Campaigns

NOVANEWS The Guardian 12/10/10 'Justice dies when the law is co-opted for political purposes.' Gareth Peirce, one of our key human rights lawyers, talks to Stuart Jeffries 'I don't have any memories of my childhood now," says Gerry Conlon, as he rolls a cigarette in the sun-dappled garden of a cafe in Camden Town, north London. "But everything that happened from Saturday 30 November 1974 is absolutely vivid." That was the day the 20-year-old was arrested in Belfast for his supposed part in the Guildford pub bombings, in which five people died and 65 were injured. It was 15 years before Conlon was finally released from prison – thanks mostly to the human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce. Conlon became known as one of the Guildford Four, whose convictions, along with those of the Birmingham Six a...

NOVANEWS Dear , These are hard but important days for us in Palestine. Just yesterday, my friend and coordinator of the Bil'in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, Abdallah Abu Rahmah, was sentenced to a year in prison by an Israeli military court. His sole crime was being an instrumental part in our village's campaign against the construction of the wall on our lands. However, we mustn't allow our sadness about Abdallah's incarceration to stop our work. While Abdallah worked to highlight the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, Israel also constructs illegal infrastructure in East Jerusalem. Between the 20th and 22nd of October, almost a week from today, the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) plans to hold its bi-annual tourism conference in ...

NOVANEWS repression of non-violence in Beit Ommar, West Bank While Bil’in’s Abdallah Abu Rahmah is sentenced to a 12-month jail term, Around 70 Palestinian, Israeli and International solidarity activists demonstrated in Beit Ommar against the Israeli settlement of Kamei Tsur, which is built on village land. Israeli Forces arrested four Palestinians, three international, and one Israeli solidarity activists. An Israeli Special Forces unit disguised in Palestinian clothes snuck of on the rear of the demonstration and arrested three youth. Additionally, the Israeli and international solidarity activists were pepper sprayed before being arrested. Sound bombs and tear gas were used against the demonstrators and members of the press were also beaten.   Yazid Sayigh writing on the First Intifa...

NOVANEWS Press Release 11 October 2010 Bil'in's Abdallah Abu Rahmah sentenced to a year in prison Bil'in protest organizer Abdallah Abu Rahmah was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment today, for his involvement in his village's unarmed struggle against the wall. Media contact: Jonathan Pollak +972546327736 Abdallah Abu Rahmah was sentenced today to 12 months in prison, plus 6 months suspended sentence for 3 years and a fine of 5,000 NIS. In the sentencing, the judge cited the non-implementation of an Israeli High Court ruling which declared the current route of the wall on Bil’in’s land illegal as a mitigating factor. The military prosecution is likely to appeal this sentencing – as they did in the case of Adeeb Abu Rahmah, who was also sentenced for 12 months on similar charges but is ...

NOVANEWS Dear friends Show support for Mordechai Vanunu: 1)       Mordechai is in court today (Monday) for a hearing of his appeal against the restrictions of movement, speech and association he is still under six years after he was released having completed his 18-year sentence for revealing details of Israel's nuclear weapons. 2)       This Wednesday, 13th October, is Mordechai's 56th birthday. Why not send him a message to show for your support for his human rights and stand against Israel's nuclear weapons and congratulations on his 56th birthday? Mordechai's e-mail address is: vanunuvmjc@gmail.com (Note that Mordechai has now moved to Tel Aviv, so his East Jerusalem postal address is probably defunct.  I don't presently have his current postal address.  I will send it round when I get...

NOVANEWS Perhaps the most bizarre thing about attempts to really analyze the Lobby and find the limits of its influence is that they are met way too frequently by accusations that the analyst who attempts to do so is “obfuscating” the role of the Lobby. If Jewish, the accusation gets an endearing twist: he is indulging in “Jewish tribalist apologetics.” Odder still is that these accusations have no rational rhyme or reason. Instead, those making the most wide-ranging claims proclaim their monopoly on Historical and Analytical Truth, pretend counter-arguments are gratuitous, and in the process talk very little about class, capitalism, and Empire. When we get to the Middle East, apparently materialism doesn’t matter for the Empire—we need to look to nationalism, ideology, Zionism, special in...

NOVANEWS Unite Against Fascism and Birmingham NUT present:   Anti-racism and resistance in the West Midlands 2:30pm Saturday 16th October @ African-Caribbean Millennium Centre, 339 Dudley Rd Birmingham B1S4HB  Join UAF and Birmingham National Union of Teachers celebrating Black History Month. For details call Birmingham UAF on 079 54 58 59 52 or look up www.uaf.org.uk     With Brian Travers from UB40, Jack Dromey Labour MP for Erdington, Maxi Hayles from BRAMU, Weyman Bennett, UAF Joint Secretary and Steve Jolly from No to Spy Cameras. Chaired by Birmingham NUT.

NOVANEWS October 8, 2010 Contact: newseditor@wrmea.com We've been asked to forward the following action alert to our list: Please join this international campaign to help get Mordechai Vanunu out of Israel in order to accept the Carl von Ossietzky Medal in Berlin on December 12. (Carl von Ossietzky was a German journalist and pacifist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace for 1935.) We are very grateful for your support and ask you to distribute the press release as widely as possible. Send a press release to your local TV/radio/newspaper/member of Congress/house of worship. Israel forbids Mr. Vanunu's freedom of movement, so without international attention he will not be permitted to accept his medal in person. Thank you again. Fanny-Michaela Reisin President of the International League fo...

NOVANEWS Find this reply by David Hirsh to Neve Gordon here. As part of a series entitled ‘Universities in Crisis’ on the website of the International Sociological Association, Neve Gordon, a supporter of the campaign to exclude Israeli scholars from the international academic community, writes a report on the state of academic freedom in Israel. Gordon, N, (2010) ‘An assault on israeli academic freedom – and liberal values’ Blog of the International Sociological Association (ISA), http://www.isa-sociology.org/universities-in-crisis/?p=559, downloaded 6 october 2010. He describes a demonstration in which he took part on his campus at Ben-Gurion University  in May 2010, which protested against the Israeli assault on the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish ship which was heading towards Gaza.  He then...

NOVANEWS Dear, What would you do if soldiers came to take your land away? Would you be brave enough to stand up to them, with your family in harm's way? What if a soldier pointed a gun at your daughter? Would you be able to push it away, and not pick up a gun yourself? Perhaps if you had the courage of Abdallah Abu Rahmah. And yet, his courage is not unique. It is shared by the great majority of Palestinians, who commit larger and smaller actions of nonviolent resistance to the occupation with dignity and steadfast determination every day of their lives. Abdallah Abu Rahmah helped to organize that resistance into weekly protests, capturing the attention of the world. He has hosted a group of Nobel Laureates and other international leaders known as The Elders, pictured here paying their res...