May day immigration reform protest - Protesters view of the situation

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FBI to Examine LA Immigration Rally


Protesters give their thoughs on the world today, all while retreating from rubber bullets and tear gas.

Joan Baez Banned at Walter Reed Hospital

Joan Baez Unwelcome At Concert For Troops
Singer Was to Perform With Mellencamp at Walter Reed

By Teresa Wiltz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 2, 2007; C01

When rocker John Mellencamp performed for the recovering soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center on Friday night, a couple of things were missing. He squelched his typically blistering rhetoric against the war in Iraq. Also MIA, as it turned out, was folkie and antiwar activist Joan Baez, who says she was disinvited from the event by Army officials.

In a letter that appears today in The Washington Post, Baez says Mellencamp had wanted her to perform with him and that she had accepted his invitation.

"I have always been an advocate for nonviolence," she writes, "and I have stood as firmly against the Iraq war as I did the Vietnam War 40 years ago. . . . I realize now that I might have contributed to a better welcome home for those soldiers fresh from Vietnam. Maybe that's why I didn't hesitate to accept the invitation to sing for those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

"In the end, four days before the concert, I was not 'approved' by the Army to take part. Strange irony."

Reached by telephone yesterday at her home in Menlo Park, Calif., Baez, 66, said she wasn't told why she was given the boot, but speculated, "There might have been one, there might have been 50 [soldiers] that thought I was a traitor."

Baez, who said Mellencamp had asked her to sing two songs with him, has been an avowed anti-violence activist ever since she refused to participate in an air raid drill at her Southern California high school. In the '60s, her name became synonymous with the antiwar movement, though many of the protest songs she was famous for performing, such as "Blowin' in the Wind," were covers of Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger songs. In 1964 she protested the Vietnam War by refusing to pay 60 percent of her income taxes. In 1968, she married activist David Harris -- the two met in jail following a protest -- and moved with him into his draft resistance commune.

Walter Reed officials did not respond to several requests for comment yesterday. But in an e-mailed statement published Monday on RollingStone.com, spokesman Steve Sanderson said the medical center received the requests for participation by Baez and broadcaster Dan Rather just two days before the concert. (Rather now works for HDNet, which broadcast the Mellencamp concert.)

"These additional requirements were not in the agreement/contract and would have required a modification," Sanderson told the magazine's Web site.

Not so, says Baez's manager, Mark Spector; Mellencamp's management invited Baez to perform in March with the understanding that things could take a while "because of the red tape of Army bureaucracy." Mellencamp's management handled all the arrangements, according to Spector. And up until April 23, when Baez was turned down, everything was "still inching forward," he said: "They'd booked her flight; they'd booked her hotel."

Mellencamp's manager, Randy Hoffman, did not return calls requesting comment, and Mellencamp was ill and unavailable yesterday, according to his publicist. But Mellencamp told RollingStone.com: "They didn't give me a reason why she couldn't come. We asked why and they said, 'She can't fit here, period.' "

"One of my more cynical friends said, 'They let the rats in, why not you?' " Baez said, laughing, referring to a recent exposé of living conditions at Walter Reed.

It wasn't the first time that a performer has been blocked from Walter Reed. In 2004, Oscar-winning actress Patty Duke was refused permission to tour the wards. She'd been scheduled to visit troops as part of an Arts Advocacy Day in Washington. USO officials later said they didn't have enough time to let the patients know that a celebrity would be visiting -- although Michael Jackson was spotted in the ward the same night that Duke would have popped in for a visit.

An HDNet spokeswoman said Rather had planned to interview Mellencamp at the hospital, but "schedule-wise we couldn't make it happen."

After the concert, Baez said, Mellencamp left her a message to say, "I hope you're not mad at me." Her response: " 'Of course not. It's an honor to be turned down by the Army.' . . . But I would have been happier getting in . . . I thought times had changed enough."

So what exactly happened?

The answer -- since Walter Reed's officials aren't talking -- is blowin' in the wind. (Sorry, we couldn't resist.)

Petition demands criminal investigation into Israeli war crimes

ADALAH'S NEWSLETTER
Volume 35, April 2007

Human Rights Organizations Petition Supreme Court: Order Criminal Investigations against Israeli Military Commanders and Government Officials Responsible for Killings and Extensive Home Demolitions in Rafah Gaza in 2004

On 15 April 2007, Adalah together with the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (Gaza) and Al-Haq (West Bank) filed a petition to the Supreme Court of Israel demanding the opening of criminal investigations into the killing of civilians and extensive home demolitions which resulted from two military operations in Gaza – “Operation Rainbow” (18-24 May 2004) and “Operation Days of Penitence” (30 September-15 October 2004). The named respondents in the petition are: Attorney General Menachem Mazuz; Military Advocate General Avihai Mandelblit; Shmuel Zakai, Commander of the Israeli Military in the Gaza Strip at the time of the operations; then Head of the Southern Command Dan Harel; then Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon; then Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz; the Israeli army; and the Government of Israel, which was headed by Ariel Sharon at the time. The petition was filed by Adalah Attorney Marwan Dalal.

The military operation, code-named “Operation Rainbow,” led to many civilian killings, including at least 17 children, and to the demolition of 167 homes, inhabited by 379 families, comprised of 2,066 individuals in densely-populated areas of Rafah, in the south of Gaza. The main purpose declared by the Israeli military and government for “Operation Rainbow” was to locate weapons-smuggling tunnels via the Philadelphi Route, which separates Rafah from Egyptian territory.

During “Operation Days of Penitence,” executed in areas of northern Gaza, primarily Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia and the Jabalia refugee camp, many civilians were killed, including at least 27 children. In addition, 91 homes were demolished, inhabited by 143 families, comprised of 675 individuals, and serious damage was cased to an additional 101 homes, inhabited by 833 individuals. The declared purpose of “Operation Days of Penitence” was to stop the launching of Qassam rockets from northern Gaza into Israel.

The petition spans 135 pages and includes 89 appendices. It contains extensive domestic and international documentation, which clearly shows that the conduct of the Israeli military and the intentions behind the two military operations constitute criminal behavior mainly illegal reprisals and cleansing areas of civilian buildings. Among them are statements given by (Reserve) Brigadier General Shmuel Zakai, the direct military commander of both operations, to Israeli journalist Shlomi Eldar, who documented them in his book “Eyeless in Gaza.” In the book, published in 2005, Eldar quotes Zakai regarding “Operation Rainbow”:

The purpose of the operation was not at all to find tunnels. Do you know how this idea came about? On Friday I gathered the units’ commanders for a briefing, and on the way I heard the IDF spokeswoman on the radio saying that the purpose is to locate tunnels. How come tunnels? Is this the way to conduct an operation to find tunnels?

As for “Operation Days of Penitence”, Eldar quotes from his conversation with Zakai:

We launched Operation “Days of Penitence” because demonstrations erupted against the IDF in Sderot. We did not do this operation thinking that we are dealing with the most serious threat to the State of Israel …

‘So many people were involved in producing the Qassams? All the workshops in Gaza produced Qassams?,’ I asked and knew the answer.

Zakai stretched in his seat and burst with laughter. ‘The Hamas produced the Qassams in workshops, but we did not know exactly where they were!!!'"

Articles from the Israeli press, which contain quotations from commanders and soldiers who took part in the two military operations, also reveal that the actual intention was to exact revenge and to clear certain areas by razing civilian buildings. The international documentation includes reports written by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Prof. John Dugard, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied by Israel in 1967, Amnesty International, The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), and Human Rights Watch.

Also included in the petition is documentation of the extensive international criticism of the Israeli military and the government voiced shortly before and during the military operations. Among those individuals and organizations who condemned the military action were the UN Secretary General, the UN Security Council, the United States, the European Union, various UN envoys and Special Rapporteurs, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and Amnesty International.

Attorney Dalal argued in the petition that the acts committed by Israeli military commanders and officers in both of these operations amount to criminal offenses under Israeli domestic and international law, and that those responsible must be prosecuted and held accountable. In both operations, the Israeli military carried out willful killings and the extensive and wanton destruction of civilian property, which are classified as grave breaches under the article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and are therefore considered war crimes.

As the petitioners contended, the Israeli military’s actions further constitute violations of international human rights law, specifically of the right to life as guaranteed by Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Article 6 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Article 6 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC); and the right to housing as guaranteed by Article 25 of the UDHR, Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and Article 27 of the CRC.

The petitioners further argued that the military commanders and political leadership bear direct responsibility for ordering the two military operations and supervising the military’s conduct in executing them. In addition, as these individuals knew or should have known of these violations, due to the extensive international criticism voiced and the wide coverage by the local media of the ongoing violations, and because they could have but did not punish any individual responsible for committing them, they therefore also bear responsibility for these criminal offenses under the doctrine of command responsibility. The petitioners also argued that if the perpetrators of these war crimes and grave violations of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory are not brought to justice in Israel, then any state that upholds the principle of universal jurisdiction may prosecute them. In a recent case from September 2005, for example, a British magistrate issued an arrest warrant against Major General Doron Almog upon his arrival at Heathrow airport for alleged crimes committed during his term as Head of the Israeli Military’s Southern Command. Similarly, in November 2006, an arrest warrant was filed against former Israeli Army Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon in New Zealand for the killings and injury of civilians in Gaza in 2002. Civil lawsuits abroad are also possible, such as the class action case filed in December 2005 against Avi Dichter, the former director of the General Security Service (GSS), who was sued in New York for the death and injury of over 165 people, when the Israeli military dropped a one-ton bomb on al-Daraj, a residential neighborhood in Gaza City.

H.C. 3292/07, Adalah, et al. v. The Attorney General, et al. (case pending)

The Petition (H) - PDF

Mission Accomplished?

April 30, 2007
Activists from AU4C, AAEI and more joined Captain Jonathan Powers and Rev. Anthony Motley in front of the White House today to roll out a 50 foot Mission Accomplished? banner and demand that President Bush end this war.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Takes a Bullet in Israel

April 30th, 2007

By Eileen Fleming

On April 21st, 2007, in the Village of Bil’in, Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize laureate from Northern Ireland, was shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet by Israeli Forces an hour after delivering this message at a peace press conference:

“Thanks to the media here for telling the truth… Bring this truth to whatever country you come from. Non-violence will solve the problems here in Israel and Palestine. Often, the world sees only violence. But Palestinians are a good people, working towards non-violence. This Wall must fall! It is an insult to the human family and to the world that we are building Apartheid Walls in the 21st Century! More than forty years of Occupation and Land Appropriation.”

Since 2004, in Bil’in, every Friday afternoon after prayers at the mosque, Palestinian farmers, workers, mothers, and students, together with Israeli and International volunteers, have been braving teargas, beatings, bullets, arrest, and even death to rise up against the well equipped Israeli army with nothing more than their own bodies.

Last Friday afternoon after prayers at the mosque in Bil’in …

Blocking the path with armed soldiers about 100 meters before the Wall, soldiers began to fire tear gas into the crowd of 400 or so protesters. The crowd would disperse, covering their faces with bandannas and onion slices to dilute the suffocating gases. But the crowd would regroup and continue, Ghandi-style, their non-violent procession to the Apartheid structure.

Israeli forces kept this up for quite some time, but as demonstrators reached closer to their goal, the occupiers added more ingredients to their recipe– this time using rubber-coated steel bullets. Several patches of demonstrators in different parts of the olive grove were screaming in Arabic, Spanish, Hebrew, English, and others, ‘Don’t shoot! We’re non-violent!’

But the triggers of the occupier’s guns pulled anyways– the weapon of non-violence needed to be dismantled…It is illegal under Israeli military law to shoot rubber bullets from a distance under 40 meters. They are considered lethal otherwise…I saw Tomas from Denmark fall to the ground, Dawood from the UK hit on the inner thigh near his groin, Ali from Palestine hit in the leg, and tear gas canisters were oozing with white smoke from what seemed like every inch of the land. Suddenly, Ms. Maguire, the Irish Nobel Peace prize winner was shot in the leg. Two other street medics carried her to safety and the army continued to fire into the non-violent crowd.

The resilience was astounding. The demonstrators kept regrouping. Even Ms. Maguire, after being shot and with red, watery tear-gassed eyes — she rejoined the march.…An estimated 25 people were either hit with rubber bullets, soldier batons, or received medical care from tear gas inhalation.

Máiread once wrote: “Hope for the future depends on each of us taking nonviolence into our hearts and minds and developing new and imaginative structures which are nonviolent and life-giving for all. Some people will argue that this is too idealistic. I believe it is very realistic. I am convinced that humanity is fast evolving to this higher consciousness. For those who say it cannot be done, let us remember that humanity learned to abolish slavery. Our task now is no less than the abolition of violence and war…. We can rejoice and celebrate today because we are living in a miraculous time. Everything is changing and everything is possible.

While Governments can make a difference, in the final analysis it is the individual — that is each one of us — that will bring the dream of a nonviolent world to reality. We, the people must think and act nonviolently. We must not get stuck in the past as to do so will destroy the imagination and creativity which is so n a new future together…

To change our world we need a spiritual and a political evolution. The political steps are often very obvious: uphold Human rights, and International Laws, demand our Governments meet their obligations under these Laws, support and reform United Nations, etc., However, all the legislation, resolutions, and fine talk will be of no use, if we do not as men and women evolve and become transformed, so that we, the human family, achieve a more enlightened and humane way of living together, and solving conflicts.

In 2004 the International Court of Justice ruled that The Wall is a violation of International Law because it cuts through the West Bank appropriating Palestinian land and destroying Palestinian villages and economy to make way for further Israeli illegal settlements.

My first trip to Bil’in, where Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maried Maguire was shot, was in January 2006; my second time upon the potholed unpaved roads to this agricultural village near Ramallah was on November 10, 2006.

Bil’in is one of many villages in the occupied Palestinian territories where locals, Israelis and Internationals have been nonviolently and creatively resisting “The Wall” which in Bil’in is an electrified fence and miles of rolled barbed wire.

The electric fence and the Israeli army prevents the indigenous people to care and harvest their olive groves and 2,003 dunums of land have already been confiscated for The Wall/Fence and 750 settlers apartments have been built and are now occupied which the indigenous people are forbidden to enter.

In Bil’in, the Green Line is five miles from The Wall/electric fence and the Popular Committee in Bil’in has been nonviolently fighting the illegal actions of the Israeli government with nonviolent demonstrations and legal actions. Three court cases have been filed regarding the route of The Wall, the illegal settlements and land ownership. The Israeli government uses the Ottoman Law that states if the landowner doesn’t tend his land it can be confiscated by the State. The Israeli army and the electrified fence have effectively prevented the indigenous people from accessing and caring for their olive tree crop, depriving them of food and income.

The indigenous people of Bil’in brought their case to the Israeli Municipal Court and the High Court. Both courts agreed the building of the settlement dwellings was indeed illegal and ordered the construction to cease in January 2006. Construction continued and now that the settlers have moved in, the High Court has chosen to accept these “facts on the ground” and the colonists have been allowed to remain and the indigenous people have not received any compensation.

Abdullah and Mohammod, the local Coordinator’s of The Popular Committee Against The Wall in Bil’in informed me that 1,700 people live there and legally own 4,000 dunums of property. By erecting The Wall on Palestinian land, the Israeli government has effectively confiscated 2,003 dunums of prime agricultural land.

Beginning in 2004, every Friday afternoon in Bil’in after prayer at the mosque the ritual is for locals, Israelis and Internationals to march in solidarity to The Wall/Electric Fence while singing and chanting in Arabic slogans such as: “The wall will fall in Bil’in; the wall will fall like in Berlin!”

On November 10, 2006, I was one of over 40 internationals from the UK, France, Ireland, Spain, Germany, Netherlands and the US who marched with dozens of Israeli Anarchists Against the Wall and over 300 locals down the dirt road to The Wall/Electric Fence. Soldiers hid behind trees to the right and to the left of us while over five dozen well armed soldiers stood on the other side of The Wall/Fence while one videotaped us. Jonathan Pollak, an Anarchist Against the Wall/AAtW, that I met during his USA speaking tour was also there.

After chanting a while in front of the soldiers, Jonathon was the first down the steep rocky hill and over a metal railing to grab the roll of razor sharp barbed wire that is in front of the electrified fence in order to shake it. He was immediately joined by a few dozen locals and other AAtW who were swiftly greeted by the first of dozens of sound bombs-thick orange plastic grenades that hit the ground with a deafening sound.

I was half way down the hill when a teenager next to me threw a rock at a soldier and I know that action alone can get one killed or arrested, so I headed back up the hill before the tear gas assaulted the crowd at the barbwire.

By the time I made it up the hill the first of hundreds of rubber bullets were being shot into the crowd. Only two internationals were hit that day, but last Friday in Bil’in, an estimated 25 people were either hit with rubber bullets, soldier batons, or received medical care from tear gas inhalation.

PHOTOS of Maried and the FULL story of April 20, 2007 demonstration:

Other Source:

Memoirs of a Nice Irish-American ‘Girl’s’ Life in Occupied Territory

Students Heckle Gonzales at Harvard

What? The Reich arrested no one? Now that's news.
Related
Four students arrested for heckling FBI director
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Sunday April 29, 2007 12:46 PM

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) - A small group of student protesters, including one wearing a black hood and an orange jumpsuit, heckled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as he posed with old classmates Saturday during their 25-year Harvard Law School reunion.

``When the photographer was getting everybody set up and having people say 'cheese,' the protesters yelled: 'say torture, instead,' 'resign' and 'I don't recall,''' said Nate Ela, a protester and third-year student.

Law school spokesman Mike Armini said the impromptu protest was so small that some of those attending the photo shoot did not notice it.

Ela said the protesters followed Gonzales into the law school's library, chanting ``shame'' and ``resign,'' before the attorney general's security detail took him to his motorcade.

Gonzales was at the university to deliver a lunchtime speech, a visit that was unannounced to students. But word spread quickly after his motorcade and security detail were spotted.

``The departure was clearly undignified,'' said Thomas Becker, a second-year law student who wore the black hood and orange jumpsuit during the protest. ``He looked really annoyed.''

A Department of Justice spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Gonzales is resisting pressure to resign as lawmakers question whether he could effectively run the Justice Department amid the controversy over the firings of eight prosecutors.

Nobel laureate treated, released after being shot in West Bank rally

MAGUIRE-SHOT Apr-23-2007 (420 words) xxxi

By Judith Sudilovsky
Catholic News Service

JERUSALEM (CNS) -- Northern Ireland's 1976 Noble Peace Prize laureate, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, was injured in the leg by a rubber bullet while taking part in a nonviolent demonstration against the Israeli separation wall.

Maguire, a Catholic, required medical treatment for her injury and also for tear-gas inhalation. She remained in the hospital for a few hours, then returned to the demonstration. She left the country the following day, April 21, as planned.

Maguire had been attending the Second Bil'in International Conference on Nonviolence in the West Bank village of Bil'in, where Palestinians and international and Israeli peace activists have held such protests against the wall since February 2005. The conference was sponsored by the International Solidarity Movement.

Movement activist Jonas Martinez, an American Catholic who said he did not want to give more details about where he was from, said conference participants joined the weekly demonstration against the wall and were met by Israeli soldiers armed with rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons.

Demonstrators, including Maguire, covered their faces with bandannas and onion slices to dilute the tear gas, he said, and after each lob of tear gas they would regroup and continue forward toward the wall. He said demonstrators shouted in various languages: "Don't shoot, we are nonviolent."

In addition to Maguire, eight demonstrators were hit by rubber bullets, he said, and numerous demonstrators were beaten by soldiers. Three demonstrators were arrested but later released, he said. Some of the more than two dozen injuries came from tear gas, he said.

One demonstrator, Tito Kayak of Puerto Rico, managed to climb a nearby military tower and hang a Palestinian flag on the top; he was arrested. He was to remain under house arrest until the end of the Israeli Independence Day holiday, which begins the evening of April 24, said Martinez.

Israel says the separation wall is necessary to prevent suicide attacks against Israeli civilians and notes that the number of attacks has decreased significantly since the wall was built.

At a press conference before being injured, Maguire told about 500 participants in the nonviolence conference that the wall was an "insult to the human family" and must come down.

"Nonviolence will solve the problems here in Israel and Palestine," Maguire said in a statement issued by the International Solidarity Movement. "Often, the world sees only violence. But Palestinians are a good people, working toward nonviolence. This wall must fall."

Impeachment's on the Table

April 26, 2007
It's a Code Pink day on Capital Hill!

Nobel Prize winner shot by Israeli Army writes from Palestine

Related
Israeli troops shoot Nobel Peace Prize winner
---
Palestine: IDF Shoots Irish Peace Prize Winner With Rubber Bullets

In a Gandhi-like protest, a completely unarmed peaceful gathering of peace activists walked to the Bil'in Wall, were tear-gassed and then shot with rubber bullets, were brought to ambulances for treatment and then returned to the non-violent demonstration. Among them was Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Mairead Corrigan Maguire.

Mairead Corrigan Maguire taken away after being shot with rubber bullets by Israeli soldiers.
from a photo series
by the ISM's Martinez

In a Gandhi-like protest, a completely unarmed and peaceful gathering of peace activists who were walking to the Bil'in Wall were tear-gassed and then shot with rubber bullets. After being brought to ambulances for treatment they returned to the non-violent demonstration. Among them was Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire.

Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire writes from Palestine...

'...When the walkers got half way down the road, the Israeli soldiers started firing nerve gas, and plastic bullets directly at us. At another point they used water cannons. We were a completely unarmed peaceful gathering and this vicious attack from the Israeli soldiers was totally unprovoked attack upon civilians. The soldiers block the upper part of the road, thus preventing Dr. Barghouti and some of the Palestinians joining the main vigillers. We were then tear gassed and as I helped a French woman retreat I was shot in the leg with a rubber bullet. Two young women, one from USA and one from New Zealand, helped me towards an ambulance. I saw an elderly Palestinian mother carried on a stretcher into the ambulance, as she was shot in the back with a plastic bullet. I saw a man whose face was covered in blood and a Palestinian youth overcome with the gas. About 20 people were injured. Ann and myself went back to the protest where the people were being viciously attacked with nerve gas and plastic bullets. I was overcome with gas and took a nose bleed which resulted in being carried to ambulance for treatment....'

Related Links: Peace People / Nobel Prize - 1976 / NobelWomensInitiative.org
PalSolidarity.org: All we had for breakfast was tear gas / on December 2006 she was Arrested at Faslane, Scotland

---

The Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire was among a number of people shot with a plastic bullet on Friday at a weekly protest in Palestine. Ms Maguire had been invited to open an international conference in the village and this ended with a press conference at which hundreds of international journalists were present.

Afterwards, with Ann Patterson also from Belfast, she joined the weekly non-violent demonstration and walk to the Apartheid Wall. Israeli soldiers fired first tear gas and later rubber-coated steel bullets into the crowd. One man was hit in the head, a Palestinian mother hit in the back, a woman journalist hit in the leg, as was Ms Maguire. She was treated in an ambulance and rejoined the walk again but suffered nose bleed from tear gas inhalation and had to be treated again.

One hour before this she had told the conference: ?Thanks to the media here for telling the truth?Bring this truth to whatever country you come from!? . She had called for an end to the occupation of Palestine, international recognition of the Palestinian Government, an end to the building of the Apartheid Wall and restoration of economic and political rights. She also called for the release of the BBC journalist Alan Johnson

In a joint e-mail from Palestine to this writer last night (Sunday) Mairead and Ann say they are both well.

Full report by Inrternational Solidarity Movement reporters at: http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/04/21/april-20-b...test/

REPORT FROM MAIREAD AND ANN PATTERSON BELOW

"On Friday 20th April, 2007, Ann Patterson and I joined the Bil?in Peoples Committee, (outside Ramallah) on their weekly nonviolent protest march to the Apartheid Wall , together with Israeli peace activists and Internationalists from over 20 countries. The Internationals came from France, (over 200) America, Puerto Rico, Spain, Switzerland, Ireland, Belgium, Britain, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Canada, and India.

Before the peace vigil, I participated in a Press Conference with the Palestinian Minister for Information, Mustafa Barghouti, in front of the World Press. Minister Barghouti praised the nonviolent vigil of the Bil?in people and the nonviolent resistance of many people around Palestine,says Bil?in is a model and example to all. He called to stop the building of the wall, and for the upholding of Palestinian Rights under International Law.

I supported his call and thanked the people of Bil?in offering my support for the nonviolent resistance to the Wall as it contravenes International Law, including the International Court of Justice decision in the Hague. I also called for an end to Palestinian occupation, which will be 40 years soon, and recognition by the International Community of the Palestinian Government, together with restoration of economic, political rights of the people.

Both Dr. Barghouti and I called for the release of the BBC Journalist Alan Johnston. I also called for the protection of Journalists all over the world, whose ability to cover the truth, is being infringed.

During Conference the Israeli military drove through the Gate onto Palestinian Land, with many foot soldiers. They surrounded World Media and in Hebrew warned us that if we did not disperse they would attack in five minutes. Myself and Dr. Barghouti, condemned this as abuse of freedom of press, speech, and people's right to peaceful protest and speech.

During press conference a man from San Paulo, climbed to the top of the Surveillance Mask and released a Palestinian Flag. He planned to stay there for 2 days.

We returned to the Village and joined the Peace Vigil moving down the road towards the wall. Several hundred people participated, the Palestinian men, women, and many young Palestinian males leading the march. Very courageous as young Palestinian males when arrested often get beaten. I walked with my Palestinian interpreter who told me his home was on the other side of the wall. His 12 acre land was confiscated by Israeli Authorities and his 400 year old olive trees uprooted, taken to Jerusalem and planted in new Israeli settlements.

When the walkers got half way down the road, the Israeli soldiers started firing nerve gas, and plastic bullets directly at us. At another point they used water cannons. We were a completely unarmed peaceful gathering and this vicious attack from the Israeli soldiers was totally unprovoked attack upon civilians. The soldiers block the upper part of the road, thus preventing Dr. Barghouti and some of the Palestinians joining the main vigillers. We were then tear gassed and as I helped a French woman retreat I was shot in the leg with a rubber bullet. Two young women, one from USA and one from New Zealand, helped me towards an ambulance. I saw an elderly Palestinian mother carried on a stretcher into the ambulance, as she was shot in the back with a plastic bullet. I saw a man whose face was covered in blood and a Palestinian youth overcome with the gas. About 20 people were injured. Ann and myself went back to the protest where the people were being viciously attacked with nerve gas and plastic bullets. I was overcome with gas and took a nose bleed which resulted in being carried to ambulance for treatment.

We were advised by medical staff not to return to vigil and obliged to leave our friends several hours later still heroically trying to get near the wall. On the road towards the village we watched 2 children playing in their garden, oblivious to the nerve gas floating down on the wind towards their home. This permeates their clothes, their lungs and the question has to be asked, what the health of these children will be like in a few years time.

This is not only a question of abuse of human rights, international laws, by the Israeli government; it is a health and environment issue. We were all traumatized by our experience, and with the gas on the air, came the words flowing back to me of a Palestinian Doctor, who said ?the whole Palestinian people, after 40 years of occupation, the whole people of Palestine are traumatized, it is time the International Community acted to put a stop to this suffering and injustice of our people?. I agree enough is enough; it is time for action to force the Israeli Government to enter into unconditional talks to end this tragedy of tragedies of good and gentle Palestinian people.

Mairead Corrigan Maguire and Ann Patterson

Jerusalem

2lst April, 2007-04-21

www.peacepeople.com

Irish Peace Laureate Shot By Israeli Troops at Non-Violent Protest -- Why Isn't This News?

Related
Yours truly at another site
Israeli troops shoot Nobel Peace Prize winner: 12424 reads
This amount of reads at this particlular site indicates a high level of public interest.
So what gives Big Media?
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04.24.2007

Robert Naiman

If you listened to Democracy Now Monday, you already know the following:

Irish Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire was among a number of people shot Friday by Israeli troops at a nonviolent protest of the "apartheid wall" in the Palestinian village of Bil'in, near Ramallah.

But if you didn't listen to Democracy Now yesterday, you probably didn't know that.

Why isn't this "news" in the United States? There's nothing on the web sites of the New York Times, the Washington Post, or the Los Angeles Times, not even a wire story.

Those who blame the Palestinian people for their fate, attributing it to Palestinian violence, and faulting the Palestinians for not emulating Gandhi, King, or Mandela (whose role in the "armed struggle" is always conveniently elided for the purpose of this comparison) should periodically ask themselves, when Palestinians do engage in nonviolent protest, and are subjected to brutal repression as a result, how come the mainstream U.S. media don't pay any attention?

Wouldn't this be a precondition for a successful nonviolent protest strategy? That people find out about it? Imagine if U.S. news organizations had not reported on lunch counter sit-ins in the South, Freedom Rides, or the Montgomery bus boycott -- and the repression that resulted. What if no-one reported on the deaths of Evers, Goodman, Schwerner, Chaney. Would these protests have been as effective?

That U.S. political, diplomatic, and financial support for the Israeli government's policies in the West Bank provide crucial support for these policies should be beyond debate. Don't the American people have a right to know what's going on?

And if a Nobel peace laureate is shot at a non-violent protest using weapons paid for by the U.S. taxpayer, isn't that news?

A great deal of ink has been spilled about how the United States is perceived in the Middle East. Too little of that ink has addressed whether the perception of the United States might be the predictable result of unjust U.S. policies, and whether changing some of those policies might be part of a strategy for changing the perceptions.

A new poll from World Public Opinion.org finds that nine in ten Egyptians thinks that the U.S. is at war with Islam, and wants the U.S. to "remove its bases and military forces from all Islamic countries." Eight in ten Egyptians support attacks on U.S. troops in the region to bring this about.

U.S. policy towards the Palestinians is surely not the whole story, but it is surely an important part of the story. If the U.S. cannot, in the short term, compel Israel to accept a political settlement with the Palestinians along the lines of the international consensus -- withdrawal to the 1967 borders -- can't we at least get them to stop shooting unarmed demonstrators? Or, if even that is too much to ask, how about no shooting Nobel peace laureates?

Wednesday night Bill Moyers will examine on PBS how the U.S media failed us in the run-up to the Iraq war. Perhaps Mr. Moyers could look into how the U.S. media is failing us on our policy towards the Palestinians.
...

Get involved:

www.justforeignpolicy.org

Robert Naiman is National Coordinator of Just Foreign Policy, a membership organization devoted to reforming U.S. foreign policy to reflect the values and serve the interests of the majority of Americans. Naiman edits the daily Just Foreign Policy news summary.
JFP's web site is www.justforeignpolicy.org.

Anti-Israel ad campaign set for Washington subway

Warning, there is a lot of whining towards the end of this article out of the Canadian Jewish News. What is clearly pointed out is any criticism of Israeli military brutality towards the Palestinians just isn't kosher with the "Kosher Nostra" crowd. ---

Anti-Israel ad campaign set for Washington subway

By ANDY LEVY-AJZENKOPF
Staff Reporter

WASHINGTON, D.C. - area commuters will be inundated with a controversial poster-ad campaign when they take the city’s subway system next month.

Starting May 13 for four weeks, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) has ordered 20 of its subway stations to place posters advertising a June 10 rally to end “Israel’s illegal military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.”

Initiated by a charity called the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, the 46-by-60-inch posters depict an imposing tank pointing its main firing turret at a child with a schoolbag walking along a dirt road.

“Imagine if this were your child’s path to school. Palestinians don’t have to imagine,” the poster states, before continuing to call for an end to U.S. aid for “Israel’s brutal military occupation… paid for by U.S. taxpayers like you.”

CBS Outdoor, the New York-based firm that places in-station advertising for WMATA, at first refused to consider the poster, but eventually relented to pressure from WMATA and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

According to an April 4 report in the Washington Jewish Week online, the U.S. Campaign contacted the ACLU, which then advised WMATA to order CBS Outdoor to place the posters, citing freedom of speech rights.

Joanne Ferreira, a WMATA spokesperson, said, “We didn’t have any problem with the ad. It was a First Amendment issue.”

In the same report, Oren Segal, a spokesperson for the Anti-Defamation League said, “If past events by this organization are any indication, it will make no attempt to present a balanced view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and this ad is a pure reflection of that.”

Jodi Senese, CBS Outdoor’s executive vice-president in charge of marketing, explained to The CJN last week why she first turned away the poster.

“I initially rejected it on grounds that I thought it was too inflammatory to children,” she said over the phone from her Manhattan office.

Senese recalled that she told U.S. Campaign staff that if they wanted to raise awareness for their campaign, she was fine with it based on First Amendment rights, “but not like this,” she said.

The U.S. Campaign claims 250 member organizations in the United States. Its website features a prominent logo with the slogan, “Apartheid: Wrong for South Africans. Wrong for Palestinians.”

Senese, who is Jewish, indicated that though she was uneasy with the ad, her personal feelings were not a part of her initial decision to dismiss the ad.

“I’m very proud [of being a Jew],” Senese said. “I thought the image was inflammatory, but I also believe in our First Amendment rights. As Jews [in America], we thrive on that right as well.”

Senese indicated at the time of the interview, that to her knowledge no other group had yet come forward with a counter-campaign for CBS Outdoor to run.

Arthur Spitzer, who is Jewish and the legal director for the ACLU in the National Capital Area, told the Washington Jewish Week it wasn’t “a case about Judaism or Israel… but about establishing someone’s right to freedom of speech, which I agree with regardless of whether I agree with their particular political position.”

Jewish organizations in the D.C. area downplayed the seriousness of the upcoming campaign.

Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, president of Washington-based pro-Israel think-tank, the Israel Project, said her organization didn’t consider the ad campaign worth wasting resources to counter in the media and expected the ads to have a “minimum impact.”

She said when the Israel Project and other prominent Jewish organizations in the area first learned about the ad, they worried about its “ominous” potential.

They discussed the matter at length and then conducted several focus group studies on the ad with dozens of “highly educated people” before concluding the ad wasn’t worth combating actively.

In fact, Laszlo Mizrahi claimed that of the dozens who analyzed the ad in the focus groups, upon first glance most thought the tank was an American one surrounded by Iraqi children. And even when they read the poster’s words, participants had little sympathy for the cause, she said.

“It’s a poorly run... poorly executed campaign and the American people are onto [the U.S. Campaign’s] game,” Laszlo Mizrahi said. “There are real, legitimate threats to the U.S.-Israel relationship – this is just not one of them.

“If these guys want to build support for their cause, they need to have something to sell that doesn’t encourage children to blow themselves up.”

All we had for breakfast was tear gas

April 21st, 2007 |

by ISM Martinez 20 April 2007

“Thanks to the media here for telling the truth…Bring this truth to whatever country you come from!”

Ms. Macguire escorted to safety after being shot by Israeli army

These were Mairead Maguire’s words, a Nobel Peace Prize winner from Northern Ireland, just one hour before she was shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet by Israeli Occupation Forces.

At a press conference next to the Apartheid Wall in Bil’in, she stood beside Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, Palestinian Information Minister.

Press conference near Apartheid Wall

“Non-violence will solve the problems here in Israel and Palestine,” Ms. Macguire continued. “Often, the world sees only violence. But Palestinians are a good people, working towards non-violence. This Wall must fall! It is an insult to the human family and to the world– that we are building Apartheid Walls in the 21st Century! More than forty years of Occupation and Land Appropriation”

Ms. Macguire demanded her viewers of the world to stop Israel’s “mild dictatorship” and “total Israeli government control.”

Dr. Barghouti thanked her and the 500 attendees of the Second Bil’in International Conference on Non-violence. Regarding the Wall, he stated that it was an “instrument of ethnic cleansing, the same as what happened in 1948.” Barghouti suggested to read Illan Pappe’s book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine for a clear explanation.

Barghouti stated that the Apartheid Wall is being used to suffocate the idea of a 2-state solution and an independent Palestinian state.

Describing the Wall, Barghouti said that it was 850 km in length, which is three times the length of the Green Line (the 1967 Armistice line), that the wall surrounds and imprisons cities and villages. Qalqilia was mentioned, a city of 46,000 Palestinians, which is completely surrounded by the Aparthied Wall.

Photo of Apartheid Wall in Qalqilia

“This Wall is being built between Palestinians and Palestinians,” he said. “It is not being built between Palestine and Israel. 850,000 Palestinians are behind this wall. It is destroying Palestinian social, economic, health, and educational systems.”

“It has been condemned by every major legal body, including the International Court of Justice, and it must be removed!”

“You will see the Israeli military practice violence here today.”

After 60 years of dispossession and 40 years of Occupation, Dr. Barghouti joined Ms. Macguire in Bil’in, as “a symbol of the Palestinian non-violent struggle,” he said. He also demanded the release of British BBC journalist Alan Johnson, “who did everything he could to bring the truth, a wonderful being which (he) knew well, a fantastic journalist. We demand his freedom. It continues to hurt the image of the Palestinian people.”

Barghouti closed by saying that there is no propaganda needed– just to show the pictures of the wall and checkpoints, for they speak for themselves.

Israeli high-powered water tank at Apartheid Wall

Just before the press conference ended, a huge Israeli high-powered water police-tank rolled through the opening in the Wall, demanding that all the vehicles of the press leave the premises.

Further beyond the Wall, Tito, a Puerto Rican activist was waiting for his cue. After the press conference ended, he climbed the sky-scraping Israeli military tower housing the military camera, which watches over the village of Bil’in like the all-seeing-eye of the pyramid, recording every movement of the cages Palestinians in Bil’in.

Tito on the top of military tower hanging Palestinian flag

Cheering, “Tito! Tito!,” friends and activists snapped photos and a crew of supporters lingered below the massive tower. Military vehicles dispatched themselves to try and prevent the too-quick climber of Puerto Rico.

As he reached the top, the cheers grew louder and waving high and proud over the beautiful village of Bil’in were the colors of red, white, green and black.

It would be another five hours before Tito descended the tower.

On the other side of the village, Friday prayers at the mosque were ending, and hundreds of Palestinians, Israelis, and international solidarity activists would march down the road towards the Apartheid Wall.

Non-violent demonstrators march to the Apartheid Wall

But even with Dr. Mustafa Barghouti present and with the Irish Nobel Peace Prize Winner joining the non-violent demonstration, Israeli Occupation Forces utilized their usual violent tactics to try and quell the resistance.

Israeli Occupation Forces fire tear gas at demonstrators

Blocking the path with armed soldiers about 100 meters before the Wall, soldiers began to fire tear gas into the crowd of 400 or so protesters. The crowd would disperse, covering their faces with bandannas and onion slices to dilute the suffocating gases. But the crowd would regroup and continue, Ghandi-style, their non-violent procession to the Apartheid structure.

Israeli forces kept this up for quite some time, but as demonstrators reached closer to their goal, the occupiers added more ingredients to their recipe– this time using rubber-coated steel bullets.

Several patches of demonstrators in different parts of the olive grove were screaming in Arabic, Spanish, Hebrew, English, and others, “Don’t shoot! We’re non-violent!”

But the triggers of the occupier’s guns pulled anyways– the weapon of non-violence needed to be dismantled.

Rubber-coated steel bullet wound to the leg

And from 10 meters away, filmmaker Asusena Fernando from Spain was hit on the left leg with one of these rubber-coated steel bullets. She said to me, “He looked straight into my eyes. I asked him not to shoot but he took aim anyways.”

Moments later, Masid Abu Tamer, a Palestinian Israeli a journalist for British Channel 2 was shot in the head with a rubber bullet. The Palestinian Red Crescent placed him on the stretcher and loaded him into the ambulance.

Palestinian-Israeli shot in head with rubber bullet

“He’s the second one it 3 minutes that they’ve shot in the head!” yelled someone next to me.

It is illegal under Israeli military law to shoot rubber bullets from a distance under 40 meters. They are considered lethal otherwise. Lymor Goldstein was shot by Israeli forces in the head last August from a distance of 10 meters with a rubber bullet. The bullet penetrated his skull and entered his brain. Luckily, he is still around and is serving as Tito’s lawyer right now as I am writing this.

I saw Tomas from Denmark fall to the ground, Dawood from the UK hit on the inner thigh near his groin, Ali from Palestine hit in the leg, and tear gas canisters were oozing with white smoke from what seemed like every inch of the land.

I exited the street to find a group of 8 Palestinian, Israeli, and internationals with their hands raised high to the sky, shouting not to shoot. Because of my medic background, and because of the recent shootings previously mentioned, I hovered nearby.

Suddenly, Ms. Macguire, the Irish Nobel Peace prize winner was shot in the leg.

Two other street medics carried her to safety and the army continued to fire into the non-violent crowd.

The resilience was astounding. The demonstrators kept regrouping. Even Ms. Macguire, after being shot and with red, watery tear-gassed eyes– she rejoined the march.

Eventually, there was an ad-hoc town hall meeting. Habibi, a Palestinian from Jenin stood atop a dirt mound and announced that we were moving forward. “We need internationals to join us! We are going to cross to the other side. Let’s just move quickly as one group and we will make it!”

On the other side of army lines stood Dr. Barghouti, the crowd below Tito, and other activists who were being harassed by the soldiers.

So we charged forward, through clouds of tear gas, and reached the hill toward the Wall. Soldiers refrained from firing tear gas now since we stood just inches away. The canon of the water tank moved its aim from the demonstration towards this new crowd of activists forming on the hill near the jeeps.

Occupation forces started throwing people around, threatening them with arrest. Soldiers were swinging their batons. A young Palestinian boy was hit and was carried away over someone’s shoulder.

Palestinian boy is carried away after being beaten by Israeli forces

“Shame!,” someone exclaimed to a soldier, “Is that how the moral Israeli army treats Palestinians children?”

The soldiers were trying to force the activists apart but they locked arms and became one solid unit that the army just could not dismantle. When the soldiers turned their attention on a singular activist and charged at him, the line of activists unlocked arms and puppy-piled on top of him, saving him from the soldiers’ abuse.

Tear gas and rubber bullets continued to be fired at the demonstration back across the path. Those who saw that we made it across attempted to join us but the army was determined to not let this happen. And there was Tito was up on that tower.

When a Palestinian teenager fainted from tear gas inhalation, demonstrators called for Dr. Barghouti. He came to the boy’s assistance, checked his jugular pulse, splashed some water on his face, and helped him off to safety. Others throughout the demonstration were treated with tear gas inhalation.

Three internationals were detained, handcuffed, and brought to one of the army jeeps. Another was de-arrested by the group who made it to the hill. Soldiers were confining these activists to a small space.

I could see them whispering to each other and it became clear to me that the water canon was pointing directly at the activists. (Water canons can knock the wind out of you and cause serious damage). And the soldiers kept backing away as if they didn’t want to get splashed. “Follow the soldiers!” one of the activists yelled. The soldier in the water tank would be less inclined to shoot at the activists if they were adjacent the soldiers. So no water was fired as the activists followed the soldiers’ steps, still locking arms.

After some time, a Palestinian from the organizing committee amplified his voice over the bullhorn, saying that the demonstration should come to an end. He negotiated with the soldier that they would not fire at the activists during the retreat.

As they left, they moved away the barbed wire that the soldiers had used as a roadblock. The demonstrators from the other side of the road marched towards the ones who had crossed the army line.

Chanting ensued and the two groups rejoined. After a quick decision, the whole of the group marched back towards the jeeps and soldiers and immediately sat on the ground, locking arms. Over the loud speaker, someone told Tito’s story— of a man who came all the way from Puerto Rico to stand in solidarity, to climb the tower to hand the Palestinian symbol of independence, and to risk arrest and deportation. The crowd answered back, “Tito! Tito! Tito!”

Then, the three men who were arrested were released and rejoined the demonstrators.

At this point, the Bil’in’s Second Annual Conference on Non-violence came to an end. The soldiers exited the gate in the Apartheid Wall. The demonstrators went to tend their wound, to expel the tear gas powder from their noses and lungs. Others, like Ursula from Switzerland, went to the hospital because she was shot in the stomach with a rubber bullet.

Ana Maria, a 63 year old retired lawyer from Spain, tended to her stomach after also being hit with a rubber bullet.

Rubber-coated steel bullet wound on stomach

An estimated 25 people were either hit with rubber bullets, soldier batons, or received medical care from tear gas inhalation.

And Tito remains in prison. It is the first time that the military commander has used a practice for an international that is normally used against the Palestinians. When a Palestinian is arrested, the army usually hold the person for 96 hours before even seeing a judge. The commander can then extend that 96 hours for and another 96 hours. With Israelis or internationals who are arrested in similar situations, they are usually released before 24 hours.

Lymor Goldstein, Tito’s lawyer, has said that the court may deport Tito tomorrow, even though Tito was scheduled to leave Palestine on Sunday (tomorrow) anyways.

The people of Bil’in and their Israeli and international solidarity friends will be back next Friday, to continue their non-violent struggle against Israeli Apartheid and land theft.

All photos by ISM Martinez

Posted in Press Releases, Reports, Bil'in Village

URL

‘Jewish Voice for Peace’ Holds First National Conference

Commentary

By Cecilie Surasky

On the eve of the 40th anniversary of Israel’s occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, it’s important to reflect on where we as a Jewish community stand on this issue, especially here in the Bay Area.

This occupation, through a system of checkpoints, home and orchard demolitions, detentions, land and water confiscations, assassinations and more, makes normal life impossible for millions of Palestinians. It violates international law, which was created in no small part as a response to World War II, and is universally condemned by human rights groups and governments, including the United States.

Far from bringing Israelis safety, it endangers people in Israel as well as the 400,000 settlers who live on occupied land, at least 40 percent of which, according to Israeli records, is actually owned by Palestinian families.

Given the Bay Area’s extraordinary history in the forefront of major social justice movements, it should come as no surprise that the leadership of the country’s largest and fastest-growing Jewish peace groups hail from here.

There is Brit Tzedek, which does critical work within the affiliated Jewish world as a pro-Israel/pro-peace group; Tikkun, which as part of the Network of Spiritual Progressives reaches across religious lines to raise a voice of justice; and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), the only national Jewish peace group that views the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the lens of international human rights law.

All of us have experienced some form of censure from the institutional Jewish world for publicly challenging unquestioning support for Israeli policies.

On April 28-29 in Oakland, JVP will hold our first national conference, “Pursuing Justice in Israel/Palestine, Changing Minds, Challenging U.S. Policy.” (Go to www.JewishVoice forpeace.org for information.) The conference will offer attendees a way to learn more about the Middle East, get involved, or sharpen their strategy and skills.

Just 5 years ago, JVP was an all volunteer group based here in the Bay Area. Today, we have four program staff positions; a 24,000-person mailing list; chapters in cities like Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Seattle with more coming; and advisory board members including Howard Zinn, Deborah Chasnoff, Tony Kushner and Adrienne Rich.

We encourage all people, but Jews in particular, to attend the conference as a way learn about Arab-Jewish organizing, Christian fundamentalist anti-Semitism, life under occupation and more.

A Jewish movement for

peace and justice

It is challenging to be an “out” Jew on this issue. Many movements simplistically divide the world into us and them. But as Jews, many with close ties to Israel, we are both us AND them. We must constantly fight the temptation of others, and at times ourselves, to dehumanize the “bad guys.”

Many of us needed to break through the one-sided ideas about Israel we were taught from birth. We knew too well the Jewish stories of suffering and exile – we ourselves carry the wounds. And we understood the need to create a place where Jews could be safe.

But we realized we knew little about Palestinians, why they called the Israeli war of independence Al Nakba, the disaster. Or why many still carried keys to their old homes, or why children threw rocks at tanks, or why some became suicide bombers and sought to kill Israeli civilians on buses or in pizza shops.

Many of us decided to learn the whole history, and to go to the West Bank and Gaza ourselves to see exactly what occupation looks like.

It is a searing experience none shall ever forget.

There are no words to describe the anger the first time one sees a scared Israeli teenage soldier pointing a huge gun and callously barking orders at an elderly Palestinian at a checkpoint.

And there are no containers to hold the tears one sheds when one sees a Caterpillar bulldozer destroy a Palestinian family’s home because they lacked an impossible to obtain permit, while the mother watches restrained, screaming, her children’s clothes and toys strewn on the side of the road. As one rabbi who witnessed such destruction just a few miles outside of Jerusalem said, “This is the worst day of my life.”

We come back to the Bay Area, having experienced some of the worst days of our lives, and instead of being greeted with open arms by one of the most progressive Jewish communities in the world, ready to work with Israeli and Palestinian peace groups for justice, we find an increasingly polarized community.

On the one side we find Jewish leaders who, feeling under attack, circle the wagons and go into defense mode. Many repeat superficial and racist platitudes about Palestinians just hating Jews or not caring about their families, platitudes that insult the intelligence of most who know full well the complexity of the situation.

We find progressive Jewish groups who we look to for inspiration on every tough social issue, but who decide simply to not talk about Israel-Palestine, as though it weren’t there.

Finally, we find Jewish leaders wielding the powerful charge of anti-Semitism, at times, to silence legitimate albeit sometimes hyperbolic criticism of Israel. At the same time, we see them take no accountability for the widespread Islamophobia and toxic disregard for Arab lives that has become widespread in many Jewish communities.

We then do our part to add to the polarization.

Out of our collective frustration at being shut out, and our anger at the moral hypocrisy of our leaders, we speak in a way that makes other Jews feel we don’t care about Israeli life, no matter how untrue that may be.

We focus on the failings of the Israeli government, the powerful player, and gloss over the failings of Palestinian leadership, and fail to communicate our acknowledgment of the very real fear Diaspora Jews and Israelis feel about annihilation.

There must be a way to break out of this cycle.

It is a devastating lie that one must be either pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian.

It is possible, in fact, necessary, to be integrated as a Jew who loves the Jewish people and traditions, and who fights for justice for all people—especially those who suffer at the hands of a Jewish state.

The future of Palestinians depends on it. The future of Israel depends on it. The very future of Judaism depends on it.

Go to www.JewishVoiceforPeace.org to find out more and to register for the conference.

Cecilie Surasky is director of communications for Jewish Voice for Peace.

Nobel peace laureate Corrigan injured in anti-fence protest

Noble Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan was treated for injury in leg sustained by rubber bullet

Ali Waked

Published:

04.20.07, 16:47 / Israel News

Nobel Peace Prize Mairead Corrigan has been injured during confrontations between security forces and left-wing activists protesting the security fence route near Bilin, activists said.

Corrigan, who won the prize in 1976 for her work in encouraging a peaceful solution to the Northern Ireland dispute, was hit in the leg by a rubber bullet and was transferred to a hospital for treatment. She was also said to have inhaled large quantities of teargas.

Policemen and soldiers used teargas grenades and rubber bullets to disperse the routine Friday protest against the security fence near the Palestinian village of Bilin and were confronted by a hail of stones.

Two Border Guard policemen were lightly injured by stones.

The security forces say the area where activists hold their protest is a no-access military zone which they have to evacuate of Palestinian and Israeli protesters every Friday.

Activists say the fence route near Bilin was designed to expropriate Palestinian farm land which will be used to expand a Jewish settlement in the area.

Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti and Deputy Prime Minister Assam al-Ahmad also took part in the protest.

"I salute the residents of Bilin for their peaceful struggle in a region that is so violent and I call on the Israeli public, whom I know

is for justice and peace, to support the residents' struggle," Corrigan told Ynet.

Tito Kayak was also there

"I want to say that this separation wall, contrary to what the Israeli say, will not prevent attacks and violence. What will prevent attacks and violence is a peace agreement between the two peoples, and I sure the Israeli people, like the Palestinian people, wants peace," Corrigan added.

Puerto Rican peace activist Tito Kayak climbed a tower on which the army had planted security cameras and hoisted a Palestinian flag.

"All I did was to express my identification with the villagers against the wall which is believed to evil and illegal by the whole world and many leaders like Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter and the United Nations," Kayak said.

Kayak, who was arrested in 2000 for climbing to the top deck of the Statue of Liberty in New York, was apprehended along with six other activists by policemen.

Kayak was a key figure in the 1999 Navy-Vieques protests in Puerto Rico against the US Navy's use of the Vieques Island for bombing exercises. The protests forced the US to end its activities on the Island.

Petition against Israeli assault on Al Aqsa and all Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem

(Jerusalem) Maisa Abu Ghazaleh

Sunday, 15 April 2007

A Muslim and Christian petition is out on behalf of Al Aqsa Mosque. As is much of the nonviolent resistance to Israeli destruction at the Muslim holy site, the petition is sponsored by head of the Islamic Movement inside the Green Line, Sheikh Ra'ed Salah.

Organizers have gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures as part of efforts to stop Israeli excavations and their devastating impact at the Muslim holy site in East Jerusalem's Old City.

Aimed at Palestinians living within Israeli boundaries, the petition reads in part, “We, the undersigned, representing the entire spectrum of Palestinian society, men and women, young and old, from Jerusalem and the Naqab, the Galilee and the Triangle, and the coastal cities of Haifa, Jaffa, Lod and Ramle...pronounce our support for Jerusalem, the Al Aqsa Mosque, and other Islamic and Christian holy places.”

Signatories pledge to “work using all legitimate means to expose the crimes of the occupation and address its aims to Judaize the holy city, its gradual destruction and confiscation of Al Aqsa and other Islamic and Christian holy places.”

Within the petition are three-points, the first of which is addressed to the present Arab and Muslim leaders in science, politics and civil society. It demands that they assume responsibility for Jerusalem and its "sacred shrines."

The second letter is addressed to the Palestinian Presidency, government and all factions, to agree on a clear strategy. They must work with the complete understanding that Jerusalem remains the capital and that no one has the authority to negotiate away that legitimate right.

The third point addresses international humanitarian organizations to “curb the spread of Israeli hysteria” and implement international law in order to put an end to the “continuing crimes in the city of Jerusalem.”

President of the Council of Muftis, Sheikh Khalid Ghaneim, said that the petition and its signatories illustrate "the profound loyalty to Al Aqsa Mosque and the utter rejection of any attacks against it."

The Sheikh said that the petition will be presented to the Arab League, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO.

War Objector's Dad Becomes a Critic

Monday April 16, 2007 10:31 AM

By BRIAN CHARLTON

Associated Press Writer

HONOLULU (AP) - Ever since Army 1st Lt. Ehren Watada refused to go to Iraq, his father has toured the country to criticize the war and gain support for his son.

Bob Watada said his life dramatically changed after his son became the first military officer to face a court-martial for publicly refusing to deploy to Iraq.

He researched events leading up the war, started criticizing the Bush administration on its reasons for invading Iraq and spent much of the past year traveling with his wife to speak about his son and raise money for his legal costs.

``It was because of him that I've gone out and educated myself,'' s't want to commit acts that he felt could be war crimes. He faces charges of missing movement and conduct unbecoming an officer. If convicted, he could be sentenced to six years in prison and be dishonorably discharged.

He faces a second court-martial July 16 after his first military trial in February ended when the judge said he didn't believe the soldier fully understood a pretrial agreement he signed.

His lawyers have advised him to stop talking about the case, his father said.

``My son has somewhat backed off a little bit,'' Watada said. ``He's somewhat become afraid of what people are going to do to him right now. He's become very cautious.''

Bob Watada, however, continues to attract attention despite canceling many of his appearances after his wife had a stroke. He said he still gets about 30 e-mails a day.

Watada, who had seven brothers in the military, also opposed the Vietnam War and extended his education to avoid the draft, claiming that that war was illegal.

He said he discussed his opinions on war with his son when Ehren decided to join the Army. ``He felt there were terrorists out there and he wanted to do his part,'' Watada said.

200,000 March Against Turkey’s Leader

By SUZAN FRASER

ANKARA, Turkey _ More than 200,000 Turks protested against Turkey's Islamic-rooted prime minister Saturday, demonstrating the intense opposition he could face from Turkey's secular establishment if he decides to run for president next month.

Protesters called on the government to resign and chanted slogans including, "We don't want an imam as president."

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has brandished his strong religious convictions while at the same time pushing Turkey toward European Union membership, represents a challenge to secularists' traditional approach to government in this 99-percent Muslim country. Many fear that if he or someone close to him wins the presidency, the government will be able to implement an Islamist agenda without opposition.

But with Erdogan's popularity and firm control over parliament, his opponents may have little power to stop him if he does decide to run. His party was elected to an overwhelming majority in parliament and can appoint whomever it wants to the presidency.

The pro-secular military retains a strong influence over politics, however, and in 1997 generals pressured Erdogan's mentor out of the prime minister's office because he was viewed as excessively religious. Any serious tensions between the government and the military could have a serious effect on the economy, analysts warn.

Tens of thousands traveled from across the country overnight to attend the rally in downtown Ankara. Police cordoned off the meeting area _ near the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the revered founder of modern Turkey and the symbol of its secular identity. Police on the scene estimated the crowd at more than 200,000.

Many residents in the capital hung flags out of their balconies or windows in support of the rally. Protesters shouted, "Turkey is secular and will remain secular." Many draped themselves in Turkish flags and carried posters of Ataturk.

"I'm here to prevent Recep Tayyip Erdogan from becoming president," said Serkan Ozcan, a 30-year-old engineer who traveled nearly 370 miles from Izmir to attend the rally. "Never has someone of that mentality been president and never will there be."

Turkey's staunchly pro-secular president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, said Friday that the threat Islamic fundamentalism posed to the country was higher than ever _ a warning clearly directed at Erdogan.

"For the first time, the pillars of the secular republic are being openly questioned," Sezer said in an address to military officers.

Erdogan's government denies it has an Islamic agenda, but critics say the government is inching the country toward increased religious rule.

The prime minister has stoked secularist concerns by speaking out against restrictions on wearing Islamic-style head scarves in government offices and schools and taking steps to bolster religious institutions. He also tried to criminalize adultery before being forced to back down under intense EU pressure, and some party-run municipalities have taken steps to ban alcohol consumption.

Sezer steps down on May 16. Parliament, which is dominated by lawmakers from Erdogan's party, will elect the new president early next month. Erdogan's party was expected to announce its candidates for the position this month.

"We hope that someone who is loyal to the principles of the republic _ not just in words but in essence _ is elected president," Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, chief of the military, said Thursday in a statement widely interpreted as a warning to Erdogan not to run.

The fiercely secular generals staged three coups between 1960 and 1980, and in 1997 led a campaign that pressured Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan's pro-Islamic government out of power.

The rally was organized by Sener Eruygur, president of the Ataturk Thought Association and former commander of Turkey's paramilitary forces.

Although largely ceremonial, the presidency has become a symbol for secularism under Sezer. A former Constitutional Court judge, he has vetoed a record number of laws he deemed to be in violation of the secular constitution and has blocked efforts to appoint hundreds of reportedly Islamic-oriented candidates to important civil service positions.

Adding to secularists' concerns over an Erdogan run, some members of Erdogan's party have floated the idea of moving Turkey toward a U.S.-style presidential system with a more powerful executive rather than the current parliamentary system.

The generally pro-government newspaper Zaman reported Friday that Erdogan had ordered his party to avoid talk of moving toward a presidential system until after the elections.

Associated Press writers Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara and Benjamin Harvey in Istanbul contributed to this report.

A service of the Associated Press(AP)

UK National Union of Journalists votes to boycott Israeli goods

I guess journalists aren't so bad, after all. :)
---
NUJ votes to boycott Israeli goods
Stephen Brook
Friday April 13, 2007
MediaGuardian.co.uk

Jeremy Dear: general secretary of the NUJ. Photo Stefano Cagnoni

The National Union of Journalists has voted at its annual meeting for a boycott of Israeli goods as part of a protest against last year's war in Lebanon.

Today's vote was carried 66 to 54 - a result that met with gasps and a small amount of applause from the union delegates present.

The vote came during a series of motions on international affairs and reads: "This ADM [annual delegate meeting] calls for a boycott of Israeli goods similar to those boycotts in the struggles against apartheid South Africa led by trade unions and the TUC [Trades Union Congress] to demand sanctions be imposed on Israel by the British government and the United Nations."

The motion was originally brought by the union's South Yorkshire branch and opposed by the Cumberland branch, which said it was too political and was not tied closely enough to journalistic matters.

After a show of hands twice failed to give a clear result, union scrutineers were called in and the doors to the conference room closed.

The vote on the motion was taken after it was split from a larger motion that condemned the "savage, pre-planned attack on Lebanon by Israel" last year.

This motion, known as Composite B in Order Paper 4, was carried by a large majority and also condemned the "slaughter of civilians by Israeli troops in Gaza and the IDF's [Israeli Defense Forces] continued attacks inside Lebanon following the defeat of its army by Hezbollah".

The motion called for the end of Israeli aggression in Gaza and other occupied territories.

The union's national executive committee has been instructed to support organisations including the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, Jews for Justice in Palestine and the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding.

· To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332.

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WikIran: Opponents of the Iran War Go Local

Opponents of the Iran War Go Local

WikIran

In District Lobby Days

As part of coalition efforts to prevent a US military attack on, above, in or around Iran, we are calling for "In-District Lobby Days" during the upcoming Congressional recesses from April 2-13, 2007 and May 28-June 1, 2007, during which time, members of Congress will be in their home districts. This presents an effective opportunity for grassroots activists to meet with their members of Congress. On this page we've prepared a tool kit including information on how to schedule a meeting, talking points, tips for successful lobby visit, and a meeting debriefing form. Please be sure to let us know if you set up a meeting and give us feedback about your meeting; email: cong@armscontrolcenter.org for more information.

How to Schedule a Meeting with Your Member of Congress
District Meeting Sign-up Sheet
Legislative Asks for Your In-District Meetings
Talking Points on Sanctions
UFPJ List of Key House Legislation and Co-Sponsors
UFPJ List of Key Senate Legislation and Co-Sponsors
Eight Tips for a Successful Lobby Visit
Peace Action's Iran Fact Sheet
Congressional Meeting Debriefing Form

Latest page update: made by ArmsControlCong, Yesterday, 1:37 PM EDT (about this update About This Update Edited by ArmsControlCong

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