A racially profiled police stop-and-search sets two best friends on a collision course in Imran Perretta’s debut feature filmIsh, which he co-wrote with Enda Walsh (Die My Love, Hunger) and developed with producer Dhiraj Mahey through their company Primal Pictures with BBC Film.
The film, which won the audience award at the Venice Critics’ Week, stars Farhan Hasnat, Yahya Kitana and Sudha Bhuchar and tells the story of Ish and Maram, two barely teenagers who “endure police harassment and its seismic repercussions,” according to a note on the website for the 69th edition of the BFI London Film Festival (LFF) where it will be screening on Wednesday. “Naturalistic performances, an atypical score (also composed by multi-disciplinary artist Perretta) and lyrical, monochrome images make this a standout British film, which stands up for characters who are too often marginalized — both onscreen and off.”
Writer-director Perretta, producer Mahey and co-writer Walsh shared insights and a look behind the scenes in a Tuesday LFF Industry Days session, moderated by former BAFTA head of programs Mariayah Kaderbhai and organized in association with The Hollywood Reporter. The session was entitled “Anatomy of a Debut: Ish.”
Asked about the genesis of the coming-of-age film, Perretta said it allowed him to “plumb the depths of my youth and teenage experience.” He recalled an experience that had a huge impact on his life. “Baked into this idea of the coming-of-age narrative is this idea of the loss of innocence,” he said. “And for me, if I was being honest with myself, the moment that I grew up at a time when I didn’t want to was the first time I was dragged into a van by the police. And that happened when I was 13. It was definitely the moment that I sort of became an adult.”
It took him years to realize this, the filmmaker concluded. “It’s about heartbreak and loss with a political meta-narrative,” he said. “It’s [about] self-determining who you are in the world.”
The film is based on Perretta’s experience, but it became a true creative collaboration, all three panelists highlighted. “The soul of the piece was really, really beautiful,” Walsh shared when asked about the point he came on board. “It was about 1,000 pages. It was bloody long. There were all those classic things that I do myself in the first draft. Sometimes you tell it too quickly, and it takes a while for you to figure it out. But it was all there. There was definitely a three-act structure, and I’m a lover of the three-act structure. It was just about the change in temperature and tension around not telling the audience something and the placement of the audience within the script.”
Mahey shared how his goal was to submit the film to screen at Berlin, Cannes or Venice. But the creative team’s work on Ish meant it missed the deadlines for the first two fests, making it all or nothing for Venice, where the movie ended up.
Mahey also shared insight into what went into working with a cast of young people who are not professional actors. “Outside of things like child protection and safeguarding and whatnot, we worked really closely with an organization called We Are Bridge, who are kind of the leaders, I suppose, in working with young actors,” he explained. “So, we had youth workers on set. We had every specialist and had chaperones.”
The two main characters are of British-Palestinian and British-South Asian descent, but that wasn’t the original plan before the casting process. Gaza being in the news was in the script “from the very beginning,” recalled Perretta. “But when we cast Yahya Kitana, who is British-Palestinian, we felt, ‘Well, this is an opportunity to be more specific, to be more sensitive.’ Absolutely, not to make more of it, but just to make sure that we’re looking after this boy in the context of this film and also to really portray things in authentic ways. What does it mean for those young boys to see those images [from Gaza] on a daily basis and to reckon with them? What it means for a young Palestinian boy to see those images and be that far away from family and so on. We felt that we had a responsibility to re-engineer [his] character of Maram to make him fit Yahya’s cultural context more.”
The casting process took a lot of work to get the chemistry right. “We saw a lot of young boys from Luton,” near London, where the story is set, the director recalled. “It was close to 1,000.” It turned out that Hasnat and Kitana had long-running chemistry from real life as they have known each other since they were four and two years old, respectively. “So, they basically were real-life best mates,” concluded Perretta. “What a gift!”
President Donald Trump said that Israel and Hamas have signed off on the first phase of a peace plan for Gaza.
Trump posted on Truth Social, “This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace. All Parties will be treated fairly! This is a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding Nations, and the United States of America, and we thank the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, who worked with us to make this Historic and Unprecedented Event happen. BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!”
Major issues still need to be resolved, but the announcement, which has been anticipated throughout the day on Wednesday, appeared to be a significant breakthrough after two years of war in Gaza.
“With God’s help we will bring them all home,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on X.
A Qatari official posted on social media, “The mediators announce that tonight an agreement was reached on all the provisions and implementation mechanisms of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which will lead to ending the war, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the entry of aid. The details will be announced later.”
Photographers caught wind of a pending announcement at an earlier White House event, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio handed the president a note. It read, “Very close. We need you to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio whispers in the ear of President Donald Trump after handing him a note about a Middle East deal saying “Very close. We need you to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first” pic.twitter.com/ISEJ2RsUOq
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump is considering traveling to the Middle East soon after receiving his annual physical at Walter Reed Medical Center on Friday.
The federal government shut down. Hamas agreed to parts of President Donald Trump’s peace plan for the war in Gaza, but it seeks further talks on other elements of the plan. Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered a speech in Virginia to top military leaders. The Supreme Court made a ruling in Fed board member Lisa Cook’s case. And protests are intensifying in Oregon and Illinois in response to the arrival of federal agents.Here are the top stories involving the U.S. government this past week.Government shutdownThe federal government began a shutdown on Wednesday after Congress failed to pass a funding bill for the fiscal year 2026.On Friday, the Senate voted again on two proposals — a Democratic-backed one and a Republican-backed one, the latter of which passed in the House. Neither bill received the 60 votes needed, guaranteeing the shutdown will continue through the weekend.Health care is at the center of the shutdown. Here’s a look at the arguments being made by both sides and what the data shows us.The White House said that firings of federal employees are “imminent,” with President Donald Trump emphasizing that the shutdown is an “unprecedented opportunity” to cut jobs and programs.Here’s a look at how the shutdown could impact getting a passport, attending national parks, paying off student loans, receiving benefits, buying groceries and using air travel.Here’s how the shutdown could affect the nation’s economy.Get the Facts on whether undocumented immigrants are eligible for federal healthcare.Who could break the deadlock in Congress? Find out here.Video below: Fact-checking if undocumented immigrants are eligible for federal healthcare?Israel-Hamas peace planHamas announced Friday that it has accepted some elements of Trump’s plan to end the war in the Gaza Strip, including giving up power and releasing all remaining hostages, but that other elements require further negotiations.In turn, Trump told Israel to stop bombing Gaza while all sides continue talks to reach a peace deal.Israel said it is preparing to implement the “first stage” of Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza.Trump announced the peace plan earlier in the week during a meeting at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Here’s everything you need to know about the peace proposal.Video below: President Trump unveils Gaza ceasefire proposal at White HouseIn other newsTrump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered a speech in Quantico, Virginia, on Tuesday in front of hundreds of the country’s top military leaders.Trump and Hegseth railed against political correctness and pushed for tougher combat rules and fewer safeguards.The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that Lisa Cook can remain as a Federal Reserve governor for now.Protests are intensifying in Portland, Oregon, and Chicago in response to Trump sending federal agents to both cities.A judge is weighing whether to temporarily block Trump’s National Guard deployment in Oregon.Hegseth said on Friday that he ordered a fourth strike on a small boat in the waters off Venezuela.Apple removed ICE tracking apps after the Trump administration said they threaten officers.A federal judge ruled that deporting noncitizens for protesting the Gaza war violates the First Amendment.An immigration judge denied Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s bid for asylum, but he has 30 days to appeal.The White House is asking nine major universities to commit to Trump’s political priorities in exchange for more favorable access to federal money.A week after her decisive win in an Arizona special election for the U.S. House, Democrat Adelita Grijalva has yet to be sworn into office, as fellow Democrats in Congress express discontent.Video below: Get the Facts on the makeup of the US military
The federal government shut down. Hamas agreed to parts of President Donald Trump’s peace plan for the war in Gaza, but it seeks further talks on other elements of the plan. Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered a speech in Virginia to top military leaders. The Supreme Court made a ruling in Fed board member Lisa Cook’s case. And protests are intensifying in Oregon and Illinois in response to the arrival of federal agents.
Here are the top stories involving the U.S. government this past week.
Government shutdown
Video below: Fact-checking if undocumented immigrants are eligible for federal healthcare?
Israel-Hamas peace plan
Video below: President Trump unveils Gaza ceasefire proposal at White House
In other news
Video below: Get the Facts on the makeup of the US military
Hundreds of Italian and international filmmakers, artists and cultural figures have signed an open letter calling on the Venice Film Festival to take a “clear and unambiguous stand” against what they describe as genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
The appeal, organized under the banner of Venice4Palestine (V4P), was sent on Friday to the Venice film festival umbrella organization the Biennale di Venezia, as well as the festival’s independent sections Venice Days and International Critics’ Week.
In the letter, the group accuses the Israeli government and military of carrying out genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing across Palestine, and urges the festival to avoid becoming “a sad and empty showcase” by instead providing “a place of dialogue, active participation, and resistance, as it has been in the past.”
Signatories include British filmmaker Ken Loach, Italian actor Toni Servillo — star of 2025 Venice opener, La Grazia from Paolo Sorrentino, Italian actress and director siblings Alba and Alice Rohrwacher, actress Jasmine Trinca, French directors Céline Sciamma and Audrey Diwan, British actor Charles Dance and Palestinian directorial duo Arab Nasser and Tarzan Nasser, who won best director in Cannes Un Certain Regard this year for their latest film Once Upon A Time In Gaza.
The group references the deaths of nearly 250 Palestinian media workers since the start of the conflict and frames artistic institutions as responsible for fostering awareness and resistance.
“As the spotlight turns on the Venice Film Festival, we’re in danger of going through yet another major event that remains indifferent to this human, civil, and political tragedy,” the letter reads. “‘The show must go on,’ we are told, as we’re urged to look away — as if the ‘film world’ had nothing to do with the ‘real world.’”
For once, the letter continues, “the show must stop. We must interrupt the flow of indifference and open a path to awareness,” adding, “there is no cinema without humanity.”
The letter calls on the festival to host events highlighting Palestinian narratives and to create “a constant backdrop of conversations and initiatives” addressing “ethnic cleansing, apartheid, illegal occupation of Palestinian territories, colonialism and all the other crimes against humanity committed by Israel for decades, not just since October 7.”
In a statement in response to the letter, the Biennale said they and the Venice festival “have always been, throughout their history, places of open discussion and sensitivity to all the most pressing issues facing society and the world. The evidence of this is, first and foremost, the works that are being presented [at the festival].” The statement noted that The Voice of Hind Rajab, a real-life drama from Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania, about the killing of a 5-year-old Palestinian girl by Israeli forces in Gaza in 2024, will be screening in competition at Venice this year.
The Biennale noted that last year’s Venice lineup featured Israeli director Dani Rosenberg’s film Of Dogs and Men, shot in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks.
“The Biennale is, as always, open to dialogue,” the statement said.
A separate group of Italian artists, the Artisti #NoBavaglio network, has called for a public “stop genocide” protest on August 30, on the first weekend of the festival.
The 82nd Venice international film festival runs Aug. 27 to Sept. 6.
The Palestinian filmmaker, who will receive the honorary Heart of Sarajevo award at the 2024 Sarajevo Film Festival, has spent his career chronicling the experiences of his people, and the politics of the troubled Middle East. His features: Chronicle of a Disappearance (1996), Divine Intervention (2002), The Time That Remains (2009) and It Must Be Heaven (2019), avoid polemics by using deadpan humor and minimal dialogue, with a focus on the everyday resistance of ordinary people.
That resistance is personified by Suleiman’s on-screen character “E.S.,” a silent, Buster Keaton-like figure who bears witness to the absurdities of life as experienced by Israeli Arabs (such as himself, he was born in Nazareth in 1960) and the citizens of Gaza as a window into the wider world.
Since the Oct.7 attacks by Hamas on Israel and the Israeli bombing and land invasion of Gaza, the wider world is again watching as violent men decide the fate of the region.
Being a Palestinian artist, says Suleiman, “puts you in a kind of an alienated position vis-à-vis the world, as you wonder about the horrors happening in Palestine and the governments that are supporting that horror.” But amid the darkness, the director remains surprisingly hopeful about the possibility for change, and of art as a form of resistance. “Art marches a lot slower than bullets,” he says. “We might not see change in our lifetime, [but] the accumulation of production of culture that inspires freer people might eventually have some kind of result.”
Congratulations on the honor at Sarajevo. You’ve been coming to the festival for many years, what is it that links you and Sarajevo?
I don’t really know what it is, but I think I’ve had it from the first time I was here. There’s something very familiar about this city. It’s not a political or intellectual connection — at least not consciously — it’s more an emotional one. I identify with the city, with the festival and with the people. I get invited every year and I’ve been the president of the jury, I’ve screened my films there, I’ve done a couple of master classes. I think I’ve been there once without any reason at all. It’s become like a family thing. Maybe the political story of the place has added something to the people and the festival, that they have a certain identification with a number of causes connected to films, but there is just something humane and nice about Sarajevo.
You are getting a career achievement award and I want to talk about your career, but the issue of Gaza looms large so I’d thought we should address it immediately. As a Palestinian, and a Palestinian filmmaker, what has changed for you since October 7 and since the start of the war in Gaza?
That is an interesting question because nothing’s changed. I was beginning on a new project, starting to jot down ideas, seeing which would linger, but when [Oct. 7] happened, everything stopped. I make very few films, with years in between, and I make them out of mostly personal experiences, so I need to experience a certain ambiance, and I need to sponge up the global ambiance. Since the start of the war, for the first months, I deserted the writing, because I found out that I don’t yet have anything to say. I just got back to it actually, even though the war is still going on. I don’t know why I’m calling it a war now: The genocide is going on and it’s getting worse. So I’ve started toying with ideas for my next film, started trying to put myself to work.
But I don’t think it’s really a question of being Palestinian. The fact that I’m Palestinian adds a certain layer of familiarity with the place, because I know people from all over Palestine. And being a Palestinian filmmaker puts you in a kind of an alienated position vis-à-vis the world, as you wonder about the horrors happening in Palestine and the governments that are supporting that horror. It makes you feel less hopeful about any possible change. But finally, it is about globalization — that there is power and money and multinationals with interests in militarization and fascism.
Israel is not the only place that is fascist, by the way. If you look around, half the countries in Europe are going that way. There is a right-wing, atmosphere that is truly frightening in Europe. In the States as well, of course. There are a lot of these people who support these kinds of regimes — this bloodthirsty, extreme conservatism, the extreme far-right, the Neo Nazis, are sprouting up everywhere. So [as a Palestinian] it puts you in a strange place. In order to keep going, you need to have a little hope and know that things can change. But of course, you start to wonder sometimes if it’s really hope or the illusion of hope.
I went back to reading [Jewish writer and Holocaust survivor] Primo Levi, who I used to be absolutely attached to for so long. I used to carry his books with me on my travels. When [Oct. 7] happened, I went back to his writings to see how people felt back then. If you [were] living, say, as a Jew in France at the time, you [were] basically worried about your neighbor turning you into the police. If you think about how people used to live in that moment, the ambiance is so horrifying. It makes you wonder about how people survived such extremities. And that makes me think people in Gaza now, with their daily routines of receiving one-ton bombs on top of their heads, and having their children buried under the ground. It is a weird, strange moment, in the history of humanity.
Have you seen a different reaction to you personally, as a Palestinian artist since Oct. 7?
Personally, no. I have witnessed other people being censored, galleries closing, artists being exiled and not allowed to work, people being fired. But, like you, I just read all of this stuff. I knew quite a few people who went to Berlin because it was supposedly such a free city, and really got trapped, because its suddenly wasn’t a free city, and found themselves controlled and interrogated. But personally, no, I haven’t experienced anything. Let’s wait until I have a script ready for my next film and see the reaction to that before we say if things have changed.
It Must Be Heaven
Le Pacte
All your films deal with darkness in the world but they usually end on a moment of hope. I have to think of the final dancing scene in the gay club in It Must Be Heaven. Do you see any hope in the situation for Palestinians in Gaza at the moment?
Again, it’s not only Palestinians, but I think we are living in a world where you see more and more younger people who are, less or even non-nationalistic. They are activists, and they want to live without having any ideologies stuck on them. They want to be free and they have their own definitions of how they can be so. In France, you have a lot of young people who are really fantastic, doing activism that is not just militant, it’s culture. Just like that last scene in It Must Be Heaven. You have similar people everywhere in the world. It’s very touching to see because they are trying to find ways to express themselves freely, even if, in certain countries, it has to be done cautiously, because Big Brother is always watching. That bar I filmed at is a real Palestinian gay and lesbian bar and those are the actual people who go to these kinds of bars — they weren’t extras I brought in. After filming, quite a few of them ended up in hospital with injuries caused by the Israeli police. It’s not easy to arrest people just for expressing joy, for dancing, for poetry, for jamming on guitars in the bars, for not doing anything against the law. But they pose a threat to the system, because they are free, willing people, and that is a menace to the system. That happens everywhere in the world. The second you have any kind of art or culture or poetry, it becomes suspicious for the ruling authorities.
Elia Suleiman at the 2022 European Film Awards
Photo by Sophia Groves/Getty Images
It’s just that art marches a lot slower than bullets. So change maybe won’t come right away, maybe not in our lifetime, but that accumulation of the production of culture, of freer people, might eventually have a result. I’m saying this because if you look at the past 200 years, let’s say we came from a place where there was slavery and things have shifted. There are still some forms of slavery around the world, but it’s no longer seen as legitimate for colonial powers to just go to Africa and ship 20 million people across the ocean, throwing quite a few of them into the sea. There were and are other horrors, from the First and Second World War, there are still a lot of humans damaging other humans’ lives. But the fact is, things do change. Maybe through this slow accumulation of art and freedom, we may find a way ahead to a better world. I think the production of art is important for the production of hope.
Is that your goal in making movies, the production of hope?
I think the minimum that I can do is to produce pleasure. Through cinema, to make moments of pleasure, that the spectators can share, and to give a sense of consolation that some of us are still there not looking to do evil. It’s about producing tenderness, which actually can produce that kind of hope. I think when people have pleasure in their lives, they get less anxious and maybe less violent towards themselves and others. I see a couple leaving a film of mine feeling hungry, that’s gratifying because that means they are going to enjoy their dinner. The point is not that they talk or don’t talk about the film. The point is the feeling or emotion they take out of the cinema that seeps through their different senses, and they want to extend that pleasure. I know that this is not solving the Palestinian issue, but I always have a feeling that it does add something.
You have all these movements, from the LGBT or African American movement in the States, that are saying the same thing: ‘We want to be free.’ They identify with Gaza, but they also want to better their own lives. So you can see that Gaza can become a catalyst for change in a lot of parts in the world, as people identify injustices there, they also see the injustices where they live and what they witness. It’s more complex than that, of course, but I think when you see injustice in one place, you start to connect it to injustice in your everyday life.
Divine Intervention
Pyramide Distribution
Humor has always been at the core of your films. People compare you to Jacques Tati or Buster Keaton, but you say they weren’t your inspiration. Where does your humor come from? Is it from your family?
Exactly! You nailed it. It comes from my family. I’m the youngest of five, and my parents were quite tender and funny and humorous. There was always laughter in the house. A lot of the stuff you see in my films, I nicked for my brothers. They would come to me and say: “I have a story for you. It’s got to be in the film” and I’d write it down and say, give me more. Growing up in a small town that gradually became a ghetto [Nazareth] produced the kinds of characters that I put in my film, who might despair, but they are also funny. Because in every ghetto there is despair and there’s humor.
Do you see humor as a form of political resistance?
Yes, but it isn’t just humor, it isn’t just my films. I think art is a form of resistance. Conducting your daily life can be a form of resistance. Being ecologically aware can be a form of resistance. Poetry is a form of resistance. Making life beautiful is a form of resistance. My films are just the way I see things. When I’m sitting in a cafe and see something that has potential, cinematic potential, I write it down. It’s just a sensation then it has to be developed, but there’s always [something] from daily life which is the point of departure into the cinematic world. It is a form of resistance, but it’s not a strategy. It’s what tickles me from within, and then I toy with it to make sure the humor is complex and layered, with social and political dimensions. That takes a long time in solitude to imagine, and to imagine how others will see it. Because you don’t make films for yourself, you make films to share. I want to make sure the people in Norway or Iceland can also watch these same moments and have their own connectedness with them. I don’t give history lessons, I don’t care for history lessons. Maybe my films can get people intrigued to go and learn more but that’s not what’s in the films themselves. But when it comes to humor, yes, it is essential. Looking at this cruel world we live in, if I didn’t have the humor, I think I would die.
It also seems to me it would be impossible to compete with the real horror, with the violent images, we see on TV and social media.
Yes. I don’t use violence in my films or only very rarely. Maybe one moment here, one moment there. I’ve turned my back on these horrific, polluting images that the television produces for the news. I have no social media whatsoever. I don’t want to live in that world. It’s too noisy for me. That’s the one thing that gets me anxious: The noise of the world. One has to really protect oneself. If we’re talking about resistance, if you want to create more art and more pleasure, about the need for tenderness or connectedness, you need to turn your back on the noise.
“It’s actually not expected in the sense that Friday I went back to campus to pick up my regalia for graduation,” said Grimms.
Monday morning, Grimms learned he was flagged as “Persona Non-Grata” through an email for his involvement in the pro-Palestinian encampment.
“There’s an interim hold on my degree and the PNG order means I can’t come back to campus, can’t participate in any commencement or graduation ceremonies, which my mom was not psyched about,” said Grimms.
University President Eric Kaler promised he would immediately begin the student conduct process when the encampment ended Friday morning.
The university confirms they are temporary withholding degrees and banning those students from university property until the process is completed.
The school said in a statement, “This action follows repeated warnings from Kaler to those remaining in the unsanctioned encampment and later, to those blocking access to Adelbert Hall.”
“The other extra hurdle to this is the longer it takes for my degree to get conferred to me, the longer the Ohio Bar is waiting to approve me to sit for the bar in July,” said Grimm.
Grimms said so far, around 30 students have been flagged.
“For people with summer housing, I don’t know what that means for them. People with a student visa,” said Grimms.
University officials said they’ve also “issued notices to third parties who were involved with the protest, prohibiting them from campus.”
Meanwhile Grimms said his formal conduct hearing is set for Wednesday.
“I have a lot of issues I want to raise. Sure, there is a conduct policy, but are we dealing with the First Amendment at all? What about the new expression policies that have come up since the encampment went up?” said Grimms.
CLEVELAND (WJW) — Tensions are building on the campus of Case Western Reserve University, where an anti-war protest continues.
Students and other pro-Palestine demonstrators have been protesting the conflict in Israel on the Kelvin Smith Library oval since Monday.
The school announced Thursday night that demonstrators are no longer welcome and are considered trespassers. Protesters expanded the encampment overnight and Friday was blocking off anyone who used the quad to get to classes.
The school posted no trespassing signs Thursday night.
The university said it has no intention to forcefully remove the protesters. So as of Friday afternoon, the encampment continued on school grounds.
Recently, organizers of the pro-Palestinian anti-war movement released a list of demands. Among those demands, were to divulge and divest from any investment in Israel.
One of the main organizers has said for days they have no plans to leave until their demands are met. After the university’s decision that protesters aren’t welcome, he said they’ll stick to the same plan.
“We will stay here and protest until our demands are met,” said Jad Kamhawi Oglesby, a senior at Case. “We will stay here until we feel the students have been treated with respect by Case Western University.”
The Palestine Task Force CLE released a statement saying the encampment will hold Jummah prayer Friday afternoon and an interfaith Liberation Shabbat Friday evening.
The statement went on to say:
“While the students are working to move their tuition dollars out of war, they are also building a movement that reflects the world they want to see, one where there are no divisions based on religion and race, no institutional barriers for care and wellness, and where all are welcome.
The movement the students have started stands in direct contrast to the way the university has treated students. The university has put politics and profit over students, specifically Palestinian students and those who have spoken up in support of Palestine.”
CLEVELAND (WJW) — More than 20 people were detained and released on the Case Western Reserve University campus on Monday, as a group of local pro-Palestine demonstrators “occupied” part of the campus, a university spokesperson confirmed.
Students protesting the conflict in Israel are demonstrating on the campus’ public green, KSL Oval, footage from SkyFOX shows. A nearby sign reads, “Welcome to the People’s University for Palestine.”
Protesters are demanding that administrators “divest from the state of Israel,” according to a Monday news release.
“As anti-war protests occur across university campuses in the U.S. with increasing hostility from university administration, CWRU students feel it is imperative to take a stand, as students have always led the way in the anti-war movement,” reads the news release.
According to the news release, students are demanding:
Amnesty for all students and faculty disciplined for advocating for Palestinian liberation.
Divest all of CWRU’s finances from the companies that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide, and occupation in Palestine including implementing Resolution 31-15.
Disclose CWRU’s investments.
Retract remarks made against Resolution 31-15, statements in support of the Israeli goverment, and accusations of antisemitism towards the student body.
Call for a permanent ceasefire and an end of the occupation of Palestine.
Academic Boycott – cut ties with all Israeli academic institutions which includes
Statement from Palestine Task Force CLE
In the player below, watch previous Associated Press coverage of anti-war protests at U.S. universities:
The university’s student government in November 2022 approved Resolution 31-15, calling on Case Western leaders to examine the university’s financial assets, to determine if its investments indirectly support Israeli “apartheid” from which the university should divest itself within two years.
Specifically, the resolution calls for Case administrators to determine whether the university has invested in companies that provide weaponry or military support for “the illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories,” and identifies several by name.
The resolution identifies other companies that support “illegal Israeli settlements” or operate private prisons in the U.S. and Palestine and elsewhere in the world, that are “profiting from exploitative prison labor.”
Following that resolution, President Eric Kaler issued a statement expressing disappointment in the resolution, which he called “profoundly anti-Israel and anti-Semitic.”
“Vigorous political debate is welcome and encouraged, but hate towards any group will be opposed at every step, including categorically rejecting the calls to action outlined in this resolution,” it reads.
Several members of the group were accused of “[gluing] fliers to various surfaces around campus” on three separate days. The Monday news release claims students were fined $2,600 “for posting fliers.”
“The relationship between CWRU administration and its students is forever tainted by its deliberate creation of a hostile and unsafe student environment as a way to ignore their own complicit role in shedding Palestinian blood,” reads a March statement from the group.
People inspect the site where World Central Kitchen workers were killed in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, April 2, 2024. World Central Kitchen, an aid group, says an Israeli strike that hit its workers in Gaza killed at least seven people, including several foreigners. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
The body of a person wearing a World Central Kitchen t-shirt lies on the ground at the Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, April 1, 2024. World Central Kitchen, an aid group, says an Israeli strike that hit its workers in Gaza killed at least seven people, including several foreigners. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
People inspect the site where World Central Kitchen workers were killed in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, April 2, 2024. World Central Kitchen, an aid group, says an Israeli strike that hit its workers in Gaza killed at least seven people, including several foreigners. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
FILE – A cargo ship, right, and a ship belonging to the Open Arms aid group, are loaded with 240 tons of canned food destined for Gaza prepare to set sail outside the Cypriot port of Larnaca, Cyprus, on March 30, 2024. World Central Kitchen, the food charity founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, called a halt to its work in the Gaza Strip after an apparent Israeli strike killed seven of its workers, mostly foreigners. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File)
FILE – Jose Andres, a Spanish chef, and founder of World Central Kitchen unloads the humanitarian food packages delivered with WCK’s truck in Kherson, Ukraine, on Nov. 15, 2022. World Central Kitchen, called a halt to its work in the Gaza Strip after an apparent Israeli strike killed seven of its workers, mostly foreigners. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)
In this undated photo provided by Free Place Foundation and posted on Facebook on Tuesday, April 2, 2024, Zomi Frankcom of Australia, right, one of the seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen killed by an Israeli air strike in Gaza on Monday, poses for a picture with Mikolaj Rykowski, President of the Free Place Foundation. An Israeli airstrike on aid workers delivering food in Gaza has killed at least seven people. Among the dead are citizens of Australia, Poland, the United Kingdom and a U.S.-Canada dual citizen. (Free Place Foundation’s Facebook via AP)
Police try to push back people in a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group in Jerusalem, Tuesday, April 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Police try to push back demonstrators in a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group in Jerusalem, Tuesday, April 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
People march in a rally against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Jerusalem, Tuesday, April 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
World Central Kitchen confirms a dual US-Canadian citizen was one of the seven foreign aid workers killed on Monday. There were also members from the UK, Australia, and Poland. The group was leaving a warehouse in a marked vehicle after dropping off humanitarian supplies. The organization said they had communicated travel plans with the IDF prior to the blast.
A number of countries have condemned the Israelis for the strike. President Biden said he is outraged and that Israel is not doing enough to protect aid workers. He is now demanding they do more to increase the flow of humanitarian supplies into Gaza as well as bolster measures to prevent civilian and aid worker deaths.
Israeli officials said the strike was unintentional and they will investigate it.
Cleveland Chef Brandon Chrostowski, who owns Edwins Restaurant in Shaker Square, worked with World Central Kitchen after the Russian invasion of Ukraine forced refugees to flee to Poland.
He shared his opinion with FOX 8 based on what he saw when he volunteered to go to Israel after the October 7 attacks by Hamas.
“I mean they’re human beings, you know you hate to see any life lost but the honest truth is I’m not surprised,” said Chrostowski. “Every day, three times a day, you’re getting shelled, right? It’s just not a matter of if, it’s when.”
Chrostowski said leaders of the charitable organization must bear some of the responsibility for putting the aid workers in harm’s way, by not following accepted practices for delivering aid into a war zone like Gaza and for promoting their humanitarian effort in a very public way, which included the use of social media.
“If it was me, I would feel 100% responsible for that,” said Chrostowski. “If that was my organization and I’m not going to blame the Israelis for this, I’m not going to blame Gaza for this, I’m going to blame myself.”
In a guest essay posted in the New York Times, World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres wrote: “The Israeli government needs to open more land routes for food and medicine today. It needs to stop killing civilians and aid workers today. It needs to start the long journey to peace today.”
Andres called the victims the best of humanity and said he welcomes the government’s promise of an investigation into how this happened.
A number of charities are now putting their delivery of food to Gaza on hold saying it’s too dangerous. The UN said nearly 200 aid workers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war.
Elon Musk has offered his Starlink advanced satellite system to support internationally recognized aid organizations working in Gaza, following a communications outage as Israel steps up its military campaign in the territory.
Palestinian telecommunications company Paltel announced on Friday night that all landline, mobile and internet had been lost on the Gaza Strip after the Israeli bombing destroyed remaining fiber routes serving the territory.
The Israeli military action is in response to horrific terror attacks carried out by Palestinian extreme militant group Hamas in Southern Israel on October 7, which killed 1,400 people and resulted in more than 220 people being taken hostage.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Saturday that the military operation in Gaza Strip had entered a “new phase.”
Aid organizations, emergency services and media outlets operating on the Gaza Strip said the communications outage was severely hampering their work.
Cindy McCain, Executive Director Of the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) reported on X on Saturday that it had lost contact with its teams in Gaza and that the situation was at a “tipping point”.
Musk offered Starlink’s services in a message on his X platform (ex-Twitter) in response to a post by Democratic U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in which she denounced the communications blackout.
“Journalists, medical professionals, humanitarian efforts, and innocents are all endangered. I do not know how such an act can be defended. The United States has historically denounced this practice,” she wrote.
Musk replied to the post: “Starlink will support connectivity to internationally recognized aid organizations in Gaza.”
Starlink will support connectivity to internationally recognized aid organizations in Gaza.
It is unclear whether the communications outage is due to a deliberate act by Israel or is collateral damage.
Senior Adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mark Regev, told the BBC on Saturday that disrupting the communications of an enemy was standard behaviour for the British and American armies during military operations.
However, he would not confirm whether Israel had deliberately cut communications in Gaza.
Musk’s offer follows in the wake of Starlink’s deployment in Ukraine after Russia destroyed its telecommunications infrastructure when it invaded the country in February 2022.
The tech tycoon courted controversy, however, when it emerged that he had refused to allow Ukraine to use the Starlink service to launch a surprise attack on Russian forces in September 2022.
The offer to aid agencies in Gaza was welcomed in replies on X, but some responders asked why it could not also be extended to all Gaza residents who are now cut off from their families in other parts of the territory and the outside world.
