News and Views from the People's Struggle
The Lebanese media outlet Al Manar reports that hundreds of protesters gathered by the French embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, Jan. 18, to demand that French authorities release the long-held political prisoner George Ibrahim Abdullah. Protesters threw eggs and tomatoes at the embassy building.
Effort to destabilize Lebanon underway
Hezbollah, the largest anti-imperialist political party in Lebanon, condemned the Oct. 19 Beirut bombing that took the life of Brigadier General Wissam Al-Hasan and others. In a statement, Hezbollah declared, “This hideous crime is a vicious attempt to target stability and national unity,” and urged the “security and judicial apparatuses to use all efforts to control the crime, uncover its committers, and bring them to justice.”
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was scheduled to speak at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy about “peace and prosperity” in the Middle East. However, on Oct. 15, over 200 community members, students and Palestine solidarity activists gathered outside of the event, decrying the university for hosting the notorious war criminal. Meanwhile, around 30 activists inside, mainly from Students for Justice in Palestine chapters at the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago, DePaul University, Loyola University and Northwestern University, disrupted Olmert's speech every 20 minutes for two and a half hours.
El lunes, 1 de agosto, 500 personas manifestaron en Plaza Venezuela, en Caracas, para protestar los ataques de Israel contra Líbano y Gaza, y para protestar el apoyo estadounidense frente la agresión israelí. Oradores, poetas y cantantes denunciaron el imperialismo estadounidense y el sionismo que están manejando este conflicto.
May Day is the most widely celebrated holiday in the world. Hundreds of thousands of workers, led by their unions, will march through the streets in Mexico, South Africa and the Philippines. In the socialist countries where the working people rule society – Cuba, China, Vietnam, Democratic Korea and Laos, May Day, or International Workers Day, is a national holiday. It is celebrated with huge rallies of millions. Leaders make speeches opposing war and imperialism, while praising the gains of the laboring classes who are furthering the cause of socialism.
Fight Back! is publishing the following statement criticizing the Geneva Accord – which purports to be a framework for achieving peace in Palestine. Like Bush’s ‘road map for peace,’ the Geneva Accord does not square with the aspirations of the Palestinian people for justice and liberation. When the text of the Accord was released Dec. 1, thousands protested in Gaza and other Palestinian cities.
Chicago, IL - In a racist defense of Israel’s attacks on Lebanon and Gaza, the Jewish United Fund rallied here July 17 at the Federal Plaza. As the heat index hit 111 degrees, the Palestine Solidarity Group and other organizations gathered to challenge the Zionists and to oppose Israel’s actions.
Hatem Abudayyeh is a well-known Palestinian activist and who has written extensively on developments in the Middle East.
Minneapolis, MN - 250 people protested here to defend the people of Gaza and Lebanon July 20. The demand was made to stop spending tax dollars to occupy and destroy Palestine and Lebanon.
The All India Anti Imperialist Forum organized protests across India July 24, against the attacks of Israel and the U.S. on Palestine and Lebanon. The West Bengal Committee of the AIAIF staged a large protest demonstration at Calcutta The following are excerpts from statement of the All India Anti Imperialist Forum giving an account of the event: “Before the start of the rally, Shri Manik Mukherjee, Vice-President, All India Anti-imperialist Forum, addressed a gathering at the Subodh Mullick Square. He said that, in one voice with the militant anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist forces of the world, the All India Anti-Imperialist Forum expresses bitter condemnation of the dastardly attack that the Zionist Israel has brought down for the last few days on Lebanon.” “Mukherjee also said that triggered on the flimsy pretext of demanding release of Israeli prisoners and combating terrorism, the bestial belligerence of the Israeli Zionist rulers forms nothing but a part of their long-pursued expansionist, aggressive policies against the Arab countries, more so Palestine. Thus, violating all norms of national sovereignty and civility, they have launched an all-out offensive indiscriminately killing innocent civilians, destroying civilian properties, facilities and constructions and thus damaging the very economic infrastructure of the country of Lebanon. The world stands astounded, albeit not for the first time, at the support and patronization that the warmonger US imperialist rulers have extended shamelessly to the war-maniac Israeli rulers, pleading for the right for self-defence for the barbaric attackers themselves. The AIAIF unequivocally denounces this act of the US imperialists and their cohorts, as well as the Israeli Zionists, which smacks of machination for escalating aggression over the people of the entire Middle East, in the face of ignominious defeat the US imperialism is experiencing on the soil of Iraq.” “Thereafter, the city witnessed a rally come out of the Square, resplendent with colourful banners and vibrant with resolute slogans against the barbaric imperialist attack and reached the venue at Metro Channel, Esplanade.” “The rally ended with burning of effigy of Israeli Prime Minister.”
#India #News #Palestine #Lebanon #2006IsraeliInvasion #AllIndiaAntiImperialistForum #MiddleEast