When Oregon music teacher Susan Lewis logged onto a Zoom meeting with her boss one afternoon in August 2024, she thought she would be preparing for a sixth year teaching at Valley Catholic School. Instead, she lost her job.
Lewis was shocked, she recalled in an interview with The Intercept, as were her colleagues and students. The school did not give any explanation for why they did not renew her contract. Unbeknownst to Lewis, the pro-Israel blacklist organization StopAntisemitism had recently launched an online campaign against her, framing her social media posts about the genocide in Gaza as “using her platform to spread vile antisemitic hate online.”
Lewis is one of at least 400 people StopAntisemitism has taken credit for getting ousted from their jobs in its online crusade, which has drawn widespread attention for targeting more prominent figures — including right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson, progressive actor-turned-activist Cynthia Nixon, and the popular children’s educator Rachel Accurso, known by her stage name Ms. Rachel. Lewis, without her own platform or mass audience, is one of only two recent StopAntisemitism targets pursuing active federal lawsuits against the blacklist organization.
“I really thought we had free speech and this wouldn’t be a problem — that’s what social media is for, is that you can vent,” Lewis told The Intercept. “It wasn’t like I was saying anything above and beyond what other critics of Israel were saying.”
She sued StopAntisemitism for defamation in an Oregon state court over the summer, and the case was elevated to federal court last month. Her suit faces long odds, legal experts told The Intercept, but serves as a rare chance to register public dissent in the courts against the group’s targeting.
Founded in 2018 by social media influencer Liora Reznichenko and funded by the California-based real estate millionaire Adam Milstein’s foundation, StopAntisemitism targets public figures and private individuals over their criticism of Israel or advocacy for Palestinian human rights — forming a single-issue Rolodex similar to Canary Mission. The blacklists supplement the fierce crackdowns and censorship against Palestine solidarity activism increasingly seen at schools across the U.S. since the outbreak of Israel’s war on Gaza.
StopAntisemitism elevated its own profile by targeting Accurso, who has used her platform to advocate for Palestinian children who have been killed, wounded, or starved by the Israeli military in Gaza, especially after she posted videos with a Palestinian 3-year-old who had lost her leg. In April, StopAntisemitism requested that the Department of Justice investigate her for alleged ties to Hamas, despite no evidence of such connections, and this month named her a finalist for “Antisemite of the Year,” on a list that also included Carlson and Nixon.
Accurso has faced an increase in online harassment, including physical threatening letters to her and her family members, she said in an Instagram post after StopAntisemitism released the “Antisemite” list. Her audience of nearly 5 million on Instagram and more than 18 million on YouTube has largely rallied around her — offering backing that hundreds of people like Lewis don’t have.
Reznichenko said that since October 7, 2023, her group has profiled 1,000 employees and students, often sharing their work or school information, encouraging their followers to contact their employers and at times calling for their firing, according to an October interview with the right-leaning Zionist media outlet Jewish News Syndicate.
When StopAntisemitism shared screenshots from Lewis’s personal Facebook page last August, it amplified the posts to a far larger audience than Lewis’s 2,000 Facebook friends. Lewis had criticized Israel’s apartheid rule over Palestinians, its genocide in Gaza, and Western support for the war. StopAntisemitism listed an email address for Valley Catholic School and encouraged its followers, who currently number more than 300,000 on X, to contact Lewis’s employer. “Warning to parents of students in Beaverton,” the post read. “Students at [Valley Catholic] are in grave danger under Sue Lewis.”
What followed was a flood of messages demanding her firing and a slew of personal attacks. “Their phones are ringing off the hook,” one user commented below the post, sharing the school’s phone number and listing school administrators’ names. “Keep trying.”
In one post highlighted by StopAntisemitism, Lewis reshared a statement pointing out the false reports of “babies beheaded” by Hamas and exaggerated claims of systemic rape to “mobilize Western support for the Palestinian genocide.” She had quipped in a separate post that Hamas would “wipe out Israel with their homemade bombs, small arms, hang gliders, grenades and sling shots,” and later clarified the post was sarcastic, given Israel’s clear military advantage thanks to billions of dollars’ worth of military aid each year from the U.S. and allied nations.
The following month, StopAntisemitism posted again: “Update: antisemite Sue Lewis is thankfully no longer teaching at Valley Catholic High School.”
In her lawsuit, Lewis is alleging that StopAntisemitism and Reznichenko defamed her, invaded her privacy, interfered with her work contract, and inflicted emotional distress.
Valley Catholic School did not respond to The Intercept’s request for comment.
In court filings seeking an immediate dismissal, the organization has claimed its statements are true and protected by the First Amendment as opinion.
Groups like StopAntisemitism have free speech rights too, said Aaron Terr, an attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, “even when it’s harsh, unfair, or deeply offensive.”
StopAntisemitism declined to comment on Lewis’s lawsuit and instead doubled down on its criticism of Accurso.
“Regarding Ms. Rachel, it is disturbing that the media continues to pretend she merely advocates for Palestinian children,” Reznichenko said in a statement to The Intercept, claiming that she attempted “to pass off pictures of children with birth defects as victims of Israeli aggression” and had inspired “an army of antisemitic lunatics” to make threats against the group.
A spokesperson for Accurso called Reznichenko’s accusations false and dangerous. In a statement, Accurso said that her “compassion and care for children doesn’t stop at any border” and that her advocacy for children in Gaza is no exception.
“I want every child to be fed, safe and able to attend school,” Accurso said. “I know that everyone benefits when we help children reach their full potential and grow into thriving, healthy adults. I also know that it’s not right for children to suffer like they are currently in Gaza, Sudan, the Congo and beyond.”
While her project’s main currency lies in the mass ire of social media, Reznichenko has also been a recurring guest on broadcast TV, including Jake Tapper’s CNN show, Fox News, and NewsNation. In a recent segment on Fox, she blamed the recent Bondi Beach mass shooting on the Palestinian liberation movement, calling for the deportation of “radicals” who want to “globalize the intifada,” a historical reference to Palestinian resistance against Israeli occupation, often framed by pro-Israel advocates as a call for violence against Jews.
The Encino, California-based nonprofit Merona Leadership Foundation, of which Adam Milstein is president, paid Reznichenko $142,722 in 2023 while she worked for StopAntisemitism, according to the group’s tax filing. The foundation, which helps cover StopAntisemitism’s operating costs, serves as one vehicle for Milstein to support efforts to crush Palestinian solidarity work, as first reported by the Washington Post.
The Milstein Family Foundation, which Milstein operates with his wife Gila, helps fund the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, and its offshoot, Democratic Majority for Israel, as well as the right-wing think tank Heritage Foundation. Milstein, who pleaded guilty to tax evasion in 2008, has also been tied to blacklist group Canary Mission and has praised their work, but rejected claims that he funds the group. StopAntisemitism, however, is listed as among the Milstein foundation’s supported groups.
The Milsteins sit on the board of Impact Forum Foundation, a network of dozens of pro-Israel philanthropists who support nonprofits that include StopAntisemitism. The supported companies include media organizations such as Jewish News Syndicate, pro-Israel think tanks like Middle East Forum and Jewish Institute for National Security of America, and advocacy groups such as Students Supporting Israel, Parents Defending Education, and ELNET, which has described itself as the AIPAC of Europe. The network’s website said the coalition’s aims are to “fight antisemitism, strengthen the State of Israel, and advance the U.S. – Israel alliance.”
The Milsteins did not respond to a request for comment.
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Lewis’s lawsuit against StopAntisemitism represents a rare legal challenge against pro-Israel doxxing groups, and it faces long odds because of First Amendment protections. Former Cabrini University professor Kareem Tannous, a Palestinian American who lost his job in 2022 after StopAntisemitism blacklisted him over social media posts critical of Israel, sued the group for defamation but had his case dismissed when a federal judge in Pennsylvania found that StopAntisemitism’s statements were protected opinion.
A federal judge in Michigan made a similar free speech ruling in a lawsuit filed against StopAntisemitism in 2024 by a former University of Michigan hockey player, John Druskinis, who the group had falsely accused of painting a swastika on the sidewalk in front of the Jewish Resource Center when he had instead painted a male genitalia and a homophobic slur. Although the court upheld Druskinis’s defamation claim, he dropped his suit earlier this year.
Aside from Lewis’s suit, the only other active lawsuit against StopAntisemitism was filed by Abeer AbouYabis, a physician and former professor at Emory’s medical school, who was fired after the group doxxed her over a social media post expressing “hope” in a free Palestine and praising the “glory” of Palestinian “resistance fighters” on October 7.
Unlike previous lawsuits, AbouYabis, who is an Arab Palestinian and Muslim, alleges discrimination based on race, religion, and nationality, as well as retaliation allegations under the American Disabilities Act. In a 213-page complaint, AbouYabis alleged Emory fired her while she was on medical leave for post-traumatic stress disorder after 37 members of her family were killed in the first month of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza. The suit, originally filed in May, names the school, the Milsteins, StopAntisemitism, and Canary Mission, accusing Emory of collaborating with the latter two to silence AbouYabis’s protected speech. In a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, attorneys for the Milsteins did not deny its financial support for StopAntisemitism, but said the couple cannot be held liable “for the acts of these third party websites.”
Central to Lewis’s complaint against StopAntisemitism is the group’s email campaign against Lewis as part of a series targeting educators called “Corrupting the Classroom,” in which they labeled her “a raging antisemite.” A link on the campaign’s site, which remains active, leads directly to a pre-written email message addressed to Valley Catholic School’s principal. The email calls Lewis “a grave threat to the safety and well-being of your students” whose “presence in the classroom cannot be tolerated” and called on the principal “to take immediate and decisive action to address this situation.” Lewis’s lawsuit frames the campaign’s message as “false and malicious statements” about her personal views on the Israeli government’s policies. The campaign, the suit alleges, is full of “mischaracterizations and distortions” of her social media posts.
In a motion to dismiss Lewis’s case, attorneys for the Reznichenko and the organization defended the “Corrupting the Classroom” campaign as having used Lewis’s own “quotes and screenshots from Plaintiff’s publicly available social media profile,” arguing that the group “simply framed them as an example of dangerous antisemitism, a conclusion StopAntisemitism is entitled to reach and express under the First Amendment” and Oregon law.
FIRE’s Terr, who is familiar with cases involving StopAntisemitism, said he agreed with the court’s previous decisions in other cases where judges ruled to protect StopAntisemitism’s free speech rights, even if he disagreed with the group’s tactics. It would be worse, he said, if the government could decide what speech is or is not acceptable.
The second Trump administration, however, has tested the limits of such constitutional protections by passing executive orders inspired by the Heritage Foundation’s Project Esther, which aims to target the pro-Palestinian movement by accusing them of being Hamas supporters. The orders have only emboldened groups like StopAntisemitism.
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Earlier this year, the administration began detaining and attempting to deport high profile pro-Palestinian activists Mohsen Mahdawi, Rümeysa Öztürk, and Mahmoud Khalil — the latter of whom Reznichenko regularly attacks online. The right-wing Zionist group Betar has openly collaborated with the Trump administration, providing lists of pro-Palestine activists in the U.S. for deportation. StopAntisemitism has cheered on such deportation efforts. A Palestinian woman who joined a pro-Palestine protest in New York, Leqaa Kordia, has been in immigration detention since early March despite a judge twice ordering her release. The Trump administration and groups like StopAntisemitism have accused her of being a “pro-Hamas extremist” while failing to present evidence.
While Terr said StopAntisemitism is protected by the First Amendment, he criticized blacklist groups like StopAntisemitism for punishing people who say things the group disagrees with by “trying to inflict devastating consequences on people, like depriving them of their livelihoods,” which he said chills further speech.
“When an organization like Stop Anti-Semitism not only amplifies someone else’s social media posts to criticize their views, but also organizes a campaign to get them fired, it’s right to call that out as illiberal,” Terr said.
Calling out StopAntisemitism is perhaps the best recourse people have in seeking accountability, said Dylan Saba, an attorney at Palestine Legal, which has supported students and faculty who have been censored by schools due to their advocacy for Palestine.
“Because the speech protections are so strong, it’s really a situation in which sunlight is the best disinfectant,” Saba said. “The more that people understand who and what these organizations are, that there is this mass campaign to propagate smears and to stamp out any criticism of Zionism or criticism of U.S. support for Israel, the less effective those smears will be — especially as more people are becoming familiar with the issue of Palestine.”
“The more people understand that there is this mass campaign to propagate smears and to stamp out any criticism of Zionism or criticism of U.S. support for Israel, the less effective those smears will be.”
Hundreds of comments by supporters of StopAntisemitism were leveled at Lewis, some of which her attorney described as as “violent and threatening” in court filings. They ranged from misogynist attacks to others calling for her to get a pager, referencing an attack in Lebanon in which the Israeli military detonated thousands of pagers and handheld walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members, killing 42 people, including 12 civilians, and injuring more than 4,000 others. Another user suggested Lewis should be “teached” by Mossad, according to a police report she filed with the Portland Police Department last year, a reference to Israel’s intelligence agency, which has a long history of assassinating its political enemies.
Lewis said the attacks strained her marriage and her livelihood. She said she has retained some of her students for private lessons, teaching from her home studio, but she misses the camaraderie with her co-workers and helping build the school’s music program.
Lewis, who is self-funding her case through her savings and a GoFundMe, said she is motivated by the many students who have been blacklisted by the group and whose lives have been interrupted because of StopAntisemitism’s blacklist.
“I’m a teacher, that’s what I do — I try to help my students reach their full potential,” she said. “Their whole career could be just snuffed out, you know? They may never be able to work in their chosen field. They got student loan debt, they got to pay the rent.”
The post StopAntisemitism Takes Credit for Getting Hundreds Fired. A Music Teacher Is Suing. appeared first on The Intercept.
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Photos and texts by Jes Aznar
In the layers of conflict, we find a labyrinth of truths. Religion, a mere facade, conceals the primal urges that drive humanity to war. Scholars claim that the term ‘religious wars’ is a Western construct, a recent coinage that obscures the real reasons behind conflicts. As we peel back the layers, we discover that faith is but a small part of the narrative. Like an onion, the truth reveals itself in layers, each one a revelation, a discovery. We are fed narratives by the mass-media, of protagonists and antagonists, good vs. evil, black and white. But the reality on the ground is a kaleidoscope of complexities borne by a prism of primal motivations.
Over fourteen years ago, I ventured into Mindanao with preconceptions etched in my mind. But the longer I stayed, the more I saw, the more I learned to reject the narratives I was fed. A colleague once said, ‘There are over 200 books written about Mindanao, yet none come close to capturing its essence.’ Conflicts are full of contradictions, and the real reasons are often obscured by those who want to hide them.
The idea of a ‘promised land,’ a ‘liberation’ of its inhabitants, is a tired refrain, a justification for invasion and colonisation. Mindanao has been labeled similarly for the same purpose. The US conquest of indigenous American lands and their current interest in West Asian lands all bear the same premise – the primal urge to possess.
The empire of the United States left its mark on Mindanao, a brutal incursion that saw villages burned, civilians killed in mosques, and lives lost. Mark Twain’s words echo: “The Bud Dajo massacre, a twin to Wounded Knee.” The atrocities that followed, committed by US-installed governments like that of Marcos Sr., were equally bloody. Villages were burned, and civilians were killed in mosques while praying. Casualties among both Muslim and Christian civilians were at an all-time high. The people, perpetually displaced, had their land transferred to multinational corporations and the local oligarchy.
Rebellions in Mindanao are deeply rooted not only in the number of native lives lost but also in the dispossession of their land and identity. The current distorted lens of hegemony focuses on differences in faith, ideology, and creed, obscuring the primal truths that drive us to war.
A long history of foreign incursions and massacres has led to the creation of resistance armies. The Torrens system, introduced in 1903 by the US colonial government, paved the way for multinational corporations and local landlords to facilitate land acquisition in Mindanao, often at the expense of local and Indigenous communities, by leveraging legal mechanisms that favour formally titled land over traditional or customary land rights.
In 1968, a secessionist movement seeking an independent Muslim state from the Philippines was formed. A few years later, the armed Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) was established, and the succeeding Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a breakaway group from the MNLF, waged war with the government for years, only to be replaced by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and newer secessionist groups waging old conflicts.
While peace was enjoyed for a time after deals between the separatist groups and the government were made, it is also historically true that when the deep roots of conflict remain unaddressed, wars can spark anew. Decades of conflict have plunged Mindanao into a cycle of poverty and violence that has led to the death of more than 100,000 people and has recently given rise to extremist influences in the form of militant groups such as the Islamic State.
- Farm laborers working on a piece of land in Bukidnon, Mindanao.
September 2017. Farmers tilling a parcel of land in northern Cotabatoo.
- Moro Islamic Liberation Front soldiers walking through a marsh with fresh supplies, in between gunfights at the frontline of war in Maguindanao against IS-inspired insurgents.
August 2018. A portrait of Moro Islamic Liberation Front administrator Ali Akoy aged 68. Mr Ali was undergoing therapy after suffering a stroke while on duty.
An armed government police officer in Jolo island in Sulu, at the time considered the most dangerous place in the country and the birthplace of the first Islamic rebellion against the fascist rule of dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The town of Jolo was burned down by the military under orders of the president killing more than 20,000 civilians that further fanned the flames of rebellion. The Sulu islands are host to Christians, Muslims, and Chinese descendents who lived relatively harmoniously for centuries prior to Spanish colonial expansion from the 16th to the 19th Century, and US Colonial rule following the Spanish-American War which saw the use of massive military firepower to try to subjugate the region.
- A villager from Maimbung being carried to a hospital. At the time, the remote village of Maimbung was a stronghold of the extremist group Abu Sayyaf, one of the most targeted by local and US military. Going to the city for medical attention meant a four hour trip on foot, across rivers, a jungle, and through a heavily militarized area referred to as ‘No-Man’s-Land’.
August 2009. Growing up in an environment beset by conflict, young boys play with toy guns and mimic the activities of combatants in the armed conflict between rebel groups and government forces in Datu Salibo, Maguindanao.
Members of the Ilaga, a militia group with Christian settler members, performing the annual sacred ritual of re-blessing their amulets and weapons through prayer. The group was formed during the 1970s with government support to quell local uprisings from Muslims who had been dispossessed of their land by Catholic settlers. This practice – and the group itself – is not sanctioned by the Catholic Church. One of the victims of violence was an Italian Catholic priest, Tulio Favali, who was helping the poor and human rights victims in Mindanao.
August 2009. Children playing inside a makeshift evacuation center as they and hundreds of other families take shelter while battles raged between rebels and government forces in nearby villages.
November 2009. An internally displaced family selling food items to make ends meet in a makeshift evacuation camp inside a Catholic church compound in Datu Piang, Maguindanao. The conflict has forced them out of their villages, and they cannot work their farms for weeks.
A market in Datu Piang, Maguindanao. Datu Piang was formerly known as Dulawan, and was regarded as the cradle of the bustling Maguindanaoan civilisation in the 12th century. It stands in the middle of Rio Grande, the river that spans 373 kilometers from the mountains of central Mindanao to the Moro bay in the southwest. It nurtures the broad, fertile plain in the south-central portion of the island and served as a major artery for trade with Arabic countries, Southeast Asian neighbors, and China. Today, the town stands witness to the effects of centuries of colonization and decades of war with little to no development.
April 2016. Farm workers on a palm oil plantation in Cotabato. In 1903, the US government created Land Acts that would give peasants parcels of land. President William Taft believed that this move would make the peasants loyal subjects. But the move was overturned a mere two years later as some administrators argued that large-scale industrial plantations were more beneficial to corporate business and US government interests. And that has stuck since. By 1912, there were 159 major plantations (100 hectares or more) in Mindanao, 66 of them owned by American companies.
September 2008. A government soldier taking up a position during a gun battle with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighters in Dapiyawan, Maguindanao.
November 2009. A displaced woman fetches water in a makeshift evacuation shelter inside a Catholic church compound in Datu Piang, Maguindanao.
April 2016. A dried-up plantation caused by drought and monocropping in Cotabato.
- Armed residents of Nimao in Maguindao plant rice while guarding their village.
- Moro Islamic Liberation Front soldiers walking through a marsh in between gunfights at the frontline of war in Maguindanao against IS-inspired insurgents.
May 2010. Residents casting their votes in Maguindanao in central Mindanao during the presidential elections in 2010. Mindanao holds nearly a third of the Philippines’ total voting population. Maguindanao is also the country’s poorest province and the most neglected.
February 2019. Government soldiers carrying the coffin of a fallen comrade who died in a gunfight with rebels in Basilan.
January 2019. Residents stand in front of a military armoured tank during a plebiscite on whether their province will be included in the proposed new autonomous region in Mindanao.
- A government soldier conducts a house-to-house search for insurgents.
- A Marawi resident among the remains of her home.
- A Marawi resident examines the ruins of his home.
Displaced Marawi residents spent years living inside makeshift shelters after a war devastated their city in 2017. The city remains off limits to this day, with residents learning that the government has allotted the land to other developments and infrastructure.
- People flock to the streets in Cotabato city to show support for the Bangsamoro Organic Law ahead of the polls in Mindanao, southern Philippines. The law, crafted after a peace deal between descendants of the native inhabitants of Mindanao island and the Philippine government, could pave the way for lasting peace after more than 50 years of war.
- A soldier looking at the ruins of what was once a vibrant Marawi city.
Jes Aznar is a Filipino photojournalist and documentary photographer based in Manila, Philippines. He has been publishing visual stories through international publications like New York Times for nearly two decades. His visual works gravitate towards the effects of feudalism, colonialism and hegemony. He studied painting in UP Diliman and advertising at University of Santo Tomas, then trained in photojournalism at the Konrad Adeneur Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University (ACFJ) and in Conflict Sensitive Journalism at the Deutsche Welle Akademie in Berlin. He teaches visual and media literacy to journalism students, civic organisations, and the general public across the country. He initiated visual journalism programs like the Romeo Gacad Visual Journalism lectures and curates @everydayimpunity.
IG: @jeszmann
Editors’ note
The long-running Moro Conflict in Mindanao, the Philippines’ second largest island, has roots beyond the modern era, to a time of resistance against first Spanish, then American colonial rule. The ethnicity of Mindanao’s population is significantly comprised of indigenous groups – to which the Muslim-majority Moro peoples belong – and other Muslim Filipinos. Moro rebels were instrumental in the fight against Japanese occupation during World War II, continuing this legacy of resistance.
Post World War II, successive Philippine presidents continued an American policy to settle predominantly Christian Catholics on Mindanao, seizing land from the indigenous and Muslim populations and leading to disputes and accusations of political favouritism. This background of ethnic, religious, and political tensions, evolved into open hostilities between the Marcos administration and Moro rebel groups. These groups coalesced into the Moro National Liberation Front and later the dominant Moro Islamic Liberation Front, with various smaller groups operating, often linked to family and clan affiliations.
A deadly conflict continued for over four decades, through stuttering attempts at a peace process. In 2014, a Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region was agreed by the Government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. However, violent clashes continue, with inter-clan warfare and the rise of Islamic State extremists undermining the peace, despite the formation of a peacekeeping force composed of Philippine Police and Army, and MILF fighters. Elements of The Moro Islamic Liberation Front have not completely disarmed, with some groups operating semi-autonomously, further adding to the continued tensions in the path toward Bangsamoro autonomy. At the time of writing, important elections that were due to take place in 2025 have been delayed, and are now set to take place on or before March 31 of 2026.
In “Promised Land”, Filipino photographer Jes Aznar, who has been covering Mindanao for over fourteen years, offers his personal reflections on the conflict, and shows us the reality of war for both combatants and civilians alike.
The post Promised land appeared first on Bulatlat.
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“We host dams, geothermal plants, and windmills, but we don’t even get electricity. The power is used for industries and businesses, not for our communities.”
Manila – Police forcibly entered the home of Indigenous woman human rights defender Elma Awingan-Tuazon in Pinukpuk, Kalinga on November 30, leaving her family shaken. Elma, a long-time advocate for Indigenous rights and environmental protection, has opposed dam and mining projects that threaten ancestral lands in the province.
Her case is not isolated. Indigenous leaders and human rights advocates say it reflects a broader pattern of harassment and intimidation faced by communities resisting large-scale energy and extractive projects promoted as solutions to the climate crisis.
Read: Rights group, kin denounce harassment in Kalinga
To supposedly address the climate crisis, governments and corporations are pushing wind farms, solar parks, geothermal plants, and mining for so-called transition minerals across Asia. For many Indigenous communities, however, these projects have resulted in land loss, heightened military presence, and escalating human rights violations.
Impacts on Indigenous communities
“For us, renewable energy transition means the construction of large dams, wind, and solar farms on our ancestral lands, and even the expansion of mining within our territories,” said Kim Falyao, an Igorot youth leader from the Cordillera and national coordinator of Siklab Philippines Indigenous Youth Network.
Indigenous youth leader Kim Falyao poses for the camera, calling for an end to militarization in ancestral lands during the Human Rights Day protest in Manila on Dec. 10. Photo by Chantal Eco/Bulatlat
Falyao said renewable energy projects entering ancestral lands often lead to environmental destruction, including soil erosion, and land degradation, at a time when the Philippines is increasingly vulnerable to disasters. She said large-scale projects require extensive alterations to the land where Indigenous communities live, making mountains and farmlands more prone to landslides.
She added that Indigenous communities are displaced to give way to the construction of these projects.
Falyao also stressed that many of these projects proceed without genuine free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC).
“Free, prior, and informed consent should not be treated as just a process, it is a right of Indigenous peoples, rooted in our right to self-determination. Communities themselves should decide what projects enter their ancestral lands,” Falyao said.
Beyond environmental damage, the Indigenous youth linked renewable energy projects to militarization.
“When renewable energy projects enter ancestral lands, militarization follows. There are more soldiers, more detachments, more encampments. And because of that, human rights violations also increase,” she said.In Kalinga alone where 23 renewable energy projects have been approved, Cordillera People’s Alliance said that at least five military battalions operate within the province contributing to a climate of intimidation and human rights violations.
Surge of renewable energy projects in the Cordillera
Kalinga has become a hotspot for overlapping dam, mining, and renewable energy projects, raising concerns among Indigenous communities about displacement and repression.
Department of Energy (DOE) data as of April 30, 2025 show that 102 renewable energy projects have been awarded in the Cordillera region. Only 18 projects are in commercial operation, while 84 remain under development or pre-development.
Hydropower dominates the region, with 92 awarded projects, followed by geothermal, solar, wind, and biomass projects, most of which are still in early stages. Indigenous leaders warn that the sheer number of proposed projects, many located within ancestral lands, raises concerns about cumulative environmental damage and forced displacement.
Site of the 250MW Gened-2 Hydropower Project in Kabugao, Apayao. The province was designated as one of UNESCO’s biosphere reserves recognizing the province’s rich indigenous culture and biodiversity. Photo by Chantal Eco
“This is why we are very concerned,” Falyao said. “The more projects that come in, the more pressure there is on our land and our communities.”
Falyao cited the forced entry into Elma Awingan-Tuazon’s home as part of a broader pattern of harassment linked to contested energy projects.
Read: Special Report | Push for renewables threatens lands and livelihood in the Cordillera
Documented rights violations across Asia
According to Indigenous Peoples Rights International (IPRI), large-scale renewable energy and transition-related projects have been linked to widespread human rights violations affecting Indigenous peoples across Asia. These include land grabbing, lack of free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), forced displacement, militarization of communities, and attacks against Indigenous leaders and defenders.
Since 2021, IPRI has documented nearly 500 cases of violence and harassment against Indigenous peoples in Asia, ranging from arrests and intimidation to killings. Twenty-four of these cases are directly linked to energy transition projects, including dams, geothermal plants, wind farms, and large-scale solar installations.
According to IPRI, these 24 cases have affected almost 100,000 Indigenous women, men, and children, many of whom live in or near ancestral lands targeted for renewable energy development.
“These projects are presented as climate solutions, but they are being implemented at the expense of Indigenous peoples. This is green colonization,” Joan Carling, executive director of Indigenous Peoples Rights International, told Bulatlat.
Carling said projects imposed without consent have resulted in land grabbing, food insecurity, and community division, while increasing risks for Indigenous women defenders.
“We host dams, geothermal plants, and windmills, but we don’t even get electricity. The power is used for industries and businesses, not for our communities,” she said.
A pattern beyond the Philippines
The situation in Kalinga reflects similar struggles faced by Indigenous communities in other parts of Asia, where resistance to large-scale renewable energy projects has also led to project suspensions.
In Assam, India, Indigenous and Adivasi communities have been resisting a large solar power project that would have taken over 18,000 bighas, or about 2,500 hectares, of ancestral land.
“There was no free, prior, and informed consent. There was no proper consultation,” said Pranab Doley, an Indigenous human rights defender from India working with affected communities.
Doley said sustained protests by Indigenous communities forced authorities to suspend the project, highlighting the role of community resistance in challenging large-scale energy developments imposed without consent.
“Large-scale solar takes massive amounts of land. It destroys forests, hills, rivers, and communities. That can never be just,” Doley said.
In Poco Leok, Flores Island in Indonesia, Indigenous communities have opposed a government-backed geothermal project promoted as a carbon-reduction measure.
Indigenous residents of Poco Leok, Indonesia, were arrested by police on Oct. 2, 2024, while protesting the entry of a company planning to build a geothermal power plant into their community. Photo supplied
“The government says this project will reduce carbon emissions. But in reality, it threatens the lives of Indigenous people,” Kristianus Jaret, an Indigenous youth leader from Poco Leok, said in Bahasa Indonesia.Jaret said community resistance led to the suspension of the project, after residents protested and raised concerns over land rights, health impacts, and the loss of livelihoods.
Members of the Indigenous community in Poco Leok gather at Gendang Mucu on Aug. 17, 2025 to mark Indonesia’s Independence Day and celebrate their victory against the proposed geothermal power plant. Photo supplied
“People suffered health problems, and their farms were no longer productive. That is why we rejected this project,” he said, referring to community experiences linked to the Ulumbu geothermal plant in Flores.
Not against renewable energy
Indigenous leaders stressed that they are not opposing renewable energy itself or the need to address the climate crisis.
“We are not against renewable energy, what we are against are projects that destroy our land and put our communities in danger,” Falyao said.
For Carling, a just transition must be grounded in Indigenous rights and community decision-making.
“There is no just transition if Indigenous peoples are being sacrificed,” she said.
Indigenous leaders said a just transition must begin with respect for Indigenous rights, including free, prior, and informed consent. Without these guarantees, they warned that renewable energy development risks repeating the same patterns of land dispossession and exclusion long faced by Indigenous communities across Asia. (RVO)
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The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) released approximately 3,900 documents on Jeffrey Epstein on Friday, marking the first disclosure under a new law signed by former President Donald Trump. The legislation requires the DOJ to make Epstein-related records public.
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U.S. Democrats Disclose New Epstein Pictures Featuring Donald Trump and Bill Clinton
Most of the files are photographs and are available through the DOJ’s official website in the “Epstein Library.” Categories include Judicial Records; DOJ Disclosures under the Epstein Records Transparency Act (H.R. 4405); Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests; and releases from the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
While some images depict prominent figures and trips associated with Epstein, many files are heavily redacted. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized the DOJ for the extensive censorship.
Missing from the #Epstein files: a 60-count indictment and an 82-page evidence memo.#US https://t.co/7RIDfF1EFt
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) December 20, 2025
“Simply releasing a mountain of pages with blacked-out sections violates the spirit of transparency and the letter of the law. For example, 119 pages of a single document were entirely redacted. We need answers as to why,” Schumer said. He added that lawmakers are reviewing the materials “to determine what steps must be taken to hold the Trump administration accountable” and warned, “We will pursue all options to ensure the truth is known.”
The December 19 deadline for the DOJ to release the files followed Epstein’s death by apparent suicide in 2019, while he awaited trial for sex trafficking minors in Manhattan. His death has fueled multiple conspiracy theories, given his extensive connections in political, business, and entertainment circles.
⚖️ Several survivors of Jeffrey Epstein express distress over the piecemeal release of Epstein-related documents by House Oversight Committee Democrats, saying the selective disclosures are upsetting
⏳ Justice Department is due to release all Epstein files with redactions, as… pic.twitter.com/EEjo9fymcb
— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) December 19, 2025
Trump initially resisted disclosing the records but later supported congressional approval of the bill, which he signed into law last month. Trump and Epstein were reportedly close from the late 1980s to the early 2000s. In recent statements, Trump denied any involvement with Epstein, saying he expelled him from Mar-a-Lago, his Florida club, and asserting, “We have nothing to hide,” noting that “all his friends were Democrats.”
Previously published emails include Epstein claiming that Trump “knew about the girls” and that he was “the only one who could end it.”
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