CHICAGO: Two college students who participated in campus protests against Israel’s actions during its war on the Gaza Strip plan to file lawsuits against organizations they accuse of engaging in “illegal harassment” and “bullying” that provoked “death threats” against them.
The Civil Liability for Doxxing Act, an Illinois law that came into effect in January this year, gives residents of the state the right to raise a civil action against individuals or organizations that intentionally publish their personal information without consent to cause harm or economic injury. It gives courts the power to issue protection orders to ensure the safety of victims, lawyers for the students said.
Laila Ali and Kinza Khan, who participated in pro-Palestine protests during the spring, said they “suffered greatly,” personally and professionally, after their personal information was posted on social media, an act known as “doxxing,” by two organizations that target Palestinian students.
The organizations — StopAntisemitism, which is accused of harassing students on Twitter, and Canary Mission — are considered by critics to be among the most virulent anti-Arab hate groups in the US.
“The doxxing, harassment and threats that I faced were completely out of line,” Khan said during a press conference in Chicago hosted by the Council on American Islamic Relations.
“This abusive, doxxing behavior is continuing for others who support Palestine, including kids, college students, small business owners and other vulnerable people.
“We are witnessing a double standard in how pro-Palestinian doxxing gets addressed, or not addressed, by law enforcement. It’s time to demand that the anti-doxxing law is implemented fairly.”
Khan and Ali said they received thousands of emails and telephone calls after their personal details were revealed, not only to their homes but also to their employers in an attempt to have them fired.
“They threatened my life and they threatened my career,” Khan said.
Phil Robertson, CAIR-Chicago’s litigation director, said the intent of the organizations through their actions was to silence legitimate criticism of a foreign government, and that such criticism has nothing to do with antisemitism or hatred of Jews or any religious group.
“Doxxing not only aims to suppress freedom of expression but also creates an atmosphere of fear and vulnerability among Palestinians and their allies, both online and offline,” he added.
“In this situation, we have two individuals — who are indicative of many, many more — who have been subjected to this type of harassment and treatment online and it has resulted in very adverse impacts on their lives and to their well-being.”
Ali and Khan have had issues with their employers and careers as a result of the harassment, Robertson said.
“We now have tools in Illinois to allow citizens to go after people who are harassing them … We want to encourage people to contact CAIR to let us know if they have been doxxed, how long it has been going on, and keep these lawsuits coming so that we can work to end this scourge that has been happening for far too long in this country,” he added.
“The impact extends beyond individual victims to affect broader advocacy efforts and public discourse on Palestinian issues, highlighting the urgent need for enhanced protections against online abuse and harassment based on political beliefs and affiliations.”
CAIR-Chicago’s director, Ahmad Rehab, said that CAIR and the plaintiffs in the lawsuits oppose antisemitism and do not engage in “hatred against people who are Jewish.”
He added: “These organizations are weaponizing antisemitism in order to shut down Palestinian voices, individuals who have a constitutional right of expression in America.
“But don’t be mistaken. We are also very clear that we oppose antisemitism. We will not support the hatred of anyone, including Jewish people. But no one can say that you can’t criticize a foreign country or foreign government, or anyone, simply because they are Jewish. Weaponizing antisemitism actually weakens the fight against antisemitism.”
Rehab described StopAntisemitism and Canary Mission as “anti-American organizations that contradict American civil rights and don’t belong in America.”
Lawsuits target alleged anti-Arab hate groups accused of bullying pro-Palestine student protesters
https://arab.news/p2eq5
Lawsuits target alleged anti-Arab hate groups accused of bullying pro-Palestine student protesters
- Laila Ali and Kinza Khan say they ‘suffered greatly,’ personally and professionally, after their personal details were published by the groups, an act known as ‘doxxing’
- A law introduced in January gives people in Illinois the right to take civil action against persons who reveal personal details to cause harm or economic injury
Jailed movie producer Weinstein undergoes heart surgery
NEW YORK: Disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein, 72, was rushed from a New York prison to hospital for emergency heart surgery on Monday, US media reported.
ABC News quoted Weinstein’s representatives as saying he was taken to New York’s Bellevue Hospital “due to several medical conditions.”
“We can confirm that Mr. Weinstein had a procedure and surgery on his heart today however (we) cannot comment any further than that,” the statement from Craig Rothfeld and Juda Engelmayer said.
Weinstein is being held at the Rikers Island prison, where he is serving a 16-year sentence after being convicted on rape charges by a California court.
He had also been convicted by a New York court in 2020 of the rape and sexual assault of actor Jessica Mann and of forcibly performing oral sex on a production assistant. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison in that case.
An appeals court, however, overturned that conviction in April, a shock reversal in one of the defining cases of the #MeToo movement.
He is now awaiting retrial in that case.
Prosecutors say they may bring new sexual assault charges against him ahead of the retrial, and Weinstein was due to attend a procedural hearing in that case on Thursday.
His lawyers have argued for a retrial in the California case, too.
Arthur Aidala, Weinstein’s lawyer, said in July that his client’s health had been deteriorating in prison.
The once-powerful film mogul has made court appearances in a wheelchair, looking frail and pale.
“He’s not a young man, he’s a sick man,” Aidala said at the time. “His diabetes is going through the roof.”
In 2017, the allegations against Weinstein helped launch the #MeToo movement, a watershed moment for women fighting sexual misconduct.
More than 80 women accused him of harassment, sexual assault or rape, including prominent actors Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashley Judd.
Weinstein says that any sexual relations in question were consensual.
He and his brother Bob co-founded Miramax Films in 1979, a major Hollywood studio behind such diverse hits as “Pulp Fiction,” “There Will Be Blood,” and “Shakespeare in Love.”
Germany tightens controls at all borders in immigration crackdown
- Recent deadly knife attacks in which the suspects were asylum seekers have stoked concerns over immigration
- Backlash had been building in Germany ever since it took in more than a million people fleeing countries such as Syria during the 2015/2016 migrant crisis
The controls within what is normally a wide area of free movement — the European Schengen zone — will start on Sept. 16 and initially last for six months, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Monday.
The government has also designed a scheme enabling authorities to reject more migrants directly at German borders, Faeser said, without adding details on the controversial and legally fraught move.
The restrictions are part of a series of measures Germany has taken to toughen its stance on irregular migration in recent years following a surge in arrivals, in particular people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government is seeking to seize back the initiative from the opposition far-right and conservatives, who have seen support rise as they tap into voter worries about stretched public services, integration and security.
“We are strengthening internal security and continuing our hard line against irregular migration,” Faeser said, noting the government had notified the European Commission and neighboring countries of the intended controls.
Recent deadly knife attacks in which the suspects were asylum seekers have stoked concerns over immigration. The Daesh group claimed responsibility for a knife attack in the western city of Solingen that killed three people in August.
The AfD earlier this month became the first far-right party since World War Two to win a state election, in Thuringia, after campaigning heavily on the issue of migration.
Polls show it is also voters’ top concern in the state of Brandenburg, which is set to hold elections in two weeks.
Scholz and Faeser’s center-left Social Democrats (SPD) are fighting to retain control of the government there, in a vote billed as a test of strength of the SPD ahead of next year’s federal election.
“The intention of the government seems to be to show symbolically to Germans and potential migrants that the latter are no longer wanted here,” said Marcus Engler at the German Center for Integration and Migration Research.
A TEST FOR EUROPE
A backlash had been building in Germany ever since it took in more than a million people mostly fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria during the 2015/2016 migrant crisis, migration experts say.
It reached a tipping point in the country of 84 million people after it automatically granted asylum to around a million Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s 2022 invasion even as Germany was struggling through an energy and economic crisis.
Since then, the German government has agreed tighter deportation rules and resumed flying convicted criminals of Afghan nationality to their home country, despite suspending deportations after the Taliban took power in 2021 due to human rights concerns.
Berlin last year also announced stricter controls on its land borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. Those and controls on the border with Austria had allowed it to return 30,000 migrants since October 2023, it said on Monday.
Faeser said a new model would enable the government to turn back many more — but it could not talk about the model before confidential negotiations with the conservatives.
The controls could test European unity if they lead to German authorities requesting other countries to take back substantial numbers of asylum seekers and migrants.
Under EU rules countries in the Schengen area, which encompasses all of the bloc bar Cyprus and Ireland, are only allowed to introduce border checks as a last resort to avert threats to internal security or public policy.
Germany shares its more than 3,700-km-long (2,300 miles) land border with Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland.
Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told Bild newspaper on Monday that his country would not take in any migrants turned away by Germany at the border.
“There’s no room for maneuver there,” he said.
The measures may not immediately result in many more migrants being turned away at the border, but they could result in more returns to other European countries down the line, as well as acting as a deterrent, said Susan Fratzke at the Migration Policy Institute. The number of asylum applications in Germany already fell 21.7 percent in the first eight months of the year, according to government statistics.
India’s top court orders protesting doctors to resume work by Tuesday
- Hundreds of doctors nationwide have stayed off work as they demand justice for the rape and murder of a trainee woman doctor in Kolkata
- A police volunteer was arrested for the crime and federal police said former principal of the college had also been arrested for alleged graft
NEW DELHI: India’s Supreme Court ordered all doctors protesting over the rape and murder of a female medic last month to resume work by Tuesday, warning they may face “adverse action” if they failed to adhere to the deadline.
Hundreds of doctors nationwide have stayed off work as they demand justice for the woman, whose body was found on Aug. 9 in a classroom at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, in the eastern state of West Bengal, where she was a trainee.
A police volunteer was arrested for the crime and federal police said last week that the former principal of the college had also been arrested for alleged graft.
Doctors have also been demanding better amenities in government-run hospitals, which they say lack security and basic infrastructure such as resting spaces for staff.
The Supreme Court on Monday said that no adverse action would be taken against doctors who returned to work by Tuesday evening.
“The resident doctors cannot be oblivious to the needs of the general community whom they are intended to serve,” said Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, heading a three-judge bench of the court.
The court also directed the West Bengal government to take steps to assure doctors of their concerns being addressed, including by providing separate duty rooms and toilets for male and female personnel, and installing CCTV cameras.
Demonstrations over the attack spread beyond India’s borders over the weekend, as thousands of diaspora Indians protested in more than 130 cities across 25 countries, including Japan, Australia, Europe, and the US
The court, which took up the matter of its own accord following outrage over the incident, had earlier formed a hospital safety task force to recommend steps to ensure the safety of medical workers.
Women’s rights activists say the incident has highlighted how women continue to face sexual violence in India despite tougher laws being introduced after the 2012 gang-rape and murder of a woman in a moving bus in Delhi.
Catherine, princess of Wales, says she’ll return to public duties
- The wife of Prince William is expected to undertake light program of engagements until year end
- The princess announced in March that she was being treated for an undisclosed type of cancer
LONDON: Catherine, the Princess of Wales, says she has completed chemotherapy and will return to some public duties in the coming months.
The 42-year-old wife of Prince William is expected to undertake a light program of engagements until the end of the year.
The princess announced in March that she was being treated for an undisclosed type of cancer.
Kate attended a ceremonial birthday parade for her father-in-law King Charles III in June, and the following month presented the men’s winner’s trophy at the Wimbledon tennis championships.
Cyprus and US sign defense deal outlining ways to tackle regional crises
- According to joint statement, agreement also foresees working together on dealing with “malicious actions”
NICOSIA: Cyprus and the United States have signed a defense cooperation framework agreement that outlines ways the two countries can enhance their response to regional humanitarian crises and security concerns, including those arising from climate change.
Cyprus Defense Minister Vassilis Palmas and US Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Celeste Wallander hailed the agreement on Monday as another milestone in burgeoning Cypriot-US ties in recent years that saw the lifting in 2022 of a decades-old US arms embargo imposed on the east Mediterranean island nation.
“The Republic of Cyprus is a strong partner to the United States, in Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, and plays a pivotal role at the nexus of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East,” Wallander said after talks with Palmas.
The US official praised Cyprus for acting as a safe haven for American civilians evacuated from Sudan and Israel last year and for its key role in setting up a maritime corridor to Gaza through which more than 20 million pounds of humanitarian aid has been shipped to the Palestinian territory.
“It is evident that Cyprus is aligned with the West,” Wallander said.
Palmas said Cyprus would continue building toward “closer, stronger and beneficial bilateral defense cooperation with the United States.”
According to a joint statement, the agreement also foresees working together on dealing with “malicious actions” and bolstering ways for the Cypriot military to operate more smoothly with US forces.
