Israeli Puppet, Tom Cotton, Goes After Palestinian Youth Movement

Reprinted from The Shift at Mondoweiss

Tom Cotton targets Palestinian Youth Movement

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid meets with Tom Cotton, Washington, Oct. 13, 2021. From Lapid’s twitter feed.

The second annual People’s Conference for Palestine was held in Detroit last weekend, and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is using the occasion to launch a campaign against the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM). Yesterday, Cotton sent a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel specifically citing remarks made by PYM’s Aisha Nizar during a panel at the conference. Nizar and others had spoken about activists disrupting the supply chain of Israel’s genocide. “If one specific node of the F-35 supply chain is intervened in, it has a huge impact,” explained Nizar. In the letter, Cotton claims that Nizar is one of many “bad actors” from PYM, who are engaged in “antisemitic activities.” “Nizar’s statements constitute direct incitement of violence against U.S. national security interests by advocating for actions against the men and women who build the F-35 and seeking to imperil the delivery of one of the nation’s most strategic asssets,” claims Cotton. “I urge the Federal Bureau of Investigation to immediately examine Nizar’s actions and take any necessary actions to mitigate the threat. The U.S. defense supply chain is a key to our military’s ability to fight and win wars. We must protect that supply chain from all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Shortly before the conference, Cotton sent a letter to the acting Internal Revenue Service commissioner Scott Bessent, asking him to investigatePYM’s nonprofit status.  “An organization that supports terrorism, breaks U.S. law and sows antisemitic discord should not receive any benefits from the American tax system,” he stated. Cotton is one of Congress’s staunchest supporters of Israel, and his PYM crusade doesn’t mark the first time that he has targeted the domestic Palestine movement. After veteran Aaron Bushnell’s death by self-immolation in front of the Israeli Embassy in 2024, Cotton sent a letter to then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, expressing concern over “ideological extremism” growing within the United States military. “Have any other military members participated in anti-Israeli actions that violate Department of Defense policy on restricted political activities?,” asked Cotton. “If so, was this behavior appropriately addressed?” Nizar’s conference remarks addressed the PYM’s “Mask Off Maersk” campaign and the larger project of a people’s embargo on Israel. In June, the Danish shipping company said it would stop sending goods from settlements in the illegally occupied West Bank. This announcement occurred after a year of campaigning. Activists welcomed the news, but vowed to keep pressuring Maersk until they cut ties from Israel entirely. “Maersk continues to profit from the genocide of our people – regularly shipping F-35 components used to bomb and massacre Palestinians,” said Nizar in a statement at the time. “We will continue to build pressure and mobilise people power until Maersk cuts all ties to genocide and ends the transport of weapons and weapons components to Israel,” she continued.

Rubio revokes visas

Ahead of next month’s UN General Assembly meeting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced that he is “denying and revoking visas” for all Palestinian officials. “The Trump Administration has been clear: it is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace,” read the statement from the State Department. “Before the PLO and PA can be considered partners for peace, they must consistently repudiate terrorism — including the October 7 massacre — and end incitement to terrorism in education, as required by U.S. law and as promised by the PLO,” it continued. “The PA must also end its attempts to bypass negotiations through international lawfare campaigns, including appeals to the ICC and ICJ, and efforts to secure the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state. Both steps materially contributed to Hamas’s refusal to release its hostages, and to the breakdown of the Gaza ceasefire talks.” It’s quite obvious that these steps were taken because several states are expected to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN meeting.  “This decision stands in clear contradiction to international law and the UN Headquarters Agreement—which effectively shields UN member-state officials from US immigration policies—particularly since the state of Palestine is an observer member of the United Nations,” said the office of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement. In 1988, the Reagan Administration refused to grant Yasser Arafat entry into the U.S. for a UN meeting, which prompted the UN General Assembly to move the meeting to Geneva.  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials are, of course, wanted by the International Criminal Court because of their war crimes.