First class criminals need first class liars.
Israel has got them. They are a true wonder to behold.
By the way, this is what the Torah says about today's events:
"If one prosecutes a war, in a place where innocents have no place safe to flee to, and no way to leave, then that becomes murder."
Let's stop the utter nonsense that Israel has anything to do with Judaism.
These are gangsters pure and simple. - See more at: http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/israelpalestine/the-israeli-lying-machine.html#sthash.OoZXoL3B.dpuf
Israel has got them. They are a true wonder to behold.
By the way, this is what the Torah says about today's events:
"If one prosecutes a war, in a place where innocents have no place safe to flee to, and no way to leave, then that becomes murder."
Let's stop the utter nonsense that Israel has anything to do with Judaism.
These are gangsters pure and simple. - See more at: http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/israelpalestine/the-israeli-lying-machine.html#sthash.OoZXoL3B.dpuf
First class criminals need first class liars.
Israel has got them. They are a true wonder to behold.
By the way, this is what the Torah says about today's events:
"If one prosecutes a war, in a place where innocents have no place safe to flee to, and no way to leave, then that becomes murder."
Let's stop the utter nonsense that Israel has anything to do with Judaism.
These are gangsters pure and simple. - See more at: http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/israelpalestine/the-israeli-lying-machine.html#sthash.OoZXoL3B.dpuf
The
Torah says, "If one prosecutes a war, in a place where innocents have
no place safe to flee to, and no way to leave, then that becomes
murder."Israel has got them. They are a true wonder to behold.
By the way, this is what the Torah says about today's events:
"If one prosecutes a war, in a place where innocents have no place safe to flee to, and no way to leave, then that becomes murder."
Let's stop the utter nonsense that Israel has anything to do with Judaism.
These are gangsters pure and simple. - See more at: http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/israelpalestine/the-israeli-lying-machine.html#sthash.OoZXoL3B.dpuf
http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/israelpalestine/the-israeli-lying-machine.html
First class criminals need first class liars.
Israel has got them. They are a true wonder to behold.
By the way, this is what the Torah says about today's events:
"If one prosecutes a war, in a place where innocents have no place safe to flee to, and no way to leave, then that becomes murder."
Let's stop the utter nonsense that Israel has anything to do with Judaism.
These are gangsters pure and simple. - See more at: http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/israelpalestine/the-israeli-lying-machine.html#sthash.OoZXoL3B.dpuf
[Note:
The population in Gaza is.was, 1, 816,000. Israeli has called up a
total of 86,000 troops. That is, roughly, one soldier for every 21 people in Gaza.
Talk about mass murderers! ...bw]Israel has got them. They are a true wonder to behold.
By the way, this is what the Torah says about today's events:
"If one prosecutes a war, in a place where innocents have no place safe to flee to, and no way to leave, then that becomes murder."
Let's stop the utter nonsense that Israel has anything to do with Judaism.
These are gangsters pure and simple. - See more at: http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/israelpalestine/the-israeli-lying-machine.html#sthash.OoZXoL3B.dpuf
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Bay
Area United Against War Newsletter
Table
of Contents:
A.
EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. ARTICLES IN FULL
B. ARTICLES IN FULL
C.
SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
D.
VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
A.
EVENTS AND ACTIONS
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Protest and March
Tell Nancy Pelosi:
STOP Supporting Genocide in Gaza!
End the Siege of Gaza!
End All U.S. Aid to Israel!
Wed. Aug. 6 (Hiroshima Day), 5pm
SF Federal Building
7th and Mission Sts. (Civic Center BART)
The Palestinian people of Gaza have been heroically resisting in the face of the merciless U.S.-backed Israeli assault. More than 1,500 Palestinians have been killed and over 8,000 wounded, the overwhelming majority civilians.
Meanwhile, virtually every U.S. politician, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, have been falling all over each other to express their support for this mass murder.
The U.S. has armed, funded and supplied the Israeli occupation forces. Just this week, the Pentagon announced that it will provide an emergency resupply of ammunition to the Israeli army as it has used up so much in its Gaza operation.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Protest and March
Tell Nancy Pelosi:
STOP Supporting Genocide in Gaza!
End the Siege of Gaza!
End All U.S. Aid to Israel!
Wed. Aug. 6 (Hiroshima Day), 5pm
SF Federal Building
7th and Mission Sts. (Civic Center BART)
The Palestinian people of Gaza have been heroically resisting in the face of the merciless U.S.-backed Israeli assault. More than 1,500 Palestinians have been killed and over 8,000 wounded, the overwhelming majority civilians.
Meanwhile, virtually every U.S. politician, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, have been falling all over each other to express their support for this mass murder.
The U.S. has armed, funded and supplied the Israeli occupation forces. Just this week, the Pentagon announced that it will provide an emergency resupply of ammunition to the Israeli army as it has used up so much in its Gaza operation.
Historic Film on Palestine Liberation Struggle
"We Are the Palestinian People"
Wed. Aug. 13, 7pm
2969 Mission St. at 26th St., SF
near 24th St. BART; #14, 49 MUNI
With discussion led by Richard Becker, author of “Palestine, Israel and the U.S. Empire.”
Made in 1973, this film includes an excellent chronology of the events leading to the establishment of the state of Israel by the Zionist forces utilizing rare historical footage. It explains the role of Britain and the U.S. in establishing and supporting the Israeli state, and documents the long history of resistance by the indigenous Palestinian people to colonial settlement and expulsion. Beginning with the rise of political Zionism, the film goes on to describe the Arab rebellion against Turkish rule during World War I, the general strike and armed rebellion against British control of Palestine in the 1930's, the dispossession of the Palestinians in 1948 and afterwards, as well as the development of the Palestinian liberation movement following the 1967 Six Day War. Produced by CineNews, 1973, 55 min.
$5-10 donation (no one turned away for lack of funds)
Wheelchair accessible. Refreshments provided.
More info: 415-821-6545 or www.ANSWERsf.org
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.AnswerCoalition.org
http://www.AnswerSF.org
Answer@AnswerSF.org
2969 Mission St.
415-821-6545
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Free Nestora Salgado Rally
Thursday, August 21, 7:30am-9:30am
Mexican Consulate, San Francisco
Mexican Consulate: 532 Folsom Street, San Francisco, CA (between 1st & 2nd) Sponsored by Bay Area Radical Women, Yo Soy 132, and Freedom Socialist Party.
Mexican Consulate: 532 Folsom Street, San Francisco, CA (between 1st & 2nd) Sponsored by Bay Area Radical Women, Yo Soy 132, and Freedom Socialist Party.Protest the wrongful imprisonment of Nestora Salgado, a U.S./Mexican indigenous woman held in prison on trumped up charges. Salgado helped the poor in her Guerrero hometown to form a defense squad to protect themselves from narco-traffickers and their gangs. This angered corrupt politicians and mining companies who are colluding to drive the local people off their land. Nestora represents hundreds of people in self-defense groups who have been jailed for defending their communities against powerful, politically connected criminal cartels.
August 21 is the one year anniversary of Nestora’s incarceration.
Mexican Consulate: 532 Folsom Street, San Francisco, CA (between 1st & 2nd) Sponsored by Bay Area Radical Women, Yo Soy 132, and Freedom Socialist Party.
Endorsers include American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 3299, University of California, Chiapas Support Committee, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), SF, Latin-American and Latino/a Studies Department, CCSF; Socialist Action; National Lawyers Guild and more.
To endorse or for more information, contact Bob at 415-864-1278 or FreeNestora.SanFrancsico@gmail.com www.freenestora.org
Click here to see the current Freedom Socialist. To subscribe to the FS by postal mail, email, or audio CD, visit here or send $10 for one year or $17 for two to Freedom Socialist, 5018 Rainier Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98118.
To subscribe to the FS by postal mail, email, or audio CD, visit here.
Please contribute to sustain our work. You can donate now via PayPal
To see the booklist at Red Letter Press or to find out more about the Freedom Socialist Party, go to www.socialism.com, or reply to this message. We would love to hear from you!
Friend on Facebook | Forward to a friend
Bay Area Freedom Socialist Party
Keep up with FSP's activities
Our mailing address is:
747 Polk St., San Francisco, CA 94109
Telephone: 415-864-1278
baFSP@earthlink.net
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, July 22, 2014
On July 12, 2014, Gaza civil society issued an urgent appeal for solidarity, asking: "How many of our lives are dispensable enough until the world takes action? How much of our blood is sufficient?"
As Jews of conscience, we answer by unequivocally condemning Israel's ongoing massacre in Gaza, whose victims include hundreds of civilians, children, entire families, the elderly, and the disabled. This latest toll adds to the thousands Israel has killed and maimed since its supposed withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
In response to this crisis, we urgently reaffirm our support for a ban on all military and other aid to Israel.
In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. opposed the Vietnam War with his famous declaration: “For the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.”
Today, *we* cannot be silent as the “Jewish state" -- armed to the teeth by the U.S. and its allies -- wages yet another brutal war on the Palestinian people. Apartheid Israel does not speak for us, and we stand with Gaza as we stand with all of Palestine.
In the face of incessant pro-Israel propaganda, we heed Malcolm X's warning: “If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
For Israel's relentless war on Gaza is no more an act of "self-defense" than such infamous massacres as Wounded Knee (1890), Guernica (1937), the Warsaw Ghetto (1942), Deir Yassin (1948), My Lai (1968), Soweto (1976), Sabra and Shatila (1982), or Lebanon (2006).
Rather, it is but the latest chapter in more than a century of Zionist colonialism, dispossession, ethnic cleaning, racism, and genocide -- including Israel's very establishment through the uprooting and displacement of over 750,000 Palestinians during the 1947-1948 Nakba. Indeed, eighty percent of the 1.8 million people sealed into Gaza are refugees.
Like any colonial regime, Israel uses resistance to such policies as an excuse to terrorize and collectively punish the indigenous population for its very existence. But scattered rockets, fired from Gaza into land stolen from Palestinians in the first place, are merely a response to this systemic injustice.
To confront the root cause of this violence, we call for the complete dismantling of Israel's apartheid regime, throughout historic Palestine -- from the River to the Sea. With that in mind, we embrace the 2005 Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which demands:
* An end to Israeli military occupation of the 1967 territories
* Full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel
* Right of return for Palestinian refugees, as affirmed by UN resolution 194
Free Nestora Salgado Rally
Thursday, August 21, 7:30am-9:30am
Mexican Consulate, San Francisco
Mexican Consulate: 532 Folsom Street, San Francisco, CA (between 1st & 2nd) Sponsored by Bay Area Radical Women, Yo Soy 132, and Freedom Socialist Party.
Mexican Consulate: 532 Folsom Street, San Francisco, CA (between 1st & 2nd) Sponsored by Bay Area Radical Women, Yo Soy 132, and Freedom Socialist Party.Protest the wrongful imprisonment of Nestora Salgado, a U.S./Mexican indigenous woman held in prison on trumped up charges. Salgado helped the poor in her Guerrero hometown to form a defense squad to protect themselves from narco-traffickers and their gangs. This angered corrupt politicians and mining companies who are colluding to drive the local people off their land. Nestora represents hundreds of people in self-defense groups who have been jailed for defending their communities against powerful, politically connected criminal cartels.
August 21 is the one year anniversary of Nestora’s incarceration.
Mexican Consulate: 532 Folsom Street, San Francisco, CA (between 1st & 2nd) Sponsored by Bay Area Radical Women, Yo Soy 132, and Freedom Socialist Party.
Endorsers include American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 3299, University of California, Chiapas Support Committee, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), SF, Latin-American and Latino/a Studies Department, CCSF; Socialist Action; National Lawyers Guild and more.
To endorse or for more information, contact Bob at 415-864-1278 or FreeNestora.SanFrancsico@gmail.com www.freenestora.org
Click here to see the current Freedom Socialist. To subscribe to the FS by postal mail, email, or audio CD, visit here or send $10 for one year or $17 for two to Freedom Socialist, 5018 Rainier Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98118.
To subscribe to the FS by postal mail, email, or audio CD, visit here.
Please contribute to sustain our work. You can donate now via PayPal
To see the booklist at Red Letter Press or to find out more about the Freedom Socialist Party, go to www.socialism.com, or reply to this message. We would love to hear from you!
Friend on Facebook | Forward to a friend
Bay Area Freedom Socialist Party
Keep up with FSP's activities
Our mailing address is:
747 Polk St., San Francisco, CA 94109
Telephone: 415-864-1278
baFSP@earthlink.net
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Jews Say: End the War on Gaza
No Aid to Apartheid Israel! BDS!
(With 200 initial signers)
Jews Say: End the War on Gaza — No Aid to Apartheid Israel!
On July 12, 2014, Gaza civil society issued an urgent appeal for solidarity, asking: "How many of our lives are dispensable enough until the world takes action? How much of our blood is sufficient?"
As Jews of conscience, we answer by unequivocally condemning Israel's ongoing massacre in Gaza, whose victims include hundreds of civilians, children, entire families, the elderly, and the disabled. This latest toll adds to the thousands Israel has killed and maimed since its supposed withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
In response to this crisis, we urgently reaffirm our support for a ban on all military and other aid to Israel.
In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. opposed the Vietnam War with his famous declaration: “For the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.”
Today, *we* cannot be silent as the “Jewish state" -- armed to the teeth by the U.S. and its allies -- wages yet another brutal war on the Palestinian people. Apartheid Israel does not speak for us, and we stand with Gaza as we stand with all of Palestine.
In the face of incessant pro-Israel propaganda, we heed Malcolm X's warning: “If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
For Israel's relentless war on Gaza is no more an act of "self-defense" than such infamous massacres as Wounded Knee (1890), Guernica (1937), the Warsaw Ghetto (1942), Deir Yassin (1948), My Lai (1968), Soweto (1976), Sabra and Shatila (1982), or Lebanon (2006).
Rather, it is but the latest chapter in more than a century of Zionist colonialism, dispossession, ethnic cleaning, racism, and genocide -- including Israel's very establishment through the uprooting and displacement of over 750,000 Palestinians during the 1947-1948 Nakba. Indeed, eighty percent of the 1.8 million people sealed into Gaza are refugees.
Like any colonial regime, Israel uses resistance to such policies as an excuse to terrorize and collectively punish the indigenous population for its very existence. But scattered rockets, fired from Gaza into land stolen from Palestinians in the first place, are merely a response to this systemic injustice.
To confront the root cause of this violence, we call for the complete dismantling of Israel's apartheid regime, throughout historic Palestine -- from the River to the Sea. With that in mind, we embrace the 2005 Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which demands:
* An end to Israeli military occupation of the 1967 territories
* Full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel
* Right of return for Palestinian refugees, as affirmed by UN resolution 194
Initial Signers (list in formation; organizations,
schools and other affiliations shown for identification only:
*Co-founder, Jews
for Palestinian Right of Return) ; Avigail Abarbanel,
Psychotherapist; editor, Beyond Tribal Loyalties: Personal Stories of Jewish
Peace Activists (2012, Cambridge Scholars), Inverness, Scotland; Noa Abend,
Boycott From Within; Stephen Aberle, Independent Jewish Voices; Vancouver,
BC; Lisa Albrecht, Ph.D. Social Justice Program, University of Minnesota; Anya
Achtenberg, novelist and poet; teacher; activist; International Jewish
Anti-Zionist Network; Mike Alewitz, Associate Professor, Central CT State
Unversity; Artistic Director, Labor Art & Mural Project; Zalman Amit, Distinguished
Professor Emeritus; Author, Israeli Rejectionism; Anthony
Arnove, International Socialist Organization; Gabriel Ash, International Jewish
Anti-Zionist Network, Switzerland; Ted Auerbach, Brooklyn for Peace; Anna
Baltzer, author and organizer; Ronnie Barkan, Co-founder, Boycott
from Within, Tel-Aviv; Judith Bello, Administrative Committee, United
National Antiwar Coalition; Lawrence Boxall, Independent Jewish Voices, Canada;
Vancouver Ecosocialist Group; Linda Benedikt, writer Munich, Germany; Nora
Barrows-Friedman, journalist; Oakland; Prof. Jonathan Beller, Humanities and
Media Studies Graduate Program in Media Studies, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn; Medea
Benjamin, co-founder, CODEPINK; Rica Bird, Joint Founder, Merseyside Jews for
Peace and Justice; Audrey Bomse, Co-chair, National Lawyers Guild Palestine
Subcommittee; Prof. Daniel Boyarin, Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture, UC
Berkeley; Lenni Brenner, Author, Zionism In The Age Of The Dictators;
Elizabeth Block, Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto ON; Max Blumenthal, Author, Goliath:
Life and Loathing in Greater Israel; and Senior Writer for Alternet.org; Mary
P. Buchwald, Jewish Voice for Peace-New York; Monique Buckner, BDS South
Africa; Maia Brown, Health and Human Rights Project-Seattle & Stop Veolia
Seattle; Estee Chandler, Jewish Voice for Peace, Los Angeles; Rick
Chertoff, L..A. Jews for Peace; Prof. Marjorie Cohn, Thomas Jefferson
School of Law; past president, National Lawyers Guild; Ally Cohen, Ramallah,
Palestine; International Solidarity Movement media coordinator; Ruben Rosenberg
Colorni, Youth for Palestine, Netherlands; Mike Cushman, Convenor, Jews for
Boycotting Israeli Goods (UK); Margaretta D'arcy, Irish actress, writer,
playwright, and peace-activist; Natalie Zemon Davis, Historian; Warren Davis,
labor and political activist, Philadelphia, PA; Eron Davidson, film maker; Judith
Deutsch, Independent Jewish Voices Canada; Science for Peace; Roger Dittmann, Professor
of Physics, Emeritus California State University, Fullerton; President,
Scholars and Scientists without Borders Executive Council, World Federation of
Scientific Workers; Gordon Doctorow, Ed.D., Canada; Mark Elf, Jews Sans
Frontieres, London, UK; Hedy Epstein, Nazi Holocaust survivor and human rights
activist; St. Louis, MO; Marla Erlien, New York NY; Shelley Ettinger,
writer/activist, New York, NY; Inge Etzbach, Human Rights Activist, Café
Palestina NY; Richard Falk, Professor of International Law, Emeritus, Princeton
University; Former UN Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestine, 2008-2014; Malkah
B. Feldman, Jewish Voice for Peace and recent delegate to Palestine with
American Jews For A Just Peace; Deborah Fink, Co-Founder, Jews for Boycotting
Israeli Goods UK; Joel Finkel, Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago; Sylvia Finzi,
JfjfP; Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost, EJJP. (Germany); Maxine
Fookson, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner; Jewish Voice for
Peace, Portland OR-; Richard Forer, Author, Breakthrough:
Transforming Fear Into Compassion - A New Perspective on the Israel-Palestine;
Sid Frankel, Associate Professor, University of Manitoba; Prof. Cynthia
Franklin, Co-Editor, Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, University of
Hawai’i; Racheli Gai, Jewish Voice for Peace; Herb Gamberg, Independent
Jewish Voices, Canada ; Ruth Gamberg, Independent Jewish Voices,
Canada ; Lee Gargagliano, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; Cheryl
Gaster, social justice activist and human right lawyer, Toronto ON; Alisa
Gayle-Deutsch, American/Canadian Musician and Anti-Israeli Apartheid Activist; Jack
Gegenberg, Professor of Mathematics, University of New Brunswick,
Fredericton NB; Prof. Terri Ginsberg, film and media scholar, New York; David
Glick, psychotherapist; Jewish Voice for Peace; Sherna Berger Gluck, Emerita
Professor, CSULB; Israel Divestment Campaign; Neta Golan, Ramallah, Palestine;
Jews Against Genocide; Co-founder, International Solidarity Movement.; Tsilli
Goldenberg, teacher, Jerusalem, Israel; Steve Goldfield, Ph.D.; Sue Goldstein,
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Canada; Marty Goodman, former
Executive Board member, Transport Workers Union Local 100; Socialist Action; Rabbi
Lynn Gottlieb, Freeman Fellow, Fellowship of Reconciliation; Hector Grad,
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Spain; Prof. Jesse Greener,
University of Laval; Cathy Gulkin, Filmmaker, Toronto ON; Ira Grupper,
Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY; Jeff Halper, The Israeli Committee
Against House demolitions (ICAHD); Larry Haiven, Independent Jewish Voices
Canada, Halifax; Evelyn Hecht-Galinski, publisher, Germany; Stanley Heller, The
Struggle Video News TSVN; Shir Hever, Jewish Voice for Just Peace, Germany; Deborah
Hrbek, media and civil rights lawyer, NLG-NYC; Dr. Tikva Honig-Parnass, Jews
for Palestinian Right of Return; Adam Horowitz, Co-Editor, Mondoweiss; Gilad
Isaacs, Economist, Wits University.; Selma James, International Jewish
Anti-Zionist Network; Jake Javanshir, Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto; Riva
Joffe, Jews Against Zionism; Val Jonas, attorney, Miami Beach; Sima Kahn,
MD; President of the board, Kadima Reconstructionist Community; Yael Kahn,
Israeli anti-apartheid activist; Michael Kalmanovitz, International Jewish
Anti-Zionist Network (UK); Dan Kaplan, AFT Local 1493; Susan Kaplan, J.D.
National Lawyers Guild ; Danny Katch, activist and author; Bruce Katz,
President, Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU), Montreal, Canada; Lynn Kessler,
Ph.D., MPH, psychologist/social justice activist; Janet Klecker, Sonomans for
Justice & Peace for Palestine, Sonoma CA; Prof. David Klein, California
State University, Northridge; USACBI; Emma Klein, Jewish Voice for Peace,
Seattle WA; Sara Kershnar, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; Harry
Kopyto, Legal activist Toronto ON; Richard Koritz, veteran postal trade
unionist and former member of North Carolina Human Relations Commission; Yael
Korin, PhD., Scientist at UCLA; Campaign to End IsraelI Apartheid, Southern
California; Dennis Kortheuer, CSULB, Israel Divestment Campaign; Steve
Kowit, Professor Emeritus, Jewish Voice for Peace; Toby Kramer, International
Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; Jason Kunin, Independent Jewish Voices Canada; Dr.
David Landy, Trinity College, Dublin; Jean Léger, Coalition pour la
Justice et la Paix en Palestine, membre de la Coalition BDS Québec et de
Palestiniens et Juifs Unis; Lynda Lemberg, Educators for Peace and Justice,
Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto ON; David Letwin,* activist and teacher,
Al-Awda NY; Michael Letwin,* former President, Association of Legal Aid
Attorneys/UAW Local 2325; USACBI; Al-Awda NY; Les Levidow, Jews for Boycotting
Israeli Goods (J-BIG), UK; Corey Levine, Human Rights Activist,
Writer; National Steering Committee, Independent Jewish
Voices Canada; Joseph Levine, Professor of Philosophy, University of
Massachusetts Amherst; Lesley Levy, Independent Jewish Voices, Montreal; Mich
Levy, teacher, Oakland CA; Abby Lippman, Professor Emerita; activist; Montreal;
Brooke Lober, PhD candidate, University of Arizona, Gender and Women's Studies
Department; Antony Loewenstein, journalist, author and Guardian columnist; Jennifer
Loewenstein, Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Wisconsin,
Madison; Alex Lubin, Professor of American Studies, University of New Meixco; Andrew
Lugg, Professor Emeritus, University of Ottawa, Canada; David Makofsky, Jewish
Voice for Peace, Research Anthropologist; Harriet Malinowitz, Professor of
English, Long Island University, Brooklyn; Mike Marqusee, Author, If I
Am Not for Myself: Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew; Miriam Marton, JD; Dr.
Richard Matthews. independent scholar, London ON; Daniel L. Meyers, Former
President National Lawyers Guild-NYC; Linda Milazzo, Writer/Activist/Educator,
Los Angeles; Eva Steiner Moseley, Holocaust refugee, Massachusetts Peace Action
board member and Palestine/Israel Working Group; Dr. Dorothy Naor, retired
teacher, Herzliah, Israel; Marcy Newman, independent scholar; Author; The
Politics of Teaching Palestine to Americans; Alex Nissen, Women in Black; Dr.
Judith Norman, San Antonio, TX; Henry Norr, retired journalist, Berkeley CA; Michael
Novick, Anti-Racist Action-Los Angeles/People Against Racist Terror; Prof.
Bertell Ollman, NYU; Karin Pally, Santa Monica, CA; Prof. Ilan Pappé, Israeli
historian and socialist activist; Karen Platt, Jewish Voice for Peace, Albany
CA; Dr. Susan Pashkoff, Jews Against Zionism, London UK; Miko Peled, writer,
activist; Author, The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine ;
Prof. Gabriel Piterberg, UCLA; Mitch Podolak, Founder, Winnipeg Folk Festival
and Vancouver Folk Music Festival; Karen Pomer,* granddaughter of Henri B. van
Leeuwen, Dutch anti-Zionist leader and Bergen-Belsen survivor; Lenny Potash,
Los Angeles CA; Fabienne Presentey, Independent Jewish
Voices, Montréal; Diana Ralph, Independent Jewish Voices Canada; Roland
Rance, Jews Against Zionism, London; Karen Ranucci, Independent Journalist,
Democracy Now!; Ana Ratner, Artist, Puppeteer, Activist.; Michael Ratner,
President Emeritus, Center for Constitutional Rights; Prof. Dr. Fanny-Michaela
Reisin, Jewish Voice Germany; Diana M.A. Relke, Professor Emerita,
University of Saskatchewan; Prof. Bruce Robbins, Columbia University; Stewart
M. Robinson, retired Prof of Mathematics; Professor Lisa Rofel, University of
California, Santa Cruz; Mimi Rosenberg, Producer & Host, Building Bridges
and Wednesday Edition, WBAI 99.5 FM; Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW
Local 2325; Lillian Rosengarten, Author, From The Shadows Of Nazi
Germany To The Jewish Boat To Gaza; Prof. Jonathan Rosenhead, British
Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP); Yehoahua Rosin, Israel; Ilana
Rossoff, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; Martha Roth, Independent
Jewish Voices; Vancouver BC; Marty Roth, Emeritus professor of English,
University of Minnesota; Ruben Roth, Assistant Professor, Labour Studies,
Laurentian University; Independent Jewish Voices Canada; Emma Rubin,
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; Cheryl A. Rubenberg, Middle East
Scholar; Editor, Encyclopedia of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict;
Author, The Palestinians in Search of a Just Peace; Josh Ruebner,
Author, Shattered Hopes: Obama’s Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian
Peace; Mark Rudd, retired teacher, Albuquerque NM; Ben Saifer, Independent
Jewish Voices Canada; Evalyn Segal, Rossmoor Senior Community; Sylvia
Schwarz, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; Yossi Schwartz,
Internationalist Socialist League; Haifa; Carole Seligman, co-editor, Socialist
Viewpoint magazine; Yom Shamash, Independent Jewish Voices, Vancouver,
Canada; Tali Shapiro, Boycott from Within; Israel; Karen Shenfeld, Poet,
Toronto ON; Sid Shniad, National Steering Committee, Independent Jewish Voices
Canada; William Shookhoff, Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto ON; Melinda
Smith, Jewish Voice for Peace, Albuquerque NM; Kobi Snitz, Tel Aviv; Marsha
Steinberg, BDS-LA for Justice in Palestine, Los Angeles; Lotta Strandberg,
Visiting Scholar, NYU; Carol Stone, Independent Jewish Voices, Vancouver BC; Miriam
(Cherkes-Julkowski) Swenson, Ph.D.; Matthew Taylor, author; Laura Tillem, Peace
and Social Justice Center of South Central Kansas; Peter Trainor, Independent
Jewish Voices, Toronto; Rebecca Tumposky, International Jewish
Anti-Zionist Network; Darlene Wallach, Justice for Palestinians, San Jose
CA; Dr. Abraham Weizfeld, JPLO; Bonnie Weinstein, Co-Editor of Socialist
Viewpoint magazine; Publisher, Bay Area United Against War Newsletter; Sam
Weinstein, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network-Labor; former President,
UWUA Local 132; Judith Weisman, Independent Jewish Voices; Not in Our Name
(NION); Toronto ON; Paul Werner, PhD, DSFS Editor, WOID, a journal of visual
language; Noga Wizansky, Ph.D., artist, instructor, and researcher;
Administrator, Institute of European Studies, UC Berkeley; Marcy Winograd,
public school teacher, former congressional peace candidate; Bekah Wolf, UC
Hastings College of Law Student; Co-founder, Palestine Solidarity Project; Sherry
Wolf, International Socialist Organization; Dave Zirin, Author, Game
Over: How Politics Have Turned the Sports World Upside Down.
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1) U.S. Inquiry Finds a ‘Culture of Violence’ Against Teenage Inmates at Rikers
By BENJAMIN WEISER and MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ
By Ali Jarbawi
By ANNE BARNARD
By BEN HUBBARD and JODI RUDOREN
6) Prosecutor Under Fire in Contested Texas Execution
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
7) Advocates Scramble as New York Accelerates Child Deportation Cases
By KIRK SEMPLE
8) Google Pulls 'Bomb Gaza' Game From App Store After Backlash
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2014/08/04/technology/04reuters-mideast-gaza-google.html?src=busln
9) Eight Days in Gaza: A Wartime Diary
Atef Abu Saif: Life and Death in the Gaza Strip
By ATEF ABU SAIF
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1) U.S. Inquiry Finds a ‘Culture of Violence’ Against Teenage Inmates at Rikers
By BENJAMIN WEISER and MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ
In an extraordinary rebuke of the New York City Department of Correction, the federal government said on Monday the department had systematically violated the civil rights of male teenagers at Rikers Island by failing to protect them from the rampant use of unnecessary and excessive force by correction officers.
The office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, released its findings in a graphic 79-page report that described a “deep-seated culture of violence” against youthful inmates at Rikers, perpetrated by guards who operated with little fear of punishment.
The report, addressed to Mayor Bill de Blasio and two other senior city officials, singled out for blame a “powerful code of silence” among jail staff, along with a virtually useless system for investigating attacks by guards. The result was a “staggering” number of injuries among youthful inmates, the report said.The report also found the department relied to an “excessive and inappropriate” degree on solitary confinement to punish teenage inmates, placing them in punitive segregation, as the practice is known, for months at a time.
Although the federal investigation focused only on the three Rikers jails that house male inmates aged 16 to 18, the report said the systemic problems that were identified “may exist in equal measure at the other jails on Rikers.”
Correction officers struck adolescents in the head and face at “an alarming rate” as punishment, even when inmates posed no threat; officers took inmates to isolated locations for beatings out of view of video cameras; and many inmates were so afraid of the violence that they asked, for their own protection, to be placed in solitary confinement, the report said.
Officers were rarely punished, the report said, even with strong evidence of egregious violations. Investigations, when they occurred, were often superficial, and incident reports were frequently incomplete, misleading or intentionally falsified.
Among more than a dozen specific cases of brutality detailed in the report was one in which correction officers assaulted four inmates for several minutes, beating them with radios, batons and broomsticks and slamming their heads against walls. Another inmate sustained a skull fracture and was left with the imprint of a boot on his back in an assault involving multiple officers. In another case, a young man was taken from a classroom after falling asleep during a lecture and beaten severely. Teachers heard him screaming and crying for his mother.
“For adolescent inmates, Rikers Island is broken,” Mr. Bharara said at a news conference announcing the findings. “It is a place where brute force is the first impulse rather than the last resort, a place where verbal insults are repaid with physical injuries, where beatings are routine, while accountability is rare.”
The federal investigation was not conducted as a criminal inquiry and no charges were announced against individuals. Officers involved in specific incidents were also not identified by name. But the report listed more than 10 pages of remedial measures, and it warned that if the city did not work cooperatively to develop new policies and procedures, the Justice Department could bring a federal lawsuit asking a judge to order the imposition of remedies.
The report, which covered from 2011 through the end of 2013, touched on many of the same issues raised in an investigation by The New York Times into violence by guards at Rikers, particularly against inmates with mental illnesses, published last month.
The Times article documented 129 cases in which inmates of all ages were seriously injured last year in altercations with correction officers, including several attacks that were also singled out in the report.
New York is one of just two states in the country that automatically charges people aged 16 to 18 as adults. That population, which averages close to 500 inmates at Rikers Island, is among the most difficult at the jail complex, the report said. In the 2013 fiscal year, about 51 percent were diagnosed with a mental illness, compared with about 38 percent for the overall population. And nearly two-thirds were charged with felonies.
Even so, the report found that adolescents were overseen by the least experienced correctional staff, who, often out of frustration or malice, lashed out violently against them. In the 2013 fiscal year alone, inmates younger than 18 sustained 1,057 injuries in 565 reported uses of force by correctional staff members. In a tally of the adolescent population as of Oct. 30, 2012, nearly 44 percent had been subjected to a use of force by staff at least once. And the violence has steadily increased year by year, the report found.
Moreover, the report found, many violent episodes go unreported.
The investigation found officers and supervisors used coded phrases like “hold it down” to pressure inmates into not reporting beatings. “Inmates who refuse to ‘hold it down’ risk retaliation from officers in the form of additional physical violence and disciplinary sanctions,” the report said.
One inmate said that he was continually harassed by correctional staff after reporting that he was raped by a guard and that he was warned by guards not to speak about the episode in an interview with a consultant on the investigation.
The report also found that civilian staff members, including doctors and teachers, also failed to report abuse and faced retaliation when they did.
One teacher told an investigator that when abuse occurs, civilian employees know “they should turn their head away, so that they don’t witness anything.”
Even when abuse is reported, the report found, the investigations typically went nowhere. The federal inquiry was highly critical of the correction department’s investigative division, which is overseen by Florence Finkle. The report described the investigative division as overwhelmed, understaffed and reliant on archaic paper-based record keeping. Investigations, which are supposed to take a maximum of five months to complete, often take more than a year.
There is also a substantial bias in favor of correction officer testimony even in cases when evidence clearly indicates a guard is lying, the investigation found. And when guards are disciplined, the punishment is rarely severe. Most are sent to counseling or “retraining,” the report found. Sometimes, punishments recommended by supervisors are overruled by those higher in the chain of command.
In one January 2012 episode, a correction officer became incensed after an inmate splashed her with a liquid and began punching him in the face after he had been restrained by other guards. A captain ordered her to stop, and she punched another officer who tried to physically pull her off the inmate. An investigating captain later concluded that the officer’s use of force was “not necessary, inappropriate and excessive.” But a superior, backed by the investigative division, overruled the captain, concluding that the use of force was necessary. An investigator labeled the finding “astonishing.”
The investigation found one officer who had been involved in 76 uses of force over a six-year period and had been disciplined only once.
Because the correction department fails to conduct proper investigations and hold staff accountable, the report found, “a culture of excessive force persists, where correction officers physically abuse adolescent inmates with the expectation that they will face little or no consequences for their unlawful conduct.”
The report noted that the city’s new correction commissioner, Joseph Ponte, had only recently assumed his position and “was not present when the misconduct” found by the investigation had occurred. It also said the department had undertaken some steps to stem the violence like providing more programs for adolescents, adding staff and requiring young inmates to wear jail-issued uniforms and shoes. But none of these measures, the report said, address the core problem: abuse by correction officers and a lack of accountability.
In one case documented in the report, a correction officer wrapped metal handcuffs around her hand and punched an inmate who had fallen asleep during a class in the ribs, according to witnesses. The inmate told investigators that when he yelled an obscenity, the officer pulled him out of class and began to beat him. She was joined by other officers who proceeded to kick him while he was sprawled on the floor. The inmate said one officer sprayed pepper stray directly in his eye from about an inch away.
In their reports, the officers offered contradictory versions of what happened, the investigations found. But all concluded that the level of force that was used was appropriate.
One of the teachers interviewed said he heard “thumping” and “screaming” during the altercation and said he heard the inmate “crying and screaming for his mother.”
When he looked out the door after the incident, the teacher reported that he “saw blood and saliva on the floor.”
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2) Israel’s Colonialism Must End
By Ali Jarbawi
RAMALLAH, WEST BANK — Centuries of European colonialism have provided the world with certain basic lessons about subjugating colonized peoples: The longer any colonial occupation endures, the greater the settlers’ racism and extremism tends to grow. This is especially true if the occupiers encounter resistance; at that point, the occupied population becomes an obstacle that must either be forced to submit or removed through expulsion or murder.
In the eyes of an occupying power, the humanity of those under its thumb depends on the degree of their submission to, or collaboration with, the occupation. If the occupied population chooses to stand in the way of the occupier’s goals, then they are demonized, which allows the occupier the supposed moral excuse of confronting them with all possible means, no matter how harsh.
The Israeli occupation of Palestine is one of the only remaining settler-colonial occupations in the world today.
And it is not limited to East Jerusalem and the West Bank: Although Israel withdrew its settlers and army from Gaza in 2005, it is still recognized by the United Nations as an occupying power, due to its complete control of Gaza’s airspace, sea access and of almost all of its land borders.
Over the years, Israel has used all forms of pressure to prevent the Palestinians from achieving their national rights and gaining independence. It hasn’t been enough for Israelis to believe their own claims about Palestinians; they have sought incessantly to impose this narrative on the world and to have it adopted by their Western allies.
Unsurprisingly, all of this has led to complete shamelessness in mainstream Israeli rhetoric about Palestinians. After all, if one is not held accountable, then one has the freedom to think — and do — what one wants. With no internal or external checks, one can act with impunity.
The Israeli left is a relic, all but extinct, and the extremist right is entrenched in the Israeli political establishment. Attacking the Palestinians has become officially sanctioned policy, embedded in Israeli public consciousness and politely ignored in Western political circles.
There is now an extremist, racist ideological current in Israel that not only justifies the recent onslaught on the Gaza Strip, but actually encourages the use of enormous and disproportionate violence against civilians, which has led to the extermination of entire families.
Moshe Feiglin, deputy speaker of the Knesset, recently called on the Israeli army to attack and occupy Gaza, paying no heed to anything but the safety of Israeli soldiers. He then demanded that Gaza be annexed to Israel, and asked the army to use all means at its disposal to “conquer” Gaza, by which he meant that obedient Palestinians would be allowed to stay, while the rest — the majority — should be exiled to the Sinai Peninsula. This cannot be understood as anything less than a call for ethnic cleansing.
Ayelet Shaked, a Knesset member for the Jewish Home Party, a member of the governing coalition, called on the Israeli army to destroy the homes of terrorist “snakes,” and to murder their mothers as well, so that they would not be able to bring “little snakes” into the world.
And Mordechai Kedar, a professor at Bar Ilan University, publicly suggested that raping the mothers and sisters of “terrorists” might deter further terrorism. The university did not take any measures against him.
Such statements are no longer isolated incidents, but reflective of the general sentiment within a country where chants of “Kill the Arabs” are increasingly common. It is no longer an aberration to hear these opinions expressed in public, or by politicians and academics. What is unexpected — and unacceptable — is that such statements are not met with any sort of condemnation in official Western circles that claim to oppose racism and extremism.
The rise in Israeli racism and extremism against Palestinians would not have happened without the unconditional support that Israel receives from its allies, most significantly the United States.
Israel cannot continue to be the exception to the rule of international law and human rights. The international community must hold it accountable for its rhetoric and its actions, and begin to treat it like all other countries. It should not be allowed to continue to enjoy its state of exceptionalism and to use this to wreak destruction on the Palestinian people.
After 47 years of occupation, two decades of stalled peace talks and almost eight years of a strangulating siege of the Gaza Strip, the international community must demand that Israel clearly state what it intends to do with its occupation of the Palestinian people. Since the Palestinians are not the occupiers, but rather those living under occupation, this question cannot be asked of them.
If Israel wants to continue its occupation and hinder Palestinians’ path to freedom and independence, then it should be aware that the Palestinian people will continue to resist with all the means at their disposal. If Israel intends to end the occupation, then it will find that the Palestinians are more than ready for an agreement.
What the Palestinians are enduring today in Gaza should be a clarion call for the entire world to end the bloodshed. But it will take more than a cease-fire. It will take peace. And peace cannot happen without an end to the occupation.
Ali Jarbawi is a political scientist at Birzeit University and a former minister of the Palestinian Authority. This article was translated by Ghenwa Hayek from the Arabic.
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3) Israel Halts Attack in Parts of Gaza, but Strike Kills Girl
More than six hours later, there was still no official comment about the strike from the Israeli military, which continued to withdraw many of its ground forces from populated areas in Gaza, about why it struck the house.
After sharp criticism from the United States and the United Nations of its strike outside a United Nations school on Sunday, which killed seven people in addition to its intended targets, three Islamic Jihad fighters on a motorcycle, Israel announced a unilateral cease-fire to last from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Israel said the cease-fire was intended to assist humanitarian relief efforts.But the cease-fire was to take place only in areas where Israel was not engaged in military activity. Israeli Army officials said that east Rafah, in southern Gaza, far from Gaza City itself, was the only urban area where troops and tanks were engaged in fighting on Monday, with most of the rest of the Israeli troops pulled back closer to the border with Israel and some redeployed in staging areas inside Israel itself.
Gen. Motti Almoz, the chief military spokesman, told Army Radio that “redeployment lets us work on the tunnels, provides defense and lets the forces set up for further activity.”
“There is no ending here, perhaps an interim phase,” he said.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Hamas, the dominant faction in Gaza, said it would not observe the truce, which he disparaged as a media exercise, and he warned residents to exercise caution when they ventured outside. “The unilateral cease-fire announced by Israel is an attempt to divert attention from Israeli massacres,” he said. Earlier Monday, Israel bombed the house of an Islamic Jihad commander in northern Gaza, Danyal Mansour, killing him.
Ashraf al-Qedra, a spokesman for the Health Ministry in Gaza, said that the strike on the house in Shati took place several minutes after the announced start of the cease-fire, but one Israeli official from the army agency that controls coordination with Gaza told Israel Radio that the strike took place just before the cease-fire began.
The cease-fire, coupled with the redeployment, was another indication of Israel’s decision for now to reject further negotiations on a cease-fire with Hamas or with President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, and instead to make unilateral decisions. After a string of broken cease-fires, the Israeli intention, officials explained, was not to reward Hamas and allies like Islamic Jihad through negotiated concessions, but to wait and see whether the armed groups in Gaza, badly damaged by this conflict, will stop attacking Israel.
The last major Israeli war in Gaza ended after three weeks with a unilateral Israeli cease-fire in January 2009, which took hold after a few days. A briefer conflict, in November 2012, ended with negotiations carried out by the Egyptian president at the time, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, who saw Hamas as an ally. But the deal arranged then to ease restrictions on Gaza in return for “quiet” did not last, and Israel does not trust Hamas to implement any negotiated arrangement.
At the same time, Israeli officials argue, Egypt’s new president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the military man who ousted Mr. Morsi, sees the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas as a threat to Egypt, a position of antagonism to Hamas even sharper than Egypt’s position under Hosni Mubarak during his three decades in power.
Egypt now, having largely halted the tunnel trade in smuggled goods and arms that flourished under both Mr. Mubarak and Mr. Morsi, will make it much harder for Hamas and its allies to resupply themselves with weaponry and building materials for new tunnels.
At the same time, with its control of the Rafah crossing, Egypt has great leverage over Gaza, and one idea is to try to empower Mr. Abbas and the Palestinian Authority, which is still dominated by the Fatah faction, to take responsibility with Egypt over the crossing.
In Cairo, Palestinian factions were working on a joint position, demanding that for a cease-fire, Israel pull all its troops from Gaza, loosen its controls over goods and people entering and exiting Gaza, and open border crossings.
But for the moment, at least, Israel has decided not to negotiate, and even a senior American diplomat who went to Cairo for the talks has left the city.
In East Jerusalem, the police shot and killed a local Palestinian who drove a construction vehicle over a pedestrian, killing him, and then knocked over a bus, which happened to be nearly empty, slightly injuring three people. The incident took place in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, and the police said that they were regarding the attack as a response to Israel’s conflict in Gaza. Tensions have been high in Jerusalem and in the West Bank, with intermittently violent protests against Israeli policies and war conduct.
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4) In Fatal Flash, Gaza Psychologist Switches Roles, Turning Into a Trauma Victim
By ANNE BARNARD
An Israeli airstrike demolished Dr. Zeyada’s family home on July 20, killing six close relatives, including his mother and three of his brothers.
“You try to help the people with their suffering,” the doctor said recently in his Gaza City living room lined with psychology textbooks. “It’s totally different when you have the same experience. You lose six from your family — three brothers, your mom, one of your nephews, your sister in-law. It’s really” — he paused, red-eyed — “unexpected.”He took a mental step back, to diagnose the hallmarks of trauma in himself: He was exhibiting dissociation, speaking in the second person to distance himself from pain, as well as denial. When he heard about new shelling near where his family lived in the Bureij refugee camp, he picked up the phone to call his oldest brother there. He had forgotten that the house was already gone, his brother already dead.
Dr. Zeyada, 50, works to destigmatize mental health care for a Palestinian population exposed repeatedly to war and displacement, practicing at the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, which was led by the pioneering Palestinian psychiatrist and human-rights advocate Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj until his death from leukemia in December.
Dr. Zeyada is not the only Palestinian caregiver to become a trauma victim. In the three weeks of attacks that Israel has said are meant to root out militant rocket fire and destroy clandestine tunnels into Israel, one of Dr. Zeyada’s colleagues at the program lost a brother, and their boss, Dr. Yasser Abu Jamei, lost 26 members of his extended family, including 19 children, in a single bombing.
It is difficult — even absurd, the clinicians say at their darkest moments — to try to mend psyches in the Gaza Strip, where even in calmer times the conditions are hardly conducive to psychological health, and safety is never more than provisional under the many cease-fires that have come and gone.
People cannot flee from Gaza; Israel and Egypt keep their borders virtually sealed. Residents can flee their neighborhoods, but even United Nations schools being used as shelters in Gaza have come under deadly fire. And in downtown Gaza City, where Israel has urged people to go for safety, Israeli airstrikes have repeatedly hit apartment buildings packed with residents and refugees. One strike collapsed most of a building and killed the family of a bank employee who had fled there on Israeli instructions.
The border restrictions, stemming from an eight-year standoff between Israel and Hamas, the militant group that dominates Gaza, have steadily eroded livelihoods in Gaza, adding to a sense of powerlessness. Even during relative lulls in violence, Israeli strikes periodically kill militants — and bystanders. People who do not want Hamas and other militants to use their farm fields to fire rockets, for fear of return fire from Israel, say they cannot always stop the combatants.
The healthy processing of grief and fear works best when sufferers feel they are out of danger, Dr. Zeyada said. But that is impossible in Gaza as long as the larger conflict persists.
Sometimes, he said, he was troubled by the ethics of treating people who were likely to be traumatized again.
“You are,” he said, “like a prison doctor treating a victim of torture, making the prisoner healthy to be interrogated and tortured again.”
He spoke flatly and deliberately, his body rigid in a visible effort to maintain his composure.
“I am so afraid in this building,” the doctor said, pointing out his sixth-story window. Several apartments here, he said, are crammed with 60 people or more as residents take in fleeing relatives.
“They may hit it at any time,” he said of the Israeli military. “There is no safe place. Psychologically, that is the problem.”
As they visit the grieving in their homes and shelters, and prepare to reopen their clinics when the fighting stops, Gaza’s mental health counselors face a huge job.
One-third of Gazan children showed signs of post-traumatic stress disorder even before the latest outbreak of fighting, according to Dr. James Gordon of the Washington-based Center for Mind-Body Medicine, which runs a program in the territory. Now, with the death toll for the last three weeks exceeding 1,500 Palestinians — relative to the population, the equivalent of nearly 200,000 deaths in the United States — nearly every Gazan has heard or witnessed shelling, and most know someone personally who was killed or injured.
A few blocks from Dr. Zeyada’s apartment, Younis al-Bakr, 9, sat curled on a sofa, chewing on his fist like a much younger boy. His family said he had not spoken a word since he witnessed the shelling that killed four of his cousins on the Gaza City beach on July 17. Younis and three more cousins survived the attack, suffering shrapnel wounds along with less visible ones.
“We didn’t lose four,” said his uncle, Hamis al-Baker. “We lost eight.”
One of the surviving boys sneaks out of the house to visit his cousins’ graves again and again, despite warnings of the danger. Another reacted to a later airstrike in the neighborhood by shaking so violently that he was taken to the hospital.
The only one willing to talk — Montasser, 10 — launched in a trembling, reedy voice into a speech that mixed stock political slogans with thoughts from a small boy’s world.
“I tell the European world, the Arab world, we were playing on the beach,” he said. “I can go now and play, but they will kill me. I’m afraid of death.”
Group and individual counseling can help trauma victims find resilience and move on with their lives, Dr. Gordon said. Many feel a mixture of guilt and powerlessness and a hunger for revenge that can fuel new cycles of militancy, he said, but “as they’re able to express their anger, the vast majority find other ways to build their society.”
Still, he said, “there’s got to be a solution — you can’t keep people in this prison.”
For his own part, Dr. Zeyada said that he would seek peer counseling and go back to work, not least because, as the oldest surviving brother in his extended family, he is now responsible for 11 of his dead siblings’ children. “There is no other choice,” he said.
Also maddening for Dr. Zeyada was trying to imagine Israel’s logic. He said two of his brothers were in Palestinian police forces — one a municipal officer employed by the Hamas administration and the other under Fatah, the rival faction that was sidelined when Hamas took over in 2007. Police forces have often been Israeli targets, but his brothers were not militants, he said — and anyway, “I am not looking for justifications.”
His family had had “absolute faith” that Israel would warn them if their house was going to be bombed, but there was no warning, he said.
Through clenched teeth, he noted that his young daughters have now experienced three wars. “Can you imagine what that means to the new generation?” he said. “Scared parents cannot assure or secure scared children.”
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5) Questions of Weapons and Warnings in Past Barrage on a Gaza Shelter
By BEN HUBBARD and JODI RUDOREN
ABALIYA, Gaza Strip — An examination of an Israeli barrage that put a line of at least 10 shells through a United Nations school sheltering displaced Palestinians here last week suggests that Israeli troops paid little heed to warnings to safeguard such sites and may have unleashed weapons inappropriate for urban areas despite rising alarm over civilian deaths.
Inspection of the damage, a preliminary United Nations review that collected 30 pieces of shrapnel, and interviews with two dozen witnesses indicate that the predawn strikes on Wednesday, July 30, that killed 21 people at the school, in the crowded Jabaliya refugee camp, were likely to have come from heavy artillery not designed for precision use.
Israeli officials have argued throughout their 27-day air-and-ground campaign against Hamas, the militant group that dominates Gaza, that it is the enemy’s insistence on operating near shelters and other humanitarian sites that endangers civilians. But in the Jabaliya case, they provided no evidence of such activity and no explanation for the strike beyond saying that Palestinian militants were firing about 200 yards away.
“It was clear that they were not aiming at a specific house, but fired lots and it fell where it fell,” said Abdel-Latif al-Seifi, whose three-story villa just beyond the school’s north wall ended up with two large holes in its roof.
The Jabaliya strike has already opened Israel to a new level of global scrutiny. International criticism ratcheted up another notch on Sunday after a missile the Israelis say was meant for three militants on a motorcycle also killed people waiting in line for food outside a United Nations school in Rafah that had been turned into a shelter.Though Israeli military leaders have declared definitively that no United Nations facility was targeted, Rafah was the sixth shelter struck during the operation. Such strikes have renewed sharp questions about the tactics Israel uses in dense neighborhoods and, especially, near shelters that are supposed to provide refuge to people who follow Israel’s own orders to leave areas of fierce fighting.
“Why aren’t the safe zones working?” asked Robert Turner, the Gaza director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which is sheltering nearly 260,000 people in 90 schools and emails the Israeli authorities with their exact locations twice a day. “Why are the military decisions being made that are leading to these tragedies?”
The Israeli general who heads a committee charged with investigating the civilian impact of ground operations said that he did not know the details of what happened in Jabaliya because the troops involved were still fighting and therefore had not been interviewed. Speaking on the condition of anonymity under military protocol, the general said in an interview that “Hamas people were shooting at” a group of soldiers working to destroy a tunnel in the area. No Israelis were killed or wounded.
The New York Times emailed Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, a map of where the strikes hit and asked him to point out where Israeli forces were operating, and from where in the 200-yard radius around the school they saw enemy fire; he did not respond. Colonel Lerner and the general refused to say what ordnance was deployed.
Asked whether artillery would be appropriate in such a situation, the general said “the question is whether or not they were under great or imminent risk.”
“The sheer orders are you are not allowed to fire artillery or mortar shells into urban areas unless there are imminent risks for human lives — meaning only if you are under deadly fire or under great risk,” he said. “The orders are clear. But I find it very difficult to judge those fighters under fire and tell them, ‘Look, please open your textbook and read out loud what we told you.’ ”
A Matter of Precision
The continuing war makes it impossible to determine exactly what happened that morning in Jabaliya, a refugee camp of 100,000 residents in northern Gaza, where the 24-room school was sheltering 3,220 people who had fled from homes closer to the border. But the number, trajectory and blast marks of the shells all point to artillery. United Nations officials said shrapnel from the site had codes matching unexploded shells recovered from other schools that munitions experts identified as 155-millimeter artillery shells.
Damage indicated the shells came from the northeast — where Israeli artillery units are stationed on the hills outside Gaza’s border. Artillery is a “statistics weapon,” not a “precision weapon,” experts said, generally fired from up to 25 miles away and considered effective if it hits within 50 yards of its target.
“Heavy artillery shelling into a populated area would be inherently indiscriminate,” said Bill Van Esveld, a Jerusalem-based Human Rights Watch lawyer who investigates war crimes. “You just can’t aim that weapon precisely enough in that environment because it’s so destructive.”
Gadi Shamni, a retired Israeli general who once commanded the Gaza division, agreed that “smart weapons” were more appropriate than artillery in such places but said that “to rescue forces that are getting into trouble, sometimes you have to use a little more firepower.”
“In any war, there are malfunctions and mistakes,” General Shamni said. Hamas militants “usually do things in order to attract” Israeli fire, he added, “and hope that some mistake will cause a disaster in order to delegitimize Israel.”It was about 4:40 a.m., not long after the muezzin’s call for the dawn prayer, when the shells started, witnesses said. They stopped five minutes later.
The first three shells collapsed roofs and walls in a row of simple cinder-block homes across from the Jabaliya Elementary A & B Girls’ School, on a busy residential street dotted with ground-floor barbershops, pharmacies and groceries. Another killed a group of horses and donkeys tied up about 25 yards from the school entrance. At least three landed on the three-story villa.
Two shells slammed the roof of a second-story classroom filled with sleeping women and children, and one exploded in the school courtyard, where men were bowed in prayer among the eucalyptus trees.
“That was the one that took the people,” said Mohammed Abu al-Anzein, 35, who dragged a wounded man into a classroom and put a diaper on his head to stanch the bleeding.
The school, which runs morning and afternoon shifts each of 880 students, opened as a shelter on July 16, and two days later had 1,428 residents. By July 29, more than twice that number were packed into classrooms, on balconies and under a large metal hangar still holding two banners with the smiling faces of last year’s pupils.
On the surrounding streets, where some walls bear faded posters lauding so-called martyrs from Hamas and other militant factions, no one interviewed said they had seen either Palestinian fighters or Israeli soldiers in the area. A few houses and apartments had been ruined by munitions fired from afar, but there were no bullet holes or empty casings suggesting close clashes.
In the hours before the strikes, explosions and shelling kept many people awake.
“The whole night was terror,” Mr. Abu al-Anzein said. “My chest was sore from smoking so many cigarettes.”
Ibrahim al-Najjar said he was returning from the mosque when a shell took down the wall of his home across from the school, wounding his sister. Two relatives injured by other blasts raced to the school to summon ambulances, and ended up among the dead in the courtyard.
Mike Cole, the United Nations agency’s field legal officer, was awakened by a call from the shelter at 5:55 a.m. The initial report, which he recorded longhand in a spiral notebook, was 16 dead.
At 6:04 a.m., Mr. Cole wrote, it was 20 dead with 45 wounded at two hospitals. Fourteen minutes later, he was told that a United Nations guard was among those killed. By 7:15, shelling in the area had started up again, and people were panicking about whether to stay or go. So Mr. Turner called his contact at Israel’s Coordination and Liaison Administration, the go-between for international organizations and the Israeli military.
“My impression was that he hadn’t heard about the first incident,” Mr. Turner said. “The immediate feedback of the C.L.A. was that it wasn’t them.”
Sensitive Sites
The C.L.A. always has on hand a list of the United Nations’ 250 installations across Gaza, each of them topped with a United Nations flag. During the war, Mr. Turner’s agency has supplemented that with lists of the schools serving as shelters, accompanied by a reminder that international law requires “all necessary actions and precautions that will prevent any damage to U.N. facilities.”
Jabaliya was No. 11 on the three-page list emailed at 8:48 p.m. the day before the strikes.
“We really do have good relations with these people, but what is happening after they get the information?” Mr. Turner asked. “Our concern is the lack of coordination between C.L.A. and the kinetic forces in the field.”
Requests to interview C.L.A. representatives were not granted, and detailed written questions about the Jabaliya episode were not answered.
In a broader briefing before the strike, an official who oversees the agency pointed out several times where rockets were launched from some of the 523 “sensitive sites” on its list. Rockets have also been found in three empty United Nations schools. “Terrorists shooting on our soldiers, our soldiers reacting,” he said. “This is a combat situation. It needs to be investigated.”
In Israel’s last ground invasion of Gaza, in 2009, mortar shelling outside a shelter at Al Fakhura School — also in Jabaliya — killed up to 40 people in what a United Nations panel led by Richard Goldstone found was “indiscriminate in violation of international law.” While Mr. Goldstone later retracted his report’s most explosive accusation — that Israel had intentionally killed civilians — he did not specifically change his assessment on Al Fakhura.
In that case, Israel at first claimed that militants were firing mortar shells from the school just before the strike, but after a preliminary inquiry, said that the fire was 80 meters away. The Goldstone report could not determine whether there had been Palestinian fire from the school or nearby, but concluded that the attack “cannot meet the test of what a reasonable commander would have determined to be an acceptable loss of civilian life for the military advantage sought.”
The first deadly strike at a shelter during the current Israel-Hamas battle was in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, where 16 people were killed on July 24 even as the United Nations was preparing to pull out its staff and curtail food service there after three days of Israeli warnings that the site was no longer safe.
Colonel Lerner, the Israeli military spokesman, said Palestinians had fired antitank missiles from near the Beit Hanoun school, and that the only ordnance to hit the site was a mortar shell nearly an hour before the fatal blasts. The military published a video clip in which the courtyard looked empty at the time.
“Why just show us the 14 seconds that shows the empty courtyard? Why not show us the antitank fire? Why not show us the response?” asked Mr. Turner, the United Nations official. “There are desks in the courtyard, there are trees in the courtyard — none of that is clear in the video, because the video is so poor. If you can’t see a desk, a pile of desks, how can you tell if there are people?”
The Israeli general in charge of the after-action investigations said more evidence would be forthcoming — eventually.
“We’re going to analyze one by one,” he said. “The question is could you do it differently, and if yes, why didn’t you, and if not, O.K., then you have to show us. We will know why they did what they did.”
The United Nations sent photographs of the munitions it recovered in Jabaliya, details about what was hit and what they had determined to be the trajectories of incoming rounds to the C.L.A. at 11:39 a.m. on the day of the strike. It has sealed the shrapnel in evidence bags, ready to hand over, along with a list of more than 3,000 potential witnesses, their identification numbers and contact information.
Most are still staying in the shelter. On Wednesday night, Asma Ghabin, who had 10 stitches in her thigh where doctors had removed shrapnel, lay with her two toddler sons on a thin mattress, in the same spot where she had been wounded hours before.
Ben Hubbard reported from Jabaliya, and Jodi Rudoren from Jerusalem. Fares Akram contributed reporting from Gaza.
The C.L.A. always has on hand a list of the United Nations’ 250 installations across Gaza, each of them topped with a United Nations flag. During the war, Mr. Turner’s agency has supplemented that with lists of the schools serving as shelters, accompanied by a reminder that international law requires “all necessary actions and precautions that will prevent any damage to U.N. facilities.”
Jabaliya was No. 11 on the three-page list emailed at 8:48 p.m. the day before the strikes.
“We really do have good relations with these people, but what is happening after they get the information?” Mr. Turner asked. “Our concern is the lack of coordination between C.L.A. and the kinetic forces in the field.”
Requests to interview C.L.A. representatives were not granted, and detailed written questions about the Jabaliya episode were not answered.
In a broader briefing before the strike, an official who oversees the agency pointed out several times where rockets were launched from some of the 523 “sensitive sites” on its list. Rockets have also been found in three empty United Nations schools. “Terrorists shooting on our soldiers, our soldiers reacting,” he said. “This is a combat situation. It needs to be investigated.”
In Israel’s last ground invasion of Gaza, in 2009, mortar shelling outside a shelter at Al Fakhura School — also in Jabaliya — killed up to 40 people in what a United Nations panel led by Richard Goldstone found was “indiscriminate in violation of international law.” While Mr. Goldstone later retracted his report’s most explosive accusation — that Israel had intentionally killed civilians — he did not specifically change his assessment on Al Fakhura.
In that case, Israel at first claimed that militants were firing mortar shells from the school just before the strike, but after a preliminary inquiry, said that the fire was 80 meters away. The Goldstone report could not determine whether there had been Palestinian fire from the school or nearby, but concluded that the attack “cannot meet the test of what a reasonable commander would have determined to be an acceptable loss of civilian life for the military advantage sought.”
The first deadly strike at a shelter during the current Israel-Hamas battle was in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, where 16 people were killed on July 24 even as the United Nations was preparing to pull out its staff and curtail food service there after three days of Israeli warnings that the site was no longer safe.
Colonel Lerner, the Israeli military spokesman, said Palestinians had fired antitank missiles from near the Beit Hanoun school, and that the only ordnance to hit the site was a mortar shell nearly an hour before the fatal blasts. The military published a video clip in which the courtyard looked empty at the time.
“Why just show us the 14 seconds that shows the empty courtyard? Why not show us the antitank fire? Why not show us the response?” asked Mr. Turner, the United Nations official. “There are desks in the courtyard, there are trees in the courtyard — none of that is clear in the video, because the video is so poor. If you can’t see a desk, a pile of desks, how can you tell if there are people?”
The Israeli general in charge of the after-action investigations said more evidence would be forthcoming — eventually.
“We’re going to analyze one by one,” he said. “The question is could you do it differently, and if yes, why didn’t you, and if not, O.K., then you have to show us. We will know why they did what they did.”
The United Nations sent photographs of the munitions it recovered in Jabaliya, details about what was hit and what they had determined to be the trajectories of incoming rounds to the C.L.A. at 11:39 a.m. on the day of the strike. It has sealed the shrapnel in evidence bags, ready to hand over, along with a list of more than 3,000 potential witnesses, their identification numbers and contact information.
Most are still staying in the shelter. On Wednesday night, Asma Ghabin, who had 10 stitches in her thigh where doctors had removed shrapnel, lay with her two toddler sons on a thin mattress, in the same spot where she had been wounded hours before.
Ben Hubbard reported from Jabaliya, and Jodi Rudoren from Jerusalem. Fares Akram contributed reporting from Gaza.
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6) Prosecutor Under Fire in Contested Texas Execution
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Innocence Project announced Monday that it's filed a state bar grievance against John H. Jackson, a former judge who prosecuted Cameron Todd Willingham.
Willingham was executed in 2004 for killing his three daughters in a house fire in Corsicana.
But fire science experts have long said the original investigators were wrong in calling that fire arson. And a jailhouse informant who provided key testimony against Willingham tried to recant years before the execution.
The Innocence Project says Jackson and a local wealthy rancher tried to keep the informant from changing his story publicly.
Jackson has denied wrongdoing.
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7) Advocates Scramble as New York Accelerates Child Deportation Cases
By KIRK SEMPLE
Immigrant advocacy groups were rushing on Monday to prepare for special new court procedures in New York City next week that will accelerate deportation hearings for newly arrived unaccompanied children from Central America.
The advocates, who learned about the new procedures in the last several days, were trying to develop a strategy to respond to the shift, including recruiting and preparing pro bono lawyers and searching for additional financing to support their efforts.
“This has hit us like a hurricane or a tsunami or whatever you can call it, because we’re already overwhelmed with cases,” said Jojo Annobil, who leads the Immigration Law Unit at the Legal Aid Society. “It will need all hands on deck.”
Under the new procedures, unaccompanied minors and families with children who entered the United States in recent months during a surge of illegal migration from Central America will be moved to the front of the line to go before immigration judges.These immigrants could be deported in a matter of months rather than years, the usual time frame in the overburdened immigration court system.
Advocates said that under the procedural shift in New York, which is expected to start on Aug. 13, at least one judge at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan will hear what are known as master calendars — initial hearings on cases — several mornings a week.
The advocates, who say they were informally briefed by court administrators in New York late last week, refer to the new procedures as rocket dockets.
The plan is part of the President Obama’s strategy, announced last month, to accelerate cases involving child migrants and parents with children to deter the influx of migrants across the southern border.
In an email on Monday, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department’s executive office for immigration review, or EOIR, which oversees the immigration courts, said: “These steps include making docket adjustments, re-prioritizing certain case types and refocusing EOIR immigration court resources.”
The administration’s goal is for lone minors to appear before a judge within 21 days after being put into deportation proceedings, said the spokeswoman, Kathryn Mattingly.
The realignment is also intended to provide an initial hearing to all parents with children within 28 days, she added.
Justice Department officials did not confirm specifics about the duration of the special juvenile dockets in New York. But they said they had juvenile dockets of varying sizes in 39 courts around the country to help accelerate the processing of cases and meet their goals of shorter wait times.
Few courts, however, are handling as many cases as New York: Of all the states, only Texas has received more unaccompanied minors since the beginning of the year, according to figures recently released by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement.
Officials in the Obama administration have insisted that legal standards will not be compromised in the rush to process cases.
But advocates worry that many children may not be able to find competent legal representation — or any representation.
“Immigration court is an incredibly difficult place to navigate for an adult who speaks English, so you can imagine how difficult it’s going to be for a child,” said Camille Mackler, director of legal initiatives at the New York Immigration Coalition.
Last week, a group of legal service providers, including the American Civil Liberties Union, asked a federal court to block deportation proceedings against several children until they had obtained lawyers.
“These children face an imminent threat of being deported, potentially to their death,” Ahilan Arulanantham, a staff lawyer with the A.C.L.U.’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a news release. “To force them to defend themselves against a trained prosecutor, with their lives literally on the line, violates due process and runs counter to everything our country stands for.”
In recent years, immigration courts in New York City have held several special juvenile dockets a month, working closely with a group of legal service providers that offer free legal screening and representation to young defendants.
Those groups say that the usual rhythm of hearings was already overwhelming.
The prospect of possibly hundreds of new cases flooding the courts, they say, is dizzying.
“Where will the resources be to actually represent people?” asked Lenni Benson, director of Safe Passage Project, a legal services provider, and one of the groups working in the special juvenile dockets. “I don’t know that without more resources or coordination I can do more than I’m doing. And I know the other organizations are at capacity.”
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8) Google Pulls 'Bomb Gaza' Game From App Store After Backlash
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2014/08/04/technology/04reuters-mideast-gaza-google.html?src=busln
SAN FRANCISCO — A mobile game that simulates Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip and invites users to "drop bombs and avoid killing civilians" has been pulled from Google Inc's app store, a company spokesman said on Monday after a public backlash.
"Bomb Gaza," developed by PlayFTW and still available as an app on Facebook, simulates the on-going conflict between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas, which dominates the Palestinian territory. Players drop bombs from a fighter jet while dodging missiles from Hamas fighters in black and green masks.
"We remove apps from Google Play that violate our policies," a spokesman for Google said, confirming that the game had been removed from the Google Play app store. Google did not specify which policy the game had violated.
Google Play has rules that prohibit content that amounts to hate speech, bullying and violence and lets users flag abusive content.
The game triggered outraged comments on the Google app store review page as well as on Facebook. It had been downloaded about 1,000 times since its July 29 launch, according to Britain's Guardian newspaper.
"You disgust me," Saj Ishaq wrote on PlayFTW's public Facebook page.
Facebook did not immediately respond to requests for comment and PlayFTW could not be immediately reached.
"Please take this off the Play store. It is offensive and I am really let down that Google actually allowed this. If this game isn’t removed I’m starting a Google boycott," Oma Al, a user, wrote on the game's review page, according to the Guardian.
On July 8, Israel launched an offensive on Gaza in response to a surge in Hamas rocket strikes. Gaza officials say more than 1,831 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed and about 3,000 Palestinian homes have been destroyed or damaged since the offensive began.
(Reporting by Malathi Nayak; Additional reporting by Alexei Oreskovic in San Francisco; Editing by Paul Simao)
SAN FRANCISCO — A mobile game that simulates Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip and invites users to "drop bombs and avoid killing civilians" has been pulled from Google Inc's app store, a company spokesman said on Monday after a public backlash.
"Bomb Gaza," developed by PlayFTW and still available as an app on Facebook, simulates the on-going conflict between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas, which dominates the Palestinian territory. Players drop bombs from a fighter jet while dodging missiles from Hamas fighters in black and green masks.
"We remove apps from Google Play that violate our policies," a spokesman for Google said, confirming that the game had been removed from the Google Play app store. Google did not specify which policy the game had violated.
Google Play has rules that prohibit content that amounts to hate speech, bullying and violence and lets users flag abusive content.
The game triggered outraged comments on the Google app store review page as well as on Facebook. It had been downloaded about 1,000 times since its July 29 launch, according to Britain's Guardian newspaper.
"You disgust me," Saj Ishaq wrote on PlayFTW's public Facebook page.
Facebook did not immediately respond to requests for comment and PlayFTW could not be immediately reached.
"Please take this off the Play store. It is offensive and I am really let down that Google actually allowed this. If this game isn’t removed I’m starting a Google boycott," Oma Al, a user, wrote on the game's review page, according to the Guardian.
On July 8, Israel launched an offensive on Gaza in response to a surge in Hamas rocket strikes. Gaza officials say more than 1,831 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed and about 3,000 Palestinian homes have been destroyed or damaged since the offensive began.
(Reporting by Malathi Nayak; Additional reporting by Alexei Oreskovic in San Francisco; Editing by Paul Simao)
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9) Eight Days in Gaza: A Wartime Diary
Atef Abu Saif: Life and Death in the Gaza Strip
By ATEF ABU SAIF
For the last two hours we’ve heard nothing but sonic booms and the sound of rockets and mortars. Shells have fallen on our street a few hundred yards from my father-in-law’s house, where my wife and I, and our five kids, are staying, and on the street behind us.
My wife, Hanna, is arguing with the kids over what to buy to celebrate Eid, the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan. She has forbidden them to go to the grocery store, and she’s adamant that they won’t visit the Internet cafes or the PlayStation shop near my father’s place. They don’t understand the impossibility of shopping at a time of war.
Last night, we all became convinced that the tank fire would soon reach the Jabaliya refugee settlement, where our families live. All night long the tanks fired on the eastern side of the camp. The buildings on our street creaked and lurched, as if about to fall. Everything shifts with each strike. It’s as if you’re an extra in a disaster movie.I jump to the window. A funeral is passing in the street below. A corpse covered by a blanket is carried on a stretcher on the shoulders of mourners. Some are shouting in anger. The funeral enters the cemetery, and the sound of the mourners fades like a cry in a dream. I count fewer than 20 mourners. During the first intifada (1987-91), when somebody was killed by the Israeli army, the whole camp would turn out to pay its respects. Now there are so many strikes in the middle of the day, so many Israeli drones patrolling the streets, that few mourners are prepared to take the risk.
Last night we all received a recorded message on our cellphones from the Israeli army, warning the people of Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun that attacks on their homes were likely and advising people to leave. To where? I wondered.
As I do every night, I head down a street that houses one of the United Nations schools that’s acting as a refugee center. I presume this street is safer than the others. The army wouldn’t hesitate to attack one of these schools — they’ve hit several in the last three weeks, most recently in Beit Hanoun. But in mad times, you develop your own logic for survival.
Suddenly, electricity lights up the entire neighborhood. This burst of light can often be a false dawn, but this time it stays. After more than 80 hours, electricity has finally returned. Back home, the family has already decided to stay up tonight, and use the electricity that they’ve all missed so much. Hanna says we shouldn’t watch the news or anything related to the war.
We watch a television drama for 30 minutes or so — Ramadan is the month of drama on Arab television, and Hanna wants to find out what happens to her favorite characters, even though she’s missed most of the series — before the explosions make it impossible to follow the dialogue. I suggest turning over to a local channel to find out what’s happening. Hanna refuses. She says she’s fed up with the sight of corpses and rubble. Finally, she storms into another room.
There’s an influx of newly displaced people coming down the street to the school opposite us. The murmur of their conversations and the cries of their children are audible from my window. They stream past us into the school. These schools are already full, of course. There isn’t room for a single new refugee, let alone hundreds. The man in the United Nations school uses a bullhorn to ask the occupants to try to make room. Ultimately, they have to.
I listen to their stories from my window. The light from missile attacks covers the sky. For a moment the whole neighborhood is illuminated.
We sleep in the corridor of the house, near the stairs. It’s safer there. Once the kids are settled they quickly drop off. Then a bomb strikes nearby and they’re awake again, terrified. Little Jaffa, our youngest, is screaming. But, amazingly, they fall asleep again very quickly afterward.
I lie awake till past 6 a.m., throwing my head down on the pillow in various positions, with no success. The light from bombs comes into the corridor, and stares at me. When I try to close my eyes the light still shines through my eyelids.
Mercifully, it is the sound of Jaffa that wakes me around 10 — the sound of a game she’s playing on my cellphone, a game she plays every morning.
Monday, July 28
Today is Eid. After a month of fasting, Eid is a sigh of relief. The kids get up early, awakened by the hymns and chanting from the minarets of the surrounding mosques, while the sun is still struggling to get out of bed in the east. Normally, at Eid the kids play in the streets, excited by the pocket money from their parents. Eid is what every child waits for all year.
Last night, we all spent about two hours debating what kind of Eid we were going to have. The kids all wanted to celebrate Eid as it should be. This means buying them new clothes, having their hair cut (even if they had it cut just a week before), letting them blow their pocket money on toys and sweets. “It’s Eid!” they insist. “It’s Eid!” That’s their logic. Our argument, Hanna’s and mine, is that there are many children who lost their parents and cannot celebrate Eid this evening, and it would be very upsetting for them to see other children celebrating Eid, while they cannot. What about the displaced people camping in the schools, we say, who don’t have anywhere to live anymore?
Our arguments are falling on deaf ears. I succumb to the pressure and agree to buy them one new piece of clothing each, maybe a haircut. But no sweets, no toys.
Last night, I spent three hours walking through the market. There was a rumor about an extended truce, another 24 hours. Nobody has any real information. The conclusion you come to is that Gazans no longer care if a truce has been declared or not. They will have their own truce on Eid.
Yesterday the market was full of people, mainly buying clothes. A few shops were open selling sweets and chocolates. I could hardly move, it was so packed. I tried to buy the dried, salty fish you’re supposed to have on the morning of Eid. The fish is dried and stuffed with salt months before. You fry it and cook tomatoes in the oil left over from the fish. After a month of fasting you need a salty meal to encourage you to start drinking water again frequently. The key to everything is how you cook the fish. That’s the secret.
We fry the fish this morning, but we have no bread to eat it with. The electricity is out again. Everything in the fridge has to be thrown out: meat, chicken, even vegetables. My father-in-law agrees to set off on his bike to the bakery in the center of the camp. Luckily it’s open, and he returns, after less than one hour in line, laden with warm loaves.
I haven’t drunk cold water for three days. The larger supermarkets have their own generators, but they don’t waste the power on cold drinks. My friend Faraj told me that another friend, Wafi, had brought some ice from relatives living in an area that still had electricity. He gave Faraj some. I asked him if he could spare me some for a glass of water.
Quarrels broke out last night in the market. Displaced persons from Beit Hanoun felt that the shops selling sweets and chocolates were being insensitive. Shouts were heard, punches thrown. No one was badly injured. We managed to separate the aggressors on both sides and get them to explain their position on the matter. We kept repeating a common greeting — “Thank God Eid came while you are safe” — to remind them of how lucky they were.
Tuesday, July 29
To see death — to touch it with still-living flesh, to smell its saliva, to feel it in your hands, around you, on every corner of the street. To witness its brutality, its vulgarity, its mercilessness. To watch as bodies are scattered about in piles in front of you, like discarded exam papers at the end of a school term. One leg here, one arm there, an eye, a severed head, fingers, hair, intestines.
We are having lunch. We have barely started, when the sound of the tanks’ mortars thunders through the house. I jump to the window, convinced that the tank is next door. It’s actually 75 yards away. I catch the flash of a second missile just as it lands and watch the first billows of smoke rising above the rooftops. The targeted house is right beside the mosque my father-in-law has just gone to pray in. I run there, forgetting that the shelling is still going on.
When I get there, the mosque, mysteriously, is closed and appears unscathed. Then, along with everyone else on the street, I turn toward the targeted house. The building has been devastated. Men are already busy collecting pieces of meat that have become separated from the bodies lying all around us. I see scattered organs, severed limbs. I have to pick them up. I touch them. We manage to gather five corpses, place them on sheets and carry them to some of the private cars that have arrived to offer help.
An F-16 comes in close again, booming above us, terrifying us all over again. Several women from the surrounding neighborhood have barely been able to drag their children off the street, after the first attack. Another explosion. It seems the F-16 has come back for more. We run like the wind in the fields. There are about a hundred of us. There are women running alongside me as well as men, holding on to their clothes and their head scarves as they run, running as fast as the rest of us. The kids are crying, trying to keep up with their mothers.
I run into my father-in-law at the end of a narrow street. He is trying to call for more ambulances. I use my phone to call my mother-in-law to reassure her that her husband is safe. The network is busy. Finally, ambulances start to arrive. Someone shouts angrily at one of the drivers that they’re too late. The driver replies that there are targets all over Jabaliya: “We can’t respond to every call at the same time!”
We return to the site of the second attack with the ambulance drivers, and once again offer to help them gather remains. One driver seems to be in charge, and explains that we should leave the scene and let his team do their work alone. The narrow street leading to the new bomb site needs to be cleared of people so ambulances can get down it. We move into the main street, but the alleyway is still too narrow for the larger ambulances to fit.
I open the back and side doors of the ambulance, then return to help carry the stretchers, laden with heaps of torn flesh. Everything merges with everything else. I push my stretcher load deep inside the ambulance.
The long black hair of a woman is carried, all in one clump, with part of her head still attached. The hair is matted with blood like the hide of a sheep when it’s just been skinned. The remains of her body are like pieces of broken glass. We carry the remaining stretchers to the ambulance, heave them inside, and then slam the door shut. We hit the side of the ambulance, and it speeds away. On that stretcher there were two corpses merging into one pile of flesh. My whole body was dripping wet.
I return home. Hanna is frightened when she sees the bloodstain on my white pullover. She checks me all over to make sure it isn’t from some unnoticed injury. She makes me remove my pullover and starts to wash it immediately. She doesn’t want to see a trace of death for a moment longer.
Clouds of thick smoke rise above the eastern edge of the camp, pursued by flames. Strange shapes are cast onto the sky, like the shadows of ghosts, hovering above the camp, waiting, watching.
I take a shower. I wash properly for the first time since the start of the war. I wash every part of my body, every inch. I spend longer than I ever have rubbing the foam of the soap into every corner of my body. I want to wash death clean off me. I want to remove any sign that it might leave on my body. I use every type of soap and shampoo I can find, all five of them. Nobody calls or bangs on the door, wanting to use the bathroom, nobody asks me to finish the longest shower of my life. Nobody complains that this shower might use up the last of the water in the tank.
Wednesday, July 30
Beside me now lies a piece of metal: razor-sharp, a single, twisted edge. It belongs to the rocket that struck the United Nations’ Abu Hussein school this morning, a few yards from my father’s house, killing at least 15 people. The shrapnel sits in front of the school’s door. Violent, even in the way it sits there. When I see it, I flinch, as if it’s about to spring back to life. Carefully, I pick it up, study its horrifying shape. It may have killed someone on its journey, before resting here.
The rooms in the front half of the school look as if they’ve imploded. Five houses opposite the school were completely destroyed. In the first room of the school scores of displaced people had been taking shelter — people who had already escaped death back in Beit Lahiya. Without doubt, like all of us last night, they would have been wide-awake. Like the rest of us they would have been sitting there imagining the rocket was about to hit their room. Everyone expects Death, every night. He’s a visitor who observes no rules, respects no codes of behavior.
In the morning, Hanna tells me there’s a rumor going around that they’ve hit one of the schools. Her worry is that our friends from Beit Hanoun will have been affected. Mostafa, my second son, thinks it was his school that was hit. He wants to come with me to see his classroom, inspect the damage. I refuse, point-blank. He asks if I can take a photo of his classroom so he can see what’s happened to his desk. I agree to this.
As it turns out the attack was not on Mostafa’s school, but on another, a few blocks away. Great hunks of concrete sit scattered around it when I arrive. Dust covers everything and everyone, making the displaced people still inhabiting it look white-haired and ancient. The water tanks that ought to be up on the roof now squat in the street. Water pipes dangle down from the walls like figures on a gallows. The mattresses that people had been sleeping on look like great sponges, dyed deep red, soaked. Each mattress could just as well be another body part. The cooking pot from which these people had been serving their dinner sits exactly as it was, with good food still in it. But no one will eat from it now.
The pair of shoes in the corner, the blackboard, the huge tree in front of the school, the clothes hanging out to dry in the playground, the benches under the tree, the notice board in the school assembly point, the clay pot in the front room, the blankets, the toilets, the broken tiles, the paintings on the walls of every classroom, the kids’ toys — each and every one of these has the imprint of death on it.
Part of my extended family has taken refuge in this school. I remember this fact only in the middle of wandering through the damage. I have two aunts who live in the very north of Beit Lahiya. Their sons and daughters, and their families in turn, had sought refuge in this school. I ask about them. They are not here. I phone my dad and ask if he has news about them. He informs me that my cousin Fathia’s husband and her son were injured and have been hospitalized. The rest of the relatives have returned to their homes near the border.
Many of the donkeys brought by the refugees were killed by the strike. Half a dozen lie in the road in front of the school. Their stomachs and intestines hang from their bellies. A seventh donkey is still alive, though critically injured.
Diab, my childhood friend, lives across the street from this school. I visit him and find him weeping at the loss of his cousins. I knew his cousins; they were our neighbors. With tears still rolling down his cheeks, Diab takes me to see the three ruined houses.
The fig tree in front of the homes is painted white with dust. Branches lie on the ground with fruit still on them, mocking us. Diab leads me through to a small room, where he clears a path through scattered children’s toys and points to the corner, where a 2-year-old boy was found, still alive. A little girl elsewhere in the house shouts happily that the big clock on the wall is still intact. This old clock hangs on the wall at the end of a very long, thin living room. The girl’s happiness is the only positive moment of the entire day.
The rest of the family has been injured. One boy is still hysterical after seeing the flesh of his father and his uncle, mixed together like meat in a butcher’s shop. They have yet to calm him down.
It is now the morning after perhaps the most difficult night of the war. The sky was lit up all night and the shells never stopped. As usual, it was all so close. As usual, we did not know where each rocket fell, exactly. We simply felt their reverberations and guessed where they might be coming from. My head was on the pillow for hours, but sleep never came.
Shells fell around us, closer and closer. Jaffa woke up at one point, when the explosions were closest. That was when they hit the United Nations school. The light in the sky caught her attention, and she said sleepily, “Papa, light!” and pointed to the sky. She did not know that death was carried in that light.
Now morning is here and everything is different. You see death on the faces of the people in the street. You feel it. This piece of metal — this fragment of a rocket in front of me, that has killed more than 15 innocent people — it reminds me of the light that Jaffa pointed to. It tells me Death is still around us, that it is not satisfied yet.
Thursday, July 31
Last night was the calmest since the start of the war. We heard very few bombs, and saw only the occasional flash or surveillance balloon in the sky. Except for one enormous, deafening boom at the end of the night, nothing worried us. The focus of the onslaught might have moved to other areas of the Strip, Rafah perhaps.
We slept as we hadn’t slept in a month. The electricity came on just before 11 p.m., so we had the pleasure of watching TV for a few hours. We watched a movie, then all fell asleep together. We started the night scared, as always, imagining the shells hitting us directly, cutting us all to shreds. I was looking at my legs, as I had the night before, imagining them and the limbs of my children chopped up and mixed up, like meat. Amid these familiar thoughts, I fell asleep.
When I wake up I don’t want to listen to the radio or phone a friend to ask about the latest developments. I want the morning to be like a normal morning, before the war. To start my day with a cup of coffee, to sip it in private for an hour. To look down from my window and watch the people in the street, to feel the pulse of the city around me.
I suggest to Hanna that we have a proper breakfast: hummus, foul, falafel. But after an hour of visiting all the restaurants in the neighborhood, my son Mostafa returns with the news that falafel can no longer be bought in Jabaliya camp. My father-in-law explains that this might be because falafel requires a lot of boiled oil, which in turn requires lots of gas. As there is still no clue when the war might end, everyone is saving every gas cylinder they have. Hanna suggests that the lack of parsley in the market might be another cause; parsley is essential for making good falafel.
My mother-in-law is watering her plants despite the shortage of water in the tanks. She keeps her plants in the living room in different pots arranged around the room. They make the house calmer, greener. There are 13 kinds of plants in this garden. Every morning she waters them and checks each leaf, remembers each one, and notices whenever a new leaf buds into life. She knows their length and their sheen. She always finds water for them.
A minute later she is complaining that our oldest child, Talal, is taking too much time in the shower. She finishes watering her plants and starts shouting at Talal to finish. From behind the door, he explains that he has only just started. She asks him to get out. It is enough to spend five minutes under the shower. Soon her plants are appreciating the water soaking into the soil around their roots.
I shave. The bathroom is very dark. The light coming from the little window is too feeble to shave in. I turn on the flashlight, and start shaving one-handed, shining the light at my jaw with the other hand. A Gaza TV journalist phones, making sure I will be ready in 30 minutes for an interview — they’re going to send me a taxi. After 10 minutes he calls to apologize that the taxi company has refused to send taxis to Jabaliya. They’re afraid their cars will be hit; Jabaliya is now a no-go zone.
I phone my friend Aed to ask about this. He confirms that he, too, has passed a very calm night, and he slept well. Aed has moved from his place on the north beach to his sister’s house in the quarter of Gaza City called Al Nasser. He asks me about Berri, the waiter at the Karawan Cafe — the most famous cafe waiter in Gaza. He is the best. “Is it open?” he asks, about the cafe. We decide to meet up and check. If not, we will look for another place to spend the morning. We have to recapture some normality, to reclaim some of the life we had before
In the evening, I meet Aed and suggest we try to find a restaurant somewhere that’s still serving falafel. But everywhere seems closed. Eventually, we try one called Akila, on Al-Wahda Street. It’s open and we both tuck in joyfully. Afterward we drive into the city, and try to take in the destruction on all sides. Broken glass seems to cover every square foot of the city. Few cars pass. Shops remain closed.
Many buildings have completely disappeared, as if a designer somewhere had Photoshopped them out of the picture — the designer being an F-16 pilot, a drone operator, a soldier in a tank.
Unfortunately the Karawan Cafe is closed, and Ranoosh Cafe likewise. There is no place to smoke a water pipe. Aed suggests that we take cold drinks and ice cream and go to our friend Salim’s house nearby. I find a shop, near Salim’s, where I can buy two bottles of cold water and two Cokes. The building opposite Salim’s has been completely destroyed. He hasn’t had water himself for two days. When we arrive he is working with other inhabitants in the building trying to fix the problem.
Salim’s building doesn’t have electricity; however, the building at the end of the street has its own generator. Salim and his neighbors have persuaded the occupants of the building on the end to run a line to theirs, just for a couple of hours, so they can pump water up to the tanks. But their attempts have so far failed as the line doesn’t seem to be connecting properly, or has some kind of break in it. Salim’s 70-year-old mother is fretting that the problem will never be fixed. It isn’t until 8 p.m. that the current is connected.
We eat ice cream, drink the Coke and smoke a water pipe, listening to the sound of the water tank slowly filling. We chat for a couple of hours, and then I leave him thinking about how to ration the water when the tank is full.
On my way back, I see people queuing in the hundreds to buy bread. Then the bombing starts up again and I rush back to Jabaliya. Hanna has been back to our flat to gather fresh clothes. The moment she got there, she tells me, an F-16 struck the building next to it — one surrounded by a small, beautiful orange orchard — destroying both.
Friday, Aug. 1
At the school next door to my father-in-law’s house, a United Nations organizer tells everyone that a three-day truce has been declared, starting from this morning, and the hope is that it will become permanent. He is not clear whether people should go back to their homes.
My kids are arguing with their mother about the usual: permission to go and play with their friends in the PlayStation shop near their grandfather’s house. In their eyes, there is no point in worrying. It is the longest break in the fighting so far, and people are starting to do all kinds of things once more.
On television, we hear of a Palestinian representative who has traveled to Cairo to negotiate the conditions of the cease-fire with the Egyptian government. My mother-in-law asks me, “Do you think they’ll come to an agreement?”
“I hope so,” I reply. She is not happy with my answer. She needs a definite answer. The war must end soon, she concludes, before it becomes a permanent component of our daily lives. When she hears the sound of the door closing behind the kids, she asks Hanna if she is sure it’s safe for them to go. Hanna is not convinced, I know, but says, “Of course.”
From the window of the living room I see hordes of people leaving the school opposite, heading north, west and east back toward their homes. Some have elected to stay, to “wait and see.” And many families have decided to divide in two; half going home to see if things are safe, to check on the house or the farm, the other half (including the children, of course) remaining in the school, should the first half fail to return.
It’s the same logic my friend Faraj is using when he distributes his family every night among different rooms of the house. His family of seven sleeps in three rooms. If a shell lands on one room, other members of the family will survive.
Yesterday, a farmer from the Sheikh Ejleen area, south of Gaza City, explained to me how he sneaked with his family back to the farm each morning at 6, to pick cucumbers, tomatoes, figs and grapes. The farmland is right beside the beach, and they work the fields in the early hours while the warships send missiles over their heads, toward the city. The grapes you get from Sheikh Ejleen are the best grapes you’re ever likely to taste.
Last night was one of the most violent of the war so far. Shells and rockets fell all through the small hours. Each night you become convinced the explosions are getting closer and closer, even if your rational brain knows they can’t always be. One of the rhythms of this war we’ve gotten used to is that particularly bad nights are usually followed by a truce, or an attempted truce. So it was a prerequisite that last night would be bad, being the eve of a three-day cease-fire.
It’s now 2 p.m. and my father-in-law is telling me the truce has just broken down. More than 70 people have been killed in Rafah. Hanna phones our oldest boys, Talal and Mostafa, on their cellphones asking them to return immediately.
“But the truce!” they argue.
“There is no truce.”
Saturday, Aug. 2
My throat hurts. It’s excruciatingly dry, and the discomfort has been joined by a pain in my chest and a weakness all over my body. When the sore throat started, Sarif, the pharmacist, told me it was probably sensitivity to all the concrete dust and smoke hanging in the city air.
Sarif is the owner of the Balsam Pharmacy. It is the oldest pharmacy in the camp, a business he inherited from his father. When I asked him two days ago, he assured me that my sore throat was normal given the amount of dust in the air, and told me not to worry. Hanna passed his pharmacy yesterday afternoon, and informed him that my pain was still as bad as ever. He gave her more medicine, which he promised would fix it. Yesterday morning, I could barely get out of bed, I felt so weak. So Hanna gave me the medicine in bed. Only at 3 p.m. did I get up and have something to eat.
My father-in-law informs me that the Israeli army might withdraw from one side of Beit Lahiya tonight. I had felt so sick during the night I wasn’t aware of what was happening. This is one of the miracles of falling sick in the time of war: Sleeping soundly and not noticing or caring about the world as it falls apart around you. That was how I passed last night, in pain but carefree.
But this afternoon I feel a bit more human. So there’s lots of news to catch up on.
My mother-in-law starts by lamenting the misfortune of her nieces, who had to spend the night on the street because of a drone attack. After the first rocket fell in the middle of the night, they fled into the street. They were lucky to be already awake when the first one struck; otherwise, they would not have been able to move fast enough to avoid the second, which hit the room they were in. They picked up their kids and ran. Now my mother-in-law’s brother is hosting some six families at his place, a total guest list of over 100! His house is beginning to resemble one of the United Nations schools.
The main mosque in the center of the camp was hit as well. The muezzin can no longer be heard. People avoid walking anywhere near the mosque now. In the old days, this was the only mosque in the camp. When I was a child I would pray there. It means many things to me; it’s central to my childhood memories and the person I was.
More than a hundred were killed in Rafah last night. This simple town on the border with Egypt, which has been quiet for most of the war, has suddenly become the center of a new wave of attacks. Israel has accused Palestinian soldiers there of capturing a soldier after a battle in which two other Israeli soldiers were killed. The Palestinians denied these accusations, so Israel broke the three-day truce and declared a whole new war on Rafah until the soldier was found. (It turned out he’d been killed in combat.)
Israel has been using local radio channels, hacking into the wavelength, to deliver its messages to Gazans. In the middle of listening to music at my friend Wafi’s house, we hear the broadcast cut short suddenly and the voice of an Israeli general threatening the people of Rafah. Any person walking in the street, any person driving a car will be hit. After the airwaves are given back to the station, we hear a flurry of new reports, including the head of a hospital in Rafah explaining that Israeli shells forced them to evacuate the hospital.
I can hear the sound of my kids playing cards with their grandmother in the next room. She has not felt calm for over a month. Nobody fears war more than she does. And yet she always manages to keep her composure. She is enjoying playing with the kids, despite the cries from little Jaffa.
It would seem that I have acquired a new job title: administrator of the Internet cafe. I spend more than an hour a day using the main, administrative computer in the cafe next to my father’s house. Power comes randomly — sometimes nothing for four days, sometimes only an hour in the middle of the day. I seem to have adjusted to this arbitrary pattern better than most, and have refined the timing of my arrival at the cafe through instinct and intuition.
Each day I’m there and ready, when it comes on, to check my emails, file my writing, and then, if I can, read the newspapers online. The manager of the cafe is very understanding and lets me use his main computer. In return I have to organize his online timetable for the use of other computers in the cafe.
For one shekel, customers can get online for 35 minutes. I have to go to the prepaid box and add their time. Some people prefer an open-ended slot. I simply need to double-click the box that marks that particular computer. I acquire little skills all the time. Customers shout out their requests to start or terminate a session from the front of the cafe, and I click the appropriate box accordingly, and carry on with my work. I have become an Internet cafe boy! The owner uses a huge generator. Most in the neighborhood bring their laptops, flashlights, cellphones to charge from there.
Hanna said that the first thing she wants to do when the war is finished is to go and see the damage in Beit Hanoun and Shujaya. The kids are screaming they want their iPads fixed. I just want to breathe clean air.
Sunday, Aug. 3
It’s an endless game. Nothing but a game. Last night, Israel announced the termination of its operations in some areas. But tonight four people from one family have been killed and others injured while asleep in a house that they fled to in my father’s district. Death followed them from Beit Hanoun, where they had lived peacefully for so many years, and tracked them down in Jabaliya. The rocket struck the very center of the house, bringing the whole block down with it. Concrete, shrapnel, bricks, great twists of iron, shards of glass — all collapsed into the same hole — announcing the end of this family.
The electricity comes on at about 1:30 a.m. Everyone in the house jumps from their beds. This is now a regular custom. All the kids plug in their cellphones to charge them. I plug in my laptop. My father-in-law checks to see if the water tank is empty. If it is, he has to turn the water pump on to fill the tank on the roof. Tonight is one of the few occasions when both the water supply and the electricity are working at the same time.
Water is the only thing that can awaken my father-in-law from a deep slumber. It is his only obsession. In other times, when there was only water and no electricity, he would fill every spare bottle or pot with water so that we had reserves for when the tank was empty. For a couple of hours, he watches and checks on the tank’s levels. My mother-in-law starts washing all the clothes. Everybody tries to make the best of the electricity before it goes off again. We know we have two hours at most.
At the beginning of the war, in the first days of July, you thought this would be for only a few days more. After the first week passed, you told yourself one more week, just one more. Two weeks in, I told my wife Hanna, “Don’t worry, a few days, no more.” You keep shifting your guesses forward and before you know it you’re talking months, and war still looks young and lively. It’s not going anywhere. We may not have many days left, but the war has got plenty of life still in it.
Despite the Israeli army’s announcement that the people of Beit Lahiya and the Bedouin village should return to their homes, most of them don’t return.
Jabaliya has become impossibly overcrowded since displaced people from the northern parts of the Gaza Strip arrived. Every house in the camp is currently hosting three or four families. Thousands of people wander in the streets, their trauma palpable. Some have been blinded, some are having difficulty breathing, some look lost in a kind of trance, some tremble and shake with every step. All of them offer a picture of the catastrophe.
Another funeral passes in the street below. The bodies of three victims are carried on stretchers. You can see from the outline of the flags stretched over them that these aren’t bodies, these are body parts. Slogans are shouted angrily. Then the shouts are swallowed by silence, and all you can feel is pain behind the silence.
While playing in the living room, the kids have broken one of the pots their grandmother keeps her plants in. They were running after each other when one of them threw a pillow at the other and hit the pot. This is the most devastating thing that can happen, from their grandmother’s point of view. The children fall silent, as she moves sadly to fix her plant, which has been uprooted. I say, “It is very young. Not to worry. It’ll be O.K.” She does not reply. She is too busy undoing the wrong.
The hum of drones has returned, I can hear them hovering over our heads, choosing their next prey. It’s very hot. Jaffa is crying. My mother-in-law warns the kids not to touch her blessed plants. I write an essay that starts with the words “We are O.K. in Gaza.” But it’s a lie, we are never O.K. Nonetheless, hope is what you have even at the worst of times. It is the only thing that can’t be stripped from you. The moment you give it up you lose the most precious thing that nature and your humanity have endowed you with. Hope is your only weapon.
Atef Abu Saif is a political scientist, a novelist and the editor of “The Book of Gaza,” an anthology of stories by Palestinian writers. These essays were written in the Jabaliya refugee camp, Gaza Strip, where he and his family live.
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10) Behind Toledo’s Water Crisis, a Long-Troubled Lake Erie
Flooded by tides of phosphorus washed from fertilized farms, cattle feedlots and leaky septic systems, the most intensely developed of the Great Lakes is increasingly being choked each summer by thick mats of algae, much of it poisonous. What plagues Toledo and, experts say, potentially all 11 million lakeside residents, is increasingly a serious problem across the United States.But while there is talk of action — and particularly in Ohio, real action — there also is widespread agreement that efforts to address the problem have fallen woefully short. And the troubles are not restricted to the Great Lakes. Poisonous algae are found in polluted inland lakes from Minnesota to Nebraska to California, and even in the glacial-era kettle ponds of Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
Algae fed by phosphorus runoff from mid-America farms helped create an oxygen-free dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico last summer that was nearly as big as New Jersey. The Chesapeake Bay regularly struggles with a similar problem.
When Mayor D. Michael Collins told Toledo residents on Monday that it was again safe to use the city’s water, he was only replaying a scene from years past. Carroll Township, another lakefront Ohio community of 2,000 residents, suspended water use last September amid the second-largest algae bloom ever measured; the largest, which stretched 120 miles from Toledo to Cleveland, was in 2011. Summertime bans on swimming and other recreational activities are so routine that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency maintains a website on harmful algae bloom.
Five years ago this month, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and state water authorities issued a joint report on pollution of the nation’s waterways by phosphorus and other nutrients titled “An Urgent Call to Action.”
“Unfortunately, very little action has come from that,” said Jon Devine, the senior lawyer for the water program at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington.
“When we bring this subject up for conversation with the regulators, everyone sort of walks out of the room,” Donald Moline, the Toledo commissioner of public utilities, said in an interview on Monday. “The whole drinking-water community has been raising these issues, and so far we haven’t seen a viable response.”
Lake Erie’s travails — and now, Toledo’s — are but the most visible manifestation of a pollution problem that has grown as easily as it has defied solution. Once the shining success of the environmental movement — Lake Erie was mocked as dead in the 1960s, then revived by clean-water rules — it has sunk into crisis again as urbanization and industrial agriculture have spawned new and potent sources of phosphorus runoff.
In Lake Erie’s case, the phosphorus feeds a poisonous algae whose toxin, called microcystin, causes diarrhea, vomiting and liver-function problems, and readily kills dogs and other small animals that drink contaminated water. Toledo was unlucky: A small bloom of toxic algae happened to form directly over the city’s water-intake pipe in Lake Erie, miles offshore.
Beyond the dangers to people and animals, the algae wreak tens of billions of dollars of damage on commercial fishing and on the recreational and vacation trades. With conservationists and utility officials like Mr. Moline, representatives of those industries have for years called for some way to limit the phosphorus flowing into waterways.
There are practical and political reasons, environmental activists and other say, why it has not happened. The biggest, perhaps, is that the government has few legal options to impose limits — and voluntary limits so far have barely dented the problem.
The federal Clean Water Act is intended to limit pollution from fixed points like industrial outfalls and sewer pipes, but most of the troublesome phosphorus carried into waterways like Lake Erie is spread over thousands of square miles. Addressing so-called nonpoint pollution is mostly left to the states, and in many cases, the states have chosen not to act.
Beyond that, the Supreme Court has questioned the scope of the Clean Water Act in recent years, limiting regulators’ ability to protect wetlands and other watery areas that are not directly connected to streams, or that do not flow year-round.
Wetlands, in particular, filter phosphorus from runoff water before it reaches rivers and lakes. A federal Environmental Protection Agency proposal to restore part of the Clean Water Act’s authority has come under fire in Congress, largely from Republicans who view it as an infringement on private rights and a threat to farmers.Some efforts to control pollution have found powerful opponents in agriculture and the fertilizer industry, which, for example, has fought limits on lawn fertilizers in Florida towns and on overall pollution of the Chesapeake Bay. The principal industry lobby, the Fertilizer Institute, is part of a coalition of industry and agricultural interests that are opposing federal efforts to restore some coverage of the Clean Water Act.
With Lake Erie in peril, both Ohio and federal authorities have taken some steps to rein in phosphorus pollution. Some of the $1.6 billion that Congress has allotted for a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative has gone to create wetlands and teach farmers ways to reduce fertilizer use and runoff. The Ohio government runs a Lake Erie Phosphorus Task Force that brings together interests from conservation to agriculture to industry to devise solutions to rising pollution.
But as in many places, Ohio has stopped well short of actually ordering the sources of phosphorus runoff to cap their production. A hefty Nutrient Reduction Strategy paper issued last year cites sheaves of demonstration projects, voluntary phosphorus reduction goals and watershed plans, but makes no mention of enforceable limits on pollution.
A spokesman for Gov. John R. Kasich, a Republican, did not return a call seeking comment on the state’s phosphorus initiatives.
The legislature this year passed a law requiring farmers and other major fertilizer users to apply for licenses and undergo certification, but limits control of pollution to voluntary measures.
All mention of one contributor to the pollution problem — so-called confined animal feeding operations, the industrial-size feedlots that produce manure en masse — was stripped from the version that was enacted.
Environmental advocates say they agree that voluntary measures to limit phosphorus pollution, such as targeting fertilizer to precisely the locations and amounts that are needed, are a big part of any solution.
“We’ve worked with farmers, and we know it works,” said Jordan Lubetkin, a Great Lakes spokesman for the National Wildlife Federation. “Voluntary programs will take you so far. But at the end of the day, you need numeric standards. You’ve got to limit the amount of phosphorus coming into the lake. That’s why you see what we’re seeing in Toledo.”
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C.
SPECIAL APPEALS AND
ONGOING
CAMPAIGNS
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Free the Whistle-Blowers
An Appeal from Daniel Ellsberg
I am immensely thankful to both these young whistle-blowers who have so bravely stood up against the powerful forces of the US government in order to reveal corruption, illegal spying and war crimes. They were both motivated by their commitments to democracy and justice. They both chose to reveal information directly to the public, at great cost to themselves, so that citizens and taxpayers could be fully informed of the facts. They also revealed the amazing potential of new technologies to increase public access to information and strengthen democracy. It saddens me that our current political leaders, rather than embracing this potential, have chosen to tighten their strangleholds on power and information, turning away from both progress and justice.
Shockingly, the Obama administration has prosecuted more whistle-blowers under the Espionage Act than every previous president combined. These heroes do not deserve to be thrown in prison or called a traitor for doing the right thing. Obama’s unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of the Espionage Act—as if it were a British-type Official Secrets Act, never intended by Congress and a violation of our First Amendment—and Manning’s 35-year prison sentence will have a chilling effect on future citizens’ willingness to uncover hidden injustices. The government has already brought comparable charges against Snowden.
The only remedy to this chilling precedent, designed to effect government whistle-blowers as a whole, is to overturn the Manning verdict. Given that Manning’s court martial produced the longest trial record in US military history, it will take a top legal team countless hours to prepare their defense. But as an Advisory Board member for the Chelsea Manning Support Network, I was inspired by the way citizens around the world stepped forward to help fund a strong defense during Manning’s trial. I remain hopeful that enough people will recognize the immense importance of these appeals and will contribute to help us finish the struggle we started. That struggle, of course, is for a just political system and freedom for our whistle-blowers.
Chelsea Manning has continued to demonstrate uncommon bravery and character, even from behind bars. With the New York Times Op-Ed she published last month, she has cemented her position as a compelling voice for government reform. Working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq, Manning was privy to a special view of the inner-workings of our military’s propaganda systems. Despite her personal struggles, she felt compelled to share her knowledge of what was happening in Iraq with the Americans people. If the military hadn’t hidden the number of civilian casualties and incidences of torture detailed in the Iraq Logs she released, we would have known far sooner to expect the civil war that has gripped Iraq fully today. Her exposure of US knowledge of the corruption in Tunisia, by the dictator our government supported, was a critical catalyst of the non-violent uprising which toppled that dictator, in turn directly inspiring the occupation of Tahrir Square in Egypt and then the Occupy movement in the US
I personally am inspired by Chelsea Manning as I am by Edward Snowden, which is why I have spent countless hours advocating for both of them. I’m asking you to join me today in supporting what I believe to be one of the most important legal proceedings in our country’s history. We are fortunate to have a truly impressive legal team that has agreed to partner with us. Already, our new appeals attorney Nancy Hollander and her team have begun to research legal strategies, and are collaborating with Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the international news media to highlight the significance of this case.
Chelsea is only 26 now, younger than I was when I learned to recognize the injustices of the Vietnam War. She wishes to complete her education, as I did, and go into public service. Imagine what great things she could both learn and teach the world if she were free. Now imagine if our corrupt government officials are allowed to get their way, holding her behind bars until life has almost passed her by, and extraditing Snowden to suffer the same outcome. What a sad result that would be for our country and our humanity.
I have been waiting forty years for a legal process to at long last prove the unconstitutionality of the Espionage Act as applied to whistle-blowers (the Supreme Court has never yet addressed this issue). This appeals process can accomplish that, and it can reduce Chelsea’s sentence by decades. But unfortunately, without your help today it will not happen. We must raise $100,000 by September 1st, to ensure that Chelsea’s team have the resources to fully fight this stage of the appeals process.
Unless Manning’s conviction is overturned in appeals, Snowden and many other whistle-blowers, today and in the future, will face a similar fate. And with them will perish one of the most critical lifelines for our democracy. But you can join me in fighting back. I’m asking you to do it for Chelsea, to do it for Snowden, and to do it because it’s the right thing to do to preserve our democracy. We can only win this great struggle with your help. Please contribute to help us fund Chelsea’s legal appeals today.
It’s time we band together on the right side of history once again.
Free the Whistle-Blowers
An Appeal from Daniel Ellsberg
July 21, 2014 by Daniel Ellsberg
NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden, a personal hero of mine, has recently filed to renew his asylum in Russia. Exiled thousands of miles from friends and family, he awaits his fate. He learned from the example of another top hero of mine, Chelsea Manning. Manning helped inspire his revelations that if he released his vital information while in this country he would have been held incommunicado in isolation as Chelsea was for over ten months—in Snowden’s case probably for the rest of his life. And facing comparable charges to Chelsea’s, he would have no more chance than Chelsea to have a truly fair trial—being prevented by the prosecution and judge (as I was, forty years ago) from even raising arguments of public interest or lack of harm in connection with his disclosures. Contrary to the hollow advice of Hillary Clinton or John Kerry, if he were to return to America he would not be able to “make his case” neither “in court,” nor “to the public” from a prison cell.I am immensely thankful to both these young whistle-blowers who have so bravely stood up against the powerful forces of the US government in order to reveal corruption, illegal spying and war crimes. They were both motivated by their commitments to democracy and justice. They both chose to reveal information directly to the public, at great cost to themselves, so that citizens and taxpayers could be fully informed of the facts. They also revealed the amazing potential of new technologies to increase public access to information and strengthen democracy. It saddens me that our current political leaders, rather than embracing this potential, have chosen to tighten their strangleholds on power and information, turning away from both progress and justice.
Shockingly, the Obama administration has prosecuted more whistle-blowers under the Espionage Act than every previous president combined. These heroes do not deserve to be thrown in prison or called a traitor for doing the right thing. Obama’s unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of the Espionage Act—as if it were a British-type Official Secrets Act, never intended by Congress and a violation of our First Amendment—and Manning’s 35-year prison sentence will have a chilling effect on future citizens’ willingness to uncover hidden injustices. The government has already brought comparable charges against Snowden.
The only remedy to this chilling precedent, designed to effect government whistle-blowers as a whole, is to overturn the Manning verdict. Given that Manning’s court martial produced the longest trial record in US military history, it will take a top legal team countless hours to prepare their defense. But as an Advisory Board member for the Chelsea Manning Support Network, I was inspired by the way citizens around the world stepped forward to help fund a strong defense during Manning’s trial. I remain hopeful that enough people will recognize the immense importance of these appeals and will contribute to help us finish the struggle we started. That struggle, of course, is for a just political system and freedom for our whistle-blowers.
Chelsea Manning has continued to demonstrate uncommon bravery and character, even from behind bars. With the New York Times Op-Ed she published last month, she has cemented her position as a compelling voice for government reform. Working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq, Manning was privy to a special view of the inner-workings of our military’s propaganda systems. Despite her personal struggles, she felt compelled to share her knowledge of what was happening in Iraq with the Americans people. If the military hadn’t hidden the number of civilian casualties and incidences of torture detailed in the Iraq Logs she released, we would have known far sooner to expect the civil war that has gripped Iraq fully today. Her exposure of US knowledge of the corruption in Tunisia, by the dictator our government supported, was a critical catalyst of the non-violent uprising which toppled that dictator, in turn directly inspiring the occupation of Tahrir Square in Egypt and then the Occupy movement in the US
I personally am inspired by Chelsea Manning as I am by Edward Snowden, which is why I have spent countless hours advocating for both of them. I’m asking you to join me today in supporting what I believe to be one of the most important legal proceedings in our country’s history. We are fortunate to have a truly impressive legal team that has agreed to partner with us. Already, our new appeals attorney Nancy Hollander and her team have begun to research legal strategies, and are collaborating with Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the international news media to highlight the significance of this case.
Chelsea is only 26 now, younger than I was when I learned to recognize the injustices of the Vietnam War. She wishes to complete her education, as I did, and go into public service. Imagine what great things she could both learn and teach the world if she were free. Now imagine if our corrupt government officials are allowed to get their way, holding her behind bars until life has almost passed her by, and extraditing Snowden to suffer the same outcome. What a sad result that would be for our country and our humanity.
I have been waiting forty years for a legal process to at long last prove the unconstitutionality of the Espionage Act as applied to whistle-blowers (the Supreme Court has never yet addressed this issue). This appeals process can accomplish that, and it can reduce Chelsea’s sentence by decades. But unfortunately, without your help today it will not happen. We must raise $100,000 by September 1st, to ensure that Chelsea’s team have the resources to fully fight this stage of the appeals process.
Unless Manning’s conviction is overturned in appeals, Snowden and many other whistle-blowers, today and in the future, will face a similar fate. And with them will perish one of the most critical lifelines for our democracy. But you can join me in fighting back. I’m asking you to do it for Chelsea, to do it for Snowden, and to do it because it’s the right thing to do to preserve our democracy. We can only win this great struggle with your help. Please contribute to help us fund Chelsea’s legal appeals today.
It’s time we band together on the right side of history once again.
Daniel Ellsberg
Please contribute to help us fund Chelsea’s legal appeals today!
Learn now how you can write a letter to be included in Chelsea Manning’s official application for clemency!
Please share this information to friends and community leaders, urging them to add their voice to this important effort before it's too late.
Please share this information to friends and community leaders, urging them to add their voice to this important effort before it's too late.
http://www.privatemanning.org/pardonpetition
Help
us continue to cover 100%
of Pvt. Manning's legal fees! Donate today.
of Pvt. Manning's legal fees! Donate today.
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38591
COURAGE
TO RESIST
http://couragetoresist.org
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
http://couragetoresist.org
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
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Only an Innocent Man Would Voluntarily Return
to Prison to Fight Against his Life Sentence
and For Exoneration —
That Courageous Man is Lorenzo Johnson.
The PA Attorney General’s Office Agrees to Investigate New Facts and Witnesses —
Send Your Message Now to PA AG
Kathleen Kane: Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson!
On January 29, 2014 Lorenzo Johnson’s attorney, Michael Wiseman, met with representatives of PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane to discuss the new evidence of Lorenzo Johnson’s innocence contained in legal filings now pending in the Pennsylvania courts. This includes affidavits confirming Johnson’s presence in New York City at the time of the Harrisburg murder and the identity of the actual killers, as well as police and prosecutorial misconduct.
Attorney Wiseman said Kane’s office promised to investigate these new facts in order to assess whether they merit the relief that Lorenzo Johnson seeks in his PCRA petition.
Speaking to AP reporter Mary Claire Dale on February 11, 2014 Wiseman said, “We believe the witnesses we presented to them are credible, and give a coherent version of the events. I take them at their word, that they’re going to do a straightforward, honest review.” Kane spokesman Joe Peters confirmed the meeting to AP “but said the office won’t comment on the new evidence until the court filing,” (referring to the March 31, 2014 date for the AG’s response to Johnson’s October 2013 court filing).
It is the Office of the PA Attorney General that is responsible for the false prosecution of Lorenzo Johnson from trial through appeals. And just a few months ago, the Attorney General’s office opposed a federal petition based on this new evidence saying there was no prima facie claim for relief. This resulted in the denial of Lorenzo Johnson’s Motion to File a Second Writ of Habeas Corpus in the federal court.
On December 18, 2013 a press conference called by the Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson protested these actions of the PA Attorney General and delivered petitions demanding dismissal of the charges and immediate freedom for Lorenzo. Tazza, Lorenzo’s wife, declared, “1,000 signatures means we are not in this alone…I won't stop until he’s home. There is nothing and no one that can stop me from fighting for what’s right.”
This is Lorenzo Johnson’s second fight for his innocence and freedom. In January 2012, after 16 years of court battles to prove his innocence, a federal appeals court held his sentence was based on insufficient evidence – a judicial acquittal. Lorenzo was freed from prison. But after a petition filed by the PA Attorney General the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated Lorenzo Johnson’s conviction and he was re-incarcerated to continue serving a life sentence without parole for a murder he did not commit.
This innocent man drove himself back to prison in June 2012—after less than five months of freedom—leaving his new wife and family, construction job and advocacy on behalf of others wrongfully convicted. The reason Lorenzo Johnson voluntarily returned to prison? Because he is innocent and fighting for full vindication.
In the words of Lorenzo Johnson, “A second is too long to be in prison when you are Innocent, so eighteen years … is Intolerable.”
Add your voices and demand again: Dismiss the charges against Lorenzo Johnson. Free Lorenzo NOW!
SIGN LORENZO JOHNSON'S FREEDOM PETITION
CONTRIBUTE TO HELP TAZZA AND THE OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS VISIT LORENZO AND STAY IN CONTACT!
Write: Lorenzo Johnson
DF 1036
SCI Mahanoy
301 Morea Rd.
Frackville, PA 17932
Email: Lorenzo Johnson through JPAY.com code:
Lorenzo Johnson DF 1036 PA DOC
www.FreeLorenzoJohnson.org
Only an Innocent Man Would Voluntarily Return
to Prison to Fight Against his Life Sentence
and For Exoneration —
That Courageous Man is Lorenzo Johnson.
The PA Attorney General’s Office Agrees to Investigate New Facts and Witnesses —
Send Your Message Now to PA AG
Kathleen Kane: Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson!
On January 29, 2014 Lorenzo Johnson’s attorney, Michael Wiseman, met with representatives of PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane to discuss the new evidence of Lorenzo Johnson’s innocence contained in legal filings now pending in the Pennsylvania courts. This includes affidavits confirming Johnson’s presence in New York City at the time of the Harrisburg murder and the identity of the actual killers, as well as police and prosecutorial misconduct.
Attorney Wiseman said Kane’s office promised to investigate these new facts in order to assess whether they merit the relief that Lorenzo Johnson seeks in his PCRA petition.
Speaking to AP reporter Mary Claire Dale on February 11, 2014 Wiseman said, “We believe the witnesses we presented to them are credible, and give a coherent version of the events. I take them at their word, that they’re going to do a straightforward, honest review.” Kane spokesman Joe Peters confirmed the meeting to AP “but said the office won’t comment on the new evidence until the court filing,” (referring to the March 31, 2014 date for the AG’s response to Johnson’s October 2013 court filing).
It is the Office of the PA Attorney General that is responsible for the false prosecution of Lorenzo Johnson from trial through appeals. And just a few months ago, the Attorney General’s office opposed a federal petition based on this new evidence saying there was no prima facie claim for relief. This resulted in the denial of Lorenzo Johnson’s Motion to File a Second Writ of Habeas Corpus in the federal court.
On December 18, 2013 a press conference called by the Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson protested these actions of the PA Attorney General and delivered petitions demanding dismissal of the charges and immediate freedom for Lorenzo. Tazza, Lorenzo’s wife, declared, “1,000 signatures means we are not in this alone…I won't stop until he’s home. There is nothing and no one that can stop me from fighting for what’s right.”
This is Lorenzo Johnson’s second fight for his innocence and freedom. In January 2012, after 16 years of court battles to prove his innocence, a federal appeals court held his sentence was based on insufficient evidence – a judicial acquittal. Lorenzo was freed from prison. But after a petition filed by the PA Attorney General the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated Lorenzo Johnson’s conviction and he was re-incarcerated to continue serving a life sentence without parole for a murder he did not commit.
This innocent man drove himself back to prison in June 2012—after less than five months of freedom—leaving his new wife and family, construction job and advocacy on behalf of others wrongfully convicted. The reason Lorenzo Johnson voluntarily returned to prison? Because he is innocent and fighting for full vindication.
In the words of Lorenzo Johnson, “A second is too long to be in prison when you are Innocent, so eighteen years … is Intolerable.”
Add your voices and demand again: Dismiss the charges against Lorenzo Johnson. Free Lorenzo NOW!
SIGN LORENZO JOHNSON'S FREEDOM PETITION
CONTRIBUTE TO HELP TAZZA AND THE OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS VISIT LORENZO AND STAY IN CONTACT!
Write: Lorenzo Johnson
DF 1036
SCI Mahanoy
301 Morea Rd.
Frackville, PA 17932
Email: Lorenzo Johnson through JPAY.com code:
Lorenzo Johnson DF 1036 PA DOC
www.FreeLorenzoJohnson.org
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U.S.
Court of Appeals Rules Against Lorenzo Johnson’s
New Legal Challenge to His Frame-up Conviction!
Demand the PA Attorney General Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson, Now!
New Legal Challenge to His Frame-up Conviction!
Demand the PA Attorney General Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson, Now!
The
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit denied Lorenzo Johnson’s motion to
file a Second Habeas Corpus Petition. The order contained the outrageous
declaration that Johnson hadn’t made a “prima facie case” that he had new
evidence of his innocence. This not only puts a legal obstacle in Johnson’s
path as his fight for freedom makes its way (again) through the state and
federal courts—but it undermines the newly filed Pennsylvania state appeal that
is pending in the Court of Common Pleas.
Stripped
of “legalese,” the court’s October 15, 2013 order says Johnson’s new
evidence was not brought into court soon enough—although it was the prosecution
and police who withheld evidence and coerced witnesses into lying or not coming
forward with the truth! This, despite over fifteen years and rounds of legal
battles to uncover the evidence of government misconduct. This is a set-back
for Lorenzo Johnson’s renewed fight for his freedom, but Johnson is even more
determined as his PA state court appeal continues.
Increased
public support and protest is needed. The fight for Lorenzo Johnson’s freedom
is not only a fight for this courageous man and family. The fight for Lorenzo
Johnson is also a fight for all the innocent others who have been framed and
are sitting in the slow death of prison. The PA Attorney General is directly
pursuing the charges against Lorenzo, despite the evidence of his innocence and
the corruption of the police. Free Lorenzo Johnson, Now!
—Rachel
Wolkenstein, Esq.
October 25, 2013
For
more on the federal court and PA state court legal filings.
Hear
Mumia’s latest commentary, “Cat Cries”
Go
to: www.FreeLorenzoJohnson.org for more information, to sign the petition, and
how to help.
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SAVE
CCSF!
Posted
on August 25, 2013
Cartoon
by Anthonty Mata for CCSF Guardsman
DOE
CAMPAIGN
We
are working to ensure that the ACCJC’s authority is not renewed by the
Department of Education this December when they are up for their 5-year
renewal. Our campaign made it possible for over 50 Third Party Comments to be
sent to the DOE re: the ACCJC. Our next step in this campaign is to send a
delegation from CCSF to Washington, D.C. to give oral comments at the hearing
on December 12th. We expect to have an array of forces aligned on the other
side who have much more money and resources than we do.
So
please support this effort to get ACCJC authority revoked!
LEGAL
CAMPAIGN
Save
CCSF members have been meeting with Attorney Dan Siegel since last May to
explore legal avenues to fight the ACCJC. After much consideration, and
consultation with AFT 2121’s attorney as well as the SF City Attorney’s office,
Dan has come up with a legal strategy that is complimentary to what is already
being pursued. In fact, AFT 2121’s attorney is encouraging us to go forward.
The
total costs of pursuing this (depositions, etc.) will be substantially more
than $15,000. However, Dan is willing to do it for a fixed fee of $15,000. He
will not expect a retainer, i.e. payment in advance, but we should start
payments ASAP. If we win the ACCJC will have to pay our costs.
PLEASE
HELP BOTH OF THESE IMPORTANT EFFORTS!
Checks
can be made out to Save CCSF Coalition with “legal” in the memo line and sent
to:
Save
CCSF Coalition
2132
Prince St.
Berkeley, CA 94705
Or
you may donate online: http://www.gofundme.com/4841ns
http://www.saveccsf.org/
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16 Years in Solitary Confinement Is Like a "Living Tomb"
American
Civil Liberties Union petition to end long-term solitary confinement:
California
Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard: We stand with the prisoners on hunger
strike. We urge you to comply with the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in
America’s Prisons 2006 recommendations regarding an end to long-term solitary
confinement.
In
California, hundreds of prisoners have been held in solitary for more than a
decade – some for infractions as trivial as reading Machiavelli's "The
Prince."
Gabriel
Reyes describes the pain of being isolated for at least 22 hours a day for the
last 16 years:
“Unless
you have lived it, you cannot imagine what it feels like to be by yourself,
between four cold walls, with little concept of time…. It is a living tomb …’ I
have not been allowed physical contact with any of my loved ones since 1995…I
feel helpless and hopeless. In short, I am being psychologically tortured.”
That’s
why over 30,000 prisoners in California began a hunger strike – the biggest the
state has ever seen. They’re refusing food to protest prisoners being held for
decades in solitary and to push for other changes to improve their basic
conditions.
California
Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard has tried to dismiss the strikers and
refuses to negotiate, but the media pressure is building through the strike. If
tens of thousands of us take action, we can help keep this issue in the
spotlight so that Secretary Beard can’t ignore the inhumane treatment of
prisoners.
Sign
the petition urging Corrections Secretary Beard to end the use of long-term
solitary confinement.
Solitary
is such an extreme form of punishment that a United Nations torture rapporteur
called for an international ban on the practice except in rare occasions.
Here’s why:
The
majority of the 80,000 people held in solitary in this country are severely
mentally ill or because of a minor infraction (it’s a myth that it’s only for
violent prisoners)
Even
for people with stable mental health, solitary causes severe psychological
reactions, often leading people to attempt suicide
It
jeopardizes public safety because prisoners held in solitary have a harder time
reintegrating into society.
And
to add insult to injury, the hunger strikers are now facing retaliation – their
lawyers are being restricted from visiting and the strikers are being punished.
But the media continues to write about the hunger strike and we can help keep
the pressure on Secretary Beard by signing this petition.
Sign
the petition urging Corrections Secretary Beard to end the use of long-term
solitary confinement.
Our
criminal justice system should keep communities safe and treat people fairly.
The use of solitary confinement undermines both of these goals – but little by
little, we can help put a stop to such cruelty.
Thank
you,
Anthony
for the ACLU Action team
P.S.
The hunger strikers have developed five core demands to address their basic
conditions, the main one being an end to long-term solitary confinement. They
are:
-End
group punishment – prisoners say that officials often punish groups to address
individual rule violations
-Abolish
the debriefing policy, which is often demanded in return for better food or
release from solitary
-End
long-term solitary confinement
-Provide
adequate and nutritious food
-Expand
or provide constructive programming and privileges for indefinite SHU inmates
Sources
“Solitary
- and anger - in California's prisons.” Los Angeles Times July 13, 2013
“Pelican
Bay Prison Hunger-Strikers' Stories: Gabriel Reyes.” TruthOut July 9, 2013
“Solitary
confinement should be banned in most cases, UN expert says.” UN News October
18, 2011
"Stop
Solitary - Two Pager" ACLU.org
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What
you Didn't know about NYPD's Stop and Frisk program !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rfJHx0Gj6ys#at=990
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Egypt:
The Next President -- a little Egyptian boy speaks his remarkable mind!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeDm2PrNV1I
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Wealth
Inequality in America
[This
is a must see to believe video...bw]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QPKKQnijnsM
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Read
the transcription of hero Bradley Manning's 35-page statement explaining why he
leaked "state secrets" to WikiLeaks.
March
1, 2013
Alternet
The
statement was read by Pfc. Bradley Manning at a providence inquiry for his
formal plea of guilty to one specification as charged and nine specifications
for lesser included offenses. He pled not guilty to 12 other specifications.
This rush transcript was taken by journalist Alexa O'Brien at Thursday's
pretrial hearing and first appeared on Salon.com.
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/bradley-mannings-surprising-statement-court-details-why-he-made-his-historic?akid=10129.229473.UZvQfK&rd=1&src=newsletter802922&t=7
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You
Have the Right to Remain Silent: NLG Guide to Law Enforcement Encounters
Posted
1 day ago on July 27, 2012, 10:28 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Occupy
Wall Street is a nonviolent movement for social and economic justice, but in
recent days disturbing reports have emerged of Occupy-affiliated activists
being targeted by US law enforcement, including agents from the FBI and
Department of Homeland Security. To help ensure Occupiers and allied activists
know their rights when encountering law enforcement, we are publishing in full
the National Lawyers Guild's booklet: You Have the Right to Remain Silent. The
NLG provides invaluable support to the Occupy movement and other activists –
please click here to support the NLG.
We
strongly encourage all Occupiers to read and share the information provided
below. We also recommend you enter the NLG's national hotline number
(888-654-3265) into your cellphone (if you have one) and keep a copy handy.
This information is not a substitute for legal advice. You should contact the
NLG or a criminal defense attorney immediately if you have been visited by the
FBI or other law enforcement officials. You should also alert your relatives,
friends, co-workers and others so that they will be prepared if they are
contacted as well.
You
Have the Right to Remain Silent: A Know Your Rights Guide for Law Enforcement
Encounters
What
Rights Do I Have?
Whether
or not you're a citizen, you have rights under the United States Constitution.
The Fifth Amendment gives every person the right to remain silent: not to
answer questions asked by a police officer or government agent. The Fourth
Amendment restricts the government's power to enter and search your home or
workplace, although there are many exceptions and new laws have expanded the
government's power to conduct surveillance. The First Amendment protects your
right to speak freely and to advocate for social change. However, if you are a
non-citizen, the Department of Homeland Security may target you based on your
political activities.
Standing
Up For Free Speech
The
government's crusade against politically-active individuals is intended to
disrupt and suppress the exercise of time-honored free speech activities, such
as boycotts, protests, grassroots organizing and solidarity work. Remember that
you have the right to stand up to the intimidation tactics of FBI agents and
other law enforcement officials who, with political motives, are targeting
organizing and free speech activities. Informed resistance to these tactics and
steadfast defense of your and others' rights can bring positive results. Each
person who takes a courageous stand makes future resistance to government oppression
easier for all. The National Lawyers Guild has a long tradition of standing up
to government repression. The organization itself was labeled a
"subversive" group during the McCarthy Era and was subject to FBI
surveillance and infiltration for many years. Guild attorneys have defended
FBI-targeted members of the Black Panther Party, the American Indian Movement,
and the Puerto Rican independence movement. The NLG exposed FBI surveillance,
infiltration and disruption tactics that were detailed during the 1975-76
COINTELPRO hearings. In 1989 the NLG prevailed in a lawsuit on behalf of
several activist organizations, including the Guild, that forced the FBI to
expose the extent to which it had been spying on activist movements. Under the
settlement, the FBI turned over roughly 400,000 pages of its files on the
Guild, which are now available at the Tamiment Library at New York University.
What
if FBI Agents or Police Contact Me?
What
if an agent or police officer comes to the door?
Do
not invite the agents or police into your home. Do not answer any questions.
Tell the agent that you do not wish to talk with him or her. You can state that
your lawyer will contact them on your behalf. You can do this by stepping
outside and pulling the door behind you so that the interior of your home or
office is not visible, getting their contact information or business cards and
then returning inside. They should cease questioning after this. If the agent
or officer gives a reason for contacting you, take notes and give the
information to your attorney. Anything you say, no matter how seemingly
harmless or insignificant, may be used against you or others in the future.
Lying to or misleading a federal agent is a crime. The more you speak, the more
opportunity for federal law enforcement to find something you said (even if not
intentionally) false and assert that you lied to a federal officer.
Do
I have to answer questions?
You
have the constitutional right to remain silent. It is not a crime to refuse to
answer questions. You do not have to talk to anyone, even if you have been
arrested or are in jail. You should affirmatively and unambiguously state that
you wish to remain silent and that you wish to consult an attorney. Once you
make the request to speak to a lawyer, do not say anything else. The Supreme
Court recently ruled that answering law enforcement questions may be taken as a
waiver of your right to remain silent, so it is important that you assert your
rights and maintain them. Only a judge can order you to answer questions. There
is one exception: some states have "stop and identify" statutes which
require you to provide identity information or your name if you have been
detained on reasonable suspicion that you may have committed a crime. A lawyer
in your state can advise you of the status of these requirements where you
reside.
Do
I have to give my name?
As
above, in some states you can be detained or arrested for merely refusing to
give your name. And in any state, police do not always follow the law, and
refusing to give your name may make them suspicious or more hostile and lead to
your arrest, even without just cause, so use your judgment. Giving a false name
could in some circumstances be a crime.
Do
I need a lawyer?
You
have the right to talk to a lawyer before you decide whether to answer
questions from law enforcement. It is a good idea to talk to a lawyer if you
are considering answering any questions. You have the right to have a lawyer
present during any interview. The lawyer's job is to protect your rights. Once
you tell the agent that you want to talk to a lawyer, he or she should stop
trying to question you and should make any further contact through your lawyer.
If you do not have a lawyer, you can still tell the officer you want to speak to
one before answering questions. Remember to get the name, agency and telephone
number of any investigator who visits you, and give that information to your
lawyer. The government does not have to provide you with a free lawyer unless
you are charged with a crime, but the NLG or another organization may be able
to help you find a lawyer for free or at a reduced rate.
If
I refuse to answer questions or say I want a lawyer, won't it seem like I have
something to hide?
Anything
you say to law enforcement can be used against you and others. You can never
tell how a seemingly harmless bit of information might be used or manipulated
to hurt you or someone else. That is why the right not to talk is a fundamental
right under the Constitution. Keep in mind that although law enforcement agents
are allowed to lie to you, lying to a government agent is a crime. Remaining
silent is not. The safest things to say are "I am going to remain
silent," "I want to speak to my lawyer," and "I do not consent
to a search." It is a common practice for law enforcement agents to try to
get you to waive your rights by telling you that if you have nothing to hide
you would talk or that talking would "just clear things up." The fact
is, if they are questioning you, they are looking to incriminate you or someone
you may know, or they are engaged in political intelligence gathering. You
should feel comfortable standing firm in protection and defense of your rights
and refusing to answer questions.
Can
agents search my home or office?
You
do not have to let police or agents into your home or office unless they have
and produce a valid search warrant. A search warrant is a written court order
that allows the police to conduct a specified search. Interfering with a
warrantless search probably will not stop it and you might get arrested. But
you should say "I do not consent to a search," and call a criminal
defense lawyer or the NLG. You should be aware that a roommate or guest can
legally consent to a search of your house if the police believe that person has
the authority to give consent, and your employer can consent to a search of
your workspace without your permission.
What
if agents have a search warrant?
If
you are present when agents come for the search, you can ask to see the
warrant. The warrant must specify in detail the places to be searched and the
people or things to be taken away. Tell the agents you do not consent to the
search so that they cannot go beyond what the warrant authorizes. Ask if you
are allowed to watch the search; if you are allowed to, you should. Take notes,
including names, badge numbers, what agency each officer is from, where they
searched and what they took. If others are present, have them act as witnesses
to watch carefully what is happening. If the agents ask you to give them
documents, your computer, or anything else, look to see if the item is listed
in the warrant. If it is not, do not consent to them taking it without talking
to a lawyer. You do not have to answer questions. Talk to a lawyer first.
(Note: If agents present an arrest warrant, they may only perform a cursory
visual search of the premises to see if the person named in the arrest warrant
is present.)
Do
I have to answer questions if I have been arrested?
No.
If you are arrested, you do not have to answer any questions. You should
affirmatively and unambiguously state that you wish to assert your right to
remain silent. Ask for a lawyer right away. Do not say anything else. Repeat to
every officer who tries to talk to or question you that you wish to remain
silent and that you wish to speak to a lawyer. You should always talk to a
lawyer before you decide to answer any questions.
What
if I speak to government agents anyway?
Even
if you have already answered some questions, you can refuse to answer other
questions until you have a lawyer. If you find yourself talking, stop. Assert
that you wish to remain silent and that you wish to speak to a lawyer.
What
if the police stop me on the street?
Ask
if you are free to go. If the answer is yes, consider just walking away. If the
police say you are not under arrest, but are not free to go, then you are being
detained. The police can pat down the outside of your clothing if they have
reason to suspect you might be armed and dangerous. If they search any more
than this, say clearly, "I do not consent to a search." They may keep
searching anyway. If this happens, do not resist because you can be charged
with assault or resisting arrest. You do not have to answer any questions. You
do not have to open bags or any closed container. Tell the officers you do not
consent to a search of your bags or other property.
What
if police or agents stop me in my car?
Keep
your hands where the police can see them. If you are driving a vehicle, you
must show your license, registration and, in some states, proof of insurance.
You do not have to consent to a search. But the police may have legal grounds
to search your car anyway. Clearly state that you do not consent. Officers may
separate passengers and drivers from each other to question them, but no one
has to answer any questions.
What
if I am treated badly by the police or the FBI?
Write
down the officer's badge number, name or other identifying information. You
have a right to ask the officer for this information. Try to find witnesses and
their names and phone numbers. If you are injured, seek medical attention and
take pictures of the injuries as soon as you can. Call a lawyer as soon as
possible.
What
if the police or FBI threaten me with a grand jury subpoena if I don't answer
their questions?
A
grand jury subpoena is a written order for you to go to court and testify about
information you may have. It is common for the FBI to threaten you with a
subpoena to get you to talk to them. If they are going to subpoena you, they
will do so anyway. You should not volunteer to speak just because you are
threatened with a subpoena. You should consult a lawyer.
What
if I receive a grand jury subpoena?
Grand
jury proceedings are not the same as testifying at an open court trial. You are
not allowed to have a lawyer present (although one may wait in the hallway and
you may ask to consult with him or her after each question) and you may be asked
to answer questions about your activities and associations. Because of the
witness's limited rights in this situation, the government has frequently used
grand jury subpoenas to gather information about activists and political
organizations. It is common for the FBI to threaten activists with a subpoena
in order to elicit information about their political views and activities and
those of their associates. There are legal grounds for stopping
("quashing") subpoenas, and receiving one does not necessarily mean
that you are suspected of a crime. If you do receive a subpoena, call the NLG
National Hotline at 888-NLG-ECOL (888-654-3265) or call a criminal defense
attorney immediately.
The
government regularly uses grand jury subpoena power to investigate and seek
evidence related to politically-active individuals and social movements. This
practice is aimed at prosecuting activists and, through intimidation and
disruption, discouraging continued activism.
Federal
grand jury subpoenas are served in person. If you receive one, it is critically
important that you retain the services of an attorney, preferably one who
understands your goals and, if applicable, understands the nature of your
political work, and has experience with these issues. Most lawyers are trained
to provide the best legal defense for their client, often at the expense of
others. Beware lawyers who summarily advise you to cooperate with grand juries,
testify against friends, or cut off contact with your friends and political
activists. Cooperation usually leads to others being subpoenaed and
investigated. You also run the risk of being charged with perjury, a felony,
should you omit any pertinent information or should there be inconsistencies in
your testimony.
Frequently
prosecutors will offer "use immunity," meaning that the prosecutor is
prohibited from using your testimony or any leads from it to bring charges
against you. If a subsequent prosecution is brought, the prosecutor bears the
burden of proving that all of its evidence was obtained independent of the
immunized testimony. You should be aware, however, that they will use anything
you say to manipulate associates into sharing more information about you by
suggesting that you have betrayed confidences.
In
front of a grand jury you can "take the Fifth" (exercise your right
to remain silent). However, the prosecutor may impose immunity on you, which
strips you of Fifth Amendment protection and subjects you to the possibility of
being cited for contempt and jailed if you refuse to answer further. In front
of a grand jury you have no Sixth Amendment right to counsel, although you can
consult with a lawyer outside the grand jury room after each question.
What
if I don't cooperate with the grand jury?
If
you receive a grand jury subpoena and elect to not cooperate, you may be held
in civil contempt. There is a chance that you may be jailed or imprisoned for
the length of the grand jury in an effort to coerce you to cooperate. Regular
grand juries sit for a basic term of 18 months, which can be extended up to a
total of 24 months. It is lawful to hold you in order to coerce your
cooperation, but unlawful to hold you as a means of punishment. In rare
instances you may face criminal contempt charges.
What
If I Am Not a Citizen and the DHS Contacts Me?
The
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is now part of the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) and has been renamed and reorganized into: 1. The
Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS); 2. The Bureau of Customs
and Border Protection (CBP); and 3. The Bureau of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE). All three bureaus will be referred to as DHS for the
purposes of this pamphlet.
?
Assert your rights. If you do not demand your rights or if you sign papers
waiving your rights, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may deport you
before you see a lawyer or an immigration judge. Never sign anything without
reading, understanding and knowing the consequences of signing it.
?
Talk to a lawyer. If possible, carry with you the name and telephone number of
an immigration lawyer who will take your calls. The immigration laws are hard
to understand and there have been many recent changes. DHS will not explain
your options to you. As soon as you encounter a DHS agent, call your attorney.
If you can't do it right away, keep trying. Always talk to an immigration
lawyer before leaving the U.S. Even some legal permanent residents can be
barred from returning.
Based
on today's laws, regulations and DHS guidelines, non-citizens usually have the
following rights, no matter what their immigration status. This information may
change, so it is important to contact a lawyer. The following rights apply to
non-citizens who are inside the U.S. Non-citizens at the border who are trying
to enter the U.S. do not have all the same rights.
Do
I have the right to talk to a lawyer before answering any DHS questions or
signing any DHS papers?
Yes.
You have the right to call a lawyer or your family if you are detained, and you
have the right to be visited by a lawyer in detention. You have the right to
have your attorney with you at any hearing before an immigration judge. You do
not have the right to a government-appointed attorney for immigration
proceedings, but if you have been arrested, immigration officials must show you
a list of free or low cost legal service providers.
Should
I carry my green card or other immigration papers with me?
If
you have documents authorizing you to stay in the U.S., you must carry them
with you. Presenting false or expired papers to DHS may lead to deportation or
criminal prosecution. An unexpired green card, I-94, Employment Authorization
Card, Border Crossing Card or other papers that prove you are in legal status
will satisfy this requirement. If you do not carry these papers with you, you
could be charged with a crime. Always keep a copy of your immigration papers
with a trusted family member or friend who can fax them to you, if need be.
Check with your immigration lawyer about your specific case.
Am
I required to talk to government officers about my immigration history?
If
you are undocumented, out of status, a legal permanent resident (green card
holder), or a citizen, you do not have to answer any questions about your
immigration history. (You may want to consider giving your name; see above for
more information about this.) If you are not in any of these categories, and
you are being questioned by a DHS or FBI agent, then you may create problems
with your immigration status if you refuse to provide information requested by
the agent. If you have a lawyer, you can tell the agent that your lawyer will
answer questions on your behalf. If answering questions could lead the agent to
information that connects you with criminal activity, you should consider
refusing to talk to the agent at all.
If
I am arrested for immigration violations, do I have the right to a hearing
before an immigration judge to defend myself against deportation charges?
Yes.
In most cases only an immigration judge can order you deported. But if you
waive your rights or take "voluntary departure," agreeing to leave
the country, you could be deported without a hearing. If you have criminal
convictions, were arrested at the border, came to the U.S. through the visa
waiver program or have been ordered deported in the past, you could be deported
without a hearing. Contact a lawyer immediately to see if there is any relief
for you.
Can
I call my consulate if I am arrested?
Yes.
Non-citizens arrested in the U.S. have the right to call their consulate or to
have the police tell the consulate of your arrest. The police must let your
consulate visit or speak with you if consular officials decide to do so. Your
consulate might help you find a lawyer or offer other help. You also have the
right to refuse help from your consulate.
What
happens if I give up my right to a hearing or leave the U.S. before the hearing
is over?
You
could lose your eligibility for certain immigration benefits, and you could be
barred from returning to the U.S. for a number of years. You should always talk
to an immigration lawyer before you decide to give up your right to a hearing.
What
should I do if I want to contact DHS?
Always
talk to a lawyer before contacting DHS, even on the phone. Many DHS officers
view "enforcement" as their primary job and will not explain all of
your options to you.
What
Are My Rights at Airports?
IMPORTANT
NOTE: It is illegal for law enforcement to perform any stops, searches,
detentions or removals based solely on your race, national origin, religion,
sex or ethnicity.
If
I am entering the U.S. with valid travel papers can a U.S. customs agent stop
and search me?
Yes.
Customs agents have the right to stop, detain and search every person and item.
Can
my bags or I be searched after going through metal detectors with no problem or
after security sees that my bags do not contain a weapon?
Yes.
Even if the initial screen of your bags reveals nothing suspicious, the
screeners have the authority to conduct a further search of you or your bags.
If
I am on an airplane, can an airline employee interrogate me or ask me to get
off the plane?
The
pilot of an airplane has the right to refuse to fly a passenger if he or she
believes the passenger is a threat to the safety of the flight. The pilot's decision
must be reasonable and based on observations of you, not stereotypes.
What
If I Am Under 18?
Do
I have to answer questions?
No.
Minors too have the right to remain silent. You cannot be arrested for refusing
to talk to the police, probation officers, or school officials, except in some
states you may have to give your name if you have been detained.
What
if I am detained?
If
you are detained at a community detention facility or Juvenile Hall, you
normally must be released to a parent or guardian. If charges are filed against
you, in most states you are entitled to counsel (just like an adult) at no
cost.
Do
I have the right to express political views at school?
Public
school students generally have a First Amendment right to politically organize
at school by passing out leaflets, holding meetings, etc., as long as those
activities are not disruptive and do not violate legitimate school rules. You
may not be singled out based on your politics, ethnicity or religion.
Can
my backpack or locker be searched?
School
officials can search students' backpacks and lockers without a warrant if they
reasonably suspect that you are involved in criminal activity or carrying drugs
or weapons. Do not consent to the police or school officials searching your property,
but do not physically resist or you may face criminal charges.
Disclaimer
This
booklet is not a substitute for legal advice. You should contact an attorney if
you have been visited by the FBI or other law enforcement officials. You should
also alert your relatives, friends, co-workers and others so that they will be
prepared if they are contacted as well.
NLG
National Hotline for Activists Contacted by the FBI
888-NLG-ECOL
(888-654-3265)
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*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Free
Mumia NOW!
Prisonradio.org
Write
to Mumia:
Mumia
Abu-Jamal AM 8335
SCI
Mahanoy
301
Morea Road
Frackville,
PA 17932
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Rachel Wolkenstein
August
21, 2011 (917) 689-4009
MUMIA
ABU-JAMAL ILLEGALLY SENTENCED TO
LIFE
IMPRISONMENT WITHOUT PAROLE!
FREE
MUMIA NOW!
www.FreeMumia.com
http://blacktalkradionetwork.com/profiles/blogs/mumia-is-formally-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-w-out-hearing-he-s
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*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
"A
Child's View from Gaza: Palestinian Children's Art and the Fight Against
Censorship"
book
https://www.mecaforpeace.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=25
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
WITNESS
GAZA
http://www.witnessgaza.com/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
Battle Is Still On To
FREE
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!
The
Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO
Box 16222 • Oakland CA 94610
www.laboractionmumia.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
KEVIN
COOPER IS INNOCENT! FREE KEVIN COOPER!
Reasonable
doubts about executing Kevin Cooper
Chronicle
Editorial
Monday,
December 13, 2010
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/13/EDG81GP0I7.DTL
Death
penalty -- Kevin Cooper is Innocent! Help save his life from San Quentin's
death
row!
http://www.savekevincooper.org/
http://www.savekevincooper.org/pages/essays_content.html?ID=255
URGENT
ACTION APPEAL
-
From Amnesty International USA
17
December 2010
Click
here to take action online:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&\
b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=15084
To
learn about recent Urgent Action successes and updates, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/iar/success
For
a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa25910.pdf
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Short
Video About Al-Awda's Work
The
following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's
work
since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown
on
Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l
Al-Awda
Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected
over
the past nine years.
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support
Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Al-Awda,
The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial
support
to carry out its work.
To
submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html
and
follow the simple instructions.
Thank
you for your generosity!
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
D.
VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.:
[Some
of these videos are embeded on the BAUAW website:
http://bauaw.blogspot.com/
or bauaw.org ...bw]
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Prison vs School: The Tour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogmtAQlp9HI
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Checkpoint - Jasiri X
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq6Y6LSjulU
Published on Jan 28, 2014
"Checkpoint" is based on the
oppression and discrimination Jasiri X witnessed firsthand during his
recent trip to Palestine and Israel "Checkpoint" is produced by Agent of
Change, and directed by Haute Muslim. Download "Checkpoint" at https://jasirix.bandcamp.com/track/ch....
Follow Jasiri X at https://twitter.com/jasiri_x
LYRICS
Journal of the hard times tales from the dark side
Evidence of the settlements on my hard drive
Man I swear my heart died at the end of that car ride
When I saw that checkpoint welcome to apartheid
Soldiers wear military green at the checkpoint
Automatic guns that's machine at the checkpoint
Tavors not m16s at the checkpoint
Fingers on the trigger you'll get leaned at the checkpoint
Little children grown adults or teens at the checkpoint
All ya papers better be clean at the checkpoint
You gotta but your finger on the screen at the checkpoint
And pray that red light turns green at the check point
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
Separation walls that's surrounding the checkpoint
On top is barbwire like a crown on the checkpoint
Better have ya permits if your found at the checkpoint
Gunmen on the tower aiming down at the checkpoint
The idea is to keep you in fear of the checkpoint
You enter through the cage in the rear of the checkpoint
It feels like prison on a tier at the check point
I'd rather be anywhere but here at this checkpoint
Nelson Mandela wasn't blind to the check point
He stood for free Palestine not a check point
Support BDS don't give a dime to the checkpoint
This is international crime at the checkpoint
Arabs get treated like dogs at the checkpoint
Cause discrimination is the law at the checkpoint
Criminalized without a cause at the checkpoint
I'm just telling you what I saw at the checkpoint
Soldiers got bad attitudes at the checkpoint
Condescending and real rude at the checkpoint
Don't look em in they eyes when they move at the checkpoint
They might strip a man or woman nude at the checkpoint
Soldiers might blow you out of ya shoes at the checkpoint
Gas you up and then light the fuse at the checkpoint
Everyday you stand to be accused at the checkpoint
Each time your life you could lose at the checkpoint
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
At the airport in Tel Aviv is a checkpoint
They pulled over our taxi at the checkpoint
Passport visa ID at the checkpoint
Soldiers going all through my things at the checkpoint
Said I was high risk security at the checkpoint
Because of the oppression I see at the checkpoint
Occupation in the 3rd degree at the checkpoint
All a nigga wanna do is leave fuck a checkpoint
Follow Jasiri X at https://twitter.com/jasiri_x
LYRICS
Journal of the hard times tales from the dark side
Evidence of the settlements on my hard drive
Man I swear my heart died at the end of that car ride
When I saw that checkpoint welcome to apartheid
Soldiers wear military green at the checkpoint
Automatic guns that's machine at the checkpoint
Tavors not m16s at the checkpoint
Fingers on the trigger you'll get leaned at the checkpoint
Little children grown adults or teens at the checkpoint
All ya papers better be clean at the checkpoint
You gotta but your finger on the screen at the checkpoint
And pray that red light turns green at the check point
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
Separation walls that's surrounding the checkpoint
On top is barbwire like a crown on the checkpoint
Better have ya permits if your found at the checkpoint
Gunmen on the tower aiming down at the checkpoint
The idea is to keep you in fear of the checkpoint
You enter through the cage in the rear of the checkpoint
It feels like prison on a tier at the check point
I'd rather be anywhere but here at this checkpoint
Nelson Mandela wasn't blind to the check point
He stood for free Palestine not a check point
Support BDS don't give a dime to the checkpoint
This is international crime at the checkpoint
Arabs get treated like dogs at the checkpoint
Cause discrimination is the law at the checkpoint
Criminalized without a cause at the checkpoint
I'm just telling you what I saw at the checkpoint
Soldiers got bad attitudes at the checkpoint
Condescending and real rude at the checkpoint
Don't look em in they eyes when they move at the checkpoint
They might strip a man or woman nude at the checkpoint
Soldiers might blow you out of ya shoes at the checkpoint
Gas you up and then light the fuse at the checkpoint
Everyday you stand to be accused at the checkpoint
Each time your life you could lose at the checkpoint
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
At the airport in Tel Aviv is a checkpoint
They pulled over our taxi at the checkpoint
Passport visa ID at the checkpoint
Soldiers going all through my things at the checkpoint
Said I was high risk security at the checkpoint
Because of the oppression I see at the checkpoint
Occupation in the 3rd degree at the checkpoint
All a nigga wanna do is leave fuck a checkpoint
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Exceptional
art from the streets of Oakland:
Oakland
Street Dancing
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
NYC
RESTAURANT WORKERS DANCE & SING FOR A WAGE HIKE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_s8e1R6rG8&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
On
Gun Control, Martin Luther King, the Deacons of Defense and the history of
Black Liberation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzYKisvBN1o&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Fukushima
Never Again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU-Z4VLDGxU
"Fukushima,
Never Again" tells the story of the Fukushima nuclear plant meltdowns in
north east Japan in March of 2011 and exposes the cover-up by Tepco and the
Japanese government.
This
is the first film that interviews the Mothers Of Fukushima, nuclear power
experts and trade unionists who are fighting for justice and the protection of
the children and the people of Japan and the world. The residents and citizens
were forced to buy their own geiger counters and radiation dosimeters in order
to test their communities to find out if they were in danger.
The
government said contaminated soil in children's school grounds was safe and
then
when
the people found out it was contaminated and removed the top soil, the
government and TEPCO refused to remove it from the school grounds.
It
also relays how the nuclear energy program for "peaceful atoms" was brought
to Japan under the auspices of the US military occupation and also the criminal
cover-up of the safety dangers of the plant by TEPCO and GE management which
built the plant in Fukushima. It also interviews Kei Sugaoka, the GE nulcear
plant inspector from the bay area who exposed cover-ups in the safety at the
Fukushima plant and was retaliated against by GE. This documentary allows the
voices of the people and workers to speak out about the reality of the disaster
and what this means not only for the people of Japan but the people of the
world as the US government and nuclear industry continue to push for more new
plants and government subsidies. This film breaks
the
information blockade story line of the corporate media in Japan, the US and
around the world that Fukushima is over.
Production
Of Labor Video Project
P.O.
Box 720027
San
Francisco, CA 94172
www.laborvideo.org
lvpsf@laborvideo.org
For
information on obtaining the video go to:
www.fukushimaneveragain.com
(415)282-1908
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1000
year of war through the world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiG8neU4_bs&feature=share
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Anatomy
of a Massacre - Afganistan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6BnRc11aug&feature=player_embedded
Afghans
accuse multiple soldiers of pre-meditated murder
To
see more go to http://www.youtube.com/user/journeymanpictures
Follow
us on Facebook (http://goo.gl/YRw42) or Twitter
(http://www.twitter.com/journeymanvod)
The
recent massacre of 17 civilians by a rogue US soldier has been shrouded in
mystery.
But through unprecedented access to those involved, this report
confronts
the accusations that Bales didn't act alone.
"They
came into my room and they killed my family". Stories like this are common
amongst
the survivors in Aklozai and Najiban. As are the shocking accusations
that
Sergeant Bales was not acting alone. Even President Karzai has announced
"one
man can not do that". Chief investigator, General Karimi, is suspicious
that
despite being fully armed, Bales freely left his base without raising
alarm.
"How come he leaves at night and nobody is aware? Every time we have
weapon
accountability and personal accountability." These are just a few of the
questions
the American army and government are yet to answer. One thing however
is
very clear, the massacre has unleashed a wave of grief and outrage which
means
relations in Kandahar will be tense for years to come: "If I could lay my
hands
on those infidels, I would rip them apart with my bare hands."
A
Film By SBS
Distributed
By Journeyman Pictures
April
2012
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Photo
of George Zimmerman, in 2005 photo, left, and in a more recent photo.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/04/02/us/the-events-leading-to-the-sooti\
ng-of-trayvon-martin.html?hp
SPD
Security Cams.wmv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WWDNbQUgm4&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Kids
being put on buses and transported from school to "alternate
locations" in
Terror
Drills
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFia_w8adWQ
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Private
prisons,
a
recession resistant investment opportunity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIGLDOxx9Vg
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Attack
Dogs used on a High School Walkout in MD, Four Students Charged With
"Thought
Crimes"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wafMaML17w
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Common
forms of misconduct by Law Enforcement Officials and Prosecutors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViSpM4K276w&feature=related
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Organizing
and Instigating: OCCUPY - Ronnie Goodman
http://arthazelwood.com/instigator/occupy/occupy-birth-video.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Rep
News 12: Yes We Kony
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68GbzIkYdc8
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
New Black by The Mavrix - Official Music Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4rLfja8488
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Japan
One Year Later
http://www.onlineschools.org/japan-one-year-later/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
CIA's Heart Attack Gun
http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/assassination-studies/the-cias-heart-attack-g\
un-.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
Invisible American Workforce
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/5/new_expos_tracks_alec_private_prison
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Labor
Beat: NATO vs The 1st Amendment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbQxnb4so3U
For
more detailed information, send us a request at mail@laborbeat.org.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
Battle of Oakland
by
brandon jourdan plus
http://vimeo.com/36256273
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Officers
Pulled Off Street After Tape of Beating Surfaces
By
ANDY NEWMAN
February
1, 2012, 10:56 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/officers-pulled-off-street-after-ta\
pe-of-beating-surfaces/?ref=nyregion
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
This
is excellent! Michelle Alexander pulls no punches!
Michelle
Alexander, Author of The New Jim Crow, speaks about the political
strategy
behind
the War on Drugs and its connection to the mass incarceration of Black
and
Brown people in the United States.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P75cbEdNo2U&feature=player_embedded
If
you think Bill Clinton was "the first black President" you need to
watch this
video
and see how much damage his administration caused for the black community
as
a result of his get tough attitude on crime that appealed to white swing
voters.
This
speech took place at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem on January 12,
2012.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FREE
BRADLEY MANNING
http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/national-call-in-for-bradley
I
received the following reply from the White House November 18, 2011 regarding
the
Bradley Manning petition I signed:
"Why
We Can't Comment on Bradley Manning
"Thank
you for signing the petition 'Free PFC Bradley Manning, the accused
WikiLeaks
whistleblower.' We appreciate your participation in the We the People
platform
on WhiteHouse.gov.
The
We the People Terms of Participation explain that 'the White House may
decline
to address certain procurement, law enforcement, adjudicatory, or
similar
matters properly within the jurisdiction of federal departments or
agencies,
federal courts, or state and local government.' The military justice
system
is charged with enforcing the Uniform Code of
Military
Justice. Accordingly, the White House declines to comment on the
specific
case raised in this petition...
That's
funny! I guess Obama didn't get this memo. Here's what Obama said about
Bradley:
BRADLEY
MANNING "BROKE THE LAW" SAYS OBAMA!
"He
broke the law!" says Obama about Bradley Manning who has yet to even be
charged,
let alone, gone to trial and found guilty. How horrendous is it for the
President
to declare someone guilty before going to trial or being charged with
a
crime! Justice in the U.S.A.!
Obama
on FREE BRADLEY MANNING protest... San Francisco, CA. April 21, 2011-
Presidential
remarks on interrupt/interaction/performance art happening at
fundraiser.
Logan Price queries Barack after org. FRESH JUICE PARTY political
action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfmtUpd4id0&feature=youtu.be
Release
Bradley Manning
Almost
Gone (The Ballad Of Bradley Manning)
Written
by Graham Nash and James Raymond (son of David Crosby)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAYG7yJpBbQ&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Julian
Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVGqE726OAo&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
School
police increasingly arresting American students?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl-efNBvjUU&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FYI:
Nuclear
Detonation Timeline "1945-1998"
The
2053 nuclear tests and explosions that took place between 1945 and 1998 are
plotted
visually and audibly on a world map.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9lquok4Pdk&feature=share&mid=5408
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
We
Are the 99 Percent
We
are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to
choose
between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are
suffering
from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay
and
no rights, if we're working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1
percent
is getting everything. We are the 99 percent.
Brought
to you by the people who occupy wall street. Why will YOU occupy?
OccupyWallSt.org
Occupytogether.org
wearethe99percentuk.tumblr.com
http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
We
Are The People Who Will Save Our Schools
YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFAOJsBxAxY
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
In
honor of the 75th Anniversary of the 44-Day Flint Michigan sit-down strike at
GM
that began December 30, 1936:
According
to Michael Moore, (Although he has done some good things, this clip
isn't
one of them) in this clip from his film, "Capitalism a Love Story,"
it was
Roosevelt
who saved the day!):
"After
a bloody battle one evening, the Governor of Michigan, with the support
of
the President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt, sent in the National
Guard.
But the guns and the soldiers weren't used on the workers; they were
pointed
at the police and the hired goons warning them to leave these workers
alone.
For Mr. Roosevelt believed that the men inside had a right to a redress
of
their grievances." -Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story'
-
Flint Sit-Down Strike http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8x1_q9wg58
But
those cannons were not aimed at the goons and cops! They were aimed straight
at
the factory filled with strikers! Watch what REALLY happened and how the
strike
was really won!
'With
babies & banners' -- 75 years since the 44-day Flint sit-down strike
http://links.org.au/node/2681
--Inspiring
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
HALLELUJAH
CORPORATIONS (revised edition).mov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws0WSNRpy3g
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
ONE
OF THE GREATEST POSTS ON YOUTUBE SO FAR!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8C-qIgbP9o&feature=share&mid=552
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
ILWU
Local 10 Longshore Workers Speak-Out At Oakland Port Shutdown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JUpBpZYwms
Uploaded
by laborvideo on Dec 13, 2011
ILWU
Local 10 longshore workers speak out during a blockade of the Port of
Oakland
called for by Occupy Oakland. Anthony Levieges and Clarence Thomas rank
and
file members of the union. The action took place on December 12, 2011 and
the
interview took place at Pier 30 on the Oakland docks.
For
more information on the ILWU Local 21 Longview EGT struggle go to
http://www.facebook.com/groups/256313837734192/
For
further info on the action and the press conferernce go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz3fE-Vhrw8&feature=youtu.be
Production
of Labor Video Project www.laborvideo.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
UC
Davis Police Violence Adds Fuel to Fire
By
Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News
19
November 11
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/275-42/8485-uc-davis-police-violence-add\
s-fuel-to-fire
UC
Davis Protestors Pepper Sprayed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AdDLhPwpp4&feature=player_embedded
Police
PEPPER SPRAY UC Davis STUDENT PROTESTERS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuWEx6Cfn-I&feature=player_embedded
Police
pepper spraying and arresting students at UC Davis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmJmmnMkuEM&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
UC
Davis Chancellor Katehi walks to her car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CZ0t9ez_EGI#!
Occupy
Seattle - 84 Year Old Woman Dorli Rainey Pepper Sprayed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTIyE_JlJzw&feature=related
*---------*
THE
BEST VIDEO ON "OCCUPY THE WORLD"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S880UldxB1o
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Shot
by police with rubber bullet at Occupy Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0pX9LeE-g8&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
Copwatch@Occupy
Oakland: Beware of Police Infiltrators and Provocateurs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrvMzqopHH0
*---------*
Occupy
Oakland 11-2 Strike: Police Tear Gas, Black Bloc, War in the Streets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Tu_D8SFYck&feature=player_embedded
*----*
Quebec
police admitted that, in 2007, thugs carrying rocks to a peaceful protest
were
actually undercover Quebec police officers:
POLICE
STATE Criminal Cops EXPOSED As Agent Provocateurs @ SPP Protest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoiisMMCFT0&feature=player_embedded
*----*
Quebec
police admit going undercover at montebello protests
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAfzUOx53Rg&feature=player_embedded
G20:
Epic Undercover Police Fail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrJ7aU-n1L8&feature=player_embedded
*----*
WHAT
HAPPENED IN OAKLAND TUESDAY NIGHT, OCTOBER 25:
Occupy
Oakland Protest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlPs-REyl-0&feature=player_embedded
Cops
make mass arrests at occupy Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R27kD2_7PwU&feature=player_embedded
Raw
Video: Protesters Clash With Oakland Police
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpO-lJr2BQY&feature=player_embedded
Occupy
Oakland - Flashbangs USED on protesters OPD LIES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqNOPZLw03Q&feature=player_embedded
KTVU
TV Video of Police violence
http://www.ktvu.com/video/29587714/index.html
Marine
Vet wounded, tear gas & flash-bang grenades thrown in downtown
Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMUgPTCgwcQ&feature=player_embedded
Tear
Gas billowing through 14th & Broadway in Downtown Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU4Y0pwJtWE&feature=player_embedded
Arrests
at Occupy Atlanta -- This is what a police state looks like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YStWz6jbeZA&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
Labor
Beat: Hey You Billionaire, Pay Your Fair Share
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY8isD33f-I
*---------*
Voices
of Occupy Boston 2011 - Kwame Somburu (Paul Boutelle) Part I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA48gmfGB6U&feature=youtu.be
Voices
of Occupy Boston 2011 - Kwame Somburu (Paul Boutelle) Part II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjKZpOk7TyM&feature=related
*---------*
#Occupy
Wall Street In Washington Square: Mohammed Ezzeldin, former occupier of
Egypt's
Tahrir Square Speaks at Washington Square!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziodsFWEb5Y&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
#OccupyTheHood,
Occupy Wall Street
By
adele pham
http://vimeo.com/30146870
*---------*
Live
arrest at brooklyn bridge #occupywallstreet by We are Change
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yULSI-31Pto&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FREE
THE CUBAN FIVE!
http://www.thecuban5.org/wordpress/index.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmS4kHC_OlY&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
One
World One Revolution -- MUST SEE VIDEO -- Powerful and beautiful...bw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE3R1BQrYCw&feature=player_embedded
"When
injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty." Thomas Jefferson
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Japan:
angry Fukushima citizens confront government (video)
Posted
by Xeni Jardin on Monday, Jul 25th at 11:36am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVuGwc9dlhQ&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Labor
Beat: Labor Stands with Subpoenaed Activists Against FBI Raids and Grand
Jury
Investigation of antiwar and social justice activists.
"If
trouble is not at your door. It's on it's way, or it just left."
"Investigate
the Billionaires...Full investigation into Wall Street..." Jesse
Sharkey,
Vice
President,
Chicago Teachers Union
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSNUSIGZCMQ
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Coal
Ash: One Valley's Tale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E7h-DNvwx4&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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