Feature Archives

UPDATE via G20 radio, 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 this week, bringing the leaders of 20 wealthy nations to Pittsburgh, PA, to make economic decisions affecting billions of people. Held annually since 1999, the G-20 has recently been meeting twice a year in response to the global economic crisis. 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.

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.

On Wednesday, September 16, Maya Wind and Netta Mishly from the refusenik group "Shministim" spoke at the MLK, 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.

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 2006) had a huge impact on her, it destroyed her house, her parent’s house and killed her brother."

Michael Steinberg writes about August 11th: "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..."

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.

Over the weekend the weekly demonstrations against the apartheid wall in Palestine continued. In Balin, some 20 Israelis and 50 internationals joined Palestinians and marched to the annexation wall. In Ni'ilin protesters marched towards the fence and dispersed along the route of the separation fence and expressed loudly their protest - each in their own preferred way. In Al-Mas'ara dozens of Palestinian protesters were joined by a groups of around 80 internationals and Israeli activists. A candlelight vigil in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, was also held to protest against the eviction of two Palestinian families.