Ben Gerstein
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bwgerstein.bsky.social
Ben Gerstein
@bwgerstein.bsky.social
160 followers 280 following 18 posts
Visiting Fellow, University of Sarajevo Institute for Research of Crimes Against Humanity and International Law
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Reposted by Ben Gerstein
davidkaib.bsky.social
The political and institutional grounds for this have been built over decades. They must be completely uprooted.
January 7, 2026 at 10:42 PM
Reposted by Ben Gerstein
tylermcbrien.com
Seems like a good time to revisit @jakeromm.bsky.social’s piece in @thenation.com from October:
January 3, 2026 at 5:12 PM
Reposted by Ben Gerstein
msjamshidi.bsky.social
The US is already spinning its armed aggression against Venezuela & kidnapping of Maduro as legal and the mere enforcement of a 2020 judicial indictment against Maduro who the US does not recognize as a legitimate leader. BUT intl law says otherwise /n
bsky.app/profile/yani...
yanisvaroufakis.bsky.social Yanis Varoufakis @yanisvaroufakis.bsky.social · 9d
The Empire strikes back, not just to grab oil and other riches but, fundamentally, to hide its own weakness at home – and to prepare the ground for subjugating its own people, in Chicago, Portland, NYC etc. Meanwhile, a vassal Europe watches in silence... www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...
Venezuelan president Maduro captured and flown out of country following ‘large scale’ US attack, Trump says – live
US president says ‘the United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela’
www.theguardian.com
January 3, 2026 at 11:48 AM
Reposted by Ben Gerstein
markkersten.bsky.social
The #ICJ will hear the case accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against the Rohingya from January 12-29, the first time the ICJ considers a genocide in a decade & one that will set precedents for South Africa’s case against Israel over the war in Gaza: www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...
World Court to hear Myanmar genocide case in January
The International Court of Justice will hear a landmark case accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against its minority Muslim group, the Rohingya, on January 12-29, the United Nations' top court sa...
www.reuters.com
December 20, 2025 at 4:07 AM
Reposted by Ben Gerstein
emilymbender.bsky.social
We do not have to offer and I believe indeed should not offer any benefit of the doubt: Anything sold as "AI" should be presumed ineffective, exploitative, environmentally ruinous, bigotry-amplifying and otherwise until proven otherwise.

/fin
December 19, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Reposted by Ben Gerstein
davidwearing.bsky.social
Please join Angela Davis, Robin D.G. Kelley, Ruth Wilson Gilmore and many others in signing this call for an academic and cultural boycott of the UAE, in relation to its complicity in genocide in Sudan.

spectrejournal.com/for-a-cultur...
Working with complicit Emirati institutions plays directly into the UAE’s cover and aids in manufacturing consent for its sub-imperialist project in Sudan. Inspired by the legacies of boycotts against South African apartheid, the Israeli occupation, and the role boycott has played in decolonial struggles the world over, we see this tool as the strongest and most strategic weapon we have to pierce this morbid illusion, end the systematic Emirati violence against the Sudanese people, and wrest the region’s political future back from the architects of its demise.
December 19, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Reposted by Ben Gerstein
mskellymhayes.bsky.social
The winning argument for Dem leaders could be "they want to fear monger about trans people and trans healthcare because they don't want to talk about why your life isn't as good as it could be and have no plan to make it better" — except that most Dem politicians also have no plan to make it better.
December 18, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Reposted by Ben Gerstein
lpeblog.bsky.social
Today, @azohra.bsky.social and Madiha Tahir argue that recent criticism of the Trump administration's bombings in the Caribbean risks repeating a familiar mistake: debating how the United States wages war while leaving unquestioned why it wages it at all.
Beginning with Empire
attacks on alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean have been widely condemned for violating international law. Yet much of this criticism, by focusing narrowly on the Trump…
lpeproject.org
December 18, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Reposted by Ben Gerstein
matthewdownhour.bsky.social
So, El Fasher looks like one of the worst single event atrocities to happen this century so far, but the evidence has come in such a trickle it seems to only now be getting verified
At least 60,000 murdered in Sudanese city, which resembles ‘a slaughterhouse’
Satellite evidence shows extent of paramilitary massacre in El Fasher
www.irishtimes.com
December 13, 2025 at 3:50 AM
Reposted by Ben Gerstein
evanbernick.bsky.social
Excuse me but what in the world is this? These are outrageous accusations

reason.com/volokh/2025/...
November 12, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Reposted by Ben Gerstein
bgrueskin.bsky.social
Kyle Kingsbury is not a journalist. He is not an op-ed writer.

He is a computer safety researcher.

And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.

In under 1600 words.

aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
I Want You to Understand Chicago Politics Chicago 2025-11-08 I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time. Every day my phone buzzes. It is a neighborhood group: four people were kidnapped at the corner drugstore. A friend a mile away sends a Slack message: she was at the scene when masked men assaulted and abducted two people on the street. A plumber working on my pipes is distraught, and I find out that two of his employees were kidnapped that morning. A week later it happens again. An email arrives. Agents with guns have chased a teacher into the school where she works. They did not have a warrant. They dragged her away, ignoring her and her colleagues’ pleas to show proof of her documentation. That evening I stand a few feet from the parents of Rayito de Sol and listen to them describe, with anguish, how good Ms. Diana was to their children. What it is like to have strangers with guns traumatize your kids. For a teacher to hide a three-year-old child for fear they might be killed. How their relatives will no longer leave the house. I hear the pain and fury in their voices, and I wonder who will be next. Understand what it is to pray in Chicago. On September 19th, Reverend David Black, lead pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, was praying outside the ICE detention center in Broadview when a DHS agent shot him in the head with pepper balls. Pepper balls are never supposed to be fired at the head because they can seriously injure, or even kill. “We could hear them laughing as they were shooting us from the roof,” Black recalled. He is not the only member of the clergy ICE has assaulted. Methodist pastor Hannah Kardon was violently arrested on October 17th, and Baptist pastor Michael Woolf was shot with pepper balls on November 1st. Understand what it is to sleep in Chicago. On the night of September 30th, federal agents rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter to execute a raid on an apartment building on the South Sho…
November 9, 2025 at 8:49 PM
bwgerstein.bsky.social
Fellow Illinoisans, call Dick Durbin now: 202-224-2152!
joshtpm.bsky.social Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · Nov 9
2/ The Senators who want to vote yes on basically any terms appear to be shaheen, Hassan, king and Fetterman. Slightly less clear but I think pushing that way are Peters and Durbin. You’ll note that four of these six are retiring. Others who seem on the fence include the two sens from Georgia and …
November 9, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Reposted by Ben Gerstein
dmgreene.bsky.social
In the name of protecting Jews, Jews have their funding cancelled, get kicked out of seminars, and are removed from leadership positions in Jewish Studies to be replaced by non-Jews.
November 8, 2025 at 3:58 AM
bwgerstein.bsky.social
This week, I'll be presenting "The Srebrenica Paradox" at the @genocidescholars.bsky.social conference. I've posted a draft of the paper to SSRN. The piece discusses how the Srebrenica cases at once narrowed and expanded genocide's legal definition. Check it out!

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
The Srebrenica Paradox
The ICTY’s determination that Srebrenica constituted a genocide, and the ICJ’s affirmation of such findings in its Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Monteneg
papers.ssrn.com
October 20, 2025 at 11:25 AM
bwgerstein.bsky.social
Fall in Sarajevo
October 16, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Reposted by Ben Gerstein
joelhs.bsky.social
The Trump administration is targeting nine left-leaning organizations as part of its crackdown on activism. Two are explicitly Jewish. If you include Soros, it's three.

The Trump admin believes the US left is one-third Jewish. forward.com/opinion/7755...
The Trump administration is targeting Jewish organizations — what are we prepared to do?
Even if you're not a fan of organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace or IfNotNow, you need to stand with them nonetheless.
forward.com
October 14, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Reposted by Ben Gerstein
unraveledpress.com
ICE is all over the city and burbs today, including Waukegan. Multiple reports on social media from people who have found empty work vans and are trying to locate family of their owners. This is a near daily occurrence now.
October 13, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by Ben Gerstein
royalpratt.bsky.social
ICE went after rideshare drivers at O’Hare today, according to statement from Illinois Drivers Alliance
October 10, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Reposted by Ben Gerstein
lpeblog.bsky.social
Don't make us tap the sign:
October 9, 2025 at 8:15 PM
bwgerstein.bsky.social
Per the Trump playbook, Jews who do not adhere to fascist tendencies are categorized as "bad Jews" alongside the enemy "other." Investigating these Jewish orgs. also tracks the targeting of JVP featured prominently in the Heritage Foundation's Project Esther: lpeproject.org/blog/how-the...
October 9, 2025 at 8:19 PM
bwgerstein.bsky.social
Excellent from Darryl Li:
lpeblog.bsky.social LPE Blog @lpeblog.bsky.social · Sep 30
Today, Darryl Li examines the alarming rise in campus antisemitism investigations—inquests that are often sparked by outside complaints, lack concrete evidence, and lay the groundwork for future crackdowns and grievances.
The Rising Threat of Antisemitism Investigations
In the fall of 2023, the Department of Education launched more antisemitism investigations into colleges and universities than in all previous years combined. This record was surpassed in 2024 and is…
lpeproject.org
September 30, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Reposted by Ben Gerstein
nberlat.bsky.social
again, Democrats should be saying that they will investigate and prosecute those who gave the order and those who carried it out. this is murder and a war crime.
olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · Sep 30
I fully understand how difficult it is to remain focused on any one particular atrocity but this really ought to be a serious scandal and people need to pay heavy prices for this
mpaarlberg.bsky.social Michael Paarlberg @mpaarlberg.bsky.social · Sep 29
I think the Trump admin assumed no one would try to find out who the people on the boats they blew up really were
September 30, 2025 at 2:58 AM
Reposted by Ben Gerstein
joelhs.bsky.social
There’s no reason to do this except racism: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/31/w...
U.S. Suspends Visas for Palestinian Passport Holders, Officials Say
www.nytimes.com
September 1, 2025 at 2:37 AM
Reposted by Ben Gerstein
hannahgais.bsky.social
DHS is recruiting using a not-so-subtle reference to a 1978 book from white nationalist William Gayley Simpson, Which Way Western Man?

Simpson's book was released under an imprint associated with the National Alliance, founded by Turner Diaries author William Luther Pierce.
Homeland Security @DHSgov Which way, American man? http://JOIN.ICE.GOV photo of uncle sam with his hat off at a crossroads with title "America Needs You, Join ICE Now"
August 12, 2025 at 3:21 PM