Monday, October 30, 2006

Israel, Tel Aviv Demo at 15:00 today in front of the mexican embassy Mon, 30 Oct 2006

First the invitation sent this night to the mailing list of the radical left* and to the list of the anarchists against the wall (in both English and Hebrew URGENT: Demo at 15:00 today (12:00 GMT)in front of the Mexican embassy Mexican paramilitaries murdered 5 people in Oaxaca since Saturday in an attempt to break the teachers strike, and federal police forces are now moving in trying to occupy the city. The strikers are calling for mass demonstrations and resistance. Efforts are mostly centered around the university.
There has also been a call for international solidarity.
We'll hold a solidarity demonstration today (Monday) in front the Mexican embassy tomorrow at 15:00 - Hamered St 25 (near the carmel market) Bring signs if you can.

More info: http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/index.html

And we had our vigil in front of the building the Mexican embassy is located. We were about 20 people - one from the general radical left and 19 of the subscribers of the anarchists against the wall list (mostly anarchists).
We lighted candles and held placards with a relevant content and flags with the anarchist A in circle on them.

There were some educational talks with few passers by of the half deserted business street. passer by in cars and busses read our placards. A noise "orchestra" made the occasion less sad a bit.

Surprise surprise, in contradiction to the heavy police presence, a person of the Mexican embassy approach our vigil and invited a delegation to enter the embassy... which returned after half an hour with copies of a kind of apologetic text translated in the embassy into Hebrew.

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* ActLeft, action list in Israel-Palestine.
For international (outside of Israel-Palestine) networking about Israel-Palestine peace activities, see Encounter-EMEM:
http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/Encounter-EMEM

Roughly 200 Israelis and Palestinians turned out for a protest march Saturday against the construction of a new West Bank viaduct that will be open to Israeli traffic only.

The viaduct will run along the existing Route 60 from the Etzion settlement bloc to El Arub.

Among the demonstrators were activists from all the Palestinian factions, including Fatah and Hamas, as well as members of Israeli organizations "Anarchists Against the Fence," "Ta'ayush," and "Fighters for Peace."

The demonstrators said the viaduct, which they termed an "apartheid road," not only discriminates on the basis of race but will also necessitate the expropriation of land from the Palestinian villages of Halhul, Beit Umar, and El Arub.

"This is a protest against the apartheid road that will be constructed," said Ta'ayush activist Avihai Sharon. "Route 60 will be for Palestinians, while above it a viaduct will be built for Jews only."

"The road will also steal land from Palestinian villages like Beit Umar and Halhul".

The march set out from Beit Umar and ended in the El Arub school. Cooperation between Hamas and Fatah activists was evident in the demonstration, despite the severe tensions between the two factions.

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Published by Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz 23/12/2006

Copied from http://awalls.org

Friday, October 27, 2006

Palestine-Israel, Bil'in, A big demonstration to celebrate 20 months of joint struggle 27 Oct 2006

THE INVITATION: Back to Bil'in - Mass Demo, This Friday, Oct. 27th This coming Friday, October 27th, a large demonstration will be held in Bil'in, for the first time in a long period. Please join us and come to support the people of Bil'in in their just struggle in this critical time. Together we shall call: No to the wall! No to separation No to land grab! Please sign up today to the demonstration:
INVITING: The Israeli-Palestinian Coalition Against the Fence:
The Popular Committees against the Wall and Settlements in the West Bank, The Poplar Committee-Bilin, Gush-Shalom, Ta’ayush, Women’s Coalition for Peace, Yesh Gvul, New Profile, Yesh Din, Balad, ICAHD, Hadash, Maki, Banki, The Student Coalition -Tel Aviv University, Anarchists Against Walls.

THE DEMONSTRATION:
At noon, we started... about 300 participants - Israelis (with part of us having to defy harassment of Israeli state forces on the way to Bil'in), Internationals, and Palestinians from the village and from out of it. We marched and chanted carrying few leaders, with Palestinian flags, and whistles and "drams".

When we arrived at the blocked gate to the route of the separation fence and the Bil'in lands West of it, the commander declared as usual that the area is a closed military zone.

While most of us challenged the state force verbally, few of us used the leaders to cross the ditch bordering the route of the separation fence and the barbed wire protecting the fence of the route, and put a ladder on the second line. The state forces expressed their objection to that act with sporadic shock grenade and from time to time even tear gas canisters - some of them were hurled back and prevented the soldiers from harsher measures.

After about half an hour of low level confrontation, the stone throwers decided that our nonviolent demonstration reached its end. Behind our backs which protected them from rubber coated bullets, they started to throw stones on the Israeli state force and the demonstrators who stood near them.

As usual, the state forces started to disperse the nonviolent demonstration with shock grenades and tear gas canisters. The village comity declared the demonstration as finished, and called the people to return to the village. The majority of us escaped from the gate to a not far away point on the road with some defying the state forces and staying behind.

The state forces continue to harass us even after the stone throwers fled and as the wind blew the tear gas towards us we had to return hastily to the village.

During the confrontation with the state forces few of demonstrators were injured (two of them more seriously) and two Israelis were detained and released about an hour after the end of the demonstration.

Friday, October 20, 2006

Palestine-Israel, Bil'in, The provocative strategy of the Israeli state force was exposed in the Friday demonstration. 20 Oct 2006

This Friday demonstration we choose entirely new path towards the separation fence. At noon, Palestinians, Israelis of the anarchists against the wall initiative, and internationals started the march towards the separation fence. However, when we approached the last building of the village, we left the road leading to the route of the fence and marched among the olive trees towards a breach in the fence of the the route of the electronic separation fence.
As the main force of the state force was among the olive trees within the village busy in the provoking of stone throwers, our march on a deviant path was not attended by them. Thus, we reached unhindered the breach in the fence, then we passed an open gate in the electronic fence, and just as we approached the gate to the other side of the route, the soldiers there intercepted us.

They just made a line and prevented us from passing to the other side of the route so we could go to the structure of the Bil'in center for joint struggle for peace. There we had the usual chanting and verbal confrontation, while we were sitting on the road between the fences.

We could hear far away - in the village, the confrontation between the state force and the stone throwers - explosion of shock and tear gas grenades and shooting of rubber rubbed bullets.

We pointed to the force commander the absurdity of the presence of his force at the far away village while the nonviolent demonstration is at the route of the fence. It was clear for all to see that the delegating of state force to the fringe of the village have nothing to do with the demonstration against the separation fence. It was clear they just do their most to provoke stone throwers so they will able to claim to the media that there was violence in Bil'in.

After a long while, we decided to go back to the village but the state force "punished" us and forced us to go back the same path we came instead of using the near by main road to the village.

While we were returning to the village we had to pass through the area where the state force was confronting the stone throwers, and one of us was injured by a rubber coated bullet.

Friday, October 13, 2006

Palestine-Israel, Bil'in, The Friday demonstration in solidarity with Imad. 13 Oct 2006

This friday demo in Bil'in was in solidarity with Imad, the local video photographer who persisted in recording the Friday demos in Bil'in. He was arrested and beaten last Friday when documenting the Israeli state force atrocities in the village few hours after the regular nonviolent demonstration. The frustrated Israeli state forces who fail to subdue the stone throwers and invaded the village. In the absence of Israeli and media video camera men they regarded Imad as the only obstacle to the free expression of their fury. Their charges against him were so unreasonable that the military judge refuted them. His verdict to release him was contested by a higher level judge who agreed with the lower level one about the absurd accusations of Imad, but find in the recording by Imad some suspicious remarks - justifying the continuation of his arrest.

As usual, we started at noon our march from the center of the village on the road towards the route of the separation fence. Palestinians, internationals, and people mobilized by the Israeli anarchists against the wall initiative we marched with placards and flags - chanting all the way up to the blocked gate to the route of the separation fence. On the way we have seen the soldiers of the state forces among the olive trees on the border of the building area of the village - inviting the stone thrower youth for the usual confrontation.

In a way, they just served our purpose as the confrontation between them was thus far away from the non violent demonstration. Thus, we could do our thing without being injured by the stone throwers or the retaliation of the state forces.

When we arrived at the blocked gate, the commander recited as on the previous cases that the route of the fence is a closed military zone, and the usual low intensity confrontation - mainly verbal continued.

As usual, the state forces left one meter opening not blocked by the armored cars and the gate, inviting physical confrontation. One palestinian comrade invaded the route starting an effort to detain him. In response, 5 Israelis forced their way to the route to prevent his arrest. At the end of the confrontation a 16 years old Israeli girl was the only detainee while The Palestinian comrade was dearrested, and so were the other 4 Israelis.

After a while, the village comity declared the end of the demonstration and we returned to the village, passing near the stone throwers - hearing from time to time shots of rubber coated bullets and the explosions of tear gas grenades.

Some time after the end of the demonstration the detained Israeli comrade was released in the near by intersection on the Israeli side of the green line.

Friday, October 6, 2006

Subject: (en) Palestine-Israel, Bil'in, the joint struggle still continur and kicking 06 Oct 2006

This Friday we kept the tradition of joint struggle against the separation fence and occupation demonstration in spite of the Ramadan fasting and hot whether. About 50 people - Palestinians, internationals and a dozen Israelis from the anarchist against the wall initiative. We marched at noon from the center of the village to the gate to the route of the separation fence - chanting the usual rimes. When we arrived at the blocked gate to the route we found that the state forces kept a narrow opening to enable - or better to lure us into a controlled physical confrontation. Few people tried to pass through the opening and two of them were roughly detained - to be released later.

After the usual (mostly verbal) confrontation with the state force gendarmes, just before ending the demonstration, the unruly youngsters started to throw stones at the gate keepers, which was surely in order to provoke them to harass the participants of the nonviolent demonstrators.

(This is one of the expressions of the prolonged conflict in the village between the supporters of the nonviolent joint struggle with the Israelis and the opponents find is the stone throwing on the Israeli state forces confronting the Friday nonviolent demonstrators. This usually give the state forces an excuse to attack the nonviolent demonstrators. It was a big surprise to day that they did not do so - they just restricting themselves to the confrontation with the stone throwers.

To evade the state force harassment we left the area near the gate and started to walk back to the village along the fence (instead of the road which was turned a war zone between the state force shooting rubber coated bullets and tear gas grenades and the stones throwing youngsters). However, this Friday the state forces tried again to force us to pass through the war zone by blocking our way with tear gas canisters... So we returned to the gate but this time we went back to the village the other way through the near by olive grove and evaded both the state force and the stone throwers.

See also: http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_eileen_f_061002_anarchist_or_prophet.htm

Thursday, October 5, 2006

Italy: FdCA Press Release 05 Oct 2006

In Cremona, northern Italy, on Saturday 30th September and Sunday 1st October the Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici (Federation of Anarchist Communists - FdCA) celebrated it first 20 years of political activity and held its 7th National Congress, the highest decision-making body of the Federation.

On the Saturday, there was the celebration of our anniversary, with a review of anarchist communist political and organizational history, both leading up to the birth of the FdCA in 1986 and over the following twenty years of activity in support of self-managed and anti-authoritarian social, labour and cultural strugles. On the Sunday, instead, the FdCA's 7th National Congress successfully established a renewed, indispensable unity on certain areas of basic strategy such as the role of international capitalism and US imperialism today, and also initiated a process of reflection and theoretical development on the question of "the State". Congress also produced a final programmatic document with the aim of orienting the FdCA's political and social action over the coming years.

The FdCA would like to thank the comrades of the CSA Kavarna in Cremona for their generous hospitality and cooperation. We thank Carlo Ghirardato for his wonderful concert dedicated to the works and memory of Fabrizio De André, and also the many comrades (at least two generations of anarchist communist militants) who came from all over Italy to join in this event. We also take this opportunity to thank the individual and organizations who sent their greetings from abroad: the Workers Solidarity Alliance (WSA) of New York, Jose Maria Olaizola of Apoyo Mutuo in Spain, Ilan Shalif of Anarchists Against the Walls in Israel, Alternative Libertaire from France, the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation from southern Africa, the North-Eastern Federation of Anarchist Communists (NEFAC) from USA/Canada, the Organization of Anarchists of Greece (OAE), Anarchist Communist Initiative and the Tachanka Anarchist Communist Collective from Istanbul and Ankara respectively, the Coletivo pró Organização Anarquista em Goiás and the Fórum do Anarquismo Organizado (FAO) from Brazil, the Organisation Socialiste Libertaire (OSL) from Switzerland.

The support of our various comrades, the international solidarity, the collective vision that links all the members of the FdCA, all this is vital and the best encouragement to go on with what we have started, to continue growing stronger and spreading anarchist communist ideas in the social struggles and in the mass organization, in order to build the libertarian alternative.

4 ottobre 2006
FdCA-Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici

http://www.fdca.it/fdcaen