The Gate 2014-2015

The

GaTe

Politics

Issue I

in all its

Forms

2014-2015

Volume I

Editors’ Note Since the beginning, in 2013, the Gate has sought to cover “politics, broadly construed.” Every political review covers presidential politics, local and federal elections, international relations and the like, but the Gate was founded with the idea that politics affects a great deal more than just the lives and work of politicians. This anthology, the first-ever print edition of the Gate, is a snapshot of the diverse array of topics covered by our writers and represents some of the finest political analysis and journalism produced in the first two years of our publication. From the municipal politics of building a new highway in rural China to the military balance of East Asia in 2020, from the high drama of the Argentine Casa Rosada to the routine indignities that characterize life in the West Bank, from Bill Bradley’s Senate to the first years of the Obama White House, from the story of an integrated volunteer brigade in the Spanish Civil War to the fraught history of racial politics in our own Hyde Park, this collection captures the incredible breadth of politics from the disaffected and marginalized to the centers of global power.

The following selections are the result of months spent sifting through archives, travelling across the world, pestering for interviews, and, of course, writing, re-writing, and revising copy. They demonstrate the hard work, tenacity, and bright ideas of not only the authors whose names appear on the byline, but also of an editorial team who spent hours providing feedback, workshopping, and copy-editing their work.

Furthermore, in order to reproduce these articles in a print anthology, a team of editors led by Chelsea Fine spent long hours creating a beautiful layout and working with our printer.

Neither this project nor the daily operations of the Gate would be possible without the resolute institutional support of the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. The Gate is grateful to Matthew Jaffe, Christine Hurley, Dillan Siegler, Steve Edwards and others for generously sharing their expertise and for giving the Gate the resources to support high-quality student journalism.

The pieces in this anthology, along with hundreds of others, are always available online at www.uchicagogate.com. We hope you will join us there as we continue to explore, document, and analyze political life in all its forms.

Staff Editors-in-Chief

Anastasia Kaiser Aidan Milliff

Managing Editor

Emma Herman

Design

Chelsea Fine

Editors

Haley Schwab Dana Scott Hamza Shad Kevin Shi Catherine Sun

Copy Editors

cover photo by

The Gate

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chelsea Fine

5707 S. Woodlawn Avenue

Chicago, IL 60637

Table of Contents “A Wall Around Hyde Park”:The History and the Future of the UCPD

2

Andrew Fan

A Forgotten Man of Principle: The Life of Oliver Law

8

From Basketball to the Beltway: A Conversation with Bill Bradley

12

People, Pandas, and 303 Provincial Road

14

Chronicle of a Death Foretold: A Twenty-Year History of Alberto Nisman’s “Suicide”

19

Japan’s Military Future: A Realist Perspective

22

“Because We Are French” An inside look at the rally to support victims of the Charlie Hebdo attack

24

Jon Favreau: The Man Behind the Voice of a Generation

26

An Outsider in Hebron

30

Piers Brecher

Liz Stark

Chelsea Fine

Jack Howry and Will Craft Hamza Shad

Chelsea Fine

Noah Weiland

Emma Herman

Most of the articles featured in this publication were originally published on our website, uchicagogate.com.

Original citations as well as additional images and information can be found there. eic@uchicagogate.com

uchicagogate.com

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“A Wall Around Hyde Park”: The History and the Future of the UCPD

By Andrew Fan

H

yde Park is one of the safest neighborhoods in Chicago. In 2012, there were 506 murders in Chicago—more than any other city in the United States. The national media quickly dubbed the city “the murder capital of America.” None of these killings took place in Hyde Park. Even as Woodlawn endured twenty-one homicides and Washington Park recorded the highest murder rate in the city, Hyde Park reported a decrease in violent crime, with a lower rate than North Side neighborhoods like Lakeview and Logan Square. This year, Chicago has seen over 820 shootings, but only one in Hyde Park and two in Kenwood.

The neighborhood owes much of its safety to a highly unusual police force. With over one hundred full-time the country. It patrols much of the South Side, covering all of Hyde Park and Kenwood, as well as parts of Bronzeville and Woodlawn. The force does more yond the campus guards most universities employ. A Award honors the force’s best member; it is named for crime reduction has come at a heavy cost. Brandon Parker, an eighteen-year-old Woodlawn resisays that university police “stop and check you.”

Christian Clark, a high school sophomore who cers “harass people for no reason.” Once, while over and asked, “What are you doing over here?”

Andre Harmon, a twenty-one-year-old art student, avoids biking through the university after being pulled over several times by the university police. He question he views as accusatory and racially motivated.

The stories of these young men are not unusual.

The Gate | 3

leveled by both University of Chicago students and community members, primarily African Americans. Today, policing tactics are hotly debated around the country; New York City has witnessed a powerful backlash against the practice known as “stop and frisk.” Though the case of the es similar questions about the use of police power. Even as Barack Obama sits in the White House, students of color still report unwarranted police stops at the university where he taught, and many black teens refuse to even cross into his neighborhood for fear of the police.

“A WAll Around Hyde PArk” cial tumult of mid-century Chicago. In the the tiny, overcrowded “Black Belt” on the South Side. Even after the courts dismantled legal segregation, white Chicagoans ei-

buildings, a move that forced thousands of people, most of them poor and African American, out of the neighborhood.

Urban renewal slowed racial change in Hyde Park, but it did not eliminate crime. derman in the leg. Later that year, a series

These actions provoked anger and frustration from the university’s neighbors.

However, the university ignored the criticism. Julian Levi, director of the SECC responded that any effort to reduce tensions “will simply result in these [recent crime] gains being lost.”

siders within university dorms during

A Community PoliCe ForCe Chicago has changed over the last forty

Crime posed a genuine threat to the unito commute from the North Side, and the number of women enrolling dropped noticeably in the wake of the well-publicized Maroon article reported that some students had even begun to carry illegal guns around Hyde Park; one declared that “the City and Hyde Park in particular is a jungle.” Another student vowed to live in the neighborhood only if the university were to “build a wall around Hyde Park.”

Instead of building a wall, the unidepartment,

were white. Ten years later, blacks made up -

staffed

by

nearly

one

While the new force began to reduce crime, it also stoked the race and class

Nimocks became chief of the force. A former deputy superintendent in the Chia longtime Woodlawn resident. Under his

about systematic police stops, they wel61st Street with a parade. Nimocks remembers that “they loved it. They wanted us to come further; they wanted us to come all the way over to State Street.”

Today, many older Woodlawn residents at 62nd and University, says, “I think they

ought to come to Chicago to learn to hate.”

When integration began in Hyde Park responded forcefully but pragmatically. Relatively liberal Hyde Parkers began to welcome middle-class blacks into the neighborhood, while at the same time, a university-funded organization, the South -

confronting people they suspected of being from outside Hyde Park, primarily Af-

this article agree. Akbar Amin declared, “I’ve seen them stopping people. I’m glad idents also drew a distinction between the

stopped and frisked.” Alleged police protematically search all of the black men on a

ers elderly residents, and Charles Hillard

in the community, characterizing local opinion as neutral, compared to sharply negative attitudes toward the city police. “tHey knoW We’re not From Hyde PArk” Unlike older residents, young people in Woodlawn have few positive things to Jermell Akins is a high school student who lived in Woodlawn for a number of were walking home from school when a 4 | The Gate

squad car pulled up to them around 62nd the two pre-teen boys that they matched the description of a suspected shooter, and proceeded to pat down them down.

He then drove off without an apology.

The stops grew more frequent as Akins grew older. Soon, he and his group of friends were frisked “almost every day,” with the police telling them they matched

506 0

similar issues. Aerik Francis is a fourthyear. On his first day on campus, his father, who is African American, went to use the bathroom in Ratner Athletic Center after a twenty-hour drive from Colorado. A university police officer quickly then escorted him out of the building.

Cameron Okeke, a fourth-year, has with officers asking to see his student identification. Even when the police don’t

Number of murders in Chicago in 2012

Number of murders in Hyde Park, the same year

thought it was a coincidence, but then it kept happening.” Sometimes the officers were polite and even friendly during the stops, but other times shouted and swore at the boys, telling them to “shut the fuck up.” Akins says that avoiding police stops is “one of the main reasons I ride my bike.”

Brandy Williams, age 18, also lives in Woodlawn. He reports being frisked on a regular basis by officers who “know we’re not from Hyde Park.” Like Akins, he says many officers are courteous during the process. Still, he also remembers other stops that escalated dangerously. He claims beat and shoot him, slammed him into a squad car, pointed a gun at him, and told him to “go back to where you came from.”

Katon Sylvain is a sophomore at Kenwood Academy. One day, he and a white friend pretended to fight as they walked

stop him, “the way they were looking at me, analyzing people” makes him feel different from other university students.

Okeke feels that “all students who fit the black teen-look feel like outsiders,” having to prove that they are students, or that they own their bikes and cars.

C rime Prevention Ultimately, the accusations of racial profiling that have haunted the the

tactics

of

proactive

policing. sized proactive policing as its primary tool to prevent crime against students.

any law enforcement agency is to prevent crime if you can.” Former deputy chief Tom Phillips noted that after an increase in crime around Blackstone Avenue, his officers saturated the area.

Phillips declared that “our primary objective is to deter crime, crime prevention.” ment and other departments at the center of the national debate about policing tactics, the University of Chicago that “our officers aren’t harassing anyone and don’t mean to, no individual or class of individuals. But if they have reason to stop someone, they will.” viewed for this story disagree. They come of his gang ties, while several talked about their college plans. Still, they also have several things in common. All recounted times they had been stopped by the police without having done anything suspicious to prompt the stop. All are black. None had any doubt that their race played a role in police stops. It is clear from these stories, and those of university students, that interactions with the university police have created deep distrust among many young African Americans in and around Hyde Park.

Their accounts suggest that in their efforts to protect a neighborhood surrounded by communities with high crime rates and almost entirely African American populabehavior, deploying an easy shorthand that

worked on policing issues in Hyde Park for hints of potentially criminal behavior.

and stopped the pair. They placed Sylvain in handcuffs, ignored his friend’s after he managed to call his mother.

Several other young men and teenagers in Woodlawn reported being stopped and searched for weapons. A fourteen-year old recalled being followed home by a university police car; another young man complained of being handcuffed without cause. All felt that their race played a role in the stops, with men they felt could be potential criminals.

Some university students have faced The Gate | 5

And such measures may be effective. If most young African American men in Woodlawn feel unwelcome near the university and local high school students learn to take a detour around campus, then the university police probably do steer some potential criminals away from Hyde Park. The problem is that to achieve these marginal gains in safety, the university police ultimately cause far greater harm.

An Anxious neigHborHood It is tempting to view the complaints an arrogant and heavy-handed police force.

However, the problems faced by the force on the police by the university administration and community. Since its creation, the ies between the university community and

6% 89%

the outside world, while at the same time assuming responsibility to protect more and more areas outside of these borders. sity that is primarily concerned with the safety of its students and employees. Each year, the university brings thousands of students from suburbs and small towns across the United States and beyond to the South Side of Chicago. Rising crime threatened the university four decades ago, and it remains a danger today as the university climbs in national academic rankings. University of Chicago administrators, students, and parents demand the highest possible level of safety in officers in Woodlawn to make a difficult choice between providing the best possible policing for the neighborhood and with the institution that employs them.

Hyde Park’s black population in 1950

6 | The Gate

Individual fears compound institutional pressure and can spur police action on Rudy Nimocks recalls that “often [university employees] call you for something that doesn’t warrant our police intervention and you have to be very careful with that.” He remembers people calling to report that “‘I’ve never seen this person before’ [or] ‘this person is shabbily dressed’ or something like that.” see the source of tensions between the communities that border the university. university community comes at a high price, and the price is mostly paid by those perceived as being from outside the community’s borders. For university students, police questioning can make them feel singled out and unwelcome at their own school. For young men and women in Woodlawn and elsewhere, police treatment weakens trust in the force, while the can be demeaning and profoundly hurt-

Hyde Park’s black population in 1960

Chicago, Hispanic and black teens already trenched institutional racism. Being discouraged by the police from even crossing the campus of one of the top universities in America is deeply harmful both

to these young people and to an institution that has historically lagged behind its peers in attracting minority students.

For local youth, fear of the university police is a real and powerful force.

Fourth-year Cameron Okeke knows local teenagers who go out of their way to there have been fifteen homicides on or within a block of King between 51st and 60th. There were none on or around the same stretch of Ellis during that period. According to Okeke, the university is “literally a black space” where local teenagers cannot venture. At a community speak-out last year, one university student told the story of a teen who was

yardstick I use[d] was that if you want to stop somebody for an interview on a public way, it had to because of what they were doing, not what they looked like. That was an absolute with me. I wouldn’t tolerate anything less.” for this article agreed with Boodie and Nimocks, making it clear they had far fewer problems with stops by university police that were conducted with basic courtesy. Listening to the advice of these career police officers would go a long way toward lessening young people in and around Hyde Park.

Even so, the answer to the trouforce.

She had been sitting on the grass, reading a book. The university prides itself on fostering “the life of the mind” but, parmany local students are afraid to visit.

A r eneWed P oliCe F orCe South Side communities. Older Woodlawn residents also make it clear that police in many regards, treating most locals far better than the city police. decorated former officers argue that a more careful approach to police stops is both better for the community and more productive for the police. Walter best officer three years in a row, busting a number of serial burglars. Boodie criticizes harassment based on race or dress, saying, “If they hadn’t done anything wrong, that’s the old Chicago madness.” Boodie believes that even if officers need to stop a young person, they can do so with courtesy. He deyoung person, engage them in conversation, and then hand them his business card. Boodie argues that a well-trained officer can gauge intentions through a simple conversation, while also signaling the presence of clear-eyed officers. for twenty years, agrees. He says, “The

Community

uneasiness

about

security in Hyde Park have been the crucial drivers of aggressive policing.

The same community pressure has the bers of the university community can make it clear that their safety does not have to come at the cost of the civil rights of their neighbors and peers.

In The Death and Life of Great American Cities theory, Jane Jacobs commented on the groundbreaking urban renewal project then underway in Hyde Park. She wrote that the neighborhood could either deal with more outsiders and slightly higher street crime, or it could employ the ing police dogs every night to patrol its campus and hold at bay any human She continued, “The barriers forced by the new projects at the edges of Hyde people with sufficient effectiveness. If so, the price will be hostility from the surrounding city and an ever more beleaguered feeling within the fort.” Jacobs admonished the university, saying, “The area is an embedded part of Chicago. It cannot wish away its location.”

For the last fifty years, the university insisted on trying to do just that. To a remarkable degree, it has succeeded, creating a fortress on the South Side and buying slightly lower crime at a tremendous human cost.

Removing the walls of that fortress will be a long and arduous task, but also -

ing the people under its charge. They will continue to do so for a long time to come. Still, it is time to deal plainly with what the University of Chicago Police versity community, and push for a policy that protects the university without harming those who live in its shadow.

Gloria Graham, Assistant Vice President and Assistant Chief of Police at the University of Chicago Police Department, responds to the Gate: The University of Chicago Police Department does not deploy tactics that support racial profiling. There is a clear emphasis from our leadership that we will provide police services to this community while maintaining human dignity and respect. As a department, we often and openly discuss our policing strategies to ensure our officers are not engaging deliberately or inadvertently in bias-based policing.

In most instances when the UCPD makes contact with the community, it’s in response to residents calling and requesting police assistance to what they believe to be suspicious activity.

We are a public safety entity and are compelled to respond to our community’s requests.

I can never overlook the opportunity to point out the amazing work our staff does each and every day. In addition to the continued decrease in violent crime in our patrol area, the UCPD’s involvement in our community continues to grow.

Two years ago we began a mentoring program with fifteen young men at one of the University’s charter schools. These students, who live in the North Kenwood neighborhood, were selected for the program because they were not reading at their grade level. The UCPD also works with more than fifty kids in the area through Blackstone Bicycle Works to teach them how to safely ride their bikes.

Additionally, the UCPD’s staff includes many officers raised in the very neighborhoods they now serve. Some of these police officers still live and raise their children here, and some of their kids attend the same neighborhood schools mentioned in this article.

This article was originally published on June 2, 2014, and the original version, which can be found on the Gate’s website, contains extensive notes and citations elaborating on the author’s research. The images featured in this article are courtesy of Jamie Manley.

The Gate | 7

A Forgotten Man of Principle: The Life of Oliver Law

By Piers Brecher

A

black war hero is a rare sight in American cinema. Even when one does appear, he or she is almost never in the leading role. From Jim Brown’s memorable turn in The Dirty Dozen to

110 of the regiment’s members were convicted of mutiny, and nineteen were content and tension, Oliver Law would

American Sniper, black soldiers are often relegated to the role of stoic companion or splash of diversity in an otherwise homogenous unit. Recently, George Lucas spoke of the difficulty in funding Red Tails, his 2012 movie about the allblack Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. This has always been a tragic reality of the Hollywood system, one that robbed us of what might have been one of the greatest war movies ever made. ie would have covered the life of Oliver Law, the first black commander of

leaving the military in search of civilian

from an unremarkable beginning in West on Chicago’s South Side, then to a brief but heroic command in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish Civil War. Though little remembered now, the reenactment of Law’s life attracted the talents of famed African American actor Paul Robeson, and even the screenwriting talents of Ernest Hemingway. few records during his childhood and adolescence. He first became known to

lay ahead for both Law and the country.

After a few unhappy years working at a cement factory in Indiana, Law found himself in Chicago in search of lasting employment. Just as he seemed to have found a source of steady money, as a driver with the Yellow Cab Company, periods of unemployment were inter-

“The combination of Law’s race and his politics made the prospect of investing in a movie about him distasteful to the Hollywood executives.”

Regiment’s history. Only two years ear-

rupted only briefly by jobs on the docks and in restaurants. It was during this period that Law emerged as a social and political activist. Gradually becoming more radical, he first joined the Chicago chapter of the Longshoreman’s Association, followed by the Internation-

of its members had mutinied in Houston during a race riot over abusive treatment by local law enforcement. Several white civilians and policemen were killed, along with a lesser number of black soldiers. In the ensuing months,

finally, the Communist Party. To Law, communism represented a response to the many inequities he had suffered as a black man and union worker. A labor organizer and a communist, he fought for the rights of Chicago’s working-class

Infantry Regiment of the still-segregat-

8 | The Gate

residents in housing disputes with both landlords and the government.

These activities attracted the atten“Red Squad,” which harassed Law and his fellow leftists whenever possible. In lence and Law was beaten so badly as part of “intensive questioning” over a planned demonstration that he required dation, within a few years, Law was a well-established member of the black left wing in Chicago, married to the daughter of leading black communist Claude Lightfoot, and finding a steady source of income from President Roosevelt’s Works Project Administration.

Had this tireless campaigning on behalf of Chicago’s poor been all that he accomplished with his life, Oliver Law would still have been a figure worthy of praise. fascism on the march, the thirty-fiveyear-old Law heard a new call to action.

After months of threats and troop buildups, the army of Fascist Italy invaded Ethiopia. Similar to Vladimir Putin during the recent Russian invasion aside international outrage with veiled threats and claims of “national interest.”

Nowhere in the United States was anger more acute than on Chicago’s South Side, where the black community rallied around the plight of Africa’s one remaining uncolonized nation. Law was one of several speakers to stand on the city’s rooftops as they addressed marchers at an unauthorized “Hands Off Ethiopia” rally.

Edward Kelly, who had only four years before welcomed Italian fascist leader Italo Balbo to Chicago as a guest of the city. In an effort to promote greater ties between Italy and Chicago, and

to court Italian American voters, Kelly erected an ancient Roman column gifted Field. When Law and his allies spoke out was heavy-handed. In the words of one Tribune reporter, “Heads were thumped freely and the demonstrators screamed curses at the bluecoats as they were hustled.” Law and his fellow arrested protesters were forced to “run a gauntlet” of truncheon-wielding officers as they entered the Wabash Avenue police station to be processed. Besides Law and the other a dozen female students from the University of Chicago who “refused to give their names,” and were threatened with a firehose if they continued to yell and sing.

In the months that followed, Law was one of many African Americans to pursue more active means of resisting Italy’s aggression. Soon, he and hundreds of others had organized themselves to go to Ethiopia, intent on joining the army of its emperor, Haile Selassie. But before they could make the journey, Selassie’s defenders buckled under Italian troops willing to employ chemical weapons and advanced military machinery against the under-equipped Ethiopian forces, whose air force consisted

of only four men. Thus, the volunteers were left ready to fight but had no battlefield. They would not have to wait long.

Just over two months after the Italian conquest of Ethiopia, civil war erupted in Spain. The roots of the conflict were varied and intricate, but its immediate cause was an abortive coup by Spain’s

“It is a harsh commentary on American race relations that he found fair treatment only while in a nation far from his native home.” conservative generals. On one side stood this cabal of reactionary rightwing interests lead by General Francisco Franco, and on the other the workers and liberals of Spain under the leadItaly and Nazi Germany soon declaring support for Franco’s Nationalist cause, Law and his black contemporaries saw an opportunity for revenge against the Italian fascists, who were rumored to be

sending the freshly-victorious army of who went to Spain went because of my Yates, one of Law’s comrades from going to Spain, and they knew they had to get there, too.” When the Spanish Republic sent out a call for international volunteers, it did not fall on deaf ears.

This time, Law and his comrades Law had received his passport; by January 16, he was aboard the Paris for a two-week journey across the Atlantic.

This initiative went directly against the wishes of the non-interventionist American government, and many of the volunteers were threatened with the confiscation of their passports by American consular officials should they ever return to America.

Once the black volunteers arrived, they found themselves in a small minoriand adventurers from the entire Western world had been drawn to the Republic’s 50,000 men in the Republic’s International Brigades, 2,800 Americans had signed on These volunteers have been estimated to The Gate | 9

be one-quarter Jewish and predominantly of student backgrounds. Law and his comrades represented a mere one hundred men.

What most distinguished Oliver Law, vice in a regular army. Steve Nelson, one of the white political officers who would come to know Law well, recalled in an interview with the Chicago Reader that Law was widely respected for having been a professional soldier and for his knowledge of the ins-and-outs of military life. As it was, Law did not have much time to impart his military knowledge to his fellow soldiers before they received their first taste of combat.

With Franco’s armies advancing to the north of the capital, the Republic found it necessary to commit its volunteers to battle with minimal training. Speaking years later, Nelson would characterize the Lincolns as “anti-war activists, peaceniks” before the war, unready for the battlefield. Prepared or not, the men of the ALB were deployed in a counter-attack across the floor of the Jarama Valley in an attempt to stall the Nationaverage than any of the Republic’s other international brigades, the Lincolns faced a horrible introduction to the registered as fit for service at the becasualties by the end of the assault.

In a cruel twist of fate, the gutted Lincolns were then forced to hold the line against a series of furious Spanish Italians passed around them to attack the forces to their north at Guadalajara.

It was in this desperate period that Oliver Law came into his own. In describing what made Law so unique among the Lincolns, Nelson said, “He was efficient and knowledgeable about military basics; he knew how to respond when the enemy attacked, how to dig in, how to calm in battle, and a certain rapport with the men.” As weeks of combat dragged on and the Nationalists probed Republican lines in a bid to launch a devastating attack, the Lincoln Battalion stood fast. his fellow black Lincolns came face-toface with the most painful contradiction of their war against fascism. Spain itself had been a colonial power in Africa before 10 | The Gate

army formed the nucleus of the nationalist uprising. Now, the rebelling generals had swelled their forces with men from veterans of guerilla warfare against the Spanish, these African recruits were used to spearhead many of the nationalists’ most ferocious attacks upon the Republic’s positions. In a time when both sides sought to limit battlefield losses, these into the most dangerous parts of the batpendable by their officers. To the black Lincolns, this strategy must have seemed a very familiar form of racism. Their symtroops can be summarized by Langston Hughes’ poem “Letter From Spain,” writWe captured a wounded Moor today.

He was just as dark as me.

I said, Boy, what you been doin’ here Fightin’ against the free? …

Cause if a free Spain wins this war, The colonies, too, are free— Then something wonderful’ll happen To them Moors as dark as me. …

Cause they got slaves in Africa— And they don’t want ‘em to be free.

Listen, Moorish prisoner, hell!

Here, shake hands with me!

Nonetheless, any sentimentality totheir white compatriots; as Hughes lathoney— / And here we shoot ‘em down.”

a lack of ammunition on both sides.

The tattered Lincoln Battalion was finally removed from the front to rest and regroup before the start of the Republican offensive at Brunete. They were now veterans and would take “The Valley of Jarama,” sung to the tune of “Red River Valley,” as their new anthem.

The Lincolns were reinforced by fresh American recruits, as was their newly created twin, the George Washington Battalion. Their respite was short recommitted to the battlefront. Leading them would be Oliver Law, promoted to machine gun commander during the bitter fighting following their advance at Jarama; he had been earmarked for officer’s training before the severe illness of the battalion commander had prompted his sudden promotion to rise was the product of his nomination by a group of all-white American officers and a vote on the part of the entire unit. In taking over the Lincolns, Law would be stepping into the pages of history as the first black commander of In an age when Barack Obama serves as Commander-in-Chief of the United States and black officers such as Colin Powell have risen to command American armies, appreciating just how radical Law’s promotion was might be diffiStates only officially desegregated its be several years more before any true progress was made to put the order into effect. Law’s old Twenty-Fourth Infan-

effectively disintegrated as a frontline combat unit because of the continuing tension between an almost entirely white officer corps and the black enlisted men who felt unable to challenge their often-misguided orders. Even decades after Law’s initial promotion, racial tension would continue to run through the very heart of the American military.

Sadly, Law’s was not to be a long-lasting command. The Republic’s attack on al Brigades in ruinous advances against well-prepared enemies for negligible gains. In one of these assaults, Oliver Law fell to enemy fire, hit twice whileleading his men from the front as they attempted to storm a Nationalist posiaccounts of his final moments differ, his friend Jimmy Yates recalled hear-

“Law’s death in combat robbed him of any chance to make right with the politically conservative American political establishment.” ing from Law’s stretcher bearers that he had ordered them to abandon him on the hillside and rescue men that might still be saved. He was buried nearby under a sign declaring his historical accomplishment as “the first Negro to command American white cation was lost in the post-war years.

His comrades would continue “the good fight” in Spain for another year after his death, but they would not be able the weakened and fragmented Spanish Republic disbanded the International Brigades that had defended the dream of a “Free Spain” for almost two years.

-

ful attempt to win support from the ostensibly neutral democracies of Europe.

But it was too little, too late. France and England’s leaders had no desire to be held responsible for starting another Great War in Spain, especially when a Republican victory might well have meant the rise of a leftist, or even communist government. For the volunteers of the International Brigades, the war in Spain was over. Though the Republic’s final struggle would continue for another year, they would play no part in it.

Paul Robeson, having himself returned from the Christmas tour of Republican Spain during which he had first heard of Oliver Law’s story from his surviving comrades, would also struggle in the following years to bring to the screen a film that would do justice to the legacy of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and its first black

politically conservative American political establishment, or to find his voice heard when American culture began to reevaluate the values of communism

an internationally acclaimed actor and musician, the combination of Law’s race and his politics made the prospect of investing in a movie about him dis-

Ibárruri, commonly referred to as La Pasionaria by the troops, addressed the soldiers as they prepared to depart the country and the cause for which they had given so much. Her speech, much quoted in the years since then, sums up well the sacrifice made by men such as Oliver Law for the people of a foreign

whom Robeson petitioned for support. that block every effort to help Spain control the motion picture industry.”

American politics also devalued Law’s contribution to the war effort.

A suspicious American government branded the veterans of Law’s battalion as untrustworthy “premature anti-fascists” intent on pursuing an anti-communist alliance with Franco’s victorious of interest in his project, Robeson’s personal assistant later credited the failure of his plans to bring Law’s story to the public with his eventual withdrawal from the movie business altogether.

Law’s race and political views are undoubtedly the source of his lack of recognition in the decades after his death. Had he survived the war, he may well have gone on to reject communism, as many other International Brigadiers, including George Orwell, would. He might have been able to rehabilitate his political reputation, which could have made an appreciation of his unique place in American history more palatable to the American public. As it was, his death in combat robbed him of any chance to make right with the

neither his political affiliation nor his untimely death are reasons for Law’s story to remain forgotten. The narrative of Oliver Law’s life was one of overcoming challenges and it is a harsh commentary on American race relations that he found fair treatment only while in a nation far from his native home. ample of this adopted Chicagoan, who took a principled stand against injustice in its many forms long before the United States was willing to do the same.

The life and legacy of Oliver Law were best summed up at the Lincoln Battalion’s send-off parade in Barce-

It is very difficult to say a few words in farewell to the heroes of the International Brigades, because of what they are and what they repretheir youth or their maturity; their blood and their lives; their hopes and aspirations—and they asked us parting. Thousands remain, shrouded in Spanish earth, profoundly re-

This article was originally published on March 25, 2015. The photographs featured in this article show Law and the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain. These images are courtesy of the New York University Library Tamiment Collection. The map featured depicts the brigade’s actions during the Spanish Civil War. This map is courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives.

The Gate | 11

FROM BASKETBALL TO THE BELTWAY:

A Conversation with Bill Bradley

By Liz Stark

The Gate: Tell us a little bit about your career transitions from Olympic athlete to NBA basketball player and then to politician.

Bill Bradley: Basketball was my passion since I was about fourteen years old, and I believed in following that passion. I had no realized that not to play would be to deny a part of me more fundamental than anything else. I played for a wonderful ten years, and then I began to become more interested in politics than I

Gate: Your book, We Can All Do Better, discusses the cynicism associated with politics and partisan gridlock. What advice do you have Bradley: Someone has to break the mold. I think there are two things that prevent us from doing that. One is the polarization, which is a function of the way that we draw congressional district lines. If you pass a law offering incentives to states to draw lines that are as contiguous and even as possible, there would be much closer elections, and you would have candidates who would have to listen to the other

while I was in the middle of writing a book called Life on the Run, describing what it is like to be a professional athlete on the road insights that probably were not going to be offered by anyone else. I still loved to play basketball, though, so I decided not to run for Congress. But four years later, the interest in politics was much greater, and the interest in basketball was much less. So I decided to run for the Senate and that was my first office. When I was elected, I was the youngest Senator at thirty-five years old. It first assignment was Finance, which essentially raises all of the money that government spends and then spends over half of it. was the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which has And then I was on the Intelligence Committee, which gave me a good insight into foreign policy and security policy. I loved being in the Senate; I realized that if you did your work and mastered

Gate: How do we get money out of politics?

Bradley: We need a constitutional amendment, so you do not have the Supreme Court blocking it, that says that state and local governments may limit the amount of money spent in politics and elections. Another thing is public financing of congressional and senatorial election races. Lobbyists can sometimes be very helpful and give you information. But we need to break the connection between lobbyists and money. I believe that if you talk to a lot of congressmen and senators, they would agree. They are tired of spending all of their time raising money. It used to be that you were a senator for four years and then you ran for reelection for two years. Now, you are campaigning full-time for ents or mastering subjects in your committees, you are out raising money or associating with people who give you money. You gotta do your job first.

have an impact.

Gate: Looking to the future, what does your playbook say?

Gate: You are no stranger to the rigorous training that athletes endure to prepare for games. How did you “train” for Washington?

Bradley: I have always been interested in politics. In terms of the Senate, I simply gave it my best when I got there. I did not try to be a show horse. I wanted to be a work horse, mastering the subjects and doing good committee work. Over time, I had some success.

Bradley:

-

athletes to Washington?

got interested in politics—because I wanted to change the world and make America a better place. Now I am doing the same thing, but through the private sector. I also have a radio show called American Voices We Can All Do Better, and different articles. I do not know what retiring is—I have ing more books!

Bradley: I think that there are similarities between basketball and politics. On a practical level, you meet the press every day. There

Gate: If you could choose one person currently working in Washington to add to an all-star basketball team, who would you choose?

Gate:

Bradley: The president. I am sure he is a great basketball player.

Gate: people hate, leaders who people fear, and leaders who people do not know are leaders. In the Senate, the last one is key—you have be focused on getting things done, not taking credit for it.

-

Gate:

Bradley: Oh, Arne! [Laughs] Yes, it would be very close between Arne and the president. They know each other’s moves, so it would be a close matchup.

Bradley: I think people are not having as much fun. When you are a legislator, you want to write laws. But if the leadership of both parties essentially freezes you from doing what you should be doing, well, then I would assume it is rather boring and frustrating.

This interview, published on April 12, 2015, has been edited and condensed for this publication. The featured image is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License and is not copyright protected.

The Gate | 13

PeoPle, Pandas, and 303 Provincial road

By Chelsea Fine

T

Road is an ordinary sight. The air in an unlit tunnel is suffocating as cars and trucks idle within, halted at one of the highway’s many to see how long they will be waiting; others to light cigarettes and chat amongst themselves.

People know they will be waiting for a while, because it rained the previous night. Sursits in a valley just a few feet above a river.

Even the lightest rainfall can cause the river waters to rise to perilous heights and the cliff walls to give way to dangerous landslides. the only connection between Wolong, a region of rural villages of Tibetan ancestry, and the rest of China. For the local population, the road is a lifeline for education and health care, which means that enduring the road’s dangerous conditions is a matter of survival.

As cars sit and drivers chat, police ofwork tirelessly to remove fallen rocks so -

is a lasting reminder of a massive earthquake and tells a hidden story of China’s attempts to rebuild a nation after tragedy. tHe ePiCenter oF An eArtHquAke: beiCHuAn, mAy 12, 2008 classrooms were damaged, with nearly half of them collapsing entirely. As described by a reporter for the Telegraph, the earthquake turned an entire province “into a hellish jumble of concrete and limbs.”

Beichuan, a town located several miles

A roAd unFixed The old town of Beichuan is not the only tangible relic of the earthquake’s destruction. AlRoad, located only a few miles from Beichuan, this destruction received much less attention. In

Longmenshan Fault Zone and was the town nearest the epicenter of the earthquake. Ap-

Yet it connects the people of Wolong to Chengdu, the nearest major city, rendering it invaluable.

Without an accessible highway, the local popu-

were destroyed. One in ten residents were either injured or killed in the initial quake; in the following days, thousands more succumbed to their injuries or perished in aftershocks. Ultimately, the town lost nearly half its residents.

The Sichuan earthquake was the sec-

A local man dressed in a canvas brown cap and navy blue clothes spends many hours a week driving along this road. He remembers years ago when this highway was paved and ful valley. Now, he sits in his truck and pass-

-

the steering wheel and listening to the radio. iness, waits at checkpoints with every other

of landslides, the town of Beichuan was 16 | The Gate

The site of the original town has since been stabilized, but the area has not been rebuilt. Buildings remain crumbled and glass remains broken. There are rumors that bodies still lie buried in the rubble.

Beichuan has become a memorial, delib-

driver, and looks wistful when staring at the muddy river just a few feet below the road. said that the earthquake destroyed the vegetation that lined the cliffs above, leaving nothrains. He said that driving along this road feels like driving through a “rock material factory.” When heavy rains fall during the summer months, the road becomes buried in mud and water and is no longer visible, much less drivthe earthquake, three people died traveling the highway, and their bodies were never recovered.

Shortly after the earthquake, the government sent construction crews to try and staRoad. According to University of Chicago Professor Judith Farquhar, who does research in rural China, “It takes a lot of time and some very good equipment to remove boulders the size of small houses away from the roadway; sometimes bypasses need to be built and streams redirected because the mud and rocks that have shifted can’t be gotten off the road.” Construction crews built long wire nets along the cliff walls to catch falling rocks, but the nets are not perfect, and landslides have continued unabated. Because conditions can change quickly, drivers must stop at frequent checkpoints to ensure the road ahead is clear. Without a solution more permanent than these nets and checkpoints, the construction crews will remain, the landslides will persist, and the road will never become safe.

PAndAs And PeoPle nection between Wolong and the rest of China. For the families of Wolong, the road is not only an essential “lifeline for the local economy,” but also the only means of access to education and medical care. The dangers of the road have affected all aspects of life for locals. most of the people in Wolong are farmers who need to reach markets in Chengdu in order to sell their vegetables and provide for

er might make from selling vegetables at less than 10 cents per kilo. If farmers elect to take the terrain takes a major toll on their vehicles.

(The man in the brown cap dubbed the road

are unable to sell their vegetables, they must destroy one round of crops between seasons In addition to having a major effect on the local economy, the damaged road has schools and hospitals. Because the earthquake destroyed most of the schools in Wolong, many students need to go to other towns, often on foot, to get to school. When the that when the road is closed, people cannot Xiaojin Hospital along roads that are safe. has not only affected locals but has also is home to the Wolong Nature Reserve, the largest and most prestigious panda consermiles have been named a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and house over 5 percent of the world’s wild panda population. Because the reserve specializes in reintroducing captive pandas into the wild, it holds a unique position in the conservation movement.

Wolong was once a major tourist destination. Before the earthquake, the man in the brown cap, who works in Wolong’s tourism and conservation industry, said that over one hundred tourists visited every day and were served

of getting there. One hotel, completely untouched since the earthquake, bears an eerie re-

can be closed without warning when the

without the road, however, farmers need to through the mountains. The journey that used to take between two and three hours now takes between ten and twenty. Purchasing enough gas for this detour costs between 560

the walls have not ticked in years; laundry sits unfolded in a laundry machine; and paintings that were shaken off the walls remain on the ground. Hotel and restaurant employees have been affected, along with local artists and craftsmen who produced goods to sell to tourists.

Even worse, there are very few pandas da was killed when the wall of her enclosure The Gate | 17

collapsed on top of her. Yet the condition lowing the earthquake prevented conservationists from transporting large supplies of bamboo into the region to keep the remainthe reserve’s panda houses were destroyed.

To prevent any more pandas from dying,

lines, towering buildings, and a beautiful artistic display of the country’s history and culture. Since the Olympics, China has only the highest in the world. This development is unprecedented, but it is also uneven. Today,

Base, located in a different part of the Sich-

the people of Wolong still have no highway.

The government has tried to rebuild the road several times but has faced many chal-

pandas remained in Wolong for research.

grantee and founder of a conservation organization based out of Wolong called Panda

“We Feel We Are so smAll”

save the pandas and support the local commu-

Just a few months after the earthquake, China opened its doors to the world and hosted the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, showcasing the country’s rise as an economic power, as well as its ability to move past tragedy.

The world has seen two sides of China, separated by major events just a few months tion, one that was struggling to rebuild lost lives in the face of natural disaster. Then in August, visitors to Beijing saw new subway

road well is a combination of different factors, mainly uncontrollable natural challenges from landslides, and there is [also] incompetence, poor management, and planning.”

Yet the man in the brown cap and blue clothes believes that “the people are doing well,” and have learned to adapt over the years.

A new panda research center has been built in a different part of the nature reserve, and some of the pandas have been relocated to -

18 | The Gate

er, the man wrote, “We feel we are so small.”

The earthquake destroyed both lives and land, and this damage has not been adequately reChina’s progress since 2008, life has not returned to normal for large swathes of the population. Their stories should not be forgotten.

The Beijing Olympics and earthquake memorial at Beichuan are testaments to a country’s ability to rebuild itself and move forward after Provincial Road serves as a reminder that the nation has not fully recovered. Until the road is repaired, until the people of Wolong become reconnected to China, and until all of the giant pandas are returned home, it is important not to overlook the people and places still struggling to overcome disaster, even when facing the promise of all those that have.

Chelsea Fine wrote this article after traveling to 303 Provincial Road inspired her to share this story about the people of Wolong. The images featured in this article were taken by the author.

Chronicle of a Death Foretold: A Twenty-Year History of Alberto Nisman’s “Suicide”

By Jake Howry and Will Craft

O

n February 26, Argentine federal

his allegations against President Kirchner.

criminal charges that had been pending against President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner for the better part of a month. In

gunshot wound is considered suspicious; as of this writing, the investigation is ongoing.

The most recent charges leveled at the nation’s sitting president highlighted the tensions at the heart of Argentina’s legal system and its handling of the case. In the weeks since Nisman’s death was made public, thousands have taken to the streets in protest and President Kirchner devoted the majority of her nearly four-hour State of the Union speech to dismissing allegations of a government conspiracy in the case. To stand the twenty-year-long investigation and the political corruption that has primed the

the charges as having been “categorically and conclusively” contradicted and unable to “minimally hold up” to evidence.

Kirchner was formally charged with conspiracy for attempting to cover up the inbombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. The charges, also brought against Argentina’s foreign minister Hector Timerman and politician Andres Larroque, largely echoed the accusations of former special prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who was found dead in his apartment on January 18, the day before he was meant to testify before the Argentine National Congress regarding

ty. It follows a byzantine plot with threads that connect international terrorists, several Argentine presidential administrations, members of myriad foreign intelligence services, the Iranian nuclear program, and Pope Francis I. Witnesses have contradicted or recanted their previous testimoclaimed that prosecutors manipulated or misconstrued conversations to create an evidentiary basis for the government’s claims. tHe bombing ic drove into the lobby of the Asociación

apparently never-ending search for justice.

Attempting to succinctly summarize the pounds of ammonium nitrate fuel oil. The The Gate | 19

pressure wave from the blast knocked out the successive collapse of each of the upper ple were killed in the attack, and hundreds more were injured. The blast was in many ways similar to one that had destroyed the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires two years the deadliest bombing in Argentina’s history.

On July 28, an intelligence report was submitted to Federal Judge Juan José Galeano, who had been appointed to lead the investigation into who had orchestrated the bombing. The report detailed surveillance of the Iranian cultural attaché to Argen-

that the surveillance report was from more than a year before, Galeano quickly leaked the outline of the report to the daily newspaper, Clarin. This action would have profound consequences for the direction of tHe sPeCiAl ProseCutor ner’s predecessor and late husband Néstor Kirchner had appointed Alberto Nisman to lead the investigation. Nisman, a Jewish prosecutor, was selected as head of the Special Investigation Unit for the Prosecutor’s of the decade-old investigation, which had already become mired in political corruption.

While Galeano’s previous investigation had focused on the local connections within Argentina, Nisman broadened the ciers and motivations behind the attack.

Nisman also had access to a wealth of information that was not made available to the initial inquiry thanks to the fact that President Néstor lifted a law that had prohibited vices, Secretaría de Inteligencia de Estado, or had not previously been publicly idenBerro,

a

twenty-one-year-old

Lebanese

In mid-September, Nisman traveled tity as the bomber. Berro’s brothers con-

20 | The Gate

described it, “The brothers’ testimony was substantial, rich in detail and showed that he was the one who was killed.” of Berro as the bomber, Nisman wanted to know more, and set out to track the motivation, organization, and planning of the attack.

By the time Nisman released his forni, the cultural attaché, had grown into a of the regime of the mullahs in Argentina and perhaps its most representative member from an ideological standpoint.” Nisman accused Rabbani of being an Iranian intelligence operative who had spent the better part of the decade since his arrival in Argentina developing “local clandestine intelligence stations designed to sponUsing link analysis of the telecommunications system, the investigators isolated a collection of cell phones that arrived in the country in early July and contacted a single cell subscriber in Foz do Iguaçu, in Latin America’s notorious Triple Frontier, a lawless tri-border area often associated with narcotics in Foz do Iguaçu before the beginning of July bombing, according to the 2006 indictment.

Nisman believed that Argentina was targeted because the country had unilaterally canceled agreements for the transfer of nuclear technology that would have aided in the development of the Iranian nuclear program. The Iranian Atomic Energy Agency, for its part, continued to attempt to reconcile Nisman’s theories appear to have evolved out of what he perceived to be clear parallels between the organization and planning of

own Robert Pape, have ceased to credit IJO in their records, attributing attacks claimed

by Islamic Jihad to Hezbollah instead.

Proceeding from a position that assumed Iranian involvement, it was easy to see the similarities as a kind of signature to the atwere carried out by a common perpetrator.

The evidentiary basis of the Nisman indictment has come under frequent criticism.

Publicly, its sources have been criticized for being heavily reliant upon information of Resistance of Iran, an umbrella organization for Iranian opposition parties that Importantly, Nisman’s indictment uses these opposition sources as the sole basis for its claims regarding the crucial planning meetings within the Iranian Regime. The indictment states in no uncertain terms that the decision to attack a second site in Argentina the incriminating surveillance video of Rabbani’s purchase of the white van, allegedly to these sources would have knowledge of such a meeting is provided within the indictment.

The family of the alleged bomber, Ibrahim Berro, has taken issue with Nisman’s characterization of their testimony. They state that while their brother was certainly a member of Hezbollah, he died in southern Lebanon several months after the bombing the time by several media stories in Lebanon. sources as propaganda meant to mask Hezbollah’s involvement in the suicide bombing. troversial in Argentina to claim that Iran

bombing. Both attacks targeted prominent Jewish landmarks in Argentina and were apgovernment in the border regions of the Triple Frontier.

Importantly, there is almost no ambiguity in who orchestrated the earlier bombing. ReIsraeli Embassy was claimed by a group calling themselves the Islamic Jihad Organization, or IJO. Islamic Jihad is widely believed to be a front group for members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force with close links to the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

In fact, the link between IJO and Hezbollah is so widely accepted that many terrorism scholars, such as the University of Chicago’s

issued

international

arrest

Hezbollah operative, for his role in the sassinated by a car bomb in Syria in 2008. tHe deAl The current controversy did not ly begin until 2011. According to man’s indictment, on the eve of Syrian Civil War, Argentine ministers

truNisthe sup-

The content of these supposed meet-

ings forms the basis of the accusations currently leveled against President Kirchacy to allow the Iranian agents charged in ongoing energy crisis in Argentina by granting it favorable trade status when trading Iranian oil for Argentine grains. of halted foreign relations in which the Argentine delegation would not even sit through Iranian speeches at the United Nations, the ing development and the constitutionality of the agreement has been challenged in Argentina’s courts by the local Jewish population.

The most recent charges against the president, based heavily on Nisman’s own complaint, allege that this memorandum was the central part of the conspiracy. The panel it created, the complaint claims, is meant to reach foregone conclusions as to the innocence of the Iranians, many of whom have achieved positions of prominence within the Iranian government, and to ultimately invalidate the Interpol warrants.

All of which would seem insane if it were not so immensely plausible, primarily due to Argentina’s complicated history of political corruption in the inident at the time of the bombing, was accused of attempting to cover up potential leads in the case in a 2002 investigation by the New York Times bank account in the president’s name containing more than $10 million. The former president was accused by an Iranian defector of being an agent of the Iranian intelligence Syrian heritage (both of his parents were Syrian nationals who emigrated from the region of Yabrud near the Lebanese borthe involvement of the Islamic Republic.

Similarly, federal judge Galeano, the original chief investigator, was impeached after it was discovered that he had proin the case he had prepared. As a result, co-conspirators, were found not guilty and the prosecution of those involved with the local connection collapsed.

Both men were formally charged with

man in 2012 and, at the time when this article was originally published, were awaiting trial alongside a number of ministers. However as a sitting senanity and is unlikely to serve any jail time.

The government strongly denies these charges. Following the president’s indictment, Argentina’s treasury attorney-gento the allegations that summarized the indictment against the president as “a comwere real, many of them hypothetical, and others clearly false in light of the evidence.” It points out in part that there was no such energy crisis that would compel relations with Iran and that the former secretary general of Interpol, Ronald K. Noble, has provided evidence that Argentina has never wavered in its position to enforce the international arrest warrants. tHe suiCide

After publicly claiming on her Facebook page that Nisman’s death was nothing more than an unfortunate suicide, government website stating her belief that Nisman had been murdered by rogue elements of the Secretariat of Intelligence who had manipulated Nisman and the inWhatsApp messages from Nisman’s phone and detailed accusations related to the case, as well as a number of unsolved political “suicides.” In the following days Kirchner create a new federal intelligence agency in its place. Nisman’s allegations against the president are purportedly based upon a two-year-long telephonic surveillance investigation of Kirchner and her cabinet Kirchner’s musings on a murder orchestrated by rogue intelligence operatives have the years of Argentina’s military dictatorship

was to appear before Argentina’s Congress to present his three hundred-page dossier outlining the alleged grains for oil conspiracy, Alberto Nisman was found dead, apparently suffered a fatal gunshot wound. Even the earliest accounts were skeptical that Nisman had killed himself, with several Argentine journalists stepping forward to comment upon Nisman’s state of mind. The prosecutor had made plans for the future and is even alleged to have told a reporter from Clarin could be dead by the end of this,” though were more blunt, calling it an “assassination.” ered, a number of details have emerged in the case. A previously unaccounted-for entrance to Nisman’s apartment was discovered to have been left unlocked. The gun was not his own but rather one that he had borrowed from an assistant two days prior to his death. Paraffin tests found no gunshot residue on Nisman’s for President Kirchner was discovered in the trash behind Nisman’s building.

service operated a number of prison camps in Buenos Aires to which political prisoners were disappeared. Some of these men would bombing, including Hector Vergez, a former director of the infamous La Perla death camp.

Vergez was accused of paying off witnesses to identify two Lebanese suspects in the aftermath of the bombing, directing attention away from any Argentines. Vergez admitted leave many weary about the agency and any role it may have played in Nisman’s death.

If the twenty-year investigation into man—even if further investigation repulled the trigger. Regardless of the outcome, some will refuse to believe it.

This article was originally published on March 13, 2015 and the original version, which can be found on the Gate’s website, contains extensive notes and citations elaborating on the authors’ research. The image featured in this article is featured on jmalievi’s Flickr page. This third-party content is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License and is not copyright protected.

The Gate | 21

Japan’s Military Future: A Realist Perspective

By Hamza Shad

I

n an urgent speech delivered in Feb-

Abe appealed to his country to revise its pacifist constitution, especially the fafrom maintaining offensive military capabilities and renounces the practice of war. The constitution was written during the American occupation of Japan after World War II, as a countermeasure against the defeated empire’s militarism.

Following the killing of two Japanese citizens by the Islamic State of Iraq and sire for Japan to let go of its isolationist pacifism. He has been taking limited, but bold, steps over the past few years to unshackle Japan’s armed forces from

22 | The Gate

the its restrictive constitution. These changes have aimed to address a larger problem for the country—not Global terrorism, but China. Although there is significant domestic resistance in Japan to changing its policies, China’s ascent as a major power is likely to make the Japanese feel more insecure, especially considering the ongoing territorial dispute between them. To protect its territorial interests in the future, Japan may need to take

stronger steps, such as bolstering its military and forming a defensive coalition.

-

fought to amend the article, claiming that it is a product of the American military occupation. However, public opinion has mostly been against any official resupport, amending the Japanese constitution is nearly impossible. Indeed, the constitution has not been amended once since its adoption; doing so requires a two-thirds majority in both chambers as a simple majority in a referendum.

By employing a loose definition of self-defense, the Japanese government has still been able to build up a modern and decade-long decrease in military spending after coming into office, and this year, Japan approved its highest defense budget ons and military hardware, in order to allow Japan’s defense corporations to become more active. Soon afterwards, his government formulated a reinterpretatervention on foreign territory to defend allies. This move was criticized by many Japanese on the grounds of its potential unconstitutionality. While China, South Korea, and North Korea have viewed all of these changes with great suspicion, the United States has welcomed them.

When the current constitution of Japan was written, the United States’ goal was to turn Japan into a country focused primarily on business and trade that would not challenge American interests in the region. However, the international landscape has changed dramatically in the seventy or so years since the constitution was written, and the United States now supports a stronger, more militant Japan.

“This is really all about the Chinese preeminent theorist of international relations and professor at the University of Chicago. “The United States now realizes it will need Japan to deal with China in ways that it didn’t need Japan to deal with the Soviet Union during the Cold War,” he adds. The restrictions on Japan’s military helped turn the nation into an economic powerhouse by allowing the country to buck-pass its military and security concerns to the United States. With the rise of China as an economic and military power, America is less willing to have Japan act as a buck-passer toward it. Instead, the United States would like Japan to be a more active partner in preventing China from becoming a regional hegemon in Asia.

The Japanese, from a different perspective, also have strong incentives to be less dependent on the United States.

As the country becomes more concerned

about China’s increasing strength, it feels less confident that America will always be there to take care of its security problems. sive capabilities could make the Japanese feel more secure in front of their larger and stronger neighbor. This does not necessarily mean that Japan will return to its

a brief period of American administration after the Second World War. In recent years, the Chinese have sent strong signals indicating their determination to take control of the islands. A spokeswoman for the Chinese foreign ministry declared the islands to be part of Chi-

imperialism. “Japan wants to become a

ible, powerful army for self-defense.”

will propose an amendment in the likely to affect Japanese public consciousness for some time, but it is unclear whether or not this

will translate into politcal action. Even in sheimer notes that because “there is sigfy the constitution.” While the gruesome confrontation with ISIS might not have change, “a major crisis between China and Japan could melt away that resistance.” aoyu Islands could be the source for such a crisis between the two Asian giants. These small islands, though uninhabited, are of tremendous nationalistic value to both the Chinese and Japanese peoples. After China’s defeat in the

other developments, China is currently constructing a sizable military base in their vicinity. Japan has been taking countermeasures; earlier this year, the country purchased advanced military hardware to increase the islands’ defense. However, if China’s military power comes to resemble that of the United States, it could become difficult for Islands, making a stronger military all the more important for Japanese leaders. sheimer predicts that a balancing coalition will form to challenge China’s potential regional hegemony, led by the United States and including countries like Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, and India.

For the Japanese, such a coalition, coupled with offensive military capabilities, might be the key to maintaining its current ownership of the Senkahand, the Chinese are set on taking back what they believe is rightfully theirs, and given their huge population and trajectory toward awesome military might, might actually do so. Because of their territorial dispute and regional competition, an increase in militarism in Japan to rise economically and militarily.

This article was originally published on February 24, 2015. Special thanks to R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science John J. Mearsheimer for giving his time and insight to the Gate for this article. The images featured in this article are third-party content licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License and is not copyright protected.

The Gate | 23

A

woman wearing a red sweater and grey pants walked hand-in-hand with her small daughter, who was trying to understand why she was standing in a massive crowd of people. “Nous sommes ici parce que nous sommes Françaises,” she said to her overwhelmed child—“We are here because we are French.”

The girl and her mother joined 1.6 million people on the streets of Paris in the largest rally in French history, a massive showing of solidarity following several deadly shootings in early January. On al meeting at the Charlie Hebdo arrondissement. The satirical publication, which had previously gained notoriety for its caricatures, issue, which served as the catalyst for the attack.

Proclaiming “we have avenged the Proph-

total, seventeen people were killed. Reports sugSince the shooting, demonstrations have taken place around the world, #jesuischarlie has support for the victims of this atrocity, vowing As an American student living in Paris at the time of the shooting, I had the opportunity to see these events unfold. This article tells the story to make any sweeping generalizations but instead want to share what I learned, based on personal introspection and conversations with UChicago peers and Parisians I met during those tense days.

ControversiAl CArtoons

twelve members of the publication’s staff and injured another eleven. The two attackers, brotha third gunman with ties to the brothers shot and supermarket in eastern Paris. After policemen stormed the market, the gunman and four hostag24 | The Gate

Like most of my University of Chicago peers in Charlie Hebdo by train—when the shooting occurred, and given my limited Internet access, I had absolutely no idea that terrorists were attacking Paris. Once out of class, however, I began receiving worried messages from

family and friends and learned what had happened.

People here were a little on edge. We tried to stay safe and did not travel around as much as we would have liked, so I did not get a great feel for how the city was coping. One evening, though, we were takplatform for our train, the Gare du Nord station was suddenly closed and evacuated, and uniformed soldiers rushed in as we were ushered out. We quickly returned to our dorms, feeling a bit shaken.

As I began to read about the attack in my favorite American news publications, I saw the emergence of a debate about the place that offensive speech should hold in modern society. Everyone values free speech, but the place of hateful speech in society, such as Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons, is curhave grappled with the question of whether or not to post Charlie Hebdo’ post some of the publication’s most controversial cartoons, and NPR, the New York Times, and the Washington Post faced a similar dilemma. Columnists have also commented on the role that suggests that society should accept all forms of thur Chu has proclaimed “je ne suis pas Charlie,”

because he believes in mourning the death of human beings, not elevating a “crass” publication and “making martyrs out of its staff.” Teju Cole points out that “it is possible to defend the right to obscene and racist speech without promoting or sponsoring the content of that speech.” iCi, tout le monde est CHArlie—Here, everyone is CHArlie.

I attended the rally on January 11. I saw most of lots of crayons, as the pencil has come to symbolize the past week in Paris. The streets were covered in bleu, blanc, et rouge, and onlookers in surrounding apartment buildings whistled and shouted support to marchers below. People from all walks of children carried signs on their parents’ shoulders, and leaders from around the world, including Gercupied Palestinian territories marched arm-in-arm.

According to a University of Chicago student, “I was surprised that everyone was just reonto one another because there were not enough rails for everyone to grab and keep from falling.

“Nous tomberons ensemble”—“We will fall trees to get a better view. The city suspended all “It was shockingly friendly,” said another stuviolence, but American coverage of the tragedy gave rise to a debate about how to treat hateful speech and we noticed that this tension was notably absent from the march. Indeed, that particular issue seems like an American invention. to raise the issue that hateful speech should not be spread simply because such speech is was so much calmer, so much more one-sidof a conversation, but this rally was not about that. I do not mean to say that this conversation is not taking place in Paris or the rest of France; I merely suggest that as one attendee of 1.6 million, I did not witness it. Rather, that has refused to be brought to its knees.

Chelsea Fine wrote this article on January 13, 2015 while studying in Paris. The images featured in this article were taken by the author.

The Gate | 25

Jon Favreau: The Man Behind the Voice of a Generation

By Noah Weiland

The Gate: Biden story that’s under ten minutes long.

room where all the bigwigs are eating, and Barack Obama just grabs his tray

Jon Favreau: personal secretary, Katie Johnson, left the White House. People threw her

us sit down for breakfast, and Obama just starts asking me about my life, my family, why I got into politics, what college was like. He completely put me at ease. At the end of the interview he said, “You know, I still don’t think I need a speechwriter, but you seem nice enough, so let’s give this a whirl.”

ten of your closest friends to come to the Naval Observatory and have a barbeque. Jill isn’t home, I’m there by myself, and it’d be great to have all you guys over.” And so Joe Biden invites us all over to the Naval Observatory, and he has an entire barbeque in the backyard, by the pool. And it’s not one

Gate: How improbable was it that someone with your background ended up writing for someone like Barack Obama?

Favreau:

did something like this, and you have all these people over, you have like a drop-by, where the politician comes in and says hi, greets everyone for a little while and then says, “Have fun, I’m gonna go do whatever.” Joe Biden spent like three or four hours out in the backyard with all of us, sitting and eating with us, and he told so many stories. There were three or four tables about southern senators and his time in the Senate—amazing story after amazing story, and he just held court. He gives us an entire tour of the Naval Observatory, a personally-led tour. And he’s got his dog, and at one point we’re out on the front lawn and he’s got his golf club, and he whacks the ball and the dog runs after it. It was such a great moment because you get how the public persona of Joe Biden is very much like his private persona, both because he’s very animated and loves telling stories, but also because he’s just this warm, wonderful person who took all this time out of his very busy schedule to hang out with a bunch of people that, he, you know, maybe kind of knew.

-

speaker—a politician, political leader, or cultural leader—can inspire a na-

anyone, whether you’re black or white or rich or poor. Not to compare him

he speaks about are something anyone can relate to. So I’m very conscious of that, that I’m writing for someone who is always seeking to appeal to everyone no matter who you are or where you come from, or how you started out.

Gate: In college, or even while you were writing speeches for Kerry, did you ever see yourself as someone who could write speeches for a president?

Gate: Favreau: speeches that were being delivered at the convention were on message with the Kerry campaign. And so I get a call at one point from the road, where John Kerry was traveling and working on his convention speech, that one of the speakers, a young state senator from Illinois named Barack Obama, was giving the keynote address, and he had a line in his speech that John Kerry also had in his speech. And they asked me to go and talk to Obama ritual. So I walk into the room where Obama is practicing his convention cause he had been my boss in the Kerry campaign when I was an assistant.

And I ask Gibbs if he can talk to Obama about this line. He said, “I’m not talking to him! You talk to him!” So I walk up to Obama and mumble what I have to say, and he kind of leans over me and looks down and says, “Are you telling me I have to take out my favorite line in this speech?” At that point I blacked out for a few seconds, and then all of a sudden I was out in

ever saw Barack Obama.

Favreau: always loved writing. I loved writing in college—I was the opinions editor of the newspaper at Holy Cross. I did the same thing in high school, so I was involved in journalism and writing that way. I also, as I got more into politics in college, started writing opinion columns about political issues on campus and national political issues. By my junior or senior year in college I was very interested in political writing, which landed me in the press/ communications area of politics, which is what I did for Kerry. But it wasn’t I really thought to myself, “I’d really love to be a speechwriter. This sounds like a cool job.”

Gate: How did you and Obama use older presidential speechwriting to guide your own work?

Favreau: viously wasn’t a president but wrote some of the best speeches, in my opinion. Lyndon Johnson wrote really great speeches. And then especially Bush and Clinton, to see what presidents did who sat here in modern times, and maybe had a similar event—how they dealt with it. So there are two things

Gate: How did you get Obama’s attention after that backstage incident?

Favreau: After the campaign ended, and John Kerry lost, Robert Gibbs emailed me and told me that Obama was looking for a speechwriter. He’d never had one before, but now he needed to learn to work with one because he was going to be very busy. He asked if I would have breakfast with him So we all go to the Senate cafeteria, and there’s the senators-only dining

two—what kind of inspiration can we gain from the way this president spoke about this issue.

Gate: How has speechmaking formed Obama’s political identity?

Favreau: I think it’s very rare that a single speech launches a politician’s career into the national spotlight. There are a couple speeches that launched The Gate | 27

which was a very powerful speech he gave in Chicago that kind of put has done differently is break free from the typical political rhetoric that has invaded most of our politics today. He’s authentic; he tries to speak in an authentic way. He tries to be honest about issues that people are usually he can, he says what’s on his mind. When you think about the race speech, the Cairo speech—he will tackle issues in an honest way, which you don’t authentically in a way that some other politicians have been afraid to do.

Gate: Is the success of the speechwriter dependent on having the same ear as the person he or she is writing speeches for? Is it more a matter of language or personality?

Favreau: I think personality helps, for sure. There are a lot of us who have worked for President Obama, and we all have different personalities. I think know that person. You don’t need to know them right at the outset, but you need to get to know that person really well. Part of that is reading everything they’ve written and said, but a lot of it is just spending time with them, and not only getting to know the rhythms of that person’s speaking style, but also how that person thinks, and you can only get that through a closer relationship. I think that people who try to capture someone’s voice through

by the lake. For me, I have to go to as many different locations as possible.

Gate: What is President Obama like to work with? What is he like as a writer and editor in such a personal environment?

Favreau: He’s easy to work with. We obviously write in incredibly high-pressure situations, which I’m always aware of, but he doesn’t necessarily make you aware of that. We were working on the Nobel Peace Prize speech right up until the last second, and Ben Rhodes and I were completely crazed and worried that we weren’t going to make it and thinking horrible thoughts. The president was just completely calm and collected, not worried, as if he had weeks and and editor, his edits always add the truth to the speech that’s been missing, that kernel of something that you wouldn’t hear a normal politician say. That’s what he always adds to speeches, substantively. Rhetorically, he has a great ear for rhythm and for really nice words and phrases and imagery that you wouldn’t normally put into a speech, that aren’t cliché, but that bring the words on the paper to life.

Gate: There are these well-known photos of drafts of his speeches with his pen marks and edits all across the page. Is there a point at which he’s more conFavreau: speeches are substance. He’s worried about getting the substance right. That’s

Gate: to however you were going to translate them into the language of speeches?

Favreau: I follow news to know what the narrative is, to know what’s on reporters’ minds. People write many different stories, but there’s usually one theme or narrative out of any week. As a president, I don’t think you want to be reactive or responsive to every single narrative that comes out of the press, because they change with the weather and with every hour. But at the same time, if you completely ignore what’s going on [in the media], that’s

haven’t talked enough about this policy,” or, “I want to make sure I make this argument.” So we go through many drafts that way. Once that’s set, then the back and forth is him just line editing. He doesn’t take pen to paper at the beginning stages when we’re dealing with substantive edits. Those he’ll tell me about. He’ll write on a separate piece of paper some ideas for me. But when he actually gets to the point where he’s marking up the page—that is just line edits, words, rhetoric, all that stuff.

Gate: When and where does he often work on his edits?

So you have to know what that is and at least be able to act like you’re aware.

Favreau: Always at night. On big speeches like the State of the Union and

Gate: Were you always nervous when you were reading the news that you’d have to sit down soon after and write something about it in the form of a

has an hour. Usually the line editing he can do during the day if he has an hour in the Oval, because it isn’t as labor-intensive. But when he really needs to think about the substance of a speech, he’ll do it at like one, two, three o’clock in the morning when he’s up.

Favreau: Yeah, it does train your mind. Part of it is that this is something happening in the press; this is what everyone’s talking about on television I to it. It’s not my job alone; it’s the job of the communications director, the senior advisor. Everyone talks about it. The president makes decisions about this as well. But when it actually comes to the words and the lines, part

Gate: you?

Favreau: It’s funny—as a child, especially when I started getting interested in politics, the White House was this dream of mine. I had never had a White House tour. I had never been there. But when I

Gate:

Favreau: go. There are very few times when I’ve sat in one place and drafted an entire speech. I can’t do that. I’ve been to many Starbucks. If I 28 | The Gate

Barack Obama, it was like, “Wow, look where Barack Obama and all of us got. Look where we are right now.” And not, “I’m in the White House with the president.” I knew him for a couple of years before he got to the White House, so I never see him as “Oh my God it’s the president, and I’m sitting with the president.” It’s Barack Obama, whom I’ve known for a long time. But the White House to us was still just, “Wow.”

Gate: Where does the perception of him being so aloof come from?

Favreau: I honestly think that the aloof characterization comes from a view of the presidency that a lot of folks have in Washington, where the president is king and has a magic wand and can make any problem go away.

If he can’t make a problem go away, all he has to do is twist some arms and being wooed by the president. They don’t actually have constituencies or politics to deal with. They’re just sitting there in Congress waiting to be stroked by the president of the United States. That’s all. So I think that’s where the aloof characterization comes from. The truth is that the president is a people person—he talks all the time to members of Congress, and he golfs with Boehner, he does all this stuff. But he has a wife and kids he wants to spend time with, and he’d rather have dinner with them than go to a Washington cocktail party. If he thought that going to a Washington cocktail party would pass his bill, he would cocktail it up all day long. But I think he’s realistic about what needs to get done to get certain pieces of legislation passed.

Gate: Is there a serious or harmful divide between the idealism of his language and the bureaucracy of presidential politics?

Favreau: I don’t think so, because I think he’s very clear-eyed in knowing that the idealism of the speeches is just that—it’s something to strive for.

He’s very realistic about what that is. He knows that the bureaucracy can be a pain. He knows that Congress can be partisan and gridlocked. He knows all of the things that are getting in the way of passing the legislation he wants to pass. But that’s no reason for him not to speak in idealistic language and say, “Let’s reach for that. Let’s do better.” His basic philosophy can be if we chip away at some of these big problems, even if we don’t solve them, that it’s not progress.”

Gate: I know you’re interested in writing screenplays. What’s so appealing about political television that would draw you away from Washington?

Favreau: So I don’t think there’s anything appealing about political television per se. I think what’s appealing to me is that I’m always looking for ways to reach people, to inspire people about the possibilities of public service who might not necessarily be political junkies, and who might not feel that politics is for them, and who might think that the whole thing is just cynical garbage, and everyone’s in it for themselves. I think there’s many ways to do that. But one of the most interesting ways for me is entertainment and culture as a way of reaching out to people and saying, “You know what?

There’s some value here, and there are some good things being done.” I was inspired by The West Wing when I was in college, and my buddy and I have thought for a long time that we’re due for a younger, campaign-related version of The West Wing that doesn’t have to do with the president and his top advisors, but has to do with all the other people, especially the young people that get involved with these things.

to put in face time. You made sure that you did your work when there was work to do. In the White House, it was a little better than during the campaign, because I had a bigger team. There were more people writing speeches, so we kind of gave each other a break when we could.

Gate: out with your friends?

Favreau: [Laughs] So I was here in Chicago, and it was like two weeks before the Jefferson-Jackson dinner, and I had been up multiple nights until two or three in the morning—myself, Adam Franklin, and Ben Rhodes, trying to write the Jefferson-Jackson speech. Finally, we put it away for a while. And we had this speech in South Carolina that was supposed to be a year before actual election day. So we did our latest version of the Jefferson-Jackson speech there, and he gives the speech during the day on Saturday and it’s great, everything’s just talked to the president. He loved the speech today, and he said that’s what J-J speech needs to be ten, so can you cut it down? And he wants it by tomorrow morning.” And I had just cracked open my beer for the night, and I have all these people in my apartment. And so I run out of the house, make a cup or one a.m. and stayed up all morning until ten a.m. and rewrote the speech.

Gate: What inner qualities can speechwriting give you?

Favreau: One of the qualities that it has taught me most of all is empathy, which is a good quality in life. As a speechwriter you need to put yourself in other people’s shoes, because you need to know what the audience would want to hear; you want to know where they’re coming from and where they are. You’re always trying to meet people where they are. I think that’s a out where they’re coming from. It helps you understand the people you’re working with, the people you’re living with. It’s a very valuable tool to have, and the president is very skilled at it, and I think the best speakers and the best leaders often are.

Gate: Favreau: I don’t. I worked for a candidate and president I could never have dreamed of being so inspiring to me, and such a wonderful boss, and a good man to work for. And now that I’ve done that, putting as much time and sweat and energy, and so much of my life into something like that again just doesn’t seem like it would be worth it to me. If someone comes along, like another Barack Obama, who knows? But for now, there’s so much of politics that I dislike, that I don’t see myself as a political lifer. I see myself as someone who really, truly admires Barack Obama and what he’s trying to do, and I’d do anything he asks me to do. Beyond that, I have very strong views about politics that I’ll continue to share, and it’s going to be hard to shake politics out of my system completely, but putting in the effort and the years with someone else would be tough.

Gate: stay late at the White House?

Favreau: In a lot of ways it’s just like college. When there’s a paper due, there’s nothing else you do but the paper, or a test. You lock yourself away, you pro-

This interview, originally published on December 1, 2013, has been edited and condensed for this publication. The featured image of Jon Favreau speaking with President Obama

not a job where you sat there and put in face time just because you needed

23, 2012. This third-party content is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License and is not copyright protected.

The Gate | 29

By Emma Herman

y new friend in Hebron doesn’t know how to translate “tear gas” from Arabic to English. Translation becomes irrelevant, however, after he hands me a small piece of onion—a household remedy against the gas—because I can feel my eyes and throat start to burn as we walk through Ras Al-Jourah, the main roundabout near my host family’s house.

rested. Her name is Abrar, and she is twenty-four years old and pregnant. They arrested her because her husband is a suspect in the killing of the three Israeli teens. The teens’ bodies had been found just a few hours hul, only a ten-minute drive from Hebron.

There have been similar arrests in the two weeks since the start of Operation

night, including in front of my house. The

-

night since the news broke of the disappearance of three Israeli teenagers, but

in. Eight Palestinians are dead. Of the

street, a quiet residential road in the part tiple vehicles pull up in front of my neighbor’s house, and by the time I throw on a sweater and grab my passport, the soldiers have unloaded. I watch some of the soldiers mill around their olive-green military Jeep while four others jog up the street holding their guns. One soldier notices me taking pictures in my jeans and sweatshirt and yells at me in Hebrew. Out of habit, I almost reply with “I don’t understand” in Arabic, but catch myself and reply in English. If I reply in Arabic, the soldier might assume I am an activist, or a very odd-looking Palestinian—not how I want

other two, both elderly, died of heart attacks when soldiers entered their homes.

Teenagers on a street corner near Hebron’s Old City, which Palestinians are not allowed

toward me, his weapon raised, saying, “If you take pictures, we will take camera.”

After the soldiers leave, I log onto Facebook and message my friends in the region, who are already sharing information from their respective neighborhoods. I continuously refresh Twitter, which, in Hebron, is the most reliable source of information. Checking my social media feeds while listening to cussion grenades is more than a little surreal.

Hebron itself is more isolated than it has ever been—no Palestinians are allowed to

“Violence in the city can feel intense as an outsider, but it is actually swift

The soldiers are still on the street in front of my house. I watch from my window as back of an army Jeep. As soon as the convoy disappears, I run back down the three

gas and concussion grenades with stones and pieces of concrete. Clashes occur when tensions momentarily boil over, before simmering back down. The result is an atmosphere of near-constant stress. The threat of violence is worse than the actual violence; so far, it’s much more psychologically cally dangerous. But life must go on. And it does. The possibility of violence doesn’t go away; it is a daily threat and the people of Hebron must continue with their lives in spite of it. I can’t even begin to imagine how people deal with it for an entire lifetime—I’ve only been here three weeks and there are concussion grenades in my dreams.

As I write this, my host family and I are watching America’s Got Talent on the plosions echo across the city and the disonates on both sides of the rooftop.

It is nighttime again—the most telling time for the city of Hebron. I’ll spend book and Twitter and reading what the world has to say about the city I am in, family, meanwhile, does not react. Soon we will all fall asleep to the same sounds of

to enter, toss chunks of concrete at a group of soldiers who are wearing full body armor; one soldier responds with a canister of tear gas.

The strangest thing about living in the city during the operation has been process-

and go to work or school, and follow our daily routines. This is life in Hebron.

in stride. Israeli forces guard most points of entry into the city, creating roadblocks that force drivers to take long, convoluted routes.

Emma Herman published this article on July 7, 2014 when she was in Hebron, a Palestinian city in the West Bank. At the time, Hebron was at the center of a violent standoff between Palestine and Israel after the bodies of three missing Israeli

card are prohibited from leaving at all, and and unpredictable, yet I’m more connected with people outside of the West Bank via Internet than I have been in a while.

I head back home so I can upload pho-

Skirmishes between Palestinians and the

and are unlucky enough to be visiting friends or family right now have not been allowed to leave either. Two of my friends live in an apartment in the southwestern part of the city. For at least a week, we all thought that their neighbors had seven children. As it turns there; the other two are visiting from Jerusalem and haven’t been able to return home.

Violence in the city can feel intense as an

The city is considered a stronghold of Hamas, which Israel accused of carrying out the killings. In response to the murders, Israel tripled the number of troops in the West Bank, and soldiers stationed in Hebron conducted nightly searches of houses in the city. After Jewish extremists kidnapped and burned alive a seventeen-year-old Palestinian boy in Jerusalem, clashes between the Israeli police and Palestinian protestors spread across the region. The images featured in this article were taken by the author.

The Gate | 31