10,000 Soldiers Must Go This Year, 20,000 Next Year?

Military Resistance: [email protected] 5.25.14 Print it out: color best. Pass it on. Military Resistance 12E11

[Thanks to SSG N (ret’d) who sent this in. She writes: “Time for a new drug.”]

10,000 Soldiers Must Go This Year, 20,000 Next Year? “There Are Ways To Meet The (EndStrength) Goal And Still Take Care Of Soldiers” “Our Politicians Don’t Care Enough To Use Them” “It’s Cheaper To Just Kick People Out”

May 26, 2014 [FORUMS] Army Times [Excerpts] The best from our discussion boards at militarytimes.com/forums , Army Times’ Facebook page and our blog Outside the Wire at militarytimes. com/blogs/outside-the- wire .

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In regards to “10K soldiers must go this year, 20K next year,” May 12 : This is my husband’s chosen career path, not just a job for a few years. I pray he gets to stay along this path.

— Amber Murrell Rogers

There are ways to meet the (endstrength) goal and still take care of soldiers. Unfortunately, our politicians don’t care enough to use them. It’s cheaper to just kick people out.

— Lydia Hales

Stop recruiting. You just end up spending more money to train newbies when you already have very well-trained men. This is just ridiculous.

— Stephanie Marrs

Start from the top and work down — forced retirements.

— Adam Thrash

In civilian language, Obama is cutting 10,000 jobs in one year. In the most important sector of our country.

Way to use your stupidity.

— Susan Clark Villegas

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Resistance Action

May 23, 2014 DHNS

Four heavily-armed terrorists attacked the Consulate General of India (CGI) at Herat in western Afghanistan early on Friday, None of the Consulate staff was hurt as Indian and Afghan soldiers guarding the mission gunned down all four attackers in an encounter that lasted for almost nine hours.

Armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, the terrorists attacked the CGI at Ameriat Cross Road in Herat in the early hours on Friday.

The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel deployed to guard the Consulate and soldiers of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) responded immediately with retaliatory firing. While one of the attackers was killed by ITBP personnel, the others were gunned down by ANSF soldiers, according to a PTI report from Kabul.

The PTI quoted India’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Amar Sinha, as stating that one of the attackers was killed when he was climbing the high walls of the Consulate in a bid to enter the main building, which also houses the residence of Consul General Amit Kumar Mishra.

Nine Indians were in the Consulate at the time of the attack, apart from some local Afghans, he said. The three other attackers had sneaked into another building in the vicinity to launch the attack.

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SOMALIA WAR REPORTS

Insurgents Attack Parliament Building: “MPs Were Debating An Agenda Focusing On Public Fund Management And The Assailants”

May 24, 2014 Garowe Online

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Insurgents believed to be Al Shabaab fighters have launched a day light assault on Federal parliament building in Mogadishu on Saturday according to officials, Garowe Online reports.

An explosive-laden car firstly exploded in front of Isbahaysiga Mosque near the parliament compound, followed by gun battle that triggered between Somali government soldiers who were standing guard at the building where MPs were debating an agenda focusing on public fund management and the assailants.

Witnesses have confirmed to GO correspondent that fighters in military fatigues fired live ammunition at the entrance to the parliament hall: "Plumes of black smoke could be seen over the scene of the attack, nearby civilians managed to escape while security forces have begun to engage in firefight with the uniformed attackers," an eyewitness said.

State-run station, Radio Mogadishu said, the security forces killed four Al Shabaab soldiers in the resistance.

MILITARY NEWS

Italians Break Into U.S. Army Base To Plant Marijuana Seeds: “They Planted 200,000 Seeds In All”

[Thanks to Sandy Kelson, Military Resistance Organization, who sent this in.]

May 8, 2014 By April M. Short, AlterNet [Excerpts]

Wearing the " V for Vendetta"-inspired Guy Fawkes masks of the Occupy movement, a group of 50 activists in Italy cut through barbed wire to enter the Fontega US army base on May 1. They filmed themselves scattering marijuana seeds (as well as a few corn and tomato seeds) around the compound.

According to a press release, the rogue gardeners were part of Italy’s No Dal Molin movement and their actions were in protest of violent U.S. policies. They planted 200,000 seeds in all, “to liberate our land from the foundations of war.” The statement speaks up against the failed U.S. war on drugs and corrupt U.S. policies at large.

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

“At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh had I the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.

“For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.

“We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.”

“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppose.”

Frederick Douglass, 1852

I say that when troops cannot be counted on to follow orders because they see the futility and immorality of them THAT is the real key to ending a war. -- Al Jaccoma, Veterans For Peace The Divide: American Injustice In The Age Of The Wealth Gap: “The American ‘Justice’ System Is A Cynical, Brutal, And Well-Organized Setup For Perpetuating The Wealth Of The Rich And The Poverty Of The Poor” [Book Review]

May 12 - 26, 2014 The Spark

Matt Taibbi’s new book, The Divide, vividly shows the gap between the poor, who can be jailed for anything or nothing, and the rich, who cannot be jailed, no matter how much money they steal, and no matter how blatantly they lie.

By comparing the criminal bankers with the ordinary “criminals” who fill the jails, Taibbi shows how the American “justice” system is a cynical, brutal, and well-organized setup for perpetuating the wealth of the rich and the poverty of the poor.

Taibbi describes how the giant bank HSBC paid a fine for laundering tens of billions of dollars in Mexican drug money, but no one went to jail.

He shows how the top executives of the investment bank Lehman Brothers stole billions of dollars from creditors and handed it to the British bank Barclays as Lehman Brothers went bankrupt. These execs got multi-million dollar payoffs for themselves, in an elaborate scheme that cost pension funds and other investors across the country – and they got away with it.

He explains how the Obama administration has developed an almost official policy of not jailing bankers, and of instead going after fines that are just slaps on the wrist for these enormous banks.

On the other side of town, Taibbi shows how tens of thousands of mostly black and Latino New Yorkers go to jail every year for possession of tiny quantities of marijuana, a story which could be repeated in every city in the country.

He shows how police arrest thousands of young men in poor neighborhoods, mostly for suspicion, and charge them with crimes as petty as blocking the sidewalk, often over and over again.

He sheds a light on the “gulag” of detention centers around the country for working class undocumented immigrants. These immigrants are then ripped off again and again in the centers, from high charges for phone cards, to being deported into the hands of Mexican cartels that kidnap many and extort money from their families.

One of the most striking parts is Taibbi’s comparison of welfare fraud and bank fraud.

J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, and the other big banks forged millions of mortgage documents, helping to spark the economic collapse and allowing them to steal more billions of dollars. But not one person from any of those banks went to jail.

Meanwhile, a woman receiving public aid in Riverside County, California, can get her name in the newspaper as a welfare fraud thief, and be thrown in jail, for not reporting that she has a boyfriend who helps her with groceries.

They say there’s one law in this country that applies equally to everyone. This book shows just how much that statement is a cynical lie.

There is one law for the rich, and one for the poor.

And that’s a big part of how the rich keep control over the population.

YOUR INVITATION: Comments, arguments, articles, and letters from service men and women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Write to Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657 or email [email protected]: Name, I.D., withheld unless you request publication. Same address to unsubscribe.

“The Courts Have Issued Several Judgments Which For The First Time Permit The Distribution Of Political Literature Within Military Installations” “In A Sweeping First Amendment Decision, The Court Declared That The Military Did Not Have The Right To Restrict Access To Parts Of An Installation Generally Open To The Public”

From: SOLDIERS IN REVOLT: DAVID CORTRIGHT, Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1975. [Now available in paperback from Haymarket Books]

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We have seen numerous examples in which not a lack of authority but its very excessiveness have increased dissension and unrest.

Stern discipline has frequently only exacerbated internal difficulties and strengthened GI resistance.

Servicemen rooted in a society increasingly skeptical of authority and established institutions must inevitably rebel against the arbitrary punitive methods of the military establishment.

The present, medieval system is also fundamentally incompatible with the changed nature of modem military forces. The increasing pace of technological change and introduction of new and sophisticated military job specialties have changed the demands of military service, requiring greater abilities and more individual, initiative on the part of each soldier.

Military discipline and training, derived from times when armies had to be forced into open fire in mass infantry lines, can only impede the individual responsibility required in many modern military occupations. Moreover, an increasing number of servicemen work in a bureaucratic or technical environment similar to that found in many civilian jobs. Indeed, many now live off post and commute to their forty-hour-a-week military job very much in the manner of the average civilian.

To claim that strict disciplined is necessary for proper job performance is absurd.

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One of the most controversial subjects of military reform is the administrative discharge system.

Nearly five hundred thousand Vietnam-era veterans have received less-than-honorable separations, often resulting in a lifelong barrier to GI benefits and decent employment.

Since adaptability to the military has little or no relation to one’s ability to function in civilian life, the permanent deprivations of a “bad” discharge constitute a vindictive and senseless form of oppression.

Given the frequency with which commanders resorted to discharges as a means of eliminating political opponents, many punitively released veterans must be counted among those who resisted the military and the Vietnam War.

Similarly, the disproportionate number of blacks who received “bad” discharges were often leading activists in the GI movement and in many cases were victims of overt discrimination and repression.

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Some may object that proposals for military democracy are hopelessly utopian, that military authorities will never yield to demands for GI rights.

While the ultimate goals of the GI movement are admittedly distant, the resistance effort has not been without impact.

Indeed, the pressures of continuous political struggle have resulted in important gains in recent years.

Perhaps the clearest example of progress in the campaign for enlisted rights is the increasing influence of civilian federal courts in the affairs of military discipline — what might be termed “the civilianization of military law.”

In the past decade, servicemen have pushed relentlessly for Bill of Rights protections, and, through an unprecedented wave of GI court suits, have persuaded federal judges to assume jurisdiction over many crucial areas of military justice.

The vaguely worded catch-alls, Articles 133 and 134, have been seriously challenged; court-martial defendants have won the right to individual counsel; various unjust and discriminatory regulations have been nullified; the right to on- post distribution of political literature has been granted; etc. The intrusion of civilian legal standards into the world of the military marks an important and potentially fundamental change in the nature of military law.

There have been literally hundreds of GI court cases, and it would be impossible for us to discuss even a fraction of them here. Rather, we shall review a few of the recent landmark decisions with greatest consequence.

One of the most important of these involved two Fort Ord soldiers, Don Amick and Ken Stolte, who in 1968 distributed a leaflet urging fellow GIs to join an anti-war union. The two were court-martialed under Article 134 for “disloyal statements” and sentenced to three years in prison.

In January 1973, however, Washington Federal District Judge Aubrey Robinson ruled that the Army had incorrectly interpreted the article in charging the two and threw out their convictions.

The Robinson decision was extended two months later, when a Washington Appeals Court declared that Article 134 was in fact unconstitutional because of vagueness and inadequate standards of guilt.

The case involved Marine Pfc Marl Avreeh, who had been convicted in Da Nang, during 1969, of anti-war activities.

The courts have issued several judgments which for the first time permit the distribution of political literature within military installations.

In November of 1972, the Supreme Court ruled that the conviction of antiwar activist Tom Flower for distributing literature at Fort Sam Houston was unconstitutional.

In a sweeping First Amendment decision, the court declared that the military did not have the right to restrict access to parts of an installation generally open to the public.

In a following case, Jenness v. Forbes, a Rhode Island district court decided that Socialist Workers Party candidate Linda Jenness could not be prevented from distributing political literature at Quonset NAS.

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Bosnia Floods: “The Plenums Have Now Transformed Into A Sort Of Humanitarian Aid Organisation” “When Asked About Government Response, He Calls Is ‘Shabby And Slow’ And Adds: ‘If It Had Been Up To Them, People Would Be Dead’” Criticism Is “Raining Down On The Authorities For Their Failure To Warn, Prepare And Quickly Reach Out To The Population In The Affected Areas” This is where the plenum movement came from and this is why all the plenums call themselves ‘plenums of citizens’—because people are fed up with the destructive ethnic divisions that have turned BiH into a democracy without citizens (and if you’re asking yourself, ‘what kind of a democracy is that?’— exactly).

May 24, 2014 by Amila Bosnae, http://bhprotestfiles.wordpress.com/

‘The material damage caused by the floods is far worse than after the war,’ Vedad Pašić from the Tuzla Plenum tells us on Skype, and I’m so shaken by this I hardly hear the rest of what he says.

We’re at a Bosnia Solidarity Meeting at Brighton University; a meeting that was planned long ago, before the disastrous floods had hit large parts of the Balkans. It was supposed to focus on the uprising that erupted with the protests of early February, but is inevitably coloured by the large-scale disaster in the form of the worst floods the region has seen in 120 years.

In the face of tragedy, people rallied together and helped each other without regard for the divisions that had been wedged between them for over two decades.

It isn’t just neighbours helping neighbours either.

People travel to the affected areas from other parts of the country—among them people who came to Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) during the war or after it, helped rebuild the country then and have already started rebuilding it now.

‘The networks that had emerged with the uprising and the plenums have now transformed into a sort of humanitarian aid organisation,’ Damir Arsenijević tells us, having just stepped out of a relief coordination meeting to take the call with us.

‘The plenums created the conditions for this kind of solidarity.’

Vedad and Damir are among a group of young lecturers and academics who received part of their education abroad before returning to BiH.

They’re among a group of people very critical of the political and academic establishments for their corruption and perpetuation of ethnic divisions.

This is where the plenum movement came from and this is why all the plenums call themselves ‘plenums of citizens’—because people are fed up with the destructive ethnic divisions that have turned BiH into a democracy without citizens (and if you’re asking yourself, ‘what kind of a democracy is that?’— exactly).

With criticism raining down on the authorities for their failure to warn, prepare and quickly reach out to the population in the affected areas, their depletion of reserves meant for just such disasters and not least their gross mismanagement of natural resources and structures like dams, it seems that the citizens’ networks are the new infrastructure: ‘In fact,’ Damir says, ‘the floods have washed away all distinctions right now. No one cares whether you’re from a party, a trade union, the government, or a plenum. If you can help, that’s all that matters.’

The work ahead of them is tremendous, and the danger hasn’t fully passed yet. Countless landslides across the country have moved mine fields and their markers, further endangering lives.

‘In Tuzla Canton alone, there are 741 active landslides,’ Damir tells us. ‘The whole city is wobbling.’

Even as he talks about the tragedy of the retraumatisation of the population, he seems full of adrenaline. ‘This is going to stay with us for the next 20-30 years. The attention of the international community will wane, but we need to think long-term.

“Right now, there are 1.4 million people affected, massive areas without drinking water, thousands of dead cattle floating, the risk of disease spreading… the most urgent needs sometimes change by the minute. I guess we’re still in shock,’ he says, probably confirming what everyone in the room is thinking.

When asked about government response, he calls is ‘shabby and slow’ and adds: ‘If it had been up to them, people would be dead.’ However, he says that things were better on the municipal level and that cities were quick to reach out to neighbouring cities.

This year, which has already seen massive changes—first the uprising, now the floods— is also election year in BiH.

How is that going to pan out for the establishment?

‘I can’t imagine the ethno-nationalist system being able use its old tropes now, especially after the floods,’ Asim Mujkić, a lecturer from Sarajevo says.

‘One of the greatest achievements of the plenums was to create new channels of communication and diminish the support for ethno-nationalist divisions,’ he explains, pointing out the fact that the solidarity and the way people are organising right now completely disregards those divisions.

‘And the floods, too, will bring new forms of cooperation,’ he adds.

The more regular work of the plenums is not completely halted, however.

‘Six people have been arrested for the February protests and we’re supporting them and their families,’ Damir tells us.

‘At the same time, we have to keep an eye out for any attempt to use this state of emergency to pass dubious legislation. You have to be very vigilant,’ he adds before signing off. OCCUPATION PALESTINE

The Struggle For Palestinian Return: “At The Ofer Demonstration, The IOF Responded With Lethal Violence Killing Two Young Activists And Injuring Many Others” “Recent Years Have Seen A Shift Away From Events That ‘Commemorate’ The Nakba As A Historical Event” “The New Generation Of Activists Are Seeking And Developing New Forms Of Direct Action For The Right Of Return”

17 May 2014 by Rich Wiles, Middle East Eye [Excerpts]

Recent years have seen a shift away from events that ‘commemorate’ the Nakba as a historical event as the new generation of activists are seeking and developing new forms of direct action for the right of return amidst what could be seen as a burgeoning anti-colonial struggle in Palestine.

Nadim Nashaf is the Director of Baladna, a grassroots Palestinian organisation based in Haifa. Having worked with Palestinian youth for many years, Nashaf believes that for today’s young activists ‘commemorating’ the Nakba is not seen as a proactive step towards the realisation of inalienable Palestinian rights.

Instead, they are developing new forms of struggle. "Commemorative Nakba-related events have traditionally been used to retain and develop the connection to land and sustain memory, but the new generation feel that for them this is not enough.

More than 10,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel, including many IDPs, attended the Return March in Lubya, near Tiberias. All photos courtesy of Rich Wiles

They see direct action as a necessary tool towards the realisation of rights," he said.

There continues however, to be a lack of tangible political will to implement the right of return which continues to be considered as an ‘obstacle’ to peace in the international framework.

This lack of political will is amplified by a growing distrust in the Palestinian street of the national leadership.

Nashaf feels that this is also playing a significant role in the development of new tools of struggle by activists:

"The PA sends either direct or indirect messages that they are giving up on the right of return. Abu Mazen (Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas) makes speeches which don’t represent our rights and the new generation are using social media to reject this.

“The PA is disconnected from Palestinian reality so activists are responding with new methods of organising using direct action within non-hierarchical structures to create new forms of popular activism," he added.

Nakba Day 2011 Palestinians took a collective and pro-active step in 2011 which could be seen as a cornerstone of these recent developments.

For many years, mass commemorative Nakba Day marches had taken place in Ramallah and Gaza as well as inside what Palestinians refer to as ‘48 Palestine, current day Israel.

As Nakba Day 2011 started to take shape, huge numbers of refugees in surrounding Arab countries headed towards the borders declaring their collective intention to implement their right of return.

On the Lebanese and Syrian borders, refugees amassed and attempted to physically cross borders to reach their villages.

Several refugees ran through Israeli-laid minefields on the Lebanese border and reached the border fence. From the Syrian side, many succeeded in crossing the border and reaching the town of Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights.

All but one of those who reached Majdal Shams were either arrested by Israeli forces or returned to the border themselves. The one exception was a 28 year old refugee who after visiting his family home in Jaffa turned himself in to the Israeli police identifying himself as ‘Hassan Hijazi from Jaffa’. He was later returned to Syria by the Israeli authorities.

The Israeli response on the borders to these unarmed refugees was violent, leading to the deaths of 11 refugees on the Lebanese border and 4 on the Syrian border. Hundreds were injured.

In Jordan and Egypt planned actions were thwarted by domestic security services. Inside the occupied Palestinian territories, Palestinians also marched collectively towards Israeli checkpoints.

More than 200 were injured throughout the day and in Gaza two Palestinians were killed. Organisation for these collective events had included the use of social media networks in the preceding weeks.

Nakba Day 2012 saw Israel close checkpoints across the West Bank and prevent large numbers of buses reaching Ramallah and Qalandia checkpoint which had been the site of a ‘return march’ the previous year.

Israel had generally not impeded the Ramallah event on a large scale previously, in the belief that a ‘commemorative’ event in the centre of Ramallah presented no challenge - either physically or politically - to the status quo, but the 2011 rights-based activism towards borders had created a wave of bad publicity internationally to the Israeli response and in its itself attempted to directly challenge Israeli hegemony.

In the summer of 2012, a group of IDPs from the village of Iqrit further developed this new wave of direct action. For several years annual youth summer camps had been staged by the displaced community in Iqrit and other villages in the north including Kufr Bir’im.

Following Iqrit’s 2012 summer camp, a group of youth announced the decision to remain in their village and implement their return. The group stayed in the village church which they had renovated during previous summer camps. All other buildings in the village had been entirely destroyed in 1951 by the Israeli army, three years after the forcible depopulation of the village by Zionist militias.

By living in the village church the ‘returnees’ presented a challenge to Israel - was the state prepared to attack a church within the State of Israel and physically remove people from it? The answer to date has been ‘No’, although attempts to construct anything outside the church, including chicken coups, have been met by immediate demolition.

In nearby Kufr Bir’im, a similar action was implemented following their 2013 summer camp, again youth-led but this time with a wider cross-section of the entire displaced community actively involved in the actual ‘return’.

Bir’im’s returnees further developed the model when they strategically refused to inhabit the church in their village, instead setting up an encampment of tents alongside the church. Wassim Ghantous is a third generation IDP and amongst the ‘al-Awda’ youth group that forms the core of returnees in Bir’im. Ghantous believes that several factors led to the decision to implement their return in this manner: "The exclusion of Palestinian citizens of Israel from the PLO’s political discourse - by signing the Oslo accords and labelling us an ‘internal Israeli issue" - pushed us to take our struggle into our hands. This, combined with the dead end of domestic jurisdiction and the increasing institutional exclusion and racism towards Palestinians in Israel, makes return virtually impossible.

So we saw that rather than a reactionary position ‘appealing’ for return and ‘waiting’ for it, we needed to adopt tactics of direct action to implement it."

Using non-hierarchical structures of organising, the returnees in Kufr Bir’im and also Iqrit are rejecting the current hierarchy at the root of the Palestinian national movement and trying to create a real popular alternative.

The return camp in Bir’im was soon issued with an evacuation and demolition order and returnees began a legal challenge to these orders, although Ghantous says this was to ‘buy time for strategising rather than in the belief that the Israeli legal system would offer us any kind of justice’.

This ongoing legal case is not a substitute for direct action as the returnees have remained in Bir’im as it continues. Various other displaced communities in the north of 1948 Palestine implemented summer camps in their home villages in the summer of 2013 and collective strategising continues amongst these communities with a view to developing this model on a wider scale.

Returnees from Kufr Bir’im and Iqrit were amongst more than 10,000 Palestinians who attended a ‘Return March’ to the depopulated village of Lubya on May 6th 2014. The annual Return March for IDPs has been held since 1998 and this year’s event attracted the largest attendance to date.

The Israeli state permits these events as it attempts to hide under its rapidly collapsing veneer of democracy, on the understanding that no-one will remain in the villages after the marches. A heavy Israeli ‘security’ presence was evident, but no violence was used against attendees.

Baladna’s Nashaf saw the influences of the new structures of activism on this year’s event. "In Lubya, social media was used by the internally displaced youth who sent messages and live images to refugees in Yarmouk camp in Syria. The refugees in Yarmouk responded with photos of themselves holding banners supporting the activists in Lubya. This was really amazing. Such actions are growing on a popular level. Non- hierarchical grassroots movements are more difficult to organise but are also more democratic. We need to develop more of these cross-border link-ups.

Photo: A Nakba survivor celebrates his 77th birthday back in Kufr Birim, nearly 66 years after he was forcibly displaced from the village. All photos courtesy of Rich Wiles

Nakba Day In Al-Walaja

Building on the model of 2011, community-based organisations and grassroots movements in the Bethlehem area worked collectively in the lead up to this year’s Nakba Day to organise the latest action against Israel’s settler colonial project.

Amongst the organisations involved was BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency Refugee Rights.

On May 13th, BADIL’s Director Nidal al-Azza described the planned event. "This year’s Nakba Day in al-Walaja will include a photographic exhibition produced by female activists and then we will attempt to reach and cross the Green Line because our villages and land are there," said al-Azza.

According to UNRWA statistics, approximately 70% of al-Walaja’s lands were colonised in 1948, and its residents became refugees. Some villagers fled to Jordan, others ended up in refugee camps within the West Bank, yet a few villagers constructed new houses within al-Walaja’s remaining lands as the Green Line bisected the village.

Nearly half of these remaining lands were then annexed within Israel’s ‘Greater Jerusalem’ project after 1967.

Settlement construction then began as Gilo and Har Gilo were developed on the lands of al-Walaja and neighbouring villages.

Since 2006, the separation and military roads have been eating away at the tiny pieces of the village that remain. At the top of a hill overlooking the Green Line in al-Walaja a tent was erected on Nakba Day which housed the photographic exhibition produced by female activists.

By mid-morning, more than 1000 activists from Bethlehem, its camps and the wider southern West Bank area had congregated. Down the hill, a small number of Israeli military jeeps could be seen on the military road behind barbed-wire sections of the separation barrier system.

As activists headed down the hill, the IOF seemed surprised and were unable to prevent activists opening-up the barbed wire and passing this latest ‘border’.

Activists flooded the military road as IOF reinforcements and Israeli police hurried to the scene.

Some activists continued towards the Green Line whilst others were overcome with barrages of tear-gas forcing them down the road or back through the dismantled wall.

Over the following hours, the dry hills of al-Walaja echoed under the sounds of violence and resistance - women sang national songs as the IOF bombarded the area with tear-gas.

Amidst all this, a very small group of activists passed across the road and headed to the 1948 occupied lands.

As the majority of activists were forced back up the hill to the tent under heavy clouds of tear-gas the atmosphere was defiant.

Local member of the Popular Resistance Committee, Munder Amira, himself a refugee from Beit At’ab, saw the event as a small victory in the ongoing struggle: "Dedicated actions are needed to struggle for rights. Today we broke fences and entered ‘48. We showed that we will not accept imposed boundaries or borders," he said. The IOF later pushed deep in to the new village of al-Walaja and surrounded the activists’ tent. Unsurprisingly, the tent met the same fate as Palestinian houses have been doing for more than 66 years when it was demolished by the Israeli forces.

“At The Ofer Demonstration, The IOF Responded With Lethal Violence Killing Two Young Activists And Injuring Many Others”

On the same day, many amongst the new generation of activists in the central West Bank rejected the traditional ‘commemorative’ rally in Ramallah and instead went to either Ofer Prison or Qalandia checkpoint.

At the Ofer demonstration, the IOF responded with lethal violence killing two young activists and injuring many others.

Similar protests broke out in other locations across the 1967 occupied lands.

By the end of the day, hundreds had been injured by Israel’s violent response.

Palestinians are one collective, yet displaced and dispersed people. This fact is denied by Israel at the state level, using terminology such as ‘Arab Israelis’ or ‘Arab citizens of Israel’ to describe Palestinians citizens of the state including IDPs.

That said, the Israeli state has developed policies under various guises, that may sometimes be used differently depending which Palestinian people they are enforced against, but the end result remains the same.

Both refugees and IDPs continue to live in enforced exile yet IDP’s can sometimes be ‘permitted’ to visit their homes - such as the Return March to Lubya - as long as they don’t stay there.

When refugees try to do the same - such as border crossing attempts in 2011 and 2014 - they are met with violence.

The end result and the formulated Israeli goal - sustaining the colonial project – remains constant.

The ongoing Nakba currently sees displacement projects being implemented against Palestinians from the Galilee to the Naqab and from Jaffa to the Jordan Valley in which slightly different methods may be applied depending on whether the victims are ‘citizens of the State of Israel’ or ‘residents’ of 1967 occupied lands.

In practice, despite Israeli claims to the contrary, the state-imposed tools, with their variable applications, also acknowledge the collective nature of the Palestinian people.

These are seen as fundamentally colonial policies that are enforced with goals that are not dictated by the specific ID cards that Palestinians hold, but simply because they are Palestinian. Within this context, new forms of Palestinian struggle are emerging, and many involved believe that only through a collective national and international anti- colonial struggle can rights finally be realised, as BADIL’s Nidal al-Azza pointed out amidst the tear-gas in al-Walaja.

"Return is not a ‘hope’, but rather a right that must be enforced.

“Nakba is not a ‘memory’, but a continuing process. Our resistance must develop, and directly and collectively challenge the existing settler-colonial system," stressed al-Azza.

Zionist Occupation Forces Raid And Attack Hospital, Homes:

May 20, 2014 Palestine News & Information Agency

JENIN -- Israeli forces Tuesday stormed the northern West Bank city of Jenin and the nearby camp, attacking a hospital and homes, causing several suffocation cases, as well as destroyed the water and power networks in the area, according to security sources and witnesses.

Forces fired live and rubber coated steel bullets, tear gas canisters and stun grenades towards the homes and a hospital, causing many suffocation cases among residents as well as destroying the infrastructure.

Forces raided the hospital compound and emergency department after attacking the hospital by firing tear gas canisters and destroying some of the contents.

Forces also conducted a large-scale raid and search campaign, raiding several homes in the area, destroying their contents after forcing the residents to stay outside while interrogating many of them.

Army further deployed snipers at the roofs of homes as well as arrested a 22-year-old in the camp. In the meantime, confrontations erupted following the provocative raid and search campaign; army fired tear gas at local residents, causing many cases of suffocation among them.

Governor of Jenin, Tala Dwekat, condemned the “ongoing aggression against the Palestinian people.” He said the Israeli attack campaign was aimed at restoring chaos, insecurity and instability.

To check out what life is like under a murderous military occupation commanded by foreign terrorists, go to: http://www.maannews.net/eng/Default.aspx and http://www.palestinemonitor.org/list.php?id=ej898ra7yff0ukmf16 The occupied nation is Palestine. The foreign terrorists call themselves “Israeli.” DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

Meet The U.S. Woman Who Was Attacked By Enemy Combatants For Taking Tylenol: “A Summit County Sheriff’s Deputy Pried Open Her Jaw” “He Kept Shoving His Hand In My Mouth And Squeezing My Face And Pulling My Hair At The Same Time” Occupation Forces Commander Says “He Restrained Her For Her Safety”

In this video screen grab, Siobhan Householder is seen with a sheriff’s deputy in a waiting room at the Summit County Courthouse.

Siobhan Householder fights back tears as she watches a video of herself being assaulted by a sheriff’s deputy in a waiting room at the Summit County Courthouse during an interview Tuesday, in Akron. (Bob DeMay/Akron Beacon Journal)

May 14, 2014 By Phil Trexler, Akron Beacon Journal

A woman was injured and then charged with resisting arrest after a Summit County sheriff’s deputy pried open her jaw after she took prescription Tylenol. The incident took place in a prisoner-holding room in domestic relations court where Siobhan Householder, 35, said she was told to wait last week while a warrant was being lifted on a charge of failing to appear at a hearing.

The Akron woman went to court on her own May 8 and said she didn’t believe she was in custody and, therefore, felt free to take the Tylenol for a tooth infection.

A sheriff’s spokesman, however, said Wednesday that the woman was in custody and she was stopped from taking the medication for her own protection.

An internal investigation, as required by department policy, is underway because of the deputy’s use of force.

A surveillance camera mounted inside the room shows Deputy Eric Vaughan leaving the holding room with a jail inmate about 2:35 p.m. Householder then walks in alone with her purse, a second bag and a plastic cup of soda and takes a seat.

There is no audio with the video. The deputy and inmate soon return.

After the deputy was there about two minutes, Householder said she took two Tylenol pills along with a sip of soda. She was taking a third when the deputy confronted her, she said.

“He said, ‘What are you taking?’ and I said, Tylenol,” she recalled.

“And he said, ‘Spit it out’ and I said, ‘I can’t.’ I meant to say I can’t spit it out because I had already swallowed the other pills.

“But I didn’t even get that part out before he just yanked me up and threw me down on the ground and was trying to dig these pills out of mouth.

“And there was one (pill) in there and I couldn’t even get it out because he kept shoving his hand in my mouth and squeezing my face and pulling my hair at the same time.”

The deputy is seen in the video grabbing the woman’s hair at the back of her head and taking his hand to her jaw while wrestling her to the floor.

“He was pulling down on my bottom lip and squeezing my face at the same time,” she said in an interview Tuesday.

“He basically pulled my lip away from my teeth.”

She said she suffered a bruised chin, cuts inside her mouth, bruises to her legs and some hair loss.

At one point during the tussle, the prescription bottle falls to the floor and the deputy picks it up and reads the label.

He eventually appears to collect a single Tylenol pill that fell on the carpeting. Afterward, Householder, a mother of three, was handcuffed and frisked and her bags were searched. She was then taken to Akron General Medical Center.

“They were acting like I wanted to escape from Alcatraz. It was awful,” she said.

Sheriff’s Inspector Bill Holland, speaking on behalf of the department and deputy, said Vaughan was ordered to take Householder into custody. Householder said she was unaware she was in custody.

“While taking Ms. Householder into custody, Deputy Vaughan witnessed her attempt to ingest several pills. He restrained her for her safety and she was transported to a local hospital where she was treated and released,” Holland wrote in an emailed statement.

A court spokeswoman also said Householder was in custody until she could be booked and released.

In fact, jail records show Householder was “remote booked and released on domestic relations case” that same afternoon, either from the courthouse or the hospital.

A magistrate also signed the order lifting the warrant that same day.

Paramedics treated Householder at the scene for a bloody mouth. She was in the hospital ER when she was released with summonses on charges of resisting arrest and obstructing official business.

She has a prior resisting-arrest charge stemming from an unrelated incident in April.

Deputies in the courthouse seized her prescribed medications, which include the nine Tylenol and two diazepam tablets.

They also seized 26 ibuprofen tablets Householder had in a plastic sandwich bag that were kept in her purse, and three unknown pills they said were in a latex glove. Householder disputes putting any pills in a latex glove.

She has not been charged with any drug offenses.

Shitheads At It Again: Teen Faces Life In Prison...For Hash Brownies; Lavoro’s Lawyer Told KEYE TV “I’ve Been Doing This 22 Years As A Lawyer And I’ve Got 10 Years As A Police Officer And I’ve Never Seen Anything Like This Before”

May 22, 2014 By April M. Short, AlterNet

Jacob Lavoro is a 19-year-old from Round Rock, Texas who allegedly made and sold brownies laced with hash.

Hash is just the resin of regular old marijuana, but Lavoro was charged with a first-degree felony and faces five years to life in prison because he used that resin to make his brownies.

Lavoro has a spotless record, but Texas law makes a distinction between hash and marijuana, classifying hash possession as an automatic felony. To reiterate, hash is marijuana.

Hash is the gooey white crystals that naturally coat the buds of the cannabis plant. People usually just smoke those buds, but to "make" hash, all that’s necessary is to rub your fingers over the buds—off comes the hash.

Since Lavoro used hash to make the brownies, the state used the weight of the entire brownies—sugar, butter, flour and all—when calculating the total weight of the drug in possession, according to the Texas news station KEYE TV. It came out to about 1.5 pounds.

Lavoro’s lawyer, Jack Holmes, told KEYE TV following the first court date that the charge seemed totally unprecedented.

“I’ve been doing this 22 years as a lawyer and I’ve got 10 years as a police officer and I’ve never seen anything like this before,” he said. "They’ve weighed baked goods in this case. … It ought to be a misdemeanor."

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