Denounce “the tight grip of the Israeli occupation of Palestine”
Bloomington, MN – Israeli security forces refused entry to three U.S. solidarity activists for attempting to participate in a human rights delegation organized by the Palestine Solidarity Group. Sarah Martin, member of Women Against Military Madness, and Katrina Plotz, of the Anti-War Committee, refused voluntary deportation and were forcibly deported Sunday evening, August 2. It was an emotional reunion at the airport on Monday afternoon, as Martin and Plotz were greeted with cheers and embraces by dozens of friends and supporters, carrying signs reading “Free Palestine!” and “End the occupation!”
The assault on Iraq began with a failed sneak attack. Minutes before bombers cruised over, sirens blasted a warning to the sleeping people of Baghdad. It was 5:30 a.m. on March 20. The full strength of the world’s largest military began a war of terror, which they called ‘shock and awe.’
In the face of a growing Iraqi resistance movement, the plans of the Bush administration to consolidate the occupation of Iraq are crumbling. The Pentagon acknowledges that attacks on the occupation forces are growing in scale and intensity. U.S. attempts to gain more military and financial support, within and outside of the United Nations, have by and large failed. So have efforts to create a viable Iraqi puppet government. The Governing Council, made up of U.S. appointees, has little legitimacy in the eyes of the Iraqi people or in the region as a whole.
Washington, DC – People across the country took to the streets to protest on the sixth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Demonstrators called for an end to the ongoing wars and occupations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. It was the first national day of protest against the war and occupations since Obama was elected president.
Chicago, IL – Sami Rasouli is an Iraqi American. “When the U.S. invaded, I felt like I was attacking myself. I was the oppressed and the oppressor.” Rasouli emigrated from Iraq to the U.S. in 1976 and became a U.S. citizen in 2001. He moved back to his home in Najaf, Iraq in 2004 to help counter the U.S. occupation. Since then he has returned the U.S. each year to speak, explaining the disastrous impact of the occupation on the Iraqi people and to seek support for his efforts. Rasouli is in the U.S. now; he travels back to Iraq in July, but will be back in Saint Paul, Minnesota by Sept. 1 to join the protests at the Republican National Convention.
An upsurge of armed resistance to the U.S. occupation has swept across Iraq over the past six weeks. Most of the fighting was initially concentrated in the southern port city of Basra, and then in the densely populated Sadr City, an impoverished suburb of the capitol Baghdad. The fighting in Basra and Sadr City is significant in that it represents a decisive rejection by the masses of Iraqi Shiites of the occupation government’s ‘political process.’
Minneapolis, MN – About 2000 people filled the streets here, March 15 for an anti-war march to mark the fifth anniversary of the U.S. war in Iraq with a call for an end to the occupation.
Tuscaloosa, AL – Four protesters from Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) were arrested here, Feb. 29, at the University of Alabama for performing a mock raid meant to demonstrate the effects of the U.S. occupation on Iraqi civilians.
Across the United States, on campuses from Los Alamos High School to Harvard University and at all points in between, students are getting organized to commemorate the fifth year of the U.S. occupation of Iraq with rallies, marches, die-ins and civil disobedience. More than 80 student and youth organizations have endorsed a call from chapters of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) for campus-based protests from March 17-21.
Another massacre by occupation forces in Afghanistan unfolded on Dec. 12 in the central province of Wardak. U.S. military forces on a foot patrol opened fire on an approaching bus, killing four civilians and wounding at least ten others, according to Halim Fidai, the governor of Wardak Province. The killings are the latest in a string of massacres that have led to increased Afghan anger at the occupation.
Washington D.C. – On March 17, tens of thousands of people braved unseasonably cold weather and strong winds to march against the U.S. occupation and war in Iraq. This national protest marked the fourth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and also commemorated the 40th anniversary of the historic 1967 march on the Pentagon against the Vietnam War. The 1967 Pentagon march is widely seen as representing the shift 'from protest to resistance' against the Vietnam War. The March on the Pentagon this year also aimed to express the need for an escalation from protest to resistance in order to stop the U.S. war in Iraq.
What began as a student strike to protest the war in Iraq quickly escalated on Feb. 15, as over a thousand students at the University of California-Santa Barbara took to the streets and completely shut down California Highway 217 for over two hours. After a standoff with law enforcement and the arrest of two protesters, the crowd marched back to campus and demonstrated in front of the chancellor’s office to confront university officials about the school’s involvement with the war effort.
2009 started off poorly for U.S. and NATO forces occupying Afghanistan. Shortly after the U.S. military invaded and occupied Afghanistan in October 2001, Fight Back! reported, “No one wants their country occupied by foreign powers. So, the people of Afghanistan will mount a resistance. Its scope and power remain to be seen, but it will certainly be a factor.” (Afghanistan Occupied, New Targets Ahead, Winter 2002, Fight Back!)
President Obama ordered 17,000 troops to deploy to Afghanistan on Feb. 17, marking a significant escalation of the war. “This reinforcement will contribute to the security of the Afghan people and to stability in Afghanistan,” said President Obama in his remarks to the press.
Vast numbers of Iraqis responded angrily to the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) signed between the United States government and their local allies in the Green Zone. The SOFA will provide a legal basis to continue the U.S. occupation of Iraq when the United Nations Security Council mandate for the occupation expires on Dec. 31, 2008. Hundreds of thousands protested before the agreement was signed and protests are set to continue as the SOFA legislation heads to the puppet parliament for final approval. The Iraqi resistance has also intensified its attacks on the U.S. occupation in response to the agreement.
