Land, Property, Resources Theft & Destruction / Ethnic Cleansing / Apartheid / Restriction of Movement
Seventy-one people, including 35 children, have been left homeless after the Israeli administration demolished five homes in the Khan al-Amar area north east of East Jerusalem on Monday. Fifteen army jeeps and one bulldozer arrived in Khan al-Amar early in the morning to demolish the homes, and had completed their task within a couple of hours.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10830&Itemid=64
The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) served five demolition notices to Palestinian families in Silwan town in occupied Jerusalem on Tuesday, local sources said.
Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees: 3.5 Olive Trees Destroyed Per Hour in 2011
The Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC) released its monthly report on Monday, revealing that about three and half olive trees were destroyed per hour during the 2011 season. The report includes all 51 attacks on olive trees in 37 West Bank villages between October 1st and 31st, which resulted in around 546,000 NIS ($156,000) in damages. The attacks affected 53% of farmers in Nablus, 16% in Salfit, 11% in Tulkarm, 5.5% each in Ramallah and Bethlehem, 3.5% each in Jenin and Hebron, and 2.2% of farmers in Qalqiliya.
Setters Burn a Tractor in Nablus
On Wednesday, a number of Israeli settlers set fire to a tractor belonging to a Palestinian farmer, after trying to attack him in the neighbourhood of ‘Arqabam, in the southern part of the West Bank city of Nablus, the Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported.
Faiez: the story of a Palestinian farmer
The first time I went to Turkalem, in the northeast of the West Bank, I did not know much about the situation there. I basically knew that it was mainly an agricultural region. In Turkalem I met Faize Taneeb, an organic farmer, which already makes his story intresting, but the conditions he has to wrok his land, are the ones that make his case a special one.
Palestinian medical sources reported on Wednesday evening that a Palestinian man was killed by an electric shock while working inside a siege-busting tunnel on the border with Egypt, in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
Egypt ‘will not allow’ new war on Gaza
EL-ARISH, Egypt (Ma’an) — Egyptian security officials have expressed concerns after recent violence in Gaza despite Cairo’s efforts to secure a truce between Israel and Palestinian factions. Security officials said Wednesday that Egypt “will not allow” a renewed Israeli operation against Gaza, in light of changes since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, seen as supportive of Israel.
Gaza: Women die waiting – an appeal
(MELBOURNE, Aust.) - Editor’s Note: We often get requests from people wanting to help the Palestinians. It is always difficult to know just what to suggest because there is so much need as a result of the oppressive political situation in which they live. It is true that unless Israel lifts the siege on Gaza, ends the military occupation and stops discriminating against its own Palestinian citizens, the situation for Palestinians will continue to deteriorate.
History of Israeli blockade on Gaza
Israel has cleverly fine-tuned the siege, hurting Gazans but not letting the situation there reach crisis levels.
Palestinian Couple Marry after 18 Years of Groom’s Captivity
Former Palestinian prisoner and now groom, Taher Qubha claps as he is escorted by his male friends and family members to meet his bride on their wedding day in Gaza City on 28 October 2011.
The Israeli army kidnapped five Palestinian residents from the Refugee Camp of al-’Ein, near the West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday. All were transferred to an undisclosed location, the Palestinian news agency, Ma’an reported.
IOA detains seven Jerusalemites including three minors
The Israeli occupation authority has arrested seven Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem over the past few days including three minors.
Resheq: The issue of the 9 female captives is on its way to be solved
Ezat al-Resheq, a leading Hamas official, said that the issue of the nine remaining female captives in occupation jails is on its way to be solved.
Hamas movement strongly condemned the Israeli occupation for detaining MP Hassan Yusuf and 13 other Palestinian citizens on Tuesday.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7OTCgUtxHQ9196BaqF7TPFr0ovmSGNRsExzhbNVEu%2f%2fON8Vr123%2fI4XEAxEZzOX1HNBzsKr8KbpVz4rAu1dYzf0kh49CBVkon4K7XWVuyg90%3d
Exclusive: Gaza-Bound “Freedom Waves” Flotilla Sets Sail from an Eastern Mediterranean Port
At the end of our live broadcast today, Democracy Now! received breaking news from a source aboard “The Tahrir,” a ship involved in the “Freedom Waves to Gaza” flotilla. Without any public notice, the ship left from an undisclosed port in the eastern Mediterranean Sea earlier today which the participants say is bound for the Gaza Strip. The “Freedom Waves to Gaza” flotilla marks the latest attempt by international activists to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. Earlier this year, Greece blocked the departure of several ships from another flotilla heading to the region. In 2010, Israeli forces killed nine activists, including a U.S. citizen, on an aid boat called the “Mavi Marmara,” which was part of the first such international flotilla. Additional information on the “Freedom Waves” flotilla will be posted on our website, www.democracynow.org, once received.
Two boats, called “Freedom Waves to Gaza,” are now traveling on the high seas to the besieged Gaza Strip. Their civilian passengers include people from five countries, including Palestinians from 1948. This is another non-violent attempt to break Israel’s siege, an illegal policy that has forced Gaza’s Palestinian residents into subsistence on international aid and subjected them to severe travel restrictions to and from the territory.
VIDEO: Voices from the Secret International Flotilla Now Sailing to Gaza
The Canadian ship Tahrir and the Irish ship Saoirse quietly left a Turkish port earlier today bound for the Gaza Strip. The mission of the “Freedom Waves to Gaza” flotilla was kept secret until they reached international waters just after 11:00 a.m. EDT. Democracy Now! first broke the news on our live broadcast this morning. Embedded on the Tahrir is Democracy Now! correspondent Jihan Hafiz. Prior to the ship setting sail, Hafiz spoke with three of the flotilla participants on board the Tahrir ship: David Heap of the University of Western Ontario; Kit Kittredge of Code Pink; and Michael Coleman, an Australian activist.
Palestinian Youth Demand U.N. Action
On 1 November 2011, two boats carrying 24 civilians from various countries, including a representative from our youth movement, set sail for Gaza. Conscious of the violent tactics that Israel has used to intercept previous boats to Gaza, including the 31 May 2010 military assault on the Freedom Flotilla, which resulted in the death of nine volunteers and the injury of over 50, we call on the United Nations to take urgent action to protect this mission as well as to end its compliance with Israel’s criminal blockade of Gaza. Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, has been returned to his family, removing one of Israel’s main pretexts, albeit not a justification, for its Draconian closure policy. And while 1027 Palestinian prisoners have been exchanged for Shalit (although 550 have yet to be released), over 1.5 million Palestinians remain caged in the prison that is Gaza.
Here in Gaza, people — especially the youth — are really excited about the new flotilla on its way from Turkey. “I can’t wait to receive my brothers and sisters who share our suffering and who also experience Israel’s apartheid policies and aggression,” said 19-year-old Al-Azher University student Hussien Amody, upon hearing news that a Palestinian from Haifa was on board yesterday evening. Hussein subsequently stayed up all night making signs and posters for today’s march in Gaza demanding that the United the Nations and the international community protect the two small boats.
Reuters – The Israeli navy will prevent two yachts carrying pro-Palestinian activists which left Turkey on Wednesday from breaching an Israeli blockade and reaching the Gaza Strip, an Israeli military official said.
On Wednesday, November 2, two international ships left the Turkish harbor to carry humanitarian aid through the Israeli blockade of Gaza. The event, called ‘Freedom Waves for Gaza’, unites 27 activists from 9 countries, including America, Canada, Denmark, Belgium, Germany and Australia, alongside Palestinians from Bethlehem and Haifa, in a broad-based international movement to break Israel’s illegal and immoral suffocation of the 1.6 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip. The Irish yacht Saoirse (Freedom), which carries 15 activists, and the Canadian boat Tahrir (Liberation), which holds 12, will attempt to carry $30,000 in medical supplies beyond the Israeli blockade later this week. ‘Freedom Waves for Gaza’ is the 11th attempt by international activists to deliver humanitarian aid through the Israeli blockade of Gaza since 2008.
International Activists Support Olive Harvest in Surif
Students protest Israeli spokesperson at Wayne State University, Adam Horowitz
Turkish PM Erdogan: Why No UN Sanctions for Israel?, Eric Walberg
The Boycott, Divests and Sanctions (BDS) movement is growing relentless. On the boycott front, Natacha Atlas, who won a 2007 BBC Music award for her fusion of Arabic and Western styles, cancelled a planned concert in Israel: “I had an idea that performing in Israel would have been a unique opportunity to encourage and support my fans’ opposition to the current government’s actions and policies, but after much deliberation I now see that it would be more effective a statement to not go to Israel until this systemised apartheid is abolished once and for all.”
BDS: Israel’s Exceptionalism: Normalizing the Abnormal
“In the Palestinian and Arab struggle against Israeli colonization, occupation and apartheid, the “normalization” of Israel is a concept that has generated controversy because it is often misunderstood or because there are disagreements on its parameters. This is despite the near consensus among Palestinians and people in the Arab region on rejecting the treatment of Israel as a “normal” state with which business as usual can be conducted. Here, we discuss the definition of normalization that the great majority of Palestinian civil society, as represented in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, has adopted since November 2007, and elaborate on the nuances that it takes on in different contexts.
Palestinian Literary Café Organizes Evening of “Mahmoud Darwish, the Poet of Palestine”
On Wednesday, the al-Bireh municipal library hosted the fifth gathering of the Palestinian Literary Café for an evening of poetry titled “Mahmoud Darwish, the Poet of Palestine.” Palestinian poets old and young, as well as intellectuals and poetry lovers, gathered from around the country to honor the poet an author, who died in 2008.
Israel withholds Palestinian tax revenues
Palestinians say they are outraged by the Israeli government’s decision to withhold millions of dollars of tax revenues from them while accelerating settlement construction. The decision follows Palestine being recognised as a state by UNESCO – the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. There are now 150,000 Palestinian Authority employees across the West Bank and Gaza who do not know whether they will receive their full salaries next week. Al Jazeera’s Nicole Johnston reports from Jerusalem, Occupied West Bank.
Israeli sources reported that the Israeli Ambassador to Egypt will be returning to his office in the near future, with Israeli officials arriving in Cairo Wednesday to hold meetings with Egyptian officials.
Hamas: “Balfour Declaration, An Illegal, Unjust Declaration Made By An Occupying Power”
Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, stated on Wednesday, November 2nd, that marks the 94th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, in which Britain, the occupier of Palestine at the time, promised Palestine as a National Homeland to the Jewish People, is an illegal and unjust declaration that violated the basic rights to existence of the Palestinian people in their homeland.
Reuters – The Palestinians’ success in joining UNESCO and Israel’s immediate retaliation has two main casualties: the peace process and the Obama administration.
Reuters – Israel’s tough responses to a successful Palestinian bid to join UNESCO — financial sanctions and a faster settlement drive in the occupied West Bank — are unlikely to halt a Palestinian quest for recognition as a state at the United Nations.
Obama asks Bosnia not to support Palestinian bid (AP)
AP – Officials say President Barack Obama has urged Bosnia not to support the Palestinian bid for statehood at the U.N. Security Council.
UN’s Ban: Palestinians should defer agency bids (AP)
AP – Palestinian efforts to join U.N. agencies beyond its cultural arm is “not beneficial for anybody” and will lead to cuts in funding sure to affect millions of people, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon warned Thursday.
Israel PM orders UNESCO funding halt
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday ordered a halt to Israel’s financial contributions to UNESCO after the UN cultural organisation granted the Palestinians full membership. Netanyahu “ordered that Israel’s $2 million-per-annum participation in the budget of UNESCO be frozen, following the organisation’s decision to accept the Palestinian Authority into its ranks,” the premier’s office said. “The prime minister ordered that the budget be directed to cooperative initiatives towards the same goals in the region.”
Canada cuts funding for UNESCO (AP)
AP – Canada is joining the U.S. in cutting off funding for the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO because it approved a Palestinian bid for full membership.
The US withdrew funding after UNESCO’s Palestine vote yesterday. There’s no reason that Palestinians won’t be able to muster the votes for recognition in other UN agencies like the International Atomic Energy Agency.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/world/~3/O88LwZUzOVw/After-UNESCO-Palestine-vote-could-US-defund-nuclear-watchdog-IAEA-too
Israeli Air Force Conducts Manoeuvres In Italy
Last week, the Israeli Air Force conducted aerial manoeuvres at an Italian NATO military base, in which fourteen sophisticated Israeli F-16 Fighting Falcons and mid-air refuelling Boeing jets, conducted various air drills, the Maan News Agency reported.
Israel is three places lower than it was last year, ranking behind such states as Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan and Namibia.
What they won’t do for Gazans: Israel Air Force to improve guard dogs’ living conditions after welfare campaign
Air force been using dogs to guard bases for many years, these dogs are mostly kept in small doghouses, tied to a short cable near the base’s perimeter fence.
Attackers strike Iraq Sunni militia, six killed (Reuters)
Reuters – Two bombs exploded as members of a government-backed Sunni militia gathered to collect their pay in the Iraqi city of Baquba on Thursday, killing six people and wounding dozens, security and health officials said.
At least 16 Iraqis were killed and 64 more were wounded today, most of them during a rare bombing in Basra.
CAIRO (AP) The Arab League says Syria has accepted an Arab League proposal to ease the country’s 7-month-old political crisis.
The proposal calls on Syria to withdraw all tanks and armored vehicles from the streets, stop violence against protesters, release all political prisoners and begin a dialogue with the opposition within two weeks. Syria also agreed to allow journalists, rights groups and Arab League representatives to monitor the situation in Syria.
Soldiers who have defected to the opposition have killed 15 security personnel in Homs, activists say, as Syria agrees a plan to end the violence.
‘Attack on Iran would ignite regional conflict’
Former adviser to US administration says Israeli strike on Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities could mean a disaster for both Jerusalem, Washington; spark regional war ‘from Gaza to Afghanistan’.
Haaretz poll: 80% of Israelis believe Iran strike will lead to war with Hamas, Hezbollah
According to a Haaretz-Dialog poll, 59% of respondents say Iran attack would likely cause a regional war, while 20% believe that the probability of war is unlikely or entirely improbable.
Barak supports military strike on Iran, Ya’alon favors U.S. intervention.
US House Committee Okays Sweeping Sanctions on Iran, Jim Lobe
Amid growing tensions in the Middle East, including speculation about a possible Israeli attack on Iran, a key U.S. congressional committee Wednesday approved two bills that would impose sweeping new economic and diplomatic sanctions against Tehran.’
There is a strong speculation that Israel is bound to mount an attack on Iranian nuclear sites, a threat which the Zionist regime has frequently repeated and an idea which, if translated into action, will bring about apocalyptic consequences for the Zionist entity. Reportedly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently sought to drum up cabinet support for a military strike against the nuclear sites of the Islamic republic of Iran. In joint efforts with the defense minister Ehud Barak, Netanyahu has succeeded in wringing support for such a reckless act from the skeptics who were already opposed to launching an attack on Iran. Among those he managed to convince was Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
Prisoner Exchange Exposes Palestinian Authority
Palestinians from the Gaza Strip celebrate the release of hundreds of prisoners following a swap with captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit on 18 October 2011 in Gaza City. Crowds of Palestinians, many of them overwhelmed and in tears, welcomed home hundreds of freed detainees in the West Bank and Gaza, under a landmark prisoner exchange deal with Israel.
Ramallah — Over the years, many have called for the disbandment of the Palestinian Authority (PA), whose legitimacy and sovereignty can be revoked at any time by the Israeli state. This arrangement grants Israel amnesty from the responsibility of managing the daily life and welfare of Palestinians.
The discourse is changing. Here is yesterday’s daily press briefing at the State Department– and once again you see a group of reporters emboldened to ridicule the Obama administration’s position on Palestinian rights. Notice the scorn for the Obama administration for doing nothing in response to Israeli settlement expansion. Notice the frank references to the Israel lobby in an election season. Notice the description of American “impotence” in its failure to play any role in the conflict. Emphases mine. (Michael Wolff made a name for himself by taking on the gov’t spokesperson during an Iraq war press conference; will these renegade questions resonate?).
Defunding UNESCO for the 1 percent
Putting Israeli interests ahead of American interests begins to backfire. We’ve been hearing a lot lately about the 1 percent — the rich, the powerful, the ones who buy off our government, impose their wars, avoid paying their taxes, you know the ones. The 99 percent — the rest of us – are the ones who pay the price.
The author of the Gaza War report erroneously argues that Israel does not practice apartheid.
Paging Judge Goldstone . . . From the Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa: The HSRC commissioned an international team of scholars and practitioners of international public law from South Africa, the United Kingdom, Israel and the West Bank to conduct the study. The resulting 300-page draft, titled Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid?: A re-assessment of Israel’s practices in the occupied Palestinian territories under international law, represents 15 months of research and constitutes an exhaustive review of Israel’s practices in the OPT according to definitions of colonialism and apartheid provided by international law. The project was suggested originally by the January 2007 report by eminent South African jurist John Dugard, in his capacity as Special Rapporteur to the United Nations Human Rights Council, when he indicated that Israel practices had assumed characteristics of colonialism and apartheid . . .
Julie Holm – MIFTAH – I found it very interesting to see that just as many men showed up for the screening as women, given that it is a women’s film festival being shown in a predominantly male-oriented society. That did not seem to put off the male students at Birzeit however, many of whom also took the opportunity to participate in the discussions about gender roles and gender divided labor.
Shafiq al-Hout memoirs provide warts-and-all history of PLO, Asa Winstanley
My Life in the PLO: The Inside Story of the Palestinian Struggle, the memoirs of the late Shafiq al-Hout, is historically sweeping, politically critical and fascinating throughout.
The principal reason so little attention is paid to the constant victims of American violence in the Muslim world is because the U.S. Government refuses to disclose anything about these attacks and media outlets virtually never report on those victims (MSNBC demoted and then firedits then-rising-star Ashleigh Banfield when she returned from Iraq and pointed out that fact in an April, 2003 speech denouncing the “one-sided” coverage of American wars: meaning, the invisibility in U.S. media of America’s civilian victims). It’s easy to cheer for a leader who regularly extinguishes the lives of innocent men, women, teeangers and young children when you can remain blissfully free of hearing about the victims. It’s even easier when the victims all have Muslim-ish names and live in the parts of the Muslim world we’ve been taught to view as a cauldron of sub-human demons.
Occupy Oakland Protesters Force Halt To Operations At Busy Port [LATEST UPDATES]
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Several thousand Occupy Wall Street demonstrators gathering in Oakland forced a halt to operations at the nation’s fifth busiest port Wednesday evening, escalating a movement whose tactics had largely been limited to marches, rallies and tent encampments since it began in September.
Oakland activists step up ‘Occupy’ protest
Protesters in Oakland, California are planning to try and shut down the city’s port – the fifth-busiest shipping container port in the United States, in what they are calling a general strike on Wednesday. The protesters are part of the ‘Occupy’ movement sweeping the world in which people are rallying to stop, amongst other things, corporate greed. Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds reports from Oakland.
Protesters in Oakland, California, are launching a citywide general strike today that will include an attempt to shut down the nation’s fifth-busiest shipping port. The strike is expected to draw thousands of people to downtown Oakland, many responding to police attacks last week on nonviolent protesters with Occupy Oakland, including two-time Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen. During the strike, protesters intend to picket banks, businesses, schools, libraries, and any employers who try to reprimand striking workers. “What this general strike is all about is this: this is a call to working people, not only throughout the United States, but throughout the world, to retract their labor. The only time that working people can gain the attention of the bosses or the ruling class is when we withhold our labor,” says Clarence Thomas of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10. “This is a fight-back moment.” We also speak with Boots Riley of the hip-hop group The Coup. “This general strike puts some teeth to the slogan that ‘We are the 99 percent.’ It’s not only that we are the 99 percent and that they are the one percent; it’s that the one percent gets all of their wealth by exploiting the 99 percent,” Boots Riley says. “And we want to show people that they can take it back if they want to.” Meanwhile, in New York City, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War are planning to march in their military fatigues from Vietnam Veterans Plaza to Zuccotti Park, the heart of the Occupy Wall Street movement. “It’s clear that veterans are part of the 99 percent. Veterans, when they leave the military, are much more likely to face unemployment and homelessness,” says Jose Vasquez of Iraq Veterans Against the War. “Many people are forced to reenlist because they’re facing a tough economic situation.” Vasquez says they are encouraging veterans across the country to join their local Occupy protests.
Many businesses in downtown Oakland are closed during today’s Occupy Oakland general strike, whether in support of the movement or in preparation for the mass of protesters marching through the streets.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/02/BAGQ1LPK4G.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea
Iraq War vet: Scott Olsen injury created ‘collective rage’ among veterans
Iraq War veteran Joshua Shepherd, a friend of the veteran injured by police at an “Occupy Oakland” protest, appeared Wednesday night on Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Olsen, a two-time Iraq war veteran and member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, sustained a skull fracture in late October after being struck in the head by a teargas canister and has been rendered unable to speak. Shepherd told Olbermann the incident created a sense of “collective rage” among veterans. About 100 veterans marched from New York City’s Vietnam Veterans Plaza to the “Occupy Wall Street” protest in Zuccotti Park on Wednesday to show support for Olsen.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/02/occupy-oakland-strike_n_1072768.html
WASHINGTON — Occupy DC protesters marched from their camp in McPherson Square to the Department of Justice headquarters on Wednesday afternoon to show support not just for their Occupy comrades in Oakland, Calif., where police have clashed with protesters, but for others in a dozen different U.S. cities.
UPDATE: Police Arrest Nine Occupy Coachella Valley Protesters
Nine Occupy Coachella Valley protesters — including a 17-year-old girl and an Iraq War veteran — camped out at Palm Desert’s Civic Center Park were arrested early Tuesday morning during a police crackdown. More than two dozen Palm Desert police officers descended out of the darkness and onto the group, which has been illegally camped out at the park since Friday night when the city of Palm Desert refused to issue another permit.
‘Occupy London’ protesters allowed to stay until 2012: lawyer
LONDON — Anti-capitalist protesters camped outside London’s St Paul’s Cathedral will be allowed to remain until at least the New Year, a lawyer for the group said after a meeting city authorities Wednesday. Lawyer John Cooper, who has advised the Occupy London Stock Exchange (OLSX) group since the first day of their protest, revealed on micro-blogging website Twitter that city authorities had offered his clients a “deal to stay until New Year.” The lawyer said he would be advising OLSX while they considered the offer.
LONDON (RNS) Authorities at London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral have decided to suspend legal action against scores of anti-corporate protesters who have occupied tents on the church’s doorstep for more than two weeks.
Parents For Occupy Wall Street
It started simply enough. Dana Glazer and I (Dana is the documentary filmmaker of The Evolution of Dad) were playing email-tag, trying to find a day to have lunch, when he wrote: ”Do you think there’s a parenting angle to the protests currently going on at Wall Street? I’m itching to go down there with a camera but was thinking that maybe there’s a mom / dad angle to this? What do you think?”
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sympathized with the “Occupy Wall Street” movement’s dissatisfaction with economic inequality at a press conference Wednesday, but said protesters should not blame the Fed for bailing out the banks. Bernanke responded to a question about “Occupy Wall Street” by saying that he was dissatisfied with the state of the economy as well, particularly with the high unemployment and income inequality.
Mayor Bloomberg: ‘Occupy Wall Street’ anger is misplaced
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg repeated a common Republican talking point on Tuesday, claiming the “Occupy Wall Street” protesters should be upset with the government rather than with Wall Street. “I hear your complaints,” he said at an Association for a Better New York breakfast meeting. “Some of them are totally unfounded. It was not the banks that created the mortgage crisis. It was, plain and simple, Congress, who forced everybody to go and give mortgages to people who were on the cusp. Now, I’m not so sure that was terrible policy, because a lot of those people who got homes still have them and they wouldn’t have had them without that.”
Oakland’s Second General Strike, PETER COLE
On November 2nd workers, students, and others in Oakland, California will join in the first general strike our nation has seen this century. Partially to protest recent police brutality, really this action dramatic expands the largest social movement this nation has seen for decades, Occupy Wall Street (OWS). General strikes are so rare in US History they demand defining: a mass strike across an entire city, rather than workers striking a particular employer. In a shocking parallel, the nation’s last General Strike occurred in 1946 when more than 100,000 workers struck in, yes, Oakland.
What the Cops Really Did in Oakland, DENNIS BERNSTEIN
In a heavily armed pre-dawn raid, on Tuesday, Oct. 25, with back up from armored vehicles and helicopters, the Oakland Police Department in conjunction, with over 15 other police departments from Northern and Central California, stormed the sleepy Occupy Oakland Encampment. Asleep inside tents of the makeshift Occupy encampment, were over a hundred men, women and very young children. The heavily armed police force, dressed in black ninja-like outfits, and special forces helmets, with full face-shields down, and armed with and assortment of latest riot gear, fired tear gas canisters and concussion grenades into the camp, as helicopters circled above.
Lessons From Oaxaca to the Occupy Movement, Reid Mukai
On a sunny late September day in the dry hills of the Mixteca Alta region of Oaxaca State, twelve visiting food activists, including myself, plus two interpreters are in a small mud-walled hut meeting with Eleazar Garcia and Phil Dahl-Bredine of the Center for Integral Campesino Development of the Mixteca (CEDICAM). We are in CEDICAM’s Milpa Museum, which despite its humble size, is packed with an impressive array of information and artifacts utilized by Eleazar and Phil to guide our group on a tour through the history of the region and CEDICAM’s efforts to restore the land and culture.
What about the second batch of prisoners?
Sounds like Guantanamo.
I wish i could criticize those Israeli doctors.
But doctors are always nice people.
Why would anyone say anything negative about Israeli doctors or the doctors that found Bin-Laden?
They were just doing their job/following orders…..
I do not want to be accused of being anti-doctor.
I guess them are racist doctors who take their hypocritical oath seriously.
Doctors with Borders, I’m sure is the name of their (stolen) country club.
Also:
Palestinian efforts to join U.N. agencies beyond its cultural arm is “not beneficial for anybody….”, said BanKiMoon.
Taxi says back: STFU you unpleasant oaf! But before you do that, why don’t you tell us who and how much they paid you to make such a despicable racist statement like just right now?! Why not complain for instance about the minority of loser racist countries who ARE WITHHOLDING PROMISED FUNDS from your burdened agency?!
Good grief why is our world so overpopulated with sadists and morons?!
Israeli doctors ‘failing to report torture of Palestinian detainees’
Oh, what a surprise. Not. Nearly all Israelis have an amazing ability, a selective blindness which enables them to not see what is right in front of their noses: torture, criminal dispossession and violence against the people they have impoverished and made homeless. Strangely, however, they have an uncanny ability to project fantasies of violence against themselves and attack others on this imaginary, spurious basis.