The “harvest of terrifying consequences from escalating conflict and the near breakdown of international law” are documented by Amnesty International in its annual The State of the World’s Human Rights report released on April 23, 2024. “What we saw in 2023 confirms that many powerful states are abandoning the founding values of humanity and universality enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” writes its Secretary General, Agnès Callamard.
How else can one comprehend the quip of President Biden that this is “a good day for world peace,” as he signed a $95.3 billion weapons package into law? “It’s going to make the world safer,” the President stated. “And it continues America’s leadership in the world, and everyone knows it.”
Tell that to the more than 2,200 students who have been arrested in the weeks since police raided the ‘Gaza Solidarity Encampment’ set up by Columbia University on April 17 and arrested 108 students for ‘trespassing.’ What resonates for them are the words spoken by Howard Zinn when he praised the use of civil disobedience at an anti-Vietnam war rally on the Boston Common 53 years ago (May 5, 1971): “We need to do something to disturb that calm, smiling, murderous president in the White House…they’ll say we’re disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war.”
Read the article by Nancy Murray of the Alliance here.
