Michael Oren

Leading queer voices write an impassioned statement and open petition calling for solidarity with Palestinians under occupation and oppression, expanded support of the BDS movement, and a rejection of Israel’s pinkwashing campaigns.

Is Barack Obama running for reelection as President of the United States or Prime Minister of Israel? A new Obama campaign video makes it increasingly hard to tell, and even more ominously ratchets further the Israelization of US politics.

Sarah Schulman’s New York Times op-ed Israel and ‘Pinkwashing’ outs Israel’s gay marketing plan that activists have termed “pinkwashing” and consistently sought to resist and expose.

More than 30 nationwide chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine, along with interfaith activist communities, decry the convictions of the Irvine 11 while pledging to stand in firm solidarity with the students — and protesters everywhere who stand up against Israeli policies.

Defense attorneys tell the jurors in the Irvine 11 case that they “stand between democracy and creeping fascism,” and should find the students not guilty of criminal charges for their nonviolent protest which was protected under the right to free speech.

The prosecution claims that the Irvine 11 students unlawfully conspired to “censor” Israeli ambassador Michael Oren, while the defense argues that the students were in their full constitutional rights to exercise free speech.

The defense rests following the conclusion of testimonies and evidence in the Irvine 11 free speech trial. The closing arguments — and a verdict — are anticipated for Monday.

Attorneys for the Irvine 11 attempt to bring evidence of an Israeli official’s plans to attend an LA Lakers game into the courtroom — blowing a hole in the prosecution’s claims that he had to cut short his speech due to protests — but the judge has refused to let the jury see the photograph.