Why We Upheld the U.S. War Crimes Act At Port Elizabeth and Were Arrested

Posted on by under anarchism, Palestine, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, activism, Neutrality and Complicity, Guest Post

On May 26, I posted a press release on the May 22, 2026 activist blockade of Port Newark/Elizabeth Marine Terminal. This post below is a reprint, with permission, of an item describing an earlier action of theirs that took place on October 3, 2025. For the original post,and more material, visit their Substack, Zoomed Out. I’ve supplied the hyperlinks.

I would just underscore the fact that if “[h]undreds of tons of tax-payer funded weapons are being shipped weekly from its docks to the Israeli ports of Ashdod and Haifa via commercial shipping companies, Maersk (Danish) and ZIM (Israeli),” then ostensibly civilian infrastructure and workers are being used as human shields, not just at Port Newark/Elizabeth itself, but at every point in this supply chain from beginning to end.

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Bodies Blocking Bombs

Posted on by under activism, anarchism, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine, War with Iran

New Jersey Activists Blockade Port Newark
Though press attention is currently riveted on what’s happening at Delaney Hall (and with good reason), the press release below describes a largely unnoticed activist action that took place at the same time at virtually the same place–the industrial east side of Newark and Elizabeth, New Jersey. Taking a cue from successes in Oakland (see this and this), activists are putting their bodies on the line to block the shipment of weapons out of Port Newark/Elizabeth to Israel. (I’ll be posting a report on a prior action at the same location from this past October, and also on activity by the Oakland Peoples’ Arms Embargo.)

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Sonia Sotomayor Smiles for Palestine

Posted on by under activism, cancel culture, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine, Princeton University, slices of life, War with Iran

Our Stop the Wars rally found its way into Princeton University’s Reunions celebration, where we spent several hours making our anti-war case to the approbation and disapprobation of the several thousand revelers marching in Princeton’s annual P-rade. Among those apparently expressing approbation was Princeton alumna Sonia Sotomayor, as revealed in this photo, in which she smiled directly at activist leader Sireen Sawalha, who was standing right next to me.

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They Can Hear Us

Posted on by under activism, Guest Post, migrant defense

Our people’s distress calls won’t go unheard, either

Guest post by Paulo Almiron and Resistencia en Acción NJ
May 25

It’s been a year since Delaney Hall reopened. Sobibor and Auschwitz also opened around May, staining the spring with blood in their respective years.

I’ve been at Delaney several times to interview people and bear witness to everything happening in 2025. There’s been much to see at the site: priests being manhandled, colleagues arrested, a mayor arrested, three congresspeople assaulted, and an uprising inside, of which I am writing a memoir about the unrest outside. I am qualified to talk about the boots-on-the-ground experience outside Delaney, so to those who have only seen Delaney Hall from behind a screen, let me give you the shortest description possible: this concentration camp is the most repulsive sight in New Jersey.

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Tomasi and Flier on “Commencement Neutrality”

Posted on by under activism, cancel culture, moralism, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine, War with Iran

I recently attended a webinar on “commencement neutrality” sponsored by Heterodox Academy. In it, the presenters, John Tomasi and Jeffrey Flier, argue that

Students receiving diplomas while a speaker condemns their political values, whether progressive or conservative, are justified in objecting.

The graduation stage is not an op-ed page, a political blog, or a partisan rally, though some wish to make it one.

This claim extends the idea of “institutional neutrality” to commencement speeches, and is elaborated at further length in Flier and Tomasi’s recent Boston Globe piece, “Keep Politics Out of Commencement Speeches” (May 14, paywalled). The basic argument is that commencement speeches have a ceremonial or celebratory function which is incompatible with the discomfort provoked by sharp political commentary. 

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“Terms of Repression”

Posted on by under activism, General announcements, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine, Princeton University

You’re invited to our 2026 Reunions Event: Terms of Repression

Join us for a panel discussion with Dr. Sadaf Jaffer, Aditi Rao, and a student (now alum) participant in the 2024 encampment and expert on Princeton’s complicity in war crimes. Moderated by Irfan Khawaja ‘91.

What types of repression have students and faculty been facing since the 2024 encampment? How do the University’s actions towards Palestine activists square with President Eisgruber’s new book on campus speech policies, Terms of Respect? Where does the divestment movement stand, and where do we go from here? 

When: Saturday, May 23th, 11:30am – 1:30pm. Panel discussion and mingling to follow. There will be food for purchase. 

Where: in town, very close to campus – exact location will be shared with confirmed attendees. RSVP here.

–PRINCETON ALUMNI FOR PALESTINE

Arrest Michael Kotlikoff

Posted on by under activism, cancel culture, Fatwas, moralism, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine

On April 30th of this year, a debate over Israel/Palestine took place at Cornell University, introduced and attended by Michael Kotlikoff, the President of the University. After the debate, Kotlikoff was followed from the venue to his car by students who asked him questions while filming him. Kotlikoff clearly didn’t want to talk to them, so he hurried to his car, and got in, closing the door. The students then surrounded the car on all three sides–the driver’s and passenger’s side as well as the rear of the vehicle–crowding fairly close to it, pressing their questions. Kotlikoff then backed up, hitting two students, and drove away. Neither student was seriously injured. Video of the event is widely available online, showing the event from various angles.

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Toward an ICE-Free Jersey

Posted on by under activism, Electoral Ethics and Politics, migrant defense, Neutrality and Complicity, princeton, West Orange

The Princeton-area League of Women Voters recently held a candidates’ forum for the four Democratic candidates for Municipal Council. They’d asked voters for questions to ask the candidates, and as it happens, my question was the first one asked (starts at minute 3 of the video):

Would you be amenable to passing an “ICE-Free Princeton” ordinance banning the use of municipality-owned property by federal immigration enforcement without a judicial warrant? 

All four said “yes,” at least pending legal review. So the idea has advocates in both of the places where I’ve advocated it, West Orange and now Princeton. Now all we have to do is write up some legislation and pass it. Something to put on the to-do list for the second half of the year.

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