Feature Archives

On Sunday, June 27, Yonatan Shapira, an Israeli military refusenik, and Eaw Jasiewicz, a Polish activist sprayed "Liberate All Ghettos" in Hebrew, followed by "Free Gaza and Palestine" in English on a wall of an original block in the Warsaw Ghetto. In an interview with an Indybay reporter, Shapira states, "In our act we tried to separate between the actions of the Israeli Government and Jews.... the lesson that should be learned from the holocaust are resistance to any form of racism and ethnic cleansing."

Unions, labor federations and other organizations around the world have condemned Israel’s deadly attack against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla on May 31. In response on June 20th, a labor and community picket of an Israeli Zim Lines ship was called for the Port of Oakland. The picket has already succeeded in shutting down the port for the morning shift, after the ILWU refused to cross the picket line. Activists have promised to return at 4:30pm the same day to stop the next shift from unloading the Zim lines ship when it arrives from Monterey this afternoon.

On May 31st, Israeli commandos attacked an unarmed aid flotilla, killing at least nine and injuring dozens of others, in international waters forty miles off the coast of Gaza. On board the ships were hundreds of civilians attempting to bring 10,000 tons of supplies and humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, which has been under an illegal Israeli-imposed siege for the past three years.

Demonstrations against the Israeli attack have been taking place around the world with the largest being in Turkey where at least four of those killed were from. At a protest in the West Bank, an American solidarity activist was shot in the face with a tear gas canister and is currently in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem undergoing surgery to remove her left eye.

Protests have taken place all week at the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco. The next protest will be Thursday June 3rd at 4pm at Powell and Market with a march to the Consulate at 5pm.

On Thursday, June 10th, investigative journalist and author Pratap Chatterjee returns to the Bay Area from the Middle East and Washington, DC, to speak about the expansion of Obama's AfPak War and its connection to securing oil in the region. In a benefit event at UC Berkeley, Chatterjee will share his first hand investigations in Afghanistan and Iraq, including the massive waste, fraud and abuse among the multi-billion dollar US military contractors, as well as their treatment of third world workers.

Army Spc. Marc Hall, who had been jailed in Georgia county jails since December 12, 2009 for producing an angry hip-hop song about "stoploss" was placed on a military flight bound for Iraq on the night of February 26, 2010. The Army has made it clear that Marc will face a General Courts Martial that could result in years in prison and a dishonorable discharge. Local musicians, artists, and GI rights supporters are coming together in benefit of Marc Hall on Friday, March 26th in Scotts Valley.

On Saturday, March 20th, thousands of people marched in cities across the country calling for an end to wars and occupations in Afghanistan, Iraq and everywhere. The protest marked the seventh anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
In San Francisco, protesters gathered at Civic Center Plaza at 11am. There was a rally and then a march through the downtown area, returning to Civic Center for a closing rally. The Executive Board of UNITE-HERE Local 2 and many other unions endorsed the March 20 march and rally. The march went by two boycotted hotels, the Hilton and the Westin-St. Francis in solidarity with the hotel workers.
Regionally, protests were also held in San Jose and Monterey.

Cynthia Papermaster describes a Bybee Action at the Ninth Circuit Court in San Francisco on March 10th: In the past we've had only a few seconds to say something before Bybee disappeared at the end, but this time we caught a break when the gavel came down. Proctor Hug, the first of the three judges headed for the exit, was moving very slowly, leaving Bybee waiting and fully exposed for at least three minutes...