I have a friend who's daughter became a peace activist. She was sending emails back from Palestine, and this focused my mind on what was happening there.
When she returned she start ed selling Zaytoun products with the Olive Coop in Manchester. They were distributing Palestinian olive oil, soap, knickknacks, and organising tours to visit the producers.
I started using their olive oil as a way of positively supporting communities under threat. The sales help to sustain the…
Five of the 17 Prestwick weapons inspectors were acquitted on 1 December after the Crown failed to prove that they did not have permission from the US Air Force to be on their plane!
The five had entered Prestwick Airport on 7 August this year looking for evidence of bomb shipments from the US to Israel. Prestwick is an apparently civilian airport near Glasgow, but it also has military traffic. At the height of the bombing of Lebanon it became clear that the UK authorities would not…
In response to the continual, daily attacks, three pieces of nonviolent action by Palestinians have marked a tactical shift in resistance to the occupation.
On 3 November women surrounded a mosque in Beit Hanoun where men were sheltering from the Israeli military. To widespread international condemnation, the soldiers opened fire on the women, killing two and injuring at least 10. A couple of weeks later, hundreds of civilians surrounded two houses that were about to be destroyed by…
On 23 September an estimated 1,000 people converged on France's nuclear weapons facility at Les Landes in the south-west of the country to carry out a European “citizens' inspection”. The event was organised by a coalition of NGOs, including ATTAC, Re'seau Sortir du Nucle'aire, Mouvement de la Paix, Greenpeace and the Quakers.
French antinuclear campaigners believe that France - with its submarine-based M51 programme - is on a similar weapons development trajectory to Britain, with…
A veteran of the anti-roads movement, Jo Wilding first travelled to Iraq in August 2001 as part of the UK anti-sanctions movement, returning in February 2003 to witness the (re)invasion and then again in November 2003 to tour the country with the circus of the title. In April 2004 she was one of a tiny handful of internationals to witness the US siege of Fallujah first-hand, riding an ambulance in the city (over 300 women and children were killed during the siege as fighter bombers attacked…
One form of control commonly used by the Israeli military is to carry out night-time raids on people's homes, dragging away family members - often for little or no reason. When there is suspicion that this is going to happen, perhaps because the same families are repeatedly targeted, internationals sometimes stay in the house - their presence can often offer some protection.
In Balata Refugee Camp, east of Nablus, I stayed overnight in a family home where the father had been arrested…
The events in the Middle East during July and August resulted in a flurry of activity back here in Britain, with people from Brighton to Glasgow taking action to “bring the war home”. The heavy-handed tactics of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) were widely derided as “disproportionate”, and many people were compelled to do more than just march. Some of these actions even got covered in the mainstream press, most notably the Trident Ploughshares “citizens' inspections” at Prestwick Airport…
Greenpeace reported in mid August that they had delivered more than 75 tons of essential medical supplies to Lebanon by sea, following a joint operation between the international environmental campaign group and Medecins Sans Frontieres.
Three voyages were made by the Rainbow Warrior between Larnaca in Cyprus and Beirut. The humanitarian cargos consisted of relief equipment, including medical equipment, dialysis material, drugs, hygiene kits and fuel.
Greenpeace are also…
As the crisis in Palestine deepens, civil society groups in the UK have been drawing attention to the plight of the Palestinian people...using somewhat differing methods. As well as the 24 June boycott day, in which pickets and demos took place in 18 locations including Liverpool, Brighton, London and Manchester, the Pales-tine Fair Trade Association and Zaytoun - an ethical business selling Palestinian olive oil - and the Olive Co-operative, has launched “Trees For Life - Planting Peace in…
It is now almost 40 years since the Chagos islanders were secretly thrown off their Britishowned* islands to make way for a US military base. On 11 May, they celebrated winning the right to return.
It is the second time the High Court has had to give them this right, and their experience shows just what the British Government is capable of when it is determined to trample on people's rights.
Secrets and liesThe depopulation of the Chagos islands is a story of secrets, lies…
Norman Kember, the British pacifist released after being imprisoned in Iraq for almost four months, has returned home to face a predictable lack of understanding of his pacifist stance - just as his captors in Iraq themselves showed little sympathy towards his pacifism.
He had been one of four activists from the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) network who were abducted in Iraq on 26 November (see the cover story in December/January's PN), whilst there to support human rights for…
In 2006, the G8 will meet in Russia for the first time. While for the majority of apolitical Russians this is a totally uninteresting occurrence, the Russian government and all shades of opposition consider it to be a highly significant event. The Russian elite is eager to ensure it does not end up with egg on its face and that all these high-powered meetings run smoothly.
To that end the corrupt, but nonetheless powerful, apparatus of the Russian special forces has been called into…
On 17 March, student activist and former political prisoner Thet Naing Oo was allegedly beaten to death on the streets of Rangoon by police, firefighters and members of the Union and Solidarity and Development Association (USDA).
Official news sources report that he was a violent drunk who resisted arrest, while local eyewitnesses suggest that, immediately prior to his murder he had merely been drinking tea. His lawyer stated that his body showed injuries to the face, head, body, and…
The movement for ethical investment met with success as the Church of England decided in February to pull its #2.2 million shares from the construction equipment company Caterpillar.
The General Synod voted on 6 February to “divest from companies profiting from the illegal occupation [of Palestinian territories], such as Caterpillar Inc, until they change their policies”. The Church was recently criticised by groups such as War on Want for its previous inaction in the matter. The…
The Saving Iceland campaign began in 2003, when the Icelandic government bypassed a series of laws in order to allow the national power company, Landsvirkjun, to build a gigantic hydroelectric dam, now being constructed in the country's eastern highlands.
The National Planning Agency originally refused to grant permission to the first proposal in 2001 due to the irreversible negative environmental impact the dam would have. Incredibly, the then environment minister (whose only…
