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At least 30 protesters from Little Rock Peace for Palestine showed up in front of the Clinton Presidential Center on Thursday ready for Hillary Clinton and U.S. Archivist Colleen Shogan to hear their message at an event for Womens History Month.

The Clinton Presidential Center hosted a conversation between Clinton, former U.S. secretary of state, and Shogan, the first woman to be appointed U.S. Archivist, to highlight the importance of preserving and understanding American history.

Shogan heads the National Archives and Records Administration as the nations chief records keeper. The NARA preserves some of the nations most historic documents like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It makes these records accessible to citizens as a fundamental right of democracy.

The archives hold 13.5 billion physical paper records and 30 billion original digital records, Shogan told the audience.

We are an essential building block of democracy, the national archives, she said. Records are our basis for holding our government accountable and providing transparency. It is not a nice thing to have. Its not something that should be an afterthought. It is a necessity, and if we dont have accountability, if we dont have transparency in our democracy, then we cannot have a democracy.

Michelle Swope, one of the protesters, said after the event that, unfortunately, the U.S. government is opaque, unaccountable and has horrifying voter suppression.

Clinton acknowledged during the event that Arkansas was ranked as having the worst voter turnout in the U.S.

Clinton declined to answer any questions about the protests that had audience members turning their heads to look outside as chants of $2.3 million dollars for what? 2.3 million lives! andArchive the blood on her hands! could be heard inside the lecture hall.

The $2.3 million referenced funds Clinton received while a U.S. senator from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a lobbying group that advocates pro-Israel policies from U.S. lawmakers and others.

Swope said she and her husband Marcus visited Hebron in Palestine in 2016 and what they saw opened their eyes.

We were both raised Christian Zionists, Christian Evangelicals, like a lot of people, and really had no idea, we were completely ignorant of what was going on, Swope said. Then October 7 happened and we got connected and have been coming to the protests ever since.

She was referring to the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants that killed about 1,200 Israeli citizens and foreigners. Since then, Israel has bombarded and attacked with ground forces the Palestinian territory of Gaza, displacing millions and killing about 30,000, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Swope said she hoped those entering the presidential center would see what she saw.

I really want people to just see whats truly happening, because thats how they get away with this, is they make sure that people dont know, she added.

Marcus Swope said when he visited Hebron with an organization called Community Peacemaker Teams, they met with former Israeli Defense Force soldiers, Breaking the Silence members and Palestinian families.

He vividly remembered walking elementary students through military checkpoints and seeing a young Israeli soldier, visibly shakenvery scared.

Later that same day, we heard a bunch of gunshots She had accidentally discharged her weapon in the middle of elementary kids going to school.

He said he hoped the protests can provide the same nudge for others to investigate and have a wake-up call.

Other protesters read aloud stories of journalists, mothers and children lost in the Israel Defense Force bombings over the last six months.

Cynthia Martinez, an organizer with the group, said its important to still be present at events like this after six months of genocide. Martinez emphasized that the lives lost are not just numbers.

They are human beings, each with a name and a story, she said. At the end of the day, our taxpayer money is funding this. Its funding their death.

At an event meant to highlight the importance of archiving U.S. history, democracy and womens history, Martinez said she wanted those in attendance to be aware of the countrys impact on the rest of the world.

Hillary Clinton has a really big platform, she said. And so lets use it, lets utilize it, lets bring attention to what is happening.

Martinez said she hoped that those attending the even would feel uncomfortable.

I just want people to know that after so many months, after all this, were still going to keep fighting for a ceasefire, fighting for a free Palestine.

Inside the center, Clinton asked Shogan why its important for women to be in leadership positions such as hers.

I would say its agenda setting, she said. Those decisions are made in the senior leadership meetings, and not necessarily the decisions but what were going to debate in the first place, what were going to decide upon that prioritization. So having women in that room is absolutely the first critical step.

Shogan noted that eight women now sit on the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee and that matters because they will decide what they debate and legislate about.

Shogan said her team is working to emphasize access to archival records in person, online and in schools.

She added that test scores showed a dip in understanding American government, civic knowledge and history.

We had a renaissance in this country 15, 20 years ago for STEM, education for science, technology, mathematics, and it worked, Shogan said. It brought test scores up, more kids got interested in those subjects. We need that equivalent of that STEM push that we did, that needs to happen right now for civics and American history.

Teachers also should be teaching students how to respectfully disagree with one another and still be productive, she added.

Clinton also asked Shogan how she sees the National Archives contributing to the documentation and understanding of diplomatic history, particularly in times of international tensions.

Shogan recalled when President Volodomyr Zelenskey visited from Ukraine to give a speech at the National Archives. He viewed a few historical documents, including a telegram from President Abraham Lincoln to Ulysses S. Grant near the end of the civil war. President Lincoln told Grant to fight like a bulldog when pursuing the Confederate Army.

That was such a powerful thing, that bulldog telegram, for President Zelenskey to see the actual copy, Shogan said. He was visibly moved by it and changed his speech and talked about it several times after that. So thats an example of how our history can influence diplomatic history, international relations.

Outside the hall, Ebrahim Abunasrah, a leader of Little Rock Peace for Palestine, said he hopes Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, would one day be invited to the National Archives as well. Abbas has visited the United States several times, including meetings with President George W. Bush and President Donald Trump in 2003 and 2017, respectively.

Abunasrah noted that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish member of Congress, called out Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government on Thursday for having lost their way in the six-month assault on Gaza.

Politicians and the world, theyve seen the videos, they know whats going on, Abunasrah said.

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Protests disrupt Hillary Clinton's visit to Little Rock on Thursday Arkansas Advocate - Arkansas Advocate

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Reason for raid on Bill and Hillary Clinton Airport exec's home where he was killed in shootout with feds is revealed  New York Post

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Reason for raid on Bill and Hillary Clinton Airport exec's home where he was killed in shootout with feds is revealed - New York Post

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How Much Does Hillary Clinton Receive in Social Security Benefits?  Yahoo Finance

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How Much Does Hillary Clinton Receive in Social Security Benefits? - Yahoo Finance

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In recent months, the world has witnessed an alarming increase in antisemitic incidents and rhetoric, arguably the worst such spike since the Second World War. On the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference 2024, Secretary Hillary Clinton and Special Envoy Deborah Lipstadt sat down with Atlantik-Brcke CEO Julia Friedlander in the Amerikahaus Mnchen and discussed the sources of contemporary antisemitism, how antisemitism is all too often a bellwether of the fragility of a democracy, and the national security and societal imperatives of combating the oldest hatred. The conversation was introduced by opening remarks by Meike Zwingenberger, CEO of Amerikahaus, and the U.S. Ambassador to Germany Amy Gutmann.

On October 7th, 2023, Hamas terrorists invaded Israel from the Gaza strip and committed the deadliest attack against Jews since the Holocaust. The degree of glee and barbarity with which the terrorists murdered and slaughtered that day even surprised Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt who has dedicated her entire career on the study of antisemitism. And as Secretary Clinton noted, the high degree of planning and organization behind the attack, all in order to kill and mutilate as many innocent civilians as possible, was particularly abhorrent.

There is an invidious strain of antisemitism that has never gone away, but we had hopes it had been certainly submerged, that had been poking its head up for quite some time now. Hillary Clinton

What happened in the days, weeks, and months after the attack up until today was similarly surprising, abhorrent, and organized. Both Secretary Clinton and Ambassador Lipstadt pointed out that antisemitic outbursts celebrating the Hamas massacres in demonstrations and the online world happened within days or even hours after the attack, long before Israel went into Gaza. This underscored, in Secretary Clintons view, that this was not spontaneous, this was highly organized by groups that had been on alert before October 7th. In this sense, October 7th put the spotlight on the fact that there has been a growing movement of antisemitism in many places in the world.

But besides the outright antisemitic clamor, there was also a horrifying silence in the aftermath of October 7th: More horrific, however, [than the gender-based violence against women on October 7th itself] was the silence of the feminist organizations [and] the human rights organizations, Ambassador Lipstadt said to call out the antisemitic hypocrisy of many organizations which deem themselves progressive. The only difference between the attacks against women of October 7th and similar attacks in the past, where these organizations were highly outspoken, the Ambassador noted, was the perception that the victims of October 7th were Jewish.

The striking fact that antisemitism is virulent and rising in all parts of society, including those which are otherwise considered highly aware toward of racism and hatred, indicates that antisemitism is not merely another form of racism, but structurally a different kind of hatred. While antisemitic discrimination in many ways resembles racist discrimination Secretary Clinton pointed to the similarities between the antisemitic legislation of Nazi Germany 1933-1939 and the Jim Crow laws enforcing racial segregation in the southern United States up until 1965 , antisemitism functions in a specific way: The antisemite, Ambassador Lipstadt explained, punches up against the Jews imagined as superior, powerful, and deceitful; the racist punches down against black people imagined as inferior, not smart enough and incapable.

This insight helps a great deal in understanding why antisemitism is not only virulent in right-wing white supremacy circles, where racism and antisemitism come together in conspiracy myths like the Great Replacement Theory according to which Jews are staging behind the scenes the mass immigration of non-white people into western societies in order to destroy them, but also connecting with rather left-wing, liberal or progressive milieus. The idea of an all-too-powerful, deceitful force as an oppressor can be easily smoothed into a worldview that is largely based on the distinction of oppressor and oppressed. This is how age-old antisemitic tropes like the blood libel also found their way into the discourse about the Israeli-Palestinian context before and after October 7th, often poorly disguised as mere criticism of the Israeli government.

Antisemitism is a threat to democracy and national stability. If you buy into the conspiracy myth which is at the heart of antisemitism, that Jews control the banks or the electoral system, you have given up on democracy. Authoritarian governments love antisemitism because it becomes the spoon to stir up the pot. Deborah Lipstadt

So, what can be done against the invidious strain of antisemitism that has never gone away, [and] that had been poking its head up for quite some time now, as Secretary Clinton described it? The first advise both Secretary Clinton and Ambassador Lipstadt offered is to recognize antisemitism as a threat to democracy, national stability, and security. This is insofar plausible as the idea that banks, the electoral system and many other institutions of modern democratic societies are somehow controlled and rigged by Jews is at the core of antisemitic belief systems. If this belief spreads, trust in democracy which is a necessary perquisite of democracy inevitably collapses.

On a more practical level, Ambassador Lipstadt urged the audience to take antisemitism seriously, not to accept any but to antisemitism, to stand up and speak out against antisemitism. She highlighted that far too many Jews in all spheres of societal life on the streets, in restaurants, or on college campuses go undercover and hide their Jewishness. Wherever one encounters antisemitism, it is everyones responsibility to speak out against it. Because the alternative to speaking out would be silence, and as the U.S. Ambassador to Germany Amy Gutmann impressively stated in her opening remarks to the conversation: Silence is injustice.

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Hillary Clinton and Deborah Lipstadt: Combating Antisemitism - Atlantik-Brcke e.V.

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Bill and Hillary Clinton Airport exec brain-dead, not expected to survive after he's shot in gunfight with feds: brother  New York Post

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Bill and Hillary Clinton Airport exec brain-dead, not expected to survive after he's shot in gunfight with feds: brother - New York Post

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