Embedded Files
October 2025
October 2025
October 2nd, 2025
MEDIA ALERT | FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 10/2/25
CONTACT: Kamal Alkayali
| CWRU 11 | 216 452-2776 | kamalalkayali7@gmail.com
Press Conference: Students Criminalized by Case Western Reserve University Speak Out
Student activists break silence after nine months of being censored.
Livestreaming from The People's Press Instagram
WHO: Eleven Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) students and local Cleveland community organizers facing felony charges for alleged pro-Palestine “vandalism.”
WHAT: A press conference addressing CWRU’s disproportionate actions against students who engaged in protest calling attention to the university’s ties to the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
WHEN: 2:00 PM SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4TH
WHERE: 11824 LORAIN AVENUE, PARKING LOT
CLEVELAND – Between November 2024 and February 2025, 11 students and activists at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) were arrested and charged with multiple felonies for their role in a demonstration for Palestine. The protest involved painting buildings and posting flyers to highlight CWRU’s complicity in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians. For these actions, the university has claimed $400,000 in damages, causing substantial financial burden on the young activists and their families.
The disciplinary actions taken by CWRU go beyond the courtroom. One student has already been expelled. Three seniors now face expulsion despite being so close to receiving their degrees and despite the university already receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution, forcing several activists into debt to pay back the alleged damages. CWRU is acting with animus and pursuing vengeance by seeking expulsions even of those with minimal involvement, filing complaints with other universities to maximize harm to students not their own, and attempting to smear students with false claims of antisemitism.
This campaign of punishment reflects retaliation rather than accountability, and the universities long history of anti-Palestinian racism, where Palestinian students and those advocating for Palestinian human rights are treated more harshly and experience more repression than other students and advoacy for other causes. CWRU’s decision to over-charge its own students, expel them, and attempt to dox them based largely upon their racial identity and political affiliation lays bare the administration and President Eric Kaler’s racist attempts to silence Palestine advocacy, and reflects poorly on the institution for higher-learning’s ability to engage with and respect a racially, ethnically, and politically diverse student body.
The press conference will provide reporters with an opportunity to hear directly from the students about the stakes of this case, the broader pattern of repression and antiPalestinian racism, and their urgent call for public support. This press conference will prelude the “Rise Up for Gaza” International Day of Action for Palestine rally, where NEOH residents will call for a total arms embargo and sanctions against Israel.
September 2025
September 2025
September 25, 2025
Jews Lead Protest During the High Holidays Against the Jewish Federation’s Support of the Gaza Genocide
Beachwood, Ohio (September 22, 2025) – At 5:00pm on Friday, September 26th on the days of reflection between the Jewish high holidays of Rosh Hashanah (the new year) and Yom Kippur (a day of atonement), Jewish Voice for Peace Cleveland will lead a protest outside the Jewish Federation of Cleveland. During a season in which Jews reflect on any harm they have done over the last year and seek to make amends, organizers will demand the Jewish Federation reckon with the immeasurable harm they have caused by financially and politically supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
“The Federation clings to a narrative that entrenches and justifies occupation and violence, and erases the lived reality of Palestinians since the founding of Israel,” organizers say. For years now, the Jewish Federation has stayed silent about Israel’s destruction of Gaza. They have only repeated pro-Israel talking points and propaganda, and denied claims of a genocide and starvation, despite all the expert conclusions to the contrary (including The United Nations, The International Association of Genocide Scholars, Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, and many others). Despite the horrors Israel has perpetrated, the Jewish Federation continues to support Israel through partnerships, fundraising, advocacy, and government lobbying for state business partnerships with Israel, investments in Israel Bonds, and codification of laws defining criticism of Israel as antisemitic. This unconditional and uncritical support for Israel is unacceptable and makes it abundantly clear that the Jewish Federation does not speak for all Jews.
Last month, on August 19, Marc Ashed, the Assistant Vice President of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland testified before the United States Committee for Civil Rights, “I would argue that the legal qualifications to define it as a genocide are not met... the majority of people killed since the war has begun are actually military-age men.” Ashed’s statement is a bold lie. According to a recent United Nations report based on Israeli intelligence, 83% of people killed in Gaza are civilians. According to recent figures from Al Jazeera, nearly 19,000 children have been killed so far. Marc Ashed’s comments are just the most recent example of a pattern of Jewish Federation misleading both government bodies and community members to protect and support Israel.
“When will the Jewish Federation finally decide that enough is enough? Too many Palestinians have been massacred, too many children killed. All support for this genocide must be cut off,” one organizer, Sezny Watkins, said. Jewish Voice for Peace and their allies demand that the Jewish Federation stop supporting genocide. On these high holidays, they will force the Jewish Federation to confront their complicity in horrific crimes and demand that they make atonement.
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Jewish Voice for Peace is the largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the world. We’re organizing a grassroots, multiracial, cross-class, intergenerational movement of U.S. Jews into solidarity with the Palestinian freedom struggle, guided by a vision of justice, equality, and dignity for all people.
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Donate to JVP-Cleveland:
http://jvp.org/clevelanddonate
Visit Their Website:
Advocate Holds Press Conference Demanding Justice for Gregory Rose
CLEVELAND, OHIO - On August 22, 2025, journalist and advocate Mariah Crenshaw held a press conference outside the Justice Center to demand justice for Gregory Rose. She was accompanied by Sharon Rose, the mother of Gregory Rose, as well as Samaria Rice, the mother of Tamir Rice. Recently exonerated community organizers President Austreeia and Chairman Fahiem of New Era Cleveland also joined them in support.
In 2006, the police shot Gregory in the back while he was running away. Prosecutors portrayed Rose as the aggressor. According to Crenshaw,media reports at the time falsely suggested Rose had attacked officers with a gun..
Despite this case not involving a murder, it was investigated by the homicide department. As a result, potentially exonerating evidence remained in the coroner’s office until 2021 and was never presented at trial.
Crenshaw noted that the evidence was also not shared with Rose’s defense attorney.
This evidence revealed that bullets were fired from Rose’s gun. There was also a complete absence of fingerprints on the gun. Bullet holes were found in the back of Gregory's clothing in multiple locations, contradicting the media narrative that he was attempting to attack the police with a gun.
The officer who shot Rose, Shawn L. Howard Sr., received the title of "Top Cop" after shooting Gregory. According to Mariah Crenshaw, Howard has no personnel files, training records, or disciplinary files on record, despite serving on the force for 20 years. Crenshaw alleged that Howard received his file upon retirement, even though maintaining those records is a requirement.
Gregory Rose spent 18 years in prison without ever having had a fair trial. Crenshaw came to give the press conference to demand a fair trial for Gregory Rose.
September 8, 2025
Ava DuVernay, Javier Bardem, Olivia Colman, and Mark Ruffalo Among 1,300+ Refusing Collaboration with Israeli Film Institutions Complicit in Gaza Genocide
WORLDWIDE NEWS - In a historic action, Oscar, BAFTA, Emmy, Cannes, Berlin, Venice, César, Goya, and Peabody Award winners are among more than 1,300 filmmakers pledging to refuse to work with Israeli film institutions and companies that are “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.”
Actors Olivia Colman, Ayo Edebiri, Mark Ruffalo, Riz Ahmed, Tilda Swinton, and Javier Bardem, as well as writer-directors Yorgos Lanthimos, Ava DuVernay, Asif Kapadia, Emma Seligman, Boots Riley, Adam McKay, and Joshua Oppenheimer, say: “in this urgent moment ofcrisis, where many of our governments are enabling the carnage in Gaza, we must do everything we can to address complicity in that unrelenting horror.”
The industry professionals, who include producers James Wilson, Robyn Slovo and Tracey Seaward, say: “we answer the call of Palestinian filmmakers, who have urged the international film industry to refuse silence, racism, and dehumanization, as well as to ‘do everything humanly possible’ to end complicity in their oppression.”
Noting that “the world’s highest court, the International Court of Justice, has ruled that there is a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza, and that Israel’s occupation and apartheid against Palestinians are unlawful”, the pledge states in a footnote that examples of complicity include "whitewashing or justifying genocide and apartheid, and/or partnering with the government committing them."
Film Workers for Palestine, who published the pledge, said on an FAQ page: “Despite operating in Israel’s system of apartheid, and therefore benefiting from it, the vast majority of Israeli film production & distribution companies, sales agents, cinemas and other film institutions have never endorsed the full, internationally-recognized rights of the Palestinian people.”
The mass declaration was inspired by Filmmakers United Against Apartheid, which was founded by Jonathan Demme, Martin Scorsese and 100 other prominent filmmakers in 1987 to demand that the U.S. film industry refuse to distribute films in apartheid South Africa.
Commenting on his decision to sign the Film Workers Pledge, Oscar-nominated producer/director Mike Lerner said, “it is the responsibility of every independently minded artist to use whatever powers of expression they possess to support the global resistance to overcome this horror. This pledge is an essential non-violent tool to undermine the deadly impunity that Israel and its allies currently enjoy.”
The current signatories, who include cinematographers, editors and cinema programmers, join a groundswell of protest in the film industry worldwide, including an open letter from members of the US actor’s union, SAG-AFTRA, a motion by Britain’s performing arts and entertainment union, Equity UK, affirming the rights of arts workers to freedom of speech, and a motion recently passed by the Norwegian Actors Equity Association recommending its members reject work with Israeli arts and cultural institutions as long as the occupation and apartheid policies are in place.
“Standing in solidarity with Palestinian filmmakers shouldn’t only be on us as individual artists. Our unions—which were built on solidarity—have an ethical and legal obligation to take meaningful action until Israel ends its genocide and apartheid,” said Amin El Gamal, actor and chair of SAG-AFTRA’s National MENA Committee. “There is a precedent for this. In the 1980s, SAG voted twice in favor of the cultural boycott of apartheid South Africa and urged its members to refuse to perform in South Africa or for South African production companies."
For screenwriter and director David Farr, the decision to sign the pledge is personal. He said, “as the descendant of Holocaust survivors, I am distressed and enraged by the actions of the Israeli state, which has for decades enforced an apartheid system on the Palestinian people whose land they have taken, and which is now perpetuating genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza. In this context I cannot support my work being published or performed in Israel."
For information contact:
filmworkersforpalestine@gmail.com
Read the full Pledge and the list of signatories:
https://filmworkersforpalestine.org/#endingcomplicity
FAQs about the Pledge:
August 2025
August 2025
NEW ERA ACQUITTED ON ALL CHARGES: VICTORY PRESS CONFERENCE OUTSIDE THE COMMUNITY POLICE COMMISSION, WITH RENEWED DEMANDS
NEW ERA ACQUITTED ON ALL CHARGES: VICTORY PRESS CONFERENCE OUTSIDE THE COMMUNITY POLICE COMMISSION, WITH RENEWED DEMANDS
Organized by New Era Cleveland and the Party for Socialism and Liberation
August 13, 2025
When: Thursday, August 14th, 5:30 PM
Where: Outside the Community Police Commission, 3631 Perkins Avenue.
For further information, please contact:
Austreeia Everson, New Era Cleveland and the Love Project Movement - 216-409-0289
Kameron Damaska, PSL Cleveland - kameron.damaska@gmail.com
CLEVELAND, OHIO — On August 11, 2025, Antoine Tolbert, known as Chairman Fahiem of “New Era Cleveland,” was acquitted by a jury of his peers after a twenty-four day trial before Judge William Vodrey of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. This acquittal came after Tolbert was arrested and charged based on allegations of “extortion” after organizing a boycott of a local gas station in August 2024, and two years after the City of Cleveland settled a lawsuit for the Cleveland Police’s wrongful arrest of Tolbert in May 2022.
Tolbert, a prominent community activist known as a violence-interrupter and for his violence-preventative work with the local youth, was arrested on August 14, 2024 and then charged based on the dubious claim by a gas station owner that Tolbert made demands that amounted to “extortion” over a single phone call. This claim was made after Tolbert organized a boycott of the owner’s gas station after management indicated they did not care for the safety concerns of the local community.
The Cleveland Police and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office collaborated to push forward the facially absurd criminal prosecution, which amounted in the initial seven charges against Tolbert more than doubling to fifteen, and the addition of two co-defendants, both members of New Era Cleveland, Austreeia Everson and Rameer Askew, based on even more specious criminal charges–Everson for having attended a mediation that gas station owners invited her to attend, and Askew, for having stopped a drug deal to a minor.
Notably, the Police and County Prosecutor’s failed efforts to criminalize Tolbert can be seen as an effort to retaliate against him for seeking police accountability for his previous wrongful arrest through the powers of the Community Police Commission established by popular vote through Issue 24 in Cleveland in 2021.
On Monday, August 11, 2025, Antoine Tolbert - as well as his two co-defendants Everson and Askew - were acquitted of all fifteen baseless charges by the jury. The County Prosecutor’s Office attempted to gain relief from the jury’s impending decision by suing the presiding judge in the Ohio Supreme Court, however, the Supreme Court refused to intercede based on the Prosecutor’s argument that a jury instruction on “retaliatory prosecution,” violated any law.
On the one-year-anniversary of this wrongful arrest, New Era Cleveland and the Party for Socialism and Liberation will hold a press conference outside the Community Police Commission building on Perkins Ave.
We invite the media to join this conference which will reflect on this travesty of a trial, next steps for New Era Cleveland, and the renewed demands of the movement.
A press conference will be held in front of the Cuyahoga County Courthouse on Friday August 1, 2025 at 11:30 am to discuss and announce the following:
A press conference will be held in front of the Cuyahoga County Courthouse on Friday August 1, 2025 at 11:30 am to discuss and announce the following:
In Ohio there is a movement to abolish immunity of public officials. This would include peace officers, prosecutors, judges and others who are elected and appointed to public office. Immunity is an unlawful privilege which leaves the tax paying citizens with very little recourse and legal remedies to be made whole. Judges and prosecutors are not bonded or insured and there is no legal avenue under Ohio’s laws to protect citizens from bias, abuse of discretion, and malicious prosecution involving untrained and uncertified peace officers. Clerks of Courts hold a bond that is only payable to the county and not the person injured by any violations of the oath of office.
The Ohio Constitution does not permit for the recall of judges. The laws allow judges to act maliciously, with reckless disregard, abuse their discretion and violate the constitutional protections of due process and equal protections under the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments. The Ohio Constitution does allow for the impeachment of public officials, including judges by the Ohio House of Representatives who will hold hearings and if warranted sends to the Senate to remove the public official from office. The conduct of the public official must rise to a criminal misdemeanor for impeachment. Three Cuyahoga County Judges and the Cuyahoga County Clerk of Courts falsified information into the public record after exceeding their statutory jurisdiction using an appellate rule not authorized by law. This is a violation of Ohio Revised Code Section 2913.42(A)(2)(B)(1)(a)(c)(4) which are misdemeanors and at least one felony. Judges:
Eileen A. Gallagher of the Eighth District Court of Appeals
Sean C. Gallagher of the Eighth District Court of Appeals
Frank Celebrezze (retired) of the Eighth District Court of Appeals
Nailah Byrd, Cuyahoga County Clerk of Courts
Lastly, a formal Complaint has been filed with the Clerk of the House. It was mailed on Friday and is expected to be received today. I have attached a copy of the Complaint minus the exhibits. The Complaint is seeking to investigate a statewide use of a court rule in violation of Ohio statutes to declare litigants vexatious without the guaranteed protections of due process and equal protections under the law as provided by the United States and Ohio Constitutions. The issue is not confined to Cuyahoga County and therefore the state house must review the rule and abolish its use in the courts. Citizens must abolish immunity of judges who violate the constitutional protections of litigants. The weaponization of a court rule in violation of Ohio’s statutes has been happening for years unnoticed and now it is time to address the culture of unconstitutional policing and the abuse of power of the courts against litigants chasing justice.
July 2025
July 2025
Community Demands Immediate Reinstatement of Allie Jeswald Following Retaliatory Termination at Rising Star Coffee
July 29, 2025
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Community members and allies are calling for the immediate reinstatement of Allie Jeswald, a dedicated Rising Star Coffee employee who was abruptly terminated on Tuesday, July 22, after more than two years of service.
Jeswald consistently received positive performance evaluations, including a recent review on April 22, 2025, where management praised her commitment “to making Lakewood a better place for employees and customers alike” and making upper management’s jobs “a lot easier.”The sudden termination occurred just days after Jeswald and her colleagues submitted a signed petition on July 18, addressing concerns about workplace safety and discrimination.
The timing of Jeswald's dismissal suggests retaliation for engaging in legally protected workplace organizing activities. Such retaliatory actions not only impact Jeswald, but work to chill other employees’ organizing efforts.
Rising Star Coffee held a mandatory meeting on Monday, July 21, purportedly to address the issues raised in the petition. Instead, it was a text book union-busting meeting that aimed to downplay serious safety incidents and to discourage further collective action.
These are the demands of the community:
Immediate reinstatement of Allie Jeswald to her full position, including back pay and restoration of benefits.
Respect the right of workers to organize and advocate.
The community urges Rising Star Coffee to restore trust and live up to their stated mission of teamwork and treating every worker with respect.
Signed,
AFGE Local 3283
Cleveland Jobs with Justice
Cleveland Owns
Cleveland Palestine Advocacy Committee (CPAC)
Cleveland Rape Crisis Center Union
Cleveland Teachers Union Local 279
Cleveland Votes
Clevelanders for Public Transit
Cleveland Museum of Natural History Workers United
Concerned UH Physicians
Cuyahoga Community College-AAUP
Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus
Grassroots Resistance (GRR)
InterReligious Task Force (IRTF)
Kinnect United OPEIU Local 792
Legal Aid United NOLSW 2320
Northeast Ohio Worker Center
OPAWL: Building AAPI Feminist Leadership
REI Union Cleveland
SEIU Local 1
Smart Development
Starbucks Workers United Cleveland
Young Latino Network
Media Contact:
Nia Gatewood
(216) 212-9403
niasabri97@gmail.com
Allison Jeswald
(216) 214-5613
alliejeswald@gmail.com
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