Over the weekend, grassroots organizations mobilized to protest against the news that the United States and Israeli government have launched a war against Iran by bombing fourteen locations across the country. The action is what President Donald Trump described as “major combat operations” across the country, which is home to roughly 91.57 million people.

Fars News Agency reported that the attack killed Iran’s supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, his wife, his daughter, his son-in-law, and his granddaughter. In addition, the U.S. and Israel bombed an all-girls school while in session, and the death toll now stands at 148, mainly young schoolgirls. The illegal attack also claimed the lives of Iran’s Armed Forces Chief of Staff, Defense Minister, and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander, largely wiping out a generation of top military and political leadership.

“I am here in the streets to stand firmly against US/Israeli attacks on Iran,” said Shany Ebadi, an Iranian American and organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL). “There is no conviction that the US cares about democracy in Iran, the US does not care about women’s rights in Iran, this is nothing more than blatant military imperialist aggression against the people of Iran, and we are here to demand no Iran with Iran, and demand an end to the sanctions on Iran,” she added.

One protest was held on Saturday at City Hall, organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement, Code Pink, Democratic Socialist of America (DSA L.A.), 50501 SoCal, the ANSWER Coalition, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. The action was part of a nationwide movement in over 60 cities across the United States, said Brian Becker, National Director of the ANSWER Coalition, at the rally.

On Sunday, the Centro Community Service Organization (CSO) and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) organized a protest at 1st Street and Soto in Boyle Heights. “The Shah was put in power by the U.S.,” stated Carlos Montes, a Chicano organizer with the FRSO.

The U.S. Wants Regional Control

The United States has a long history of intervening in Iran’s internal politics to establish a puppet regime for its imperial ambitions. From 1953 to 1979, Iran was ruled by the United States through Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

An examination of that period shows that the U.S. sought to impose a neo-colonial dictatorship on the Iranian people. That is why we are told to dislike Iran’s political and religious leadership and system, while remaining silent about neighboring countries like Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait.

Based on U.S. corporate media reporting and what the White House tells us, we can have strong relationships with regional brutal monarchies but not friendly ones with the Iranian government, and this is by design.

At the same time, we are told that Israel’s government is our ally and the only “democracy” in the Middle East.

There is a reason for that.

Iran is the only country in the region that is not a U.S. puppet, and the only country in the region that has a national budget to fund, support, and help the Palestinian resistance against the illegal Zionist occupation. Another source of support for the Palestinian resistance in the region is Hezbollah, a Shia Islamist Lebanese political party, and Yemen.

That is why the U.S. and Israel have bombed Lebanon and Yemen but not other regional states. In fact, regional monarchies are used as military bases to surround Iran, as we saw in the twelve-day war in 2025 and are seeing in the latest round of airstrikes.

Iran is a large and powerful country. With nearly ninety-two million people, it has the largest population in West Asia. It holds 4% of the world’s oil reserves and 15% of its gas reserves, ranking third and second globally. In 2023, Iran discovered a large lithium deposit, possibly the world’s second-largest, with reserves of 8.5 million tons, in Hamedan province.

In addition, Iran is home to many minerals and arable land. Iran borders eight countries and has coastlines on two key waterways. Its territorial waters extend twelve miles into the twenty-one-mile-wide Strait of Hormuz, one of the most important waterways in the world, through which a fifth of the world’s ships carrying oil and natural gas pass. Therefore, controlling the flow of fuel is a position no one else holds, except Iran.

Iran’s oil and minerals are technically under state ownership according to the country’s constitution, with major mining and processing (steel, copper, aluminum) owned by the government through the Iranian Mines and Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO), which manages large-scale mining operations and state-owned assets. The profits go into the nation’s infrastructure, education, and healthcare.

From 1901 to 1951, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), formerly the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, controlled all of Iran’s oil. AIOC is now known as British Petroleum (BP). AIOC siphoned off all the oil and profits, leaving the people of Iran in poverty and underdevelopment.

Iran’s Islamic Revolution: A Thorn to U.S. Imperialism in West Asia (Middle East)

World War II took the lives of 70 to 85 million people, leaving European colonial powers much weaker and creating room for colonized people to assert their independence. Iran seized that opportunity in 1951, when the people of Iran voted Mohammed Mossadegh into office as their Prime Minister. As a result, Parliament voted to nationalize the oil industry, which Britain controlled. The move was supported by the people, as widespread dissatisfaction with foreign ownership of Iran’s natural resources was already evident.

After World War II in 1945, the U.S. emerged as the strongest imperialist power because it was the only one not dealing with the devastation of war, since all the fighting took place in Europe. It was at this moment that the current international financial institutions that control world trade were created, and the U.S. holds power within these institutions.

The U.S. dollar officially became the world’s primary reserve currency in 1944, following the Bretton Woods Conference. This agreement established a new international monetary system in which other currencies were pegged to the dollar, which was convertible to gold at $35 per ounce. The World Bank and the United Nations were established in 1945, and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was formed in 1947 to operate outside U.S. law and be exempt from congressional oversight.

In 1953, the CIA carried out its first coup, successfully overthrowing a democratically elected government, and it bragged about it as “an American project from beginning to end.” The next year, the CIA overthrew Guatemala’s popular president, Jacobo Árbenz. For the next decade, Haiti, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Perú, Bolivia, Chile, and Brazil (and many more) fell victim to U.S.-backed CIA coups.

After the 1953 coup, the U.S. installed Mohammed Reza Pahlavi as the monarch, the Shah of Iran. To keep him in power, Washington financed and trained the Bureau for Intelligence and Security of the State (SAVAK), the notorious and brutal secret police, to attack and destroy any popular opposition to the new rulers.

SAVAK was given the freedom and power to make arbitrary arrests, detain people without charges indefinitely, and extract confessions through torture. One of the people the SAVAK detained and tortured was the now martyred Ayatollah Ali Khameini in 1971.

Part of SAVAK’s operations was to outlaw Mosaddegh’s political group, the National Front, by arresting all its leaders. Iran’s communist party, the Tudah (The Masses), was destroyed as well.

The ruling class in the United States was happy, though. A variety of Western companies controlled Iran’s oil through shared contracts. American companies took control of Iranian oil production, capturing the majority of the profits. Politically, Iran is what is stopping Israel from fully colonizing Palestine and completing their “Greater Israel” project, which aims to take land from Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.

In 1969, during the Vietnam War, Nixon appealed to Iran, Israel, and Saudi Arabia to defend U.S. interests in the region, as the U.S. military was preoccupied with losing the Vietnam War and lacked the capacity to address both issues. From 1970 to 1978, the Shah of Iran imported roughly $20 billion worth of arms, military services, and ammunition from the U.S. A member of Congress said, “the most rapid build-up of military power under peacetime conditions of any nation in the history of the world.” Iran’s new military hardware was intended to serve as Washington’s watchdog in the Persian Gulf and to safeguard Western companies’ interests.

The Iranian Islamic Revolution fundamentally altered the geopolitics of U.S. imperialism in the region. It demonstrated the world’s ability to mobilize its people to overthrow colonial regimes and has served as an inspiration to oppressed groups in the Muslim world and across the Global South.

The revolution changed the balance of power in West Asia. The U.S. has attempted many ways to destroy the revolution through sanctions and assassinations, but the Iranian people still assert their right to self-determination and are aiding others, like Palestine, to do the same.

When It Comes to Israel and the U.S., International Law Vanishes

President Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have publicly stated that their aim in attacking Iran is to kill and remove the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. This open call for an assassination against a head of state violates Executive Order 12333, which states, “2.11 Prohibition on Assassination. No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in or conspire to engage in assassination.” Therefore, the assassination is illegal under U.S. law.

In addition, U.S. law requires congressional authorization to start wars, which Trump neither sought nor obtained. International law also bars wars of aggression, and Iran posed no direct threat to the U.S. The nuclear question had already been resolved in 2015 by then-President Obama, who verified and had inspectors rigorously inspect Iran’s facilities. Trump repeated the claim that Iran wouldn’t renounce nuclear weapons is a lie designed to sell a war.

Israel is the only country in the region with nuclear warheads. And the U.S. has over 5,000 of them and is the only country in history to drop an atomic bomb on civilians.

Under the United Nations Charter, specifically Article 2(4), states “UN member states are prohibited from using force against the territorial integrity or political independence of another state. An attack is only legal if it falls under the narrow exception of self-defense (Article 51) or is authorized by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).”

The Trump administration and the Israeli government did not receive UNSC approval and are not under an imminent threat from Iran, making this attack illegal.

The Palestine Question

The U.S. aims to overthrow the Iranian government not just for its oil and natural resources, but because Iran refuses to abandon the Palestinian cause, unlike other Arab countries. “If Iran’s support for the Palestinian resistance had not existed, we would never have achieved this capability. Truly, the Arab Nation has abandoned us. The Arab Nation has abandoned us. They abandoned us in our hardest and most painful moments. While Iran has supported us with weapons, equipment, and expertise,” said Yahya Al-Sinwar, a Palestinian militant and fourth chairman of the HAMAS Political Bureau.

Since the collapse of the Bashar al-Assad government in Syria, which is now ruled by Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani, who was the former leader of Al-Qaeda in Syria, and a former ISIS prodigy, support for the Palestinian resistance against Zionism falls solely on the Iranian Revolutionary government.

Syria provided key components of communications and transfer of weapons between Iran and the axis of resistance. In large, that is why Israel bombed Syria more than 600 times in 2025, with Israel supporting “its action by claiming to eliminate Iranian military installations” in Syria.

Iran has a long history of supporting the Palestinian resistance against the Zionist occupation and considers it a central pillar of its existence. Today, Iran, Iraq, Hezbollah, and Yemen are the only governments that support the freedom of Palestine from Zionist occupation.

Reza Pahlavi, the opposition figure opposing the current Iranian government and son of the Shah, advocates the opposite approach: he aims to normalize relations with Israel, abandon the Palestinian cause, and restore a monarchical system without presidential elections.

Over the weekend, his movement was cheering because the U.S. and Israel bombed Iran.

To this day, Reza has not run for president in Iran, which holds elections every four years.

How an Anti-War Movement is Taking Shape in Los Angeles

The organizations behind the protest stated that they aim to build a massive anti-war movement to stop the Trump administration from endlessly bombing countries. “It’s been one year into his presidency, and he has bombed ten countries now. And look around you (at the protest). It is working-class people who are outside protesting to stop this. The Democratic Party is nowhere to be seen,” said Rey Ramirez, a South Central resident.

“We, the people of the United States, are here to tell the Trump administration that it may wage this war in our name, but not with our consent,” said actor Jane Fonda at the protest in front of City Hall.

Organizers from both protests announced that this will not be the last time they call for a protest against the war and that they will also take to the streets. In addition, groups across the city will host events and educational forums on U.S. imperialism to help people understand why an anti-war movement is necessary in today’s politics.

Author’s note: This report is also being co-published with Ben Camacho’s Substack, Inadvertent.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) wants to be able to legally shoot journalists with kinetic weapons at the “No Kings” protest this Saturday, according to court records filed on Wednesday. The city of Los Angeles is asking a federal judge to lift a preliminary injunction that forbids the LAPD from shooting journalists with kinetic weapons while reporting at protests.

The filings are part of a case filed by the Los Angeles Press Club (LAPC) and Status Coup against the city of LA and its police chief, Jim McDonnell. The case was filed after LAPD, along with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), used kinetic weapons against journalists covering protests against state-sanctioned kidnappings. LASD and DHS also used chemical weapons.

LAPC and Status Coup’s attorneys responded on Thursday with an opposition to the city’s filing. They argued that the city’s request for an emergency motion to lift the injunction is improper. They also argued that lifting the injunction – allowing LAPD to shoot journalists – is “contrary to the public interest.”

The first “No Kings” protest in LA took place on June 14th, with an estimated 30,000 people in attendance. Over 2,000 protests were held nationwide on the same day against Trump’s plan to cut social programs. Over 5 million people participated in a “No Kings” across the US.

LAPD also took to the streets in a show of force that resulted in violent repression against protestors. That day, videos showed the LAPD shooting at protesters indiscriminately.

The city’s filing argued that the injunction should be lifted because the LAPD cannot avoid using chemical and kinetic weapons against journalists when protests happen. LAPD Metropolitan Division Lieutenant Joseph Dunster, in his declaration filed alongside the city’s motion, explained that 40mm and 37mm kinetic weapons, as well as tear gas, cannot be used in a way that does not target journalists who are working at protests.

The city’s filing implied that the LAPD is not capable of determining who poses a threat. “Paragraph 3 bars the use of less-lethal munitions or chemical agents against journalists not posing an imminent threat,’ but provides no definition of ‘imminent threat’ or ‘objectively dangerous and unlawful situation.”

Penal Code Section 409.7, which went into effect in 2022, states that police are not allowed to intentionally assault, interfere with, or obstruct duly authorized journalists at demonstrations. Despite these protections, dozens of journalists have documented being struck by crowd-control munitions in recent months while displaying their press badges or wearing marked Press vests. The lawsuit against the city and the LAPD chief was filed because the LAPD had repeatedly violated state law, and seemingly their own policies, by shooting journalists who were covering the protests.

The injunction came after lawyers for LAPC and Status Coup presented the court with various instances of LAPD’s pattern of brutalizing reporters with less lethal munitions.

The city’s motion challenges previous court rulings that limited police from targeting or obstructing journalists and media workers, such as camera operators, during protests. Those rulings, in the past ten months in cities like Paramount, Compton, Los Angeles, and Portland, were meant to protect journalists under the First Amendment after multiple documents and evidence showed that journalists were targeted by law enforcement with rubber bullets, tear gas, or arrests while clearly identifying themselves as press.

In the filing, the city argued that the injunction, which restricts LAPD from shooting journalists, endangers officers and hinders their ability to maintain “order” during “chaotic conditions.” Another claim is that in large protests that move through the city, it is often impossible to distinguish between civilians and members of the press, especially at night when journalists are “embedded” among the crowd. Journalists wear credentials, carry cameras, lights, patches, and other equipment that distinguish them from a crowd of protestors.

The city aims to loosen the rules governing the use of “less-lethal” weapons, allowing officers to use them if they perceive an imminent “threat,” regardless of whether the press is present. This justification is also used when police officers kill someone. Police often claim that they fear for their lives when shooting someone, no matter what profession the person has. It is later justified with this claim, according to USA Today, after the killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in 2017.

This comes on the heels of nearly five months during which immigrant communities have seen unmarked cars with masked men kidnapping people under the orders of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with the full support of the Trump Administration, while Mayor Karen Bass struggles to catch up with responses to the federal actions.

In a statement to LAist, Adam Rose, press rights chair for LAPC, said, “Instead of holding the department accountable, the city is spending even more money to hire an outside law firm so they can effectively beg a judge for permission to keep assaulting journalists for just doing their job. The mayor of Los Angeles needs to take charge here, and Bass has been completely absent.”

As the case continues, the outcome could determine whether journalists have some protection when reporting from the frontlines or whether documenting police actions during civil unrest will run the risk of retaliation by the institutions they aim to hold accountable.

This could send signals across the nation to other cities, police departments, and journalists covering the unrest, as the Trump Administration allocated more funding to ICE. In comparison, police departments continue to receive more funding from cities to occupy our public spaces and detain community members.

Despite the LAPD’s and federal government’s violent tactics against Angelenos, the mayor‘s statement focused on protestors needing to be “peaceful.” She included a veiled threat of police violence against protesters and press: “As always, the Los Angeles Police Department is expected to uphold those same rights — ensuring public safety while protecting the freedoms of expression and assembly and the rights of the press.”

At today’s council meeting, the LA City Council voted unanimously to formally ask the city attorney to withdraw her motion that seeks to lift the injunction.

The opposition to the LAPD’s motion stated, “If the City can comply with Penal Code section 409.7, it can follow the injunction. And if it cannot — as its long-running history of using force on and denying access to journalists at protests and the Court’s factual findings show—the Preliminary Injunction is unquestionably necessary.”

Update: 10/17/25, 11:22 AM – with Mayor’s response.

Update: 10/17/25, 3:16 PM - with a section reflecting the council’s vote to ask the city attorney to withdraw the motion has been added to the article.

Around the world, teachers are often regarded as mentors, movement builders, guides, and community organizers. When they extend their lessons beyond the classroom, applying theory into practice, their actions serve as powerful tools and symbols of conscience.

On October 8th, marking the second anniversary of Israel’s attack on Palestinians in Gaza, more than one hundred K-12 educators from across the United States began a three-day hunger strike to raise awareness about the severe situation facing Palestinian children in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip. Teachers are calling on policymakers to act now to protect the rights of Palestinian children.

Over the past two years, educators across the country have employed various forms of protest to raise awareness about the Palestinian cause. There is no single, verified total for teachers fired due to their support for Palestine, but reports from across the nation mention professors being dismissed for showing support.

Internationally recognized humanitarian organizations have documented the inhumane treatment Palestinians face since October 2023. The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) reported in December 2023 that “The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. And day after day, that brutal reality is reinforced.” The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Secretary General, Mr. Tom Fletcher, stated on September 24th:

Since October 2023, over 67,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks. Thousands more are under the rubble. “At least 20,000 children are among the dead, or one child killed every hour for the past 24 months,” according to a recent Al Jazeera article.

The effects of Israel’s bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip are compounded by the 16-year siege, during which Israel maintains a stranglehold, restricting the amount of food, aid, and materials that can enter the enclave.

Teachers dedicate their lives to nurturing others, yet they are now risking their own health for three days to call attention to the suffering of people beyond their classrooms, the Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip. Their hunger strike becomes both an act of solidarity and a moral lesson for the world.

“The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) both published a report stating that there is famine in Gaza,” said Erika Gomez, an educator from Los Angeles. “Over half a million people will face catastrophic levels of starvation, and many will die without anyone hearing about it because Israel has killed almost all the journalists in Gaza.”

This hunger strike demonstrates that education doesn’t stop when the school bell rings, it carries on in the streets and public spaces.

“I’ve never gone three days without eating. It feels like a long time. But after those three days, I’ll be able to eat again, and the people in Gaza won’t be able to,” said Colin, a middle school teacher in Massachusetts. “Experientially, it’s very personal, but doing this as a group offers a portal into a more universal struggle.”

In their press release, they state that each participant will decide the length and intensity of their action.

This nationwide hunger strike is one of many that have occurred since October 2023 to raise awareness about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. College students across Los Angeles and nationwide have adopted this form of protest to stop the genocide and pressure their universities to divest from companies complicit in Israel’s genocide.

“I am joining in on the hunger strike with teachers across the U.S. to bring attention to the mass starvation of the people in Gaza, and especially the children,” said Linn Lee, a retired public school educator from the O.C.

The hunger strike, organized by Educators for Palestine, a caucus within the National Education Association (NEA), follows the group’s recent push to have the nation’s largest labor union sever ties with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Many K–12 educators involved in the effort argue that the ADL functions as a pro-Israel political advocacy group rather than a social justice partner for schools. NEA delegates voted to end the union’s collaboration with the ADL, but the decision was later overturned by NEA leadership following pressure from the ADL.

“In addition to the work I’ve done through the union, I have been contacting legislators, standing out at protests, and donating money,” said Theresa, a middle school nurse in Minnesota. “This hunger strike is kind of upping it to the next level. We are putting our own bodies in harm’s way. A hunger strike is a more active way to participate and use my body to show resistance and solidarity.”

The strikers hope that their message reaches the people of Gaza, and that they know people are thinking about them daily. Their message is clear: education must be paired with action, and compassion must move us to do the right thing.

Links to my reporting in Paramount/Compton on June 7th:

On the ground coverage from Paramount/Compton

The East is a Podcast on Spotify

Los Angeles has become a military zone. As citywide protests erupted following ICE raids on local immigrant communities, United States President Donald Trump sent Marines and National Guard troops into the city for the first time in decades. How is this show of force turning immigration raids into a national flashpoint? In this episode:

• Abraham Marquez, Investigative Journalist, The Southlander

Links to my reporting in Paramount/Compton on June 7th:

On the ground coverage from Paramount/Compton

The Take on Spotify

Episode credits: This episode was produced by Sarí el-Khalili, Sonia Bhagat, and Tamara Khandaker, with Phillip Lanos, Spencer Cline, Haleema Shah, Amy Walters, Mariana Navarrete, Kisaa Zehra, and our guest host, Manuel Rapalo. Noor Wazwaz edited it. Joe Plourde mixed this episode. Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editor is Hisham Abu Salah. Alexandra Locke is the Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.

On Saturday, June 7th, ICE was seen near a Home Depot and a meat factory in Paramount. News spread quickly, prompting the community to rally in defense of the undocumented workers targeted for arrest by ICE.

Just down the block, at the intersection of Atlantic and Alondra on the Compton side of the city, sheriff's deputies stopped people from entering the Home Depot to prevent further arrests by ICE.

Here is an Instagram reel of my report from that day for CounterPunch Media.

Photos from the protest

On May 9th, third-year UCLA Palestinian student Maya-Ayooni Abdallah launched her hunger strike on campus after learning about the twenty-five students across four Cal State University (CSU) campuses who had begun their hunger strike for Gaza on May 5th. The strikers across CSU and UCLA are part of the nationwide divestment movement that was sparked on April 17th, 2024, at the Columbia University encampments.

The strikers' demands call for their schools to divest from companies associated with the occupational government of Israel. This marked the sixth school to join the movement in California. It started in April with two universities, Chapman University in Orange County and Occidental College in the northeast LA region of Eagle Rock.

Abdallah was also involved in the student encampments at UCLA, where on May 2, 2024, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) violently arrested and shot at unarmed students peacefully protesting. “We have every right to protest on campus and demand that our university divest from Israel,” said Abdallah in an interview on her seventh day of her hunger strike at UCLA.

On Saturday, May 17th, Abdallah, who was on her way to a protest to commemorate the ongoing Nakba day, was hospitalized while on campus at UCLA. It marked her ninth day of her hunger strike. “I was very lucky to be with friends who called the ambulance immediately,” said Abdallah in her Instagram post.

The hunger strike to raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine resonates deeply for the third-year college student. “I’m half Palestinian, half Lebanese. I was in Palestine in the West Bank on October 7th. So I definitely felt very compelled to share, and tell the truth of what was happening in Palestine,” Adballah said.

Adballah’s act of defiance, refusing food until her university takes meaningful steps in divesting from Israel, has received support from fellow UCLA students, activists across the LA area, and other strikers at CSU campuses. On Saturday, when the news broke that she was hospitalized, people took to social media to show their solidarity with the third-year UCLA student.

“I heard the call from the CSU students and joined them in this protest,” Abdallah said. “Every day on campus, someone approaches me to tell me that they support my protest and saw it on social media.”

Abdallah’s hunger strike is not about personal gain but about forcing the world to acknowledge the genocide of the Palestinian people at the hands of the colonial Israeli government, which the U.S. government funds. Since her first day of the hunger strike, Israel has killed 21 children in one airstrike, and on the 77th anniversary of Nakba Day, May 15th, Israel killed 115 Palestinians in another airstrike. This destruction adds to the ongoing denial of humanitarian aid to the people of the Gaza Strip for months, and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced on April 25th that food has run out in the enclave.

On May 21st, humanitarian aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip after eleven weeks of denying them entry. “None of this aid, that is, a very limited number of trucks, has reached the Gaza population,” said Antoine Renard, country director of the World Food Programme.

Abdallah took to Instagram to thank everyone who reached out to her after learning that she was rushed to the hospital. She seems to be doing better and is still doing other work to advocate for a free Palestine and an end to the occupation.

On Monday, May 19th, the students at Cal State Long Beach posted on Instagram that, after twelve days, they also ended their hunger strike.

They posted on their Instagram:

In a powerful act of protest, we are witnessing young activists nationwide demanding urgent action on a devastating humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. From university campuses to social media campaigns, these determined youths are using their voices, their skills, their bodies, and their networks to call for an end to the occupation of Palestine.

Overall, their protest underscores the failure of local and global leaders to address the urgent needs that Palestinians face daily, including access to clean water, food, medicine, and healthcare, and much more.

UCLA divestment movement

With an international uprising against Zionism, various forms of protest, such as hunger strikes, school encampments, walkouts, and much more, have emerged nationwide. UCLA students have refined their methods by deepening their understanding of how their university is connected to the Zionist movement, and they aim to inform people about how the UC system is intertwined with Israel’s occupation of Palestine.

In March, organizers at UCLA published a report, “Unmasking UCLA: White Paper,” that details how the UC system is in bed with the colonial government of Israel through a variety of methods. “In this moment of crisis, institutions of higher learning across the US and the world have begun to re-evaluate their complicity in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people through financial, political, and academic support of Israel and military corporations that profit from war and genocide,” reads the White Paper statement.

The UCLA divestment movement is steadfast in its demands, which are listed on its website. These are some:

• Divest all UC-wide and UCLA Foundation funds from companies and institutions involved in the Israeli occupation, apartheid, and genocide of the Palestinian people.

• Disclose all UC-wide and UCLA Foundation assets and funding sources, including but not limited to contracts, grants, gifts, and investments.

• Boycott all academic ties to occupation and genocide, including by terminating all gifts, grants, contracts, and endowed positions funded by weapons manufacturers directly perpetuating the genocide of Palestinians.

• Abolish all policing on our campus.

  

  

The divestment movement falls in line with the United Nations court ruling that calls for the prevention of genocidal acts in Gaza. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have found and confirmed that all nations are obligated to cut their military and economic support to Israel’s occupation of Palestine, which includes the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and Jerusalem. Therefore, urging the UC school system to sever its connections with Israel due to its illegal occupation and treatment of Palestinians aligns with the judge's ruling.

The front line is everywhere

The movement to free Palestine from the illegal occupation has reached every aspect of life in the US. In the days following October 7th, protests erupted in every major city and small towns nationwide, and politicians who receive money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) or maintain friendly relations with Israel are being interrupted at public meetings.

In addition, politicians running for office, either in local or national congressional elections, are forced to have a position on Palestine, where in the past, you were able to get away without having one. But since the genocide is being livestreamed, contradictions sharpened, this has created a protest movement with multiple fronts across all walks of life. As a result, the government is criminalizing support for Palestine because it cannot stop the movement, and wants to spark fear in those who are looking to join.

Abdallah’s and the Cal State Long Beach students' hunger strike is part of a larger movement led by young people who will no longer tolerate how our government treats Palestinians. Their protest highlights a historic trend of the anti-war movement that dates back to the 1960s and 1970s, where hunger strikes served as a form of protest to stop the Vietnam War. Supporters of the hunger strike took to social media to call the students courageous for their sacrifice for a humane cause, and the students pledged to continue their fight for a free Palestine.

Author’s note: I reached out to UCLA for comments regarding Maya and its plans for divestment, but I have not received a response. On May 7th, while reporting on the Cal State Long Beach students' hunger strike, I reached out to the CSULB president but was also met with silence.

On Saturday, hundreds of people gather at the Israeli Consulate in West Los Angeles at 2 p.m., part of an international week of action to commemorate the ongoing “al-Nakba” — “the catastrophe,” where 77 years ago in 1948, hundreds of Arab Villages were depopulated by the barrel of a gun. Eighty percent of Palestinians were ethnically cleansed out of their homeland and into refugee camps, many of them into the Gaza Strip.

Demonstrations took place across the planet, from Ireland, London, New York, San Francisco, and many other cities in support of the Palestinian people. In the last week, the Israeli government has been bombing refugee camps and the last remaining hospitals.

Many protesters held placards resembling press vests to honor journalists. As of May 14th, one hundred seventy-nine journalists and media workers have been killed by the Israeli military, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. In addition, many demonstrators held up poppy flower signs to honor all the martyrs, seeking to highlight the ongoing massacre in all aspects of life in the Gaza Strip.

“If we let the Israeli military get away with the displacement of the Palestinian people, this signals to the people of the world that the empire can do the same anywhere. We must keep fighting,” said Adal Ríos, an organizer with Unión de Barrio.

The program began in front of the consulate with speakers from various grassroots organizations, including the student movement, who read Mahmoud Khalil's letter to the audience movingly. The demonstrators denounced the Trump administration for using repression to slow down the free Palestine movement in all its manifestations, including the encampments, hunger strikes, and protests. In addition, protesters condemned his administration for continuing to send weapons to Israel. Since taking office, Trump has approved nearly $12 billion in weapons to Israel. “The Trump Administration will continue to use all available tools to fulfill America’s long-standing commitment to Israel’s security, including means to counter security threats,” reads a press statement by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The Gaza Story: Resistance and Steadfastness

The Gaza Strip is a small, densely populated area with 2.5 million people on the eastern Mediterranean coast. It borders Israeli-occupied territories to the north and east, Egypt to the south, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. The strip is approximately twenty-five miles long and six miles wide.

Before October 7th, 2023, the United Nations regarded it as an open-air prison due to its status as one of Earth’s most densely populated areas, with Israel controlling the flow of food and aid entering the strip. For over ten weeks, Israel has blocked humanitarian aid and supplies from entering the Gaza Strip, as reported by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) on May 16th.

Nearly seventy-five percent of everyone living in Gaza is a refugee after Israeli forces pushed them out of their homes and villages during the 1948 Nakba, where hundreds of villages were ethnically cleansed, and Israeli militias killed those who wouldn’t leave. Later that year, the United Nations issued Resolution 194, which mandated that 750,000 Palestinians who were made refugees during the Nakba could return to the land after being ethnically cleansed by Israeli forces.

The Israeli government is never held accountable for violating Resolution 194.

In 2018, the United Nations stated that “Gaza may well be unlivable by 2020” because it lacks safe drinking water. After all, Israel has destroyed by bombing all their desalination water plants. Over the past nineteen months, the U.S. has provided Israel military intelligence to operate their genocide, and in 2024 alone, the U.S. government sent Israel $17.9 billion in military financing and weaponry. In contrast, Palestine has no formal army or conventional military.

Israeli Air Forces, with the bombs provided by the U.S., have dropped 70,000 tons of bombs on Gaza since October 2023, exceeding that of World War II. In addition, the Gaza Strip is much smaller than Hiroshima but has experienced “the equivalent of two nuclear bombs,” according to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.

“Israel is only able to get away with the mass murder of Palestinians because of the full economic, political, and material support it gets from the U.S. government,” said Tharwa Khalid, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM).

Israel has bombed at least thirty-six hospitals. More than 80 percent of schools have been attacked, and over 5,479 students, 261 teachers, and 95 university professors have been killed in Gaza, with 756 teachers injured—numbers that are growing each day.

Protests have erupted since October 2023 worldwide after U.S.-made weapons have killed thousands of Palestinians. In addition, Israel has intensified its attacks with the announcement of a new ground offensive on the Gaza Strip. The steadfastness of the Palestinian resistance continues to attack the occupying forces throughout the enclave. Israel published the “Swords of Iron War,” which states they’ve had 856 casualties since October 2023.

Ceasefire talks have been unsuccessful as Israel keeps bombing the Gaza Strip.

Repression breeds resistance

The march proceeded from the Israeli Consulate to the U.S. Federal Building on Wilshire and back, concluding peacefully, except for two Israeli flag-waving agitators whom the organizers effectively subdued within minutes. Guest speakers and organizers made it clear that the U.S. government has the full power to stop the genocide and stop arming Israel, but decides every day not to end the massacres.

It’s been nineteen months since Palestinians in the Gaza Strip broke out of prison in operation “Al-Aqsa Flood,” using bulldozers to break through the Israeli fence that imprisoned 2.3 million people. For the first time, they could break through the wall and step on their ancestral land of historic Palestine.

The Palestinian Youth Movement has been at the forefront of organizing hundreds of marches across the country, demanding that the U.S. government stop arming Israel with bombs that are dropping on civilians, and and end to the occupation.

The PYM will continue organizing marches, educational forums, and teach-ins, as well as producing educational materials to raise awareness about Palestine. Under Trump’s Administration, we are witnessing the continuation of the same imperial policies from his predecessors, and it will continue to be met with resistance here in the belly of the beast.

Photos by Meg Webster:

Some clips of the speakers:

On May 5th, seven students from California State University, Long Beach, launched a hunger strike as part of an organized protest across four CSU campuses: San Francisco, Sacramento, and San Jose State. In total, twenty-five students are striking for Gaza. They join a wave of nationwide protests demanding an immediate end to the United States' arming and facilitating a genocide in Gaza by Israel.

The seven strikers announced on the campus their commitment to refuse food until their institution divests from companies that supply weapons, military equipment, and surveillance technology, among other demands, to Israel’s military. In addition, they call on their campus administration to pressure other CSU presidents and the Board of Trustees to do the same.

“This is part of a larger student movement to ensure that California State Students’ tuition, and Universities’ investments, are not complicit in the genocide of the Palestinian people,” read the statement by the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at CSULB.

Similar hunger strikes and encampments have spread to campuses in the Los Angeles area. Thirty miles north in Eagle Rock, ten Occidental College students began their hunger strike protest in April. Like the students in Long Beach, their demands included protecting students from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and providing a Sanctuary Campus for non-citizen students. The strike has drawn both support and backlash, with the protesters being accused of antisemitism, a claim organizers firmly deny.

University officials have yet to respond to a request for comment for this article. Meanwhile, students and local activists began providing water and electrolytes to the strikers, while medical students volunteered to monitor their health. “We (strikers) are in constant communication, and we have a lot of support from student organizers,” said Marcus Bode, one of the seven hunger strikers at CSU Long Beach.

As the strike enters its third day, local attention is growing, said Bode, hoping to get the nation’s attention so it applies pressure to the CSU school system to divest from Israel.

The protest comes as global outrage continues to grow over the rising death toll, and denial of food. “It is a privilege to be able to voluntarily go without food. That is not something Palestinians have the option to do. They will not survive another summer,” said Bode.

The idea of using a hunger strike as a form of protest began on April 25th, when the United Nations (UN) agency World Food Programme (WFP) reported that it had run out of food in the Gaza Strip, as Israel continues to block any humanitarian aid into the region, where over two million Palestinians live. “The call came from students from Birzeit University in the West Bank, and we were one of the first schools to answer the call because of the UN announcement,” said Bode.

Thousands of people depend on the U.N. food program for survival. The agency states that its warehouses are now empty and cannot provide for the one million people it has been feeding over the last year, half of Gaza’s population.

The UN stated that it has “more than 116,00 metric tonnes of food assistance - enough to feed a million people for up to four months - are ready and waiting to be brought into Gaza by WFP and partners as soon as borders reopen.”

The strikers want to bring awareness to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza with their hunger strike, and have their university take part in divesting from its contract with Israel-related companies. Since the destruction of the ceasefire, and in the last few weeks in particular, Israel has bombed Palestinians in refugee camps, which has accelerated the crisis, claiming the lives of countless civilians and destroying whatever little infrastructure remains.

On May 4th, the United Nations and its partners issued a warning of the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. For the ninth consecutive week, no aid has entered the Gaza Strip. Twenty-five bakeries were fully closed by March 31st because wheat flour and cooking oil ran out, and that same week, food parcels distributed to families went empty.

“Israel officials have sought to shut down the existing aid distribution system run by the United Nations and its humanitarian partners,” read the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs statement.

The CSU Long Beach administration contacted the strikers a few days after launching to set up a meeting, but nothing is currently scheduled. The students at Long Beach are prepared to continue their hunger strike indefinitely until their demands are met.

An attempt to reach CSULB President Jane Close Conoley was met with silence.

On Tuesday, the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) held its regularly scheduled meeting, open to the public for comments and concerns. The room was filled with community members who support the SAUSD Ethnic Studies department and its state-approved curriculum, which includes lessons on the history of Palestine. 

It is important to note that SAUSD President Carolyn Torres did not attend the meeting.   

Organizers and community members attended to speak to the board about supporting the Ethnic Studies curriculum and plead their case for the SAUSD board not to capitulate to outside pressure from Zionist groups. 

“How is mentioning and teaching the history of Palestine anti-Semitic?” stated Nizar Milbes, a community activist and resident of Santa Ana, as he gazed at each board member. “The U.S. has not shied away from teaching its oppressive past, whether it is slavery, racism, or oppression of Indigenous people. Why does Israel get a free pass?” Nizar added.    

SAUSD has been under fire lately by Zionist groups, Jewish organizations, and, as of recently, government officials for the material in its Ethnic Studies curriculum, which was approved by the board. 

These pro-Israel groups are calling the courses “anti-Semitic.” Michelle Stelle, a United States House of Representatives member from California's 45th District (R-45), recently supported the lawsuit. In addition, Michelle is calling on the Biden Administration to open a civil rights investigation into Santa Ana’s school district for its “anti-Semitism” curriculum under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin.  

Furthermore, Virginia Foxx, Chairwoman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, is joining Michelle Steel in exerting congressional pressure on the SAUSD Ethnic Studies curriculum. On September 26th, they sent a letter to Miguel Cardona, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, to “open an investigation into these incidents to determine whether violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act (Title VI) have occurred” the letter stated.     

The curriculum in question includes the plight of Palestinians. It labels Israel as a “settler colonialist” and “racist” state, according to court documents. SAUSD is facing a lawsuit for allegedly violating open meeting laws and secretly developing courses for its ethnic studies program, which Jewish advocacy groups claim include antisemitic content. The alleged violation by SAUSD pertains to Title VI.

The district will be tasked with defending and championing the courses they approved last year, which the community is determined to undertake with unwavering resilience.

“I am here in solidarity with the Palestinian community to share their story of oppression and to ensure that their history is told within our community because it is one that mirrors our community as well,” said Lucinda Solorzano, a Santa Ana resident.

The community and educators vs. the Zionist Lobby

Throughout California, the demand for Ethnic Studies courses has soared. However, in the last twelve months, we have watched educators across the country being attacked and sued by institutions with considerable power and deep pockets for teaching and supporting Palestine. 

Late last year, I reported on the Zionist lobby suing educators from the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) for their curriculum that included Palestinian and Arab history. SAUSD is facing the same challenge. 

There is no official number of academic workers who have lost jobs or faced repression over support for Palestine. Still, there are countless stories nationwide of educators losing their jobs and, in some cases, being threatened with deportation for their support for Palestine.

Michelle Steel, U.S. Representative CA-45, who is applying congressional pressure on the SAUSD board, has received $235,288 from the Zionist lobby, according to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit organization that tracks campaign finance and lobbying.

Virginia Foxx, U.S. Representative NC-05, has received $97,485 from the pro-Israel lobby.

The Plaintiffs in the SAUSD case are the “Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law,” a nonprofit organization, and “Southern Californians for Unbiased Education,” a membership organization of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. The organization is named after Zionist Movement leader Louis Brandeis, who worked with former U.S. President Thomas Woodrow Wilson in negotiations leading up to the Balfour Declaration. 

The Balfour Declaration came amid World War I when Palestine was still nominally under the rule of the then-Ottoman Empire. The letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothchild, a member of the British House of Lords and one of the wealthiest men in the world, was an early Zionist leader. The letter was signaling that the world’s largest empire was lending its support to the Zionist settler movement in its ambition to colonize Palestine and establish an ethnostate.   

The “Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law” was founded in 2011 by Kenneth L. Marcus, a civil rights attorney. He served as Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights under the Trump administration and in multiple roles under the George W. Bush era, such as General Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. He later joined the Department of Justice.  

In a March 24, 2024 article, the New York Times called him “The Man Who Helped Redefine Campus Antisemitism.” In 2010, Kenneth wrote a letter to the Obama administration to reconsider the interpretation of Title VI to include “ancestry - meaning students who are harassed because of their ethnic and religious characteristics, including “Arab Muslims, Jewish Americans and Sikhs,” the NYT article stated. That same year Obama accepted Kenneth’s interpretation of Title VI. 

Since then, Kenneth has worked with the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) and other groups in helping people across the country in their fight against “anti-Semitism” through the new Title VI interpretation, mainly targeting pro-Palestine groups such as chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). 

“These complaints are having the impact that they were designed to achieve,” said Radhika Sainath, an attorney with Palestine Legal, in an NYT article. “Not to win on the merit, but to force universities to investigate, condemn, and suppress speech supporting Palestinian rights because they are so fearful of bad press and donor backlash,” she added.  

The government officials who are applying congressional pressure have received money from the Israeli lobby, AIPAC, and the organization that is heading this lawsuit has been at the forefront of suing people across the country for supporting Palestine.

The future of education

The SAUSD case can set a precedent for the rest of the country on how school curricula can be constructed, where teaching the history of Palestine’s national liberation struggle can be erased nationwide. This would give students a curriculum that is friendly to the colonizer and not the colonized—giving a voice to the oppressor and silencing the oppressed from history lessons.

“This district is being made an example of,” said Mirvette Judeh, Vice Chair of the Arab American Southern Caucus, at the school board meeting. “I get to watch teachers being sued and mistreated and this endless witch hunt, all in the name of the truth,” she added. 

Their court date is Friday, November 8th, at the Santa Ana Court House.