By Sara Roy, The Harvard Crimson, 2 June 2009

The recent meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu generated speculation over the future relationship between America and Israel, and a potentially changed U.S. policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Analysts on the right and left are commenting on a new, tougher American policy characterized by strengthened U.S. demands on Israel. However, beneath the diplomatic choreography lies an agonizing reality that received only brief comment from Obama and silence from Netanyahu: The ongoing devastation of the people of Gaza.

Gaza is an example of a society that has been deliberately reduced to a state of abject destitution, its once productive population transformed into one of aid-dependent paupers. This context is undeniably one of mass suffering, created largely by Israel but with the active complicity of the international community, especially the U.S. and European Union, and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

Gaza’s subjection began long before Israel’s recent war against it.. The Israeli occupation—now largely forgotten or denied by the international community—has devastated Gaza’s economy and people, especially since 2006. Although economic restrictions actually increased before Hamas’ electoral victory in January 2006, the deepened sanction regime and siege subsequently imposed by Israel and the international community, and later intensified in June 2007 when Hamas seized control of Gaza, has all but destroyed the local economy. If there has been a pronounced theme among the many Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals who I have interviewed in the last three years, it was the fear of damage to Gaza’s society and economy so profound that billions of dollars and generations of people would be required to address it—a fear that has now been realized.

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By William Robinson

Remarks for Seventh Annual International Al-Awda Convention
The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
Garden Grove, California
23 May 2009

Academic freedom is under attack at the University of California. I am under investigation by the university – and I face possible sanctions – because of my vocal condemnation of the nearly one-month long Israeli invasion of Gaza that began last December.

This campaign against academic freedom is not just an attempt to punish me. Much more importantly, it aims to create an environment of fear and intimidation in which any criticism on Israeli policy is subject to sanctions and censorship.

But silence in the face of social injustice is complicity in that injustice

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Alison Weir
June 8, 2009

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Free the SF 8
8 June 2009

A spirited picket line of some 300 people filled the block in front of the San Francisco County Courthouse chanting “Drop the charges” and “Free the eight.” The June 8 rally loudly announced that the community will not allow the persecution of the San Francisco 8 to go forward without a concerted struggle. The picket line was joined by SF Supervisor Eric Mar, who is introducing a resolution Tuesday to the entire SF Board of Supervisors calling on the California Attorney General to “Drop the Charges.” Mar also called the San Francisco 8 case “COINTELPRO 2009” referring to the FBI counter-intelligence program carried out with local police agencies to destroy the Black Panther Party.

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