Woman in a wheelchair tries to escape the tear gas the Oakland Police Department launched upon the protesters. (Photo: Occupy Together)
Last night police in Oakland, California cracked down on protesters in the Occupy Oakland movement in a possibly ominous sign of things to come. Mother Jones reports that law enforcement used rubber bullets, tear gas, and flash-bang grenades to attack the protesters. The tactical similarities to Israel’s treatment of nonviolent Palestinian protesters were obvious to many, but they go deeper than that. Max Blumenthal writes the Oakland police used many of the same weapons:
The police repression on display in Oakland reminded me of tactics I witnessed the Israeli army employ against Palestinian popular struggle demonstrations in occupied West Bank villages like Nabi Saleh, Ni’lin and Bilin. So I was not surprised when I learned that the same company that supplies the Israeli army with teargas rounds and other weapons of mass suppression is selling its dangerous wares to the Oakland police. The company is Defense Technology, a Casper, Wyoming based arms firm that claims to “specialize in less lethal technology” and other “crowd management products.” Defense Tech sells everything from rubber-coated teargas rounds that bounce in order to maximize gas dispersal to 40 millimeter “direct impact” sponge rounds to “specialty impact” 12 gauge rubber bullets.
Poet Amirah Mizrahi made a similar connection in a piece she wrote for the Occupy Writers series:
oakland, 25 october 2011
I. second person present
when you are there
nothing else
is real.
tear gas makes you calm
clear-headed
surprisingly
a warm comfortable room
is disorienting
the shaking you feel
is each cell rising up
to protest with you
each person marching
is a cell
in the blood stream
of resistance flowing
steadily
broadway
is a vein
II. first person past
today
i was wadi salib 1959
i was musrara 1971
i was palestine in oakland
like never before i was
all the places
in all the radical histories
i know and don’t know
i heard a trumpet in a marching band
play a tune i recognized
bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
clapping hands marching feet i gave
away shirts as scarves
to shield faces
today i was a time
place comma date
that some day some one will be
when she is again marching
in the streets and
knowing history
holding it
making
it.
III. future perfect
there is a moment of realization
that a new world
is on the horizon we
work hard for her
slowly, painfully we
recognize
that there is still work
to be done tomorrow we
go home, wash
tear gas out
of our hair
clean our wounds
each other’s wounds
we remind each other:
love yourself
& build
for tomorrow.
How far will these connections resonate with the broader Occupy Together movement? Blumenthal ends:
Some Occupy Wall Street activists have argued that Palestine must remain segregated from the movement’s agenda. It is a distraction from the essential economic issues that drive the protests, they say, and turns the majority of Americans off. But the issue is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid now that the protesters are confronted with the very same weapons Israel uses to crush unarmed Palestinian resistance.
Next poster.
We’re all Palestines now.
Of course the Oakland Police are using the same weapons that Max saw in Israel: the Israeli security companies (extra-judicial and foreign; therefore international) have infiltrated local law enforcement.
Jeff Halper spilled the beans on this a year ago.
EDIT: Thanks, Max.
So remind me how nothing about these protests in the US are analogous to the protests on the West Bank? Right.
If there were serious doubts about that, there aren’t anymore. Now it isn’t merely politically synergistic for American protesters to consult Palestinian protesters, it’s become an urgent necessity.
After all, several police departments in the US are training with Israeli agencies, post 9/11. Remember?
The corruption deepens.
Couldn’t agree more. A comment yesterday on another site: This is what US taxpayers pay Israel to do to the Palestinians who have the audacity to protest their ethnic cleansing and occupation with the US providing any and all the ammunition necessary to exterminate the Palestinians. Welcome to the real world.
The Diane Rehm show focusing on the OWS protest this morning. Send in your questions, comments etc. Email, call, facebook, twitter
drshow@wamu.org
1-800-433-8850
Be polite with the screener. Stay on topic. Be clear and polite if you get on. Let them know you may be a first time caller they really like first time callers
A new Washington Post-Pew Research Center poll has revealed that more people support the Occupy Wall Street movement than the Tea Party. The spark for the movement came from “Adbusters” – an anti-consumerism magazine based in Vancouver. It proposed an “occupation” of Wall Street on September 17, 2011. The idea caught fire. Since the first protest, “occupy” movements have sprung up in across the country from Seattle to El Paso,Texas. The movement has been accused of being a “mob” and a front for special interests. But progressive politicians are increasingly trying to harness the movement’s support. Join us to discuss the appeal of the movement and its impact on American politics.
Guests
Jim Tankersley reporter, National Journal
Ken Vogel chief investigative reporter, POLITICO
Jonathan Smucker volunteer, Occupy Wall Street
Michele Pendergast volunteer, Occupy San Francisco
Joshua volunteer, Occupy Chicago
Corryn Freeman volunteer, Occupy DC/K Street