Tagged: protest repression

Happy birthday, OWS! NYPD tries to keep us down, but we’re rising all around!

FROM PALESTINE TO NYC
CHECKPOINTS = TOOL OF SUPPRESSION

 Fast Facts about checkpoints in the West Bank:

  • 522 roadblocks and checkpoints obstruct Palestinian movement in the West Bank, compared to 503 in July 2010.
  • So far in 2011, an additional 495 ad-hoc ‘flying’ checkpoints obstructed movement around the West Bank each month (on average), compared to 351 in the past two years.
  • 200,000 people from 70 villages are forced to use detours between two to five times longer than the direct route to their closest city due to movement restrictions.
  • One or more of the main entrances are blocked to Palestinian traffic in ten out of eleven major West Bank cities.
  • Palestinians holding West Bank IDs require entry permits to enter East Jerusalem and are limited to using four of the 16 checkpoints along the Barrier.
  • 62 percent of the Barrier is completed, with 80 percent of the Barrier route built inside the West Bank, with highly limited access to areas behind the Barrier.
  • Four of the five roads into the Jordan Valley are not accessible to most Palestinian vehicles.
  • Almost 80 percent of land in the Jordan Valley is off-limits to Palestinians, with the land designated for Israeli settlements, ‘firing zones’ and ‘nature reserves.’
  • 122 closure obstacles shut off the Old City of Hebron from the rest of the city.
  • Palestinian access to their private land around 55 Israeli settlements is highly restricted.

This information is from the September 2011 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) report “Movement and Access in the West Bank.”

 IDF, NYPD – Enforcing Inequality! 

Join us at the Free University for Occupy Wall Street, Not Palestine: The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement to End Israeli Apartheid

Where: Free University at Madison Square Park, pool area

When: Saturday, September 22, 12 pm to 2 pm

What: Discussion of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement for Palestinian rights. Members of Global Justice will elucidate how and why this global call from Palestinian civil society groups fits within the parameters of the Occupy movement. Representatives from local Palestine solidarity groups will give an overview of the BDS movement—its goals, history, strategies, and analysis. And finally local activists working on specific boycott and divestment campaigns will highlight their successes and challenges. Please bring your questions and concerns and join us for this important discussion.

Madison Square Park is located between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and 23rd and 26th Streets.

For more information about the Free University, visit freeuniversitynyc.org.


National Lawyers Guild Delegation Returns from Egypt with Evidence of Systematic Human Rights Abuses, Calls for Transparency and Accountability from U.S. Government

June 28, 2012
Contact: Azadeh Shahshahani, President-Elect, (212) 679-5100, ext. 15

This April, the National Lawyers Guild sent a delegation of U.S. lawyers, activists, and scholars to study Egypt’s ongoing revolution. In particular, the delegation investigated the role and responsibility of the U.S. government and American corporations in human rights abuses. It also documented how 30 years of U.S. military and economic intervention has violated Egypt’s popular sovereignty and locked the country in a web of debt.

The delegation met with a broad range of activists, including human rights advocates, youth leaders, Islamists, leftist intellectuals, and trade unionists. Delegates also met with many civil society organizations that provide vital legal and social services to poor and working class Egyptians who have been targeted by the state for their activism.

Through these meetings, the delegation gained important evidence of human rights abuses. The evidence implicates the military, the police, and state security forces in violent attacks on protesters, unlawful detention of activists, and the widespread use of torture, actions in which U.S. agencies have also been complicit.

Continue reading on the National Lawyers Guild website.

An Open Letter [from Quebec activist] to the Mainstream English Media

“. . . . here is what I have not seen you publish yet: stories about joy; about togetherness; about collaboration; about solidarity. You write about our anger, and yes, we are angry. We are angry at our government, at our police and at you. But none of you are succeeding in conveying what it feels like when you walk down the streets of Montreal right now, which is, for me at least, an overwhelming sense of joy and togetherness. . . .”

For full post, including the beautiful “Casseroles” video of Montreal pots-and-pans protest with translation of song lyrics, visit translatingtheprintempserable blog.

 

 

Deported from Bahrain: An Eyewitness Account of an Ongoing Revolution

Monday, April 16th
7:30pm – 9:00pm

Columbia University
501 Northwest Corner Building
550 West 120th Street (on Broadway)
New York, NY, 10027

Photo: An antigovernment demonstrator kicks a tear gas canister fired by riot police in Sanabis, on the edge of the Bahraini capital, Manama. Credit: Hasan Jamali / Associated Press
Over the past year, tens of thousands of Bahrainis – inspired by the Arab Spring movements in Tunisia and Egypt – have taken to the streets in an attempt to win democracy and respect for their human rights. The regime responded by killing over 80 people, detaining thousands and beginning a campaign of retribution against anyone supporting or participating in protest.

As the one year anniversary of the revolution drew near, the Kingdom of Bahrain attempted to keep out foreign observers, denying visas to high profile human rights groups and journalists. Radhika Sainath, a civil rights attorney, and a small team of monitors were able to gain entry and document the regime’s repression of democracy activists. Just a day after announcing the Witness Bahrain initiative, she was arrested in the midst of a police attack on a nonviolent march and deported the next day.

Radhika Sainath is a human rights activist with experience in conflict zones and has supported democracy movements in Mexico, Pakistan, Palestine and the Philippines. Join us in our conversation with her.

Sponsored by
The Middle East Institute at Columbia University
American Council for Freedom in Bahrain
Co-sponsors
Witness Bahrain
Campaign for Peace & Democracy
OWS Global Justice Working Group
Coalition to Defend the Egyptian Revolution

Light refreshments will be served. This event will also kick-off a new initiative started by our co-sponsors — Bahrain Solidarity Campaign NYC. Please contact them at BahrainNYC@gmail.com, if you would like to join the campaign or would like ideas on how to start one in your own city. More information will be provided at the event.

RSVP on our Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/306068049466044/

What you can do to stop the Jeju naval base construction (South Korea)

To-do list from Nodutdol for Korean Community Development.

For years, the Gangjeong villagers have been peacefully struggling against the destruction of Jeju island, one of UNESCO’s World Heritage sites, a rare ecosystem of profound beauty – and the source of their livelihoods as farmers, fishermen and divers. They have been lying in the road to stop construction vehicles, protesting peacefully and pressing their local and national legislators – and being arrested continually and fined horrendous amounts.  The South Korean government claims the base would be a protection against North Korea, but the island is in the southernmost waters of South Korea, far from the North.

On March 5th, about 500 policemen from the mainland were brought to this tiny village by ship including 4 police squadron units and 1 unit of policewomen. As already about 200 policemen in 2 squadrons from the main land were mobilized previously, the total number of the mainland police now in the village to suppress protesters has been raised to about 700.
(* Plus with the 700 Jeju local policemen, the total number of police in the village is about 1400~1500 – and the village only has a population of about that number)

The South Korean government is pressing to rush this construction before the South Korean elections (general elections this April and presidential ones in December) as there is a growing movement nationally and internationally to stop this unnecessary base construction, this island destruction and the needless ramping up of militarization in the region.

We call on our allies to:

Call the Korean Embassy in your state and let them know that Jeju does not want a naval base! The militarization of Jeju Island runs contrary to its designation as the “Island of World Peace.”

1. If you live in the United States: Call the South Korean Embassy in Washington at 202-939-5600 to show your solidarity with the Gangjeong villagers on Jeju Island.

2. Write the South Korean Defense Attaché at defenattache@yahoo.com and demand a halt to construction of the naval base. Explain how a base that is directed at China is the beginning of a dangerous game that does not protect the future of South Korea – it undermines it.

3. Send a message to South Korean Ambassador to the U.S. Han Duk Soo letting him know how building a navy base on Jeju will undermine tourism, threaten the fragile island environment and contribute to the destabilization of an already stressed security climate.

4. Email Jeju Island Governor Woo Keun Min and tell him how you feel about the military base that is being built on the pristine “Island of World Peace” – Demand a Gangejong village referendum so the residents voices can be heard lmw2828@jeju.go.kr nine out of ten residents do not want this base.

5. Stay updated on the resistance by joining the ”Save Jeju Island” and the “No Naval Base on Jeju!” Facebook pages. Follow the most recent developments on Twitter at #savejejuisland and #gangjung – then re-post.

6. Spread the word about the inspiring resistance in Jeju! Contact the media about this story to raise their awareness about the struggle. Urge them to cover this important story of peace and environmental defense.

7. Sign the petition urging South Korean President Lee to stop construction of the military base! After signing please share the petition with your social network.

8. Send a message to the Korean Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) and tell them that the relics discovered on the naval base site should result in an immediate halt to construction.
Contact Person: Ms Hyosang Jo, Staff, CHA International Affairs Division Address: 139 Seonsaro, Seo-gu Daejeon 302-701 Korea (RK) Tel: +82 (42) 481-4738 | Fax: +82 (42) 481-4738 | Email dawnlorn@ocp.go.kr

9. Email or telephone Democratic members of the Korean National Assembly and tell them that they must stand publicly to demand that Gangjeong villagers are allowed to vote in a new referendum for or against the naval base. Click here for contact information

10. Email Amnesty International’s South East Asia chief and tell him that too many people have been imprisoned and injured in this nonviolent resistance against an illegal military base. Amnesty International’s investigation on human rights violation in Jeju is necessary and will help the situation.  Contact rnarayan@amnesty.org