Latest news with #Feiner
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First Post
23-05-2025
- Politics
- First Post
Israeli officer refuses to fight in Gaza over 'abandonment' of hostages, sent to jail
An Israeli officer who refused to serve in the war in the Gaza Strip over the 'abandonment' of hostages has been sent to jail. He said that he could no longer serve in a war that had been reduced to an 'endless death of innocent people' and has a 'lack of a political vision'. read more Israeli military patrols near the Al Shifa Hospital compound in Gaza City amid the ongoing ground operation against Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip on November 22, 2023. (Photo: Reuters) An Israeli army officer who refused to serve in the Gaza Strip over the direction of the war has been sent to jail. The officer, Captain Ron Feiner, had previously served in Gaza as well as Lebanon in the ongoing war, but he has refused to answer to latest summons over the 'abandonment' of hostages. Feiner told Ynet that he refused to serve for another tour of duty as Netanyahu had dropped the return of hostages to 'the bottom of the priority' list and that he could not neither commit nor convince soldiers under his command to commit the kind of war crimes that Israeli far-right seeks. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Earlier this month, Netanyahu said that the top-most objective of the war is not the return of hostages but the war against Hamas. Similarly, his principal far-right ally, Bezalel Smotrich, has said that the return of hostages is not the 'most important goal'. Earlier this week, Netanyahu also said that the war would only end when he has expelled all Palestinians from Gaza under US President Donald Trump's plan for the US takeover of the strip. 'I am appalled by never-ending in Gaza' Feiner said that he is appalled by the never-ending war in Gaza. Instead of his refusal to serve, he said that the war itself has become a threat to Israel's security. Feiner said, 'What is currently harming the security of the state is the war itself, not people like me who refuse to report for duty. I believe that the government's policy today does not reflect the values of the State of Israel. In the future, when we return to a situation where the government contributes to the true defense of the country, we will be able to return to service. I am at peace with my decision.' Feiner and Daniel Yahalom, another soldier was sent to prison for refusal to serve, belong to an organisation called 'Soldiers for the Hostages' that. The organisation said that Feiner participated in three rounds of active combat in Gaza, commanded battles in Gaza, and led a force under fire to extract a wounded in an operation in which six soldiers were killed. Feiner told Ynet he was driven by the same values that the State of Israel was founded with. Feiner said, 'I am driven by the same values that led me to serve and fight — I love the country and feel my future here slipping through my fingers. When the government openly declares that the hostages are at the bottom of the priority list, when Smotrich apologizes to his public for not starving the residents of Gaza and not committing these war crimes, when the fighters in my platoon are called for hundreds of days of reserve duty, I can no longer convince them to report for duty. I take responsibility as a commander. I am also refusing for them.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Feiner further said that the war had been reduced to the 'endless death of innocent people' and it has a 'lack of a political vision' that are behind his decision to no longer serve in the war. Feiner said, 'Although the government is willing to throw their future away, I still care. I am appalled by the never-ending war in Gaza, the abandonment of the hostages, the endless death of innocent people, and the lack of a political vision, and I feel that I am morally unable to continue serving as long as this does not change. I need to resist in every possible way for the war to end.'
Daily Mail
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Republican's town hall in leafy New York suburb descends into chaos as woman is carried out by state troopers
A town hall hosted by a Republican in a New York suburb quickly descended into chaos as a woman was forcibly removed from the event by state troopers. Soon after a town hall in Somers began Sunday night, disruption overcame the scene as U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler spoke to the 17th Congressional District about President Donald Trump 's agenda. Locals in the swing district quickly grew rowdy and started to yell at the congressman during a Q&A - but the event reached a peak when a woman was carried out. The now-viral video, posted online by Jennifer Cabrera, chair of the Westchester-Putnam chapter of the Working Families Party, showed a woman in a green top, glasses and jeans being 'violently ripped from her seat.' Cabrera, who posted the video to Blue Sky, said the woman removed from the event while flashing a peace sign was Emily Feiner, a local social worker. 'Emily Feiner was singled out by private security, lifted out of her seat, as the crowd chanted 'let her stay' and 'shame, shame",' Cabrera wrote. 'She's a constituent. Not a threat. Fascism again.' Video of the intense moment started with a female security guard going up to Feiner, asking her to leave. 'I'm not leaving,' Feiner said. 'You are picking on an old Jewish woman. I'm not leaving.' According to Feiner, who took to social media after the incident, she asked Lawler 'what his red line was to finally, vocally oppose the lawless administration,' but he did not respond. While she continued to protest, Lawler was heard in the background speaking to the crowd. Another woman then asked Cabrera to stop recording, but she refused. 'Are you serious?,' she asked the woman. 'I'm gonna ask you to stop recording,' she replied to Cabrera as Feiner looked at the camera. Several other security guards walked toward Feiner as Cabrera said: 'I'm not recording that, I'm recording this.' The community quickly noticed what was happening as they were heard chanting 'Let her stay' multiple times about Feiner while state troopers surrounded her. 'You're gonna have to kick out everybody,' a man was heard saying as one of the officers grabbed Feiner's arm and lifted her from the chair. Feiner slowly got up as one woman said: 'This is ridiculous,' while another screamed: 'Everyone has been shouting.' The officers continued on with Feiner as several cops picked her up by her feet and arms and carried her out. As they did so, Feiner appeared to remain calm while throwing up two peace signs to the crowd while they screamed: 'Boo! Boo!' While she was escorted out, several people got on their feet and protested. One woman shouted: 'This is anti-Democratic!' while Lawler tried to get the crowd to calm down and take their seats. While he did that, a bunch of people started hollering: 'Shame! Shame! Shame!' Shortly after she was removed, another constituent was taken out of the meeting hall, followed by another, The Register Citizen reported. Jeanette Spoor, who was in the crowd at the time, told the outlet she planned to ask Lawler about the future of Medicaid and Social Security but never got a chance to. 'You're not helping your constituents if you're making it hard for them to get help,' she said of the nearly two-hour event. 'I have no hopes for this guy.' Kristi Thompson, 52, echoed Spoor, and said Lawler's answers to questions were not great. 'He claims to be available to constituents but he isn't,' Thompson said. According to the outlet, the crowd walked out in disgust while Lawler tried to answer his final question, but he didn't get too far. 'I appreciate everybody coming out tonight and taking the time to ask your questions and hear my answers, whether you liked them or not, or agreed with them or not, or whether you really actually wanted to listen to them or not, but I very much appreciate you participating,' he told the community members as they exited. contacted Lawler's office for comment. Feiner took to Facebook after the incident and shared an image of her being carried out. 'There are no lengths our oligarchy and Rep. Mike Lawler won't go to in order to stifle dissent. I was certainly no threat,' she wrote. 'I asked my congressperson what his red line was to finally, vocally oppose the lawless administration, and he didn't answer the question. So I called out for him to answer it, and he had me removed. This is what the USA has come to. The Constitution is in shreds.'
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
"No doubt in my mind": Woman booted from GOP town hall believes she was targeted "to chill dissent"
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., a self-proclaimed moderate who won a swing district in 2024, had a 64-year-old social worker carried out of a town hall Sunday night, with the woman telling Salon that she believes she was targeted in an effort to chill dissent. Lawler received an icy reception at his latest town hall, much like the one he received at a public event held the previous week. While many Republicans have decided to evade their constituents by not holding town halls, Lawler has chosen a different route. The congressman, who is having conversations about a run for New York governor, per The Hill, has been hosting town halls where constituents are made to jump through hoops to prove they live in the district and verbally pledge to agree to follow a list of rules at the venue door. He's also enlisted local police, state troopers and private security for the events. Despite this, Emily Feiner, the 64-year-old social worker, told Salon that she was carried out of the room by police after demanding that the congressman answer the question that she asked him. The incident took place at the Kennedy Catholic Preparatory School in Somers, New York. 'I got called on. I asked a question. The question was: 'What was his red line? What would it take in terms of unconstitutional actions that the Trump administration was doing for him to finally exercise his oversight role and call for an end?'' Feiner said in an interview. 'And he didn't answer my question. He talked about appropriations. So I was frustrated, and I did call out, 'Answer my question, answer my question.' And then the next person, he didn't answer their question either.' Feiner said that she was then approached by a member of Lawler's staff, who told her: 'You've been warned twice, you're coming out now.' Feiner said that she had been targeted since she arrived at the venue, saying that Lawler's staff 'immediately zeroed in on me' despite the fact that 'my behavior was no different than 80% of the behavior in that room.' She said that she thinks she was targeted because she has been to protests outside of Lawler's office and has been critical of the congressman online. Lawler's office did not respond to a request for comment. In a widely circulated video of the incident, Lawler's staff are seen attempting to remove Feiner, who responds by saying, 'I'm not leaving.' His staff then repeatedly asked Jennifer Cabrera, who was filming a video of the staff's behavior at the public event, to stop recording. Cabrera serves as the chair of the Westchester-Putnam Working Families Party. The video then shows the crowd cheering 'Let her stay,' as police pick Feiner up out of her chair and carry her out of the room. Throughout the whole video, Lawler is being booed by the crowd for dodging his constituents' questions. In another video, another attendee is seen chanting, in apparent reference to Feiner, 'beat them up, put them in jail, kill 'em' and 'jail her.' Feiner said, of the incident with police, that 'none of that is really important to me.' 'What is much more important to me is that they are pursuing a playbook that is reminiscent of Germany in the 1930s — that this is what they do with dissent; that they have no problem carrying a 64-year-old woman out of a town hall that was being held by my publicly elected congressional representative,' she said. 'There's no doubt in my mind this is meant to try to chill dissent.'
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
GOP Rep. Mike Lawler's Town Hall Devolves Into Chants Of 'Shame! Shame! Shame!'
Frustrated voters turned out Sunday to voice their complaints against President Donald Trump's administration during Republican Congressman Mike Lawler's town hall meeting in his swing district just north of New York City. At one point, as uniformed security carried the limp body of a middle-age woman out of the venue, the crowd turned to chanting, 'Shame! Shame! Shame!' The woman dragged away was identified by The Journal News as Emily Feiner of Nyack, New York, whose Bluesky profile describes her as a Jewish retired social worker and mother of two. 'I was certainly no threat,' Feiner wrote on Bluesky. 'I asked my congressperson what his red line was to finally, vocally oppose the lawless administration and he didn't answer the question, so I called out for him to answer it and he had me removed. This is what the [U]SA has come to. The constitution is in shreds.' Other attendees were removed as the event wore on. The Journal News, a Gannett newspaper serving the Hudson River Valley, reported that the congressman covered his positions on topics ranging from Trump's war on immigration to Russia's war in Ukraine. Around 600 people turned out for the event, the paper noted. Republican representatives in other districts around the country have shied from such public interactions with constituents since Trump's second term began, wary of seeing voters' angry outbursts go viral. Lawler, pitched as a moderate Republican, has been representing the suburban district along New York's Hudson River since 2023. He has other constituent events planned for the coming weeks. The congressman's staff had asked attendees who gathered in a local Catholic school auditorium on Sunday to refrain from shouting or standing and not record the event, according to The Associated Press. But the event started going off the rails almost immediately, the AP said, when a comment from Lawler at the start — 'This is what democracy looks like' — sparked laughter. Lawler reportedly drew jeers with a line defending Trump's health secretary, the conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Feiner's removal came as the congressman talked about Trump's tariffs and the trade war that threatens to plunge the U.S. economy into a recession. Video from the event showed security personnel trying to convince her to leave on her own, but Feiner can be seen shaking her head and saying, 'I'm not leaving.' 'Let her stay! Let her stay!' the crowd chants at one point, before a pack of armed New York State Police troopers hoist Feiner by the arms and carry her down the aisle toward the exit. She does not resist or help them in any way. 'Everybody has been shouting!' one woman can be heard telling the security officials, in apparent response to their reason for ejecting Feiner. The crowd loudly booed. Other video showed at least one man, wearing a red 'Make America Great Again' hat, calling for Feiner to be jailed. A 74-year-old attendee, Jeanette Spoor, told the AP that she wanted to ask Lawler about Social Security and Medicaid but wasn't called on, even though the event lasted for nearly two hours. 'I have no hopes for this guy,' Spoor told the AP. 6 Men Charged After Woman Was Dragged Out Of Chaotic Idaho Town Hall Meeting Rep. Byron Donalds Clashes With Town Hall Crowd As He Defends Trump's Agenda Trump Town Hall Audience Literally Bursts Out Laughing Over 1 Very Unlikely Claim
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
GOP Rep. Mike Lawler's Town Hall Devolves Into Chants Of 'Shame! Shame! Shame!'
Frustrated voters turned out Sunday to voice their complaints against President Donald Trump's administration during Republican Congressman Mike Lawler's town hall meeting in his swing district just north of New York City. At one point, as uniformed security carried the limp body of a middle-age woman out of the venue, the crowd turned to chanting, 'Shame! Shame! Shame!' The woman dragged away was identified by The Journal News as Emily Feiner of Nyack, New York, whose Bluesky profile describes her as a Jewish retired social worker and mother of two. 'I was certainly no threat,' Feiner wrote on Bluesky. 'I asked my congressperson what his red line was to finally, vocally oppose the lawless administration and he didn't answer the question, so I called out for him to answer it and he had me removed. This is what the [U]SA has come to. The constitution is in shreds.' Other attendees were removed as the event wore on. The Journal News, a Gannett newspaper serving the Hudson River Valley, reported that the congressman covered his positions on topics ranging from Trump's war on immigration to Russia's war in Ukraine. Around 600 people turned out for the event, the paper noted. Republican representatives in other districts around the country have shied from such public interactions with constituents since Trump's second term began, wary of seeing voters' angry outbursts go viral. Lawler, pitched as a moderate Republican, has been representing the suburban district along New York's Hudson River since 2023. He has other constituent events planned for the coming weeks. 🚨NY-17 social worker forcibly dragged out of Rep. Mike Lawler's town hall. Afterwards, Lawler told the crowd to "behave."Elected officials are supposed to listen to their constituents—not silence and remove them. This is not democracy. — NY Working Families Party (@NYWFP) May 5, 2025 The congressman's staff had asked attendees who gathered in a local Catholic school auditorium on Sunday to refrain from shouting or standing and not record the event, according to The Associated Press. But the event started going off the rails almost immediately, the AP said, when a comment from Lawler at the start — 'This is what democracy looks like' — sparked laughter. Lawler reportedly drew jeers with a line defending Trump's health secretary, the conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Feiner's removal came as the congressman talked about Trump's tariffs and the trade war that threatens to plunge the U.S. economy into a recession. Video from the event showed security personnel trying to convince her to leave on her own, but Feiner can be seen shaking her head and saying, 'I'm not leaving.' 'Let her stay! Let her stay!' the crowd chants at one point, before a pack of armed New York State Police troopers hoist Feiner by the arms and carry her down the aisle toward the exit. She does not resist or help them in any way. 'Everybody has been shouting!' one woman can be heard telling the security officials, in apparent response to their reason for ejecting Feiner. The crowd loudly booed. Other video showed at least one man, wearing a red 'Make America Great Again' hat, calling for Feiner to be jailed. A 74-year-old attendee, Jeanette Spoor, told the AP that she wanted to ask Lawler about Social Security and Medicaid but wasn't called on, even though the event lasted for nearly two hours. 'I have no hopes for this guy,' Spoor told the AP. 6 Men Charged After Woman Was Dragged Out Of Chaotic Idaho Town Hall Meeting Rep. Byron Donalds Clashes With Town Hall Crowd As He Defends Trump's Agenda Trump Town Hall Audience Literally Bursts Out Laughing Over 1 Very Unlikely Claim
