Feature Archives

Federal agents seized 32 computers from Pastors for Peace as they attempted to cross the Pharr International Bridge early this morning at the US-Mexico border. The confiscated computers were donated by a Japanese-American group from the San Francisco Bay Area. As a result of this US seizure, 32 Cuban classrooms will not have a computer from this caravan.

Demonstrations against the Apartheid Wall are a daily occurrence in Palestine. On July 1st, in Ni'lin, two caterpillar bulldozers were destroyed during a demonstration. In Bil’in, on July 4th, three activists were injured and dozens of protesters were treated for tear gas inhalation. On June 5th, Palestinians and other activist defied a curfew on the village of Ni’lin, and demonstrated and blocked the Settler-road that runs by the village. In Ma’sra, live bullets and tear gas were used to dispersed a demonstration against the expropriation of Palestinian land, and to mark the 4th anniversary of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) decision, which declared the wall illegal, and called for it to be dismantled and for those affected to be compensated for the damages.

In the lead up to the G8 Summit in Japan from July 7th through 9th, Japanese authorities have arrested domestic activists and have detained numerous foreign independent media journalists and anti-G8 protesters. At least six independent journalists and ten academics have been detained by Japanese immigration officials in the past weeks, including Andrej Grubacic, professor of sociology at the University of San Francisco.

Police arrested eight protesters on June 29, as 1,500 people marched against the G8 Summit in Tokyo's fashionable Shibuya and Shinjuku districts. Japan's security budget for the G8 Summit is at least $283 million, topping the $186 million Germany spent to host the summit of the world's most powerful "democratic" nations.

On June 17th, 2008, a U.S. military judge dismissed charges against another Marine connected to the massacre of twenty-four unarmed Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha. Of the eight Marines originally charged in the case, only one still faces prosecution. Criminal charges have been dismissed against six of the Marines and a seventh Marine was acquitted.

Video cameras have become a crucial way for Palestinians to document the daily harassment inflicted on them by Israeli settlers. In one recent example, a Palestinian family living on the southern hills of Al-Halil, was attacked by four settlers armed with baseball bats while farming their land. The video provided evidence against two settlers, who were arrested by the Israeli police.

Under the guise of the "War on Drugs," the Mexican Army has increased its presence around the Zapatistas autonomous municipalities in La Garrucha — the last place Subcomandante Marcos was seen. On June 4, a convoy of 200 army, state and local police tried to enter La Garrucha under the pretext of “looking for marijuana plants,” but were turned away by Zapatista men, women and children armed only with machetes and stones.

While the violence surrounding drug cartels in Mexico causes great alarm in Mexico and abroad, the targeting of Zapatista communities in the “War on Drugs” is equally alarming.

May 2008 marked 60 years of the Nakba, the catastrophe. Sixty years ago, 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes and 350 Palestinian villages were destroyed by the Israeli army and militias. In the Bay Area, the Nakba was commemorated by numerous events and demonstrations. On May 10th at the Civic Center, a peace and solidarity festival took place with bands such as the Coup and Dam. Jewish groups also organized solidarity actions. The International Jewish Solidarity Network has circulated a statement calling on people not to celebrate, and Jewish Voice for Peace called on Americans to remember the thousands of Palestinians who have suffered in the creation of Israel. The IJSN disrupted an event at San Francisco's JCC called "Israel at Sixty."