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New Jersey Muslims mobilize against longtime congressman over Israel stance

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9 months ago

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Last time Rep. Bill Pascrell faced a serious primary challenge, he ended up winning by a 20-point margin after the Arab American community rallied in support of the New Jersey Democrat. Now that same constituency is turning against him, posing a major threat to the 14-term House member over his stance on the Israel-Hamas war.

Arab Americans protested outside his district office in Paterson, home to Little Ramallah, the largest Palestinian American enclave in the country. They’ve held press conferences demanding a cease-fire and, last week, interrupted a fundraiser to confront him over his pro-Israel position. Most consequentially, some Arab Americans plan to mobilize against the 86-year-old when he seeks reelection next year.

Former supporters now call him a “charlatan” and a “mouthpiece for the dehumanization of Palestinian people.” They say Pascrell’s seeming indifference to their concerns over Israel’s offensive in Gaza and his refusal to back a cease-fire has led them to consider backing Democratic challengers in June — including a former aide.

“You can’t call yourself a friend of the community and then turn your back on them,” said Feras Awwad, a local school board member in the city of Clifton whose grandparents hail from Ein Karem, a village outside Jerusalem. “There’s not a chance in hell anybody’s going to be supporting him.”

The rising tension in Pascrell’s 9th congressional district is a striking reflection of the broader fault lines running through the national Democratic party following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Federal lawmakers have strongly backed Israel’s right to defend itself but, after two months of Israel pummeling Gaza, killing about 20,000 people, they’ve faced increasing pressure from the left to push for an end to the offensive.

One of the biggest names to join calls for a cease-fire is Rep. Katie Porter, a California Democrat running for that state’s open Senate seat in 2024. But the vast majority of Democrats in Washington take the same view Pascrell expressed at a fundraiser Monday in Paterson.

“I can’t control the politics of Israel,” he said, according to a video of his remarks obtained by POLITICO. “But they have every right to protect themselves and defend themselves. Case closed.”

While Arab Americans are an important constituency for Pascrell, they make up a relatively small bloc in a district that includes two dozen towns in heavily Jewish Bergen County. That’s made it impossible for the representative to please the entire Democratic base.

Pascrell has tried since the Oct. 7 attacks to tread a fine rhetorical line. He backed a “humanitarian pause” and pushed for more aid into Gaza, but, like most House members, did not sign onto a resolution calling for a cease-fire (his Democratic colleagues Rep. Bonnie Watson-Coleman and Donald Payne Jr. were the only lawmakers from New Jersey to do so).

In public statements and in letters to the White House, Pascrell has pushed for the release of hostages and advocated for “good faith efforts” between Palestinians and Israelis to reach a two-state solution. Until then, he said that “restraint to protect innocent civilian lives” is the most prudent path forward.

“I hear and feel powerfully the anguish of our community and like millions of Americans I desperately want a permanent end to the fighting as soon as possible and a major flow of humanitarian aid provided by America to protect Palestinians and begin the rebuilding of Gaza,” Pascrell said in a statement to POLITICO.

Some of his constituents don’t accept his public statements as enough. Since the start of the war, members of the Arab American community have met with Pascrell and other federal and state leaders, including Rep. Mikie Sherrill, Sen. Cory Booker and Gov. Phil Murphy, expressing their concerns and pressing them to support a cease-fire. But some residents and leaders said they don’t feel Pascrell has been receptive and have made it clear to him that he is no longer welcome in their mosques, businesses and homes given his unwavering support for Israel.

“He’s been somebody who in past years had been engaged in the community,” said Ahmet Akdag, a resident of Clifton who is both Turkish and Muslim. “We just don’t feel like he’s been reciprocating as we had hoped and what we had expected.”

A native of Paterson who served as its mayor and in the New Jersey Legislature before his 1996 election to the House, Pascrell is one of New Jersey’s more colorful political figures. He is well known for speaking passionately with a North Jersey accent — and at considerable length — when given the opportunity, whether it’s on the House floor or at a local press conference.

His style and stances have endeared him in the past to the Arab American community. Other Muslim leaders said Pascrell had been much more responsive to them in the past, particularly in 2012, when he was forced into a Democratic primary in the newly redrawn 9th district against incumbent Rep. Steve Rothman. Pascrell, who was then representing the 8th district, was seen within the Arab American community as a strong alternative to the Jewish, staunchly pro-Israel Rothman.

Salaheddin Mustafa, who helped lead the grassroots Muslim effort to make Pascrell the Democratic nominee in 2012, recalls inviting Pascrell to an office on nearby Route 46 to fill him in on their plans to organize support by going town by town in the new district.

“We led, he followed,” said Mustafa, who is also outreach director for the Islamic Center of Passaic County.

Pascrell trounced Rothman in the primary, capturing 61 percent of the vote. The Record newspaper reported that year that Pascrell won 90 percent of the vote in the new district’s six Passaic County towns — including Paterson, which has the second largest Arab American community in the country, according to the city.

But that level of support seems unattainable following Israel’s invasion of Gaza and a death toll that hits close to home. More than 1,000 Palestinians with relatives in North Jersey have been killed in the conflict, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ New Jersey chapter. The council’s vice chair, Ali Aljarrah, was one of the protesters at the fundraiser. He said Pascrell’s response since Oct. 7 contrasts with the person the Arab American community helped reelect.

“He was the guy. He was essentially like our T.E. Lawrence in Congress,” he said, referring to the British diplomat known as Lawrence of Arabia. “That’s why Arabs got involved. They saw Steve Rothman in 2012 as this pro-Zionist candidate, and you have a lot of Arabs who live in the district who just did not want someone who would toe the party line. …. That’s why they went out and got Pascrell elected.”

Now, he said, Pascrell is the one toeing the party line.

Muslim residents say they may have found someone more aligned with them in Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh, a former Pascrell communications assistant. Sayegh is of Syrian and Lebanese descent, speaks Arabic and has been among the few politicians in New Jersey to vocally back a cease-fire. He declined to comment on speculation he will run for Pascrell’s seat. But he told the Paterson Press, after it reported his recent political donations to organizations in Bergen and Hudson county towns that make up the 9th district, that “if you have ambition and ability, you shouldn’t restrict your opportunities.”

Any challenger would face difficulties against Pascrell. He has strong organizational support and, despite its large Arab population, the 9th district is also dominated by heavily Jewish towns in neighboring Bergen County. But the frustrations and disappointments with Pascrell extend beyond the Arab American community to younger, more liberal and even some Jewish voters in the district, Mustafa said. The goal is to build a political infrastructure for the long term “so that our community doesn’t have to deal with charlatans like Congressman Pascrell,” he said.

“It’s not the community that he knew on October 6,” Mustafa said. “It’s a much more unified community. It’s a much more demanding community. It’s a community that’s not going to allow people like Pascrell to use us for his own personal gain and abandon us like he’s doing now.”

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Middle East Crisis

3 Israelis killed in attack at West Bank-Jordan border crossing, Israeli military says

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4 hours ago

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September 8, 2024

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JERUSALEM — Three people were shot and killed Sunday at the border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan, Israeli officials said, in what appeared to be an attack linked to the 11-month-old war in Gaza.

The military said the gunman approached the Allenby Bridge Crossing from the Jordanian side in a truck and opened fire at Israeli security forces, who killed the assailant in a shootout. It said the three people killed were Israeli civilians. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said they were all men in their 50s.

Jordan is investigating the shooting, its state-run Petra News Agency reported. The Western-allied Arab country made peace with Israel in 1994 but is deeply critical of its policies toward the Palestinians. Jordan has a large Palestinian population and has seen mass protests against Israel over the war in Gaza.

The Allenby crossing over the Jordan River is mainly used by Israelis, Palestinians and international tourists.

The Israeli-occupied West Bank has seen a surge of violence since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza triggered the war there. Israel has launched near-daily military arrest raids into dense Palestinian residential areas, and there has also been a rise in settler violence and Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

In Gaza, meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike early Sunday killed five people, including two women, two children and a senior official in the Civil Defense — first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government.

The Civil Defense said the strike targeted the home of its deputy director for north Gaza, Mohammed Morsi, in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. The army says it tries to avoid harming civilians and only targets militants.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began. It does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count. The war has caused vast destruction and displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in their Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel. They abducted another 250, and are still holding around 100 of them after releasing most of the rest in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during a weeklong cease-fire last November. Around a third of the remaining hostages inside Gaza are believed to be dead.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent months trying to broker a cease-fire and the return of the hostages, but the negotiations have repeatedly bogged down.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem — territories the Palestinians want for a future state — in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel withdrew soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005 but maintained control over its airspace, coastline and most of its land crossings. Along with Egypt, it imposed a blockade on Gaza after Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007.

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Mother of mass shooting suspect called Apalachee High School with warning

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September 8, 2024

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The mother of the teenager suspected of killing four people during a Georgia school shooting called to warn a school counselor prior to the shooting, the suspect’s aunt and grandfather said Saturday.

Colt Gray, 14, apologized to his mother Marcee Gray on the morning of the mass shooting at Apalachee High School — sending an alarming early-morning text that prompted the mother to warn the school, his grandfather told the New York Post.

Marcee Gray’s father, Charles Polhamus, told the New York Post his daughter was at his home in Georgia on Wednesday morning when Colt texted her to say: “I’m sorry, mom.”

Colt has been charged with four counts of murder after committing a mass shooting earlier this week at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, prosecutors said. He will be tried as an adult.

Marcee Gray broke her silence Saturday, apologizing for the “absolutely horrific” shooting.

“I am so, so sorry and can not fathom the pain and suffering they are going through right now,” she told the Washington Post in a text.

The mother called the school about an unspecified “extreme emergency” involving Colt sometime before the shooting began, Gray’s sister Annie Brown told the Washington Post and later confirmed to CNN.

A 10-minute call was placed from Marcee Gray’s phone to the school at 9:50 a.m., the Washington Post reported. Police were notified of the shooting around 10:20 that morning, CNN previously reported.

Marcee Gray later confirmed the call to the Washington Post, which reported Gray “declined to elaborate on what had prompted her to call in the warning to the school, but said she had shared that information with law enforcement.”

According to the Post, Brown has a shared phone plan with the family which allowed her to see a log of the calls made by her sister.

The Barrow County School District did not return CNN’s request for comment. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation referred CNN’s request for comment to the Piedmont Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office.

CNN has reached out to the Piedmont Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office Saturday evening. CNN has also reached out to Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith, who previously said he had no knowledge of any phone call to the school prior to the shooting.

The 14-year-old suspect is expected to face additional charges accounting for the injured victims, officials said Friday.

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Africa

Sudan: Major cholera outbreak as heavy rains hit displacement camps and no end to fighting

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September 8, 2024

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Thousands of children in eastern Sudan are at risk of cholera following a major outbreak caused by widespread flooding, contaminated water and with a decimated health system after 16 months of conflict, Save the Children said.

Nearly 2900 cases of cholera and 112 deaths have been reported between July 22 and the beginning of September with Sudan’s Ministry of Health officially declared the outbreak on August 12. However, the actual numbers may be higher as limited access to health facilities and delayed community referrals are leading to a significant underreporting, according to the latest report from Sudan’s Health Cluster— a partnership including the UN, the Federal Ministry of Health, and NGOs including Save the Children.

In El Damer in River Nile State and in Gedarif in Gedarif State, Save the Children teams are reporting a huge spike in cholera cases among children under five, who account for nearly 15% of the confirmed cases and deaths across the country.

The spike in cholera comes with no end to the fighting that started in April last year and has devastated the country’s health and sanitation systems. Cholera spreads rapidly due to inadequate sewage treatment, flooding, and unsafe drinking water—conditions worsened by relentless heavy rains that have battered much of the country for the past three months.

The flooding has already claimed at least 173 lives and injured 505 people since June, according to the National Council for Civil Defence. The downpour has also caused the collapse of the Arbaat Dam in Red Sea state on 24 August, which is the main source of drinking water for the coastal city of Port Sudan, a vital humanitarian hub.

Heavy rains and flooding have also displaced 4,300 people from displacement camps in North Darfur State, including the Zamzam camp, where famine was recently declared. The flooding has destroyed around 900 tents and washed away latrines within these camps, severely disrupting humanitarian aid efforts.

With more than 25.6 million people across the country in need of aid, the crisis has escalated food scarcity, putting children at heightened risk of malnutrition.

Mohamed Abdiladif, Interim Country Director for Save the Children in Sudan, said:

“Children in Sudan have gone from horror to horror. Even before the conflict erupted last year the country was home to one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises, with existing localised conflicts, natural disasters, disease outbreaks and economic degradation leaving 15.8 million people in need. That figure has now escalated to 25.6 million people, and diseases like cholera will only trigger a greater increase. Conflict is not just about immediate violence but is also a slow but deadly drip-feed of other grave threats to children’s lives, such as malnutrition and disease.

“We are working to ensure access to clean water, sanitation facilities, and hygiene promotion activities to prevent the spread of waterborne diseases such as a cholera in conflict-affected areas. However, we urgently need a huge injection of funds to deliver the treatment needed for cholera.”

Save the Children is conducting daily water quality testing, monitoring and chlorination at 35 water sources within the Sawakin locality, Red Sea state, and has disposed of 125 tons of solid waste at designated dumping sites.

In Gedaref state, Save the Children is supporting with treatment and management of cholera cases and providing safe drinking water to cholera treatment centres. The aid agency is also providing cash assistance to vulnerable families to enable them buy basics such as food, water, and afford health care.

Save the Children has worked in Sudan since 1983 and is currently supporting children and their families across Sudan providing health, nutrition, education, child protection and food security and livelihoods support. Save the Children is also supporting refugees from Sudan in Egypt and South Sudan.

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