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If UK Climate Protestors Can’t Break the Law, Gaza Protestors Can’t Either
A pro-Hamas march in London, United Kingdom, Feb. 17, 2024. Photo: Chrissa Giannakoudi via Reuters Connect
In my view, climate change is a critical issue that should receive far more attention. So I ought to be glad that there’s a group in England called “Just Stop Oil,” which attempts to raise climate awareness, protesting the British government granting additional licenses to drill for fossil fuels.
But as part of their protest efforts, they’ve conducted “slow walks,” in which they impede traffic by marching on highways. They’ve also defaced paintings in museums. Recently, several of that group’s members were sentenced to jail. This is in accordance with a new British law that makes causing a “public nuisance” punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The demonstrators claim these punishments are excessive, with the prison terms putting their non-violent acts on par with rape and robbery. Ian Fry, a UN Special Rapporteur, was quoted by the AP as calling the new law a “direct attack on the right to the freedom of peaceful assembly.”
At trial, the demonstrators did not deny their actions. Instead, they wanted to talk about the harm that oil drilling causes and ask that the jury therefore refuse to find them guilty. They contend that they should not be treated as criminals, since their goal is quite literally saving the planet.
But Judge Christopher Hehir said no — and he forbade any mention of the climate crisis in his courtroom. He explained that a jury’s job is to determine the facts, not to decide whether or not laws should apply. Just Stop Oil supporters holding signs outside asking the jury to acquit were arrested and charged with contempt of court.
In handing down the jail terms, the judge explained that while the crimes were non-violent, they still caused significant harm. The damaged works of art are priceless and irreplaceable. The enormous traffic jams caused by the “slow walking” resulted in high policing costs, inconvenienced tens of thousands of commuters, and forced people to miss funerals and appointments. To sum it up, he stated, “You clearly think your beliefs give you the right to commit crimes when you feel like it. [They] do not.”
This same logic should be applied to the anti-Israel protestors that set up encampments on college campuses, disrupt classes, and prevent access to buildings — along with the mobs that have closed bridges, blocked airports, and taken other actions that are against the law. They claim that they are “stopping genocide” or “fighting oppression,” and so they should have a special status that allows them to break the law.
Of course everyone has the right to protest and advocate for their views. That includes people who oppose Israel or oppose drilling for oil. But society also has the right to make laws to preserve public order and to protect the rights of people who disagree with the protests.
The right to peaceful assembly means that peaceful protestors cannot be silenced or arrested, and also that they cannot be moved to far away, out of sight places, where their protest will not be heard. But the right to hold signs on the side of the road is not the right to block it, and the right to pass out flyers on campus is not the right to barricade the quad.
When protesters feel the need to block traffic, it’s not because that’s necessary for their freedom of expression. Signs and chants on the sidewalk enable them to express themselves just fine. It’s because they can’t accept that drivers going by are unmoved by their demonstration, so they resort to trying to force the public to pay them more attention. People who believe so deeply in a cause often have trouble appreciating that others have different points of view, or that they can’t break the law and cause mob disorder to promote their own.
Even though I believe we need to limit the production of fossil fuels, I don’t support Just Stop Oil. Arguments that we have to get serious about climate need to be made in a manner which respects that others disagree or may not wish to participate. People whose views are anti-Israel are obligated to do the same. If governments, judicial systems, and university administrators don’t insist on this, they are showing an unacceptable bias against Israel themselves.
Shlomo Levin has a Master’s in International Law and Human Rights, and writes frequently about legal developments relating to human rights issues of particular interest to the Jewish community.
The post If UK Climate Protestors Can’t Break the Law, Gaza Protestors Can’t Either first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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John Fetterman Says His US Senate Votes Will ‘Follow Israel’ During Trump Presidency
US Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) gives an interview in his office in the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 18, 2024. Photo: Rod Lamkey / CNP/Sipa USA for NY Post via Reuters Connect
US Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) on Thursday defended President Joe Biden’s record on Israel and stated that he plans on maintaining his support for pro-Israel efforts advanced by President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration.
During an appearance on the ABC talk show “The View,” Fetterman said that he would remain an “unapologetic” supporter of Israel during the Trump presidency and that he will continue to support legislation and initiatives that benefit the Jewish state.
“I’m a really strong, unapologetic supporter of Israel and it’s really not going to change for me when Trump becomes [president]. My vote and voice is going to follow Israel,” Fetterman said.
Fetterman also vouched for Biden’s record on Israel, although he conceded that he has disagreed with some of Biden’s policy positions regarding the Israel-Hamas war.
“I do think that the president has been a strong supporter of Israel, although there were times when I disagreed with some of the choices he made,” Fetterman said.
In the year following Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel last Oct. 7, Fetterman has emerged as a surprisingly stalwart ally of the Jewish state. He has regularly criticized other Democrats, including Biden, over their perceived fragile and unreliable support of Israel.
The lawmaker openly criticized Biden after the president threatened to withhold arms from Israel if the Jewish state greenlighted military operations in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza. Fetterman repudiated Biden’s ultimatum, saying that the US should “stand with our key ally throughout all of this.” He has also rebuffed pressure by progressives to adopt a more adversarial posture against Israel, saying that he does “not support any conditions” on American military aid to the Jewish sate.
Fetterman on Thursday also lauded Israel for its progress in deteriorating the Hamas terrorist group’s military capabilities. The senator asserted that Hamas needs to be completely eradicated and removed from the Gaza Strip.
“We cannot allow Hamas to function at all. They can’t be a part of any rebuilding Gaza or anything. Hamas has to surrender. It’ll be completely destroyed, and I think right now that largely that’s already happened now,” Fetterman said, adding that he wants to “salute what Israel has accomplished.”
The senator applauded the Jewish state, claiming “they destroyed Hamas, they’ve destroyed Hezbollah and, [they] exposed Iran as absolutely a paper tiger.” The Pennsylvania lawmaker added that Israel’s defensive military actions against Iran revealed that the regime is unable to hold the Middle East “in check.”
“Israel did the hard things and confronted these kinds of organizations and these proxies. And that’s why I’m proud to stand with Israel through it all, until absolutely through to the last hostages are brought back home,” Fetterman said.
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Democrats’ Support for Israel ‘Absolutely’ Contributed to US Presidential Election Loss, NC Party Chair Claims
Anderson Clayton, chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, speaks after Democrat Josh Stein won the North Carolina governor’s race, in Raleigh, North Carolina, US, Nov. 5, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jonathan Drake
Anderson Clayton, chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, said in a new interview that Democrats’ general support for Israel’s defensive military operations against Hamas in Gaza contributed to their poor performance in last month’s elections.
Clayton made the remarks while appearing on the media outlet Zeteo this week to explain why she believes her party lost big across the US, most notably in the presidential election. Speaking with Mehdi Hasan, a journalist and outspoken critic of Israel, Clayton argued that the Democratic Party “abandoned” wide swaths of its voter base, adding that the party’s support for Israel likely alienated many younger voters.
When asked by Hasan whether the Israel-Hamas war resonated with the electorate in North Carolina, Clayton argued that the ongoing military conflict in Gaza “absolutely” eroded the Democrats’ standing with young voters.
As The Algemeiner reported, a survey of swing voters by Blueprint, a Democrat-leaning research firm, found the issue of Israel and the Palestinians barely registered as motivation for choosing Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Kamala Harris in the presidential race. Voters were more worried about inflation, immigration, and certain cultural issues. Among those voters for whom it was a factor, the survey found more people concerned that Harris was too “pro-Palestine” than those upset she was too “pro-Israel.”
Nonetheless, Hasan, citing anti-Israel protests at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, suggested that Democrats’ support for Israel disillusioned and enraged many young voters.
Clayton defended the “Uncommitted Movement” — an effort launched by anti-Israel activists to persuade the Democratic Party to officially endorse an arms embargo against the Jewish state and not support outgoing US President Joe Biden — as “using political power in the right way.”
She added that Democrats should be “embracing” anti-Israel efforts like the Uncommitted Movement, saying “that is something that we want so see more of in our party.”
The North Carolina Democratic Party has been plagued with accusations of antisemitism in the year following Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel last Oct. 7. Members of the state party refused to support a resolution condemning the terrorist attacks in Israel, sparking outrage among Jews within the state.
North Carolina Democrats also originally voted against the creation of an official Jewish caucus, despite already having similar groups for black and LGBT party members. Clayton was notably among 16 North Carolina Democrats who refused to vote on the creation of the caucus. After facing backlash, the party eventually voted to officially recognize the Jewish Caucus in December 2023.
Ryan Jenkins, the president of the Progressive Caucus of the North Carolina Democratic Party, attacked Jewish members of his party while defending the initial decision to block the recognition of a Jewish caucus.
“They have done nothing but whine and play the victim and attack people, and we are sick of it,” Jenkins said in reference to Jewish Democrats. “Every single abstention was a no vote that didn’t want to get targeted.”
“If the Democratic Party caves to it, that’s the end of the Democratic Party. We’re not Democrats; we’re the Jewish Caucus. We’re a Zionist group. Because they control everything,” Jenkins added. “We’re telling them very clearly they are allowed to threaten and bully us and they will get their way every single time and that our rules don’t apply.”
Leaders within the North Carolina Democratic Party have also accused Israelis of being “child killers” and have publicly participated in protests condemning the Jewish state. In 2022, the party infuriated North Carolina Jews when it passed a resolution accusing Israel of being an “apartheid state” that discriminates against Palestinians.
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US Sen. Tom Cotton Introduces Bill to Mandate Federal Usage of ‘Judea and Samaria’ Instead of ‘West Bank’
US Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) speaks during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, March 11, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Julia Nikhinson
US Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) has introduced legislation that would ban the federal government from using the term “West Bank” and instead use the terminology “Judea and Samaria.”
On Thursday, Cotton introduced the “Retiring the Egregious Confusion Over the Genuine Name of Israel’s Zone of Influence by Necessitating Government-use of Judea and Samaria (RECOGNIZING Judea and Samaria) Act.” The senator argued that the legislation would “align US policy language with the geographical and cultural significance of the region.”
“The Jewish people’s legal and historic rights to Judea and Samaria goes back thousands of years. The US should stop using the politically charged term West Bank to refer to the biblical heartland of Israel,” Cotton said in a statement.
US Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) — a stalwart ally of Israel, like Cotton — issued a statement in support of the bill, arguing that the official usage of Judea and Samaria is necessary in “defending the integrity of the Jewish state.”
“The Israeli people have an undeniable and indisputable historical and legal claim over Judea and Samaria, and at this critical moment in history, the United States must reaffirm this,” Tenney said. “This bill reaffirms Israel’s rightful claim to its territory. I remain committed to defending the integrity of the Jewish state and fully supporting Israel’s sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.”
US President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has vowed to use the words Judea and Samaria in lieu of the West Bank.
“I can’t say something I don’t believe. As you well know, I’ve never been willing to use the term ‘West Bank.’ There is no such thing. I speak of Judea and Samaria,” Huckabee told Israeli media outlet Arutz Sheva in an interview. “I tell people there is no ‘occupation.’ It is a land that is ‘occupied’ by the people who have had a rightful deed to the place for 3,500 years, since the time of Abraham.”
If the US federal government were to adopt the official usage of Judea and Samaria instead of the West Bank, it would be aligning itself with the terminology preferred by Israel. Such a move could signal a shift in US policy closer to the Jewish state and in favor of further expansion of Jewish communities in the territory.
Critics have argued that such a shift in language could inflame tensions in the Middle East, complicating the possibility of reaching a two-state solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, in which the Jewish state secured its independence, the Kingdom of Jordan promulgated the term “West Bank” to describe the territory it controlled west of the Jordan River. Since Israel captured the area in the Six-Day War in 1967, it has governed them as Judea and Samaria.
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