This week at the UN, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyhu cast his nation's genocidal targeting of the Palestinian people as a "battle against barbarians" while casting his critics as being moral cowards.
The Israeli leader, as he has done consistently, conflated opposition to the actions of the Israeli military with being anti-semitic.
Inside the UN, scores of UNGA delegates walked out, while outside over 100 protestors including actresses Susan Sarandon and Hannah Einbinder as part of a nonviolent civil disobedience action organized by Jewish Voices for Peace.
Last year, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, which includes a number of leading scholars on the Jewish Holocaust, determined that Isreal's actions in response to Hamas's brutal October 7th terror attack, amounted to genocide. Today well over 70,000 civilians, including tens of thousands of women and children have been killed in Gaza.
In the months since a supposed Gaza ceasefire brokered by the Trump administration, the phrase cease fire has taken on an Orwellian quality with the BBC and Gaza health Ministry reporting more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed as Israel invaded southern Lebanon, prompted President Trump to go to war with Iran and backed up Israeli settlers attacks on long established Palestinian families in the West Bank.
'HEALTHCARE NEEDS US ALL'
The same day of the UN protests, scores of union healthcare workers rallied on the steps of City Hall as part of a national day of action to protest the Trump regime's violent immigration crackdown that's taking into custody 50,000 detainees a month.
Close to one in five essential healthcare workers were born outside of the United States and one million rely on legal work permissions that could be revoked.
"Healthcare needs us all," read some of the signs at the rally sponsored by the New York State Nurses Association, National Nurses United, 1199SEIU, AFSCME DC 37, and the New York City Central Labor Council.
"About one in four doctors in this country is an immigrant, one third of our resident physicians here in New York City are on visas and at this moment many of them are stuck outside of the country because of visa delays," Dr. Melissa Marseille, Secretary-Treasurer of the Committee of Interns and Residents SEIU, told the crowd. Marseille described the real health consequences for immigrant families living with the "chronic stress" from "living with the constant fear from a knock on the door that raises the blood pressure, disrupts sleep and drives anxiety and depression."
ST. JOHN'S STRUGGLE CONTINUES
We checked back in with St. John University Professor Chris Denny with the fight to prevent the administration of the university from breaking the university's faculty union that's been around for decades advocating for both staff, the students and the broader community.
TRENTON MAYOR'S RACE
We will meet Austin Edwards, civil rights attorney, former New Jersey Deputy Attorney General, and former President of the Trenton NAACP who is running to be the Mayor of Trenton.
He is challenging incumbent Reed Gusciora.
RECORD UNION SIGN-UP
In our D block heard from 1199SEIU Vice President Lystra Sawney about that union adding 190,000 new members to the union's roster that already includes 450,000 healthcare workers in multiple states.
"Faced with rising costs and struggling to make ends meet, nearly 70,000 caregivers in New York’s Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP), most of whom care for relatives," filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), according to a union press release.
If the vote is successful, nearly 190,000 caregivers across New York State would win representation in the largest union election in U.S. history.
Soleil Biyong, one of the workers pushing hard for unionization, cares for her mother in Brooklyn.
"To be honest, sometimes it is a little scary because of how retaliatory our government can be but sometimes you have to do things terrified because it is that important," Soleil said. "To be very candid I have cancer. I need surgery in January and all I can think about is I hope they can schedule the surgery by the end of the week so I can make sure I get my hours in. I should be more concerned about my health than how I can pay my rent."
"It's so important we organize," said Sawney. "We need to stand up. Workers need to stand up, have a voice and fight for what's right and when workers come together they have power and they can make change so workers are organizing. They heard about the Medicaid cuts and it drove more people to sign a union card."
1199SEIU currently represents 450,000 healthcare workers in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Florida.
