International

I wrote an article that I helped reconstruct demolished Palestinian homes out of civil disobedience. After the article by Melanie Lidman in The Jerusalem Post on April 30, stating that the Interior Ministry was accusing me of illegally constructing Palestinian homes demolished by the municipality, I wrote an op-ed that appeared on May 8.

When it becomes clear to everyone that the all-powerful economists have little to offer other than more cuts, more austerity measures, more insults (“go pay your taxes” or “you’re poor because you are lazy”), then people realise it’s up to them, and real human creativity takes over. That’s how a crisis becomes an opportunity.

US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said today that if they get UN authorization, his country might launch a military intervention in Syria, the scene of conflict between the government and armed opposition.
According to Panetta, his main responsibility is to guarantee that Washington gets the support needed from the international community to deploy its troops in Syria.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s protracted effort to fight extradition to Sweden suffered a body blow this week. Britain’s Supreme Court upheld the arrest warrant, issued in December 2010. After the court announced its split 5-2 decision, the justices surprised many legal observers by granting Assange’s lawyers an opportunity to challenge their decision.

In April of this year, I wrote that the upheaval in Syria (the Sunni majority revolt against the Alawite-dominated regime) has turned into a battleground between the Sunni axis led by Turkey and Saudi Arabia and the Shiite axis led by Iran. As events continue to unfold in the region, particularly the Sunni Islamists’ monopolization of the political processes in … (read more)

“To which faction would you have given your support? Whether on the side of the pure or the wicked, you would only have increased your folly”.

Silo, “Humanize the Earth” (Collected Works), Latitude Press, US.

We publish this opinion article about the conflict in Syria and more broadly in relation to the regional conflict in the Middle East.

While the entire watching world condemned the heinous Syria massacre of 26 May 2012 in Houla, little substantial could be understood from the killings as to which group was primarily responsible. For the West it was the Assad regime but there was no evidence of any such sole perpetrator, thus China, Russia as major powers took a more cautious view.

Americans do it, Spaniards do it, Mexicans do it, Israelis do it, even liberal Canadians do it, let’s do it, let’s criminalise peaceful protest.
As many countries hurriedly pass new legislation – or simply apply “antiterrorist” laws – to forbid nonviolent action, this can only strengthen the resolve of the protesters to stick to it.

15 months after Mubarak ’s ouster, this week Egyptians headed to the ballot box to choose a new President in the country’s first multi-candidate Presidential election. Unlike previous polls when election results had invariably been foregone conclusions, the outcome of this historic vote is uncertain with analysts and voters unable to speculate who the likely winner may be.

The NATO-Free Future gathering in Chicago coincides with a rising global movement against war, militarism, inequality and poverty. We represent the pro-peace and justice majority, the global 99%. We heed the wisdom of Dr.Martin Luther King Jr.’s call to challenge the “triple evils” of poverty, racial inequality and militarism.