On, Saturday, June 6, hundreds came to the Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, to protest 42 years of an ongoing occupation of the Golan Heights, the West Bank, and Gaza since the Six Days War in 1967. Organized by the Communist Party of Israel (Hadash), protesters held signs calling to end the clocked and bombardment of Gaza and for a just peace.

Let's get real about Iran, anti-imperialism and internationalism

There is a self-deceptive politics (among some leftists) that seeks to prettify all kinds of reactionary forces that (for one reason or another) are in opposition to U.S. imperialism — including Islamic reactionaries, Kim Jung Il, “hardline” revisionists of the Li Peng and Eric Honecker type and so on. And in the process they have a real, almost startling, hostility toward sections of the people who rise up in important if still-inarticulate ways. My sense is that such politics arise from a despair over actually developing our own revolutionary forces — and a resigned assumption that we have no other alternative but to fall behind any forces (ugly, oppressive, reactionary or not) who (one way or another) who seem to be on America’s shit list.

As Caterpillar completes its annual shareholders meeting several human right groups are raising consciousness about the human right abuses it supports. At issue are the bulldozers Caterpillar sells to the Israeli army. The D9 model, which is two stories high, comes with a blade that is 6 feet high and 15 feet wide as well as a “ripper” that is used to tear through Palestinian homes. [...] In 2001, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz stated that “The D9 is a strategic weapon here.” Read More

More on Shareholder's Day of Action: Caterpillar CEO Says, "Don't like CAT's practices? Then DIVEST." | Caterpillar CEO endorses divestment

Picture from: Protest at Halton Caterpillar in Portland calling for divestment from Israel

On June 11 in Tel Aviv, a group of queer Israeli activists protested the cynical use of gay rights by a conservative American group called "Stand with Us" (SWU). The activists disrupted an event called I-Pride, organized by SWU, exploiting queer issues to support Israel's existence as an apartheid state and its occupation over Palestinians.

Iran held presidential election on June 12th. Turnout was high with over 80 percent of the electorate reportedly voting. Demonstrators began calling for the election to be canceled after the Interior Ministry announced that President Ahmadinejad had won over 62 percent of the vote, with only 34 percent going to opposition candidate Mousavi. Clashes broke out between police and groups protesting the election results from early morning on Saturday onward. Police stormed dorms at the University of Tehran on Sunday and there were reports of several deaths and many arrests. On June 15th, hundreds of thousands protested in the streets of Tehran, despite being warned by state officials that any such a rally would be illegal. The demonstration, the largest in Iran's 30-year history, was also Mousavi's first public appearance after the election. Gunshots were reported to have been fired at the rally, and at least one protester was killed.

Palestinians cannot sustain any more of an occupation that crushes the spirit and any sense of civil society, and Israelis can no longer pretend that they will ever feel safe, secure and free as long as they subjugate another people with Bantustans, checkpoints and identity cards.

In May 2007, the battle between Fatah al-Islam and the Lebanese army broke out in Nahr al-Bared Refugee Camp in northern Lebanon. Amidst heavy fighting, the Lebanese army had systematically destroyed the entire camp by September 2007. Two years later, nearly all the rubble has been cleared from the "old camp", the core of Nahr al-Bared. However, though the displaced residents grow increasingly desperate, reconstruction has yet to begin.

[New short film "A Sip of Coffee" from the destroyed Nahr al-Bared Refugee Camp in northern Lebanon, released by anarchist media collective a-films]

Despite the rain on Wednesday morning, several intrepid activists picketed outside Halton Cat on Columbia Boulevard in Northeast Portland. The small, but spirited group of protesters held the action in solidarity with the national day of action against Caterpillar, timed to coincide with the company's annual shareholder meeting.

On June 5, a sniper in the Israeli military killed Yousef Akil Srour, aged 36 years in the chest with 0.22 caliber live ammunition. Srour is the 5th Palestinian to be killed by the Israeli army in Ni'lin during a demonstration against the theft of his land for the construction of the Annexation Wall. Israeli occupation forces have murdered five Ni'lin residents during demonstrations against the confiscation of their land and critically injured one international solidarity activist - Tristan Anderson.

Ten bus shelter billboards advertising the University of California's "Study in Israel" campaign were remade into "Boycott Israel" ads and placed around Berkeley and San Francisco in May.

On Wednesday, May 27, members of "Achoti" (my sister), a feminist organization representing jews of color (Mizrahim-Jews who emigrated from Arab countries) and members of the Democratic Mizrahi Rainbow, came to the Jerusalem Theater to demonstrate a convention about culture in Israel. The activists held signs that looked like bank checks with names of cultural institutions and the amount of money given to each. One check (in the picture below), addressed to "Mizrahi culture" had no money on it and the wording "void" was added.

On June 6th, the 42nd anniversary of Israel's seizure of Gaza, a protest was held at the UN Plaza (7th and Market) at noon, in solidarity with the people of Gaza. Organized by the ANSWER Coalition, organization and individuals came to show support and to demand an to end the siege of Gaza.

On June 6, several hundred people gathered at the Israeli Embassy to protest the ongoing and deadly seige of Gaza and mistreatment of Palestinians by Isra-Hell. June 6 is the anniversary of the destruction of the former state of Palestine-and the start of the refugee crisis that resulted. WSQT Broadcast audio Video by Mike Flugennock: "G-Day, the Sixth of June", streaming out of YouTube, 07:36 Still photos by Mike Flugennock, from his video

On Saturday May 30th, members of Anarchists Against the Wall, international and Palestinian activists, came to Safa, West Bank, to help Palestinian farmers work their land. In recent years, farmers have been under a constant harassment by settlers who have been violently attacking them and destroying and stealing their crops. After working for a couple of hours, the Israeli military declared the area a "closed military zone" and started to attack and arrest Palestinians and solidarity activists.

Activists from throughout Massachusetts gathered in front of the Wang Theater in Boston on Friday and Saturday May 29th and 30th to demand that Leonard Cohen uphold the cultural boycott of Israel. Demonstrating before Cohen’s concerts at the Boston theater, protesters demanded that Cohen cancel his September tour stop in Tel Aviv, holding signs that said “Leonard Cohen: Don’t Play Israel” and leafleting concertgoers about the call for cultural boycott of Israel.

I first heard at the end of January 2009 that the Israeli dance group, Batsheva, was performing in Minnesota as part of a wider North American tour that would take it to Michigan, Chicago, California, New York and Vancouver. After Israel's brutal December 2008 attack on Gazan civilians and civilian infrastructure, it was definitely time to come out of hibernation, say the hard things, and organize some protest.

As a veteran of the student Anti-Apartheid Movement in London during the 1980s, the notion of cultural boycotts was not alien. After all, cultural boycotts were part of what brought the pressure that ended the Apartheid regime, along with divestment and product boycott campaigns.

New York activists gathered in front of Radio City Music Hall Sunday night during a Leonard Cohen concert to call upon the singer/songwriter to cancel his scheduled September concert in Israel. The protesters sang songs, chanted, handed out leaflets to concert attendees and produced sidewalk art. The call comes in support of earlier calls by Jews, Palestinians, Israeli citizens and residents of the UK, and coincides with the publication of an open letter by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) calling for protests throughout the cities Cohen is touring. Read More | Past Coverage: New York & London protesters call for Valentine’s boycott of Leviev over Israeli

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine will "address the failure of application of law even though it has been so clearly identified." It begins where the ICJ "stopped: highlighting the responsibilities arising from the enunciation of law, including those of the international community, which cannot continue to shirk its obligations."

The velvet gloves are off and the reality of Obama’s Middle East plans are being revealed: a bare-fisted pummeling of Afghanistan and Pakistan — with Iraq’s fate yet to be determined. The media have been preparing this for months, with incessant talk about the alleged “troop drawdown” in Iraq, the “surge” in Afghanistan and the “immediate threat” that supposedly is represented by Pakistan.

It’s now crystal clear that zero “change” will be forthcoming when it comes to U.S. foreign policy, minus a strategic shifting of troops. This fact was highlighted recently when Obama asked for an additional $83.4 billion in “emergency spending” to fight the Iraq/Afghan/Pakistan wars. It must be noted that so-called “emergency funds” were precisely the avenue Bush chose to fight his wars, enabling him to skirt the already-gigantic military budget.

On, Thursday Apr 30th, students at UC Santa Barbara demanded a meeting with UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang. They asked an end to the Zionist Witch-hunt against Professor William Robinson. Robinson has been targeted by off campus organizations because of his forwarding of images that made a historical comparison to the state violence of the Israeli military actions in Gaza with the state violence of the German Nazi Wehrmacht in Warsaw. In both cases large civilian populations were surrounded, cut off from the outside, cut off from supplies, cut off from medicine, and violently targeted.