Israel's first sea wave energy power plant will launch in Jaffa Port next Thursday to help the country address climate change and transition to renewable energy.
The project was jointly developed by the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, the municipal development company 'Atarim,' Eco Wave Power, and EDF Renewables Israel.
This will be a pilot station for generating electricity from sea waves, and will aim to combine multiple areas, such as innovation, sustainability, and the challenges of climate change.
The municipality said that supporting innovative technologies to reduce emissions is a key part of the city’s environmental and sustainability initiatives.
The Energy and Infrastructure Ministry recognized the project as a "pioneering technology."
Eco Wave Power explains the technology behind the project, which "connects floaters to existing marine structures like breakwaters and piers. These floaters rise and fall with the waves, powering a hydraulic motor and generator located onshore. The system includes smart controls that lift the floaters out of the water during storms to prevent damage."
The company is currently building several other similar stations across the world, including Los Angeles and Porto.
The project is led by Eco Wave Power founder and CEO Inna Braverman, who graduated from the “Women for Climate” program, one of the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality's environmental and sustainability initiatives.
In the program, "selected women receive professional guidance and tools to lead innovative projects that advance urban sustainability and tackle climate change."
Leumitech, the high-tech banking arm of Bank Leumi, and IVC, a provider of data, quantitative research, and business information, have published preliminary data from the IVC-LeumiTech Israeli Tech Review report for the fourth quarter and 2024.
According to the report, capital raised in 2024 amounted to approximately $9.58 billion, reflecting an increase of 38% in funding volume. In addition, total funding raised in Q4 surged by approximately 60% compared to Q4 of 2023, with a 44% rise in the number of deals.
Mega-rounds (over $100 million each) accounted for 48% of the total funds flowing into the local tech sector this year. Even excluding these rounds, 2024 shows growth compared to the previous year. The report also revealed that the cybersecurity sector stood out in 2024, with total fundraising in the field representing 38% of the year’s total.
We see that there are companies that already know how to translate the technologies that were born - or tried in - the war into actual deals, along with the adoption of innovative work methods that were often born as a result of these challenging times.
These give high-tech an excellent starting point for the coming year. The reduction in the interest rate in the US also gives a tailwind to Israeli high-tech, which is greatly affected by macro conditions, and we expect that 2025 will continue this trend.”
Ben Klein, CEO of IVC: “No matter how we looked at the data, 2024 ended with a clear growth trend in Israeli high-tech. The challenges facing the local industry are well known, but it seems that high-tech is succeeding in coping and continuing to be the growth engine of the Israeli economy.”
In October 2023, an email arrived on papyrologist Federica Nicolardi’s phone with an image that would transform her research forever, according to Nature. The image showed a fragment of a papyrus scroll that had been burnt in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. The latest results revealed a strip of papyrus packed with neat Greek lettering, glowing bright against a darker background. “It was incredible. I thought, ‘So this is really happening’,” said Nicolardi, according to a report by Nature. She knew right then that papyrology would never be the same.
The breakthrough was part of the Vesuvius Challenge, a project that utilized artificial intelligence (AI) to decipher ancient texts that had remained unreadable for centuries. Brent Seales, a computer scientist at the University of Kentucky, and his colleagues tackled the task of reading the Herculaneum scrolls, which could not be seen at all, utilizing neural networks to detect ink patterns on the fragile scrolls, according to gadgets360.com. The Herculaneum scrolls were part of a cache of papyrus rolls buried and carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which wiped out the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 CE. The scrolls were discovered in the remains of a luxury Roman villa in Herculaneum in the eighteenth century, as reported by National Geographic.
In the spring of 2023, a college student named Luke Farritor, now 22, found himself riveted by a podcast as he drove to his SpaceX internship in Starbase, Texas, according to National Geographic. The podcast hosts were describing a competition with the goal of reading a 2,000-year-old scroll without physically unrolling it. “A lot of things about it were really compelling, the biggest one being that you're going to potentially discover a new library from the ancient world, and that's a big deal,” stated Farritor, according to a report by National Geographic. While focusing on space travel in his day job, Farritor, a computer science major, devoted his nights and weekends to the Vesuvius Challenge.
Contestants in the Vesuvius Challenge had to develop their own programs to interpret existing 3D scans of the coiled scroll, with the virtual-unwrapping step being the bottleneck currently limiting the data they had to work with, as reported by Nature. The main challenge in reading the Herculaneum scrolls was to virtually flatten the documents and distinguish the black ink from the charred remains to make the Greek and Latin writings legible, requiring the charting of subtle physical variations to detect writing on the charred material, according to Mundo Deportivo. The scribes of Herculaneum used carbon-based ink, invisible in scans because it had the same density as the papyrus, as noted by Nature.
In February 2024, a grand prize was awarded: computer science students Youssef Nader, Luke Farritor, and Julian Schilliger received $700,000 for producing 16 columns of clearly readable text, as reported by Nature. The winning team used a TimeSformer model, a variant of the transformer model usually used for videos. They relied on this neural network to reveal text attributed to an ancient Greek philosophical work. “We will have 400 columns of Greek text to read,” said Nicolardi, noting the challenge for papyrologists in managing the volume of text produced, as reported by Nature.
Scholars who study ancient societies oscillate between enthusiasm and doubt regarding the use of artificial intelligence to translate documents written thousands of years ago, according to Folha de Sao Paulo. There is no doubt that the technology can already do a lot and will advance enormously. The debate has focused on the technical potential of AI and whether it can substitute human work.
Researchers are using neural networks to tackle ancient languages for which only a small amount of text survives. Katerina Papavassileiou at the University of Patras and her colleagues used a recurrent neural network to restore missing text from 1,100 Mycenaean tablets from Knossos, Crete, as reported by Nature. Papavassileiou hopes to use models trained on Linear B to tackle Linear A, a script used by the Minoan civilization that shares many symbols with Linear B but has never been deciphered.
Seales noted that the success of AI in these applications underscores its role as a complement to human expertise. “What AI is doing is giving the papyrologists data to work on which they could not otherwise have,” stated Richard Ovenden, head of the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford, as reported by Nature. He added, “It's making their work more important than it has ever been.”
As AI continues to evolve, its impact on science and technology promises to reshape our understanding of the world, with potential breakthroughs in decoding lost languages and exploring underground libraries, as reported by Nature. Researchers emphasize the need for interdisciplinary collaboration and open-source data to ensure transparency and replicability in AI applications for ancient texts, according to gadgets360.com.
In archaeology, AI models have accelerated the discovery of geoglyphs in Peru’s Nazca Desert, including symbols that had gone unnoticed by archaeologists.
My client sat in the chair looking down at the floor, glancing up briefly to make eye contact, then darting his eyes back to the carpet. He spoke quietly, as if almost afraid to be heard. He clutched his hands throughout the session, displaying all the markers of an anxious man in the throes of shame. He was a new client to my practice: a married, middle-aged, suburban dad with a high-powered career. A colleague had given him my number months before. It took him a long time to muster the courage to call and make an appointment. Towards the end of our first session he looked up at me and said, “I think I’m in love…with another man. I’m scared and I don’t know what to do.”
I have worked with hundreds of gay men in heterosexual marriages struggling with being in the closet or wanting to emerge from it. There is so much about these men that is misunderstood and very few studies or little literature to provide insight. I decided to share my thoughts and research about these men and their struggles at a conference a few years ago. That presentation led to other opportunities to tell their story and of my work with them. Those presentations prompted men to write to me looking for guidance and support. My work with these men is informed by my own research, the experiences of my friends, but largely from over 20 years of working with men living two lives. Many of these men have been on a quest for an authentic life. These are some of the most courageous people I have encountered. They have decided to leave their secret selves behind and in the process heal old wounds, recover from past traumas and live wholeheartedly as gay men.
Maybe you are a man struggling with these issues and have no one to talk to and feel alone. I hope this blog series will provide some solace to let you know that you are not alone. Perhaps you are a therapist seeking to help your clients with these issues. I hope this series of blogs will be a resource to you and to those you are helping.
For those of you who want to understand more about these men, I’d like to give you some insight into their interior lives. Put yourself in their shoes. Imagine living your life with a secret, one that you have guarded closely for many, many years, possibly starting from childhood. A secret you keep from your spouse, your children, family, friends and co-workers. You may have built a whole life on top of and around this secret. You fear that if you reveal this hidden part of yourself you will be harshly judged, shamed, ostracized or abandoned. You believe you have a lot to lose. At times you may contemplate embracing this hidden self, living as a whole, authentic person. But with that contemplation comes the fear that if you embrace this part of yourself your world could unravel and come crashing down around you.
If you are a gay man in a straight marriage you are not alone. Let’s look at some numbers: In the 1970’s, Masters and Johnson discovered in their research that 23% of gay men and women had previously been in a straight marriage. Recent studies conducted by the Family Pride Coalition reveal that 20% of gay American men are married to a woman. In 2011, demographer Gary Gates found that of the 27 million American men married at that time, 1.6%, or 436,000 identified as gay or bisexual.
Since they were little boys, these men have been conditioned by their parents and society to try and fit into a straight mold. These boys often recognize that there is something different about them as compared to their male peers. Other boys may notice this too, leading to bullying and harassment. This leaves the gay youth feeling deep shame which becomes unexpressed and internalized. Parents often initially make the assumption their son will be straight. The programming and conditioning begins early. Parents may recognize that little Timmy is “different” yet not know how to respond to him or reject him. A father may distance himself from his son. Consider that the father is the first man the young gay boy will fall in love with and want to become attached to. If the father emotionally rejects him, it will be the boy’s first emotional betrayal. Some boys may then bond deeply or become enmeshed with mothers who overcompensate in protecting the boy. If the gay youth has no mentors, role models or people that accept him as he is, he will further wall off his homosexuality or only allow that part of himself to come out in secret.
Over the course of this blog series, I will bring some clarity and insight about this population. For those gay men in straight marriages I hope this series can offer some validation to your experience.
I will explore the reasons why gay men enter into heterosexual marriages, look at the dynamics of mixed orientation relationships and how to begin to help lead a more integrated and fulfilled life. A series on this subject would be sorely lacking if it did not address the trauma and complex emotions that the wives of these men experience once there has been a discovery or a disclosure that a husband is gay.
In the next blog in this series we will look a bit more into who these men are and why they choose to marry women.
Senior citizens with student loan debt traveled from around the country for the second time to tell President Joe Biden to cancel student loan debt for borrowers over 50 years old before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
This group faces significant financial challenges, many delay retirement, neglect health concerns, and can’t pay their bills. Many older Americans feel embarrassed, ashamed and hopeless about their mounting debt. According to the Biden administration, a third of seniors with student loan debt were in default.
Millions of seniors took out student loans to pay for their education as they changed careers. Increasing numbers of parents, especially those who are Black, rely on Parent PLUS loans to finance their children’s college education.
Direct PLUS (Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students) loans, commonly called “Parent PLUS” loans, make up $104 billion of the total federal student debt.
Detroit resident, Becki Wells, attended the December protest at the Department of Education. She has student loan debt at over $230,000 from sending two children to college.
Concept of financial literacy and education. Graduation cap on gold coins and rising red arrow isolated on white background.
Speaking at the demonstration, Ms. Wells told the crowd, “We hail from Detroit’s inner city. Yet, I successfully raised two responsible, healthy individuals who contribute positively to society and are now productive, tax-paying citizens.”
The protesters believe President Biden can easily cancel this debt before he leaves office. The Federal Claims Collection Standard Act, under Section 902.2, authorizes the Department of Education to forgive loans for elderly borrowers, considering their age and the probability of repaying the debt during their remaining years.
The combined federal and private student loan debt in the United States amounts to $1.75 trillion, spread across approximately 42.8 million federal borrowers and an estimated three million private borrowers. Many voted for President Biden because he pledged at least $10,000 in student debt relief for borrowers making less than $125,000 a year.
The government tried to fulfill this promise, but in June 2023, the Supreme Court stopped the program. Despite this setback, the administration provided student loan debt relief through focused initiatives rather than a broad-based approach. These efforts resulted in nearly $175 billion in debt relief for 4.8 million borrowers.
However, little, if any, of that relief came to seniors. The protesters are all members of the Debt Collective, the first union of debtors in the country. In September, the group protested outside the White House.
They contend that death should not be their only option for debt relief. While in Washington, they also spoke with various congressional representatives and officials from the Department of Education.
Maddie Clifford, creative media strategist for the Debt Collective, has over $120,000 in student debt. She stood in front of a group of senior student loan borrowers and told the crowd in front of the White House, “The fastest growing demographic of student debtors right now are borrowers that are 50 and older.
This issue, the student debt crisis, is affecting people from multiple generations. I’m standing here (in front of the White House) because behind me, we (other protesters) collectively owe over a million dollars in student debt. What have we done? We decided to go to college.”
She continued, “That was our only decision. We decided we wanted a piece of an American dream, and we’re being penalized for it. We’re being punished. These are really important issues because we also know that older debtors have contributed so much to the community.
They are beacons of light in their communities. They have sacrificed to keep their communities afloat, and yet they’re worried about how they’re going to make these student loan payments.
Sometimes they’re $1,000 a month. Sometimes they’re $1,500 a month. There’s no way they can pay them, so sometimes they have to default. Older borrowers, 50 and older are also more likely to default on their student loan payments.”
She explained that for seniors, death is the only comprehensive student debt relief plan. Further, “the federal government doesn’t even need these payments. They know that they won’t be able to collect the debt from these borrowers, and yet they’re still punishing them.
Student loan borrowers represented by the people behind me are also overwhelmingly women, are also disproportionately Black women,” said Ms. Clifford.
A study conducted by the Urban Institute revealed significant racial differences in student loan delinquency rates among older adults. The research showed that older individuals residing in predominantly American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN), Black, or Latino communities were more likely to fall behind on their loan payments.
While the overall delinquency rate in the representative national sample stood at eight percent, it was considerably higher in communities with a majority of AIAN (15 percent), Black (13 percent), and Latino (10 percent) residents.
Fundamental systemic obstacles play a significant role in perpetuating these inequalities. Despite achieving equivalent educational qualifications, people of color often fail to reap the same financial rewards from their academic accomplishments as their White counterparts.
Notably, women from diverse ethnic backgrounds are disproportionately concentrated in positions offering lower wages and inferior working conditions compared to White males with similar educational backgrounds. This pattern results in a compounding disadvantage that persists throughout their lives.
At 52 years old, Tricia Louise Keffer traveled from Niceville, Florida, to Washington, D.C., to participate in the protest. She explained to Truthout and In These Times that she has accumulated $200,000 in student loans from a landscape architecture master’s program that was advertised to only cost $35,000.
She believes President Biden’s refusal to follow through with his campaign promise to cancel debt felt like being “thrown out in the cold, into a freezing iceberg of death. … We don’t know what’s going to happen with the next administration. Am I going to be thrown into a debtors’ prison?”
According to the 2024 Retailer Report Card by Toxic-Free Future, “while some retailers have shown leadership, many continue to fail to address toxic chemicals and plastics in their products, packaging, and supply chains.” Graphic: Toxic-Free Future
“We live in a world commercializing on everything where money is involved, and this has speeded production of everything but human lives, in order to fill the demand of the people.
“This has caused many scientists to overlook the dangerous effects that such fast production has on the health of the people.”
—The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, “How to Eat to Live,” Book 1, page 108
While large retail companies strive to advance their revenue, many neglect to protect their consumers from poisonous products and packaging.
A recently released report, titled “The 2024 Retailer Report Card,” by environmental health research and advocacy group Toxic-Free Future and its Mind the Store program exposes some of the largest retailers in the United States and Canada for failure to protect their consumers from toxic chemicals and plastics found in the products and packaging they sell.
In their report, the Toxic-Free Future (TFF), in consultation with key partners, leading retailers, and experts in the field, assesses and scores 50 major U.S.- and Canada-located retailers using their “Four Essential Elements for a Safer Marketplace” points-based grading system.
This grading system focuses on the following four areas of corporate safer chemical policies, solutions and practices:
• Corporate Commitment: The assessment of how well retailers utilize safer chemical policies, participate in the Chemical Footprint Project, collaborate externally, and back public policies.
• Transparency: The assessment of retailers’ awareness of hazardous chemicals and plastics in products and packaging they sell, transparency with consumers regarding said hazardous materials, and actions taken to hold suppliers accountable for their compliance with restrictions on hazardous materials, or lack thereof.
• Ban the Bad: The assessment of the amount of hazardous chemicals and plastics within retailers’ current inventory, as well as their quantifiable goals and progression to condense and eliminate high-priority hazardous chemicals, chemical classes, and plastics of high concern.
• Safer Solutions: The assessment of retailers’ implementation of safer solutions. This includes the sale of truly safer products; financial investments in safer solutions, and actions being made to ensure suppliers are moving towards safer chemicals and products.
Through their assessments, the report finds that on average, retailers score as low as a D+ as their overall grade. With 80 percent of retailers losing points largely in the categories of safer solutions, for most, low grades resulted from their inaction to implement safer policies and alternatives to eliminate toxic chemicals and plastics from their stores.
In the assessment of safer solutions, the report finds that retailers were least likely to invest in, implement or track safer chemical practices. This reflects the minimal progress made to enforce corporate safer chemical policies, solutions and practices—even after retailers are made aware of hazardous chemicals in the products and packaging distributed in their stores.
Another category retailers underperformed in was transparency. In the assessment of transparency, the report finds that 54 percent of retailers often fail to obtain a comprehension report from their suppliers on the chemical ingredients found in their products and packaging before selling them.
Consequently, retailers are unable to both appropriately access the hazards of such products and clearly communicate the presence of hazardous ingredients to their consumers.
While retailer companies like Apple (A), Sephora (A-), Target (A-), Walmart (A-), Whole Foods Market (B), IKEA (B), and Ulta Beauty (B-) earned the highest marks on their report card, several other well-known retailers failed to reach such health heights.
Of the 50 retailers examined across more than 200,000 stores, 17 received the failing grade of an (F), including 7-Eleven, Five Below, Chipotle, LL Flooring (Lumber Liquidators), Macy’s, McDonald’s, Nordstrom, Sally Beauty, Subway, Trader Joe’s, and Yum!, among others.
Additionally, on average, the lowest collective grades among the retailers evaluated were received by restaurants and dollar store chains. Thus, revealing their dire need to advance their policies and practices to protect consumers.
The Final Call newspaper reached out to dollar store chains for comments but has not yet received a response.
Risks for vulnerable communities
While dollar store chains’ inadequate grades (Dollar Tree, D and Dollar General, D+) are enough to raise concern alone, the retailers’ easy accessibility to vulnerable communities causes an even greater concern.
According to studies by the Campaign for Healthier Solutions, a national movement to eliminate toxins from dollar stores, 53 percent of tested products sold in dollar stores contain at least one hazardous chemical.
Program assistant for the campaign and sociologist Nona Chai says this lends to a cycle of chemical injustices that disproportionately impact marginalized communities.
“These larger dollar store chains—Dollar General, Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, etc., operate with over 36,000 stores combined across the U.S. (which is more than Walmart) and with combined annual sales totaling more than $60 billion. So, they’re huge,” Chai told The Final Call when asked why focusing on toxins in dollar store chain products is significant.
Dollar stores can be found in almost every part of the country, selling everything from canned goods to skin care products to children’s toys at some of the lowest retail prices on the market.
As a result, many low-income and non-White families rely on dollar stores as their only option to obtain various household necessities and desires within their limited budget. However, the accessibility of dollar stores’ cheap prices comes at an expensive cost to customers’ health.
According to a 2023 study at Tufts University School of Medicine, “Dollar stores are growing as food retailers in the U.S.” The study found that, “households with more purchases at dollar stores also tend to be lower-income and headed by people of color.”
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan like his teacher, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, warned about the “profits over people” approach by many retailers. In his book, “A Torchlight for America,” in the chapter, “The Merchants Of Death,”
Minister Farrakhan writes in part, “There’s tremendous profit in promoting the death-dealing lifestyles that many of us lead. You may not believe it but the leading promoters of our destructive lifestyles are the United States government, the food and drug industries and the medical community.”
There is reason for concern when it comes to the chemicals, additives and preservatives in foods and products that are consumed and used by millions of people daily.
The availability of healthy foods and safe products in stores are important. The Campaign for Healthier Solutions is a national movement to eliminate toxins from retail store products. Photo: Pexels.com
Ph.D., biomedical scientist, Dr. Brianna X Alexander-Philips says such chemicals can negatively impact the human body on a cellular level—resulting in the development of various adverse health outcomes. This includes, but is not limited to, cancers, hormone disruptions, reproductive health issues, and compromised immune systems.
“We have to be mindful of how the body uses what we consume. So, anything that you consume, your body is going to try to break down,” Dr. Brianna X told The Final Call. She explained the difficulty of the body breaking down foods and products containing harsh chemicals and plastics.
“When you are consuming [chemicals and plastics] that your body doesn’t recognize, it doesn’t know what to do with it. Sometimes, it is excreted through urine, for example, but other times, it could get stored deep in some of your organs,” she continued.
According to Dr. Brianna X, over time, the storing of such toxins in the body could introduce mutations in your DNA sequence. This then sets off a ripple effect of unhealthy disruption throughout your body.
“DNA in the body gets converted to RNA then RNA gets converted to protein. So, if there are changes structurally in the DNA because of a mutation [caused by the consumption of toxic chemicals and plastics], the protein is going to become defective. Proteins are very important in the body for everything from interactions and movements to cell division,” Dr. Brianna X explained.
That said, the call for healthier solutions must be of high priority to both retailers and consumers.
Moving forward with healthier solutions
However, although improvements to retailer policies would be great, the call for healthier solutions must be taken into the hands of the people themselves.
In a 2010 Final Call interview with the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, the divine leader, teacher and guide was asked about what he sees in the present and future concerning health, wellness, and what must be done.
“As you can see, we are learning more of the better foods to eat, but unfortunately our food growth is in the hands of those whom we call the ‘Merchants of Death.’ They’re not caring about how food is raised or how to protect the earth and its nurturing qualities.
Pesticides and chemicals are being used, hormones are used to grow livestock at faster rates and chemicals are used for the growth of vegetation; it may look good but in the end the product is toxic. This is why so many diseases are afflicting us.
So, we’re learning how to eat to live, what foods to choose, but now we must be willing to go to the earth and produce that food so that we can extend our days,” said Minister Farrakhan.
This divine insight and guidance has been echoed by Minister Farrakhan for decades, following the example of the Teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. In the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s books.
“How To Eat To Live,” Books One and Two, he warns people about poisonous chemicals being added to the food and water supply and the negative impact on health if people continuously consume them.
In both books, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad advises and divinely guides readers toward self-preservation instructing them to choose their food wisely, mastering the science of fasting, eating one meal a day, and also producing and growing their own food.
Palestinians and Palestinian Americans on Dec. 17 filed a lawsuit accusing the U.S. State Department of creating a “loophole” allowing Israel to skirt federal legislation barring American military aid to foreign militaries that violate human rights law.
The lawsuit, which was filed by five individuals and supported by the group Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), accuses the State Department and Secretary of State Antony Blinken of violating the Leahy Law, legislation passed in two parts in the late 1990s that built on the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961’s proscription of U.S. military aid to foreign security forces that commit gross human rights violations.
According to DAWN, the suit “documents how the State Department has created unique, insurmountable processes to evade the Leahy Law requirement to sanction abusive Israeli units, despite overwhelming evidence of their human rights violations” including “torture,
Prolonged detention without charge, forced disappearance, and flagrant denials of the right to life, liberty, and security, such as genocide, indiscriminate and deliberate killings, and deprivation of items essential to survival, including food, water, fuel, and medicine.”
Case plaintiff Ahmed Moor, a Palestinian American from the southern Gazan city of Rafah who has lost numerous relatives in Israeli attacks, told Zeteo’s Prem Thakker, “I’m hoping, through this action, through this lawsuit, that we can just call out the federal government to begin to enforce American laws.”
The State Department has sparked international outrage by repeatedly finding that Israel is using U.S.-supplied arms in compliance with domestic human rights law, citing the key ally’s right to defend itself and the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack.
However, Israel’s 438-day retaliation has left more than 162,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing in Gaza and millions more forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened. Thousands more have been killed or maimed in the West Bank.
South Africa is leading a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Last month, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Both men have been warmly welcomed in Washington, D.C. Congress and the Biden administration have approved tens of billions of dollars in arms transfers to Israel. U.S.-supplied bombs have been used in some of Israel’s most notorious airstrikes. The U.S. has also vetoed numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions demanding a Gaza cease-fire.
“This lawsuit demands one thing and one thing only: for the State Department to obey the law requiring a ban on assistance to abusive Israeli security forces,” DAWN executive director Sarah Leah Whitson said in a statement on Dec. 17.
“For too long, the State Department has acted as if there’s an ‘Israel exemption’ from the Leahy Law, despite the fact that Congress required it to apply the law to every country in the world. As a result, millions of Palestinians have suffered unimaginable, horrific abuses by Israeli forces using U.S. weapons.”
Stephen Rickard, a former U.S. official who helped pass the landmark legislation, said that “long-standing concerns that the State Department was not cutting off aid to specific Israel units as required by the Leahy Law … have been given dramatic urgency by the tragic ongoing crisis in Gaza.”
“If the State Department will not comply with the law, then it is time for the courts to vindicate the rule of law and order it to do so,” Rickard added.
The new lawsuit came a day after relatives of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi—the Turkish American woman who, according to witnesses, was deliberately shot in the head while peacefully protesting the expansion of Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank in September—met with Blinken in search of justice and accountability for the activist’s killing.
Referring to another American activist killed by Israeli forces while defending Palestinian homes, Hamid Ali, Eygi’s widower, said that Blinken “was attentive in listening to us, but unfortunately repeated a lot of the same things that we’ve been hearing for the past 20 years, particularly since Rachel Corrie’s killing.”
Ali called Blinken “very deferential to the Israelis,” adding that “it felt like he was saying his hands were tied and they weren’t able to really do much.”
A journalist asked State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller during a Dec. 17 press conference why the U.S. has not suspended arms transfers to Israel by invoking the Leahy Law and citing the cases of victims like Eygi or Shireen Abu Akleh—
The Palestinian American Al Jazeera correspondent who, according to witnesses and several independent probes, was deliberately shot dead by an Israeli sniper in the West Bank in May 2022.
“We have taken those cases extremely seriously,” Miller claimed. Referring to Eygi, he added that he made it clear to Israel that “her death was unacceptable, that it should have been avoided, it should have never happened in the first place, that we want to see the results of their investigation, and we want to see them change their rules of engagement.”
In October, Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin threatened to cut off weapons to Israel if it did not dramatically improve human rights conditions in Gaza within 30 days. Thirty days came and went with no discernible improvements, yet the arms flow continued.
On Dec. 17, 20 progressive lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives led by Reps. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) and Greg Casar (D-Texas) sent Blinken and Austin a letter arguing that “the United States government must suspend offensive weapons” shipments to Israel due to its violation of federal and international law.
“U.S. law is clear: If the Netanyahu government does not allow sufficient food and medicine to enter Gaza, then the U.S. cannot send weapons,” Casar wrote on social media.
It seems as though when Allah (God) wants to elevate you, He first tries you with tribulation, with suffering and with deprivation. You may ask why would Allah (God), who loves us, try us like this? You would think that if Allah (God) is your friend and you are the friend of Allah (God) that He would make your life easy.
But He does the very opposite. There is no prophet that has ever been sent into this world that has not had a life of suffering and not a life of ease. If you tell me that you believe in Jesus, and I know you do, and you declare to the world that Jesus is the Son of God, and I know you declare that, then what father would treat his son in that manner?
You wouldn’t do that to your son. But Allah (God) saw fit to do that for a big purpose. The religion doesn’t start at his (Jesus) birth and it doesn’t start during his ministry. We take the calendar from the time of his suffering.
We don’t start the calendar of Islam with the birth of Prophet Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him (PBUH) or even from the day of his first revelation of the Qur’an. It starts from the time of a death plot and his flight to escape death. It seems that Allah (God), in His wonderful way of doing things, puts on us affliction.
He wants to know, do you love anything or anyone more than you love Him, since He is our Creator. And since everything we have is from Him, not from ourselves, then He will try us by whatever we have that we love and put before Him.
He tried Abraham by his son: Take him up on the mountain, Abraham, and plunge a dagger into his heart. I don’t know what Abraham went through to decide to obey Allah (God). But his obedience to Allah (God) made him the friend of Allah (God). Abraham loved his son but he didn’t love his son more than he loved the Father, the God, the Creator, so he took his son up on the mountain.
I read something once where Satan came to Ishmael (Abraham’s son) and said, “boy, he’s not planning to sacrifice a ram up there—it’s you.” But the boy never rebelled. He said if that’s what pleases Allah (God), that’s what pleases him. He didn’t fight his father; He laid on the alter.
As the father was about to plunge the dagger into his heart, Allah (God) stayed his hand and He said, here is the father that loves Me enough to kill a son that he had been longing for. And here’s a son that loved Me enough that if the father said that this is what (God) wanted my father to do, it’s all right with me.
Then Allah (God) said His covenant would not only be with the father; His covenant will also be with the son. He used them as a sign of a Father who would sacrifice a son and make him a redeeming agent for humanity.
Trials are necessary to bring out of you what is hidden within you. What Allah (God) has put within each human being does not come out without struggle. If you think life should be easy, you need to rethink your position.
If you think that because you go to church and tithe that Allah (God) shouldn’t bring misfortune into your life, yet the prophets that went before you and were greater than you and I, had misfortune in their lives.
When affliction comes, you wonder, why me? Why should I have cancer? Why should my child die in an accident? Why should these children have died in the fire? You (God) could have stopped it. Why did you (God) let it happen?
We have to rise above our emotion and question Allah (God). He’s the teacher. He said, didn’t I give you authority over all my creatures? The chicken wants to live; the lamb wants to live; the cow wants to live.
Maybe the horse doesn’t want to be ridden today, but you ride it. So are you any better? If Allah (God) puts the lower lives under our subjection, then our lives are for Allah’s (God’s) purpose and will. There is no life that leaves here that doesn’t leave with a purpose.
I believe that from Mississippi will come the greatest leaders, the greatest teachers and the greatest preachers because you are victims of the greatest tyranny and oppression in the history of the United States of America. Out of that suffering, Allah (God) brings greatness.
It is out of suffering that the creative power is unleashed. If you don’t suffer, you can’t create. So don’t run from your pain, run to it. Don’t run from your trial and don’t turn your back on your struggle. Allah (God) says in the Qur’an that He created man to face difficulty.
If you turn your back like a coward because you don’t want to face the trials and tribulation that life comes up with—you’d rather drink yourself under or smoke yourself under, you’d rather commit suicide rather than to face difficulty—then you disbelieve in the Power of Allah (God) to change any reality, no matter how harsh that reality may be.
Allah makes the righteous
Everybody is not a child of Allah (God). Satan has children here, too. We hope that Allah (God) is our Father, but he doesn’t have to be. Mother, you can’t make a righteous child.
I don’t care how good you are, how good your husband is or how much Bible you read, you cannot make a righteous child. All you can do is put the tools there. Only when Allah (God) steps in and takes your child does your child become a child of Allah (God).
Jesus had an argument with some Jewish people in that day, according to the Bible, and they were claiming that “Allah (God) is our Father. Even Abraham is our father.” And Jesus said: “If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.” (St. John 8:39)
They said to Jesus, even God is our father. And Jesus said: “If God were your Father, you would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.” (St. John 8:42)
He told them: “But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.” (St. John 8:40) “Ye are of your father the devil … He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (St. John 8:44)
He’s separating children from a father by means of their work. So don’t say you are a child of Allah (God) until you start doing the work of your Father. Then you can claim Him because he’s already claimed you. That’s your Bible.
Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.” If blessed are the peacemakers, then cursed are the warmongers for they shall be called the enemies of Allah (God), the children of Satan.
You’ve got to call it like it is or get out of the pulpit if you’re going to preach half-truths. No weak-kneed coward can preach Jesus. Do you think Minister Carthan is calling you into a work that will be easy?
Jesus said that if any man would be his disciple, he’d have to first deny himself, pick up whose cross? Your cross. Then what? Follow him. Jesus didn’t say worship him; he said follow him. That means that where Jesus puts his foot down, you walk where he walks. You do what he did. And Allah (God) will give you the same blessing and power that he gave to him.
Purpose of church, mosque and synagogue
This is a church, a building of stone, mortar and wood that Brother Minister Carthan and his family have the keys to in order to do a good work. What is the purpose?
Why did Allah (God) even allow a church or a mosque or a synagogue or a cloister or a cathedral or a temple to be formed? All of you go to some church, some mosque, some synagogue, some temple, but what are you there for?
Is it a social meeting place where you go to check out whose wearing what? Do you go there to gossip, to talk about your neighbor and what you heard that they got into last night or last week? What do you come here for?
It is because Allah (God) knew that Satan was going to be in power for a period of time until the coming of Allah (God). If Satan were going to rule the world for a season, then how would the people of Allah (God) be able to live in Satan’s world unless they had a place to go, a place of repair? It’s like an automobile mechanic shop.
When something goes wrong with your car and you don’t know how to fix it, you take it to the mechanic. He may ask you to leave it a day or two. And you come back and get your car and drive on.
That’s what these houses (of worship) are for. They are for you to come out of the world ruled by Satan and come into a house that’s supposedly ruled by Allah (God)—I say supposedly because everybody talking about heaven is not going there.
If the kingdom is here (within you), then it’s buried under the rubbish of what you think and how you act. When the rubbish is cleared away and the Kingdom of Allah (God) is resurrected in you, then Allah (God) starts moving in you.
When Allah (God) starts moving in you, you get a self-accusing spirit that begins to tell you, I shouldn’t have done that. Why did I do this? Oh, Lord, have mercy on me.
The self-accusing spirit wakes you up in the night and keeps you upset where you can’t sleep because you’ve been wrong and your own self is accusing you. Then you know the spirit of Allah (God) is working in you.
