openness to dialogue with Palestinian rights advocates but has yet to accept their concrete demands.
We spent this morning in Chicago with uncommitted DNC delegates who want answers from Kamala Harris on Gaza. https://t.co/f5YZwvPeWx pic.twitter.com/rMh0bwyBWO
— Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) August 19, 2024
Monday's panel will also feature Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care surgeon who recently served in Gaza; Hala Hijazi, a Democratic organizer who has had several family members killed in Gaza by Israel's military; Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison; and former U.S. Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.), a Jewish progressive who was unseated in the 2022 midterms by an AIPAC-backed candidate.
On top of the efforts of panel participants, "uncommitted" delegates, and outside demonstrators, a roughly 60-member group called "Delegates Against Genocide" plans to "exercise its freedom of speech rights during main events" at the four-day convention, Reutersreported Sunday.
The delegate group is urging a "no" vote on the Democratic Party's 2024 platform over its "failure to demand a permanent and sustainable cease-fire in Gaza enforced by a U.S. arms embargo on Israel." The proposed platform expresses support for an immediate and "durable" cease-fire agreement and voices opposition to the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements.
"We must take a stand for justice, both domestically and internationally," Nadia Ahmad, a DNC delegate from Florida, said in a statement. "A 'no' vote on the platform sends a clear message that we, as Democrats, will not support policies that enable genocide, war crimes, and human rights abuses."
"Palestinians in Gaza cannot wait until after the U.S. election while bombs are dropping and burning their loved ones alive," said one campaigner.
On the eve of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, proponents of a U.S. arms embargo on Israel—which is on trial for genocide at the World Court for its assault on Gaza that has killed over 40,000 Palestinians—took to the streets of cities in states from New York to Hawaii on Sunday to amplify their demand of "Not Another Bomb" for Israeli military forces.
"It is crystal clear: In order to achieve a cease-fire in Gaza, the U.S. must immediately stop arming Israel," the Not Another Bomb campaign—an initiative led by the Uncommitted National Movement—said in a statement ahead of this weekend's demonstrations.
On Sunday, #NotAnotherBomb protests took place in dozens of cities including New York, Atlanta, Albuquerque, Boston, Los Angeles, and Oakland, California—the hometown of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee whose campaign says does not support suspending U.S. arms shipments to Israel.
Earlier, Not Another Bomb demonstrations happened Saturday in cities including Chicago; Dearborn, Michigan; Milwaukee and Madison, Wisconsin; and on Friday in Washington, D.C.
"It is unacceptable that during a housing crisis, school closures, and the skyrocketing cost of living squeezing working families, billions of dollars are going to arm Israel as it commits genocide in Gaza," said Samer Arabi of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, which endorsed the Oakland rally along with Jewish Voice for Peace and over a dozen other groups.
"Bay Area communities deserve investment in care and safety, and have been demanding a cease-fire in Gaza for months," Arabi added. "We need policy that addresses our community's needs, instead of sending arms for Israel to bomb Palestinian kids."
At least 40,000 Palestinians, including more than 16,000 children, have been killed during Israel's 317-day assault on Gaza, according to Palestinian and international officials. The Biden administration has been accused of complicity in genocide for providing Israel with tens of billions of dollars in armed aid, as well as diplomatic cover including vetoes of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions.
On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel to push for a cease-fire agreement amid intense Israeli attacks in Gaza, including an airstrike that wiped out an entire family near Deir al-Balah.
Not Another Bomb protests are set to continue through the Democratic National Convention, which is scheduled to begin Monday in Chicago. Tens of thousands of activists are expected to rally in the city, which saw a brutal police crackdown on anti-Vietnam War protesters during the 1968 DNC.
In a Mother Jones interview published Saturday, Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson asserted that "what's happening right now" in Gaza "is not only egregious, it is genocidal."
"We have to acknowledge and name it for what it is and have the moral courage to exercise our authority," Johnson added.
Mohammed Khader, who manages policy and advocacy campaigns at the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights—a partner in the Not Another Bomb campaign—said that "despite clear calls for an arms embargo, Democratic officials have continued to sponsor the mass murder of Palestinian families in gross violation of U.S. and international law."
"Palestinians in Gaza cannot wait until after the U.S. election while bombs are dropping and burning their loved ones alive," Khader added. "An arms embargo is urgently needed, and it's an important electoral strategy, supported by a strong majority of Democratic voters who are paying close attention to the Harris campaign's policies."
The Uncommitted National Movement—which called on Democratic primary voters to pressure Biden by voting "uncommitted"—received 18.9% of the vote in Minnesota and 13.3% in the key swing state of Wisconsin.
Last week, a survey commissioned by the Institute for Middle Eastern Understanding Policy Project and conducted by YouGov revealed that Democratic and Independent voters in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania would be more likely to vote for Harris if she backed an arms embargo on Israel.
Israeli airstrikes wiped out an entire family in al-Zawayda and killed 10 Syrian refugees in Lebanon as Hamas poured cold water on President Joe Biden's claim that a cease-fire is "closer than we've ever been."
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken departed for Israel on Sunday in an effort to secure a cease-fire in Gaza, even as Israeli forces continued to massacre Palestinians in the embattled strip and Hamas dismissed hopeful assertions by optimists including President Joe Biden that an agreement on a cessation of hostilities is within sight.
Blinken's trip to Israel comes days after Israeli negotiators met with senior U.S. officials, as well as Qataris and Egyptians mediating between Hamas and Israel, in Doha, Qatar. Although those talks ended without any major progress toward a cease-fire deal, Biden said Friday that "we are closer than we've ever been" to an agreement, "but we're not there yet."
In a separate statement, Biden said that a U.S. negotiating team presented a "comprehensive bridging proposal" offering "the basis for coming to a final agreement on a cease-fire and hostage release deal."
"I am sending Secretary Blinken to Israel to reaffirm my iron-clad support for Israel's security, continue our intensive efforts to conclude this agreement, and to underscore that with the comprehensive cease-fire and hostage release deal now in sight, no one in the region should take actions to undermine this process," the president added.
Israeli negotiators expressed "cautious optimism" over the prospects of a deal, Agence France-Presse reported.
During the weekly meeting of his far-right Cabinet, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that "there are areas where we can show flexibility, and there are areas where we can't show flexibility—and we are standing firm on them."
Consistent with what observers say is a pattern of Israeli escalations when cease-fire deals seem within reach, Israeli forces on Saturday bombed a home and adjacent warehouse in the central Gaza Strip town of al-Zawayda, killing at least 15 to 18 members of the al-Ejlah family, according to local and international media.
Victims include Sami Jawad al-Ejlah—a wholesaler who cooperated with the Israeli military to distribute food in Gaza—who was killed along with two of his wives, 11 of their children, and the children's grandmother, according to officials at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah.
"A massive fire broke out, burning everything in the warehouse as children were torn to pieces," Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Abu Azzoum reported from the scene. "Rescue efforts are still continuing to try to recover more bodies."
According to the Lebanese satellite news channel Al Mayadeen, the al-Ejlah family "was wiped off the civil registry," a fate shared by at least scores—and perhaps hundreds—of Palestinian families during the 317-day assault by Israel, which is on trial for genocide at the World Court.
Al Mayadeen's Gaza correspondent said that "there were still individuals trapped under the rubble, with rescue teams working at the site of the massacre," and that most of the recovered victims "arrived dismembered" at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the attack targeted unspecified "terrorist infrastructure."
Meanwhile in southern Lebanon, where resistance to Israel's Gaza onslaught by Hezbollah has prompted fierce retaliation, an Israeli airstrike in the Wadi al-Kafur area of Nabatieh killed 10 Syrian refugees who fled that country's civil war, including a mother and her two children, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.
An IDF spokesperson said the strike targeted a Hezbollah weapons storage site.
In response to reports of U.S. and Israeli guarded optimism over a possible cease-fire deal, Hamas Political Bureau member Sami Abu Zuhri told Agence France-Presse that "to say that we are getting close to a deal is an illusion."
"We are not facing a deal or real negotiations, but rather the imposing of American diktats," Zuhri added.
Blinken's trip to Israel comes as the Palestinian death toll of the IDF's assault on Gaza topped 40,000 this week, with more than 92,000 people wounded and at least 11,000 others missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of bombed-out homes and other buildings. Palestinian and international officials say most of those killed have been women and children.
The Biden administration has been accused of complicity in genocide for sending Israel tens of billions of dollars worth of arms and providing diplomatic cover, including by vetoing multiple United Nations cease-fire resolutions supported by the overwhelming majority of the world's nations.