Israel cracks down on Palestinian general strike, continues bombing Gaza

Jean Shaoul

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responded with brutal repression to a Palestinian general strike across the occupied West Bank and Arab towns in Israel.

The strike, a “day of rage”, was called by the Arab Follow-up Committee to protest the bombing of Gaza and worsening repression in East Jerusalem. The committee urged solidarity “from the sea to the river.”

Supported by both Hamas and Fatah, the ruling party of the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, it was the first by Palestinians in both the occupied territories and Israel. The historic action saw the shuttering of all Palestinian workplaces, businesses, shops and schools.

A Palestinian walks by a building hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Tuesday, May 18, 2021. Since the fighting began last week, the Israeli military has launched hundreds of airstrikes it says are targeting Hamas' militant infrastructure, while Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Security forces responded with lethal force, killing three Palestinians and wounding at least 63 more in the West Bank.

Troops fired tear gas and live ammunition at hundreds of Palestinians burning tyres and hurling stones at the Beit El military checkpoint at Al-Birah near Ramallah, killing one Palestinian and wounding 70 more. Heavy clashes were reported in other towns and cities, including Hebron, Bethlehem, Nablus and Budrus. On Monday, Israeli soldiers had shot and killed a Palestinian teenager at the al-Arroub refugee camp, north of Hebron, preventing ambulances reaching the 18-year-old Obaida Akram Jawabra, while on Tuesday soldiers killed Fayyad Zahda in Hebron, claiming he was carrying weapons.

In East Jerusalem, police used water cannon to disperse protesters in Sheikh Jarrah. They cracked down violently on protesters inside the Old City and around the Damascus Gate. Middle East Eye reported that Israeli police beat, pepper sprayed and removed the hijab of one of its correspondents, Latifeh Abdellatif, while she was filming the detention of a young boy. When Palestinians stepped in to protect Abdellatif, leading to scuffles with the police, several of them were arrested. Later, Israel’s police commissioner Yaakov Shabtai said his forces had restored calm after “riots in the Arab sector.”

Israel renewed its criminal bombardment of Gaza’s defenceless Palestinians early Tuesday morning, firing 100 bombs and missiles against 65 targets described as a network of tunnels. Several buildings in Gaza city, including a six-storey block housing the Islamic University, were hit. It brings the total number of airstrikes since May 11 to 1,500.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged international pressure for a cease-fire, but “all in all, we are receiving very serious backing, first of all from the US.” US President Joe Biden has refused to call for an immediate halt to the war, reluctantly stating Monday evening he now “supports” a ceasefire but with no timetable. Asked whether a ceasefire was being discussed, a senior Israeli official said, “There is no such thing right now. There is no negotiation. There is no proposal. There is nothing on the table.”

Brig.-Gen. Hidai Zilberman, for the IDF, said there was no plan to suspend operations. “We will hit anyone who belongs to Hamas, from the first to the last.”

The IDF had struck the homes of 12 senior Hamas commanders in the previous 24 hours and killed at least 160 members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, branded as “terrorists,” since the start of Operation Guardian of the Walls.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, eight days of Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 212, including 61 children and 34 women, and wounded over 1,500. Two Thai workers, living in unprotected mobile homes, were killed and seven others injured in a rocket attack that hit a packaging plant in southern Israel, bringing the total number killed in Israel to 12 and 300 wounded in rocket attacks from Gaza.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the air strikes have destroyed or badly damaged nearly 450 buildings, displacing more than 58,000, of whom 47,000 have been forced to seek shelter in 58 UN-run schools in Gaza. At least 24 schools have been either damaged or ordered to close, forcing 600,000 students to miss out on schooling.

The Ministry of Information estimated that $18 million damage has been done to streets and infrastructure. Some 132 buildings have been destroyed and 316 severely damaged, including six hospitals and 13 healthcare clinics, as well as a desalination plant, affecting access to drinking water for 250,000 people. Water pipes serving at least 800,000 people have been damaged. Trash is piling up in the streets.

Gaza’s limited healthcare system has been crippled. Two leading doctors have been killed. There is less than a month’s supply of 46 percent of essential drugs and 33 percent of essential medical supplies. On Monday, an Israeli air strike nearby put the only laboratory that processes COVID-19 test results out of action. With thousands of Palestinians, most of whom are unvaccinated, crowding into schools for shelter, there are fears that these schools could become mass spreaders of the disease.

The same day, another air strike hit the Qatari Red Crescent Society office, which carries out relief work in Gaza, killing two Palestinians and wounding 10 others. It followed attacks on ambulance crews, including a Médecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) crew, and health facilities, leaving a sterilization room unusable and a waiting area damaged. Hellen Ottens-Patterson, the head of MSF's mission in Palestine, said the pattern of Israeli bombings was far greater than previous campaigns. “Emergency health workers are taking incredible but necessary risks to move around… our teams were confronted with serious injuries caused by the Israeli police to men, women and children.”

Health officials have called for the protection of medical staff and facilities, saying Israeli air strikes are hindering their ability to help victims and warning that a prolonged war would have devastating humanitarian consequences. People have taken to social media to lambast the Israeli military for their targeting of key roads and accessways that have prevented ambulances from reaching healthcare centres and hospitals, including the main al-Shifa hospital.

Despite the dire humanitarian situation, international aid organisations are finding it difficult to send in aid as the three entry points have been closed since May 11. Israel closed the Karam Abu Salem crossing into Gaza shortly after opening it, under pressure from the UN, to allow in donated humanitarian goods, after an Israeli soldier was slightly wounded in a mortar attack near the crossing. Karl Schembri, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s media adviser for the Middle East, told Al Jazeera that Gaza would be “suffocated” if the Keram Abu Salem and Beit Hanoon (Erez) crossings remained shut.

On Monday, Israeli ground troops opened up a second front, firing shells into southern Lebanon after rocket fire was launched, apparently by a small Palestinian group in Lebanon, not by Hezbollah. This was the second harmless rocket attack since May 11 from Lebanon, which is home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Both the Lebanese army and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) intensified their patrols along the border “to prevent any further incidents that endanger the safety of the local population and the security of southern Lebanon.”

The IDF said its forces had downed a drone approaching Israel’s border with Jordan, without saying where it had come from, amid speculation it might have come from Syria.

Protests in support of the Palestinians have continued in Lebanon, while tens of thousands turned out in a rally in Sana’a, Yemen’s capital.

Indian variant surges in Britain as Tory government continues reopening drive

Robert Stevens

Within days of the Conservative government authorising Monday’s reopening of most of the economy, a catastrophe is threatened in Britain by the spread of the Indian mutation of the Covid virus.

After authorising the reopening last Friday, a major step to the complete reopening of the economy on June 21—including the end of all social distancing—the government faces a crisis, with talk that it may have to bring in more restrictions.

On Monday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Parliament that at least five cases of the Indian variant (B. 1.617.2) have already been identified in 86 local authorities. The mutation has taken seven lives so far in England.

Manchester College Nicholls campus building in Ardwick. On Tuesday, an outbreak of 17 Covid cases in one class was revealed. Next to the college on Hyde Road is the depot (dark brown building) of bus company Stagecoach. 18/05/2021 (credit: WSWS media)

By Tuesday, it was revealed that there were more than 2,300 cases of B. 1.617.2 in England alone, a quadrupling in just 10 days and a rise of 75 percent since last Thursday. The virus accounts for at least one in five coronavirus infections. Scientists are predicting that it will become the UK’s dominant strain within days.

The reopening went ahead even after Public Health England upgraded, on May 6, B. 1.617.2 from a variant under investigation to a “variant of concern”. According to scientific advice given to the government, it is up to 50 percent more transmissible than even the Kent strain which rapidly became dominant in Britain, much of Europe and the United States. B. 1.617.2 is now present in at least 30 countries.

Two areas of the north of England have reported the most cases. In Sefton on Merseyside (population 275,000) the variant makes up 90 percent of new cases, and in Bolton Greater Manchester (128,000), 86 percent. As of Tuesday, there were 24 Covid patients in Bolton Hospital, up from 13 two weeks ago.

In Bedford, a commuter town of nearly 107,000 in south England, 80 cases have been recorded. Vicky Head, the town’s director of public health, warned Monday of a “massive rise in cases”. “About three or four weeks ago we were having three or four cases a day. We are now up to 10 times that.” One of the “really striking things about the variant is just how transmissible it is. If someone goes to school and tests positive, we are then seeing their whole family test positive.” At the Bedford Academy school, 50 Indian variant cases were reported over half term, resulting in 300 people self-isolating.

With the spread of B. 1.617.2, scientific advisers to the government felt it necessary to oppose significant parts of Monday’s easing of restrictions. Much was made of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s statement last Friday that it was now safe for people to hug one another, but on Monday Professor Peter Openshaw of Imperial College London and a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) said, 'This is a high-risk procedure, I would say in medical terms and I would certainly not be embracing people closely.”

Jeremy Farrar, of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) said he opposed the government’s policy of allowing people to gather indoors. He told the BBC’s Today programme, “I think it is reasonable to just be sensible about knowing where transmission is occurring—mostly indoors… with lots of different people, different families, different communities, and I would just restrict that at the moment, personally.”

These warnings have been ignored, with the BBC reporting Tuesday that over the weekend minister were involved in discussions with SAGE at which, “The nuclear option of delaying indoor mixing, due to re-start on 17 May, was discussed.” This was rejected outright by ministers.

To save the profits of the corporations, the government is authorising a homicidal opening of the economy, including allowing international travel, while at the same time having to advise against it!

Ministers have been churning out incessant propaganda about the success of its vaccine programme, including encouraging people to plan for holidays abroad this summer. Yet tens of millions of adults are still not fully vaccinated with the required two doses in the UK and the situation is worse still throughout Europe. Reality has intruded with Health Secretary Matt Hancock forced to advise this week that people should not travel for holidays to a list of “amber” countries where there remains a heavy circulation of coronavirus. This includes some of the main holiday destinations for Britons—Greece, Spain and France.

Yet according to the government’s roadmap, no-one is prohibited from visiting any amber country—leading to scenes of packed airports throughout Britain as 150 flights left Monday carrying tens of thousands to amber destinations. At Heathrow Airport, people leaving the UK for amber country holidays were standing in line for up to three hours, with social distancing impossible, alongside arrivals from India. India has been put on a “red” list with UK citizens not allowed to travel there, but people from India can travel to the UK provided they isolate in a government-approved hotel.

Johnson himself has made a number of statements over the last 24 hours explaining that the situation is still dangerous for the public but everything is being re-opened anyway. He said on Sunday, “We have reached another milestone in our road map out of lockdown, but we must take this next step with a heavy dose of caution… I urge everyone to be cautious and take responsibility when enjoying new freedoms today in order to keep the virus at bay.”

Easing restrictions this week went ahead even as the British Medical Association warned Saturday, “It is a real worry that when further measures lift on 17 May, the majority of younger people, who are often highly socially mobile and could therefore be most at risk of a more infectious strain, are not yet vaccinated.”

A growing number of schools have reported outbreaks of Covid with the Indian variant responsible, including in Northampton where B. 1.617.2 and another Indian variant, B.1.617.1, were found. On Tuesday, an outbreak of 17 Covid cases in one class was revealed in Manchester College’s Nicholls campus in the heavily populated Ardwick district. Despite the outbreak the college remains open. Nearly 1,500 students and staff are present. It is not yet confirmed whether the Indian variant is the cause of the outbreak. The college is located on the city’s Hyde Road and a busy bus route. Next door is a large depot of the Stagecoach bus company.

Johnson’s government is reviled the world over as one of the main proponents of the herd immunity policy adopted by the ruling elite that has led to more than 150,000 deaths in Britain and over 3.4 million internationally. But given how dangerous the Indian variant is, particularly for the unvaccinated, his government is not just repeating past crimes but preparing even greater levels of social murder.

Despite the surge of the Indian variant and the real possibility of another devastating wave of death, the government intends to do nothing but continue its reopening agenda, with a plan to carry out a final review on June 11 before all restrictions are lifted 10 days later.

The government is insisting that more data is required to make decisions on whether to restore restrictions or even consider local lockdowns in the most affected areas. Johnson said on Tuesday, “I don’t see anything conclusive at the moment to say that we need to deviate from the roadmap. We’ve got to be cautious and we are keeping everything under very close observation. We’ll know a lot more in a few days’ time.”

Spain deploys army against refugees fleeing across border with Morocco

Alejandro López

Spain’s Socialist Party (PSOE)-Podemos government, backed by the European Union (EU), has reacted to desperate migrants crossing from Morocco into Spain by deploying the army, special forces and antiriot police to round up and expel thousands. It is threatening to use mass violence to prevent new cross-border entries and whipping up tensions with Morocco.

These horrific scenes testify to the barbaric character of the capitalist system. On one side of the Mediterranean, Israel is bombing Gaza’s defenceless population with the support of Washington and the EU, and on the other side, the EU is deploying the brutality of its antimigrant policy. While the full force of the EU’s military is arrayed against the migrants, thousands of them are left to drown in the Mediterranean each year.

Starting in the early morning hours on Monday, hundreds of migrants, mostly young men, adolescents and children and even whole families with babies, began crossing into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, just north of Morocco in Africa. Most swam around the six-metre fence that juts out into the sea or walked across at low tide. Many used inflatable rings and rubber dinghies. By yesterday evening, the number reached 8,000, including 1,500 minors.

The border of Morocco and Spain at the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, May 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

Several had to be treated for hypothermia, and at least one person drowned.

Reports indicate that most are from Morocco, where the repercussions of the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have led to a dramatic rise in poverty and unemployment. A third of families have lost their main source of income in the past year.

The PSOE-Podemos government, promoted in the media as having a more “humane” policy towards migrants when it came to power in mid-2018, reacted violently, denouncing these defenceless people as a national security threat.

Referring to Spanish residents of Ceuta, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said his government would respond with “the utmost firmness to ensure their safety and defend their integrity as part of the country in the face of any threat.” Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo called it an “aggression” against the Spanish borders, accusing Morocco of allowing this to happen.

Yesterday, hundreds of soldiers in armoured vehicles were deployed on the beaches. Over 200 antiriot police were mobilised to back the 1,100 police already stationed in Ceuta. Soldiers and police used batons to clear migrants from the beach and threw smoke bombs to discourage others from crossing. The anti-working class unit, the Guardia Civil’s GRS, specialised in suppressing strikes and protests, was also deployed.

Adult migrants found on the street were taken to the Benoliel Stadium and then deported, in violation of international law, with over 4,000 deported to Morocco in 24 hours.

According to El País, the deportations were carried out without any legal formality. The Ceuta Bar Association confirmed that its lawyers had not even been asked to legally assist returnees, as required by law and as often occurs when there are sudden influxes of migrants.

The EU quickly endorsed Spain’s ruthless response. European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas tweeted that the enclave’s frontier was a European border, expressing “full solidarity with Spain” and calling for “strong protection of our borders.”

The Spanish Communist Party, part of the Podemos coalition in government, also supported it, cynically saying: “Spain must defend its sovereignty and compliance with international law against blackmail by Morocco, which does not hesitate to put the lives of thousands of people at risk.”

This was apparently a reference to heightened tensions between Madrid and Rabat over the Western Sahara war between Morocco and the Polisario, the Sahrawi independence movement demanding independence of Western Sahara from Morocco. Earlier this month, Madrid decided to secretly host Brahim Ghali, the leader of the bourgeois nationalist Polisario Front, which is also supported by Algeria. Ghali was hospitalised in northern Spain, after he was infected with COVID-19.

After this news leaked, Moroccan Foreign Minister Naser Burita asked whether Madrid plans to “sacrifice relations with Morocco” by failing to inform Rabat of Ghali’s presence in Spain. “Why doesn’t Spain consider [that] it should have to inform Morocco of the presence of Ghali? Would they rather consort with the enemies of Morocco? This is a test of our relationship,” Burita said. Spanish media are implying that Rabat’s decision to allow migrants to cross over into Spain was its response to these diplomatic tensions.

Whatever the truth of such allegations that the Moroccan monarchy deliberately opened its borders, the true criminals here are the EU and the PSOE-Podemos government. Masses of victims of imperialist wars, fleeing poverty and hunger in countries brutally exploited by transnational corporations, are being hunted by EU security forces and Frontex, the border security agency, and being allowed to die in their thousands at sea. Thousands more are imprisoned in concentration camps in Greece and on Spain’s Canary Islands.

Sánchez’s declaration that he must defend Spain’s territorial integrity against migrants arriving in Ceuta is a barely disguised threat to use deadly force against them. In this, Sánchez is aided by a corrupt media, which is denouncing migrant “caravans” and branding arriving migrants as an “invasion.”

To understand the nature of such threats, one must recall the 2014 infamous Tarajal Massacre, when heavily armed police fired tear gas and rubber bullets on migrants attempting to swim across Ceuta. They left 15 dead, most of them drowning after suffocating on tear gas in the water. Police were subsequently cleared of all charges.

The violence against these migrants is a warning to the working class in Spain, across Europe and internationally. World capitalism faces its deepest social and economic crisis since the 1930s due to the pandemic and mounting working class anger after governments’ calls to “live with the virus” have led to millions of deaths. A government that can so rapidly turn the armed forces against defenceless migrants is preparing to do so at home, as well.

Europe’s far right was quick to seize on the PSOE-Podemos government’s brutal anti-migrant policy to demand similar measures in their own countries. Matteo Salvini, leader of the Italian far-right Lega party, tweeted: “Spain, with a left-wing government, deploys the Army on its border to block illegal entrances. We await news from the Viminale [Interior Ministry].” Salvini suggested that Italy should also deploy the army against migrants.

In France, the leader of the far-right National Rally, Marine Le Pen, blamed the EU for the massive influx of immigrants to Ceuta, saying, “Contrary to the reassuring words of our leaders, the EU is a sieve where everyone enters. This has to stop.” This comes just weeks after she supported fascistic letters signed by 23 retired generals and thousands of active-duty military denouncing Muslims and France’s working class suburbs and pledging to intervene and kill thousands in France.

In Spain, far-right Vox leader Santiago Abascal attacked Sánchez on esRadio for not being violent enough, saying, “There can only be a response of force at this time. You have to send the army but not to watch: to do what is necessary.” Abascal said the migrants “are not refugees, they are soldiers who obey their government,” referring to Morocco.

Such remarks only underscore the reactionary character of the European ruling establishment as a whole. Indeed, the petty-bourgeois pseudo-left Podemos party, after having postured as a “radical democratic” party earlier on after its foundation in 2014, is working with the PSOE to implement an antimigrant policy set by the far right.

Precisely 85 years ago, in 1936, Spanish army units schooled in the use of bloody violence in Morocco launched a coup and a civil war that installed a four-decade fascist dictatorship in Spain under General Francisco Franco. As Spanish officers close to Vox threaten a coup today and denounce strikes demanding a shelter-at-home policy against the coronavirus, urgent warnings are necessary. It is critical to oppose this brutal attack on migrants because history shows this violence is inevitably turned against the workers at home.

Biden, Harris both millionaires, in top one percent of incomes

Patrick Martin

Both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are millionaires, whose income places them in the top one percent of the US population, according to tax returns and personal financial statements that were made public on Monday. May 17 was the deadline this year for US taxpayers to file their tax returns.

Both Joe and Jill Biden and Kamala Harris and her husband Douglas Emhoff had incomes well above the approximately $539,000-a-year that puts a family into the top one percent. The Bidens made $607,336, while Harris and Emhoff reported $1,695,225.

Both the Bidens and Harris and Emhoff filed joint returns and paid tax rates at the standard percentage for their high tax brackets, according to the returns—26 percent for the Bidens, 36.7 percent for Harris and Emhoff.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the East Room of the White House, May 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Biden and his wife Jill Biden reported the adjusted gross income of $607,336 in 2020, when he was running for president and she was a community college professor in Virginia. The bulk of their income came from two S corporations the couple established to hold royalties and fees from various books and speaking engagements.

An S corporation is a legal tax dodge regularly employed by the wealthy to shelter income from taxation. According to one analysis, the two S corporations established by the Bidens—CelticCapri Corp. for him, Giacoppa Corp. for her—reported more than $13 million in profits in 2017 and 2018, and less than $329,000 in profits in 2019 and 2020, when Biden halted most paid speechmaking to focus on his presidential campaign.

The two corporate entities, which had no function except to avoid taxes, particularly the Medicare surtax of 3.8 percent for higher incomes—a provision of the Affordable Care Act—saved the Bidens an estimated $500,000 or more in payments they would otherwise have made to the US Treasury.

The corporations also paid out $1.3 million in “salaries” to the Bidens, their nominal corporate “executives.” This was the bulk of their family income during the period when Biden was out of office, between leaving the vice-presidency in January 2017 and entering the White House in January 2021.

According to the financial disclosure form, CelticCapri Corp. will remain dormant during the Biden administration, continuing to receive any book royalties but no longer paying him a salary as its president. Giacoppa Corp. may continue to pay a salary to the “first lady.”

Biden has proposed closing this “S corporation loophole,” one with which he is certainly familiar, as part of his proposed tax increases on the wealthy.

In their personal financial statement, which is required by law, the Bidens reported total assets of between $1.2 million and nearly $2.9 million. The bulk of this is between $950,000 and $2 million in cash held in a number of bank accounts. They also own a mortgaged home in Wilmington, Delaware, and a $2.7 million beach house on the Atlantic shore, which they bought in 2017, but these are not covered by the disclosure form.

Harris and Emhoff reported an adjusted gross income of $1,695,225 in 2020, most of it from Emhoff’s legal practice. He was a partner at the law firms of DLA Piper and Venable, both in southern California, where he focused on the entertainment industry. Harris reported her Senate salary of about $170,000 and about $360,000 in advances from a publisher for a book she authored as part of her brief presidential campaign.

The couple reported combined assets of between $3 million and $7 million, minus a debt of $2.7 million, largely on mortgages on two homes.

Neither the Bidens nor Harris and Emhoff would place in the top one percent by net worth, where the cutoff is roughly $11 million, although both couples are in the top two percent, where the cutoff is $2.4 million.

Media coverage of the release of this financial information has focused entirely on the contrast between the Bidens and Donald Trump, who refused to release his tax returns throughout his four years in office, the first president in half a century to keep his tax returns secret. The legal battle over subpoenas issued by a House committee continues in the courts, even though Trump’s tax returns were ultimately leaked to the media last year.

There has been little or no commentary about the overriding social and political significance of the figures released by the Bidens and Harris-Emhoff, which confirm the oligarchic character of American politics. No one rises to the highest positions in the capitalist state unless they are part of the financial aristocracy. If they were not originally—Biden never tires of citing his modest origins in the lower-middle-class, and he was long considered the poorest member of the US Senate—they ultimately become so in the course of their careers.

Having one or two million dollars in the bank is, needless to say, a life-changing experience. Neither the Bidens nor Harris and Emhoff ever have to concern themselves with the cost of any item they might want in everyday life, even if, after the debacle of George H. W. Bush not knowing the price of a gallon of milk, they might inform themselves of such facts for political reasons.

The social layer into which they have been incorporated, the top one percent of income “earners,” is not a numerically small one. Given the size of the American population, even one percent of families comes to 1.4 million households. Effectively, all political life, at least as far as the Democratic and Republican parties are concerned, is waged within the confines of no more than the top 10 percent, about 14 million households. These include both the narrow circle of actual decision-makers and the broader layer they seek to influence.

The vast majority of the American population, the working people who face an increasingly difficult struggle to make ends meet, and even to survive at all, are as distant from the Bidens and the social layer to which they belong as they are from the moon. Their only role in capitalist politics is to turn out every two or four years to cast their votes for one or the other of the two corporate-controlled parties who represent the interests of the super-rich.

That is the real nature of American “democracy.”

German protests against Gaza bombing and the bogus accusation of “Anti-Semitism”

Peter Schwarz

Anti-Semitism is a serious accusation—especially in Germany. There is no other crime in history comparable to the genocide of the Jews under the Nazi regime. Solely based on their ancestry and religion, six million people were disenfranchised, abused and ultimately murdered by the German state and its countless accomplices in a precisely planned and organised operation.

This makes it all the more repulsive when the German government, the media and all of the parties represented in the Bundestag—led by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD)—denounce as anti-Semites anyone who demonstrates against the war crimes being carried out in the Middle East.

A rally in Berlin, Germany, May 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

No one can seriously argue that the Israeli government’s bombardment of the densely-populated Gaza Strip is a not a crime. More than 200 people, including 58 children, have already fallen victim to Israeli bombs, according to official figures. The destruction of a high-rise building housing a number of international media outlets is also a war crime. The organisation Reporters Without Borders has openly stated this, and the Associated Press news agency has strongly protested against the act of destruction. Evidently the Israeli army does not want independent witnesses to its actions.

In addition, the current conflict cannot be seen in isolation from its history: the forcible expulsion of Palestinians at the time of the foundation of the Israeli state; the occupation of East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 war—occupations declared illegal under international law; the systematic seizure of land by right-wing extremist settlers; and the decades of discrimination against Palestinians by the Israeli state.

An anti-Semite is not someone protesting against the crimes of the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, who has struck an alliance with extreme right-wing parties, has one foot in jail and can only stay in power through endless provocations. An anti-Semite is someone who equates “the Jews” with the policies of the Israeli government. In fact, Netanyahu does not even have a majority inside Israel. Countless Jewish people in Israel and around the world vehemently reject his course.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Netanyahu last weekend and, according to a government spokesperson, “unreservedly” lined up behind Israel. Only those who are historically blind can regard this as an indication of sympathy for Jews. In reality, the German government does not care about their fate. German imperialism regards Israel, with which it has long maintained close political and military relations, as a useful ally, at least for the moment, in gaining a stronger foothold in the fiercely contested region of the Middle East.

As leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) for almost twenty years, Merkel headed a party that included numerous former Nazis in its ranks. The co-author and commentator of the Nuremberg Race Laws, Hans Globke, was chief of staff for Merkel’s political role model—postwar Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. As late as 1966, the CDU appointed as chancellor a former member of the Nazi party, Kurt Georg Kiesinger. Far-right networks, which committed 2,275 anti-Semitic crimes last year alone, have been systematically covered up by Germany’s intelligence agencies. Hans-Georg Maaßen, the longtime head of Germany’s domestic secret service under Merkel, is espousing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and has just been appointed a CDU candidate for the federal election.

When the Socialist Equality Party criticised historian Jörg Baberowski in 2014 for defending Nazi apologist Ernst Nolte and claiming that Hitler was “not vicious,” representatives from all political parties and the media denounced the SGP and rushed to the defence of the far-right professor. “The attempts to establish a historically false narrative come at a critical point in German history,” we wrote at the time. “The revival of German militarism requires a new interpretation of history that downplays the crimes of the Nazi era.”

It then comes as no surprise that the far-right AfD has railed loudest against the current anti-war demonstrations. The AfD, whose leaders have described the mass murder of Jews as “a speck of birdshit” in a thousand years of glorious German history, and called the Holocaust memorial in Berlin a mark of shame, now poses as Israel’s best friend. AfD leader Jörg Meuthen has gone so far as to accuse the German government of not doing enough “to stand behind Israel and its efforts to protect its population from terrorist attacks.”

The AfD parliamentary group has demanded that anti-war demonstrations be banned in advance, while AfD parliamentary faction leader Alexander Gauland blurted out the real motive of the party: “Whoever is really serious about fighting anti-Semitism must stop uncontrolled Islamic mass immigration and consistently deport criminals with no questions asked.”

As is the case with refugee policy and Germany’s internal and external rearmament, the AfD is being used as a pioneer by all other parties. Based on isolated anti-Semitic incidents, they denounce as anti-Semites the thousands who have peacefully protested all over Germany against the Israeli terror. The aim is to justify anti-immigrant xenophobia and the suppression of demonstrations.

While CDU leader Armin Laschet declares he is incensed about “horrific images at demonstrations,” the CDU/CSU parliamentary group is already discussing even more limits on immigration, which must be “kept at a level sustainable for integration,” according to Mathias Middelberg, the CDU’s spokesperson on domestic policy.

CDU General Secretary Paul Ziemiak stated that anti-Semitism in Germany came from three directions: right-wing extremism, left-wing extremism and immigration, declaring, “All three areas must be identified and resolutely opposed.” He then called for the banning of several Palestinian organisations and parties.

The Social Democratic Party (SPD) has expressed similar views. SPD leader Saskia Esken called for the rigorous punishment of those taking part in “anti-Semitic demonstrations.” SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz added: “There can be no excuse for such things. Perpetrators must feel the full force of the law.” Green Party MP Cem Özdemir railed against “anti-Semitism on the part of immigrants.”

Gregor Gysi of the Left Party also condemned “anti-Semitic protests” in a long interview with Der Spiegel: “Anyone who sets fire to Israel flags is not left-wing.” He then called on the German government to mediate in Israel, relying on the discredited Palestinian Fatah party. Dietmar Bartsch, the Left Party parliamentary head and lead candidate in the Bundestag election campaign, even supports the delivery of German submarines to Israel.

For its part the taz newspaper (which is close to the Greens) is trying to outdo the conservative paper Die Welt in its condemnation of the protests against the Israeli bombardments. For Die Welt, the slogan of some protesters: “Stop doing what Hitler did to you,” directed at the Israeli government, is unmistakable evidence of anti-Semitism.

The taz condemned the anti-war demonstrations as “pure anti-Semitism, barely disguised under the mask of anti-Zionism.” According to the newspaper: “Hatred of Jews is a problem in immigrant communities—but it is also rampant among those who have lived here for a long time. The phenomenon of Jew-hatred is not just about neo-Nazis or right-wing populists either. It also applies to supposed leftists who, armed with the anti-imperialist fantasies of today and the hatred of Jews of their grandfathers, diligently join in demonstrations against the great demon Israel.”

Opposition mounts among US workers to repeal of mask mandate

Shannon Jones

Opposition is mounting among teachers, service workers and industrial workers to the new COVID-19 safety guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that essentially eliminate masking or social distancing requirements for vaccinated individuals in most settings. The new guidelines have been issued under conditions where nearly two-thirds of the US population is not fully vaccinated.

Without a way to determine who is vaccinated and who is not, the rule means that large groups of unmasked people will be allowed to congregate indoors, including at mass events, ensuring the wider spread of the virus.

A worker in a face mask clears tables inside a covered patio amid the COVID-19 pandemic Tuesday, May 18, 2021, in Burbank, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Anger has been compounded as state and city governments one after another along with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the supposed workplace safety watchdog, have fallen into line behind the CDC. In an update posted on its website Monday, OSHA instructed employers to follow the new CDC mask guidance for people fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Major retail chains such as Trader Joe’s, Costco, Walmart and Meijer, Target, CVS Health and Starbucks have already dropped their requirement that customers wear masks. Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced Monday that most local government authorities would be barred from requiring masking.

The drive to eliminate all safety protocols and force the full reopening of the economy is being pushed by the Biden administration with the support and cooperation of the unions and the heads of major corporations.

This was underscored by Biden’s visit Tuesday to the Ford Rouge complex in Dearborn, Michigan where he appeared side-by-side with United Auto Workers President Rory Gamble. The president praised the UAW for its collaboration with the auto companies and said it would have to be deepened to “win the competition of the 21st Century,” particularly against China, in dominating new electric vehicle production and supply chains. “The future will be made in America,” Biden declared to the applause of the company and UAW officials.

The UAW, meanwhile, has made clear its support for the elimination of the limited safety protocols implemented last year following a wave of wildcat job actions by autoworkers in defiance of the unions in Europe, the US, Canada and Mexico. In a statement last week, the United Auto Workers said, “We are working to clearly understand these new CDC guidelines and coordinating with the companies.”

The decision to do away with masking requirements—under conditions in which the deadly virus is not contained and there are more than 30,000 new COVID-19 infections and over 500 deaths each day—is criminal and reckless. The discovery of new, dangerous, variants compounds this danger. The risk was highlighted recently by the death from COVID-19 of autoworker Mark Bruce at the Stellantis Sterling Stamping Plant outside Detroit and that ofanother worker at the Faurecia Saline, Michigan facility.

A Ford worker in Ohio reacted to reports that the UAW was considering dropping COVID-19-related safety protocols on facemasks. “Sell outs .... all the while they sit home in their isolation bubble. The entire time we have had to come into these factories.”

“Homicidal is a big word....but fits the current facts,” another worker said.

While the major US auto producers as of Tuesday had not announced any changes to their masking policies, several major auto parts suppliers, including BorgWarner, Penske Automotive and Lithia Motors Inc., said they would eliminate masking requirements as soon as states allow it.

The CDC rule change is also being used to push for the full reopening of public schools to in-person instruction as part of the drive to get workers back in the factories making profits for business. Just hours before the CDC announced its change in guidelines American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten issued a statement declaring, “There is no doubt: Schools must be open. In person. Five days a week.”

Reacting to Weingarten’s statement, Kuhea, a public-school teacher in Hawaii, said, “It’s so disappointing to hear Weingarten promote a message that places so much false hope on the vaccine to avoid committing the time, care, and money needed to safely return to normal. We must collectively resist dangerous efforts to reopen schools and businesses to protect ours and others’ lives. We have leaders that do not care about doing the right thing by others.

“People are buying in to that messaging. Maui’s beaches are crowded with tourists as if there is no pandemic. The airlines dangle a cheap fare to Hawaii, and people so quickly throw caution out, endangering everyone. Now, a mask is optional if you’ve been vaccinated. Crazy!"

In response to an article posted on social media regarding Utah Governor Spencer Cox lifting all mask restrictions in K-12 schools, another teacher noted, "Damned CDC. This is exactly the kind of foolish wrong interpretation I anticipated after the CDC made its mask suggestions for *VACCINATED* people."

The practical impact of the dropping by the CDC of masking requirements is to force workers to choose between being exposed to unmasked individuals in the workplace or lose their jobs. Millions of retail workers, logistics and factory workers, already facing significant risk of exposure due to lack of adequate social distancing, will be put in further danger.

The CDC advisement on demasking flies in the face of the recommendations of epidemiologists who warn that the population should continue to wear masks in large indoor settings until at least 80 to 90 percent of the population is vaccinated.

The change in the CDC guidelines was a political decision, not a scientific decision. It is a signal that the ruling class intends to end all efforts to contain the pandemic. Insofar as health and safety measures impinge in the slightest on the profit drive of the super wealthy, they must be eliminated. The result of this policy in the US, Latin America, Europe and large parts of the world has already been mass death. Daily deaths and infections are at near record levels globally.

In reaction to the decision by major retail chains to drop their masking requirements for customers, there was furious opposition on social media from medical professionals, shoppers and store workers.

One worker posted on Facebook: “Not only dangerous and ignorant, but asinine as well if they will not require proof of vaccination. I can hear the anti-vaxers cackling with glee. This undermines all the progress that's been made in stemming the spread of COVID. This is literally sickening.”

A medical doctor posted on Twitter, “The long and short of it is that it’s a terrible idea to unmask now. ~36% of the population is fully vaccinated. We can unmask when 70%+ are fully vaccinated and the National case number is below 100 per day.”

One post on Twitter pointed to the economic interests behind the CDC decision. “It makes sense if you look at it through the lens of the oligarchs who own this government want the serfs to get back to work. It’s all about $$$ in the USA. That’s what they care about, not us. If they cared, we’d have universal healthcare & a livable wage.”

Another person wrote, “This is false. The idea that there is zero risk if you’re vaccinated is a load of rubbish. The goals are 1) to stop people dying by getting vaccinated and 2) to stop variants. We need to get to 75-90 percent vaccination rates globally to achieve goal 2. Until then? Masks?”

Under conditions where the pandemic is exploding globally and new, deadly variants are arising, the ending of even the limited safety protocols by the US government is reckless and guarantees that the virus will become endemic, that is, it will take its deadly toll year after year. Workers are being told they must accept this state of affairs and “get on with their lives.”

Africa Museum Residency in Belgium 2021

Application Deadline: 11th June 2021

About the Award: The residency will run under the theme Ecological Knowledge, and is co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union as part of the Taking Care project(link is external). It targets creative people that are particularly aware of the human impact on the environment, biodiversity, ecological knowledge and inspired by museum collections.

With the theme, the African museum seeks to:

• Strengthen the exchange and dissemination of information and knowledge.
• Compare views, opinions and testimonies of colonial history and memories, representations and status of African cultural heritage in Europe and Africa.
• Offer a new vision or new perspectives on ecology.
• Generate creative output on the theme of ecological knowledge and environmental change inspired by the museum’s collections and archives.
• Contribute to a better understanding of the relationships between collections, environment, and people (source communities in particular).

Type: Shortcourse

Eligibility: This call is addressed to artists, musicians, journalists, architects, engineers, creative people that are particularly aware of the human impact on the environment, biodiversity, ecological knowledge and inspired by museum collections. Applications from people based in Central Africa are strongly encouraged.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: The residence offers:

• 12 weeks of residence from September 2021 onwards (subject to prevailing health regulations)
• Access to the collections and archives of the AfricaMuseum as a place for the coproduction of knowledge
• Coverage of transport / travel costs
• Coverage of housing costs
• Payment of a daily allowance (per diem) and fees
• The residence will be the subject of an official agreement

Expectations from the guest in residence:

• Oral presentation (Museum Talk) or participating in a round table discussion
• Creative output in the form of an intervention in the permanent exhibition, a small exhibition, an installation / performance in the AfricaMuseum, a manifesto or even the creation of a tool or multimedia content.

Duration of Award: 12 weeks

How to Apply:

• Application to be submitted no later than 11th of June, 2021 to jacky.maniacky@africamuseum.be or isabelle.van.loo@africamuseum.be.
• The following documents should be provided: CV, cover letter, description of the residency project and the envisaged result.
• Selection committee: end of June 2021.

• It is important to go through all application requirements in the Award Webpage (see Link below) before applying.

Visit Award Webpage for Details

Harry Frank Guggenheim Distinguished Scholar Awards 2021

Application Deadline: 1st August 2021

About the Award: The Foundation welcomes proposals from any of the natural and social sciences and aligned disciplines that promise to increase understanding of the causes, manifestations, and control of violence and aggression. Highest priority is given to research that addresses urgent, present-day problems of violence—what produces it, how it operates, and what prevents or reduces it.  

Eligible Field(s): The Foundation is interested in violence related to many subjects, including, but not limited to, the following:

• War
• Crime
• Terrorism
• Family and intimate-partner relationships
• Climate instability and natural resource competition
• Racial, ethnic, and religious conflict
• Political extremism and nationalism

The Foundation supports research that investigates the basic mechanisms in the production of violence, but primacy is given to proposals that make a compelling case for the relevance of potential findings for policies intended to reduce these ills. Likewise, historical research is considered to the extent that it is relevant to a current situation of violence. Examinations of the effects of violence are welcome insofar as a strong case is made that these outcomes may serve, in turn, as causes of future violence. 

Type: Award

Eligibility: Applicants for an award may be citizens of any country. While almost all recipients of these awards possess a Ph.D., M.D., J.D., or equivalent degree, there are no formal degree requirements for the award. The award, however, may not be used to support research undertaken as part of the requirements for a graduate degree. Applicants need not be affiliated with an institution of higher learning, although most are college or university professors.

Eligible Countries: International

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value & Duration of Award: Most awards fall within the range of $15,000 to $45,000 per year for periods of one or two years. Applications for larger amounts and longer durations will be considered but must be strongly justified. The awards are made to individuals (or sometimes two or, rarely, three principal investigators) for specific projects, not general research support. They are not awarded to institutions for institutional programs. Individuals who receive research grants may be subject to taxation on the funds awarded.

How to Apply: Candidates for the Harry Frank Guggenheim Distinguished Scholar Award may apply online annually between May 1 and August 1. Applicants must create an account to access the application and guidelines. The guidelines are also available through the second link below.

• Online Application (Login required)
• Application Guidelines (PDF)

• It is important to go through all application requirements in the Award Webpage (see Link below) before applying.

Visit Award Webpage for Details

Government of China Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) Academic Education Scholarships 2021

Application Deadline: 28th May 2021

Eligible Countries: Developing Countries

To Be Taken At (Country): China

About the Award: MOFCOM offers one-year and two-year master’s programmes as well as three-year dotoral programmes for the purpose of educating high-end and inter-disciplinary talent working in the applied fields of government, trade, foreign affairs, agriculture, technology, education, culture and health, building intellectual capacity and facilitating the economic and social development of the recipient countries.

These programmes are fully conducted in English and target governmental officials, research fellows, and senior managerial personnel.

Type: Masters, PhD (Doctoral)

Eligibility: 

• These programs provide assistance to governmental officials, research fellows, and senior managerial personnel on their master and doctor education in China, which are fully conducted in English.
• The admission requirements for a candidate include a bachelor’s degree, relevant working experience, and a decent physical condition, essential for the high-compact curriculum needed for the degrees.
• The graduates of such programs are now working in their specialties back home and undertaking an increasingly significant role in the economic development and cooperation between China and their home countries.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: 

• – tuition waiver
• – teaching material fee waiver
• – research and survey fee(for group field trips, not for dissertation) waiver
• – dissertation guidance fee waiver
• – one-off resettlement fee:
• – 3000RMB (R6 594) per master student
• – 3000RMB (R6 594) per PhD student
• – campus accommodation fee waiver
• – stipend:
• 3000RMB (R6 594) per month per master student
• 3500RMB (R7 692) per month per PhD student
• – medical insurance
• – one-time round-trip international airfare for all the students

Please note: Successful scholarship applicants will have to make provision for costs and all other related expenses not covered by the scholarship.

Duration of Programme:

• Masters: one-year and two-year master programs
• Doctoral: three-year doctoral programs

How to Apply: 

• – Complete the Chinese Government online application on https://www.china-aibo.cn/EN/.
• – Select the programme “Chinese Government Scholarship”, fill in all the required information, and an application form will be generated.
• – Submit all application documents with supporting documents listed below to the identified University by 28 May 2021.
• – Applicants MUST submit a signed letter of recommendation from your department/employer with the scholarship application documents to the DHET (internationalscholarships@dhet.gov.za) and the Economic and Commercial Office of the Chinese Embassy in SA (zhangqing@mofcom.gov.cn) by Friday, 28 May 2021. 

Application documents to include:

• – Application form with a 2-inch photo and the applicant’s signature
• – Personal statement of research (A minimum of 500 words in English)
• – Copies of bachelor’s degree certificate(s) and academic transcript(s)
• – Two recommendation letters from the applicant’s employers and/or professors. Telephone numbers and email addresses of the referees must be included in the letters
• – Employment verification
• – English proficiency certificates
• – Copy of the passport page of personal information (ordinary passport for private affairs only)
• – Copy of private passport: a photocopy of the photo of the passport, clearly showing the name, passport number and other information. Do not submit your application using a diplomatic passport or an official passport
• – Copy of language level certificate: for non-English speaking countries only, applicants’ recent TOEFL, GRE and other level test requirements
• – 2 pieces of 2-inch recent photos in white background
• – Health Form: health examination form within one month identifying that the applicant has no infectious disease or a disability that affects his or her major or other diseases that the Chinese border agency does not allow
• – Signed letter of recommendation from your employer.

All documents must be scanned in the order above as one document.

Visit the Programme Webpage for Details

Award Providers: Government of China Ministry of Commerce