Via AntiwarCommittee.org - Please forward * Take action today - Facebook Group: Support Minnesota Peace Activists Jailed by Israel

We have just learned that Israeli security forces have refused entry to three U.S. activists attempting to visit the Palestinian Territories. One of them, Karen Sullivan, is being sent home on a flight tonight, and two others, Sarah Martin and Katrina Plotz have refused to leave, and are being taken into custody. They are being treated as criminals, while their only goal was to learn about the reality of life for the Palestinian people. All three should be allowed to enter the country, as millions of tourists do every year.

Given the special relationship that the U.S. has with Israel, it is no surprise that U.S. citizens would want to travel there, and see how our tax dollars are spent. In spite of its special relationship with the U.S., the Israeli government showed no regard for the rights of American visitors, whose only crime was to express solidarity with the people of occupied Palestine.

Palestinians experience repression every day. There is no way to travel to Palestinian cities, or from one Palestinian city to another, without passing through Israeli military checkpoints. Palestinian refugees who live outside the territories, have a legal right to return home, but face the same obstacles that stopped Karen, Katrina and Sarah at the Tel Aviv airport today.

Katrina and Sarah have refused to cooperate in the face of this injustice, and have been sent to an Israeli jail. They have been told they will not be allowed to enter the country, and instead will be handcuffed and forced onto a departing plane.

We urge everyone to call, write and fax the officials below to demand the immediate release for Katrina Plotz and Sarah Martin, and to urge Israeli authorities to allow both women into the country to witness the reality of life inside the Palestinian Territories, where they have been invited and are welcome. [Contact info below]

Admit it: You, Mr. Barrack Obama, a capitalist, are proposing a continuation of imperialist policies in Africa, your father’s home land. You are selling Africa, the mother of all of us, to the highest bidder!

On July 25th, An estimated 4,000 people across Northern California joined thousands of demonstrators across the world to this past weekend to participate in the Day of Action, a globally coordinated event to express solidarity with the Iranian people challenging results of the country's controversial June 12th election. Bay Area residents poured into San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza on Saturday to participate in the demonstration, spearheaded by District 5 Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, the first Iranian-American to be elected to San Francisco public office.

On June 23 while hosting Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, President Barack Obama was asked by a Chilean journalist whether he would apologize for Washington's role in that country's 1973 military coup which overthrew the democratically elected government and replaced it with a dictatorship led by General Augusto Pinochet. "I'm interested in going forward, not looking backward," said Obama, who refused to apologize. "I think that the United States has been an enormous force for good in the world." RELATED: The Honduran Coup, the Media and Obama II Honduras: Are We Going to Make Concessions To Those Who Perpetrate Coups? II The Honduran Coup: Fiction and Fact II Dirty Business, Dirty Wars: U.S.-Latin American Relations in the 21st Century II Video Interview: Edward Herman on Latin America & the US

On July 28, troops in Honduras ousted President Manuel Zelaya and flew him out of the country. Praised by the traditional left for his economic policies and social reforms, Zelaya's alliance with Hugo Chavez and growing relationship with the ALBA countries were sharply rebuked by the more conservative sectors which also disapproved of his periodic attacks on the United States. From Costa Rica, Zelaya declared: "This was a plot by a very voracious elite, which wants to keep this country in an extreme level of poverty!". However, it seems improbable that the Honduran elite would have toppled the democratically-elected president without Washington's prior consent and support, despite assurances to the contrary.

Voltairenet.org Non Aligned Press Network

Youngbloods, Elders and Friends: Cynthia McKinney, Charles Barron and 200 other Americans broke the Israeli blockade of Gaza today when the first American "'Viva Palestina" convoy entered Gaza with 50 trucks and cars filled with relief supplies for the 1.5 million Palestinians who have been blockaded and bombarded by Israel for over two years. Several weeks ago McKinney and 20 other activists were illegally seized in international waters and held in an Israeli prison when they tried to bring relief supplies to Gaza by boat. Upon her release from prison Cynthia joined Charles Barron and the other Viva Palestina activists who were being refused entry into Gaza by Egyptian authorities.

In the recent year, in Greece, a period of State widespread repression and brutality followed after December 2008 Rebellion. During and after the rebellion, the political party of extreme right wing LAOS (Popular Orthodox Party Alert) and the Greek state decided to press the IMC of Athens and Patras, on the grounds that they were used as centers for the coordination of Rebellion (no rebellions may, of course, be conducted via the Internet), deliberately ignoring the contribution of CMI to the counter-information.

The family of Honduran public prosecutor Jari Dixon Herrera were attacked by police on Tuesday shortly after he made statements to CNN en Español and other international media in Washington denouncing the recent military coup in Honduras. Dixon's mother’s house, located in the town of Talanga, was first shot at repeatedly by police agents with automatic weapons. The agents then broke the door of the house down and entered the residence, beat Dixon’s mother and arrested and took away his brother.

Jari Dixon is currently in Washington, DC, as part of a delegation of Hondurans that has been meeting with members of Congress, representatives of the World Bank, the State Department and human rights organizations to discuss the rights abuses committed by the Honduran de facto authorities.

Max Blumenthal writes:"On May 27, journalist Jesse Rosenfeld and I set out on the streets of Tel Aviv to probe the political opinions of young local residents. We started the day filming Jewish and Palestinian Israeli students protested a proposed law that would criminalize public observance of the Nakba, or the mass expulsion and killing of Palestinians by Zionist militias in 1948. There, we interviewed Palestinian Israeli students about the rising climate of repression, then spoke to another group of students who gathered nearby to heckle their Arab classmates and demand their deportation."

G. Hotta, writes: "From ethnic turmoil in Urumqi, to the prisoners at Guantanamo, the Uyghur people find themselves in the global spotlight. But what remains in the dark are Uyghur history, issues and viewpoints. To give context to events that are still un-folding, the Uyghur experience is traced through the lives to two Uyghurs in exile: mainly Alim Seytoff and Uyghur rights activist Rebiya Kadeer."

Emergency for IMC in Athens and Patras (Greece)

A high level delegation of Honduran members of congress, politicians, and lawyers is arriving in D.C. tonight (Sunday). While in D.C., they will be meeting with the State Department, members of Congress, and others to discuss the coup d'etat in Honduras and their call for the immediate and unconditional reinstatement of President Zelaya. During their stay, they will also connect with grassroots activists in DC and NGO's. Stay tuned for more information. Read Full Report by Lisa Sullivan, SOA Watch Latin America Coordinator

On Sunday, June 28th, a military in Honduras removed the democratically elected president Manuel Zelaya from office. Zelaya was placed into military custody and immediately flown out of the country to Costa Rica. Since then, Honduras has been in a state of military rule. President Zelaya attempted to re-enter the country on Sunday, July 5th by flying into the Tegucigalpa Airport, but was prevented by the military blocking the landing strips. Over 100,000 people rallied to support President Zelaya and greet him when he entered the country. They were met by Honduran soldiers who fired machine guns into the crowd, as well as tear gas and other "less-lethal" weapons. 19-year-old Obed Murillo was killed at the scene.

Although international law prohibits the use of chemical and bacteriological weapons, America has had an active biological warfare program since at least the 1940s. In 1941, it began secret developmental efforts using controversial testing methods. During WW II, mustard gas was tested on about 4000 servicemen. Biological weapons research was also conducted. Human subjects were used as guinea pigs in various other experiments, and numerous illegal practices continued to the present, including secretly releasing toxic biological agents in US cities to test the effects of germ warfare.

On June 28th, the Honduran military ousted the democratically elected government of Honduras, detaining and then exiling President Manuel Zelaya to Costa Rica. Indybay reported that the crisis began when the military, Congress, and the Honduran Supreme Court rejected an opinion poll that was to be conducted on a new Constitution. General Romeo Orlando Vasquez Velasquez, along with other military leaders, graduated from the infamous School of the Americas (SOA), now called WHINSEC.

The following week, rallies took place in many cities in the United States; on Monday June 29th an emergency rally and press conference took place in San Francisco, while in Los Angeles demonstrators gathered at the Honduran consulate to express their displeasure with the coup d'état against the democratically-elected President Manuel Zelaya, and in New York city, an emergency rally was held on at the UN. On July 1st, people gathered in front of the State Department in Washington DC to demand the U.S. cuts off all US aid to Honduras until President Zelaya returns safely to office, and in Chicago a demonstration took place at the Honduran consulate. On July 3rd People from across Texas gathered in Houston to protest at the Honduran Consulate and in Boston, local leaders of the Honduran community paid a visit to Senator John Kerry's office to demand public statements against the coup.

Since the coup, the new Honduran government under Roberto Michelleti has been internationally isolated and so far unrecognized by any country. On July 5, thousands of protesters had gathered at the airport waiting the return of president elect Manuel Zelaya but his plane was prevented from landing in the Honduras capital. The military fired shots and tear gas at the protesters. Two deaths and at least 30 injured people were reported.

LISTEN: Live broadcast from Honduras

More coverage: Rochester IMC | Narco News | Americas Mexico Blog | Honduras Resists | TriniCenter Updates | Hands Off Venezuela | En español: aporrea.org | ALER | Escuche: Radio Progreso

Coverage From Latin American Indymedias: Honduras | Argentina | Colombia | Bolivia | Puerto Rico

America, a peaceful country, is fighting a just cause but with a fresh, new approach! On June 4, 2009, President Barack Obama spoke about this fresh, new approach.

Did anyone mention how the U.S. and Western corporate media in general contributed images and narratives of Muslim “terrorists” and Muslim “extremists” intended to lead Americans and the world to see Islam, the religion and its practitioners as hostile to Americans and Westerners? Did anyone mention that is practice of dehumanizing the victims of power is violence in itself?

RELATED: Some thoughts on the left, from the left II Benton Harbor believes in fighting back

[Note: As of 11:15am, Caracas time, President Zelaya is speaking live on Telesur from San Jose, Costa Rica. He has verified the soldiers entered his residence in the early morning hours, firing guns and threatening to kill him and his family if he resisted the coup. He was forced to go with the soldiers who took him to the air base and flew him to Costa Rica. He has requested the U.S. Government make a public statement condemning the coup, otherwise, it will indicate their compliance.] Caracas, Venezuela - The text message that beeped on my cell phone this morning read “Alert, Zelaya has been kidnapped, coup d’etat underway in Honduras, spread the word.” It’s a rude awakening for a Sunday morning, especially for the millions of Hondurans that were preparing to exercise their sacred right to vote today for the first time on a consultative referendum concerning the future convening of a constitutional assembly to reform the constitution. Supposedly at the center of the controversary is today’s scheduled referendum, which is not a binding vote but merely an opinion poll to determine whether or not a majority of Hondurans desire to eventually enter into a process to modify their constitution.