As US colleges raise the stakes for protests, activists are weighing new strategies

As US colleges raise the stakes for protests, activists are weighing new strategies
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Georgetown students march during an on-campus protest in support of Palestine at Georgetown University on Sept. 4, 2024 in Washington, DC. (AFP)
As US colleges raise the stakes for protests, activists are weighing new strategies
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A woman walks across campus during an on-campus protest march in support of Palestine at Georgetown University on Sept. 4, 2024 in Washington, DC. (AFP)
As US colleges raise the stakes for protests, activists are weighing new strategies
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Georgetown students march during an on-campus protest in support of Palestine at Georgetown University on September 4, 2024 in Washington, DC. (AFP)
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Updated 07 September 2024
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As US colleges raise the stakes for protests, activists are weighing new strategies

As US colleges raise the stakes for protests, activists are weighing new strategies
  • “You always have to risk something to create change and to create a future that we want to live in,” said Howell-Egan, a member of the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter
  • The stakes have gone up this fall for students protesting the war in Gaza, as US colleges roll out new security measures and protest guidelines

WASHINGTON: University of Southern California law student Elizabeth Howell-Egan isn’t allowed on campus because of her role in last spring’s anti-war protests, but she is keeping up her activism.
She and like-minded students are holding online sessions on the Israel-Hamas war and passing out fliers outside the campus, which is now fortified with checkpoints at entrances and security officers who require students to scan IDs.
“Change is never comfortable. You always have to risk something to create change and to create a future that we want to live in,” said Howell-Egan, a member of the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, which is calling on USC to divest from companies profiting off the war.
The stakes have gone up this fall for students protesting the war in Gaza, as US colleges roll out new security measures and protest guidelines — all intended to avoid disruptions like last spring’s pro-Palestinian demonstrations and protect students from hate speech. Activism has put their degrees and careers at risk, not to mention tuition payments, but many say they feel a moral responsibility to continue the movement.
Tent encampments — now forbidden on many campuses — so far have not returned. And some of the more involved students from last spring have graduated or are still facing disciplinary measures. Still, activist students are finding other ways to protest, emboldened by the rising death toll in Gaza and massive protests this month in Israel to demand a ceasefire.
Tensions over the conflict have been high on American campuses since the war began on Oct. 7, when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in Israel and took 250 hostage. The war in Gaza has killed more than 40,000 people, according to Gaza health officials.
As the pro-Palestinian demonstrations took off nationally, Jewish students on many campuses have faced hostility, including antisemitic language and signs. Some colleges have faced US civil rights investigations and settled lawsuits alleging they have not done enough to address antisemitism.
A desire ‘to be part of something’
Temple University senior Alia Amanpour Trapp started the school year on probation after being arrested twice last semester during pro-Palestinian protests. Within days, she was back on the university’s radar for another demonstration.
As she reflects on the fallout from her activism, she thinks of her grandfather, a political prisoner killed in 1988 massacres orchestrated by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini.
“He paid the ultimate price for what he believed in. And so, I feel like the least I can do is stand my ground and face it,” she said.
Trapp, a political science major, devotes much of her time outside classes to Students for Justice in Palestine, which led her to the back-to-school protest on Aug. 29. The group of a few dozen protesters made several stops, including outside the Rosen Center, a hub of Jewish life that is home to Temple’s Hillel Chapter.
Some Jewish students inside said they were shaken by the demonstration. Protesters used megaphones to direct chats toward people inside, Temple President Richard Englert said. The university called it intimidation and opened an investigation.
“Targeting a group of individuals because of their Jewish identity is not acceptable and intimidation and harassment tactics like those seen today will not be tolerated,” Englert said.
Trapp said they were not out to intimidate anyone, but to condemn Hillel for what she called its support of Zionism. “To the students inside that felt threatened or harmed, I’m sorry,” she said.
Trapp is appealing a Temple panel’s ruling that she violated the college’s conduct code last spring. As she reflects on the discipline, she recalls a Temple billboard she saw on Interstate 95 after her first visit to campus.
“Because the world won’t change itself,” the ad beckoned. It reassured her that Temple was the right fit. “I so badly wanted to be part of something, you know, meaningful,” she said, “a community committed to change.”
A renewed push for divestment
At Brown University, some students who were arrested last spring are taking another tack to pressure the Ivy League school to divest its endowment from companies with ties to Israel.
Last spring, the university committed to an October vote by its governing board on a divestment proposal, after an advisory committee weighs in on the issue. In exchange, student protesters packed up their tents.
Now students including Niyanta Nepal, the student body president who was voted in on a pro-divestment platform, say they intend to apply pressure for a vote in favor of divestment. They are rallying students to attend a series of forums and encouraging incoming students to join the movement.
Colleges have long rebuffed calls to divest from Israel, which opponents say veers into antisemitism. Brown already is facing heat for even considering the vote, including a blistering letter from two dozen state attorneys general, all Republicans.
Rafi Ash, a member of the Brown University Jews For Ceasefire Now and Brown Divest Coalition, declined to say what activism might look like if the divestment push fails. A Jewish student who was among 20 students arrested during a November sit-in at an administrative building, Ash dismisses critics who see the anti-war protests as antisemitic.
“The Judaism I was taught promotes peace. It promotes justice. It promotes ‘tikkun olam’ — repairing the world,” said Ash, who is on disciplinary probation. “This is the most Jewish act I can do, to stand up for justice, for everyone.”
Barred from campus, but strategizing on protests
For Howell-Egan, the crackdown at USC and her suspension only deepened her desire to speak out.
“Even with this threat of USC imposing sanctions and disciplinary measures, I am at peace with it because I am standing up for something that is important,” Howell-Egan said. “There are no more universities in Gaza. We are in an incredibly privileged position for this to be our risk.”
She is not allowed to attend in-person classes because she was suspended in May for joining protests at the private school in Los Angeles.
There has been a trend of heavier punishments for students engaging in activism than in the past, including banishment from campus and suspensions that keep students “in limbo for months,” said Tori Porell, an attorney with the nonprofit Palestine Legal, which has supported student protesters facing disciplinary measures. Howell-Egan sees it as part of a strategy to stifle free speech.
In a memo this month, USC President Carol Folt said the campus has seen peaceful protests and marches for years. “However, the spring semester brought incidents that tested our values, disregarded our policies, sparked fears, and required unprecedented safety measures,” she said.
For now the focus of the USC Divest Coalition, which includes several student organizations, has moved off campus, to incorporate the wider community and take a cautious approach as students get a handle on the university’s new rules, Howell-Egan said.
In addition to the community outreach, students have been holding teach-ins.
“The idea is to raise our skill set and our understanding of where we stand in this moment, and where we are in this fight,” Howell-Egan said, “especially as we continue with it.”


Haiti gangs are recruiting more child soldiers, human rights report says

Haiti gangs are recruiting more child soldiers, human rights report says
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Haiti gangs are recruiting more child soldiers, human rights report says

Haiti gangs are recruiting more child soldiers, human rights report says
  • Boys are often used as informants, trained to use weapons and ammunition, and deployed in clashes against the police
  • Girls are raped and forced to cook and clean for gang members, and often discarded once they become pregnant
Haiti’s armed gangs are increasingly recruiting children into their ranks, a report by Human Rights Watch warned on Wednesday, as near-famine conditions push boys to pick up guns while girls are sexually abused and forced into domestic work.
The group, which advocates for human rights globally, said it had spoken to six children recently involved with gangs, all of whom said they wanted to leave and had joined because they were hungry and gangs were often the only source of food, shelter or money.
Boys are often used as informants, trained to use weapons and ammunition, and deployed in clashes against the police, HRW said. It cited the case of a boy called Michel, an orphan who was recruited six years ago when he was 8 and living on the streets and was given a loaded Kalashnikov.
Girls are raped and forced to cook and clean for gang members, the report said, and often discarded once they become pregnant.
Haiti’s powerful gangs have been expanding their influence in recent years while state institutions have been paralyzed by a lack of funds and political crises. Gangs now control territory where 2.7 million people live, including half a million children.
As they have grown, the gangs have ramped up child recruitment, said HRW.
About a third of gang members are children, according to estimates by the United Nations, which has also warned of boys being used for killings and to attack institutions, and girls being forced into exploitative sexual relations and killed in broad daylight for refusing to do so.
HRW said the criminal groups are increasingly using popular social media apps to attract recruits.
The leader of the Village de Dieu gang, for instance, is a rapper and publishes well-polished music videos of his soldiers. The report said he has a specialized unit to train children how to handle weapons and set up checkpoints.
The UN approved Haiti’s request for a security mission to help the Caribbean country’s police fight the gangs a year ago, but so far the mission has only partially deployed.
HRW urged Haiti’s government and other countries to provide more resources for security forces, ensure children are able to eat and go to school, and provide rehabilitation for recruits.

Military board substantiates misconduct but declines to fire Marine who adopted Afghan orphan

Military board substantiates misconduct but declines to fire Marine who adopted Afghan orphan
Updated 09 October 2024
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Military board substantiates misconduct but declines to fire Marine who adopted Afghan orphan

Military board substantiates misconduct but declines to fire Marine who adopted Afghan orphan
  • The Afghan couple who raised the child for 18 months in Afghanistan is seeking to have Mast’s adoption of her undone

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C.: A US Marine whose adoption of an Afghan war orphan has spurred a yearslong legal battle and raised alarms at the highest levels of government will remain on active duty.
A three-member panel of Marines found Tuesday that while Maj. Joshua Mast acted in a way unbecoming of an officer in his zealous quest to bring home the baby girl, it did not warrant his separation from the military.
Lawyers for the Marine Corps argued Mast abused his position, disregarded orders of his superiors, mishandled classified information and improperly used a government computer in his fight over the child who was found orphaned on the battlefield in rural Afghanistan in 2019.
Mast and his wife, Stephanie, then lived in rural Fluvanna County, Virginia. They persuaded a judge there to grant them an adoption of the child, even though she remained in Afghanistan as the government there tracked down her extended family and reunited her with them. Mast helped the family flee Afghanistan after the Taliban took over in 2021. Once in the US, Mast used the adoption papers to get the federal government to take the child from her Afghan relatives and give her to him. She has remained with his family ever since.
A five-day board of inquiry hearing held partially behind closed doors at the Marine Forces Special Operations Command at Camp Lejeune was administrative, not criminal, and intended to determine whether Mast was fit to remain in the military. The worst outcome Mast might have faced was an other-than-honorable discharge.
Mast, 41, who now lives in Hampstead, North Carolina, denied the allegations against him, insisting he never disobeyed orders but was encouraged by his supervisors, and was simply upholding the code of the Marine Corps by working tirelessly to ensure the girl was safe. At the front of the room, he set up poster-sized photos of the child as a baby at Afghanistan’s Bagram Airfield and as a smiling toddler in North Carolina.
But because the board substantiated misconduct, a report will be entered into Mast’s file, which could affect promotions and assignments, the Marines said Tuesday. The board’s report will be sent up the ladder to the Secretary of the Navy, who will close the case against Mast.
The child’s fate, however, remains in limbo. The Afghan couple who raised the child for 18 months in Afghanistan is seeking to have Mast’s adoption of her undone. The US Department of Justice has intervened and contended that Mast lied to the Virginia court and federal officials to justify taking the girl, and his actions threaten America’s standing around the world.
The Virginia Court of Appeals ruled earlier this year that the adoption should have never been granted but the case is stalled at the Virginia Supreme Court.
Lawyers for the Afghan couple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Much of the government’s case in the hearing was held in secret because lawyers were presenting classified information. Everyone present in the nondescript conference room was dressed identically in camouflage. And Mast chose to make an unsworn statement in a closed session, which meant he was not subject to cross-examination.
But his wife, Stephanie, testified publicly, offering rare insight into the couple’s motivation for working so vigorously to bring the child into their home. The Masts have long declined to talk to The Associated Press about their actions and the Virginia court file remains sealed. The Masts, as well as the Afghan couple, are now barred from speaking to the media about the state court case.
Stephanie Mast wept as she described her husband’s decision to work to bring the girl back to the United States as exemplary of his commitment to Marine Corps values.
“It was very much an American response,” she said. “We value human life. As Marines, you serve and protect.”
The deciding panel of two lieutenant colonels and a colonel was allowed to ask questions, and one asked Stephanie Mast why she and her husband continued to try to adopt the girl even after she had been reunited with relatives in Afghanistan. They noted that multiple high-ranking officials, including then-Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and a federal judge, told them to stop.
When she responded that getting the child to the United States was their highest priority, the board asked whether the assumption that a child would be better off in the US rather than Afghanistan was a product of Western bias.
“They have a survival mentality,” she said of Afghans. “We believe in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And we wanted her to have that.”


Afghan man in Oklahoma City arrested for plotting Election Day attack

Afghan man in Oklahoma City arrested for plotting Election Day attack
Updated 09 October 2024
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Afghan man in Oklahoma City arrested for plotting Election Day attack

Afghan man in Oklahoma City arrested for plotting Election Day attack
  • Tawhedi and an underage co-conspirator were arrested on Monday after they met with FBI assets to buy two AK-47 rifles and ammunition

WASHINGTON: An Afghan man was arrested in Oklahoma for allegedly plotting an election day “terrorist attack,” the US Department of Justice said on Tuesday.
The man, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, living in Oklahoma City after entering the US in 2021 on a special immigrant visa, was plotting the attack in the name of Islamic State, according to the indictment. The Special Immigrant Visa program, which admits up to 50 people a year, is available to people who worked with the US armed forces or under chief of mission authority as a translator or interpreter in Iraq or Afghanistan.
The indictment did not indicate whether Tawhedi worked as translator or interpreter in Afghanistan. The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tawhedi searched online for information on how to access cameras in the capital, Washington, D.C., and for states that did not require a license to get a firearm, according to the indictment. He also visited the White House and Washington Monument webcameras.
Tawhedi and an underage co-conspirator, who is his brother-in-law, were arrested on Monday after they met with FBI assets to buy two AK-47 rifles and ammunition.
In his post-arrest interview, Tawhedi said the attack planned to target large gatherings of people, during which he and his co-conspirator expected to die as martyrs.
“We will continue to combat the ongoing threat that Daesh and its supporters pose to America’s national security, and we will identify, investigate, and prosecute the individuals who seek to terrorize the American people,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
Last week, in a “homeland threat assessment,” the Department of Homeland Security said the US threat environment was expected to remain high in the coming year due to factors including the 2024 election cycle and the war in Gaza.
“Lone offenders and small groups continue to pose the greatest threat. Meanwhile, foreign terrorist organizations, including the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda maintain their enduring intent to conduct or inspire attacks in the Homeland,” the department said in an assessment released on Oct. 2.
The Islamic State militant organization killed and executed thousands of people in the name of its extreme religious interpretation before it was territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017 and Syria in 2019.


Israel’s defense minister cancels visit to Washington, Pentagon says

Israel’s defense minister cancels visit to Washington, Pentagon says
Updated 09 October 2024
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Israel’s defense minister cancels visit to Washington, Pentagon says

Israel’s defense minister cancels visit to Washington, Pentagon says
  • Biden said on Friday he thought Israel had not yet concluded how to respond to Iran and added that he would think about alternatives to striking Iranian oil fields if he were in Israel’s shoes

WASHINGTON: Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has canceled a Wednesday visit to the Pentagon, the Pentagon said, as Israeli media reported Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted first to speak with US President Joe Biden.
The surprise cancelation on Tuesday comes amid soaring tensions between Israel and Iran as Israel weighs options to respond to Tehran’s missile attack last week, its second this year against Israel.
The Pentagon declined to say why Gallant canceled his visit, and referred reporters to Israel’s ministry of defense. Offices for Netanyahu and Gallant did not immediately respond to a request for comment. “We were just informed that Minister Gallant will be postponing his trip to Washington,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told a news briefing. Israel’s Ynet news outlet reported that Gallant had hoped his US visit would strengthen coordination on Iran but hours before departure, Netanyahu set two preconditions: the call with Biden and cabinet approval of the response to Iran.
The White House referred questions about the Gallant visit to the Israeli government. Biden and his aides have spoken of a possible call with Netanyahu since the end of September. But the White House did not immediately respond to a query on whether such a call had now been scheduled.
Biden said on Friday he thought Israel had not yet concluded how to respond to Iran and added that he would think about alternatives to striking Iranian oil fields if he were in Israel’s shoes.
Iran on Tuesday warned Israel not to follow through on threats of retaliation.
Its foreign minister said any attack on Iran’s infrastructure would be avenged while a senior Iranian official told Gulf states it would be “unacceptable” and would draw a response if they allowed their airspace to be used against Iran.
Western powers are seeking a diplomatic solution, fearing the conflict could roil the wider, oil-producing Middle East.

 


Milton returns to Category 5 as Florida braces for next hurricane

Milton returns to Category 5 as Florida braces for next hurricane
Updated 09 October 2024
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Milton returns to Category 5 as Florida braces for next hurricane

Milton returns to Category 5 as Florida braces for next hurricane

TAMPA: Storm-battered Florida braced for a direct hit from Hurricane Milton which restrengthened to a Category 5 storm Tuesday, as President Joe Biden begged residents to flee what he warned could be the worst natural disaster to hit the US state in a century.

As the second huge hurricane in as many weeks rumbled toward Florida’s west coast, a sense of looming catastrophe spread as people raced to board up homes and flee.

“It’s a matter of life and death, and that’s not hyperbole,” Biden said from the White House, urging those under orders to leave to “evacuate now, now, now.”

Biden’s warning came amid a bitter pre-election quarrel, with his Democratic vice president Kamala Harris castigating her rival Donald Trump for peddling false claims that recovery efforts after the first storm, Hurricane Helene, were diverted away from Republicans.

As of Tuesday, Milton restrengthened to the maximum Category 5 designation, generating maximum sustained winds of 165 mph (270 kph), the National Hurricane Center said.

“Fluctuations in intensity are likely while Milton moves across the eastern Gulf of Mexico, but Milton is expected to be a dangerous major hurricane when it reaches the west-central coast of Florida Wednesday night,” the NHC said.

Governor Ron DeSantis, at a news conference, ticked off town after town and county after county that are in danger.

“Basically the entire peninsula portion of Florida is under some type of either a watch or a warning,” he said.

Airlines put on extra flights out of Tampa, Orlando, Fort Myers and Sarasota, as highways clogged up with escaping traffic and gas stations sold out of fuel.

Hurricane expert Michael Lowry warned that in the Tampa area, home to some three million people, Milton’s storm surge “could double the storm surge levels observed two weeks ago during Helene,” which brought massive flooding.

Biden postponed a major trip to Germany and Angola to oversee the federal response, as storm relief efforts have emerged as a political battleground ahead of the presidential election on November 5.

Trump has tapped into frustration about the emergency response after Hurricane Helene and fueled it with disinformation, falsely claiming that disaster money had been spent instead on migrants.

Biden on Tuesday slammed Trump’s comments as “un-American,” while presidential hopeful Harris called the claims the “height of irresponsibility and frankly callousness.”

“I fear that he really lacks empathy on a very basic level,” she said.

In a scene of frantic preparation repeated all over Florida, dozens of cars lined up at a sports facility in Tampa to pick up sandbags to protect their homes from flooding.

John Gomez, 75, ignored official advice and traveled all the way from Chicago to try to save a second house he has in Florida.

“I think it’s better to be here in case something happens,” Gomez said as he waited in line.

Scientists say global warming has a role in intense storms as warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapor, providing additional energy for storms, which exacerbates their winds.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Tuesday released footage from a specialist plane called “Miss Piggy” as it flew into the hurricane to collect data.

Paperwork, equipment and personal items were sent flying as the plane was shaken by wind and rain.

On the ground, communities hit by the deadly Hurricane Helene, which slammed Florida late last month, have rushed to remove debris that could become dangerous projectiles as Milton approaches.

In Mexico’s Yucatan, strong winds toppled trees and pylons, and heavy rain caused flooding, but the peninsula avoided major damage or casualties as the storm barreled offshore.

Across the southeastern United States, emergency workers are still struggling to provide relief after Helene, which killed at least 230 people across several states.

It hit the Florida coastline on September 26 as a major Category 4 hurricane, causing massive flooding in remote inland towns in states further north, including North Carolina and Tennessee.

Helene was the deadliest natural disaster to hit the US mainland since 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, with the death toll still rising.