indy journalist Lillian Boctor interviews with revolutionary socialist journalist Dina Samak
The January 25, 2012 demonstrations in Egypt demanding the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) immediately hand over power to civilian rule proved to be wildly successful with hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets all over Egypt.
Photograph taken on Tuesday, August 2nd just after morning prayer via journalist Anjali Kamat in Cairo, Egypt, protest opposing post-revolution rule via Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) in Egypt.
Photos taken in the hours after the Egyptian military attack on Tahrir Square protest camp calling for an end to military rule and for an end to the ongoing imprisonment of protesters after the successful revolution that overthrew Hosni Mubarak.
No matter how it unfolds, the Egyptian revolution will go down in the history books as a defining moment in the 21st century. Millions of Egyptians brought down one of the world’s most repressive regimes, that of the U.S.-backed Hosni Mubarak, in just 18 days. Their bravery, perseverance, and tactfulness in the face of the regime’s brutal crackdown not only triggered uprisings across the Arab world but inspired and influenced protests against government austerity in the U.S., Spain, Portugal, and Greece. Despite the fact that it is only a few months old, it’s important to begin piecing together a people’s history of the revolution to convey what happened and how it happened so that the lessons from this critical struggle can be disseminated.
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Photo: ActiveStills Palestinian activist Mohammed Khatib at protest in Bil’in, Palestine.
Dozens were injured in the weekly demonstration against the Occupation and settlements. The demonstration was held against the United State’s veto of a UN resolution which condemned Israel’s illegal settlements. The demonstration was attacked with tear gas by Israeli soldiers who wanted to crush the nonviolent demonstration. Hundreds from Palestine, Israel and the international community attended the demonstration. The demonstration was also in solidarity with the Libyan people.
Photo Palestinian boy holds national flag during rally in occupied Palestine.
In a quiet street in the Sheikh Jarrah district of occupied East Jerusalem 88-year-old Rifka al-Kurd is explaining how she came to live in the house she and her husband built as Palestinian refugees in the 1950s. As she speaks, three young ultra-orthodox Jewish settlers swagger in to stake their claim to the front part of the building, shouting abuse in Hebrew and broken Arabic: “Arab animals”, “shut up, whore”.
There is a brief physical confrontation with Rifka’s daughter as the settlers barricade themselves in to the rooms they have occupied since last winter. That was when they finally won a court order to take over the Kurd family’s extension on the grounds that it was built without permission – which Palestinians in Jerusalem are almost never granted. It is an ugly scene, the settlers’ chilling arrogance underpinned by the certain knowledge that they can call in the police and army at will.
Photo Matthew Cassel A boy holds his backpack found in the rubble of his family’s home in Jabaliya, which was destroyed by Israel.
We can learn much from the Israeli government’s decision this week to suspend a special strategic dialog with the United Kingdom because of concerns that Israeli officials could be arrested and indicted with crimes against humanity in the UK, according to a British law that provides for “universal jurisdiction” in such cases, i.e., a suspect of any country can be charged, detained and tried in a British court even if the alleged crimes occurred in a third country and did not include British citizens among the victims. Israel’s Kadima Party leader Tzipi Livni recently cancelled a trip to London as did Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor this week, because he was advised that he risked being arrested.
Photo Israeli soldiers moving to repress popular demonstrations in occupied Palestine.
Many shebab (youth), two journalists and a girl were injured on Friday at the weekly demonstration in An Nabi Saleh. Villagers had employed a new strategy in response to the increasing violence of soldiers and border police.
Demonstrators split up and approached the road from the two opposite hills divided by the valley. The side with most of the shebab was blocked with massive amounts of teargas and attacked by border police. From the other side, most of the internationals, women, and children entered the road and continued the demonstration.
Photo A Palestinian boy flies his kite through the streets of Khan Younis in Gaza.
Ask any resident of Gaza what their thoughts are on the US-sponsored “direct talks” between Israel and Mahmoud Abbas’s Ramallah government, and you’re likely to hear one of three responses:
1) Surely, you jest;
2) Something’s rotten in Ramallah;
3) Negotiations?
There is very little patience in Gaza for this latest set of talks. They are not only being conducted without a national consensus by what is broadly considered an illegitimate government, but they also completely marginalise the Gaza Strip and overlook the blockade and asphyxiation it has suffered for more than four years.
Britain and Spain will not send delegates to the OECD’s biannual tourism conference on October 20-22, because it will be held in Jerusalem, Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov (Yisrael Beiteinu ) said yesterday.
This is only the second time in its history that the conference, which this year will deal with sustainable tourism, is being held outside Paris.
