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On November 4, 2009, an Italian judge convicted 23 CIA agents and two Italian agents over their role in the 2003 kidnapping of a Muslim cleric. Milan judge Oscar Magi sentenced former Milan CIA station chief Bob Seldon Lady to 8 years and 22 other agents to 5 years in prison for their role in the abduction of Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar. Also convicted was Air Force Colonel Joseph Romano who was responsible for the CIA kidnapping team’s flight to Egypt from a U.S. air base in Italy.
Nasr was allegedly abducted from a street in the northern Italian city of Milan and flown to Egypt where he was tortured. He was released in February, 2007, and apparently was an innocent man, never charged.
Subsequent Italian governments, including the current conservative government led by Silvio Berlusconi, have refused or ignored prosecutors’ requests to extradite the American defendants to stand trial in Italy. Nasr’s wife Ghali Nabila last month claimed 5 million euros in compensation, while lawyers acting for Nasr sought 10 million euros in compensation for the distress he and his family suffered. Robert Lady’s house in Asti has been awarded to Omar.
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From Dialogues Against Militarism, "On Saturday, November 7, About 25 of us trudged towards military prison 400, just outside of Tel Aviv, coils of razor wire and lookout towers looming above us, fields of mud and dry grass to our right. we began setting up the sound system and preparing for the day’s goal of reaching earshot of Or Ben-David, a young Israeli being held in prison for refusing the army draft.
"Our gathering consisted predominantly of young Israelis who had themselves been conscientious objectors, some of whom had been held in that same prison quite recently, some of whom had just refused and were scheduled to report to prison in a few months. The crowd also included some older radicals, a smattering of internationals, and of course us – U.S. War resisters, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and anti-militarist organizers, here to lend our support to Israeli and Palestinian movements against occupation.
"Israeli youth find themselves situated in the middle of one of the world’s most contested occupations. With mandatory conscription for all graduating high school seniors, their bodies are used to enforce Israeli occupation and war: 18 and 19 year-olds become the arms of an apartheid state. In the United States, young people, often from low income or marginalized communities, are sent off to die in the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan, with sharper distinctions maintained between military and civilian life. Here, the war is in your face, with every city, town, bus station, and beach crawling with teenagers with machine guns slung over their shoulders."
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Photos
Dialogues Against Militarism | Dialogues Against Militarism writings from Palestine
Israeli Youth and Allies Demonstrate in Support of The Shministim
Following a landmark referendum, students at Sussex University have voted to boycott Israeli goods. The decision will become part of the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, which calls upon Israel to respect international law and end the occupation of Palestine. The referendum result mandates the Students’ Union to remove all Israeli produce from its stores, and review its sources for food outlets. This makes Sussex Students’ Union the first in the UK to implement a full boycott of Israeli goods. The vote was one of the largest and closest contested in the Union’s history, with 562 votes for and 450 against the boycott.
The referendum received messages of support and thanks from Jewish and Israeli academics and non-governmental organisations that oppose Israel’s policy of occupation in Palestine. Author and scholar Norman G. Finkelstein described the referendum result as ‘a victory, not for Palestinians but for truth and justice’. He continued by saying, ‘Let us hope the boycott transmits the message to Israel that it should end the occupation, so that Palestinians can lead a decent life and amicable relations can be restored between Israelis and other peoples.‘
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Sussex Students Boycott Israeli Goods
From a statement by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine"Protests have recently greeted the leaders and representatives of the occupation state wherever they have traveled - former occupation prime minister and war criminal Ehud Olmert has been chased from city to city, shouted down in every venue and exposed for his war crimes. Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon was protested and his speech interrupted at the London School of Economics. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine salutes all of these protesters and calls upon all Palestinian and Arab communities and international activists for justice to shut down these war criminals, racists and oppressors wherever they go!
"Every leader and representative of the occupation state must be shut down wherever they speak and met with the loudest cries of unwelcome. Prevent them from speaking - let it be made clear that the people of the world stand with the people of Palestine and will not accept these criminals, racists and occupiers, that they will not be allowed to speak as normal, when the only place they should be speaking is before an international tribunal, on trial for their crimes against humanity!
"The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine calls upon all popular organizations and progressive forces in the world to do their utmost to completely internationally the occupation state in all forms and venues. Israel must be a pariah state, completely unwelcome in every international venue and arena. Every Israeli product, business, official, government, cultural or academic institution complicit with Zionism can and must be boycotted, divested from, subject to complete sanction and entirely shamed and isolated.
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Activists Call for the Prosecution of Israel's Former Prime Minister for War Crimes
PFLP Calls for Dec. 25 Solidarity Action for Imprisoned Leader Ahmad Sa'adat | Seven Years Ago, PFLP Assassinated Rehavam Zeevi
On Wednesday, October 21, youth in Israel marched through the streets of Tel Aviv in support of the Shministim- youth that is refusing to join the Israeli military. In Israel military service is mandatory at the age of 18, and the refusal to enlist caries jail sentences.
The Shministim (Hebrew for “twelfth-graders”) are an informal group of young Israelis who openly declare their refusal to join the Israeli military. Every year, the Shministim sign a different letter, a tradition harkening back to the 1970s when the first Shministim class expressed their dissent in a letter to Prime Minister Golda Meir. The 2008 letter, declares, “We cannot be moral and serve the occupation.”
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Shministim: Why We Refuse Tour Hits UC Berkeley
On Wednesday, October 21st, Ezra Nawi was sentenced to 30 days in jail, 750 Shekels fine (about 150$), 500 Shekels compensation to each of the two Israeli soldiers who accuse him of attacking them, and another 6 months in jail if he is convicted in the next three year of “illegal gathering”. Illegal gathering can be declared by any police officer, and basically means that Ezra will not be allowed to keep doing his solidarity work in occupied Palestine.
A couple of months ago, Judge Eilata Ziskind, found Ezra guilty of assaulting two border police officers and participating in a riot, during a house demolition in the West Bank, in the village of Um el-Hir in February, 2007. Ezra was convicted based solely on the the border police officers' testimonies, while the video footage from the event clearly showed that Ezra did not use violence in his protest against the injustices of the occupation.
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Ezra Nawi, a Solidarity Activist to Receive his Sentence on October 21
On Wednesday, October 21, Ezra Nawi, a Palestinian solidarity activist will receive his sentence at the Shalom Court in Jerusalem. Ezra's trial stems from an event two years ago, in which he was trying to stop the demolition of a Palestinian home by the Israeli occupation forces. Although a video capturing the event shows clearly Ezra's nonviolent actions, he was found guilty of assaulting a police officer. In the movie Ezra can be heard saying: "Yes, I was also a soldier, but I did not demolish houses... The only thing that will be left here is hatred..."
Ezra Nawi has been active for years in the area known as South Mt. Hebron. The Palestinians in this small desolate area in the very south of the West Bank have been under Israeli occupation for almost 42 years; they still live without electricity, running water and other basic services, and are continuously harassed by the Jewish settlers who constantly violate both Israeli and International law, and are backed by a variety of Israeli military occupation forces, all of which operate in an effort to cleanse the area from its Palestinian inhabitants and create a new demographic reality in it.
In personal letter on Support Ezra, he writes:"I have been harassed and targeted throughout the years, because I embody three elements which provoke bigotry in the Israeli society: I am a homosexual, I am a Mizrahi Jew, and I devote all my time to fighting for the human rights of Arab Palestinians....I am a simple person. I did what my heart told me to do...I feel that now the Israeli authorities are punishing me on a personal level. I would like to believe that my personal adversity will inspire and motivate individuals to actively oppose the occupation.
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Ezra Nawi: The Face of Israeli Human Rights Activism | Breaking the Silence tour to South Hebron | Strangers at Home-Breaking the Silence tour to Hebron
On Thursday, October 22nd, Ehud Olmert, a war criminal and Israel's former prime minister, will be speaking at the The Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco for the World Affairs Council. During his last weeks as Prime Minister of Israel, Olmert unleashed a horrific war on the people of Gaza, that left over one thousand dead, a majority of them unarmed civilians, and hundreds of them children. It destroyed thousands of homes, leaving tens of thousands homeless. A demonstration organized by Stop AIPAC, calling for Olmert's prosecution for war crimes will be held at Union Square at 5:30 PM.
During Israel's offensive on Gaza many hospitals, schools and homes of civilian people were devastated. Israeli forces used explosives containing white phosphorus which are forbidden by international law in civilian fields.
During his presidency Olmert have also approved the 2006 Israeli invasion into Lebanon, after two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped by the Hizbulla. Olmert refused to negotiate an exchange of POW, and instead pushed for a full attack on Lebanon where more then 1,200 people were killed. Currently, Olmert is facing charges in Israel for corruption and bribery. Read more
Citizens arrest and mass disruption of former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert in San Francisco |
22 Bay Area residents arrested for disrupting former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's
EI exclusive video: Protesters shout down Ehud Olmert in Chicago
Gaza "ceasefire" reveals more dead and more than 50,000 left homeless | Gaza: Over 600 Palestinians Killed. Humanitarian Crisis Faces 1.6 Million | Israel ’s Prime Minister Announces Resignation After Two Investigation For corruption
On October 11th, Palestinian and Jewish LGBT/queer activists held a protest against promoting LGBT tourism to Israel in front of the Tel Aviv gay center. The protesters intercepted a group of travel agents and other guests attending a conference that took place inside the gay center. The conference was organized by various Israeli institutes and International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA).
While entering, the guests went by the protesters, who were wearing T-shirts that read "Queers Visit Palestine, Not The Occupiers & Oppressors". Some of the protesters faces were covered with dirt, contrasting the concept of a "tourist attraction," putting themselves on display, not as shining examples of gay Israeli privilege but as wounded dirty queers, embodying the ugly side of the occupation being masked by the gay tourism initiative.
Haneen, one of the protesters said: "These conferences are trying to create an aesthetic facade that everything is rosy, when minutes from here there is poverty, exploitation, discrimination and occupation. We are against an event that bluntly deny and hide the dirt of our realities. It is our duty as queers not to overlook the oppression of others and to engage in their struggles".
"At a time when Israel still holds Gaza under siege, controls, segregates and divides the West Bank - there is no place for a 'business as usual' attitude", added Ayala Shani.
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Queer Activists Disrupt StandWithUs I-Pride, Refuse to be a Propaganda Tool for Israel | Gavin Newsom and Zionist Contingents Confronted During 2009 SF Pride Parade
Canadian authorities, acting at the behest of U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officials, arrested seed distributor, activist and magazine publisher Marc Emery, often referred to as the "Prince of Pot", on July 29th, 2005 on charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana seeds, conspiracy to distribute marijuana and conspiracy to engage in money laundering. His arrest was politically motivated, based on drug legalization efforts. Emery and supporters spent years fighting extradition, however he surrendered into the custody of the British Columbia Supreme Court on September 28th, 2009 and is awaiting extradition to a US federal prison.
Avital writes:, "Last week I spent Rosh HaShanah (Jewish New Year) in the Tel Aviv/Petach Tikva area, bouncing back and forth between family and friends, and again no one around cared too much about actually observing the holiday. Of course, as an officially Jewish state, most businesses and transportation services shut down on these days. But that doesn’t stop most Israelis from maneuvering their way around these ‘inconveniences ‘and taking shared taxis, crowding into the few open coffee shops, and going to the beach."
Seeing this overwhelming secular side of the Israeli public always makes me wonder why people are so insistent on maintaining the Jewish character of the State and why the Orthodox Rabbinate is given so much power to dictate policy here. Why is it that my friends must bring proof that they are Jewish to the Ministry of Interiors in order to obtain a volunteer visa for the year? Why is it that this proof must come in the form of a letter from a Rabbi who must meet strict Orthodox standards which frown upon converts and children of mixed marriages and anyone who belongs to any other Jewish denomination? How can such a secular Israeli public allow the government to support, both financially and politically, religious fanatics creating settlements in the Palestinian territories?
A few days ago I went on a tour of East Jerusalem and was exposed first hand to the reality of settlements right in my back yard (almost literally). The tour also highlighted the incredibly unequal distribution of funds and the ironic fact that Palestinian residents who are always first to pay their city taxes, still do not have a reliable waste collection service or enough schools for their kids to attend, and the only nice roads and sidewalks seen in the Arab areas are paved only to serve the new settlements that are constantly being constructed there. The tour ended with a view of the Shoafat Refugee Camp, which is technically within the municipal borders of the city of Jerusalem, but has been cut off from the city by the wall that was built around its perimeter.
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Israel: Not a Jewish State, A Zionist State
On September 21st, ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya returned to the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa and appeared on several television stations from within the Brazilian embassy.
TeleSur showed images of uniformed Honduran National Police officers, with billy clubs, shields, helmets and guns, surrounding the zone near the Brazilian Embassy, apparently to close access to the area, blocking anti-coup demonstrators from entering or leaving.
Coup leader Roberto Micheletti appeared on television after Zelaya's return became public and demanded Brazil hand over Zelaya to stand trial.
The coup regime also imposed a militarily enforced curfew and shut down airports until at least 6pm Tuesday.
On the morning of September 22nd, police moved in and attacked protesters in front of the Brazilian embassy, firing tear gas at the crowd. Reuters reports that at least two tear-gas canisters landed inside the embassy compound.
Chiapas Indymedia reports 2 people were killed as police shot live ammunition at protesters.
On June 28th, the Honduran military ousted the democratically elected government of Honduras, detaining and then exiling Zelaya to Costa Rica. The crisis began when the military refused to distribute ballot boxes for an opinion poll on a new Constitution. Zelaya fired the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who refused to step down and sent the military in to detain the President. The Congress and a Supreme Court sanctioned the coup after it had taken place, appointing Roberto Micheletti to be the new President. The OAS, all governments in the region and most countries around the world have refused to accept the new government.
Sept 21 Breaking News From NarcoNews
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Seven Million Hondurans Under House Arrest as Micheletti Writes of "Democracy"
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Ousted leader returns to Honduras | TeleSur Coverage |  Sept 21st FlashPoints Coverage
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Sept 22nd Democracy Now Coverage
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Honduran Campesino Blog
Live radio from Honduras |
Indymedia Chiapas/Honduras Breaking News, Photos And Audio
Previous Indybay Coverage:
SF Protest Against Honduran Coup
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Military Coup In Honduras
UPDATE via G20 radio, 12:30p EST, 9/24/09: 1100 protesters march despite dispersal orders. Police use tear gas and LRAD accoustic weapon on demonstrators.
Post-G20 update: Video Appears to Show Pittsburgh Police Using Arrested Student as Prop for Group Photo
The second G-20 summit of 2009 is due to take place at Pittsburgh's David L. Lawrence Convention Center on September 24–25. Held annually since the 1999 Berlin G-20 summit, the G-20 has been meeting twice a year in 2008 and 2009 in response to the global economic crisis. The G-20, consisting of the leaders of 20 wealthy nations, meets behind closed doors to make unaccountable economic decisions affecting billions of people.
Among other issues on the table this year, the heads of state will evaluate measures taken so far to stimulate the global economy and discuss a proposal to reform the International Monetary Fund. Pittsburgh will also be host to a major coal industry conference just before the G-20 summit.
Throughout the week, economic justice and climate activists from across the country will seek to upstage the official story through marches, educational forums, tent cities, a climate camp and other tactics. Pittsburgh Indymedia will be covering the September 21–22 People's Summit and protests throughout the week at indypgh.org/g20. Tune in to live coverage by G-Infinity Radio all week long (local mirrors): MP3 | Ogg | lo-fi MP3 | lo-fi Ogg
G-20 protest links | Why and how I oppose the G-20 | Bay Area G-20 resistance consulta | Restrictions anger G-20 protest planners
Indybay coverage of the April 2009 G-20 summit in London
On Friday, September 18, about 300 protesters -- Israeli, Palestinian and international -- attended the weekly demo against the apartheid wall in Ni‘lin. In a joint collective action the protesters succeeded in moving one of the wall blocks (weighing a few tons), causing substantial damage to the wall, and opening a gap in which a person can pass.
In the past month the army constructed the cement wall (similar to one in the Kalkilia area) that separates between the villages‘ agricultural lands, in which weekly demonstrations have taken place, and the electronic wall that is situated in the heart of the area.
Earlier, protesters placed rubber tires in the Palestinian side of the wall and set them on fire. The impressive fumes reached the Israeli side (and probably the ozone layer as well). Soldiers fired gas grenades on the protesters, using a multi-barrel gas grenade launcher capable of firing 32 gas grenades simultaneously. One Palestinian protester was lightly injured from the gas grenades. The protesters threw stones at the soldiers.
(Hebrew translation): כ-300 מפגינים ישראלים פלסטינים ובינלאומיים השתתפו ביום שישי בהפגנה נגד חומת האפרטהייד בנעלין. בסוף ההפגנה, הצליחו המפגינים - בפעולה קולקטיבית מרשימה ומאומצת - להזיז את אחת מאבני הבטון של החומה (משקלה כמה טונות!). בכך גרמו נזק משמעותי לחומה והצליחו לפעור בה חור שמאפשר מעבר אדם.
הצבא בנה בחודש האחרון את חומת הבטון (בדומה למבנה החומה באזור קלקיליה) שהמפגינים הזיזו. החומה החדשה חוצצת בין השטחים החקלאיים של הכפר, בהן מתקיימות ההפגנות, לבין הגדר האלקטרונית שהוקמה בלב האדמות ומנתקת אותן מבעליהן.
המפגינים הניחו צמיגים בצד הפלסטיני של הגדר והבעירו אותם. תמרות העשן השחור הגיעו לצד הישראלי (וככל הנראה גם הלאה משם לשכבת האוזון). החיילים ירו רימוני גז לעבר המפגינים, בין היתר באמצעות ”המדוכה“ שמשגרת 32 רימונים במטח ירי אחד. מפגין פלסטיני אחד נפצע קל מהרימונים. המפגינים ידו אבנים לעבר הצבא הישראלי.
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Nil'in anti-wall protest damages wall, marchers pass into stolen land
Anarchists Against The Wall
Former Coverage: Yousef Akil Srour, Fifth Ni’lin Residents to be Murdered by the Israeli Army in Ni’lin
On Wednesday, September 16, Maya Wind and Netta Mishly from the refusenik group "Shministim" spoke at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Building at UC Berkeley. Maya Wind and Netta Mishly both signed the 2008 Shministim Letter: a declaration by Israeli high school students that they would not enlist in the IDF to occupy Palestinian territories and rule over Palestinian life. Since military service is mandatory for Israeli Jews upon completing high school, Maya, Netta, and many of the dozens of teenagers who signed the letter have been sentenced to military prison, sometimes for multiple terms.
The Shministim (Hebrew for “twelfth-graders”) are an informal group of young Israelis who openly declare their refusal to join the Israeli military. Every year, the Shministim sign a different letter, a tradition harkening back to the 1970s when the first Shministim class expressed their dissent in a letter to Prime Minister Golda Meir. The 2008 letter, signed by both Maya and Netta, declares, “We cannot be moral and serve the occupation.”
Read more | Why We Refuse | Sahar Vardi, a Refusenik, Sentenced to Seven Days in Jail
Ayman T. Quader, writes: " every time, she tries to understand what happened to her, she asks herself: what was my fault?, what’s going to happen to me in my tent? Ilham, a 30 years old mother of 6, lives in Al-atatra district , in the northern part of the Gaza strip. The Israeli war (in 2008) had a huge impact on her, it destroyed her house, her parent’s house and killed her brother."
"Ilham and her family spent 25 days in one of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s schools (UNRWA), to take shelter from phosphorous missiles of death that were chasing the population of the strip. She says: 'Israeli armed forces bombarded our house with many missiles, destroyed its walls, set fire in its rooms, and spread darkness all around us (she meant the missiles fumes), to a point that we couldn’t breathe anymore… and after hours, during which we were facing death, the ambulance transported us to the hospital.'
"we used to walk many miles each week or every other week, as a group of women, just for bathing, I had a feeling of humiliation and despair, especially when we were forced to leave the hospital, because of the high numbers of martyrs and victims, their bodies took over the whole place, moreover, the hospital is not a place for taking baths…In the war, my house was destroyed, all I own now is a tent that does not exceeds a few meters, my children and I sleep on the sand. My nights became like my days, everything has changed in my life after the 27th of December 2008. All I have now are memories on which I live me and my children, till this day, I feel deeply oppressed . What was my fault? And why do I live in this humiliation? Who could bear what we are all facing?
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voice from Gaza, to bring the Palestinian suffering to the whole world
Gaza Solidarity Day on the 42nd Anniversary of Israel's Seizure of Gaza | Free Gaza Activists, Donna and Darlene Wallach, Welcomed Home to San Jose | Gaza "ceasefire" reveals more dead and more than 50,000 left homeless | Activists Lockdown at Israeli Consulate in San Francisco as Gaza Massacre Intensifies
| January 10th Gaza Protest In San Francisco | Gaza: Over 600 Palestinians Killed. Humanitarian Crisis Faces 1.6 Million
Michael Steinberg writes: "on August 11 protesters gathered at 5 p.m. in front of the Honduran Consulate to protest the coup that removed elected President Manual Zelaya, and called for an end to repression in Honduras and the return of Zelaya to office."
"Zelaya was seized at gunpoint in his pajamas during the early hours of June 28 and forced onto a plane that flew him to Costa Rica. Honduran General Romeo Vasquez, who ordered this action, is a two time graduate of the notorious School of the Americas at Ft. Benning, GA, also known as the School of Assassins.
"The coup regime has refused to allow Zelaya back into Honduras. When Zelaya attempted to return to Honduran by plane in July, he was refused landing at the main airport in the nation’s capital, Tegucigalpa. But, according to the July 19 Independent /UK, permission to land was subsequently also refused at Palmerola Air Force base, HQ of the Honduran Air Force, as well as the US Joint Task Force-Bravo, from which Black Hawk helicopters operate in support of the US War on Drugs in Central America. Read more
Military Coup In Honduras | Will Venezuelan Destabilization Follow the Honduran Coup? | Honduras Coup: Template for a Hemispheric Assault on Democracy | Honduran coup collaborator calls Obama equivalent of "Field Ni**er"
On August 18th, the Israeli Ministry of Defense informed American activist Tristan Anderson’s family and legal counsel that it considers his shooting during a nonviolent protest in the West Bank village of Nil’in, which left him critically injured, an “act of war,” absolving the soldiers responsible from any liability under Israeli law. Anderson was shot directly in the forehead with a high-velocity tear gas canister by Israeli forces on March 13th, 2009, suffering several condensed fractures and necessitating several life-saving surgeries. To date, he remains unconscious at Tel Hashomer Hospital in Tel Aviv; his prospects for recovery are as of now unclear.
According to Michael Sfard, "If a process by which unarmed civilian demonstration is classified by Israel as an ‘act of war,’ then clearly Israel admits that it is at war with civilians. International law identifies the incident as a clear case of human rights abuse. As such, Tristan and his family are undoubtedly entitled to justice and compensation. We will pursue this matter and take the government of Israel to court. In addition to filing a criminal complaint against the State of Israel for the shooting of their son, the Andersons have submitted a notice of intent to file a civil suit."
Leah Tsemel, the civil suit attorney, stated, "This is another occasion where the Israeli government is alluding responsibility. The demonstrations that take place in Ni’lin and Bil’in are not acts of war. We will pursue, in Israeli courts and international courts if necessary, justice for the Anderson family." Several eyewitnesses have given testimony that Tristan was shot when he could not have been perceived as any threat to the forces in the area. He was shot from around 60 meters while standing with a few internationals and Palestinians, hours after the demonstration had dispersed from the construction site of the Wall. Read more
Israeli Authorities Declare Shooting of Tristan Anderson an “Act of War” | Smearing Tristan Anderson | Shooting Tristan Anderson
Solidarity with Tristan Anderson
As Tristan Anderson Fights for His Life, Protests in Ni'ilin Continue | Solidarity with Tristan and Palestine Events Around the World | Tristan Anderson Critically Injured After Demonstration Against Israeli Wall
Jen Marlowe writes: "I heard the jangle of ankle and wrist cuffs before I saw them. The detainees (five Israeli, four Palestinian and four international) were being led into a small court room. One woman had a black eye. They had been arrested the night before at a demonstration against the eviction of the Hannoun and al-Ghawe families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of east Jerusalem. At 5:00 Sunday morning, the families were removed from their homes by Israeli police, leaving 53 people homeless — 20 of them children."
"I walked to Sheikh Jarrah. It was easy to locate the houses. They were blocked off and guarded by police forces. I found the father of the Hannoun family, Maher, sitting on the pavement across from his home with his family, friends and supporters. A pile of thin foam mats were stacked up behind them."
"I asked Maher the details of what had taken place the previous morning. 'A lot of policemen came with weapons,' Maher told me. 'My son was standing guard outside. When he saw them, he came inside and locked the door. The soldiers broke the door to the gate, the main door and the windows. They got in by force and they kicked all the family out of the house. Seventeen people.' Read more
Also see: Evicted Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah Remain Dispossessed but Determined | Another Day Sleeping Under the Sky: The Situation in Sheikh Jarrah and the Uncertain Destiny of The Gawi and Hannoun Families | UN concerned over potential further evictions in East Jerusalem
Other articles by Jen Marlowe: The Ordeal of Suleiman Jamous
Trapped in Darfur | Gaza Struggling under Siege | Death in Darfur | In Gaza, Circles of Hell
At around 3 a.m. on Monday, August 3, a large military force wearing combat paint and masks invaded the West Bank village of Bil’in. Israeli soldiers raided several homes, arresting two Palestinian children and five Palestinian adults, including Mohammad Khatib of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements. The home of another member of the Popular Committee was raided, but soldiers could not arrest him because he was not present at home.
Monday’s raid is another in a series of many that Israeli forces have carried out in Bil’in. Since June 29, 2009, Israeli forces have arrested 25 people, most under the age of 18. Israeli forces have been using interrogation techniques to pressure the arrested youth to give statements against Bil’in community leaders.
Abdullah Abu Rahme, coordinator of the popular committee stated, “Mohmmad Khatib and Adib Abu Rahme along with other leaders of the Palestinian popular struggle are being targeted because they mobilize Palestinians to resist non-violently. The fact is that the Apartheid Wall and the settlements built on Palestinian land are illegal under international law; in the case of our village even the biased Israeli court declared the route illegal. Yet Israel is prosecuting us as criminals because we struggle nonviolently for our freedom.” Read more
Bilin, a village in Palestine | A night in Bilin, Electronic Intifada | Bil'in Under Attack, Alternative information center
My Beloved Bil’in-weekly demo against the wall | My beloved Bil’in - weekly demo against the wall - part 2 | Naomi Klein advocates Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of Israeli Products, in Bil’in | Israeli Police to Start an Investigation of Indymedia Israel | Palestinian Village of Bil'in Celebrates Four Years of Struggle Against the Apartheid Wall
In Greece, a period of widespread state repression and brutality followed the rebellion of December 2008. During and after the rebellion, the extreme right wing political party LAOS (Popular Orthodox Party Alert) and the Greek state investigated the IMCs of Athens and Patras, Greece, on the grounds that they were used as centers for the "coordination of rebellion," ignoring Indymedia's contribution of vital counter-information to state- and corporate-controlled media.
Members of fascist parties of the right and extreme right of Parliament have launched attacks against Athens IMC. The fascists foisted propaganda about Indymedia through their blogs, and attempted to block access to Indymedia through hacker attacks. Statements of politicians in Parliament and on television make Indymedia a major enemy of the state. K. Velopoulos, a member of LAOS, sent an appeal to the Minister of Education asking if Athens and Patras Indymedia were housed in the Athens Polytechnic University (UPA) and demanding immediate action to stop these "dangerous" sites from "supporting terrorism".
The Secretary of Education, S. Taliadouros, readily agreed to Velopoulos that "these sites claim to be a threat to democracy" and asked the director of the UPA to close it. Ignoring the status of autonomy of Greek universities, all sorts of political and judicial pressure was brought to bear in an attempt to remove the Indymedia server's IP address.
The IMCs of Athens and Patras (along with other European and revolutionary Internet sites that are hosted on the same server) face a serious threat of prosecution. The IMCs state that it is the "responsibility of the whole movement and of all of our partners to get support of the world and protect our voice. We call all the companions of the world to be prepared because the next period is critical to the existence of the IMC in Greece." Read more
Greek government attacks Indymedia | Greek state attacks Athens and Patras Indymedia | Patras’ Crystal Night (refugee camp set on fire, flattened, evicted) | Athens Indymedia (english) | Patras Indymedia (english)
Also see: Israeli Police to Start an Investigation of Indymedia Israel
8AM Sunday Nov 22
Dancing The Vision
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