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Julia Conley: Pelosi Calls for FBI to Investigate Cease-Fire Supporters
“She is calling for effectively more surveillance and potential criminalization of protestors by suggesting (falsely) that they have foreign links,” said one critic.
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As The New York Times reported Sunday that more than 1,000 Black American pastors have joined the widespread call for a cease-fire in Gaza, U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi suggested the demand was “Putin’s message” and said the FBI should investigate groups that are speaking out about Biden’s pro-Israel policies.
On CNN, the former House speaker, a California Democrat, told Dana Bash that the “call for a cease-fire is [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s message” and said she thinks some of the protests that have erupted across the U.S. since October to demand the U.S. push for an end to Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza “are connected to Russia.”
“I think some financing should be investigated and I want to ask the FBI to investigate that,” Pelosi said.
A number of progressives pointed out that the demand for a cease-fire is hardly coming from the fringes of American society, but rather from more than two-thirds of Americans in a November poll by Reuters/Ipsos. Three-quarters of Democrats in the survey backed a cease-fire, along with half of Republicans.
The Times detailed calls from more than 1,000 Black pastors who represent hundreds of thousands of congregants across the U.S. and who have written open letters and spoken to White House officials at sit-down meetings in support of a cease-fire, warning that “it’s going to be very hard to persuade our people to go back to the polls and vote for Biden.”
The Intercept reporter Prem Thakker pointed to other groups supportive of the call, including the Democratic parties of Arizona and Texas; the United Auto Workers, which endorsed Biden last week; and Doctors Without Borders.
Writer and researcher Abdullah Shihipar denounced Pelosi’s comments as “stupid,” but was among those who cautioned against dismissing her plan to ask the FBI to “investigate” certain pro-Palestinian rights protesters and groups.
“She is calling for effectively more surveillance and potential criminalization of protestors by suggesting (falsely) that they have foreign links,” said Shihipar.
Pelosi’s “serious and dangerous policy suggestion,” added journalist Jeet Heer, “echoes LBJ/Nixon abuse of law enforcement.”
Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said the group was “deeply disturbed” by Pelosi’s “downright authoritarian” comments.
“Sadly, Rep. Pelosi’s comments echo a time in our nation when opponents of the Vietnam War were accused of being communist sympathizers and subjected to FBI harassment,” Awad said. “Hundreds of thousands of Americans, including many young people, progressive activists, and Jewish, Muslim, Palestinian, and Black Americans, have been protesting to call for a cease-fire in Gaza.”
“Instead of baselessly smearing those Americans as Russian collaborators, former House Speaker Pelosi and other political leaders should respect the will of the American people by calling for an end to the Netanyahu government’s genocidal war on the people of Gaza,” he added.
Pelosi’s comments came days after a poll by The Economist/YouGov showed a full 50% of Americans who supported Biden in 2020 believe that Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, which the U.S. has helped to fund and has vehemently defended for nearly four months, is a “genocide.”
On Friday, the International Court of Justice issued an interim ruling in South Africa’s case against Israel, saying it is “plausible” that Israel is committing genocidal acts in Gaza.
Instead of calling on the Biden administration to heed the preliminary ruling and stop aiding Israel—or even pushing the White House not to sacrifice crucial votes in the interest of backing genocidal violence—Democratic strategist Waleed Shahid said Pelosi was spreading “unacceptable disinformation… about the positions of the vast majority of Democratic Party voters.”
First published in Common Dreams. Licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
JULIA CONLEY is a staff writer for Common Dreams.
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Marianne Williamson is the Peace Candidate and I will be voting for her – one of many reasons why she will be the best choice for our next President.
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Go ahead and investigate me and my Veterans For Peace Chapter 61 – we have had several pro-Palestinian marches in St Louis, Nancy.
Both you and Biden need to retire.
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agree!
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Although I applaud the collective call for a protracted ceasefire in Gaza, I’m also suspicious of it, as I stated in this very venue quite recently. Where was the collective call for action when 85,000 Yemeni children starved to death as a result of Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign there, supported by first Obama and then Trump? Where’s our collective call for the people of Darfur and the slow genocide there? Where’s our cry to save the roughly 15,000 children who die daily on our little planet from hunger and preventable (preventable is key here) diseases? Let’s all not vote for Biden because he’s done nothing to alleviate any of this suffering. Nor is this an apples and oranges analogy. Children dying are children dying. They all equally deserve our impassioned empathy.
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Thanks, Matt. I agree that Americans have not done enough to help the people suffering around the world, and in fact, we’ve often made situations worse by arming and funding tyrants. In the case of Israel’s attacks on Gaza, it is especially reprehensible because US arms, funding and diplomatic cover make the genocide possible.
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Exactly! Couldn’t agree more. The question is – whom would you vote for?
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I feel betrayed by Biden, Pelosi and the Democratic Party establishment. By supporting a genocidal war in Gaza, as well as the settler colonialism in the West Bank, the Democratic Party, my party which I have for decades worked for and donated to, has adopted policies typical of totalitarian governments such as that of Pinochet, Stalin, Hitler and Andrew Jackson. If I have to choose between Biden and Trump, I will hold my nose and vote for Biden, but is that the kind of support he wants?
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Exactly
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I need to read more about Pelosi’s statements, but this has brought up something that has been worrying me. Many of my friends, who like me want to see this wholesale slaughter of cornered innocents stop immediately, have been saying they would vote for Ralph Nader or Jill Stein—anyone but Biden. Wouldn’t that possibly put Putin’s good buddy into the Oval? Could Russia be using this opportunity to use people of conscience toward aiding that re-election and the further dismantling of our rights and freedoms as we have known them? I wouldn’t put it past Putin.
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Those of us disgusted with Biden’s policy and simply stating that we cannot find it within ourselves to cast a vote for him based on our own ethical, moral, and political positions are NOT saying “anyone but Biden”, but no Biden. Your comment becomes, without justification, or reason, simply more “fear mongering” and part of the soon to be booming “shaming” of those who cannot find it within ourselves to vote for the continued murder of Palestinians and has absolutely NOTHING to do with Putin, nor are we influenced by Putin. It is true that Putin, like every President we have ever had, strives mightily to influence elections in other nations. We, in fact, are incredibly guilty of doing that, even sometimes with very violent methods besides the covert means. Please don’t fall for the line that Pelosi is spreading, it’s simply a revival of McCarthyism as was practiced very harmfully here in the 50s.
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When I started reading this I thought it was ‘fake news.’ Definitely beyond anything I would ever expect to come across. It makes absolute sense that ministers of faith AND others would protest the on-going slaughter of innocent civilians (with high proportion of innocent children). What is this world coming to?!
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As I fear the end of our democracy if Trump wins, I cannot believe some of the stuff coming from old school democrats. They are playing into Trump’s hands. I wish I could go back in time. Bernie is still my champion.
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Yes, I would love to have Bernie as president, but it seems unlikely to happen.
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OMG, it’s Nixon all over again.
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