More Than Guantanamo: Stop All Torture

Worth a look:

The torture of prisoners in US custody is not only found in military prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo. If President Obama is serious about ending US support for torture, he can start here in Louisiana.

The Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola is already notorious for a range of offenses, including keeping former Black Panthers Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox, in solitary for over 36 years. Now a death penalty trial in St. Francisville, Louisiana has exposed widespread and systemic abuse at the prison. Even in the context of eight years of the Bush administration, the behavior documented at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola stands out both for its brutality and for the significant evidence that it was condoned and encouraged from the very top of the chain of command.

In a remarkable hearing that explored torture practices at Angola, twenty-five inmates testified last summer to facing overwhelming violence in the aftermath of an escape attempt at the prison nearly a decade ago. These twenty-five inmates — who were not involved in the escape attempt — testified to being kicked, punched, beaten with batons and with fists, stepped on, left naked in a freezing cell, and threatened that they would be killed. They were threatened by guards that they would be sexually assaulted with batons. They were forced to urinate and defecate on themselves. They were bloodied, had teeth knocked out, were beaten until they lost control of bodily functions, and beaten until they signed statements or confessions presented to them by prison officials. One inmate had a broken jaw, and another was placed in solitary confinement for eight years.

Also see: http://bristolabc.wordpress.com/
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Religious Wars Coming to Bristol

A couple of very exciting talks (for free!!) as part of the Bristol Festival of Ideas wroth checking out (hat-tip to Mike for this info...)

Michael Shermer
Why Darwin Matters: The Case for Evolution and Against Intelligent Design
In association with the University of Bristol
3 February 09, 18.00-19.00
Wills Memorial Building, Bristol

and

Daniel C Dennett (who wrote the amazing book 'Darwin's Dangerous Idea')
What does my body need ME for? The role of human intelligence
A University of Bristol Centenary Lecture
20 March 09, 18.00-19.00
Wills Memorial Building, Bristol

Both of particular interest following the decision in the past to invite a proponent of ID along...

On the subject - over in the US, the Mormons have concentration camps for naughty teens..

"I can hurt you without leaving any marks," Brent growled as I writhed in agony on the ground. I struggled for breath as he mounted my back, put his finger in my mouth, and pulled back on my cheek, fish-hooking me. The pain was incredible. I tried to beg him to stop, but the words would not come. After he finished beating and bludgeoning submissiveness into me, he pulled me up by the rope that was lassoed around my waist. The wool army blanket I had fashioned as a skirt had shifted askew and I stood there in my boxers bleeding from my nose, humiliated.

Might want to mention that next time you see 'em when passing though Broadmead...

And in the very entertaining global warming debate on Bristol Indymedia, the denialists have started using Pravda - the Russian state propaganda newspaper that loves UFO stories and a US Republican Senator who thinks the earth is only 10,000 years old and does not believe in evolution - this is what they are citing to back their claims on global warming!!!

You couldn't make it up...
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Goatlab Radio Show January 2009

It's out and it's back! Amazing line up of music, interviews and much more....

Full listing info is here.
MP3 is here.
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The Denialist War on Logic

Global Warming Denialists are great fun. I never tire of their comments, as they brighten my day with their unique analysis of what 'science' means. Here's a few enjoyable logical fallacies from recent debates..

This is 'January''s comment:

Almost record low temperatures being recorded across the UK for a sustained period of time, nearly two weeks now. I think the conclusion has to be that at present the climate just isn't living up to predictions, if the models were correct this shouldn't be happening. Temperatures are nearly 10 degrees lower than the winter average in the Uk, they really should be a few degrees warmer than the average.

Errr - do you understand what an average is? There are various ways of calculating an average; mode, medium etc. The most we most commonly see is 'mean' - the total number of all the values divided by the sample number. In all cases a small sample of the data does not tell you anything much about the overall average - that's why we have averages - to make sense of larger groups of data. So to suggest that 'tempatures' should be above the 'average' without specifying any data sets is a logical fallacy - as if they all were above the average - it wouldn't be the average, would it?

Here's another one I love;

I said, "If you want to prove your case, you need to stop spinning and do some science."
Che replied "Err - it is not us that needs proof."

This is the mother of all logical fallacies - the idea that one side in a debate does not need proof. There are so many points why this it wrong that it is hard to know where to start - and such fun because you couldn't make it up if you tried! There is a mental-path that the Denialist world view follows to arrive at this point that is very interesting, it goes:

Does Scientific Study Give Evidence for Global Warming - Yes/No
- If 'yes' declare all scientists to be corrupt and on the gravy train.
- If 'no' claim victory.

That is why they don't need to prove anything or do any science - because whatever the science says, they get to win. This is why the same comment can quote an economist (Lomborg) who accepts the reality of global warming in an attempt to show that global warming is not really happening.

And a third one for you (I bet there will be more) from Quink;

"Labelling an ACC=Catastrophe sceptic a "denier" is akin to the furore born of the Paki and Sooty labels used in the gutter press story a few days ago."

Race is something you can't pick, so to judge a person on the basis of their skin colour is wrong. Denailsim is a propaganda position and nothing to do with race. Do how does Quink conflate the two? You tell me, I have no idea of the logic being applied to make this comparison, but it is fun to read.

Anyway they are labelled as denailists because they deny one side of the argument (see point above!) and are not sceptics because a true sceptic applies scepticism across the board. It is a odd reading of the word to be a sceptic of one one side of a argument.

To end this post consider;

"During discussions, often I see people with little or no scientific background debating the subject of climate change as they seem convinced just a little "common sense" definitely is more than sufficient to join a debate on a scientific issue.....Actually, a lot of lobby arguments consist of cherry-picked conclusion, where the flaws aren’t in what they wrote, but in what they didn’t write. While everything written in the article can be 100 % correct, the paper can be wrong. Not having the background makes it impossible to detect such faulty science."

So how an individual who fail to grasp the most basic scientific premiss of the debate - difference between 'climate' and 'weather' (see first point above) and accept verbatim of the push of a lobby group ever be considered 'sceptical'.

Logically they can't. Logically they are in denial.

War! What is it good for...in this case Absolutely Nothing

Well event that is not true - this war in Gaza seems to me to be a total failure on all fronts. For the death of over 1300 people, the destruction of 21,000 homes and buildings and the rendering homeless of 50,000 people - what has Israel got to show for it? A weakened Israeli position and a strengthened Hamas. Nice work IDF! What a fuck up, by any measure. Here's the scorecard:

* Stopping Hamas from being able to fire rockets - Failed.
* Breaking Hamas as an organisation - Failed (though they didn't fight back as much as they boasted)
* Detering Hamas from attacking - Failed.
* Weakening Hamas politically - Failed.
* Sending a message to Hamas's sponsor, Iran - Failed.

All we have is the death, destruction and a shaky truce not that dissimilar from the one that was in place before the Gaza offensive. As wars go this has to be one of the most un-decisive ever.

Other links of note;

Israel's Next War: Today the Gaza Strip, Tomorrow Lebanon?

Robert Fisk: Posturing and laughter as victims rot.

British Jews attacked for pro-Gaza solidarity.

Gaza: Pro-Stuff/Anti-Stuff

You see a long of characterisation in the debate of the current conflict in Gaza as pro/anti, i.e. pro-Israel, pro-Palestinian etc. This seems to me to be a misnomer; what do we mean, that we are pro-everything Israel/Palestine does? How can you be, as each is a aggregations of hundreds of thousands of people each with their own views and opinions and actions.

I am pro-justice and pro-peace. I want justice and peace for all. This might mean some have to make more concessions that others and that some have to forgive more and some will have to realise that are in a position to change the dynamic for the good. As such we should oppose the military action because it moves us away from pro-justice and pro-peace and for no other reason.

Here is what I mean; listen to the reactions of people supporting a bombing campaign - it hardly seems reluctant...



Whereas Israeli commentator Gideon Levy understands the humanity of the issue;

The public's shocking indifference to these figures is incomprehensible. A thousand propagandists and apologists cannot excuse this criminal killing. One can blame Hamas for the death of children, but no reasonable person in the world will buy these ludicrous, flawed propagandistic goods in light of the pictures and statistics coming from Gaza.

One can say Hamas hides among the civilian population, as if the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv is not located in the heart of a civilian population, as if there are places in Gaza that are not in the heart of a civilian population. One can also claim that Hamas uses children as human shields, as if in the past our own organizations fighting to establish a country did not recruit children.

A significant majority of the children killed in Gaza did not die because they were used as human shields or because they worked for Hamas. They were killed because the IDF bombed, shelled or fired at them, their families or their apartment buildings. That is why the blood of Gaza's children is on our hands, not on Hamas' hands, and we will never be able to escape that responsibility.

Other links of interest...

Asymmetric War: A Gaza War Full of Traps and Trickery

Going Global: Fallout from Gaza Assault Reaches Afghanistan

The Phyrric Victory...

This raises a question that every Israeli and its supporters now needs to ask. What is the strategic purpose behind the present fighting? After two weeks of combat Olmert, Livni, and Barak have still not said a word that indicates that Israel will gain strategic or grand strategic benefits, or tactical benefits much larger than the gains it made from selectively striking key Hamas facilities early in the war. In fact, their silence raises haunting questions about whether they will repeat the same massive failures made by Israel’s top political leadership during the Israeli-Hezbollah War in 2006. Has Israel somehow blundered into a steadily escalating war without a clear strategic goal or at least one it can credibly achieve? Will Israel end in empowering an enemy in political terms that it defeated in tactical terms? Will Israel’s actions seriously damage the US position in the region, any hope of peace, as well as moderate Arab regimes and voices in the process?

To blunt, the answer so far seems to be yes.

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Anarchist Blogging

The Swindon Anarchist Group have a new blog - worth checking out;

http://swindonanarchistgroup.wordpress.com/

Also there is the reboot of Anarchoblogs:
http://radgeek.com/gt/2009/01/03/anarchoblogs_rebooted which collects lots of anarchist blogs in one place. So if you know bloggers who you think ought to be on Anarchoblogs, send them a note with the address http://anarchoblogs.org/how-to-join
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Antisemitism and Israel

There have been fears that the assault in Gaza by Israel would increase antisemetism in the world, and sadly I suspect this to be the case. I have seen comments on Arabic and Persian and Israeli news websites I would call racist. This is a problem because one thing is a given - both Israelis and Palestinians are going to have to live together somehow and the legacy of hate will cost when this happens. You can see a snapshot of this in this video;



One solder when asked what they are doing in Gaza responds 'purifying' which has lots of nasty connotations and a young Palestinian boy tries to stop his sister crying as their mum dies so as not to show the soldiers their hurt. (Mind you, who am I to comment on this, I have no ideas what it feels like to have your mum bleeding to death in front of you...this video is hard to watch and makes you angry at the injustice of it all.)

One thing is key here though; criticising Israel (the state of) is not the same thing as criticising all Jews or all Israelis. Criticising Zionism (as a political construct) is not the same thing as criticising the Jewish people. These distinctions need to be made clear in any articles/protests - so that it is clear that it is the actions of the Israeli state that is the target our our anger. Not only that but it is importnat to realise the Israeli people are not a single mass of a single mind, many of them disagree with the actions of the government - an important point as I would not like to be identified with Britain's disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here are some examples of Israeli dissent;

Anarchists Against the Wall block and Airbase

500 Sderot (where most of Hamas's crappy missiles end up) Residents Sign Petition to Stop Israeli Bombing

Peace group GushShalom continue to organise and protest against the killing

Jews call on IDF soldiers to stop war crimes

Tel Aviv rally decries Gaza assault

Some more links of interest...

Why street protest is of no use - what we need to do is undermine the right-wing Israeli lobbyy.

Mark Steele:

The gap between the might of Israel's F-16 bombers and Apache helicopters, and the Palestinians' catapulty thing is so ridiculous that to try and portray the situation as between two equal sides requires the imagination of a children's story writer. The reporter on News at Ten said the rockets "may be ineffective, but they ARE symbolic." So they might not have weapons but they have got symbolism, the canny brutes. It's no wonder the Israeli Air Force had to demolish a few housing estates, otherwise Hamas might have tried to mock Israel through a performance of expressive dance.

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'Hamas Is Not Hizbollah'

Now Israel has hit a UN convoy - which destroys their credibility about being 'surgial' or 'only targeting the terrorists'. So I had been wondering if Hamas wanted the ground war, that perhaps that had a plan to give Israel an asymmetric kicking. So far there has only been a little evidence of this. Now another bit emerges;

Major Roey Rosner, 27, an officer in the Kfir infantry brigade, was killed when his unit was hit with an anti-tank missile while on patrol in the former settlement of Netzarim.

This is of note because Hamas didn't have anti-tank missiles before. Along with the longer range rockets, they clearly have better kit now. However are they going to use it well? Some commentators seem to think the view I have suggested is over-egging the pudding at bit and I they both seem to know much more than me, I would suspect they are right. First up is Robert Fisk;

During the second Palestinian "intifada", I was sitting in the offices of Hizbollah's Al-Manar television station in Beirut, watching news footage of a militiaman's funeral in Gaza. The television showed hordes of Hamas and PLO gunmen firing thousands of rounds of ammunition into the air to honour their latest "martyr"; and I noticed, just next to me, a Lebanese Hizbollah member – who had taken part in many attacks against the Israelis in what had been Israel's occupation zone in southern Lebanon – shaking his head.

What was he thinking, I asked? "Hamas try to stand up to the Israelis," he replied. "But..." And here he cast his eyes to the ceiling. "They waste bullets. They fire all these bullets into the sky. They should use them to shoot at Israelis."

His point, of course, was that Hamas lacked discipline, the kind of iron, ruthless discipline and security that Hizbollah forged in Lebanon and which the Israeli army was at last forced to acknowledge in southern Lebanon in 2006

....

Hizbollah in Lebanon has managed to purge its region of informers. Hamas – like all the other Palestinian outfits – is infected with spies, some working for the Palestinian Authority, others for the Israelis. ... In the 34-day war of 2006, Hizbollah lost about 200 of its men. Hamas lost almost that many in the first day of Israel's air attacks in Gaza – which doesn't say much for Hamas' military precautions.

Next is the War Nerd;

Hamas ain’t no Hezbollah. Hamas is tougher than the PLO; they proved that in the skirmishes over the last few years about who runs the PA. But that’s not saying much; one of my grandmothers-not both, just one, I’m trying to be fair here-was tougher than the PLO too. And there’s a huge, huge difference between scaring off fat sleazy Arafat gangsters by firing in the air and actually fighting the IDF. Hezbollah has somebody doing serious strategic planning; Hamas has a bunch of hotheads. Hezbollah has been bunkering up, training in anti-armor operations, learning to deal with air strikes for years. Hamas believes in yelling at the attack helicopters.

Still, once the dust settles we'll see. What is interesting is every single comment piece I have read acknowledges that Israel can't stop Hamas. All Hamas have to do to deny the Israeli's a victory is survive. Once this current escalation ends, the rockets won't. In short all this death will have been for nothing.
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Gaza: The War Goes Outwards

With rocket strikes coming into Israel from Lebanon now, it looks like the war is escalating:

Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on Iraqis to kill US troops in Iraq in revenge for the Israeli assault on the people of Gaza. "I call upon the honest Iraqi resistance to carry out revenge operations against the great accomplice of the Zionist enemy,"

I had speculated before that in some respects Hamas may be happy to see Israeli ground troops in Gaza as it gives them a chance to hit back. Other pundits I have read are suggesting that Hamas's command and control is broken and the movement is only just hanging on. I'm not so sure - yes, I think they have taken a pounding (how could they not) but now video footage has emerged of their combat with Israeli forces:



In it you can see two attacks - one a sniper hitting a tank commander and the second is an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) on a rooftop hitting troops there. The second is of more significance as in advance, Hamas must have mapped were they thought the Israeli troops would go and planted the bombs there. Not only that, got a camera ready to film the moment when the explosives were detonated. This suggests a guerilla army that is far from dead - thought without independent journalists allowed in to verify what is going on it is speculation.

Other links of interest....

Not all Israeli's agree with the war.

The Gaza war has killed Neoconservatism.

Big protest in Bristol Friday.

Gaza: The Killing Goes On

So the killing goes on and on. Israel is pushing the idea that bombing schools will somehow bomb away terrorism and bomb their way to peace?

In 1996, Israeli jets bombed a UN building where civilians had taken refuge at Cana/ Qana in south Lebanon, killing 102 persons; in the place where Jesus is said to have made water into wine, Israeli bombs wrought a different sort of transformation. In the distant, picturesque port of Hamburg, a young graduate student studying traditional architecture of Aleppo saw footage like this on the news [graphic]. He was consumed with anguish and the desire for revenge. He immediately wrote out a martyrdom will, pledging to die avenging the innocent victims, killed with airplanes and bombs that were a free gift from the United States. His name was Muhammad Atta. Five years later he piloted American Airlines 11 into the World Trade Center....

You wonder if someone somewhere is writing out a will today? I bet there is. Why do we allow Isreal to threaten our peace and kill innocent people to appease the land-rights written the Bible. It's bonkers. Nice once Hugo Chavez for expelling the Israeli ambassador. We should too.

As to who is at fault for the current bout of fighting;

Thus, a systematic pattern does exist: it is overwhelmingly Israel, not Palestine, that kills first following a lull. Indeed, it is virtually always Israel that kills first after a lull lasting more than a week.

The lessons from these data are clear:

First, Hamas can indeed control the rockets, when it is in their interest. The data shows that ceasefires can work, reducing the violence to nearly zero for months at a time.

Second, if Israel wants to reduce rocket fire from Gaza, it should cherish and preserve the peace when it starts to break out, not be the first to kill.

Indeed.
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Gaza: Links Updates

More links of interest on the current crisis;

Sadly, all the death and carnage Israel has wrought will be for nothing, says Jane's Defence Analyst; "With a military victory for Israel over Hamas not possible, the security situation in southern Israel and Gaza will not improve, even in the longer term." - and the view is echoed by Gary Younge;

"The trouble is that over the last seven years, the war on terror has been thoroughly discredited - not only morally, but militarily and strategically....Meanwhile, Israel has been busy implementing the very tenets of the war on terror that have served the US so badly, primarily that intractable political problems can be solved solely by military means with the aim of not simply bombing your enemies into submission, but eliminating them altogether and then creating resolution on your own terms from the rubble."

You may (or may not) know that Israel has banned the press from Gaza (though reports are coming out thick and fast anyway) but that is not the only media 'management' they are up to. Evidence has emerged that the Israeli government is looking to recruiting volunteers to 'sell' their message on forums and websites. The recruitment email looks like this;

Dear friends,

We hold the military supremacy, yet fail the battle over the international media. We need to buy time for the IDF to succeed, and the least we can do is spare some (additional) minutes on the net. The ministry of foreign affairs is putting great efforts in balancing the media, but we all know it’s a battle of numbers. The more we post, blog, talkback, vote - the more likely we gain positive sentiment.

Of course, governments manipulating the media in war is nothing new - witness our own governments shameful activities over Iraq and Afganistan - however this is the network media version of that struggle.

And finally a real call recorded on the Isreali army's 'shop-a-terrorist' version of Crimestoppers. In short - they got punked:

EI: I have some information for you on members of terrorist groups that are in Gaza.

Israeli officer: Oh I hope so...

EI: You don't know what the terrorists are doing here in Gaza and we want to be saved from them ...

Israeli officer: Yes, I think everyone should do exactly what you're doing because we're all fed up with them. All they do to us is bad things.

EI: Exactly, the people in Gaza feels the same but the world can't hear our voice.

Israeli officer: Oh they will hear sir. You know they've [people of Gaza] started to phone us and ask for help, and ask us what they should do, and we've helped a lot of them. They thanked us for that and we want to help more people.

EI: But you know the terrorist groups are all over the Strip. I mean there's no place in the Strip where there aren't terrorists. They're all over the place.

Israeli officer: You just wait. We'll get to them, you'll see.

EI: But as you know, it's not easy for one to talk from Gaza, to give you information, it's not an easy thing.

Israeli officer: Look, firstly it's not easy, second thing, we've got other ways to reach you, very good ways not on this line and in the end your assistance to us will end up helping you too. Every person who doesn't have to be hurt in Gaza helps us and helps you. We benefit and you benefit. We want to destroy this Hamas leadership who are hiding, afraid for their lives. They are hiding and others are being killed because of them. What are we fighting each other for? Over nothing!

EI: Ok, let's talk ... let me give you some of the information and then we'll talk some more. Do you have a pen?

Israeli officer: Yes. I have a pen and I'm writing.

EI I want to give you names of the biggest terrorist organizations, not just in Gaza, but in all Palestine.

Israeli officer: Ok, let's see

EI: Ok, the first one ...

Israeli officer: You mean to tell me they're all from Hamas?

EI: All of them are people ... you'll see. The first one, his name is Ehud Barak [Israeli minister of defense].

Israeli officer: Ehud Barak? By God there's no one like you ...

EI: Second, Gabi Ashkenazi [Israeli army chief of staff]

Israeli officer: Do you know him?

EI: Of course.

Read the full thing: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10114.shtml
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The Media in Gaza

Or not, as the Israeli army banned the press from Gaza saying;

"We must not allow international press to open a public relations office for terrorists."

But the Foreign Press Association took them to court over this;

"We believe the Israeli government should ensure unfettered access for the world's media to Gaza during this crisis."

And won. However the military is still refusing to let the press in changing the story to 'security risks'. Not that this is new - all governments try to control the press during war. What is interesting however, is that despite this the reports are flooding from Gaza thanks to digital media:

That the Israelis should use an old Soviet tactic to blind the world's vision of war may not be surprising. But the result is that Palestinian voices – as opposed to those of Western reporters – are now dominating the airwaves. The men and women who are under air and artillery attack by the Israelis are now telling their own story on television and radio and in the papers as they have never been able to tell it before, without the artificial "balance", which so much television journalism imposes on live reporting. Perhaps this will become a new form of coverage – letting the participants tell their own story. The flip side, of course, is that there is no Westerner in Gaza to cross-question Hamas's devious account of events: another victory for the Palestinian militia, handed to them on a plate by the Israelis.

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Gaza Moves Towards Endgame

As you will probably know, ground forces are now in Gaza and the fighting is intense. While Israel used it's air-power there was little Hamas could do other then fling inaccurate rockets in their general direction, but now there are boots on the ground - Hamas is in a position to strike back: so the situation reaches it's end-game. However this is still an asymmetric war where Israel has the advantage of armour, air-power, better weapons and better financing for its forces. Hamas has the ground and a willingness to embrace death.

The global fallout continues: on Friday in Kabul 3000 protesters took to the streets;

In the capital Kabul, up to 3,000 protesters gathered for several hours outside a key mosque where they shouted "Death to Israel", "Death to infidels" and Islamic chants such as "God is greater," an AFP reporter witnessed.

This is key because of the 'hearts-and-minds' that the West is trying to win over. This is a huge blow for that campaign and you can be sure the Taliban will be making hay out of this. So to more links of interest:

Very interesting essay from Juan Cole on the situation, history and most importantly the longer-term political and population demographics;

The main immediate problem for the Israelis is that simply preventing Hamas from waging an ever more sophisticated microwar is an extremely short-term and technical objective. It may or may not be achievable by the methods of the current war, which appear so far to be conventional methods. Its outcome is not very material to a settlement of the larger issues.

Helena Cobban writes on the options open to Isreal now - remember the famous von Clausewitz quote; 'war is a continuation of politics by other means' - so when the fighting stops (or indeed grinds on) - where next? Unlike a conventional war, all Hamas have to do to win is survive whereas the unclear aims of the Israelis seem not lead to definitive outcomes;

At the end of the day, to extricate itself from the uber-quagmire that Gaza represents, both physically in itself and politically throughout the region and the world, Israel will still have to engage in a negotiation with Hamas. Here's why....

Also of note is the use of micro-blogging like Twitter to follow events;

Here's the main Twitter #Gaza feed which the IDF are posting to) and Al Jazeera's one. Both are worth a look.

More Updates on Gaza

As the bombing and death grinds on, a few more links of interest;

Why, despite the bombing, Hamas is still going strong;

In the west, too many people think that Hamas is "only" the "terrorist organization" that it's designated to be by the US State Department. They imagine it is made up of wild-eyed, implacable Islamist radicals who have much more in common with the Afghan Taliban than with any movement that is considered "civilized" in the west....Not so. Hamas's founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, always placed a lot of emphasis on the need for education, self-restraint, and the need to rebuild the social fabric of Palestinian constituencies torn apart by years of Israeli attacks, occupation (including the heinous divide-and-rule tactics of the Shin Bet), and physical and social dispersal.

and...

Anarchists Against the Wall block an Israeli airbase.

US-client state and only country which boarders into Gaza except Israel, Egypt is having to deploy riot police to keep control.

Israel bans press from reporting from Gaza.

Divide and rule: US backed Palestinian forces ban pro-Hamas protests.
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