“As an adjudicated insurrectionist, Trump is an illegitimate president according to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, and therefore every official act as president will be illegitimate.”
–Mike Zonta, co-editor of OccupySF.net
The 14th Amendment states: “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
Call your Congressperson and your U.S. Senators at (202) 224-3121
The story of the improbable becoming possible — told by the people who slept in the park.
About The Series
In 2008, a Wall Street crash gutted millions of lives. It took until 2011 for the Left to answer — a call to protest went out, thousands came, and they tried to build an anti-capitalist village in a small Manhattan park.
Told through the voices of activists who camped in Zuccotti Park for almost two months, Occupy! An Unfinished Uprising gets inside a movement that grew fast, felt transcendent and chaotic at once, and then violently flamed out. The press called it a failure. It changed the national conversation about capitalism, gave us the language of the 99%, and trained a generation of organizers.
As Occupy’s 15th anniversary arrives this September, it’s a reminder that collective action can still reshape what looks impossible.
On November 22, 1994, then-U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich delivered a famously prescient speech titled “A New Middle Class” to the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). Coming just two weeks after the Democrats lost control of Congress in the 1994 midterm elections, Reich used the platform to warn that growing economic inequality was actively threatening American democracy. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Watch Robert Reich’s address to the Democratic Leadership Council analyzing the economic frustrations of the American middle class:
The “Two-Tiered Society”: Reich explicitly warned that the United States was transitioning into a “two-tiered society”. This structure was sharply divided between a few wealthy winners and a vast majority of left-behind working-class Americans. [1, 2]
Rise of Demagoguery and Populist Rage: He accurately predicted that an eroding middle class would harbor deep disillusionment and anger. He warned that this mass resentment would be easily manipulated by political demagogues. This would divert blame away from structural economic issues and target marginalized groups. [1, 2]
Critique of “Corporate Welfare”: Reich urged the Clinton administration and Democratic leadership to cut government subsidies for corporations. He argued that taxpayer money should instead be reallocated toward public worker retraining programs and education. [1]
The Broken Economic Bargain: He emphasized that the “old American bargain”—which promised that hard work would lead to economic security—was fundamentally broken. This occurred because the economic recovery of the 1990s was bypassing average workers. [1, 2]
Historical Legacy and Backlash
The speech was highly controversial at the time and caused significant friction within the Clinton administration. By directly challenging corporate subsidies and urging the party to aggressively protect the working class, Reich clashed with the DLC’s business-friendly, “Third Way” centrist philosophy. [1, 2]
Decades later, the address is widely viewed by political scientists as remarkably prophetic. It anticipated the exact economic anxieties, intense political polarization, and right-wing populist movements that shaped modern American politics. [1]
The U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., on Feb. 6, 2017. Photo: Susan Walsh/AP File
U.S. Central Command maintains a secret directory of journalists who have been blacklisted by the press office, according to an official with CENTCOM public affairs. The disclosure comes amid a failed war in Iran, a “cover-up” of U.S. casualties from that conflict, and repeated refusals by CENTCOM to address questions about civilian deaths in Iran, including the killing of a family recently disclosed by The Intercept.
The CENTCOM official who revealed the existence of the list threatened that this reporter could be added to it for calling the command too often.
“You’ll be put on a list of people to disregard,” Richard Allee, an executive assistant with CENTCOM public affairs told this reporter. When asked for clarification — “You have a list of people to disregard?” — he confirmed it with an emphatic: “Yes.” When asked which reporters or outlets were currently on the list, he replied: “I’m not privy to give you that information.”
Under self-styled War Secretary Pete Hegseth, the U.S. military has mounted the most aggressive assault on press freedom in memory, from an effort to outlaw “unauthorized” questions from reporters to imposing unconstitutional restrictions on journalists’ access to the Pentagon. Hegseth has compared reporters to “Pharisees,” who in the Bible call Jesus’s teachings into question, while the secretary’s minions regularly hurl insults at reporters. This is part of a broader war on press freedoms by the Trump administration, that includes demonizing journalists; filing so-called strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPPs, to intimidate and silence criticism through expensive legal proceedings; and employing grand jury subpoenas and search warrants to intimidate reporters.
“Threatening journalists with placement on a blacklist in retaliation for reporting the government doesn’t like is as unconstitutional as it gets,” said Seth Stern, the director of advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation. “This should put to rest the Pentagon’s prior claims that it’s anti-press policies — like its infamous requirement that reporters sign pledges to only print authorized information — are somehow content neutral.”
Allee revealed the existence of the blacklist after this reporter was left on hold for more than two hours and complained about a long-standing lack of transparency by the command. In calls earlier that morning, Maj. Emma Thompson, CENTCOM’s media operations chief, repeatedly refused to answer questions about Iranian attacks on U.S. bases across the Middle East, disparate U.S. casualty counts, and medical evacuation flights: “Nothing for you,” “Don’t have anything for you,” “No comment.” Thompson then hung up on this reporter mid-question.
The Intercept called back multiple times until Allee picked up the phone. “They’re not going to answer your call if you just keep calling and calling,” he told this reporter.
Allee chastised this reporter to be more respectful. He said a “less accusatory attitude towards the personnel here would go a lot further than badgering them when you don’t get something you want, when you want it.”
Allee then revealed the existence of the blacklist. He declined to provide additional details about the list but said, “It’s not a list that we publicize.” He also hung up on this reporter.
The command’s press office responded in an email to additional questions about the journalists who have run afoul of the command. “CENTCOM does not have a ‘blacklist,’” the agency wrote.
A U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that Hegseth’s office had a standing order not to engage with this reporter and would deny it if challenged.
“None of it has anything to do with security, all of it has everything to do with censorship and intimidation,” Stern told The Intercept. “CENTCOM needs to stop blacklisting journalists and tell the public who is on the blacklist and why they were placed there. Whoever was behind the blacklist should be blacklisted from government employment.”
“None of it has anything to do with security, all of it has everything to do with censorship and intimidation.”
Under Hegseth, the Pentagon has mounted an unrelenting assault on press freedom despite the fact that the secretary began his tenure by sharing secret information on airstrikes in Yemen, hours before the actual attacks occurred, on a Signal group chat that inadvertently included Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic.
As part of his war on the press, Hegseth evicted the New York Times, NPR, and other outlets from their long-held desks in the Pentagon and replaced them with sycophantic fellow-travelers like the One America News Network, the New York Post, and Breitbart.
In May 2025, Hegseth issued a memo barring credentialed reporters from most of the Pentagon without an escort. (Last month, a federal appeals court said that the Pentagon can continue doing so.) The Pentagon later introduced a policy requiring journalists to pledge not to even gather, at the risk of their credentials, unclassified information unless the government authorized its release. (This drove nearly the entire Pentagon press corps to surrender their badges.) After the Times sued and a federal judge struck the policy down in March 2026 as unconstitutional, Hegseth shuttered a decades-old Pentagon pressroom and began conducting polygraph tests to prevent leaks.
Trump also filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit after the Wall Street Journal reported on a letter sent from him to convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein; he also banned WSJ reporters from flying aboard Air Force One. This year, Trump also told journalists to give up a source “or go to jail,” threatened the press with “Charges for TREASON for the dissemination of false information,” and praised FCC chief Brendan Carr for threatening “the licenses of some of these Corrupt and Highly Unpatriotic ‘News’ Organizations.” (The Intercept is currently suing Trump for restricting First Amendment-protected information in a scheme to enrich himself.)
We’re independent of corporate interests — and powered by members. Join us.
While Trump and Hegseth have waged a pitched campaign to dismantle the free press, they are merely building upon decades of efforts by the government to curtail accountability journalism.
Military commands have regularly led this reporter on with promises of information only to renege months later; ignored calls and emails; feigned failing phone lines to end calls; hung up, lost Freedom of Information Act requests; and once even burned documents in lieu of releasing them.
This reporter was blacklisted in 2018 by U.S. Africa Command after exposing the torture of prisoners at a remote military base in Cameroon for The Intercept. “Nick, we’re not going to respond to any of your questions” then-Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Falvo, the head of U.S. Africa Command’s Public Affairs Branch, told me by phone. Asked if he believed AFRICOM didn’t need to address questions from the press in general, or just this reporter in particular, Falvo replied: “No, just you. We don’t consider you a legitimate journalist, really.”
The anonymous U.S. official said that sentiment extends to this day across multiple commands, as well as Hegseth’s office.
This reporter has unanswered questions pending with CENTCOM that date back to at least 2013 and extend to this week. For example, in July 2015, a CENTCOM spokesperson responded to an inquiry with this statement: “We will provide you response as quickly as possible.” Eleven years later, this reporter is still waiting.
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.
What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government.
This is not hyperbole.
Court orders are being ignored. MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse. News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation.
Yet far too many are still covering Trump’s assault on democracy like politics as usual, with flattering headlines describing Trump as “unconventional,” “testing the boundaries,” and “aggressively flexing power.”
The Intercept has long covered authoritarian governments, billionaire oligarchs, and backsliding democracies around the world. We understand the challenge we face in Trump and the vital importance of press freedom in defending democracy.
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
How healthy you are is dependent on where you live. Americans suffer more cancers, heart disease, mental illness, and other chronic diseases than those who live in other wealthy nations, despite having the most expensive healthcare system in the world. Why? Embark on a journey to unravel the profound impact of public policies on American health from before birth in Born Sick in the Improving the Health of a Nation. Delve into the intricate web where economic inequality weaves a tapestry of sickness stemming from a highly stressed society. This compelling read illuminates the need for transformative change in social safety nets and public policies to uplift national health and well-being. Through vivid storytelling, the book unveils the symptoms, diagnosis, and ‘medicine’ required to steer the nation toward a healthier future. Join the movement for a healthier America by embracing the insightful revelations and empowering calls to action presented within the pages of this eye-opening book.
Stephen Bezruchka began his journey as a Harvard mathematics graduate who fell in love with the mountains of Nepal. There, he wrote the country’s first trekking guidebook before returning to the U.S. to study medicine at Stanford University. In the mid-1970s, he went back to the Himalayas to establish a community health project in a remote valley, far from any roads. This experience shaped a unique career where he alternated between working as an emergency physician in the U.S. and teaching medicine to local doctors in the most isolated regions of Nepal.
Through his travels, Stephen noticed a puzzling gap between America’s vast wealth and its actual health outcomes. This realization led him to earn a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University to study the social and political factors that drive health. Today, he views the country itself as a “patient” in need of treatment. He focuses on educating the public about the root causes of health through the Population Health Forum, which he founded in 1998, and his leadership roles with organizations like Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Currently, Stephen is an Associate Teaching Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington, where he has received numerous awards for his teaching and community service. As an author, his works include popular titles such as A Guide to Trekking in Nepal, The Pocket Doctor, and Altitude Illness, many of which have been translated into multiple languages. When he isn’t busy as an academic or economic inequality activist, he continues to pursue his passion for mountaineering, having explored the highest peaks of North America, Pakistan, and China.
TODAY, Monday, August 24: With just over a week until his primary, phone bank for Indivisible-endorsed candidate Patrick Roath (MA-08) (5:30pm ET/2:30pm PT). Roath is facing thirteen-term incumbent Stephen Lynch, whose MAGA-aligned voting record (including voting to thank ICE for its service and for the Laken Riley Act, which turbocharged Trump’s detention and deportation machine) is wildly out of step with his constituents in MA-08. In sharp contrast to Lynch, Roath will bring his experience as a pro-democracy lawyer and advocate to Congress to fight for all working families. We need a strong showing of people power to get him across the finish line. Paid for by Indivisible Action. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.
California and a group of other states have lost one skirmish with the Trump administration on the Supreme Court’s shadow docket regarding ballots by mail, with the court essentially saying the states can’t sue because they haven’t been harmed yet.
President Trump issued an executive order in March directing the Department of Homeland Security to compile a list for each state of who in that state is eligible to vote, and directing the Justice Department to prioritize the prosecution of state election officials who send mail-in ballots to ineligible individuals.
Trump was, of course, trying to fix a nonexistent problem and sow further distrust in US election ahead of what’s likely to be a midterm season that will be disastrous for Republicans. And a Boston-based federal judge, US Judge Indira Talwani, issued an injunction in June to stop Trump’s order from taking effect, saying that Trump had overstepped in infringing on the states’ constitutional powers to organize and administer elections.
Separately, Judge Talwani issued another injunction in August that blocks the US Postal Service from implementing the demands of Trump’s order, saying that with less than 90 days before the November election, the administration could not begin changing the rules for how elections are run.
On Monday, the Supreme Court issued an unsigned ruling responding only to the first injunction, and the Justice Department’s request that it be stayed. The court’s conservative majority said, essentially, that the states lack standing to prevent a subordinate agency to the president from carrying out his order, because they can not document harm — the harm they cite is merely theoretical until DHS actually begins issuing its own voter rolls, if, for instance, they don’t match states’ own records of eligible voting adults.
“The Executive Order makes no demand of the States, so staying the District Court’s injunction will not concretely harm them,” the majority says. “That is why this suit was not justiciable in the first place.”
The majority adds, “The court’s disposition of this application does not mean that any measure taken by the government to implement the order will necessarily be lawful. On that score, time will tell.”
Justices Kagan and Sotomayor joined in a dissent penned by Sotomayor, in which the justice says that “today’s decision merely postpones adjudication of those challenges” by the states, which are sure to come.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, as has become her style, penned her own more vociferous dissent, saying today’s ruling “needlessly injects chaos and uncertainty into the upcoming midterm elections.” And, she adds that while the court has previously ruled against election challenges that come too late, “today’s revelation is that such claims can also come too early — never mind that an election is looming and related harms are presently occurring.”
A further challenge from the federal court in Massachusetts may arrive as soon as tomorrow, CNN reports.
“The ruling is a win for Trump for the moment, but it doesn’t fully clear the way for his effort to limit mail-in ballots to go into effect,” says CNN Supreme Court analyst Steve Vladeck.
Today’s win for Trump comes less than two months after a loss at the Supreme Court on this same issue. The court ruled 5-4 in June on the issue of late-arriving mail-in ballots, saying that they can and should be counted based on state rules regarding postmarks, so long as the ballots are cast by Election Day. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the three liberals in that majority, in a show of support for the legality of voting by mail.
posted by SF League of Pissed-Off Voters | 379sc August 25, 2026
Our membership voted to endorse the following candidates and ballot measures for the November 2026 election.
San Francisco Offices
US House, Congressional District 11: Connie Chan US House, Congressional District 15: No Endorsement
Board of Supervisors, District 2: No Endorsement Board of Supervisors, District 4: No Endorsement Board of Supervisors, District 6: No Endorsement Board of Supervisors, District 8: #1 Gary McCoy, #2 Michael Nguyen (Ranked endorse) Board of Supervisors, District 10: Dion-Jay “DJ” Brookter and JR Eppler (Non-ranked dual endorse)
SFUSD Board of Education: Virginia Cheung, Ryan Hazelton, Reina Tello City College Board of Trustees: Leah LaCroix, Bunny McFadden City College Board of Trustees, Partial Term: No Endorsement
Assessor-Recorder: Joaquín Torres Public Defender: Mano Raju
State Assembly, District 17: No Endorsement State Assembly, District 19: No Endorsement
Local Propositions
Prop A: Charter reform limit oversight committees: HellNo! Prop B: Public bank: Hell Yes! Prop C: Housing trust fund: Yes Prop D: Charter reform limit ballot measure submissions: Hell No! Prop E: Charter reform limit contracting oversight: Hell No! Prop F: Charter reform expand mayor’s power: Hell No! Prop G: Great Highway compromise: No Endorsement Prop H: Parcel tax to fund Muni: Yes Prop I: Affordable housing guarantee act: Hell Yes! Prop J: Remove foreclosure exemption from property transfer tax: Yes Prop RTM: Regional Transit Sales Tax: Yes
State Propositions
Prop 1: Affordable housing bond: Yes Prop 2: Budget stabilization and expand rainy day fund: No position Prop 3: Extend high income tax for schools and healthcare: Yes Prop 4: Legalize public campaign financing: Yes Prop 5: State recall reform: Yes Prop 37: $25B bond for new home buyers: No position Prop 38: $8.4B bond for immunology research: No Prop 39: Require ID to vote: HellNo! Prop 40: Billionaire wealth tax: Hell Yes! Prop 41: Require pre-election audit for voter-passed taxes: No Prop 42: Limit state ability to raise taxes: No Prop 43: Limit local voters’ ability to pass local taxes: No Prop 44: Require health clinics to spend 90% of revenue on services: No Prop 45: Limit CEQA review: No
Statewide Offices
Governor: No Endorsement Lieutenant Governor: No Endorsement Secretary of State: Shirley Weber State Controller: No Endorsement State Treasurer: No Endorsement Attorney General: Rob Bonta Insurance Commissioner: Jane Kim State Superintendent of Public Instruction: Richard Barrera Board of Equalization, District 2: Sally Lieber
Judges
CA Supreme Court: Retain all (Groban, Evans) First Court of Appeals: Retaina all (Smiley, Banke, Wilson, Desautels, Stewart, Fujisaki, Petrou, Simons, Chou, Burns)
We’ll be back in a few weeks with the full Pissed Off Voter Guide. We can’t wait to share it with you!
Paid for by the San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters. Financial disclosures available at sfethics.org.
Your own government has come up with six new ways to stop you from voting. Watch our short videos. We tell you how they do it and we tell you what you can do about it.
America is in a new Jim Crow Reloaded matrix. We can escape and fight it. Here’s how.
Listen up! Edward Ward is laying out the new ways they are trying to Jim Crow your vote.
Hosted by Edward Ward, Chicago voting rights warrior. Fellow of the Transformative Justice Coalition and the Palast Investigative Fund.
Never heard of “Crosscheck”? Well, they’ve heard of YOU and they want to cancel your registration. That’s just one way they’ll rip off your vote.
There’s also a prove-you’re-a-citizen scam, and the Big Purge and half a dozen other gotcha tricks to remove voters — especially if you’re young, a voter of color or a woman — in other words, if you’re an American.
Watch the videos. Protect yourself. And, for democracy’s sake, join us to stop this cyber-terror cross burning.
Grab your popcorn and start watching!! Watch Now →
Assembly Member Mia Bonta attends a press conference alongside Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Health and Human Services Secretary Kim Johnson on March 2.Jessica Christian/S.F. Chronicle
Immigration nonprofit workers gained state protections from doxxing and targeted harassment after Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday signed a bill that expanded California’s Safe at Home program to include them.
Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2624 into law after months of vitriolic attacks from Republicans in California and Washington falsely claimed the legislation would obstruct journalists from uncovering fraud. Assembly Member Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego, an outspoken conservative lawmaker, nicknamed the bill the “Stop Nick Shirley Act,” a claim the right-wing online provocateur and other Republicans quickly seized on.
Assembly Member Mia Bonta, D-Alameda, introduced the bill in February after hearing reports of increased threats and harassment against immigration services providers. Newsom said in early February that Somali daycare providers in San Diego were “under siege” following Shirley’s arrival in the community to shoot content after viral videos he’d produced about Minnesota went viral.
The bill cleared the state Senate on Tuesday and passed the Assembly on Wednesday.
Effective Oct. 1, 2027, the new law expands a decades-long state program that shields the addresses of domestic violence survivors, elder abuse victims, and reproductive and gender-affirming healthcare workers.
“Our immigrant service providers are living in fear because of extremists looking to demonize the work that they do and the populations they serve,” Bonta said in a statement Saturday. “That is an intolerable consequence of the anti-immigrant rhetoric that exists right now.”
The Safe at Home program, in place since 1999, offers substitute mailing addresses to individuals who are particularly vulnerable to targeted attacks and violent threats. Saturday’s signing narrowly expands eligibility to include employees at nonprofits that serve people navigating the immigration system.
In April, testimony before the Assembly Privacy Committee revealed a surge of threats against the nonprofit workers, including hate calls and stalking.
“They were looking for me and ended up in my mother’s home,” Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, told the committee. “There’s so many of my colleagues where individuals have shown up to their home, who have been threatened, and this is not just our organization, but many others.”
Bonta’s bill was considered uncontroversial until early April when DeMaio claimed it would intimidate people “trying to shine light on bad behavior,” referring to Shirley, a prominent YouTuber whose content includes following immigrant workers in blue cities and accusing them of committing fraud.
The bill even garnered attention in the U.S. Senate last month when Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., referenced the “Stop Nick Shirley Act” in California, saying it should be called the “Protect Fraudsters Act.”
Bonta said in her statement Saturday the law does not conflate the press with the doxxing targeted by the Safe at Home program.
Individuals who are eligible for the Safe at Home program must apply through the secretary of state and document that they — or the organization they work for — have faced threats, harassment or violence within the past year. Once certified, the participants receive a substitute address that state and local agencies must accept in place of their real home, school or place of work, according to Bonta’s office.
Immigration nonprofits are eligible to apply beginning next October.
“I’m proud that with the signing of this bill California is rejecting that, even when people try to make us feel that the political cost of supporting immigrant communities is too high,” she added.
Sarah Brager is a Hearst Fellow covering breaking news. Prior to joining the San Francisco Chronicle, she spent a year reporting hyperlocal news in Houston for Community Impact. Originally from the Austin area, her work has appeared in Texas Monthly, the Austin American-Statesman and on the radio for the Texas Standard/KUT News. Sarah graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied journalism and public policy.
Heather Cox Richardson Aug 17, 2026 an American political organizer and New York Times best-selling author who served as the chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin from July 2019 to July 2025. Ben’s latest book This Is The Plan: How to End America’s Meltdown and Save Democracy is now available. Wikler profiles Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette, the Wisconsin reformer who battled corporate power and drove some of the Progressive Movement’s greatest victories. 250 to 250 From the time of our country’s founding 250 years ago, the story of America has been one of the constant efforts of Americans—from all races, ethnicities, genders, and abilities—to make real the belief that we are all created equal and have a right to have a say in our democracy. We will be telling their stories over the next several weeks because now, as ever, “We Are America.”
Palestinians mourn for a three-month-old baby named Tim El Khavaja, who lived in a tent in the Shati Camp lost his life due to cold weather conditions in northern Gaza Strip, Gaza on December 12, 2025. The body of the baby was brought to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City for funeral arrangements.
(Photo by Hamza Z. H. Qraiqea/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The abuses by the Israeli government and military are “a stain on the conscience of humanity, requiring the UK and France to act.”
While critics of the French and British governments say they are doing too little to confront the crimes and human rights violations of Israel against the Palestinian people, about 100 former diplomats of the two nations penned an open letter published over the weekend agreeing that much stronger actions must be taken to end the atrocities taking place in both the Gaza Strip and the Occupied West Bank.
Published in Le Monde on Saturday, the joint op-ed by the former UK and French ambassadors and foreign diplomats argues that because their two nations “played a decisive role in the shaping of the Middle East,” it is incumbent upon them to “make common cause over the region’s fundamental faultline: equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians”—a dynamic grossly lacking as Palestinians are starved and bombed in Gaza, with their rights endlessly under assault in the West Bank.
In Gaza, two million Palestinians are kettled into 30% of their devastated land, hungry, lacking medicine and housing. Over 1,200 Palestinians have been killed since the so-called “ceasefire” of October 2025. In East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, Palestinian house demolitions and rampant settler violence—with the connivance of the Israeli army and police—amount to ethnic cleansing. Palestine is being erased before our eyes.
This policy of occupation and destruction extends to Lebanon—where many villages have been razed—and Syria. It is a stain on the conscience of humanity, requiring the UK and France to act.
While human rights groups have steadfastly demanded accountability for Israel—including tougher sanctions, suspension of trade agreements, a halt to weapons transfers, and enforcement of rulings by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and proceedings at the International Criminal Court—for its ongoing criminal behavior against the Palestinians, European governments, the United States, and other Western allies have resisted such calls.
While noting that much can be done to help Palestine become “a fully functioning democratic nation,” the letter from the former diplomats makes a call for seven specific actions designed to end Israeli impunity and bring the government back into compliance with international law. The policy recommendations directed at the UK and French governments are:
Suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement and the UK-Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement for breach of human rights provisions;
Suspend arms transfers to and from Israel and all bilateral military cooperation;
Insist on unrestricted aid access to Gaza, led by UNRWA, other UN agencies and international NGOs, with consequences for non-compliance; access too for journalists, diplomats and parliamentarians;
Ban all trade with settlements, including goods, investment, insurance and other financial services;
Warn potential bidders for the red-line “E1” area [east of Jerusalem, in the occupied territories] or other settlement financing/construction that their interests in and with our countries will suffer;
Make it an offense for our citizens to buy property on stolen Palestinian land and remove charitable status from “charities” funding settlements.
Nicholas Hopton, a former UK ambassador to Iran, Qatar and Yemen and one of the letter’s signatories, said the language they used was not invented by the diplomats themselves.
“The words are not our own,” Hopton explained to Al Jazeera. “They are taken from the international legal bodies, the UN, those who have been observing from a neutral position and with expertise.”
What’s key to understand, said Peter Millett, a former British ambassador to Libya who also signed the letter, is that what the signatories are asking for “is action, not words.”
Foreign ministers of the France and Britia “over the last few months and years have issued statements of criticism, of condemnation and so forth,” Millett told Al-Jazeera, “but as the letter makes clear, this is the time now where we need to see action on trade, action on settlements, more support for aid to go into Gaza, and the ending of the arms trade.”
At the heart of the letter is the idea that world leaders, whether in Europe or elsewhere, must now act aggressively to bring the suffering of the Palestinians to an end and bring Israel’s violations and abuses to a halt.
“These proposals reflect our shared values—international law and equal rights—which are in our interest,” the letter concludes. “Where there is no law, none of us is safe.”
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Friends of Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center and Voices for Justice in Palestine present How the Movement to Break the Blockade of Gaza Began and Continues Wednesday / Aug 26 / 4 pm Club Room at Creekside 1010 Stanley Dollar Drive, Walnut Creek For more information, contact 925.324.3358. Greta Berlin... Continue reading →
One Million Rising: Strategic Non-Cooperation to Fight Authoritarianism Virtual Event · Hosted by No Kings Time Wednesdays 8 – 9:30pm EDT Location Virtual event Join from anywhere About this event Across the country, authoritarian forces are getting bolder and more dangerous. Trump and his allies are not hiding their agenda: mass deportations,... Continue reading →
Meeting Agenda August 26, 2026 The San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee will meet on Wednesday, August 26, 2026 at 5:30 pm at Asian Pacific American Community Center, 66 Raymond Ave, San Francisco, CA 94134. Members of the public can live stream the meeting on the Party’s YouTube page. Note that you... Continue reading →
SF Green Party Showing events after 3/27. Look for earlier events Wednesday, April 20 7:30pm SF Green Party Council Meeting WhenWed, April 20, 7:30pm – 9:00pm WhereEl CafeTazo, 3087 16th St, San Francisco, CA 94103 (map) Description: This elected group is the equivalent to other political parties Central Committee. The San Franciso... Continue reading →
THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 2023 AT 2 AM – 4 AM PDT How to create trust in a group? Details Event by Extinction Rebellion Empathy Circles online EMPATHY CAFE Duration: 2 hr Public · Anyone on or off Facebook How to create trust in a group? This is the question that arose in our... Continue reading →
March on Washington 2026 Updates: March on Washington 2026: Defend the Vote. Join Us for the March on Washington : Defend the Vote You’re invited to stand with people from across the country at the March on Washington: Defend the Vote on Friday, August 28, 2026, at 8 AM ET at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.... Continue reading →
Trump Regime Takedown: Every Saturday Saturday, March 7, 2026 12:00 PM 2:00 PM Tesla San Francisco999 Van Ness AvenueSan Francisco, CA, 94109United States (map) Google Calendar ICS Keep democracy alive every Saturday by showing up, taking a stand, and sticking together for the long haul. Standing together is better than standing alone. Let’s get together... Continue reading →
This Sunday’s Town Hall: Announcing This Week’s Progressive Town Hall: Every Sunday at 4pm ET/1pm PT RSVP HERE Join PDA activists online from across the country to discuss the importance of progressives reclaiming the American story from the MAGA right, an issue of heightened importance as we’re now within one... Continue reading →
We protest Heritage Foundation EVERY MONDAY (Join us!!!!) By admin | September 2, 2025 | Uncategorized Cliff Cash Comedy Premiered Jul 26, 2025 Every Monday at The Heritage Foundation 214 Massachusetts Ave. Washington D.C. 4pm protest 6pm pizza Every Friday at Fox News D.C. 400 N. Capitol St. Washington D.C. 4pm protest 6pm pizza We are... Continue reading →
One Million Rising: Strategic Non-Cooperation to Fight Authoritarianism Virtual Event · Hosted by No Kings Time Wednesdays 8 – 9:30pm EDT Location Virtual event Join from anywhere About this event Across the country, authoritarian forces are getting bolder and more dangerous. Trump and his allies are not hiding their agenda: mass deportations,... Continue reading →
