Sápmi: roadblocks against Swedish mining plans

Roadblocks and other protests are going in the part of Sápmi (Lapland) under Swedish control, against the project by Beowulf Mining and the Swedish state to develop new mines in Sami land. At least six people have already been arrested.

They make a call for help because the police are employing themselves in full force with the goal of allowing the miner corporation to begin mining in five days.

They are also standing as human shields in the security perimeter so no explosives can be used (legally at least).

Reference in Swedish language: http://kolonierna.wordpress.com/

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

I don't know you but I can't help thinking in the movies of Pippi Langstrup and the two pathetic cops Kling and Klang. I just hope that reality for once gets close to fiction.

California prisoners suspend hunger strike after almost two months

Yesterday Pelican Bay State Prison inmates announced that they have suspended their hunger strike, lasting for nine weeks. They warn however that the struggle is far from over. 

Greetings of Solidarity and Respect!

The PBSP-SHU, Short Corridor Collective Representatives hereby serve notice upon all concerned parties of interest that after nine weeks we have collectively decided to suspend our third hunger strike action on September 5, 2013.

To be clear, our Peaceful Protest of Resistance to our continuous subjection to decades of systemic state sanctioned torture via the system’s solitary confinement units is far from over. Our decision to suspend our third hunger strike in two years does not come lightly. This decision is especially difficult considering that most of our demands have not been met (despite nearly universal agreement that they are reasonable). The core group of prisoners has been, and remains 100% committed to seeing this protracted struggle for real reform through to a complete victory, even if it requires us to make the ultimate sacrifice.  With that said, we clarify this point by stating prisoner deaths are not the objective, we recognize such sacrifice is at times the only means to an end of fascist oppression.

Our goal remains: force the powers that be to end their torture policies and practices in which serious physical and psychological harm is inflicted on tens of thousands of prisoners as well as our loved ones outside.  We also call for ending the related practices of using prisoners to promote the agenda of the police state by seeking to greatly expand the numbers of the working class poor warehoused in prisons, and particularly those of us held in solitary, based on psychological/social manipulation, and divisive tactics keeping prisoners fighting amongst each other. Those in power promote mass warehousing to justify more guards, more tax dollars for “security”, and spend mere pennies for rehabilitation — all of which demonstrates a failed penal system, high recidivism, and ultimately compromising public safety.  The State of California’s $9.1 billion annual CDCR budget is the epitome of a failed and fraudulent state agency that diabolically and systemically deprives thousands of their human rights and dignity. Allowing this agency to act with impunity has to stop! And it will.

With that said, and in response to much sincere urging of loved ones, supporters, our attorneys and current and former state legislators, Tom Ammiano, Loni Hancock, and Tom Hayden, for whom we have the upmost respect, we decided to suspend our hunger strike.  We are especially grateful to Senator Hancock and Assembly Member Ammiano for their courageous decision to challenge Governor Brown and the CDCR for their policies of prolonged solitary confinement and inhumane conditions. We are certain that they will continue their fight for our cause, including holding legislative hearings and the drafting legislation responsive to our demands on prison conditions and sentencing laws. We are also proceeding with our class action civil suit against the CDCR.

The fact is that Governor Brown and CDCR Secretary Beard have responded to our third peaceful action with typical denials and falsehoods, claiming solitary confinement does not exist and justifying the continuation of their indefinite torture regime by vilifying the peaceful protest representatives. They also obtained the support of the medical receiver (Kelso) and Prison Law Office attorney (Spector—who is supposed to represent prisoners interests, and instead has become an agent for the state) to perpetuate their lie to the public and to the federal court — that prisoners participating in the hunger strike have been coerced — in order to obtain the August 19, 2013 force feeding order.

We have deemed it to be in the best interest of our cause to suspend our hunger strike action until further notice.

We urge people to remember that we began our present resistance with our unprecedented collective and peaceful actions (in tandem with the legislative process) back in early 2010, when we created and distributed a “Formal Complaint” for the purpose of educating the public and bringing widespread attention to our torturous conditions.

After much dialogue and consideration, this led us to our first and second hunger strike actions in 2011, during which a combined number of 6,500 and 12,000 prisoners participated. We succeeded in gaining worldwide attention and support resulting in some minor changes by the CDCR concerning SHU programming and privileges. They also claimed to make major changes to policies regarding gang validation and indefinite SHU confinement by creating the STG/SDP Pilot Program. They released a few hundred prisoners from SHU/AD SEG to general population in the prison.  But in truth, this is all part of a sham to claim the pilot program works and was a weak attempt to have our class action dismissed. It didn’t work.

In response we respectfully made clear that CDCR’s STG-SDP was not responsive to our demand for the end to long term isolation and solitary confinement and thus unacceptable.  (See: AGREEMENT TO END HOSTILITIES)

Our supporting points fell on deaf ears, leading to our January 2013 notice of intent to resume our hunger strike on July 8, 2013 if our demands were not met.  We also included Forty Supplemental Demands.

In early July, CDCR produced several memos notifying prisoners of an increase in privileges and property items, which are notably responsive to a few of our demands, while the majority of our demands were unresolved, leading to our third hunger strike, in which 30,000 prisoners participated and resulted in greater worldwide exposure, support and condemnation of the CDCR!

From our perspective, we’ve gained a lot of positive ground towards achieving our goals.  However, there’s still much to be done.  Our resistance will continue to build and grow until we have won our human rights.

Respectfully,

For the Prisoner Class Human Rights Movement
Todd Ashker, C58191, D1-119
Arturo Castellanos, C17275, D1-121
Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa (Dewberry), C35671, D1-117
Antonio Guillen, P81948, D2-106

And the Representatives Body:
Danny Troxell, B76578, D1-120
George Franco, D46556, D4-217
Ronnie Yandell, V27927, D4-215
Paul Redd, B72683, D2-117
James Baridi Williamson, D-34288. D4-107
Alfred Sandoval, D61000, D4-214
Louis Powell, B59864, D1-104
Alex Yrigollen, H32421, D2-204
Gabriel Huerta, C80766, D3-222
Frank Clement, D07919, D3-116
Raymond Chavo Perez, K12922, D1-219
James Mario Perez, B48186, D3-124

Source: Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity (see also Electronic Intifada, which compares the inhumane situation in Palestine's prisons with that of California).

England: at least 22 antimilitarists arrested in nonviolent action against nuclear warheads

Antimilitarist activists chained themselves in blockade of the roads leading to AWE Burghfield (nuclear weapons factory near Reading). At least 22 were arrested.

The protesters want to denounce the renewal of the British nuclear arsenal (Trident missiles, mounted on submarines), whose cost to the British taxpayer is of some 100 billion pounds. 

The protest was coordinated by Action AWE and Trident Ploughshares, with the support of the European Antimilitarist Network. This last meant that many of the arrested had passports from states such as Finland, Belgium, Spain, Japan or Argentina.

There was division of labor for the action: the main road was cut by the hardened activists of the Conscientous Objection Movement (MOC), from the Spanish State, which in the past carried on the largest ever civil disobedience campaign in Europe. At least four were arrested. 

The NW construction gate was blockaded by the Belgians, while the southern gate was blocked by the Scots.

Veteran activist of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Pat Arrowsmith, 83, was present and sent a message for the elimination of nuclear weapons, against which she has fought all her life, since 1958. Rebecca Johnson, who helped to create the Greenhan Commons antimilitarist camp in the 1980s was also present. 

A Disarmament Camp has been held for a whole week near AWE Burghfeld. 

A photo-gallery is available here, videos here.

Sources: Action AWE (link 1, link 2), Insumissia[es], Webguerrillero[es].

Note: for those who are not familiar, the use of PVC pipes is meant to delay the dismantling of the human chain, which would otherwise be fairly easy. The activists risk their fingers or even hands by doing that.

Fascist USA: police violently arrest peaceful anti-war activist for no reason and keep her incommunicado

Emily Yates, a member of Iraq Veterans Against War, cried "this is a police state" as she was arrested and she could not be more correct. That's exactly how a police state looks like: you are arbitrarily and violently arrested for no reason whatsoever and you are kept incommunicado afterwards.

They call it "democracy" but it is not.

Video of the arrest:

According to the Emily Yates Defense Fund, which is raising money for her legal defense, she has not been allowed any communication with the outside world since she was arrested. 

In fact we do not know even if she is alive at all, as the last we can watch in the video is how police agents choke her.

The incident happened in Philadelphia. 

Sources: The Raw Story, Webguerrillero[es].

Ukraine: FEMEN activists go to exile under threat of prosecution

The founders of the feminist and radical direct action organization FEMEN, Alexandra Shevchenko, Yana Zhdanova and Anna Gutsol, announced that they had to leave their country, Ukraine, after they were threatened with political trial. 

A police raid "found" in the offices of FEMEN in Kiev "objects resembling a gun and a grenade". The organization denounces they were placed by police themselves.

The pro-Russian regime of Viktor Yanukovic is known for using political trials and other more violent means against dissidents, much as it happens in Russia.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

USA: nonviolent resistance against immigrant deportations

Hundreds of activists of the Arizona Dream Act Coalition and United We Dream surrounded deportation facilities in the state capital Phoenix. Six activists sat before the deportation bus for hours until the expulsion was halted. 

The authorities arrested two, paperless Mexican-American José Patiño and UWD leader Ray José. After a long night of uninterrupted phone calls from the citizenry they were both released.

Patiño stated upon his liberation:

I am doing this because I am so fed up with people playing games with our lives," said Ray Jose. "My mom and my dad are getting tired. My dad cannot do physical labor any more. It is for the sake of my family, who sacrificed so much for me, that I am ready to do this".

Hours earlier four other DREAM activists were arrested after chaining themselves to the ICE complex. They are Yadira García, Francisco Luna, María Castro and Alejandra Sánchez. 

The essential content of these protests is anti-apartheid:

We cannot accept any legislative proposal that would amplify the pain our communities have been subjected to for decades while blocking our families from a path to citizenship," said Cristina Jiménez, Managing Director of United We Dream. "Terrorizing our communities or creating a permanent underclass is un-American and unacceptable".

The civil disobedience organizations describe themselves as follows:

The Arizona Dream Act Coalition is the largest immigrant youth led organization in the state of Arizona. Our mission is to have a nation full of educated and integrated immigrant youth. We are an affiliate of the United We Dream Network.

United We Dream is the first and largest immigrant youth-led network in the nation with 51 affiliate organizations in 25 states that organize and advocate for the dignity and fair treatment of immigrant youth and families, regardless of immigration status. UWD's current priority is to win citizenship for the entire undocumented community and end senseless abuses and deportations.

Source: Kasama.

Palestine struggle this week

As per Ilan Against the Wall:

Palestine-Israel, The History wheels turn faster and scream as the blood is not oiling enough the axes*

The turmoil in our region express the melting of the world history as we knew it. It accelerate before it reach its end as the axes of the old order can not hold it any more. The Zionist settler colonialist bridge head of the developed imperial countries in the cradle of human culture at the east of the Mediterranean sea is eroded by the resistance of the indigenous inhabitants which recruit supporters all over the world. The cracks in the neoliberal global capitalism which seemed to reach the ultimate victory just few years ago when the end of history was declared... point to the real end of the history of the egoistic and alienated class society. In the day to day struggle here, it is still hard to discern the cracks in the structure of the system, but you can already smell it in the clouds of tear gas of weekly demos and feel the ground tremor under your feet.

Weekly Non-Violent Protests in #Palestine, August 23, 2013
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.580131042033718.1073741871.251098394936986

"Bil'in, West Bank, Palestine

In the wake of the recent massive wave of arrests of Palestinian activists, it is vital that we continue to resist against the Israeli occupation. Last 17th February had marked the eighth anniversary of the weekly non-violent protests against the construction of the Apartheid Wall in the West Bank village of Bil’in.

Bil’in has become a symbol of the power of non-violent grassroots movements in building local and international resistance to Occupation [started 10 years ago in the joint camp of Mas'ha**]. After six years of continuous resistance, Bil’in succeeded in regaining a part of its seized land. But the struggle is not over as long as Palestinians have not recovered all their legitimate rights.
The Popular Struggle Coordination Committee and the Bil'in Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements will hold the 8th International Conference for Popular Struggle from Wednesday 2nd to Friday 4th October 2013.

We kindly invite you to participate in our conference on grassroots popular resistance.

The aims of the conference are:

To show internationals real life examples of the struggles and suffering of Palestinians;

To extend the popular non-violent struggle;

To strengthen the relationship with the international solidarity movements and to find new ways to support and empower the popular struggle

More details and program will be communicated soon.

Follow us: https://www.facebook.com/PopularStruggle"

Friday

Four injured and a field of olive trees burnt by Israeli Forces’ munitions
Three Palestinians and a foreign journalist were wounded alongside with dozens suffering of severe suffocation after the Israeli forces attacked the weekly march against settlement and the apartheid wall in Bil’in.

The march began after Friday prayers from the center of the village towards the Apartheid wall. We were about dozen Israelis with the anarchists against the wall, about two dozen internationals, and dozens of Bil'iners. Participants raised Palestinian flags and chanted slogans calling for national unity against the occupation and the release of all Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli soldiers immediately fired sound bombs, rubber bullets and tear gas at participants when they arrived on the liberated land near the wall. Rubber bullets injured Ashraf al-Khatib (33) in his stomach, Kefah Mansour (32) in his thigh, Mohammed Hamad (22) in his right hand, and a Chinese journalist in his leg. In addition, dozens of peace activists suffocated from inhaling tear gas.
Soldiers opened the gate to chase and assaulted demonstrators in the olive groves. Due to the massive use of tear gas and sound bombs a fire broke out and burnt a large field of olive trees.

The Popular Committee against the Wall and settlements in Bil'in invited all Palestinians and political parties to participate in the march next Friday, the 30th August, in the village in solidarity with prisoners in Israeli jails.

the photo of Rani in the weekly demonstration in Bil'in ...it will tell the whole story of Bil'in struggle 23.08.2013
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=604451819599517

Fires as a result of heavy firing gas in Bil'in weekly demonstration
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=604448632933169


Nabi Saleh

As today's demonstration marched to the spring, Israeli Occupation Forces opened fire with teargas, rubber coated steel bullets and skunk. Several people suffocated from teargas and at least one person has been injured from rubber steel bullet in the arm. IOF have also detained and beaten a Palestinian photojournalist.

Israel Puterman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWmsrPOZxWg
David Reeb http://youtu.be/UqsS9Oj78o4

Qadum

"Dear friends

Even the mosques aren’t safe from the tear gas bombs

Today it was very strong and hard march nearly 50 soldiers attack kufr Qadum at 11am shooting many tear gas and sound bombs.

Tow were shoot directly by bombs one in his hand caused cut wound and the other in his back.

The most important and dangers case that the soldiers who were on the mountain shot bombs targeted the mosque which we pray before the march causing many suffocated cases between prayers of course you know that a lot of old men and children were in the mosque.

After braying we gathered ourselves again and go for the usual march but the army suppress us and shot nearly 300 hundred tear gas and sound bombs.

The wounded are:

Mashhoor jomaa 42 in his hand

Mohammad shtaiwi 24 in his back"

Report: Israeli army firing tear gas into the mosque during prayer time, before the demonstration
Full report and pictures at"http://palsolidarity.org/2013/08/photo-report-israeli-forces-shoot-teargas-into-mosque-suffocating-hundreds-before-start-of-kafr-qaddum-demonstration
https://www.facebook.com/younes.arar/media_set?set=a.10152147040505760.1073741928.531065759

Yotam https://www.facebook.com/alona.cohen.1238/media_set?set=a.689896394358477.1073741857.100000143680183
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1pBvnjQXQI

---------------------------------------

Don’t say we didn’t know #375

Yet again, the “Judea and Samaria” police have confiscated water tankers belonging to Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills region.

On Wednesday, 14th August, 2013 one lorry was confiscated, and on Friday night another one. In total, ten water tankers have been confiscated in recent weeks. In addition, the Civil Administration, IDF and police have demanded that filling water from reservoirs can only take place between 09:00 and 15:00; they have threatened that tankers will be impounded and the filling points closed down. Until now, water operations have been carried out 24 hours a day, to satisfy the demand. The new orders raise concern that tens of thousands of residents will suffer from thirst. Each confiscation entails payment of thousands of shekels in fines, posting of a deposit before trial, as well as payment for removal and storage of the lorry.

At the entrance of Kiryat Arba industrial zone, a tap is operated by settlers selling water to Palestinian carriers at almost three times the normal price. No restrictions there…

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

On Wednesday, 14th August, 2013, government representatives, escorted by police forces, arrived in Bedouin localities in the Negev to demolish homes. In the township of Kseifeh, three homes and a commercial premises were demolished, in Umm Batin a home was destroyed. The following day they demolished two homes in Abu Qrinat, then they went on to demolish El’Araqib once again.


Questions & queries: amosg@shefayim.org.il

========================================================

* From my blog at: http://ilanisagainstwalls.blogspot.com
See at the blog previous reports about the joint struggles the Anarchists Against the Wall take part in. See also: http://ilan.shalif.com/anarchy/glimpses/glimpses.html http://awalls.org

** The Idea of the joint Israeli Palestinian camp was initiated half year before at a workshop on the struggle in our region in the Leiden 2002 conference of the European People Global Action - in which participated 15 Israeli anarchists and radical activists, with activists of the region and supporters.

Palestinians defy ethnic cleansing with Galilee camp

From Electronic Intifada:

“This return is permanent” — refugees’ grandchildren defy Israel with Galilee camp

Patrick O. Strickland

22 August 2013

Iqrit village was depopulated and destroyed in 1951 but its youth vow to return.
(Ahmad Al-Bazz / ActiveStills)

Young people with family connections to Iqrit, an ethnically-cleansed village in the Galilee, assembled recently for a week-long “camp of return.”

According to organizers, more than 200 participants between eight and eighteen years old registered and attended the camp in Iqrit, which was destroyed by Israel’s military in 1951.

The village’s vibrant green hills — situated in the northern Galilee region of present-day Israel and hugging the boundary with Lebanon — are dotted with campers’ tents and the decaying rubble of demolished homes.

The “Camp of Return” has been held annually since 1996. For many years, its participants left Iqrit after only a week. Activists have, however, now decided to complement the annual camp with a constant presence in the village.

The camp was “a major success this year,” Nizar Ashkar, a 25-year-old Palestinian activist splitting his time between Jaffa and Iqrit, told The Electronic Intifada.

Over the past few years, campaigners have decided to take increasingly direct action towards realizing the right of return for Palestinian refugees and internally displaced Palestinians who were forced from their land and historic communities in present-day Israel.

In August 2012, approximately two dozen internally displaced youth from Iqrit, deciding Israel will never deliver justice on its own, took matters into their own hands and returned to their ancestral village.

According to Ashkar, “It was the first camp after the youth from the village decided to implement the right of return. It was a special camp in many ways, and so many people have learned about Iqrit in just a year.”

The camp was not limited to Iqrit’s refugees and their descendants: Palestinians from across present-day Israel, Jewish Israelis, and a handful of West Bank Palestinians who were able to obtain permits came to visit the camp throughout the week.

... continue reading at EI.

Aboriginal "freedom flotilla" risking all for bringing solidarity to West Papuans

West Papua is occupied by Indonesia since soon after independence. While the agreement of independence of Indonesia placed West Papua still under provisional Dutch control, the newborn Malay state soon managed to annex West Papua, which has no Malay native population, just as they did with East Timor, then under Portuguese control. The USA and UN were instrumental in this undemocratic transaction.

A new imperialism replaced the old one. 

Since then low intensity guerrilla has existed in West Papua. The deposition of Suharto, that allowed East Timor to break free, saw no significant change in the conflict of West Papua, still oppressed by Indonesian imperialism, which is speeding up the colonization of the island by ethnic Malays.

Australian, Papuan and Melanesian activists, most of them Aboriginal, set sail yesterday from Cairns in what is an act of cultural-political defiance to Indonesian oppression, described as Aboriginal cultural exchange. 

Indonesia has denied visa or authorization for the boat to sail in its waters and the participants acknowledge that they could even been shot down by the Navy. More likely is that they get arrested and jailed for years. That's what happened to several Australians who entered West Papua years ago without visa. 

Source: The Guardian.

Fascist USA: forced Zionist "re-education" of anti-apartheid students

The Defamation League continues with its attempts to curb free speech on the Apartheid Regime in Palestine. 

From the Electronic Intifada:

Students who walked out of a speech given by an Israeli soldier at Florida Atlantic University earlier this year are being forced by the administration to attend a chilling “re-education” program designed by an Israel lobby group.

This mandatory “training” program is based on curriculum designed by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a lobby organization which has been instrumental in pressuring university administrations to curb Palestine solidarity activism across the US.

As The Electronic Intifada recently reported, the ADL has a lengthy history of spying on Palestine solidarity activists and academics, including Noam Chomsky.

Two of the three Florida Atlantic University (FAU) students being forced to attend this program have also been put on indefinite probation by the administration “for the remainder of our undergraduate careers,” they say in a recent statement.

(...)

As we reported, in April 2012 students at FAU were subjected to administrative pressure and death threats after they engaged in a nonviolent direct action calling attention to the demolition of Palestinian homes by Israeli forces. In a creative effort to raise awareness of Israel’s rampant home demolition practices, students posted 200 fake eviction notices on dorm room doors.

(...)

... read the full article at the Electronic Intifada.

Palestine: Ilan's weekly report on resistance and repression

From Ilan Against the Wall:

Just a pure essence of the Israeli settler colonialist rational: State responds to two High Court petitions to stop planned evacuation of eight villages in south Hebron hills (of the occupied west bank). "Israel: Eviction of 1,300 Palestinians necessary to save IDF time, money" see From the Israeli daily http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.539057 The Bedouin struggle refute the claim that within the 1948 borders Israel is a normal state. The joint struggle of the anarchists against the wall with the Palestinian popular grass root comities against the separation fence and colonialist settlers encroachment on their spaces is a constant call out for international action of solidarity - not for "the national liberation of the self determination of statehood" of the Palestinian elite, but for the end of occupation and transfer of the Palestinian People.

"The Anti Praver Coalition is growing bigger and bigger and is led by a new local independent youth movement from the Negev. They Invite all of us to join tomorrow.

Last week we had a big and very good meeting in Jaffa with many activists from many different backgrounds, most of them independent local Jaffaians. We started bringing up ideas for the summer protest - much help is needed, please write me if you want to join for the next meeting.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=512188128851115

For tomorrow buses will leave from Jaffa Gaza Garden , Tel Aviv Arlozerov train station, Jerusalem, Lod, and Kufr Kasem.

1 August is a 'Day of Rage' against the planned uprooting of tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouin in the Naqab (Negev). Demonstrations across Palestine, as well as solidarity protests around the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGOY3Fs4I1I

Reports of more than 20 arrests already in Wadi Ara demo!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=661522913877412

http://bit.ly/5xDJ9n

https://www.facebook.com/yuyume/photos_stream

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10153097601600511

Israeli police violently dispersing a demonstration Thursday against the Prawer plan, 'Ar'ara

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152356418781549

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPZH9mCwfeo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJF0FR8jbwg

israelpnm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7vYGCNM_rw

01.08.2013 Damascus Gate, Al Quds

https://www.facebook.com/guy.butavia/media_set?set=a.10151786827117138.1073741909.779192137

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4Jgz-yblxA

Friday, the 2 arrestees from Naqab demo will be released soon. The court hearing was canceled

Bil'in

Friday 441th demo against the separation fence/wall (2/8/2013). 15 Israelis and a few internationals joined the weekly Palestinian demo in Bil'in against the Israeli Occupation and Apartheid. As we approached the wall, the army responded to the threat of dangerous peaceful demonstrators by surrounding us with clouds of gas. Then, when only the non-threatening shabab stayed at the front, the soldiers just stood back and watched them egg and stone the wall. A few similar rounds ensued, and when the demo finally dispersed, we celebrated the publication of Hamde's new photo book by taking a photo of us holding copies against the background of the wall and soldiers. When a demonstrator approached the wall to give the soldiers a copy of the book, they panicked, climbed down and backed away.

Clashes between demonstrators and the army eggs and gas:

Yasin:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.488171497942128.1073741850.387324478026831

Haitham Al Khatib:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.431276906917010.96751.431256660252368

Nabi Saleh

4 Israelis arrested in the weekly protest in Nabi Saleh

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.213194275379459.58467.184879698210917

David Reeb http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl4K7BsP1HY

Qaddum

Younes Arar:

https://www.facebook.com/younes.arar/posts/10152096488550760

Odai Qaddomi:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOCS4pZHKJo

Ni'lin

Friday weekly protest against the wall and the occupation - 2.8.2013

israel putermam:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hb871fYfWY

Sheikh Jarrah

The residents of Sheikh Jarrah are continuing their protest vigils in the neighborhood every Friday, protesting their violent evictions from their homes, the taking over of the neighborhood by the settlers, and the Judaization of East Jerusalem.

They call upon each and every person who supports their struggle to join them.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Don’t say we did not know #373

Over a year ago, settlers from Tel Rumeida, in the Old City of Hebron, planted a garden on land next to a military base. That land belongs to their Palestinian neighbor, Hani Abu Haikal, and the garden is currently the subject of a legal case. Abu Haikal has 50 olive trees on his land. On Sunday, 28th July, 2013, settlers torched the olive trees, probably coming from Tel Rumeida to do so. All the trees were damaged by the arson attack, and three were totally burned down. The settlers’ garden was not damaged by the fire at all. The IDF closed off the road to the site, but internationals managed to get there by a back way, to help to put out the fire. This marks the eighth time that the olive grove has been targeted by arson this way, and as a result, a complaint was laid with the police. The police claim that the fire was accidental.

Questions & queries: amosg@shefayim.org.il

Political repression of Basque youths continues unabated

Two more young Basques have seen confirmed their ideological punishment of six years in prison for the "crime" of illegal association, i.e. for being members of a political organization arbitrarily banned by the Spanish imperialist authorities.

This very same Spanish Supreme Court just the day before dramatically reduced a sentence against Spanish corrupt ringleader Jaume Matas (ex-President of Balears, PP) from six years to a mere nine months (so he won't go to prison).

The sentence reduction, by means of declaring the politician innocent of most charges, was issued by a tribunal which is controlled by the ultra-catholic greedy power-mongering cult Opus Dei and on whose likely deep corruption as institution there are already appearing detailed articles and even a Facebook group. 

Back to incorruptible Basque revolutionaries, it is expected that, in the next weeks, other trials for political activity will be reactivated in the Spanish Supreme Court. 

A campaign of civil disobedience, the popular wall already organized in similar cases in order to highlight the dramatic ideological repression that Spain continues exerting against the youth of this oppressed country, is being readied for these cases. 

However what is desirable and democratic is that repression ends at once and that Castile-Spain pulls back its occupation forces behind the 1199 international border.

Note: all links direct to Spanish language articles.

Occitania: Greenpeace breaches security at Tricastin nuclear facility

Tricastin, near Avignon, is one of the most important nuclear facilities on Earth: it is not just a huge nuclear power plant of four reactors, producing some 6% of France's electricity, but also holds one of the main uranium enrichment plant of Europe. It's shadow is so ominous that nearby wine producers recently changed their official denomination from Coteaux du Tricastin to Grignan les Adhemar.

Today activists of Greenpeace breached the security perimeter and deployed a banner at a stairway just besides one of the reactors. Meanwhile from the opposite side of the canal their comrades projected on the reactor images of a luminous crack and the words "Tricastin nuclear accident", later replaced by an image of President Hollande and the legend "President of the catastrophe?"

Tricastin had a very serious accident in July 2008, when 18,000 liters of uranium solution (containing some 75 kg of enriched uranium) were released to the nearby rivers Gaffière and Lauzon, which have been since then restricted for all normal activities. Also that same month a hundred workers were exposed to radioactive particles and another spill was detected lagging from 2005.

According to Fukushima Emergency...:

The 33-year-old plant is the third-oldest in France’s nuclear park. Multiple cracks on the reactor vessel no. 1 and its location in an area at risk of flooding and tremors make it a safety hazard, according to Greenpeace.

Police only appeared more than an hour after the break-in had been executed. All in all the activists were only arrested six hours later, with full deployment of helicopters and a mountain police special team.


Main source: Greenpeace[fr].

Basque Country: how the gigantic national flag was placed before the City Hall (video)

You may not know it but the word bizarre comes from Basque bizardun (bearded), via Spanish bizarro (brave, dashing, manly). You may consider, or not, this a little bizarre but it is certainly fully bearded. 

Bizardun productions presents: The making of the 2013 ikurriña:

 

This direct nonviolent action put the Basque national icon in the forefront of San Fermin fiestas again. The authorities decided then to delay the beginning of the fiestas nothing less than 20 minutes, something absolutely unprecedented. 

Source: Ateak Ireki[es].


Update (Jul 24): Tasio at Gara imagined the unpopular UPN authorities planning the 2014 txupin in order to absolutely impede the Basque flag to be present:

Translation:

THE INTERIOR COMMITTEE OF PAMPLONA CITY HALL PLANNING THE TXUPIN OF THE YEAR 2014

Councilor A: Here in Santo Domingo we deploy the 5th infantry battalion, clearing the area for the sapper company of the Legion...

Councilor B: In the roofs we place the sharpshooter company just arrived from Afghanistan.

Councilor C: The [armored division] Brunete we put in Mercaderes St. The tanks in white and red to dissimulate a bit... the guns covered with sashes.

Cop A: I bet a thousand that next year's ikurriña is even larger. 

Cop B: That's not fair: you are playing safe.

Luckily for all 2014 will be their last year in power... unless the sky falls over our heads, so to say. 

Palestine: resistance, repression and genocide - weekly report

As every week, Ilan Against the Wall makes a synthesis of the struggles and repression in Palestine (excerpts):

Rass Karkar
Sunday, joint struggle with PSCC. Protesting on the roads of Palestine this morning.

At first we protested by a flying checkpoint the soldiers placed on the way from Deir Kadis to Ramallah. The soldiers shot several tear gas canisters directly at us, hitting in the chest a protester, who was evicted to the hospital, his condition unknown.
Then we went to protest by Nilin checkpoint, where the soldiers eventually dispersed us with stun grenades.

...

Bil'in
Weekly demo 05.07.2013. About 15 with the anarchists against the wall initiative joined few dozens of international activists and Bil'iners. We marched along the wall between the barbed wire fences up to the gate in the wall. There, people removed one wing of the gate of the barbed wire fence, confiscated it, and drag it with a car to the village. The state forces were nearly passive with few tear gas grenade thrown just to keep the pretense of power. After a long while demonstrators got bored and returned to the village.

...

Sunday 07.07.2013 pre down:

Israeli army - about 80 strong unit, entered the village of Bil'in - probably in revenge for the confiscation of the wing of the gate the previous day, and arrested twin brothers Asim Yasin and Mohammed Yasin and took them to unknown area.

...

Nabi Saleh
Israeli Occupation Forces have invaded Nabi Saleh and attacked the regular Friday demonstration against the occupation. IOF are firing teargas, rubber bullets, stun grenades and spraying skunk.  

...

Kufr Qaddoum

...

Friday, Murad Shtaiwi: Dear friends: Nothing new today in kufr qudoom march this Friday, tear gas, sound bombs smoke bombs.

What are new there are very bad comments about Prophet MOHAMMAD and Arabs below the video of today written in English and Hebrew.

...

Um al-Kheir
Two Palestinian women sustained bruises today and three were detained during a peaceful rally against colonial expansion east of Yatta in south Hebron hills. The Israeli terrorist colonists attacked nonviolent protesters kicking them and beating them with rifle butts in Um al-Kheir neighborhood east of Yatta
"I just came back from an arrest in the South Hebron Hills with two Palestinians from Umm al-Kheir and three Israeli Ta'ayush activists. The military decided to arbitrarily arrest a young Palestinian shepherd. It was completely unprovoked, brutal, and under false charges. He was blindfolded and zip-tied with a single zip-tie (against regulations). The military then issued a Closed Military Zone for a different area and arrested the rest of us when we were clearly outside of it. The shepherd's brother was beaten and is now limping on his left leg. In the picture you can see the brave people of Umm al-Kheir coming to protest and resist the military's assault. I was dragged off by four soldiers while sitting next to the woman in black. At the end of the day, we were released and our Palestinian comrades had to submit an outrageous deposit of 1500 NIS (collected entirely by the people of the village). Robbed by law. We all received restraining orders from the area for 15 days. The forbidden area includes a well and a water cistern which is of vital importance for Shepherding. The people of Umm al-Kheir, due to the close vicinity of the settlement Carmel, are considered illegal trespassers on their own land and suffer demolitions, arbitrary arrests, and assaults on a daily basis"

...

The villagers of 'Awarta owned 22,000 dunums of land (one dunum = 1000 sq.m). Israel expropriated some 12,000 dunums, for the benefit of the settlement Itamar (established in 1984).
In early June 2013, 22 farmers from 'Awarta received confiscation orders for some 360 dunums of their land, near Itamar. On 23rd June, 2013 they received more orders, stating that 63.4 dunums were now confiscated.
For years, the farmers have been denied entry to their land near the settlement. They are allowed to enter only two days a year, in order to harvest their olives.

...

On Thursday, 27th June, 2013, government representatives arrived, again, accompanied by police, at the Bedouin village 'Atir (near Yatir forest) and demolished three homes and four tents that had been built following the last demolitions.

Andalusia: union leader arrested

Diego Cañamero, leader of the militant Andalusian Workers Union (SAT) was arrested yesterday after he rejected to pay homage to bourgeois injustice by not going to court to declare on the workers struggle for the collectivization of Las Turquillas ranch, owned by the Spanish military. 

Plain clothes policemen arrested him at the Worker Center of El Coronil, where he and dozens of supporters were awaiting the announced arrest.

The demand of collectivization of farmlands in Andalusia is a popular struggle that comes from old, as most of the land belongs to aristocrats who were assigned it by the Medieval dictatorships. The workers want to collectivize the right of use of those lands (property means nothing) in order to tackle the massive chronic unemployment, which reaches 40% in many districts. 

In the words of Cañamero himself:

We do not want the property of the land, we want its use. 

...

It can't be that the lands public or private are kept aside from a people that does not know anymore what to do with unemployment. We want to demonstrate that, in the hands of cooperatives, the ranch will have another use, oriented to the creation of jobs and to extract productivity from the land and not just from EU subsidies.

Source: Borroka Garaia Da![es]

France: political trial against anti-Zionist for calling to boycott Israel

How ironical that anti-discrimination laws are used against those who are fighting against Apartheid and Genocide!

Seven activists faced trial in Alençon, Normandie, after they took part in a propaganda action in a supermarket, calling for boycott to Zionist products. They risk a fine of up to €1000 for "discrimination". Three others suffered a similar ideological persecution in Perpinyá (Northern Catalonia). Hundreds concentrated in their support in both cities.

France seems to be one of the states on Earth where campaigning against Zionism is most actively persecuted:

Dozens of activists have faced criminal charges or investigation and the French police regularly demand the names and addresses of activists that take part in actions organized in support of BDS against Israel. Several activists have already been issued with heavy fines.

The Zionist regime and its necessary associate the Zionist International, so influential within the Western Empire (but also in other powers like Russia or India), is trying to intimidate by means of political persecution the the campaign of disobedience against their imposition of Hebraized neo-Nazi values. They do not seem to understand that repression only strengthens the determination and support for those who are so obviously right. 

Source: Electronic Intifada.

Palestine: military repression at Qaddom escalating

Among the continuous popular multiethnic resistance to the Apartheid Regime in Palestine (Israel) that goes on every week and every day in many different points of the country and for which you can get weekly information, for example at Ilan Against the Wall, but hardly at all in mainstream media, which clearly censor it, it must be emphasized this week the military repression increase in Qaddom. First person report:

Friday confrontations in Qaddom is escalating in recent weeks in a way that is beyond any previous "norm". Rampant military invasion of the village before the demonstration and during it as if possessed. It is the second week of army thugs occupation the village early morning entering long before the demonstration starts and makes havocs. Shoots in all directions into the houses, the mosque and the village center. Then returns to its camps or like today just lurk near by waiting to the demonstration to start just after the service.

In today demo marched more than two hundred fifty Palestinians, five Israelis and a similar number of international supporters. Even before we reached it the entrance from Khaja was already blocked with barricades set by the Shabab as precaution from of attack by the army from this direction as it did a few weeks ago (after its morning "visit" in the village.

The army entered the village and fired from two centers in the front of the village but much deeper than the position of the blocked road and the left side of the hill. They shot a plenty of a strengthed quantity gas - so terrible that a few people suffocated from gas inhalation.

During the demonstration, they arrested two Palestinian television media man. Suddenly, in the middle of the demonstration they began shooting a massive barrage of "rubber bullets" (do not forget these are really steel bullets coated with rubber).

From this "toy" of theirs four Palestinians were wounded: one injured in his finger nearly completely severed it - he was rushed to the hospital to save the finger; another was injured in his arm and stomach; another was wounded in the chest; and another "only" in the leg.

Then the army entered again the center of the village and covered it with a cloud of gas - literally nowhere to escape. It was so intense and without any restraint.

So much so that even though I'm a Jewish female they invited me to find refuge in the mosque...

→ video.


Also Bedouin homes demolitions continue in Al Akrib. Notice that Bedouins are legally "Israeli citizens" but that does not matter at all for the Apartheid Regime.

At Bil'in the regular anti-wall protest was this week more quiet than past ones, as apparently the soldiers were not in the lazy mood, it seems, permitting the protesters even to march through the "no man's land" only shooting some gas canisters when they reached the wall gate itself.

In the Jerusalem checkpoint of Beit Jala, a group of people demanded to be allowed to cross in order to pray in Al Aqsa mosque, one of the holiest sites of Islam. Soldiers blocked them and a prayer was held at the site of the checkpoint.

In Tel Aviv there were road blockades against privatizations and export of natural gas. A scratching action was held also against the Minister of the Treasury and bankster Ben Dov.

However the low level of interethnic solidarity showed up at Yafa, where a protest against Jewish gentrification of the largely Native city failed to get any support of the so-called J14 movement (a pathetic Judeocentric copycat youth movement). These however did hold a protest in Jerusalem against gas privatization.

Other protests were reported at Ma'asara, Nabi Saleh, Odai Qaddomi, Sheikh Jarrah, Toura, etc.

Source and more details at Ilan Against the Wall.

Turkey: one man protest... a zillion people protest

As police began selectively allowing individuals and small groups back to Taksim Square and Gezi Park, one man began a new kind of protest: no banners, no chants, no nothing... he just stood there for hours...

Of course, eventually, police identified and searched him, but he carried nothing suspect nor politically controversial.

He was left on his own therefore and continued there for hours and hours:

Eventually he was not anymore just one man but many:

And the "single person" protest became one of many people, again:

And the example spread around, another "single person" protest was initiated in Ankara, this time by a woman:

Source: Occupied Taksim (link 1, link 2, link 3, link 4).


Related information:

Police torture testimonial (video) → OT.

Solidarity communication by Subcomandante Marcos (EZLN) → OT.

Solidarity message by Tariq Ali (video) → OT.
...

Mexico: police represses would-be protesters in the subway

Hundreds of riot police agents in full gear occupied metro stations in Mexico D.F. in order to violently repress an intended protest at the Presidential palace of Los Pinos. 

Let us here recall that all recent Mexican presidential elections have been tarnished by mass fraud, what makes the authorities highly illegitimate.

Police violently beat protesters and neutral commuters alike. Reports also suggest that infiltrated plain clothes' police provokers, carrying rocks and petrol bombs, were also present and caused much trouble.

This intended protest is part of a wider civil disobedience campaign which has scheduled a protest camp in the Ángel de la Independencia (close to Los Pinos) for tomorrow and Wednesday, when there will be a march on the anniversary of the burning of kindergarten ABC. Between June 15th and 25th there will be a civic plebiscite on the revocation of the presidential mandate, followed by a march against insecurity and later, on July 1st, mobilizations across the country.

Source: Kaos en la Red[es].